BR 170 .07 1899 
 Orr, James, 1844-1913. 
 Neglected factors in the 
 study of the early progress 
 
Neglected Factors in the 
 Study of the Early Pro- 
 gress of Christianity. By 
 the Rev. James Orr, d.d., Professor of 
 
 Church History in the United Presbyterian 'Theo- 
 logical College, Edinburgh * * * * * 
 
 3 
 
 >, 
 
 Logical 8**5^ 
 
 NEW YORK 
 A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON 
 
 51 EAST TENTH STREET 
 
 1899 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 The Ritschlian Theology 
 
 and the Evangelical Faith. 
 
 A Volume of "The Theological Educator." 
 
 Fcap 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d., Second Edition. 
 
 "This masterly exposition and criticism of 
 the great German theologian. . . . Dr. Orr has 
 done a work which will enhance his reputa- 
 tion and make all his brethren grateful to 
 him." — Aberdeen Free Press. 
 
 " His volume is not a large one, but it is 
 packed with matter, and it embodies the well- 
 considered results of careful and extensive 
 reading. It is the best English book we have 
 on the subject. Nothing is left unnoticed 
 that is necessary to a proper appreciation of 
 this influential school of theology." — Critical 
 Review. 
 
MORGAN LECTURES 
 
 Through the liberality of Mr. Henry A. Morgan, N.Y.S. 
 
 The three Lectures in this volume were 
 originally prepared for the Mansfield Summer 
 School, Oxford, 1894. They were delivered 
 as the Morgan Lecture Course, in October, 
 1897, in the Theological Seminary of Auburn, 
 in the State of New York. They are now 
 published by request of the Faculty. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 LECTURE I 
 
 THE EXTENSION OF CHRISTIANITY LATERALLY OR NUME- 
 RICALLY IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 New spirit in Early Church studies — Baur and 
 his successors — Influence of Pagan environ- 
 ment on Christianity — Less attention given 
 to the action outward of Christianity on 
 Paganism — The spread of Christianity late- 
 rally , i.e., in respect of mere n umbe rs, greater 
 than ordinarily recognised — Estimates on 
 this subject — Difficulties arising from frag- 
 mentariness of sources and unequal distribu- 
 tion of Christianity — The Catacombs a new 
 factor — Results from Catacomb discoveries 
 — Comparison with New Testament and 
 other data — Early progress of the Church — 
 Christianity in Asia Minor — The Apologists, 
 &c. — Carthage — Alexandria — Antioch — 
 Gibbon's objections — Gaul and Spain — The 
 final struggle — General result . . .13 
 7 
 
8 CONTENTS 
 
 LECTURE II 
 
 THE EXTENSION OF CHRISTIANITY VERTICALLY, OR AS 
 
 RESPECTS THE DIFFERENT STRATA OF SOCIETY 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Influence of Christianity on the higher ranks of 
 society under-estimated — New Testament 
 evidence — Witness of the Catacombs — 
 Pomponia Grascina — Flavius Clemens and 
 Domitilla — Acilius Glabrio — Notices in 
 Second Century — The wealth of the Church 
 of Rome — The witness of the persecutions 
 — Tertullian and Clement on luxury of 
 Christians — Relations of Christianity with 
 the Imperial Court in the Third Century — 
 The Decian persecution and its effects — 
 The Church before and under Diocletian — 
 Social status of Church teachers — Result: 
 membership of the Early Church not drawn 
 mainly from the lowest, but from the inter- 
 mediate classes, and embraced many of the 
 wealthier and higher orders . . . -95 
 
 LECTURE III 
 
 THE INTENSIVE OR PENETRATIVE INFLUENCE OF CHRIS- 
 TIANITY ON THE THOUGHT AND LIFE OF THE 
 EMPIRE 
 
 The instreaming of Pagan influences on Chris- 
 tianity has for its counterpart the out- 
 streaming of Christian influences on Pagan 
 
CONTENTS 9 
 
 PAGE 
 
 society — These also ordinarily under-esti- 
 mated — Silence of Pagan writers : what it 
 means — Christianity and culture in the First 
 Century — New Testament Epistles — Seneca 
 and the Gospel — Rise and character of 
 Apology in the Second Century — The literary 
 attack on Christianity : Celsus — Significance 
 and spread of Gnosticism — The Pagan 
 ethical revival in Second Century — Pagan 
 preaching — Influence of Christianity on 
 these — The Mysteries — The old Catholic 
 Fathers — Rise of Neo-Platonism— Effects of 
 Christianity on morals and legislation — Con- 
 clusion 163 
 
 Appendix 227 
 
 Index 231 
 
THE EXTENSION OF CHRISTIANITY 
 LATERALLY OR NUMERICALLY IN 
 THE ROMAN EMPIRE 
 
New spirit in Early Church studies — Baur and his 
 successors — Influence of Pagan environment on 
 Christianity — Less attention given to the action 
 outward of Christianity on Paganism — The 
 spread of Christianity laterally, i.e., in respect of 
 mere numbers, greater than ordinarily recog- 
 nised — Estimates on this subject — Difficulties 
 arising from fragmentariness of sources and 
 unequal distribution of Christianity — The Cata- 
 combs a new factor — Results from Catacomb 
 discoveries — Comparison with New Testament 
 and other data — Early progress of the Church — 
 Christianity in Asia Minor — The Apologists, &c. 
 — Carthage — Alexandria — Antioch — Gibbon's 
 objections — Gaul and Spain — The final struggle 
 — General result. 
 
LECTURE I 
 
 THE EXTENSION OF CHRISTIANITY LATER- 
 ALLY OR NUMERICALLY m THE ROMAN 
 "EMPIRE 
 
 IT is unnecessary at the commencement 
 of these lectures to do more than refer 
 to the changes which, within the last few 
 decades, have taken place in the spirit and 
 methods of the treatment of Church History. 
 If there was a time within living memory 
 when the charge could justly be brought 
 against this branch of study of being the 
 
 dreariest in the theological curriculum — a 
 13 
 
14 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 collection of dry bones and dead contro- 
 versies — that time may confidently be said 
 to have passed away ; and with it has disap- 
 peared the idea that Church History must 
 of necessity be an u?iprogressive science — the 
 repetition of the old, unchanging story — 
 seeing that the facts on which it is based 
 must always remain precisely what they are. 
 The changes referred to have come about not 
 so much from the discovery of new materials 
 — though of these also unremitting research 
 has yielded an abundant supply — as from 
 the new historical temper in which scholars 
 have approached their task ; from the fresh 
 power acquired of reading aright the mean- 
 ing of the data already possessed, and of 
 setting them in new lights and relations ; 
 from increased skill in colligating them, and 
 in interpreting the significance of unnoticed 
 details in their bearing on an entire situation 
 — in which lies so much of the higher art of 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 15 
 
 the historian. Just as the naturalist is re- 
 puted to be able from a single bone to re- 
 construct the form of some creature of the 
 past, so our modern scholars aim at showing 
 that the minutest fact is not isolated, but 
 stands in organic relation with the all-per- 
 vading life of the time ; and from comparison 
 of the facts they seek to re-create for us a 
 picture whose justification is its verisimili- 
 tude, and its power of interpreting the sum- 
 total of the phenomena. 
 
 These gains which have accrued to Church 
 History from the combined philosophical, 
 historical, and critical movement of the last 
 half century, have been reaped nowhere more 
 largely than in the study of the earliest age 
 of Christianity. The initial impulse here 
 belongs indisputably to the school of Baur, 
 which, however ruled by false presupposi- 
 tions, and open to challenge in its con- 
 clusions, has left on this whole field of 
 
16 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 investigation its deep and abiding impress. 
 If Baur's own criticism has gradually had to 
 retract itself within comparatively narrow 
 limits, it may claim, like the Nile waters, to 
 have fertilised in the height of its overflow 
 even the plains from which subsequently it 
 had to retreat. From Baur's day a new life 
 entered into Early Church History studies. 
 Ritschl, at first a disciple, then an opponent, 
 undertook an independent investigation into 
 
 ' the origin of the Old Catholic Church ; Light- 
 foot, not without aid from Ritschl, re-dis- 
 cussed the question of the Ministry, and 
 cognate problems of the Apostolic age, but 
 revealed also the unrivalled strength of his 
 own scholarship in his handling of the litera- 
 
 ' ture of the age next succeeding ; Hatch, 
 freshest of English minds in this department, 
 sought to show how Church ideas and usages 
 took shape under the action of forces in the 
 
 _, Gentile world ; Harnack and the later Ritsch- 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 17 
 
 Hans have carried out more systematically 
 the idea of the rise of ecclesiastical dogma 
 through the importation of the ideas and 
 methods of Greek philosophy ; Neumann and 
 Ramsay discuss the relations of the Chris- 
 tians to the Roman State, and the latter 
 scholar has instituted a series of researches 
 of his own, which mark a new era in the 
 discussion of Apostolic and sub-Apostolic 
 history. Other names, as Weizsacker's, will 
 readily occur. From this re-digging of the 
 soil in all directions and microscopic scrutiny 
 of every fibre and detail of the relevant 
 material, it is impossible to doubt that 
 enormous advantage will result. 
 
 There is, however, one aspect of this note- 
 worthy revival of interest in Early Church 
 History which the purpose of these lectures 
 requires that I should now more particularly 
 notice. It must strike the observant student 
 
 —at least can hardly fail to do so when 
 2 
 
i8 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 attention is called to it — that all this move- 
 ment of mind in the direction of a better 
 comprehension of the early development of 
 the Church — of the manner in which it 
 gradually shaped itself in policy, in doctrine, 
 and in usages — is governed mainly by the 
 idea of tracing the influence on Christianity of 
 its Pagan environment — of that intellectual, 
 moral, political, and religious environment, 
 which constituted the world into which 
 Christianity entered, and which could not 
 from its very nature but powerfully act upon 
 and modify the new faith ; but that the same 
 attention has not been given to a phenomenon 
 which is the counterpart of this, viz., the action 
 outwards of Christianity on that Pagan en- 
 vironment, altering, re-shaping, modifying it. 
 I am, of course, well aware that the action of 
 Christianity on Pagan society — on its ideas, 
 laws, institutions, morals — has in many of its 
 aspects formed the subject of learned inves- 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 19 
 
 tigation. 1 But I do not find that it has been 
 taken much account of in this most recent 
 phase of the study of Early Church History 
 which I have specially in view. There has 
 been much investigation into the modes and 
 the results of the inflow of Pagan ideas and 
 associations into Christianity, but there has 
 not been the same carefulness in inquiring 
 whether the flow was all on one side, whether, 
 as is antecedently probable, there was not a 
 current outward corresponding to the current 
 inward — to borrow a term from science, an 
 exosmose corresponding to the endosmose — 
 and what the strength of this outward current 
 might be. It has not been sufficiently per- 
 ceived — at least so I venture to think — that 
 precisely in the proportion that the progress 
 of investigation requires us to postulate a 
 
 1 Such books may be referred to as Troplong's 
 De Vinfluence du Christianisme sur le droit civil dcs 
 Romains, Schmidt's Social Results of Early Christianity, 
 Lecky's European Morals, Brace's Gesta Christi, &c. 
 
20 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 greater influence of Paganism on Christian 
 ideas and institutions than has formerly been 
 assumed, there arises the probability, nay, the 
 certainty, that Christianity likewise was a 
 factor of greater importance in the world of 
 Paganism than had previously been imagined, 
 and that traces of this influence are also to be 
 discovered, if they are as diligently looked 
 for. Action and reaction, in this as in other 
 spheres, may be presumed to be equal ; and 
 if the action is proved to be greater than 
 former representations allowed, it may be 
 anticipated that the reaction, in the case of a 
 force of such undoubted magnitude, will 
 prove to be greater as well. 
 
 I am now in a position to explain with 
 some definiteness the character of the thesis 
 I propose to defend in these lectures. I 
 think facts do exist — and many of them — to 
 show that there really was this current out- 
 wards of which I speak, and that Christianity 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 21 
 
 was actually a much more prominent factor 
 in Pagan society than the ordinary repre- 
 sentations would lead us to believe ; in other 
 words, that just as the trend of investigation 
 has been to show that there was a much 
 greater influence of its Pagan environment 
 upon the Church than has generally been 
 conceded ; so, correspondingly, the direction 
 of recent evidence has been to establish that 
 the effects of Christianity on Pagan society, 
 both extensively and intensively, were like- 
 wise greater than has been admitted. I am 
 fully conscious that in treating this subject 
 I can say nothing that is new to scholars — 
 little, perhaps, that is new to any one. The 
 facts to which I am to refer are, most of 
 them, sufficiently familiar — are, at the least, 
 readily accessible ; but we have hourly evi- 
 dence that it is possible for a fact to be 
 familiar, and yet not to receive its due weight 
 in the study of a subject. It may help to 
 
22 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 disarm criticism if I say that, in what I 
 advance, I desire to disclaim anything like 
 dogmatism. I put forth these ideas tenta- 
 tively, and rather with the view of their 
 being canvassed and checked by others, than 
 as definitive conclusions of my own mind. 
 Their end will be gained if they are in any 
 degree provocative of reflection in those 
 who may honour them with their attention. 
 My treatment, which I should wish to be 
 taken in its entirety, will be directed to 
 show : — 
 
 I. That Christianity had a larger exten- 
 sion laterally, i.e., in point of mere numbers, 
 in the Roman Empire, than the ordinary 
 representations allow. 
 
 II. That it had a much larger extension 
 vertically, i.e., as respects the different strata 
 of society, than is commonly believed ; 
 and — 
 
 III. That it had a much greater influence 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 23 
 
 intensively or penetratively, i.e., in its effects 
 on the thought and life of the age, than is 
 generally acknowledged. 
 
 The remaining part of this lecture will 
 be devoted to the first of these topics. 
 
 I. 
 
 The extension of Christianity laterally 
 or numerically in the Roman Empire. 
 
 The attitude of mind of most historians 
 on this question of the numerical extension 
 of Christianity in the Roman world may 
 be described as highly conservative. It is 
 difficult to understand why this should be 
 so, except that a prepossession in favour of 
 a very moderate rate of increase having 
 been engendered by the authority of certain 
 great names, the feeling has established 
 itself that this traditionally-received opinion 
 ought not to be lightly disturbed. Whatever • 
 changes are assumed to be necessary in our 
 
24 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 conceptions of the relations of Christianity 
 to Paganism in other respects, it is taken 
 for granted with wonderful unanimity that 
 there is neither room nor call for any revision 
 of opinion here. Every one is familiar with 
 Gibbon's estimate that the Christians in the 
 time of Constantine constituted at most one- 
 twentieth part of the population of Rome, 
 and a like proportion of the whole subjects 
 of the Empire. 1 Friedlander accepts and 
 endorses this computation. 2 Chastel, a 
 French writer, without, however, giving data, 
 
 1 Decline and Fall, ch. xv. Gibbon estimates the 
 population of Rome at about 1,000,000, and gives the 
 Christians one-twentieth of these, or about 50,000. 
 The population of the Empire he takes (ch. ii.) to be 
 about 120,000,000, which would give about 6,000,000 
 Christians for the whole Empire. For other estimates 
 of the population of Rome and the Empire, see 
 V. Schultze's work referred to below, Unlergang des 
 Heidenthums, I. p. 9. Scb.ultze computes 100,000,000 
 for the Empire, and, "with greatest probability," 
 600-810,000 for the Capital. 
 
 2 Sittengeschichte Roms, III. p. 531. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 25 
 
 reckons the Christians at about one-twelfth 
 of the population, 1 and this, or one-tenth, 
 perhaps, represents the average opinion. 
 Victor Schultze, one of the best informed 
 of recent investigators, estimates the pro- 
 portion at one-tenth, but with important 
 qualifications which practically nullify his 
 verdict. " This reckoning," he says, " remains 
 at all events far behind the actual number. 
 . . . The investigator assuredly gains from 
 the testing of the sources in detail the clear 
 impression that, in the beginning of the 
 fourth century, the Church on the great 
 world-theatre of over 103,000 geographical 
 square miles numbered more than 10,000,000. 
 It is hardly credible that the number of Jews 
 at that time should have exceeded that of 
 
 1 One-fifteenth in the West, and one-tenth in the 
 East. — Hist, de la destruct. du Paganisme, pp. 35-6. 
 Chastel rejects Gibbon's computation as too low, and 
 those of Staudlin (one-half) and of Matter (one-fifth) 
 as too high. 
 
26 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 the Christians." * Others wisely decline to 
 commit themselves to a precise estimate, 
 still, however, usually with the presumption 
 that the proportion was exceedingly small. 
 Thus Uhlhorn scouts what he represents as 
 Tertullian's statement that the Christians in 
 a single province were more numerous than 
 the whole Roman army, which, he says, as 
 if it were an idea not for a moment to be 
 entertained, would make about 9,000,000 
 Christians in the Empire ! 2 
 
 In face of so weighty a consensus of 
 authorities, I feel that it requires some 
 courage to defend a different opinion. I 
 am emboldened, however, by the considera- 
 
 1 Untergangdes Griesch.-Rom. Heidenthums, I. p. 23. 
 Schultze is professor at Greifswald. 
 
 2 Conflict of Christianity (E.T.), p. 264. Tertullian, 
 however, does not quite put the matter in the way 
 stated (Apol. 37). Uhlhorn says elsewhere : " It is 
 generally assumed that they formed about one- 
 twelfth of the whole population in the East, and 
 in the West about one-fifteenth " (p. 402). 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 27 
 
 tion that in pleading for a much larger 
 influence of Christianity numerically than 
 these estimates allow, I do not stand abso- 
 lutely alone. A few of the older writers, as 
 Matter, put in a plea for one-fifth, or even 
 a higher proportion, but their voices have 
 scarcely been heard in the general chorus 
 for a more moderate view. Still a tendency 
 is beginning to manifest itself to a revision 
 of the traditional estimate. Canon Robert- 
 son, among recent historians, apparently 
 leans to a proportion between one-tenth and 
 one-fifth. 1 And Keim, in his posthumous 
 work, Rom und das Christenthum, expresses 
 the belief that even at the close of the second 
 century, the Christians were one-sixth of 
 the population of the Empire. 2 G. Boissier, 
 in his spirited book, La Fin du Paganisme, 
 
 1 Hist, of Churchy bk. 1, ch. viii. 
 
 2 P. 419. " It is not saying too much," he writes, 
 "to name a sixth part of the Roman Empire 
 Christian." 
 
28 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 speaks even more strongly on the arbitrari- 
 ness of modern scholars, and their unwarrant- 
 able rejection of evidence on this subject. 
 After quoting the well-known passages from 
 Tertullian, Pliny, and Tacitus on the wide 
 diffusion of Christianity, he says : " This is 
 precisely what they (the objectors) refuse to 
 admit. In the first place, they will take no 
 account of the affirmations of Tertullian. He 
 was, they say, a rhetorician and a sectary, 
 facts which ought to render him doubly 
 suspected. It would be ridiculous to take 
 seriously his fine phrases, and give his 
 rhetorical amplifications the force of argu- 
 ment. As for the letter of Pliny, and the 
 passage in Tacitus, we have seen above that 
 some do not believe them to be authentic, 
 and the statements which they contain on 
 the subject of the numbers of the Christians 
 are one of the chief reasons alleged for 
 rejecting them. There is found in them an 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 29 
 
 exaggeration which betrays the forger, and 
 appears altogether incredible. ... It is pro- 
 claimed, finally, as a principle which needs 
 no demonstration, that it is impossible that 
 a religion should make such progress in so 
 short a time. I confess that this confidence 
 confounds me. Is it reasonable to settle in 
 a word questions so obscure, so little under- 
 stood ? " * Even V. Schultze, as we saw 
 above, is not very sure of his ground, and 
 declares that the reckoning he gives remains 
 far behind the actual numbers. Elsewhere, 
 indeed, he uses language which would imply 
 that the Christians, at the beginning of the 
 fourth century, might be one-fifth, or even 
 more, of the population. 2 
 
 1 I- PP- 445-4 6 - 
 
 2 Thus he speaks of the heathenism of the time as 
 " over two-thirds of the population of the Empire " . 
 again " as sixty or eighty millions out of one hundred 
 millions " ; and again of the Christians soon after the 
 Edict of Toleration as "at most one-fifth of the 
 population of the Empire" (I. pp. 39, 59). 
 
> 
 
 30 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 Two things specially make it difficult to 
 arrive at exact conclusions as to the number 
 of Christians in the Roman Empire in this 
 early period. One is the exceeding paucity 
 and fragmentariness of our sources of inform- 
 ation ; the other is that the rate of progress 
 in the different parts of the Empire was very 
 unequal — much higher, e.g. t in the East than 
 in the West ; in Italy and North Africa than 
 in a province like Gaul. " The imperfection 
 of the record," as geologists would say, must 
 ever be remembered. We shall find as we 
 proceed abundant illustration of the danger 
 of drawing wide inferences from isolated 
 data, or of supposing that because nothing 
 happens to be said of the progress of Chris- 
 tianity in a particular district, therefore pro- 
 gress was not being made. The second 
 century, for instance, is already approaching 
 its close before we get even a glimpse of the 
 large and flourishing Church of Carthage, 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 31 
 
 which, with the Church of Alexandria, then 
 suddenly starts into visibility. 1 On the other 
 hand, the rate of progress was undoubtedly 
 very unequal, and even more instructive than 
 the inequality of progress is the fact which 
 furnishes the principal explanation of it. It 
 is characteristic of the advance of Chris- 
 tianity that all through it struck at the great • 
 centres, and followed the great lines of inter- 
 communication in the Roman world ; that its 
 chief victories were won where Greek and <^ 
 Roman culture had prepared the way for it ; 
 and that its posts of strength and influence 
 were chiefly in the wealthy and populous <^ 
 
 1 " Of the African Church before the close of the 
 second century, when a flood of light is suddenly 
 thrown up by the writings of Tertullian, we know 
 absolutely nothing" (Lightfoot, Philippians, p. 224). 
 Another example is Cyrene, where the size and 
 adornment of the graves show the existence of a 
 numerous and well-to-do community, of which we 
 do not hear otherwise (Cf. V. Schultze, I. p. 21). 
 In the troubles of the times this church afterwards 
 fell into decay. 
 
'■> 
 
 32 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 cities — Rome, Corinth, Antioch, Alexandria, 
 Carthage, Lyons, and the like — from which it 
 could spread into, and best dominate, the sur- 
 rounding districts. 1 Its method — the same fol- 
 lowed by Paul in his missionary work — was to 
 seize and occupy the leading vantage-points, 
 with a view to an ultimate wider diffusion. 
 Numbers, then, in a case of this kind, are 
 assuredly not everything. As important as 
 numbers was the way in which the numbers 
 were distributed, and the spirit that animated 
 them. It is not overlooked by the writers 
 from whose opinions we shall have to dissent, 
 that, though numerically so feeble, — as they 
 regard the matter, — Christianity had yet, 
 through its inherent spiritual energy, and 
 ever-strengthening organisation, early made 
 itself a factor of the first importance in the 
 Roman Empire, — that, as Merivale says, 
 
 1 Cf. V. Schultze, I. p. 15 ; Ramsay, Church in 
 Roman Empire, p. 147 (1st edit.), &c. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 33 
 
 " The active and growing strength of the 
 Roman world was truly theirs — theirs was 
 the future of all civilised society." * But the 
 question is pertinent whether this acknow- 
 ledged power of Christianity could have been 
 exerted by the mere fraction of the popula- 
 tion which they suppose the Christian Church 
 to have been ; or whether the immense moral 
 energy which, at the end of three centuries, 
 and on the back of a prolonged and deadly 
 persecution, raised the Church to a place 
 of undisputed political supremacy in the 
 Empire, does not of itself point to some 
 fault in the numerical estimate. I cannot, of 
 course, in a brief lecture, go into all the 
 evidence. I can only take test cases, which 
 fairly represent large areas, and may serve to 
 illustrate principles. __ 
 
 Now that there is need for some revisal 
 of currently received notions on the rate 
 
 1 Epochs of Early Church History, p. 2. 
 3 
 
34 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 of progress of early Christianity is shown, I 
 think, very convincingly by one branch of 
 evidence, the full bearings of which on our 
 subject seem as yet to be very imperfectly 
 appreciated. I refer to the remarkable Cata- 
 comb explorations of De Rossi and others in 
 the present century. It is customary to dis- 
 count the glowing testimonies of the second 
 century Apologists, and of early Christian 
 writers generally, on the score of rhetorical 
 exaggeration ; but here, opened to us within 
 recent years, is another book of surpassing 
 interest, the pages of which are constantly 
 being more clearly deciphered by skilled in- 
 terpreters, and which promises to throw a 
 flood of reliable light on just such problems 
 as we are dealing with. It is surprising that 
 these discoveries have not been made more 
 use of by Church historians. 1 Their effect, I 
 
 1 Dr. Schaff speaks of the importance of these dis- 
 coveries, and notes the neglect of them by Church 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 35 
 
 take it, must be largely to modify our ideas 
 of the numbers of the Christians, and to 
 compel the acknowledgment that they formed 
 a much larger proportion of the population of 
 the Empire than has hitherto been sus- 
 pected. It will be convenient to take this 
 new evidence first, then to ask how far it is 
 corroborated or contradicted by the other 
 evidence at our command. 
 
 The Catacombs, as most are now aware 
 are immense subterranean burial-places, ex- 
 cavated in the soft volcanic tufa, near the 
 great roads, within a radius of about three 
 miles around Rome. There are certain 
 facts regarding them which may now be 
 regarded as definitely ascertained. 1 They 
 
 historians. He himself gives a good account of 
 them, but makes little use of their testimony in the 
 body of his work. He mentions their witness to 
 the numbers of the Christians, but does not well 
 know what to make of it. — History of Church (Ante- 
 Nic), Preface, and pp. 288, 295. 
 
 1 The name, of doubtful derivation, was originally 
 

 36 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 are allowed to be Christian, and purely 
 Christian cemeteries 1 ; they are of enormous 
 extent ; the number of the dead buried in 
 them mounts up to millions ; the time 
 allowed for this burial is about three cen- 
 turies — in reality, little more than two 
 centuries and a half, for the excavations 
 had hardly begun before the second century 
 and the numbers interred after the middle 
 of the fourth century were small in propor- 
 tion to those in the preceding period. After 
 the sack of Rome by the Goths in A.D. 410, 
 interment within them ceased. The excava- 
 
 that of a territory adjacent to the cemetery of St. 
 Sebastian/ and only subsequently was extended 
 to all the cemeteries. Over forty catacombs are 
 enumerated — twenty - five or twenty-six greater, 
 the rest smaller. For particulars see the works (in 
 English) of Northcote and Brownlow, Lanciani, 
 Withrow, Art. in Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, 
 Black's Handbook to Christ, and Ecc. Rome, &c. 
 
