THE HISTORY OF HERESY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 98, 13 March 1875, Page 11

THE HISTORY OF HERESY.

The following paragraph relating to the Abyssinians is translated from ' Les Missions Catholiques/ an excellent French journal, which contains a faithful record of the work done throughout the world for the propagation of the faith :—: — "Before returning to his mission, Mgr. Touvier, VicarApostolic of Abyssinia, has had two private audiences wtth the Sovereign Pontiff. According to the ' Journal of Florence ' he has given to the Holy Father some interesting details respecting the progress of the faith among the Abyssinians, whose errors he has to combat by theological disputation rather than by preaching and enthusiasm. The Abyssinians are Christians, and preserve some traditions of the primitive times ; biit they fell, centuries ago, into the heresy of Eutychius. Permeated little by little Toy the manners of the Egyptians and Arabs who people tho North of Africa, they

have become the prey of a general corruption, and many among them content themselves with the mere exterior practices of Christianity, while the educated classes are animated by an ungovernable fanaticism." Does not history, in this little paragraph, repeat itself once more ? With the alteration of a few names, would not this passage be a most accurate description of the state of those countries which " fell centuries ago," not into the heresy of Eutychras, but into the heresies of men whom it is still the fashion to call " the fathers ox the Glorious Reformation ?"