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A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY 


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a  manual  of  Cbut^b  .ffisi<)t^ 


BY 

ALBERT  HENRY  NEWMAN,  aD^  LL.D. 

w 

Pro/issor  of  Church  History  in  Bqyhr  Unhtrsitjf 

Dtpartmmt  Editor  of  Church  History  for  Nsw  Seh^-Hir^og  En0fchp4dia 

Author  of  '*A  History  of  the  Baptist  Churches  m  the  United  States  " 

''A  HisUny  of  Anti-Pedobaptism*'  eU. 


Voitfinel 

Bncient  anO  flleMamil  Cbntcb  lUetont 

(To  A.aJ5l7) 


tEbe  Bmetican  Jlapti0t  publication  Societig 

1701-1709  Chertml  Scraet.  Plul«Uplua 


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NH 


Copyright  1899  by  tne 
Ambrican  Baptist  Publication  Society 

Published  January.  iga4 


from  tbc  flocictv'f  own  prcM  PrioMd  1 


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h}\ 


TO 

S)r«  aiDert  Mauck 

Trofsssor  in  th$  Uniwrsity  of  U^^g^ 

Gsh,  Kirchmrath^  Editor  of  ths  *'  T{$al'Em^klopadie'^ 

and  tAvihor  of  the  gnat  *^ KirciungischichU  Dmtscklands  "  that 

has  fsemtly  bun  awarded  the  V§rdim  Pri^e^  the  highest  distinction 

that  a  work  on  German  History  can  reaioe 

AND 

2)n  ?obann  Xo0ettb 

'Professor  in  the  Urnotrsity  of  Gra^,  the  highest  authority  on 

IVycliffite,  Hussite^  and  ^Anabaptist  literature  and 

history^  to  whose  writings  and  friendly 

offices  the  author  is  under  pro' 

found  obligation 

THIS  VOLUME  IS  RESPECTFULLY  DEDICATED 


89D649 

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PREFACE 


This  work  is  the  product  of  over  twenty  years  of 
almost  continuous  application  on  the  author's  part  to  the 
study  and  teaching  of  church  history.  It  has  been  his 
constant  endeavor  in  every  part  of  the  volume  to  incor- 
porate the  best  results  of  recent  research,  and  to  furnish 
to  his  readers  information  at  once  trustworthy,  impartial, 
and  fairly  adequate  on  every  topic  discussed. 

While  the  work  has  grown  out  of  the  author's  own 
needs  and  experiences  as  a  teacher,  and  is  primarily 
intended  as  a  text-book  for  theological  seminaries  and 
universities,  he  believes  that  it  is  equally  adapted  to  the 
requirements  of  ministers  of  the  gospel  and  of  intelligent 
laymen  throughout  our  great  Baptist  constituency.  As  he 
has  conscientiously  striven  to  record  the  facts  as  he  has 
found  them,  without  distorting  them  in  the  slightest 
degree  in  favor  of  any  particular  view  of  history,  or  any 
peculiar  tenets  of  his  denomination,  he  sees  no  reason 
why  the  work  should  not  be  acceptable  and  useful  to 
members  of  other  denominations  as  well  as  to  those  of  his 
own.  The  recognition  given  to  the  author's  fair-minded- 
ness and  freedom  from  partisanship  by  leading  scholars 
of  other  denominations  who  have  reviewed  his  earlier 
works  induces  the  hope  that  this  also  will  find  a  large 
number  of  sympathetic  readers  in  the  various  bodies  of 
evangelical  Christians. 

It  has  long  been  the  conviction  of  the  author  that  a 
place  should  be  given  to  church  history  in  the  curricula  of 
all  colleges  and  universities.  A  number  of  leading  Amer- 
ican universities  have  followed  those  of  England  and 
Germany  in  giving  to  the  history  of  the  Christian  religion 
a  place  side  by  side  with  Greek  and  Roman  history  and 
philosophy,  mediaeval  and  modern  political  history,  con- 
stitutional history,  the  philosophy  of  history,  the  history 
of  philosophy,  comparative  religion,  sociology,  etc.,  as 

▼ii 


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VUl  PREFACE 

fundamental  to  the  effective  study  of  humanity.  If,  as  is 
unquestionably  true,  Christianity  has  been  a  chief  factor 
in  the  production  of  all  that  is  best  in  modern  civilization, 
its  history  should  be  relegated  to  no  subordinate  place 
among  the  instruments  of  general  culture.  It  is  little 
creditable  to  the  Christian  colleges  and  universities  of 
the  United  States  that  this  important  department  of  study 
has  been  to  so  large  an  extent  neglected. 

A  text-book  on  this  subject,  scientifically  prepared  and 
free  from  partisanship,  should  encourage  professors  of 
history  to  include  the  history  of  Christianity  in  the 
courses  they  offer,  and  it  is  the  author's  earnest  desire 
that  this  work  may  contribute  in  some  small  measure 
to  the  more  extended  study  and  the  better  understand- 
ing of  the  greatest  movement  in  human  history. 

The  bibliographies  interspersed  through  the  volume, 
and  which  it  is  believed  will  add  greatly  to  its  value,  are 
meant  to  be  neither  absolutely  inclusive  of  the  literature 
actually  used  in  its  preparation,  nor  absolutely  exclusive 
of  what  has  not  been  so  used. 

To  Rev.  Joseph  Leeming  Gilmour,  B.  D.,  of  Hamilton 
Ont.,  one  of  the  most  scholarly  of  our  younger  minis- 
ters, the  author  is  indebted  for  valuable  assistance  in 
the  preparation  of  the  Index. 

The  second  volume,  completing  the  work,  is  in  course 

of  preparation  and  will  be  published,  it  is  hoped,  before 

the  close  of  next  year. 

A.  H.  N. 
McMastbr  UmvBRsmr. 
TORONTO.  Canada.  Octobflr,  xSi.' .•• 


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TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PA<M 

INTRODUCTION.— Observations  on  the  Study 
OF  Church  History,  and  Preparation  for 
Christ  and  Christianity 1-64 

Chapter  l— preliminary  Observations  on  the 
Study  of  Church  History 3-ig 

Definition  and  Scope  of  Church  History 3 

Historiography,  Objective  and  Subjective  ....  5 

Sources  of  Church  History 9 

The  Employment  of  Sources 11 

History  of  Church  Historiography 12 

Periods  of  Church  History 16 

Summary  of  Reasons  for  Studying  Church  His- 
tory   17 

Chapter  ii.— the  GRiCCO-ROMAN  Civilization  as 

A  PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANITY 20-33 

Greek  Civilization ao 

Greek  Philosophy 21 

The  Macedonian  Conquest 27 

The  Roman  Empire 29 

CHAPTER    III.— PREPARATION    FOR    CHRISTIANITY    IN 
JEWISH  LIFE  AND  THOUGHT 34-^ 

The  Effects  of  the  Babylonian  Captivity 35 

Influence  of  the  Persian  Contact 36 

The  Jewish  People  under  the  Macedonian  Rulers  .  39 

The  Maccabean  Struggle 44 

Rise  of  Religious  Parties 47 

The  Dispersion 55 

The  Jewish-Alexandrian  Philosophy— Philo  Ju- 

dseus 59 

Messianic  Expectations 62 

iz 


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X  CONTENTS 

PERIOD  I.— From  the  Birth  of  Christ  to  the 
End  of  the  apostolic  age  (c  a.  d.  ioo)  .  65-143 

chapter  L— JESUS  THE  CHRIST 67-80 

The  Fullness  of  the  Time 67 

The  Pre-Incarnate  Word 68 

From  Conception  to  Baptism 68 

The  Baptism,  the  Temptation,  and  the  Testimony 

of  John  the  Baptist 70 

The  Public  Ministry  of  Jesus 71 

Some  Estimates  of  the  Character  and  Influence 

of  Jesus 78 

CHAPTER  II.— THE  APOSTLES 81-124 

The  Apostolic  Church  to  the  Conversion  of  Saul .     81 
From  the  Conversion  of  Saul  to  the  Jerusalem 

Conference 88 

From  the  Jerusalem  Conference  to  the  Neronian 

Persecution 92 

From  the  Neronian  Persecution  to  the  Death  of 

the  Apostle  John in 

Chapter  hi.— constitution  of  the  apostolic 
Churches i2$-i4i 

The  Church  and  the  Churches 12$ 

Officers  of  the  Apostolic  Churches 131 

Ordinances  of  the  Apostolic  Churches 135 

Worship— Elements,  Times,  and  Places 140 

Methods  of  Christian  Propagandism 142 

PERIOD  II.— FROM  THE  END  OF  THE  APOSTOLIC 
AGE  TO  THE  CONVERSION  OF  CONSTANTINE  (A. 
D.  312) 145-301 

CHAPTER  I.— RELATION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  TO  THE  RO- 
MAN EMPIRE  FROM  THE  TIME  OF  THE  APOSTLES  TILL 
THE  ADOPTION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  AS  THE  RELIGION 

OF  THE  EMPIRE 147-172 

General  Observations 147 

Causes  of  Persecution 148 

Treatment  of  Christians  by  Different  Emperors  .    i$o 


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CONTENTS  Xl 

Chapter  il.— internal  development  of  Chris- 
tianity DURING  THE  SECOND  AND  THIRD  CENTU- 
RIES  175-aio 

General  Observations 173 

Heretical  Sects :  Ebionites,  Gnostics,  Manichsans,  ^^ 

Monarchians 174 

Reactionary  and  Reforming  Parties :  Montanists, 
Novatianists,  Donatists 202 

CHAPTER  IIl.—THE    CHRISTIAN    LITERATURE  OF   THE 

FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES 211-290 

Preliminary  Observations 2\\ 

The  Edificatory  Period,  or  the  Period  of  the  Apos- 
tolic Fathers 213 

The  Apologetical  Period 237 

The  Polemical  Period. 246 

The  Scientific  Period 271 

CHAPTER  IV.— CONDITION  OF   CHRISTIANITY   AT  THE 

CLOSE  OF  THE  PERIOD 291-301 

External  Condition 291 

Internal  Condition 292 

PERIOD  III.— FROM  THE  CONVERSION  OF  CON- 
STANTINE  TO  THE  FOUNDING  OF  THE  HOLY  RO- 
MAN EMPIRE  BY  CHARLEMAGNE  (A.  D.  800)  .  303-434 

Chapter  I.— CHURCH  AND  STATE 305-319 

Constantlne  and  his  Successors 305 

The  State  Church 311 

CHAPTER  II.— CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  .   .    VO-'y^ 
On   Ecclesiastical   Polity— the  Donatist  Contro- 
versy  320 

On  the  Relations  of  the  Godhead—the  Arian  Con- 
troversy     323 

The  Origenistic  Controversies 332 

On  Christoiogy— the  Nestorian,  Eutychian,  Mo- 

nothelite,  and  Adoptionist  Controversies  .  •  •   335 
On  Anthropology— The  Pelagian  and  Semi- Pe- 
lagian Controversies 3S8 


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xn  CONTENTS 

Controversies  Occasioned  by  Protests  Against  the 
Progressive  Paganization  of  Christian  Life  as 
seen  in  Asceticism,  the  Veneration  of  Saipts  and 
Relics,  etc.— the  Aerian,  Jovinianist,  Vigilan- 
tian»  PauUcisHi,  and  Iconoclastic  Controversies  .   571 

CHAPTER  III.— THE  RISE  AND  GROWTH  OF  THE  PAPAL 

POWER 39S-423 

Preliminary  Observations 393 

Leo  the  Great  and  the  Papacy 397 

The  Pontificate  of  Gelasius 400 

The  Pontificate  of  Symmachus 401 

Hormisdas 402 

Justinian  and  the  Papacy 402 

The  Merovingian  Kingdom  and  the  Church  .  .  .  404 

The  Pontificate  of  Gregory  the  Great 40$ 

The  Carlovingian  Kingdom  and  the  Papacy  .  .  .  406 
The  Christianity  of  Britain  in  Relation  to  the 

Papacy 409 

The  Advancement  of  Papal  Dominion  through 
Missionary  Endeavor:  Augustine,  Willibrord, 

and  Boniface 415 

CHAPTER  IV.— THE  CHRISTIAN  WORLD  AT  THE  CLOSE 
OF  THE  PERIOD 42?-4V 

The  East  and  Uie  West 423 

Literature  and  Learning 428 

Church  Discipline 429 

Mohammedanism  as  a  Rival  of  Christianity  ...  431 

PERIOD  IV.— From  the  Coronation  of  Charle^ 
MAGNE  as  Roman  Emperor  to  the  Outbreak 
of  THE  Protestant  Revolution  (a.  d.  800- 
1517) 435  621 

CHAPTER  L— Some  aspects  of  Mediaeval  Civiliza- 
tion   437-494 

Preliminary  Observations 437 

The  Holy  Roman  Empire 439 

Feudalism 443 

Canon  Law  and  Forged  Dacietals 447 


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CONTENTS  xiii 

The  Roman  Curia 449 

Mediseval  Monasticism 451 

The  Crusades 456 

The  Inquisition 463 

Mediaeval  Universities 469 

Mediaeval  Theology— Scholasticism,  Mysticism  .  474 

The  Renaissance 490 

CHAPTER  11. —  The  Papacy  during  the  Middle 

AGES 495-540 

The  Popes  from  A.  D.  800-1044 495 

The  Hildebrandine  Scheme  of  Reform 502 

The  Controversy  on  Investiture  and  the  Con- 
cordat of  Worms  (1122) 509 

The  Hohenstaufen  Emperors  and  the  Popes  ...  $11 
Decline  of  the  Papal  Power:  Boniface  Vlll.,  Pa- 
pal Captivity,  Papal  Schism,  Reforming  Coun- 
cils   518 

The  Popes  of  the  Renaissance 53$ 

CHAPTER    III.— REACTIONARY   AND    REFORMING  PAR- 
TIES   $4I-<S2I 

Preliminary  Observations 541 

Dualistic  Dissent :  Bogomiles,  Cathari $43 

Chlliastic  and   Enthusiastic  Sects:   Joachim  of 

Floris  and  the  Joachimites,  Spirituales    ....    $$i 
Pantheistic  Heresy:  Amalric  of  Bena,  Beghards 

and  Beguines,  Brethren  of  the  Free  Spirit  .  .  ,    $$^ 
Evangelical  Separatism :  Petrobruslans  and  Hen- 
ridans,  Arnold  of  Brescia,  Humlliati,  Tanchelm, 
Eudo,  Waldenses,  Taborites,  Marsiiius  of  Pa- 
dua,   Peter    Chelcicky,    Lollards,    Bohemian 

Brethren $57 

Evangelical  Churchly  Reformers :  Wydiffe,  Huss, 
Brethren  of  the  Common  Life,  "  Reformers  be 
fore  the  Reformation  " 600 


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INTRODUCTION 

OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  STUDY  OF  CHURCH 

HISTORY,  AND  PREPARATION  FOR 

CHRIST  AND  CHRISTIANITY 


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INTRODUCTION  A/. :::vv 


CHAPTER  I 


PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS  ON  THE  STUDY  OF  CHURCH 
HISTORY 

LITERATURE:  Sections  on  Church  History  in  the  Theological 
Encyclopedias  of  Rabiger  (English  translation),  Hagenbach  (Eng- 
lish translation,  with  additions  by  Croolcs  and  Hurst),  Zoci<ier^i 
'^HoMdbuch  (Ur  Tfuol.  IVissmschaflm,''  Cave's  "  Introduction  to  the 
Study  of  Theology,"  Dnimmond's  '*Thc  Study  of  Theology,"  and 
SchafPs  "  Propaedeutics";  Introductions  to  the  Church  Histories  of 
Schaff,  Gieseler,  Hurst,  Moeller,  Niedner,  Kurtz,  Dollinger,  Alzog, 


study  of  Church  History  in  Ministerial  Education,'^  1874;  Smith, 
H.  B.,  "  Nature  and  Worth  of  the  Science  of  Church  History"  (in 
••  Faith  and  Philosophy,"  1877) ;  De  Witt,  "  Church  History  as  a 
Science,  as  a  Theological  Discipline,  and  as  a  Mode  of  the  Gospel " 
(in  "  Bibliotheca Sacra,"  1883) ;  McGiffert, "  The  Historical  Study  of 
Christianity"  (in  "  Bibliotheca  Sacra,"  1893)?  Stanley,  *'  Lectures 
on  the  Study  of  Ecclesiastical  History  *'  (In  ^^dfistory  of  the  Eastern 
Church  "  1872,  Introduction) :  Bright,  ''The  Study  of  Church  His- 
tory "  (in  '•  Waymarks  of  Church  History,"  1894). 

I.  DEFINITION  AND  SCOPE  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

History  in  its  broadest  sense  is  the  setting  forth  in 
literary  or  oral  form  of  the  development  in  time  of  the 
divine  plan  of  the  universe,  in  so  far  as  this  develop- 
ment has  become  an  object  of  human  knowledge.  This 
definition  involves  a  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  uni- 
verse was  planned  and  created  and  has  been  continu- 
ously sustained  and  ordered  by  an  infinite  God.  Hu- 
man history  would  include  a  narration  of  all  that  is 
known  of  the  origin  of  mankind  and  of  the  development 
of  human  nature  in  all  its  aspects  and  under  all  circum- 

3 


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4  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [iNTRa 

stances.  Sacred  history  is  the  setting  forth  of  the 
known  facts  of  man's  development  as  it  has  been  af- 
fected by  the  providential,  inspiring,  and  self-revealing 
presence  of  God. 

Church  history  is  the  narration  of  all  that  is  known 
of  ttie  founding  and  the  development  of  the  kingdom 
of  Christ  on  earth.  The  term  church  history  is  com- 
monly used  to  designate  not  merely  the  record  of  the 
organized  Christian  life  of  our  era,  but  also  the  record  of 
the  career  of  the  Christian  religion  itself.  It  includes 
within  its  sphere  the  indirect  influences  that  Christianity 
has  exerted  on  social,  ethical,  aesthetic,  legal,  economic, 
and  political  life  and  thought  throughout  the  world,  no 
less  than  its  direct  religious  influences. 

The  history  of  Christianity  has  much  in  common  with 
the  history  of  other  systems  of  religion,  and  much  that 
is  peculiar.  Religion  is  a  universal  factor  in  human  life. 
The  religious  life  of  every  organized  people  has  a  history 
of  its  own.  Each  of  the  great  world-religions  has  had 
its  origin,  its  growth,  its  influence  on  the  social,  ethical, 
and  political  life  of  the  peoples  that  have  professed  it, 
has  undergone  changes  by  virtue  of  the  influence  of 
ihe  other  elements  of  life  and  thought  by  which  it  has 
been  surrounded,  has  been  modified  by  contact  with 
other  systems  of  religion  and  philosophy,  has  developed 
forms  of  worship,  sacred  rites,  sacred  books,  sacred  per- 
sons and  classes,  sacred  places,  methods  of  propagating 
itself,  and  theories  of  the  origin  and  development  of  the 
race  and  of  the  goal  of  human  history.  The  religion 
of  Jesus  Christ  entered  upon  its  career  amid  Jewish 
surroundings.  Jesus  himself  as  a  man  was  consciously 
a  member  of  the  Jewish  community.  His  early  disciples 
were  all  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  principles  of  Juda- 
ism. By  special  divine  grace  a  select  few  were  marvel- 
ously  preserved  from  the  contamination  of  error.  But  as 
Christianity  made  its  way  throughout  the  Jewish  and 
pagan  world  it  was  inevitable  that  it  should  be  pro- 
foundly influenced  by  the  current  modes  of  thought  and 
life  and  that  its  polity,  doctrines,  ordinances,  worship, 
ethical  conceptions,  and  ideals  of  life,  should  be  assimi- 
lated in  some  measure  to  those  of  the  world  in  which  it 
had  its  being.    It  may  be  said  in    general,  that   just 


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CHAP.l.]  PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS  $ 

in  proportion  as  the  Christianity  of  any  age  and  land 
has  submitted  to  the  worldly  influences  that  have 
been  brought  to  bear  upon  it  has  its  development  approx- 
imated that  of  heathen  religions. 

In  the  above  definition  of  church  history  it  is  presup- 
posed that  the  human  race  is  in  an  abnormal  state, 
alienated  from  God,  and  that  the  end  of  Christianity  is 
the  restoration  of  man  to  a  condition  of  obedience  to 
God  and  communion  with  him.  The  history  of  the 
church  should  show,  therefore,  the  progressive  accom- 
plishment of  this  divine  purpose  through  the  centuries, 
taking  full  account  of  the  obstacles  that  have  presented 
themselves  to  the  triumph  of  Christianity  and  the  means 
by  which  they  have  been  surmounted. 

II.  HISTORIOGRAPHY,  OBJECTIVE  AND  SUBJECTIVE. 

As  the  aim  of  the  church  historian  should  be  to  ascer- 
tain and  to  represent  the  exact  facts  in  their  relations  to 
each  other  and  to  the  times  and  circumstances  concerned 
in  each  case,  it  is  manifestly  desirable  that  in  the  process 
of  investigation  he  should  deal  as  impartially  with  his 
materials  as  does  the  chemist  with  his  specimens.  The 
end  and  aim  of  all  his  research  should  be  the  accurate 
ascertainment  of  facts  in  order  that  truth  may  emerge. 
It  is  incumbent  on  him  to  guard  scrupulously  against  al- 
lowing his  judgment  to  be  swayed  by  the  supposed 
bearing  of  the  facts  on  the  traditions  of  his  denomination 
or  his  own  individual  opinions. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  neither  practicable  nor  desira- 
ble that  the  church  historian  should  be  indifferent  to  the 
subject-matter  of  his  science  or  that  he  should  be  so  des- 
titute of  convictions  as  to  form  no  moral  judgments  on 
the  opinions  and  acts  of  parties  and  individuals  whose 
history  he  studies  and  seeks  to  expound.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  great  mass  of  those  who  are  in  a  position  to  de- 
vote their  lives  to  research  in  church  history  have  been 
so  conditioned  by  reason  of  their  known  convictions  and 
ideals.  .  It  is  not  the  scholar  who  is  without  personal  in- 
terest in  Christianity  and  who  studies  its  history  in  a 
purely  scientific  spirit,  that  is  likely  to  enter  into  the 
fullest  appreciation  of  the  facts  of  church  history ;  but 


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6  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [intrOl 

the  scholar  who  is  most  profoundly  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  Christianity,  rejoices  in  all  that  is  Christlike  and 
heroic,  laments  the  corruptions  and  perversions  of  the 
past,  and  is  most  deeply  concerned  for  the  honor  and 
purity  of  the  Christianity  of  the  present  and  the  future. 
Christ  is  the  truth.  The  church  historian  must  be  above 
all  things  truthful  and  truth-loving.  That  any  one 
who  claims  to  be  a  follower  of  Christ  should  seek 
to  advance  the  cause  of  Christ  by  the  suppression  of 
facts  or  by  the  suggestion  of  falsehood  is  so  anomalous 
as  to  be  incredible  were  not  undoubted  instances,  an- 
cient and  modern,  so  numerous.  The  truth-loving  church 
historian  will  seek  to  be  as  scrupulously  just  to  indi- 
viduals and  parties  from  whom  he  fundamentally  differs 
as  to  those  with  whom  he  fundamentally  agrees.  He 
will  be  as  reluctant  to  credit  disparaging  statements 
against  the  former,  when  insufficiently  supported  by  evi- 
dence, as  to  discredit  such  statements  against  the  latter 
without  adequate  reason.  The  prevalent  practice  in  the 
past  has  been  to  credit  every  statement  that  bears 
against  one's  opponents  and  to  discredit  every  statement 
unfavorable  to  one's  friends.  The  following  points  of 
view  may  be  here  discriminated  : 

I.  The  Romanist,  maintaining  that  ail  authority,  that 
of  the  Scriptures  included,  inheres  in  the  church ;  that 
the  church  has  the  right  to  legislate  independently 
of  Scripture ;  that  as  vicar  of  Christ  on  earth  the  pope 
possesses  of  right  universal  dominion,  spiritual  and  sec- 
ular, will  of  necessity  study  and  write  church  history 
from  a  hierarchical  point  of  view.  Convinced  that  •*  the 
greater  glory  of  God  "  is  involved  in  the  realization  of 
the  aims  of  the  hierarchy,  he  will  regard  everything  as 
praiseworthy  and  justifiable  that  has  ministered  to  the 
upbuilding  of  hierarchical  power  and  that  the  church  has 
approved,  and  everything  as  heretical  and  worthy 
of  reprobation  that  has  opposed  the  development  of  the 
hierarchical  scheme.  It  is  evident  that  the  Romanist, 
as  such,  is  disqualified  from  treating  objectively  the  facts 
of  church  history.  He  is  not  even  able  to  view  the  facts 
subjectively  as  conforming  or  not  conforming  to  the  stand- 
ard set  up  by  his  own  personal  moral  judgment.  The 
standard  is  an  objective  one,  fixed  by  church  authority. 


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CHAP.  I.]  PREUMINARY  OBSERVATIONS  7 

2.  The  Anglo-Catholic,  accepting  as  supreme  the  au- 
thority of  the  ancient  undivided  church  as  represented 
by  the  Fathers  of  the  first  six  centuries  or  more  specifi- 
cally by  the  canons  of  the  first  four  General  Councils, 
and  laying  the  utmost  stress  on  apostolic  succession, 
church  perpetuity,  and  catholicity,  as  marks  of  the 
church,  will  inevitably  write  church  history  with  a  view 
to  establishing  the  identity  of  his  own  church  with  the 
church  of  the  Fathers,  and  the  historical  derivation  of  its 
episcopate  from  that  of  the  early  church,  and  so  from  the 
apostles.  It  were  not  to  be  expected  that  he  would  deal 
sympathetically  or  fairly  with  Christian  individuals  or 
parties  who  do  not  bear  his  "  marks  "  of  churchmanship. 

3.  The  advocates  of  ecclesiastical  development,  hold- 
ing that  Christ  and  his  apostles  did  not  design  to  pre- 
scribe or  exemplify  a  definite  form  of  church  organization 
that  should  be  perpetually  binding,  but  that  the  Christian 
life  which  embodied  itself  in  a  particular  form  of  organiza- 
tion suggested  by  and  adapted  to  the  needs  and  circum- 
stances of  the  apostolic  time  may  assume  a  thousand 
other  forms,  under  as  many  varying  circumstances,  will 
attach  comparatively  little  importance  to  changes  in  ec- 
clesiastical order  and  in  doctrine  from  age  to  age.  He 
will  show,  e.  ^.,  by  reference  to  the  circumstances  and 
needs  of  the  times,  how  and  why  the  simple  congrega- 
tional order  of  the  primitive  churches  gave  way  first  to 
presbyterial  government,  then  to  simple  episcopal,  then 
to  prelatical,  and  at  last  to  papal.  He  will  regard  each 
stage  as  the  natural,  if  not  necessary,  outgrowth  of  an- 
tecedents and  environments,  and  while  he  will  not  hesi- 
tate to  condemn  corrupt  practices,  he  will  be  slow  to 
condemn  any  ecclesiastical  institution  as  such.  Freed 
from  the  necessity  of  defending  any  particular  form  of 
Christianity  as  exclusively  valid,  he  will  be  in  a  position 
to  treat  sympathetically,  with  reference  to  the  circum- 
stances of  their  times,  even  the  most  corrupted  and  dis- 
torted forms  of  Christianity,  and  especially  will  he  be 
interested  in  all  efforts,  however  misguided,  to  bring 
about  reforms.  Such  is  the  position  of  the  great  mass 
of  modern  German  students  of  church  history,  and  it  is 
among  these  that  we  find  the  closest  approximation  to 
true  objectivity  of  treatment  combined  with  deep  interest 


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8  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [INTRQ 

in  every  form  of  Christian  life,  organization,  and  doctrine. 
English  Broad  Churchmen  occupy  essentially  the  same 
position,  but  have  not  busied  themselves  largely  with 
church  history. 

4.  He  that  sees  in  the  precepts  and  example  of  Christ 
and  his  apostles,  as  embodied  in  the  New  Testament 
Scriptures,  an  authoritative  standard  for  all  times  and  all 
circumstances,  will  look  upon  any  deviation  from  this 
standard  as  obnoxious  to  the  spirit  of  Christianity. 
While  admitting  that  apostolic  church  order  is  given  only 
in  outline,  and  that  much  has  been  left  open  and  free  for 
determination  from  time  to  time  by  the  wisdom  of  bodies 
of  believers  organized  in  the  apostolic  way,  practising  apos- 
tolic ordinances,  and  subject  continually  to  the  guidance  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  he  will  refuse  to  give  his  approval  to  any 
violation  of  what  he  regards  as  the  fundamental  princi- 
ples embodied  in  the  apostolic  norm.  Yet  in  view  of  the 
speedy  and  almost  complete  departure  of  the  post-apos- 
tolic churches  from  the  apostolic  church  order,  and  of  the 
fact  that  thenceforward  to  the  present  time  so  large  a  part 
of  the  Christian  work  that  has  transformed  the  world 
has  been  accomplished  by  churches  and  individuals 
whose  church  order,  doctrines,  and  manner  of  life  have 
fallen  indefinitely  short  of  the  apostolic  requirement,  he 
will  judge  as  charitably  as  possible  those  who  do  not  ap- 
pear to  have  been  willful  perverters,  but  who  may  be 
supposed  to  have  been  led  astray  by  early  training  or 
the  force  of  circumstances,  and  will  rejoice  in  all  that  is 
Christlike  and  noble  in  life,  in  thought,  and  in  deed. 
While  he  will  be  ever  alert  to  discover  the  existence  and 
to  trace  the  history  of  individuals  and  parties  that  in 
times  of  general  apostasy  have  earnestly  attempted  to 
restore  the  apostolic  form  of  Christian  teaching  and 
practice,  he  will  guard  scrupulously  against  perverting 
the  facts  in  this  interest;  and  while  he  may  strongly 
suspect  that  if  the  facts  were  all  known,  apostolically 
organized  churches  and  apostolic  types  of  teaching  and 
life  would  cut  a  far  larger  figure  in  certain  periods  than 
appears  from  materials  at  present  available,  he  will  be 
content  to  state  precisely  what  he  finds  authentically 
recorded,  and  to  give  his  reasons  for  thinking  that  the 
facts  may  have  been  more  favorable  than  the  extant 


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CHAP.L]  PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS  Q 

documents  reveal.  The  church  historian  who  feels 
bound  in  his  own  life,  doctrine,  and  practice  by  the 
apostolic  norm  should  be  the  most  truth-loving,  the  most 
charitable,  the  most  fair-minded,  the  most  unpartisan  of 
all.  He  should  be  able  to  exemplify  the  very  best  sort 
of  objectivity  in  his  investigation  and  exposition  of  the 
facts  of  church  history.  Knowing  that  truth  is  mighty 
and  must  ultimately  prevail,  he  will  believe  that  a  state- 
ment of  the  exact  facts  in  each  case  will  better  subserve 
the  cause  of  truth  than  any  partial  or  distorted  narrative 
could  possibly  do. 

111.  SOURCES  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

These  embrace  all  the  contemporary  information  on 
Christian  life,  thought,  organization,  and  achievement 
in  each  age  and  country,  extant  in  written  or  other 
form.     The  following  specifications  may  be  made  : 

I.  Contemporary  Christian  literature  of  every  kind. 
(i)  Edificatory  writings  show  the  ideals  of  Christian  life 
that  prevailed,  the  evils  that  had  to  be  guarded  against, 
the  methods  of  using  and  interpreting  the  Scriptures,  and 
the  current  types  of  teaching.  (2)  Apologetical  litera- 
ture shows  the  attitude  of  the  church  of  each  age  to- 
ward the  world  and  of  the  world  toward  the  church,  and 
usually  embodies  the  philosophical  conceptions  that  un- 
derlie the  Christian  thinking  of  the  time.  (3)  Polemical 
literature  reveals  the  antagonistic  forces  at  work  in  each 
age  among  professing  Christians,  and  while  it  often  gives 
evidence  of  the  presence  of  intolerance  and  partisan  ran- 
cor and  shows  little  appreciation  of  the  position  of  op- 
ponents, it  is  exceedingly  valuable  as  furnishing  the  ma- 
terials for  the  history  of  doctrinal  development.  (4)  The 
canons  of  synods  and  councils  and  the  collections  of  rules 
and  regulations  for  the  guidance  of  the  churches  in  mat- 
ters of  discipline  belonging  to  each  age  and  country, 
throw  much  light  on  the  practical  working  of  organized 
Christianity.  (5)  Creeds,  usually  formulated  as  a  result 
of  controversy  and  generally  embodying  either  compro- 
mise statements  or  the  opinions  of  the  dominant  party, 
have  their  obvious  uses  as  materials  for  church  history. 
(6)  Liturgies   and    hymns   produced    by  and   for    the 


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10  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [iNTRa 

churches  of  each  age  and  country  embody  the  prevail- 
ing ideals  of  worship  and  reflect  the  religious  life  of  the 
times.  (7)  Correspondence,  public  and  private,  embody- 
ing in  many  cases  the  frank  expression  of  the  opinions 
of  leading  actors  on  current  events,  is  often  of  the  high- 
est value.  (8)  Papal  decretals,  rescripts,  bulls,  briefs, 
etc.,  present  in  concrete  form  the  claims  of  the  hier- 
archy from  time  to  time,  and  the  methods  employed  for 
securing  recognition  of  hierarchical  authority.  (9)  Im- 
perial and  royal  edicts,  capitularies,  and  other  enactments 
in  relation  to  ecclesiastical  matters,  have  their  obvious 
uses.  In  fact,  civil  and  ecclesiastical  history  are  so  inti- 
mately related,  especially  since  the  union  of  Church  and 
State,  that  most  civil  records  have  a  bearing  direct  or 
indirect  on  church  history.  The  Corpus  Juris  Civilis  is 
almost  as  important  for  church  history  as  the  later  Corpus 
funs  Canonid. 

2.  Christian  Archceology.  Religious  sculpture  and 
painting,  symbolical  representations  of  religious  acts  and 
truths  (as  on  the  walls  of  the  catacombs  and  on  gems), 
inscriptions  on  coins  and  seals,  remnants  of  church  archi- 
tecture, baptisteries,  etc.,  are  embodiments,  each  in  its 
way,  of  the  religious  life  and  thought  of  their  age,  and 
are  worthy  of  the  attention  of  the  church  historian. 

Abundant  materials  of  all  the  varieties  specified  have 
been  preserved,  and  through  the  industry  of  scholars 
have  been  made  available  to  the  student  in  printed  form. 
The  work  of  research  is  still  going  energetically  forward, 
and  it  is  probable  that  within  a  few  years  little  extant 
material  of  value  will  have  remained  in  concealment. 

Treatises  on  church  history,  ancient  and  modern,  are 
of  value  only  so  far  as  they  are  known  to  rest  upon  a 
critical  and  judicial  use  of  the  original  sources. 

The  materials  of  church  history  are  now  so  vast  that 
no  individual  can  hope  to  master  them.  The  best  work 
appears  at  present  not  in  general  treatises  on  the  entire 
subject,  but  in  monographs  on  limited  periods,  particular 
movements,  particular  institutions,  individual  leaders, 
etc.  The  general  church  historian  must  depend  very 
largely  on  such  monographs  prepared  by  specialists ;  but 
he  will  be  careful  to  test  their  results  on  all  important 
matters  by  direct  reference  to  the  sources. 


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CHAP.l]  I>RELIMINARY  observations  II 

IV.  THE  EMPLOYMENT  OF  SOURCES. 

1.  It  is  obvious  that  if  sources  are  to  be  used  the  lan- 
guages in  which  they  are  written  must  be  thoroughly 
mastered.  The  sources  of  ancient  church  history  are 
mostly  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages,  a  knowledge 
of  which  is  indispensable.  Some  valuable  material  ex- 
ists in  the  Syriac,  Ethiopic,  Coptic,  Armenian,  and  the 
various  Slavonic  languages,  but  few  church  historians  un- 
dertake the  mastery  of  these.  For  the  church  history 
of  Western  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages,  Latin  is  the 
principal  language ;  but  important  writings  are  preserved 
in  the  primitive  forms  of  the  German,  the  Romance,  the 
English,  and  other  languages.  For  modern  history  the 
German,  French,  Dutch,  and  Italian  languages  are  impor- 
tant, especially  the  first  two. 

2.  The  successful  historical  investigator  must  have 
critical  insight  in  a  high  degree.  A  vast  amount  of 
spurious  material  is  intermingled  with  the  genuine  litera- 
ture of  each  age.  He  must  be  able  to  discriminate  be- 
tween the  genuine  and  the  spurious.  Of  genuine  writ- 
ings some  are  more  trustworthy  than  others,  owing  to 
the  character,  the  circumstances,  and  the  competence  of 
the  writers.  The  investigator  must  be  able  to  judge  of 
the  relative  value  of  documents,  and  amid  conflicting 
evidence  to  reach  conclusions  reasonably  well  assured. 

3.  Most  church  historians  will  find  it  convenient  to 
make  use  of  translations  of  the  pertinent  literature  along 
with  critically  edited  texts  in  the  original  languages. 
When  translations  are  used  for  securing  a  general  famili- 
arity with  the  subject-matter,  the  originals  should  be  care- 
fully compared  on  all  obscure  and  controverted  points. 

4.  On  matters  of  controversy  we  are  to  study  care- 
fully the  documents  on  both  sides.  This  is  absolutely 
essential. 

5.  We  are  to  distrust  writers  evidently  prejudiced 
when  they  make  grave  accusations  against  opponents, 
unless  there  are  other  reasons  for  crediting  such  accusa- 
tions. The  average  polemicist  of  ancient,  medieval,  and 
Reformation  times  had  less  regard  for  truth,  when  in  the 
heat  of  controversy,  than  the  polemicist  of  the  nine- 
teenth century. 


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12  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [iNTRO 

6.  On  the  other  hand,  admissions  by  partisan  writers 
of  shortcomings  on  their  own  side,  or  of  merits  on  their 
adversaries'  side,  are  among  the  best  proofs  of  such 
facts,  independently  of  the  general  credibility  of  the 
writers. 

V.  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  HISTORIOGRAPHY. 

The  Gospels  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  are  the 
earliest  extant  writings  in  the  sphere  of  church  history, 
the  former  narrating  from  different  points  of  view  the 
birth,  early  life,  ministry,  death,  and  resurrection  of  the 
Messiah,  the  latter  giving  an  account  of  the  missionary 
labors  of  the  apostles,  especially  of  Peter  and  of  Paul, 
including  Paul's  two  years'  residence  as  a  prisoner  in 
Rome.  Passing  on  to  the  post-apostolic  time  we  may 
distinguish  the  following  eras  of  church-historical  writing : 

I.  Ancient  Church  Historians.  Hegesippus  (about  175- 
189)  wrote  five  books  of  "Memoirs,"  from  which  Euse- 
bius  quotes,  but  which  are  unfortunately  lost.  He  seems 
to  have  given  chief  attention  to  the  rise  and  growth  of 
heresy,  and  to  Jewish  sects.  Eusebius  speaks  of  him  as 
a  converted  Jew.  Eusebius  of  Csesarea  (260-340)  is 
entitled  to  be  called  *'  the  Father  of  Church  History." 
One  of  the  most  learned  men  of  his  time  and  as  the 
courtier  of  the  Emperor  Constantine  possessed  of  every 
facility  for  gathering  materials  and  composing  a  merito- 
rious work,  he  prepared  on  a  comprehensive  plan  a 
"  Church  History  "  that  has  held  its  position  to  the  pres- 
ent time  as  the  most  important  work  on  the  ante-Nicene 
Church  (1-324).  The  scholarly  translation  by  McGiffert, 
with  ample  annotations,*  is  indispensable  to  the  student 
of  church  history.  He  was  a  careful  investigator,  and 
quoted  largely  from  many  writings  that  have  perished. 
That  his  work  is  uncritical  and  ill-arranged  is  a  remark 
that  would  apply  to  all  ancient  and  medieval  treatises  on 
the  subject.  His  "  Life  of  Constantine  "  is  of  the  nature 
of  a  panegyric,  and  is  too  favorable  to  the  first  Christian 
emperor,  but  it  contains  much  important  matter.  He  also 
wrote  a  "  Chronicle,"  in  which  he  gave  an  abstract  of 
universal  history  with  chronological  tables.    In  the  follow* 

iNtwYork.i8^ 


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CHAP.  I.]  PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS  1 3 

ing  century  Socrates,  Sozomen,  and  Theodoret,  each  in 
his  own  way,  continued  the  Church  History  of  Eusebius 
to  his  own  time.  These  include  accounts  of  the  great 
Christological  controversies,  and  of  the  struggle  of  Chris- 
tianity with  paganism  during  the  fourth  and  part  of  the 
fifth  centuries.  Eusebius'  work  was  translated  into  Latin 
by  Rufinus,  with  a  continuation  to  the  death  of  Theodosius 
the  Great  (3Q5)*  Cassiodorus,  a  Roman  statesman,  had 
the  Church  Histories  of  Socrates,  Sozomen,  and  Theod- 
oret translated  into  Latin  by  Epiphanius,  and  himself 
continued  the  narrative  to  518.  This  so-called  **  Tri- 
partite History,"  along  with  that  of  Eusebius,  formed  the 
chief  authority  on  ancient  church  history  throughout  the 
Middle  Ages. 

Sulpicius  Severus,  a  Gallic  noble  and  ascetic  (died  420), 
wrote  a  "Chronicle,"  in  which  church  history  followed 
biblical  history.  His  work  abounds  in  the  fabulous  and 
is  of  little  value.  The  works  of  Socrates,  Sozomen,  and 
Theodoret,  like  that  of  Eusebius,  are  available  in  excel- 
lent translations  in  the  "Nicene  and  Post-Nicene  Fa- 
thers."  Of  less  importance  are  the  Church  Histories  of 
Theodorus  and  Evagrius  (sixth  century),  which  were 
continuations  of  those  already  mentioned. 

2.  (MedicevcU  IVriters.  The  Middle  Ages  produced 
nothing  important  on  ancient  church  history.  Contem- 
porary chronicles,  often  preceded  by  a  digest  of  early 
history  from  the  Latin  translations  of  the  writings  men- 
tioned above,  represent  the  achievements  of  the  age  in 
this  department.  Lives  of  the  saints,  full  of  fables, 
abounded.  Several  compilations  of  universal  history^ 
were  produced,  but  these  are  of  little  value. 

3.  Church  Historians  of  the  Reformation  Time.  The  Prot- 
estant Revolution,  which  was  a  revolt  against  the  corrup- 
tions and  the  tyranny  of  the  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy, 
called  forth  the  ** Magdeburg  Centuries"  (1559-1574), 
written  by  Matthias  Flacius  lllyricus,  Wigand,  Judex, 
and  others.  It  is  a  vast  and  monumental  effort  to  vindi- 
cate the  Protestant  position  by  an  exhibition  of  all  that 
IS  most  disreputable  in  the  history  of  medieval  Catholi- 
cism. Stress  is  laid  upon  the  protests  against  Rome  that 
were  made  from  time  to  time,  and  much  valuable  ma- 
terial is  brought  forward  by  these  scholarly  and  indus 


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14  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [INTRQ 

trious  writers.  The  work  is  excessively  polemical,  but 
served  a  useful  purpose.  It  called  forth  the  learned  and 
voluminous  **  Ecclesiastical  Annals,"  edited  by  Baronius 
(1588),  who  had  at  his  disposal  the  resources  of  the  Vati- 
can Library.  Baronius'  work,  which  embraced  only  the 
first  twelve  centuries,  has  been  continued  by  various 
writers  to  1585. 

In  France,  Bossuet  attempted  to  vindicate  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  against  Protestant  attacks,  and  to  destroy 
the  foundations  of  Protestantism  by  his  "  Discourse  on 
Universal  History'*  (1681).  The  voluminous  work  of 
Tillemont,  a  Jansenist  nobleman,  on  the  first  six  cen- 
turies,^ was  based  upon  an  industrious  and  somewhat 
critical  study  of  the  sources,  and  was  written  in  a  spirit 
of  moderation.     It  is  still  of  value. 

An  epoch-making  book  was  the  "  History  of  the 
Church  and  of  Heretics,"  by  Gottfried  Arnold  (1699). 
Deeply  pious  and  somewhat  mystical,  he  used  his  great 
learning  in  an  effort  to  show  that  what  had  commonly 
been  stigmatized  as  heresy  was  really  the  effort  of  primi- 
tive Christian  life  and  principles  to  assert  themselves  in 
the  face  of  bitter  persecution.  His  voluminous  work  was 
looked  .upon  with  disfavor  by  his  contemporaries,  but  is 
now  highly  appreciated  by  impartial  scholars. 

4.  l{ecent  Church  Historians.  Mosheim  (died  1755)  is 
justly  called  "the  father  of  modern  ecclesiastical  histo- 
ry." *  His  **  Institutes  of  Ecclesiastical  History  "  (1755) 
has  been  translated  into  English  and  widely  used.  He 
was  learned,  critical,  and  impartial,  and  did  much  toward 
popularizing  the  study  of  church  history.  He  followed 
the  century  method,  and  in  this  respect  belongs  to  the 
elder  time,  but  he  surpassed  most  of  his  predecessors  in 

Ehilosophical  insight  and  comprehensiveness  of  view. 
lis  most  valuable  work  was  probably  his  *' Commen- 
taries on  the  Affairs  of  Christians  before  Constantlne 
the  Great"  (1753). 

Three  German  writers  of  the  first  half  of  the  present 
century  deserve  special  mention,  because  of  the  intrinsic 
value  of  their  works  and  the  stimulus  they  gave  to  re- 
search on  the  part  of  others.    They  followed  close  upon 

1 "  Mtnolrt.*'  ate.  1691.  Mf .  t  MMlIer. 


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CHAP.  I.]  PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS  1 5 

the  emancipation  of  thought  from  the  old  confessionalism 
and  the  remarkable  development  of  the  critical  spirit  about 
the  beginning  of  the  century,  and  in  different  ways  exem- 
plify the  modern  spirit  of  research  and  the  determination 
to  deal  impartially  with  all  religious  parties. 

Gieseler's  ** Text-book  of  Church  History"*  consists 
of  a  brief  but  very  carefully  prepared  outline,  with  co- 
pious citations  from  the  sources  made  with  marked  dis- 
crimination. It  is  still  the  best  manual  for  such  students 
as  are  able  and  willing  to  utilize  the  citations. 

Neander,  well  characterized  by  Schaff  as  "a  child  in 
spirit,  a  giant  in  learning,  and  a  saint  in  piety,*'  "  led  back 
the  study  of  history  from  the  dry  heath  of  rationalism  to 
the  fresh  fountain  of  divine  life  in  Christ,  and  made  it 
a  grand  source  of  edification  as  well  as  instruction  for 
readers  of  every  creed.*'  His  "  General  History  of  the 
Christian  Religion  and  Church"  (1825-52)  was  trans- 
lated into  English  by  Torrey,  and  in  this  form  reached  its 
twelfth  American  edition  (besides  English  and  Scotch  edi- 
tions) in  1881.  It  has  probably  had  a  wider  influence  in 
English  than  in  German.  Besides  this  large  general  work 
he  published  many  valuable  monographs. 

Baur,  more  generally  known  as  the  father  of  the 
Tubingen  school  of  New  Testament  critics,  was  a  church 
historian  of  the  foremost  rank.  Of  his  "  History  of  the 
Christian  Church,"  published  in  part  after  his  death 
(i860),  only  the  portion  covering  the  first  three  cen- 
turies has  appeared  in  English  (three  volumes,  London, 
1878).  His  works  on  the  apostolic  age,  while  revolu- 
tionary and  destructive,  gave  a  stimulus  to  research  that 
has  borne  abundant  fruit.  His  **  History  of  Christian 
Doctrine"  (1865-67)  is  among  the  most  valuable  of  his 
works. 

Among  the  excellent  manuals  of  church  history  re- 
cently published  in  Germany  may  be  mentioned  those 
of  Hase  (eleventh  edition,  1886;  English  translation, 
1873)  ;  Niedner  (latest  edition,  1866)  ;  Ebrard  (1865) ; 
Rothe  (1875)  ;  Herzog  (1876  onward)  ;  Kurtz  (tenth  edi- 
tion, 1887;  English  translation,  1888-90);  Moeller  (three 
volumes,  1889  onward  ;   English  translation,  18^  on- 

1  i8b4  onward ;  the  best  edition  Is  tbe  EagUtli  trusbition  by  H.  B.  Smith.  1857  onwarl 


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I6  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [INTRC 

ward) ;  and  Karl  MUIIer  (two  volumes,  1892  onward). 
The  two  latest  are  also  the  best.  Among  modern  Ger- 
man Roman  Catholic  works  on  church  history  may  be 
mentioned  those  of  Alzog  (English  translation  in  three 
volumes,  1874  onward) ;  D5llinger  (second  edition,  1843 ; 
English  translation,  four  volumes,  1840-42) ;  Hergen- 
rbther  (third  edition,  1884-^);  Kraus  (third  edition, 
1887)  ;  and  Funk  (second  edition,  1890).  These  are  all 
works  of  learning,  and  show  the  influence  of  Protestant 
methods. 

British  scholarship  has  not  devoted  itself  zealously  to 
general  church  history.  The  only  work  that  deserves 
mention  is  Robertson's  **  History  of  the  Christian 
Church "  (second  edition,  in  eight  volumes,  1874). 
Smith's  **  History  of  the  Christian  Church  During  the 
First  Ten  Centuries "  (1880),  is  a  good  compilation. 
Many  valuable  monographs,  especially  on  the  early 
church  and  the  Middle  Ages,  have  appeared. 

In  America  the  largest  and  most  comprehensive  work 
is  Schaff' s  '*  History  of  the  Christian  Church  "  (1882 
onward ;  Vol.  I.-IV.  and  VI.-VII.  have  appeared ; 
Vol.  V.  was  left  incomplete,  and  will  be  edited  by 
Prof.  D.  S.  SchafO-  This  work,  written  in  the  spirit  of 
Neander,  combines  fullness  of  information  with  popular 
qualities  to  a  remarkable  degree.  Other  recent  works 
of  merit  are  those  of  Sheldon  (four  volumes,  1896), 
Fisher,  Dryer,  and  Hurst.  Hurst's  **  History  of  the 
Christian  Church  "  (two  large  volumes,  1897  onward), 
based  upon  the  latest  researches,  written  in  excellent 
spirit  and  in  elegant  style,  has  an  unusually  full  bibli- 
ography and  specially  prepared  maps,  and  is  in  almost 
every  respect  a  model  work. 

The  best  recent  works  on  the  "  History  of  Doctrine  " 
are  those  of  Harnack  (three  volumes,  third  edition,  1894*- 
1897,  English  translation  in  eight  volumes);  Loofs  (thirc* 
edition,  1893),  the  best  brief  work  in  German  ;  Sheldon 
(1886)  ;  and  Fisher  (1896). 

VI.  PERIODS  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY. 

From  what  has  been  said  regarding  the  nature  and 
scope  of  church  history,  it  is  evident  that  the  only  way 


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CHAP.L]  PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS  17 

in  which  it  can  be  studied  to  advantage  is  by  dividing 
the  nineteen  Christian  centuries  into  periods,  and  by 
selecting  from  each  period  a  convenient  number  of  topics 
for  special  consideration.  The  division  into  periods  is 
somewhat  arbitrary,  and  historians  differ  considerably  in 
their  delimitations.  The  following  division  seems,  on 
the  whole,  the  most  advantageous : 

1.  From  the  birth  of  Christ  to  the  end  of  the  Apostolic 
Age  (about  100). 

2.  From  the  end  of  the  Apostolic  Age  to  the  conver- 
sion of  Constantine  (312). 

3.  From  the  conversion  of  Constantine  to  the  founding 
of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  by  Charlemagne  (800). 

4.  From  the  coronation  of  Charlemagne  as  emperor  to 
the  outbreak  of  the  Protestant  Revolution  (15 17). 

5.  From  the  outbreak  of  the  Protestant  Revolution  to 
the  Peace  of  Westphalia  (1648).  This  latter  event 
almost  synchronizes  with  the  temporary  overthrow  of 
monarchy  in  England,  and  with  the  temporary  ascend- 
ency of  dissenting  parties  over  the  prelatical  church. 

6.  The  era  of  modern  denominationalism  (1648  to  the 
present  time). 

The  choice  of  topics  in  each  period  will  depend  on  the 
judgment  of  the  historian  as  to  what  features  of  the  life 
and  thought  of  the  age  are  most  characteristic  and  sig- 
nificant. 

VII.    SUMMARY  OF  REASONS  FOR  STUDYING  CHURCH 
HISTORY. 

1.  History  is  acknowledged  by  all  to  be  one  of  the  most 
valuable  instruments  of  intellectual  culture.  Church  his- 
tory is  so  essential  a  part  of  universal  historv  that  the 
history  of  humanity  would  be  incomplete  and  unintelli- 
gible without  it.  Universal  history  is  best  understood 
when  Christ  is  regarded  as  the  central  figure,  for  whose 
advent  the  past,  with  its  systems  of  religion,  philosophy, 
and  government  was,  in  an  important  sense,  a  prepara- 
tion ;  and  when  Christ's  church,  under  his  guidance,  is 
recognized  as  the  aggressive  and  conquering  power  in 
modern  history. 

2.  Without  a  knowledge  of  the  history  of  the  Chris- 
tian church  in  all  Hs  departments  and  relations  it  is 

H. 


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I8  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [INTRa 

impossible  to  understand  the  present  condition  of  Chris- 
tianity with  its  multitudinous  sects,  its  complicated  doc- 
trinal systems,  and  its  variegated  forms  of  organization, 
life,  and  worship. 

3.  The  history  of  the  Christian  church  is,  in  one  aspect, 
the  history  of  Christian  life.  To  know  how  the  people  of 
God  have,  from  age  to  age,  struggled  and  suffered  and 
triumphed  will  tend  to  prepare  us  to  meet  the  trials  that 
always  beset  the  Christian  life ;  to  know  how  large  a 
proportion  of  those  that  have  professed  Christianity  have 
lived  in  sin  and  dishonored  the  name  of  Christ  will  tend 
to  put  us  on  our  guard  against  a  similar  failure,  and  to  pre- 
vent us  from  despairing  when  we  see  how  imperfectly 
many  of  those  around  us  fulfill  their  Christian  duties. 

4.  The  study  of  church  history  enables  us  to  see  the 
working  of  great  principles  through  long  periods  of  time. 
Church  history  is  a  commentary  on  the  Scriptures.  For 
every  teaching  of  Scripture  we  can  find  many  a  practical 
exemplification.  We  can  show,  as  it  were,  experimen- 
tally, how  every  departure  from  New  Testament  princi- 
ples has  resulted  in  evil — ^the  greater  the  departure  the 
greater  the  evil.  The  study  of  church  history,  while  it 
may  make  us  charitable  toward  those  in  error  by  sliow- 
ing  us  examples  in  all  ages  of  high  types  of  religious  life 
in  connection  with  the  most  erroneous  views  of  doctrine, 
will  not  tend  to  make  us  disregard  slight  doctrinal  aber- 
rations ;  for  we  shall  know  that  the  most  corrupt  forms 
of  Christianity  have  had  their  origin  in  slight  deviations 
from  the  truth. 

5.  It  may  be  said  with  confidence  that  the  great  mass 
of  minor  sects  have  been  formed  by  those  ignorant  of 
church  history,  and  that  a  knowledge  of  church  history 
on  the  part  of  their  founders  would  have  prevented  their 
formation.  A  widely  diffused  knowledge  of  church  his- 
tory would  tend  powerfully  toward  a  unification  of 
thought  as  to  what  Christianity  should  be,  and  would  be 
highly  promotive  of  Christian  unity.  On  the  other  hand, 
a  knowledge  of  the  vast  results  that  have  followed  from 
the  emphasizing  of  particular  aspects  of  truth  in  the  past 
would  tend  to  prevent  an  underestimate  of  tneir  impor- 
tance in  the  present. 

6.  The  History  of  the  Christian  church  furnishes  the 


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CHAP.  I.]  PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS  I9 

strongest  possible  evidence  of  the  truth  and  assurance 
of  the  final  triumph  of  Christianity.  If  Christianity  has 
surmounted  obstacles  seemingly  almost  insuperable;  if 
though  sometimes  submerged  in  corruption  it  has  again 
and  again  shown  itself  able  to  shake  off  the  accumula- 
tions of  error,  and  then  to  march  onward  with  primitive 
vigor ;  we  have  every  reason  to  believe  in  its  sufficiency 
for  ali  the  trials  to  which  it  may  hereafter  be  subjected 


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CHAPTER  II 

IHE   QR>ECO-ROMAN   CIVILIZATION   AS  A  PREPARATION 
FOR  CHRISTIANITY 

LITERATURE :  Histories  of  Greece,  by  Grote,  Curtius,  and  Thiri- 
wall ;  Histories  of  Rome,  by  Mommsen,  Ihne,  Merivaie,  Neibuhr, 
Bury,  and  Arnold  ;DoUinger,  **Hndenthum  md  Judinthum*^  (Eng- 
lish translation,  *'  Gentile  and  Jew  in  the  Courts  of  the  Temple/' 
1862) ;  Histories  of  Philosophy,  by  Ueberweg,  Zeller,  Windelband, 
Erdmann :  Bauer.  '*  Das  Chrisiliche  des  Platattisnms,**  1857  ;  Acker- 
man,  ''The  Christian  Element  in  Plato"  (English  translation, 
1861) ;  Coclcer, "  Christianity  and  Greek  Philosophy  "  ;  Westcott, 
"  Religious  Thought  in  the  West,"  1891 :  Hatch,  ^'  the  Influence  of 
Greek   Ideas  and    Usages  upon  the   Christian  Church,**  1890; 

gommsen,  ''The  Roman  Provinces"  (English  translation,  1888) ; 
Jiiller, "  Gssch.  d.  1{<m.  Kaisgr^iH  unUr  d.  RtgUrung  d.  Nsro"  1872 : 
Friedlander,  "  SitUngnchichU  ^^nu,"  fourtii  edition,  1874 ;  Renan, 
"  The  Influence  of  Rome  on  Christianity,"  1880 ;  Fisher,  G.  P., 
"  The  Influence  of  the  Old  Roman  Spirit  and  Religion  on  Latin 
Christianity"  (in  " Discussions  in  History  and  Theology,"  1880) ; 
Hamack,  '^  Christianity  and  Christians  in  the  Court  offiie  Roman 
Emperors  Before  the  Time  of  Constantine"  (in  "  Princeton  Review," 
1878):  Addis,  "Christianity  and  tiie  Roman  Empire,"  1893: 
Arnold,  W.  T., "  The  Roman  System  of  Provincial  Administration," 
1879 ;  Farrar,  "  Seekers  After  God,"  new  Edition,  1892 ;  Uhlhorn, 
"  Conflict  of  Christianity  witii  Heatiienism  "  (English  translation, 
1879),  and  "Christian  Charity  in  the  Ancient  Church"  (English 
translation,  1883);  Farrar,  "Eariy  Days  of  Christianity"  1882; 
Edershelm,  "  Life  and  Times  of  Jesus,"  1883,  Introductory;  and  the 
Introductions  to  the  Church  Histories  of  Neander,  Gieseler,  Hase, 
Schaff,  Hurst,  Moeller,  etc 

I.  GREEK  CIVILIZATION. 

CENTURIES  before  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era 
(660-324)  the  Greeks  had  wrought  out  a  civilization  that 
in  literature,  philosophy,  science,  and  art,  greatly  sur- 
passed the  achievements  of  all  other  nations.  Their 
language  had  been  so  developed  as  to  constitute  the 
most  perfect  instrument  for  the  embodiment  and  con- 
veyance of  thought  that  had  ever  been  known  and  is 
still  unsurpassed.    Their  religion  was  a  polytheistic  per- 


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CHAP.il]  GRiCCO-ROMAN  CIVILIZATION  21 

sonification  of  the  powers  of  nature  resting  on  a  semi- 
pantheistic  conception  of  the  world.  Their  gods  and 
goddesses  were  the  embodiments  no  less  of  the  baser 
passions  of  the  human  soul  than  of  the  nobler  qualities, 
and  the  moral  ideals  of  the  people  were  low.  The  idea 
of  sin  as  an  offense  against  a  holy  God  and  as  involving 
guilt  was  almost  wholly  absent.  Sin  was  conceived  of 
rather  as  ignorance,  as  a  failure  to  understand  one's  true 
relations.  There  is  no  adequate  recognition  of  the  per- 
sonality of  God  or  the  personality  and  responsibility  of 
man. 

