PRINCETON, N. J. ^^mi Shelf.. BR 145 .B492 1879x Blackburn, Wm. M. 1828-1898 History of the Christian church from its origin to HISTORY Christian Church ITS ORIGIN TO THE PRESENT TIME. W. M.^BLACKBURN, D. D. " TA^ roots of the present lie deep in the past, and nothing in the past is dead to the man who would learn hoio the present comes to be what it is." —Prof. W. Stubbs, Oxford. CINCINNATI: WALDEN AND STOWE. NEW YORK I PHILLIPS & HUNT. Copyright by HITCHCOCK & WALDEN, 1879. PREFACE. Written history must be eclectic. In constructing a volume of the present size very much must be left unsaid. My aim is to present, from an evangelical point of view, an outline of the great facts and doctrinal developments in the history of the Christian Church, from the time of our Lord to our own day ; to set forth the epochs and their characteristics, treating each period according to a plan best adapted to it; to state causes and results ; to group the facts about represen- ■tative men, places, principles, doctrines, or movements, and maintain their chronological order, as nearly as possible, while preserving unity of subjects and the logic of events; to survey the facts from other base-lines than the old pagan imperialism, the papacy, or some one form of Protestantism ; to exhibit the vitality, growth, declensions, revivals, and reforms of the Church; to trace the progress of civilization, tolerance, and relig- ious liberty; and give most space to those ideas and events which enter into the Christian civilization of Western Europe and North America. If my readers were Russians their interest would lie in the course of 3 IV PREFACE. the Greek Church; but as they are of English speech, if not chiefly of Saxon race, their inquiries will naturally be in the drift of history towards themselves. Hence the Greek type of Christianity, after the year 451, receives less attention than the Roman; and gradually the Roman yields the preference to the Germanic type, to the Western National Churches, to anti-papal move- ments, to mediaeval dissent, and to those reforms, on various bases, which culminated in Protestantism. Some new methods and combinations — such as the three ministries, the circuit of early churches, the chart of early controversies, the new Europe with its six types of missions and its monasticism, the dissent and reformatory movements from the year 1000 to 1650, the circles of Protestant reformers — have been sug- gested partly by recent historians, but more by my own efforts at compression. To all authorities and sources, ancient, modern, original as far as possible, and certainly numerous, my debt is here gratefully acknowledged. Decided as are my convictions in theology and polity, due heed has been given to the following maxim of Lord Bacon: "It is the office of history to represent the events them- selves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man's judgment." Also Dr. W. D. Killen says: "It is the duty of history to daguerre- otype, as plainly as possible, the proceedings of the various parties in the ecclesiastical drama; and a pure PREFACE. V theology has nothing to fear from a correct report even of the fauhs of its advocates." What Tillemont hoped for his great work may here be expressed for this small one, "that the book will not be without a power of practical edification." W. M. B. Chicago, 1879. CONTENTS. Period I. THE ORIGIN, EXTENSION, TRIALS, AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. X. ». 1-325. PAGE. Chapter I. The Founding of the Christian Church, . . . i Chapter II. From Antioch to Lyons, 23 Chapter III. From Carthage to Ccesarea, 42 Chapter IV. Paganism Dethroned, 62 Period II. CONTROVERSIES IN THEOLOGY, COUNCILS, AND CREEDS. 323—451. Chapter V. The Nicene Age, 74 Chapter VI. Two Great Reactions, 99 Chapter VII. Five Great Controversies, 116 Period III. THE NEW EUROPE: ITS CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY AND SUB- MISSION TO THE PAPACY. 451-1085. Chapter VIII. Rome, her Pillagers and Bishops, .... 139 Chapter IX. The Frankish Empire and Church, . . , ,166 Chapter X. Missions in Europe, 185 Chapter XI. Debates and Conquests, . . . . . , 223 Chapter XII. Reforms of the Eleventh Century, .... 250 Period IV. CULMINATION AND DECLINE OF THE PAPAL POWER. 1085-1500. FIVE KINDS OF ENTERPRISE : MILITARY, INTELLECTUAL, REFORMATORY, INVENTIVE, AND LIEERATIVE. Chapter XIII. Crusaders and Schoolmen .273 Chapter XIV. Dissent from Rome, 301 Chapter XV. Reforms on Four Bases 334 7 VIII CONTENTS. Period V. THE RISE AND ESTABLISHMENT OF PROTESTANTISM. I500-J660. PAGE. Chapter XVI, Three Circles of Reformers, 376 Chapter XVII. The Lutheran Reformation, 397 Chapter XVIII. The Swiss Reformation, 419 Chapter XIX. France, Holland, and Scotland, .... 464 Chapter XX. The AngHcan Church, 508 Chapter XXI. Covenanting Times in Britain, 540 Period VI. NATIONAL CHURCHES AND DENOMINATIONS. 1068-1878. Chapter XXII. Protestantism in Europe, 583 Chapter XXIII. Churches of the British Isles, 609 Chapter XXIV. The Exode to America, 648 Chapter XXV. Churches in North America, 665 f * I' Period I. THE ORIGIN, EXTENSION, AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. gl. ©. 1—325. THE HOLY SCUIPTURES THE ONLY STANDARD OF FAITH AND PRACTICE — THE CHURCH TRIED BY JUDAISM, PAGANISM, PHILOSOPHY, AND SPECULATIVE THOUGHT A SERIES OF PERSECUTIONS — DEVELOPMENT OF TRUTH AND ERROR — PATRISTIC THEOLOGY NOT SYSTEMATIC — PRESBYTERY GRADUALLY OVERSHADOWED BY PRELACY. Chapter I. TJIE FOUNDING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Christianity has this advantage, its.origui is known. It had a historical beginning. We have not to search for the first notices of it among fragmentary records and dim inscriptions on broken monuments, nor in myths, legends, obscure liturgies, and confused traditions. The statements recorded in the New Testament concerning its rise and progress belong to the realm of actual history. They relate to persons, acts, Events, and institutions. They bar out all theories which seek the origin of Christianity in natural forces and the spirit of an age, and which make it the result of race, climate, epoch, the fusion of older elements, and the development of certain tendencies towards a new form of civilization. It began in an age which violently opposed it. Against no other religion was such a battle waged. In the pagan world, the leaders of the people were drifting from the worship of the gods into blank skepti- cism. The best philosophies and ideals of virtue did not repress vice. The Jews cherished hopes of a Messiah, but they did not honor the child of Mary, and elevate him to the Messianic office. Jesus did not meet their expectations. His miraculous birth, the supernatural events attending his child- I 2 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. hood, the ministry of angels, the renewal of inspiration, the divine titles given to the Holy Child, the presentation of him to several classes of Jews and even to -Gentile Magi, and the new prophecies concerning him, led a few devout souls to recognize him as their Messiah, according to their light. But the majority seemed to ignore him during his childhood, and while he grew to manhood at Nazareth. The leading parties opposed him during his brief ministry, and crucified him. They represented a race and an age of which he was not merely the outgrowth. The terms Christ and Christianity suggest a cause and an effect, an author and a system. Jesus was the Christ, not in being the Messiah according to the popular ideas of the time, but in being the Prophet, Priest, and spiritual King for all people of all ages. He had been the Jehovah of the ancient Church of God from the time of the first promise in Eden. In it he had dispensed salvation through sacrifices, types, and prophecies. Henceforth he would dispense his saving grace more personally by his teachings, his obedience to the law, his atoning death, and his royal power. Hence, with the change of dispensations there was a change in the Church from the Jewish to the Christian form. All the enduring elements of the old Church were carried forward into the new, and in him was preserved the continuity of ecclesiastical life. In tracing the outlines of Church history, our point of de- parture is not strictly the origin, but the propagation of Chris- tianity.''" We assume tha? our readers have at hand the New Testament, in which are the great facts and truths to be taught to men for their redemption. But at the outset there should be a clear idea of the power and method, the agencies and means, by which the religion and Church of Jesus Christ were ■^"A remarkable preparation for the spread of Christianity is seen in certain facts: I. The wide extent of the Roman Empire, with its general peace, laws, and rights of citizenship. 2. The prevalence of the Greek language and cul- ture. 3. The disj(3ersion of Greeks and of Jews almost every-where in the em- pire; they had a mutual influence on each other. Many Greeks became prose- lytes to Judaism. The dispersed Jews were called Hellenists (or "Grecians," in Acts vi, i; ix, 29; xi, 20). Hellenism was the bridge over which Chris- tianity passed from the Jews to the Gentiles. 4. The synagogues in the towns and cities of the empire; and 5 the Greek version of the Old Testament ready for the missionary. THE THREE MINISTRIES. 3 first extended. How came there to be in the Church a stand- ard by which to judge of its later growth, its deviations and ecHpses, or its reformations and revivals ? At its basis are cer- tain perpetual ministries — those of Christ, of men, and of the Holy Ghost. I. The Three Ministries. I. TJie ministry of Jesus Christ. A plain fact here will neu- tralize the theory that he gradually became conscious of his Messiahship during his public life, and overturn all that is built upon a mere assumption. His first public act of authority was the expulsion of the traders from the temple in Jerusalem. Whom did he then claim to be, and assent to be called ? The beloved Son of God, well-pleasing to the Father; the equal of the Lord God ; the superior of John the Baptist ; the one who shall baptize with the Holy Ghost ; the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world ; and the Messiah, for he had so taught his first disciples that they said, "We have found the Christ." He had assented to be called "the Son of God, the king of Israel." He had wrought his first miracle at Cana. He now performs other miracles, which Nicodemus regards as evidences that he is a teacher come from God, and that God is with him. In the private interview with this ruler of the Jews, he teaches, not only the doctrine of regeneration, but also salvation by faith in himself. He shows that he is fully conscious of the great purpose for which he is sent into the world, and of the death which he shall die. Thus he enters upon his ministry when about thirty years of age, in the full consciousness of his position, offices, work, and powers. His public life, of about three years, was one of extraor- dinary activity. His teachings reached all classes of people in Palestine.^ His words form the groundwork of the doctrines taught by his apostles. His miracles were not only evidences of his divine mission and kingly sovereignty over all realms of creation, but also works of mercy and types of spiritual *There were two centers of our Lord's ministry: i. The evangelical was Capernaum, or the synagogues of Galilee. His missionary labors were recorded by Matthew, iMark, and Luke. 2. The theocratic center was Jerusalem, with the temple. This was the chief center and source of the enmity, which led to the national rejection of him as the Messiah. John traces the rise, progress, and culmination of this enmity, which is an important factor in the history. 4 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. cures. His peculiar death was involved in his priestly office, he being both priest and sacrifice. The Good Shepherd gave his life for the sheep. He laid it down on the cross ; he took it again in the grave. He ascended to the right hand of his Father, not only to be glorified, but to continue his ministries as Teacher, Intercessor, and King. 2. TJie viinistiy of men, the first of zuhom "vjcre the apostles. One part of Christ's work was to organize a band of men, to whom he would commit his Gospel. "He ordained twelve,* that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach." They were with him as aids to his ministry and learners in his school. Even the chief of them — Peter, James, and John — did not clearly understand his character and words while he lived on earth as their teacher. Their great work was yet future. Three events occurred before they were fully qualified for their work : the crucifixion of Christ, his res- urrection, and the descent of the Holy Spirit at the Pentecost. The first gave them the central theme of all preaching, Christ and him crucified. After the second they received their new commission to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Under this commission the apostle was more than a messenger and missionary ; he was an embassador with delegated authority to act in Christ's name, to comxnand, insti- tute, ordain, and regulate whatever was necessary in the Church. By the third they were enlightened and spiritually qualified for the work of apostles. 3. The viinistiy of the Holy Spirit. Upon this our Lord laid great stress. He said to the faithful of the twelve: "It is expedient for you that I go away : for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I depart I will send him unto you. He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said ulito you. When he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." The Holy Ghost took up the work of redemp- tion at the point where Jesus Christ had left it, and applied its benefits to men. The advent of the Divine Spirit was as real as the incarnation of the Son of God. At Pentecost he * Judas is reckoned with the twelve, although Jesus "knew from the be- ginning who should betray him." CHURCH OFFICES. 5 came more personally and powerfully into history than ever before. The personal "ministration of the Spirit" is a distin- guishing mark of the great Christian era in which v/e live. It will never cease until the work of redemption on earth is com- pleted. He is the bond of vital union between the three per- petual ministries. The book entitled "The Acts of the Apostles" contains also the acts of the risen Lord and the acts of the Holy Spirit. We find the three ministries in co-operation. The first results were manifest at the great Pentecost, when the apostles were filled with the Holy Ghost, whom the reigning Lord had sent as the Comforter. Souls were converted to Christ through their preaching ; the Christian Church was organized ; ^ and in it, as they were needed, the proper offices for all time were instituted by authority, and not by mere development. What are these offices ? To this question different answers are given by large bodies of Christians who, severally, maintain prelacy, presby- tery, or independency. The historian must recognize the later existence of these systems as facts, and the right of every ad- vocate to appeal to ancient history in support of his own. But genuine antiquity must be found in the Holy Scriptures. The general view taken in this history is that the office peculiar to the apostles ceased with their death ; that presbytery, a middle term between prelacy and independency, was the orig- inal polity of the Christian Church, although it was simply outlined in the New Testament, and may admit of several forms ; and that, rightfully, the highest ecclesiastical power re- sides in councils of presbyters, who represent a believing people. This book is not written to advocate any theory, and all systems are treated as facts in the Divine Providence. Be- sides the offices of deacon, elder, and presbyter, there is com- mon to all Christian believers a ministry in prayer, instruction, example, charity, and beneficence ; and this is perpetual. Another result of these three co-operating ministries is the New Testament, written by men inspired by the Holy Ghost, *In the election of Matthias (Acts i) the apostles and brethren acted inde- pendently of the Jewish Church, of which they were still a part. Thenceforth they assumed new ecclesiastical powers and privileges. The number of spiritual converts to Christ at that time can not be certainly told. Probably most of the one hundred and twenty (Acts ii, 15) were of the five hundred in Galilee. 6 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, and under the direction of Christ. In the history of the Chris- tian Cliurch it has had its ministry, carrying with it the Old Testament. Thus the Church is perpetually under the teaching of God, which did not cease when the last page of revelation was turned ; for the Bible still goes on into history. It makes the history, for it makes the Church. As said a Swiss school- master in the days of the Reformation: "The Christian Church is born of the Word of God ; it must abide by this Word, and listen to no other voice." The later history is a sort of onflow- ing of revelation's ceaseless stream, — a continuation of human teachings inwrought with revealed truths. It repeats them ; it perpetually illustrates them. The Bible has supplied the Church with the bread of life. Nothing but a firm adherence to Holy Scripture has ever made a sound Church or an earnest Christian. Therefore it is our test. How are we to know whether certain rites, ordinances, creeds, laws, and institutions have a rightful place in the Church? By comparing them with what is enjoined or permitted in the Word of God. How are we to know who were true Christians, heaven-commissioned reformers, or genu- ine martyrs? By measuring them by the Divine Word. Therefore, we look for the Bible in the hands of the scholar and the preacher ; in the cell of the monk and the luggage of the missionary ; in the palace of the emperor, and the hut of the peasant ; in the heart of the convert, who counts the ad- vantages of his native heathenism as loss for Christ, and on the hps of the persecuted one who endures the rack or the flaming pile, — and thus we judge whether they are worthy of a place in Christian history. II. The Apostolic Church. The Lord had said to the apostles, "Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." Here was a method of gradual advance from those who knew most of the truth to those who were less informed, and then to those most barba- rous. In its progress the Gospel gradually reached Judeans, Hellenistic Jews with Judaized Gentiles, Samaritans who were half Jews in religion, devout Gentiles, and idolatrous pagans.* *This plan is evident in the Acts, thus: I, The Church among the Jews — chapters i-vii. Peter the eminent leader, and next to him John and Stephen. A VISIBLE CHURCH. 7 The apostles began their work at Jerusalem. The center of enmity against Christ must be made the first capital of the Church. It seemed a bold movement ; for they had not previ- ously shown a daring spirit. All at once they manifested new life and new gifts. These poor, illiterate Galileans spoke in languages known to the devout Jews, who had come up from the chief provinces of the Roman Empire. They caused sur- prise and inquiry. At Babel there was confusion because men did not understand each other's speech ; here men were con- founded because they did understand. Comparative philology is unearthing the roots from which the great languages have grown, and thus illustrating the primal unity of races in Adam. The Pentecost was the type and presage of the nobler discov- ery that nations of Aryan, Semite, and Turanian speech are to find their spiritual unity in Christ. These apostles were not only teachers, but also translators orally of divine truths. At the outset they gave sanction to popular versions of the divine Word. These men, who lately could not claim a synagogue nor the dignity of a sect, were now the ministers of the revealed Word and the appointed sacraments which were necessary to the forming Church. In organizing the Christian Church there were these stages : the conversion of new materials by the Holy Ghost ; their separation from unbelievers by confessing Christ, being baptized and added* to the original band; their union as believers in Christ ; and their gradual separation from the Jew- ish Church. Thus the faithful came early within the definition of a visible Church, as a congregation of believers in which the II. The Church among half-Jews, Hellenists, and devout Gentiles — viii-xii. Philip the Evangelist leads among the Samaritans, and Peter admits the Gentile Cornelius into the Church. The Gospel is carried into Ethiopia, and to Hellen- ists of Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch (xi, 19). Christianity is in transition to the heathen world. III, The Church among the idolatrous Gentiles — xiii-xxviii. Paul the chief apostle in the work among the Greek-speaking peoples. His three mis- sionary circuits, and his journey to Rome as a prisoner, give the plan to this part of the history. * The speedy and large additions are emphasized ; Acts ii, 41 — About three thousand souls in one day; Acts iv, 4 — "The number of the men was about five thousand," probably the total of believers then in Jerusalem; Acts v, 12 — Multitudes, both of men and women ; Acts vi, II — The number of the dis- ciples multiplied greatly, and a great number of priests believed. 8 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Word of God is truly preached, the sacraments duly adminis- tered, cordial fellowship maintained, and proper discipline ob- served. Inspiration holds up the bright picture of their faith, their unity, their communion, their worship, their self-denying charity, and their social bliss. They were miraculously puri- fied from hypocrisy, and graciously sustained in trials. The arrest of Peter and John did not disorganize nor dishearten them.* The Jews were the first, and during thirty-five years the only, willful persecutors of the Christians. It seems that Pilate, who had been urged to crucify Jesus, was not asked to repress his followers. But Pharisees and Sadducees, long at variance in religion and politics, united in their enmity, first against the preachers, and later against the people, f In vain did they at- tempt to suppress the miracles and that preaching which kept the name Jesus ringing in their ears. Prisons were in vain >vhen a divine hand opened the doors. Rage yielded somewhat to reason when Gamaliel showed the folly of violence. The Church needed early to understand the philosophy of persecu- tion, though her foes, and, later, even Churchmen, were to be ages in learning experimentally that it has no logic to convince the thinking mind, no pathos to warm the soul, no terrors t6 convert men. It confirmed the true disciples in their faith, and united them in sympathy for Peter and John, who were the chief sufferers. It gave dignity to their cause. The Hellenists J now came to the front. Many of them seemed dependent on those daily supplies provided in common for the needy, and for those sojourners who had exhausted their purses by tarrying in the city to enjoy the unusual priv- ileges of the time. They complained that their widows were overlooked in the distribution of supplies. Rations were not *Acts ii, 42-47; iv, 32-37: "At a later period every exhortation to alms- giving, and every sentence which alludes to distinctions of rich and poor in the Christian Churches, is decisive against the [theory of a] community of goods." (Milman.) Justin Martyr refers to such charities in his time as are described in the Acts. The original design was not accumulation of property, but a fund for beneficence. The contributions were voluntary in spirit and measure, as they had been during Christ's earthly ministry. tCompare Acts iv, 1-7; v, 17; vi, 9-11, with viii, 1-3 ; ix, 1,2. Herod's persecution (Acts xii, 1-4) may be regarded as Jewish. J Jews of foreign lands, speaking a foreign language. The term may in- . elude proselytes to Judaism. STEl'HEN. 9 served to them. This led to the election of the seven deacons.^ Probably most of them were Hellenistic in'sentiment. Nicolas was a proselyte of Antioch. It was important to bring; into prominence men who were the freest from local and national prejudices, generous in their sympathies, ready to place Chris- tianity on a footing- of true catholicity and universality, lest the plastic Church should be cast into molds of conformity to Jew- ish rules and rites, customs and ordinances. They would be a plank from the shore to the ship which conveyed the Church from the Jews to the Gentiles. Stephen and Philip were of this class, in their principles and spirit. Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. This .started a fresh tempest of persecution. He was arraigned. In his defense he declared that God's religion was not bound up in Judaism ; that his presence and favor had not always been confined to the Holy Land ; that there had been changes in the institutions of wor- ship ; and that even the temple was transitory, compared with the better covenant in Christ, f He was stoned to death by an angry mob. "And Saul was consenting unto his death." This young Benjamite was a Hellenist ; and yet no other Jew is named as so fierce a persecutor of the Church as was Saul. The leader in "the great persecution," J he made havoc of it, tearing it as a wild beast; he entered houses, dragging men and women to prison as a fisher drags his net. But he could not forget his crime against Stephen. And after his conversion, when the Lord told him to escape quickly from Jerusalem and save his life, he said : ' ' Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee : and when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him." Augustine said, "The Church owes Paul to the prayer of Stephen." From the beaten fire the sparks were driven widely, to kindle new flames in distant quarters. The teachers "were all ■■•Compare Numbers xi, 1-17, where the complaints of a hungering people led to the appointment of the seventy elders. t Compare John iv, 23, with Acts vii, 4S, 49. Both Jesus and Stephen asserted the intended universality of Christianity. X Acts viii, I ; xi, 19. 10 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCir. scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles." The persecution seems to have been most severe against the Hellenistic element of the Church. Certain uimamed men went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching to none but Jews. The transition of Chris- tianity to the Gentiles was now to begin. Like its author, it must needs go through Samaria. There Philip, followed by Peter and John, reaped a measureless harvest in a field partly sown by our Lord. Philip went southward, baptized an emi- nent officer of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, and preached in all the cities''"^ till he came to Csesarea. In that new city was a large element of Greeks and' Romans. There the door of the Church was unbarred to the Gentile world, and the gates of heathendom were opened to Christianity when the Lord employed various ministries to bring Peter and Cornelius to- gether. The one was a foreign missionary, clearly taught that the Christians must not regard the Gentiles as a ritually unclean race to be shut out from the kingdom of Christ. If the other was not a proselyte to Judaism he was the noblest pagan of whom we have any description. Peter preached the simple Gospel. The Holy Ghost was conferred upon the household of Cornelius, and his family, friends, and kinsmen were at once baptized. This great event was reported in Jerusalem. Then was started the question which long disturbed the Church, and almost rent it in twain. Was it right for Gentiles to enter the Church without first becoming Jews? Those who called him to account heard his recital of the facts, ' ' held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." Peter had broken through the wall of partition between the Hebrews and the pagans. It was the crowning act of his min- istry. He now ceases to be prominent in history. He was not the man to extend Christianity among the idolatrous heathen. He was imprisoned and released by an angel at the time when Herod Agrippa I f vexed the Church and slew James, the *Peter followed him in this region, and found "saints" at Lydda, and Sharon, and Joppa. After ^neas was healed of palsy, and Dorcas was restored to life, "many believed in the Lord." t Herod, assuming the honors of a god, died as a wretched man about A. D. 44. Near this tirne Paul began his vast foreign missionary work. PAUL. 1 1 brother of John. He seems to have labored, thereafter, among the Jews. The Jewish part of the Christian Church might claim him as a leader when he seemed to admit that Gentile converts should practice Jewish rites. Paul rebuked his timid conduct. But their variance was momentary. Already had Peter given his right hand and hearty hospitality to the young Saul, when few of the brethren could believe that ' ' he who persecuted us in times past was now preaching the faith which once he destroyed." In his old age he commended "our be- loved brother Paul."* Saul, a native of Tarsus when it ilvaled Athens in culture, a Hebrew by descent, a Hellenist by birth, a Roman by civil rights, a zealot for the religion of his fathers, and a persecutor who threw the whole Church into alarm, had been converted, baptized, and called into the apostleship by the personal reve- lation of Jesus Christ. His qualifications were extraordinary. In mind, genius, and personal power he took the highest rank. His conscientiousness, his intense energy, his burning zeal, his firm decision, his iron purpose, his generosity, his sympathy, his benevolence to the human race, his eloquence, learning, and logic, were all devoted to the risen Lord. He knew sufficiently his age and its religious systems in their rivalries and conflicts. He knew Judaism, as then misinterpreted and arrayed against Christ and his Gospel. It had been impersonated in him- self when he was a strict Pharisee, and the chieftain warring against the Church. He knew paganism ; its Greek and Ro- man religions, idolatries, and licentiousness, and enough of its poetry and philosophy to strike at the very root of its errors. It knew not God ; it made gods for itself. In it were no "primitive truths" which could save men.f It was the moral pestilence raging over all the earth. He came to know Chris- *Pau], Peter, and John, "confessedly the three grandest characters and most influential actors in the early Christian Church. In the character of their minds and in their religious tendencies they are intimately related, forming, as it ^vere, mutual complements to each other." (Islay Burns.) If there be a Pauline, a Petrine, and a Johannean theology, there is between them no radical difference of doctrine or essential variation of statement. t "No one who has not examined patiently and honestly the other religions of the world can know what Christianity really is, or can join with such truth and sincerity in the words of St. Paul, 'I am not ashamed of the Gospel cf Christ.' (Max Miiller.) 12 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. tianity, with its redemptive powers, its requirements, its charity, its pure morahty, its noble philosophy, and its matchless the- ology. It asked faith in the Lord Jesus as the motive power in life. It alone offered to the race the fatherhood of God, the kingdom of his Son, the holiness of his Spirit, and a brother- hood of men. It alone sent a Gospel, and offered a deliver- ance to the whole creation, which was groaning in bondage, and waiting for the sons of God to be manifest. Paul took the broad view that Christianity must reach out far beyond Juda- ism, and finally remove paganism, and bring the creation ' ' into the glorious liberty of the children of God." Understanding these three systems, Paul was qualified to be the eminent leader of that host of missionaries, who should preach the Gospel to the pagan nations until they are all gathered into the kingdom of Christ. He must meet and vanquish paganism on its own soil, and lay down the method of future conquests. The career of no other mere man has produced such lasting effects upon the history of the world. He preached to his Jewish kindred until Antioch was pre- pared for him. Certain Greeks'^ there had been visited by Hellenistic teachers, "and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord." They were the nucleus of the first Gentile Church. Barnabas was the usher of Paul, the missionary. "The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch;" there they may have been first known as Christians in the full sense, as a body distinct from the Jews, and unwilling that Judaizers should entice them into the ritualism of a forsaken Church, f There, too, was the first of those contributions which Paul so often secured for the poor saints in Judea. Antioch became the new center of evangelization. It was the mother Church of the Gentile world. P'rom it Paul went out upon those widening missionary circuits through Asia Minor, then into Europe, until he was at Rome, a prisoner, dwelling in his own hired house, visited by inquirers, and preaching with all confidence, no man forbidding him. *Not Hellenistas, but Hellenas, is the reading most approved. tActs xi, 26, with Gal. ii, 11-19. Not Paul but Christ was their leader. By a custom almost universal a leader's name was given to his followers, e.g., Platonists, Epicureans. These believers at Antioch were thought to be worth naming, on account of their strength, their religion, or their supposed phi- losophy. There is no proof that the name was given in contempt. ROMAN CIVILIZATION. 13 Think what a world St. Paul had to face when his Lord said to him, "Go to the Gentiles." His mission was cast in an empire which aspired to unite all nations under its military sway. There was no uniform civilization; no unity in the various religions of the provinces. The Brahmin, the Nile-wor- shiper, and the Druid differed from the Roman. The higher modes of civil life had worn out for lack of enduring warp and woof. Creeds, manners, philosophies, literature, oratory, hero- ism, honor, and social virtues were perishing. When Caligula declared himself a god, he proved himself worse than a man, and when the monster was worshiped, the people confessed their amazing degradation. Palaces were often houses of lust. The splendor of the rich was the curse of the poor — it took from crime its dishonor, and from law its force. About three-fourths of this people were wretched slaves, decimated by famine, by suffering, and by the combats of the circus. The best lands were becoming a desert — the finest cities reeked with abominations. The very religion of paganism was a source of immorality. Paul did not overdraw it in his epistle to the Romans. There were truths in the Aryan systems, but truths held in unrighteousness were powerless for good. Vices were attributed to the gods and practiced by their votaries. The lofty ideas of a future life, which still gleam in the teachings of Socrates and Plato, scarcely lent a glimmer to the dying philosophies of the Stoics, Epicureans, and Academi- cians. Faith went down in the flood of skepticism.* Reason and noble thought sat silent at those voluptuous feasts where men said: "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Into that pagan world went Paul, fully conscious that his preaching would be an offense to the Jew, foolishness to the Greek, and a jest to the Roman, and yet that no knowledge *In the year 79 Vesuvius belched forth the storm of ashes which buried Pompeii and Herculaneum. Pliny the Elder perished in it. His nephew, Pliny the Younger, eighteen years of age, led his mother to a place of safety. He says of the crowd of people, wildly rushing about in the stifling night, "Some prayed for the death which they feared. Many lifted their hands to the gods ; more were convinced that there were no gods at all, and that the final endless night, of which we have heard, . . . had come upon the world. I thought I was perishing in company with the universe, and the universe with me — a mis- erable ani yet a mighty solace in death." 14 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. of physical laws or intellectual science would ever cure its dis- orders and woes. Only the Gospel could purify the lives of men by renewing their natures, reconstruct society by regen- erating individuals, and cast into that haughty, glittering, pre- tentious, and abominable civilization the elements of truth, virtue, order, brotherhood, and progress. But we do not ignore the fact that the Jewish, Greek, and Roman civilizations were helpful to Christianity. On his wide mission he found Jews with their Scriptures and synagogues, their education and their hopes of the Messiah. The Aryan peoples, whom he ad- dressed by voice and pen, were not utterly wild and savage. Within the Roman Empire was the most advanced civilization of the age ; the most vigorous heathen intellect, the best pagan culture, the languages not yet surpassed, the literature still cherished by us, the art unexcelled, and laws which endure in modern governments. If it had not existed the barbarous peoples, who finally made spoil of its European domain, might have invaded it sooner, and stayed the conquests of the Church, or trodden it into the dust. Emperors might perse- cute, but the empire must aid Christianity and then pass away. Its roads and ships were for missionaries as well as for consuls. Its civil law afforded to Paul no small privilege when he pleaded, "I am a Roman citizen," and once, at least, was safe from the violence of a mob. "Greek culture and Roman polity prepared men for Christianity," said Thomas Arnold. The mission of Greece was to train the intellect ; that of Rome to enact law ; that of Judaism to educate the conscience and ""><. contribute the highest preparation for Christianity, whose mis- sion was, and is, to redeem the world by regenerating men. There was a spirit of inquiry springing from the Avant of light upon the human soul, its duties, and its destiny. This may account for the fact that the foreign religion of Serapis was winning ground among the Greeks and Romans. It pre- sented the doctrines of a resurrection, a judgment, and a future life. It taught men to bury, and not burn, the lifeless body. "The fact deserves notice, as it indicates the annihilation of all reverence for the old system of paganism, and marks a desire in the public mind to search after those truths which the Chris- tian dispensation soon revealed. A moral rule of life, with a religious sanction, was a want which society began to feel when THE WORK OF PAUL. I5 Christianity appeared to supply it.'"!" The younger PHny, feel- ing the want, but declining the offered relief, sadly wrote, "Our vices are too potent for our remedies." Adopting the method of a gradual advance, Paul went first to the Hellenistic Jews in their synagogues, and then to the Gentiles. We now notice the following peculiarities of his work : 1. He usually kept to the front, building on no other man's foundation. Large towns and cities were made new centers of Qvangelization. "He is in all the great capital cities of the West; in all the great centers of civil, commercial, and intel- lectual greatness; in Antioch, in Ephesus, in Athens, in Corinth, in Rome. He is among barbarians at Lystra, in Galatia, in Melita. He is the one active, ruling missionary of what we may call the foreign operations of the Chris- tian Church." 2. He appears as the chief agent in settling the polity of the Church, if not also its theology. From him, not from Peter, came the fullest instructions concerning deacons and elders, or presbyters; the latter being identical with the bishops {episcopoi) in that age.f In the writings of no other apostle are there so many rules expressed or implied, touching disci- pline, ordinations, the sacraments, and popular instruction ; nor such full and clear statements relative to man's natural sinful- ness and needs, his inability to save himself, justification by faith in Christ and its results, the fruits of the Holy Spirit in believers, and the triumphs of the Christian over trials, suffer- ings, and enemies. The experiences of David voiced in the Psalms, and of Paul traced in his letters, have ever since been means of assurance, comfort, fortitude, and hope to those who are called to endure and be holy. 3. Paul did most to rescue Christianity from Judaism. The one system ran a twofold danger from the other. The Jews ® Finlay, History of Greece, i. 84. tActs xi, 30: Pi'csbnteroiis — "These were the overseers or presidents of the congregation — an office borrowed from the synagogues, and established by the apostles in the Churches generally. Acts xiv, 23 : They are in the New Testa- ment identical with the episcopoi. Chap, xx, 17, 28; Titus i, 5, 7 ; i Peter v, 1, 2: So Theodoret on Phil, i, i. The title episcopos, as applied to one person superior to the presbiiteroi, answering to our 'bishop,' appears to have been unknown in the apostolic times." (Dean Alford, Gr. Test., on Acts xi, 30.) I6 HISTORY OF THE CHPaSTIAN CHURCH. outside the Christian Church denounced Christ and persecuted his followers. The rigorous Jews within the Church insisted upon conformity to their ritual, as a condition of membership in the Christian fold. They said, ' ' Except ye be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, ye can not be saved." Questions of this sort led to the First Council, that of Jerusalem, where the pastor James (probably the Just) presided. The result of it was a letter to the Churches not fully solving the exciting ques- tion, but enjoining abstinence from meats offered to idols, from blood, from strangled animals, and from licentiousness. These might be regarded as elements of that universal law given to Noah. Conformity to Judaism was not required, Peter did not ask it. A colony of Gauls had settled and fixed their name in Galatia. Their country-folk still used the Celtic language in the fifth century. Warm hearted and impulsive, they had received Paul as an angel, and then been fascinated by Judaizers. He saw that the Gospel might be repudiated, and he poured out his soul in a letter to the Galatians refuting the errors. It may be too much to say that it "has had a more powerful effect upon the religious history of mankind than any other composi- tion which was ever penned, any other words ever spoken ;" but it probably "severed conclusively, though not at once, Christianity from Judaism." With him the controversy was a long battle, and it finally caused his arrest and his journey to Rome. 4. He exceeded all other apostles, so far as we can know, m work, if not in perils and sufferings. He was ' ' in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more fre- quent, in deaths oft." The care of all the Churches among the Gentiles came upon him. Of most apostles and their co- workers we have such traditions as these : Andrew labored in Scythia and in Greece, where he was crucified ; Philip in Phrygia ; Thomas in Parthia, Persia, and India ; Bartholomew in Armenia ; Matthew in Ethiopia, after writing his Gospel ; Simon Zelotes in Northern Africa; Jude in Arabia and Libya; and Mark founded the Church at Alexandria. Nothing is certainly known of the labors of Peter, except his writings, after his brief stay at Antioch. History is quite as silent about him as the Romanists are about his wife, whom THE EMPEROR NERO. • 1/ tradition reports as a worthy helper in his ministry. No facts prove that he resided at Rome. If he was ever there at all, he may have suffered martyrdom there about the year (Sj. The better tradition confines his later labors to Asia Minor or T-5abylon, a seat of Jewish culture. - Paul was probably absent from Rome after his first trial, when the great fire of 64 raged for nine days. The emperor Nero found himself suspected of having kindled the flames, and his activity in sheltering and feeding the homeless, and his pagan sacrifices, did not allay suspicion. Perhaps he resolved to charge it on the Christians, some of whom were in his own household. He may have confounded them with those Jews who talked loudly of a Chrestus* soon coming to dethrone the Caesars, for which Claudius (41-54) had banished some of them, and perhaps Christians with them. But his hatred was, doubt- less, more positive. He must relieve himself of this infamy at any cost. "Hence," says Tacitus, writing from the heathen point of view, "to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt and cruelly punished those persons who were commonly called Christians and were hated for their enormities. This name was derived from one Christus, who was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate. . . . This accursed superstition, for a moment repressed, broke out again and spread, not only through Judea, the source of the evil, but through the city of Rome, where all things vile and shameful find room and reception. First, those were seized who confessed that they were Christians ; next, on their information, a vast number were convicted, not so much on the charge of burning the city, as of hating the human race. In their deaths they were made a subject of mockery. They were covered with the hides of wild beasts, and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or set on fire to serve as torches at night. Nero lent his own gardens for the spectacle. He gave a chariot race on the occasion, at which he mingled freely with the crowd in the garb of a charioteer, or actually held the reins. The populace, with its usual levity, showed compassion for the sufferers, justly odious as they were held to be, for they seemed to be pun- *"We Christians are accused of hating what is Chrestian (excellent)." (Jus- tin Martyr.) 2 l8 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. ished, not for their actual crimes, nor for the pubHc good, but to gkit the ferocity of a single man." This first imperial persecution may have been limited to Rome and the vicinity. But we may suppose that the Chris- tians suffered in other quarters, for Tacitus goes on to say that to supply money "all Italy was pillaged, the provinces ruined, even the gods plundered and their temples despoiled." The nerves of Seneca were shaken ; he thought that paganism needed an infusion of morality, and became a martyr for his efforts. Paul returned to Rome, but found wrath flaming in Nero, at whose order, probably, he was beheaded about the year 6"], a fev/ weeks before the tyrant committed suicide. The contrast is striking ; Paul the martyr to his faith, Nero the monster in his fears !* John still remained. He probably resided at Ephesus as the center of his apostolic labors. From his silence upon ques- tions that had enlisted the zeal of Paul we may infer that the alliance and the conflict between Judaism and Christianity had virtually ended, and that many Judaizers had run into heresy. The Church had been freed from ritualistic bondage. The Seven Years' War in Judea also contributed to this result. The Jews, who rejected the true Christ, hailed almost every demagogue as their Messiah. Ringleaders entangled them in plots and seditions. The Romans provoked them to revolt. The war broke up society and made cities a desert. The sad- dest prophecies were fulfilled in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, about the year 70, when more than a million people- perished. Fire and shovel leveled the temple to the ground. The effects upon Christianity were manifest. The Jews no longer existed as a nation to oppose it. Thence- forth they were to wander at large over the earth, an evidence of divine prophecy, a homeless people, with the ancient ritual in their hands, but without the means and place to maintain its holiest worship. It was in vain for Judaizers to insist that •■■"Consult your histories; you will there find that Nero was the first who drew the imperial sword upon the Christian sect, then making progress espe- cially at Rome. But we glory in having our condemnation hallowed by the hos- tility of such a wretch. For he condemned whatever was of singular excel- lence. ... By his cruel sword the seed of Christian blood was sown at •Rome." (Tertullian.) CHURCH IN JERUSALEM. I9 Christians must keep the law of Moses. Only circumcision was left to them. Then the writings of Paul must have been read in a new and convincing light by thousands whom the law had ushered into the school of Christ. Meanwhile, the Church in Jerusalem had seen her pastor, James the Just, slain by a Jewish mob. His nephew, Symeon, had led the Christians out of the siege to Pella, east of the Jordan. Some of them may have dwelt in Perea and Moab, where the ruins of Christian churches are the wonder of the traveler. Some of them seem to have drifted towards the early Gnosticism of Simon Magus and Cerinthus, or cast their hope- less lot among the nurses of those little sects which pieced out theories of law and Gospel with the rags of Plato and Zoro- aster. The Docetists held that the body of Christ was a mere phantom or appearance; they denied his humanity. The Ebionites held that Jesus was a real man and the Messiah, in whom a higher spirit (the Logos) dwelt from the time of his baptism until he was about to be crucified; they denied his divinity.''^ The writings of John were the antidote to such errors. Symeon brought back the truer disciples to Jerusalem, where they dwelt as a sad flock amid the memorials of glory and desolation. He is the last-named Christian who persisted in the Jewish rites. Having witnessed the astounding events of a hundred years, he died a martyr to his faith and to the blood of David that ran in his veins. It is said that many thousands of Jews, seeing the temple, the altar, and the nation at an end, yielded to the kindly invitations of Jesus Christ. But the mother Church never rose again to eminence. She had fulfilled the designs of her Lord. She was not to be ex- alted by men to an unwarranted primacy. She sits veiled in her heavy grief, and history passes from her to the Gentile lands. The Apostle John was involved in the next persecution, waged by Domitian,f who was scarcely less vicious and cruel * These sects, with the Nazarenes, Nicolaitanes, Cerinthians, and Elxaites were not nearly enough Christian to be classed as heretics, unless we follow Epiphanius and count barbarism and stoicism among the heresies. They were the tares among the wheat, and they are not worthy of being stored in Chris- tian History. tTacitus says: "I was promoted to office by Domitian before he openly professed a hatred .of all good men ; after that I sought no further advance- 4 20 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. than Nero. Even to such men divine honors were paid. Flat- terers said, ' ' If Domitian be not a god absolutely, he is at least a god to the Romans." In the theater he and his wife were cheered as "Our Lord and Lady," the Jupiter and the Juno of the empire. At length his title upon a public edict was "Our Lord and God!" The people admired the phrase. Such rulers were jealous when Jesus Christ was called the Lord, or the Son of David, and a king. In hating the Jews he included the Christians, who were held up as atheists and deniers of the Roman deities, and sent into exile or into the Catacombs. John was banished to Patmos. Perhaps he la- bored there in the quarries; certainly he there received "the Revelation of Jesus Christ," in" which were letters to the Seven Churches of Asia Minor. He was doubtless their overseer. He seems to have returned to Ephesus when the exiles were recalled by Nerva, the first of a series of just and humane emperors. The legends that John had been put into a caldron of burning oil, and that he fled in horror from a bath because Cerinthus was there, are of less value than this : When too aged to preach he was often carried into the Christian assem- bl}-, where he said, "Little children, love one another." He died soon after the close of the first century. Among the pupils of St. John we may reckon Ignatius and Polycarp, the chief of the Apostolic Fathers, so called from having been associates or learners of the apostles. These two vdll come before us in the further history; the five others belong simply to the class of writers, for we know almost nothing of their lives. ^ It is well to notice how one line of communication, reaching from our Lord through one hundred and seventy years, was formed by four teachers. Irensus, who died about 202, thus wrote, Avith a vivid recollection of his youth: "I can describe the very place where the blessed Poly- carp used to sit and talk ; also his personal appearance, mode of life, and his discourses to the people ; and how he would speak of his familiar intercourse with John and with others who had seen the Lord. He told us whatever he had heard from ment." Senators and philosophers were banished, so that ' nothing noble or virtuous might confront men's view. Our very sighs were noted down as evi- dences of guilt." * See Note I to this chapter. NOTES TO CHAPTER I. 21 them concerning the Lord's teaching and miracles. I listened attentively, and treasured up these things, not on paper, but in my heart." NOTES. I. The Apostolic Fathers. Barnabas and Clement of Rome, who were probably not co-laborers of Paul ; Hernias, a Roman, who seems to have written "The Shepherd," an allegory; Ignatius and Polycarp (see Chap. II). The best writings ascribed to these five men are so far below those of the New Testament that they afford some proof of its inspiration. Their theology is mainly Christian, and their spirit devout. Some of them have evidently been interpolated with statements about the sign of the cross, holy water, the letters I. H., as the anagram of Jesus Christ, celibacy, honors to Mary, purgatory, and the full subjection of presbyters to bishops. To these five some add Papias, the promoter of a secret undergrowth of super- stitions, and, far more worthily, the unknown author of the Epistle to Diognetus, "an exquisite specimen of the sentiment and religion of an early period." It was written at a time when the Christians were widely dispersed and clearly distinguished from the Jews. II. The causes of the rapid, spread of Christianity are found in the three ministries, and in its adaptation to meet the spiritual wants of man- kind. But skeptics have sought for the causes in the society of that age. " Some have imagined that the kindness of the Christians to the poor in- duced multitudes to embrace their faith ; but it is here forgotten that the profession of Christianity involved an immediate risk of life. Others have represented that the profligate lives of the pagan priests caused many to become Christians ; but the profligacy of the priests could not infuse the love of a faith which put credit, property, and life itself to the hazard. Others again, as Celsus, Julian, and Porphyry, have affirmed that the Churches gathered by the apostles were composed of plebeians and women, i. e., of persons deficient in intelligence, rank, and wealth, who might easily be persuaded to believe any thing by persons of moderate talents ; but this is not true, for among those converted by the apostles were many persons of wealth and learning (i Tim. ii, 9; i Peter iii, 3; Col. ii, 8), and 'a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith' (Acts vi, 7)." III. Causes of Roman persecution, (i) The Church was morally ag- gressive and successful. (2) Christianity was an "exclusive religion." It knew only one method of salvation ; and hence it squarely opposed all heathen systems. It required men to abandon all their sins and renounce all idolatries. (3) The Christians contemned the rehgion of the state, which was closely connected with the Roman government; and the Romans, al- though they tolerated religions from which the commonwealth had nothing to fear, would not suffer the ancient religion of their nation to be derided, and the people to be withdrawn from it. Yet these things the Christians dared to do. They also assailed the religions of all other nations. Hence, 22 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. tliey were thought to be unfriendly to pubhc peace. {4) The Christian worship had no sacrifices, temples, statues, or oracles ; hence, its professors were deemed atheists, and by the Roman laws atheists were regarded as the pest of human society. (5) Moreover, the worship of so many pagan dei- ties afforded support to great numbers, who were in danger of coming to want if Christianity should prevail. Such were the priests, soothsayers, statuaries, players, gladiators, and others, who depended for a livelihood on the worship of the heathen gods, or on spectacles which the Christians ab- horred. (6) Their cautious method of performing the offices of religion, dictated at first by fear of persecution, caused horrid calumnies to be circu- lated against them. Licentiousness and magical rites were popularly imputed to them ; and it was believed that national calamities were sent by the gods, because the Christians, who contemned their authority, v/ere tolerated. (7; By the law of reaction paganism was revived in no small degree. The priests became more active, and the people more interested in their rites. IV. The effects of the pagan persectitions were not altogether unfavora- ble to the progress of Christianity. They restrained hypocrisy. " Their extreme barbarity was not only revolting to the spectators, but gave fortitude to the sufferers, whose constancy in torture won the admiration of the best part of the heathen, and convinced them of the sincerity of the Christians. And, further, Christians were dispersed into distant lands by the cruelties practiced against them, and they carried with them the doctrines of the Gospel fo places which would otherwise have long remained without them." V. KJnviber of pagan pej-seaitions. There were more than ten local and provincial, and less than ten general, persecutions. In a list of the emperors most concerned in our history the italics denote the persecutors, as usually given, those marked f the general persecutors, and the small capitals the most favorable emperors : A'ero, . . . A. D. 54-68 Vespasian, . . . 70-79 1 Doniitian, . . . 81-96 Nerva, .... 96-98 I Trajan? .... 98-I17 ^ Hadrian, . . . 11 7-138 Antoninus Pius, 138-161 . Jllarc. Aurelins, 161-1S0 *^ Commodus, . . 180-193 Sept. Sever us, \ . 193-211 Caracalla, . . . 2 1 2-2 17 Elagabalus, . . 218-222 Alex. Severus, 222-235 Jllaxiim'n, . . . 235-23S The Gordians, 23S-244 Philip Arab., . 244-249. Decius,\. . . . 249-251 Callus, etc., . . 251-254 Valerian, . . Gallienus, . , Claudius II, . . Aurelian, . . . Tacitus, . . , Probus, etc., . Diocletian, f \ Galeriits, J Constantine, 254-260 260-268 268-270 270-275 276 276-284 284-311 311-337 CIRCUIT OF CHURCHES. 23 Chapter II. FROM ANTIOCH TO LYONS."* Pliny the Younger was one of the noblest Romans of the new ag-e, when people talked happily of the "good emperors.'" In his charming "Letters" we meet with some of the best men and women of pagan society, and find sketches of a few of the notorious scoundrels in politics. He had some belief in Provi- dence. As a lawyer in Rome, he was active in bringing to pun- ishment those consuls who robbed provinces, and informers who became princes among millionaires and the terror of good citizens. He was rich, liberal, and kind to the tenants and slaves on his estates. He was no Stoic. He wrote, "To be touched by grief, to feel it, but fight against it ; to make use of consola- tions, not to be above the need of them, — this is what becomes a man." He built a temple at Tifernum, and another at his villa near Rome. He offered to contribute largely towards establishing a school far up at Como, where he was born. What will this literary gentleman say of Christianity? To men of his stamp the change from Domitian to Nerva was a moral revolution. It marked an epoch. The good old emperor was not a tyrant, hating all virtuous and learned men. He did not claim to be a god, and then act like a demon. He issued no special edict against the Christians ; and yet their relig- ion was not a religio licita, one recognized as lawful by the Senate. In less than two years his royal mantle fell upon his adopted son, Trajan (98-117), who was a Spaniard by birth, and a new Au- gustus in enterprise and policy. From the Roman point of view Trajan was the ideal of a wise, moderate, just ruler and reformer. ® The plan in Chapters ii, iii, and iv is to follow, as nearly as is practicable, a circuit of Churches — thus, Antioch, Athens, Smyrna, Corinth, Rome, Lyons, Carthage, Alexandria, and Ccesarea. This order of the leading historical Churches, from the year 100 to 325, is remarkably chronological as to the chief »mperors and the representative Churchmen. 