 1 Northcote and Brownlow, I. p. 376 ; Diet, of 
 Christ. Antiquities, I. p. 296; Northcote's Epitaphs, 
 pp. 22 ff. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 37 
 
 tions consist of galleries and chambers, some- 
 times in descending levels of from three to 
 five stories, and throughout their entire area 
 are literally packed with graves, the dead 
 being sometimes buried in the floors, as well 
 as in the walls and rooms. ( What is not so 
 certain is the precise figure to be put on their 
 extent, or on the number of the dead interred 
 in them. On these points estimates widely 
 vary. The most careful and reliable calcula- 
 tions are those of Michele Stefano de Rossi, 
 brother and coadjutor of the famous explorer, 
 who, on the basis of the exact measurement 
 of six different catacombs, reckons the total 
 length of the passages at 587 geographical 
 miles. 1 As respects the numbers entombed, 
 
 1 See the details of measurements in Lanciani's 
 Pagan and Christian Rome, p. 319. Northcote and 
 Brownlow, Roma Soft. I. <p. 2, give the apparently 
 conflicting estimate of " more than 350 miles." But 
 the appended words, "i.e., more than the whole 
 length of Italy itself," show that the same calcula- 
 
38 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 we may set aside at once as fabulous the 
 earlier computation of Father Marchi, who 
 calculating the length of the passages at 
 900 miles, reckoned the dead interred in 
 them at 7,000,000 ! T A less extravagant 
 calculation gives over 3,831,000, or nearly 
 4,000,000 graves. 2 Michele de Rossi, who 
 has had most to do with the surveying and 
 mapping out of these subterranean regions, 
 adopting a more moderate multiplier, reaches 
 a minimum of 1,752,000.3 Now let any one 
 
 tion is intended, and the 350 is either a misprint for 
 550, or there is some other confusion about the 
 numbers. 
 
 1 Dr. Schaff amazingly accepts this computation of 
 Father Marchi's in speaking of the number of the 
 martyrs (I. p. 80), id complete contradiction of his 
 calculation of the numbers of the Christians else- 
 where. 
 
 - See Withrow, p. 21. He mentions that "in the 
 single crypt of St. Lucina, 100 ft. by 180 ft., De Rossi 
 counted over 700 loculifrand estimated that nearly 
 twice as many were destroyed, giving a total of 
 2,000 graves in this area." 
 
 3 Lanciani, nt supra. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 39 
 
 reflect what computations like these imply. 
 Taking the period of interment at its longest, 
 we cannot count more than ten generations 
 of Christians buried in the Catacombs. As- 
 suming that the numbers are anything like 
 what the above computations indicate, we 
 obtain from them the basis of a simple, but suf- 
 ficiently startling calculation. On the larger 
 reckoning— that of about 4,000,000 graves — 
 we have a Christian population for one genera- 
 tion, in and about Rome, of nearly 400,000 ; 
 on the smaller computation, a population of 
 about 175,000. But the system of averages 
 in such a case is clearly misleading, for the 
 number of Christians was undoubtedly small 
 in the earlier generations, and reached its 
 maximum towards the close of the era of 
 persecution. Our number 175,000 would, 
 therefore, represent rather a middle point, 
 say, about the years A.D. 230 or 250. Com- 
 pare this now with the calculation of Gibbon. 
 
4 o NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 He estimates, as we saw, the population of 
 Rome at about 1,000,000, and the number of 
 Christians at the beginning of the fourth 
 century at about 50,000, or one-twentieth 
 part of the whole. In reality, unless the 
 testimony of the Catacombs has been 
 totally misread, they might have been any- 
 thing between one-third and one-half. And 
 if Gibbon is right in supposing tMt the pro- 
 portion throughout the Empire was analogous 
 to that in Rome, it would be a very moderate 
 computation indeed to regard it as one-fifth. 
 In any case, it seems to me, there must be a 
 heightening of the reckoning. Cut down the 
 figures even to 1,000,000 and the proportion 
 of Christians to the total population is still 
 vastly greater than Gibbon allows. I think, 
 therefore, I am justified in speaking of the 
 Catacomb discoveries as a " neglected factor " 
 in this study of Early Church History — one 
 which only recently Church historians have 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 41 
 
 taken the trouble to refer to at all, and of 
 the bearings of which even yet they show 
 generally a most inadequate appreciation. 
 I go on to ask whether there is anything 
 in the other evidence in our possession 
 which helps to corroborate, or which con- 
 tradicts, the testimony they have yielded. 
 
 I begin naturally with the Church of Rome, 
 to which the Catacomb discoveries refer. Our 
 witnesses here are the New Testament, and 
 early secular and ecclesiastical history. And 
 what do these witnesses tell us ? The facts 
 above cited are sufficiently startling, but are 
 they really more wonderful than the oldest 
 notices we possess of the progress of the 
 gospel in the Imperial City would lead us 
 to expect? The origin, of the Church in 
 Rome is hidden in obscurity, but there are 
 certain things about its early history which 
 we do know very well. We know, for in- 
 stance, that as early as A.D. 52, or little more 
 
42 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 that twenty years after the Ascension, accord- 
 ing to the now almost universally received 
 interpretation of the well-known passage in 
 Suetonius (Judceos impulsore Chresto assidue 
 tumultuantes Roma expulit), the disturbances 
 in the Jewish quarters in Rome, arising from 
 the disputes of Jews and Christians, were 
 such as to lead the Emperor Claudius to 
 issue an edict for the banishment of all Jews 
 from Rome x ; we know that six years later 
 (A.D. 58), and prior to his own visit to the 
 city, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Church 
 in this city one of his longest and most im- 
 portant Epistles, in which he speaks of its 
 faith as "proclaimed throughout the whole 
 
 1 Suet. Claud. 25 ; cf. Acts xviii. 2. " Probably the 
 measures which the Emperor took against the 
 Roman Jews had their origin in the continual dis- 
 turbances arising from the strife between Jews and 
 Christians" (Neumann, Der Romische Staal, p. 4). 
 Thus most writers. Prof. Ramsay puts the date a 
 little earlier, a.d. 50 (St. Paul the Traveller, ch. 
 xi. 4). 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 43 
 
 world " * ; we know that six years later again 
 (A.D. 64), according to the testimony of the 
 Roman historian Tacitus, the number of the 
 Christians involved in Nero's persecution was 
 " an immense multitude " (multitude) ingens) 2 ; 
 while, towards the close of the century, the 
 Roman Clement, referring to the same per- 
 secution, uses an almost identical expression, 
 speaking of" a great multitude " (iro\v irXriOog) 
 who had suffered for Christ.3 All this, be it 
 
 1 Rom. i. 8 ; cf. Lightfoot, Philippians, p. 25. 
 
 2 Ann. xv. 44. Schultze remarks that the muttitudo 
 ingens is of those taken and condemned, and that 
 there was certainly as great a number of women, 
 children, and other Christians who were not brought 
 to judgment (I. 9). Cf. Dr. Lightfoot's remarks on 
 the attempts of modern critics to invalidate the force 
 of this testimony of Tacitus {Ignatius, I. pp. 9-10). 
 
 3 Epist. to Corinth. 6. The progress of Christianity 
 was more than maintained during the rest of the 
 century. " During the reigns of Vespasian and Titus, 
 and in the early years of Domitian, there is every 
 reason to believe that Christianity had made rapid 
 advances in the metropolis of the world. In its 
 
44 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 remembered, within the first century, when 
 Catacomb excavations had yet hardly begun. 
 And what was going on in Rome in this 
 century was, we have no reason to doubt, 
 going on elsewhere. I cannot go into details, 
 but would only ask whether Christianity must 
 not have become an exceedingly powerful 
 force before, in a city like Ephesus, for ex- 
 ample, we could have the adepts in magical 
 arts bringing their books, and burning them 
 to the value of 50,000 pieces of silver T ; or 
 have a riot like that instigated by Demetrius 
 the silversmith, on the plea that not only the 
 trade of shrine-making was brought into dis- 
 repute, but the worship of the great goddess 
 Artemis was in peril of being subverted " not 
 
 great stronghold — the household of the Cassars — 
 more especially its progress would be felt " (Light- 
 foot, Clement, I. p. 27). 
 
 1 Acts xix. 18, 19. About £2,000 of our money. 
 " So mightily grew the word of the Lord and pre- 
 vailed " (ver. 20). 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 45 
 
 alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all 
 Asia " z ; or whether things must not have 
 gone far to justify even a hyperbole like Paul's 
 that the gospel had been " preached in all 
 creation under heaven," and was " also in all 
 the world bearing fruit and increasing " 2 ; 
 or, finally, to furnish a basis for the pictures 
 in the Apocalypse of the "great multitude 
 which no man could number, out of every 
 nation, and of all tribes and peoples and 
 tongues," which had " come out of the great 
 tribulation " ? 3 
 
 Darkness rests upon the closing decades 
 of the first century, but we have the testimony 
 from the early part of the next century of 
 the newly recovered Apology of Arts tides, 
 which relates how, after the Lord's Ascension, 
 His twelve disciples "went forth into the 
 known parts [Gr. provinces] of the world, 
 
 1 Vers. 23-27. 2 Col. i. 6, 23 (R.V.). 
 
 3 Rev. vii. 9. Cf. Lightfoot, Philippians, p. 25. 
 
46 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 and taught concerning His greatness " * ; and 
 through the dim mists of tradition we can 
 descry the figures of these Apostles spread 
 over the various countries of the world — in 
 Parthia and Scythia, on the bleak shores of 
 the Euxine, in Mesopotamia, in Arabia, per- 
 haps as far even as India — and can catch 
 glimpses which show that the work of evan- 
 gelisation was actively going on. 2 When the 
 curtain lifts again in the second century, we 
 have many indications, direct and indirect, 
 of the immense advances that had been made. 
 I do not dwell on what Gibbon calls the 
 
 1 Apology, 2. The Apology has usually been 
 ascribed, after Eusebius, to the reign of Hadrian 
 (about a.d. 125-6) ; but a second title in the Syriac 
 has led Prof. Rendel Harris and other scholars to 
 place it later, under Antoninus. Mr. Armitage 
 Robinson, however, prefers the older view (Texts 
 and Studies, I. p. 75). 
 
 2 The best examination of these traditions is pro- 
 bably that of Lipsius in his article on "Acts of 
 Apostles (Apocryphal)," in Smith and Wace's Did. of 
 Christian Biog., I. pp. 17-32. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 47 
 
 " splendid exaggeration " of Justin Martyr, 
 who declares : " For there is not one single 
 race of men, whether barbarians, or Greeks, 
 or whatever they may be called, nomads, or 
 vagrants, or herdsmen dwelling in tents, 
 among whom prayers and giving of thanks 
 are not offered through the name of the 
 Crucified Jesus," * — though if one reflects that 
 Justin does not claim that all the races or 
 tribes he speaks of had been converted to the 
 gospel, or were even preponderatingly Chris- 
 tian, but only that the gospel had reached 
 them, and had won from each its tribute of 
 believers, the exaggeration need not be so 
 great after all — but proceed at once to the 
 examination of more particular evidence. 
 
 1 Dial, cum Tryph., c. 117; cf. Gibbon, ch. xv. 
 Mosheim remarks, " There could have been no room 
 for this very exaggeration, had not the Christian 
 religion at that time been most extensively diffused 
 throughout the world" {Commentaries, I. p. 260, 
 E.T.). 
 
48 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 The case which naturally first arrests our 
 attention here is that of Asia Minor, in 
 regard to an extensive province of which 
 we are exceptionally fortunate in having the 
 unimpeachable testimony of Pliny, Pro- 
 consul of Bithynia-Pontus, in his famous 
 letter to the Emperor Trajan (A.D. 112). 
 This letter of Pliny is a remarkable warning 
 at the outset of the danger of reliance on 
 the mere argument from silence ; for, but 
 for its existence, it is certain that the actual 
 state of the case in this province would not 
 have been known to us, and could hardly 
 have been conjectured or believed. 1 Had 
 
 1 " Tertullian derived his knowledge of it from the 
 correspondence of Pliny and Trajan ; Eusebius from 
 Tertullian ; later Christian writers from Tertullian 
 and Eusebius, one or both. The correspondence of 
 a heathen writer is thus the sole ultimate chronicle 
 of this important chapter in the sufferings of the 
 Early Church " (Lightfoot, Ignatius, I. p. 18 ; cf. 
 Ramsay, Church in Roman Empire, pp. 146, 196). 
 Ramsay mentions that the text of the letter depends 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 49 
 
 any Christian writer, eg., chosen to put it on 
 record that at this early date in the second 
 century the Christian religion was already 
 professed by " many of all ages and ranks, 
 and of both sexes " {inulti omnis cztatis, 
 omnis ordinis, utriusque sexus etiam) through- 
 out this extensive region ; that the move- 
 ment was "not confined to the cities, but 
 had spread into the villages and country" 
 (neque enim civitates tantum, sed vicos 
 etiam atque agros) ; that the temples of 
 the heathen were " almost deserted " (prope 
 jam desolata templa) ; that the " sacred 
 rites " were " interrupted " (solemnia inter- 
 missd) ; that the victims for sacrifice could 
 find " very few purchasers " {rarissimus auctor 
 inveniebahir) ; and that this had been going 
 on for a long time (dm), I fancy we should 
 have been disposed to accuse him, as we 
 
 on a single manuscript, found in 1500, used in 1508, 
 and never since seen or known. 
 
50 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 do Justin and Tertullian, of rhetorical 
 exaggeration. 1 It is different when these 
 statements appear in a cool official docu- 
 ment, written expressly to obtain guidance 
 in the discharge of proconsular duty. What 
 makes the testimony of Pliny the more 
 valuable is the wide extent of territory to 
 which his witness applies. From recent 
 authorities 2 we learn that the region over 
 which Pliny's jurisdiction extended stretched 
 far to the east; that it included the district 
 known as Pontus, and had in fact for its 
 correct designation the Province of Bithynia 
 and Pontus ; and that Pliny was probably 
 in the east or Pontic part of it when he 
 wrote to Trajan. His description, there- 
 fore, will include Pontus as well as other 
 parts of the province. This is corroborated 
 
 1 The text of the letter may be seen in Lightfoot's 
 Ignatius, and in works on Church History generally. 
 
 - Mommsen, quoted by Ramsay, p. 224 ; Light- 
 foot's Ignatius, p. 56. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 51 
 
 by Lucian, the friend of Celsus, who, writing 
 after the middle of the century, makes his 
 hero, Alexander of Abonotichus, describe 
 his native country, Pontus, as "filled with 
 Epicureans and Christians." * We have be- 
 sides numerous notices of the Churches of 
 Pontus in Eusebius. 2 Yet Bithynia and 
 Pontus, though already possessing Christian 
 communities when Peter wrote his First 
 Epistle, were not among the parts of Asia 
 Minor favoured with Paul's labours. In 
 this connection we come on another interest- 
 ing fact — important, as again warning us 
 against drawing wide inferences from frag- 
 mentary data to the prejudice of the 
 progress of Christianity. Here in the second 
 century we have indubitable evidence that 
 Pontus was swarming with Christians. Yet 
 
 1 Lucian, Alex., c. 25. Quoted by Gibbon, Mos- 
 heim, Schultze, &c. 
 
 2 Bk. iv. 15, 23'; v. 16, 23 ; viii. 12, &c. 
 
52 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 in the biography of Gregory Thaumaturgus, 
 Origen's pupil, written by his namesake, 
 Gregory of Nyssa — a century after his 
 death it is true, and with many fabulous 
 adornments — it is told that when Gregory 
 was made Bishop of Neo-Caesarea, in Pontus, 
 in A.D. 240 [not the Pontus of Pliny, but in 
 its immediate neighbourhood], he found only 
 seventeen Christians. 1 It is added, by way 
 of preserving the symmetry, that when he 
 died he left only seventeen pagans ! The 
 conversion of the district was thus accom- 
 plished at least within the third century. 
 But how unsafe it would be to argue from 
 the alleged paucity of Christians in A.D. 240, 
 in Pontus — which, if real, must have been 
 due to local causes — to the general con- 
 dition of Pontus earlier ! 
 
 We are not yet done, however, with Asia 
 Minor. There is no reason that I know of, 
 1 Migne, xlvi. p. 954. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 53 
 
 beyond the fact that we have not a Pliny to 
 describe them, for supposing that what was 
 true of Bithynia and Pontus, was not true of 
 many other provinces as well. There is every 
 reason for supposing that some of these pro- 
 vinces were even more favourably situated. 
 In Phrygia, e.g., the seat of the outbreak of 
 Montanism, Christianity must have been very 
 strong. Renan says boldly : " In Hierapolis, 
 and many towns of Phrygia, the Christians 
 must have formed the majority of the popula- 
 tion." l The recent discovery of the singularly 
 
 1 Marc-Aurele, p. 449; so in his Saint Paul (chap, 
 xiii.), " Phrygia was thenceforward, and remained 
 for 300 years, a Christian country." Cf. Ramsay, 
 Church in Roman Empire, pp. 146-7. Renan mentions 
 that from the time of Septimus Severus, Apameia, 
 of Phrygia, put on its coins a Biblical emblem, 
 Noah's Ark. Prof. Ramsay takes this to be Jewish 
 (Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, II. p. 670). This 
 last-named work of Prof. Ramsay's contains much 
 new matter and evidence from inscriptions on the 
 power of Christianity in certain districts of Phrygia. 
 (See specially vol. ii., chaps, xii. and xvii.) " To judge 
 
54 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 interesting epitaph of Abercius, of Hierapolis, 1 
 identified with the Avircius Marcellus, known 
 to us from Eusebius as a prominent opponent 
 of Montanism, 2 sheds light on the presence 
 of Christianity in the Phrygian Pentapolis. 
 Western Asia, with its historical churches, 
 and traditions of St. John, would not be far 
 
 from the proportion of epitaphs, the population of 
 Eumeneia in the third century was in great part 
 Christian. . . . These facts show that Eumeneia was 
 to a large extent a Christian city during the third 
 century. ... It is clear that, for some reason, Chris- 
 tianity spread to quite an extraordinary extent in 
 Eumeneia and Apameia" (pp. 502, 511). 
 
 1 Cf. Lightfoot, Ignatius, I. pp. 447-86, and Prof. 
 Ramsay (to whom belongs the chief merit of this 
 discovery) in Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, II., 
 chap. xvii. "All that is known of the history of 
 the Pentapolis," he says, "centres round the name 
 of Avircius Marcellus. He is presented to us as 
 the most prominent Church leader in a district 
 already permeated with Christian influence, and the 
 chief figure in the resistance to Montanism in the 
 latter part of the second century. . . . That the 
 Pentapolis was Christianised very early is plain from 
 the facts above stated" (pp. 709, 715). 
 
 2 Ecc. Hist, v. 16. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 55 
 
 behind. 1 I do not touch on the vexed 
 question of North or South Galatia — though 
 renewed study has failed to reconcile me to 
 what I conceive to be the superior impro- 
 babilities of the hypothesis to which Prof. 
 Ramsay has lent his powerful advocacy 2 — 
 
 1 Cf . Lightfoot's essay on " The Later School of 
 St. John," in Essays on Super. Religion. The Epistles 
 of Ignatius, and scenes like the Martyrdom of 
 Polycarp, are in evidence here to the existence of 
 numerous and well-organised Christian churches. 
 
 2 Prof. Ramsay lays, perhaps, too much stress on 
 the ignorance of Greek in North Galatia, and on the 
 suppression of the Phrygian element in the popula- 
 tion (e.g., Church in Roman Empire, pp. 79, 82, 99). 
 Mommsen does not take so strong a view. A good 
 portion of the inhabitants, he says, "must have 
 descended from the older Phrygian inhabitants of 
 these regions. Of still more weight is the fact that 
 the zealous worship of the gods in Galatia and the 
 priesthood there have nothing in common with the 
 ritual institutions of the European Celts ; not merely 
 was the Great Mother, whose sacred symbol the 
 Romans of Hannibal's time asked and received from 
 the Tolistobogi, of a Phrygian type, but her priests 
 belonged in part at least to the Galatian nobility 
 [' Phrygo-Galatic,' surely.] ... As the language of 
 
56 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 but in any case Ancyra, in Galatia, was a 
 prominent Church in the middle of the second 
 century, 1 and the gospel was, no doubt, 
 diffused through the province then as else- 
 where. In Cappadocia there was from early 
 times a powerful Christian community. V. 
 Schultze finds in the fourth century " the 
 power of heathenism longer broken " in that 
 province, " than anywhere else in the world," 
 and " the majority of the inhabitants " of the 
 chief city Christian. 2 At the Council of Nice, 
 
 conversation, the Celtic maintained its grounds with 
 tenacity also in Asia, yet the Greek gradually gained 
 the upper hand," &c. (Provinces of Roman Empire, 
 
 I. p. 341). The topographical difficulties may be 
 great, but, in our ignorance of the whole circum- 
 stances, can hardly be said to be insuperable, and 
 they are not all on one side. Prof. Ramsay's own 
 pages show how precarious it is to argue from 
 absence or paucity of inscriptions (Cities and Bishoprics, 
 
 II. pp. 484, 491, 499-502, &c). The rival probabilities, 
 however, cannot be discussed here. 
 
 1 Eus. v. 16. 
 
 - Untergang des Heid., II. p. 315. See the numerous 
 references in Eusebius. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 57 
 
 in 325, the bishops of Asia Minor formed 
 about a third of the total number. 1 
 Compare now these facts with Schultze's 
 own estimate that the Christians in Asia 
 Minor in Constantine's time may have 
 amounted to 1,000,000, out of a total 
 population of 19,000,000,2 or about one- 
 nineteenth part, and it will probably be felt 
 that the estimate is altogether inadequate. 
 The proportion may more reasonably be 
 assumed to be not dissimilar to that we 
 have already met with in Rome. 
 
 It may be held, however, that Asia Minor 
 is an exceptionally favourable case for our 
 argument, and this may well be so. Our 
 
 1 Cf. the list in Schultze, II. pp. 305-7. It may be 
 noted that five bishops are named from churches 
 in (North) Galatia, and seven from Pamphylia (with 
 Lycia) — another region of which we are apt to infer 
 from silence that it had no church-life of importance. 
 
 2 I. p. 18. Of course this is a minimum, and 
 Schultze's important qualifications have to be 
 remembered. 
 
58 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 knowledge of the state and progress of the 
 Church during the greater part of the second 
 century is exceedingly fragmentary ; yet 
 putting together the pieces of evidence which 
 we possess — the numerous references, e.g., to 
 a chronic state of persecution in Justin and 
 other Apologists J ; the rise of Apology itself, 
 as bearing witness to the growing importance 
 i of the Church, and its entrance into literary 
 circles 2 ; the edicts and rescripts of emperors 
 on the treatment of the Christians, some of 
 them embracing a wide area 3 ; the extra- 
 ordinarily rapid development and propaga- 
 tion of Gnostic errors — multiplying, as 
 
 1 See references in Lightfoot, Ignatius, I. pp.518 ff. 
 
 2 On this and the rise of Gnosticism, see Lecture III. 
 
 3 Those of Hadrian, Antoninus, and M. Aurelius ; 
 cf. Lightfoot, Ignatius, I. pp. 461 ff. The passage 
 from Melito (Eus. iv. 26) on letters of Antoninus to 
 the cities forbidding them to take any new measures 
 against the Christians, "among the rest to the 
 Larissaeans, to the Thessalonians, to the Athenians, 
 and to all the Greeks," deserves special notice. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 59 
 
 Irenaeus says, like mushrooms out of the 
 ground * ; the vivid light-flashes which 
 illuminate such martyr-scenes as those of 
 Ignatius of Antioch, of the venerable Poly- 
 carp of Smyrna, of Justin and his com- 
 panions at Rome, of the Martyrs of Vienne 
 and Lyons, 2 and serve to reveal how much 
 there is to see if only we had light enough 
 to see it — piecing these notices together, we 
 may find good reason for believing that, 
 with the exception of outlying regions like 
 those of Gaul and Germany, the state of 
 matters in the other parts of the Roman 
 world was not essentially different from 
 what we have already found. Celsus dreads 
 the growing numbers of the Christians, and 
 writes an elaborate book to ridicule and 
 refute them 3 ; and Eusebius, looking back 
 
 1 Ad. Hcur., bk. i. 29. 
 
 2 Cf. Eus. iii. 36 ; iv. 15, 16 ; v. 1 ; and cf. Lightfoot 
 on incidents. 
 
 3 Cf. Uhlhorn's Conflict of Christianity (E.T.), p. 279 ; 
 and see Lecture III. 
 
60 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 upon the period, speaks of Christianity as 
 \ spreading at this time so as to embrace 
 the whole human race. 1 
 
 I do not wait on these general con- 
 siderations, but pass to the close of the 
 second century, when light fully returns to 
 us, and we are able to see how immense a 
 progress has been made. We are now in 
 the age of the Old Catholic Fathers, and find 
 ourselves confronted with a great and firmly- 
 organised Church, claiming to be " Catholic 
 and Apostolic," spread throughout the chief 
 provinces of the Empire, and waging a 
 victorious conflict with Gnosticism and 
 Montanism on the one side, and Paganism 
 on the other. Now for the first time the 
 important Churches of Carthage and Alex- 
 andria come fully into view. Only now, as 
 formerly observed, do we gain a hint of the 
 existence of a Church in the former of these 
 1 Eus. iv. 7. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 61 
 
 cities. It is as when a traveller, at a sharp 
 turning of his road, suddenly finds himself 
 in presence of a busy and populous city, the 
 very name of which had previously been 
 unknown to him. Yet both Churches are 
 discovered to be already of long standing ; 
 both are wealthy and numerically prosperous ; 
 both have to bear the brunt of the greater 
 persecutions ; in both the crowds of the 
 lapsed in the hour of trial reveal at once 
 the high social position of many of the 
 converts, and the nominal character of much 
 of their profession. 
 
 The situation in Carthage is vividly 
 depicted for us in the pages of the fiery and 
 eloquent Tertullian. There is no longer any 
 mistaking the fact that, notwithstanding the 
 numerical inferiority of the Christians, and 
 the severe persecutions by which it was 
 sought to restrain them, the flowing tide was 
 with the new faith, and the heathen them- 
 
62 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 selves were profoundly alarmed at its progress. 
 " Men cry out," says the Apologist, " that the 
 State is besieged ; the Christians are in the 
 fields, in the forts, in the islands ; they mourn, 
 as for a loss, that every sex, age, condition, 
 and even rank, is going over to this sect " J ; 
 and he tells us, in language resembling 
 Pliny's, " the temple revenues are every day 
 falling off; how few now throw in a con- 
 tribution." 2 This is rhetoric, no doubt, but 
 we do not feel it necessary to set it aside 
 wholly as the language of exaggeration. It 
 is only what the facts before us would lead 
 us to expect. In his address to the Proconsul 
 Scapula in deprecation of the persecutions 
 of the Christians — to a man, therefore, who 
 must have been able to detect any extrava- 
 gant exaggeration — Tertullian asserts boldly, 
 " Though our numbers are so great — con- 
 stituting all but a majority in every city {pars 
 1 Apol. i. 2 C. 42. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 63 
 
 pene major civitatis cujusque) — we conduct 
 ourselves in quietness and modesty " 1 ; and 
 says again that if the Christians in Carthage 
 were to present themselves in a body before 
 his tribunal, he would have to decimate the 
 city to make an example of them. 2 Ter- 
 tullian, we allow again, was a rhetorician, 
 but there was at least some method in his 
 rhetoric, and it would plainly have defeated 
 the very end he had in view had he addressed 
 an appeal to a proconsul, intended to influence 
 his action, which was on the face of it 
 monstrously and even ludicrously at variance 
 with the facts. It is in the light of state- 
 
 1 Ad. Scap. 2. 
 
 - C. 5. If one wishes to press the "decimate" 
 of the rhetorician, as implying that the numbers 
 whom he had just described as "all but a majority 
 in every city," constituted literally and exactly one- 
 tenth, it may be observed that it is only the adult 
 part of the community that would figure in such 
 a scene as this, and all need not be conceived of as 
 massacred. 
 
64 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 merits like these, where a certain caution — 
 not to say verisimilitude — must have been 
 employed, that we must judge of his other 
 celebrated outburst in the Apology, "We 
 are but of yesterday, and yet we have filled 
 every place belonging to you — cities, islands, 
 castles, towns, assemblies, your very camps, 
 your tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum 
 — we leave you your temples only." 1 Neu- 
 mann justly remarks that, to prove effective, 
 such statements must have been able to 
 attach themselves to known facts. 2 It is a 
 
 1 c. 37. 
 
