THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY From the Library of the Diocese of Springfield Protestant Episcopal Church Presented 1917 Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. University of Illinois Library A CHURCH HISTORY. A CHURCH HISTORY OF THB First Seven Centuries, TO THB CLOSB OP THB SIXTH GENERAL COUNCIL. BY MILO MAHAN, D.D.. SOMBTIMB S. UARK'S-IN.THB-BOWbW PROFBSSOR OP BCCLBSIASTICAL HISTORY IN TK« GBNBRAl. THXOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NBW YORK. NEW YORK: POTT, YOUNG & CO., COOPER UNION, FOURTH AVENUE. 1872. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by MRS. MARY G. MAHAN, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. M. H. MAU.OKY A GO., PB11«TE£S AND XLECTBOTYPBM, HABTVOBS, GOMV. -CJO 'Zl 0 [The first three Booh of this History are a simple reprint from the first Edition published in i860, the Author having left no copy with corrections, and the Editor having added only an occasional reference in a foot-note. The fourth and fifth Books, including the account of all the ** undisputed General Councils,’* were left by the Author prepared for the press, having been finished some years before his departure, even to the marginal notes. There has been nothing for the Editor to do, except to continue the Chronological Table, and the table of Contents, and complete the Appendix, besides which, he has added a full Index to the whole work. — J, H. H. Jr.] PREFACE The following History is intended chiefly for the use of the general reader ; with a view to whom, results are given rather than learned disquisitions, and the references are made as far as possible to authorities easily accessible. It is hoped that it will also be found a help to young students and candidates for Holy Orders. In the case of such, however, it is taken for granted that Eusebius is close at hand ; and at least one good text-book such as Gieseler’s Church History, which, especially as arranged in Smith’s American Edition, is invaluable for its exact and copious citations, and for its excellent bibliographical apparatus. Its principal defect is one incidental to all text-books; namely, that anatomizes the body of Church History to the prejudice of its life, — giving an aggregation of facts nicely arranged and labelled, instead of that living flow of events in their natural order by which (according to the maxim, soloitur ambulando) history explains and justifies itself. It is hoped that the present volume, by following as far as possible the narrative form, and by dis- tinguishing the development of Church life in individuals, in Schools, and finally in the great Provincial Churches, will help to supply this deficiency, and facilitate the profoundly interesting and comprehensive study to which it is offered as an humble contribution. VllI Preface. The author’s obligations to the innumerable laborers who have preceded him in this field it would be only tedious to express. As Dr. Schaflf, however, is one of the most recent among these, and is sometimes referred to in this volume with expressions of dissent from his opinions, it seems but just to bear witness to the high merits of his two admirable and learned works, as presenting some of the best results of modern German criticism in a form quite intelligible to the English reader. To those who understand what Church History is, no apol- ogy is needed for a new work on the subject. The narrative of the three years of the Ministry of our Lord required four men, four minds, and four different points of view to do justice to it, though written under the guidance of an infallible Inspi- ration. Much more is there room for many men, many minds, and many different points of view, in a subject which covers all time, and in dealing with which no sort of infallibility can be decently laid claim to. No one book can pretend to be a History in the full sense of the word. The best effort, like the worst, is merely a History according to this man or that, according to one bias or another; — as a general rule, the worst bias being that which makes the loudest professions of being free from bias. The following work claims nothing on that score. It is written, however, according to the best judgment and best intentions of the author, with a sincere effort to state facts as they have come down to us from anti- quity ; and as such is commended to the kind indulgence of the charitable reader. General Theological Seminary, New York, April 5, 1800. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. N.B. — The Bishops of Rome Italics; of Jerusalem (J) ; of Alexandria (A) ; of Antioch (An) ; Martyrs are distinguished by a f . EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. A.D. AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. Tiberius. 33 S. Stephen.f 30 33 Church in Jerusalem. 35 James (J). Persecution — Dispersion. Gospel preached in Samaria, 37 Caligula. Caesarea, Cyprus, Phenice. The Twelve in (Simon Magus.) 41 Claudius. Palestine. 40 44 Herod Agrippa dies. 45 Church in Antioch. 45 S. James the 46 Claudius expels the Jews Greater.! from Rome. Barnabas, 54 Nero. Paul, Silas, and others. 50 50 Council in Jerusalem. Church Centres established in Alexandria, Corinth, Ephesus, Linus. 62 S. James the Just.f Rome — ( Judaizing teachers Cletus. 63 Symeon (J). 60 and Gnostics in Asia Minor, Clemens. S. Peter, f Anianus (A) , Parties in Corinth, etc.) and S. Paul.! 64 First Persecution. Euodius, \ 68 Galba. Ignatius, / 69 Otho. 69 Vitellius. 69 Vespasian. 70 Destruction of Jerusalem. 71 S. Thomas.! 73 S. Bartholomew.! Seven Churches of Asia, each with its Angel or Bishop. 79 Titus. 80 81 Domitian. (Nicolai tans, Docetae, Cerinthus, 85 Avilius (A). Menander.) Anacletus? k , Evarisius ? ^ ipas.! 90 Second Persecution. 98 Nerva. 98 Cerdo (A). Nerva forbids accusations of 99 Trajan. slaves against their masters. 100 Edict against secret societies. Justus (J). S. Polycarp fl. no Third Persecution. 1 17 S. Ignatius.! Correspondence between Pliny 1 17 Hadrian. and Trajan. 1 19 Alexander. Ammias. Insurrections of the Jews in Quadratus. Aristides. 120 Egypt and Cyrene. Papias. Fourth Persecution. 130 Sixtus /. Bar Cochba’s Insurrection. 135 Marcus (J). 130 135 ^lia Capitolina. 138 Antoninus Justin M. fl. 140 (Gnostic Sects and Schools.) Pius. (Basilides, Valentinus, Marcion.) 140 Telesphorus. Hegesippus fl. 150 (Montanus.) X Chronological Table. EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. 1 A.D. AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. 152 Hyginus. , 150 (Paschal Controversy.) 154 Anicetus, Polycarp confers with Anicetus. Athenagoras. 160 1 61 Marcus Melito of Sardis. Fifth Persecution. Aurelius. Apollinaris. Synods respecting Easter and 173 Soter, Montanism. S. Polycarp.f 170 The Thundering Legion. S. Pothinus.f (Tatian, Bardesanes.) 177 Eleuthe- Dionysius of Persecutions at Lyons and rus. Corinth fl. Vienne. Preachers sent to 180 Commodus. 180 Britain. Commodus favors Irenaeus fl. the Christians. Theophilus (An). 189 Demetrius (A). Pantsenus fl. Pantaenus goes to India. 192 Victor, Apollonius.f 190 192 Helvius Per- (Victor excommunicates the tinax. Clemens fl. Asiatic Churches.) IQ.I Didius iq<; Narcissus fD. Several Synods holden. Julianus. 197 Jews and Samaritans rebel 194 Septimius Tertullian fl. 200 and are subdued. Severus. 202 S. Irenaeus.-|- 197 Zephyrinus, Origen fl. Minucius 202 Sixth Persecution. Felix fl. Libelli pads. 21 1 Caracalla. 210 212 Alexander (J). (Patripassian and Monarchian 217 Callistus. Heretics.) Hippolytus fl. 217 Macrinus. Ulpian the lawyer collects all 219 Heliogabalus. 220 the edicts against Christians, 222 Urbahus Julius Afri- and incites to persecution in canus fl. Rome. 222 Alexander (Sabellius fl.) Severus. 230 (New Platonic School, Ploti- 230 Pontianus. nus.) 235 Anterus, 236 Fabianus, 235 Maximinus 235 Seventh Persecution. Thrax. Babylas (An). Synod of Iconium. 237 Gordianus. Firmilianus fl. 240 238 Pupienus. (Origen converts Beryllus.) Balbinus. 244 Philippus Arabs. Church in Numidia and Mauri- tania. 249 Decius. Fabianus.^ 250 249 Eighth Persecution. Trajanus. Cyprian fl. Development of Discipline. 251 Cornelius, \ Greg. Thau- War, Pestilence, Famine. 1 mat. Chronological Table. XI EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. A.D. AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. 252 Lucius,^ Dionysius (A). 252 Goths overrun Asia Minor and 252 Callus and Volusianus. 253 Step hen. \ (Novatianus.) Greece — Christian captives 254 Valerianus. 257 Cyprian.f preach the Gospel. 257 Sixtus //.f (Baptismal Controversy.) 259 Gallienus. (Nepos.) 257 Ninth Persecution. 259 Dionysius. 260 Valerian taken prisoner by the 268 Claudius II. Persians. (Sabellian Controversy in Pen- 269 Felix. Paul, I , . v 270 Aurelian. Domnus, j ^ 270 tapolis.) (Three Councils of Antioch — Paul condemned.) 275 Tacitus. S. Antony. Edict of Persecution — Aurelian 275 Eutychianus. slain. Florianus Methodius of 280 Porphyry writes against the Probus. Tyre. 282 Carus. Christians. 283 Caius. Lucian the M. 284 Diocletian. Peace and prosperity of the (Era of the Martyrs.) Pamphilus of Caesarea. 290 Church. Splendor of Church buildings. 287 D. and Maximian. 294 (Constantins and Galerius.) 296 Marcellinus. Eusebius the 300 Hierocles opposes Christianity. 303 Edict of Persecution — de- Ch. Hist’n. (Meletius.) 308 Marcellus. (Arius.) struction of the Churches. Tenth Persecution. 305 (Council of Elvira.) 308 Maximin. 309 Martyrs of Palestine. Caecilianus. 310 Eusebius. (Donatus.) 310 3 1 1 Death of Galerius and Melchiades. Peter (A).f 314 Sylvester. Edict of toleration. 312 Victory of Constantine. (Donatist troubles.) Alexander (A). Hosius. 320 313 Victory of Licinius. Edicts of restitution. XU Chronological Table. EMPEROKS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. A.D. AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. Lactantius fl. 320 318-320 Arius proclaims his Heresy. 321 Arius condemned in Alex- 323 Constantine sole Emperor. andria. 325 Council of Nic.ea (i.f/ General). 326 S. Athanasius, Bp. of Alexan- andria. 326 Death of Crispus and Fausta. S. Helena’s Pilgrimage. Juvencus fl. 330 New Rome dedicated. 331 Arius recalled. Schism in Antioch. 335 Councils of Tyre and Jeru- salem. 336 Mark, Maximus (J). 336 First expulsion of Athana- sius. 337 Julius, Sudden death of Arius. 337 Constantine II. Constans. Constantius. j S. Cyril, Bp. of Jerusalem, fl. 340 337 Division of the Empire. Death of Constantine II. 341 Second expulsion of Atha- nasius. Monachism appears in the West. Council of the Dominicum Aureum. 345 Revolt of the Donatists. 347 Council of Sardica. 349 Restoration of Athana- sius. Donatists subdued. S. Hilary, Bp. of Poitiers. 350 Murder of Constans. 351 Council of Sirmium. Persecution renewed. 352 Liberius. 353-355 Councils of Arles and 353 Constantius sole Emperor. 360 Milan. 356 Third Expulsion of Atha- nasius. 358 Council of Ancyra. 359 Council of Seleucia. Council of Ariminum. S. Basil’s Monks in Pontus. Ulfilas, Apostle of the Goths. 361 Julian. 361 Meletius (An). 361 Council of Antioch. Paganism restored by Julian. Chronological Table. xiii EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. A.D. AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. 362 S. Dionysius, 362 362 Outbreak at Antioch. the Areopagite Council at Alexandria. (so called). Fourth expulsion of Atha- nasius. 363 Jovian. 363 Attempt to rebuild the Temple. Death of Julian. Christianity restored. 364 Valentinian 1. 1 364 Final division of the Valens. j Empire. 366 Damasus, General restoration of S. Jerome fl. Orthodoxy. 368 S. Epiphanius fl. 367 Valens, Arian persecutor. S. Optatus fl. S. Basil the Great, 370 Fifth expulsion of Athanasius. i Bp. of Caesarea Clergy restrained by law. 1 in Cappadocia. S. Gregory, Nazianzen fl. ; S. Gregory Nyssen fl. S. Ephraim Syrus fl, Pacian fl. 371 S. Martin, Bp. of Tours. Macarius fl. 373 Athanasius dies. 1 375 Gratian. 377-382 Gothic invasion. Valentinian II. 378 S. Gregory Nazianzen at 379 Theodosius. Constantinople. Philostorgius fl. 380 Macrobius fl. 381 First Council of Con- stantinople {2d Gen- eral). 384 Siricius. Symmachus fl. 383 Rome oecomes Christian. 385 Theophilus, Conference of Sects. Bp. (A). Heresies forbidden. Idacius fl. 38 5 Execution of Priscillianists. 385-6 Contest for the Basilicas at Milan. 387 Gaudentius fl. 387 The Serapeum destroyed. 388 Theodosius sent out of the Chancel. Paulinus of Nola. 390 Sedition and Massacre at 395 Arcadius. Thessalonica Honorius. 391-4 Pagan religion prohibited. 395 S. Augustine, 395 S. Symeon Stylites. Bp. of Hippo. 396 Alaric invades Greece. XIV Chronological Table, EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. A.D. AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. Anastasius, S. Chrysostom, 398 Bp. of Con- stantinople. 400 Alaric invades Italy. 401 Palladius. 402 Innocent, 404 Gladiators abolished at Rome. 405 Prudentius fl. S. Chrysostom exiled. 406 Defeat of Radagaisius. 407 Theodosius II. 407 Death of S. Chrysostom. 408 Disgrace and death of Stilicho. Alaric’s ist siege of Rome. 409 Alaric’s 2d siege of Rome. Spain invaded by Van- dals, etc. ^ Synesius ii. 410 Alaric’ s capture and sack of Rome. Alaric dies. 412 S. Cyril (A). 412 Peace with the Goths. S. Isidore of 41 5 Quarrel with Orestes. Pelusium fl. Massacres in Alexandria. 416 Orosius fl. Murder of Hypatia. 417 Zosimus, 419 Boniface, Paulinus of Milan. 420 Paganism extinguished. Euodius. S. Jerome dies. 422 Celestine, 423 Theodoret, Bp. of Cyrus fl. 424 Cassian fl. 425 Valentinian III. Philostorgius fl. 428 Nestorius, Bp. (C). 429 Genseric invades Africa. Hilary of Arles fl. 430 Siege of Hippo ; Death of Peter Chrysologus fl. S. Augustine. Possidius fl. Roman Council condemns 432 Sixtus III, S. Patrick in Nestorius. Ireland. The Twelve Anathemas. 432 Sixtus 431 Council of Ephesus Senensis fl. General), 434 S. Vincent 432 Cyril and John (An) rec- of Lerins fl. onciled. Proclus fl. Alienation general in the Sedulius fl. East. 439 Socrates fl. 435 Nestorius exiled. 440 S, Leo the 440 Great, Sozomen fl. 441 The Huns attack Eastern S. Salvian fl. Empire. Chronological Table. XV EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. A.D. AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. 444 S. Prosper of 444 448 Council at Constantinople. Aquitain. Eutyches condemned. Dioscorus (A). 449 Descent of Saxons in 447 Flavianus (C). Britain. Latrocinium^ Robber 450 Marcian. 450 Council. 451 Proterius (A), 451 Council of Chalcedon (4M General), Attila invades Gaul. Battle of Chalons. 452 Juvenal flees from Jerusa- lem. Attila invades Italy. Republic of Venice # founded. 453 Attila dies. 454 .^tius murdered. 455 Rome sacked by Vandals. 455 Maximus. 455-582 Saxons masters of Avitus. Britain. 457 Majorianus. 457 Proterius murdered. Leo. Pilgrimage of Eudocia. Amobius fl. 461 Severus. Ruffinus fl. 460 Hilary, 461 S. Remigius, Bp. of Rheims. 467 Simplicius, Anthemius. 470 461-7 Ricimer in power. 472 Olybrius. Sidonius fl. 472 Sack of Rome. Julius Nepos. 474 Zeno. 476 Augustulus. Aulus Gel- Odoacer. lius fl. 480 Death of Ricimer. 483 Felix lit 491 Anastasius. • 481 Clovis, King of the Franks. 482 The Henoticon issued. 490 (Thirty-five years’ schism between East and West.) 492 Gelasius, 494 S. Benedict fl. 495 Gennadius fl. 493 Theodoric, King of Italy. 496 Anastasius II, 498 Symmachus. 496 Conversion of Clovis. Caesarius of Arles fl. 500 I Victory of Clovis. XVI Chronological Table. EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. A.D, AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. 507 Fulgentius fl. Theodoric persecutes the 514 Hormisdas, Cassiodorus fl. 510 Catholics. 512 Trisagion riots in Con- stantinople. 518 Justin I. Theodorus 514 First Religious War: Vitalian’s rebellion. 516 Authority of Chalcedon 520 Justinian. Lector fl. 520 restored. 523 John. 526 Felix III. 524 Death of Boethius. 525 Death of Symmachus. 527 Justinian, sole Emperor. Procopius fl. 527-33 Reform of Roman Law. 530 Boniface IL 530 529 Monte Cassino founded. 532 John JL 532 Sedition of the Nika in 533 Dionysius Constantinople. 533-4 Belisarius reconquers Exiguus fl. Africa. 535 Agapetu:, Nicetiusfl. 535 He subdues Sicily. 536 Silverius, 536 French monarchy estab- 537 I lished in Gaul. 537 The new S. Sophia dedi- Facundus fl. 540 cated. 537-9 Belisarius recovers Italy. I 550 Primasius fl. ] 550 541 Jacob Baradai. 543 S. Benedict dies. 546 Rome taken by the Goths. 547 Recovered by Belisarius. 548 Recall of Belisarius. 549 Rome retaken by the Goths, j Origen’s errors and the Three Chapters. 552 Rome recovered by Narses. 553 Liberatus fl. 553 Second Council of Con- 555 Pelagius. stantinople ( 5/>4 Gen- erat), 554 Narses defeats the Franks, [etc. 560 yohn III, 560 559 Last victory of Belisanus. Venantius For- 561 Disgrace and Death of tunatus fl. Belisarius. Chronological Table. XVII EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. A.D. AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. 565 Justin II. 565 566 Invasion of Lombards and Avars. 567 Disaffection and Death of Narses. 568-70 Great part of Italy con- quered by the Lombards. 574 Benedict. 578 Pelagius TI» Tiberius II. 579 Leander, Bp. of Seville. Cn Cr 00 0 c 574 S. Emilian dies. 581 Gildas fl. Persecution by the Arian 582 Maurice. Leuvegild. 589 King Recared brings Spain to Orthodoxy. 590 S. Gregory the Great, Leontius fl. 594 Evagrius fl. 590 595 S. Isidore of 595-602 Wars against the Avars. Seville fl. Evangelization of the Sax- 597 S. Augustine of ons in Kent. Canterbury. 600 Conversion of the Lombards of 601 Hesychius fl. 602 Phocas. Johannes Malala. 604 Sabinian. 607 Boniface IIL 608 Boniface IV, Italy. 610 Heraclius. 615 Deusdedit. 610 619 Boniface V 619 Council of Seville anathe- matizes those who dis- turb or despoil Monas- 625 Honorius, 620 teries. 622-627 Victorious campaigns against the Persians. 622 The Hejira. 625 50,000 captives liberated. 626 Persians and Avars repulsed from Constantinople. 628 Peace with Persia; Chos- roes dead. 629 The True Cross restored to the Holy Sepulchre. Several Provinces recov- ered. XVlll Chronological Table. EMPERORS, CHURCH TEACHERS, ETC. A.D. AFFAIRS IN CHURCH AND STATE. Sophronius (J). 630 Edict affirming One Will in Christ. 632 Death of Mohammed. The Provinces gained from the Persians lost to the Saracens. 637 Saracens take Jerusalem. 638 Saracens invade Egypt. 639 The Ecthesis issued. 640 Severianus. Eligius fl. 640 John IV. John IV. rejects the Ecthesis. 641 Constantine III. 641 Mutilation of Martina and Heracleonas. Heracleonas. Constans II. 642 Theodore, 642 Pyrrhus of Constantinople 645 Maximus, recants his heresy, but Monachus fl. recants his recantation. 647 Saracens take Alexandria. 648 The Typus issued. 649 Martin /. S. Columbanus. 650 655 Eugenius /. Martin of Rome barbarously 657 Vitalianus. S. Ildefonso, ill-treated. Abp. of Toledo. 660 Origin of the Paulicians. 664 Theodore, Abp. of Canterbury. 668 Constantine IV. 668-675 Constantinople repeat- (Pogonatus.) 670 edly saved from the Sara- cens by the Greek fire. 672 Adeodatus. 673 Ven. Bede bom. 676 Donus. 677 Peace, and Saracens pay 678 Agatho, tribute. S. Boniface bom. 680 Third Council of Constan- tinople (6M General). 682 Leo II. 682 Monothelites exiled to 684 Benedict 11. Rome. 685 John V. Leo II. repeats the anath- Justinian II. ema on Honorius. 686 Conon. Strifes at the election of Popes. 687 Sergius III. 690 691 Council in Trullo^ or m Quinisext Council. CONTENTS BOOK I. CHAPTER I. — The Organization : — ^John the Baptist — Expectation of the Kingdom — The Kingdom preached in the Parables and in the Works of Jesus — Ministry organized — Prophetic, Priestly, Kingly — The Great Forty Days — The Ascension — The Waiting — Matthias Chosen. — \^Note 5 , I. Nativity — 13. Miracles significant — 17. Kingly, Priestly, and Prophetic Ministry — 21. The Church and the Kingdom].... 1-7 II. — The Pentecostal Gift : — Number of Disciples — Assemblage of de- vout Jews — Descent of the Spirit — Judaic Foundation — In Palestine and in the World at large. \^Note, 2. Preparation] 7-10 III. — The Twelve in Jerusalem : — Twelve years in Jerusalem — Pentecos- tal Society — Dissensions — Seven Deacons — James Apostle-Bishop — Persecutions — Second Pentecost — Dispersion — Gospel goes forth — S. Peter’s Visitation — The other Apostles. \^Notes. James of Jerusalem — 5. Presbyters] 10-17 rV. — C hurches of the Gentiles: — Gentiles admitted — Caesarea— Chris- tians in Antioch — Other Places — Barnabas and Saul sent forth — Elymas — Course of the two Apostles — Council at Jerusalem — Second Journey, Corinth — Third Journey, Ephesus — S. Paul in Jerusalem, Caesarea, Rome — Persecution under Nero. \^Note 5 , i. Roman Jews — 2. Therapeutae — 4. Saul’s Ordination] 17-27 V.— S. Paul and his Company : — The Type of an enlarged Ministry — The Twelve Foundation-stones — The Seventy — S. Paul’s peculiar Mis- sion — His Companions — Barnabas — Timothy, Titus, Luke, Mark— XX Contents. His Helpers and Successors. \^Note, 4. Meaning of the numbers Twelve and Seventy] 27-32 —Mission of the Twelve The Twelve— S. James the Greater— S. Andrew and others — Causes of Persecution — Madness of the Jews and Heathen — Calamitous Times — The Jewish War — The Lord’s Coming. \^Note^ n. The Six great Judgments] 33-39 VII. — Jewish Christian Church Jerusalem and Christian Israel— James the Just — His relations to S. Paul and to his own People — • Spirit of Judaic Christianity — End of James — Signs of Judgment — Successors of James — Seeds of Heresy — Jerusalem taken — Chris- tians retire to Pella — Sects — Second Overthrow of the sacred City — ^lia Capitolina. \_Note, 13. The Door of Jesus] 39-46 VIII. — S. Peter and his Company S. Peter’s position — His use of the Keys — Visits to Rome — Travels — His Gift and Influence — His Strength and Weakness — His Wife — S. Mark — S. Clement — Ques- tions of Church Order. \_Notes. i, Petros and Petra — 3. More than one Bishop in a City — 9. Peter’s Wife] 47-51 IX. — S. John : — S. John the Survivor of the Twelve — In Asia — Rome — Patmos — Ephesus — His Character and Gift — Traditions — His In- fluence anti-Gnostic — Gospel, Epistles, Revelation — Import of his later Life — A critical Period of Church History — Second General Persecution. \^Notes. 5. John’s Title of “the Elder” — 6. The Caldron of boiling Oil] 52-57 X. — Holy Women : — The Mother of our Lord — Reserve of Holy Script- ure — Legends— Other Holy Women — S. Theda and S. Domitilla. \^Notes. 4. S. Mary not the Mother of James — 8. Virginity]. ..57-60 XI. — ^Church Government: — A ll Powers given to the Apostles as Brothers, Colleagues, Peers — Apostolic Aids or Fellows — Second Growth of the Apostolate — One College at first, then many — Local Ministry, Presbyters, Deacons, Deaconesses, with a Chief Pastor or Bishop — James an Apostle-Bishop — Charisms or Gifts — Relations of the Orders — Lay Influence — Legates of the Apostles — Their Successors — The Episcopate self-perpetuating — Three Witnesses — Metropolitan System. {^Notes. 2. German Views of Episcopacy — 3. Apostles and Evangelists — 6. James a Bishop — 13. Parity — 14. The Charisms (Eph. iv. 12-16) — 17. S. Ignatius on the three Contents, XXI CHAPTER Orders — 18. Deacons — 20. Mutual Benedictions — 25. S. Jerome’s Epistle ad Evangelum — 26. Threefold Episcopate] 60-76 XII. — Doctrine and Heresies ; — The Gospel, Christ come in the Flesh. — Three Drifts of Heresy — Three Types of Doctrine — Harmony of the Apostles — Scope of Doctrinal History — Four Heads — i. Oral Teaching — 2. Rule of Faith. 3. Sacred Writings — 4. Heresies — — Gnostic — Docetse — Simon Magus, Dositheus, Menander, Nico- laitans — Sensuous Heresies, Schisms — ^Judaic Heresies, Nazarenes, Cerinthus, Ebion — Error combated in first Principles — The Church admitting many stand-points — Truth in Love. \^Notes, 5. The term “Development” — 9. The term “Rule of Faith” — 14. Alle- gorical Interpretation — 17. Meaning of Coloss. ii. 23 — 19. Anti- gnostic texts — 21. The term “Knowledge” in i Cor. viii. — 23. The Sedition in Corinth — 24. Antijudaic texts] 76-92 XIII. — Rites, Observances, Morals : — In Ritual little Instruction needed — Baptism — Lord’s Supper — Agape — Kiss of Peace — Laying on ot Hands — Unction — Public Worship — Liturgy — Hours of Prayer — Fasts and Feasts — Asceticism — Morals — Social Problems. \^Note, 15. The Therapeutae opposed to slavery] 92-97 BOOK II. I. — Beginning of Second Century : — Seed growing in secret — S. John and other Witnesses — Domitian, Nerva, Trajan — Third General Persecution — Trajan and Pliny — Martyrs — Simeon, Justus — Ignatius of Antioch — His Position, Witness, and Writings. \^Notes, 4. Pliny’s Questions — 12. Zeal of Ignatius rational — 14. Unfair Censures of S. Ignatius — 15. “ Nothing without the Bishop ”] loi-lio Hadrian and the Antonines : — Progress of the Gospel — Fanati- cism general — Hadrian in Athens — Quadratus and Aristides — Edict against Informers — Antoninus Pius — Marcus Aurelius — The Stoic Ideal — Three Types of the Age. \^Notes. i. Increase of the Chris- tians — 6. Number of Martyrs — 8. Hadrian’s building of temples to the One God not improbable — ii. Piety of Aurelius] 111-118 III. — S. Polycarp : — Church in Smyrna — Polycarp — Visit to Rome — The Amphitheatre — Polycarp called for — His Martyrdom — XXll Contents. Honors paid him — His conservative Spirit. \^Note, 8. The term Atheists”] I19-125 IV. — ^The Lyonnese Martyrs : — Gallic Church — Christians mobbed — A true Paraclete — Charity of the Suherers — Ascetic Party — Sanctus, Maturus, Attilus, Pothinus, Blandina — The New Prophets con- demned. \^Noies, I. Foundations in Gaul. — 2. The Amphi- theatre] 125-131 V. — ^Justin Martyr: — J ustin in search of Truth — His Teachers — A Christian Philosopher — His Conversion — His Gifts, Opinions, Dis- cussions, Creed — His Companions in Martyrdom — His Disciples. — \_Notes, 5. The Logos — 6. Bread and Wine in the Mysteries of Mithras — 7. “ Creation and Generation ” — 8. L^ient Way of judging the Ebionites — 9. Baptism and the Eucharist] 1 31-139 VI. — Apologetic Age : — End of the Century — Melito and other Apolo- gists — Heathen Opponents — New Platonic School — Apollonius of Tyana — End of the Aurelian Persecution — Commodus — Apollonius a Martyr — Septimius Severus — Sixth general Persecution — Seventh — Peace of thirty-eight years — Trials from within. \^Note 5 * 4. Plo- tinus — 5. Apollonius of Tyana — 6. Legio Fulminea — 7. Aurelius’s Hatred of emotional Religion — 10. Evasions of Persecution] 140-146 VII. — Heresies and Schools : — The Church neither Jewish nor Gnostic — ^i. Judaic Sects — Clementina, Elxaites — ii. Gnosticism — General Account of it — iii. Gnostic Sects — Alexandrian — Syrian — Other Sects — iv. Manichseans — v. Sensuous Heresies — Sect Spirit — Spu- rious Writings — Chiliasm — Encratites — vi. Montanism — vii. Ration- alist Reaction — Alogi — Monarchians — Patripassians — Sabellius — Beryllus — Paul of Samosata — viii. Schools within the Church — Rome, Alexandria, Antioch. \^Notes, 2. “ Bishop of Bishops ” — 6. Gnostic Terms, Dualism — ii. Communism — 17. Zoroaster — 22. Chi- liast Fathers — 29. Anti-encratite passages — 32. Truth the sanctifying Power — 35. Fasts — 36. Lay Priesthood — 50. Theological “ Obstet- ricians” — 52. Scaffolding Theories — 54. Practical Sense of Tra- dition] 146-175 VIII. — Heresies, how Met : — Heresies destroyed by Disintegration — Age of Dialectics — Exorcism fails against the Montanists — Reason appealed Contents. XXlll CHAPTER to— Wholesome Dread of Novelties — Scriptures studied — True Prophets and False — Synods — Their Necessity — Their conservative Influence — An Age judged by its own Trials. \^Notes, 5. Apostolic Councils — 9, Whole Church present in Councils] 176-182 IX. — S. iRENiEUS AND HIS DisciPLES : — S. Irenseus — His Character and Writings — Troubles in Rome — Blastus and Florinus — The Mar- cosians — Paschal Controversy — Irenaeus counsels Peace — Church Growth and Miracles — Caius — Hippolytus — Parties in Rome. — \^Notes, 13. Orthodoxy of Hippolytus — 14. The Callistians] 183-192 X. — The Alexandrine School: — Episcopate in Alexandria — Deme- trius — Centre of Learning — New Platonic School — Catechetical School — Pantaenus — Clemens — Origen — Martyrs — Labors and Writ- ings — 'Quarrel with Demetrius — Origen condemned — Heresy arrested — Influence of Origen — His Disciples and Friends. \^Notes, 5. Alexandrine Jews, Philo — 9. Athenagoras — 10. Three Works of Clement — 12. Clement’s Orthodoxy — 16. Bodily Blemishes — 22. The threefold Sense — 28. Paradoxes of Origen — 29. Methodius]... 192-206 BOOK III. I.— North African Church : — North Africa — People, Morals, Relig- ion — Evangelized — Church established — Scillitan Martyrs — Sen- suous Bias — SS. Perpetua and Felicitas — Dreams, Visions — Mon- tanism — Tertullian — Questions of Veils, of Crowns — Party Names — Tertullianists — Influence of Tertullian — A Season of Peace and quiet Growth. \_Notes. 3. Character of the Africans — 4. Phrase sine charta,” etc. — 7. Opposition to the Vx2i.yQx pro mora finis — 9. Prayers for the Dead — 14. Converts among the wealthy Classes — 17. Tertullian’s Paradoxes — 19. Absurd Sects] 209-223 II. — Carthage and S. Cyprian : — Cyprian Bishop — State of the Church — Virgins, Confessors, Clergy — Abuses — Mission of S. Cyprian — Reform — Working Forces of the Church — Balance of Powers — Cyprian’s Policy — Examples — Warnings of Judgment — Eighth gen- eral Persecution — Fabianus a Martyr — The Lapsed — Bad Conduct of the Confessors — Libelli Pacis — Novatus and his Party — Schism in Carthage — Novatian Schism in Rome — Discipline restored and XXIV Contents. chapter everywhere established. \^Noies. 2. Primates — 5. Antelucan Meet- ings offensive — 7 and 18. Power of the Confessors — 13, Taylor’s Early Christianity — 20. Mosheim’s Treatment of S. Cyprian — 22. The Diptychs — 24. Visions — 25. Persecutions needed — 29. Eva- sions — 33. Exomologesis — 40. Evil connected with a numerous Episcopate — 43. Novatian — ^44. Indulgences] 224-243 III. — Decian Times : — A great Crisis — Early Belief of the Nearness of the Lord’s Coming justified — Martyrs — Seven Sleepers — Gregory the Wonder-worker — Dionysius of Alexandria — Anchorites — Great Plague — Inroads of Barbarians — Christian Charity — Ninth Persecu- tion — Cornelius, Lucius, Origen, Stephen. \^Note, lo. Orthodoxy of Gregory Thaumaturgus] 244-254 IV. — Rome and the West : — Origin of the Roman Church — First Bish- ops — Eminent Position — Centre of Good and Evil — Resort of Here- tics — Zephyrinus and Callistus according to Hippolytus — Battle- Ground of two Elements — Question of the Day — Cyprian and Cornelius — Via media — Cyprian and Stephen — Baptismal Question — Case of Martialis and Basilides — of Marcianus — Valerian Perse- cution — Martyrdom of Stephen, Sixtus, Cyprian — Dionysius of Rome — Case of Dionysius of Alexandria — Question of Church property in Antioch referred to the Italian Bishops — Centralizing Tendency — State of the Roman Church in numbers, etc. — Triumph of the Cross — Donatist Schism — Its Influence upon the position of the Roman Church. [^JVb/es. i. S. Peter at Rome — 3-8. Expres- sions Relating to the Dignity of Rome — 16. All Sinners received after Penance — 18. Three Views in the Early Church on irregular Baptism — 21. The term “Papa” — 29. Dionysius as a Theologian — 33. Calculations from the Catacombs — 34. The Christians not “ a mere refuse” — 39. Heathen Catholicity — 41. Catacombs — 43. Cem- etery Worship — 46. Episcopal Martyrs — 53. Arnobius — 55. The Trophy of the Cross — 61. Council of Elvira — 62. Stratagem of Mcnsurius — 64. Donatist Succession] 254-278 V. — The Church and School of Antioch : — The East theological — Theophilus — Babylas — Fabius — Paul of Samosata — His Faults and Errors — Councils — Death of Firmilianus — Paul Condemned — Catholic Unity — School of Antioch — Lucian and his Disciples — Last Persecution — Martyrdom of Lucian and others. \^No^e. 13. The term “ Consubstantial ”] 278-286 Contents. XXV VI. — The Egyptian Church : — Origen’s Disciples — Dionysius — Question of the Lapsed, of Baptism — Chiliasm, Nepos— Charity victorious— Sabellian Controversy — Era of the Martyrs — Meletian Schism — Anchorites, Hermits — S. Antony and Monachism — Martyrdom of Peter — Arius and Alexander. \^Notes. 9-12. Orthodoxy of Dio- nysius — 15-24. S. Antony and Monasticism] 286-298 VII. — The Churches in General : — The Great Epic a Type of Church History — Belt of the Mediterranean — Africa — Libya — Pentapolis — Egypt — Arabia — Palestine — Syria — The Farther East — Asia Minor — Macedonia and Achaia — Italy — Spain — Gaul — Britain. \^Notes. 3. Epochs — 14. S. James in Spain] 298-309 VHI. — Church Life and Growth : — Season of Peace — Gibbon’s Five Causes of Church Growth — The Progress of Christianity considered under the following heads — i. The Conflict between Truth and Error — ii. The Witness of the Martyrs — iii. Signs and Wonders — iv. Discipline — v. Strength in Numbers — vi. Catholic Unity and Church Polity — vii. Church life, domestic, public — Rites — Customs — Heathen Point of View — Aversion to the Arts — Austerity — Charity — Widows, Orphans, Slaves, Captives, etc. — Sources of Revenue — Simple Faith and patient Waiting. \_Notes. 6. Reverence for Mar- tyrs — 9. Miracles not wrought at random — 19. Ignatian and Cyp- rianic Theories of the Episcopate — 22. Representative Idea in Synods — 23. Development Theory of Papal Supremacy — 25. Minor Orders — 27, 28. Children not desired — 33. Diptychs and Commem- oration of the Departed — 42. Military Service — 45. Pictures — 46. Flowers — 53-55. Tithes, etc. — 57. Non-resistance] 309-337 IX. — Times of Diocletian — Prosperity of the Church — Corruptions — Dio- cletian resolves on Persecution— Destruction of the Church in Nicomedia — Plan of the War — Edicts — Cruelties and Atrocities — Number of Martyrs — Abdication of Diocletian and Maximian — Fate of the Persecutors — Severus — Galerius — Edict of Toleration — Maximin — Edict of Restitution — Maxentius — Maximian — Diocle- tian and his Family. \^Notes. 2. Lactantius — 5. Hierocles — 25. Diocletian’s Madness] 33^-354 X. — Victory of Constantine : — Boldness of Constantine’s Decision — Causes of his Conversion — His Vision — Trophy of the Cross in Rome — Real Nature of the Victory — Signs of a new Era — Licinius and Constantine — Edict from Milan — War between the two Em- XXVI Contents. perors — Persecution recommended— Second War — Constantine sole Emperor — His Character and Nature of his Faith — Type of a new Age of Christianity. \Notes. 3. Constantine’s Vision — 6. Eusebius] 354-364 BOOK IV. I. — Arius and his Doctrine : — Arius and Alexander — Arian Tenets — Cautious Statements — Arian Logic — The idea of Time introduced into the Godhead — False Theories in the Church attacked by Arius — Arian principle of Interpretation — Its Import — Arianism an alien Mind — Person of Arius — Opposite views of his Character — His training at Antioch — His Dogma Platonic — Its tendency heathen. \^Notes. 6. InsufEciency of Orthodox terms — 10. The Arian Mind Judaic — The New Platonic Trinity Arian, not Catholic] 367-375 II. — Arius, Alexander, and Constantine ; — Progress of the Heresy — Sect of Colluthus — The Deacon Athanasius — Arius condemned — Bishops favorable to Arius — Letters to and fro — Popular excitement — The Thalia of Arius — The Emperor interposes — His Letter on the subject — He sends Hosius as a mediator — Result of his Mis- sion — Arius and the Emperor — The new Ordeal for the Church. — \^Notes. 7. Arian boast of Superior Intellect — ii. Praises of Hosius 12. Baronius makes up History] 376-382 HI. — General Council of Nic^a : — Idea of a General Council — The Synod called — Nicsea — The Three Hundred and Eighteen — PapL nutius — Spyridion — Anti-Encratite Spirit — Acesius the Novatian — Alexander — Athanasius — Marcellus — Eusebius of Nicomedia Laymen at Nicsea — Heathen — a Philosopher converted — Or- der of business — Grievances disposed of — Arius rejected — Discussions and Debates — The term Consuhstantial — Begotten, not made — Objections answered — Spiritual things spiritually discerned — Leading debaters — Secundus, Theonas and Arius banished — The Paschal question settled — Novatians and Mele- tians — Rights of Metropolitans — Canons — Closing Session — Address to the Emperor — Final action — Banquet in the Palace — The Emperor warns the Clergy against long Sermons — Synodal Epistle. \_Notes. i. Reason is the Common Sense of the Church — Contents. xxvii 3. Allusions of the 318 — 4. Clergy and their Wives — 10. Explana- tion of Canon VI. — ii. Established usage the basis of Canon law — 12. Who presided in the Council — 13. Hosius not a legate of the Bishop of Rome — 17. Spurious correspondence asking Papal sanc- tion to the Act of the Council] 3S2-393 IV. — Constantine and S. Helena : — State of feeling in Rome — Un- gracious reception of the Emperor there — Domestic Tragedy — Crispus and Fausta — Death of Crispus — Death of Fausta — The Emperor and his Mother — Building of New Rome — Grand Schemes — Distribution of the Army — Peace Policy — Attempts at Reform — Church and State — Faults of Constantine — Pilgrimage of S. Helena — Her Good Works — The Holy Sepulchre — Its Recovery — S. Helena 4 ies — Council of Jerusalem. \^Notes, 3. Heathen superstitions of Constantine — 7. Saint- worship explained from Oriental Civil adulation — 13. Invention of the Cross] 394-401 V, — ^The Eusebius Faction, and Death of Arius : — Eusebius and Theognis sent into Exile — Arians recalled — Their Confession satis- factory to the Emperor — Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria — Arius repelled by him — The Eusebian Policy — Eustathius of Antioch deposed — Schism in Antioch — Other Victims — Charges against Athanasius — Councils of Caesarea and Tyre — Charges disproved — Council at Jerusalem — Arius received into Communion, Athanasius and Marcellus deposed — Athanasius confronts the Emperor — New Accusation — Athanasius exiled to Gaul — Arius to be publicly received in Constantinople — Prayer of Alexander — Sudden death of Arius — Effect of it on the People, and on the Emperor — He prepares for his End — Flattery rebuked — He is baptized — His Death and Funeral. \^Notes. 5. Gibbon, Milman, and Athanasius on the death of Arius — 6. Eusebius on the Death of Constantine — 7. The ‘‘ Superstition” of late Baptism] 401-410 VI. — CONSTANTIUS — Arian Sects AND SYMBOLS : — Aspect of the Arian question — The Church the refuge of Liberty — Confusion of things Sacred and Profane — The Church used by the State — The Arian Court party — The Church a witness against Persecution — Five Divisions of the Subject : — i. E 7 nperors — Constantine II. — Con- stans — Constantins — Eunuchs of the Palace — ii. Activity of the Eusebians — Weakness of Constantins — hi. Arian Creeds and Councils of Antioch, Sirmium, and Antioch again — xxvm Contents. Dated Creeds — Their evasive Character — iv. Arian Sects — The Semi-Arians — Their Symbol — Cyril of Jerusalem — Homoeans or Acacians — Anomoeans or Aetians — Eudoxius — Common ground of the Arian Sects. [Azotes, i. Athanasius on Persecution — lo. liosius signs the Creed of Sirmium] 410-418 VIL — CONSTANTIUS — Arian PERSECUTIONS: — V. Arian Persecutions — Council at Antioch and Second Exile of Athanasius — Innumerable Exiles in Rome — Council of Sardica — Schism begun between the East and West — Athanasius restored at the demand of Constans — His triumphant return — Sudden change on the death of Constans — Persecution renewed — Paul of Constantinople banished — Cruelties of Macedonius — Persecution extended to the West — Councils of Arles and Milan — S. Hilary of Poitiers — The Emperor kills by kindness — Fall of Liberius of Rome — Fall of Hosius — Athanasius forsaken — His escape from seizure — His Retreats and Activity — His abode among the Monks — Death of S. Antony — Security and Serenity among the Monks^Misrule in Alexandria — George of Cappadocia — Reign of Terror — Arian Quarrels — Council of Ancyra — A General Council called for — Meets at Ariminum and Seleucia — Homoean Triumph — General lapse precedes recovery — Arians part in two directions — Revival of zeal for Orthodoxy — Death of Con- stantins. \_Notes, I. Julius of Rome misunderstood by Socrates — 14. Story of Athanasius attended by a beautiful Virgin]... 418-430 VIII. — Times of Julian the Apostate: — C hange from Christianity to Philosophy — Julian’s early training — Later Studies — At Athens, with Gregory Nazianzen and Basil — Mental Conflict — Julian’s new Ideal — He is favored by Fortune — Becomes sole Emperor — Devotes him- self to a warfare against “ the Galilaean ” — Measures of Reform — Character of his Court — Acts of Justice — Pretended Toleration — Severities against Clergy and Laity — Mark of Arethusa — George the Arian — The Christians of Edessa — The Emperor’s Sneers — Athanasius again banished — The Grove of Daphne near Antioch — Removal of the Remains of S. Babylas — The Antiocheans sing — Rage and Cruelty of Julian — Milder Persecution — Idolatry restored — The Pagan Priests lukewarm — The People satirical — Julian’s liter- ary efforts — Cause of his Failure — Attempt to restore Judaism — Rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem begun — Its wonderful defeat — Invasion of Persia — Death of Julian — Prophecies going before it — Their meaning — Jovian Emperor — Valentinian, Valens. \^Notes, Contents. XXIX 5. Neo-Platonism and Julian— 9. Julian’s supernatural powers— 25. Fiery eruptions in the temple foundations at Jerusalem — 27. Gibbon open to ridicule — 29. Terminus beginning to retire.] 431-443 IX. — Times of Valens. — Sects and Schisms : Prospects of Peace — Do- natists in North Africa — Subdued — Restored under Julian — Their violence — Council at Alexandria on the return of Athanasius — Schism in Antioch — Meletius and Paulinus — The Luciferians — The West pacified — Movement towards Unity in the East — Nicene Creed confessed — Valens begins a fresh Arian Persecu- tion — Athanasius retires, and soon returns — Cruelty of Valens — Heresies from the Orthodox side — Marcellus and Photinus — Apolli- naris — Minor Arian Sects — Aerius — Eunomius — Macedonius — The tenn Hypostasis — Minor Errors — Collyridians, etc. — Manichaeans, Priscillianists, in the West — Vagaries without number — Trials of the Times — Damasus, Bishop of Rome — S. Jerome — The Schism con- tinued in Antioch — S. Jerome in Rome — Ascetic Doctrine — Death of Blesilla from fasting — Jerome obliged to leave the City. \^Notes. 3. The Circumcellions — 4. The Donatists suffered as Evil-doers, not as Errorists — 10. Meletius really Orthodox — 15. Theodoras consults Soothsayers — 18. Photinus and Marcellus — 28. S. Epiphanius — 30. Election of Damasus, Luxury of the Bishops of Rome]... 444-453 X. — S. Basil and S. Gregory: — C hampions of the Faith — S. Basil and Julian — Caesarea punished — Exciting election of a Bishop at Caesarea — Eusebius chosen — Two Parties — Basil’s retreat — The Charm of Monastic Life — Basil made Bishop — Popular Distresses in Caesarea — S. Basil at issue with Valens — Factious Spirit at Caesarea — Murmurs and false Charges against Basil — He is plagued by the Pride of the West — Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop of Sasima — He retires to Nazianzus — Athanasius dies — Succeeded by an Arian — Ambrose chosen Bishop of Milan — Gratian Emperor — Death of Valens and Basil — Gregory in Constantinople — The Anastasia — The Revival of Faith and Charity — Gregory defends the Divinity of the Holy Spirit — Theodosius Emperor — Churches restored to the Orthodox. l^Notes. 4. Nazianzen on Elections of Bishops — 7. The Elder Gregory — 12. Humor of Gregory — 20. Miraculous power dis- claimed] 454-462 XI. — Theodosius and the Second General Council : — Theodosius Orthodox — His zeal confirmed by an aged Bishop — The Council XXX Contents. of Constantinople — Its first business — Maximus the Cynic — He deceives Gregory — His plot — His enthroning as Bishop of Constant tinople — He is rejected and abandoned — The Council declares him no Bishop — Gregory enthroned — Question of the Schism at Antioch — Opposition to the meddlesome spirit of the West — Flavian elected- — Movement in the Council against Gregory — He resigns, and Nec- tarius is elected — The Council harmonized — The Creed completed and settled — The Canons — Synodical Epistle — Dissatisfaction of the West — Final approval of the Council — Gregory’s farewell to Constantinople — He lives a Recluse in Nazianzus — Conference of the Sects — Heresies forbidden by the Emperor — Temporary Con- fusion in the West — Growing Power of the Roman See — First genuine Decretal Epistle. \_Notes. 6. How Maximus was a Cynic — 9. Maximus dislikes the Tonsure — 10. The noble speech of Meletius — 12. Private Confession abolished under Nectarius — 13. Gregory’s saying against Councils — 14. The Nicaeno-Constanti- nopolitan Creed in full — 18. Gregory’s Poetry — 19. Gregory’s Silence] 463-472 XII. — Missions. — Monasticism. — S. Martin : — The Fourth Century polem- ical — The troubled Pool — Conversion of Iberia — The King’s prayer for Light — The Church persecuted in Persia — India or Abyssinia — The Goths on the Danube — Bishop Ulfilas — Conversion of the Sar- acens — The Seed sowing itself — Strength of Paganism in the rural parts — Monachism — Its economical uses — Extraordinary state of Society — S. Antony in the Wilderness — Innumerable other Monks — The Cenobium — Anchorets, Watchers, Pillar-saints — Married Monks — Monastic Wisdom — Maxims — Monastic Rules — A check upon Enthusiasm — Special Mission of the Monks — Preaching — Valens persecutes the Monks — S. Basil’s Rule — Early prejudice against Monachism in the West — S. Martin of Tours founds the first Western Monasteries — He is made Bishop — His Ascetic life — His field of labor in rural parts — His warfare against Superstition — Influence over the Pagans — Churches and Monasteries planted — Good service of the Monks — S. Martin forces his way into the Palace — His goodness of Heart — He pleads hard for the Priscillian- ists — He holds aloof from the Persecutors — His example a Rule of Mission Work — Splendor of the Church — The print of the Nails looked for — Monks the Country Missionaries. ^^Notes, 8. “ Eject- ment ” of laborers into the Vineyard — 9. For everrit some read evertit — 12. Mental state of the early Monks — 16. Monks preachers Contents. XXXI of Moderation — 17. Difference between Heathen and Christian Monachism 18. A Monastery, a Hospital — 19. Monks spoke the Vernacular^ 20. Monachism hated in the African Church — 21. Filth cultivated — 24. Miracles of S. Martin — 25. Wild Dreams of Monks — 27. Plea of the Bishops who persecuted the Priscillianists — 29. Monachism always in need of Reforms] 472—489 XIII. — Church and State. — Ambrose and Theodosius: — P osition of the Church settled by Theodosius — Privileges, Exemptions, and Honors under previous Emperors — The Lord’s Day — Heathen abuses corrected — But sacrifices allowed — Dread of Atheism — Constantius prohibited Sacrifices — Temples destroyed — Magic rites punished — The Church needing to be restrained by Law — Gratian the first to refuse the title of Pontiff — State Encroachments — The “ Episcopate from without ” — The Church encroaching in civil matters — Effect of this on the Roman Laws — Conflicts of Church and State— Ambrose of Milan — His Studies — His public Life — His Influence — Hostility of Justina — How the See of Sirmium was filled — Contest with Symmachus against restoring the Altar of Vic- tory — Pie refuses the demand of the Court for a Church for the Arians — The contest for the Basilicas — The New Basilica — Popular Excitement — The Soldiers submit — The Psalm for the Day — The Court yields — The Contest renewed the next year — Services night and day — Relics of the Martyrs Gervasius and Protasius — The Court yields again — Theodosius in Milan — Required to withdraw from the Sanctuary — Case of the burned Synagogue — The Emperor yields — Outrage at Thessalonica — The Emperor’s Revenge, and Massacre in Thessalonica — Letter of Ambrose — Penance of Theo- dosius — His Restoration — Triumph of the Church — Severe edicts against Idolatry — The Serapeum — Rats — Rhetorical avengers of Paganism — The Struggle long continued — Paganism finally con- quered towards the middle of the sixth Century. \^Notes. 12. Am- brose silences an Arian virgin — 13. Terminus retreating — 22. Soph- istry of passion in Ambrose — 24. Ambrose familiar with the doings in the Palace — 27. Divine honors to Theodosius on his Death — 29. Shouting at the Moon during an Eclipse — 32. Decrease of Conver- sions from Paganism] 489-505 xxxu Contents, BOOK V. CHAPTER I. — Nestorius and S. Cyril : — Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople — His Zeal against Heretics — His denial of the title Theotokos — Pre- paring for Battle — Cyril’s Paschal Epistle on the Incarnation — Three Sermons of Nestorius— His Doctrine, and Evasions — General Excitement — Sermon of Proclus — Answers of Nestorius — S. Cyril’s Early Career — His trying Position — His encroachment on the Civil Power — His excesses — Quarrel with Orestes — Hierax tortured — Massacre of the Christians — Expulsion of the Jews — Efforts for Peace — Orestes refuses Peace — Riot of the Monks — Ammonius called a Martyr — Hypatia — Suspicions against her — Barbarously murdered by the Christians — Fourteen years of Quiet — Character of S. Cyril — S. Isidore of Pelusium, his Monitor — Cyril and Nestorius — Nestorius and Celestine — Letters to the Roman Church — Council in Rome — John of Antioch writes to Nestorius — The Answer of Nestorius, full of Heresy and Pride — Cyril’s Twelve anathemas — Nestorius rejoins with twelve counter Anathemas. [^JVotes. 6. ‘‘ Every spirit which divide th Jesus Christ” — 7. Logical connection between the Nestorian and Pelegian heresies. — 9. Threefold bias of Socrates against Cyril — ii. Terrific Monks — 12. Hypatia unsexing herself revoltingly — 13. Parobolani — 16. Milman’s unfairness to Cyril — 18. Real Meaning of the word Anathema — 19. Transub- stantiation unknown 509-522 II,— Council of Ephesus. — Syrian Christianity : — Meeting of the Council — Debates while waiting for John of Antioch — The Council opened, in spite of Protests — Nestorius condemned — A Rival Council — The Court interferes — The deposition of Nestorius con- firmed — Cyril and John reconciled — Theodoret inclines to Nestorius — End of Nestorius — Spread of Nestorianism in Syria, Persia, and the further East — Peculiar Views of those called Nestorians, 523-528 III. — Eutyches and the Council of Chalcedon; — S trife between Dioscorus and Theodoret — Eutyches questioned at Constantinople — He asserts only One Nature in Christ — Three Forms of the Heresy — Eutyches condemned — A new Trial ordered — Character of Dioscorus — His colleagues in the Robber Council — Eutyches cleared, Flavianus and Eusebius condemned — Flavianus dies of his injuries — All records of the Robber Council destroyed — Mistake of Dioscorus as to the strength of Party Spirit — Leo demands a new Contents. XXXlll Council — The Emperor declines — Character and Reign of Theodo- sius II. — Pulcheria educates him — Monachism luxuriant in the Palace — Pilgrimage of Eudocia to Jerusalem — Strange forms of Asceticism — Liberality of the Empress — Sensuous enthusiasm — The Insane not shut up in the East — Relic Worship — Marcian, Emperor — Meeting of the Council of Chalcedon — Number and Order of the Bishops — Officers of the Empire preside — First busi- ness — Dioscorus on Trial — Dioscorus and his Colleagues con- demned — Dioscorus contumacious — The four definitions of the four General Councils — Leo’s famous Letter examined carefully, and accepted on its Merits, not on the Authority of the Roman See — Dioscorus banished — Hard case of his Egyptian Suffragans — A truce allowed them — Theodoret called up — He attempts to explain — A Hearing repeatedly denied him — He submits — The Canons — The Canon XXVHI. opposed by Rome — Acquiesced in at last. \_Notes, 7. Beauty of the Scenery at Chalcedon] ..529-541 IV. — The Monophysites : — Effect of the Council — Accepted by the Greek Intellect, not by the Oriental Nationalities — Troubles in Egypt — The new Patriarch rejected — Timothy the Cat — Proterius murdered — Decline of the Church in Egypt — Shadows cast before — Egyptian Monachism Coptic, not Greek — Conservative Elements — The Liturgies in the Vernacular — Monophysite Patriarchs reside in the Thebais — Coptic Christianity — Madness of the People — Entire Alienation — The Saracens preferred to the Orthodox — Gen- eral falling away — Similar effects in Palestine — Difference of a Letter — The real quarrel was between Greek sway and Nativism — Barsumas raging in Syria — ^Jacob Baradai — General Result — The Monophysite the same in principle with the Nestorian Heresy — Numberless Monophysite Sects — Dioscorians — Eutychians and Dioscorians anathematize one another in Syria — Policy of the Em- • perors — Leo proposes to ignore Chalcedon — Zeno’s Henotico 7 t — Schism between the East and West for thirty- five years — Anastasius punishes both those who accept and those who reject the Council of Chalcedon — Riots about the Trisagion in Constantinople — Anasta- sius resigns, and resumes, the Crown — Rebellion of Vitalian — Reconciliation with Rome, and establishment of the Authority of the Council of Chalcedon. \^Notes, 5. Exaggeration of Relig- ious Riots — 7. The Liturgies a Conservative Element — 8. S. Thomas traditionally the Apostle of Syria and the further East, to India] 541-550 XXXIV Contents. V. — ^Justinian and the Fifth General Council: — J ustinian a lay Pope and Persecutor — Theodora, head of the Opposition party — Public Works — S. Sophia — Reform of the Roman Laws — Roman Popery forced to yield to that of Constantinople — Tenets of Origen condemned — The Three Chapters — Pope Vigilius opposes at first, but at last anathematizes the Three Chapters — Fifth General Council meets at Constantinople — Constitutum of Vigilius ignored — The Three Chapters Condemned — Vigilius confesses that he was instigated by the Devil — The Monophysites not appeased — the Monks of Palestine aggrieved — Schisms in the West for a Century and a half — Justinian dies a Heretic at last — Plis successors meddle little with Theology — Heraclius recovers the Wood of the True Cross — First inroads of the Saracens. \^Notes. i. Public and Secret Histories of Procopius — 2. Theodora not to be condemned on tlje lies of Procopius — 4. A Monk’s Dream about Justinian — 10. Hon- esty and Piety of Evagrius the Historian] 55 o ~555 VI. — Monothelite Heresy and the Sixth General Council: — Edict of Heraclius affirming only one Will in Christ — Nature of the Heresy — The last Link of a long Chain of Efforts — Four Patriarchs deceived — Sophronius, a Monk, sounds the Alarm — Honorius, Bishop of Rome, commits himself to the Heresy — The Ecthesis of Heraclius — The Typus of Constans H. — Cruel treat- ment of Pope Martin — Barbarity towards others of the Orthodox — Saracen conquests — Jerusalem captured — Alexandria taken — Con- stantinople saved by the Greek Fire — The Saracens do homage for their possessions in Syria and Egypt — The Sixth General Council meets in Constantinople — Failure of an attempted Miracle — Pope Honorius anathematized — The Council affirms two Wills, and two Operations, without Division, Change, or Confusion — TheTrullan or Quinisext Council — One hundred and eleven Canons — This code of Canons not accepted in the West — Estrangement between East and West thereby increased — Futile attempt to condemn the Sixth General Council — The Monothelite Heresy lingered among the Maronites of the Libanus — They submit to Rome — The Work accomplished by the Age of the General Councils — The Faith kept. \_Notes, 3. The timeliness of great discoveries and Inventions — 4. Vain attempts to excuse Pope Honorius — 5. The Sneers of Gibbon and others in reference to the Historyof Controversy]. 555 ~ 5 ^o Appendix y on Pope Honorius 561-564 Index 5^5 BOOK I. THE APOSTOLIC AGE, FROM JOHN THE BAPTIST THE SECOND DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM, A.D. 30-135. HISTORY OF THE CHURCH Book I. CHAPTER I. THE ORGANIZATION. John the Fore- The history of the Church, being an account of the earthly growth or manifestation of God’s kingdom, is most properly introduced by the mission of John the Baptist, the Forerunner of the Messiah. He came preaching the Kingdom of Heaven near at hand. As his star de- clined, the theme was taken up by One mightier than he ; who, proclaiming the same tidings, sent forth His disciples two by two before His face, to preach to the Jews, saying. The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. This prophesying continued to the close of the earthly ministry of our Lord, a period of about three years.* And as the Kingdom of God was the burden of all preaching at that time, so it was the object of universal and earnest ex- pectation. The Law and the Prophets continued until John ; * According to Dr. Jarvis, the Annunciation took place in March, and the Birth of our Lord on December 25, of the year 4707, J. P. ; He began His ministry 30 years after, January 6, of 4738 ; He was crucified on March 26, rose March 28, and ascended May 6, of 4741, J. P. ; there being 33 years and about 3 months between the Birth and Crucifixion. See Chronological Intro- duction to the Hist, of the Church, by the Rev. S. F. Jarvis, D.D., LL.D. For dates in this vol. see Riddle, Ecc. Chron. History of the Church. Notes of the Church. but when the fulness of the times revealed a higher Dispen- Exfecta- men, consciously or unconsciously, were ^Kingdom^ pressing towards it. Among the Jews devout men were waiting for the Kingdom. ^ Among the Gen- tiles, Poets sang of Saturnian rule : Philosophers dreamed of ideal commonwealths. Wise men from the East came with regal gifts to the cradle of the Lord. Rude soldiers from the West flocked with scribes and pharisees, publicans and sinners, to the baptism of repentance proclaimed by John the Baptist. Our Lord himself preached the Kingdom chiefly under the Parables, form of similitudes or parables. In a series of simple pictures, drawn from familiar scenes and ordinary callings, yet so nicely delineated that every stroke and shade has a meaning of its own. He left an inexhaustible treasure of the notes, or prominent features of the Church. The promised reign was to be earthly in its position, heavenly in its character p it was to be established everywhere it was to embrace the common social mixture of good and evil f it was to be subject to all the vicissitudes of natural growth and progress, 7 yet to vindicate its divine origin by a wondrous vital- ity,® and power of persistence and endurance:^ in short, it was to be visible and invisible, present and future, natural and supernatural, a mystery, and to some a stumbling-block, till its complete and triumphant manifestation at the end of time. Our Lord taught more clearly, that the Head of this dispensa- tion was to be absent in body, though present in Spirit ; and in His absence its affairs were to be administered by servants, having all a charge in common, yet each with his own share of trust and responsibility.” ^S. Luke, xvi. i6. 4 S. John, xvii. 15, 16. ^ S. Matt. xiii. 26. ^ S. Mark, iv. 31, 32. S. Matt. xi. 6 ; S. John, xvii. 14. The parable of the pound indicates the common trust, that of the talents the different degrees of responsibility. S. Luke, xix. 12-25 ; S. Matt. XXV. 15. 3 S. Mark, xv. 43. 5 S. Matt. xiii. 33. 7 S. Mark, iv. 27, 28. 9 S. Matt. xvi. 18. The Organizatio7i. 3 The works of Jesus, also, were evidently intended to be sig- nificant of the reign He came to establish among men. works of They were ‘‘signs’^ of the kingdom: parables in ac- Jesus, tion. To the inquiry of the Baptist, whether the promised One had come, it was deemed an amply sufficient answer that ‘Hhe lame walked, the blind saw, the deaf heard, lepers were cleansed, the dead were raised,’^ and, as the crowning boon of all, that the poor had the Gospel preached to them.'^ It is not neces- sary to show here, how many of these miracles are capable of a typical, allegorical, or even prophetic application, foreshadow- ing certain features of the history of the Church.^^ Jt is enough to notice, in general, that they are miracles of mercy rather than of power ; and in reference to the office of the State, or of society, are of a complementary , not antagonistic character. They show that Christ came not to destroy, but to complete, to fill up. His kingdom full of grace and truth was to leaven all other kingdoms ; to infuse its own spirit into all other organ- izations; but, in the meantime, to address itself to objects not contemplated in the scheme of political societies, nor indeed capable of being profitably undertaken by them. Duty to Caesar, therefore, can never interfere with duty to God. Be- tween the two there is no rivalry, no antagonism. The king- dom, though in the world, is not of the world. Such, in substance, was the teaching of our Lord, both in Matt. xi. 3. *3 Thus, the two fishing scenes (S. Luke, v. 6 , and S. John, xxi. ii), the one before and the other after the Resurrection, the one with a net broken from the number of fishes, the other with the net unbroken, became symbols of the Church militant and the Church triumphant : so with the two voyages of our Lord’s Disciples, which gave rise to that beautiful and expressive sym- bol of the heavenward-bound ship : so with many other images familiar to readei*s of the early Church fathers. Strauss, in his famous Leben fiesu, sees only this typical character of the miracles, and therefore treats them as myths. The early Fathers saw the same doctrinal and prophetic significance of the miracles, but were only the more convinced thereby that they were facts, namely divine facts. For the more meaning a fact has in it, the more divine it is. See Olshausen’s Com. p. 356 (Am. ed.). 4 History of the Church. His words and works. The same complementary character distinguished His ethical precepts, and discourses to the people. Not novelty but harmony, completeness, and above all, authority, made His words such as never man spake. As the great seed-sower of the kingdom. He announced principles rather than dogmas : principles, which are ever budding with new life, whose vitality is as vigorous and fresh now, as when it first awakened the dull minds of the Disciples. It may be observed further, that in His way of announcing these principles He was the model of all teachers. The ancient philosophers, with perhaps one exception,'^ had in the promulgation of high truths addressed themselves exclusively to an elevated class. They had affected a knowledge which could be communicated only to the initiated few. It was a peculiarity of our Lord’s instructions, that while they contained the profoundest truths, they were couched in language so per- fect in form, so beautiful, so simple, so catholic, that though an angel may fail to penetrate their depth, yet a child may receive them with delight, and draw instruction from them. There was, therefore, no need of the ‘^reserve,” or disciplina arcani^ affected by the philosophers. What was whispered in the ear was expressed in terms which could equally well be proclaimed from the house-top. But as our Lord preached the kingdom He proceeded Ministry P^i^i pcissu to prepare and organize its Ministry ; organized. foundation ill Himself, as Prophet, Priest, and King, and in that chosen company of disciples, His ‘‘friends” and fellow-workers, who by faith and a special call- ing first became partakers of His life-giving nature. Himself the Rock and the living Stone, He made living stones of those whom He had enabled to confess Him."^ This He did, how- ever, only by degrees, and in proportion as the character of His mission was gradually unfolded. *4 Namely, Socrates ; who was much ridiculed by the polished Athenians for clothing divine philosophy in the language of mechanics and shopkeepers. ^sS. Matthew, xvi. i8; i Pet. ii. 4, 5; Ephes. ii. 20; Rev. xxi. 14. 5 The Organization. Baptized in the Jordan unto the baptism of John, and sealed by the Witness and the Spirit from the Father, He began the prophetic ministry already spoken of in this chapter. Prophetic and made both the Twelve and the Seventy partakers of the same. As He preached the coming kingdom and wrought signs,'' He sent them before His face with a like message and like powers. By a wonderful course of minute teaching, of which the substance only is recorded in the Gospels,*^ He trained them the meanwhile for positions of higher trust after- wards to be given. So in the second stage of His ministerial work : when, on the night in which He was betrayed. He entered upon the exercise of His priestly office ^ offering Himself a willing offering for the sin of the whole world. He instituted a solemn memorial of His death and sacrifice, and commissioned the Apostles*^ to continue the same mystic rite in remembrance of Him. So, finally: when He began to enter upon His reign^ having risen from the dead, a kingy victorious over hell, and endued with all power in heaven and in earth. He gave them the full commission so often before promised sending them forth as the Father had sent Him, tcf make disciples of all nations, to evangelize and bap- tize, to minister in things sacred, to bind and loose, to teach, to John, xxi. 25. *7 In the Christian Church, as in the Jewish — (i Pet. ii. 5, and Exod. xix. 6) — the kingly and priestly character belongs to all believers, all being par- takers of Christ the Head. But, as it belongs to Christ in one sense, and to His people in another, so it belongs to the ministry in a third sense. It belongs to Christ absolutely^ as Head; to the ministry ministerially ^ as repre- senting Christ to His people ; and to His people derivatively^ as His body, representing Him to the world at large. In the following work, however, I use the terms kingly, priestly, and prophetic,” in their larger sense, chiefly: as indicating respectively the ministry of government — of rites ^ sacraments ^ etc., — and of that otit-going activity in works of mercy , with preaching, teaching, etc., which is preparatory to the more exact training in the Church. S. Matt. xvi. 17-19; xix. 28; S. Mark, i. 17. In such passages there is a promise. In S. Matt, xxviii. 18, etc., etc., there is the actual gift of authority. 6 History of the Church. rule, and, in short, to be His Apostles or Ambassadors to the end of time. To this He added final and particular instructions ; fre- quently appearing to the disciples during the space of forty The^reat Performing miracles profoundly significant"^ of Forty Days, the Spiritual character of His reign, and speaking to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom. Having thus provided for the earthly future of His kingdom, like a prince, who, about to journey into a far country, commits the management of his estate to chosen ministers or stewards,"” He gave His parting benediction to the Disciples ; went away from TheAscen- i ascended triumphantly into heaven, and sat Sion, down in His proper place at the right hand of God. From the day of the Ascension, the Disciples waited in TheDiscU J^J^usalem, for ^^the promise of the Father:*’ that “power” of the Holy Ghost, which should enable them to do the work committed to them, first in Jeru- salem and Judaea, then in Samaria, and finally among all nations to the utmost borders of the earth. They were now an Ecclesiay a spiritual commonwealth or The Form- society, duly called, trained, instructed, and com- ^Qitckfn- missioned for God’s work; but it remained for the Spirit to give life and energy to their ministry. They were a house rightly ordered, with the candles set upon candle- sticks, and each thing in its place ; but it needed a divine Light to light the candles, that the order of the house might be made apparent. They were, in short, an organized body, fitly joined and compacted ; but, as in the original creation God first formed man of the dust of the earth, and then breathed into his nos- trils that breath of life by which man became a living soul, so, * 9 S. Luke, xxiv. 31; S. John, xx. 19; xxi. i-ii. *0 S. Matt. XXV. 14. Ecclesia — concilium, conciliabulum, sy nodus, collegium, by which names it was often called in early times. The term “kingdom” applies to it only as complete in Christ the Head. We pray, therefore, “Thy kingdom come.” We wait for “ His appearing and His Kingdom.” The Pentecostal Gift. ^ in the mystical Body of Christ, the framing and the quickening were kept distinct from one another. The Word had The King fashioned and created, the Spirit was to quicken. The King had organized, the Paraclete was to inspire, and energize, and guide: to give practical efficiency to the whole order and administration. In the meantime, however, the Disciples did not await in idleness the advent of the promised Paraclete. They continued with one accord in prayer and supplication; and as a breach had been made in their body by the apostasy of Judas, they elected one of their number to fill the vacant place. Matthias Matthias was duly chosen by the action of the Disci- chosen, pies, and by the will of God. He took the Bishopric of Judas, and was numbered among the twelve Apostles. ♦ CHAPTER II. THE PENTECOSTAL GIFT. When the promised Day arrived, it found the Disciples, thus, in the fulness of their number as originally called. There were about one hundred and twenty names enrolled, z /• among whom were the Twelve, and probably the Seventy, all belonging to that devout class of Jews who are described as waiting for the Kingdom. Besides these there were possibly as many as five hundred,* male and female, who were included under the general name of Brethren. Not this larger number, however, but probably only the smaller one first mentioned, were assembled ‘‘in one place ” on the Day of Pentecost. At the same time, in compliance with the Law, and by vir- 8 History of the Church. tue of a long course of providential Preparation,® there was a TheAs^ much larger concourse of devout and faithful Jews, 7/devfut come up from every quarter to the annual yews. Feast of the First Fruits. For the Israelites, at this time, were at home everywhere. In the expressive language of the Prophet, they were ‘^sown** anaong the nations; they were Prepara upon the grass'* of heathen society, pre- UoH. paring the field for the sickle of the Gospel reapers. They were bearing an ecumenical witness to the unity of the Godhead. It was as representatives, then, of a vast system of preparation, that these devout Jews, the Flower of the Dis- persion, had once more assembled to wait upon the Lord, and to give utterance to that unceasing prayer of the Jewish heart, “Lord, wilt Thou, at this time, restore again the Kingdom to Israel ? * * The congregation of the Disciples was thus in the midst of the Assembly of devout Hebrews, the Dispersion, the Nations, as the “little leaven hid in three measures of meal.** It re- quired but a breath from on high to enable that leaven to leaven the whole lump. How that Breath came, in a way as beautifully significant as Descent miraculous, filling the whole house wherein the Disciples were assembled, and what was the imme- diate result, is familiar to every reader of the Acts of the Apostles. It is sufficient to note here, that though three thousand souls were forthwith converted to the Gospel, and though every day *The Preparation for Christianity is the history of Civilization in the ancient world. As the Law was a Pcedagogus leading men to Christ, so, also, says S. Clement of Alexandria, was the philosophy or culture of the Greeks. The same good Providence was manifest in both. On this subject see Bossu- et’s Histoire Universelky Jarvis’s Church of the Redeemed^ and Neander’s In- troduction. This last, however, is a history of the preparation for the Gospel merely; whereas the progress of civilization among the ancients, both Jews and Greeks, prepared the way equally for the Gospel and the Church. Mosheim’s first chapter dwells too much on the negative preparation; i,e.^ upon the fail- ure of everything that preceded Christianity. The Pentecostal Gift. 9 afterwards added to the number, the Apostles were at no loss in establishing order among the multitudes who thus eagerly pressed in. The divine instructions in ^^the given. things pertaining to the Kingdom,’* recently received, had doubtless prepared them for so great an emergency. Accord- ingly, those who believed were baptized. Upon those baptized, the Apostles laid their hands, imparting to them gifts,” which, in the lack of a sufficient number of duly trained Ministers, seem to have fitted the whole body for some share in the great work, and to have made the ministry, for a while, almost coextensive with the Church itself. ^ At all events, the converts freely of- fered themselves, and all they had, to the disposal of the Apostles. In this way the foundation of the Church was laid in that race, or rather in that blessed and covenanted ^‘rem- nant,” to which it had been originally promised. The chosen people continued the chosen people still. Jews were the first proclaimers of the Gospel ; Jews its first converts; the first demonstration of its order, as of its power, was in a community exclusively Judaic. And the application of this principle was not confined to Jerusalem, or Palestine only. These Pentecostal con- in aii parts verts, sojourners as many of them were in far distant lands, could hardly have failed, after a while, to return to the places of their dispersion, and to spread the glad tidings of what they had seen and heard. ^ As S. Paul testified not many years after,^ the sound of the Gospel went out into all Judaic Founda^ tion. of the World. 3 The “gifts” were given ^^for the perfecting fitting) of the saints believers), (or literally into or unto') work of ministry,” etc. Ephes. iv. 7-12. The word “ ministry ” I understand in its larger sense, as including all kinds of service to the Church. 4 Among the first preachers mentioned in the Acts were “Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch^' “Ananias,” a “disciple” in Damascus, “men of Cyprus and Cyrenef and Lucius, of Cyrene; to whom may be added Saul of Tarsus, and Apollos of Alexandria. Acts, vi. 5 ; ix. 10; xi. 20; xiii. I, etc. 5 Rom. X. 18. lO History of the Church. lands, its words to the ends of the world. Through Judaism, as through a vast nervous tissue, the notes of the Pentecostal trumpet were indefinitely prolonged. Everywhere Israelites be- lieved, or had opportunity to believe. Of the wide-spreading tree of Judaism, therefore, it might truly be said, that the stock which contained the faith, not merely the blood, of Abraham, was renovated and saved by reception of the Gospel : the unbe- lieving branches were alone cut off.^ ♦ CHAPTER III. THE TWELVE IN JERUSALEM. The Apostles remained in Jerusalem, for a period, it is sup- Tweive posed, of about twelve years; making frequent excur- Yeture, ^ Icsson, Only that short segment of her existence is made visible to posterity, in which she vouches, as it were, for the real and perfect Humanity of her blessed and only Son. Tradition, or, as seems more probable, heretical invention, ^ endeavored in later times to fill this blank. Joachim and Anna, Legends ^ blamelcss pair, were both well stricken in years, and and Tra~ unblest with offspring ; for which, however, they con- tinued to pray without ceasing. The latter, on one occasion, in the fervor of her petitions, dared to go within the Holy of Holies, which the high-priest alone is allowed to enter. There her prayer was granted ; and an Angel, at the same moment, announced the good news to Joachim, then far away in the desert. To this some heretics added, that the birth of the Virgin was as immaculate and miraculous as her concep- tion had been. It was more generally believed, on similar authority, that she lived secluded in the Temple from her third to her fourteenth year, and devoted herself to a life of voluntary virginity. In the same way, while some have supposed, on the authority of a passage of doubtful meaning in the Acts of the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus, that she died and was buried 4 Her being thus left to John is fatal to the weak argument made by Neander and some others, in favor of the theoiy that James of Jerusalem was her son. James survived, till just before the Judaic war; his brothers (as we learn from Hegesippus in Eusebius) were still alive, as eminent Christian men, and landowners, though not rich, towards the end of the century. All of these, leading a quiet and stationary life among their own kin, were in a better position to take care of her, had she been their mother, than John could have been. 5 These stories were of Gnostic or Ebionite invention ; many of the early sects pretending to a secret tradition unknown to the Catholic Church. 59 Holy Women. in that city, others have preferred the later legend, that she came to her end in Jerusalem, and after three, or, as some will have it, forty days, rose from the dead, and was assumed, soul and body, into heaven. But all these notions, and innumerable others of the same kind, are without the least show of historic foundation. They first saw the light in times long after the age of the Apostles; and it is universally acknowledged^ that the writings in which they first appear are utterly apocryphal and full of fables.’^ The same is to be said of the stories concerning Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and other faithful women who ministered to our Lord. Of the Prophetesses, Deaconesses, Wid- other Holy ows, and other devout handmaidens of the Lord men- ^omen. tioned in the Acts and the Epistles, the traditions are equally vague and unsatisfactory. If the legends connected with them have any value, it is merely that, as a dark and confused background, they bring into clearer light the dignity and simplicity of the Gospel Narratives. To the honored names recorded by Inspiration, Tradition has added a few, such as that of S. Theda, the first female martyr; and that of Domitilla, a niece of the Empe- , SS. Theda ror Domitian, and wife of Flavius Clemens his cousin, and Domitilla. who, with a great number of others, was put to death for Atheism and J^ewish manners ; in other words, for the pro- fession of Christianity. 7 Domitilla suffered exile for the Faith. S. Theda, a maiden of Iconium, converted by S. Paul on his first visit to that region, devoted herself, it is said, to a life of virginity; left a luxurious home, breaking off her engageftient to a noble youth ; accompanied S. Paul in his travels ; per- formed many wonders ; and, after a miraculous deliverance from ® See Tillemont, Baronius, the Bollandists, et al. The caution with which Roman Catholic writers endeavor to sustain the credit of the tissue of wonders connected with the name of S. Mary, while demolishing the credit of the earliest witnesses to those wonders, is most remarkable. Tillemont’s notes are particularly instructive. Me7noires pour Servir d T Hist. Eccles. tom. i. 7 See Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, etc., vol. i. ch. xvi. 6o History of the Church. the beasts of the Roman Amphitheatre, seems to have died in peace. Her name, widely celebrated in the early Church, heads a long list of highly intellectual as well as holy women, to whom Christianity and virginity were pledges of a freedom,^ which in heathen society was more or less denied them. Her acts, however, first written by a Presbyter of Asia Minor, whom S. John deposed on account of the many false- hoods contained in his book,^ are manifestly entitled to little or no credit. CHAPTER XI. CHURCH GOVERNMENT. That all powers necessary for the establishment and subsequent government of the Church were committed in the first place to the Eleven, and afterwards to those who, either by All powers j i i given to election or by an immediate Divine call, were added to their number, there can be no reasonable question. These all were Apostles, or Legates of Him who is the Apos- tle of our profession,” the One sent forth by the Father, to be Prophet, Priest, and King. But the mission He had received from the Father, He gave in its fulness to them. The Apostles, therefore, were the ecumenical, catholic, per- petual Ministry. Collectively, they attended to mat- ters of general concernment : individually, each had a charge, ^ The preference given to virginity in the early Church tended to elevate woman in the social scale. She could marry, or not, of her own free choice. She was no longer an article to be disposed of, sometimes in infancy or child- hood, by guardians or parents. It is remarkable how many of the female martyrs were virgins, who had refused to marry heathen husbands, to whom they had been thus betrothed. 9 Tert. De Bap. 17 ; Hier. De Vir. ill. 7. It is S. Jerome only who men- tions the name of S. John. by the Apostle and High Priest. Church Government. 6i or field, the limits of which would be determined by mutual consent,* or on general principles of equity and convenience. In their relations to one another, they were ‘‘ broth- Brothers ers,” colleagues, peers. They called no man ‘‘father’* Colleagues, on earth. According to the type of the old Theoc- racy, a “kingdom” was given to them; but the Head was to be invisible till the time of the final “ appearing and kingdom ” of Jesus Christ. Such was the ministry, as called, and trained, and commis- sioned by our Lord himself. That it was to be the abiding Order, is seen, not only in the promise of perpetuity The abid- contained in the words, “ Lo, I am with you always, Order. even to the end of the world,” but also in the fact that the term “Apostolic” has continued in all times and places to be one of the four “notes,” or definitions, of the “One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.”'* * Gal. ii. 9; Rom. xv, i6. 2 Among modem German writers on this subject, Mosheim acknowledges the early rise of Episcopacy, and is almost disposed to grant that James was Bishop of Jerusalem. He confounds Bishops, however, with Diocesans or See-bishops ; forgetting that Bishops at Ihrge, missionary Bishops, etc., have existed in all ages. Dr. Schaff is entangled in the same error, and while he professes to give the arguments pro and con, he misstates the argument for Episcopacy, and so neutralizes its force. Neander denies altogether the exist- ence of a clerus, or clerical order in the Apostolic Church. Dr. Ease starts from the point that “ the Twelve Apostles at first regarded themselves as a perfected or exclusive college for the establishment of Christianity in the world but, in referring to the establishment they made in Jerusalem, omits all mention of James. In this way, he staves off Episcopacy till the times of S. Ignatius, and accounts for it (as some rationalists account for the existence of the world) by the concurrent power of circumstances.” Gieseler very fully grants the early establishment of Episcopacy in Jerusalem, in the person of James. Thiersch (the Irvingite) treats the subject as many Anglicans have done, except that on a very fine point (the position of S. John relatively to the seven angels) he builds up a theory of an Episcopacy of three orders, viz.. Apostles, Angels, Bishops. Rothe makes Episcopacy to have been established by the Apostles in council, at the election of Symeon (Euseb. iii. ii). Other Germans have adopted different shades or mixtures of these various views. Among Anglican writers, I may mention Bilson’s Perpetual Divine Govern- 62 History of the Church. By calling the Seventy to the same ministry with the Twelve, though in a secondary capacity, our Lord established a semi- Ap toi'c were, for a second and larger growth of Aids or Apostolic leaders. 3 The name Disciples given to them implies that, while fulfilling a temporary mission as ‘‘prophets of the kingdom,” they were in training and expec- tation of a more enduring office. Accordingly, from their ranks Matthias was elected to the vacant bishopric of Judas. Barna- bas, also, was probably one of these. So, likewise, S. Luke, and many others afterwards called Apostles. In imitation of this system of a secondary Apostolate, we find in after times that each of the chief Apostles was accompanied in his labors by a chosen company of sons, disciples, brothers, colleagues, yoke-fellows, sometimes called Apostles or Messengers of the Churches, who held to their principals some such relation as Joshua to Moses, as Elisha to Elijah, as the sons of the prophets to the prophets, or as the Twelve more recently had held to our ment as a work less read than it deserves : also, among American authors, Onderdonk, On Episcopacy^ Mines’s Presbyterian^ etc., Wilson, Church Iden- tified, In the following chapter Ifjiave given (perhaps) mpre weight to the collegiate principle than is commonly conceded to it. 3 Dr. Schaff sees in the calling of the Seventy a reference to the Gen- tiles ; but arbitrarily distinguishes the secondary Apostles as Evangelists, Of the eight whom he so designates, not one is so called in the New Testament; while the term apostles (translated “ messengers,” Phil. ii. 25 ; 2 Cor. viii. 23) of the Churches is applied to many of S. Paul’s companions. Timothy, in one place (2 Tim. iv. 5), is exhorted to do the work of an Evangelist. But this does not prove him to have been an Evangelist only^ any more than Acts, xiii. I, would prove Paul or Barnabas to have been ‘‘ prophets” only. Dr. Schaff mentions Mark and Luke among his Evangelists — because, I suppose, they are commonly so called. But, on the same principle, he might have in- cluded Matthew and John. The truth is, the term Evangelist means simply one who had an extraordinary ‘^gift” for preaching the Gospel, and in that sense S. Paul was the chief of Evangelists — but none the less, however, an Apostle in the full sense of the word. I may here remark, that in the 13th canon of Neo-C?esarea (a.d. 315) the Village Bishops are said to be “in imita- tion of the LXX.,” and therefore “ fellow-officers in the same service” with the City Bishops. Church Government. 63 Lord himself. Being endowed with special gifts — ^‘Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers*' — being designated in some cases by ‘^prophecies going before,*’ being employed in the larger^fields of labor as Apostles of the Churches, being personally acquainted, moreover, with the Apostles* “doctrine, purpose, and manner of life,** they were in some sense their disciples, or sons, but in another sense their aids, or fellow- laborers. Thus, Timothy was more than once clothed with the full authority of S. Paul. His name, like that of second Titus, Sosthenes, and Silvaj:ius,^ is associated with S. ^thT%o{~ Paul’s in the superscription of Epistles. All that they toiate. lacked, during the lifetime of S. Paul, was a field of primary or separate jurisdiction. But, in serving thus in a secondary position, they simply followed the example of their leader. For it is to be observed that, during his ministry in Antioch, Saul himself was reckoned last among a company of “ prophets,” of which Barnabas was first. So, in the first missionary journey, he was second to Barnabas. It was twelve years or more after his first calling by our Lord, that he assumed a primary position as an Apostolic leader.^ Such, then, was the catholic or ecumenical ministry of the Church : at first, one Apostolic company of Twelve, resident in Jerusalem : afterwards, when the door to the Gen- One College tiles had been opened, numerous companies or colleges at first, . . . then many. of the same kind, acting dispersedly but harmoniously in all quarters of the world. The collegiate principle, which is manifest in all this, was never abandoned in the Church. Even when each great city came to have its own Bishop, the principle was retained in that ancient canon which required two The Prin- or three prelates to concur in Episcopal ordinations ; and still more fully, in the custom of annual or semi-annual Synods. Wherever truth was to be proclaimed with fulness of authority, as against some heresy, for example, the “great com- pany of preachers” was obliged to come together. 4 I Cor. i. I ; 2 Cor. i. i ; Phil. i. i ; Col. i. i ; i and 2 Thessal. i. I. 5 Acts, xiii. I, 2; xiv. 14; xv. 12, 25. 64 ¥ History of the Church. Local Ministry; Presbyters.^ DeaconSy •with a Chief- Pastor y or Bishof. The sojourn of the Twelve in Jerusalem, the only Church founded by the original Apostolic College, enabled them to es- tablish in that great centre the first pattern and exam- ple of a local Church.^ There were Presbyters, or Elders, who, being sometimes called Bishops, or Over- seers, may, for the sake of clearness, be distinguished as Presbyter-Bishops, To them were added the Seven, afterwards called Deacons, Finally, the work of organizing the mother Church at Jerusalem being duly accomplished, James, an Apostle, and probably one of the original Twelve, was put in special charge of that important See ; and the other Apostles, leaving its government to him, separated, and departed on their respective missions. From that time forth, James stands before us in a twofold ^ relation. He is an Apostle, reckoned first among the fames an Apostle- three main ‘‘pillars’^ of the universal Church. He is Bishop. ^ a local Chief-pastor, Bishop, or Overseer. We may call him, therefore, by way of distinction, the Apostle-Bishop of the See of Jerusalem. ^ Now, what the Apostles did collectively with regard to the mother See, they afterwards did severally, though from the dif- ference of circumstances somewhat more slowly, with regard to other Churches in the limits of their respect- ive missions. Wherever a Church was founded. Pres- byters or Bishops^ were ordained. To them a certain oversight, subject to that of the Apostolic founder, was duly committed. They could preach, teach, minister in things sacred, and act in The same System elsewhere. ^ “ The new Churches out of Palestine formed themselves after the pat- tern of the mother Church in Jerusalem .... James .... stood in Jerusa- lem, where he continued to reside, at the head of the Churchy in equal esteem with the Apostles .... quite in the relation of a later Bishop, but without the appellation.” Gies. Ecc, Hist. § 30. (Smith’s Am. Ed.) 7 Gal. i. 19; ii. 12; Acts, xii. 17; xv. 13; xxi. 18. ^ I assume the identity of meaning of these two names in the New Tes- tament, though there is high authority among sound critics for making a dis- tinction. Those who make the distinction can put the origin of city Sees and resident Bishops a little earlier than it is put in this chapter. Clinch Government. 65 matters of discipline and doctrine as a kind of local council, senate, or sanhedrim. Deacons were in like manner appointed, with a special view to the administration of the charities of the Church. The proper sphere of woman, as a help-meet Deaconesses, for man, in the higher as well as lower cares of life, was acknowledged in the assignment of certain charitable offices to Deaconesses and Widows,^ the same, perhaps, that are some- times called elder women, or Presbyteresses. The Eider Churches, thus organized by each particular Apostle, ^omen, continued to be the objects of his paternal care ; were visited by him, or by some one of his company, at certain intervals; and, on the natural and equitable principle of each limiting his supervision to the line of his own labors, constituted his field or jurisdiction. Thus S. Paul was Apostle-Bishop of Ephesus, Corinth, and many other places. The assignment of one resi- dent head to each city Church was naturally reserved, until the number of Christians in each place, and the number of persons duly qualified and trained as ‘‘Apostles of Churches,^’" ren- dered such an arrangement desirable and practicable. This simple order, by which the government of each local Church was so admirably knit to that of the Church at large, was everywhere quickened, as it were, by the charis- charisms, mala, largesses, or special “ gifts,'' which followed the Gifts. triumphant Ascension of our Lord to the Right Hand of the Majesty on High. Such “gifts" were needed as a “sign." In the lack of a sufficient number of persons duly educated for the office, they fitted a great mass of believers Tor some useful part in “the work of the Ministry," and were among the chief in- struments of the supernatural growth of the Church. Among these, the “gift" to be Apostles naturally held the first place. Close akin to this were the special endowments which distinguished the fit persons for Prophets, Evan- gelists, Pastors, Teachers, Those who exhibited signs of the possession of these higher gifts, seem generally to have 9 I Tim. V. 9; Tit. ii. 3; Phil. iv. 3. I Cor. iv. 14-21 ; 2 Cor. x. 15, 16. 2 Cor. viii. 23. Their Order, 66 History of the ^urch. been enrolled in the companies of the Apostles. Last of all were a crowd of inferior talents, miracles, healings, helps, gov- ernments, diversities of tongues, and the like, which continued so short a time that the very meaning of the names is only matter of conjecture. This wonderful profusion of extraordinary gifts for the Min- istry is no essential part of the Ministry itself. It was simply a Their gracious provision for a single and peculiar crisis. It Purpose, belonged to the sowing, or planting season. It was that flowering, or blossoming of the Tree of Life, which partly anticipated, and partly developed the fruits of ordinary intel- lectual and spiritual culture. Like the parallel phenomenon of the Old Testament"^ — the outbreak, namely, of the spirit of prophecy in the Camp, while the order of the Tabernacle was being established — it opened the way, and gave a Di- Type, vine sanction, or sign, to the necessary division and distribution of ministerial functions. As S. Paul declares : The gifts were given, ^‘in order to fit believers for ministerial work’^ — to fit them ‘‘for the edification,*’ or building up “of the Body of Christ.”'^ When this miraculous fitting of men for the Ministry had been sufficiently accomplished ; when, according to what seems to be the drift of the lively mixed metaphors of the Apostle, the Church had weathered the com- paratively unsettled and critical time of its infancy, and was *2 Numbers, xi. 24-30. *3 If any notions of parity existed among the early Christians, nothing could more effectually have rebuked such notions, and prepared men’s minds for a system of subordinated grades in the Ministry, than the ineasure in which the gifts were given. See Rom. xii. 3. Ephesians, iv. 12-16; in which passages S. Paul declares (i) the occa- sion of these gifts, viz., the Ascension in triumph ; (2) their nature, viz., to be Apostles, Prophets, etc., etc. ; (3) their object, viz., Trpdf KarapTLGiibv — “ for fitting,” adapting, perfecting — “the saints,” elq — “into ministerial work,” etc. ; (4) their duration, viz., till the Church, having passed its infant state, arrives at the well-compacted proportions of a mature and settled manhood, i. e., till it should be strong enough to be left to the laws of ordinary and his- toric growth. Chicrch Government. 67 hardening into the definite proportions of maturer manhood ; when, in short, its organic connection with Christ, the Head, had been compacted by the development of all the joints and bands of a harmonious system of order : then, prophecies began to fail ; then, tongues began to cease ; then, miraculous knowl- edge vanished away ; then, the gifts, in short, and the beautiful and marvellous ministration of gifts, were quietly withdrawn from the sphere of human experience ; and ordinary gifts, or talents, took their place. And this is confirmed by observing the difference made by our Lord between that preparatory and extraordinary commission given to the Twelve and the Seventy when they were Difference sent forth two by two as Prophets of the Kingdom, and Temp^ary that perpetual charge laid upon the Twelve when they Per^nanent were sent forth with full powers to preach the Gospel. Mission. In the former commission He says : Preach the Kingdom of Heaven at hand, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.’^ The power to do wonders is an essential part of their mission. But in the latter commission He says : Go ye out into all the world, preach the Gospel to every creature, baptize, teach all things that I have commanded ; and lo ! I am with you always, even to the end of the world.** No extraordinary power is embodied in their commission. For, though miraculous gifts are afterwards alluded to, it is not in connection with the Ministry, but with the Church in general. These signs shall follow them that believe.** From all which it is evident that while the gift fitted men to be able Ministers of God, and sometimes designated the persons who should be admitted into the Ministry they were no essential feature of the Ministry, itself. In the exercise of their office as chief rulers of the Church, the Apostles did not hesitate to assert their authority „ Power when necessary, but at the same time avoided all ap- communi- ^ GATED. pearance of despotic or monocratic rule. They com- municated to the Presbyters every priestly power of the min- 68 History of the Church. istry/5 and a share of every governing or kingly power. The particular function which they reserved absolutely to themselves was that of ordination ; and even in this the Presbyters took part, when the person ordained was to be admitted into their own order. The ‘Maying on of hands’’ for confirmation seems also to have been reserved to the highest order, at least Relation of during the Apostolic age."^ In accordance with this fraternal communication of ministerial powers, the another. Presbyters, and Brethren generally, were taken into council with the Apostles, even in matters which the latter were perfectly competent to determine by themselves. In the same spirit S. Peter, in addressing the Presbyters, could speak of himself as their syinpresbyteros, fellow-presbyter ; the powers of the ministry being, in fact, so distributed, that no name can be given to any one order, which is not in some sense applica- ble to the others also. The earliest image, therefore, of the relation of the Presbytery of each local Church to the Chief Pastor, was that which represented the Bishop as in the place of Christ, "7 and the Presbyters as in the place of His “ friends ” and “brethren,” the Twelve: an idea beautifully carried out in the most primitive arrangement of Churches ; namely, that of thirteen thrones, the middle one of which was occupied by the Bishop, the others by the Presbyters. The Deacons, in like *5 It is in priestly power, sacerdotio^ that S. Jerome affirms the equality of Presbyters, Bishops, and Apostles. Ep. ad Evangelum. Bingham’s AntiquitieSy B. ii. ch. xix. '7 S. Ignatius (ad Magnes. 6) represents the three orders respectively as in the place of Gody of the Apostles y of yesus Christ. The context, however, seems to show that by the first of these expressions he means Christ as the Divine head ; and by the third, Christ in Plis earthly ministry. It has been well observed by Pearson, Bingham, and others, that S. Ignatius exalts the Presbyters as earnestly as he does the Bishop. The same may be said of his way of speaking of that order, “ the dearest ” to him, the Deacons. The idea of coordination was more prominent to his mind than that of subordination — though the latter was not lost sight of. “ My life for him that is subject to the Bishop, Presbyters, and Deacons — God’s stewards, assessors, and minis- ters.” See Bingham, ii. xix. 6-8; ii. xx. i8. Church Government. 69 manner, were represented as angels and prophets/’*^ bearing the diaconia of Jesus Christ : to wit, that out-going ministry, which our Lord exercised when He went about as a prophet, doing good. The three orders, in short, all participated in the threefold ministry; the main difference being, that in the first order the kingly idea was most prominent, in the second the priestly, and in the third the prophetic. The People also were encouraged to take an active interest in Church affairs. The essential kingly priesthood of lay In- the mass of believers was as carefully inculcated upon f^-uence. the Christian, as it had previously been upon the Israelite Church. The doctrine was carried out, moreover, into dis- cipline and worship. As already mentioned, the Brethren were present at Apostolic councils; and decrees went forth in their name, as well as in that of the Apostles and Elders. In the choice of the seven Deacons, and possibly in that of Matthias, the pre- cedent of election was established ; so that the Church Election no sooner became settled than popular suffrage con- of the curred with ordination in the appointment of Bishops and* other Church officers. In contributing to the common cause the brethren were left free to tax themselves ; in all acts of common worship they had an important part assigned them and even in the administration of discipline, that eminently So called in Apostol. Constitut. ii. 30. I may observe, in passing, that Deacons in modern times being young men with little practical experience, and their office being regarded as a mere stepping-stone to a higher order, we have but a shadow of that diaconate which was held by such men as Stephen, Philip, Laurentius, Athanasius, and others, in ancient times. The custom of having only seven Deacons to a city, however large it may be (Canon 14, Neo-Ceesarea), helped to give dignity to the diaconal office. ^9 I Pet. ii. 5 ; Exod. xix. 6. The Liturgies^ as is well known, abound with such mutual benedic- tions,, etc., as “ The Lord be with you : And with thy Spirit.” For this reason, among many others, a Liturgy “ understanded of the people ” is highly important. Where the laity are deprived of their just part in public worship, they lose with it many other rights. 70 History of the Chu7^ch. Apostolic office of binding and loosing, their cooperation was earnestly desired and thankfully acknowledged.''* But in proportion as power thus descended and became dis- tributed, as it were, among all the members of the Body of Christ, there was the greater need that the Bishopric,^ Needof , . , ^ . , , . j ’ theEpis- that IS, the supreme oversight and superintendence, copate. , , , , , . ° „ 1 I should be exerted in a way to give it an enectual and decisive weight. The Apostles exercised it in a way that showed their sense of its importance. They fixed their residence, as far as pos- sible, in the great world centres. Thus, from the cen- Oversight^ , how exer~ tral point of Ephesus, S. Paul, for three years, super- vised the Church work going on throughout the whole Province of Asia. They made regular visitations, as frequent and as long as circumstances would permit, to the several Churches of their planting. In such visitations, the Presbyter- bishops were assembled, exhorted, admonished ; discipline was administered when need so required ; ministers were ordained, faith confirmed, and gifts bestowed by the laying on of hands. Questions of order, too hard for the local authorities, were then definitely settled. In this way, unity and uniformity were suffi- ciently secured. What Apostles ordained in one place, they had power and opportunity, if they deemed it advisable, to ordain in all.''^ And when, from the continuous enlargement of their re- spective fields of labor, the Apostles saw less than was Legates of the desirable of the Churches under their charge, thev ex- Apostles. •II* • -I o 1 j ercised their oversight by written Epistles, or by send- ing one or other of their Colleagues or Companions, as Angels, In this paragraph I refer chiefly to Acts, i. 26 ; vi. 5 ; xv. 23 ; i Cor. xiv. 16; 2 Cor. ix. 6-7; i Cor. v. 3-5; 2 Cor. ii. 5-10 : passages which are confirmed in the interpretation I have given them by the uniform practice of the Church in the second and third centuries. 22 Acts, i. 20. See Chapin’s View ... of the Prim. Ch. ch. xv. 23 Acts, XV. 36; xiv. 21-23; xviii. 23; xx. 17-35; 2 Cor. xiii. 2; i Cor. xi. 34 ; xvi. I, 2. Church Government. 71 Messengers, or Apostles for the nonce. Persons thus sent were clothed with full authority, and it was required that they should be received and treated as the elder Apostles themselves. Finally, towards the end of their career, when the elder Apostles knew that the time of their departure was at their Suc- hand, they in no case left their peculiar powers to the lessors. Presbyter-bishops, or to the local congregations but, accord- ing to the uniform testimony of the early Church, assigned Timothy to Ephesus, though there was in that city a numerous band of Presbyter-bishops; Titus to Crete; Linus, Cletus, and Clemens to Rome; Symeon to Jerusalem, after the death of James; Euodius and Ignatius to Antioch; Polycarp to Smyrna; Annianus to Alexandria; and others of their companions to other places. They gave to these, moreover, all the supervisory powers of the Apostolic office. As we learn from the Powers Epistles to Timothy and Titus, and from the Book of gi-ven to Revelation, they were to see to the selection of fit men for Presbyter-bishops and Deacons; to ordain such as were approved ; to try such as were accused ; to rebuke, exhort, 24 Acts, xix 22 ; 2 Cor. xii. 18; viii. 23; i Cor. xvi. 10. 25 S. Jerome’s declaration, in the Epistle ad Rvangelum (and in Com- ment. on Tit. i. 7), that “ after contentions arose, one saying, I am of Paul, another, I of Apollos, etc., it was decreed through the whole world, that one of the Presbyters should be elected and placed over the others, and to him the whole care of the Church should pertain, that the seeds of schism might be removed,” puts the origin of See-Bishops rather earlier than I have done; for such “ contentions arose ” quite early in Apostolic times. This famous Epistle, so often quoted in part, ought to be read as a whole. It would then be seen that S. Jerome’s object is to show that a Presbyter is superior to a Deacon in priesthood — sacerdotio esse majorem ; and that in respect of the same priesthood. Presbyters, Bishops, and Apostles^ are equal : a point uni- versally conceded. This fact considered, his concluding words give the sum of his view of the ministry ; “ What Aaron, and his sons, and the Levites, were in the Temple, the same are Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons in the Church.” The case of the Church of Alexandria, mentioned by S. Jerome and Ambrosiaster, is somewhat peculiar; but I reserve the discussion of it for another place. See Book II. ch. 10, of this History. See also Chapin, chap. XV. 72 History of the Church, admonish, with all authority ; to expose the pretentions of false apostles ; to exercise, in short, the same oversight and rule which the first generation of Church rulers had exercised before them. In this way the Bishopric, or Apostolate, as commissioned by our Lord after the Resurrection, had its own seed within it. The Epis- was everywhere transmitted and acknowledged as 7fi/%r- the sole supreme governing and ordaining power. The petuaitng. power not thus transmitted was that of working miracles. But that, as we have seen, was given before, not after the Resurrection ; and belonged then, as at all other times, to the extraordinary prophetic office ’’ : namely, to that kind of preaching which prepares the way for a new system, or lays the foundations. About the time that this beginning of a succession was made among the Gentile Churches, S. James, the first Bishop of Jeru- Three Salem, died, and Symeon, a cousin of our Lord, was Witnesses, j^jg place. Ill the generation that immedi- ately followed, there is one inspired witness of the order then existing, and two uninspired. S. John, addressing the mystical Seven Churches of Asia, exhorts or reproves their respective Angels, a term etymolog- s John equivalent to the word Apostles, and, as used by i^.Arst the writer of the Apocalypse, implying the same as Bishops in the modern sense. A question arises, how- ever, whether the severe rebukes which prove these Angels to have been responsible heads of the seven Churches do not also prove them to have been subordinate to the Apostle S. John."^ To this the obvious answer is that S. John merely writes ‘‘ what the Spirit saith,^^ in the character of a Prophet or Divine. In other words, it is not John who calls the seven Angels to account ; it is the Lord himself.^ There is nothing in the Apocalypse, 26 Thiersch, the Irvingite historian, uses this supposed fact to prove the existence of his threefold Episcopate, Apostles, Angels, Bishops. If the fact were as he supposes, it would not prove the three distinct orders of the Episco- pate ; it would merely point to a metropolitan system. 27 Rev. i. II. Church Government, 73 therefore, to prove the existence of any office on earth, at that time, superior in order to that of the seven Angels. On the contrary, the fact that the Lord himself addresses them, and not the Apostle, rather proves them to have been in a position of accountability to the Lord alone. The second witness of this period, S. Clement of Rome, by referring to the sacerdotal analogy of High-Priests, Priests, and Levites, or to the military analogy of Prefects, Chili- S. Clement archs. Centurions, and other officers, shows incidentally, witness. and therefore the more powerfully, that the principle of subor- dination, or prelacy, was acknowledged in the Min- priestiy istry. In the same incidental way he mentions Rulers and Presbyters in one place. Bishops and Deacons in Military. another.''^ He testifies also that the order of succession was settled by Divine Providence and by Apostolic authority. ‘ ‘ The ^ ^ Apostles knew from our Lord Jesus Christ that conten- Divinely tion would arise about the name of the Bishopric ; for which reason, being possessed of perfect foreknowledge, they appointed the said (Bishops and Deacons), and gave order for the future, how, when these fell asleep, other approved men might be set in their place. This, he adds, was settled with the consent of the whole Church. It is plain, therefore, that the provision against schism, which some have represented as made by Presbyters after the Apostolic age, was made in reality by the Apostles, under Divine inspiration, and was received universally. S. Ignatius of Antioch, whose ministerial life had been for thirty years contemporaneous with that of S. John, is ^ still more positive in his testimony. That ‘‘ the Epis- the third copate IS represented by him as the Divinely appointed pillar which sustains the whole ecclesiastical fabric,* is now S. Clem. Ep. Cap. i. xlii. xliv. 29 I quote S. Clement only for this because the sentence, in relation to other points, is somewhat confused. 30 Dr. Hase, Hist, of Christian Church, \ 59. This writer adds, and Dr. Schaff follows him in the assertion, that the Episcopate “ much needed his 4 74 History of the Church. universally conceded by intelligent historians. It is therefore hardly necessary to cite his words : it is enough to remark that his witness, on this subject, is unaffected by the controversy with regard to the genuineness of certain portions of his remaining Epistles.3* A question still remains, as to how far the Episcopate, thus Metro. settled, assumed in Apostolic times that metropolitan ^System. form which it afterwards bore, and to which in all ages it naturally, and perhaps logically, tends. 3"* It is certain, that among the ancients the Mother City was not only a centre of social and political influence, but an object Mother of those loyal, reverential, affectionate feelings, v/hich Cities, modern times we associate rather with the word fatherland, or mother country. By devoting so much of their time as they did to these great centres, the Apostles availed themselves of this state of things, and, it may be said, gave their countenance to it. They made the centres of religious influence coincident with those of social or political power. It was natural, therefore, that whatever equality might exist among Bishops, Angels, or Apostles, as such, considerable inequalities earnest commendations ; ” namely, that it was a novelty^ and therefore needed defence. If earnest commendation of a thing is proof of its novelty, we shall have to regard the very Faith itself as a novelty; for there is not a writer, from S. Paul down, who does not earnestly commend it. 3 ' Dr. Hase, \ 73, fully admits this ; see also Cureton, Corpus Ignatia- mini; and Schaff, Hist., etc. 32 Dr. Schaff urges that the logical tendency of Episcopacy is to absolute centralization, i. e., Popery. So would I say, if this centralizing tendency had not been controlled by our Lord himself in the appointment of twelve brethren, who were to call no man father, i. e., pope, upon earth, but were to hold to their Head in Heaven. In other words, everything in the Church tends to a centre or point; the only question is, where that centre is to be found. Some say in Rome. We say in Heaven. Some make “ the kingdom” perfect here on earth. We regard it as imperfect here, and therefore wait for “ His appear- ing and Kingdom.” To this I might add that those who represent the original government of the Church as Presbyterian, yet acknowledge that it changed into Episcopal in one or two generations. How can they escape the inference that Presbyterianism logically tends to Episcopacy. Church Goverjiment. 75 should arise as to the influence and weight of their respective Sees. Thus James, one of the last and least of the Apostles, came to have a certain precedence over Peter and John. 33 Doubtless, it was because he was the head of the Mother Church. „ Precedence In after times Jerusalem, which had been first, came to 0/ jerusa- be last, in point of influence among the chief Churches. As soon as this was the case, the Bishop of Jerusalem ranked accordingly. The metropolitan system, therefore, and in fact the whole system of precedence that obtained in the early Church, was a natural development from the twofold representative ^ character of Bishops. As representatives of Christ, the Character 0/ Bishops. Head, all Bishops were ‘‘brethren, “colleagues,^* peers. As representatives of particular Churches, or cities, they could allow certain distinctions of honor or of power to grow up among them. Differences of this kind developed, and were more clearly systematized and defined, as the way was gradually opened for provincial or general Councils. It was, in fact, one form in which the lay element^ as it has been sometimes called — the influence of numbers, masses, posi- tion, and other things that have weight in secular Rule of affairs — gradually made itself to be felt in the govern- ment of the Church. Hence the rule of precedence that pre- vailed, and which was firmly maintained by the six Ecumenical Councils, was that Bishops should rank according to the im- portance of their Sees. Rome, indeed, contended for a different rule. Foundation by S. Peter presented, in her judgment, a superior claim. But in spite of her efforts, ecclesiastical prece- dence followed the changes of political, and instead of Jerusa- 33 This appears in the Council, Acts, xv. The placing of his name before those of Cephas and John, Gal. ii. 9, is an argument of a certain precedence ; though I do not think it amounts to anything more than an acknowledgment of the importance of the Church which he represented. The same is to be said of the prayer pro fidelibus in the Ap. Constitutions, where the Bishop of Jerusalem is prayed for before him of Rome and Antioch. 76 History of the Church. lem, Caesarea, Antioch, Rome, Alexandria, the order of the Churches came in time to be — Rome, Constantinople, Alexan- dria, Antioch, and, last of all, Jerusalem. All this, however, belongs to later history. In Apostolic times the question of precedence was little thought of ; determined, Considered, it seems to have heen determined by the rules of equity and common-sense. CHAPTER XII. DOCTRINE AND HERESIES. When the Disciples were sent two by two before the face of the Lord, as prophets of the Kingdom, their prophesying was thk summed up in the one pregnant phrase. The Kingdom Gusprl. jg hand. In the same way, when the Apostles went forth, their evangel, gospel, god-spell, or good news, was the announcement and explication of the simple his- toric fact, that the Head of that promised Kingdom had truly come and done the work which the Prophets of the Old Testa- ment had so long before predicted. More briefly stated : it was Christ come simply God manifest in the Flesh, This involved the inthe Flesh, \\i2X He had been born, had lived, suffered, died, and especially had risen from the dead, and ascended up in triumph to the Right Hand of the Majesty on high. To witness to this truth was the office for which the Church had been cre- ated. To receive the same in its fulness ; to embrace it with all the heart, all the soul, all the mind ; to measure all other truth by it, making it the analogy,’^ or rule of faith ; to discern it in its moral and intellectual, as well as spiritual bearings in * Examples of this measuring of all truth and duty by ‘‘ the Gospel,” are Rom. vi. 1-14; I Cor. xv. i, 3, ii, 12, etc.; Ephes. v. 22,33; Coloss. ii. 12; iii. 1-5 ; I Pet. iv. i ; i John, iv. 2. Doctrine and Heresies. 77 short, to admit it wholly, in all its consequences, as a living principle pervading the whole life, was to be the substance of right faith, and the sum of sound doctrine to the end of time. But nature is always partial or one-sided in its apprehension of the Truth. Measuring everything by a standard of human imperfection, it is naturally eclectic, choosing its own ground or point of view, and holding one half of a doctrine, to the denial, exclusion, or overlaying of other parts equally vital and essential. For, in the reception of any fact or doctrine, almost everything depends upon the standing-point assumed. A man of transcendental turn, relying exclusively on his own spiritual intuitions, will despise spirit^ the sensible evidences, the miracles, the sacraments, the Scriptures, the external body of Religion. Such men fall into gnostic, mystic, transcendental, or spiritualist heresies. Another class of men believe in naught but rational induction, or logical demonstration. Like the Jews of old, they are always demanding ‘‘a sign.’' Such men are apt to become Ration^ positivists, rationalists, their pravity taking sometimes a negative or skeptical, and sometimes, when the mind grows weary of denying, an arbitrarily positive form. But, to the great mass of men. Religion is a matter of feeling, or affection, rather than of speculative insight, or rational conviction ; and this bias, taking sometimes an enthusiastic, sometimes an aesthetic, or sometimes a legal and moral turn, leads in its excess to a numerous class of sensuous heresies. Such being the well-known proclivities of the human heart, it pleased our Lord, in giving His Truth to men, to provide at the same time a divine standing-point from which the Divine truth was to be regarded. Those who believed were to be baptized. As there was one Spirit, there was to be one Body. Those who held to the doctrine of the Apostles were to hold to their fellowship. The Church, in short, was appointed to be the pillar and ground of the Truth. But even in the best balanced minds, and from whatever ground or point of view, there will be more or less of a ten- Sensuous. 78 History of the Church. dency to one or other of the extremes above mentioned. In Necessary this life wc can know but in part; we can see but Differences, tj-^j-ough a glass darkly. According, therefore, to the inherent peculiarities of each individual nature, there will be a Three dispositioii to look at Truth through the sensuous, the Leanings, j-ational, or the transcendental glass, and thus to fall into partial or heretical opinions. This leaning, however, when guarded and controlled by mutual charity, and by a ground of unity sufficiently defined, is not only harmless, but wholesome ; bringing out the one Truth in a greater variety of aspects, and making it intelligible to a greater variety of minds. Of this wholesome development in particular directions, Types OF S. John, S. Paul, and S. Peter were the most promi- Doctrine. representatives in Apostolic times. S. John de- lighted to contemplate the absolute, simple Truth : the Truth as seen in itself, as seen in God. He was therefore the type of the theologian or divine. S. Paul presented the Truth rather in its manifold relations to waywardness and weakness of the human understanding."* He is the type of the able reasoner, the versa- tile expounder, the ready controversialist, the profound and skilful teacher. S. Peter, endowed by nature with affections intensely human, found it more congenial to taste the Lord as gracious,*’ than to behold Him with eagle eye as the Light and s. John, Life. To S. John, Christ was the incarnate Word ” ; s.Paui. to S. Paul, ^^the Apostle and High-Priest of our pro- s. Peter. fession ” ; to S. Peter, ‘^the Bishop and Shepherd of our souls.” S. John, from his high pitch of contemplation, addressed the body of believers as ‘Mittle children ” ; S. Paul wrestled with them on more equal terms, as ‘^men” and ‘‘brethren”; S. Peter singled out one class or another, as 2 On the subject of this paragraph the German critics have shown much solid as well as brilliant ingenuity : some of them, such as Baur, with a view to magnify different ways of seeing into differences of belief. To the student, who will take the pains to trace, not merely the different modes of thought or expression among the sacred writers, but their wonderful harmony, the study of this subject will be found well worthy of attention. Doctrine and Heresies. 79 husbands, wives, masters, servants, elders, juniors, or when he addressed them as a mass, it was with the pastoral word be- loved/’ Without entering into all the distinctions of this kind, which have been pointed out by critics, and considerably exag- gerated, it may be observed, in short, that while each of these great teachers presented the whole and living Truth, S. John dwells chiefly on the Incarnation as a mysterious whole, a ‘Might” illumining all other lights; S. Paul on the Death and Resurrection, especially the latter, as the logical basis of all doctrine, all morals, and all “glory” ; S. Peter on the living, toiling, suffering, bleeding, dying Christ, as the “precious” example, the precious ransom, the irresistible appeal to all noble, earnest, tender, and generous affections. To these S. James is sometimes added, as representing a fourth position. To judge from his Epistle, he is less a representative of doctrine than of that reactionary appeal to conscience and common-sense, which becomes necessary when doctrinal discus- sion has gone too far ; when orthodoxy, in fact, is made a sub- stitute for faith. To heated polemics, therefore, in times of dogmatic strife, this remarkable production has seemed a mere “epistle of straw. ”3 In other times, and under other circum- stances, amid the lip-worship and licentiousness of a self-seeking age, it comes up as a sharp point of that ancient rock of com- mon truth underlying all religion, the Sermon on the Mount. Differences of this kind may be allowed for, without imagin- ing anything analogous to separate schools or parties in the Apostolic Church. Pauline and Petrine factions may Harmony undoubtedly have existed; but the great teachers of the . , . ^ , Apostles, knew nothing of them, except to repudiate them. They understood themselves, and understood one another. It may be observed, moreover, by way of counterpoise to 3 Luther y in his impatience, so characterized it. It was under other circumstances that Butler and Bull drew from it appropriate lessons for the times. Neander is so unappreciative of this Epistle that he arbitrarily sup- poses it to have been written before James was thoroughly acquainted with the Gospel. • 8o History of the Cht^^ch. the distinctions above mentioned, that each of the great Apos- tles glides occasionally, in his style, into the peculiarities of the others. S. John, for instance, dwells on the sensible manifesta- Four tion of the Word of Life; S. Paul frequently pauses Gosj>eh. admire ‘‘the mystery of godliness''; S. Peter speaks of “the Word," that is, the Truth, as the regenerating power. The same maybe said of the differences of the four Gospels. While it is true that the Man and Prophet appears most prominently in S. Matthew, the King in S. Mark, the -Priest in S. Luke, and the essential Deity in S. John,-* yet there is no one of the four Evangelists in which all do not appear. There are distinctions, in short, but no antagonisms. To this general account of the great types of doctrinal development, 5 it is necessary to add that the Apostles, like their Master, were seed-sowers of the Truth, not fram- Sco^e of Doctrinal ers of systeius. To give their teaching, therefore, in other language than their own, comes hardly within the legitimate province of the historian. The attempt has been made, indeed, by innumerable modern critics; and under the heads of the theology, anthropology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology of the sacred writers, valuable contributions have been made to the cause of biblical interpretation. Yet none of these efforts represent, or in the nature of things can represent, more than the amount of truth seen from particular points of view.^ As contributions to sacred criticism they all 4 Hence the application to the four Evangelists of the four faces respec- tively of the “ living creatures ” in the Apocalypse, the man, the lion, the ox, the eagle. 5 The word development has been much abused by Dr. Newman and oth- ers, in modern times ; yet I know of no word to substitute for it in the history of doctrine. The term, in fact, is harmless, if we are careful not to confound development — which is the opening, defining, and applying of truths con- tained in Holy Writ — with corruptions and accretions derived from other sources. ^ Neander is one of the largest-minded and most genial of historic critics of this kind; yet, in his “Planting of Christianity,” - S. Paul, S. John, S. Peter, and even our Lord himself, are completely*Neanderized. Thiersch, Doctrine and Heresies. 8i Four Heads, have their value. As accounts of what the Apostles taught, in determination of questions still sub lite, they are worse than useless ; giving the garb of historic fact to things which, how- ever excellent and ingenious, are nothing more or less than private and modern schemes of polemical divinity. The History of Apostolic doctrine must confine itself to a somewhat narrower range. Not what systems these first Teach- ers taught, but what materials, what conditions, what Proper elements they left of systems afterwards drawn from ^a.nge. them, or put upon them, is the utmost that can be attempted in a narrative of facts. And these elements may all be considered under four heads : I, The Oral Teaching, or tradition of the Apostles; 2, Their Creed, or Rule of Faith ; 3, Their Inspired Writ- > ings ; 4, The Heresies against which they contended, and which may have influenced more or less the form, style, manner, or particular topics of their teaching. The Apostles taught orally. Their doctrine, therefore, had to be treasured in the memories of believers. If we consider how vast the field was, and how many of the laborers i. oral in this field must have been, like Apollos, imperfectly instructed, it will not appear wonderful that a corrupt tradition spread almost as rapidly as the true ; and that many things were attributed to Apostles for which they were not responsible. Thus, S. Paul had hardly left the Church of Thessalonica before he learned that his doctrine of Christ’s coming had ° Tradition been misunderstood. In the same way the traditions soon corrupted. that flowed into the second century were very soon corrupted. They were almost invariably alleged in favor of doubtful facts, or heretical opinions. Papias, it is said, took great pains to collect the genuine sayings of our Lord. But few of these gleanings have remained in the literature of the Church in the same way, has beautifully Irvingized the Doctrine of the Apostles; a thing which would be less objectionable if it were done in a professed “ com- mentary,” or in an Irvingite tract, and not under the garb of history.” 7 See Routh, Reliq. Sac. vol. i. 82 History of the Church. and these few give little occasion to regret that the rest have perished. Tradition, in the sense of the general spirit or drift of Apos- tolic teaching, or instructions embodied in particular observ- Tradition auccs, wcrc of a more enduring character, and exerted, in general-, doubt, a greater influence. Thus, the sacred- ness of the Lord’s Day, the practice of infant baptism, the authority of the Old Testament, the use of Creeds, and other things of like character, might easily remain when mere words or phrases would be forgotten or perverted. The same might be said of everything in which the second century was unani- mous. The mind of an age, however, is so entirely assimilated by the age which follows, that, in general, tradition means little more than the prevailing sentiment of the day in which it is appealed to. We find, accordingly, that even in matters of , practical observance, the Apostolic tradition came soon to be suspected, unless it were supported by Apostolic writings.® The first bulwark raised against the corruption of tradition was probably in the form of a brief Creed, or Rule of Faith. ^ II. The Something of this sort is frequently alluded to in the Creed. jsFew Testament, in such expressions as the form of sound words,” the Gospel,” or evangel, “ the faith once (for all) delivered to the Saints,” or ‘‘ the doctrine ” into which they were delivered ” ; S. Paul, especially, not only referring to such a Gospel ” once preached, but declaring it so unalterable that neither he nor an angel from heaven could deviate from it. The natural outline of this summary would be suggested by the ® S. Cyprian, in the question of re-baptizing heretics, would acknowledge no tradition but that which he found in Scripture. 9 1 use the phrase, as a convenient one, without any reference to contro- versies on the subject. In the common-sense use of words, anything once fixed as a matter of belief becomes practically a rule of faith. The brief sum- maiy of fhe Gospel, therefore, which all believers received, would be in a peculiar, but not exclusive sense, the rule of faith. See Hagenbach, Hist, of Doctrines^ § 20. ^°Rom. vi. 17 ; literally, “ the type of doctrine into which ye were deliv- ered.’ Doctrine and Heresies. 83 first formal act of faith. Every person admitted in the Name of the Father^ and of the So7t, and of the Holy Ghost, into the Church CatholiCyhy Baptism, for the Reinis- sion of Sins, with a view to the Resurrection of the Dead and the Life everlasting, would of course be required to say credo to all this; and that he might say it in good faith, would be instructed into its meaning. But those few words, briefly qualified or explained, make up the outline and the substance of the Creeds or Symbols of all ages. Such an outline, moreover, committed to memory by every believer, would be a ‘^rule of faith that is, a touchstone of sound doctrine, alike available to learned and unlearned, to readers and simple hearers. In the absence of any direct evidence to the contrary,” it seems most probable that the filling up of this outline was not always in the same words ; but that the forms of symbols confession were marked from the beginning by the same diversity in language, with the same identity in substance, which we find among the symbols of a somewhat later period. By slight verbal variations shades of meaning might be expressed in one, which were not contained in others. Like the four Gospels, or the four ancient Liturgies, the creeds would thus be mutually completed, guarded, and explained. But a safeguard would be needed against corruptions of the Creeds themselves ; and still more against corruptions of the larger, more diffuse, and more minute instructions of the Lord, and of His Apostles. The four Gospels there- Sacked _ . 1 11 1 Writings. fore were written ; not early, nor all at once, but at cer- tain intervals, under varied circumstances, by different writers, and yet with a harmony absolutely demonstrative of a divine authorship. Of these S. Matthew’s was probably put forth before Bp. Bull contends for two primitive Creeds — that of Jerusalem in the East, and that of the Apostles in the West. I can see no reason why there should not have been more. On the general subject, see History of Creeds, by Rev. W. W. Harvey, M.A. ; and Bingham’s Antiquities of the Christian Church, X. iii. 5. 84 History of the Church. the Apostles left Jerusalem, and possibly in Hebrew, or Aramaic. Gospels. S. Mark’s, indited under the auspices of S. Peter, is of uncertain date. S. Luke’s, and its continuation, the Acts of the Apostles, appear to have been written either during or shortly after the first imprisonment of S. Paul. The Gospel of S. John was stored up in the bosom of the beloved Disciple till near the close of the first century. We learn from S. Luke that many had taken in hand to write narratives of this kind ; so that a bulwark was needed against unreliable Script- ures, as well as against corrupted forms of oral tradition.*"* The Catholic Epistles seem all to have been the fruit of the later years of their respective writers. The Epistles of S. Paul other were written to particular Churches, or persons, on Scriptures, pa^rticular emergencies ; and may be dated from in- ternal evidence with considerable precision. *3 The Apocalypse, which appeared about the year ninety-five, has been appropri- ately placed at the close of the sacred series : its splendid and mystic imagery forming, as it were, the great Altar-window of the Temple of Inspiration. In addition to these sacred writings, the Scriptures of the , , . , Old Testament were earnestly commended to the first A llegorical interpreta- age of believers, as inspired, and profitable for doc- trine; and in the interpretation of them, the ^^testi- mony of Jesus” was made the ‘^spirit of prophecy.” The TheTesti ^^^sequeuce was, that ‘^the rule of faith” became many of also the rule of interpretation. That analogical pro- spiritof cess, by which, in reading the Old Testament, we almost unconsciously transmute the letter into the spirit, seeing Christ everywhere, became the fixed habit of the Church mind ; and occasionally degenerated into frivolous alle- *2 The uninspired writings of this period are the first Epistle of S. Clement, and perhaps the second : possibly, also, the Epistl of S. Barnabas, and the Pastor of Hermas. The spurious writings, ascribed to this age, were com- posed in the second century, or later. For a list of them, see Foulkes’s Man- ual of Ecclesiastical History. *3 See Chap, iv, of this Book. Doctrine and Heresies. 85 gorizing.^^ The historical importance of this fact can hardly be overrated. For on the mode of interpretation favored by any age, its theological drift is in a great measure determined. Tt may be observed, that the Gnostics had little reverence for the Old Testament Scriptures ; they used them largely, however, and applied both to them and to the writings of the New Testa- ment, the allegorical method. But their allegorizing was purely arbitrary; that of the Christians was kept within bounds by the dominant influence of ‘‘the analogy of the faith. In both cases it was application of the Scriptures rather than strict inter- pretation. This is seen in the fact that diverse applications of the same text, so long as they did not contradict the commonly received doctrines, were not regarded as contradicting one an- other. In the Apostolic age, as in the Church since, the develop- ment, definition, or application of doctrine waited on oppor- tunity, and had more or less of a defensive character iv. against errors, or erroneous tendencies of the times. No heretics are mentioned by name in the New Testament, with the exception of the Nicolaitans; and, perhaps, Hyme- naeus and Alexander, whose “shipwreck of faith, however, may have been simple apostasy. The Diotrephes, censured by S. John in his second Epistle, was probably an ambitious Pres- byter, or a tyrannizing Bishop. Heretical opinions are more frequently alluded to. But as they are not described, and are combated only in their elementary principles, it cannot be ascer- tained how far any of them had assumed a systematic shape. Among the Greeks and philosophic Jews, there was an arro- ^4 The Epistle to the Hebrews exhibits a severe moderation in the use of this method. The Epistle of Barnabas, which may belong, however, to the second century, indulges in it with the utmost freedom : so, also, the Shepherd of Hermas. The Epistle of S. Clement and the Epistles of S. Ignatius show less of it. S. Irenaeus, and the Fathers after him, carry it occasionally to excess. Origen developed it into a more systematic shape. *5 For ingenious specimens of this perversion, see Shnon Magus in Refuiat, Omn. Hceresiuni^ S. Hippolyti, lib. vi. 86 History of the Church. gant and pretentious speculative spirit, which judged all re- Gnosis Ijgions by its own instincts or intuitions, discerned some good in all, and was disposed to frame, out of materials drawn from all, a more scientific system. By the vo- taries of this gnosts, or ‘‘ science falsely so called,’’ the principle Hvz'/zn that evil inheres in matter was an axiom universally Matter, admitted. They despised the physical world as the creation of some inferior and perhaps evil Power. The body they considered a mere incumbrance, instead of holding it in honor (as something pertaining) to the completeness of our humanity. The Soul They regarded the soul as a sort of captive, and looked a Captive. delivcrance in the entire destruction of the body after death, and during life in complete abstraction from it. Hence great austerities among some. Hence an opinion among others, that the distinction of good and evil, so far as this world is concerned, is a mere thesis, or arbitrary appointment devised by evil Powers. Where such maxims prevailed, a denial of the resurrection of the body^ or an assertion of a spiritual res- urrection only, would necessarily follow. The doctrine of the Incarnation would either be denied or subtly explained away. Among efforts of this kind the docetic theory, namely, Christ a pure spirit with a fantasmal or appari- tional body, was one of the earliest and most popular. From numerous expressions in the New Testament it is highly probable that the idea of a pleroma, or fulness of God’s pres- ence, from which all bodily existence is excluded of endless Opposed by such passages as i Tim. iv. 4. ^7 Such seems to me the meaning of the original in Col. ii. 23 ; the word translated ‘‘ satisfaction” being equivalent to completeness, and that rendered “ flesh ” standing often (as in S. John, i. 14) for man, I Cor. XV. 12. ^9 To which S. Paul opposes the truth, that in Christ the fulness of the Godhead (pleroma) dwells bodily. Col. ii. 9. This chapter, the most suggest- ive on the subject, can hardly be understood without careful reference to the original. Other Anti-Gnostic passages are (perhaps) i Tim. i. 4 ; iv. 1-5 ; vi. 20; I John, i. 1-3; iv. 1-3 ; 2 Peter, ii. ; Jude. See Hammond, on the New Testament. Docetce Doctrine and Heresies. 