2^ HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. He brought in that golden age which ended with the Antonines, In Church history he appears to less advantage. Traveling widely over the empire, he must have seen that Christianity was planted in the great capitals, and was extend- ing rapidly towards (if it had not reached) Edessa in the east, Carthage in the west, Seville in Spain, Lyons in Gaul, and the British Isles. In many a village the Jews and pagans must have run to the magistrates, crying, ' ' These who have turned the world upside down are come hither also : these all do con- trary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus." If the Christians met in secret retreats, or at night, it was through fear of persecution. They wisely shrank from hounding spies and treacherous informers. The old law against every illegal religion might be revived. Trajan seems to have given heed to some accusers, who charged that their prudence covered base plots and crimes, their rites were magical arts, and their nightly meetings were infamous revels, in Avhich only pagans might indulge. Loyalty and purity were expected of Christians. They were transforming society ; and any idol-maker or temple-sweeper might cry that his craft was in danger, and raise against them the mob, which never reasons, and can scarcely be resisted. The emperor issued an edict forbidding guilds or clubs, as dangerous to the state. It was easy to turn this against that vast Christian brotherhood ex- tending throughout the empire, bound together by sacred ties, in correspondence with each other, and having much in their doctrine and worship that was mysterious to the heathen mind. Pliny was sent to govern Bithynia, where he saw the Chris- tians so powerful that the temples of the gods were almost deserted, and few sacrifices were bought in the markets. He writes that the walls of the new theater at Nice are cracked from top to bottom; but Trajan replies, "These paltry Greeks are too fond of gymnastic diversions." He tells how the people of Nicomedia gazed stupidly on the burning of their city, and had no buckets or engines to stop the flames. He proposes to organize a fire company ; but Trajan answers : ' ' Remember such societies have greatly disturbed the peace of your prov- ince. Call them by what name you please, they are sure to become factious associations, however short their meetings may be." Does he here refer to the Christian meetings? PLINY'S LETTER. 25 Pliny is busy in his efforts to supply Nice and Sinope with water from pur.e fountains, when he iinds that the magistrates are bringing Christians to trial for their religion. Appeals come to him. He writes-^ to the emperor for advice. He knows not their crimes, nor the punishment due them. He has not attended any of the trials. Shall he make any dis- tinction between young and old, the tender and the robust? Shall he release them when they repent or recant ? The rest of his letter should be read thrice over, as it has been called "the first apology for Christianity." It is a testimony to the virtue of the first believers, and the brightest picture of Christian life that has come to us from a pagan hand, although shadowed by the faithlessness of some who denied their Lord. It echoes the hymns of those who pledged fidelity to each other, vowed to live holily, and shared in the simple joys which rose above their common sorrows : " My method has been this: I asked those brought before me whether they were Christians. If they confessed, I asked them twice afresh, with a threat of capital punishment. If they per- sisted obstinately, I ordered them to be executed ; for I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their religion, a willful and sullen inflexibility deserved punishment. Some that were in- fected with the madness, being entitled to the privileges of Roman citizens, I reserved to be sent to Rome, to be referred to your tribunal. As information poured in that they were encouraged, more cases occurred. A list of names was sent me by an unknown accuser, but some of the accused denied that they were or ever had been Christians. They repeated after me an invocation of the gods and of your image. They performed sacred rites with wine and frankincense, and reviled Christ, none of which things, I am told, a real Christian -would ever be compelled to do. Therefore I dismissed them. Others, named by an informer, first confessed and then denied it, and declared that they had forsaken that error three or four years, some even twenty years, ago. . , . And this was the account which they gave of the nature of the religion they once professed, whether it deserve the name of crime or error: That they were accustomed to meet on a stated day, before sunrise, and to repeat among themselves a hymn to *" Probably in the year 112. 7.6 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves as with an oath not to commit any wickedness, not to be guilty of theft, rob bery, or adultery, never to break a promise or withhold a pledge ; after which it was their custom to separate, and meet again at a promiscuous, harmless meal [doubtless the love-feast connected with the Lord's Supper]. From this last they desisted after I published my edict, according to your orders, and forbade any secret societies of that sort. " To come at the truth, I thought it necessary to put to the torture two women, said to be deaconesses. But I could gather nothing except a depraved and excessive superstition. Deferring fur- ther investigation, I resolved to consult you, for the number of culprits is so great as to demand serious consideration. In- formers lodge complaints against a multitude of every age and of both sexes. More still may be impeached. The contagion of this superstition has spread through cities and villages, and even reached farm-houses. Yet I think it may be checked. The success of my endeavors forbids despondency ; for the temples, once almost desolate, begin to be frequented ; victims for sacrifice, that scarcely found a purchaser, now are sold every-where. Whence I infer that many might be reclaimed, were the hope of pardon, on their repentance, absolutely con- firmed." Let us carefully read the emperor's reply, for we have no other trace of his policy at that time towards the Christians : ' ' You have adopted the right course, my dear Pliny, in your investigation of the charges made against the Christians brought before you ; for, truly, no one general rule can be laid down for all such cases. These people must not be sought after. If they are brought before you, and the offense is proved, let them be punished ; but w^ith this restriction, that if any one denies that he is a Christian, and shall prove that he is not by invoking the gods, he is to be pardoned, notwith- standing any former suspicion against him. But anonymous libels should never be heeded ; for the precedent would be dangerous, and altogether inconsistent with the maxims of our government." To be a Christian was a punishable offense, yet the wise policy was to connive at it, and not hunt down the offender ! Punish him if he be led to trial, unless he deny Christ! Se- IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH. 2; crecy, deatli, or open apostasy were the choices offered to the Christian. There are traditions of martyrs at Edessa while Trajan was fighting the Parthians. The story that he banished eleven thousand Christian soldiers to Armenia is not trustworthy. In the year 115 Trajan was at Antioch, when an earthquake destroyed hundreds of people. He crept through a window and escaped from a shattered house. This event, like the fire in Nero's time, may have been charged upon the Christians. Did Ignatius go before the emperor to plead their innocence? We know not why, how, nor when he came before Trajan, but this date is most probable. He had labored forty years at Antioch, and he is said to have suspected that the storm raised by Domitian had spared him as one not worthy of the martyr's crown. We should know more of his life, labors, and opin- ions, if seven of the letters attributed to him had not been interpolated, and eight more forged. We could know more of his trial and final sufferings if "The Martyrdom of Ignatius" were proved to be a more genuine document than most early "acts" of martyrs. According to it, during the examination he gave his name as Theophorus. "And who is Theophorus?" inquired Trajan. "He who carries Christ in his heart." "Do you not think that zve have the gods in our minds when we use them as allies against our enemies?" "The heathen demons are not gods. There is but one God, who made all things, and one Jesus Christ, whose kingdom may I obtain!" "Do you speak of him who was crucified under Pontius Pilate?" "I speak of him who bore my sin on the cross." "Do you then bear the crucified within yourself?" "I do, for it is written, 'I will dwell in them.' " Trajan must have regarded this man, not as a secret member of a dangerous guild, but as an openly bold preacher of "another king, Jesus," whose lordship might be spiritual, and yet far more supreme than his own in thousands of hearts, and utterly destructive of the national gods whom the bishop called demons. Jealousy and zeal for his religion may have moved him to give this sentence: "Since Ignatius has declared that he bears within himself the crucified, we order that he be taken by soldiers to Rome, and there be the food of wild beasts, and a spectacle to the people." If sent to terrify his brethren along the route, he proved their comforter. He said his chains V 28 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. were his spiritual jewels. At Smyrna he may have said to Polycarp, ' * Be firm as an anvil when it is beaten. ... I would rather die for Christ than rule the world." Vespasian had adorned Rome with the vast Coliseum, on whose tiers of seats eighty thousand people could sit and gaze upon lion-fights and the still more barbarous combats of gladi- ators. There Ignatius was devoured by iions, and not a pro- test from the crowd of inhuman spectators is on record. A milder policy was adopted by Hadrian (ii 8-136), a Ro- man of Grecian culture and spirit, an inquirer into philosophies and religions, restless, versatile, and capricious, causing the Senate to question whether he was a god or a tyrant. Wishing to inspect every corner of the empire, he traveled widely through the provinces from his wall in Britain to the Euphrates. He must have known by eyesight that the Christians were harmless in their societies, diligent artisans, prosperous farmers, thrifty shopkeepers, with good sense in worldly affairs, and the only people who cared much for the poor, the helpless, and the suffering. If he was urged, in 125, when at Athens, to punish them as wretches whose impiety provoked the gods to with- hold rain and fruitful seasons, he denied the request with little fear of an insurrection. He willingly read or heard the apolo- gies of pastor Quadratus and philosophic Aristides. No parch- ment conveys to us those defenses of Christianity. Their effect upon Hadrian was favorable to the Christians. He felt the justice of their pleas. A proconsul of Asia wrote to him that "it seemed unjust to put to death men who were not con- victed of any crime, merely to gratify a clamorous mob." He replied, "If any accusers prove that the Christians really break the laws, do you determine the nature of the crime. But if the charge be a mere calumny, estimate the enormity of the slander, and punish the accuser as he deserves." The Jews of Palestine revolted undei a false ^Messiah, Bar- cochaba, and slew many Christians. The> were conquered and expelled. On the ruins of Jerusalem a new city was built, and named .^ha Capitolina. Its old name was quite lost for an age. Hadrian there reared temples to Venus and Jupiter. The Christians were allowed to dwell in Palestine ; the Jews were forbidden to return. Thus Christianity was completely separated from Judaism. ANTONINUS PIUS— POLYCARP. 29 "The long reign of Antoninus Pius (13S-161) is one of those happy periods that have no history. An almost unbroken peace reigned at home and abroad. Taxes were lightened calamities relieved, informers discouraged ; confiscations were rare, plots and executions were almost unknown." Yet Chris- tians suffered no little from mobs and unjust magistrates. Justin Martyr felt impelled to offer to this emperor his first Apology, "in behalf of those of all nations who are unjustly hated and wantonly abused, myself being one of them." It now seems probable that Polycarp was the victim of a mob, about the year 155,* when some of his flock at Sm}Tna were impaled on spears, and thrown to the w^ild beasts of the circus. He resolved to stay at his post "firm as an anvil." The crowd shouted, ' ' Take away the atheists ! Give us Poly- carp !" His friends urged him into the country. A young man, under stress of torture, betrayed his hiding-place. He was tracked to a farm-house, where he presented himself to his pursuers. He treated them with hospitality, and set out with them on the road to the city. On the way an officer kindly asked him, "What harm will it do thee to say 'Lord Caesar,' and join in the sacrifice to the gods?" Thrice he repelled such an artifice to save his life. Angry at their failure they threw him out of the chariot, wounding him. He limped on to the place of trial. The insane yells of the mob were his welcome. He was again urged to renounce Christ and swear by the genius of Caesar. The face of the old man looked severe as his eyes swept over the multitude intent upon his destruction, and then turned heavenward as he said, ' ' Renounce Christ ! Eighty and six years have I served him, and he has done me no wrong. How then shall I curse my king and my Savior?" Still they entreated and threatened, yet every answer baffled them. The judge was perplexed. But Jews and pagans rent the air by shouting, ' ' This is the teacher of Asia ! This is the father of the Christians! This is the overturner of our gods!" The fagots were ready, and, bound to the stake, the patriarch uttered his last prayer : ■ " Omnipotent Lord God, Father of Jesus Christ, I bless thee that thou hast counted me *So the latest critical researches. Even Renan and Hilgenfeld admit this date, in place of 166-7, which has long been adopted. The date of 155 gives about twelve years more to his contemporary life with the Apostle John. 30 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. wortny, in this hour, to take a place among thy martyrs, and to drink of the cup of thy Christ for the resurrection unto eternal life." Through fire he passed to glory. His death gave peace to the flock. Marcus Aurelius (161-180), the adopted son of Antoninus, has been praised as a still nobler man and emperor, and his "Meditations" as "the noblest and purest book of pagan antiquity." A philosopher was on the throne. He improved the schools of Athens, and her university became the most celebrated in the world. In his stoicism he looked with con- tempt on the faith and zeal of the Christians. He introduced a system of espionage and tortures in order to force them to recant. It seems that he was urged to persecute them in order to appease the heathen gods, who were thought to be angry at the moderation of the emperors, and therefore shook the East with earthquakes ; sent ravaging fires into the cities of the West ; caused the Tiber to flood Rome and carry away houses, destroy granaries, and sweep the cattle from the Campania ; provoked wars throughout the empire, and brought from Asia a pestilence which threatened to lay waste the world. He at first declined, and issued an edict similar to that of his prede- cessor, requiring that the commission of some criminal act, and not merely a belief, must be proved against any one before he could be punished, and denouncing capital punishment against the accuser of a Christian as such. Notwithstanding this edict, persecution prevailed extensively during the greater part of his reign, connived at and encouraged by this most philosophic of the Roman emperors. Lardner assigns three reasons for this : 1. The Christians refused to join in the common worship of the heathen deities, and reflected freely upon the philosophers, 2. They outdid the Stoics in patience under suffering. 3. The emperor was a bigot in religion and philosophy. He said, "Whosoever shall bring in novel religions, or do any thing to disturb the minds of men with fear of the divine power, let him be punished." At length he grew furious. The old religion must be revived and the new faith crushed. For the one he gathered priests from all quarters, as if he were the bishop of paganism, and he provided so many sacrifices that a sarcastic wit hinted that there would soon be a dearth of oxen. Against the other OPPONENTS OF CIIKISTIANITY. 3f he let magistrates and people rage. Informers were well paid by judges, who confiscated to their own use the property of the victims. The persecution was largely the work of the mob, whose example was imitated one hundred years later, when Dionysius of Alexandria wrote thus: "We saw the crowd burst suddenly into our dwelling by a common impulse. Every one entered some house known to him, and began to spoil and destroy. All objects of value were seized; worthless wooden furniture was burned in the street. The scene was that of a town taken by assault." The Christians seem to have made no armed resistance. During this reign there were two persecu- tions, and a bolder literary attack upon Christianity. It was the noon of the first Age of Apologies. The opponents of Christianity were not satisfied with the use of fire and sword. It was not enough to attack the bodies of men whom physical conflict could not repress; their belief must be assailed with the pen. Why fight consequences, and leave the causes unchecked ? Why mow down believers, and yet leave firmly rooted the principles which would shoot up into a thicker harvest? The scythe of persecution did not go deep enough. The plowshare of skepticism and heresy must, if possible, cut up the very roots of Christian doctrine ; this was the pen, driven hard by Celsus and Lucian. The first of these wits was the Thomas Paine of Greek rationalism, the other was the Voltaire of Greek literature. They anticipated most of the criticisms and sarcasms put forth by modern infi- delity. They were easily answered by abler pens and holy lives. Almost any church -roll would show that the Christians were not all "mechanics, cobblers, weavers, slaves, women, and children." If these were true believers, so much the better for their religion. The blots of Lucian's pen fell upon Christian "character, but its keen point exposed many of the absurdities of pagan relig- ion. We seem to be at a modern auction when we read his "Sale of the philosophers," managed by Jupiter and Mercury. ' ' Gentlemen, we now offer you philosophical systems of all kinds, a rare lot. If any of you are short of cash, give your notes and pay next year. Here is this fellow with long hair, the Ionian. We offer you Professor Pythagoras. How much? Who wants to know the harmonies of the universe? 32 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Come, professor, tell them what you know." He is sold cheap. ' ' Whom will you have next ? That slouchy fellow from Pon- tus ? A grand character, gentlemen ; very remarkable, most extraordinary. How much for Diogenes, old cloak and all? What? only three cents? Well, take him. We're glad to get him off our hands, he is so noisy, bawls so, insults every body, and his language is not the finest." The auctioneer draws from the philosophers their principles, and makes them appear ridiculous. Thus he was, unintentionally, an ally of the Christian apologists. He blew up the walls through which the soldiers would enter the citadel of paganism. In a satire he says of the Christians: "These people think they are to have everlasting life ; so they despise death. Their first lawgiver taught them to live as brothers, renounce the gods of the Greeks, worship that crucified sophist, and live by his laws They consider all their property common, and trust each other \\ithout any valid security. An impostor may practice on their credulity." Pure doctrine and Christian conduct were antidotes to ridicule. Pretentious heresies were more serious. They came with solemn weight to sober minds. The fanaticism of the Monta- nists attracted those who loved excitement, or hoped to exercise apostolic gifts in their trances. Their best traits reappear in Irvingism ; their worst in modern clairvoyance. Certain spec- ulative minds ran into Gnosticism, which ought not to be regarded as a corruption of Christianity, but as an adoption of some Christian elements into a system of different origin.^ Oppression, skepticism, and heresy called forth the pleas and defenses of the apologists. Their writings form the most vigorous early literature after the apostles. Many of the authors were converted rhetoricians and philosophers. They mark the timfe when the bolder thinkers in the Church tried pleading in its defense, and then made a brave onset upon •paganism. We see this gradual advance from the gentle appeal to the heroic attack, from the defensive stand to the aggressive march, in the several writers from Ouadiatus to Tertullian.f Between them came Athenagoras and Justin, "the philosopher." At Athens we find Athenagoras laying down the books of Plato, and taking up the Holy Scriptures in order to refute *Note I. tNote III. CHURCH AT ROME. 33 them. He reads, is convinced of their tremendous truth, and avows himself a Christian. He takes his pen, and sends to Aurehus the most elegant and one of the ablest of all the apologies. He says: "Three things are alleged against us — • atheism, the eating of children at our feasts, and all the excesses of lust. If these charges are true spare no class ; proceed at once against our crimes. Destroy us root and branch, with our wives and little ones, if any Christian is found to live like a brute. But if these are only idle rumors and slanders, it remains for you to inquire concerning our lives and opinions, our loyalty and obedience to you, and to grant us equal rights with our persecutors. . . . Among us you will find uneducated persons, artisans, and old women, who may not be able to prove our doctrine by words, but they will prove it by their deeds. They do not make speeches, but they exhibit good works ; when robbed they do not go to law; they give to the needy, and love their neighbors as themselves." Dionysius of Corinth (170) saw the Churches of Greece afflicted by persecutions, poverty, Roman armies, the migrations of people to other lands, banishments, and imported heresies. The Churches there, so well nurtured by Paul, had quite lost their place in history, and Dionysius must represent their bishops. He was a watchful overseer. He wrote letters to the Churches — some of them in Crete and Nicomedia — to keep Christians in unity and caution them against Gnostic errors. They must beware of men who were "apostles of the devil," sowing tares, and "tampering with the Scriptures of the Lord." He defended "the rule of truth," and seems to have applied secular learning to the refutation of heresy. Passing to Rome, w^e find no evidence of an early papacy. The list of twelve names, given as those of bishops for more than a century (67-177), bears marks of manipulation. Since the exposure of the Forged Decretals,* we are deprived of the history and primacy invented for them. The brightest, yet sad, records of the Church at Rome during this period are in the Catacombs, t One epitaph in the time of Aurelius reads thus : ' ' Alexander is not dead, but lives beyond the stars, and his body rests in this tomb. . . . Oh, sad times, in which *Note II to Chap. IX. f Note IV. 3 34 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. sacred rites and prayers, even in caverns, afford not protection to us ! . . . He has scarcely lived who has lived in Chris- tian times." The first Christian historically eminent at Rome, after the apostles, was not a bishop, but a layman — Justin, the philosopher, apologist, and martyr. Justin was a native of Neapolis, near the old S}xhar, in Samaria. His father, probably a Roman, left him some prop- erty. His Greek culture prepared him for Christianity. He was the man of his age, familiar with its troubles, its restless- ness, its griefs, its feeling of emptiness since the gods had been dethroned ; and yet he was free from its corruptions and vain ambitions. He had not gone down in the whirl of social vices. Thirsting for truth, he sought the fountain in various schools of philosophy. But the Stoic knew nothing of value. The Peripatetic cared mainly for a large fee. The Pythagorean was a pompous charlatan, who talked only of angles, music, and the stars. Justin knew little about the stars, and probably cared less. His want was God and the waters of life. A Platonist charmed him by telling him to think and think, and do nothing else, until his mind should soar to the Deity. Be saved by thinking ! Near some sea-shore he dwelt, and thought, and waited for the vision of divinest truth. One day he paced along the shore, musing and listening to the waves, and soon found him- self staring at a fine-looking old man, who asked him, "Do you know me, that you gaze upon me so earnestly?" Justin explained ; he was on the search for truth. He was told some- thing to think about; and this obscure father led him to the Divine Word, and gave him to the Church at the age of thirty. He was struck with the majesty of the Holy Scriptures, the heroism of the martyrs, and the nobleness of Christian lives. He devoted his energies to teaching and defending "the only true, safe, and useful philosophy." He did not preach. This Christian Socrates wandered through cities, talking with men, intent upon winning learned pagans to Christ. At Rome he took his place near certain baths, and in his philosopher's robes, which he never doffed, he acted the part of a Christian converser. He wrote busily to convince Jews, heathen, and heretics. He labored to make the earnest thought of all ages .and all races point to the Incarnate Word and center in Christ, f CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 35 the source of e\-ery good idea, the Hght of history, the life of the world. "The eternal Logos, coming forth from God, was the seed-light to the ages that preceded the full revelation of the Gospel." He represents the less hurtful tendencies to speculative thought, but his varied writings contain more good theology than most historians ascribe to them. In his first Apology, addressed to Antoninus, he refutes the charge of atheism, and says: "Some gownsmen teach it. You heap honors and prizes upon those who poetically insult the gods; but you punish us. We confess that we are atheists with reference to demons and imaginary deities, but not with respect to the most true and holy God. . . . We do not ask that you punish our accusers; their ignorance and wickedness is punishment enough. . . . Punish those who are Christians only in name. You may kill, but you can not hurt us." Those who wish to look in upon the worship of the early Christians will be interested in this passage : ' ' On the day called Sunday (the day of the sun) all who live in cities, or in the country, gather in one place, and the memoirs of the apos- tles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits, then the president verbally instructs and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray [singing is elsewhere mentioned] ; then bread and wine and water are brought, and the president offers prayers and thanksgivings according to his ability, and the people say, Amen. There is a distribution to each [in the Lord's Supper], and a partaking of that over which thanks have been given, and a portion is sent by the deacons to those who are absent. The wealthy among us help the needy ; each gives what he thinks fit ; and what is collected is laid aside by the president, who relieves the orphans and the widows, and those who are sick or in want from any cause, those who are in bonds and strangers sojourning among us ; in a word, he takes care of all who are in need. We meet on Sunday because it is the first day, when God created the world, and Jesus Christ rose from the dead." Justin was moved to address his second Apology to Marcus \urelius by a peculiar case of injustice. A woman had repented of her wild sins, tried in vain to reform her husband, 5(5 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. and obtained a divorce. He then accused her of being a Chris- tian. The emperor protected her until some criminal act should be proved. The vicious man then accused her Christian teachers and defenders, three of whom were put to death. " I, too, expect to be plotted against," writes Justin, "and fixed to a stake by some of these philosophers, who charge us with crimes in order to curry favor with the deluded mob. I con- fess that I do strive to be a Christian." He was thrown into prison. Soon the two philosophies, pagan and Christian, were brought face to face, when Rusticus, the stoic and minister of Aurelius, jocosely asked Justin, " Do you imagine that after your head is cut off you will go straight to heaven?" "Imag- ine? I know it," was the reply. "Our great desire is to suffer for Christ, at whose bar the whole world must appear." He was sentenced to death along with several friends, probably in 167, the time of the first persecution under Marcus Aurelius; the second is associated with Irenaeus. At Lyons, in Gaul, we meet Irenaeus (140-200), who had listened to Polycarp, left his native East, and sought a home in the far West. He became an elder, then a presbyter, or bishop, in the Church which had been planted there at an early day. He talked in Celtic with the Gauls, an inquisitive people, stop- ping travelers to gather the news, great boasters and rough fighters, whose fathers had yielded to Rome when they could not help it, and then set to work to make their chief town a rival of the imperial city. Italians had come there to build mansions, temples, theaters, and tombs. Greeks from Asia Minor settled there to drive a busy trade, and the best of them, probably, organized the Church,* which became a new center of missionary labors. Thence the Gospel seems to have been carried to the tribes of the Alps and the Rhine, Northern Gaul, and Britain. In those searching times the East sent into the West not only heralds of truth, but teachers of error, cunningly baiting their hooks with sound words and catching the simple-minded Gauls. Irenaeus exposed them. They may have turned in- ■•■■" Among the martyrs at Lyons Irenreus names "Attala, of Pergamos, who was always a pillar of our Church, and in great repute among us; Alexander, of Phrygia, a physician, full of apostolic gifts, and well known to the Gauls for his charity and zeal." BLANDINA— BISHOP rOTIIINUS. 37 formers, and caused some Christians to be thrown into prison. The prisoners sent him to Rome to plead for them, and to assure the bishop, Eleutherius, that they were not ensnared in Montanism. The fury of the populace at Lyons, in 177, showed itself in yells, insults, blows, missiles, and arrests of the Christians. Servants were tortured to betray their masters. It was useless for one to say, "I am a Roman citizen," for Aurelius or- dered, "Put them to death whether they are Roman citizens or not; but dismiss all who renounce their faith." One of them wrote, "We were declared guilty of crimes which we dare not even name, for we can scarcely believe that they were ever committed among men. These charges inflamed the heathen against us." As the slaughter went on Vettius, a se- cret disciple, could no longer endure to be silent ; his bold plea before the governor was answered by his martyrdom. Blan- dina, the slave girl, was tortured from morning till night, scourged, gashed, seared, hung on a cross in the theater, kept in jail for another day, then put into a hot wire cage, and thrown to the wild beasts. Her young brother was nerved by her courage. In the circus, before a noisy crowd, she seemed heedless of a growling lion, and calm when tossed high by a mad bull. Until the sword took her life, she unconsciously flung to her enemies a challenge, which "was enough to teach heathen society that the humblest believer is a power not to be ignored."''" The bishop, Pothinus, ninety years old, died of wounds in a prison. Irenaeus returned to be chosen his successor, before the persecution had quite ceased at Vienne and the neighbor- ing towns. His activity won him the title of "the light of the western Gauls." His genial piety, his wise zeal, his efforts for the general unity of the Church, his official dignity, his fearless- ■•■■•This persecution in 177 forbids us to credit the legend that Aurelius ceased from violence towards the Church in 174 on account of the prayer of the Thun- dering Legion. The story, doubtless interpolated in the first Apology of Justin, may have in it a basis of fact. It is that v/hen he was in Hungary, surrounded by barbarians, and his army were dying of thirst, a band of Christians may have prayed for rain, and the shower fallen so plentifully that the soldiers drank water from their shields. The pagans attributed the relief and the wonderful victory to the emperor and the heathen gods. An ecclesiastical legend may have exaggerated a providential mercy into a miracle. 38 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. ness, and his skill in battling heresy, have secured to him the honor of having been "the greatest bishop of the second century, and the representative of the catholicity of the age." He was one of the first to exalt the office of bishop above that of presbyter. His maxim, ''7ibi ecclesia, ibi spmtus," would be more true if reversed so as to read, ' ' Where the Spirit is, there is the Church." In his large work "Against Heresies" he exposed the whole system of Gnosticism, and refuted nearly all the theological errors of his time. Detesting heresies, he pitied those who held them, saying, "We love them better than they love themselves. We never cease to hold out to them a friendly hand." He probably died a natural death. The Emperor Commodus (180-192) had no taste for his father's philosophic "Meditations." To stand in the Coliseum as a gladiator, slay a thousand lions and hundreds of prize- fighters, was the delight of this debauchee, who left no trace of a single virtue. He cared for no sort of religion. The Church often fared best under the worst emperors. One pro- consul, who was driving things hard in Asia, found the Chris- tians so willing to suffer for their faith, that, after seizing a few of them, he said to the rest, "Wretches, if you are eager to die, you have rocks and ropes at hand." Irenseus says there were many Christians at the Court in full liberty. The mis- tress, Marcia, seems to have gained the recall of many exiles from the mines of Sicily. The consequence of this repose was that the new religion traveled into distant countries, which had scarcely yet submitted to the Roman arms. It was also em- braced by persons of rank, as is shown in the case of Apollo- nius, the only distinguished martyr in this reign. He was a Roman senator, who, upon being accused of professing Chris- tianity by his own servant, made a learned and eloquent apology for the Christian religion before the Senate. He was ordered to be executed, and a similar fate was awarded to his accuser under the law of Antoninus Pius. A fine statue of a bishop, sitting in his chair, Avas unearthed near Rome, in 155 1, and in 1842 a rich manuscript was found in the old Greek convent at Mount Athos. If the stone could speak it might tell us a wonderful history of battles with the great heretics and the small Roman bishops, who appear de- molished in the pages of the long-lost book. The voice of HIPPOLYTUS. 39 Hippolytus might assure us that he was a native of Itah', a student of Irenaeus, a traveler in the East in pursuit of knowl- edge, an elder at Rome, a pastor at Portus near the Tiber's mouth, and the writer of the long-desired "Refutation of All Heresies," heathen, Jewish, and Christian, from Thales down to IMarcion. Two facts appear certain : that he did not regard the Roman bishops as popes, nor did any body else ; and that there had been a dearth of great men in the Church at Rome. In- fallibility was not their prelatic grace. Her pastors were as likely to become Montanists as was Tertullian. One of them would give his name to the Callistians whom we shall find charged with being Patripassians. Not one of these bishops was the equal of Hippolytus, ' ' the first celebrated preacher of the West," and so intent upon good discipline and true doc- trine that he severely censured the lax morals and heretical tendencies of bishops Zephyrinus and Callistus. If he was under their ban, they were under his scourging pen. If he died in banishment by the malaria of Sardinia, or near Rome was torn in pieces by wild horses, about the year 235, he must have lived to an old age. Dr. Schaff says, "The Roman Church placed him in the number of her saints and martyrs, little suspecting that he would come forward in the nineteenth century as an accuser against her." Hippolytus was the friend of Origen, and like him was too much given to the allegorical method of interpreting Holy Scripture. These two men, deeply engaged in similar studies and contests with error, must have felt that each breathed a different air. At Rome there was strife; at Alexandria, specu- lation. In one the bishop usurped too high an authority ; in the other the scholar bowed too low to philosophy. In the West there was coming more schism than heresy ; in the East, more heresy than pure missionary zeal. Certain Greeks were going beyond Scripture in doctrine ; the Italians, rising higher than the apostles in ecclesiastical power. NOTES. I. Gnosticism, a philosophy of religion and of the universe, claimed to supplement or supersede Christianity by a higher knowledge [gnosis'). In It were blended four systems : Dualistic Parseeism, mangled Platonism, 40 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Judaism misunderstood, and Christianity grossly perverted. The prevalence of any one of these elements gave character to some form of the phi- losophy. The three leading questions pertained to the relation of God to the world, the origin of evil, and the person of Christ. Upon these bases various theories were proposed, and common to nearly all of them were the following principles : ( i ) Dualism, God and inorganic matter being eternal, unconnected, and antagonistic. (2) Matter is the seat of all sin and evil. (3) Between God and primal matter ( hyle) there is a series of seons, or emanations ; the first proceeding from God, who dwells far remote from all material objects. From the first son others proceed, until the demiurge, world-creator, appears. He uses matter and creates the world. He is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. Most of the Gnostics regarded him as holding man in bondage to sin and matter by means of the Jewish system, which he invented. (4) To deliver man from sin, or from the demiurge, the aeon Christ [Logos) came into the world. (5) Christ either assumed an apparent body (Docetism), or entered into the man Jesus at baptism, acted sinlessly through Jesus, and left this human body just before the crucifixion (Ebionism). The Jews,. incited by Jehovah, slew Jesus, but they could not touch the Christ. (6) Christ and another teon, the Spirit [pneiima], rescue all spiritual souls from matter and sin, unite them to God, and save them by means of knowledge, self-denial, mortification of the body, self-atone- ment, or a purgatorial transmigration of souls. (7) As man has three natures, the material, psychical, and spiritual, so all men are divided into the same three classes ; but only the spiritual can enter heaven ; the psychical, by good works, may attain an intermediate state. The leading Gnostic schools : («) Alexandrian or Jewish, • represented by BasiHdes (130), Valentine who went to Rome, and Carpocrates who drifted into heathen licentiousness ; [b) The Syrian or anti- Jewish, repre- sented by Saturninus, of Antioch (125), Tatian, author of a Gospel har- mony (170), Bardesanes, of Edessa, a poet (170), and Marcion, who recog- nized the authority of Paul as opposed to Judaism. The Gnostics formed no sects, and their speculations died of exhaustion. II. Ma7iichcsism, a Persian form of Gnosticism, took its name from Alani, who seems to have been one of the Magi, half-converted to Chris- tianity. He was excommunicated by the Church, and finally flayed alive by a Persian king (277). His view was that Christ came to deliver the light from the darkness, good from evil, the human soul from sinful matter, man from Satan. The apostles misunderstood and falsified his doctrine. Mani was the promised Ptiraclete (not the Holy Ghost) appointed to restore the truth and the Church ; hence, he was the head of the new Church. He devised an organization. Under him were his twelve apostles, seventy -two bishops, presbyters, deacons, and other officers. The elect were to practice rigid self-denial, abstinence, celibacy, and a secret worship. But they be- came corrupt and immoral. All these heretical teachers deceived their followers by employing Scrip- ture terms so artfully as to appear sound. They talked of Christ, redemp- tion, atonement, faith, holiness, and heaven, and insinuated their errors. NOTES TO CHAPTER II. 41 Bardesanes wrote hymns, which crept into some of the Syrian Churches, and his son adapted popular melodies to them. Gnosticism in all its forms was exposed and refuted by Irenceus, Tertullian, Clement, and Augustine. III. Apologists, or writers of Christian defenses and evidences. Those of the second century were Quadratus (125), Aristides (125), Justin Martyr (148), Melito (166), Athenagoras (167), Miltiadcs, ApoUinaris, Theophilus of Antioch, and Tatian. Then follow Clement, Tertullian, Arnobius, Minu- cius Felix, Origen, Lactantius, and Augustine. IV. The Catacombs, underneath part of Rome and vicinity, were low^ thought to be the old sand-pits or quarries, from which building materials were taken. But it is now held that they were the work of the Christians alone, and were first used for the burial of their dead, and then for refuo-e in times of persecution. The remains of dwellings and places of worship are found. The epitaphs are said to number seventy thousand; most of them illustrate a simple and pure Christianity, and testify against the later perversion of it. The catacombs at Naples have larger halls and finer galleries. Christian catacombs have been found in various cities, one at Syracuse and another at Alexandria. 42 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Chapter III. FROM CARTHAGE TO C^SAREA. "Carthage must be destroyed," said the Romans, and the greatest city of Africa fell to the dust. "Carthage must be won to Christ," thought some unknown missionary, and she rose again to a nobler power and fame. Her ancient com- merce was a type of her vigorous Christianity. It enlisted men of all ranks. It extended to the towns and hamlets of that region, giving light and life to the old Punic slaves. One might almost think that Hannibal had reappeared in Tertullian, and at a holier altar sworn to break imperial tyranny, and carry the war into the very camps of paganism, if not resist the usurping bishops of Rome. He brings Carthage into Christian history, and stands as the first great orator of the Church, the boldest of the apologists, and the first of the Latin Fathers. Tertullian, born about i6o, was the son of a Roman cap tain serving at Carthage, He seems to have studied law and become a pleader. The stirring days of the forum were over ; the bar sank into a police court. There was no liberty nor patriotism to evoke his eloquence. There were no Latin poets, essayists, and historians worth rivaling. He knew Greek, but in it his thoughts could not run rough, hot, fearless, and ter- rible. Lava never pours through golden pipes. His craving soul wanted stimulus. A reckless heathen, he acknowledged no moral restraint, nor any laws but those of rhetoric. He plunged into the worst excesses, for while sinning he sinned with all his might. He learned too well those social vices against which he would one day lift the trumpet and rout his old companions out of the dens of infamy, the circus, and the theater. Conscience whispered at times, and then came the Word of God. We know little of his spiritual history. At the age of thirty or forty he breaks upon our sight as a bold TERTULLIAN'S ArOLOGY. 43 Elijah. He carried very much of his ardor, impatience, inten- sity of love and hatred, harshness, and sarcasm into his relig- ious life. He presents, in his nature, the strong contrasts quite common to great men. Too impulsive to grasp the whole truth, or reason calmly in broad lines, he stands forth as the special pleader of the cause in hand, so carrying us by storm that we almost overlook his flourishes of rhetoric. When wrong he is to be pitied, when right he is tremendous. He was a rare genius, original and fresh, without his like in the ancient Church, the Luther of his time, with the ruder traits, but without the childlikeness, fatherly nature, homely love, and winning piety of the German hero. The one hurled scorn and defiance against cruel emperors, trod their edicts under foot, and wrote down heretics. The other shot thunder-bolts into the Vatican, threw papal bulls into the fire, and wrote down the monks. Tertullian gave to the Church the service of a fiery elo- quence. His writings glow with a heat that will never cool. He throws himself into his pages. The man is there, his pen still quivering with feeling. He was a bishop, with a wife at a time when clerical celibacy was growing in fashion ; but he grew rather strenuous for the innovation, and violent against second marriages. His numerous writings won such favor that his successor, Cyprian, often called for them, saying, "Give me the master." They throw a strong light upon the state of the Church in his day. We read them, making due allow- ance for some extravagance of description. "Rulers of the Roman Empire,"* he thus begins his apology, ' ' you surely can not forbid the Truth to reach you by the secret pathway of a noiseless book. She knows that she is but a sojourner on the earth, and as a stranger finds enemies ; and more, her origin, her dwelling-place, her hope, her rewards, her honors, are above. One thing, meanwhile, she anxiously desires of earthly rulers — not to be condemned unknown. What harm can it do to give her a hearing? . . . The outcry is that the state is filled with Christians : that they are in the fields, in the citadels, in the islands. The lament is. "* Septimius Severus was emperor, 193-211. Tertullian was writing about 202, when Severus forbade any one to adopt Judaism or Christianity. 44 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. as for some calamity, that both sexes, every age and condition, even high rank, are passing over to the Christian faith." The outcry is a confession and an argument for our cause ; for • ' We are a people of yesterday, and yet we have filled every place belonging to you — cities, islands, castles, towns, assem- blies, your very camp, your tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum. We leave to you your temples alone. We can count your armies : our numbers in a single province will be greater. We have it in our power, without arms and without rebellion, to fight against you with the weapon of a simple divorce. We can leave you to wage your wars alone. If such a multitude should withdraw into some remote corner of the world you would doubtless tremble at your own solitude, and ask, ' Of whom are we the governors?' " It is a human right that every man should worship accord- ing to his own convictions; one man's religion neither harms nor helps another man. A forced religion is no religion at all. . . . Men say that the Christians are the cause of every public disaster. If the Tiber rises as high as the city walls, if the Nile does not rise over the fields, if the heavens give no rain, if there be an earthquake, if a famine or pesti- lence, straightway they cry. Away with the Christians to the lion, . . . But go zealously on, ye good governors, you will stand higher with the people if you kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to dust ; your injustice is the proof that we are innocent. God permits us to suffer. Your cruelty avails you nothing ; it is rather a temptation to us. The oftener you mow us down the more in number we grow ; the blood of Christians is seed. What you call our obsti- nacy is an instructor. For who that sees it does not inquire for what we suffer? Who that inquires does not embrace our doctrines? Who that embraces them is not ready to give his blood for the fullness of God's grace?" Temptations have borne down men whom threats could not scare. Such a man as Tertullian could face death like a hero.'^" * The martyrs at Carthage, in his time, left as bright a record as those at Lyons. There was a sublime fortitude manifested by several young catechu- mens (202-205), especially Perpetua, cherishing her infant, pitying her Christian mother, and resisting the entreaties of her aged pagan father, who took away her child; and Felicitas, who became a mother in a dungeon. After being mangled by wild beasts in the circus, they clasped each other, gave the Chi is- MONTANISM. 45 and vet be led into fanaticism. In Phrygia, the home of a sen- suous, mystical religion, Cybele was worshiped as the goddess of nature, the "great mother." On hills were her temples, in towns her oracles. Her priests were given to magic, trances, ecstasies, and perhaps clairvoyance. In their wild worship they beat cymbals, howled, and gashed themselves with knives. True Christianity may have seemed too tame for the people of such a country. The Church there was troubled with enthu- siasts of every grade. From them, it seems, came Montanus (170), who thought that there was little life in the Church, His pride, or zeal, carried him away. He began to be in trances, raptures, ecstasies, in which he uttered what were taken to be prophecies. He claimed inspiration. Among those whom he drew to him were two women of rank, Priscilla and Maximilla, whose "spiritual gifts" were his powerful aids. Here were the three pillars of the sect. After them were to be "no more inspired prophets." Tertullian mentions a woman who, in her trances, was consulted for revelations as to the unseen world, and for medical prescriptions. Montanus asserted that he was nothing but a medium, having no will or word of his own. In the name of the Paraclete he said : ' ' Behold, the man is as a lyre, and I sweep over him as the plectrum. The man sleeps; I wake." The utterances of these fanatics related to supposed reforms in the Church, to more rigid discipjine, to fasting and ascetic practices, to the speedy coming of the Lord, and to the awful judgments about to fall from heaven ; of course, also to their own ability to lead back the Church to primitive purity. They assumed to be "the spiritual," and all who did not follow them were carnal, and fearfully dead. Their sect spread rapidly through Asia Minor, and into North Africa. It was the more welcome and dangerous for these reasons: i. It professed to agree with the truly catholic Church in all her doctrines; and }'et it regarded Christianity as incomplete, and in need of fur- ther revelations. 2. It pretended to carry with it a revival of the apostolic gifts,''' agencies, discipline, and life — a restoration tian kiss, parted, but not forever, and received the merciful blow that ended their horrible tortures. Their husbands seem to have been heartless pagans, and may have been praised by the Emperor Severus. * On the continuance of miracles, see Note I. 4.6 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. of the apostolic Church 3. It reacted against Gnosticism, and passed to the opposite extreme. When some men devote themselves to strong thinking, others grow zealous for much working. Even sound theology is rated below the practical spirit. It flattered those who imagined they were seeking a spotless Church, in which tJiey might develop their gifts. It drew those who craved excitement. Tertullian must have looked upon the fairest side of Mon- tanism. But he embraced it in its full rigor before its founder had been ejected from the Church. '^^ Never abandoning his general orthodoxy, and still defending Christianity, he forsook its communion, t Whether he was ever restored is doubtful. He grew ascetic and censorious. He regarded flight from per- secution as worse than a denial of Christ under torture. To court persecution was esteemed a virtue. Those who lapsed were unpardonable. The Church could not remit sins com- mitted after baptism, and hence he opposed infant baptism. After him a sect was named the " Tertullianists." Other Mon- tanists regarded Pepuzi, in Phrygia, as their New Jerusalem, the seat of their millennial kingdom. We can hardly think that Tertullian adopted all their absurdities. He did not assert him- self as a prophet. He appears to have died in his eightieth year. If any pagan lawyers and rhetoricians of Carthage made the name of Tertullian a jest, we may imagine Cyprian laughing among them, so long as he» loved his vices as a part of himself. The aged presbyter, Cecilius, led him to the truth in the year 246, and, when dying, committed his wife and children to the new convert. Cyprian, about forty-six years of age, j sold his ■■■ Compare Zinzendorf and Edward Irving, whose course was not more strange. Bunsen supposes that animal magnetism was at the bottom of Mon- tanism. It has been compared with some forms of modern "spiritism." t Jerome ascribes his defection to the harsh and insulting conduct of the Roman bishops. This is quite as probable as that he was nettled by the failure to be elected bishop of either Rome or Carthage, and seceded in disgust. He certainly protested against the lax doctrine and discipline of the Roman bishops, whom Hippolytus censured. J He had seen no imperial persecutions by Caracalla {211-17), Elagabalns {218-22), and Alexander Severus (222-35). But this rest of twenty-five yeais was broken by the savage Maximin (235-38). Again the Church had rest under Gordian (238-44) and Philip the Arabian (244-49), ^^"til Decius. (249-51) r.aged violently against it. These emperors will be noticed more fully in connection with Origen, who had closer contact with most of them. THREE QUESTIONS -TWO SCHISMS. 47 villa and gardens (afterwards restored to him by friends), gave the price to the relief of the poor, was ordained a presbyter, and within three years was elected Bishop of Carthage in the very face of his own protests. In that office he spent the remaining ten years of his life. While he developed the tendencies to prelacy, he was the model of a pastor. The Church of Africa suffered greatly in the general persecution by Decius (249-51). For a time Cyprian prudently retreated from the storm ; but by his pen he was in active service to his flock. For this he was charged with cowardice by men who thought flight a sin and a fall unpardonable. But on his return, when a fearful pestilence raged in the city, no man was more courageous. The heathen left their sick to die and the dead unburied, saying, "The Christians are the cause of the plague." The bishop assembled his flock ; they collected funds, provided all sorts of relief, and proved their faith by their splendid charity. Three questions greatly disturbed the Churches of North Africa and Rome : I. Should the lapsed,'^ of any class, be restored to the Church, upon their repentance ? It is curious to find this ques- tion giving life to two schisms, one holding the reverse of the other in regard to the lapsed. They agreed in opposing what they considered to be high assumptions of prelacy. At Car- thage Cyprian first opposed the restoration of the lapsed ; but he so modified his views as to admit them if they proved to be truly penitent. He was vigorously opposed by Novatus and Felicissimus, who had already refused to acknowledge him as their bishop, and had set up an independent Church and bishop of their own. To them flocked the lapsed in great numbers, and no sort of penance was required of them. They were the liberalists in discipline. But at Rome the bishop, Cornelius, was stoutly opposed for his leniency towards the lapsed. No- vatian, a learned, earnest, gloomy man, had protested against his election ; and now he was joined by Novatus, who had left ■•■■Those who secured safety either by actually sacrificing, or by offering incense to the heathen gods, or by certificates (libellos) purchased with money (which was done by bribing the magistrates to certify that they had offered sacrifice, though they had not done so), were distinguished by the opprobrious names of "Sacrificers" (Sacrtjicatores), "Incensers" {Thtirificatores), and "Cer- tificated" [Libcllatici). Those who were thus chargeable with defection were called lapsed or fallen Christians. 4S HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. his former principles at Carthage, and adopted the reverse at Rome. They led off a party, and Novatian was unwillingly made their bishop. They were extremely severe towards the lapsed, and unchurched all Churches which admitted them or any other such gross offenders. Many "confessors," so called because they had been on the very brink of martyrdom, joined in this schism. These Novatians, rightly protesting against certain errors, claimed to be the Cathari, or Puritans of the time. They took up the older African notion that those who committed gross sins after baptism should be forever excluded from the Church. This was enough to cause infant baptism to be neglected. They rebaptized all who united with them. They were the forerunners of the Donatists. Cyprian took the side of Cornelius in this hot controversy, which continued long after they were both martyrs for the truth of Christ. 2. Should baptism by heretics and schismatics be held valid? Cyprian thought not; Stephen, the new Bishop of Rome, contended for its validity. Thus Cyprfan had against him the schismatics at home, the Novatians, and the Catholics at Rome. The validity of baptism did not depend on the mode, for immersion, pouring, and sprinkling were recognized ; nor upon age, for the most orthodox baptized infants. The question put to Cyprian in regard to infant baptism was simply this, Whether it should be administered before the child was eight days old? He thought there need be no such delay, and the Council of Carthage (255) fully agreed with him.* 3. Was the Bishop of Rome the sovereign over all other bishops? Was he what was afterwards called a pope? Ste- phen assumed high power. He ordered a synod in Spain to restore to their Churches two bishops whom it had deposed. Cyprian regarded this as high-handed arrogance. No one was rightly "the bishop of bishops." This bears strongly against the later papacy. But Cyprian claimed to be more than a simple presbyter. He was a prelate, and he regarded all pre- latic bishops as equally the successors of the apostles. He thought that the Roman bishop was the center of unity in the Church, but all others had equal power with him. He was not a sovereign. The highest power of the Church resided in the *Chap. IV, Note III. ALEXANDRIA. A'J Gouncils of her bishops. Down to the time when the Vandals ahnost ruined the Church of North Africa, she resisted the growing pretensions of Rome. The severe edicts of Valerian (254-260) did not spare Cyp- rian. He was banished for a time, and finally confined to the narrow limits of his house and garden. There he was seized, in the }-ear 258. and led before an officer. The sentence upon him was, "That Thrascius Cyprian, having long been a ring- leader in impiety against the gods of Rome, and having resisted the efforts of emperors to reclaim him, shall be beheaded for his offenses, and as a warning to his followers." Some of his flock said, aloud, "Let us go and die with him." He knelt in prayer at the block, bound his eyes with his own hands, the sword fell, and there rolled into the dust the head of a prince in the Church, a father to those in poverty, widowhood, and orphanage, one of the most practical writers and the greatest bishop of the third century. Four years before his burial a gentler hand had taken home Origen, the greatest scholar of the third century. A full account of Origen would involve the history of four great subjects: i. The culture of Alexandria. 2. The devel- opment of a new eclectic philosophy, Neo-Platonism, founded largely upon the teachings of Plato and Philo Juda^us. It appears in three schools — the pagan, whose teachers were Am- monius Saccas, Plotinus, and Porphyry ; the Gnostic, in which were Basilides and his followers ; the Christian, elevated by Pantaenus, Clement, and Origen. 3. The mutual influences of this philosophy and Christianity upon each other, with the result- ant errors and heresies. 4. The doctrine of the Logos in these schools, and in the current and later theology.