II.  GREEK  PHILOSOPHY. 

From  600  B.  C.  onward  philosophy  occupied  a  prominent 
place  In  Greek  life  and  in  an  ever-widening  circle  of 
minds  tended  to  undermine  faith  in  the  crude  polythe- 
ism of  the  time.  The  possibilities  of  the  uninspired 
human  mind  in  speculative  reasoning  were  well-nigh 
exhausted  by  such  thinkers  as  Pythagoras,  Socrates, 
Plato,  Aristotle,  and  Zeno. 

I.  fythagoras  (sS2--$io)  seems  to  have  derived  from 
Egyptian  or  Oriental  sources  the  doctrine  of  metempsy- 
chosis and  that  of  the  harmony  of  the  spheres.  Mathe- 
matics furnished  the  basis  of  his  speculative  system. 
The  principles  of  numbers  he  regarded  as  the  substance 
of  things  and  as  constituting  the  eternal  and  self-origi- 
nated bond  of  the  universe.  His  doctrine  of  the  harmony 
of  the  celestial  spheres  was  based  upon  the  assumption 
that  they  are  separated  from  each  other  by  intervals 
corresponding  to  the  relative  length  of  strings  combined 
to  produce  musical  harmony.  The  soul  he  regarded 
as  a  harmony,  chained  to  the  body  as  a  punishment. 
Ethical  notions  were  expressed  by  the  Pythagoreans  in 
mathematical  form,  symbols  taking  the  place  of  defini- 
tions. Pythagoras  seems  to  have  taught  that  the  uni- 
verse is  in  an  eternal  flux  and  that  in  regular  cycles 
persons  and  events  are  repeated.  Much  stress  was  laid 
on  a  series  of  contrasts  or  antitheses,  such  as  Limit — 
Illimitation,  Odd — Even,  One — Many,  Right — Left,  Male 
— Female,  At  Rest — In  Motion,  Straight— Bent,  Light — 
Darkness,  Good — Bad,  Square — Oblong.  These  remind 
us  of  the  sons  of  the  Gnostics,  and  in  other  respects 


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22  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [INTRQ 

the  influence  of  Pythagoreanism  on  Gnosticism  is  niani* 
fest. 

Pythagoras  founded  a  large  number  of  aristocratic 
secret  societies  in  the  Italian-Greek  colonies.  These 
brotherhoods  seem  to  have  had  a  somewhat  rigorous  ethi- 
cal code  and  to  have  developed  a  somewhat  elaborate  rit- 
ual.  A  strict  discipline,  somewhat  like  that  of  monastic 
bodies,  was  maintained  and  the  members  were  forbidden 
to  propagate  their  views  among  the  people. 

A  modified  Pythagoreanism  was  much  in  vogue  in 
Alexandria  and  elsewhere  during  the  early  Christian 
centuries,  and  was  one  of  the  most  influential  forms  of 
Greek  philosophy  in  its  contact  with  early  Christian 
thought. 

2.  Socrates  (471-399)  *' called  philosophy  down  from 
the  heavens  to  earth,  and  introduced  it  into  the  cities 
and  houses  of  men,  compelling  men  to  inquire  concern- 
ing life  and  morals  and  things  good  and  evil."*  For 
our  knowledge  of  his  ethical  and  religious  teachings 
we  are  dependent  on  his  disciples,  Plato,  Xenophon,  and 
Artistotle.  His  fundamental  conception  appears  to  have 
been  the  inseparable  union  of  theoretical  insight  with 
practical  moral  excellence.  He  believed  that  virtue  was 
capable  of  being  taught  and  that  all  wickedness  resulted 
from  ignorance.  He  fostered  the  spirit  of  inquiry  by  his 
persistent  calling  in  question  of  current  beliefs,  but 
thereby  incurred  the  hostility  of  the  authorities  and  for- 
feited his  life.  He  supposed  himself  to  act  and  speak 
under  the  impulse  of  a  supernatural  being  (daemon,  ^a«- 
fi6vtov).  He  defended  the  existence  of  the  gods  and  of 
a  divine  principle  over  and  above  these  partial  manifes- 
tations of  deity.  He  spoke  of  wisdom  as  present  and 
regnant  in  all  that  exists,  and  as  determining  all  things 
according  to  its  good  pleasure,  being  distinguished  from 
the  other  gods  as  the  ruler  and  disposer  of  the  universe.* 
Yet  he  refrained  from  giving  distinct  personality  to  this 
ruler  and  disposer,  and  it  is  probable  that  his  conception 
of  the  universe  was  monistic  or  semi-pantheistic.  Plato 
attributes  to  Socrates  an  elaborate  argument  for  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul. 

1  Cicero.  tXtnophoa,  ** MsmorMMia,"  I..  4  :  4 ;  IV..  3  :  3.  ij. 


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CHAP.  II.]  GRiCCO-ROMAN  CIVILIZATION  23 

3.  In  Plato  (427-347)  Greek  philosophy  made  its  near- 
est approach  to  Christianity.  He  elaborated  the  thoughts 
of  Socrates  and  put  them  into  enduring  literary  form. 
No  Greek  writer  exerted  so  much  influence  on  the  Jew- 
ish thought  of  the  last  centuries  before  Christ  or  on  early 
and  later  Christian  thought.  In  order  to  make  himself 
master  of  all  the  wisdom  of  the  past  and  of  his  own  age 
he  visited  Egypt,  Cyrene,  and  probably  Asia  Minor,  and 
spent  some  time  with  the  Pythagoreans  in  Italy.  Sicily 
also  was  laid  under  contribution. 

"In  Plato's  philosophy  the  expanding  roots  and  branches  of 
earlier  philosophy  are  developed  into  the  full  blossom,  out  of  which 
the  subsequent  fruit  was  slowly  brought  to  maturity.'*  *  '*  Plato's 
relation  to  the  world  is  that  of  a  superior  spirit,  whose  good  pleasure 
it  is  to  dwell  in  it  for  a  time.  .  .  He  penetrates  into  its  depths  more 
that  he  may  replenish  them  from  the  fullness  of  his  own  nature 
than  that  he  may  fathom  their  mysteries.  He  scales  its  heights  as 
one  yearning  after  renewed  participation  in  the  source  of  his  being. 
All  that  he  utters  has  reference  to  something  eternally  complete, 
good,  true,  beautiful,  whose  furtherance  he  strives  to  promote  in 
every  bosom."  * 

Plato  has  well  been  called  "  the  philosopher  of  the 
spirit."*  His  theory  of  "ideas"  may  be  regarded  as 
the  central  feature  of  his  philosophy.  The  '*  idea  "  is 
the  archetype  (the  divine  thought  or  plan)  of  which 
material  objects  are  the  imperfect  reflection.  Only  the 
pertect  idea  is  real ;  what  seems  to  us  real  is  only  an  ' 
illusion.  In  the  archetypal  world  exists  the  idea  of 
everything  that  comec  into  phenomenal  existence.  High- 
est among  the  ideas  is  the  idea  of  the  Good.  Of  almost 
equal  rank  are  the  ideas  of  the  Beautiful  and  the  True. 
He  seems  sometimes  to  represent  these  high  ideas  as 
efficient  causes  and  even  calls  them  gods.  The  world- 
builder  (Demiurge)  he  seems  to  identify  with  the  idea 
of  the  Good.  This  idea  he  regards  as  the  cause  of 
being  and  cognition  and  as  the  sun  in  the  kingdom  of 
ideas. 

The  prominence  given  to  the  Good  constitutes  his  sys- 
tem a  highly  ethical  one.  "The  highest  good  is  not 
pleasure,  nor  knowledge  alone,  but  the  greatest  possible 

»Bo^clct>.  »qo«thf.  •Hwt. 


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24  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [INTRO 

likeness  to  God."  *  The  motive  to  virtue  should  be  not 
fear  of  punishment  nor  hope  of  reward,  but  the  fact  that 
it  is  itself  the  beauty  and  health  of  the  soul.  To  train 
its  citizens  to  virtue  is  the  highest  mission  of  the  State. 
Virtue  for  every  individual  is  perfect  adaptation  to  his 
calling.  He  seems  to  have  taught  the  eternity  of  matter, 
which  was  devoid  of  quality  and  of  proper  reality  until 
transformed  and  ordered  by  the  good  God.  While  Plato 
used  much  language  that  seems  to  imply  belief  in  the  per- 
sonality of  God,  his  teaching  was  fundamentally  panthe- 
istic. Some  would  prefer  to  designate  his  system  "  spirit- 
ualistic monism." 

Plato's  philosophy,  like  that  of  Pythagoras,  profoundly 
affected  Jewish  thought  during  the  last  two  centuries 
before  Christ,  and  its  influence  on  the  Christian  theology 
of  the  second  and  following  centuries  was  great  beyond 
computation.  Says  Eusebius:  **He  alone  of  all  the 
Greeks  reached  the  vestibule  of  truth  and  stood  upon  its 
threshold." 

Bishop  Westcott  bears  this  high  testimony  to  his  im- 
portant place  among  religious  thinkers:  ''Plato,  more 
than  any  other  ancient  philosopher,  acknowledged  alike 
the  necessary  limits  of  reason  and  the  imperious  instincts 
of  faith,  and  when  he  could  not  absolutely  reconcile 
both,  at  least  gave  to  both  a  full  and  free  expression. 
And  so  Platonism  alone,  and  Platonism  in  virtue  of  this 
character,  was  able  to  stand  for  a  time  face  to  face  with 
Christianity." 

4.  The  philosophy  of  Aristotle  (384-322),  the  great- 
est of  Plato's  disciples  and  the  tutor  of  Alexander  the 
Great,  exerted  far  less  infhience  on  the  religious  thought 
of  the  pre-Christian  time  than  that  of  Plato.  His  in- 
tellect was  probably  the  most  comprehensive  that  the 
ancient  world  produced.  In  logic  and  dialectics  he  is 
still  supreme.  His  philosophy  is  practical  and  matter- 
of-fact  rather  than  mystical  and  speculative.  By  virtue 
of  his  pre-eminence  in  systematization  and  formal  rea- 
soning he  secured  recognition  among  mediaeval  theolo- 
gians as  the  ultimate  authority  within  this  sphere.  In 
natural  science  he  surpassed  all  the  other  ancients. 


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CHAP.n.]  GRiCCO-ROMAN  CIVILIZATION  2$ 

He  rejected  Plato's  doctrine  of  Ideas,  maintaining  that 

! general  ideas  are  not  the  only  realities,  or  causes  of  the 
ndividuals  of  a  kind,  but  are  mere  mental  abstractions 
from  the  individuals ;  that  the  individuals  of  the  human 
race,  e.g.^  are  not  unreal  reflections  of  the  universal 
idea  man,  but  that  the  universal  idea  man  is  a  mental 
abstraction  from  a  contemplation  of  individual  men. 

Aristotle  reached  a  clear  conception  of  God  as  an  im- 
material spirit  who  is  the  final  cause.  He  proves  that 
the  assumption  of  such  a  being  or  principle  is  necessary 
from  the  evidences  of  design  in  nature.  This  principle 
or  first  mover  he  defined  as  essentially  pure  energy.  If 
it  were  merely  potential  it  could  not  unceasingly  commu- 
nicate motion  to  all  things.  It  must  be  eternal,  pure, 
immaterial  form,  since  otherwise  it  would  be  burdened 
with  potentiality.  Being  free  from  matter,  it  is  without 
plurality  and  without  parts.  It  is  absolute  spirit,  which 
thinks  itself  and  whose  thought  is  therefore  the  thought 
of  thought,  itself  unmoved,  it  moves  all  things,  it  is 
the  Good  in  itself  and  its  influence  is  like  the  attraction 
of  love.  He  could  not  conceive  of  God  as  shaping  the 
world  at  any  given  time,  but  looked  upon  the  world- 
framing  process  as  an  eternal  one.  Thought,  which  is 
the  mode  of  God's  activity,  constitutes  the  highest,  best, 
and  most  blessed  life.  The  world  has  its  principle  in 
God.  Aristotle  approaches  the  Christian  doctrine  of  a 
sole  personal  God,  who  at  the  same  time  is  immanent  in 
the  universe  and  transcends  it ;  but  it  is  doubtful  whether 
a  recognition  of  divine  personality  is  involved  in  his 
system.* 

The  aim  of  all  moral  action,  according  to  Aristotle,  is 
happiness,  and  happiness  consists  in  living  a  life  of 
action  under  the  control  of  reason.  This  accords  closely 
with  Plato's  definition  of  virtue.  Morality  presupposes 
freedom  of  will.  His  classification  of  the  virtues  and  his 
definition  of  each  show  deep  psychological  insight. 

5.  Less  influential  than  Platonism  and  more  influential 
than  Aristotelianism  on  the  religious  life  of  the  pre-Chris- 
tian  and  the  early  Christian  time  was  Stoicism^  founded 
by  Zeno  of  Citium  (about  308  B.  C).    This  system  was 

>SMliif  '*Mttspliy*ics.*'  IX.  and  XII.    C/.  Uebenrtg.  ''History  of  PbHosophy." 
VoL  I.,  ^  i^  ttq. 


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26  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [INTRO 

closely  related  to  the  Socratic,  and  Socrates  "  sat  for  the 
portrait  of  the  Stoic  sage." 

The  most  characteristic  feature  of  Stoicism  is  its  mate- 
rialistic pantheism.  In  this  respect  it  is  the  antithesis  of 
Platonism.  Matter  and  force  the  Stoics  regarded  as  the 
two  ultimate  principles.  Only  the  material  is  real. 
Matter  as  such  is  motionless  and  unformed.  Force  is 
the  active,  moving,  and  molding  principle.  The  working 
force  in  the  universe  is  God.* 

The  world  as  a  whole  is  regarded  as  conscious  and 
consciousness  is  identified  with  Deity.  Periodically  all 
things  are  absorbed  into  Deity,  the  evolutionary  process 
beginning  afresh  after  each  absorption.  This  process  is 
regarded  as  a  necessary  one. 

The  human  soul,  which  is  the  warm  breath  in  us,  is 
a  part  of  Deity  and  so  has  capacity  for  divine  influence. 
It  survives  the  body,  but  is  absorbed  into  Deity  at  the 
end  of  the  cosmic  period. 

As  in  Platonism,  virtue  is  considered  the  chief  end  of 
life.  Mere  pleasure  should  never  be  made  an  end  of 
endeavor.  We  should  do  right  because  it  is  right  and 
without  regard  to  consequences.  Freedom  from  passion 
*iS  the  mark  of  the  perfect  man.  Complete  self-control 
and  self-sufficiency,  with  the  right  and  the  courage  to 
terminate  life  when  it  suits  one's  purpose,  characterizes 
the  Stoic  sage.  Stoicism  produced  an  elevated  but  some- 
what somber  type  of  character  in  its  votaries.  On  the 
ethical  side  it  had  much  in  common  with  Christianity. 
Its  materialistic  pantheism  or  monism  was  to  exert  a 
marked  influence  on  Christian  theology.  The  moral 
writings  of  Seneca,  Epictetus,  and  Marcus  Aurelius  are 
so  elevated  and  pure  in  tone  as  to  suggest  dependence  on 
Christian  sources. 

6.  Epicureanism  (310  B.  C.  onward),  and  the  various 
forms  of  Skepticism  that  arose  during  the  last  four  cen- 
turies before  Christ,  became  the  most  popular  forms 
of  Greek  philosophy,  and  exerted  a  baleful  moral  in- 
fluence on  the  entire  Greek-speaking  world  and,  at  about 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  on  Roman  life  and 
thought.     Epicureanism  was  itself  essentially  skeptical. 

1  Of.  Ue^frwep,  VoL  L.  p.  194. 


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CHAP.  II.]  GRiCCO-ROMAN  CIVILIZATION  27 

Rejecting  all  mythical  forms  and  conceptions,  denying 
the  supernatural  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  Epi- 
curus taught  that  pleasure  in  the  present  life  is  the 
supreme  end  of  man's  being.  This  did  not  necessarily 
involve  dissolute  living,  for  this  does  not  yield  on  the 
whole  the  greatest  amount  of  pleasure  ;  but  the  wide- 
spread acceptance  of  pleasure  as  the  only  criterion  of 
conduct  could  not  fail  to  lead  to  a  debasement  of  morals. 
The  Skeptics,  led  by  Pyrrho  (360-270),  asserted  that  of 
every  two  mutually  contradictory  propositions  one  is  as 
true  as  another.  The  distinctions  between  the  true  and 
the  false,  between  right  and  wrong,  between  virtue  and 
vice,  were  obliterated,  and  advocates  of  this  doctrine  were 
emancipated  from  any  sort  of  moral  or  religious  restraint. 
It  was  in  this  form  that  Greek  philosophy  promoted  so 
powerfully  the  worse  than  Oriental  license  that  sapped 
the  foundations  of  Greek  and  Roman  society. 

ill.  THE  MACEDONIAN  CONQUEST. 

The  conquest  and  absorption  of  the  Greek  States  by 
Philip  of  Macedon  (358-336),  and  the  world  conquest 
of  the  Macedonian-Greek  Empire  under  Alexander  the 
Great  (336-323),  diffused  the  Greek  civilization,  with 
its  matchless  language,  literature,  art,  philosophy,  and 
science,  over  the  then  civilized  world.  Greek  became 
the  language  of  jzovernment  and  culture  in  Mesopota- 
mia, Asia  Minor,  Syria,  Egypt,  and  ultimately  (after  the 
Roman  conquest  of  the  East)  in  Rome  itself.  Anti- 
och  under  the  Seleucidae  became  a  great  Greek  capital 
and  an  important  center  of  culture  in  which  Greek  and 
Oriental  elements  of  life  and  thought  were  blended. 
Alexandria,  the  capital  of  the  Ptolemies,  became  the 
greatest  literary,  philosophical,  and  scientific  center  of 
ancient  times.  The  Ptolemies  lavished  their  wealth  on 
the  gathering  of  a  library  and  the  promotion  of  learning. 
It  was  their  ambition  to  collect  in  their  library  the  litera- 
ture of  the  world,  and  they  expended  vast  sums  in  pro- 
curing translations  into  Greek  of  the  chief  literary  pro- 
ductions of  the  past.  The  library  is  said  to  have 
reached  the  enormous  magnitude  of  four  hundred  thou- 
sand volumes ;  but  if  so  it  must  have  had  many  copies 


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28  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [iNTRC 

of  the  same  works,  and  individual  works  must  have  been 
numbered  by  books.  The  ablest  scholars  were  brought 
together,  and  liberal  encouragement  was  given  to  literary 
production  and  to  the  work  of  public  instruction.  The 
Alexandrian  Lyceum  was  more  like  a  modern  university 
than  was  any  institution  of  ancient  times. 

Highly  important  in  the  development  of  religious 
thought  was  the  formation  under  the  patronage  of  the 
Ptolemies  of  populous  Jewish  colonies.  Under  the  royal 
patronage  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  were  translated  into 
Greek  (the  Septuagint  version),  and  a  large  body  of  re- 
ligious literature  was  produced  by  Greek-speaking  Jews 
who  had  become  imbued  with  Greek  modes  of  thought 
(the  Old  Testament  Apocrypha,  etc.).  In  Philo,  who 
lived  in  the  New  Testament  time,  we  meet  with  the 
ablest  and  most  elaborate  effort  to  blend  Hebrew  and 
Greek  thought,  and  by  the  application  of  the  allegorical 
method  of  interpretation  to  explain  away  everything  in 
the  Old  Testament  that  was  out  of  harmony  with  the 
refined  spiritualism  of  the  current  modified  Platonism. 

Representatives  of  Indian  theosophy  (Brahminism  and 
Buddhism),  of  Persian  dualism  (Zoroastrianism),  and 
of  the  surviving  Babylonian  sects  seem  to  have  availed 
themselves  of  the  opportunity  offered  by  the  desire  for 
universal  knowledge  that  expressed  itself  so  influentially 
in  Alexandria,  to  expound  their  systems,  and  the  esoteric 
philosophy  or  theosophy  of  the  Egyptian  priests  emerged 
from  the  temples  and  made  its  contributions  to  the  stock 
of  current  thought. 

What  is  true  of  Alexandria  applies  in  a  measure  to  the 
cities  of  Syria,  Asia  Minor,  and  Greece,  and  by  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Christian  era  Hellenistic  influence  had 
become  almost  dominant  in  Rome,  now  grown  almost 
as  cosmopolitan  as  Alexandria. 

Greek  religion,  while  it  furnished  a  spiritual  interpre- 
tation of  nature,  and  while  it  contributed  largely  toward 
the  development  of  aesthetic  life,  failed  utterly  to  pro- 
duce a  pure  morality,  or  to  satisfy  the  religious  longmgs 
of  the  more  earnest  spirits.  Long  before  the  beginning 
of  the  Christian  era  its  foundations  had  been  undermined 
by  philosophical  speculation,  and  skepticism  was  almost 
universal.    The  blending  of  Greek  thought  with  the 


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CHAP.ILJ  GRiECO-ROMAN  CIVILIZATIOK  29 

theosophy  of  the  Orient  had  intensified  the  religious 
yearnings  of  a  large  class  of  thinkers  without  being  able 
to  satisfy  them,  had  brought  into  prominence  the  great 
problems  of  being,  such  as  the  origin  and  destiny  of  the 
world  and  of  man,  the  origin  and  purpose  of  evil^  the 
relation  of  the  world-framer  to  the  Supreme  Being,  the 
relation  of  the  Supreme  Being  to  man  and  to  the  world, 
the  relation  of  matter  to  spirit,  etc.,  but  had  failed  to 
provide  any  adequate  solution  of  these  problems.  Many 
had  come  to  realize  the  need  of  a  divine  revelation,  and 
above  all  of  a  Divine  Saviour. 

IV.  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE. 

The  religion  of  the  early  Romans  was  closely  related 
to  that  of  the  Greeks.  Its  differences  in  development 
were  due  chiefly  to  the  idiosyncrasies  of  Roman  charac- 
ter. The  Romans  as  a  race  were  remarkably  deficient 
in  poetical  and  imaginative  faculty.  They  were  austere, 
practical,  matter-of-fact,  utilitarian.  Fundamentally  their 
religion  was  a  pantheistic  worship  of  nature.  Everything 
that  exists  was  regarded  as  permeated  by  Deity.  The 
individual  deities  were  partially  personified  abstractions 
of  the  powers  of  nature.  As  compared  with  the  Greek 
religion  it  produced  more  of  calm  piety,  was  practised 
with  more  dignity  and  order,  was  more  strictly  ritualistic, 
was  more  carefully  upheld  and  administered  by  the  State, 
and  was  more  practical  in  its  subservience  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  State.  Images  and  temples  were  not  intro- 
duced until  a  hundred  and  seventy  years  after  the 
founding  of  the  city. 

Religion  with  the  Romans  was  never  a  matter  of  feel* 
ing,  always  a  matter  of  form.  The  securing  of  divine 
favor  was  thought  to  depend  upon  the  exactitude  with 
which  all  ceremonies  were  performed  and  all  prayers 
uttered.  The  slightest  mistake  in  word  or  gesture  ren- 
dered the  entire  proceedings  ineffective.  The  same  rite 
was  sometimes  repeated  thirty  or  even  fifty  times  be- 
cause of  slight  defects  in  utterance  or  manipulation. 

Theoretically  every  householder  was  the  priest  of  his 
household  as  the  king  was  the  priest  of  the  State ;  but 
the  necessity  of  having  the  religious  rites  performed  by 


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30  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [INTRQ 

experts  gave  great  power  to  the  priests.  They  alone 
had  perfect  familiarity  with  the  names  and  functions  of 
the  gods  and  knew  precisely  what  god  was  to  be  propi- 
tiated in  order  to  secure  the  needful  blessing  or  to  ward 
off  threatening  calamity,  and  also  the  details  of  the  rites 
by  which  favor  was  to  be  obtained. 

Even  before  the  founding  of  the  republic  (B.  C.  509) 
there  was  a  Pontifex  Maximus  at  the  head  of  a  college 
of  pontiffs,  whose  business  it  was  to  supervise  all  the 
religious  affairs  of  the  State  and  to  give  judgment  in 
every  religious  cause.  These  pontiffs  were  attorneys 
and  counselors  in  religious  law,  and  as  officials  of  the 
State  had  vast  influence. 

The  College  of  Augurs  were  the  official  soothsayers, 
whose  business  it  was  by  observing  the  flight  of  birds 
and  other  phenomena  to  determine  the  attitude  of  the 
gods  toward  contemplated  State  measures. 

The  Roman  religion  in  its  primitive  form  seems  to  have 
been  highly  promotive  of  the  sterner  virtues.  Truthful- 
ness and  honesty,  almost  unknown  among  the  Greeks, 
were  distinguishing  traits  of  the  better  class  of  Romans. 
Family  life  was  comparatively  pure,  and  the  virtue  of  the 
Roman  matron  and  her  dignified  position  are  proverbial. 
Fidelity  to  the  State  at  the  utmost  personal  cost  was  a 
common  virtue  and  treason  was  by  no  means  so  common 
as  among  the  Greeks.  The  Roman  Senate  at  its  best 
was  the  ablest,  most  dignified,  and  most  honorable  body 
known  to  antiquity. 

From  about  240  B.  C.  Rome  came  more  and  more 
under  the  influence  of  Greek  religion  and  philosophy. 
The  conquest  of  the  East  (including  Macedonia,  Greece, 
Asia  Minor,  Syria,  Egypt,  and  Mesopotamia)  was 
achieved  stage  by  stage  (200-63),  and  Roman  law  and 
administrative  order  were  communicated  to  the  Hellen- 
istic provinces;  but  the  conqueror  was  vanquished  by 
the  conquered.  During  the  entire  period  of  contact 
Rome  was  gradually  appropriating  the  religion  and  the 
culture  as  well  as  the  luxury  and  license  of  the  Hellenis- 
tic Orient. 

It  was  the  policy  of  Rome  to  tolerate  and  utilize  for  the 
purposes  of  the  State  the  religions  of  conquered  peoples. 
There  was  no  disposition  to  regard  its  own  gods  as 


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CHAP.n.]  GRi€CO-ROMAN  C!VILIZATION  3 1 

exclusively  powerful  and  worthy  of  worship.  Every  new 
god  conciliated  added  so  much  to  the  effectiveness  of  the 
State. 

Most  important  for  our  present  purpose  was  the  influ- 
ence of  Greek  philosophy  on  Roman  thought.  It  was 
"  the  rationalism  of  Euhemerus,  the  skepticism  of  Eurip- 
ides and  the  Pyrrhonists,  the  agnosticism  of  Protagoras, 
and  the  atheism  of  Diagoras  and  Theodorus,"  that  found 
most  acceptance  among  the  Romans  during  the  century 
preceding  the  birth  of  Christ.  Stoicism,  with  its  mate- 
rialistic pantheism  that  often  expressed  itself  in  language 
hardly  distinguishable  from  pure  theism,  and  its  stern 
morality  that  repudiated  pleasure  and  the  hope  of  reward 
as  motives,  was  never  popular  among  the  Romans ;  yet 
it  profoundly  influenced  some  of  the  greatest  minds  and 
made  an  important  contribution  to  the  development  of 
Roman  law  into  a  system  of  equity  of  world-wide  appli- 
cability. 

Disbelief  in  the  current  religion  had  become  almost 
universal  among  the  educated  classes  before  the  begin- 
ning of  our  era ;  but  those  who  were  most  pronounced 
in  their  skepticism  insisted  on  its  careful  maintenance  as 
a  State  institution  and  as  useful  for  the  illiterate  masses. 

When  the  republic  was  transformed  into  the  empire 
(31  B.  C.)  Augustus  strove  in  vain  to  check  the  process 
of  decay  and  to  restore  the  national  religion  to  its  pris* 
tine  position.  He  assumed  personally  the  office  of  Pon- 
tifex  Maximus,  thus  combining  in  his  own  person  the 
civil  and  religious  supremacy  and  giving  full  recognition 
to  the  popular  religion  as  an  institution  of  the  State. 

The  practice  of  apotheosizing  and  worshiping  the 
emperors,  however  corrupt  and  despicable  might  be  their 
characters,  exerted  a  most  degrading  influence  on  the  re- 
ligious life  of  the  empire  in  the  early  Christian  time ;  but 
it  introduced  a  common  object  of  worship  throughout  its 
entire  extent  and  had  a  distinctly  universalizing  tendency. 
Provincial  assemblies  for  the  exercise  of  this  cult  became 
highly  important  from  a  social  and  political  point  of  view. 
Bringing  the  people  together,  as  they  did,  for  festive 
worship,  they  promoted  political  life  in  many  ways. 

The  religious  cravings  of  the  people  were  catered  to 
but  by  no  means  satisfied  by  Oriental  priests,  sorcerers, 


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32  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [INTRQ 

soothsayers,  and  astrologers,  who  flocked  to  Rome  and 
drove  a  thriving  trade.  Apollonius  of  Tyana  (3  B.  C- 
96  A.  D.),  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  Neo-Pythago- 
rean  philosophy,  practising  a  rigorous  asceticism,  and 
imposing  on  the  credulity  of  the  people  by  mysteries  and 

Sretended  miracles,  attracted .  many  followers  in  Asia 
linor,  Greece,  and  Italy. 

The  Roman  Empire  may  be  regarded  as  having  pre- 
pared the  way  for  the  sprefad  of  the  Christian  religion  in 
the  following  ways : 

1.  The  Roman  conquest  broke  down  the  barriers  be- 
tween East  and  West  and  between  province  and  province, 
and  welded  the  whole  civilized  world  into  an  organic 
whole  administered  from  Rome  as  its  center.  Palestine 
was  a  Roman  province  at  the  beginning  of  our  era  and 
Jewish  rulers  administered  the  government  under  Roman 
authority.  Jews  were  free  as  never  before  to  settle  in 
all  parts  of  the  Graeco-Roman  world,  and  Jewish  syna- 
gogues, which  were  in  many  cases  to  furnish  opportu- 
nity for  the  planting  and  dissemination  of  Christian 
truth,  were  to  be  found  in  every  city.  A  religion  origi- 
nating in  Judea  had  at  this  time  a  far  better  opportunity 
to  make  its  way  throughout  the  world  than  it  would  have 
had  under  other  circumstances. 

2.  The  extension  of  Roman  citizenship  to  individuals 
throughout  the  provinces  was  of  immense  advantage  to 
such  preachers  of  the  gospel  as  possessed  it. 

3.  The  construction  of  excellent  roadways  through- 
out the  empire  for  military  and  commercial  purposes  was 
no  doubt  greatly  promotive  of  the  diffusion  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

4.  Apart  from  the  excellence  of  the  roads  travel  was 
rendered  far  safer  than  it  had  ever  been  before.  The  pro* 
found  peace  that  settled  over  the  world,  the  careful  en- 
forcement everywhere  of  law  and  order,  made  the  work 
of  the  missionary  comparatively  easy.  The  Roman 
Empire  was  to  the  early  Christian  missionary  what  the 
British  Empire  is  to  the  modern,  with  this  important 
difference,  that  England  favors  and  protects  missionaries 
as  such,  while  Christianity  was  to  the  Roman  Empire  an 
unlawful  religion  and  was  frequently  persecuted. 

5.  The  extension  of  the  use  of  the  Greek  language 


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CHAP.il]  GRi€CO-ROMAN  CIVILIZATION  33 

made  it  possible  for  the  Greek-speaking  promulgators  of 
Christianity  to  find  intelligent  hearers  everywhere  with 
3Ut  learning  new  languages. 

A  recent  German  writer  says : 

The  task  of  Rome  was  to  unite— to  unite,  we  may  say  as  confi- 
Qently.  for  Christ.  Bom  at  the  same  time,  the  Roman  Empire  and 
the  Christian  Church  were  also  providentialiy  appointed  for  each 
other.  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  a  grain  of  seed.  If  the 
seed  is  to  be  sown  the  field  must  be  prepared.  The  Roman  Empire 
was  the  prepared  field.  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  leaven.  If 
the  leaven  is  to  be  mixed  with  the  meal,  the  meal  must  be  shaken 
together.  The  Roman  Empire  was  the  shaken  heap  of  meal  first  of 
allto  take  up  the  leaven.  All  the  peoples  of  the  Old  Worid  hitherto 
had  lived  and  labored  apart,  all  their  gains  and  achievements,  theii 
riches  and  treasures,  their  works  ot  art  and  scientific  results,  their 
ancient  traditions  and  legends,  their  gods  and  rites  of  worship,  all 
existing  elements  of  culture  and  forces  of  civilization,  were  now 
comprised  in  one  empire.  Other  empires  have  exceeded  this  In  terri- 
tory and  in  population,  but  there  has  never  been  a  second  empire  in 
the  whole  course  of  history  which  so  united  in  itself  all  the  cultivated 
nations  of  itstime.^ 

1  Uhlbon.  '*  Conflict  oi  ChrlttiaiUly  with  HMtbenUm."  p.  tf. 


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CHAPTER  III 

PREPARATION    FOR   CHRISTIANITY   IN  JEWISH    LIFE  AND 
THOUGHT 

Literature  :  Works  of  Josephus  and  Philo  (original  and  Eng- 
Hsh  translation)  :  Old  Testament  Apocrypha  (original  in  Septua« 
gint) :  Bissell,  '•  The  Apocrypha  of  the  Old  Testament  with  His- 
torical Introductions,  a  Revised  Translation,  and  Notes  Critical  and 
Explanatory,"  1880 :  Ball,  "  The  Ecclesiastical  or  Deutero-canoni- 
cal  Books  of  the  Old  Testament,  commonly  called  the  Apocrypha," 
i8q2;  *'The  Zend-Avesta,"  translated  and  edited  by  Darmesteter; 
Reuss,  "  U  'BibU!'  Parts  VI.  and  VII. ;  Wace,  "  The  Apocrypha," 
1888 ;  Schiirer,  '*  A  History  of  the  Jewish  People  in  the  Time  of 
Jesus  Christ"  (English  translation),  1885  onward ;  works  on  Jew- 
ish History,  by  Ewald  (English  translation),  Jost,  Gratz  (Eng- 
lish translation),  and  Stanley;  Wellhausen,  "D^  Pharisoir  u,  d 
Sadducdif,**  1874 }  Geiger,  "  Sadducdir  u,  Tharislur"  1863 ;  Cohen, 
"  Us  Pharisiens,  1877;  Derenbourg,  **  Histotrs  d$  la  TaUsttui^** 
1867;  Drummond,  "The  Jewish  Messiah,"  1877;  Drummond, 
"  Philo  Judaeus,"  1888 ;  Dahne,  '*  G$sehichtlkh$ DarsUUuMd.  nidisckr 
aUxandrmischm  Rsltgians-Philosophu^**  1834;  Gforer,  ^*  Philo  if.  d, 
aUxandrinischi  Thsosophu^'*  183 1 ;  Lucius,  "  Ver  Esssnismus  in  sshum 
l^irhaltniss  {um  Judsnthum^**  1881  ;  Demmler,  **  Chrisius  u.  d,  Essm- 
wuMtf,"  1880 :  Articles  on  Apocrypha  {Apohrj^in)^  Philo,  Pharisees, 
Sadducees,  Essenes,  Messiah,  Proselytes,  Disper^on  (Diaspora)^ 
Pseudepigrapha,  etc.,  in  the  Encyclopedias  of  Herzog-Hauck, 
Schaff-Herzog,  McClintock  and  Strong,  Kitto,  and  Smith  ("  Dic- 
tionary of  the  Bible").  For  fuller  bibliography  see  Schiirer,  as 
above,  at  the  head  of  each  section. 

The  Old  Testament  history  of  the  chosen  people 
leaves  off  with  the  completion  of  the  fortifications  of 
Jerusalem  by  Nehemiah,  notwithstanding  the  deter- 
mined efforts  of  the  Samaritans  to  prevent  it,  the 
introduction  of  rigorous  reforming  measures  by  Nehe- 
miah, and  the  failure  of  Sanballat  and  his  associates 
successfully  to  resist  these  measures.  The  date  reached 
is  about  432  B.  C.  The  people  had  been  delivered  from 
their  Babylonian  captivity  by  Cyrus,  king  of  Persia 
(535  B.  C.  onward),  and  the  temple  had  been  restored  by 
Zerubbabel,  under  the  patronage  first  of  Cyrus  and  tlien 
34 


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CHAP. Ill]        PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANITY  35 

of  Darius  Hystaspes  (534-515).  About  457  B.  C.  Ezra,  a 
scribe  who  had  remained  beiiind  in  Babylon,  was  com- 
missioned by  Artaxerxes  Longimanus  to  make  inquiries 
regarding  the  condition  of  the  Jewish  people  in  Judah 
and  Jerusalem  and  to  convey  royal  gifts  of  gold  and 
silver  for  religious  uses.  He  was  also  given  authority 
to  put  in  force  the  moral  and  ceremonial  laws  oi 
Jehovah  as  he  understood  them,  it  being  part  of  the 
policy  of  the  king  by  thoroughly  conciliating  the  God  of 
the  Jews  to  secure  his  favor  "  for  the  realm  of  the  king 
and  his  sons/' 

I.  THE  EFFECTS  OF  THE  BABYLONIAN  CAPTIVITY. 

1.  The  deportation  of  the  people  was  by  no  means 
complete.  Many  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  kingdom  of 
Judah  had  escaped  to  Egypt  and  it  is  probable  that 
some  remained  in  the  land.  Of  the  Northern  kingdom 
a  still  larger  proportion  probably  remained  behind.  The 
breaking  up  of  external  religious  institutions  and  the 
pressing  in  of  heathen  peoples  had  resulted  in  an  almost 
complete  relapse  of  the  remnant  of  the  northern  tribes 
into  heathenism. 

2.  The  Jews  of  the  captivity,  so  far  from  yielding  to 
the  heathen  influences  by  which  they  were  surrounded, 
were  brought  by  their  discipline  of  suffering  to  empha- 
size more  than  ever  the  spiritual  side  of  religion  and  to 
repudiate  with  decision  everything  savoring  of  idolatry. 

3.  Monotheism,  long  inculcated  by  their  inspired 
leaders,  was  now  thoroughly  grasped  by  the  people  as 
such,  and  the  licentious  idolatry  that  had  possessed 
Irresistible  attractions  for  the  Jewish  masses  was  now 
looked  upon  with  abhorrence. 

4.  They  were  ready  to  welcome  the  conquest  of  Meso- 
potamia by  the  Persian  kings,  who  professed  a  compara- 
tively pure  form  of  dualism  and  who  abhorred  the  idola- 
try of  the  Babylonians,  and  they  no  doubt  found  means 
of  rendering  material  assistance  to  the  invading  hosts. 
That  Cyrus  and  his  followers  should  show  special  favor 
to  a  people  who  welcomed  their  conquest  and  whose  re- 
ligious and  moral  ideals  had  much  in  common  with  those 
of  the  Persians  might  have  been  expected. 


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$6  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [INTRQ 

II.  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  PERSIAN  CONTACT. 

I.  The  Persian  Religion.  The  religion  of  Cyrus  and 
his  people  was  a  system  of  dualism  whose  elaboration  is 
commonly  ascribed  to  Zoroaster  (about  66o-;83),  and 
which  is  embodied  in  its  most  authentic  form  in  the 
Zend-Avesta.  Zoroastrianism  supposes  the  existence 
from  the  beginning  of  two  antagonistic  principles,  good 
and  evil,  each  having  its  personal  (or  personified)  head. 
Ormazd  (Ahura  Mazda)  is  the  prince  of  the  kingdom  of 
goodness  and  light,  Ahriman  of  the  kingdom  of  evil  and 
darkness.  Ormazd  was  conceived  of  as  the  embodiment 
and  author  of  wisdom  and  power,  as  the  promoter  of 
growth  and  progress,  as  absolutely  holy  and  beneficent, 
as  unspeakably  glorious  and  fair,  as  supremely  intelli- 
gent and  watchful.  He  is  the  author  and  upholder  of  all 
that  is  good.  His  attributes  correspond  closely  with 
those  of  Jehovah,  the  chief  difference  being  the  limita- 
tion of  his  power  by  the  antagonistic  energy  of  Ahri- 
man. This  difference  is  strikingly  set  forth  in  Isa.  4;  : 
5-7,  where  Jehovah  says  "to  his  anointed,  to  Cyrus,'* 
"  I  am  the  Lord,  and  there  is  none  else ;  beside  me  there 
is  no  God :  I  will  gird  thee,  though  thou  hast  not  known 
me :  that  they  may  know  from  the  rising  of  the  sun, 
and  from  the  west,  that  there  is  none  beside  me :  I  am 
the  Lord,  and  there  is  none  else.  I  form  the  light,  and 
create  darkness ;  I  make  peace,  and  create  evil ;  I  am  the 
Lord  that  doeth  all  these  things."  This  is  a  most  in- 
structive passage.  Jehovah  to  make  good  his  soleness 
does  not  hesitate  to  claim  for  himself  the  functions 
ascribed  by  the  Persians  to  Ahriman  as  well  as  those 
ascribed  to  Ormazd. 

Beneath  each  of  these  primal  principles  is  a  host  of 
subservient  principles  or  angels,  each  having  its  particu- 
lar antagonist  in  the  opposite  kingdom.  The  six  good 
archangels  are  Vohu  Manah  (Good  Mind),  the  mediator 
between  Ormazd  and  man  and  corresponding  to  some 
extent  to  the  Logos  (Word)  of  John's  Gospel ;  Asha 
Vahishta  (Best  Righteousness),  the  principle  of  cosmic 
order ;  Khshathra  Vairya  (the  Wished-for  Kingdom), 
lepresenting  the  aspiration  of  the  people  after  the  uni- 
versal triumph  of  righteousness ;  Spenta  Armaita  (Hc!^ 


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CHAP,  in.]        PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANrrY  37 

Harmony),  embodying  the  ideal  of  peace  and  good  will  / 
among  men ;  Haurvatat  (Wholeness) ;  and  Ameretat  (lm« 
mortality).  Closely  related  to  these  is  Sraosha  (Obe- 
dience). Standing  below  these  are  the  Yazatas  (Worship* 
ful  Ones),  of  which  the  chief  are  Mithra  fAngel  of  Light), 
Rashnu(Angel  of  Justice),  Arshtat  (Truthfulness),  Parendi 
(Riches),  Ashi  (Rectitude),  Verethraghna  (Victory),  Hvar 
(Sun),  Mah  (Moon),  Tishtrya  (Star),  and  Atar  (Fire). 
These  angelic  beings  (or  abstractions)  are  almost  infinite 
in  number.  Each  individual  human  soul  is  supposed  to 
be  accompanied  by  a  Fravashi  (Guardian  Angel)  who 
contends  with  the  corresponding  evil  powers  and  forti- 
fies the  soul  in  its  struggle  for  the  right  and  the  good. 

Ahriman  (Angra  Mainyu)  stands  at  the  head  of  the 
demonic  hosts,  which  are  the  antitheses  of  the  hierarchy 
of  Ormazd. 

Zoroastrian  dualism  is  advantageously  differentiated 
from  the  pantheistic-polytheistic  systems  of  the  East  by 
its  doctrine  of  human  freedom  and  responsibility,  which 
furnished  the  basis  of  a  relatively  pure  morality.  Per- 
sistent choice  of  the  good  weakens  the  power  of  evil. 
Purity,  physical  and  moral,  is  insisted  on.  Uprightness, 
charity,  and  generosity  are  constantly  inculcated.  The 
utmost  stress  is  laid  on  truthfulness.  Asceticism  is  ab- 
bent  from  the  system,  and  the  wholesome  enjoyment  of 
what  nature  has  provided  is  encouraged. 

The  doctrines  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  and  of  a 
future  life  of  blessedness  or  misery,  dependent  on  the 
character  of  the  present  life  and  determined  by  a  judg- 
ment following  immediately  the  death  of  the  body,  are 
clearly  taught.  Heaven,  hell,  and  purgatory  (the  latter 
for  those  whose  good  and  evil  deeds  are  found  to  have 
been  equal),  are  provided  for  in  the  system. 

The  coming  of  a  saviour  and  the  final  triumph  of 
the  kingdom  of  Ormazd,  with  the  banishment  "  of  the 
wicked,  evil-doing  Daevas  into  the  depths  of  the  dark, 
horrid  world  of  hell,''  are  clearly  taught  in  the  Avesta 
and  the  Pahlavi  Texts. 

Worship  was  addressed  not  only  to  Ormazd,  but  just 
as  freely  to  the  lower  orders  of  angelic  beings,  and  some 
of  the  litanies  remind  us  of  those  used  in  the  Catholic 
churches  of  the  later  time. 


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58  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [INTRQ 

2.  Persian  Influence  on  Jewish  Thought.  This  is  seen 
(i)  In  the  excessive  scrupulosity  with  which  the  later 
Jews,  going  far  beyond  the  prescriptions  of  the  Levitical 
code,  discriminated  between  things  clean  and  unclean ; 
(2)  in  the  relative  indifference  to  temple  worship  and 
the  stress  laid  on  popular  instruction  and  worship  as  seen 
in  the  formation  of  village  synagogues ;  (3)  in  the  energy 
with  which  the  later  Jews  resisted  every  effort  to  induce 
them  to  embrace  false  religions;  (4)  in  the  elaborate 
system  of  angelology  and  demonology  found  in  the 
apocryphal  books  that  were  written  during  the  Greek 
period  ;  (5)  in  the  book  of  Esther  we  see  Judaism  terri- 
bly persecuted  by  the  later  Persian  power  and  saved  by 
the  patriotism  of  a  Jewess,  who  by  her  charms  had  won 
the  heart  of  King  Ahasuerus ;  (6)  the  Persian  influ- 
ence is  probably  traceable  as  one  of  the  elements  in  the 
Essene  sect, 

3.  The  Synagogue  and  theSynago^s.  The  Jews  no  doubt 
became  accustomed  to  congregational  worship  apart  from 
the  temple  during  the  Babylonian  captivity.  It  was  not  to 
be  expected  that  with  the  restoration  of  the  temple  they 
should  forego  the  means  of  frequent  edification  and  in- 
struction that  they  had  found  helpful.  Ezra  called  the 
people  together  on  the  Sabbath  days  to  receive  instruc- 
tion in  the  divine  law,  and  this  practice  rapidly  spread 
throughout  the  land  and  into  the  dispersion.  The  serv- 
ices of  the  synagogues  were  intended  not  to  supplant 
but  to  supplement  the  temple  worship.  The  general  in- 
troduction of  synagogue  worship  marks  a  distinct  ad- 
vance in  the  educational  status  of  the  people.  Hence- 
forth religion  was  to  be  more  and  more  a  matter  of 
teaching  and  learning.  The  "Great  Synagogue,"  In  a 
rudimentary  form  at  least,  was  organized  by  Nehe- 
miah,  on  the  occasion  of  his  second  sojourn  ip  Jerusalem 
(436  B.  C.  onward.)  The  religious  condition  of  the  peo- 
ple he  found  on  his  arrival  to  be  deplorable.  Alliances 
had  been  formed  with  such  enemies  of  the  established 
order  as  Sanballat,  the  Sabbath  was  desecrated,  and  the 
Law  was  disregarded  (Neh.  13  :  6-31).  It  is  by  no 
means  certain  that  the  eighty-five  priests,  who  as  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people  pledged  themselves  and  their 
constituents  to  observe  the  Law,  constituted  the  Great 


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CHAP.  IB.]        PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANITY  39 

Synagogue ;  but  it  is  probable  that  out  of  this  united 
acceptance  of  Nehemiah's  reforms  grew  a  great  national 
organization,  composed  normally  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  members,  whose  business  it  was  to  promote  the 
due  observance  of  the  Law  and  the  results  of  whose 
labors  are  seen  in  the  careful  selection  and  editing  of  the 
sacred  books  and  in  the  formation  of  the  Old  Testament 
canon.  To  this  body  was  formerly  ascribed  the  intro- 
duction of  a  new  Hebrew  alphabet,  the  supplying  to 
the  text  of  certain  diacritical  signs,  the  ordering  of  the 
synagogue  worship,  and  the  beginning  of  the  elaboration 
of  the  ceremonial  law  that  was  ultimately  embodied  in 
the  Talmud.  During  this  period,  and  probably  under 
the  direction  of  the  Great  Synagogue,  schools  for  in- 
struction in  the  Scriptures  were  established,  and  a  class 
of  professional  scholars  (scribes)  arose  whose  authority 
was  generally  recognized. 

III.    THE  JEWISH  PEOPLE  UNDER  THE  MACEDONIAN  RULERS. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  importance  of 
the  Macedonian  conquest  as  a  means  of  diffusing  through- 
out the  civilized  world  the  Greek  language  and  thought, 
and  of  promoting  the  action,  reaction,  and  blending  of  the 
religious  and  philosophical  life  and  thought  of  Europe, 
Asia,  and  Africa.  In  no  way  did  this  great  upheaval  ex- 
ert more  directly  its  beneficent  influence  in  the  direction 
of  preparing  the  world  for  the  coming  of  Christ  and  for 
the  literary  embodiment  and  diffusion  of  his  teachings 
than  through  the  Hellenizing  of  a  large  part  of  the  Jewish 
race. 

The  leaders  of  the  people  made  prompt,  unconditional, 
and  cordial  submission  to  Alexander  the  Great  in  332 
B.  C.  He  was  so  favorably  impressed  by  their  attitude 
and  their  representations  that  he  treated  them  with  the 
utmost  consideration.  The  wide  dispersion  of  the  Jews, 
and  their  ability  to  be  of  service  to  the  conqueror  as 
guides  to  every  part  of  the  East  and  of  Egypt  no  doubt 
had  something  to  do  with  the  cordiality  of  his  bearing. 
Considerable  numbers  accompanied  him  on  his  expedi- 
tion to  Egypt.  In  founding  his  great  Egyptian  capital, 
Alexandria^  he  offered  the  most  liberal  inducements  tQ 


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40  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [INTRQ 

the  Jews  to  settle  there,  and  large  numbers  settled  in  the 
Fayyum.  Ptolemy  1.  seized  and  occupied  Syria  on  sev- 
eral occasions  (320,  302,  etc.)»  and  carried  to  Egypt 
thousands  of  Jews  and  others,  maintaining  throughout 
the  good-will  of  the  people,  who  always  resented  the 
authority  of  the  Seleucidse.  The  Ptolemies  seem  to  have 
respected  the  religious  principles  of  the  Jews,  while  the 
Seleucidae  attempted  to  supplant  their  religion  by  forcing 
heathen  institutions  upon  them.  A  few  of  the  monu- 
ments of  this  important  period  of  Jewish  history  may  be 
here  briefly  described. 

1.  The  Temple  near  Heliopolis.  Heliopolis  was  the 
ancient  site  or  an  Egyptian  temple,  devoted  to  the  wor- 
ship of  the  sun.  About  164-162  Onias,  son  of  the  high- 
priest  Onias  II!.,  failing  to  secure  the  succession  to  the 
Jerusalem  high-priesthood,  went  to  Egypt,  and  with  the 
co-operation  of  Ptolemy  IV.,  transformed  an  old  heathen 
temple  into  a  Jewish  sanctuary  and  introduced  a  regular 
temple  service.  This  service  continued  until  the  temple 
was  closed  by  the  Romans  in  A.  D.  73.  While  this  serv- 
ice was  looked  upon  with  disfavor  by  the  leading  Jews  of 
Palestine,  and  while  many  Egyptian  Jews  continued  to 
regard  visits  to  the  Jerusalem  sanctuary  as  important,  its 
introduction  and  maintenance  mark  a  distinct  stage  in  the 
liberalizing  of  Jewish  religious  thought. 

2.  The  ureek  Version  of  the  Old  Testament  {Septuagint). 
The  Jews  shared  fully  in  the  great  literary  activity  that 
was  fostered  in  Alexandria  by  the  munificence  of  the 
early  Ptolemies.  Among  the  most  important  products  of 
this  activity  was  the  Septuagint.  No  credit  is  at  present 
given  to  the  Jewish  tradition  (preserved  by  Josephus), 
which  represents  it  as  having  been  produced  by  seventy 
scholars  appointed  by  one  of  the  Ptolemies  for  this  pur- 
pose, who  wrought  independently  and  reached  precisely 
the  same  result.  Considering  the  vast  expenditures  of 
the  Ptolemies  in  the  gathering  of  the  Alexandrian  Library, 
it  is  not  improbable  that  they  extended  their  patronage 
to  this  work.  It  was  probably  begun  during  the  time 
of  Ptolemy  II.  (285-247),  and  completed  under  Ptolemy 
VII.  (182-146).  the  Pentateuch  was  the  first  to  be 
put  into  Greek.  Palestinian  Jews  regarded  the  version 
as  a  desecration.    Greek-speaking  Jews  were  naturally 


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CHAP.nL]        PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANITY  4I 

delighted  to  have  the  sacred  oracles  in  the  popular  lan< 
guage.  The  Septuagint  is  a  very  free  rendering,  the  de- 
sire to  bring  the  Old  Testament  writings  into  accord  with 
Greek  modes  of  thought  having  been  largely  influential. 
Extensive  additions  are  made  to  several  of  the  books, 
and  ultimately  the  apocryphal  books  were  incorporated. 
This  version  is  highly  significant  as  showing  that  a  large 
and  influential  part  of  the  Jewish  people  had  come  to 
prefer  a  free  Greek  translation  to  the  Hebrew  original, 
and  that  Greek  modes  of  thought  had  been  extensively 
adopted  by  the  Jews  along  with  the  Greek  language.  It 
also  facilitated  aquaintance  with  the  Jewish  religion  on  the 
part  of  Greek-speaking  Gentiles,  and  was  an  important 
aid  to  the  proselyting  efforts  of  zealous  Jews.  Before 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  this  version  was  in 
common  use  not  only  in  Egypt,  but  also  in  Syria,  Asia 
Minor,  and  to  a  considerable  extent  in  Palestine  itself. 
The  writers  of  our  New  Testament  books  were  for  the 
most  part  content  to  quote  freely  from  it. 

3.  The  Apoaypha.  This  term  (meaning  concealed  or 
obscure)  is  applied  to  the  considerable  body  of  Jewish 
writings  that  were  incorporated  in  the  Septuagint  with 
the  Greek  translations  of  the  Hebrew  canonical  books, 
but  which  have  no  place  in  the  Hebrew  canon.  Several 
of  these  (Baruch,  in  part,  the  Wisdom  of  Jesus  Son  of 
Sirach,  and  i  Maccabees)  were  written  originally  in  He- 
brew, but  are  preserved  only  in  Greek.  The  rest  seem 
to  have  been  composed  in  Greek.  The  Apocfyphal  E^a 
(i  Esdras)  is  made  up  in  part  of  materials  from  the 
canonical  Ezra,  but  largely  of  extra-canonical  materi- 
als. The  aim  of  the  writer  seems  to  have  been  to 
present  a  complete  history  of  the  temple  from  the  sus- 
pension of  the  services  at  the  captivity,  to  the  rehabilita- 
tion of  temple  worship  after  the  restoration.  The  addi- 
turns  to  Esther  consist  of  a  dream  of  Mordecai  regarding 
the  deliverance  of  his  people,  the  decree  of  extermina- 
tion by  Artaxerxes,  prayers  of  Mordecai  and  Esther,  a 
second  edict  of  Artaxerxes,  and  the  explanation  of  Mor- 
decai's  dream.  The  additions  to  Daniel  consist  of  a 
prayer  of  Azarias,  the  song  of  the  three  children  in  the 
furnace,  and  the  story  of  Bel  and  the  Dragon.  The 
Prayer  of  Manasses,  in   captivity,  is  usually  inserted 


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42  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [INTRO 

among  the  hymns  following  the  Psalms.  Baruck  pur- 
ports to  have  been  written  by  the  friend  and  amanuensis 
of  Jeremiah.  It  narrates  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
and  gives  an  account  of  a  deputation  of  Babylonian  Jews 
to  Jerusalem  on  behalf  of  Nebuchadnezzar  and  his  son, 
who  confessed  their  sins  and  sought  the  intercession  of 
the  Jerusalem  saints.  The  Letter  of  Jeremiah  is  addressed 
to  the  Babylonian  captives,  and  is  a  warning  against 
idolatry.  Tobit  is  a  charming  religious  story,  which  sets 
forth  Jewish  life  in  the  Babylonian  captivity  in  its  no- 
blest, purest  form.  It  abounds  in  the  miraculous,  and 
Persian  angelology  figures  prominently,  but  it  is  highly 
moral  in  tone,  and  exhibits  in  a  striking  way  the  rewards 
of  righteousness  and  the  penalties  of  wickedness.  Judith 
also  is  an  edifying  story,  whose  scene  is  laid  in  the  time 
of  Nebuchadnezzar.  Its  aim  is  to  show  forth  Jewish 
heroism  and  virtue ;  but  the  heroine  acts  upon  the  the- 
ory that  the  end  justifies  the  means,  and  the  morality  of 
the  work  is  from  the  Christian  point  of  view  unsatisfac- 
tory. First  (Maccabees  is  an  authentic  narrative  of  the 
Maccabean  struggle  against  Antiochus  Epiphanes.  Second 
(Maccabees  covers  substantially  the  same  ground,  with 
some  extension  of  scope,  but  is  legendary  and  untrust- 
worthy. The  other  Maccabean  books  are  still  less 
worthy  of  attention.  Ecclesiasticus,  or  The  Wisdom  oj 
Jesus,  the  Son  of  Sirach,  written  in  Hebrew  about  190- 
170,  and  translated  into  Greek  by  the  grandson  of  the 
author  about  fifty  years  later,  is  an  able,  earnest  work, 
in  which  the  influence  of  Greek  philosophy  is  manifest. 
It  is  well  worth  reading,  because  of  its  intrinsic  merits 
and  as  showing  the  trend  of  Jewish  thought  in  the  sec- 
ond century  before  Christ.  The  Wisdom  of  Solomon  is 
still  more  decidedly  Greek  in  its  tone,  and  belongs  to  a 
later  time. 