 2 Dcr Romisclie Staat, p. 121. So Hasenclever, in 
 his able articles on the social rank of the early Chris- 
 tians in Jahr.f. Prot. Theol.,vm., speaks of Tertullian's 
 rhetorical exaggeration as "essentially agreeable to 
 the fact " (p. 36). There is more reason for supposing 
 that Tertullian gives wings to his imagination in his 
 enumeration of the various nations that had received 
 the gospel {Ad. Jud. 7) ; but even this passage is 
 only an expansion of similar statements in Justin and 
 Irenasus. The latter Father speaks of the Church in 
 his day as "dispersed throughout the whole world, 
 even to the ends of the earth," and enumerates the 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 65 
 
 very moderate interpretation, I think, to put 
 upon them to say that the Christians by the 
 end of the second century must have formed 
 one-fifth or one-sixth of the population of 
 the North African cities, and perhaps one- 
 tenth of the whole province. Schultze, on 
 the other hand, computes as a minimum only 
 50,000 out of a population of half a million 
 in the city, or one-tenth, and a total of 
 100,000 in the province, or about 1 per 
 cent. ! 1 A totally inadequate estimate, as 
 it seems to me. But if this region had one- 
 tenth of a Christian population at the end of 
 the second century, the proportion must have 
 been vastly greater by the end of the third 
 century, after the long period of peace, during 
 which, as we know from Eusebius, 2 the Church 
 was progressing by " leaps and bounds." 
 
 Churches in Germany, Spain, Gaul, in the East, in 
 Egypt, in Libya, &c, as agreeing in the symbol of 
 the faith (Adv. Hccr. i. 7). 
 1 Untergang, p. 4. 2 VIII. 1. 
 
 5 
 
66 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 This is borne out by the glimpses we get 
 of the affluence of the Church in the times 
 of Cyprian and Constantine ; by the very 
 magnitude and importance of its schisms — 
 notably the Donatist ; and by the extra- 
 ordinary number of its bishops. 1 
 
 The situation was not widely different in 
 Alexandria. From the appearance of the 
 developed Gnosticism of Basilides and 
 Valentinus in the early part of the century, 
 we know that Christianity must early have 
 taken hold upon this famous city — as motley 
 in its habits of thought as in its population ; 
 and we have an incidental corroboration of 
 this in a curious letter of the versatile 
 Emperor Hadrian, whose satiric strain throws 
 an interesting light on the strangely mixed 
 state of affairs which prevailed. " I have 
 
 1 In the year 330 the Donatists alone could bring 
 together a Synod of 270 bishops. See further on the 
 Church of Carthage in LecL II. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 67 
 
 found the people," he says, " vain, fickle, and 
 shifting, with every breath of opinion. Those 
 who worship Serapis are in fact Christians, 
 and they who call themselves Christian 
 bishops are actually worshippers of Serapis. 
 . . . The patriarch himself, when he comes 
 to Egypt, is compelled by one party to 
 worship Serapis, by the other Christ." l 
 Here is already a very marked diffusion of 
 Christianity in Alexandria in the first quarter 
 of the second century, and a corresponding 
 interest of the emperors in it. While naming 
 Hadrian, I may simply quote for what it is 
 worth the remarkable statement made regard- 
 ing him by the heathen writer Lampridius, viz., 
 that he at one time contemplated dedicating 
 to Christ statues without temples which he 
 had caused to be erected in every city, and 
 was only deterred by the consideration " that 
 
 1 Letter to Servianus. See text in Lightfoot, 
 Ignatius, I. p. 464. 
 
68 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 the temples of the old gods would become 
 deserted, and all the people would become 
 Christian " (pmnes Christianos futuros) . l Even 
 if erroneous, the statement is a striking 
 testimony to the impression which Chris- 
 tianity must have produced on the Hadrianic 
 age. 
 
 The position of the Church in Alexandria 
 was greatly strengthened by the rise of its 
 famous Catechetical School. It is right, 
 however, that I should say a word at this 
 point on the testimony of Origen, who, from 
 Gibbon downwards, has been cited as a 
 counter-witness that the number of Christians 
 in his days were " very few." It would be 
 strange indeed if Origen, in the middle of 
 the third century, should make any such 
 assertion, and we shall find, I think, that it 
 is forcing his language to put this interpreta- 
 
 1 Lamprid. in Sev. Alex., 43 ; cf. Lightfoot, Igna- 
 tius, I. p. 441 ; Lanciani, Pag. and Christ. Rome, p. 11. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 69 
 
 tion upon it. The passage in question is in 
 the eighth book against Celsus, where Origen 
 is urging the blessing that would accrue to 
 the Roman Empire if men universally acted 
 on the spirit of Christ's precept, "If two of 
 you shall agree on earth as touching any- 
 thing that they shall ask," &c. "What 
 might we expect," he says, "if not only a 
 very few (irdvv oXiyoi) agree, as at present, 
 but the whole of the Empire of Rome ? " x 
 It is plainly unfair, especially in view of 
 Origen's own declarations elsewhere, 2 to 
 
 1 Origen, Contra Celsum, viii. 69. 
 
 2 In bk. viii. 14, e.g., Origen speaks of the " multi- 
 tude" of believers in the Church. He cites Celsus 
 (iii. 10) to the effect that when the Christians were 
 few in number they held the same opinion, but when 
 they became "a great multitude" they were divided 
 and separated ; and he says " That Christians at first 
 were few in number is undoubted, in comparison 
 with the multitudes who subsequently became Chris- 
 tians ; and yet, all things considered, they were not 
 (even then) so very few." (Cf. iii. 9, 29, and see 
 below.) Of course the numerical inferiority of the 
 Christians to the Pagans was still striking, even if 
 
70 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 strain a passage like this, which relates to 
 agreement in prayer, into a statistical decla- 
 ration of the number of Christians in the 
 Empire. Remembering the distinction be- 
 tween real and nominal Christianity, we 
 might say with some justice that even in 
 Britain and America at the present day 
 " very few " agree. The truth is that Origen 
 is one of the most explicit witnesses we 
 possess to the victorious progress which 
 Christianity was making in the Empire. In 
 that very eighth book to which reference is 
 made, and in the same context, he expresses 
 his triumphant confidence, despite of oppres- 
 sion and persecution, that Christianity is the 
 power destined to overcome every other. 
 " Every form of worship," he says, " will be 
 destroyed except the religion of Christ, which 
 will alone prevail. And indeed it will one 
 
 the former composed one-fourth or one-fifth of the 
 population of the cities. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 71 
 
 day triumph, as its principles take possession 
 of the minds of men more and more every 
 day." x And repeatedly in the course of his 
 work he bears witness to the all-conquering 
 power of the truth. " It proved victorious," 
 he says, " as being the word of God, the very 
 nature of which is such that it cannot be 
 hindered ; and becoming more powerful than 
 all such adversaries, it made itself master of 
 the whole of Greece and a considerable 
 portion of barbarian lands, and converted 
 countless numbers (myriads) to his religion." 2 
 This is a considerably different picture from 
 
 1 Bk. viii. 68. This, it has been remarked, is a 
 new idea, remarkably opposed to the tone of the 
 earlier writers, who always look on the Roman power 
 as hostile and persecuting, an oppression from which 
 there could be no deliverance except through the 
 coming of the end. 
 
 2 Bk. i. 27 ; cf. ii. 13 : " For the Word, spoken 
 with power, has gained the mastery over men of 
 all sorts of nature, and it is impossible to see any 
 race of men which has escaped accepting the teach- 
 ing of Jesus"; and iii. 24: "He (Celsus) cannot 
 
72 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 the " very few," to which we are wont to be 
 referred as Origen's sole testimony ! The 
 most convincing evidence, perhaps, of the 
 enormous progress the gospel must have 
 made in Alexandria and similar great cities 
 by the time of Constantine is the way in 
 which, after the victory of Christianity, the 
 conflicts of Christians and Pagans seem to 
 sink into the background, while the stage is 
 filled with new disputants, Catholic and 
 Donatist, Orthodox and Arian, in whose 
 disputes the very heathen take their share, 
 ridiculing them in the theatres, and discuss- 
 ing them in the baths, shops, and streets. 1 
 
 demonstrate that an unspeakable number, as he 
 asserts, of Greeks and Barbarians acknowledge the 
 existence of iEsculapius ; while we, if we deem this 
 a matter of importance, can clearly show a countless 
 multitude of Greeks and Barbarians who acknow- 
 ledge the existence of Jesus." (Also vii. 26.) 
 
 1 Cf. Histories of Socrates (i. 6, 8 ; ii. 2) ; Theod., 
 (i. 6), &c. See passages collected in Newman's Arians, 
 Note V. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 73 
 
 Yet in this great and populous city — the 
 second in the Empire — Schultze will only 
 grant a minimum of some 50,000 Chris- 
 tians, or one- twelfth of its 600,000 inhabi- 
 tants. 1 Surely, again, an immense under- 
 statement ! 
 
 From Carthage and Alexandria our eyes 
 turn to a third great centre — Antioch, the 
 gay and voluptuous capital of Syria, which, 
 in point of population and influence, stood 
 only behind Alexandria. Apart from the 
 list of its bishops and other slight notices in 
 Eusebius, 2 the Church of this city, renowned 
 in the earliest age as the Mother Church of 
 Gentile Christianity, is another of those that 
 only come late into view. When it does 
 
 1 Pp. 20-1. He allows 150,000 for Egypt and 
 Libya. On the opulence of the Alexandrian Church, 
 see next lecture. 
 
 2 These, however, suffice to show an important 
 Church. The Epistles of Ignatius alone are evidence 
 of this. 
 
74 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 become distinctly visible in the middle of 
 the third century, it is as a seat of eccle- 
 siastical influence of the first rank. The 
 extraordinary splendour of its episcopate, 
 and elaboration of its Church service, under 
 the notorious Paul of Samosata T ; its influen- 
 tial councils and important theological 
 school ; the magnificent Golden Church 
 reared later by the liberality of Constan- 
 tine 2 ; its prominence in the Arian contro- 
 versies ; the utter failure of Julian's attempt 
 to restore Paganism in it — readers of Church 
 History will remember his chagrin when, 
 having gone to celebrate with all pomp the 
 festival of Apollo at the Temple of Daphne, 
 he found only a single old priest, sacrificing a 
 goose at his own expense 3 ; the flourishing 
 
 1 Cf. Eus. vii. 30. 
 
 2 Eus., Life of Constantinc, iii. 50 ; Orat. 9. " A 
 church of unparalleled size and beauty." Its dedica- 
 tion in a.d. 341 was the occasion of a Council famous 
 in the Arian strife. . 
 
 3 Julian himself relates the incident in his Misopogon. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 75 
 
 state of the Church, numerically at least, 
 under Chrysostom — all this shows that, even 
 before the change of the political relations, 
 Christianity must have been practically in 
 the ascendant in the city. " Probably al- 
 ready (in first half of fourth century)," says 
 V. Schultze, "at all events soon after, the 
 majority and power were in the possession of 
 the Christians." J We have the express testi- 
 mony of Chrysostom that in his day the 
 Christians were a majority in the city (to 
 7r\£ov rrig 7t6\eix)q ^QiGTiaviKov) 2 ; and this is 
 borne out by the separate figures he gives, 
 showing the population to have been 200,000,3 
 and the number of the Christian community 
 about 100,000.4 But even these figures pro- 
 
 1 Untergang, II. p. 261. ~ Adv. Jud. horn., i. 4. 
 
 3 Horn, in St. Ignat., 4. 
 
 « Horn, in Matt., lxxxv. (lxxxvi.) 4. On the deba- 
 table elements in these figures, see Gibbon, ch. xv., 
 and V. Schultze, II. p. 263. These writers suppose 
 that Chrysostom reckons only citizens of Antioch— i.e., 
 
76 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 bably do not do justice to the strength of 
 Christianity in the Syrian capital. In a vast 
 city like Antioch, as in other great centres, 
 there must have been a large floating mass 
 favourably disposed to Christianity, who yet 
 never definitely connected themselves with 
 the Church. What it is still more important 
 to remember, Antioch at this time was a 
 city deeply rent with schisms. There were, 
 in fact, in Chrysostom's day, no fewer than 
 three rival parties in it, two at least with 
 separate organisations, all holding eccle- 
 siastically aloof from each other — the Catholic, 
 the Arian, and the Meletian." I It is an 
 interesting question whether in his 100,000 
 
 not children or slaves — and Gibbon would raise the 
 number of inhabitants to half a million. Be that as it 
 may, Chrysostom's statements, which V. Schultze 
 accepts, as to the relative proportions, are not to be 
 set aside. 
 
 1 "The unhappy Church" was thus, as Mr. 
 Stephens says, "torn to tatters" (Saint Chrysostom, 
 pp. 21, 140). 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 77 
 
 Christians he reckoned, as his language 
 would seem to imply, 1 only the frequenters 
 of his own cathedral, or the schismatics as 
 well. In any case, we have his explicit 
 statement that the Christian community in 
 Antioch outnumbered the Jews and Pagans 
 combined ; and this reflects light back on the 
 prosperous condition of the Church in the 
 beginning of the century. It is a natural 
 but hasty assumption that the mere change 
 in imperial favour constituted a reason why, 
 in such a city, those who had been previously 
 Pagan should at once rush into the arms of 
 the Church. Imperial favour would no doubt 
 have its effect, but the city did not change 
 its creed at the bidding of Julian, and there 
 is no reason to suppose it would have become 
 
 1 He speaks of " those assembling there " (tovq 
 ivravOa awayofievovg), i.e., at the church. This is to be 
 borne in mind, if it should be the case (see above), 
 that the 200,000 in Antioch only represent the citizen 
 element in the population. 
 
78 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 Christian at the bidding of Constantine had 
 the public mind not otherwise been prepared 
 to receive the new faith. 
 
 The case of Antioch just cited has a bear- 
 ing on our subject in another way ; has, in 
 fact, been used by Gibbon for the directly 
 opposite purpose of establishing his low 
 estimate of the numbers of Christians in 
 Rome and in the Empire. Unwarrantably, 
 as I think, in face of Chrysostom's statements, 
 reckoning the Christians in Antioch at one- 
 fifth, instead of one-half, of the population, he 
 makes this the basis of a calculation to show 
 that the proportion elsewhere is, as he repre- 
 sents it, one-twentieth of the whole. 1 Two 
 sets of data are combined in his argument — 
 one, a notice in Chrysostom that in Antioch 
 3,000 widows and virgins were supported by 
 the bounty of the Church 2 ; and the other, a 
 statement in Eusebius that in the year 250 
 
 1 Ch. xv. 2 Horn, in Matt. lxvi. (lxvii.) 3. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 79 
 
 A.D., the clergy of Rome consisted of a bishop, 
 46 presbyters, 7 deacons, as many sub- 
 deacons, with 42 acolytes, and 52 readers, 
 exorcists, and porters, while the number of 
 widows and poor supported by the Church 
 was over 1,50c 1 This small number of the 
 clergy, and the fact that the numbers sup- 
 ported by charity are half those in Antioch, 
 with its Church community of 100,000, are 
 held to justify the inference that the Church 
 in Rome must have had about 50,000 mem- 
 bers. But it must surely be felt that we are 
 on very precarious ground indeed in reason- 
 ing from a bare enumeration of the clergy 
 and poor to the strength of the Christian 
 community in Rome, especially when Cor- 
 nelius, the author of the above enumeration, 
 in the same breath speaks of " the very great, 
 even innumerable people" (jueytorou kol avapiO- 
 fjLi]Tov XaoO) whom these clergy served ! We 
 
 1 Ecc. Hist. vi. 43. 
 
8o NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 know far too little of the ecclesiastical ar- 
 rangements of the Roman Church — of the 
 number of its parishes, and of the manner in 
 which the work of these parishes was over- 
 taken by the clergy, 1 to be able to hazard 
 even a guess at the ratio of the clergy to the 
 body of the people. In Antioch itself, where 
 the Christians were at least 100,000 strong, 
 we have no hint of a division into districts 
 with separate churches at all ; the preaching, 
 so far as would appear, was done, chiefly by 
 Chrysostom, at the one great cathedral. 2 The 
 great church at Constantinople, again, in the 
 time of Justinian, when practically all were 
 
 1 We have the testimony of Optatus of Mileve that 
 there were forty churches in Rome before the last 
 persecution. Cf. Bingham, III. p. 133. But we have 
 only to reflect on the number of parochial churches 
 in some of our large continental cities still — a dozen 
 or little more to an immense population — to see that 
 this is no index to the numbers of the Christian 
 following. 
 
 2 Mr. Stephen points this out in his Saint Chrysostom, 
 p. 108. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 81 
 
 nominally Christian, was served, as we learn 
 from Gibbon himself, 1 by but sixty presbyters. 
 It is at least equally precarious to reason from 
 the numbers of widows and poor in one com- 
 munity to those in another, without knowing 
 the precise circumstances of each and their 
 respective modes of administering help. But 
 apart from all other considerations, the Cata- 
 comb discoveries already adverted to seem 
 to demonstrate the baselessness of Gibbon's 
 calculations. 
 
 Our materials are scantier, when from these 
 large and flourishing churches of the East, 
 we turn to the West, and inquire concern- 
 ing the progress of the gospel in Gaul and 
 Spain. The origin of the Church in Gaul is 
 wrapped in obscurity, and we need not seek 
 to penetrate the mists of legend which en- 
 shroud it. The first real glimpse we get of it 
 is in the beautiful and pathetic narrative of 
 
 1 Ch. xx., footnote to No. 2, on Clergy, 
 6 
 
82 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 the martyrdoms at Vienne and Lyons, under 
 Marcus Aurelius, in the year 177 A.D. 1 We 
 have only to think, however, of what that 
 single glimpse reveals, to be satisfied that 
 the Kingdom of Heaven, which is like 
 leaven, was silently and secretly diffusing 
 itself in Gaul, as everywhere else. Dean 
 Milman speaks too sanguinely, perhaps, 
 when he says of this reign of Marcus, 
 " The western provinces, Gaul and Africa, 
 rivalled the East in the number, if not in 
 the opulence of their Christian congrega- 
 tions. In almost every city had gradually 
 arisen a separate community," 2 but we may 
 safely conclude that our temptation is to 
 minimise, rather than to magnify, what had 
 actually been accomplished. The Church at 
 Lyons, at the head of which Irenaeus now 
 takes his place as bishop, shows how Chris- 
 tianity had established itself at a point of 
 1 Eus. v. 1., 2. - Hist, of Christ., bk. ii. ch. 7. 
 
vantage, the value of which, for purposes of 
 aggression, can hardly be over-estimated. 
 Only when, with the aid of a description like 
 Renan's, 1 we picture to ourselves the super- 
 lative importance of Lyons as a political 
 religious, and commercial centre, and realise 
 its geographical advantage as situated at the 
 junction of the Rhone and the Saone, do we 
 appreciate how much was secured by the 
 gospel having attained, even at the cost of 
 fearful sufferings, a firm footing in its midst. 
 Neither does it follow that, because Chris- 
 tianity was late in taking root in Gaul, its 
 progress, once it had established itself, was 
 not as rapid there as elsewhere. 2 Unfor- 
 tunately, our means of information are so 
 slight that we are unable to trace its 
 advances in detail. We have a rhetorical 
 
 1 Marc-Aurele, ch. xix. Cf. Schultze, JJntergang, II. 
 pp. 110-12 : "The capital of the Three Gauls." 
 
 2 The culture conditions were exceptionally favour- 
 able. Cf. Schultze, II. p. ioi. 
 
84 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 allusion in Tertullian J ; we glean scattered 
 hints of congregations in the third century ; 
 we find Constantius and Constantine protect- 
 ing the Christians in Gaul in the Diocletian 
 persecution 2 ; we have the important Synod in 
 Aries in 314 A.D., another Church coming 
 suddenly into view 3 ; we have notices thus 
 early of numerous bishoprics 4 ; while by the 
 middle of the fourth century we find an epis- 
 copal organisation in all the provinces of the 
 country.* But the best proof of all of the 
 rapid march of the gospel to victory is the 
 fact which Schultze emphasises, of the com- 
 plete overthrow of the classical Paganism in 
 the cities throughout all Gaul in the course of 
 
 1 Adv. Jud. 7. 
 
 - Eus., Life of Constantine, i. 8, 15, 16, &c. 
 
 3 Cf. Hefele, II. pp. 180 ff. (E. T.) "The Synod of 
 Aries," says Schultze, " shows that Christianity had 
 gone deep into the community" (II. p. 13). 
 
 4 Schultze, Untergang, I. p. 12. 
 
 5 Ibid. II. p. 103. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 85 
 
 the fourth century. 1 How this victory was 
 
 brought about we can only imperfectly discern 
 
 in the labours of such outstanding individuals 
 
 as Hilary of Poitiers and Martin of Tours, 
 
 but the decisiveness and completeness of the 
 
 transition is as remarkable as anything in 
 
 history. 
 
 If, in this paucity of evidence, it be thought 
 
 that we assume too much in supposing a 
 
 silent but steady progress of the gospel 
 
 through Gaul in the third century, an apt 
 
 instance to rebuke our scepticism comes 
 
 from the neighbouring Church of Spain. 
 
 The early history of the Church in Spain 
 
 is even more completely hidden from us 
 
 than that of the Church in Gaul. The sum- 
 
 1 Untergang, II. pp. 103, 1 13-14, &c. The Celtic 
 heathenism lingered longer, though also in the 
 main overcome. Mommsen (quoted by Schultze, 
 II. p. 116) says, " More rapidly still than the (Celtic) 
 native speech, the native religion lost ground, and 
 Christianity, pressing in, found in it scarcely any 
 opposition." 
 
86 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 total of our knowledge of it during the first 
 three centuries is comprised in casual allu- 
 sions in Irenaeus and Tertullian, 1 and in an 
 Epistle of Cyprian which relates to the 
 deposition of two Spanish bishops. 2 The 
 curtain lifts, as usual suddenly, at the Council 
 of Elvira, A.D. 305 or 306 — a Council whose 
 81 Canons still remain to us.3 And what do 
 we find then ? A Church long rooted in the 
 land, with splendid basilicas, reckoning in its 
 membership great landowners, and numerous 
 magistrates, and high civic dignitaries, while 
 an eagerness is shown on the part of all 
 sections of the community — including those 
 whose occupations are most questionable — 
 
 1 Iren. i. 10 ; Tert. Adv. Jud. 7. 
 
 2 Epistle 67. The Epistle is, however, of import- 
 ance as showing the sufferings of the Spanish Church 
 in the Decian Persecution. 
 
 3 See in Hefele, I. pp. 180 ff. The Council of 
 Elvira, with its 19 bishops and 24 presbyters, is only 
 to be regarded as representing the South of Spain. 
 Cf. Schultze, I. p. 5. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 87 
 
 to be received into its communion. Hosius, 
 the Bishop of Cordova, was the trusted adviser 
 of Constantine, and a leading figure in the 
 Nicene Council. 
 
 This brings us to the final struggle — the 
 persecution inaugurated by Diocletian — from 
 the midst of which come some remarkable 
 testimonies, with the mention of which I may 
 fitly conclude this portion of the argument. 
 The Church had been at peace for forty 
 years, and its progress during that period 
 had been extraordinarily rapid. " Who could 
 describe," says Eusebius, "those vast col- 
 lections of men that flocked to the religion 
 of Christ, and those multitudes crowding in 
 from every city, and the illustrious concourse 
 in the houses of worship ?" * Then the perse- 
 cution burst, sifting the ranks of the Church, 
 and scattering nominal professors before it, as 
 a storm breaking through a forest makes the 
 1 Ecc. Hist., viii. 1 ; Cf . Lect. III. 
 
88 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 leaves fly in every direction. The incidents 
 of the persecution — which we do not stay 
 to describe — and other notices of the time, 
 show how widely Christianity must have 
 been spread. We read, for example, of a 
 town in Phrygia burned with all its popula- 
 tion, including women and children, because 
 the inhabitants, those in high rank as well 
 as persons of humbler station, confessed 
 themselves Christians, and would not recant! 1 
 We should notice also the case of Armenia, 
 which at this time received the gospel from 
 Gregory the Illuminator, and that so de- 
 cidedly that probably two - thirds of the 
 people may be reckoned as professing Chris- 
 tianity. 2 Incidentally, we get a glimpse of 
 the predominance of Christianity in Rome 
 in the fact, narrated by Eusebius, that 
 Maxentius, the usurper of imperial power 
 in Italy during the persecution, sought 
 1 Ecc. Hist., viii. n. ' Cf. Schultzc, I. p. 17. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 89 
 
 to ingratiate himself with the Romans by 
 pretending that he was of the Christian faith. 
 " He pretended," says the historian, " by a 
 species of accommodation and flattery to- 
 wards the Romans, that he was of our 
 faith." 1 But there are yet more striking 
 testimonies. The_ complete failure of the / 
 persecution may be said to be itself such 
 a testimony, as, indeed, the persecutors them- 
 selves, in their edicts and rescripts of tolera- 
 tion, acknowledge. 2 Maximin, Emperor of 
 the East, was the most obstinate and cruel, 
 perhaps, of all these persecutors. And what 
 does he say ? In an Epistle to his governors 
 ordering the persecution to cease, he gives 
 as the reason why it had been under- 
 taken actually this — that the emperors "had 
 seen that almost all men {ay^ov a.7ravTag 
 avOpwirovg) were abandoning the worship of 
 the gods, and attaching themselves to the party 
 1 Eus. viii. 14. s Ibid. viii. 16, 17 ; ix. 9. 
 
go NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 (Wvei) of the Christians!' » Rhetoric may be 
 charged against Tertullian, but a procla- 
 mation of this kind is hardly one in which 
 we should look for rhetorical exaggeration ! 
 The only other testimony I shall adduce is 
 one from the Christian side. It is that of 
 the famous Lucian of Antioch, teacher of 
 Arius, and founder of the school usually 
 known as the Antiochian, who perished in the 
 persecution. And the words of Lucian are 
 that, prior to the last persecution, "almost 
 the greater part of the world, including 
 whole cities, had yielded obedience to the 
 truth " (" pars paene mundi jam major 
 huic veritati adstipulatur ; urbes integral "). 2 
 These are utterances from the midst of 
 
 1 Eus. ix. 9. 
 
 2 The passage is only in the Latin translation of 
 Eusebius by Rufinus, but Dr. Milman thinks it 
 authentic ; cf. Hist, of Christ., Bk. hi., ch. i. He 
 quotes also a note from Routh, who gives on the 
 authority of Porson a statement from Porphyry, 
 that the Christians were tovq irXuovag — a majority. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 91 
 
 the conflict, not easily to be explained 
 away by those who would persuade us 
 that the Christians constituted only an 
 insignificant one-twentieth, or even one-tenth 
 of the population, at the time of the victory ; 
 and they surely warrant us in holding that 
 there has been an undue timidity in recog- 
 nising the powerful hold which Christianity 
 had taken, numerically, on society by the end 
 of the third century. If we allow the simple 
 facts of the case to produce their natural 
 impression on our minds our verdict, I think, 
 must be — there are factors here which have 
 been neglected. 
 
THE EXTENSION OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 VERTICALLY, OR AS RESPECTS 
 
 THE DIFFERENT STRATA OF 
 SOCIETY. 
 