* Alexandria had become the center of a vast commerce and a high culture. In no other harbor could so many ships lie anchored, and this was a type of her social and intellectual haven, for there were represented nearly all nations, languages, literatures, philosophies, and religions. Students consulted the largest library in the world. Greek, Jew, Parsee, Brahmin, and Christian heard their beliefs discussed in the academy of scholars. Learned lecturers sought to fuse the best principles of all creeds, and form a new philosophy. The elements of an »Note II. 50 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. eclectic religion were afloat in the air. The Christian Church was not thrust into a corner to be the contempt of eight hun- dred thousand people. Her mental culture won respect. The pagan wing of this new philosophy had its active school and eminent teachers. All religions were regarded by them as having something divine, while no one was supposed to possess a full and sufficient revelation. Hence, ideas were borrowed from one to fill up the deficiencies of the other. Plato was preferred to all other philosophers. They looked upon his opinions concerning God, the human soul, and things invisible, as conformable to the spirit and genius of Christianity. Ammonius Saccas (sack-bearer in youth), who had been a member of the Church, and may have made pretensions to Christianity all his life, was one of the principal patrons, if not the founder, of this system. This scheme was taken up by Plotinus, a wonderful student, a traveler in search of the pri- meval religion, and a theorist who imitated Plato's method without Plato's mind. In his view Christ was one of the great sages who left behind him one of the great moral systems. He aimed to find or to found a universal religion,-^' but in it Christianity was accommodated to paganism. Thus an exam- ple was given of the honesty of those eclectics who borrowed from Christ almost every thing but the essentials of the Gospel. They used Christian words, but clung to pagan doctrines. They may not have suspected the miserable result. Reverent Saccas may not have dreamed of a scoffing Porphyry as the child of his philosophy. Probably Athenagoras, the elegant apologist, had raised the catechetical school to a high rank. It was first intended for the instruction of children and converts in the simple truths of the Bible. It grew into an academy of science and theology. Pantaenus renounced his stoic philosophy and made this the most eminent school in the whole Church. He left it, for a time, to bear the Gospel into Arabia or India. Its next presi- dent, in 189, was Clement, a convert from heathenism, who had traveled widely in search of truth, and now sought to con- struct a universal philosophy, with Christianity as its founda- tion. Pantaenus had taught him that the nobler systems ,of pagan thought need not be treated as idols and broken in •Compare Theodore Parker and Chunder Sen. CLEMENT— ORIGEN. 51 shivers, but the truths in them should be brought into the service of Christ. In his view philosophy was a schoolmaster leading serious pagans unconsciously to the Redeemer. Plato prepared the world for Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles ; yet Jesus Christ must be supreme. "I am well assured," he wrote, "that the momentous thing is to live by the Word {Logos) and enter into his Spirit." He too often interpreted the Bible allegorically.'^ With all his errors he positively set aside no essential doctrine of Christianity. He represented the Christian side, and Plotinus the pagan side of the same phi- losophy. But he saw no virtue in the common life of the heathen. In his "Exhortation to the Greeks" are some of the most withering exposures of the pagan vices, luxury, licentiousness, and imposture. He sets forth Christ, the Son of God, as the only redeemer from sin and woe. The "In- structor" was written to teach converts the true faith, morals, and manners of a Christian. The "Stromata," or Tapestries, are like the varied articles of a literary magazine written to promote culture, truth, and piety. His aim was to live and labor for the highest good of his age. In this atmosphere Origen was born, in 185, of Christian parents. Leonides thanked God for such a brilliant son, stored his memory with holy Scripture, tried to answer his deep ques- tions, chided his prying curiosity, and often went to his sleep- ing boy and kissed his breast as a temple of the Holy Ghost. Origen was placed in the school of Clement, with bright pros- pects until the days of trial came. Startling events occurred. The good governor Philip, his wife, and daughter forsook the pagan temples and trusted in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The emperor Septimius Severus (193-21 1) heard of these conversions, and wrote to Philip, "Is this the return you make for my kindness? I gave you almost the highest post which I could bestow. I honored you rather as a king than a prefect, and while you retained the faith of your forefathers you were worthy of this dignity. Abandon at once this superstition or be deprived of your office." Philip * " With expositors of this school, every passage in Scripture contained three meanings — one, literal or historical ; another, conveying a moral lesson; and a third, mystical or spiritual; answering respectively to the body, soul, and spirit in man." D- HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. bestowed his property upon the poor rather than have it con- fiscated, and then rephed that he expected to Hve and die in the Christian faith. A more confirmed heathen was sent to take his office, with orders to destroy PhiHp. Hired ruffians slew him in his own house. Meanwhile Severus, no longer grateful to the Christian physician who had cured his dangerous malady, published an edict more intolerant than any that had preceded it. He may have been alarmed by the excesses of the Montanists, or sought revenge upon Jews and Christians for refusing to serve in his armies. He forbade every subject of the empire to embrace Judaism or Christianity on pain of death and confiscation of property. A seven years' w^ar upon the Church was begun in various quarters. It was most severe at Alexandria, which he visited, and at Carthage. Leonides was thrown into prison. Origen wrote to him, " My father, flinch not because of us." This appeal from a wife and seven children went to his soul. The lad of seventeen, who sent it, would have gone to die with his father had not his mother forbidden, wept, entreated, and finally hid his clothes. Leonides was beheaded, his property confiscated, and his family thrown into poverty. The heroic struggles of young Origen were in resisting a worse wolf than hunger, for his benefactors tried to lure him into heresy. But he saw Gnosticism concealed under pious phrase, and hated it. He manfully left a rich protectress, and earned his bread by teaching grammar. He spent some leisure hours in the school of Saccas. He heard lectures from the returned Pantaenus. He bade farewell to Clement, who retired from the persecution into Cappadocia, and there ended his days. At the age of eighteen Origen began to teach the pupils whom Clement had left. He was soon chosen to be the prin- cipal of the first Christian school in the world. He had no lack of students. He sold his grammars and books of phi- losophy, and applied himself to the study of theology. He sought it in the Bible. He endured hatred. The governors v/ent on in their work of torture and death. Some of his pupils w^ere arrested. He visited them in prison, or consoled them at the block, at the risk of life. When wrathful pagans hurled stones at him he did not flinch. Scarcely a house was a safe refuge for him, until many pagans began to respect his PORPHYRY. 53 courage and his learning. He did not seek martyrdom. One day he was seized and dragged to the temple of Serapis. Palms were put in his hands and he was ordered to lay them on the altar of the god. Waving them, he shouted, "Here are the triumphal boughs, not of the idol, but of Christ." He won the name of Adamantius, the hero of iron and brass, whose labors were stupendous. He was too severe upon himself, too literal in crucifying the body. He made life intense, ate sparingly, took no anxious thought of the morrow, had but one coat, went barefoot, caught short sleep on a rough board, taught by day, and gave most of the night to prayer and study, especially the deep search into Holy Scripture. He says, "When I had given myself entirely to the Word of God, and when the reputation of my learning had gone abroad, a great many heretics, men versed in Greek science, came to listen to me. I thought it my duty to master the dogmas of heresy, as well as all truth that philosophers have laid claim to tell." His learning became prodigious. He was an author and teacher, rather than a preacher. He could dictate to seven amanuenses at once. Jerome said, "He wrote more than another man could read." The influence of Pantaenus, if not of Saccas and Plotinus, is seen in his writings. Once, when in Rome, he entered a hall, and the lecturer, Plotinus himself, rose from his chair, saying, "I can not proceed before one who knows more than I can tell him." Origen must have been pained to see his pupil, the clever Porphyry, feed on the husks of paganism. This philosopher edited Plotinus, imitated Celsus, lost himself in the mists of gloom, and thought of suicide as the shortest way to a happier life, and in Sicily he breathed out his hatred to Christianity in a book. He was the boldest, unfairest enemy the Church had yet seen in the form of a man. His chief aim was to make the Bible incredible. He subjected it to a sort of pedantic criticism, which has been revived in modern times. Thus, in the reaction of paganism against Christianity, the rationalists were followed by the infidels and scoffers. Later still, one wing of this school struck more wicked, though weaker, blows upon the Church, when Philostratus brought forward Apollonius, of Tyana, as a rival of Christ, and Hierocles assailed the moral character of Jesus. The latter pleased himself better when he 54 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. dropped his futile pen, and wielded the sword against the Church in the time of Diocletian. To all this the book of Origen, which exposed the errors and slanders of Celsus, was a quite sufficient answer. He placed Christianity upon its historical foundations. Origen was still a layman. He was sent to explain the Christian doctrines to the governor of Arabia. Still later, when his life was in danger, and Heraclas took charge of the school, he visited Palestine. Bishops and pastors were de- lighted with the most learned teacher they had ever seen. At Csesarea they requested him to expound the Holy Scriptures in 3. public assembly. Thus he was laying the foundations of a theological school in that city. But these lectures proved the beginning of his troubles. Demetrius, the .bishop of Alex- andria, heard of them and protested, saying, "Never before has a layman delivered discourses in the presence of bishops. It is irregular." The bishops who had welcomed Origen cited cases to sustain him. Lay-preaching had been allowed in Asia Minor. He was not intruding upon their rights nor into their dioceses. The jealous Demetrius finally sent some deacons to bring Origen back to his own city, and he went. For some years he devoted himself to Biblical studies. The Emperor Elagabalus (218-222), a Syrian debauchee, and priest of the sun-worship,^ hoped to see all religions merged into his system, with all its social abominations. Tol- erating all beliefs, he practiced none. His cousin, Julia Mam- msea, "a very devout woman," if not a Christian, wished to save her son, the heir to the throne, from the blasting sins of the imperial court. When she was at Antioch she invited Origen to come and teach them the Gospel more perfectly. He was escorted thither by her own military guard. Thus Alexander Severus (222-235) was brought somewhat under the influence of Origen. He was an excellent prince. The laws against Christians were not repealed, but rather ignored. In a few places the mob raged against them. He had Christians in his household. It seems that for the first time bishops were allowed at court. It is said that he inscribed the Golden Rule upon the walls of his palace and on public buildings. At Rome a small piece of ground, used as a commons, was ■^So his name indicates, El-Gabal, or Heliogabalus. DEMETRIUS. 5 5 desired by the Christians as the site for a churcli, and by a company of victualers for an inn. Alexander granted it to the former, saying that any rehgious use of it was better than the conversion of it to .a tavern. Here seems to be one of the first historical references to a church as a publicly consecrated building. For about two centuries private houses, halls, or s}-nagogues were the places of worship. Out of this may have grown the story that the emperor thought of enrolling Christ among the gods, and rearing a tem.ple to him. He was an eclectic, a sage-worshiper, one to be admired by the Neopla- tonists, for he placed in his pagan chapel the busts of Christ, Abraham, Orpheus, Apollonius of Tyana, and Serapis, along with those of the Roman gods and emperors. In a campaign against the Germans he was slain in his tent by the agents of an old Thracian soldier, the giant Maximin, who took the throne. Drigen had been invited to rout certain heretics out of Greece. Demetrius gave him letters of commendation as a layman famous for refuting errorists. On his way he stopped at Csesarea. The bishops of that city and of Jerusalem, mindful of the check put upon his lay-preaching among them, ordained him a presbyter. This irregular act* highly offended Deme- trius, who scarcely waited for Origen to return from Greece. A sharp controversy began. One result was that the great teacher was arraigned before councils, charged with a youthful indiscretion and contempt of his bishop. These were, doubt- less, more strongly urged than certain errors then found in his writings, if they have not since been interpolated. He held the pre-existence of human souls, and the final redemption of all men and devils, except Satan. He was not always clear upon the doctrine of Christ's equality with the Father, though he often affirmed it distinctly. He speculated too wildly upon the creation and the fall of man. But the envy and hatred of his bishop seem to have turned the scale, and he was removed from the school which was sending out men to become eminent in the Church. He was deposed from the ministry, and excom- municated from the Christian fold, "to which he had gained so many adherents, to teach the world how much it costs a *It is doubtful whether there was then any law against ordaining a man in a diocese to which he had not taken his membership. The "Apostolic Canons" are not regarded as genuine. 56 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. man to serve steadfastly the cause of liberty." He was even forbidden to reside in Alexandria. Perhaps the sentence was removed by a gentler bishop. Already he had taken refuge at Csesarea. There he labored chiefly for twenty years. To its theological school he secured fame and patronage. Young men were attracted to him by his pure and noble life, and then led into the ministry of the Gospel. The terrible Maximin (235-238) melted down even golden gods for his own uses, listened to the slanders brought against the Church, put to death the favorites of Alexander, and ban- ished those whom he had promoted. In the midst of so much cruelty and bloodshed, no wonder that the savage included Christians in his persecution. It was directed chiefly against the ministers of the Church, as the pillars and propagators of Christianity. Origen concealed himself in Cappadocia for about two years. Even there he found manuscripts for his great polyglot Bible. They were given him by the noble Juliana, whose father had been a translator of the Septuagint. He returned to Csesarea when Philip the Arabian took the throne (244-249). Jerome calls him the first Christian emperor; but his personal vices were a bar to that honor. He and his wife, Severa, received letters from Origen, who says elsewhere that God had given the Christians freedom in religion, and he anticipates the conversion of the empire. This hope, rarely indulged, was soon changed to fear, when Decius (249-251) attempted a wholesale destruction of the Church. In vain had Septimius Severus threatened death to all who adopted Chris- tianity. A new policy was now inaugurated. Christians were to be hunted out. Accusers ran no risk by acting as spies, informers, and slanderers. Popular clamor took the place of a trial. It was enough for a disciple to show himself; any one might strike him down. Christianity itself was a crime, be- cause of its triumphs over paganism. Decius, it is said, was so enraged to see the religion of the empire trodden under foot and undermined by a proscribed sect, that he issued edicts to the governors of provinces, commanding them to proceed against the Christians with the utmost seventy, to spare no kind of tor- ments, and put to death all who refused to sacrifice to the gods. Nothing can be imagined more dismal than the storm which followed in all parts of the empire ; the heart sickens at the DEATH OF ORIGEN. 57 recital of the diversified tortures to which the Christians were exposed. Some few apostatized. The persecution was especially directed against the clergy and teachers of the faith. Origen was tortured in a dungeon at Tyre, and never recovered from the racking, Fabian was a martyr at Rome. Cyprian was in exile from Carthage. The bishops of Jerusalem and Antioch died in prison. The Bishop of Smyrna was the only one who apos- tatized. This is usually regarded as the first persecution which was really general. ' ' There was general confusion and con- sternation," says an old writer; "the laws of nature and hu- manity were trodden under foot ; friend betrayed his friend, brother his brother, and children their parents, every man being afraid of his nearest relations. By this means the woods and mountains became full, the cities and towns empty." Alany remained in the deserts, and became hermits and monks. The Church was not annihilated. Cyprian thought she needed this fiery trial to purify her from errors in doctrine and laxity in discipline. Valerian (252-260) saw that the Decian policy was defeating itself; for there were too many kindly and self-interested pagans to allow their harmless neighbors to be murdered on such a scale. He decreed that pastors and teach- ers should be removed, and their flocks prevented from holding meetings of every kind. But his edicts of banishment, confis- cation, and death brought no real victories to paganism. Pas- tors were often too much beloved, even by the heathen, to be slain in cold blood. Many who were driven away were followed by their flocks, and they found Christ and his Church in the wilderness. Some carried the Gospel where it had never yet gone. Among the eminent martyrs were Cyprian, already named, Sixtus of Rome, and his deacon, St. Lawrence, whom legend associates with the gridiron on which he was roasted to death. The story is that, when he was asked by the gold- hunting magistrates for the treasures of the Church, he pointed to the sick and the poor as her jewels. In the year 254 there might have been seen, at Tyre, a little man of about seventy, worn, weary, bent under a load of censures, broken by study and tortures, thinking of the storm and of Christ who would still it, and saying, ' ' A stranger in a world that hates us, we commit ourselves to him who overcame it, and told us to be of good cheer." There he died, and on 58 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. the tomb that long stood over his grave was his name, Origen. And men came to think that he was the wonder of his age in scholarship, and the most genial of the early fathers.* When Origen was entering upon his vast labors in Biblical science, he formed a most timely friendship. A rich Alexan- drian came to him, told him how he had been lured into Gnos- ticism, and how his conscience would give him no rest. The wanderer was restored to the fold. In gratitude he offered his home to the scholar and his fortune to the cause. He sup- plied him with seven secretaries, besides a goodly number of copyists. We may forget how rapidly books could be made in those days. Origen says of this generous helper: "The pious Ambrose, who has devoted himself to God, thinking that I loved work, has convinced me by his zeal and love for the Sacred Scriptures. . . . We never cease comparing texts; we discuss them at meals; at once we return to our studies, and diligently correct manuscripts." Here was something like a Christian monastery, a foreshadowing of Port Royal. The death of Ambrose left him in poverty, and still he toiled on. Origen was "the creator of a scientific exegesis " and a Biblical criticism. Despite his allegorical method, and his search for hidden meanings, he tried to bring out the true sense, and was the first who had the idea of a real commentary on the Bible. He formed the Hexapla, a polyglot in six columns, contain ing- the original text in Hebrew and Greek characters, with four Greek versions of the Septuagint. To this work, now al- most all lost, he devoted twenty-eight years. The canon of the New Testament was so well settled that he names nearly all the books which we acknowledge as inspired, f The several ancient versions prove that the early Church gave the Bible to the people in their own languages. •■■•'Among his pupils were such eminent bishops as Heraclas and Dionysius of Alexandria, Methodius of Tyre, and Firmilian of Neo-Csesarea ; also Gregory, the wonder-worker in Pontus ; Pamphilus, the famous scholar of Csesarea; and Julius Africanus, one of the earliest chronographers. Beryllus, Bishop of Bostra, who denied that there were three persons in the Godhead, was convinced of his error by Origen. The great teacher has been called the Schleiermacher of the Greek Church, guiding heretics and rationalists to the Christian faith. Both these men have had followers who carried their erroneous opinions to an extreme. tThe earliest complete lists, preserved, of the Books of the New Testament were given by Athanasius and Jerome (325-420), but all the books had been acknowledged as canonical before the year iSo. CHRISTIANITY LEGALIZED— MONARCHIANS. 59 At length Christianity was declared to be a rcligio licita by the Emperor Gallienus (260-268), when he saw that his father had prospered so long as he favored its adherents. For the first time it was blessed with an edict of toleration. It was a lawful religion. The Church was a lawful society. A long rest from persecution was begun. The only emperor who ventured to break this peace of forty years was Aurelian (270-275), but he was assassinated before his edict produced much effect. In 275 the Emperor Tacitus revoked it. For many years foreign wars diverted the attention of rulers from the Church. While the empire sat still, washing the blood off her weary hands, the Church was threatened with an invasion of heresies. The most serious of them had reference to Christ and the Trinity.* Their projectors are usually called Monarchians. It is sufficient to arrange them in two classes, and name the chief advocates from the leading principle in the theories by which they sought to maintain the divine unity {inonarcJiid) : I. The Dynamists, who held that the Logos in Jesus was a force, or power, as reason is in us. This power was not a person ; not the personal and eternal Son of God. Their text was, "Christ the power of God." But he was only a divinely endowed man. They were little more than humanitarians. The Alogi (170) denied the personality of the Logos. Theo- dotus (195), a learned tanner, lapsed under persecution, and when charged with having denied the Lord said, ' ' I denied not God, but man." Artemon (202) gave his name to many of these heretics. Paul of Samosata stands in the transition from this class to the next. He was Bishop of Antioch (260), and also held a civil office. This rich, pompous man, who put his doctrines into song, and wished the people to applaud loudly his sermons, maintained that the spirit of the Father had de- scended upon Jesus, dwelt within him (but without any per- sonal union), and empowered him to work miracles and instruct * The word triad was used as early as the year iSo, by Theophilus of Anti- och, and iriuilas by TertuUian, to describe the three persons of the Trinity. It was no new doctrine. By that time, probably, the catechumen entered into Church membership, confessing his faith in "God the Father Almighty, and in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost." Out of such a form, doubtless, ^rew the so-called Apostles' Creed. Doctrines are usually believed for a long time before they are formulated by the Church. See Note II. 6o HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. mankind; and that in this sense he is called the Son of God.^ Ancient writers have accused this heretical bishop of framing his doctrine to please Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, who then had possession of Antioch, and favored Judaism. The council which deposed him (269) began by addressing to him a letter affirming the essential divinity of Christ ; his eternal pre-exist- ence ; his creation of the world ; his relation to God as a son, not as a creature ; and his miraculous incarnation. 2. The Modalists, who asserted that God was one person, yet he had manifested himself in a trinity of successive modes. In one mode, or phase, or stage of evolution he was the Fa- ther ; in another, the Son ; in a third, the Holy Spirit. Praxeas (200) was charged with saying that with Jesus pater natiis, pater passiis — the Father was born, the Father suffered ; hence the name of the sect, Patripassians. Hippolytus asserts that with this doctrine Noetus of Smyrna insnared Callistus, Bishop of Rome (220) ; hence the Callistians. Before this bishop was deposed he won to his views the most famous of the Modalists, Sabellius, who became a presbyter in Egypt. There he clothed his doctrine in new terms. It seemed profound. The Patri- passians held that the Father personally assumed the human nature of Jesus. Sabellius (260) asserted that as light and heat emanate from the sun, so two powers or energies proceed from the Divine Essence, and these are the Logos and the Holy Ghost. They are virtually God manifesting himself by evolving or extending his essence. Sabellius was excommuni- cated by a council at Alexandria. His doctrine was meant to explain, not to deny, the true divinity of our Lord.t One man was eminent in his efforts to heal divisions and refute heresies. A learned rhetorician, craving for something better than pagan philosophy, had a book given him by a poor woman. He found it to be the Epistles of St. Paul. He studied it, attended the school of Origen, whom he succeeded as a teacher, became Bishop of Alexandria (248-264), and is known as Dionysius the Great. In mind, wide research, and simplicity of life, he was like Origen. In experience, episcopal ability, moderation, perils, banishments, generosity, and charity, he was like Cyprian. The influence of his self-denial and ami- * Compare the doctrine of the modern Socinians. t Compare the Christology of Swedenborg and Schleiermacher. NOTES TO CHAPTER III. 6l ability was widely felt. He was scarcely less earnest for tne true nature of Christ (after an error was renounced) than for the spirituality of his kingdom. Since the time of Papias, who claimed to have been a disciple of the Apostle John, there had been a growing hope that the Lord would soon return to the earth, deliver his persecuted Church, and establish a Millennial rei^n of glory. The Montanists had zealously proclaimed it. Sounder men, such as Justin Martyr and Irenseus, had used language which seemed to favor the doctrine. But the Mil- lenarians had become gross and sensual in their ideas and hopes. Origen had been the most vigorous opponent of them. In Egypt a strong body of them had their learned bishop, Nepos, a writer of hymns. Dionysius replied to his book, went to Arsinoe, debated three days with his successor, Cora- cion, won him from his earthly notions, taught the people that Christ's kingdom was spiritual, and came away with the hearty thanks of the leaders of the converted Millenarian party. In his letter to Stephen of Rome he says: "Know that all the Churches in the East, and those beyond, which have been sep- arated, are now returned to unity. Their presidents think one and the same thing, and greatly rejoice in the surprising return of peace and love." NOTES. I. The continuance of miracles. Three views have been held: (i) That the power of working miracles still exists in the true Church; this is the opinion of Romanists. (2) That this power ceased at the death of the apostles. (3) That it gradually died away after the time of the apostles. This last opinion was generally held by Protestants until 1748, when Dr. Conyers Middleton published his " Free Inquiry," and it still has supporters. The second view seems now to be more prevalent among Protestants. II. The key to many errors in the ancient Church is the signification given to the term Logos. It had these meanings, simply stated: (i) "World-soul," or universal reason; a pantheistic idea. (2) A God-given power, impersonal, and especially bestowed upon Jesus Christ; so held by tne Dynamists. (3) An emanation from God, or ^on, personal, but not eternal ; so many of the Gnostics taught. (4) The Son of God, begotten of him before all ages, but not eternal; Arianism. (5) A manifestation, development, or evolution of God, the Son being virtually identical with the Father ; so the Patripassians and Sabellians held. (6) The Son of God, personal, eternal, consubstantial with the Father ; the catholic doctrme. 62 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Chapter IV. PAGANISM DETHRONED. The empire was a house divided against itself, and exposed to the pillage of the Germanic tribes. The senate was losing its power. The army created emperors with a shout, and a traitor's sword removed them. In 284 the freedman, Diocle- tian, was elected by the soldiers. He had most of the pagan virtues. He had no culture or philosophy to fill him with zeal for the heathen gods. If he had not been pressed by vicious associates he might never have left his name upon a persecution which was intended to strike the Church out of existence. He gradually framed a new polity.^ He and the savage Galerius, to whom he gave his daughter Valeria, ruled the East. Their new capital was Nicomedia. The barbarous Maximian ruled the West, along with Constantius Chlorus, one of the most humane of his generals, and the only one of the four rulers who had in his veins the blood of the Roman nobility. Their headquarters were at Milan. Galerius is the man who comes to the front in our history. His mother had reared her shepherd-boy in the rank heathen- ism of an Illyrian village. At the court of Diocletian she was vexed to find Christians, his wife and daughter being counted among them. The church on the hill at Nicomedia was her abhorrence. She was provoked because her own altar did not draw a crowd. She was sorry that Hierocles, the new Celsus, could not report a general decline of Christianity. The philos- ophers and priests were not hopeful of their cause. Their rallying cries did not fill the temples. Paganism was dying. There was a reason. The Church, during the long rest from violence, was growing morally stronger than the empire. * Diocletian and Maximian were the Atigtcsti; Galerius and Constantius, the CcEsars. DECLINE OF SPIRITUALITY. 6^ We have no census of her members ; but it would not tell her entire strength, for she had entered thousands of non-professors on her list of friends. Gibbon thought that the Christians in the empire, shortly before 311, did not amount to "more than a twentieth part" of the population ; other writers put them at a twelfth, tenth, or even a fifth. In the East they may have formed "the majority of the middle classes of Greek society." Their next strongest hold was in North Africa and Southern Europe. In Rome there were about forty Churches, with per- haps fifty or sixty thousand adherents, reckoned as a twentieth of the inhabitants. There were other cities more Christian. If one-twelfth of the people attended the Churches, there was hardly another twelfth willing to slay them. The day for mobs to assault them voluntarily was nearly past. Magistrates must be ordered to arrest them ; for their religion was legalized. Their congregations, or communities, might assume to act as little republics if they were assailed.''^ Diocletian may have feared these self-governed corporations more than Trajan feared the guilds. For the members no longer met in secret. They walked abroad in no disguise. They were respectable and respected. They were found in all ranks of life. They wor- shiped in the broad light of day. They had built numberless houses of worship, many of them as splendid as the heathen temples, and crowded every Sabbath. But in the success of the Church was its source of spiritual danger. A worldly spirit was tempting it. Presbyters had grown into prelates, and these high bishops were not all free from the love of wealth and power. Idle ceremonies and false ideas had been thrown about the sacraments, f such as the sign of the cross and exorcism in baptism ; the notion that it secured the remission of sins ; and that certain sins committed after baptism were unpardonable, and hence a delay of the rite; a desire to receive baptism in some heroic mode ; various forms in the administration of the Lord's Supper, and infants per- mitted to receive it, for it was considered to be essential to sal- *" There was not a town, hardly a village, in the empire — nay, what was, indeed, far more serious, there was not a legion — in which these organizations did not exist." (Draper.) This could hardly be the fact in the remoter prov- inces, or we should have more certain evidences of a strong Church among the Romans in Britain, and of the Britons while under their sway. tNote III. 64 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. vation. There was too much fondness for the rehcs of mar- tyrs, and too high praise of cehbacy, fasting, and monastic Hfe. Yet "u^e may easily find examples of true devotion, piety, and beneficence. The Church took care of her poor. To their support many a rich convert gave large wealth. Some pastors imitated Origen in circulating copies of the Bible, as did Pam- philus, of Caesarea, whose large library was famous. The pen was the press of the time. Valens, a gray-haired deacon of Jerusalem, is said to have been a living concordance of Scrip- ture. Was it too much to hope that Diocletian might be con- verted ? He loved the fine arts ; he collected books. /His librarian, Lucian, was thus advised by the good Theonas, of Alexandria, "Let no day pass without reading a portion of Holy Writ. Nothing else so nourishes the heart and enriches the mind. Be careful not to show a contempt for the pagan literature, in which the emperor takes delight. Praise Avhatever you find good in it. Only let drop a word, occasionall}', in praise of the Holy Scriptures. He may mention Christ, or give you oppportunity to speak of him ; then show that he is the Son of God." This success of the Church was an offense to the pagan party. Something must be done. It wanted a leader, and found him in Galerius. He began about 292, by ordering his generals to force Christians into the army, and compelling them to adore the image of the emperor, and acknowledge the sacri- fice to the gods ; the one act was blasphemy, the other idolatry. A young Numidian sublimely refused, and was slain. At Tan- giers, Avhen the legion was honoring Caesar in pagan fashion, the centurion, Marcellus, rose from the camp-table, flung down the belt, vine-branch, and sword; saying, "From this moment I cease to serve as a soldier; I despise the worship of your gods." He was executed.* These were signs of the storm, but the Churches were not yet assailed. The breath of Galerius ate like rust upon the finer qualities of the emperor. Hierocles and the priests grew bolder. They managed Apollo, whose voice was heard from the depths of a cave, saying, * ' that his oracles had failed of late because of the *The story of the Theban Legion, slaughtered at St. Maurice, in Switzer- land, dates about 296-300. The legend may be the outgrowth of a fact which showed that the Caesar could not employ the army in the work of persecution. DIRE PERSECUTION. 65 just on earth." They could interpret the riddle, for they had contrived it. Apollo spoke in irony ; he meant by the just the Christians who made a religion of righteousness. Thus these men worked upon the imperial mind. They were glad to hear Diocletian say, "No new religion is to censure the old. It is a crime to overthrow what our ancestors have settled, and which is the law of the state." By degrees he yielded. In the year 303, at a council in the palace, at Nicomedia, a plot was formed. Early on a February morning, the day of a heathen festival, the fine church on the hill was assaulted by of- ficers, who broke down the doors, pillaged it, and sought in vain for an image of Christ. They burnt copies of the Bible, and with ax and grappling-hook leveled the building to the ground. The next morning the people found posted on the public square an edict requiring similar acts every-where. A man, whom the Greek Church canonizes as John, tore it down, and fastened up the sarcastic words, "Victories of the emperors over the Goths and Sarmatians !"* He avowed his glorious crime, and died like a hero in the fire, a martyr to something better than his rashness. The palace was twice fired, and in vain did Galerius accuse the Christians, for this new Nero was suspected of kindling the flames in order to rouse still higher the wrath of Diocletian. Thus the work of blood and flame was begun. It was to go on for eight years. Edict after edict went into all the provinces. The Christians at the court were forced to recant, be banished, or die ; but poor Lactantius escaped to tell the story in his "Death of Persecutors," and to write his "Institutes of Religion." Eusebius, of Csesarea, saw Palestine a land of mourning, and honored many a noble martyr in his History. Generals, who ought to have been driving back the Goths, were slaugh- tering the best men in their own legions. Magistrates were growing rich upon confiscated property, while their hirelings were torturing and killing their most honest and industrious neighbors. The mobs, acting under orders, were pulling down churches with yells of delight. Troops of Christian men were driven to the mines, where labor was made as painful as in the galleys of Huguenot times. Racks and wheels were in de- mand. In Africa it seemed as if the lions and leopards were * Enemies whom the emperors ought to have been resisting. 66 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. surfeited with the blood of saints. Women sometimes took their own Hves rather than be outraged by brutal officers. Bishops and presbyters were crowded into prisons along with thieves and murderers ; or, if the dungeons were too full, the vilest criminals were set free, and the clergy burnt in order to make room for delicate women and sensitive maidens, who were reserved for infamies untold. Thus went on the work, in woeful monotony, from the Rhine to the Euphrates. But the masterpiece of heathen policy was the order to seek and burn all copies of the Word of God. Hitherto the enemy had been lopping off the branches of the tree whose leaves were for the healing of the nations ; now the blow was aimed at the root. It had once been the policy of Antiochus Epiphanes, when he madly sought to destroy the Jewish Scrip- tures. It was both wise and wicked. It had but one defect, it could not be carried into complete execution. The sacred treasure was in too many hands, and too many of its guardians were brave and prudent, to make extermination possible. An African bishop said, ' ' Here is my body, take it, burn it ; but I will not deliver up the Word of God." A deacon said, ' ' Never, sir, never ! Had I children I would sooner deliver them to you than the Divine Word." He and his wife were burnt together. Some gave up heretical books, and the easy magistrates were satisfied. Many kindly governors were con- tent to receive any writings which would appease the law.* The writings of Hierocles and his friend Porphyry have per- ished by simple neglect, while the Book against which they wrote and raged is read in millions of homes. "There is a Providence." The Christians, who delivered up copies of the Bible were afterwards branded as apostates, and called Tmdi- torcs. Questions about them gave rise to the Donatists, who claimed to be the true lineage of the faithful, f *At Cirta, in Numidia, the Christians saw their church pulled down, and ihey met for worship in a private house, rejoicing that the Bible was left them. The readers had taken it away. On demand they surrendered the sacred ves- sels, a curious inventory, showing their wealth, and, perhaps, their fashion ; "two chalices of gold and six of silver, six silver flagons, one little caldron,- seven golden lamps, two large candlesticks, seven small candlesticks of copper, eleven copper lamps, with chains," besides numerous garments for the poor. [Five copies of their Bible were sought out and burnt. tNote I. THE SUDDEN CHANGE— CONSTANTINE. d'J This should be called the Galerian Persecution. In its second year Diocletian, sick, perhaps deranged in mind, abdi- cated the throne, retired to his villa at Salona, boasted of his fine garden, and left Galerius the master of the East. This madman seemed both to rule and ruin. The state suffered with the Church. So impoverished were the people that it was said that none remained to be taxed but the beggars. The trials of the Christians were almost lost in the general woes of mankind. The tyrant boasted that the very name of the Christians was abolished, and yet he was compelled to admit his total failure, and entreat them to pray for him. They were ready to do it, when they saw him dying of a loathsome dis- ease, and heard the wail of his remorse. He would issue an edict declaring Christianity a lawful religion. To it must be subscribed one name, whose sound might startle him — Con- stantine ! Did he not remember that, while he was using every available power to crush the Church, he had let slip the pris- oner who might secure her deliverance ? Constantine, the son of Constantius Chlorus and Helena, the daughter of an innkeeper, was born at Naissa, in Dacia, about 272. When his father became ruler over Gaul, Spain, and Britain, he must marry the daughter of Maximian, be di- vorced from Helena, and leave his son as a hostage at Nico- media. Constantine was there educated. He distinguished himself as a soldier until withdrawn from the field by the ty- rant who dared not trust him with liberty. Galerius had seen how Constantius, the co-emperor, had almost ignored the cruel edicts, and they were almost a nullity in Britain, Gaul, and Spain.* He had treated the son of that Caesar as a prisoner rather than as a hostage, and had exposed his mother to violence on account of her favor to Christianity, if not her faith in Christ. He could not forget how Constantine had escaped by night, taken the best roads, used the relays of horses, hamstrung those he left at the stations, and speeding across Europe had joined his father on the English Channel, fought the Picts in Britain, buried Constantius at York, and there been proclaimed emperor of the West by the army. From that ••■ ' ' Constantius permitted churches to be pulled down lest he should appear to dissent from the edicts, but he preserved unhurt the true temple of God, which if the human body." (Lactantius.) 6S HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. time, in 306, Constantine had been gaining power, and working his way southward, as the conqueror of rivals who claimed to be emperors. About his headquarters at Treves, he was gath- ering a force of ninety-eight thousand soldiers, and preparing to march and deliver Rome from the usurper, Maxentius, a }'oung wretch who was scourging the Church, while a Christian Lucretia plunged the dagger into her own heart to escape his brutality. It was time for tyrants to think of other W'ork than that of destroying the most loyal men in the empire simply be- cause they had learned their obedience in the school of Christ, for Constantine was coming. He was the man wdiose name went upon the edict of liberty in 311, along with those of Galerius and Licinius. A few more years, with their victories and local persecutions, and a Christian emperor would sit upon that throne, which for nearly three centuries had held the Church under the ban. There were no less than six self-styled Caesars in the field. Maximin asserted himself as the ruler of Asia, and the cham- pion of paganism. A scheme was devised to revive reform, and dignify the old heathen worship. Priests of deceit char- acter were appointed as the bishops of heathenism. The gods were adorned with new attributes borrowed from Christianity. The aim was to construct a pagan Church. A fraud, entitled the "Acts of Pilate," and filled with blasphemies against Christ, was taught in the schools and widely circulated in Asia Minor. The vilest women were employed to assert that Christians were partakers in their sins. But the Lord called forth the virtues of his people. The rains ceased. Famine came, then pesti- lence. Again, the Christians seemed to forget their woes. They risked their lives in ministering to the sick, the starving, the forsaken, the dying, and in burying the neglected dead. Thus with heroism and charity they took their kind revenge upon their persecutors. The pagan Church was a failure. Even Maximin would yet relent under the terrors of the Almighty, and assert that nearly all Syrians had become Chris- tians, against whom it was useless to employ craft, slander, sword, and fire. Constantine led his army into Italy. He afterwards said (if we credit Eusebius) that he had a dream, and in a vision he saw the Christian cross, and on it the words, ' ' By this con- THE PROVIDENTIAL MAN. 69 quer. " He may have had a dream on the eve of a great battle, which he thought might decide the conflict between Christian- ity and paganism, and afterwards magnified it into a miracle. About that time he devised or adopted the Labarum as the military standard. It was adorned with a cross, a crown, and a monogram of the name of Christ. He won the great battle at the Milvian Bridge (312), near Rome, saw Maxentius go down in the Tiber, and entered the capital in triumph. Forth- with was issued an edict of toleration to all religions ; property taken from the Christians must be restored. The jealous Licinius, who attempted to rally the pagans, and began a persecution, was utterly defeated at Adrianople ; and Constantine, in the year 324, was sole ruler of the empire. Thenceforth he aimed to establish Christianity as the triumphant faith in the Roman world. The revolution is without a parallel. Its suddenness proves that the Church had won a moral posi- tion from which she could not be driven. She had not piit forward any military leader, nor raised an army, nor thought of victories by war. Constantine had voluntarily taken her cause in hand, when he might have used the cross as a mere staff in clambering up to power. He may have foreseen the im- possibility of repressing Christianity and the certain decay of paganism, and resolved to take the winning side. If his father or mother was a Christian, filial regard may have prompted him to avow the true faith. We take Constantine as we find him — not a perfect, but the providential, man for the crisis. His motives and character are still before the bar of history. It is easy to point out seri- ous defects, if not crimes. He held the office of Pontifex Maximus — high-priest of paganism — all his life, and yet assumed to be a father to the Church. He took part in heathen cere- monies. He put to death some of his relatives, his repudiated wife, Fausta, and his son, Crispus, among them, on charges of treason. He was not a member of the Church until he came to die. Nevertheless, his coins and statues represented him holding the cross or in prayer. He studied the Holy Scriptures. He was a constant attendant upon the Church services. He composed and delivered religious addresses. Eusebius reports one of his sermons. He chose bishops as his associates. On his journeys he carried a movable chapel. In 70 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. nothing else did he manifest so much interest as in the peace and progress of the Christian Church. In these he saw the prosperity and grandeur of the empire. The Christians were not in the majority. If they were only about one-twentieth of the whole population, he had a singular fondness for the mi- nority. His own tolerant example must have been followed by large numbers of pagans. ' ' The first Christian emperor, the first defender of the faith," was a man "not to be imitated or admired, but much to be remembered and deeply to be studied." Many evils came with his patronage of the Church and her own sudden elevation. Bishops assumed too high powers, and mem- bers grew too secular in their spirit. Pagan rites may have intruded into Christian ordinances. But the blame of all this does not rest upon him alone. The good results of his brilliant reign are not to be ignored. The Greek Church honors him as "the equal of the apostles." The western world, more wisely, has named him "the Great," and still cherishes a "just and grateful remembiance of his services to the cause of Chris- tianity and civilization." The edicts of Constantine from 312 to 325 show an ecclesi- astical spirit. They refer largely to the building and repair of churches, and liberal gifts to them ; the restoration of property to Christians, who must be equally just to the pagans ; mutual toleration of religions ; the settlement of religious disputes ; the calling of local councils ; * the exemption of the clergy from civil offices and taxes ; the burning of Jews who should assail Christians ; the emancipation of slaves ; the general observance of Sunday {solis dies) ; restoration of property to the heirs of martyrs ; careful provision for the poor ; the release of Chris- tians from the mines ; the forbidding of images — even his own statue must not be set up in the temples; severe penalties upon heathen diviners and priests who should perform sacrifices in private houses, and practice magic ; and the earnest advice that all his subjects adopt Christianity. He first sought to reform all abuses, rather than repress paganism or heresies. The priests must keep good order in their heathen worship. He "respected the temples in general; but he shut up and un- roofed some which were almost deserted, turned others into » Note I. CHANGE OF THE CAPITAL. Jl churches, and destroyed those which had been the scenes of immoral rites or of pretended miracles." The change of the capital marks a triumph. Rome was the great city of paganism, the residence of stubborn senators, the home of a proud aristocracy, the center of old ideas and poli- ties. Diocletian had forsaken it. Constantino had no love for it, especially after the executions of his wife and son, when the public abhorrence was shot upon his palace gate in a placard which compared him to Nero. To massacre the insulting peo- ple was a less revenge than to degrade their city by taking away the throne. The Christian reverence for Rome, as seen in Charlemagne, had not yet been acquired. Nor did Constan- tine wish to reside at Nicomedia, the recent seat of intolerance. He may have been moved both by wrath and by wisdom. The Roman senate and nobility were unconverted. Their adyice was not wanted by one who would centralize the government in himself. With a new emperor, a new policy, a new code, a new religion, there must be a new metropolis, a new and Chris- tian Rome. At the old Byzantium, one of the grandest sites for commerce and power, rose Constantinople, destined to be the capital of the eastern part of the emipire for more than eleven hundred years, and a notable center of history to our own times. Her chief dates indicate epochs and great changes in civilization. Her rise brought the East and the West into rivalry, and contributed to the final division of the empire and the schism of the Greek and Latin Churches. But the first stage of the rivalry shows a strife, not merely of cities, but of religious systems. "In the Old Rome paganism died out very slowly ; the New Rome was a Christian city from the beginning." Within the new walls were no temples nor altars to the gods. In every quarter churches were built and crosses raised. The palace was decorated with Christian art. The gladiatorial shows were forbidden for many years. The very statues of the gods looked as if they had been conquered and placed on the streets as trophies of victory over their religion. Thus Christianity had a throne, a city, a capital ; the free- dom of an empire, the patronage of an emperor. Beneath all that was external there was a moral strength in the Church, How had she gained it? By the three ministries with which she began. But the spiritual operation of these ministries was 72 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. already affected by certain developments of doctrine, polity, and secularity: that of Christ, by the controversies which had begun concerning his person, so that his nature, rather than his gracious working, became the absorbing theme; that of the Spirit, by attributing a saving virtue to sacraments and rites, as if his renewing work depended on them ; that of men, by theories which unduly elevated their office, changing the preacher into a ritualistic priest, and the pastor into an ambi- tious prelate. We shall not assert that, in themselves, the long persecu- tions were a benefit and the imperial favors were an injury to the Church. Under the one she lacked privilege, under the other grace to improve it. We shall find that "Christianity did not avert the ruin of the empire, because, when pure, it had but little influence outside its esoteric believers, while so- ciety was rotten to the core, and was rapidly approaching a natural dissolution. When it was dominant it failed, because it was itself corrupted, and the ruin had begun. . . When it became the religion of the court and of the fasnionable classes, it was used to support the very evils against which it originally protested, and which it was designed to remove." NOTES. I. The Donatisis. In 311 Cecilian was elected Bishop of Carthage. Charges were made that he had been unkind to persecuted Christians, and that Felix, who assisted in ordaining him was a traditor. Seventy bishops, or pastors, formed an opposing party, and elected Majorinus as their bishop. Both parties appealed to Constantine. He summoned a council at Rome, and another at Aries, in 314, and they decided in favor of Cecilian. Do- natus, an African bishop (there were two of that name), and his party adhered to Majorinus; hence the Donatist schism. They were not heretics, and, like the Novatians, they claimed to be the true, pure, heroic Church. They excommunicated all others. They rebaptized all proselytes, and reordained all preachers coming from the Catholic side. With all their boasting, some of their leaders are accused of having been traditors. In 330 they had nearly four hundred bishops, and were the strong party in North Africa. Many of their principles were right, and among them were many excellent men. But they were disgraced by the CircumceUiones , the nominal converts from the Punic peasants, who begged around the cells or hovels of the poor people, and grew more and more immoral, until they became the burglars and brigands of the country. NOTES TO CHAPTER IV. 73 II. 77^1? Meletians were led into schism by Meletius, a bishop in Egypt, deposed on a charge of having lapsed under persecution. He ordained bishops, or pastors, of whom there were thirty in the sect in 325. They aided Arius in his heresy. In 361 another Meletius, at Antioch, proved too orthodox for the Arians, and gave his name to a local schism. III. Kites and Usages. Irenseus speaks of baptism as "a power of re- generation unto God," and says, "Christ came to save all who are through him regenerated unto God, — infants and little ones, etc." TertuUian opposed infant baptism. Origen wrote, "The Church had from the apostles the tra- dition [injunction] to give baptism to young children." "According to the usage of the Church it (baptism) is likewise given to little children." So Basil, Ambrose, Jerome, Chrysostom, Augustine, Pelagius, several councils, and other witnesses. The sign of the cross, used about 150 as a seal to baptism, came to be one of the earliest superstitions. To it was ascribed a magical, talismanic power. It was made when performing common acts, such as putting on a coat or lighting a lamp. It became a public rite connected with all religious services. Infant communion in 240. The clergy assumed a distinctive dress in 300; the Council of Elvira, in 305, forbade images in churches, enjoined Sabbatic fasts, made rules for keeping vigils and festivals. — Altars in churches. — Friday a religious day. — Christian emblems, as the fish, dove, anchor, cup, wheat-sheaf. — Tendencies to a secret discipline [disciplina arcani), by which the higher doctrines and the sacraments were regarded as mysteries to be kept from unbelievers, and made known only to the initiated ; this arose from persecution, the fear of betrayal, and sacred reverence. — Family worship from apostolic times. — Responses given by the people in the Church services. — The public Reader of the Scriptures was an officer in the Church. — Deaconesses ordained until the fifth century. — Deacons became an order of clergy. — Preachers often applauded in Church by shouts and clapping of hands. — Many sermons of the Fathers were written, not by themselves, but by stenographers. Period II. FROM THE COUNCIL OF NICE TO THAT OF CHALCEDON. a. ©. 325— i5l. THE EMPIRE BECOMES NOMINALLY CHRISTIAN, AND DESTROYS PAGANISM — THE CHURCH FORMULATES HER CREED IN COUNCILS, AND DEFENDS IT AGAINST HERESIES — THEOLOGIANS FREELY DEVELOP THEOLOGY IN CONTROVERSIES — THE CHRISTOLOGY OF THE CHURCH SETTLED, AND HER THOUGHT TURNED TO ANTHROPOLOGY — PRELACY ADVANCED TO THF, PATRIARCHAL SYSTEM. Chapter V. THE NIC EN E AGE. 335-380. I. The Rise of Arianism. Alexander, the gentle Bishop of Alexandria, kept an eye upon the various theories of men who claimed to be the ad- vanced thinkers of the day. There were plenty of them around him. He preached to his presbyters on the Trinity, strongly insisting that the Son was the equal of the Father in eminence and in essence. He asserted, or implied, the eternal generation of the Son. A simple sermon threw the world into agitation, for Arius heard him. Arius, probably a Libyan, had become a deacon, joined Meletius in his schism, and been excommunicated. Bishop Peter had forgiven him, ordained him a presbyter, and in 313 assigned him one of the nine churches in Alexandria. He is described as tall, austere, learned, eloquent, fascinating, but proud, artful, restless, and fond of disputes. He accused Alexander of tending to Sabellianism in asserting that the 74 EUSEBIUS OF NICOMEDIA. 75 Father and the Son were of the same essence and eternity.^ But he did not arraign the bishop for heresy. He began his own error by perverting the words "Son" and "begotten" to a hteral sense.'* He would not admit the phrase, "the eternal generation of the Son." He argued that "if the Father begat the Son, the Son had a beginning of existence;" hence there was a time when "the Son was not." That time was before all worlds, and the Son was the Creator of them all, but yet he was a creation of God. He was made from "what once was not," or from nothing, and yet is to be worshiped as the first- born son of God. In this doctrine was involved an error, held for a time by Lucian, of Antioch, that Jesus had not a human spirit, t the Logos taking its place. In this view he had not a complete human nature. Arius was zealous. The officers of his Church, the mer- chants, and the elegant ladies spread his doctrines. A strong party gathered about him. Conferences were held with him in vain. Alexander warned the clergy against the heresy. At length, in 321, a council of one hundred bishops deposed him, and excommunicated him and nine of his supporters. He went to Palestine. His artful letters brought him the sympathy of many eminent bishops. Eusebius of Caesarea advised him to be moderate. Those who had followed Lucian in his errors but not in his recantation, encouraged him to push his cause. At Nicomedia he found a foremost helper in his "fellow-Lu- cianist, " Eusebius, a bishop who had the talents which win influence at courts. He had learning and knew how to make it appear large. He was eloquent, ambitious, and his "con- science never stood in the way of preferment. He was one whom no man cared to offend ; and they who did were sure, sooner or later, to rue his anger. He never forgot, and he never forgave." He became the leader of the party. * We should remember that the definite ideas now attached by Trinitarians to the words essence and person, ousia, substantia and htipostasis, were not then clearly apprehended. They were part of the results of a long controversy. A council had rejected the term homoousios, as indicating Sabellianism. tThis was afterwards the specific heresy of Apollinaris (whom see). Arius did not assert it distinctly, being engaged mainly with the Son's relation to the Father, and not to man. The Greeks held that in the nature of man were three elements, a body [soma), a soul {psyche), and a spirit (pnenina). The Latins attribute only a body and a soul to man. 