The  dates  of  most  of  the  Apocrypha  are  uncertain. 
Tobit  may  have  been  written  about  200  B.  C. ;  Sirach, 
about  190,  and  the  rest  during  and  after  the  Maccabean 
age.  The  Wisdom  of  Solomon  and  part  of  Baruch  may 
have  been  written  in  the  early  Christian  time. 

4.  The  Pseudepigrapha.  Closely  related  to  the  Apoc- 
rypha are  the  numerous  Jewish  religious  writings  of  the 
later  ante-Christian  and  the  early  Christian  time  known 


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CHAP.  III.]        PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANITY  45 

as  Pseudepigrapha  (works  falsely  ascribed  to  biblical 
personages,  and  so  spurious).  Many  of  these  are  as  im- 
portant as  any  of  the  Apocrypha,  as  showing  the  types 
of  religious  thought  current  among  the  Jews  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Christian  era,  and  as  helping  to  explain 
some  forms  of  early  Christian  heterodoxy.  Some  of 
these  have  been  preserved  only  in  Ethiopic  versions. 

(i)  How  are  we  to  account  for  the  fact  that  so  large 
a  proportion  of  the  Jewish  literature  of  the  age,  including 
several  of  the  Apocryphal  writings,  were  pseudepigraphic? 
It  may  be  answered :  (^)  That  the  rights  of  authorship 
were  from  the  beginning  ignored  or  disregarded  by  Jewish 
writers.  Few  of  the  canonical  writers  took  any  pains  to 
attach  their  names  to  their  works,  (ft)  The  chief  concern 
of  writers  of  this  class  was  to  impress  certain  thoughts  as 
profoundly  as  possible  upon  their  contemporaries,  and  as 
there  had  been  developed  an  excessive  regard  for  an- 
tiquity it  was  considered  legitimate  to  ascribe  their  pro- 
ductions to  ancient  worthies,  (c)  Some  of  these  writings 
were  intended  as  denunciations  of  contemporary  abuses 
and  of  obnoxious  persons  in  authority,  and  it  was  deemed 
safer  to  embody  the  uncomplimentary  remarks  in  ficti- 
tious works  ascribed  to  the  past,  (d)  It  may  be  safely 
said  that  in  most  cases  there  was  no  fraudulent  intent, 
but  that  the  end  in  view  was  beneficent.* 

(2)  A  few  of  the  more  important  Pseudepigrapha  may 
be  mentioned  as  specimens:  (a)  The  Psalter  of  Solomon, 
probably  written  in  Hebrew,  but  extant  only  in  Greek, 
a  collection  of  psalms  in  imitation  of  the  canonical,  at- 
tributed to  the  time  immediately  following  the  overthrow 
of  the  Asmonean  monarchy  by  the  Romans  (63  B.  C). 
The  writer  regards  the  Asmoneans  as  usurpers,  and  re- 
joices in  their  downfall.  He  represents  Pharisaism  rather 
than  Sadduceeism.  In  place  of  these  godless  rulers 
the  speedy  coming  of  the  Messiah,  the  Son  of  David, 
with  the  setting  up  of  his  kingdom,  is  earnestly  prayed 
for.  Faith  in  the  resurrection  and  in  divine  retribution  is 
strongly  set  forth,  (ft)  The  Book  of  Enoch,  probably 
composed  in  Hebrew  more  than  a  century  before  Christ, 
employed  by  the  New  Testament  jTi^d^  (ver.  14,  15), 

*  Cf,  Dillmann,  in  Herxog  and  Schaff-Heriog. 


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44  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [iNTRa 

much  used  by  early  Christian  writers,  preserved  only  in 
an  Ethiopic  version,*  consists  of  a  series  of  revelations 
supposed  to  have  been  made  to  Enoch.  The  work  is 
rich  in  angelology  and  in  astrological  lore,  attempts  to 
explain  everything  in  heaven  and  on  earth,  and  contains 
important  expressions  of  Messianic  hopes.  The  Messiah 
is  called  "  Son  of  God,"  **  Son  of  Woman,"  ''the  Elect," 
*'the  Word,"  and  **the  Lord  of  Spirits."  Its  expres- 
sions in  regard  to  the  Messiah  are  so  clear  and  definite, 
and  so  much  in  accord  with  the  reality,  that  some  critics 
have  been  led  to  ascribe  them  to  later  Christian  interpo- 
lation. Yet  the  representation  is  essentially  Jewish,  for 
the  Messiah  is  regarded  as  "  only  a  kind  of  deputy  for 
God,"*  rather  than  as  God  incarnate,  (c)  The  Book  of 
Jubilees^  probably  written  in  Hebrew  during  the  first  Chris- 
tian century,  and  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  but 
extant  only  in  Ethiopic,  is  a  sort  of  rabbinical  commentary 
on  Genesis.  It  attempts  to  show  how  Cain  and  Abel 
got  their  wives,  how  Noah  got  the  animals  into  the  ark, 
why  Rebekah  had  a  special  affection  for  Jacob,  etc.  It 
abounds  in  angelology  and  in  fanciful  stories,  (d)  The 
Sibylline  Books,  so  far  as  they  were  a  product  of  Hellen- 
istic Judaism,  may  properly  be  classed  with  the  Pseude- 
pigrapha.  Not  content  to  claim  for  their  views  the 
authority  of  the  patriarchs  and  prophets  of  their  own 
race,  some  of  these  enterprising  religionists  thought  it 
worth  their  while  to  ascribe  to  the  Greek  Sibyl  poetical 
effusions  embodying  in  ill-disguised  form  prophecies  of 
the  coming  Messiah  and  other  Jewish  teachings.  No 
doubt  it  was  the  hope  of  the  writers  to  impress  Jewish 
religious  thought  on  pagan  minds  by  this  means.  Early 
Jewish  Christians  carried  forward  this  work  of  manufac- 
turing Sibylline  verses,  and  many  of  the  early  Christian 
writers  quoted  from  the  Sibylline  Books  as  if  they  fully 
credited  their  genuineness.  A  large  body  of  pseudepi- 
graphical  literature  grew  up  in  the  second  and  third 
Christian  centuries,  especially  among  the  heretical  sects. 

IV.  THE  MACCABEAN  STRUGGLE. 

I.  The  Occasion  of  the  struggle  was  as  follows :  Up  to 

1  Gernan  transUtion  by  DIUin«on.  English  traosUtlon  by  Scbodit.      '  BltseU. 


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CHAP.m.]        PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANITY  45 

199  B.  C.  Palestine,  though  it  had  been  a  bone  of  con- 
tention between  the  Egyptian  and  the  Syrian  rulers  and 
had  suffered  greatly  from  invading  armies,  had  been  for 
the  most  part  under  the  Egyptian  rule  and  with  important 
exceptions  had  enjoyed  a  considerable  measure  of  relig- 
ious liberty.  The  whole  of  Syria,  apart  from  Palestine, 
had  become  thoroughly  Hellenized,  and  it  was  natural 
that  with  the  incoming  of  Syrian  authority  pagan  influ- 
ences should  be  brought  powerfully  to  bear  in  this 
stronghdid  of  Judaism.  At  the  time  of  the  Syrian  con- 
quest Palestine  was  in  an  exceedingly  depressed  condi- 
tion and  its  inhabitants  had  become  weary  of  Egyptian 
rule,  which  of  late  had  been  less  beneficent  than  hereto- 
fore. Antiochus  III.  sought  to  make  good  his  conquest 
by  bestowing  favors  on  the  inhabitants.  He  offered 
special  inducements  to  Jews  scattered  abroad  to  return 
to  Jerusalem,  provided  a  pension  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  temple  worship,  assisted  in  the  repairing  and  com- 
pletion of  the  temple,  and  expressed  his  wish  that  the 
nation  should  **  live  according  to  the  laws  of  their  own 
country."  He  exempted  priests,  scribes,  and  temple 
singers  from  taxation  and  gave  three  years'  tax  exemp- 
•ion  to  all  inhabitants  of  the  city.  Those  who  had  been 
enslaved  were  liberated.  Such  is  the  purport  of  a  letter 
of  Antiochus  to  his  general,  Ptolemy,  quoted  by  Jose- 
phus.  *  Whether  these  promises  were  fully  carried  out 
we  do  not  know.  Seleucus  IV.  (187-176)  abandoned 
this  policy  of  conciliation,  and  his  treasurer,  Heliodorus, 
who  afterward  murdered  him,  sought  to  rob  the  temple 
of  its  treasures.  But  it  remained  for  Antiochus  IV., 
whom  his  admirers  called  Epiphanes  (illustrious),  but 
who  was  more  justly  sur named  Epimanes  (madman),  by 
trampling  upon  the  religious  rights  of  the  people,  outrag. 
ing  their  religious  feelings,  and  inflicting  upon  them  every 
conceivable  indignity  and  cruelty,  to  arouse  the  theo- 
cratic patriotism  of  the  nation  to  the  fiercest  and  most 
uncompromising  resistance.  Thwarted  in  his  effort  to 
establish  his  authority  in  Egypt  he  seems  to  have  vented 
his  spleen  upon  the  Jews  of  Judea,  whose  brethren  in 
Egypt  had  no  doubt  been  active  opponents  of  his  preten- 

l'«ABti4|./'XIL.3:3. 


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46  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [INTRO 

sions.  Much  ill  feeling  had  no  doubt  already  arisen 
between  the  rigorous  Jews  and  the  promoters  of  Greek 
customs,  now  aggressive  in  Jerusalem  itself.  The  high- 
priest  Onias  III.  sternly  resisted  the  encroachments  of 
pagan  life.  His  brother  Jason  led  the  Hellenizing  oppo- 
sition and  was  able  by  the  royal  favor  to  supplant  Onias 
in  the  office  of  high-priest.  Naturally  he  used  his  position 
for  the  overthrow  of  strict  Judaism.  He  erected  a  gym- 
nasium for  Greek  sports  near  the  temple  and  sought  to 
occupy  the  attention  of  the  priests  themselves  with  secu- 
lar frivolities. 

Jason  was  soon  supplanted  by  Menelaus,  who  had 
gained  the  royal  support,  and  a  struggle  between  these 
claimants  ensued.  It  was  a  lamentable  time  for  devout 
Jews.  The  attempt  of  Jason  to  displace  Menelaus  by 
force  led  to  the  intervention  of  the  king,  who  after  his 
failure  in  Egypt  through  Roman  interference  was  pre- 
pared for  any  degree  of  cruelty.  The  massacre  of  Jew- 
ish spectators  at  a  Sabbath  military  parade,  the  plunder- 
ing of  the  city,  the  prohibition  on  penalty  of  death  of 
Jewish  sacrifices,  temple  services,  and  religious  rites^ 
the  decree  for  the  destruction  of  the  sacred  books,  the 
desecration  of  the  temple  through  the  introduction  of 
heathen  sacrifices,  the  forcing  of  swine's  flesh  down  the 
throats  of  priests  and  devout  people,  the  driving  of  a 
herd  of  swine  into  the  temple  precincts,  are  among  the 
many  abominations  committed  by  this  ruler,  who  seems 
to  have  been  eccentric  to  the  verge  of  insanity. 

2.  Mattathias  and  his  Sons.  The  revolt  was  organized 
by  the  priest  Mattathias  of  the  Asmonaean  family  and  his 
five  heroic  sons.  Mattathias  soon  committed  the  command 
of  the  patriot  movement  to  his  son  Judas  Maccabceus^  who 
from  i66  till  i6o,  when  he  was  slain  in  battle,  won  victory 
after  victory  over  the  demoralized  Syrian  forces.  He 
was  succeeded  by  his  younger  brother  Jonathan^  who 
availed  himself  of  a  dispute  over  the  Syrian  throne  to 
secure  for  himself  from  one  of  the  contestants  recogni- 
tion as  high-priest,  and  from  the  other  civil  supremacy, 
thus  becoming  the  theocratic  head  of  the  people.  He 
remained  a  vassal  of  the  successful  contestant  and  was 
murdered  while  seeking  to  protect  him  against  a  later 
rival  (143).    His  brother  Simon  succeeded  to  the  leader- 


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CHAP.IIL]        PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANITY  47 

ship  and  declared  the  nation  independent.  This  was  a 
time  of  great  rejoicing,  "  for  every  man  sat  under  his 
own  fig  tree  and  there  was  none  to  terrify  him,  nor  were 
any  left  in  the  land  to  fight  against  them."  ^  Assassi- 
nated through  the  treachery  of  his  son-in-law,  he  was 
succeeded  by  John  Hyrcanus  (135-105),  who  reigned  with 
brilliant  success  for  thirty  years,  crushed  the  Samaritans, 
and  forced  the  Edomites  to  become  Jews.  His  age  is 
noted  for  the  full  development  of  the  Jewish  sects  that 
flourished  in  the  New  Testament  time  and  for  the  rise  or 
better  organization  of  the  council  of  elders  to  be  after- 
ward known  as  the  Sanhedrin.  Internal  strife  marks 
the  remainder  of  Jewish  history  until  the  Roman  con- 
quest in  63  B.  C. 

V.  RISE  OF  RELIGIOUS  PARTIES. 

I.  Jewish  Sects.  Nothing  in  the  history  of  Jewish  life 
and  thought  during  the  time  immediately  preceding  the 
beginning  of  our  era  is  more  noteworthy  than  the  sec- 
tarian divisions  that  prevailed.  These  sects  have  their 
germs  in  the  early  Persian  time,  but  they  reached  their 
full  development  after  the  Maccabean  wars.  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah,  with  their  rigorous  separatism  and  insistence 
on  the  exact  observance  of  the  Law,  were  the  forerun- 
ners of  the  Pharisees.  The  great  synagogue  and  the 
rabbinic  schools  of  the  Persian  and  early  Greek  time 
were  essentially  Pharisaic  institutions.  The  Aramaic 
paraphrases  of  the  books  of  the  Bible  (Targumim)  were 
Pharisaic  products.  The  elaboration  of  the  Levitical  law 
that  reached  its  final  form  in  the  Talmud  had  a  like  ori- 
gin. Determined  resistance  to  the  intrusion  of  Persian, 
pagan-Aramaic,  and  Greek  customs  and  modes  of  thought, 
resulted  in  the  course  of  time  in  producing  the  narrow- 
ness, bigotry,  unamiableness,  and  hypocrisy  that  our 
Lord  so  unsparingly  denounced.  During  the  Persian 
and  the  early  Greek  time  priests  and  scribes  formed  a 
single  class  and  were  essentially  Pharisaic.  During  the 
later  Greek  and  early  Roman  time  Sadduceeism  held  the 
priesthood  by  virtue  of  political  influence,  while  the  study 

1 1  Macc  14 :  »•  u. 


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48  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [INTRQ 

of  the  law  was  almost  wholly  in  the  hands  of  the  Phari- 
sees. The  great  body  of  the  pious  Jews  of  the  apostolic 
age  were  Pharisees.  The  worldly  aristocracy  of  the 
nation  was  Sadducean.  Geiger,  a  modern  rationalistic 
Jew,  compares  Phariseeism  with  Protestantism  and  Sad- 
duceeism  with  Catholicism.  He  regards  Jesus  as  stand- 
ing primarily  on  Pharisaic  ground  and  seeking  to  reform 
Pharisaism  by  combating  its  onesidedness  and  narrow- 
ness.* It  is  no  doubt  true  that  Jesus  accepted  the  great 
body  of  doctrine  for  which  the  Pharisees  stood  and  re- 
jected every  doctrine  and  view  of  life  that  characterized 
the  Sadducees. 

Judas  Maccabsus  and  the  pious  hosts  (Chasidim) 
whom  he  led  to  victory  were  in  principle  Pharisees.  The 
name  Pharisees  (Perushim)  seems  to  have  originated  in 
the  time  of  John  Hyrcanus  (135-105),  against  whose 
alliances  with  heathen  princes  (first  Syrian  and  then 
Roman)  they  protested  with  all  earnestness.  The  term 
means  **  Separatists,"  and  emphasized  their  determina- 
tion to  remain  a  peculiar  people  and  to  resist  every  effort 
at  amalgamation  with  the  great  world-powers.  Their 
numerical  and  moral  superiority  led  to  their  complete 
triumph  after  the  death  of  Alexander  Jannseus,  son  of 
John  Hyrcanus,  who  ruled  104-78.  His  widow  Alex- 
andra "put  all  things  into  their  power"  and  "made 
them  bear  good-will  to  '*  her  deceased  husband."  The 
high-priesthood  remained  with  the  Sadducees,  but  the 
influence  of  the  Pharisees  in  all  religious  matters  was 
thenceforth  supreme. 

2.  The  Characteristic  Teachings  of  the  Pharisees,  These 
were  as  follows :  (i)  While  laymg  great  emphasis  on 
the  study  and  observance  of  the  Old  Testament  Law 
(T^oraA),  they  attached  almost  equal  importance  to  "  the 
tradition  of  the  fathers.'"  To  interpret  Scripture  in 
opposition  to  tradition  was  regarded  as  highly  culpable. 
(2)  They  held  tenaciously  to  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
to  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  to  the  doctrine  of 
future  rewards  and  punishments.  Eternal  imprisonment 
and  torment  are  the  portion  of  the  wicked.  The  right- 
eous have  **  part  in  the  world  to  come."    (3)  They  had 

1  **SMddmdur  umd  PtmritUr,"  pp.  31,  35,  etc. 
'  JoMpbos.  '*  Aatlq.."  XUL.  16  ••  s.         •iM,,  w :  6. 


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CHAP.  III.]        PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANITY  49 

a  complete  system  of  angelology.  (4)  They  believed 
strongly  in  the  divine  foreknowledge  and  foreordina- 
tion,  yet  insisted  upon  human  freedom  and  responsibil- 
ity. According  to  Josephus :  *'  They  assert  that  every- 
thing is  accomplished  by  fate.  They  do  not,  however, 
deprive  the  human  will  of  spontaneity,  it  having 
pleased  God  that  there  should  be  a  mixture,  and  that 
to  the  will  of  fate  should  be  added  the  human  will 
with  its  virtue  or  baseness."*  They  say  that  **some 
but  not  all  things  are  the  work  of  fate;  some  things 
depend  on  the  will  of  man  as  to  whether  they  are  done 
or  not.'" 

3.  The  Sadducees.  (i)  The  Sadducees  were  in  almost 
every  respect  the  antithesis  of  the  Pharisees.  They 
consisted  chiefly  of  the  unprincipled  and  aspiring  few 
who  by  ingratiating  themselves  with  the  heathen  rulers 
were  able  to  gain  offices  and  emoluments.  **  They  only 
gain  the  well-to-do,"  wrote  Josephus ;  *'  they  do  not  have 
as  their  followers  the  common  people."  •  Again :  "  This 
doctrine  has  reached  few  men  ;  these  however  are  of  the 
first  consideration."  *  The  possession  of  the  high-priestly 
office  placed  them  at  the  head  of  the  theocracy,  and  gave 
them  wealth  and  social  rank.  Not  all  priests  were  aris* 
tocrats  or  opponents  of  the  raboinic  legalism  ;  but  many 
of  the  most  influential  in  the  apostolic  age  and  for  a  cen- 
tury before  were  such. 

(2)  The  origin  and  significance  of  the  name  cannot  be 
said  to  have  been  fully  determined.  There  is  almost  a 
consensus  of  opinion  among  modern  scholars  that  it  was 
not  derived  from  the  adjective  Zaddiq,  righteous,  but 
from  the  proper  name  Zadok.  The  question  at  issue  is, 
who  of  the  many  persons  bearing  that  name  was  sup- 
posed to  be  the  founder  of  this  type  of  Jewish  life  ?  It 
is  highly  probable  that  Zadok,  a  noted  priest  of  the  time 
of  Solomon,  whose  posterity  had  continued  to  exercise 
priestly  functions  during  the  intervening  centuries,  was 
the  individual  had  in  mind. 

(3)  Apart  from  their  aristocracy  and  their  inclination 
toward  pagan  customs  and  modes  of  thought,  the  follow- 
ing peculiarities  may  be  noted  :  (a)  They  accepted  tb« 

1  Jostphus.  "Airtlq./'  XVIII..  i :  3.  'Josephus."  Wsr."  II..  S :  14. 

•  IH4.,  "  Antlq.."  Xlli..  10  : 6.  « tM..  XVIII.,  1 : 4. 


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$0  A  MANUAL  OP  CHURCH  HISTORY  [iNTRa 

written  Law  (JTkorah)  only,  rejecting  the  entire  body  of 
traditionary  interpretation  and  elaboration  by  the  rab- 
binic schools.^  It  was  supposed  by  early  Christian 
writers  that  they  rejected  all  of  the  Old  Testament  save 
the  Pentateuch,  but  this  view  is  without  documentary 
support,  and  has  been  generally  abandoned.  Adhering 
strictly  to  the  letter  of  the  Law,  they  are  said  to  have 
been  more  rigorous  in  the  infliction  of  penalties  than  the 
Pharisees,  who  were  able  to  explain  away  requirements 
that  conflicted  with  their  moral  consciousness.'  The 
same  principle  prevailed  in  relation  to  judgments  on  the 
clean  and  the  unclean.  While  following  the  Levitical 
prescriptions  they  mercilessly  ridiculed  the  absurdities  of 
the  Pharisaic  refinements,  (b)  They  denied  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  the  ex- 
istence of  angels  and  spirits,  and  the  doctrine  of  futvre 
rewards  and  punishments,  maintaining  that  the  eschato- 
logical  system  of  the  Pharisees  had  no  foundation  in  the 
Law.  {c)  They  were  deists,  denying  the  divine  activity 
in  human  affairs,  and  holding  that  man  is  the  cause  of 
his  own  prosperity  and  adversity,  (d)  Accordingly  they 
rejected  what  they  considered  the  fatalistic  doctrine  of 
the  Pharisees,  maintaining  that  man  has  perpetually  the 
power  to  choose  between  and  to  do  good  and  evil  at  his 
discretion.  The  similarity  of  their  views  to  those  of  the 
Epicureans  was  early  remarked,  and  may  have  been  due 
to  the  influence  of  the  latter. 

4.  The  Essenes.  (i)  For  our  knowledge  of  this  sect 
we  are  almost  wholly  dependent  on  Josephus,  Philo,  and 
Pliny.  Their  accounts  are  for  the  most  part  concordant, 
but  differ  in  some  details.  The  rise  of  the  party  is 
veiled  in  obscurity.  Josephus  implies  the  existence  of 
the  sect  about  150  B.  C*  The  descriptions  that  have 
come  down  to  us  apply  to  the  apostolic  age,  to  which 
Josephus  and  Philo  belonged.  The  Essenes  were  es- 
sentially a  monastic  order.  "Their  aim  of  life  was 
to  be  separate  from  the  world  with  its  evil  practices, 
to  live  a  life  of  holiness  and  devotion  to  God,  to  bene- 
fit mankind,  to  become  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  so 
as  to  be  enabled  to  prophesy  and  perform  miraculous 

1  JoMphus,  "  Antlq.."  XIII..  lo :  6. 
•IWi. XX..9:i.  coaip.wiUiXUL*M;6.  •  Ikid.,  JLOL,  $  1 9, 


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CHAP.  III.]        PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANITY  51 

cures,  and  to  prepare  themselves  for  a  future  state  of 
bliss  and  reunion  with  the  Father  of  Spirits."* 

(2)  About  the  beginning  of  our  er<».  they  are  said  to 
have  numbered  some  four  thousand,  and  to  have  had 
communities  in  many  of  the  villages  of  Palestine.  Their 
most  populous  community  was  that  in  the  desert  of  En- 
gedi,  on  the  Dead  Sea.  Their  numbers,  while  not  large, 
indicate  a  considerable  influence  on  Jewish  life,  for  they 
commonly  practised  celibacy  and  depended  chiefly  on 
proselytism  and  the  education  of  children  entrusted  to 
them  for  the  maintenance  of  their  numerical  strength. 
It  is  probable  that  they  enjoyed  the  confidence  and  favor 
of  a  large  number  who  were  not  prepared  to  subject 
themselves  to  the  rigorous  discipline  of  the  sect.  It 
is  probable  that  all  the  communities  were  organically 
united  under  a  single  control.  Each  community  had  a 
complete  organization.  Membership  was  obtained  by 
initiation  into  secret  rites.  After  a  year's  probation  and 
instruction  the  candidate  received  ceremonial  lustration 
(resembling  Christian  baptism).  After  two  years' 
further  testing  he  was  introduced  to  the  common  meals 
and  to  full  communion.  A  rigorous  pledge  of  secrecy 
was  exacted.  Each  candidate  was  required  to  deliver  up 
his  property  to  the  order,  and  the  strictest  community  of 
goods  was  practised.  '*  By  putting  everything  together 
without  distinction,  they  enjoy  the  common  use  of  all.''" 
Even  clothes  were  common  property.  The  officials  for 
the  administration  of  the  communal  affairs  were  ap- 
pointed, by  the  entire  body  of  the  initiated.  They  en- 
gaged in  agriculture  and  in  various  branches  of  industry, 
but  renounced  trade  as  corrupting  in  its  tendency,  and 
refused  to  manufacture  articles  for  use  in  war,  or  that 
they  judged  injurious.  In  addition  to  their  practice  of 
celibacy  they  renounced  luxury  of  every  kind,  forbade 
swearing,  prohibited  slavery,  eschewed  anointing  with  oil 
as  luxurious,  practised  frequent  bathing  in  cold  water, 
were  exceedingly  modest  in  performing  natural  functions, 
and  refused  to  offer  animal  sacrifices,  sending  gifts  of  in- 
cense to  the  temple  instead.  It  does  not  appear,  as  has 
sometimes  been  maintained,  that  they  renounced  the  use 

>Gliisbwf.  aPhilo. 


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52  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [INTRO 

of  flesh  and  of  wine,  though  they  were  no  doubt  abste- 
mious in  a  high  degree. 

(3)  The  doctrinal  position  of  the  Essenes  may  be 
stated  as  follows :  (a)  They  accepted  the  Old  Testament 
Scriptures  and  ''are  described  by  the  orthodox  Jews 
themselves  as  the  holiest  and  most  consistent  followers 
of  the  Mosaic  law."  *  (b)  They  agreed  with  the  Phari- 
sees, against  the  Sadducees,  in  the  principal  points  in 
which  these  bodies  were  at  variance,  (c)  They  differed 
from  the  Pharisees  in  renouncing  marriage  and  animal 
sacrifices,  and  in  denying  the  resurrection  of  the  body. 
Yet  they  believed  strongly  in  the  immortality  of  the 
soul  and  in  future  rewards  and  punishments,  (d)  Es- 
senism  has  so  much  in  common  with  the  religion  of 
Christ  that  some  writers  have  been  inclined  to  regard 
Jesus  himself  and  his  forerunner,  John  the  Baptist,  as 
members  of  this  society.  There  can  be  no  objection  to 
supposing  that  Jesus,  who  professedly  based  his  teaching 
on  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  incorporated  in  his  teaching 
whatever  was  best  and  most  spiritual  in  Jewish  life  and 
thought.  The  teaching  of  the  Essenes  on  seeking  the 
kingdom  of  God  might  well  be  emphasized  and  spiritual- 
ized by  the  Saviour.  Our  Lord's  requirement,  as  a  con- 
dition of  discipleship,  of  a  willingness  to  renounce  all 
earthly  ties  and  possessions  reminds  us  of  the  Essenic 
terms  of  admission  to  fellowship.  The  emphasizing  of 
brotherly  love  is  common  to  the  two  systems.  The 
Beatitudes  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  strongly  resemble 
the  Essenic  teaching.  The  celibacy  of  John  the  Baptist 
and  of  Jesus,  and  the  preference  for  celibacy  under  exist- 
ing circumstances  expressed  by  the  Apostle  Paul"  have 
been  regarded  as  significant  points  of  contact  between 
Essenism  and  Christianity.  The  prominence  given  by 
the  Essenes  to  bodily  healing  has  its  parallel  in  the  prac- 
tice of  Christ  and  his  disciples,  due  allowance  being  made 
for  Christ's  exercise  of  divine  power.  The  renuncia- 
tion of  warfare,  oaths,  and  slavery  on  the  part  of  the 
Essenes  reminds  one  strikingly  of  the  attitude  of  Jesus 
on  these  matters.  While  Jesus  did  not  formally  forbid 
slavery,  it  is  generally  admitted  that  the  spirit  of  his 

>  Ginsborg.  *  i  Cor.  y  :  •$.  Mf. 


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CHAP,  in.]        PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANITY  53 

teaching  excludes  it.  Essenism  and  Christianity  agree 
in  their  requirement  of  absolute  truthfulness  and  purity 
of  heart  and  life.  Both  alike  lay  stress  on  the  practice 
of  prophecy.  That  Jesus  infinitely  transcended  the  nar- 
row limits  of  Essenism  by  spiritualizing  and  universalizing 
the  truths  that  it  contained,  and  eliminating  the  formal- 
ism and  the  asceticism  that  characterized  it,  does  not  de- 
tract from  our  interest  in  comparing  the  adumbrations  of 
the  earlier  system  with  the  perfect  revelation  of  the 
later,  (e)  There  are  certain  non-Jewish  or  anti-Jewish 
teachings  and  practices  in  Essenism,  the  origin  of  which 
has  been  a  matter  of  controversy.  Many  recent  scholars, 
Jewish  and  Christian  (Frankel,  Jost,  Graetz,  Deren- 
bourg,  Geiger,  Ginsburg,  Ewald,  Hausrath,  Reuss,  and 
Kuenen),  have  sought  to  prove  that  the  seemingly  anti- 
Judaistic  elements  are  really  derivable  from  the  extreme 
Pharisaic  point  of  view.  Among  those  who  admit  the 
probability  of  foreign  influences  opinion  is  pretty  evenly 
divided  between  those  who  ascribe  these  features  to 
Persian  dualism  (Lightfoot,  Hilgenfeld,  etc.)  and  those 
who  ascribe  them  to  Pythagorean  influence  (Zeller, 
Keim,  SchUrer,  etc.).  Some  (as  Lipsius)  prefer  to  de- 
rive these  features  from  the  influence  of  Syro-Palestinian 
heathenism,  while  others  (as  Seydel  and  Lillie)  seek  to 
derive  Essenism  and  Christianity  itself  from  Buddhism. 
The  influence  of  Persian  thought  on  Pharisaic  Judaism 
in  general  is  commonly  admitted.  There  seems  little 
difficulty  in  supposing  that  in  the  case  of  the  Essenes 
these  influences  extended  somewhat  farther  than  with 
the  Pharisees.  That  which  savors  most  of  Persian  in- 
fluence is  the  semblance  of  sun-worship.  Josephus 
q)eaks  of  ** their  piety  toward  God"  as  "extraordi- 
nary," and  grounds  this  statement  on  the  fact  that  *'  they 
never  speak  about  worldly  matters  before  the  sun  rises, 
but  offer  up  with  their  faces  toward  it,  certain  prayers, 
handed  down  by  their  forefathers,  as  if  supplicating  it  to 
rise."  *  If  Josephus'  testimony  is  accepted,  it  can  hardly 
be  denied  that  their  attitude  toward  the  sun  involved  a 
certain  amount  of  superstition,  though  Josephus  seems 
to  commend  rather  than  condemn  their  practice.    Their 

i"W«r,"n..S:5. 


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54  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [iNTRa 

rejection  of  animal  sacrifices  is  in  accord  with  Persian 
dualism,  as  are  also  their  wearing  of  white  garments, 
their  lustrations,  and  their  angelology.  With  equal 
readiness  several  of  the  peculiarities  of  Essenism  might 
be  derived  from  Pythagoreanism,  such  as  "  its  aspira- 
tions for  bodily  purity  and  sanctity,  its  lustrations,  its 
simple  habits  of  life  apart  from  all  sensual  enjoyments, 
its  high  estimation  (if  not  exactly  its  requirement)  of 
celibacy,  its  white  garments,  repudiation  of  oaths,  and 
especially  its  rejection  of  bloody  sacrifices,  also  the  in- 
vocation of  the  sun  and  the  scrupulosity  with  which  all 
that  was  unclean  (such  as  human  excrements)  was  hid- 
den from  it ;  and  lastly,  the  dualistic  view  of  the  relation 
of  soul  and  body."  ^  It  is  probable  that  some  features  of 
later  Pythagoreanism  itself  are  due  to  Persian  influence. 
It  may  be  said  in  conclusion  that  the  particulars  in  which 
Essenism  deviated  from  Pharisaic  Judaism  may  be  best 
explained  by  the  supposition  of  a  combination  of  Zoroas- 
trian  and  Pythagorean  influences.  The  precise  methods 
in  which  these  influences  were  applied  cannot  be  deter- 
mined. 

5.  The  Samaritans.  The  territory  occupied  by  the  ten 
tribes  before  the  captivity  was  overrun  by  a  motley  host 
of  heathen  peoples,  with  whom  the  remnants  of  Israel 
became  to  a  great  extent  amalgamated.  The  restoration 
brought  back  only  a  small  portion  of  the  ten  tribes.  The 
refusal  of  Zerubbabel  to  allow  the  people  of  Israel  to 
participate  in  the  work  of  rebuilding  and  to  join  with 
them  in  religious  matters  led  ultimately  to  the  building 
of  a  temple  on  Mount  Gerizim  and  the  complete  relig- 
ious estrangement  of  Jews  and  Samaritans.  The  Samar- 
itans have  maintained  themselves  in  small  numbers 
until  the  present  time.  Their  recension  of  the  Penta- 
teuch, while  evidently  corrupted  in  the  interest  of  their 
claim  to  superiority  over  the  Jews,  otherwise  represents 
a  very  early  text.  It  is  not  easy  to  determine  the  pre- 
cise religious  position  of  the  Samaritans  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Christian  era.  Apart  from  their  contention  that 
Gerizim  and  not  Jerusalem  was  the  true  sanctuary,  their 
interpretation  of  the  Pentateuch  did  not  differ,  except  in 

iScburar. 


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CHAP,  in.]        PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANITY  55 

a  few  points,  from  that  of  the  Jews.  Their  aversion  to 
anthropomorphic  and  anthropopathic  representations  of 
God  had  probably  been  developed  before  the  beginning 
of  our  era.  They  no  doubt  derived  from  the  Persians 
their  elaborate  angelology.  To  a  host  of  good  and  evil 
angels  they  assigned  the  function  of  mediating  between 
God  and  men.  The  chief  cause  of  variance  between 
Samaritans  and  Jews  after  the  restoration  was  the  re- 
fusal of  the  former  to  submit  to  the  rigorous  require- 
ment by  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  of  separation  from  heathen 
wives.  It  would  seem  that  the  Samaritans  laid  far  less 
stress  on  rigorous  separatism  and  on  ceremonial  purity 
than  did  the  Pharisaic  Jews.  Samaria  proved  a  fruitful 
soil  for  Christian  heresy  in  the  early  centuries  of  our  era. 

VI.  THE  DISPERSION. 

I.  The  Causes  and  Extent  of  the  Dispersion.  Enough 
has  already  been  written  to  show  the  extent  and  im- 
portance of  the  Jewish  settlements  in  Egypt  under  Alex- 
ander and  the  Ptolemies.  What  is  true  of  Egypt  is  true 
of  Syria,  where  every  town  had  its  large  Jewish  com- 
munity and  its  synagogue.  A  Sibylline  writer  of  about 
140  B.  C,  remarks  that  every  land  and  every  sea  is 
filled  with  Jews.  By  this  time  the  Maccabean  rulers 
had  entered  into  a  close  alliance  with  Rome.  In  139-138 
Simon  Maccabaeus  sent  an  embassy  to  Rome  and  secured 
from  the  Consul  Lucius  a  letter  addressed  to  all  the  kings 
and  countries  under  Roman  influence,  enjoining  upon 
them  to  do  the  Jews  '*  no  harm,  nor  fight  against  them, 
nor  their  cities,  nor  their  country,  and  that  they  should 
not  aid  their  enemies."  *  A  list  of  the  princes  and  coun- 
tries especially  addressed  is  here  given.  This  list  was 
evidently  dictated  by  the  Jewish  ambassadors  and  indi- 
cates the  extent  of  the  dispersion  at  this  date.  It  also 
shows  how  rflghly  the  friendship  of  this  cosmopolitan 
people  was  appreciated.  As  Alexander  and  his  succes- 
sors had  treated  them  with  consideration  as  an  important 
means  of  extending  and  conserving  their  influence,  so 
now  the  Romans  offer  them  full  protection  because  they 


1 1  Mace,  xj  :  15.  04. 


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56  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [INTRQ 

wish  to  have  the  support  of  the  Jews  in  carrying  out 
their  stupendous  scheme  of  world-conquest  and  world- 
administration.  Strabo,  Philo,  and  Josephus,  all  bear 
testimony  to  the  influential  presence  of  the  Jews  in  every 
part  of  the  habitable  world.  The  enumeration  of  localities 
from  which  Jews  were  present  at  the  great  Pentecostal 
feast  in  Acts  2  :  9, 1 1  has  the  same  bearing.  They  were  a 
great  trading  people  and  their  commercial  importance 
was  generally  recognized. 

A  large  proportion  of  the  descendants  of  those  who 
went  into  captivity,  especially  of  the  ten  tribes,  made 
their  permanent  home  in  Mesopotamia,  Media,  and  the 
adjoining  regions.  Josephus  represents  the  descendants 
of  the  ten  tribes  in  these  regions  as  beyond  computation.* 
SchUrer  supposes  that  **they  were  numbered,  not  by 
thousands  but  by  millions.''  Nehardea  and  Nisibis  were 
their  chief  centers.  A  large  proportion  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Syria,  especially  in  the  cities  and  towns,  were  Jews. 
Josephus  relates  that  in  Damascus  eighteen  thousand 
(elsewhere  ten  thousand)  Jews  were  massacred  on  one 
occasion.  This  would  indicate  a  vast  Jewish  population. 
Philo  estimated  the  Jews  of  Egypt  in  the  apostolic  time 
at  one  million.  From  Egypt  they  spread  westward  to 
Cyrene  and  southward  to  Ethiopia  and  Abyssinia.  Asia 
Minor,  Greece,  Macedonia,  and  the  isles  of  the  sea,  were 
the  abiding-places  of  multitudes  of  Jews.  Pompey 
brought  many  captive  Jews  to  Rome  (63  B.  C),  but 
most  of  these  were  soon  at  liberty  and  prospering  in 
business.  The  extent  of  the  Roman  colony  in  the  New 
Testament  time  may  be  inferred  from  Josephus'  state- 
ment that  eight  thousand  Roman  Jews  joined  with  a 
deputation  from  Palestine  about  4  B.  C.  In  19  A.  D.  the 
Roman  Jews  came  into  disfavor  and  were  banished. 
Four  thousand  men  suitable  for  military  service  were 
sent  to  Sardinia.'  Sejanus,  their  accuser,  came  into 
disfavor  soon  afterward  and  the  Emperor  Tiberius  seems 
to  have  allowed  them  to  return  (31  A.  D.).  The  Em- 
peror Claudius  issued  an  edict  of  banishment  against  the 
Jews  (about  49-52),  but  it  was  not  carried  fully  into 
effect. 

~  »"Antl<i.,"XI..5:a. 

•  T«Clnis.  "Ann.."  IL.  8$ ;  JoMpDus.  "Antiq.."  XVIIl,  3  :  $. 


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CHAP.  III.]        PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANITY  57 

2.  Proselytes.  It  were  not  to  be  expected  that  so  vital 
and  aggressive  a  people  as  were  the  Jews  of  the  disper- 
sion should  be  content  to  restrict  their  activity  to  the 
maintenance  of  the  faith  among  themselves.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact  they  gained  the  reputation  of  being  the  most 
zealous  of  proselyters.  While  they  were  by  no  means 
popular  in  the  heathen  communities  where  they  resided, 
and  while  heathen  writers  lost  no  opportunity  to  hold 
them  up  to  contempt,  earnest  spirits  were  everywhere 
found  who,  dissatisfied  with  the  corrupt  heathen  cults 
and  with  the  heathen  philosophy  of  the  time,  longed  for 
a  purer,  more  spiritual,  and  more  authoritative  form  of 
religion. 

(i)  Methods  of  Jewish  Propagandism.  (a)  It  was  prob- 
ably their  doctrine  of  God  as  the  Almighty  Creator  and 
sole  and  righteous  Ruler  of  the  universe,  to  be  wor- 
shiped not  under  material  forms  but  as  a  spirit,  a  God 
who  rewards  the  righteous  and  punishes  the  wicked  in 
this  life  and  in  the  life  to  come,  that  was  most  influen- 
tial in  winning  converts.  (Jb)  Again,  Judaism  provided, 
through  its  sacrifices  and  purificatory  rites,  for  deliver- 
ance from  sin  and  gave  the  promise  of  present  and  future 
blessedness,  (c)  The  morality  of  Judaism,  however  far 
it  may  have  fallen  below  the  Christian  ideal,  was  im- 
measurably superior  to  that  of  the  best  forms  of  heathen- 
ism, (ji)  The  well-being  and  happiness  of  the  average 
Jewish  family  was  no  doubt,  under  ordinary  circum- 
stances, greatly  superior  to  that  of  the  average  heathen 
family  in  the  same  community.  These  facts  would  aid 
zealous  Jews  in  persuading  discontented  heathen  to 
accept  their  creed,  (e)  Again,  Oriental  religions  were 
much  in  vogue  in  Western  Asia  and  Europe  about  the 
beginning  of  our  era.  Egyptian  religion,  in  its  various 
phases,  had  multitudes  of  adherents  in  Asia  Minor, 
Greece,  and  Italy.  The  Greek  and  Roman  religions  had 
lost  their  hold  on  the  popular  mind.  In  searching  for 
something  more  satisfying  and  reasonable,  heathen  were 
in  many  cases  willing  to  listen  attentively  to  what  skill- 
ful Jewish  propagandists  had  to  say. 

(2)  Numbers  of  Proselytes.  The  numbers  won  to  the 
Jewish  faith  must  have  been  very  considerable.  A 
careful  modern  writer  states  that  "at  or  before  the 


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58  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [INTRO 

beginning  of  the  Christian  era  they  might  have  been 
reckoned  by  hundreds  of  thousands,  if  not  millions."* 
Josephus  says :  "  Many  of  the  Greeks  have  been  con- 
verted to  the  observance  of  our  laws  ;  some  have  re- 
mained true,  while  others,  who  were  incapable  of  stead- 
fastness, have  fallen  away  again." '  •*  Likewise  among 
the  mass  of  the  people  there  has  for  a  time  now  been  a 
great  amount  of  zeal  for  our  worship  ;  nor  is  there  a  single 
town  among  Greeks,  or  barbarians,  or  anywhere  else,  not 
a  single  nation  to  which  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath 
as  it  exists  among  ourselves  has  not  penetrated,  while 
fasting  and  the  burning  of  lights,  and  many  of  our  laws 
with  regard  to  meats,  are  also  observed."*  Similar 
testimony  is  borne  by  such  pagan  writers  as  Seneca  and 
Dio  Cassius.  Among  the  most  noted  proselytes  was 
King  Izates  of  Adiabene,  who  sent  his  five  sons  to  Jeru- 
salem to  be  educated.  His  successor,  Monobazus,  had  a 
palace  in  Jerusalem.  It  is  probable  that  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  proselytes  were  very  imperfectly  instructed 
in  the  principles  of  Judaism  and  continued  to  practise 
much  of  heathenism ;  but  the  multitude  of  converts  in 
all  parts  of  the  civilized  world  shows  that  Judaism  was 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  by  no  means  an 
obscure  religion  in  which  little  interest  was  taken  out- 
side of  the  Jewish  nation,  but  that  it  was  awakening  a 
surprising  amount  of  attention  throughout  wide  circles. 

(3)  Classes  of  Proselytes.  Two  classes  of  converts  are 
distinguishable,  **  God-fearing  Gentiles  "  or  *'  proselytes 
of  the  gate,"  and  "proselytes  of  righteousness."  The 
former  "bound  themselves  to  avoid  .  .  .  blasphemy, 
idolatry,  murder,  uncleanness,  theft,  disobedience  toward 
the  authorities,  and  the  eating  of  flesh  with  its  blood."* 
The  latter  were  admitted  to  all  the  privileges  of  the 
theocracy,  after  circumcision,  baptism,  and  sacrifice. 
That  proselyte  baptism  was  practised  before  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Christian  era  has  been  questioned  by  some, 
but  without  sufficient  reason.  Some  who  have  rejected 
the  antiquity  of  proselyte  baptism  have  yet  admitted 
that  the  proselyte  was  required  to  take  a  purificatory 
bath  after  his  circumcision  and  before  his  admission  to 

1  Bi$s«ll.         •  *'  Apion."  II..  19.         •  "  Apion."  11..  39.         ^  Bisfell. 


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CHAP.IIL]        PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANITY  59 

full  standing  as  a  Jew ;  but  the  distinction  between  a 
ceremonial  bath  and  baptism  is  unwarranted,  as  the 
same  Hebrew  word  is  used  for  both.  It  is  probable  that 
the  great  mass  of  proselytes  belonged  to  the  former 
class. 

VII.  THE  JEWISH-ALEXANDRIAN  PHILOSOPHY— PHILO  JUDiEUS. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  importance  of 
Alexandria  as  a  focusing  point  for  the  world's  philosophi- 
cal and  theological  thought  and  to  the  literary  activity  of 
the  Greek-speaking  Jews  in  Egypt.  Before  the  begin- 
ning of  our  era  there  had  been  developed  a  remarkable 
type  of  philosophical  thought  known  as  the  Jewish-Alex- 
andrian philosophy.  This  system  reached  its  highest  de- 
velopment and  found  its  ablest  exponent  in  Philo  (born 
32-20  B.  C,  died  about  53  A.  D.). 

I.  Sketch  of  Philo.  Of  a  wealthy  and  aristocratic 
family  (his  brother  held  a  high  office  under  the  Emperor 
Caius  and  was  the  intimate  friend  of  the  Jewish  King 
Agrippa),  Philo  enjoyed  all  the  educational  privileges 
that  Alexandria  afforded.  Thoroughly  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  Greek  philosophy  and  familiar  with  Greek  liter- 
ature, he  was  yet  a  devout  Jew.  He  was  of  the  opinion 
that  the  Greeks  had  derived  from  the  Jewish  Scriptures 
all  that  was  wise,  true,  and  lofty  in  their  thinking.  It 
was  his  task,  as  it  had  been  the  task  of  others  of  his 
type,  to  show  the  complete  harmony  of  the  divine  reve- 
lation of  the  Old  Testament  with  all  that  is  best  in 
Greek  philosophy.  It  was  his  conviction  that  the  Scrip- 
tures translated  into  Greek  and  rightly  interpreted  might 
wield  a  mighty  influence  for  the  salvation  of  mankind. 
The  fact  is  that  his  own  modes  of  thought  and  views 
of  life  were  fundamentally  those  of  the  Greek  philoso- 
phy (a  composite  of  Pythagoreanism,  Platonism,  Aris- 
totelianism,  and  Stoicism),  and  he  undertook  to  show 
by  applying  the  allegorical  system  of  interpretation  to 
the  Scriptures  that  these  were  not  as  they  seemed  to 
be,  simple,  unsophisticated  narratives  of  the  dealings  of 
God  with  his  people,  but  that  underneath  the  anthropo- 
morphic and  anthropopathic  representations  of  God  and 
the  uncouth  representations  of  the  sins  and  follies  of 


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60  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [iNTRa 

the  heroes  and  worthies  of  Hebrew  history,  everything 
that  was  wise  and  exalted  in  Greek  philosophy  lay  con- 
cealed. 

2.  The  Allegorical  Method  of  Interpretation,  This,  as 
applied  to  ancient  documents,  was  not  the  invention,  of 
Philo  or  of  his  Jewish-Alexandrian  predecessors.  It  had 
been  employed  for  centuries  by  the  Greeks  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  Homer  and  was  probably  in  common  use 
among  the  Egyptian  priests.  In  fact  it  is  an  obvious 
device  in  connection  with  any  esoteric  system  of  religion. 
But  it  is  doubtful  whether  it  had  ever  been  employed  so 
systematically  and  effectively  as  by  this  writer.  Every- 
thing that  is  opposed  to  his  philosophical  conceptions  of 
God  and  the  universe  and  to  his  sense  of  propriety  in 
the  recorded  deeds  of  men  of  God  yields  readily  to  this 
universal  solvent.  It  is  almost  certain  that  if  Philo  and 
those  like-minded  had  been  shut  up  to  a  literal  treatment 
of  the  Scriptures  they  would  have  rejected  them  as  fall- 
ing in  their  opinion  far  below  the  writings  of  the  Greek 
philosophers  in  dignity,  beauty,  and  spirituality.  Having 
no  true  historical  perspective,  they  were  unable  to  ap- 
preciate the  progressiveness  of  divine  revelation  or  to 
understand  aright  the  relation  of  the  human  and  the 
divine  in  Scripture.  This  corrupting  feature  of  Philo's 
work  was  laid  hold  of  by  early  Christian  writers. 

3.  Philo' s  Eclecticism.  His  system  embraces  elements 
of  Pythagoreanism,  Platonism,  Aristotelianism,  and  Stoi- 
cism, very  imperfectly  blended  or  systematized. 

(i)  His  idea  of  God,  from  which  he  sought  to  eliminate 
everything  anthropomorphic  and  anthropopathic,  was 
exceedingly  transcendental.  He  sought  to  hold  fast  to 
the  personality  of  God  and  his  freedom  in  willing,  and 
yet  denied  that  he  had  qualities.  God  is  above  all  quali- 
ties and  only  negations  can  be  predicated  of  him.  Yet 
he  did  not  hesitate  to  affirm  that  God  is  eternal,  self- 
existent,  omniscient,  omnipotent,  perfect,  efficient,  free, 
and  self-determining.  In  fact  he  seems  to  have  com- 
bined, without  reconciling  them,  the  Platonic  idea  of  the 
divine  transcendence  and  absoluteness  with  the  Stoic 
doctrine  of  divine  immanence. 

(2)  Regarding  God  as  exalted  above  all  possibilify  0} 
contact  with  matter,  which  he  characterizes  as  'Mifeless, 


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CHAP.DL]        PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANITY  6l 

erroneous,  divisible,  unequal/'  and  hence  essentially 
evil,  he  felt  the  need  of  bridging  the  gulf  between  God 
and  the  world  by  the  supposition  of  certain  **  creative 
and  regulative  Powers."  These  Powers  seem  to  combine 
the  features  of  the  current  Jewish  angelology  with  those 
of  the  Stoic  Logoi  and  the  Platonic  Ideas.  The  three  sets 
of  expressions  he  uses  almost  indifferently.  These 
Powers  are  represented  as  the  thoughts  of  God,  the 
heavenly  archetypes  of  earthly  things,  as  that  which 
gives  life,  reality,  and  durability  to  matter,  as  the  breath 
of  God's  mouth.  It  is  difficult  to  determine  whether 
Philo  intended  to  ascribe  personality  to  the  Powers  or 
regarded  them  as  mere  abstractions.  Most  of  his  expres- 
sions seem  to  favor  the  latter  view. 

(3)  Most  important  of  all  for  early  Christian  theology 
was  his  doctrine  of  the  Logos.  Here  also  he  sought  to  com- 
bine Jewish  with  Platonic  and  Stoic  conceptions.  '*  Philo 
has  gathered  together  from  East  and  West  every  thought, 
every  divination  that  could  help  to  mold  his  sublime  con- 
ception of  a  Vicegerent  of  God,  a  Mediator  between  the 
Eternal  and  the  ephemeral.  His  Logos  reflects  light 
from  countless  facets.  It  is  one  of  those  creative  phrasas, 
struck  out  in  the  crisis  of  projection,  which  mark  an 
epoch  in  the  development  of  thought."*  The  multi- 
plicity of  Philo's  representations  of  the  Logos  make  it 
impossible  to  define  his  conception  in  a  single  phrase. 
The  Platonic  Idea  0.*  Good,  the  Stoic  World-Soul,  and 
the  Jewish  conceptions  of  the  Shechinah,  of  the  Name 
of  God,  of  tne  Heavenly  Man,  of  the  eternal  High  Priest, 
seem  to  have  been  combined  in  his  thought  and  in  his 
expressions.  The  Targums  (Aramaic  paraphrases  of  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures)  frequently  employ  the  term  Word 
(Memra)  to  denote  God  as  revealing  himself.  Such  Old 
Testament  representations  as  "the  Angel  of  the  Lord  " 
and  "  Wisdom  "  are  not  lost  sight  of.  In  relation  to  God 
the  Word  is  *' Eternal  Wisdom,"  "the  sum  of  the 
thoughts  of  God,"  "  the  Idea  of  Ideas,  which  imparts 
reality  to  all  lower  ideas,"  "the  whole  mind  of  God. 
considered  as  traveling  outside  of  itself  and  expressing 
itself   in  act."*    He  is  the  "Shadow  of  God,"  the 

inn. 


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62  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [iNTRO 

"  Eldest  Son/'  '•  the  First-born  "  of  God.  He  is  thought 
of  as  the  **  Sum,"  as  the  "  Creator,"  as  the  *'  Captain," 
and  the  "Archangel  "  of  the  other  Powers.  In  relation 
to  the  universe  the  Word  is  represented  as  the  instru- 
mental cause  or  organ  of  creation,  as  the  Creator,  as  the 
Vicegerent  of  the  Great  King.  In  relation  to  man  the 
Logos  is  "the  Mediator,  the  Heavenly  Man,  who  repre- 
sents in  the  eyes  of  God  the  whole  family  upon  earth."  * 
He  is  the  High  Priest,  the  Supplicator,  the  Paraclete. 
Philo  makes  him  say  :  **  1  stand  between  the  Lord  and 
you,  I  am  neither  uncreated  like  God  nor  created  like 
you,  but  a  mean  between  the  two  extremes,  a  hostage 
to  either  side." 

Philo's  conception  of  the  Logos  falls  short  of  the  New 
Testament  doctrine  in  the  following  respects :  (a)  There 
is  no  sense  of  the  necessity  of  the  incarnation ;  (ft)  there 
is  no  proper  feeling  of  the  need  of  atonement  to  be 
wrought  out  by  self-emptying  and  self-sacrifice  on  the 
part  of  the  Son  of  God  ;  (c)  there  is  no  place  for  a  divine- 
human  Saviour,  for  sin  is  thought  of  as  mere  ignorance, 
as  salvation  consists  in  enlightenment ;  (d)  it  does  not 
appear  that  Philo  conceived  of  the  Logos  as  a  Person  in 
our  sense  of  the  term.  His  personifications  are  such  as 
he  freely  applies  to  any  idea  whatever. 

(4)  The  relation  of  the  prologue  of  John's  Gospel  to  the 
Philonic  Logos  doctrine  is  still  a  matter  of  dispute.  WhUe 
it  is  not  improbable  that  the  writer  of  this  Gospel  was 
familiar  either  with  Philo's  writings  or  with  the  Jewish- 
Alexandrian  mode  of  thought  from  which  they  pro- 
ceeded, its  simplicity  and  freedom  from  heathen  specula- 
tive elements  radically  differentiate  his  representation 
from  the  Philonic,  and  show  clearly  the  divine  impress.. 
It  was  on  the  theology  of  the  Gnostics  and  of  the  Alex* 
andrian  school  of  Christian  thought  (second  and  third 
centuries)  that  Philo's  writings  were  to  exert  the  most 
marked  influence. 

VIII.  MESSIANIC  EXPECTATIONS. 

Nothing  was  more  characteristic  of  later  Judaism  than 

»Blgc 


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CHAP.UL]        PREPARATION  FOR  CHRISTIANITY  63 

the  prominence  and  definiteness  of  its  Messianic  expec- 
tations. 

1.  The  Earlier  (Messianic  Hope.  The  earlier  Messianic 
hope  had  been  centered  in  the  glorious  and  blessed  future 
of  the  nation,  and  did  not  go  much  beyond  the  range  of 
contemporary  circumstances.  While  the  glorious  future 
of  the  nation  was  not  lost  sight  of  by  later  Jews,  far  more 
stress  was  laid  by  them  on  the  relation  of  the  individual 
and  of  the  non-Jewish  world  to  the  Messianic  kingdom. 

2.  The  Doctrines  of  Immortality  and  Resurrection.  These 
having  come  more  clearly  into  the  consciousness  of  the 
people,  eschatological  elements  naturally  occupy  a  more 
prominent  place  in  their  Messianic  expectations. 