 93 
 
Influence of Christianity on the higher ranks of 
 society under-estimated — New Testament evi- 
 dence — Witness of the Catacombs — Pomponia 
 Graecina — Flavius Clemens and Domitilla — Aci- 
 lius Glabrio — Notices in Second Century — The 
 wealth of the Church of Rome — The witness of 
 the persecutions — Tertullian and Clement on 
 luxury of Christians — Relations of Christianity 
 with the Imperial Court in the Third Century — 
 The Decian persecution and its effects — The 
 Church before and under Diocletian — Social 
 status of Church teachers — Result : membership 
 of the Early Church not drawn mainly from the 
 lowest, but from the intermediate classes, and 
 embraced many of the wealthier and higher 
 orders. 
 
 Q 4 
 
LECTURE II 
 
 r, HE EXTENSION OF CHRISTIANITY VERTI- 
 CALLY, OR AS RESPECTS THE DIFFE- 
 RENT STRATA OF SOCIETY 
 
 IN the previous lecture I defended the 
 position that Christianity in the early 
 centuries had manifested an energy of propa- 
 gation, and diffused itself with a rapidity 
 much greater than the majority of Church 
 historians seem prepared to allow ; I am now 
 to seek to strengthen this position by taking 
 society, as it were, in vertical section, and 
 inquiring into the degree in which Chris- 
 tianity can be shown to have affected the 
 
 95 
 
96 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 wealthier and better-educated classes in the 
 Empire, as well as those of inferior social 
 station. Here also, I think, the influence c f 
 the gospel has generally been under-esti- 
 ( mated. It may be going too far to say, 
 ] with Prof. Ramsay, that Christianity " spre? d 
 jat first among the educated more rapid y 
 than among the uneducated " * ; but I am 
 persuaded that even this is nearer the truti 
 than the opinion often expressed that Chris- 
 tianity drew the great bulk of its adherents 
 I in the earliest times from persons of the 
 lowest and most servile positions — that, in 
 
 c — > 
 
 Gibbon's well-known words, the new sect 
 was " almost entirely composed of the dregs 
 of the populace — of peasants and mechanics, 
 of boys and women, of beggars and slaves." 2 
 To say that Christianity began with the 
 
 1 Church in Roman Empire, p. 57. 
 
 2 Gibbon gives this as " the charge of malice and 
 infidelity," which he proceeds in part to qualify. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 97 
 
 lowest classes, and gradually worked up to 
 the higher, is at best a half-truth. It is not 
 less true that the gospel often laid hold 
 first of persons in better social position, and 
 from them worked around and down. Its 
 Divine power drew to it men of all classes 
 of society from the beginning, and often 
 the persons in higher station were the first 
 to come, and, through their example, brought 
 others. The evidence on this, as on the 
 other branches of our subject, has been 
 gradually accumulating, and in recent years 
 has come to be much better appreciated. 
 Still, as respects the ordinary treatment of 
 Church History, it may justly be said that 
 not a little of it is " a neglected factor." 
 
 In supporting this thesis, which will seem 
 to many paradoxical, I do not wish to be 
 misunderstood. It is not disputed that in 
 the days of the Apostles, and so long as 
 Christianity was a proscribed religion, the 
 
 v 
 
98 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 numbers of the wealthy, and learned, and 
 powerful, belonging to it were still compara- 
 tively few, and that the body of the mem- 
 bership of the Church consisted of persons 
 of the humbler and middle ranks of society. 1 
 The wealthy and noble must always be few 
 in comparison with others in the Church, for 
 this, if for no other reason, that there are 
 fewer of them. This is Origen's reply to 
 Celsus as respects the intelligence of the 
 Christians, that " among the multitude of 
 converts to Christianity, the simple and igno- 
 rant necessarily outnumbered the more in- 
 telligent, as the former class always does the 
 latter r 2 Even yet the greater part of our 
 
 1 The rude, misspelt scrawls and execrable Latinity 
 of many of the Catacomb inscriptions are sufficient 
 evidence of this. The contrast has often been drawn 
 between the finely executed Pagan epitaphs on one 
 side of the Lapidarian Gallery in the Vatican, and 
 the hasty, illiterate scribbles of the Catacomb series 
 opposite. (Cf. Hasenclever in Jahr. f. Prot. TheoL, 
 VIII. pp. 34~5-) 2 Contra Celsum, i. 27. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 99 
 
 Christian congregations does not consist of 
 
 nobles and millionaires, but of persons 
 
 drawn from the intermediate and humbler 
 
 classes of society — tradespeople, artisans, 
 
 peasants, and the best part of these — and 
 
 still more must this have been the case when 
 
 there was far less of a middle class than there 
 
 is now, 1 and trade and industry were left 
 
 chiefly in the hands of freedmen, foreigners, 
 
 and slaves. But this inferior social rank of 
 
 the earlier converts to Christianity has been 
 
 greatly exaggerated. The sneer of Celsus 2 
 
 which Origen refutes has been repeated as 
 
 if it were a true description of Christian 
 
 society, instead of a caricature. We shall 
 
 see that if, as Paul says, " not many wise 
 
 after the flesh, not many mighty, not many 
 
 noble " were called,3 there were still, all 
 
 1 Some would say no middle class at all, but this 
 is an exaggeration. Cf. the sentence from Schultze, 
 on p. 112. 
 
 2 Contra Celsum, iii. 55. 3 1 Cor. i. 26. 
 
 \*s 
 
 \ 
 
ioo NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 things considered, a surprising number from 
 these very classes and from the intermediate 
 ranks — and as time went on still more — who 
 adorned by their faith the doctrine of God 
 their Saviour. I am far, indeed, from sug- 
 gesting that Christianity derives a lustre 
 from the mere social rank of its converts, 
 which would not be lent to it by the virtues 
 of the humblest. 1 The flow of rank and 
 wealth into the Church, far from proving 
 a source of blessing to it, has proved often 
 a cause of backsliding and corruption. But 
 it may fairly be contended that just in pro- 
 portion to the obstacles which lay in the 
 way of persons of rank and wealth becoming 
 members of an obscure and uninfluential 
 sect, the more signally was the power of the 
 gospel magnified in overcoming these ob- 
 stacles, and bringing them to the feet of 
 the Crucified. Neither must we under-esti- 
 1 Cf. James ii. 5. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 101 
 
 mate the effects on the progress of Chris- 
 tianity of the influence and example of 
 persons of this class. That influence was 
 great, and in the providential order had 
 much to do with the commending of 
 the gospel in the circles in which it 
 operated. 
 
 An instructive fore-glimpse of what is 
 afterwards to be illustrated in the history 
 of the Church is already furnished in the 
 personal ministry of its Founder. The 
 wealthy and official classes, we know, as a 
 body rejected Christ, while " the common 
 people heard Him gladly." * The question 
 could be asked, " Have any of the rulers 
 believed on Him, or of the Pharisees ? " 2 
 Yet if we look a little more carefully into 
 the list of Christ's personal disciples and 
 followers, we shall find, I think, that they 
 are drawn neither from the highest, nor 
 1 Mark xii. 37. - John vii. 48. 
 
102 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 preponderatingly from the lowest, ranks of 
 society, but from what we should now call 
 ' the middle classes ; while instances are not 
 {wanting to show the power of the gospel 
 on persons of higher social position. Thus, 
 among the friends and followers of Jesus 
 we have mention made of certain women 
 who had been healed by Him and attended 
 Him, including — with Mary Magdalene — 
 "Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, 
 and Susanna, and many others, who minis- 
 tered to Him of their substance " r ; we have 
 the family of Bethany — Lazarus and his 
 sisters — evidently of good social position ; 
 we have, in the band of the Apostles, the pairs 
 of brothers, Simon and Andrew, and James 
 and John, who, though fishermen, were at 
 least in comfortable circumstances — Zebedee 
 with his sons owning boats and hired ser- 
 vants, and carrying on a fishery business in 
 1 Luke viii. 2. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 103 
 
 partnership with Simon r ; we have the pub- 
 licans, Matthew and Zacchaeus, the one able 
 to make "a great feast in his house" on 
 occasion of his Call, 2 the other " a chief pub- 
 lican," and " rich " 3 ; we have the Roman 
 centurion, who had built the Jews a synagogue 
 — no mean personage therefore 4 — and Jairus, 
 one of the rulers of the synagogue 5 ; we have 
 Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and Joseph 
 of Arimathea, " a councillor of honourable 
 estate," and " rich " 6 ; we have the testimony 
 in John, " Nevertheless even of the rulers 
 many believed on Him, but because of the 
 Pharisees, they did not confess it " 7 ; we 
 have such instances as that of the rich young 
 
 1 Mark i. 20 ; Luke v. 10. Nathanael (= Bar- 
 tholomew ?) also seems to have been a man of good 
 social standing (Cf. John i. 45-51). It is noticeable 
 that members of this group are found at a distance 
 from their homes in Judea, waiting as disciples on 
 the Baptist (John i.). 2 Luke v. 29. 
 
 3 Ibid. xix. 2. 4 Ibid. vii. 5. 5 Mark v. 22. 
 
 6 Mark xv. 43 ; Matt, xxvii. 57. 7 John xh. 42. 
 
104 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 ruler attracted to Christ, 1 of the candid scribe 
 who was "not far from the kingdom of God," 2 
 of the other scribe who impulsively offered 
 his service.3 All this, when, to use the 
 words of the Evangelist, "the Spirit was 
 not yet given, because Jesus was not yet 
 glorified." 4 
 
 Passing from the Gospels to the Church 
 in the Apostolic age, we have a new 
 series of examples which look in the same 
 direction. The mother church at Jerusalem 
 had among its members possessors of lands 
 and houses, apparently not a few, who sold 
 them and laid the proceeds, in whole or 
 part, at the Apostles' feet.5 We have specific 
 instances in Barnabas of Cyprus, who, having 
 land, sold it 6 ; in Ananias and Sapphira, 
 who sold a possession and deceitfully kept 
 back part of the price 7 ; in the mother of 
 
 1 Luke xviii. 18, 23. - Mark xii. 34. 
 
 3 Matt. viii. 19. 4 John vii. 39. 5 Acts iv. 34, 35. 
 
 6 Ibid. iv. 37. 7 Ibid. v. r. 2. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 105 
 
 John Mark, who had a house of her own in 
 Jerusalem. 1 Many of the converts at Pente- 
 cost were persons who had come long and 
 expensive journeys to the feast - ; and at an 
 early stage in the history it is testified, " A 
 great company of the priests were obedient 
 to the faith." 3 The eighth chapter of the 
 Acts records how the eunuch of Ethiopia, 
 described as "of great authority under 
 Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who 
 was over all her treasure," 4 was brought 
 to faith by the Evangelist Philip ; the ninth 
 chapter relates the conversion of the great 
 Apostle of the Gentiles, Saul of Tarsus, 
 pupil of Gamaliel, who, as a Roman citizen, 
 may be assumed to have been of a good 
 family 5 ; the eleventh chapter tells of 
 Peter's successful mission to the devout 
 
 centurion Cornelius — a man noted for his 
 1 Acts xii. 12. 2 Ibid. ii. 5. 
 
 3 Ibid. vi. 7. 4 Ibid. viii. 27. 
 
 Cf. Ramsay's St. Paul the Traveller, ch. ii. 
 
106 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 alms. 1 A new beginning in the Christian 
 propaganda is made in the Gentile Church 
 at Antioch, and here, among the prophets 
 and teachers who designate Saul and 
 Barnabas to their work, we find Manaen, 
 the foster-brother of Herod the Tetrarch. 2 
 Following the Apostle in his missionary 
 journeyings, we have continual examples of 
 how the word took root in the hearts of 
 persons of the higher ranks, even more 
 readily, often, than in the minds of the 
 multitude. Thus the visit to Cyprus issued 
 in the confusion of Elymas the Magian and 
 the conversion of the Proconsul Sergius 
 Paulus.3 The first convert in Philippi 
 was Lydia, the well-to-do seller of purple.4 
 In Thessalonica a great multitude of devout 
 Greeks (proselytes) believed, and it is ex- 
 pressly recorded, " of the chief women not 
 
 1 Acts x. 2, 31. 2 Ibid. xiii. 1. 
 
 3 Ibid. xiii. 12. 4 Ibid. xvi. 14. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 107 
 
 a few." * Jason, who received the preachers 
 into his house and shielded them from 
 violence, was evidently a man of substance. 2 
 In the neighbouring city of Bercea it is 
 attested that many believed, " also of the 
 Greek women of honourable estate, and of 
 men, not a few." 3 Athens gave but few 
 converts, but one of them was Dionysius 
 the Areopagite.4 There is nothing in all^ 
 this of the gospel working its way gradually 
 up from below. It goes straight to the 
 hearts of these people of honourable estate 
 from the lips of the preacher, or from the 
 Scriptures " searched daily." 5 At Corinth, 
 besides the tent-makers Aquila and Priscilla, 
 who cannot be described as poor, we have 
 Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, 
 " believing in the Lord with all his house " 6 ; 
 
 1 Acts xvii. 4. 2 Ibid. xvii. 9. 
 
 3 Ibid. xvii. 12. 4 Ibid. xvii. 34. 
 
 Ibid. xvii. 11. 6 Ibid, xviii. 8. 
 
10S NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 at Ephesus we have the conversion of the 
 dealers in magic arts and the burning of 
 the great pile of their books of sorcery z ; at 
 the island of Malta we have the cure — if not 
 the conversion — of the governor Publius, 2 with 
 many other indications of a similar kind. 
 Moving through the history of the " Acts," 
 in fact, and gleaning the impressions which 
 | its pictures of the life and work and trials 
 of these early Christian brotherhoods make 
 upon us, we never feel ourselves in contact 
 with Gibbon's "dregs of the populace," but 
 are consciously at every point in touch with 
 intelligent, well-ordered, and socially reput- 
 able communities. These notices in the 
 Book of Acts receive confirmation and 
 amplification from the Epistles, if there 
 also, in many of the Churches, darker 
 shades appear. The Church at Corinth, 
 to which Paul wrote that "not many 
 Acts xix. 19. - Ibid, xxviii. 8. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 109 
 
 wise, not many mighty, not many noble " 
 are called, embraced in its membership, 
 besides Crispus, the chief ruler of the 
 synagogue, Erastus, the chamberlain of the 
 city * ; while the disorders at the Agape and 
 many other indications — the taste of the 
 Church, for instance, for rhetoric and 
 Alexandrian wisdom, its conceit of know- 
 ledge, its lawsuits of the brethren one 
 with another, 2 its heresies on the resurrec- 
 tion — show that it was not a church 
 composed exclusively, or even predominat- 
 ingly, of the poorer classes, but a church, 
 rather, intellectually disposed, and containing 
 in it a good many people of better social 
 position. To this church belonged the 
 much-praised "household of Stephanas." 3 
 I need only allude — for I cannot delay long 
 on this part of the subject — to such other 
 characters in the Epistles as Philemon of 
 1 Rom. xvi. 23. ~ i Cor. vi. 6. 3 Ibid. xvi. 15. 
 
no NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 Colosse, the master of Onesimus, 1 the 
 hospitable Onesiphorus, 2 the well-beloved 
 Gaius,3 and the most excellent Theophilus, 
 to whom the Evangelist Luke,4 himself a 
 physician,s writes his "treatises." The Epistles 
 bear witness in our favour in other and less 
 direct ways. If the Apostolic Churches had 
 slaves in their membership, they had also 
 masters, to whom exhortations are ad- 
 dressed. 6 Specially instructive in this con- 
 nection are the passages directed against 
 the dangers and abuses of wealth, as, e.g., 
 where Paul exhorts, " Charge them that are 
 rich in this present world, that they be not 
 high-minded, nor have their hope set on the 
 uncertainty of riches, but on God " 7 ; or 
 where James cautions against partiality to 
 the man with the gold ring and fine 
 
 1 Ep. to Phil. 2 2 Tim. i. 16. 
 
 3 3 John. 4 Luke i. 3 ; Acts i. 1. 
 
 5 Col. iv. 14. 6 Eph. vi. 9 ; Col. iv. 1. 
 
 ' 1 Tim. vi. 17 ; cf. vers. 9, 10. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY in 
 
 clothing, and denounces the rich men who 
 rob the labourers of their hire. 1 Finally, 
 we have the picture of the Church of 
 Laodicea in the Book of Revelation, which 
 boasts of being rich and increased with 
 goods — if this is to be taken literally — and 
 is all the while in deep spiritual poverty. 2 
 We have, on the other hand, the testimony 
 of the Apostle to " the deep poverty " of the 
 Churches of Macedonia — connected, however, 
 with a special season of tribulation — but also 
 his witness to their abundant liberality in the 
 collection made for the poor saints in Judea.3 
 I do not think it is an unreasonable con- 
 clusion to draw from these data that, while 
 there were doubtless poor churches, and 
 many poor people in all the churches, the 
 general membership of the congregations 
 
 1 James ii. 2, 5 ; v. 4. The latter passage need not 
 refer to Christians. 
 
 2 Rev. iii. 17. s 2 Cor. viii. 2 ; ix. 
 
ii2 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 was, contrary to the usual view, composed 
 of fairly well-to-do and intelligent people 
 and commonly had among them also 
 persons of highly respectable, and some- 
 times quite conspicuous positions. I am glad 
 in this view to find myself supported by the 
 writer already frequently quoted — V. fechultze. } 
 " It was not the base elements," he says, s | y 
 " which came into the Church ; but, on the 
 contrary, the better strata of the Roman 
 population, the artificers, the shopkeepers, 
 and the small landed proprietors, therefore 
 preponderatingly the under and middle 
 portion of the citizen class, who, in the 
 general moral and religious dissolution of 
 heathenism, still proved themselves the 
 soundest classes in the community." x I 
 
 1 Untergang, I. p. 25. I may quote here also Dean 
 Merivale's judgment. "I have shown in another 
 place," he says, " that the gospel was not embraced, 
 on its first promulgation in Judea, by the despair of 
 the most wretched outcasts of humanity, but rather 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 113 
 
 propose, in the remainder of the lecture, 
 to adduce some of the evidence furnished 
 by early ecclesiastical history, which, I 
 think, makes clear the justice of this 
 contention. 
 
 Here, again, I can have no hesitation in 
 placing in the forefront of my argument the 
 comparatively recent and singularly impres- 
 sive testimony of the Catacombs. The evi- ~ 
 dence which has come to us from this quarter 
 is partly elucidatory and corroborative of 
 what had formerly been conjectured ; but 
 
 by the hopeful enthusiasm which urges those en- 
 joying a portion of the goods of life to improve 
 and fortify their position. And so again at Rome 
 we have no reason to suppose that Christianity 
 was only the refuge of the afflicted and miserable ; 
 rather, if we may lay any stress on the monuments 
 above referred to, it was first embraced by persons 
 in a certain grade of comfort and respectability ; by 
 persons approaching to what we should call the 
 middle classes in their condition, their education, 
 and their moral views." — The Romans under the 
 Empire, ch. liv. See further Dean Milman's judg- 
 ment cited below, p. 142. 
 
ii4 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 much of it, also, is entirely new, and to it 
 chiefly, perhaps, is due the revived interest 
 which of late years has been shown in this 
 subject of the social rank of the early 
 o\ Christians. The very existence of these 
 Catacombs, it may be remarked at the outset, 
 taken in connection with the circumstances 
 of their origin, is a proof that the Church 
 of Rome must from the earliest period have 
 had among its members persons of wealth 
 and distinction. The oldest of the Catacombs 
 go back to the first century — one or two 
 perhaps to Apostolic days. In nearly all 
 cases they seem to have been begun as 
 private burial-places in the gardens or vine- 
 yards of persons of the wealthier class, 1 while 
 the elegance and refinement of their con- 
 struction, and the elaboration of their decora- 
 tions, point to lavish outlay by their owners. 2 
 
 1 Cf. Northcote and Brownlow, I. pp. 101, 114 ff. 
 
 - This artistic elegance and finish is characteristic 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 115 
 
 In some cases spots of ground were directly 
 gifted to the Church for the burial of the 
 brethren. 1 But it is chiefly in the inscrip- 
 tions, enabling us positively to identify par- 
 ticular crypts with individuals and families, 
 that the interest of this class of discoveries 
 culminates. The amount of light thrown in 
 this way on the extent to which Christianity 
 had penetrated into the higher Roman circles 
 is really very surprising. I shall notice a 
 few of the best known cases, combining with 
 the light furnished by the Catacombs such 
 knowledge of the facts as comes to us from 
 other sources. 
 
 An early case of great interest is that of 
 Pomponia Graecina in the reign of Nero. The 
 New Testament acquaints us with the fact 
 
 of all the cemeteries which on other grounds are 
 shown to go back to first century. Cf. Northcote 
 and Brownlow, as above; Did. of Christ. Antiq., I. 
 
 P- 303. 
 
 1 Cf. Lanciani, Pagan and Christ. Rome, p. 336. 
 
 £ 
 
n6 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 that Christianity had early obtained a foot- 
 ing in that immense establishment known 
 as " Caesar's Household." i Prof. Ramsay 
 quotes from Mommsen the observation 
 that nowhere had Christianity a stronger 
 hold than in the household and at the 
 court of the Emperors. 2 But that, beyond 
 this household, Christianity had found its 
 way into the highest circles, had long been 
 
 1 Phil. iv. 22. See the description of this gigantic 
 establishment in Lightfoot's Philippians, pp. 171 ff ; 
 also Friedlander, Sittengeschichte Roms, I. pp. 71-210. 
 Withrow states : 1" In remarkable confirmation of 
 this fact is the discovery in the recent explorations 
 of the ruins of the Imperial Palace [Nero's " Golden 
 House"], of several Christian memorials, including 
 one of those lamps adorned with evangelical symbols 
 so common in the Catacombs " (p. 56). 
 
 2 Church in Roman Empire, p. 57. Harnack says : 
 " We are able to-day, on the basis of fully authenti- 
 cated records, to declare, with satisfactory certainty, 
 that even in the time of the Apostles the palace of 
 the Emperor was one of the chief seats of the 
 growing Christian Church in Rome." Art. on " Chris- 
 tianity and Christians at the Court of the Emperors," 
 in Princeton Review, July, 1878, p. 257. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 117 
 
 surmised from an obscure notice in Tacitus, 
 which relates how in A.D. 57, a lady of 
 illustrious birth, Pomponia Graecina, wife of 
 Aulus Plautius, the conqueror of Britain, was 
 accused before the Senate, and was tried and 
 acquitted before a domestic tribunal on a 
 charge of " foreign superstition " {supersti- 
 tionis externa), and how her life was there- 
 after spent in deep gloom. 1 The peculiarity 
 of the charge in this case led to the con- 
 jecture that the "foreign superstition" in 
 question was none other than Christianity. 
 So long as it depended solely on this passage, 
 the inference was felt to be precarious, and 
 we cannot feel surprised that while the 
 majority of scholars acquiesced in it, others, 
 equally learned, took an opposite view. Now, 
 however, the conjecture has practically been 
 converted into certainty by the discovery by 
 De Rossi in the crypt of Lucina — one of 
 1 Tac. Annals, xiii. 32. 
 
n8 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 the very oldest parts of the Catacombs — of 
 several inscriptions unmistakably showing 
 a connection of the vault with members 
 of the Pomponian gens — one descendant 
 bearing this very family name : Pomponius 
 Graecinus. 1 It is an ingenious conjecture 
 of De Rossi that probably the Lucina who 
 gives her name to the crypt is Pomponia 
 Graecina herself. Lucina would then be the 
 name assumed by this lady at baptism. 2 
 This same distinguished person, it should 
 
 1 Cf. Northcote and Brownlow for details, I. pp. 
 277-281. Lightfoot says, "It is clear therefore that 
 this burial-place was constructed by some Christian 
 lady of rank, probably before the close of the first 
 century, for her fellow-religionists, and that within 
 a generation or two a descendant or near kinsman 
 of Pomponia Graecina was buried." {Clement, I. p. 
 31. Cf. Harnack, Princeton Review, July, 1878, p. 263.) 
 
 2 Hasencleveiy n his interesting articles on " Christian 
 Proselytes of the Higher Rank in the First Century," 
 in Jahr. f. Prot. Theol. viii., seeks to minimise the 
 evidence in the above and later cases, but in view of 
 the Catacomb testimony, his arguments need scarcely 
 be discussed. Cf. Lightfoot, Clement, pp. 30, 32, &c. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 119 
 
 be said, is connected by many scholars with 
 the gospel in another way, though much 
 weight, I fear, cannot be allowed to their 
 speculations. Specious grounds have been 
 alleged for the identification of the Pudens 
 and Claudia named in 2 Tim. iv. 21 as 
 prominent members of the Church of Rome 
 with a Pudens and Claudia repeatedly men- 
 tioned in the epigrams of Martial, 1 the former 
 a Roman centurion of distinction, the latter 
 a British princess whom Pudens wedded. 
 Last century (1722) there was discovered at 
 Chichester an inscription which tells how a 
 site was presented by one Pudens to the 
 British king, Claudius Cogidubnus — the same 
 with whom, as we learn from Tacitus, Aulus 
 Plautius had friendly relations in his cam- 
 paigns. The presumption is strong that the 
 
 1 See the passages quoted in Alford's Excursus on 
 Pudens and Claudia, in Proleg. to 2 Timothy, Greek 
 Test., iii. p. 104. 
 
120 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 Pudens of Martial is an officer who served 
 under Plautius in Britain, and that the princess 
 he married was the daughter of this King 
 Claudius Cogidubnus. If so, we have a link 
 connecting her with Pomponia Graecina, under 
 whose protection it may be presumed that 
 she journeyed to Rome, and whose connection 
 with the family of the Rufi furnishes a reason 
 for the assumption by her of the second 
 name she bears — Claudia Rufina. The same 
 link connects Claudia with Christianity, and 
 gives plausibility to the suggestion that 
 through Pomponia she may have been intro- 
 duced into Christian circles, and with her, 
 Pudens. 1 The weak point in this train of 
 reasoning, otherwise so seductive, is the 
 absence of any evidence that Claudia Rufina 
 was brought under Christian influences, for 
 
 1 The Pudens and Claudia of Martial were not 
 married at the date of the epistle ; neither apparently 
 were the pair in the text, since the name of Linus 
 intervenes. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 121 
 
 the mere occurrence of two names so common 
 as Pudens and Claudia in 2 Tim. iv. 21 does 
 not prove it. The identification with the 
 members of the Roman Church is favoured, 
 however, by writers like Alford, Conybeare 
 and Howson, Lewin, and Plumptre ; while 
 Lightfoot and others, on chronological and 
 moral grounds, decidedly — possibly too de- 
 cidedly — reject it. 1 The utmost that can be 
 said for it at present is that the coincidences 
 are unquestionably striking. 
 
 Pomponia Graecina lived on into the reign 
 of Domitian, and her influence, as Lightfoot 
 suggests, 2 may not have been without its 
 share in bringing about the next outstand- 
 ing cases of conversion we have to record 
 
 1 See in favour of the identification, Alford ut supra 
 and against, Lightfoot, Clement, I. pp. 76-79. Light- 
 foot gives the references to the others. Farrar, who 
 scouts the identification in his St. Paul (ch. 56), uses 
 it to garnish his picture in his Darkness and Dawn. 
 
 2 Pp. 32-3. 
 
122 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 — those of Flavius Clemens, the consul, and 
 Domitilla, his wife — the former the cousin, 
 the latter the niece, of the Emperor Domi- 
 tian. The basis here again is the statement 
 of a heathen writer. Dion Cassius (or his 
 epitomiser Xiphilinus) informs us that these 
 two persons were accused of " atheism," and 
 "going astray after the customs of the Jews" 
 (afleorrjroc . •.• . iff to lovcatwv Wt] e^OKtX- 
 Xovreg), for which offence Clement was put 
 to death, and Domitilla was banished to the 
 island of Pandatereia in the ^Egean. 1 The 
 peculiar wording of the charge long ago 
 suggested that, as in the previous case, it 
 was really the offence of Christianity for 
 which Clement and his wife suffered 2 ; and 
 
 1 Dion Cassius, lxvii. 44 : Suet. Dom. 15. See 
 on these passages Lightfoot, Philippians, pp. 21-23 : 
 Clement, I. pp. 33-35 : Ignat. I. pp. 12, 13. 
 