'jG HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. The success of Arius was startling. He seemed to be car- rying nearly the whole of Egypt and Asia Minor. The infant heresy^ sprang at once into a giant. He sent out his book of songs for travelers, soldiers, sailors, and millers. The the- aters began to ridicule theology. In markets, bakeries, and shoe-shops were disputes upon the most profound themes. One tried to show how Christ was the same in substance {Jionioo7isios) with the Father: another said the he Avas sim- ply like the Father {liomoioiisios). A satirist might say that the words differed only in an iota. But "the difference be- tween komooiisiou and honioiousion convulsed the world, for the simple reason that, in that difference lay the whole question of the real truth or falsehood of our Lord's actual divinity." Arianism struck at the very heart of that faith which the Church had maintained from her infancy. It would take away the source of her life. "It could not but divide families, cities, nations, continents," and enter into political history. Constantine had just united the empire. He was grieved to see the Church divided. He assumed that his mission was to bring unity into the world. In his first effort to calm the storm he wrote a letter to Alexander and Arius. He ignored the real point at issue. It was, he thought, a mere question of words and nice distinctions. " Restore to me my quiet days and calm nights. Give me joy instead of tears. How can I have a peaceful mind so long as the people of God, whose fellow-servant I am, are thus divided by an unreasonable and pernicious spirit of contention?" But this plea was in vain. II. The Council of Nice. Constantine then summoned the famous Council of Nice, not far east of the new capital. Never before had a council aimed to be oecumenical, imperial, a representative of the whole empire. He planned every thing in grand style. The public postal arrangements, the carriages and relays of horses, were at the service of the bishops, and they might draw on the imperial treasury for all expenses. Some preferred to walk all the way. In June, 325, the town was crowded with strangers, and among them were the members of the council, probably, three hun- dred and eighteen. Very few of them were from the West. Some of them wished the emperor to settle their private dis- THREE PARTIES— NICENE CREED. 7; putes. He burnt their papers, and advised them to be good brothers. There were three parties represented: i. The Arian, in which were Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis of Nice. Arius himself did not come forward prominently. 2. The orthodox, in which were Eustathius of Antioch and Hosius of Cordova, in Spain, the right-hand man of the emperor; Alexander of Alexandria, and his young deacon, Athanasius, theological genius of the council, who had no vote in it, but a mighty voice afterwards in defense of its creed. 3. The middle party, which claimed the emperor, and Eusebius of Caesarea, ' ' the father of Church history."* They met in a hall of the palace. The emperor entered in his robe of purple, attended by a few unarmed Christians. The assembly rose ; he blushed, walked modestly up the aisle, and stood before the little throne until the bishops gave him the sign to be seated. He seemed as the heavenly messenger of God to such men as those genuine Copts, the monk-bishops, Potammon, and Paphnutius, who had come up from the deserts of the Nile, one-eyed and hamstrung, their every look and limp reminding their brethren of the late persecutions. There were others who "came like a regiment out of some frightful siege or battle, decimated, and mutilated by the tortures or the hardships they had undergone." One man came from a people whom Galerius could not persecute ; he was Theophilus, Bishop of the Goths. Eighteen Arians presented their creed. It was caught and torn into shreds. The cause of Arius was given up on the spot. Eusebius of Caesarea presented one of many creeds then in use by the Churches. He says that he had learned it when a catechumen, avowed it at baptism, and taught it as a pres- byter and a bishop. But as it was silent on the point in ques- tion, it was not sufficient. It, or a similar form, was grafted with the desired term {Jiomooiisios) and other words deemed im- portant. The new form was : "We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible : And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, the only begotten, that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God, and Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not ♦Chapter VI, Note IV. 78 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. made, being of one substance {Jioinoousioii) with the Father; by whom all things were made in heaven and on earth ; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incar- nate and was made man ; he suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven ; from thence he cometh to judge the quick and the dead: And in the Holy Ghost." After much discussion,* this creed was adopted "with loud acclamation," and with this disciplinary addition: "And those who say there was a time when He was not, and , , . He was made out of nothing, or out of another substance ; or, the Son of God is created, or changeable, or alterable ; they are condemned (anathematized) by the holy catholic and apos- tolic Church." The books of Arius were burnt. He was banished; so were two Egyptian bishops, with Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis of Nice. The last two soon subscribed to the creed, with explanations, and were recalled. The other members of "the great and holy synod" Constantine gave a farewell feast. f He was happy in the result. To him the creed may have af- firmed an advance in doctrine ; but it contained nothing really new to its framers. | Councils have usually been cautious about affirming new theology. No doubt the majority thought the creed was a decisive victory for their time. But the deci- *The letter of Eusebius (in Socrates' Hist., I. 8) shows the difficulty in reaching "the philosophical view" of the word homooitsios. When explained by the emperor and others to mean "not a part of the Father," "not a part of his substance," the Csesarean bishop assented to it, and also "unhesitatingly acqui- esced in the anathema." Yet his name was given to the later and large body of Eusebians, or Semi-Arians, who took probably from him the phrase, "The Son is in every respect like the Father," and thus interpreted their term Jiomoiousios, What is now usually called the Nicene Creed is really the revised form of it put forth in 381 by the council at Constantinople. fThe council passed twenty canons of discipline, sought to heal schisms, and purify the Church. Easter had become the great day of the year ; but many of the Greek Churches kept it on the Jewish Passover (the 14th of Nisan), which fell on the seven days of the week in succession ; the Latins, on the first Sunday after the Passover day, so that it always came on Sunday. The council enjoined the Latin custom. When it was proposed to require the married clergy to live in celibacy, the one-eyed monk, Paphnutius, in an outburst of eloquent rebuke, declared the motion to be contrary to Scripture, and defeated it. Prelacy was sanctioned. See Note II. J " The Nicene divines interpreted, in a new language, the belief of their first fathers- in the faith. . . . They did not vote a new honor to Jesus Christ which he had not before possessed." (Liddon, Bampton Lectures.) ATHANASIUS. 79 sive battles of history have not always closed the war. After Marathon came Xerxes to rave and be defeated. After Nice were the bitterest conflicts. The confession must be defended against a host. Its champion was Athanasius, about whose name the Nicene age revolves. III. Athanasius. The story is that, on a martyr's day in 313, little Athana- sius was playing bishop on the sea-shore at Alexandria, and baptizing a troop of boys. Alexander saw him, kindly talked with him. and won his heart. He caught a glimpse of his genius, obtained leave of his Christian parents, took him into his own house, and educated him. The student cared less than Clement for philosophy, and more for the plain historical sense of Scripture than Origen. If he thought of becoming a hermit with the aged Anthony, the Arian controversy drew him from the deserts. He went as a deacon to Nice ; he returned to be surprised, the next year, when he was nominated as the suc- cessor of Alexander. It was useless to plead that he was too young (about thirty), and in vain did he hide himself. The clergy and people shouted: "Give us Athanasius, the Chris- tian, the ascetic, the true bishop! We will have none other." In those days a layman might be elected at once to this office, and the people had a voice in the election. We know less of Athanasius as a bishop than as ' ' the fa- ther of orthodoxy" and an exile from his Church. Through forty-six years (326-373) he was so persistent in his cause, and so pursued by his foes, that it came to be a proverb, "Atha- nasius against the world, and the world against Athanasius." Arian councils made it the order of the day to depose him. Emperors made it their business to banish or befriend him. Five times was he in exile. Now he is far away at Treves, in Gaul, writing and preaching, and giving hints to men who wish to be monks ; again he is up the Nile among the hermits, whose firm belief in his theology is their best virtue. Once a lady conceals him in her house at midnight from an Arian mob, and for days supplies him with books ; at another time he hides for four months in his father's tomb. He was a little man, rather a dwarf, crooked, lean, hardy, 80 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. with a fair face, keen eye, and a marvelous power over all who met him. His ready wit, boldness, mysterious way of appear- ing just when he was not expected, his foresight of coming events, and his strategy in baffling his enemies, led some of them to call him a magician and a wizard. With honest shrewdness he met the wiles of his adversaries. In his indig- nation he often applied hard names to his foes. He was not free from the faults of his age. Debaters did not then use tender words. He had two maxims : one was, that the state must not determine the faith of the Church, or prescribe the terms of communion ; the other, that orthodoxy must persuade men to believe, and not force them. Hence he would not obey the dictation of a monarch, nor persecute men for their opinions. Arians and emperors first brought persecutions and war into the Church. Constantine, when disobeyed by him, called him "that proud, turbulent, obstinate, untamable bishop ;" and Julian com- plimented him as "the odious Athanasius. " No doubt he and his doctrines were odious to an emperor who did his utmost to restore paganism. He was not a bigot for mere words and formulas,* while uncompromising in the essentials of the Chris- tian faith. The best historians of our time do not charge him with a harsh dogmatism, narrowness, and a passionate love of controversy. Gibbon, whose cold and critical pen was not lavish in praise of Churchmen, wrote with unusual admiration : "The immortal name of Athanasius will never be separated from the catholic doctrine of the Trinity, to whose defense he consecrated every moment and every faculty of his being. . . , He displayed a superiority of character and abilities which would have qualified him far better than the degenerate sons of Constantine for the government of a great monarchy." In the year of his death one of his brother bishops said, in his eulogy: "When I praise Athanasius, virtue itself is my * '* If ever there was a man who was not the slave of language, who had his eye upon ideas, truths, facts, and who made language submissively do their work, that man was the great St. Athanasius. He advocated the homoousion at Nicasa because he was convinced that it was the sufficient and necessary symbol and safeguard of the treasure of triith committed to the Church ; but years afterwards he declined to press it upon such of the Semi-Arians as he knew to be at least sincerely loyal to the truth which it protected." (Liddon, Bampton Lectures, 1866.) THE DRIED HAND. 8 1 theme. . . . He was the true pillar of the Church. His lite and conduct were the rule of bishops, and his doctrine the rule of the orthodox faith." IV. Policy of the Arians. The Arians were zealous. They resolved to control the Church. Their policy was to gain the emperors and use the sec- ular power ; to remove the orthodox bishops, and place their own men in the cities; to manage the councils, and to arraign the orthodox leaders on whatever charges they could find or invent. They made the end justify the means. Eusebius of Nicomedia was again at court. It was easy for him to work upon the mind of Constantia, who could not forget that her brother, the emperor, had conquered and put to death her husband, Licin- ius. She became a zealous agent of the Arians. They pleaded for Arius, who now professed to adopt the essentials of the Nicene Creed. Constantino recalled him in 331, and ordered Athanasius to restore him to the communion of the Church. The emperor assumed to be "bishop of bishops." Then came the clash. Athanasius dared to disobey, rode post-haste to the capital, visited Constantine, gave his reasons, and was sustained. Thus the Arians failed in their first scheme. Then they began a series of charges against Athanasius, the worst of which was that he had murdered a Meletian bishop named Arsenius. They carried about a dried hand in a box, showed it to the emperor, and raised a great uproar. Athana- sius took measures to discover whether Arsenius was really dead, and then kept silent. He let the Arians work up their case with all the skill possible. In 335 he went to the Council of Tyre. At the outset the majority of sixty bishops treated him as a criminal. In proof of the main charge the Arians brought forward the dried hand. They declared that it was that of Arsenius. A murmur of horror passed through the council. Athanasius rose. All were silent. When he asked) "Did any of you know Arsenius?" many said they had known him well. He then brought in a man muffled in a cloak, uncovered his face, and said, "Look closely, now, and see if this is the man I murdered." The bishops were astonished; those who were ignorant of the Arian plot really believed the man was 6 S?. HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. dead ; those who had hired him to conceal himself in a monas tery thought he was far away. Athanasius had found him, and now drew forth the hands, saying, in cool sarcasm, ' ' God has given this man two hands ; here they are ; let my enemies show how he ever had a third." Thus the defendant put his accusers on trial and convicted them. In their anger they rushed upon him so violently that he feared for his life. Other charges w^ere as groundless. He left the council, claiming that decisions by one party alone were invalid. Yet he was de- posed ! He sailed to Constantinople. Meeting the emperor, who tried to ride by in silence, he grasped the bridle-rein and demanded, ' ' Either summon a lawful council, or give me an opportunity to meet my accusers in your presence." The de- posing bishops were to hear the answer. Meanwhile, they rode down to Jerusalem to perform a nobler service. Helena, the aged mother of Constantine, had made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, been baptized in Jordan, imagined that she had found the cross of our Lord, built churches on sacred sites, and returned to die in the arms of her son. Thus she had given an impetus to that series of pilgrimages out of which grew legends, superstitions, fraud in relics, and the crusades. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was dedicated by the Council of Tyre, and the Holy Land was thought to be Arianized. These bishops were startled by the emperor's summons for them to meet in Constantinople. Many of them, in alarm, rode home post-haste. The tw^o named Eusebius, and other daring leaders, obeyed. They devised a new charge, that Athanasius had talked of hindering the shipment of wheat to Constantinople. This touched the emperor's interests. He probably did not believe the slander ; but he cut short the defense, and, to get rid of the case, he banished Athanasius to Treves, in Gaul, where his son Constantine, the governor, kindly supplied the wants of the exile ; and the bishop of the old city proved a warm friend. Christianity was there, but its record has not reached us. The next sensation was the proposed welcome of Arius into the pale of the Church. It was to be done at Constanti- nople, whose bishop, Alexander, must admit him, or be de- posed. The aged bishop prayed that the Lord would defeat CONSTANTIUS— EUSEBIANS. 83 the scheme. On a Winter day in 2)37, Arius, at the age of eighty years, was paraded on horseback through the streets of the capital, by a crowd that talked in high glee of their triumph on the morrow. He was seized by pains like those of cholera, and suddenly died. Some ascribed it to poison ; some to a divine judgment ; others to the excessive joy of Arius in his victory. The catholics gave thanks in the churches. It is said that many Arians were converted to the Nicene faith. "Give us back Athanasius," was the loud cry from his people at Alexandria, and from the monks of Egypt. It was repeated by the orthodox bishops and hermits of Syria. It echoed from Rome and the West. But Constantine did not heed it, except by banishing a few noisy Arians. He wanted peace, and did not understand theology. He was dying at the age of sixty-five years (337). He was baptized by the courtier Kusebius. Gibbon well says: "He still considered the Council of Nice as the bulwark of the Christian faith, and the peculiar glory of his reign." Despite the protests of Eusebius, he or- dered the recall of Athanasius. His will enjoined it on his three sons, to whom he divided his empire.* Constantius, who became sole emperor in 352, was a tem- perate, vain, weak prince, entirely under the control of worth- less favorites, crafty women, and craftier bishops. He was zealous in suppressing paganism. Temples were pillaged, and the spoils given to the Arian Churches, or to his flatterers and greedy courtiers. In vain did Hilary and Hosius plead that the heathen should not be violently treated, but persuaded to renounce their idolatries. Paganism was roused ; its reaction would come with Julian. But the zeal of Constantius was kin died against the Nicenists, when the Eusebians (Semi- Arians) took him in hand. This court party, made up of ladies, eunuchs, office-seekers, and scheming prelates, resolved them- selves into a roving commission to secure edicts, pack synods, weary the post-horses, frame creeds and canons, depose bishops, and rule the whole Church. These managers turned the con- troversy into a political campaign. It was a novel mode of "'■■ Constantius ruled the East for fifteen years, and then the whole empire, dying, in 361, a fanatical Arian. In the West were the two brothers, Constan- tine II, who was slain in 340 by Constans, and he was slain in 350 by one of liis generals. They were supporters of Athanasius. 84 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Church government — a half-converted court taking the over- sight of all Christendom ! The chief busybody was Constan- tius, who had his father's weakness for theologic fame, and dis- played it by spending his time in making and unmaking forms of faith.* Aiming at unity, this faction produced a diversity which was finally ruinous to Arianism. Many creeds made more sects. With grim humor Athanasius said that the Euse- bians put exact dates to their creeds, so that men might know when their faith began and when it ended. It would require a volume to set forth the methods and suc- cesses of the Arian managers, f The emperor banished ortho- dox bishops, and lent his soldiers to install Arian successors. Paul was fairly elected at Constantinople, but his opponents caused an uproar. It spread from the Church to the streets, from the clergy to the crowd, from the disciples to the soldiers. War was made, blood was shed, fires were kindled, and the mob repulsed the cavalry which Constantius had ordered to prevent a riot. He was then at Antioch. Hearing of this violence so new in the Church, but often to be repeated, he rode through the snows to the capital. The senate knelt for mercy. The usual supply of corn was reduced. Paul was expelled, but Macedonius was not confirmed as bishop until a later time, when the soldiers cut their way into the church through a dense crowd, rode over hundreds of dead bodies, and secured his installation, t At Antioch the good Eustathius "•■■ A better employment would have been a more vigorous war against the Persians, in the hope of relieving the Christians who appealed to him for defense. See Note IV. tThe distinction between the Arian and semi-Arian ^parties is of little value, historically, before 358, when we find theological lines sharply drawn. (I.) The extreme Arians were Anomoeans holding that the Son was unlike {anoinoios) the Father. They were breaking into many little sects. (2.) The semi-Arians held that the Son was like [Iiompionsios) the Father in all respects in which the Scriptures affirm a likeness. Those who honestly searched the Scrip- tures were tending more and more to the Nicene doctrine, but still evading the term homootisios, co-essential. Basil, of Ancyra, whom Athanasius thought to be essentially sound, held a synod in his city (358) ; it struck into a path towards orthodoxy, and won Constantius back to semi-Arianism. He proposed a general Council at Nice; the result was a double Council in 359; the eastern part at Se- leucia, the western at Rimini (Ariminum), in Italy. They mark stages on the road back to orthodoxy. JWhen Macedonius was found to be a semi-Arian, he was banished {348), at the request of Constans, who had written to his Eastern brother: "Athana- A TUMULT. 85 v/as falsely charged with a gross crime and removed. At Rome there was a violent change, and so almost every-where. The floors of many churches were stained with blood. The orthodox cried out that the days of Nero and Decius had returned. Milman says, "Every-where the Athanasian bishops were driven into banishment. The desert was constantly re- sounding with the hymns of the pious and venerable exiles as they passed along, loaded with chains, to the remote and sav- age place of their destination, many of them bearing the scars of wounds inflicted upon them by their barbarous persecu- tors to enforce their compliance with the Arian doctrines." At one time nearly all the more eminent orthodox bishops were in exile. Jerome said, the world wondered and groaned to find itself Arian. One remarkable man was at his post, Didymus, the last great teacher in the Christian school of Alexandria, over which Athanasius had appointed him. In it he taught nearly sixty years, and died in 395, at a great age. Entirely blind from childhood, yet he was eminent for his knowledge of literature, mathematics, philosophy, and theology. By hearing the Holy Scriptures read in the Church, he had com- mitted almost every verse to memory. Jerome was one of his pupils for a time. He recorded his thoughts by using engraved blocks of wood, and came near discovering the art of printing. He held some errors of Origen, but was a thorough Nicenist. He sent forth a book against the Macedonian heresy. Meanwhile Athanasius had been received at Alexandria with lively demonstrations of joy. Magnates and merchants, laborers and servants, trains of devout women and troops of children met him at the gate with rounds of applause. They waved branches of trees, sprea I carpets in the way, and illu- minated their houses. The clergy thought it the happiest day of their lives. But he was not long undisturbed. One night, when he and his people were keeping the Lenten vigils, a tu- sius and Paul are here with me ; reinstate them over their Churches, or I will come with an army and do it." They were restored. Paul was again banished, and one result was a tumult, in which three hundred persons were slain. He seems to have been more steadfast than his friend Hosius, of Cordova, who was forced to subscribe an Arian creed, but repented of it before death. Macedonius was restored to his chair, and cruelly treated the orthodox. His name was given to the Macedonians, who erred concerning the Holy Ghost; some holding that he was not co-essential [Iiomooiisios) with the Fath'er ; others denying his personality. 86 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. mult was heard. Five hundred soldiers were at the door. He began the Psalm, "O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good." And the people responded, "For his mercy endureth forever." With strong voice he continued, "To him that smote Egypt in their first-born. — To him that smote great kings. — To him who hath redeemed us from our enemies," — and the responses grew still louder, ' ' For his mercy endureth for- ever." The doors were burst open; the imperial officers entered ; arrows flew through the church ; swords flashed in the lamplight, and a slaughter began. He escaped, none knew how nor whither. The soldiers installed George (Gregory), of Cappadocia, who had been a victualer to the army, a bank- rupt and vagabond, but whom Athanasius had treated kindly as a professed convert. Bribes had won his promotion. He soon made attacks upon the Nicene Churches with soldiers, and a mob of Arians, Jews, and pagans. Houses, convents, and tombs were broken open in the search for the lawful bishop, who was safe with the hermits in the desert. The pagans offered their sacrifices. Women were outraged, and presbyters were slain. The shout arose, "Long live Constantius and the Arians who have abjured Christ." He repressed or banished some ninety bishops in his province. But George was intent upon riches. He sought a monopoly of the trade in papyrus, salt, and those painted coffins which the Egyptians admired. He would fleece the flock and flay the dead. The heathen grew enraged, a frantic mob attacked his palace. His large library was no refuge ; he was dragged out and torn to pieces by the pagans. Yet the Arian legends honor him as St. George, slain by the wizard Athanasius. The Crusaders painted him on their banners as St. George, on horseback, slaying the dragon. When Julian, the cousin of Constantius, came to the throne (361-363), the Semi-Arians lost political power. The loss car- ried with it their large hopes of him. Their court machinery was gone. They had trained him ever since his father and others of his kindred had been slain by imperial jealousy. They were too eager to press theology upon him and push him into clerical orders. He saw their intrigues and aims, and secretly despised them. He adroitly took lessons of Li- banius, who aspired to be the philosopher of paganism. In heart he renounced Christianity at the age of twenty. But JULIAN. 87 for ten years he wore a mask ; he secretly worshiped at pagan altars, and pubhcly read the Scriptures in Church, or observed the Christian rites. The close student went to Gaul and sur- prised Europe by his brilliant generalship. The soldiers de- clared him their Augustus, and he was in rebellion on the eve of his cousin's death. V, Julian's New Paganism. The new emperor surprised the Church by his open apos- tasy from it. Thenceforth his main effort was to revive pagan- ism by giving it a creed more monotheistic, a philosophy more Gnostic, rites more splendid, and organization more like the Christian Church, from which he borrowed his system of charity to the heathen poor and unfortunate. To this service he gave his wonderful talents, his prolific pen, and the imperial power during the eighteen months of his reign. He tried to enlist the Jews on his side by an attempt to rebuild their tem- ple in Jerusalem. But flames burst from the old vaults and destroyed the workmen, or drove them away in despair. The result was a new evidence of the truth of the prophetic Scrip- tures to which the bishop, Cyril, had pointed him. Hov/ever rigid his morals and brilliant his genius, he was not clean enough for an age of growing decency. No unshorn, ragged hermit was more unshaven and unwashed than Julian, when he liv^ed chiefly on vegetables, slept on the floor, and wore the dress of a sloven. His first policy was to tolerate all Christian sects and parties so that they might destroy each other. Athanasius and other bishops were recalled from exile. He employed his wit and sarcasm against them, and affected a pity for the "poor, de- luded Galileans, who forsook the most glorious privilege of men, the worship of the immortal gods, and trusted in dead men." To the blind Bishop Maris he tauntingly said, "Your Galilean God can not restore your eyesight." Maris replied, "I thank my God for my blindness, which spares me the pain- ful sight of such an impious apostate as thou." The bishop was punished. When Julian saw that his pagan Church caused no rush of people, and his writings no enthusiasm, he began to be more severe in his measures. He forbade Christians to teach 88 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. the arts, sciences, and classics. The schools were placed under heathen teachers. The pagans at Alexandria represented to him that Athanasius was the great enemy of their religion, and that he had baptized some Greek ladies of high rank. Soon came the edict, "I order Athanasius to leave the city at once. That such an intriguer should preside over the people is dangerous; he deserves not the name of a man." Troops were sent to drive him away, and if they should slay him, it would be as well. He escaped their fury. The great church was sacked and burnt. For the first and only time in her Christian history, pagan sacrifices were publicly offered in Con- stantinople. Julian offered them in the cathedral to the Public Genius, whose image he had there raised. His philosopher, Libanius, was trying to establish heathenism at Antioch. We shall see how the Christian women brought him to grief Per- haps not five hundred intelligent men anywhere believed Julian's philosophy. He aimed at two very difficult things: to entice Christians into idolatry, and to rekindle the zeal of the pagans. A few graceless souls in the Church were beguiled. But he failed with the ardent faith of true Christians, and with the dead faith of the pagans. His failure made him angry. His wrath tended to persecution. There were a few martyrs in his short reign. Had he lived five years longer there must have been bitter war upon the whole Church. He was already in his Persian campaign, and in his march he took every care to restore the heathen gods. He died of a wound in battle, and possibly his dying words were, ' ' O Galilean, thou hast conquered!" If he did any good to the Church it was in drawing hypocrites out of it, weakening the Arians by the loss of secular power, and lessening ecclesiastical strifes by uniting the parties against a common enemy. He did not create an epoch ; he caused an episode, and provoked a tremendous reaction against paganism. VL Orthodoxy Gaining Ground. The emperor Jovian (363-4) reigned but eight months, but he did good service. for the Nicene faith; for he was tolerant to all parties, just, wise, intellectually orthodox. The army, which elected him where Julian fell, at once declared itself Christian. The cross was again the standard. The philosophers and sooth- ROMAN BISHOPS. 89 sayers retired into obscurity. Athanasius and other exiled bishops were recalled. Affairs went on almost as if Julian had never lived. The Nicene faith enjoyed imperial favor in the West, where Valentinian I ruled eleven years (364-75). It had been firmly maintained by Hilary, bishop of Poitiers in Gaul (350-68), called the Athanasius of the West, and the Rhone of Latin eloquence. In mature age he had become a Christian, along with his wife and daughter. For opposing Arianism he had endured banishment in Phrygia, where the Arians held high sway. But he was neither vexed nor converted by their treat- ment. He wrote orthodox hymns, and perhaps some chapters of his book on the Trinity. He boldly and persistently knocked at the doors of councils, until the Arians of every degree were glad when Constantius sent him home. There he was received in triumph. He was busy for years in reclaiming or ejecting the clergy who had subscribed the creed of Rimini. In 360 he secured the calling of the council at Paris, in which Arianism was unanimously condemned. The Gallic Synods adhered to the Nicene doctrine. Eager to purify Italy he impeached Auxen- tius, bishop of Milan, as at least a Semi-Arian, but the bishop gave answers s-o nearly orthodox that Valentinian dismissed the case and ordered Hilary home. Milan was soon to have a bishop, Ambrose, in whom there was no suspicion of heresy nor hypocrisy. Rome had not been exempt from the Arian contagion in its violent form. Her bishop, Julius, had been a firm and active supporter of Athanasius in his second exile (340-7). Liberius had been banished by Constantius ; his chair filled by an Arian ; his hand had subscribed a Semi-Arian creed under pressure ; he had been restored to his episcopate (358), and now he was or- thodox again. He was soon to welcome into the catholic ranks a troop of the men who had caused his fall, and then die (366). His party elected Ursicinus bishop, the other chose Damasus; and then a battle for rights. Churches were like fortresses, an armed mob fought in the streets, and about one hundred and thirty lives were lost in one day. After long months of struggle Damasus won the chair and held it for seventeen years. '^~ Vio * The noble Prsetextatus, at this time the prefect of the city, said: " Make me bishop of Rome and I will immediately become a Christian." Ammianus 90 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. lent as was his temper, he used well his success ; defended vigor- ously the Nicene faith; argued with learning and wrote with literary taste; improved the service of song in the Church; patronized Jerome's Latin version of the Bible, and merited the thanks of numberless pilgrims and travelers, down to our time, for his labor of love in the catacombs. He cleared and widened the passages, and made visible the once hidden tombs of mar- tyrs. He employed an artist to engrave on marble the beautiful inscriptions in letters known as the "Damasine Character." Semi-Arianism lost ground under Valens (364-78), the brother and co-emperor of Valentinian. He was an extreme Arian — perhaps by means of his wife.^' He was "rude without vigor and feeble without mildness." Both these emperors were severe upon magic and idolatry, and each bore hard upon the creed of the other. For the first time heathenism was officially designated paganism, the religion of the pagtis, or peasants' village, where the ignorant still clung to it. In the cities it was dying, not yet dead. Valens persecuted the Semi-Arians, and on this fact their destiny turned. They had found themselves in the ill company of worse heretics, and were trying to cut loose from it. They had managed most of the eighty councils held during forty years, and still their faith lacked scientific statement. Never were there so many creed-makers and such unsatisfactory creeds made. Yet this party did some good service. It cleared off some greater heresies. Revolting from the Arian extremists, it swung back towards catholicity. It had some truth-loving bishops, as Cyril of Jerusalem, and Basil of Ancyra. Hilary said, "The ears and hearts of the priests and people are better than their heads." Those who sincerely loved the Son of God and were earnest in their pastoral teachings, had left debate to theologians, and had studied to use language which their simple, Marcellinus, doubtless a pagan, but respectful to Christiaiiity, writes of the bish- ops at Rome as "enriched by the gifts of matrons, riding in carriages, dressing splendidly, and feasting luxuriously." (Hist, xxvii, iii, 14.) The worldliness was not confined to Roman prelates. * Maimbourg noticed that the Arians owed no little to the influence of Con- stantia over her brother Constantine, of Eusebia over her husband Constantius, and of Dominica over Valens; but he thought that God used the Empress Flacilla to prevent the heresy from entering the court of Theodosius, and Clo- tilda influenced Clovis to put it down in Gaul. THREE CArPADOCIAN DOCTORS. 9 1 uneducated hearers would receive for their salvation. They would follow their leaders, and the best of their leaders were on the track to the creed of Nice. Dr. Newman says that this part of the history shows "the remarkable manner in which Divine Providence made use of error itself as a preparation for truth ; that is, employing the lighter forms of it in sweeping away those of a more offensive nature." In 366 the fiery Valens was about to take every eastern shelter away from the Semi-Arians. They sought the protec- tion of Valentinran, then absent in Gaul. Their deputies went to Rome, met the bishop Liberius, recited the Nicene creed as the faith of their party, and thus gained recognition as or- thodox. So about sixty* bishops passed over to the Nicenists ; thirty-four did not then go with them. But the ancient Semi- Arians soon disappeared from history, unless we find them among the Goths and kindred Teutons. Orthodoxy was not a safeguard from the zeal of Valens. If we may credit Socrates, eighty of the clergy who visited him at Nicomedia with a petition for relief were placed on board a ship and burnt at sea. The policy of banishing bishops was renewed in the East. Valens sent an officer to drive out Atha- nasius. It was then that the "founder of theology" hid in his father's tomb. The people demanded his return. Henceforth no Arian could move the emperor to disturb him. He finished those writings which were long the armory of the Nicenists. The Athanasian creed was doubtless written by some of his followers in Gaul or Africa. A monk said: "When you find any sentence of Athanasius, and have no paper, write it on your clothes." A contemporary said in his eulogy: "He de- parted this life (373) with far greater honor and glory than he had received when he returned from his banishments; so much was his death lamented by all good men, and the immortal glory of his name remained imprinted in their hearts." Thus spoke Gregory Nazianzen, one of the three Cappa- docian doctors, who helped to win the victory of the Nicene theology. The other two were Basil and his brother Gregory, of Nyssa. The last and youngest was a monk, then a married bishop in little Nyssa, a quiet man of thought rather than of action, who put the wealth of his metaphysical mind into writ- * Socrates iv, 12, gives sixty-five names. 92 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. ings against the heresies of his time, and into commentaries, histories, homiUes, and books of theology. With Origen, he beheved in the final restoration of all men through Christ. Basil the Great (329-379) was the son of wealthy parents, whose ancestors had been martyrs and confessors, three of whose sons became bishops, and their daughter, Macrina, a highly cultured nun. He gave his wealth to the poor, and always lived in the plainest style. His early life ran close with that of the Gregory, whose father was a married bishop at the market town of Nazianzen, and his mother, the devout Nonna, one of the noblest Christian women of ancient times. These two young men, of the same age, studied in several of the best schools. At Athens one of them said of Prince Julian, their fellow-student: "What evil is the Roman Empire here educat- ing for itself?" He could not draw them to the lectures of the sophists, who were tempting other students with their pagan philosophy. "We knew only two streets of the city," said Gregory, "the first and more excellent led to the churches an*l the ministers of the altar; the other, which we did not so highly esteem, led to the schools and the teachers of the sciences. The streets to the theaters, games, and places of unholy amuse- ments, we left to others. Our sole aim was to be called and to be Christians." Basil's plea for the study of the classics (along with Scripture as a safeguard) was often circulated in the Middle Ages by promoters of learning. In these friends we begin to find a Christian love of art and of nature. They were charmed with the works as well as the Word of God. When they were monks together in the romantic wilds of Pontus, they grew enthusiastic as they left their little hut, rambled down the mountain stream, gazed on the waterfall, struck out into the ravines, scared the herds of deer which rarely saw a hunter, admired "the lovely singing of the birds and the richness of the blooming plants," and returned to pray, study the Holy Scriptures, and make extracts from the works of Origen. * * Humboldt thought that Basil's descriptions of landscape and forest life were more like those of modern times than any that have come down to us from Greek or Roman antiquity. Basil and Gregory, Chrysostom and Ambrose, were true poets, who loved nature none the less on account of their fervent Chri-tinnity. Not all the monks of that age gave their whole time to the ;on- templation of themselves. BASIL. 93 Basil may have uttered the feehngs of many a cultured monk of that day when he wrote : "I have well forsaken the city as the source of a thousand evils, but I have not been able to for- sake myself. I am like a man who, not accustomed to the waters, becomes seasick, and gets out of the rocking ship into a small skiff, but still keeps the dizziness and nausea." But he goes on to say that the best means for taming the wild passions and securing piety are retirement from worldly pursuits, soli- tude, celibacy, prayer, ascetic severity of outward life, contem- plation, the company of" godly men, and the constant study of the Holy Scriptures. Such were the common ideas of that age when ministers of the Church came from the monasteries of the desert. The cell or the cloister became to many men their theological school. About the same time each of these young men was made a presbyter against his own will. This was not always a safe method, but here, in each case, the voice of the people was the voice of God. Basil, an eloquent preacher, eminent theologian, and vigorous writer, became famous for administrative ability. "A shepherd of souls and a Church ruler," Gregory wen the title of "The Theologian," and the finest orator of the Greek Church, except Chrysostom. When Basil became bishop of his native city, Neo-Csesarea, in 3/0, he had under his care fifty pastors and parishes, all quite staunch in the Nicene faith. It was not a promising field for the Arians, unless they could oust the popular bishop. They pressed Valens hard to reduce Cappadocia to their doc- trines. He threatened Basil with confiscation, banishment, and even death. "Nothing more?" replied the bishop. "Not one of these things touch me. His property can not be forfeited who has none left but some worn clothes and a few books. Banishment I know not; for, as the guest of God, all places are \ alike to me. For martyrdom I am unfit, but death is a bene- \ factor if it send me speedily to heaven." Sorrow entered the palace at Antioch ; a little prince was at the point of death. Valens sent in haste for Basil, to whose prayers were ascribed the recovery of the child, and of an officer who had treated the bishop with rudeness. No more threats were made. His influence extended over a wider realm than that of Valens, for no other man of his time did more to promote unity in the catholic faith throughouf all Christendom. He died in 379, 94 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. under a weight of labors, cares, and trials, but full of joy and hope. Pagans joined with Christians in lamenting his death. Basil is a representative man. He is the type of moderation, charity, the better monasticism, and administrative power. For fifty years there had been sharp controversy between pastors and bishops and all who loved strife, or w^ent into it defensively for the sake of truth and conscience. He sought to avoid extreme terms and measures, maintain the essentials of sound doctrine; conciliate parties who strove about .words to no profit, and thus save both the truth and "the people. The real and final victory of the Nicene theology was due far more to such men as Basil than to the Emperor Theodosius and his severe measures. "The high catholic party" rebuked him for being too liberal or unwilling to fight for phrases, but his writings prove that he was not lax in the doctrines which then called for defense. Basil represents a system of charity. From the time when the first believers had their common fund for the relief of the poor, the Church had been the nurse of the unfortunate, whom the heathen neglected. She had laid the foundation for all the alms houses, hospitals, and asylums which have since risen for the needy, the sick, the wounded, the blind, and the insane. Julian had imitated the system.* Near his own city Basil founded that magnificent hospital, the Basilias, which was reck- oned "one of the miracles of the world," and became the model for similar establishments in other quarters. He visited and preached to the multitudes gathered in it, and treated as his brethren the lepers for whom special provisions were made. The name of Basil is eminent in the history of monasticism. He and Gregory were about the first to bring theological stu- dies into the cloister. He provided the- monasteries and nun- neries with clergy, and gave system to their rules of life. His reforms related to purity of manners, celibacy, and labor for support, in which each hale monk must do "a gooa day's work;" hours for meditations, hymns, and prayers; the read- ing of the Scriptures, study, and instruction. He saw his rules adopted by some eighty thousand monks, who were building convents in all lands between Edessa in the East and Tours in Gaul, where St. Martin taught his monks to be missionaries. * Note III. EPHRAEM SYRUS. 95 Basil represents the episcopal power of his age. He was an ecclesiastical prefect, or the archbishop of a province, ac- cording to the system which Constantine had introduced, and the Council of Nice had confirmed. He was an exemplary pastor of pastors, visiting his diocese, preaching almost daily, and placing good shepherds over the flocks. It was then con- sidered no abuse of his power for him to attempt the pressing of a deacon into a bishop's chair, and to force a presbyter into a bishop's charge. There are two examples, none the less striking on account of their partial failure. In the far East, at Edessa, lived a wonderful hermit, named Ephraem, the son of a heathen priest. In his travels for wis- dom he was in Egypt, and at the Council of Nice. Still later he visited Basil, who ordained him a deacon. The hermit went back to his cavern, where he mastered his high temper, and wrote homilies, commentaries, tracts against all sorts of here- sies, and fine hymns for the people to sing in place of the Gnostic songs of Bardesanes. He went out among the idola- ters, and told them of the living God. He preached to the monks and people with great effect. He taught scores of stu- dents. Two men came from Basil with a commission to ordain him a bishop. He behaved as strangely as David once did in Gath, and the messengers went and reported that poor Ephraem was out of his mind. "No," said Basil, "you are the simpletons; he is full of divine wisdom." A famine brought a pestilence into Edessa. Thousands looked death in the face. The hermit called together the people, and in a powerful ser- mon told the rich that they would lose their souls if they did not relieve the poor. He was intrusted with supplies. He took a house, fitted up three hundred beds, and attended to the sufferers until the calamity was ended. Then he returned to his cell, lived a few days, and died soon after his friend Basil. He was the most eminent poet, orator, and theologian of the ancient Syrian Church, and was called its pillar, and "the harp of the Holy Ghost." He was the Origen of the far East. He expounded the Scriptures to multitudes of young men, and thus arose the famous school of Edessa, the rival of that of Antioch. Basil wanted a bishop at Sasima, a wretched little town at three cross-roads, where carters brawled, stage-drivers changed ()6 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. horses, pagan travelers cursed the landlord, and revenue officers thought themselves and the custom-house the pride of the place. He urged Gregory to go there as a country bishop. ''^ "Your elevation must have caused you to forget what is due to our long friendship," was the reply; for Gregory felt almost insulted. At last he submitted, and was ordained. But he did not go to Sasima. He was simply assistant bishop at Na- zianzen till his father's death; and then he went again sadly into solitude, where the old love for the archbishop returned. After a few years he writes mournfully over the death of Basil, and says: "My body is sickly, age creeps on, cares entangle, duties overwhelm me, friends are unfaithful, the Church lacks capable pastors, good declines, evil stalks naked. The ship is going in the darkness, light nowhere, Christ asleep. What is to be done? Death seems the only release — if I were but ready for it !" Gregory's pastoral work was now to begin, and, to his sur- prise, at the very capital. Basil had wished him to take charge of the little orthodox band at Constantinople, and revive their Church. It seemed like trying to raise the dead. There the Arians had been in full sway for nearly forty years. Novatians and ApoUinarians were growing in strength. The Nicenists scarcely dared to lift up their heads in 380, when Gregory un- expectedly came to them. They were disappointed in the sad- looking man, so bent and feeble, so wretchedly dressed, such a very hermit in his manners, the last preacher for that fashionable city. He began to tell the good news from God in the house of a kinsman. One hearer brought two more the next time. Indeed, he was unlike the sleek Arian clergy. They said he was a polytheist : people went to be assured. The house was trans- formed to a chapel — the Anastasia, the Resurrection. Heretics and pagans insulted him, stoned him, broke into the chapel by night and profaned it, and charged him with the tumult. His defense before a magistrate turned all these outrages to the victory of his cause. Some went to listen to his eloquence ; others to hear what an Athanasian really believed, or to learn the lessons of personal and practical religion ; and all were sat- isfied. The report of him went abroad. Even Jerome, fifty * Chor-efisccpos, one who seems to have been the equal of both a presbyter and a bishop. NOTES TO CHAPTER V. 97 years old, came from Syria, and grew wiser in the interpreta- tion of Scripture. The Anastasia was not a misnomer. The chapel was too small for the crowds that pressed to its doors. It gave way to a splendid cathedral in later years. We leave Gregory until Theodosius comes to rout the Arians and offer him the grandest of their churches. NOTES. I. Causes of the decline of Arianism (besides its inherent nature and the divine providence), i. It did not assume a schismatic form, and unify its elements. A sect might have consolidated its forces. 2. It depended largely on the secular powers, misused them, created weariness and disgust, and filially lost their aid. 3. It lacked eminent leaders, of wisdom, admin- istrative talent, and doctrinal harmony. 4. Strifes arose in its ranks, and the parties grew more violent toward each other than toward the Nicenists. They secured no great council. 5. They made too many creeds — from twelve to eighteen — and the world knew not what they believed. Some of them lost respect even with the pagans. 6. The sincere Semi-Arians went over mainly to the orthodox side. 7. Meanwhile the Nicenists (not altogether fi'ee from blame in their measures) adhered to one creed, unified their forces, employed the more spiritual means, letained more popular respect, and won sympathy by their endurances. The Emperors Jovian, Valentinian, Gratian, and Theodosius supported them. Their cause was advanced by an array of theologians such as Athanasius, the three Cappadocians, Damasus, Hil- ary, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Jerome, Innocent, Leo, and Augus- tine. 8. New controversies arose in theology, and the remaining Arians of the East seem to have cast in their lot with new heretics. II. The episcopal system. It was a gradual growth. In the gradation of clerical offices, recognized by the Nicene Council, were deacons, presby- ters, bishops, rural bishops [chorepiscopoi), archbishops, and metropolitans. Certain of the latter were afterwards known as patriarchs. The five patri- archates were Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, Alexandria, and Constantinople. The Bishop of Rome was not yet a supreme pope. The great council of 381, at Constantinople, decreed that the patriarch of that city should be next to the Bishop of Rome. This offended the Bishop of Alexandria, who claimed to be the equal of both. Between the three there were long con- troversies. "Aerius denied the superiority of bishops over presbyters, the lawfulness of oblations made for the dead, and the religious obligation of fasts and feasts." The Scriptural equality of presbyter and bishop was ad- mitted by Jerome, Chrysostom, Augustine, and Theodoret. III. Christiatt charity commended by Julian. He wrote to the pagan chief-priest of Galatia: "Establish hospitals in every town for the care of the sick and of strangers, and extending humanity to the poor. I will furnish the 7 98 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. means. For it is our shame that no Jew ever begs, and the impious Gahleans not only keep their own poor, but even many of ours, whom we leave to suffer." To another of his priests he wrote: "The impious Gahleans, see- ing that our priests neglect the poor, have applied themselves to that work. They have led many of our faithful ones into infidelity, by commencing with charity, hospitality, and the service of tables ; for they have many names for these works, which they practice abundantly." Thus Julian, in pure defense, had to borrow from the hated Christians the ornaments for his reformed paganism, or it would appear so bald and heartless that it would lose its votaries. This was not the only form of Christian benevo- lence. Some devoted large possessions to the gratuitous distribution of the Scriptures ; some, in support of missionaries ; others, to the redemption of captives, even selling themselves into slavery in order to secure the lib- erty of those whom they loved, or the Church greatly needed. One class made a merit of giving all their property to such objects, and becoming poor hermits. It was thought that poverty and piety were inseparable, in a pastor especially. But a large mass of Christians had common sense and wealth along with their spiritual graces. IV. Persecution in Persia. King Sapor (310-381) seemed determined to crush the Christians. They appealed to Constantius ; but this only brought severer woes. In 344 they were offered the choice between fire- worship and death. " During fifty years the cross lay prostrate in blood and ashes, till it was once more erected by the Nestorians." When Sapor learned that his son had been barbarously executed by Constantius he took his revenge on the innocent Christians of Armenia, and went so far in his annihilating zeal as to order all their books to be burnt. The Persians claim to have the names of sixteen thousand martyrs of this period. If genuine, the persecution must have exceeded those of any Roman emperors. THEODOSIUS. 99 Chapter VI. riVO GREAT REACTIONS. History keeps before us the law of advance and reaction. The Arian, the Athanasian, and the pagan felt its strong force in the events of the time. It often turned upon the edict of an emperor, whose right to dictate in religious affairs was rarely questioned by a favored party. Toleration was not understood by the wisest rulers, nor intellectual liberty by the best people. Not a general freedom of belief, but the dominance of a special creed, was too often sought by parties in the Church. We find that the Nicenists were quite as joyful over the edicts of Theodosius as the Arians had been over the decrees of Con- stantius. They did not question his right to issue them in their own favor. But, with all his rigor and high temper, he was a nobler man, and a more just ruler. His edicts were not less severe, but were more legally executed. He gave more work to the magistrates, but less indulgence to the mob. He was as fully resolved to see approved bishops over the great Churches, but less disposed to install them by soldiers. There was less intrigue at court, less bloodshed in cathedrals, less bitter exile of bishops, and more deference to lawful councils. He used the means of the age. Pagans and Arians had em- ployed force ; if right for them, it was fair for him. Two de- clining systems fell — Arianism and paganism. Theodosius, a young general and a duke, had retired to his estates in his native Spain, after his father had been murdered by Valens on some military pretense. Valens had Arianized the Goths, deceived them, and been slain by them in a battle in Thrace. The farmer left his plow at the call of Gratian, and defeated the Goths. He then took the throne* of the Arian * Gratian in the West, 375-383 ; Theodosius in the East, 379-392, and sole -imperor, 392-395. His sons ruled over a divided empire — Arcadius being in lOO HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. emperor. His father's creed and fate, his contempt of pagan art, his disgust of heresies, and his desire to see a united em- pire, led him <"0 adopt the pohcy of his colleague, and make it more vigorous when he became sole emperor. Four labors of this Hercules went on together: i. The union and defense of the empire. He induced the Goths * to settle in peace on both sides of the Hellespont. He merely staved off their inva- sions. 2. The supremacy of the Nicene faith. 3. The sup- pression of heresy and schism. 4. The destruction of paganism. In 380, 'when sick in his camp at Thessalonica, he sent for the bishop, and was baptized. His gratitude for health was marred by his severity. He published an edict authorizing the adherents of the Nicene creed to assume the title of Catholic Christians ; he branded all dissenters as heretics, whose conven- ticles must not be called churches. He virtually laid down the terms of communion, and soon applied this law at Constanti- nople, when he ordered the Arian bishop, Demophilus, to sub- scribe the Nicene creed or resign his charge. The bishop re- fused. Another edict turned him and all the Arians out of the churches of the city, though not out of their homes. They pitched their tents for worship outside the walls. Other dis- senters held their meetings in the suburbs. The emperor thought it was simple justice to restore the churches to the orthodox, from whom they had been taken forty years before. He intrusted the great Church of the Apostles to Gregory, and marched with him to take charge of it. The bishop was sad ; the day was gloomy; the Arians said the clouds were an ill omen. Soldiers were on guard. The procession entered the doors, singing psalms, when a burst of sunlight filled the cathe- dral, as if it were the sign of a peaceful revolution. There was no riot, as in the former change of creeds. One sword was drawn, and it was against Gregory, who knew it not until a young man came to his room and confessed it. The bishop said to him: "Thy daring deed has made thee mine. Hence- forth live as my son, and God's child." Orthodoxy was in power at the eastern capital. Theodosius must have his great synod. It met in 381, the East, 395-408 ; Honorius in the West, 395-423, with Ravenna as the seat of government. »See Chapter VIII, I. EDICTS. I0£ at Constantinople, and is called the second general Council. Only one hundred and fifty bishops, all Oriental, were present. They slightly modified the Nicene creed, gave more prominence to Holy Scripture, affirmed their belief in the personality and divinity of the Holy Spirit, and dropped the anathema. They removed certain unworthy bishops and condemned various heresies.''