3.  God  as  King  of  the  World.  God  is  now  definitely 
thought  of  as  the  King  of  the  world,  and  the  Messiah  as 
judging  and  ruling  the  world  on  God's  behalf.  The  book 
of  Enoch  represents  the  Messiah  as  hidden  and  kept  with 
God  before  his  earthly  appearing.*  His  name  is  said  to 
have  been  named  before  the  sun,  the  signs,  and  the  stars 
were  formed.'  Before  the  world  was  created  he  was 
chosen  and  hidden  with  God.*  His  glory  is  said  to  be 
from  eternity  to  eternity.  In  him  dwells  the  spirit  of 
wisdom.  He  will  judge  the  hidden  things,  and  no  one 
will  be  able  to  hold  vain  discourse  before  him.*  Very 
similar  is  the  teaching  of  the  Fourth  Book  of  Ezra.  The 
Messiah  was  ready  to  appear  as  soon  as  the  people 
should  repent  and  perfectly  fulfill  the  law.  A  single  day 
of  repentance  on  the  part  of  the  nation  would  usher  in 
Messiah's  kingdom.* 

4.  His  Secret  Presence.  In  some  accounts  his  secret 
presence  is  assumed,  and  his  revelation  is  delayed  by 
the  sins  of  the  people.  His  appearing  is  conceived  of  as 
sudden,  and  as  accompanied  by  miraculous  displays  of 
power.  The  appearing  of  Messiah  was  to  be  followed 
by  a  marshaling  of  the  heathen  powers  for  a  final  con- 
flict, and  the  overthrow  of  these  hosts  of  evil  by  the 
power  of  God.  The  Messiah  then  sits  in  judgment  on 
the  throne  of  his  glory.  He  is  called  in  the  book  of 
Enoch  "Son  of  Man,"  "Son  of  Woman."*  He  strikes 
terror  to  the  hearts  of  the  kings  of  the  nations,  and  destroys 

1 46  :  z.  a ;  69  :  7.  *  48  :  3.  *  4S :  6.  «  49  :  a-4. 

*  Sm  Schurer,  VoL  U.,  ••  p.  163,  etc  *  fa :  s*  ^9* 


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64  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [iNTRO. 

them  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  '*  As  long  as  there  are 
sinners  in  the  world,  so  long  does  the  wrath  of  God  en- 
dure, but  as  they  disappear  from  the  world  the  divine 
wrath  also  vanishes."* 

$..Ren(wation  and  Purification.  The  renovation  and 
purification  of  Jerusalem  follows,  the  new  city  greatly  to 
surpass  in  splendor  the  old  at  its  best.  Some  represen- 
tations seem  to  imply  that  it  existed  already  in  heaven, 
and  was  to  be  suddenly  let  down  at  the  appointed  time. 

6.  The  Gathering  of  the  Dispersed.  The  dispersed  are 
next  to  be  gathered,  and  are  to  participate  in  the  glorious 
and  joyful  kingdom  which,  centering  in  Jerusalem  and 
Palestine,  is  to  extend  throughout  the  world.  War  and 
strife  shall  be  at  an  end,  and  righteousness,  benevolence, 
and  all  virtue  shall  universally  prevail.  Suffering  and 
disease  shall  be  no  more,  and  men  shall  live  nearly  a 
thousand  years,  continually  renewing  their  youth.  Child- 
birth shall  be  painless  and  physical  effort  without  weari- 
ness. Some  thought  of  this  earthly  kingdom  as  ever- 
lasting, others  looked  upon  it  as  a  prelude  to  a  still  more 
glorious  heavenly  kingdom.'  According  to  some,  *'  the 
coming  age  "consists  in  a  renovation  of  the  heavens  and 
the  earth.  Some  supposed  that  this  renovation  would 
occur  at  the  beginning  and  some  at  the  end  of  Messiah's 
reign. 

7.  The  Universal  T{esurrection.  The  next  stage  in  the 
panorama  is  the  universal  resurrection.  This  is  to  be 
followed  by  the  final  judgment.  The  Jewish  eschatol- 
ogy  provided  for  an  intermediate  state  between  death 
and  the  resurrection  in  which  righteous  souls  are  happy 
and  the  wicked  suffer. 

8.  V^on-Suffering  (Messiah.  From  the  views  of  the 
Messiah  already  set  forth,  it  is  evident  that  the  idea  of  a 
suffering  and  sin-atoning  Messiah  had  little  place  in  the 
Jewish  thought  of  the  age  under  consideration.  If  such 
passages  as  Isa.  $3  were  Messianically  interpreted  at 
all,  little  emphasis  was  placed  upon  the  features  of  the 
character  and  purpose  of  the  Messiah  there  set  forth. 

1  MIsbnA,  *'  Sanhedrin/'  X.,  6.       *  Apocalypse  of  Banich  and  Fourth  Em. 


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PERIOD  I 

FROM  THE  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST  TO  THE  END  OP 
THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE  (4  B.  C.-ioo) 


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CHAPTER  I 

JESUS  THE  CHRIST 

LITERATURE:  The  four  Gospels  constitute  the  chief  sources. 
See  also  the  Harmonies  of  Robinson,  Claric,  Broadus,  and  Stevens 
and  Burton ;  the  New  Testament  Introductions  of  Bleeic,  Reuss, 
Weiss,  and  Zahn;  the  Lives  of  Christ  by  Andrews,  Neander, 
Ederslieim,  Ewald,  Lange,  Farrar,  Geikie,  Pressensi,  Weiss,  Keim, 
Stall<er,  Broadus,  and  Wallace :  worlcs  on  the  Biblical  Theology  of 
the  New  Testament  by  Weiss,  Beyschiag,  Van  Oosterzee,  Stevens, 
and  Adeney ;  Hausrath,  "  History  of  the  New  Testament  Times" ; 
Wendt,  •*  The  Teaching  of  Jesus  ^ ;  Bruce, "  The  Kingdom  of  God : 
or,  Christ's  Teaching  according  to  the  Synoptical  Gospels,"  ana 
"The  Training  of  fte  Twelve";  Candlish,  "The  Kingdom  of 
God";  Fairbaim,  "Studies  in  the  Life  of  Christ";  Schiirer, 
"The  Jewish  People  in  the  time  of  Jesus  Christ";  and"Ecce 
Homo."  The  Bible  dictionaries  and  the  encyclopedias  may  also 
be  consulted  with  profit,  as  may  also  the  files  of  Uerman,  French, 
English,  and  American  theological  reviews. 

I.    THE  FULLNESS  OF  THE  TIJ^E 

The  last  two  chapters  of  the  Introduction  have  set 
forth  the  achievements  of  the  ancient  world  in  philos- 
ophy and  religion,  the  diffusion  and  blending  of  the  ele- 
ments of  civilization  that  had  been  developed  through 
the  Macedonian  and  Roman  conquests,  and  the  failure 
of  ancient  civilization  to  regenerate  the  world  or  to  satisfy 
the  deeper  longings  of  mankind.  Judaism  itself,  under 
the  influence  of  the  Persian,  Greek,  and  Roman  civiliza- 
tions, had  undergone  a  process  of  development  and  had 
produced  a  remarkable  literature ;  but  the  best  Jewish 
life  was  utterly  dissatisfied  with  actual  achievement  and 
looked  forward  with  earnest  longing  to  a  Messianic  era. 
In  the  Roman  world  faith  in  the  popular  mythology  had 
been  destroyed  by  philosophy,  and  the  better  forms  of 
philosophy  had  been  supplanted  for  the  most  part  by 
Greek  skepticism,  whose  motto  was  **  Enjoy  to  the  full 
the  present,''  and  which  was  fundamentally  anti-social 
and  selfish.    Jews  and  Gentiles  alike  were  in  need  of  a 


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68  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  L 

Saviour,  and  the  better  spirits  were  deeply  conscious  of 
that  need. 

In  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  fulfilled  all  that  was  noblest 
and  most  spiritual  in  the  aspirations  of  Jews  and  Gentiles, 
and  in  a  very  direct  and  accurate  way  the  predictions  of 
the  Old  Testament  prophets.  It  was  only  after  the  world 
had  been  made  ready  for  the  reception  and  the  propaga- 
tion of  his  religion  that  the  Divine-human  Redeemer  ap- 
peared. 

For  the  history  of  the  earthly  career  of  our  Lord  we  are 
dependent  almost  wholly  on  the  four  Gospels,  which  from 
different  points  of  view  embody  the  apostolic  remem- 
brances of  the  acts  and  words  of  the  Master,  and  which 
taken  together  give  us  what  the  Holy  Spirit  designed  we 
should  know  about  the  Word  made  flesh. 

II.    THE  PRE-INCARNATE  WORD. 

John  alone  of  all  the  evangelists  lifts  the  veil  of  the 
infinite  past,  and  in  the  language  of  the  Stoics  and  of 
Philo  reveals  to  us  the  eternal  facts  and  relations  of  the 
Godhead :  'Mn  the  beginning  was  the  Word  (Logos),  and 
the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God.  The 
same  was  in  the  beginning  with  God.  All  things  were 
made  by  him  ;  and  without  him  was  not  anything  made 
that  hath  been  made.  In  him  was  life  ;  and  the  life  was 
the  light  of  men.  .  .  There  was  the  true  light,  which 
lighteth  every  man  coming  into  the  world.  .  .  And  the 
Word  became  flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us."  In  these 
simple  but  profound  sentences  we  have  not  the  gropings 
after  truth  of  a  Philo,  but  the  clear  dogmatic  statement  of 
the  identity  of  Jesus  the  Christ,  the  Word  made  flesh,  with 
the  eternal  divine  thought  and  projective  activity  that 
conceived  and  planned  and  made  the  universe,  and  that 
as  the  "true  light"  " lighteth  every  man  coming  into 
the  world."  The  writer  is  not  concerned  with  the  earthly 
genealogy  of  the  Messiah.  He  is  content  to  say,  "The 
Word  became  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us." 

III.     FROM  CONCEPTION  TO  BAPTISM. 

I.  The  Genealogies.  Matthew  and  Luke  connect  the 
incarnate  Saviour  with  Abraham,  the  father  of  the  He- 
brew people,  and  with  King  David.    Matthew  speaks  0/ 


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CHAP.l.]  JESUS  THE  CHRIST  69 

Jesus  Christ  as  "the  son  of  David,  the  son  of  Abraham/' 
and  indicates  the  chief  persons  in  the  line  of  succession 
from  Abraham  to  "  Joseph  the  husband  of  Mary,  of  whom 
was  born  Jesus,  who  is  called  Christ."  Luke  traces  the 
line  from  Joseph,  whose  son  Jesus  was  supposed  to  be, 
through  David,  Abraham,  and  Adam,  to  God.  His  list 
includes  far  more  names  than  Matthew's,  and  the  two 
lists,  while  agreeing  in  the  principal  names,  differ  greatly 
in  detail.  But  it  is  remarkable  that  both  trace  the  suc- 
cession through  Joseph  rather  than  through  Mary.  These 
genealogies  seem  to  be  wholly  independent  of  each  other, 
but  are  not  contradictory.  It  would  have  been  easy, 
with  all  the  facts  in  hand,  to  construct  scores  of  different 
genealogical  schemes,  in  which  the  lines  would  cross  each 
other  from  time  to  time,  all  being  equally  correct  and 
none  being  complete.  It  is  highly  probable  that  our 
Saviour  did  not  concern  himself  at  all  about  his  family 
connections,  and  that  the  working  out  of  these  schemes 
occurred  after  his  ascension. 

2.  The  Annunciation  to  Mary.  Luke  alone  records  the 
angelic  annunciation  to  Mary  of  the  conception  and  birth 
of  Jesus,  as  well  as  the  circumstances  relating  to  the  con- 
ception of  John  the  Baptist  and  the  intercourse  of  Mary 
and  Elisabeth.  Matthew  records  an  annunciation  by  the 
Lord  to  Joseph,  troubled  on  account  of  the  premarital 
pregnancy  of  his  wife,  of  the  conception  that  had  oc- 
curred by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

3.  The  Birth  and  Childhood.  Luke  alone  records  the 
occasion  of  the  visit  of  Joseph  and  Mary  to  Bethlehem  and 
the  laying  of  the  new-born  Jesus  in  a  manger,  as  well  as 
the  angelic  annunciation  of  the  birth  to  the  shepherds,  the 
visit  of  the  shepherds,  the  circumcision,  and  the  presenta- 
tion in  the  temple.  Matthew  alone  narrates  the  visit  of 
the  wise  men  from  the  East,  the  alarm  and  persecuting 
measures  of  Herod,  the  flight  into  Egypt,  and  the  return. 
Luke  alone  tells  us  that  "the  child  grew  and  waxed 
strong,  filled  with  wisdom:  and  the  grace  of  God  was 
upon  him,"  that  he  visited  the  temple  when  twelve  years 
of  age,  that  he  was  subject  to  his  parents  during  the  suc- 
ceeding years,  and  that  he  advanced  "in  wisdom  and 
stature,  and  in  favor  with  God  and  men.'-' 

4.  The  Forerunner.    All  four  evangelists  give  accounts 


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70  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  I 

of  the  ministry  of  John  the  Baptist.  Matthew  and  Mark 
alone  refer  to  his  rough  attire  and  his  diet  of  "locusts 
and  wild  honey. "  With  the  enthusiasm  and  intensity  of 
a  prophet  John  denounced  the  sins  of  the  people,  warning 
them  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  was  at  hand,  urging 
them  to  flee  from  the  coming  wrath,  "preaching  the  bap- 
tism of  repentance  unto  remission  of  sins,"  baptizing  in 
the  Jordan  such  as  confessed  their  sins,  and  proclaiming 
the  approaching  advent  of  one  mightier  than  he  who 
should  baptize  them  "with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with 
fire." 

IV.  THE  BAPTISM,  THE  TEMPTATION,  AND  THE  TESTIMONY  OF 
JOHN  THE  BAPTIST. 

All  four  evangelists  bear  witness  to  the  baptism  of 
Jesus  by  John.  Matthew  alone  refers  to  the  hesitatior 
of  John  on  account  of  his  recognition  of  superiority  in 
Jesus,  and  Jesus'  answer,  that  "  thus  it  becometh  us  to 
fulfill  all  righteousness."  All  four  record  the  descent  of 
the  Spirit  upon  the  baptized  Jesus,  and  all  but  John 
record  the  expression  of  the  divine  approval. 

The  temptation,  narrated  very  briefly  by  Mark  and  in 
detail  by  Matthew  and  Luke,  is  one  of  the  most  signifi- 
cant events  in  the  early  life  of  Jesus.  The  materials  for 
this  narrative  could  have  come  from  Jesus  alone.  The 
question  as  to  the  occasion  on  which  this  autobiographical 
account  of  a  momentous  experience  was  given  has  been 
much  discussed:  The  fact  that  the  narrative  implies  the 
assertion  of  Messiahship  on  the  part  of  Jesus  has  led  some 
critics  to  the  conclusion  that  the  earliest  suitable  occasion 
for  the  communication  of  this  experience  was  in  the  third 
year  of  his  Galilean  ministry,  when  at  Caesarea-Philippi 
he  took  his  disciples  into  his  confidence  and  made  known 
unto  them  the  sufferings  that  awaited  him  (Matt.  i6  :  21; 
Mark  8:31-9:1;  Luke  9  :  22-27).  But  for  our  purpose 
the  fact  of  this  wonderful  experience,  and  the  conscious- 
ness of  Messiahship  that  must  have  resulted,  alone  need  to 
be  insisted  upon.  The  narrative  shows  that  Jesus  as  a  man 
was  subject  to  temptations,  that  he  was  assailed  by  temp- 
tations to  satisfy  his  physical  desires  by  miraculous 
means,  to  astonish  the  multitudes  by  showing  his  supe- 
riority to  natural  law,  and  to  make  earthly  dominion  an 


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CHAP.!.]  JESUS  THE  CHRIST  7 1 

object  of  his  striving.  These  temptations  must  have 
been  real,  or  they  would  have  no  significance.  There 
is  no  evidence  that  Satan  ever  renewed  his  assault. 
This  consciousness  of  Messiahship,  involving  his  mis- 
sion as  a  suffering  Saviour,  was  henceforth  complete. 

John  alone  mentions  the  testimony  of  John  the  Bap- 
tist before  the  priests  and  Levites,  and  afterward  before 
the  assembled  people,  to  Jesus'  Messiahship :  ''  Behold 
the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the 
world,"  and  his  indication  of  Jesus  to  two  of  his  own 
disciples  as  the  *'  Lamb  of  God,"  and  so  worthy  to  be 
followed.  One  of  these  was  apparently  John  himself; 
the  other  he  tells  us  was  Andrew,  who  having  recognized 
in  Jesus  the  Messiah  brought  his  brother  Simon  Peter  to 
become  the  third  disciple.  He  alone  records  the  winning 
to  discipleship  of  Philip  and  Nathanael,  the  transmutation 
of  water  into  wine  at  Cana,  and  Jesus'  short  sojourn, 
with  his  mother,  his  brethren,  and  his  disciples,  in 
Capernaum. 

V.  THE  PUBLIC  MINISTRY  OF  JESUS. 

I.  ^Duration.  The  duration  of  our  Lord's  public  min- 
istry cannot  be  accurately  determined.  The  Gospel 
narratives  are  apparently  constructed  on  no  chronolog- 
ical plan,  and  the  data  for  accurate  chronology  are  want- 
'ng.  The  recurrence  of  Passovers  during  the  ministry 
has  been  supposed  to  form  a  basis  for  determining  the 
number  of  years  covered  ;  but  much  uncertainty  exists 
as  to  the  number  of  Passovers.  Supposing  his  public 
ministry  to  have  begun  after  the  fifteenth  year  of  Ti- 
berius, the  date  given  by  Luke  (3:1,  seq.)  for  John's 
ministry,  it  could  not  have  been  much  earlier  than  the 
beginning  of  A.  D.  29.  On  the  basis  of  John  2:13;  5  : 
I  ;  6:4;  and  13  :  i,  rests  the  supposition  that  Jesus' 
ministry  lasted  for  three  years.  But  the  "feast  of  the 
Jews  "  (ver.  i)  was  probably  not  a  Passover.  The  first 
three  Gospels  make  distinct  mention  of  only  one  Pass- 
over, that  at  the  close  of  Jesus'  ministry.  It  must  be 
left  an  open  question  whether  the  crucifixion  occurred  in 
the  spring  of  30,  or  in  that  of  31.  In  the  former  case  we 
should  have  a  ministry  of  one  year  and  a  part  of  another, 
in  the  latter  of  more  than  two  full  years. 


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72  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PIR.1 

2.  Divisions.  The  public  career  of  Jesus  may  be 
divided  as  follows:  (i)  The  Early  Judean  Ministry,  of 
which  John  alone  gives  an  account  (2  :  13-4  :  42),  and 
which  includes  some  of  his  most  important  teachings  and 
acts :  The  first  cleansing  of  the  temple,  the  conversation 
with  Nicodemus,  the  preaching  and  baptizing  in  Judea, 
John's  testimony  at  iCnon,  and  the  visit  to  Samaria, 
with  the  conversation  with  the  woman  at  Jacob's  well ; 
(2)  The  Galilean  Ministry  to  the  Choosing  of  the  Twelve, 
recorded  chiefly  in  the  Synoptic  Gospels,  with  a  few 
parallels  in  John ;  (3)  the  Galilean  Ministry  from  the 
Choosing  of  the  Twelve  to  the  Withdrawal  to  Northern 
Galilee  ;  (4)  the  Galilean  Ministry  till  the  Departure  for 
Jerusalem  ;  (5)  the  Perean  Ministry  on  the  way  to  Je- 
rusalem ;  (6)  the  Passion  Week ;  (7)  the  Forty  Days 
from  the  Resurrection  to  the  Ascension.^ 

3.  Jesus*  Conception  of  his  Ufe-lVork.  As  already  sug- 
gested, consciousness  of  Messiahship  was  present  at  the 
baptism  and  became  clear  and  definite  in  connection  with 
the  temptation.  The  task  he  assumed  was  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  a  kingdom 
"not  of  this  world,"  that  ''cometh  not  with  observa- 
tion," that  is  *'  within  "  believers,  that  is  likened  to  "  a 
grain  of  mustard  seed,"  which,  though  exceeding  small, 
becomes  a  tree,  to  a  bit  of  leaven  that  leavens  the  mass  of 
meal,  to  treasure  hidden  in  the  field  which  should  be  pur- 
chased at  whatever  cost,  and  to  a  ''  pearl  of  great  price  " 
for  which  all  of  one's  possessions  are  no  more  than  a 
fair  equivalent.  He  made  it  clear  from  the  beginning 
that  he  could  not  carry  out  the  Messianic  programme  of 
current  Jewish  thought.  His  kingdom  was  "  to  have  no 
officers,  no  headquarters,  no  political  features,  no  worldly 
associations.'"  It  was  to  be  a  spiritual  kingdom,  whose 
membership  was  to  consist  of  individuals  won  to  belief 
in  his  divine  personality  and  mission,  brought  into  loving 
obedience  to  his  will,  united  with  him  spiritually  in  his 
plans  and  purposes,  ready  to  take  up  their  crosses  and 
follow  him,  ready  to  suffer  obloquy,  the  breaking  up  of 
all  social  and  family  ties,  and  death  itself  for  his  sake, 
whose  relationship  to  him  he  declared  to  be  that  of  the 

? "  Hivmoiix/*  ^f  Stevens  #n4  Bvrtoo.  •  Vot|w- 


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CHAP. I]  JESUS  THE  CHRIST  73 

branches  to  the  vine,  and  who  should  abide  in  him  as  he 
in  them.  His  disciples  were  to  be  '*  born  anew  "  (or  "from 
above'').  A  complete  transformation  of  the  individual 
character  and  life  was  to  be  a  condition  of  entrance  into 
his  kingdom.  He  chose  to  deny  himself  all  earthly  pos- 
sessions and  comforts  in  order  that  he  might  devote  him- 
self unreservedly  to  the  well-being  of  his  fellow-men. 
He  required  renunciation  of  all  earthly  things  as  a  con- 
dition of  discipleship.  Some  who,  imbued  with  Jewish 
Messianic  ideas,  had  arrayed  themselves  among  his  disci- 
ples under  the  impression  that  an  earthly  kingdom  was 
to  be  established  by  the  Master,  forsook  him  when  he 
made  known  to  them  clearly  that  his  religion  was  one  of 
absolute  self-denial,  and  that  it  involved  on  his  part  and 
on  theirs  boundless  sufferings. 

The  Beatitudes  set  forth  his  ideal  of  life.  Poverty  of 
spirit  and  material  poverty  even  to  the  extent  of  hunger 
and  thirst,  mourning  and  weeping,  subjection  to  the  ha- 
tred and  abuse  of  men,  are  to  be  regarded  as  blessings ; 
meekness,  purity  in  heart,  peace-making,  are  commended ; 
while  woe  is  pronounced  upon  the  rich,  the  full,  the 
laughing,  and  the  popular.  Self-humiliation  is  a  condi- 
tion of  true  exaltation,  self-exaltation  leads  to  real  abase- 
ment. He  came  not  to  destroy  the  law  but  to  fulfill  it. 
Love  to  God,  involving  a  spirit  of  absolute  obedience  to 
his  will  and  joyful  participation  in  his  plans  and  purposes, 
and  involving  specifically  love  to  man  equal  to  love  of 
self,  he  represents  as  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  law. 
Enemies  are  to  be  loved,  not  hated.  Retaliation  and 
revenge  are  absolutely  prohibited.  To  make  sure  of  suf- 
ficiently emphasizing  his  disapproval  of  revenge  he  com- 
mands that  evil  be  repaid  with  good. 

Jesus  represented  himself  as  a  revealer  of  the  Father 
from  whom  he  came  forth  and  to  whom  he  was  to  return, 
as  ''the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life,"  1.  e.,  as  the  way 
by  which  sinful  men  may  return  to  the  Father,  as  the 
embodiment  of  all  truth  that  sinful  men  need  to  know  in 
order  to  their  eternal  well-being,  as  the  life  by  participa- 
tion in  which  through  faith  men  may  become  sons  of 
God. 

His  life  of  self-denial  and  well-doing  was  to  culminate 
In  a  ^acri^ci^l  death,    He  represents  himself  as  a  shep- 


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74  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  I 


d  voluntarily  laying  down  his  life  for  the  sheep  (John 
17, 18),  as  giving  '*  his  life  a  ransom  for  many  *'  (Marie 


herd 

10'  ,        _       _ 

10 :  45).  He  regarded  his  violent  death  as  a  fulfiliment 
of  Scripture  and  the  time  of  it  as  fixed  in  the  divine  pur- 
pose. On  his  part  the  sacrifice  was  to  be  a  voluntary 
one.  He  had  power  to  lay  down  his  life  and  power  to 
talce  it  again.  His  going  away,  according  to  the  Johan- 
nean  representation,  was  a  condition  of  the  coming  of  the 
Paraclete,  who  should  lead  his  disciples  into  all  truth,  and 
it  would  entitle  them  to  claim  in  his  name  the  exercise 
of  unlimited  divine  power  on  their  behalf. 

5.  His  Methods  of  Teaching.  On  a  few  occasions  Jesus 
addressed  great  multitudes.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
is  the  most  noteworthy  specimen  of  a  prolonged  address 
of  this  sort.  In  this  remarkable  discourse  the  ethical 
element  prevails.  Jesus  sets  forth  in  brief,  pointed,  em- 
phatic sayings  the  contrast  between  the  type  of  life  that 
belongs  to  his  Icingdom  and  that  which  prevailed  in  cur- 
rent Judaism.  It  is  a  gospel  not  of  outward  observances 
or  of  doctrinal  definitions,  but  of  the  inner  life.  Nothing 
is  said  about  faith,  repentance,  atonement,  or  baptism, 
but  much  about  inward  conformity  to  the  law  of  God, 
which  is  essentially  the  law  of  love.  His  shorter  dis- 
courses frequently  assumed  the  form  of  parables,  as  was 
very  common  among  Oriental  teachers.  Private  conver- 
sations, as  in  the  cases  of  Nicodemus  and  the  Samaritan 
woman,  gave  occasion  for  many  of  his  most  precious 
utterances.  To  the  inner  circle  of  his  disciples  he  was 
wont  to  give  explanations  of  his  parabolic  discourses  and 
to  communicate  his  plans  and  purposes  more  clearly  than 
to  the  unreceptive  multitude.  Yet  he  had  frequently  to 
complain  bitterly  of  lack  of  understanding  on  the  part  of 
those  who  had  been  so  long  time  with  him,  though, 
"  Never  man  spake  like  this  man." 

6.  His  IVorks  of  Power.  Nothing  is  more  striking  in 
the  career  of  Jesus  than  his  reserve  in  the  exercise  of 
divine  power  in  the  physical  realm.  Miracles  were  ex- 
pected by  the  Jews  as  "  signs  "  of  Messiahship,  but  when 
asked  for  from  motives  of  curiosity  or  demanded  in  a 
spirit  of  unbelief  they  were  uniformly  refused.  Most  of 
his  mighty  works  were  the  proper  expression  of  his  be- 
nevolence, as  in  the  restoration  of  their  dead  to  bereaved 


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CHAP.  I.]  JESUS  THE  CHRIST  75 

relatives,  the  feeding  of  the  famishing  multitudes,  the 
casting  out  of  demons,  the  healing  of  the  sick  and  the 
blind.  They  were  also  "symbols  of  his  spiritual  and 
savmg  work.  .  .  When  he  healed  bodily  blindness  it 
was  a  type  of  the  healing  of  the  inner  eye ;  when  he 
raised  the  dead,  he  meant  to  suggest  that  he  was  the 
Resurrection  and  the  Life  in  the  spiritual  world  as  well ; 
when  he  cleansed  the  leper,  his  triumph  spoke  of  another 
over  the  leprosy  of  sin."  * 

7.  His  Rejection  by  his  People.  "  He  came  unto  his  own 
(possessions),  and  his  own  (people)  received  him  not." 
His  explanation  of  this  rejection  was  that  light  had  come 
into  the  world  and  that  men  loved  darkness  rather  than 
light  because  of  their  evil  deeds.  To  their  unwillingness 
to  do  God's  will  he  attributed  their  unbelief  in  himself. 
Their  rejection  and  malicious  plottings  he  ascribed  to  the 
influence  of  the  devil,  whose  children  he  declared  the 
unbelieving  Jews  to  be.  Like  him  they  were  liars  and 
enemies  of  the  truth.  They  were  the  bond-servants  of 
sin,  when  by  accepting  the  truth  they  might  become  free. 
Though  he  accepted  to  a  great  extent  the  doctrinal  teach- 
ing of  the  Pharisees,  as  against  those  of  the  Sadducees, 
his  antagonism  to  a  religion  of  outward  observances,  his 
denunciation  of  current  Pharisaism  as  hypocrisy,  and  his 
proclamation  of  the  doctrine  that  love  to  God  and  love  to 
man  rather  than  ceremonial  sacrifices,  avoidance  of  things 
unclean,  and  physical  purgations,  constitute  true  relig- 
ion; and  his  disregard  of  the  rules  of  Sabbath  observ- 
ance and  insistence  that  the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man 
not  man  for  the  Sabbath,  aroused  the  bitterest  antag- 
onism of  the  Pharisaic  guardians  of  the  Law  and  led  them 
to  resolve  on  his  death.  The  aristocratic  Sadducees,  in- 
cluding the  high  priests  and  the  political  party  in  sym- 
pathy with  Roman  life  and  rule,  no  doubt  regarded  Jesus 
as  a  fanatic,  the  prevalence  of  whose  teachings  would 
imperil  the  hierarchical  system  in  which  they  were  deeply 
interested,  and  they  were  willing  to  co-operate  with  the 
Pharisees  in  measures  for  his  destruction.  The  Roman 
officials,  feeling  little  personal  interest  in  Jewish  religious 
questions,  thought  it  a  matter  of  policy  to  gratify  the  in- 

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76  A  MAhOJAL  OP  CHURCH  HISTORV  [PER.L 

fiuential  parties  at  the  expense  of  an  obscure  enthusiast, 
who  moreover  was  represented  as  calling  himself  a  l<ing 
and  as  hostile  to  Caesar. 

A  few  hundred  more  or  less  closely  attached  followers 
and  a  small  band  of  devoted  disciples  constituted  the  ap- 
parent result  of  Jesus'  ministry.  Few  even  of  these 
had  entered  fully  into  an  understanding  of  his  teach* 
ing  or  into  sympathy  with  his  purposes.  In  Galilee, 
where  Pharisaism  was  comparatively  uninfluential,  he 
gained  considerable  recognition  ;  in  Judea,  where 
Pharisaism  was  strong,  he  made  little  impression.  At 
the  critical  moment,  when  confession  of  Jesus  might 
mean  death,  all  forsook  him  and  fled,  Peter,  who  had 
been  foremost  to  confess  his  divine  character  and  Mes- 
siahship,  denying  him  with  cursing  and  swearing. 

8.  The  Trial  and  Crucifixion.  Of  those  who  had  at- 
tached themselves  to  Jesus  a  large  proportion  were 
grievously  disappointed  because  of  his  failure  to  fulfill  the 
Jewish  Messianic  hopes.  On  one  occasion  (John  6  :  15) 
an  effort  was  made  to  force  him  to  become  king.  Dis- 
appointed in  their  expectations  and  repelled  by  his  mys- 
terious statement  about  the  necessity  of  eating  his  flesh 
and  drinking  his  blood  (John  6  :  53-58),  ''  many  of  his 
disciples  went  back  and  walked  no  more  with  him  "  (ver. 
66).  On  this  occasion  he  foretold  the  treachery  of  one 
of  his  disciples  (ver.  70).  At  last  he  determined  on 
going  to  Jerusalem  for  the  Passover,  arousing  the  popu- 
lar enthusiasm  by  a  public  proclamation  of  his  Messiah- 
ship,  making  a  triumphal  entry  into  the  city,  and  suffer- 
ing the  death  that  he  foresaw  awaited  him. 

The  popular  enthusiasm  alarmed  Sadducees  and  Phar- 
isees alike,  and  the  two  parties  united  in  compassing  his 
death.  An  insurrection  would  bring  upon  Jewish  officials 
the  condemnation  of  the  Roman  government.  It  must 
be  prevented  by  the  destruction  of  the  populai  leader. 
His  prediction  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  for  whose 
salvation  he  yearned,  the  conspiracy  between  the  chief 
priests  and  Judas  for  his  quiet  arrest,  the  last  Supper  and 
the  designation  of  the  traitor,  the  farewell  discourses,  the 
intercessory  prayer,  the  watching  and  agonizing  in  Geth- 
semane,  the  betrayal  and  arrest  in  the  garden,  his  ar- 
raignment before  Caiaphas,  the  high  priest,  his  condemna- 


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CHAP.  I.]  JESUS  THE  CHRIST  JJ 

tion  on  the  ground  of  blasphemy  because  of  his  con- 
fession of  Messiahship,  the  mockings,  scourgings,  and 
contemptuous  treatment  following  the  condemnation,  the 
shameful  denial  of  Peter,  the  trial  before  Pilate,  the 
attempt  of  Pilate  to  release  him,  the  cry  of  the  multi- 
tude, "  Crucify  him,  crucify  him,"  Pilate's  weak  yield- 
ing against  his  own  judgment  to  the  demands  of  the 
Jews,  the  crucifixion — these  events  followed  each  other 
with  startling  rapidity,  and  to  the  terrified  disciples  the 
cause  of  Jesus  no  doubt  seemed  to  suffer  an  ignominious 
collapse. 

9.  Ihe  ^surrection  and  Ascension.  Notwithstanding 
the  plainness  of  his  predictions,  the  disciples  seem  to 
have  had  little  expectation  of  the  resurrection  of  their 
Master.  His  repeated  manifestation  after  the  resurrec- 
tion, his  words  of  counsel  now  wonderfully  impressive, 
above  all  the  Great  Commission :  "  All  authority  hath 
been  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  Go  ye, 
therefore,  and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,  baptiz- 
mg  them  into  the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost :  teaching  them  to  observe  what- 
soever I  commanded  you :  and  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway, 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world  "  (Matt.  28  :  16-20 ;  cf. 
Mark  16  :  15-18),  his  final  words  showing  that  his  death 
and  resurrection  had  been  in  fulfillment  of  Old  Testa- 
ment prophecy,  commanding  that  ''repentance  and  re- 
mission of  sins  should  be  preached  in  his  name  unto  all 
the  nations,  beginning  at  Jerusalem  "  (Luke  24  :  47),  his 
reminder  to  his  disciples  that  they  were  witnesses  of 
these  things,  his  bidding  them  tarry  in  the  city  until 
they  should  be  clothed  with  power  from  on  high,  his 
ascension  into  heaven — these  words  and  manifestations 
made  heroes  of  the  timid,  discouraged  disciples.  They 
were  now  convinced,  as  they  could  never  have  been  con- 
vinced before  his  death  and  resurrection,  of  the  spir- 
ituality of  his  kingdom  and  the  certainty  of  its  triumph. 
"  They  worshipped  him,  and  returned  to  Jerusalem  with 
great  joy  :  and  were  continually  in  the  temple,  blessing 
God  "  (Luke  24  :  52,  53).  The  teachings  of  the  Master, 
treasured  in  their  memory  but  imperfectly  understood, 
now  became  luminous  and  glorious.  They  were  able 
now  to  enter  with  consuming  zeal  upon  the  great  task 


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78  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.i 

of  evangelizing  the  world  that  he  had  marked  out  for 
them  with  full  assurance  of  ultimate  triumph. 

VI.  SOME   ESTIMATES  OF  THE  CHARACTER   AND  INFLUENCE 
OF  JESUS. 

The  most  important  testimonies  are  contained  in  the 
apostolic  writings,  but  as  these  are  lamiliar  and  will  be 
utilized  to  some  extent  in  the  next  chapter,  more  recent 
estimates  will  be  here  given  : 

It  is  generally  allowed  that  Jesus  appeared  as  a  public  man  with  a 
mind  whose  ideas  were  completely  developed  and  arranged,  with  a 
character  sharpened  over  its  whole  surface  into  perfect  definlteness, 
and  with  designs  that  marched  forward  to  their  ends  without  hesita- 
tion. .  .  The  reason  of  this  must  have  been  that  during  the  thirty 
years  before  his  public  ministry  began  his  ideas,  his  character,  and 
designs  went  through  all  the  stages  of  a  thorough  development.  .  . 
For  one  with  his  powers  at  command,  thirty  years  of  complete  reti- 
cence and  reserve  were  a  long  time.  Nothing  was  greater  in  him 
afterward  than  the  majestic  reserve  in  both  speech  and  action  that 
characterized  him.^ 

Referring  to  the  Messianic  prophecy  in  Isa.  42  :  1-4 
represented  as  fulfilled  in  Jesus  (Matt.  12  :  18-21)  Bruce 
remarks : 

No  other  type  of  Messiah  could  have  any  attractions  for  him :  not 
the  political  Messiah  of  the  Zealots,  whose  one  desire  was  natonal 
independence ;  not  the  Messiah  of  common  expectation,  who  should 
flatter  popular  prejudices  and  make  himself  an  idol  by  becoming  a 
slave ;  not  the  Messiah  of  the  Pharisees,  himself  a  Pharisee,  regard- 
ing it  as  his  vocation  to  deliver  Israel  from  pagan  impurity ;  not 
even  the  austere  Messiah  of  the  Baptist,  who  was  to  separate  the 
good  from  the  evil  by  a  process  of  judicial  severity,  and  so  usher  in 
a  kingdom  of  righteousness.  The  Messiah  devoutly  to  be  longed 
for,  and  cordially  to  be  welcomed  when  he  came,  in  his  view  was 
one  who  should  conquer  by  the  might  of  love  and  truth ;  who  should 
meet  the  deepest  wants  of  man,  not  merely  gratify  the  wishes  of  the 
Jews,  and  prove  a  Saviour  to  the  whole  worid ;  who  should  be  con* 
spicuous  by  patience  and  hopefulness,  rather  than  by  inexorable 
sternness,— a  humane,  universal,  spiritual  Messiah,  answering  to  a 
divine  kingdom  of  kindred  character,— the  desire  of  all  nations,  the 
fulfillment  of  humanity's  deepest  longings,  therefore  not  destined  to 
be  superseded,  but  to  remain  an  Eternal  Christ,  the  same  yesterday, 
to-day,  and  forever. 

The  teacher  made  the  truth  he  taught.  His  teaching  was  his 
articulated  person,  his  person  his  Incorporated  teaching.    The  divin« 

>  Stelkv 


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CHAP.L  JESUS  THE  CHRIST  79 

ty  the  one  expressed,  the  other  embodied.  He  came  to  found  a 
kingdom  by  manifesting  his  kinghood,  by  declaring  himself  a  king. 
The  King  was  the  center  rouna  which  the  kingdom  crystallized. 
His  first  words  announced  its  advent ;  his  last  affirmed  its  reality, 
though  a  reality  too  sublimely  ideal  to  be  intelligible  to  the  man  of 
the  world.^ 

His  teaching  .  .  .  from  the  very  first  has  for  its  background  a 
unique  self-consciousness,  the  incomparable  significance  of  his  per- 
son, and  from  the  beginning  was  directed  toward  something  that 
must  bt  more  than  teaching,  that  must  be  work  and  deed,  viz.,  the 
founding  of  God's  kingdom.  And  this  founding  was  finally  accom- 
plished, not  by  his  teaching  as  such,  but  by  his  personal  devotion  to 
and  completion  of  his  life-work,  by  his  death  ana  resurrection.  Does 
his  teaching  thereby  lose  its  original  fundamental  significance,  and 
sink  down  to  a  mere  introduction  to  New  Testament  revelation  ?  It 
must  be  said  that  little  as  the  teaching  of  Jesus  in  itself,  apart  from 
the  conclusion  of  his  life,  could  have  called  into  existence  the  king- 
dom of  God,  as  little  could  that  ending  of  his  life  have  called  it  into 
being  without  the  foregoing  doctrinal  revelation.' 

The  glad  tidings  which  Jesus  proclaimed  were  tidings  of  the 
kingdom  of  God.  In  delivering  this  message  he,  on  the  one  hand, 
proclaimed  the  fact  that  the  kingdom  was  beginning  to  be  set  up; 
and  on  the  other  hand  he  announced  the  requirements  to  be  fulfilled 
in  view  of  that  fact.  The  whole  contents  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
can  be  classed  under  this  general  theme,  and  the  two  points  of 
view  from  which  he  expounaed  it.  His  preaching  in  regard  to  the 
kingdom  of  God  contained  partly  instruction  as  to  the  existence  of 
the  kingdom,  its  nature,  its  realization,  and  development ;  and  partly 
exhortations  to  the  fulfillment  of  the  conditions  of  membership.  .  . 
His  object  was  to  establish  that  kingdom  practically  among  his 
hearers ;  and  therefore  he  continually  aimed  at  inciting  them  to  be- 
come members  of  It.* 

No  life  ends  even  for  this  world  when  the  body  by  which  it  has 
for  a  little  been  made  visible  disappears  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 
It  enters  the  stream  of  the  ever-swelling  life  of  mankind,  and  con- 
tinues to  act  there  with  its  whole  force  for  evermore.  Indeed,  the 
true  magnitude  of  a  human  being  can  often  only  be  measured  by 
what  tiiis  after  life  shows  him  to  have  been.  So  it  was  with  Christ 
The  modest  narrative  of  the  Gospels  scarcely  prepares  us  for  the  out- 
burst of  creative  force  which  issued  from  his  fife  when  it  appeared  to 
have  ended.  His  influence  on  the  modem  world  is  the  evidence  of 
how  great  he  was ;  for  there  must  have  been  in  the  cause  as  much 
as  there  is  in  the  effect.  It  has  overspread  the  life  of  man  and  caused 
it  to  blossom  with  the  vigor  of  a  spiritual  spring.  It  has  absorbed 
^to  itself  all  other  influences,  as  a  mighty  river,  pouring  along  the 
center  of  a  continent,  receives  tributaries  from  a  hundred  nills.  And 
its  quallhr  has  been  even  more  exceptional  than  its  quantity.  The 
life  of  Cnrist  in  history  cannot  cease.  His  influence  waxes  more  and 
more ;  the  dead  nations  are  waiting  till  it  reaches  them,  and  it  is  the 
hope  of  the  earnest  spirits  that  are  bringing  in  the  new  earth.    AH 

»  FaMMlni.  «  B«yfClitaf .  Wtndt 


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8o  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.L 

discoveries  of  the  modem  worid,  every  development  of  juster  ideas, 
of  higher  powers,  of  more  exquisite  feelings  In  manlcind,  are  only 
new  helps  to  inteipret  him  :  ana  the  lifting  up  of  life  to  the  level  of 
his  ideas  and  character  is  the  programme  of  me  human  race.^ 


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CHAPTER  II 
THE  APOSTLES 

LITERATURE:  The  Acts  of  the  AposUes,  the  apostolic  Epistles* 
and  the  Apocalypse  contain  nearly  all  the  authentic  materials.  See 
also  Josephus,  "Jewish  War/'  ** Against  Apion,"  and  "Auto- 
biography"; Neander,  "Planting  and  Training  of  the  Christian 
Church  "^:  Dollinger, "  First  Age  of  Christianity  and  the  Church  " ; 
Schurer,  *'  History  of  the  Jewish  People  in  the  Time  of  Christ" ; 
Hausrath,  "History  of  New  Testament  Times";  Baur,  "Church 
History  of  the  First  Three  Centuries  "  :  Keim,  "  Rom  u.  d.  Chrisim- 
tkum'^^i  Ewald,  "  History  of  Israel,"  Vol.  VII ;  Weizsacker,  "  The 
Apostolic  Age  of  the  Christian  Church";  McGiffert, "  The  Apos- 
tolic Age";  Ramsay,  "The  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire  bdFore 
A.  D.  170,"  and  "St.  Paul,  the  Traveler  and  Roman  Citizen"; 
Hamack,  "  G^sch.  d.  MUhristlichm  Uhirahtr  his  EusOms^"  esp.  part 
II.,  "Dtf  Chrouol^^*  \  works  on  New  Testament  Introduction 
and  the  Bibikal  Theology  of  the  New  Testament  as  in  Chap.  I.; 
works  on  the  Life  of  Paul,  by  Conybeare  and  Howson.  Farrar, 
Geikie,  Sabatier.  Stalker,  and  Baur;  Vedder,  "The  Dawn  of 
Christianihr" ;  Wallace,  "  Labors  and  Letters  of  the  Apostles" ; 
Pfleiderer,  ^'  PauUnism  " ;  Bruce,  "  St.  Paul's  Conception  of  Christi- 
anity "  ;  Stevens,  "  The  Pauline  Theology,"  and  '^The  Johannine 
Theology  ";  Schiller,  "  dsch.  d,  ram.  KaissrttH  untsr  d.  RigUrung  d. 
Nsro"i  Addis,  "Christianity  and  the  Roman  Empire" :  Uhlhom, 
"Conflict  of  Christianity  with  Heathenism,"  and  '^Christian 
Charityr  in  the  Ancient  Church  " ;  Lightfoot,  "  Dissertations  on  the 
Apostolic  Age  " ;  Farrar,  "  The  Eariy  Davs  of  Christianity  " ;  and 
Arnold,  "  Dit  turomsclu  ChrisUmirfolgmg, 


I.  THE  APOSTOLIC  CHURCH  TO  THE  CONVERSION  OF  SAUL. 

I.  The  Pentecostal  Baptism.  The  risen  Lord  had  charged 
his  disciples  '*  not  to  depart  from  Jerusalem,  but  to  wait 
for  the  promise  of  the  Father,  which,  said  he,  ye  heard 
from  me :  for  John  indeed  baptized  with  water ;  but  ye 
shall  be  baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost  not  many  days 
hence  "  (Acts  i  :  4,  5).  They  seem  not  yet  to  have  given 
up  their  Jewish  Messianic  hopes.-  Before  the  Lord's 
ascension  they  had  asked  him  whether  he  was  about  to 
•'  restore  the  kingdom  to  Israel ''  (Acts  i :  6).  He  replied 
that  it  was  not  for  them  "to  know  times  or  seasons, 
which  the  Father  hath  set  within  his  own  authority." 

F  Si 


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82  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  I 

But  he  assured  them  that  they  should  receive  power 
when  the  Holy  Ghost  should  come  upon  them,  and  that 
they  should  be  his  "witnesses  both  in  Jerusalem,  and  in 
all  Judea,  and  unto  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth." 
After  the  ascension,  as  they  were  standing  in  a  dazed 
condition  '*  looking  stedfastly  into  heaven,  two  men  stood 
by  them  in  white  apparel,*'  and  assured  them  that  this 
Jesus,  which  was  received  up  from  them  into  heaven, 
should  so  come  in  like  manner  as  they  beheld  him  going 
into  heaven.  Returning  to  their  lodgings  in  Jerusalem, 
profoundly  impressed  by  what  they  had  seen  and  heard, 
the  eleven  "  with  the  women,  and  Mary  the  mother  of 
Jesus,  and  with  his  brethren,  with  one  accord,  continued 
stedfastly  in  prayer."  During  these  days  of  prayerful 
waiting,  Peter  called  attention  to  the  breach  in  the  ranks 
of  the  Twelve  caused  by  the  treachery  of  Judas,  and 
Matthias  was  appointed  by  lot  to  fill  it. 

On  the  day  of  Pentecost  (fifty  days  after  the  Pass- 
over), when  Jews  and  proselytes  ''from  every  nation 
under  heaven "  had  gathered  in  Jerusalem,  the  dis- 
ciples "were  all  together  in  one  place.  And  suddenly 
there  came  from  heaven  a  sound  as  of  the  rushing  of  a 
mighty  wind,  and  it  filled  all  the  house  where  they  were 
sitting.  And  there  appeared  unto  them  tongues  parting 
asunder,  like  as  of  fire ;  and  it  sat  upon  each  one  of  them. 
And  they  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  began 
to  speak  with  other  tongues,  as  the  Spirit  gave  them  ut- 
terance." The  gathered  multitude  of  Jews  and  proselytes 
were  drawn  together  by  the  noise  and  "were  confounded 
because  that  every  one  heard  them  speaking  in  his  own 
language."  Some  were  amazed,  thinking  a  great  miracle 
was  being  wrought,  while  others  attributed  the  phenom- 
ena to  drunkenness  on  the  part  of  the  disciples.  Peter  re- 
pudiated the  charge  of  drunkenness  and  showed  that  the 
marvelous  phenomena  were  the  fulfillment  of  a  prophecy 
of  Joel.  He  took  occasion  to  make  an  impassioned  ad- 
dress on  "Jesus  of  Nazareth,  a  man  approved  of  God 
...  by  mighty  works  and  wonders  and  signs,"  as  his 
hearers  themselves  knew.  He  dwelt  upon  the  fact  that 
he  had  been  crucified  and  slain  "by  the  hand  of  lawless 
men,"  having  been  "delivered  up  by  the  determinate 
counsel  and  foreknowledge  of  God,"  and  upon  the  fact 


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CHAP.IL]  THE  APOSTLES  83 

that  "God  raised  him  up,  having  loosed  the  pangs  of 
death."  Of  the  resurrection  he  said,  "we  all  are  wit- 
nesses." He  attributed  the  wonderful  phenomena  that 
had  brought  the  people  together  to  the  agency  of  Christ 
in  his  exaltation  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  He  declared 
to  the  house  of  Israel :  "  God  hath  made  him  both  Lord 
and  Christ,  this  Jesus  whom  ye  crucified."  The  awak- 
ened multitude  asked  what  they  should  do.  Peter  ex- 
horted them  to  "  repent "  and  "  be  baptized  in  the  name 
of  Jesus  Christ  unto  the  remission  of"  their  "sins." 
About  three  thousand  heeded  the  exhortation  and  were 
baptized  that  day.  "And  they  continued  steadfastly  in 
the  apostles'  teaching  and  fellowship,  in  the  breaking  of 
bread  and  the  prayers  "  (Acts  2). 

2.  The  Jerusalem  Church.  The  original  disciples,  with 
their  multitude  of  enthusiastic  converts  baptized  upon  a 
profession  of  their  faith,  may  be  said  to  have  constituted 
the  first  Christian  church.  Our  Lord  himself  seems  to 
have  organized  no  local  communities  of  believers.  He 
preached  in  the  synagogues  and  in  the  temple  and  had 
his  inner  and  outer  circles  of  baptized  disciples,  and  these 
as  a  whole  may,  without  impropriety,  be  designated  as 
the  pre-pentecostal  church.  But  the  churches,  as  organ- 
ized bodies,  are  an  apostolic  institution.  Even  after 
Pentecost  the  great  body  of  believers  in  Jerusalem  had 
for  some  time  very  little  organization. 

It  is  related  that "  fear  came  upon  every  soul  and  many 
wonders  and  signs  were  done  by  the  apostles."  This 
would  indicate  the  prevalence  of  intense  religious  excite- 
ment and  expectancy.  These  believers  had  not  yet  ad- 
justed themselves  to  their  new  relations  and  were  doubt- 
less uncertain  whether  it  was  the  will  of  the  Lord  that 
they  should  continue  to  live  in  the  world  and  to  occupy 
themselves  with  secular  concerns.  "And  all  that  be- 
lieved were  together,  and  had  ail  things  common ;  and 
they  sold  their  possessions  and  goods,  and  parted  them 
to  all,  according  as  any  man  had  need.  And  day  by  day, 
continuing  stedfastly  with  one  accord  in  the  temple,  and 
breaking  bread  at  home,  they  did  take  their  food  with 
gladness  and  singleness  of  heart,  praising  God,  and  hav- 
ing favor  with  all  the  people.  And  the  Lord  added  to 
them  day  by  day  those  that  were  being  saved."    This 


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84  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PERA 

disregard  of  secular  interests  beautiful  in  itself  and  highly 
appropriate  at  the  time  could  only  be  temporary  in  that 
or  any  other  community.  The  common  supply  of  the 
necessaries  of  life  would  soon  be  exhausted  and  the 
entire  body  would  be  reduced  to  dependence  on  miracles 
or  on  chanty. 

The  healing  of  a  lame  man  by  Peter  and  John  at  the 
door  of  the  temple  brought  together  a  crowd  of  people  to 
whom  Peter  preached  Jesus  as  the  crucified,  risen,  and 
glorified  Servant,  as  the  Prince  of  life,  as  the  Holy  and 
Righteous  One,  whose  sufferings  had  been  foretold  by  the 
prophets  and  "whom  the  heaven  must  receive  until  the 
times  of  restoration  of  all  things."  The  concourse  of 
the  people  and  Peter's  enthusiastic  preaching  alarmed 
the  "  priests  and  the  captain  of  the  temple  and  the  Sad- 
ducees,"  who  arrested  Peter  and  John.  Their  boldness 
and  the  certainty  that  a  miracle  had  been  performed  so 
impressed  the  authorities  that  the  apostles  were  released. 
The  number  of  believers  had  by  this  time  increased  to 
five  thousand  (Acts  4 : 4). 

It  is  remarkable  that  in  the  preaching  of  this  time  great 
stress  is  laid  on  the  fulfillment  of  prophecy  in  the  death 
and  resurrection  of  Jesus ;  and  yet  the  Jews  are  made  to 
feel  the  guilt  of  his  crucifixion. 

The  liberation  of  the  apostles  was  an  occasion  of 
thanksgiving  and  praise  on  the  part  of  the  brethren.  It 
is  reported  (Acts  4:  31)  that  "the  place  was  shaken 
wherein  they  were  gathered  together ;  and  they  were  all 
filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  they  spake  the  word  of 
God  with  boldness.  And  the  multitude  of  them  that  be- 
lieved were  of  one  heart  and  soul :  and  not  one  of  them 
said  that  aught  of  the  things  which  he  possessed  was  his 
own  ;  but  they  had  all  things  common  ...  for  as  many 
as  were  possessors  of  lands  or  houses  sold  them,  and 
brought  the  prices  of  the  things  that  were  sold,  and  laid 
them  at  the  apostles'  feet :  and  distribution  was  made 
unto  each,  according  as  any  one  had  need." 

The  deception  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira  and  their  sud- 
den death  under  Peter's  censure,  and  many  other  "  signs 
and  wonders  wrought  among  the  people  '^  (Acts  5  :  12), 
caused  "multitudes  both  of  men  and  women"  to  be 
added  to  the  Christians.    Peter's  credit  increased  to 


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CHAP.IL]  THE  APOSTLES  8$ 

such  an  extent  that  the  people  brought  their  sick  into 
the  streets  that  his  shadow  might  fall  on  them,  and  multi- 
tudes of  sick  were  brought  from  the  cities  round  about  to 
be  healed  by  him.  Again  the  Sadducaic  authorities  threw 
the  apostles  into  prison,  but  an  angel  of  the  Lord  opened 
the  prison  door  and  bade  them  preach  in  the  temple  to 
the  people.  Arraigned  again  and  bidden  to  desist  from 
preaching,  they  declared  that  they  must  obey  God  rather 
than  men.  Warned  by  Gamaliel  as  to  the  futility  of  vio- 
lent interference  with  enthusiasts,  the  authorities  beat 
them  and  let  them  go,  charging  them  ''  not  to  speak  in 
the  name  of  Jesus." 

The  presence  in  the  city  of  more  than  five  thousand 
believers,  many  of  whom  were  dependent  on  the  chari- 
ties daily  distributed,  rendered  the  problem  of  equitable 
distribution  a  very  serious  one.  The  apostles,  occupied 
much  in  the  ministry  of  the  word,  in  response  to  com- 
plaints of  neglect  on  the  part  of  the  Hellenistic  Jews, 
asked  the  brethren  to  select  from  their  number  "  seven 
men  of  good  report,  full  of  the  Spirit  and  of  wisdom,'' 
whom  they  might  "  appoint  over  this  business/'  The 
choosing  of  Stephen  and  six  others  by  the  brethren  and 
their  appointment  by  the  apostles  with  prayer  and  the 
laying-on  of  hands  constituted  these  the  first  officials, 
apart  from  the  apostles,  in  the  infant  church.  It  is  in- 
teresting to  note  that  these  servers  of  tables  were  in- 
troduced in  response  to  a  deeply  felt  practical  need 
and  not  as  part  of  a  deliberately  planned  system  of 
church  order. 

Following  the  introduction  of  this  division  of  labor  in 
the  Jerusalem  church  we  are  informed  that  '*  the  word  of 
God  increased ;  and  the  number  of  the  disciples  multiplied 
in  Jerusalem  exceedingly ;  and  a  great  company  of  the 
priests  were  obedient  to  the  faith."  This  continued 
multiplication  must  have  brought  the  numbers  far  above 
five  thousand,  the  last  numerical  estimate  given.  Noth- 
ing is  known  of  the  subsequent  career  of  the  **  great 
company  "  of  converted  priests. 

Stephen  proved  to  be  not  only  a  server  of  tables  but 
a  minister  of  the  word  as  well.  ''Full  of  grace  and 
power,"  he  ''wrought  great  wonders  and  signs  among 
the  people."    The  discomfiture  of  certain  Hellenistic 


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86  A  Manual  OF  church  history         [per.l 

Jews  who  tried  to  argue  with  Stephen  led  them  to 
accuse  him  of  blasphemy  against  Moses  and  against  God. 
Arraigned  before  the  Jewish  authorities  on  this  charge, 
he  gave  utterance  to  the  inspired  discourse  recorded  in 
Acts  7,  in  which  he  showed  that  Jesus  is  the  proper  com- 
plement of  Hebrew  history  and  the  true  fulfillment  of 
Hebrew  prophecy,  and  ended  with  a  stern  denunciation 
of  the  Jews  before  him  as  '*  stiff-necked  and  uncircum- 
cised  in  heart  and  ears  "  and  as  '*  betrayers  and  murder- 
ers "  of  "the  Righteous  One"  foretold  by  the  prophets 
whom  their  fathers  had  persecuted.  Enraged  by  his 
denunciations,  they  refused  to  hear  more,  but  "  rushed 
upon  him  with  one  accord ;  and  they  cast  him  out  of  the 
city,  and  stoned  him,  who,  having  had  a  vision  of  the 
opened  heavens,"  with  ''the  glory  of  God  and  the  Son 
of  man  standing  on  the  right  hand  of  God,"  committing 
his  spirit  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  prayed  that  the  sin  of  his 
murder  might  not  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  his  murderers, 
and  "fell  asleep." 

It  is  related  that  "the  witnesses"  against  Stephen 
"  laid  down  their  garments  at  the  feet  of  a  young  man 
named  Saul,"  and  that  "Saul  was  consenting  unto  his 
death." 

The  martyrdom  of  Stephen  is  significant  for  the  fol- 
lowing reasons :  First,  because  it  was  the  first  Christian 
martyrdom ;  secondU^,  because  it  introduced  a  general 
persecution  of  the  Christians  in  Jerusalem  and  led  to 
their  dispersion  and  to  the  wide  dissemination  of  Chris- 
tian truth ;  and  thirdly,  because  it  launched  upon  his 
persecuting  career  Saul  of  Tarsus,  there  having  already 
been  planted  in  his  mind  and  heart  seeds  of  truth  that 
would  afterward  spring  up  and  bear  fruit. 