 2 Thus already Gibbon (ch. xvi.) : " A singular 
 association of ideas, which cannot with any propriety 
 be applied except to the Christians." Most modern 
 scholars agree. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 123 
 
 this conjecture was strengthened by a notice 
 in Eusebius, derived from the Roman his- 
 torian Bruttius, that Flavia Domitilla, whom 
 by a confusion he calls the niece (not the 
 wife) of Flavius Clemens, was banished for 
 confessing Christ. 1 It has been reserved for 
 Catacomb exploration to clear up the am- 
 biguity attaching to this case also, and to 
 establish beyond doubt the Christianity of 
 the illustrious pair. The cemetery of Domi- 
 tilla has been discovered by the labours of 
 De Rossi, with inscriptions abundantly at- 
 testing her ownership of the ground, and 
 its use for Christian burial 2 ; while the 
 
 1 Eus. Ecc. Hist. iii. 18 : cf. Chronicle under a.d. 
 95. On the discrepancies with Dion Cassius, &c, 
 see Lightfoot, Phil., pp. 22, 23, and Clement, I. pp. 
 44-51 ; and Harnack, Princeton Review, July, 1878, 
 pp. 266-69. Harnack favours the theory of two 
 Domitillas. 
 
 2 Cf. for details, Northcote and Brownlow, Rom. 
 Sott. I. pp. 120-6 : Lanciani, Pag. and Christ. Rome, 
 PP. 3 l6 > 335-34° : Lightfoot, Clement, I. pp. 35-37 ; 
 
I2 4 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 further discovery of an elegantly-constructed 
 crypt of the Flavians shows that, in the 
 words of Harnack, " an entire branch of 
 the Flavian family embraced the Christian 
 faith." J It will not be denied that these 
 facts furnish startling illustration of the 
 extent to which, by the close of the first 
 century, Christianity had pushed its con- 
 quests. Next to the Emperor himself, these 
 two personages held the highest rank in 
 the Empire ; they stood nearest to the throne ; 
 their two sons had even been designated by 
 Domitian as his heirs to the purple. 2 It 
 
 Harnack, Princeton Review, July, 1878, pp. 268-9. 
 The cemetery is that of Domitilla, who alone is 
 mentioned by Eusebius, but the charge was the 
 same against both husband and wife. 
 
 1 Harnack {ut supra) says, "What a change ! Be- 
 tween fifty and sixty years after Christianity reached 
 \ Rome, a daughter of the Emperor (Vespasian) em- 
 braces the faith, and thirty years after the fearful 
 persecutions of Nero, the presumptive heirs to the 
 throne were brought up in a Christian house " 
 (p. 269). 2 Suet. Dom. 15. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 125 
 
 seemed almost as if, ere the last Apostle had 
 quitted the scene of his labours, Christianity 
 were about to mount the seat of empire ! 
 
 There is, however, yet another case, belong- 
 ing to this period, quite as striking in its 
 elements of surprise as that of Clemens and 
 Flavia Domitilla. Dion informs us in the 
 passage already cited that besides these two, 
 " many others " (aXXoi 7roAXoQ were arraigned 
 on the same charges — among them Glabrio 
 who had been consul with Trajan, who also 
 was condemned, and put to death. The full 
 name of this victim of Domitian's persecuting 
 zeal was Manius Acilius Glabrio, and his 
 family was conspicuous as one of the very 
 wealthiest and most illustrious in the State. 
 " Towards the end of the republic," says 
 Lanciani, "we find them (the Acilii) estab- 
 lished on the Pincian Hill, where they had 
 built a palace, and laid out gardens which 
 extended at least from the convent of the 
 
126 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 Trinita dei Monti to the Villa Borghese. 
 The family had grown so rapidly to honour, 
 splendour, and wealth, that Pertinax in the 
 Senate in which he was elected emperor, 
 proclaimed them the noblest race in the 
 world." 1 Doubt was still entertained by 
 many, however, whether the terms of the 
 passage in Dion necessarily included Chris- 
 tianity among the charges on which Glabrio 
 was condemned, and Lightfoot, in reviewing 
 the evidence, declared that the case seemed 
 to him to break down altogether. 2 It is 
 permissible to think that were this eminent 
 scholar writing now, his opinion would be 
 somewhat modified. For here, again, Cata- 
 comb discovery has come to our help. In 
 the year 1888, a crypt was laid bare by the 
 indefatigable De Rossi, which proved to be 
 that of the Acilii Glabriones. A fragment of 
 
 1 Pagan and Christ. Rome, p. 5. 
 
 2 Clement, I. p. 82. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 127 
 
 a marble coffin was found, inscribed with the 
 words Acilio Glabrioni Filio? and additional 
 inscriptions have since confirmed the identifi- 
 cation. 2 As this crypt forms the centre of a 
 large group of galleries, its Christian character 
 can hardly be doubted. Thus again we see 
 Christianity penetrating into one of the 
 wealthiest and most renowned families of 
 the Flavian age.3 
 
 The individual instances I have cited are 
 
 1 Probably son of Manius Acilius Glabrio, Consul, 
 124 a.d. On the Acilian inscriptions, see Frontis- 
 piece and Note in Appendix. 
 
 3 Lanciani, pp. 4-8. "His end helped, no doubt," 
 this writer says, "the propagation of the gospel 
 among his relatives and descendants, as well as 
 among the servants and freedmen of the house, as 
 shown by the noble sarcophagi and the humble 
 loculi found in such numbers in the crypt of the 
 Catacombs of Priscilla" (p. 7. Cf. Ramsay, Church 
 in Roman Empire, pp. 262-3). 
 
 3 A Catacomb inscription furnishes good reason 
 also for believing that Bruttius, the historian on 
 whom Eusebius depends for his information about 
 Domitilla, was, or became, a Christian. Thus Light- 
 foot and Lanciani. 
 
128 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 far from exhausting the evidence supplied 
 by the Catacombs to the acceptance of the 
 gospel by persons of the upper ranks in 
 society in the first century, but they may 
 suffice. As an interesting indication from 
 the literary side, I may refer to the apocry- 
 phal Acts of Paul and Thecla, which most 
 scholars now believe to have at least a basis 
 of historical truth. Thecla was the daughter 
 of a noble and wealthy family in Iconium, 
 and Queen Tryphaena, of Pontus, who is 
 shown by recent discovery to be a real 
 historical personage, is related to have been 
 converted by her. Prof. Ramsay accepts 
 these facts as probably historical 1 ; Harnack 
 also regards the book as "without doubt 
 resting upon historical accounts." 2 It there- 
 fore adds its grain of testimony to our 
 general contention. 
 
 1 Church in Roman Empire, p. 414. 
 
 2 Princeton Review, July, 1878, p. 263. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 129 
 
 When we pass to the second century we 
 
 are not so entirely dependent upon Catacomb 
 
 witness as in the first, though here also, as 
 
 we shall see, the Catacombs have important 
 
 aid to offer us. The river of Church History 
 
 still flows, indeed, so much underground as 
 
 to be for long periods almost entirely out of 
 
 sight. Yet numerous illustrations are not 
 
 wanting to show us that the gospel was 
 
 drawing its converts on every side from the 
 
 higher as well as the lower orders of society. 
 
 Pliny^it will be remembered, bears emphatic 
 
 testimony to this in Bithynia and Pontus. 
 
 Persons of all ages, of all ranks, and of both 
 
 sexes, he reports to Trajan, had accepted 
 
 Christianity, and the number was daily in- 
 
 • 
 creasing. 1 The Epistle of Ignatius to the 
 
 Romans, about the same time, presupposes, 
 
 as Dr. Lightfoot points out, that there were 
 
 persons in high quarters in Rome so in- 
 
 1 Ep., 96. 
 9 
 
130 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 fluential that the writer fears their inter- 
 cession may deprive him of the crown of 
 Martyrdom. 1 Hernias, in his Shepherd — 
 that Pilgrim's Progress of the Early Church 
 — has numerous references to the wealthy in 
 the Church of Rome — possessors of lands 
 and houses — whom he rebukes for worldli- 
 ness and luxury. 2 The wealth of the Church 
 is witnessed to us in a more pleasing way 
 by its reputation for an abundant liberality. 
 Dionysius, the Bishop of Corinth, about 
 170 A.D., extols the Church of Rome for 
 this grace. " For this," he says, " is your 
 practice from the beginning, to do good to 
 all the brethren in various ways, and to send 
 
 1 Ep. to Rom., 1,2 ; cf. Lightfoot, I gnat. I. p. 356. 
 To the same effect Harnack : " Before what other 
 person than the Emperor could this intercession be 
 made. . . . We must conclude that there were per- 
 sons at that time among the Roman Christians who 
 possessed great influence at the Court" {Princeton 
 Review, July, 1878, p. 278). 
 
 2 Hermas, Sim. i. ; ii. ; viii. 9 ; ix. 20, &c. His 
 own mistress was a rich lady. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 131 
 
 contributions to many churches in every 
 city, thus refreshing the poverty of those in 
 need, and furnishing supplies to the brethren 
 in the mines. By these gifts, which ye send 
 from the beginning, as Romans, ye maintain 
 the ancestral custom of the Romans, which 
 your blessed Bishop Soter has not only 
 observed, but also increased, providing great 
 abundance for distribution to the saints, 
 and with blessed words encouraging the 
 brethren from abroad, as a loving father 
 his children." * When we reflect that the 
 bulk of the Roman mob was practically idle 
 — clamouring for bread and games, or 
 dangling as clients in attendance on the 
 rich — and that slaves had little, we see that 
 a considerable portion of the membership 
 of the Church must have been composed 
 of persons in higher social station, or at 
 least of the sections which possessed wealth. 
 1 Euseb., Ecc. Hist., iv. 23. 
 
132 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 Justin's picture of the Christian worship 
 bears out this idea. "The wealthy among 
 us," he says, " help the needy. . . . They 
 who are well to do, and willing, give what 
 each thinks fit ; and what is collected is 
 deposited with the president, who succours 
 the orphans and widows, and those who, 
 through sickness or any other cause, are in 
 want, and those who are in bonds, and the 
 strangers sojourning among us." * 
 
 This brings us again to the corroborative 
 testimony of the Catacombs, and to the 
 interesting additional information which they 
 supply. I can only draw attention to the 
 costly crypts and tombs of the cemetery of 
 Praetextatus — a Catacomb of the second 
 century — which are constructed in the finest 
 style of art. 2 In a tomb cased with marble, 
 
 1 ist Apol., 67. 
 
 2 See the remarkable descriptions of the archi- 
 tecture, paintings, and rich tombs in Northcote and 
 Brownlow, I. pp. 133-44. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 133 
 
 in one of the chambers of this cemetery, 
 lie two bodies, one wrapped in cloth of 
 gold, the other in purple, while on a 
 grave in the wall is an inscription marking 
 the resting-place of " Urania, daughter of 
 Herod." x It is hardly possible to avoid 
 connecting this Urania with the daughter 
 of the same name of the famous Herod 
 Atticus, 2 whose villa and mausoleum are in 
 the immediate neighbourhood. If so, the 
 identification is one of the most remarkable 
 we have yet met with. Herod Atticus is 
 known to history as a celebrated rhetorician, 
 and the tutor of Marcus Aurelius, but also, 
 
 1 Northcote and Brownlow, I. p. 134. 
 
 a " Daughter of Herod Atticus by his second wife, 
 Vibullia Alcia" (Lanciani, Pagan and Christ. Rome, 
 p. 9). For a full account of Herod Atticus and his 
 extraordinary wealth, see the same work, pp. 287 ff. 
 Herod's father, through the discovery of a treasure, 
 "suddenly became the richest man in Greece, and 
 probably in the world." Cf. also Merivale, Romans 
 under the Empire, ch. lxvi. 
 
134 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 through the inheritance of an immense 
 treasure, as probably the wealthiest man of 
 his time. And here we have apparent evi- 
 dence that iiis daughter had embraced the 
 Christian faith. We have, besides, inscrip- 
 tions attesting the Christianity of members 
 of consular families, and many of equestrian 
 rank. 1 A special interest attaches to the 
 discovery by De Rossi, in the cemetery of 
 Callistus, of the crypt of Caecilia, the virgin- 
 martyr round whom so many legends of 
 the Roman Church subsequently gathered. 
 Some obscurity rests on the date of Csecilia's 
 martyrdom, but it was probably in the reign 
 of Marcus Aurelius. 2 De Rossi's account of 
 this lady, which Lightfoot in the main 
 accepts, is briefly as follows : That Caecilia 
 was a lady of noble birth ; that the land 
 
 1 Pagan and Christian Rome, p. 10. 
 
 2 See the questions fully discussed in Lightfoot, 
 Ignatius, I. pp. 503-4. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 135 
 
 in this place belonged to her gens ; that 
 some members of the family were converted 
 to Christianity in the second century, so that 
 Caecilia was a Christian from her cradle ; 
 that these Christian Csecilii made over the 
 subterranean vaults for the purposes of 
 Christian burial, and subsequently were them- 
 selves laid here ; and that this was the origin 
 of the cemetery of Callistus, or of parts of 
 it. 1 There is no question in view of the 
 inscriptions found that the crypt discovered 
 by De Rossi is that in which the body of 
 the martyr was originally laid, and from 
 which it is related to have been removed 
 with honour by Pope Paschal in the ninth 
 century. 2 The spread of Christianity in the 
 
 1 Lightfoot, ut supra. 
 
 2 The body was placed in the Church of St. Cascilia 
 in Trastevere. In 1599, in the course of excavations, 
 the marble sarcophagus, with the body enclosed, 
 clothed in blood-stained robes of golden tissue, was 
 brought to light. Cf. Northcote and Brownlow, I. 
 pp. 320-1. 
 
i 3 6 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 gens is abundantly attested by the numbers 
 of epitaphs of these Christian Csecilii and 
 other noble families connected with them 
 by blood and marriage in adjoining parts 
 of the Catacomb, and these not mere de- 
 pendents, but, as their titles, C/arzsszmus, 
 Clarissima, and the like, show, illustrious 
 members of their houses. 1 
 
 All this speaks with great distinctness to 
 the highly influential position of the Church 
 at Rome, and if we cannot pronounce with 
 the same definiteness of other places, it is 
 only because, till near the end of the 
 century, light almost wholly fails us. When 
 we do get a glimpse, as in the beauti- 
 ful Epistle of the Churches of Vienne and 
 Lyons, giving an account of the martyr- 
 
 1 Northcote and Brownlow, I. pp. 278,327. Twelve 
 or thirteen of these epitaphs, all of Caecilii or 
 Casciliani, are found in the crypt of Lucina. There 
 seems further to have been some connection between 
 this family and that of Pomponia Graecina. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 137 
 
 doms in these places in 177 A.D., the same 
 mixture of classes is forced on our atten- 
 tion. If we have Blandina, the slave-girl, 
 a " noble athlete " in confessing Christ, we 
 have also among the sufferers the mistress of 
 Blandina; we have one prominent confessor, 
 noted as " a man of distinction " {iTcidrjfjioq) ; 
 we have a number of Roman citizens ; we 
 have heads of households, whose domestics 
 are seized to give evidence against them ; we 
 have a well-known physician ; and generally 
 the martyrs seem to be of the middle or 
 better class. 1 Another remarkable instance — 
 again from Rome — is that of the senator 
 Apollonius, a man " renowned for learning 
 and philosophy," who, on being denounced 
 by an informer, made an eloquent defence of 
 his religion before the Senate, and was sen- 
 tenced to decapitation. 2 When, however, we 
 
 1 See the Epistle in Eusebius, v. 1. 
 
 2 Eus. v. 21. The Acts of Apollonius have re- 
 
138 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 approach the close of the century, full light 
 returns to us ; and we see in the Churches 
 of Carthage and Alexandria, and elsewhere, 
 how completely Christianity had succeeded 
 in penetrating the wealthiest classes in the 
 chief centres of population. 
 
 The fatal edict (or, as Neumann will have 
 it, rescript *) of Septimus Severus, in 202 A.D., 
 which initiated the persecution connected 
 with his name, came as a great revealing 
 blow to the Churches affected by it. It made 
 manifest, not only how many of the wealthier 
 and dignified classes had, nominally at least, 
 embraced Christianity, but also how unfit 
 much of their profession was to endure the 
 fire of trial. Here it may be noted as 
 singular that the brunt of the persecution 
 
 cently been recovered. Cf. Conybeare, The Armenian 
 Apology and Acts of Apollonius (1896) ; then, after the 
 discovery of the Greek Acts, Klette, Der Process und 
 Die Acta S. Apollonius (1897). 
 1 Der Rom. Staat, p. 161. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 139 
 
 was borne, not by the Church of Rome, but 
 by the comparatively remote Churches of 
 North Africa and Egypt. The same thing 
 may be observed in other persecutions. 
 Why was this? Was it that the Roman 
 Christian community was socially obscure 
 and insignificant ? Or was it for the opposite 
 reason, which Tertullian suggests, that Chris- 
 tianity had struck its roots so deeply into the 
 State, and had drawn to itself in Rome so 
 many illustrious men and women — people in 
 the highest positions l — that even an emperor 
 might shrink from the upturning of society 
 which a general proscription would involve? 
 Septimus Severus himself, as we know, for 
 a time looked favourably on Christianity, 
 having been healed, it is said, of some dis- 
 order by a Christian slave. 2 Whatever the 
 explanation, the blow did fall pre-eminently, 
 not on the capital, but on Carthage and 
 
 1 Ad Scapulam, 4. 2 Ibid. 
 
140 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 Alexandria, and its effect in both places was 
 to discover at once the hold which the new 
 religion had on the people of rank and wealth. 
 Tertullian is an unexceptionable witness for 
 Carthage. In his address to the proconsul 
 Scapula, pleading his cause with that digni- 
 tary, he pictures the Christians presenting 
 themselves in a body before his tribunal, 
 and asks, " What will you make of so many 
 thousands, of such a multitude of men and 
 women, persons of every sex, and every age, 
 and every rank, when they present themselves 
 before you? How many fires, how many 
 swords will be required ? What will be the 
 anguish of Carthage itself, which you will have 
 to decimate, as each one recognises there his 
 relatives and companions, as he sees there, it 
 may be, men of your own order, and noble 
 ladies, and all the leading persons of the city, 
 and either kinsmen or friends of those of your 
 own circle? Spare thyself, if not us poor 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 141 
 
 Christians ! Spare Carthage, if not thyself ! " * 
 When the storm burst, it was naturally those 
 classes which had to make the greatest 
 worldly sacrifices which showed the largest 
 number of defections. If they did not deny 
 Christ, they sought by expedients of bribery 
 to secure exemption from trouble. "Whole 
 churches," says Tertullian, in this way "im- 
 posed tribute en masse on themselves." 2 
 
 Clearest of all among the proofs, how- 
 ever, of the extent to which the wealth 
 and fashion of these luxurious cities had 
 found their way into the Churches, are 
 the satirical descriptions and denunciations 
 of Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria 
 in picturing a state of Christian society 
 deeply infected with the vices and follies of 
 the age. The rules of living in Clement's 
 Pcedagogue, with their "caustic sketches," 
 to use Farrar's words, "of the glutton, and 
 1 Ad Scap. 5. 8 De Fuga, 13. 
 
142 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 the dandy, and the painted, perfumed, be- 
 wigged, and bejewelled lady of fashion," * 
 would have no application at all to a Church 
 composed wholly or mainly of " dregs of the 
 populace " ; and the same may be said of 
 Tertullian's denunciation of the luxury and 
 extravagance of the women of his time in his 
 tract on The Attire of Women? Dean Milman 
 takes what seems the only just view of the 
 matter! "It appears unquestionable," he 
 says, " that the strength of Christianity lay in 
 the middle, perhaps the mercantile, classes. 
 The last two books of the Pcedagogue of 
 Clement of Alexandria, the most copious 
 authority for Christian manners at that time, 
 
 1 The Fathers, I. p. 375. 
 
 " Cf ., e.g., the picture of extravagance in the close of 
 bk. i., and the denunciations of cosmetics, dyeing the 
 hair, elaborate hair-attire, splendid and excessive 
 dress, in bk. ii., with the concession to those "whom 
 the exigencies of riches, or birth, or past dignities, 
 compel to appear in public so gorgeously arrayed as 
 not to appear to have attained wisdom " (ii. 9). 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 143 
 
 inveigh against the vices of an opulent 
 and luxurious community ; splendid dresses, 
 jewels, gold and silver vessels, rich banquets, 
 gilded litters and chariots, and private baths. 
 The ladies kept Indian birds, Median pea- 
 cocks, monkeys, and Maltese dogs, instead of 
 maintaining widows and orphans, the men 
 had multitudes of slaves. The sixth chapter 
 of the third book (that the Christian alone 
 is rich) would have been unmeaning if 
 addressed to a poor community." J 
 
 But if many were vain and foolish, and 
 fell in the stress of the persecutions, there 
 were honourable exceptions. The gem of 
 the martyrology of this period is the un- 
 doubtedly genuine narrative 2 of the martyr- 
 dom of Perpetua and her companions. 
 Perpetua, a young married lady, of noble 
 birth, was, with her brother, a catechumen 
 
 1 Hist, of Christ, ii., ch. ix. (note). 
 
 2 Cf. Acts, written partly by Perpetua herself. 
 
144 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 of the Church at Carthage. 1 Thrown into 
 prison, and tried in the sorest way a woman 
 can be, through the entreaties of her aged 
 father, and the tenderest appeals to her 
 motherhood, she yet, through all, remained 
 constant. With her perished four others, 
 one of them, Felicitas, a slave. Here, again, 
 high-born and humble receive together the 
 baptism of blood. In the life of Origen, to 
 name other instances, we remember grate- 
 fully that " certain lady, of great wealth and 
 distinction," in Alexandria, who showed him 
 kindness after his father's martyrdom 2 ; that 
 other wealthy lady Juliana, in whose house 
 he was sheltered in Cappadocia3 ; and his 
 friend, Ambrose, himself afterwards a martyr 
 for Christ, who, out of his abundance, fur- 
 nished him with books, scribes, shorthand 
 
 1 Or Tuburbium. 2 Eus. vi. 2. 
 
 3 Ibid., vi. 17. Palladius supplements this notice 
 on the authority of an entry in a book by Origen 
 himself. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 145 
 
 writers, and every facility for pursuing his 
 Biblical studies. 1 
 
 The name of Origen recalls attention to 
 another series of facts intimately bearing on 
 our present subject. I refer to the relations 
 subsisting between Christianity and the 
 Imperial Court. These, probably, had never 
 quite ceased from the days of the Flavians, 
 but we find them renewed towards the close 
 of the second century, and perpetuating 
 themselves during nearly the whole of the 
 third. A commencement is made in the 
 reign of Commodus, the unworthy son of 
 Marcus Aurelius. Marcia, the favourite 
 mistress of this emperor, was the foster- 
 daughter of a Christian presbyter, and, even 
 in her equivocal position, seems to have re- 
 tained her interest in Christianity. On one 
 occasion we know of, she was instrumental 
 in procuring by her intercession the release 
 
 1 Eus. vi. 18, 23. 
 10 
 
146 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 of certain Christian confessors from the 
 Sardinian mines. 1 There would seem, in 
 fact, to have been in this reign a general move- 
 ment in the upper classes towards the new 
 faith. Eusebius records that " many of those 
 highly distinguished in wealth and family, 
 with their whole house and kindred, turned 
 to their salvation" 2 ; and Irenaeus speaks 
 freely of the faithful in the Imperial palace.3 
 Septimus Severus, the next important em- 
 peror, was, as we saw, at first not unfavour- 
 ably affected to the Christian religion. His 
 Syrian wife, Julia Domna, cultured and 
 syncretistic in spirit, seems also to have 
 been friendly.4 Their son, Caracalla, had a 
 
 1 Hippolytus, Phil. ix. 12. 
 
 2 Eus. v. 21. To this reign belongs the martyr- 
 dom of the senator Apollonius referred to above. 
 
 3 Adv. Hcer. iv. 30. 
 
 4 Cf . Uhlhorn's Conflict of Christ, p. 333 (E.T.) ; 
 Baur's History of Church, II. p. 207 (E.T.) ; Bigg's 
 Christian Platonists of Alexandria, p. 244. See next 
 lecture. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 147 
 
 Christian nurse — was fed, as was said, on 
 Christian milk. 1 Julia's influence may be 
 regarded as propagating itself in the reigns 
 of the succeeding emperors. We find 
 Hippolytus addressing a treatise to Julia 
 Aquila, the second wife of the infamous 
 Elagabulus. 2 Julia Mammaea, niece of Julia 
 Domna, mother of the next emperor, Alex- 
 ander Severus, who exercised a large control 
 in the government, was deeply interested in 
 Christianity, and sent for Origen to Antioch 
 to confer with her. 3 Alexander himself 
 honoured Christ by placing His statue in his 
 private chapel along with those of other 
 sages, and had His Golden Rule inscribed on 
 the walls of his palace and public monu- 
 ments. 4 A succeeding emperor, Philip the 
 
 1 Tert, Ad Scap. 4. 
 
 2 See Moeller, Church History, I. pp. 191, 201, 
 (E.T.). 3 Eus. vi. 21. 
 
 4 Lampridius, Sev. Alex. Cf. in Gieseler (I. p. 192, 
 E.T.) and Neander, I. p. 173 (Bohn). 
 
148 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 Arabian, was so favourable to Christianity 
 that he was publicly reputed to be a 
 Christian. 1 Origen is related to have had 
 correspondence with him and with his wife 
 Severa. 2 Dionysius of Alexandria could 
 write of the early years of Valerian, even 
 after the Church had passed through the 
 fiery trial of the Decian persecution, that 
 none of the emperors before him had been 
 so favourably and kindly disposed to the 
 Christians, " not even those who were openly 
 said to be Christians" (Philip) ; and that" his 
 house was filled with pious persons, and was, 
 indeed, a Church (IkkXWg) of the Lord."3 
 A new spirit, in fact, began to manifest itself 
 in this period towards Christianity, in con- 
 
 1 Eus. vi. 34. Cf. in Gieseler, I. p. 192. Some 
 modern writers, as Aube, Moeller, favour this view. 
 Cf. Moeller, Church History, I. p. 192 (E.T.). 
 
 2 Eus. vi. 36. 
 
 3 Ibid. vii. 10. Valerian subsequently became a 
 persecutor. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 149 
 
 trast with the spirit of contempt which had 
 formerly prevailed, the spirit of eclecticism 
 and toleration — the intellectual counterpart 
 of which is seen in Neo-Platonism. 1 Under 
 these circumstances, Origen could boast that 
 some addition was made to the numbers of 
 the Christians every day, and that in the 
 multitude of believers were numbered "not 
 only rich men, but persons of rank and delicate 
 and high-born ladies." 2 Eusebius also speaks 
 of " the wealthy and opulent " in the Church 
 of Rome at the time of the Novatian schism 3 
 in the middle of the century. 
 