^ Gregory presided a part of the time, but his right was questioned, for he had not been formally released from little Sasima. He took offense, grew disgusted with partisan strifes, and offered to retire, saying, "I will be a second Jonah, and give myself for the salvation of the ship, though I did not raise the storm." He rashly threw u-p all his offices, bade fare- well to his '"sweet Anastasia," and passed the eight remaining years of his life at Nazianzen, and in the deserts, where he lived as a monk, wrote poetry as a penance, and left us to regret that he was too sensitive, and too devoted to bad health. Still we love him for seeking to convert heretics to "the Blessed Trinity," rather than hurl useless anathemas at them. If that age did not have a dozen bishops with worse tempers and worldlier motives, history has done them injustice. Their variances prompted the emperor to enact severer measures in order to support a cause which they were likely to disgrace. Theodosius published edicts which forbade the Arian sects and the Manicheans to hold any meetings in the cities, or even in the country. Any building or ground thus used was to be confiscated to the state. Men who allowed themselves to be ordained priests or bishops by any heretics were to be banished. Death was threatened to those whose heresies were the most gross, and even to those who kept Easter on the Jewish day. If a Christian became a pagan, he could not legally dispose of his property by a will ; as a pagan he had no civil rights. The man who would be sure of his liberty, home, wealth, and life, must profess the creed of the emperor. It was long ago said that his design was rather to terrify and convert than actually to punish the dissenters, and ■■■•Especially the Arian, ApoUinarian, and Macedonian. Converts from them and the Novatians were to be "anointed with the holy chrism on the fore- head, eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, that they might receive the Holy Ghost." Penitent Montanists and Sabellians were to be treated as repentant heathen, and exorcised at baptism. 102 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. that the penalties were rarely enforced. The heretics had not the spirit of martyrs, and their numbers rapidly diminished. Such wide-sweeping decrees could hardly be executed. Thus the theory and law of persecution for heresy came into the Christian state, and thence into 'the Church catholic. It was brought in by emperors. It spots the character of Theodosius. While his severities chill us, we may find a ten- derness to warm our admiration. He confirmed the decree of Valentinian for the release of criminals on Easter-day, saying, "Would to God that I could raise the dead!" He was the first to allow mothers a right to be guardians over their children. Children sold into slavery by poor fathers should be free. No heretics seem to have suffered death by Theodosius in the East. But we are pointed to one scaffold in the West. In Spain the nobly born and eloquent bishop, Priscillian, was twice condemned for Manichean doctrines. He appealed to Maximus, who headed a revolt, murdered Gratian, and claimed to be an emperor in Gaul, and a Christian. Priscillian and six adherents went to Treves, in 385, to answer the charges of an unworthy bishop, who accused them of heresy and gross im- morality. They were examined by torture and sentenced to death. One bishop in the small council disapproved of the penalty. St. Martin, of Tours, hurried up to Treves, and ob- tained from Maximus a promise that their lives should be spared. But they were beheaded. So Maximus, the usurper, was "the first Christian prince who shed the blood of his Christian subjects on account of their religious opinions." The Christian Church generally viewed the act with horror. St. Martin and Ambrose, of Milan, broke all fellowship with the bishops who had sanctioned the deed, and yet they had little indulgence for heathens and heretics. Chrysostom recom- mended love to both those classes, and declared against their execution ; but he approved those measures of Theodosius which forbade the meetings of heretics and schismatics, and confiscated their churches. Jerome seems to have justified the penalty of death upon a heretic,* and with him some of the *He cited Deut. xiii, 6-10. All such men thought that heresy was a crime against God and man ; and that the powers of the state and the Church were divinely authorized to inflict death upon soul-destroying error, as well as upon murder. DOWNFALL OF PAGANISM. IO3 best fathers agreed. Such punishment was rare for several centuries. Pleas for toleration came from the persecuted. The L)onatists had been the first to appeal to Constantine, but when they were under the ban, their bishop, Gaudentius nobly said, "God appointed prophets and fishermen, not princes and soldiers, to spread the faith." It was now the turn of the pagans to suffer. They, as well as the Arians, had provoked a reaction. Julian had pushed heathenism to the front in his zeal to revive, reorganize, and adorn the system with borrowed graces. He had roused against it all the forces which the later emperors could command. It must be driven back to the shades. The reaction was one of the mightiest in history. It was the resurge of faith and patriotism against a rebellion. Once it had been paganism against Christianity; now it was Christianity against paganism. The movement began anew when Valens and Valentinian for- bade heathen sacrifices and magic ; ordered soothsayers to be burnt and sophists banished ; broke up the nests of treason which were sheltered by philosophy ; and commissioned men to ferret out and destroy all books that promoted heathen worship. Times had changed since the book-burning days of Diocletian. If senators were unjustly treated by suspicious magistrates, and philosophers threw libraries into the fire, they had reason to remember the furious attack upon Christian liter- ature. In each case the injustice was greater than the actual loss to any valuable science. Gratian lent new vigor to the movement when he abolished the office of Pontifex Maxinms, confiscated temple property, cut off the pay of priests and vestals, and left the pagans to bear the expenses of their own worship — if they dared to meet at their altars. The movement culminated in the edicts of Theodosius. Nowhere must pagan worship of any sort be allowed. Some temples had been closed, others turned into Christian churches, but in many heathenism was in cautious activity. These musf' no longer be the abodes of the gods; their images and furni- ture must be destroyed, their wealth confiscated, their priests deprived of salary, their doors shut forever against idolaters. The temples might stand as monuments of art, and memorials of the victories of Christ. But the work became a war upon paganism, and in the war the monks enlisted, as if Providence 104 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. had reared them for this purpose. They began in the smaller towns, where the rustic pagans ascribed their prosperity to the gods, and placed their farms, gardens, flocks, and homes under their protection. They had a god in every field, in every grove, by every road and every fountain. The monks came in fury, as if to grind all these rude idols to powder. They grew bolder. They marched into the cities. They battered down a stately tfemple at Edessa, and another at Palmyra. One at Gaza was closed; another in Petra, whose magnificent ruins are still a wonder, was defended by the worshipers. At Apa- mea, fifty miles south of Antioch, Bishop Marcellus led the assailants, when the great temple of Jupiter was undermined. Though lame, he took the field with troops of monks, soldiers, and gladiators, swept the country, and laid waste every thing that represented heathenism. This crusader was seized by the pagans and burnt alive. The synod of that province honored "the holy Marcellus as a martyr in the cause of God." We pass to Alexandria, where the attempt to reconcile pagan philosophy with Christian doctrine had failed. The one had grown morose and sullen, the other had nurtured heresies. The parties should never have married, and they had engaged in a long quarrel. The center of .paganism there was the Ser- apion, a vast temple. The worshipers said that the safety of the universe depended on the preservation of the colossal image of Serapis. They were enraged at Bishop Theophilus for expos- ing their licentious rites and putting them to ridicule. They organized the mob. The streets were desecrated with human gore. Many Christians were slain. The pagans shut themselves up in the Serapion and fortified it. Theodosius sent word that the people should be spared, and persuaded to a better faith, but the temples of that city should be destroyed. The pagans fled, the priests sailed for Italy. The grand temple was rifled by the part}- of Theophilus, who wondered at the power of a loadstone and ascribed it to magic. The fine library was removed. But they stood in silent awe before the image of Serapis, until the bishop ordered an assault. A soldier mounted a ladder, battle-ax in hand, bruised a knee, struck off a cheek, hurled the head on the stone floor, and the only sign of life shown by the image was a large colony of rats which had lived by idolatry. The sublime gave way to the ridiculous, and the ST. MARTIN OF TOURS. IO5 heathen joined in the merriment. The work went on through all Egypt. Fifteen miles from Alexandria was Canopus, so named from the god of moisture, and full of profligate heathen. Theophilus marched upon it, leveled its temple, and turned the town into a city of monks. In Gaul was St. Martin, the son of a heathen captain in Pannonia, a catechumen at twelve, a soldier till twenty, a stu- dent with Hilary of Poitiers, almost a martyr by the Arians at Milan, a monk on some little island, a founder of monasteries, an ardent missionary in wild places, and now bishop of Tours, living in a cell near his church. Cities and synods were his dislike. He loved to preach to rude heathens and lead them to Christ. He impersonatecd the hatred of the monks against paganism. He marched as their general, made wide campaigns, and was the spiritual Caesar of vast conquests. At one place he so preached to a savage crowd that the heathen rushed to their temple and destroyed it. He took care to plant churches and monasteries wherever he rooted out idolatry. Pagan cus- toms were too often baptized with a Christian name and retained in the Church. He once mistook a harmless funeral train for an idolatrous procession, and imprudently routed it. His own funeral was not so likely to be disturbed, for two thousand brethren followed him to the grave, and regarded him as the vic- torious champion over heathenism in Gaul. Often had he said, "I shrink from no labor," and now he had gone to his rest. Among the few eminent pleaders'^ for paganism was the sen- ator Symmachus at Rome, a man worthy of the days of Cicero. He heard the order for the removal of the statue of victory from the senate-house, and the withholding of salaries from the priests and vestals. He sent up his apology. He argued that all religions were good ; that all worshipers adore the same God ; and that every citizen should conform to the mode of worship which is bound up with the history and glory of his country. "I am too old to change my religion; let me retain my gods." Ambrose, of Milan, replied to him: "Did the national gods * Julian's philosopher, Libanius, argued that the temples were essential to national prosperity. He urged that the Christians had condemned religious persecution, and he protested against it quite in the style of the early Christian apologists. At Alexandria Olympus put forth his plea for paganism. Theon was educating his daughter, Hypatia, to be its last eloquent defender. I06 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. really protect Rome? Did they drive off Hannibal? Did they ward off the Gauls? Was it the arm of the gods, or the timely cry of geese, that saved the capitol?" There were Christian senators who demanded the removal of the statue, and it went. Men said : ' ' Victory forsook her adorer, and, by deserting to Ambrose, showed that she loved her enemies better than her friends." The temples were deserted. Many of the old Roman families, like the Gracchi, exchanged Jupiter for Christ. The senate renounced paganism, and still later the Pantheon became a church. And yet the old enemy was not entirely destroyed. Idolatry lingered at Rome, and philosophy lived longest at Athens. Pagans were still in the service of Theodosius. Sym- machus died a consul. They still had free thought, free tongues, and a free pen. Not their better philosophy, but their idolatry, was under the ban. Paganism no longer ruled the empire, nor seriously threatened the Church in an external form. For other causes of its overthrow we must look to the Goths and the missionaries. But elements of paganism had entered into the thought and manners of the Christian world. ^ We can not ignore the fact that much of the apparent success of the Church had been gained by her accommodation to heathen sentiments, customs, and superstitions. She had compromised with the society which she had sought to convert. Many rites of the pagan temple were brought into the Christian chapel. The process went on until she was described by Jerome as "greater in riches, less in virtues," and he confesses the dangerous charms of pagan literature which then had a life that has since perished. Here was the peril of the time ; the great churchmen saw and resisted it. Yet too many yielded. Probably an extreme case is that of Synesius, a descendant of the Spartan kings, a disciple of the pagan Hypatia, a famous man of letters and a philosopher. When the Church of Ptolemais entreated him to become its pastor, he replied that his life was not pure enough, that he * "The virtues of the primitive Church had been under the safeguards of persecution and poverty. She grew weaker in the day of triumph. Enthusiasm was less pure, existence less self-denying, and among the ever-increasing number of proselytes were many vicious men. They became (nominal) Christians out of ambition, for interest, to please the court, to appear faithful to the emper- ors. . . . When all the wealth and all the favor had passed over to Christianity, there was no longer the same simplicity in the public worship." (Villeraain>. AMBROSE OF MILAN. IO7 had a wife and children whom he would not abandon, that he did not believe the human soul is born with the body, and that he questioned the Christian doctrine of the resurrection. He said: "I am a Platonist, not a Christian." But the people allowed him his wife, his opinions, his pagan philosophy, and made him their bishop. Until his death, about 430, he was zealous and courageous in his office. He wrote hymns and tracts, but his chief service was rendered to Platonism. He helped transfer it from the Greek to the Latin realm of thought. The great Leo, bishop of Rome (440), laments the deep corrup- tion of Christian society, and warns his flock against relapses into heathenism, for the old enemy was ensnaring believers. But before his time a powerful Western Church was willing to risk her welfare by choosing for her bishop a man of the world; happily the risk was not perilous in the election of Ambrose, one of the noblest Romans. Ambrose did more than any other man to advance the measures of Gratian and Theodosius, and still to check the abuses of imperial power. He was the son of a governor at Treves. As a well-educated, eloquent, able, and honest lawyer, he gained distinction at Milan, the usual residence of the West- ern emperor. When elected president of Upper Italy he was ordered to "act not the judge, but the bishop." The strifes between religious parties were threatening the peace of the city. The bishop, Auxentius, had sought to make it the stronghold of Arianism in the West. He was treated with gen- tleness. When he died the people met in the church to elect a successor. Day after day they failed ; their voices grew^ louder and angrier, and there was danger of a riot. Ambrose went into the pulpit to allay the storm. A child seemed to think he was preaching, and cried out, "Ambrose is bishop." All parties took it for the voice of God, and shouted, "Let Ambrose be bishop." The more he blushed in surprise the louder the outbursts of joy. He protested, begged, argued that he was only a catechumen, tried to hide and run away, but the only terms that he could make were that he should be baptized and ordained by orthodox hands. Eight days after- wards, in 374, he was consecrated Bishop of Milan. Basil was profuse in his congratulations. Arianism was now hopeless hi the West. I08 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, Ambrose sold his estates, gave an allowance to his sister, the nun Marcella, and the rest went to the poor. He lived in the plainest style, studied the Scriptures and the Fathers, preached almost daily, wrote various books, and lived as the pastor of his flock. As a bishop he was the Basil of the West. Both of them, along with Chrysostom, paid special attention to the hymns, chants, music, and prayers of the Church.* From their age, if not from them, have come the oldest genuine lit- urgies which have been preserved, but these soon received large additions. Ambrose refused a church to the Arians, the most clam- orous of whom were Gothic soldiers and the courtiers of Jus- tina, the widow of Valentinian. She had concealed her heresy while her husband lived. As an empress she caused a tumult of people, and had to ask him to appease it. Again they rose for war. He and many of his flock took refuge in the cathedral, fortified it, and there held religious services day and night. He introduced the Eastern mode of responsive singing. He had with him two great souls, Monica and her son Augus- tine, just saved from his shameful vices. At last the empress yielded ; the bishop had more power in Milan than any one else. His maxim was, "The emperor is z>z the Church, not over it." Theodosius came to Milan, and entered the cathedral to give thanks for his victory over Maximus, and for the unity of the empire. He stood, as emperors were accustomed to do in the East, within the railings which separated the clergy from the people. Ambrose let him know that he had no right there, for "purple might make an emperor, but it could not make a priest." In an admirable temper Theodosius Avith- drew, thanked the bishop, and thought it a good rule to estab- lish in the Eastern Churches. Not so praiseworthy Avas Ambrose when certain Christians had burnt a Jewish s}-na- gogue, and Theodosius ordered it to be rebuilt by the bishop who had commanded the deed. He lost his manliness for once, and caused the order to be revoked. The circus and horse-race gave vast trouble to the pastors in the cities. At Thessalonica a favorite charioteer was thrown into prison for an infamous crime. The people demanded bis *See notes to this chapter on Hymnology and Liturgy. PENANCE OF THEODOSIUS. IO9 release. The military governor refused. The mob rose, slew him and his guards, and reigned supreme. Theodosius was angr}^ enough to conceal his wrath. He sent his orders. The people were invited to games in the circus, where the soldiers were let loose upon them, and for three hours the innocent were slain with the guilty. Seven thousand people were butch- ered. Ambrose was so distressed that he could not bear to see his emperor's face. He retired into the country, and wrote to him, reproving him, and advising him not to appear at the sacred altar. But, on Sunday, he met Theodosius at the door of the church, took hold of his robe, and publicly said, "How darest thou to lift to God the hands which drip with blood? How take in them the holy body of the Lord? Get thee awa)' ; if like David thou hast sinned, like David repent. Sub- mit to discipline." The emperor submitted. For eight months he did penance. At Christmas he wept in his palace, saying, ' ' The house of God is open to beggars and slaves ; to me it is closed, and so is the gate of heaven." Indulgence was granted him, and he publicly made his confession. But he was not restored to the Church until he enacted this law : That no sentence of death should ever be executed until thirty days after it was pronounced. ' ' I have found the first man who dares to tell me the truth," said Theodosius, when happier days came, "and I know only one man who is worthy to be a bishop ; you will find him at Milan." In 395 he died in the arms of Ambrose. Two years later all Milan was in sadness; the good bishop was dying at the age of fifty-seven. Men forgot his faults, loved him for his ceaseless love to them, and honored him for his severity towards all wickedness. "Pray for him," said Stilicho, the military defender of Europe; "Italy and Christendom can not afford to lose him." Even Jews and pagans lamented his death. We may take Ambrose to represent the power of the clergy on the side of humanity and civilization. Skeptics and Chris- tian censors will not let us forget that many bishops admitted the world into their own hearts, and brought enormous evils into the Church. We do not ignore their sad influence. They made the Church worse than the apostles left it, but they did not make general society worse than the apostles had found it. no HISTORV OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Strife, intolerance, opposition to human progress, had been in the world long before any Christian clergy existed. Did a Christian emperor, with a bishop at his ear, banish Cicero or kill Seneca? Did a clerical council take the life of Socrates? Was Pliny more humane than Ambrose ? If the spirit of per- secution came from any source outside of the human heart it came from paganism. The clergy, as a body, brought into society a gentler spirit, purer manners, happier customs, better laws, a higher regard for human life, and a compassion for human sorrows. When pagan lawyers and judges cared little for justice or mercy towards those who sought their rights and privileges, a bishop ventured to intercede and arbitrate between parties. Such men as Ambrose and Augustine sayed many a poor sheep from the rough shears of the Roman courts. They raised the standard of equity. They taught the equality of all men before God and the law. ' ' I venerate Christ in the slave who cleans my sandals," said Paulinus. They became interces- sors for the oppressed and dependent, and still later they were judges in the towns of the West. They had the oversight of the public morals. Husbands must not divorce their wives upon a whim. Parents must take care of their children. Cred- itors and debtors must be honest. The gambler learned that there w^as a law for him. At a later time "the bishops were charged with an oversight of prisoners, lunatics, minors, found- lings, and other helpless persons." Ambrose sold the plate of his church to redeem captives. They taught loyalty towards their rulers, and prayed that the emperor might have a long life, a secure realm, a safe home, valiant armies, a faithful sen- ate, a righteous people, and a world at peace. NOTES. I. Hymnology. To the psalms of David and Scripture paraphrases were gradually added hymns and anthems in the Church services. Chrysostom favored such chants as the "Gloria in Excelsis." Ambrose probably arranged the "Te Deum Laudamus" from a Greek anthem. In the East the finest early hymns came from Ephraem Syrus and Anatolius (451). In the West, Hilary, of Poitiers, (350) struck the note of Latin song, and was followed by Ambrose, Augustine, Damasus, Sedulius, Prudentius, and Fortu- natus (600). Great revivals have always brought a fresh growth of spiritual NOTES TO CHAPTER VI. Ill hymns; e.g., the times of St, Bernard 1130, Luther and Xavier 1540, the Wesleys 1760, and the many religious poets of our century. II. The word Liturgy at first meant the pubhc service of worship, whether oral or written. Each minister had his own order, or form, but no written order of service can be traced with certainty beyond the time of Basil, and even then no minister was confined to written prayers and forms of administering the sacraments. The first written liturgies were very sim- ple. After the fifth century they were gradually amplified, but no one was enjoined upon the whole Church. The earliest seem to have been those of Antioch, Basil, Chrysostom, Alexandria, Rome, Milan, Gaul, and Spain. One long effort of the Roman popes was to secure a uniform ritual in the West. III. Monasticism in the Church was probably not borrowed from the Jewish monks not pagan hermits. In its history were various stages of growth. I. Asceticism in persons who thought the body was the chief seat of sin, and gave themselves to rigid self-denial, self-punishment, and self- imposed duties, such as unusual fasting, poverty, loneliness, and religious devotions. They did not retreat from all society, but were the more silent, gloomy, and often censorious members of it. 2. Hermitry, which first appeared in Egypt and Syria. The hermit (eremite, anchoret, monk) was the man of the desert, living alone in his cell or cave, making a virtue of his shabby dress, coarse fare, meditations, and afflictions. Paul, of Thebes, and Anthony (250-350) set the example for thousands of hermits who filled the deserted cities and lands of the Nile. Rich men gave their wealth to the poor, put on a sheepskin, and lived on herbs. Some of them were studi- ous, learned, pious men; too many were crazy zealots. Persecution drove many to the deserts. Among the most fanatical hermits were the "pillar- saints," the imitators of Simeon the Styhte (see Chapter VII). 3. Convent- ism, cenobitism, or cloister-life. Several monks lived together in one house and formed a society. As women could not well be hermits, they dwelt together. Pachomius founded this sort of monachism, or celibate commu- nism, about 325, on an island of the Upper Nile, when he brought monks together on a self-supporting plan. They had precise rules for religious exercises and labors. They made boats and baskets, wove mats and cover- lets, cleai-ed lands and made gardens. The monastery became a farm- house, workshop, church, school, and hospital. The system bred corruption. 4. Monastic education and scholarship. These were promoted by the rules of Basil the Great and Jerome, whose learning was his chief virtue, while he gloried in being a monk. In a book written by Chrysostom the best side of monasticism is presented. Jerome roused a strong opposition to the system, for at Bethlehem he often turned from his library and his Biblical studies to honor the relics of martyrs. Vigilantius came from Gaul to visit him, heard him preach, clapped his hands and shouted: "Orthodox." But the Western man was disgusted at his relics and tapers, and went home to write against the evils which had crept into celibate and monastic life. The two men had a fierce controversy, in which Jerome lost his temper and the respect of many of his friends. Vigilantius is claimed by some writers 112 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. as one tf the fathers of the Waldenses. Other opponents of "this mighty movement of the age" were Aerius, Helvidius, and Jovinian. The latter denied the meritorious virtues ascribed to fasting, mortifications, and cehb acy. 5. The Benedictine System in Europe (see Chapter VIII). IV. The earliest Chitrch historians whose writings are fully preserved. The Greek were Eusebius, bishop of Ceesarea (270-340), "the father of Church history," a moderate Nicenist and court-theologian. In two of his various works he sought to refute the heathen rehgions. His Evangelical Preparation and Demonstration are valuable apologies. He wrote also upon Biblical introduction. Socrates and Sozomen were lawyers at Constanti- nople (380-440). Theodoret was bishop of Cyrus in Syria (420-457), and not only rooted heresies out of his diocese, but devoted his income to build- ing bridges, baths, hospitals, and to the arts of civilization. He is distin- guished as a historian, commentator, and theologian. As the friend of Nestorius, and the advocate of fair dealing, he suffered from the violence of opposing factions. But not one of his own clergy appeared before a secular tribunal while he was bishop. Evagrius was a lawyer at Antioch. He continued the line of Greek histories to 594, and was very superstitious as well as orthodox. The early Latin historians were Rufinus of Italy (330-410) ; Cassiodorus, an adviser of Theodoric the Goth, and a monk (died about 562) ; Sulpitius Severus in Gaul (died 420) ; and Paul Orosius, of Spain, who attempted a universal history down to his time in the fifth century. More valuable are the Letters of Augustine and his "City of God." V. Ancient Creeds. Naturally doctrines were formulated for purposes of instruction, definition, avowal, unity, and defense. From the time of Irenasus, who left us the first quite scientific rule of faith, on through two centuries, there was much freedom in the construction and uses of doctrinal formulas, every prominent church, or every province, having one of its own. More than thirty of these, slightly varying, are on record. Three ancient creeds are regarded as oecumenical : 1. The so-called Apostles' Creed. It was not an apostolic gift, but a gradual formation (see p. 59), and was completed about 650 in the Latin Church. The form given by Rufinus, 390, is the first to bear the phrase: "He descended into hell" {ad inferna), although Bishop Alexander, of Alexandria, before 326, wrote that Christ's soul "was banished ad in- feros, . . . He did not descend into hades in his body, but in his spine." (Ante-Nicene Lib., vol. xiv, p. 357.) Dr. Schaff says of this brief creed: " It has the fragrance of antiquity and the inestimable weight of universal con- sent. It is a bond of union between all ages and sections of Christendom.' 2. The Nicene Creed, 325, revised in 381 at Constantinople; the only one of the three put forth by a general council, and required to be sub- scribed by the clergy. (See pp. 77, 78, loi.) 3. The so-called Athanasian Creed, framed probably in the fifth century in the West. It was never adopted by the Eastern Church. It seems to be the product of a deep thinker, in some Gallic convent, who freely took the weightiest ores of his own meditations, and by one quick process, like that of making Bessemer steel, drew forth his logical statements of the catholic NOTES TO CHAPTER VI. II3 faith. Its "damnatory clauses, especially when sung or chanted in public worship, grate harshly on modern Protestant ears," but it ranks high among the attempts to define the mystery of the Trinity. These three symbols marked the first period of creed-formations. They passed through the Middle Ages into the next creed-period, the sixteenth century, when they were reaffirmed by the Romanists and by evangelical Protestants. They do not positively express all saving truths. They give no outline of the moral nature of man. They assume, rather than affirm, the doctrines of sin, repentance, faith, regeneration, justification, and godli- ness. They do not assert all the practical doctrines believed and taught by the early Church. The Bible gave to the Church her belief on all the religious subjects of her thought; the belief gave the creed, or the deposit of faith in crystalline forms; and the creed became the basis of systematic theology. The early Church left us no well constructed theological science or system, but the doctrinal symbols were a foundation for it. Augustine expounded the Apostles' Creed; on it Calvin reared the Institutes. The difference between a creed and a scientific theology is very marked in history. One taught essentials, the other built systems. One affirmed, the other proved. One was limited to certain doctrines, the other took free range in the world of truths. One was a fence, the other a field. One was a finished thought, the other an endless study. One was a watchword, the other a literature. One was intended to be a settlement of doctrine, the other was long a pro- gressive science. "There is a development in the history of symbols. They assume a more definite shape with the progress of Biblical and theological knowledge., They are mile-stones and finger-boards in the history of Christian doctrine. They embody the faith of generations, and the most valuable results of religious controversies. They still shape and regulate the theological think- ing and public teaching of the Churches of Christendom. They keep alive sectarian strifes and antagonisms, but they reveal also the underlying agree- ment, and foreshadow the "possibility of future harmony." (Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, i, p. 4.) VI. Inspiratio7i of the Holy Scriptures. The early Fathers "teach us that Inspiration is an operation of the Holy Spirit acting tJiroiigh men, according to the laws of their constitution, which is not neutralized by His influence, but adopted as a vehicle for the full expression of the divine Message. . . . They teach us that Christ — the Word of God — speaks from first to last; that all Scripture is permanently fitted for our instruction; that a true spiritual meaning, eternal and absolute, lies beneath historical and ceremonial and moral details." (Westcott, Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, p. 449.) 8 u K X o H w O W w > o H O o w M K o w S H ^-. - o o _J o UJ oj o id I o S " ^ 00 " o o M O ° IN ? u- 2 -^ ~ t:; ,jS o Ch O u, o « c 0^ — I 1-1 vo 10.2 o O) 1 1 O o 3 £4 .° ■- O.S< !^ "5 i-i— CJ <1 Oj ^3 - to o 5 C JJ u a, c c^ P- P^ H <^ > N UQ ^ C ■- •= •= 'S ■= ^ .S S ^ >,U = a o " O U (J U fi, fl at<^uria< o CO 0) o _) O Q U CO o Oh o U o o q: I- o QJ > ^ o o ^ c c:- n in CO t3 o c ° c J o V ^ o .i2 ^ 2 ^ -^ o Q -5 O bj3 ^ n .5 « ^ i- to 1 ^^^ ^ 3 S .2 S S c'-^e o^^-G^ O WQW Z o ts >-" .2 9 c 2 I c £— s o^-2 O O V*- a OJ ■* (-5 ro W o -J o f- lo O r^ 3 1-1 U) ^ H-> n .^1 o u 15 rT 6 ri o rt 1. rt 7,- 6 c, g o ►J W . . 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M 0 < in 0 1^ 0 rt rn rt 0 0 (U oT tj rt C c/: 0" 0 0 0 H >- oa o CO o D- G- O O 00 — > > I : - -5 £ ^ .ti rst' -• St, 'oO'-iOrt < = -t- OT < 3 X 01-1 c c/5 ii N *! ■-?, S « o < S ° A --o"^ ^ li-1 1^ X 7 ." >r V (U tfl 5 1^ i„ ^ t; X c ■Co o o ' t/5_C C - '2 c " ^ o ?; £= J2 c 3 c S '- H I— >> Pu cAi cfi U C perhaps not without the connivance of the violent Bishop Cyril, thrust out of her car- riage, dragged to the cathedral, completely stripped, barbarously murdered with shells before the altar, and then torn to pieces and burnt." (Schaff.) 126 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, than those "mutual criminations, invectives, arts of Church diplomacy and politics, intrigues, and violence which give the saddest picture of the uncharitable and unspiritual Christianity of that time." The leaders were put under arrest by the im- perial force. Yet, in the fires and the whirlwind there was at last a calm voice from the lips of the gentle Theodoret, the bishop of Cyrus, which affirmed the belief in one Christ, whose two natures are united without confusion; and Mary was confessed to be the "Mother of God" because the Word was incarnate and born of her. The question of personality was evaded. Nothing was really settled except the deposition and retirement of Nestorius. His supporters being "satisfied with saving the doctrine of two natures, thought it best to sacrifice Nestorius to the unity of the Church" and condemn his inno- vations, for nothing less would quiet Cyril, who barely escaped deposition by the emperor. After four years' rest in his old convent, Nestorius was driven from one and another shelter to some remoter place of exile, and he died, no one knows when nor where. Every year the Monophysites of Upper Egypt cast stones on his supposed grave, and they say no rain evei falls upon it. The emperor caused all' his writings to be burnt, and also those of Theodore, of Mopsuestia, the long-deceased teacher of Nestorius and the father of his error. The followers of Nestorius, expelled from the Roman Em- pire, found refuge in Persia, gained the Christians of that country, strengthened them under persecutions, had flourishing schools at Nisibis and Edessa, and spread to Arabia, India, and China. Thus a powerful body was lost to the Catholic Church. The story of Prester John, a king who became a presbyter and brought his people to the Christian faith in the eleventh century, connects them with Tartary. The ninety thousand Christians of St. Thomas, in India, are still Nestorians. Th^ American Church has prosperous missions among the Nesto- rians of Persia. III. The Eutychians went to the other extreme, and virtually said, "one person, one nature." They took their name from Eutyches, an aged abbot at Constantinople, who merely brought to the front what Cyril had kept in reserve. The doctrine was that "there are not two natures in Christ after the incarnation, but one nature incarnate." It was virtually the deification of ANATOLIUS— LEO THE GREAT. T27 the humanity of Christ. This party came to insist upon the language of a favorite hymn, in which were such terms as. "God was born, God was crucified." Eutyches was opposed by Flavian, patriarch of Constantinople, and his doctrine con- demned by a local synod in that city. Tlten help came from the same old quarter, Alexandria, and it was of the same old sort. Cyril had died in 444, and in his stead was Dioscurus, whose bad qualities exceeded those of his two nearest prede- cessors. It is painful to think that such a man ever made a page of Church history. The Patriarchates of the Nile and the Bosphorus were soon in a third war. An attempt was made to convene a general council, in 449, at Ephesus. The result was, "The Synod of Robbers," so many bishops were robbed of their titles and offices, so many human rights taken from men, and, worse still, Christ was denied his true humanity. Dioscurus presided, and soldiers forced the votes of bishops who sought to hide under the "benches. The good Theodoret was excluded and deposed along with Flavian ; and the latter was so wounded by monks that he soon died. Of course, Eutyches was pronounced orthodox and a saint. The deacon, Anatolius, was elected patriarch of Constantinople, but he afterwards renounced the Eutychian doctrine. We can forgive him for having once yielded to Dioscurus, when we sing his hymn, — "Jesus, deliverer, come thou to me ; Soothe thou my voyaging over hfe's sea ; Thou, when the storm of death roars, sweeping by, Whisper, O Truth of Truth, 'Peace, it is I.'" It was the cry of one who was weary of the angry contro- versy about the Prince of Peace. Of all themes ever discussed, the one then in question requires calmness, reverence, charity, and a profound sense of that mystery which no human reason can explain. Theodoret said that these zealots for the phrases of a hymn acted as if "Christ had prescribed merely a system of doctrines, and had not given also rules of life." Fighting for a creed they forgot their Christianity. The notable thing is that they were erroneous in theology as well as in conduct. One man now stood forth at the head of a host to stay the advance of error, and save the Church from the Alexan- drian tyranny and theology. He was Leo the Great, Bishop of 128 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Rome, from 440 to 461, superior to all the predecessors in his chair, and few greater ever came after him. , With all his am- bition to increase the papal power, he represents a class of men who could contend earnestly for the faith without losing their personal religion. The age had .scarcely a theologian equal to him. He was worthy to take up the pen which Augustine had recently dropped. He secured the calling of a general Council. The ravages of Attila* forbade a meeting in Italy. Nice was chosen, but it really met near there, at Chalce- don, in 45 1, the number of bishops being about six hundred, and they chiefly Oriental. The first sessions were stormy. When Theodoret entered his friends cheered him ; the other side shouted, "Away with the Jew, the master of Nestorius, the blasphemer of Christ!" A retort was given, "Cast out Dios- curus! Who does not know his crimes?" Dioscurus was soon abandoned by his allies, put under guard, and deposed for avarice, injustice, and vices of licentiousness. Discipline must, go along with doctrine. The most important result was the famous creed of Chalcedon, relative to ' ' the one and the same Christ, known in (of) two natures without confusion, without division — the distinction of the natures being in no wise abol- ished by their union." Ever since, this has been the catholic Christology. It was drawn from the letter of Leo, who ob- jected to only one decision of the Council, which was that the Patriarch of Constantinople was on an equality with him- self Henceforth the rivalry was between the patriarchates of the Bosphorus and the Tiber. The emperor ordered the Eutychians to leave the empire, and their writings to be burnt. But their theories reappeared in new forms, equally unscrip- tural and more metaphysical, and condemned in two coun- cils at Constantinople (553 and 680), which are often called general, f We are indebted to the Eastern part of the ancient Church for the CEcumenical creeds she left us — creeds still retained by Greek, Roman, and really Protestant Churches. Carrying that legacy with us we shall devote the coming pages of this book mainly to Christianity in the West. J The Eastern division * He lost the great battle of Chalons, 451. All the Western Empire was now threatened or tribulated by invaders. (See Chapter viii.) t Note II. t Note III. CHURCH IN THE WEST. T29 of the Church was in an old world, beyond which she reached only the Slavonic nations ; in the development of Christian doctrine and life she almost ceased at Chalcedon : the Western had new peoples in Europe to Christianize, and her sons would have a new world to 'populate ; she has had a progress of her own, often slow and once long checked, but with a grand out- come at last. III. Controversy on Anthropology. The Church in the West gave rise to but one great contro- versy in the fourth century, and that pertained to Anthropology, or the doctrines concerning the nature of man, his sin, his abilit^^ his freedom, and his salvation. Not only is there a change of subject and field, but we shall happily find a more calm spirit in the debates ; fire enough, yet not so much Church force, nor imperial power. In it there was more rea- sonable discussion ; the sword does not glitter, the pen wins its victories. We shall first notice Pelagius and his doctrines, and then Augustine and his system. Pelagius was born about 350, probably in Wales, or Brit- tany, his Celtic name being Morgan, or the sea-born. He was a monk, but never a preacher. Dr. Schaff says, "He was a man of clear intellect, mild disposition, learned culture, and spotless character. Even Augustine, with all abhorrence of his doctrines, repeatedly speaks respectfully of the man." His personal morality may have led him to exalt human ability and merit. He studied the Greek theology, inclining to the school of Antioch. In 409 he was in Rome commenting upon Paul's epistles, and seeking to reform the corrupt morals of the clergy, with whom Jerome could do nothing. He won to Christianity the laAvyer Celestius, who may have been a Scot. These two men were the complement of each other. The monk was the author of the moral part, the lawyer, the formu- lator of the mental part of the system. They viewed Chris- tianit}- on its ethical side. To escape the invading Goths* *To preserve unity of subjects the Germanic settlements in Western Europe, previous to 451, are reserved for treatment within the next period. Perhaps, if the Goths had not sent its founders from Rome, Pelagianism might have had a different development, or met with less resistance from Augustine and more success in the West of Europe. It ran the gauntlet between ortho- 9 130 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. they went over to Hippo, and had some friendly correspondence with its bishop, Augustine, then away at Carthage. Pelagius went to Palestine, where Jerome soon assailed him. One local synod was puzzled over him, and a larger one acquitted him of all heresy.* Certain monks were enraged at Jerome's fury, and rushing to Bethlehem broke into his monastery, beat the in- mates, set it on fire, and drove the aged scholar into an unfriendly world. Meanwhile Celestius requested the clergy of Carthage to ordain him a presbyter. This brought on the crisis. The ex- amination was not satisfactory. An accuser presented several errors drawn from his writings. The synod excommunicated him. He went to Eohesus and was ordained. In these affairs Augustine was not the leader, but he now, in a kindly spirit, wrote treatises against the new doctrines. The starting-point of these teachers was their maxim, "If I ought, I can;" obligation implies ability. They held that Adam was mortal before his fall ; that his sin affected only him- self; that newly born infants are in the same condition in which he was before he fell ; that every man can, if he will, obey God's commands, and maintain innocence, having all necessary ability and free-will ; that before Christ came there were some sinless men ; that God gives men grace in propor- tion to their merit ; that grace is synergetic ; and that men must be perfectly free from sin in order to be the sons of God. They also affirmed* what then shocked many minds, that in- fants, dying unbaptized, are saved ; but they did not believe that the death of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit secured their salvation. Several synods in North Africa (416-418) condemned these doctrines, and protested against Bishop Zosimus, of Rome, for having declared that Pelagius and Cdestius were orthodox ; a clear case against his infallibility. He now saw his error, and sent forth to all the bishops, 'East and West, a letter pronounc- ing an anathema upon the heretics. Whoever would not sign dox pens and Arian swords, for the Southern invaders were ignorant Arians. The time of war and woe was not favorable to it, for human nature disclosed its own inherent depravities. ■•■•He is said to have taken offense at the prayer of Augustine: "Give what Thou commandest, and command what thou wiliest." Thus far his doctrine u-as a reaction against Augustinianism. AUGUSTINE. 131 it should be deposed, banished, and impoverished. (Bishops were now supposed to have property.) Eighteen bishops of Italy refused to subscribe, among whom was Julian, of Ecla- num, near Capua, "the most learned, acute, and systematic of the Pelagians," and the strongest opponent of Augustine. He and other leaders fled to Constantinople, where Nestorius gave them a kind reception. Julian sacrificed all his property to relieve the poor in a famine, and probably became a school- master in Sicily, where he ended his days. Pelagius and Ce- lestius disappear from history. Their system never gathered a sect ; it simply formed a school of opinion. Augustine was born in 354, at Tagaste, a northern village in Numidia. His father, Patricius, was kind, high-tempered, sensual, and a pagan until near his death. Monica will never be forgotten for her zealous efforts to educate her son and save him from the vices into which he plunged. Her consecration of him to the Lord, her lessons, prayers, and entreaties, all seemed to be in vain for thirty years. The boy was given to play, if not pilfering ; the student read the Latin poets with eagerness, and took holiday with strolling comedists or in the circus ; the young man of eighteen had his mistress, and was the father of a son ; and still that mother had faith that he would yet turn to Christ. In scarcely any other young man do we see such a conflict between heart and conscience, passion and principle, temptation, and conviction. Leaving his wid- owed mother to care for his sister and brother, he went to Car- thage to learn eloquence and become a teacher of rhetoric. Now we see him winning a prize ; the walls ring with applauses. Again he is lounging with idlers of the park, or wild with delight in the theater. Now rioting in vice, again stupid in his meditations ; now flinging down his Cicero, because the name of Christ is not in it, and once more opening his Bible, but riot finding there what he craves; one hour saying, "I have lied to my mother, and such a mother!" at another time praying, "Give me purity, but not now" — this was young Augustine. The Manicheans took him up, and for nine years held him in their sensual heresy. Monica was almost in despair of him, until a bishop, who had once been snared into that heresy, said to her, "It is not possible that the son of such tears 132 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. should be lost." She saw him waste the earnings of his pro- fession ; she feared that he would die in some of his revels. She followed him to Rome and to Milan, and thither went some of his young students, who were now almost Christians. He listened to the sermons of Ambrose, who would sometimes say in public, "What a mother you have!" little knowing, wrote Augustine, "what a son she had, and what doubts were in his mind." At length the divine Word brought conviction. His will was turned, his heart renewed, his health seemed to be ruined, and he felt that he was a mere wreck washed up on the Rock of redeeming grace, saved himself, but with the loss of his physical powers. But soul and body were alike restored to vigor. On his return homeward, at the age of thirty-two, he and his mother were in a house at Ostia waiting for a ship. As they gazed from a window she said : ' ' My son, I am done with this world; it no longer delights me. What I have hoped and lived for is gained — your conversion. What then do I here?" Five days later she died, "and yet she was not altogether dead," wrote Augustine, who buried her, unconscious that he would be the eternal monument to her name, her motherly love, faith, wisdom, and persistent effort. One of his first contributions to the power of divine grace was his volume of "Confessions," almost the only autobiography which combines honesty with interest, self-exposure with the design to honor God, and grate- ful piety with popularity. "It is one of the devotional classics of all creeds." The key-note is struck in the words: "Thou hast made us for thyself, and the heart is restless till it rests in thee." We venture to put another sentence thus: I loved thee late, too late I loved thee, Lord; Yet not so late but thou dost still afford The proof that thou wilt bear with winning art One sinner more upon thy loving heart; And may I prove, when all this life is past, Though late I loved I loved thee to the last. The prodigal son of the fourth centuiy appears in the fifth as the simple child of God, the affectionate pastor, the popular preacher, the wise bishop, the eminent scholar, the prolific writer, the defender of the Church against heresies and schisms, the opposer of prelatic tyranny, the metaph)-sician, the philos- BISHOP OF HIPPO. 133 opher, whose reasonings always start out from the maxim that faith precedes scientific knowledge, and the founder of a system of theology from whose base lines all other systems have ever since been measured. They are, or they are not, Augustinian. Having been elected presbyter against his will, he was, in 395, chosen bishop of Hippo, about two hundred miles west of Carthage. The kings who once- reigned there limited their power to Numidia, and are forgotten. The bishop had vast influence in the whole Church of the West, and in that city he is still called "the great Christian." He was not quite a monk, and he once said that "he had nowhere found better men, and nowhere worse, than in monasteries." He lived with his clergy and students in one house, had all things common, and sent from it ten men who became bishops. His simple rules gave rise to the Augustinian order of monks, to which Luther be- longed. The labors of his thirty-eight years as bishop seem enormous. He was like Basil and Ambi'ose in his devotion to all the humane and spiritual affairs of his people. To him many a troubled home owed the return of sunshine after a storm, and many a captive his release. "Am I not your pastor?" he would say in his pulpit as he broke into some extempore train of thought; "I do not wish to be be saved without you — all of you, my flock." Men who write for their time are not often read in the future. Augustine wrote for his age and to it. Yet his best writings became the study of later centuries. "No important vessel has foundered of that large squadron which he committed to the stream of ages." We bring a volume of his admirable letters into port, and see how he bore himself towards the Donatists, who are sometimes put forward as the Protestants of that age. He offered the fairest terms of peace and union to the best of their clergy. He entreated them to repress the outrages of the Circumcelliones, saying: "These desperadoes laid ambush for our bishops on their journeys, abused our clergy with savage blows, and assaulted our laity in the most cruel manner, and set fire to their habitations. . . . These men are among your presbyters, keeping us in terror. . . . They live as robbers, they die as Circumcelliones, they are honored as mar- tyrs! Nay, I do injustice to robbers in this comparison, for robbers do not destroy the eyesight of those whom the\- have 134 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. [jlundered. ... If you treat all our remonstrances with contempt, we shall never regret that we desired to act in a peaceful and orderly way." He had narrowly escaped these ruffians when they waylaid him. When he first favored the ligorous measures of the Emperor Honorius against this sect it was to repress the crimes, and even murders which they shielded, and not to persecute them for their religious errors. Many of the purer Donatists submitted and entered the Church catholic, and as the penal laws seemed to produce good results he began to say: "Compel them to come in." This text was still more grievously misused in later times. But the fanatics of this sect grew more lawless, and he more severe, although he opposed the infliction of death upon them. The Manicheans were not so openly at war upon civil soci- ety. They were worse heretics, but better citizens than many of the Donatists. To them Augustine wrote: "Let those who do not know what it costs to find the truth burn against you ; but I must bear myself towards you with the same patience which my fellow-believers showed towards me while I was wan- dering in blind madness in your opinions." He knew their wretched theories and their secret sins. His experience was a .source of power in all his arguments against them and the Pel- agians, for he had learned that sin was deeply rooted in the human soul, and that nothing but divine grace could eradicate it. Augustine met every leading tenet of Pelagius with an opposite doctrine. He affirmed God's absolute sovereignty in predestination, and in all the gifts that pertain to eternal life; the fall of the whole human race, generically, in Adam; the judicial transmission of original sin to all men; the depravity of all human powers in man; a condemnation of all infants dying unbaptized; justification by faith in Christ; sanctification by the Holy Ghost; unmerited and irresistible grace, without which free will can effect no spiritual good ; and the necessity for God to move and direct the human will in salvation. When nearly seventy-six years of age Augustine saw a new enemy overrunning his diocese. The Vandals had rushed out of that vast Gothland, which bred the destroyers of the Western Empire, crossed the Rhine (405), pillaged Gaul, and settled in Spain. A foolish empress, Placidia, had threatened to remove Governor Boniface from North Africa, and he had resisted, SEMI-PELAGIANISM. I35 rebelled, and invited Genseric to come with his Vandals and defend him. Just then the empress saw her folly and recalled her orders. But it was too late. The Vandals were on the soil, supported by Moors, Donatists, and Circumcclliones. Bon iface could not drive them back. They ravaged cities, villages, and churches, and shut him up in Hippo, where Augustine was wearing out his strength in providing for the bands of refugees within the walls. The dying bishop could not do better than point the Christian general to the penitential psalms, written upon the walls near his bed, and which he read over and over with tears. The Lord took his servant from the evil to come (430).* The city fell. It seems never to have had another bishop. Carthage fell at the strike of these Arian Vandals, who subdued the whole country, ruled it, and caused scenes of terror to the catholics for nearly a century. The word Vandalism came into history. The orthodox Church made a noble record. Bishop Vigilius has been called another Athanasius, and Fulgentius, who was banished for a time with sixty bishops to Sardinia, was called the Augustine of the sixth century. In 534 the famous General Belisarius expelled the Vandals, and restored the African Church to peaceful times until the Mohammedans crushed it into the dust from which it never rose. Her first known father, Tertullian, had said that "the blood of the mar- tyrs is seed," and her last great theologian and bishop saw the harvest-field in its widest extent and its richest wealth. Hence- forth it declined and perished, showing that the Church in certain localities has not always flourished under persecution, nor retained her life after the slaughter of her children. Semi-Pelagianism took a quite mature form from John Cassian, an Eastern monk of culture, devotion, and energy. He had studied with Jerome and Chrysostom, and in his old age he said : ' ' What I have written John taught me, and it is not * Augustine wrote various works on theology, and in refutation of the Manicheans, Donatists, Arians, Pelagians, Semi-Pelagians, and Pagans. When Alaric, the Arian Goth, captured Rome, the pagans rallied and asserted that the calamities of the expiring empire were due to Christianity. He soon began hh great apology — "The City of God" — and upon it spent much of thirteen years. In it he portrays the nature of paganism, and sets forth the place and power of God's eternal city, or kingdom, in this world. This work "has re- mained to this hour the standard philosophy of history for the Church orthodox." J 36 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. SO much mine as his. For a brook rises from a spring ; from the teacher flows what is found in the pupil." John had urged repentance upon those gay people who had applauded his ser- mons and gone home to forget the ten commandments, or run to the circus ; and he meant to charge the responsibility upon them when he said : ' ' You are what you make yourselves to be. You have the remedy in your own hands ; your wills are free; that iron will can make a way for your escape from sin." Cassian went into Southern Gaul about 412, and devoted him- self to founding monasteries, and framing a theology that would be adapted to monastic life. His rules were severe against "the eight capital vices — intemperance, unchastity, avarice, anger, sadness, dullness, ambition, and pride." At Marseilles he founded two large convents, 'one of which was for nuns, and soon it had some five thousand inmates. It was the model for many nunneries. Assuming to dislike dogmas, he formulated some of his own. He decidedly opposed the chief errors of Pelagius, with whom he had labored awhile in Italy ; but thought that Augustine laid man too helpless at the foot of a Sovereign's throne. He held that all men sinned in Adam ; that all have hereditary and actual sins ; that all are naturally inclined to evil ; that all who are saved must be assisted by supernatural grace ; that grace develops the germs of virtue which God has put in man's nature ; that the human will, which is simply weakened by the fall, renders that grace effective ; that man is not spiritually dead, but sick, and can at least desire the aid of the physician, and either accept or reject it when it is offered ; that God saves while man co-operates, and that God calls, but man is elected only on condition of his faith. Predestination was explained as twofold ; the general, by which God wills the salvation of all men, and the special, by which he determines to save all who, as foreseen, will be- lieve ; hence Christ died alike for all men, and his grace is offered to all. Children dying in infancy are dealt with accord- ing to what God foresees they would become if they should live to mature years ; yet all baptized children seem to be placed among the saved.* * " Augustinianism asserts that man is morally dead; Semi-Pelagianism maintains that he is morally sick ; Pelagianism holds that he is morally iveliy (Wiggers.) NOTES TO CHAPTER VII. 137 This system made great progress in Gaul. It had its schools, and as early as 475 it controlled two synods, at Aries and Lyons, which led to a schism. In the reaction against it, a moderate Augustinianism was adopted at the Synod of Orange (529), in which Ca^sarius, the bishop of Aries, was the leading advocate. Sixty years later Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, represented the same milder doctrines. Thenceforth there were three types of doctrine in the Latin Church — those of Augustine, Cassian, and Gregory. NOTES. I. Three systems in which anthropology is prominent: I. Semi-Pelagianism, after Cassian, was advocated by several influen- tial men in the West. Vincent of Lerins (435) had his monastery on an island near Marseilles. It educated many monks, presbyters, and mission- aries. He laid down the famous test of catholic truth, " Whatever is held always, every-where, and by all, must be believed." His little "History of Heresies " does not contain his own name as that of a heretic, for he thought he was sound. Another champion was Faustus, Bishop of Riez, Piedmont (456), who devoted his eloquence and his pen to the cause, and roused no small controversy in the East. Pope Gelasius put him and Cassian down in the first Index of Prohibited Books. ''.. Moderate Augustinianism. Ctcsarius of Aries (501-542) was a model bishop and missionary, who sought to bring the Gothic conquerors of his country out of their nominal Arianism, and to secure the rights of the con- quered. By his wisdom, charity, and zeal he did much to harmonize the two races and promote civilization. Avitus of Vienne, the Milton of his time; Claudian Mamertus, the philosopher; Salvian, who wrote on "The Divine Providence," to show that the Gothic invaders were sent to chastise the Church for her sins ; Eucherius, the married Bishop of Lyons, — were representatives of the old Gallic Church in her efforts to convert the Ger- manic invaders. 