87 genealogies/^ that is, processions or emanations of c^ons, angels ^ principalities y powers, a long chain of mediators between the world and God ; and, in short, all the elementary notions which afterwards entered into the various Gnostic systems, were in vogue among the Greeks or Hellenizing Hebrews, and were started into activity by the preaching of the Gospel. To Simon Magus, a philosopher and wonder-worker of no ordinary powers, and to Samaria, the home of mixed Simon races and mixed creeds, tradition has assigned the earliest attempt at a definite Gnostic system. His views come down to us encumbered with the accretions of later times. ‘‘From Sige, Silence, the invisible, incomprehensible, sige. eternal root of all things, sprang two mighty powers : the one above called Nous, the universal directing mind, which Nous. is of the male sex ; the other below, a female, Epinoia, Epinoia. or intelligence, by which all things are generated.*’^ From these two roots sprang four others, similarly, in pairs. The story that Simon identified Helen, his concubine, with Helen of Troy and other female firebrands of antiquity, and made her a sort of impersonation of that “lost sheep wandering here below, Epinoia or intelligence, looks like a genuine tradition, and accords with the radically Antinomian character of most of the early sects. To him the world was evil, society evil, mar- riage evil. The spirit, therefore, that rebels against law and order, was, from his point of view, the imprisoned divine spark struggling to be free. He availed himself largely of the lan- guage of the Old Testament, putting his own meaning upon it : and borrowed from Christianity some notions of redemption. He represented himself to be the great Power of God — the Father to Samaritans, the Son to Jews, the Holy Ghost to Gentiles — come into the world for the recovery of the “lost sheep. Dositheus and Menander were likewise Samaritans, and en- 20 Hippolytus quotes from Simon at some length ; and his account of the heresy is probably the most accurate that has come down to us. 88 History of the Church. deavored in like manner to appropriate to themselves the Dositheus, character of redeemers. The Nicolaitanes/" referred Apocalypse, were Gnostics only in the larger ^anes. sense of the word ; professing that kind of gnosis, or superior light, which makes all bodily acts indifferent, and regards all things as lawful. They were equally opposed to the moral and the ceremonial law. Heresies of this kind sprang from the indulgence of a pro- fane speculative spirit. They are interesting as showing that Historic the advent of the Gospel did not find the world slum- importance. awake and completely armed, ready not only to contest every inch of ground, but to avail itself for this purpose of weapons drawn from the armory of Christianity itself. Towards sensuous or carnal errors, a class which tends less to contradict than to overlay and corrupt the faith, there was a Sensuous most decided proclivity among the Corinthian Chris- Heresies. . showing itself in an over-estimate of gifts, in a tendency to man-worship, in party and sect spirit, in desire to judge and reign,’’ and in a disorderly state of things Sch'sm generally.^ The love of novelty and excitement had much to do with this. Towards the end of the cen- tury it had grown to such an extent that a large party in Corinth proposed to make the ministry not only an elective, but a rota- tory office. The same spirit showed itself elsewhere in fleshly They got their name, it is said, from Nicolaus, one of the seven Dea- cons. See Euseb. iii. 29. That the Antinomian spirit early availed itself of pretensions to knowledge, gnosis ^ which exempted its possessors from ordinary restraints, is obvious from the use of the word “knowledge” throughout the whole of I Cor. viii. 22 I Cor. iii. i, 3, 4, 21 ; iv. 3, 8, 18; xi. 17-22 ; xiv. 26; et passim : the general effect of heresy of this sort seems to be intimated in i Cor. iii. 12-15 ; it does not oppose the fundamental faith, but overbuilds it with incongruous materials. 23 Such seems to me the most rational account of that sedition in Corinth, against which S. Clement’s letter was written. The Corinthians contended for the right to depose Presbyters without any crime proven against them. Doctrine and Heresies. 89 notions of the millennium, and of the nearness of Christ’s coming. It is remarkable that, as the speculative religionists dignified their Fancies with the high-sounding name Gifts over- of gnosis, so the carnal Corinthians, in magnifying '^a,iued. ‘‘gifts” and splitting up into parties, seem to have thought themselves preeminently “spiritual.”''^ The Judaizing spirit, in its proper and pure form, seems to have been of a rationalistic kind, springing from low and earthly views of the character of the Messiah. In Pharisee Judaic and Sadducee alike, it was captious and full of doubts, It stumbled especially at the Divinity of Christ, and at the Catholicity of His mission. It was always demanding “signs,” yet slow of heart to believe when signs were given. But the Pentecostal age was unfavorable to the development of a spirit of this kind ; so that, beyond a stubborn prejudice against the mission of S. Paul, and a disposition to linger in the mere ele- ments of Christianity, the Judaizing tendency was effectually kept down. The sect in which it finally showed itself with least admixture of foreign elements, was the re- spectable but little known society of the Nazarenes. Acquies- cence in the creed, a cordial reception of the Sermon on the Mount, observance of the Law, adherence to the Gospel of S. Matthew to the exclusion of later Scriptures, and an undue ele- vation of morals above doctrine, seem to have been its promi- nent characteristics. Of the three stages of light and knowledge described by Origen — namely, Jesus the son of David, Christ the incarnate Son, and the everlasting Word — the Nazarenes preferred to linger in the first and lowest stage; “they were blind men, forever crying, yesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” As a general rule, the obstructive Judaizers either yielded to 24 I Cor. xiv. 37. 25 The real drift of the Judaic spirit is seen in such passages as S. Luke, iv. 28; xxii. 70,71; S. John, iii. 9; iv. 48; v. 18; vi. 52; viii. 58, 59; xix. 7; Acts, vii. 52; xi. 3; xiii. 45 ; xv. I; xxii. 21, 22; Heb. iii. 3-6; v. 11-14, and vp I ; Gal. ii. 13, 16; v. 1-6, etc., etc. Nazarines^ Blind Men. go History of the Church. the demonstrations of power which accompanied the Gospel, or were drawn into a vortex of gnostic and sensuous spec- Cerinthus. , ^ ^ . ulations. Hence a form of gnosis^ which was a medley of all notions. Cerinthus, as described by Epiphanius, is the type of this class. At first a ringleader of the opponents of S. Paul, but disabled and not a little disgusted at the course of James and Peter in the Council at Jerusalem, he continued to maintain in part the inviolability of the Law, but engrafted upon it germs from the Samaritan philosophy. The world he represented as created and administered by lower gods, or aeons. Christ an The heavenly Christ, an aeon of the highest order, descended upon the blameless Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary, at His baptism in the Jordan, inhabited Him through life, left Him on the Cross, but is to join Him once more and reign upon the earth in the kingdom of the Millennium. This prurient heresy, which Epiphanius compares to the two-headed hairy serpent Sepedon, and which could be sheep or goat at will, using the Old Testament against the New, or the New against the Old, spread like a plague in Asia Minor, and awak- ened the particular abhorrence of S. John. The Ebionites were probably Jewish Christians, so called from an affectation of poverty — the word Ebion meaning poor — or from a leader of that name : either theory being Ebion. . ^ ° equally probable, and equally incapable of proof. ^ To their Judaizing they added the theory of Cerinthus. They are somewhat inconsistently described as very strict in morals, and decidedly Antinomian; from which it may be inferred that their name covered a considerable variety of sects. Thus the corruption of Judaism mingled with that of Hea- ^ Euseb. iii. 28. Epiphan. Hceres. xxviii. 27 The learned criticism that has demolished so many historical characters, merely because their names happened to be significant, has been itself demol- ished by the exquisite jeu d' esprit of Mr. Rogers, on the names of Newman, Wiseman, Wilde, Masterman; to which might be added Goode, Golightly, Horsman, and sundiy others in the Tractarian and Papal Aggression contro- versies. See Eclipse of Faith. Doctrine and Heresies. 91 thenism, engendering monstrous dreams. The inspired wisdom of the Apostles dealt little with heresy as developed Error into systems. Writing for all time, they combated the evil in its elements, or first principles. For the learned curiosity, which delights to trace error through all its kaleido- scopic combinations, they had neither leisure nor inclination. In the provision, however, that they made against error, we see everywhere the proof of a forethought more than human. A rule of faith, brief, simple, comprehensive, stating facts rather than dogmas, and stamped on the heart and memory of each individual believer; a discipline and communion, the same everywhere; and finally, a body of sacred writings, easily distinguished from all spurious and apocryphal agamst productions, attested from without, and bearing their own witness in themselves, were precisely the things needed to separate Church doctrine from the chaos of loose opinions with which it might otherwise have been hopelessly confounded. The times that followed the first century amply demonstrated the wisdom of such threefold provision. As heresy organized, it was confronted by a mightier organization, prepared at every point to meet it. As it became more methodical, and more moral, imitating more closely the tenets and discipline of the Church, it was met by a harmony and unity beyond its imita- tion. The Church system, in short, was one that took in the whole man. It had a spirit and a body. It was equally adapted to heart and mind and soul. On whichever side, therefore, the flood of heresy might come in, there was a barrier provided. In this respect, the Apostolic Church differs from all human schools. In it, more than in any rival system, order and liberty were able to stand together. It did not exclude a . f. . . .... Peculiarity variety of standing-points : it simply harmonized them. Peter, in following Christ by a life of adven- turous activity, might not be able to comprehend precisely what that other ‘‘man^’ was doing, who sat still and mused; he might find in brother Paul some things perplexing to him : 92 History of the Church, but there was one fellowship, one faith, one baptism, one spirit, one body, one hope ; and if there was any point in Standpoints wliich oueiiess did not as yet appear, it was as easy to harmonized, i i t ^ u • tTrt distrust one s self, as to distrust God s promise. Where there are different men, there are differences of perfection, dif- ferences of attainment. The legitimate course, then, is ^Gvhereto we have attained, to walk by the same rule, to mind the same thing.” In short, while unity of faith and practice was thor- oughly provided for in the Apostolic system, it was not so pro- Truth in vided as to exclude the necessity of charity, humility, and patience. To ‘‘speak the truth in love,” or as the original seems to mean, to “win the truth by love ” was to be the pervading principle of all genuine orthodoxy. ♦ CHAPTER XIII. RITES. — OBSERVANCES. — MORALS. Four thousand years of preparation for the Church, with the ritual education of the chosen people, left little need of instruc- in Ritual tion ill the decencies of Religion. That men were to ^jndruction revereiit postures, that they were to fast at needed. certain times, to celebrate festive occasions with suit- able marks of joy, to assemble for common prayer — in short, to make worship a social, and therefore an orderly, uniform, and duly regulated thing — was sufficiently understood by Jew and Greek, by barbarian, Scythian, bond, and free. Our Lord, therefore, in His teachings, confined Himself mainly to the meaning and spirit of such acts.* Leaving the Church to clothe herself, from the abundant material which ages of devotion had accumulated, in such garments of external sanctity as should be * Matt. vi. i-i8. Rites. — Observances. — Morals. 93 Baptism. found most in keeping with her doctrine, He merely set an example of preferring simple to complicated forms ; of conse- crating the obvious and catholic elements of nature, rather than symbols of a local, national, or purely conventional character. Baptism, that is, washing with water, a symbol of spiritual cleansing common to all religions. He substituted for Circum- cision, as the rite of initiation, or new birth, into the Divine Name and Family. The addition of white robes, salt, lights, exorcism, renunciation, unction, crossing, and other graceful and significant though in the aggregate cumbrous forms, probably came in by degrees during the post-Apostolic period. As in the case of Circumcision, the performance of this rite was not confined to the higher orders of the Ministry. It is possible that it was performed for the most part by immer- sion. Of this, however, there is no sufficient proof. The Breaking of Bread, in which bread and wine, the uni- versal symbols of nourishment and refreshment, were consecrated a!s means of spiritual growth, was celebrated commonly The Lord's on the first day of the week, and in strict conformity with the original Divine Institution. Apostles and Presbyters were ministers of this sacrament. The Agape, or Love- feast, was at first, perhaps, celebrated with it. As there was danger, however, of confusion arising from this practice, the two were separated ; and the custom grew up of having the one in the morning and the other in the evening. The Agape, in fact, was not merely a symbol of the charity of believers. It became in many places an actual daily meal, at which the poorer brethren partook of the bounty of the rich. It was a memento of that Pentecostal season when believers lived as brothers and had all things common. It was easily abused, however, and finally had to be done away. Like the kindred cere- The Kiss mony, ^‘the kiss of peace,^* it continued just long enough to show that even Apostolic customs may be perverted ; that the choicest plants, by neglect, may degenerate into weeds. The Laying on of Hands, as a seal of special gifts, was known to. the ancient Patriarchs, who thereby confirmed the blessing The Agape. 94 History of the Church. of the birthright ; was practised by Moses when he ordained Joshua his successor : and was sanctioned by our Lord The Lay^ ^ ing on of for acts of healing or of blessing. In all these senses Hands. . . 1 , rr^, 1 . 1 1 1 it was continued by the Apostles.^ 1 hey laid hands on all who had been baptized— a seal of the spiritual birthright, as well as of such special gifts’^ as the Spirit dispensed to each. In this respect it has been aptly termed a kind of lay- ordination, a setting apart to that ‘‘kingly priesthood*’ in- herent in all believers. It was also the usual rite of ordina- tion proper. Mission, also, was given in this way.^ Being eminently a symbol of the kingly office, it was commonly ex- ercised, in conformity with patriarchal precedent, by the highest order of the Ministry: Presbyters, however, concurring and taking part/ Unction, a favorite Eastern symbol of the healing and joy- inspiring work of the Spirit, is often alluded to in the New jj ^ Testament. It was employed, at least by the Jewish Christian Church, in the visiting of the sick.s There is no proof, however, that it was during the first century made a part of ordinary ritual. At a later period it was added both to Baptism and to the Laying on of Hands. Of the ordinary accessories of public worship, the Church inherited from the Temple and Synagogue an abundant store of Public psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. These, with Worship. Lord’s Prayer, with the simple baptismal formula of faith, with the solemn celebration of the Lord’s Supper and the Love-feast, with readings from the Old Testament and the New, with exercises of the charismata, and with such special prayers as were occasionally prompted by particular inspiration, gave sufficient variety of occupation to devout hearts and minds. That the inspired and rapt utterances of this period melted into air, benefiting only a single generation, is not altogether prob- able. It is at least possible that the unrivalled and inimitable 2 Gen. xlviii. 14; Numb, xxvii. 20-23; Mark, vii. 32; xvi. 18; Acts, viii. 19; Heb. vi. 2. 3 Acts, xiii. 3. 4 I Tim. iv. 14; 2 Tim. i. 6. s James, v. 14. Rites . — Observances. — Morals. 9 5 beauty of Liturgic language derived its peculiar bloom from Pen- tecostal times. ^ In every age devout feeling can clothe itself in words more or less appropriate. It is not in every age, however, that it has power to crystallize into imper- ishable gems. This belongs rather to an age of religious and poetic inspiration. If we may judge from the descriptions of heavenly worship in the Apocalypse, or from the peculiar solem- nity with which the antecedents and concomitants of the Insti- tution of the Lord’s Supper are given in the Gospel of S. John, the mind of that great Apostle was eminently liturgical ; and to him, probably, we are indebted for many of the devout utter- ances which still resound in all languages from the one end of Christendom to the other.^ Hours of prayer probably accorded with those in use among the Jews, though straitened circumstances soon led Hours of to nocturnal or ‘‘antelucan” meetings. Easter and Pentecost, with a Fast of greater or less duration just before Easter, soon came to be observed. Fasting and prayer pasts, preceded ordinations. The Lord’s Day took the place of the Sabbath, though the latter continued to be LorcCsDay. respected by Oriental Christians. Places of prayer Places. were upper rooms, or private houses, given or loaned for the purpose. The distinction, however, between the House of God® and private residences was not suffered to be forgotten. As questions of propriety or of particular customs arose, the Apostles settled them on general principles, and sometimes in accordance with current maxims of the day.^ They observ- were careful to avoid the vice of excessive legislation. Virginity they tolerated, and even encouraged but always with the proviso that there should be a natural fitness for that state. ^ Specimens of Liturgic language are to be found all through the New Testament; ^.^.,Luke, i. 46, 68; ii. 14, 29; Acts, iv. 24; Rom. xvi. 24; Rev. iv. 8; V. 9; xix. 1-7, etc. 7 See Palmer, Origines LiturgiccB ; Bunsen’s Hippolytus, last volume; Thiersch, Apostol. Ch. ^ I Cor. xi. 22. 9 I Cor. xi. i-i6. *0 I Cor. vii. 96 History of the Church. A sceticisin. Ascetic observances were in like manner allowed ; but with a strict understanding that these things should in nowise interfere with liberty of conscience.” So far was this respect for private judgment carried, that S. Paul did not even enforce the decree of the Council at Jerusalem, with regard to meats offered to idols,'^ as an absolute law. He preferred that in all such matters men should judge for themselves. The morals of the Apostolic Church were framed, of course, on the Sermon on the Mount, or on the example of the life of ^ Jesus Christ. By the help of persecution, and in the freshness of first love, there was perhaps a more gen- eral approximation to this high standard than Christendom has since exhibited. A community, however, just rescued from the stews of idolatry, and which lived in a moral atmosphere reek- ing with heathen abominations, was subject to terrible lapses at times, followed by gusts of passionate repentance. In such cases delinquents were cut off from communion, but not from hope."^ The Christians in Corinth were either worse than in other places, or being more tenderly loved by S. Paul were more sharply reprehended. In the Jewish Christian Church, and in many of the Churches in Asia Minor, there was a rapid decline. It is to be observed, however, that the light which reveals the faults of that period is the pure white light of uncompromising truth; and that many of the sins into which Christians fell were such as the best heathen hardly considered sins at all. What S. Paul looked upon as abominable, Cato would have regarded as natural and proper. With social and political problems the Church did not concern itself. Taking the framework of society as it was, it ^Social aimed to introduce into the relations of rulers and Problems, g^bjects, fathers and children, husbands and wives, masters and slaves, the golden rule of charity. This being present, society would regulate itself. This being absent, no Rom. xiv. *2 I Cor. x. 18-33. 2 Cor. vii. ii. The case of Ananias and Sapphira was an instance of divine sever- ity ; not, as is sometimes represented, of Church discipline. Hites . — Observances. — Morals. 97 mechanical readjustment would answer a good purpose. Such absolute indifference to political theories in a movement so mighty, so deep, so intellectual as Christianity, is one of the most remarkable features of its early progress. Regarding each relation of life as a particular divine calling, it infused, jm however, a new element into each. Celibacy was to tionshai- . , . lowed. be hallowed by special devotion to God s service. Marriage was to be elevated by embracing it in the spirit of the Lord’s union with the Church. Masters and slaves, as brethren, were to serve one another. High and low, rich and poor, bond and free, were all to be regarded as pilgrims in this world, jour- neying to one end, running one race, looking forward to one prize; for the final attainment of which the worst position in life has, in some respects, advantages over the best."^ *5 I Cor. vii. 17, 20, 29-31 ; Luke, vi. 20. The TherapeutcBy according to Philo Judaeus, on the ground that “ nature has created all men free,” regarded “ the possession of slaves as wholly contraiy to nature,” and lived on terms of mutual equality in all things. Menial offices were performed by them in turns. 5 / J' AGE OF MARTYRS AND DOCTORS: ^FROM THE DEATH OF S. JOHN TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. A.D. 100-232 Book II CHAPTER I. BEGINNING OF THE SECOND CENTURY. In the history of the Church, as indeed in all history, there are from time to time certain half hours, as it were, of silence in Heaven ; certain seasons of unpretending but fruitful prepara- tion for the opening of the seals of a new order of events. Such a season occurred during the latter end of the first century and the beginning of the second, when S. John either in person or in spirit was still presiding over the Churches of Asia Minon As compared with the out- of Silent • • 1 1 Growth. going vigor of the Pentecostal age, it was an interval of silence — of quiet and obscure, though indefatigable industry in carrying on the work previously begun. Though much was done and much suffered, little was originated during this period. Concentration, not expansion, was the order of the day. Few enterprises were undertaken, few brilliant minds arose. The mighty leaders of the Pentecostal age had, with one or two exceptions, departed to their rest ; and those who came into their place, being well content to labor upon other men’s founda- tions, and in their doctrine having little need or wish to depart from the exact words of Apostolic teaching, left but scanty traces of their lives for history to record. Christianity, indeed, presented such a picture at this time as 102 History of the Church. that suggested by our Lord in one of the most striking and The Seed parablcs of the Kingdom. The growing soil of heathenism having been duly broken up, and in secret. ^ ^ ^ ^ ' the seed cast in, the great bower had gone His way, and was slumbering, as it were : the seed, the meanwhile, spring- ing and growing up, no one noticed how. Or, its general appearance might be likened to the quiet but steady process of , the finishing of the Temple. The stones and timbers The Temple rising in of the Spiritual edifice had been hewn and shaped, each for its own appointed place, by inspired Master- builders. What remained for those immediately coming after was with noiseless industry to go on in the line made ready to their hands, and to carry out the plan which had been divinely set before them. It was, in short, a kind of breathing spell between two periods of extraordinary energy and activity in the Church. A breath- The sun had set upon a great and busy day of mis- ing spell, sionary zeal; it was destined soon to rise upon an equally busy day of polemical excitement. In the interval between there is a veil upon the Churches ; under which, as we learn from the results, there was a vigorous life working, but through which it is impossible to discern aught, save here and there the figure of a Watchman or a Witness : a mere token to posterity that the remarkable stillness of the period was not of death, but of growth. S. John departed to his rest about the beginning of the cen- tury ; S. Clement of Rome, and S. Symeon, the second Bishop ^ Jerusalem, a little while later. In the great Prov- ami^other ince of Syria, S. Ignatius kept alive the teaching, and exercised ^‘the gift,’* which more than thirty years previously he had received from the three chief Apostles. In Asia Minor, S. Polycarp was treasuring the sacred lore which sixty years afterwards he transmitted to a new era of the Church. So, in other parts, a few witnesses remained to testify of the wonders of Apostolic times.* Ammias and Quadratus were * Euseb. Ecc. Hist. iii. 37-39. Beginning of the Second Century. 103 Trajan. reverenced as Prophets. Others were still known for evangelic gifts. There were doubtless others also, such as Papias Evan- the Millenarian, who corrupted the tradition they had Prophets. received from the Apostles, and fostered a secret undergrowth of superstition and false doctrine. The profligate Domitian, whose name is connected with the second of the general Persecutions — whose rage, how- Domitian. ever, spent itself indifferently upon Jews, philosophers, Nervay and every one that had a claim to any sort of merit — was succeeded by Nerva; and he towards the end of the first century by the virtuous Trajan. The latter was induced by his reverence, real or pretended, for the gods of the Empire, to give ear to the vile calumnies which continued to be circulated against his Christian subjects, and to indulge, if not to foster, the spirit of persecution. The secrecy forced upon believers by the frivolity as well as cruelty of the world around, afforded un- Third doubtedly ^ handle against them. What innocence plrZ^u- wore for a veil, might easily be assumed as a mask for guilt. Few heathen magistrates would distinguish between the holy rites of the Gospel and the foul abominations of Gnostic sects, when both were covered over with the same impenetrable cloud."* Trajan seems to have taken no pains to inquire into the distinction. By renewing certain edicts, almost become obsolete, against secret societies and assemblies, he gave full scope Secret to the rage of the rabble so that wherever Christians Societies. came together for worship, they were liable to be seized, put to the torture, and summarily condemned, as enemies of the State and despisers of the majesty of the Emperor. It was under these circumstances that Pliny the Younger,^ 2 On the state of the Roman law with regard to persecution, see Jeremie, Hist, of the Christian Church.^ ch. ii. and notes; also ch. i. \ 3. 3 Eusebius attributes this persecution to popular fury. History, lib. iii. 32. 4 The genuineness of these letters of Pliny has been disputed, but is admitted by the great majority of learned writers. See Lardner’s Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, and Gierig’s edition of Pliny the Younger (tom. ii. 104 History of the Church. being appointed Governor of Bithynia, a province evangelized pvtiythe Apostolic times, undertook for a while to carry out Younger., the law in all its rigor. He became convinced, how- .104110. YiQ had assumed was beyond his strength. To put all the Christians to death was to run a risk of depopulating large portions of his province. He found, moreover, that the veil of secrecy in which the Christians en- shrouded their sacred rights, covered nothing capable of a criminal construction. The temples of the gods, indeed, were beginning to be deserted, and victims had almost ceased to be Dec y of upon their altars. Christianity was becoming Heathen the prevalent religion. s But as to its votaries, Pliny, on diligent inquiry, having examined certain apostates who volunteered their evidence, and having put to the torture two deaconesses,® could learn nothing against them, except, as he expressed it, their perverse and extravagant superstition. They meet before sunrise, he writes, on a certain day. They sing hymns responsively to one another in praise of Christ as God. 7 They bind themselves together by a sacrament ; not, Christian however, for any criminal purpose, but as a mutual Worship, pledge against theft, adultery, breach of trust, and the like : all which being ended, they break up for a while, and afterwards reassemble for a sociable and innocent repast. So Pliny wrote to the Emperor — an accurate, though some- what meagre outline of Christian life and worship. The term Term sacramentuM^ which he employs to designate the chief Sacra- . . , 1 ment. act of communion, is a word of large meaning, cover- ing anything from a simple verbal oath, in the modern sense. 498-519) ; also Gieseler, J 33, n. 7. Pliny’s questions to the Emperor were (i) whether any distinction of sex, age, etc., should be made; (2) whether place of penitence should be allowed; (3) whether the mere name of Chris- tian should be punished, or some crime should be proven ; (4) whether any search was to be made for them. 5 Lucian, Pseudomant. 25, represents the false prophet as complaining that “ Pontus was full of atheists and Christians.” <5 << Ex duabus ancillis quae ministrce dicebantur.” 7 << Carmenque Christo quasi deo dicere secum invicem.” Beginning of the Second Century, 105 to the most elaborate and impressive ceremonial. Pliny’s ac- count, therefore, drawn as it was from the reluctant confes- sions of persons under torture, though correct as to the general order of Church customs in his day, is of very little value with regard to particulars. These were probably concealed ; or, if they were divulged, Pliny was not a man to think them worth mentioning in a formal communication to the Emperor. For the rest, the candid and philosophic governor freely bore witness to the general good conduct of the persecuted sect, and to their peaceable behavior.^ The vigorous measures, Q^odCon however, which he had pursued against them, were not duct of the . . rr -K r it ^ ChristiatlS. Without effect. Many, under the pressure of perse- cution, dissembled their belief. The assemblies for worship were less frequently held, or more carefully concealed. The heathen gods began once more to be honored by obsequious crowds.^ On the other hand, the Emperor, somewhat mollified by the representations of Pliny, allowed the persecu- Trajan tion to assume a milder form. None should be pun- ished, he decreed, but those regularly convicted ; anonymous accusations should be rejected ; those who were brought to trial by responsible accusers, might be allowed to clear themselves by worshipping the gods ; but for such as remained quiet, there should be no rigorous inquiry. The effect of this decree was to blunt somewhat the edge of persecution. But when such a man as Pliny could regard the conscientious firmness of believers as an offence worthy Believers of the rack, and when such an Emperor as Trajan ^ stui could sanction capital punishment in cases which he deemed undeserving of serious inquiry,"® there could be no lack 2 This testimony was the more reliable from the fact that it was drawn in part from persons who had apostatized “ some three years, and one or two twenty years before.” 9 Pliny inferred from this that a great number of Christians might be won over from their faith, if place of repentance ” were given. Tertullian vehemently censures the Emperor on this account. Apologet, ii. Mosheim apologizes for Trajan, but the defence is an extremely lame one; io6 History of the Church. of informers on the one hand, or of unjust judges on the other, to procure accusations and convictions, and to keep the sword continually suspended over the heads of at least the chief leaders of the Church. Many suffered at the hands of the populace. Symeon^ Some Were put to death by the order of Trajan him- self. Among others, Symeon the second Bishop of (about) 107. Jerusalem has been already mentioned. His successor, Justus, likewise obtained the martyr’s crown. But the flower of the noble army of witnesses for Christ at this period was found in the person of S. Ignatius, surnamed Ignatius of Theophorus, the Apostolic Bishop of the Church of Antioch, Antioch.” He was a well-known disciple of the Apostle S. John. Associated for a while with S. Euodius, whom he succeeded in the year sixty-eight, and holding the Mother See of the Church in Syria, he was virtually the head, or, as S. Chrysostom styles him, the Apostle of that important province. As such he became a shining mark for the arrows of persecution. The precise time of his martyrdom has been much disputed, some placing it in the ninth, others in the nineteenth year of Before reign of Trajan. It i^ only known that Trajan, Trajan, elated with his victories over the Scythians and Da- A,D. I16. . . , Clans, and about to engage in an expedition in the East, halted at Antioch on his way, and showed a disposition to afflict the Christians. The Bishop, with a noble anxiety to shield his flock, fearlessly repaired to the imperial presence. Trajan said to him : “ What cacodaemon (that is, ill-starred wretch) art thou, engaged in perverting other people?” Igna- tius answered : None can call Theophorus caco- Theojhorus. daemon, for the daemons keep away from the servants of God. But if thou callest me cacodaemon because I am hos- attributing his ‘‘ inconsistency ” to fear of “ the priests and the multitude,” and not to “ superstition.” Comment, vol. i. 8, etc. Neander defends him on somewhat better grounds. “ S. Clement. Rom., S. Ignat., S. Polycarp., Patrum Apostol., etc. Oxon. 1838. Beginning of the Second Century. 107 tile to the daemons, I confess it. Having Christ the King of Heaven on my side, I dispel their snares.*' Trajan said: ‘‘What is the meaning of Theophorus?" Ignatius replied: “One who bears Christ in his heart.” “But,” said the Em- peror, “ do not we in that sense bear the gods, who fight with us against our enemies?” Ignatius answered : “The daemons of the Gentiles are no gods. There is but one God, who made heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is therein ; and one Christ Jesus, His only begotten Son, whose kingdom may I attain ! ” The sentence of death soon followed: “We His command Ignatius, who says he bears about the Cruci- fied with him, to be conducted to Rome by a military guard ; there to be thrown to wild beasts as a spectacle for the people.” That the fact of his punishment might be as widely known as the noble victim himself, he was taken to the city by the longest way. The result was very different from what His the Emperor probably intended. It enabled the Mar- tyr to give an example of faith and courage much needed at that time for the feebler class of believers.^"' Everywhere met by troops of zealous friends, he vindicated his claim to the title Theophorus, and to his own noble maxim, “ My love hath been crucified.” A Divine influence accompanied him from city to city. In his person the Cross seemed to be again uplifted. Everywhere he took care to season his conversation with salt, writing epistles to the Churches, dropping words of hope and comfort upon the multitudes who thronged to see him, calling his chains his spiritual jewels, and enlivening the gravity of his discourses with a chaste vivacity peculiarly his own. In this latter respect, S. Ignatius was among the sprightliest as well as *2 The “ fears’’ of Ignatius for his flock were probably not a mere dread of the sufferings they might have to undergo, but an anxiety lest they should fall away. For all Christians were not equally courageous. Such occasional examples as that of Ignatius were necessary, no doubt, to nerve the faith and courage of the more timid crowd. This being considered, the eagerness for martyrdom displayed by this noble confessor is defensible on rational grounds. When Polycarp suffered, a half century later, circumstances were different and a different course was advisable. io8 History of the Church. holiest of martyrs. From his adamantine soul, as the Greeks describe it, the waters of an almost playful fancy were contin- ually welling up. His military guard he compared to His Sallies. j ‘‘ten leopards,’^ which, the kinder he was to them, became only the more wanton. The jaws of the lions which awaited him in the Roman Amphitheatre he regarded as a mill which was to grind his wheat into an offering of fine flour unto the Lord. With sallies of this kind, with stirring exhortations, with grave advice, and with a face which the ancients describe as radiant with joy, he made his journey to the great Metropolis a genuine Christian ovation. He was thrown to the lions in the Roman Amphitheatre on the great popular Feast of the Saturnalia. The whole city Final flockcd together on such occasions. It was providen- tially ordered, therefore, that when the courageous old man descended into the arena, he was, more conspicuously than any of the martyrs before or after him, “a spectacle unto the whole world, even to angels and to men.^^ Long before his arrival at Rome, he had had the consolation of learning that his Church, which he had committed to the special charge of his friend Polycarp, was no longer subject to persecution. Of his body, torn and mangled by the lions, a few relics are said to have been collected by the diligence of his friends. ///j The nobler legacy that he left to posterity in his fa- Remains. Epistles, has been more severely handled. In such portions, however, as have survived the fury of a long and searching controversy,*^ whether we take the seven Epistles corn- 's In his Epistle to the Romans, he expresses a hope that nothing might be left to be a trouble to his friends : that he might disappear to the world to appear with Christ : that he might set to the world to rise with Christ. The asperity of certain critics towards this father does not seem to have abated, if one may judge from two recent examples. The first is Bunsen. The word Sige, it appears — a Valentinian Gnostic term for God — in the Epistle to the Trallians, was for a long while considered an anachronism, and was used as an argument against the genuineness of the Epistle. The recent discovery of the works of Hippolytus has proved that the tenn was used by Simon Magus : the anachronism and the argument, therefore, fall to the Beginning of the Second Century. 109 monly received, or the briefer fragments of the Syriac transla- tion, there are unmistakable marks of his character and genius. Their freshness and originality is such as we find in no other of the Apostolic fathers. The style is terse, sparkling, and sententious. With allusions everywhere to the sense of Holy Scripture, but with few literal quotations, and possessing to a remarkable degree that quickness of spiritual discernment which hearkens, as he happily expresses it, to the silence of fFesus, Igna- tius wrote with a soul still moist with the morning dew of the first outpouring of the Spirit. Between the age of His inspiration and the era of reflective and discursive thought which marked the latter half of the century, he is one of the most valuable of the connecting links. The testimony he bore to the doctrine and discipline of his ground. Bunsen is forced to acknowledge this ; but instead of candidly con- fessing the error, he turns upon Bishop Pearson for contending (as he had a right to do before the recent discoveries) that Ignatius used the word in the ordinary sense, and not in the Gnostic. See B.’s Hippol. vol. i. p. 59. The second instance is Dr. Schaff. The latter acknowledges the genuineness of the seven Epistles ; but, wishing to find fault somewhere, accuses the noble martyr of “ something offensive,” because he exhorts his friend Polycarp to be “ more studious, .... more zealous, .... and to flee the arts of the DevilP Dr. Schaff forgets that mutual exhortation was by early Christians considered a duty, and that Bishops were as willing to be warned against “the arts of the Devil ” as the humblest catechumen. In the same way, the mar- tyr’s earnestly expressed wish that the Romans would not seek to save him from martyrdom, but would rather pray for him that he might be found a sacriflce to God, is set down as “ boisterous impatience and morbid fanati- cism.” That the prospect of being eaten by lions may have had a stimulating effect upon the holy Bishop’s imagination, and that he may have expressed his willingness to suffer somewhat more warmly than if he had written quietly in his study, I can readily conceive. But to characterize this generous warmth as “boisterous impatience and morbid fanaticism” is to war against every noble impulse of the human heart. Writings more free than the Ignatian Epistles from fanaticism, and from every other kind of bitterness, can nowhere be found. See Antient Syriac Version, etc., by W. Cureton, M.A. For a summary of the argument in favor of the Seven Epistles, see Prof. Blunt’s Lectures on the History of the First Three Centuries ; also Dr. Schaff’s History of the Church. no History of the Church. . times is found in all copies of his writings, and is therefore not His ivitness affccted by the critical objections which have been made to portions of the text. On the subject of Epis- Discifhne. ^Qpacy his language is decisive. The proper Divinity of the Son of God, the reality of the Incarnation, and the anti- Gnostic maxim that even things done in the body are spiritual if done in the Lord, are expressed with equal force and preci- sion. The hortatory parts of the Epistles reveal a state of things in the Churches differing little from what existed when Timothy received his instructions from S. Paul. The widows continued to be the special charge of the chief Pastor. Masters and slaves, husbands and wives, are to grow in grace by faithful performance of their duties to one another. Marriage is honored ; virginity is moderately commended.'^ With the exception, in short, of a brief and obscure allusion to Satan’s supposed ignorance of some of the mysteries of the Incarnation, everything in these writings is indicative of an age of simple faith, averse to speculation, averse to innovation, and jealously conservative of truth and order, in the letter and spirit of them both. With the remarkable witness of Pliny and Ignatius — the one a heathen philosopher, the other a Christian Bishop, but both Two testifying to the vigor of Christianity at this compara- Wttnesses. unrecorded period of its history — we pass with rapid steps to an epoch which more completely lifts the veil of obscurity and silence, opening the seals of a new era of Church life, and showing the seeds of good and evil, which had been springing the meanwhile in the full luxuriance of their growth. *5 The much abused phrase, Nothing without the Bishop, is used chiefly in this connection; namely, that in undertaking the two most critical and mo- mentous of all engagements — virginity and marriage — young persons should not think themselves wiser than their Pastors. S. Ignatii Ep, ad Poly carp. 5 . Hadrian and the Antonines. Ill CHAPTER II. HADRIAN AND THE ANTONINES. The ablest and wisest Emperors were not by any means the most favorable to Christianity. Trajan is known in history as the third of the Persecutors. Under Hadrian his suc- Fourth cessor, a philosophic prince of varied talents and vir- Persecution^ , . , . , A.D. 117-138. tues — whose virtue, however, seems to have possessed him as a spirit of unrest — things were but little altered for the better. Persecution was continually breaking out in one place or another. But the severity with which it was conducted de- pended mainly upon the temper of the mob, and the greater or less zeal of the provincial magistrates. It is of little use to look for recondite reasons for the injus- tice, or indifference, of these politically wise Emperors towards their Christian subjects. The Church undoubtedly . , Progress was becoming a great power. It was felt, moreover, 0/ the to be a power of change. The more thoughtful magis- trates, in proportion as they were patriotic and religious in the heathen sense, were nervously alive to the importance of this fact ; and of course the more alive, as Christianity was to them an incomprehensible, and, some of them half suspected, an irre- pressible phenomenon. Yet they were by no means settled in their judgment, or consistent in their course. As a man, about to be overtaken by the flow of a great tide, first notices with indifference a pool here or there forming stealthily in the sands, but at last, when he sees the pools enlarging and rapidly multiplying, is awakened to his danger, and now ad- Gradual. I 12 History of the Church. As a Growth. vances, now retreats, the hostile element confronting him which- ever way he turns : such was the position, and such the policy of the magistrates of the Empire, in dealing with Christianity. Mere superstitions they could easily have tolerated with Roman magnanimity. But Christianity, they saw, was no common superstition. Nor was it a violent enthusiasm, sweeping with foaming and threatening front along a measurable channel. What was infinitely more perplexing, it was singularly quiet, singularly peaceable, singularly gradual in ^ , its advance. It came in as a growth : it rose as a Solway tide.^ Indeed, so uniform was its progress in all parts of the Roman world, so simultaneous in places far remote from one another, that whether it was rising upon society, or society was sinking into it, was a question that the philosophy of the times found it difficult to answer. There were many who looked upon it, therefore, as a sort of myste- rious epidemic. And it was this mystery, in fact, this evidence of power without any of the pomp and circumstance of power, that baffled the counsels of the Emperors, and entangled them in a policy as futile as it was unjust. It is true, however, that there were Christians who gave need- less offence, by the display of an inordinate desire of martyrdom. Inordinate When Arrius Antoninus,"" probably about this period, opened his tribunal in Asia for accusations against them, they voluntarily came forward in such numbers, that the governor, veiling his humanity under an appearance of con- tempt, was forced to drive them away. There are ropes * The steady increase of Christians in all ranks of society was a common talk among the heathen ; and the somewhat exaggerated expressions of the Apologists to that effect are often put in the mouths of the enemies of the Gospel. Thus Tertullian : “ Men cry out that the state is beset, that the Christians are in their fields, in their forts, in their islands. They mourn, as for a loss, that evefy sex, age, condition, and now even every rank is going over to this sect.” Apologet. i. For numerous references to passages bearing on this subject, see Oxf. Translation of Terttill. p. 3, note g. ^Tertull. ad Scap. 5. There would seem to have been two of the name of Arrius ; the one under Hadrian, the other in the times of Commodus. Hadrian and the Antonines. 113 enough, said he, to hang yourselves with, if life is such a bur- den to you. But such displays on the part of a certain class, were symp- toms of a distemper, which, at this time, pervaded all orders of men, and, in a measure, all forms of religion. The Fanaticism decay of Heathenism was filling the world with wild dreams. Fanaticism abounded. The Carpocratians and other Gnostic or semi-heathen sects, made their meetings the scenes of abominable orgies. The Jews were in a ferment of religious wars. They had rejected their true Messiah ; but the ^ The Jews, vision of a Messiah, ever present to their minds, had become a great stone, as it were, that was perpetually falling on them and grinding them to powder. Under Trajan, they had perpetrated a horrible massacre of the Gen- ’ tiles in Egypt. Similar events had occurred in Libya, Cyre- naica, Cyprus, Palestine, and Mesopotamia. Under Hadrian, Bar Cochba claimed to be the Messiah, and furiously persecuted the Christians. In this rebellion, which terminated, as we have seen, 3 with the second overthrow of Jerusalem, more than six hundred thousand Jews are said to have per- ished ; and by famine and other evils that followed, Judaea was almost depopulated. There was similar excitement among the Heathen. The Egyptians were running frantic over the The supposed discovery of their bull-god. Apis.** Magical arts began to be revived ; and to these, and even viler super- stitions, the philosophic Emperor fell an easy victim. The worship that he instituted to his deified minion Antinous made him an object of contempt to the very heathen. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, if the Christians, partly from being somewhat infected with the evil spirit of the times, partly from being confounded with wretches who assumed the Name of Christ to profane it, and partly from a new edge being given to the malignity both of Jews and heathen, suffered in many ways not intended by the laws, and 3 Book I. ch. vii. See Euseb. Eccles. Hist. iii. 2 , 6. 4 Spartianus de Api; Euseb. de Pi'ceparat. ii. ii. 1 1 4 History of the Church. became more than ever the objects of popular violence. In Faith Martyrologies,^ it is said that Faith, Hope, and Hopeiand Charity were among the sufferers of this time, being Chanty, ^ put to death at Rome, along with Wisdom, their mother. These holy sisters, the martyrs of every age, had doubtless begun to suffer then. Besides them, however, there seem to have been victims of a more tangible description, in Italy, Sardinia, Greece, Palestine, and all the provinces of the East.® It was during Hadrian’s reign that Quadratus, Bishop of Athens,^ wrote an Apology for the Christians, and presented it Quadratus, t^e Emperor. He was a disciple of the Apostles (many of whose miracles he had seen with his own eyes). Bishop, ^ distinguished Evangelist and Prophet. Becoming Bishop of Athens, he labored with great success in reestablishing the Church, which, in that part of Greece, had fallen into Hadrian decay. Hadrian, visiting the city in the course of his in Athens, travels, was equally intent upon reviving heathenism.^ He seems, however, to have treated the venerable Apologist with all due respect. The memorial pre- Aristides, ^ i ^ i sented by Quadratus on this occasion, and a similar discourse written by Aristides a converted philosopher, were 5 Martyrolog. Roman. August, i. ^ The number of Martyrs at various periods is a subject that has been much discussed, to little or no purpose. The extremes {i, e., the reasonable extremes) are represented by Dodwell, Disertat. Cyprian, xi. and Ruinart. Acta Martyr, Selecta et Sincera, Prefat, Most modern writers take the mean between these — a process more easy than satisfactory. 7 Euseb. iv. 3 ; iii. 37. ^ He was there initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries. Hadrian’s active mind being superstitious, as well as philosophic, I can see no improba- bility in the story of Lampridus [Alex, Severus, xxiv.) that he erected some temples without statues, with a view to admit Christ among the Roman gods. The same feeling that induced the Athenians to have an altar to “ the unknown God ” may have suggested such a course ; but when he found the priests op- posed to it, his reverence for the established religion (Spartian. Vit Hadrian, xxii.) made him desist. Hadrian and the Antonines. 115 highly esteemed by the Christians, and are said to have had some effect upon the mind of the Emperor. A greater effect was produced by a letter from Serenius Granianus, Proconsul of Asia Minor, representing to the Em- peror the injustice of allowing Christians to be put to death on a mere popular outcry. Other governors against ^ ^ ^ ^ Informers. had made similar complaints. Hadrian replied by a famous letter to Minucius Fundanus,^ successor of Granianus, in which he forbids any one to be put to death, except in due course of law, and orders that false accusers should be rigorously judged and punished. Antoninus Pius, Hadrian’s successor, is said to have re- newed this favorable edict, and seems to have done his utmost to have it honestly enforced. He was moved to this . . Antoninus by his own humane disposition, and possibly by an Pius, apology of Justin, the philosopher and martyr. Be- yond occasional outbreaks of fanaticism, therefore, in conse- quence of a long series of public calamities,^® the Christians were little troubled in the exercise of their religion. Indeed, the sufferings they were called to endure were hardly more than were necessary to draw a k'ne betwixt them and the Gnostic sects ; the latter, as a general rule, not caring enough for the Name of Christ to bear persecution for it. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was, as Gibbon has described him, of a severer and more laborious kind of virtue ” than his amiable predecessor. ‘‘ He embraced the rigid system Marcus of the Stoics, which taught him to submi this body to Aurelius, . A.D.161-180. his mind, his passions to his reason ; to consider vir- tue as the only good, vice as the only evil, all things external as things indifferent. ’ ’ To his subjects in general, he was just and beneficent. But, unfortunately for the peace of the Hostile to Christians, their religion was particularly offensive to Gospel. Stoic pride. The imperial sophist might declaim of the happy 9 Euseb. Eccles. Hist. iv. 9. *0 Famines, inundations, earthquakes, fires. Jul. Capitolin. Vita Antonin. Pii, ix. 1 1 6 History of the Church. frame of mind which enables one to await annihilation with a stern composure. A Christian would merely pity such rigidity of soul. Man is not made for a leaden and passionless immo- bility : he is benevolently created for life and hope. Not sup- pression of the affections, but their proper cultivation, is the rule of duty. Not annihilation, but a blissful resurrection — not death, but life — is the doctrine to inspire true courage, true patience, true temperance, true virtue of every kind. Marcus Aurelius felt this antagonism between his own phi- losophy and the faith of his Christian subjects.” “ It is admir- Thai Stoic able,’' says he, that the soul should be prepared for Ideal. whatever may await her : to be extinguished, to be dis- persed, or whatever else may happen. But prepared, I say, not with mere obstinacy, like that of the Christians, not with an idle show of joy, but in a grave, considerate, reasonable man- ner, so as to make a serious impression on the minds of other people.” Judging Christian hope from the stand-point of stoicism, he considered it a mere affectation. Besides this, the Gospel, as he could not fail to see, imparted a peculiar power. Under its inspiration, not the perfect man merely, not the king in the stoic sense, but women and children, and even slaves, could face the great terror undismayed. In this respect, phi- losophy had begun to feel itself rebuked. About the time of the Emperor’s accession, a hardened wretch of the name of Peregrinus,” who, in the course of a bad life, had been succes- sively parricide, Christian, priest, confessor, and finally an apostate from the faith and a professor of Cynicism, attempted ” Neander {^Ch. Hist. i. ii.) calls attention to a ‘‘childlike piety,” which the Emperor had imbibed from his mother, and which sometimes led him to the expression of the noblest sentiments, and sometimes involved him in abject superstition. A strong religious feeling of this kind must have been terribly galled at times by the artificial stoicism in v/hich he had tried to encase it ; and the irritation thence arising may account for his peculiar hostility to the Christians. To hate a thing cordially, there must be a certain amount of sympathy with it. *2 Lucian, De Morte Peregrini. Hadrian and the Antojzines, 117 to prop the failing credit of philosophy by burningh imself pub- licly at the Olympic games. An immense crowd was The Cynic present. Some laughed, some admired. Contrary, perhaps, to the expectation of Peregrinus, none had the human- ity to interfere. After many delays and tremors, he threw him- self at length into the devouring element. The act was indeed but a vile caricature of Christian self-devotion. It shows a point, however, in which philosophy felt its own deficiency. Where Stoicism could boast of an occasional suicide, Christian- ity could point to an unfailing succession of Martyrs. This being the case, there was no course left for a man of discern- ment like the Emperor, but either to embrace the Gospel, or to treat it as an enthusiasm dangerous to the peace of his sub- jects, and to the welfare of the State. Among the numerous sufferers of this reign there are three names so distinguished, and so typical of certain phases rhreeTypes of the Church life of the age, as to demand for each a separate and particular account. Polycarp, the disciple of John, the bosom friend of Ignatius, and for threescore years the trusted depository of Apostolic tra- dition, is the representative of an age of simple faith, observant of the old landmarks, but not much exer- cised as yet by ^^the oppositions of science,’’ whether true or false. In Pothinus, a disciple of the same school, and in his companions the Lyonnese Martyrs, we observe the same devout faith, but with it all the symptoms of an age of sterner and more complicated trials. The war against heathen- ism from without is accompanied by a protest against the begin- nings of heathenish corruptions from within. Justin, Justin the Philosopher, Apologist, and Martyr, more fully zviartyr. represents this struggle, both outward and inward, as leaving the high ground of simple martyrdom, and descending into the dusty arena of philosophical, skeptical, and critical discus- sion. And this was a necessary stage in the Church’s progress here on earth. A religion which fails to satisfy the mind of Polycarp, Pothinus, 1 1 8 History of the Church. man can never rise above the level of a popular superstition. Transition The Church for awhile might be content to announce Period. i^essage in the simple, pregnant phrases which appeal only to the few that have ears, to hear. But this would not answer always. As St. Ignatius foresaw, on his way to martyrdom, other times were coming, with a de- mand for combatants who could speak face to face with all kinds of men ; who, as skilful pilots, should be in readi- ness for winds from all quarters of the heavens ; who, as athletes thoroughly trained, could stand like an anvil under repeated blows, knowing that to be smitten is as needful for the victory as the power to smite. In proportion as we appreciate this truth we are prepared to do justice to three phases of Church life, which appeared successively, or rather grew one out of another, before the end of the second century. An age of simple witness bears within it an age of elaborate Three Ages. ^ ° Apologetics ; and this again developes into a con- fused and troublous era of religious discussion and polemical zeal. As types of three aspects of this period of transition, the names of Polycarp, Pothinus, and Justin Martyr are entitled to the large place they hold in the early history of the Church. ^3 S. Ignat, ad Polycarp. 2, 3. S. Poly carp. 119 CHAPTER III. S. POLYCARP. Polycarp, The city of Smyrna, at the beginning of the second century, was hardly inferior to Ephesus in social and political impor- tance. The Church established there at quite an early church in period had remained, as we infer from the Apocalypse, singularly uncorrupt ; its Angel, rich in good works amid tem- poral poverty and affliction, having guarded it successfully against the arts of that semi-Jewish, semi-Gnostic philosophy, with which the Asiatic cities at that time, and for some while after, were more or less infected.^ Whether the Angel thus commended was the admirable Bishop subsequently so well known under the name of Poly- carp, is matter of conjecture only."* Certain it is, however, that the saintly Bishop of the second century proved not unworthy of the eulogy pronounced upon the faith- ful Angel of the first. For twenty years or more the disciple of S. John, and the trusted friend of S. Ignatius, he first comes before us a sober pastor at the head of a well ordered flock, both sheep and shepherd nailed to the cross of ^ ^ The Shep- Christ,’’ at the time when the Martyr of Antioch herd and halted for a few days at Smyrna, on his memorable journey to Rome. The latter entrusted him with the dearest remaining care of his life. He was to have a fit head provided for the Church at Antioch ; to write to all the Churches which * Rev. ii. 8-10. 2 The probabilities (from the age of Polycarp at the time of his death, etc.) are against the identity of the two. 120 History of the Church. Ignatius could not write to himself ; and to do what else in his discretion might be found expedient. His style, in the portion that remains of his excellent Epistle to the Philippians,^ is in keeping with the sobriety and sim- plicity of his character. There is nothing in it of the His style ^ I and Char- terseiiess of Ignatius, that concentrated power which makes old thoughts crystallize into something new and rare. Holy Scripture is the staple of his writings. He quotes much, — quotes generally in the letter, and seems drawn along by the sacred text, as if he loved it too much to let it go his hold, or to break it off abruptly from any of its connections. Less brilliant than Ignatius, and perhaps with less claim to any ‘‘gift’’ of Divine illumination, he was eminently fitted for the providential end for which his life on earth seems to have been so extraordinarily prolonged. Not faithful merely, but literally and punctiliously faithful, conservative of jots and A Theo. tittles, he was just the man for a theodroinos^ as Igna- dro7ne. phrases it,^ — a Divine message-bearer from the Apostolic age to a second and third generation of zealous wit- nesses to the Truth. “It seems to me that I still hear him telling” — so writes Irenaeus,^ the most intellectual of the disciples of his school — Portrait by how lie had conversed with S. John and other eye- irenaus. ’yyitnesses of Jesus Christ ; repeating the very words he had heard from their mouths, with many particulars of the mir- acles and doctrines of that divine Saviour, all of which was in closest conformity with what we learn from the Sacred Script- ures, from the writings, namely, of those who were themselves eye-witnesses of the Word of Life.” About the middle of the century, during the reign of Anto- ninus Pius, he made a visit to Rome, desirous of conference with Anicetus, then Bishop of that city. There he bore Visit to ^ ^ ^ 11 Rome^ his testimony against Marcion, Carpocrates, and other heretics of the day. On the question already agitated in the Church — the practice, namely, of feasting like the Jews 3 Patr. Apostol. Oxon. 1838. 4 Ad Poly carp. 7. 5 Apud. Euseb. v. 20. I2I S. Polycarp. on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan^ — he maintained the tradition of S. John and S. Philip against Anicetus and the Roman custom. Neither party had power to convince the other. Against the practice of S. John and S. Philip, the Two Tra- Romans alleged that of S. Peter and S. Paul. Neither Anicetus nor Polycarp seems to have dreamed of any authority vested in the Roman See by which the controversy might be once for all decided. They parted as they had met, in peace. And for nearly two centuries longer, the Christians of Asia Minor, with a firmness sufficiently vexatious at the time, but precious in after ages as a testimony to the primitive equality of the Churches, adhered to their tradition. In his martyr-death, as for so many years in his martyr-life, Polycarp was still the faithful theodrome ; not running before, but with tranquil humility content to follow after, the will of God. We have already had occasion to notice that, Excessive owing in part to continuous persecution, and in part to a contagious enthusiasm which the Church resisted but not with absolute success, the glory of witnessing for Christ was sometimes coveted by persons unworthy of the honor. Hence a needless asperity at times, or even a species of bravado, before the tribunals. Hence, among some, an actual courting or pro- voking of popular hatred. Hence, in short, many sore scandals to the Church. Early in the century the wretched volunteer Peregrinus had shown that one might stand up man- fully as a confessor, in times of persecution, and yet be unable to keep his feet amid the fumes of subsequent applause. More recently a Phrygian of the name of Quintus had thrust himself forward as a volunteer for martyrdom ; but as soon as he heard the lions roar he was ready to sacrifice to idols. Lapses of this kind, becoming more frequent as the Church increased in num- bers, made it incumbent on pastors and leaders to set an example of a new kind of confessorship — the confessorship, namely, of a prudent circumspection : a thing vastly more difficult in stir- ring times than any other form of faith and courage. ^ For the Paschal question, see ch. ix. of this book. 6 122 History of the Church. The first demand for the sacrifice of Polycarp arose from the amphitheatre at Smyrna, on occasion, we are told, of the mar- tyrdom of Germanicus with eleven other Christians of Philadel- phia. These amphitheatres — huge mouths of hell as The Circus. ^ ^ ° ’ the Christians properly esteemed them, with their beast-fights and gladiator-shows, bubbling with all the lewd and cruel passions of the idolatrous rabble of great cities — were the recognized feeders of that blood-thirsty spirit which disgraced the civilization of the old Roman world ; and so long as they were tolerated, were unfailing fountain-heads of new persecu- its Baleful tions. There is a fearful description by S. Augustine^ Influence. way the soul could be wrought on, and meta- morphosed in these abominable dens. How horror stiffened into cruelty at the first sight of blood ; how cruelty, amid the growls of lacerated brutes, and the cheers and jeers of monsters in human shape, elevated itself into a sort of demoniacal pos- session ; how the shrinking novice of a few hours since, now ‘‘ beheld, shouted, kindled,'’ being magnetized, as it were, into a frenzy of mingled terror and delight : all this has been vividly portrayed, and to those who have observed the plastic nature of the soul is by no means difficult to imagine. Between the darkness of such scenes and the pure light of Christianity, there could be no sort of concord. Regarding them as the rallying-point of the daemons whom the Gospel was dislodging from shrine and grove, believers looked upon them with an aversion not to be disguised. The hate, of course, was fully reciprocated. When the name of Polycarp, therefore, was Polycarp Uttered in the theatre of Smyrna, it was caught up at called for. resounded on every side. ‘^Away with the atheists,® let Polycarp be brought ! " It was a popular delirium, not to be resisted, not to be evaded. 7 S. Augustine, Confess, vi. 8. On the subject of the indecency and bar- barity of heathen shows, see Tertullian, De Spectaculis. ® “ We are called Atheists,” says Justin Martyr, ‘‘ and so far as those called gods by the heathen are concerned, we plead guilty to the charge ; but not so with regard to the only true God,” etc. Apol. ii. 6. 123 S. Polycarp. The saint, however, yielding to the urgency of his friends, withdrew for awhile from the reach of the infuriated crowd. In a retired country-seat, at no great distance from the His city, he spent his time in prayers night and day for the welfare of the Churches, and tranquilly awaited the good pleasure of the Lord. Hunted from this place of refuge, he magnani- mously yielded to entreaty and fled to another. Meanwhile he had had a vision in which his pillow appeared all in flames, ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 1 • 1 r Dream, and on the strength of it had foretold the kind of martyrdom he was called to undergo. Discovered in his second retreat, he said simply, ^^The Lord's will be doneP and gave himself up. Two hours were granted him for prayer, his cap- tors the meanwhile regaling themselves with a collation, which the venerable Bishop, mindful to the last of the duty of hospi- tality, had been careful to provide. On his way to the city he was overtaken by Herod the Ire- narch and Nicetas his father, who took him up into their chariot, and tried to persuade him to call Caesar Lord, and HisCon- offer the sacrifice enjoined in such cases. He simply fesston, answered, I cannot do what you advise. Brought before Statius Quadratus the Proconsul, he was ordered to repeat the prayer for the destruction of the godless, which, being intended as an imprecation against the Christians, had become a gathering cry of the Smyrna rabble. But the language of the prayer was capable of a Christian interpretation. Polycarp, therefore, was content to repeat the words prescribed, looking up with beam- ing face towards Heaven. When commanded to curse Christ, he mildly answered. Fourscore and six years have I served Him, and He hath done me no ill : how then can I curse my King and Saviour? To the further demand, that he should swear by the Fortune of Caesar, he replied that he was a Christian, the meaning of which name he was ready to explain, if the Pro- consul would grant him a hearing. Moved probably by a feeling of compassion, the Proconsul then advised him to plead his cause before the people. But Polycarp was not to be led into such a crooked course. He saw. 124 History of the Church. Honor •where due. what certain apologists for the Magistrates of that age are False strangely blind to,^ that men in authority had no right Kindness. sword Committed to them into the hands of an irresponsible, blood-thirsty mob, and then to wash their hands, Pilate-like, as though they were innocent in the matter. Poly- carp, doubtless, was well aware of this. To the soft words of the Proconsul, therefore, he replied with dignity and firmness : Before you I am willing to make answer ; for Princes and Magistrates are ordained of God, and we Chris- tians are taught to render them the honor that is due : but with regard to the populace, they have no such claim, and I am under no obligation to plead before them.^’ The games at this time being over. Polycarp, according to his prediction, was condemned to the stake. The Christians of Smyrna, who witnessed and recorded the transaction, saw the flames gather around and enclose him as in a fiery pavilion, while a delicioi^s perfume floated through the air.*° As the fire did not reach him at once, some one, per- haps out of compassion, plunged a sword into his side. His friends gathered what could be found of his remains, and rever- entially consigned them to a tomb. There, they add, with a discriminating piety worthy of their saintly teacher, we hope to assemble hereafter, and celebrate with joy the day of his mar- Honors tyrdom ; not to worship him, however, as the Pagans paid him. contemplate the example he has set, and to learn, if needs be, to imitate it. As to worship, we can never abandon Jesus Christ. We worship Him because He is the Son of God. The martyrs we love and follow, because of the very great love they have shown for their King and Master.’*” His Mar- "tyrdom y A.D. 167-9. 9 It is true, however, that many magistrates were ready to connive at the escape of Christians ; perhaps most of them were, when believers could be induced to accept dishonorable modes of escape. See Tertull. Ad Scap. iv. These facts, easily enough explained, do not seem to be mentioned as miracles, but merely as pleasing incidents ; just as one notices a fine day on any special occasion, or any other welcome coincidence. Ecclesice Smyrnensis de Martyrio S. Polycarpi Epistol. Circularis. Patrum Apostol., etc. 125 The Lyonnese Martyrs. Such was the end of Polycarp, a man full of years, full of fruit — the very embodiment of that quiet, conservative, order- loving spirit, which was eminently characteristic of conserva- the Churches of S. John. He left numerous disciples, many of whose names were recorded in the roll of Martyrs. It is said, in a doubtful passage of the Epistle which describes his death, that when the sword pierced his side, a dove” flew out of the w^und and winged its way toward Heaven. The story is without value as a matter of fact ; but, if it were true, there could be no better symbol of the change that was already taking place in the aspect of Christianity. The dove-like temper was already in large measure departed. A spirit not less needful for the times — a spirit of inquiry, agitation, and polemical discus- sion — was rapidly approaching in its place. It is also said in the Epistle, that ‘^he appeased the persecu- tion; sealing it up, as it were, with his testimony. seaio/the This applies, however, only to Smyrna and other cities of Asia. In Gaul, the p*ersecution continued some years longer. CHAPTER IV. THE LYONNESE MARTYRS. From the tree planted by S. Paul and watered as we have seen for nearly a century by S. John and S. Polycarp, vigor- Gallic ous scions had sprung up on the distant banks of the Rhone, among the Graeco-Gallic population of Lyons and Vienne.* The venerable Pothinus, a friend of Polycarp *2 This story is not found in all copies ; arid where it occurs, it has been ingeniously conjectured that efaristera (on the left) has been changed by transcribers into perisiera (dove). * It is probable enough that other foundations had been laid in Gaul prior to this, but nothing is known of them. See Lorenz. Summ. Hist. Gallo- 126 History of the Church. and of about the same age, left Asia, it is probable towards the middle of the century, and settling in Lyons became Bishop there. With him was a numerous and zealous band, among whom the name of Irenaeus is most interesting to the modern reader. Under their auspices, the Church grew and flourished, as Churches then grew ; making little noise in the world, and keeping scant record of itself for the benefit of posterity, -till the blade and the ear had matured into the full corff, and the sickle of persecution was sent in to reap the first harvest. As usual at this period, the first cry for blood was uttered among the brutalized rabble of the Amphitheatre. We learn First Cry ffom Tacitus how admirably the Province, as it was {Z.fiZitj called, having been first vanquished by the power of 170-176. sword, was gradually tamed by the luxurious appli- ances — the baths, theatres, and temples — of the wise and wicked Circe of the Seven Hills. The history of Christianity is a proof that the taming was hardly more than skin-deep. A capricious Heathen Hiob, fawuiug on the hand that fed them with bread Rabble. circus-shows, is all that heathenism ever made of the lower classes ; and even this had continually to be repur- chased with fresh sacrifices. Beast-fights led to gladiator-fights, and, gladiator-fights becoming tame, the prisons were emptied into the arena; and, at length, the jails themselves yielding an inadequate supply to the frenzied cry for blood,* hungry eyes began to be cast upon the little flock of Christians. Franc. y and Gregorii Turon. Hist., etc. It shows the tenacity of the Greek foundation, that as late as the sixth century, Caesarius of Arles taught his peo- ple to sing indifferently in Greek and Latin. L’abbe Guettee opens his history with a lively chapter sur Veglise Gallo- Romaine : his facts, however, bear more on I’eglise Gallo-Grecque. 2 ‘‘ Fluctuat sequoreo fremitu rabieque faventum, Carceribus nondum resolutis, mobile vulgus.” “ But we leaping, raging like madmen, striking each other, .... and sometimes going naked from the show.” For much more to the same effect, see Onuphr. Panvin. De Ltid. Circ. Bad as the circus was, it was considered innocent, in comparison with the filthy enormities of the theatre. Still, the former, says Lactantius, was more maddening ; for the spectators became so The Lyonnese Martyrs. 127 Heroic Conduct. Attention once turned that way, persecution followed as a matter of course. In the language of the Lyonnese Confessors, the devil himself went to and fro through the streets Christiana of the city, in the shape of a savage beast, and stirred fobbed. popular excitement into an ungovernable frenzy. Christians began to be hooted and pelted, wherever they appeared. The next step was to seize them and drag them into the forum ; where, accused by a blood-thirsty mob, and interrogated by complaisant magistrates, they confessed the Name of Thrown Christ and were cast into prison. From the jails they Prison. are carried once more, for insult rather than for trial, into the presence of the Prefect of the city. At this point of the proceedings occurs one of those acts of heroic self-devotion, which, happening as it did in a luxurious and degenerate age, could hardly fail to impress the minds, of the more thoughtful at least, of the perse- cutors themselves. Vettius Epagathus, a youth of honorable character and station, had not been numbered as yet among the objects of attack. But when he saw the injustice with which his brethren were treated, he could not contain himself. He advanced to the tribunal. He demanded to be heard on the side of the accused. ‘^Art thou, then, a Christian? asked the Governor in reply. Vettius confessed, and was condemned to death. ‘‘Thus he showed himself a paraclete,'"' says a True the Lyonnese narrative, “being filled with the true Paraclete, which enabled him to show his love for the brethren, following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.“ Of the others who had been seized, about ten fell away, to the great discomfort of their brethren. Certain slaves Ten fail also were forced, by threats of imprisonment or by actual torture, to give information against their masters, conspiracy, and Thyestean repasts, were among the crimes alleged on the testimony of these wretches. But no accusation was too gross for the fanatical credulity of excited that “ they often proceeded from words to blows, and a general battle ensued.” Lactant. Divin. Institui. 63. away. Incest, Crimes alleged. 128 History of the Church. Tortures. the public. What is more surprising, even well-instructed per- sons, relatives and friends of the accused, allowed their minds to be contaminated by the foul breath of calumny; and palpable lies, by dint of repetition, acquired all the force and certainty of unquestionable facts. The victims, therefore, suffered with- out pity and without redress. Huddled together in dark and loathsome jails, stretched on the rack, aut, mangled, roasted, burnt, and subjected in short to every variety of torture, they had no resource, no argument, but the unvary- ing confession, ‘‘I am a Christian : no wickedness is practised or tolerated among us.*^ It is pleasing to observe that among the Lyonnese Confessors the supreme merit of charity held its proper place. They prayed fervently for those who had fallen in the hour of trial, Charity ' of the and their prayers were answered. The greater part of the lapsed returned, and recovered their good stand- ing. What was vastly more difficult, the Martyrs were taught by a common calamity to forget certain differences of opinion, which at other times, perhaps, had received too much of their attention. One instance of this deserves to be particularly noticed. From the time of S. Paul there had existed in the Church an ascetic or encratite party, which sometimes as a matter of Ascetic voluntary self-discipline, and in some cases from a less Party. justifiable motive, abstained altogether from animal Aicibiades. food and from wine. Alcibiades, one of the con- fessors, belonged to this class. As soon, however, as one of his companions was moved in a dream to warn him that it was ‘‘neither right nor proper to reject the good creatures of God,’* he changed his course and thankfully partook of what was set before him. There is nothing that pride more reluctantly gives up than a supererogatory virtue. The merit of Alcibiades, there- fore, in yielding so cheerfully to the scruples of others, was justly regarded by the Lyonnese as an extraordinary proof of the presence of God’s Spirit among them. Deacon Sanctus, probably of Latin or Gallic origin, was a The Lyonnese Martyrs. 129 martyr such as S. Ignatius would have delighted to contemplate. He stood like an anvil under the strokes of his tor- . . . Sanctus. mentors, and like an anvil responded by a single ring- ing note. Christianus sum was all he had to say of his name, city, race, condition, and profession. Christianus sum he kept on repeating, till his body, we are told, was a mass of sores and cinders, mangled, shrivelled, and distorted, with hardly a vestige left of the human shape. Maturus a new convert, Maturus. Attains a pillar of the Church in Pergamos, and Alex- Attains. ander a Phrygian, were equally heroic. The ^‘blessed Alexander. Pothinus,*’ bowed beneath the weight of more than Pothinus. ninety years, many of which had been spent in the Episco- pate at Lyons, showed a dignified serenity worthy of a friend of S. Polycarp and S. John. When asked by the Governor, Who is the God of the Christians?’’ he said, ^‘Show thy- self worthy, and thou shalt know.” After shameful ill-treat- ment by the mob, he was thrown into prison, where he peace- fully expired. But the glory of this great battle for the Faith seems by unanimous consent to have fallen to the lot of Blandina a poor female slave, whose mistress like herself was among ^ Blandina. the confessors. The fiendish atrocities inflicted upon this woman are minutely described in the letter written by the survivors. Suffice it to say here that as her apparent weakness led the heathen to suppose her an easy prey, so her unexpected firmness and almost miraculous vitality provoked their malice to a point of insatiable fury. Every device of cruelty was .ex- hausted upon her and upon her brother, a lad of fifteen years of age. To sustain the courage of this latter seems to have been her principal concern. Amid the horrors of such scenes, it is delightful to observe the reverence and affection with which her heroic struggle was witnessed by her companions. From a feeble slave she was exalted in their eyes into a princess xhe Lowly mighty with God, a true mother in Israel. Her pres- ence pervades the good fight of Faith from the beginning to the end. 6 ^ 130 History of the Church. The confessors who survived bore their honors, we are told, with meekness and moderation. ^ They humbled themselves under the mighty Hand by which they had been so Good Sense > o/ the honorably exalted. They defended all their brethren Confessors, who had lapsed, they criminated none: they loosed all, they bound none.*^ The spirit of S. John, it is^plain, was still mighty in the Churches. It needs only to be added that the narrative from which this Their chapter is taken was written^ by one of the survivors. Epistle, mother Churches in Asia Minor. The witness unto blood before the heathen was accompanied also with a protest against the new Prophets, probably the Mon- tanists, by whom the peace of the Church had been for some time disturbed. Another letter, with the same condemnation of the rising heresy, addressed to Eleutherus, then Bishop of Rome,^ was sent by the hand of the Presbyter Irenaeus, with a testimonial to his character which his subse- quent career in the Church proves to have been well deserved. In other parts of Gaul, and in Rome and other cities of Italy, the persecution raged for some time, and added many Troubles names to the roll of the Martyrs. It was accompanied elsewhere, qj- jggg pestilence, and famine ; in the midst of all which we get but occasional and unsatisfactory The Prun- glimpses of the state of Gallic Christianity. About Vine. ^ the end of the century another persecution came, and proved still more fatal to the Church in Lyons. But here, as The new Prophets condemned. 3 The emphasis laid upon this and similar traits in the letter of the con- fessors shows that a different spirit had already begun to show itself. 4 Euseb. V. 1 - 4 . 5 The phrase here employed — rwv EKKArjaiuv tlprjvrjq eveku ttpegSevovte^ — ** negotiating for the peace of the Churches” — and the fact that the martyrs in prison had written several letters on the subject, seem to countenance the supposition that Eleutherus was the Bishop mentioned by Tertullian (Adv, jPrax.) who favored the new prophets. See Valesius ad Euseb. v. 3 . There are not facts enough to determine the question ; but the statement of Tertullian seems to accord better with the impetuous character of Victor, the successor of Eleutherus. Justin Martyr. 1 3 1 elsewhere, the early proverb was verified, that the more the grass is cut, the more it grows : the more the vine is pruned, the more choice and abundant is the vintage. The blood of the Gallic Martyrs proved to be the seed of an unfailing and increas- ing harvest. CHAPTER V. JUSTIN MARTYR. Justin, surnamed the Martyr, a title won by his apologetic pen, as well as sealed by his blood in witness of the Truth, was a native of Neapolis, a city of Samaria, and probably of heathen parentage. He was born about the beginning search of Truth. of the second century. Tormented from early youth by an insatiable thirst for knowledge, he put himself first under the tuition of a famous Stoic / but finding, upon trial, that the man could teach him nothing with reference to God, and that he rather despised the earnest inquiries of his pupils, he repaired to the school of an able and subtle Professor of Peri- His patetic wisdom. Him he found, however, to be a wor- shipper of gold as the smmnum donum, and indifferent to all truth that had not a marketable value. Justin, therefore, left him in disgust. At length, hearing of a learned Pythagorean, who had the reputation of being quite inaccessible to the charms of money, he determined to throw himself at his feet, and to become, if permitted, one of his disciples. The philosopher seems to have been nothing more than a pompous charlatan. He possessed, however, no little capacity for words, and in the science of his school imagined he had a key to all knowledge, * Dialog, cum Tryphone yudcso. The slightly romantic tinge of this narrative does not impair its credibility ; it merely gives us a better insight into the amiable but earnest character of the martyr. Eusebius makes Ephe- sus the scene of this Dialogue, iv. i8. 132 History of the Church. human and divine. ^^Tell me/^ says he to the eager aspirant, ^^are you an adept in music, astronomy, and geometry? For by these sciences alone can you learn to abstract the soul from sensible objects, and fix it in contemplation of what is beautiful in itself.” Justin, however, knew little of the stars. Perhaps Physical he cared little for them. God, he felt, was^nearer to Science. could put no Confidence in a system which professed to seek Him by climbing up into the heights of the physical heavens, or by descending into the deep of la- borious intellectual abstractions. Grieved, and sick at heart, therefore, he turned from the Pythagorean, and began to look elsewhere for help in his spiritual need. His next experience was in connection with some of the fol- lowers of Plato. Here he was better satisfied. In the world of Becomes a richly imaginative and mystic speculation into which piatomst. teachers introduced him, his soul began to warm and to expand ; his mind was at least agreeably occupied ; and though his heart was not as yet filled with the knowledge which alone could give it rest, he began to feel, as it were, the budding of the wings which were to lift it above self. Hope, in other words, revived within him. Intoxicated with a vague but delicious sense of spiritual beauty, he seemed to himself to be just upon the verge of the crowning joy. The unrealities of sense were fading from his view, and the vision of true being, nay, of God himself, might open upon him in a moment. So full was Philosophic he of this expectation, so earnest and real in the midst Dreams. ^ cloud of pliilosophic dreams, that he determined to withdraw himself entirely from the tumult of the world, and selecting the loneliest spot he could find on the seashore, there to await in silence and meditation the fulfilment of his hopes. Nor was he disappointed altogether in his confident expec- tation. He who heareth the young ravens that call upon Him, would not turn a deaf ear to so earnest a seeker as the with an eager and unselfish Platonician. As Justin walked and Evangelist, witliiii hearing of the multitudinous voices of the sea, he was met by a grave old man of a certain sweetness 133 yustin Martyr. of expression. The philosopher was charmed. He stopped, and, unconsciously to himself, fixed his eyes eagerly upon the stranger. ^‘Do you know me/’ said the latter, ‘-that you gaze so earnestly upon me?” No,” answered Justin, ‘‘I am only surprised to meet one like you in this solitary place.” I am h^e,” said the stranger, because my soul is disquieted on account of certain of my friends. They are tossed on the sea, and I am anxious to find them, or hear tidings of them.” The acquaintanc’e thus mysteriously begun ripened soon into confidence and friendship. Justin discoursed of what was up- permost in his mind, the beauty and the sweetness of . . true philosophy. To know what really is, to seek and love the Truth, this, he declared, is the only thing worth living for, the only thing to fill and satisfy the heart. To his surprise he found the stranger more at home on such subjects than himself. Without any scientific pretension he The School spoke of the nature of God, of the soul, of the true chnst. philosophy of life, with a tranquillity and assurance that capti- vated the ingenuous seeker, and led him finally to the conclusion that if he was to make any progress in heavenly wisdom, he must begin at the lowest round of the ladder, and become a disciple in the school of Jesus Christ. To this, however, he had to be led gradually, the prejudices against Christianity being as gross among the well-instructed heathen as among the rabble, and far more inveterate. ^ , ° ^ study His teacher, therefore, was content to introduce him ^ of the Scriptures. to the Old Testament Scriptures. Struck with the sublimity and beauty of these sacred writings, he studied them with single-hearted earnestness; thus laying the foundation of that hermeneutic skill which he ever afterwards regarded as his charisma, or spiritual gift. From the Old he was led easily into the New. The real character of Christianity, and the prejudices truth with regard to the life and conversation of its professors, began to dawn upon him. had heard much against them,” says he, ^‘and shared in the common delusion. 134 History of the Church. But when I considered their courage in encountering death and every other terror, I felt at once that they could not be guilty of the crimes of which they were accused. To a mere voluptu- ary, to a shameless debauchee, to one who takes delight in eat- ing human flesh, death cannot prove otherwise than terrible ; for it puts on end to the gross pleasures in which they spend their life. The Christians, however, welcome death with joy.’’* Considerations of this kind opened the way to inquiry, and inquiry led to satisfaction and conviction. That he ever entered the ministry is extremely doubtful. ^ Indeed, in the absence of any positive proof that he did, it Justin's seems more probable that he found his ‘^gift’' could Calling, exercised to greater advantage under the garb of a philosopher, and in the freedom of lay life, than amid the con- fining and pressing duties of the ordinary priesthood. Certain it is that he visited many countries, and had argumentative dis- Puhiic Dis- cussions both with Jews and Greeks. His controversy cussions. Ephesus with Trypho, a learned Jew who had sur- vived the horrors of the insurrection of Bar Cochba, and his two Apologies, addressed, the one to the Emperor Aurelius, and the other to the Roman Senate and People, with some other works or fragments of works, remain to show the way in which these discussions were conducted. Without going into an analysis of any of these writings,^ it is worth while to notice, that Justin interpreted both Hebrew and Greek learning on the same gen- eral principles ; finding in both innumerable types or foreshad- christ owings of the truth of the Gospel ; and making all earnest thought of all ages, and all races, to centre, as it were, in the incarnate Word, to point towards Him, and in Him to receive its complete and harmonious interpretation. * Apol. i. 3 Tillemont thinks he was a Presbyter — Mem. pour servir. vol. ii. part 2 — but on insufficient grounds. ^Account of the Writings and Opinions of fustin Martyr : John (Kaye), Bishop of Lincoln. Justin, d. Martyrer^ Semisch, translated by Ryland, and published in Clark's Biblical Cabinet, Volckmar, die Zeit, ds. Just, M, • Justin Martyr. 135 Thus, not the Law and the Prophets only, but the Poets and Philosophers, were fulfilled in Christ. In fact, the Logos, the First-born of God, who is also God, being from all eternity immanent in God, but coming forth from God for creation, was regarded by Justin as the seed^ The light to the ages that preceded the revelation of the Gospel ; so that upright heathen, Socrates for example, were undeveloped believers, being obedient to the light that was in them. 5 On this ground he apologizes for the lateness of the Incarnation. As the first days of the creation had light enough for growth, though destitute as yet of sun and moon and stars, so with the ages, and the races, among which Christ was unre- vealed. Justin, therefore, would not deny the good that ex- isted in heathendom ; he preferred showing how it pointed to a far greater good. It was somewhat inconsistent with all this, that he ascribed the numerous ceremonies which pagan worship had in common with Christianity, to the malicious apery of daemons ; these latter mimicking the truth in order to make it odious.^ In tracing the unconscious prophecies of heathen poetry and philosophy, or even of heathen oracles, Justin, it must be confessed, is not very critical ; quoting oftentimes from works unquestionably spurious, and some of them fabrications of the age in which he lived. In his treatment of matters of faith, and especially in dealing with the great mysteries of the Creed, his orthodoxy in general is beyond all question. As an interpreter, however, to justifCs Jews and Greeks, and as one of the earliest who at- raith. tempted, so to speak, to translate the language of simple faith into the dialect of philosophers and disputers, he is betrayed occasionally into modes of expression, which at a later period would hardly have been considered admissible, or safe. In all cases the phraseology of early writers has to be received with a 5 The Logos endiathetos — Logos prophoricos — Logos spermatic os. See Neander’s Lectures on the History of Christian Dogmas. ^ e. g., Bread and wine used in the mysteries of Mithras; and baptisms, or ablutions, in almost all forms of heathen worship. 136 History of the Church. certain allowance. ^ It could hardly be expected that the first attempts to give a philosophic or scientific form to truths com- monly received in the Church should be entirely conclusive. The wonder is, not that we find some objectionable phrases in the early fathers, or some untenable positions, but that we find so few. With regard to matters of opinion, or interpretation, Justin fell into some mistakes from too careless a following of the letter His of Holy Scripture. He was an advocate of the Millen- Ofinions. ^Lvisin doctrine. From a notion that the sons of God mentioned in the beginning of the sixth chapter of Genesis were Angels, he favored the absurd hypothesis that children were be- gotten by them of the daughters of men, and that the offspring thus begotten became Daemons of the Gentiles. It is more to his credit, that he departed from a common prejudice of his day, in allowing a possibility of salvation to Jewish Christians® who conscientiously continued in the observance of the Law. As a witness to the religious customs of Christians in his day, Justin speaks with less reserve than was common with early Religious writers, and gives us the most exact information we have : the outline he presents supplying some feat- ures of ritual in which Pliny’s famous letter is deficient.^ 7 For example, creation and generation were for some time more or less confounded. In the tenth chapter of Bishop Kaye’s Writings of fustin Martyr the reader will find a summary of Justin’s views, as illustrated by passages from Tatian, Athenagoras, and Theophilus. ^ His lenient way of speaking of the Ebionite denial of the Divinity of Christ, in the Dialogue with Trypho, viz., I do not agree with because I have been taught not to follow men, but the declarations of Christ and the Prophets” — has been regarded by some as indicative of a certain laxness in his views. I should rather infer the reverse. The firmer a man’s faith, the better he can afford to use mild language. 9 Kaye’s fustin M. chap. iv. Among the particulars mentioned, we may notice, ( i ) the doctrine of Baptism and the Eucharist, in which the grace given is much insisted on; (2) the careful preparation (fasting and prayer); (3) the kiss of peace; (4) wine mixed with water in the Eucharist; (5) the bearing of a portion to the absent ; (6) separation of the Eucharist from the Love Feast; (7) special observance of Sunday; (8) alms for orphans, wid- ows, etc. Apolog. i. 137 Justin Martyr. Judging from his account, neither Baptism nor the Eucharist had received any ceremonial additions to the severe simplicity of Apostolic times. In describing the administration of the Lord’s Supper, he seems to have followed the order of the Service now known as that of S. James. The latter portion of his life was spent by the Apologist in Rome, remaining all day at his house near the baths of Timo- His theus, and conversing freely with those who came to Confession, instruction or discussion. During this period he incurred the fixed hatred of the Stoic Crescens, whom he handled somewhat roughly in argument, and to whose influence in high quarters he was probably indebted for the Martyr’s .crown. According to the Acts of his Martyrdom," a piece authenticated by its primitive modesty and simplicity, he. was brought, with several other Christians, before the tribunal of Junius Rusticus, Prefect of the City, not long before the death of S. Polycarp." Obey the will of the Gods and the com- mands of the Emperor” was, as usual, the opening of the trial. In Justin’s reply, there is little of the sententious brevity or dignified reserve of a Polycarp or Pothinus ; nor does he take refuge in the simple Christianus sum, that ringing anvil-note of Lyonnese Sanctus : his attitude has more of the dialectician ; — a man of faith, indeed, but ready and even eager to give a reason for the faith that is in him. There is nothing to rep- rehend in a man, who obeys the commands of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.” But what is your profession ? ” says Rusticus, to what school do you belong?” ‘^I once strove,” he replied, to become acquainted with every school of philosophy, and to make myself master of every science ; but having sought the Truth on all sides without success, I finally embraced the philos- ophy of the Christians, not considering whether it pleased or Palmer’s Origines Liturg. ; Asseman. Cod. Liturg. tom. v. Given in Baronins ; also in Tillemont. The dates are uncertain : Polycarp’s death is variously stated at 147, 175? Justin’s is put as early as 165. I have put Justin Poly carp and Pothimus, merely as belonging to a later period of intellectual culture. 138 History of the Church. displeased the votaries of error/^ Wretched man!” cried the Prefect, you follow that doctrine, then? ” Yes, I follow that doctrine, and with joy, for it shows me the Truth.” ‘‘But what is Truth?” “The Truth,” answered Justin, “is to ^ , believe in one God, who created all things, visible and invisible, and to confess our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, announced long ago by the Prophets, Who is to come again to judge all men, and Who is the Saviour, as well as the Teacher of His true Disciples. Far be it from me to pretend to speak worthily of His infinite greatness or of his Divinity. Such a theme belongs rather to the Prophets, who so long before predicted His coming upon earth.” The Prefect then asked him, in what place the Christians assembled for their worship. “ We assemble where we can,” said Justin “God is not confined to any place. Invisible, He fills the Heavens and the Earth, and the faithful adore Him everywhere : in every place they offer Him the honor and worship due unto His Name.” After some further questions, Rusticus addressed himself to the companions of Justin. Carito and Caritina answered. His Com- that by the goodness of God they were Christians. Ramons. Euelpistus Said, “I am a slave of Caesar, but a Chris- tian. Jesus Christ, by His grace, hath made me free.” Hierax and Liberianus acknowledged themselves servants and adorers of the only true God. Seeing little chance of making an impression upon these simple folk, and feeling, it may be, more interest in the fate of their accomplished leader, the Prefect turned to Justin once more, and addressed him in a banter- ing tone: “You are a man with a tongue in your head, and a professor, it would seem, of the genuine philosophy. Tell me, then, I pray, do you really believe that if I have you scourged from head to foot, you will straightway go up to ^ Heaven?” “Yes,” said Justin, “if you have me scourged, I hope to receive the reward promised to all those who keep the commandments of Christ : for I know that all who live by this rule shall be the friends of God.” 139 yustin Martyr. Spirit of the Heathen, You think, then,’’ said the Prefect, that you are going up to Heaven to be rewarded there? ” Not only do I think it,” answered Justin, but I know it : and that, too, assuredly and beyond all doubt.” The examination was followed by the usual command to sacrifice to idols; which the prisoners unanimously Martyr- refusing to do, they were scourged, and soon after- wards beheaded. In this trial, as indeed in all controversies of that day, with Jews or Gentiles, Christianity had to cope with that hard, and keen, and exquisitely polished irony, which is one of Scoffing the fruits of a merely intellectual civilization, and which to simple faith is the most horrible of all weapons. Men of the school of S. Polycarp avoided it, no doubt, by a holy and dignified reserve. The time was come, however, for a closer and more deadly struggle with the powers of darkness. It is much to Justin Martyr’s credit, that in his dialogues, apologies, and discussions generally, he was suffi- ciently free-spoken, but not unnecessarily harsh or rude. On the contrary, he answers sneers generally with admirable tem- per ; and a love of souls is almost as conspicuous in his writings as a zeal for the Truth. His own very gradual conversion led him to look hopefully upon the various stages of approximate belief and partial knowledge. Among his disciples was Tatian, an Assyrian, who wrote with some earnestness in defence of ‘‘the philosophy of the bar- barians,” as he styled the Gospel, but was afterwards Tatian his led by his austerity of temper into Gnostic errors. D^^^ipie, The “ Epistle to Diognetus,” a choice rhetorical production of some Christian Apologist who wrote early in the century, has been ascribed to Justin Martyr, but on no sufficient grounds. *3 As Justin, it is supposed, had the right of citizenship, the scourging here mentioned throws a shade of doubt upon the genuineness of these acts. But (i) his citizenship is not certain; and ( 2 ) even if it were, the Roman Magistrates were not always scrupulous about such rights in the case of Christians. 140 History of the Church. CHAPTER VI. THE APOLOGETIC AGE. The last third of the second century, the period that followed the persecution under Marcus Aurelius, is uneventful so far as End of the cxtemal history is concerned, but full of growing Century, interest with regard to matters of discipline and doctrine. During the reign of Aurelius, Melito, Bishop of Sardis, wrote to the Emperor his Apology for a Faith, which had come in, he urged, with the Empire itself, but was left without redress to the capricious violence of the mob. He was a highly gifted man, and among his contemporaries enjoyed the reputation of a Prophet. He drew up a canon of the Old Testament, containing only the received Books of the Hebrew Scriptures. The variety of subjects on which he wrote* is enough to show that the holy diffidence which had produced so long a spell of silence in the Church at the beginning of the century, was fast giving way before the pressure of the times. Claudius Apollinaris, Bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia, wrote an Apology ; and was not a little troubled by the rising heresy other of Montanus. Of other names indicative of the awak- Apoiogists. intellect of the day, it is enough to mention, in this place, Miltiades, an Apologist; Hermias, who ridiculed the paradoxes of the philosophers ; Athenagoras an Athenian philosopher ; Theophilus, the sixth Bishop of Antioch, who introduced the term trias ; Tatian a disciple of Justin Martyr, and Bardesanes an elegant writer of Edessa, both of whom fell into Gnostic errors ; Musanus, who strove against the plausible * Euseb. iv. 26. The Apologetic Age. 141 error which went under the name of encraty or continence; Minucius Felix and Tertullian in North Africa ; Irenseus and his disciples ; the writers of the Alexandrine School, of whom, as of some others above mentioned, there will be occasion to speak more particularly in another place.* The title Apologetic Age,'* applied to this period, has to be understood in a large sense ; for the controversy with heretics was conducted with even greater vigor than the defence of the Gospel against the heathen. On the other hand. Heathenism was no longer content to assail the Faith with the weapons of fanatical fury merely, or of a variable state policy. Philosophy was awakened to Heathen a sense of its own danger. ^ Crescens and Fronto endeavored by vile calumnies to fortify Aurelius with a valid plea for persecution. Lucian impartially derided all the relig- ions of his times, and found a butt for his satiric humor in the zeal of Martyrs and Confessors. Celsus confounded Christianity with the dreams of Gnostic sects, and, avoiding the ground of vulgar paganism, assailed it, now with the light missiles of Epicurean indifferentism, now with the heavier metal of the Platonic philosophy. As the controversy proceeded, the adver- saries of the Gospel resorted more and more to this method of attack. On the one hand, the Christian name could be made to cover an ever increasing number of absurd and wicked sects ; on the other, philosophy, through the influence of the diffused light of truth, was becoming more intellectual and more spiritual than it had hitherto appeared. The new Platonic School began to flourish in Alexandria towards the end of the cen- New tury. Ammonius Saccas, one of its first teachers, was acquainted with Christianity. So also was Plotinus, and at a later period Porphyry, the latter of whom was hostile 2 See Euseb. iv. 21-30; v. 13, 18, 19. 3 The argument for and against the Gospel, as managed in early times, is accessible to English readers in Reeves’s Apologies (Tertullian, Justin Martyr, Minucius Felix) ; also in Bellamy’s Origen against Celsus^ and Humphrey’s Apologetics of Atkenagoras. See also Oxford Translations of the Fathers. .142 ’ History of the Church. to the Gospel in proportion as he drew from it his noblest and best thoughts. But philosophers of this kind belonged to an intellectual oligarchy, and had little influence with the people. They Apollonius were also wonderfully superstitious.^ The wonder- o/Tyana, Apollonius of Tyana, a contemporary of the Apostles, was rescued from oblivion by rhetoricians of this school, adorned with a profusion of unmeaning miracles, and setup as an embodiment of .the philosophic perfect man. A strict vegetable diet, a pure Attic style, a sententious utter- ance of commonplaces, an attempt to relieve heathen worship of some of its grosser abominations, a profound contempt for the unenlightened many, and an appreciation of the maxim that knowledge is power, are prominent features of the ideal thus The Ideal coustructcd in opposition to Christianity. According Man. them, the true sages dwell, surrounded with a cloud and armed with superhuman resources, on a height inaccessible to the common herd. The soul lives after death separate from the body, but of its ultimate destiny it is unwise to inquire. Such was the lesson of the Life of Apollonius.^ The poverty of this performance, as compared with the matchless Life recorded 4 Porphyrius, De Vita Ploiini, found in Fabricii, Bibliothec. Groec. lib. iv. cap. 26. Plotinus professed to have a god for his familiar ; which was proved when a certain Egyptian priest of Isis attempted to call up the daemon of Plotinus ; for instead of a daemon a god suddenly appeared. Vita Plotin. cap. 10. On the strength of this, when one of his disciples invited him to go with him and worship the gods, Plotinus answered, “ They should come to me, not I to them.” With all these pretensions, his high favor with Gal- lienus and the Empress could not obtain for him the gift of a ruined city in Campania, to establish a Platonic commonwealth : cap. 1 2. The Christians gloried, therefore, that while Platonic wisdom had never succeeded in founding a single town, the words of a few fishermen were becoming a law to the whole world. On the new Platon. Sch. see Degerando, H. de la Phil. 5 Life of Apollonius of Tyana^ translated by the Rev. Edward Berwick. The miracles of Apollonius (as Newman shows in his Apollon. Tyan.) are mere juggling wonders, without dignity and without meaning. After his death, his ghost appeared to a young disciple, but gave him no information. The Apologetic Age. 143 in the four Gospels, shows that Christianity had little to fear from the rivalry of philosophers. In the meanwhile, the Church had a season of comparative immunity from political persecution. The Emperor Aurelius, moved by a Providential deliverance of his army from the Quadi and Marcomanni,^ which the Christians ascribed to the prayers of certian soldiers of their own in the ‘‘Thundering Legion,’^ became, at length, weary of a fruitless persecution, and issued a severe edict against informers. That the event referred to awakened a religious feeling in the mind of the Emperor there can be no doubt. It seems equally cer- tain that his own thanks were rendered to Jupiter Pluvius. It may easily have been, however, that, his mind being restored for the time being to something of its early childlike faith, ^ he looked more indulgently upon religious fervor in general, and was therefore disposed to be more tolerant of the peculiar zeal of the Christians. For it was the lively faith of the Church, rather than its doctrinal system, that seems hitherto to have moved his hatred. Commodus, whose atrocities sprang from personal caprice rather than from any political or religious principle, Commodus^ was in the main not unfavorable to Christians ; and 180-192! Marcia, his mistress, whom he honored almost as an Empress, used her influence in their behalf. Notwithstanding Apollonius all this, there were martyrs not a few in this reign. ^ Apollonius, a literary man and philosopher of Rome, a Sen- ^ The story is given in Eusebius, v. 5. The name Legio Fubninea was older, however, than the alleged event ; and Tertullian’s account is qualified by the word “ perhaps ” — “ Christianorum forte militum.” See Gieseler, g 42, n. 5, and Neander’s Ch. Hist. i. i. 7 In the mind of Aurelius, early religious feeling had to struggle against a hard crust of stoic fatalism. It was in this latter spirit that he declared : “Whosoever shall do anything to disturb the minds of men with fear of the Divine power ... let him be banished,” etc. ; or, “ Whosoever shall bring in novel religions ... by which the souls of men may be troubled, let him,” . . . etc. He hated anything fervid or moving in religion. For an account of his religious character (perhaps too favorable), see Neander’s Ch. History. 144 History of the Church. ator by rank, was condemned on the testimony of a slave, and beheaded, after a noble apology before that stronghold of heathenism, the distinguished body to which he belonged. At the same time, the law bearing on the subject being admin- istered with singular impartiality, the wretch who accused him was also put to death. Septimius Severus, it is said,^ had been healed of a sore disease by a Christian of the name of Proculus, afterwards a Septimius member of his household ; and had appointed a Chris- tian nurse for his son Antoninus. If not actually 192-211. favorable to the Church, he was at least indisposed to molest it. But about the middle of his reign he found it ne- cessary, as he thought, to prohibit the further spread of the Gospel. Proselyting was forbidden both to the Jews and Chris- tians. Finding, however, that in spite of his decrees the tide continued to rise, the Emperor was at length induced to counte- sixtk Per- naucc more active measures. The storm that ensued secution. with most Severity upon Palestine and Egypt ; but was felt also in North Africa, Rome, and many other portions of the Church. From certain expressions of Tertullian^ it may be doubted whether Severus himself was actively concerned in this persecution. It was enough that he allowed it. The cruelty of the mob, the complaisance or cupidity of magistrates, and the hostility of Jews, heathen, and philosophers, would easily do the rest. For to other causes of persecution it began now to be added that there were Christians wealthy and weak enough to purchase for themselves an exemption from martyrdom. With- out sacrificing to idols or burning incense, they might procure ^Tertull. Ad Scap. iii. 4. 9 Blunt’s Lectures on the Church of the first three centuries ; Mosheim’s Commentaries. Tertullian i^Apologet. i. 5, and ad Scap. iii. 4) is anxious to make out that no good Emperor persecuted the Christians, and no really good magistrate; but that the rabble and wicked men were responsible. He there- fore strains a point in favor of Marcus Aurelius, Severus, and others. His language, however, merely proves that these Emperors were sometimes favor- able to the Christians. 145 The Apologetic Age. a certificate to the effect that they had done so, and might thus remain unmolested. These were called Libellatici ; Libeiiatid. a class that figures largely in the history of Church discipline during the third century. Whole communities, it is said, procured exemption in this way. It was a kind of evasion as impolitic as it was unjusti- fiable on moral grounds.^® For it not only created a new motive for persecution, but it surrounded Christians at all times with a crowd of greedy spies and informers, who made a livelihood out of their fears and kept them in a state of per- petual torture. Some of the particulars of this persecution will come up incidentally in connection with events hereafter to be men- tioned. It was followed by a calm of thirty-eight peace of years, interrupted only by a brief and cruel out- break under Maximin the Thracian, which is reck- a.d.2ii- 249. oned as the seventh of the general persecutions. During this interval of peace, the sun-worshipper Elagabalus wished to blend Christianity, as well as the religion of Jews and ^ ° a.d. 235-238. Samaritans, with the superstitious worship paid to his god.” Alexander Severus, influenced by his half-Christian mother Julia Mammaea, was disposed to admit Christ to equal honors in the sacrifices offered to Abraham, Orpheus, and Apollonius of Tyana.*"* Philip the Arabian was still more favor- able to Christianity; and it was very generally thought that intellectually, at least, he was a believer . *3 But, as already intimated in the beginning of this chapter, the favor or disfavor of princes, and the presence or absence of *0 A worse evasion i^Can. of Ancyra^ i.) was, by a previous understand- ing with the magistrates, to undergo a mere sham torture, or threats of tor- ture, without being placed in any real danger. Shifts of this sort made the Christians more careful in insisting upon actual scars, or mutilations, on the part of those who claimed to be confessors. ** Lampridius in Heliogab. 3. ^^Lamprid. in S. Alex, 22, 28, 29, 43, 45, 49. *3 Euseb. vi. 34, 36. His conversion is elaborately discussed, and dis- proved, in Pagi, Breviarium Pontijic. etc. S, Fabianus, 7 , 1 46 History of the Church. external persecutions, were no longer the most prominent of ihe trials of the Church. There were difficulties from Trials Aom within, far more formidable. What these were, how they were encountered, and by what means and to what extent they were finally vanquished, shall be the special theme of the remaining chapters of this Book. ♦ CHAPTER VII. HERESIES Al^D SCHOOLS. The twofold struggle between the Gospel and the Law, and between Faith and a false Gnosis, had been in its main elements, and so far as it was a contest for supremacy within the Oiurch Church, substantially decided long before the depart- ure of the last of the Apostles. In doctrine, discipline, and worship, the Church was free to take her own course ; hav- ing a creed, a polity, and divinely taught sacraments of her own, with liberty in building thereupon to avail herself of what elements of natural religion she might find to accord with this foundation, whether sanctioned or not by Judaic prejudices. _ . , In the same way with regard to the Gnostics, it was Neither ' j^rvishnor perfectly understood that theirs was a Gnosis falsely so called.*^ In developing, therefore, a Gnosis, or religious science of her own, the Church regarded Gnostic prin- ciples with horror and aversion. By the end of the first century she was Anti-Jewish and Anti-Gnostic in heart and mind and confession. Hence, Judaizing Christians soon drew off into obscure, and, so far as the body of the Church was concerned, uninflu- I. ential sects. In the great cities, however, and among Shcts. the mixed multitudes, half Christian half Heathen, the leaven of the circumcision was still powerful enough to foment Heresies and Schools. 147 factions and divisions. The Nazarenes and Ebionites, men- tioned in the first Book of this history, flourished chiefly in Palestine. The Clementine Homilies,* so called, remain to the present day as proof of a very ingenious effort made, towards the end of the second century, to fall back upon a pretended Theciem- prunitive religion ; a “house of wisdom,’* as it were, of which Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, should be the “seven pillars,” Christ also being acknowledged as greatest of them all. This system was remarkable for a full- blown doctrine of papal supremacy 'p James of Jerusalem, how- ever, being placed at its head. To the Judaic elements of the system there was added a Gnostic theory of emanations in pairs. These Clementines express the sentiments of the Elxaite school, but were probably revamped by some philosophic Roman, in the interest of one or other of the Judaizing factions which troubled the great city. Hippolytus gives us more precise information of the Elxaites, a Judaic Gnostic sect, a branch of which came to Rome during the pontificate of Callistus.^ They made Christ the * ^ ElxaiteSy male, and the Holy Ghost the female, in a series of (aboju) . A.D. 220. successive manifestations or incarnations. They were ascetic in their habits, but differed from most ascetics by enjoin- ing early marriage as a duty, and condemning virginity. To that numerous class of Christians, whose consciences were troubled by the sense of post-baptismal sins, or who were undergoing Church discipline, they offered an attractive bait in a new bap- tism with plenary absolution, to be repeated as often as required. This baptism was made extremely solemn and impressive. The * dementis Roman. qu<2 feruntur Homilice, etc., Gott. 1853. See Giese- ler, ? 5^ j SchafiT, \ 69. 2 Clement addresses James as “ the lord, and bishop of bishops, ruler of the holy Church of the Hebrews in Jerusalem, and of the Churches of God established everywhere.” 3 S. Hippolyti, Omn. HcEresium^ lib. ix. 13. The state of the Roman Church, and the position of Hippolytus towards the Bishops of the city, are more fully treated in ii. 9, and iii. 4, of this History. # 1 48 History of the Chttrch. candidate ^^was immersed in the Name of the Most High, and of His Son the Great King, and with invocation of Baptisms. i i 1 . • the seven Witnesses, sky and water, and holy spirits, and prayer-angels, and oil, and salt, and earth/’ In the name of these they were to renounce all past and future sin. The gospel of these Eixaites, ‘‘Be converted and baptized eum toto vesiitu,^'^ an offer of free, immediate, and unconditional pardon to all sinners of every sort ; and, at a time when the Church required a long catechumenal probation before baptism, and a tedious and severe penance for sins committed after, it must have proved a formidable rival to the orthodox faith. In addition to this, there were pretensions to supernatural powers ; a secret doctrine imparted only to the initiated ; great reverence for the Sabbath ; and an affectation of severity and simplicity of manners. Hippolytus complains that Callistus paved the way Laxity 0/ for this heresy by liis lax administration of the disci- Dtscipiine. Cliurch. It is more probable that the activity of Sects of this kind, and the attractions they held out to the mixed multitude of half-believers, rendered a strict enforcement of the canons practically impossible. In the same way, their elaborate and significant ceremonial may have had an influence upon the development of ritual in the Church. Men who started with the assumption common to all the phi- losophers of antiquity, 5 that evil inheres in matter, could not regard IX. matter or the material world as a creature of the supreme Gnosticism, God. Either it must be eternal, or it must be the work of an evil power, or it must be the rubbish, so For baptism in the Church, candidates had to be divested of their clothing — putting off the old and putting on the new. The opposite custom of the Eixaites was probably meant to signify that they were ready to receive sinners just as they were. 5 Even Plato : see Gieseler, \ 44, notes 1-5. The tenets of the Gnostic sects belong to the history of philosophy, rather than of religion. The ancient writers on the subject are brought together in the Corpus Hceresiologicum, Franciscus Oehler, Berolini. There is quite a full account of early heresies in the History of the Church, etc., by Jeremie and others ; and an excellent digest in Dr. Schaff ’s History, and in Robertson’s Hist, of Ch. Heresies and Schools. 149 to speak, that remained after the framing of the spiritual pie- roma, or it must be the result of some negligence or accident with which the one absolute and true Being had nothing at all to do. Hence the main effort of Gnostic speculations. The material world and the evil that clings to it must be God and removed as far as possible from that unfathomable and ^orid. silent Deep, the Fountain of all good. Endless genealogies must be framed,^ of angels, ceons^ or emanations, issu- ing singly or in pairs through a descending, widening and deteriorating scale; till at length, in the dim twilight beyond the outermost circle of the pleroma, on the border of light and darkness, good and evil, being and no being, we find the Demiurgus blindly working : ‘‘ the nether intelligence,*’ the offspring of the lowest aeon, the ruler of the darkness, the archi- tect of this material world constructing out of ‘•emptiness” and “nothingness” a huge prison-house; wherein the lowest and fallen aeon, the feeblest ray of the world of light, groans and struggles for deliverance, finding an articulate voice in the “spiritual” soul of man. For the recovery of this The Lost “ lost sheep,” Christ the Saviour, an aeon of the highest sheep. order, comes down into the world. As He glides through the aeon-circles He forms to Himself a body of ethereal elements ; or on His arrival unites Himself for awhile to the earthly body of Jesus ; or, abhorring all communion with matter, assumes a ^The following are the principal points of the system : (i) The primal Being — Buthos, the Abyss — Sige^ Silence — or even 6 ovk (jv, nonentity; (2) pleroma — the living sphere of ceons^ or spiritual emanations; (3) kenonia — the void that lies beyond that sphere; (4) demiurgus — the world-creator; (5) hyle — matter; (6) pneumatic, psychic, hylic — spiritual, sensuous, material souls. From Christianity they borrowed the idea of a Saviour. Dualism is well defined by Plato : ‘‘Not by one soul merely is the world moved, but by several perhaps, or at all events by not less than two ; of which the one is beneficent, the other the opposite, and a framer of the opposite; besides which, there is also a third somewhere between, not senseless, nor irrational, nor with- out self-motion, but touching upon both of the twain, yet always longing for the better, and following after it.*' The Persians called the good Ormuzd, the evil Ahriman, and the intermediate Mithras. 150 History of the Church. docetic or apparitional body. Once on earth, He becomes through the Holy Spirit the light-centre of the world. To Him all ‘‘spiritual^’ souls are drawn by the which He gives them/ material ” or hylic souls gravitate towards the matter; psychic souls, Jews or ordinary Christians, hover betwixt the Salvation two. At length, in one way or another, the lost ray by Gnosis. supemal light being extricated from the slough or prison-house of matter, and united to the highest aeon in an everlasting wedlock, the pleroma is rounded off into a complete and consistent whole; matter, or the kenoma, ^m2\\y disappears; and a transcendental life, flowing with equal pulse from the centre to the circumference, or back again from the circumference to the centre, diffuses an unmixed and superabundant joy. Such, in a general way, was the scheme upon which the Gnostics labored ; each particular workman, however, fashion- The it according to his own fancy, and adorning it Demiurge. |-^jg pomp of great swelling words. In all its forms, the Demiurge was identified with the God of the Old Testament. Whether He and His works were to be treated as simply evil, or impotently vacillating between the evil and the good, would be determined by the extent to which Dualism. ® 1 Eastern dualism was admitted into the system. For on the dualistic scheme matter was not a mere void, it was an active principle of evil ; and the world, in the same way, was not a mere prison-house, but the battle-ground, as it were, be- tween the two rival kingdoms of light and darkness. In the same way, while all Gnostics agreed to despise the body, those who held to the dualistic belief were in general the Gnostic most camest ; and took part in the fierce struggle Morals. between the two kingdoms by rushing into the extreme of Oriental asceticism. The Hellenic Gnostics were more indulgent, or more ingenious ; and left the flesh to destroy itself by following its own will. The filthiness into which some of these wretches sank, could have flowed from nothing 7 This gnosis they represented as a secret tradition, communicated only to the initiated few. Heresies and Schools. 151 short of demoniacal possession. It was somewhat inconsistent with their contempt for the world and for the body, that they recognized in things below an image or adumbration of the supersensuous sphere ; so that, to attain any knowledge of the world of truth, one has to go up along the path of sense and sight. On this principle, both nature and the Scriptures were allegorized, but in a purely arbitrary manner. So far as Gnosticism was consistent, it was too speculative and spiritual to be bound by creeds, scriptures, sacraments, or anything external.® As it aimed at influence, how- Gnostic ever, it had to accommodate itself to the ‘^psychical CuUus, element in man. Hence it copied more or less of the ritual of the Church. It had a water baptism for the psychical,^’ a baptism of the Spirit for the spiritual.” The Lord’s Two Supper was rejected by some, because, says S. Igna- tius, they believed not in the flesh” or Incarnation of the Lord ; and celebrated with much pomp and with blasphemous additions, by others. In fact, while a few speculative minds might be content with that Gnosis, which they regarded as the sum of all worship, others more eager to gain proselytes would resort to every art to win the attention and the favor of the sensuous multitude. Gnosis, as a philosophy, there- Gnosis as a fore, is to be distinguished from Gnosis as a religion, In the former aspect, it was a grand but futile eflbrt to fuse fact and fable, poetry and mythology, philosophy and science, magic and religion, into one consistent whole, which should satisfy the spiritual as well as the intellectual wants of man, and solve the deep questions which so far neither religion nor philosophy had been able to answer. This was attempted by a process of intuition, so called, which was in fact nothing more than guessing. Whatever praise, therefore, can be accorded to fanciful and ingenious guessing, the better class of Gnostics more or less deserve. But as an offset to this merit, they originated nothing in morals, religion, philosophy, science, or literature, that has stood the test of time; they constructed ® For the Gnostic cultus, see Neander’s Church History. Its Merits, 152 History of the Church. nothing that has been able to hold together.^ If it be admitted that they were the profoundest and most brilliant, it must be conceded also that they were the most barren, of all the heretics of antiquity. Arising, as they did, at a time when the intellect of the Church was just awakening to a consciousness of its strength — hijiuence moving moreover iu the literary sphere, and abound- negative. assertions and brilliant generalizations — they bore undoubtedly a most portentous aspect to minds of an imaginative and philosophic turn ; and in this way we can account for the attention given to them by so many of the most distinguished early Christian writers. But behind all this there was little of real earnestness or power. The system, on the whole, was merely an expiring effort of philosophic and poetic paganism, exhibiting the brilliant colors of the dolphin as it dies. It was the morning mist, as it were, the fog that had settled upon the world during the long night of heathen dark- Morning ness, breaking up into gorgeous clouds before the Sun Clouds, Christianity, reflecting in varied hues the light before which it fled, and, it may be added, carrying off along with it much of the miasma with which the spiritual atmosphere had been so long infected. For the contest with Gnosticism was Benefit to of no little service to the Church. Christians did not the Church, Testament less, when they found that Gnostics abhorred it. Nor did the continued assaults upon the Incarnation, or the Creed, or upon the authority of one portion or another of the New Testament, render them less zealous in defence of those sacred trusts. In the same way, Gnostic aus- terities made the Church look more sharply to the grounds of 9 Dr. Schaff, while he seems to blame the Fathers for representing it as “ an unintelligible congeries of puerile absurdities and impious blasphemies,’* yet grants it to be a system in which ‘‘ monstrous nonsense and the most absurd conceits are chaotically mixed up with profound thoughts and poetical intuitions.” The Fathers say the same; only they ascribe the ‘‘profound thoughts and poetical intuitions ” to the old philosophers and poets from whom they were borrowed, and give the Gnostics credit only for the “ monstrous nonsense.” See Degerando, H, de la Phil, xx. xxi. Heresies and Schools. 153 ascetic tendencies within her own pale. The great principle, in short, that there is one good God who hath made all things good, so that, as S. Ignatius expressed it, even bodily acts are spiritual if done in the Spirit, was more deeply stamped into Christian consciousness from the fact that these versatile and pretentious heretics so unanimously denied it. To this it maybe added, that their claim to a peculiar or science, distinguished from simple faith, made the develop- ment of Christian theology a matter of necessity.*® Positive The false gnosis could be refuted effectually, only by confrondng it with a genuine gnosis. On the other hand, the Gnostics corrupted heathenism. By putting metaphysical abstrac- tions, such ^smind, word, thought,wisdom, power, justice, peace, in the place of the old nature-gods of the theogonies, they per- verted good poetry into a dry and unintelligible jargon \ and stripped Polytheism of that sensuous beauty which was its prin- cipal attraction. The Neo-Platonic school fell into the same mistake. The poetic mythology was at least true to nature : that is, to a fallen and corrupt nature. The philosophic mythologies of Gnostics and Neo-Platonists were true to nothing. In help- ing, therefore, to expose the absurdities of the older systems, they awakened a critical sense by which their own absurdities were exploded with the rest. Of particular sects, those which had most of the Greek element, were most unreal, and on the whole most m. inclined to Antinomianism. Simon Magus, Menander, Sects. and Cerinthus have been mentioned among the heretics of the first century. In the second century, Carpocrates, who probably taught in Alexandria about the time of the Emperor Hadrian, Aiexan- made his aeon-system a cloak for incredible abom- Gnostics. inations." His son Epiphanes died young, and was worshipped Neander, History of Dogmas. Community and equality ” (i. e., community of goods, of wives, of everything) they represented to be ‘‘ the true divine law, human laws put asunder what God hath put together.’