The  solemn  burial  of  Stephen  by  his  devout  brethren 
is  followed  immediately  in  the  narrative  by  a  record  of 
Saul's  persecuting  work :  "  But  Saul  laid  waste  the 
church,  entering  into  every  house,  and  haling  men  and 
women  committed  them  to  prison." 

"  They  that  were  scattered  abroad,"  we  are  informed, 
"went  about  preaching  the  word."  Philip,  another  of 
the  seven  servers  of  tables,  was  among  the  first  to  enter 
upon  evangelistic  labor  outside  the  city.  Shortly  after 
the  outbreak  of  persecution  he  "  went  down  to  the  city 


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CHAP.  11.]  THE  APOSTLES  87 

of  Samaria  and  proclaimed  unto  them  the  Christ."  His 
preaching  and  his  healing  of  the  sick  aroused  profound 
interest,  and  the  consideration  thus  gained  by  the  evan- 
gelist caused  a  certain  magician  named  Simon  to  covet 
the  power  of  the  Spirit  and  to  submit  to  baptism  in  order 
that  he  might  gain  it.  When  the  news  of  the  reception 
of  the  gospel  by  the  Samaritans  reached  the  apostles  in 
Jerusalem  they  sent  Peter  and  John  to  look  after  the 
new  believers.  Philip  had  baptized  them  *'  into  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  The  apostles  prayed  for  them, 
that  they  might  receive  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  as  ''they 
laid  their  hands  upon  them  "  they  received  this  special 
enduement.  Simon  Magus  sought  to  purchase  the  power 
of  communicating  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  received  the 
scathing  rebuke  of  Peter.  The  name  of  Simon  figures 
prominently  in  the  pseudonymous  works  of  the  second 
and  third  centuries  as  one  of  the  most  corrupt  of  the 
Gnostic  leaders  and  as  a  malignant  opponent  of  Peter 
and  of  orthodox  Christianity.  The  villages  of  Samaria 
were  also  evangelized  at  this  time. 

Under  divine  impulse  Philip  journeyed  "toward  the 
south  unto  the  way  that  goeth  down  from  Jerusalem 
unto  Gaza."  There  he  met  an  official  "of  Candace, 
queen  of  the  Ethiopians,  who  was  over  all  her  treasure, 
who  had  come  to  Jerusalem  for  to  worship."  Prompted 
by  the  Spirit,  Philip  joined  himself  to  the  eunuch's 
chariot  and  hearing  him  reading  from  Isa.  53,  without 
any  proper  understanding  of  its  meaning,  "  beginning 
from  this  Scripture,  preached  unto  him  Jesus."  Con- 
vinced that  Jesus  is  the  Christ  and  that  it  was  his  duty 
as  a  believer  to  enter  into  the  fellowship  of  believers 
and  to  assume  the  obligations  and  responsibilities  of  dis- 
cipleship,  he  desired  to  receive  Christian  baptism.  Call- 
ing the  attention  of  the  evangelist  to  "a  certain  water  " 
to  which  they  had  come,  he  asked  to  be  baptized.  It  is 
related  (Acts  8  :  38,  39)  that  "they  both  went  down 
into  the  water,  both  Philip  and  the  eunuch ;  and  he  bap- 
tized him.  And  when  they  came  up  out  of  the  water, 
the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  caught  away  Philip."  The  eunuch 
"went  on  his  way  rejoicing."  Philip  "was  found  at 
Azotus :  and  passing  through  preached  the  gospel  to  all 
the  cities,  till  he  came  to  C»sare»/' 


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88  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  I. 

II.    FROM  THE  CONVERSION  OF  SAUL  TO  THE  JERUSALEM 
CONFERENCE  (k.  D.  31-46  or  35-49)- 

I.  The  Conversion  of  Saul.  "  Not  content  with  laying 
waste  the  church  in  Jerusalem,  Saul  of  Tarsus,  the  edu- 
cated Pharisee  who  had  sat  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel,  and 
who  had  received  a  regular  Greek  education  as  well,  still 
''breathing  out  threatening  and  slaughter  against  the 
disciples  of  the  Lord,  went  unto  the  high  priest  and 
asked  of  him  letters  to  Damascus  unto  the  synagogues, 
that  if  he  found  any  that  were  of  the  way,  whether  men 
or  women,  he  might  bring  them  bound  unto  Jerusalem." 
In  seeking  to  exterminate  the  religion  of  Christ  he 
thought  he  was  rendering  service  to  God  ;  for  he  was  no 
doubt  fully  persuaded  that  its  prevalence  would  mean 
the  subversion  of  the  Law,  whose  preservation  and  ob- 
servance he  regarded  as  supremely  important.  A  man 
of  his  intelligence  must  have  learned  much  of  the  new 
religion.  Stephen's  eloquent  discourse  may  have  im- 
pressed him  ;  but  it  had  the  immediate  effect  of  infuriat- 
ing him  against  the  innovators,  and  may  have  led  to  a 
resolution  to  devote  his  life  to  destroying  them.  We  have 
several  varying  accounts,  all  emanating  from  himself,  of 
his  sudden  conversion  on  the  road  to  Damascus  (Acts 
9,  22,  25).  The  shining  from  heaven  of  a  great  light, 
the  voice  saying,  **Saul,  Saul,  why  persecutest  thou 
me  ? "  his  answer,  '*  Who  art  thou.  Lord  ? "  the  answer, 
*'  I  am  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  whom  thou  persecutest,"  his 
inquiry  what  he  should  do  and  the  Lord's  directions,  his 
blindness,  his  healing  and  baptism  by  Ananias  of  Da- 
mascus, the  commission  given  him  by  the  Lord  as  a 
"  minister  and  witness,"  with  the  promise  of  Divine 
protection  and  support,  are  the  chief  items  of  the  narra- 
tives. That  he  regarded  the  change  wrought  in  him  as 
sudden,  and  as  the  direct  result  of  special  Divine  inter- 
vention, admits  of  no  doubt.  Almost  immediately  he 
began  to  proclaim  Jesus  in  the  synagogues  as  the  Son  of 
God,  to  the  amazement  of  believers  who  had  known  him 
as  a  persecutor.  ''  But  Saul  increased  the  more  in 
strength,  and  confounded  the  Jews  which  dwelt  at  Da- 
mascus, proving  that  this  is  the  Christ "  (Acts  9 :  22). 
The  Jews  plotted  to  kill  him,  but  he  escaped  through  the 
good  offices  of  the  disciples,  and  returned  to  Jerusalem. 


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CHAP.  II.]  THE  APOSTLES  89 

There  the  brethren  were  at  first  afraid  of  him,  but 
"  Barnabas  took  him  and  brought  him  to  the  apostles/' 
and  by  narrating  the  facts  of  his  conversion  won  their 
confidence.  After  preaching  in  Jerusalem  for  some  time 
and  disputing  with  the  Hellenistic  Jews,  his  life  was 
again  in  danger,  and  he  was  sent  by  the  brethren  to 
Tarsus  by  way  of  Caesarea. 

From  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  we  learn  that  before 
his  first  visit  to  Jerusalem  as  a  Christian  he  had  gone 
away  into  Arabia,  and  had  again  returned  to  Damascus. 
The  stay  in  Arabia  and  the  second  sojourn  in  Damascus 
probably  occupied  more  than  a  year,  and  the  first  visit 
to  Jerusalem  probably  occurred  in  A.  D.  33  or  35.^ 

2,  Peter's  Early  Ministry.  After  the  outburst  of  per- 
secuting fury  that  followed  the  martyrdom  of  Stephen, 
we  are  informed  that  "the  church  throughout  all  Judea 
and  Galilee  and  Samaria  had  peace,  being  builded  up  ;  and 
walking  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord  and  in  the  comfort  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  was  multiplied/'  It  is  noticeable  that  the 
church  is  still  spoken  of  as  a  unity  though  its  member- 
ship was  scattered  over  several  provinces,  Peter's  min- 
istry and  works  of  healing  at  Lydda  and  at  Joppa,  the 
two-fold  vision  by  which  Cornelius,  a  God-fearing  cen- 
turion, was  directed  to  send  for  Peter,  and  by  which 
Peter  was  directed  to  put  aside  his  Judaizing  scruples, 
and  to  minister  to  the  centurion  at  Caesarea,  is  remark- 
able as  having  opened  Peter's  eyes  to  the  fact  "that 
God  is  no  respecter  of  persons  :  but  in  every  nation  he 
that  feareth  him,  and  worketh  righteousness,  is  accept- 
able to  him,"  and  as  leading  to  the  first  baptism  of  a 
Gentile  into  the  Christian  fellowship.  Peter's  Judaizing 
disposition  was  to  reassert  itself,  and  the  brethren  at 
Jerusalem  were  still  to  be  fully  convinced  by  Paul  of  the 
universality  of  the  gospel  provision.  Peter  found  some 
difficulty  in  justifying  his  course  at  Caesarea  to  the  apos- 
tles and  brethren  in  Judea ;  but  when  the  manifest  Di- 
vine leading  in  the  matter  was  made  known  to  them  they 
glorified  God. 

3.  Evangelisation  in  Phoenicia,  Cyprus,  and  Antioch. 
Phoenicia,  Cyprus,  and  Antioch  were  also  evangelized  as 

^  Raasay  dates  this  visit  A.  D.  37.  In  Accordance  with  his  view  that  Paul's  con- 
wstoa  occwrad  la  a.  o.  js-    Hamack  and  McGiffert  support  tha  aarllar  dates. 


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go  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  I 

a  result  of  the  scattering  of  the  brethren  occasioned  by 
"the  tribulation  that  arose  about  Stephen,"  and  "a 
great  number  "  are  said  to  have  **  believed."  Barnabas 
was  sent  to  Antioch  to  carry  forward  the  good  work,  and 
'*  much  people  was  added  unto  the  Lord."  Feeling  the 
need  of  such  help,  he  **  went  forth  to  Tarsus  to  seek  for 
Saul."  Both  Barnabas  and  Saul  labored  a  whole  year  in 
this  great  center.  They  gathered  a  church,  **  taught 
much  people,"  and  here  "the  disciples  were  first  called 
Christians  "  (Acts  ii  :  26).  There  being  a  famine  in  Ju- 
dea  the  disciples  at  Antioch,  "  each  man  according  to  his 
ability,"  determined  to  send  relief  to  their  suffering  b.  eth- 
ren.  Barnabas  and  Saul  were  the  agents  of  their  benefi- 
cence. The  brethren  in  Judea  were  suffering  at  this 
time  from  persecution  at  the  hands  of  Herod  as  well  as 
from  famine.  The  execution  of  James  the  brother  of 
John,  and  the  imprisonment  of  Peter,  who  was  delivered 
by  angelic  ministry,  are  among  the  features  recorded. 
After  narrating  the  smiting  to  death  of  Herod  by  the 
Lord,  it  is  said :  "  But  the  word  of  the  Lord  grew  and 
multiplied." 

Antioch  henceforth  figures  as  a  great  Christian  center, 
side  by  side  with  Jerusalem.  A  church  is  now  spoken 
of  as  being  there,  and  among  the  "  prophets  and  teach- 
ers "  were  "  Barnabas,  Symeon  that  was  called  Niger, 
and  Lucius  of  Cyrene,  and  Manaen  the  foster-brother  of 
Herod  the  tetrarch,  and  Saul."  Under  the  direction  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  Barnabas  and  Saul  were  separated  for 
missionary  work  and  were  sent  forth  whithersoever  the 
Spirit  might  lead.  From  the  record  it  would  seem  that 
they  were  designated  and  sent  forth  by  the  "prophets 
and  teachers  "  whose  names  have  been  given,  and  who 
are  said  to  have  been  ministering  and  fasting  when  the 
Divine  will  was  revealed  to  them ;  but  if  this  were  so, 
the  transaction  no  doubt  had  the  approval  of  the  entire 
body  of  believers. 

The  death  of  Herod  Agrippa.  referred  to  above,  occurred  in  44. 
The  first  missionary  journey  of  Saul  and  Barnabas  may  have  begun 
during  the  same  year.  It  may  be  observed  that  the  record  of  the 
labors  of  the  apostles  during  the  years  34-44  is  exceedingly  meagre. 
It  is  probable  that  Paul  spent  at  least  ten  years  in  evangelistic  work 
in  Syria  and  Cilicla.    It  is  not  at  all  likely  that  he  and  his  com- 


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CHAP.  II.]  THE  APOSTLES  QI 

panions  confined  themselves  closely  to  Antioch,  but  their  labors 
were  no  doubt  abundant  and  widespread.  Nothing  further  is  related 
of  Peter  and  the  other  apostles  until  the  conference  at  Jerusalem. 

4.  The  First  Missionary  Journey  of  Paul  and  Barnabas. 
It  is  noteworthy  that  the  Saul  designated  as  a  missionary 
now  becomes  Paul  in  the  narrative.  This  change  of 
name  has  by  some  writers  been  connected  with  the  con- 
version of  the  pro-consul  Sergius  Paulus,  on  the  island  of 
Cyprus,  near  the  beginning  of  the  journey.  The  better 
view  seems  to  be  that  Paul  was  already  his  name  as  a 
Roman  citizen,  and  that  in  his  missionary  work  among  the 
Gentiles  he  preferred  this  to  his  Hebrew  name.  Sailing 
from  Cyprus  they  landed  at  Perga,  in  Pamphylia,  some 
miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  river  Cestrus.  Thence 
they  journeyed  to  Antioch  in  Pisidia,  where  they  visited 
the  synagogue,  and  on  the  invitation  of  the  rulers  of  the 
synagogue  Paul  preached  with  such  effect,  that  *'  the 
next  Sabbath  almost  the  whole  city  was  gathered  together 
to  hear  the  word  of  God."  The  gathering  of  the  mul- 
titude aroused  the  animosity  of  the  Jews,  whose  blas- 
phemous opposition  led  the  missionaries  to  turn  their 
attention  definitely  to  the  Gentiles,  who  glorified  God 
that  the  gospel  was  for  them  also;  and  **as  many  as 
were  ordained  to  eternal  life  believed.' 

Driven  from  Antioch  by  Jewish  persecution,  they  jour- 
neyed to  Iconium,  leaving  behind  them  a  body  of  disci- 
ples "filled  with  joy  and  with  the  Holy  Ghost."  Here 
they  preached  in  the  synagogue  and  "a  great  multitude 
both  of  Jews  and  of  Greeks  believed."  Here  Jewish 
and  Gentile  opposition  was  encountered  and  the  mission- 
aries "fled  into  the  cities  of  Lycaonia,  Lystra,  and 
Derbe,  and  the  region  round  about:  and  there  they 
preached  the  gospel  "  (Acts  14  :  6,  7). 

At  Lystra,  because  of  the  healing  of  a  cripple,  the 
people  sought  to  worship  Paul  and  Barnabas  as  gods. 
But  they  were  followed  hither  by  hostile  Jews  from  An-, 
tioch  and  Iconium,  a  mob  was  raised  against  them,  and 
Paul  was  stoned. 

At  Derbe  they  "  made  many  disciples."  Then  they 
returning  passed  through  Lystra,  Iconium,  and  Antioch, 
"confirming  the  souls  of  the  disciples,  exhorting  them 
to  continue  in  the  faith,"  warning  them  of  the  tribula- 


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92  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  I. 

tions  that  awaited  them,  "  and  when  they  had  appointed 
for  them  elders  in  every  church  and  had  prayed  with 
fasting,  they  commended  them  unto  the  Lord,  on  whom 
they  had  believed." 

On  the  return  journey  they  preached  in  Perga,  which 
for  some  reason  they  had  omitted  to  do  at  the  beginning 
of  the  tour.  Thence  they  returned  to  Antioch,  where 
they  submitted  a  report  of  successful  work  among  the 
Gentiles  and  remained  for  a  considerable  time  (Acts  14  ; 
27,  28). 

It  is  to  be  remarked  that  Paul  and  Barnabas  organized  the  believ- 
ers in  the  various  towns  into  churches  and  appointed  elders  to  look 
after  the  spiritual  interests  of  each  body.  Nothing  is  said  about 
deacons  as  officials  in  these  churches.  The  organization  effected 
was  of  the  simplest  kind,  elders,  after  the  example  of  the  Jewish 
synagogues,  having  been  appointed  for  the  direction  of  Christian 
life  and  work.  That  they  should  have  been  appointed  by  the  mis- 
sionaries and  not  by  the  believers  themselves  was  due,  no  doubt,  to 
the  inexperience  of  these  recent  believers  and  their  desire  that  those 
who  had  led  them  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth  should  direct  them  in 
the  matter  of  organization.  No  doubt  the  apostles  appointed  those 
in  each  case  who  were  known  to  have  the  confidence  of  their  breth- 
ren, and  in  ail  probability  the  appointments  were  formally  made 
after  full  consultation  with  the  churches. 

III.  FROM  THE  JERUSALEM  CONFERENCE  TO  THE  NERONIAN 
PERSECUTION  (A.  D.  47  or  49-64). 

From  this  time  onward  Paul  is  the  great  central  figure 
in  the  history  of  the  apostolic  churches,  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  being  henceforth  devoted  almost  exclusively  to 
the  narration  of  his  labors,  while  the  labors  of  the  rest  of 
the  apostles  are  almost  wholly  lost  sight  of. 

I.  The  Conference  at  Jerusalem.  Either  during  the  ab- 
sence of  Paul  and  Barnabas  in  Asia  Minor,  or  shortly 
after  their  return,  *'  certain  men  came  down  from  Judea 
and  taught  the  brethren,  saying,  Except  ye  be  circum- 
cised after  the  custom  of  Moses,  ye  cannot  be  saved.'* 

This  caused  not  a  little  disturbance  in  the  church,  and 
to  allay  strife  it  was  determined  that  "  Paul  and  Barna- 
bas, and  certain  other  of  them,  should  go  up  to  Jerusalem 
unto  the  apostles  and  elders  about  this  question."  They 
utilized  their  journey  for  declaring  to  the  brethren  of 
Phoenicia  and  Samaria  the  joyful  tidings  of  the  conver- 
sion of  the  Gentiles. 


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CHAP.  II.]  THE  APOSTLES  95 

On  their  arrival  in  Jerusalem  '*  they  were  received 
of  the  church  and  the  apostles  and  elders,  and  they 
rehearsed  all  things  that  God  had  done  with  them/' 
Certain  Pharisaic  believers  insisted  that  these  Gentile 
converts  must  be  circumcised  and  charged  to  keep  the 
law  of  Moses.  Peter  spoke  the  decisive  word,  referring 
to  his  own  inauguration  of  Gentile  evangelization  ''a 
good  while  ago,"  and  to  the  fact  that  Gentile  believers 
had  received  the  Holy  Ghost  as  well  as  others,  and 
claiming  that  God  made  no  distinction  between  them  and 
Jews,  He  deprecated  the  thought  of  putting  a  yoke 
upon  these  brethren.  Jews  and  Gentiles  alike  are  saved 
through  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

Barnabas  and  Paul  then  rehearsed  *'  what  signs  and 
wonders  the  Lord  had  wrought  among  the  Gentiles  by 
them.''  James,  who  is  commonly  regarded  as  the  most 
Judaizing  of  the  apostles,  gave  it  as  his  judgment  *'  that 
we  trouble  not  them  which  from  among  the  Gentiles 
turn  to  God,  but  that  we  write  unto  them  to  abstain 
from  the  pollutions  of  idols,  and  from  fornication,  and 
from  what  is  strangled,  and  from  blood."  This  state- 
ment of  the  case  was  adopted. 

'*  Then  it  seemed  good  to  the  apostles  and  the  elders, 
with  the  whole  church,  to  choose  men  out  of  their  com- 
pany and  send  them  to  Antioch  with  Paul  and  Barna- 
bas." A  letter  was  drafted  containing  a  rebuke  to  those 
who  had  troubled  the  Antiochian  brethren  with  words, 
subverting  their  souls,  recognizing  the  work  of  Paul  and 
Barnabas,  **  men  that  have  hazarded  their  lives  for  the 
name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  mentioning  the  appoint- 
ment of  Judas  and  Silas  to  tell  them  ''the  same  things 
by  word  of  mouth,"  and  enumerating  the  requirements 
to  be  made  of  Gentile  believers  as  formulated  by  James, 
The  decision  of  the  brethren  in  conference  and  the  visit 
of  Silas  and  Judas  brought  about  a  good  understanding 
between  these  two  primitive  churches.  Paul  and  Bar- 
nabas remained  for  a  short  time  in  Antioch,  "  teaching 
and  preaching  the  word  of  the  Lord,  with  many  others 
also.^' 

The  conference  In  Jerusalem  is  from  a  historical  point  of  view 
highly  Important.  It  shows  us  in  Jerusalem  an  organized  church, 
with  apostles,  elders,  and  brethren,  who  act  conjointly.    So  far  as 


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94  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.l 

appears,  the  apostles  expressed  the  opinions  that  prevailed  and  the 
eiders  and  brethren  assented ;  but  it  is  probable  that  all  alike  were 
free  to  express  themselves  and  that  the  opinion  of  an  unofficial  mem- 
ber would  have  received  all  the  consideration  to  which  it  was  enti- 
tled. We  have  here  an  example  of  inter-congregational  intercourse, 
delegated  members  of  the  Antiochian  church  going  to  Jerusalem  and 
conferring  with  the  church  there,  the  Jerusalem  church  in  turn  ap*  * 
pointing  representatives  to  visit  the  Antiochian  church  and  to  ex' 
plain  more  fully,  if  needi>e,  the  position  of  the  mother  church. 
Above  all,  it  settled  definitely  the  ri^ht  of  Gentiles  to  become  Chris- 
tians without  passing  through  Judaism. 

For  some  reason  not  easily  explained,  the  writer  of 
Acts  omits  an  interesting  episode  in  the  history  of  the 
relations  of  the  churches  of  Jerusalem  and  Antioch.  This 
deficiency  is  supplied  by  Paul  in  Gal.  2:11,  seq.^  who 
also  describes  the  Jerusalem  conference  more  briefly  and 
from  a  somewhat  different  point  of  view  (Gal.  2  :  i-io). 
According  to  Paul's  account,  Cephas  (Peter)  came  to 
Antioch  probably  some  time  after  the  return  of  Paul  and 
Barnabas  with  Silas  and  Judas,  and  at  first  ate  with  the 
Gentile  Christians,  but  when  remonstrated  with  by  cer- 
tain emissaries  of  James,  **  he  drew  back  and  separated 
himself,  fearing  them  that  were  of  the  circumcision. 
And  the  rest  of  the  Jews  dissembled  likewise  with  him  ; 
insomuch  that  even  Barnabas  was  carried  away  with 
their  dissimulation."  Paul  felt  obliged  to  administer  a 
scathing  rebuke  to  his  Judaizing  brethren  and  to  set  forth 
in  vigorous  language  the  equality,  nay,  the  superiority  of 
Gentile  to  Jewish  Christians.  On  this  occasion  he 
seems  to  have  stated  in  the  clearest  manner  the  doctrine 
of  justification  by  faith  as  against  the  doctrine  of  justifi- 
cation by  the  works  of  the  law. 

It  is  evident  that  a  new  phase  of  the  Gentile  question  was  intro- 
duced at  this  time.  Even  James  had  agreed  to  recognize  Gentile 
Christians  on  condition  that  they  abstain  from  certain  heathen 
practices,  most  of  them  fundamentally  Immoral ;  but  it  seems  to 
nave  been  tacitly  understood  at  the  Jerusalem  conference  that  Jew- 
ish Christians  should  continue  to  observe  the  Law.  Peter  himself 
was  led  by  his  enthusiasm  so  far  to  violate  the  Jewish  ceremonial 
law  as  to  eat  with  Gentile  Christians ;  but  his  Jewish  prejudices 
were  still  strong  and  he  was  not  ready  to  break  with  James,  who 
insisted  on  the  ngorous  observance  of  the  Law  by  Christian  Jews. 

Paul's  uncompromising  attitude  and  stern  words  of 
rebuke  must  have  intensified  the  opposition  of  the  ex- 


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CHAP.n.]  THE  APOSTLES  95 

treme  Judaizers  and  have  been  irritating  even  to  Peter 
and  Barnabas.  Zealous  propagandists  of  the  extreme 
Judaizing  position  visited  the  communities  in  Asia  Minor 
(and  no  doubt  in  Cyprus  and  Phoenicia)  that  had  been 
evangelized  by  Paul  and  Barnabas,  denounced  Paul  as  a 
pretended  apostle,  and  insisted  that  to  be  a  Christian 
one  must  first  become  a  Jew  by  submitting  to  circum- 
cision and  observing  the  Jewish  cerenionial  law. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  the  aim  of  which  was  to 
counteract  this  pernicious  teaching  and  to  vindicate  the 
writer's  character  as  a  divinely  chosen  apostle  of  Jesus 
Christ,  was  probably  written  some  time  after  Paul's 
encounter  with  Peter  and  soon  after  the  beginning  of 
the  Judaizing  propaganda  that  followed.  Objection  to 
the  early  date  on  the  ground  of  the  intimation  in  the 
Epistle  that  the  writer  had  visited  the  Galatians  more 
than  once  (4  :  13),  is  met  by  the  fact  that  on  the  return 
journey  he  revisited  the  communities  that  had  previously 
been  evangelized.  The  fact  that  he  communicates  to 
the  Galatians,  as  fresh  information,  the  discussions  at 
Jerusalem  and  Antioch  respecting  the  status  of  Gentile 
Christians,  bears  strongly  against  the  supposition  that 
the  Epistle  was  written  after  the  second  missionary  jour- 
ney, in  connection  with  which  he  could  hardly  have 
failed  to  communicate  to  them  the  decisions  reached. 
That  the  work  of  the  perverters  had  followed  closely 
upon  the  conversion  of  the  Galatians  through  his  labors 
is  evident  from  i  :  6. 

A  recent  writer,  who  has  devoted  years  to  geographical  and  archse- 
ologlcal  research  in  Asia  Minor  with  special  reference  to  apostolic 
history,  ^  has  made  it  dear  that  the  term  Galatia  in  the  apostolic 
times  included  not  only  Galatia  proper,  but  Pisidia,  South  Pnrygia, 
and  Isauria  as  well.  The  Galatians  addressed  in  the  Epistle  would 
accordingly  be  the  Christians  in  Antioch  of  Pisidia,  Iconium,  Lyca- 
onia,  Lystra»  and  E)ert>e,  the  fruits  of  the  first  missionary  journey  of 
Paul  and  Barnabas. 

The  Epistle  was  probably  written  at  Antioch  shortly  be- 
fore Paul  started  on  his  second  missionary  journey,  about 
A.  D.  46  or  47.  The  chief  objection  urged  against  this 
early  date  is  the  elaborateness  of  the  doctrinal  system  of 

1  Ramsay*  "  The  Church  In  th«  Ronan  Empire/'  189a. 


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96  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  I 

the  Epistle  as  compared  with  that  of  the  Epistles  to  the 
Corinthians,  and  to  the  Thessalonians  written  during  the 
second  missionary  journey.  The  similarity  of  its  teach- 
ings to  those  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  has  inclined 
critics  to  place  the  time  of  its  composition  some  years 
later.  But  it  is  scarcely  to  be  supposed  that  the  apostle 
after  more  than  fifteen  years  of  profound  occupation 
with  the  Christian  religion  had  not  yet  matured  his  sys- 
tem. Difference  of  circumstances  in  the  communities 
addressed  accounts  sufficiently  for  the  differences  of  doc- 
trinal presentation.  In  this  Epistle  the  apostle  had  to 
meet  the  arguments  of  determined  and  unscrupulous 
Judaizers,  and  nothing  was  more  natural  than  that  he 
should  set  forth  clearly  and  strongly  the  doctrine  of  jus- 
tification by  faith  without  the  works  of  the  law. 

2.  Paul's  Second  Missionary  Journey  (A.  D.  46  or  47*49 
or  50).  Not  very  long  after  the  Jerusalem  conference 
Paul  suggested  to  Barnabas  that  they  two  should  revisit 
the  brethren  in  the  cities  where  they  had  preached. 
''  Barnabas  was  minded  to  take  with  them  John  also, 
who  was  called  Mark.'*  Paul  objected,  on  the  ground 
that  on  the  previous  tour  Mark  had  left  the  party  at 
Perga  without  a  satisfactory  reason.  '*  Barnabas  took 
Mark  with  him  and  sailed  away  unto  Cyprus ;  but  Paul 
chose  Silas  .  .  .  and  went  through  Syria  and  Cilicia, 
confirming  the  churches."  What  resulted  from  the 
journey  of  Barnabas  and  Mark  we  are  not  informed. 
Among  the  incidents  of  Paul's  journey  were  the  revisiting 
of  Derbe  and  Lystra,  the  choice  of  young  Timothy  as  a 
fellow-laborer,  the  circumcision  of  Timothy,  whose  father 
was  a  Greek,  "  because  of  the  Jews  that  were  in  those 
parts  "  (Acts  16  :  3),  the  Divine  prohibition  to  labor  in 
Asia  and  Bithynia,  and  the  Macedonian  appeal  in  a  vision, 
to  which  the  apostle  readily  responded. 

Philippi  was  the  first  Macedonian  city  to  be  evangel- 
ized. The  conversion  and  baptism  of  Lydia  and  her 
household,  the  expulsion  of  the  spirit  of  divination  from 
a  Pythoness  which  led  to  the  beating  and  imprisonment 
of  Paul  and  Silas,  the  opening  of  the  prison  doors  by  an 
earthquake,  the  conversion  and  baptism  of  the  jailer  and 
his  family, the  fear  of  the  magistrates  and  their  desire  to  re- 
lease the  missionaries  privately,  and  their  confusion  when . 


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chap.1l]  the  apostles  97 

Paul  proclaimed  himself  a  Roman  citizen  and  demanded 
fo  be  vindicated  publicly,  are  the  events  recorded.  At 
the  request  of  the  magistrates  they  departed  after  meet- 
ing with  the  brethren  and  comforting  them. 

The  relations  of  Paul  to  the  Philippian  church  were 
peculiarly  tender.  About  ten  years  after  the  founding  of 
the  church,  when  he  was  in  bonds  in  Rome,  he  wrote  the 
church  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  all  his  letters,  on  the 
occasion  of  their  ministering  to  his  needs.  It  is  a  per- 
sonal letter  and  is  not  doctrinal  in  intention;  but  it  Is 
rich  in  doctrine  as  well  as  in  practical  exhortation.  That 
the  organization  of  the  church  had  been  completed  by 
this  time  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  he  addresses  the 
body  of  believers  "  with  the  bishops  and  deacons."  Here 
in  this  Gentile  church  we  have  a  plurality  of  bishops  or 
overseers,  but  no  "  presbyters." 

At  Thessalonica  Paul  preached  in  the  synagogue  and 
some  Jews  believed,  *'and  of  the  devout  Greeks  (pros- 
elytes) a  great  multitude,  and  of  the  chief  women  not  a 
few  "  (Acts  17  : 4). 

Luke  gives  us  a  very  meagre  account  of  Paul's  work 
in  Thessalonica.  The  apostle  supplies  further  informa- 
tion in  the  Epistles  to  the  church  written  about  48  or  49, 
during  his  residence  at  Corinth.  After  commending  their 
**  work  of  faith  and  labor  of  love  and  patience  of  hope," 
their  exemplary  Christian  conduct,  and  their  wholesome 
influence  on  other  communities,  and  reminding  them  of 
his  own  zealous,  loving,  and  self-sacrificing  labors  on  their 
behalf  and  of  his  holy,  righteous,  and  unblamable  de- 
meanor among  them,  he  refers  to  his  desire  to  revisit 
them  that  had  been  thwarted  by  Satan  and  his  sending 
of  Timothy  to  minister  to  them  while  he  waited  alone  at 
Athens,  and  concludes  with  a  series  of  exhortations,  sug- 
gested no  doubt  by  what  Timothy  had  reported  regarding 
their  estate.  No  doubt  there  was  special  occasion  for  the 
exhortation  to  "abstain  from  fornication,"  to  "study  to 
be  quiet,"  to  attend  to  their  secular  affairs,  laboring  with 
their  hands.  His  eschatological  instructions  probably 
grew  out  of  what  he  had  heard  regarding  their  disturb- 
ance of  mind  concerning  such  matters. 

Both  Epistles  are  addressed  to  the  church  by  Paul  and  Silvanus 
and  Timothy.    The  second  deals  especially  with  the  **  coming  of  our 


a 


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98  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  L 

Lord  Jesus,  and  our  gathering  together  unto  him."  The  Thessalo* 
nians  had  been  led  by  a  misunderstanding  of  the  apostle's  teachine^ 
or  through  some  other  influence  to  regard  this  coming  as  **  present?' 
He  warns  them  against  this  error,  that  was  doubtless  producing  an 
unwholesome  condition  in  the  church,  and  points  out  to  tiiem,  in  ob- 
scure and  mysterious  language  which  they  probably  understood, 
that  certain  great  events  must  precede  the  parousia  of  the  Lord.  Here 
also  attention  is  called  to  a  disposition,  doubtless  connected  with  the 
expectation  of  the  immediate  coming  of  the  Lord,  to  ne^i^t  neces- 
sary secular  labor.  He  exhorts  the  Thessalonians  to  withdraw  from 
every  disorderiy  brother. 

Driven  from  the  city  through  Jewish  opposition  Paul 
and  Silas  went  to  Beroea,  where  *'  the  Jews  received  the 
word  with  all  readiness  of  mind,  examining  the  Scriptures 
daily  whether  these  things  were  so"  (Acts  17 :  ii).  Jews 
from  Thessalonica  followed  them  and  aroused  such  oppo- 
sition as  to  interfere  with  their  labors.  Paul  proceeded  to 
Athens  without  Silas  and  Timothy.  While  waiting  for 
their  arrival  **  his  spirit  was  provoked  within  him,  as  he 
beheld  the  city  full  of  idols  "  (17  :  16).  Athens  was  noted 
no  less  for  her  culture  than  for  the  profusion  of  idolatrous 
objects  within  her  walls.  He  found  curious  and  con- 
temptuous listeners  in  abundance,  but  few  prepared  to 
accept  the  truth.  "  But  certain  men  clave  unto  him,  and 
believed :  among  whom  also  was  Dionysius  the  Areop- 
agite,  and  a  woman  named  Damaris,  and  others  with 
them  "  (17  :  34). 

Later  tradition  was  busy  with  the  name  of  Dionysius,  represent- 
ing him  as  the  first  to  evan&elize  France  and  as  the  author  of  a  great 
body  of  theosophical  (Neo-Platonlc)  writings  that  really  originated 
about  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century. 

Corinth  was  the  scene  of  more  prolonged  and  more 
fruitful  labors  (c.  48-50).  It  was  at  this  time  the  prin- 
cipal city  of  Greece  and,  from  the  confluence  of  Greek, 
Roman,  and  Oriental  culture  and  vices,  was  one  of  the 
most  cosmopolitan  of  the  cities  of  eastern  Europe  and 
was  famous  for  luxury  and  vice.  The  book  of  Acts  informs 
us  (chap.  18)  of  his  arrival,  of  his  association  with  "a 
certain  Jew  named  Aquila,  a  man  of  Pontus  by  race, 
lately  come  from  Italy,  with  his  wife  Priscilla,  because 
Claudius  had  commanded  all  the  Jews  to  depart  from 
Rome,"  that  as  a  fellow-craftsman  (tent  maker)  ht 


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CHAP.  II.]  THE  APOSTLES  99 

"abode  with  them,  and  they  wrought,"  that  "he  rea- 
soned in  the  synagogue  every  Sabbath,  and  persuaded 
Jews  and  Greeks  ;  '*  that  opposition  and  blasphemy  on 
the  part  of  the  Jews  led  him  to  withdraw  from  the 
synagogue  and  to  hold  his  meetings  in  the  house  of  a 
proselyte  named  Titus  Justus ;  that  "  Crispus,  the  ruler 
of  the  synagogue,  believed  in  the  Lord  with  all  his 
house  ";  that "  many  of  the  Corinthians  hearing  believed, 
and  were  baptized  '* ;  that  he  was  encouraged  by  a  vision 
to  zeal  and  persistence ;  that  he  "  dwelt  there  a  year  and 
six  months  " ;  that  the  Jews  rose  in  might  against  him  and 
arraigned  him  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Gallio,  the  pro- 
consul, who  refused  to  pronounce  judgment  and  "drave 
them  from  the  judgment-seat " ;  and  that,  *'  having  tarried 
after  this  yet  many  days,"  he  "took  his  leave  of  the 
brethren,  and  sailed  thence  for  Syria,  and  with  him  Pris- 
cilia  and  Aquila." 

From  the  Epistles  to  the  Corinthians,  written  the  one 
from  Ephesus,  the  other  shortly  after  his  departure  from 
Ephesus  (c.  51-53),  we  learn  much  as  to  the  apostle's 
feelings  in  entering  upon  the  work,  his  methods  of  pre- 
senting the  truth  there,  and  the  moral  and  doctrinal  diffi- 
culties in  which  the  church  became  involved.  Paul  bears 
testimony  to  the  high  proficiency  that  the  church  had  at- 
tained "in  all  utterance  and  all  knowledge,"  so  that  they 
came  "behind  in  no  gift."  He  laments  that  partisanship 
has  arisen  among  them,  on  the  basis  of  attachment  to 
individual  workers  (Paul,  Apollos,  Cephas)  ;  adjures  them 
•*to  speak  the  same  thing*' ;  assures  them  that  all  the 
workers  are  building  on  the  same  foundation,  Jesus 
Christ;  cautions  them  against  the  subtleties  of  philo- 
sophical speculation  ("  the  wisdom  of  this  world  "),  which 
there  is  some  reason  to  suspect  Apollos  had  indulged  in 
and  encouraged  ;  refers  to  a  previous  letter  in  which  he 
had  warned  the  Corinthian  Christians  "to  have  no  com- 
pany with  fornicators  "  ;  devotes  much  attention  to  vari- 
ous sins  of  unchastity,  the  enormity  of  which  the  Corinth- 
ians very  imperfectly  realized  ;  lays  down  the  principles  to 
be  observed  in  relation  to  objects  associated  with  idolatry  ; 
gives  instructions  as  regards  the  conduct  and  apparel  of 
women  in  Christian  assemblies ;  calls  attention  to  the 
diversities  of  spiritual  gifts  among  believers  and  to  the 


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100  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  I 

corporate  oneness  and  multiplicity  of  function  in  the  mem- 
bership of  the  church ;  exalts  love  as  the  cardinal  Christian 
virtue ;  discusses  prophecy  and  the  speaking  with  tongues, 
discouraging  without  absolutely  condemning  the  latter ; 
discusses  the  resurrection,  which  he  makes  fundamental 
in  the  Christian  system  ;  and  urges  upon  the  church  a 
weekly  offering  for  the  fund  he  was  collecting  for  the 
Jerusalem  Christians. 

The  Second  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  indicates  that 
the  first  had  produced  the  desired  effect  and  that  the 
abuses  in  the  church  had  been  remedied.  It  abounds  in 
self-vindicatory  matter,  due  no  doubt  to  the  efforts  of  a 
strong  Judaizing  party  in  the  church  to  disparage  him 
and  thus  destroy  his  influence.  It'contains  many  of  the 
apostle's  noblest  utterances.  He  refers  to  the  liberality 
of  the  Macedonian  churches  as  an  incentive  to  increased 
liberality  on  the  part  of  the  Corinthians. 

It  is  probable  that  the  apostle  wrote  one  or  more  epistles  to  this 
church  that  have  not  been  preserved,  and  that  he  was  the  recipient 
of  written  communications  from  the  church.  There  seems  no  suf- 
ficient reason  to  see  in  2  Cor.  10-13  a  separate  epistle  that  has  be- 
come accidentally  incorporated  here.  Its  contents  are  not  such  as  to 
fulfill  our  expectations  as  regards  the  lost  epistle. 

3.  Paul's  Third  Missionary  Journey  {c.  50-53).  Leav- 
ing Corinth  in  company  with  Priscilla  and  Aquila,  the 
apostle  made  his  way  eastward.  At  Ephesus  he  reasoned 
with  the  Jews  in  the  synagogue,  but  declined  to  abide. 
Leaving  his  companions  there  and  promising  to  return  he 
sailed  for  Caesarea.  It  is  related  that  "  when  he  had 
landed  at  Caesarea,  he  went  up  and  saluted  the  church, 
and  went  down  to  Antioch.''  It  is  commonly  under- 
stood that  by  **  the  church  "  the  mother  church  at  Jeru- 
salem is  meant.  After  spending  some  time  there  he 
departed  for  Ephesus,  revisiting  the  churches  in  Galatia 
and  Phrygia  on  the  way.  If  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians 
was  not  written  during  the  previous  visit  to  Antioch,  as 
is  probable,  it  was  written  on  this  occasion.  Between 
Paul's  first  and  second  visits  to  Ephesus  ''  a  certain  Jew 
named  Apollos,  an  Alexandrian  by  race,  a  learned  man, 
came  to  Ephesus,  and  he  was  mighty  in  the  Scriptures.'' 
We  know  something  of  the  type  of  the  speculative  phi* 


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CHAP.n.]  THE  APOSTLES  lOI 

losophy  and  the  methods  of  biblical  interpretation  in  tlie 
midst  of  which  he  had  received  his  training/    He  may  * 
well  have  seen  and  heard  the  great*- Pftiit)'  Md  could: 
hardly  have  escaped  the  influence  ot  hi^  teachings.   ,He^ 
had  accepted  Christ,  but  was  imperfectly  instructed  in* 
the  way  of  the  Lord.    He  is  said  to  have  known  only  the 
baptism  of  John.     But  Priscilla  and  Aquila,  when  they 
had  heard  him,  ''took  him  unto  them  and  expounded 
unto  him  the  way  of  God  more  carefully/*  doubtless  as 
they  had  learned  it  from  Paul.   With  the  good  will  of  the 
Ephesian  brethren  he  had  gone  to  Achaia,  where  he  was 
to  labor  with  acceptance  and  be  an  occasion  of  division 
in  the  Corinthian  church. 
On  reaching  Ephesus  Paul  found  certain  other  disci* 

Eles  who  had  received  only  John's  baptism  and  who 
new  nothing  about  the  impartation  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Instructed  by  the  apostle  they  "  were  baptized  into  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus/'  and  when  he  **  had  laid  his 
hands  upon  them  the  Holy  Ghost  came  upon  them  ;  and 
they  spake  with  tongues  and  prophesied."  Paul  now 
entered  upon  a  peri^  of  remarkably  successful  work, 
preaching  for  three  months  in  the  synagogue  and  after- 
wardy  by  reason  of  opposition,  in  ''  the  school  of  Tyran- 
nus."  Here  his  labors  continued  for  two  years  (c.  50- 
$2),  **  so  that  all  they  which  dwelt  in  Asia  heard  the 
word  of  the  Lord,  both  Jews  and  Greeks."  The  healing 
of  the  sick  and  the  casting  out  of  demons  caused  fear  to 
fall  upon  Jews  and  Greeks  alike,  ''and  the  name  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  was  magnified."  Some  who  had  practised 
magic  brought  their  books,  whose  value  was  estimated 
at  fifty  thousand  pieces  of  silver,  and  publicly  burned 
them.  "  So  mightily  grew  the  word  of  the  Lord  and 
prevailed." 

As  the  apostle  was  about  to  leave  Ephesus  with  the  view 
of  revisiting  the  churches  in  Macedonia  and  Achaia,  a  riot 
was  raised  against  the  Christians,  led  by  the  idol-makers, 
whose  trade  had  been  seriously  interfered  with  by  the 
prevalence  of  the  word  of  God.  This  was  promptly  put 
down  by  the  authorities,  who  feared  the  censure  of  the 
Roman  government.  In  Ephesus  was  a  great  temple  of 
Diana,  and  the  idol-makers  sought  to  arouse  the  multi- 
tude by  crying,  "  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians." 


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102  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [p«.t 

Having  taken  an  affectionate  leave  of  the  brethren  Paul 
':jcHjrney^4'tQ  Jyificipdonia  and  passed  thence  to  Greece, 
'ivisiting  kud  ^TAtofting  the  churches  he  had  founded.    It 
,  .wa^duf jng  ^his  §tay  in  Macedonia  that  he  wrote  Second 
■  XSbfrotWans. .  *:  Gorinth  was  probably  his  headquarters 
during  the  three  months  spent  in  Greece  (Acts  20  :  3), 
and  it  was  doubtless  there  that  "  the  plot "  was  '*  laid 
against  him  by  the  Jews."    While  there  he  wrote  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  (c.   53),  in  which  more  fully 
than  elsewhere  he  expounds  his  conception  of  Christian 
truth  in  its  relations  to  Judaism.    The  church  addressed 
was  no  doubt  prevailingly  Gentile,  but  had  a  not  incon- 
siderable Jewish  minority.    He  had  long  desired  to  visit 
Rome  and  enter  into  personal  relations  with  the  Chris- 
tians there.     It  was  his  plan  at  this  time,  after  visiting 
Jerusalem  with  the  collections  that  he  had  taken  great 
pains  to  gather,  to  proceed  to  Rome,  and  to  be  set  for- 
ward by  the  brethren  there  on  a  missionary  tour  to  the 
farther  west. 

Several  German  critics  (Schultz,  Welzsacker,  Juilcher,  it  al.)  and 
a  recent  American  writer  (Dr.  McGiffert)  are  of  the  opinion  that 
chap.  16,  containing  the  salutations,  was  originally  addressed  not  to 
theKoman  church  but  to  the  Ephesian.  It  Is  thought  that  the  apos- 
tle could  hardly  be  expected  to  know  intimately  so  large  a  number 
of  the  Roman  Christians  and  to  be  familiar  even  with  their  house- 
hold meeting-piaces  before  he  had  ever  set  foot  in  Rome.  The 
presence  there  of  Priscilla  and  Aqulla,  whom  we  last  left  at  Ephe- 
sus,  would  suggest  this  transfer  of  the  chapter.  But  there  is  noth- 
ing inherently  improbable  in  supposing  that  these  devoted  Christian 
workers  should  have  returned  to  Rome,  whence  they  had  been 
driven  some  years  before,  or  that  many  other  of  Paul's  converts  in 
the  East  had  removed  to  the  great  metropolis.  Supposing  this  to 
have  been  the  case  the  apostle  might  well  have  learned  throu^ 
these  many  particulars  about  the  Roman  church. 

Returning  through  Macedonia  he  sailed  from  Philippi 
to  Troas,  accompanied  by  a  number  of  the  brethren.  At 
Troas,  *'upon  the  first  day  of  the  week,"  the  brethren 
"were  gathered  together  to  break  bread."  Paul,  in- 
tending to  leave  the  next  day,  discoursed  until  midnight 
and  restored  the  young  man  who  from  drowsiness  had 
fallen  from  the  third  story.  *'From  Miletus  he  sent  to 
Ephesus  and  called  to  him  the  elders  of  the  church."  His 
farewell  charge,  in  which  he  warned  them  that  grievous 


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CHAP.n.]  THE  APOSTLES  103 

wolves  would  enter  in  among  them,  not  sparing  the 
flock,  assured  them  that  for  himself  he  expected  bonds 
and  imprisonment  and  that  they  should  see  his  face  no 
more,  and  tenderly  exhorted  them  to  take  heed  unto 
themselves  and  all  the  flock  over  which  the  Holy  Ghost 
had  made  them  bishops,  is  probably  the  most  pathetic 
of  all  his  recorded  utterances.  At  Caesarea  he  was  en- 
tertained by  Philip,  the  evangelist,  who  abode  there  and 
was  probably  at  the  head  of  the  local  church.  He  had 
four  daughters  who  had  the  gift  of  prophecy.  At  Tyre 
and  at  Caesarea  Paul  was  warned  prophetically  of  the 
fate  that  awaited  him  in  Jerusalem  (Acts  21  :  8-14). 

It  would  seem  that  by  this  time  Paul's  work  among  the  Gentiles 
had  become  so  widely  known  and  Jewish  hostility  toward  him  had 
become  so  acute  that  a  violent  outbreak  against  nim  mlsht  be  ex- 
pected in  Jerusalem.  But  he  was  *'  ready  not  to  be  bound  only,  but 
also  to  die  at  Jerusalem  for  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.^' 

4.  Paul's  Last  Visit  to  Jerusalem  and  the  Ca^sarean  Im- 
Msonment  (c.  54-56).  In  Jerusalem  the  brethren  received 
Paul  and  his  companions  gladly.  In  conference  with 
James  and  the  elders  he  "rehearsed  one  by  one  the 
things  that  God  had  wrought  among  the  Gentiles  by  his 
ministry."  They  rejoiced  in  what  had  been  accom- 
plished, but  referring  to  the  fact  that  "  the  many  thou- 
sands "  "  among  the  Jews  of  them  that  believed  "  were 
•'all  zealous  for  the  law,"  and  that  he  was  reported  to 
be  teaching  "all  the  Jews  that"  were  "among  the 
Gentiles  to  forsake  Moses,"  they  asked  him  to  demon- 
strate his  Jewish  loyalty  by  undergoing,  with  others,  a 
purifying  ceremony.  This  he  did.  But  Jews  from  Asia 
who  knew  of  his  work  among  the  Gentiles  raised  an 
outcry  against  him  when  they  saw  him  in  the  temple, 
charging  that  he  had  defiled  the  temple  by  bringing 
Greeks  into  it.  Rescued  from  the  mob  by  the  Roman 
of&cials,  he  attempted  to  vindicate  himself  by  rehearsing 
his  religious  history.  When  he  came  to  his  divine  com- 
mission to  preach  to  the  Gentiles,  the  mob  raised  an 
outcry  and  demanded  his  life.  Brought  into  the  castle 
by  order  of  the  chief  captain,  he  was  about  to  be 
scourged,  but  he  asserted  his  Roman  citizenship  and  was 
spared  this  indignity  (Acts  22). 


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I04  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER  I 

The  next  day  the  chief  captain  called  "  the  chief  priests 
and  all  the  Jewish  council  *'  (Sanhedrin)  together  "and 
brought  Paul  down  and  set  him  before  them.'*  When 
he  was  about  to  make  his  defense  the  high  priest  Ana- 
nias ordered  that  he  be  smitten  on  the  mouth.  This 
aroused  his  indignation  and  led  him  as  a  Pharisee  to 
appeal  to  the  Pharisees.  By  this  means  he  set  the  two 
Jewish  parties  by  the  ears,  and  the  chief  captain  had 
Paul  taken  back  to  the  castle  for  protection.  Jewish 
malignity  had  reached  its  height.  A  number  of  zealots 
"bound  themselves  under  a  curse,  saying  that  they 
would  neither  eat  nor  drink  till  they  had  killed  Paul." 

Informed  of  the  plot  by  his  nephew,  Paul  induced  the 
chief  captain  to  send  him  with  a  strong  guard  to  Felix, 
the  governor  at  Csesarea.  Felix,  a  corrupt  and  licen- 
tious official,  had  little  sympathy  with  the  Jews,  and  yet 
he  dared  not  antagonize  them  by  liberating  his  great 
prisoner.  He  was  willing,  along  with  his  immoral  con- 
sort, to  hear  the  apostle  preach,  but  not  to  abandon  his 
vicious  life.  For  two  years  he  allowed  Paul  to  lie  in 
prison  (Acts  24  :  27). 

Felix  was  superseded  by  Porcius  Festus  at  the  end  of 
this  time.  The  new  governor  reheard  the  case  and  sub- 
mitted it  to  King  Agrippa,  who  permitted  Paul  to  speak 
in  his  own  defense.  Agrippa  and  Festus  would  probably 
have  released  Paul,  but  he  had  appealed  unto  Csesar 
and  they  felt  that  he  had  thus  placed  himself  outside  of 
their  jurisdiction  (Acts  26  :  32). 

$.  Paulas  Voyage  to  Rome  and  his  Raman  Imprisonment 
(56-59).  The  perilous  voyage  to  Rome  in  charge  of  the 
centurion,  Julius,  the  shipwreck  and  sojourn  at  Melita, 
and  the  arrival  at  Rome,  are  related  in  a  very  realistic 
way,  probably  by  Luke  himself,  who  was  an  eye-witness 
of  much  of  the  later  missionary  work  of  the  apostle. 
The  journey  to  Rome  probably  occurred  about  A.  D. 
56-57.  The  writer  of  Acts  relates  that  in  Rome  *'  Paul 
was  suffered  to  abide  by  himself  with  the  soldier  that 
guarded  him;"  that  he  summoned  to  his  lodgings  the 
chief  of  the  Jews  and  explained  to  them  the  cause  of  his 
imprisonment;  that  he  denied  having  done  anything 
against  the  Jewish  people  or  the  customs  of  the  fathers ; 
that  he  sought  to  convince  them  from  the  Law  of  the 


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CHAP.IL]  THE  APOSTLES  lOJ 

truth  of  the  gospel ;  and  that  he  "  abode  two  whole  years 
in  his  own  hired  dwelling,  and  received  all  that  went  in 
unto  him,  preaching  the  kingdom  of  God  and  teaching 
the  things  concerning  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  with  all 
boldness,  none  forbidding  him."  Neither  this  writer  nor 
any  other  New  Testament  writer  gives  us  any  further 
information  about  the  fate  of  the  apostle.  Yet  it  is 
probable  that  no  period  of  his  ministry  was  more  fruitful 
than  these  two  years  in  Rome. 

The  Epistles  to  the  Colossians,  the  Ephesians,  the 
Philippians,  Philemon,  and  Second  Timothy  were  proba- 
bly all  written  during  this  time.  In  Ephesians  6  :  18-20 
he  asks  his  readers  to  pray  that  utterance  may  be  given 
unto  him  in  opening  his  mouth,  to  make  known  with 
boldness  the  mystery  of  the  gospel,  for  which  he  was  **  an 
ambassador  in  chains.'*  In  Philippians  he  rejoices  in 
the  gifts  received  from  his  Macedonian  brethren  and  con* 
veys  to  them  the  salutation  of  all  the  Roman  saints, 
especially  of  them  that  are  of  the  household  of  Cssar 
(Phil.  4  :  21,  22),  and  expresses  the  hope  that  he  may 
soon  be  permitted  to  visit  them.  In  Philemon  he  speaks 
of  himself  as  "  Paul  the  aged,  and  now  a  prisoner  also 
'  of  Jesus  Christ  '*  and  as  having  begotten  Onesimus,  the 
runaway  slave,  in  his  bonds.  He  expresses  a  wish  that 
Onesimus  might  be  permitted  to  minister  to  him.  In 
Second  Timothy  he  speaks  of  Onesiphorus  as  having 
often  refreshed  him,  as  not  having  been  ashamed  of  hk 
chain,  but  as  having  sought  out  and  found  him  when  he 
was  in  Rome.  He  urges  Timothy  to  come  to  him  shortly, 
states  that  Demas  forsook  him,  "  having  loved  this  pres- 
ent world,*'  that  Alexander  the  coppersmith  did  him 
much  evil,  and  that  at  his  "  first  defense  "  all  forsook 
him.  Yet  he  rejoices  that  the  Lord  stood  by  him  and 
strengthened  him,  that  through  him  "  the  message  might 
be  fully  proclaimed,  and  that  all  the  Gentiles  might 
hear."  He  had  been  "  delivered  out  of  the  mouth  of  the 
lion."  He  asked  Timothy  to  bring  his  cloak,  books,  and 
parchments  left  at  Troas. 

If  Paul's  two  years  of  Roman  imprisonment  occurred  (7~$9»  as 
seems  probable,  and  If  he  suffered  martyrdom  in  the  great  Neronian 
persecution  in  the  summer  of  A.  D.  64,  as  is  commonly  supposed,  we 
have  an  Interval  of  five  years  without  known  events.    The  silence 


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I06  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PBR.1 

of  Acts  regarding  his  liberation  or  his  martyrdom  Is  difficult  to  ex- 
plain. If  he  was  liberated  about  A.  D.  59,  it  may  be  that  from  age 
and  suffering  he  was  physically  incapable  of  further  missionary 
labors,  and  that  he  remained  among  tne  Roman  Christians  till  the 
great  persecution,  or  he  may  have  carried  out  his  eariier  purpose  to 
preach  the  gospel  in  the  farther  west.  Clement  of  Rome  in  his 
epistle  to  the  Corinthians  {c.  9$)  mentions  the  martyrdom  of  Paul 
and  Peter  together  as  belonging  to  his  own  generation,  thouffh  he  says 
nothing  of  time  or  place.  Origen  and  Tertullian  (beginnmg  of  the 
third  century)  represent  Paul  as  suffering  martyrdom  at  Rome  under 
Nero.  Hamack,  denying  the  genuineness  of  the  Pastoral  Epistles  in 
their  present  form,  holds  that  after  Paul's  liberation  he  proauced  the 
genuine  writings  that  lie  at  the  basis  of  these  Epistles.  This  ^eory 
involves  the  supposition  that  he  visited  Asia  Mmor  during  the  inter- 
val. The  absence  of  a  record  of  Paul's  labors  during  the  years  sg- 
64  is  far  from  proving  that  no  such  labors  found  place.  The  Pas- 
toral Epistles,  as  genuine  writings  of  the  apostle,  can  be  best  ac- 
accounted  for  by  supposing  a  somewhat  prolonged  interval  between 
his  Roman  imprisonment  and  his  martyrdom  and  another  visit  to 
Asia  Minor.  From  2  Timothy,  probably  addressed  to  Timothy  at 
Ephesus,  Aquila  and  Priscilla  appear  to  nave  l)een  in  Ephesus.  If 
they  were  in  Rome  when  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  was  written,  they 
may  have  returned  to  Ephesus  at  the  time  of  the  Neronian  persecu- 
tion. On  this  theoiy  the  notices  regarding  imprisonment  in  the  Pas- 
toral Epistles  would  refer  to  a  second  Roman  Imprisonment  of  the 
apostle  preceding  his  martyrdom. 