3. Strict Augustinianism was defended by Prosper of Aquitaine and the la^Tnan Hilary, who informed Augustine of the views of Cassian, and thus called forth his last writings on Predestination and Perseverance. Fulgen- tius, the exiled African bishop (525), was the theological model of Gott- schalk in the ninth century. Isidore of Seville (636) was greatly admired in his time. II. E^itycJnanisni produced the Monophysite (one nature) and Mono- thelite (one will) controversies. Pope Honorius I (625-638) officially in- dorsed Monothelitism, and after his death the Sixth Gicumenical Council, 680, condemned and excommunicated him as a heretic, and this was re- peated in 787 and 869 by other councils, and by popes down to the eleventh 13-8 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. century — a case of papal fallibility on one side or the other. It also shows the power of councils. The existing Monophysites are : i . The Jacobites of Syria. 2. The Copts of Egypt and the Abyssinian Church, founded by the missionaries Frumentius and Edcsius, whom Athanasius sent out from Alexandria. 3. The Armenian Church, planted by Gregory the Illuminator. Among all these there are American and European missions. The Maron- ites of the Lebanon are the only Monothelites existing as a sect. III. The CJiurch in the East reached its highest point, theologically, at the Council of Chalcedon, in 451, and thenceforward tended more and more to a separation from the Church in the West. Excepting a few refer- ences farther on, we shall leave it with this summary. The causes of its separation from the West were mainly these : 1. It was Greek in its lan- guage and spirit. 2. It was in the Eastern Empire, and greatly subject to the emperors, who held their power until 1453, when the Turks over- threw them. 3. It differed from the West about Easter-day, celibacy, and various customs and ceremonies. 4. It refused to admit the Latin addition to the Nicene Creed ; namely, the " Filioque," or the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son, as well as from the Father. 5. In the image contro- versy of the eighth century it opposed the use of images or statues (but not pictures) in the churches, they being admitted generally in the West. 6. After the Patriarch of Constantinople gained the chief power over the Eastern Church he was not willing to be second to the Patriarch of Rome. The strife waxed hot when the Eastern patriarch was Photius, a rich noble, a very able general, the finest scholar in the Greek Church after Theodoret, and put in his chair by Emperor Michael the Drunkard, in 867. He and Pope Nicholas deposed each other, and neither would stay deposed. The new emperor, Basil, deposed and banished him, but finally recalled him. A quite similar controversy in 1054 made the separation complete, and all later attempts at reunion failed. In the fourteenth century Pope John XXII invited the Greeks to unite with the Latins ; they returned this answer : " Exercise your authority over your own creatures. As for us, we can nei- ther bear your pride nor satisfy your avarice. So the devil be with you ; the Lord is with us !" Period III. FROM LEO THE GREAT TO HILDEBRAND. a. ®. 151—1085. THE NEW EUROPE — ITS CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY AND SUBMISSION TO THE PAPACY — IN THE PROGRESS OF THESE CHANGES THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST WAS DESTROYED BY THE GERMANIC PEOPLES — THE GERMAN EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE ROSE AND FELL — THE FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN STATES WERE LAID — THE ERA OF MISSIONS — THE BENEDICTINE SYSTEM OF MONASTIC LIFE CONTRIBUTED TO CIVILIZATION, DECLINED, AND NEEDED REFORMS — CIVIL SOCIETY ABSORBED IN THE CHURCH — IGNORANCE AND SUPERSTIIION HELD SWAY — IMITATING CHARLEMAGNE, ALFRED THE GREAT ATTEMPTED TO PROMOTE EDUCATION AND SOCIAL ORDER IN ENGLAND — THE HIERARCHY CULMINATED IN THE PAPAL SYSTEM OF HILDEBRAND. Chapter VIII. ROME, HER PILLAGERS AND BISHOPS. 376-COO. I. New Peoples in Southern Europe. Rome was more than the capital ; she was the mother of the state, the creator of a realm. This is a peculiar fact. Berlin did not create Germany ; but Rome made an empire. Proud of her growth and glory, she was cruel to the Church until forced to yield ; but in yielding she sought to Romanize the kingdom of Christ. The great city must be brought low. Outside of her own pagan vices, which powerfully aided in the destruction of the empire, the two causes of her fall were Christianity and barbarism, or the Church and the Germanic peoples. The first gave a new heart to multitudes of her sub- jects, converted the throne, caused the removal of the capital, destroyed her paganism, and thus took away her heathen life. Still the old pride and imperiousness remained. She stood 139 I40 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. sullen by fireless altars, and at the closed doors of her temples, or rioted in her sins. The second cause was that very muscular force by which she had gained the mastery over the world. It took away her possessions, her cities, her provinces. The Germanic tribes had long been moving from the Baltic towards richer and sunnier lands. They had often crossed the border and made desperate battles. In the time of Theodosius they were drawn up for the final onset all along the frontier line formed by the Rhine and the Danube. The Saxons were ready to cross into Britain. The Franks were eager to step over into Gaul. The Vandals would soon pack their wagons and march into Spain. The Burgundians were pushing towards the Rhone. The two specific tribes of the Goths were on the lower Danube, only waiting to move upon Greece and Italy. How would these Germans affect society, and what would they receive from the Church? The Romans called them "the barbarians," and there surely was barbarism enough in their fierceness, their love of plunder, their modes of warfare, their social revels, and their worship of the Northern gods. But the pagan Romans seem to have been more corrupt, and less capa- ble of moral convictions. It was hard for Christianity to "do its best work on degenerate and worn-out races;" hard to rouse any moral sense in converted Greeks and Romans ; and hence the Church suffered from their lack of an active conscience. The German peoples, whom Dr. Arnold called "the regener- ating race," would require centuries of tuition ; but they would finally bring into society more honesty, more sincerity and truthfulness, a purer sense of justice, a higher regard for human rights, a nobler liberty, and a truer respect for woman as maiden, wife, or mother. They had a warmer love for kin- dred. To be kind to a man was to treat him as one of the kin. Their rough virtues put to the blush all the smooth vices of the Romans. They had healthy muscle and vigorous mind, and would change the civilization of Europe. "The barbarian invasion was, on the whole, more of a good than an evil. It was a scourge of God ; but Roman society needed scourging, and the rod was sent in mercy as well as wrath. A Avorn-out and effeminate race required strengthening by the infusion of fresh, vigorous blood. Christianity works on nature, and re- news it ; yet the renewal is modified by the condition of the THE GOTHS— ULFILAS. I4I nature on which it operates. The history of Christianity in Western Europe could not have been what it proved but for the new elements infused into European society." Thus much upon the providence and philosophy of these movements, by which the Church became the real architect of European civilization. The Goths learned Christianity from captives taken in some of their raids. They had often swept through the Greek lands, and been east of the Hellespont. The first teachers named among- them were Theophilus, who sat in the Council of Nice, and Ulfilas, or the Wolf-born, who came to Valens, in 376, and told him how the Huns were pressing hard upon his people. He asked that they might cross the Danube and live on Roman soil. Valens was too zealous an Arian to let slip the chance of making a convert, and he was likely to demand that his faith be accepted with his grant of new homes. Ulfilas was too little versed in controversial theology, and too eager for the relief of his people to suspect any great harm in Arianizing them. So he returned, and as "the Moses of the Goths" led them ' ' through the deep waters of the Danube to the Land of Promise." But the old corn of the land failed them. The emperor sent funds : the Roman officials kept them, and left the Goths to starve. The flesh of dogs and even worse rations were offered them. They bartered the best goods they had, and at last their children. From that hour Justice took their part. Ulfilas could not help their revolt. King Fritigern brought over more Goths, and even the hideous Huns came. And then the human deluge began. The invaders rushed into Thrace, pillaged and burnt cities, and recovered their children, who told tales of horror. They grew madder on their way towards the capital, and Jerome says, "They left nothing alive, not even the herds in the fields, till nothing remained but growing brambles and green forests." In 378, one million of men fought at Hadrianople, where Valens saw his army cut to pieces, fled wounded to a cottage, and in it was burnt by the Goths. They were allowed by Theodosius to settle upon the rich lands which they had overrun. Ulfilas had tried to check the war. He led his more Christian people into the Moesian valleys, where they dwelt as shepherds, and in 388 lamented his death. He left them nearly all the Bible translated into 142 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. their language. He had to construct an alphabet, inventing some of the letters. This version was carried by the Goths in their migrations as late as the ninth century. Part of it, in letters of silver and gold, apparently stamped on parchment with hot metal types, is now at Upsal, in Sweden. When Theodosius was gone, his niece was the wife of the Vandal Stilicho, a far worthier man to rule the West than Honorius, who petted chickens at Ravenna, or strolled abroad w^ith profligates. It shows to what Rome had come, when her safety depended upon the Vandal statesman and general. In 404, amid the rejoicings over his victories, and the rare visit of an emperor, the heathenism of the city was displayed. In the coliseum eighty thousand people looked down from the benches upon gladiators mauling and stabbing each other, and reddening the ground with blood. Such prize fighting always drew the Ro- man crowd. It was wild paganism, utterly defiant of the throne and the Church. The emperors had tried in vain to abolish these brutal shows. Christianity was now to meet them in a new way. When the crowd was in wild delight, an old monk, Telemachus, who had walked from some Eastern desert, sud- denly leaped into the ring, threw himself between the combat- ants, and forced their swords apart. The crowd rose, yelled, cursed, hurled missiles at the supposed madman, and he fell dead. The gladiators finished their bout. But the monk, who had laid down his life for humanity, had his victory. The em- peror enacted a law which put an end to such barbarous games. The coliseum yet stands, but the breach in its side is a symbol of the assault which Christianity made upon pagan society. Stilicho kept back daring invaders ; one of them was that mysterious Radagast, whose two hundred thousand Germans, Huns, and Vandals sat in siege around the walls of the old Florence, where heat and wine and vice did their work. (406.) '■' Like water they flowed in ; like water they sank into the soil; and every one of them a human soul." The survivors were made slaves to the Romans. The other invader was Alaric, the greatest Goth who had yet made a line of history. He had failed to obtain Stilicho's place as general, had revolted, and had fought his Avay to Athens, where he bathed and feasted, and for one day tried to behave like a Roman gentleman. He had subdued Greece, ALARIC— ROME liESIEGED. 143 and his soldiers had hfted liim on their shields, and proclaimed him king of the Visigoths. A saga whispered to him, "You will reach the Italian city by way of the Alps." So up the shore of the Adriatic and over the Alps he went, until Rome's defender checked him (408). Then Rome put to death Stilicho, the hero, the patriot, and the Christian, probably for being too loyal, or for wedding his daughter to Honorius, or in that mad- ness which was a token of her destruction. This outrage sent thirty thousand Roman soldiers into the army of Alaric, who leaped to the gates of Rome, and sat down before her walls. The Romans began to starve and die. In the famine mothers devoured their little children. The pagans clamored for their gods and altars to be restored. The senate stripped the gold plates from the doors of the capitol to make up a ransom. They went to Alaric, but he scorned their money, their pride, and their despair. They boasted of their numbers — more than a million citizens. He laughed, saying, "The thicker the grass the easier it is mowed." More gold was offered ; he grew more serious, and when asked what would satisfy him, he answered, "All your treasures — all the German captives whom you hold as slaves." He had a touch of mercy for his kindred. When asked, "What will you leave us?" he replied, "Your lives." They bought him off. He added the forty thousand liber- ated slaves to his army. He might have asserted himself king of Italy, but he claimed to be the vassal of the emperor, who went on fighting Jews and heretics rather than Goths, and in- flaming pagans by overturning altars, converting temples into churches, and taking the income of heathen priests to pay his body-guards. In vain did Bishop Innocent try to kindle in his soul a love for Italy, and wisdom enough to unite all parties in one cause. Amid a confusing series of events Alaric was in- sulted by the emperor, at Ravenna, and marching in Gothic wrath upon Rome, he pillaged it for five days (409). Pelagius saw in the woes of the time a picture of the last judgment. Augustine wrote De Civitate Dei to set forth the philosophy of history, show that Christianity was not justly chargeable with the barbarian conquests, and comfort the Church with the assurance that the City of God, enduring on earth and eternal in the heavens, shall outlast all cities and empires of men. It is the last great Apology from the Ancient Church. 144 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. What were the effects of this event upon the Christians, the Churches, and the city? Of course in the wild tumult there were intense sufferings, lawless attacks upon innocence, and the shedding of blood. But there was no special assault upon catholics. It was not meant to be a war upon orthodoxy. The Arian Goths in the city put to shame the Arian Greeks in their councils, and laid some restraint upon the savage Huns who served in their army. Plunder seems to have been the main object of the leaders. The aged Marcella, the friend of Jerome, famed for her noble rank and her piety, was beaten in order to wring from her the treasures thought to be hiddeji, but really expended in charity. Her patience and courage softened the heart of the spoiler, and his rough hand led her to one of the churches, where she was safe. Among the num- berless captives sold into slavery, or people driven into exile, there must have been hundreds of Christians. Augustine gave some of them shelter and secured to them means of support. Jerome saw them coming to Bethlehem, begging at the convent door. Who knows what kindly refuges the monasteries were at that time? The churches, twenty-six of them, were generally respected. Alaric said, "I wage war upon the Romans, not upon the apostles." The churches of St. Peter and St. Paul were turned into asylums and guarded by soldiers. The pagans ran to them for safety. While nothing in a heathen temple was too sacred to be left, the treasures of the churches and convents were not often disturbed. A Gothic captain, entering some Christian building, met an aged nun or deaconess, and civilly asked for the gold and silver in her care. She promptly set before him an array of massive plate that astonished him. "These," said she, "belong to St. Peter. Take them if you dare, and answer to God for the deed." He was awe-struck. He sent an inquiry to Alaric. The reply was, "Bring them into St. Peter's Church." And then a body of Goths formed a procession, placed the nun and her associates in line, with the sacred vessels on their heads, and began the stately march. A crowd of Christians fell into the ranks ; psalms were sung ; cheers rose from the streets, and many thought that after all these Goths were men of humane hearts. The effects upon the city were beyond estimate. She was EFFECTS ON THE PAPACY. I45 never again the old Rome with her former wealth, grandeur, haughtiness, luxury, idolatries, and pagan society. Emperors had tried in vain to banish the gods and the vices. Jehovah's decree sent Alaric, and the scarlet woman began to walk in whiter robes upon the seven hills. "It was pagan Rome, the Babylon of sensuality, pride, and idolatry, which fell before Alaric ; the Goths were the agents of divine vengeance against the paganism which lingered in this its last stronghold." There was another effect in the direction of the papacy. "If Chris- tian Rome thus rose out. of the ruins of the pagan city, the Bishop of Rome rose in proportionate grandeur above the wreck of the old institutions and scattered society. The cap- ture of Rome by Alaric was one of the great steps by which the pope arose to his plenitude of power. From this time the greatest man in Rome was the pope." He alone had any real power that was permanent. Alaric moved southward, and at Nola made a well treated prisoner of Paulinus, who had been a consul, then a monk, and was now a bishop with a wife. He bestowed his immense estates upon missions, church erection, and monasteries. If no other warm friend of Augustine fared worse than "this emi- nent and holy servant of God" did in the hands of Alaric, it was proof that the Arianism of these Goths was not so fierce as that of the Vandals. In the far south of Italy the conqueror stood on the shore shipping his men for Sicily. A storm wrecked their boats. He suddenly died, in 410, and was buried in the river-bed near Cosenza. His followers, under Ataulf, brother-in-law of Honorius, marched into the lands on both sides of the Pyrenees, where the Visigothic kingdom was founded, with Toulouse as the capital. Thus a strong Arian power was established in the West, very threatening to the orthodox Church. In Gaul the Visigoth took from his con- quered neighbor half the forest, two-thirds of the farm, and one-third of the serfs, and the Gallo-Roman submitted, with the politeness of a modern Frenchman, calling his surrender "hos- pitality" to his intrusive guest. "So both sides took matters philosophically, and amalgamation began forthwith." They must have united to put down the Bagaudes, or rebellious peasants, in one of whose frequent insurrections Autun, with ner Latin schools, was destroyed. Interpreting these conquests to 1^6 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. in his book on the Providence of God, Salvian (440), the Gallic Jeremiah, thought that the sins of his Church were enough to bring upon it the invaders. In his strongly drawn contrasts, tlie new peoples appear less debased by luxury, idleness, theaters, and vices, than the older Christian inhabitants. "They are heretics, but they know it not; the truth is on our ^ide, but they think they have it ; they err, but their intention is right." He means that the rudest impulses of barbarism are more excusable than the refined vices of civilization ; weeds on the common are not so unsightly as grass in a corn-field. In Spain the Visigoths made a deadlier assault on the cath- olic Church. They stabled their horses in monasteries, fought down bishops, forbade councils, burnt creeds, silenced believers, and so repressed the Nicene faith that it has been represented as dying there v/ithout a cry. It found no toleration in Spain for more than a century, and no chartered rights until King Recared (586) accepted and established the Nicene creed. II. Rise of the Papacy. Evidently the papacy was not a divine gift to the Church, but a human growth within it. By degrees St. Peter was regarded as the official primate of the apostles ; imperial Rome as the seat of his power; and her bishops as his successors in authority. But for a long time the Roman bishops hardly dreamed that residence in a grand city made them great men, nor that Roman imperialism was the divinely ordained type of Christian episcopacy. After the year 200 we begin to find glimpses of assumptions and claims to a limited primacy over Churches at a distance, but presbyters and bishops did not sus- tain them.'^ The notable instance of the local Council of Sardica (343), of which so much is still made, amounts to this: Permission was granted to Bishop Julius to act in a possible case of appeal — one that might come from such a bishop as Athanasius, recently deposed by the Arians — and Julius was specially named, as if he were a commission with delegated "•Cyprian conceded to the Roman bishop high honor on account of his po- sition at Rome and in "the chair of St. Peter," but he said in the Council of Carthage, 254, "None of us ought to set himself up as a bishop of bishops, or pretend tyrannically to restrain his colleagues." He knew how Peter had writ- ,ten, "I am a co-presbyter." (i Peter v, i.) INNOCENT I. 147 power to ratify the deposition or to call a new council, or to institute a new trial in a synod of other bishops. It was a nc x and special method adapted to Arian times. His wisdom was trusted ; nothing of supreme power, as Bishop of Rome, was conceded to him. His act was prescribed, and when done, his commission ended. True, he was appointed "in honor to the memory of the holy Apostle Peter;" but the memory of Peter did not mean the supremacy of Peter nor of his sup- posed successor. Still later, the Roman bishop was on an official equality with the "pope," or primate, or patriarch of certain other cities ; and each of them held a position accorded to him by a Church which had gradually passed from presbytery to prelacy. What raised the Bishop of Rome above this equality? Various causes: such as residence in the Mother City of the empire; pastoral care of the alleged "Mother Church" of the West; a supposed analogy between him and the emperor, to whose throne Rome had never surrendered the title ; requests for advice, and appeals by persons dissatisfied with the acts of synods and of other bishops ; the Germanic invasions, which led the oppressed Church to look to him as a spiritual father; his patronage of missions among the new- peoples ; the fall of the old empire in the West ; but especially the ambition, claims, and abilities of a succession of great men in the episcopal chair. These men asserted and elevated its dignity and power. Innocent I (402-417), a man of excellent life, the patriot, the noblest Roman of the time, took up the twofold doctrine that Peter was the primate of the apostles, and the Roman bishop was the official successor of Peter. These points were more easily assumed than proved, but with bold men and their admirers assumption is proof. "Upon his mind appears first distinctly to have dawned the vast conception of Rome's universal supremacy ; dim as yet and shadowy, yet full and comprehensive in its outline." Having taken the side of Chry- sostom in the great Eastern quarrel, he won the favor of the better and wiser bishops in the East. His support of Augustine secured him favor in the West. But he was far from being acknowledged as the sovereign of the whole Church. These powers were asserted more boldly by Celestine (423-432), who is claimed to have sent St. Patrick to Ireland, and who gained 148 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. some new timber for his chair in the Nestorian controversy. He let the rival patriarchs do all the shameful fighting, and managed to get out of it a victory for his office. When his letters were read at the General Council of Ephesus the shout arose, "Thanks to the second Peter, Celestine, and to the second Paul, Cyril ; to Celestine, the protector of the faith and unanimous with the Council. One Celestine, one Cyril, one faith in the Council, one faith throughout the world." Such was the new creed in favor of the Papacy and incipient Eutychianism ! Leo the Great (440-461) was elected with popular enthu- siasm. No man of sucli commanding intellect and clear knowl- edge of theology had ever sat in the chair. We saw how his letter was the basis of the creed of Chalcedon. His biography would be the history of his times, often called "the Age of Leo." He was the first Roman bishop whose popular ser- mons have come down to us. He was a Christian Cato, rebuk- ing vice, and laying down the law ; a man of no imagination, no warmth, but plain, solid doctrine, and a full creed concern- ing Christ. He condemned the whole race of heretics, who he thought did not deserve any benefit of law, Gospel, or charity. Assuming_that his was the chair of St. Peter, he wrote, "In his chair dwelleth the everliving power, the super- abounding authority. Let the brethren, therefore, acknowledge that he is the primate of all bishops, and that Christ imparts his gifts to none except through him." To protest against the practice of this high doctrine, Hilary of Aries walked through the snows over the Alps, without even a mule to carry his robes and his evidence ; and he set f6rth the basis of the ' ' Gal- ilean Liberties," so famous in the ages down to P^re Hyacinthe, when he said that no Gallic bishop could justly appeal to Rome, nor the Roman bishop entertain an appeal in a case out- side of the Roman diocese.* But Leo had his claims backed by the Emperor Valentinian HI, who asserted that the empire was protected mainly by the Christian faith and Church, and that the peace of the Church depended on the primacy of the Roman see. Hilary submitted. He was famous for his be- *An offending bishop should be tried in his own diocese, and he might appeal to some higher Council. Augustine and others had been of Hilary's mind. ATTILA, THE HUN. I49 nevolence, and foi redeeming captives from the Visigoths and Burgundians. His eloquent sermons were sometimes four hours long, and the people, as a novelty, brought seats into the cathedral. These were the days of Attila. the Hun, who may have been " the most powerful heathen I^ing that ever ruled in Europe," for his confederation of tribes may have extended from the Baltic to the borders of China. A woman's ring led him to think of adding the West to his realm. Somewhere in Hungary his headquarters grew into a city of tents and hovels. His wives and warriors indulged in golden wares, and luxuries, but a wooden plate was good enough for him, and he never tasted bread. His boast was, that where his horses trod, the grass never grew again. In his greatest campaign, he shot across the German lands, with a vast army of Huns and all sorts of- vagabond tribes, and fell upon Gaul. " Who art thou?" asked Bishop Lupus, of Troyes, who knew how to fight Pelagians, and would not run from a heathen host. "I am Attila, the scourge of God." The invader did not sack the town, as was his custom, but took the gentle monk with him as a safe- guard. At Chalons, in 451, was fought one of the great deci- sive battles of historyT The men of the West forgot all their differences of creed and race, for their country and the Churches of Christ were in danger. For once were united Gaul, Bur- gundian and Visigoth, Frank, Breton, and Saxon, Arian, Augus- tinian and Semi-Pelagian, in one common interest, and they won the day, l5ut with immense slaughter. Attila and his hordes rolled away into Italy, intent upon Rome. Cities paid him vast sums to be spared, or fell by his strokes. When he drew near "the Eternal City," Leo came out to meet him, and bought him off by allowing him the dowry of that crafty prin- cess Honoria, who had started this avalanche of woes when she sent her ring to him and asked him to be the champion of her political schemes, if not to become her husband. He marched away across the Danube, where a German girl, just added to his wives, best knew how "the scourge of God" came suddenly to his earthly end. He seems to have been stabbed in his house. Another woman had her plot. The Empress Eudoxia brought over from Carthage the Vandal sea-rover, Genseric, 150 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. to be her champion. He spent fourteen days, of the year 455, in pillaging Rome, sent to Carthage ship-loads of treasure and captives, and carried off the empress, who paid dearly for her treasons. Again the bishops of those cities were active in car- ing for the bereaved, the impoverished, the prisoners, the exiles, and in ransoming Christians from slavery. Here is one feature of that age ; the Church was not un- der persecution for her faith, except in Africa, and among the Visigoths ; but she was almost every-where in the West under pillage. To impress this fact we have dwelt somewhat upon the Germanic invasions. No one can tell the distress of the Christians in these dreary years. The name of a later town is often the only record of the agony, Wimpfen (women's pain), on the track of Attila, shows the spot where women suffered untold horrors. Churches fell and Christians fled, and when the tramp of his horses was heard at Metz, the pastors hastened to baptize the infants, for rumors told them to expect a general massacre. He left that flourishing city a scene of blood and ashes ; only a solitary chapel was spared to mark the site. The Goths were not so savage as the Huns. We may find the Franks still less murderous. But the Saxons, after 449, were driving the ancient Britons from their homes, and Gildas says that ' ' priests and people, churches and dwellings, were involved in one common ruin." The England thus formed was completely under Teutonic paganism. There the early Church — feeble at best — was so erased that her story comes to us in legends. The southern invaders wrought great changes. And yet we may be misled by such phrases as ' ' the deluge of barba- rians," and "the dissolution of society," and imagine too much. We may think that in the whole West one people came and another left ; or that the invaders made slaves of all the former inhabitants. But the new-comers usually took the richer towns and cities, seized the powers of government, compromised with the older people, and ruled the two mingled races with some degree of equality and fairness. In most of Gaul the Church stood forth sublimely amid the rapine and ruin, and sought to convert the conquerors. When the Arian Visigoths and Bur- gundians were most severe upon the orthodox bishops and pastors, it was for reasons very creditable to the older Church. f THE CHURCH UNDER TILLAGE. i:i To her the native people looked as their most willin^cy defender. "It was the bishop who administered justice, redressed griev- ances, appeased tumults, sheltered the fugitive in the asylum of his palace, and alleviated by his charity the miseries of war." Many Roman gentlemen, officials and senators in Gaul, such as Kucherius and Sidonius, lost their civil positions and became bishops.* Such men carried forward some elements of Roman law, language, and literature. They preserved much of the old civilization as a basis for modern France. In the very years of the great changes many pastors held their ground. Their suffering Churches remained. They convened more than twenty synods at such towns as Lyons and Aries, and twenty, thirty, forty-four bishops were present. Those bishops became the great men in society, and often at the courts of the new kings. They mediated between the two races. They knew more of the Roman law than the barbarians. They became magistrates and governors in the cities. The tendency was to grow more secular, more ambitious. Hence the power of the bishops in the Middle Ages. In these wars and compromises between races may be found some causes of the decline of piety and learning, the decay of schools, the flight of many Christians into monastic life, the rearing of monasteries and their use as refuges, and the laws of Bishop Leo, who made every church an asylum, as sacred as the refuge city of the Hebrews. We have seen what power Leo claimed for the Bishop of Rome. He was as zealous to see every other bishop hold a pOwer over the presbyters in his diocese, and the presbyter (priest) maintain high authority ov^er the people of his charge. It seems that private confession to a priest came into vogue. * Notice the dates, localities, and religious of the new nations: 1. Arian — The Vandals and Suevi in Spain in 409, and Vandals in Africa, 429-534: Visigoths in Spain, 419-711, and in Gaul, 422-507: Burguhdians on the Rhone, 420-534: Heruli in Italy, 476-493, and subdued by the Ostrogoths who ruled Italy, 493-553 : Lombards ruled in Italy, 568-774. 2. Heathen — The Saxons in Britain, 449, but Christianized after 596: All the peoples alofig the east bank of the Rhine and in the Swiss Alps until the seventh century. 3. Orthodox — The Franks, in northern Gaul, about 412: Converted about 496 under Clevis, who drove the Arian Visigoths southward, and they became orthodox about 586, under Recared. The Burgundians orthodox after 510, and t.he Lombards in 595. 152 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. All this helped to centralize the Church in four ways: i. The Church became the center of society. The building was the common resort and refuge. The very holidays were the Church festivals. The German Yule tide and Easter were identified with the Church Christmas and paschal feast. Fewer people then than now dared to be non-professors, unbelievers and scoffers ; the majority were nominal Christians. Civil society was absorbed in Church society : the one became more eccle- siastical, the other compromised too much with pagan customs. 2. The priest, or pastor, became the center of the Church. His word was social law ; his deeds the common talk. By him the children were baptized and the parents blessed ; to him the penitent confessed his sins, and came for relief in his sorrows. 3. The bisliop wasthe center of the priests, or pres- byters, of a diocese, and the central personage in a large group of churchly communities. In the same way the archbishop had a broader influence over bishops and in synods. 4. The Bishop of Rome must be pope,* and the center of the whole system. Leo aimed at this; the times in the West 'lavbred him ; the tribulated pastors and people wanted an adviser, helper, father ; and the converted kings began to ask his coun- sel and mediation. Thus the new Europe was forming, and from child up to king, from peasant up to pope, all classes of people were com- ing into new relations. With all her errors, the Church of the West did much good work in the new civilization. "In Gaul the early Church was the one great antagonist of the wrongs Avhich were done upon the earth ; she narrowed the range of fiscal tyranny ; she mitigated the overwhelming poverty of the people; she promoted the accumulation of capital; she contrib- uted to the restoration of agriculture ; she balanced and held in check the imperial despotism;" she revived the uses of free voices and free votes, and did more for learning and liberty than any other institution or philosophy of that age. We regret her mistakes; but wise reapers will thankfully gather what sheaves there are, rather than idly censure tiie plowman for not securing a perfect harvest. ®The title pope, abba, papa, father, had been applied to nearly all bish ops, then to the patriarchs, and in the West it was gradually, limited to the Bishop of Rome. FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 1 53 III. Fall of the Western Empire. Bishop Leo died in 461, at a time when good emperors Hke Majorian could do nothing with a bad people, and usurpers cared more for themselves than their country. Count Ric- imer, a king-maker, sacked Rome to show that he owned Italy, the only remnant of the Western Empire. Another king-maker and king-remover was Orestes, who thought that his old master, Attila, had been too honest, open-hearted, and magnanimous in dealing with Rome. He set up his little sorf as ruler in 475, calling him Romulus Augustulus, after Rome's first king and first emperor. In him the old empire of the West practically ended forever.* For Odoacer (Odoaker) came down from the None Alps to seek his fortune. The story is that he was the chief of some robbers, and visited the cell of St. Severinus, the missionary near Vienna, to ask his blessing. The door was low, he was tall, and as he stooped the monk thought him very humble and great in spirit. "Go to Italy in your sorry furs," said the adviser; "you will soon be rich enough to give gifts." Odoacer t served in the army, revolted, slew Orestes, and, in 476, sent Romulus Augustulus to spend his crownless days in a splendid villa near Naples, from which he and his relatives could look upon Vesuvius and think of social earthquakes. After he was gone, that villa, in which the epicure Lucullus had spent millions upon art and dinners, was converted into a church and monastery, and there the bones of St. Se\erinus;|: were laid, as if it were to stand as the memorial of the revolu- tions and systems of long ages. Odoacer brought in the Heruli, with other tribes, and be- came a wise, valorous, moderate king. An Arian, yet tolerant ; a barbarian, yet a civilizer, ruling Italy seventeen years and "keeping some sort of rude order and justice in that wretched land," but scarcely aware that as he had done unto others so should it be done unto him. He introduced the feudal system * Theoretically it was continued until 1806. See Note IV. The "Middle Ages " are sometimes reckoned from 476. See Note V. tHis brother Hunwolf, Onulf, Welf, or Guelf, went to Bavaria and there reared Guelfs, who made a name in the later wars and on the thrones of Europe, one of them now reigning in England. i Note YI. 154 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. by giving to his followers one-third of the lands. He left two- thirds to the native people, and sought to elevate them by industry and better morals. Now comes Theodoric the Great, leading the Ostrogoths out of the Moesian VaITeys~and^ovef the Alps; a great host of them on a Winter-march, with wives and children, wagons and cattle, grinding their corn in hand-mills, roasting game at the camp- fires, carrying their shivering sick and burying little children, bringing the Bible of good Ulfilas, and Arian priests to keep alive their faith. Three years of war, a treaty, a feast at Ravenna, the slaying of Odoacer in some unjust way, and The- odoric was master of Italy (493), and founder of the kingdom of the Ostrogoths. There he Tuled for thirty-three years with a vigor, justice, and parental care not paralleled in that age, if in any age before Alfred the Great, who seems to have imitated him. He did not pillage Rome nor oppress the Italians. The unruly Heruli were scattered elsewhere, the peaceful well settled. Exiled Romans were brought home. Wars were ended in Italy for the present. Law was restored, each race abiding by its own. The police was so strict that merchants thronged from all parts, and it was loosely said that a man might leave his gold on his firm as safely as in a walled city. The races began to cherish that mutual admiration which helps to make good society. The two great rulers then in the West were Theodoric and Cjovis, the king of the Franks. They conquered the provinces lying between them until their kingdoms touched, and on the border the Arian and the Nicean monarchs shook hands in peace. Each of them formed alliances with the new nations by marriages. Among all of them there was a common language, and the same minstrel might sing his rude ballads at the courts of Ravenna, Paris, Toulouse, and Dijon, and be surer of ap- plauses than liberal pay.^ One fact is notable on the side of "■•■Out of those times grew two sorts of literature: I. The heroic minstrelsy and poetry concerning the German warriors. Even Attila becomes the Etzel of the Nibelungen Lied. Theodoric is Dietrich the Strong of Verona. The heroes are so transformed that one can scarcely recognize them. For a long time Germany has the Minnesingers and France the Troubadours. The Celts have their bards and minstrels. 2. The heroic legends in the Church, con- cerning persons who are supposed to have miraculously defended churches and towns against the invaders; e. g., Genoveva, the peasant maiden, warded off Attila from Paris, and to this day is one of her guardian saints. TOLERATION. I55 orthodoxy: the Gothic princesses who were married to cathoHcs readily gave up their Arianism, while the Prankish princesses, who married Arians, adhered to the catholic faith. However, Albofleda, the sister of Clovis, must have become an Arian after she married Theodoric. This Gothic king gave his fol- lowers fully one-third of the lands. He did not care to edu- cate them, saying: "The boy who trembles at a rod will never face a lance." He had no son, but his daughter, Amalasuntha, "the heavenly beauty," received a high culture for the time. When she became the ruler, her determination to have her son learn the Roman sciences brought a revolt of the Gothic court- iers, a conflict of races, and those plots which ruined the kingdom. The great failure was in not giving a common law and a common education to the mingling races. The people became industrious, more w^ealthy, quite highly civilized, and happy. Paganism was under ban, but Theodoric was the first great ruler who was effectively tolerant to all parties of the Christian religion. If the catholics were treated with some severity in his last years it was mainly the fault of the Eastern monks and em- perors. When a "pillar-saint"* controlled throne and Church at Constantinople, a Gothic king might well be disgusted. During his reign the Church in Rome and in the East presented little else than a series of contentions. He saw the rivals for the bishop's chair at Rome in hot strife, and said: "Let the man w^ho has had the most votes and been ordained first be pope," w^iich was good sense. The Jews were assailed by the *In 423 Symeon the Stylite began this sort of hermitry, when he wenl into the desert, not far from Antioch, reared a pillar and stood on its top. He finally made it sixty feet high. On it he lived thirty-seven years, engaged in devotions, preaching orthodox sermons, drawing vast crowds of pilgrims, and securing praises even from the good Theodoret. He is said to have been the means of converting many pagans; kings and emperors sought his blessing. He attempted to settle the controversies in the Church. He had imitators in the East far down to the twelfth century. Western bishops forbade this sort of holiness. In Theodoric's time the chief of these "Holy Birds" was Daniel, who stood thirty-three years on his column four miles from Constantinople, the prophet, the oracle of the capital, and surpassing Symeon in his power over the Church and the state. Once he appeared in the city to decide the fate of an empire, and place Theodoric's old master, Zeno, on the throne. Zeno sought to secure peace in the Eastern Church with the "Form of Union" (Henoticon), but failed. 156 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. catholics; his decree was, "Arrest the ring-leaders;" but, as they could not be singled out, he said: "Let the whole cath- olic community restore the losses and rebuild the synagogues." When this was refused he grew severe, and probably allowed one chapel at Verona to be burnt. He took from the catholic Italians their swords and allowed them to carry only a common knife. The Arians were assailed in the East and West, and he wrote to the upstart Emperor Justin: "To pretend to a domin- ion over the conscience is to usurp the prerogative of God. By the nature of things the power of sovereigns is confined to political government. They have no rights over any except disturbers of the public peace. The most dangerous heresy is that of a sovereign who separates himself from a part of his subjects 'because they believe not as he believes." These, says Milman, are "golden words, but mistimed about twelve hun- dred years." Justin and John, the Roman bishop, along with certain senators, were plotting to bring Italy under the power of the Eastern throne. This led Thedoric to suspect, wrongly, doubt- less, the loyalty of two of the noblest Romans, Boethius and his father-in-law Symmachus. Gibbon says: "The senator, Boeth- ius, is the last of the Romans whom Cato or Tully could have acknowledged for their countrymen." He lived from 470 to 525, and rose to high honor under Theodoric, who thought that all past learning, philosophy, and logic were concentrated in his secretary. When the Goth was old and annoyed by the Eastern persecutions and plots, he listened to the charges involving treason, and threw Boethius into prison, where he wrote his book on the "Consolations of Philosophy," so greatly admired ever since, the regret being that it scarcely gives evi- dence that the author was a Christian. The sad result was that the philosopher was horribly tortured to death; the last blow was from a club. "It was not Hercules who dealt it; rather was it Hercules who died." Symmachus was beheaded. The story is that soon afterwards Theodoric, now seventy-four, Avas at dinner ; a large fish was brought in ; its head seemed to him like that of Symmachus, the leader of the senate, when it was on the block. He rose up in horror, took to his bed, felt the mortal chill, and died (526), confessing that the execution of those noble men lay heavy on his soul. THE BENEDICTINE MONKS. 1 57 Another of his ministers of state was Cassiodorus, who ren- dered all possible aid to the successors of Theodoric against the wiles and armies of Justinian,* until the fate of the Gothic kingdom was sealed by the victories of General Belisarius, the conqueror of the Vandals, and captor of Rome. Then the scholar resumed his hood, returned to the monastery he had founded in Calabria, and wrote history and scientific compends which became text-books in the schools of the Middle Ages. IV. The Benedictine Monks. Theodoric was not admired by the monks, nor did he per mit any of his Goths to enter convents. No doubt he despised them as heartily as men now do, who think that a monk of the fourth century was the miserable wreck of humanity which they find in the fourteenth. Yet at the very time when he wab repairing the wasted cities of Italy, young Benedict^ of Nuisia was reforming the monastic system, and gaining a wider and more lasting influence than ever followed a Caesar, There had been monasteries in Europe ever since the exiled Athanasius had his cells near Rome and Treves. They had increased rap idly. The system was better than that of the East; the monks were not so meditative, and far more missionary ; not trying to get so far out of the world, but going into it to subdue its paganism, convert barbarians, and comfort the poor. It had about it less hermitry, less shabbiness, less glorying in rags and self-righteousness, less laziness and ignorance. It did not send such wild troops of unwashed devotees into the cities to aid a fighting bishop, nor send fanatics into the desert to stand upon pillars and rob devotion of its common sense. There were exceptions on each of the continents, and Basil represents the practical conventism of the East. His rules were carried into the West, where the monk often lived amid his books, or with his ax and shovel turned forests into harvest fields. But monasticism in its best estate was an error. Its theory of life was wrong. It centered a monk's thoughts about him- self, in the effort to destroy self. Its principle of seclusion ignored the social virtues, the duties of man to man, the privi- leges of home and kindred, the love and law of the family, and the very modes of living which God has enjoined. It perverted * Note I to this chapter. 158 HISTORY 01 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Scripture and nature, when celibacy and solitude were ac- counted as modes of holiness. It drew men and women away from the open field of common life, in which they may best fight the moral battle, and conquer their temptations and their sins, after they have put on the whole armor of God in the lonely place of prayer. The solitary was apt to become morbid, •ndolent, conceited, or full of trust in his routine of devotions. Men living together for years, without any other society, be- came coarse, uncleanly, idle, and too often licentious. Women in convents had their follies and besetting sins. No doubt many overcame the evils inherent in the system, and are justly enrolled among the saints. Despite the evils, inherent and developed, monasticism did exist as a fact in the Divine Provi- dence, and we can not ignore some benefits to the Church and civilization from the monks of the West.* In Benedict, the Roman noble became a monk. He was born a baron over four hundred towns and villages. Cicero's friend, Anicius, founded a house which had not lost its glory in the time of Augustine, who praised its virtues. One branch of it sent Gregory the Great into the papal chair, and another sent out Benedict as a reformer. He was born in 480 at Nursia, and was placed early in the schools of Rome, where the sins of the people tempted him. To be "religious" in that day was to be a monk. When fifteen years of age he entered a cave at Sublacum, on a lake thirty miles east of Rome. His fame brought thither kindred souls, and about that holy grotto a large convent afterward rose. He became abbot of a monas- tery, tried to reform lax monks, and taught the sons of wealthy Romans. There twelve cloisters were built, lands were cleared, farms were tilled. Leaving these in good hands, and seeking *"The history of monasteries presents enormous corruptions on the one hand and vigorous attempts at reform on the other. It would be easy, first to cite numerous passages showing the idleness, profligacy, and crime which ex- isted in the abodes of reputed sanctity, and then to add as many more indicat- ing the sorrow which such excesses inspired in nobler minds. Two great re- formers arose, sincere and earnest — Benedict and Bernard; others, animated by the same spirit, came in between them. It was a battle all the way through be- tween an unnatural system and nature itself." (Stoughton, Ages of Christendom.) The same remarks will apply to the Church in general, through the Middle* Ages, for the corruptions, superstitions, pretended miracles, wild legends, and abuses of power were not confined to the monasteries, although they so absorbed the life of the Church that it became monastic, and lost its origmal form and nature. MONTE CASSINO— THE BENEDICTINE RULE. 159 ■to escape the hinderances and plots of a dissolute priest, he went, in 529, southward to Monte Cassino, near Naples, routed a band of robbers, or converted them, destroyed a pagan altar, and on the ruins of an old temple of Apollo he reared what Montalembert calls "the most powerful and celebrated monas- tery in the catholic universe; celebrated especially because Benedict there wrote his Rule, and formed the type which was to serve as a model to innumerable communities of monks." His sister Scholastica built a nunnery in the neighborhood. He and she met but once a year, on a mountain side. In his new enterprise he labored fourteen years till his death. Though a layman, as all mere monks were, he preached through the sur- rounding country, superintended the increasing numbers of his brethren, made his monastery a great farm-house, manufactory, school, church, asylum, hospital, and home. It was noted in those warring times for its morality and law. He was thirty years perfecting his Rule, or regulations. At the basis were the three vows of "poverty, chastity, and obe- dience." He doubtless saw that "indolence, self-will, and self- ishness were the three arch-demons of the cloister," as they are of the outer world, and he sought a remedy : not the best, yet not worse than the vices to be cured. All property was held in common : no monk owned even a pen, or tablet, or book ; all belonged to the institution, and must be borrowed of the abbot. The monk must regard himself as isolated from home, kindred, society, country, and all mankind; he was no longer a son, brother, friend or patriot. His three employ- ments were worship, reading, and manual labor, along with no little meditation and penance. The one hundred and fifty Psalms were chanted through every week, and the whole Bible seems to have been read in allotted portions. The fasts and festivals of the Church were observed. The men rotated in work at the bakery, mill, stables, and shops. Groups of them toiled on the farm in silence. The plan of a uniform costume was new. The color was black, though the style was that of the common shepherds and farmers. It was retained after the worldly people ran to a new fashion. The good brother could be promoted to some office in the convent, or to the work of a teacher, or a lay preacher, or be sent to organize a new monastery. lOO HISTORY OF THE CHRISITAN CHURCH. Some of the good results of the system were seen in five directions, affecting hfe in all phases and conditions, i. hi agriadture. We could name monks who went into a wilderness, reared a hut which developed into a group of convent build- ings, broadened the garden into a farm, made the valley cheer- ful with harvests, rented their lands to tenants, until there grew up a village Avith its chapel, or a city with its cathedral. Farmer Benedict did not dream that his followers would become the landlords of the finest estates of Europe, and too many of them revel in wealth. 2. In hospitality. The convent door was open to penniless footmen, and the fugitives from war, fam- ine and plague. The hospice on some dreary road was especially meant for travelers, pilgrims, and peasants driven out of their homes by feudal lords. That of St. Bernard, on the top of the Alps, still remains, the oldest existing one of its kind, built there in 962 by Bernard, a nobleman of Savoy. Nunneries were long the chief places where sad women and sorrowing children were sure to find sisters of charity. 3. In human rights. Christianity had long preached that every human being was a man, that the meanest slave had a soul, and that a malefactor once found a Redeemer by his side on the cross. This doctrine was not to be learned in a day, but the monks helped to teach it when they protected the weak against the strQng. For centuries there was scarcely a middle class, a "third estate" between the nobles and the laborers. The peasants were sold along with the lands. But in the monasteries the rule was to treat rich and poor alike; the half-witted serf who had not sense enough to serve the king might serve the abbot and have his rights. The brave and vigorous enlisted in the army under a feudal lord or a fighting bishop : the timid, delicate, and studi- ous went into a convent, to escape insult and brutal force. 4. In missions and education. These A\'ere not prominent in Benedict's plan, but he did not ignore them. "The monastery became the mission-house for the surrounding heathen, and a homestead amid barbarous wilds." We shall find the later schools connected with the parish church and the convent. 5. In literature. Benedict ordered his monks to collect and copy books. Fortunately for the classics, he said nothing about their nature, as if he thought them all religious, and thus an open door was left for the poets, historians, orators, and philos- "Q/U^irv^ GREGORY, BISHOP OF ROME. l6r ophers of ancient Greece and Rome. His brother monk Mau rus built the first Benedictine monastery in France — that of St. Maur on Loire, near Angers — and it became famous for its manuscript editions of Bibles, the Fathers, and the classics, dur- ing the Middle Ages, and for printed editions of them, and of various original works in history and theology, since the six- teenth century. This example was widely imitated. The art of illumination rendered their books elegant. Hallam says, ' ' The Abbey of Cluny had a rich library of Greek and Latin authors. But few monasteries of the Benedictine rule were destitute of one. It was their pride to collect, and their busi- ness to transcribe books. . . . Almost all we possess of the Latin classical literature, with the exception of a small number of more ancient manuscripts, is owing to the industry of these monks." We may wisely heed the proverb, "Speak no ill of the bridge that carries you over the stream." * V. Gregory, Bishop of Rome. The great monk was three years in his grave when his rel- ative, the great Bishop Gregory I, was born in 540 at Rome, just a century after Leo had taken the chair. He was well educated, very rich, a senator, and governor of the city at the age of thirty. He built seven monasteries, and, quitting pol- itics, retired to one of them, where he began with the most menial services, and rose to the office of abbot, very rigid in his discipline. The story is that he one day saw, in the slave- market at Rome, some fair-haired Saxon boys and girls exposed for sale. When told that they were "Angli," he replied, "Non Angli, sed Angeli" — not Angles (English), but angels. Other puns were mingled with his compassion, and he resolved to be a missionary to the Saxons of Britain. He got fairly on the way Avhen the pope checked him, and sent him as a legate "j to Constantinople. There he wrote his Commentary on Job, finding in that profound book nearly all natural and Christian theology, ethics, philosophy, and the sacraments. Upon his return the Romans saw him courageously active during a fam- ine and pestilence, and with one voice they elected him *On the later reforms of monasticism, see Note III. tLeo began this custom of sending papal legates to foreign courts. It be- rame a great evil, and roused Edward III and Wyclif to the need of reforms. \ II (62 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. "pope." He ran away, hid in the woods, but was found and consecrated in 590, and for thirteen years he labored as a truly great bishop. In him monasticism took the papal chair. He was always a monk. He could not endure paganism, however trifling some of his superstitions. It even spoiled the classic literature, which he despised. Perhaps he burnt some heaps of it, and threw some fine statues into the Tiber. It is more certain that he laid a check ~ upon certain bishops, who were reading his allegorical commentary on Job in their pulpits ; otherwise he "might have become the founder of a new religion." He objected to being called "universal pope," and yet he asserted high powers. Leo had given law to the rising papacy; Greg- ory gave it life and love. He was a warm-hearted pastor of pastors, as his eight hundred letters prove. He tried to heal schisms and convert heretics, though severe upon the wayward. He settled episcopal quarrels ; pleaded with kings to show mercy to the people and justice to the Church ; rebuked the Jews for their slave-trade, but interceded for them when they were oppressed, saying: "Do not force them to have their children baptized. Do not expel them ; convert them by preaching." He cheered King Recared in Spain, who had seen his princely brother put to death for his Nicene faith, and on becoming king said to the Arian clergy: "I boldly profess my brother's faith, and beg of you to embrace it ; for the earth has submitted to the Nicene Creed, and all the people of Spain except the Visigoths." The change began; the Arian books were burnt ; most of the Arian clergy joined hands with the catholic bishops, who had long been persecuted. Nor must we forget that among the precious relics which Gregory sent to the orthodox king were a few reputed hairs of John the Baptist, a cross partly of the true wood, and a key made of some filings from the chain that bound Paul ! He would not have them adored, but kept as memorials. We shall soon notice his interest in missions. We still sing the Gregorian chants, some of them continued from Basil and Ambrose. So deep was his interest in the music of the Church that he formed a singing-school, and at the rehearsals of his choir sat as the pope of song, cracking his whip over certain vocal deacons whose conduct had been NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII. 1 63 scandalous. His charities were dispensed by an admirable sys- tem, so that all the poor were registered and visited. Among them were persons whose ancestors had been consuls and ora- tors. The legend is that when he preached a white dove sat *on his shoulder; the real dove was his charity, and at no time was it whiter than in months of siege and war. One day in 595, when he was preaching, messengers came saying that Agilulf, the Lombard king, was at the gates of Rome with an army. Maimed soldiers, quite out of breath, confirmed the sad news. He was at once a patriot. He im- parted vigor to the garrison. The Lombard was persuaded or paid to abandon the city ; but he dragged into captivity many who were outside the walls. Then reproaches fell upon Greg- ory for the miseries of the citizens. The Eastern emperor laughed over his peace with the Lombards. To him he replied, " If I had sought their death their nation would to-day be without king, duke, or count, and would be in utter confusion." He had gained a nobler object ; for when Agilulf was at the gates Gregory was corresponding with the orthodox queen, Theodolinda. and through this woman the Lombards were brought over to the Nicene faith. The king restored the spoils he had taken from the churches, reinstated the bishops whom he had expelled, and raised the clergy from abject poverty to comfort and influence. Now the Romans entitled Gregory the Father of his Country, but the Lombards were masters of Italy. NOTES. I. The Eastern Emperor Justmian (527-565) appears great in history for these reasons : i. He closed the last school of pagan philosophy when he silenced the seven followers of Proclus at Athens. 