* Clemens Alex. StroJtiat. iii. 7 * 154 History of the Church. as a god. Of the same sort with the Carpocratians were the Antitactes, Prodicians, and many others. Basilides and Valentinus, both Alexandrians, were far more intellectual, and framed systems remarkable for brilliant but Basilides, pcrversc ingenuity. “ There is a God who is not^ and A.D. 125. whom nothing can be said. There is a world-seed^ a great egg as it were, containing within it the germs of a spir- itual, psychical, and material development. From this, devel- oped according to numerical proportions, come the Ogdoad and Hebdomad, with their respective Archons, or world-rulers, and the Abraxas, or three hundred and sixty-five Heavens : this latter representing God, so far as He is manifested. Christ is the nous or highest aeon, which united itself to the man Jesus at His baptism ; in memory of which the followers of Basilides celebrated the baptism as the Epiphany on the sixth of January. The later Basilideans adopted the views of the-Docetae, and held it lawful to deny the Name of Christ. They were also grossly im- moral, and were much addicted to magic, attributing a sovereign Valentinus, cfiicacy to their abraxas gems. Valentinus, the most A.D 125-140. ij^gej^ious of all the Gnostics, made his aeons emanate in pairs. His Christ was apparitional or docetic, coming into the Marco- world through Mary, as water through a pipe. The Stans. sects that sprang from these leaders, especially the infamous Marcosians, were a disgrace to humanity, and brought no little scandal upon the Christian name. The Ophites, or Naassenes, got their name from the Ophis, ophites. Serpent, — regarding the Serpent that tempted Eve as a symbol of Sophia, Wisdom, or of Christ himself. Their Sethites, peculiarities gave occasion to the Heathen to accuse Catmtes. Christians of serpent worship. A similar blasphemy of Scripture was found among the Sethites, Cainites, and others ‘2 For an excellent account of the tenets and different sects of the Alexan- drian Gnostics, see “ Some Account of the Writings and Opinions of Clement of Alexandria, by John Bishop of Lincoln.” *3 Or, according to others, Sophia was the defective female mind. For interesting remarks on these sects, see Bunsen’s Hippolytus, vol. i. p. 35. Heresies and Schools. 155 Saturninus. Bardesanes. of the same sort. The world and its order being evil, every- thing that helps to destroy the world or confound its order was regarded as the struggle of the imprisoned celestial spark. Hence even the Sodomites and Judas Iscariot were by some held in religious honor. The Syrian or Oriental Gnostics were more decidedly dual- istic in their views, and perhaps more hostile to the G^Zsttc7 Old Testament. In their practice they were rigidly ascetic. Saturninus was the name best known among them. His followers, to avoid all contact with the evil principle or with the race of evil men, abstained from marriage and the eating of flesh. A particular interest attaches to the name of Bardesanes of Edessa, once a Christian philosopher and an able defender of the Truth. He believed in two eternal principles, derived evil from matter, and denied the Resurrec- tion. He obtained honor, however, as a confessor ; and many of his writings, especially his elegant treatise on Fate, were highly esteemed in the Church. Cerdo, a Syrian who came to Rome early in the century, seems to have found a starting-point for his heresy in the effort to reconcile the Old Testament and the New. The God proclaimed by Moses and the Prophets could not be the Father of Jesus Christ. For the former is known, but the latter unknown ; the former is just, merely, the latter is good. Marcion, a native of Pontus, came to Rome during the episcopate of Anicetus, and adopted the same general views with Cerdo, maturing them, however, into a more advanced doctrine and discipline. Besides the differ- ence between the God of the Old Testament and of the New,*^ he found it impossible to reconcile Christ coming to Judgment, with the Christ of the Gospels ; and therefore was accused of making two Christs. As converts from his sect were rebaptized S. Hippol. Omn. Hceres. *5 “ The just Creator, and the good God.” Cerdo. Marcion. 156 History of the Church. Apelles, Hermogenes on coming into the Church, it is probable that he did not use the common form of Baptism. He rejected the New Testa- ment, except a corrupted copy of the Gospel of S. Luke, and certain portions of the Epistles. It is said that towards the end of his life he repented of his heresy. Apelles, a disciple of Marcion, taught that Christ in descend- ing from on high framed a body to Himself out of the four elements, of which in ascending again He became divested. This he learned from Philumena, a virgin clairvoyante^ who lived on invisible food and had many revela- tions. About the end of the century, Hermogenes, a painter of Carthage, taught the eternity of matter : an unplastic material, out of which God formed, as perfectly as its stubborn nature would allow, the soul and body of man.*^ Tatian, a disciple of Justin Martyr, travelled in the East after the death of his master, and originated the stern sect of Tatian, the Tatianites. He regarded marriage as a corruption, and denied the possibility of Adam’s salvation. To these, and many such like, Hippolytus adds the name of Monoimus, an Arabian, who taught that man is the Monoimus, , all,” and ‘‘the principle of all.” His maxim was : “ Seek not God, or nature, or things thereunto pertaining; but seek thyself from thyself, and say : My God is my mind, my thought, my soul, my body. Thus thou shalt find thyself in thyself, as the one and the whole.” It was in the latter half of the third century that Gnostic dualism was moulded into its severest form by the hand of IV. Mani, an apostate Presbyter it is said, who having Mani. been a Magian, a Christian, and possibly a Buddhist, endeavored to fuse all these systems into one. This world is a The two battle-ground, a confused struggle of darkness and Kingdoms, debatable land, as it were, of two great worlds, each having its own Lord, and forever arrayed in irre- *6 For several of these, see Tertull. De Praescript, 30-33, Heresies and Schools. 157 concilable hostility to one another. *7 Each man is an image of that world-wide struggle. In a body which is darkness he has a soul which is darkness, but a soul of light, also, striving for deliverance. Christ and the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of light and the Spirit of ether, attract the good soul unto themselves. These notions, adorned with poetical ascriptions to the sun and moon and stars, and with a world-system of the most intri- cate description, were accompanied with terribly serious views of the malignity of nature, and with an austerity A ustere dark and hard, though not devoid of a certain moral ^Natlr{. grandeur. The mouth, the hands, the heart, every member and every faculty, must be sealed. By silence from all but good words, by abstinence from all but vegetable diet, by hands unstained with money, by a virginity absolutely unsullied, the flesh is to be purged, and the soul of light lib- erated from its loathsome dungeon. To make these maxims more effectual, the Manicheans had a discipline and worship modelled on that of the Church, but more severe, and in some respects more imposing. There was in this heresy, as in all that have been built upon an honest reception of the dualistic principle, an extra- ordinary vitality. Soon after Manias death, in the last quarter of the third century, it began to make its way towards Senses Sealed. Vitality. *7 Zoroaster, a contemporary of Darius Hystaspes, was the reformer of the Magian system. In the form he gave it, Ormuzd, the light-principle and fountain-head of good, and Ahrinian, the source of darkness and of evil, were eternally generated by the infinite and almighty Essence, Zeruane^ Aku- rene, or absolute Time. On the subject of the Barbarian Philosophies, see Diogenes Laertius among the Ancients, and Tenneman’s Manual of the His- tory of Philosophy (translated by Cousin) among modern works : also Faber on Pagan Idolatry. The innumerable points which Christianity has in com- mon with Anti-Christian systems, are industriously brought together in a spirit hostile to all religion by Dunlap, Vestiges of the Spirit History of Man. ’'S ‘‘ Signaculum oris, signaculum manuum, signaculum sinus.” With these high pretensions they mixed secret abominations, almost incredible. See Augustin. De Hceres^ cap. 46. *9 Beausobre, Histoire du Manicheisme ; on which see Mosheim’s Criti- cisms, Hist. Comment, vol. ii. 158 History of the Church. the West ; and by its ascetic rigor, its high pretensions, and its affectation of mystery, made converts not a few in A.D. 287. ^ Asia Minor, Italy, Sicily and North Africa. Towards the end of the same century it was prominent enough to provoke persecution, at the hand of the Emperor Diocletian."® Perse- cuted and crushed at various times, it always managed to re- vive ; and in one shape or another continued to exist all through the middle ages. In the meanwhile there was growing within the bosom of the Church a more dangerous enemy, though not more wicked, V. than either the Judaic or Gnostic heresies. These Sensuous appealing to pseudo-spiritual or pseudo-rational proclivities, had assailed the real Humanity or proper Divinity of our Lord ; so that the success of either would have involved no less than a denial of the essentials of Christian faith. The contest with them, however, was during the second century an external war. The internal struggle, during the same period, was with enemies that appeared on the sensuous side of religion, and appealed to the imaginative faith and emotional feelings, rather than to the sober reason of the times. Symptoms of this, it has been already noticed, had early appeared among the Corinthian Christians, in an over-estimate of charisms, or spiritual gifts. Coveting sensible Sect SJ>irit. . . r \ signs of the operation of the Spirit, and despising the commonplace virtues of temperance, charity, and humility, they became mere babes in Christ ; and sect-spirit, or schism, one of the inevitable fruits of a carnal mind,""* became — and to judge from S. Clement’s Epistle for a long time continued — a charac- teristic of their Church. What happened among the Corinthians must have shown itself at times in other places. Love of the marvellous is nat- *0 Diocletian’s edict (Gies. J 61, n. 19) seems to have been prompted in great measure by hatred of the Persians, whose ‘‘ detestable customs,” he feared, might ‘‘ corrupt the innocency and simplicity of Roman manners.” The ringleaders of the heresy were to be “ cast into the flames and burned, along with their abominable writings.” ** Gal. v. 19, 20. Heresies and Schools. 159 ural to man. But the extraordinary effusion of gifts’’ in the Pentecostal age, however necessary it was for a time, Love of could not but be attended with the risk of ministering to this dangerous passion ; giving occasion to disorders, which the rulers of the Church had to combat with all their might. In the beginning of the second century, the same carnal or psychical tendency appears under another form. As miracles became less frequent, and ‘^gifts’’ almost disap- chUiast peared, prophecy grew more precious to those who sought either to stimulate or to build up their faith ; and the magnificent imagery of the Old and New Testaments, so elevat- ing and inspiring to sober minds, was converted by the un- learned and unstable into a sensuous snare. The Millenarian theory, a harmless and pleasing speculation to some, became to others a sort of intoxication. In its milder form it Millennial was an opinion, founded on a literal interpretation of Reign. the twentieth chapter of the Apocalypse, that the saints risen from the dead at the first resurrection should reign with Christ a thousand years on earthy in a state of temporal power and felicity. Papias, a disciple of S. John and a great collector of oral traditions, but a man of slender wit according to Eusebius, embellished this opinion with fanciful additions of a very excep- tionable kind. The wicked were to serve the righteous during the thousand years of their reign. To support its enormous population, the earth was to be endowed with a marvellous fecundity. Each vine was to bear a thousand branches, each branch a thousand clusters, each cluster a thousand bunches of grapes, and each grape was to yield twenty-five measures of wine.“ Pomps and splendors and luxuries were to abound in “ See Routh, Reliqu. Sacr. vol. i. The doctrine was held, but probably in a more spiritual sense than here described, by Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Melito, and probably by a majority of the Church teachers of the second century. The Alexandrine School, which in the third century brought it into disrepute, were averse to its sensuous character (which they probably exag- gerated), but spiritualized the text of Scripture into a very intangible meaning. The millennium was advocated by Justin M., and probably by others, from a desire to bring out clearly the doctrine of the Resurrection, in opposition to 1 6 o History of the Church. similar proportions. Jerusalem was to be rebuilt. Indeed, the vision of the sacred city, radiant with every im- jerusaiem, splciidor, SO impressed itself upon popular imagination, that, as some believed, it was actually seen for a space of forty days'*^ hovering in the air just over its future site. But the Millenarian dream, tolerated for awhile among Catholics, and spreading in grosser forms among the heretical Religious sects, was only one of innumerable symptoms of a Fiction, great and growing disorder. A worse sign still was the flood of religious fictions let loose upon the Church at this period. Many of these productions were harmless enough, some were even edifying. The Shepherd of Hermas, for ex- ample, notwithstanding some questionable phrases, is evidently the work of a pious man, who avails himself of the garb of fiction without any intention to deceive. We can hardly say as much for the Sibylline Books a forgery which Justin Martyr and early writers generally appealed to, without suspicion or misgiving. The Clementines, a romance already mentioned in this chapter, came out of a great nest of similar productions. Thousands of pious frauds, in short. Prophecies, Histories, Si>urious Epistles, Gospels, Apocalypses, Testaments, mostly of u ritings. origin,^ but ascribed to Adam, Seth, Abra- ham, Moses, the Apostles, the blessed Virgin, and to various those ‘‘ not really Christians,” who taught that ** at the moment of death the soul would be taken right up into heaven.” He therefore contended, that “ not only would there be a resurrection of the dead, but a millennium in Jerusalem ... as all the prophets have predicted.” Dial, cum Tryphon, 8o. It has been well remarked, that as belief in the millennium declined, the notion of 2, purgatoiy took its place. See note on this subject to Oxf. Trans, of Tertullian, p. 120. 23 Tertull. Adv. Mar cion. hi. 25. =^4 This work, and the Epistle of Barnabas, are placed on very good authority in the first century : the argument against their early origin being of no great force. See Gieseler, Church Hist. § 35 (Smith’s Am. ed.). See also Lee, on Inspiration ; and Wake’s Apostol. Fathers. Sibyllina Oraculay etc., Servatii Galloei, etc., etc. Amstelodami, 1689. ^ Epiphanius mentions as many as six thousand, of Gnostic authorship. Irenaeus speaks of them as countless. Heresies and Schools. i6i other worthies, Jewish, Christian, and Heathen, circulated through innumerable obscure channels, and ministered to the fleshly enthusiasm from which they sprang. To perils of this kind must be added a growing fondness for the ascetic or encratite"^ virtues. Virginity could not long be content with the qualified praise bestowed upon it by TkeEn- S. Paul. Second marriages were allowed to human cratites, infirmity, but, in an age that called for extraordinary and heroic virtues, infirmity was not apt to be regarded with particular favor. The martyr spirit""^ was immoderately applauded : on the other hand, denial of the faith at the hour of trial, and even attempts at evasion, were likely to be considered by many unpar- donable sins. Excesses in this direction did not go. Excesses however, entirely unrebuked. The martyrs at Lyons, as we have seen, and it may be said the School of S. John in general, were distinguished by a noble moderation ; by encraty, or temperance, in the truest sense of the word."^ But as perse- cution became more virulent, enthusiasm more lively, and espe- cially as the philosopher’s cloak, the badge of a proud austerity, 27 The name Encratites (from encrateia, continence, temperance) covers a great many sects ; and may properly be used as a generic term. 28 Or rather the act of martyrdom ; for it was a symptom of the sensuous tendency, that the word martyr, which applies to all who bear a true Christian witness before men, came to be restricted to a small and not in all cases exem- plary class, 29 Among the fragments attributed to S. Ignatius, we find the following : Virginitatis, jugum nemini impone. Periculosa quippe res est, et servatu diffi- cilis, quando necessitate fit. Junioribus ante nubere permitte, quam cum scortis corrumpantur. But the general sound feeling of the Church is best shown in the 50th Apostolic Canon : “ If a bishop, a priest, or a deacon, or any ecclesiastic abstain from marriage, from flesh, or from wine, not for prac- tice in selfrdenial, but from contempt, forgetting that God made everything very good, that He made both the male and the female — in fact, even blas- pheming the creation : he shall either retract his error, or be deposed and cast out of the Church. A layman also shall be treated in like manner.’^ In the same way, clerical ascetics were compelled to eat flesh and drink wine once, that their abstinence on other occasions might not be attributed to a belief that these things were evil in themselves. Ancyra, Can. 14. 1 62 History of the Church. Tatianites. Puritani, was more and more seen in the Church, the line between proper self-discipline and intolerant severity was soon obliterated, or at least disregarded. Tatian, a converted Philosopher, and for some time an asso- ciate of Justin Martyr at Rome, was content during the lifetime of the latter to indulge a certain severity to himself, without making his own practice a rule of obligation for others. Afterwards he travelled in the East and fell into Gnostic errors. The sects that adopted or developed his notions (Tatianites, Severians, from names of their leaders ; or, Encra- tites, Puritans, from their professions of continence, temperance, and pure religion) spread through all parts of the East and West. They condemned matrimony, abstained entirely from flesh and wine, and some of them (Hydroparastatse, Aquarii or Aquarians) forbade the use of the latter, even in the andothers. Ey^harist. The Apotactites, renouncers of the good things of this world, Apostolics, imitators of primitive poverty, Saccophori, scrip-bearers, are still later varieties of the same sensuous spirit, 3° disguised under a thin veil of ostentatious sim- plicity or severity of manners. Among the idolatrous nations of antiquity, the Phrygians were distinguished for those ungovernable transports of sensuous VI. enthusiasm which S. Paul justly lays to the charge of Montanus. heathenism in general. ‘‘Ye knpw,** says he to the Corinthians, “that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.** This “ carrying away ** was Phrygian known Under the name of ecstasy. It could be brought Ecstasy. ^^out by loud sliouts, piercing cries, and even by the clang of instrumental music. 3" In addition to these, however, 30 The theoretic notions of some of these sects were less popular than their austere manners. Thus dualism was prevalent among them ; the doc- trine of Satan’s independent power ; and (most offensive of all to the common Christian feeling) a belief that Adam was hopelessly damned. 31 « Tympana tenta tonant palmis et cymbala circum Concava, raucisonoque minantur cornua cantu, Et Phrygio stimulat numero cava tibia mentes;” etc. Lucretii, De R. N ii. 620. Heresies and Schools. 163 arts were employed not unlike the “mesmerism” and “spirit- ualism'* of modern times. Accordingly, at certain seasons, the Phrygian population, male and female, especially the latter, excited themselves into fits of Corybantic frenzy, under corybantic the influence of which they exhibited those psychical phenomena which, wherever doctrine and discipline are sub- ordinated to passion, are still familiar to the experience of the religious world. When the Phrygians were converted to Christianity, this sensuous spirit seems to have departed for a season. The Gospel gave food for the mind, as well as a stimulus to the Phrygian affections.^^" It transformed the wild irregularity of religious impulse into the decency and order of religious life. Society was not only cleansed : it was clothed, as it were, and restored to its right mind. But about the middle of the second century, symptoms of the old malady began to reappear. It was a time undoubtedly of general excitability. Miraculous powers still lin- gered in the Church, or were still fondly cherished in popular imagination. There was a presentiment of the end of the world near at hand. Wild dreams of millennial glories were fondly listened to, and generally encouraged. Under these circumstances, a little flock of simple Christians gathered for devotional exercises in some retired spot — in a cemetery, perhaps, or around the tomb of an honored martyr — and engaged, it may have been, ih fasting or in watching, is suddenly startled from its sobriety by one of its members falling into a trance. The ‘‘ecstasy** is accompanied with wild bab-^ 32 The Westminster Review (No. cxliii.), in a very narrow-minded article on Christian Revivals, accuses the whole early Church of fostering these ex- citements. It forgets that Truth was always put foremost by Church teachers as the sanctifying power ; and that Truth was proclaimed, not in a popular, hortatory way, but in a sober, argumentative style, which appeals to the under- standing even more than to the affections. To test the question, let any one try to get up a revival (in the reviewer’s sense of the word) by reading to people the Sermon on the Mount, the Epistles of S. Paul, or any of the homi- lies of the early Fathers. The Old Evil returns. 164 History of the Church. blings and rapturous demonstrations. The subject of it, while in the trance or on awaking, has a dream to tell, a wonderful and transporting vision. The thing soon becomes a decided epidemic. 33 It speeds from man to man, from congregation to^ Epidemic congregation. The Clergy at first can make little of Frenzy. Afterwards, as they perceive the danger, they strive to check the contagion, to dispel the delusion. But their efforts are all in vain. Enthusiasm degenerates so easily into self-decep- tion, and self-deception is so rapidly corrupted into a half- unconscious effort to draw in others, that to unveil a lying wonder is often the surest way for a time to increase the infatu- ation of the multitude who have been deluded by it. Montanus, a convert from heathenism, and once, it is said, a Priest of Cybele, is commonly cited by the ancients as the Montanus. author of the Phrygian frenzy ; bringing it about in Maximiiia. connection with two prophetesses, Maximilla and Pris- Prisciiia, cilia, by artful devices of his own. It is far more probable that he was originally a victim of it. Sharing in the common delusion, he had the tact and intellectual skill to become its interpreter and director. The Church, he reasoned, in growing older, ought to grow wiser and more sober. Patriarchal times had been the infancy Theory of Religion, Judaism the childhood, Pentecost the Develop- glowing and exuberant youth. Each of these periods had been inaugurated by signs ; each had been followed by a development of doctrine, and by a tightening of the bands of discipline and morals. Now, a new and more spiritual era . The End is manifestly approaching. The world is nodding to its fall. The powers of evil are rallying their forces for the great and decisive battle. The Holy Ghost, the Para- clete promised to the Apostles, who has partially manifested Himself in the wonders of Pentecostal times, is coming upon the Church with a mightier demonstration of spiritual power. 33 The resemblance of this ecstasy to mesmeric phenomena is pointed out by Gieseler, in Tertullian, De Anima, 9. See also Miinteri, Priniord. Ecc/es, Afric, cap. xxii. Heresies and Schools. 165 Youth is settling into manhood. With new wonders, then, new revelations, new knowledge, there must be a new gird- ^ ing up of the loins of the Church mind; a stricter strictness needed. discipline, a more perfect organization, a more com- plete subjection of the flesh to the inspiring and energizing Spirit.3^ Hence an adoption at once of all the encratite notions cur- rent at that day. Second marriages, and even all marriages not solemnized in Church, were regarded as adultery. . • 11 /* 1 • 1 Encratite Absolution, especially for mortal sms, was to be at Notions least grudgingly accorded. To avoid persecution was to fall from the faith. For one Lent they had three, besides other fasts, half fasts, and seasons of dry food only.^s Some abstained altogether from flesh and wine. All professed to go far beyond the practice of the Church, in sobriety of dress and of manner, in condemning amusements, in cultivating a rigid and marked austerity in all the relations of daily life. In the same way the Millenarian theory, and other notions of a stimulating kind, clustered around Montanism by a natural and irresistible affinity. Pepuza, a town of Phrygia, where 34 The views of Montanus come to us through the medium of Tertullian’s vigorous mind; who in his tract, De Virgin. Veland. i, brings out finely the notion of development as opposed to custom or prescription. 35 See Natalis Alexander, tom. Dissertat. iv. ; Kaye’s Tertullian ; Bingham’s Antiquities ; Beveridge, Can. Cod. lib. 3, De Jejun. Quadrages. It is probable from Tertull. De Jejun. ii., De Or at. xiv., and from Irenseus Ap.Euseb. V. 24, that the only fast generally obligatory (except before baptism or ordination) was on Good Friday, Easter Eve, or [Constitut. Apostol. v. 14) the whole of Passion-week. The forty days of Lent were observed, however, with more or less of strictness : as also the station-days (Wednesday and Fri- day) of each week, when abstinence was practised till three o’clock. Among the Catholics, however, these observances were ** of choice not of command,” which gave Tertullian occasion, in his shajp way, to twit the Catholics with inconsistency, viz., that they observed more than they were willing to enjoin. De Jejun. ii. The arguments, by the way, which he puts in the mouths of Catholics against the stricter views of the Montanists, are precisely those which are employed in modern times against the excessive legality of Roman Catholic fasts. 1 66 History of the Church. Maximilla began her prophetic career, was venerated as the site chTast Heavenly Jerusalem. The prophets kept excite- ment at fever heat by predictions of wars, persecu- tions, and of a great and final judgment immediately impending ; predictions which signally failed in this instance, but which none the less served their purpose for a time. As the Clergy quite unanimously rejected the new doctrine, it was necessary for Montanus to organize a ministry of his Ministry own.^^ This he did consistently with his principle Prophetic. Catholic Church, namely, was psychical and carnaly and therefore imperfect) by ordaining Patriarchs and Cenones over the heads of the Bishops ; thus degrading the suc- cessors of the Apostles, says S. Jerome, to the third rank in the Females Ministry. As his ministry stood on the prophetic rather admitted. sacerdolal basis, he could also consistently with his principles admit women to it ; prophetesses^^ being known in all the early ages. ■ The assertion that Montanus believed himself to be the Paraclete, probably arose from the distinction commonly made between the Phrygian inspiration, so called, and the stasy un~ inspiration attributed by the Church to Prophets and conscious. - , ^ , , . , Apostles. In the latter, neither reason, will, nor any- thing pertaining to man’s integrity, is abolished or superseded. But Montanus professed to be an unconscious organ of the 3^ The Montanists also fell back upon the inherent kingly priesthood of the private Christian. Tertull. De Exhortat. Castitat. yii.i in which he argues that, as laymen partake of the priestly office and do priestly acts (et offers, et tinguis, et sacerdos es tibi solus), they ought also to come under the strict dis- cipline of priestly lives. It may be observed that this priestly character of the congregation enters into all true Liturgies ; but was more apparent in the early Church, because the offerings (first fruits, etc.) were more tangible : the dis- tinction between the old Law and»the new, in this respect, being, according to Irenaeus, iv. i8, 2, that what was then done in a servile way, is now done freely: quippc cum jam non a servis, sed a liberis offeratur. See Gieseler^ \ S3, notes 5, 16. 37 Thiersch, the Irvingite historian, distinguishes in like manner between teaching and prophesying — the one being prohibited to women, the other not. Heresies and Schools. 167 spirit. The Spirit, throwing him into an ecstasy, into an irra- tional, impersonal, irresponsible condition, breathed through him as a musician through a flute ; so that the phrase, thus saith the Prophet, would be no more proper in his case than to say, thus says the mouth, or thus writes the pen, or thus plays the harp. Other absurdities and blasphemies attributed to Montanus, are so manifestly taken from vague rumor, or from hostile inter- pretation, that little credit can be given them at the present day. It seems improbable also, that he was ^ Mon^ such a simpleton as is sometimes represented. Re- spectable powers of mind, great austerity of life, and even prac- tical good sense within a certain range, may coexist with absurd- ities bordering on insanity ; and the consistency of Montanism in itself, as well as the strong and broad hold it gained in large portions of the world, seem to bear witness to the intellectual ability, and in the popular sense of the word, to the sincerity of its author. At all events, Montanism became the popular heresy of the day. Its encratic principles recommended it to some; its fervid enthusiasm carried away others. Phrygia and Galatia ^ ^ were overrun by it. The light of the golden candle- the New stick of Thyatira was extinguished by it for nearly a century. From the East it flew swiftly to the West; and in Rome one of the Bishops, towards the end of the cen- tury, most probably Victor, was disposed for awhile to look favorably upon it, and indeed sent letters of peace to the new prophets. In North Africa it took deeper root. Wherever it spread, its followers, calling themselves ‘‘spiritual,^’ and de- spising the Catholics as ‘^carnal, or abhorring them as enemies of the Spirit, were distinguished by a severity and simplicity of life which disposed many earnest men to look favorably upon them. in the JVest, 38 The difference between the orthodox and the Montanist Idea of inspi- ration is well treated in Lee, on the Inspiration of H. S. lect. v. ; see also Kaye’s Justin M. chap. ix. « 1 68 History of the Church. Monarct ians. So mighty a movement in the sensuous direction as that of the Montanist, Encratite, and even Gnostic sects (for the VII. Gnostics became sensuous as soon as they formed into sects), could not fail to arouse the elements of a pow- Reaction, reaction. Among the Montanists themselves, there arose a party holding views which were afterwards known in the Church as Sabellian.^^ These, however, were probably men ignorant of theology, who, absorbed in their doctrine of the Paraclete, confounded with Him the other Persons of the Trinity. The Alogi, deniers of the Logos of S. John’s Gospel, were inclined to doubt the reality of spiritual gifts, and to reject the TheAio i Gospel of S. John.-*® In fact, the doc- 'h- trine of the millennium, the mission of the Spirit, and the mystery of a manifold Divine operation in the hu- man heart, had been so vilified by the sensuous trail of heretical interpretation, that impatient minds were naturally disgusted. A skeptical spirit had also been provoked by over sharp distinc- tions between the Persons of the Trinity. The doctrine of Subordination was so maintained by some, as to give a handle for the charge of Tritheism. To avoid errors on this side, many were led to contend for the doctrine of the Divine Monarchy^ either by denying the Divinity of Jesus Christ, or by making Him a mere temporary embodiment or manifestation of the Father. Among those who carried this reaction to the extreme, Theodotus the Tanner, Theodotus the Money-changer, and Artemas or Artemon, were particularly prominent. They rejected the Divinity of Christ. From a notion of one of them,^' that Christ was inferior in the priest- hood to that mysterious personage, Melchizedek, his followers got the name of Melchizedekians. Tritheism. 39 Tertullian, De Prcescript. Hceret. 52, mentions two sects of Montanists, those who followed Proculus, and those who followed ^schines ; the latter maintained that the Father and the Son are one Person. 40 S. Irenseus, iii. ii, cited in Gies. § 48. 4 * Tertullian, De Prcescript. Hceres. 53. Heresies and Schools. 169 Praxeas, coming to Rome from the East, at the time when Victor was favoring the new Prophets, by his arguments and representations undeceived the Roman Pontiff; but afterwards reasoned himself into a heresy more ruinous Patripas- and hardly more rational than the one he had exposed/"* In explaining the doctrine of the Trinity, possibly with a view to cut away the ground from under the Montanist delusion, he laid himself open to the charge of Patripassianism ; contending that He who suffered on the cross was not in substance only, but in person, one with the Father. In this way the philosophizing spirit came back into the Church, where it secured a foothold, from which it was not dis- lodged for several ages/^ Indeed, it has never been Rationalist dislodged : for the habit of explaining the mysteries 'temper. of the Gospel having once come in on the side of error, it was found necessary to employ it on the side of Truth. ^ ^ . 1 1 1 • 1 Rome. The Church of Rome was particularly troubled in this way. Noetus, who taught in Asia Minor about the end of the second century, held the same view as Praxeas in a more philo- sophic shape ; and Epigonus and Cleomenes, his disciples, preaching in the imperial city, were more or less favored by Zephyrinus and Callistus. How far these Roman Bishops were implicated in the heresy, it is hard so say. With the Artemon- ites on one side denying the divinity of Christ, and with the Patripassians on the other exalting His divinity at the expense of His personality, they were certainly in a difficult position. It is to their credit that Theodotus and Artemon were promptly condemned. The same promptitude was shown in the case of Sabellius, 42 Praxeas, in Rome, accomplished two works of the devil : he cast out prophecy and brought in heresy; he banished the Paraclete and crucified the Father.’^ Tertullian, Adv. Praxeatn. c. i. Tertullian intimates that Victor was silent with regard to the heresy of Praxeas. 43 An anonymous writer in Euseb. v. 28, dwells much on the fondness of these heretics for syllogisms, and for Aristotle, Theophrastus, and Galen. They were much addicted also to mathematical studies. 8 1 70 History of the Church. who flourished also in the first half of the third century, and expounded the doctrine of the Trinity in a way which Sabellius, ^ 1 ^ ^ has proved as difficult to explain as the original doc- trine itself. The sum of his teaching would seem to be this : Monad ts a Mouady expanded into a triad,^ As man is and Triad, distinguish in him the body (that is, the whole frame corporeal and spiritual), and the soul (which again stands for the whole man), and the spirit (of which the same is to be said) ; or as the sun is one, yet we distinguish the round body and the light and the heat : so God is one, yet the Father, the Son, and the Spirit may each express in His own way the fulness of the expanded or contracted Godhead. Like all anal- ogies of the kind, this is capable of being interpreted in many different senses. It may stand for a Trinity of modes, ^ Trinity of emanations, a Trinity of three divine energies.'*^ If rigidly pressed, it would certainly lead to a denial of the proper person- ality of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. And this last conse- quence Sabellius seems to have accepted. He admitted prosopa^ persons, but only in the dramatic sense ; characters, to be put on or put off, for particular dispensations. In the effort to give a rational account of his doctrine on the positive side, he doubt- less encountered difficulties, which it was easier to evade by illus- trations than to meet and vanquish by intelligible definitions. Somewhat later than Sabellius, Beryllus, Bishop of Bostra in Arabia, taught that Christ before the Incarnation had no per- sonal existence, and that He has no proper divinity of His own, but only that of the Father dwelling in Him. He denied also the existence of a human soul in Christ, the indwelling Deity supplying its place. When con- futed by Origen on this latter point, in an Arabian Synod holden near the middle of the third century, he also abandoned the former error. 44 S. Athanas. c, Arian. Or, iv. 12, 13 ; for other statements of his doc- trine, see Gieseler, Ch. H. \ 60, n. 10 (Smith’s Am. ed.). In the monad there was a power of contraction and expansion — systole and ektasis. 45 S. Basil, ep. 210, 214. ^ Epiphan, Hceres. Ixii. i. 47 Euseb. vi. 33. Heresies and Schools. 171 Schools AND Parties. Somewhat later still, Paul of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch, taught a kind of deification of the blameless man sa^w^ita Jesus, by an impersonal, indwelling Logos.^® While many in this way were seduced by a philosophizing spirit into open heresy, there were innumerable others who speculated to the utmost limit of the rule of faith, and viii. perplexed simple souls by subtle distinctions and anal- ogies. The Logos of S. John was to philosophic minds particularly suggestive. God silent might be distinguished from God speaking, or the Word inirnanent in the Father from the Word forthgoing into creation or redemption, in such a way as to express any amount of vital truth, or to cover any amount of dangerous error. The same may be said of school 0 / the theories of emissions, processions, emanations, ex- Progress, pansions, and the like, by which the relation of the Son to the Father was sometimes more clearly than satisfactorily explained. Justin Martyr, with his contemporaries Athenagoras and Tatian, Theophilus of Antioch, the Alexandrine School, and in the West Hippolytus and Tertullian, were among the most active in these efforts to give what may be called a philosophic expres- sion to the Faith commonly received. On the other Tradition- hand, the cautious, traditionary, reverential school, which lingered to the end of the second century in the person of Iren8eus,5° was wary of the use of scientific terms, and taught 48 See Book III. ch. 5. 49 On the subject of the remainder of this chapter there are many modern writers of first-rate ability; see particularly Burton, Testimonies of the Ante- Nicene Fathers, and Hagenbach, History of Doctrines. In the latter are concise summaries of the results of German criticism. See also Neander, Hist, of Christ. Dogmas. 50 “ If any one shall ask, How was the Son produced from the Father? — we answer. No one knows . . . save alone the Father who begat and the Son who was begotten.’^ S. Iren. Adv. Hceres. ii. 28. In the same way he ridi- cules those theological obstetricians, who professing in one breath that “ His generation is indescribable,” go on in the next to describe His generation and forthgoing, by such analogies as “ a word emitted from a thought.” “ That a word is emitted from a thought is what everybody knows. It is therefore no great discovery they tnake who talk about emissions, and apply the term to 172 History of the Church. the doctrine of the Trinity in the language of Scripture and the Creeds. Of the others also it may be said, that conserva- the terms in which they taught maybe distinguished from those in which they explained^ the latter being, as a gen- eral rule, more open to suspicion. The traditionary ground, however, couid not be retained, without at all events a thorough examination. Christianity as a Faith and Truth, or rather as the Truth, offered a constant chal- Knowiedge. philosophic world. But to maintain that challenge she was forced in a measure to adopt the language of the Schools, and to answer a multitude of questions which the mass of simple believers would never have thought of asking. As Origen intimates, the generality of those who called them- selves Christians, knowing nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, thought they had the whole Logos in the Word made flesh. A lower class (the Ebionites or Nazarenes) thought they had the whole when they recognized Jesus as the Son of David. But the higher man rises in the intellectual scale, the deeper is the significance of that question. What think ye of anfpil^- Christ? It was a matter of simple necessity, then, tnc ions. Truth revealed to the Church should undergo a theoretic scrutiny, and that distinctions which readily occurred to speculative minds should be at first overlooked, or dimly apprehended, and should afterwards, before they were settled, the only begotten Word of God; likening Him whom they call indescribable and unutterable ... to a word uttered or emitted by man.” In other words, Irenseus saw the fallacy, common to thinkers of all ages, of imagining that by giving new names to things they shed new light upon them, 5 ^ Even Irenoeus is accused (by Duncker and others) of hopeless self- contradiction, because his constant assertion of the equality of the Father and the Son can be coupled with such phrases as “ the Father is above all, being Himself the head of the Son.” 52 Some theories served as 2i scaffoldings so to speak : e.g.y the doctrine of subordination, which, before the distinctions of substance, person, and office were generally apprehended, enabled philosophic minds to hold to the person- ality of the Son. The same is to be said of the analogies — such as fire light- ing^r^, thoughts emitting words, etc., etc. Among the terms finally adopted Heresies and Schools. 173 give rise to variations of expression, or even to mutual distrust and misapprehension. The Church, in fact, had two works before her. The one was to hold the simple Creed. The other was to frame those noble instruments, the Latin and Greek tongues, into offices a fitness for the expression of all that the Creed con- Church. tains. The latter task devolved upon the Schools ; the former upon the Church itself — upon the common sense, that is, of believers as a body. To meet both require- Freedom of ments, fixed limits of belief were essential ; but within opinion. those limits a reasonable freedom of private speculation. ^3 Ac- cordingly, amid all the uncertainties arising from illusive analo- gies or inadequate definitions, three points at least remained fixed in the general consciousness of the Church. God is one : Christ is God : Christ is a Person distinct from the Fixed Person of the Father. Within those limits, which in Limits of ordinary teaching were respected even by those who in their larger flights of speculation seemed to disregard them, no little freedom was allowed. But when those limits were transceftded by any teacher, however eminent in his position or distinguished for his abilities; when, in other words, either the proper divinity or the distinct personality of the Son of God was denied ; then the Churchly and orthodox instinct made itself felt. In the same way, the undeviating direction of belief was seen in the fact that the drift of all discussion was to bring out more fully and more fairly, against the Gnostics, the real and perfect humanity of our Lord. In points of secondary interest there was equal activity of in the Church were the trias of Theophilus, the trinitas of Tertullian, the eternal generation of Origen : the komoousion had a harder struggle, being much favored by the Sabellians, and associated more or less with notions of division or expansion. See Hagenbach, 40-46. 53 Bishop Bull, Defensio Fidei Niccence, champions the substantial ortho- doxy of the ante-Nicene fathers : Petavius, the learned Jesuit, De Theologicis Dogmaticis^ impugns it. More recent writers are found in countless numbers on either side. 1 74 History of the Church. Minor Points. mind, with more room for philosophizing. The Apologist nat- urally undertook to answer the many subtle questions with which his accomplished predecessor the Sophist had wearied himself to little or no purpose. Hence the origin of evil, the eternity of matter, the nature of spirit and of body, or of souls, angels, demons ; and, in fact, a multiplicity of prob- lems, physical or metaphysical, were answered by guesses more or less ingenious, and more or less supported by texts of Script- ure interpreted according to the science of the times.s-^ At the bottom of all this there was a real thirst for knowledge. There was something, too, of the old ambition of the Sophists : a de- sire to appear to know everything, or perhaps a more creditable wish, though not more reasonable, that the Church should be shown to have the keys to all kinds of science. From which- spirit of ever cause it came, the passion for opening mysteries Inquiry. goon passed the bounds of moderation among a large class of teachers ; leading in all the great schools to a bias more or less heretical, and preparing the way for a long and deadly conflict with new shapes of evil. But the bringing out of a true Christian gnosis from the rich stores of Revelation was none the less a real and necessary task ; towards the fulfilment of which each great division of the Church was led by a sure instinct to do its own part. The more practical West, headed by Rome and North Africa, directed its attention mainly to questions of Church life ; and in theology was more solicitous to guard the traditional belief than curiously to explore its philosophic meaning. Irenaeus, in the spirit of the school of Polycarp, appealed to the tradition, or common teaching. Three Chief Schools. The West. 54 See Mosheim’s Commentaries j art. oii/Origen. 55 This was a purely practical ground ; and it is easy to see (the principal passages are given in Gieseler, § 51 ) that it meant nothing more than the cotmnon beliefs as opposed either to secret traditions or private speculations. Hence Rome was entitled to particular weight, as being a centre of universal resort, a point of confluence to opinions and traditions from all quarters : — “ in qua semper ab his qui sunt undique conservata est ea quae est ab apostolis tra- ditio.” See Book III. chap. iv. of this History. Heresies and Schools. 175 of the Apostolic Churches. Tertullian, in like manner, laid no little stress on prescription^ and on the rule of faith, ‘^una om- nino sola immobilis et irreformabilis. ’ * In controversy, how- ever, with Praxeas and the patripassian heresy, he was driven, as usual in controversy, into the erection of those hastily formed defences which may be called the field-works of theology theories which crumble of themselves as soon as they have served their temporary purpose. Rome, being about equally beset by the patripassian and the subordination doctrine, kept in the main a steady balance between the two. Novatian, the famous schismatic, argued solidly and clearly for the orthodox belief. Dionysius, Bishop in the latter half of the third century, made the nearest app*roach, perhaps, of any the- ologian during that period, to the exact via media of the Nicene definitions. Qn the whole, however, the West was more dis- tinguished for holding the Faith, than for shedding much light upon it. In the East it was almost the reverse. Every- thing tended there towards refined and subtle specula- tions. ■ In the two great schools of Antioch in Syria, and Alex- andria*in Egypt, the one distinguished for its rational, the other for its ultra-spiritual bias, numberless questions were opened and explored, many positions were taken which proved untenable, and the minds of the learned were more or less troubled ; but the result, on the whole, was an advance in the direction of a lively understanding of the Creed, as not merely ^^a rule of be- lief,^* but rather an all-pervading essence and spirit of the truth. Thus the East and the West, or more precisely Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, supplied one another's de- ficiencies ; and were the threefold cord of witness, as it were, by which every word of the common trust became more firmly bound upon the minds and consciences of believers. 5 ® He is liable to the charge of subordinationism, Tertull. Adv. Prax, ii. ; and therefore had to defend himself against the charge of tritheism : Adv, Prax. iii. 57 See Gieseler, \ 66, n. 16. 176 History of the Church. CHAPTER VIIL HERESIES HOW MET. COUNCIL. Of the vast flood of heresies, partly enumerated and described in the preceding chapter, the same general account may be given Heresies of the waters poured forth from the mouth of the ^anfdfsin- dragon who persecuted the Woman of the Apoca- tegrated, lypge ; the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up. They were not vanquished by wisdom, or by mental prowess only ; though logic in every form was vigorously em- ployed against them : it was rather that they destroyed them- selves ; being providentially divided and subdivided, flowing into sect-channels which became ever more narrow and more shallow, till, gradually absorbed into heathenism, they so disap- peared and came to naught. The Gnostic systems especially had in them no principle of union, or even of cohesion. Their existence, therefore, is chiefly Ageof interesting as showing the mental subtlety and activity Dialectics. timcs, and as in part accounting for that transi- tion which took place, from an age of simple faith to one of dialectics and polemical discussion. It was gnosticism, in fact, which awakened the Church to a consciousness of her vast intel- lectual resources. In the presence of this great development of heathen wisdom, she felt that she must convince the minds as well as win the hearts of men. From the high ground of simple dogma she must descend into the arena of philosophic disputation. The candle of the Gospel, once lighted, could not be hid under a bushel. It must shed its light upon that medley of loose notions by which the world was distracted. Heresies how Met. — Councils. 177 By a natural instinct, therefore, and in the main a healthy one, the successors of Polycarp and Pothinus departed more and more from the quiet ways of these venerable fathers, and threw themselves earnestly into the great battles of the day. The contest with the Montanist and other sensuous heresies had a similar effect : though, in this case, the energies of the Church were drawn into a different channel, and ques- Weapons tions of discipline or order attracted the chief atten- tion. When the Phrygian enthusiasm first broke out, the Clergy, strong in simple faith, and unaccustomed to the use of dialectic weapons, were for a little while content to exorcise the evil. They soon found that it was a spirit not so easily allayed. Though such men as “ Zoticus of Comana and Julian of Apa- mea, eminent Bishops of the Church,” attempted ^‘to examine the babbling spirit, their tongues were bridled,” we are told, ‘^by a certain Themison and his followers.” In the same way, ‘‘ the blessed Sotas in Anchialus wished to cast out the daemon from Priscilla, but the hypocrites would not allow him.” Some who made similar efforts from motives of vainglory Exorcism not only failed, but became themselves victims of the contagious disorder.^ Others were satisfied to avoid, or simply rebuke, the possession, and by this prudent course escaped injury themselves, but do not seem to have been able to neutral- ize its power. The Phrygian ecstasy, in short, was a phenom- enon by which the wisest heads were not a little puzzled. If it was, what religious men believed, a demoniacal possession,* it was manifestly one of that kind which requires something more than adjuration to cast it out. Under these circumstances, it is highly interesting to ob- serve, as the necessity of confuting the new doctrine Reason became more apparent, how cautiously the simple faith of the times girded itself, as it were, for the unwelcome * Euseb. V. 16, 19. *The alternate elation and dejection of the victims of this delusion are described by Euseb. v. 16. Its analogy to phenomena in modern “ Spiritual- ism” must strike every one who has looked into this remarkable frenzy. 8 * 178 History of the Church. task. 3 For a long time urged/^ remarks one, ^^to write a discourse against the heresy, I have been somewhat in doubt until now, not indeed for want of argument to confute the false doc- , trine, but from a fearful apprehension test I should Wholesome dread of seeui to be utterinp^ new precepts, or to be adding some- thing to that doctrine of the New Testament, which no one who would live according to the Gospel should add to or diminish.’* With many such misgivings, the controversy after awhile was fairly inaugurated. Apollinaris of Hierapolis in Asia ; Miltiades, a philosopher. Apologist, and historian ; Serapion, the eighth Bishop of Antioch ; Apollonius, who wrote just forty years after Montanus arose, and many other leading minds of the day, met the new prophets in oral disputation and in writing ; or fortified the faith of believers with copious proofs from the Scriptures, that ecstasy was a mark of diabolic rather than of divine inspiration. The question thus opened was one of the most difficult in religion, and was most elaborately dis- cussed. That the Spirit does not overpower or extin- Operation ... , i-i i i .• guish, but elevates and quickens the natural powers of spirit, man ; that even under the hand of the Most High, the prophet is not a mere instrument or organ, but rather a laborer together with God ; that, in short, the man inspired is a man in full possession of his reason, was argued with great ability from the Old Testament and the New ; and in the development of this argument a new impulse was given to the critical study of the Scriptures. ‘‘The false prophet,” it was con- Propheis tended,^ “is carried away by a vehement ecstasy an as , j shamc or apprehension. Let the followers of Montanus show, that any in the Old or New Testament were thus violently agitated and carried away in spirit : that Agabus, or Judas, or Silas, or the daughters of Philip, or Ammias in Phil- adelphia, or Quadratus, or others such-like, ever acted in this way.” Thus, gifts of prophetic power were not declared im- possible ; the Church, in fact, generally believed in their con- sEuseb. V. 1 6 . ^Euseb. V. 17. Heresies how Met. — Councils. Synods. * Heresies how Met, — LounciLs. 179 tinuance, or at least in their occasional reappearance : it was merely contended that the claim to such gifts should spirits be tested by the rules of reason, common-sense, and '^ried. Holy Scripture. But in this general resort to reason and dialectic skill, it was not forgotten that the Church is in a special sense the The witness to the Truth ; and that it is her office to con- Witness. fute error by the force of united testimony, as well as by the weapons of argument and persuasion. Whether Provincial Synods^ had been held before the rise of the Phrygian delusion, the silence of antiquity leaves uncer- tain. Gnosticism, perhaps, was too remote from the sympathies of believers, or too obviously at variance with the Creed, to need any formal or united testimony against it. It appealed to philosophic minds, and such minds could meet it with philosophic weapons. But Montanism was eminently a popular delusion. Its prominent features were but slight exaggerations of errors more or less tolerated, or even of truths or half-truths commonly received. It had been warmed into life in the very bosom of the Church. And as with Mon- tanism, so with the rationalistic errors that arose in the contro- versy with it. While Christians everywhere acknowl- edged one supreme and only God, and everywhere confessed in this Godhead the Names of three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; yet with regard to the great mystery of the Three in One there had been little controversy, and con- sequently little need of subtle definitions. Plausible misstate- S The Apostolic Councils mentioned in the Acts (i. vi. xv.) are a more than sufficient precedent for the Synods of later times, inasmuch as the Apos- tles, being individually inspired, had less need to confer with one another or with the Elders and Brethren. It may be observed of these Councils, that (i) there was particular business before each; (2) special prayer for divine guidance; (3) business proposed and so far as necessary discussed; (4) a decision pronounced, agreed to by all present and put forth in the name of all : see Acts i. 16, 24; vi. 5; xv. 22, 23. Venerable Bede supposes that the Assembly in Acts, xxi. 18, was also a Council; namely, a Council of the Jerusalem Church. i8o History of the Church. ^ • merits, therefore, of the doctrine of the Church, especially if found available in the war against Montanus, might easily obtain currency among a large number of believers. From an instinctive feeling of danger on this side, the Bishops fell back upon the Catholic unity of the Church, or, in fact, upon the First collegiate type of the ministerial office ; were more frequent than hitherto in conference and correspon- reguiar. (Jence ; and Synods, at first occasional, afterwards more regular, and at length once or twice a year, became in a short time the settled order of things. It is not improbable, however, that such Councils had been holden from time to time, long before they began to make a figure in Church his- tory.^ The primitive Church, as a general rule, took very little pains to record its own beginnings. In these early Councils the proceedings seem to have been of a very simple character. The Brethren came together ; ^ ^ namely. Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, in the presence Witness to of the People : and united their voices and subscrip- the Truth, . . . i -i • -i • tions in testimony to the Truth, or in condemnation of some error. Thus the Martyrs of Lyons, when in prison, formed a kind of concilium^ and as such bore their witness against the heresy of Montanus. So, in a letter of Serapion of Antioch, quoted by Eusebius, there are subscriptions of several Bishops: for example, ‘^I, Aurelius Cyrenius, a Witness; or, ^lius Publius Julius, Bishop of Debeltum, a colony of Thrace, as sure as God lives in Heaven.** In another early Synod, headed by Apollonius of Corinth, ^ it is mentioned that with the signatures many testimonies of the Scriptures were inserted : to show that their zeal was against the wicked sects, not against the persons of the sectarians.** ^ One of the earliest on record (after Apostolic times) is said to have been holden in Sicily, about A.d. 125, against one Heracleon, a follower of Valen- tinus, who taught that sin hi the baptized is no longer sin. See Mansi, Con- cilia, For others, see Routh’s Reliqu, Sacr, 7 Mansi, Concilia j tom. i. p. 681. The proceedings of the African Coun- cil, appended to S. Cyprian’s works, will give a clear idea of the way in which things were managed in those bodies. # Heresies how Met . — Councils. 1 8 i It is probable that the passion of legislation, the besetting sin of assemblies of this kind, was little felt before the middle or towards the end of the third century. The earliest Passion for canons are aimed chiefly at two extremes a proud ascetic spirit encroaching on the one side, and heathenish im- moralities and irregularities overflowing on the other. However this may be, the same cause that brought the Apostles and Brethren together in conference during the first century, was found equally operative with the Bishops councils and People of the second. The instinct of self-defence is a sufficient reason in both cases. S. Paul, contending against the rigid views of the Judaizers in Antioch, was strengthened for the battle by the united testimony of the Apostles, Elders, and Brethren in Jerusalem. ^ So, in later times, the Doctor or Disputer, whose painful duty it was to shut the mouths of heretics, had need to be corrected or confirmed, whichever it might be, by the deliberate judgment of the great body of his Brethren. But when, as sometimes happened. Councils themselves became parties in controversy, a remedy could be found only in waiting for the action of larger, more general, and synods more impartial Synods. Such was the case with the ag^ainsi Synods, long continued strife about the Asiatic Pascha. In this case, Italian and other Councils were opposed to Asiatic. The same difficulty was experienced in the baptismal contro- 2 See Apostolic Constitutions and Canons ; also, Canons of early African Synods, in Munter’s Primordia Eccl. Afric. 9 Acts, XV. It is pleasing to notice in the latest Synods of this period that the Apostolic precedent was still closely followed ; that Bishops, Presby- ters, Deacons, and People were all present. What share the People had in the proceedings is not easy to determine. Bishops, at that period, being in part chosen by the People, and being from the nature of their office in con- stant intercourse with them, were eminently representatives of what may be called the lay-sense of the Church. Few cases occurred, therefore, in which the sentiments of the Bishops and of the People materially differed. When- ever an opposition party existed, it found its main strength among the Clergy. See Pusey, Councils of the Churchy Oxf. 1857. i 82 History of the Church. % versy. But even in such cases, the habit of looking from individual, local, or sectional disputants to the great body of the Sobering Brethren, and of awaiting their decision, had undoubt- jnjiuence. ^ sobering and liberalizing effect ; so that differ- ences which in any other society would have led to grievous schisms, were in the case of Catholics kept in charitable suspen- sion, till finally the times were ripe for a settlement satifactory to all. In this way it happened, that the great Council of Nice had questions up before it which had been mooted for two centuries or more. Its decisions were the complement of the decisions of many preceding Synods. In short, that new aspect of Church life which marks the latter half of the second century, was a necessary and wholesome adaptation to altered circumstances. The Church, in New Tzmes, New her conflict with the great Serpent, had to be led into Strength. « x the wilderness, as it were. Amid new and searching trials, she was to become conscious of new strength. From lack of appreciation of this fact, the history of primi- tive Christianity has been much misunderstood. On the one hand, virtues have been attributed to this period with a rhetori- cal profusion unwarranted by facts. On the other hand, every change or imagined change has been regarded as a corruption. But, in sober truth, there is no portion of Church history which has not vices enough in it to shock a sensitive mind, or virtues enough, if looked for, to command its admiration. The real proof of an age is, how it meets its own trials, and accomplishes its own work. To judge aright, therefore, of the complex and ^ ^ often painful details of the period we are now approach- judgedby ing, not only the varied character of the conflict from its Trials. ... .. ^ . Within and from without, but the infinite importance of the interests at stake, and above all, the mingled earnestness and frivolity of an age equally profligate and enlightened, must be taken into the account and kept charitably in view. S. Irenceus and his Disciples. 183 CHAPTER IX. S. IREN^US AND HIS DISCIPLES. With the exception of two distinguished Africans, Minucius Felix the Apologist, and Tertullian the father of Latin theology, all the leading champions of the Faith, at the end of Leading the second century and the beginning of the third, were Greek in extraction, language, and intellectual habits. Of these, S. Irenseus was in the West the most prominent example. Brought up from early childhood under the eye of Poly- carp, Pothinus, Papias, and other disciples of S. John, he was thoroughly imbued with the spirit of that devout and irenaus^ thoughtful school. But he was an eager inquirer also into all the learning of his age.* So far as can be judged from the few fragments that remain of the Greek original, his style is not devoid of elegance and good taste. But the rich and expressive imagery of the Scriptures, and the fresh world of thought which had come in with Christianity, no longer admitted of strict adherence to classic models. To hold the new wine of the Gospel, new bottles must be made. The zest with which the early Fathers studied the sacred writings ; their profound and lively faith in the divine Spirit that breathed through them ; the loving ingenuity with which they made all parts alike profitable for instruction ; their luminous method of quoting ; and above all, the extraordinary aptness, abundance, and diversity of their citations, were creating a new literature quite different from the classic, and requiring to be judged by an entirely different rule. Irenseus was one of the most discreet * Tertull. Advers. Valent, 5. 184 History of the Church. of the first laborers in this field. His wonderful knowledge of the Scriptures, however, was a knowledge of the heart even more than of the head ; and his interpretations, if judged by modern canons, are liable to the charge of occasional extravagance. He had, in fact, the faults as well as merits of his school. Seeing Christ in everything, and delighting more in the applica- tion than in t^e critical interpretation of the Scriptures, Blemishes, . . 1 • -i . he was yet m some points a literalist to a dangerous extent. From Papias he inherited the Millenarian doctrine. Like Justin, he regarded the sons of God mentioned in Genesis* as angelic beings. He believed the story of the miraculous agreement and plenary inspiration of the authors of the Septua- gint version, as also the singular notion that the Hebrew Script- ures had perished before the days of Ezra, who was Bf'ctdiiiofts. miraculously enabled to reproduce them. Fancies of this kind he took at second hand, relying upon the authority of such men as Papias, or upon the credit of apocryphal produc- tions. ^ For his opinion that our Lord was forty years of age at the time of His crucifixion, he gives the authority of S. Poly- carp and other hearers of S. John ; which, as the ancient mind remembered numbers chiefly by symbolical association, was probably a mere slip of memory. With a few blemishes of this kind, all of them more or less traceable to private and apocry- phal traditions, the extant works of S. Irenaeus'^ are among the most valuable of the remains of the first three centuries. At what time he removed from Asia Minor to Lyons has not been definitely ascertained. It is only known that at the period irencBus of the Lyonnese persecution he was a distinguished Bishop. Presbyter of that Church ; and was intrusted by the martyrs then in prison with the letter which they wrote to Eleu- * Gen. vi. 2. 3 Such as the IVth Book of Esdras; for the sayings of Papias and other senior es apud Irenaum^ see Routh, Reliqti. Sacr. vol. i. ^ S. IrenjEi Episc. Lugdunensis et Martyr. Contra Hcereses^ etc. D. R. Massuet, Paris, MDCCX. ; Beaven’s Life and Times of S. Irenceus ; Tillemont, Memoir eSy etc., tom. iii. ; and the five Books against Heresies ^ edited by Har- vey, Cambr. 1857. S. h^e^iceus and his Disciples. 185 therus of Rome, for the promotion of peace among the Churches : in testimony, that is, against the formidable novelty of ^ ^ the heresy of Montanus. After the death of Ponthinus he became Bishop, and had a certain primacy over the Gallic Churches. 5 Of his labors and influence in that extensive field, little is told us beyond the fact that he sent missions to Besan- 9 on and Valence ; and became, in general, the teacher and enlightener of the Celtic nation. His cares, however, were not confined to his own province. Connected with Asia Minor by birth and education, and inter- ested in the affairs of the Roman Christians by his Troubles mission to the imperial city, he was deeply concerned for the growing troubles of Christendom at large, and for those of the Roman Church in particular. For the Metropolis at this period was not a little distracted by internal feuds. ^ ^ ^ ^ Blastus One Blastus, an Asiatic and a Presbyter, was forming a party in the Judaizing direction, and made a point of celebrating the Pascha on the fourteenth day of the month. Whether he ran into formal schism is not quite clear. So also one Florinus, a Roman Presbyter, alarmed at the bias that existed among speculative minds towards the heresy of two principles, maintained the doctrine of the divine monarchy in a way which seemed to make God the author of evil. Irenaeus argued and remonstrated with both of these. Both were Asiatics by birth ; and Florinus, in particular, he could appeal to by their joint remembrance of the saintly Polycarp. It shows the manifold temptations of the times, and the facility with which men glide from one heresy to another, that Florinus, when driven from his monarchian position, took refuge in the Valent inian theory ; finding the source of all evil in the body of man, or in the material world, and making it to have dropped, as it were, from the carelessness of one of the lower aeons. The pursuit of error into this new labyrinth was felt by Irenaeus to be a difficult and perilous undertaking. In propor- 5 Euseb. V. 23. i86 History of the Church. tion as charity required him to apply the knife or the caustic to the tumid errors that preyed upon the Church, the same charity Caution of demanded that it should be done with tenderness to irenceus. patient, and with a thorough understanding of the exact nature of the disease.^ In argument with heretics, every word must be weighed, every logical consequence diligently explored. Hence the solemn adjuration, with which his treatise on the Ogdoad concludes ; and for calling attention to which we have to thank Eusebius, as it lets us not into the mind merely, but into the very heart of a high-toned, charitable, and consci- HisAdjur- entious orthodoxy. ‘‘I adjure,*’ says he, ^‘the trans- ation. criber of this book by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by His glorious appearing when He comes to judge the quick and dead, that thou carefully compare and correct thy transcript by this very copy, and that thou transcribe this adjuration and set it in thy copy.” A book against heretics was intended to be a chart to save souls from shipwreck;^ it must be a work, there- fore, of the most scrupulous accuracy. Once engaged in the study and refutation of Gnostic heresies, Irenaeus had many reasons for perseverance in his task. One The Mar- Marcus, a disciple of Valentinus, had given a popular cosians. form to the aeon-system of his master, and was dissem- inating it widely among the cities of the Rhone. He was able, by some sort of legerdemain, to convert the wine of the Sacra- ment into blood. By this and similar arts, he attached to him- self a flock of silly women, wealthy and of high rank, whom he drugged or otherwise induced into an ecstatic state, similar to that witnessed among the Phrygian prophetesses. Religions of this kind, combining the popular spiritualism of the day with certain elements of the Gospel, were formidable rivals of Chris- tianity in the affections of the people. Those who embraced such systems were spiritual souls ” ; those who rejected them were ^‘psychical” or ‘‘carnal.” But as spiritual souls, from <5 S. Iren. lib. iii. c. 46 . 7 S. Iren. lib. iv. For an interesting collection of DircB et Adjurationes Libris Additce, see Fabricius, Bibliothec. Grcec. lib. v. cap. i. S. IrencBiis and his Disciples, 187 the Valentinian point of view, were incapable of evil or of con- tamination by evil ; and as Marcus among other things pretended to confer a miraculous gift of invisibility: the descent from high-wrought religious enthusiasm to the lowest sensuality was rendered particularly easy. Irenaeus saw, in the vile Their vue practices of these Marcosians, a legitimate develop- ment of Gnostic and Valentinian principles. To the study of these principles, therefore, and to their exposure and Paschai refutation, he devoted a large portion of his time for many years. The part he bore in the Paschal controversy was highly honorable, and worthy of a disciple of S. Polycarp. As already noticed in this chapter, there was a faction at Rome, of which one Blastus seems to have been chief in the times of Eleutherus, that availed themselves of the . A.D. 176. difference of custom between Rome and Asia Minor as a handle of sedition. It is probable that there were many Asiatic Christians in the imperial city. For some time, accord- ing to the charitable understanding which existed between Poly- carp and Anicetus, these seem to have been allowed to follow the custom of their own country, ending the fast before the Pascha on the fourteenth day of Nisan, instead of waiting for the ensuing Sunday. Such differences would be a matter of little moment, so long as there existed no other causes of dis- sension. But when a seditious spirit became almost a chronic evil, and especially when a Judaizing bias began to show itself, any peculiarity, however unimportant, could be converted into a rallying point for schism, or at least of disaffection. This began to be the case with the Easter controversy. The succes- sors of Anicetus could not let the question stand where he had left it. Soter seems to have found it necessary to insist r • 1 -n* . / - A.D. 168. upon conformity to the Roman practice, on the part of those Asiatics, at least, who were residents in Rome. The ques- tion, the meanwhile, was becoming more complicated. Becomes The Laodicean Christians, not content to break the . complex. fast at the same time with the Jews, had, it would seem, adopted the further custom of eating a paschal lamb on the i88 History of the Church. Victor and the Asiatics. occasion.^ It was under these circumstances that Victor, being provoked without doubt by the increase of the factious A.D. 196. . spirit before-mentioned, and appealing to a desire very generally entertained, initiated a movement towards uniformity^ of practice in all parts of the world. He wrote to the various Churches, and among others to those of Asia Minor. He was determined, he declared, that the Church should have nothing in common with the yews. The movement excited a warm interest in all quarters. Many Councils were held, and innumerable letters were written. Most of the Churches, especially those of Jerusalem, Caesarea, Corinth, Osrhoene, Pontus, Italy, and Gaul, decreed that the fast of the Holy Week was not to be broken till Sunday, the Day of the Resuri^ction. On the strength of this general consent, Victor wrote to the Asiatics in a more decided tone, threatening them with excommunication if they held out any longer. But the Quartodecimans, as they were called, headed by Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus, a gray-haired veteran of ‘^slender frame’' but mighty spirit, whose family had furnished eight prelates to the Church, unani- mously refused to depart from their tradition. Victor proceeded to carry out his threat. In this, however, his brother Bishops generally declined to go with him. On the contrary, they rebuked him with much severity ; and exhorted him to return to unity and love. Irenaeus, in particular, while he followed the common custom in preference to that in which he had been bred, was urgent in his remonstrances against Victor’s course ; and wrote IrencEus i t • • 1 1 1 Counsels to him and to many other distinguished prelates. From his protest on this occasion w'e learn that there still existed no little diversity, both as to the time and as to the man- ner of fasting ; some observing one day, some two, some more, 8 This, however, is hardly more than a plausible conjecture, founded on slight intimations in Euseb. iv. 26, and in the Chronicott Paschale, See Gieseler, § 53 (Smith’s ed.), n. 34-36. The question whether our Lord ate the paschal lamb on the fourteenth day, or by anticipation on the thirteenth, is amply discussed in Dr. Jarvis’s Introduction^ part ii. ch. vii. 189 S. IrenceMS and his Disciples. before the Easter Feast, and some again fasting forty hours con- secutively. This diversity in small matters, Irenaeus justly adds, made the unanimity of the Church in more essential things only the more conspicuous. ^ Irenaeus died, as some say a martyr, when the Church of Lyons was a second time devastated, in the persecution hu Death, under Severus about the beginning of the third century. The witness of Irenaeus on that most interesting subject, the spread of Christianity in his day, is extremely vague ; but we may gather from it, that not only among the Gauls, church but among the Germans on the West of the Rhine, the Growth, Gospel was successfully preached. His declaration that it was still attended with miraculous demonstrations is some- ^ what injured by his mentioning no particular example, and by his confining himself to the general statement that such things frequently occurred. He is careful to add, however, that the daemons when exorcised returned no more ; that many re- lieved from them became good Christians ; and that when such acts of mercy were performed, it was done simply by prayer, in the Name of Jesus, without any juggling ceremonial ; and in no case would any sort of gift or recompense be accepted. The seriousness with which he dwells on details of this kind is suffi- cient proof of his own convictions on the subject, but hardly enough to satisfy the demands of modern criticism.*® It is not improbable, however, that the ‘‘gifts’* lingered longer on the outskirts of Christianity in the missionary field, than in regions where the Church was fully established. The .light which Irenaeus shed upon the West during the latter part of the second century was transmitted to the first half of the third by two of his disciples : Caius, a learned Pres- Disdpiesof byter, and perhaps an Evangelist or Bishop at large, and Hippolytus, still more distinguished as the austere and philo- sophic prelate of Porto, near Rome. 9 For a judicious account of this and similar diversities, see Socrates, Eccles. Hist, v. 22; also Sozomen, vii. 19. This latter gives quite a list of peculiarities. *0 This point is more fully considered in Book III. ch. 8 . 190 History of the Church. Of the former, little remains to warrant the esteem in which he was held by the ancients. He wrote against Proculus, a Caius, Montanistic teacher, about the time of Zephyrinus, A.D.201-219. gjgj^Qp Qf Rome, and was an opponent of the Millen- arian doctrine, which he ascribes to the heretic Cerinthus.” Hippolytus/^ recently brought into prominent notice by the discovery of his Philosophoumena,’’ or ‘‘Refutation of all Hippoiytus. Heresies,’^ is almost the embodiment of an interesting A.D. 198-236. early Church history ; having been an earnest controversialist, the leader of an opposition party in Rome, and a rigorous censor of the laxity of his times. As Bishop of the Portus Romanus, one of the most important of the six Sees in the immediate neighborhood 0/ the city, he was a prominent and perhaps leading member of that band of suburban prelates called at a later period cardinales episcopi, which took the lead in the Roman Presbytery. At all events, he appears as a chief Hostility somewhat dreaded counsellor of the Bishops Zephyr- inus and Callistus. To both these he was hostile on theological and disciplinary grounds; accusing them of Patripassianism in doctrine, and of serious innovations in the conduct of Church affairs. . His testimony on this subject is highly interesting, as showing the difficulties that involved the leading Bishops in those times. On the one side beset by austere theorizers, rigid in their notions of discipline and keen in doctrinal disputation, and on the other having to maintain the Faith against plausible and subtle specu- lations of the most opposite descriptions, they were obliged to be somewhat slow and even vacillating in their judgment of the movements of the day. As a general rule, the Bishops of the great Sees, and more especially of Rome, were men of practical and administrative talent, rather than of learning and theological acumen. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that they were not always on good terms with their more scholarly advisers ; " Euseb. ii. 25 ; iii. 28-31. Hippolyti, Episc. et Mart. Refutat, Omn. Hceresiutn, lib. ix.; Bun- sen’s Hippolytus. to the Roman Bishops. Pastors and Doctors. S. Irenceus and his Disciples. 191 and that the tendency to philosophize on the one side, and per- haps to temporize on the other, should break out occasionally into mutual distrust. As to Hippolytus, he undoubtedly theorized as far as safety would permit. In his dread of the patripassian error, he taught a kind of subordination of the Son to the Father, which Hts gave a handle for the charge of Ditheism, or a doctrine Position ® ® 1-1 extreme. of two Gods. Xhe charitable construction, which enables us to acquit him of actual heresy in this direction, may be applied with equal force, perhaps, to the alleged opposite leaning of the party of Callistus."^ The same reasoning applies to his invectives on the relaxation of discipline in the Church. His own notions on the subject were austere and impracticable, suited only to a community of philosophers or monks. His denunciations, therefore, are valuable, as showing the com- plexity of the questions which the Clergy had to solve, and the bitterness of feeling that necessarily arose, rather than for any very clear light they shed upon the character or principles of the dominant influence in Rome. The peculiar severity of tone, which induces some to suspect him of a leaning towards the Montanists, or to rank him with the Novatians of the latter half of the century, he had His in common with the philosophic class to which he belonged. Like his master Irenaeus, he favored Chiliasm. Like most of the learned teachers of his times, he made Gnostic views a matter of particular attention, and traced all errors to one or other of the heathen philosophic schools. *3 His Veritatis Doctrina, however, a fine philosophic version of the Creed, addressed to Greeks, Egyptians, Chaldeans, and all mankind, is enough to vindicate his substantial orthodoxy. In it, the distinction between things generated and created is sharply drawn. So also the divinity of the Son. Refutat. Omn. Hceres. lib. x. 32, et ss. The doctrine of Callistus, as stated by Hippolytus, is undoubtedly heretical ; being the same substantially as that ascribed to Noetus. Besides which, the heretical sect of the Callistians seem to have got their name from him. 192 History of the Church. It is said that before his death he repented of the violence of his conduct, and exhorted his followers to strive for peace. He suffered martyrdom, probably in Rome, during the persecution of Maximin the Thracian. » .. CHAPTER X. THE ALEXANDRINE SCHOOL. In the constitution of the Episcopate of Alexandria there seems to have been some departure from the general practice of the Church, the exact nature of which, however, it is Efiscofate. - . ^ , not easy to determine. The amplest account of the peculiarity is given by Eutychius, a Patriarch of Alexandria in the tenth century. ‘‘S. Mark,^' it is said, ‘‘along with Ananias ordained twelve Presbyters, to remain with the Patriarch ; so that, when , the chair should become vacant, they mis^ht elect one According ^ ioEuty- out of the twelve^ on whose head the other eleven chius. should lay their hands, give him benediction, and con- stitute him Patriarch. This continued at Alexandria till the time of the Patriarch Alexander (a.d. 325) . . . who forbade the Presbyters in future to ordain their Patriarch, but decreed that on a vacancy of the See the neighboring Bishops should convene for the purpose of filling it with a proper Patriarch, whether elected from those Presbyters^ or frojii any others P Eutychius adds, that during the time of the first ten Patriarchs, there were no Bishops in the rest of Egyyt ; Demetrius, the eleventh, having been the first to consecrate them. S. Jerome gives substantially the same account ; except that According be makes no mention of ordination by the eleven, and tos.jerome. cliaiige of custom occurrcd in the times of Heraclas and Dionysius. * See Neale’s Holy East. Ch. Book I. J i. Epistol ad. Evangelufn. The Alexandrine School. 1 93 In the silence of contemporaries on the subject,^ and from the vagueness as well as lateness of the testimony given, oneEx- there is room for the conjecture that Egypt, instead of being divided among several local sees, was governed for awhile by a college of twelve chief pastors residing in Alexan- dria; the Bishop of that See being at their head. Nothing could be more natural than such an arrangement, at the first planting of the Church. In later times, however, as the Gospel extended into the Provinces, it would be found inconvenient, and each important city would desire a resident Bishop of its own. This is the most natural inference, if the language of Eutychius be taken to the letter. For the Presbyters mentioned by him were manifestly Presbyters who had power to ordain ; but Presbyters ^ with power to ordain are the same as Bishops, in the restricted sense of the word. As S. Jerome says, in con- nection with this subject, What does a Bishop do, except ordi- nation, which a Presbyter cannot do? This is said, on the supposition that the eleven both elected and ordained their Patriarch. But as that point is not certain, resting only on the testimony of a writer manifestly ^ inaccurate in language and living six centuries after Expiana^ tion, the period of which he speaks, the peculiarity of the Church of Alexandria may have been merely that of electing a Bishop out of a close corporation of twelve Presbyters, instead of chopsing from the Church at large, as was customary in other places. However that may be, the See of Alexandria was undoubtedly a chief centre of Church life, its influence extending by the end 3 It is fatal to the theory of any radical, or even marked, change in the Church government of Egypt, that the period in question is covered by the names of Origen, Meletius, and others, who belonged to an opposition pai'ty^ and who certainly would have made themselves heard, if the ruling party had been guilty of any innovations. 4 It is hardly necessary to remind the reader that the term Presbyter, like the term Priest, or Sacerdos, was often used as a name for the Ministry in general, and therefore might be applied to any order. 2 John, I ; 3 John, i ; I Peter, v. i. 9 194 History of the Church. of the third century over a hundred dioceses in Egypt, Penta- Demetrius poHs, and Libya. Till the time of Demetrius, however, little is known of its history beyond a list of names. He, it is said, was both a layman and a married man at the time of his election, and totally illiterate. But, addressing himself zealously to the duties of his office, he became by diligent study one of the most learned prelates of his time ; and it was during his episcopate that Alexandria, by the brilliant efforts of its philosophic teachers on the one hand, and by the sterling orthodoxy of its clergy on the other, took a decided lead in that work of intellectual progress for which, as we have seen, the period had begun to be distinguished. Considering the character and position of the city, it could hardly have been otherwise. To Greek and Hebrew alike, ^ Centre of Alexandria was the seat of philosophy and learning. Learning, congenial home of Gnostic and Platonic dreams ; the centre of a liberal and spiritual, though mystic, Judaism. Heathen myths and Scripture verities, by a process of allegorizing fanciful in some respects, but not without a tinc- ture of earnest religious feeling, had been blended, as it were, in a richly colored though bewildering and deceptive light. In the first century, Philo the learned Jew had flourished there. Towards the end of the second century, Ammonius Saccas, who Judaic had been a Christian and was more or less imbued with elements of Christian truth, opened a fresh vein of Wisdom, ti^ought in the new Platonic system.^ Plotinus and others followed in his steps. The school thus founded claimed 5 The Alexandrine Jews figure largely in that course of Providential preparation, so wonderfully ordered, by which the wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles was secretly undermined, and the way was opened for the spread of the Gospel. The translation of the Old Testament into Greek was one part of their work : the development of a liberal interpretation was another. In this latter point Philo Judseus, born about twenty years before the Christian era, was a valuable instrument. #His works are accessible to the English reader in Bohn’s Eccl. Library, ^ Ritter’s History of Ancient Philosophy ^ Book XIII. ; Euseb. vi. 19. The Alexandrine School. 195 to be a Religion as well as a Philosophy.^ It pretended to intuitions of truth, or immediate revelations. It admitted a place for Christ as among the greatest of teachers and theurgists. On the same principle it did not reject, but spiritualized and so labored to justify, the fables of the Greek polytheism. It even endeavored to find a reasonable and religious basis for the generally reprobated but much practised arts of magic and divin- ation. It was amid such influences that the Catechetical School,® founded by S. Mark and carried forward, it is said, by the labors of Athenagorus,^ attained its first celebrity under the Pantcenus, auspices of the famous “Sicilian bee,*^ the eclectic ^.d. 130. philosopher Pantsenus. Of him, however, little but his distin- guished reputation has descended to our times. A deputation from some part of India having come to Demetrius, desir- ing him to send thither a teacher of Christian truth. Mission to Pantaenus was deemed worthy of the mission, and departed to that country. Tliere he found some traces of the labors of S. Bartholomew the Apostle, with a Hebrew copy of the Gospel of S. Matthew. He afterwards returned to the School at Alexandria, in the conduct of which he was succeeded by his better known disciple, S. Clement. To realize the position of this latter, it is necessary to remem- ber that the Catechetical School was an institution intended rather for those without, than for those within the Catecheu Church. In its simplest form, S. Paul dwelling at Rome in his own hired house, receiving all who came, preaching the Kingdom of God, and speaking of things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ — or the same Apostle disputing daily at Ephesus in the school of one Tyrannus — presents, on the whole, 7 See chap. vi. of this Book. ^Guericke, De Schola, qucs olim Ale x andr , floruit , Catechetica, 9 Originally an Athenian philosopher. He wrote an Intercessioti for the Christians about a.d. 177, in which he defends them against the charges of atheism, cannibalism, and incest. Like most of the philosophic theologians, his notions on many subjects were harsh and impracticable. 196 History of the Church. a just conception of it. The same may be said of Justin Martyr, who, when he lived at Rome, was always to be found in his own quarters at the Baths of Timotheus, ready to give instruction. Ill the form it subsequently assumed, we see less of the Gospel preacher, more of the philosophic talker. A Christian man of science, whether of the Laity or Clergy, held himself in readiness to discourse upon all subjects connected with religion : to reiiiove Lay difficulties, to answer questions, to resolve doubts, to Teaching, heathen mind, in short, for an intelligent reception of the Gospel. While the School, therefore, dealt with high and sacred themes, it had all the range and freedom peculiar to lay-teaching. Its analogy, in modern times, is to be found in the relation of the press to the pulpit y or rather, it may be said, of the University to the Church. Clement, a convert from heathenism and a man of encyclo- paedic learning, who had travelled in all countries, studied in element schools, and profited by all systems — an eclectic 1S9-202. ^ the means of cariying on his stupendous intellectual labors. During the persecution under Maximin (a.d. 235), he had occasion to exhort this noble friend to martyrdom : a wife and children, and large property, being, as he urged, only a greater reason for courage and steadfastness in the faith. The Alexandrine School. 201 mother Macella. The baptism of fire that they received was imparted also to Herais, a female catechumen, another of Ori- gen's disciples. The number of young women of high charac- ter who appreciated the teachings of this great master/® and many of whom were employed as copyists of his works, is cred- itable to the state of Christian society at that period. Of Origen’s innumerable intellectual labors it is sufficient to say here that they were in the direction pointed out by his able predecessors. A disciple of Pantaenus and of Clement, . , * . Origens a willing hearer of Ammonius Saccas, and full of Gi/tand genius, industry, and hardy independence, he could not fail to exert a prodigious influence upon the young mind of his times. His fame was known in the palace, and he corre- sponded, it is said, with the Emperor Philip. Mammaea, the mother of Alexander Severus, received lessons in Christianity from his mouth. An Arabian prince paid him a special visit for the same purpose. He was an object of admiration, also, to the heathen philosophers. On one occasion, at Rome, when he chanced to enter a hall where Plotinus the celebrated Neo- Platonist was lecturing, the latter rose from his seat and declined proceeding before one who, as he declared, knew more than he could tell him."” But his most enduring fame, and, as Gregory Thaumaturgus^* says, his ‘‘greatest gift,*' was in the sphere of “ an interpreter of the word of God. He searched with indefatigable zeal for the mystical, the moral, and the historic sense of Scripture and in each of these depart- The lectures of Plotinus also, the famous Neo-Platonis' were attended by many female disciples. See Porphyr. Vita, Plotin. *9 Porphyry’s eulogy is quoted by Eusebius, vi. 19. Porphyr. Vit. Plotin. This, however, may have been another Origen, a heathen philosopher, who was also a disciple of Ammonius. Who composed an Oratio Panegyrica in Origenem, highly esteemed for its glowing eloquence. “ Practically only two senses ; for the mystic sense was considered un- attainable or only partially attainable to man, in the body : “ even the sim- plest believers know that there are (profound meanings under the letter of Scripture), but what they are men of modesty and good sense confess them- 9 * 202 History of the Church. merits was sometimes hurried by his ardor into dangerous ex- tremes. By carefully distinguishing, however, the three senses from one another, he did as much for the cause of grammatical interpretation as for the allegorizing method so popular among the ancients. Enough remains of his labors to justify to poster- The ity the esteem in which he was held. But his Hexa- Hexapia. ^ polyglott Bible in six columns, containing the original text in Hebrew and Greek characters, with the four Greek versions of the Seventy, of Aquila, of Symmachus, and of Theodotion, is, with the exception of a few fragments, unfor- tunately lost. Demetrius, the earnest and sober-minded Pastor of the Alexandrine Church, during whose episcopate this brilliant con- ^ ^ stellation of teachers appeared in the theological and heavens, must have watched its rise and culmination Demetrius. t i -i • i With no little interest, and, perhaps, not without a shade of serious misgiving. However that may be, he for a long time acted with a liberality seldom witnessed in such cir- cumstances among men of his character and position. Why he selves ignorant.’^ Origen cites particularly the story of Lot and his daughters, Abraham and his two wives, the two sisters that Jacob married, the arrange- ment of the tabernacle, etc., etc. ; in which he says, every one can see some type or figure, though he who imagines he has found the absolute and fixed meaning is apt to be mistaken. The three senses were in reference to the common notion of the threefoldness of man: the body (literal or historic sense) — the soul (moral sense) — the spirit (mystic sense). In some parts of SS. only one, in some two, and in some the three senses may be found. The most objectionable part of Origen’s interpretation was, that, in his eagerness to show the necessity of the allegorizing process, he made many difficulties in Scripture which do not exist. The cases in which the mystic interpretation is allowable, according to Origen, are : ( i ) the various details of the cere- monial laws; (2) all that is said about Jerusalem, Egypt, Babylon, Tyre, and other type-cities or type-names ; (3) when the letter of Scripture is seemingly trivial, self-contradictory, or (like the Song of Solomon) capable of perver- sion and misinterpretation. On the perspective character of the language of the Old Testament, see Lee, on Inspiration^ etc., Lect. iii. See also Peter Daniel Huet’s Origeniana. Gieseler, Ch. Hist. J 63, gives Origen full credit for his services to grammatical interpretation. So also Neander, Ch. Hist. \ v. The Alexandrine School. 203 at length departed from this course has been variously con- jectured. Some ascribe it to envy of Origen’s growing reputa- tion. Such motives are easy to impute, and to some minds easy to believe. They are difficult to prove, however, even with the advantage of personal or contemporaneous knowledge. Without entering, therefore, into questions of this kind, it is enough to notice the fact, that Origen’s latter days were clouded by a bitter contention with his Bishop, and with the Church of his native city. The quarrel began during a visit of Origen to Palestine, where, on the invitation of Alexander of Jerusalem, one of his disciples, and Theoctistus of Ccesarea, he preached in Beginning the churches of those prelates. Demetrius remon- quCI^i strated against this, and Origen was summoned home. About thirteen years after, being invited into Greece, to assist in the refutation of certain heresies which had there obtained a footing, he procured letters commendatory from Demetrius and repaired to that country. Thence, under the sanction of the same letters, he passed into Palestine, where, without consulta- tion or further communication with his Bishop, he was ordained to the priesthood. Demetrius objected to this as a violation of the canons. An angry correspondence followed. The Cate- chist was refractory ; the Bishop uncompromising. The former was defended by the clergy of Palestine. The latter, supported by two councils of the Alexandrine Church, issued a sentence of deposition and excommunication against Origen, on the ground of his false teachings and violations of Condemned, t • 1 • 1 1 1 A.D.23I, 232. the canons; an act m which the Roman Church con- curred, though Palestine, Arabia, Phenicia, and Achaia strenu- ously opposed it. Undeterred by this, Origen continued his stupendous labors in Caesarea, in Greece, in Arabia, where he Eusebius, in his extreme partiality for Origen and the Palestine Bishops, is manifestly harsh in his judgment of Demetrius. M^ny modern writers, though aware that such acts and opinions as those of Origen would have con- demned him in the eyes of any Christian body that ever existed, are equally severe upon the action of the Alexandrine Church. 204 History of the Church. confuted and converted the heretic Beryllus, and in other places, with great acceptance and great usefulness to his numer- ous admirers. Afterwards, under the episcopate of Dionysius, the sentence against him seems to have been remitted, or at least forgotten. He was finally a confessor in the Decian per- secution, and died shortly after in the city of Tyre. Apart from the personalities involved in this controversy, there is much meaning in the course pursued by the Church of Alexandria at so critical a period. On the surface, it Meaning of the ^ may have been a mere quarrel between two leading Churchmen. At bottom, it was one important phase of a conflict ever going on between the conservative instinct and the spirit of progress.®^ Origen was a Philosopher, Deme- trius a Pastor. The former was large-minded and theoretic, the latter was practical and perhaps narrow-minded. Both of these classes have their uses in the world, but it seldom happens that they thoroughly and cordially understand one another. In the times of Origen, especially, the philosopher’s cloak was still a novelty in the Church, and in the eyes of sober shepherds had much of the wolf-skin about it. Demetrius, doubtless, was open to misgivings on this score. So long, however, as Origen taught merely in the character of a religious and philosophic layman, the prudent Bishop might very properly refrain from Reason ^.ny hasty interference. In the same way, so long as for tL Origen did not seek to be admitted to the priesthood, there was no occasion for any public censure of the injudicious act by which he had become canonically disqualified for the office. But it was a different case when his conduct and" his teaching were to be authorized, as it were, by the seal of Holy See Huet’s Origenianay lib. i. iii. lo. *5 Book III. ch. 3. ^ Neander says, “ The outward cause of the controversy was the hier- archical jealousy of Demetrius ; but the real ground lay deeper, and outward circumstances only served to bring that hidden cause into public notice, which was the contrariety between Origen’s Gnostic tendency and the anti-Gnostic.’^ Hist, of Christian Dogmas. The Alexandrine School. 205 Orders. Then it became a matter of indispensable necessity to look more closely into the character of the influence he was so widely and powerfully exerting. Accordingly this was done. Many of his views were right- eously condemned. The Alexandrine School was Heresy arrested in a course/^ which, without some such check, ^^^^sted. might have made it a mere nest of heretical speculations. On the other hand, in the Churches of Palestine, where Origen was so warmly encouraged, the way was opened for habits of mind which led in the fourth century to , ^ Injluence Arian sympathies. His successors in the Catechetical in other Quarters, School were Heraclas and Dionysius, both in course of time Bishops of Alexandria ; and, towards the end of the century, Pierius and Theognostus. Theodorus, afterwards called Gregory the Wonder-worker, Bishop of Neocsesarea in Pontus ; his brother Athenodorus ; Pamphilus, a learned Pres- byter of Caesarea in Palestine, whose name was adopted by Eusebius, the Church historian ; Firmilianus, the distinguished and able Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia ; and Julius Afri- canus, one of the earliest of Christian chronographers, were among his disciples or intimate friends. The character of such *7 It has nothing to do with our judgment of Origen^s orthodoxy, but deservedly weighs much in our estimate of his Christian character, that he was singularly modest in the expression of his views. For this he is much praised by Huet and others. 28 As it was, Clement and Origen helped to give a spiritualistic tone to Alexandrine Theology. This was shown (i) in freedom of speculation (against, or beyond Scripture) on such subjects as an endless series of worlds, final salvation or at least salvability of the damned, ethereal character of the risen body, etc., etc. ; (2) in the emphasis laid on the doctrine of the Logos, and in dangerous theories in relation to that doctrine; (3) in placing all virtue and perfection in gnosis, a sort of dispassionate contemplation ; (4) in affirming intellectual sins to be worse than moral, etc. The Chiliast, and other sensuous heresies, founded on a too close following of the letter of the Scriptures, were little favored in Alexandria. See Neander, History of Church Dogmas, and Gieseler, Church History, \ 63. As Origen’s mind was many-sided, his writings also contributed to the rationalistic bias which after- wards showed itself in Palestine and Syria. 2 o 6 History of the Church. men is an argument in favor of the essential soundness of their teacher. It is a better argument, however, for the general soundness and conservative and restraining influence of the common-sense of the Church. Origen, in fact, both in his faults and in his merits, was considerably in advance of the In advance times in wliich he lived. Opposition to his teachings of the Age. precipitated somewhat by his imprudences of con- duct. Yet it hardly began fairly till the end of the third century, when Methodius, Bishop of Tyre, an eloquent but not very judicious writer, opened a controversy that has continued at intervals to be revived with more or less bitterness, down to the present day. =9 He was a martyr in the Dioclesian persecution, A.D. 31 1 . His princi- pal work is a eulogium on Virginity, in dialogue form, entitled “ Banquet of Ten Virgins,’^ some fragments of which remain in Epiphanius and Photius. Eusebius (possibly out of partiality for Origen) makes no mention of him. BOOK III DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCHES AND FIRST TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY. A.D. 200-324. Sook III. CHAPTER I. NORTH AFRICAN CHURCH. The African Church, a name not including Egypt, Cyrene, or any of the dependencies of the See of Alexandria, had in the course of the second century extended the influence North of the Gospel over two of the three great provinces of ’Africa, Northern Africa.* Its territorial limits embraced ultimately Africa Proconsularis, Numidia, and Mauritania. In these were some three thousand towns and villages, with a mixed popula- tion of Romans, Greeks, Jews, and Africans both of Punic and indigenous race. It was a vast and fertile region, rich in commercial and agricultural resources, stocked with innumerable slaves,® and haunted at the commencement of the Christian era by Character a prolific brood of abominable superstitions. In this of the respect it was, even more than Rome or Alexandria, a sink of the whole world. ^ Each race which had settled in the ' Munteri, Primordia Eccles. African, See also Schelstrate, Eccles, Afric.; and Morcelli, Africa Christiana, * Apuleius mentions that there were four hundred slaves on a portion of his wife’s property. Apuleii, Apolog. p. 333. Elmenh. 3 In Afris pene omnibus, nescio quid non malum , . . inhumani , , . ebriosi , , , fallacissimi , , , fraudulentissimi , , , cupidissimi , , , per- fidissimi , , , quis nescit, Africam totam obscoenis libidinum taedis semper 210 History of the Ch%rch. country had brought in with it its own peculiar rites ; and each imported rite the prurient imagination of Africa had invested with new horrors. Human victims were sacrificed to Baal, under the Roman name of Saturn. Maidens were devoted, Superstu amid lewd songs and games and lascivious rites, to the tions. Vesta Meretricum^ the Syrian Astarte. Magical rites, divination, necromancy, fetish-worship, had of course grown apace in so rank a soil. Nor were the morals of the people better than their religion. Cruelty, treachery, and lust were national characteristics. A fanatical self-devotion, blood-thirsty, gloomy, insatiable in its greed for horrors, swayed the soul alter- nately with a frivolity hardly more human. So that, notwith- standing the strong bridle of Roman law, and the so-called civilizing influences of baths, theatres, and temples, the Cross, it is likely, was never set up on more unpromising ground. Who the first Evangelists were, and whence they came, is a question involved in no little obscurity. There is a confused ^ tradition of Pentecostal voices, sounding their glad Evan- tidings along the coast, or even in the interior ; and gelizedt a vague rumor connects this early preaching with the names of Simon of Cyrene, Simon Zelotes, or, as some would have it, Simon Peter himself. Such traditions in themselves are of little value. It is not improbable, however, that some straggling rays of the great Pentecostal light had visited the Jews in this, as in all other parts of the Roman world ; and a few believers, gathered as in other places from among them or their proselytes, may have formed a connecting link between Africa and the matrix retigionis, the Mother Church at Jerusa- lem. However this may be, the African Church could lay no claim Church to a strictly Apostolic origin. The Carthaginian fleet lished, that sailed annually to Rome with a supply of corn, returned some time about the beginning of the second century arsisse ? non ut terram ac sedem hominum, sed ut ^tnam putes impudicarum fuisse flammarum, etc., etc. Salvian. De Provident, lib. vii. For much more to the same effect, see that very satisfactory book, Morcelli, Afric, Christian. 2II Nort/z African Church. with a more precious freight ; and Roman missionaries estab- lished an Episcopal See at Carthage. As the African Church was thus among the latest to begin its course, Carthage being almost the only important See to which the phrase sine charta et atramento^ could not be ap- us special plied: so its career was in many respects the most interest, rapid and most brilliant. It gave to the world a Tertullian, a Cyprian, and an Augustine, the three principal teachers of West- ern Christianity; and among minor writers, Minucius Felix, Arnobius, and Lactantius. A still greater interest attaches to its history from the fact that the ante-Nicene period covers both its rise and the commencement of its decline. For though it afterwards continued to exist, and to exert a certain influence till the time of the Mohammedan invasion, yet its latter years, oppressed by a foreign yoke and embittered by barbarous dis- sensions, exhibited little more than the melancholy symptoms of a slow but inevitable decay. This Church, then, as being not a planting merely, but as it were a ripened fruit of the first age of Christianity, seems to merit a larger space in this section of our history than can be accorded to others, whose importance, though eventually much greater, was of somewhat later date. Of its growth during the second century little is positively known. About the end of that period it comes suddenly into light : strong in faith, as witnessed by the martyrdom It , ^ . • t n • . Growth, of the Scillitans in the Severian persecution; strong in numbers and organization, for at a council holden in Car- thage, under Agrippinus, the Primate of North Africa, 1 . A.D. 215. as many as seventy Bishops were present, representing the two Provinces of Africa Proconsularis and Numidia. It 4 The phrase is applied by S. Irenseus to barbarous nations, which had to receive the Truth orally, before they could be taught to read the Scriptures. Carthage received the Truth and the Scriptures simultaneously; which may account for the disposition among the Africans to use Scripture and tradition as synonymous terms. It also explains why, when looking for customs or traditions not contained in Scripture, they turned to Rome, as auctoritas prcesto — a witness close at hand. 212 History of the Churchy was in this Council that all baptisms administered by heretics were declared invalid. A little later the same stand A.D. 230. was taken by many Churches in the East, especially in the great Council of Iconium. The Scillitan martyrs were among the first who suffered for the Faith in North Africa. To the simplicity of their religion, which they pleaded and labored to commend to the Scillitan ^ ^ Martyrs^ Proconsul Satuminus, he opposed what he regarded as 202 * , a still more simple creed. ^ Swear, says he, ‘^by the genius of the Emperor.’* He seems to have been somewhat anxious to save them, if he could, from the extreme penalty of the law ; and offered them for this purpose a respite of thirty days. The Scillitans, however, knew no path but the straight one. Honor,” they said, they were always ready to give to the Emperor: but honor with prayer belonged to God only.” They were sent back to prison to reconsider their resolve. But firm against the threats and deaf to the suggestions of the good- natured magistrate, twelve persons in all, nine men and three women, were beheaded ; giving thanks to God for His grace in allowing them to be enrolled in the glorious army of His mar- tyrs. The kind of punishment inflicted in this case is an indi- cation that the Scillitan witnesses, and perhaps the majority of believers in that region, belonged to the Latin part of the North African population. The persecution of the Christians, though commenced under a certain show of law, soon fell into the hands of an excited Heathen populace, and was marked by all the usual features of Cruelties, di^bolical cruelty and malice. The Christians were accused of incredible abominations. Their assemblies were represented to be the scenes of such orgies as heathenism un- happily had made familiar to men’s minds, though in a purer state of society they could hardly have been imagined. The punishments were in keeping with the imputed crimes. By a refinement of barbarism, not unknown elsewhere, but which ^ Acta Proconsularia Martyrum Scillitanorum ; Baronius, Annul, ann. ccii. ; given also in Munteri, Primordia. North African Church. 2 1 3 seems to have originated in Africa, Christian virgins, whom the cry ad leones could not daunt, were condemned to the vile service of the infamous lenones,^ Such outrages were naturally regarded as signs of Antichrist. It is not to be wondered at signs 0/ that they engendered in some minds a gloomy, or at all events visionary, temper, alien to the spirit of sober and true religion. Many circumstances conspired to foster such a spirit, both among the Christians and among their idolatrous and savage persecutors. The first blood shed had been followed Enthu^ by floods, tempests, meteors, subterranean thunders, ^lasm. and an extraordinary eclipse of the sun. By portents of this kind a fanatical temper was excited among the heathen, who attributed all calamities to the anger of their gods insulted by the Christians. On the other hand, the common Christian hope of the coming of the Lord was more vivid in times of peril, and sometimes degenerated into a morbid superstition. In a healthy state of mind, believers always prayed for the safety of Prayerpro the Empire, and pro mora finis : for a longer continu- ance, that is, of the world's season of repentance. It was a symptom of a dangerous enthusiasm, when to some, in their confident and exultant expectation of the end, this charitable prayer became unmeaning or distasteful. ^ From causes of this kind the enthusiasm of Montanus, already rife in many portions of the West, and naturally suited to the sensuous temper of the African and Africo-Roman Sensuous mind, found in Carthage and its dependencies a soil peculiarly fitted for its reception. This may be seen to some ® Tertullian mentions such a case in the last chapter of his ApoiogeL Cyprian alludes to it as a custom : “ Virgines, venientis Antichristi minas, et corruptelas, et lupinaria, non timentes.” De Mortal. In the later persecu- tions such cases became quite common. 7 Montanistic Tertullian, finds fault with some, because protractum quenciam scectilo postulant^ cum regnum. Dei, quod ut adveniat oramus, ad consummationem soeculi tendat.” De Oral. 5. See also that fearful outburst s© often cited against the early Church [De Speciactilis, c. 30), “ Quale spec- taculum,” etc. 214 History of the Church. Perfetua. Trials, extent, even in that noble sample of the records of martyrdom, the Passion of S. Felicitas and S. Perpetua. Perpetua, a young matron of high social advantages, about twenty years of age at the time when she was called to suffer for the testimony of Christ, had an infant at her breast. She was obliged to withstand, moreover, the passionate threats and entreaties of a doting father. She pointed the latter, with a somewhat provoking calmness, to a pitcher in the cell. Father, she asked, what do you call that vessel? A pitcher,’^ he replied. But can you say that it is not a pitcher ? ’ ’ ‘ ^ Of course, ' ' said he, ^ ‘ I can not. * * ‘ ‘ Then it is equally impossible for me to say that I am not a Christian.^* The old man left her in a fit of impotent rage and frenzy. At another time, when he came in ‘‘to cast her down,” and in tears addressed her “not as daughter but as lady,” she was deeply Grief of grieved because of his gray hairs, and “ because he was her Father. one of her family that did not rejoice at her affliction;” and she comforted him, saying: “Nothing can happen at the tribunal, but what God wills ; for know that we are not in our own power, but in the hand of God.” He with- drew from her, however, overwhelmed with sorrow. A few days after the first interview, the prisoners were bap- tized. On that occasion Perpetua was inspired to ask nothing Baptism of God but the grace of bodily endurance. Still, the tnjati. gloom and stifling heat of the jail were almost insup- portable ; and she was pining with anxiety for her half-famished babe. The Deacons managed to get them a few hours of recre- ation out of doors. The infant was allowed to stay in prison with its mother. When she was relieved of this subject of anxiety, “the prison immediately became to her a Pretorian palace ; so that she would rather have been there than in any other place.” Felicitas, a slave, was great with child. As the law forbade one in this condition to be put to death, she was dread- fully afraid that she might not be allowed to share th^ martyrdom of her companions. But she was delivered in prison Felicitas, 215 North African Church. before her time, and was thenceforth full of joy. As she had exhibited anything but fortitude when taken with the pains of travail, one of the jailors said to her: ^‘If you make such an ado now, what will become of you, I pray, when thrown to the wild beasts? She answered : It is I who suffer now ; at that time Another shall be in me, who will suffer for me, as I for Him.’^ Some good-hearted Christian woman adopted the little innocent thus brought into the world. The captives found favor with their jailors, and were visited by crowds of sympathizing friends. Blessed Deacons ministered to their wants. Doctors deemed it an honor to fall Dreams down at their feet. They were cheered, moreover, by Visions, ecstasies and visions. The celestial ladder, with a great dragon at its foot, and bristling on either side with swords and knives and hooks, led Perpetua to a garden, wherein sat the good Shepherd milking his ewes. Myriads robed in white were stand- ing in shining robes about Him. ^‘Welcome, child,*’ was His address to Perpetua, as He gave her a bit of cheese.® She re- ceived the gift with joined hands ; the bystanders responded with a loud ^^Amen ; ” by all which she understood that the end was rapidly approaching, and cheerfully put aside all thoughts of the present life. In another dream. Dinocrates, her young brother, who had perished of a cancer at the age of nine years, was de- livered by her prayers^ from the place of torment where she saw him. ® This seems to indicate a sympathy with some of the Montanist notions. See Gieseler, \ 59, note 9. The peculiarity of the Artotyrites, who attached a mystic meaning to bread and cheese, may have existed before a sect was formed on those peculiarities. 9 On the efficacy of prayers for the dead, there were not precise notions, even among the more learned Christians. Among ordinary believers, it is likely, there were very loose views. The only prayers of the kind ordinarily sanctioned, however, were pro dormitione ; e. g., “ A wife,” according to Tertullian, should “ pray for the soul of her deceased husband, that the twain may be reunited at the first resurrection (the millennium), and that in the meantime he may have refrigeriunV ' — a quiet and refreshing rest: ad Uxor, See Abp. Usher, Ans. to Chall. of a fesuit, c. 7. 2I6 History of the Church. In other visions the disorders of the times were unsparingly rebuked. The loquacity of the Africans, gathering noisily ^ ^ ^ around their Bishop, was compared to the wrangling of a crowd of heathen just coming out of the circus. The day before the execution, the prisoners were allowed a free banquet ; an indulgence usually granted to persons condemned to death. They availed themselves of the opportunity, to cele- brate the Agape or feast of love. The crowd, who gathered around from motives of curiosity, were commanded to take good note of the features of the victims, that they might be sure to recognize them at the Day of Judgment. Some were exasperated at these appeals. Upon others the evident sincerity of the confessors was not without effect. When the final conflict came, the better feelings of the crowd so far prevailed as to spare the martyrs the profanation Final of appearing in the robes of Ceres and of Saturn, Conflict, ^vhich it had been intended they should wear. ‘^To preserve our liberty,*^ said Perpetua, ‘‘we freely give our lives. See ye to it that the bargain be not broken.^* The populace admitted the justice of the appeal. In a less commendable spirit, some of the male confessors addressed the spectators, and especially Hilarian, the Proconsul, with threatening looks and gestures ; for which they were ordered to be scourged. But it added to their joy, that their sufferings were thus made to conform more nearly to the Passion of the Lord. Finally, each Answer to Underwent the death he had had the grace to pray for. Prayer, Satuminus, according to a desire he had more than once expressed, was exposed to the fury of all the wild beasts. Satu- rus had a particular horror of a bear, and the bear to which he was thrown refused to come near him. He was at last attacked by a leopard ; and as the blood gushed out, the populace shouted in derision of the Christian belief in the efficacy of martyrdom, Saivum Salvum lotum^ salvum lotum : he who was thus baptized j.otuvt. being regarded as sure of his own salvation. The women, in consequence perhaps of the popular exasperation which the men had somewhat needlessly provoked, were di- North African Church. 217 vested of all their clothing, and hung up in nets to be tossed by wild cows. But at the sight of them in this condition, the crowd once more relented. They were allowed to clothe them- selves. Perpetua, surviving the first attack of the infuriated an- imal, was conscious enough to draw her robe over the parts of her person exposed, and to bind up her hair ; but seemed other- wise as one just awaking from a dream. When told what she had suffered, she said to her brother and to a certain catechumen : ‘‘Stand fast in the faith, love one another, and be not offended at what we endure.’* With the others who had survived the fury of the beasts, she was finally despatched with the sword. The rest received the fatal stroke in silence. Perpetua was woman enough to shriek as the weapon pierced her side ; but. Death of immediately recovering, guided the hand of the trem- bling gladiator to a more mortal spot. Perhaps, adds the no- tary, the unclean spirit was afraid of her ; and, without her own consent, so noble a lady could not have been put to death. The beautiful narrative"® from which these incidents are gleaned, was written in part by Perpetua herself; the preface and conclusion being added by a coarser hand. Some Montanht touches in it betray, as has been said, a Montanistic bias. That the writer of the preface sympathized with the new Prophets, there can be no question. “ The Spirit,” he observes, “was not poured forth upon early times only. The older the world is, the more novel and the more startling the demonstra- tions of His power. And in the latest times of all, the more manifestly must appear the truth of the prediction that the young men shall see visions and the old shall dream Fondness dreams.” That these “latest times of all” were act- ually appearing, was a common and natural feeling amid the horrors of persecution. Hence an eagerness for martyrdom, passing the bounds of sobriety. Hence a fondness for ecsta- sies and visions, and an austerity of temper which sometimes Passio SS. Perpetuce et Felicitatis atque Sociorum ; given in Miinter’s Primordia Etc. Af. * 10 2i8 History of the Church. clouded, without obscuring altogether, the simplicity and reality of the martyr’s faith. ^ It was probably about this time that Tertullian,” himself an epitome of the African religious mind, conceiving a great dis- Tertuiiian, g^st at the laxity and worldliness which he had wit- nessed among the Roman and other Christians, boldly Ob' ^*7- took the part of the spirituals,” as they called them- selves, against the easier and more indulgent views of the ‘‘car- nal ” Catholics. There was a question, for example, as to the propriety of virgins being §^en unveiled. The majority of the Church were Question Content to let “custom” decide in matters of this of Veils. stricter party were disposed to condemn the custom as scandalous and indecent, a sin against nature and the law of God. For awhile, the question was agitated without any serious breach of peace. At length, however, the contest day by day becoming more bitter, the unveiled virgins, or “virgins of men,” as they were called, began to be “offended” at “the virgins of God,” and the^ latter, perhaps, were scandalized in turn ; so that things were tending fast to an open rupture.” Or, to take another instance, a Christian soldier had on a certain holiday declined to wear the chaplet, usually worn on Question of such occasions in honor of the Emperor. The Spir- the Crown, approved. The more compliant Catholics re- garded the man as scrupulous to excess, and even blamed him for exposing his brethren to needless persecution. Tertullian threw himself eagerly into these and similar quarrels of the day. A Roman by blood, a lawyer by education, but African and ** Qu. Septimius Florens Tertullianus; on this subject, see Kaye’s Ter- tullian; Neander’s Antignosticus ; and Tertullian. Op.y etc. Nic. Rigalt. 1689. Tertull. De Veland. Virgin. 2, 3. De Corona; in which tract Tertullian advocates unwritten tradition almost as heartily as in the tract De Veland. VirginiduSj he inveighs against it. In the one case custom was on his side, in the other not. See Hagenbach, Hist, of Doc, 2 34 (Buch’s tr.). North African Church. 219 atrabillious in his temper ; full of genius, moreover, intensely sensuous and realistic, more eager than reverential in his pas- sionate devotion to the Truth, yet deeply, and at times ten- derly, solicitous for the souls of men : he had seen much in Rome and Carthage to put him out of temper with the Christi- anity of the day, and to make him look habitually on the dark side of things. To idealize the past into a sort of Past and golden age, needs only a vivid imagination, or a feeble Present, sense of facts. To see good in the present is a much harder task. It requires a supernatural gift of charity and patience. But in this virtue of patience, Tertullian, as he more than once acknowledged, was particularly deficient. It must be confessed, however, that by the end of the second century there were already facts in Christianity which good and earnest men found difficult to digest. The old landmarks betwixt the Church and the world were undergoing a gradual but visible removal. The believer and the infidel had, in the innocent customs of society*^— Decline of in dress, in fashion, in amusements, in social freedom — Cfiscipime. an amount of common ground which was every day enlarging, and which, by a convenient distinction between precepts of obligation and counsels of perfection, might admit of such an extension as to make Christian and heathen ethics substantially the same. In morals, as in doctrine, the Apostolic ship was much covered by the waves ; the Apostolic net had many rents in it. This decline was rebuked, but not remedied, by the followers of Montanus. These and other ascetics, partj^ by appropriating the term spiritual to themselves, and the term psychical or carnal to the mass of their Christian brethren, had caused both to be regarded as mere party words. And when religious phrases come thus to be perverted into shib- ^4 At this period converts were made in great numbers among the wealthy- middle class. In Alexandria, especially, Clement {Pcedagogus) found it nec- essary to inveigh against dresses, jewels, trinkets of every sort, rare birds, monkeys, lap-dogs, and other luxuries that defrauded orphans and widows of their just support. 220 History of the Church. boleths of party, their authority over the conscience is in a great measure lost. ‘ Tertullian, however, was too earnest a man to join in the ridicule which the inflated pretensions of the Spirituals had drawn upon them. He saw in them the advocates of spirituals and a return to stricter ways. Their lives comparad favor- ably with the somewhat frivolous behavior tolerated among Catholics. They seemed to be reformers. And their wonderful success — for the influence of Montanism had spread with a rapidity that seemed to rival the first effusion of Pente- costal light — gave plausibility to the claim of a special demon- stration of spiritual power. Under these circumstances, persuaded by Proculus, a Mon- tanistic leader, and influenced by the favor shown in Rome Tertui Praxeas the Patripassian, Tertullian undertook, as iMsparty^ he expresses it, the defence of the Paraclete^ and so became separated from the Psychics^ or Catholics. But it was not in his nature to be a mere follower in a sect. The heartiness and boldness which estranged him from one party, made him in time a separatist from the other. He and his co- religionists in North Africa, became, in fact, Tertullianists rather than Montanists. The congregation lingered, though gradually diminishing in numbers, till the times of S. Augustine when, at last, ‘Hhe few who remained came back into the Church, and transferred their Basilica to the care of the Catholics.^* How Tertullian and his party were regarded by the ortho- dox of Carthage is not quite clear. He was condemned in J//S Rome ; he was anathematized, perhaps, by one of the Position. Carthaginian Councils."^ Still, a kindly feeling seems to have subsisted between him and the great body of the Church. His followers also experienced some indulgence. Fasting strictly *5 S. Augustin. Ad QiiodvuUdetim. Hceres. 86. A sentence in his tract, De Ptidicit . — “ ecclesia quidem delicta donabit, sed ecclesia spiritus per spiritalem hominem, non ecclesia numerus episco- porum ” — is generally supposed to have been aimed at some Council that had condemned him. 221 North African Church. and frequently, abhorring second marriages, insisting more than others upon clerical celibacy, shunning the fashions and amuse- ments, and so far as possible the business of the world, lookirfg with scornful pity upon the compliances and evasions of a carnal Catholicism, and fortifying themselves in all this by dreams, ecstasies, and visions, with a lively hope of the speedy manifes- tation of the heavenly Jerusalem, they had too strong a hold upon the sympathies of believers to be easily or suddenly sepa- rated from them. In the course of time, however, they became more sour ; and it was from the bitter root of Phrygian enthu- siasm that sprang some of the wildest errors of North African religion. But in the meanwhile, Tertullian had gained a place in the affections of all parties, from which no anathema has been able to dislodge him. Fuit in ecclesia magna tentatio, says Vincent of Lerins : his position in the Church was indeed a great trial. By his plastic genius, and ready and rough vigor, he almost created the religious language of the West. He was a mighty champion for the Faith, against the subtle rationalism of Praxeas whom he forced to retract his errors, and against the Gnostic views of Marcion, Hermogenes, Apelles, and other disturbers of the times. He is the exponent of that mighty struggle against sin, that deep and earnest sense of the necessity of grace, that intense realism and individualism in matters of religion, which has remained characteristic of the Western mind. His unquestionable services to ^afnesti the cause of orthodoxy, and still more to the cause of religious earnestness,"^ ^ere no doubt appreciated by the ^7Tertullian’s mind was thoroughly anti-gnostic, and his bias diametri- cally opposite to that of the Alexandrine doctors. His conceptions were sensuous in the extreme. Thus among his paradoxes he maintained that God is corporeal — being unable to conceive that anything without body could exist (which, however, was probably nothing more than a rough way of asserting the personality of God); that Christ (when He appeared to the Patriarchs) and the Angels were clothed in Jlesh ; that souls are propagated with the body ex traduce, and are themselves corporeal ; that wicked souls become demons after death, etc. From the same turn of mind he conceived of the grace of bap- 222 History of the Church. mass of his countrymen ; and atoned in their eyes, as they have atoned in the eyes of posterity, for a multitude of philosophic and theologic errors. But it happened with this great master, as with the equally great Origen in the East, that the Church spirit of his times The Church Stronger than the influence of any individual ^tha'ifihe spirit. The disciples of Tertullian, and especially Schools. Cyprian and S. Augustine, appreciated his merits without following him in his errors."® He exerted an influence upon the doctrinal development of his day, but he did not control it. With the death of Severus, the persecution in Africa, as elsewhere, ceased. An interval of forty years of peace, occa- A Season of interrupted by temporary outbreaks, allowed Peace, the good Seed and the bad to grow up together. The Church extended itself into the remoter Province of Mauritania. Councils were held, some of them attended by as many as ninety Bishops ; in one of which Privatus, probably a Bishop, was condemned for some heresy unknown. For the rest. Gnostic or Montanistic sects, unmolested so far as we can learn by a succession of indulgent and not very able Bishops, contended for the right of women to teach ; Sccis m or endeavored to make sense of the incoherent utter- ances of the ecstatic prophetesses ; or, in the picturesque lan- guage of the times, killed the fish of Christ by forbidding them tism as lodged in the water ^ to which he ascribed a sort of magical operation — the water being, as it were, transubstantiated. Expressions of this kind scat- tered over his works are capable of a charitable and orthodox interpretation ; but they show, none the less, the peculiarity of his mind. (It would be easy to show that the same bias has pervaded and still pervades the Western mind generally.) His practical turn is seen in a mere enumeration of his writings — about showSf idolatry, marriage, prayer, baptism, fe^nale apparel, veils, crowns, fasts, etc., etc. In treating all such matters, he took the austere side, but was as sensuous agahist abuses as others were for them. See Neander’s Antignosticus. For Tertullian’s paradoxes, see Essay of Pamel. prefixed to his Works. They partook not a little, however, of his peculiar bias. 223 North African Church. the water ; or used water instead of wine in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper ; or cultivated peculiarities of posture and of gesture ; or railed, as occasion served, against Bishops and other rulers.*^ On the whole, there seems to have been much of mutual forbearance. The Canons passed in Councils spirit of were directed mainly against the encroachments of a ^^rid. worldly spirit. That Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, were not to engage in secular affairs ; that the sons of clergymen were not to marry among infidels or heretics ; that no one should be ordained till he had made Catholic Christians of his _ ^ Drift of own household; that virgins, deprived of their nat- Church Laws, ural guardians, should be committed to the care of grave elderly females; these, and similar laws, show the drift of the legislation and of the temptations of the times. Of other matters, beyond occasional names, added probably through popular violence to the roll of Martyrs, so little record remains, that until the reign of the Emperor Decius and the troubled episcopate of S. Cyprian, the thread of African Church history becomes almost invisible. *9 Of the Aquarians i Quiniillians, Artotyriies, and other absurd sects, little beyond the name is known. It is probable enough, however, that as the Montanists and Gnostics became more and more divided, they departed fur- ther from the customs of the Church ; so that the decree of the council under Agrippinus, requiring converts from them to be baptized, was a necessary pre- caution ; the rite being either neglected, or improperly performed. 