6.  Peter* s  Career  from  the  Apostolic  Conference  Onward 
(47-64).  The  booK  of  Acts  is  strangely  silent  regarding 
the  later  activity  of  the  apostle  of  the  circumcision,  and 
we  possess  but  little  information  from  any  other  source. 
In  First  Corinthians  Paul  refers  to  a  party  in  the  church 
that  made  his  name  their  watchword  and  he  speaks  of 
him  (9  :  5)  as  accompanied  on  his  journeys  by  a  believ- 
ing wife.  It  is  probable  that  for  a  number  of  years  he 
devoted  most  of  his  time  to  mission  work  among  the 
Jews  of  Syria,  returning  occasionally  to  Jerusalem.  To- 
ward the  end  of  his  career  he  may  have  occupied  him- 
self more  largely  with  Gentile  work. 

The  first  of  the  Epistles  that  bear  his  name  is  pro- 
nounced by  modern  critics  thoroughly  Pauline  in  tone. 
That  his  Jewish  prejudices  should  have  gradually  given 
way  in  view  of  the  great  work  among  the  Gentiles  ac- 
complished by  Paul  and  that  he  should  have  read  with 
diligence  the  Epistles  of  that  great  thinker  is  not  incon- 
ceivable ;  and  there  is  no  difficulty  in  supposing  that  his 
less  original  mind  should  have  t>ecome  imbued  with 


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CHAP.  II.]  tHfi  APOStLfiS  lo; 

Pauline  modes  of  thought.  That  he  should  have  chosen 
Rome  as  the  sphere  of  his  latest  labors,  where  the 
Christians  were  prevailingly  Gentile  and  where  Paul  had 
for  some  years  lived  and  labored,  would  strongly  confirm 
the  view  that  his  conceptions  of  Christianity  had  become 
assimilated  to  those  of  Paul. 

Recent  criticism  is  almost  unanimous  in  maintaining 
that  Peter  closed  his  career  in  Rome,  suffering  martyr- 
dom under  Nero  in  64.  The  absence  of  any  mention  of 
Peter's  presence  in  Paul's  Epistles  written  from  his  Ro- 
man prison  is  thought  to  be  against  the  supposition  that 
Peter  s  ministry  in  Rome  had  begun  at  that  time  ;  but  if 
Peter  reached  Rome  about  A.  D.  59,  the  date  of  Paul's 
supposed  release,  sufficient  time  would  be  allowed  for 
him  to  gain  the  large  influence  in  the  city  that  tradition 
ascribes  to  him. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  during  Paul's  imprisonment 
(Csesarea  and  Rome)  Peter  should  have  felt  prompted  to 
visit  the  churches  of  Asia  Minor  now  deprived  of  Paul's 
ministry.  The  address  of  Peter  to  "the  elect  who  are 
sojourners  of  the  Dispersion  in  Pontus,  Galatia,  Cappa- 
docia,  Asia,  and  Bithynia,"  presupposes  such  a  visit  on 
the  part  of  the  author.  Silvanus  and  Mark,  Paul's  earlier 
companions,  are  associated  with  him  at  the  time  of  writing. 
Mark  was  with  Paul  during  his  Roman  imprisonment. 
The  salutation  at  the  close  from  **  the  (church)  that  is  in 
Babylon,"^as  it  is  commonly  understood,  would  seem  to 
indicate  that  the  letter  was  written  from  Rome,  the  sym- 
bolical Babylon,  especially  as  nothing  is  known  of  a 
church  in  Babylon  at  that  time,  and  it  is  improbable 
that  Silvanus  and  Mark  labored  in  Mesopotamia. 

The  First  Epistle  was  chiefly  consolatory  in  view  of  the 
then  present  tribulations,  and  hortatory  against  current 
forms  of  vice  and  irreligion  and  in  favor  of  obedience  to 
constituted  authority  (to  the  king  as  supreme,  to  govern- 
ors, to  masters  on  the  part  of  servants,  to  husbands  on 
the  part  of  wives),  likemindedness,  compassion,  brotherly 
love,  humble-mindedness,  patience,  and  rejoicing  in  being 
partakers  of  Christ's  sufferings.  The  author  speaks  of 
Christ  as  "  the  Shepherd  and  Bishop  "  of  the  souls  of 
believers,  and  of  himself  as  **a  fellow-elder "  with  the 
elders  of  the  churches. 


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to8  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  I 

The  Second  Epistle  consists  of  exhortation  to  the 
practice  of  Christian  virtues,  of  a  severe  arraignment  of 
certain  immoral  forms  of  error,  and  of  *a  remarkable  escha- 
tological  passage  in  which  ''the  day  of  the  Lord'*  is 
represented  as  coming  '*as  a  thief,"  in  which  ''the 
heavens  shall  pass  away  with  a  great  noise,  and  the  ele- 
ments shall  be  dissolved  with  fervent  heat,"  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  "new  heavens  and  a  new  earth,  wherein 
dwelleth  righteousness."  The  writer  refers,  in  support 
of  this  representation,  to  the  Epistles  of  his  "  beloved 
brother  Paul,  wherein  are  some  things  hard  to  be  under- 
stood, which  the  ignorant  and  unsteadfast  wrest,  as  they 
do  all  the  other  Scriptures,  to  their  own  destruction/' 


This  Epistle  did  not  gain  general  recognition  as  a  genuine  work  of 
Peter  and  as  a  canonical  book  until  after  the  time  of  Eusebius  {c. 
325),  but  its  useful  character  had  caused  it  to  be  widely  read  and  led 
to  its  ultimate  reception  into  the  canon.  The  chief  objections  to  its 
genuineness  are  that  no  mention  of  It  in  Christian  literature  occurs 
before  the  third  century ;  that,  like  the  Epistie  of  Jude,  to  which  it 
bears  a  striking  resemblance,  it  combats  forms  of  Gnostic  heresy  sup- 
posed to  be  of  a  later  origin ;  that  it  refers  to  Paul's  writings  as 
*'  Scripture" ;  and  the  seeming  remoteness  of  its  composition  from  the 
eariy  Christian  time  as  implied  in  3  :  d.  But  it  is  probable  that  the 
"  Fathers  "  referred  to  are  the  ancient  Jewish  patriarchs,  and  there  is 
no  feature  of  the  heresy  combated  that  might  not  have  arisen  before 
64.  Even  supposing  the  author  to  have  been  dependent  on  the 
Epistie  of  Jude  a  later  date  is  not  necessary.  If  the  First  Epistie  is 
genuine  and  bears  evidence  of  strong  Pauline  influence,  the  mention 
of  Paul's  Episties  among  the  "  Scriptures  "  would  not  be  unnatural. 

Early  tradition,  gathered  up  by  Papias  (A.  D.  140-160) 
represented  Peter  as  the  virtual  author  of  the  Gospel  ac- 
cording to  Mark.  It  is  highly  probable  that  Mark  wrote 
under  the  influence  of  Peter  and  recorded  the  words  and 
deeds  of  the  Saviour  as  Peter  was  accustomed  to  narrate 
them. 

Several  apocryphal  works,  written  in  the  second  century,  bear 
Peter's  name  (the  Preaching  of  Peter,  the  Gospel  of  Peter,  the  Apoc- 
alypse of  Peter),  and  he  figures  very  prominentiy  in  the  Clementine 
Homilies  and  Recognitions  (end  of  second  century). 

There  is  no  ground  for  the  later  Roman  Catholic  contention  that 
Peter  was  the  first  pastor  of  the  Roman  church,  or  that  he  occupied  a 
position  of  primacy  among  the  aposties,  although  our  Lord's  address 
to  Peter  recorded  in  Matt.  16 :  i8, 19,  wrongly  interpreted,  could  be 
easily  perverted  in  this  interest 


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CHAP.n.]  THE  APOSTLES  IO9 

7.  The  Ministry  of  James,  the  Brother  of  Jesus.  There 
is  no  evidence  that  the  brothers  of  Jesus  believed  in  his 
Messiahship  until  after  his  resurrection.  A  special  man- 
ifestation to  him  of  the  risen  Christ  no  doubt  made  of 
James  the  zealous  disciple  that  we  find  him  to  have  been. 
After  Peter  had  become  occupied  with  missionary  work 
outside  of  the  city,  and  especially  after  he  had  compro- 
mised himself  in  the  eyes  of  the  Judaizing  Christians  by 
eating  with  Gentile  Christians,  James  came  to  be  the 
recognized  leader  of  the  mother-church.  It  does  not  ap- 
pear that  he  ever  abandoned  the  contention  that  it  is 
obligatory  on  Christian  Jews  to  observe  the  Law.  While 
he  countenanced  missionary  work  among  the  Gentiles 
and  agreed  to  the  recognition  of  Gentile  converts  without 
circumcision,  as  a  Jew  he  felt  bound  to  observe  the 
whole  law  and  to  require  other  Jewish  converts  to  con- 
form to  this  practice.  That  the  mother-church,  of  which 
James  remained  pastor  until  his  death,  enjoyed  immunity 
from  the  severer  forms  of  persecution  may  be  inferred 
from  absence  of  any  notices  of  suffering ;  that  the 
Christians  of  Jerusalem  were  exceedingly  poor  is  evi- 
dent from  the  continued  efforts  of  Paul  to  gather  funds 
for  their  relief.  Later  Christian  writers  (Clement  of  Alex- 
andria, Eusebius,  etc.)  represent  James  as  the  "bishop" 
of  the  Jerusalem  church  ;  but  this  term  is  never  applied 
to  him  in  the  apostolic  writings.  The  authority  he  en- 
joyed was  due  not  to  official  position  but  rather  to  force 
of  character,  relationship  to  the  Lord,  and  stanch  adher- 
ence to  Judaism.  According  to  an  early  tradition  em- 
bodied by  Hegesippus  in  the  fifth  book  of  his  *'  Memoirs," 
and  quoted  by  Eusebius,^  James  had  attained  to  an  extraor- 
dinary reputation  for  sanctity  among  the  Jews  and  had 
received  the  titles  "the  just"  and  "bulwark  of  the 
people."  He  is  said  to  have  been  "holy  from  his 
mother's  womb,"  to  have  drunk  "  no  wine  nor  strong 
drink,"  to  have  eaten  no  flesh,  to  have  never  had  his 
hair  or  beard  cut,  and  to  have  abstained  from  anointing 
himself  with  oil  and  from  bathing.  "  He  alone  was  per- 
mitted to  enter  into  the  holy  place ;  for  he  wore  not 
woolen  but  linen  garments." 

>  "  Cburch  History."  Bk.  U..  cb.  •). 


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no  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PBR.1 

It  is  represented  that  after  Paul  had  been  delivered 
out  of  their  hands  and  sent  to  Rome,  some  of  the  leaders 
of  the  Jews  questioned  James  about  Jesus  and  that  his 
confession  led  to  the  conversion  of  so  many  as  to  alarm 
the  authorities,  who  cast  him  from  the  pinnacle  of  the 
temple  and  afterward  stoned  and  beat  him  to  death* 
Josephus  relates  that  advantage  was  taken  of  the  inter- 
regnum between  the  death  of  Festus  and  the  arrival  of 
Albinus  to  destroy  this  just  man.  The  high  priest  Annas 
is  said  to  have  called  the  Sanhedrin  together  and  secured 
his  condemnation.     This  occurred  about  A.  D.  6i. 

8.  The  Labors  of  Other  Apostolic  Men.  We  know  al- 
most nothing  of  the  career  of  John  from  the  time  of  the 
apostolic  conference,  when  Paul  reckoned  him  as  one  of 
the  "  pillars  "  of  the  Jerusalem  church,  to  the  Neronian 
persecution.  It  is  probable  that  long  before  A.  D.  64  he 
had  entered  upon  his  missionary  work  in  the  province  of 
Asia.  But  his  writings  and  the  most  that  we  know  of  his 
labors  are  of  a  later  date.  To  Jude,  a  brother  of  the 
Lord,  a  short  canonical  Epistle  is  ascribed.  He  proba- 
bly remained  in  connection  with  the  Jerusalem  church. 
Early  tradition,  of  uncertain  value,  represents  Andrew, 
Matthew^  and  Bartholomew  as  laboring  in  the  region  of 
the  Black  Sea  ;  Thomas,  Thaddeus,  and  Simon  the  Ca- 
naanite  in  the  remote  East  as  far  as  India,  and  Philip  in 
Asia  Minor.  We  have  no  trustworthy  accounts  of  th*? 
results  of  their  labors  or  of  the  dates  or  circumstif  nces  of 
their  deaths. 

According  to  tradition  Mark  labored  in  Eg/pt  and 
founded  the  church  in  Alexandria.  As  he  ^\as  with 
Paul  during  his  Roman  imprisonment  and  with  Peter 
when  he  composed  his  first  Epistle,  and  as  he  is  said  to 
have  been  succeeded  in  Alexandria  by  Annianus  in  the 
eighth  year  of  Nero  (62),  his  residence  there  must  have 
included  some  time  before  62.  If  he  composed  the  Gos- 
pel that  bears  his  name  under  Peter's  influence  it  was 
probably  shortly  before  the  Neronian  persecution. 

Of  Barnabas  after  his  separation  from  Paul  we  know 
nothing  except  that  he  labored  for  a  time  on  the  island 
of  Cyprus.  The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  written  proba- 
bly "iafter"ther  Neronian  persecution,  was- ascribed  \)y 
Tertullian  and  by  many  later  writers  to  Barnabas. 


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CMAP.U.]  THE  APOSTLES  III 

Of  Apcllos,  the  learned  Alexandrian  Jew,  whose  labors 
in  Ephesus  and  in  Corinth  have  already  been  referred  to, 
nothing  further  is  known.  Luther  ascribed  to  him  the 
authorship  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  and  this  opin- 
ion has  been  adopted  by  a  number  of  recent  writers. 

Of  Luke,  "the  beloved  physician  "  and  the  author  of 
the  Gospel  bearing  his  name  and  of  the  book  of  Acts, 
who  was  closely  associated  with  Paul  in  his  missionary 
labors  and  during  his  imprisonment,  nothing  further  is 
known.  Some  early  Christian  writers  supposed  that  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  was  written  in  Hebrew  by  Paul 
and  translated  into  Greek  by  Luke.  Origen  was  of 
the  opinion  that  the  Epistle  is  a  report  of  oral  teachings  of 
Paul  by  one  of  his  disciples,  possibly  by  Luke,  and  some 
have  attributed  its  authorship  to  Luke.  The  late  Dr. 
John  A.  Broadus  inclined  to  the  opinion  that  the  Epistle 
was  a  sermon  of  Paul's  reported  freely  in  his  own  lan- 
guage by  Luke. 

Of  Silvanus  the  last  mention  we  have  is  in  First  Peter. 
Timothy,  who  was  so  intimately  associated  with  Paul  in 
his  missionary  labors,  who  joined  with  Paul  in  the  Epis- 
tles to  the  Philippians,  Colossians,  Thessalonians,  and 
Philemon,  and  who  was  with  him  during  part  of  his 
Roman  imprisonment,  seems  to  have  labored  for  some 
time  in  Ephesus,  and  is  represented  by  a  somewhat  late 
tradition  as  a  bishop  of  that  church.  He  is  said  to  have 
suffered  martyrdom  under  Domitian.  The  name  of 
Titus  is  associated  in  tradition  with  the  island  of  Crete. 

.v.  FROM  THE  NERONIAN  PERSECUTION  TO  THE  DEATH  OF 
THE  APOSTLE  JOHN  (A.  D.  64-100). 

I.  The  Neronian  Persecution.  Christianity  had  from 
the  beginning  everywhere  suffered  persecution,  the  Jews 
being  usually  the  instigators.  It  has  been  qoticed  that 
in  most  cases  Roman  officials  were  slow  to  act  upon 
Jewish  accusations  and  gave  a  measure  of  protection  to 
the  Christians.  In  a  few  cases  pagans  raised  an  outcry 
against  those  whose  teachings  were  perilous  to  their 
worldly  interests.  But  there  is  no  instance  on  record  in 
which  any  high  Roman  official  proceeded  spontaneously 
against  the  Christians  before  A.  D.  64.  Claudius  had 
issued  an  edict  of  banishment  against  the  Jews  of  Rome 


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112  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISIORY  [PHti 

(probably  in  A.  D.  49).  No  doubt  such  Jewish  Chris- 
tians as  were  in  Rome  suffered  along  with  other  Jews. 
The  remark  of  Suetonius,  that  *'  Claudius  expelled  the 
Jews  assiduously  creating  disturbance  under  the  instiga- 
tion of  Chrestus,"  has  led  some  to  suspect  that  the  Jew- 
ish riots  were  connected  with  the  Christian  propaganda.  . 
But  Chrestus  may  have  been  a  Jewish  agitator  of  the 
time.  Supposing  Christ  to  be  meant,  it  is  by  no  means 
certain  that  the  writer  made  the  blunder  of  supposing 
that  he  was  then  actually  present  in  Rome. 

The  early  years  of  Nero's  reign  were  not  unfavorable 
to  the  spread  of  the  gospel.  Son  of  the  ambitious  and 
intriguing  Agrippina  and  stepson  of  the  imbecile  Em- 
peror Claudius,  he  succeeded  to  the  imperial  dignity 
while  still  a  youth.  Gifted  in  poetry  and  in  music, 
genial,  humane,  the  beginning  of  his  reign  awakened 
high  expectations.  Augustus  had  esteemed  it  a  personal 
affliction  to  be  obliged  to  punish,  and  he  had  inflicted  the 
death  penalty  only  in  extreme  cases.  The  youthful 
Nero,  some  time  after  his  assumption  of  the  purple,  re- 
joiced that  in  his  entire  empire  not  a  drop  of  blood  had 
been  shed.  When  it  appeared  necessary  for  him  to  sign 
death  warrants  he  lamented  that  he  could  write.  Under 
the  tuition  of  such  philosophers  and  statesm^^n  as  Sen- 
eca and  Burrhus  it  was  expected  that  the  ingenuous  youth 
would  become  a  paragon  of  wisdom  and  of  justice. 
Seneca  thought  him  **  incapable  of  learning  cruelty," 
and  expected  that  the  emperor's  gentleness  of  disposition 
would  permeate  the  entire  empire  and  so  transform  the 
world  as  to  restore  the  innocent,  golden  age  of  mankind. 
Nero  was  emperor  when  Rom.  13  :  1-7  and  i  Peter  11  : 
13-17  were  penned.  It  was  to  Nero  that  Paul  as  a 
Roman  citizen  appealed  when  arraigned  in  Csesarea. 
Christianity  had  its  representatives,  doubtless  somewhat 
numerous  and  influential,  in  Nero's  household. 

It  does  not  fall  within  the  purpose  of  the  present  work 
to  attempt  to  account  for  the  transformation  of  the  bril- 
liant, ingenuous  Nero  of  $4  into  the  cruel  monster  of 
62-^.  As  early  as  A.  D.  55  he  had  ordered  the  murder 
of  his  brother  Britannicus,  and  in  A.  D.  60  his  mother 
had  been  assassinated  at  his  command.  The  divorce 
and  the  subsequent  murder  of  his  first  wife  Octavia  and 


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CHAP.  II.]  THE  APOSTLES  II3 

the  death  of  Poppoea,  his  second  wife,  from  personal 
abuse  represent  stages  in  his  downward  career.  He  be- 
came insanely  greedy  of  praise  for  his  poetic  and  musical 
accomplishments,  and  to  gain  the  popular  applause  often 
played  the  part  of  a  public  buffoon.  Unbridled  indul- 
gence in  vice  of  every  description,  the  flattery  of  corrupt 
favorites,  and  the  possession  of  unlimited  power,  no 
doubt  dethroned  his  reason.  Only  a  madman  could 
have  been  guilty  of  the  follies  and  the  atrocities  of  his 
later  years. 

In  the  summer  of  64  his  fury  was  turned  upon  the 
Christians  of  Rome.  The  occasion  was  the  burning  of 
ten  out  of  fourteen  of  the  precincts  of  the  city.  For 
accounts  of  the  conflagration  and  of  the  persecution  that 
ensued  we  are  indebted  almost  wholly  to  pagan  writers 
of  the  next  century.  Contemporary  Jewish  writers  like 
Josephus  were  discreetly  silent  regarding  the  conflagra- 
tion and  the  persecution  alike.  Christians  were  terror- 
stricken  by  this  terrible  revelation  of  the  '*  mystery  of 
iniquity,"  and  if  they  referred  to  the  matter  at  all  veiled 
their  utterances  in  symbolical  language.  The  abrupt- 
ness with  which  the  book  of  Acts  terminates  may  have 
been  due  to  the  writer's  unwillingness  to  subject  his 
brethren  to  further  persecution  by  publicly  narrating  the 
facts  of  the  Neronian  persecution.  The  Apocalypse  no 
doubt  owes  some  of  its  obscurity  to  the  desire  of  its 
writer  to  express  in  a  way  intelligible  to  the  Christians 
of  his  time,  but  unintelligible  to  their  enemies,  his  di- 
vinely inspired  views  on  the  actual  and  future  relations 
of  Christianity  and  the  great  world-power. 

Suetonius,  Dion  Cassius,  and  Pliny  state  categorically 
that  Nero  himself  was  the  author  of  the  conflagration. 
Tacitus  informs  us  that  Nero  was  suspected  of  the  crime 
and  that  to  avert  from  himself  the  suspicion  he  accused 
the  Christians  of  committing  it.  Tacitus'  account  of 
the  persecution  is  as  follows : 

First  were  arraigned  those  who  confessed,  then  on  their  informa- 
tion a  vast  multitude  were  convicted,  not  so  much  on  the  charge  of 
arson  as  for  their  hatred  of  the  human  race.  Their  deaths  were 
made  more  cruel  by  the  mockery  that  accompanied  them.  Some 
were  covered  with  the  skins  of  wild  beasts  and  torn  to  pieces  by 
dogs ;  others  perished  on  the  cross  or  in  the  flames :  and  others 
again  were  burnt  after  sunset  as  torches  to  light  up  the  darkness 


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114  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  I 

Nero  himself  granted  his  gardens  for  the  show,  and  gave  an  exhibi- 
tion in  the  circus,  and  dressed  as  a  charioteer,  mixed  with  the  people 
or  drove  his  chariot  himself.  Thus,  guilty  and  deserving  the  sever- 
est punishment  as  they  were,  they  were  yet  pitied,  as  they  seemed  to 
be  put  to  death,  not  for  the  benefit  of  the  State*  but  to  gratify  the 
cruelty  of  an  individual.  ^ 

The  following  remarks  may  be  apposite  : 
(i)  Nero's  reputation  for  wanton  destructiveness  of 
property  and  life  was  such  as  to  lead  to  the  popular  be- 
lief that  he  had  caused  the  conflagration  and  had  inflicted 
the  most  terrible  suffering  on  a  sect  innocent  of  this  par- 
ticular crime,  but  on  other  accounts  hated  by  the  people. 
It  is  probable  that  Nero  had  expressed  dissatisfaction 
with  the  architecture  of  the  city  and  that  this,  together 
with  the  magnificence  of  the  rebuilding,  confirmed  the 
suspicion. 

(2)  It  is  probable  that  his  attention  to  the  Christians  as 
proper  victims  was  suggested  by  the  Jews,  who  enjoyed 
considerable  favor  under  Nero  through  the  influence  still 
possessed  by  the  beautiful  Poppoea. 

(3)  We  are  not  to  infer  from  Nero's  proceedings  against 
the  Christians  that  he  proscribed  Christianity  as  such ; 
but  rather  that  he  proscribed  the  Christians  of  Rome  as 
guilty  of  incendiarism  and  of  disgraceful  practices. 

(4)  Tacitus's  statement  that "  first  were  arraigned  those 
who  confessed  "  may  mean  either  that  pretended  Chris- 
tians were  found  who  testified  that  Christians  were 
guilty  of  arson  and  other  crimes,  and  who  gave  the  names 
of  many  Christians,  or  that  some  real  Christians  were 
forced  by  torture  to  confess  crimes  that  they  had  not 
committed  and  to  give  the  names  of  their  brethren,  or 
that  the  accused  ones  first  arraigned  confessed  that  they 
were  Christians.  From  Tacitus*  own  statement  it  would 
seem  that  the  confession  did  not  involve  the  admission  of 
incendiarism,  but  rather  of  such  views  of  life  as  seemed 
to  the  Romans  to  involve  "hatred  of  the  human  rape." 
Their  repudiation  of  the  State  religion  and  their  refusal 
to  participate  in  the  corrupt  social  life  of  the  time  sufficed 
to  bring  upon  them  this  charge,  and  vile  stories  were 
commonly  circulated  against  them,  if  not  in  the  time  of 
Nero,  certainly  by  the  time  of  Tacitus. 

'XV..  44. 


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CHAP.  II.]  THE  APOSTLES  11$ 

(5)  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  Nero  attempted 
to  exterminate  Christianity  throughout  the  empire  by 
issuing  a  general  edict  against  the  Name.  Yet  it  is  prob- 
able that  the  harsh  treatment  of  Christians  in  Rome  en- 
couraged their  enemies  in  Asia  Minor  and  elsewhere  to 
rise  up  against  them,  and  caused  Roman  officials  in  the 
provinces  to  be  less  indifferent  than  hitherto  to  charges 
brought  against  Christians. 

(6)  It  is  probable  that  throughout  the  remainder  of  his 
reign  Nero  continued  to  cause  the  persecution  of  Chris- 
tians in  Rome.  It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  Paul 
and  Peter  were  both,  or  either  of  them,  executed  in  the 
summer  of  64.  If  there  were  reasons  for  believing  that 
either  of  them  lived  till  66  or  68  the  fact  that  both  suf- 
fered in  Rome  under  Nero  would  not  be  contradicted. 

2.  The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  (c.  A.  D.  67).  The  six 
years  that  intervened  between  the  Neronian  persecu- 
tion and  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  must  have  been 
a  time  of  gloom  and  grave  apprehension  to  the  Christian 
churches.  They  had  come  to  realize  that  they  could 
expect  nothing  but  evil  from  the  constituted  author- 
ities. Many  Jewish  Christians,  who  from  the  first 
had  found  it  difficult  to  reconcile  the  doctrine  and  the 
fact  of  a  suffering  Saviour  with  their  ideas  of  a  Mes- 
sianic kingdom  and  to  whom  the  future  seemed  fraught 
with  suffering,  began  to  grow  discouraged.  The  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  was  probably  written  at  this  time  with  a 
view  to  making  clear  the  necessity  and  the  dignity  of  a 
suffering  Messiah.  Christ's  superiority  to  Jewish  high 
priests  consists  in  the  fact  that  "  having  learned  obedi- 
ence by  the  things  which  he  suffered  ;  and  having  been 
made  perfect,  he  became  unto  all  them  that  obey  him 
the  author  of  eternal  salvation  "  (5  : 8, 9).  "  It  behooved 
him  in  all  things  to  be  made  like  unto  his  brethren,  that 
he  might  be  a  merciful  and  faithful  high  priest.  .  .  For 
in  that  he  hath  suffered  being  tempted,  he  is  able  to  suc- 
cor them  that  are  tempted."  Reference  is  made  in 
chap.  10  to  "former  days,"  in  which  the  readers  "en- 
dured a  great  conflict  of  sufferings,"  and  "took  joyfully 
the  spoiling  of  their  goods."  The  blessedness  of  faith, 
exercised  under  the  most  trying  circumstances,  and  the 
glories  of  martyrdom  are  impressively  set  forth*    The 


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Il6  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.L 

readers  are  warned  against '' divers  and  strange  teach- 
ings/' and  the  words  that  follow  indicate  that  it  is  Juda- 
izing  error  (Ebionism)  that  the  writer  has  in  mind.  They 
are  exhorted  to  "obey  them  that  have  the  rule  over" 
them.  A  salutation  from  the  brethren  in  Italy  is  con- 
veyed and  the  release  of  Timothy  from  bondage  is  re* 
ported.  If  Paul's  martyrdom  did  not  occur  in  the  summer 
of  64,  but  somewhat  later,  the  Epistle  may  have  been 
written  under  his  direction  and  may  be  virtually  his  own. 
In  any  case  it  is  thoroughly  Pauline  in  spirit. 

3.  The  Jewish  War  and  the  Destruction  of  Jerusalem 
(A.  D.  70).  The  New  Testament  contains  no  direct  refer- 
ence to  this  great  event  which  forms  an  epoch  in  Jewish 
history  and  exerted  a  profound  influence  on  Christian  pro- 
gress. ''  One  of  the  most  awful  eras  in  God's  economy  of 
grace,  and  the  most  awful  revolution  in  all  God's  relig- 
ious dispensations,"  is  Warburton's  characterization.  **  A 
greater  catastrophe  than  the  mortal  combat  of  the  Jewish 
people  with  the  Roman  world-power,  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  holy  city,  is  unknown  to  the  history  of  the 
world  "  (Orelli).  Farrar  characterizes  this  event  as 
"the  most  awful  in  history." 

For  years  Jewish  discontent  with  Roman  tyranny  had 
been  growing  more  and  more  acute.  Caligula  (c.  4P) 
ordered  his  image  to  be  erected  in  the  Jewish  temple, 
and  committed  the  execution  of  the  order  to  Petronius, 
the  Syrian  governor.  The  determined  opposition  of  the 
Jews  led  to  delay  and  a  crisis  was  averted  by  the  death 
of  ihe  emperor  (41).  Claudius  sought  to  conciliate  the 
Jews  of  Palestine  and  of  Egypt  by  guaranteeing  to  them 
freedom  and  protection  in  the  exercise  of  their  religion, 
and  the  Herodian  kingdom  under  Agrippa  I.  was  restored 
so  as  to  cover  the  territory  governed  by  Herod  the 
Great.  After  his  death  (44)  Judea  became  a  Roman 
province  and  the  authority  of  the  later  Herodians  was 
very  slight. 

The  Roman  procurators  (44  onward)  were  for  the  most 
part  corrupt  and  oppressive  and  were  little  concerned 
about  conciliating  the  people.  Felix  (c.  52-58),  an  eman- 
cipated slave,  was  licentious  and  dishonest  and  gave  the 
Jewish  people  over  to  be  ruined  by  unscrupulous  tax- 
gatherers.    Festus  (c.  58-61)  bore  a  better  reputation ; 


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CHAP.n.]  THE  APOSTLES  II7 

but  AlbinuSy  his  successor  (c.  61),  shamefully  plundered 
the  land.  ''  There  was  no  sort  of  iniquity  that  he  did 
not  practise''  (Josephus).  He  shared  with  robbers  in 
their  spoils  and  ranked  among  them  as  a  captain  (Jo- 
sephus). His  successor  Florus  (c.  65)  was  so  shameless 
in  his  corruption  that  he  is  represented  by  Josephus  as 
fomenting  revolution  in  order  to  cover  up  his  misdeeds. 

In  66  a  Jewish  uprising  occurred  in  Caesarea.  The 
plundering  of  the  temple  by  Florus  greatly  increased  the 
popular  discontent.  Jewish  zealots  here  and  there  mar- 
shaled armies  against  Roman  rule.  The  slaughter  of 
twenty  thousand  Jews  in  Csesarea  was  a  signal  for  a 
general  uprising.  About  thirteen  thousand  fell  shortly 
afterward  at  Scythopolis  and  multitudes  in  other  places. 
Vespasian,  an  experienced  general,  was  sent  by  Nero  in 
67  to  quell  the  rebellion.  Jerusalem  was  strongly  forti- 
fied and  was  able  for  a  long  time  to  resist  the  Roman 
assaults.  The  death  of  Nero  led  to  a  suspension  of  effort. 
Galba,  Otho,  and  Vitellius  successively  donned  the  pur- 
ple, but  it  remained  for  Vespasian  to  secure  general 
recognition  as  emperor  (69). 

With  Vespasian  it  was  a  matter  of  honor  to  complete 
the  subjugation  of  the  Jews.  His  son  Titus,  with  an 
army  of  eighty  thousand,  besieged  Jerusalem  in  A.  D.  70. 
Josephus,  the  historian,  took  sides  with  the  Romans 
against  his  own  people  and  co-operated  with  Titus.  His 
writings  constitute  the  only  detailed  account  we  possess 
of  this  terrible  struggle. 

Besides  the  ordinary  population  of  Jerusalem  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  Jews  had  flocked  to  the  city  from  Judea, 
Syria,  and  even  Mesopotamia.  The  besieged  held  out 
with  fanatical  obstinacy.  The  horrors  of  famine,  pesti- 
lence, and  cannibalism  were  added  to  the  destructive 
fury  of  the  Roman  army.  As  one  part  of  the  city  after 
another  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Romans  the  inhabitants 
were  remorselessly  executed.  Over  a  million  are  said 
to  have  been  slaughtered  and  over  a  hundred  thousand 
to  have  been  taken  captive.  Multitudes  were  sent  into 
the  most  degrading  slavery.  Thousands  of  the  choicest 
young  men  were  selected  for  gladiatorial  exhibitions. 
The  temple  was  destroyed,  although  Titus  is  said  to 
have  wished  to  preserve  it.    A  few  of  the  Zealots  es- 


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IlS  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  I 

caped  and  proceeded  to  Alexandria,  where  they  caused  a 
Jewish  insurrection.  This  was  suppressed  with  great 
slaughter  and  the  temple  at  Leontopolis  was  forever 
closed  against  the  Jews.  The  Jewish  nation  as  a  the- 
ocracy was  blotted  out  of  existence. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  Christians  of  Jeru- 
salem and  Judea  were  strongly  opposed  to  the  Zealots  in 
their  uncompromising  warfare  against  Rome.  To  remain 
in  Jerusalem  would  subject  them  not  only  to  the  horrors 
of  the  siege  and  to  the  general  massacre  that  they  must 
have  foreseen  as  inevitable,  but  to  maltreatment  at  the 
hands  of  the  Zealots,  who  could  brook  no  opposition  and 
to  whom  even  indifference  in  respect  to  the  patriotic 
cause  was  regarded  as  treason.  Shortly  before  the  city 
had  been  invested  by  Titus  (probably  late  in  69)  they 
withdrew  to  Pella,  in  Perea,  where  under  the  leadership 
of  Symeon,  a  cousin  of  the  Lord,  they  remained  until  it 
was  safe  for  them  to  return  to  Jerusalem.  Under  the 
leadership  of  James  the  Jerusalem  Christians  had  glo- 
ried in  being  Jews  and  in  rigorously  observing  the  Jewish 
ceremonial  law.  In  fact  they  claimed  that,  having  ac- 
cepted the  Messiah  rejected  by  most  of  their  fellow- 
countrymen,  they  were  the  only  true  Jews  ;  and  they 
no  doubt  lived  in  the  hope  that  they  would  be  able  to 
lead  the  nation  as  such  to  accept  the  Messiah. 

The  destruction  of  Jerusalem  was  of  momentous  im- 
port to  Christianity  in  the  following  ways : 

(i)  It  marked  in  the  most  unmistakable  way  the  end 
of  the  old  dispensation  and  the  complete  emancipation 
of  Christianity  from  the  thraldom  of  Judaism.  It  was 
henceforth  impossible  for  any  one  to  observe  the  cere- 
monial law  in  its  fullness.  No  doubt  the  Pauline  type 
of  Christianity  would  ultimately  have  become  dominant 
apart  from  this  fearful  interposition  of  Divine  Providence. 
Judaistic  Christianity  was  to  persist  in  the  form  of 
sects,  but  catholic  Christianity  could  no  longer  be  Juda* 
izing. 

(2)  The  destruction  of  the  city  was  very  commonly 
looked  upon  by  Christians  as  a  divine  judgment  on  the 
Jewish  people  for  their  rejection  and  crucifixion  of  the 
Messiah.  It  may  safely  be  said  that  if  the  Jews  as  a 
body,  or  a  large  proportion  of  them,  had  accepted  Christ 


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CHAP.  II.]  THE  APOSTLES  II9 

as  their  Saviour  and  had  become  partakers  of  the  Spirit 
of  Christ,  the  Jewish  Zealots,  who  brought  ruin  upon 
their  people,  would  not  have  arisen  or  would  not  have 
secured  popular  support. 

(3)  The  great  catastrophe  may  be  regarded  as  a  direct 
fulfillment  of  our  Lord's  predictions  as  recorded  in  Matt. 
21  :  43  and  23  :  37-39,  and  in  Luke  21  :  20-28. 

(4)  This  great  event  is  regarded  by  many  as  a  ful- 
fillment of  our  Lord's  prophecies  regarding  his  speedy 
coming  in  his  kingdom  (Matt.  10  :  23  ;  16  :  28  ;  24  :  34), 
and  of  such  passages  in  the  apostolic  Epistles  and  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  as  represent  the  Lord's  advent  as 
imminent.  It  seems  harsh  to  associate  so  glorious  an 
event  as  the  Lord's  coming  with  a  catastrophe  so  terri- 
ble ;  yet  there  can  be  no  question  but  that  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  city  and  the  theocracy  gave  a  freedom  and  a 
universality  to  the  gospel  which  mark  an  epoch  in  the 
history  of  Christianity  and  placed  the  gradually  advan- 
cing kingdom  of  Christ  on  a  firm  basis. 

($)  There  is  no  reason  to  think  that  the  Roman  au- 
thorities at  this  time  discriminated  carefully  between 
Christianity  and  Judaism  in  favor  of  the  former ;  but 
the  time  had  past  when  the  accusations  of  Jews  against 
Christians  would  be  heeded  by  the  civil  courts.  Hence- 
forth the  Jews  were  without  political  influence  and  were  • 
treated  with  contempt  by  the  Roman  officials. 

4.  The  Gospels.  All  the  Gospels  except  that  of  Mark 
(65-70)  were  probably  composed  after  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem.  Various  collections  of  discourses  and  narra- 
tives of  the  life  and  works  of  Jesus  had  doubtless  been 
in  circulation  for  several  decades.  Matthew's  Gospel 
was  probably  composed  shortly  after  A.  D.  70,  Luke's 
Gospel  and  his  Acts  of  the  Apostles  probably  a  few 
years  later,  while  the  Gospel  according  to  John  did  not 
appear  until  near  the  close  of  the  century. 

5.  Persecution  of  Christians  under  Domitian  (A.  D.  81- 
96).  Vespasian  (69-79)  does  not  appear  to  have  taken 
any  steps  against  the  Christians.  He  was  one  of  the 
best  of  the  emperors  and  devoted  his  attention  largely  to 
the  proper  work  of  administration  and  to  the  erection  of 
useful  public  works.  Having  slaughtered  a  million  re- 
bellious Jews  and  destroyed  their  city  and  sanctuary,  he 


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I20  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER  I 

relented  toward  the  subjugated  remnant  and  on  various 
occasions  protected  them  from  local  tyranny.  Jews  and 
Christians  alike  were  compelled  to  pay  the  old  temple 
tax  for  the  maintenance  of  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Capt- 
tolinus  that  had  been  erected  in  Jerusalem.  Christians 
were  apparently  little  thought  of  except  as  a  small  Jew- 
ish sect  hated  by  their  countrymen  and  not  at  all  dan- 
gerous to  the  commonwealth.  The  same  is  true  of  the 
short  reign  of  Titus  (79-81). 

Domitian  (81-96),  son  of  Vespasian  and  Flavia  Domi- 
tilla,  was  autocratic,  arrogant,  suspicious,  cruel,  and 
ferocious.  Vespasian  had  refused  to  be  worshiped  as 
God.  Domitian  insisted  upon  such  worship  as  an  im- 
perial prerogative,  and  assumed  the  titles  "  God,'*  **  Lord 
and  God,"  "Jupiter,''  etc.  He  was  zealous  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  State  religion  and  regarded  secret 
religious  societies  as  hotbeds  of  treason  which  must  be 
destroyed.  He  became  suspicious  of  the  Senate,  which 
opposed  his  arbitrary  measures,  and  many  of  its  mem- 
bers were  proscribed.  He  instituted  a  system  of  espion- 
age and  encouraged  slaves  to  betray  their  masters. 
During  the  last  two  years  of  his  reign  his  suspiciousness 
and  cruelty  became  intensified.  Christians,  especially 
those  in  Rome,  suffered  severely  at  his  hands.  Chris- 
tianity now  had  its  representatives  among  the  Roman 
aristocracy.  Flavia  Domitilla  (the  younger),  wife  (or 
niece)  of  Flavius  Clemens,  a  consul  and  a  cousin  of  the 
emperor,  is  said  to  have  been  "  exiled  with  others  to  the 
island  of  Pontia  in  consequence  of  testimony  borne  to 
Christ."*  Flavius  Clemens  himself  was  put  to  death, 
but  whether  as  a  Christian  remains  uncertain.  Sueto- 
nius charges  him  with  "most  contemptible  laziness" 
and  Dion  Cassius  with  "atheism."  This  latter  was  a 
common  charge  against  Christians ;  but  we  cannot  ac- 
count for  the  silence  of  early  Christian  tradition  if  so 
eminent  a  man  had  suffered  for  the  faith. 

Domitian  is  said  to  have  heard  that  relatives  of  Jesus 
still  lived  in  Palestine  and  to  have  suspected  them  of 
kingly  aspirations.  When  they  had  been  brought  before 
him  and  he  had  learned  that  they  were  poor  rustics  and 

>  EuMUttt. 


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CHAP.n.]  THE  APOSTLES  121 

that  the  kingdom  of  Christ  **  was  not  a  temporal  nor  an 
earthly,"  "but  a  heavenly  and  angelic  one,  which  would 
appear  at  the  end  of  the  world,"  he  **  let  them  go,  and 
by  a  decree  put  a  stop  to  the  persecution  of  the  church."* 
Tertullian  speaks  of  Domitian  as  ''  a  portion  of  Nero  as 
regards  cruelty,"  and  he  seems  to  have  been  regarded 
by  the  author  of  the  Apocalypse  as  a  second  Nero  (17  : 
II).  The  First  Epistle  of  Clement  of  Rome,  written 
about  this  time,  speaks  of  "  sudden  and  repeated  calami- 
ties and  adversities  "  as  having  recently  befallen  the 
Roman  chuFch.  The  banishment  of  the  Apostle  John  to 
Patmos  is  commonly  referred  to  this  reign.  It  is  not  at 
all  likely  that  Domitian  attempted  to  institute  a  general 
persecution  of  Christians ;  but  the  persecution  for  local 
reasons  of  the  Roman  Christians  and  the  emperor's 
known  hostility  to  Christianity  doubtless  gave  encour- 
agement to  persecuting  acts  in  many  communities. 

6.  The  Johanman  Apocalypse.  According  to  Irena^us, 
whose  acquaintance  with  Polycarp  of  Smyrna  (d.  155), 
a  disciple  of  the  Apostle  John,  placed  him  in  very  close 
touch  with  the  later  apostolic  age,  the  Apocalypse  was 
written  near  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Domitian  (c.  95). 
More  than  any  other  New  Testament  writing  it  breathes 
a  spirit  of  intense  hostility  to  the  Roman  Empire.  Do- 
mitian seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  a  repetition  of 
Nero.  His  arrogance,  his  determination  to  be  recognized 
and  worshiped  as  a  god,  and  his  extreme  intolerance  led 
Christians  to  expect  the  worst  things  and  made  the  out- 
look exceedingly  gloomy.  The  Neronian  persecution  is 
probably  referred  to  in  6  :  9  seq.^  where  "the  souls  of 
them  that  had  been  slain  for  the  word  of  God  "  cry  out 
for  judgment  and  vengeance.  In  17  :  11,  "the  beast  that 
was,  and  is  not,  is  himself  also  an  eighth,  and  is  of  the 
seven,"  is  probably  Domitian.*  There  was  a  widespread 
impression  among  pagans  and  Christians  alike  that  Nero. 
whose  cruelty  was  so  appalling  as  to  seem  more  than 
human,  would  return  to  renew  his  desolating  work.  It 
is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  the  author  of  the  Apoc- 
alypse believed  in  the  literal  reappearance  of  Nero ;  but 

1  EoseMos,  fbllowing  Hecesfppiis. 

>l>(Miltljui  was  tlM  eirhth  emperor  (oaltttng  Galba,  Otbo,  and  Vltelllut).    Nero 
fru  tbefifUi  and  so  was^'  of  the  seven." 


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122  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.1 

his  obscure  language  would  seem  to  reflect  the  popular 
sentiment.  Rome  was  no  doubt  meant  by  "Mystery, 
Babylon  the  Great,  the  mother  of  the  harlots  and  of  the 
abominations  of  the  earth  "  (17  :  5).  **  The  beast  that 
thou  sawest  was,  and  is  not ;  and  is  about  to  come  up 
out  of  the  abyss  "  (ver.  8)  is  doubtless  Nero  and  Domi- 
tian.  The  book  is  addressed  to  the  seven  churches  of 
Asia,  and  there  are  separate  epistles  to  Ephesus,  Smyrna, 
Pergamum,  Thyatira,  Sardis,  Philadelphia,  and  Laodicea, 
in  which  the  spiritual  condition  of  each  church  is  de- 
scribed. A  general  state  of  tribulation  and  harassment, 
by  reason  of  persecutors  and  false  teachers,  may  be  in- 
ferred from  these  addresses.  The  apocalyptic  form  of 
literature  had  been  fully  developed  in  the  pre-Christian 
time  and  the  author  was  no  doubt  acquainted  with  some 
of  the  earlier  apocalyptic  writings. 

7.  The  Gospel  and  Epistles  of  John.  That  the  Af)ostle 
John  spent  the  later  years  of  his  life  at  Ephesus  and  that 
he  lived  to  the  time  of  Trajan  (98)  is  related  by  Irena^us 
{c.  175).  Clement  of  Alexandria  (end  of  second  century) 
relates  that  he  went  forth  to  the  "  neighboring  territories 
of  the  Gentiles,  to  appoint  bishops  in  some  places,  in 
other  places  to  set  in  order  whole  churches,  elsewhere  to 
choose  to  the  ministry  some  of  those  that  were  pointed 
out  by  the  Spirit." 

The  composition  of  the  Gospel  and  the  Epistles  is  com- 
monly ascribed  to  the  last  years  of  the  apostle's  life. 
Irenaeus  represents  John  as  having  written  the  Gospel  as 
a  polemic  against  Cerinthus,  a  noted  contemporary  her- 
etic. According  to  Clement  of  Alexandria  John  wrote  a 
spiritual  Gospel  to  supplement  the  other  Gospels,  in 
which  the  external  facts  had  been  sufficiently  narrated. 
That  the  Gospel,  especially  in  the  prologue,  should 
betray  the  writer's  acquaintance  with  the  Jewish-Alex- 
andrian philosophy,  cannot  with  propriety  be  urged 
against  its  Johannean  authorship.  If,  as  is  commonly 
admitted,  the  apostle  continued  in  vigorous  activity  to 
the  time  of  Trajan,  there  is  no  reason  why  he  should  not 
have  become  possessed  of  all  the  philosophical  culture 
manifest  in  the  Gospel,  That  he  should  have  empha- 
sized the  spiritual  aspects  of  Christ's  teachings  is  what 
might  have  been  expected  of  the  disciple  "whom  Jesus 


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CHAf.lI.]  THE  APOSTLES  I23 

loved."  It  is  not  practicable  to  discuss  here  the  Johan- 
nean  question,  which  still  constitutes  one  of  the  live 
issues  of  New  Testament  criticism. 

The  Epistles  are  commonly  accepted  as  the  works  of 
the  author  of  the  Gospel.  The  First  Epistle  is  particu- 
larly interesting  as  indicating  to  us  the  forms  of  error 
prevalent  in  Asia  Minor  during  the  last  years  of  the  apos- 
tolic age.  The  first  verse  is  highly  significant,  ihe 
author's  object  is  evidently  to  set  aside  the  view  that  the 
Word  became  incarnate  in  appearance  only  (Docetism) 
by  giving  personal  testimony  as  regards  his  own  proving 
of  the  reality  of  the  Word  of  life  manifested  to  men  by 
hearing,  sight,  and  touch.  In  4  :  2  stress  is  laid  on  the 
reality  of  Christ's  humanity  :  "  Every  spirit  which  con- 
fesseth  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh  is  of  God." 
Again  (2  :  18,  20,  23)  we  have  indications  of  Ebionitic 
denial  of  the  deity  of  Christ.  Antichrists  are  said  to  be 
already  in  the  world,  who  had  gone  out  from  the  Chris- 
tians because  they  were  not  of  them.  He  is  called  a  liar 
"  that  denieth  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ.  This  is  the  anti- 
christ, he  that  denieth  the  Father  and  the  Son."  Stress 
is  laid  on  the  unction  of  the  Spirit  as  enabling  believers 
infallibly  to  discern  the  truth,  and  love,  in  truly  Johan- 
nean  phrase,  is  made  the  "  new  commandment,"  which 
he  writes  to  his  **  little  children."  He  calls  his  own  time 
**the  last  hour  "  and  regards  the  hatred  of  the  world  as 
what  was  to  be  expected. 

8.  The  Epistle  of  Clement  of  Rome  to  the  Corinthians. 
This  letter  addressed  by  the  Roman  church  to  the  Corin- 
thian church,  said  to  have  been  written  while  Clement 
was  pastor  of  the  Roman  church  and  commonly  attrib- 
uted to  him,  was  probably  contemporaneous  with  the 
Johannean  literature  and  so  falls  nominally  within  the 
apostolic  age;  but  as  it  is  commonly  classed  with  the 
"Apostolic  Fathers,"  which  belong  as  a  body  to  the  next 
period,  it  seems  best  to  defer  our  discussion  of  its  author- 
ship, date,  character,  and  contents. 

It  may  be  here  remarked  that  while  in  the  person  of 
John  direct  apostolic  influence  persisted  in  the  province 
of  Asia  until  about  the  close  of  the  first  century,  in  most 
communities  it  ceased  two  or  three  decades  earlier.  The 
death  of  Paul  and  of  Peter,  about  64,  deprived  extensive 


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Ii4  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  I. 

regions  of  the  apostolic  guidance  on  which  they  had  espe- 
cially relied.  The  generation  following  to  the  death  of 
John  was  an  age  of  transition,  and  ecclesiastical  develop- 
ment was  as  free  from  apostolic  guidance  in  many 
regions  as  in  the  second  and  following  centuries.  This 
was  no  doubt  true  of  the  churches  of  Rome  and  Corinth. 
It  will  be  interesting  to  note  here  the  condition  of 
these  churches  as  set  forth  in  the  epistle  addressed  by 
the  former  church  to  the  latter  in  response  to  an  urgent 
request  for  advice.  The  reply  has  been  delayed  by 
"  sudden  and  successive  calamitous  events  "  (no  doubt 
the  persecution  under  Domitian),  The  Corinthian  church 
had  fallen  into  discord,  which  the  writer  declares  to 
be  worse  than  that  in  Paul's  time.  The  main  trouble 
seems  to  have  been  that  ambitious  men  of  the  younger 
generation  had  gained  such  ascendency  in  the  church  as 
to  be  able  to  supplant  the  elders  that  had  been  appointed 
by  the  apostles,  or,  as  the  writer  says,  "the  worthless 
rose  up  against  the  honored,  those  of  no  reputation 
against  such  as  were  renowned,  the  foolish  against  the 
wise,  the  young  against  those  advanced  in  years" 
(chap.  3).  The  opinion  is  expressed  that  those  appointed 
by  the  apostles  "or  afterward  by  other  eminent  men, 
with  the  consent  of  the  whole  church,  and  who  have 
served  the  flock  of  Christ,  in  a  humble,  peaceable,  and 
disinterested  spirit,  and  have  for  a  long  time  possessed 
the  good  opinion  of  all,  cannot  be  justly  dismissed  from 
the  ministry  "  (chap.  44).  Throughout  the  epistle  the 
office  of  oversight  is  represented  as  committed  to  elders 
and  not  to  a  single  chief  official.  There  is  no  mention 
made  of  any  individual  headship  either  in  Rome  or  in 
Corinth. 


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CHAPTER  III 
CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  APOSTOLIC  CHURCHES 

Literature  :  in  addition  to  the  pertinent  works  referred  to  in  the 
preceding  chapter,  Hatch, '*  The  Organization  of  the  Early  Christian 
Churches,"  1882  (also  German  translation  with  important  annota- 
tions by  Hamack) ;  Cunningham,  "  The  Growth  of  the  Church  in 
its  Organization  and  Institutions,"  1886 ;  Hort,  *'  The  Christian 
Ecdesia,"  1897 ;  Lightfoot,  '*  Commentary  on  the  Epistle  to  the 
Philippians"  (excursus  on ''The  Christian  Ministry"):  Hamack, 
"  DogmsngisehichU,^'  Bd.  1.  (also  English  translation) :  Lechler,  *'  His- 
tory of  the  Apostolic  and  Post- Apostolic  Times" ;  Allen,  '*  Christian 
Institutions,''  1898:  Baur,  "The  Church  of  the  First  Three  Cen- 


turies"; Jacob,  "fecdesiastical  Polity  of  the  New  Testament'  , 
Dargan,  "  Ecclesiology,"  1897;  R^^schl,  "D.  Altkatkol.  Kirchs,'^ 
i8s7 ;  and  articles  on  the  church  and  its  various  officers  and  institu- 


tions in  Cremer,  "  Biblico-Theolo^ical  Lexicon  of  New  Testament 
Greek,"  and  in  me  Bible  dictionaries  and  encyclopedias. 

I.  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  CHURCHES. 

I.  Uses  of  the  Term  ixxXriela  in  the  New  Testament.  The 
word  denotes  literally  '*a  calling  out,"  or  the  result  of  a 
calling  out  of  the  people  for  public  purposes,  that  is,  an 
assembly.  In  this  sense  it  is  used  in  profane  Greek,  in 
che  Septuagint,  and  in  a  few  instances  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment (Acts  19  :  32,  39,  40,  41).  When  applied  to  Chris- 
tians the  word  means  in  the  New  Testament:  (i)  The 
entire  community  of  the  redeemed,  considered  as  an  or- 
ganism held  together  by  belief  in  a  common  Lord  and  by 
participation  in  a  common  life  and  salvation,  and  in  com- 
mon aims  and  interests.  In  the  Septuagint  the  word  is 
used  to  designate  the  "congregation  of  the  people  of 
Israel,  whether  summoned  or  met  for  a  definite  purpose,  or 
the  community  of  Israel  collectively  regarded  as  a  congre- 
gation." *  The  word  in  the  New  Testament,  as  in  the  Old, 
carries  with  it  the  idea  of  holiness.  It  was  in  this  sense 
that  our  Lord  used  the  word  in  Matt.  16 :  18,  and  it  is  so 
used  in  Acts  9:  31  (critical  text),  i  Tim.  3  :  15,  and  in 
many  other  passages.    (2)  The  word  was  so  specialized 

las 

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126  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.L 

as  to  be  applied  to  definite  bodies  of  believers  assembling 
in  particular  places  for  the  worship  of  God,  for  mutual 
edification,  for  the  exercise  of  discipline,  and  for  the  car- 
rying forward  of  Christian  work.  In  this  sense  it  occurs 
by  far  the  most  frequently.  In  Matt.  i8  :  17,  seq.,  our 
Lord  seems  to  contemplate  a  Christian  local  assembly 
capable  of  hearing  the  complaints  of  the  injured  brother 
and  of  proceeding  against  the  offender.  Examples  of  this 
usage  are  Acts  16  :  5  ;  i  Cor.  16  :  19 ;  Philem.  2  ;  PhiL 
4:15.  Whenever  the  plural  occurs,  or  the  church  in  a 
particular  place  is  mentioned,  this  use  of  the  word  may 
be  inferred.  The  following  observations  may  here  be 
made: 

(i)  If  any  distinction  is  to  be  made  between  the  use  of  the  term 
*'  church ''  m  the  general  sense  and  that  of  the  terms  '*  kingdom  of 
God"  and  '*  kingdom  of  heaven,"  it  Is  that  the  latter,  used  almost 
exclusively  by  our  Saviour,  designates  rather  the  sphere  of  divine 
dominion  in  human  life,  *'  the  realization  of  the  divine  purpose  of 
salvation,"^  the  divine  order  and  mode  of  life  that  is  as  fuUv 
present  in  each  individual  as  in  the  entire  body  of  the  redeemed*; 
while  the  former,  used  more  commonly  in  the  apostolic  writings,  in- 
dicates the  entire  body  of  believers,  conceived  of  as  fundamentally 
holy  but  as  still  throughout  the  present  life  subject  to  human  frailties. 
Each  believer  has  the  kingdom  of  God  within  him  and  himself  ex- 
emplifies in  a  measure  the  principles  of  the  kingdom,  is  indeed,  so  far 
as  he  is  Christlike,  a  constituent  part  of  the  Kingdom ;  but  all  the 
regenerate,  as  such,  however  far  short  of  perfection  they  may  fall, 
constitute  the  church.  The  local  church  is  made  up  theoretically  of 
the  truly  regenerate  only ;  as  a  matter  of  practice  no  amount  of  pre- 
caution has  ever  succeeded  in  preventing  the  incoming  of  deceivers 
or  deceived. 

(2)  By  some*  the  word  is  thought  to  contain  an  allusion  to  the 
calling  of  believers,  by  God's  grace,  out  of  the  darkness  of  sin  and 
condemnation  into  the  light  and  liberty  of  the  gospel  covenant. 
That  this  thought  early  entered  into  the  use  of  the  term  scarcely  ad- 
mits of  doubt.  The  constant  use  of  the  related  terms  *' calling," 
'*  the  called,"  etc.,  could  hardly  have  failed  to  suggest  this  thought. 

( 3)  When  the  term  is  used  in  the  general  sense,  there  is  no  impli- 
cation of  any  organic  outward  connection  of  the  individual  parts. 
We  speak,  /./.,  of  the  press,  or  the  bar,  without  implying  any  or- 
ganic connection  between  the  various  individuals  embraced  by  these 
terms.  Oneness  of  life  and  of  purpose,  involving  fellowship  and 
mutual  helpfulness  as  occasion  may  arise,  is  all  that  can  be  inferred 
from  this  use  of  the  term. 