2. His general, Beli- sarius, conquered the Vandals in Africa, in 534, and gave liberty to the North African Church. 3. Belisarius and Narses expelled the Goths from Italy, and opened it to the Lombards, who were led by their first king, Alboin {568-573). "The overthrow of the Gothic kingdom was to Italy an unmitigated evil," says Milman. The Lombards ruled there until reduced by Charlemagne, in 774. 4. Belisarius drove back the powerful King of Persia, Chosroes, a noble ruler, who promoted learning, was far more toler- ant than Justinian, and gave the Christians in his realm peace and freedom. 5, Bishops were restrained in their luxury and avarice, and sent from the court to their charges; heretics severely treated; and seventy thousand l64 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. converts added to the Church. 6. Zeal for architecture ; many churches were built. When he had rebuilt the Cathedral of St. Sophia he exclaimed, " O Solomon, I have surpassed thee!" 7. The code of Roman laws, which have still their influence in Europe. II. Peailiarifies hi the CJmrch in the year 600. In theology and ex- egesis men quote from the Fathers rather than produce original works ; errors creep in, though the great creeds are maintained. Chronicles and legends take the place of history. Preaching declines ; the liturgy forms the chief service ; public worship still in the language of the people. Pau- linus of Nola uses pictures in the church to illustrate Scripture, and bells to summon people to church ; images begin to be introduced. Absorbing at- tention to the externals of religion. Baptism by immersion and pouring ; infants baptized, unless the parents fear that post-baptismal sins are unpar- donable. A saving power often attributed to the sacraments. Saving merit ascribed to penances, fasting, building churches and convents, and observ- ance of the multiplied festivals. Christians adopted many pagan customs ; divination and ordeals practiced. Clerical celibacy enjoined by several Western councils (506-585), but not yet fully adopted. Worship paid to the Virgin Mary: exaggerated or invented legends of saints. III. European monasticism presents so many orders of monks that the history seems confusing. The following plan of three periods may show a principle of unity and a progress in the system. 1. The period of introduction, individuality, and experiment, from Atha- nasius, 335, to Benedict, 529. Each convent chose its own rule ; that of Basil the most pi-actical. The Culdees in Scotland were peculiar, more freedom being allowed. 2. The period of systemization and unity from Benedict, 529, to Berno, of Cluny, 912. Nearly all monasteries on the Continent were brought under the Benedictine rule. To this the Columbanian convents were sub- jected in the ninth century. In 1350 there were said to be thirty-seven thousand Benedictine houses. 3. The period of Reforms, from Berno, 912, to Ignatius Loyola, 1540; each reform starting from the Benedictine basis. Nearly every reformed branch had its offshoots, and came to need reformation. Each century from the tenth to the sixteenth produced one new order or more. The leading reforms were : (i.) The Cluniac reform in the tenth century. Berno founded Cluny in Bur will not accept peace with brethren you shall have war from enemies ; if you will not preach the way of life to the English, you will be punished with death by English hands." Bede says that this prophecy was soon fulfilled when Ethelfrid the Fierce, the king of Northumbria, laid siege to Chester, saw King Brocmail supported by hundreds of praying monks, and fell upon them, so that more than a thousand of them are said to have been killed. The Welsh Church maintained its independence "with a dash of the truest Protestant spirit" for one hundred and fifty years.* III. TJie Mission in Northumbna. This realm came into the hands of the great Edwin of Deira (617-633), whose no'lhern town still bears his name — Edinburgh. With him began the proverb, "A woman with her babe might walk scatheless from sea to sea in Edwin's day." Southward he was overlord of all the English except the Kentish men, and he sought their alliance by wedding Ethelberga, good Queen Bertha's child. As he was still a pagan, he had to make some special pledges. She gave him her hand on condition that she might retain her faith in her heart and home. On this much was to turn for the *Bede, near 730, writing of the Welsh Cadwalla, said rather bitterly, "It is to this day the custom of the Britons not to pay any respect to the faith of the English, nor to correspond with them any more than with Pagans." (Eccl. Hist, ii, 20.) As oppression maketh a wise man mad, it was likely to cause the Britons to "cleanse thoroughly t^e plates and cups from which Saxons fed." Aldheim ascribes chis cleansing nc: to refinement, but to aversion. 202 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. furtherance of the Gospel.* Deira might be free from the "ire of God," as Bishop Gregory had hoped. PauHnus, the majestic monk, was ordained a bishop, and sent with the northern queen. So we have the Kentish history over again, with a change of names and places. Ethelberga has her chapel and chaplain ; Edwin has his Wodin and Thor. Like Clovis he permits his first child to be baptized — the little Eanfleda, who will have her part in giving prelacy the triumph over presbytery. The bishop pleads ; the king sits often for hours in silence. He is almost persuaded "to bow down before the life-giving cross." He will consult the Witan. It meets at Godmundingham, not far from York (627), and the wise men discuss the new faith. The chief priest, Coifi, frankly admits that his religion is worthless. "If there is a better one let us have it." "O king," said one of the thanes in his untaught wisdom, "so seems the life of man on earth, compared with the future, like a poor sparrow's flight through the hall when you are sit- ting at supper in Winter-tide, with the warm fire blazing on the hearth, and the icy rain-storm falling outside. The sparrow darts in at one door, lingers a moment, and flies out at the other, and is g-one in the darkness. So is our brief life in this world ; what was before it, and what will come after it, we know not If this strange teacher can tell us, let him be heard." Paulinus set forth his doctrine. The king avowed his faith. The priest, mounting the king's horse, galloped to the temple, hurled a spear against it, bade others to set it on fire, and the external paganism of that spot went out in flames. The king, the court, and the Witan were baptized, and the national con- version began. Paulinus had his central church at York, and for six years his missionary labors must have been prodigious, j He may have insisted strongly on the temporal advantages of Christianity, but it was some gain to civilization to have a man in that heathendom "whose whole mind was set on bringing the Northumbrians to an avowal of the Christian faith." He went all over the realm preaching, baptizing, catechising, and ' ' instructing the people who flocked to him from all the villages * From 617 to 6S5 the supremacy of Northumberland is the spinal column of English history, both civil and ecclesiastical. tBede says that when with the king and queen at Yvering, he was thirty- six days, from morn till night, teaching and baptizing the crowds in the river Glen. REVERSES— OSWALD. 203 and places in the word of Christ's salvation." Edwin's in- fluence reached far down to the South-folk (Suffolk), where King Sigebert restored the church, lately overthrown, sup- ported missionaries from Gaul and Ireland, founded a school, and finally set the bad example of retiring from royal duties into a cell which he had made for himself And now came reverses. The wrath of Cadwalla, the Christian king of North Wales, flamed against Northumbria. He did not forget the slaughter of Brocmail's thousand monks. He allied himself with Penda, the Mercian king, who came near to reducing all the English to his desperately pagan rule. From Canterbury to Edinburgh the 'English Church almost went down in the long wars. Edwin fell (633), and Paulinus fled to Rochester, where he settled as bishop. The Roman form of the Church was suppressed in Northumbria, and w^e shall now see how the Culdee form was introduced. Oswald, a nephew of Edwin, had been in exile at lona, where the faith was kept alive in his soul, while his brother renounced it, played king, and fell in battle. He came back to make a he- roic stand for his country. He and a small army, "fortified by faith in Christ," knelt by the cross in prayer, then charged upon the stronger forces of Cadwalla, and won the decisive bat- tle of Heaven's field. He took the fallen crown (635), brought order into the realm, and "was to Christians all that Edwin had been, and more ;" and was to the Saxon kingdoms a Bretwalda. The way was now clear for resuming missionary work. IV. The Culdee missions in England. Oswald had been kindly housed at lona. Its presbyters were the men he wanted. He sent thither for a bishop. Corman came, hopelessly failed, and went back reporting that the Saxons were too rude and stubborn for him. "Was it their stubbornness or your sever- ity?" inquired the gentle brother Aidan. "Did you not forget the apostolic rule about milk for babes?" All eyes turned upon Aidan ; he was the right man for the mission. It seems that he went as a presbyter. He did not ask the sanction of Rome or Canterbury. An Anglican affirms that Aidan, "much more truly than either Gregory or Augustine, may be called the father of English Christianity."* He did not begin, in the Roman *J. A. Tlaxter, Church History of England, I, p. 86. If the continuity of • he early British or Celtic Church was preserved in the English Church, U was 204 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. way, at the capital. He had the Celtic idea of a lonely spot for headquarters. He began at Lindisfarne, near the mouth of the Tweed ; made it the Holy Island ; had there his cell and training school, and there rose a famous Culdee monastery. Patient Scots taught Saxon lads to preach to their countrymen. Out of this convent poured a host of missionaries into England and Germany. Boisil founded Melrose to cast light into the dale of the Tweed, where one may still trace the paths of Cuthbert, the apostle of the Lowlands. A native of the Lammermoor, Cuth- bert's speech was that of the people, whom he drew from the villages and far off hills to hear the peasant preacher. He was but one of a score who did the like things. Some of their names are bright on the pages of Bede, who remembered how the true faith reached his fathers, and who took delight in tell ing how Aidan lived, prayed, often sat alone on his islet, thought upon texts of Scripture, recited psalms, traveled widely on foot until king Oswald gave him a fine horse, talked with any one he met to win him, if a heathen, or to comfort him if a believer; how the king one day sent his own dinner to the crowd of peasants in the streets, and Aidan laid hold of the royal arm, saying: "May this hand never perish!" and how this man "of the utmost gentleness, piety, and moderation" had the one fault of "not observing Easter at the proper time," but nevertheless his chief theme was "the redemption of man- kind through the passion, resurrection, and ascension of the man Christ Jesus." If the king interpreted the sermons of the untir- ing presbyter-bishop to the rustics of Yorkshire, we do not won- der that the North-country long cherished the name of "Saint Oswald," whose "white hand of charity" was a theme of song. Nearly two hundred and fifty years before such Christian royalty reappeared in Alfred, his Wessex forefathers had light flung upon their darkness. About 634 Birinus confronted their intense heathenism, and won a royal convert, Cynegils, who must break his league with the furious Penda, and who was asked to give his daughter in marriage to the Northumbrian kincf. Oswald came for his bride. But her father must avow through Aidan. But we shall see that his Culdee polity and his genuine succes- sors were thrust out. They did well their work, and then were excluded. The two systems were not welded, nor wedded, nor amalgamated, nor grafted together. PRESBYTERY OR PRELACY. 205 his faith in baptism before he could have a Christian son-in-law. The result was a triple alliance, domestic, political, and relig- ious, and a new turn in the destinies of Wessex, whose coming overlordship was to be so important in English history. Oswald fell in a battle (642) against the heathen Penda, where " Mesa- feld was whitened with the bones of the saints," and the ferocious Mercian gloried in the victories of Thor. Far up at Lindisfarne Aidan looks across on Bamborough, sees the fire and smoke rising, and lifts his prayer: "Behold, Lord, what mischief Penda does!" The wind shifts, the flames drive back the besieger, and he whirls away into Wessex, whose new pagan king must learn the meaning of the Greek rhyme: "Tribulation, education." He learned it, and Celtic teachers helped him to rear schools. Oswy (642-70), the reigning brother of Oswald, fought out the last great battle between the Christian creed and the Saxon mythology. Penda fell, and with him fell organ- ized and military paganism in England. Already his son Penda had sought the hand of Oswy's daughter. "You must first ac- cept the faith of Christ and baptism; you and your people," said Oswy. The young Mercian listened to the Gospel and said: "I will be a Christian whether I win the maiden or not." He was baptized and married, and went home with four missionaries of the Culdee type. Mercia became a nominally Christian realm. Thus the Culdee Church had extended far down into Eng- land. Some of its presbyters there ranked as bishops, but its bishops were hardly prelates of the Roman order. Their pres- byterial polity still differed from the prelatic. What if the English Church should conform to lona rather than to Rome? The event was not impossible. The Celtic preachers and monks probably outnumbered the Roman. They quoted Columba rather than Gregory. Oswy favored them, but his wife, Ean- fleda, Edwin's child, had been reared at the Kentish court, and she had the Roman ideas. While he kept Easter she was still in Lent. His feast did not harmonize with her fast. So all the differences between the Celtic and Roman Christians were again at the front. The debates ran through the land. Bishops were not agreed. The real question was then of immense weight, for it meant that lona,* or Rome, should have the ■s: "The real metropolitan of the Church as it existed in the north of Eng- land was (then) the abbot of lona." (Green's Short History.) 206 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. control ; Presbytery or Prelacy should thenceforth be the polity in England for centuries. How was it settled? V. The Conference at Whitby. It was held in the new convent of the famous Hilda, 664, on the summons of King Oswy, who pressed the Easter question. Which is the truer, the Celtic or the Roman tradition? The two champions in the debate were eminent men in their time. Colman, abbot of Lindisfarne, was a bishop of Culdee monasteries and mission- aries in the North. It was no small advantage to his cause to have the support of the king and the princely abbess, Hilda. The other leader was Wilfrid, who had studied under Aidan, committed the psalter to memory, and won the love of his fellows, but refused the Celtic tonsure. He went to Rome, visited other cities, and returned with the Roman principles, a love of Roman domination, the coronal tonsure, a store of relics, and an enlarged ambition. Culdee monks left him the monastery of Ripon, where as an abbot, not yet a presbyter, he began to organize the Romanizing party. He had on his side the queen, Eanfleda. He looked on the Culdee system as one that "grew up in a corner, apart from all genial and ex- pansive influences." The arguments at Whitby came to this result: the king asked Colman, "Do you admit that Christ gave the keys to St. Peter?" "Certainly." "Did he ever give the like power to Columba?" "Never." "You both admit, then, that to Peter were given the keys of the kingdom of heaven?" They both assented. Then Oswy, with a quiet smile, said: "Peter is the door-keeper whom I do not choose to gainsay, lest haply, when I come to the doors of heaven, there be none to unbar them." Thus a misinterpretation of Holy Scripture decided the question, and Roman prelacy had its long sway over the English Church. Colman, "being worsted," and other Scots, who did not conform to the triumphant system, wandered North, and beyond the Clyde they kept alive their principles. Bright says of the Culdee Church: "It brought religion straight home to men's hearts by the sheer power of love and self-sacri- fice; it held up before them, in the unconscious goodness and nobleness of its representatives, the moral evidence of Christi- anity." Bede saw in his day that England had greatly lost by the departure of men whose anxiety was "not how to serve the world, but how to serve God." They had their faults, but WILFRID. 207 their victors had a needed lesson in their virtues. Yet Bedc took some pleasure in recording that, "in the year 716, . . . Egbert, the man of God, brought the monks of Hi (lona) to observe the Catholic Easter and ecclesiastical tonsure." This Egbert was one of the monks who had gone North from an Anglo-Saxon realm. He represents an earnest effort to Anglicize the Scottish Church by volunteers and refugees. The kings of the Scots and Picts began to esteem Rome as grander than lona. King Angus gave welcome to the exiled bishop Acca, who brought from Hexham a store of relics and the principles of Wilfrid. This king seems to have placed the bishop and the relics at St. Andrews (736), the future metropolitan Church of Scotland. But far back in those days "the tenacity of the Scots" was manifest. Many of them held fast to their old polity. In 816 they were forbidden to minister in England, not merely as Scots, but as Culdees. The triumphant Wilfrid is a man to be studied. He was the Caesar of prelatic Rome, battling for her conquests. He had learning, energy, versatility, heroism, ambition, egotism, and imperiousness. His chief struggles through forty- five years (664-709) mark the degree of papal power then admitted in England. The Witan of Northumbria elected him Bishop of York. Contests rose, and he spent much of his time running to and from Rome, with brilliant episodes of missionary toil. In his romantic life of successes, defeats, exile and return, we find some redeeming qualities. But when he was removed from his chair, and the hard-working Chad placed in it, he set Eng- land the bad example of appealing to Rome. On his way he was stranded in Frisia, and was the first of a missionary host to the barbarians there. The pope sustained his appeal, but the English would not submit; and this was their first open resist- ance to the papal authority. Wilfrid was flung into a prison, whose walls rang with his psalms. When released, he went into Sussex, where the fierce heathen had once tried to kill him. They were now in sore famine and despair, leaping into the sea to end their hunger. His rare versatility did not fail him. He taught them new modes of fishing, Avon their hearts, baptized their chiefs along with scores of peasants, built a monastery, and for five years this apostle of the South Saxons was their bishop. Fuller says, "As the nightingales sing 20S HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. sweetest when farthest from their nests, so Wilfrid did the best service for Christianity when farthest from home." At last he was at home, in his episcopal chair (686) ; but he had too many troubles to keep himself in it, for Rome was not yet so potent over the English Church as in his own mind. VI. TJie unity and nationalisation of the English Chiirch. These were chiefly due to a foreigner. Theodore of Tarsus, "a philosopher and divine of Eastern training," a monk in Rome, learned in Greek, Latin, and natural science, sixty-six years of age, was chosen Archbishop of Canterbury, through the diligence of Oswy, the Bretwalda, who acted f.r "the Church of the English race." He was consecrated at Rome, and for twenty-five years (668-693) he labored to give that Church more unity, better organization, broader culture, and a more national character. He was more independent of the Roman bishop than Wilfrid first dreamed, and well disposed to carry out the policy of Oswy. The Latin service was unwisely fixed for ages upon that Church. Dioceses and parishes were more wisely arranged. The penitential system was introduced. The clergy were supported by the state. Synods were held. The Council of Hertford (673) was the first of all national gatherings, and through the bishops of the several kingdoms it expressed the ecclesiastical unity ; and this was the only visible unity for one hundred and fifty years.* There were some deep plunges into theology, and earnest gropings after the facts of physical science. English students had been sent to the monasteries of the Irish and Scots. Theodore pro- vided for them schools of a high order at home. The school at Canterbury under Hadrian, a foreign scholar, taught more than "ecclesiastical arithmetic" (or the calculation of the Church seasons) ; for Theodore was one of the lecturers on astronomy, medicine, music, and the classics. It was a model for other schools, in one of which Bede was now acquiring his knowledge, so vast for his time. He tells of men who knew Greek and Latin as well as their mother-tongue. Culture had its effects. Kings waged war with less burning and butchery; and even in those "killing times" many a thatched wooden chapel gave way to a stone church with glazed windows, decorated walls, and a leaden roof. Wilfrid * Note VI, LITERATURE— CAEDMON. 2Cr, brought from the Continent fine ideas and plans of Church architecture, and he did what he could to make them real. If he did not have Benedict Biscop as a sympathizer in all his troubles, he had him as the noblest co-worker in religious art. Benedict was six times at Rome ; he saw the best buildings of Europe ; and he brought over Prankish masons and decorators when he reared his monasteries of Wearmouth (674) and Jar- row, near the present Newcastle. Their splendor, comfort, music, statues, and paintings mark the advance in art which had begun in the North, but was soon manifest in all England. Into them he brought the Benedictine rule. He and Arch- bishop Theodore had the finest libraries yet in the Saxon, realms. The busy, studious, benevolent, saintly Biscop, once a thane of Oswy, now an infirm monk at sixty-two, took de- light in his last weary days and sleepless nights in hearing the Bible read and Psalms chanted by his spiritual sons. In 690 Bede may have been among those who wept on their way to his grave. VII. Christianity gave a literature to the English. They were the first of the Germanic peoples to give it birth. Its infant life was nourished, not by mythology, but by Holy Scripture. The ballads of the early Saxons, long sung in cottage and in castle, did not pass into literature before a more sacred song was written. It came in an outburst of genius at Whitby. We might almost expect it there, amid the genial and spiritual life promoted by the Abbess Hilda, the Northern Deborah, grand-niece of Edwin, called from a Prankish convent by Aidan about 660, given charge of both monks and nuns at Whitby, and so training the monks that bishops looked to her house for earnest men who would find the lost sheep of Christ and feed the flock with holy truths. The very servants caught the spirit. The story is that Caedmon, the cowherd at the abbey, one evening foddered the little black cattle, followed some min- strels into the hall, left the cheerful company, flung himself on ihe straAv in the barn, grieved that he could not touch the harp and play the gleeman in the rooms of the abbess, and in his hard-won sleep thought some one urged him to sing. ' ' I can not; and that is why I left the party," said he. "But you must sing to me." "What?" "Sing of creation." And so *;he verses came. The abbess soon found out his gift, and per- 14 210 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. suaded him to become a monk. Into rude alliterative verse and Saxon words he threw many of the grandest chapters of the Bible. By this new minstrelsy heavenly truths reached many a serf and cottager, for whom the Divine Book was not yet translated and sermons had no charm. To them it was the God-spell, the good story of God.* Farther south, in the school at Canterbury, was Aldhelm, a Wessex prince, acquiring nearly all the lore of his time — Greek, Latin, and Hebrew — and then returning to his studies under the Irish Mailduf, about whose cell grew Maildufsburgh, or Malmesbury. There, in 675, Aldhelm became abbot. It .was not enough for him to be the first classical scholar in his land, for it was still nobler to evangelize the rude West-Saxons in the woods around him. When they came to hear mass they would 'not wait for the sermon, being more intent on their marketings, even on holy days. So he went to the bridge and stopped them with his Christian minstrelsy — for all Saxons were fascinated by music — and when he had gathered a crowd he glided from the song into a sermon which they were willing to hear. " His Pauline versatility" made him the needed man for his country. He did most to raise it to the level of Northumbria in the number of its monastic schools and its churches. He helped King Ina in framing a code of laws; contributed to a Saxon version of the Psalms ; wrote a few Latin treatises ; and brought over some of the Welsh, not quite fairly, into the English Church. When the Witan chose him Bishop of Sherborne he said, "I am too old; I need rest." The reply was, by acclamation, "The older, the wiser and fitter." He consented; and at the end of four years (705-709) he rested from, his labors and his works followed him. *A century was full time enough to bring from the Roman teachers an Anglo-Saxon version of the Bible. But not a verse translated by them is known. Archbishop Theodore soon required parents to see that "their children were taught to say the [Apostles'] Creed and the Lord's Prayer in their native tongue." Bede urged Egbert, Bishop of York (730), a fine scholar with a fa- mous library, to put this Creed and this Prayer into English, for the use of both clergy and laity, saying that he had already translated them. When Bede trans • lated a part of the Bible he was meeting a demand long felt by his native countrymen. Perhaps versions had already been attempted by Elfrid of Lin- disfarne (710), and Guthlac, the first Saxon monk at Croyland. But the demand scarcely existed when the word of a priest took the place of the Word of God. lllencc the literature based on Scripture was soon Latinized. BEDE, 211 More worthily is Bede (673-735) called the first great En- glish scholar and the Venerable. Born on the lands granted to Benedict Biscop for his monasteries, he was placed, in his eighth year, under the care of their founder, and reared a Ben- edictine. His "regular discipline" was obedience to the rule of the Nursian. He took his turn in the field, at the mill, in the bakery, and on the sheep-walk. Passing early from Wear- mouth into Jarrow, he says: "All my (remaining) life I spent in that monastery, giving my whole attention to the study of the Holy Scriptures ; and in the intervals between the hours of regular discipline and the duties of singing in the church I always took pleasure in learning or teaching or writing some- thing." He was always a patriot, loving the national songs, and hating whatever worked ill to his country ; a man of warm heart to his neighbors, to whom he sometimes preached (for he became a priest), and especially to his pupils, of whom there were at one time six hundred. He was once, in old age, as far away from Jarrow as York ; the story of his visit to Rome is fabulous. Biscop's fine library was for him a world .n which to travel. Burke styled him the father of English learning. He certainly was the father of English history. Often too credulous, always eager to get the facts, especially those about the Church, he led the story from the time of the early Britons down to the year 731, "with God's help." This volume gave him fame ; it tells us all we really know of the early English Church. But he valued his commentaries* upon large portions of the Bible above all else that he had written, and that was almost a library, or cyclopaedia of literature, of physical and theological science, and of biography. Had he written all his many works in Anglo-Saxon, and urged men to learn and teach it, he would have done far more for popular culture, and anticipated Alfred. He and some of his brethren did recommend preaching in their own language; but the effort was not vigorous, and Latin was soon idolized. Bede's last work was a translation of the Gospel of John — meet work for the John of his time — and as he was dying slowly, day by day, telling his young scribe what to write, until there was only one verse more, he said, "Write it quickly." When * There is too much eisegesis in his attempts at exegesis. He quoted largely from Jerome and Augustine. 212 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. told, "It is finished now," he repHed, "Yes, all is finished now," turned his face toward the spot where he was wont to pra}', and began to chant, "Glory to God." With the close of the song his spirit passed into rest. One more eminent scholar rose in the next generation — Alcuin, already seen at the court of Charlemagne — and then came the Northmen, with desolation to churches and schools. III. The Frankish Missions. The earnest example of Columban had some rousing effect upon the Gallic clergy, whom Pope Gregory severely rebuked for want of missionary enterprise. In 613, two years before Columban's death, they held a synod to devise measures for evangelizing the heathen. Nowhere else have we seen a national or provincial Church acting thus in a body: missionaries have usually gone of their own accord.* They sent Eustasius, Abbot of Luxeuil, with a monk, into Bavaria. Bishop Emmeran re- signed his see in Aquitaine, went into the same wide country, and made roads for Bishop Rupert, of Worms, who left an im- perishable name on the towns from Ratisbon over into the val- ley of the Tyrol. A few Christians lingered there in poverty and oppression. At first the wild mountaineers would not listen to Rupert : they said that the God of the Christians was too poor to relieve the wants of hi$ own worshipers, and too jealous to allow any other god. But when he got them to work in the mines and salt wells, or in fields whi^h brought harvests, they grew happier and changed their opinion. Then they cared little when he assailed the strongholds of idolatry. A duke gave him the old ruined town of Juvavium, strewn with the remains of Roman baths and temples, every broken arch telling the wrath of the Heruli. There a church rose, and that swelled into the cathedral of Salzburg. That city became a center of evangelization. Henceforth to the time of the persecuted Salzburgers there was in those valleys a spirit of independence toward Rome. Bishop Virgil of Salzburg — the Irish Feargil (745) — was the man who seems to have held that there was, below our earth, another world, with sun, moon, and men of its own. * Augustine and Aidan excepted. The abbots of monasteries doubtlesb sent out men. VIRGIL OF SALSBURG— ELIGIUS OF NOYON, 213 Pope Zacharias condemned such a notion, but Virgil cleared himself of heresy. He was not a Galileo in his theory, nor in his trials. He devoted his energies to rescuing the people of this world from heathenism, and great success is reported.* Not far away from him was Clement, a brother Irishman, who was condemned b} a synod under the great missionary Boni- face for his opposition to high prelacy and the papacy ; for not sufficiently revering the Church Fathers, not even Jerome and Augustine ; for denying vows of celibacy, and for some doc- trines which were undoubtedly erroneous. Another representative of the Prankish missionaries was Eligius, or St. Eloy, the wonderful goldsmith, and treasurer of his king, the firm Christian at a profligate court, the redeemer of captives by the ship-load, and the helper of young men who were training to preach to the heathen. To any one seeking his house the reply was, " Wherever you see the largest crowd of paupers, there you may be sure to find Eligius." He was made Bishop of Noyon, then a chief city (641-59). In the eastern part of his diocese and on into Frisia were heathen tribes of the most barbarous kind. He spent his remaining years in civilizing them by means of Christianity ; traversing the forests, preaching, building churches and convents, and endeav- oring not to baptize paganism along with the pagan. He has been quoted as preaching a mere formalism, and service of rites, and placing human inventions on a level with Gospel precepts. Too much of this may be found in all men of that age, yet he quotes a good amount of home-going Scripture, and among other sound paragraphs he has this: he represents Christ as saying to the unbeliever, "Behold and see! see the mark of the nails that fixed me to the cross ! I took upon me thy punishment that I might crown thee with glory. I died that thou mightest live forever. But thou didst despise me and obey a deceiver. My justice, therefore, can not pronounce any other sentence than such as thy works deserve. Thou didst choose thine own way, therefore take thine own wages. Thou *He refused to rebaptize some men who had been baptized by a priest, i\'ith the words, '■'■ Baptize te in nomine Pafria, Filia, et Spiriiu Sandal Pope Zacharias held that the baptism was perfectly valid, as the mistake arose not fiom heretical pravity, but from mere ignorance of grammar. Boniface, how- ever, thought that such ignorance invalidated the baptism, and not that "faith ought to be blind.'' 214 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. didst love death; depart, then, go to perdition. Thou didst obey the evil one; go, then, with him into eternal punishment." When dying among his weeping monks, he prayed, "Remem- ber me, O Thou who alone art free from sin, Christ the Savior of the world. I know that I deserve not to behold thy face, but thou knowest how my hope was always in thy mercy, and my trust in thy faithfulness." Just nine hundred years later a child of Noyon, John Calvin, was born, but during that inter- val a sounder Gospel was rarely preached than this of St. Eloy. Often did the nominally converted people relapse into hea- thenism. The famous Radbod in furious zeal undid much of Wilfrid's work in Frisia. At last he seemed to yield to the teaching of Wulfram, a Frank who had left his bishopric of Sens, to persuade these savages not to hang human sacrifices upon gibbets, but trust in Him who was crucified for their sins. Radbod permitted one of his children to be baptized, and finally was about to submit to the ordinance. His feet were in the font, when he asked to be told in which of the future worlds his fathers were. Wulfram said they were undoubtedly in perdition. "I would rather be there with my ancestors," replied the king, "than in heaven with a handful of beggars," and stepping out of the font he remained a heathen. The Frankish ruler, Pipin of Heristal, gave welcome to Willibrord of Ripon, and his twelve monks, who landed in Frisia (692), and sent him to Rome to be fully commissioned by Pope Ser- gius. This pope afterwards made him Archbishop of Utrecht. He and the native convert, Liudger, invaded the holy Isle of Fosite, so named from a god to whom human beings were sacrificed. The temple was destroyed. The sailors began to hear bells ringing from the church spires of Heligoland, and warning them of the breakers. It became a spiritual Pharos. Christianity was planted in the Netherlands, so often since the home of piety, heroism, and liberty. IV. The English Missions. The eminent representative of this movement, in which he had many fore-runners and assistants, was Winfrid, or Boniface, "the father of civilization in Germany." Born of noble par- ents (6S0), at Crediton, in Wessex, reared in the schools of Aldhelm ; under monastic vows at Nutsall ; ordained a priest THE ENGLISH MISSIONS— BONIFACE. 2 1 _:, with an open road to high position ; a favorite of King Ina, and weU known as a scholar, he was anxious to see his kindred Saxons in the old father-land converted to Christ. With three monks he crossed into Frisia. Radbod was then fighting Charles Martel, devastating the new Frisian churches, and re- storing paganism. These two representatives of Christ and Wodin met. There was no compromise possible, and Boniface returned to his convent at Nutsall, refused its abbacy, and bade farewell to England, resolved to work or die on foreign soil. Perhaps the pope could help him. He was soon at Rome. Armed with the commission of Gregory II, and an ample sup- ply of relics, he passed^ through the melting snows of the Alps, and fell into the track of Rupert, who had gone to Salzburg, and into paths trodden by the imitators of Columban. Wish- ing to build on no other man's foundation, he pressed on into Saxony. We give a summary of his policy and the results : 1. He strengthened the growing empire of the Franks, and promoted reforms of the Gallic clergy. By aiding Pipin (father of Charlemagne) in eliminating the Celtic preachers, he more fully Germanized the Prankish Church. "He was states- man and scholar, as well as missionary ; an able administrator as well as an earnest preacher ; and his aim was to civilize as well as to Christianize the heathen of his father-land." 2. He acted as a high prelate. He greatly. helped to bring Germany under the jurisdiction of the pope.^" He was severe upon that "early Protestantism" which came from the Celtic Church. The Irish and Scots, whose wives were the best of helpers in mission work, were surely not so black in morals as he painted them. He treated the most earnest of them as rivals, had ceaseless controversies with them, and in his zeal to correct their freedom he revived the synodical system, which was one good result, if the synods were not too much under his management. He silenced nearly all opponents by the force of a will that sometimes crossed a papal decree. If he *"The unity of the kingdom of God upon earth, the fraternization of all mankind gathered beneath the care of one shepherd, the pope and vicar of Christ, was his visionary scheme, and in his enthusiasm he entirely overlooked the diversity of nations and languages, and sought to remedy that difficulty by making the Latin tongue the only one authorized by the Church." (Meniiel.) On the use of Latin see Note IV. 2l6 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. did not fully control the European Church while he lived, he certainly excelled all other men in his power. And yet he studied, taught, and circulated the Word of God. He is not unworthily styled "the apostle of the Germans." 3. The oak near Geismar fell. Boniface was advised to argue mildly, and not expose the genealogy of the heathen gods. But he grew impatient, and resorted to arguments which the pagans could understand. They had an oak sacred to Thor, Donar, the thunder-god, and all Hessians seemed to hang their faith upon it. There was their rallying point. He and his monks took axes, cut deeply into it, and a sudden gust of wind brought it to the ground with a deafening crash. The heathen crowd, it is said, at once shouted, "The Lord, he is the God!" and helped Boniface hew the old tree and build a chapel to St. Peter, who probably took the place of Thor in the more ignorant minds. 4. The progress of the work. The Prankish kings had opened the way for civilization in a land where nothing that could be called a city stood as a basis of operations. Even cities must be created. England sent bands of monks for the work. Numbers in Hessia and Thuringia were baptized, heathen tem- ples disappeared, wooden chapels were built where grand cathe- drals afterwards rose, forests slowly became fields, daylight was let into marsliy thickets where wolves had lurked, and a holier light broke into savage hearts and homes. With all that was superficial, there was much which was permanent. A begin- ning was made for pastors to settle in towns. About the bishop's house laborers of all grades found residence. Farmers did their best with rude plows, while warriors handled swords more than pruning-hooks. The land-owner became rather more of a gentle-man, and his wife the worthier Christian. All the influences of monasteries were felt for good and evil. The Church was the center of the best society. The name of a kindly priest grew sacred, and it was a great day when his classes of children, robed in white, were confirmed by the bishop. "Boniface may be fairly regarded, not merely as a teacher of Christianity in Germany, but as the missionary of a higher civilization, and the founder of cities." 5. The episcopal system was established in Germany. In 745 Boniface became Archbishop of Mayence. Already he MARTYRDOM OF BONIFACE. 21/ had founded dioceses at various points from Salzburg to Co- logne, and thence to the farthest borders of Thuringia. Thus he was completing his centralizing project, by which Rome be- came powerful in Germany. Soon grew up those bishop's- towns of Erfurt, Worms, Spires, which we associate with Luther, the next mighty man in the history of the German Church. It was Luther who restored that noble spirit which Boniface had crushed — the spirit of independence towards Rome. 6. The mission and martyrdom of Boniface in Frisia. The Saxons of that country still fought the Franks, and thought the Church was an engine for reducing them to order and law. They were the thorns in the side of Boniface all through his thirty years of ceaseless labors. They burnt chapels and convents, and slaughtered the poor folk by hun- dreds. He gave his minute instructions to bishops and pas- tors ; left most of his books to the library of Fulda ; put into his luggage the relics which he always bore, a tract of Am- brose on "The Advantages of Death," and a shroud for himself; and the old man of seventy-four years sailed down the Rhine to the Zuyder Zee to preach to those Frisians who had driven him off in his younger days. All went well for a time with him and his companions. Some of the tribes gave him welcome. He had baptized a multitude, and on the 5th of June, 755, the converts were to meet for confirmation. But that morning he was waked in his tent by the tramp of men and the clang of arms. He stepped forth and said to his brethren, "Lift not a staff against them. Let us not return evil for evil." The heathen murdered the little band, rifled the tent, and hid the book of Gospels in a marsh. It and the remains of its preacher were afterwards placed at Fulda as relics of peculiar worth. 7. The monasteries of Fulda and Utrecht. Fulda, the first in Saxony, took its name from one of the head-streams of the Weser, and its origin from Boniface. It grew out of the cell in the forest to which he and Sturmi often resorted for rest, study, and prayer. Its rule was severer than that of Benedict. It was a center of evangelization, became rich in lands, the home of scholars, and the model for similar establishments. Utrecht rose to eminence through Gregory. The abbess of a nunnery, on the Moselle, employed her nephew Gregory to 2l8 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. read the Scriptures to the company at meal-time. On a visit there, Boniface said to the lad of fifteen, "You read the Latin well, but do you understand it?" This led to a German version of the passage and comments upon it, which so charmed Gregory that he resolved to follow the good monk. ' ' But he is a stranger, and may not be what you think," said his aunt, who at last yielded, and gave him an outfit. He was, there- after, the spiritual armor-bearer of Boniface, until he became a professor of theology, training young men for the ministry. As abbot he made the monastery of Utrecht a missionary college, and left behind him the reputation of a wise educator. 8. The military methods of Charlemagne. The peaceful measures of Boniface and his followers had not brought all the Saxons to even a nominal Christianity. They hated the Franks, and when conquered, would not remain in subjection. They swept over the country under the bold Witikind, and forced their idolatry once more across the Rhine. In this third terri- ble war upon them Charlemagne, who regarded them as rebels as well as heathen, took with him both soldiers and preachers. It must be admitted that now the alternative was, * ' Believe or die." But we should not forget that the terms had been of- fered, " Be quiet and live." One voice, at least, was loud in pro- test against these severe measures ; it was that of Alcuin, who cited the examples of our Lord and his apostles. ' ' Why impose baptism upon a rude people? Of what use is baptism without faith? The trouble is, the wretched people of Saxony have no faith in their hearts. Augustine says, faith is a matter of free will, and not of compulsion. You may force a man to the font, but n6t to faith." Yet Charlemagne persisted in his policy. In a former campaign he had marched to the Irmin- Saule (the image of the hero Armin ?) which was a head- quarters of paganism, and destroyed the immense idol. Sturmi and his four thousand monks had been ordered to cut down idol groves, demolish temples, and preach the faith. But now Fulda had been assailed, and revenge taken by the Saxons on the churches and clergy. Charlemagne was bent on making short work of heathenism. Death was made the penalty for secret idolatry, neglect of baptism and of fasts, the murder of priests, the burning of churches, and the practice of various pagan customs. The chiefs submitted. Even Witikind was at last THE GERMAN MISSIONS. 2I9 baptized, and among his descendants were famous emperors. His race soon lost the memory of the force which subdued them, and cherished the faith which saved them, and produced the Hehand, that glorious song in honor of the Savior, whose Gospel is its poetry and music. It Avas the first peal of those songs which tell how they regarded themselves as the liegemen of Jesus Christ, owing him fealty, and bound to serve him faithfully till death. There were two great results. By the subjection of the Saxons they were kept from overrunning the more civilized lands of Europe, and at home they were a bar against the Norse peoples, who could not make land-marches through Ger- many, and hence they became rovers of the seas. By the con- version of the Saxons they were prepared for Christian missions to the Scandinavians. V. The German Missions. One of the last plans of Charlemagne was to make Ham- burg the seat of an archbishop, and a base of missionar}- labors in Denmark. Long before he was crowned emperor he had put in his schools a little serf who was now primate Ebbo of Rheims. Other feet had been over the border, but his car- ried him up to the court of Harold Klak, in 822, and three years later he came down to Mayence with the king, Queen Judith, their family, and a train of Danes, and baptized them with great pomp in the vast cathedral. Ebbo did not easily find a monk heroic enough to return with the party and risk his life among the heathen Danes. But Anskar, who had been devoted by his parents to a monastic life, educated at old Corbey, under Paschasius Radbert,* and sent to build up the new Corbey on the Weser, was willing to leave his thriving school, and the neighbors to whom he preached, and begin that brave life so full of romance, zeal, and true glory. We follow "the Apostle of the North," not in all his personal travels and trials, but in his influence. He began his new work at the age of twenty-five, and was in it nearly forty years (826-865). I. His labors in Sweden. He soon found a rebellion in ••• This missionary movement was contemporary with the controversies on Predestination and Transubstantiation. See next chapter. 220 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Denmark, after Harold destroyed certain heathen temples, and his fair .beginnings were arrested. Some Swedes, taught by Christian captives, invited him to their country. He and Wit- mar set sail on the Baltic. Pirates robbed them of their books, robes, and presents for king Biorn at Sigtuna. Their sad plight touched the royal heart. He allowed them to preach. But the northern Balder was not to him a forerunner of Christ. The Christian captives formed the nucleus of a Church at Birka. A royal counselor, Herigar, built a chapel on his estate, and showed himself no half-hearted believer. To this man Christian Sweden owes a ceaseless debt of gratitude, for when his king was expelled and Anskar was in deepest troubles, when Birka was stormed by Norse pirates and its people were restoring the altars to the gods ; when the Church was forsaken and Christ ignored, Herigar rebuked the lapsing citizens, rekindled their faith and led them upon the commons, where they renewed their vows to the Lord God omnipotent and trusted in him for defense. Christianity took root in Sweden, and it grew some- what despite Norse ravages, lapses from the faith, and the migrations of people. 2. Anskar was made archbishop of Hamburg by papal authority, in 832, and he superintended all the northern mis- sions. His monastery was filled with redeemed captives and refugees from Norse piracy. After it was sacked and burnt he stood in the ashes, with groups of poor boys and monks around him, and said: "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." And when he must flee with his co-workers and see heathenism rampant where he had thought Christianity was almost supreme, he took comfort in the words of the dying Ebbo : "Be assured, brother, that what we attempt to plant for Christ will at last come to fruit- age." The clouds seem to break when Herigar gave shield and footing to other missionaries in Sweden. Christian mer- chants aided them. The Swedish nobles cast pagan lots, and Anskar said the Lord decided for the Christian faith. But even the miracles afterwards ascribed to Anskar did not firmly estab- lish the Church in Scandinavian lands. He did great things with so little self-glorying that he could say : " If I were worthy in the sight of my Lord, I would ask him to grant me one miracle — that he would make me a eood man." That it was NOTES TO CHAPTER X. 221 granted him was the beHef of Rimbcrt and other disciples who pushed the missions in Sweden. The conversion of Norway was largely due to the later Anglo-Danish influence over all Scandinavia. (Notes I, II, III.) NOTES. 1. Gi'eek Missions in Europe, i. From Constantinople Cyril and Me- thodius went into Bulgaria, Moravia, and Bohemia, about 863. Their mission produced vast results. Cyril formed an alphabet and translated the Bible into the Slavonic language. He thus gave it to the common peo- ple, a work which we find no other missionary after Ulfilas doing in the Middle Ages. The Moravians and Bohemians long insisted upon their mother-tongue as the language of their Church. As Methodius used a Slavonic liturgy he was branded as a traitor to the faith by the German missionaries from Salzburg. He justified himself before the pope (880), but this sad conflict wore out his spirit. The Church which he planted left the Greek communion and went over to the Roman. In 983 Adelbert, a learned German, was bishop of Prague, and very zealous against the surviving paganism. There was a long strife to maintain the native liturgy, which was never fully suppressed, and a love for it is seen far down to the days of John Huss. If other nations had clung as tenaciously to their own lan- guages in the Church services, they would have become less Latinized and hence less Romanized. This version of the Bible passed into Russia and to other Slavonic peoples. 2. In 955 the princess Olga, of Russia, visited Constantinople, was bap- tized, and returned home quite zealous for the faith, though not successful until her grandson, Vladimir, took the throne at Kieff (986). He destroyed idols, built churches, and brought in Greek priests. II. Ger7nan Missiotis among' Slavonians. I. In 966 a Bohemian prin- cess married the Polish Duke Mjesko, and carried with her Cyril's version of the Bible and a love for it. Their violent iconoclasm was resisted. Cas- imir I was an inmate of a monastery, perhaps Cluny, before he took the throne (1034); he established the Church in Poland on the Roman model. 2. Among the Wends efforts were made in 936. When Gottschalk, educated in Germany, founded the Wendish empire in 1047, he began the work in which he was a martyr, but paganism triumphed. 3. The Hungarians came from Greek under German influence, and the Church was established about 997 in the Latin form. 4. In Pomerania there were no very success- ful efforts until 1124, when Otho entered it as a zealous missionary and one of great fame. 5. In Prussia (a small province then on the Baltic) mission- aries labored from 996 to 12 10 without permanently good results. Soon after this the Teutonic Knights (originating in the crusades) were efficient in their efforts with the Gospel backed by the sword and the commission of the popes. 222 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. III. Missions to the Saracens. Raymond Lull, of Majorca, reckless in youth, converted somewhat as Augustine was, studied for years almost every science (and attempted a universal system of knowledge) to qualify him for preaching to the Mohammedans (1275-1315). After crossing the Mediter- ranean several times, but being resisted at Tunis and elsewhere, imprisoned and scourged, he tried to work up a new Crusade ; lectured with applause in European universities; died a martyr, and left to history one of the splendid failures of genius. IV. The universal use of Latin in the Western Church came through the desire to preserve antiquity, and promote unity and conformity in wor- ship. It was the language of the old empire, whose spell hung long over the nations, and of diplomacy between the new governments. It was in the schools, text-books, and monasteries. It was the language of the civilization which the new nations imitated, of the clergy, of "the mother Church" of the West (as Rome was then regarded), and of the Vulgate, which had won the pre-eminence. Its continued use was not unnatural. The desire for a uni- form service has often appeared from that time down to our own. Yet the Liturgies were slowly brought to the Roman model. The fixed religious use of the Latin language among nations of other speech, tended to limit edu- cation to the monks and clergy ; to reduce their knowledge to a minimum ; to make the Church services cold and mechanical; to keep the people ignorant and superstitious, so that they looked upon the sacred offices as powerful charms, and placed their salvation in them ; to bring suspicion and ecclesiastical censure upon any devout man who broke over the linguistic bounds and preached to the poor people in their native tongue, and to prevent the circulation of the few translations of the Bible. The Latin service helped to Romanize and papalize the Western Church. V. Four cejtters from which to study the progress of the early English nation and Church: i. Canterbury, in Kent (597-620), to which London, in Essex, became subject. 2. York, in Northumbria, which held the chief sway under Edwin (617-633), Oswald, and Oswy, who conquered Penda of Mercia and heathenism (655). 3. Mercia, the middle country, which now rose to supremacy as a Christian realm under Ethelbald (716-757), and the more powerful Offa (757-95), the first to grant Peter's pence to Rome: and Cenwulf (796-819), who lost power when Egbert became king of Wessex. 4. Wessex, where king Ina (688-726) framed laws for Church and state, and Egbert (800-36) as overlord began the work of national unity which Alfred realized. VI. Previous to 673 each Christianized Saxon kingdom had its distinct or national. Church, with its one diocese : now there was but one national Church, with more dioceses (soon sixteen), and in each a bishop, in such a city as London, York, Dorchester, Litchfield, Hereford, or Worcester. Over all was one archbishop, at Canterbury, for until 735 York was not an actual archbishopric. Theodore helped England to reach the later national unity. The kings met occasionally for alliance, arbitration, or the choice of a pri- mate, but their kingdoms were not united states. QUESTION OF PROGRESS— ARABIC LEARNING. 22} Chapter XL DEBATES AND CONQUESTS. Was there any mental and moral progress in Europe during the Middle Ages? The answer will depend on the point of view. Those who look off the height from which the early- Church declined in learning, thought, faith, and life, and who account the long thousand years between Clovis and Luther as ill spent in regaining them, may deny it and slur the history. Those who start from the low level where the Germanic peo- ples entered the Church — where Celt, Frank, Saxon, and Norse began their new lives — and sympathetically attend them as they work their way out of barbarism and ignorance, into cul- ture and science, will admit the progress, and find an interest in tracing the upward steps. It took ages to make one of them, a logician, and centuries more to Christianize his logic. The new pupil had not merely to overcome his barbarism ; he was often arrested on his way to school by invasions, wars, conquests of other barbarians. He was stripped of books and left half dead ; nor did the monks and missionaries who brought spiritual oil and wine to his wounds always have the best quality at hand. The political disturbances helped to prolong the intellectual darkness. Hence the wars which broke the empire of Charle- magne, and the Norse invasions, must be considered in eccle- siastical history. The Church was affected by them, for good and evil, as she had been by the more direct persecutions. The darkness was quite in proportion to their violence and ex tent. It was thickest between the seventh and eleventh centu- ries. It was not coeval nor equal in all lands. It began to disperse when the Western nations became settled, and had no more barbaric invasions. It was dispelled by light coming mainly from Christian sources : certainly not from Arabic sources alone. The Christian Nestorians seem to have introduced Aristotle 224 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. to the Arabs. The caliphs of Bagdad promoted the study of his writings, and researches into physical science. There was some advance in mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, medicine, philosophy, and literature. Al Raschid, whose empire extended from the Indus to Gibraltar, and rivaled that of his friend Charlemagne, ordered a school to be attached to every mosque, and Nestorian superintendents were preferred, for they opposed image-worship, and Eutychianism. Al Maimon (808-33) had ibout him Greek and Nestorian scholars ; manuscripts were copied, books collected, and libraries established. His was the Augustan age of the Arabs. This culture passed into Spain, md flourished at Cordova (980), and other Mohammedan cities, riience some torches of it were carried into the convents and lecture-rooms of Christian Europe, and blazed there with some profit. But with the few scientific truths there were many philosophical and religious errors. Those who most glorify the Arabic science, and depreciate the Christian learning of the period, do not really believe much of either. The one was greater in quantity, the other quite as good in quality: neither was free from errors and each had its truths. Arabic astrology was not more civilizing than ecclesiastical saint-worship ; alchemy ranks with transubstantiation in absurdity. The more enlightened Christians of the darker ages drew their knowledge from nature, the trivium and quadrivium, the creed, the Fathers, and the Bible. They were ages of tradi- tionalism rather than investigation and progress. Yet the questions arose. What did the Fathers believe ? What did the early councils decree ? Hence there were earnest debates in which there flashed out some mental vigor. I. Debates of the Dark Ages.