 It was clearly enough perceived, however, 
 by thoughtful men like Origen, that the final 
 victory would not come without a terrible 
 closing struggle. This time of testing soon 
 arrived. The Decian persecution broke over 
 the Church, discovering, as before, the 
 
 1 See Lect. III. 2 Contra Celsum, vii. 26; III. 9. 
 3 Eus. vi. 43. 
 
150 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 numbers of persons of wealth and rank 
 within its pale, but proving also the frailty 
 of their profession. The well-known passage 
 of Dionysius of Alexandria gives us a vivid 
 picture of the behaviour of these apostates. 
 When brought to the altar, after the edict 
 had actually been promulgated, "all were 
 greatly alarmed," he says, " and many of the 
 more eminent came immediately forward in 
 their fear ; others, holding public offices, were 
 drawn on by their duties ; others were urged 
 on by those about them. When called by 
 name, they approached the impure and 
 unholy sacrifices, some pale and trembling, 
 not as sacrificers, but as if they were them- 
 selves to be sacrifices and victims to the 
 idols, so that they were jeered at by the 
 large multitude that stood around, as it was 
 plain to all that they were afraid either to 
 die or to sacrifice ; but some advanced more 
 readily to the altars, stoutly asserting that 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 151 
 
 they had never before been Christians." J 
 More eloquent than any statement of Church 
 historians, however, is the language of the 
 persecuting edicts themselves. That of 
 Valerian, after he had assumed the role of 
 a persecutor (A.D. 258), is specially directed 
 against office-bearers and persons of high 
 rank in the Church. 2 It ordains " that 
 bishops, presbyters, and deacons be imme- 
 diately put to death ; that senators and men 
 of rank and knights be first of all deprived 
 of their rank and property, and then, their 
 means being taken away, if they still continue 
 to be Christians, be also punished with death ; 
 that matrons, after forfeiting their property 
 be banished ; that those in Caesar's house- 
 hold who have formerly made profession of 
 Christianity, or now profess it, be treated as 
 Caesar's property, and, being put in chains, 
 
 1 Eus. vi. 41. 
 
 2 It is given in Cyprian's Epistle to Successus 
 (Ep. 80). 
 
152 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 be distributed among the Imperial estates." 
 We are, accordingly, not surprised to learn 
 from Dionysius that amongst the victims 
 of this persecution were " men and women, 
 young and old, young virgins and aged 
 matrons, soldiers and private persons of 
 every kind and every age." He himself was 
 an example of one who had repeatedly had 
 experience of "confiscations, proscriptions, 
 plunderings of goods, loss of dignities." * 
 
 The forty years' peace which elapsed 
 between this persecution and the last decisive 
 struggle in the Diocletian persecution fur- 
 nishes us with few details, yet with sugges- 
 tive general notices of the continued growth 
 of the churches in numbers, splendour, and 
 influence, one marked outward token of this 
 prosperity being the number of splendid 
 
 1 Eus. vii. II. As respects the order of knights, 
 Lanciani mentions that hundreds of inscriptions of 
 persons of equestrian rank are found in the Cata- 
 combs (p. 10). 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 153 
 
 ecclesiastical edifices which now began to 
 be erected. We read of Christian governors 
 of provinces, and of the freedom to profess 
 Christianity granted to the members of the 
 Imperial household — "wives, and children, 
 and servants." 1 Mention is made of the 
 multitudes crowding in every city to the 
 houses of worship — " on whose account," 
 says the historian, " not being content with 
 the ancient buildings, they erected spacious 
 churches from the foundation in all the 
 cities." 2 That this is not an exaggeration 
 is shown by the great church in Nicomedia, 
 which appears to have been one of the 
 architectural ornaments of this city — the seat 
 of the Court at the time — and by the later 
 edicts for the demolition of the churches 
 generally.3 Yet instances exist to show that 
 Christians were not entirely safe even during 
 
 1 Eus. viii. 1. Instances are given. 2 Ibid. 
 
 3 Lactantius, De Morte Per. 12 ; Eus., Ecc. Hist. viii. 2. 
 
154 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 this interval of peace. We know at least of 
 one illustrious Roman officer at Caesarea who 
 suffered death for his faith ; and we read 
 also of how one Astyrius, a Roman of 
 senatorial rank, in high favour with the 
 Emperor, and well known to all for his 
 noble birth and wealth, took the body of 
 the martyred man, and, covering it with a 
 splendid and costly dress, gave it becoming 
 burial. 1 
 
 The great accession of members and out- 
 wardly prosperous condition of the Church 
 at this time is beyond dispute, and the 
 incidents of the last and most dreadful of 
 the persecutions only furnish new corrobora- 
 tions of it. During the first nineteen years 
 of his reign, Diocletian had Christians every- 
 where about his person. Some of the officers 
 of highest rank in his palace were Christians 2 ; 
 
 1 Eus. vii. 15, 16. 
 
 5 Ibid. viii. 6. Such was Lucianus. the chief cham- 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 155 
 
 his own wife and daughter, Prisca and 
 Valeria, were believed to be Christians. 1 
 The first persecuting edict was directed 
 against the church buildings and the Scrip- 
 tures rather than against persons ; but it 
 ordains also that those holding honourable 
 positions were to be degraded, and servants 
 in the household, if they persisted in their 
 Christianity, were to be made slaves. 2 What 
 one notices with satisfaction in this per- 
 secution is the superior steadfastness of 
 believers in the higher orders, as con- 
 trasted with the frailty of this class on 
 previous occasions. Many of the most 
 illustrious martyrs of Diocletian's reign are 
 persons of exalted rank. Such were some 
 of the great officers of the palace, of whose 
 sufferings and constancy a special account 
 
 berlain, to whom Theonas, Bishop of Alexandria, 
 wrote a letter of advice. See the account in 
 Neander, I. pp. 197-9 (Bohn). 
 
 1 Lact. 15. - Eus. viii. 2. 
 
156 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 is given. 1 Such were the martyrs of the 
 Thebais, many of them, as Eusebius tells, 
 "distinguished for wealth, and noble birth 
 and honour, and excelling in philosophy and 
 learning " 2 ; such was Adanetus, of Phrygia, 
 a man of noble Italian family, "who had 
 been advanced through every honour by the 
 emperors," and had reputably filled the 
 highest offices 3 ; such were certain ladies 
 of Antioch, "illustrious above all for wealth, 
 for family, for reputation "4 — and many more 
 of whom these are but examples. A striking 
 instance, referred to in the previous lecture, 
 is that of a town in Phrygia which was 
 burned with all its inhabitants because its 
 whole population, including the governors 
 and magistrates, with all the men of rank, 
 had confessed themselves Christians, and 
 refused to sacrifice.5 It may be remem- 
 
 1 Eus. viii. 6. 2 Ibid. viii. 9. 3 Ibid. viii. 11. 
 4 Ibid. viii. 12. s Ibid. viii. 11. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 157 
 
 bered also how the Council of Elvira, in 
 Spain, in 306, shows us great landowners 
 and persons in the highest magistracies in 
 the membership of the Church. 
 
 There is only one other line of evidence to 
 which, in closing, I would advert for a moment, 
 as bearing on this question of the penetration 
 by the gospel of the higher ranks of society. 
 It is that furnished by the social station of 
 the grea t^ teachers o f the Church. That 
 these, like the earlier Apologists, were men 
 of education and refinement is a fact which 
 of itself implies a standing sufficiently high 
 to secure for them the advantages of a liberal 
 training. But we have only to recall the facts 
 of their lives to be reminded that many of 
 them in reality sprang from families of wealth 
 and distinction. Tertullian was the son of 
 a proconsular centurion — no very high rank 
 perhaps — but enough to obtain for him the 
 benefits of a legal and rhetorical education. 
 
158 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 We are probably right in saying that Cle- 
 ment of Alexandria was the son of wealthy 
 parents. His culture and extensive travels 
 would seem to imply as much. Cyprian, we 
 know, was of patrician descent, and inherited 
 large possessions. Two other distinguished 
 teachers of the third century — both pupils 
 of Origen — Dionysius of Alexandria and 
 Gregory Thaumaturgus, were of wealthy 
 and honourable families. So was Pam- 
 philus of Caesarea, the friend of Eusebius, 
 and founder of the famous library in that 
 city. It is going beyond our present limits 
 to extend our view to the fourth century, but 
 if we do so we have such conspicuous in- 
 stances as Basil the Great of Caesarea and 
 his brother Gregory of Nyssa, as Ambrose 
 of Milan, as Chrysostom of Antioch, and 
 many others that might be named. I trust, 
 however, I have already said enough to show 
 the baselessness of the theory that the bulk 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 159 
 
 of the adherents of early Christianity were 
 drawn from " the dregs of the populace," 
 and to demonstrate that the gospel from 
 its earliest beginnings in no slight degree 
 affected the higher as well as the humbler 
 classes of society. 
 
THE INTENSIVE OR PENETRATIVE 
 INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON 
 THE THOUGHT AND LIFE OF THE 
 EMPIRE. 
 
 1 1 
 
The instreaming of Pagan influences on Christianity 
 has for its counterpart the outstreaming of 
 Christian influences on Pagan society — These 
 also ordinarily under-estimated — Silence of 
 Pagan writers : what it means — Christianity and 
 culture in the First Century — New Testament 
 Epistles — Seneca and the Gospel — Rise and 
 character of Apology in the Second Century — 
 The literary attack on Christianity : Celsus — 
 Significance and spread of Gnosticism — The 
 Pagan ethical revival in Second Century — 
 Pagan preaching — Influence of Christianity on 
 these — The Mysteries — The old Catholic Fathers 
 — Rise of Neo-Platonism — Effects of Christianity 
 on morals and legislation — Conclusion. 
 
 102 
 
LECTURE III 
 
 THE INTENSIVE OR PENETRATIVE IN- 
 FLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON THE 
 THOUGHT AND LIFE OF THE EMPIRE 
 
 PROFESSOR HARNACK has said: 
 " The Catholic Church is that form 
 of Christianity in which every element of 
 the ancient world has been successively 
 assimilated which Christianity could in any 
 way take up into itself without utterly losing 
 itself in the world. . . . Christianity has 
 throughout sucked the marrow of the 
 ancient world, and assimilated it." l If 
 
 x Art. on " Research in Early Church History " 
 in Cont. Rev., Aug. i886 ; p. 234. 
 163 
 
164 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 this dictum of Harnack's is correct, the 
 counter thesis must hold good, that Chris- 
 tianity must have penetrated deeply into 
 the thought and life' of the ancient world 
 before such assimilation was possible. Be- 
 fore, for instance, Christianity could suck 
 the marrow out of Greek philosophy, as 
 Harnack supposes it did, it must have 
 penetrated into minds possessed with* the 
 spirit and ideas of that philosophy — must 
 have entered deeply into the circles and 
 schools of culture. I am to ask in the 
 present lecture how far this penetrative 
 process went, and what traces it has left 
 of itself in history. 
 \ Our previous inquiries have an important 
 bearing on the subject now to be investi- 
 gated. If it were the case that Christianity 
 had only an insignificant fraction of the 
 population in its following, — if its adherents 
 were collected chiefly from the base and 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 165 
 
 servile classes, — if it was practically unheeded 
 and well-nigh totally despised by persons of 
 higher station and better culture for at least 
 the first two centuries, it would be natural 
 to conclude that traces of its influence on 
 society would be scarcely perceptible, and 
 that what look like such traces must be ex- 
 plained in some other way. We must hold 
 witk Friedlander that "it is scarcely think- 
 able that in the heathen world before the 
 time of Severus, the world -historical impor- 
 tance of the new religion, so little regarded 
 and so contemptuously judged of, was even 
 so much as suspected." * But if, as I have 
 endeavoured to show, the case was far dif- 
 ferent, — if Christianity had both a larger 
 following, and was drawing its adherents 
 from the higher and educated classes to a 
 much greater extent than is commonly as- 
 sumed, — then we are prepared to entertain the 
 1 Sittengeschichte Roms, III. p. 536. 
 
166 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 expectation that the traces of its action on 
 the Pagan world will be neither few nor 
 v slight. 
 
 There is a point of considerable moment 
 in this connection to which it is desirable that 
 attention should be directed at the outset. 
 Much stress is often laid {e.g. by Friedlander 1 ), 
 in disproof of any considerable influence of 
 Christianity on the thought and life of, the 
 time, on the silence of Pagan writers respect- 
 ing the new religion. How, it is asked, if 
 Christianity was so powerful a factor as we 
 hold it to have been in the second century, 
 should a philosophic writer like Marcus 
 Aurelius, for example, pass it by with only 
 one contemptuous reference? This silence 
 
 1 See his argument, Ibid., p. 533. " Christians and 
 Christianity," he says, " till near the end of the second 
 century, are, in the classic literature, only very seldom 
 and incidentally, indifferently and contemptuously 
 mentioned." Similarly Addis, in Christianity and the 
 Roman Empire, p. 51, " Epictetus and M. Aurelius 
 dismiss it with a scornful phrase," &c. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 167 
 
 of heathen writers is not quite so great as is 
 assumed — Pliny was not silent, nor Fronto, 
 nor Celsus — but even if the fact were as 
 stated, there is one important consideration 
 which greatly takes away the point from the 
 argument. Nothing is better ascertained 
 than that it was the fashion of heathen 
 writers, even of those who were best ac- 
 quainted with Christianity, to show_._their 
 contempt _for it, by deliberately dissembling 
 their knowledge of it, and refraining from any 
 mention of it in their works. Prof. Ramsay 
 has noticed this in regard to Dion Cassius, 
 who wrote in the third century, when it will 
 not be denied that Christianity was a grow- 
 ing and formidable force, but who seems 
 studiously to have refrained from referring to 
 the Christians in his history ; and to ^lius 
 Aristides, the famous rhetorician, a contem- 
 porary of Polycarp under the Antonines, 
 who likewise makes a point of not mention- 
 
168 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 ing the Christians (testified to be so numerous 
 and influential in Asia Minor by Pliny), but 
 speaks of them generally as " those in Pales- 
 tine." " It was apparently a fashion and an 
 affectation," Prof. Ramsay says, "among a 
 certain class of Greek men of letters about 
 160-240 to ignore the existence of the Chris- 
 tians, and to pretend to confuse them with 
 the Jews." l It was not, however, I would 
 observe, a fashion confined to this period, and 
 to Greek writers ; and did not apply only to 
 the Christians, though in their case it was 
 specially noticeable. Boissier warns us against 
 being deceived by the grand airs of disdain 
 and ignorance which the Romans affected for 
 everything which was removed from their 
 habits and traditions. 2 " The conspiracy of 
 
 1 The Church in the Roman Empire, p. 264. Fried- 
 lander also has no doubt that the passage in Aristides 
 refers to the Christians (III. p. 533). 
 
 2 La Religion Romaine, II. p. 59, 4th edit. (bk. ii. 
 c h. 5). 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 169 
 
 silence," as this writer names it, was main- 
 tained, astonishing to say, quite as effectively 
 in the fourth and fifth centuries — long after 
 Christianity had decisively triumphed in the 
 State — as in the second. " Paganism," says 
 Dean Merivale, " abstained studiously from 
 any allusion to the place which Christianity 
 now actually held in public life. It made an 
 effort, a laborious effort, to pass over the 
 phenomenon in complete silence. Through- 
 out the few remains of popular literature of 
 the age of Constantine we can trace, it seems, 
 no single reference to the existence of the 
 Christian Church or Creed. Even at the end 
 of the century, the poet Claudian, in versi- 
 fying, as is his wont, all the chief events of 
 contemporary history, has not one word to 
 say of the new religion, which in his day had 
 effected a complete revolution both in Church 
 and State." T And Claudian here was no 
 1 Epochs of Early Church Hist., p. 6. 
 
170 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 exception. Speaking of Macrobius, by whom 
 "the name of Christianity is not even once 
 pronounced," Boissier remarks, " Our surprise 
 is redoubled when we find the same silence 
 preserved by nearly all the Pagan writers of 
 this time (fourth and fifth centuries), by 
 grammarians, orators, poets, and even his- 
 torians, though it appears singular that they 
 should omit, in a narrative of the past, such 
 an event as the triumph of the Church. 
 Neither Aurelius Victor nor Eutropius men- 
 tions the conversion of Constantine, and it 
 would seem, to read them, that all the princes 
 of the fourth century persevered in the prac- 
 tice of the ancient worship. It is certainly 
 not chance which leads them all to avoid 
 mentioning the name of a religion which they 
 hate ; it is a plot, a party move, the meaning 
 of which can deceive nobody." x These un- 
 
 1 La Fin du Paganisme, II. p. 243. Cf. also Light- 
 foot, Philifrpians, pp. 28-29. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 171 
 
 questionable facts do away, I think, in great 
 part with the relevancy of any argument 
 derived from the mere silence or contempt of 
 Pagan writers. If M. Aurelius did not men- 
 tion the Christians, it is not, as we shall 
 immediately see, because he did not know 
 enough about them, but because he did not 
 desire to mention them, or willed to ignore 
 them. 
 
 That even in the Apostolic Age * 
 Christianity had entered as a ferment , 
 into minds possessed of some degree of* 
 literary and philosophical culture is evi-' 
 dent from the phenomena met with in « 
 several of the Apostolic Churches, as well ■ 
 as from the cast and character of the' 
 New Testament writings themselves. In 
 Corinth, and Ephesus, and Colosse, e.g. t the 
 earlier danger to which the Churches had 
 been exposed, and to which the Churches 
 in Galatia succumbed, of being drawn 
 
172 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 back into the web of legal bondage, 
 had evidently given place to a new and 
 subtler peril — that of the gospel being 
 brought into dependence on a philosophy- 
 foreign to its nature, and spoiled by being 
 mixed up with human speculations, and 
 set forth in the trickery of an artificial 
 rhetoric. It is easy, if we recall the scenes 
 of agitation and disputation amidst which 
 the gospel was introduced into some of 
 these Churches — the conflicts, for instance, 
 around the judgment seat of Gallio, 1 or 
 the two years daily disputation in the 
 school of one Tyrannus at Ephesus, 2 with 
 its sequel in the burning of the magic books 
 — to realise how this should be so. In 
 Corinth it was the alliance with Greek 
 wisdom and heathen rhetoric that was 
 sought ; in Colosse it was amalgamation 
 with Essenian and incipient Gnostic ele- 
 1 Acts xviii. 12-17. 2 Ibid. xix. 9, 10, 19. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 173 
 
 ments that was attempted * ; but in either 
 case the result was the same — a departure 
 from the purity and simplicity of the gospel 
 — an exaltation of knowledge over piety — 
 and a straying into various paths of intel- 
 lectual heresy. It is interesting to observe 
 also how the Apostle deals with these 
 aberrations — not by denying the value of 
 knowledge, or the legitimacy of the claim 
 of the mind for satisfaction in the sphere 
 of intelligence, but by affirming the power 
 of Christianity to develop a aocj>la of its 
 own, and by setting in their right rela- 
 tions knowledge and love. 2 It is not 
 wisdom as such, but " the wisdom of the 
 world " against which the Apostle's polemic 
 is directed. But the New Testament 
 writings themselves, in their very form and 
 structure, in many instances bear witness to 
 
 1 Cf. Lightfoot's Colosslans. 
 - 1 Cor. ii. 6, 7 ; viii. 1. 
 
174 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 the intellectual atmosphere in which they 
 were produced. The Pauline Epistles, with 
 their deep thought, their closely-knit reason- 
 ing, and their views of truth reaching out 
 into the eternities before and after, were, on 
 the face of them, not intended for illiterates 
 or weaklings ; the Epistles to the Ephesians 
 and Colossians, with their developments of 
 the cosmological aspects of redemption and 
 their implied references to Gnostic specula- 
 tions, discover that they are written in view 
 of active heretical tendencies ; an unmistak- 
 able Alexandrian stamp rests on the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews ; and the Fourth Gospel, 
 however profoundly separated in substance 
 from Philonism, yet shows, I cannot but 
 think, in the shape in which its prologue 
 is cast, a desire to create a bridge between 
 the current Logos speculations and the truth 
 as it is in Jesus. 
 
 Accepting these facts as indications of 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 175 
 
 the subtle yet energetic manner in which 
 Christianity was engaging" the interest, and 
 penetrating the thought, of intelligent circles 
 in the greater heathen communities, I go on 
 to inquire whether evidences of this can be 
 discovered outside the New Testament in 
 
 the general Pagan world of the first century. 
 
 There is no a priori reason why they should 
 
 not be, for, as Boissier remarks, "If De 
 
 Rossi is right, it is necessary to assume 
 
 that Christianity was less unknown to the 
 
 rich and lettered in the first century than 
 
 is supposed." l This inquiry has commonly 
 
 been associated with the name of Seneca, 
 
 in the reign of Nero — and not unnaturally, 
 
 * for in Seneca's writings we have at once the 
 
 1 best specimens of the ethical thought of that 
 
 'time, and the most singular approximations 
 
 ' in sentiment and expression to the new 
 
 •ideas introduced by Christianity. Whether, 
 
 1 La Rel. Romaine, II. p. 62 (4th edit.). 
 
176 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 or how far, these resemblances are due to 
 any measure of acquaintance with the new 
 religion — to any direct or indirect influence 
 of the gospel spirit — or, again, are an 
 independent development from Stoicism, is 
 a question on which opinions are, and pro- 
 bably will always be, widely divided, and 
 which will tend to be determined according 
 to the presuppositions with, which the in- 
 quirer sets out. 1 We would not depreciate 
 the splendid services which Stoicism, with 
 its stern and elevated, yet haughty and im- 
 passive, doctrine of virtue, its notion of a 
 unity of mankind based on reason, and its 
 cosmopolitan ideals, rendered as a prepara- 
 tion for Christianity ; and we must not 
 overlook the fact that, notwithstanding 
 
 1 Among others the question is discussed by 
 Fleury, Troplong, Aubertin, Lightfoot, Hasenclever, 
 Schmidt, Friedlander, Boissier, and Farrar. The 
 fullest discussion in recent writers is by Boissier 
 and Lightfoot. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 177 
 
 apparent coincidences with Christian ideas 
 and phrases, Seneca's thinking is still, at 
 bottom, unchangeably and even crudely 
 Stoical. 1 At first, too, it must be granted, 
 the presumption is strongly against" any 
 contact of Seneca with Christianity. The 
 fictitious correspondence of the philoso- 
 pher with St. Paul is long since given 
 up ; there is no evidence that Seneca ever 
 saw or heard of the Apostle, though the 
 possibility of such knowledge cannot be 
 denied 2 ; the fact that it was his brother j 
 Gallio before whom Paul appeared in I 
 Corinth affords but a slender ground for 
 supposing that the details of this incident ' 
 may have reached Seneca ; while the cir- 
 cumstance 3 that Seneca, when Paul reached 
 
 1 See the convincing evidence of this, e.g., in 
 Lightfoot's dissertation on St. Paul and Seneca in 
 his Philippians. 
 
 2 The possibility is allowed by Friedlander, &c, 
 
 3 Urged by Hasenclever. 
 
 12 
 
178 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 Rome, was already a man of sixty years of 
 age, whose philosophical " Weltanschauung " 
 may be presumed to have been completed, 
 and whose death fell some four years later 
 (a.d. 65), is certainly of considerable weight. 
 It is not contended, however, except by a 
 few, that Seneca's philosophical view ever 
 was fundamentally changed. But against 
 these negative considerations there are 
 others of a more positive character which 
 may fairly be placed. Paul was not the 
 only channel through which Seneca may 
 have derived some knowledge of the 
 ethics of the gospel. The Christians, as 
 we saw in the first lecture, were by no 
 means in his day an obscure party in 
 Rome x ; numbers of them were found in 
 the palace, and among the domestics of 
 the great households, including probably 
 Seneca's own ; the sage was in the habit 
 1 Cf. Lightfoot, pp. 25, 33. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 179 
 
 of familiar converse with his slaves x ; the 
 recent case of Pomponia Graecina must 
 have been the subject of much conversa- 
 tion in the highest circles 2 ; the bonds, 
 and no doubt the preaching of the 
 Apostle were bruited throughout the 
 Prsetorium and widely elsewhere, and, in 
 Lightfoot's words, " a marvellous activity " 
 was awakened " among the disciples of 
 the new faith." 3 The Apostle Paul under- 
 went a public trial, at which Seneca may 
 have been present 4 ; it is not impossible 
 that even the incident of Gallio may have 
 come to the philosopher's ears, if not 
 otherwise, yet through the mention of it 
 in the tales told of this remarkable 
 
 1 Ep. 47. Cf. Lightfoot, p. 300. 
 
 2 See last lecture. 
 
 3 Lightfoot, p. 32. Not only " throughout the 
 Praetorium," but " to all the rest." " In every way 
 Christ is preached" (Phil. i. 13, 18). 
 
 4 Thus De Rossi. Friedlander questions his 
 argument, III. p. 535. 
 
180 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 I prisoner. Dr. Lightfoot also mentions, 1 
 I what his quotations bear out, that it is 
 | in the later writings of Seneca that these 
 I approximations to Christian ideas are 
 ! most apparent. 2 
 
 All this, however, does not amount to 
 positive proof, and it is on the internal evi- 
 dence of Seneca's writings that the deter- 
 mination of the probabilities of this question 
 must mainly rest. And here, though on 
 
 1 Pp. 291, 298. 
 
 3 There is a passage in Seneca's Epistles in which 
 he describes some striking influence which had 
 produced a marked change in him. " I perceive, 
 Lucilius," he says, " that I am not only amended, 
 but transformed. ... I would desire to share with 
 you my change so suddenly experienced." (" In- 
 telligo, Lucili, non amendari me tantum, sed trans- 
 figurari . . . cuperem tecum communicare tarn 
 subitam mei mutationem," i. 6.) He sends his friend 
 the books which had wrought this change in him, 
 with the passages marked. There is nothing, cer- 
 tainly, to connect these books with Christian writings, 
 but the words are remarkable. The Epistles to 
 Lucilius belong to the last years of his life. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 183 
 
 academic grounds it will always be possiblh 
 to say about as much against as for any | 
 
 Christian influence on Seneca, I think the 
 
 I 
 
 reasons for presuming some degree of such 
 
 J 
 
 influence are exceedingly strong. It remains 
 
 the fact, account for it as we may, that about 
 the middle of this century a warmer and 
 more tender breath begins to enter into 
 Stoicism, which, thereafter, continuously 
 animates it ; a purer conception of God's 
 Fatherly goodness and beneficent Provi- 
 dence ; a kindlier and gentler tone towards 
 slaves and dependents ; something like a 
 religious trust and resignation ; a more 
 merciful and gracious spirit generally. This 
 is first perceptible, as far as I know, in the 
 writings of Seneca, and it is specially per- 
 ceptible in his later years. * We know of one 
 
 1 Troplong remarks, after De Maistre, that Seneca 
 has written a fine book on Providence, for which 
 there was not even a name at Rome in the time of 
 Cicero, and he speaks of the new Stoicism as 
 
!8o NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 ^ause which would produce this change, 
 while it does not seem to follow naturally 
 from the Stoicism of the remaining parts of 
 Seneca's system, with which it stands rather 
 in striking inconsistency. We are driven 
 back, therefore, on an analysis of the sup- 
 posed resemblances, and here, after making 
 every reasonable deduction, it is difficult not 
 to agree with Dr. Lightfoot, as the result of 
 his singularly impartial survey, that " a class 
 of coincidences still remains . . . which can 
 hardly be considered accidental," 1 and of 
 which some measure of acquaintance with 
 Christianity — at least contact with its spirit 
 and teaching in some oral form — affords the 
 
 " enveloped, as it were, in the atmosphere of Chris- 
 tianity."— L Influence du Christ., I. ch. 4. Cf. Meri- 
 vale's Romans under the Empire, ch. liv. 
 