2.  The  Local  Churches  and  Contemporary  Organisations. 
(i)  The  close  relationship  of  the  local  churches  of  the 

1  Cnmcr.       *  Jacob.  "  Ecc.  Pol./'  p.  S;  Hodge.  "  Ch.  Pol.."  p.  t.  uq.,  €t.  mIs 


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CHAP.  IIL]  CONSTITUTION  OF  APOSTOLIC  CHURCHES     12/ 

apostolic  age  to  the  Jewish  synagogues  is  manifest  to 
every  reader  of  the  New  Testament.  It  is  probable  that 
among  Jewish  Christians  the  term  synagogue  was  very 
commonly  employed  to  designate  their  assemblies.  An 
example  of  this  usage  is  found  in  James  2  : 2.  The  apos- 
tles habitually  made  the  Jewish  synagogues  the  point  of 
departure  for  their  evangelistic  efforts,  and  it  would  seem 
that  they  transferred  their  labors  from  the  synagogues  to 
other  meeting-places  only  when  determined  opposition 
among  the  members  made  continuance  therein  impracti- 
cable. If  the  membership  of  any  synagogue  had  been 
united  in  accepting  Jesus  as  Lord,  there  is  no  reason  to 
doubt  but  that  it  would  thereby  have  been  transformed 
into  a  Christian  church  with  such  modifications  only  as 
the  newly  received  life  might  require.  There  is  no  in- 
timation in  the  New  Testament  of  the  introduction  of 
presbyters  as  church  officers.  As  a  feature  of  synagogal 
organization  the  eldership  was  too  familiar  an  institution 
to  be  considered  worthy  of  remark.  When  a  group  of 
believers,  cast  out  of  the  synagogue,  met  together  for 
worship  and  for  the  carrying  forward  of  Christian  work, 
it  was  perfectly  natural  that  the  older  and  more  experi- 
enced brethren  should  by  common  consent  be  entrusted 
with  the  leadership  and  that  these  leaders  should  be  de- 
nominated presbyters  or  elders.  Judaism  recognized  the 
right  of  all  parties  of  Jews  to  have  their  separate  syn- 
agogal meetings.  Alexandrian  Jews  had  their  synagogue 
in  Jerusalem.  In  great  cities  Jews  of  different  national- 
ities had  their  separate  synagogues.  In  Jerusalem  espe- 
cially, Christians  long  continued  to  regard  themselves  as 
Jews,  nay,  as  the  only  true  Jews,  and  that  they  should 
meet  separately  from  other  Jewish  parties  in  synagogues 
of  their  own  was  to  be  expected. 

Each  synagogue  appears  to  have  been  normally  self- 
governing  and  independent.  The  Sabbath  meetings  were 
presided  over  by  the  "ruler  of  the  synagogue."  In 
close  connection  with  each  synagogue  was  a  court  of 
elders  (Sanhedrin,  ffuvidptov),  probably  elected  by  the 
membership  of  the  synagogue  from  the  older  and  more 
experienced  men,  which  had  its  regular  meetings  in  the 
house  of  worship  and  which  constituted  a  court  for  the 
trial  of  all  local  breaches  of  the  law.     The  Sanhedrin 


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128  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  I 

consisted  of  at  least  three  elders,  of  whom  one  was  the 
president.  The  plurality  of  elders  in  the  early  Christian 
churches,  a  thing  perfectly  natural  in  itself,  thus  had 
its  prototype  in  the  synagogue.  As  the  early  mission- 
aries to  the  Gentiles,  apostles  and  others,  were  for  the 
most  part  Jews  or  Jewish  proselytes,  the  influence  of  the 
synagogue  on  the  organization  of  Gentile  churches  must 
have  been  considerable. 

(2)  If  any  additional  explanation  of  the  organization  of 
Christian  life  in  Gentile  communities  be  thought  need- 
ful, it  is  furnished  by  the  prevalence  of  the  organizing 
disposition  in  the  Graeco-Roman  world  at  that  time. 
Guilds,  clubs,  and  societies  for  every  imaginable  purpose 
existed  everywhere.  *'  There  were  trade  guilds  and  dra- 
matic guilds ;  there  were  athletic  clubs  and  burial  clubs 
and  dining  clubs  ;  there  were  friendly  societies  and  finan- 
cial societies ;  if  we  omit  those  special  products  of  our 
own  time,  natural  science  and  social  science,  there  was 
scarcely  an  object  for  which  men  combine  now  for  which 
they  did  not  combine  then  "  *  Nearly  all  such  organiza- 
tions had  their  religious  features ;  but  distinctively  re- 
ligious organizations  were  also  common.  Vast  numbers 
conformed  outwardly  to  the  State  religion,  while  in  pri- 
vate associations  they  followed  the  dictates  of  their  own 
consciences.  Apart,  therefore,  from  Jewish  influ2nce,  it 
was  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  for  those  who 
by  accepting  Christianity  had  made  a  breach  with  their 
former  religious  and  social  customs  to  unite  in  societies 
for  mutual  edification  and  support  and  for  the  carrying 
forward  of  Christian  work.  Such  secret  associations 
were  looked  upon  with  distrust  by  the  Roman  govern- 
ment because  of  the  danger  of  their  becoming  hotbeds  of 
treason.  Hence  the  persecution  to  which  Christians 
were  everywhere  subjected.  The  general  prevalence  of 
deep  poverty  among  the  classes  from  which  Christianity 
chiefly  drew  and  the  abounding  charity  that  character- 
ized early  Christianity  and  helped  to  make  it  attractive 
to  the  depressed  classes  had  much  to  do  with  some  of  the 
features  of  the  church  order  of  the   early  centuries. 

1  Hatch* "  Th«  OrpuilMtioii  of  the  Early  Chrlttlaii  Churches,''  p.  •&.  Mf  .     Hatch 
ClvM  coploos  references  to  eplgraphlcal  aB4  other  literature  and  cites  aany  inter- 


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CHAR  lU.]  CONSTITUTION  OF  APOSTOLIC  CHURCHES     129 

While  community  of  goods  was  not  generally  practised 
in  the  apostolic  churches,  the  generous  support  of  the 
poor  everywhere  prevailed.  The  collection  and  the  dis- 
tribution of  charitable  funds  was  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant departments  of  Christian  activity.  The  term 
"  bishop "  and  terms  of  similar  meaning — overseer 
(foroHMwroff),  curator  {hctfuk^nj^) — ^were  in  very  common 
use  in  contemporary  pagan  organizations,  that  those 
who  had  the  oversight  of  the  Christian  societies  and  to 
whom  the  management  of  the  common  charities  was 
entrusted  should  be  designated  by  the  same  terms  is 
what  might  have  been  expected.  The  process  by  which 
the  presiding  presbyter  or  bishop  came  to  be  a  monarch- 
ical prelate  will  be  shown  in  the  next  period. 

3.  The  New  Testament  Churches  xvere,  in  the  Intention  of 
Jesus  and  of  his  Apostles^  made  up  exclusively  of  Baptised 
^Believers.  If  unworthy  persons  found  entrance  into 
Christian  churches,  whether  as  self-deceived  or  as  de- 
ceivers, they  were  not  really  of  the  churches  and  the 
duty  of  withdrawing  fellowship  from  such  is  inculcated 
in  the  apostolic  writings.  There  is  no  sufficient  reason 
for  believing  that  the  patriarchal  idea,  in  accordance  with 
which  the  whole  family,  including  infants,  became  as  a 
matter  of  course  participants  in  all  the  religious  privi- 
leges of  the  paternal  head,  found  place  in  primitive 
Christianity.  There  is  no  intimation  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment that  baptism  was  intended  to  take  the  place  of  cir- 
cumcision and  thus  to  be  applicable  to  infants.  The 
religion  of  the  New  Testament  is  individualistic  and  per- 
sonal in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  terms.  Christ  insisted 
that  the  tenderest  relationships  should  be  unhesitatingly 
sundered  for  the  sake  of  the  gospel,  and  that  fathers, 
mothers,  children,  wives,  and  [>ossessions  should  be 
hated  in  comparison  with  fidelity  to  him. 

4.  The  Universal  Priesthood  of  Believers  is  clearly  a  New 
Testament  Doctrine.  This  doctrine  absolutely  excludes 
the  idea  of  a  special  sacerdotal  class  in  the  church  or  in 
the  churches.  It  implies  equality  of  rights  and  privi- 
leges for  the  entire  believing  membership,  but  not  iden- 
tity of  function.  "  To  each  one,"  says  the  Apostle  Paul, 
"  is  given  the  manifestation  of  the  Spirit  to  profit  withal " 
(i  Cor.  12  :  7).     "  There  are  diversities  of  gifts,  but  the 


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130  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [per.  L 

same  Spirit"  (ver.  4),  The  apostle  represents  the 
church  as  a  body  made  up  of  many  members,  some 
strong  and  comely,  others  weak  and  uncomely,  some 
whose  functions  are  from  the  human  point  of  view  hon- 
orable, others  whose  functions  are  without  honorable 
associations ;  yet  all  alilce  necessary,  each  to  the  whole 
organism  and  each  to  the  other.  According  to  this  view 
of  equality  of  right  and  diversity  of  gifts,  the  apostle 
makes  the  following  specifications :  "  And  God  hath  set 
some  in  the  church,  first  apostles,  secondly  prophets, 
thirdly  teachers,  then  miracles,  then  gifts  of  healings, 
helps,  governments  (or  wise  counsels),  kinds  of  tongues." 
The  ''church"  may  mean,  in  this  passage,  either  the 
entire  Christian  fellowship  or  the  local  body  of  believ- 
ers in  Corinth.  As  the  writer's  aim  was  to  inculcate 
brotherly  unity  and  co-operation  in  the  church  addressed, 
the  local  application  cannot  be  excluded.  Spiritually 
gifted  brethren,  set  apart  in  an  orderly  manner  because 
of  their  gifts  for  the  service  of  the  body,  were  regarded 
as  servants  and  not  masters.  The  edification  of  the 
body  was  the  matter  of  supreme  moment.  No  one  had 
a  right  to  refuse  service  to  which  he  was  called  by  the 
vote  of  his  brethren  acting  under  the  guidance  of  the 
Spirit,  and  no  one  had  a  right  to  oppose  himself  to  a 
brother  performing  special  functions  so  long  as  he  ap- 
peared to  be  guided  by  the  Spirit.* 

5.  The  Apostolic  Churches  were  Independent,  yet  Inter- 
dependent. Churches  exercised  over  each  other  such 
moral  influence  as  their  character  for  spiritual  and  prac- 
tical wisdom  warranted,  and  it  was  free  to  any  church  to 
give  or  withhold  fellowship  with  other  churches  or  their 
members  according  as  they  approved  themselves  worthy 
of  fellowship  or  the  reverse.  The  church  at  Jerusalem, 
as  the  mother-church  and  as  the  church-home  for  a 
number  of  years  of  most  of  the  original  apostles,  natu- 
rally exerted  for  a  time  an  influence  beyond  that  of 
other  churches.  This  is  manifest  in  the  anxiety  of  Paul 
to  secure  its  approval  of  his  work  among  the  Gentiles. 
But  it  is  probable  that  he  was  almost  as  much  concerned 
to  free  his  Jerusalem  brethren  from  a  narrowness  that 


I  Harnack  speaks  of  the  "  Independence  and  equality  of  each  Individual  Chris- 
tian" (*  Dogmtngtscbubu:'  Bd.  I.,  Sett.  ifS)* 


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CHAP,  nt]  CONSTITUTION  OF  APOSTOLIC  CHURCHES     131 

he  regarded  as  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  gospel  and 
to  secure  their  moral  support  in  the  great  work  of  world- 
evangelization  which  he  believed  had  been  laid  upon 
him,  as  to  gain  their  endorsement  for  his  mission.  There 
is  no  reason  to  think  that  after  the  death  of  James  the 
Just  the  Jerusalem  church  eiijoyed  any  special  consid- 
eration. Apart  from  this  instance  there  is  no  semblance 
of  a  difference  of  rank  among  the  apostolic  churches. 

Haraack  speaks  of  "  the  independence  and  sovereignty  of  the  local 
churches"  (GimsnuUu), as,  in  the  opinion  of  Christians  of  the  later 
apostolic  and  the  early  post-apostolic  times,  •'  resting  upon  the  fact 
that  they  (the churches)  had  the  Spirit  In  their  midst."  If  apostolic 
authority  was  recognized,  it  was  because  the  apostles  were  regarded 
as  divinely  inspired.^  Hatch  remarks:  '*The  theory  upon  which 
the  public  worship  of  the  primitive  churches  proce^ed  was  that 
each  community  was  complete  in  itself.' ' '  He  explains  how  (from  the 
third  century  onward)  "  the  Christian  churches  passed  from  their 
original  state  of  independence  into  a  great  confederation."  Refer- 
ring to  Christian  representative  assemblies  during  the  third  century 
and  the  letters  sometimes  addressed  by  them  to  other  churches,  he 
remarks :  "  But  so  far  from  such  letters  having  any  binding  force  on 
other  churches,  not  even  the  resolutions  of  the  conference  were  bind- 
ing on  a  dissentient  minority  of  its  members." ' 

Cunningham  remarks:  ^' The  first  form  of  the  church  was  con- 
gregational,  for  every  member  took  a  part  in  its  management  and 
every  congregation  was  independent  or  every  other  and  was  a  com- 
plete church  in  itself." « 

II.  OFFICERS  OF  THE  APOSTOLIC  CHURCHES. 

In  the  earliest  apostolic  times  the  organization  of  the 
churches  seems  to  have  been  very  slight,  and  the  terms 
applied  to  the  various  functionaries  were  not  used  with 
technical  exactness.  Apart  from  the  appointment  of  the 
**  seven  men  of  good  report,  full  of  the  Spirit  and  of  wis- 
dom "  (Acts  6)  to  look  after  the  distribution  of  the  char- 
ities, the  only  officials  that  we  meet  for  some  time  are 
the  elders.  It  is  probable  that  at  first  these  were  not 
formally  appointed  to  this  position  ;  but  that  those  who 
by  reason  of  age  and  experience  were  naturally  looked 
up  to  as  leaders  received  this  designation  after  the  ex- 
ample of  the  synagogues.  Spiritual  gifts,  such  as  are 
described  in   i  Corinthians   12,  were  no  doubt  freely 

*  **  Dogmengescbicbtt"  Bd,  I.,  SeiL  157. 

*  "  Orflrtnliatlon  of  the  early  Christian  Churches.'*  p.  79.      '  iM,,  171* 

«  "  The  Growth  of  the  Church."  p.  e]. 

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132  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  I. 

exercised  without  regard  to  formal  invitation  by  the 
churches  or  to  official  position. 

1.  Apostles.  This  term  (equivalent  to  missionary)  is 
used  in  the  New  Testament  in  a  narrower  and  a  broader 
sense.  In  the  broader  sense  it  included  such  mission- 
aries as  Barnabas,  Apollos,  Timothy,  Silvanus,  Andron- 
icus,  Junias,  etc.,  and  continued  to  be  applied  to  a  class 
of  itinerant  evangelists  until  long  after  the  apostolic  age. 
The  presupposition  in  each  case  was  that  the  person  so 
designated  had  been  called  and  qualified  by  God  for  his 
mission.  In  the  narrower  sense  it  is  used  of  the  Twelve, 
who  were  specially  chosen  by  Jesus  and  trained  by  him. 
The  place  of  Judas  Iscariot  was  filled  by  the  appointment 
of  Matthias,  of  whose  career  little  is  known.  Paul  claimed 
equality  with  the  Twelve  because  of  his  miraculous  con- 
version and  the  special  manifestation  to  him  of  the  risen 
Christ.  The  apostles  were  missionaries  at  large  and 
seem  not  to  have  held  official  positions  in  any  local 
church.  Even  while  the  Twelve  tarried  in  Jerusalem 
their  relation  to  the  church  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
official.  "They  served  the  church  universal,  devoting 
themselves  to  the  conversion  of  the  world  and  thus  to  the 
extension  of  the  kingdom."*  Their  relations  to  churches 
formed  under  their  ministry  were  paternal.  They  could 
advise  and  recommend,  and  even  remonstrate,  but  their 
authority  was  purely  moral  and  their  right  to  obedience 
rested  on  the  fact  that  their  utterances  were  divinely  in- 
spired. The  special  divine  inspiration  of  the  apostles  fit- 
ted them  to  be  the  vehicle  of  divine  revelation.  Through 
them  the  churches  have  received  in  authoritative  form 
the  revelations  of  the  New  Covenant. 

2.  Prophets.  To  what  extent  prophets  constituted  a 
distinct  class  in  the  apostolic  churches  is  not  clear. 
Prophecy  is  recognized  as  a  gift  of  the  Spirit,  and  proph- 
ets are  placed  next  to  apostles  in  i  Corinthians  12. 
A  prophet  is  one  who  speaks  forth  under  divine  impulse 
what  has  been  divinely  revealed  to  him.  Prophecy  in 
the  New  Testament  time  commonly  assumed  the  form  of 
inspired  exposition  of  Old  Testament  Scripture.  In  Acts 
13:1  Barnabas  and  Saul  are  mentioned,  along  with  others. 


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CHAP.  III.]  CONSTITUTION  OF  APOSTOLIC  CHURCHES     1 33 

as  "  prophets  and  teachers  "  at  Antioch.  According  to 
Acts  II  :  27,  "there  came  down  prophets  from  Jerusalem 
unto  Antioch.  And  there  stood  up  one  of  them  named 
Agabus  and  signified  by  the  Spirit  that  there  should  be  a 
great  famine."  Judas  and  Silas,  of  the  Jerusalem  church, 
are  spoken  of  as  prophets  (Acts  15  :  32).  Paul  magnified 
the  gift  of  prophecy  and  desired  that  all  the  Corinthian 
Christians  might  prophesy  (i  Cor.  14).  It  is  probable 
that  ail  of  the  apostles  and  all  of  the  leading  evangelists 
of  the  apostolic  age  possessed  this  gift ;  but  doubtless 
there  were  many  whose  chief  endowment  was  prophecy 
and  who  were  known  as  prophets.  Their  authority,  like 
that  of  the  apostles,  was  based  upon  the  fact  that  they 
were  supposed  to  speak  under  divine  prompting.  As 
pretended  prophets  were  not  wanting,  it  became  neces- 
sary to  try  the  spirits.  Paul  exhorts  the  Thessalonians 
not  to  despise  prophesy ings,  but  to  "prove  all  things." 
The  "discerning  of  spirits"  is  specified  by  Paul  (i  Cor. 
12  :  10)  among  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit. 

3.  Teachers.  Teaching  is  also  regarded  by  Paul  as  a 
gift  of  the  Spirit.  Apostles  and  prophets  and  most  of  the 
prominent  Christian  workers  were  doubtless  teachers ; 
but  it  would  seem  that  there  were  some  in  whom  the  gift 
of  teaching  was  especially  prominent  and  who  received 
this  designation.  This  divinely  imparted  gift  fitted  them 
to  instruct  and  edify  the  churches  and  entitled  them  to  a 
respectful  hearing. 

4.  Evangelists.  In  Eph.  4:11  evangelists  are  mentioned, 
after  apostles  and  prophets,  as  Christ-given  workers  in 
the  Christian  cause.  The  term  is  of  course  applicable 
to  all  divinely  called  proclaimers  of  the  gospel.  These 
four  classes  of  Christian  workers  were  not  church  oflfi- 
cers  in  the  restricted  sense  of  the  term.  Those  that  fol- 
low are  church  officers  proper. 

5.  Presbyters  or  Bishops.  The  unofficial  presbyters  of 
the  earliest  apostolic  age  were  followed  after  a  few  years 
by  presbyters  appointed  by  their  brethren  under  the 
advice  often  of  apostolic  men,  and  solemnly  set  apart  by 
the  latter.  Their  functions  were  the  administration  of 
discipline,  the  settlement  of  disputes  among  Christians, 
the  conducting  of  the  public  services,  the  administration  of 
the  ordinances,  the  supervision  of  the  charities^  and  gen- 


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134  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  I 

eral  oversight  of  the  church  community.  Public  teach- 
ing and  prophecy  were  not  necessary  functions  of  the 
presbyterate ;  but  such  gifts  were  not  disregarded.  It  is 
probable  that  in  most  communities  the  appointed  presby* 
ters  were  also  teachers  or  prophets.  It  was  not  uncom- 
mon that  among  the  presbyters  of  a  church  some  one 
was  so  eminent  for  gifts  and  for  elevation  of  character 
as  to  acquire  the  practical  leadership  of  the  body.  The 
permanent  chairman  of  the  Board  of  presbyters  became 
the  president  or  bishop  of  the  second  century,  and  his 
position  was  analogous  to  that  of  a  modern  congrega- 
tional pastor.  In  Eph.  4  :  ii,  12  "pastors"  are  men- 
tioned among  those  given  by  Christ  '*  for  the  perfecting 
of  the  saints,  unto  the  work  of  ministering,  unto  the  build- 
ing up  of  the  body  of  Christ." 

In  Gentile  churches  the  appointed  and  ordained  elders 
were  commonly  designated  "  bishops  "  or  **  overseers." 
The  identity  of  appointed  elders  and  bishops  in  the  apos- 
tolic age  is  now  commonly  admitted  by  Roman  Catholic 
and  Anglican  writers,  and  is  insisted  upon  by  scholars  in 
general.  Both  terms,  when  applied  to  church  officers  in 
the  New  Testament  usually  occur  in  the  plural.  Some 
interpreters  suppose  that  the  ** angel"  of  each  of  the 
seven  churches  of  Rev.  2  and  3  was  the  chief  pastor  or 
head-presbyter.  If  so  we  have  a  New  Testament  paral- 
lel to  the  bishop  of  the  second  century. 

For  full  proof  that  In  the  New  Testament  a  two-fold  ministry 
(bishops  or  presbyters,  and  deacons)  and  not  a  three-fold  ministry 
(bishops,  presbyters,  and  deacons)  is  recognized,  see  Lightfoot, 
*'  Commentary  on  Philippians,"  p.  gj.i/^.,  and  the  works  of  Hatch, 
Cunningham,  McGiffert,  Hamack,  Weizsacker,  Jacob,  Conybeare 
and  Howson,  and  Schaff,  referred  to  In  the  "  Literature."  See 
also  article  by  the  writer  in  Jenkens*  '*  Baptist  Doctrines." 

6.  Deacons.  It  has  commonly  been  assumed  that 
"the  seven"  appointed  to  *' serve  tables"  (Acts 6) 
were  deacons.  The  term  means  •*  minister  "  or  '*  serv- 
ant," and  the  corresponding  verb  and  abstract  noun,  are 
used  with  reference  to  any  kind  of  ministry.  All  Chris- 
tians are  or  should  be  deacons  in  this  broad  sense.  The 
seven  were  appointed  for  a  particular  kind  of  ministry, 
namely,  the  distribution  of  the  charities  of  the  church. 
But  there  is  no  evidence  that  this  arrangement  was  long 


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CHAP,  m.]  CONSTITUTION  OF  APOSTOLIC  CHURCHES     1 35 

continued  in  the  Jerusalem  church  or  that  it  was  adopted 
by  other  churches  in  the  earliest  apostolic  times.  Many 
modern  writers  see  in  the  seven  the  germ  of  the  Board 
of  appointed  elders  or  bishops  of  the  later  time.  It  is 
remarkable  that,  according  to  Acts  1 1  :  30,  the  relief  sent 
"  unto  the  brethren  that  dwelt  in  Judsea  ...  by  the 
hand  of  Barnabas  and  Saul"  was  delivered  "to  the 
elders,"  who  no  doubt  distributed  it  to  the  needy.  The 
presence  for  some  years  of  the  apostles  in  Jerusalem 
may  have  limited  the  functions  of  the  elders  there  so 
that  they  corresponded  closely  to  those  of  the  deacons 
of  churches  otherwise  conditioned,  while  the  apostles 
performed  the  work  of  spiritual  guidance  and  instruction 
elsewhere  and  later  committed  to  the  appointed  elders  or 
bishops.  The  mention  of  deacons  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment in  the  official  sense  is  strikingly  infrequent.  In 
Phil.  I  :  I  they  are  saluted  along  with  the  bishops  of  the 
church,  and  in  i  Tim.  3  :  8,  seq.,  their  qualifications  are 
given  after  those  of  bishops.  Equal  elevation  of  char- 
acter is  required  for  the  two  offices,  but  aptness  to  teach 
is  not  specified  in  the  case  of  deacons.  The  "  women  " 
mentioned  in  ver.  11,  just  after  the  qualifications  of 
deacons  have  been  enumerated,  may  have  been  the  wives 
of  deacons,  but  it  is  more  probable  that  deaconesses  are 
meant,  the  word  being  naturally  supplied  from  the  con- 
text. Phoebe  is  designated  in  Rom.  16  :  i  as  a  deacon- 
ess of  the  church  of  Cenchreae.  The  term  may  be  here 
employed  in  its  non-official  sense. 

In  the  completely  organized  churches  of  the  later  apos- 
tolic age  there  was  a  Board  of  deacons  side  by  side  with 
a  Board  of  appointed  elders  or  bishops,  the  former  assist- 
ing the  latter  in  the  gathering  and  the  distribution  of  the 
charities,  in  the  exercise  of  discipline,  and  to  some  ex- 
tent  in  the  more  spiritual  work. 

On  the  diaconate  see  Uhlhom's  excellent  discussion  In  his 
••  Christian  Charity  In  the  Ancient  Church,"  p.  74»  «^.»  and  the 
pertinent  passages  m  the  works  of  Hatch,  Cunningham,  Weizs- 
acker,  RitschI,  Hamack,  and  McGiffert,  referred  to  In  the  *'  Litera- 
ture.'' 

in.  ORDINANCES  OF  THE  APOSTOLIC  CHURCHES. 

The  religion  of  Christ  is  essentially  free  from  mere 
ceremonialism.    The    two   ordinances    established    by 


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136  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  I 

Christ  himself  are  of  deep  spiritual  significance,  but 
having  their  ceremonial  side  were  peculiarly  liable  to 
perversion  and  were  early  degraded  almost  to  a  level 
with  heathen  rites. 

I.  Baptism.  Christian  baptism  is  the  immersion  of  a 
believer  in  water  as  a  symbol  of  death  to  sin  and  resur- 
rection to  newness  of  life.  Jesus  himself  required  bap- 
tism at  the  hands  of  John  the  Baptist,  meeting  his  re- 
monstrance with  the  remark  that  "thus  it  becometh  us 
to  fulfill  all  righteousness,"  and  it  was  on  this  occasion 
that  his  Divine  Sonship  was  proclaimed  from  heaven 
and  that  the  Spirit  rested  upon  him. 

The  meaning  of  the  word,  the  description  of  the  act 
in  individual  cases,  and  the  symbolism  (burial  and  resur- 
rection) all  seem  to  fix  the  outward  form  of  the  ordi- 
nance as  immersion. 

Our  Lord's  own  direction  regarding  baptism  makes  it 
follow  faith,  and  the  very  nature  of  the  ordinance  ren- 
ders it  applicable  exclusively  to  those  capable  of  repent- 
ance and  faith. 

Referring  to  the  practice  of  the  churches  about  the  middle  of  the 
second  century,  Harnack  remarks :  '*  Descending  and  ascending  in 
baptism  and  immersion  were  regarded  as  highly  important,  but  not 
as  indispensable  symbols."    This  last  statement  he  bases  on  the 
"  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,"  which  he  supposes  to  have 
been  written  as  early  as  160.    Regarding  infant  baptism  at  the  same 
-i^CkM  «tpx  ^1   ^^^^*  ^^  remarks :  ^  A  sure  trace  of  infant  baptism  is  not  found  in 
*vx  *vthis  epoch;   personal  faith  is  a  necessary  condition."     Again: 
"  Origen  [third  century]  held  It  easy  to  lusnfy  infant  baptism,  since 
MWrtme^^ft^^      he  recognized  something  sinful  in  bodily  birth  itself,  and  since  he 
jc  \a«L  >x  .V       knew  of  sins  that  were  committed  in  an  earlier  life.    The  oldest  at- 
»        ^  tempt  to  justify  infant  baptism,  accordingly,  goes  back  to  a  philo- 

sophical doctrine."  * 

Hauck,  referring  to  New  Testament  baptism,  remarks :  "  Baptism 
probably  always  took  place  through  immersion  in  flowing  water." 
As  regards  the  subjects  of  baptism  he  has  the  following :  "  That  in 
the  New  Testament  is  found  no  direct  trace  of  infant  baptism  must 
be  regarded  as  firmly  established  -,  attempts  to  prove  its  necessity 
from  the  manner  of  Its  institution,  its  practice  from  such  passages 
as  Acts  2  :  39 ;  i  Cor.  i  :  16,  suffer  from  the  defect  that  the  thing  to 
be  proved  is  presupposed." '  In  relation  to  the  introduction  of  infant 
baptism  Loots  remarks :  *'  Infant  baptism  first  provable  in  Irenseus, 
still  combated  by  Tertuliian,  was  to  Origen  an  apostolic  usage." ' 

1  "  'Dogmtiueichicbte,"  Bd,  I..  Sett.  190,  358. 

•  Art  "  r«f/<."  in  the  '*  Real-Bncyklapidte"  second  ed.,  Bd.  XV..  Seii,  no,  seo. 

>  *'  'DogmemgetOicHe"  Sttt.  1)7. 


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CHAP,  in.]  CONSTITUTION  OF  APOSTOLIC  CHURCHES     1 37 

Such  citations  from  tlie  foremost  German  and  Anglican 
authorities  might  be  multiplied.  A  remark  by  Zenos,  a 
learned  American  Presbyterian,  is  so  out  of  harmony 
with  the  results  of  German  and  English  scholarship  as 
regards  the  form  of  apostolic  baptism  that  it  may  be 
quoted  as  a  curiosity  :  "  Not  only  adults,  but  households 
were  its  subjects.  As  it  was  a  mere  symbol  of  cleans- 
ing, sometimes  sprinkling,  sometimes  affusion  of  water, 
and  sometimes,  perhaps,  immersion  in  water  were  em- 
ployed, each  mode  being  regarded  as  sufficient  and 
valid/' ^  He  gives  no  authorities  for  this  almost  unique 
view. 

2.  TTie  Lard's  Supper  and  the  Agapai  (dydicat).  The 
Lord's  Supper  as  an  ordinance  was  based  upon  the  pas- 
chal supper  which  Jesus  ate  with  his  disciples  just  before 
his  crucifixion.  Luke  alone  of  the  evangelists  records 
our  Lord's  injunction,  "  This  do  in  remembrance  of  me." 
John's  account  of  the  paschal  supper  is  occupied  almost 
wholly  with  Judas'  treachery,  and  makes  no  mention  of 
the  distribution  of  the  bread  and  the  wine  to  the  disci- 
ples as  his  body  and  his  blood.  John  is  unique  in  re- 
cording the  washing  of  the  disciples'  feet.  The  institu- 
tion of  the  Supper  was  in  connection  with  the  paschal 
meal ;  but  the  giving  of  thanks  and  the  distribution  of 
the  bread  and  the  wine  with  appropriate  remarks  were 
distinct  from  and  followed  the  paschal  meal  proper. 
This  feature  is  wholly  omitted  in  John's  narrative.  It  is 
difficult  to  decide  whether  anything  like  a  ceremonial 
observance  of  the  Supper  is  referred  to  in  Acts  2  :  46 : 
"  And  day  by  day,  continuing  stedfastly  with  one  ac- 
cord in  the  temple,  and  breaking  bread  at  home,  they  did 
take  their  food  with  gladness  and  singleness  of  heart." 
If  so,  it  was  simply  the  ordinary  meals  of  the  Christians 
sanctified  and  spiritualized  by  their  intense  religious  fer- 
vor. The  "breaking  of  bread,"  in  Acts  20  :  7,  11,  fol- 
lowing a  prolonged  discourse  of  Paul  at  a  gathering  of 
believers,  was  almost  certainly  a  memorial  feast ;  but 
It  is  probable  that  it  was  a  **  love-feast "  as  well. 
There  is  no  conclusive  evidence  that  during  the  apostolic 
age  the  Supper  and  the  "  love-feast  "  (agapai— ^dnat) 

^        « ••  Co«p.  •#  Clmrcii  HIttory/'  p.  •!. 


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138  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  I 

existed  as  separate  institutions.  The  term  *'  love-feasts  '* 
occurs  in  the  New  Testament,  possibly  designating  a 
Christian  collation,  only  in  2  Peter  2:13:  *'  Revelling 
in  their  love-feasts  while  they  feast  with  you/'  where 
many  ancient  authorities  (preferred  by  Westcott  and 
Hort)  read  "  in  their  deceivings  "  (a^teis— dirdraif),  and 
in  Jude  12,  a  closely  related  passage,  where  of  certain 
vile  heretics  it  is  said  :  **  These  are  they  who  are  hidden 
rocks  (or  spots)  in  your  love-feasts,  when  they  feast  with 
you. •'  Many  ancient  authorities  here  also  read  '*  in  their 
deceivings."  These  passages  furnish  at  best  a  very  slen- 
der basis  for  any  theory  regarding  the  manner  of  cele- 
brating the  Supper  at  this  time. 

The  fullest  and  most  instructive  account  of  the  ordi- 
nance in  the  apostolic  age  is  that  of  Paul  in  i  Cor.  10  and 
II.  In  10  :  16-22,  the  apostle,  warnijig  the  Corinthian 
Christians  against  idolatrous  practices,  writes:  "The 
cup  of  blessing  which  we  bless,  is  it  not  a  communion  of 
(or  participation  in)  the  blood  of  Christ  ?  The  bread 
(loaf)  which  we  brearic,  is  it  not  a  communion  of  the  body 
of  Christ?  seeing  that  we,  who  are  many,  are  one 
bread  (Ioa0»  one  body."  Those  who  rightly  partake  of 
the  Christian  feast  cannot,  without  the  gravest  incon- 
sistency, partake  of  things  sacrificed  to  idols.  *'  Ye  can- 
not drink  the  cup  of  the  Lord,  and  the  cup  of  demons : 
ye  cannot  partake  of  the  table  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
table  of  demons."  Again  (chap.  11),  referring  to  di- 
visions in  the  church  that  make  it  impossible  for  them 
when  they  assemble  *'  to  eat  the  Lord's  Supper,"  Paul  ad- 
ministers a  severe  rebuke  to  their  selfish  and  unchristian 
behavior  as  follows :  "  For  in  your  eating  each  one  taketh 
before  other  his  own  supper ;  and  one  is  hungry,  and 
another  is  drunken."  What  the  apostle  condemns  is 
not  the  fraternal  meal  in  which  a  sufficiency  of  food  is 
provided  for  all,  and  in  which  rich  and  poor  participate 
freely  on  a  footing  of  equality,  thus  remembering  their 
common  Saviour  and  manifesting  Christian  love  for  each 
other ;  but  the  selfish  gratification  of  appetite  on  the 
part  oif  some  in  disregard  of  others,  to  the  destruction  of 
brotherly  love.  Such  a  meal  could  not  properly  be  called 
"  the  Lord's  Supper  "  ;  for  the  spirit  of  it  was  diametric- 
ally opposed  to  the  spirit  of  the  gospel.    Jhose  who 


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CHAP.  Illi]  CONSTITUTION  OF  APOSTOLIC  CHURCHES     1 39 

manifested  such  greed  and  such  lack  of  brotherly  love 
could  not  possibly  discern  the  Lord's  body  in  the  feast, 
and  the  pretence  of  eating  the  "  Lord's  Supper "  in- 
volved the  unworthy  participants  in  the  divine  judgment 
that  rests  upon  hypocrisy  and  sacrilege. 

Paul  connects  the  Supper  thus  grossly  perverted  by 
the  Corinthian  Christians,  with  our  Lord's  Supper  with 
his  disciples  'Mn  the  night  in  which  he  was  betrayed." 
He  gives  substantially  the  same  account  of  Jesus'  words 
on  this  occasion  as  we  find  in  Luke's  Gospel.  More  even 
than  Luke  he  emphasizes  the  Lord's  injunction,  "  This 
do  in  remembrance  of  me,"  specifying  the  memorial 
character  of  the  Supper  in  connection  with  the  distribu 
tion  of  both  the  bread  and  the  wine,  and  adding  the 
words,  ''  For  as  often  as  ye  eat  this  bread,  and  drink  the 
cup,  ye  proclaim  the  Lord's  death  till  he  come." 

It  is  not  a  little  remarkable  the  New  Testament  con- 
tains so  few  notices  of  the  celebration  of  this  ordinance. 
Outside  of  the  doubtful  passages  referred  to  in  Acts  2 
and  in  2  Peter  and  Jude,  the  notices  are  confined  to 
Paul's  Epistles  and  to  the  portions  of  the  Acts  that  relate 
to  his  work.  And  even  in  these  portions  of  Scripture 
they  are  few,  and  except  in  i  Corinthians,  without  de- 
tail. But  the  universal  celebration  ot  the  ordinance  in 
the  early  post-apostolic  time  makes  it  certain  that  the 
apostolic  churches  generally  remembered  the  Lord  in  this 
way. 

The  following  remarks  are  suggested  by  the  facts  that 
have  been  considered : 

(i)  The  Lord's  Supper  was  in  its  intention  and  in  the 
practice  of  the  apostolic  churches  a  means  of  manifest- 
ing brotherly  love,  and  of  commemorating  the  Lord's 
atoning  work  on  the  part  of  baptized  believers,  that  is, 
of  those  who  had  been  received  into  the  Christian  fel- 
lowship through  profession  of  saving  faith  in  Christ  fol- 
lowed by  baptism. 

(2)  It  seems  certain  that  the  bread  and  the  wine  were 
not  partaken  of  in  minute  quantities  as  at  present.  The 
abuses  that  grew  out  of  the  more 'abundant  partaking  of 
food  and  drink,  condemned  so  vigorously  by  Paul,  and 
the  vast  growth  in  the  membership  of  churches  render- 
ing it  inconvenient  for  them  to  come  together  frequently 


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140  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.i 

for  the  fraternal  meal,  led  to  the  celebration  of  the  Sup- 
per in  a  more  ceremonial  manner  with  the  use  of  small 
quantities  of  bread  and  wine  and  the  separate  and  per- 
haps less  general  use  of  the  social  meal  (a/^airac). 

Feet-washing  has  by  some  been  regarded  as  a  Christian  ordi- 
nance, on  the  basis  of  our  Lord's  example,  who  at  the  last  paschal 
supper  washed  his  disciples'  feet,  and  of  nis  words  (John  13 :  i4«  i  j) : 
••  If  1  then,  the  Lord  and  the  Master,  have  washed  your  feet,  ye  also 
ought,  to  wash  one  another's  feet.  For  I  have  given  you  an  exam- 
ple, that  ye  should  do  as  I  have  done  unto  you."  The  only  other 
New  Testament  reference  to  the  washing  of  feet  is  that  in  i  Tim.  5 : 
10,  where  the  fact  of  having  "washed  the  saints'  feet"  is  given 
among  the  qualifications  of  widows  as  officially  recognized  benefici- 
aries and  workers  in  the  churches.  There  is  no  indication  in  the 
New  Testament,  or  in  the  Christian  literature  of  the  first  three  cen- 
turies, that  our  Lord  was  understood  to  have  instituted  an  ordinance 
by  the  acts  and  words  under  consideration.  Feet-washing  was  a 
common  and  needed  act  of  hospitality  in  Palestine  at  the  time,  and 
the  teaching  that  Christ  intended  to  convey  was  the  manifestation  of 
the  spirit  of  brotherly  love  in  acts  of  humble  service. 

The  eariiest  reference  to  the  ceremonial  use  of  feet-washing  is  in 
the  canon  of  the  synod  of  Elvira  (y^)  where  it  is  condemned.  Au- 
gustine (end  of  the  fourth  century),  who  mentions  it  among  the  ob- 
servances of  Maundy  Thursday  (the  day  of  the  Last  Supper),  states 
that  lest  it  should  appear  to  oe  in  any  way  essential  to  the  sacra- 
ment (Supper)  many  churches  had  never  admitted  the  custom  at  aii.^ 
Ambrose  mentions  it  at  about  the  same  time  as  in  use  at  Milan.  The 
synod  of  Toledo  (694)  excluded  from  communion  such  as  should 
refuse  on  Maundy  Thursday  to  participate  In  this  ceremony.'  Ber- 
nard (twelfth  century)  wrote  of  feet-washing  as  "a  sacrament  of 
the  remission  of  daily  sins."  The  practice  prevailed  to  some 
extent  in  the  Greek  Church.  In  modem  times  the  pope,  the  em- 
perors of  Austria  and  Russia,  the  kings  of  Spain,  Portugal,  and 
Bavaria,  and  bishops  and  abbots  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
have  each  twelve  poor  men  brought  in  on  Maundy  Thursday,  and 
wash  their  feet.  Many  Anabaptists  (including  Mennonites),  some 
Baptist  parties,  the  Moravian  Brethren,  and  the  Sandemanians, 
have  practised  ceremonial  feet- washing. 

It  is  probable  that  our  Lord  did  not  mtend  to  enjoin  its  ceremonial 
observance,  but  that  at  the  last  Supper  he  simply  aimed  to  emphasize 
the  duty  of  humble  service.  The  great  mass  of  evangelical  Chris- 
tians have  thus  understood  the  matter  and  have  regarded  with  dis- 
favor the  literal  imitation  of  Jesus'  act. 

IV.  WORSHIP— ELEMENTS,  TIMES,  AND  PLACES. 

I.  Elements  of  IVaribip.  The  worship  of  the  early 
Christians  was  very  free  and  informal.    It  consisted  of 

>  ••  EMf.r  CXVni.  and  cxix. 
•  BiBtoriB.  "  DtnkwmrditMtm/'  Bd.  V.,  S€ii,  004. 


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CHAP,  ni.]  CONSTITUTION  OF  APOSTOLIC  CHURCHES     141 

prayer,  the  singing  of  psalms,  and  the  reading  and  expo- 
sition of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  (prophesying). 
The  participation  in  worship  was  not  confined  to  the 
official  members,  but  to  every  male  member  it  was  per- 
mitted to  utter  his  apprehension  of  truth.  The  ordinary 
services  of  the  early  churches  were  very  similar  to  those 
of  a  good  prayer  meeting  at  the  present  time. 

2.  Times  of  Wcrsbip.  The  Jewish  Christians  con- 
tinued fora  long  time  to  observe  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  as- 
sembling also  on  the  Lord's  Day.  The  Jewish  Sabbath 
seems  never  to  have  been  enjoined  upon  the  Gentile 
churches ;  and  we  find  early  in  the  second  century  the 
first  day  of  the  week  observed  as  a  matter  of  course. 

(i)  The  process  of  the  change  was  probably  as  fol- 
lows: At  first  the  Jewish  Sabbath  and  the  Lord's  Day 
were  celebrated  by  most  Christian  communities.  Two 
circumstances  led  to  the  abandonment  of  the  former. 
First:  The  inconvenience  of  celebrating  two  days  in 
immediate  proximity.  Secondly :  The  spirit  of  opposi- 
tion to  the  extreme  Judaizers.  Christians  saw  that  a 
large  and  influential  party  was  trying  to  make  Christian- 
ity a  mere  Jewish  sect.  They  were  disposed,  therefore, 
to  reject  as  much  as  possible  of  the  Jewish  ceremonial. 

(2)  With  regard  to  the  propriety  of  the  change,  two 
views  have  obtained  currency  among  those  who  defend 
't :  First :  That  the  Sabbath  is  of  perpetual  obligation 
but  that  the  essential  idea  is  that  of  rest  and  worship  on 
one  day  in  seven.  As  the  resurrection  of  the  Son  of 
God  is  to  Christians  of  fundamental  importance,  it  was 
fitting  that  the  one  day  in  seven  should  be  made  to  coin- 
cide with  the  day  of  this  great  event.  Second :  Chris- 
tianity in  its  ideal  form  is  entirely  without  ceremonial 
and  holy  days.  All  days  alike  are  holy,  and  are  to  be 
spent  in  the  service  of  God.  But  as  actual  Christianity 
is  not  ideally  perfect,  and  as  Christians  are  obliged  to 
engage  in  secular  callings,  etc.,  it  is  necessary  that  there 
should  be  some  fixed  time  for  special  religious  services. 
Christianity  had  a  right  to  adopt  any  day  for  this  pur- 
pose.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  very  appropriately  adopted 
the  day  on  which  the  Saviour  rose  from  the  dead. 

3.  Plaus  of  Worship.  The  Jerusalem  Christians  met 
for  a  time  partly  in  the  temple  and  partly  in  an  upper 


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142  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  I 

room.  The  apostles,  in  their  missionary  work,  went  first 
to  the  Jewish  synagogues.  When  driven  from  the  syna- 
gogues they  commonly  held  their  meetings  in  private 
houses.  It  is  probable  that  during  the  later  apostolic  age 
the  Christians  of  Rome  made  considerable  use  of  the 
catacombs  (underground  burial  places)  for  religious  pur- 
poses. Domitilla,  banished  under  Domitian,  is  said  to 
have  given  land  for  Christian  catacombs.  Not  until  the 
first  half  of  the  third  century  did  the  Christians  build 
houses  of  worship. 

V.   METHODS  OF  CHRISTIAN  PROPAGANDISM. 

The  primitive  Christians  were  essentially  missionary. 
Each  believer  regarded  it  as  incumbent  on  himself  per- 
sonally to  propagate  the  faith  that  had  saved  him. 
Christians  worked : 

1.  Privately;  among  friends  and  relations,  by  whom, 
however,  they  were  often  cast  off  as  a  result  of  their  be- 
coming Christians. 

2.  In  the  Oriental  cities  and  villages  the  custom  of 
talking  at  the  corners  of  the  streets  prevailed  to  a  great 
extent.  An  earnest  Christian  would  thus  frequently 
find  opportunity  to  draw  together  a  knot  of  hearers  and 
to  tell  them  of  Christ. 

3.  Artisans  of  various  sorts  often  found  opportunity  to 
spread  the  gospel  among  their  fellow-workmen. 

4.  After  the  time  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  most  of  the 
spread  of  the  gospel  was  effected,  not  by  direct  mission- 
ary efforts,  but  by  the  moving  hither  and  thither  through- 
out the  empire  of  artisans  and  tradesmen,  who  planted 
Christianity  wherever  they  went.  So  also  Christianity 
was  frequently  spread  by  persecution,  each  fugitive 
forming  a  new  center  of  Christian  influence. 

5.  The  burning  enthusiasm  of  the  early  Christians 
was  contagious.  The  minds  of  many  were  troubled. 
They  could  no  longer  believe  in  the  decaying  paganism 
which  the  philosophers  had  taught  men  to  despise. 
Christianity,  as  represented  by  its  enthusiastic  devotees, 
met  the  felt  needs  of  men.  Its  doctrine  of  the  equality 
of  all  men  before  God,  and  of  the  worth  of  all  human 
souls,  its  promises  of  future  happiness,  such  as  would 
make  present  sufferings  of  small  consideration,  tending 


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CHAP,  iil]  constitution  of  apostolic  churches    143 

to  elevate  them  and  to  deliver  them  from  despair.  The 
abounding  charity  of  the  early  Christians,  at  a  time  when 
poverty  and  distress  abounded,  drew  to  their  fellowship 
multitudes  of  the  depressed  classes. 

6.  The  Christians  were  obliged  to  labor  for  the 
most  part  secretly.  They  could  not  hold  public  services 
to  which  the  unconverted  could  be  invited.  Their  as- 
semblies for  worship  were  almost  exclusively  of  church- 
members.  Only  after  one  had  been  led  to  accept  Christ 
did  he  gain  access  to  the  conventicles  of  the  Christians. 
But  the  degree  of  secrecy  necessary  varied  greatly  at 
different  times  and  at  different  places.  While  the 
Christians  were  on  amicable  terms  with  the  Jews,  whose 
religion  was  tolerated,  they  had  more  freedom.  When 
they  became  objects  of  hatred  to  the  Jews  their  freedom 
was  less. 


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PERIOD  II 

FROM  THE  END  OF  THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE  TO 

THE  CONVERSION  OF  CONST AN- 

TINE  (100-312) 


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CHAPTER  I 

REUTION    OF    CHRISTIANITY    TO   THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE 

FROM  THE  TIME  OF  THE  APOSTLES  TILL  THE 

ADOPTION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  AS  THE 

RELIGION  OF  THE  EMPIRE 


Vol.  XL,  p.  434»  «*^.;  Neander,  VoL  1.,  P.  06,  s^q,;  Schaff,  Vol. 
IL,  p.  31,  S4q,;  Ramsay,  *'The  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire"; 
Harcly,  **C.  PlinH  Secmdi  Epistola"  especially  the  Introduction ; 
Pfleiderer,  ^*Das  Urchristtntkum** ;  Bruno  Bauer,  **  Christtu  u.  d, 
Qaionn^'* ;  Arnold,  **  Studuu  {ur  Gssch.  d.  plmianishen  Christew 
vtrfolgung*^ ;  Neumann,  **  Der  torn.  Stoat  u.  d.  allgtmeuu  Kirchi 
his  auf  DiokUtian^^ ;  Mommsen,  "History  of  Rome:  the  Prov- 
inces'^; Aliard,  '* Hist,  d^s  Psrsscutums*' :  Addis,  "Christianity 
and  the  Roman  Empire";  Uhlhorn,  "Conflict  of  Christianity 
with  Heathenism  " ;  Moeller,  "  History  of  the  Christian  Church,*^* 
Vol.  I.,  p.  74.  siq,,  87,  ssq.,  159,  seq,,  190,  seq.j  AuW,  ''Hist,  dts 
P$rs,  ds  I'Egliss^;  Renan,  **  Marc-Auriu** ;  Kclm,  '^  Rom  u,  d. 
Christtnthum** ;  Mason,  "The  Persecution  of  Diocletian";  Meri- 
vale,  "  History  of  Rome  Under  the  Emperors "  ;  Overbeck,  "  Stw 
dim  {ur  Gtsch.  </.  alt,  Ktrchsy^  Bd.  I.,  Stit,  93,  siq.:  Pressensi, 
"  Martyrs  and  Apologists,"  p.  67,  seq. ;  Gibbon,  Chap.  XVI. ; 
Gieseler,  "  Church  History,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  no,  stq. ;  Niebuhr,  *'  History 
of  Rome,"  Vol.  III.,  passim;  Mossman,  "  Early  Christian  Church," 
p.  144,  ssq. ;  Alzog,  "  Universal  Church  History,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  169, 
siq, ;  Wieseler,  "  'Dis  Christmoirfolgmgen  der  Cofsaren  "  ;  Liffhtfoot, 
"Ignatius,"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  iHSg;  Hardy,  ^*  Christianity  and  the  Roman 
Government,"  1894 ;  Schiller,  "  dsch,  d.  torn.  Kaistrtsit/*  1883-87 ; 
Seek,  "  Gesch.  d.  UnUrtoMfs  d.  ontikM  IVgtt,"  Vol.  I.,  1895  ;  Gregg, 
"  The  Decian  Persecution  "  ( Hulsean  Prize  Essay  for  i8g6) ;  Over- 
beck,  ''Studim  ptr  Gtsch,  d,  alt.  Kirch4** i^works  on  the  Catacombs, 
by  De  Rossi,  Northcote  and  Brownlow,  Parker,  etc.  Articles  on  the 
various  emperors  In  Smith  and  Wace,  "  Dictionary  of  Christian 
Biography,"  and  in  the  general  and  religious  encyclopedias.  The 
articles  in  the  new  edition  of  the  Herzog-Hauck  "  Rsal-Encyklopadit " 
are  particulariy  valuable. 

I.  GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS. 

I.  The  apostles  had  labored  and  died  in  spreading  the 
gospel.    Throughout  Asia  Minor,  Greece,  Italy,  and  pos- 

«47 


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148  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IL 

sibly  even  farther  west, the  gospel  had  been  preached  and 
Christian  churches  established.  Christianity  had  now 
to  make  its  way  without  apostolic  aid,  in  the  face  of  ob- 
stacles that  to  human  apprehension  must  have  seemed 
well-nigh  insuperable. 

2.  We  sliall  see  that  Christians  were  everywhere  per- 
secuted, but  that  persecution,  for  the  most  part,  tended 
to  spread  rather  than  suppress  the  truth. 

3.  We  shall  see  that  Christianity  entered  upon  its 
career  almost  void  of  literary  and  philosophical  culture 
and  social  standing,  and  that  at  the  close  of  this  period 
it  had  drawn  to  itself  the  culture  of  the  age  and  had 
gained  the  homage  of  kings. 

4.  We  shall  see  that  this  accession  of  culture  had  its 
disadvantages  as  well  as  its  advantages ;  for  along  with 
culture  came  philosophical  error  and  imitations  of  pagan 
ceremonial  observances. 

5.  We  shall  see  that  as  soon  as  Christianity  came  to 
be  forwarded  by  any  other  thai',  legitimate  means,  as 
soon  as  increase  of  power  and  respectability  was  set  up 
as  an  object  of  endeavor,  a  door  was  thrown  open  for 
the  entrance  of  all  sorts  of  abuses. 

6.  In  general,  we  may  characterize  the  present  period 
as  the  period  of  the  gradual  growth  and  the  gradual  cor- 
ruption of  Christianity  until  it  became  strong  enough  on 
the  one  hand  to  make  its  adoption  by  the  empire  a  mat- 
ter of  policy,  and  corrupt  enough  on  the  other  to  rejoice 
in  such  adoption. 

n.  CAUSES  OF  PERSECUTION. 

Christianity  was  a  rdigio  Ulicita.  It  was  the  policy  of 
the  Roman  Empire  to  tolerate  the  religions  of  conquered 
peoples,  so  long  as  they  would  not  attempt  to  proselyte. 
Judaism  was  a  relirio  licita,  Christianity,  so  far  as  it 
was  distinguished  from  Judaism,  was  reckoned  among 
secret  societies  or  collegia  which  were  contrary  to  law. 
Cicero*  says:  '*  Separately  let  no  one  have  gods,  nor 
may  they  worship  privately  new  or  foreign  gods  unless 
they  have  been  publicly  recognized."  Gaius,*  speak- 
ing of  forbidden  associations,  says  :  '•  Neither  a  society 

I  *«  D«  Legfbut.'*  Bk.  11..  Cluir.  I.  •  Bk.  III..  Chap.  4. 1 1. 


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CHAf'.L]  RELATION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  TO  THE  EMPIRE    I49 

nor  college,  nor  body  of  this  kind,  is  conceded  to  all  pro- 
miscuously ;  for  this  thing  is  coerced  (regulated)  by  laws 
or  codes  of  the  Senate  and  imperial  (or  princely)  consti* 
tutions."  The  essentially  proselyting  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity was  an  additional  cause  of  its  unlawfulness. 

2.  Christianity  was  a  religion  which  aspired  to  uni- 
versality. Christ's  kingdom  was  to  be  set  up  through- 
out the  whole  earth.  With  the  Romans  the  State  was 
the  chief  thing.  Religion  was  to  be  promoted  only  in  so 
far  as  it  served  the  interests  of  the  State.  The  Chris- 
tians had  no  sympathy  with  this  idea,  and  their  enemies 
lost  no  opportunity  to  represent  Christianity  as  danger- 
ous to  the  State.  This  brought  upon  them  the  enmity 
of  rulers. 

3.  Christianity  was  a  religion  hated  by  the  influential 
classes.  The  withdrawal  of  Christians  from  social  inter- 
course with  the  pagans,  rendered  necessary  by  the  idol- 
atrous practices  connected  with  every  department  of  life, 
caused  the  Christians  to  be  looked  upon  as  enemies  of 
the  human  race.  Their  refusal  to  participate  in  idolatrous 
rites  and  to  frequent  the  temples,  and  the  exclusion  from 
their  homes  and,  of  necessity,  their  persons  of  all  symbols 
of  idolatry,  led  them  to  be  looked  upon  as  atheists — ene- 
mies of  the  gods.  As  enemies  of  mankind  and  of  the 
gods,  they  were  regarded  with  the  profoundest  abhor- 
rence by  the  people  in  general.  Nothing  was  too  bad  to 
be  believed  of  such  people.  The  Christians  were  known 
to  assemble  at  night  secretly  ;  they  were  observed  to  be 
very  fond  of  each  other.  What  but  the  gratification  of 
lust  could  be  the  motive  of  such  assemblies  ?  As  they 
assembled  in  considerable  numbers,  the  gratification  of 
lust  must  be  promiscuous.  What  could  be  more  natural 
than  to  ascribe  to  this  mysterious,  ungodly  people  the 
additional  crime  of  eating  the  bodies  and  drinking  the 
blood  of  the  offspring  of  their  orgies  ?  The  standing 
charges  against  (ihristianity^  therefore,  for  several  gen- 
erations were  atheism,  promiscuous  licentiousness,  and 
cannibalism.  See  the  ** Apologies"  of  Justin  Martyr, 
Athenagoras,  Tertullian,  and  Origen,  in  which  these 
accusations  are  stated  and  refuted.  Most  of  the  persecu- 
tion which  the  Christians  suffered  was  the  result  of  this 
popular  hatred. 


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rSO  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  L^ER't 

4.  The  fact  that  Christianity  was  recruited  chiefly 
from  the  poor  and  the  outcast  caused  Christianity  to  be 
looked  down  upon  by  the  respectable  and  by  those  who 
would  be  regarded  as  respectable. 

5.  Christians  shared  with  Jews  the  contempt  which 
the  Romans  always  had  for  this  people— only  they  were 
regarded  as  far  worse  and  were  without  the  protection 
which  the  Jews  enjoyed  even  after  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem.  After  the  Jewish  rebellion  of  A.  D.  135  their 
advantages  over  Christians  probably  ceased  or  were 
greatly  diminished. 

6.  Christianity,  by  its  enthusiasm,  shocked  the  sensi- 
bilities of  many  of  the  purest  and  best  philosophers. 
These  might  have  been  expected  to  favor  Christianity  ; 
but  they  regarded  it  rather  as  a  wild  fanaticism  which 
could  only  do  harm  to  its  adherents. 

7.  Christianity  came  into  conflict  with  the  temporal 
interests  of  certain  classes,  as  priests,  venders  of  sacrifi- 
cial animals,  makers  and  venders  of  idols.  Many  perse- 
cutions were  aroused  by  such  persons,  as  in  the  New 
Testament  times,  so  later. 

8.  The  occurrence  of  famines,  earthquakes,  military 
reverses,  conflagrations,  etc.,  frequently  furnished  occa- 
sion for  the  persecution  of  the  Christians,  who,  as  ene- 
mies of  the  gods,  were  supposed  to  be  the  cause  of  the 
evils. 

III.  TREATMENT  OF  CHRISTIANS   BY    DIFFERENT   EMPERORS. 

Many  of  the  emperors  during  the  second  and  third  cen- 
turies were  men  of  great  moderation,  and  might  have 
been  expected  to  abolish  persecution.  But  we  shall  see 
that  in  some  instances  the  most  violent  persecutions  oc- 
curred under  the  wisest  and  most  upright  rulers.  This 
is  to  be  accounted  for  in  part  by  the  fact  that  such  men 
were  more  likely  than  others  to  adhere  rigidly  to  the 
laws  against  unauthorized  religions  ;  were  more  anxious 
than  others  to  maintain  the  splendor  of  the  old  religion  ; 
were  more  repelled  by  the,  to  them,  fanatical  proceed- 
ings of  the  Christians ;  were  more  under  the  influence 
of  philosophers,  who  showed  great  enmity  toward  Chris- 
tianity and  wrote  against  it  {e.  g.  Marcus  Aurelius  was 
greatly  influenced  by  Stoic  and  Cynic  philosophers). 