224 History of the Church. CHAPTER II. CARTHAGE AND S. CYPRIAN. When Cyprian,* a convert from heathenism, and a man of Cyfrian education, and high social standing, rose by Bishop, rapid steps from the grade of a catechumen to that of the Episcopate of Carthage and the Primacy* of North Africa, he found the Church, from causes already alluded to, in a state of considerable disorder. A factious spirit extensively prevailed, and scandals were rife among Laity and Clergy. The Virgins and Confessors — re- state of garded more and more as the flower of Christianity, the Church, treated for that reason with a perilous indulgence — were not a little crazed by the flattery, which even the Bish- ops, when they ventured to reprove them, could not prudently withhold. * At his baptism he adopted the name Cjecilius in gratitude to an aged Presbyter of that name, who had been instrumental in his conversion ; so that his full name reads Thasciiis Ccecilius Cyprianus. His life, or rather, his eulogy, was written by Pontius, his deacon ; but his public acts are to be found in a more authentic form in his own spirited writings. See Poole, Life and Times of S. Cyprian ; S. Caecil. Cyprian. Op, Omn, a Joanne Fello — acce- dunt Annales Cyprianici a Joanne Pearson, et Dissertationes Cyprianic, Henric. Dodwell. Amstelodam. 1700. Cypriani, Op, Genuinay Goldh. Lips. 1838. 2 In the days of Agrippinus ( a . d . 215), there seems to have been but one primate in North Africa. By the middle of the century there were three. Car. thage, however, still holding the first place. The primacies of Numidia and Mauritania were attached to no particular See, but were given to the oldest Bishops. For the powers of the Primate (which were strictly limited), see Miinter, Primord, ix. 2. 225 Carthage and S. Cyprian. Of the Virgins, some were petulant in behavior and im- modest in attire.3 So far from veiling themselves from the gaze of a profane world according to the strict notions Bad of Tertullian, they seem to have been living almost without rule. They wasted their time ; they spent rtrgms. their money capriciously ; they dressed and painted to such ex- cess that, ‘‘when God looked for the faces of His elect, He saw only the false colors and gewgaws of the Devil. Others of them became notorious as gossips. They were wont to gad about from house to house ; and delighted in the wanton merry-mak- ings which African society tolerated and encouraged at marriage feasts. Some preferred the heathen to the Christian rule of de- cency, and did not scruple to be seen among the unblushing rabble of both sexes that frequented the public baths. Their manners, in short, were not only scandalous, but — from a mod- ern point of view, and without reference to the omnipotence of fashion in determining questions of decorum — they might be thought inconsistent with any sense at all of Christian obliga- tions. The Virgins, in fact, had in very many cases mistaken their calling. Under all the circumstances of the times, it was nat- ural enough that this should be frequently the case. Motives to Virginity was not only an honorable state : it was free from care.* At a time when households were divided on the subject of religion, and when, owing to the ubiquitous pressure of a filthy, but to young persons fascinating, idolatry,^ the rear- ing of children in Christian habits presented difficulties . , , , . , . ^ . Its Perils. without number domestic life was often a bitter ser- vitude : marriage involved the gravest perils and temptations; 3 S. Cyprian. De Habitu Virgin. In this and the following paragraphs I follow S. Cyprian and Tertullian, though the ardent censors of the vices of an age are not always good authority as to the extent of the prevalence of those vices. ^ S. Augustine, De Civitat. Deij ii. 26, draws a frightful picture of the obscenities of heathen worship. 5 Hence Tertullian’s main objection to infant baptism. Of the servitude incident to domestic life in semi-heathen society, the same writer speaks feel- 10* 226 History of the Church. and celibacy was regarded as not only more safe to the individ- ual, but more fruitful to the Church,^ than any other condition. It was popular on prudential as well as on enthusiastic grounds. It was sought, therefore, with avidity by some who had no nat- ural fitness for it. But being sought thus, it was in many cases abused. Its freedom from care became an occasion of perilous self-indulgence. Its dignity ministered to vanity and pride. Even its purity was by a strange freak of conscience regarded as an athletic or agonistic virtue, the more perfect in proportion as it challenged or solicited temptation. From similar causes, the insolence of some of the Martyrs or Confessors had become another crying sin of the times. ^ No Bishop or Presbyter, nor, so far as we can learn, any Con/^essors. Other distinguished person, had so far suffered in North Africa.® The victims, therefore, it is probable, were too often of that class which courted persecution. ^ But they were none the less objects of popular and feminine idolatry. Their wounds and stripes were badges of honor. They went in and out as a ingly in many places. Aj>ologet. 3 ; Ad Uxor, ii. 4 , 6 . To heathen husbands, the meetings were particularly offensive. Says Apuleius : “Tunc (mulier) spretis atque calcatis divinis numinibus, in vim certse religionis, mentita sacrilega prsesumptione Dei quern praedicaret unicum, confictis obser- vationibus vanisy fallens omnes homines, et miserum maritum decipiens, 77iatutino 77iero et continue stupro corpus mancipat.” ^ In illis largiter floret ecclesise matris gloriosa foecunditas. S. Cypr. De Habit. Virgin. 7 Tertullian thus indignantly sums up the powers granted by Zephyrinus, Bishop of Rome, to these Confessors : “ At tu jam et in Martyres tuos effundis hanc potestatem, ut quisque ex consensione vincula induit, adhuc mollia in novo custodiae nomine, statim ambiunt moechi statim adeunt fornicatores, jam preces circumsonant, . . . . et inde communicatores revertuntur,” etc. The insolence, tyranny, and presumption, that naturally followed, are fully seen in S. Cyprian’s Epistles. ^ So says Deacon Pontius in his life of S. Cyprian. 9 The quiet way in which Hippolytus describes the effort of Callistus to recover his credit among the brethren, by making a disturbance in a Jewish synagogue and thus exposing himself to martyrdom, shows that cases of that kind were not uncommon. See chap. iv. of this Book. 22 / Carthage and S. Cyprian. privileged class. And as their ranks, even in times of peace, were constantly recruited through the wantonness of the mob and the culpable indifference of the magistrates, they became a sort of irregular third power, having an influence as Their great as that of the Clergy, without a corresponding sense of responsibility and duty. The evil was increased by the popular belief that martyrdom, or in its degree, Confessorship, was a plenary atonement for every kind of sin. To what extent worse vices obtained among a certain portion of the Clergy, and among that class of devotees, male or female, married or unmarried, who set up their chastity as an sisters of idol of vainglory, and took a giddy pleasure in hang- ing over the pit from which they professed to have escaped, it is needless to inquire : the cases actually mentioned by early writers being few in comparison with the severity of their stric- tures on the subject. The subintroductce, virgins who lived as sisters with unmarried priests, were a nuisance against which sermons, canons, and anathemas were for a long time ineffectual. In despite of all precautions, the Agape, a most beau- The Agape tiful, but alas ! a most vulnerable feature of the early Church system, was accompanied with disorders which even at this period broke out from time to time, and which at length led to intolerable abuses. In Tertullian’s day such evils were deeply felt. In S. Cyprian’s they had to be deplored cum summo animi gemiiu et dolor In excesses of this kind there was probably less of intentional *0 That the abuse was an obstinate one, however, is shown by the number of canons that had to be framed against it. I, Carthaginiens . can. 3 ; II, can. 17; IV, can. 46; Niccen, can. 3; Ancyran. can. 19. See Dodwell, Cyprian, iii. ** Tertull. De Jejun. adv. Psychic. 17; S. Cyprian,^/, vi. Pariss. Ter- tullian, however, in his Apolog. (39), written when he was still a Catholic, tells a different story. In the one case he looked upon the Church with an Apologist’s eye, in the other, with that of a censor : in the one case he con- sidered the general aspect of things, in the other, he was looking at particular defects. The most philosophic as well as the most charitable judgment is that which is made from the former point of view. 228 History of the Church. hypocrisy than of enthusiastic self-deception. Conscience, like Self. the needle in the compass, is true to its trust only in deception, ^ certain equilibrium of the soul. In the condition of the early Church, at certain periods, there was much to disturb this even balance, and to bring on a state of mind in which extravagance and absurdity became more or less the test of re- ligious earnestness and reality. It is not improbable, however, that there were those among the Africans whose hypocrisy was of a cooler and more OtherVices. f \ , calculating kind. Avarice had its place among the vices of the Clergy. There was much traffic in sacred things. In the strong and wholesome language of the most A vartce. . o o eminent censor of the times, the serpent, condemned to eat dust and to crawl upon the ground, had dragged many priests with him into the same degradation. Some were en- tangled in secular affairs. From a cupidity disgraceful to them- selves, or from a negligence of their support discreditable to the Church, even Bishops left their Sees, and engaging actively in mercantile pursuits, acquired an ill name as usurers or sharp- ers. A natural result of all this was that sect feeling Worldliness . . i t • i and party spirit grew up among the Laity. Church rulers were despised. Church laws set at naught. Mixed mar- riages were common. Matrons gave themselves to worldly cares and pleasures ; and to please their husbands became extrava- gant in dress and lukewarm in religion. Heathen shows and feasts were frequented with little scruple. Catechu- mens put off their baptism that they might be the more free to sin. The Church’s pensioners, the poor, were grudgingly supported. The pious fervor which good men had really felt, and which hypocrites had found it necessary to feign as a tribute to religion, was beginning to die out ; and faith was sinking into a profound and ill-omened slumber. ** S. Cyprian, De Lapsis^ 6. *3 Taylor’s Early Christianity makes a sophistical use of such facts. The Church is charged with vices against which she was contending. On this subject Mr. Poole, in his Life and Times of S, Cyprian, very properly 229 Carthage and S. Cyprian. Under these circumstances, the election of S. Cyprian to the Episcopate of Carthage, against the vigorous opposition of five leading Presbyters of the city, was a happy instinct on CyPrian the part of that majority by which he was chosen and ^ ^ • almost forced into the office. As his character was well known, it was also a pledge that the evils above mentioned were rather accidents of the times, than things encouraged or tolerated by the spirit of the Church. He was a man remarkably well fitted for the work that lay before him. Converted to Christianity in the prime of life and in the full maturity of his powers, by one of those sudden revo- lutions in which the passage from darkness to light is His like the dropping of thick scales from the eyes, he had ^orhu no room for reserves or for lingering regrets. By a ^ork. mighty Hand he had been led forth in haste from the bondage of corruption.'^ He brought with him into the Ministry all the freshness of first love ; giving himself wholly to it, and disposing remarks : “ What can be more satisfactory proof of the purity of the Christian Church, as a society, from any particular vice, than the indignant reprobation of that vice by all who hint at it, and its denunciation by several Councils ? ” To this it may be added, that some of the worst sins sprang then, as now, from that abuse of private judgment or private conscience, which the Church may censure but cannot possibly prevent. Almost all the Encratites were persons of a singularly independent turn of mind. If the maxim of S. Igna- tius, “ Do nothing without the Bishop,” had been heeded in all cases, we should never have heard of Origen’s insane act, or of such follies as those of the subintroductce, *4 “ So entirely was I immersed in the deadly atmosphere of my former life . . . that I despaired of ever freeing myself, etc. But when the filth of my past sins was washed away by the waters of Baptism, the pure and serene light from above infused itself into my whole spirit ; when my second birth of the Spirit had formed in me a new man, all at once what had been doubt- ful before, became certain ; what had been shut was opened ; into the dark- ness light shined ; that was easy which before was difficult, and that only diffi- cult which before was impossible ; and now I knew that it was the earthly and mortal which had held me in the bondage of sin ; but that the Holy Spirit of God had animated me with a new and better nature.” Ad Dona- tum de Grat. Dei. Ep. i. Pariss. 230 History of the Church. of his handsome private property in the same way as he dis- pensed the revenues of the Church, — namely, as a steward rather His than as an owner. He was eminently practical in all Character. views. With a benevolence which endeared him to the poor, and a remarkable suavity of manner, he had much of the strong clear-headedness, verging on severity, of the old Roman temper, — the masculine good sense of Tertullian,*^ with- out his brilliant and versatile genius. His saintliness, there- fore, was of no artificial or conventional type. It was the con- secration of a firm will, manly instincts, magnanimous disposi- tion, and of a mind as politic and sagacious as it was earnest and intrepid, to the special task which the untowardness of the times, and perhaps the negligence of his predecessors, had suffered to accumulate for him. And this task was the revival of discipline in the Church. If reform, strictly speaking, had been needed, Cyprian was the man for the work of a reformer. As it was, the short- Hts Special comings and excesses of the day were rather the abuse of a good inheritance, than any constitutional or radi- cal disease. There was no lack of wholesome rules. There was no want, if it could only be turned in the right direction, of an earnest and fruitful though undisciplined Christian spirit. To arouse that spirit, to bring it to bear upon the enforcement of the canons, to chasten and direct it, to curb its extravagances without impairing its true strength, was the object, which with singular clearness of perception and tenacity of purpose, S. Cyprian kept before him. In looking around for the means of carrying out this pur- *5 Pontius says that he gave all his goods to the Church ; but as we learn afterwards that his property was confiscated in the Decian persecution, it seems probable that he kept the administration of it in his own hands. In- deed, as Bishop, he could hardly have done otherwise. Tertullian was his favorite author. When he said Da mihi magis- trum,’’ it was always known what book he meant. With such a master, Cyprian’s rapid proficiency in the knowledge of the Scriptures is not so won- derful as (considering his late conversion) it might at first sight appear. 231 s Carthage and S. Cyprian. pose, he found the real working power of the Church practically distributed among three classes. There were the Working Clergy, headed by the Bishop, but considerably im- i^orces, paired in influence by the prevalence of party spirit ; the Laity, represented in the North African Church by the Seniores po- puliy^’^ a sort of lay-elders, who acted with the Clergy in all matters of discipline and Church business ; and lastly, the Mar- tyrs, Confessors, Virgins, and the like — an irregular semi- clerical third power"^ — the weight of which, however, was generally thrown into the scale of popular opinion. Theoreti- cally, the Bishop was the head of this system. Practically, each class had a voice of undefined potency. Nothing without the People was as operative a rule, as Nothing without the Balance Bishop. There was, in truth, a practical balance of of Church powers which custom had established, but which neither custom nor theory had accurately defined. In the Word and the Sacraments the Clergy were supreme. In the choice and maintenance of the Clergy the People ruled. In matters of discipline both were consulted ; both had a voice; and against the express will of either nothing could assume a legal or bind- ing form.*^ *7 Praesident probati quique seniores, honorem istum non pretio sed testi- monio adepti. Tertull. Apol. c. 39. Of this third power in the Church, Albaspineus, quoted and confirmed by Schelstrate, speaks thus: “The ancient Church had nothing rare or pi e- cious in her gift, that she gave not to Martyrs ; so that, while they lacked the ministerial character, they became lay-Bishops, at least in power, and had even more authority and weight than Presbyters or Bishops.” In confirma- tion of which he quotes Tertullian : Quid ergo ? si EpiscopuSy si Diaconus, si Vidua, si Virgo, si Doctor, si etiam Martyr lapsus a reguld fuerit : ubi pluris facere Martyres, quam Episcopos et Presbyteros, atque aliquid supra Episcopum addere videtur. Schelstrate, Eccles. African, ii. 4. *9 Of the many proofs of this, I select two : S. Cyprian, in his iith Ep., Fratribus in Plebe Consist entibus, speaking of the case of the lapsed : “ Cum pace nobis omnibus a Domino prius data ad ecclesiam regredi coeperimus, tunc examinabuntur singula prcesentibus et judicantibus vobis.” See same Ep., and the tract, De Lapsis, passim. In the Acta Purgationis Cceciliani (S.. Optati Op. Dupin, p. 169), the following direction is given: Adhibete con- 232 History of the Church. Cyprian did not attempt a readjustment of this system. Cyprian's He took it as it was, and conscientiously worked Policy, it. When it was necessary, therefore, for himself to act, he laid much stress, as was right and natural, upon episcopal preroga- tive. When he had to work through the popular element, he spake in equally high terms of the dignity and responsibility that lay upon the People. In the same spirit, he magnified true martyrdom, he exalted true virginity ; though the Martyrs and Virgins sometimes were but scourges in his side. On the other hand, he disparaged no class ; he elevated none at the expense of other classes. The Church to him was a living body composed of many living forces. To enable each force All Classes to hve and work with freedom,®® but to bring all at exalted. same time under that strong control, without which freedom and even life is an impossible chimera, was, so far as he had a theory — which, being eminently a man of action, it is probable he had not — the substance of his theory of Ecclesiastical discipline and order. A few instances of his management of particular cases that came before him, may here be mentioned as illustrations of this point. Rogatian, an aged Bishop, consults him about the case of a clericos et seniores plebis ecclesiasticos viros, et inquirant diligenter, quae sint istae dissensiones. =»Moslieim, in his one-sided and disingenuous remarks on this subject, acknowledges that Cyprian ‘‘ attributes much importance to the clergy and the people,” that ‘‘he makes the Church to be superiot to the Bishop,” — w’hich is a mistranslation of Cyprian’s words ; but contends that “ this man of un- questionable excellence and worth . . . yields to circutnsiances when he admits associates in the government of the Church, but speaks out the sentiments of his heart when he extols bishops,” etc. That is, Mosheim takes half of Cyprian’s words as honest, and rejects the other half as mere diplomacy; a process by which any man may be proved to be anything that a hostile critic chooses to make of him. In the same way, Mosheim sees in Cyprian nothing but contradictions and confusion of ideas. But the contradiction is merely, that Cyprian’s language continually contradicts Mosheim’s interpretation of that language. Historical Commentaries^ vol. ii. J 24. Carthage and S. Cyprian. 233 contumacious Deacon. Cyprian, in answer, points out the canonical power to degrade the offender ; but recom- j^jcampies mends a further trial of patience and forbearance. Geminius Victor, an ecclesiastic, had violated the canon which forbade dying men to make the clergy executors or guardians."^^ Cyprian caused the canon to be enforced. The only punish- ment provided for in ^uch cases was the post-mortem sentence, that *^no oblation should be made for his death; no prayer nor sacrifice for his repose.” His name, in other words, was stricken from the diptychs. He was to have no part in that solemn commemoration of the departed, which was one of the marked features of the early Eucharistic Service. “ An actor, who after baptism continued to teach though not to practise his art, was commanded to desist. It was better, Cyprian reasoned, that one should live on the Church alms or even starve, than earn a livelihood by a scandalous and perilous profession. In numberless such cases Church rulers had to struggle against the encroachments of the spirit of the world. In this struggle Struggle they had the canons on their side, and the ‘^Ivorid. general sentiment of the Church. But on the other side there were considerations of temporary expediency, which were al- ready beginning to make the canons practically a dead letter. With regard to the great scandal of the subintroductce, the Bishop was equally decided. No one can be secure virgins who exposes himself to danger without need : God ^"^M^rry will save no servant of His from the devil who puts thdn^give himself gratuitously in the way of the devil's snares.” ScandaL If any professed virgins found themselves unfitted for that 21 In such cases, the Clergy were obliged by the civil law to accept the responsibility, and thus became entangled in secular concerns. 22 The diptychs were properly the roll of all who, as ‘‘ citizens of the Heavenly City,” had their names written in “ the Book of Life.” All believ- ers, after their departure, were probably mentioned once in the Eucharistic Service. Afterwards some were excluded by way of discipline. Martyrs became entitled to a perpetual commemoration. This custom, like many other similar practices, had a wholesome operation for awhile, but degene- rated into abuses and superstitions. See Dodwell, Dissertat. Cyprian, v. 234 History of the Church. state, they should not hesitate to marry. If they declined this remedy, and persisted in giving scandal, they were to be cap- itally punished. For under the old law, as Cyprian reasoned, such offenders were slain with the carnal sword : now they should be slain with the spiritual sword, — they should be put to death by being put out of the Church. Accordingly, he approved of the sentence of excommunication passed upon a certain Deacon who had offended in this way; a decision in which, as usual in such cases,''^ the Presbyters of Carthage were consulted and concurred. But the cause of discipline, with the chastisement of the disorders so prevalent everywhere, was becoming too weighty a Warnings earthly prelate. As S. Cyprian had felt o/judg- from the beginning of his episcopate, and as he had ^ent, ^ , - seen, indeed, in visions divinely sent, a time of thorough sifting was nigh at hand. These presentiments of coming judg- ment, with confident predictions based upon them, were a decided feature of what may be called the inner religious history of the early Church. They are not uncommon in all ages of the world. ^ In S. Cyprian's case, such monitions were allowed no Dreams and little force in determining his conduct. In proportion, therefore, as he felt the forewarning shadow of a divine judgment upon the Church — to cauterize her wounds, to purge her humors, to nerve her whole frame " — he was the more earnest in urging upon all her members the necessity of self-judgment. 23 « A primordio episcopatus mei* statui, nihil sine consilio vestro mea privatim sententia gerere. Sicut honor mutuus poscit, in commune tractabi- mus.” EpistoL v. Pariss. 24 « Sancto Spiritu suggerente, et Domino per visiones multas et mani- festas admonente '^'* — was the formula of a Carthaginian Council, A.D. 252. These visions were ridiculed by many. As Cyprian says (^EpistoL ad Floren- tium Pupianum')y ‘‘ I know that dreams and visions seem frivolous to some; but only to those who would rather believe against the priests than believe with them.” On this subject, see Dodwell, Dissertat. Cyp. iv. 25 Origen, about the same time, was predicting persecutions, on the ground that they were neededy and from his foreseeing “ that the downfall of the State religion ” would be considered by many Emperors disastrous to the Empire. See Neander’s Church History y \ i. part ii. 235 Carthage and S. Cyprian. When the expected storm came, it raged more widely, more furiously, and with a more decided effort to exterminate the Church, than any similar event before. The reign of Eighth some of the preceding Emperors, and especially of Philip, had given the Church a foretaste of the deceitful sunshine of imperial protection. Philip, stained with many crimes, but with religious feeling enough to make him super- stitious, had even desired to have a part in the prayers of the Church; and, it is said, had gone through the form of penance required in such cases. He was supplanted by Decius, who, partly from hatred of a system favored Pectus by his predecessors, and partly from a desire to revive Emperor^ the memory of the old Roman glory which he attributed to the favor of the gods, proceeded to a determined and system- atic persecution. His edicts to that effect were sent forthwith into all the principal cities. Fabianus, Bishop of Rome, was among the earliest victims. The post he had held was too offensive to the Em- Fabianus peror, and consequently too perilous, for any imme- " diate successor. It remained vacant, therefore, for more than one year. When the imperial edict reached Carthage, a court of inquiry was appointed, consisting of a magistrate and five citizens, and a day was set for Christians to clear themselves by cyprian sacrificing to idols. Many availed themselves of the interval thus allowed, and withdrew into the country. Among these was Cyprian himself. Admonished by a dream, and justified by the common interpretation of our Lord’s direction for such cases,''^ he hid himself from the tempest and awaited ^ Euseb. vi. 36. That an Emperor like Philip, addicted to superstitions of all kinds, and having little of the Roman feeling for the State religion, should in his times of remorse have turned towards the Church, does not seem to me at all improbable. The reality of his faith is, of course, another question. 27 S. Matt. X. 23. There was the additional reason that Cyprianum ad leones had become the cry, and his presence in the city exasperated the heathen. 236 History of the Church. Other times. He was proscribed by the magistrates, and his goods confiscated. From his jdace of retreat, however, he kept a watchful eye upon Church affairs in Carthage, and governed with as much vigor as if he had been there in person. , Of those who remained, not a few denied Christ in a variety of ways; some promptly,*® some reluctantly, others under the Many fall ^gony of cxcruciating tortures. Some offered sacrifice away. idols — sacrificati ; some burned incense before the image of the Emperor — thurijicati ; those who had the means purchased immunity to themselves in the form of a written cer- tificate or discharge, *9 and were called Ubellatici, Few of either Three ^f these classes fell permanently from the Faith. Even those who in the hour of trial had shown a disgraceful Lapsed. eagerness to stand fair with the judges, availed them- selves of the earliest opportunity to retrace their steps. Their prevarication was caused by timidity and weakness; and the great body of them became afterwards fervid and passionate, but, from the same defects of character which had brought about their fall, exceedingly troublesome penitents. On the other hand, it was the policy of the magistrates to break the spirits of the faithful, rather than to arouse them by the spectacle of actual martyrdoms. The prisons, ij^jown therefore, were crowded with Confessors. Some of Prison. these displayed the insolence, self-conceit, and spirit of bravado which are natural accompaniments of untutored courage, and by which martyrdom, as we have seen, was so fre- quently disgraced. The persecution, in fact, had taken the Church at unawares. Few were prepared to suffer for the Name of Christ ; and in the few who were prepared, enthusiasm in some 28 Cyprian complains {^De Lapsis) that a very large number (maximus fratrum numerus) fell away at once. 29 Some managed more quietly to get their names inserted in the register, as persons who had complied with the edict, without any request of their own to that effect ; or sometimes the request was made, and the bribe paid, by friends of the parties without their knowledge. The Church discountenanced all such evasions. 237 Carthage and S. Cyprian. cases became a substitute for faith. The tortures inflicted by the heathen, therefore, were not the only trial of the more gen- uine Confessors. They had to brace themselves for the final conflict amid the strife of tongues, and sometimes amid scenes of scandalous confusion. 3° The prisons were thronged with sympathizing friends. Priests and Deacons ministered to the inmates. Women kissed their chains. Penitents solicited their powerful intervention. Demagogues endeavored to make tools of them. Flattery and adulation enveloped them in a cloud of impenetrable self-delusion. Their Bishop, who watched ^ them from a distance, and who labored under the pecu- liar disadvantage of appearing to have avoided a conflict to which he incited others, had to adapt his exhortations to two distinct classes. One class, the most forward and influential, he rebuked and chastised. To do this, as he did, in the face of a busy faction, and against a popular sentiment which regarded the Confessor as nearer to God and consequently more powerful than the Bishop, required faith and courage of no ordinary kind. But there was another and large class which needed en- couragement. High spirits and pure faith do not ahvays go together. The vivacity of mind, which some of the Two classes martyrs exhibited to a troublesome extent, it was neces- sary to awaken and foster in others by every allowable expedi- ent. With rebukes, therefore, he mingled the most eloquent appeals. The more he chastised the insolence of the martyrs, the more he exalted the dignity of their calling. 3* His own character, the meanwhile, he had to leave a prey to the foul tongue of calumny and detraction. To the Priests and Deacons who ministered to the Confessors he g 4 ve minute directions,^^ urging them to prudence and self- restraint. They were to go to the prisons, for the administra- 3° Epistol. vi. Pariss. 3* His first letter to the Confessors is entirely of this character. It is, per- haps, enthusiastic in its language ; but a leader encouraging timid soldiers on the field of battle cannot afford to pick words. Epistol. Ixxx. Pariss. 32 Epistol. iv. Pariss. 238 History of the Church. Libelli Pacts. tion of the Sacrament, one Deacon and one Priest at a time. No one should go oftener than was absolutely needed. Directions to the All crowding and excitement were to be carefully avoided. Nothing was to be tolerated, in short, which should draw notice needlessly upon themselves, or exasperate the heathen. In the same prudent spirit he addressed himself to the case of those who had made themselves amenable to the discipline Treatment of the Churcli. A distinction was made between the ^Lapsed. three classes of those who had fallen. The libelli pads granted by some of the Martyrs, which in popu- lar estimation were equivalent to a formal restoration to the privileges of communion, were to be accounted as things of naught. The Martyrs had no right to bestow such pardons. The lapsed of every sort, therefore, were to be shut off from the Table of the Lord, till they could plead their cause before the Clergy and Confessors and the whole body of the People. By this course Cyprian made many enemies to himself. But with equal disregard of personal considerations, he showed no favor to that stricter party, not numerous, perhaps, but Parties. fanatical and highly influential, who were disposed to treat the lapsed as apostates from the Faith, leaving no door open for reconciliation. The Laity, in such cases, were as a general rule less tolerant than the Clergy. Cyprian in some instances had not only to plead with them for mercy, but to extort mercy from them. Indeed, he was not a little censured for his facility in restoring men to communion whose professions of penitence were open to suspicion. But in all such points he was equal to his work. Much as he magnified the Church, and firmly as he believed that to be separate from the Church was to 33 Sins after Baptism were atoned in the early Church by the Exomo- logesisy — a public confessioUj with tears, fastings, etc., of greater or less dura- tion, according to the nature of the offence. It was probably about the times of Decius that the distinction of flentes, audientcSy genuflectentesy and con- sistcntes grew up. See Bingham’s AntiquitieSy Book XVIII. c. i. 34 S. Cypr. Ep. liv. 17 , Pariss. 239 Carthage and S. Cyprian. be separate from Christ, he was equally well assured that no peace with the Church would stand which was not sanctioned by the Gospel. It is the Lord alone who pardons ; the and the Gospel, Lord who is to be appeased. Men can act, in such and the matters, but as the instrument of the Lord. Any judgment, therefore, or any absolution apart from the Lord’s revealed will, is necessarily good for nothing. These counsels and exhortations were not in all instances equally successful. One Lucian, a Confessor, addressed a letter to Pope Cyprian,” and through him to all Bishops, declaring that those in prison had given a full pardon ^ o/^ the to the lapsed^ and requiring him and the Clergy gen- erally to respect their decision ; otherwise, it was plainly inti- mated, they would fall under the displeasure of the holy Martyrs. This seems sufficiently absurd. Its absurdity, however, did not make it the less dangerous to the peace of the Church. It was the beginning of troubles which continued long after the Mar- tyrs themselves had gone peaceably to their rest. For most of these men, both in Africa, and in Rome where their conduct had been equally objectionable, were brought at length to a more Christian frame of mind. Their long and cruel sufferings — many of them being slowly starved to death in prison — proved a means of grace to them. From a letter of the stout-hearted Lucian, written eight days after this punishment had begun, we learn that sixteen had died, and others were quietly . , ^ ^ Their awaiting their end. It appears from the same epistle edifying that while he still felt it his duty to give peace to those who applied, the gift was coupled with the condition that the recipients should plead their cause and make confession before the Bishop. A letter from Caldonius, another Confessor, states still more clearly the necessity of compliance with this reason- able condition. But the real root of the mischief was among that party of 35 S. Cyprian, De Lapsis^ i 6 , 17 . 3® S. Cyprian. Op. Episi. xvi.-xxi. Pariss. 240 History of the Church. Novatus and his Party. Presbyters in Carthage, who had so strenuously opposed S. Cyprian's election. Of these the chief leader was one Novatus, 37 a Presbyter in bad odor, who just before the persecution had been accused of shocking crimes, and who consequently looked forward to peace and the resto- ration of Cyprian with no particular favor. With him were associated the great body of the lapsed j many of whom were Feiicis- persons of wealth and consequence. Felicissimus, a simus. factious layman, whom in some way or other he got to be made Deacon, was his most able coadjutor. By the intrigues of these men, the Carthaginian Church community were thrown into confusion. The prospect of Cyprian's return to the city inspired a general panic. When the Presbyters who remained faithful to their Bishop endeavored in compliance with his in- structions to carry out the laws, the result was a rebellion. Schism in Felicissimus and his party openly organized, and, pro- Carthage. fj-Qm one wickedness to another, at length put Cyprian and his adherents under a ban of excommunication. By such acts, however, they lost their hold upon that numer- ous party of the lapsed, who had acted with them more from Self-con- dislike of discipline than from any hearty belief in the demned. goodiiess of their cause. Cyprian promptly availed himself of the blunder they had committed. He declared them excommunicated, not by any act of his, but by their own volun- tary secession. It was no longer possible, then, to choose be- tween two parties in the Church. Men must cast in their lot with one or other of two separate communions. Under these circumstances many returned to the bosom of the Church. The rest having procured the ordination of Fortunatus, one of the five Presbyters, as their Bishop, sent Felicissi- mus over to Rome ; where the dominant party, being long ago Goes to Rome. 37 The moral character of this man is painted by S. Cyprian in the black- est colors ; so much so that many have questioned the truth of the portrait. It is characteristic, however, of times of great religious fervor, that the good are very good, and the bad are very bad. Medium characters do not flourish at such periods. Epistol. xlviii. Pariss. 241 Carthage a7td S. Cyprian. committed to the cause of an indulgent discipline, and being harassed at that period by the austere faction of Novatianus, might naturally be expected to receive them with some favor. At all events, Felicissimus was not sparing of threats, as well as protestations. And Cornelius, the Roman Bishop, was comeiius not very decided. He was, perhaps, unwilling to drive so influential a body as these African schismatics into the already powerful ranks of the opposition party in Rome. He hesitated for some time. But Cyprian was armed for all emer- gencies. Sounding one of his vigorous trumpet-blasts^ into the ears of the wavering Roman Council, he brought them at length to a satisfactory decision. Felicissimus was rejected, and had thenceforward to look for countenance elsewhere. Novatus in like manner betook himself to Rome. There he fell in with the more famous Novatianus : a man of learning and orthodoxy, but of questionable morals, who, at Novato the head of a faction consisting mainly of Confessors, had been a rival candidate to Cornelius for the Episcopal chair ; but failing of the election, had managed to procure consecra- tion in a surreptitious way.^° This man stood on a higher and stronger platform than the Carthaginian, leaders. His puritan object, as he contended, was the purity of the Church. Scheme. He would keep her free from all contamination. Those who had fallen, therefore, in times of persecution, or those who had been guilty of any capital sin, were to remain suspended from communion till restored by Christ himself at the Day of final Judgment. With these views Novatus accorded more readily 3® EpistoL liv. 2. 39 Cyp. EpistoL liv. Pariss. 4° It is said that he invited three Bishops to his house, feasted, flattered, made them drunk, and so procured consecration. In this case, as in those of Felicissimus and Fortunatus, the numerosity of the Episcopate had an attend- ant evil, that ordination could sometimes be had in violation of the canons. The Bishops of the smaller Sees were not always shining lights. The metro- politan system, therefore, and the practice of consecrating Bishops, and some- times Presbyters, only in Council, was a necessary safeguard. In the case of Fortunatus, the consecration seems to have been performed by Privatus, an excommunicated Bishop. EpistoL liv. ii. I I 242 History of the Church. Two Leaders, In Rome and Carthage, than might have been expected from his previous career. He had doubtless learned by this time, from his experience as a party-leader, that discipline is as necessary to keep men out of the Church, as to keep them in. He readily coop- erated with Novatianus, therefore, in the erection of a new and severe system of ecclesiastical communion. The Sect was soon abandoned, to the great joy of the faith- ful both in Rome and Carthage, by most of the Confessors; Cyprian, by his zealous but charitable letters to these misguided men, having done much to dispel their delusion. It gained recruits, however, in other parts of the world. Declaring open war upon Cyprian and Corne- lius, and spreading calumnies against them in all directions, the leaders plied briskly between Italy and North Africa, and in the latter country especially made a permanent lodgment. One Maximus seems to have acted as their Bishop in Carthage. But of him, as of Fortunatus, little beyond the name is known. Like Montanism, from the lees of which heresy it drew much of its sourness and strength, Novatianism had not a little in common with Catholic Christianity. The Puritan severity, which was its chief point of difference, could plead the sanction of high names in the Church, and was popular with a large party of orthodox believers, especially in Rome. It was one of the points, in fact, in which philosophy and religion were at variance. That all sins are equals and that a grave 7nan ought to be immovable^^^ were Stoic maxims which had greater weight with such men as Tatian, Hippolytus, and Nova- tian than the evangelic precepts of mercy and forgive- ness. In spite of the taint of schism, therefore, the followers of this Sect were numerous and respectable, both in the East and West ; and there is reason to believe that, partly by virtue of rigorous discipline, partly by the close watch The letters of Cyprian, Cornelius, and the Confessors, are found in Cyprian’s works. Epistol. xl. et ss. Pariss. 42 S. Cypr. Epistol, Iv. 13, — an admirable expose of the fallacies of this harsh philosophy. In other Places. Nature of the Schism, 243 Carthage and S. Cyprian. which a small society can keep upon its members, and still more from the reformatory influence of new scenes, new associations, and a newly awakened sense of responsibility, they continued for some time an orderly, sedate, and highly influential body/^ Their creed was orthodox, except on the point of absolution. They indulged, however, an intensely bitter feeling against the Church. They regarded her as a synagogue of Jeze- Bitter. bels, Balaams, and Iscariots ; and when they made proselytes from the apostate^* communion, they in all cases caused them to be rebaptized. . On the other hand, the secession of so many troublesome men, with the lull of persecution which followed the death of Decius, gave Cyprian and his worthy colleague. Cor- nelius of Rome, an opportunity to gain ground in the restored^ A.D. 251-253. restoration of Church discipline. Some of the lapsed were reconciled fully to the Church. Others were put on penance. Indulgence was provided for particular emergen- cies.^^ Numerous Councils were held ; and as disorders similar to those of Rome and Carthage were more or less prevalent in other portions of the Church, a discipline sufflciently uniform in its character was everywhere matured, systematized, and grad- ually established. 43 Novatian stands high among orthodox writers. Acesius, a Novatian Bishop, was among those summoned by Constantine to the Council of Nice. See Socrates, Ecdes. Hist. i. 10; v. 10. Novatian’s Liber de Trinitate is to be found in Tertulliate s Works ^ Nic. Rigalt. 1689. 44 So long as the discipline of the Church remained a real thing, indul- gences — such as remission or shortening of the time of public penance — were indispensable. In later times discipline became a nullity ; and indulgences, being no longer applicable to their original use, were transferred to such things as absolving men from vows hastily assumed ; or by a most monstrous abuse, to the release of souls from purgatorial pains. In the early Church the term meant simply admission to communioti (of those who seemed truly penitent) before the term of suspension from communion had canonically expired. The power of remission was with the Bishop and Presbyters ; but in the African Church, and more or less in the Church generally, the people were allowed a voice in the matter. 244 History of the Church. CHAPTER III. DECIAN TIMES. The Decian persecution, with the innumerable calamities that followed, extending as it did into all parts of the Roman A Great Empire, was a time of no ordinary terror : it was eminently an epoch in Church History, a crisis, a day of judgment; a season of such universal sifting and proba- tion as Christians had not known in any other period of their varied and calamitous experience. It has been mentioned incidentally in the preceding chapter of this Book, that the approach of persecution had been heralded ^ ^ by mysterious forebodings or presentiments upon the souls of men. In one of the many visions thus occur- ing,"" long before the arrival of the desolating storm,’* there was a voice from Heaven commanding the people to pray ; but when they began to utter their petitions their voices jangled and their hearts were out of tune, and no true prayer arose because ^ there was no harmony. In another dream, a venerable Householder was seen sitting, with a young man on his right hand and another on his left. The one on the right sat grave and pensive, and not without a shade of sorrowful indig- nation. The other on the left was triumphant and exultant; and held in his hand a net, which with a wanton and wicked leer he threatened continually to cast over the heads of the bystanders. Dreams of this kind were but echoes of waking thoughts, and belonged to healthy minds like that of S. Cyprian. They sprang from a deep conviction of some judgment needed ; * S. Cypr. Epistol. vii. Pariss. Decian Times. 245 they pointed to nothing more than some judgment coming. But when the expected crisis, had actually arrived, the * •' The co7mng terrors of the times naturally hurried the mind forward from particular passing judgments to that great and anti-typal judgment which is to be the end of all. The near- ness of the Lord’s coming was at all times vividly realized by the faith of the early Church. The very posture of their worship, as they stood with head erect, arms outstretched, and eyes look- ing eagerly forward, was a constant reminder to them of this awful expectation.* But in times of such complicated horrors as those under Decius and his successors, when the very Signs Martyrs scandalized the Church ; when even Confes- sion in some cases was but a swelling, irreverential, and insolent bravado ; when torments in other cases were torments without end, without issue, without solace, — torments which kept the crown at a tantalizing distance, making the heart sick while they excruciated the body, so that if any one escaped and reaped the reward of glory, it was not by termination of the torture, but by mere alacrity in dying; when, in the civil world, ‘‘every instant of time was marked, every in the province of the Roman world was afflicted, by barbar- ous invaders and military tyrants, and the ruined empire seemed to approach the last and fatal moment of its dissolution ; ” when, in the natural world, “ there were inundations, earth- . , zn the quakes, preternatural darkness, with a long and gen- eral famine, and a furious plague, depopulating whole towns, and consuming according to a moderate calculation the moiety of the human species:”^ at such periods it is not wonderful that the common fear or hope, which ever it might be, became occasionally an enthusiastic and perhaps dangerous delusion. Yet, even in the worst cases, this confident expectation of * See the figures of “ praying men and women,” in Ferret, Cateconibes de Rome^ etc. 3 S. Cypr. EpistoL vii. Pariss, 4 Gibbon’s Decline and Fally etc. vol, i. ch. x. 2 4-6 History of the Church. the end was far less irrational than has sometimes been pre- Eariy tended. A mere fatalist may sneer at such a faith. ^ It may awaken the smiles of those who suppose the justified, world to be governed only by mathematically fixed laws. But the early Christian conceived of no such mechan- ism of fate. He had faith in a living God. He believed in One who hears and answers prayer. But if the supreme Governor and Controller really answers prayer, it follows that the duration of human life, the vicissitudes of empire, the exist- ence of the world, the chances and changes of all earthly things, are in the strictest sense of the word precarious or contingent : the shadow of final doom mav be brought backward or carried forward on the dial-plate of time, with a freedom as absolute, as to a mere fatalist philosophy it is inconceivable and impos- sible. Jonah was a true prophet, though Nineveh's forty days passed without witnessing its fall. The early Christian, indeed, did not theorize as yet upon this momentous subject. He believed, as the Scriptures taught him, in a Saviour and a Judge always near at hand. He The Judge Joy ahvays was on the lookout for a Judgment surely coming, ever near, ... , , impending, yet capable of suspension or even of pro- tracted, and indefinite delay. The consequence was that with each successive appearance of the portents of that Judgment, he lifted up his head ; with a mixed feeling, like that of S. Paul when he was in a strait betwixt two wishes,^ he partly hoped and prayed for it, yet, as taught by the Church in her petitions pro mora finis, did his utmost by prayer and penitence to stay or to Seeming ^vert it ; and so, when the signs" seemed to fail, {hfsignVo/'^^^'^ a lesser crisis passed without manifesting the Judgment, gj-gat and Consummating Judgment, he was in no way disappointed, nor was his faith at all shaken. A man, who having 5 Gibbon sneers impartially at the common belief of the Church, and at the promise, on which that belief was founded. The promise was uttered, however, not to inform men of the time when judgment should come, but that they might be ahvays on the lookout for that time. S. Matt. xxv. 13. ^ Philipp, i. 23, 24. Decian Times. 247 never seen the sunshine, yet confidently expects it, might reason- ably mistake the dawn for the complete and perfect day. One who has never witnessed death, might anticipate its approach in each momentary swoon. On the same principle, the believer of early times was not irrational in looking upon each successive trial as a fulfilment of Prophecy ; he was only mistaken as to the finality of that fulfilment. He acted merely on that principle of common-sense, by which knowing the end to be certain somewhere, yet not knowing where, we look for it as confidently at the turn of a long lane, as at its actual termination. To this it may be added, that the early Christian did not base his hope or fear upon arithmetical calculations. He was influenced more by ‘^the signs of the times. As to ^ Numbers the numbers of days or months or years in the Ian- viewed as ^ Symbols, guage of Prophecy, he regarded them as symbols of God's time, not rigid definitions. But it is of the nature of symbols — even, it may be said, of mathematical symbols, and therefore much more of spiritual — that they admit within their range an almost infinite variety of particular applications. But to return from this digression : the persecution under Decius was common to all the Churches. Among its princi- pal Martyrs was Alexander, the venerable Bishop of particular Jerusalem. Having borne his testimony at the tri- bunal, he was tortured and thrown into prison, where he peace- fully expired. Babylas,® Bishop of Antioch, won his crown in like manner. Eudaemon, Bishop of Smyrna, lapsed from the Faith ; but Pionius, one of his Presbyters, was crucified and burnt. In Ephesus, Maximus was one of the earliest victims. In all places, many fled into the rural districts, or took refuge in caves and solitary wilds. Among these were seven youths of p^e Seven Ephesus, whose bodies, found many years after in a cavern, gave rise to the celebrated legend of the Seven Sleepers. 7 Diem ultimum et occultum, nec ulli prceter Patri notum^ et tamen ngnis atque portentis^ et concussionibus elementorum . . . praenotatum. Tertul. De Res. Carnis^ 22 ; Philastr. De Hceres. cvii. ® Cave’s Lives of the Fathers, vol. i. 248 History of the Church. the Wonder-- worker, His Miracles. S. Gregory, the renowned Bishop of Neo-Caesarea in Pontiis, surnamed Thaumaturgus for his wonderful works, was admon- Gregory ished by a vision to decline the persecution, and retired with the majority of his flock into a wilderness. He was a disciple of Origen, in whose school at Caesarea he studied for five years, and for whom he ever after- wards retained the profoundest veneration. The miracles related of him were committed to writing about a century after his decease by Gregory of Nyssa, and seem to have been col- lected chiefly from the memory of the aged grandmother of the latter.^ The tradition of them, therefore, had abundance of time to grow. His presence, it is said, dispossessed a heathen shrine of the daemon that held it ; he stayed by his prayers a pestilence that broke out among the people of Neo-Caesarea ; he quelled the overflowing of the river Lycus ; when he was searched for in the woods, in which he and his companions were hidden during the persecution, he was mirac- ulously veiled from the eyes of the officers. In consequence of these and similar wonders, he was called among the Gentiles a second Moses. His greatest work, that he found but seventeen Christians in his diocese when appointed to it, and left but seventeen unconverted heathen, rests, it is said, upon his dying testimony. Stories of this kind require to be supported by con- temporaneous witnesses. That Gregory, however, was a man of prayer and of extraordinary gifts, and that a pecu- liar Divine blessing rested upon his labors, seems to have been the belief of the whole early Church ; a belief the more entitled to credit, that, belonging as he did to the school of an excommunicated teacher,*® he was hardly the person that would have been selected to make a hero of, unless he had had His Success. 9 He died about the year 270, or a little after. See Cave’s Lives of the Fathers^ vol. i. ; and Greg. Nyss. in Vit, Greg. Thaum. 'o His own orthodoxy has been impeached ; and is defensible only on the ground that in his controversy with Hilian he spoke ov (hyjuaTiKO)^^ aXV ayo)vtaTiK(bc ; using words in the heat of disputation which are not to be taken to the letter. Decian Times. 249 more than a common claim to such distinction. After the per- secution was over, he caused the festivals of the martyrs to be celebrated with increased solemnity ; and many heathen there- by were attracted to the Church. In Alexandria, Dionysius the Great, another of Origen’s dis- ciples, was snatched from martyrdom by the loving officiousness of his friends. His record of his escape, and his testi- ^ Dionysius mony to the courage and cruel sufferings of the mar- tyrs, have been preserved in the pages of Eusebius.” The persecution, it appears, did not begin as elsewhere with the action of the Emperor. It was an outbreak of popular fanaticism excited by a man who pretended to be a prophet, and preceded the imperial edict by about one year. It raged with such fury that Alexandria had the appearance of a city taken by storm. But in Egypt, as elsewhere, innumerable believers sought safety in retreat. Some fled into the desert ; and many of these, among whom the aged Bishop of Cheraemon , * , T . , Anchorites, and his wife are particularly mentioned, were never heard of more. Some were captured by predatory tribes. The greater part perished of hunger and exposure. The pious feel- ing that God was everywhere, as near to the believer in solitude as in the assemblies of the faithful ; that the lack of sacraments and priestly ministrations would prove no loss, where the living sacrifice of a contrite heart and humble spirit was faithfully presented the belief, in short, that in every place there could be a true and spiritual worship, led many of these wanderers to persist in their retreat. Thus, while the general tendency of the Church was towards the ideal of social or corporate religion, there sprang up a strong propulsion towards the opposite extreme. The princi- ple of individualism was mightily asserted. Paulus, a youth of twenty-three years of age, afterwards known as soi'tary '^prince of the anchorites,'^ found solitude so refresh- and social ing that he remained a contented dweller in the wilder- ness to the venerable age of one hundred and thirteen years. ** Euseb. Eccles. History^ vi. 40-42. II* God every- where. *2 S. Cypr. EpistoL Ixxvi. 4. 250 History of the Church. This impulse to hermit-life was the beginning of a great and living movement. Involving maxims remarkably at variance with what have been called the hierarchical tendencies of that day, it is wonderful that Church rulers regarded it with so much favor as they did. It shows a liberality, on their part, and a breadth and facility of charitable construction, for which in modern times they have received hardly sufficient credit. In Asia Proper, Lycia, Pamphylia, Bithynia, Capadocia, Crete, Cyprus, Gaul, there were numerous victims. The army. Military also, as was commou in persecutions, presented its Martyrs, Qf iHustrious witnesses. On one occasion, when a Christian of Alexandria stood trembling before the judge and seemed to waver in his confession, the soldiers who stood around indignantly frowned upon him,*^ and then by a sudden impulse ran up to the tribunal and declared themselves be- lievers. As already intimated, the persecution, ceasing for awhile on the death of Decius, was followed by a great and terrible plague. Such pestilences are common in ancient his- tory, and so far as their horrors are concerned, noth- ing can be added to the eloquence and pathos of contemporary descriptions. But there is one feature of such visitations, which none of the classic writers seem ever to have witnessed.' The heathen were courageous against flesh and blood. Against the ghostly presence of the pestilence that walketh in darkness they were utterly impotent. No sense of honor, no ties of blood, no obligations of religion could nerve them to their duty. Those smitten by the destroyer among the were left uncared for while living, and unburied when dead. The claims of humanity were forgotten. All who had any place to flee to consulted their own safety and fled. Those who alone remained were either poverty-stricken wretches that could not get away, or fiends in human shape who battened upon the common misery, and hovered like *3 The subject of this paragraph is further treated in chap. vi. of this Book, towards the end. ^^Euseb. vi. 41. Great Plague^ A.D. 252, Decian Times. 25 ^ plague-flies around the couches of the dying and the dead. Such was the spectacle that heathenism presented. Christianity first taught men to struggle manfully and successfully with the invisible foe. While the idolaters were scattering in all direc- tions in irremediable panic, S. Cyprian in Carthage, Christian S. Dionysius in Alexandria, and other holy men in many other places, were rallying the faithful to a warfare more heroic, and a triumph more truly glorious, than poet or his- torian had ever as yet recorded. In Alexandria, the heathen, considering the pestilence more terrific than any other terror and more afflictive than any other affliction, an evil beyond all hope,"^ resigned them- piaguein selves to it in uncontrollable dismay. Such panics added of course to the number of the victims. The Christians, now disciplined by persecution, struggled more courageously and in consequence suffered less. They had learned of late to take pleasure in tribulations. As no spot in Egypt had been a stranger to their sorrows, so none was left unhallowed by tokens of the joy of their festival occasions. To men thus trained to cheerfulness of spirit, the pestilence came, ‘‘no less than other events, as a school of discipline and probation.’* It gave them an opportunity to become, in a sense not realized before, “ the off-scourings of all men.” Regarding death in care o/ such a cause “as little inferior to martyrdom,” they paid every possible attention to “ the bodies of the saints ; they laid them on their bosoms, purged their eyes, closed their mouths, composed their limbs, prepared them decently for burial, and calmly awaited the time when they themselves should receive the same kind offices from others.” Similar charities were extended to the heathen. And though the latter were disposed at first to attribute the plagfue overcome . T^. . • . ^ with Good, to Divine anger against the Christians, and therefore to renew the persecution, yet in time their evil was overcome with good, and the chastened Church once more gained favor with her foes. *5 Euseb. vii. 22. 252 History of the Church. In Carthage, Cyprian awakened the same spirit by trumpet- blasts of no uncertain sound. The Kingdom of God, beloved, CyprMs is rapidly approaching. Terror is everywhere. Lo ! Appeals. ^1^^ prison-walls are shaking, the floods are rising, the tempest is descending, the world, old and weary, is nodding to its fall. But as the world passes away, the reward of life and glory is brought nearer to us. Paradise, once forfeited but now recov- ered, is opening to our view. By such like exhortations he New phase cnlistcd the martyr-spirit, now chastened and purified, %artyr i^ ^ work uiore charitable and useful, though it was spirit. hard to persuade the Africans that it was also more glorious than martyrdom itself. He enlarged particularly on their duty to the heathen. The persecution had been an excel- lent school of patience. The pestilence could teach them a lesson of beneficence and mercy. It was an opportunity, in short, to show themselves children of Him who maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good,'^ and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. The plague raged everywhere, and everywhere the Christians pursued the same course. The wars, famines, and disorders which Wars and preceded or accompanied this calamity appealed in Famines, another form to the charity of the faithful. The Nu- midian Church, impoverished by Barbarian invaders, was unable to redeem its members taken captive. The Carthaginians, though in little better plight, came up generously to their aid ; and, having made a collection of about one hundred thousand ses- tertia,*® sent it with a list of the names of the donors, that these might be duly remembered in the prayers of the grateful recipi- christian their bounty. This was done ‘^not as a matter Chanty. ^j^^j-ity, but rather of religious obligation^*; fora member of Christ taken captive was regarded as God’s temple in danger of defilement. In other parts of the Empire there S. Cyprian. De Mortalitate. *7 Vit. S. Cypr, per Pontium Diac. c. 9. About four thousand dollars ; considering, however, the greater value of money in those days, it was equivalent to a much larger sum. *9 S. Cyprian. Epistol, lix. Pariss. Decian Times. 253 were similar claims similarly met. The terrible Goths, in bat- tling with whom Decius and his army ignominiously perished the adventurous Franks, whose ravages ex- tended from the Rhine to the south of Spain and the provinces of Mauritania; the Alemanni, who on the death of Decius flouted their victorious banners in the face of the proud mistress of the world; and finally the Persians, who eventually pene- trated to Antioch and sacked the cities of Asia Minor : all these were making prisoners on every side ; and to redeem her share of the captives was a formidable addition to the bur- Ransom of dens of the Church. On the other hand, the light of the Gospel was not lost in the darkness of Barbarian invasion. The Christian captives in many cases proved to be truly ‘ ‘ am- bassadors in bonds.’* Under Gallus, the successor of Decius, the persecution was renewed ; and after a respite of three or four years, occasioned by his death, it was taken up again in a more system- caiius, atic way and with greater determination by the Empe- ror Valerian. In preparation for these new trials, valerian, Cyprian, with the concurrence of his Council, granted *53-259- an indulgence to the lapsed, remitting what remained /v,.. of their term of public penance. In Rome, Carthage, and Antioch, Novatianism at this period was formally con- demned. Cornelius the Roman Bishop suffered martyrdom under Gallus. About the same time Origen was released from the burden of a troubled and laborious existence; a man ^ whose indefatigable industry during life was rivalled and Lucius, only by the wretched tenacity of hatred, which in less charitable ages that came after dogged his memory and his name. His sufferings in the Decian times were of the most suferings fearful description. For many days, in the deepest recesses of a prison, his diminutive and spare frame was stretched 20 See Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, chap. x. 2* See chap. iv. of this Book. 254 History of the Chtirch. to the distance of four holes on the rack/* while the boon of dying for the Faith was cruelly denied him. He bore up nobly against all the efforts to subdue his spirit ; but not long after his release he sank under the injuries he had received in prison. Stephen, Lucius, the successor of Cornelius, was another martyr A.D.253. period. After a month’s vacancy of his See, Stephen, a true Roman in policy and in birth, was elected into his place. CHAPTER IV. ROME AND THE WEST. The Roman Church, first planted, it is probable, by some of the Pentecostal converts, but watered by the doctrine and blood of ^ , y. S. Peter^ and S. Paul, had already at the beginning of Roman the second century acquired a fame proportioned to Church. r •\ 1 I* rrt the dignity of the place and its pilgrimage.* To S. Ignatius it was venerable as ‘^presiding in the seat of the Romans.” A more solid title to his respect was its forwardness in the grace of charity / of which evangelic virtue the fraternal epistle, written in its name by S. Clement to the disorderly Corinthians, was an early and well-known example. “ Euseb. vi. 39 ; Huettii, Origeniana, lib. i. cap, iv. Origen speaks of his own body as corpus culum, — to GUfidriov. The fifth hole on the rack was the measurement of a man of ordinary size. Origen’s being stretched, there- fore, only to the fourth is a proof of his diminutive stature. * According to Lactantius, S. Peter came to Rome during the reign of Nero, twenty-five years after the Ascension, or A.D. 58; a much more probable account than the story of his journey thither just after the conversion of Cor- nelius. See L actant. De Mart. Perse cut., with note of Baluz. ® 'H kKKkrjaia tov Qeov jJ napoLKOvaa ^Vuiirjv — quae Romae peregrinatur — was the usual title. 3 S. Ignat. Ep. ad Roman. The phrase, TrpoKadjfpevt] Trjg dydinjg^ is trans- lated by some “ presiding over the Agape,” i. e., as Dollinger renders it, ‘‘the Rome and the West. 255 The order of succession of its first Bishops, Linus, Cletus, and Clemens, has been much disputed. It is gen- First erally conceded that Clement was one of the three, and died in exile somewhere about the end of the first century. Through the second century the Church continued to in- crease, though chiefly among the Hellenic part of the popula- tion, s Its position, however, in the great queen city Eminent of the world gave it potiorem principalitatemp as S. Position. Irenaeus expressed it ; enabling it to take the lead in all matters in which a leader was required, and making it a centre of tradi- tions from every quarter, — a rallying-point to the Gentile, as Jerusalem for awhile had been to the Jewish Christians. It was distinguished for missionary zeal, and for readiness to Mission- give assistance to feebler Churches.^ One fruit of this we have seen in that vigorous scion, the Church of Africa Pro- consularis : a Church more intensely Latin, and destined to exert a greater influence upon the intellectual tone of Latin Christi- anity, than the great mother See itself. Hence, to Africa, Rome was whaf Corinth was to Achaia, or Ephesus to Asia, Relation to auctoritatas prc^sto : the most accessible living witness to apostolic tradition. In the eyes of Tertullian and S. Cyprian, covenant of love,” namely, the “ whole Church.” The context is against any such rendering. It may be here observed that, in the opening of his Epistles to the Romans and to the Ephesians, S. Ignatius stretches language to the utmost for terms of praise. If, therefore, Rome had possessed any such supremacy as modern Rome contends for, Ignatius would not have omitted it, nor would he have lacked suitable language in which to express it. See Pair, Apostol. Oxon. 1838. 4 Pearson. Op. Posthuma : Gies. \ 34, n. 10. The order of succession here given has the authority of Irenaeus apud Euseb. Eccles. Hist. v. 6. Observe, that while the ancients universally ascribe the foundation of the Epis- copate of Rome to S. Peter and S. Paul, Linus is usually spoken of as the first Bishop proper. See Euseb. iv. i ; Barrow, on the Supremacy, supp. 3, 4, etc. 5 Milman’s Latin Christianity. ^This and similar expressions are satisfactorily explained in Gieseler, \ etc. See also two excellent notes on the subject in the Oxford translation of Tertullian, vol. i. p. 470; also Forbesii, Instructiones Histoi'ico- theologicce, op. tom. ii. lib. xv. xvi. ^ Euseb. iv. 23. 256 History of the Church. it was a starting-point of the unity of the priesthood:^ a far- spreading root of Catholic Religion. Victor, an African by birth, though probably of Roman parentage, was the first who showed a disposition to pervert this honorable influence into an encroachment upon 0/ Victor, the freedom of other Churches. He was rebuked, A.D. 196. however, by S. Irenseus, and the paschal question,^ in which he interfered, remained unsettled till finally disposed of by the general Council at Nicaea. But Rome was not merely a centre ; it was, as Tacitus im- Resort of pHcs, a scwcr of the world ; and falsehood and corrup- Heretics, floated thither as readily as truth. Simon Magus, it is said, obtained his chief triumphs there, and was there defeated by S. Peter. Marcion, Valentinus, and other Gnostic leaders, found a hearing there. At a Simon, ^ ° Marcion, somewhat later period, Montanus and the new proph- and others. , . 1 • ets gained an influence for awhile over Victor himself; and thence spread their doctrine, rife with the seeds of schism, through all the Churches of the West. The reaction against Praxeas Montanism filled the city with another swarm of and others, Praxcas, Thcodotus, Artemon, the disciples of Noetus, Sabellius, and the obscure Judaizing faction which s In the interpretation of the language of these African Fathers, a mistake is sometimes made by inserting the definite article when the context and gen- eral sense require the indefinite, Rome, or Jerusalem, or any other apostolic Church could be called matrix religionis catholiccEy etc. ; that is, a source, a root. For the claims of Jerusalem, see Gieseler, ^ 94, nn. 40, 41. In the Oratio pro Fidelibus, in the Apostol. Constitutions, the Bishop of Jerusalem is prayed for first, then the Bishops of Rome and Antioch. As to the authority of Rome in the West, De Marca (^De Concord. Sacerdot. ei Imper. vii. i) abundantly proves the following proposition : “ The ancient Church appointed Bishops over the chief cities of every region. The supreme power was given to the Metropolitan in Council with his brother Bishops. Therefore the ecclesiastical decisions of each province were of supreme authority and could not be appealed from.’’ This opinion is combated, but to very little purpose, by Schelstrate {£cc/es. Afric. sub Primat. etc.). For the question of the Roman Patriarchate, see Palmer, on the Church, part vii. ch. vii. ; Bingham’s Antiquities, ix. v. I. 9 Book II. ch. ix. Rome and the West. 257 hatched the famous Clementina had each their day of pros- perity in Rome ; and, if we are to credit the statements of Hippolytus, the taint of heresy and evil living struck deep into the characters of the Bishops Zephyrinus and Callistus. Zephyrinus, it is said,” was ignorant of sacred learning — totally illiterate, in fact ; and therefore surrendered himself to the guidance of the cunning flatterer Callistus. This Zephyrinus^ latter had been a slave; then a species of banker, a . d . 203. doing business largely on the credit of an indulgent master ; then a defaulter ; and finally a volunteer for martyrdom, having put himself in this way of restoring his broken credit by dis- turbing public worship in a Jewish Synagogue on the Sabbath. For this last offence he was scourged by order of the Prefect of the City, and banished to the Sardinian mines. Afterwards Marcia, the mistress of Commodus, who, as we have Kindness seen, was favorable to the Church, procured an edict from the Emperor for the recall of the Christian exiles ; and Callistus, though expressly excepted from the benefit of the decree, managed in some way or other to return with the rest. All this happened during the pontificate of Victor. When Zephyrinus succeeded to the episcopal chair, he saw in Callistus a useful coadjutor in the work of ‘‘oppressing the Clergy’’; put him in charge of the Cemetery, a post of no little honor ; and made him his adviser and confidential friend. Under his guidance the Bishop, it is said, played a double part. ^ While he seemed to lend an ear to the admonitions of Uono/ the Hippolytus and the orthodox side, he secretly favored the followers of the heretic Noetus. But on this latter point there was no little difference of ooinion among the Romans. See Gies. J 58 ; and Book II, ch. vii, of this History. ** I merely abridge the lively narrative of Hippolytus : Refut, Omn, Hceres, ix. 12; an account valuable for the insight it gives into the state of parties. As to the facts of the case, there is probably some exaggeration. See Bunsen’s Hippolytus ; Chr. Wordsworth’s Church of Rome in the Third Century y with reference to Hippolytus ; and Dollinger, Hippolytus u, Kal^ list us. 258 History of the Church. Ditheists, Hippolytus and his friends not only failed to persuade others that their Bishop was a heretic and a dissembler, but soon found themselves in a hopeless minority, under the nickname of Ditheists^'' or believers in two Gods. Callistus succeeded Zephyrinus, and Hippolytus was placed Caiiisius, ill ^ still more uncomfortable position. Sabellius, in- A.D. 217. deed, was excommunicated ; — a kind of peace-offering, it was thought, to the austere Bishop of Porto. But Callistus Sabellius soon showed a leaning to some other shade of the Pa- condemned. hercsy. To this he added lax views of dis- cipline, with novel and high assumptions of sacerdotal power. Laxity There was no sin, he said, that he had not power to imputed, remit. Not even for mortal sins could a Bishop be deposed from his office. Not only might married men, but even the twice or thrice married, be admitted to Holy Orders ; and those already in Orders might marry without sin. When Hippolytus remonstrated against all this, he received only the Justified by ^nswer of the Apostle, ^‘Who art thou that Callistus. another man*s servant ? ** Or, if that did not suffice him, he was reminded of ^^the wheat and tares which grow up together until the harvest or of the net that draws in fish both bad and good**; or of ^^the Ark in which clean and unclean took refuge together**; or, in short, of ^^many other things which Callistus interpreted in like manner.** The consequence was, according to Hippolytus, that people were quite bewitched with ‘‘the sorcerer** Callistus; and, His Views though secrct crimes and incredible immoralities*^ popular. were supposed to be encouraged by him, yet “many clung to him from a conviction that affairs were in the main well managed.** Having only one side of the story, and that from a witness boiling over with personal and theological resent- *2 He taught, in other words, the Divinity of the Son ; but, in maintain- ing His Personality, made Him subordinate to the Father. *3 He is said to have connived at concubinage with slaves, child-murder, and the like, on the part of wealthy Roman ladies : a charge which shows, at least, what sort of scandals could be circulated and believed. Rome and the West. 259 ment, we are not in a position to judge, at the present day, how far they were mistaken in this conclusion. The truth would seem to be, both from the testimony of Hippolytus and from Tertullian's'^ angry invectives, that Rome at that period was a great battle-ground ground. of conflicting principles. Two elements, especially, contended for the mastery there. The Greek spirit, Elements. versatile, subtle, keen in doctrinal disputation, and somewhat impracticable, found its meet exponent in Hippolytus and his party. Against this, the Latin spirit, the genius loci^ more prac- tical, more politic, and in the nicer points of divinity more ready to temporize, was beginning to make head. As this latter temper prevailed, the result was a sort of Fabian policy Fabian in the polemics of the day : a slowness of decision, Policy. and perhaps of apprehension, with regard to conflicting theo- ries, which gave Rome in the long run a practical advantage. The more impetuous Greeks might chafe at the temporary favor shown to Marcion, that ^‘first-born of the devil,** as he was called by S. Polycarp ; or to Montanus, Praxeas, Noetus, and other innovators : but this very chafing enhanced the value of the decision when at length it came, and caused it to be received with more heartfelt satisfaction. In questions of discipline, the same practical turn of mind disposed the mass of the Roman Clergy to an indulgent course and the stricter party, more or less imbued with Mon- Discipline tanistic or Encratite notions, fell into the position of a disappointed faction. The vilest sinners, it was complained, might hope for “ the Church*s peace.** The treatment Question of backsliders, in fact, was becoming the great ques- tion of the day. Many of the Bishops, especially in North Africa,"® were disposed to shut the door of forgiveness, at least De Pudicitiay 21, 22 ; which invectives, however, may have been aimed at the Bishops generally, and not (as sometimes thought) at Zephyrinus in particular. *5 Before Tertullian framed a religious language for the West, it was not easy to express in Latin the nicer points of the Greek theology. So says S. Cyprian, EpistoL Iv. ad Antonianum ; his own practice, 26 o History of the Church. against adulterers and other scandalous offenders. But Zephyri- Extrerm ^us and CalHstus offered pardon to all. Their facility Positions, respect, and their readiness to admit to com- munion, seemed hardly to fall short of that of the Elxaite sect, — a sort of Anabaptists then flourishing in Rome,^ who offered a new immersion to all who professed repentance, and promised in each immersion a plenary absolution of bygone sins. Be- tween the captivating laxity of heretics of this kind, and the plausible severity of such men as Hippolytus, it was by no means easy to steer a just middle course. The Decian persecution, and the quarrels about discipline Decian that Sprang from it, made an epoch, as we have seen, Epoch, history of North Africa : it had an equal influ- ence upon the development and the destinies of the Roman Church. In both Churches there was a chronic opposition to the ruling party. In Carthage, this opposition maintained a doc- Romeand trine of almost indiscriminate indulgence, against the Carthage, yiews of S. Cyprian. In Rome, it appeared, as already stated, under an opposite guise. But as the Cartha- ginian Novatus and the Roman Novatianus played into each other’s hands, and united on a ground of inexorable severity to the lapsed, so Cyprian and Cornelius stood together on and that middle ground of rigor tempered by a moderate use of the power of indulgence, which became, after many struggles, the general policy of the Church, This league between the two great leaders of Western Christianity was doubtless beneficial to them both. The bias towards austerity, which Cyprian had inherited from his master Ter- tullian, and that towards laxity which characterized the Clergy of the Roman Church, were moderated to a wise and religious mean. The accession of Stephen, a period to which we have been however, v/as after the full term of penance^ public confession being made^ to admit all offenders to communion. *7 See Book II. ch. vii. Rome and the West. 261 conducted by the thread of African Church History, interrupted this happy concord between the two Churches, and Stephen^ added another to the many painful disputes by which Christendom was already so scandalously divided. It was the question of the validity of baptism administered by heretics. Cyprian took the ground previously maintained by the Council under Agrippinus, that as the Church Baptism by alone has authority to baptize, no true baptism could be given out of the Church pale. Stephen commanded that converts from all sects should be received, as the sects re- ceived from one another, by penance only, with the imposition of hands. The Name of Christ, he argued, was powerful enough to give validity to any baptism in which it was invoked. In addition to this he pleaded the authority of custom. It is probable enough that the custom of many Churches, and per- haps of a majority of them, was such as he alleged. But when he proceeded, in the spirit of his predecessor, Victor, violence of to make that custom a universal law, neither North Stephen. Africa nor the East was prepared to accede to any such preten- sions. Supported by Alexandria by a letter from Firmilianus, the learned Bishop of Cappadocian Caesarea, written in behalf of many other Eastern prelates ; and by the harmonious action Cyprian. Epist. 73, Pariss. ‘‘ On this question there were three views in the early Church: (i) that of the early African Church and.of Asia Minor, in the time of Firmilian, which rejected all baptism out of the Church, schis- matical as well as heretical; (2) that of the Greek Church generally, which accepted schismatical but rejected heretical baptism; (3) that first mentioned by Stephen, Bishop of Rome, who accepted all baptism, even of heretics, which had been given in the Name of the Trinity.” See a learned note to the Oxford translation of Tertullian^ vol. i. p. 280. It has been much dis- puted, however, whether Stephen did not take the position that the Name of Christ, without any mention of the other Persons of the Trinity, was enough for a valid baptism. S. Cyprian’s language seems to say as much : but, on the other hand, the fact that he does not argue against such an extreme position, is almost fatal to the supposition that Stephen really held it. *9 Dionysius of Alexandria is thought by some to have agreed with Stephen on the abstract question ; but considered it a matter in which differ- ence of opinion ought to be allowed. See Neale’s Holy Eastern Church, 262 History of the Church. of three Councils of Carthage, in the last of which eighty-seven Cyprian's Bishops Were present : Cyprian made light of the Course. Roman custom, and set at naught the excommunica- tions of Stephen. Indeed, the latter, on account of his vio- lence, was regarded by many as having cut himself off from the unity of the Church. In all this Cyprian was thoroughly consistent. While an ardent advocate of episcopal authority, and willing to pay a certain deference to the Roman See, he always re- His Prin~ ^ cjpje of garded that authority as limited by the rights of the People on the one side, and by the essential equality of Bishops on the other. In local affairs, a Bishop could do nothing without the concurrence of the local Church ; in mat- ters of general concernment, nothing without the consent of his peers and colleagues.''* The conduct of Stephen, in endeav- oring to make the custom of one Church a law for all, was dia- metrically opposed to this wholesome rule. The baptismal controversy, like that concerning Easter, Question seems to have remained unsettled till the Council of settled. Nicaea. It made no schism, however, and the violence with which it was conducted speedily abated. Two other cases that occurred during the pontificate of Relations Stephen, served to bring out more distinctly still the of Bishops, relations of the Bishops. Martianus, Bishop of Arles, a flourishing Church in Southern Gaul, having fallen into Novatian errors, Faustinus, Bishop of Case of Lyons, and sundry others in the same Province, wrote Martianus. j-gpeatedly both to Cyprian and Stephen, soliciting Cyprian's their intervention for the relief of the afflicted Church. Letter. Movcd by their entreaties, Cyprian writes to Stephen on the subject."" ‘‘It devolves upon us,'* says he, “to extend 20 See Epistle of Firmilianus, Cyprian. Op. 2^ The term “ Brother” or “ Colleague,” was the ordinary style of Bish- ops in addressing one another. The term “ Papa,” “ Pope,” “ Father,” was applied equally to all Bishops by their inferiors in grade, 22 S. Cyprian. Epis. Ixvi. Pariss. I quote the substance only of this letter. Rome and the West. 263 both counsel and help in such emergencies. . . . For this very purpose the Bishops, though one in the bonds of unity and concord, are a numerous body ; that if one of our ^ Why more Colleagues should play the wolf and begin to scatter the flock, the others may come up to the rescue, like faithful shepherds, and gather the Lord’s sheep into the fold. There is more than one haven provided for the storm-tossed mariner, . * . more than one inn for the traveller waylaid by thieves. . . . Where one refuge fails, another, the Appeal to nearest at hand, should be promptly opened. . . . it behooves thee, therefore, brother well-beloved, to send most ample instructions to our brother Bishops in Gaul, . . . and to the people of Arles, that Martianus be deposed and another chosen in his stead.” In thus laying the chief share of the common burden upon Stephen, Cyprian was obviously influenced by the greater nearness of the latter to the scene of action. The second case was somewhat different in character. The Churches of Leon and Astorga in Spain had in due form pro- cured the deposition of their Bishops, Basilides and case of Martialis, convicted of apostasy in the Decian perse- cution ; and two other Bishops, Felix and Sabinus, had been appointed in their place. But Basilides repaired to Rome and insinuated himself into the good graces of Stephen. The Spaniards, hearing that an effort would be made cyprian to bring about his reinstatement, consulted Cyprian and the North African Church on the course to be pursued. The answer is in the name of an African Synod. It commends the conduct of the Spaniards ; shows the deposition of the two Bishops to have been in all points right- eous and canonical ; reflects obliquely upon Stephen ; and ex- horts the Churches to stand firm against any effort to reverse their decision, from whatever quarter it might come. By all means let the divine and apostolic custom be observed, which prevails among us and among almost all the provinces of the 23 Epistol. Ixvii. 264 History of the Church. world. If a prelate is to be appointed, let the neighboring Mod of Bishops of the Province come together in presence of electing the people over whom he is to be ordained, and let SishofSt the Bishop be chosen by the people present/^ who are thoroughly acquainted with his life and character. This you have done in the ordination of Sabinus, our Colleague. By the suffrage of the whole brotherhood, and by the judgment of the Bishops assembled, the Bishopric was conferred upon him, and hands were laid upon him in place of Basilides. Such an ordi- . nation cannot be disannulled. ... Be not troubled. Election not to be therefore, even though some of our Colleas;ues should annulled. ^ despise the discipline of the Church, and make com- mon cause with Martialis and Basilides ; . . . knowing that he who thus acts falls under the Divine censure expressed in the Psalm, ^ When thou sawest a thief thou consentedst unto him, and hast been partaker with the adulterers.’ ” In this way Cyprian rebuked the arbitrary spirit of Stephen, Stephen Irenaeus had rebuked that of his predecessor, Rebuked. Victor. The persecution that soon broke out under the Emperor Vale- rian was aimed especially at the leaders of the Church. According Valerian's to the imperial edict. Bishops, Priests, and Deacons were fionT^' to be put to death by the sword j Senators and Knights A.D.257-261. to lose their dignity and property ; women of condition were to be banished ; and Christians in the service of the court were to be sent in chains to labor on the public works. The object was to deprive the Church of Clergy, and stephenand^^ stop the Spread of Christianity among the higher fu^er, classes. Stephen was among the first that suffered ; A.D.257-258. toeing p^t to death, it is said, while celebrating the Service in one of the crypts of the catacombs.^ Sixtus, his successor, obtained the same honor. Thus, within a period of =4 Or, flebe preesente — in presence of the people — it may mean ; though the context, it seems to me, favors the translation I have given. 25 S. Cyprian. EpistoL Ixxxi. Pariss. ^ Pagi, Breviarium PP. R. Martyrolog. Rotnan. Rome and the West. 265 about eight years, five Roman Bishops were enrolled among the Martyrs. Cyprian in North Africa, and Dionysius cyprian, in Egypt, were at first banished ; but this being found insufficient, the former of these prelates was summoned again into the presence of the Proconsul, and was sentenced to death. He answered simply, and with dignity, God be thanked.’’ In the carrying out of the sentence there was great publicity, and much of the pomp and show of a state execution. On the restoration of peace, after the disastrous expedition against the Persians in which Valerian was made prisoner,^^ the stream of Church life flowed more tranquilly for awhile, Dionysius if not more healthily. In Africa, especially, few names of Rome, of any note present themselves till the close of the cen- tury. In Rome, the long and prosperous pontificate of Dionysius was marked by two events of considerable importance. The Clergy of Pentapolis in Egypt addressed a complaint to the Roman Bishop against his famous namesake, their own spiritual head, Dionysius of Alexandria. In the course complaint of a controversv with the Sabellians who had obtained against *' ^ Dionysius a foothold in that region, he had employed arguments of AUxan^ and analogies which seemed to make the Son inferior in substance to the Father. A Council was held at Rome, and explanations were called for.^ The Alexandrian Bishop satis- factorily cleared himself in an Apology of four Books, and the matter was soon dropped. 27 Pontius, Vit. Cypr, ; Passio Cyprian. S. Cyprian, Epistol. Ixxvi-lxxxii. After being treated with every indignity by the Persian king. Valerian was flayed alive. 29 Dionysius of Rome was an able theologian ; and came nearer, per- haps, than any divine of that age to the exact definitions of the Nicene period. See fragments of his writings in Routh, Reliqu. Sacr. iii. For the expres- sions that brought Dionysius of Alexandria into trouble, see ch. vi. of this Book. It would seem that the Roman Church, having been compelled to condemn the extremes of Theodotus on the one hand, and of the Patripas- sians on the other, and having also rejected the more subtle error of subordi- nationism (or tritheism) as held by Hippolytus, had practically attained to the exact position of the Nicene period in advance of most Churches. 12 266 History of the Church. Guard upon one another. Such transactions were a necessary fruit of the unity of the Episcopate, 3 ° a practical answer to the question, Quis custodiet ipsos Bishops a custodes ? Bishops had not only to watch their several flocks, but to keep an eye on one another. When the conduct, therefore, of any particular prelate was im- pugned, the first step would be a reference of the case to some distinguished colleague or near neighbor ; and if this failed^ a Council, as general as possible, would have to be assembled. Nothing could be more natural than such a mode of proceeding. As it was always easy, however, to run to one Bishop, but extremely difficult to bring about a concurrent action of many, it tended, on the whole, to the aggrandizement of the greater Sees ; and especially, of course, to that of the See of Rome. A second case, under the same pontificate, foreshadowed A Second another fruitful source of increase to Roman preroga- Case. On the condemnation of Paul of Samosata by the Council in Antioch, 3 * a question arose between the faction that still ad- hered to him and the party of Domnus his successor, as to the Referred to possession of Church property in that important See. ^Bisho%\^^ It was referred to the Emperor Aurelian. He again A.D. 272. committed it for decision to Dionysius and the Italian Bishops. This course, perfectly natural and equitable under all the circumstances, was the initiative of a policy, which, if Rome had continued to be the sole seat of empire, might have anticipated by some centuries the time of a great monarchy in the Church, by making the Roman Bishop the spiritual counterpart of the Emperor. Providentially the empire became divided as soon as it became Christian. Constantinople shared with Rome the imperial favor, and the centralizing drift was in part at least diverted. In the meantime, there was little in the Roman Church of Centrali- zation tendency. 30 We have already seen instances of such appeals to S. Cyprian. An- other similar case will appear in connection with Paul of Samosata. For appeals to Alexandria, see Neale’s Holy E. Churchy Book I. ? 5. 3 * See chap. v. of this Book. Rome and the West. 267 the third century, at least in point of numbers or of external show, to indicate the greatness it was destined ulti- Greatness mately to achieve. After two hundred years of daily R{man growth, the Roman Bishop could boast a clerical staff Church, of forty-six Presbyters, seven Deacons, seven Subdeacons, forty- two Alcolyths, and hfty-two Exorcists: and during the whole of the third century the number of Presby- ters ordained averaged less than two a year.33 If the people, therefore, were to the priests according to any modern ratio, their whole number could hardly have been more than fifty thousand. This was but a small proportion of a population which, at a moderate estimate, must have numbered consider- ably more than a million. It was found chiefly, sodai moreover, among the lower, or perhaps the intelligent Position. middle, and foreign classes. The Gospel, it is true, had 32 S. Cyprian declares, however, that the Emperor Decius could better brook a competitor in his throne, than a Bishop in his metropolis : a feeling that arose probably from the exaggeration of hatred, rather than from any sense of danger to his power. 33 See Pagi, Breviai'ium PP. R. who gives the ordinations of each reign in about the proportion mentioned. Calculations made from the vast extent of the Catacombs have led to the supposition of a much larger number of believers. But these calculations involve so many hypotheses^ and lead to such extravagant results, that I cannot bring myself to allow them much weight. The number of Clergy and the number of Churches in Rome (about forty towards the end of the century) are the most reliable data. See Mait- land’s Church in the Catacombs, and Northcote’s Roman Catacombs. The basis of the calculations from the Catacombs is given concisely in Rawlinson’s Historical Evidences, note xxxix. to lecture viii. Among the mere refuse of the earth, a heathen is made to say in the Octavius of Minucius Felix. This writer, probably an African by birth, is among the most graphic and lively of the Apologists. He wrote early in the century. That there must have been a fair proportion of intelligent people among the Christians is proved by the general character of the writings of the period; writings which in style and matter are far above the range of that kind of literature that would suit a mere rabble. Such expressions as “ refuse of the earth,” would be applied by a proud Roman to any foreigner, however intelligent. . S. Paul himself was doubtless so regarded by many. See Mil- man’s Hist, of Christianity, Book II. ch. ix. and Neander’s Ch. History. 268 History of the Church. been heard within the walls of the palace ; it had invaded the philosophic schools; it had made converts of senatorial rank : and in two or three cases a fitful gleam of imperial favor had awakened expectations not yet to be fulfilled. These, however, were as yet but exceptional cases. Heathenism still presented to the eye an almost unbroken front. To a stranger visiting Rome — gazing with awe upon the. Heathen of its palaces, hippodromes, theatres, F/Vw baths, porticos, and temples ; or mingling with the myriads of idolaters of every clime and rite who thronged these gorgeous centres of universal concourse, — the existence of Christianity might have been for a long time unno- ticed, or only noticed as a fact of little significance to a philo- ' sophic mind. 35 If an early riser, indeed, he might have seen a Peculiar few groups of men and women before the day dawned. Habits. stealing hurriedly to and fro in some obscure suburb. If a curious inquirer, he might have learned from some haughty Heathen Romaii that thtsQ An/etucani, ‘^haters of the light,^® Slanders, j^^ters of the gods, addicted to a skulking superstition utterly foreign to Roman habits,’^ were distinguished from other strange sects by the name of Christians. But if he wished to know more of them, he could learn it only from themselves. With no temples, no altars of any note,37and as was commonly reported no God, they celebrated sacra peregrinaundQV an impenetrable veil of mystery. Some said they met together at night for Thy- estean repasts ; that they worshipped an ass’s head ; that they practised the most abominable obscenities. Others affirmed, on 35 The silence of eminent heathen writers, on the subject of Christianity, is made much of by Gibbon. Such silence, however, was probably an affec- tation ; or, if real, it only shows how blind the wisest men are to things going on around them. B^Latebrosa et lucifuga natio, etc., etc. Minucii. Fel. Octavius. 37 Minuc. Fel. Oct. That is, with none of sufficient splendor to attract a heathen eye. In the times of the Emperor Severus, edifices of greater pre- tensions began to be reared in the principal cities. On this subject, see Prof. Blunt’s Lectures on the First Three Centuries. Rome and the West. 269 the contrary, that with the exception of their strange, unsocial, and unpatriotic ways, no harm of any sort could be sobriety alleged against them. One thing certain was, that little was seen of them on the sunny side of life ; little amid the pride and pomp of the great Roman world. The mistress of the nations sat on a dazzling throne of universal dominion. Christianity seemed but the most sullen and intractable of the many slaves^ that crouched at her imperial feet. Such was Christianity as seen from a secular point of view. But the Christians, the meanwhile, lived in a world of their own. While heathen Rome was still rearing her Christian proud fanes in the upper air, bewitching idolatrous Poi^of crowds with a glittering mockery of greatness, Chris- tian Rome was delving deep for her foundations in the bowels of the earth. Condemned to seek refuge among the dead, she found in death itself a source of inspiration. While the King of terrors mowed the heathen down like grass — a little ashes in an urn by the roadside being the fit symbol of their ephemeral existence — his presence was welcomed among the Christians as adding new recruits to their spiritual muster-roll, swelling the mighty host of invisible defenders, and increasing the volume and the efficacy of that all-prevailing prayer. Thy king- ^ ^ ^ dom come. The catacombs,^" in fact, were the tem- ples, the altars, it might even be said the literature and theology, of the primitive Roman Church. 38 Non spectacula visitis, non pompis interestis, etc. Min. Fel. Octavius. 39 Each nation had its own particular god ; but Rome, the universal and eternal, had conquered all gods, and had a place for all. This claim to a spurious Catholicty is finely stated in the Octavius. 40 Impia Roma suis scrutata est molibus astra : Scrutata est terrae viscera Roma pia. — In Subterran. Rom. Anonymi. 4 * Aringhi, Roma Suhterranea. The magnificent work of Ferret brings the subject down to the more recent discoveries : Cate combes de Rome, par Louis Ferret: Faris, 1855. ^bis splendid work the plates are very exact, and wonderfully suggestive. Christian Catacombs have been found also in Naples, Syracuse, Malta, etc. See Gieseler, § 70, n. ii. Northcote’s Roman Catacombs (London, 1857) is one of the latest works on the subject. 270 History of the Church. Resorted to at first as inviolable places of sepulture, after- wards as convenient hiding-holes from constantly recurring per- piaces 0/ secution,^^ these regions of the dead became the living Burial. heart of a most earnest faith ; the very shrine of the hallowed and stirring associations which the Resurrection of the dead, the Communion of saints, and the nearness of the Appear- ing of the King of Glory, could never fail to inspire. They were xoc[X7jzijpca, — dormitories of those who slept in Christ ; arece ^ — Places of sacred threshing-floors, in which the good grain was Worship, separated from the chaff, and garnered up for future seed-times and harvests ; concilia martyrum , — where the living martyrs and the dead could meet in conference, as it were, and take sweet counsel tegether.^^ jvjor was a tragic element want- ing, to give force and depth to suggestions of this kind. Some- times the myrmidons of power, having hunted the faithful from the daylight, would venture down in hot pursuit of them to Tragic their subterranean retreats. A Bishop would be torn Element. altar^^ and ruthlessly despatched. A knot of worshippers would be slaughtered amid their sacred rites, or 42 << Alexander is not dead, but lives above the stars, and his body rests in this tomb. He ended his life under the Emperor Antoninus, who, when he saw himself much surpassed in conferring benefits, returned hatred for kind- ness. For when he was bending the knee to offer the sacrifice of prayer to the true God, he was led away to punishment. O what times ! Inscrip- tion, translated in Maitland’s Church in the Catacombs. 43 The custom of worshipping in cemeteries, of celebrating the natalitia of the martyrs about their tombs, and especially of feasting or worshipping in such places by night, proved also a source of superstitions and abuses. The great care of the Christians in burying their dead began to degenerate, before the end of the third century, into a fondness for relics. See Gieseler, g 70. Felix, Bishop of Rome after Dionysius, is said, in the Liber Pontificates ^ to have first introduced the custom of celebrating the Eucharist over the tombs of the martyrs. Night- worship in cemeteries gave occasion to the 34th Canon of the Council of Elvira, which forbids candles to be used in those places, “ lest the spirits of the Saints should be disquieted.” See Bingham’s Antiquities^ xxiii. iii. 16 and 17 ; xx. vii. 10; viii. i. 9; etc., etc. 44 This is said to have been the end of Stephen : S. Stephan, Acta apud Surium, August 2 ; Martyrolog. Roman. Rente and the West. 271 walled up to perish of speedy suffocation. All who suffered thus, lived, in the faith of the survivors, on a glorious equality. The infant martyr and the hoary-headed Bishop alike slept in Christ, alike awaited His appearing. The same simple inscrip- tion, In Pace,^ 5 Y^as a sufficient record of them both. Thus the inania regna, the mere phantom realms of Dis as heathendom regarded them, became to Christian faith the most living and most real of all commonwealths. Persecution gave Earnest intensity to this feeling. The catacombs were its Faith, expression. Fired with this belief, the Christians closed their eyes to their own apparent inferiority; knowing that at any moment, suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, the plant grow- ing underground might rise and come forth victoriously to the light of day. In this spirit and with this faith, the Roman Church acted as if the great Babylon were already given to it in possession. Its seven Deacons, assisted by seven Subdeacons, administered the charities of the Church, and had charge of the poor in the fourteen Regiones into which the city was divided. The Pres- byters, assisted by the Acolyths, labored in the Word and the Sacraments. The large number of Exorcists sprang „ , X Working from a deep consciousness of a warfare with more than System of a 1 111 1 ••Ilf/** 1 Church, flesh and blood, — a vivid belief in the near presence and malignity of demoniacal possession. Over all the Bishop was supreme ; the foremost leader and example in times of peace, the most prominent victim in the day of persecution.^® There was little attention paid to preaching, in the modern sense of the word. The Church services, which at first were probably in Greek, were, as the Latin ele- 45 Or, VI BAS IN PACE. The earliest inscriptions are the most simple : — “ Dormit,” quiescit,’^ “ depositus est,” and the like; the formula in pace^ however, almost always being added. 46 There is no good reason to doubt that in the third century Callistus, Urbanus, Pontianus, Anterus, Fabianus, Cornelius, Lucius, Stephen, and Sixtus, successively exchanged the mitre for the Martyr’s crown ; five of them within the space of about eight years. See Pagi, Breviar, BP, B, The testi- mony of the Catacombs has made this fact more certain. Preaching, 272 History of the Church. ment increased/^ translated into the language understood by the people, and developed into a minute and elaborate system Public of instruction. Beyond this, teaching seems to have Services. familiar, expository, conversational form. In publicum muta^ in angulis garrula^ as the heathen expressed it, the Church addressed herself to individuals rather than to crowds ; so that for more than three centuries pulpit eloquence Popular was almost unknown.^® But the business of the Church Element, gcems to havc been admirably managed. The paternal element had not swallowed up the fraternal. The People took a decided interest in all affairs : and occasionally, through those popular heroes the Martyrs and Confessors, they exerted an un- due and dangerous influence. Hence the exuberance of Church life broke out frequently into faction, and once into a formid- able schism. But there were plenty of legitimate channels for popular zeal. Some fifteen hundred poor, besides widows and virgins,^^ were supported by the voluntary contribu- tions of the faithful. So lavish was the bounty thus diffused, that it created among the heathen suspicions of great Deacon stores of hidden wealth. In the reign of Valerian, Laureniius. ^j-chdeacon Laurentius was summoned and interro- gated on the subject. 5° He promised, if one day were granted, to reveal the Church’s treasures. He redeemed his pledge, having taken care in the meantime to sell the church-plate and give the proceeds to the poor, by bringing a great crowd of these living ‘‘jewels ” into the presence of the astonished and 47 In the Catacombs Greek inscriptions abound ; and sometimes even the Latin inscriptions are graven in Greek characters. ^sSozomen [Eccl. H. vii. 19) mentions it at a peculiarity of Rome that there was no teaching in the Church. See Milman’s Lat. Christianity. Minucius Felix explains, that the Christians would have been ready enough to discourse in public, if they had been allowed. 49 Euseb. vi. 43. 50 Three days before, his Bishop, Sixtus (or Xystus), had been borne to execution. Laurentius followed him in tears, saying, ‘‘ Whither goest thou, father, without thy son ? ” To which the Bishop answered, Thou shalt fol- low me in three days ! Rome and the West. 273 angry judge. For this he was slowly broiled to death on a heated iron grate, and became the most popular of Roman mar- tyrs. But it was not to the poor of Rome merely that Bounties the bounty of the Church was extended. Early in the toother Churches, second century Dionysius of Corinth had reason to laud the Christian sympathy of Rome.^^ In the Decian perse- cution the tide of liberality rolls back in fervid acknowledg- ments from the brethren of Arabia and Syria. Somewhat later, Dionysius sends a ransom for the Cappadocian Christians carried into captivity by the Gothic invaders of Asia Minor. Thus early Rome deemed it more blessed to give than to re- ceive. Her well ordered charities, even more than her con- sistent policy, were laying the foundations of that power over the hearts of men which later Rome afterwards so grievously abused. The temporary outbreak against the Christians towards the end of Aurelian’s reign, and the more systematic persecution under the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, corn- Persecu. monly called the tenth, added many names to the roll tions, a . d . of Martyrs, and raised up some vigorous defenders of Christianity : among others two African rhetoricians, Arno- bius53 and Lactantius. In the latter of these persecu- Amodius, tions the rancor of the heathen seems to have ex- hausted itself. The world was growing sick of its own atroci- ties. When Constantine entered Rome a victor,^^ his rival Maxentius having perished in battle under the walls Trophy of of the city, and when the long-hated Cross^^ was pub- Cross. licly set up in triumph, the mighty revolution seems hardly to 5* Euseb. iv. 23. 52 Euseb. vii. 5. 53 Arnobius, a heathen rhetorician, is said to have been converted by a dream. He wrote a work in seven Books on the vanity of idols, and the superstitions of the Gentiles. He also exploded the slanders so industriously circulated against the Christians. Hieronymus, in Addit. ad Chronic. Euseb. For Lactantius, see note to ch. ix. of this Book. 54 See ch ix. of this Book. 55 The following is the inscription : Hoc salutari signo, vero fortitudinis indicio, civitatem vestram tyrannidis jugo liberavi, et S. P. Q. R. in libertatem vindicans, pristinae amplitudini splendorique restitui. Euseb. Life of Con- stantine ^ i. 31. 12* 274 History of the Church. New Troubles. have excited a murmur among the body of the people. Yet it cannot be supposed that the number of believers had much increased during the times of the persecutors. It was rather Heathenism that heathenism had become unnerved. Its strength exhausted, been quietly sapped by the pervading pressure of the Truth. Accordingly, when the time was fully come, its ramparts crumbled and fell ; sinking and disappearing without apparent cause, as the walls of Jericho sank before the persist- ent faith of the chosen people. But the boon of external peace was far from bringing with it a corresponding freedom from internal feuds. The persecution had created a new sore, by exciting a bitter feeling against the traditores : persons, that is, who under fear of death had betrayed sacred books or vessels to the im- perial satellites. The victory, therefore, was hardly yet achieved, when the elements of faction, which had so often appeared before in Italy and North Africa, came suddenly to a head once more in the famous schism of the Donatists. It was a dispute as to the succession of the See of Carthage.^^ Csecilianus had been elected against the intrigues of two com- Donatist Botrus and Celeusius ; but, unfortunately. Schism, owing to these intrigues, the Numidian Bishops did A.D. 3II. ^ , not assist at the consecration. The disappointed party rallied a formidable opposition. Lucilla, a lady of influence and wealth, with certain of the seniores populi, got together a Council of seventy Numidian Bishops, who condemned Charges Csecilianus on two charges. He had been ordained by against Ccecilianus, a traditoT, it was said, — namely, by Felix, Bishop of ^ Aptunga ; he had forbidden food to be carried to some of the Confessors in prison. It is probable enough that he had opposed the extravagant devotion paid to these popular idols.^^ 5^ S. Optati, De Schismate Donaiist. Ed. Dupin. 57 Optatus says that “ Lucilla, just before the persecution, was sharply corrected by Csecilianus, then Archdeacon, because in receiving the Sacrament she kept kissing a bo 7 te of some Martyr or other, as if she preferred that to he Sacred Feast.” De Sch. Don. i. 16. Rome and the West 275 On these grounds he was condemned by the Council ; and Majorinus, a creature of Lucilla, was made Bishop in his stead. The consecrator, in this instance, being a certain Do- ^ ° Donatus. natus Bishop of Casae Nigrae in Numidia, the Schism received its name from him, and its followers were called Dona- tists or pars Donati, The name was confirmed to them by the rise of a second Donatus,^® whose ability and zeal made him afterwards a prominent leader of the sect. The question was submitted, on their part, to the Emperor Constantine, — the first instance of the kind recorded in Church history; and at his instance three Bishops of Gaul met Appeal tii in Council with Melchiades the Roman prelate, and fifteen Italians, to put an end to the dispute. Caecili- a . d . 313! anus was acknowledged, and the Donatists were con- Donatists demned. The latter, being similarly rejected after- wards at Arles^^ and other places,^ broke off entirely 314-316. from the communion of the Church. Regarding the Catholics as corrupt, apostate, and defiled by communion with traditores^ they would admit neither their baptism, ordination, nor religious vows, as of any validity whatsoever. The movement was, in fact, one of the many bitter fruits of that root Of bitterness, which under the successive forms of Judaic concisionism, philosophic encrateia, Phrygian Nature of enthusiasm, Novatian rigor, and in short phariseeism in general, had followed pace by pace the progress of the Truth, and had cast a baleful shadow upon all its triumphs. Africa had suffered more from it than any other portion of the Church. 58 S. Augustin. De Hceres. 69. 59 At Arles, Bishops were present from Gaul, Italy, Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, and North Africa, to the number, it is said, of two hundred — S. Augustin. Contra Epistol. Parvteniani^ v. 5 — among whom were three British Bishops ; Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, Adelfius of Lincoln. See Bingham, ix. vi. 20. ^ Appealing from the Synod at Arles to the Emperor, they were con- demned again at Milan ; after which they conducted themselves with greater violence. 276 History of the Church. But it was rife everywhere. The Council of Eliberis^' or Elvira Council 0/ Spain, holden soon after the outbreak of the Diocle- Hivira, persecution, is redolent of its spirit. The attempt on the part of a few to bind their own virtues on the con- sciences of all, is popular with the crowd, and even commends itself to minds of a higher order. It is honorable to the great body of the Clergy of the early Church, that resistance to the encroachments of this spirit was steadfastly maintained by struggle 0/ them. They felt a responsibility for the weaker mem- agj^st^ bers of the flock, which brought them often into con- tke strong. hard and narrow notions of influential laymen, especially of the class of Confessors. While they hon- ored the martyr-spirit, they were forced to put a check upon the extravagances which so frequently flowed from such honor. Hence the charge of starving the Confessors brought against Caecilianus. Hence the unpopularity of his sober predecessor Mensurius of whom we learn that, owing to the number of Martyrs, he excluded from the List the names of those who had put themselves in the way of persecution. Hence, in short, a struggle so close, so deadly, so confused at times, that it is difficult in many cases to distinguish which side of the line the In this austere Council, Hosius of Cordova was present, afterwards famous in connection with the Arian controversy. It forbade absolution to the lapsed even at the point of death, prohibited the Clergy, even Subdeacons, from the use of marriage ; ordered double fasts for every month except July and August, etc., etc. It was, in fact, more like a Novatian than a Catholic Council. Nineteen Bishops and twenty-six Priests were present. He saved the sacred Books by a stratagem : carrying them off and hiding them, he put in their place in the Church a collection of heretical writings. When the officers came in quest of them, therefore, he readily sur- rendered all that could be found in the Church. The trick was afterwards revealed to the Proconsul, who summoned Mensurius into his presence. The latter entrusted the sacred treasures to some of the Senioresy but, fearing that he might not return home again, took the precaution to make out a list of them, and committed it to the charge of an elderly woman. The Senior es proved false to their trust ; but the list remained, and the memory of Mensurius was vindicated. S. Optat. De Schism. Donat, Rome and the West. 277 Church occupied ; and in which truth itself seemed more or less divided. However this may be, Donatism continued for three centu- ries to devastate the African Church. Constantine endeavored to conciliate it by lenient measures. But it claimed Religious everything, and was averse to peace. Among the half- converted savages of the rural districts it became an uncon- trollable frenzy, defying the utmost force of the civil power to suppress it, and involving Catholics and schismatics alike in the complicated horrors of civil and religious wars.^^ Jt was finally extinguished, only through the downfall of African Christianity itself, by the overrunning floods of Vandal and Saracen invasion. The long'Continued struggle with these uncompromising and bitter heretics strengthened the union that existed between the daughter Church of Carthage and her Roman Rome the mother; and placed the latter more decidedly than ever at the head of the cause, not only of Italian but of North African orthodoxy. Indeed, throughout the West, to be in communion with Rome was to hate Novatianism, to abhor the Donatists. In proportion, therefore, to the length and bit- terness of the war with these rigid and powerful sects, the ties that bound the provincial Churches to the great metropolitan standard-bearer became day by day more numerous and more strong. And the Roman Church was the more decidedly committed to this position from the fact that the Donatists, claiming to be exclusively the Body of Christ, established an Episco- ^ pal succession of their own in the imperial city. This the Chair line of Bishops ran on till the times of Pope Siricius, and gave occasion to the orthodox to dwell more than had pre- viously been the case upon the succession from S. Peter, as a test of the Catholic Church, — of the Catholic Church, namely, in ^3 For a vivid account of the CircMmcelliones, see Milman’s Hisi. of Christianity, ^4 S. Optat. De Schism, Donat, lib. ii. 2. The Donatists, he argues, could count their Bishops back through Macrobius, Encolpius, Bonifacius, to Victor, 278 History of the Church. the city of Rome. The constant repetition of this argument, legitimate enough in the question between the two lines of Bish- ops in Rome and Carthage, had the effect nevertheless of unduly exalting the position of the great Western See, and in course of time opened the way for encroachments upon the rights of other Churches. In this way the Donatist Schism became a most im- portant element in the History of the Latin Church. CHAPTER V. THE CHURCH AND SCHOOL QF ANTIOCH. While the West was thus absorbed in questions of discipline or The East of practical religious life, the more speculative East Theological. intent on theology proper ; Antioch and Alexan- dria continuing to be the centres of activity in this direction. Antioch, the head of the Syrian Churches, with more or less of a patriarchal influence over Cilicia, Phoenicia, Comagene, Osrhoene, and Mesopotamia,* had shared very largely in that general awakening of thought which distinguished the latter Theophiius, half of the second century. Theophilus, the sixth A.D. i8i. Bishop in descent from the Apostles, a convert from heathen philosophy, was among the foremost in this respect. He wrote against Marcion, Hermogenes, and other heretics ; left Trias or RR Apology in three Books, noted for elegance of Trimias. ^^g among the first to introduce the word Trias or Trinity into common use among theological writers.* who was sent from Africa to Rome in the time of Constantine : the Roman Bishops could trace back their line to S. Peter and S. Paul. It was obvious, therefore, that the claim which the Donatists made to the See of Peter had no historic foundation. * See Bingham’s Antiquities, ix. ii. 9. * The three Persons of the Trinity he distinguished as God, the Word^ Wisdom. The Church and School of Antioch. 279 At this period discussions with heretics, both oral and in writing, employed much of the time and demanded all the skill of the chief pastors of the Church. Such discussions necessarily led to the study of philosophy and dialectics, and to a more critical and searching examination of the sacred text. S. Babylas,3 the twelfth in the succession, distinguished him- self as a bold and prudent leader during the temporary occu- pancy of Antioch by the Persian king Sapor ; and was afterwards a Martyr in the Decian persecution. As he Martyr^ ... A.D. 250. was led to execution, he lifted up his voice in a song of triumph, ^‘Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with me.’’ Three youthful disciples suf- fered with him. As the officer was taking off their heads, the saint cried aloud, ‘‘Behold, I and the children which the Lord hath given me.” When the Novatian troubles broke out at Rome, Fabius, the immediate successor of Babylas, took part with the schismatics and summoned a Council, to which he in- vited also Dionysius of Alexandria. He died, however, before the Council could assemble : and when it finally came , Novatian together, the cause of Novatian was condemned, condemned, Fabius was succeeded by Demetrianus, and Deme- trianus by that arch-innovator in doctrine and in morals, Paul of Samosata. The latter was no sooner seated in the episcopal chair, than he began to give general offence. His pravity has been vari- ously ascribed to a Judaizing leaven still working in ^ the Syrian Church,^ to intimacy with the new Plato- Samosata, ^ ^ . A.D. 262. nists, who were then at the height of their celebrity or finally to his own ambitious and frivolous disposition. Much stress has been laid upon the last of these. Not content with the profound respect universally paid to the Clergy, he affected much of the state and assumed the airs of a man of the world, a philosopher, and bel esprit. He thus identified himself with a 3 Cave’s Lives of the Fathers, vol. i. ; S. Chrysost. lib. de S. Babyl. ^Newman’s Arians of the Fourth Century, chap. i. \ i. Fabius. 28 o History of the Church. refined and intellectual but vainglorious circle, which flour- ished at that time in the luxurious capital of the East, cherished Court of hy the smiles of Zenobia, the renowned and brilliant Zenobia. queen of Palmyra. The famous Longinus was one of their great lights. With Christianity as a religion they had little to do ; but for Christianity as a philosophic system, based upon writings remarkable for their sublimity and beauty, they could hardly fail to entertain a certain respect. To win such men, and to make Christian life and doctrine palatable to them, may possibly have been an object with such a man as Paul. But the bulk of believers were too sturdy and too real to feel much sympathy with such liberality. Paul became odious to his brethren in proportion as he commended himself to a more cpurtly circle. He was accused of pride, arrogance, luxury, and venality. The hymns commonly sung to Christ as God, and which had special been all along a chief bulwark of the Creed, he de- ^gaintt dared to be mere novelties of the date of the Roman Paul. Bishop Victor,^ and forbade them to be used in his Church any more. In their place he substituted verses of his own composition, sung with great eclat by a trained choir of women. He held, or acted as if he held, the office of duce- narius and delighted to be seen in the forum attended by a crowd, and seemingly absorbed in a multiplicity of business. In religious affairs also he affected much state ; preached with vehement gesticulations ; and encouraged the bad practice, afterwards shamefully prevalent in the Church, of applauding the eloquence of the preacher, instead of hearkening to his message in respectful silence. He connived at the abuse, on the part of the Clergy, of living on too familiar terms with adopted virgin sisters^’; and set a scandalous example in this respect. To crown all, he took care to lay people under so 5 Compare Euseb. v. 28, and vii. 30. ^ It is hard to say, from the letter of the Bishops (Euseb. vii. 30), whether he held such an office, or only affected the style of it. The office was named from the salary, viz., 200,cxx) sesleri. 28r The Chmxh and School of Antioch. many obligations, or so to intimidate them by his threats and frowns, that hardly any one could be found to come forward as an accuser or witness against him Such charges, in this and similar cases, may have arisen in part from theological resentment, and from the general preva- lence in the Church of austere views. The earnest- Heresy ness with which they were urged, however, is an and EvU o ^ ^ ^ Ltuifig, interesting fact, as showing that corruptness of living could not be dissociated as yet from corruptions in the Faith. The error of Paul, like that of Ebion, Theodotus, and Arte- mon, consisted in a denial of the personal preexistence of Christ, and, of course, in a denial of the Trinity, ex- Error of cept in such sense as could be reconciled with Neo- Platonic views. Jesus he believed to have been a mere man, though miraculously conceived and supernaturally fa- Humani^ vored. To this man, growing up in sinless perfection, the Divine Word or Reason became united. Jesus thus dwells in the Divine Wisdom, He is clothed with it. He participates in it. That He is the Divine Wisdom Paul was unwilling to con- fess. He believed in Plim and adored Him as a sort of deified man. 7 Alarmed by these novel views, which commended themselves both to the Judaizing and philosophizing circles of the court, and which seem to have been conveyed in the form of Appeal to captious and sceptical inquiries rather than in clear definitions,^ the Antiochean clergy acted on the principle of which so many precedents had already been afforded, and ap- plied for relief to the neighboring Bishops. Dionysius of Alex- andria, Hymenaeus of Jerusalem, Firmilianus the learned prelate 7 The heresy of Paul is quite fully discussed in Mosheim’s Hist, Cotn- mentaries on the First Three Centuries, See, also, Gieseler, Eccl, Hist, ^ 6o, note 12 . ^ His Ten Queries, not particularly well answered by Dionysius of Alex- andria (if the Answer to the Ten Queries be his), embrace most of the diffi- cult passages of the New Testament, in which our Lord is spoken of according to His humanity. See Mansi, Concil., Council of Antioch, 282 History of the Church. Two Councils. Third Council of A ntioch.^ A.D. 269. Death of Firmilian. of Caesarea in Cappadocia, and other distinguished pastors, were written to and invited to intervene. Dionysius could not come to Antioch ; but after a sharp correspondence with Paul,^ wrote to the Church a letter condemnatory of him, purposely omitting the customary form of salutation to the Bishop. The other chief pastors assembled once and perhaps twice in Council ; but, owing to the evasions of Paul and the moderate counsels of Firmilianus, were satisfied with vague promises of repentance and amendment. The abuses and false teaching still going on, a third Council of the Church had to be assembled ; on his way to which, Firmilianus, one of the worthiest and most respected of the prelates of his times, was taken sud- denly ill and departed this life in peace. He was a disciple and warm friend of Origen ; had taken part in a great Council at Iconium, in which Montanist baptism was rejected by the Bishops of Phrygia, Galatia, Cilicia, and Cap- padocia ; and, as we have seen, was a staunch supporter of Cyprian in his controversy with Stephen. It was owing to his high character rather than to the eminence of his See, that he exerted so great an influence in the matter of Paul. In Malchion. y. r y ^ /'A*'! his absence, Malchion, a Presbyter of Antioch, a sophist by education, and head of the Catechetical School, seems to have been the guiding and controlling spirit. Hith- erto, Paul had been examined chiefly as to what he held, and by a skilful use of phrases, or by vague pro- fessions of behef in the Divinity of Christ, had man- aged to conceal his errors. Malchion questioned him more closely as to what he denied.^® By this the heresy was un- covered. In an encyclical letter addressed ‘^to Dionysius and PauVs Error detected. 9 Without accepting the letters (given in Mansi, Concilia) as genuine, I cannot but believe there was some such correspondence. The assertion of the Council that Dionysius wrote without condescending to notice Paul, ap- plies only to the letter laid before the Council. *0 Such, at least, is the spirit of the questions given in Mansi, Concilia : c. g., ‘^;ion concedis filium unigenitum ... in toto salvatore bvccuOaij^* etc. The Church and School of Antioch. 283 Maximus,” and to all other fellow-ministers throughout the world, Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons, and to Letter of the whole Catholic Church throughout the world in all places under heaven ; '' and written in the name of Helenus, Hymenseus, Theophilus, Theotecnus . . . and Malchion and Lucius, and others who are Bishops, Presbyters, or Deacons, . . . together with the Churches of God:’’ the condemna- tion of Paul, with the appointment of Domnus in his Paul and stead, was formally promulged and commended to the -Oomnus. faithful everywhere. “We have communicated this to you,” is their language to the Roman Pontiff, that you may write and receive letters from him ’ ’ (namely, from Domnus, who had been elected in the place of Paul); “but the other (namely, Paul) may write to Artemas if he pleases, and those that think with Artemas may have communion with him.”” This transaction, so public, so formal, so deliberate, involving a cause and a person of the highest importance, participated in by the foremost prelates of the times, and unanimously concurred in by all the Churches, is a striking illustra- tion of the Catholic unity of this period. It is obvious that this unity involved no supremacy of any particular See. no S upreme The Council wrote to the Roman Bishop as to all other prelates and Churches, merely to inform him of what had been done, and to show him where he should extend the right hand of fellowship. It is an equrhy striking illustration of the firmness and decision with which the essentials of the Faith were held. So long as the question could be made to turn on a mere oneness in word — namely, on the force of the term consubstan- tiaH ^ — Paul was able by his sophistry to blind the eyes of his That is, Dionysius of Rome and Maximus of Alexandria, the latter having succeeded Dionysius the Great in that See a short time before. Euseb. vii. 30. *3 The term was not accepted by the Council, because in the skilful hands of a man like Paul it could easily be made to bear a Sabellian interpretation. When it was afterwards adopted in the Council of Nice, it was with an express understanding that the Sabellian gloss was not to be admitted. It shows, Catholic Unity. 284 History of the Church. brethren. But when it came to the point of a simple affirmation or denial of the proper divinity of Christ, there was room for no further evasions. On that subject, at least, the mind of the Church was clear. After the sentence of the Council the party of Paul still held together, under the protection of Zenobia, and Domnus was Sect of unable to get possession of the episcopal abode. But Paul. when Zenobia had been conquered by Aurelian, the question was referred, as we have seen, to the Italian Bishops, who adjudged the Church property to the orthodox side. A sect of Paulites, however, or Samosatenians, continued in existence during the rest of the century. The struggle with this heresy had an influence, perhaps good in the main, though not unmixed with evil, upon the theological School 0/ development of the Antiochean Church. A good effect Antioch, increased interest awakened in the study of the Doroihrus. Scoptures. Dorotheus, a Presbyter learned in Greek and Hebrew, who flourished till the times of Julian the Apostate, Eusebius, was a leader in this direction. So also Eusebius of Alexandria, who had been sent by Dionysius to take Anatolius, part in the controversy against Paul, and Anatolius, an Aristotelian and eminent mathematician. There were, in short, many learned men,"^ with much study, much discussion, much effort to reconcile religion with what was then considered science, — much earnest and thoughtful, and in some cases, it would seem, skeptical investigation. The Aristotelian method, which is better fitted for the detec- tion of bad reasoning than for the discovery of truth, was much Bias ^ in vogue there. There was also a vicious habit of Error. making sacred themes the subjects of school exercises in declamation or debate. In addition to all this, there was however, the weakness of the best-considered words in defining the Faith, that notwithstanding this precaution, there was a tendency among some of the most earnest advocates of the Nicene Creed to fall back into the error of Sabellius or into that of Paul. Marcellus of Ancyra was an eminent example of this. '4 Euseb. vii. 32. The Church and School of Antioch. 285 a subtle influence of the Judaizing spirit ; the existence of which was indicated by the fact that Quartodecimanism began to revive in Antioch towards the close of the century though in other quarters it had sensibly declined. Among the teachers who gave celebrity at this period to the School of Antioch, Lucian, surnamed the Martyr, LucUn labored with great zeal in the text of holy Scripture, but, falling into errors akin to those of Paul, seems to have merited the bad name of father of the Arian heresy.'® His fault was atoned, in the eyes of contemporaries, by a Father of glorious martyrdom. It was revived, however, in the memory of posterity, by the marked pravity of his disciples, Arius, Eusebius of Nicomedia, Maris of Chalcedon, Theognis of Nicaea, Leontius of Antioch, Asterius, and other distinguished men and women afterwards notorious in the Arian strife. At a later period, Chrysostom somewhat redeemed the character of this School ; but what it gained in him, it lost in the person of the heretic Nestorius. The Christians of Antioch seem to have suffered less from persecution than their brethren in other places, and to have enjoyed on the whole a larger freedom. From the ^ ^ fury of Diocletian, however, or rather of Maximin, ^om o/ they did not escape so easily. Among others that suffered, Lucian was carried a prisoner to Nicomedia, where by his fervid exhortations he restored some who had fallen from the Faith, and prepared them for a martyr’s crown. He was starved to death in prison. His fellow-prisoners, it is said,'^ being at a loss for an altar on which to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, he laid himself out on his back and said to them. This breast shall be *5 Tillemont, Mem, vol. iii. makes the cessation of Quartodecimanism in Asia more absolute than is warranted by his authorities. See Letter of Con- stantine to the Churches, Socrat. Hist. i. 9 ; and on the subject of this para- graph generally, see Newman’s ArianSy i. i. Arius claimed him — Theodoret. Eccl. Hist. i. 5 ; and the Catholics more or less admitted the claim — Theod. i. 4. *7 Apud Stiriumy Jan. 7. 286 History of the Church. your Table, and you standing round shall be my holy Temple. A Living this posture he continued for fourteen days, till at last with the simple confession, I am a Christian, he departed in the peace of God. But, as usual in times of trial, there were many weak souls unable to endure the torments or put up with the disgraces to Desperate which the tyrants resorted.*^ Besides those who lapsed, shifts, some were driven to the alternative of self-destruction. Two virgins of Antioch, well known in the city for their rank and beauty, drowned themselves to escape the hands of the soldiers. Similar acts of desperation occurred everywhere, and are impartially recorded by the early Church. The history of martyrdom is not a record of heroism only, or of unsullied faith ; it abounds with most instructive lessons of all possible shades of human frailty and imperfection. CHAPTER VI. THE EGYPTIAN CHURCH. Whatever there was of good in the labors of Origen, remained and stamped itself upon the Church mind of his age. His Origen' s numerous disciples were able, orthodox, and highly Disciples, influential teachers. That they inherited so much of the solid merit and so little of the extravagance of their master, may be fairly attributed to the firm stand taken against the latter by Demetrius and the Alexandrine Church.