 1 P. 298. Prof. Ramsay, in his Church in the Roman 
 Empire, said, " that Seneca had some slight acquaint- 
 ance with Christian teaching appears to be plain 
 from his writings " (p. 273). His statement in St. 
 Paul the Traveller is less positive (ch. xv.). 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 183 
 
 most natural explanation. I do not attach 
 much importance to the fact, but it is worth 
 mentioning, that a tomb was discovered at 
 Ostia bearing the inscription, " Annseus 
 Paulus Petrus," showing that at a later period 
 (third century) persons belonging to the family 
 of Seneca, possibly descendants of freedmen, 
 were Christians. 1 At a later period, the 
 evidence of the influence of Christianity on 
 this transformed Stoicism is clearer. Epictetus, 
 the lame slave, and noblest representative 
 of second-century Stoicism, refers, indeed, 
 but once to the Christians under the con- 
 temptuous name of " Galileans," yet his 
 discourses breathe a remarkable spirit of 
 elevated piety, and Dr. Lightfoot finds in 
 them parallels with the Gospels and writings 
 
 1 The exact words are, " Ann^o. Paulo. Petro. 
 Annseus. Paulus."— De iRossi in Bull, di Archeol. 
 crist, 1867. Cf. Harnack in Princeton Review, July, 
 1878, p. 261 ; Friedlander, III. p. 535. Boissier, 
 Lightfoot, Renan, &c, refer to the inscription. 
 
i&4 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 of Paul, which he can hardly believe to be 
 accidental. On one such coincidence he 
 remarks that, " combined with the numerous 
 parallels in Seneca's writings collected above, 
 it favours the supposition that our Lord's 
 discourses, in some form or another, were 
 early known to heathen writers." 1 
 
 In this second century, to which we now 
 come, we reach a period in which the in- 
 fluence of Christianity on general contem- 
 porary thought is no longer a matter of 
 precarious inference, but is attested by a 
 wide range of interesting facts. The prin- 
 cipal of these within the Church are the rise 
 of a vigorous and learned Christian Apology, 
 and the development in every form and 
 variety of the heterogeneous systems which 
 we group under the name of Gnosticism ; 
 while, in the Empire itself, phenomena pre- 
 sent themselves, which, as I believe, are inex- 
 ' P. 316. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 185 
 
 plicable save through the powerful and still 
 under-estimated penetration by Christianity 
 of the Pagan world of religion and culture. 
 The second century is peculiarly the age 
 of the Christian Apology. It was an age 
 intensely literary, and, as we shall see, was 
 marked by a powerful religious and ethical 
 revival. The rhetorician, the philosopher, the 
 preacher, the teacher, the declaimer, were 
 everywhere. Under the arrangements in- 
 stituted by Vespasian for the support of 
 lecturers throughout the provinces and cities, 
 literature took on a new refinement, schools 
 and universities flourished, and thought and 
 speech ran naturally into the forms of 
 rhetorical and philosophical discourse and 
 argument. 1 " In harmony with this spirit, 
 
 1 See the sketches of this age in Merivale's Romans 
 under the Empire, chs. lx., lxvi.; and in Renan's Marc- 
 Aurele, ch. iii., "The Reign of the Philosophers." 
 Cf. also Hatch's Hibbert Lectures, Lects. II., IV., 
 " Greek Education," " Greek and Christian Rhetoric." 
 
1 86 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 fostered by the patronage of Hadrian and 
 the Antonines, there now began what may 
 be succinctly described as tlie set literary 
 defence of Christianity. I do not concern 
 myself here with the theology of the Apo- 
 logists, which, in my view, has had scant 
 enough justice done to it by Engelhardt, 
 Harnack, and their followers, 1 but confine 
 myself to what is implied in the very exis- 
 tence of such an Apology. It needs no 
 elaborate proof to show that the character 
 of the age, as I have just described it, power- 
 fully affected the form of the Apology. 
 It is conceded that Justin and the rest 
 who represent this phase of Christian litera- 
 ture treat Christianity predominatingly as 
 a " new philosophy " 2 — a fact which goes 
 
 1 To this school the Apologists have lost the real 
 meaning of Christianity, and reduced it to a Moral- 
 ismus, or rational natural theology — a very unfair 
 representation. 
 
 2 Cf. e.g., Justin, Dialogue, 8. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 187 
 
 with the other, that most of these writers 
 were philosophers or rhetoricians by train- 
 ing and profession. The literary and rhe- 
 torical stamp is, therefore, on all they 
 write ; the learning, the arts, the dialectic 
 of the schools, the skill of the forensic 
 pleader, are brought into play by them 
 without stint or disguise. This is the side 
 of the Apology commonly dwelt on, but 
 there is another. The very appearance of 
 such an Apology marks a great step in 
 advance. It shows not only that the spirit 
 of the age had affected Christianity, but also 
 that Christianity had pushed its way into 
 literary circles, and was attracting their 
 attention. It makes clear that the Christians 
 were beginning to have confidence in them- 
 selves, felt their growing power, were no 
 longer content to be " a dumb folk, mutter- 
 ing in corners," 1 as their enemies scornfully 
 1 Min. Felix, 8, 31. 
 
i88 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 described them, but were emboldened to 
 present their case in the open court of public 
 opinion, and to challenge a verdict in their 
 favour on the ground of its inherent reason- 
 ableness. There is a high tone in the writers 
 of these Apologies which the reader cannot 
 mistake. " They are always more or less 
 conscious," as Baur says, " that they are the 
 soul of the world, the substantial centre hold- 
 ing everything together, the pivot on which 
 the world's history revolved, and those who 
 alone have a future to look to. . . . When 
 there are men," he adds, " who feel them- 
 selves in this way to be the soul of the world, 
 the time is indisputably approaching when 
 the reins of the government of the world will 
 fall unasked into their hands." 2 The point 
 of special interest to us in this connection is 
 that, as I have already said, these writers — 
 one and all — were men of liberal culture, 
 History of Church, II. pp. 129, 131 (E.T.). 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 189 
 
 of wide and varied learning, several of 
 them philosophers by profession ; and they 
 appear at a great variety of points scattered 
 over the surface of the Church. Aristides, 
 the author of the earliest complete Apology 
 we possess — only the other year recovered — 
 was a philosopher of Athens ; Athenagoras, 
 in the reign of M. Aurelius, was also a 
 philosopher of Athens ; from Athens, too, 
 is said (though this is doubtful) to have 
 come the oldest of all the Apologies — 
 that of Quadratus. Justin Martyr passed 
 through the Platonic and other schools of 
 philosophy in his search for the truth, 
 and after his conversion, continued to wear 
 his philosopher's mantle, and to dispute 
 in public places in Ephesus and Rome 
 with any who would hear him. A man of 
 learning like himself, though of widely diffe- 
 rent spirit, was his disciple Tatian — the 
 author of the recentlv discovered Diatessaron. 
 
iqo NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 TheojDhihiS of Antioch, Melito of Sardis, 
 Apo linarius of Hierapolis, were bishops, but 
 men of culture and philosophic training, well 
 acquainted with heathen systems. Minucius 
 Felix, author of what Renan calls "the pearl 
 of the apologetic literature of the reign of 
 M. Aurelius," 1 was a Roman advocate. Ter- 
 tullian's learning, and legal and rhetorical 
 gifts, I need not speak of. All this implies 
 that Christianity had penetrated in no slight 
 degree into the schools, and was exercising a 
 powerful attraction on minds athirst for 
 truth and certainty on the great questions 
 of existence, as well as drawing into its 
 service not a few of the gifted and earnest 
 men of culture of the time. 
 
 With this rise of a literary Apology for 
 
 Christianity must be connected a yet more 
 
 significant phenomenon in the Pagan world 
 
 — the rise of a formal literary attack on 
 
 1 Marc-Aurele, ch. xxii, 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 191 
 
 Christianity. It_ may be taken for granted 
 that a religion must already have attracted 
 considerable attention before the ablest lite- 
 rary men jof the .time sit down to write 
 elaborate refutations of it I remarked before 
 that if M. Aurelius kept silence about the 
 Christians it was not because he did not 
 know enough regarding them. He was sur- 
 rounded with people who knew them well. 
 Frqnto of Cirta, the celebrated rhetorician, 
 one of his tutors, and an intimate correspon- 
 dent and friend, wrote a bitter attack on the 
 Christians, which Renan thinks is repro- 
 duced in the Octavius of Minucius Felix. 1 
 Diognetus, another of the tutors of Marcus, 
 is probably the same to whom the beautiful 
 Epistle to Diognetus is addressed. Herodes 
 Atticus, yet another of his tutors, the 
 wealthiest man and most famous orator of 
 his time, had, as on the ground of a Cata- 
 1 Marc-Aurele, ch. xxii. 
 
192 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 comb inscription we have seen reason to 
 believe, a daughter who was a Christian. 
 Rusticus, the prefect of Marcus, presided 
 at the trial of Justin and his companions. 
 The policy of silence was, besides, no 
 longer observed. I have just mentioned 
 Fronto's written attack. Lucian satirised 
 the Christians in his witty Peregrinus 
 Proteus, which is in truth an honourable 
 tribute to their charity. Celsus wrote his 
 True Word (Aoyoe a\r)6i]g) in refutation of 
 their opinions. 1 It is this work of Celsus 
 which, above all, shows how important 
 a phenomenon Christianity was now felt 
 to be, and how carefully the writings of 
 the Christians were being studied by some 
 of their opponents. Here is a man of 
 undeniable acuteness, of wide reading, of 
 
 1 Celsus' book has been largely reconstructed by 
 Keim on the basis of the extracts and notices in 
 Origen. There is a good sketch of it in Pressense's 
 Martyrs and Apologists, bk. iii. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 193 
 
 philosophic culture, of exceptional literary 
 ability, who of deliberate purpose sets him- 
 self down to assail, undermine, and over- 
 throw Christianity by all the resources of 
 knowledge, argument, and raillery, at his 
 command. He sets about his work in no 
 light spirit, but as one who feels that he must 
 bend all his powers to attain his end. To 
 fit himself for this task he makes a minute 
 study of the Christian writings, keenly notes 
 every assailable point, makes himself ac- 
 quainted with the Christian beliefs, then, 
 passing to the synagogue, gathers up all the 
 slanders which Jewish malice could invent. 
 It is fair to say that, like Pliny, he acquits 
 the Christians of the grosser calumnies which 
 were urged against them, but, short of this, 
 he spares no pains to damage and discredit 
 the sect And we may be sure that in this 
 desire to know something about the Chris- 
 tians and their literature Celsus did not 
 13 
 
194 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 stand alone. But even this clever opponent 
 of Christianity cannot close his volume with- 
 out giving us involuntarily a glimpse of the 
 real situation. Having exhausted his artil- 
 lery of argument and mockery, he betakes 
 himself to something nearly approaching 
 entreaty. " The conclusion of The True 
 Word" says Dr. Bigg, " is creditable both to 
 the sagacity and to the temper of its author. 
 But when the persecutor thus found his 
 weapons breaking in his grasp, and stooped 
 to appeal to the generosity of his victim, it is 
 evident that the battle was already lost." J 
 
 In yet another form, the same lesson of 
 the powerful influence which Christianity 
 was exercising on the thought and religion 
 of the age is taught by those extraordinary 
 and bewildering manifestations of religious 
 phantasy which we ordinarily name Gnosti- 
 
 1 Platonists of Alex., p. 267. Cf. Uhlhorn's Conflict 
 of Christianity, p. 279. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 195 
 
 cism. Gnosticism is peculiarly the heresy of 
 the second century. We can best judge of 
 the scale of its influence, and the acuteness of 
 the crisis it evoked, by observing the extent 
 to which it bulks in the existing literature of 
 the period. The whole of Irenaeus, a great 
 part of Tertullian, the whole of Hippolytus 
 nearly, and not a little of Clement of Alex- 
 andria, are devoted to its refutation. This 
 does not take account of lost treatises. But 
 we have only to consider the nature of this 
 singular appearance to see that it is one of 
 the most convincing testimonies we possess 
 to the power with which Christianity was 
 penetrating the innermost regions of thought 
 and speculation in the second century. This 
 is the side of the subject to which, as it seems 
 to me, justice has not always been done. 
 Harnack, e.g., properly lays stress on Gnosti- 
 cism as a phenomenon of the first importance 
 in the early Church. He hits off its charac- 
 
196 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 teristic by describing it as an acute stage of 
 that Hellenising of Christianity which after- 
 wards was accomplished more gradually in 
 the development of the Catholic dogma. 1 
 But, without discussing at present the justice 
 of this view, it is surely obvious that if Gnos- 
 ticism was on the one side an acute Hellen- 
 ising — I should prefer to say Orientalising — 
 of Christianity, it was not less on the other an 
 acute Christianising of Hellenic and Oriental 
 speculations. Gnosticism has this peculiarity, 
 that it is the result of a blending of Christian 
 ideas with the floating religious and theosophi- 
 cal speculations of the time, especially those 
 derived from an Oriental, or a mixed Greek 
 and Oriental, source. It was a product which 
 did not spring up spontaneously in the minds 
 of the mechanics and slaves and women and 
 children, whom most, like Celsus, suppose 
 to have^jbrjmed_„the _bulk of the Christian 
 1 Cf. his Hist, of Dogma, I. p. 223 ff. (E.T.). 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 197 
 
 communities, but could only have taken its 
 rise in minds of a more cultured and specula- 
 tive cast This, indeed, was its claim — to be 
 a religion of " Gnosis," or knowledge, for the 
 more highly trained or elite. It could only 
 exist at all, therefore, as the result of a 
 Christian ferment which had entered these 
 speculative circles, and was there powerfully 
 at work. Baur rightly appreciates the situa- 
 tion when he says : — " Gnosticism gives 
 the clearest proof that Christianity had now 
 come to be one of the most important factors 
 in the history of the time, and it shows 
 especially what a mighty power of attraction 
 the new Christian principles possessed for the 
 highest intellectual life then to be found 
 either in the Pagan or in the Jewish world." x 
 Above all, these systems are a striking 
 witness to the impression produced on the 
 heathen mind by the great Christian idea 
 1 Hist, of Church, II. p. 1 (E.T.). 
 
i 9 8 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 of Redemption. "When the Gnostic sys- 
 tems," says Neander, " describe the move- 
 ment which was produced in the kingdom 
 of the Demiurge by the appearance of 
 Christ as the manifestation of a new and 
 mighty principle which had entered the 
 precincts of this lower world, the)' give us to 
 understand how powerful was the impression 
 which the contemplation of the life of Christ, 
 and of His influence on humanity, had left 
 on the minds of the founders of these sys- 
 tems, making all earlier institutions seem to 
 them as nothing in comparison with Chris- 
 tianity." 1 We must beware, therefore, of 
 underestimating either the extent or the in- 
 tensity of this great intellectual ferment set 
 up by the gospel in the heart of heathenism. 
 The Gnostic sects multiplied with extraordi- 
 nary rapidity, and the influence exercised by 
 their most renowned teachers, as Basilides 
 1 Hist, of Church, II. p. 8 (Bohn). 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 199 
 
 and Valentinus, was exceptionally great. 
 The Church of the Marcionites — only, how- 
 ever, partially Gnostic — long maintained its 
 ground as an independent ecclesiastical 
 organisation. x 
 
 From the phenomena just considered in the 
 sphere of the Church, we turn now to survey 
 briefly certain scarcely less striking facts 
 which meet us on the ground of Paganism. 
 It is well understood that the second century 
 was an age of ethical and religious revival;! 
 but it is not always realised how powerful 
 this current of revival was, and how remark- 
 able were some of the forms which it as- 
 sumed. I have said that this age of the 
 Antonines was an age of lecturing, preach- 
 ing, teaching, and declaiming, beyond all 
 precedent. From the time of Vespasian the 
 Empire had been provided with a hierarchy of 
 rhetoricans and grammarians, whose business 
 1 Cf. Did. of Christ. Biog., III. p. 819. 
 
200 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 it was to instruct the people in all liberal 
 arts ; and society was overrun with profes- 
 sional talkers, debaters, moralists, ready to 
 supply oratory on any subject to whoever 
 cared to pay for it. There was little in this 
 sophistic declamation to make the world 
 wiser and better ; yet it is undeniable that 
 towards the end of the first, and during the 
 course of the second century, a certain glow 
 of moral enthusiasm began to spread itself 
 through the Empire, accompanied by a 
 manifest revival of religious faith and earnest- 
 ness. 1 In some of its representatives this 
 fervour rose almost to a kind of Apostolic 
 zeal. " It is too often forgotten," says Renan, 
 " that the second century had a veritable Pagan 
 preaching similar to that of Christianity, and 
 in many respects in accord with the latter." 2 
 
 1 On this religious revival in the second century, 
 see Friedlander, Sittengeschichte, III. pp. 430-33 ; 
 Bigg's Christian Platonists of Alex., pp. 23 ff. 
 
 2 Marc-Aurele, chap. iii. p. 45. Cf. Lightfoot, 
 Ignatius, p. 449. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 201 
 
 An early type of this species of "itinerant 
 homilists," as Merivale names them, " who 
 began from the Flavian period to go about 
 proclaiming moral truths, collecting groups 
 of hearers, and sowing the seeds of spiritual 
 wisdom and knowledge on every soil that 
 could receive it," 1 was Apollonius of Tyana, 
 to whose gifts of teaching was added the 
 repute of miraculous powers. 2 Other and 
 loftier types of this Pagan ministry are the 
 celebrated Dion Chrysostom,3 in the reigns 
 of Nerva and Trajan, and Maximus of Tyre 
 
 1 Romans under the Empire, chap. lxvi. 
 
 2 His life, with romantic embellishments, was 
 written by Philostratus at the request of the Empress 
 Julia Domna, a.d. 217. See Newman's sketch of it in 
 his Life of Apollonius Tyancvus, and Bigg's Christian 
 Platonists, pp. 243-247. 
 
 3 On Dion, eighty of whose orations remain to us, 
 see the interesting sketch in Merivale, Romans under 
 the Empire, chap. lxvi. " The name of Chrysostom," 
 he says, " may have already reminded us of the most 
 illustrious of the ancient Christian orators, and his 
 speeches, of which large numbers are preserved, 
 
202 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 under the Antonines. l Epictetus, the greatest 
 name in the history of Stoicism after Seneca, 
 is the noblest representative of the movement 
 on its earnest philosophic side. With all this 
 went on, as the accompaniment and counter- 
 part of these better features, a vast develop- 
 ment of superstition, an inrush of Oriental 
 cults, a craving for theurgy and mysteries, a 
 general susceptibility to dupery, giving rise 
 to such characters as Alexander of Abono- 
 tichus, the most stupendous example, per- 
 haps, of successful charlatanry in history. 2 
 
 may be compared, with little disadvantage, with the 
 sermons of the Bishop of Constantinople, for their 
 warm appeals both to the heart and the conscience 
 of their hearers." 
 
 1 Forty-one orations of Maximus are preserved. 
 On him and the others see Hatch, Hibbert Lectures, 
 pp. 6-242, &c. The sketch of ^Elius in Friedlander, 
 III. p. 440, may also be consulted. 
 
 2 Cf. Froude's " A Cagliostro of the Second Century" 
 in Short Studies, vol. iv. In this and other sketches 
 in vols. iii. and iv., Froude gives admirable charac- 
 terisations of the period. 
 

 EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 203 
 
 What, now, are we to say of this remark- 
 able revival movement in second century- 
 heathenism, and, in particular, can it be \ 
 affirmed that Christianity had anything to j 
 do with it ? The majority of writers would 
 probably answer — No. I cannot, however, 
 share this view. It seems to me primti facie 
 unreasonable that, in summing up the forces 
 which helped to give the age its character, 
 we should take account of every stray in- 
 fluence from East to West — of Epicureanism, 
 of Stoicism, of Pythagoreanism, of Isis- and 
 Mithras- worship, of an Apollonius of Tyana, 
 of a Dion Chrysostom, of charlatans even 
 like Alexander of Abonotichus; but that no 
 influence whatever should be attributed, or 
 allowed, to this constantly present and in- 
 tensely active force of the Christian religion. 
 It is true that Christianity was persecuted, 
 was regarded with contempt and scorn, but 
 we must not be deceived by this into sup- 
 
204 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 posing that its influence was not telling 
 silently and secretly on multitudes in the 
 Empire, and that it was not affecting Pagan- 
 ism in many indirect ways, even where the 
 obligation to it was not openly acknowledged. 
 We saw before that Epictetus alludes to it 
 but once, and with contempt, but there is 
 good reason for believing that he was not 
 unacquainted with its Scriptures or unin- 
 fluenced by its teaching. 
 
 I believe that we profoundly err in assum- 
 ing that the borrowing of ideas and moulding 
 of institutions in this age was all on the 
 part of the Christian Church, and that a very 
 considerable influence was not going out also 
 from the Christian Church on the religion 
 and life of Paganism. Dr. Hatch, for in- 
 stance, would see in the lecturing and de- 
 claiming of this rhetorical age the origin of the 
 Christian sermon. 1 But might we not, with 
 1 Hibbcrt Lectures, p. 113. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 205 
 
 equal reason, reverse the supposition ? Is it 
 not, at least, as likely that the example of the 
 Christian Church, its unceasing and intensely 
 zealous propaganda, extending now over 
 more than a century, and presenting so 
 splendid an example of success, had some- 
 thing to do with kindling the enthusiasm 
 and quickening the Apostolic zeal of such 
 itinerant preachers as Dion and Maximus ? 
 Take the picture of that Christian propa- 
 ganda as furnished by so sober a pen as 
 Friedlander's. "The example of the first 
 Apostles," he says, " unceasingly stirred up 
 imitators in constantly increasing number, 
 who, according to the doctrine of the gospel, 
 shared their possessions with the poor, and 
 grasped the travelling-staff in order to carry 
 the Word of God from people to people, 
 and whose zeal neither wearied nor grew 
 cold under the greatest difficulties and 
 dangers. The Christians were zealous (says 
 
206 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 Origen) to sow the seed of the Word in the 
 whole world. The messengers of the new 
 doctrine visited not only cities, but also 
 villages and farms ; nay, did not shun to 
 force themselves into the interior of families, 
 and to place themselves between those re- 
 lated by blood." * The success which 
 attended this zealous gospel preaching in 
 Rome, in Bithynia, in Carthage, in Antioch, 
 everywhere, we have already seen, and it was 
 a constant object-lesson to the Pagans, who 
 felt their own faith crumbling, and were 
 looking round for means with which to 
 combat the victorious progress of the new 
 religion which emptied their temples, and 
 made even the purchase of sacrifices to 
 cease. Can we believe, then, that it had 
 nothing to do with awakening their emula- 
 tion, and inciting them to a similar propa- 
 
 1 Sittengeschichte, III. p. 517. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 207 
 
 gandism ? l Their silence and contempt go 
 for nothing. When Maximin 2 and Julian 
 conceived the idea of re-modelling the Pagan 
 priesthood as a set-off to the Christian 
 hierarchy, they did not proclaim in so many 
 words that it was this hated sect they were 
 imitating, any more than the Anglican 
 Church, when the Evangelical Revival was 
 pouring new life into its veins, made public 
 acknowledgment of its indebtedness to 
 Wesley and Whitefield. In a similar way, 
 it is no disproof of the manifold influences 
 with which Christianity was bathing the 
 Paganism of the second century, that the 
 recipients of the benefit do not acknowledge 
 
 1 Merivale points out that Dion Chrysostom had 
 probably a connection with Flavius Clemens, the 
 consul, who suffered for his faith under Domitian. 
 
 2 Cf. Euseb. ix. 4. " Maximin perceived the 
 power that existed in the Catholic Church with its 
 wonderful organisation, and conceived the stupendous 
 idea of rejuvenating Paganism by creating a Pagan 
 Catholic Church " (McGiffert's note). 
 
208 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 the source from which it comes. We see the 
 change that is in process ; we mark the new 
 spirit and the energetic propaganda ; we 
 know that this has come into existence with 
 the example of the Christian Church before 
 it, and the influences of the Christian faith 
 permeating every pore of the old system ; 
 and we think it not unreasonable to suppose 
 that there is a connection between the facts. 
 
 This influence of Christianity which we 
 indicate is probable in itself, and the pre- 
 sumption in its favour is strengthened when 
 we consider certain other features in the 
 religious condition of the age, which it is 
 difficult to avoid tracing in some measure 
 to Christian influence. It has been hinted 
 above that the second century was an age 
 not only of ethical, but of religious revival. 
 It was an age characterised by a new sense 
 of sin and weakness, by a longing for re- 
 demption from these evils, by a yearning for 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 209 
 
 immediate communion with the Deity, by 
 the craving for the assurance of a blessed 
 life hereafter. Outwardly, it was marked by 
 a great influx of foreign cults, and specially 
 by the introduction of new forms of heathen 
 mysteries, and the extraordinary develop- 
 ment and rapid spread of the latter. The 
 chief were those of the Phrygian Cybele, of 
 the Egyptian Isis and Osiris, and of the 
 Persian Mithras — the types which promised 
 most satisfaction to the cravings referred 
 to. 1 The effects of these mysteries on 
 the ideas and usages of the Christian 
 Church have been traced by Dr. Hatch and 
 others, not without some exaggeration, 2 but 
 
 1 Cf. on this subject of the mysteries, Boissier's La 
 Religion Romaine, bk. ii., chap. ii. ; Anrich's Die 
 Antike Mysterienwesen ; Hatch's Hibbert Lectures, x. ; 
 Cheetham's Mysteries : Pagan and Christian ; Bigg's 
 Christian Platonists. The older and newer literature 
 may be seen in Cheetham. 
 
 2 Cheetham's book deals with some instances of 
 this. 
 
210 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 the counter-question of a possible influence 
 of Christianity on the mysteries has received 
 but scant attention. Yet I believe there is 
 an important field to be worked here also. 
 The mysteries, especially those which sprang 
 up in the time of the Empire, deserve the 
 closest study we can give them. They 
 represent, as Renan has said, the most 
 serious phase of Pagan religion — are, in a 
 sense, the underground Church of Heathen- 
 ism. But it is necessary also to study them 
 with discrimination, and to distinguish 
 carefully times and seasons, and the suc- 
 cessive stages of development. When we 
 do this, we discover that the special period 
 of growth of these new cults is from the 
 second century onwards x ; that there are 
 
 1 " This new development of the mysteries,' 5 says 
 Anrich, " is conditioned by the re-awakening of the 
 religious life which exhibits its slight beginnings in 
 the first century, in order from that steadily to in- 
 crease, till in the third century this new type of 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 211 
 
 certain ground-features in which they all 
 agree ; but that their distinctive forms 
 rites, and terminology are often a later 
 formation, and are strongly affected by the 
 conditions of the age. Among these con- 
 ditions we do not think it unreasonable that 
 the Christian Church — the most formidable 
 rival of the mysteries in the Empire — should 
 be included. It is certain that the Fathers 
 of the Church held the mysteries in abhor- 
 rence, and that whatever borrowing took 
 place from these on the Christian side was 
 unconscious, and in a sense involuntary. 1 
 
 religious tendency, essentially different from the piety 
 of earlier times, has become the all-controlling power 
 of the age " (p. 35). He observes how the Isis-cult had 
 a rapid development after the middle of the second 
 century, and in the third century " was perhaps most 
 widely spread, and at all events the most important 
 religion of the Roman Empire," and how the Mithras- 
 cult, which begins to spread in the first century 
 " reached, however, first in the age of Diocletian and 
 Constantine its highest bloom " (pp. 43-45). 
 1 Anrich, p. 235 ; Cheetham, p. 78. 
 