* I. Iinagc-ivorship. Emblems, pictures, mosaics, and statues came gradually into Christian families and churches as orna- ments, memorials, and means of popular instruction. They became unduly reverenced. In 324 the Council of Elvira, in *The dispute concerning the Filioque {i. e., whether the Holy Spirit pro- ceeds from the Father and the Son) was mainly between the Greek and Latin Churches ; the Tatins having added the Filioque to their creed in the fifth cen- tury. The controversies about celibacy, the papacy, and investitures, will be noticed in other chapters. DEBATES OF THE DARK AGES— ICONOCLASM. 22j Spain, decreed that "pictures ought not to be in the churches, lest that which is adored be painted on the walls." But the innovations were multiplied. Objects of art were idolized, es- pecially in the East. Before them lights were placed, incense burnt, prayers said, and votive offerings presented. If these acts were not worship, the pagans might claim that they had not worshiped idols, but had adored God through the image. The Mohammedans cried aloud against the Christians as idola- ters. A reaction began. Three parties rose : the image-wor- shipers, for whom John of Damascus, the ablest theologian of his time (730), made his plea, saying that "pictures are the books of the unlearned ;" the image-breakers, or Iconoclasts, led by the Eastern emperor, Leo the Isaurian (729-41), whose persecution of the image-worshipers was intensified by several of his successors ; and the image-reverers, or the conservatives, who would neither bow to statues nor break them. Iconoclasm raged in the East. Insurrections and fierce wars made the empire a prey for the Saracens. The monks, whose predecessors had been so violent against pagan idols, now suf- fered for their own love of images ; even artists, painters, statu- aries were at one time banished. Now one party and next the other held the throne. A partisan council at Nice, in 787, favored the invocation {doideid)^ rather than the adoration {la- treici), of images. But the distinction was idle, and it has ever since been practically useless. For such a shadowy line the multitude cared nothing. The council of Constantinople, in 870, excommunicated the Iconoclasts, who lost their cause. In the West Pope Gregory I had wished to sanctify art, make it a means of devotion, but not worship its forms. His conserv- ative views were sustained by Charlemagne, and the council of Frankfort (794), which boldly condemned the decree of Nice as a sanction of image-worship. Louis the Pious held a coun- cil at Paris, in 824, which allowed the use of pictures and statues, but sternly forbade any worship of them. France and Britain were the last to yield to the idolatry of art. The most vigorous Iconoclast in the West was Claudius, a native of Spain, a presbyter in 812, and nine years later the bishop of Turin, where he left a bright name for the Waldenses, and for all Christians who admire a careful expositor of Scrip- ture, an earnest reformer, and a shining light in a dark age. IS 226 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. He removed the pictures and images from the churches in hi*? diocese, disapproved of pilgrimages, denied the virtue of sign and form of the cross, questioned the supremacy of the pope, and held that originally bishops and presbyters were of equal rank. In such reforms an active part was taken by bishop Agobard of Lyons (813-40), a Spaniard by birth and a man of rare mental endowments and learning. He opposed supersti- tions about witchcraft, the notion that gifts to churches would avert diseases and sins, prayers to saints and angels, and all those barbarous ordeals which paganism brought into the courtr; of justice. An Augustinian, he stood forward to revive a more trulj Christian spirit in the members of the Church. But, after all, the images finally gained the victory in the West, and held their sway until the Zwinglians, Huguenots, and Puritans asso- ciated idolized art with popery and became Iconoclasts. 2. Adoptionisni. The Mohammedans were quite tolerant of the Nestorian view of Christ's person. This may have led two Spanish bishops, Felix of Urgel, and Elipandus of Toledo, to teach that Christ, as God, was by nature, and truly, the Son of God ; but as man he was the Son of God only in name, and by adoption. This was thought to savor of the Nestorian error. Felix recanted under trial, but returned to his heresy. From 785 to 820 the Western synods took pains to condemn the doctrine, and it soon disappeared. 3. Inspiration. The nobleman, Fredegis, a learned forerun- ner of the scholastic theology, maintained that the very words of Holy Scripture were inspired by the Divine Spirit. Probably most of the bishops held to verbal inspiration. Agobard, of Lyons, argued that the Holy Ghost imparted not diction, not "the bodily words upon the lips," but the sense of them, the thoughts or ideas. He also surprised many men by raying that the New Testament contained some inaccuracies of grammar. Nobody arraigned him for heresy. He urged a diligent study of the Bible. A subtle philosophy was brought into the controversies of the West by John Scotus Erigena (Irishman), the adviser and confidant of the French king, Charles the Bald (869-77), who had some of the tastes of his grandfather, Charlemagne. John was the teacher of the court-school. He was "the enigma and JOHN SCOTUS ERTGENA. 22^ wonder of his time. He suddenly comes and all at once disap- pears, so that we know not whence he came nor whither he went. He Avas undoubtedly the most learned man, and the deepest, boldest, and most independent thinker, of his age, in which he was neither understood nor appreciated, and he was scarcely deemed even worthy of being declared a heretic." The churchmen of Paris rectified the omission in 1209, and burnt some of his books and pantheistic followers. Though he wished to retain some of the essential doctrines of Christianity, his system was one great heterodoxy, based upon Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, and himself. Theology and philosophy were, in his view, merely forms of the same truth. He said: "Authority springs from reason, not reason from authority." He was the Western writer who used logic as a means of discovering truths. His philosophy was rationalistic ; his pantheism foreran that of Hegel. The French king directed him into a new field. "It is a startling feature of the times that one, whose theories were so divergent from the teaching of the Church, was called to speak as an authority on two of the most awful topics of the faith. These were the doctrines of Predestination and the Eucharist, which, owing to the great activity of thought engen- dered in the Carlovingian schools, were now discussed with unwonted vehemence." These let us notice. 4. The Pj'edcstinarian ControvcTsy. Gottschalk, the son of a Saxon count, was early devoted by his parents to the monastic life, and trained at Fulda, partly under the then abbot Rabanus Maurus. He next was in the monastery of Orbais, near Sois- sons, where he studied Augustine and put forth the doctrine of a twofold predestination, one to salvation, the other to condem- nation, each absolute and unconditional, but not fatalistic. Of this doctrine and its correlatives he became a champion. Against him the chief was Rabanus Maurus, of ancient Roman blood, a pupil of Alcuin, a leading theologian of his time, a popular teacher at Fulda, a busy author, and finally archbishop of Mayence (died 856). His doctrine of predestination was Semi-Pelagian, although he quoted largely from Augustine and Prosper. A synod at Mayence condemned Gottschalk, who was handed over to his archbishop, Hincmar, of Rheims, a nobly born, talented, courageous, proud, energetic, violent man of great influence, and very zealous for the Gallican liberties 228 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. for which he did noble service against Pope Nicholas. Always in controversy, he was not likely to deal tenderly with the poor Saxon monk. He secured another synodical condemnation of Gottschalk in 849 at Kiersy, and had him excommunicated. In the spirit of the time, Gottschalk offered to test the truth of his doctrines by the ordeal, and after being plunged into cal- drons of boiling water, oil, and pitch, to walk through a blazing pile. This challenge was not accepted, but in the presence of King Charles the monk was flogged and made to throw his book into the fire, which he had hardly strength to do. Then he was cast into a monastic prison, where he suffered coura- geously almost twenty years under the ban of heresy. Meanwhile the whole Western Church was enlisted in the controversy, and Hincmar was assailed for hijr extreme harsh- ness. Rabanus Maurus forsook him. New WTiters threw in their pamphlets. It grew too warm for Hincmar, and he sought the aid of the freethinker John Scotus, who came out with the doctrine of "the Eternal Now," on the basis that all time is present with God, and that strictly there can be no foreordination. Predestination is but the will of God in activity; it is one and can not be twofold. It is positive only in reference to what is good. At length, when synods failed to reconcile parties. Bishop Remi, of Lyons, a friend of the prisoner, moved to refer the subject to a future council, and that special council was never held. Gottschalk appealed to the eminent Pope Nicholas ; the pope cited Hincmar to go to Rome, but he refused to obey, and for once he was in the right as a free Gallic bishop. No decree opened the door of liberty to Gottschalk. He died in prison 868, and Hincmar refused him burial in consecrated ground. Meanwhile the same parties were deep in another dispute. 5. The Euchanstic Cotitrcruersy. Paschasius Radbert, once the master of a convent-$chool, was in 844 the abbot of the French Corbey. He had opposed Gottschalk. His ardent piety and traditionalism led him to draw up for his monks a little service-book on the Lord's Supper. In this he broached the views which finally matured in the doctrine of transubstan- tiation. He taught "that in the Lord's Supper, after the conse- cration, there remained only the form and appearance of bread and wine; and that the real body, or the flesh and blood of RATRAM— BERENGAR. 229 Christ, were present." He would not refuse the cup to the laity, as did his later followers. He laid his book before King Charles, who soon found that this theory was a novelty. It excited suqDrise and alarm. Charles requested Ratram (Ber- tram) to examine it. Tliis young monk was in the convent \vith Radbert, and devoted to the writings of Augustine. At Charles's request he had already written in favor of Gottschalk. He now stated that in the Eucharist the elements are not changed as to form or substance, but the change is spiritual and potential; and that in them the body and blood of Christ are presented, not to the bodily senses, but to the faithful soul. He held to a real, but not a corporeal presence. This view was taught by Elfric, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the next century. The book of Ratram was first printed in England, 1532, and was highly valued by the Calvinistic reformers. It led Bishop Ridley, the martyr, to a right view of the Lord's Supper. It seems that King Charles sought the opinion of John Scotus, who saw little more in this sacrament than a memorial of the absent body of the Lord, or a remembrancer of those Christian truths which nourish the believer's soul; a view often imputed to the reformer Zwingli. Rabanus Maurus, and the more learned men of that age, generally, opposed the doctrine of Radbert; but as it bore the appearance of reverential piety, and harmonized with the prevailing love of the miraculous, it grew into favor. In the eleventh century the doctrine of Ratram created sur- prise when it was revived by Berengar, the master of a thriving cathedral school, at his native Tours, and then Archdeacon of Angers (1040-1088). He had a free mind and was not afraid to read the works of John Scotus, though told that John was a heretic. He took Ambrose and Augustine as solid authorities, and became an able theologian in that "very dark century." His former fellow-student, Adelman, warned him against spread- ing his opinions, lest he should cause scandal and enmity; but the brave man soon sent forth a book, which was widely circu- lated by men who had been poor lads, educated at his cost in his school. It was burnt and lost for ages, until Lessing found it in our century. No other monk in that age raised such a commotion as did Berengar. About him we might range kings, bishops, councils, and popes, and even the Norman invasion of 230 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. England. For Lanfranc, \vho went to the chair of Canterbury, and Hildebrand, who became the great pontiff at Rome, were at first his friends. Lanfranc became his earnest opponent.* Now acquitted and again condemned; now in prison and agair at Rome to answer charges of heresy; now compromising or even recanting his views, and once more asserting them, poor Berengar grew sick of tribulation, sore with self-reproach foi his want of heroism, and retired to an island in the river neai Tours, lived as a hermit and died neglected. But he was not forgotten. Down to late times a company of people met once every year at his tomb to honor his name. 11, Norse Invasions. The Churches of Britain had no active part in the contro- versies just noticed. Their great conflicts were entirely different. They had to struggle for the right of existence. Bede was scarcely fifty years in his grave when the Northmen turned their thoughts to a long battle for life, and when theology, science, schools, Churches, art, literature, civilization, were ar- rested in their progress. We must count three hundred years of Norse pillaging and conquest — all in the providence of God — before the Northmen ceased from Vikingism and perma- nently settled English affairs in their victorious way. Here and there a man like Alfred brought ' ' a little reviving in the bond- age;" but he prolonged, rather than shortened, the period of Norse aggression. f This vast movement — one of the greatest in history — had three stages in England: (i) that of plundering expeditions, from about 787 to 855, when Northmen landed upon every coast, surprised towns, pillaged churches, burnt monasteries, *Note at the end of this chapter. fRead the Anglo-Saxon chronicle from the year 7S7 to 1087, and mark the many times and places of robbery, flame, and conquest. Here are a few sam- ples : 794. The heathens ravaged among the Northumbrians, and plundered Egfert's monastery. 851. The heathen men first wintered in Thanet ; three hundred and fifty ships came to the mouth of the Thames. 870. In Mercia the Danes got the victory, slew the king (Edmund), subdued the land, and destroyed all the churches they came to. 871. Nine general battles fought south of the Thames. 910. Danes greatly ravaged along the Severn. 991. Ipswich ravaged; tribute first paid to Danish men on account of great terror which they caused by the sea-coast. loio. The Danes burnt Thetford and Cambridge. All North- men, or Scandinavians, were often called Danes. NORSE INVASIONS, 23 1 reveled in crime, loaded their black boats with goods and cap- tives, and sailed away; (2) that of settlement, along with more Viking ravages, through the next one hundred and fifty years, during which Norse colonies expanded, old kingdoms lost their boundaries, Danes carved out provinces for themselves, the conquerors assumed Christianity, and tried to live as English- men with the conquered, yet intent upon having their Anglo- Norse bishops, aldermen, and generals ; (3) that of royalty, when Danish kings ruled from 1017 to 1042, and, after Edward the Confessor, came William the Norman in 1066, with his feudalism, bishops, and Domesday Book. If there had not been a tenacity and toughness in the English character, we should find no survival of Anglo-Saxon Church, law, language, or civilization. There were immense losses of property and life, of homes and social bliss. The heathen Dane slew the Christian Saxon, as the heathen Saxon once slaughtered the Christian Briton. Women had griefs which they wished untold. * ' There was warfare and sorrow all over England." Invasion often became persecution, especially in Ireland, wdiere pagan Danes had early colonies of Ostmen (785), who pressed inland, while sea-rovers desolated the coasts. Irish monks, creeping out of the marshes, handed down the awful story of the ruin of churches, convents, schools, four universities, books, harps, happiness ; of poets, teachers, musicians, and priests hiding in the woods ; and of Erin's crown on the head of a Norse tyrant at Dublin ; all end- ing in the amalgamation of races, and a lower type of Chris- tianity. The Scots have told their woes with a like monotony. Culdeeism was paralyzed. lona lost her glory (806), and the very bones of Columba. The isles at the north of it were homes and naval stations of the Vikings. Even the Hebrides paid tribute to a line of Norse kings (870-1266) on the Isle of Man. From Caithness to Lindisfarne the Northmen swept the coasts. Where were they not masters of the North, except in the wild districts so famous for the Highlanders, who there took refuge, kept pure their Celtic blood, and long retained their rudeness, their clanship, and their brave habit of plundering their neighbors?* Is it any wonder that Culdee light grew *The Anglo-Danish province of Lothian seems to be the basis of the later Scotland. 232 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. dim in history? Yet rays of it entered the fierce Norse heart. Vikings met with sad hermits, assumed Christianity, led their crews and subjects to holy altars, and bore some coals of it away to their father-land. England was long surrounded with lawless Vikingism ; and yet her Christianity, law, kingship, courage, were to have the largest part in subduing it, and with it the Norse Paganism. It brought evils ; it wrought good. The best effects were these : a stronger union of the Scots and Picts in one Scottish king- dom ; political unity of the English under the Wessex crown for two hundred years (802-1002); the erasure of the old hep- tarchy from the English map; the development of Anglo-Saxon energies ; the creation of an English navy, and the rise of for- eign commerce ; the baptism of the invaders, who built again the churches they had burnt ; the solidarity of the two families of the same race ; the conversion of Norway, with the final repression of Vikingism ; and the rearing of noble men who conserved the English Church, law, and life. These results were largely due to the rnost eminent West-Saxon kings, and to their wisest Norse successors. With this light on their position we may understand the men on whom so much depended. In 802 Egbert returned from an exile at the court and palatine school of Charlemagne, and took the crown of Wessex. He won the overlordship of all England, and styled himself "King of the English," as no other man had yet dared to do. At his death, in 839, he might have left to Ethelwulf a firm nationality, had it not been for the Northmen. He mapped his grand scheme on the sand, and the Norse storm washed it out. Every Saxon realm was falling into Norse hands, and three crowned sons of Ethelwulf, with the warlike Bishop Alstane, barely saved Wessex from wreck. Its brave people needed a wiser, more inspiring leader. No one could yet name the remaining son, Alfred, as the hope of state and Church. Alfred was born at Wantage in 849, just four hundred years after Hengist is said to have landed on the gravel at Ebbsfleet. No human arm then pushed back the Saxon ; would any one now drive off the Dane? Could Alfred? Heroism was not his young dream. Not patriotism, but religion, was his early lesson ; nor was it the religion that best makes a patriot. It DISMAL OUTLOOK. 235 was that of his father, who was half monk at times, a good fighter alongside of Bishops Alstane and Swithin against the Danes, but more happy on his pilgrimage to Rome. He might there report that he had given large lands for his ' ' own eternal salvation." He there found Pope Leo IV inclosing the Vatican against Moorish pirates, who were helping to imperil Christen- dom. This pope may have anointed little Alfred, six years old, as future king of the West-Saxons. If the lad came with his aged father to the court of King Charles the Bald, he was scarcely profited by the debates of Gottschalk, Radbert, and Scotus, nor by the wedding which made the clever girl Judith his step-mother. At sixteen she was a widow, and very soon the wife of her step-son, Ethelbald. ITie scandals of this royal pair justly caused a public horror and loud noise. Alfred was the gainer, if thenceforth he was "left to grow up pretty much as he chose." All this is the most we know about his first outline of religious studies ; perhaps his good mother Osberga had led him in diviner ways. If she really gave him a book of Saxon poetry for committing it to memory, he may have grown warm with patriotic songs. In his manhood he had, deep in his soul, the love of country and the love of God. Not simply in religion, but also in kingship, he had to find the higher wisdom for himself. "Tribulation worketh experi- ence," and hope cometh later. In 871 Egbert's crown pressed his brow, but Egbert's failure grieved his heart. The outlook was dismal. A great famine, plague among men, pest among cattle, were scarcely over ; good King Edmund slain in the hot fight with Guthrun and four other heathen Vikings, who so covered East Anglia that Prince Edwold left crown and realm to the pagan church -burners, went into a Dorset monastery, and "there led a hermit's life on bread and water;" more Danes coming, with the Paven fith' on their standards; the Thames full of their black galleys, and Wessex towns on fire by their raiding horsemen ; theft, riot, panic every-where ; and yet one royal leader who might say, as his brave alderman had shouted at Englefield, ' ' Forward, men, and at them ; our cap- tain, Christ, is braver than they." That hero fell; yet the long war went on, Alfred having some triumphs, "for he too relied on the help of God." Later story-tellers may have lapsed into myths in their rec- 234 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. ord of Alfred's experience. Yet they may give us roots of fact when they tell how he yielded to evil impulses ; ruled with too hard a hand ; laid too heavy service on the yeomanry ; was too heedless of the preacher's rebuke and the poor man's cry ; drove petitioners from court and camp ; hanged men on slight charges, or let justices have too much power ; lost pop- ularity ; saw nobles and people forsaking him ; and then left them to find out his value by suddenly hiding in the marshes of Athelnay, where the neat-herd's wife scolded him for his failure in cake-baking. They tell how "the Righteous Judge willed that his sin should not go unpunished in this world, to the end that he might spare him in the world to come. There- fore King Alfred often fell into such great misery that some- times none of his subjects knew where he was, or what had become of him." Misery deep and seclusion enough, no doubt; yet he may have been hedged by the Danes in some ravine or swamp — a Saxon Washington wintering painfully at his Valley Forge — and neither office-seekers nor monks were likely to hear of him until he cut his way out. The certain fact is, that his people finally rallied, and that he was long years in deciding the contest between Christian Saxon and heathen Dane, and so ending it that Christianity was triumphant and English civilization preserved. Guthrun and his folk were granted East Anglia, where they learned Christ as he was best known in those days.^ Hasting, who had been treated magnanimously, but had broken every oath made on the shoulder-blade of a horse, was so beaten that he came not again to ravage the coasts. Rollo was sent off to France, there to make Normandy a home for other Vikings ; thus sparing England for nearly two hundred years, but rearing men who would bring her a Conquest worth mentioning. These are samples of the policy by which the English nation and Church were relieved for a time. When the Norse storm lulled for a year or two, or passed by to other lands, Alfred came forth in the character which has most impressed the whole Germanic race ; for he was a royal patriarch and teacher * So Theodosius settled the Goths in Thrace, and they reared Alaric and conquerors in the very empire which sheltered them. These Anglo- Danes would yet furnish an Alaric in Sweyn and a Theodoric in Canute, although the men were of foreign birth. A LIFE OF WORTHINESS. 235 of his people. We find him with his books, his pen, his in- vented lantern, his harp, his merry children, his artisans and farmers, his schools and lawmakers, his Bible and his prayers. All his life was one of illnesses ; and yet he usually had a cheerful heart, hopeful soul, devout spirit, and busy hand. He reminds us of King David in his various trials and activities. Yet he is not understood by comparing him with the brilliant names of antiquity. He stands quite alone in the moral grand- eur of his life and aims. He has been described as the first really Christian king, the only English king entitled ' ' the Great." It was no boast for him to say to those who listened for his last golden words, ' ' I have striven to live .worthily. I desire to leave to the men who come after me a remembrance of me in good works." That remembrance has come down through the ages. Monarchs have seen what a life of worthi- ness means. It has been imitated by rulers and yeomen. Far away, children are fired by the story of it. Missionaries tell it, and so its light goes round the world. He saw his own defects, and tried to remedy them. He saw what England needed, and labored to meet the want. 1. In national affairs he sought to rescue, defend, unify, and greaten England. He was an organizer. He created a navy, made good roads, repaired fortresses, brought London up from the ashes, and started it on the way to universal commerce. His long lost and curious jewel bears the w^ords, "Alfred made me." This might almost be said of England. Her realms be- came one nation. Her zest for exploration was begun. Alfred sent out a Norse shipmaster far up toward the North Pole, perhaps with a kindly message to the Icelanders. Envoys bore his presents to Rome and Jerusalem, and he may have sent alms to the poor Christians of St. Thomas in India, as Charle- magne had sent donations to the suffering Churches of Africa and Palestine. 2. He worked his way >out of ignorance, and gave an impetus to popular education and literature. In the face of skepticism we must think that he could read, write, and per- sonally make translations from Latin into his mother -tongue. He kept his note-books, made quotations of all sorts, proverbs of wise men, sentences from Augustine, now a story, then a prayer, with many a good song. His schemes of education 236 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. were quite like those of Charlemagne. They were the last vig- orous attempts at popular enlightenment during the Middle Ages, The Northumbrian schools and literature had gone down in the Norse deluge. Aldhelm's lights were no longer burning in Wes- sex. No abbot Hadrian lectured at Canterbury. "When I began to reign," he says, "I can not remember a man south of the Thames who could explain his [Latin] service book in En- glish." To remedy this ignorance he had his court-school for the nobles — even the dignified aldermen — and he superintended it. He imported teachers, such as the monk Asser, of Wales ; Plegmund and Werfrith, of Mercia; Grimbald, of France, a fine musician, a priest well versed in Scripture and theology for one in that age ; and John (not Scotus but) the Saxon of Cor- bey. He lamented that the former English scholars had left every thing in Latin, and began to act as translator, editor, and author. He took what he could find ; such books as the Pas- torals of Pope Gregory, the Consolations of Boethius, ^sop's fables, the histories of Bede and Orosius, and, best of all, the Hebrew Psalms. By rather free paraphrase, he threw into most of his translations what he thought his people ought to know ; here explaining his theory of government, and there breaking out against the abuses of power. "The cold providence of Boethius gives way to an enthusiastic acknowledgment of the goodness of God." No doubt, when he went to the church — often far in the night — to pray and hear the solemn chants, he wished the time soon to come when the service might be heard in English, and the people lift their prayers in their mother-tongue to God, and the very peasants read His Word to them in their own language. He was anxious that schools should be founded in which the children should each "abide at his book till he could well understand English writing." 3. His legislation. In it the moral element prevailed. He made the best use of what was at hand. The laws of Offa and Ina were amended and rendered more humane.* The Ten Commandments and part of the Mosaic code were made a part of the law of the land. Labor on Sundays and on the Church *The Chancellor Swithin had died in 862, but he had "contributed to the consolidation of the States of the Heptarchy into one great kingdom," says Lord Campbell. Alfred had no such chancellor in his reign. The next great chancellor was Alfred's grandson, Turketel, a shorn priest and quite learned man in the reign of Athelstan. THE TRUTH-TELLER. -5/ holidays was forbidden. Women of every class, especially nuns, were carefully protected from insult. Monks must not be idle and vicious, they must go to work educating the people in the villages. The clergy might have wives and good homes among their parishioners. Bishops must keep within their dioceses, visit and preach to some purpose. Half of the reve- nues was devoted to the poor, to public schools, and to the public worship of the Church. The condition of serfs and slaves was mitigated ; the cottagers had the sympathies of the king ; the poor never forgot their benefactor. The whole gov- ernment of state and Church must do the greatest good to the greatest number. He had a keen eye for the best men to do any needed work. Judges must be hanged if they caused "the scales of justice to be swayed by bribes." He reviewed their acts and decisions. He seems to have sent some judges to the gibbet for condemning men to death without the consent of the entire jury. He probably did not introduce, but rather modified the trial by jury, as well as certain other modes of legal admin- istration attributed to him. He laid stress on the maxim that "every man is to be considered innocent until he is proved guilty." One account is, that when he was dying, in 901, he called to him Edward, whom he had carefully reared with all his chil- dren in God's fear and love, and said, "My dear son, sit now down beside me, and I will deliver to thee the true counsel. My son, I feel that my hour is near, my face is pale, my days are nearly run. We must soon part, I shall go to another world, and thou shalt be 'left alone with all my wealth. I pray thee, for thou art my dear child, strive to be a father and a lord to thy people ; be the children's father, the widow's friend ; comfort the poor, shelter the weak ; and with all thy might do thou right whatever is wrong. And, my son, govern thy- self by law, then shall the Lord love thee, and God, above all things, shall be thy reward. Call upon him to advise thee in all thy need, and so he shall help thee the better to compass what thou wouldst. " And so departed "the Peaceable, the Truth-teller," "England's Darling." His bones are dust, His good sword rust, His soul is with the saints, we trust. 238 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. To his successors he left his ideal of life, law, and of a Church quite theocratic, and it was not entirely lost. His daughter, Ethelfleda, was the brilliant Lady of Mercia. Ed- ward pushed his overlordship into Scotland. Athelstan con- tributed to the conversion of Norway. These kings were busy in fighting down Scots, Danes, and Welsh. Where they won, the English Church must hold her sway. Their successors were overshadowed by Dunstan, a monk who rose to the posi- tion of an archbishop, a reformer, a statesman, a dictator, and who was the great English character of his time. III. The Policy of Dunstan. The Anglo-Saxon had disliked rigid monasticism, and the unpopular system had declined. Celibacy was not congenial to the English. The more free parish priests were honest enough to have wives. Many of the convents became the home of a half monastic, married clergy. About the cathedrals were the houses of the canons, many of whom were married. Among all the clergy were vices which needed correction, and the true reform would have been to take away, not marriage, but monas- ticism ; not their freedom, but their slavery. The wrong method was attempted by the man who did most to complete the supremacy of the West-Saxon realm — not a king, nor warrior, but a priest. "Dunstan stands first in the line of ecclesiastical statesmen, who counted among them Lanfranc and Wolsey, and ended in Laud. He is still more remarkable in himself, in his own vivid personality, after eight centuries of revolution and change." Born in Glastonbury, of noble parents, in 925, he was there educated by Irish monks in no small amount of secular and sacred learning. He became the wonder of that region in scholarship, in copying manuscripts, in music, archi- tecture, painting, modeling sculptures, and working in metals, and the people thought him a magician. As a monk he made his cell his workshop with its forge. He refused a bishopric, and became abbot of Glastonbury. He ruined the peace of Edwy's court, and was for some time an exile in France. Under Edgar he returned and became the leading man in Church and state, for he was not only Archbishop of Canter- bury (959-988), but royal counselor, when not in exile. No doubt that, in many respects, the prime minister was a wise TWO SORTS OF CLERGY. 239 Statesman, and with a stern hand he secured a higher degree of order and justice. But the zeal that most concerns our his- tory was in the sphere of the Church. I. There were two sorts of clergy: the rcg-u/ar (named from the rcgula, or convent rule) were monks ordained to preach ; the secular were parish priests, often married, and living in country homes, or houses about the cathedrals. They were called zvoiidly, for the idea had come, that to be "religious" was to be monastic. No doubt many, but w^e hope not most of them, were corrupt in morals and negligent of pastoral duties. Yet domestic life was not the cause of the evils charged upon the clergy. Probably many of the married clergy were tillers of fields, carpenters, and teachers of some sort, in order to earn a living. Their sermons were plain talks, and they made sad work of the Latin liturgy. They were still the best citi- zens of the towns and on the manors. They lived among the people. Their wives shared in the joys and sorrows of the women around them. Their children, says Charles Knight, went in the troops of young villagers to gather May blossoms, or bring in the Christmas evergreens for the Church ; or stood with them when the curate taught his classes the creed and the Lord's prayer, and when the bishop confirmed those who were fourteen years of age. These poor clergj^men and their fami- lies were the best bonds of society. Their civilizing influence had some good bearing on the public morals. They loved their country and their homes. All this Dunstan would overthrow. He would put in their places the monkish priests who were not at all likely to improve society in any high degree. A re- form was needed, but his method was wrong. The effort was to silence the seculars, part them from their dependent families, force them into convents, or drive them out of the land. For a morsel of bread they must renounce their natural and Scrip- tural liberties. This movement raised an uproar, and almost a civil war. It was the first English battle for Church power. The seculars acted, each according to his bold independence, or his fears, his spirit of self-sacrifice or his cringing obedience, while the wives raised a loud protest. 2. Dunstan restored the Benedictine Order in England, under a modified rule. It had long ago ceased at Jarrow, where the Norse Avanted no monks. He hoped to bring the idle and vicious inmates of religious 240 HlSrORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. houses to a life of industry and morality. Bands of marriea priests and seculars were to be thrust out, and a host of Bene- dictines was brought from the Continent to invade the convents, churches, and parishes of the land. King and pope aided the reformer, who, after all, was reforming nothing. He dared not begin at home, and make the change of monks and clergy at his own Canterbury. Only a few cathedrals made the change. The English Church would not permit the revolution, not even when a synod declared for it. A reaction came, and the secu- lars had to be tolerated. But the wide distinction was drawn between the two sorts of clergy, and it will again crop out in Wyclif's time. Something was done to elevate the Benedictines and the clergy by one of the two .^Ifrics (looo), whose name shines out of the mists which long obscured it, and is credited with these attempts at popular instruction, namely: (i) His homilies, in- tended for the parish priests to read to the people. Preaching had nearly ceased. He compiled sermons from such Fathers as Augustine, Jerome, Gregory, and from the English Bede, and translated them into Anglo-Saxon. The course was foi the Sundays of a year. "Be very careful of heresy," said his archbishop, Sigeric, who was not so alarmed about ignorance. These were used for a time in some quarters, but were labeled "old and useless books" in the thirteenth century, when Latin was essential to orthodoxy. (2) He prepared an English gram- mar; very timely, but new editions were hardly in demand. (3) He translated parts of the Bible, but more was not wanted by the ruling clergy. He did not find therein, nor teach, tran- substantiation,* a doctrine which was afterwards carried into England by Lanfranc. But the Church was not aroused; "no ecclesiastical synod, no Church reform, broke the slumbers of tlie clergy." Politicians Avere awake when Sweyn of Denmark contrived to get the mastery of England (1013), and consigned her throne to his son Canute (1017-37), who was the Charlemagne of the North, with Denmark and Norway in his empire. His most devout act was a pilgrimage to Rome. There he secured some benefits to merchants and to other pilgrims, but the pope was hardly willing to lessen his exactions from English bishops. *Note at the end of this Chapter. TilE CONVERSION OF NORWAY— HAKON THE GOOD. 24I He was such a friend to the Church, at home and abroad, that the old song ran, " Merrily sang the monks of Ely When King Canute was sailing by." IV. The Conversion of Norway. While the stream of Norse people was breaking over Eng- land, there was a counter-current of English Christianity thrown into Scandinavia. Anskar and his disciples could not win the fierce Jarls of Norway. These sons of Wodin, each swearing by Thor in every fight with his neighbor, were first brought under kingship by Harold Harfagr (fair-haired, 860-933), but no wholesale conversion was to be expected through him. His part in the divine plan was to "bring chaos a little nearer to the form of cosmos," reduce the Jarls to an incipient unity which rendered civilization possible, and then, by some whim, send his youngest son over to King Athelstan, in Wessex. This bright lad, Hakon, was there carefully educated, baptized, freighted with some just ideas of kingship, and sent home. At Trondhiem the Free Assembly admitted his right to the crown, "the news of which flew over Norway like fire through dried grass;" and the reign of Eric Blood-ax was suddenly ended. Thus Hakon the Good (934-61) came to be a royal mis- sionary as well as a wise law-maker, and defender of his realm. English preachers and bishops came over, taught wherever they got hearers, and lamented their slow progress. There were two special outbreaks of opposition. When the zealous king kept Christmas with the converted members of his court, the pagan chiefs held their Yule-tide festival, with sacrifices and revels. They stormfully demanded his presence with them. He yielded so far as to take a cup of Yule-beer, make over it the sign of the cross, and drink it. Another outbreak came from the people. When he announced that they must become Christians, renounce their sacrifices and idols, keep holy Sun- day, with thoughtful rest and saintly fast, they muttered their dissent. "What! take from us our old belief and our time for labor ! How^ can the land be tilled, and we get our bread?" So it was then urged, as often since, that Sunday laws fall hard on the poor, who need the full seven days for toil ! A Yule- 16 2^2 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. beer party, and a No-Sunday party, with heathenism as the main principle, are not entirely modern. They worried Hakon long, and when he fell bravely in bat- tle they buried him in heathen fashion. They held on their way until the reign of Olaf Trygveson (995-1000), who had been a sea-rover, had met some mournful hermit on an isle near England, received baptism, and talked with Bishop Elfege, who baptized him again, when he honestly promised King Eth- elred never to plunder in England any more. Carlyle says: "If soft methods would not serve, then by hard and" even hardest he put down a great deal of miscellaneous anarchy in Norway; was especially busy against heathenism (devil-worship and its rites) ; this, indeed, may be called the focus and heart of his royal endeavor." Many of the peasants soon consented to baptism and Sabbath-keeping. The Yule party were clam- orous for him to attend the next great sacrificial feast at Trond- hiem. He promised to be there. He took pains to make the occasion splendid. He invited guests from all quarters, gave them a royal banquet of a somewhat Christian kind, and then had eleven chief pagans arrested, saying to them, in effect, "Since I am to be a heathen again, and do sacrifice, I propose to do it in the highest form, that of human sacrifice; and this time not of slaves and malefactors, but of the best men in the country." The eleven saw at once, as never before, the horrible crime of sacrificing human life to the gods, and along with a multitude they accepted baptism, left hostages in the king's hands, went home, and there listened more prudently, if not more heartily, to such missionaries as the king sent, and to him when he visited them. There was more mildness in the chaiacter, if not the meas- ures, of Olaf the Saint (1017-33), who had learned the Christian faith in some of his Viking cruises ; perhaps in England. Thence he brought preachers and bishops; one of them was Grimkil, who drew up a code of ecclesiastical law. ' ' Vikingism proper had to cease in Norway; still more, heathenism, under penal- ties too severe to be borne; death, mutilation of limb, not to mention forfeiture and less rigorous coercion." The king fell in battle and was honored as the patron saint of his country. And his name was given to churches. Norway passed into the empire of Canute the Great, who THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 243 sent thither tlie first Benedictines known there, and favored the primacy of Canterbury ®ver all the Norse Churches. But the German clergy asserted Anskar's right of pre-emption. Adel- bert, the Archbishop of Bremen, pressed forward his bishops and established sees in Norway. The difference was slight. They were all Romanized. On his pilgrimage to Rome, 1026, Canute allied the Danish Church to the papacy. Ever since 865 Iceland had been a refuge for adventurers, criminals, and families who left Norway to escape the rigors of both pagan and Christian kings. The first royal Okf sent thither "one Thangbrand, priest from Saxony, of wonderful qualities, military as well as theological," who made a few coji- verts, killed two or three men, and returned saying that the Icelanders were a satirical, stubborn, inconvertible people. A better man, Thormond, was sent, and in the year looo the free assembly at Thingvalla enthusiastically voted Christianity to be the religion of their republic — one that still flourishes. They established a Christian colony in Greenland. Probably they often touched our Atlantic Coast, and their Vinland seems to have been in America, somewhere between Martha's Vineyard and Chesapeake Bay. The Icelanders best preserved the tradi- tions of the Norse people. From their Sagas (saj's) come the fullest accounts of their old mythology, and of early Scandi- navian history. V. The Norman Conquest. Viking Rollo had sailed away from his three little Vigten Isles, near the upper coast of Norway, made no very trouble- some call on King Alfred, pushed his boats up the Seine to Rouen (911), and treated with Charles the Simple for the lower valley. Thither he drew other sea-rovers, settled them in lands and in towns, and thus helped to cure the immense evil of Norse robbery. Sailors took wonderfully to farming. He mar- ried a French princess, was baptized, wore the white robe for seven days, and thought himself a Christian. He distributed good lands to churches and convents as a compensation for his bad deeds while forty years a Viking. Thus Normandy was born among the nations. He became a wise rule;-, enterpris- ing, liberal, a kindly old sea-farer, v/ith such morality as he thought expedient. His people laid aside their barbarism, and 244 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. became French in their language, their culture, their civilization. At length, in 1027, William was born, "the most terrible, as he was the last outcome of the Norman race." As the hunter of beasts and of men, the builder of cities and the creator of an English epoch, he was the Nimrod of his time. The man who "loved the wild deer as though he had been their father," wa:^ never loved by the people as his national children. In him cold human will appears tremendous. His crimes can not be denied, his virtues may too often be repressed — such as his honesty, his hatred of chicanery and simony, his freedom from hypocrisy, his conjugal fidelity, his regard for law — but the eminent trait is his power. The Church was greatly affected by him ; it was favored in Normandy, it was revolutionized in England. At home he sought to reform it, and held synods for correcting the faults of the clergy. As a builder, founder, and patron he was justly proud of his cathedrals and monaster- ies, but of none was he prouder than of the school on the Bee, or the Brook; one well named, for it sent a gladdening stream upon the mental desert. The knight Herlwin had retired from the wars and revelries of the world, and he was building his monastery in the woods of ash and elm on the Bee. He was making an oven, one day, when he heard a stranger say, "God save you." This man was Lanfranc, who had wandered out of his native Lombardy, where he had been a lawyer at Pavia. He was now in search of a place where he might be a monk, a student, a teacher, if not a theologian. Bee was the place for him, and there he began to make his fame as a shrewd organizer, wise adminis- trator, the reformer of Church discipline, an ecclesiastical lawyer, and a forerunner of the schoolmen. He soon raised his school in.to rivalry with those which had survived the breakage of Charlemagne's empire. It excelled the new Cluny. It became the most famous school in Christendom for its advanced thought and its development of theology. The best mental activity of the time was there seen in Anselm. Lanfranc was so obedient to his prior as the vicar of Christ, that he Avould violate a rule of grammar rather than question the ungrammatical prior's authority, but he took more freedom with dukes and kings. When he became prior his school was visited by Duke William, who came in great pomp and looked WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 245 very wise. Boys might be captivated with his earthly grandeur if their own superiority was not evinced. They were examined in dialectics — a mode of tough reasoning, or too often the spin- ning of thought into invisible threads. The duke was utterly incapable of this fine art, and Lanfranc knew it. He asked William to ravel a skein of tangled logic, probably for a jest. The Norman wrath flamed high at the supposed insult, and also at the agreement of the prior with the pope in opposing his marriage with Matilda of Flanders, a descendant of King Alfred. "Go," said he; "leave the country!" Lanfranc started on a wretched nag. When the duke overtook him and urged him to move on more rapidly, the self-possessed Lom- bard repHed: "Give me a better horse and I shall go faster." The duke laughed, and from that hour made the monk his counselor. William's greatest achievement was the Norman Conquest of England, for whose throne Dane and Saxon were contend- ing. As the result of a fictitious claim and daring scheme, William raised an army of adventurers, crossed the Channel, landed at Hastings in 1066, near there fought the battle of Senlac in October, saw King Harold slain, put aside the Ethel- ings, and on Christmas w^as in London, with the crown on his head and all England at his feet. So the Norse had come again, and the people felt that he was Conqueror. "From that day," wrote a monk of Peterborough, "every evil has fallen upon our house. May God have mercy upon it!" The fact that Pope Alexander II had sanctioned the invasion, and sent William the banner of the Church, was poor comfort to the monk. By a large view, w^e may see that England was led into a new development and a broader civilization. But in the fresh conflict of races there were evils almost intolerable. The English people, from baron to peasant, from bishop to monk, w^ere oppressed, and on the side of the oppressors there was power. During nine years of war and famine men had to en- dure the loss of property, exile, poverty, servitude ; the women worse. The Normans became the masters in provinces, cities, castles, abbeys, and churches. The monk, William of Malmesbury,* writing after the Con- «Not the first, nor last, of the many English chroniclers from Gildas {550) to Ingulfs continuator (14S6), but, as Freeman says, "the first historian who 246 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. quest had struck his fathers, says, "This was a fatal day to England, a melancholy havoc of our dear country, through its change of masters." But he thinks the Church needed to be roused by chastisement. He draws a strong contrast: "The desire after literature and religion had decayed for several years before the arrival of the Normans [from Normandy]. The clergy, contented with a very slight degree of learning, could scarcely stammer out the words of the sacraments ; and a per- son who understood grammar was an object of wonder. The monks mocked the rule of their order by fine vestments, and the use of every kind of food. The nobles, given up to luxury and wantonness, went not to church in the morning according to the manner of Christians, but merely, in a careless way, heard matins and masses from a hurrying priest in their houses. The common people, left unprotected, were a prey to the most ^ powerful, who amassed fortunes by either seizing their property or by selling their persons into foreign lands. Lust reigned. Drinking in parties was a universal practice ; entire nights and days were spent in it. The vices attendant on drunkenness, which enervate the human mind, followed ; hence, when they engaged William, with more rashness and blind fury than mil- itary skill, they doomed themselves and their country to slavery by one easy victory. ... I would not a'scribe all these bad propensities universally to the English. I know that many of the clergy, at that day, trod the path of sanctity ; and many of the laity, of all ranks and conditions, were well- pleasing to God. But the good must sometimes go with the bad into captivity." Then comes the vivid picture of the Normans — proudly appareled, more temperate in food, hardly able to live without war, fierce in battle, and, where strength fails of success, ready to use strategy and bribes. "They live in large houses with economy ; envy their equals ; wish to excel their superiors ; critically balances facts." This William was an ardent lover of literature, an eager book-hunter on his travels, the librarian of his Malmesbury Convent, of which he refused to be abbot, and the abridger of Paschasius Radbert's Com- mentary on the Lamentations of Jeremiah, into which he dropped tears of his own, to show that Hebrew prophet and Saxon monk had common sorrows in captivity. He ended his Chronicle with the year 1 142, still eager for "pure historical truth," though not able to sift out all legends; and soon after he died, in hope of meeting St. Patrick, Aldhelm, and Dunstan, whose lives he had written. CHURCH POLICY. 247 plunder their subjects, though they defend them from others ; faithful to their lords, though a slight offense renders them perfidious. They weigh treachery by its chance of success, and change their sentiments with money. Yet they are the kindest of nations, and highly honor strangers. They also in- termarry with their vassals. They revived, by their arrival, the observances of religion, which were every-where grown lifeless in England. You might see churches rise in every village, and monasteries in towns and cities, built after a style unknown before [Norman architecture] ; you might behold the country flourishing with renovated rites ; each wealthy man counted a day lost if he did not signalize it by some grand deed." The English Church was Normanized for a time. Foreigners, even Italians, were preferred for office. "The war of races" went on so long as it was hopeless for an Englishman to aspire to any high office in his native land or Church. William placed the English Church under the rule of the pope. Never had papal jurisdiction been so fully admitted in Britain. Two cardinals came and presided at a synod, which deposed Archbishop Stigand, nominally for his lack of proper consecration, or for his disregard of strict Romanism, but really for his patriotic spirit as an Englishman. But William was care- ful to have the office filled by Lanfranc, in 1070, and to resist the absolute power claimed by Rome. No pope, not even Hildebrand, was allowed to send letters and legates into his realm without his permission. He said to the pope: "I pay Peter-pence to you, not as tribute, but as alms. Homage I do not render." No man could be excommunicated, or invested with office, or heard at Rome in an appeal, nor any synod be held, without the king's license. Lanfranc was the champion of transubstantiation, but did not carry so high a hand in ref- erence to clerical celibacy and papal supremacy. His aim, doubtless, was to be politic in reforming abuses, to employ no violent measures of discipline, to provoke no national antipa- thies, to sacrifice neither the state to the Church nor the Church to the state, to conciliate and to fuse all the people into the desired unity. He did much to keep in apparent harmony those forces which broke out into fierce war after he was gone. The currents of thought which had started at Bee at least moistened the English mind. 248 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. The ever -needed lesson of gracefully submitting to the in evitable had to be learned. The new race of historians showed a thorough drilling in it. Those who continued the old Anglo- Saxon Chronicle described King William as ' ' mild to good men who loved God, but severe beyond measure to those who withstood his will." He sought to make an entry of all English lands and property in a register — the Domesday Book. It shows that the native people had homes, cattle, goods ; that charities were not forgotten, and that there was wealth belong- ing to the clergy, monasteries, and churches. William abol- ished capital punishments. He ended the slave-trade in his dominions. But he won no real love, even from the Normans. "He was a hard man, austere, exacting, oppressive; his heavy hand made the English themselves comprehend their own na- tional unity through a community of suffering." His work was transitional. At last the conquered triumphed, and the English language is a proof of their vitality. The Norman Conquest affected the Scottish Church. It caused a new migration of Anglo-Saxons into the North. Among the fugitives was one princely group, whose reception by King Malcolm Canmore (1056-93), makes a turning-point in history — Edgar, the legal heir to the English throne, his mother, and his sister Margaret, who soon married the king of the Scots. This queen, the famous Saint Margaret, was zealous in civilizing the people and enlightening the king. She under- took to ornament the Culdee Church by imposing upon it the Roman ritual, and conforming it more fully to the Roman model. To promote her reforms a synod was convened. She very skilfully addressed the native clergy, who could understand only Gaelic, and the king interpreted her English words. She probably then insisted (as she did afterwards) that the oneness of the catholic faith required unity in forms of worship; that the Scots celebrated mass according to a barbarous ritual ; that Lent was wrongly computed, and Easter not yet quite rightly observed ; and what was more important, the Lord's Day was openly profaned by labor, idleness, or amusements. The clergy seem to have pondered these things with some caution. The nobles had a lesson in courtly manners. They had a habit of rising from her table before grace was said by Chaplain Turgot. To cure this she offered to all the chiefs who would remain NOTE ON CHAPTER XI. 249 until thanks were offered, a cup of the best wine. This was a persuasive not to be resisted. Every guest became eager to win his "grace-cup," and the usage was extended through the land. So says Turgot, an Anglo-Saxon, who had once been at the court of Olaf the Saint, in Norway, lost wealth in a ship- wreck, or some Norse investment, entered Jarrow as a monk, engaged in churchly architecture at Durham, held ecclesiastical offices there, and become confessor to Queen Margaret and her biographer. He wrote thus : " Others may admire the signs of sanctity which miracles afford; I much more admire in Marga- ret the works of mercy. Such signs are common to the evil and the good ; but the works of true piety and charity are pe- culiar to the good." He did not question the miracles imputed to her ; we find her devoutness, liberality, and civilizing influ- ence far more credible. In her schemes she was aided by Lanfranc of Canterbury. Her royal sons, Alexander and Da- vid (1153), quite nearly executed them. Important parishes were given to foreign priests; monasteries had foreign abbots. France and Italy were exporting their surplus of monks, and Scotland received a full supply. Turgot was made Bishop of St. Andrew's, and consecrated by a Norman at York. The old Culdees did not see any special need of so many foreigners. They were restless under the innovations. Turgot was not happy. He resigned, and went to die in his old quarters at Durham, But Romanism made advances in Scotland. NOTE. Transubstantiation was not the doctrine of the English Church before Lanfranc was its primate. His predecessor, ^Ifric (995-1006, or ^Ifric, Archbishop of York, 1023-50, or both), maintained a doctrine similar to that of Ratram, whose book he knew. His friend, Bishop Wulfstan, and others, agreed with him, or left no protest. The popes seem not to have given a final statement of their dogma until Innocent HI, near his death, held the Fourth Lateran Council (121 5), which declared that " In virtue of the power conferred on the Church by Christ, bread and wine are transubstantiated mto flesh and blood by means of the formula of consecration pronounced by a priest." Bunsen (God in History, III, 148) shows the absurd conclusion thus: "Therefore there can be no salvation outside of the Church, for she done makes that [body] whereby the sacrament saves us." Still many Parisian divines argued for a real presence of Christ's body in the sacrament without any change in the bread and wine, or a consubstantiation. 250 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Chapter XII. REFORMS OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. There was an expectation that the year looo would be the