* Dionysius, surnamed the Great, a convert from heathenism Dionysius, ^md a man of large learning, elected to the Episcopate A.D. 247. Alexandria the second in order after Demetrius, was one of the most eminent of these disciples. Like his master, *8 Euseb. viii. 12, 13. *On this chapter, see Neale’s Holy Eastern Church\ Eusebius. Eccl. Hist, vi. 26, 30, 35, and parts of Book VII. The Egyptian Church. 287 he had been for some time at the head of the Catechetical School. The habit of examining and proving all things had been the means, under God, of bringing him to the Truth. He persisted in the habit; and that he might be ‘‘a wise money- changer,’ quick in the detection of spiritual counterfeits, he gave much of his time to the perusal of heretical and philosophic books : — what scruples he had on the subject being specially removed by a vision. He thus qualified himself to take an in- telligent part in the questions of the day. His noble conduct in the Decian and Valerian persecutions, and in the great plague that followed, has already been alluded to in the third chapter of this Book. It shows his his Nohie thorough good sense, that, in the latter calamity, he caused those who did their duty, and perished in ministering to the sick, to be enrolled in the rank of Martyrs. Like Cyprian, his great contemporary, he kept up the friend- liest relations with the Roman Church. In the schism that broke out there, having made himself acquainted with the He opposes merits of the case, he took the side of Cornelius ; and when Novatian wrote to him, by way of apology, that he had been forced against his will to take the Bishopric, he exposed the hollowness of the pretence by quietly advising him to resign. ^ On the vexed question of the day, the treatment, namely, of those who had fallen from the Faith, the Alexandrine rule was milder than that which- commonly prevailed. In the West it was considered a great stretch of charity that those who had given evidence of repentance before being taken with a mortal illness, should be allowed the communion at their death. In Lenity to Alexandria, the indulgence was granted without refer- ence to the time at which penitence began. Novatian severity, therefore, won little favor there. So widely, however, had the seeds of that error been scattered through the world, and so strong was the leaning towards austere views, that Dionysius 2 “ Be ye wise money-changers,” — a saying attributed to our Lord, or to some one of His Apostles. 3 Euseb. vi. 45. 288 History of the Church. found it necessary to warn his people on the subject, both orally and in writing. He wrote, also, against Novatian to the Churches of Armenia and Asia Minor ; looked with much concern upon the effort made by Fabius in Antioch to have the heresy endorsed by a Council of that Church ; and it was through his influence mainly that the Council, when convened, decided against the wishes of their recently departed Bishop. A little while later The Bisk- he had the satisfaction of announcing to the Roman ops united, ^\\ Cliurches of the East, previously divided on the subject, were restored to peace, and that all the chief pastors were in a state of delightful concord. The cultivated tone of the Alexandrine Church rendered it comparatively free from the sensuous or enthusiastic heresies. In Arsinoe, however, and the surrounding district, the Chiliasm. Millenarians effected a lodgment for awhile ; their literal interpretation of the Apocalypse having gained an eloquent ^ expositor in the person of one Nepos,^ a Bishop of good character, who by hymns and discourses and pungent confutation of the Allegorists, as the opposite party were called, stimulated the popular expectation of a temporal kingdom of the Messiah. After his death, his followers began to withdraw from communion. Being simple-minded men, they had a vague feeling, perhaps, that the Church was becoming too Charity scholarly and too intellectual.^ Dionysius made a visit Victorious, disaffected region; invited the Clergy and people to a public conference ; conciliated them by warm expressions of 4 Baronius contends that the letter refers to the question of Rebaptizing ; in proof of which he urges that Antioch was the only part of the East dis- turbed by Novatianism. There is no ground for this assertion. On the con- trary, the fact is patent that Dionysius wrote on the subject of Novatianism to many Churches. In addition to which it is to be noticed that, in the letter to Dionysius of Rome, Demetrianus^ the immediate successor of Fabius, is par- ticularly mentioned among the harmonized Bishops. See Euseb. Eccl, Hist, vii. 25. 5 Euseb. vii, 24. ^ Observe the slightly patronizing but kindly and charitable way in which Dionysius praises the village presbyters and teachers who met him in conference. Euseb. vii. 24. 289 The Egyptian Church. esteem for their departed Bishop; made many judicious conces- sions; and finally, after three days of charitable discussion, con- vinced them of the sin and folly of their course. In the agitation of this subject, the letter of the Apocalypse gave him so much trouble that he was disposed to question the authority of the Book. But, with his usual moderation, he refrained from rejecting ‘‘what so many of the brethren highly esteemed.*' Suspecting “ a sense in it that lay deeper than words," he was content “to admire it the more " in proportion as his “reason failed to sound the depths of its meaning." He argued, however, that it was written by some other than S. John the Apostle. ^ In the Baptismal controversy, Dionysius was more anxious for peace than for victory to either side. His own mind, it would seem, was not quite made up on the subject.® Baptismal He had before him the case of those, who, having left the Church, had afterwards returned ; or who, having been initiated in some sect, had received from them a baptism pro- fane and even blasphemous in form ; or of those whose doubtful or defective baptism had been covered, as it were, by long com- munion in the Church. Whether he contemplated distinctly the question of a baptism unobjectionable in form, but defective in respect of an authorized minister, the extracts from his writings given by Eusebius are insufficient to deter- mine. However this may be, he had no sym- pacific pathy with the arbitrary course of the Roman Bishop. “The custom** (of rebaptizing), he urged, “is not now introduced for the first time, nor in the African Church only. It was known long ere this, under Bishops before us, and in populous provinces ; approving itself to the Synods holden at Iconium and Synnada, and to many of the brethren. 7 His doubts were based chiefly on differences of style, which he points out with much acuteness in the manner of modern criticism, but in a more reverential spirit. See Euseb. vii. 25. ® Neale’s positive declaration, that he was opposed to the rebaptizers, is not warranted at all by the passages cited in its favor : Holy East. Churchy i. 7. See Euseb. vii. 5, 9. 13 290 History of the Church. I cannot bear that they should be embroiled by a reversal of their decisions. For it is written, Thou shalt not remove the landmarks of thy neighbors, which thy fathers have set.’^ This temperate course did much towards allaying the heat of the controversy; the renewal of persecution, under the Emperor ^ Valerian, probably did more. During the prevalence tion, of this Storm, the forty-two months of which natur- A.D. 257. suggested visions of Antichrist, Dionysius being banished from his See to Cephron in Libya, labored for the spread of the Gospel in the parts thereabout, and wrote two Paschal of epistles called Paschal Letters. The custom of Letters. announcing to the Church the beginning of Lent and Easter Day, with religious exhortations suitable to the sea- son, became a prerogative of the See of Alexandria, and was confirmed to it by canon in the great Council of Nicaea. In the Sabellian controversy with some of the Clergy of Pen- tapolis, already referred to in the fourth chapter of Sabellian , . -r> , 1 • 1 • o 1 t ^ Contra- tliis Book, and in the painful proceedings connected versy, ' with Paul of Samosata, an important step was made towards that distinctness of conception with regard to the great verities of the Creed, which was becoming more and more necessary to the continuance of peace. The former case showed how easily the most orthodox might fall into seeming heresy,^ for want of guardedness and precision in the use of terms. But Dionysius had the grace to explain his meaning. His contemporaries had the still rarer grace to accept his explanation. Had it proved otherwise, Arianism might have risen upon the Church a half century sooner than it did, and Alexandria, like Antioch, might have Charity and Wisdom. 9 Intent upon vindicating the personality of the Son, and having in view His human nature only, he said : The Son of God was made and produced. He is not proper in his nature, but differing in essence from the Father, as the vine from the vine-dresser and the ship from the shipwright ; for seeing that He was made. He was not before He was produced.” His meaning is defended iri S. Athanas. De Senient. S. Dionys. ; in Bull, Defens. F. N. ; in Holy East. Church; in Burton’s Testimonies of the Ante- Nicene Fathers. 291 The Egyptian Church. numbered an arch-heretic among its Bishops. In later times, when controversy became more bitter and charity more rare, there was less willingness to admit the soundness of Dionysius.*® But his defence with posterity is his undoubted humility and moderation. With a certain independence of mind and freedom of expression, characteristic of the Alexandrine School, he was aware of the imperfections of human thought and human lan- guage. For this reason he was wary of the use of the term consubstantial^^ Its meaning was not yet settled “ of one , - , , . . Substance:^ in the Church, and a word of unsettled meaning is always liable to abuse. For the same reason he was ready to examine and reexamine, to discuss, to explain, to retract if necessary, to understand those who were opposed to him in opinion, and, if possible, to put himself in a position to be understood by them." In this respect, the disciples of Origen and the Alexandrine School seem to have been in advance of most of their contemporaries. Dionysius was succeeded by Maximus, and Maximus by Theonas ; from whose patriarchate, that is, from the first year of the reign of the Emperor Diocletian, began the Era oif the so-called era of the Martyrs : the Alexandrine Church Martyrs.^ having adopted that epoch, instead of the Incarnation, as the beginning of its years. During all this time, the Cate- chetical School continued in a flourishing condition under Clement II.; under Pierius, who by his many able writings won the title of the second Origen ; and under Theognos- Peter the tus, Serapion, and Peter. On the death of Theonas, Peter, the last of these, surnamed the Martyr, succeeded to his S. Basil, e, g.y regarded him as Fons Arii. ** Which he seems to have used, however, for Athanasius says to the Arians (in a passage quoted by Burton in his Testimonies, etc.), ‘‘ If the patrons of this heresy think that Dionysius agreed with them, let them also acknowl- edge the term consul statitial which he used in his Defence, and that the Son is of the substance of the Father, and also His eternity.” In the way of good sense, good temper, and real Christian charity and moderation, I doubt whether the early Church affords a better lesson than the conduct of Dionysius as described in Euseb. vii. 24. 292 History of the Church. Troubles. place. He had the honor of being the first Bishop of Alexan- dria who sealed his testimony with his blood. The internal troubles common to all the Churches at this period, and which the Egyptian Church under a succession of able and saintly Bishops had rather pruned and kept down than really eradicated, began now to show them- selves in the utmost rankness and profusion. The See of Lycopolis, for some reason now unknown, had an influence in Egypt second only to that of Alexandria. Mele- tius, its incumbent at the end of the third century, Meletian , ^ .1 1 1 -i Schism, was accused of apostasy, and in a Council holden at A.D. 301. * ^ Alexandria was convicted and deposed. He refused to submit to the sentence. Availing himself, as was common with schismatics, of the strong and general sympathy for austere views, he broke off into a sect ; adopted a narrow platform akin to Novatianism ; and proceeded to consecrate new Bishops for all the principal Sees. The schism made itself acceptable by some peculiar rites; by religious dances; by promises of a Heaven suited to gross and fanciful conceptions. Among its favorers, for awhile, was that restless and subtle spirit, the cele- brated Arius. Its rapid spread may be accounted for in part by the persuasive talents of its leaders. It would seem to indicate, however, that in Egypt as in North Africa, and indeed in all parts of the world, the great mass of believ- ers were but partially instructed and that the seeds of heresy — crude notions, half-knowledge, one-sided views, and vague and restless emotionalism — must in the nature of things have been widely disseminated. All this might have led to more extensive revolts, if a vent Monach- ^0^ the errant enthusiasm so common in those times had not been providentialy afforded, in the spontaneous chorets,etc. growtli of mouastic or anchorite establish- ments in the deserts of the Thebais. In reference to this move- rs Alexandria, in fact, with its high-toned, refined, and subtle orthodoxy, and with its essentially Greek spirit, must have been very far in advance of the simple (and perhaps sensuous) faith of the remoter districts. Its rapid spread. 293 The Egyptian Church. ment, considering that it arose among the Laity altogether, the course of the Church was eminently tolerant. The Therapeu- t3e of the first century, citizens of Heaven upon earth,'* were probably a communistic Christian sect. Frontonius and seventy companions led the life of recluses, in the middle of the second century. But when the calamitous times of Decius and his successors made common life a burden almost too great for human strength; when the feeling that things were coming rapidly to an end,*^ was wellnigh universal ; men fled from society in all directions, so that the deserts of Egypt and Mount Sinai became populous with Anchorets. It was pree a free and spontaneous movement, the more remark- able that it sprang up at a period when the Church, by her frequent services, by her exact discipline, and by her continuous struggle with ascetic extravagances, seemed committed against all forms of eccentricity, or even, it may be said, of private judgment in religion. S. Antony, the father of Christian Monachism, was an emi- nent example of the spontaneousness of this movement. Brought up in the seclusion of a pious home, and so averse to the society of youths of his own age that his parents though rich never sent him to school, he was left an orphan at twenty, without a friend or companion except his sister, and almost without an acquaintance in the world. One day, in church, not long after the death of his parents, he heard the words of the Lord, If thou wilt be per- fect, go sell that thou hast and give to the poor." He obeyed .S’. Antony, His Faith, ^4 See Book I. ch. iv. On this subject generally, see Sozoinen, Eccles, Hist. i. 1 1- 1 4. *5 S. Cyprian’s Epistoh ad Demetrianum contains an elaborate argument to that effect. ^^Sozomen, Eccles. Hist. i. 13; S. Athanas. Vita S. Anton, This work is possibly spurious, or more or less interpolated. It is none the less, how- ever, a most instructive sketch of a peculiar religious experience, well worthy of attention on the part of thoughtful Christian men of every age of the world. For an appreciative though brief account of S. Antony, see Hase, Hist, of the Christian Churchy \ 65. 294 History of the Church. the Divine injunction to the letter. He went home, sold his goods, and distributed the proceeds to his neighbors and to the poor, reserving only a small portion for the necessities of his sister. Shortly after, when again in church, he felt himself par- ticularly addressed by the words, ‘‘Take no thought for the morrow.^* His conscience smote him. He had been taking thought ! As soon as he returned home, therefore, he dis- tributed his sister^s portion along with the rest of his property; providing for her, however, in a kind of religious house. His Reality of subsequeut course was in accordance with this begin- Character. Having heard, that if a man did not work, neither should he eat, he made manual labor a part of his exercises. In the same spirit, he endeavored to comply literally with the precept, “ Pray without ceasing.*' Whatever his mind took up from the letter of Scripture was carried straightway into practice, and so became indelibly stamped upon it. A more complete reaction from the ultra-spiritual and ultra- intellectual tendencies of the doctors of the Alexandrine School cannot easily be imagined. It was a life, in fact, almost as much apart from the com- munion of the Church as from the ordinary ways of the world : A Life ^ strictly and entirely between the soul and God. %Vinthe Of the experiences of such a religion no one can be a ^ndfhe but he who has been in some way a subject Church. Qf- t]^em. It is enough to notice, therefore, without philosophizing upon a state in which outward and inward im- pressions seem to have been completely blended, that for some fifteen years in his cell, and for twenty years in the closer seclu- *7 One of the latest examples of this intense individualism in religion is afforded in that curious and edifying book, “ The Lord’s Dealings with George Muller : ” — a most remarkable man and singularly endowed with the “ gift” of faith, if, as there is no good reason to doubt, his account of himself be true. His sister appears to have been like-minded with himself. When the two met again at a later period, she was at the head of a flourishing sister- hood. The Egyptian Church. 295 His power as a Precuher, sion of his castle/^ Antony battled with fleshly, worldly, and demoniacal temptations;^® tamed his strong passions Antony's and strong fancy into obedience to a still stronger will ; and acquired a fame which obliged him at last to receive disciples, and to show his face again to his innumerable eager admirers. When he issued from his retreat, it was observed with astonishment that he was as hale and youthful in appear- ance — neither fat nor lean, but with a light in his eye and a ruddy glow on his cheek — as when he originally entered. What was more remarkable, he was singularly polished, quiet and self-possessed in his manners. The grace of eloquence was on his lips. To those who gathered around him he spake affectionately in the Egyptian tongue ‘‘Let- ters, my children, are good for our instruction ; but it is an excellent thing to exhort and teach one another. Do you, then, as children, tell your father what things you have learned ; and I in turn, as your elder, will give you the fruits of my experience.’* To his persuasive preaching, • 1 1 • 111 rr^i IVorks. miracles, it is said, were sometimes added. “The Lord healed many, in answer to his prayers ; and many were delivered from unclean spirits. He consoled the afflicted, he *9 His first place of refuge was among the tonabs, his second in a ruined castle, a haunt of serpents and wild beasts. *0 The tempter brought before him images of the wealth and worldly pleasures he had given up ; assumed the shape of a beautiful woman ; and when all this failed, filled his cell with demons who assumed beastly forms, and left him almost dead from physical exhaustion. On one occasion, in the desert, the fiend threw a discus at him ; which when the saint contemplated in surprise to see such a missile in such a place, it slowly melted into air and disappeared. Vit. Anton. There is reason to suppose that in most of the provinces of the Empire ordinary teaching was still confined to the Greek and Latin languages. In North Africa, for example, it was a matter of rejoicing, even as late as the times of S. Augustine, that one Presbyter could be found who could speak in the Punic tongue. On this, see Miinter. Pi'imord. Eccl. Afric. cap. v. In the East, however, the Liturgies were translated into various tongues. 22 Whatever may be thought of the miracles of S. Antony, his modesty and humility in connection with them are worthy of admiration. Thus Marcianus, 296 History of the Church. reconciled enemies, he composed differences, by simply urging upon men that ‘‘nothing in this world is to be preferred to the love of Christ/* With such a leader, the cell or the laura soon became more congenial to many minds than the social joys of the Church. The Among the savage crags and the awful desolation of Laura. mountainous region between the Red Sea and the Nile a refuge was provided for those redundant souls who, with a strong desire to do, but an irresistible propensity to overdo, are apt to be jostled from the walks of common life, and are condemned either to inaction or to eccentric courses of their own. The Christian Church did not originate this movement : it belongs, in fact, to natural religion. She saw in it, how- ever, some elements of good : and when, in the Dioclesian Antony in pcrsecution, the strong man of the desert came down Alexandria. Alexandria to see how it fared wdth his brethren — “ prepared,** as he expressed it, “either to combat himself or to behold the combatants;** or when, soberly and prudently, with the gentleness of a woman, he ministered to the wants of the Confessors in prison — the very^eathen respecting Con%s£r- the sanctity of his character : then she began to glory ship. Anchorets almost as much as in her noble army of Martyrs. The system, in fact, was but another form of con- a military prefect, came to his door, and was very importunate in his request that he would cast out a devil which possessed his daughter. The saint at length showed himself and said : “ Why criest thou to me ? I also am but a man. If thou believest in Christ whom I serve, then pray to God, and it shall be done.’^ Then the man believed, and called upon Christ, and his daughter was healed. Vit. Anton. 23 There was a peculiar amiability about him. In the desert, he not only raised food for himself, but cultivated little patches of ground for the benefit of chance travellers. The wild beasts at first gave him trouble, by trampling on his corn. But one day he laid his hand gently on one of them, and said to the rest : “ Why trouble a man who does you no harm ? Depart, in the name of the Lord.” Afterwards they gave him no further trouble. I can- not but think that it was this sweetness of temper, united to a dauntless cour- age and immovable self-possession, that secured him immunity in Alexandria when less eminent believers were in constant peril. The Egyptian Church. 297 fessorship. As one field closed by the cessation of persecution, a new field opened to that spirit of earnest emulation and eccen- tric heroism, which might be employed for good or might be perverted to evil ; but which, for good or evil, was one of the strong elements of the practical religion of the- times. The Dioclesian persecution raged terribly in Alexandria, and in all parts of Egypt. The martyrs were more numerous and more eminent than at any period before. It rests The great on the testimony of eye-witnesses, that the sufferers were not only scourged and put to death ; but, in cases with- out number, were stretched on the rack, suspended by the hands, torn with pincers, seared with molten lead, roasted over a slow fire, suffocated with smoke, deprived of their eyes or other members, and, in short, treated with every inhumanity that the most fiendish cruelty could suggest. Peter, the Bishop of Alexandria, was among the last that suffered. When he was thrown into prison, his people collected in such numbers about his place of confinement that the soldiers who had been sent to put him to death were unable to enter by the door : but taking advantage of a dark and stormy night, they made a^hole through one of the walls of his cell. The 0/ Peter ^ martyr understood their intention and aided them in ’ it. Making the sign of the cross and saying, ‘‘Better that we should die than expose the people to danger,/' he stretched forth his head to the executioner, and it was stricken off. He is named by the Greeks “ the Seal and end of the Martyrs." It is said that before his death, in consequence of a vision he had seen, he solemnly warned the Church against Arius, who ^ The spirit of emulation — the desire to do something that no one had done before — breathes through the annals of the Eremites. Thus the Vita S. Antonii begins : “ A glorious contest have ye undertaken, in endeavoring to equal or even to surpass the life of the Egyptian monks.” In the same way, S. Antony learned, late in life, that there was one man on earth his superior in asceticism : namely, Paul, who had lived ninety years out of sight or hear- ing of man, with only a palm-tree for shelter and meat and clothing. S. Antony visited him in time to be a witness of his death. *5 Euseb. Eccl. Hist. viii. T3^ 298 History of the Church. lay at that time under sentence of excommunication. His suc- , . , cessor Achillas, however, paid no attention to the warn- A rius and . * Alexander^ ing. Arius was not only absolved and admitted to the Priesthood, but, being set over the Church of Baucalis — one of the oldest and wealthiest in the city — he became, on the death of Achillas, a prominent candidate for the vacant , episcopal chair. But in this he failed. Alexander A new IT JT Storm was elected by unanimous consent. This disappoint- g^atkeringt ^ ment, it was believed, cast a decided gloom upon the soul of Arius ; and is regarded as the beginning of that great cloud, fraught with ages of mischief and dissension, which, at the close of this period of history and at the opening of the next, we find overshadowing the most flourishing portions of the Church. CHAPTER VII. THE CHURCHES IN GENERAL. In that wonderful Epic which was for so many ages the Bible of the old classic world, and which next to the true Bible has The great entered most into the mind of the European nations since, the Hero of the poem appears only at the be- ginning of the Action and at ks close : his absence the mean- while giving occasion for the development of the ‘‘excellence** first of one warrior,* then of another, and so on through all the changeful issues of the fight, till the “gift,** not of each leader only,* but of each nation, tribe, or other division of the host has been duly exercised and brought out to view. * The apicreia of Diomede, of Agamemnon, etc. Iliados^ v. xi., etc. * The fact that “ every good gift” cometh down from above is recognized by Homer in the persons of the most frivolous of his heroes and of the wisest and most earnest. Paris reminds Hector of it (//. iii. 66) ; Ulysses com- mends it to the rude minds of the Phseacian youths {^Odyss, viii. 167); it The Churches in General. 299 This is a summary of what may be called the Divine plan of History in general ; more especially of the History of the Church of God. The Word is the Alpha and Omega ^ of it, the author and finisher, the beginning and the end. It is only, therefore, at the opening and the close that this Divine Word is made fully apparent. In the long interval between, man is the visible, and to the mere eye of flesh the principal, worker ; the all-sustaining Arm being manifested occasionally, however, and to a greater or less de- gree, at those eventful epochs properly so called, which bring certain periods to a close, and so typify or prefigure the full appearing of God’s Kingdom at the end of time. The story of the First Three Centuries is but a minute por- tion of that wondrous plan ; the mere infancy of a manhood, the real growth of which even yet (it may be) has Lesson 0/ hardly more than begun. But being beyond doubt a fhree living portion, and in some respects singularly com- plete in itself, it exhibits more clearly than any other period the essential features of the whole, and may be rightly taken, there- fore, as the best representative of it. Its first age, rhePente- accordingly, is eminently that of the Divine Arm laid bare to view. In His incarnate Presence, or in mighty demon- strations of spiritual power, the Hero of the epos Himself ap- pears. Then follows a long and weary season of seeming absence. The great Sower has sown the seed, and gone His way to His rest p the seed being left, as it were, to the natural fertility of the soil. Men, therefore, become the prom- The Age of inent actors. First singly, then in groups or schools, then in local, provincial, or national Churches, they appear flows more sweetly and religiously from that most faultless of the creatures of humah genius, the daughter of Alcinous (^Odyss, vi. 189). Herodotus also is a faithful witness to this truth. 3 Epoch, — a holding up, a pause, a stop. It is remarkable, that in the great field of physical history which has been opened by modern science, epochs are as manifest as in the lives of races or of nations. See Hugh Mil- ler’s Testimony of the Rocks, ^ S. Mark, iv. 27. 300 History of the Church. successively before us ; and in defeat^ rather than in victory, The Age of does his utmost to sustain the cause. Finally, Churches, patience has had her perfect work ; when the aristeia of each lower agent has been displayed ; when the weakness and incompetency of the arm of flesh has been made sufficiently apparent : then, a marked Providential deliverance closes the first act of the drama ; the Roman world submits to the standard of the Cross ; and the first earnest is afforded of that crowning victory, the day and hour of which neither man nor angel can determine. But the Roman world, which was the first battle-field and the scene of the first great victory of the Gospel, was merely a The Roman uarrow belt of highly civilized and intellectual nations World. around the shores of the Mediterranean ; and in the account already given of Carthage, Rome, Alexandria, and An- tioch, with incidental mention of other Churches, the story of the first three centuries is wellnigh told. So far as the working out of any great principle is concerned — whether of doctrine, discipline, or worship — little remains to be added. A brief notice of the other Churches, however, following the order in which they present themselves on the map of the world, may help the reader to form a more distinct conception of the state of Christianity at this critical period of its history, and to ap- preciate more fully the nature and extent of the progress that had been so far made. In the provinces of North Africa already spoken of in this Book, extending from the Atlantic Ocean on the west to Cyrene on the east, and bounded on the south by Mount The Belt of ’ ^ the Medi‘ Atlas and the Libyan desert, there were by the^ end terranean. , , . . t ^ • of the third century at least one hundred episcopal sees, and possibly a much larger number.^ The Southern bor- 5 2 Cor. vi. 9, lo. ^ In the beginning of the fourth century the Donatists could bring together a Council of 270 Bishops. In S. Augustine’s time there were 466 Bishop- rics. The multiplication of dioceses was greater in Africa than elsewhere, the Donatists having started it, and the Catholics following their example in The Churches in General. 301 Egypt, ders of this^narrow strip were exposed to the inroads of barbar- ous tribes, among which the Gospel had made little North or no progress. It may be doubted, indeed, whether in the provinces themselves it had extended much further than it could be carried through the medium of the Latin tongue. Next in order towards the East, along the same belt, come Libya, Pentapolis, and Egypt, covering an area about three times as large as England, dependent more or less on the See of Alexandria, and governed by about one hundred Bishops. In Nubia and Abyssinia there were probably Nubia, some imprisoned rays of Pentecostal light, but of the state of Christianity in those countries we have no certain knowledge. Arabia, exclusive of Arabia Petraea, num- bered twenty-one dioceses, composed for the most part of clusters of village Churches, of which the chief See was Bostra, sometimes known under the name of Philadelphia. The missionary journey that Pantaenus is said to have made to India, in which he discovered some traces of the labors of S. Bartholomew and S. Thomas, is supposed by many to have been merely to some part of Arabia. On this point, however, there is room for little more than a baseless conject- ure. Passing towards the North, along the Asiatic section of the same belt of the Mediterranean, we come next to Palestine, including Arabia Petrasa, in which we find some forty-eight dioceses, dependent more or less on Jeru- salem or Caesarea. The former of these Churches, which we left under the new name of .^lia at the beginning of its Gentile succession in Hadrian’s time, continued to cherish with some pride Jerusalem, the name, and it is said the chair, of S. James ; and chair o/ was regarded with no little reverence as the oldest of the Mother Churches. In the history of her Bishops there A rabia. India, Palestine, self-defence. In the rest of this chapter, my object is merely to give a gen- eral view ; and, the data being imperfect, I have to rely for the most part on conjecture. See Bingham’s Antiquities, Book IX.; and Maurice’s Vindication of the Primitive Church, etc. London, 1682. 302 History of the Church. seems to be more of the conventional type of saiiitliness, and perhaps somewhat more of the marvellous, than appears else- Narcissusy where. Narcissus, the thirtieth in order from S. James, A.D. 195. ^ miracles attributed to him. On one occasion, at a vigil just before the Easter Feast, the lights were going out in the Church, but were restored — miraculously, it was thought — by the Bishop's ordering water to be brought and poured into the lamps. This holy man was a rigid enforcer of ffis discipline. Offended at his strictness, three wretches Accusers, found to trump up an accusation against him, which they even went so far as to confirm by an oath. One of them prayed that he might perish by fire, another that his body might be eaten by a plague, a third that he might lose his sight, if their witness against the Bishop should be found untrue. Narcissus shrank from the blight of a calumny thus fearfully attested, and secretly retired to a hermit life. But the inno- cence of his character was fully vindicated. The accusers per- ished according to the tenor of their oaths; and at length, after three successors in the episcopate had in the meantime done their work and departed to their rest. Narcissus appeared again as one risen from the dead, and at the request of the holy Alexander^ brethren resumed the chair he had abandoned. Alex- A.D. 2x2. ander, a disciple of Origen, and Bishop at that time of a Church in Cappadocia, happening to come to Jerusalem in fulfilment of a vow, was seized upon by the faithful of the Holy City and installed as coadjutor to their aged chief ; the irregu- larity being covered, it was thought, by a Divine communication through a dream or vision.^ This latter prelate proved to be a patron of learning and of learned men ; and added a handsome Library to the attractions of the Church in ^lia. It was he who, in conjunction A Patron . • 0/ Learn- with Theoctistus of Csesarea, upheld the cause of Origen ifi^% against his Bishop Demetrius, and gave currency to the learning and perhaps to some of the vagaries of that gifted teacher. He died a martyr, as we have seen, in the Decian ^ Euseb. vi. 9-1 1. The Churches in General. 303 persecution. Hymenseus, the second after him in order of suc- cession, took an active part in the proceedings against Paul of Samosata, and lived long enough to be person- ally known to Eusebius, the Church historian. The Churches in Palestine were distinguished by many noble wrestlers’’ in the tenth persecution, whose merits have been more particularly recorded than is common with the Martyrs of martyrs of the early Church.® It is a hideous story of raiestme. imprisonments, tortures, and monstrous inhumanities, relieved only by the vivid faith and indomitable spirit of the sufferers. Wonderful was the steadfastness of those whose privilege it was to die for the Faith : more wonderful still the patient Lively and meek endurance of the much larger number, who infSiltY/ were condemned to the mines, or to a crippled life, ^Uievers, dependent on the charity of others in little better plight than themselves. But the greatest marvel of all was the buoyancy of hope that sustained the large and timid crowd who were too insignificant, or perhaps too cautious, to share in the sufferings and the glory of the brave Confessors. The Churches were closed. Public services were suspended. The cemeteries and all other kinds of Church property had been confiscated. The Clergy were in prison, or in the mines, or in obscure hiding- places. Heathen worship was revived with the utmost splendor ; and wherever one might look, the Church, as an organized body, seemed to be almost extinct. Yet when a lull of a few days occurred in the times of Maximin, and a deceitful peace tempted the Christians once more to show themselves, the effect, we are told, was like a flash of lightning. ^ All places of worship were suddenly crowded ; the cemeteries were thronged ; hymns and songs of joy and mutual congratulations everywhere ^ resounded. It was like a tree breaking out into blossom the . . , - . » /- Heathen. in the midst of a winter s frost. So striking was the spectacle of single-hearted gladness thus suddenly exhibited, that many of the heathen beholding it, were led by a sympa- thetic feeling to attach themselves to the Church. ®Euseb. Martyrs of Palestine. 9 Euseb. ix. i. 304 History of the Church. CcBsarea, Tyre, Syria, Caesarea, not inferior to Jerusalem in influence or actual power, is known at this period chiefly for the countenance given to Origen by its Bishop Theoctistus, and for the part taken by Theotecnus in the case of the heretic Paul. It was also the scene of some of the most fearful of the atrocities of the great persecution. Further on towards the north comes Tyre, memorable for a noble church edifice, destroyed and splendidly restored during the same trying times. There Origen laid down his weary life ; there also, under the leading of Methodius, began an endless series of assaults upon the memory of the Alexandrine teacher. The Syrian Church, which has repeatedly been before us in connection with Antioch, extended from the Isle of Cyprus on the west to Mesopotamia on the east; and in its different provinces eighty Bishops, more or less, might have been counted at this period. In the vast Eastern world that lay beyond the borders of the Roman Empire, the signs of an early knowledge of the Gospel are but few and faint. Edessa had been from Apostolic times a centre of light to Mesopotamia. Armenia was converted at the end of the third century by Gregory, the Illuminator. Persia likewise received some rays of the Truth. There, however, the progress of the Gospel was not only stayed for awhile, but was violently rolled back in the organized system and proselyting zeal of the great heresy of the Manichaeans. Next to Palestine, Asia Minor had been the elect field of the early growth of Religion, most of the writings of the New Testa- ment being addressed to believers in that region ; and it was in one of its provinces, Asia Proconsularis or Asia Proper, that Catholic Christianity first assumed its type form the mystical seven Churches of the Revelation of Proper, g ^as also the cradle of the most formidable heresies of the early Church.^® Among the fanatical population The further East, Asia Minor, *o Newman’s Arians of the Fourth Century. The Churches in. General. 305 Phrygia. of Phrygia, Montan us was born, and after him Novatianus, the great Schismatic. In other parts, Judaic and Gnostic elements had been blended into their most seductive and most pernicious forms ; and the contest with these various errors had been further complicated by the unhappy strife about the Pascha, and by the rationalistic views of such men as Praxeas and Noetus. From these fiery trials the Churches of savedso Asia Minor came out safe in the main, but not without suffering loss in more ways than one. In fact, while the Churches in this region continued to be among the most populous and flourishing in Christendom, yet their long and weary struggle seems in some measure to have benumbed their strength ; so that, after the first glorious era of S. John and his immediate disciples, their history is comparatively obscure and uninteresting. The whole extent of country was about six hundred miles in length by three hundred in breadth, embracing, according to the earliest notices, some three hundred and eighty- eight dioceses, the greater part of which, probably, were established during the first three centuries. Of its various provinces the majority are alluded to in the New Testament, and profited by the labors of the chief Apostles. Bithynia seems to merit particular notice as being the scene of the persecution mentioned in Pliny’s famous letter to Trajan, and as being the starting-point of the last great war against Christianity: Nicomedia, its chief city, a place on the Propontis about fifty mjles east of the present site of Constantinople, having been chosen by Diocletian as the imperial abode. During the Decian times, Pontus and other parts of Asia Minor were thrown into a state of confusion hardly short of anarchy, by the terrible inroads of the Goths. Among Gothic the Christians, many were forced by these barbarians to deny the Faith. On the other hand, the Gospel asserted its power; and the beginnings were seen of that wonderful order- ing of Providence, by which nations to whom the light had not been carried were brought by a secret guidance within the sphere Extent 0/ the Country. Bithynia. Nicomedia. 3o6 History of the Church. of the light,” and the way was opened for a civilization which (perhaps) the effete Roman world was no longer capable of receiving. Passing from Asia Minor into the European provinces, there is little of any special interest in the annals of the Churches of Macedonia,., Macedonia and Achaia; and still less in what was Achata, becoming slowly a part of Christendom, the region that extends from Constantinople to Sardica, and from the ^gean Sea to the Danube. Corinth, which kept its place at the head of the Churches of Achaia, was adorned in the second ^ . century by the pastoral labors of Dionysius, one of the o/ Corinth^ wisest of Church teachers, whose writings are admi- rably but too briefly summed up in the History of Eusebius.” He opposed the early inroads of the encratite spirit. Writing to Pinytus, the Bishop of the Church of the Gnossians, he exhorted him not to impose upon the brethren a burden in regard to purity too great for their strength. He opposes . , . - , . - . ^ the Encra- but to have consideration for human infirmity. To tite School. -i.-i-r.- 1*11 which Pinytus answered, with the usual self-compla- cency of his austere school, that men should be fed with strong meat, milk being fit only for babes. The substitution of cant for sober and good sense is an expedient not peculiar to modern times. It has been in all ages the bane of true religion. An- other evil is alluded to by Dionysius in the curious fact that even before his death his own writings had become interpolated and corrupted. Those who had a craving for ‘‘strong meat^* mixed the “milk '' of older and wiser teachers with stimulating elements of their own, to render it more palatable. Several other matters of interest were discussed by the same Dionysius. In the regions of Macedonia and Achaia, with Crete and some other islands, there may have been as many as fifty dioceses at the end of the third century. We pass on to Italy, containing “anciently some of the smallest and some of the largest dioceses in the world, and yet ” Sozomen, ii. 6. *2 Euseb. iv. 23. See also Routh, Reliqu. Sacr. vol. i. Dioceses. The Churches in General. 307 Italy, Spain. the same species of episcopacy preserved in them all ; the Bishop of Eugubium, as S. Jerome words it, being ejusdem meriti and ejusdem sacerdotii^ — of the same merit and priesthood with the Bishop of Rome.’^*^ In one of the earliest Roman Synods on the Paschal controversy, there were but four- teen Bishops present, — few of the Councils at that period being able to muster more. Within a century after, Italy could num- ber more than one hundred Sees. Dioceses were numerous also in Sicily and other islands of the Western Mediterranean. The Church of Spain gloried in S. James the Greater, as its Apostolic founder a story full of difficulties, which the testi- mony of zealous but modern Spanish writers cannot remove. However this may be, we find it a flourishing part of Christendom in the times of S. Cyprian. At the end of the third century it stands out, in its austere Council of Elvira, as infected more or less with the taint of Novatianism. The Greco-Gallic foundation in Lyons and Vienne suffered terribly in the fifth and sixth persecutions. The Church sur- vived these storms, however ; and about the middle of the third century its growth received a new impulse from the mission of seven Bishops (according to Gregory of Tours),*5 who established themselves respectively in Paris, Arles, *3 Bingham, ix. v. 16. The Bishops of Italy and the isles adjacent are all enumerated in Italia Sacra^ etc., auct, D. Ferdinand. Ughello Florentin. Venetiis, 1717. Ferreras argues stoutly for it: “The preaching of that blessed Apostle in Spain was confirmed by the decision of the Roman Church . . . but though it was even mentioned in the Breviary by the order of the blessed Pope Pius V., Cardinal Baronius denied it in the loth vol. of his Annals. ITis captious reasoning caused Clement VIII. to have it taken out of the Bre- viary. Nevertheless, when a great number of writers has demonstrated the fallacy of Baronius, and when the Spanish nation and its Catholic kings had made a solemn protest against that reform, the matter was reopened ; and after the mature and searching examination usually given in such cases by the Holy See, the judgment was reversed, and by order of Urban VIII. the preaching of the holy Apostle in Spain was reinserted among the lessons of the Breviary.” Hist. Gen. a' Espagne : Ferreras — D’Hermilly. *5 See Gieseler, \ 57, n. 2, Gallia Christian. Pariss. 1716. Gaul. 3o8 History of the Church. The Rhine. Britain. Prince Lucfus. Toulouse, and other central places. One of the seven, Diony- sius of Paris, was confounded by subsequent tradition with Dionysius the Areopagite, converted by S. Paul. The great Council held in Arles, at the close of this period, is a satisfac- tory proof of the thriving condition of the Gallican Church. About the same time we find proof of the existence of Bishops on the Rhine and in Vindelicia.*^ The Gospel preached in Britain during the Apostolic times, and probably by S. Paul or some of his companions, must have lingered in the island ; for in the days of Eleutherus the Roman Bishop, Lucius, a petty prince, sent an embassage to Rome in quest of Christian preachers.*® In the spread of truth, the supply always in a measure precedes the demand. It is probable, therefore, that there was within the island of Britain knowledge enough of Christianity to produce among the wiser princes a wish for more. Eleutherus granted the request ; and at the end of this era the blood of several martyrs in the Tenth Persecution, and the presence of three Bishops at the Council of Arles, witnessed the success of their evangelic labors. Thus a belt around the Mediterranean Sea, averaging some two hundred miles in breadth, and occupied by the most vigorous and enlightened nations of the old Roman world, was the field of the first struggle and the first victory of the Gospel. But in reference to this region and this period it may be said most truly that the Kingdom of God came not with observa- tion. It was for the most part a silent and unrecorded growth. So uncertain are the materials for forming a correct judgment of its extent in reference to the entire population, and so contra- dictory in some respects are the data usually appealed to, that from one point of view the lowest estimates may appear too Summary. *6 Gieseler, g 57, nn. 3, 5. *7 Stillingfleet, Orig, Britan. *8 Bede, Eccl. Hist. ch. iv. Stillingfleet combats this tradition fas it seems to me) on very narrow grounds. In Britain, as in Gaul, there may easily have been several successive foundations. 309 Church Growth and Life. high, while from another the most liberal calculation seems hardly to give room for all the requirements of the problem. In such a case the middle ground assumed by most modern writers has little more to commend it than either of the two extremes. CHAPTER VIIL CHURCH GROWTH AND LIFE. On the death of Valerian, the Church had rest from perse- cution for a period of forty years. Gallienus acknowledged it as a religio licita, — a sect entitled to legal toleration. Gaiiienus, That this, however, was not an absolute security against heathen violence, was shown in the case of one Marinus in Palestine, who being a prominent candidate for the office of centurion in the army, was accused for his Christian faith by the opposite party, and was on that account cast into prison and beheaded. The reign of Claudius and the first Aureiian^ four years of Aurelian were still more favorable to the Christian cause : and though an edict of persecution put forth by the latter in the fifth year of his reign created a momentary panic, yet its execution being arrested by the sudden Diocletian, death of the Emperor, the rest of the century, includ- ing the greater part of the reign of Diocletian, was a season of unwonted peace. But with every lull in the storm of persecution, the quiet but broad and steady progress of Christianity became more apparent. The time had gone by when its influence could be Progress confined to the bosoms of the devoted few. Its doc- of the trine, more diffusive than its discipline, had penetrated the palace, the senate, the camp, every place in fact but the *9 In this question, much depends on the force we allow to rhetorical expressions of some of the Fathers. Where statistics are concerned, rhetoric, as a general rule, is extremely unreliable. 310 History of the Church. Growth of the Church Slow. theatres and temples ; had gone beyond the borders of the Roman Among all Empire; and was becoming so entwined with men’s Classes. interests and affections, that society could no longer strike it without inflicting wounds more or less serious upon itself. Had this growth of the Church been tenfold more rapid than it was, it would have been vastly more easy to account for on philosophic principles ; history supplying instances enough of sects overrunning large portions of the earth, and gaining a dominant power, in the space of one or two generations. Thus Mohammedanism, for example — a great martial impulse among a people intensely martial — swept on to a victorious position upon the swell of a single tide. But the Gospel could boast of no such sudden, uninterrupted and overwhelming triumphs. To win the first and lowest Her Ser~ Stage of the promised victory ; to rise from a position vant Form. social degradation to one of ordinary security for life and limb ; required ten generations of obscure and persevering struggle. Only here and there, during all this period, did the Church ever appear in other than the servant form. The world the meanwhile was continually agitated : nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom ; dynasties passing away, philospohies and religions changing, the Empire becoming more and more a sort of chronic revolution. Yet amid all the oppor- tunities thus recurring, Christians alone never struck a blow. During a period in which millions of lives were lost in religious insurrections, the Church alone never for a moment raised the standard of revolt or change. The great Conspiracy alone — for as such the heathen regarded it — never conspired, never rebelled ; never threw the weight of a feather into the scale by which political destiny was decided. Now a faith which could survive so long a period of depres- sion is without parallel in the history of successful religious movements: it makes the problem of the Church’s Without triumph so unprecedented, that to attempt to explain Precedent, ‘i- ordinary principles is simply to ignore what the nature of the problem is. Her Patient Waiting. Church Growth and Life. 311 Gibbon's Five Causes, Accordingly, of the five chief causes assigned by a celebrated historian,* not one is in any way peculiar to the Church. They are equally applicable to one or other of the heresies with which she had to contend. In zealous abhorrence of idolatry; in confident expectation of a Judgment and Millennium ; in the profession of miraculous endowments ; in ascetic and enthusiastic virtues ; and finally, in a polity popu- lar, flexible, and stable in its character, the system of Montanus had a perceptible advantage ; besides all which, being later on the ground, and starting free from the encumbrance of Judaic ante- cedents, it was in a position to avail itself of the experience and to profit by the errors of its hated rival. If such causes, therefore, are to be deemed sufficient, Montanism ought to have become the dominant religion. Another glaring fallacy of the same historian is, that, while he takes delight in exposing the folly, inconsistency, and extrav- agance of the primitive believers, and proves inciden- Another tally that all these things were scandals to the heathen, he yet manages to divert them from their true bearing upon the question of the Church’s growth. Now victories, of course, may sometimes be achieved in despite of weakness. It is obvious, however, that in proportion to the amount of weakness proved against a conquering system, the difficulty increases of account- ing philosophically for the prosperity of that system ; and the necessity of discovering an extraordinary cause becomes more apparent. A heavy drag upon a ship is a sufficient reason to assign for the slowness of her progress ; but to speak of such a thing as if it helped in anyway to account for her progress, is as contrary to philosophy as to common-sense. But in this respect, the unfriendly hand which has done so much towards exposing the failings and infirmities strength of the first ages of believers, has rendered a real ser- fer/ecUn vice to the cause of Truth. No one has done more than the philosophic historian of the Decline and Fall of the * History of the Decline and* Fall of the Roman Kmpire., by Edward Gibbon, Esq., with notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman, etc., chap. xvi. 312 History of the Church. Roman Empire^ to show that Christianity had not an easy triumph. Its progress was slow : which gave abundant oppor- tunity for zeal to flag, and for opposition to rally: The contest Victory not was not in a corner, or among half civilized races of easy. inferior type : it was in the centre of aesthetic, scien- tific, and philosophic culture. The prejudices to be overcome were not those of superstition merely : they were domestic, polit- ical, national, religious ; interwoven into every thread of that great social web which human wisdom in its perfection had been for so many centuries engaged in weaving. The resist- ance, consequently, was not a mere fitful gust : it was the stubborn opposition of an intelligent, deep-rooted, and uncom- promising hatred. All this appears, unintentionally perhaps, but in colors as true as they are vivid, in the remarkable pic- ture drawn by the skeptical historian. A believer is under no necessity to impugn the substantial accuracy of the portrait. God manifest in flesh — a strength divine made perfect in strength in human weakness — is as prominent in the history as in Weakness. doctrine of the Church. The infidel delights in the exposure of that weakness ; the believer prefers to contem- plate that strength: to appreciate fully the great problem of Church history, it is needful to look at both, and, whatever facts may be found to illustrate either, to admit them in a can- did though reverential spirit. Considered in its first and simplest aspect, the conflict of early Christianity was an intellectual battle betwixt Truth and j Error. It was the sublime theology of the Gospel Truth and opposed to a system of superstitions which had lost Error. , , , i i i i , what hold they ever had upon reason and conscience, and were cherished only as they ministered to pride and lust, or at best to conventional, social, or patriotic feelings. Of this essential weakness of the opposing side the Apolo- gist was not slow to avail himself. Heathen super- Apoiogtist stitions, in all their littleness and vileness, were held and Sophist. . . . up to scorn as well as to merited reprobation. But weapons of ridicule were available on either side. The doctrine Chui^ch Growth and Life. 3 1 3 of the Cross was literally a folly to the Greeks ; while to the supercilious and worldly-minded Roman it appeared as a bale- ful and extravagant superstition. When a Celsus,* therefore, armed with the light weapons of an Epicurean indifference, gave loose rein to the spirit of mockery and profanity, weapons 0/ ridiculing the Birth, the Death, the Resurrection, or the Miracles recorded in the Gospels, he found no lack of hear- ers and admirers. Moreover, what could not be proven against the Truth was easily asserted. The follies and enormities of certain Gnostic sects afforded a handle against the body whose name they assumed ; and the heathen mind, from long famil- iarity with religion as a cloak for vice, could not only impute crimes seemingly incredible, but could give ready faith to the monstrous imputation. And even in the nobler phases of that long-continued strug- gle, when Christianity appeared on the positive side and pre- sented herself in her sublime theology or pure moral- ^ Wisdom ity, she was plausibly confronted by appeals to the older system of the Hebrews, or to a philosophy which chameleon-like could assume the very color of the faith it labored to destroy. Such was the policy of the Neo-Platonic and other syncretistic schools. ^ A Plotinus or a Porphyry could adorn Platonism before the mirror of the Gospel, and then accuse the Gospel of borrowing from Platonism. Chris- tianity, in fact, had much in common with all sys- terns of philosophy and religion. She availed herself Syncretistic 1., r , , . 1 ■ Schools, readily of whatsoever things were true, honest, pure, lovely, and of good report in the learning of the times. When ^Origen against Celsus preseiTes several specimens of his style. In Minucius Felix the Roman spirit is better represented. For an account of the writers against Christianity, see Fabricii, Saluiaris Lux Evangelii^ etc., cap. V. iii. ^ The Dialogue of Minucius Felix, though it gives the victory to the right side, of course, does not make the victory too easy by putting only feeble arguments in the mouth of the adversary. It does full justice to the heathen side. A like remark applies to Justin’s dialogue with Trypho, and to Origen’s quotations from Celsus. 14 314 History of the Church. the votaries of human wisdom, therefore, pointed to what was good and fair in the lore of the ancient world, and said to the Church, as Israel said to Judah in their strife for the person of David, ‘‘ We have ten parts in the king and more right than you,” it was not easy to convince them that the one part of Judah, being the head and life, was of infinitely more impor- tance than the other parts together. The victory, in short, seemed to hang long in even balance. For it was not a simple contest between Truth and a sheer Lie. The Lie came to the battle armed in the attributes of Truth. The rods of the magi- cians could assume the shape and semblance of the Lawgiver's rod. If the latter at length proved superior, it was owing in Vitality of the main to its greater vitality and endurance. The Truth. Moses conquered by swallowing the other II. Witness UNTO Blood. rods. Where the Apologist was deficient, the Martyr by his simple witness unto death was somewhat more successful. Yet even here the cause of Truth had a heavy drag upon it. To a sober and philosophic Pliny, or to the acrid genius of the great historian of the first Caesars, martyrdom seemed little else than a headstrong and penible absurdity.^* The witty Lucian could discern nothing in it but food for laughter. 5 And the confessors themselves, as we have seen often enough in the course of early Church history, were not always an ornament to their glorious vocation. It was, there- fore, only by little and little that the seed sown in blood took root and grew: only by oft-repeated mowings that the thin grass thickened into solid sward. It was not by martyrdoms, in short, for Error has its martyrs as well as Truth : but by ten generations of continuous martyrdom — the witness unto death being but the pledge of a life-long universal witness under social and political annoyances of every possible description — that the Church was enabled to prove herself in earnest ; to purge society of that fearful frivolity wherein, after Martyrs. 4 Inflexibilis obstinatio.’ 5 De morte Peregrinu Church Growth and Life. 315 all, the strength of heathenism lay ; and to outlive, if not to overcome, the power of misrepresentation. The Church’s pride in her martyrs proved also a source of weakness, by opening the way to a sort of hero-worship ; these worthies being regarded as immediately exalted to a poiHes and, share of the reign and judgment-seat of Christ.^ Scandals. Hence a fondness for relics. Hence a dangerous predilection for cemeteries as places of worship. Follies of this sort were more or less rebuked, and were not so bad as in later times. They were patent enough, however, to provoke the ridicule of the heathen, and to turn the edge of the Christian argument against polytheism and idolatry. What troubles were occasioned by the popular reverence for confessors, has been sufficiently noticed in previous chapters of this Book. The spread of the Gospel continued to be accompanied more or less with faith in the assistance of supernatural powers. Of miracles, indeed, in the strict sense of the word,^ there are few instances recorded, and those not attested Signs and , . , , - T • Wonders. by eye-witnesses ot the facts. Justin Martyr, one of the earliest of the Apologists, is chary in his appeals to evi- dences of that kind ; and though supernatural gifts are men- tioned both by him and by Irenaeus and Tertullian as still sub- sisting in the Church, yet the instances alleged — the healing of ^ The popular belief that Martyrs went at once to Heaven tended to something like worship of them as intercessors with God. S. Cyprian endeav- ors at least to put ^ this deification of them: ‘ 42. See noU to Oxford trans. of Tertull. p. 184. 331 Church Growth and Life. ously as dew upon the grass. The great-hearted Fossor*-^ could not leave his labor of love, without inscribing upon it Christian some tender symbol, some edifying parable. The Cross, the Dove, the Lamb, the Good Shepherd, and, most popular of all, the Ichthus^ or Fish, the Ark, the Gourd of Jonah, the heaven-sailing Ship, the four-headed River of Para- dise, the Rock smitten by Moses, or even a few heathen images suggested by the Sibylline Books, such as Orpheus with his lyre charming the beasts, marked the resting-places of those who having fallen asleep in peace awaited the promised dawn of a joyful Ressurrection.'*^ But such things were luxuries for the Catacombs. In controversy with the heathen and in . . Serious the walks of every-day life, Christians were rigidly y^ews unaesthetic and utilitarian. Fashionable festivity was to them but a ghastly grin upon the face of death. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that in the eyes of that numerous class, common to all ages, who value present comfort more than hon- esty and truth, believers were looked upon as a sunless race, lucifuga natioy hateful to the tares and penates of a lively Roman home. While nothing was further from the mind of the early Chris- -♦3 The fossores or delvers were characters of no little importance in the Roman Church : see Ferret, Aringhi, and others, on ihe Catacombs, On the general subject, see Didron’s Christian Icotiography, 44 Anagram for IH20TS XPI2T02 GEOT TI02 2i2THP— Jesus Christ Son of God Saviour. 45 The Council of Elvira in Spain (a.d. 305) forbade pictures in Churches, ‘‘ lest the object of worship should be depicted.’^ It is probable from this that pictures (as distinguished from mere symbols) had begun to be used in Churches; though it was along time before they came into open and undis- puted use, even as ornaments. Eusebius speaks of portraits of Christ and the Apostles, but as a matter of heathen custom only : Eccl. H, vii. 19. 46 “ Flowers were made to smell, not to crown dead bodies with,*’ a Christian is made to say, in the Octavius. Tertullian speaks in like manner: De Coron. v. Even Clement of Alexandria, who lived in a Church com- munity already wealthy and luxurious, shows no indulgence to the ornaments and superfluities of life : see Pcedagog. passim. In the burial of the dead, however, cost was not spared. 332 History of the Church. tians than communistic notions/^ yet nothing was more fre- quently reported of them, whether for censure or for Chanties ^ ^ praise, than that they had all things common.'^ The love-feasts, already mentioned, were associated with a well- known maxim of our Lord,^^ and gave the rich an opportunity to cheer the hard lot of the poor, without injury to to the Poor, r > i J the sentiment of honest self-respect. “As the elm supports the vine, and is beautified by it,’^ so the rich were to support the poor in such a way as to cherish in them genial and amiable affections. Other objects of charity were the confessors in prison ; the destitute families of the martyrs ; the care of to Widows, widows and orphans, who were placed under the par- Orphans, charge of the Bishops ; the rearing of children exposed by their parents ; the rescuing of a few at least from that vast flood of uncared-for souls which set in towards the brothels, the bridewells, the galleys, or the schools of the glad- iators. Life among the ancients was held very cheap : souls still cheaper. Cato, a model of domestic virtues, boasted that he kept no worn-out slaves. When the Gospel came, it partly found, and in part created, a more humane feeling.^® Still, the abominable treatment of the familia by heathen masters, during this period, may be inferred from the fact that, horrible as were the tortures inflicted upon the Martyrs, they were after all but the ordinary punishments of refractory slaves. The eculeus or 47 See the admirable essay of the Rev. Stephen Chastel on the Charity of the Priifiitive Churches : translated by G. A. Matile ; also, C. Schmidt, Essai Historique sur la Societe, etc., Paris, 1853; F. de Champagny, La Charite Chretienne, etc., Paris, 1854; A. Tollemer, (Euvres de Misei'icordey etc., Paris, 1853. 48 S. Luke, xiv. 12; compare Constitute ApostoL ii. 28. 49 I do not think it necessary (with Chastel and others) to ascribe the humane sentiments of Seneca, Trajan, Pliny, Antonius Pius, and other ami- able heathens, to any supposed knowledge of the Gospel. That old Roman world was human, not diabolic. As such, it had its share of good Samaritans, worthy publicans, and benevolent centurions, a thousandfold more deserving of praise than such whited sepulchres as Cato. If there had been no humane feeling, the humanity of the Gospel would not have been appreciated. Church Growth and Life. 333 Slaves. rack was an almost necessary implement in a heathen home. Now the Church, by inculcating a true religious equality of men in all conditions, and by putting her anathema upon such cruelties, for example, as the selling of slaves to gladiatorial schools, did much towards remedying the worst and most inveterate evils of the system. Indiscriminate manumission she could not encourage : indeed, she Manu^ was obliged to forbid it, except where there was a rea- sonable prospect to the freedman of an honest livelihood, or where the manumitter engaged to be his patron or protector. 5 ° For it was not the least among the cruelties of the times, that masters often freed their servants to escape the burden of their support ; thus adding to that rabble of famished wolves by which the great cities were infested. The redemption other of captives was another channel of benevolence. So o/^BlTevL with the struggle against the famines and pestilences by which the ancient world was so frequently desolated. So, again, with the burial of the dead ; which being sadly neglected by the heathen, the Church had to bear more than a double burden. To meet these and similar claims required, on the part of the Church, an almost boundless liberality : more especially as the burden was laid exclusively upon the faithful. But sources the supply never failed to come. In the language of Clement of Alexandria, Charity was not a cistern, but a well : the more it was drawn from, the clearer, the sweeter, and the more abundant its flow. And that it might flow freely, all fac- titious supplies were rigorously rejected. To give, was to com- municate with the altar : to be at variance with the altar, was to lose the privilege of giving. When Marcion the heretic was excommunicated, his liberal donations, amounting to the sum of two hundred thousand Sestertii, were cast out with him.5‘ In the same way, the offerings pro defunctis, namely, the so Among the Canons bearing on the subject are Ap. Can. 82, and Gan- gran. 3. See also Apostol. Constitutions, iv. 9. For much interesting matter on this point, see Chastel’s Charity, etc. s* Tertull. Adv. Marc. iv. 4. Offerings, 334 History of the Church. Three Objects, lavish oblations prompted by affectionate remembrance of those who slept in the Lord, were not accepted, nor was the name of the deceased pronounced in the prayer pro dormitione, which formed part of the Eucharistic Service, unless he had departed in the peace of the Church. The acceptance of the gift was involved in the acceptableness of the giver. Hence, not free- will offerings merely, but the free-will offerings of an holy wor- ship, were the ordinary sources of revenue. These, given weekly or monthly, according to the ability of the giver,53 were divided into three portions, — one for the clergy, one for Church services, one for charities of all other kinds ; and were dealt out daily, under the direction of the Bishop and Deacons, to these several objects. It was one grave charge against the Montanist prophets, that they accepted sal- aries, instead of trusting each day to furnish its own supplies. They preferred cistern-water to that which came fresh from the spring. But among the Catholics, in addition to the amount that flowed in regularly from the sources above mentioned, there were occasional contributions for particular purposes ; and not unfrequently it happened that the old Pentecostal ardor broke forth anew, and wealthy converts, on entering the Church, or more especially on election into the minis- try, put their all into the sacred treasury, and were content Free Gifts. 52 S. Cyprian. Ep. i. ; Tertull. De Monogam. lo. 5 3 In exhorting to liberality, the Church naturally referred to Pentecostal times, to Jewish tithes, first-fruits, etc., for the measure in which individuals should give. There was no sort of compulsion, however; and the clergy were not allowed to exact pay for any special religious services. 54 This seems to be the drift of the sharp invectives of Apollonius, Euseb. Eccl. Hist. V. 1 8. The followers of Theodotus the Byzantine adopted the same custom. Such a business-like arrangement offended the religious instinct at first, because it looked too much like taking thought for the morrow. Like many other heretical inventions, however, it crept into the Church, and stayed there. See Miinter, Primord. Eccles. African, xxii. 7 . 55 Eusebius speaks of this as common in the first and second age: iii. 37 . In after-times, Cyprian and Gregory Thaumaturgus are well-known examples of the same liberality. 335 Church Growth and Life. thenceforward to live of the altar. Thus there was always enough for all emergencies. The fountain might now and then choke for awhile by the accumulations of worldly prosperity ; but when persecution came the obstruction rapidly disappeared, and charity flowed freely and copiously as before. It will be seen, therefore, that even in the point of liberality, the Primitive Church had a mark of distinction from other ages. Whatever she accomplished in that way was done sim- ply in faith, and in the Name of Christ. There was the early ^ ' . , . , Church, little or no help from that vague philanthropy which, like the promised signs of the Gospel, maybe said to ‘^fol- low them that believe ' ' ; being, in fact, an accompanying power of the Truth, an attendant of Christian civilization in general, rather than a product of personal belief. In the first three cen- turies there was no Christendom, no Christian world. There was nothing of that moral atmosphere, warmed by the Gospel, if not quickened by it, of which a far-reaching, enlightened, and scientific benevolence — feeding the poor, healing the sick, casting out devils from the social system, and doing many won- derful and noble works — is a characteristic feature. The Church and the world then were in deadly antagonism. Chris- ° Opposition tianity was, in fact, the Church in the wilderness. to the -r. t . 1 , , , , World. Everything around was barren and hostile to her ; and Charity, to exist, was obliged to be armed at all points in the panoply of a simple, uncompromising Creed. On the whole, the power of Christianity was more manifest, during this period, than its softer and milder traits. It was not a time such as that described by the Prophet, when Militant ‘‘old men and old women could “dwell in Jerusa- ^^>^r^t. lem, every man with his staff in his hand for very age ; or when 56 Mark, xvi. 17, 18. The promise was fulfilled to the letter va. Pente- costal times ; in the spirit it is fulfilled in the hospitals, homes, asylums, uni- versities, and other charities of Christian civilization ; also, perhaps, in the scientific subjection of the elements of nature : a power by which Christendom is as far in advance of heathendom, as the Apostolic Church with her miracles was in advance of the age in which peregrinabatur — she was a pilgrim.’* 33 ^ History of the Church. the streets of the city^* could be ‘‘full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof/* It was an era of Martyrs, Confessors, Doctors, Virgins, and Anchorets : a camp-life, as it were, hav- ing a glory and beauty of its own ; a sternly militant age, in which a man would part with his raiment to purchase him a sword, and in which the grace of endurance was preferred to virtues more comfortable and ordinarily more prized. The per- fect fruit of the period, its peculiar and supernatural grace, was that of non-resistance to oppression. Nor was this vir- resistance, ^ mere softiiess on the part of Christians, — a mere abstinence from riots, insurrections, plots, and rebellions. It was an armed watch set at the very door of the lips. For three hundred years there was a society pervading the Roman world, consisting of men of every class and condition, and horribly oppressed, which, during all that period, did not even talk or think resistance.57 However the yoke might gall them, they simply waited in quietness and confidence till the Hand that had put it on them should graciously take it off. And this quiet persistence was undoubtedly the secret of Patient Strength. There were, as we have seen, corrup- Continu- tions amoug the early Christians, abuses, follies, super- stitions. Scandals, perhaps, were almost as numerous in proportion to the number of believers as in any other age. 57 « How often do ye spend your fury on the Christians ... in obedi- ence to the laws ! How often doth the hostile mob attack us . . . with stones and fire ! With the very frenzy of Bacchanals, they spare not the Christians even when dead. . . . And yet what retaliation for injury have ye ever marked in men so banded together, so bold in spirit even unto death ? — though a single night might with a few torches work out an ample ven- geance, if it were lawful with us that evil should be met by evil. . . . Would strength of numbers and forces be wanting to us ? ... We are a people of yesterday ; yet we have filled your cities, islands, castles, towns, assemblies, your very camp, your tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum ! . . . For what war would we not be sufficient and ready . . . who so will- ingly are put to death? We could fight against you even unarmed and without rebelling ... by merely separating from you . . . and leaving you to tremble at your own desolation ... a vacant tenement for unclean spirits.” Tertull. Apolog. 37. See also Origen. Contra Cels, lib. iii. 337 Church Growth and Life. Yet, on the whole, amid changes going on all around, the Church alone stood firm and unalterable, witnessing to the same Truth, and witnessing in the same way, for three hundred years of almost continuous persecution. During all that period the Preacher preached, the Apologist explained, the Martyr died, the Bishop ruled, the Priest ministered, the Deacon gathered the poor, the Exorcist banned the demons, the Fossor delved in the bowels of the earth : in a word, the Church kept together. But the same power which kept the Church together, kept the Truth together. When the end of the first trial came, and the fourth century opened upon a day sevenfold more laborious than any that had gone before it, it found the mass of the faithful through the world still united in one doctrine, one discipline, one worship, one spirit : a unity the more amazing that it was free and spontaneous, and accompanied with every form of par- tial inconsistency and weakness. Where one martyr had bled two hundred years before, there were now hundreds prepared to bleed for the same testimony. Now this persistency could pro- ceed only from faith. And faith in such a connection Living is but another word for life. In a living faith, there- fore, not only unparalleled in itself, but exhibited under circum- stances without parallel in the history of mankind, we find the secret of the continued existence, growth, and triumph of Chris- tianity through the first and critical era of its manifestation. 15 338 History of the Church. CHAPTER IX. TIMES OF DIOCLETIAN. The forty years of peace, mentioned in the beginning of the last chapter, contributed not a little to the prosperity of the Forty years Church and to its growth in point of numbers. Bish- of Peace. longer persecuted, began to be treated by all classes with a marked respect. Not a few Christians served in the household of Diocletian, countenanced by the faith of Prisca his wife and Valeria his daughter. There was, in fact, no posi- tion of trust that was not open to them ; the good-will of the princes having gone so far as to relieve them from all necessity of conformity to the State worship. It naturally followed that converts came in by crowds. The old places of worship had to Prosper enlarged. New churches, spacious, magnificent, and ityand soHd, Were erected in all the chief cities. Sacred vessels of gold and silver, collections of sacred books, and perhaps treasures of other kinds, began to accumulate in suffi- cient quantity and splendor to be a temptation to the eye of the spoiler, and to add another to the many causes of persecution that still existed, though hidden for the time by a deceitful show of peace. The usual attendants of prosperity were not slow to follow. Discipline was relaxed. Worldliness came in as a flood. The Episcopate, reverenced by the faithful and honored by Corruption. i ^ • r • • ^ infidels, presented itself as a prize of spiritual ambi- tion.* Hence quarrels, intrigues, factions; all the evils, in short, with which the Church was created to contend, and for the war- * Euseb. viii. i. Times of Diocletian. 339 fare with which the long ages of martyrdom and of rigorous discipline were a barely sufficient preparation. What cause it was that led to a change of policy on the part of the Emperors, has been somewhat variously stated. It is only .known that the able and prudent Diocletian, having Two divided the burden of government, first with the rude ^ndTwo soldier Maximian, whom in reference to his own proud title of yovius he surnamed the Herculius of his admin- istration ; and afterwards with the two CcesarSy Galerius whom he stationed as a bulwark on the banks of the Danube, and Con- stantins similarly set for the defence of the borders of the Rhine ; and having strengthened this quadruple scheme by a skilful inter- lacing of matrimonial ties : proceeded with singular success to crush the innumerable enemies of the empire ; and crowned a long series of victories in Britain, Gaul, Africa, on the Rhine, the Danube, and the Nile, by the extraordinary glory of a tri- umph over those inveterate rivals of Rome, the defiant and for a long course of years indomitable Persians. He had thus attained the summit of human glory and success. The repose . a.d. 303. of mind and body for which he sighed was now fairly within his reach. Under these circumstances, some evil genius — most probably Galerius, who passed a winter with the Empe- ror in his palace at Nicomedia just after the Persian war* — sug- *L. C. F. Lactantii, De Mortibus Persecutorum. Liitet. Paris, 1748. The spirited narrative of this writer is sharply criticized by Gibbon and Mil- man ; though neither of them deviate from it in any material point, and where they do, it is with very little reason or show of authority. Lactantius was probably an African by birth, a disciple of Arnobius, and an able rhetorician — “ the Christian Cicero.’’ Invited by Diocletian, he removed to Nicomedia some time before the persecution, and remained there probably during the ten years. He was intimate with the Christian and other members of the imperial household. On the whole, he had greater facilities for correct information about the events he describes than commonly fall to the lot of contemporary historians. Gibbon’s objections to him, or rather his insinuations, are : (i) that he was an obscure rhetorician; i. e.^ a man devoted to literaiy labors, — an objection that would apply to most historians; (2) that he wrote to flatter the pride of the victorious court , — to which it is answer enough, that his book is 340 History of the Church. gested to his mind that one enemy of the empire, more obstinate Desioms Persians, remained not only unconquered, against the but threatening if not soon checked to carry the whole Christians. i i i /• • rr^i • i ^ i world before it. This enemy was the Church. Par- ticular cases could be mentioned of a dangerous fanaticism in . this mysterious body. A youth in Africa of the name of Maxi- milian had pleaded scruples of conscience against serving in the Pretext army, and had undergone death rather than consent to serve. Another Christian, Marcellus, a Centurion, had on a public holiday suddenly thrown away the ensigns of his office, abjured carnal weapons, and refused any longer to do the bidding of an idolatrous master. He also suffered death rather than submit. Could such examples be tolerated by a sovereign who had brought all the world to his feet ? Could a sect be allowed to flourish and to hold places of high trust in the very Palace, which fostered such ridiculous and rebellious scruples V Galerius, for his part, had already answered the ques- christians tion. He had weeded his own army of the dangerous ^/rointhe ^ect. So also had Herculius, the valiant leader of the Army. West.'* It Only remained for Jovius, the wise and vic- torious inspirer of their counsels, to complete his great services by a triumph which no one before him had been able to achieve. dedicated, not to princes, but to an humble confessor; (3) that he is a pas- sionate declaimer ., — a remark that applies equally to Tacitus, and to all histo- rians of any feeling who are called to describe the deeds of tyrants. The objections made to the authenticity of this treatise, De Mortibus Persecutorum^ are founded chiefly on a supposed inferiority in point of style to the other works of Lactantius. On the other hand, there are many marks of his style ; and the less careful polish may be owing merely to the fact that the author, when he wrote, was more in earnest than in some of his other essays. On this and similar points, see notes to the edition mentioned above, Le Brun, Dufresnoy^ and others. 3 These instances are taken by Gibbon from the Acta Sincera, Ruinart. In both cases the fear of idolatry was probably the cause of the scruple, though a feeling against the lawfulness of war was entertained by some Christians. + Euseb. viii. 4, mentions that many had to sacrifice or leave the army ; but only a few here and there were put to death. The story of the Theban legion, which belongs to this period, is not related by any contemporary writer. Times of Diocletian. 3 4 1 and to leave the Empire to his successors a united and homoge- neous whole. To suggestions of this kind many particular influences were added. Hierocles,5 the philosophic leader of a revived paganism, did what he could for the cause. So, also, the mother special of Galerius, a fanatical devotee of idols. Finally, the Motives. oracle of Apollo at Miletus being consulted, the extermination of Christianity was declared necessary to appease the long-offended gods of the Empire.^ Under such incentives, seconded by the innumerable pleas to which the ears of princes are open, Diocle- tian’s hesitancy at length gave way : he decided on a general persecution, and appointed a day for the inauguration of a deci- sive religious war. It was the twenty-third of February, the feast of the Roman god Terminus : a day selected, says Lactantius, ut quasi ter- minus imponeretur huic Religioni. A little before the dawn, the Praetorian Prefect with a crowd of army begun, A.D. 303. and state officers repaired in a body to the Church of Nicomedia, — a noble edifice which crowned a commanding height in full view of the Palace, and in a densely built quarter of the city. The doors are forced open. There is an eager rush and fruitless search for some visible object of worship. The Holy Scriptures are found and committed to the flames. A general pillaging ensues. Diocletian, who looked on from the Palace, thought it imprudent to gratify Galerius with the spectacle of a conflagration ; but the Praetorian guards being sent, with siege instruments of every description, the sacred pile, whose lofty site and solid structure had excited the jealous suspicion of the heathen, was in a few hours levelled with the ground. The example thus set was an index of the scheme of the 5 He wrote against Christianity, and tried to prove that the works of Apollonius of Tyana were superior to those of Christ. He was answered by Eusebius and others. See Fabric. Ltix Evangel, cap. viii. ® The Oracle replied that it could not speak, “ on account of certain right- eous men.” Euseb. Vit. Constant, ii. 50, 51. 342 History of the Chitrch. more prudent and perhaps more clement Diocletian. To de- Pian stroy the churches of the Christians, to seize and burn proposed, their holy books, to break up their Assemblies, and by the strong hand of power to prevent their ever reuniting, was the plan he seems to have proposed to himself. This example was followed even in those parts of the Empire where from mo- tives of clemency or secret favor, life and liberty were respected. The next day came the expected edict from the Palace.^ Christians of every grade were declared incapable of any office Edict of or public trust ; freemen were disfranchised, slaves Outlawry, forbidden to hope for freedom; the courts of law were to be closed against the whole body ; and whatever they might suffer, they could sue for no redress. When this edict was put up, a certain Christian, fired with a zeal more natural than evangelical,® rushed forward and tore it down. ‘^It is a triumph,’^ he exclaimed, ‘^of the Goths and Sarmatians ! For this he was put to the torture, roasted before a slow fire, and finally thrown into the flames ; all which he endured with admirable and heroic patience. But severe as this edic»was, it fell short of the wishes of the pertinacious Caesar. He continued to ply Diocletian with argu- Paiaceset ments and complaints ; and it served to give force to on Fire. Urgency, that twice within the following fortnight the Palace was found to be on fire. The first time, according to the account of Constantine,^ it was struck by lightning. The 7 The various edicts of this persecution are found in Euseb. viii. 2, 3, 6, 8, 10 ; and De Martyr. Palest. 3. Lactant. De Mart. Pers. 13 et ss. See Fabric. Lux. Evangel, cap. xii. ® Gibbon’s sneers at this and a few similar cases of natural though intem- perate zeal are sharply rebuked by Guizot, and mildly disapproved by Dean Milman. See notes to Milman’s Gibbon, chap. xvi. Lactantius, it is to be observed, praises only the courage of the man viflio destroyed the edict : his act he expressly condemns. Eusebius, however, seems rather to approve it : viii. 5. 9 Constantine, in his Oral. chap, xxv., mentions the lightning. Lac- tantius mentions two fires, and attributes them both to Galerius. Milman well observes, that if a Christian fanatic had been the culprit, he would have avowed the deed and gloried in it. Times of Diocletian. 343 act, however, was on both occasions generally attributed to an incendiary ; though who the guilty party was, no cause inquiries nor even tortures could discover. It was only known, that everybody was examined except the servants of Galerius. He, however, was clamorously indignant ; con- ducted the investigations himself j laid the whole blame to the Christians ; and finally left the Palace in well-feigned alarm. After his departure no further attempt was made. Diocletian by such arts was worked into a fury unworthy of the character for prudence he had hitherto maintained. His wife Prisca and his daughter Valeria were forced to cruelties sacrifice. The Eunuchs of the Palace, among whom Dorotheus, Gorgonius, and Peter, are particularly mentioned by Eusebius, were tortured over a slow fire and at length put to death. The Christians of Nicomedia experienced a similar treatment. Some were gathered in companies, without regard to age or sex, and consumed within a ring of flames. Others, with heavy stones attached to them, were cast into the sea and drowned. To terrify others, unheard-of tortures were in- vented.'® There have been periods in history when Christians, separated from their kind by an unnatural asceticism, in an age of barbarous manners, or amid the madness of similar revolutionary times, have inflicted similar sufferings ^iTother upon their fellows. In behalf of such it may be pleaded, that they insanely believed themselves to be doing God service. Their cruelty, therefore, may be set down to the hallucinations engendered by a solitary life, or to the frenzy of long-continued civil or domestic warfare. No such excuse can be made for the magistrates of Diocletian’s day. no excuse They were husbands, fathers, citizens, men of sagac- M^iem, ity and experience, living in an age of domestic tranquillity and security, and votaries of a religion which made tolerance its boast. When we see such men, therefore, not only persecuting a peaceable class of their fellow-creatures, but using all the ap- Lactant. De Mort. Pers. xv. ; Euseb. viii.^6. 344 History of the Church. pliances of science to prolong the agony and sport to the utmost limits of endurance, we behold a depth of depravity beyond which, it is to be hoped, none deeper can be imagined. If any can be found, it is in the unfeeling profanity which, in an age still more enlightened and more human, can palliate such doings and coldly take part with the oppressor against the oppressed. It is beyond the plan of this history to go into the partic- ulars of the long and cruel war which for ten years was carried General 0X1 agaiiist the unresisting Christians.” It extended Account, the provinces, except the Gauls. There Con- stantius Chlorus complied with the wishes of the elder Sover- eigns so far as to demolish the church buildings : the true temple, says Lactantius, he left unmolested. His underlings, it is probable, were not in all cases equally forbearing. Britain, at this time, received its first baptism in blood : S. Alban, two s. Aldan, citizens of Chester, and sundry other persons in other zn Britain, haviiig been put to death.” In the rest of the provinces believers of either sex were burned, drowned, or slaughtered, not singly but in crowds. The prisons and mines were filled with confessors. Virgins were ravished or driven to the alternative of suicide. The sacred books and vessels Course Were seized and destroyed : those who refused to give pursued. up Were put to the torture. Officers were sta- tioned at the temples to force the people to sacrifice ; and that no Christian might have a chance of justice, altars were set up in the courts and in front of the tribunals, so that the judges could not be approached without offering to idols. Of the number that suffered it is difficult to obtain a satis- factory account. Basing the calculation upon nine Episcopal Number of Martyrs particularly mentioned by Eusebius, and Martyrs, ninety-two Martyrs of Palestine commem- orated by the same writer, Gibbon would reduce the whole number to about two thousand persons. But Eusebius does not In the 8th book of Eusebius, and in the work of Lactantius, there are details enough : also in Ruinart. Acta Sincera, Bede, Eccl. H. cap. vii. 345 Times of Diocletian. profess to give more than a list of those cases which were known to himself or were particularly edifying. Of the hundreds who were barbarously mutilated and condemned to a lingering death in prison or in the mines, he makes only a passing mention. He also avoids particularizing those whose martyrdom was sullied in his opinion by anything unworthy of so honorable a calling. Now it is a well-known fact that follies and infirmities are often accompaniments of heroic self-devotion. The roll of the Pales- tine Martyrs, therefore, is, on every reasonable suppo- ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ sition, only a select list ; and bears probably the same relation to the whole number that suffered, as the names of offi- cers in a gazette to the undistinguished victims of the rank and file. The persecution was undoubtedly a mighty effort to crush Christianity. More than once the tyrants boasted that they had succeeded in the attempt.’^ That in such an endeavor, continued for ten years, they accomplished nothing more than the death of some two thousand persons, is as contrary to rea- son as to the testimony of all early writers. In the meanwhile Diocletian, having celebrated his Persian triumph in Rome and returned to Nicomedia, came to the rare determination of resigning his authority and retiring 7^^^^ into the shades of private life. A tedious illness, with an ever-increasing sense of weariness and disgust, gave force to the philosophic reasons which may have led to this resolve. A greater weight was attributed by some, and *3 See B. viii. 13; also Mart, of Pal. ch. 13. For Eusebius’s common way of giving only noted examples, see also viii. 6 ; iii. 33 ; v. preface ; vi. I, etc. That believers were slaughtered in crowds has the testimony of Lactantius, xv., and Euseb. viii. 9, ii, etc. Eusebius’s profession (viii. 2 and Mart. Palest. 12) to omit particulars both of calamities and of follies and dissensions that led to those calamities, is quoted by Gibbon as evidence against his honesty ; but, in computing the number of Martyrs (a matter upon which it bears materially) the profession is conveniently forgotten. Trophies were set up at Clunia in Spain and elsewhere : Diocletianus Jovius, Maximianus Herculius, . . . nomine Christianorum deleto . . . etc. ; or, superstitione Christi ubique deleta^ cultu Deorum propagate, Baron. Annal. an. 304. 15* 346 History of the Church. with no little probability, to the ambitious urgency of his im- perious son-in-law, the Caesar Galerius. However this may be, abdication is a dangerous experiment to one who has made a free use of absolute power. Diocletian resigned with a show of dignity. But it was with undisguised reluctance that the Western Augustus Maximian, bound by a previous oath to his colleague, and, as Lactantius suggests,'^ influenced by the threats of Galerius, followed the extraordinary example, and retired to a solitude which he eagerly left again as soon as a favorable opportunity presented. The empire of the world devolved upon Galerius in the East, and Constantius in the West. To reconstruct the quad- Poiicyof Tuple scheme of Diocletian, it would have fallen to Galerius, these two to nominate a Caesar. Galerius took the whole arrangement into his own hands. By a politic stroke, in which the feelings of the abdicating sovereigns seem to have been as little consulted as those of Constantius, he pre- sented to the army two ignoble creatures of his own, under the title of Caesars. One of these, Severus, he sent to Italy ; where he stayed long enough to make himself odious by a terrible system of exactions, but was soon con- fronted, overwhelmed, and slain, in the revolt of the usurper Maxentius the son of Maximian : which latter had been easily persuaded to resume the purple. The other, named Daza or as he was afterwards called> Maximin, was commissioned to tyrannize over Egypt and Syria. A third prize *5 The highly probable account that Lactantius gives of these transac- tions, is somewhat injured by his throwing it (according to classic precedents) into a dramatic form. Milman thinks that the picture drawn by “ the coarse and unfriendly pencil of the author of the Treatise ’’ is inconsistent with “ the profound subtlety ” ascribed to Diocletian’s character. But no profound sub- tlety is attributed to him. It is merely the commonplace cunning of laying the blame of his cruel actions upon his counsellors : ‘‘ qui severitatem suam aliena invidi^ vellet explore.” Eutrop. ix 26. To this kind of character the portrait drawn by Lactantius is perfectly true. Indeed, it is true enough to Diocletian’s character, even as softened and excused by the skilful pen of Gibbon. 347 Times of Diocletian. which Galerius had within easy reach, and which he was reserv- ing for his old friend and comrade Licinius, was snatched from his eager grasp by the superior promptitude of young Constan- tine; the son of the Western Emperor, Constantins. Escape of This young man, born before his father had attained the rank of Caesar, and deprived of all hopes of the succession by the new matrimonial arrangements which followed that event, had attached himself to the service of Diocletian, and at the time of the abdication was one of the most promising officers of the army. Galerius was aware of his importance, and laid a skilful plan to secure him. But the young soldier was on the alert. Stealing a march on the crafty approaches of the tyrant, he sped from Nicomedia as fast as post-horses could carry him ; and arrived at Boulogne just in time to accompany his father on an expedition to North Britain, to receive at York a dying blessing from his lips, and to be forced by the ' Constantine not unwelcome violence of the army into the adoption elected by . tbe A rmy. of the title of Augustus. The announcement of this was sent, with many plausible excuses, to the Eastern Emperor. He received it in grim acquiescence. Conceding to Constan- tine, however, only the secondary title of Caesar, he conferred the name of Augustus on his favorite Severus : but, , . , . , , r 1 .1 Licinius. this latter ^oon going to wreck before the triumphant usurpation of Maxentius, the honor finally devolved upon Licin- ius for whom he had from the first designed it. Thus the Roman world was partitioned among six masters : Galerius, holding a trembling balance between two Augusti, Maximin and Licinius, in the East ; and the old war- Heads, rior Maximian, nominally respected by Constantine and Maxentius, in the West : under all of whom, except Con- stantine, the edicts of persecution continued to be enforced against the Christians. But the number of oppressors was rapidly reduced by various reverses. Constantius divorced Helena the mother of Constantine, and married Theodora the daughter of Maximian. In the same way, Galerius had to marry Valeria, Diocletian’s daughter. 348 History of the Church. In the East, Galerius giving himself up to dissolute living, fell a prey to that horrible and loathsome disease, which is Fearful famous for having quelled the pride of two other dis- tinguished persecutors, Herod the Great and Philip A.D. 3(1. jj Qf Spain. He was almost literally eaten up of worms." A tumor, badly healed, festered into a spreading sore, which became a nest of innumerable vermin and filled the whole Palace at Nicomedia with its pestilential effluvia. In vain Apollo was applied to for relief. Nurses and physicians could approach the sick man only at the peril of their lives. Under the torture of this fearful plague, his body visibly cor- rupting from day to day, but his mind still struggling with natural feelings of remorse, he at length put forth an edict of toleration, remarkable for its apologetic and almost penitent Edict of tone.*^ ‘‘It had been his wish,” he declared, “that Toleration. Christiaiis should be reclaimed from the folly of forming a separate society in the State, and should return to the customs of their fathers. Many had been put in peril of their lives, some had been punished with death. But, inasmuch as the greater part continued obstinate in their delusion, and were falling into a state in which they neither worshipped the gods nor served the Deity of the Christians, therefore it seemed best, in accordance with the uniform mildness and clemency of his reign, to grant them a certain indulgence ; that they might hold their assemblies as before, and entreat their God for the safety of the Emperor and the State as well as for their own, that prosperity and security might everywhere abound.” In the contest for empire between Maximin and Licinius which followed the tyrant’s death, this tardy indulgence was ^ . of little avail to the Christians. Maximin, indeed, seemed for awhile to have relented ; and, encouraged by edicts from him similar to that of Galerius, the Christians *7 Lactantius describes it with a fearful minuteness : De Mort. Pers, xxxiii. ; also Euseb. viii. i6. Given at length in Lactantius, xxxiv., and Eusebius, EccL Hist, viii. i6. Times of Diocletian. 349 A Brief Calm. came forth from their concealment with hymns of joy, and resumed the celebration of their sacred rites. The treacherous calm lasted hardly six months. At a hint from the Emperor petitions came in from the principal cities, that measures of severity might be resumed. Persecution began once more, but in a milder form: persuasion, intimidation, and punishments short of death, being strongly recommended. At the same time an effort was made to give greater dignity to pagan worship. Priests and high-priests, of decent moral character and of high social rank, were appointed. A r form gorgeous ceremonial was devised. The old gods, o^Papn revamped, as it were, with new attributes adopted from Christianity, were set up in splendid shrines, and pro- pitiated by feasts and sacrifices and magical incantations. On the other hand, the Gospel was assailed with the weapons of ridicule. Forged acts of Pilate,""® full of blasphemies against Christ, were widely circulated, and taught to young weafonso/ persons in the schools. The dignity of dying for the Faith was denied to believers. Tortured and mutilated, with their eyes put out, or branded with other marks of shame, they were hidden away in dungeons or banished to the mines. So elated was Maximin with the apparent success of his endeavors — the gods smiling upon him, as he proclaimed, in teeming harvests, genial seasons, and in the unexampled prosperity of his dominions — that he carried the religious war be- conquest of yond his own borders into the Christian kingdom of Armenia, and succeeded in establishing the persecution there. But his confidence was soon shaken by a terrible series of reverses. First, his insatiable licentiousness inspired universal execrations : the eunuchs, who scoured the provinces Terrible for victims to his lusts, making the vile quest more odious by gratuitous insults and indignities. Tax-gatherers fol- lowed the eunuchs, and, if possible, were still more hated. *9 Many, however, were put to death ; and among others Peter the Mar- tyr, Bishop of Alexandria. See Euseb. Book IX. “ Euseb. ix. v. 350 History of the Church. Then came a general drought and an unprecedented famine. The rich were reduced to beggary, beggars were massacred or drowned. An awful pestilence followed close upon the famine. In the midst of these calamities the charity of believers was enabled to shine forth again. Amid despair and desolation Charity their duty to the sufferers of every kind. of the Not content to visit and relieve the sick, they fought Christians. ... . - , , , , t i With the street dogs for the abandoned bodies of the dying or the dead. At length, Heaven smiled once more upon the despairing provinces. Maximin, defeated by Licinius, first turned his rage against the pagan priesthood who had incited him to civil war ; then wandered wildly from place to place, attempting to rally his resources ; till at length taking poison, but not in sufficient quantity to destroy life at once, he was slowly eaten up by an internal fire, and so miserably Eftd of Maximin^ perished.*' Before his death he issued a new and ample edict of toleration and redress to the Chris- tians ; in which he apologized for himself, and laid all the severities of the persecution to the door of the officers and judges. The splendid Church of Tyre, demolished during the perse- cution, but now rebuilt on its old site with greater magnificence Church of ever, signalized in one place the restoration of Christian worship. The example was followed in other cities. The death of Maximin was not merely a deliver- ance of the Church ; it was accompanied everywhere with a joyful munificence, an uncalculating zeal in restoring her waste places, and a promptness of restitution on the part of the heathen, that showed her to have gained, even in things tem- poral, far more than she had lost. In Italy and North Africa, Maxentius, the twin monster of Maximin,” a prodigy of superstition, cruelty, rapacity and ** The horrible description of his end is given with much fulness by Euseb. ix. lo. ” Euseb. De Vita, Const, i. 33-38 ; Eccl, Hist, viii. 14 ; Zosim. Hist, Nov, lib. ii. Times of Diocletian. 351 lust, had in the earlier days of his usurpation pretended to favor the Christians. Having succeeded, however, in gaining the good-will of the army by largesses and flattery, and having by the aid of Maximian his father baffled all the efforts of Severus and Galerius, he gave himself over to the fiend of licentiousness, and became an ob- ject of abhorrence to all his subjects alike. Like Maximin he indulged in a wantonness of debauchery, which set all law and all social ties at defiance. The maid or matron that once attracted his eye, had no refuge from dishonor but in self- destruction. Sophronia, a Christian lady, wife of the Prefect of the city, adopted this mode of escape. The tyrant^s minions were ready imitators of his foul example. To make his turpi- tude complete, the vague religious feeling which had inclined him at one time to favor the Church, led him finally into a mire of the most grovelling and insane superstitions. Whether he persecuted directly for religion’s sake, is Superstu somewhat doubtful. It is more probable that the sufferings of the Christians under his reign, were consequences of the general state of outlawry in which the edict of Diocletian had placed them, rather than of any particular hostility on the part of the western tyrant. The old chief Maximian, who on his son’s usurpation had resumed the purple and the title of Augustus, and had been his main stay in military affairs, soon found his alii- jEndof ance unendurable, and took refuge with Constantine in Gaul. But the unhappy old man was a restless agitator. Twice detected in treason against his host and son-in-law — for Constantine had married his daughter Fausta, receiving with her as a dowry the coveted title of Augustus — he was allowed no other mercy than that of ^‘free death,” and perished igno- miniously by his own hand. Maxentius eagerly availed himself of this as a pretext for a quarrel. He hated Constantine intensely ; and when the latter, with a zeal more creditable to his justice than to his humanity, followed up the death of his wife’s father 352 History of the Church. by erasing his titles, and throwing down his statues, the oppor- tunity for a display of filial piety was considered too good to be neglected. Maxentius immediately gave orders, throughout Italy and North Africa, to overthrow the images of Constan- tine. In the contest that ensued, the latter did not wait to be attacked. With a promptitude and energy which entitle him to a high place among military leaders, he conducted his small army across the Cottian Alps ; routed the best generals of Maxentius in several well-contested fields, and marching steadily and rapidly lyctory of towards Rome, finally overwhelmed the usurper in a Constantine^ ' A.D. 312. great battle under the walls of the city. Maxentius was found drowned in one of the marshes of the Tiber. Before he End of had left Rome for the decisive field, he had taken care Maxentius. consult the Sibylline Books. On that day^ ran the answer of the prudent oracle, the enemy of the Romans shall perish. The Romans indeed rejoiced that their enemy had perished ; and the acclamations which greeted the conqueror were those of men who had nothing more to lose, and conse- quently everything to gain, from a change of masters. All this happened about a year before the death of Maximin. It was followed by an alliance between Constantine and Licinius, and by a series of events in the East, already in part related. Thus Constantine in the West and Licinius in the East, both of them favorably disposed towards the Chris- Constantine , and tians, remained to divide the Roman world between Licinius. , . _ them, or, if necessary, to contest the supremacy by a renewal of bloody strife. In the meanwhile, the almost forgotten Diocletian had lived long enough in his chosen retreat at Salona, to taste the bitter Diocletian ffuits of the seeds of tyranny he had sown. Whether at Salona. troubled himself with the afflictions of the Empire is by no means certain. At all events, no influence for good was allowed him. It is probable that he was soon made aware of the necessity of receiving passively and in silence whatever might befall him. *3 Euseb. Vita Constant. ; Zosimus, Hist. ii. Times of Diocletian. 353 His Petition rejected. Valeria his daughter had been given in marriage to Gale- rius,*^ to whom she bore no children, but performed faithfully the duty of a mother to Candidianus, his illegitimate son. On the death of the Augustus, the beauty and wi/eand . .Ml Daughter. wealth of the widowed Empress proved an irresistible bait to the brutal Maximin. But Valeria rejected his advances with becoming dignity. She was therefore sent into exile, with her property confiscated, her reputation blasted, her attendants subjected to the torture, and her female friends put to death on foul and false accusations. When tidings of this came to Dio- cletian, he ventured to entreat of the monster that his daughter might be suffered to share his retreat at Salona, and comfort his last moments. His humble petition was in vain. Af- terwards, on the triumph of Licinius, a gleam of hope, founded on the debt of gratitude due from that con- queror to Galerius, induced the princess, accompanied by her mother, Prisca, to throw herself on his mercy and seek the pro- tection of his court. She was the more easily led to this from learning that Candidianus was in favor there. She was soon undeceived. Candidianus, as also Severianus, the son of Seve- rus, had imperial blood in them, and were therefore put to death. Fearing a similar fate, the two empresses fled, in the disguise of peasants. After fifteen months of wandering from place to place, all Asia the meanwhile resounding with their woes, they were at length discovered and recognized at Thessa- lonica. Their doom had been long since pronounced. In the presence of a great crowd of people, they were both beheaded, and their bodies thrown into the sea. Such was the sad end of Diocletian’s family. Of his own latter days little is known beyond an uncertain rumor that, maddened’^ by the ingratitude and neglect of all whom he had benefited, and by the pitiable fate of the few who might be supposed to have cherished some affection His own end., A.D. 313. 24 Lactant. De Mort. Pers. 39-41. *5 Milman and Gibbon make light of the story of Diocletian’s madness. Eusebius and Lactantius both mention it. The latter says that, after his long 354 History of the Church. for him, he withdrew from the troubles of life, as he had fled from those of empire, by a voluntary act. His death, however, has been attributed by some to dropsy, by some to poison, and by others to a protracted state of insomniay in which he was unable to take food or rest.^ ■» CHAPTER X. THE VICTORY OF CONSTANTINE. The victory of Constantine was the beginning of the triumph of the Christian Religion. When he first announced the bold plan of attempting with hardly more than forty thousand avail- able soldiers,* the conquest of Italy, defended by an army of at least four times the number, his friends remonstrated, and his officers could not refrain from murmurs of disapprobation.® But the boldness of this scheme was as nothing, compared with that which he was destined to undertake and to achieve. It was no Constantine i^ss than to abjure the old traditions of the Empire, ^Christian identify himself with an apparently broken and certainly unmilitary party, which neither in his army, nor in Italy, nor in Rome, nor in the Empire at large, was of illness previous to liis abdication, Ae revived^ but not wholly ; for at certain times he was insane^ but at other times in his senses. The humorous philos- ophy he displayed in his retirement, and his famous bon mot, that no man who can raise his own cabbages ought to covet the cares of empire, are not incon- sistent with such intermittent insanity. Witty men are not necessarily sane men. ^ Lactant. xlii. * Zosimus gives him eighty thousand men in all ; but, as Gibbon shows, not more than half that number could have been spared for the campaign in Italy. * A heathen panegyrist says : “ What God, what present Deity inspired thee, when almost all thy generals not only murmured in secret, but opei^ expressed their fears, against the advice of men, against the warnings of aus- pices,” etc., etc. : “omnibus fere Comitibus et Ducibus, non solum tacite mus- santibus, sed omen aperte timentibus,” 355 The Victory of Constantine, any political importance ; and which could nowhere claim to be more than a respectable minority of the population. To ascribe such a venture to mere political calculation, is to affirm a greater wonder than any of those recorded in legendary fiction. Nor can we set his conduct to the account of any deep affection for the Gospel, or for its persecuted followers. His life was hardly that of a true Christian man. Indeed, he never professed to be other than an outside pillar of the Church ; and his baptism was deferred till just before his death. These things considered, Constantine’s own account^ of the matter seems more simple and more credible than any of the theories which have been framed in explanation of his extraordinary conduct. 3 Euseb. De Vit, Constant, i. 26-30, 36 ; Socrat. Eccl. Hist. 1 . 2. Lac- tantius mentions only that “ Constantine was told in a dream to put the sign on the arms of his soldiers : ” De Mort. Pers. 44 ; which is an addition, not a contradiction, to the story as related by Eusebius. So the heathen Nazarius, in Panegyr. ad C. 14: “It was bruited all through the Gauls, that armies were seen which declared they were divinely sent,” etc. : which, again, is not a contradiction, but a popular exaggeration. Many modern critics, such as Milman, Neander, Gieseler, Schrockh, Manso, ascribe the wonder partly to excited imagination, partly to the appearance of some brilliant cross-like phe- nomenon in the heavens : a mode of explanation as hard to understand, and not a whit easier to believe, than the original simple facts as related by Con- stantine. It gives new names to things, however, and has the merit of being thought philosophical. As to Milman’s and Mosheim’s objection, that the story presents “the meek and peaceful Jesus” as “ a God of battles” ; there is a sufficient answer in Isaiah, xlv. 1-7. It is the Lord who “holds the right hand” of the conqueror, “ to subdue nations before him,” and to work deliv- erance for His people. God is in history, and in the world, as well as in Grace. It has also been urged, that if the appearance had been really super- natural, Constantine’s conversion would have been more genuine than it seems to have been. But this is to mistake the operation of “ signs and wonders.” Their utmost effect is to convince the mind (as in the case of Simon Magus), not necessarily to convert the heart. As to the particular wonder under dis- cussion, the position of the Church at that time was a dignus vindice nodus. Believers everywhere had been ten years (nay, three hundred years) ciying to the Lord for deliverance. That the deliverance, when it came, should be signalized by extraordinary tokens of the Hand that wrought it, seems to me a rational as well as religious belief. 356 History of the Church. His Vision. From his father Constantins and his mother Helena, and from his own observation of the terrible doom of those who His Course opposed themselves to the Gospel, he had imbibed explained. xnuch of Christian faith as a liberal and sagacious, but not scrupulous, mind could be expected to receive. This was not much; but it was enough to make him ponder the weakness of human strength, and to pray for the support of an overruling Power. Maxentius, under the same circumstances, had resorted to horrible sacrifices and demoniacal incantations. Constantine, too enlightened for such superstitions, could only turn with vague desire, though with little of the faith that springs from love, towards the great Deity whose hand he rec- ognized in the startling events of his times, the mysterious God of the Christians. It was then, according to his own testimony, that a wonderful vision was vouchsafed. About midday or a little after, there appeared in the heavens, just above the sun, the trophy of a Cross of light, bearing the inscription. By This Conquer. This was witnessed also by the whole army. In his sleep the night following, Christ appeared to him with the same sign, and commanded him to have a standard made in the same image, and to use it in all engage- ments against his enemies. In accordance with this Labarum. jj^gtruction the far-famed Labarum was made ; and when the conqueror entered Rome, his first act was to set up in that proud city the trophy of the Cross, surmounted by the so often conspicuous afterwards in the van of the Roman armies. The readiness with which the Romans acquiesced in this momentous revolution, is not less wonderful than the boldness and decision with which it was brought about. That Rome ^ submits to zeal for polytheism was by no means extinct in the great the Cross. , , , , , , r • metropolis, had been recently shown by a furious out- break in vindication of the honor of the popular goddess For- ' tuna. Some soldier, it appears, had uttered a word depreciatory of the idol.^ It had required the utmost efforts of Maxentius to ^Whether this soldier was a Christian is not mentioned: Losim. Hist, ii. 13. 357 The Victory of Constantine. put an end to the tumult that ensued. But on the entrance of Constantine into the city, this zeal for paganism seems suddenly to have died away. Amid a general approbation, a sect never strong in numbers, generally disliked, and for three hundred years depressed, whose foremost Bishop had lately been forced to act the part of groom^ in the imperial stables, is suddenly elevated to the height of power ; the traditions of a thousand years or more are quietly set aside ; and an entirely new order of things is triumphantly initiated. However all this may be explained by political or philo- sophic reasons, it is not to be wondered at that the Christians should have regarded it in the light of a great deliver- General ance ; a divine intervention the more welcome that it came at their hour of utmost need. And such undoubtedly was their universal feeling. From one end of Christendom to the other there was one harmonious cry : The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we rejoice ! Even the cold and phlegmatic historian of the period, the cautious and (if all reports be true) timorous Eusebius,® was warmed up into a glow 5 Such is said to have been the punishment of Pope Marcellus : Anastas. Vit. Marcell, Eusebius refers to this or some similar case in Mart, of Palest, xii. ^ Eusebius, surnamed Pamphilus, and known as “ the father of Church history,” was not only a man of great industry and learning, with every facility for acquiring a just knowledge of the events he describes, but singularly cautious, skeptical, without a spark of the dangerous light of genius, and little in harmony with the enthusiasm of the age in which he lived. Born in Pales- tine about the year 259, and educated in the latitudinarian school of Origen and his disciples, he kept within the pale of orthodoxy, but sympathized with those who were out of the pale. He was imprisoned during the great perse- cution ; but having been let off without scars, he was both privately suspected and publicly accused (on insufficient grounds, however) of having purchased his immunity by dishonorable concessions. When the peace came he was made Bishop of Caesarea. In the Arian strife he shuffled a little, but finally subscribed to the Nicene Creed. He was a favorite of Constantine, and on the deposition of Eustathius of Antioch was offered that See ; but prudently declined the dangerous honor. On the whole, judging him, not by the severe rule of the early Church, but by a charity fifteen hundred years older and 358 History of the Church. of sympathetic feeling. His Panegyric on the Rebuilding of the Churches shows, in its very extravagance of language, that the joy of the day could be content with no moderate expressions. The general delight, in fact, was a sort of intoxi- cation. The cry was no longer, We have heard with our ears what our forefathers have told us but, As we have heard so have we seeii in the city of the Lord of Hosts, in the city of our God.’* The destruction, root and branch, within so short a space of time, of so many powerful oppressors, could not but create a feeling of awe and admiration. And, happily, this feeling was one in which the heathen could take part. They had been sufferers with the Christians; they had reason to rejoice with them. They could join in the exulting cry:^ ^ Where now are the mighty names so famous among Joy to the the nations ? Where are the Tovii and Herculii, titles Heathen. *1, -iix-x*! i -k ir • • SO insolently assumed by Diodes and Maxim lan, and so pitifully disgraced by their infamous successors? The Lord proportionately more indulgent, he was a moderate and prudent, and (so far as we can judge) a pious and good man. His credit as a historian deservedly stands high. His prejudices were for the most part against that party, which finally proved dominant in the Church ; and where they come in, he has not the rhetorical skill to conceal them. His way of relating Constantine's vision and similar wonders, shows that credulity was not among his failings. Gibbon objects to him, that in two places of his history, he avows an intention to record only the transactions that he deemed creditable to the Church. Whoever will read those passages (Lib. viii. 2, and Mart, of Palest. I2) will see that he merely declines to particularize certain scandals, which, however, he fully mentions in the gross, and in a way more damaging on the whole, than if he had given the details. His care to apprise the reader when he omits any facts of that kind, is a strong proof his scrupulous fidelity ; and it would be an im- provement on the general character of history, if all historians were to adopt the same rule. 7 Lactant. De Mort. Pers. 1. lii. The abominable character of these tyrants as described by the two Church historians is fully borne out by the heathen Zosimus : Hist. ii. It is remarkable, by the way, that Gibbon and Milman, who take every opportunity to discredit the two Church historians refer to Zosimus — whose fanatical hatred of Christianity leads him to the most absurd statements — without a word of censure or of caution. See Gibbon, ch. xvi., and Milman’s notes. 359 The Victory of Consta7itine. hath destroyed them and wiped them from the earth. It is the Lord’s triumph, the victory of the Lord. He hath looked down upon the earth. His flock, torn and scattered by raven- ing wolves, He hath brought together and healed. The wicked beasts, which trampled down His pastures and dissipated his folds, He hath utterly exterminated!” It was, in fact, a triumph of humanity. And if Christians carefully collected the partic- ulars of the horrible end of the oppressors, ‘‘ lest either they should be forgotten, or lest some future historian should corrupt the truth, by passing over in silence their sins against God, and God’s judgments upon them and if in this we can discern a little excess of natural exultation : it is but just to bear Exultation in mind that the early Christians were men of like pas- sions with ourselves, but tried in a way that passes our experience, and almost our conceptions. The real wonder is, that a triumph so great, so sudden, and so unexpected, led to no acts of violent reprisal. A victory of such magnitude, and yet so little abused, is nowhere else recorded in the history of mankind. At the present day, we can see that this first victory of Chris- tianity was not so much a fulfilment, as a type or earnest, of that subjection of the kingdoms of the world, which after r The Victory SO many ages of varied conflict is still but a matter of «« earnest patient faith and hope. It was not the end of war. It was the beginning of a new and more complicated struggle. As, in the first victorious stage of the exodus from Egypt, the Israelites had only to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord,”® but in later stages were obliged to use their own arms; or, as in the conquest of the seven nations, Jericho the type-city was taken without a blow from man, but, in the capture of Ai and other places the People — having corrupted themselves by taking of the accursed thing — were compelled to resort con- tinually to the use of human weapons : so it has proved in the militant progress of the Church. The first great victory was a free gift of God : a victory of simple faith. The people stood ® Exod. xiv. 13. 9 josh. vii. 360 History of the Church. still and saw the Lord work. They quietly waited till the bul- warks of Roman heathenism crumbled and fell before them. But since that time, corrupted more or less with the A Warfare ^ r y n • 1 0/ Mixed wealth of the first conquest, it has been comparatively Elements, /• r • j 1 1 1 ^ a warfare of mixed elements . human strength, human policy, spoils of Ai, snares of Gibeon, and that root of all the evil ‘‘ the Babylonish garment,*' concealing as it were the Lord’s arm from view, and making the Church almost undistinguishable from the world. The symptoms of this change were not slow in appearing. Almost the first greeting that came to the weak faith, or to the Signs 0/ a politic calculations of the victor, was from a broken New Era. distracted Christianity. The mad schism of the Donatists appealed to an earthly conqueror to settle spiritual disputes.*® The most desperate and bloody wars” that troubled Constantine’s reign were levied against him in the name of the religion he had adopted. Similar difficulties encountered Licinius in the East; and, if he had any faith, contributed to shake it. This latter Emperor, in his contest with Maximin previously narrated, had inclined to the Christian cause from motives sim- Liciniusied those by which Constantine had been deter- ^chrh-^ mined. He could put no confidence in the gods of itamty. Qalerius and Maxentius. An alliance with Constan- tine, cemented by a marriage with his sister Constantia, which took place at Milan not long after the overthrow of Maxentius, helped to commit him more decidedly in the same direction. In addition to this, he is said to have had a dream just before Constantine’s edict, on this occasion, is given with many others in Euseb. Eccl. Hist. lib. x. The violence of the Circumcelliones and the religious wars in Africa are vividly described in Milman’s Hist, of Christianity^ iii. i. In addition to the Donatist trouble, there was the schism of Meletius, with the outbreak of Arianism, quarrels among the Bishops, and innumerable other troubles, to shake the faith of a new convert. The divine caution, “ Blessed is he whoso- ever shall not be offended in Me,” was never more needed than in the moment of the first great victory. 36 i The Victory of Constantine. his decisive battle with Maximin, which induced him to pray to the Most High, and in His Name to cope with an army twice the number of his own. However this may be, his Edicts o/ victory was followed by edicts," not merely of tolera- Restitution^ tion, but of the most ample restitution. Churches, cemeteries, and property of all kinds were to be restored fully and without delay. In return, Christians were to pray that the Divine favor, already so signally experienced by the Emperor, might be continued for all time to him and his successors. The war that soon broke out from the mutual jealousy of the two Emperors, put an end for the time being to this happy state of things.*^ Constantine’s vigor proved superior, in two fiercely contested battles, to the tried skill and between more numerous forces of his veteran adversary. A Emperors^ hollow peace ensued. The victor was confirmed in ^ 5 his allegiance to Christianity. The vanquished, sorely galled by his defeat, and irritated continually by the praises too lavishly bestowed upon his rival, began to hate the cause which self- interest alone had induced him to take up. His wrath was freely vented upon the Churches and the Clergy. He accused them of praying for Constantine more earnestly than for him. Persecution began once more to lower upon the East. ^ew The assemblies of the faithful appeared again in the light of conspiracies. Synods were forbidden. Even the favor- ite work of charity, the ministering to those in prison, could be performed only at the risk of sharing the doom of mal- efactors. In some places. Churches were demolished. In others. Bishops were made away with in secret. In short, Maxi- Lactant. De Mort. Pers. xlviii. ; Euseb. x. 5. The edict from Milan had been drawn up previously to the victory over Maximin, but was not put forth in the East till after that event. As the one given by Euseb. refers to a previous one not extant, Licinius probably made some additions to the original drawn up at Milan. '3 Zosimus lays the blame of this war to the perfidy and ambition of Con- stantine. On such points party prejudices were too strong to allow us, in cases where motives are concerned, to attach much weight to the testimony of either heathen or Christian writers. 16 362 History of the Church. min and Maxentius seemed to have revived in the person of an old man more able than those tyrants, but not less cruel or Second licentious. At length a breach with Constantine, in which the latter perhaps made zeal for Christianity a cloak for his own ambitious views, accompanied with prodigious preparations both by sea and land, threatened the exhaustion of what remained of the resources of the Empire. Constantine proved once more victorious. The great battle of Hadrianople shattered the land forces of Licinius. The siege and capture of Byzantium involved the ruin of his navy. A vigorous rally was followed by an overwhelming defeat at Chrysopolis, now called Scutari ; and the flight and ignominious sub- End oj Licinius, mission of the tyrant, with his pardon at the instance of Ccnstantia his wife, proved but the forerunners of his summary execution, on such pleas of state necessity as a victorious monarch is seldom at a loss to find. Such was the end of Diocletian’s policy. After thirty-seven years of divided rule, with incalculable losses, horrors, Constantine ^ , , . . , ^ , sole and calamities, the Roman world was once more united, and the first Christian Emperor reigned with universal and undivided sway. Constantine attributed his victory, as usual, to the power of the Deity of the Christians. And this, so far as we have the means of judging, was for awhile at least the sum of He gives ^ God the his religion. His clear and hardy intellect, thoroughly awake (as was the case with the heathen mind in gen- eral*^) to a sense of that awful Nemesis which rules in the affairs of dynasties and nations, had been led to identify this great and mysterious power with the cause of a universally hated and per- *4 The reader of Homer, Herodotus, i^schylus, and even Plutarch, knows how deep and real was this belief in a Divine Power of retribution, sure- footed though sometimes slow, among the ancient heathen. It was the Divine Witness in the heathen conscience to the unity of the Godhead. The barren- ness of mind which recognizes no Providence in History, no controlling Power, is peculiar to modern unbelief ; and is conceivable only under such circumstances as those alluded to in the Epistle to the Hebrews, v. 4-8. For some interesting facts on Constantine’s belief, see Gieseler, \ 56. 363 The Victory of Constantine. secuted sect. He had in some way perceived that the power of Divine retribution was on their side. Their God was more mighty than the gods of the persecutors. This he saw as a sim- ple fact ; and to that fact as seen in the sphere of political enter- prise he readily submitted. Having always believed — to use his own expression — ‘‘ that the best and noblest course of uis Rule action is, before anything is undertaken, to provide as far as possible for a secure result f he watched the almighty Hand which was then shaping the world’s destiny, and that Hand he followed as the only sufficient pledge of security and success. Such a faith, sometimes degenerating into a mere fatalism, and sometimes rising to the height of a sublime confidence in God, is characteristic of all great instruments of polit- intellectual ical or social revolutions ; and is consistent with gross ignorance of the Gospel and gross negligence of its precepts. Men of this kind are often hard, shrewd, and selfish in all sec- ondary matters. But in view of the great ends of their vocation, they are unsparing of themselves, enthusiastic and even fanatical, seldom descending to the littleness of prudential calculations on their own account. Their private character, therefore, is always more or less of an enigma. In the case of Constantine, his later years were subject to a series of Divine visitations, which, so far as we may reverentially look into the secret pur- poses of God, seem to have been intended to lead him from a political into a personal knowledge of the Truth ; and which, we may charitably hope, were not without effect. The Nemesis which he dreaded, and which in State affairs he so Trials and carefully propitiated, was allowed to enter his own house. Dark crimes and darker judgments caused his palace *5 See Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, ch. xviii. ; Euseb. Vit, Constant, iv. 60-64. It is instructive to contrast the Life of Constantine by the courtly Bishop of Caesarea, with the simple inspired records, transcripts as it were from the Book of the recording Angel, of the lives of Solomon and David. Eusebius is all eulogy. We feel, nevertheless, that he belittles his hero by his fulsome praises. On the other hand, what dignity of character beams through 364 History of the Church. to be haunted with horrors worthy of the old tragic drama ; and the life, which rose with so stern a beauty upon the profligate Roman world,*® went down amid a gloom, in which a late baptism, and perhaps a genuine though late repentance, are the only evidence of a hope in keeping with the faith so long professed. But these are questions which history is incompetent to settle. Constantine was simply a great instrument in the hand of God. Th T pe gave the glory, by a firm advocacy of the 0/ a New Gospel, if not in the better way of a consistent Chris- tian life. He stands, therefore, as not merely the in- troducer, but in some sort the type, of that new era of Church growth, in . which, while the root of faith remained, its true development was to be mixed, and almost inextricably entan- gled, with the weeds and thorns and tares of the elements of the world. In him began, in short, the great problem and enigma of our modern Christendom, our modern civilization. the blotted history of those ancient Hebrew kings ! If Constantine’s crimes and faults had been as honestly given by Eusebius, we should probably have found more to admire in him than we can now find warrant for. There is a counterpoise, however, to the extravagant eulogies of Eusebius, in the elegant lampoon (entitled history) of the fanatical heathen Zosimus ; Histories Novee, etc. Among the virtues conceded to him, chastity is prominent ; among his vices, cruelty. Considering the fearful profligacy of the times, a man in his position could hardly maintain the former of these, without falling more or less into the latter. BOOK IV. FROM THE OUTBREAK OF ARIANISM TO THE DOWNFALL OF HEATHENISM. A.D. 319-394- Sook IV CHAPTER L ARIUS AND HIS DOCTRINE. It was in the nineteenth year of the fourth century of our era, amid the peace which Constantine^ s victory had given .. . I/'ll !