 :/ 
 
212 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 But it is not so unlikely that the patrons 
 of the mysteries should adopt terms and 
 features from the language and worship of 
 the Christian Church. And that they 
 actually did so seems the simplest expla- 
 nation of various striking facts. I may 
 refer to the prominence given in the later 
 mysteries to the idea of the ow/jp, and the 
 description of the promised blessing as 
 (jujTiipia x — for though these terms are not 
 new in Paganism, they are brought into new 
 connections, and acquire a deeper significance 
 in the age we are speaking of. So again, 
 we have the use of such terms as renatus, or 
 \renatusintterHun*? to designate the initiated 
 \ person ; we have new expiatory rites, cul- 
 minating in the hideous Taurobolium 3 ; we 
 
 1 Cf. Anrich, pp. 47, 49. Mithras came to be 
 called (Tiorrip. On the older usage, see Cheetham, 
 
 P- IS- 
 
 2 See passages in Anrich, pp. 47, 53, &c. 
 
 3 Ibid. pp. 51-2 ; cf. Bigg, pp. 258. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 213 
 
 have curious resemblances to the Christian j 
 Sacraments, 1 which the early Christian / 
 writers could only explain by supposing that/ 
 the demons had invented a caricature o: 
 Christian ordinances with the view of 
 throwing discredit on the latter 2 ; we have 
 the further developments of the initiation 
 of very young children — a sort of infant 
 baptism 3 — and, in general, the growth of 
 something like a Church idea in these secret 
 celebrations.4 When we remember the hold 
 taken on Gnostic minds by the ideas of the 
 Gwriip and of redemption, and reflect on 
 the half-pagan character and wide diffusion 
 of many of the Gnostic sects, we may 
 
 1 Cf. Harnack, as below. These resemblances 
 were chiefly in the Mithras-cult. 
 
 2 Cf . Justin, Apol. i. 66 ; Tert. De Press. Hevr., 40 ; 
 and see Harnack, Hist, of Dogma, I. p. 118 (E.T.). 
 
 s Anrich, p. 55. 
 
 4 Ibid., p. 56. " The worship of Mithras in the 
 third century," says Dr. Harnack, " became the most 
 powerful rival of Christianity " (I. p. 118, E.T.). 
 
214 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 perhaps — even apart from the direct influence 
 of the Church — see a channel through which 
 the ideas of Christianity might filter into 
 purely Pagan circles. Dr. Bigg, in his 
 lectures on The Christian Platonists of Alex- 
 andria has some suggestive remarks on this 
 point, which are, I think, in the main correct. 
 " The disciples of Mithra," he says, " formed 
 an organised hierarchy. They possessed 
 the ideas of mediation, atonement, and a 
 Saviour, who is human and yet divine, and 
 not only the idea, but a doctrine of the 
 future life. They had a Eucharist and a 
 baptism, and other curious analogies might 
 be pointed out between their system and 
 the Church of Christ. Most of these con- 
 ceptions, no doubt, are integral parts of a 
 religion much older than Christianity [some 
 of them on the other hand do not seem to go 
 beyond the second or third century]. But 
 when we consider how strange they are to 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 215 
 
 the older polytheism of Greece and Rome, 
 and when we observe further that Mithra- 
 ism did not come into vogue till the time 
 of Hadrian, that is to say, till the age of 
 Gnosticism, we shall hardly be wrong in 
 judging that resemblances were pushed 
 forward, exaggerated, modified with a special 
 view to the necessities of the conflict 
 with the new faith, and that differences, 
 such as the barbarous superstitions of the 
 Avesta, were kept sedulously in the back- 
 ground with the same object. Paganism 
 was copying Christianity, and by that very 
 act was lowering her arms." z 
 
 Fully to estimate the force of these con- 
 siderations, it is necessary to bear in mind 
 the evidence which has already been adduced 
 as to the extent to which Christianity had 
 penetrated literary circles, and had become 
 known to learned opponents, who employed 
 1 P. 240 ; cf. Cheetham, pp. 77, 146. 
 
216 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 their best abilities to discredit and destroy it 
 — in vain. 
 
 Much might be said of the writings of the 
 old Catholic Fathers, and especially of the 
 famed Alexandrian school, in illustration of 
 the subject we are considering. For how 
 clear is the evidence in the writings of these 
 Fathers of the hold that Christianity had 
 taken of men of the most powerful intelli- 
 gence and widest learning ; how plain the 
 indications that it had become a subject of 
 the profoundest theological reflection ; how 
 complete its victory over the brilliant Auf- 
 kldrung of Gnosticism ; how evident the 
 alliance which had been effected between it 
 and the best elements of the Greek wisdom — 
 that revelation in reason which the Alex- 
 andrian Fathers, with Justin, traced to the 
 illumination of the pre-incarnate Logos ! If 
 the school of Harnack sees in the theological 
 movement of this period an amalgamation of 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 217 
 
 Greek intellectualism with Christianity, it 
 must in consistency recognise that the pre- 
 vailing Greek spirit had been seized and was 
 being led captive by the new faith. And 
 that of itself speaks to a mighty internal force 
 of assimilation. Without, however, dwelling 
 on this, I hasten to speak of what is, after all, 
 perhaps the most striking proof of the influ- 
 ence of these Fathers of the Early Church on 
 contemporary religious thought — I mean the 
 rise of Neo-Platonism in the third century. 
 In this century, as we previously saw, the 
 river whose course we have been tracing flows 
 no longer underground, but comes to the 
 light of open day. The fact of a Christian 
 influence on the intellectual currents of the 
 age is all too patent to be further denied. I 
 referred in the previous lecture to the eclectic 
 temper of this age, and to its characteristic 
 embodiments in Julia Domna, the talented 
 wife of the Emperor Septimus Severus, and 
 
218 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 in Alexander Severus, a succeeding emperor. 
 Julia Domna gathered round her at her court 
 a brilliant literary circle. It was at her com- 
 mand that Philostratus wrote the " Life of 
 Apollonius " * — partly, there is reason to 
 believe, as a parallel to the representation of 
 the life of Jesus in the Gospels. Alexander 
 Severus went further, and, as formerly nar- 
 rated, placed the statue of Christ along with 
 those of Abraham, Pythagoras, and others in 
 his lararium, besides inscribing the Golden 
 Rule on his walls and monuments. "Men 
 sought," says Dr. Bigg, " to distil an elixir 
 from all religions, from all, that is, except 
 Christianity, which they never name " — a 
 statement which needs to be slightly quali- 
 fied. " Yet," he goes on, " the church from 
 which they avert their eyes as from the angel 
 
 1 Cf. Classical Dictionary, Art. "Philostratus"; 
 Newman's Apollonius Tyanccus ; Bigg's Christian 
 Platonists, p. 246. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 219 
 
 of doom, is really the prompter and guide of 
 all their efforts." 1 Under these intellectual 
 and spiritual conditions, arose the new form 
 of opposition to Christianity which we de- 
 nominate Neo-Platonism. The founder of 
 this school, Ammonius Saccas — whose lec- 
 tures Origen for a time attended at Alex- 
 andria — was born of Christian parents, and, 
 indeed, for a time himself professed Chris- 
 tianity. 2 Here is proof, if such were needed, 
 of a strain of Christian influence entering 
 into Neo-Platonism at the commencement. 
 Ammonius, it should be remarked, had an 
 important precursor in the second century, 
 Numenius, who likewise was moulded by 
 Jewish and Christian influences.3 The ideas 
 of the founder were developed by his more 
 
 1 Christian Platonists, p. 242. 
 
 2 Eusebius, Ecc. Hist. vi. 19. Eusebius will not 
 admit that he ever apostatised, but this is evidently 
 a mistake. 
 
 3 Cf. Bigg, pp. 251-3. 
 
220 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 famous pupil Plotinus, and carried still 
 further by the third great teacher Porphyry. 
 The Neo-Platonic system thus developed, 
 while bitterly hostile to Christianity, is really 
 the strongest testimony to its power. It not 
 only shows upon itself the distinct mark of 
 Christian ideas — e.g. in its doctrine of the 
 Trinity, respecting which Bigg truly remarks 
 — " It may be confidently affirmed that no 
 Trinity is to be found in any Pagan philo- 
 sopher who was not well acquainted with 
 Christianity " J ; it was not only, as Schaff 
 has observed, " a direct attempt of the more 
 intelligent and earnest heathenism to rally all 
 its nobler energies, especially the forces of 
 Hellenic and Oriental Mysticism, and to 
 found a universal religion, a Pagan counter- 
 part to the Christian " 2 ; but it testifies to the 
 changed attitude towards Christianity in the 
 
 1 Cf. Bigg, p. 250. 
 
 = Church Hist. (Ante-Nic), p. 99. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 221 
 
 fact that it no longer poured unqualified 
 ridicule on the new religion as Celsus had 
 done, but dealt with it rather in the philoso- 
 phical eclectic spirit characteristic of the time, 
 condemning only its exclusive claims. It 
 reckoned Christ among the sages ; professed 
 respect for His personal teaching, as con- 
 trasted with the corrupted doctrines of His 
 Apostles, and sought to appropriate its 
 spiritual elements to itself. " The Neo- 
 Platonists," says Augustine, "praised Christ, 
 while they disparaged Christianity." " We 
 must not," said Porphyry himself, "calum- 
 niate Christ, but only those who worship 
 Him as God." z But the battle was a hope- 
 less one. " Under the banner of Neo- 
 Platonism," says Dr. Lightfoot, "and with 
 weapons forged in the armoury of Chris- 
 tianity itself, the contest is renewed. But 
 the day of heathenism is past. This new 
 1 Augustine, City of God, xix. 23. 
 
222 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 champion retires from the field of conflict in 
 confusion, and the gospel remains in posses- 
 sion of the field." x 
 
 Here I must close. Other parts of the 
 field I am compelled to leave well-nigh 
 untouched, especially that relating to the 
 influence of Christianity on social life and 
 legislation. This, at the same time, is the 
 part of the subject which has been least 
 neglected. It has often been shown with 
 abundance of illustration how revolutionary 
 were the ideas and principles of the holy and 
 spiritual religion which had its birth in Judaea 
 when introduced into the unspeakably corrupt 
 society of the Graeco-Roman Empire. 2 To 
 the profligacy of that effete heathen world, 
 Christianity opposed its own fresh, young 
 life, and glowing spiritual ideals ; to its pride, 
 
 1 Philippians, p. 319. 
 
 2 Cf. the works of Troplong, Schmidt, Uhlhorn, 
 Lecky, Loring Brace, with the histories of Milman, 
 Pressense, Schaff, &c. 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 223 
 
 the proclamation of a common fall and a 
 common salvation ; to its selfish egoism, the 
 demand for a universal charity ; to its denial 
 of the rights of humanity, the doctrine of the 
 love of God, and of the spiritual dignity of 
 man as made in the image of God ; to its 
 degradation of woman, the assertion that 
 in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor 
 Greek, male nor female, bond nor free * ; 
 to its contempt for labour, the recollection 
 of the Carpenter, and the injunction " Take 
 thought for things honourable in the sight 
 of all men." 2 Opposed at nearly every 
 point to the existing Pagan order, it yet 
 gave to the world of that time exactly 
 what it needed, implanted within it the 
 seeds of emancipation and renewal. If it 
 could not save the old Roman Empire, it at 
 least laid within it the foundations on which 
 the rearing of a new order could proceed — 
 Gal. iii. 28. - Rom. xii. 17. 
 
224 NEGLECTED FACTORS IN THE 
 
 rendered possible the rise of a rejuvenated 
 and progressive Europe. The pure morals 
 and blameless, self-denying lives of the Chris- 
 tians, were the strongest points the Apologists 
 for the new religion could urge in its favour. 
 Thus Tertullian powerfully contrasts the 
 private virtues and public morality of his 
 fellow-believers with the foul conduct of the 
 Pagans, and challenges his opponents to 
 produce instances of Christians in the long 
 list of those committed to prison for their 
 crimes. 1 If there were exceptions, it was 
 only as it must happen to the healthiest and 
 purest body, that a mole should grow, or a 
 wart arise on it, or freckles disfigure it. 2 The 
 heathen themselves bore involuntary testi- 
 mony to the superior excellence of the 
 Christian character by appealing to it in 
 rebuke of the lack of virtue in one another.3 
 
 1 ApoL, 42-46 ; Ad Nat. i. 4. 2 Ad Nat. i. 5. 
 
 3 " You are accustomed in conversation yourselves 
 
EARLY PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY 225 
 
 As respects legislation, naturally little could 
 be done till the Empire had become publicly 
 Christian, but with Constantine we have 
 already numerous enactments which show 
 the new spirit that had entered society, 1 and 
 under the succeeding emperors these evi- 
 dences of Christian influence are multiplied. 2 
 The Theodosian code is little more than a 
 compilation of the decisions of the Christian 
 emperors. Even in the earlier period, it 
 is not wholly unreasonable to see in the 
 gradual ameliorations introduced into many 
 of the laws under the influence of the newer 
 Stoicism an indirect result, at least in part, 
 
 to say, why is so-and-so so deceitful, when the Chris- 
 tians are so self-denying ? why merciless, when they 
 are so merciful ? " &c. — Ad Nat. i. 5. 
 
 1 Julian termed Constantine, "Novator turbatorque 
 priscarum legum et moris antiquitus recepti " (Amm. 
 Marc. xxi. 10). See a sketch of his reforms in the 
 laws relating to women, children, slaves, &c, in Diet, 
 of Christ. Biog. I. pp. 636-7. 
 
 2 See Loring Brace's Gesta Cliristi, passim. 
 
 15 
 
226 NEGLECTED FACTORS 
 
 of that atmosphere of mercy with which 
 the Christian Church was already bathing 
 Paganism. 1 
 
 In leaving the subject, I can only express 
 the hope that these lectures, however im- 
 perfect, may have done something to intensify 
 our sense of the mighty power which, as 
 the Divine Leaven introduced into humanity, 
 Christianity from its first entrance into the 
 world exercised on everything it touched, 
 and to guard against the tendency, still too 
 prevalent, unduly to minimise its influence. 
 
 1 Cf, Troplong, L Influence du Christ., p. 83, &c. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 NOTE ON THE INSCRIPTIONS OF THE 
 ACILII 
 
 (in Frontispiece). 
 
 FOR the drawings of these inscriptions, I am 
 indebted to the Rev. Archibald Paterson, 
 B.D., Rosslyn, who from his first-hand researches 
 kindly furnished me with information regarding 
 them. They should, he thinks, probably be 
 restored and identified as follows : — 
 
 i. 
 
 Acilio Glabrioni Acilio Glabrioni 
 
 Filio or Filio 
 
 M' Acilii Glabrionis M' Acilius Glabrio 
 
 Cos. Pater. 
 
 227 
 
228 APPENDIX 
 
 Deceased may have been the son of Manius 
 Acilius Glabrio, consul in a.d. 124, the latter 
 probably being the son of the consul of a.d. 
 91, who suffered under Domitian, in a.d. 95. 
 
 2. 
 
 Manius Acilius Verus 
 
 Clarissimus Vir, 
 
 PUELLA (?) 
 
 et (?) Priscilla Clarissima 
 
 Femina (?) 
 
 May be the children of Manius Acilius Glabrio, 
 consul in a.d. 152 [son of the consul of a.d. 
 124], and Vera Priscilla, who is known from an 
 inscription to have been the wife of a Manius 
 Acilius Glabrio. The Manius Acilius Glabrio 
 who was her husband may, however, have been 
 the consul of this name in a.d. 186 [son of 
 the consul of a.d. 152]. In this case the children 
 will be their offspring. 
 
 3- 
 
 A fragment probably of — 
 Acilia 
 M[arci] Acilii, 
 belonging to the family of Marcus Acilius Vibius 
 
APPENDIX 229 
 
 Faustinus, who was one of the Salii before a.d. 
 170; or to the family of Marcus Acilius Priscus 
 Egrilius Plarianus, who lived at the same time. 
 
 4- 
 KXavSiov AksiXiov OvaXepiov [Xctfnrp oTa.Tov~\ veavicncov. 
 
 It is known that Claudius Acilius Cleoboles 
 (grandson of the consul of a.d. 186) derived 
 his name Claudius from adoption by Tiberius 
 Claudius Cleoboles, consul suffectus (year un- 
 certain). The name Valerius is from the mother's 
 side. The inscription cannot be earlier than the 
 third century. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abercius, of Hieropolis, 54 
 Acilius Glabrio, consul, 125 
 ff. ; inscriptions of Acilii, 
 frontispiece, and appen- 
 dix, 227 
 zElius Aristides, 167, 202 
 Alexandria, Church of, 31, 
 60 ; mixed state of, 66-7 ; 
 school in, 68, 216 ; wealth 
 of, 140 ff. 
 Alexander Severus, emperor, 
 
 147, 218 
 Alexander of Abonotichus, 
 
 51, 202-3 
 Ambrose, of Milan, 158 
 Ammonius Saccas, 219 
 Anrich, on Mysteries, 209- 
 
 13, passim 
 Antioch, Church of, its num- 
 bers, 73-83 
 Apollonius, senator, 137, 
 
 146 
 Apology, of 2nd century, 34, 
 
 58 ; its significance, 185- 
 
 90; 224 
 Aristides, apology of, 45 
 Armenia, conversion of, 88 
 
 Baur, 15 ; on apologists, 
 188 ; on Gnosticism, 197 
 
 Bigg, C, 146, 194-5, 209- 
 20, passim 
 
 Bithynia - Pontus, Pliny's 
 testimony, 48 ff. ; 129, 
 206 
 
 Blandina, martyr, 137 
 
 Boissier, G., on spread of 
 Christianity, 27ff.; ignoring 
 of Christianity by pagans, 
 168, 170 ; influence of 
 Christianity, 175, 183 
 
 Brace, Loring, on influence 
 of Christianity, 19, 225 
 
 Cecilia, St., see Cata- 
 combs. 
 Catacombs, character and 
 
 231 
 
232 
 
 INDEX 
 
 extent of, 35 flf. ; testi- 
 mony to numbers of 
 Christians, 33-5, 39-41 ; 
 inscriptions, 98 ; testimony 
 to wealth of Christians, 
 113 ff., 132 ff. ; cemeteries 
 of Lucina, 118; of Domi- 
 tilla, 123 ; of the Acilii, 
 126 (with frontispiece 
 and appendix) ; of Prse- 
 textatus, 132 ; of Caecilia, 
 134 ff. 
 
 Cappadocia, Church in, 56 
 
 Caracalla, emperor, 146 
 
 Carthage, Church of, 30 ; 
 numbers, 61 ff. ; rank and 
 wealth, 139-43 ; martyr- 
 dom of Perpetua, 143-4 ; 
 206 
 
 Celsus, his True Word, 59, 
 71, 99, 167, 192-4 ; 196, 
 221 
 
 Chastel, on nos. of Chris- 
 tians, 24 
 
 Cheetham, on Mysteries, 
 209-12 
 
 Christianity, influence of 
 paganism on, 18, 163, 
 204, 209 ; effects of 
 Christianity on paganism, 
 20 ff. ; on pagan preach- 
 ing, 204 ff. ; on Mysteries, 
 210 ff. ; on morals and 
 legislation, 222 ff. 
 
 Chrysostom, on Church of 
 Antioch, 75 ff.; 158 
 
 Churches in Rome, Corinth, 
 Ephesus, Galatia, An- 
 tioch, Bithynia, Pontus, 
 Cyrene, Alexandria, Car- 
 thage, Gaul, Spain, &c. — 
 See under these heads. 
 
 Claudius, emperor, his edict, 
 42 
 
 Clement, of Rome, 43 
 
 Clement, of Alexandria, 
 on luxury of Christians, 
 1 41-2 ; Gnosticism, 195 ; 
 216 
 
 Commodus, emperor, 145 
 
 Corinth, Church of, 32, 107, 
 108-9, I 3°> 1 7 1-2 
 
 Cyprian, of Carthage, 86, 
 
 Cyrene, Church in, 31 
 
 Decian Persecution, 86, 
 149 ff. 
 
 De Rossi, G. B., on Cata- 
 combs, 34, 117, 123, 135, 
 175, 179, 183 
 
 De Rossi, Michele, measure- 
 ments of, 37 ff. 
 
 Diocletian, emperor, perse- 
 cution of, 87 ff. ; 152 ff. 
 
 Dion Chrysostom, 201, 205 
 
 DionysiuSi of Alexandria, 
 148, 150, 158 
 
 Domitilla, Flavia, 122 ff. ; 
 cemetery of, 123 
 
 Domitian, emperor, perse- 
 cution of, 121 ff. 
 
INDEX 
 
 233 
 
 Elagabulus, emperor, 147 
 Elvira, Council of, 86, 157 
 Emperors, see under names. 
 Ephesus, Church of, 44, 108, 
 
 1 7 1-2 
 Epictetus, 183, 204 
 Eusebius, references to, 48, 
 51, 54, 56, 59, 73-4, 78, 
 82, 87-90, 123, 130, 137, 
 145-6, 148, 152-3, 154-6, 
 207 
 
 Farrar, F. W., 141, 177 
 
 Flavius Clemens, consul, 
 his martyrdom, 122 ff. 
 
 Friedlander, on numbers of 
 Christians, 24, 116 ; on 
 obscurity of Church, 165— 
 6 ; 177, 179, 183, 200, 
 202 ; on the Christian 
 propaganda, 205 
 
 Froude, J. A. 202 
 
 Galatia, Church in, 55, 
 
 57, 171 
 Gaul, Christianity in, 30, 
 
 81 ff. 
 Gibbon, on numbers of Chris- 
 tians, 24, 39, 68, 78 ff. ; 
 
 47, 5i, 122 
 Gnosticism, 58, 184, 194 ff., 
 
 213, 215-16 
 Greek Spirit and Christianity, 
 
 17, 164, 187, 196 
 Gregory Thaumaturgus, 52, 
 
 158 
 
 Hadrian, emperor, 66-8 
 Harnack, quoted, 116, 124, 
 
 J 33, l6 3, 2I 3 J referred to, 
 
 118, 123, 128, 164, 195, 
 
 216 
 Hasenclever, on rank of 
 
 Christians, 64, 118; 177 
 Hatch, E., 16, 1S5, 202, 
 
 204, 209 
 Hefele, on Councils, 84, 86 
 Hennas, on Roman Church, 
 
 130 
 Herod Atticus, 133, 191-2 
 
 Ignatius, 59, 73, 129 
 Imperial Court, Christianity 
 
 in the, 116, 124, 145 ff. 
 Irenasus, of Lyons, 59, 64, 
 
 82, 146, 195 
 
 Julia Domna, her influence, 
 146, 217 
 
 Julian, emperor, 74, 77, 
 207, 225 
 
 Justin Martyr, on spread of 
 Christianity, 47 ; on wealth 
 of Church, 132 ; as apolo- 
 gist, 186-9 J x 92, 213, 216 
 
 Keim, on progress of Chris- 
 tianity, 27 
 
 Lanciani, on Catacombs, 
 36 ff., 115, 123, 133, 
 134, 152 ; on Hadrian, 68 
 
 Lightfoot, Bishop, referred 
 to or quoted, 16, 43, 45, 
 
234 
 
 INDEX 
 
 48, 50, 54, 55, 58, 67, 
 
 116, 118, 121-3, 126-7, 
 
 129, 130, 134-5, 173, 
 
 177-80, 182, 221 
 Lucian, of Antioch, martyr, 
 
 on diffusion of Christianity, 
 
 90 
 Lucian, on Pontus, 51 ; his 
 
 Peregrinus Proteus, 192 
 Lyons, its importance, 82-3 ; 
 
 martyrdoms, 82, 136 
 
 Marcus Aurelius, em- 
 peror, 133, 189 ; relations 
 to Christianity, 166, 17 1, 
 191 
 
 Martyrdoms, of Ignatius, 
 Polycarp, Justin, at 
 Vienne and Lyons, Per- 
 petua, Sec, see under 
 names. 
 
 Maximin, emperor, his per- 
 secution and letter, 89, 207 
 
 Maximus, of Tyre, 201-2, 
 205 
 
 Merivale, referred to or 
 quoted, 32, 1 12-13, 133, 
 169, 185, 201 
 
 Milmati, 82, 90, 142 
 
 Mithras-cult, 209, 211-13, 
 
 215 
 
 Mommsen, 50, 55, 85, 116 
 
 Mosheim, 47 
 
 Mysteries, in Roman Empire, 
 209 ; possible influence of 
 Christianity on, 210 ff. 
 
 Neander, 155, 198 
 Neo-Platonism, 149, 217 ff. 
 Nero, emperor, persecution 
 of, 43 ; his palace, 116, 
 
 175 
 Neumann, 17, 42, 64, 138 
 Northcote and Brownlow, 
 
 on Catacombs, 36 ff., 
 
 114 ff., 132 ff. 
 
 ORiGEN,on numbers of Chris- 
 tians, 68 ff. ; intelligence 
 of, 98-9, 144 ; relations 
 with Court, 145-9, 158, 
 219 
 
 Paganism, ethical revival 
 in, 199 ff . ; pagan preach- 
 ing, 200-2 ; religious re- 
 vival, 208 ff. 
 
 Pamphilus, of Csesarea, 158 
 
 Paul and Thecla, Acts of, 128 
 
 Perpetua and her com- 
 panions, 143 ff. 
 
 Persecutions under Nero, 
 Domitian, Trajan, Mar- 
 cus Aurelius, Severus, 
 Decius, Valerian, Diocle- 
 tian, Maximin, see these 
 names. 
 
 Phrygia, Christianity in, 53, 
 88 
 
 Pliny, correspondence with 
 Trajan, 28, 48 ff., 129, 
 167-8, 193 
 
 Pomponia Gnecina, 117, 136, 
 179 
 
INDEX 
 
 235 
 
 Pontus, 51 
 
 Porphyry, 220- 1 
 
 Pudens and Claudia, 11 9-21 
 
 Ramsay, W. M., referred to 
 or quoted, 17, 31, 42, 48, 
 53-5> 96, 105, 116, 128, 
 167-8, 182 
 
 Renan, 53, 83, 191, 200, 210 
 
 Ritschl, 16 
 
 Robertson, Canon, 27 
 
 Roman Empire, population 
 of, 24-5, 29 
 
 Rome, Church of, 41-44, 
 78-9, 129-36, 137, 139, 
 206. See Catacombs. 
 
 Schaff, Philip, 34, 38, 220 
 
 Schultze, Vict., 31, 32 ; on 
 numbers of Christians, 
 24-5, 43> 51*56-7, 65, 75, 
 83-6 ; on rank of Chris- 
 tians, 99, 112 
 
 Seneca, relation to Chris- 
 tianity, 175 ff. ; Epistle to 
 Lucilius, 180 
 
 Septimus Severus, emperor, 
 persecution of, 138 ff. ; 146 
 
 Silence of Pagan writers 
 on Christianity : how ac- 
 counted for, 166 ff. 
 
 Social rank of Christ's per- 
 sonal disciples, 100 ff. ; of 
 early converts, 104 ff. 
 
 Spain, Church in, 85 ff., 157 
 
 Tacitus, 28, 43, 117 
 
 Tertullian, on numbers of 
 Christians, 28, 6 iff.; rank of, 
 139,141-2 ; on Gnosticism, 
 195 ; the Mysteries, 213, 
 31, 48, 84, 86, 147, 224 
 
 Trajan, emperor, persecution 
 under, 48, 129 
 
 Tryphaena, Queen, 128 
 
 Uhlhorn, 26, 59, 146, 194 
 Urania, daughter of Herod 
 Atticus, 133, 192 
 
 Valerian, emperor, perse- 
 cution of, 148, 151 
 
 Vienne and Lyons, martyr- 
 doms, 82, 136 
 
 Withrow, 38, 116 
 
TJNWIN BROTHERS, 
 WOKING AND LONDON. 
 
Date Due 
 
 8M 
 
 ] —