• to the Church, that a little spark fell among the in- troud/e. flammatory elements of Greek Christianity ; and the ‘ ‘ flames of a new controversy, destined to burn on for ages, spread almost instantaneously from Alexandria into the rest of Egypt, Libya, the Upper Thebes, Palestine, Syria, and the provinces of Asia Minor/ The evil, it is said, first broke out in the following manner : Alexander, the learned successor of Achillas in the Ariusand See of Alexandria, whose election has already been ^iexander, mentioned,® had, on a certain occasion, assembled his clergy about him, for mutual edification in some of the deeper mys- teries of Christian doctrine. The subject for the day was the Majesty and Unity of the Sacred Trinity. On this high theme the Bishop enlarged, possibly in a style savoring somewhat of a fondness for mystical phraseology, more certainly with a marked * For sources of Church History see Dowling’s excellent Introduction to the Critical Study of Ecclesiastical History, London, 1838; also, Gieseler’s Church History, Smith’s American edition. The authorities most immedi- ately necessary are the Greek Ecclesiastical Historians — Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, Evagrius, Philostorgius, Theodorus Lector — Greece ei Latine, in iii. Tomm., Cantabrig., 1720 ; also, the first five of these in English (somewhat inaccurately translated), in six volumes, Baxter & Sons, London. * P. 298. 368 History of the Church. warmth and earnestness of manner : this latter being inspired by his knowledge of the fact that erroneous views on the sub- ject had already crept in, and were secretly favored by a man, the foremost in point of logical ability, and the most influential in position, of all the Alexandrine clergy. Arius, the parish priest of the church called Baucalis,^ was manifestly aimed at in this discourse. He felt the edge of the allusion. He thought he saw in it, rnoreover, a favorable opportunity to avows him- avow himself. The Bishop, in his zealous assertion of the oneness of the Father and the Son, seemed to have confounded the persons of the Trinity ; and Arius, under cover of a righteous indignation against that heresy, might advance his own opinions without rebuke. Accordingly he threw off his habitual reserve, and uttered his mind to the assembled presbyters. ‘‘If the Father,^’ he reasoned,^ “verily begat the Son, He Arian begat must have been anterior to Him that was Tenets. begotten. Once it must have been, that the Father was, and the Son was not. The Father alone is unoriginate ; the Son, therefore, must have been originate; He must have had a beginning. He must have come into being out of no-being. In short, though the first-born of creation, and immeasurably exalted as being alone created by the Father^ He is not ^ the Father — in the sense of emanation, or issue, or expansion, or division of substance — but was brought into existence by the Father’s will, and is consequently a creature.'^ These sentiments were met at first with murmurs of disap- probation, but without any attempt at formal dis- subjectto cussion. At a later meeting of the clergy, the mat- ihange. taken up more warmly, and Arius having repeated his assertions, some one is said to have asked him. 3 Sozomen, i. 1 5. 4 Socrates, History, i. 5 ; Epistles of Alexander. Arius, and Eusebius, in Theod. History, i. 4-6 ; Arius’s Thalia, in S. Athan. c. Arian. Orat. ii. 9 ; S. Epiphan. Hceres. 69; Gieseler’s Ch. Hist. J 81, n. 2, Smith’s Am. ed. ; Newman’s Arians of the Fourth Century. Arius and his Doctrine. 369 Do you mean, then, that the Son is, like Satan, susceptible of change?*’ He answered, ^^The Son, being begotten and created, there is naught in His nature to prevent His chang- ing : but it is ever His will to choose only good.” This put the heresy in a form which fell with a great shock upon the Church mind ; so that Arius afterwards saw fit to keep the state- ment in the background,^ and by the majority of his followers it was always carefully evaded. The same pressure of public opinion compelled him, in like manner, to soften other sharp points of his doctrine. cautious The Son is a creature, yet not as one of the creatures : though once He was not, yet He was begotten before all times y There was an effort, in other words, to assign to the Son of God a nature intermediate between that of the Creator and that of the creature : an effort which would never have been made had it not been necessary to satisfy, at least in appearance, the strong faith in His Deity that everywhere prevailed among Christian people. The question being once fairly opened, the Catholics were not slow in detecting the abuse of logic by which the Arian Arian tenets were supported. It was a reasoning from Logic, analogy ; but, as was rightly urged, it omitted the point of the analogy really applicable, in favor of a merely secondary and incidental point. That a son is born after his father is a rela- tion of time, applicable to man because man is a crea- ture of time. Such a relation cannot be applied to dental mis- Him who has His dwelling in eternity. But that a the^EsiZ- son is of his father, begotten in his image, the inher- itor of his nature, whatever that nature may be, is an essential relation, as proper to heavenly and eternal, as to temporal and earthly, existence. . When Arius, therefore, contended for the relation expressed by the word after, and objected to that which the word of implies, he did something more than put forth a heresy : he started a new way of thinking, which, if once ad- mitted, would endanger every article of the Christian faith, s See the Letters of Alexander and Arius, Theod. i. 4, 5. 370 History of the Church. The same may be said of his more subtle argument, that the Son owed His existence to the will of God, and that Vimfinfo- the Father must have been before He willed the Son thereof ^ to be. Such an assertion would imply that God had a being before He had a will : which, again, is an in- troduction into the Godhead of the idea of time — a manifest denial of the Divine perfection. Arius had better ground to go on, but availed himself of it in a cavilling spirit, when he diverted the controversy Ties in the iuto attacks upon certain theories current in the Church, attacked uot Sanctioned, indeed, nor yet formally condemned, by^Artus. which theologians had endeavored to bring the mystery of the Trinity more neatly within the grasp of philo- sophic thought. Such, for example, were the ideas of emana- tion, expansion, issue, division, and the like.^ Such, again, was the distinction between the immanent and the forthgoing Word ; or, as otherwise phrased, the Word silent and the Word speaking. As mere analogies or illustrations, efforts to compare things spiritual with spiritual, such phrases might be used without seri- ous harm ; if pressed too literally, however, as they sometimes were, they might easily be perverted into dangerous errors. ^ Many theologians of the first three centuries were open to attack on this point; see Book 11. ch. 7 , §viii. of this History. Gieseler remarks that even the Nicene Creed sanctions the theory of emanation — “ God of God, Light of Light,” etc. It is to be borne in mind, however, that in using such anal- ogies, the Fathers acknowledged their insufficiency, and guarded their hearers against understanding them in any mere physical sense. Inadequate expres- sion of the Truth is not heresy : heresy involves both inadequate and contra- dictory language. Uncharitableness or captiousness is at its root. For this reason S. Athanasius — a model of charity in the true sense of the word — in defending particular expressions sanctioned by Church use, deemed it enough to show that such expressions were capable of a sound meaning : for if they were capable of such a meaning, it were malicious to interpret them other- wise. In the same spirit, S. Alexander (in his Epistle, Theod. i. 4 ) says, ‘‘ Terms .... are not adequate to express the Divinity .... of the Only- Begotten Son. They were used by holy men who vainly endeavored to clear up the mystery, and who .... informed their hearers that the subject was far beyond their powers” Arius and his Doctrine. 371 When Arius, therefore, attacked such expressions, he gained the sympathy of some thoughtful and learned men. On the other hand, some, in a spirit of blind opposition, looked with favor upon everything that he assailed : an error which gave rise to almost as many heresies as can be traced to the source of Arianism proper. There was a further complication arising from the boldness of the arch heretic in appealing to the language of Appeal to Holy Writ, and from his artful handling of those texts which affirm either the Divinity or the Divine attributes of the Son of God. All language, of course, is capable of a secondary or im- proper, as well as of a proper, meaning : it may be taken in a higher or in a lower sense. Thus when the and lower young man in the Gospel saluted our Lord as good Master,*’ he meant it, no doubt, in the lower sense of the word, and could, therefore, apply it to a human teacher ; but it was intimated to him that, in its proper sense, and according to the fulness of its meaning, the salutation was suitable to none but God. The Church acted on this hint in her mode of interpret- ing the Scriptures generally. Terms descriptive of the nature or person of Christ were taken instinctively SeLeJolnd in their highest sense and when these terms were ' drawn from filial or other human relations, and were applicable therefore only by way of analogy, the maxim, Man like God, not God like man,” became the principle and guide of inter- pretation. Lower relations are images of the higher, not the higher of the lower. Earthly things and names are shadows and figures : substance and reality must be sought in heaven. The Catholics, therefore, acknowledging even men to be ‘^sons” or images” of God, and, therefore, in a lower sense, ^^gods,” gave a larger meaning to such words, in proportion as, aban- ^ The leading thought of this paragraph, which I have given (perhaps) too concisely, is fully brought out in Newman’s Arians, etc., chap. ii. sec. v. Abundant illustration of it can be found in S. Athanasius, Nican. Defens. Oxf. Trans Part i. ; Library of the Fathers. 372 History of the Church. doning every corporeal thought, they ascended in the scale of being,® so that when they came up to the Son, the Image,’* the}^ could be content with nothing short of the most full, most exalted, most spiritual idea the terms were capable of. Arius introduced a mode of interpretation which entirely set Arian naught this wholesome rule. He made the lower ofintert application of names and words the measure of the pretation. meaning of the higher.^ If Christ is the Son of God, so are angels His sons. If Christ is the power of God, even the locusts in one place are called His power. If the Father begat the Son, He is said also to have begotten the drops of dew.** This was to say, in other words, that because the names of Christ apply in a secondary sense to things earthly, which are images of Him their Creator, therefore they must be so applied to things heavenly ; an argument as fallacious as if one were to reason that because we sometimes call the sunshine simply the sun,** therefore the latter word means only sun- shine,** even when we apply it to the solar orb. The inevitable result of such corrosive logic was to void the Its neces- Scriptures of all value as a positive revelation. It was, sary Result, away the whole ground of faith. For faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.** But if the very word by which faith in Christ cometh, has no primary and proper application to Him, but may equally well be interpreted in any grade of its lower sense, then there is no sure revelation, no ascertainable truth, and consequensly there can be no rational belief. All is reduced to the uncertainty of opinion, conjecture, and vague interpretation. These rejnarks seem necessary at this juncture of Church History, in order to direct attention to an essential Its Import, long departure from the line of ortho- doxy, which Arius began, but which, under other forms and names, continued to vex the Church for ages after* ® Niccen. Defens. \ 24. 9 Letter of Alexander, Theod. i. 4. The invention of the sophism quoted in the text is attributed to Asterius, though all the Arians seem to have used it. See Niccen. Defens. J 20. Arius and his Doctrine. 373 It was not, like many of the preceding and accompanying heresies, an erroneous theory merely, a foolish and . /• 1 'T'l Ariantsm vain attempt to explain the great mystery of the 1 hree an alien in One. It was an introduction into the Church of an alien mind : an application to the creeds and Scriptures of a logical instrument, which, without affecting the form of either, could quietly cut away their substance and meaning.*® The controversy, therefore, was eminently a sifting of the heart and mind. Forcing men back from the letter of truth to the spirit, it brought home to each bosom the searching question, “What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He?** It was this which gave to the heresy its Protean facility in changing shapes : it was this which enabled it, under innumerable shifts and eva- • sions, to maintain so long a struggle in the bosom of the Church. No strife is so obstinate as that in which the com- batants, while seeming to have everything, have in reality nothing, in common. The person and character of the great heresiarch have come down to us in descriptions in which, with some allow- person 0/ ance for the coloring infused by hostile fancy, it is^ ahus, easy to discern a consistent portrait. Of a tall and gaunt, but not ungainly, figure, a face thin and sallow, marked by the lines of thought, and an eye which had a peculiar gleam of what some considered saintliness, and others fanaticism or even in- sanity, he was austere in his habits, and of a disposition nat- urally melancholy and self-absorbed. His talk is described as . sweet, insinuating, and exerting an influence akin to fascination. When thoroughly aroused, he spoke as a man under a spell, and the spell communicated itself to those who heard him. At other times he was cold and shy, and uncommunicative ; as ready to dissemble his opinions as, in a different frame of mind, he was rash in their avowal. His enemies describe him as S. Athanasius dwells much on this ; showing that the Arian mind was Judaic y captious, evasive. See, e. g., the Ep, in Defence of Nic. Def (Oxf. Trans, ch. i.). The Letter of Eusebius (Socrat. i. 8) is one of the most subtle specimens of this kind of evasion. 374 History of the Church. excessively ambitious, inwardly corroded by the greed of pow- er. On the contrary, Philostorgius” declares that he views of his shrank from publicity and honor; so that he volunta- rily gave place to Alexander when the two were com- petitors for the Episcopal chair. This latter opinion is counte- nanced by the fact that his prominence in controversy was only occasional ; while he soon lost the leadership of the heresy that bore his name. He gave it birth and form : the fostering care of it devolved upon abler and worse men. A man of the general character above described may become a mystic or a sceptic, or both of these in turn. The ingat early associations of Arius, at Antioch, in the school of Lucian, and the training he had there received in the Aristotelian method of disputation, committed him effectually to the line of scepticism. Keen, clever, self-absorbed, unim- aginative, and unsympathetic; incapable of regarding, much more of appreciating, any other point of view than his own ; he was a hater of all mystery in philosophy and religion : a feeling aggravated, perhaps, but not justified, by the decided tendency in Egypt towards the opposite extreme. Thus he de- nied the eternal generation, on the ground that it was incompre- hensible. He did not reflect that the creation of the Son out of nothing is just as much of a mystery, and fully as hard for rea- son to explain. There was a similar inconsistency in his com- plaints against the Catholics for expressing their belief in words other than those found in Scripture. So far as he had any positive theory of the Trinity, it cor- responded to that of the New Platonic school for which rea- ** The work of Philostorgius, the Arian historian, is preserved in a com- pendium by Photius ; who introduces each extract with the cautionary phrase, “ Thus says that liar,’’ or, “ that most impious of liars, Philostorgius.” It has been abundantly proved by modern and ancient writers, that the New Platonic Trinity, itself a combination of the ideas of three leading schools, corresponds to the Arian, not the Catholic, dogma. See De Broglie, L' Eglise et V Empire ^ etc., vol. ii., Eclaircissement A. ; Newman’s Arians of the Fourth Cent, chap, i., sect. iv. ; Cudworth’s Intellect. System, Book I. chap. iv. \ 36; Brucker, Hist. Philos, tom. ii. de Sect. Eclect. ^§li. lii. Arius and his Doctrine. 375 son he was taunted with being a follower of Porphyry, the well- known philosophic enemy of Christian truth. At a His dogma time when the Church was absorbing the broken ranks Platonic, of the heathen schools, there was infinite danger from this class of thinkers. The treasures of Greek learning — ‘‘ the spoils of the Egyptians'' — might be used, indeed, to adorn the Tabernacle of Truth : but they might with still greater ease be converted into ‘^golden calves," the symbols of a heathenism more subtle and intellectual, but not less dangerous, than the older and grosser forms of creature-worship. It was, doubtless, an earnest sense of the danger in this di- rection, that gave such intensity to the Catholic feeling against Arianism. Externally considered, the heresy differed hs tendency little from the doctrine commonly received. It ac- i^eathen. knowledged the Scriptures ; it waged no war against the order or worship of the Church ; no form of confession was in com- mon use which it was not ready to subscribe : in short, it con- ceded to the Son of God all the practical adoration which had been rendered Him from the beginning. The faithful felt, nev- ertheless, that even in this last point, in yielding Divine honors to one who was declared to be a creature only, Arius had taken a fatal step downward towards polytheism : while his mode of arguing and denying, his shallow and one-sided philosophy, and, in short, his whole tone and temper of mind, were essen- tially heathenish, infidel, and atheistic. Hence the extreme bitterness of the controversy that the Arian heresy provoked. 13 « For it was fitting that the redemption should take place through none other than Him who is the Lord by nature, lest we should name another Lord^ and fall into the Arian and Greek folly ^ See Oxf. Trans, of S. Athanas. against Arian. pp. 129, 141, 292, 301, 303. 376 History of the Church. CHAPTER II. ARIUS, ALEXANDER, AND CONSTANTINE. The controversy mentioned in the preceding chapter was not followed by any immediate action on the Bishop^s part. Arius went on unmolested, teaching publicly and in private the tenets he had avowed; for the diffusion Heresy. which his position as pastor of the principal church in the city, as an authorized preacher, and as the head, it would appear, of the catechetical school, gave him every advantage he could well desire. His example was soon followed by other See^a/ teachers, such as Colluthus, Carponas, and Sarmatas: Coiiuthus. f^rst of whom, in a fit of indignation at the toler- ance extended to ‘‘heresy,** broke off from communion with the Bishop and organized a sect called after their own name. The amiable prelate still temporized, in hopes of confin- ing the evil within the precincts of the city. He even held meetings for the free discussion of the points of difference, listening to both sides,* it is said, and “applauding sometimes the one party and sometimes the other.** That an end came at length to this impolitic delay was due, in all probability, to the counsels of a young man, a member of the household of Alexander, known at that time as Athana- the Dcacon Athanasius. About twenty years old and of a slight and puny frame, a mere “mannikin** as his enemies* at a later day called him, he had already given signs of a mental and moral superiority from which great things were expected. According to a story that comes to us on respectable author- * Sozom. i. 15. * Julian: Epistol. 51. Gregory Nazianzen, however, speaks of him •as angelical in person: Oral, xxi. 9. AriuSy Alexander^ and Constantine. 377 ity,3 he was first brought to notice in a singular way. The Bishop, one day, saw a group of children on the sea- shore, imitating, in sport, the rite of Baptism. The child Athanasius officiated as Bishop. Alexander was at first sight shocked ; but so great was the seriousness and dignity with which the young ministrant performed the sacred office, that the good-natured prelate could not find in his heart to annul the act. He recognized the children as duly baptized, and took their young leader into his house to train him for Holy Orders. The disciple proved worthy of the confidence of his master. Already before the outbreak of the Arian troubles he had written with marked ability a Tract against the Gentiles, and an Essay on the Doctrine of the Incarnation. But the new heresy awakened and consecrated all the energies of his soul. He saw in it at once a blasphemy against Christ and a denial of the Gospel. He opposed it with the utmost decision ; and it was owing in the main to his sagacious and energetic counsels that the Church of Alexandria took at length a decided stand. First, Alexander and the city presbyters, then a provin- cial Synod of about one hundred bishops from Egypt condemned, and Libya, anathematized Arius and his principal ad- ‘ ’ herents. Among those condemned were five deacons, six pres- byters, and two of episcopal rank, Secundus and Theonas. But to cut down a weed after it has seeded, is to give it additional facilities for growth. Arius, indeed, withdrew from Alexandria, but he left busy agents behind him : women of all classes, and especially large numbers of the Sacred widely Virgins/ having attached themselves to him with all the ardor of their sex. He had emissaries, in like manner, through- out Egypt and Libya. In Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor, the ground had been prepared for his doctrine by the heresies of the third century / and in the numerous sees held by Collucian- 3 Socrat. i. 15. The story presents chronological difficulties, which are not, however, altogether insuperable: De Broglie, I. i. ch. iii. -♦Epiphanius says 700 Virgins. Ilceres. Ixix, i. 5 Book II. ch. vii., and Book III. ch. v., vi., of this History, 378 History of the Church. ists,® as the disciples of Lucian were called, there were efficient co-workers ready to his hand. Among others, Eusebius, the Church historian, the metropolitan of Caesarea, lent a favorable willing ear to his plausible complaints, and wrote in his behalf to the Bishop of Alexandria. His cause was more earnestly taken up by another Eusebius, the courtly Bishop of Nicomedia. In short, Arius could boast, whith some show of reason, that ‘‘all the prelates of the East, except such illiterate men7 as the Bishops of Antioch, Tripoli, and Jerusalem,’’ were more or less favorably disposed towards him. Where he could not insinuate his heresy, he took care to secure sympathy as a victim of persecution. Alexander en- Letters to ^^^^ored to undo the mischief by a circular epistle to and fro. colleagues, stating the true grounds of the quarrel. But his tardy intervention added fuel to the flame. Innumer- able letters passed to and fro, the Bishop himself, it is said, having written more than seventy in the course of one month ; and wherever these missives fell, they were carefully gathered up by the one side or the other, and kept for further use in the controversy.® As was natural, the Meletians and other sects increased the confusion, arraying themselves for the most part on the side of Arius. What was vastly more mischievous, the controversy soon became popular, and wrangling resounded on every side.^ Shop- keepers discussed the mysteries of the creed furiously over their wares. The populace railed at one another * in the language of theology. Households were divided on the question. Whether the Son was before he was begotten ; or argued in noisy debates that “Peter and Paul, had they made ^Theod. i. 4, 5. 7 “ They will not admit that any of our fellow-ministers possess even mediocrity of intelligence the true doctrines, they say, have never entered the minds of any but themselves.” Alexander’s letter, Theod. i. 4. This boast of learning, wit, enlightened views, etc., marked the Eusebian or Arian party. s Socrat. i. 6. pEuseb. Pf/. Constant, iii. 4; Socrat. i. 6; Theod. i. 4, 6. Arius, Alexander^ and Constantine. 379 sufficient efforts, might have attained a filiation equal to that of their Lord.'* The heathen took part in the general scandal. The squabbles of Christians were mimicked in theatres. It was a time of rebuke and blasphemy, from the blame of which neither of the two parties was altogether free, though the infamy of ministering directly to the frivolous temper of the crowd seems to attach chiefly to the name of Arius. To make his tenets popular, he strung them together in loose verses, after the manner of a low comic poet, called Sotades, and Thalia entitled the vile production the Thalia — a name com- 0/ Arius. monly given to songs sung at feasts. He also wrote hymns, which he set to light ai^s, for millers, for sailors, for travellers by land or by water. The Emperor Constantine, whose interest in Church affairs had steadily increased, notwithstanding the trouble and annoy- ance he had experienced from them, first learned of the difficulties in the East during his stay in Nicomedia, ^urpJs^i just after the great victory over his rival, Licinius. a.d. 323. The advantage of a first hearing was on the side of the Arians. Eusebius, the crafty prelate of the Eastern capital, had written letters, holden councils, and made appeals in all directions, in their behalf. Constantia, the Emperor's sister and the widow of Licinius, was a devoted follower of Eusebius. Both of these had access to the court, and neither of them was likely to leave the opportunity unimproved. However this may have been, the emperor's emotions on hearing of the affair were those of grief as a Christian, of dis- appointment and vexation as a statesman. He had been sufficiently troubled, he declared, with the scan- o/the dais and confusion of the Donatist schism in North Africa; and when his efforts had failed to find in the Western Church a suitable arbiter of that quarrel, he had confidently looked towards the East — the venerable day-spring of religion — for an authority which all parties might unanimously respect. But now the East itself was in a fever of excitement. And all for what? For a mere question about words, as he understood 38 o History of the Church. it ; or, at most, for mysteries too deep for man to scrutinize, and which, if looked into at all, ought to be kept within the circle of the learned and prudent few. Such was the feeling of Constantine, and such the tenor of his letter to Arius and Alexander.” For in an appeal full of earnestness, and showing every mark of good sense ex- His Letter . • i i i t on the sub- cept pertinence to the cause at issue, he condescended to write to the two himself; putting the blame of the quarrel with equal hand on both; complaining that they had robbed him of his sleep and of all joy in life ; and urging them for the Church's sake, for the furtherance of unity, for the tranquillity of the empire, and finally, out of respect to his own peace of mind, to put an end to the scandal, to compromise the difference, imitating therein the example of the heathen philo- sophic schools ; and, in short, if all could not see alike, yet to preserve at least decorum, with the continuance of kindly feeling and mutual respect. With his letter he sent a special mediator ; in the selection of whom he showed a thoughtful impartiality, passing over He sends a Eusebius and other eminent Eastern prelates in favor Mediator, ^ Western man, a Spaniard, to whom the subtleties of the Greek tongue and of Greek controversy were almost as unfamiliar as to the emperor himself. It was Hosius of Cordova, a favorite of Constantine from the time of his conversion; a ^‘sober-minded " man, “widely „ . , known" as such even among those who differed from Hosius of o Cordova, opinion.” His dignity of character was adorned by great wealth, his wealth was ennobled by boundless liberality. A confessor in the great persecution, he had taken part in This letter was manifestly written under Arian inspiration. Socrat. i. 7 ; Euseb. Vtt. Constant, ii. 63-73. “ Eusebius and Athanasius alike sound the praises of Hosius : of all the prelates at Nicsea he is the only one that Eusebius mentions with commenda- tion ; of the 400 whom Athanasius counted among his allies Hosius the Great is the only one named. Euseb. Vit. Const, ii. 63; iii. 7. S. Athan. Apolog, de Fuga^ p. 703; ad Solitar. pp. 827, 837, 842, etc. Arius, Alexander^ and Constantine. 381 numerous councils since the beginning of the century, and was destined during his long life to have a foremost place in many others. He was famous, in short, as Hosius the Great ; a title which he held till the hundredth year of his life, and which, though dimmed by his yielding at last to Arian persecutions, is still accorded to him for his eminent services to the cause of Truth. The result of his mission to Alexandria” proved unfavorable to the Arian cause. The impetuous Colluthus was brought back into the pale of the Church; the Emperor, learn- Result of ing from Hosius the true state of things in Egypt and *nission, the character and importance of the question at issue, was com- mitted, for the time being at least, to the orthodox side. The cause of Arius was still further damaged, in the imperial mind, by the tumultuous conduct of some of the heretic^s fol- lowers in Egypt. There was a riot, in which a statue of the Emperor was overthrown. With tidings of this and the and similar disorders there came also a letter from Arius, in which he was indiscreet enough to boast of the number and power of his adherents in Libya Constantine was exasperated and perhaps alarmed. He refrained, however, from any resort to the weapons of state persecution, but condescended to chastise the audacious Porphyrian by an answer to his epistle,’^ more remarkable for its vigor of vituperation than for its dignity of style or sound exposition of the faith, Thusi in less than five years the whole Roman world was on fire with a dispute, in which the battle with heathenism was about to be fought over within the Church itself ; Ordeai, and the Truth, which for three centuries had been tried in the furnace of persecution, was to undergo the more ”Of what Hosius did in Egypt nothing is known beyond the general result: Baronius, therefore, makes up a little history (unsupported by author- ities) in which Hosius figures as the Pope’s legate, holding a General Council. *3 The letter is given in Gelasius Cyzicenus, iii., whose History of the Nicene Council can be found in Mansi Concilia^ tom. ii., or in Hardouin, tom. i. 382 History of the Church. searching ordeal bf an intellectual scrutiny, the most rigid and most subtle that the rationalistic Greek mind could bring to bear upon it, ' CHAPTER III. GENERAL COUNCIL OF NIC^EA. When Constantine, in his letter to Alexander and Arius, gave utterance to a wish that the Eastern Church should be ^Genf/af Called in to settle the great quarrel of the West, he ^ ’ had evidently in his mind the germ, at least, of the idea of an Ecumenical Synod. Local differences could best be adjusted by bringing them face to face with the agreement of the Church at large/ The Donatist and Meletian schisms, the Easter controversy still unsettled, the Novatian heresy, the Arian strife : all these were questions in which the whole Church was interested. The whole Church, then, should be put in a position to pronounce upon them. Moved by such considerations, and led, in all probability, by the advice of Hosius, the great council-leader of the age, the Synod Emperor took measures, marked by his usual breadth called. Qf view, magnificence of plan, and promptness of ex- ecution, for the convening of the most remarkable assemblage the world at any time had witnessed. From the remotest corners of the empire, and even from * In his letter on the Council (Theod. i. 10), Constantine distinguishes between following reason and following private opinion. By the former he means the common sense of the Church ; by the latter, the judgment of indi- vidual minds. 2 See the Ch. Historians : Eusebius, De Vit. Constant. ; S. Athanas. de Decret. Synod. Nic.; Gelasii Cyzicen. Syntagma^ etc., contained in Mansi, Concilia, tom. ii. ; Kaye, Some Account of the C. of Nic., etc.; De Broglie, V Eglise et V Empire R., etc., ii. 2, Eclair cissement B. General Council of Nic^a. 383 Niceea, regions that lay beyond the borders of the Roman world, the chief pastors were invited to come together. Public carriages were placed at their disposal ; their expenses were to be met at the public charge. The Emperor, with the vast resources of the empire, was pledged to the success of the undertaking. Nicaea, a most ancient and illustrious city, situ- ated on one of the bays of the Propontis, not far from the site which the imperial eye had already singled out as the golden gate of communication between the East and West, was appro- priately chosen as the most central and accessible place of meeting. The Bishops were not slow in obeying the imperial summons. More than three hundred, known in later times as the mystical Three Hundred and Eighteen, ^ are said to have assem- bled, each with an attendant crowd of presbyters, dea- cons, and other followers. The greater part came from the Eastern Church. The West was represented by Vitus and Vin- centius, presbyter-legates of the aged Sylvester of Rome ; and by Hosius of Cordova, Caecilianus of Carthage, with others from the chief cities of Italy, Spain, Sicily, and Gaul. Two Barbarians were present, Theophilus, a Goth, and John, a Persian. With the exception of quite a small circle of learned pre- lates, chiefly /of the schools of Origen and Lucian, the clergy seem to have been mostly of that simple type which Tketr ages of persecution had rendered popular. Scars and character. mutilations were held in higher honor amohg them than the skill of the orator or dialectician. There was Paphnutius, the scarred and halting veteran of The cccxviii. 3 The count varies from 250 to 350. Of course, in a body more than two months in session, the numbers present might vary from day to day. The number 318 was fixed on from a mystical allusion to the servants who fol- lowed Abraham in his pursuit of the robffer kings : Hilar. De Synod. 86 ; Letter of Liberius in Socrat. iv. 12. In Greek numerals, 318 is expressed by the letters TIH, which may be interpreted “ the Cross of Jesus.’’ Hence the Synod was called by the Greeks, the Council of the TIH. 384 History of the Chtirch. the Upper Thebais ; the empty socket of whose eye, extin - Paphnu- giiished in the great persecution, Constantine de- tius. lighted to kiss. He is still more honorably known as the blameless celibate, who, eschewing marriage himself, de- feated an attempt made in the Council to separate the clergy from the society of their wives.^ There was Spyridion of Cyprus, a shepherd of souls, a worker of miracles, a father of a family, and a keeper of sheep: a man of boundless benevolence, moreover, and a spyrtdton. though kindly reprover of all forms of hypoc- risy and affectation. A drop of his quaint humor fell once upon an eloquent but fastidious bishop, who had thought to im- storiestoid P^^ve the style of Scripture by reading ‘‘Take up thy 0/ him. conchy'^ instead of the homelier phrase, “Take up thy bed.*’ On another occasion, certain robbers attempted his fold by night, but were miraculously entrapped and remained there in durance until the morning. “It is a pity,” said the saint, when he discovered them, “ that you should watch all night for nothing : ” so he gave them a ram from his flock, and let them go. At another time, during a strict fast, when a guest declined to partake of pork on the plea that he was a Christian, Spyrid- ion answered, “ For that very reason you are bound to eat what is set before you.” Such instances may serve to show that a reputation for saint- liness could be acquired in that age, without going into the ex- tremes of the ascetic spirit. But there were many encratite representatives, in the Council, of a sterner side of the spirit. religion of the day. James of Nisibis came clothed, like the Baptist, in camel’s hair. Potamon, Bishop of Heraclea + This story (resting on the authority of Socrates) is impugned by De Broglie and others, chiefly on the ground of its alleged inconsistency with the Third Canon of Nic^^»/ii^stinct well-nigh prophetic, he had already planted a New Rome. metropolis of the world. The gigantic enterprise was now undertaken in earnest. In a few years there arose, as if under the stroke of a magician^ s wand, a second Rome, more magnificent, if not more solid, than the first : a city sacred to Christianity from its foundation-stone, yet adorned with the rich spoils of heathen culture, and destined to be the home, the repository, the ark, of all that was worth preserving and trans- mitting from the antique civilization. The sagacity that planned such a work, in such a time and place, is only equalled by the reckless resolution and iron strength of will which carried it on so rapidly to a successful achievement. We may well credit the heathen historian’s complaint,^ that the Gigantic Effort. 3 The wild stories told by Zosimus and Zonaras — that Constantine resorted to the heathen priesthood for lustrations, etc. — probably belong to this period, and are not altogether improbable, though they are too confused and contra- dictory to be taken to the letter. Zos. ii. ; Zon. iii. 4 Zosim. lib. ii. So also St. Jerome : Constantinopolis dedicatur pen^ omnium urbium nuditate. Hieron. Chron. p. i8i. Constantine and S. Helena. 397 empire staggered under the burden, that towns were depopu- lated, and that curses not a few followed the hot haste of the spendthrift builder of cities. But this, after all, was only part of a great system of self- imposed toil. The restless energy of Constantine could be content with nothing less than a total reconstruction Grand of the empire. Hitherto the armies of Rome had been Schemes. stationed on the frontiers, in forts or in fortified camps — a per- petual menace to the nations that lay beyond. Constan- tine withdrew the greater part of the force into the towns and cities of the interior. ^ They would thus be more immediately under the control of the government, while they served at the same time to overawe an unruly population, and to strengthen the State from within. The Barbarians, meanwhile, might be subdued by Christianity more effectually than by force of arms. Invasion might be converted into much-needed im- migration. Constantine, in fact, had outgrown that classic narrowness of mind which regarded all foreigners as Barbarians and all Barbarians as foes.^ When he conquered the Goths he placed them at once upon the footing of favored allies. With the Sarmatians, in like manner, he peopled the waste places of Italy, Scythia, and Macedonia. To the in- Policy. habitants of the Chersonesus he gave free trade. And it has been well observed, that his negotiations with the King of Persia, in behalf of the Christian subjects of the latter prince, are the earliest example of that enlightened Christian diplomacy by which nations in modern times are bound together. The same general policy of strengthening the State from within, led to a remodelling of the government on the most extensive scale. Four prefectures were established, New offices were created, with a nice graduation of Reform. costly dignities adorned with all the pomp of Oriental titles. 5 For this he is much censured by Zosimus and others, but ably defended by De Broglie. ^Euseb. De Vit. Con. iv. 5-14. 398 History of the Clmrch. In this there was a show of reform but little of the reality. It was a gilding, not a healing, of what had become an incurable decay. It was a sort of apotheosis of defunct power, a gorgeous exaggeration of the pride of place, which corrupted language and contributed not a little to the corruption of morals and religion. When princes came to be addressed as all-mighty and all-worshipful,*’ saints could hardly be invoked as less than ‘^all-holy and all-pure.” Hence a turgid unreality of language and of thought,^ which flowed beyond the bounds of political life, and crept into the order, the worship, and even the doctrine of the Church. The Church, in fact, had to take the evil with the good of imperial protection. The clergy were honored and enriched ; Church and i^^g^i^cent edifices were erected; titles, privileges, and state. exemptions were conferred with a lavish hand. It was a shower of golden sunshine coming from a quarter which had hitherto been black with the storms of persecution. We need not wonder that there were some to whom it seemed the fulfil- ment of the reign of Christ,® and who, with little thought for the future, bartered the freedom of the Church for outward magnificence and gilded chains. On the whole, while in Constantine’s policy we may dis- cover many signs of a wonderful forecast, yet there was also not a little of the precipitancy of a splendid fancy: Constl^ perhaps the eagerness of a mind ill at ease with itself and happy only in the turmoil of ceaseless occupation. There was prodigality without restraint, luxury without repose : leading to burdens and taxations ruinous to the mass of the 7 Saint-worship, image-worship, and the rhetorical extravagances intro- duced into the liturgies, etc., may be partly accounted for and partly excused by the enormities of civil worship, which date from Diocletian and Constan- tine. What would seem to us adulation appeared to the Greeks of the empire little more than ordinary respect. ® Speaking, e g.^oi the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Eusebius says : It may be that this was that second and new Jerusalem,” etc. Vit. Constant. ilk 33- Constantine and S. Helena, 399 people.^ To make matters worse, the Emperor fell into the com- mon error of pluming himself on qualities which he least pos- sessed : he coveted the fame of a theologian, doted on rhetoric, and burdened his memory with a crude mass of multifarious learning.*® All this had the effect of surrounding him with flat- terers, under the name of divines, while adulation” flourished under the venerable garb of religion. In the meantime the Emperor^s mother, with a spirit more devout than her son's, but not less eager, had sought a balm for her wounds, partly in a progress through the Eastern . 1 T . . 1 r • r TT* Pilgrimage provinces, and partly m tracing the footprints of Him of who bore the world's sorrows, through all the sacred haunts of the Holy Land. Wherever she went, her munificence was crowned by that of her son. Churches were erected, with lavish expenditure, in Bethlehem and on the Mount of Olives. At Mamre, idolatry was swept away, and a house consecrated for Christian worship. Innumerable other shrines, already in exist- ence, were elaborately adorned Avith princely offerings. Alms for the poor, largesses for the soldiery, redemption- ivorks, money for captives, deliverance for the oppressed, decrees of amnesty for exiles, grants of privileges or exemptions for strait- ened communities, made the progress of S. Helena a charitable ovation, and caused her name to be remembered in the East as the synonym of all womanly and queenly virtues. It had long been the intention of the Emperor, moved as he alleged by a divine suggestion, to take measures for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre, the site of which had been pre- served by local tradition,” though hidden from view Sfp**ichre. and purposely desecrated by a temple of Venus, built upon the spot in the reign of Hadrian. 9 He was more generous than just. Euseb. Vit. C. iv. 1-4. *oSee the ‘^Oration to the Assembly of the Saints,” in which Eusebius probably had a hand. Ap. Vit. Con. ” Which, towards the end of his life, Constantine rebuked. Euseb. Vit, Con. iv. 48. *2 Williams’s Holy City^ etc. 400 History of the Church. How far the pilgrimage of S. Helena was connected with this object the narrative of Eusebius leaves uncertain. It is not Its recov- iHiprobable that the first steps were taken under her eye. The temple of Venus was demolished. The arti- ficial mound on which it had been built was carefully removed, and the earth carried away to a distance. The ^ ‘ holy cave appeared, as if by a miracle, ‘^a faithful similitude of His return to life’* who saw no corruption. It was added, in later times, that three crosses were found, the middle one distinguished by the well-known title.*^ The news was conveyed in glowing terms to Constantine. Furnished by him with ample means and particular instructions,*^ Macarius, the Bishop of Jerusalem, assisted by the governors of the eastern provinces, hastened to adorn the sacred spot with ^‘a House of Prayer worthy of the worship of God.” The temple thus erected as ^^a Monument of the Saviour’s Resurrection,” *5 is amply described by Eusebius. It was not finished, however, till about ten years after its com- mencement. Helena, in the meantime, had departed to her rest, in the eightieth year of her age. Originally an inn-keeper’s daughter *3 The silence of Eusebius as to the discovery of the Cross is dismissed quite cavalierly by De Broglie as a bizarrerie. But the same “bizarrerie’* occurs in Constantine’s letter to Macarius ( Vit. Con. iii. 30), and in the ac- count of the Bordeaux pilgrim who visited Jerusalem seven years later. — Itinerar. Burdigal. Patrol, viii. 790. The earliest allusions to the discovery are in S. Cyril of Jerus. — Cateches. iv. 10; x. 19; xiii. 4; Epist. ad Constan- Hum (probably spurious). S. Ambrose (a.d. 395) gives a florid account of the discovery, but mentions no miracle connected with it. — Oral, in ob. Theod. Pope Gelasius (a.d. 492) judiciously remarks: “There is a written account of the discovery of the Lord’s Cross, and another of the discovery of the head of John Baptist: novel revelations which some Catholics read. But when they fall into the hands of Catholics, let the caution of S. Paul be read first : Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good.^^ See Tillemont, Art, S. Helene ; and Baronius, Annal. iii. p. 292. * 4 Euseb. Vit. Const, iii. 30. *s It is worthy of notice that when Eusebius wrote, the idea of the Resur- rection was most prominent in connection with the Holy Sepulchre : afterwards it was the Holy Cross, the true Cross, etc., etc. Eusebian Faction^ and Death of Arius. .401 in Drepanum, a town of Bithynia; then wife of Constantins Chlorus, to whom she bore the future head of the empire ; then repudiated for the sake of a political marriage : she finally emerged from obscurity with the rising fortunes dies, of her son, by whom, it is said, she was brought to a full knowledge of the Gospel, and to whom she proved a faithful and wise counsellor; the only one, perhaps, of all his friends that served him without guile or fulsome adulation. Her death was a loss to him in more ways than one. For, after her departure, he fell into evil hands. A new set of advisers got possession of the imperial ear. So that, when we come to the dedication of that ‘‘House of Prayer,** Council of with which S. Helena’s name is connected, we witness Jerusalem, the strange spectacle of a throng of Bishops, the glory of the East for dignity and learning, dishonoring the Divinity of Him whose death and resurrection they had professedly as- sembled to honor. To explain this change we must go back a few years, and take up the history of the Arian faction after the Council of Nicaea. / CHAPTER V. THE EUSEBIAN FACTION, AND DEATH OF ARIUS. Eusebius of Nicomedia, the leader of the Arian party, had signed the Homoousion with great reluctance : it has pusebius even been alleged, and the story is at least character- ^ ognts sent istic of the temper of the man, that in signing, he intoexiu, managed to drop an iota into the obnoxious word, and so con- fessed only a likeness instead of oneness of substance in the God- head. Hence the term Homoiousion, afterwards is the symbol of the Semiarians. However this may be, his lack of sincerity in the Faith soon became apparent. It“ also came to light that he 402 History of the Church. had been an active intriguer against Constantine during the con- test between the latter and his rival, Licinius. He was therefore sent into exile, with Theognis of Nicaea as partner of his fate. But the Eusebian party was powerful at court, and especially they had a fast friend in Constantia, the widow of Licinius. She helped them in many ways, while living; and recalled, wlien slie camc to her end, — an event hastened, in all A.D. 331. probability, by that outbreak of jealousy which had so cruelly robbed her of her son, — she commended to her brother an Arian priest, who became from that time his bosom friend and counsellor. By this man the Emperor was persuaded of the good intentions of the Arian leaders. Eusebius and Theognis returned to their sees and their plots. Arius had the honor of a message, and, when that failed, of a letter, from the Emperor himself ; in compliance with which he came to Constantinople, bringing Euzoius with him. To the somewhat vague question, whether they held the Faiths they readily answered in the afhrm- Their ative. They also drew up a confession in writing, confession, conceived in Scriptural terms, in which the Emperor’s theological ear could discern no token of heresy.* On the strength of this, Arius was not only received into favor, but was sent to Alexandria with an injunction that he should be restored to the communion of the Church. He encountered there a man of sterner stuff than the ami- able prelate he had known in other days. Alexander had Athanasius departed in peace soon after the close of the great Bishop. Council. His parting breath was laden with the name of Athanasius. ‘^Thou shalt not escape ! ” he cried, when the beloved deacon failed to make his appearance ; and he laid on him, though absent, the burden of his office. The Church had confirmed the dying prelate’s choice. When Arius arrived, therefore, in Alexandria, he found little comfort in store for * ‘‘ We believe in one God,” etc. ; ‘‘ and in the Lord Jesus Christ His Son, who was begotten (or made) of Him before all ages, God the Word by whom all things were made,” etc. Socrat. i. 26; Sozom. ii. 27. Eusebian Faction, and Death of Arius. 403 Arius repelled. Eusebian Policy. him there. The primate repelled him ; S. Antony came down from the desert to warn the people against him; a threatening letter from the Emperor was respectfully but firmly disregarded in short, ‘‘no communion for the invent- or of heresy,’’ “no portion in the Catholic Church for that which lifts up itself against Christ,” was the cry that greeted the arch heretic from every side. The Eusebians^ found it necessary to pick their way with caution. The Emperor, they knew, was sensitive to attacks on the Creed of Nicaea. But, to balance this, he was at heart indifferent to the truth anxious for peace, and impatient of the “troublers of Israel,” whosoever they might be. To make sure of him, therefore, the Eusebians avoided all appearance of zeal for doctrine, and directed their attacks chiefly at men. Eustathius of Antioch was one of their E^^fathius first victims. Charges of immorality were trumped deposed. up against him. A synod was quietly got together, consisting entirely of prominent Eusebians. The Bishop was condemned and deposed, chiefly on the evidence of an abandoned woman, and a more pliant instrument was put into his place. Hence the beginning of a schism in Antioch which lasted some eighty years. For the orthodox in that city ad- schism in hered to their deposed bishop, and kept together as a party, under the name of Eustathians, not only during 331-4”. the time of the Arian rule, but even after Providence had given them a prelate of irreproachable faith. The course pursued toward Eustathius was repeated in the case of Asclepas of Gaza, and Eutropius and Lucius of Hadrianople. Maximus of Jerusalem, who succeed- victims. ed Macarius, by his easy temper played into the hands of the * Both the Emperor and Eusebius of Nic. wrote, and both received spirited answers. St. Athanas. Apol. con. Arian. 59; Socrat. i. 27. 3 This name applies generally to the Court party, consisting of Arians of various grades. 4 The place was offered to Eusebius of Caesarea, but he declined. Vit. Con. iii. 59-62. 404 History of the Church. party, and escaped persecution at the cost of subsequent re- morse. Marcellus of Ancyra was not so discreet ; but the charges against him being chiefly of a doctrinal character, it was necessary for the faction, before making a direct attack, to have their own power established on a firmer basis. Athanasius, the meanwhile, was not forgotten. Eusebius of Nicomedia kept up a brisk correspondence with the leaders of Charges Meletians and other malcontents in Egypt; and ^/thana- t^^^eir help, three accusations were framed and sub- stus. mitted to the judgment of Constantine. The Bishop, it was said, had forced the Meletians to pay him a tribute of linen robes; he had assisted a rebel with money; Macarius, a priest, had been sent by him to stop the ministrations of a certain Ischyras, and in the violence of his proceedings, had broken a sacred chalice. The Emperor dismissed the charges with con- tempt, but they were none the less bruited abroad, and others more heinous were added. The Episcopal ^‘sorcerer,*’ it was urged, had murdered Arsenius, a Meletian bishop, and had cut off his hand to make use of in necromancy. Finally, a charge of fornication was kept in reserve, and an abandoned woman was secured to bear witness to it. Constantine at length consented that a council should be Council at Csssarea, for the trial of these and similar Ccesarea. charges. The Council assembled, but Athanasius de- clined to appear. A second synod was appointed to be holden aTryii at Tyre. Athanasius came, compelled so to do by an A.D. 335.' urgent command of the Emperor ; and, in the face of the manifest hostility of the Count Dionysius, who presided over the assembly, managed, on most of the charges, to cover Charges enemies with confusion. Arsenius was produced disproved, hoth hands whole. The woman’s witness mis- carried, the accused having taken the precaution to be person- ated on the trial by a friend, whom she rashly mistook for the alleged offender. Ischyras, it appeared, was not in Holy Or- ders, and his church and chalice were as much of a myth as his office. In short, nothing was established except the skill of the Eusebian Faction, and Death of Arms. 405 Arius received. juggler'' who could thus turn the tables upon his adversaries; and had not the Council bethought them to send a packed com- mittee to Egypt, who might gather fresh charges and proofs, and examine new witnesses, unembarrassed by his baleful pres- ence, their defeat would have been total, and beyond all hopes of recovery. As it was, they adjourned for the pres- , , , . , / -r 1 1-1 Council at ent, and proceeded in a body to Jerusalem, whither Jerusalem^ they had been summoned by the Emperor, to assist in ‘ the dedication of the ‘‘Martyry," or Church of the Resur- rection. There they consummated the work so infamously begun. The committee sent to Egypt reported adversely to the case of the accused. Calvary became the second time the scene of a wicked condemnation on the one hand, of a good confession on the other. Christ was a second time wounded in the house of His friends. A council, second only to that of Nicaea in the dignity and number of the Bishops present, received Arius into communion, deposed Athana- Athanasius, and virtually denied the Nicene faith. MlirceUus, Marcellus of Ancyra seems to have been one of the deposed. few that resisted. For this he also was deposed, either then or within a year after, on a charge of heresy akin to Sabellianism : a charge, by the way, which was not without foundation, his theory of the Immanent as distinguished from the Forthgoing Word looking much like a denial of the personal preexistence of Christ. Athanasius repaired at once to Constantinople ; where, the avenues of the court being closed against him, he planted him- self in the Emperor's path as he was riding out to his . ^ Athanasius Villa, and addressed him in those accents of truth and before the soberness which Constantine, with all his faults, was willing enough to hear from the mouths of the clergy. His conscience was touched. The Episcopal cabal was summoned from Tyre, whither they had returned after the dedication of the Martyry. Five of their leaders were deputed to answer for the rest, who, finding Constantine averse to the sentence of 4 o 6 History of the Church. deposition, and not at all disposed to see it carried out, alarmed Newaccu^ his fcars by a new and more ingenious slander. Atha- sation. nasius had threatened, they said, to cut off the ex- port of corn from Egypt to Constantinople. On such a charge suspicion was equivalent to condemnation. The Emperor gave way. With a moderation, however, that proved highly dis- tasteful to the Eusebians, and showed a lingering sense of jus- tice in the imperial breast, the See of Alexandria was not de- clared vacant : the primate was simply banished to He ^oes into . exile, Treves in Gaul. It may be added that his reception A.D. 336. in that capital, on the part of the faithful generally, and more especially at the hands of Constantinus, the Emperor’s eld- est son, was more like a triumph than the ordinary lot of an exile. One thing more was needed to crown the victory of the Eusebian faction. Arius had been already received, but now he Eusebian ^^^st be recognized publicly in Constantinople, in sight triumph. Qf court and the world. An order to that effect was obtained from the palace, addressed to Alexander, the aged and orthodox pastor of the imperial city. The arch-heretic, moreover, had made the way easy by signing an irreproachable confession of faith; to which, also, the Emperor had sworn him on the fearful adjuration, ‘‘If thy faith be upright, so is thine oath ; if thy faith be false, may God confound thee ! ” The good Bishop put no confidence in such professions. Sorely beset by his sovereign and his brother prelates, hardly Prayer 0/ ^uowing wliat course to take, he repaired to the Alexander, church, accompanied by one Macarius, a priest, who afterwards related the story to S. Athanasius, and there put up his petition to this effect: “If Arius is to be admitted to- morrow, then take Thy servant out of this world ; or else take Arius, lest heresy should seem to be admitted along with him.” The prayer was answered. On the eve of the Sunday appoint- ed for his reception, Arius was conducted in a sort of triumph Triumph t^rough the principal streets of the city. To all who 0/ Arius. him he seemed to be in excellent health and spirits. But when the procession came to a well-known spot, Eusebian Faction^ and Death of Arius. 407 near the great porphyry pillar, in Constantine square, a sudden indisposition forced him to retire to a house hard by. Shortly after, an outcry came from the house. The / , . 11 ri His sudden crowd rushes m. They are greeted by an awful spec- deaths tacle. Arius, it appeared, has fallen headlong to the ground ; a rupture has taken place with a great flow of blood ; and, his bowels gushing out, death seems to have followed almost immediately. The news spread rapidly through the city, and through the world. Some saw in the calamity the finger of God ; there were others who regarded it as the effect of sorcery. It was left to modern unbelief to suggest that Arius had been poisoned by some zealous Catholic. ^ Whatever may have been the cause of this remarkable event, the effect at that crisis was deep and permanent. Atha- nasius declares that many were converted by it. It Effect on was remembered the next day in a crowded church ; the People, Bishop praising God, and the people responding in a suitable service of thanksgiving. The name of Arius became popularly associated with that of Judas j the place where he perished was long pointed out and avoided as a field of blood. The effect on the Emperor was not so apparent. To the warm appeals of the crowds, who called for the restoration of 5 The story is related with conscientious care by S. Athanasius {Op, tom. i. p. 670), and by Socrates. Gibbon remarks that “ those who press the literal narrative must make their option between poison and miracle'''' ; which is true enough, if by “ miracle ” be understood merely a marked intervention of that Providence which is present as really, though not so signally, in the fall of sparrows. Milman, in a worse spirit, says of the narrative of S. Athanasius, ‘‘ His hollow charity ill disguises his secret triumph ” ; a cruel insinuation, unwarranted either by the letter or the spirit of the narrative in question. S. Athanasius earnestly deprecates the idea that he should “seem to exult over the man’s death, death being conimon to all men''''; so that Milman’s sneer can be justified only on the supposition that the repeated and earnest disclaimer is a deliberate lie. If modern histo- rians, by the way, would only extend to the Fathers a little of that charity which they are so rigorous in exacting of them, the tone of history would be wonderfully improved. 4o8 History of the Church. S. Athanasius, he answered with a shade of sarcasm, It is not for me to undo what so many holy priests have done. the A few may have acted from spite and jealousy, but Emperor. ^^re hard to bring such a charge against them all.’’ He took care, however, to maintain that balance of wrong which is the tyrant’s substitute for right, by banishing John, a Meletian Bishop, who happened just then to be the most odious of the intriguing clergy. He soon showed, moreover, that he was weary of the contest, weary of efforts that led to nothing, weary even of life. With ^ that prophetic instinct which was one of his gifts, he pares for felt, though Still in good health and unimpaired vigor, that the time had come to set his house in order, and prepare for his last account.^ He completed the division of the Empire among his sons and nephews. That vision of solidarity in Church and State, for which he had so passionately labored, had become dim and broken, and now vanished altogether from before his eyes. His gaze was fixed, instead, upon an empty tomb, which stood, surrounded by twelve others, in the splendid new church of the Holy Apostles. This he had erected for his own repose. It was now solemnly dedicated, perhaps with more seriousness and less adulation, on the part of the court clergy, than had been customary of late on such occasions. ‘‘Happy Prince!” one of them had recently exclaimed, at the dedication of the Martyry; “ blessed in this life with the sover- eignty of the Roman world, destined to reign with Christ through life everlasting! ” But lies had begun to pall upon the imperial palate He rebuked the blasphemy of the reverend eulogist : a token that the faith which had been but as “ smoking flax ” amid the pride and pomp of his over-busy career, had in it, nevertheless, a spark enkindled from above, which neither the scandals of the Church, nor even Flattery rebuked. ^ Eusebius, in his life of Constantine, is a eulogist : but there is no reason to believe that he is guilty of any positive false statements. The suppressio veri is his principal offence. For this reason I give full credit to his account of the latter end of Constantine’s remarkable career. Etisebia^i Faction, and Death of Arius. 409 the adulation of courtly clergy, had been hble wholly to extinguish. In this respect, the end of Constantine was a signal proof of the power and grace of the Gospel. He had hitherto not only avoided baptism, but had not even ventured to Power of become a catechumen. His hardy mind was free Gospel, enough in dealing with matters of doctrine, but a nameless dread had kept him from profaning the sacraments. He had used religion too much as a power of State, but he had not failed to see in it something more. He now began to fall back upon these deeper views. Nothing was omitted that could give seriousness, earnestness, publicity, and all man 1 , /-I .1. , . d, , , humbled. outward show of humility to his repentance. The world saw in him the spectacle of a strong man becoming “ as a little child a spectacle the more striking from the contrast afforded when the news of an invasion from the side of Persia disturbed for a moment the tranquillity of the scene, and the old soldier, appearing in the field once more, with his accustomed vigor, dissipated by his presence the storm of war. Not long after this, the frame of the Emperor was, for the first time, shaken by a serious illness. He made no further delay in his preparations for death, but received the End of laying on of hands which admitted him to the grade Constant m , of catechumens. He was still well enough to repair * to church, and to kneel on the bare pavement, as he poured forth his confessions and earnest supplications. These things occurred during the seven weeks of Pentecost. Towards the end of the same period he was baptized, ^ probably by Eusebius of Nicomedia, in the Church of the Holy Martyrs ; was arrayed in the white robes of a neophyte, declining to wear the purple any more ; piously attended to such testamentary duties as still 7 The charge of “ superstition,” etc., so often urged against the early Church, on account of this and other instances of the delay of baptism, would be more pertinent if the phenomenon of late repentance were at all peculiar to the early Church. For I need hardly say, that late repentance is just as “ superstitious ” as late baptism. 18 410 History of the Church. remained ; and departed about noon on the closing day of the Feast. ^ The flattery that attended him through life showed itself genuine by clinging for some time to his senseless remains. His Until his sons could arrive to take charge of the funeral, funeral, he lay in state in the central apartment of the palace, and the dukes, and counts, and dignitaries of all ranks, daily did obeisance to the coffined form. Thus ‘‘he continued to reign even after death, which was not altogether an empty honor, for ordinarily the decease of a sovereign was the signal for anarchy to awaken, and for chronic revolution to shake the Empire. CHAPTER VI. CONSTANTIUS. — ARIAN SECTS AND SYMBOLS. Few things in history are less attractive than the course of a Religious religious controversy when it has lost its singleness of strife. ^ question of truth ; when the current of earnest inquiry which at first gave an impetus to it branches into a hun- dred ever-shifting channels, converting society into a malarious delta, as it were — a monotonous but tortuous waste — of intrigues, plots, persecutions, feuds, and blind and bigoted displays of the waywardness of human passion. But such was the aspect of the Arian strife as it spread through the world under Constantine's successors. With all ^ the bitterness, but little of the dignity, of a religious Aspect of . . ' , , r 1 . . 1 , the Arian question, it Seemed a mere tangle of ecclesiastical and state intrigues : political passions, which had been driven from the swept and garnished house of an overpower- ing despotism, having returned under the guise of a zeal for dogma. ® Whitsun-Day Constantius\ Arian Sects and Symbols. 41 1 And this, in fact, was the cause of many evils of the times. By a struggle of three hundred years, the Church had asserted a freedom of thought and action unknown elsewhere, church Civil liberty was hardly more than dreamed of ; philo- sophic speculation had lost all earnestness; literature and the arts could not employ, they could only dissipate, the mind ; the sole breath that breathed upon the stagnant waters was that which filled the sails of the Church — all other winds were bound : so that when good men would look for a field of honorable ambition, or when bad men would use liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, they were both alike compelled to resort to the Church’s freedom, and to go about their work under the Church’s colors. Hence a necessary con- Necessary fusion of things sacred and profane. Hence a rapid reaction towards essential heathenism. For it is of the essence of heathenism to make religion an instrument of State ; to sow diverse seeds in the same field, to weave diverse materials into the web of the same garment. Believers were aware of the danger on this side, and they struggled against it; but they could not escape it altogether. In the new state of things, as in the old, there was a fond persistence in the attempt to The ChuTch gather grapes of thorns and figs of thistles. The trees ^sed by^ the of the wood elected the bramble for their king, and thought to solace themselves beneath its shadow. A half- converted court, pansebastos — all-worshipful,” an object of awful reverence to good men ; but, like all idols, a mere tool to the wicked and designing, dictated articles of faith to the Christian world; and self-contradictory as the dictates were, the majority of that world seemed ready to receive them. Yet it is important to observe, that so far as this end was reached in the confusions of the fourth century, it was under the auspices of heresy, and more particularly of Arian- The Arian ism. The side of truth was the side of opposition to the court. The heretical party was eminently the court party. It so happened, therefore, in the good providence of God, that while persecution is peculiar to no creed or sect, but springs 412 History of the Church. from infirmities common to human nature, yet the Church con- Tke Church fourth ceutury, as in the ages just pre- stiiia ceding, to be the chosen witness against persecution.' witness. i i i i She contended for the liberty, or, to speak more cor- rectly, for the sanctity.^ of belief. In her new conflict against heathenism from within, as in her previous warfare against heathenism from without, the sign by which she conquered was that of a kingdom not of this world: she vindicated her creed, as she had established her existence, by holding aloof from the blandishments of State favor, and by a spirited testimony against subservience to State power. A period involving such an issue has a permanent interest of its own, notwithstanding the irksomeness (it may be) of some Subject of its details, and the sad comments it suggests upon tn Jive . 11. Divisions, religion and human nature. To go at length into these details is not within the sco^e of the present history. The facts that seem most essential for an understanding of the spirit of the period may be in part summed up, and in part narrated, under the following general divisions : I. The Emperors and their policy; 11. The court party in the Church, the Arian or Eusebian faction; III. The symbols of this party; IV. Their sects or schools; V. Their persecutions, quarrels, victory, and defeat: through all which there runs, like a golden thread, the life of that noble confessor, Athanasius the Great, the Elijah of the day — the one among seven thousand who, in the midst of a defec- tion which seemed almost universal, bowed not the knee to Baal. Of the divisions above mentioned, the first four form the Plan of this subject of the present chapter; the fifth demands more Chapter, gpace, and enters more or less into all the remainder of this book. * See the noble testimony of S. Athanasius, Apolog. pro fuga. I cannot deny that had circumstances been different the testimony might have been dif- ferent. As the stars are visible in the daylight only from the bottom of a well or pit, so there are some truths (and among them the wisdom of tolerance) which can only be discerned from the depths of adverse circumstances. Constantins y Arian Sects and Symbols. 413 Constantine, before his death, had provided for the division of the Empire among his three sons and two of his nephews; in the actual partition, however, the nephews were i. crushed out by a conspiracy, of obscure origin, among the soldiery. The three brothers, Constantine, Constantins, and Constans, redistributed the inheritance among themselves. To Constantine II., the eldest, fell the Gauls and borders Constaniine of the Rhine, with a certain honorary preeminence which entitled him to reside in Constantinople. But a quarrel with Constans stripped him of his inheritance and life in less than four years, and made the victor sole master of Constans^ two thirds of the Roman Empire. Ten years later 337-350- Constans himself was slain by the usurper Magnentius. Both he and his eldest brother had favored the Homoousian cause, though neither of the two was of a character"" to reflect much credit upon it. Constantins, the second and ablest of the brothers, a man of diminutive frame, but tough, laborious, temperate, chaste, whose vanity led him to imitate his father without a c^nstantius, spark of his genius or of his nobler traits,^ avenged the 337*361- murder of Constans, overthrew Magnentius, and to the no small grief of the Catholics — for he was decidedly addicted to Arian views — became undisputed sovereign of the East and West. The power thus acquired had been deeply stained, from the outset, with the mark of blood. Directly on the death of his father, the young prince had conceded to the clamors of the soldiery, and perhaps instigated the murder of his two uncles, seven cousins, and sundry other persons connected by marriage or blood with the imperial family. Gallus and Julian, the two youngest children of Julius Constantius, were the only members of the family that escaped. The rest of the reign of Constantius was worthy of such a beginning. It was a period of intrigue and *S. Athanasius speaks well of Constans, but the pagan historians (Zosimus more especially) accuse him of gross sensuality. . 3 For the testimonies of contemporaries (orthodox, Arian, and pagan) to the character of these Emperors, see Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs. 414 History of the Church. misrule, distinguished by an excess of female influence,^ and by an unprecedented growth of those parasites that feed on the Eunuchs of lazy dignity of Oriental despotism, the eunuchs of the the Palace. This class of favorites, the types in all ages of insolence, obsequiousness, craft, and cruelty, had been re- pressed by the vigor of Constantine ; but his successor found them indispensable to his comfort, put all things into their hands, and with their chief, the celebrated chamberlain Euse- bias, he was wittily declared to possess some credit. Next to these slaves, the prelates of the Eusebian faction were his principal directors. Having once gained his ear, and II, that of the eunuchs and court ladies, a matter easily oFTi^E^^ effected by Eusebius of Nicomedia,^ they resolved Eusebians. themselves into a sort of roving commission for the redress of ecclesiastical abuses ; holding synods, framing new creeds and canons, deposing Bishops who withstood them, flocking from place to place — to the no small detriment, it was said, of the postal service^ — and making the Church a scandal to the heathen world. The Emperor is described as chief busy- body of this busy clique ; the Bishop of Bishops,*/ his flatterers profanely, but not inappropriately, called him. His father*s weakness for theologic fame was exaggerated in him to Weakness . of constan- a mere insanity. While aiming to make his own views a law to the Church, he shifted uneasily from one position to another ; so that his days were taken up, it was said, and his sleep went from him, in the making or unrpaking of new modes of faith. The ambiguous confession of Arius, upon the strength of which he had been received at Jerusalem, Tyre, and Constanti- III. nople, was found, on further trial, to be unsatisfactory. Creeds It was not a creed that could fill either the hearts or Councils, the mouths of a Christian people. Taking advantage, 4 Which influence, in the case of the accomplished Empress Eusebia, seems^to have mitigated somewhat the Emperor’s cruelty. Tillemont, Hist, des Emp. tom. iv. p. 750. sTheod. ii. 3. ^ Ammianus Marcellinus, quoted by Tillemont, Gibbon, Gieseler, etc. Constantins, Arian Sects and Symbols. 415 therefore, of a great throng of Bishops assembled at Antioch for the dedication of a sumptuous new building, called the Golden Church, 7 the dominant party in the East put forth Antioch^ another and fuller confession ; but this also failing of Domiliutim its purpose, they ventured on another, and then still another, till five creeds, in all, attested the activity of the Synod, and their eagerness to harmonize, if possible, all shades of taste and opinion. Ten years later, many minor synods having met the meanwhile, the same class of prelates came to- gether again in a numerous council at Sirmium. Their sirmium, immediate object was to condemn Photinus, a disciple of Marcellus of Ancyra, who had developed the heresy attrib- uted to his master, and openly taught that the Son, before the Incarnation, had no personal existence, but was only the Word immanent in the bosom of the Father. In condemning him, they framed and set forth two new symbols, the longer of which contains twenty-six anathemas. Eight years later a seieuda^ new set of creeds was issued from Seleucia ; and after two years, another from Antioch, of a totally different descrip- tion. Of the whole number of confessions thus put in Antioch, circulation from time to time, and constituting what Socrates appropriately calls ^‘the labyrinth*’ of Arian doctrine, about eighteen can be distinguished at the present day \ ® though there were doubtless many more that have left no record. Athanasius, with the grim humor that occasionally enlivens the severity of his style, sternly ridicules these dated creeds.^ vated The heretics, he said, were obliged to affix to their con- Creeds. fessions the day and year of their issue, that men might know when their faith began and when it ended. To a modern reader it is equally remarkable that the Eusebians, who were liberals ” in matters of faith, went beyond all others in shutting up to one 7 This Synod of the Dedication has always been held in high honor by the East, notwithstanding the deficiencies of its creeds. ® Tillemont, Mem. p. servir, vi. 2 , cii. 9 Select Treatises of S. Athanasius, Oxford Lib. of the Fathers, part i. pp. 73-128. See, also, Socrat. ii. 37. 4i6 History of the Church. Their evasive character. meaning the text of Scripture, anathematizing all differences of interpretation. Thus, to quote one instance from the longer creed of Sirmium, Whosoever shall say that Let us make 7nau was not said by the Father to the Son, let him be anathema.** We may also observe that among the variations of Eusebian creeds there w^as but one,*° and that one speedily retracted, which opefily impugned the Deity of the Son of God. The common aim of all would seem to have been, while surpassing the Nicene formula itself in fervid declarations of the glory of Christ as God, yet to avoid the use of any word which could not be interpreted in another sense. They omitted, of course, the term consub- stantial.** Simply defective and evasive, they insinuated heresy, but could hardly be said to confess it. But in the worst of times there is honest error as well as honest regard for the truth. Eusebian evasions could not be satisfactory to either of these. From the attraction towards the Nicene faith on the one side, and a fierce repulsion on the other,, sects and schools arose among the Arians,” the principal of which may be described as follows : The Eastern clergy generally were orthodox in spirit, but courtly, prudent, deferential to superiors, anxious for peace at The SemU 3.ny price, and disposed to regard the Homoousion as a artans. ncedless bone of contention. They therefore availed themselves readily of the term Honioiousion ; a word suscepti- Their t)le, it was thought, of an equally orthodox meaning, Symbol. while it was not so obnoxious to the friends of Arius. In the same way, they abhorred the idea that ‘‘once the Son was not,** but dreaded the seeming paradox of the phrase “Be- gotten without beginning.** It seemed enough for them to declare that He was “begotten before all time.** These be- came known as the Semiarians — a school which proved but as *oThis creed, framed at Sirmium (a.d. 357), signed by Hosius, and in A.D. 361 adopted at Antioch, anathematized both the homo and the homoi- Arian Sects. ^ Newman’s Arians of the Fourth Century. Constantins^ Arian Sects and Symbols. 417 wax in the hands of the Eusebian leaders, but which atoned for the logical deficiencies of their creed by a rhetorical profusion of terms of honor to the Son, surpassing the Catholics them- selves in the fervor and brilliancy of their ascriptions. Basil of Ancyra was one of their purest and most learned men. S. Cyril of Jerusalem was a better type of the school: cyriiof a man too facile and addicted to the Oriental vice of obsequiousness,** but eloquent, learned, and favorably known to posterity for his admirable Discourses to Catechumens. In the latter part of his life, he quarrelled with Acacius of Caesarea, the leader of one wing of the Eusebian party, and suffered de- position and other persecutions, which brought him to greater soundness and firmness in the faith. Similar causes had a like good effect on many of the Semiarian leaders. A more plausible ground was taken by Acacius, the learned disciple and successor of Eusebius of Caesarea. He thought it best to avoid the term ousia, ‘^substance,” and was Homceans content to say that the Son is homoion^ like,’' or hata . ^cactans, panta homoion^ ‘‘altogether like,” unto the Father. This being Scriptural in language, it was hard to deem it other- wise than sound in meaning. Cyril of Jerusalem signed it with some reservations,*^ and there were others who thought it quite equivalent to the Nicene symbol. It was intended, however, as a cover for freedom of unbelief ; and its supporters, known under the name of Eusebians, Acacians, or Homoeans, proved to be the craftiest of all the Arian sects. Aetius, a self-made man, clear-sighted, hardy, irreverential, and intellectually honest, rose, by his vigorous logic, *^ T- •• r -I , Anomoeans to the position of a master in the Eusebian schools, . or shattered the evasive definitions of more cautious teach- ers, and took his stand upon simple and original Arianism. *2 That is, if the Epistle to Constantius be his, of which, however, we may fairly entertain a doubt. *3 He explained that by ‘‘ like ” he understood like in essence.” According to Philostorgius, he was an invincible debater, ^o man of his day could stand before him. iii, 15. 18 * 41 8 History of the Church. He contended that the Son is anotnoion^ ‘‘altogether unlike*’ the Father. “The Father is irreligious, the Son religious,” said Eudoxius, one of his disciples, to the people of Eudoxius, ^ Constantinople << for the Father worships no one, but the Son worships the Father.** Aetius was scouted by the court as an “Atheist.** His followers were called Anomoeans, Aetians, Eudoxians, or sometimes Eunomians ; the last name being taken from Eunomius, their most learned and polished leader. Such were the parties that successively arose from a common ground of hostility to the Nicene faith, or from jealousy and Their distrust of S. Athanasius. They existed all along common under the general name of Arians, or Eusebians ; but ground. towards the end of the reign of Constantins they sep- arated more and more into mutually hostile sects. The Aetians, it is said,"^ were the first that broke off into a close communion. CHAPTER VII. CONSTANTIUS. ARIAN PERSECUTIONS. The accession of the sons of Constantine led at first to a respite sEcuTirN*^’ persecution. Athanasius and other exiled Bishops \.D. 338. returned to their sees. But the Council of Antioch, commonly known as that of the Dedication, protested against their return, as a breach of order. A Bishop duly deposed could be restored only by such a body as that which had deposed him. The plea was plausible enough ; but it was vitiated by the fact that the Easterns in this case had not only neglected to consult the Westerns' in the first instance. Council at A ntioch and second exile of A thana~ sius, A.D. 341. *5 Socrat. ii. 43. Philostorg. iii. 14. *The words of Julius of Rome, misunderstood by Socrates {Hist. ii. 17), Constantins^ Arian Persecutions. 419 but afterwards, when, at their own request, a new and special council was holden in Italy, they had declined appearing at it. It was manifest, therefore, that they were averse to a fair trial of the cases in dispute. They had on their side, however, the authority of Constantius. The persecuted primate was again driven from Alexandria, and at the cost of riots and massacres and sacrilege without end, a certain Gregory was installed in the vacant see. Rome now became the city of refuge to all who suffered for the Nicene faith. ^ Constans was friendly to them ; Pope Julius embraced their cause with ardor. In a few years the city was full of exiles. Marcellus of Ancyra, whose doubt- Exiles in ful orthodoxy was upheld by Athanasius — a man ever Rome, slow to think evil of a friend ; Paul of Constantinople, five times driven from his see ; Lucius of Hadrianople, Hellanicus of Tri- polis, and innumerable others. Bishops and presbyters of Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, bore witness in Rome and to the West of the outrages inflicted by episcopal and other tyrants. Nor were their complaints unheeded in the Western court. Athanasius followed Constans from one capital to another, and seven times at least he pleaded before him the cause of . . . Council of the suffering Churches. His arguments and petitions Sardica, at length prevailed. ^ Constans, with the consent or * * acquiescence of Constantius, summoned a great council of the East and West to meet at Sardica, a town that lay convenient to both parties on the eastern border of his dominions. The are these : Are you ignorant of the custom that we should be written to^ and thereupon should be determined what is right?” So again: According to ecclesiastical law we ought all to be written to,” etc. Ap. Athanas. Apolog, ii.; see notes of Valesius and Lowth to Socrat. ii. 17. The meaning is, that in matters concerning the whole Church — such as the trial of a chief Bishop — all the Bishops, the Roman included, ought to be heard. ^Theod. ii. 4; Sozom. iii. 7-10 ; Socrat. ii. 6, 7, 8, 10, ii, 13, 15. 3 Philostorgius (iii. 13) says that bribery was used: an accusation always resorted to in such cases. 420 History of the Church. council met, but the Bishops separated. The Westerns assumed, Schism length declared, the innocence of Athanasius, begun Marcellus, and Asclepas of Gaza : the Easterns, deeply aggrieved, and apparently not without reason,^ retired to Philip- popolis,^ and vehemently protested. Doctrinal differences were between the aggravated by misunderstandings on both sides. The consequence was a schism between the two great sec- tions ; or a series, rather, of mutual anathemas, which put each half of the Church under the spiritual censures of the West. other half, and introduced the wedge of an ever- increasing separation. But Constans had made up his mind to carry out the decrees of Sardica, and intimated as much to his brother in the East. Athanasius letter was alarmed. Quite a panic ensued among restored, the eunuchs, women, and Bishops, who composed his court. It was necessary to propitiate a power they were unable to resist ; and Gregory, the intruding Bishop of Alexandria, having opportunely died, the way seemed open to secure the good offices of Athanasius. He was not per- mitted only, but urged, to return. Three pressing invitations were sent him from the court; and when at length he con- His sented, his journey through Syria and Palestine^ — to « eicome. nothing of his reception in Egypt — was signalized by ovations and unqualified submissions. Constantins dealt with him as with a prince and peer. Condescending to ask the loan of one church in Alexandria for the use of the Arians, he was obliged to put up with a refusal : the Bishop would not grant it, unless a like favor should be accorded to the Catholics at Antioch. On the other hand, it was in vain that Athanasius begged the Emperor to confront him with his accusers. No accusers could be found. ‘^If any such there be,*' said the ^ Sozom. iii. 13. The West was manifestly averse to put Athanasius on trial: which did not seem fair, as he had been accused and condemned (how- ever unrighteously) by councils of high character. 5 Their action, however, is dated from Sardica. See Cave’s Life of S. Athanas. sect. vii. 6. Constantins^ Arian Persecutions. 421 Emperor, I call God to witness that I will not listen to them.*' Indeed, Ursacius and Valens, who had been hitherto the most bitter of their number, wrote a solemn retractation of all that had been said against the saint, declaring in plain terms that lies and forgeries were at the bottom of it all. The death of Constans and the establishment of the power of Constantins in the West, shortly revealed the hollowness of these professions. The ruin of the great Primate sudden was again determined on ; but the influence he had gained in all quarters, and the hold he had upon the people of Alexandria, inspired a wholesome terror in the councils of Con- stantins, and made it necessary to proceed with a certain caution. There were outworks to be carried before^ the citadel could be attempted. Accordingly, the first step of the Emperor, after the death of his brother, was to assure Athanasius of the con- tinuance of his favor. In other cases, there was no such reason for delay. Pho- tinus, in a council at Sirmium, already mentioned, was tried and deposed : a condemnation particularly valuable to the Eusebians, as the heresy of that Bishop could be ^ renewed^ made to reflect upon Marcellus, his master ; upon Atha- nasius, the firm friend of the latter ; and upon the council of Sardica, which had stood by them both. Another step was gained when Ursacius and Valens were induced to retract their retractation. The old charges being thus revived, a few others were added, and the whole batch was lodged with Liberius, who had succeeded Pope Julius in the See of Rome. In the mean- time the work of proscription and persecution was vigorously going on : trials, depositions, tortures, exiles, the madness of the people, the ruthless infatuation of priests and rulers. Constanti- nople especially was the scene of outrages disgraceful to human nature Paul the Bishop, who had been restored at the same time with Athanasius, had to yield once more to Mace- paui 0/ donius, his Arian rival ; was inveigled away from the city; and was finally strangled at Cucusus a town of Cappadocia. The capital was in a ferment of rage and grief. 422 History of the Church. Macedohius could govern only with the sword ; and, as usual when spiritual men are intrusted with carnal weapons, he used it awkwardly, and with senseless cruelty/ There was a butchery ^ . ^of some three thousand persons. There were tor- Cruelties of ^ ^ Macedo- tures Unheard of in Decian or Dioclesian times. The breasts of women were burnt with hot eggs or com- pressed with wooden pincers ; children were torn from the arms of their mothers and baptized by force ; the Eucharist was crammed down the throats of recusants ; churches were de- stroyed or pillaged ; towns were sacked and depopulated ; crowds of Novatian peasantry, who made common cause with the Cath- olics, armed themselves with the weapons of despair and routed the disciplined legions that had been sent against them : in short, the rule of Macedonius became a byword of terror ; tyranny and rebellion were mutually enkindled to the point of frenzy; and the most eminent heathen historian of the times was fully warranted in exclaiming, No beast is so cruel to man as many of the Christians are to one another.^* The subjugation of the Western Church was marked by fewer atrocities, but, for the time being, with a greater measure of Persecution success. Condemn Athanasius or give up your sees tn the West. usual alternative to the Bishops. Among the eminent clergy, Vincentius of Arles succumbed: Paulinus of Treves resisted. But in a numerous council at Milan, holden Councils of the eye of the Emperor and consisting of three idiUn^^ hundred prelates, defection proved contagious and was A.D. 353-355. almost universal; only a few, such as Dionysius of Milan, Eusebius of Vercellae, and Lucifer of Cagliari, embraced the alternative of exile. The cause of these confessors was vig- orously taken up by S. Hilary of Poitiers, ‘‘the trumpet of the s. Hilary Latius agaiust Ariauism. ' * A convert from philosophy, 0/ Poitiers, eminent man had been led into the Church by private and diligent study of the Scriptures; but his fervid genius, compared by the ancients to the swift and turbid course ^ Socrat. ii. 37, 38. Constantins, Arian Persecutions. 423 of the river Rhone, had (notwithstanding his ignorance of Greek) enriched his mind with ‘^the spoils of the Egyptians,^* so that he was fitted by education, as well as by nature and grace, for the honorable position of a Gallic Athanasius — an up- holder and in due time a restorer of orthodoxy. For the present, however, his eloquent appeals to Constantins served only to win him a place among those whom he so generously defended. The sad overthrow of so many of the Westerns was of course not effected without threats and violence. It is not to be de- nied, however, that the weapons most complained of rhe by orthodox writers showed more of the serpent than of the wolf, in the Emperor’s proceedings. He some- times persecuted by declining to persecute. As S. Hilary elo- quently complained, 7 he tickled the palates of his victims instead of flaying their backs ; he invited them to dinner instead of sending them to jail ; he used gold instead of iron, sunshine instead of flames : in short, when he found them all cloaked and muffled up against an expected storm, he uncloaked them by the warmth of his flattery and caresses. The consequence was that many of those who lapsed ‘‘had no circumstance to plead in extenuation of their guilt ’ ’ ; they could only bewail the power of “Judas kisses and Judas sops,” or of “wolves that enticed them from the fold by coming in sheep’s clothing.” The crowning success of his guile was in the lamentable fall of Liberius of Rome, and Hosius of Cordova. The former, when brought to Milan, resisted all efforts to over- paiiof throw him, with sufficient firmness on his own part, Liberius , . ^ ^ 0/ Rome. and with more than sufficient zeal against the weaker brethren. He was banished to Beroea, a town in Thrace. There two years’ experience of the hardships of exile, with the solicitations of friends, the seductions of enemies, and the spe- cious desire of restoring peace at Rome — for the people in that city were in a state of riotous indignation against Felix, the 7 Quoted in full by Tillemont, VI. 2, liv. ® Sozom. iv. II, 15; T\\\&caoxii, ArianSf sect. Ixix ; Newman’s yirfdiwj-, etc., chap. iv. sect, iii. 424 History of the Church, Arian intruder: — all this so shook his resolution that he re- nounced S. Athanasius, signed the Sirmium confession, wrote abject letters to the Emperor and the Eastern Bishops, and, finally, anathematized all who should refuse to follow his ex- ample. His enemies delayed his restoration till he should drink the bitter cup to the dregs. They were also anxious to make terms in behalf of Felix, but this the Romans would not hear of. ‘‘One God, one Christ, one Bishop,** was their answer to every proposition for a divided see. The venerable Hosius, now an hundred and one years old, after a noble testimony in a letter to Constantins, which still Fall of remains,^ was at length tortured into signing the most Hosius. malignant of the Arian Creeds, and into an act of com- munion with Ursacius and Valens, the most odious of the leaders of the Arian party : the further guilt of condemning S. Atha- nasius he seems to have steadily declined. His end, however, is involved in a cloud of conflicting rumors. Athanasius was thus universally condemned, forsaken, or stripped by violence of his friends and allies." It only re- Athanasius mained to get possession of his person. For this the forsaken, world condescended to use stratagem as well as force, laying his plans with a secrecy and skill that showed his sense of the importance of the object. On the night of the eighth of February,” the year that fol- lowed the Council of Milan, the Saint was keeping vigil with Attempted ^ congregation, in the Church of S. Theonas, when suddenly the Duke Syrianus, at the head of a force of more than five thousand men, penetrated the suburbs of the slumbering city : silently posted a guard at each avenue leading from the church ; and, bursting open the doors, hurled a tumultuous mass of soldiery into the body of the sacred 9 St. Athanas. Hist. Arian. ad Monach. xliv. See Tillemont, tom. vii. part 2. ** The events last described partly preceded, partly followed, the attack upon Athanasius. *2 St. Athanas. Apolog. pro fugd. Constantins, Arian Persecutions. 425 His escape. building. There was an outcry of shouts and groans, a flight of deadly arrows, with ‘^swords flashing in the lamplight,’^ a swaying to and fro of the excited crowd. The Archbishop sat calmly on his throne in the sanctuary, and bade his deacon read the one hundred and thirty-sixth Psalm. High above the tumult rang the inspiriting strain. For His mercy endureth forever, the people the meanwhile saving themselves as they could, and the military thrusting, stabbing, pushing, and trampling down all before them as they pressed in broken ranks towards the Altar. The Bishop refused to leave his place, lest the baffled wrath of the intruders should fall more violently upon the people. ‘‘Better risk myself,’* he declared, “than occasion mischief to them.” At length he was swept away, fainting, in a sort of eddy, by the increasing pressure of the crowd ; was carried, he knew not whither ; and on recovering, found himself in a place of secresy and safety. For six years after this he remained concealed from his enemies, with a price set upon his head, sought for everywhere by the Ahab of the day, and followed by a flood of His vindictive calumny. But the popular heart was with him in- his retirement, and, as is not unusual in such cases, assigned him lurking-places of the most improbable description. Thus, he lay for years, it was said, in a dry cistern; or, again, he was hidden and attended by a devout and beautiful young vir- gin stories that have a certain value as showing the confi- dence men felt in his matchless powers of endurance, or in his childlike purity of soul, but are entitled to little or no Hisac^ credit as matters of fact. It is more certain that he occasionally resorted to Alexandria and other busy haunts ; *3 By his flight, it was said, he had confessed his guilt : a charge which brought out his Apolog. pro fugd. '4 This story was related by the virgin, fifty years after, to Palladius, Bp. of Helenopolis. — Ballad. Hist. Lusiac. 135. It is remarkable, by the way, that S. Athanasius (in his Apolog. pro fugd) mentions a scandal of the same sort against Leontius, an Arian : a thing he would hardly have done had he himself been in the same case. 426 History of the Church. and more especially, that he was present in disguise at the great Council of Ariminum. His writings during this period show that he was well informed of all that was going forward, and that he was in no danger of being forgotten by friend or foe. He had a sturdy body-guard, equally vigilant and incorrup- tible, in the monks of Upper Egypt ; and it was doubtless in Nis abode Congenial society that the greater part of his amonethe exilc was SDcnt. To these simple men Athanasius was the model of a saint and Bishop. He could not only sympathize with them, but could take more than an equal part in their labors and exercises. He came among them, moreover, Deatk of 3,t a happy time. Their venerable leader, S. Antony, .S’. Antony. departed to his rest, in the one hundred and fifth year of his life, bequeathing all his property, a garment and sheepskin, to Bishop Athanasius,’^ and predicting — what shortly came to pass — a period of sacrilege and confusion in the Church of God : he had seen in a vision a herd of mules kicking at the Table of the Lord,”*^ he had heard a voice cry- ing, ‘‘My Altar shall be made an abomination]” With such predictions the saint had gone away from hiS “children” and had left them orphans. But when, shortly after, there appeared among them the slight form and angel face of their great Alex- andrian father, it seemed as if Heaven had recompensed them for all their loss. There were accordingly no bounds to their affectionate devotion. In vain Constantins sent band after band into the desert to seize “the troubler of Israel,” to hunt the “partridge upon the mountains.” It was easy to break up the nest, but the bird had flown. In vain torture was resorted to : the sufferers were Egyptians as well as monks, and it was im- possible to extract a groan from them, much less a word of infor- mation. They silently stretched out their necks to the sword, and the soldiers had to search for other victims. Among such men Athanasius was beyond the reach of the tyrant’s power. What is more, he lay beyond the reach of that *5 Sozom. vi. 5. Constantins, Arian Persecutions. 427 Misrule in Alex- andria, bitterness of soul, so often the lot of exiles for opinion’s sake, and which so often sours into an habitually querulous security and despondent temper. Nothing was more remarka- serenUy ble in this great man than the serenity with which he witnessed, and so far as possible excused, the treachery, the weakness, the timid and time-serving spirit, of the majority of his friends. There have been men in all ages who have stood alone : it was the privilege of S. Athanasius that his solitude was cheered by unfailing sunshine. He lived in a sphere to which doubt, mistrust, and disappointment could win no access. Alexandria, the meanwhile, was, like all the orthodox cities, a prey to popular disorder and fierce misrule.*^ The Catholics tried in vain, by two appeals to the Emperor, to ob- tain redress for the violence which had deprived them of their Bishop and profaned the sanctuary. The answer was, a decree that their churches should be surrendered to the Arian clergy. A mob of pagans and apostates enforced the demand by a savage onslaught upon the Caesarean Church, in which people of both sexes were barbarously maltreated, while the sacred edifice was pillaged with every circumstance of sac- rilegious riot. This was but the prelude to a reign of terror. Clergy were beaten, banished, robbed ; virgins were given up to be teased and scratched and torn by Arian women ; citizens who remonstrated were answered with the scourge ; some were put to death, some sent to the mines : in the midst of all which George the Cappadocian, a man of literary tastes but ^ George 0/ ignorant of theology and ‘‘ savage as a bear or wolf,” Cappadocia^ was consecrated Bishop by an Arian Council at Anti- ^ ^ och, and was installed by a band of soldiers in the Evangelic See. Under his auspices some ninety of the Bishops of the province were banished, deprived, or visited with persecution in other forms. The vacant sees were filled, not without a spirited resistance, with simoniacal “forerunners of Anti- christ.” There was violence, in fact, on both sides. George, *^Sozom. y. 30; Socrat. ii. 28; Athanas. Apolog. pro Fuga, 428 History of the Church. Arian Quarrels, on one occasion, was nigh being torn in pieces by a Catholic mob . *7 On the other hand, when an attempt was made by the faithful to withdraw from his communion and hold separate ser- vices, the Duke Sebastian fell upon them, as they were assem- bled in a cemetery outside the city, and with fire and sword and scourge endeavored to force them into conformity. Such was the rule of Arianism in Alexandria and other cities : a miserable time, to give an idea of which the copious Reign of details furnished by the ancients are unnecessary; for. Terror. unhappily, such is human nature and human history, that when we have ascertained a willingness to persecute, on the part of any faction, with full power to do so, the rest may be safely left to the imagination of the reader. But persecution of the Catholics was hardly enough to satiate the evil spirit of the times. The Arian factions could not refrain from turning their weapons upon one another. That blasphemous creed concocted at Sir- mium and afterwards adopted at Antioch, which Hosius had been forced to sign, anathematized the Homoiousians or Semi- arians as well as the Catholics. The Semiarians, in turn, held a Ancyra, council at Ancyra, headed by Basil the Bishop of that A.D. 358. condemned the grosser errors of the other sects. Hence a better understanding, for a time at least, be- tween the Eastern and Western Bishops. Men like Basil of Ancyra or Cyril of Jerusalem were found to mean much the same as Hilary of Poitiers or as S. Athanasius. Even the Emperor, for a moment, was drawn into the reaction. He denounced the ‘‘atheist’* Aetius, with his followers Eunomius and Eudoxius. He was led almost to the point of A General • /-. *1 1 • Council calling a Council, truly ecumenical : but just at that called for. . 1 1 a • • 1 • 1 . point the subtle Acacians crept into his favor ; and, in- stead of one, two Synods were assembled, the one at Ariminum, a place convenient for the West, and the other, a sort of coun- terpoise, at Seleucia in the East.^® When these Synods met, Ariminum was quite orthodox, and * 7 Sozom. iv. 10. Sozom. iv. 17, 18, 19, 22-24. Constantins, Arian Persecutions. 429 Seleucia, its four hundred Bishops pronounced with considerable unanim- ity in favor of an acknowledgment of the Nicene Creed. With equal unanimity they refused to accept Ariminum. ^ ■ A.D. 359-360. the Kata panta homoion^ an artful formulary, unob- jectionable except for its omissions, which had received the approbation of Constantins, and which, from its exact mention of the consulship and day of its issue, went under the name of the Dated Creed. This much being settled, the Council sent a Commission of ten to Constantins, with a request that their acts might be sanctioned and themselves permitted to return to their sees. The Emperor received them coldly. He had other business on hand. He was about to set out, he said, for a campaign in Persia ; and the Council might await his return to Hadrianople. At Seleucia, the meanwhile, the Semiarian majority had adopted the Creed of Antioch, called that of the Dedi- cation, against the protest of the Acacian party. They also sent deputies to Constantins, to inform him of their decision. But the Acacians had already got the ear of the fickle court. After sundry negotiations, during which the Bishops were given plainly to understand that their return to their sees Homcean depended upon compliance with the Emperor’s will, a Homcean Symbol was once more presented to the Ariminian pre- lates ; one or two anathemas were added to give it an appearance of condemning Arius ; finally, it was subscribed by the Council with seeming demonstrations of joy and of confidence in its or- thodoxy. It is possible that a few of the Bishops were really de- ceived. The rest managed in some measure to deceive themselves. A like course was pursued towards the Semiarians at Seleu- cia, with the same result. It seemed a universal lapse ; which, though almost immediately repented of by the Bish- General ops and repudiated by the people, showed how com- pletely the Church was demoralized, and how little was required (humanly speaking) to make it, like the old heathenism, a mere instrument of state — a mere echo of the voice of arbitrary power. But the lapse of the Church proved the downfall of the heresy before which it stumbled. S. Athanasius, in his retire- 430 History of the Church. ment, foresaw this result and predicted a swift retreat, on the Defeat iit P^^t of the great body of moderate men, in the direc- Vtctory. Other of two positions. The orthodox in heart"^ would find their way clear to a right confession : the real heretics would slide from bad to worse. A few years „ . showed the truth of his prediction. Constantins took Retreat in two direct the downward course, allowing Eudoxius, a man tions. noted for the coarseness and profanity of his ‘‘ athe- ism, to be enthroned in the great see of Constantinople, while Euzoius, the old comrade of Arius, was elevated to the same honor in Antioch. By the latter of these two the Emperor was baptized before his death, and probably died a strict Arian. On the other hand, when the world found itself Arian, it groaned as well as marvelled at the strange result.^ There was a universal feeling of grief and shame. Liberius of Rome availed himself of the opportunity to redeem his credit. Hilary of Poitiers and not a few others, some known as Confessors of the Faith Revival of zeal for and some who had ranked hitherto among the time- Orthodoxy. . i r servers, came out with fervent zeal against all evasions, and labored to restore the Homoousion. In the East, the Semi- arians were spurred to the same course by Acacian persecutions, and by the rapid growth in court-favor of the extreme Aetians. Such in a general way was the drift of things, when Con- stantins, still on the flood-tide of life and fortune, heard of a revolt in the West, in which Julian had been forced to Death of , . . , . , ^ , Constan- accept the imperial title ; felt in that event a premon- itory symptom of his own approaching end ; was dis- tracted for awhile by conflicting counsels; finally took to his bed in a raging fever ; and after a tedious death-struggle left the Empire in the hands of the ablest and most politic of all the opponents of Christianity. *9 A distinction which Athanasius kept carefully in view ; for he knew that no word could express the truth with absolute precision, and that men might honestly object to the term Homoousion without denying the doctrine it was meant to convey. “ “ Ingemuit totus orbis et Arianum se esse miratus est.” S. Jerome. Times of Julian the Apostate. 431 CHAPTER VIII. TIMES OF JULIAN THE APOSTATE. In the eourse of Church History cases continually occur of the progress from Philosophy to Christian faith. Julian* was an instance of a passage in the opposite direction. Res- Passage cued at seven years of age from the massacre of the Flavian family; brought up in seclusion under the cold and watchful eye of a jealous tyrant ; susceptible in his feelings ; proud, vain, enthusiastic, eager for fame ; capa- ble of achieving distinction in whatever he undertook, yet con- demned to the society of books and dreams ; above all, know- ing Christianity only as he saw it in the hypocrisies and cabals of a detested court : it is not to be wondered at that he turned from the present to the past ; that he exchanged a pain- ful and perplexing reality, such as court Christianity at that time presented, for an ideal, visionary indeed, yet easily asso- ciated in his mind with all the glories and amenites of the most brilliant page of the history of human progress. Nor was there much to prevent such a bias, in the kind of care bestowed upon his religious education. The eunuch Mar- donius, the first and ablest of his masters, taught him how to walk with downcast eyes, to despise all sports, to read and meditate, to repress with monastic rigor all show of human affections."* Such a course of training might Julian's early Training. * Abundant materials for a life of Julian, from Ammianus, Libanius; Eunapius, Julian’s Letters, Greg. Nazianzen, Basil, Chrysostom, the Church Historians, etc., are brought together by Tillemont. Hist, des Emp. tom. iv. ; and in the Memoires^ etc., tom. vii. 2 In later life he prided himself on this philosophic calm : “ A philos- opher,” he said, ought not even to breathe, if he could help it.” 432 History of the Church. Later Studies, make a saint, but it was equally well adapted to mar a Chris- tian. For awhile it seemed to be attended with the former effect. The early youth of Julian was sober, studious, and de- vout : he was a regular communicant, a candidate for the sacred Ministry, and even a Reader, for awhile, in the Church of Nicomedia. But, as time rolled on, his inquisitive genius, with the wretched uncertainty of his life and fortunes, brought him un- der the spell of the philosophy of the day ; and philos- ophy soon introduced him to its next-door neighbor, theurgy. He became intimate with sophists, astrologers, and professors of divination : especially with one Maximus, an Ephe- sian, ^ the most learned in signs and portents of all his contem- poraries. At Athens, the stronghold of intellectual pride, where he studied about the twenty-fourth year of his life, the spell was His Abode probably completed. There he enjoyed the ‘‘delici- at Athens, vanity,'* as one of the Fathers called it, of familiar intercourse with men who reigned as emperors in the realm of thought. There he was initiated into the Eleusinian Mys- Grefrory terics. Gregory Nazianzen saw him often in those and Basil ^j^iys ; as also Basil, called the Great, upon whom was soon to fall the mantle and the spirit of the great Athanasius. With the latter of these he seems to have been on friendly terms. The former,^ more sensitive to evil, avoided his society ; for he saw in him, he thought, a mind unhinged, an uncertain temper, a soul ill at ease, and at variance with itself. Indeed, if we are to credit the picture drawn by Nazianzen, Julian at Mental time must not only have reached the turning-point Conflict, must have passed it with no little suf- fering to himself : in his disordered gait, his feverish eye, his 3 An extant poem of this quack, De Electionibus, reveals the auspicious moment for all undertakings : for travelling, marrying, taking medicine, run- ning away from one’s master or catching runaways, stealing or recovering stolen goods, etc. Fabric. Bibliothec, Grcec. lib. v. cap. 25. 4 S. Greg. Naz. Oral. iv. 25. Times of Julian the Apostate. 433 tongue venomous and sarcastic by fits and starts, his abrupt and imperious yet agitated manner, these were all the outward marks of spiritual anguish — of a desperate and secret intellectual struggle. The contest resulted, not in an apostasy to vulgar paganism, but in the adoption of a visionary scheme in which the Platonic philosophy,^ the precepts of the Gospel, and the mir- juUan^s acle-mongering of theurgic science, were to be en- ideal. grafted upon the stock of the old mythology ; while the whole was to blossom and bear fruit not its own,^* by virtue of a mystical interpretation. Julian is said to have been confirmed in his change by the artful prophecies of Maximus, or of other professors of super- natural lore.^ There was much in his actual life to Favors 0/ make him an easy victim to such pretenders. Gallus, fortune. his elder brother, after a short reign as Csesar in the provinces of the East, had been put to death for his cruelty, vanity, and ambition ; and the one life that remained to excite the jealousy of Constantius was well known to hang in an even balance. The magicians promised him safety and empire : the Empress Eusebia secured it for him. By her intercession and by a strange infatuation on the Emperor’s part, he was sent to Gaul in the capacity of Caesar. There, anxious to avoid his broth- er’s fate, he dissembled his religion, refrained from every act that might excite suspicion, and aimed only at a moderate, just, and vigorous discharge of his princely duties. But to hit such a mark was to secure without difficulty a more splendid prize. 5 With Porphyry and lamblichus it (the Alexandrian school) becomes a sort of Church, and disputes with Christianity the empire of the world. Chris- tianity had ascended the throne in the person of Constantine : Neoplatonism dethrones it and usurps its place in the person of Julian the Apostate. But now mark the difference. In losing Constantine, Christianity lost nothing of its real power In losing Julian, Neoplatonism lost its power, political and religious.” Lewes, Biograph. Hist, of Philos. Epoch ix. chap. ii. ®Libanius (Oral, v.) says that all the pagans, the diviners especially, were secretly sacrificing in his behalf. 19 434 History of the Church. The army greeted with acclamations a merit unknown to them of late, and forced upon Julian the title of Augustus. A col- lision with Constantins would naturally follow. But, by an- „ , other of those sudden turns, which coming as they He becomes ... o j sole did at critical moments of his life seemed to point Hmperor. , ^ Julian out as the favorite of the gods, the last obstacle disappeared from the path of the young hero and the vision of an universal Empire, consolidated, restored, and illustrated with the glories of polytheistic worship, assumed shape and consistency in his fervid imagination, and seemed settling into the proportions of an accomplished fact. Accordingly he took possession of Constantinople; where, having purged himself of his baptism by the dread rites of the Taurobolia,® and having sacrificed in the great Church to an He devotes image of Fortune, he stood before the world, not an himself. Eniperor merely, but a sceptred sorcerer : a prince armed with all powers, material and spiritual,^ and consecrating all to the reform of the Roman State, to the establishment of idolatry, and especially to open warfare against the reign of the detested Galilean. Reform began with the Palace, but was rapidly extended into all departments. The parasites of Constantins were swept Measures away : expenses were curtailed with military rigor ; of Reform. hierarchy of State which Constan- tine had created or unduly expanded, was reduced to more modest and more serviceable proportions. 7 This was predicted by the haruspices : Julian also saw it in a dream. Zosim. ii. ; Zonar. iii. ^ A baptism in the blood of bulls. 9 The eulogists of Julian dwell much on this. Libanius [Oral, x.) de- clares that he had no use for councils of war, or other deliberative assemblies, for his art could show him everything supernaturally. Eunapius (quoted in Milman’s notes to Gibbon) speaks of him as one “ who with a mind equal to the Divinity .... held commerce with immaterial beings while yet in the material body : who condescended to rule because a ruler was necessary to the welfare of mankind.” 435 Times of yulian the Apostate. Such measures might have proved acceptable to the public, had the Emperor been able to fill with credit the vacancies cre- ated by his sweeping reforms. But the material could not be found. Idolatry had no gift to profit by ad- fourt versity : the half century that had elapsed since its first overthrow had raised up to it no heroes, no martyrs, no spirit of self-devotion. The consequence was, that when Julian called for men to codperate with him in the cause of the fallen gods, the summons was answered only by troops of quacks. The Court*® became a den of sophists, rhetoricians, astrologers, magicians : and even of these classes the more prudent kept aloof,** so little confidence was felt in the projected restora- tion. Better hopes were inspired by his honest and in the main successful efforts to reduce the burden of taxation under which the world groaned; by his zeal for impartial justice; Acts of by his righteous severity towards spies and informers ; Justice, and finally by his promise of universal toleration. For he recalled the numerous exiles of the previous reign and put all Christian sects upon an equal footing. He hoped, in pretended so doing, to see the Church perish by its own dissen- sions ;** but, the event proving quite otherwise, it was not long before he began to connive at persecution, and even in some cases to set the example himself. He revoked the honors and immunities of the Christian Clergy,*^ and deprived them of all revenues accruing from the State. The Laity were forbidden to hold office, to . , ... 1 • i Severities. practise as advocates or physicians, or to teach in the public schools Their children were excluded from a classical education. Fines were laid on those who refused to sacrifice. The destroyers of idol-temples in the preceding reign were *°The heathen historian complains of this. Ammian. Marcell. xxii. xxiii. “ Among others Chrysanthius, who not only declined to go to Court, but being appointed High Priest of Lydia kept on good terms with the Christians. See Tillemont, Hist, des Emp. Julien^ art. xiii. Ammian. xxii. 5 . *3Sozom. v. ; Socrat. iii. ; Theod. iii. 436 History of the Church. obliged to make good the damage done, or to suffer the pains Mark of of insolvent debtors. A venerable Arian Bishop, Arethusa. Arethusa, who had saved Julian’s life at the time of the massacre of the Flavian family, was one of the vic- tims of this enactment : he was stripped, scourged, anointed with honey, and hung up in the hot sun to be stung by flies. For a similar offence, Caesarea of Cappadocia was expunged George the from the Hst of citics. George, the infamous intruder Artan, Alexandria, was seized and torn in pieces by an infuriated mob. He had merited death by his vile rapacity, but provoked it by insults upon the heathen tem- ples. There were similar acts of violence, and perhaps of retaliation, in the cities of Syria and Palestine : all of which, however, the Emperor excused, dismissing the complaints of the sufferers with the sneer, that patience under injuries was a precept of their religion. It has always been our wish,” he said,*^ to treat the Galilaeans with humanity, and Christians not to force them into any act against their relig- of Edessa. . . i i i ^ . ion. . . . But, to aid them in the practice of their admirable law and to facilitate their entrance into the kingdom of Heaven, we have ordered that their Church be relieved of its property, the money to be distributed among the soldiers, the lands to be attached to the imperial domain : that poverty may teach them a lesson of discretion, and may prevent their losing that heavenly kingdom.” Such was his decree against the Arians of Edessa who had ventured to maltreat the Valen- tinians : and in the same spirit he chastised the Christian sects in general, scourging them as it were with thorns of their own planting, driving them into pits which they had dug for others. In the case of S. Athanasius, he had no such excuse of ^‘poetic justice,” but came out without disguise as a again pcrsecutor. The Saint, like others, had returned to banished. heathen complained : the Catholics, speaking in the name of the city, sent to the Emperor a Socrat. iii. 2, 3. *sEpistol. xliii; Julian. Epistol. vi. xxvi. li. Times of Julian the Apostate. 437 counter-petition. Julian, in his answer, sneered at their pre- sumption, ridiculed their religion, glorified the heathen gods, and gave orders that ‘‘the knave*’ who tickled their “itching ears,” the “meddling mannikin” who gloried in risking his life, the miscreant who had “dared to baptize noble Greek women,” should be driven without delay from Alexandria and Egypt. This growing inclination towards measures of severity was increased by certain incidents that occurred in An- Antioch^ tioch, where the Emperor abode for awhile previ- a.d. 362. ous to his departure for the Persian war. The Grove of Daphne, in the neighborhood of that city, had been famous in pagan times as a Paradise of beauty and a Sodom of iniquity: a place where, surrounded by roof- Grove 0/ like shades of primeval cypresses, with hills laurel- crowned and secluded valleys and springs pouring their spark- ling treasures into a thousand channels, the worship of Apollo had sanctified the frivolity of a pleasure-loving people, and had spread a mystic veil over scenes of unblushing voluptuousness and audacious crime. On the triumph of the Cross it had been cleansed, in some measure, of its abominations. Gallus, Julian’s elder brother, had caused the remains of S. Babylas to Removal 0/ be transported thither ; and a magnificent Christian church, with a noble cemetery, stood confronting and insulting the more ancient shrine. When Julian came to Antioch"® and visited the old temple, he was mortified to find it almost for- saken : a starveling priest was sacrificing a goose for lack of a better victim ; the famous oracle was dumb, “because of the vicinity of dead men’s remains.” Such a disgrace could not be tolerated. The Christians were commanded to remove their relics. They obeyed the order and converted it into a triumph. As the body of the Saint was solemnly translated to the city, the ears of the Emperor were saluted with a thundering defiance, the precentor singing first and the multitude responding, “ Con- *7 Sozom. V. 19. *®Theod. iii. lo, n, etc.; Sozom. v. 19, 20. 438 History of the Church. founded be all they that worship carved images and that delight in vain gods.** This could not but be followed by mutual exasperation. The Antiocheans would sing — especially the women. The Emperor, in spite of the sober counsels of more experienced advisers, was bent on putting a stop to their Cruel untimely mirth. Theodore, a young Christian, was Measures, ^Qrtured on the rack. He sang more heartily than ever while the torment was going on; for, though ‘‘he felt the points of the nails a little, yet a young man stood by him (invisible to others) and wiped the sweat from his face and refreshed him with water.** On the other hand, the Daphnian Apollo and his temple were set on fire by lightning, as was commonly reported, or, as the Emperor chose to believe,^ by a Christian incendiary. Hence a series of atrocious and vin- dictive measures; in which Julian, losing his temper, awakened the martyr spirit in some and the mocking spirit in others, so that the very heathen soon began to regard him with feelings of aversion. Still, as a general rule, Julian was averse to making martyrs, and preferred that policy of mingled flattery and sarcasm, with Milder occasional flashes of apparent magnanimity, which Perse- would lead unstable Christians to fall of themselves. From his early training he was intimately acquainted with the Scriptures, and with all the variations of Christian sects. He availed himself of this knowledge with pungent wit ; and many who might have stood under the scourge or rack were easily overthrown by a well-aimed sneer. Largesses and bribes were effectual with others. The old trick was re- vived, of sprinkling the soldiers* rations with lustral water, or exposing in the shambles meats offered to idols. Thus apostates were numerous in the court and camp. On the other hand, there were some who kept their places in both, by virtue of their blameless and consistent conduct : a tyrant may value *9 Sozom. V. 20. *^Ammian. (xxii. 13) treats this as an unfounded rumor. Even the priests of the temple did not profess to know the origin of the fire. Times of Julian the Apostate. 439 renegades as trophies of his skill, but he cannot trust to them exclusively as servants. His design to restore the splendor of the old idol-worship he seems to have first intimated in a letter to the Athenians, written not long before the death of Constantins. idolatry The carrying out of the intention was by no means easy. By a stroke of the pen he could transfer to the pagan priesthood the privileges and immunities of the Christian Clergy. But beyond this point everything was in a The Priests tangle of conflicting views. The sacerdotal families were at feud among themselves ; nor were they disposed to hearken graciously to the Christian-like homilies, with which their Sovereign Pontiff saw fit to edify them, on the virtues of unity, charity, and mutual forbearance. Still less were they inclined to lead disciplined lives, after the fashion of the hated Galileans,** or to set an example of humility and chastity, or to show their faith by deeds of beneficence to the poor. For the Emperor desired the fruits of Christianity, though he abhorred the tree : the priests, it was found, had no taste for either. In the same way, the populace valued paganism as min- The People istering to their vices ; but the lewd and bloody sports of the circus were an abomination to the disciple of Plato and Mardonius, and he felt himself bound to set his face against them.** In the absence of such treats, people could not but laugh at the strange pomps of the revived sacrifices. Heca- tombs of oxen seemed a grand absurdity. The imperial sacri- ficer was nicknamed the Butcher ; the symbol on his coins, a hull supine upon an altar y was held to mean the world turned upside down ; while his long straggling beard, his uncomely visage, his insignificant figure and pretentious airs, all came in for a share of the popular ill -humor. With a pen steeped in gall the Emperor retorted, now upon the haters of beards, now upon the enemies of the immortal gods. The lively Antio- See Julian’s letter to Arsacius the high-priest of Galatia Sozom. v. i6. ^ Zosimus attributes all the Emperor’s troubles in Antioch to the severity of his manners. 440 History of the Church. cheans were pilloried in a satire entitled Misopogon. The hated “Galileans,” as he called the Christians, were visited Julian's Literary morc than once with a similar rebuke. But in con- Efforts. tests of this kind victory inclines to numbers rather than to wit ; and it must soon have become obvious to the Emperor himself, that whatever might be his success against Christianity, the attempt to replace it by a spiritual paganism could end in nothing else than a mortifying failure. In fact, heathenism could exist only as a superstition : as a religion it was decayed and full of rents ; to touch it was to Cause of i^^crease the rents in it ; and the rents were made infi- Faiiure. nitely worse, when patched with the new cloth of an ideal, half Christian, half Platonic, and wholly beyond the reach of popular apprehension. This truth was brought home to the Emperor in a more seri- ous way by the issue of his attempt to restore Judaism. It was not inconsistent with polytheistic notions, that the A itempt to r J restore God of the Hebrews should be worshipped in the Judaism. land of Judaea and it was natural that Julian should desire to have his own name connected"*^ with so magnificent a fane and so splendid a ceremonial, as the Jews with their great wealth and zeal were capable of erecting. Hatred of the Gos- j)el added force to this desire. To rebuild the Temple was to falsify, it was thought, the predictions of our Saviour. To reestablish the Law was to sap Christianity at its fountain- head. Accordingly, the Jews were incited to engage in the Zealous ^^idertaking. Aid was freely given from the public Erepara- treasury ; skilled workmen were brought together ; there were rich offerings in profusion, silver mattocks, silver trowels, gold, purples, and precious stones ; delicate women came to work in their silks and jewels; finally, the accomplished Alypius, a bosom friend of the Emperor’s and a distinguished officer of the empire, was specially intrusted with ihe superintendence of the work. *3 Julian, Epistol. xxv. *-^Ammian. xxiii. i. 441 Times of Julian the Apostate. The defeat that ensued was signal and overwhelming beyond all precedent. Trenches dug by day were filled up by night. When a part of the wall was built, an earthquake over- signal threw it. A fiery eruption from the vaults of the old Oe/eat, Temple scattered death and panic among the workmen and consumed their tools. The air was filled with tempests and meteoric splendors : a great cross was seen enclosed in a circle, and luminous figures of a like character seemed to settle on the persons and garments of the beholders. In short, though Alypius set himself resolutely to accomplish the work, and was assisted therein by the Governor of the Province, the place soon became inaccessible to the scorched and blasted work- men, and the obstinacy of the elements compelled him to desist. Had Julian lived longer, the enterprise possibly might have been renewed. But, when the news of this defeat invasion reached him, his evil genius had already incited him to an undertaking that proved in its issue still more disastrous, — the invasion of the Kingdom of Persia. This powerful monarchy, the inveterate rival and enemy of Rome, had received a severe check in the reign of Diocletian ; had been conciliated by treaties honorable to both cause of parties under the politic administration of Constan- tine ; but finally, encouraged by the weakness of Constantins and led on by the valor of Sapor the long-lived king,^^ had inflicted not a few disgraces upon the Roman arms. Ammianus (the heathen historian) bears witness to the repeated fiery eruptions, and to the consequent defeat of the earnest efforts of Alypius (xxiii. i). The other circumstances are mentioned by Christian writers, for an analysis of whose testimony, with a complete answer to the objections of Basnage, see Warburton’s yulian. This writer shows that an earthquake (with its usual accompaniments) might have produced all the alleged phe- nomena. Others account for them by the gases and fixed air in the vaults of the old Temple. — See Milman’s Notes to Gibbon, The two theories, by the way, are as old as Sozomen. Hist. v. 22. 26 This valiant monarch had the singular honor of being crowned before he was born. See Gibbon’s Decline ^ etc., chap, xviii. 19^ 442 History of the Church. Julian only added to the number of these reverses. Led on by Fortune, the goddess of his first devotions, and emulating the course of the Macedonian conqueror, he crossed Death of ^ ’ Julian, the Tigris, fell by a strange infatuation into a snare prepared by the enemy, and finally, after a brilliant but disastrous victory, perished of a wound received in battle. The Christians pointed the moral of his fate by putting into his mouth the famous phrase, GalilcEe^ vicisti / The heathen histo- rian represents him^ as indulging, on his death-bed, in a self- complacent harangue upon the innocency of his life, the purity of his government, the splendid close of his career, and the felicity of a soul beloved of the gods and early disencumbered of its mortal body. Among heathen and Christians alike there had been a strong presentiment of his approaching end.""® Julian had divined it p . by his theurgic skill ; and the Genius of the Empire going twice appearing to him, once the night before he before, received the purple and once upon the eve of his last battle, had on both these occasions assured him of it. Athana- sius, in like manner, had said of his career, ‘‘ It is a little cloud and will soon pass over.” A similar story is told of a certain schoolmaster in Antioch. When Libanius, the great Sophist, taunted him with the question, ‘‘What is the carpenter's Son doing?” he answered promptly and with composure, “He is getting ready a coffin.” So, on the fatal day: two priests were conversing sadly in a boat on the Nile, when of a sudden one of them exclaimed, “Julian has been slain this very hour” ; Sabbas, a pious monk in Syria, learned the same on his knees ; Didymus, the Alexandrian scholar, saw it in a dream and sent ^ Gibbon seldom lays himself open to ridicule : yet there is something ludicrous in the gravity with which he expresses his “silent contempt” for the Christian story, while he gives in full the rhetorical harangue recorded by Ammianus. He also commits himself to the wild story that the soldiers elected Jovian because they mistook his name for that of Julian. Theod. iii. 23, 24 ; Sozom. vi. 2 ; Ammian. xxv. 2 ; Tillemont, Hist, des Emp. tom. iv. p. 1015. Times of yulian the Apostate. 443 word of it to S. Athanasius ; an officer of the army had a sim- ilar vision : in all which stories, as in the parallel Their anecdotes from the heathen side, we have signs of the deep and earnest feeling with which Julian’s career had been commonly regarded. It was evidently looked upon as a spirit- ual conflict, a crisis and an issue, a ^^war in heaven,” as it were, in which good angels and bad, the powers of light and of darkness, might be expected to take a more than ordinary part. Upon Jovian, a Christian confessor and a rude, blunt soldier, elected by the military on the fatal field, devolved the ungrate- ful task of*extricating the army from impending ruin. jovian. The Persians, unwilling to combat with despair, ^ 363 - granted him the boon of an ignominious peace. ^ He pro- ceeded immediately to restore Christianity. The Labarum was once more raised in the van of the army. 3° The Clergy re- covered their former state. Even the Nicene Creed, so long depressed, was elevated at once to the post of honor ; for the Emperor, though by no means an adept in theologic lore, had a gift to discern the merits of S. Athanasius, and to receive from his lips the measure of Imperial faith. Jovian died after a reign of eight months only : but the army again showed its preference for a Christian head, by conferring the ^ purple on Valentinian. He also inclined to the or- VaUtts, A.D. 364. thodox side. His brother Valens, however, whom he adopted as colleague in the empire and set over the East, was a violent Arian and a bitter persecutor. ^ He had to part with Nisibis (which James the Bishop had defended with his prayers, Theod. ii. 30) and with five provinces : the Roman Ter- minus began to retire. 3 ° Julian had substituted the old standard, S. P, Q. R. 444 History of the Church. CHAPTER IX. TIMES OF VALENS: SECTS AND SCHISMS. It has been intimated, in the preceding chapter, that the return of the exiles under Julian was favorable on the whole to the Prospect Catholic cause. In face of a common foe there was a o/ Peace, disposition, on the part of good men at least, to forget past quarrels, to avoid new grounds of difference, and to close up if possible the Church’s broken ranks. The chief exception to this rule was among the Christians of North Africa. The Donatists in that region* were a sect African Hved on turbulence : to persecute or be perse- Church. cuted was a necessity of their existence. The Em- peror Constans had tried to win them to unity by sending two commissioners or peace-makers,’ armed with liberal donations to the suffering poor; but the leaders of the faction, regarding his benevolence as a bribe, roused their rustic militia, the Cir- cumcellions to such a pitch of frenzy, that with their war-cry, Deo latides, and with their war-clubs, called Israels , they began a ruthless massacre of the upper classes of society, and subdued., it required no little effort on the part of the Romati A.D. 349. pQyygj- |-Q repress them. Repressed they were, however, after multitudes had been slaughtered or had slain themselves. ^ With the method of peace-making adopted in this instance the Church had nothing to do, either in wish, word or deed ” * See Book III. chap. iv. of this History. * Operatores unitatis. 3 The Circumcellions threw themselves from cliffs, etc., as a kind of mar- tyrdom. S. Optat. De Schism. Donat, iii. 4 . 4 Optatus proves that the Donatists provoked persecution ; that they merely suffered their deserts as evil-doers ; and that Catholics had no part in Times of Valens : Sects and Schisms. 445 but she was not the less glad to be delivered from a sect which armed debtors against their creditors and slaves against their masters, and made simple folk believe that the Catholics had set up idols upon their Altars.^ The deliverance, moreover, seemed to be complete. ‘‘Schism was at an end, and even the pagans refrained from their sacrilegious rites : the devil moaned in his temples, the Donatists in foreign parts.'* Unity thus obtained could not but prove precarious. The accession of Julian opened the doors of the idol-temples and brought back the Donatists. Hosts of embittered Donatists zealots poured in from the remoter districts and swarmed in every town. The Catholics shrank at once into a trembling minority. Robbed of their churches and cemeteries, their altars and altar-plate, their sacred books, veils. Their palls, nay of their very Christian name — for their bap- tism was called a nullity and their prayers a profanation : they could hardly extort an Ave from their churlish adversaries,^ but were saluted instead with a sharp “Turn ye, turn ye — Be Chris- tians — Save your souls," or other exhortations to a like startling effect. 7 By such persecution households were divided, and the Church was thrown into a state of miserable depression. But in other parts of the world the work of reconciliation was at least begun. S. Athanasius, returning to his See upon the death of George, with Eusebius of Vercellae and ^ ^ other exiles,® held a Council at Alexandria; in ^h\c\\ Alexandria, it was determined that naught should be required of converts to Church unity, save to confess the Nicene Faith and abjure the Arian and other heresies. the severities against them. He challenges them to name one Deacon, Priest or Bishop, who had instigated or sanctioned the use of force (ii. 14). Yet Milman, by a gross misconception of Optat. iii. 6, tries to make it appear that the Catholics not only sanctioned, but “ proudly vindicated their barbarities.” Hist, of Christ. B. III. chap. i. towards the end. 5 Donatist calumnies were almost without number. Optat. passim. ^Optatus (iv. 5) in the spirit of true charity argues that Donatists and Catholics are brethren ; and pleads with the former for fraternal kindness. ^ Optat. iii. II. sgQcrat. iii. 5-7, 9. 446 History of the Church. Armed with this wise and charitable decree, Eusebius repaired to Antioch, to allay the dissensions which had continued to Schism in prcvail there ever since the deposition of Eustathius.® Antioch. seemed easy, for Eustathius was dead, and Meletius, the then incumbent, had proved his orthodoxy by a singularly bold and unequivocal confession.” But the Eusta- Meietius Were sour and impracticable; and Lucifer of Cagliari, another returned exile, had made them still Pauhnus. worse by ordaining for them a Bishop of the name of Paulinus. Hence a cankerous feud, the irritation of which extended East and West to all parts of the Church.” Lucifer The was rebuked by Eusebius for his untimely interference. Luci/ertans. served to increase the difficulty. He proudly held aloof from all efforts at conciliation, and became leader of a small sect known as the Luciferians. The West was more ripe for the healing ministry of Eusebius. Liberius of Rome concurred in the decrees of Alexandria ; and The West Hilary of Poitiers,” with other kindred spirits, set up pacified. light of truth and dispelled the mists of contro- versy in the Churches of Illyricum, Italy, and Gaul. Those who had swallowed the baits of Constantius at Milan, or had been entangled in his nets at the Council of Ariminum, penitently acknowledged, or plausibly excused, their error ; and, in spite of the opposition of a few hot-heads, were readily received into favor. Auxentius of Milan alone held out. But the Emperor Valentinian, a cordial hater of Church quarrels, ob- taining from him a confession that looked orthodox, permitted him to remain in possession of his See ; and, that he might remain in quiet, ordered Hilary, his chief accuser, to withdraw from the city. 9 Theod. iii. 4, 5; Sozom. v. 13. Meletius, though appointed by Arian influence, had in his first sermon confessed the true Faith ; for which he was exiled by Constantius, and came back under Julian. Socrat. ii. 44. ** Rome and the West took the side of Paulinus : and even S. Athana- sius was drawn in the same direction by his sympathy with the Eustathians. *2 Socrat. iii. lo. Times of Valens : Sects and Schisms. 447 With its own faith established, the West had soon an oppor- tunity to confirm the faith of a large number of the Eastern brethren. By the leave of Valentinian,*^ certain Semi- arian Bishops of Bithynia and Thrace had met at u^dyfu Lampsacus, condemned the Creed of Ariminum, ap- proved the Formulary of Antioch, and reiterated the Confession of the Homoiousion. Being persecuted for this by the Emperor Valens, they determined to have recourse to the alliance of the West. Three deputies were sent to Valentinian and to Liberius of Rome. It was earnestly declared that in using the word Homoiousion they meant nothing contrary to the Creed of Nicaea. They were perfectly willing, therefore, to abandon the term. Finally, they drew up a formal Nicene paper in which all evasions were condemned, and the a!d' Faith of the Three Hundred and Eighteen was declared ^65, 367- to be that ‘‘ which they had held all along, still held, and would ever hold thereafter.”*^ A Council in Sicily confirmed their decla- ration. Another at Tyana pursued the same course. The letter which Liberius had written in answer to the paper of the East- ern Deputies was commended to the faithful everywhere ; and an effort was made to assemble another Synod at Tarsus in Cilicia, with a view to the complete and final settlement of all questions in dispute. Valens interfered ; forbade the proposed Council to assem- ble ; and gave a general order for the banishment of all Bishops who had been restored to their Sees by the edict of Vaiens Julian. This was the beginning of a persecution in which the pagans also suffered, many of their philosophers being put to death or banished for treasonable divinations.*^ *3 In answer to their application the Emperor said, “ I am only a simple layman. Let the priests see to Church affairs, and assemble where they please.” Sozom. vi. 7. Sozom. vi. 10-12. *5 Theodoras, a young Secretary at court, consulted the soothsayers as to the name of the next Emperor. The letters 0, E, 0 , A, turned up. Hence a great agitation both in the Eastern and Western courts. Immense num- 448 History of the Church. Athanasius could plead that he was not one of those restored under Julian : on the contrary, when he had returned after the death of George, the tyrant had forced ‘‘the meddling manni- kin,” as he called him, to flee in haste from the city. But this availed nothing with Valens. The Saint was obliged to hide himself again. So strong, however, was the terror Athanasius \ , retires^ inspired by his name"® and so general the conviction * of his secret power, that the Arians themselves began to think better of it, and brought the Emperor over to the same opinion. He was soon allowed, therefore, to resume his See, and the persecution turned upon other victims. The violence of this last effort of Arianism may be estimated by the fact that on one occasion, when eighty priests were Cruelty of deputed to deprecate the Emperor’s wrath, they were Valens, Ordered into exile, with secret instructions from the court that the vessel which conveyed them should be set on fire. The order was executed, and the priests all perished.*^ Under such a tyrant the Church fell naturally into new distrac- tions, and heresies hitherto latent or harmless were fretted, as it were, into a baleful life. A few of the more prominent of these may here be noticed. First : There were some that sprang from an overstrained and feverish orthodoxy. Such was the error of Marcellus and Heresies Photinus, wlio to save the Divinity of the Word sacri- 'Ortho^dox flced the truth of His Personality."® In somewhat the same spirit, the Luciferians and Eustathians made schism seem right by using it in the service of a righteous cause. bers of philosophers were imprisoned, many were put to death — chiefly on information extorted by the rack. Zosim. iv. 13-15; Ammian. xxviii. i; xxix. 1-3. Sozom. vi. 12. *7 Sozom. vi. 14. Photinus made ** the immanent oxdi^* impersonal: but he avoided Patripassianism by distinguishing between the Word and the Son, applying the latter term to the incarnate Christ only. Marcellus towards the end of his life explained his heresy, but not in a satisfactory way. “ S. Athanasius neither cleared him, nor harshly condemned him, but smiling seemed to think he had cleared himself.” S. Epiphan. Op. p. 837, ed. Petav. .Times of V'alens : Sects and Schisms. 449 Athanasius disapproved these extravagances of his friends and followers ; but party ties were too strong, and his heart was too generous and charitable, to allow him to repudiate the author of them. Another warm friend of his, the poet and scholar Apollinaris,*^ thought to make sure of the Divinity of Christ by denying to the nature He assumed a rational xhetry soul. The Logos, eternally a Person and eternally imbodied, being eternally indeed the Son of Man in Heaven, assumed the earthly or psychical part of our nature, and so be- came visibly the Son of Man : the heavenly or rational part He had no need to assume. Such were some of the heresies that sprang from an abuse of logic on the orthodox side. The men- tal bias, of which they are exponents, led in the course of the next century to a very extensive adoption of the Monophysite error. Secondly : Of the spawn of Arius, there were many minor sects^n addition to the three leading schools described in a previous chapter. Aerius, one of those reformers who attempt to sweep the house without being at the pains to light the candle, denied the superiority of Bishops over Presbyters, the lawfulness of oblations made for the de- parted, and the religious obligation of Fasts and . r 1 Eunomius, Feasts. Eunomius, one of the same sort, taught a solifidian doctrine, and introduced the practice of a single^ immersion in Baptism, with a discipline quite novel in other re- spects. Macedonius denied the Divinity of the Holy Ghost. Arian Sects : Aerius, '9 The heresy was condemned in the Council of Alexandria, but without mention of the name of Apollinaris. Athanasius also wrote against the heresy, but with a like reserve. For an account of Apollinaris, see Soz. vi. 25-27. *oSozom. vi. 26. In Bagster’s ed. of the Ch. Historians the important word single is omitted. The common practice in the East was trine im- mersion. ** For the different theories of ‘‘wise men” on this subject see Greg. Nazianz. de Spirit. Sanct. Orat. xxxi. 450 History of the Church. Such an error would necessarily flow from Arian premises ; but, Macedo- it Seemed to open a new and untrodden path, it rapidly drew off the remnants of the more obstinate Semiarians. To errors of this kind may be added the misunderstandings” that arose from the use of the word Hypostasis. As there were The Term some who held it to mean Substance^ and others. Hypostasis, thosc who spoke of one Hypostasis and those who spoke of three might accuse one another respectively of the Tritheist, or the Sabellian, heresy. The Council of Nicsea had avoided the use of the word, and more recently the pacific Synod of Alexandria had endeavored to discourage it. But in spite of all efforts it continued to be used, and helped to irritate the quarreP^ between the East and West. Thirdly : there were heresies that sprang from superstition : others that arose from an enthusiastic protest against offences Minor of timcs. The Collyridians, an Arabian sec^wor- Errors, shipped the blessed Virgin"*^ with altars, priestesses, processions, and offerings of cakes. The Antidicomarians im- pugned her virgin purity. The Massalians, averse to priests and sacraments, professed a life of inward and incessant prayer. "*5 The Audians, a hard monastic sect, hated Bishops and rich men, and interpreted the Scriptures so grossly as to clothe the Supreme Being in a human form. In the West the Manichaeans were still busy ; and the Pris- cillianists, against the earnest protest of S. Martin of Heresies in Tours, had to be repressed by the secular arm. They gave much trouble in Gaul and Spain. In Rome, Jovinian, “Socrat. iii. 7. =3 The West spake of one^ the East of three: so in the Church of Antioch, the Meletians held with the East, the Paulinists with the West. 24 S. Epiphan. Hceres, 58, 59, or 78, 79. 25 The access of the Spirit among them was indicated by quakings^ con- vulsions ^ etc. Theod. iv. 10, ii. 26 The first infliction of death for heresy — A.D. 384. Times of Valens : Sects and Schisms. 45 1 a Milanese monk,*^ renounced the austerities of his profession as unprofitable, held ^‘once in grace’* to mean ‘‘always in grace,” declaimed against the prevalent belief with regard to the superiority of the virgin life, and adopted the Stoic tenet that all sins are equal. * In short, private judgment ran riot amid the anarchy of controversy, so that even S. Epiphanius,""® after cataloguing the queens and concubines of the distracted realm of heresy, vagaries found his patience spent : and was obliged to dismiss without , - , . 1 1 -I umber, a host of the more frivolous extravagances under the general head of virgins without number — so countless were the vagaries in which the religious world indulged. Amid such license of opinion, embittered, not repressed, by the strong hand of the civil power, the position of true men was uncomfortable in the extreme. To was to Trials of make one’s self the butt of calumny or suspicion ; Times, and the wolves that muddled the stream were the foremost to * abuse the lambs that sought it only to slake their thirst. To be orthodox was to be called Sabellian, Tritheist, Apollinarian, Macedonian.^ It was a strife in which every man’s hand was ^ His movement was quite popular in Rome, where there was a strong revulsion of feeling against the austere teachings of S. Jerome. Jovinian was condemned in the year 389. S. Epiphanius, the great authority on heresies, was a man of the highest repute for holiness and learning — a type of prhnitive piety. Born in the beginning of the fourth century, he lived till near its close. Learning the monastic life in Egypt, he practised it in Palestine where he founded a mon- astery, and adorned it by the mild dignity of his episcopal rule in Salamis the metropolis of Cyprus. Towards the end of his life he took part in the Ori- genistic controversy, siding against Origen. In his great work he makes the sixty queens (Canticles vi. 8, 9) to have been sixty generations before Christ, the eighty concubines eighty chief heresies, the virgins without nuttiber (by a play upon the word) to be the juvenile vagaries so common in his times, and the one Dove^ of course, the Church and the true Faith. ^ S. Basil complains much on this score. If he cleared himself on one side he was immediately attacked on the other. S. Basil. Cses. Epistol. 189; So also S. Jerome, Epistol. 15; ‘‘Confiteor utvolunt, non placet. Subscribo, non credunt,” etc. 452 History of the Church. against his neighbor; in which men argued with their teeth rather than with their tongues/* Even the Latin Church was more or less disturbed, partly by vile struggles for place and power, partly by the impatience „ of the ultra-orthodox; and the name of Damasus, Pope ' Damasus, the able successor of Liberius, was stained by barbar- A.D. 366. . . ^ ous massacres of the followers of Ursicinus,^ his com- petitor for what was already the rich prize of the See of Rome. In the main, however, the West presented a firm front, now attracting, now chilling and repelling, the more fervid East. s. Jerome, Among tliose who were attracted, the name of S. A.D. 377. Jerome is conspicuous at this period. Against ‘^the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines**; amid the word- battles of the Hypostases or the more serious questions started by Apollinaris ; his impatient and intolerant spirit felt the need of a strong voice and strong arm : and such strength he sought in ‘‘the uncorrupt see,** the stronghold of the faith and^f the authority of S. Peter. 3' Accordingly, Damasus was encouraged to take high ground with the East, and increased the difficulties at Antioch by siding against Meletius in favor of Pau- Schtsm in J o o Antiock, linus. Both of these Bishops, however, were in exile A.D. 378. at the time. When they returned, on the death of Valens, Meletius proposed that they should occupy together the Episcopal chair, 3 ® and whichever died first the survivor should be his successor. But Paulinus would not act without consult- ing Damasus, and the friendly proposition seems to have been rejected. 30 Which of the two was canonically elected is still sub Hie, though the evidence extant favors Damasus. Ammianus attributes the quarrel to the pride and luxury in which the Roman Bishops lived — a luxury, he remarks, more than hnperial. Ammian. xxvii. To the same effect is the famous speech of Praetextatus (a pagan of high rank) to Pope Damasus : “ Make me Bishop of Rome, and I will turn Christian.” Tillemont, iii. 2. 3 * S. Hieronym. Op. tom. iv. Epistoll. 15, 16. 32 The speech of Meletius on this occasion was worthy of the saintly character universally attributed to him. Theod. v. 3. Times of Valens : Sects and Schisms. 45 3 It was about four years later that S. Jerome took up his abode in Rome, and devoted himself to labors by which the power of that see was in the end most wonderfully ^ j^rome strengthened. A Dalmatian by birth, a Syrian monk by education, he was a powerful promoter of the ascetic and monastic life. Finding ordinary severities to fail in subduing the heat of his nature, he had given much time to the study of Hebrew, and was a Biblical scholar and interpreter of the highest order. His austerity of character caused him to be hated by the heathen of Rome, and not much beloved by the Christians. With the devout and noble women, how- Ascetic ever, the Paulas, Fabiolas, Marcellas, he was an oracle and almost an idol, teaching them to adorn the pride of vir- ginity with the pride of learning, and encouraging them in severities unsuited to the sex or to the state of public opinion. Paula, a noble widow, and her daughters Eustochium and Bles- illa, were among his disciples. Blesilla, brought to the Death of verge of the grave by a fever, adopted a course of ^lestiia. fasting which soon put an end to her existence. The Romans regarded this as little better than religious suicide ; and, on the death of Damasus, his patron, Jerome was obliged to leave the city. The fruits of asceticism which had proved too sour for Roman taste at that time were afterwards matured in the more congenial air of the East: in a different state of things, with the growth of new wants in the Church, and with the develop- ment of monasticism in a form more obviously useful, they were found more acceptable to the Western mind, and may be counted among the chief elements of the growth of Latin Christianity. 454 History *of the Church. CHAPTER X. S. BASIL AND S. GREGORY. Amid the difficulties described in the previous chapter the cause of orthodoxy was sustained in the East, first of all by S. . Athanasius, and after him mainly by S. Basil of Cse- ChdfftptOH^ sarea in Cappadocia; by S. Gregory of Nyssa, his brother ; by S. Gregory of Nazianzus, surnamed the Theologian, his bosom friend, and by that true knight-errant of the faith who went about ordaining Bishops wherever he could place them, Eusebius* of Samosata. Of these, the two friends Basil and Nazianzen are remarkable examples of the spirit and temper in which the trials of the age were met. Basil was a man of genius and a scholar, among the fore- most of the Fathers in eloquence, learning, and devotion to the ^ cause of Christ.* The Emperor Julian, who knew and Julian, ^t Athens, attempted on his accession to draw him to the Court. But his overtures were rejected ; and a sharp correspondence ensuing between the two,^ the Saint was in some danger of suffering for his temerity. Indeed it was thought the tyrant spared him only as Cyclops spared Ulysses, that the pains of death might be embittered by the torture of a long suspense. In the meanwhile Caesarea, where he labored as a Presbyter, a capital of no little importance in Church and State, once the Casarea home of Gregory Thaumaturgus, and in course of time Punished. centre of some fifty suffragan sees, had fallen un- der the particular displeasure of Julian, and was paying the penr * Theod. ii. 32; iv. 14; v. 4. *Sozom. vi. 15-17; Socrat. iv. 26; Theod. iv. 19. 3 S. Basil. Epistoll. 39-41. S. Basil and S. Gregory. 455 alty of its zeal against idolatry in the forfeiture of its name and place as a city, and in heavy fines imposed upon its principal inhabitants. It was in danger of suffering still more from the excitement of an episcopal election. The See being vacant, party spirit ran so high that for awhile no choice could be made.^ ^ At length. Eusebius, a sober layman, but as yet unbap- Eufaln tized, was called to the archiepiscopal chair by an in- stinct of the people; and the Bishops of the Province reluc- tantly ratified the choice and carried it into effect. Things turned out better than might have been expected. Eusebius Eusebius proved an earnest and sound-minded pastor. But from some cause or other, perhaps from the inability of a rude hand to handle a tool so finely edged, the Bishop was not on good terms with his able Presbyter: there was a Two Basil party and a party of Eusebius ; and a bad breach Parties. would have ensued, had not Basil retired into the wilderness, betaking himself, like Hagar, to the society of good angels and good thoughts. He retired to the wilderness, but by no means to a desert. The spirit that led the first monks to choose the most BasiPs dreary spots, for greater convenience of combating the demons, was now giving way to a more genial and practical turn of mind. Basil’s retreat was a charming mountain home, inhabited by one upon whom none of its charms were lost.^ There, in company with his friend Nazianzen who was per- suaded after a while to share his rest, he prayed and mused and studied ; making laws at the same time for the communities of monks which soon began to look to him as their ablest Monastic leader. His lessons infused a new spirit into the Cen- obites. Among other good things, he taught them the spiritual This disturbance led Nazianzen to wish that the right of election might be taken from the people : such matters, he thought, were managed better in the State than in the Church. Or at, xix. in Fun. Patris. 5 S. Basil. Epistol. xiv. etc. ; S. Greg. Nazianz. Epist. vii. etc. The en- thusiasm of Basil in his descriptions of natural scenery is finely set off by the 456 History of the Church. beauty of agriculture no fruit so bitter that care will not im- prove it, no soil so sterile that it cannot be reclaimed, no heart TXT., so wicked that one need despair of it. With the derntss Same instiuct for the useful, he made the wilderness to blooms, i • 1 • • bloom with noble charities. His preaching circuits ex- tended through the whole country round about ; and wherever he preached, societies sprang up for benevolence or devotion, hospitals were endowed, while, by the training of skilled choirs, the dull hearts of the Pontic peasantry were made to laugh and sing. The necessities of the times recalled him to Caesarea, where he was reconciled to his Bishop and became his successor. This Basil was not effected without opposition : there being a ^fhop, great party against him, and the Saint himself plead- A.D. 370. illness, inability, constitutional infirmity, and the like; to all which the staunch old Gregory Nazianzen,^ the father of Basil's friend, replied that they wanted a Bishop, not a prize-fighter, and that God was able to convert weakness into strength. He was finally elected ; and from that day his labors, cares, and trials went on in a line of fearful accumulation. He had been almost broken down before he came to the Episcopate, by distresses among the people of Caesarea : storms. Sufferings famines, had raged through Cappadocia, and upon Basil had devolved the labor of unlocking the hearts of the rich and filling the mouths of the clamorous poor. This was to plough in hard ground and to sow in stony places : there sprang from it, nevertheless, not im- Coesarea, broad humor of Nazianzen, who — though really much more of a poet — de- lights to throw cold water on the ardor of his friend. ^ In Hexaem. Horn. v. Basil also recommends carpentry, shoemaking, medicine, etc. Lib, ReguL xxxviii. Iv. 7 The elder Gregory, whose praises with those of his devout wife are eloquently given by his son, was originally a member of the Hypsisterian sect — a sort of half Jewish, half heathen, society, “worshippers of the Most High*’ — and after coming into the Church had to work his way up to the truth through Arianism. Oral. xix. in Fun. Patris, S. Basil and S. Gregory. 457 S. Basil and the Emperor. mediate relief merely, but hospitals, monastic associations which now began to flourish in the atmosphere of cities, and other like provisions for the sick® and needy. S. Basil was more than once persecuted by the Emperor and his ministers. Especially, on one occasion, when a widow claimed the right of sanctuary in the Church against the tyrannical wooing of Eusebius, an uncle of the Empress, he felt bound to maintain her cause at the peril of his life. But to a man of disciplined courage, and who had moreover a thorn in his side in the shape of ‘‘a trouble- some liver,’’ trials of this kind were comparatively easy. Nor could he be subdued by the promise of favor at court. When the Emperor, on a visit to Caesarea, attended Church during the solemn services of the Epiphany, and went up to make his offering in view of a dense congregation, not a hand was stretched out to receive his gift : the master of the world stood before the Altar and the Archbishop an impenitent sinner, and as such had no right to offer. The spirit displayed on this and like occasions was (humanly speaking) the best safeguard against a tyrant such as Valens. A severer trial was the factious spirit which reigned in Cae- sarea, and the captious, ungenerous, and suspicious Trials temper that controversy had engendered among the Clergy. The Archbishop’s mind was fruitful of new plans for aiding or exciting the devotions of the people. He was a patron of monarchism ; he was great in special services, in psalmody, in vigils, in the ‘‘ decencies of the Altar.” Hence no little stir among those whose traditions dated back Murmurs to ‘‘the good old times” of Gregory the Wonder- aud False worker, and who conveniently forgot that their Saint had himself been an innovator of the liveliest kind. The Bishops, in like manner, took frequent exceptions to his doc- trine. Bred in the school of Origen, familiar with the difficul- ® His compassionate spirit was remarkably shown in his building a hos- pital for lepers. 20 458 History of the Church. ties of thoughtful Semiarians, and anxious to conciliate all hon- est differences, he was in his theology too lax for some, too strict for others, too broad and philosophic for almost all. Hence attacks so numerous and calumnies so petty and spiteful, that he was tempted to say, with the Psalmist, All men are liars ^ and to doubt whether honesty and charity had not taken their flight from the earth. But in the deep and tranquil soul of the great Athanasius he found a ready and cordial appreciation. When some one wrote to the noble Alexandrian, complaining of Basil’s ‘^Macedonian tendencies,” he told the doubters to put away their fears and thank God for having given them so Pride of glorious” a Bishop.^ The Churchmen of the West, the West, contrary, were among the chief plagues of his life. They either held aloof in a “supercilious” spirit,*® or, as in the case of the schism in Antioch, interfered in a mischiev- ous and arbitrary way. It was not in Basil’s nature to bear these things with serenity. But bear them he did, however: and though his hair grew gray in the struggle, and his very heart bled, he had the Divine gift of extracting from his own wounds** a balm for the wounds of others. His friend Nazianzen aided him in his labors, but added to his trials. For it so happened that to secure the services of so able a coadjutor, and perhaps to draw him away from the retire- Gregory ment wliich he loved, Basil appointed him — a shep- Nazianzen. without sheep — Bishop of a little border town called Sasima : a wretched sort of place,*"* without water, without verdure, full of dust and noise, a roost rather than an 9 S. Athanas. ad Pallad. Op. ii. p. 763. He bitterly complained of dvTiK^g b(f>pvog — the superciliousness of the Westerns — ‘‘ who neither knew the truth nor would bear to learn it.” EpistoL X. ad Greg. Theolog. ** His Epistles are admirable specimens of consolatory writings — eloquent and full of heart. *2 Under a mortified exterior Nazianzen had a strong sense of humor. For which reason, while I give his story as he relates it, I am not disposed to take his complaints to the letter. Like a good-natured traveller, he liked to S. Basil and S. Gregory. 459 abode of a vagabond population of carriers, smugglers and revenue officers. Gregory felt the unkindness of his friend in consigning him to such a den, and there fell a shade of misun- derstanding upon one of the noblest and most delightful of Christian friendships. Basil's motive in this has never been satisfactorily explained. It may have been, that hu proper knowing his friend's mind to be luminous rather than ministrative, theological rather than episcopal, he thought to give him the dignity of the Bishopric without burdening him with its pomps and cares : a candle, to give light, must be set upon a candlestick, but it is not necessary that the candlestick should be of gold. However this may be, Sasima profited little by the Nazian- zen luminary, and the world gained much. Driven from the place by its thriftless population, he retired to Nazi- Gregory anzus, where he assisted his father so long as the latter lived, and after his death continued to discharge the duties of the Episcopate without formally accepting them. Thence, for some reason not known, he withdrew to Seleucia in Isauria, where he lived awhile the life of a solitary, confidently predict- ing*^ and quietly awaiting the time when heresy should be obliged to creep back into its holes. In the meantime Athanasius the Great had been summoned to his rest, and the iron rod of Arianism had fallen once more upon the people of Alexandria : a heretic dies^ named Lucius*^ renewed the evil times of George ; the * ’ orthodox Clergy, with Peter, their elected Bishop, were driven into exile. In the West, Ambrose had been chosen to the great See of have his joke about the discomforts of the way, though in reality he cared little for them. His complaints of Basil especially are relieved by gushes of generous praise. See his poem, De Vita Carmina, 30. *3 Sasima was in dispute between Basil and a neighboring Metropolitan : this, however, was no good reason for sending Gregory there. Epistles to S, Greg. Nyssen. xxxv. xxxvi. cxlii. * 5 Theod. iv. 21. 22. 460 History of the Church. Milan in place of the Arian Auxentius, deceased. He was a Ambrose ^-t the time of his election; and, being "^Bhhop of Liguria, was actually engaged in quelling Mi/an, a riot brought on by the zeal of rival factions, when of a sudden a child^s voice was heard crying, ‘‘Am- brose Bishop 1 ’ * The people took up the cry, and the popular magistrate pleaded in vain his moral and spiritual unfitness for the office ; even flight could not save him : the only terms he could make were that he should be baptized and ordained by an orthodox prelate. Milan was thus recovered to the Nicene faith, and S. Basil, among others, was profuse of congratu- lations. Shortly after this event, Valentinian, whose reign had been Gratian ^ pcrpetual struggle against the Alemanni and other Emperor^ barbarians of the North, died suddenly in a fit of rage at the ambassadors of the Quadi ; and Gratian, with Valentinian II., an infant four years old, became sovereign of Vaiensand ^^st. Finally, Valcns perished in war against the Basil die, Gotlis ; Gratian, now master of the world, proclaimed toleration to all sects, except the Manichaeans, Pho- tinians, and Eunomians ; Peter returned to Alexandria, Meletius Exiles to Antioch, and other exiles to other places ; and restored. towards the end of the same year Basil the Great, having lived to see a gleam of temporal prosperity, was taken to a better and more enduring rest. The change in the political sky drew Gregory once more from his retirement ; and by a strange guidance of Providence, Gregory in which the chief human agency was probably the New Rome. Qf g Basil and other orthodox Bishops, his steps were directed towards Constantinople, with the view of gathering and rekindling the few sparks of faith which survived in that city among the ashes of worldliness, heresy, and rampant persecution ; for things had not altered for the better A.D. 360-370. in the Eastern capital. Macedonius had been de- posed, but Eudoxius had succeeded : Eudoxius had died, but Demophilus, at whose instigation eighty ecclesiastics had been •S. Basil and S. Gregory, 461 put to death by Valens, came into his place. It was the old succession of the palmer-worm, the locust, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar. Churches were robbed, private property con- fiscated, the very tombs despoiled. The noble Church of S. Sophia had become a citadel of Satan, a camping-ground of demons. The men of the city were but Ahabs, the women were little better than frantic Jezebels.*^ Into such a scene, gilded but not refined by courtly main- ners, there entered a lone stranger, bent with age and wasted by ^disease, bald-headed, decrepit, ill-favored, and The worse clad, rude*^ in speech, awkward in his address, and as indifferently provided with money as with wings. It was Gregory, just beginning the work of the Anastasia the prophet who was about to call dead Faith from its tomb, and to revive in a luxurious city the works of charity and self-denial. His success in the undertaking was truly wonderful. By prayers and tears ; by untiring labors ; by admirable discourses The in which his proper gift appeared, entitling him to the name of the Theologian not by miracles,^ and cer- tainly not by flattery — for his tongue fell upon social follies with the emphasis of an iron flail ; more than all, perhaps, by sys- tematized efforts, men and women of all classes helping in the work : he gathered about himself all that was good in Constan- I condense, and soften^ the description given by Nazianzen. Orat. xlviii. *7 Rude in the sense of rustic or provincial ; for in other respects he was extremely eloquent. His descriptions of himself are collected in Tillemont, ix. 2, xlvi. *^The Resurrection or Revival — the name of the little church where Gregory’s flock met. *9 Gregory the Presbyter, who wrote a life of S. Gregoiy Nazianzen, notices that to him alone, after S. John, was the name Theologian given. “ Gregory cultivated eloquence, he declared, because he had not, like the Apostles, the gift of miracles. The arguments with which Tillemont com- bats this disclaimer of miraculous powers are not convincing. It is easy to believe, however, that in the excitement of such a Revival there were ‘‘ dreams, visions,” etc., as affirmed by Sozomen, vii. 5. 462 History of the Church. tinople ; and the little Anastasia bloomed, and the spiritual bees swarmed,®* till there was no place to receive them, around the eloquent and saintly pastor. He stood, in fact, as the champion of the Divinity of the Defence of Holy Spirit:®® and a sublime consciousness of the the spirit, pQ^gj. presence of the Paraclete was the animat- ing principle of all his efforts. In all this he was befriended by the new Emperor Theo- dosius, to whom Gratian had committed the sovereignty of the Theodosius^ East, and who, like his Western colleague, favored*the A.D. 379. Homoousion. In turn, he befriended the Emperor, and saved him from the guilt of violent persecution. Gregory had been more than once ill-treated by the dominant faction in the city : once he had been stoned, once cast into prison; once he narrowly escaped the knife of an assassin. But he bore no malice. It was his glory to conquer by patience and works of kindness. He was therefore in no haste to avail himself of the Churches help of the secular arm. But Theodosius regarded it YoihV^ as a matter of simple justice that the Catholics should Orthodox, restored to the churches from which they had been forty years exiled, and should be put in possession of the prop- erty of which they had been robbed. This accordingly was done. The Arians went out, and the Catholics came in. De- mophilus shook off the dust from his feet against the city®^ and pitched his tent in the suburbs. Gregory reigned supreme in Constantinople. It was a reign, however, in which he could still feel the quaking of the buried giant’s limbs ;®^ while occa- sional ‘‘rumblings from beneath, with jets of hot smoke and flame,” were a wholesome reminder to him of the precarious- ness of his triumph. See his affectionate poetical tribute to the Anastasia. Insomnium de Anastas. Templo. 22 To this he attributes all his success as a preacher. Carm. de Vit. 79-92; Insomn. de An. Temp. ^sSozom. vii. 5. 24 Gregory carries out the figure of Enceladm with humor and vigor. De Vit. Carm. 102. Theodosius a 7 id Second General Council. 463 CHAPTER XI. THEODOSIUS AND THE SECOND GENERAL COUNCIL. Theodosius, a Spaniard by birth, was of an orthodox family, and had been brought up to reverence the Nicene Faith. A vision," it is said, confirmed him in his convictions. Faith of On receiving his appointment to the sovereignty of the East, the reward of a great victory over the Goths, in which he had avenged the defeat of Valens, he informed himself of the belief of the majority of his subjects; and finding that Arianism was divided and distracted, having no solid hold upon the mass of people, he determined, if possible, to bring all back to the old way of thinking : so he restored the faithful to their rights in Constantinople, denied the name ‘‘Catholic** to all dissenters, and issued a general edict in favor of “ the doctrine taught by Damasus of Rome** against Ursicinus, “and by Peter of Alexandria** against the Arian Lucius. His zeal is said to have been strengthened by an eccentric act of an aged orthodox Bishop. Coming into the Emperor* s presence when the prince, his son, was sitting on a throne beside him, the old man reverently saluted the how father but treated the son with neglect. He was forth- with driven from the presence-chamber. As he retired, he had time for a vigorous home-thrust at the offended monarch : “ Reflect, O Emperor, on the wrath of the Heavenly Father at those who decline to honor His Son, who regard Him as of an inferior nature ! * * The argument answered its purpose. Theo- * Theod. V. 5, 6 ; Sozom. vii. 4, 6. 464 History of the Church. dosius became so decided in his faith, that the eloquent Eu- nomius, the most able of the Arian leaders, could not even obtain the boon of a hearing from him. In order to bring his subjects to a similar firmness in the faith, and with a view to the settlement of certain minor ques- Couftcii proceeded to assemble in Constantinople assembled, that great Synod of Eastern Bishops which is known in history as the Second Ecumenical Council.* Pre- lates to the number of one hundred and fifty were present, in- cluding those of Egypt and Macedonia, who were somewhat late in appearing. There were also thirty followers of Macedonius, who met apart, however, and steadfastly refused to be recon- ciled. The first business before the Synod related to the See of Constantinople, which was virtually held by Gregory, but was Its first contested by an Egyptian of the name of Maximus, Business. iHost remarkable pretenders of the age. His story, vividly related by Nazianzen, may serve as a sam- ple of the scandals^ to which the Church at that time was exposed. About a year after Gregory’s arrival in the Eastern capital, there had come to him a man wearing the white robe of a Maximus Cyiiic, with the staff usually borne by philosophers of the Cyme. enomious head of hair naturally black, but dyed a brilliant golden red.^ It was Maximus the Egyptian, a Christian philosopher, a staunch Confessor, an im- perturbable man of a certain ‘‘whale-like” gravity ^ of face and Gregory manner. Gregory, like others, became a willing dupe deceived. such pretensious. It was “ a great fish” come to his net ; and if the aspect of the man was somewhat unchris- tian-like, the Saint was so accustomed to look for wolves in ^Sozom. vii. 7-1 1; Socrat. v. 5-9; Theod. v. 8, 9; S. Greg. Theolog. Carm. de Vit., etc. 3 Gregory says, there was never a better subject for comedy. Carm. 61. ^ S. Greg. Carm. de Vil. 50. 5 atjiuvov Trfjna Krjrudeg repag. Theodosius and Second General Council. 465 sheep’s clothing, that when one came before him in its proper skin^ it threw him off his guard. The end of it was that Max- imus seemed devoted to Nazianzen, and Nazianzen to him ; the Cynic feigned to be enraptured with the beauty of the Saint’s discourses, the Saint lauded the Cynic publicly in Church as a man of extraordinary merit : the two were inseparable — one house, one table, one line of meditation and study, one sacred purpose in life. Such was the state of things in Constantinople. In the meantime a most ingenious train had been laid among the Clergy of the rival city of Alexandria. By the arts of Max- imus and (as Gregory insinuates) not without the use piotof of gold, Peter, the Bishop of that See, had been per- suaded that New Rome was much in need of a spiritual head ; that Gregory was hardly the man for the place, being rustic in his manners, infirm, impracticable, eccentric,^ and liable to exception moreover on canonical grounds;^ that there was a certain Christian Sage on the spot whose praise was in the Churches, having been trumpeted by no less a person than the saintly Gregory himself ; that, in short, it would be an excel- lent thing, and might prevent confusion, if an able prelate could be quietly installed in so important a See before the people should have time to make a noise about it. Peter readily lent himself to these or such-like views. The canonical number of Bishops was secretly sent from The Cynic Alexandria to Constantinople ; a congregation, con- sisting chiefly of Egyptian mariners, stealthily assembled in the principal Church by night ; and everything was in readiness to ^“It is true,** said Gregory, in his apology for Maximus {Orat. xxiii.), “ that he practices our philosophy under a strange garb ; still that (the white robe, namely) may be taken as a sign of purity of soul. He is a Cynic (/. e., a dog) only in boldness of utterance, in living from day to day, in vigilance for souls, in fawning upon virtue, and in barking at vice.” 7 Gregory says {^Orat, xxxii.) that he could not walk in other men's stepSy that he was regarded as a sort of insane DemocrituSy etc., etc. ® Translations ‘‘from one city to another’* were forbidden by Canon 15 of Nicaea and by Apostol. Can. 14. 20 ' 466 History of the Church. set Maximus, hair and all,^ upon the archiepiscopal throne. The thing leaked out, and the city was instantaneously in the wildest uproar. High and low, magistrates, people, strangers, even heretics rushed to the rescue : the officiating prelates were obliged to break off the rite, and the plot of Maximus seemed for the time defeated. It was renewed, however, in the house of a flute-player. In spite of all opposition the philosopher was ordained and carried through some form of inthronization : a sacrifice being made to public opinion in this respect only, that he was obliged to submit to the inexorable tonsure, and thus part with his fine head of hair. The wretch was driven from Constantinople, and found no jjeis favor with the Emperor, to whom he had the face to rejected, appeal. He was also abandoned after awhile, though with some reluctance, by the Alexandrine Clergy and others of his supporters. He fared no better when his case came up before the Synod at Constantinople. He. was unanimously condemned by a de- Maxtmus cree, that ‘‘he neither had been nor was a Bishop**; and “all things which had been done, either about enthroned, were declared to be “ null and void.** At the same time Gregory, who had repeatedly declined to seat himself in the archiepiscopal chair, though urgently pressed by the people and the Emperor, was at length forced to yield to the wishes of his colleagues, and being duly enthroned presided for awhile in the Council. Gregory acceded the more readily to this transaction, that Second he hoped to be able to harmonize parties in the next Question, question before them, the schism in the Church of Antioch. Meletius, the sober and gentle pastor of that distracted flock, a man “whose manners and name savored both of honey,** had died shortly after the opening of the Council; and the way 9 He wished, it appears, to dispense with the tonsure : whereupon S. Gregory rallies him not a little. Carm. 64. Theodosius and Second General Council. 467 Sch 'sm in A ntioch. seemed clear for a satisfactory settlement, by allowing Paulinus, in compliance with an agreement which Meletius himself had suggested,*® to occupy at once the vacant chair. But opposed to this equitable arrangement was a strong and bitter feeling, on the part of the Eastern Clergy, parties in against that meddlesome spirit of the West which had originally ordained and had so long sustained Paulinus. The old men of' the Synod were, like Gregory, in favor of peace; but at every proposition to that effect the young men” flew out *Mike wasps” — a “whirlwind of dust and noise” — and car- ried all before them by their “jackdaw clamor.” In short, it was determined that Paulinus should be dropped, Flavian and that a new Bishop should be ordained for An- tioch. So Flavian was duly elected, and the schism continued for some years longer. What was worse, a feeling was engendered which upset the former decision of the Council and proved fatal to the influence of Nazianzen. Instead of standing, as he proposed, “a leader between two bands, now facing the one, and now the other, and blending the two into a perfect choir,” he was rather as one crushed between two millstones: the nether stone being the strong Eastern feeling against Movement against Gregory. At the opening of the Council, Meletius presided. When he returned from exile, after the death of Valens, he made the following noble speech to Paulinus : ** As God committed to me the care of this flock, and as you have received the charge of another, . ... let uSf O friend, untie our flocks. If the Episcopal chair be to us a matter of strife, let us place the Holy Gospels upon it, and seat ourselves one on each side. If I die first, you, O friend, will become sole ruler of the flock : but if your death occur before mine, I will, as far as I am able, tend the flock alone.” Theodoret (v. 3) declares that the amicable proposal was rejected by Paulinus ; Sozomen implies (vii. ii) that a compact had been made and confirmed by oath. It is a strong tes- timony to the merits of Meletius, that even the West, which persecuted him while living, consented finally to his canonization. De Vit. Carm. 137. The “young men” argued that the East ought to have the preeminence, because our Lord was born in the East : as good an argument, perhaps, as some that have been advanced on the opposite side. 468 History of the Church. Western pride/* and the upper coming not long after in the shape of the Egyptian deputation, which, for reasons already intimated, and possibly from some secret grudge, unanimously demanded his deposition. He resolved to be ‘‘the Jonah** of He rest ns Strange storm. With tears he implored the Coun- cil to unbind him from the altar on which he lay ; with earnest prayers he begged the Lord to “ provide a ram in Isaac* s stead,** for the holocaust of an Episcopate so bes€t with fiery trials. The Egyptians applauded, the others acquiesced. Greg- Nectarius ory was permitted to retire; and Nectarius,*"* a good- eiected, naturcd layman of excellent birth, being duly elected, baptized, and carried through the inferior Orders, was conse- crated and seated upon the vacant throne. The generous sacrifice was not without effect upon the re- maining acts of the Council. In bodies of that kind party spirit is apt to run high at first ; for the members The Council . . , hartno- being Comparatively unknown to one another, and mutually suspicious, the law of self-assertion overrides all others and reigns for awhile supreme. But an unselfish act breaks the force of this law, and makes men aware of their common kin. In this way we may account for the fact that the Second General Council was happier in its issue than they had reason to expect*^ who looked only at the clouds of its inauspicious beginning. First : It settled and completed the Nicene Creed, by add- The Creed rather by compiling from the numerous ortho- settied. symbols, such expressions as were needed to make it a full Rule of Faith, condemning the Photinian, Macedonian, Apollinarian, Eunomian, and other heresies. ** It was under this Nectarius that private confession — which had taken the place of the old public confession — was abolished, owing to a scandal that occurred in connection with a female penitent. Sozom. viii. i6. *3 The famous saying of Nazianzen, that he never knew any good to come of Councils^ is obviously a fruit of his impatience, rather than of his experi- ence. Epistol. xlii. Procopio. M The additions may be thus expressed in italics : “ We believe in one Theodosius and Second General Council. 469 Secondly ; It made four canons, to which three were added the year after ; the first anathematizing the chief heresies, the fourth condemning Maximus, the third giving the The second place of honor to the See of Constantinople or Canons, New Rome, and the second defining the limits and rights of Dioceses, and forbidding all Bishops to exercise their office out of their own jurisdiction. The numerous cases of interference that had occurred of late rendered this second Canon particu- larly necessary. Thirdly : It communicated the result of its deliberations to the Emperor, in a Synodical Epistle, thanking God synodicai for all that had been done, and asking the Imperial sanction. The Western Church was not represented in the Council, and was not satisfied with the result, either in reference to God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible : And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, Begotten of the Father before all worlds ; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, Begotten, not made. Being of one substance with the Father; By whom all things were made; Who, for us men, and for our sal- vation, came down from Heaven^ And was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary^ And was made man. And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried ; And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures ; And ascended into the heavens. And sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And He shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead ; Whose kingdom shall have no end. And we believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, the Life-Giver, Who proceedeth from the Father [and the Son], Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified. Who spake by the Prophets. And we believe in One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. We acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins ; And we look for the Resurrection of the dead. And the Life of the world to come. Amen.'^ The sources of these additions are concisely given in Hammond’s Councils and Canons ; also in Bright’s Hist, of the Church, p. 1 75. The omission of Holy” as one of the notes of the Church in our Prayer Book version is probably a lapse of some translator : the same error occurs in an old Latin version of the Concilia, etc. Colon. I 5 ^ 7 » tom. i. p. 489. The words “and the Son” were a later insertion of the Western Church. 470 History of the Church. Paulinus, whose cause they continued to maintain ; to Maximus, Council, how^^om. they took up but soon had to drop, or to the received. ^onor of a second place in the hierarchy conferred on Constantinople. These things were complained of by a West- ern Council holden the same year at Aquileia ; and it was pro- posed by Damasus, Ambrose, and other Italian Bishops, that a new general Synod should convene at Rome. The East, it was contended, ought not to have acted without consulting the West. While the latter assumed to itself no prerogative of judgment, it was entitled to be heard, at least, before a decision was reached. The Easterns, in answer, politely A.D. 382. they had ‘‘ wings like a dove to flee to the side of their Western brethren,” but felt obliged, nevertheless, to decline the summons : partly that they saw nothing to amend in the action already taken, and partly on the ground of the great inconvenience to themselves and their flocks of absence Finally from their Sees at a time so critical. The dispute affroved. gradually died out of itself ; and the Council acquired finally an ecumenical character by the acquiescence of all parties in the soundness and wisdom of its theological decisions. Gregory, the meanwhile, had bidden a tender adieu to his beloved flock ; to his throne, the cause of so many troubles ; to Gregory's sweet Anastasia, the resplendent S. Sophia ; to the Farewell, d^j-gy^ Monks, widows, Orphans, poor ; to the choral Nazarites enlivening the night-watches with their psalms and hymns ; to the Emperor and all his court ; to the heretics, whom he exhorted to be converted ; to the East and West, the upper and lower millstones of his tribulations; to the Holy Apostles, the Guardian Angels, the blessed and adorable Trin- ity.*^ “I have toiled in this place,” said he : I have gath- ered a flock where the wolves had scattered ; I have given the water of life where water failed ; I have sown the seeds of that faith which is built upon God Himself; I have revealed the ‘S S. Ambros. Ep. 13, 14. *^Theod. v. 9. *7 S. Greg. Theolog. Oral. xlii. Theodosius and Second General Council. 47 1 light of the Trinity to those who before were in baleful darkness. Some have been converted by my preaching. Others are not far off. I have reason to hope well of those who at first were unwilling to hearken to me My beloved children, keep the good trust committed to you : remember the stones where- with I have been stoned.” With such words he departed from the scene of his great joys and trials, withdrawing to the life of a recluse in Nazianzus; where he wrote poems and letters and an autobiog- Li/e of a raphy in lively verse where also he made the dis- Recluse, covery, so often made before and since, that the world is not confined to Constantinople ; that though a man may seal his eyes,^9 his ears, his mouth, and pass whole Lents in unbroken silence, yet the buzz of the great Babylon is about him still ; and while his heart is striving to entertain angels, Sodom is still battering at its doors and windows. Theodosius^ was much better pleased with the action and result of the General Council. At a third Synod, holden two years later in Constantinople, he undertook, like ^ ^ Constantine, to play the part of a theologian and to o/ the Sects, reconcile all sects by an open and free discussion. The result was a Babel of angry tongues. But the oral debate failing to produce agreement, the Emperor next required each sect to appear before him with a written statement of its peculiar tenets. They did so ; the Confessions of Faith were Heresies submitted to the imperial arbiter ; the Novatians and forbidden. Catholics were approved all the others were rejected and were He wrote poetry by way of penance : there remain some thirty thou- sand verses — a mine of good sense, sparkling wit, apt similitudes, lively descriptions ; of wisdom in its playful as well as serious moods. *9 He passed a Lent in silence ; resolved never to look upon a woman, etc., etc. His reasons for bridling the tongue are given with much spirit in Carm. liv. So strong, however, was Gregory’s social feeling that he could not forbear writing to his friends, and even visiting them — appearing before them “ like a picture” — during his silent term. Socrat. V. 10; Sozom. vii. 12. ** The Novatians, like the Catholics, confessed the Consubstantial. 472 History of the Church. even forbidden to hold religious meetings. Catholicism became thus the State religion of the East. In the West there was temporary confusion from the influ- ence of Justina, the Arian widow of Valentinian I., at first in Emperors court of Gratian, and afterwards in that of Valen- ^ftheWett, tinian II. But Maximus, who rebelled against Gratian A.D. 383. wrested from him his life with the sovereignty of Britain, Spain, and Gaul, was favorable to the Church and the Nicene cause. Among the prelates, Damasus — assisted by the learning of S. Jerome and of Paulinus, the schismatical pre- tender to Antioch — upheld with great dignity, earnestness, and devotion the ever growing power of the Roman See ; on his death, he was succeeded by Siricius, the author of the A.D. 384. earliest genuine ‘decretal epistle.” S. Ambrose gov- erned in Milan : S. Martin of Tours converted the peasantry in Gaul. These latter names, however, are of special significance in the history of the Western Church, and will enter more at large into the remaining chapters of this Book. CHAPTER XII. MISSIONS. — MONASTICISM. — S. MARTIN. The life of the fourth century was largely polemical, and the Centity against Arian and pagan errors within the Empire Polemical, itself left little time or strength for purely mission- ary efforts. Still there was a steady advance in the conversion of the The world : partly from an inherent aggressiveness of the troubled Truth causing it to press in at every opening, partly from that wondrous ordering of Providence which made the decline of the Roman State a Bethesda, as it were Missions. 473 — a pool divinely troubled, that the nations one by one might be brought to it and healed of their barbarism. From Armenia, converted early in the century, the Gospel was conveyed by a female captive to the warlike nation of the Iberians,* a people dwelling about midway between conversion the Black Sea and the Caspian. It happened that a child in that country, being taken ill, was carried from house to house, according to a custom still common in barbarous tribes, ^o be benefited by the experience of the simple neighborhood. The Christian woman saw him, and prayed in the name of Christ for his recovery. The prayer was granted. Not long after, a similar cure was wrought in like manner upon the queen of the Iberians; and the king was almost persuaded to be a Christian. He hesitated, however, and was in great perplexity. The cloud upon his mind was dispelled by an event which de- livered him at the same time from bodily peril : for on a certain occasion, as he was hunting alone upon the mountains, a storm came on with a sudden darkness ; he bethought himself of Christ and prayed for light ; Christ gave him light, and he Prayer and his family believed. The people followed the example of their prince. An embassy was dispatched with the glad tidings to Constantine, who sent them a Bishop and com- pany of priests ; so that Iberia soon took a place among the Christian nations. From Osrhoene and Armenia the Truth flowed into Persia ;* but the religion of the Magi, a system strongly organized, and pure and elevated as compared ^ith paganism in gen- The Church eral, persecuted the Church with ruthless vigor, and more than sixteen thousand martyrs sealed their faith with their blood. Constantine wrote to Sapor in their behalf ; but the power of the Magi, the malignity of the Jews, and a national prejudice against the Gospel as the religion of their enemies the Rcfinans, kept the Persian Church, and with it the Arme- * Socrat. i. 20; Theod. i. 23. *Sozom. ii. 8-15; Theod. v. 38; Socrat. vii. 8, 18, 20. ^ 474 History of the Church. nian, in a state of depression. By the end of the fourth cen- tury it became aggressive again. A Bishop named Abdas ven- tured to burn a Fire- temple. This naturally awakened a new persecution; and the faithful were involved once more in a storm of indescribable horrors. The interior of India/ ^ by which is meant probably some portion of Abyssinia, was evangelized anew by Frumentius, a India or Christian captive, ^ who found favor with the chiefs of Abyssinia, country, led them to desire the Gospel, and after-^ wards, returning to his home in Egypt, begged S. Athanasius to send a Bishop among them. The Saint replied, with his usual readiness, Who better than you can remove the ignorance of this people?’* So he laid his hands on him and sent him back to the work. The Goths on both sides of the Danube^ had learned some- thing of Christianity in the latter half of the third century : for ^ , the flood of invasion which swept through Thrace into Asia Minor and thence back, in the times of Decius and his successors, carried with it the Gospel in that form in which it is often most effectual, so that the captors were led captive by the truth which they had persecuted. Constan- tine, by his victories and treaties, confirmed them in the faith ; and a Bishop of theirs, named Theophilus, attended the Coun- cil of Nicaea. At a later period, Valens allowed the same peo- ple to settle south of the Danube, as a bulwark of the Empire against the northern hordes, and a new field for the planting Bishof of Arianism. For it so happened that their Bishop, i/tjitas. Ulfilas, casting around in all quarters for help in his evangelic labors, fell in with Eudoxius and others of the Court party, and purchased their good-will at the price of a politic subscription to the Creed of Ariminum. He also gave his people an alphabet and a translation of the Scriptures. Chris- tianity thus spread among the Goths and other Barbariafis, in a 3 Socrat. i. 19 ; Theod. i. 23. ^Sozom. ii. 6; Socrat. i. 18; ii. 41 ; iv. 33; Theod. iv. 37. Missions. 475 form which fell short of the Nicene doctrine, ^ but could hardly be said to contradict it. Many of the converts were tried by persecutions: but ‘‘having embraced Christianity, with great simplicity of mind, they despised the present life for the faith of Christ.^' In the reign of the same Valens, Moses, a pious and honest monk, converted the Saracens,^ with Mabia their queen. These people were engaged at the time in a devastating war The against the Romans. They offered peace on the con- dition that Moses should be made their Bishop. The good monk accordingly was torn from his cell in the desert and car- ried to Alexandria, to be consecrated by Lucius, the Arian pre- late. But he refused to accept the laying on of such hands. “ Not for matters of faith do I object,*^ said he : “ it is for your infamous cruelty to the brethren. A Christian is no striker, no brawler, no fighter ; for it becometh not a servant of the Lord to fight. But your deeds cry out against you : your hands are stained with blood.** His scruples were respected, and he re- ceived ordination at the hands of some of the exiled orthodox Bishops. All these are instances rather of spontaneous growth than of missionary effort in the modern sense of the word. It „ . was the seed sowing itself : there was on the part of sowing the Church, however, a readiness to take advantage of such openings as Providence presented, and to send laborers to every spot in which the harvest seemed to have begun. In the West, the Empire was engaged in a desperate struggle for the borders of the Rhine and the Danube j and the struggle in spread of the Gospel fluctuated with the shifting for- tunes of aggression from the one side or the other along that line. Paganism, in fact, remained to be conquered within the EmpirS. Christianity was strong only in the cities : the rude 5 See the Creed in Socrat. ii. 41. ^ Socrat. iv. 36 ; Theod. iv. 23. 476 History of the Church. country folk, half slaves, half savages, clung with fond tenacity strength of to their old superstitions. And doubtless, at a time Paganism, ramparts of civilization were all giving way ; when, partly from the internal weakness of the Roman State, and partly from the steady pressure of invasion on every side, there seemed imminent peril of a relapse into barbarism ; they would have clung to their idolatry much longer than they did, had their conversion been left to the ordinary ministry, or to the methods which had grown out of the wants of a more pol- ished class. But precisely at this hour of need there was a mysterious revolution going on in society, which, according to the point Mona- of view taken, may be regarded as the height of wis- chtsm. height of insanity ; but which, in either case, was destined to exert an influence, equally incalculable and irresistible, upon the growth of the Church and the progress of the human race. By the end of the fourth century Monachism^ had already become a great power on the earth. It had all the freshness, confidence, and vitality of a special mission. It was the ‘‘rough garment,’* as it were, of the Gospel economical preached to the poor : it was Christianity adapted to the coarseness of rustic apprehension. In itself, in- deed, and in the fantastic exhibitions which accompanied its rise in the East, it seemed merely a new form of that sensuous enthusiasm, that many-headed dragon of the primitive Church, which developed in the second century into the Phrygian phrenzy : but in the course it ran for a thousand years or more, in the economical uses it was providentially made to subserve, it appears in history rather as Behemoth yoked to the Gospel car ; as Leviathan given to be “ meat for the people in the wil- 7 Socrat. iv. 23-26; Sozom. vi. 28-34; S. Pachom. Abb. Regul.y etc; S. P. N. Macarii ^gypt. Homil. ; J. Cassian. De Institut. CcBnob.^ Nilus Mo'fiach. Institut. y etc. For these and others see Bibliothec. Vet. Patruniy tomm. iv. v. ; S. Chrysostom, adv. Oppugnat. Vit. Monast. ; Epistles of S. Jerome, S. Basil, and others; Montalembert, Les Moines d Occident ; Giese- ler. U 95-97- Monasticism, 477 derness^’; as one of those Divine upturnings and unsettlings in the social state by which laborers are thrown out^ into the whitening harvest ; one of those disturhings^ of the house of the woman in the Parable, which are needed for the recovery of the lost ‘‘piece of silver'’; as, in short, a gigantic extravagance tamed and utilized, and mysteriously directed to a work which Religion, in a more sober mood, might never have undertaken. Enthusiasm doubtless was the inner spring of the movement ; but enthusiasm alone could hardly have sustained it, in a healthy state of society. A high civilization that had run to state of seed, a tree which had lost the power to hold its fruit Society, on the bough, a social condition in which “all things were turned upside down," which good men"° compared to a house on fire or a ship in the hands of a drunken crew, and amid all this an exquisite sensibility to sin and misery, caused whole com- munities to flow out into the desert wilds ; so that, not in Egypt alone, but in Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, the skin-clad tribes of “philosophers" were soon reck- oned by tens of thousands. The life of S. Antony" was a type of the general course of Monasticism. The feverish desire of “angelic" life, the sun- dering of all social ties, the battle in solitude with lusts and demons, the creation of a new and fantastic intellectual world — a world so remote from ordinary experience that its very language seems mythic and hieroglyphic" — finally, ^ Luke, X. 2 : oTrwf eKpaXkrj seems to imply a vigorous ejectment of the laborers — who, perhaps, are comfortably housed and taking their ease. 9 Luke, XV. 8; instead of everrit some of the fathers read evertit ; i. e.y the woman disturbs the house, turns it upside down, in search of the lost piece of silver. See Catena Aurea. TO u I wish there were no need of monasteries ; but when everything in society is turned upside down we ought not to find fault with those who escape such a miry and troublous sea, and take refuge in a peaceful haven.” S. Chrysostom, adv. Oppugnat. Vit. Monast. i. 7. “ See Book III. chap. vi. of this History. *2 At a certain stage of intellectual excitement, the mind, without losing its reverence for truth, becomes demoralized with regard to mere matters of 478 History of the Church. the multitude pouring forth into the wilderness ^Uo see** the phenomenon, and the anchoret forced into the world again as a prophet, preacher, and pioneer in a new line of Christian con- quest : all this was more or less exhibited in the career of An- tony, though its full significance was not seen for some ages after. The example, in all its extravagance, was followed by innu- merable imitators. Pachomius for fifteen years never slept but other in an upright posture ; Macarius the younger lived six Monks, months naked, in a marsh, to be stung by gnats; Theonas, a mighty scholar, observed for thirty years an unbroken silence. Yet amid these and thousands of such like whims, the spirit of order was reasserting itself ; the social instinct was re- turning under another form ; the wild den of the anchoret was becoming the nucleus of the cenobiuniy laura^ mandra^ or monas- tery, where men lived together as brothers,** under an Abbot or Archimandrite. Pachomius was the first of the solitaries who was called to be a ruler and legislator. On Tabenna, an island of the Nile, The he gave laws to a community of monks, which, with a Cenobtum, gj^ilar establishment for nuns, under the direction of his sister, numbered, by the end of the fourth century, some fifty thousand. Ammon was at the head of a similar society on the Nitrian mountain; another was planted by Macarius the elder in the wilderness of Sketis ; Serapion, with about one thousand brothers, in the neighborhood of Arsinoe, raised corn for the supply of the other monks, and for gratuitous distribu- tion among the poor ; Oxyrynchus swarmed with a population of ten thousand of the one sex, and twenty thousand of the other, devoted to the virgin, philosophic and angelic life. There were like communities springing up spontaneously, each with fact ; the imagination and the reason dissolve partnership, as it were, and move in separate spheres, the latter retaining its full strength in certain things, but exerting no controlling power upon the former. Such seems to me to have been the mental state of the early monks : a state in v/hich myths are manufactured without any intention to deceive. Monasticism. 479 Married Monks, its own code of laws and peculiar ways, all over the Eastern world. But as numbers increased, ‘‘the world found its way into these lesser worlds. Hence a process of separation going on continuously. Smaller societies drew off from the ^ ^ ' ^ A nchoretSy tainted air of the larger ones : and from these again ivatckers^ ° 111 others, the more fervid spirits seceded. The anchoret looked with pity upon the luxury of the cenobite ; the watchers^^ warred against sleep ; th^ grazers roved and ate grass like cattle ; finally, the pillar^saints gave a lead beyond which emulation could go no further. On the other hand, some combined monastic with social duties.*^ Though, as a general rule, “a monk out of the des- ert** was considered a “fish out of water,** yet city monks, and perhaps married monks, were not un- known. There were also hordes of wild beggars whose fanati- cism was hardly tinctured with any element of Christian doc- trine. The character of the better class of ascetics was often a sin- gular mixture of visionary enthusiasm and coarse and hard com- mon-sense. Ammon, a newly-wedded bridegroom, won his young bride to the “angelic** life by “des- canting upon the burdens and discomforts of rearing a family** ; yet the same Ammon would not swim a stream for fear of the “immodesty** of seeing his own body naked. Pambos took nineteen years to learn the meaning of the words, ‘ ‘ I will take heed to my ways, that I offend not with my tongue * * ; but it was the same Pambos who wept on seeing an actress, “be- cause,** said he, “I exert myself less to please my God than she to please filthy men.** Isidore, less diffident, declared that for forty years he had not been conscious of sin, even in thought. In many cases, however, the monks learned from their own experience that “bodily exercise** is Monastic IVisdom, Maxims, *3 These belong rather to the fifth century. See Evagrius, i. 21. * 4 Gieseler, J95, nn. 41-48. 480 History of the Church. not the only thing needful towards the perfection of Christian character. The ‘‘ dry diet/^ said one, ‘‘ must be combined with love.^^ The same judicious brother recommended ‘‘minister- ing to the sick^* as a better specific than fasting, even, against nightly visitations of ghosts and fiends. In short, amid all the extravagances of monastic life there was a “ philosophy ’ * that did honor to human nature : and oftentimes those who in their own practice had been most extreme,'^ were the most con- siderate and charitable in the rules they laid down for others. They found, in fact, that religious enthusiasm, like all other passions, needs to be restrained and guided.'® Hence manual Monastic labor, sometimes in the cells and sometimes in out- door employments, distinguished the better class of Egyptian monasteries. “A working monk has but a single devil to contend against, an idle one is torn by thousands.’’ A diet, not too abundant nor yet too spare, was a wise addition to this wholesome rule. There were regular hours, from twice to six times a day, for prayers : private vows were to “‘dart up” constantly, each breath was to be an “ ejaculation.” The times and manner of meals, of sleep, of recreation, were prescribed with the minuteness of military law, and enforced with the rigor of military drill. Thus the tendency to extrav- ufonEn- agancc was kept in check and if, in spite of all, thusiasm. ^ ^ r ^ 1 ^ r there were cases not a few of melancholy, frenzy, demoniacal possession, or even suicide, it is true, on the other hand, that the subjects of this discipline were not in general *5 S. Jerome, especially, profited by his experience in that way, and draws vivid pictures of the perils of asceticism. See Gieseler, §95, nn. ii, 28. The Homilies of S. Macarius are admirable persuasions to a sober, ra- tional, well-ordered piety : so much so that they have been accused of incul- cating religious apathy. But the most fervid monks were often moderate in their style of preaching. *7 Here, I think, is the essential difference between Christian and heathen Monachism. The tendency to solitary life being in itself a sort of fever — not a disease, but a violent effort of nature to throw off disease — heathenism lets the fever run ; Christianity controls it and turns it to some good account. Monasticism. 481 the most healthy minds, but oftener the mere wrecks and waifs*® of an effete civilization. The state of society and general turn of mind, which led so many to adopt the monastic life, made the system useful in a way that the first ascetics probably had never intended. special The oddities of the monks attracted attention. Their simplicity and benevolence and untutored tongues*^ won for them the favor of the common people. They thus became preachers against their will. At a time, moreover, when the ordinary style of the pulpit was too theolog- ical for heathen ears, the voice that was content to cry in the wilderness, that harped with strident force upon the elementary topics of temperancer, ighteousness, and judgment to come, had a peculiar charm for the mass of men ; and multitudes, not from the country merely, but from the cities and towns, eagerly poured forth to hear it. In the^ times of Valens, Monachism had grown so popular that it was objected to as a drain upon the resources of the State : which served as a pretext for persecution — the Valens real reason being the zeal of the monks for the Nicene pers cuus _ . , _ _ - , 1 1 . Monks. Faith. Many of them, therefore, were pressed into the army : those who refused were beaten to death with clubs. The usual effect of persecution followed. Enthusiasm soured into fanaticism. Hordes of heated zealots roved through the East, waging a predatory war upon paganism, and differing little in temper — however they might differ in creed — from those pests of the North African Church, the Circumcellions.^ Hence those Fathers who have left the darkest pictures of monastic life were, nevertheless, in their day, the chief promoters of it. And why ? Because, I think, they judged a monastery much as we judge a hospital. A retreat for the sick must have sick people in it ; and among them there will be some incurables. *9 S. Antony, for example, used to speak in the vernacular of the country : the Church, in general, knew only Greek. 20 It was probably a lively remembrance of the excesses of these fanatics which caused Monachism to be so dreaded and hated in the African Church. See Gieseler, \ 96, n. 14. 21 482 History of the Church. To S. Basil belongs the credit of utilizing the system to a greater extent than any one had done before him. He aimed s. Basics at a union of the contemplative life and the active, and by bringing the monks into closer relations with the city Clergy, he made useful missionaries of them among the heathen, and valuable auxiliaries in the war still waged upon the Arian heresy. As the movement advanced towards the West, it assumed more and more of this utilitarian character. There was a whole- Monachism some prejudice against its more fantastic features, with tn the ivest. great faith in its dreams and miracles. It secured a mighty advocate, however, in S. Athanasius, whose exile was shared by some Egyptian monks ; and, at a later date, in S. Jerome. The latter developed it in its harshest form,"" and was soon obliged to retire with his female followers into Palestine. S. Ambrose of Milan was equally zealous and more successful. The praise of virginity was ever on his tongue : the^ establish- ment of retreats for ascetics of either sex was his constant effort. But to win the cordial approbation of the Western mind it was necessary that Monachism should prove its mission : without ceasing to aspire after works of wonder, it had to show a capability for dealing with practical questions, for meeting, in fact, some one or other of the pressing wants of the times. Its position was secured in this respect, and a field was jfs opened in which for some centuries it labored almost Founder. chiefly by the efforts of S. Martin of Tours, the Apostle of the Gallic peasantry. This remarkable man,""* the son of a heathen soldier, born in Pannonia, and brought up in Italian Pavia, became a catechu- men at ten years of age, and at twelve had set his heart on the The culture of filth is one of the least pleasant features of ascetic life : yet a noble, refined, and educated woman, under the instruction of such a man as Jerome, could be brought to regard uncleanliness and squalor as a special merit. 22 His life is written in prose by Sulpicius Severus, the author of two books of Sacred History ; and in verse by Paulinus of Nola. S. Martin. 483 life of an anchoret : but being pressed into the army he served from his fifteenth to his twentieth year, having re- ^ Martin ceived, the meanwhile, the gift of baptism. It was ^ ^orn^ during this part of his career that he gave a famous proof of his goodness of heart by sharing his cloak with a beg- gar at the gate of Amiens. The next night he saw the Lord clothed in the half garment thus bestowed. Having left the army he indulged for many years his passion for the ascetic life. S. Hilary of Poitiers, his nearest friend, endeavored to entice him into Holy Orders, but he would accept no station in the Ministry higher than that of an Exorcist. In the persecution under Constantins he won the title of Confessor. Auxentius, the Arian Bishop, drove him forth from Milan. He betook himself to an island in the Tuscan Sea, where he „ ^ He founds founded a monastery ; afterwards, on the return of Monas^ Hilary from exile, he established another religious house in the neighborhood of Poitiers : the first examples of the kind in the Western Church, though the monastic rule of life had been introduced by S. Athanasius, and adopted by Eusebius of Vercellae and other prominent ecclesiastics. The reputation he had acquired for miracles and good works secured his election to the episcopate of Tours, in the eighth year of the reign of Valentinian and Valens. The ... 1 1 r. • Bishop people were unanimous in their choice, and the Saint, of Tours, being decoyed out of his cell by a summons to visit a ’ ’ sick woman, was seized and consecrated : some of the prelates, however, were shocked at his ‘‘vile mien, sordid garments, and unkempt hair,’* and he encountered at their hands a persistent opposition. Bad Bishops, *3 it is said, were the only bitter enemies he ever had. On becoming a Bishop he did not cease to be a monk : he lived at first in a cell attached to his Church, afterwards in a monastery not far from the city, where some eighty brethren, *3 The opposition between the normal and abnormal — between the reg- ular and irregular — between the old and the new — crops out continually in monastic history. 484 History of the Church. many of whom were of gentle blood, submitted to a rule which Ascetic (unlike that of the Eastern ascetics) excluded manual labor and left more time for prayer and study. Chosen companies of these went with him wherever he went : the Saint walking by himself, absorbed in prayer, the rest following in groups at a respectful distance. Cities he avoided as much as possible. He chose for himself a field where no Gospel laborer had been before him. For, as already intimated, the mission from Asia in the second century, and the large appoint- ment of Bishops under Roman auspices in the third, had evan- gelized only the towns and the upper classes in Gaul : the mass of the country people were ignorant, rude, and stubborn idol- aters. Among this class, then, the zealous Bishop labored ; going about from place to place with his devoted band, healing the New Field sick, it was Said, casting out devils, cleansing lepers 0/ Labor. ^ raising the dead, breaking up the shrines of demon-worship, preaching how ‘‘men should forsake the pres- ent life and give themselves wholly to the Lord Jesus Christ’’ : in short, impressing the rude minds of the peasantry^'^ with such a sense of Divine grace and power that he seemed in their eyes a living miracle, and consequently everything he did appeared miraculous. It is worthy of note, that one of the first exam- 24 Miracles are so interwoven into his life, that some mention of them seems necessary towards understanding the character of his influence. As to the reality of these wonders it may be observed, (i) that (on the showing of Sulpicius, Dialog, i. 18) they were credited only by the people and by men in foreign parts — the Clergy in Gaul were incredulous; (2) the monastic mode of life and the monastic mind was (on the showing of the same Sulpicius, De Vit. B. M. XXV.) visionary and credulous to an extraordinary degree ; (3) S. Martin was a miracle of benignity and goodness, and the impression he made upon his followers was perfectly overwhelming : see the rich gush of feeling with which Sulpicius describes it. De Vit. B. M xxvi. Allowing for these facts, we may perhaps explain the miracles of S. Martin, without impeaching the veracity of his biographer : at the same time, considering his peculiar mission, he may have had tokens of the Divine blessing and favor greater than our philosophy is ready to admit. 6 ". Martin. 485 pies of his zeal against superstition was occasioned by a Chris- tian, not a heathen, error. An altar near his monastery was much frequented, by reason of the relics of some ij^rar/are martyr supposed to be buried there. But as no one against Su- J ^ ^ ^ perstition. could tell the name of the martyr the Saint became sceptical and instituted a searching investigation. His doubts were settled by a vision. A ‘^grim and sordid shade'* arose from the consecrated spot, and announced itself the ghost of a robber executed for his crimes. The altar, of course, was removed, and ‘‘ the people were freed from the error of that superstition.'* Whether in consequence of the miracles attributed to him, or as the natural effect of invincible courage united to a childlike simplicity and tenderness of heart, S. Martin experienced less opposition at the hands of the pagans than might have been expected. On one occasion, when he was de- over the Pagans, molishing a temple, the crowd stood and looked on in impotent amazement : on another, a bold assassin was unnerved by the Saint's calmly laying bare his neck to the knife. On an- other occasion still, he so tamed a savage crowd by the sanctity of his preaching that they rose with one accord and destroyed their temples. Wherever he rooted up idolatry he took care to plant the Gospel in its stead : the shrines and temples were replaced by churches and monasteries. That these latter did good churches service in an age which required a certain roughness as ^^tsuHes well as readiness in those who undertook to reclaim it, P^a^nted, may be inferred from the honor in which they were held. The monks, it is true, introduced not a few superstitions in place of the supplanted fables. It may even be said that they substituted a Christian, for a heathen, paganism. Yet to any one who considers the vileness and atrocity of the latter error, as con- *5 Sulpicius gives us a glimpse of the wild dreams of monastic life : how one brother thought himself Christ, and even a Bishop was so deluded as to fall down and worship him; how another personated John, etc. — cases occurring so frequently that Sulpicius conjectured the day of Antichrist to be 486 History of the Church. trasted with the pure, though visionary, ideal presented by the former, the gain to humanity and religion must still appear irn- mense. Other men, possibly, might have done the Service of work better : . but, then, three centuries had passed the Monks. , , . , , . and no other men had arisen to undertake it. The learned Clergy were urban in their tastes. While we may sym- pathize, therefore, to a certain extent, with those prelates who were disgusted at S. Martin's ‘‘sordid raiment and unkempt hair," we may at the same time thank God that the conversion of the poor pagans was not left to such prelates. Had it been so left, the struggle with barbarism might have resulted in darker ages than those to which the world was destined. But to return to the good Bishop ; much as he avoided cities and the Court, his light was of that kind which could not be s Martin Apostle and patron of the poor, he and the was obliged for their sakes to stand before kings. In the case of Valentinian, who, though an orthodox ruler, was prejudiced against the Saint by Justina, his Arian wife, he had almost to force his way into the palace : but, when he at last gained admission, the honest prince recognized at once his superior merit, and granted him all and even more than he desired. With Maximus, the usurper of the Gauls and the murderer of Gratian, he found it more diffi- cult to deal in a friendly way, and for some time declined all communion with him. The tyrant succeeded, however, in jus- tifying himself, and the Saint once or twice consented to dine in the palace. On one of these occasions, when Maximus handed him the cup, intending to do himself the grace of drinking after him, the Bishop tasted the wine and then passed it on to a certain Presbyter : the lowliest minister of God was superior in his eyes to the loftiest monarch. But it was particularly irksome to S. Martin to associate with the hard and worldly prelates of the usurper's Court. Cruelty A.D. 383. at hand. De Vit. B. M. xxv. To balance this, there were many noble and beautiful dreams, which attained their apotheosis in Dante’s Divine Comedy. 5 ’. Martin. 487 in all shapes he deeply abhorred : the very birds and beasts were under his protection, and he is even said to have per- formed miracles in their behalf. In the same way, he Goodness set a high value on the spirit of forgiveness, and re- garded the power of absolution as the choicest gem in the crown of the Ministry. When the Devil once tried to argue him into the belief that there were some sins too grievous to be remitted, he answered the arch-tempter : ‘^If thouy O wretch, wouldst cease from hunting men, and repent thee of thy deeds, I would promise the Lord^s pardon even to thee ! There was little of this temper among the Court Clergy. On the contrary, it was through the influence of these, headed by Idacius and Ithacius, that sentence of death was pronounced, and a death- warrant signed, against the deluded followers of the heretic Priscillian.^ S. Martin pleaded hard for a reversal He pleads of the sentence. When he failed to obtain it, he even refused to commune any longer with his cruel col- leagues ; and though he subsequently yielded the point, in order to prevent further bloodshed, which Maximus threatened in case he should persist, yet his conscience was uneasy under such a burden ; an Angel rebuked him ; his wonder-working power seemed to be going from him ; and, to recover his wonted peace of mind, he thenceforth held aloof, not only He holds from the offending prelates, but from all Councils and aloof from assemblies in which they were likely to be present. It is honorable to the Church of that age that his protest met the warm approbation of Ambrose of Milan, Siricius of Rome, and not a few others. S. Martin left numerous disciples, and his example became *^Sulpic. Sever. Dialog, iii. 15. *7 In this case the plea of the Bishops was as strong as any that was ever made for religious persecution. The Priscillianists were condemned ( i ) by a civil magistrate ; (2) not for heresy, but for alleged filthy and wicked prac- tices ; (3) the persecuting prelates (fearing scandal) avoided all open com- plicity in pronouncing the sentence of death ; (4) the sentence was confirmed and carried out by the secular arm. Sulpic. Sever. Sacr. Hist. ii. 65. 488 History of the Church, the law of missionary work for many ages after him. It was, in fact, not merely an adaptation to the wants of a class of men His Exam- which lay beyond the reach of ordinary methods : it of Mission honest and wonderfully persistent effort to Work. avoid the great danger to which a triumphant religion is exposed. This was beautifully illustrated by one of the many visions that occurred to the Saint. For, on one occasion, the Devil came before him in the form of Christ, clothed in purple and gold and celestial splendor. The Saint looked hard at the bright phantom, but spake not a word. Dost thou not know me, Martin?** said the tempter — ‘‘why art thou silent in the presence of thy Lord?** He quietly replied, “lam looking for the print of the nails!** Thereupon the fiend vanished, and a foul odor filled the cell, showing plainly enough that in- credulity,''® in this instance at least, was not without its warrant and blessing. And such, with due allowance for the trials of the age in which they lived, was the spirit and temper of the monks in The Print regal magnificence in which State- of the Nails alHancc had robed the Church, could not but cause looked jfor. perplexity to earnest and simple souls. Yet they durst not condemn the splendor in itself : they could only look fixedly and wistfully at the dubious phenomenon, in hopes of some better sign of the Divinity within. And they looked, in the main, with honest and steady eyes. They magnified the Cross, they searched perseveringly for the stigmata of the Passion. Even when self-denial made them popular, and popularity brought wealth, and wealth bred corruption, so that the print of the nails could no longer be seen : yet, ever as this hap- pened, the old spirit revived, reform began anew,''5> i\^q wistful A commentator ( Geo. Hornius) here remarks : ‘‘ This story savors of unbelieving Thomas.” De Vit. B. Martin, xxv. 29 The history of Monachism is a continuous chain of efforts at reform — Martin of Tours in one age, Martin Luther in another — in every link of which we may discern the same curious mixture of rapt enthusiasm and audacious common sense. Church and State. 489 and doubting look of S. Martin was repeated, and splendor vanished with a ‘‘ foul odor,’’ to be replaced by fresh efforts at primitive simplicity, with zeal again and again awakened for the preaching of the Gospel to the poor. Such, then, was the instrument prepared in the fourth cen- tury for that missionary work, involving toil and self- Mission of denial almost without a parallel, by which gradually the rude sires of modern Europe were reclaimed from paganism, and the foundations of a new era of Christian progress were slowly and laboriously compacted. CHAPTER XIII. CHURCH AND STATE. — ^AMBROSE AND THEODOSIUS. It fell to the lot of Theodosius to crown the work of his prede- cessors in the establishment of the Church as the re- Position of ligion of the Empire. He gave it that position in ref- the Church settled, erence to the State, to heathenism and dissent,* which it afterwards retained, and beyond which it made only occa- sional and temporary advances. Neither Constantine nor his sons had attempted much more, with regard to the old religion, than to discourage, or, First perhaps, in some matters to reform it. Th^ir theory. Emperors, at least, was that of toleration. Christians, indeed, were reinstated* in rights of which they * Gieseler’s Ch. H, 75-79 (Smith’s Am. Ed.); Rudiger de Stat, et Conditio. Paganorum^ etc. ; Beugnot, Hist, de la Destruct. du Pagan, en Occident; De Broglie, ATw/. de V Eglise^ etc., I. i. chap. ii. ; Cod. Theo- dos., etc. 2 Euseb. Vit. Constant, ii. 20-24, 3^-44; iv. 18, 19; Sozom. i. 8, 9; Cod. Theodos. xvi. t. 2, 1. 3, 6; Cod. Justin, vii. t. 22, 1. 3. 21 490 History of the Church. Privileges of the Church. cities. Exemp- tions. Honors. had been robbed, and for posts of trust and honor were pre- ferred to heathen. Churches were built, and the Clergy in part maintained, at the cost of the several Ecclesiastics were exempted from certain taxes, and from offices involving pecuniary burdens : exemp- tions which soon began to crowd the lower grades of the Ministry, and had in course of time to be modified. The Church was allowed to receive legacies. In special honor of the Gospel, the punishment of crucifixion was aban- doned ; there was a repeal of the old laws against celi- bacy ; the manumission of slaves, once a purely civil act, was elevated to the dignity of a religious rite, by allowing it to be The Lord's performed in church. Finally, Sunday was made a Feast of universal obligation : all work and traffic were to cease thereon, save only the necessary labors of agricul- ture. In the army it was to be observed by a prayer to the Supreme Being. On the other hand, as sovereign Pontiff of the State relig- ion, an office not easily abandoned by a prince tenacious of his rights, the Emperor discountenanced, in ‘‘ the old persuasion,* tp^t was licentious, malific, or of ill example, and for that purpose set on foot a commis- sion to inquire into abuses. Hence temples of Venus were destroyed in Libanus and the Phoenician Heliopolis, and the same fate befell a shrine of -^sculapius at ^gae. Priestcraft was exposed by breaking up images and bringing to light the machinery within ; secret sacrifices were forbidden, and magic or divination for eVil ends, though for the cure of sickness or Chastity the averting of storms it was still allowed. The Chris- honored. virtue of chastity was honored by extremely severe penalties on its opposites. Gladiator-shows and other immoral Heathen Abuses corrected. 3 Vetus mos, prseterita usurpatio : so Constantine called it. 4 Euseb. Vit. Con. ii. 44-48, 56, 60; iii. 54-58; iv. 16, 23, 25; Cod. Theodos. ix. t. 16, 1 . i, 3; xii. t. i, 1 . 21; t. 5, 1 . 2; xvi. t. 10,1.4; Beugnot, Hist, de la Destruct. du Pagan. Church and State. 491 exhibitions were prohibited in New Rome : the old city, in this and other matters, was left very much to its own de- sacrifices vices. The Emperor, the meanwhile, showed himself a friend of religion in general, by tolerating stated and public sacrifices, and by insisting in cases of emergency upon due con- sultation of the Haruspices. It was Constantine’s wish, in short, that men should not throw off such religion as they had until they were Dread of ready for something better : he dreaded atheism more than superstition, and his hostility to the latter hardly went beyond those bounds which had long since been set by the admirable good sense of Roman legislation. His sons were somewhat more zealous, but their efforts were directed in the main by the same principle. Chris- Growing tianity, in fact, needed little help in the way of new enactments. The old laws, fairly carried out, would do away with those rites that ministered to vice ; and these being done away, the rest of the heathen fabric would fall of itself. Sacrifices Constantius, however, prohibited sacrifices, on penalty of death : an edict little observed and not very rigorously en- forced, especially in Rome and Alexandria. But as idolatry became unfashionable, retiring to rural districts under the name of paganism^ the old shrines lost their votaries ; and Christians, heathenized in temper by the evils of the times, began DfstrucUon to show their zeal by acts of violence. Hence numer- Cempus. ous cases of fierce iconoclasm, winked at by Constantius, but severely punished by the Apostate his successor. Hence, also, a longer lease of life to idolatry among those inveterate con- servatives, the literary class. The brief reaction under Julian taught a lesson of modera- tion which was not altogether fruitless. Jovian was a Magic Rites Catholic, but tolerated dissent. Valentinian and Va- lens forbade bloody sacrifices, and found it necessary to break up the nests of treason which sheltered themselves under the name of philosophy: magic was prohibited, sophists were ban- ished or put to death, books on occult science were collected 492 History of the Church. and destroyed. On the other hand, a necessity had arisen for The Church Pruning the luxuriance of the Church. Valentinian restrained, gj^^cted that ecclesiastics should not haunt the houses of widows or female wards, nor should they accept donations or bequests from women connected with them by spiritual ties : an edict upon which S. Jerome remarked, ‘‘I complain not of the law, but I grieve that we should have deserved it.** All these Emperors lived and reigned the acknowledged heads of heathenism ; and, when they died, were duly enrolled, Grattan by a Still heathen Senate, among the gods. Gratian was the first to reject the title of Pontifex Maximus. Pontiff. removed the altar of Victory from the Senate- house, and deprived the temples, priests, and Vestal Virgins of their remaining immunities and of all revenues from the State. For favors of this kind the Church paid dearly in the sacri- fice of her independence : the Emperor combining in his own Loss of ^be prestige of the old pontificate, and what- Liberty to ever of influence in Church affairs belonged in the. first the Church. i i i • ages to the Christian laity. Hence an undue inter- ference in matters both of discipline and of doctrine. Letters of admonition addressed to the leading Bishops; Councils called, moderated, influenced, approved, upheld by legal pains; judicial decisions quashed, or modified, or new trials ordered ; Episcopal elections interfered with ; Creeds, orthodox or the „ reverse, forced upon recusants : such things were, in- Encroach- deed, excesscs of that episcopate from without which fnents. . -i i i Constantine assumed, and they were more or less pro- tested against, but they were not the less dangerous on that account. They indicated, in fact, a great and undefined power, the encroachments of which might prove fatal to the spiritual character of the Church. The good sense of Valentinian led him to moderation in the exercise of this power. ‘‘Let the priests,** said he, “attend to Church affairs, and assemble where they will.** Gratian also saw the evils resulting from imperial interference, and willingly sanctioned that Canon of Sardica, which, with a view to greater equity in synodical decisions, Church and State. 493 ments o/‘ Church Power, lodged a power of granting new trials on appeal in the hands of Julius the Roman Bishop. Nor were the encroachments by any means confined to one side. 5 Episcopal arbitration^ which served in the first Encroach^ centuries to keep Christians from going to law before the heathen, continued under Constantine and his suc- cessors to save many sheep from the sharp shears of the Roman Courts, and elevated the standard of equity and mercy. The custom grew into a law ; so that finally the Bishops exercised a patronage of all oppressed and dependent persons ; were the sole judges in civil and (in course of time) even of criminal cases, where the Clergy, monks, or nuns were concerned ; and were allowed a sort of equity jurisdiction in general. The effect of this was to soften the harder features of Ro- Ejfect on man law.^^ The relations of parents to children, of the Roman Laws, husbands to wives, of masters to slaves, of creditors to debtors, of patrons to clients, were gradually improved on the side of humanity. The right of sanctuary also was trans- ferred from the temples to the churches. On the whole, how- ever, the Church encroached upon the province of the State ' less by altering the laws than by exercising boldly the power of intercession : a power which did much good, though in times of polemical excitement it was occasionally abused. But to attain a high ground in relations of this kind re- quired, on the Church’s part, a spirited struggle : a struggle not, as in previous cases, with heretical princes only, ^ who were amenable to no law, but with a wise and of church and State, powerful and orthodox sovereign. Such a sovereign was found in Theodosius : the ability for such a struggle in S. Ambrose of Milan. 5 On this section, see Gieseler’s Ch. Hist, W 91, 92, 105 (Smithes Am. ed,), ^ De Broglie well observes : “ La loi civile .... devient moins dure mais plus austere. Elle condamne plus souvent et punit moins severement.’* He also justly appeals to the present and past of Europe to show that Con- stantine’s policy, with regard to slavery and such like things, was wiser than would have been a course of more sudden and sweeping reformation. 494 Hislory of the Church. This famous prelate/ whose election has been already no- ticed/ was of a family that stood among the foremost in worldly Ambrose rank, while it was further graced, in a way that the of Milan, esteemed more highly, by the spiritual nobility of martyrdom. His childhood, it is said, gave tokens of future greatness. A swarm of bees once alighted upon his lips, and, going in and out his mouth, soared thence into the sky, till they became invisible. At another time he played Bishop in his family, showing his sense of the dignity of the office by hold- ing out his hand for his devout sister to kiss. It was an omen still more striking, and creditable to the character of the Epis- copate in those days, that when he was appointed Governor of Liguria, Probus, who conveyed to him the orders of the Em- peror, dismissed him with the words : Go and govern, not as a magistrate or judge, but rather as a Bishop.** His sense of the high character of the Episcopate accorded with this charge. Preparing himself for its duties by prayer HisStudies, 3-nd fasting and study of God*s Word, he asked,^ “ not A.D. 374. glory of Apostles, not the grace of Prophets, not the virtue of Evangelists, not the circumspection of Pastors, but that which S. Paul places last, the painstaking diligence of a learner and a teacher ; for he who teaches faithfully is in the best way of learning.** The prayer was granted. In his case, as in that of S. Cyprian and others suddenly called to the Bishopric from the midst of worldly cares, nothing is more wonderful than the rapidity with which, amid the duties of an office that pressed him night and day, his mind became saturated, as it were, with the spirit and the letter of the Holy Scriptures. It was a knowledge that seemed intuitive rather than acquired. That Orient light of the Divine day-spring had but to dawn upon such a mind, to awaken all its chords to a delightful har- 7 D. Ambros. Mediolan. Op. Omn. with a Life by Paulinus prefixed; Socrat. iv. 30; v. ii ; Theod. v. 13, 17, 18; Sozom. vii. 25; Tillemont, tom. X. part I ; Cave, Lives of the Fathers^ vol. iii. 8 Page 483. 9 S. Ambros. Officiorum^ i. I. Jimbi^ose and Theodosius, 495 mony : the reading of the Word was not so much a study as a blissful inebriation. This was the more remarkable in S. Ambrose, because, in the spirit of the true Roman man of business, he lived his i>ubiic in the public eye : when not engaged in the sacred offices of the Sanctuary, he sat all day with open doors, his time and thoughts and sympathies at every man’s disposal. With such a leader, the orthodox cause was not long in gain- ing the ascendancy in Milan. Commended by saintliness of life ; by practical ability long known and trusted ; by His an intentness upon the ends he had in view, which was not over scrupulous with regard to means ; by an eloquence grave, simple, and sincere, yet occasionally florid, in which Latin good sense was illuminated with the tints of Oriental im- agination ; by a charity and generosity, signalized in one in- stance when he sold the Church plate for the ransom of Chris- tian captives Ambrose became all-powerful with the Emperor and with the people ; Auxentius, his Arian predecessor, was al- most forgotten ; the Divinity of the Word and of the Spirit shone out from the cloud of its temporary eclipse and, in short, Milan, like Constantinople, was recovered to the Nicene Faith. So things continued during the reign of Gratian. Under Valentinian II., the boy successor of that prince, a counter-influ- ence came from Justina, the Empress-mother, a bigoted Hcstmty leader of the Court faction, which still adhered to Arianism. Not long before the death of Gratian she had at- tempted to set a Bishop of her party over the Church of Sir- mium ; and the people in that city were favorable to her views. Ambrose interfered. With no other authority in the A.D. 380. premises than zeal for a good cause, he repaired to the contested field ; took his seat in Church upon the Episcopal *0 After the disastrous defeat and death of Valens by the Goths at Had- rianople. “ He took a leading part in the Council of Aquileia (a.d. 381), in which Palladius and other Arians were condemned. 496 History of the Church. throne ; paralysed by a word'* the ferocity of an Arian virgin who attempted to drag him thence ; and, finally, overawed the assembly, and secured the ordination of a Catholic Bishop. Such things could happen only at a time when Episcopal vigor was more needed than scrupulous conformity to the canons. Of a less exceptionable character was the ardor with which he exploded the arguments of Symmachus, the eloquent prefect Contest with of Rome, who presented to the young Emperor an Symmachus. from the Senate in behalf of the Vestal Vir- gins and for the restoration of that altar of Victory which Gratian had removed. There was a party in the Court which favored the appeal. But S. Ambrose no sooner learned of the movement, than he interposed with a remonstrance addressed to Valentinian. The request, he urged, was an insult to Chris- tianity, and altogether unreasonable. Its only excuse was zeal for demon-worship, which ought to provoke the faithful to still greater zeal for the Truth. In fine, if the Emperor should see fit to gratify the pagans in this matter, he might come to Church again, but he would find no Bishop there, or one, at all events, who would stand ready to resist him and to reject his offerings. By appeals of this kind the attempt of Symmachus was defeated : according to an epigram'^ of the day, ‘‘Victory abandoned her adorer, and by deserting to Ambrose, showed that she loved her enemies better than her friends.^* But the influence of Justina was steadily increasing in the Palace. The Court officers, chiefly Goths and Arians, were “ Unworthy as I am of the priesthood, it befits neither your sex nor your profession to lay hands upon a Bishop, however contemptible he may be.’^ The virgin, it is said, died and was buried the next day. *3 In this contest, it was a point on the heathen side, at a time when even Christians were not superior to the dread of omens, that the Barbarians were pressing the Empire on every side, that Roman arms were losing their pres- tige, that Terminus was retreating : that, in short, with the decline of the worship of Victory, there was acorres ponding withdrawal of her presence and power. Dicendi palmam Victoria tollit amico : Transit ad Ambrosium, plus favet ira deae. — Ennodius. Ambrose and Theodosius. 497 hostile to Ambrose, and more than one plot was formed to over- throw him. Among other attempts, there was a plan Demandso/ to spirit him away from his stronghold in Milan and Court. send him into exile ; but the scheme recoiled upon the head of its inventor. About the same time he was summoned to the Palace, and it was demanded of him in full consistory .... a.d. 385. that he should give up the Portian Basilica, a church in the suburbs, for the religious services of the Arians. He per- emptorily refused. The courtiers tried in vain to persuade or overawe him. The people, the meanwhile, got wind of the matter ; beset the Palace doors ; defied the military ; so that finally the original demand had to be changed into a request that Ambrose would go forth and appease the tumult. On the next day the demand was renewed, with the addition that he should yield the New Basilica, a larger church within the city walls. He answered that he had no power to give, nor Ambrose the Emperor to receive it : the sovereign could not take the house of a mere citizen without leave, much less had he a right to seize the House of God. ‘‘But the Emperor,^* the courtiers argued, “ has power unlimited, and everything is his.'* The Saint replied, “ Let him at all events submit himself to the Lord : we render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's : to Caesar tribute, to God the Church : Caesar can have no right to the temple of God." “But," it was further urged, “the Court has surely a right to hold one Basilica of its own : will you deny the Emperor the liberty to go to church?" “ The Court has no right," the Bishop answered, “to be joined to an adulteress: and she is an adulteress who is not the lawful spouse of Christ. It is honor enough to the Emperor to be called a son of the Church : the Emperor is within the Church, not over it." *5 S. Ambros, Epistol. xxi. Serm. c. Auxent. 29, 30, 35, 36. The an- swers given by S. Ambrose, on the three several occasions of this narrative, are not very clearly dated in the Epistles xx. and xxi., or in the Sermon at- tached to Ep. xxi. ; but as they were substantially the same in each instance, I have thrown them together in the opening of the trouble. 498 History of the Church. These things occurred on the three days immediately pre- ceding Holy Week. The Palm Sunday that followed was a great day in Milan: and the excitement continued, The Contest ° ^ ^ i j t for the with frcQuent messages between the Palace and the ScLsiliccis, ^ Church, until the ensuing Thursday.*^ Ambrose was in the Old Church all day — retiring to his own house by night, that the Emperor might seize him, if he pleased — weeping, praying, expounding the Psalms and Lessons, following step by step the wondrous drama of that week as recorded in the Gos- pels and noted in the Church services, drawing comfort from the examples of Jonah and of Job, as they came up in the regular Lessons, and denouncing the evil spirit of Job’s wife, Herodias, Jezebel and others of Eve’s daughters. Occasionally he sighed, as he received (like Job) the tidings of new evils, or heard sounds of a swelling tumult from the direction of the New Scene in the Cliurch. But the flock immediately under his eye Old Church. quiet and confident. They had adopted as their watchword, We pray, but do not fight ; we pray, but are not afraid ! ” The Bishop, in like manner, was determined to keep still. When told that an Arian priest had fallen into the hands of the Catholics, he sent some of his Clergy to the rescue ; but to all entreaties that he would go forth himself he turned a deaf ear : ‘^Even Christ,” he declared, would not give Himself to the people, lest they should make Him a king.” So again : It is for me not to excite the people, to calm them is in the hand of God.” And so again, addressing himself to some of the Gothic officers of the Court, ‘‘Is it for this the Roman soil received you, that you should become disturbers of the public peace?” Such was the state of things in the Old Church. About the New Basilica the danger of a tumult was most imminent, especially on Wednesday. A veil had been put up The New the door, sequestrating the building to the service Church. Emperor. The citizens had been forbidden to leave their houses ; the more prominent among them had been cast into prison and mulcted with heavy fines : a hardship felt S. Ambros. Epist. xx. ad Marcellin. Soror. Ambrose and Theodosius. 499 the more keenly because in the Holy Week it was customary to release all debtors. Still the Catholic crowd swarmed in over- flowing numbers through the streets, and filled the Basilica to its utmost capacity. It needed but a leader to bring on a riot, perhaps a revolution. A band of children tore the imperial veil. The military stood about, undecided what to do, or even fraternizing with the people. Soon a ^suHnit rumor went abroad that the Bishop had given orders to excommunicate them : many of them, in consequence, hur- ried off to the Old Basilica and made their submission. This gave a new turn to the exhortations of S. Ambrose and to the Psalm for the day. O God ! the heathen have come into Thine inheritance — you heard it, brethren, in this morning^s service, and you responded in bitterness of soul. The The Psaim heathen have come : aye, more than the heathen ! The dor the day, Goths have come, and men of diverse nations have come : with arms have they come and poured into the Sanctuary and seized it. So we thought in our unwisdom, and in our ignorance of God’s counsel we sorely grieved about it. But O the depths of the oracles of the Spirit ! The heathen have come, but into Thine inheritance have they come. They have come heathen, but they have become Christian men. They came to wrest the heritage from us, but they have stayed to be co-heirs. Our enemies are our defenders, our adversaries are our allies. God hath made peace in His place : He hath broken the horns of the bows, the shield, the sword, and the battle ! ” Through Wednesday night the Saint remained in church, finding it impossible to make his way out without vio- The Court lence : but on Thursday the Court capitulated and a y^nds, truce was effected. The soldiers were withdrawn from the Ba- silica : the citizens who had been seized were released, and the fines imposed upon them were remitted. But amid the general rejoicing, Calligonus, the captain of the guard, still ventured to mutter to S. Ambrose, ‘‘If you despise Valentinian, I will take off your head ; ” to which the Saint replied, “ You will act like a eunuch, and I will suffer like a Bishop.” 500 History of the Church. Contest renewed., A.D. 386. The contest was renewed the next year*^ under the auspices of an Arian prelate, who, having in some way brought his name into ill repute, had changed it from Mercurinus to Aux- entius, without, however, any change for the better in his character: as S. Ambrose said, ‘‘he had put off wolf and had put on wolf, and if he had changed his name a third time it would have meant wolf still. This time the Por- tian Basilica was seized, and the Bishop was commanded to leave the city. He would have felt it his duty to obey, had he not known that the object of the Court was merely to get rid of him that they might rob the church. Besides'*which, he felt a tender solicitude for the soul of the young Emperor. The prince should not incur the guilt of Ahab so long as a faithful ^ . Naboth was alive to prevent it. Night and day, then, the church, crowded with a dense mass of people, barred against all intruders, and hemmed in by the military, resounded with psalms and hymns*® and spiritual songs : for the opportunity was seized to institute vigils, after the manner of S. Basil in the East, and to imitate the Oriental style of antiphonal*^ chanting. Among those who watched with interest the progress of this struggle, was one great soul, just escaping at that time from the meshes of error, the future S. Augustine. Among the vigil-keepers was another great soul, S. Monica, the mother of Augustine. The strife was several days prolonged, but the Court at length had to yield. It contributed to this result, that, the Ambrosian Church being ded- icated at this period, and the Bishop desiring to sanc- tify the altar by placing under it the body of some saint, the remains of two martyrs, Gervasius and Protasius, were opportunely discovered ; and a blind man, having touched the relics, was restored to sight. The miracle was bruited abroad Relics of the Martyrs. '7 S. Ambros. Epistol. xxi. xxii. ; Oral. c. Auxent. ; S. Augustin. Confess. ix. 15, 16; Paulin. Ambros. Vita. S. Ambrose himself composed hymns for the occasion. *9 The example was soon followed (says Paulinus) throughout the West. The miracle rests on the very explicit testimony of S. Ambrose, and S. Ambrose and Theodosius. 501 through the city, and enthusiasm ran so high as to sweep away the faint remains of Arian opposition. While these things were going on, the power of Maximus the Gallic tyrant was steadily growing in the West : so that after some attempts at negotiation, Valentinian fled to Thessalonica and placed himself under the protection of the great Theodosius. War ensued ; Maximus was defeated ; Theodosius came to Milan. When he entered the church to give thanks for his victory, he stood, as emperors in the East were accustomed to do, within that part of the sacred building reserved to the Clergy.^* S. Ambrose sent his Deacon and required him to withdraw. The Emperor took the rebuke in admirable temper, and thanked the Bishop for teaching him that ‘‘ though purple might make an emperor, it could not make a priest.'* It was not long before occasions arose for other lessons, one of which, it must be confessed, was of a very questionable char- acter. The Christians of Callinicus had burned a Jew- case 0/ the ish synagogue, by the order of their Bishop.” Theo- dosius very properly commanded the Bishop to rebuild it. But when S. Ambrose heard of the order he was thrown into ‘‘such a heat as he had never known before " : he could not look at the matter from a political point of view ; he saw in it only a commander giving aid and comfort to the enemy — a brave sol- dier punished for burning the enemy's magazines. To be silent Augustine ; also on that of Paulinus, the biographer of S. Ambrose. S. Am- bros. EpistoL xxii. ; Sej'm. de invent. Corp. SS. G. et Protas. ; S. Augustin. Confess, ix. 16; Serm. 318, 286; De Civit. Deiy xxii. 8. 2* This incident Theodoret places later; but it seems to come more nat- urally in connection with the first arrival of Theodosius. “S. Ambrose (Ep. xl.) seems to think it possible that the Bishop might not have ordered it : for though he had confessed to the fact, his confession might have been “the blessed lie” of a man inculpating himself, to shield others or to obtain the crown of martyrdom. Consequently the Emperor was much to blame for putting so strong a temptation in the way of a Bishop. This Epistle is altogether a most remarkable specimen of the sophistry of passion. 502 History of the Church. under such circumstances was to incur the guilt of sacrilege : it was to endanger the Emperor's salvation ; it was to give people ground for believing that there was no Bishop in Milan, or one, at all events, who dared not do his duty. Seeing things in this light, Ambrose wrote to Theodosius, charitably Emperor hoping (at the end of his letter) that he might not be obliged to speak openly in Church. In this hope he was disappointed. So he finally felt obliged to preach at the great monarch ; and when preaching failed, he refused to pro- ceed with the service unless the Emperor would give his word to recall the obnoxious order. Theodosius yielded, and the burner of the synagogue went unpunished. The Saint was not so successful when he tried to stay the Emperor's rage*^ against the wicked populace of Thessalonica. Outrage The Crime of that people was certainly atrocious. For %ahnica, better cause than a refusal, on the part of Botheric A.D. 390. commander of the forces in Illyricum, to release a certain pet of the race-course, a notorious charioteer impris- oned for a crime of the most infamous description, a bloody tumult had occurred in which the commander and several offi- cers had been barbarously murdered. The Emperor was angry enough to dissemble his anger ; he seemed to yield to the en- treaties of the Bishop : but through the influence of other coun- sellors, and possibly from a feeling of pique at the frequency of episcopal interference,''^ orders were issued secretly that seven thousand of the Thessalonicans should atone in their The Emperor's blood the Crime of the populace. Second thoughts Eeveuge. led to a countermand of the edict, but it came too late. Three hours the sword raged in the circus of the doomed city, and the tale of victims was complete. When S. Ambrose 23 The Emperor’s heat of temper, with his readiness, nevertheless, to listen to reason, had been recently shown (a.d. 387) in connection with a sedition at Antioch. See Theod. v. 19, 20. 24 In his letter on this subject, S. Ambrose alludes to the impression that he knew too much about affairs in the Palace, and apologizes for it. Epis- tol. li. Ambrose and Theodosius. 503 heard the fearful news, there was no such heat as in the syn- agogue transaction : it was rather a sickening and sinking of the soul. He could not bear to see the Emperor’s face. Pleading illness, he retired into the country, and wrote thence an epistle, sober, quiet, affectionate, tenderly reproachful, and mildly apologetic, a model of that tact which only Ambrose to true feeling can inspire. But in all its ‘‘meekness of wisdom” there was no concealment of its meaning. The Emperor had sinned like David : like David he must repent. The devil had begrudged him the crowning grace of clemency, and had plucked it from him : he must recover it at once in the only way permitted. “ For my part,” the Saint added, “ I have no reproach to make. I am not angry, I am only afraid. I dare not offer the Sacrifice if you assist at it The Lord Himself hath expressly forbidden it. The very night when I was preparing to leave the city, pressed with anxious cares, I saw you in a vision coming to the Church, and no power was left me to proceed with the sacred service.” In spite of the warning the Emperor went to Church.^ The Bishop met him at the gate, took hold of his purple robe, and said, in the hearing of all the people, “ Stand back ! penanceof How dare you lift up in prayer hand» steeped in the blood of innocents ? How receive in such hands the most sacred Body of our Lord ? How carry His precious Blood to a mouth whence issued the word of fury? Depart and repent. Submit to the bonds of discipline : the bonds which alone can restore you to health.” Theodosius submitted. Eight months after, when Christmas-tide approached, he shut himself up in his palace, mourned bitterly, and shed floods of tears. “The House of God is open to slaves and beggars; but to me the Church is closed, and so are the gates of Heaven !” Hh At last “indulgence” was accorded to his prayers, the sincerity of his repentance being proved by an edict, equally 25 The contrast between this and the Synagogue Epistle is very striking. Ep. li. ^^Theod. V. 18; Sozom. vii. 25. 504 History of the Church. ^ honorable to himself and to the prelate who required it, that there should be thenceforward an interval of thirty days between every sentence of death and its final confirmation. On this con- dition he was released from his bonds and allowed to enter the sacred place. Under such a sovereign, instructed by such a pastor, the triumph of Christianity could not be delayed much tAe Church. iQjQggj. . heathenism rapidly retired from its high places in the cities, and became, in the strict sense of the word, a pagan superstition. Even the Senate began to give way, and wherever their hearts might be, their ‘‘feet,” at all events, had to “follow the opinion Severity of the Emperor.” Severe edicts went forth against all forms of idolatry. Symmachus again pleaded in vain A.D. 391-394. Vestals, the priests, and for discarded Victory. Not only were the expenses of sacrifices no longer defrayed out of the public treasury, but the heathen were even forbidden to go near the temples. It had been well had the same prohibi- tion been extended to Christians ; but as it was not, zeal against idolatry began to run riot, and disgraceful scenes of violence The were of frequent occurrence. The great temple of Serapeum. upon the immunity of which the very exist- ence of the world was thought to depend, thus perished in Alexandria : but earth and sky were not shaken by its fall, nor even was the Nile stayed from its accustomed overflow ; on the contrary, as the crowd stood around in trembling expectation, a swarm of rats ran from the shattered image of the god, and the superstition^ was exploded in a peal of laughter. By events of 27 “ Qua vocat egregii sententia principis, illuc Libera turn pedibus turn corde frequentia transit.’* Prudent, in Symmach. i. 699, ss. The same Senate, however, decreed the customary divine honors to Theodosius, upon his death. 28 Theod. V. 22; Socrat. v. 16. 29 Even Christians found it hard to shake off these heathen superstitions. Thus, S. Ambrose, on one occasion, heard the mass of his flock shouting at the moon, to help her through the travail of an eclipse. Serm. de Defectione LuncB. Ambrose and Theodosius, 505 this kind the confidence of the Christians and the dismay of the heathen were wonderfully increased. Still the shrines of the old gods had at least their rhetorical avengers. Those busy iconoclasts, ‘‘the black-robed Rhetorical tribe (of monks) whose elaborately pale faces con- cealed an elephantine- capacity for meat and drink,’’ were made the targets of the wit of the eloquent Libanius.^® The priests were not as zealous as the orators. When they saw the temples ruined, “they had no choice,” says the same Libanius, “but either to be silent or to die.” None of them adopted the latter alternative : so that the fall of heathenism, while it was attended with circumstances discreditable to Christianity, evoked no in- stances of heroism honorable to itself. The death-struggle was prolonged, going on from place to place, with frequent edicts from the Emperors,^* and with riots now from the pagan side and now from the Christian, ^ ° struggle through the whole of the next century: a struggle in iong which charges of falsehood, wrong, and violence were used by either party with almost equal truth. 3* Under Arcadius and Honorius many temples escaped destruction by being appro- priated to State uses. Some, such as the Pantheon in Rome, were converted into churches. It was not till towards the mid- dle of the sixth century, under Justinian I., that paganism was driven from its stronghold among men of letters by the aboli- tion of the New Platonic School at Athens, while an edict of the same Emperor required all heathen to be baptized. 30 He wrote a vigorous defence of the temples, addressed to Theodosius, in which the monks are severely lashed — unhappily with too much justice, so far as some of them were concerned. 3 * See Gieseler’s Ch. H. \ 79. 32 S. Augustine makes a heathen say, “ Why should I turn Christian ? I have suffered wrong from a Christian and have not done wrong : a Christian has sworn falsely to me, but I to him never.” So S. Chrysostom : ‘‘ Not a heathen would be left, if we were really Christians : but now there are no converts,” etc. 22 BOOK V. FROM THE RISE OF NESTORIANISM TO THE CLOSE OF THE TRULLAN COUNCIL. A.D. 428-691. , > ■-J'-'-.S! ' _ ct|«-1 ^ At' Book V. CHAPTER I. NESTORIUS AND S. CYRIL. On the death of Sisinnius, the fourth in succession from S. Chrysostom, the See of Constantinople was hotly contested : some rallied around Proclus, a learned and saintly „ Nest onus Bishop, the titular Metropolitan of Cyzicum,* others Bishop^ around Philip, a distinguished Presbyter of the city. Through the influence of the Court both candidates were dropped ; and Nestorius, a Presbyter of Antioch, a second Chrysostom (it was thought) in eloquence and devotion, was duly elected. He was a monk, a man of severe life, a ready extemporaneous speaker, a controversialist of great renown, a disciple of the rationalizing school of Theodorus of Mopsuestia. That he was not deficient in the pride of orthodoxy was shown by his first speech to Theodosius after his consecration. ‘‘ Give me, O Emperor,’* he exclaimed, ‘‘a world purged of heresy, and I will bestow on you the Kingdom of Heaven : assist me in putting down the sects, and I will help you to conquer the Persians.” Five days after, he proved his zeal by conducting an assault upon a Church of the Arians : which happening to take fire * Socrat. vii. 28. 5 1 o History of the Chw^ch. during the process of demolition, the crowd greeted their new His Zeal witli the oiiiinous title of Incendiary, With against eoual animositv he attacked the Novatians, Macedo- Heretics, . . mans, Pelagians, and at a later time the opponents of the Pelagians, under the name of Manichaeans. Acts of this kind were not unpopular."* In times of general weakness, vio- lence in word or deed passes current for strength. Nestorius, by his excesses, may have offended a few : but the multitude applauded his zeal ; the Court helped him on with intolerant edicts ; and even the heretics whom he harassed were not alien- ated, ^ for ‘‘many of them at that time came over to the Cath- olic Faith. The case was different when, within six months after his con- ^ secration, he began to assail imagined errors within the Quarrel. Church:'^ when, as Socrates says, he-converted an inno- cent phrase into “ a bugbear,’* and instituted what was virtually a new test of heresy. Anastasius, an Antiochean Presbyter and an intimate friend of Nestorius, asserted, in a public discourse, that the Blessed Virgin ou^ht not to be called Theotokos, or Mother of Denial of d e* i j ^Th ^ implying, as he urged, that Deity could be born of Humanity. The objection was a new one, and was vehemently resented. Every one was accustomed to the title : no one had ever thought of attaching to it a mean- ing so manifestly absurd. The preacher, therefore, w'as silenced by the clamor of the people. Dorotheus, a Bishop, another friend of Nestorius, came to his relief. any manf he cried, call Mary Theotokos, let him be anathema.'^ Nestorius 2 Socrates speaks of them as offensive to those “ who did not cherish a senseless antipathy to the very name of heretic’’ — that is, to a minority. Socrat. vii. 29. sSocrat. vii. 31. 4 Socrat. vii. 29, 31-34 ; Evagrius, i. 1-7 ; for documents, etc., see Mansi, iv. V. and Hardouin. i. ; Marii. Mercator. 0 pp. Ed. Gamier ; Neale’s Holy Eastern Church, vol. i ; Gieseler, \ 88. 'Nestorius and S, Cyril. 5 1 1 sat by and held his peace : but no one doubted that the new issue was opened at his suggestion. All this occurred on the twenty-second of November. Christ- mas was nigh at hand, the great Feast of the Nativity : the time intervening was felt to be the lull which precedes a storm, and the feeling spread rapidly to all parts of the Church, py^p^ring Nestorius, it afterwards appeared, was preparing for for Battle, , Nov, 22, 428. battle. Cyril of Alexandria, the destined antagonist of Nestorius, was at work on his annual Paschal Epistle, now nearly due, for which no subject could be more proper than the question just started : he wrote, therefore, on the Doctrine of the Incarnation, setting forth the Faith as commonly held, and guarding it, so far as possible, against the danger of misappre- hensions. The Son of Ggd, he urged, did not come to man merely, or take man upon him as a garment that may be put on and off : He verily became man : He made man His own ; He ^ . Cyril s showed Himself in the world as being one of us ; the Paschal /or Flesh in which He was manifest was truly His Flesh ; so that whatever was done or suffered in that Flesh, the Son of God did, the Son of God suffered — without^ however, any suf- fering or change in His Divine and ineffable Nature. Hence there could be no harm in saying, Mary bore Christ, or Mary bore God ; nay, there could be no harm in saying, even, God increased in wisdom and stature for though God in His proper nature is incapable of birth or of increase, yet by His eternal purpose of assuming man's nature He made Himself in some sort capable of both. In short, Christ is one and the same Divine Being, whether we call Him fFesus or the Word, Em- manuel or God. To divide^ Him in any way, to imagine a man Jesus merely joined to the Divine Word and distinguishable 5 Cyril’s reasoning on this point is more bold than clear. Ep. Pas- chal. xvii. ® This refers to the then received reading of i John, iv. 3 — “ every spirit 6 Xvu, which divideth, Jesus Christ.” See Socrat. vii. 32. 512 History of the Church. from Him, were to attribute to that man a chief share in the work of grace which the Son of God wrought it were to make that man the Offering, that man the Priest ; it were to make that man the worthy object of Divine adoration ; it were to substi- tute, in short, a human for a Divine Atonement. So, in substance, Cyril wrote, with great courage in facing the real difficulties of the question, with remarkable forethought Sagacity of of issucs impending from opposite directions, and with .S’, cyru. least possible allusion to the troubles which were brewing in Constantinople. On the other hand, Nestorius had armed himself with three TAree discourses which were delivered respectively on Christ- Sermons of ,-r^ -ii-t-. Nestorius. mas, New Year s Day, and the Feast of the Epiphany. To use the term Theotokos, he urged, was to imitate the heathen, who had mothers for their gods ; it was to contradict His S. Paul, who testified of Christ that He was “without Doctrine, witliout mother, without descent ^ ^ ; it was to lose sight of the distinction, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit : to avoid such consequences, we should believe the Son of Mary to be a temple wherein God dwelt, a vestment He was clothed ; in short, not God, but Theodbchos y TheophbruSy one inhabited by God, yet entitled to adoration, by reason of the veiled Deity who dwelt within.® On this last point, the propriety of worshipping Christ as One, on account of the intimate connection of the two natures y the difference between Nestorius and S. Cyril might seem almost to have vanished in a mist of words. There remained, however, the fierce hostility to the term Theotbkos as a title of the Virgin, and the studied application to Christ of such words as Theophbros — words which expressed only a Divine indwelling. All this looked suspicious, to say the least. More- His Evasions. 7 The logical connection between the Nestorian and Pelagian heresies was seen by S. Cyril, and by most theologians, at a glance. ® The chief sentences of Nestorius are given in Gieseler’s notes, § 88. Nestorius and S. Cyril. 5 1 3 over, Nestorius was not content to act on the defensive : he anathematized his opponents, he called them Apollinarians. Hence a great stir in Constantinople. First a certain monk refused to commune with the Bishop : he was scourged and driven into exile. Then a layman named Eusebius, General afterwards Bishop of Doryl^eum, showed in a brief tract that the new doctrine was but a revival of the heresy of Paul of Samosata. Marius Mercator, a Latin residing in the city, and a well-known opponent of the Pelagian heresy, took and maintained a similar ground. Some of the Clergy followed their example : though with the Court and Patriarch against them, they could utter their sentiments only at great risks. It was not so easy to silence the Monks : and the violent acts of Nestorius, which under different circumstances might have pro- voked little comment, now appeared in their true shape as acts of tyranny. At the Feast of the Incarnation, the twenty-fifth of March, Proclus preached in the great Church, in presence of Nestorius: his subject, of course, was the Virgin Theotokos, that sermon bush which burned with fire but was not consumed, that Mother and Maid who embraced Him whom the Heaven of heavens cannot contain. It was a sermon rich in Oriental imagery, richer still in theologic lore. Nestorius answered it extemporaneously, and followed up his strictures after- Answers 0/ wards with several more studied replies. No new point was made, beyond a vehement assertion that by ‘^the Apostle and High Priest of our Profession^’ we are to understand the man Jesus, not the everlasting Word. There was much bitter- ness, in these discourses, against the ‘‘generation of vipers” who refused to hear them : much of a fierce determination to maintain at all hazards the unpopular issue. They were widely and industriously circulated. Wherever they went ^ they carried strife with them. At last, coming into the end the hands of the Egyptian monks, they furnished S. Cyril a reason, or as some say a pretext, for taking an active part in the growing quarrel, 2 2 * 514 History of the Church. This remarkable man, who holds a place hardly second to CyriVsear- that of S. Athanasius in the History of Dogma, rests ly Career, little obloquy, from certain events connected with the beginning^ of his career. He was the nephew of Theophilus. He resembled that vio- lent prelate in natural heat of temper. Entering the Ministry, Trying moreover, under his auspices, he fell heir to his preju- Posttton. dices and to his general policy. A monastic training of six years under the severe Hilarion was not likely to improve him in these respects. To crown all, his election to the Epis- copate was carried by the people in the face of a decided oppo- sition from the military and civil authorities. It were hard to imagine a more trying position : an age, hopelessly corrupt ; a city, turbulent beyond all others ; a Church, powerful, but still entangled in the meshes of old feuds ; a magistracy feeble at the best for the maintenance of order, but now jealous of the Bishop, in league with his enemies, exercising authority in the spirit of a faction rather than of legitimate and acknowledged „ . rule. Under such circumstances, Cyril, it is said, en- 0/ Civil larged the sway inherited from Theophilus y and seri- ously encroached upon the temporal power. This may have been the effect of ambition on his part. But as the same thing happened at the same period with many other prelates, it seems more just to regard it as a necessity of the times. When the rod of the magistrate passes into priestly hands, it is gen- erally by a process of at least three steps. First, it is dropped by the hands that ought to hold it ; then, falling upon the 9 Socrates, our only authority for this part of S. Cyril’s life, evidently writes under a threefold bias. As a Constantinopolitan he had no liking for the Alexandrian ; as partial to the Novatians, he was unfriendly to a Bishop who suppressed that sect ; as a cold-blooded man of. liberal views, he felt an antipathy for the zealous defender of the Faith. He shows his bias chiefly in two particulars. Firsts he mentions Cyril only in matters prejudicial to his fame ; secondly, he omits such circumstances as might explain or justify Cyril’s conduct. Notwithstanding all this, I give the facts as Socrates relates them, merely adding here and there what he omits. Soc. E. H. vii. 7, 13-15. Nestorius and S. Cyril. 5 1 5 ground, it becomes a serpent ; finally, it is seized by whatever hand seems at the time most capable. Such, it is reasonable to suppose, was the nature of Cyril’s usurpations. On his accession he was ambitious, as rulers new to power are apt to be, to pick up and enforce neglected laws. Edicts against the sects were precisely of that character. Most prelates began by an attempt to enforce them, few were Excesses, so unwise as to persist in the effort. Cyril, like the rest, made a vigorous start he suppressed the worship of the Novatians, seized their Church property, and confiscated the goods of their Bishop Theopemptus. He next comes before us in a bitter contest with the Jews of Alexandria and with Orestes the Prefect. The Jews, it ap- pears, infuriated against tlie Christians about some Quarrel quarrel connected with the mimes or dancers, had as- sembled in the theatre on a certain Sabbath ; and Orestes had met them there, to put forth a new polity, or order, for^the better regulation of the shows. A few Christians looked in to learn the nature of the order. One of them, Hierax, a schoolmaster, an ardent admirer of the Bishop, was detected, seized as a spy, dragged before the Prefect, and in compliance with the outcry of the Jews, was forthwith put to the torture. From a ruler thus indulgent to the humors of a mob, little could be hoped for in the way of justice : Cyril contented himself, therefore, with an appeal to the leading men of the hostile sect, warning them of the danger they incurred, if they went on provoking the anger of the Christians. The warning. Massacre or threat, was of no avail. The Jews, confident of <>/ . . Ill Christians. impunity, added plot to plot, and at length resorted to Expulsion . .of the Jews. an attempt of the most atrocious character. Having agreed that each should wear a ring of the white bark of a palm-branch for mutual recognition, they posted themselves in Bingham justly censures the invidious way in which Socrates tells this story : viz., that he mentions the rigid acts of Cyril without alluding to the law — an edict of Arcadius and Honorius — under which he acted. Ch. An- tiquit. V. iv. II. 5 1 6 History of the Church. the streets at the dead of night, raised a cry that Alexander’s church was on fire, and slew the Christians one by one as they rushed out to the rescue. The carnage continued till daybreak, when the Christians rallied, with the Bishop at their head, drove back the murderers, took their synagogues by storm, sacked their quarters, and finally succeeded in expelling them in a body from the city. Where Orestes was during this mHee^ nowhere appears. We only learn that he was grieved at the loss to the city of so many Efforts wealthy Jews, and that he wrote to the Emperor, com- f or Peace, Christians. Cyril also wrote, com- plaining of the Jews. In the meantime, the people Avere urgent for a reconciliation between the Prefect and the Bishop. So long as they were at variance, the majority of the citizens were virtually outlaws, and no man was secure of life or limb. Cyril was not slow to make suitable advances. He sent messengers of peace to the irritated governor; and when these were ^re- jected, without even the scant courtesy of a hearing, the Bishop went to him in person, holding the Gospels out before him, as an olive-branch. The Prefect would have nothing to do with him, and the situation of the Christians became more desperate. • Under these circumstances, the Nitrian Monks, men whose burning zeal was tempered with the least amount possible of Riot of the practical discretion, saw fit to interfere in behalf of Monks, their spiritual head. Five hundred of them came in from the desert, and meeting Orestes in his chariot, surrounded by his guards, expostulated with him in monkish fashion. It is likely that he was not more civil to them than he had been to the Bishop : at all events, they soon came to rough words, call- ing him pagan, idolater, and other hard names. Thoroughly frightened, the Prefect protested that he was a Christian. The Nitrians gave little heed to his protestations ; and one of them, named Ammon ius, threw a stone at him and wounded him in the head. The guards take to flight, as seeips to have been their custom in cases of emergency : but the citizens run up, 517 Nestorius and S. Cyril. called a Martyr. the monks in turn are routed," and Ammonius is seized, scourged and tortured till death comes to his relief. Having made sure of him, Orestes, as usual, wrote a letter of complaint to the Court. Cyril sent in a statement for the opposite side. He even went so far, in anger at the Prefect or in pity of ^ ' ° . . Ammomus the monk, as to eulogize Ammonius in a public dis- course ; calling him Thaumasios, the Admirable, and entering his name upon the Roll of the Martyrs. For this he was much blamed by the more sober sort ; and the Bishop him- self, when he had thought better of it, was glad to let the matter be buried in oblivion. So far, in this eventful story, there seems to be a strange reversal of the ordinary relations of human society : the priest changes characters with the prefect, the monk with the strange soldier, the sheep with the shepherd : as the drama draws to a close, a new phenomenon appears, in the shape of a fair young woman, who with marvellous dignity and propriety assumes and sustains the part commonly appropriate to wrinkled men. Hypatia, the famous daughter of Cleon the mathematician, a virgin, a beauty, a scholar, a sage, a political oracle, an ac- complished lecturer, was the acknowledged head in Alexandria of that school of philosophy which was the pride o^aganism and the most formidable antagonist of Chris- tianity. She was the flower of the tree which Plotinus had planted and Porphyrins watered. As such she could not but be unpopular with the mass of Christians. She was extremely Hypatia. The terrific character which grandiloquent writers have given these monks seems to have been appreciated only by Orestes and the guards : citi- zens were not so much afraid pf them. *2 It is so much the custom to mention only the praises of Hypatia, that I almost shrink from putting in a word of qualification. It is due to truth, how- ever, to remark that the facts of her story, as related by Damascius {apud Suidam), reveal a woman who could unsex herself in a most revolting man- ner. Modern delicacy, therefore — e. g.y the Biographie Universelle — is con- tent to eulogize her for repelling too ardent lovers ; to say how she did it is tolerable only in Greek. 5 1 8 History of the Church. intimate, moreover, with the Prefect Orestes. As such she was Suspicions vehemently suspected, perhaps unjustly, of fomenting against her. petulant and sulky mood which had kept the city so long in a fever of excitement. In a morbid condition of the public mind, suspicion is more irritating than proven guilt. The feeling against Hypatia soon fretted into a frenzy. A number of fanatics, perhaps the Parabolani,^^ those desperadoes of charity in the early Church, men who devoted themselves to familiarity with suffering in its ghastliest forms, felt a call to remove the fair obstacle to peace and unity. Headed by one Her Cruel Peter, a Reader, they met Hypatia in the street, tore her from her carriage, dragged her to a church hard by, stripped her, cut up her body with sharp shells, and finally burnt her mangled limbs in a place called Cinaron. The fiend- ish act brought no little reproach upon the Church and upon the Bishop. Even the Court was moved by it to adopt some measures for the public security : as the rankness of the Para- bolani manifetly required weeding, their order was reduced by a special edict to the number of five hundred. There is no proof whatever that the Bishop was responsible,*^ by word or deed, for the fate of Hypatia : still the catastrophe ^ was a lesson that a wise man, in his position, would Fourteen ^ Years of lay to heart. How Cyril took it we have no means of knowing. We find, however, that the next ten years of his life were comparatively quiet. It is also on record, that during this time he abandoned one strong prejudice inherited from his uncle, and allowed the name of S. Chrysostom to be *3 The name is synonymous with Parabolarii — desperadoes — a name of reproach given to the Christians on account of their eagerness for martyrdom. Bingham’s Antiquities ^ III. ix. i. The Parabolani probably date from the great plague, A.D. 263, in that enthusiastic care for the dead and dying which is described by Dionysius, ap. Euseb. vii. 22. Like all societies which orig- inate in a particular necessity, they degenerated when the necessity had passed away, and became a dangerous, though still useful, faction. See Tillemont, S. Cyrille^ art. iv. Damascius, however, charges him with jealousy of Hypatia’s popu- larity as a lecturer. Suidae Lexicon. Nestorius and S. Cyril. 5 1 9 inserted in the diptychs. This was done, to be sure, on the urgent remonstrances of the other Bishops : but in cases of this kind, involving the surrender of a cherished feeling, it shows greater humility to yield to one^s peers than to act upon the dictates of private reason. Such, then, was the man who came forward, or was put for- ward, rather, by his eminent position in the Hierarchy, as the champion of the doctrine of the Incarnation. He character was a man of strong will, precipitate, zealous, not un- like Nestorius in the more obvious traits of his character. In one point, however, there seems to have been a difference of the first importance. Cyril, though impetuous by nature, was not incapable of second and better thoughts. He could learn from experience, he was patient of rebuke. S. Isidore of Isidore^ Pelusium, his austere monitor, rebuked his ‘‘pride” in the matter of S. Chrysostom, with a plainness of speech which would have set most men frantic. Afterwards, again, in ,the Nestorian quarrel, he smote him sharply on the one cheek for his excess of zeal, and still more sharply on the other for his moderation. The grace to take such reproofs and profit by them, is often that which makes the difference between the heretic and the saint, between Cyril and Nestorius. As a theo- logian, Cyril won a high place in general esteem. More than any other man of his day, he seized instinctively, and inflexibly maintained, that narrow middle way which is the path of safety. How far he merited the name of Saint, which the Church East and West has accorded to him, we at the present day have slen- der means of judging ; for we know nothing of the tenor of his daily life : history reveals him to us only as he appeared amid scenes of strife — scenes in which, so far as appearances go, the best men often seem to differ little from the worst. The Nestorian controversy, it has been mentioned, had en- kindled the zeal of the monks in Egypt : to them the first Letter *5 It is unfair, in modern writers, to cite these rebukes as evidence against S. Cyril. Holy men are thrifty of their censures : they bestow them, not where they are most deserved, but where they are most likely to be heeded. 520 History of the Church. of Cyril was addressed. An answer to it came from a friend of Cyril and Nestorius ill Constantinople. Efforts being made, the meanwhile, to prejudice the Emperor against Cyril, A.D. 429. numerous inquiries coming to the latter from Celestine of Rome and other prominent Bishops, with not a few complaints of his inertness, he at length addressed a sharp letter to Nestorius himself, and received a brief and cool and contemptuous reply. To Celestine Nestorius wrote somewhat more at length, put- ting the best face upon his new opinions.*^ The letter came under the eye of the famous Leo, then Archdeacon, Nestorius and ^ afterwards known as Leo the Great, and by his advice was handed over to Cassian, to be translated into Latin and refuted. The result was an able tract, which appeared not long after, on the Doctrine of the Incarnation. A second letter from Cyril to Nestorius elicited a reply, in which the Union of the two Natures in One Person might seem to Lett rs to have been almost admitted : there was no retractation, ^churThf however, and terms were shuffled in a way which left A.b. 430. room to doubt the sincerity of the author’s meaning. Nestorius also wrote once more to Rome. As usual in such ques- tions, innumerable epistles were passing to and fro, in every di- rection. Finally, Cyril, having held the meanwhile a Council at Alexandria, sent a special messenger to Celestine, with a decla- ration of faith on the part of the Council, and a careful state- ment of the heads of heresy supposed to be held by Nestorius. A Council met at Rome, with these documents before it, and with elaborate memorials from other quarters. Nestorius For the order of events and the dates — which in this controversy are of great importance — I refer the reader to Neale’s Holy Eastern Church, Book I. sect. i. Milman, in his anxiety to convict Cyril of prejudichig the mind of Celestine against Nestorius, is forced to admit that Nestorius wrote first, but thinks Cyril to have been virtually beforehand with him, from his having written in Latin : he forgets that the Letter of Nestorius was condemned as soon as received ; that it was given to Cassian to be refuted as well as trans- lated. Lat. Christianity y vol. i. Neslorius and S. Cyril. 521 was condemned. To Cyril it was entrusted to carry out the sentence, and after due warning, with sufficient time coundi allowed for retractation, to take the necessary steps for making it final. That nothing might be done imma- turely, letters were sent at the same time to Nestorius, John of Antioch, Juvenal of Jerusalem, and other leading Bishops. John of Antioch was a personal friend of Nestorius ; and he acted the part of a friend, by urging him"^ affection- jokno/ ately to bend to the storm, and to spare the Church the scandal of a needless schism. I have ‘‘always thought,’’ he said, “that your meaning dLCCordtd with that of the Fathers and Church Doctors. If so, why scruple at a word ? Why expose yourself to the charge of a childish con- fetter to tentiousness, by battling against a term which can be used in a good sense, and which has been so used, or at least has been allowed, by all sound teachers ? It is no shame to yield in a matter of this kind. Many have so yielded for the peace of the Church. You and I remember how it was with our blessed master Theodorus (of Mopsuestia) : how he broached first to you, who had his confidence at that time, and afterwards to others, a disquieting opinion ; how he repented of it when he saw that it engendered strife ; how openly he recanted for the Church’s sake ; how, in consequence of this, he stood in higher credit than before.” So, in substance, John wrote: a letter ‘creditable to the good sense and kind feeling of the writer. The answer of Nestorius showed a heart full of the Answer of worst heresy : the pride of a morbid orthodoxy, the bigotry of self-confidence which delighted to be attacked, the determination at all hazards to brand his brethren with an ab- surdity — that the “ Deity originated from the Virgin” — which no sane man could\iQ\^^ and which everyone disavowed. “Of all men,” says he, “I thought myself the last to be charged with any departure from right belief : known, as I am, to be the foe of heresy, and to take pleasure in the thousands of assaults *7 Hardouin. i, pp. 1327-1334. 522 History of the Church. to which my zeal for sound doctrine has continually exposed me.’' He protested, however, that he had no objection to the word Theotokos^ rightly understood. In fact, he seemed ready to sacrifice everything, except his pride : but he declared him- self confident that, if a General Council were granted him, the whole matter could be settled to universal satisfaction. He relied, it is probable, on the influence of the Court. Cyril executed his task with due deliberation. More than two months elapsed before he prepared, with the help of a Synod at Alexandria, the test of orthodoxy which Twelve Ncstorius was to sign. It was in the shape of twelve A nathemas. . , i • • r i • Novfmber, Anathemas,*^ denying in as many forms the existence A D* of two Persons or Hypostases in Christ, and affirming the Union of the two Natures to be real in such a sense, that the Flesh assumed by the Word is truly His Flesh, not that of another person joined on to Him. This is known as the doc- trine of the Hypostatic Union. Nestorius responded by twelve counter Anathemas, aimed partly at a supposed confusion of the two Natures^ as when Em- manuel is called God the Word, or when Mary is called Twelve , ^ Theotokos ; partly at a supposed physical change of the ' Divine Substance into Fleshp as when it is said “ The Word was made Flesh”; partly, against direct adoration of Christ as God, Nestorius allowing only a relative worship to ^^the servant form,” on account of ‘‘its connection with the Nature of the Only-Begotten.” The word anathema, like the word damn, has been so much taken in vain, that the English reader is apt to attribute to it a harsher meaning than properly belongs to it. It means properly a thing laid up, or reserved, for the righteous judgment of God. The Church, properly speaking, judges no man: she anathematizes, i. e., leaves certain things or certain men to God’s judg- ment. *9 The transiibstantiation of the Divine Substance into Flesh, or of the Flesh into the Divine Substance, was of course denied by the Catholics, who referred to the analogy of the Eucharist as an illustration of the truth they maintained : as in that sacrament the bread becomes the Body, without chang- ing its substance or nature, so, etc. See Pearson, On the Creed, Art iii. Council of Ephesus. 523 CHAPTER 11. * COUNCIL OF EPHESUS. — SYRIAN CHRISTIANITY. With the consent of all parties, the Emperor called a Gen- eral Council, to meet at Ephesus on the ensuing ^caiul. Pentecost. The Council assembled. Nestorius was first on the ground with a numerous body of friends. Cyril came not long after with a train of about fifty Egyptian Bishops. Juve- Ephesus nal of Jerusalem arrived a few days later than the June, A.D. 431. time appointed. John of Antioch was latest of all, but as he sent an excuse for his tardiness, the Council waited for him fifteen days. The interval was spent in conferences, discussions, negotia- tions, intrigues. The season was hot and dry ; and one or two Bishops died from fevers engendered by the heat. The Debates in debates were not more temperate than the weather. • Cyril, it is said, skirmished with the enemy, harassing him by powerful reasoning and vigorous abuse. Memnon of Ephesus was even more active on the same side. On the other hand, Nestorius exasperated the strong feeling against himself, by frivolous and irreverent off-hand speeches : he would not wor- ship, he declared, a God two months old. Under such circumstances nothing was to be gained by delay, nothing by discussion. The Bishops had already waited fifteen days, some of them longer, but John of Antioch still - . Count il failed to make his appearance. Many suspected that opened : he intended to wear out the Council by delay. Cyril and the majority were in favor of proceeding to business at once. 524 History of the Church. 9 Nestorius and his friends protested.* So did Candidianus, the Imperial Commissioner. Sixty-eight of the prelates were in- duced to sign the protest. In spite of all this, the majority persisted, and the Council was formally opened with an attend- ance of one hundred and fifty-eight Bishops. Nestorius was thrice summoned, and thrice refused to appear. The Creed of Nicsea was read : then letters of Cyril, Nestorius, Nestorius Celestiue, followed by remarks and acclamations of Condemned, agreement or dissent. Next came testimony to the effect that Nestorius had not retracted his error, but, by his profane speech about a God of two months old, had rather confirmed it. Extracts from the Fathers were read, and ex- tracts from the writings of Nestorius. Finally, sentence of deposition and excommunication was pronounced, and signed by the Bishops present. Other signatures were afterwards added, making the number in all about two hundred. Such was the action of the first day’s session of the Council. Five days later, John of Antioch arrived and opened a separate Rival Synod of the friends of Nestorius. A wretched time Councils, fallowed : Council against Council, sentence against sentence, protest against protest. John and his party, on the one side, Cyril and Memnon on the other, were mutually de- posed. The majority, however, were confirmed in the course they had taken by the arrival of Legates from Rome, who, hav- ing heard the Acts of the first session read, assented to them and subscribed the deposition of Nestorius. The Court interfered : at first by a commissioner who, after a vain endeavor to bring the parties to terms, read a letter from The Court the Emperor approving the deposition of Nestorius, interferes, ^nd Memnou ; afterwards, these three being the meanwhile arrested, by summoning a deputation of eight from each Council, to meet the Emperor at Chalcedon. The result took every one by surprise. Cyril hitherto had * The haste of Cyril has been much censured : I doubt, however, whether any deliberative body could be induced to wait more than fifteen days, in hot weather, on the convenience of a dilatory and perhaps hostile member. 525 Council of Ephesus. been under the ban of the Court. Nestorius, on the contrary, had been high in favor. When the final decision came, all this was reversed : whether it was that the facts of the case The Depo- proved irresistible, or, as some alleged, that Alexan- Nlltltius drian gold proved superior to the gold of Constant!- nople, Theodosius confirmed the decree of the first session of the Council ; Nestorius was left to his fate ; Maximian was elected Bishop in his stead ; and Cyril returned to his see in triumph. Much soreness*remained among the Bishops of the defeated party. But in the course of the next year, John of Antioch and Cyril were reconciled : the latter declaring the Divine cyriiand Word to be Impassible — a point on which his orthodoxy recotuiud, had been called in question ; and the former signing a Confession that “ Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only Son of God : perfect God, and perfect Man of a reasonable soul and of flesh subsisting : according to His Divinity, begotten of the Father before the world ; according to His Humanity, born in these last days, for our Salvation, of the Virgin Mary : consubstantial with the Father, according to His Godhead, and consubstantial with us, according to His Manhood : and in that the two Natures have been united, we acknowledge one Lord, one Christ, one Son. Wherefore we confess that the Blessed Virgin is the Mother of God : because the Word of God was incarnate and was made man.^* Among those who had sided with Nestorius from a mis- apprehension of the views of the opposite side, Theodoret of Cyrus, who holds a high place among the Church Extreme Historians, was one of the most learned and saintly in life : he was also one of the last to forsake his error. There were others who really inclined to the heresy imputed to Cyril. These were scandalized by his moderation in his dealings with John of Antioch, and by his assertion of the two perfect Na- tures in Christ. S. Isidore of Pelusium was among those who blamed him for yielding too much. The fate of Nestorius was extremely sad. Banished first to 526 History of the Church. a monastery, thence to Petra, and thence to the great Oasis ; End of driven from this last shelter by the inroads of barbar- Nestorius. tribes ; destitute, afflicted and burdened with age, he wrote a piteous letter to the Court : but receiving no answer beyond a sentence of remoter exile, he finally perished, it is said, of a painful and loathsome disease. The tongue which had offended, or, as some say, his whole body, was eaten up of worms. Very different from all this was the fortune that attended his name and doctrine. As if to verify his proud promise of help- spreadof couquer the Persians, his system, when banished Nes^o ian from the Empire, was hospitably received into the rival Kingdom, and established itself there with splen- did success as the dominant form of religion.* The famous school of Edessa was the fountain-head of the error. There Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodorus of Tarsus were held in honor. There the flower of the Persian youth were instructed in the elements of Christian learning. Thence, through the violent zeal of the Catholic Bishops of the place, a host of ardent alumni, driven from the school, poured into the Eastern world and diffused everywhere their rationalistic tenets. Ibas, Persia, how One of their number, wrote a celebrated letter to gamed. Maris the Persian, in which the impression was con- veyed that Nestorius had been condemned without a hearing, and that Cyril and his friends were Apollinarians. The cal- umny spread, and effectually poisoned the mind of the East. About the same time, Barsumas of Nisibis, another disciple of the Edessan school, persuaded the Persian king that the Catho- lics in his dominions were but Roman spies, and that he could never be sure of the loyalty of his subjects, so long as they were one in faith with the Greeks. By arts of this kind, Nestorian- ism gained a firm hold in Persia. From Persia it spread, through all the intricate channels of Oriental commerce, into Arabia towards the south, back into 2 For the rest of this chapter see Asseman. Bibliothec, Oriental, tom. iii. Gibbon (chap, xlvii.) gives a good summary of Nestorian history. Syrian Christianity. 5.2 7 Mesopotamia and Syria whence it came, northward and east- ward through many intervening tribes into Tartary, Syrian China, India : so that there jvas a time when a sepa- Church. rate Christendom flourished, Syrian, Chaldsean, Oriental, tinged more or less with Nestorian views, which rivalled in numbers^ and extent of territory the Greek and Latin Churches taken together. But this great body held the name Nestorian only as a term of reproach. The parent, they contended, ought not to take the name of the child : Nestorius might be called a how far Syrian, but not the Syrians Nestorians.^ They ab- horred, however, the memory of ‘^the Egyptian they re- jected the Council of Ephesus. On the other hand, most of them honored the names of Nestorius, Theodorus, and Diodo- rus. For the rest, their religion may be described as a cautious and captious^ Catholicism. They professed to hold ‘^without variation what they had received from Apostolic times.” In doctrine, they were averse to new definitions ; in morals, they avoided enthusiasm. Developments, whether good peculiar or bad, found little favor among them. Their Clergy, rtews. except the highe'st order, were allowed to marry as often as they pleased. The same liberty was accorded to monks and nuns. Scripture they preferred in the grammatical sense : the versions in use among them have proved, in most of the disputed texts,^ more correct than those which orthodox writers have cited against them. On the whole, while their separation from the rest of Christendom had the effect of dwarfing their theology, 3 Thomassin. Vet. et Nov. Eccles. Disciplin. pars i. liber i. cap. xxiv. vii. 4 « Why,” they asked, “ should they be called after a Greek whom they had never seen, and who knew not a word of their language ?” See Asse- man. Bib. Oi'ient. tom. iii. pars ii. vii. 5. 5 Thus their principal objection to the Theotokos was, that Theos is the name oi the Trinity rather than of any one Person of the Trinity. They were unwilling to use terms in the same sense with other Catholics. Asseman. tom. iii vii. 6. ^ Asseman. tom. iii. pars ii. vii. 7. 528 History of the Church. so that they failed to express, and perhaps to grasp, the great Truth of the Incarnation, yet on the other hand, they avoided many of the superstitions, abuses, and corruptions which the livelier fancy of the Greeks and the sensuous spirit of the Latins readily admitted. We have thus the remarkable spectacle of a mighty Church, a full third of the Household of Faith, which became an arrested .4 growth, as it were — a stereotype, a witness holden un- Growth. — Qf religion of the first four centuries. Like S. Thomas, its great Apostle,^ Syrian Christianity believed up to a certain point, but then halted, not so much in unbelief as in a rational perplexity. The Nestorian quarrel was the occa- sion, not the cause of this. The cause perhaps lies in the simple fact that what may be called the vernacular Christianity of the East, growing up in the shade of that brilliant Greek exotic which appears almost alone in early history, had taken root far and wide, with a language, tradition, and peculiar temper of its own ; so that a separation long going on, and at some time inevitable, was precipitated by the misunderstandings of the Nestorian conflict. ^ Something of the same sort had appeared before in the his- tory of Judaic Christianity. We shall see a similar spectacle Principle again in the great Monophysite schisms, and later still, involved, gradual estrangement of the Greeks and Latins. In the progress of the Church, whether towards good or evil, there is not always that charity for the slow and feeble of the company, which induced Jacob® to ‘Gead on softly,** instead of attempting to keep pace with the swifter march of his brother. The tendency to ‘‘overdrive,** on the one hand, and to lag unduly on the other, has proved in all ages a chief pro- vocative of schism. 7 A very respectable tradition makes S. Thomas the Apostle of the Syri- ans, Chaldoeans, Parthians, Persians, Medes, and East Indians. For this, and for an account of the Christians of S. Thomas in India, see Asseman. Bib, Orient, tom. iii. ^ Gen. xxxiii. 13, 14. Eutyckes. 529 CHAPTER III. EUTYCHES AND THE COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON. The Council of Ephesus failed to satisfy either of the extreme parties in the question of the Incarnation : and even some who held a middle ground were not altogether content with . . , . . . Dioscorus its decisions. Cyril tried in vain to crown his previous . , ^ • i- rr^i 1 Theodoret. efforts by procuring the condemnation of Theodorus of Mopsuestia. A fiercer war was waged between Theodoret of Cyrus and Dioscorus of Alexandria, the successor of S. Cyril : a leaning towards Nestorius, on the one side, and towards Apol- linaris, on the other, being the alleged ground of dispute. Eutyches, an aged and venerated Abbot of a monastery near Constantinople, was strongly suspected of the latter 1 /- 11 1 • 1 1 Eutyches, error and was formally accused of it by the same Eusebius of Dorylaeum who had been so forward in exposing the pravity of Nestorius. For seventy years the old man had lived in his monastery as in a tomb ; never venturing out, except in one instance when he went to bear witness against the heresy of Nestorius. ° ^ Council At length, however, he is forced from his retreat. atc.p.. Summoned before a Synod at Constantinople, he is questioned and cross-questioned : he resorts in vain to excuses, quibbles, evasions ; seems to admit, and seems equally to deny, the charges brought against him : but amid all his obscurities and contradictions, maintains with obstinate conviction, that there are not two Natures in Christ after the Incarnation^ but one Nature incarnate. 23 * Evagrii, H. E. i. 9. 530 History of the Church. What he meant by this is not very clear. He may have sup- posed, with Apollinaris, that the Divine Word assumed only two of the three elements of our nature : or, with the forms of Docetse, that His Body was phantasmal ; or, with the the Heresy. ’ . , / ’ Monophysites, that the two Natures were so wrought together, like the soul and body of man, as to make up one compound Nature. The extreme followers of Eutyches after- wards held the second of these errors. As to Eutyches him- self, the Council forced him to acknowledge that our Lord is of one substance with us, according to His flesh; but when called on to anathematize the opposite opinion, he stubbornly refused. The Synod condemned him : the old man protesting, how- ever, amid much confusion, that he held the Faith of Nicsea Eutyches ^nd Ephesus \ that he subscribed to the doctrine of condemned, Athanasius ; and that he was willing to abide by the judgment of Rome and Alexandria. Flavianus, then Patriarch of Constantinople, had endeav- ored at first to abate the ardor of his colleagues, but at last felt obliged to concur in their decision. The Emperor A new ^ Trial Theodosius was not so easily convinced. To him the whole affair looked like a plot of the Nestorianizing party. So it seemed also to Dioscorus of Alexandria. As Eutyches had been a staunch friend of S. Cyril, it was natural enough to suspect the motives of those who had condemned him. A new Council therefore was called by the Emperor, to meet at Ephesus, and Flavianus and his colleagues were put on trial. Dioscorus, the leader of the Synod, had inherited the fiery zeal of his great predecessors, without their laborious and self- denying love of the Truth.* He had won the Episco- Character ^ of Diosco- pate by an extraordinary show of sanctity and humility. t"US» * But he soon laid himself open to charges of a grasping and tyrannical spirit. He ill-treated the Clergy. Under the Tillemont, tom. xv. ; S. Leon, art. ix ; Neale’s H. E. Ch. Book II. sect. iv. The Latrocinium. 531 His Colleagues. Robber Council^ A.D. 449. pretext of charity, he confiscated into the Church treasury the property of S. Cyril, thereby defrauding his heirs. What was still more scandalous, his palace was frequented by mimes or dancers ; and the courtesan Irene was notoriously kept as his concubine. Finally, he was possessed, to an extraordinary degree, with the Alexandrian jealousy of Constantinople. With this Dioscorus, Juvenal of Jerusalem and Thalassius of Csesarea shared the responsibility of the Council, being named in the Emperor’s letter as his co-assess- ors. There were present also about one hundred and twenty- five Bishops. From the disorderly character of its proceedings, the assem- bly was branded in later times with the title Latrocinium, or Robber Council. We have its Acts only as subse- quently related at Chalcedon by prelates who, on their own showing, had been bullied into a shameful compliance, and whose interest it was to make Dioscorus the scapegoat of their own shortcomings. Such witnesses are apt to exaggerate the violence to which they have succumbed. It seems pretty certain, however, that little regard was paid to the usual forms of synodical action ; that a large body of soldiers and counts, and a still larger body of monks, were ready to do the bidding of Dioscorus ; that when opposition arose, the monks rushed in ; that some of the Bishops were bruised, some wounded, some put in chains, some forced to sign a blank paper ; that, with the exception of one Roman Legate who protested and fled, all finally gave way : that, in short, Eutyckes Eutyches was cleared, while Flavianus and Eusebius EiavUnJs were condemned, deposed, and thrown into prison. Flavianus died not long after, of injuries received at the hands of Dioscorus. The Acts, as corrected by the latter, say noth- ing of all this violence. Unfortunately no other records re- mained : for the tablets kept by the notaries of the other Bish- ops had been seized, it was said, by order of Dioscorus, and had been all destroyed. Such is the substance of the testimony given at the Council of Chalcedon. 532 History of the Church. Dioscorus, in all this, was countenanced by the Court ; and acting, as he thought, in the interest of a dominant party, secure Mistake of of the sympathy of the great body of the monks, ^ con- Dtoscorus. prestige of a See so often and so recently victorious, and fighting in a cause which seemed almost identical with that of S. Cyril, he may well have counted on the strength of party spirit to bear him out in his violence, and to pardon, perhaps to reward, the excesses of his zeal. The event soon showed how much he was mistaken. Party spirit in the Church was strong, not blind. Furious and un- Zeai for sccmly as were the passions of the age, the mightiest the Truth, still was love for the Truth. In the height of the tempest of religious animosities, there was a guiding star, there was a certain goal. The Incarnation, as a reality and a fact, must be cleared of every theory, however plausible, that might serve in any way to obscure it. By losing sight of this, more than by his arbitrary acts, Dioscorus lost at once and for- ever, for himself and for his See, the advantages of his strong position. Leo, the Roman Bishop, was the first to move against him. Before the meeting at Ephesus, he had written to Flavianus that famous Letter, which still remains a standard of Church teaching on the subject of the Incarnation. Diosco- Councti. the Letter should not be read in the Council. For this and other reasons, Leo urged the Emperor to take the necessary steps for bringing him to trial. Theodosius declined : for it was the fate of this feeble prince, more of a monk than of an Emperor, to Emperor foster the first growth of both those opposite, but kindred, heresies, which were destined from that time forth to distract the East. Not long after, he departed this life. His feeble and peace- ful, but inglorious, reign, beginning with an infancy of seven years, and ending with what was hardly more than an infancy 3 Dioscorus is charged with the crime of corrupting the manners of the monks : the corruption, however, had begun a good while before. Pulcheria. 533 of fifty, had yet afforded some proofs to mankind that piety alone suffices for the prosperity and safety of princes.** character No wars of any consequence had disturbed the East : ^eign^ no rebellion had unsheathed the sword of justice. For 407-450. this he owed much to his sister Pulcheria, who, having devoted herself to the virgin life and induced her two sisters to Pulcheria. do likewise, superintended the education of her brother, and was afterwards the soul of all his counsels. She furnished him with able masters in ‘‘horsemanship and the use of Education arms, in literature and science.** Another part of his s^us'thl training, and perhaps the only part in which he prof- ited much, was carefully looked to by the princess herself : “ she showed him how to gather up his robes, and how to take a seat ; to refrain from ill-timed laughter, to assume a mild or formi- dable aspect as the occasion might require, to inquire with urbanity into the cases of those who came before him with petitions. But chiefly she strove to imbue his mind with piety and with the love of prayer ; to go to Church regularly ; to con- tribute liberally to the erection and embellishment of sacred buildings ; to reverence the priests and other good men, and especially those who, in accordance with the laws of Christian- ity, had devoted themselves to philosophic asceticism.** Under this feminine, but firm, regime, the palace was more than half a monastery, and monkery luxuriated in a dreamland of unbridled imagination. It was at this period that Monachism Symeon,5 the famous pillar-saint, lived on the top of a post two cubits in circumference, “ endeavoring to realize in the body the existence of the heavenly hosts.** Nor was his a soli- tary example. His whim became a rule of life to hosts of im- itators. Indeed, such was the religious exaltation of the age, that Symeon, after all, was a sample of the more sober rather than of the wilder moods of ascetic enthusiasm. 4 Sozom. ix. 1-3; Evagr. i. 12-22; Socrat. vii. 42. 5 The historians, especially Evagrius, dwell with rapture upon these ex- travagances. Evag. i. 13, 14, 21. 534 History of the Church. A pilgrimage of the Empress Eudocia to Jerusalem, in „ , . imitation of S. Helena, enabled her to witness, and Eudocia. caused contemporary writers admiringly to record, a few of these wilder excesses of the monastic spirit. There were some ‘‘philosophers’* who, by continuous fasts and vigils, aimed at the condition of “tombless corpses” : to Strange bloodless, nerveless, passionless, silent as the grave, forms of was the height of their perfection. Others lived in Asceticism. ,, holes or caves or lairs of wild beasts, just large enough to admit the body in a crouching posture. Others, of either sex, roved almost naked in herds, through wilds and deserts, shunning the face of civilized men, browsing like beasts, and eluding. all pursuit by supernatural swiftness of foot. There were others, a chosen and “perfect” few, who by such exer- cises having attained the pinnacle of philosophic “apathy,” threw themselves down, as it were, into the common crowd, mixed with the world, courted temptation, frequented the pub- lic baths without regard to the distinction of sex, “ became men with men and women with women,” fasted, sometimes by total abstinence from food, sometimes by indulging “against their will” in luxurious repasts: in short, claimed to be “dead men” haunting the abodes of the living, and were popularly regarded with a corresponding reverence. Such were some of the spectacles with which Eudocia was edified in her munificent journey through the East : such had come to be considered the most perfect fruits of that Liberality . of the monastic system upon which she and Pulcheria, and Empress. , ^ the Court in general, were disposed to lavish the treas- ures of the Empire. At a later period, the Empress herself be- came a mark for scandal, fell into disgrace with her pious hus- band, and found a refuge amid the scenes which she had learned to admire. The vast numbers who indulged in such extravagances, or at Sensuous l^^st lent countenance to them, might lead one to Enthusiasm, conclude that the world at this time was running mad. In the East, however, it has never been the custom to The Council of Chalcedon. 535 shut up the insane. The vagaries which with us are hidden out of sight and almost forgotten, are there permitted to go at large, objects of reverence rather than of horror or shuddering compassion. But with all allowance for considerations of this kind, it is still plain that, in the age of the younger Theodosius, sensuous enthusiasm was fearfully increasing : so that, while cultivated minds were absorbed in the nice distinctions of a high theology, the people were straying, almost without check, into the wilds of a fanciful but grovelling superstition. Relic-worship, especially, received a new impulse at this time. The discovery of the remains of saints, from Zachary the Prophet and Stephen the Protomartyr, down to ReUo^ the forty who suffered in the army of Licinius, is a theme upon which historians^ had learned to dwell with rapture. Pulcheria is for nothing more highly lauded than for the Divine^ instinct she possessed for discoveries of this kind. On the death of her brother, the reins of government fell naturally into the hands of Pulcheria. She yielded so far to the prejudice that existed against feminine rule, as to Mardan choose a nominal husband and partner of the throne. Emperor^ A.D. 450. in the person of Marcian, an aged and worthy senator. With these changes in the Palace, there came also a new policy with regard to Church affairs. The wishes of Pope Leo, disre- garded by Theodosius, were at length carried out ; and, that peace might be restored to the Church, it was determined to call a Synod as nearly universal as the power of the Emperor could make it. Nicsea was first selected as the place for the Council. But Attila, at this time, was threatening the Empire with his hordes of victorious Huns, and it was not convenient that the • • 1 Counctl of Court should at such a crisis be absent from the capi- chaicedon^ ^ A.D, 451, tal. The Bishops therefore were summoned to Chal- cedon. There they finally assembled, in the Church of S. Eu- t Sozom. ix. 2, 17; Evag. i. 16. 536 History of the Church. phemia, by the sea-side, a most charming spot^ commanding a matchless view of the Propontis, the Imperial city, and the ma- jestic amphitheatre of wooded hills that rose in stately beauty behind. Pains had been taken to have the Church at large numerously represented.® About six hundred and thirty Bishops obeyed the Number summons to attend. The bulk of these came, as usual, from the East : the West was represented by the Le- Bishofs. gates of Pope Leo, who also sent letters to Marcian the Emperor, to Anatolius who had succeeded Flavianus in the See of Constantinople, and especially to the Council itself. The majesty of the Empire also was imposingly set forth. Nineteen Officers of officers, most magnificent and most illustrious,^* the Empire, (.q^suIs and ex-consuls, prefects and ex-prefects, mag- istrates and counts, civil and military, sat conspicuously on a platform before the Altar rails, as ‘‘judges most illustrious,** the counsellors, assessors, and moderators generally ofi the proceed- ings of the Synod. On the left of these, two “ most reverend** Bishops and one “most religious*’ Presbyter held the place of Leo, “the most holy and most reverend Archbishop of the mother city, Rome.” The thrones of Constantinople, An- tioch, Caesarea, Ephesus, with the Bishops of Asia, Pontus, Thrace, came next in order. On the other side, Alexandria was first, then Jerusalem, with the Bishops of Egypt, Palestine, Illyria. The Presence of the Lord was fitly symbolized, as at Ephesus, by a Book of the Holy Gospels placed in the midst of the assembly. Order being thus established, Paschasinus, a Legate of “the 7 Evagrius enlarges on the beauty of the scenery and on the delicious odor, surpassing all terrestrial perfumes, which exhaled from the body of S. Euphemia. To the prayers of this Saint much of the success of the Council was attributed. ® Copious accounts of this Council, including the Latrocinium, etc., are given in the Concilia. See also Evagrius, B. ii. ; also, for a useful summary, Hammond’s Councils and Canons ; Tillemont, tom. xv. S. Leon; Neale’s H. E. Ch. ♦ The Council of Chalcedon. 537 Apostolic See/^ stood up and said to the ^^most illustrious Judges and the most eminent assem*bly/* We hold First in our hands instructions from that most blessed and apostolic man, the Pope of the city Rome, the head of all the Churches, that Dioscorus shall not be permitted to sit in the Council. These instructions we are bound to follow. There- fore, if it please your magnificence, let Dioscorus go out, or else we go.** The Judges asked, What charges in particular are brought against the most reverend Bishop Dioscorus?** We allege,** replied the Legate, that he has dared to hold a Synod without the authority of the Apostolic See, a thing never done before, nor ever allowed.** The Judges said, ‘‘You must set forth the particulars wherein he has offended.** One of the Le- gates answered, “We cannot suffer such a wrong to ourselves or to you, as that a man who is on trial should sit here Dioscorus among us.** The Judges then said to Dioscorus, “If 'I'rtai, you sit as a judge, you cannot be at the same time a party to the cause.** Thereupon, Dioscorus placing himself as ordered in the midst of the assembly, and the Legates sitting in their own seats, Eusebius, “ the most religious Bishop of the city Dorylaeum,** came forward and said: “By the safety of the masters of the world, command my petition to be read, as the most pious Emperor has directed. I have been wronged by Dioscorus ; the Faith has been wronged ; Bishop Flavianus has been murdered. Along with me he has been unrighteously con- demned. Order my petition to be read.** The most illustrious Judges and the most eminent assembly answered, “Let the peti- tion be read.’* Then, Eusebius being ordered to sit down in his place, Veronicianus, “the sacred Secretary of the Divine Consistory,** took the petition from his hands and read it Such was the opening of the business at Chalcedon. It was a trial of Eutyches, Dioscorus and the Robber Council. Peti- tions were heard. Acts were read, testimony was re- Dioscorus ceived, Dioscorus the meanwhile pleading his own cothajues cause with great coolness and ability. The most he could prove was that he was not alone in fault. In this he 23* 53S History of the Church. succeeded so well that, when he was finally condemned, his principal colleagues in the proceedings at Ephesus shared his sentence. These, however, had already made their peace with Leo. They were equally prompt in submission to the Council, and were consequently restored. The guilt of Dioscorus was aggravated by contumacy, and by numerous acts of violence, tyranny, rapacity and scandalous behavior. With the condemnation of Eutyches and Dioscorus, the doc- trine of the Incarnation was more exactly defined ; and the four Definitions truly, perfectly, indivisibly, without confusion, became from that time the sum of the testimony of the four great Councils, the safeguard against every wind of error, from whatever quarter it might blow. That Jesus Christ is true God, had been witnessed at Nicaea ; that He is perfect Man, had been defined at Constantinople ; that He is indivisibly One Person, had been settled at Ephesus : finally, the six hundred and thirty at Chalcedon declared that He is one and the same Christ, the Son, the Lord, the Only-begotten, in^ two Natures, without confusion, change, division or separation.^* Most fully and accurately had all this been expressed in the famous Letter of Pope Leo.*® Accordingly when that document Leo's was read, the Council received it with acclamations : Letter, <> heretic. He is a Nestorian. Put the heretic out ! He at length had to yield. He anathematized Nestorius ; the The Monophy sites. 541 Judges pronounced him clear ; and the Synod in due form received him into favor. The Council concluded its labors by enacting twenty-eight canons : the last of which reaffirmed the Eastern rule of pre- cedence, by giving the second place of honor to Con- canon stantinople as new Rome. This was earnestly opposed by the Roman Legates. It was contrary, they urged, to the sixth canon of Nicaea, which declares that Rome shall have the primacy. But this was shown at once to be a false reading. They then urged that the Bishops present who had signed the twenty-eighth canon had done so against their will. But this was indignantly and unanimously denied. The Judges finally decided in favor of the canon, the Bishops stood by their de- cision, and though Leo afterwards declared it null and void, as being contrary to the sixth canon of Nicaea, yet it became law in the Eastern Church, and even Rome at a later period was obliged to acquiesce in it.*^ So ended a Synod, the most complete, the most End of the imposing, and in some respects the most important, Council. of all that had gone under the name of Ecumenical Councils. CHAPTER IV. % THE MONOPHYSITES. The testimony of Chalcedon, like that of Ephesus, had its wholesome effect mainly upon the upper soil of the Effect 0/ Empire, upon the cultivated and courtly Greek intel- Council. lect. The elements that lay lower, the Coptic, Syriac, Oriental mind, were only stirred by it into a poisonous fermentation. *3 Concil. Chalced. Act. xvi. *4 Tillemont, tom. xv. ; S. Leon^ art. cxxxvii. 542 History of the Church. In Egypt, ^ the doom of Dioscorus was furiously resented. Alexandria broke out into riot and revolt.* On the arrival of Troubles the new Patriarch appointed at Chalcedon, in Egypt, the populace assaulted the magistrates and troops, stormed the old temple of Serapis in which they had taken refuge, and having at length seized the victims of their displeasure, committed them alive to the flames. A reinforce- ment from the capital changed the face of affairs. The soldiery were in turn triumphant ; the citizens were quelled ; rape and robbery were the order of the day. A hollow truce ensued ; but faction was still busy beneath the surface. Timothy, a Presbyter, surnamed ^lurus, the Cat, Timothy from liis feline way of creeping into the cells of the the Cat. Monks by night, sedulously fanned the embers of sedi- tion. The flames burst forth anew on the death of the Emperor. Proterius, the Patriarch, was the principal victim. Being mur- dered in the Baptistery, whither he had fled, he was Murder 0/ Proterius, disembowclled, dragged by a rope through the streets * amid the jeers of the crowd, torn limb from limb, and finally, with that thorough-going savagery which distinguished the Alexandrians, what remained of him was burnt and the ashes scattered to the winds. Timothy was believed to have been at the bottom of all this. He, however, charged it upon the sol- diers. It is more certain that he managed to get himself made Bishop, and that the people of Alexandria, with their digni- taries, senators, and shipmasters,” petitioned the Emperor Leo to ratify the act. But there was a protest from all quarters against such a profanation. Among others, Symeon, the pillar-saint, wrote earnestly to prevent it. In the end, Timothy the Cat was banished, and another Timothy was elected in his place. From that time, the history of the Church in Egypt is a melancholy picture of decay, varied only by a few saintly names, such as that of John the Almoner,* a man who left a memory worthy of better times. The mass of the people clung * Evag. ii. 5, 8-1 1. * Neale’s H. E. Ch. Book III. The Monophysites. 543 to the tenets of Dioscorus. The Catholics kept up a feeble suc- cession in Alexandria, who were called, and called themselves,^ Melchites or Royalists : a name suffi- ciently indicative that the feud was political and so- cial as well as theological. Catholicism, in fact, seemed more and more, in the eyes of the Egyptians, the badge of an odious dependence upon Constantinople. It was a Hellenism which the true Copt had learned to abhor. A shadow of this growing alienation had appeared long be- fore in the times of the Meletian schism : we may see shadows glimpses of it also in the history of Monachism, and nowhere more clearly than in the life of S. Antony himself. For it is noted of that Saint that he was ignorant of Greek, and spake to his ‘‘ children’* in their native tongue. The same is true of the great eremites in general. The strange religious movement initiated by them, that mysterious Copti^, not epidemic which peopled the deserts and gave a new impulse to popular Christianity, drew its weird and sombre life from the old Coptic mind rather than from the sunny and ration- alizing Greeks. Yet so long as Greek rule centred in Alexan- dria, Egyptian Monachism was kept well in hand. Athanasius caressed it, Theophilus and Cyril were glad to humor it, Dios- corus corrupted it or was corrupted by it. But with the fall of Dioscorus the sceptre passed from Alexandria. Hellenism, in consequence, became foreign and detestable. Timothy the Cat, not a bad type of the old genius loci, began to purr portentously in the cells of the monks and in the hovels of the people. The country, in short, had followed with some reluctance the lead of Alexandria : from the sway of Constantinople it furiously revolted. It might have revolted from Christianity as well, had not the latter been provided with a hold on ative the public mind much deeper than Greek culture, much stronger than the bonds which kept the Empire together. 3 Renaudot, p. 119. 544 History of the Church. The Liturgies, it is probable, had been long celebrated in the Coptic as well as in the Greek the latter predominating rrr r ^ho citios, tho fomior in the country. From the Worship in ^ ^ the vulgar time of Dioscorus, the Coptic prevailed more and Tongue. more. Further south the Ethiopian was employed, or other vernacular tongues. In those languages the orthodoxy and devotion of the first four centuries remained, as it were, embalmed : for the flow of current speech soon drifted far away from the sacred standards, and the new religious idioms became as unintelligible and obsolete as the old. The Monophysite Patriarchs, so long as the Emperors main- Patrtarchs tained a show of authority over Egypt, were obliged and Monks. exile : their residence being the monastery of S. Macarius, in the Thebais. Timothy the Cat, however, enjoyed a brief restoration to the throne of Alexan- A.D. 470-477. dria, and was succeeded by Peter Mongus, one of the ablest of the sect. But he also was banished after a little while. His successors lived out of reach of the Greek tongue and Greek ideas, ruling numberless communities of monks, and keeping a firm hold through them upon the hearts of the people. Separated thus in language, in temper, in political views, in social and religious habits, in that bias of blood and race which Coptic ^ permanently subdued, Coptic Chris- Christianity has henceforth little in common with the tiamty. Greek Establishment. Its sympathies are with the Vernacularism of the East : of which, as the Nestorian schism had carried off a large section, the Monophysites fell heirs to as much as remained. With regard to Egypt and its dependencies, Nubia, Ethiopia, Abyssinia and parts of Arabia, the quarrel was carried on with a Madness of ^^ry of whicli some unhappy examples have already the People, given. It is needless to add more.^ The decay of great States engenders a ‘‘madness of the people,*' to which 4 Renaudot, Liturg. Oriental, cap. vi. ; Palmer’s Origines Liturg. 5 In troublous times men’s minds, especially in the East, are prone to ex- aggeration : so that the hundreds of thousands slain in some of the religious 545 The Monophysites. no crime seems too atrocious, no folly too extravagant : so that the testimony of an ancient Bishop^ may have a grain of truth in it when he declares that, under the consulship of Venantius and Celer, the people of Alexandria and all Egypt were seized with a strange and diabolical frenzy : great and small, slaves and freedmen, monks and clergy, the natives of the land who opposed the Synod of Chalcedon, lost their speech and reason, barked like dogs, and tore with their own teeth the flesh from their own hands and arms/' However this maybe, Entire the alienation of the Egyptians went on increasing. By the middle of the seventh century it had gone so far that, when the Saracens came in, the standard of the Church and Empire was upheld only by a trembling remnant in Alexandria: the mass of the people were ready to welcome the new yoke, and many of them, perhaps, the new religion. A like falling away, from the same or like causes, had fol- lowed the Council of Chalcedon in Palestine and General Syria. The monks, as usual, were at the bottom of awap the mischief. In Palestine, Theodosius and other ascetics had come back from the Council fuming with indignation. The Faith had been betrayed, their Order had been slighted. Such ^ was the cry that resounded through the wilderness Palestine^ and kindled the monastic heart. The Patriarch Juve- nalis fled in terror from Jerusalem and took refuge in Constanti- nople : Theodosius, the meanwhile, ordaining whom he would, stirring the people far and wide to revolt against the Empire, and turning the Church upside down. The rebellion was sub- dued, and Juvenalis was restored to his See. But order and peace returned not with him. Many sad occurrences followed his arrival, and either party indulged in whatever proceedings their anger suggested." riots might be safely reduced, perhaps, to as many hundreds. See Gibbon, ch. xlvii. V., and Neale, vol. ii. pp. 33, 44. ^ Victor Tunnunensis, quoted by Gibbon, ch. xlvii. 546 History of the Church. The quarrel, ostensibly, hinged upon a letter : whether Difference Clirist is iu, or ofj two Natures, was a question that men ‘^reckless of death in any shape,’’ that excited the most bitter and enduring animosities. But, in reality, there was much that lay behind the apparent question. In Palestine, as in Egypt, the souls of men were galled Quarrel, inveterate misrule ; the harness of Greek sway had grown stiff and cumbersome, the back of Nativism was sore, and winced at every touch. In Syria, the chief agitator was Barsumas, the ringleader of that famous thousand who had abetted Eutyches and Dioscorus ^ . in the Robber Council. He also returned in a fury In Syria. from Chalcedon, where he had been condemned, and communicated his rage far and wide through Syria. Through some of his followers the infection extended into Mesopotamia , and Armenia. In the middle of the sixth century, the Jacob Baradai, Monk Jacob, sumamcd Baradai, or the Ragged, after- A.D. 541-578. wards Bishop of Edessa, propagated it more largely and organized it more powerfully. From him was the main line of Monophysite Patriarchs. From him the sect took the name Jacobite, by which it is best known in history. In all these instances the general result was the same the establishment of schismatical Patriarchates, with their dependen- Generai cies, in Syria, Armenia, Egypt^; the fixing of creeds, canons, customs, and ritual observances, at the point which they had reached before the Council of Chalcedon ; the more general use, in worship, of the vernacular tongues ; a con- tinuous disintegration into sects and schisms ; yet wuthal a cer- tain conservatism, in the midst of furious agitations,® which fossilized the religion of three, as Nestorianism had done that of two, General Councils, and kept it a mute witness to later times. Such conservatism, however, was of the letter rather than 7 See Assemanni, Bibliothec. Oriental, tom. ii. ® The Liturgies were the conservative element : and the very violence of controversy made men jealous of any alterations in the Liturgies. 547 The Monophysites. of the spirit. The Monophysite heresy professed, like the Nes- torian, to follow the old paths and to be content with Nature o/ the old definitions. But the root of both errors was an aversion to the mystery of the Incarnation. From a bias usually ascribed to Oriental philosophy, but belonging, same perhaps, to philosophy in general, men shrank from such a nearness of God and man. They endeavored to evade it : Nestorius, by separating the two Natures in two distinct persons ; Eutyches, by so joining the two as to cause the less to be swallowed up of the greater. Of the numberless Monophysite sects,^ the Armenians were chiefly Eutychian : they held, that is, to the tenet of a phantas- mal or ethereal body, and were called Phantasiasts or sects, Docetce, There were numerous shades of this opinion. The Incorrupticolce held that the Flesh of Christ was not subject to the usual wear and repair of the human body : their oppo- nents they branded as Phthartolatrce^ Ktisfolatrce, worshippers of the corruptible, creature-worshippers. They differed, and split into minor sects, on the question whether the Flesh of Christ was created incorruptible, or rendered incorruptible, or uncreated as well as incorruptible. The Theopaschites main- tained that the Divinity suffered on the Cross : their symbol, however, the addition to the Trisagion of the phrase, Who wast crucified for usf jcan be easily understood in an orthodox sense. The Egyptians followed Dioscorus, and contended that as body and soul make one man^ so the Divinity and Hu- Dioscorians, manity make up one compound Nature in Christ. These again were divided into numerous sects. Syria was the great battle-field of Orientalism in general. There Eutychians and Dioscorians anathematized one Syria the another : while both waged a vigorous war with the Catholics and Nestorians. There was a disposition, however, to fall back occasionally on the ground of indifferentism so 9 Asseman. tom. ii. Dissertat. iv. ; Neale’s H, E, Ch, vol. ii. hi. i. Asseman. tom. ii. Dissertat. iii. 548 History of the Church. that the religious strifes of the East were diversified by truces and times of intercommunion. In the meanwhile the Emperors, who were virtually the Policy o/the popcs of the Melcliites, the heads and defenders of Emperors, Catholicism, Were doing what they could to settle the religious quarrels of their subjects. With this view,* Leo, Marcian’s successor, consulted the Leo, Metropolitans of the East as to the expediency of A.D. 458 . passing by the decrees of Chalcedon they, how- ever, declined to concur in any such measure. With the same view, Zeno, by the advice of the Patriarch Acacius, issued his famous Henoticon^^"^ or edict of unity. To Zeno. The an end to a strife by which multitudes were de- Henottcon. pj-iyed of the Lavcr of Regeneration, and multitudes more of the grace of the Divine Communion ; through which murders innumerable were committed, so that earth and the very air were defiled with blood : he declared that the Faith of the Three Hundred and Eighteen, with the added testimony of Constantinople and Ephesus, including the twelve Anathemas of Cyril and the anathemas pronounced against Nestorius and Eutyches, would be satisfactory and sufficient. The Council of Chalcedon and the Tome of Leo he quietly passed over. jjcnu The omission was intended as a peace-offering to the received. Egyptians, and was favorably received by large num- bers, both of the heretics and moderate Catholics. Peter the Fuller and Peter Mongus, the Monophysite Patriarchs in- Anti- och and Alexandria, gave in their adherence. But many of their party broke off from them, and were thenceforth known in Schism 0 / A cej>ha/i, or Headless. Among the Catho- w there were similar divisions. Felix 11. of Rome, A D- 484-5'9. resenting the slight put upon his See in the omission of Leo’s Tome from the Henoticon, refused to commune with the Greek Church till the wrong should be redressed ; and the schism lasted thirty-five years. His name, when he died, was omitted from the diptychs of Constantinople. On the other ** Evag. ii. 9, 10. Evag. iii. 14. 549 The Monophysiles. hand, there was no place in the Roman diptychs for some of the most saintly of the Oriental Bishops. What was worse, certain Monks in the Eastern capital, the Akoemetas or watchers, took part with Rome : which enabled the latter to harass the rival See, keeping it in a state of perpetual irritation. Anastasius came to the throne, an old man, fond of peace, averse to the shedding of blood, anxious to conciliate all differ- ences of opinion. But in times of general ferment, padjic neutrality, to be effective, is forced to take up arms, ^ course r/ ^ . Anastasius. and tolerance becomes less tolerant than bigotry itself. Such proved to be the case with the well-intentioned Emperor. He deposed those Bishops who proclaimed, and those who anathematized, the Council of Chalcedon.^^'^ jje let them alone, however, if the avowal of their tenets provoked no op- position ; and he countermanded the sentence of deposition, in case the enforcing of it should be violently resisted. The result of it all was a decided increase of the spirit of sedition. Constantinople especially was the theatre of religious tu- mults,*'* occasioned by an attempt, on the part of certain Monks, to introduce the chanting of the Trisagion with the mots in the Antiochean addition, Thou that wast crucified for us.'' The first attempts of the kind were easily enough put down. Afterwards the Emperor was advised to enforce the tol- eration of the obnoxious chant, and two of his officers under- took to sing it in church. A furious riot ensued. The friends of the old Trisagion and the votaries of the new paraded the streets, chanting their respective symbols. From words to blows, from blows to bloodshed, and from bloodshed to a complete satur- nalia of incendiarism, sacrilege, pillage, was common enough in an age when Liberty, if it breathed at all, breathed only in con- vulsive outbreaks. In the present instance, the throne itself was shaken in the tumult. There was a cry on all sides for Anastasius the Emperor to resign. Anastasius submitted. He resigns, appeared before the mob with his diadem in his hand ; hearkened with meek attention to the orthodox Trisagion which *3 Evag. iii. 30, 34. *4 Evag. iii. 44. 550 History of the Church. they thundered in his ears ; and finally, professing himself will- ing to abdicate, called upon them, *‘as all could not reign,'' to make choice of one to be his successor. The crowd was molli- fied ; and Anastasius, having appeased them further by the blood of the two obnoxious officers, was allowed to resume the sem- blance of imperial power. Concessions more ample still were extorted by Vitalian, a Scythian chief, who, enlisting a horde of Huns in the cause of ^ Chalcedon and Rome, devastated Thrace, and threat- o/vitaiian, ened Constantinople. More than sixty-five thousand A.D. 511-516. * ^ are said to have perished in this rebellion. Anastasius purchased peace by a reconciliation with Rome, the recall of the banished Bishops, and the establishment of the authority of the Council of Chalcedon. CHAPTER V. JUSTINIAN AND THE FIFTH GENERAL COUNCIL. Justinian was better fitted to play the part of a lay pope, and his reign exhibited a rank growth of those vices which spring Justinian, ^om the mingled seed of politics and religion.* Like A.D. 527-565. Theodosius II., he affected the life of a monk, and cherished monkish superstitions. Like Constantins, he spent his time in the critical balancing of dogmas. Like Valens, he * Gibbon, ch. xl-xliv. Procopius, the chief authority on Justinian’s reign, has left a public history, and a secret ; the latter showing how little reliance can be placed on the coloring of the former. It is not easy to decide which of the two pictures is nearer the truth. The “ Anecdotes,” however, present the portrait of a demon rather than of a man, and the amount of vituperation in them is grossly in excess of the credible facts : such portraiture is open to grave suspicion. Justinian and the Fifth General Council. 551 was a ruthless persecutor : heretics, Jews, Samaritans, pagans, were all victims in turn of his remorseless edicts ; if the Catho- lics escaped, it was only because his last change of opinion occurred too near his death to allow time for its enforcement. His wife, Theodora, whom he had raised from the con- j. . - 1 . , Theodora, dition of an actress to that of partner of his throne,"* is said to have broken somewhat the force of his tyranny, by putting herself at the head of the opposition party.^ When he was orthodox, she took care to favor the Monophysites. When he addicted himself to that faction of the circus known as the Blues, she enrolled herself among the Greens. Thus the Impe- rial ship was steadied to the popular breath, each of the great religious and political factions having its own interest in it. A more legitimate source of popularity was the munificence, truly imperial,^ though accompanied (it was said) with an avarice greedy as the sea, with which he strengthened or Public adorned the Empire, by the erection of castles, cities, ^ bridges, aqueducts, monasteries, churches, alms-houses, hospi- tals and other public works. The Church of S. Sophia, burnt by the mob in a sedition known as the Nika, was rebuilt with a solidity which remains after thirteen centuries, though shorn of the wealth of beauty with which it was originally adorned. ^ His industry and skill were still more signally displayed in * Even on the showing of Procopius, Theodora made an irreproachable wife, and the constancy of Justinian is beyond all question : we may well doubt, therefore, whether all the filth related of her early life on the stage is more worthy of credit than her commerce with the Lemures^ or other lies told by the same Procopius. In this matter, Gibbon’s love of scandal gets the better of his critical faculty. 3 Evag. iv. 10 . 4 Procop. Csesariensis, De ^dificiis Dn. yusiinian. In the Anecdotes it is related that a certain monk saw Justinian swallowing the seas, the bays, the rivers, and even all the sewers of the earth : so great was his avarice. Uist. Arcan. cap. xix. He disgorged, however, as rapidly as he swallowed, so that the seas and even the sewers continued to flow on. 5 Gibbon has admirably brought together the descriptions of Procopius and others, ch. xl. 552 History of the Church. his reform of the Roman Laws/ In this great work, as in other Reform of of liis reign, he was largely indebted, of course, to the workmen he employed : but the ability to choose good workmen, and rightly to direct their labors, is the most useful of imperial talents. Such a sovereign, restless, inquisitive, crafty, industrious, greedy of every kind of fame, and in the main not unpopular. An impe- could hardly fail to stretch to the utmost his supremacy rial Pope, spiritual, as well as temporal, affairs. He was in a position, moreover, favorable to such pretensions. The victo- ries of his great general, the hero Belisarius, had brought the West again under the Greek sway, and Roman popery was forced to yield to that of Constantinople. It was one of the worst fruits of the polemical spirit of the TeneUof desire to root out error was greatly in Origen excess of sober zeal for the Truth : a definition of the condemned. . , Faith was apt to be held in honor, in proportion to the anathemas that followed in its train. Justinian opened a new field for the exercise of this spirit, ^ by turning men’s atten- tion to the errors of the dead. Collecting certain opinions imputed to Origen, he anathematized them by an edict, and induced the Roman and Eastern Patriarchs to concur in his decree. Tliis opened the way for a step of much greater moment. A chief obstacle, it was thought, to unity among the East- erns, lay in the fact that Chalcedon had shown too great a ten- The Three demess to the friends of Nestorius. There were three Chapters. especially which had not been condemned : the Letter of Theodor et aj^ainst Cyril' s anathemas ; the calumnious ^Letter of Idas to Maris the Persian ; ihe rationalistic works of Theodorus of Mopsuestia, The Emperor was wrought upon to do with these as he had done with the tenets of Origen. The four Patriarchs of the East reluctantly concurred. The West was more refractory : for it was suspected that the condemna- ^ See Gibbon’s noble chapter on this subject, ch. xliv. y Evag. iv. 38. yustinian and the Fifth General Council. 553 tion of the Three Chapters,” as they were called, was a covert attack upon the credit of Chalcedon. An African Synod refused outright to anathematize the dead.” Vigilius of Rome was at first equally decided. But coming to Constanti- p^pe nople, in obedience to an order from the Emperor, he was partly forced, partly wheedled, into a more complaisant frame of mind. After many vacillations, he anathematized the Three Chapters, putting in a salvo for the honor of Chal- cedon, and asked for a General Council, that the act might be approved. The Bishops were brought together to the number of one hundred and sixty-five, among whom were five Africans, the only prelates from the West.^ Vigilius was ill at ease, and bn the plea of sickness declined to be present. cluncu. Every breeze that came from the West bore to his ears the rumors of rebellion. After the fourth ^‘conference,” or session, the Council having reached and anathematized the writings of Theodorus, he attempted to interpose with a “ Con- stitutum,” condemning certain opinions without mentioning names, and forbidding the Bishops to discuss the question further. The document, it is probable, never reached the Council. The Bishops, at all events, paid no atten- tion to it, but condemned the Three Chapters : inas- much, however, as Theodoret and Ibas had repented of their error and had been absolved at Chalcedon, their per- sons were excepted from the sentence passed upon their opin- ions. Vigilius, a few months later, allowed his scruples to give way to Imperial persuasion, ascribing his previous obstinacy to the instigation of the devil. Little good resulted, so far as the East was concerned. The Monophysites were not appeased. The Origenians, a name that still applied to some of the monks of Palestine, were Effect of deeply aggrieved : for the Council had either ex- Council. pressly, or implicitly, anathematized their tenets. In the West, The Three Chapters condemned. 2 Mansi, ix. ; Hardoiiin, iii, 24 55 4 History of the Church. there were hot disputes and formidable schisms. Milan and Schisms in Ravenna separated from Rome : Aquileia and the the West, Bishops refused to be reconciled for about a century and a half. Justinian became a convert, in his old age, to the heresy of Justinian Incorrupticolse and putting forth an edict, pre- a Heretic, persccutc in their behalf. Anastasius, the Antiochean Patriarch, made ready for resistance. The crisis was averted by the sudden death of the Imperial heresiarch. His successors, the well-meaning but weak Justin, the able Successors, and virtuous Tiberius, the unfortunate Maurice,*® were A.D. 565-610. too much absorbed in secular troubles to meddle much with theology. The same was true of Phocas, the monster and usurper. Heraclius, in six victorious campaigns worthy of the Heraciius, hest days of Rome, broke the power of Chosroes the A.D. 610.641. crowned his triumphs by the redemption of innumerable captives and by the restoration of the Wood of the true Cross to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusa- lem. But the effort had drained the resources of the Empire and the manly virtues of the Emperor. Persia, the rival king- dom, was equally exhausted. The conflict of ages between Greek and Persian power, a conflict which Rome had inherited and stubbornly continued, ended by leaving both a prey to a new and strange foe. For it was in the latter days of Heraclius that the ^Gittle horn’' appeared in a corner of his dominions, Pi^st which was destined ere long to threaten the whole ifthf^ world. While the Emperor triumphed” at Constan- Saracens. ^inople or Jerusalem, an obscure town on the confines of Syria was pillaged by the Saracens, and they cut in pieces some troops who advanced to its relief : an ordinary and trifling 9 Evag. iv. 39-41. In the reign of Maurice, Evagrius finished his History, bringing it down to the year 594. The inflated style of this production, and its excessive fondness for the marvellous, are counterbalanced by the honesty and piety apparent in every page. Gibbon, end of chap, xlvi. Monothelite Heresy, 555 occurrence, had it not been the prelude of a mighty revolution. These robbers were the apostles of Mohammed : their fanatic valor had emerged from the desert ; and in the last eight years of his reign, Heraclius lost to the Arabs the same provinces which he had rescued from the Persians. ^ * CHAPTER VI. MONOTHELITE HERESY AND THE SIXTH GENERAL COUNCIL. The danger from this quarter did not prevent the Emperor from engaging in one more attempt to stay the tottering ark j^octrine of religion. The end of his reign witnessed a new ^ of the effort to conciliate heresy, and consequently a new heresy to be condemned. By the advice of the Patriarch Ser- gius, he put forth an edict affirming the existence of but one Will in Christ, It was the last link of a long chain of efforts, beginning with Apollinaris, or rather with the Docetae, to find something in which the Manhood assumed by our Lord might differ Mature of in nature from the Humanity inherited from Adam, Sin only excepted, He was made in all things like unto us. But ‘‘sin’' might be thought identical with the sinful will in man ; and the “sinful will” might easily be confounded with the human yiWS., To deny “sin,” therefore, in Christ, seemed to carry with it a denial of the “ human will ” in Christ. Further- more, it was argued, the will pertains to man’s personality rather than to his nature." When our Lord, therefore, assumed man’s • * For subtle discussions of this subject see documents in Mansi Concilia, Sixth Gen. Council. 556 History of the Church. nature, He did not take his will. The will of the Word acted in and through the two Natures, by what was callec a theandric operation. It was a theological trap ingeniously contrived ; and, baited as it was with the hope of conciliation, most of the Easterns greedily fell into it. The Patriarchs of Antioch and Patriarchs Alexandria were among the number. The latter of deceived. ^ these, Cyrus, was enabled on the strength of it to reconcile to the Church one of the Monophysite sects. But Sofhronius ^ophronius, a monk, afterwards Patriarch of Jerusa- soundsan lem, saw the danger and sounded the alarm. He A larm. showed that to deny the human will in Christ, or to deny even the natural operation of that will, was to detract from His perfect Humanity and to bring in the error of Apollinaris under another form. The tide of opinion soon began to turn. Sergius found it necessary to look for a new ally, and wrote, Honorius Oil the subject, to Honorius of Rome. Honorius of Rome, answered by a letter, in which he committed himself to the heresy, deprecating, however, all further discussion. But the Church by this time was thoroughly aroused. Men stood forth on every side to impugn the new dogma. Some who at first had readily received it showed themselves eager to retrace their steps. Within nine years after the issuing of his first edict, Herac- lius found it necessary to modify his decree. He put forth the Ecthesis, so called, declaring the twofold operation, to be an open question. But by this time the orthodox instinct of old Rome was once more awakened. Pope John IV. rejected the Ecthesis, and girded himself for battle. Nine years later still, Constans II. framed a new edict called the Typus, prohibiting controversy. He might as well have for- The Typus, bidden the winds to blow. Theodore of Rome breaks A.D. 648. communion with Constantinople ; and, somewhat later, Martin I., in a Roman Synod, condemns the Ecthesis and Typus, and boldly anathematizes the Monothelite leaders. This was more than Constans could bear. Pope Martin was The Ecthesis, A.D. 639. Monothelite Heresy. 557 seized by the order of the Emperor ; brought to Constanti- nople ; thrown into a dungeon ; convicted, through cmei hired witnesses, of treason and conspiracy ; and finally, after innumerable insults, was banished to the Cher- sonesus, where he died. Others of the orthodox leaders were treated still more outrageously. They were scourged, deprived of their tongues and their right hands, conducted in mockery through the streets, and ignominiously hurried into exile. While controversy thus raged, the Saracens were wresting from the Emperors the fairest provinces of their domin- saracen ions : or rather, it required little wresting ; for tyranny and corruption had long since done their work, and the tree was no sooner touched than the rotten fruit fell. Jerusalem, under the Patriarch Sophronius, maintained its old character ^ ^ ^ Jerusalem for obstinate resistance but after a siege of four taken, . . A.D. 637. months, in which not a day passed without fighting, it was forced to submit to a yoke heavier than it had ever borne before. Under the same yoke it has continued ever since ; with the exception of eighty-eight years of Latin occupation during the Crusades. Damascus had fallen four years before Jerusalem : Tyre, Caesarea, and numberless other places submitted within a few years after. By the middle of the century, Alex- Alexandria, andria and Egypt, with the isle of Cyprus, passed un- der the yoke of Islam. The Empire, in fact, was threatened in every part, and had little to oppose to the invader, save the passive resistance of mere weight and bulk. Constan- L - , T ° Constanti- tinople, however, was saved by the strength of its nopie saved, walls, by the courage of despair, and by the timely invention of the terrible Greek fire.^ The conquerors were not only checked for awhile, but were forced to do homage for their possessions in Syria and Egypt, by the payment of a nominal tribute. *Ockley’s history of the Saracens ; Gibbon, chap. li. lii. 3 The timeliness of those discoveries and inventions which have placed Christian civilization so far in advance of all others, might form the title of an interesting chapter in the Providential History of the World. 558 History of the Church. Constantine Pogonatus, under whom this last event hap- pened, was orthodox in his views, and the Patriarchs by Sixth whom he was guided had begun to grow weary of a bootless controversy. A sixth General Council was A.D. 680. convened. Among the higher prelates, Macarius of Antioch alone stood up for the now disreputable doctrine of the One Will in Christ. He was assisted by a monk named Polycronius, who offered to raise a dead man to life, in proof of the dogma. The Council accepted his offer, and a corpse was brought in. The monk failed in his experiment, but was not convinced of his error. The Synod deposed Macarius, ex- communicated the monk, and anathematized the names of Ser- gius, Pope Honorius,^ and other Monothelite leaders. Finally the Bishops, to the number of one hundred and sixty, Two Wills^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Two ojiera- signed a declaration that ^‘in Christ there are two tions. natural Wills, and two Operations, without division, change, confusion : that the human Will does not conflict with the Divine, but follows it, and in all things is subjected to it.’’ About ten years later, under the reign of Justinian II., a larger assembly, held in Trullo, in the domed chapel of the Palace, and hence known as the Trullan (or, as it is Truiianor otherwise called, the Quinisext) Council, confirmed Quinisext . ^ ^ Council, the decrees of the six Ecumenical Synods, and put forth one hundred and eleven canons, including eighty-five attributed to the Apostles. These became law in ^ Pope Honorius has been excused on every possible ground : so far, however, as the question of infallibility is concerned, no argument can shake the fact that the Sixth Council believed a Pope might err in matters of faith, and that one Pope at least had so erred. It is equally certain that some of the successors of Honorius took the same view as the Council. For an ample discussion of the subject, see Instruct. Historicce-Theolog. lib. v; Pagi, Breviarium PP. Rom. S. Agatho. Pontif. ; Natalis Alexandr. Scec. Septim. Dissert, ii. [See also the copious literature that has sprung out of the so-called CEcumenical Council at Rome, which in 1870 professed to define the Personal Infallibility of the Pope. See also Appendix. — Editor.] The Sixth General Council, 559 the Eastern Church. In the West, Pope Sergius III. refused to sign them, and the growing estrangement between Rome and Constantinople was thereby increased. Not long after, an attempt was made to revive the Mono- thelite heresy, and the Emperor Philippicus induced a servile Synod to condemn the Sixth Council. But it proved xhe a little cloud which soon passed over. The error lin- gered for some centuries among the inhabitants of Libanus, an offshoot from the old Phoenician stock, who in the beginning of the eighth century were elevated to civil and religious in- dependence by their Patriarch John Maron, and successfully resisted the Moslem yoke. In the twelfth century they sub- mitted to the See of Rome. Thus ends a long war of four centuries, a continuous battle for the Faith, in which the Greek and Latin and Oriental mind, excited to an almost preternatural heat, had assailed, xhe Work and defended, every imaginable point at which the pushedTy Creed could be attacked, and with every kind of weapon that human passion or human subtlety could Councils. supply. If we look at the mere details of the strife, faith is shocked by the weakness, waywardness, and wickedness of re- ligious men. If we look at the result, the Creed stands out before us, with a solidity, symmetry and consistency which, but for the long war against it, could hardly have been appreciated, but which, in the sequel of the history of Christendom, at least in its more living parts, has been universally acknowledged. With such a work accomplished, it is idle to criticise the way in which the work was done. The saints of the period of the six General Councils were called to labor for the Faith : we have entered into the fruit of their labors. Where The Faith they were obliged to contend earnestly,^' we have little else to do than to receive and enjoy. It can be put down to their credit, and it is the utmost that can be said of the men of any period, that having fought a good fight and finished 56 o History of the Church. their course, they kept the Faith, The defects that a critic^ may discern in their manner of fighting or of working, may serve indeed as a warning, to deter us from similar errors, but are more useful still as an encouragement ; showing, as they do, that the work of God is not defeated by human weakness, but that age after age, and period after period, accomplishes its appointed task : that however much of the cheaper material, the wood, hay, stubble, may perish in a Divine purgation, yet something true and costly, costly of sweat and toil and treasure and blood, will always be found to remain, the contribution which each age makes to the work of, perhaps, countless ages. 5 The sneers of Gibbon and the half-sneers of his Christian imitators, in reference to the history of controversy, amount simply to this : that, in the defence and confirmation of the Gospel, there was a vast expenditure of hu- man blood and brain. But we may ask, looking at the question from a merely worldly point of view, how could blood and brain have been spent to better purpose ? Gibbon replies, in substance, that they might have been devoted to the defence of the Empire against the outside Barbarians. The monks might have been turned into soldiers, the priests into politicians and sophists, or, perhaps, mandarins. In short, the Western world, like the Eastern, might have had its China. We may well doubt whether the world in general would have been benefited by the exchange. [It is their glory that with all their might they fought for the Faith. The mode of their warfare was naturally that which was readily supplied by the civilization of the age in which they lived. Our higher civilization has made us so refined that we hardly care to fight for the Faith at all. Moreover, the building of the outer walls is far rougher work than the internal finish of the palace chambers. — Editor.] [The following brief summary of the leading facts in the case of Pope Honorius is taken from a fragment in Dr. Mahan’s handwriting, supplemented by the Editor from the learned and able pamphlet of P. Le Page Renouf on The Condemnation of Pope Honorius (London, Longmans, 1868), and other sources.] The Emperor Heraclius, hoping to reconcile the Monophysites, came to an understanding with their leaders to accept a compromise which asserted the doctrine of only one Divine-human energy {kvepyeia) or operation, and of one will in Christ. Sophronius, an acute monk of Palestine, afterwards Patriarch of Jerusalem, asserted on the contrary, two wills and two operations of Christ, — the Divine and the human. He refers the case to Sergius, Patriarch of Constantinople. Sergius refuses to assert one will, or two wills ; or one operation or two operations ; but affirms that the one Jesus Christ kvepyeiv ra re Bela koX avdp^TTiva. He objects also to two operations, as 6vo dsHjfiaTa evavriug npbg aXkrjka e^ov^^ etc. Sergius writes his view of the case fully, in a “ dog- matic epistle,” to Honorius of Rome, asking his judgment in the matter. Honorius, having received the letters both of Sophronius and Sergius, replies, fully approving the doctrinal statements of Sergius, and confirming his arguments by many more of the same kind. He decides authoritatively, for the instruction and knowledge of those who are in perplexity,” that the two-fold operation is a ** scandal,” a “new invention,” and that Sophronius “should not persist in preaching the formula of two operations ; ” affirming moreover that he makes “ one Confession,” and agrees “ in one spirit, v/ith a like teaching of the Faith,” with Sergius. The doctrine of Sophronius was, from the first, carefully guarded against the misconstructions under cover of which attempts have been made to excuse Honorius. He affirmed that one Christ, abiding inseparably and incon- fusk in two Natures, performed truly and wisely, and without stain of sin, everything that belongs to our human nature. These assertions w’ere against 562 Appendix. the errors, Firsts that what he suffered in the flesh, he suffered involuntarily^ under compulsion^ in bonds^ etc. ; Secondly^ that the Divine Nature in any way overpowered or anticipated the human, not allowing it time to act ; Thirdly^ that the Incarnation should be made to appear merely nominal. Sophronius also explicitly asserted the One Person of Christ, etc. In the Sixth General Council there were publicly read, and critically examined, copies of the Synodical Epistles of Sophronius, and of the “ Dog- matic Epistles ” of Sergius and Honorius ; and before being acted on, these copies were carefully compared with the originals, in the Chartophylacium at Constantinople, and were found to be correct. Finally, the doctrines of both Sergius and Honorius were condemned, rejected, and anathematized, as heret- ical ; and they, with several others, were anathematized by name. The doctrine of Sophronius was at the same time approved as agreeing with the true Faith, and with the doctrine of the Apostles and Fathers, — orthodox and salutary to the Holy Catholic Church; and his name was inserted in the diptychs. (N. B. — At the end of Actio XHI., the Council expressly declares, that Sergius and Honorius are condemned, not only on information given concern- ing them, but after diligently comparing the writings of them both.) The Council was not content with anathematizing Sergius and Honorius once. They repeated the anathema a second time in Actio XYIIL, in the Synodical Definition; a third time, in the same Actio ^ in the Exclamatio to the Emperor ; a fourth time, in the prophonetic or acclamatory sermon to the same ; a fifth time, in the Synodal Letter to Pope Agatho of Rome : and in each of these five acts, the Papal legates took part, and signed their names. A sixth repetition occurs in the Edict of the Emperor, embodying the action of the Council. Pope Leo H. then took up the work of anathe- matizing his predecessor as a heretic. He first of all acknowledges the receipt of the ‘‘Acts” of the Council, and adds that he concurs in anathema against Honorius by name, “ who, instead of laboring to keep the Apostolic Church pure by the teaching of Apostolic tradition, suffered it, the immacu- late, to be polluted through his profane betrayal.” In his letter to the Spanish Count Simplicius, age in and yet again in his letters to the Spanish Bishops, and in another letter to the Spanish king Ervigius, the same anathema for heresy is reiterated against Honorius. In the life of Leo H. by Anastasius the Librarian, the same fact is repeated once more. The anathema was further repeated by the Quinisext Council ; then again by the Second Council of Nice, and also by that which Rome acknowledges as the Eighth General Council, — this last being the most significant, since, as Mr. Renouf says, “ its proceedings were entirely carried on under Roman influence,” whereas the sixth and seventh General Councils were Oriental. Nor was this all. The anathema of Honorius as a heretic was repeated, for ages, by every successor of Leo II. in the See of Rome, at his accession ; and it was incor- Appendix. 563 porated into the Breviary, so that the condemnation of Honorius for the Monothelite heresy was repeated annually for a thousand years by every priest and prelate who made faithful use of his Breviary. It would really seem as if there never had been, since the world began, a more notoriously or more thoroughly anathematized heretic than Pope Honorius of Rome. Against all this, the advocates of Honorius either deny the fact of his con- demnation for heresy, or else they dispute the equity of it. As to the fact, the apologists of Pope Honorius, says Renouf, “ constantly hesitate between solutions which are asserted to be indisputable, but which are nevertheless subversive of each other, Honorius, it is said, was unjustly condemned ; he was not condemned ; he could not have been condemned, and all the documents, Greek and Latin, acts of Councils and Pope’s letters, asserting the condemnation, are forgeries ; he was condemned only as a private Doctor.^ The heretical letters ascribed to him were forged by the Monothelites, to countenance their heresy; they were forged by orthodox Greeks to bring disgrace upon a Pope; his letters are perfectly orthodox. Some of these solutions are out of date ; other solutions, quite as irreconcilable with facts, are still flourishing.” As to “ forgeries,” Mr. Renouf says : “ It is idle to waste words on this part of the subject. No one now doubts the genu- ineness of any of the documents bearing upon the question How- ever plausible such assertions may have been in former days, they are now destitute of interest, and none but grossly ignorant persons could have recourse to them.” Perrone says that there is no room for even a slight suspicion of either adulteration or forgery. The attempts to explain away the indisputable condemnation are equally unhappy. 1. Turrecremata held that in this matter both Popes and Councils had fallen intoUpror in dogmatic fact, Bellarmine attributes to the Council “ intolerable error and impudence.” Baronius says that “ nothing could be imagined more wicked, more impudent, or more foolish,” than their conduct. “ This is respectful language,” says Renouf, ‘‘ to use about an Ecumenical Council approved by the Pope;” or rather, three Ecumenical Councils approved by a long line of Popes. 2. De Maistre’s idea that the condemnation of a Pope was a piece of Greek impudence is not new ; but how explain the consent of the Papal leg- ates, and Pope Leo’s confirmation of the Council and his promulgation of its acts ? 3. As to the justice of the condemnation, he was condemned for heresy. “ It is a simple untruth to say that he was condemned for neglect, criminal remissness, and tolerating heretics instead of excommunicating them. It is as a heretic that he was anathematized over and over again.” His first letter was condemned as proving that he followed the mind of Sergius in all 564 Appendix. things.” His “ second letter was ordered to be burnt as impious and soul- destroying The Monothclites appealed to the authority of Honorius, as one who agreed with them, — the Council no less decidedly declares that Honorius agreed with them, and anathematizes him on this account.” 4. The question as to whether he was condemned as a private Doctor or as a Pope is of more interest to Romish theologians than to us ; and we refer all who would examine it further to Renouf, a singularly learned and candid Roman Catholic himself, who declares it to be “ a mockery to consider the Pope’s solemn, public, and most earnest reply to the Eastern Patriarchs other- wise than as ex cathedra.^'* The question is also treated with great learning and spirit in Janus, and by Bishop Maret, and many of the other brilliant and powerful writers who have been called into activity by the Vatican Council of 1870. See also Scene H. of the Comedy of Canonization in Vol. III. of Dr. Mahan’s Works^ among his Miscellaneous Writings, INDEX Abbot, 478. Abdas, 474. Abgar, 34. Abraxas, 154. Abyssinia, 301. evangelized, 474. Acacians, 417, 427, 429. Acacius, of Csesarea, 417. Acacius, Patriarch, advises Henoticon^ 458. Acephali^ 548. Acesius, 243, 285. Achaia, 306. Achillas, of Alexandria, 298. absolves and promotes Arius, 298. Actors, 233. Acts of the Apostles, 35, 84. Adam’s salvation, 156, 162. Adjuration of Irenseus, 186. JE\i2i Capitolina, 46. JEon system, 149. Aerius, 449. iEschines, 168. Aetians, 418, 430. Aetius, 417. African Church, North, 209-243, 301. character of the People, 209. when evangelized, 210. evangelized from Rome, 211. overrun with vices, 228. early decay, 2II. 93, 327. abused, 227, 327, 328. Agrippinus, 21 1, 224. Ahriman, 149, 157. Alban, Martyr, 344. Alcibiades, Ascetic Confessor, 128. Alemannif 253. Alexander, Martyr, 129. Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, 192, 298. 367. 38s. 392- his circular epistle, 378. seventy letters in one month, 378. dies, 402. Alexander, of Jerusalem, 203, 247, 302. his Library, 302. he upholds Origen, 302. Alexander, of Constantinople, 406. Alexandria, a centre of learning and Church life, 194. Arian reign of terror in, 427, 428. Council at, 445. Alexandrine School, 192. Episcopate, peculiarity, 192. Allegorical interpretation of SS., 84. Alogi^ 168. Alypius, 440, 441. Ambrose, of Milan, on the True Cross, 390. made Bishop, 459, 460. on a Western Council, 470. sketch of life of, 494-504. 566 Index. Ambrose, of Milan, hostility of Justina to, 495. and the See of Sirmium, 496. his contest with Symmachus, 496. contest about the Basilicas, 497- 500. SS. Gervasius and Protasius, 500. Theodosius sent out of the Chan- cel, 501. case of a Synagogue, 501, 502. massacre at Thessalonica, 502, 503. penance of Theodosius, 503. restoration of Theodosius, 503. Ammias, 102. Ammon, 478, 479. so modest, 479. Ammonius, pelts Orestes, 518. a martyr, 519. Ammonius Saccas, 141, 194. Amphitheatre, description of, 122, 126. Ananias and Sapphira, 12, 96. Anastasia, The, 461. Anastasius, presbyter, 510. Anastasius, Emperor, 549. deposes both sides, 549. Antiochean Trisagion, 549. terrible riots, 549. resigns and is restored, 549. Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch, 554. Anathema, meaning of the word, 522. Anatolius, mathematician, 284. Anatolius, of Constantinople, 536. Anchorets, 249, 292, 293, 479. Ancyra, Canon of, 161. Council of, 427. Andrew, S., 33. “ Angelic life,** 477. Anicetus, 155. Anomoeans, 417. Anomoion, 418. Antelucani, 268, 326. Antichrist, signs of, 213. Antidicomarians, 450. Antinous deified, 113. Antioch evangelized, 15, 20 . Church and School of, 278-286. three Councils at, 282. schism in, 403, 446. schism increased by Damasus,452. schism at the Council of Constan- tinople, 466, 467. Antoninus, Arrius, 112. I Antoninus Pius, 115. Antony, Father of Monachism, 293-296. his visions, 426, 477. his departure, 426. ignorant of Greek, 543. Apelles, 156. Apocalypse, Altar-window, 84. doubted by Dionysius, 289. Apocryphal Gospels, 160, 1 61. Apollinaris, writes against Montanism, 178. Apollinaris, Heretic, 449. a friend of S. Athanasius, 449. Apollonius, of Tyana, 142, 341. Apollonius, martyr, 143. Apollonius, writes against Montanism, 17.8. Apollo*s Oracle dumb, 341. Apollos, 19. Apologists, Age of the, 140. Apostles, the Twelve, tarry in Jerusa- lem, 10. separation of the, 16. all power given to them, 60. Brothers, colleagues, peers, 6l. the abiding Order, 61. one College, 63. Apostolate, Second growth of the, 63. communicated, 67. Apostolical Canons, 161. Apostolical Constitutions, 75. Apostolics, 162. Index. 567 Apotactites, 162. Appeal to nearest Bishops, 263. Apuleius, 226. Aquarians, 162. Aquileia, Council at, 470. separated from Rome, 554. Arabia, 301. * Archimandrite, 478. Archons, 154. Arian Court Party, 41 1. Arianism, an alien mind, 373. Platonic, 374. its tendency Heathen, 375. sacred Virgins teach it, 377. five divisions of its History, 412. Ariminum, Council of, 426, 427, 429, 430- general lapse from the Faith, 429. retreat in two directions, 429. Aristotelian method, 284. Arius, excommunicated, 297, 298. Peter, martyr, warns the Church against him, 297. absolved, and set over the Bau- calis, 298. not elected Bishop, 298. his Doctrine, 367, 368. cautious statements, 369. logic, 369. appeal to Scripture, 371. higher and lower sense, 371, 372. personal description of, 373. his character, 374. his training, 374, 375. condemned in Synod, 377. his Thalia and hymns, 379. boasting and rioting, 381. condemned and exiled, 389. recalled and in favor, 402. repelled from Communion, 403. received at Jerusalem, 405. his Triumph, 406. Arius, his sudden Death, 407. effect on the people, 407. Arles, Council of, 275, 308. Armenia, 304. persecution forced there, 349. Amobius, 21 1, 273. Arsinoe, 478. Artemas, 283. Artemon, 168, 169. Artotyrites, 215. Arts, the, not favored by early Chris- tians, 330. Asceticism, 96, 128, perils of, 480. strange forais of, 534. Asclepas, of Gaza, 389, 403. Asia, 304. Mother of Heretics and Heresies, 304, 305- extent and fortunes of, 305. Athanasius, Life of S. Antony, 293. charitable in interpretation, 370. his early life and character, 376. boy-baptism, 377. at Nicaea, 385-389. Bishop of Alexandria, 402. repels Arius, 403. false charges against him, 404. charges disproved at Tyre, 404. condemned and deposed at Jeru- salem, 405. confronts the Emperor, 405. new charges, 406. banished to Gaul, 406. on the death of Arius, 407. on Persecution, 412. returns from exile, 418. driven out again, 419. pleads before Constans, 419. acquitted at Sardica, 420. restored in Triumph, 420. hypocrisy of Constantius, 421. 568 Index. Athanasius, seizure attempted in Church, 424. escape and adventures, 425, 426. among the Monks, 426, 427. returns to his See, 436. driven out by Julian, 437. returns, 445. driven out by Valens, 448. dies, 459. Frumentius consecrated by him, 474 - Athenagoras, Apologist, 140, 195. Athenodorus, 205. Attains, Martyr, 129. Audians, 450. Audientes, 238. Augustine, 21 1, 222, Aurelian, refers Antioch case to Rome, 266. growth of the Church, 309. Auxentius, Arian, of Milan, 446. Babylas, of Antioch, 247, 279. removal of remains, 437. Baptism, 93. among the Elxaites, 148. divesting of clothes for, 148. two Baptisms among the Gnostics, 151. by Heretics, invalid at Carthage, 212. opposite view at Rome, 261. three views, 261. Stephen excommunicates, 262. Cyprian disregards it, 263. question settled at Nicaea, 263. in Jail, 214. additional ceremonies, 327. superstitious delay of, 409. Barabbas, 35. Baradai, Jacob, 546. Bar Cochba, 46. Bardesanes, 140, 1 55. Barnabas, S., 15, 17, 19, 20, 30, 62. Epistle of, 85, 160. Baronins, makes up History, 381. Barsumas, at Robber Council, 546. returns in fury from Chalcedon, 546. Bartholomew, S., 34, 195, 301. Basil, of Ancyra, 417, 427. Basil the Great, 432, 451, 454,457. and Julian, 454. not elected Bishop, 455. retreats to his Monastery, 455. his friend Nazianzen, 455, 458. country Missions, 456. made Bishop, 456. relieves distresses, 456. persecuted by Valens, 457. trials from the Brethren, 457, supported by Athanasius, 458. decencies of the Altar, 457. plagued by Western pride, 458. dies, 460. makes Monks country Mission* aries, 482. Basilides, Heretic, 154. Basilides, Martyjr, 200. Basilides, of Leon, 263. Baucalis, 308, 368. Beards, 439. Belisarius, 552. Beryllus, 170, 204. Bilson’s Perpetual Divine Government^ 61, 62. Bishops, Successors of the Apostles, 71. their Powers, 71. twofold character, 75. precedence regulated by Sees, 75. merchants, usurers, sharpers, 228. spiritual change in, 229. equality of, 262. Index. 569 Bishops, relations of, 263. why numerous, 263. a guard upon one another, 266. only one in a city, 267. number of, in Africa, 300. number of Donatist Bishops^300. number in Syria, 304. “ at Nicsea, 383. at istConctantinople, 464. “ at Ephesus, 524. “ at Chalcedon, 536. “ at 2d Constantinople, 553. “ at 3d Constantinople, 558 Bithynia, 305. Blameless daily life of Christians, 329. Blandina, Martyr, 129. Blastus, 185, 187. Blesilla, 453. Blind man, not to be made Bishop, 199. Bordeaux Pilgrim, on the True Cross, 400. Botrus, 274. Britain, evangelized, 308. Bunsen on S. Ignatius, 108, “ Butcher ” Julian, 439. Buthos, 149. Gaecilianus, of Carthage, 374, 383, Caesarea, 18. Caesarea, of Cappadocia, expunged from list of cities, 436, 454. has fifty suffragan Sees, 454. Caiaphas ejected, 15. Cainites, 154. Caius, 189, 190. Callistians, 19 1. Callistus, 147, 169, 191, 226. sketch of his Life and Episcopate, 257, 258. Calumnies of the Heathen, 328. Calumnies, conspiracy, stupra^ carica- tures, 329. Candidianus, 353. Candidianus, Imperial Commissioner, 524 - Captives redeemed, 253, 333, Cardinales Episcopiy 190. Caritina, 138. Carito, 138. Carpocratians, 113. Carponas, 376. Carthage, a See, 21 1, 224. Councils of, 21 1, 262. disputed succession, 274. Catacombs, 269, 270, 331. Catechetical School, 195. Catechumen, three years’ probation,3i8. Cathariy 390. Catholicism the State Religion, 472. Cato, whited sepulchre, 332. Celestine, of Rome, and Nestorius, 520. order of events, 520. Celeusius, 274. Celsus, 141. ridicules Christianity, 313, Cemeteries, vigils in, 328. Cenobiuniy 478. Centuries, First three, 299. Cerdo, 155. Cerinthus, 53, 90. Cestius Callus, 37. Chalcedon, General Council of, 535. description of the opening of, 536. Dioscorus and colleagues con- demned, 537. Eutyches condemned, 538. definitions of the Faith, 538. Leo’s letter examined, 538. and approved on its merits, 538. case of the Egyptian Bishops, 539. Theodoret submits, 540. XXVIII. Canons, 541. 570 Index. Chalcedon, The twenty-eighth Canon, 541. general falling away, 545. authority of the Council restored, 550. Chalkenteros^ 198. Chapters, the Three, 553. condemned by the East, 552. the West hesitates, 552, 553. Vigilius at last anathematizes, 553. Fifth General Council, 553. the Chapters condemned, 553. disputes and schisms worse than before, 553. Charismata, 65. their purpose, 66. prophecy in the camp, 66. temporary, 316. Charities, Christian, 332. . Children not desired, 325. heathen society too dangerous to them, 325. Chiliast doctrine, 159, 166, 191,288. Choir of women, 280. Chosroes, 554. Christ an ^on, 90. alone who pardons, 239. Christians, good conduct of, 105. Chrysanthius, 435. Chrysostom, S., 509, 518, 519. Church, The, the Pillar and Ground of the Truth, 77. provision against Error, 91. order and liberty together, 91. many stand-points harmonized, 92. a Witness, 179. led into the wilderness, 182. never fought, resisted, or rebelled, 310 - assemblies devotional, social, char- itable, business, 326. rites and worship, 326, 327. Church, the refuge of Liberty, 41 1, a Witness against Persecution, 412. deprived of revenue and privilege by Julian, 435. privileges and honors under Theo- dosius, 490. restrained by law, 492. independence sacrificed, 492. softens Roman law, 493. Church and State, 398, 41 1, 489. Churches, the Age of, 300. Circumcellions, 277, 360, 444. Circumcision, Question of, 320. Circus, horrible to Christians, 122. Claudius, 309. Claudius Apollinaris, Apologist, 140. Clement, of Rome, 50, 51, 102, 255. on Episcopacy, 73. Clement, of Alexandria, 195-198. Clement II., 291. Clementines, The, 147, 257. Cleomenes, 169. Clergy, not to be Executors or Guar- dians, 233. the special object of Valerian’s persecution, 264. Cletus, 255. Collucianists, 377. Colluthus, 376, 381. Collyridians, 450. Coming of the Lord expected, 245, 246. Commodus, 143. Communion of Saints, 328. Conference of sects, 471. Babel of angry tongues, 471. Confession, Private, abolished at Con- stantinople, 468. Confessors, of Lyons, their good sense, 130, their Epistle, 130. insolent, 226, 227, 237, Index. 571 Confessors, third power in the Church, 231, 237. tortured, 237. Conservatism in Oriental Heresies, 546. ConsisienieSf 238. Constans, 413. friendly to Orthodoxy, 419. executes decrees of Sardica, 420. dies, 421. Constantia, 379, 395. Constantine does not persecute, 347. receives Maximian, 351. punishes his treasons, 351. defeats Maxentius, 352. takes the Christian side, 354. not himself a Christian, 3t;5. his Vision, 355, 356. the Labarum., 356. conquers Licinius, 362. sole Emperor, 362. gives God the glory, 362. his faith intellectual, 363. his trials and end, 364. the type of a new Age, 364. hears Arian side first, 379. writes to Arius and Alexander, 380. sends Hosius to Alexandria, 380. changes to the Orthodox side, 381. sharp letter to Arius, 381. at Nicsea, 386. shields Ihe Bishops, 387. closes the Council, 391. celebrates his Vicennalia, 392. warns against long sermons, 393. “ Bishop of the outside,” 393. cold reception in Rome, 394. domestic tragedies, 395, 396. remorse, 396. building of New Rome, 396. reconstruction of the Empire, 397. Constantine, treaty with Persia, 397. faults, 398. prepares for Death, 408. rebukes flattery, 408. is baptized and dies, 409, 410. reigns after Death, 410. Constantine II., 413. Constantine Pogonatus, orthodox, 558. calls the Sixth General Council, 558- Constantinople, First General Council of, 464-471* first business, 464. Maximus condemned, 466. Gregory enthroned, 466. schism in Antioch, 466. new Bishop, Flavian, 467. Gregory is opposed, 467. he resigns in disgust, 468. Nectarius elected, 468. the Creed completed, 468. heresies condemned, 468. four Canons, 469. second rank to New Rome, 469. Synodical Epistle, 469. the West dissatisfied, 469. but finally approves, 470, Constantinople, another council at, condemns Eutyches, 529, 530. Constantinople, Second General Coun- cil of. 553- ignores the Constitution of Vigi- lius, 553. condemns Theodorus of Mopsu- estia and the Three Chapters, 553* Vigilius at last concurs, 553. Origenians condemned, 553. schisms and disputes worse than before, 553. Constantinople, Third General Council of, 558. 572 Index. Constantinople, attempted miracle fails, SS8. Two Wills, Two Operations, 558. * Honorius and others anathema- tized, 558. attempt to condemn the Sixth Council, 559. Constantius, 413. receives Athanasius as a peer, 420. assures Athanasius of favor, 421. is baptized and dies, 430. Constantius Chlorus, Caesar, 339. destroys only the buildings, not the Christians, 344. Emperor, 346. divorces Helena, 347. dies, 347. ** Consubstantial,” 173. at Antioch, 283. at Nicaea, 284. used by Dionysius, 291. objections to the word, 388, 389. the use of it restored, 430. honest misunderstanding possible, 430. favored by Gratian and Theodo- sius, 462. Corinth, schismatic tendency, 88. Cornelius, of Rome, 241, 253. Corybantic frenzy, 163. Council of Jerusalem, 22. not enforced, 96. Council General, Idea of, 382. Creed, The, 82. Baptismal, 83. of Nicaea, 393, 447, 524. restored, 443, 445. of Arius, 402. of Golden Church, Antioch, 415, 429 - five Arian Creeds, 415. of Sirmium, 415. Creed of Seleucia, 415, 429. eighteen in all, 415, dated, 415, 429. evasive, 416. of Ariminum, 429, 447, 474. of Constantinople in full, 468, 469. Crescens, 14 1. Crispus, death of, 395. Cross, sign of the, 327. Invention of the True, 400. Crown, Question of the, 218. Cruelties of the Heathen, 212. of Christian persecutors not to be compared to those of the Hea- then, 343, 344. Cucusus, 421. Cynic, Martyr, 116. Cyprian, S., 21 1, 222. on Tradition, 82. his life, labors, and Martyrdom, 224-243. his appeals, 252. grants indulgence, 253. compromise with Cornelius, 260. letter to Stephen, 262. rebukes Stephen about Spanish Bishops, 263, 264. martyred, 265. Cyril, of Jerusalem, on the True Cross, 400. sound in the Faith, 417, 428. Cyril, of Alexandria, 5 1 1 . Paschal Epistle, 51 1. • sketch of his life, 514. encroaches on the civil power, 514. persecutes the sects, 515. quarrels with Orestes, 515. massacre of Christians, 515. expulsion of Jews, 516. proffer of peace refused, 517. riot of the Monks, 517. murder of Hypatia, 5 1 7, 5 *^* Index. 573 Cyril, fourteen years of quiet, 518. his character, 519. S. Isidore, his monitor, 519. correspondence with Nestorius, 520, 521. the twelve Anathemas, 522. at Ephesus, 523. accused of haste, 524. returns triumphant, 525. reconciled with John, of Antioch, 5 ^ 5 . fails to procure condemnation of Theodore of Mopsuestia, 529. Damasus, of Rome, 452, 453. massacres at his election, 452. on Western Council, 470. adds to power of Roman See, 472. dies, 472. Daphne, Grove of, 437. beacons, the Seven, 12, 79. seven, of Rome, 271. Deaconesses, 65. tortured, 104. Dead, Prayer for the, 215, 233, 326. oblations for the, 326. commemorated in the diptychs, 326. burial of the, 333, Deaf man, not to be made a Bishop, 199. Decian persecution, 244-254, a great crisis, 244. Decretal epistle. The first, 472. Dedication, Synod of the, 415. Delta, malarious, of controversy, 410. Demetrianus, 279. Demetrius, of Alexandria, 192, 194, 202-204. Demiurgus, 149, 150. Demoniacal possession, Tertullian’s challenge, 317. Demophilus, of Constantinople, 460. Development, 80, 164, 165, 322. Devil, The, might be pardoned, 487. Dialectics, Age of, 176. Didymus, 442. Dinocrates, 215. Dioceses, number of, in Asia Minor, 305 - number of, in Achaia, 306. number of, in Italy, 307. Diocletian, 158, 309, 339. Jovius, persecutes, 340. his decree, 342. decree torn down, 342. his palace fired, 342. probably by Galerius, 343. horrible cruelties, 343. no excuse for them, 343, thousands slain, 344, 345, trophies erected, 345. abdicates, 345. at Salona, 352. fate of his wife and daughter, 353. his end, 353, 354. Diognetus, Epistle to, 138. Dionysius the Great, of Alexandria, 204, 205, 249, 265, 281. sketch of his career, 286-291. his unsound language explained, 290. explanation saves him, 322. Dionysius, of Rome, 265. Dionysius, of Corinth, 306. opposes the Encratites, 306. his writings interpolated, 306. Dionysius, of Paris, 308. Dionysius, of Milan, 422. Dioscorians, 547. Dioscorus, of Alexandria, 529. quarrel with Theodoret, 529. 574 Index. Dioscorus, supports Eutyches, 530. sanctimonious, 530. tyrannical, scandalous, 531. presides at Robber Council, 531. destroys its records, 531. his mistaken calculation, 532. corrupting the Monks, 532. on trial at Chalcedon, 537. condemned and contumacious,538. banished and dies, 539. Diptychs, 215, 233, 548, 549. S. Chrysostom’s name in, 519. Discipline, in the Apostolic Church, 96. decline of, 219. restored, 243. lenient in Rome, 259. generally rigid, 318. Tertullian appeals to it, 318. Dispersion, Jews of the, 8. carried the Gospel with them, 9. of the Disciples, 14. Ditheists, 258. Docet 4 ^ 7 * Philumena, 156. Phocas, 554. Photinians, 460. Index, 589 Photinus, deposed, 421. heretical, 448. Phrygian ecstasy, 162, 177. PhihartolaircBy 547. Pictures forbidden in churches, 331. Pierius, 205, 291. Pilate, deposed, 15. forged “ Acts of, 349. Pillar-saints, 479, 533. Pinytus, Bishop of the Gnossians, 306. Pionius, martyr, 247. Pistus, 389. Places of prayer, 95. Plague, The, 250. panic among the Heathen, 250, 251. courage of the Christians, 251. evil overcome with good, 25 1. Pleroma^ 86, 149. Pliny the younger, 103, 314. Plotinus, 141, 142, 194, 201, 313. Point of view. Heathen, 268. Christian, 269. Politics, untouched, 96. Polycarp, S., 102, 117, 119. style and character, 120. TheodromCy 120. described by Irenseus, 120. visits Rome, 120. called for by the mob, 122. his Martyrdom, 1 23-1 25. Polycronius, heretic monk, 558, fails to work a miracle, 558. Pontius, deacon, 224. Pontus, invasion of the Goths, 305. Portraits of Christ and the Apostles, 331 - Porphyry, 141, 142, 313. Potamisena, 200, 201. Potamon, of Heraclea, 384. Pothinus, 1 1 7, 125. Pothinus, cry for his blood, 126. martyred, 129. Potior em Principalitatemy 255. Power of Christianity, 335. Praxeas, 169. Precedence of Bishops, 75. Presbyter-bishops, 64. Presbyteresses, 65. Presbyters or Elders, 14, 55 * Prescription, 175. Priesthood of the Laity, 1 66. Primates, rule of, in Africa, 224. Priscilla, 164. Priscillianists, 450. pleaded for by S. Martin, 487. condemned for their evil deeds, 487. Privatus, 222. Proclus, of Cyzicum, 509. preaches on the Theotokos ^ 513. Procopius, public and secret History, 550. Proculus, 168, 220. Prodigies and omens, 37, 43. Progress of the Gospel, 309, 310, problem unprecedented, 310. Pro mora finis ^ prayer, 213, 246. Proterius, Bishop of Alexandria, mur- dered, 542. Providence in History, 362. PseudoSy 198. Pulcheria, educates Theodosius II., 533 - lavish outlay, 534. love of relics, 535. marries Marcian, 535. Council of Chalcedon called, 535 - Pulpit eloquence unknown for three centuries at Rome, 272. Purgatory, 160. Puritans, 162, 241. 590 Index. Quacks, troops of, Julian, 435. Quadratus, 102. Apology for the Christians, 114. Quartodecimanism, 285, 390. Quinisext Council (see Truth'), Quintus, volunteer martyr, and coward, 121. Rack, number of holes in, 254. Rationalist reaction, 168, 169. Ravenna, separated from Rome, 554. Rebaptism by the Novatians, 243, 288. by the Catholics, 289. ^ “ Reason ” and Private Judgment, 382. Rejoicings at the triumph of Christian- ity, 357. 358 . Relic worship, 535. Representation of the whole Church, 321. Reservation, eucharistical, 327. Revivalism, 163. Rites, 92. little new needed, 92. Riots, exaggeration of number slain, 544, 545- Rod of Moses, 314. Rogatian, 232. Rome, Christians there at an early date, 18. point of confluence of traditions, 174. a steady balance, 175. Auctoritas prcesto., 21 1, 255. origin and growth of Roman Church, 254-278. missionary zeal of, 255. the resort of Heretics, 256. Matrix Religionis, 256. statistics of, in third centuiy, 267. social position then, 267. pulpit eloquence unknown, 272. Rome, charities abundant, 272, 273. the standard-bearer of Orthodoxy 277. Donatist succession in Rome, 277. the See of S. Peter, 277. early Synod of, witli only 14 Bish- ops, 307. an hundred sees, 307. the Primacy, as stated by Dollin- ger, 322. true order of events inverted by Roman theory, 322. submits to the Cross, 356. refuge of Nicene exiles, 419. luxury and wealth of its Bishops, 452. Council at, condemning Nestorius, 520, 521. Cyril to carry out the sentence, 521. “ shall have the Primacy,^’ a false reading, 541. Rothe, on Episcopacy, 61. Rule of Faith, 81, 83. the Creed, 82, 83. Sabbas, 442. Sabellianism, 1 68. Sabellius, 170. condemned at Rome, 258. Sabinus, of Leon, 264. Saccophori, 162. Sacraments, 1 04. none in the wilderness, 249. Sacra Peregrinay 268. Sacrificatiy 236. Saint-worship, probable origin of, 398. Salaries, the invention of Montanists, 334- Samosata, Paul of, 171. Samosatenians, 284. Index. 591 Sampsaeans, 45. Sanctus, deacon, 128. Sapor, 431, 473. Saracens, evangelized, 475. take their first town, 554. take whole Provinces, 555. take Jerusalem, 557. take large parts of the Empire, 557 . stopped by the Greek Fire, 557. Sarah and Hagar, 197. Sardica, Council of, 419, 420. splits between East and West, 420. Athanasius acquitted, 420. canon of, about appeals, 492, 493^ Sarmats, a376. Sasima, 458. Saturninus, Gnostic, 155. Saturninus, Martyr, 216. Saturus, Martyr, 216. Saul, of Tarsus, 19. his ordination, 20. Schaff, on Episcopacy, 61, 73, 74. on S. Ignatius, 109. on Gnosticism, 152. Schism, in Corinth, 88. in Antioch, 403. between East and West, 35 years, 548. Schools, three chief, of Theology, 1 74. the Age of, 299. Scillitan martyrs, 21 1-2 1 7. Scriptures, the Holy, destroyed in the Tenth Persecution, 341. Sects, in Africa, 222, 223, Arian, 416, 427. quarrelling among themselves, 427. Semiarian, 416, 427. HomoiousioUf 416, 447, Secundus, 377, 389. Seleucia, Council of, 427, 429. Self-destruction of Christians, 286. Senate, The, becoming Christian, 504. Senior es populi^ 231. Senses, to be sealed, 157. Sensuous bias, 158. Sepedon, two-headed hairy serpent, 90. Sepulchre, Holy, Church of the, 400. Septuagint, The, 184. Serapeum, The, rats, 504. Serapion, of Alexandria, 291. Serapion, monk, 478. Serenus Granianus, letter of, 115. -ergius, of Constantinople, advises the edict of Heraclius, 555. Sergius HI., of Rome, rejects Trullan canons, 559. Servant form of the Gospel, 310. Sethites, 154. Seven Angels, 72. Sleepers of Ephesus, 247. Seventy, The, 28, 29, 62. Severians, 162. Severianus, 353. Severus, Alexander, 145, 222. Severus, Csesar, slain, 346. Severus, Septimius, 144. Sibylline books, 352. Sicily, Council in, 447. Sick, Communion of the, 326, 327. Sige, 87, 108, 149. Signs in the Church, the State, the world, 245. and wonders, 315. Silas, or Silvanus, 31. Silence of Jesus, The, 109. Simon, S., Apostle, 34. Simon Magus, 14, 87. Sin after Baptism, 238. Sine Charta et Atramento^ 21 1. Siricius, Bishop of Rome, 277, 472. wrote the first genuine Decretal, 472. 592 Index. Sirmium, Council of, 415, 421. Sisters of the Clergy, 227. Sixtus, martyred in the Catacombs, 264. Sketis, 478. Slanders, heathen, 268, 329. Slaves, cruel treatment of, 332, 333. manumission not encouraged, 333. Sobriety of Christians, 269. Social problems untouched, 96. Societies, secret, 103. Society, unhealthy state of, 477. Socrates, used the language of the peo- pie, 4. Socrates, Historian, threefold bia; against Cyril, 514, 515. Sodomites, 155. Sophia^ 154. Sophronius, of Jerusalem, only orthodox patriarch, 556. Sotades, 379. Sotas, 177. Spain, 307. tinctured with Novatianism, 307. Spirit, Operation of the, 178. Spirits, tried, 179. S. P. O. R., 443. Spurious writings, 160. Spyridion, 384. Statistics and rhetoric, 309. Stephen, S., stoned, 14. Stephen, Bishop of Rome, 254, 261. martyred in the catacombs, 264. Stoic ideal, 116. Strauss, typical character of the mira- cles of Christ, 3. Stromata y 196. Subintroductce^ 227, 233. forbidden, 391. Subordination, 168, 172, 175. Sylvester, of Rome, 383. spurious correspondence, 393. Symbols, numerous, 83. Christian, 331. Symeon, Bishop of Jerusalem, 43, 44, 102. martyred, 106. Symeon, Stylites, 533. writes against Timothy the Cat, 542. Symmachus, 504, Syncretistic Schools, 313. Synods, 179, 180. a united witness, 180. all present. Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons, People, 180. Apostolic, 1 81. against Synods, 181. Provincial, 321, representative of the whpje Church, 321. Synodal Epistle, 393. Syrian Gnostics, 155. Syrianus, duke, 424. Systole y 170. Tabenna, 478. Tatian, 139, 140, 156, 162. Tatianites, 162. Taurobolia., 434. . Temple, in Jerusalem, attempt to re- build, 440, 441. Terminus., retreating, 496. his festival observed, 341. Tertullian, 141, 21 1. on the good Emperors, 144. on Tradition, 218. his life and labors, 218-222. on demoniacal possessipn, 317. on Discipline, 318. on the Christian Family, 324. on military service, 330. on non-resistance, 336. Index. 593 Tertullian, his itiindr errors, 221, 222. Tertullianists, restored to the Church, 220. Thalassius, of Caesarea, at “ Robber Council,*’ 531. Theandric Operation, 556. Theban Legion, 340. Theda, 59. Themison, I77. Theoctistus, of Caesarea, 203, 304. TheodochoSy $12. Theodora, Empress, 551. head of the Opposition, 551. an irreproachable wife, 551. Theodoret, of Cyrus, 525. tries to explain at Chalcedon, 540. anathematizes Nestorius, 540. Thcodorus of Mopsuestia, 529. Theodosius, restores the Churches to the Orthodox, 462. his orthodoxy and zeal, 463. taught, by disrespect to his son, 463- convokes Council of Constanti- nople, 464. Conference of Sects, 471. Novatians and Catholics approved, all Others condemned, 471, 472. establishes ** Church and State,” 489-493- at Milan, 501. is sent out of the chancel, 501. case of a Synagogue, 501. massacre at Thessalonica, 502. his penance, and restoration, 503, 504. Theodosius II., declines to call a new . Council, 532. character of his reign, 533. Pulcheria, 533. monachism, luxuriant, 533. Eudocia’s pilgrimage, 534. his death, 535. Theodosius, a Bishop, returns raging from Chalcedon, 545. Theodotus, 168, 169. Theognis, of Nicsea, 389, 402. Theognostus, 205, 291. Theonas, 291, 377, 389. Theonas, monk, 478. Theopaschites, 547. Theopemptus, 515. Theophilus, Apologist, 1 40, 278. Theophilus, the Goth, 383, 474. Theophilus, of Alexandria, 5x4. Theophorosy 512. Theotecnus, of Caesarea, 304. Theotokosy 5 10-5 1 3, 522, 527. TherapeutcBy 19, 97, 293. Thibutis, 43. Thiersch, on Episcopacy, 61, 72, 80. Thomas, S., Apostle, 33, 301. Apostle of the East, 528. Three hundred and eighteen. The, 383, Thundering Legion, 143. Thurificatiy 236. Tiberius, 554. Timothy, S., 21, 30, 31. Timothy, the Cat, 542, Titus, 31. Tonsure, and Maximus, 466. Tortures of martyrs, 128, 129. the punishments of slaves, 332, severity against Pagans, 504. Divine honors voted to him after death, 504. Theoddsius II., fosters both Heresies, 532 - 333 - Tradition, oral. Apostolic, 81, 82. soon corrupted, 81. appealed to, 174, 218. inveighed against, 218. 594 Index. Traditores, 274. Trajan, persecutes, 103-110. relents, 105. Translations of Bishops, etc., forbidden, 391 - Tran substantiation, denied, 522, Triad, 170. Trias, 140, 278. iTrihe immersion, 449, Trisagion, with Antiochean addition, 549 , 550 - Tritheism, 168. Trullo, Council in, 558. Ill Canons, 558. Truth, and error, 312. the new ordeal of, 381. real zeal for, 532. Twelve foundations, 28. Tyana, Council at, 447. T3rpes of doctrine, S. John, S. Paul, S. Peter, 78. S. James, 79. Typus, The, of Constans IL, 556. rejected at Rome, 556. Tyre, splendid church, 304, 350. Origen dies there, 304. Ulfilas, Bishop of the Goths, 474. Unction, 94. Unity, Catholic, 320-324. Ursacius, 421, 424. Valens, Arian, 421, 424. Valens, Emperor, 443. persecutes cruelly, 447, 448. eighty priests burned at sea, 448. resisted by S. Basil, 457. his offering refused at the Altar, 457 - dies, 460. Valentinian I., Emperor, 443. dies suddenly, 460. Valentinian 1 1 ., Emperor, 460. Valentinus, 154. Valeria, daughter of Diocletian, 338, 343 » 347 - outraged and slain by Maximin, 353 - Valerian, persecutor, flayed alive by Persians, 265. Veils, question of, 218. Venantius and Celer, consulship, 545. Venus, temple of, 400. Vernacular tongue, not commonly used by the Clergy in the Provinces, 295- Veronicianus, Secretary, 537. Vesta Mereiricum, 210. Vettius Epagathus, Mart)n*, 127. Via media, 175. Victor, of Rome, favors Montanism, 167. excommunicates the Asiatics, 188, 256. Victory, goddess of, 504. Vigilius, Bishop of Rome, 553. decides both ways about the Three Chapters, 553. acknowledges the instigation of the Devil, 553. accepts the Fifth General Council at last, 553. Vigils in cemeteries, 328. Vincent of Lerins, 221. Vincentius, legate, 383. Vincentius, Bishop of Arles, 422. Vindelicia, 308. Virgins, 60. outrages upon them, 213. their bad conduct in Africa, 225. they should marry, rather than give scandal, 233, 234. Index. 595 Virtues, Christian, not popular among the Heathen, 330. public, not popular among Chris- tians, 330. Vision of Constantine, 355, 356. Visions, fondness for, 217. abundant, 234, 244. Vitalian, bloody rebellion, 550. Vitus, legate, 383. World, The Roman, human, not dia- bolic, 332. Worship, Public, 94. as described by Pliny, 104. Xystus, 272. York, 347. Wars and famines, 252. Watchers, 479. take part with Rome, 549. Widows, 65, 332. Witness, threefold, Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, 175. unto blood, 314. Women, Holy, 57. Word, The, Alpha and Omega of Church History, 299. World, The Roman, 300. overstocked with population, 325. Zeno, Emperor, issues Henoticon^ 548. ignores Chalcedon and Leo’s Tome^ 548. Zenobia, 280, 284. Zephyrinus, 169, 190, 226. sketch of his Episcopate, 257, 258. Zoroaster, 157. Zosimus, on the heathen tyrants, 358. on the perfidy of Constantine, 361. his History a lampoon, 364. Zoticus, of Comana, 177. (■ 1 li I