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CHAP.  I.]  RELATION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  TO  THE  EMPIRE    151 

I.  From  Trajan  to  Marcus  Aurelius  (98-161).  (i) 
Trajan  (98-117),  one  of  the  best  of  Roman  emperors,  is 
the  first  with  regard  to  whom  we  know  certainly  that 
he  formally  proscribed  secret  societies,  among  which 
Christian  churches  were  included.  He  had  no  true  con- 
ception of  Christianity,  agreeing  with  his  friends  Tacitus 
and  Pliny  in  regarding  it  as  a  ''  bad  and  immoderate  su- 
perstition." Our  most  trustworthy  knowledge  of  his 
attitude  toward  Christianity  is  derived  from  the  letter 
of  Pliny,  the  younger,  governor  of  Bithynia,  asking  for 
information  with  regard  to  the  right  method  of  dealing 
with  Christians,  and  the  rescript  of  Trajan  {c.  A.  D. 
112).  Pliny  states  that  he  has  never  had  anything  to 
do  with  the  trial  of  Christians  and  therefore  is  ignorant 
what  and  how  great  punishment  ought  to  be  inflicted ; 
whether  there  ought  to  be  any  discrimination  in  respect 
of  age ;  whether  favor  should  be  shown  to  the  penitent ; 
whether  they  should  be  punished  for  the  shameful  repu- 
tation attached  to  the  name,  if  nothing  shameful  be 
proved  in  individual  cases.  His  method  of  procedure, 
meanwhile,  is  declared  to  be :  to  question  those  who  are 
brought  before  him  as  to  whether  they  are  Christians, 
threatening  punishment  if  they  persist,  and  sending  to 
prison  those  that  refuse  to  curse  Christ  and  offer  sacri- 
fice to  the  gods  and  to  the  image  of  the  emperor; 
others,  who  were  Roman  citizens,  he  had  noted  down  to 
be  sent  to  Rome  ;  those  who  denied  being  Christians  he 
had  liberated.  He  thinks  it  important  that  some  definite 
method  of  procedure  should  be  agreed  upon,  because  so 
great  a  number  are  involved.  Those  who  confess  to 
having  been  Christians,  but  now  reject  Christianity, 
inform  him  that  the  sum  of  their  error  was  that  they 
were  accustomed  to  assemble  before  light ;  to  sing  a 
hymn  to  Christ ;  to  promise  that  they  would  commit  no 
crime — ^theft,  robbery,  adultery,  embezzlement  of  en- 
trusted funds ;  and  later  in  the  day  to  partake  of  a  meai 
in  common.  In  order  to  arrive  at  the  truth  more  assur- 
edly, Pliny  had  tortured  two  female  slaves,  who  were 
called  ministry  (possibly  deaconesses),  but  had  learned 
nothing  beyond  the  fact  that  Christianity  was  a  bad  and 
immoderate  superstition.  By  his  proceedings  he  had 
brought  it  about  that  the  temples,  before  almost  deso- 


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1 52  A  AUNUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  II 

lated,  had  begun  to  be  frequented  ;  sacrifices,  long  since 
suspended,  had  been  resumed ;  the  feeding  of  victims 
had  been  taken  up,  etc.  He  refers  to  an  imperial  man- 
date forbidding  secret  societies  (Jutcerut)  which  he  is 
attempting  to  enforce.  He  intimates  that  the  Christians, 
in  consideration  of  his  prohibition  of  secret  societies,  had 
given  up  their  social  gatherings,  and  there  is  no  intima- 
tion  that  their  punishment  was  for  violation  of  this  law.' 
Trajan  replies  that  Pliny  has  acted  properly  in  the  cases 
mentioned  ;  and  that  no  universal  rule  can  be  laid  down. 
Christians  are  not  to  be  sought  out  for  persecution,  but 
when  legally  arraigned  are  to  suffer  for  their  violation  of 
the  laws. 

The  precise  attitude  of  Trajan  toward  Christianity  is  still  a  mat- 
ter of  controversy.  Christian  writers  of  the  succeeding  time  took  a 
highly  favorable  view  of  his  tolerance.  Mellto  of  Sardis  (e,  170) 
seems  to  have  regarded  him  as  a  protector  of  Christians.'  Lactan- 
tius  ignores  his  persecutions,  while  Eusebius  seeks  to  free  Trajan 
himself  from  responsibility  for  such  i)ersecutions  as  occurred  dunng 
his  reign,  and  gives  him  credit  for  mitigating  the  violence  of  persecu- 
tion. Mediaeval  legend  represented  him  as  having  been  released 
from  infernal  torments  through  the  intercession  of  Pope  Gregory  I. 
Most  modem  critics  have  gone  as  far  in  the  opposite  direction,  main- 
taining that  Trajan's  rescript  introduces  a  new  era  in  the  relation  of 
the  empire  to  Christianity  distinctly  more  unfavorable  to  the  latter. 
This  view  is  taken  by  Gieseler,  Overbeck,  Aub6,  Uhlhom,  Keim, 
Renan,  $t  al.  Lightfoot,  who  thinks  it  probable  that  Nero  issued  a 
distinct  prohibition  of  Christianity,  maintains  that  Trajan  intro- 
duced no  new  policy,  but  simply  gave  his  sanction  to  the  carrying 
out  of  a  policy  that  had  prevailed  from  the  time  of  Nero.  Hardy  is 
inclined  to  regard  Trajan*s  rescript  **  as  favorable,  and  as  rather 
discouraging  persecution  than  legalizing  it.'* '  it  is  probable  that 
up  to  this  time  *'  there  was  no  express  law  or  formal  edict  against 
the  Christians  in  particular.  .  .  They  had  before  this  been  classed 
generally  as  outlaws  (hosUs  publici)  and  enemies  to  the  fundamental 
principles  of  society  and  government,  of  law  and  order,  and  the  ad' 
mission  of  the  name  Christian  in  itself  entailed  condemnation.  .  . 
While  Trajan  felt  bound  to  carry  out  the  established  principle,  his 
personal  view  was  opposed  to  It,  at  least  to  such  an  extent  that  he 
ordered  Pliny  to  shut  his  eyes  to  the  Christian  offense,  until  his  at- 
tention was  expressly  directed  to  an  individual  case  by  a  formal 
accuser."  *  The  fact  seems  to  be  that  Trajan  was  not  a  wanton 
persecutor,  and  that  he  meant  to  discourage  malicious  informers,  but 
that  as  emperor  he  felt  the  necessity  of  upholding  the  laws  and 
maintaining  the  State  religion.    So  far  as  our  information  goes,  the 

>  Pliny,  Bk.  X.,  Ep.  06,  m.  <  EuMblus.  "  Hisi.  Bee.:*  Bk.  IV..  Chap.  «& 

i^*C.  Plimii  SeeumKBpp,:*  d.  6a,  uq, 
^I^ABMy,  *'  The  Church  in  the  Roman  Enplr«. '  Chap.  X..  •specially  p.  as}. 


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CHAP.  I.]  RELATION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  TO  THE  EMPIRE    1 53 

only  persecutions  with  which  Trajan  had  anything  to  do  were  the 
Bitnvnian,  under  Pliny,  that  at  Jerusalem,  in  which  Symeon  suf- 
fered, and  that  at  Antloch,  in  which  Ignatius  was  the  chief  victim. 

(2)  Hadrian  (i  17-138)  had  little  faith  in  the  popular 
religion  and  took  considerable  interest  in  foreign  cults  ; 
but  he  regarded  the  maintenance  of  the  religious  estab- 
lishment as  a  political  necessity.  He  was  strongly  op- 
posed to  the  violent  outbursts  of  popular  hatred  against 
Christians,  very  common  at  this  time.  He  declared  that 
no  accusations  against  Christians  were  to  be  received, 
except  such  as  were  in  legal  form.  Justin  Martyr  ap- 
peals in  his  ''First  Apology/' addressed  to  Antoninus 
Pius  (c.  152),  to  a  rescript  of  Hadrian,  of  which  he  gives 
the  text.  The  rescript  (addressed  to  Minucius  Funda- 
nus,  proconsul  of  Asia  about  124)  forbids  riotous  proceed- 
ings and  information  where  gain  seems  to  be  the  motive. 
''  if  any  one,  therefore,  accuses  them  and  shows  that 
they  are  doing  anything  contrary  to  the  laws,  do  you 
pass  judgment  according  to  the  heinousness  of  the  crime. 
But,  by  Hercules !  if  any  one  bring  an  accusation 
through  mere  calumny,  decide  in  regard  to  his  criminal- 
ity and  see  to  it  that  you  inflict  punishment."  The  au- 
thenticity of  this  document  has  been  called  in  question 
by  Baur,  Keim,  Lipsius,  Overbeck,  Aube,  McGiflfert,  et 
al.  Its  genuineness  is  defended  by  Ramsay,  Lightfoot, 
Mommsen,  Funk,  Uhlhorn,  Ranke,  Moeller,  et  al.,  who, 
however,  do  not  understand  Hadrian  as  aiming  to  shield 
Christians  so  much  as  to  discourage  tumultuary  proce- 
dures. The  fact  that  it  appears  in  an  almost  contempora- 
neous writing  (Justin's  ''  Apology  ")  is  highly  favorable 
to  its  authenticity.  That  a  forgery  should  have  become 
current  during  the  lifetime  of  its  alleged  author,  and 
especially  that  a  forged  imperial  edict  should  have  been 
incorporated  in  an  apology  addressed  to  the  succeeding 
emperor,  is  scarcely  credible. 

Mommsen  remarks :  "  The  groundless  suspicions  cast  on  the  gen- 
uineness of  this  document  are  the  best  proof  now  little  capable  recent 
writers  are  of  understanding  the  attitude  in  which  the  Roman  gov- 
ernment stood  to  the  Christians.'' '  Lightfoot:  **  Not  only  is  this 
rescript  no  stumbling-block  when  confronted  with  the  history  of  the 

>  Quoted  by  Ramsay,  p.  jm. 


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154  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IL 

times ;  some  exact  action  on  the  part  of  the  emperor  is  required  to 
explain  the  history."^  Ramsay  exposes  in  a  teiling  manner  the 
absurdity  of  the  objections  raised  by  Keim  and  others  to  the  genu- 
jneness  of  this  document. 

The  Jewish  insurrection  against  the  empire,  under 
Barcochab,  occurred  during  this  reign  (135).  Large 
numbers  of  Christians  in  Palestine  were  slain  by  the 
infuriated  Jews.  The  suppression  of  the  insurrection 
was  followed  by  a  loss  of  privileges  on  the  part  of  the 
Jews.  Hadrian  now  built  on  the  site  of  Jerusalem  Aelia 
Capitolina  and  erected  a  temple  to  Jupiter  Capitolinus 
on  the  temple  area.  Jews  were  forbidden  to  enter  the 
city  or  even  to  see  from  a  distance  the  land  of  their 
fathers.*  Whereas  before  the  Jews  had  held  a  more  fa- 
vorable position  than  the  Christians,  the  Christians  were 
now  regarded  with  far  more  favor  than  the  Jews.  This 
was  an  important  gain  for  Christianity,  and  led,  doubt- 
less, to  the  overthrow  of  Judaistic  tendencies  in  the  Chris- 
tian church.  Yet  Christianity  was  still  a  religio  illidta. 
The  pastor  of  the  Roman  church,  Telesphorus,  and  many 
others,  suffered  martyrdom  at  this  time. 

It  is  not  even  stated  that  the  name  Christian  is  no  longer  crimi- 
nal. The  rescript  left  it  open  for  provincial  governors  either  to  inflict 
severe  penalties  on  the  Christians  or  to  discourage  their  arraignment 
to  such  an  extent  as  to  involve  virtual  toleration.  The  **  Apology  of 
Quadratus,"  unfortunately  lost,  was  addressed  to  Hadrian.  The 
progress  of  Christianity  during  this  reign  in  numbers,  learning, 
wealth,  and  social  influence  must  have  been  very  marked ;  yet  perse- 
cution was  not  wanting. 

(3)  Antoninus  Pius  (i 38-161)  was  one  of  the  wisest 
and  most  upright  of  emperors.  His  biographer,  Capito- 
linus, claims  that,  so  far  as  he  is  personally  concerned, 
he  enjoys  the  almost  unique  distinction  of  being  free 
from  civil  and  hostile  bloodshed.*  During  his  reign 
various  public  calamities  occurred — famine,  the  Inun- 
dation of  the  Tiber,  earthquakes,  conflagrations  at 
Rome,  Antioch,  and  Carthage.  These  aroused  the 
people  against  the  Christians,  who  were  supposed, 
by  forsaking  the  gods,  to  have  brought  on  these  ca- 
lamities.   The  emperor  attempted  to  shield  the  Chris- 

'  "  IgiMtius/'  Vol  I.,  p.  478,  second  ed.       <  Eusebius,  Bk.  VI.       »Ch«|>.  XII|. 


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;hap.  I.]  RELATION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  TO  THE  EMPIRE    1^5 

tions  from  popular  rage,  but  not  with  complete  success.  In 
an  edict  (found  in  Eusebius,  ''Hist  Ecc.y  Bk.  IV.,  Chap. 
13,  the  spuriousness  of  which  is  now  generally  admitted), 
Antoninus  rebukes  the  pagans  for  their  violence,  telling 
them  that  if  the  Christians  have  offended  the  gods,  the 
gods  ought  to  be  left  to  take  vengeance  for  them- 
selves and  that  they  (pagans)  confirm  the  Christians  in 
their  minds  by  accusing  them  of  impiety.  He  contrasts 
the  cheerfulness  of  Christians  in  calamities  with  the  ter- 
ror of  the  pagans.  He  commands  that  if  any  persist  in 
raising  tumults  against  the  Christians  they  shall  be  pun- 
ished. 

Although  this  document  in  the  form  in  which  we  have 
it  is  unquestionably  a  forgery,  there  is  no  sufficient 
reason  to  doubt  but  that  Antoninus  did  issue  an  edict, 
with  the  design  of  protecting  Christians  against  mob 
violence. 

The  early  Christian  tradition  that  he  favored  the  Christians  (Me- 
Ilto.f.  A.  D.  170,  Tertullian,  early  In  the  third  century)  must  have 
rested  on  a  basis  of  fact.  Mellto,  in  his  **  Apology  "  addressed  to 
Marcus  Aurellus,  says :  **  And  thy  father,  when  thou  also  wast  rul- 
ing with  him,  wrote  to  the  cities,  forbidding  them  to  take  any  new 
measures  against  us;  among  the  rest  to  the  Larisssans.  to  the 
Thessalonlans.  to  the  Athenians,  and  to  all  the  Greeks."  ^  Har- 
nack  regards  the  edict  as  essentially  genuine,  but  supposes  that  it 
midfered  repeated  interpolations.' 

It  is  remarkable  that  while  Eusebius  ascribes  the  doc- 
ument to  Antoninus,  the  inscription,  as  quoted  by  him- 
self, assigns  it  to  Marcus  Aurelius. 

Christianity  showed  remarkable  energy  and  underwent  remarka- 
ble changes  about  this  time.  Gnosticism  was  at  its  height.  The 
••  Apology  of  Aristides,"  recentiy  brought  to  light,  was  a  product  of 
this  reign.  Justin  Martyr  wrote  many  of  his  works,  including  his 
••  Apology,"  under  this  emperor,  and  It  was  in  the  latter  part  of  his 
reign  that  Polycarp  of  Smyrna  died  a  martyr's  death.  Harnack 
attributes  the  rise  or  the  monarchical  episcopate  to  this  time,  and  he 
finds  here  the  beginning  of  the  process  of  consolidation  in  opposi- 
tion to  Gnosticism  that  was  to  result  in  the  formation  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  church.'  Montanism  had  its  rise  at  this  time.  Christian 
literature  was  greatiy  enriched. 

1  Quoted  by  Eusebius,  Bk.  IV..  Chap.  96. 

f  "C*roM/<if^«."  0</.  1..  Stit.  709,  and  "  Ttxtt  und  Untersuebuugtm,'*  Bd,  XIU.,  /#f/f  4- 

*Art.  "Antoninus  Pius."  In  *'  Rtai-Encfklopadtt,'^ third  ed. 


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156  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.lt 

2.  From  Marcus  Aurelius  to  Decius  (161-249).  By  the 
time  of  Marcus  Aurelius  Christianity  had  become  an 
important  element  in  society.  Conscious  of  its  strength, 
it  had  become  bold  and  aggressive.  Many  cultivated 
men  had  come  into  the  church  and  were  devoting  their 
powers  to  its  defense.  Most  of  the  persecutions  dur- 
ing this  time  had  for  their  object  the  restoration  of  the 
declining  paganism  to  its  original  splendor  and  power. 

(I)  Marcus  Aurelius  (161-180)  was  educated  as  a 
philosopher  and  was  imbued  with  the  ethical  principles 
of  eclectic  Stoicism.  He  was  simple  and  temperate  in 
life  and  sought  to  rule  justly.  Yet  Christians  suffered 
under  him  more  severely  than  under  any  emperor  since 
Nero,  whose  cruelty  he  abhorred  and  whom  he  pro- 
nounced "not  a  man."  The  enthusiasm  of  Christians 
seemed  to  him  mere  fanaticism,  and  their  steadfastness 
under  persecution  he  looked  upon  not  as  fidelity  to  a 
high  principle,  but  rather  as  obstinacy  in  disobedience  to 
constituted  authority.  His  teacher,  Fronto,  had  given 
him  an  early  and  decided  bias  against  Christianity,  and 
the  Cynic  philosopher,  Crescens,  the  bitter  opponent  of 
Justin  Martyr,  had  confirmed  him  in  his  aversion.  While 
he  had  little  faith  in  the  State  religion,  like  Hadrian  he 
regarded  its  maintenance  as  a  political  necessity ;  and 
he  not  only  withheld  from  Christians  the  protection  from 
popular  violence  that  had  been  accorded  to  them  by 
Trajan  and  his  successors,  but  he  encouraged  and  pro- 
moted persecution. 

This  reign,  like  the  preceding,  was  remarkable  for 
calamities.  Earthquakes  more  terrible  than  those  under 
Antoninus,  destructive  inundations  followed  by  famine 
and  pestilence,  insurrections  and  invasions  on  the  fron- 
tiers involving  the  empire  in  almost  continuous  and  often 
disastrous  war,  aroused  the  fury  of  the  populace  against 
the  Christians  whose  impiety  and  rapid  increase  was 
thought  to  have  angered  the  gods.  Christians,  on  the 
other  hand,  saw  in  these  disasters  the  divine  judgment 
on  the  iniquity  of  the  government  and  of  the  people,  and 
no  doubt  in  some  cases  openly  rejoiced  in  them  as  pre- 
sages of  the  final  judgment  and  the  end  of  the  age. 
Such  an  attitude  would  tend  still  further  to  irritate  their 
pagan  enemies. 


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CHAP.L]  RELATION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  TO  THE  EMPIRE    1 57 

The  following  particulars  are  worthy  of  attention : 

a.  There  is  no  evidence  that  anything  like  a  general 
persecution  was  undertaken  at  this  time.  The  ferocious 
uprising  against  the  Christians  of  Lyons  and  Vienne,  in 
the  south  of  Gaul,  in  which  a  large  number  of  Christians 
were  brought  before  the  authorities  charged  with  in- 
cestuous orgies,  cannibalism,  etc.,  subjected  to  the  most 
horrible  tortures  to  compel  confession  of  these  crimes, 
and  at  last  thrown  to  the  wild  beasts  or  otherwise  cruelly 
slain,  seems  to  have  been  quite  exceptional.  The  de- 
tails of  this  persecution  are  given  in  a  beautiful  letter 
addressed  by  *'  the  servants  of  God  residing  at  Vienne 
and  Lyons,  in  Gaul,  to  the  brethren  throughout  Asia 
and  Phrygia,"  preserved  by  Eusebius.*  The  **  tribula- 
tion" is  ascribed  to  "the  fury  of  the  heathen  against 
the  saints."  The  "adversary"  is  said  to  have  "en- 
deavored in  every  manner  to  practise  and  exercise  his 
servants  against  the  servants  of  God,  not  only  shutting 
us  out  from  houses  and  baths  and  markets,  but  forbid- 
ding any  of  us  to  be  seen  in  any  place  whatever."  A 
large  proportion  of  those  arrested  persisted  under  re- 
peated and  most  excruciating  tortures  in  denying  the 
charges  of  criminality  and  in  confession  of  Christ.  Many 
died  in  prison  from  the  effects  of  the  tortures  and  lack  of 
proper  food  and  nursing.  Some  were  weak  enough  to 
deny  their  faith  and  to  make  the  required  confession ; 
but  not  even  so  did  they  escape  further  sufferings. 
Some  who  yielded  at  first  afterward  received  strength  to 
confess  Christ  and  to  suffer  martyrdom.  These  pro- 
ceedings were  conducted  by  the  Roman,  governor  with 
the  full  approval  of  the  emperor. 

b.  The  martyrdom  of  Justin,  the  philosopher,  who  was 
the  most  important  literary  defender  of  the  faith  that 
the  age  produced,  is  commonly  ascribed  to  the  machina- 
tions of  Crescens,  a  disreputable  philosopher.  This  oc- 
curred in  Rome  about  165.  According  to  an  early  nar- 
rative six  companions  suffered  with  him. 

c.  An  apparently  authentic  account  of  the  execution 
of  several  Christians  in  Pergamus,  Asia  Minor,  has  been 
preserved."    A  number  of  other  martyrdoms  are  sup- 

>  Bk.  L  s  Harnack.  '*  TexU  «.  UnUnmcburngpt**  Bd,  111.,  H9ft  4. 


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158  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  II 

posed  to  have  occurred  in  Asia  during  tliis  reign,  as  that 
of  Thraseas,  pastor  of  the  church  at  Eumenea,  and  that 
of  Sagaris,  pastor  at  Laodicea. 

d.  The  peculiarities  of  the  persecution  under  this  em 
peror  are : 

First,  that  the  emperor  issued  a  decree  against  the 
Christians  which,  in  the  opinion  of  Melito  of  Sardis,  was 
"  not  fit  to  be  executed  even  against  barbarian  ene- 
mies." This  decree  encouraged  informers  by  allowing 
them  to  take  the  property  of  the  accused  and  made  it 
possible  for  the  governors  to  enrich  themselves  by  con- 
fiscations. 

Secondly,  the  emperor  encouraged  inquisitorial  pro- 
ceedings for  the  discovery  and  arraignment  of  Christians. 

Thirdly,  torture  was  employed  as  a  means  of  compell- 
ing Christians  to  renounce  their  faith  and  to  commit  acts 
of  idolatry. 

e.  That  Christianity  was  becoming  more  and  more 
vigorous  and  aggressive  is  evident  from  the  abundant 
apologetlcal  and  polemical  literature  of  the  time.  Chris- 
tianity was  rapidly  drawing  to  itself  of  the  culture  of  the 
age  and  Christian  philosophers  were  more  than  a  match 
for  their  pagan  and  Gnostic  antagonists. 

/.  During  this  reign  Montanism,  which  may  have 
arisen  in  the  preceding  reign,  came  into  prominence. 
The  Alogoi,  as  opponents  of  the  Montanistic  prophecy, 
now  appeared.  The  controversy  regarding  the  time  of 
celebrating  Easter  dates  from  this  reign.  New  Gnostic 
parties  arose  and  older  parties  flourished. 

g.  The  consolidation  of  the  Catholic  church,  with  its 
monarchical  episcopate,  its  emphasizing  of  apostolic  au- 
thority and  apostolic  succession,  and  its  New  Testament 
canon,  in  opposition  to  Gnostic  and  Montanistic  heresy, 
made  marked  progress  during  this  reign. 

A.  The  persecution  under  Marcus  Aurelius  was  not  of 
so  long  duration  nor  so  exterminating  as  not  to  be 
favorable,  on  the  whole,  to  the  spread  of  Christianity. 
It  advertised  Christianity,  and  that  in  a  very  favorable 
way.  Christianity  now  had  standing  enough  to  draw 
toward  it  the  sympathies  of  large  numbers  of  people. 
The  fortitude  with  which  Christians  endured  persecution 
seems  to  have  now  revealed  to  many  the  power  of 


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CHAP.  I.]  REUTION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  TO  THE  EMPIRE    1 59 

this  religion  over  the  human  heart,  and  a  very  rapid 
growth  of  Christianity  throughout  the  empire  followed. 
Christians  soon  swarmed  in  all  the  cities  and  were  nu- 
merous in  many  rural  districts.  With  rapid  growth  came 
in  much  worldliness  and  insincerity,  immunity  from  per- 
secution for  a  number  of  years  making  it  easy  for  all  who 
felt  any  interest  in  Christianity  to  enter  the  churches. 

i.  Now  for  the  first  time  pagan  scholars  thought  it 
worth  their  while  to  read  the  literature  of  the  Christians 
and  to  attempt  to  overthrow  Christianity  by  polemical 
writings.  Foremost  among  efforts  of  this  kind  was  the 
work  of  Celsus,  the  Platonist,  whose  ''  True  Discourse'* 
Origen  was  to  answer  at  length  about  fifty  years  later. 
Celsus  supposed  that  the  persecuting  measures  of  the 
emperor  would  result  in  the  extermination  of  Christian- 
ity. In  their  sufferings  was  fulfilled  the  saying  of  Apollo's 
priest :  "  The  mills  of  the  gods  grind  slowly,"  etc.  Re- 
ferring to  Christ  he  wrote : 

The  demon  is  not  only  reviled,  but  banished  from  every  land  and 
aea.  and  those  who,  like  images,  are  consecrated  to  him,  are  bound 
ana  led  to  punishment  and  impaled,  whilst  the  demon— or  as  you 
call  him,  the  Son  of  God— takes  no  vengeance  on  the  evil-doer.  The 
Jews,  instead  of  being  masters  of  the  whole  world,  are  left  with  not 
so  much  as  a  patch  of  ground  or  a  hearth ;  and  of  you  [Christians] 
one  or  two  may  be  wandering  in  secret,  but  they  are  b«ing  sought 
out  to  be  punished  with  death. 

So  little  appreciation  did  this  brilliant  philosopher  have 
of  the  vitality  and  all-conquering  power  of  the  gospel. 

(2)  Commodus  (180-193)  was  dissolute,  timid,  suspi- 
cious, and  at  last  cruel  and  vindictive ;  yet  his  attitude 
toward  Christianity  was  more  favorable  than  that  of  any 
of  his  predecessors.  This  was  due,  no  doubt,  in  part  at 
least,  to  the  influence  of  his  favorite  concubine  Marcia, 
who  took  the  Christians  under  her  protection,  secured 
the  deliverance  of  many  from  the  Sardinian  mines,  where 
they  were  suffering  fearful  hardships,  and  sought  in  many 
ways  to  further  their  interests.  Whether  Marcia  was 
herself  a  member  of  the  Roman  church  is  uncertain  ;  but 
the  corruptions  of  the  church  as  described  by  Hippolytus 
at  about  this  time  were  such  as  to  make  her  member- 
ship a  possibility.  The  patronage  of  such  a  personage  no 
doubt  contributed  toward  the  lowering  of  the  moral 


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l6o  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  II 

standard  of  the  churches  under  the  influence  of  the 
Roman  and  rendered  effective  discipline  exceedingly 
difficult. 

Referring  to  this  reign  Euseblus  says :  **  About  this  time  ...  our 
condition  became  more  favorable,  and  through  the  grace  of  God  the 
churches  tiiroughout  the  entire  world  enjoyed  peace,  and  the  word 
of  salvation  was  leading  every  soul  from  every  race  of  mankind  to 
the  devout  worship  of  the  God  of  the  universe.  So  that  now  at 
Rome  many  who  were  highly  distinguished  for  wealth  and  family 
turned  with  ail  their  household  and  relatives  unto  their  salvation.'^^ 
Yet  he  refers  immediately  afterward  to  the  martyrdom  of  Apollonius, 
a  man  of  renown  among  the  faithful  for  learning  and  philosophy, 
who  was  condemned  to  death  on  the  accusation  of  a  slave  by  a 
decree  of  the  Senate.  Whether  Apollonius  was  condemned  simply 
on  the  ground  of  his  Christian  profession  or  on  the  ground  of  some 
specific  charge  of  violation  of  the  laws  does  not  appear.  To  save 
herself  from  falling  a  victim  to  his  almost  insane  cruelty  Marcia 
joined  with  others  in  compassing  the  assassination  of  the  emperor. 

(3)  Septimius  Severus  (193-21 1)  was  not  intensely 
hostile  toward  Christianity.  In  fact,  it  has  been  com* 
monly  supposed  that  up  to  202  he  was  somewhat  favor- 
ably disposed.  It  is  related  by  Spartianus  that  on  his  re- 
turn from  a  victorious  campaign  against  the  Armenians 
and  the  Parthians  (202),  while  sojourning  in  Palestine, 
he  enacted  a  law  forbidding  conversions  to  Judaism  or 
Christianity.  It  does  not  appear  to  have  been  his  pur- 
pose to  attempt  the  extermination  of  Christianity,  but 
simply  to  put  a  check  upon  proselytizing.  But  the  en- 
forcement of  the  Trajanic  law  against  Christianity  as  an 
unauthorized  religion  involved  many  Christians  in  severe 
suffering.  It  does  not  appear  that  the  emperor  issued  an 
edict  of  persecution ;  but  he  no  doubt  encouraged  the 
local  officials  diligently  to  enforce  the  old  laws. 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  who  was  at  the  head  of  the  catechetical 
school,  wrote  some  time  before  the  close  of  the  second  century: 
**  Many  martyrs  are  daily  burned,  crucified,  and  beheaded  before 
our  eyes."  About  202  or  203  he  was  obliged  to  abandon  his  work 
and  retire  from  the  city.  The  father  of  Origen  suffered  martyrdom 
at  this  time.  Origen  himself,  then  a  zealous  and  brilliant  youth, 
was  saved  from  a  like  fate  by  the  tact  of  his  mother,  who  hid  his 
clothes  and  thus  prevented  him  from  publicly  proclaiming  himself  a 
Christian  and  gaining  the  mart3a''s  crown.  About  aoo  a  number  of 
Christians,  Including  three  women,  suffered  joyfully  at  Sdllite,  in 

»  "Church  History."  Bk.  XXI. 


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CHAP.l]   relation  of  CHRISTIANITY  to  the  empire    i6i 

Numidia,  falling  on  their  knees  and  praising  God.  At  Carthage 
two  young  women,  Perpetua  and  Felicitas,  won  the  highest  admira- 
tion of  their  contemporaries  and  of  posterity  by  resolutely  refusing 
to  yield  to  the  entreaties  of  parents  and  friends  or  to  the  promptings 
of  maternal  affection,  to  save  their  lives  by  denying  the  faith,  and 
by  cheerfully  confronting  the  maddened  beasts.  These  last  and 
their  companions  in  suffering  are  supposed  to  have  been  Montanists. 
Tertullian  refers  to  persecutions  In  Numidia  and  Mauritania  about 

(4)  Caracalla  and  Hdiogabalus  yrtxt  among  the  most 
contemptible  of  rulers ;  but  both  tolerated  Christianity. 
Caracalla  (211-217)  recalled  all  who  were  in  banish- 
ment, but  had  his  brother  and  co-heir  Geta  murdered 
with  twenty  thousand  of  his  supposed  supporters.  His 
mother  Julia  Domna,  a  Syrian  woman,  with  her  sister 
Julia  Moesa  and  the  daughters  of  the  latter,  Sooemias, 
the  mother  of  the  Emperor  Heliogabalus,  and  Julia  Mam- 
maa,  the  mother  of  the  Emperor  Alexander  Severus, 
was  devoted  to  Oriental  mysticism.  These  women  were 
indifferent  or  hostile  to  the  State  religion,  and  surround- 
ing themselves  with  a  coterie  of  philosophers  and  schol- 
ars, devoted  much  attention  to  the  free  handling  of  re- 
ligious questions  and  exerted  a  marked  influence  on  the 
religious  policy  of  the  empire.  The  extension  of  citizen- 
ship to  provincials  broke  down  the  old  aristocracy  and 
greatly  facilitated  the  progress  of  Christianity  by  de- 
stroying artificial  social  distinctions.  Caracalla  was  as- 
sassinated by  the  Pretorian  Prefect  Macrinus,  who 
assumed  the  imperial  crown  and  ruled  fourteen  months 
(217-18).  His  career  as  a  political  reformer,  was  cut 
short  by  the  intrigues  of  Julia  Moesa,  who  induced  the 
army  to  repudiate  Macrinus  and  to  elevate  to  the  throne 
her  grandson  Avitus,  who  was  at  that  time  priest  of  the 
Syrian  sun-god  at  Emesa,  and  who  is  commonly  known 
by  the  name  of  his  favorite  deity,  Heliogabalus.  It  was 
the  aim  of  Heliogabalus  and  his  female  relatives  to  merge 
Judaism,  Samaritanism,  Christianity,  and  the  State  re- 
ligion into  a  single  eclectic  system,  in  which  sun-worship 
should  predominate.  He  reveled  in  the  extravagances 
and  the  obscenities  of  his  favorite  cult.  Under  the  pa- 
tronage of  the  imperial  court  Philostratus  produced  his 
life  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  whom  he  sought  to  repre- 
sent as  a  heathen  Christ.    Heliogabalus  brought  to  Rome 


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l62  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  a 

the  celebrated  Black  Stone  of  Edessa  as  a  means  of 
making  his  religion  more  attractive  to  the  masses.  It 
was  his  intention  to  erect  a  great  temple  in  Rome  in 
which,  side  by  side  with  sun-worship,  Jewish  and  Chris- 
tian worship  should  be  encouraged.  It  was  no  credit  to 
Christianity  to  be  tolerated  and  favored  by  so  despicable 
a  ruler ;  but  freed  from  persecution,  it  doubtless  enjoyed 
a  very  rapid  growth  and  absorbed  far  more  of  pagan  life 
than  it  could  properly  assimilate.  Disgusted  with  the 
shameful  license  and  the  effeminacy  of  Heliogobalus,  the 
army  put  an  end  to  his  rule  and  placed  on  the  throne  an 
emperor  worthy  of  the  name  (222). 

(5)  Alexander  Severus  (222-235),  ^  cousin  of  Helioga- 
balus,  was  noble-minded  and  devout,  but  was  lacking  in 
energy  and  in  statesmanship.  Though  not  a  Christian, 
he  gave  to  Christianity  a  place  in  his  eclectic  system  and 
had  a  bust  of  Christ  amon'g  those  of  other  religious  he- 
roes (Apollonius  of  Tyana,  Orpheus,  and  Abraham)  in 
his  private  chapel.^  His  mother,  Julia  Mammaea,  was 
the  ruling  spirit  in  the  government,  and  to  her  favorable 
attitude  the  Christians  were  no  doubt  deeply  indebted. 
She  is  said  to  have  sent  for  Origen,  the  great  Christian 
theologian,  that  she  might  receive  from  him  instruction 
in  the  principles  of  Christianity,  and  to  have  treated  him 
with  much  respect.  When  a  dispute  arose  between  the 
Christians  and  some  cooks  as  to  the  possession  of  a 
building,  Alexander  decided  in  favor  of  the  Christians, 
remarking  that  it  was  better  that  God  should  be  wor- 
shiped there  in  any  way  whatever  than  that  the  place 
should  be  given  over  to  cooks.'  In  recommending  a 
new  mode  of  apportioning  the  offices  of  the  State  he  is 
said  to  have  referred  to  the  Christian  church  organiza- 
tion as  a  model.  According  to  Lampridius  he  contem- 
plated erecting  in  Rome  a  temple  to  Christ.*  He  is  said 
to  have  frequently  given  utterance  to  the  Golden  Rule 
in  its  negative  form  and  to  have  had  it  inscribed  on  pub- 
lic buildings.  During  this  reign  Christian  houses  of 
worship  seem  to  have  been  first  erected.  The  catechet- 
ical school  of  Alexandria  flourished  and  Christian  educa- 
tion made  progress  in  Rome.    Yet  Christianity  was  not 

> Uapridlut.  Ch«^  19.  •  Clu^  4^  •Chap.  4i. 


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CHAP.!.]   RELATION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  TO  THE  EMPIRE    163 

declared  a  lawful  religion  by  imperial  decree.  In  fact  it 
was  during  this  reign  that  Ulpian,  the  famous  jurist,  col- 
lected for  public  use  the  imperial  rescripts  against  the 
Christians.  It  is  probable  that  the  sentiment  of  the 
Senate  and  of  the  Roman  aristocracy  in  general  was 
strongly  adverse  to  Christianity  and  that  Alexander  and 
Julia  Mammaea  did  not  deem  it  prudent  to  produce  radi- 
cal changes  in  legislation  in  defiance  of  this  class. 

(6)  Maximinus  the  Thracian  (235-238),  a  military 
leader  who  had  incited  the  troops  to  slay  Alexander, 
succeeded  to  the  throne  by  the  favor  of  the  army.  He 
was  one  of  the  coarsest  and  most  brutal  of  barbarians 
and  was  utterly  incapable  of  appreciating  anything  no- 
ble. His  bitter  hatred  of  Alexander  led  him  to  persecute 
the  Christians,  many  of  whom  held  positions  in  the  im- 
perial household.  According  to  Eusebius,^  he  commanded 
"  that  only  the  rulers  of  the  churches  should  be  put  to 
death  as  responsible  for  the  gospel  teaching."  Several 
prominent  leaders  of  the  church  of  Caesarea  (Palestine), 
including  Origen's  wealthy  patron  Ambrosius,  who  was 
robbed  of  his  property,  suffered  severely  at  this  time. 
Origen,  now  laboring  at  Caesarea,  escaped  by  concealing 
himself  and  addressed  to  his  suffering  friends  his  beauti- 
ful work  on  '^  Martyrdom."  Pontianus  and  Hippolytus, 
officials  of  the  Roman  church,  were  banished  to  Sar- 
dinia. 

(7)  Philip  the  Arabian  (244-248),  son  of  a  Bedouin 
sheik,  is  represented  by  Christian  writers  of  a  later 
date  as  a  Christian.  Eusebius  relates  that  on  one  occa- 
sion he  was  so  desirous  of  sharing  with  the  multitude  in 
the  prayers  of  the  church  that  he  put  himself  in  the 
place  of  a  humble  penitent,  as  he  was  required  to  do  by 
the  presiding  official.  It  may  be  that  he  was  only  super- 
stitious and  was  anxious  to  enjoy  the  favor  of  the  God 
of  the  Christians  without  having  any  true  conception 
of  Christianity. 

Dionysius  of  Alexandria  (c.  2C5)  writes  of  emperors  who  were 
openly  said  to  have  become  Cnristians."  He  must  have  had  in 
mind  Alexander  Severus  and  Philip.  Origen  is  said  to  have  written 
letters,  to  Philip  and  to  Severa,  his  wife.  Origen  at  this  time  looked 


1 "  Church  History/'  Bk.  VI..  Chap.  ad. 


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l64  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.tt 

forward  with  great  hopefulness  to  the  triumph  of  Christianity.  AU 
other  religions,  he  thought,  would  pass  away,  but  Christianity 
would  go  prosperously  forwai-d.^ 

3.  From  Decius  Trajan  to  Diocletian  (249-284).  The 
first  half  of  the  third  century  was  a  time  of  great  peril  to 
civil  order  in  the  empire.  The  provinces  were  ruined  by 
excessive  taxation  wastefuily  and  corruptly  gathered  and 
by  barbarian  invasions  in  the  east  and  the  west.  Rome 
had  become  inconceivably  corrupt  and  had  lost  the 
power  to  rule.  Provincials  who  had  gained  prestige  as 
military  leaders  were  one  after  the  other  raised  to  the 
throne  by  the  army,  but  few  of  these  soldier  emperors 
showed  any  capacity  for  government.  The  State  re- 
ligion was  rapidly  decaying.  Christianity  had  gained 
Vast  numbers  of  converts  in  all  parts  of  the  empire  and 
was  by  far  the  most  aggressive  of  the  religious  forces  of 
the  age.  With  correct  instinct  those  who  were  zealous 
for  the  maintenance  of  Roman  imperialism  looked  upon 
the  growing  strength  of  Christianity  with  disfavor  and 
distrust.  The  ideals  of  the  Christians  and  the  ideals  of 
Roman  imperialists  were  mutually  antagonistic.  The 
Roman  State  religion  had  from  of  old  been  regarded  as 
one  of  the  chief  bulwarks  of  the  empire.  Its  life-blood 
was  rapidly  being  drawn  out  by  aggressive  Christianity. 
The  time  was  approaching  when  this  religion  must  be 
either  exterminated  or  adopted  as  the  religion  of  the 
State. 

(I)  Decius  Trajan  (249-251),  an  Italian  soldier,  was 
raised  to  the  throne  by  the  Danubian  army  after  the 
battle  with  the  Goths  at  Verona,  in  which  Philip  lost  his 
life.  He  seems  to  have  had  an  earnest  desire  to  restore 
the  empire  to  its  pristine  order  and  vigor.  The  millen- 
nium of  the  city  was  being  celebrated  with  great  splen- 
dor when  Decius  returned  from  the  Gothic  war.  Special 
occasion  was  doubtless  afforded  thereby  for  remarking 
the  decay  of  the  State  religion.  The  fact  that  Chris- 
tians had  been  especially  favored  by  his  predecessor 
probably  led  Decius  to  suspect  them  of  disloyalty  to 
himself.  It  may  be  assumed  from  what  we  know  of 
this  ruler  that  his  exterminating  measures  against  Chris- 


.HI. 


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CHAP.  I.]   REUTION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  TO  THE  EMPIRE    165 

tianity  did  not  proceed  from  sheer  wantonness,  but  were 
from  his  point  of  view  a  political  necessity.  Only 
by  the  extermination  of  Christianity  and  the  rehabilita- 
tion of  the  State  religion  could  the  unity  and  the  stabil- 
ity of  the  empire  be  secured.  In  250  was  issued  the 
first  imperial  edict  aiming  at  the  universal  suppression  of 
Christianity.  Christians  everywhere  were  required  to 
conform  to  the  State  religion  by  participating  in  its  cere- 
monies, and  officials  were  commanded,  under  heavy  pen- 
alties, rigorously  to  enforce  the  requirement.  In  each 
official  district  all  Christians  were  required  within  a  defi- 
nite time  to  appear  before  the  magistrates  and  to  offer 
sacrifices  to  the  gods.  The  flight  of  Christians  before 
the  expiration  of  the  time  allowed  was  not  hindered,  but 
the  property  of  fugitives  was  confiscated  and  death  was 
the  penalty  of  returning.  Those  who  were  not  in  a 
position  to  prove  that  they  had  fulfilled  the  requirement 
were  brought  before  a  commission  composed  of  officials 
and  citizens.  First  they  were  threatened  with  the  direst 
punishments  in  case  of  obstinacy.  Threats  were  fol- 
lowed by  torture.  This  failing,  imprisonment  and  re/ 
peated  tortures,  including  hunger  and  thirst,  were  re- 
sorted to  as  a  means  of  breaking  down  the  wills  of  the 
victims.  All  the  influence  and  the  machinery  of  the 
imperial  government  were  employed  to  prevent  laxity  on 
the  part  of  officials.  The  magistrates  were  enjoined  to 
use  special  severity  toward  bishops  and  other  influential 
leaders. 

Immunity  from  persecution  had  brought  Into  the  churches  multi- 
tudes of  people  who  had  no  proper  Idea  of  the  obligations  of  the 
Christian  lite  and  many  who  cannot  be  rq^arded  as  possessing  a 
saving  knowledge  of  the  truth.  Lamentable  worldliness  character- 
ized many  of  the  clergy,  who  were  spending  their  energies  in  secu- 
lar pursuits  rather  than  in  the  ministry  of  the  word.  The  Imperial 
edict  struck  terror  to  the  hearts  of  all  whose  faith  was  weak.  ^*  Be- 
fore the  battle,"  writes  Cyprian,  *'  many  were  conauered,  and  with- 
out having  met  the  enemy,  were  cut  down ;  they  dM  not  even  seek 
to  gain  the  reputation  of  having  sacrificed  against  their  will.  They 
in(feed  did  not  wait  to  be  apprehended  ere  they  ascended,  or  to  tje 
interrogated  ere  they  denied.  Many  were  conquered  before  the  bat- 
tle, prostrated  before  the  attack.  Nor  did  they  even  leave  it  to  be 
said  for  them  that  they  seemed  to  sacrifice  to  Idols  unwillingly. 
They  ran  to  the  market  place  of  their  own  accord."  ^    Many  were 


1  '*D«  Upsls."  Bk.  111..  Chap.  t. 


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l66  A  iVUNUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [^'^R.IL 

so  Impatient  to  deny  their  faith  that  they  could  hardly  wait  their 
turn.  Cyprian  himself  retired  before  the  fury  of  the  persecution  and 
thereby  greatly;  injured  his  reputation  among  the  stricter  sort.  Many 
who  would  neither  flee  nor  sacrifice  suffered  the  most  terrible  tor- 
tures and  died  in  prison  or  were  at  last  cruelly  executed.  Some  by 
bribing  the  officials  procured  certificates  of  having  sacrificed  without 
committing  the  overt  act.  Some  allowed  others  to  say  that  they  had 
sacrificed  or  to  procure  certificates  for  them.  Holders  of  these  fraud- 
ulent certificates  were  called  libellaiici  and  were  regarded  as  scarcely 
less  culpable  than  the  Lapsi  or  those  who  actually  denied  their  faith. 
Decius  was  after  a  few  months  called  away  by  a  fresh  Gothic  inva- 
sion and  was  slain  in  251,  but  not  until  he  had  spread  desolation 
throughout  the  churches.  There  was  a  slight  lull  In  the  storm  of 
persecution  under  Gallus,  but  a  year  of  public  disasters  (plague, 
drought,  famine,  barbarian  invasions)  drew  the  attention  of  the  pop- 
ulace afresh  to  the  Christians,  whose  hostility  to  the  gods  was  sup- 
posed to  be  responsible  for  the  calamities.  Many  were  sent  to  the 
mines,  which  involved  the  direst  hardship  and  often  death. 

(2)  Valerian  (2 5 3-260),  who  had  been  closely  asso 
ciated  with  Decius,  is  said  by  Dionysius  of  Rome^  to 
have  '*  been  mild  and  friendly  toward  the  men  of  God  " 
and  to  have  treated  them  more  kindly  and  favorably 
than  any  of  his  predecessors.  "  Not  even  those  [em- 
perors] that  were  said  openly  to  be  Christians  received 
them  with  such  manifest  hospitality  as  he  did  at  the  be- 
ginning of  his  reign.  For  his  entire  house  was  filled 
with  pious  persons  and  was  a  church  of  God."  But 
public  calamities  continued  and  when  recourse  had  been 
had  to  every  known  expedient,  including  human  sacri- 
fices, he  was  persuaded,  it  is  said,  by  one  of  his  generals 
(Macrianus),  an  adept  in  Egyptian  magic,  to  renew  the 
persecution  of  Christians.  At  first  he  sought  to  sup- 
press Christianity  without  bloodshed.  In  257  he  issued 
an  edict  commanding  all  Christians  to  conform  to  the 
State  religion  on  pain  of  banishment.  He  directed  that 
pastors  be  separated  from  their  churches,  and  prohibited 
Christian  assemblies  of  every  kind.  These  measures 
proving  futile,  he  issued  in  2;8  an  edict  more  sanguinary 
by  far  than  that  of  Decius.  Cyprian,  bishop  of  the 
Carthaginian  church,  who  had  again  gone  into  banish- 
ment by  reason  of  the  earlier  edict  and  was  soon  after  to 
fall  a  victim  to  the  severer  measure,  gives  the  substance 
of  the  latter  as  follows : 

>  Quoted  by  EuMblus.  "  Church  History/*  Bk.  VII..  Chap  9. 

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CHAP. I]    RELATION  OF  CHRISTUNITY  TO  THE  EMPIRE    167 

That  bishops  and  presbyters  and  deacons  should  Immediately  be 
punished  (f.  ^.,  put  to  deaui) ;  but  that  senators  and  men  of  impor- 
tance, and  Roman  Icnights,  should  lose  their  dignity  and  moreover 
be  deprived  of  their  property ;  and  if,  when  their  means  were  taken 
away,  ttiey  should  still  persist  in  being  Christians,  then  they  should 
also  lose  their  heads ;  but  that  matrons  should  be  deprived  of  their 
property  and  sent  into  banishment.  Moreover,  people  of  Cesar's 
household,  whoever  of  them  had  either  confessed  before  or  should 
now  confess,  should  have  their  property  confiscated  and  should  be 
sent  In  chains  by  assignment  to  Cesar's  estates.^ 

The  list  of  martyrs  is  too  long  for  insertion.  Besides 
Cyprian,  many  prominent  bishops  won  the  martyr's 
crown.  Bishop  Sixtus  of  Rome  was  seized  in  the  Cata- 
combs, where  he  was  administering  the  Lord's  Supper. 
After  his  trial  and  condemnation  he  was  taken  back  and 
executed  on  the  same  spot. 

The  following  remarks  may  be  made  on  this  series  of  persecutions : 
a.  The  aim  of  the  emperors  was  the  utter  destruction  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  the  means  most  relied  upon  was  the  execution  of  the 
Christian  leaders  and  the  demolition  of  the  Christian  houses  of 
worship. 

h.  The  faith  of  Christians  everywhere  was  put  to  a  severe  test 
and  multitudes  were  found  wanting. 

c.  This  time  of  persecution  gave  rise  to  many  controversies  re- 
garding the  treatment  of  the  lapsed,  the  authority  of  confessors,  the 
prerogatives  of  bishops,  etc.,  and  a  widespread  schism  (the  Nova- 
tian)  resulted. 

d.  The  ability  of  Christianity,  even  in  a  somewhat  corrupted 
form,  to  withstand  the  most  determined  assaults  of  the  greatest 
worid-power  known  to  antiquity,  was  fully  demonstrated  and  gave 
to  Chnstians  the  fullest  assurance  of  ultimate  triumph. 

(3)  GaUienus  (260-268),  the  successor  of  Valerian, 
favored  the  Christians,  recalled  the  exiles,  restored  their 
church  property,  and  forbade  further  molestation  of 
them.  From  this  time  till  the  time  of  Diocletian  the 
Christians  suffered  almost  no  persecution.  They  grew 
in  numbers,  wealth,  church  organization,  and  in  worldli- 
ness.  Pagans  flowed  into  the  churches,  taking  with 
them  many  of  their  pagan  habits  of  life  and  thought,  so 
that  by  the  time  of  Diocletian  the  church  was  corrupt 
and  worldly  as  never  before,  and  was  in  no  condition  to 
meet  a  relentless  persecution.'    Christians  had  again 

1 8p.  UVm.  •  SumMus.  "  Cburch  Hlytofx/'  Bk.  VIH..  Cha|i.  |. 

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l68  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  a 

become  so  bold  and  aggressive  as  to  arouse  the  jealousy 
of  the  pagans. 

4.  Diocletian  and  Canstantine  (284-323).  Diocletian 
(284-316)  was  a  Dalmatian  soldier,  perhaps  originally 
a  slave,  who  had  made  his  way  to  the  imperial  throne 
by  military  prowess.  The  Christians  had  fully  recov- 
ered from  the  persecutions  of  Decius  and  Valerian  and 
were  no  doubt  far  more  numerous  and  influential  than 
ever  before.  Diocletian's  wife,  Prisca,  and  his  daugh- 
ter, Valeria,  are  said  to  have  been  Christians.*  The  im- 
perial chamberlain  Dorotheus  and  his  associate,  Gor- 
gonios,  were  cruelly  executed  as  Christians.  That  Dio- 
cletian was  unfriendly  to  Christianity  almost  from  the 
beginning  is  evident  from  a  decree  against  the  Mani- 
chaeans  issued  from  Egypt  about  287.  This  document  de- 
clares it  to  be  wrong  to  oppose  or  resist  the  gods  or  to 
change  from  an  old  religion  to  a  new,  and  in  the  highest 
degree  criminal  to  abandon  established  usages  that  have 
come  down  from  antiquity.  This  decree  involves  a  con- 
demnation of  Christianity.  It  is  not  probable,  however, 
that  Diocletian  would  have  entered  upon  so  difficult  an 
undertaking  as  the  extermination  of  so  widespread  and 
aggressive  a  religion,  had  it  not  been  for  the  fanatical 
zeal  of  his  son-in-law  Galerius,  who,  along  with  others, 
had  been  associated  with  him  in  the  imperial  office. 
Galerius  resolved  on  the  expulsion  of  Christians  from 
the  army.  About  29;  all  the  soldiers  were  ordered  to 
sacrifice.  Those  that  refused  were  expelled,  and  those 
that  manifested  zeal  for  Christianity  were  executed. 
Fire  broke  out  in  the  imperial  palace  at  Nicomedia  on  two 
different  occasions  (303).  It  was  a  convenient  thing  to 
charge  the  persecuted  Christians  with  arson. 

According  to  Eusebius,"  "  royal  edicts  were  published 
everywhere,  commanding  that  the  churches  be  leveled 
to  the  ground  and  the  Scriptures  destroyed  by  fire,  and 
ordering  that  those  who  held  places  of  honor  be  de- 
graded, and  that  the  household  servants,  if  they  per- 
sisted in  the  profession  of  Christianity,  be  deprived  of 
freedom."    This  first  edict,  issued  in  February,  303,  was 

1  EuseMos,  "Church  History/'  Bk.  VIII..  Chap.  i..  «p4  Uctfiitlm,  "Onk.  tM 
Death  of  Pcrsecutora,'*  XV. 
9  "Churr-h  HUlory/*  Bk.  VIII..  Chap.  i. 


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CHAP.L]  RELATION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  TO  THE  EMPIRE    169 

followed,  according  to  Eusebius,  by  other  decrees,  "com- 
manding tliat  all  the  rulers  of  the  churches  in  every 
place  be  first  thrown  into  prison,  and  afterward  by  every 
artifice  be  compelled  to  sacrifice."  It  is  noticeable  that 
the  great  importance  of  the  Scriptures  is  recognized  and 
that  the  destruction  of  all  copies  is  attempted.  As  in  the 
Decian  persecution,  the  severe  measures  were  directed 
against  the  leaders  of  the  churches,  loss  of  civil  and 
social  standing  being  the  only  penalties  now  inflicted 
on  laymen. 

On  the  day  preceding  the  publication  of  the  edict,  the 
great  church  building  of  Nicomedia  was  burned  to  the 
ground.  Immediately  after  the  posting  of  the  edict  in 
Nicomedia,  a  Christian,  ''highly  honored  with  distin- 
guished temporal  dignities,  seized  the  edict  as  it  was 
posted  openly  and  publicly,  and  tore  it  to  pieces  as  a 
profane  and  impious  thing.  "^  This  rash  act  of  defiance 
was  summarily  punished  and  no  doubt  greatly  increased 
the  fury  of  the  persecution.  In  all  parts  of  the  empire 
the  edict  was  executed  with  greater  or  less  severity. 
Multitudes,  as  in  the  Decian  persecution,  hastened  to 
deny  the  faith  and  to  surrender  their  copies  of  the  Scrip- 
tures ;  many  bore  the  most  horrible  tortures  and  refused 
with  their  latest  breath  to  surrender  the  Scriptures  or  in 
any  way  to  compromise  themselves.  Some  employed 
fraudulent  methods  of  evading  the  requirements  of  the 
law. 

Those  who  surrendered  the  Scriptures  were  stigma- 
tized by  their  more  courageous  brethren  as  Traditors, 
and  traditorism  became  the  occasion  of  the  great  Dona- 
tist  schism. 

At  this  time  there  were  four  emperors :  Diocletian  in 
the  East,  Maximian  at  Rome,  Constantius  in  Britain, 
Gaul,  and  Spain,  and  Galerius  in  lllyria.  The  two  former 
were  Augusti  or  emperors  in  the  highest  sense,  the  two 
latter  were  Ccesars.  Constantius  (who  ruled  in  Britain 
and  Gaul)  was  favorably  disposed  toward  Christianity, 
and  protected  Christians  as  far  as  practicable.  Diocle- 
tian and  Maximian  resigned  the  imperial  dignity  in  305. 
Galerius  and  Constantius  succeeded  them  as  Augusti^ 

>  &lMbiuf,  "Church  History /'  Blc  VIII.,  Ch«|».  y 


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IJO  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  a 

while  Maximinus  and  Severus  became  Cctsars.  In  306, 
after  the  death  of  his  father,  Constantius,  Constantine 
was  proclaimed  Augustus  by  his  ariny,  Maxentius  by  the 
Praetorian  Guards,  and  Severus  by  Galerius,  while  Max- 
imian  resumed  the  imperial  dignity.  In  307  Licinius  was 
made  Augustus  by  Galerius,  and  Maximinus  by  his  army. 
Galerius  had  not  yet  recognized  Constantine  and  Max- 
iminus as  Augusti.  Severus  was  sent  against  Maxentius 
in  307.  He  was  deserted  and  slain  by  his  army.  This 
left  six  claimants  of  imperial  dignity.  Maximian  died  in 
310,  Galerius  in  311.  This  reduced  the  emperors  to 
four. 

Constantine  shared  his  father's  favorable  disposition 
toward  Christianity.  Galerius  was  stricken  with  disease 
and  may  have  been  thereby  induced  to  relent.  In  311, 
together  with  Constantine  and  Licinius,  he  issued  an 
edict  granting  a  limited  toleration  to  Christians.^ 

Persecution  was  renewed  in  the  East  with  terrible 
severity  by  Maximinus.  Forged  "Acts  of  Pilate"  full 
of  blasphemies  against  Christ  were  sent  forth,  with  the 
emperor's  approval,  throughout  his  whole  domain,  with 
commands  that  they  be  publicly  posted  in  every  place 
and  that  schoolmasters  teach  them,  to  their  scholars. 
Some  vile  women  of  Damascus  were  induced  to  declare 
that  they  had  been  Christians  and  to  accuse  the  Chris- 
tians of  the  most  impious  and  licentious  conduct  Every- 
thing possible  seems  to  have  been  done  to  arouse  the 
fury  of  the  people  against  Christians.  The  way  having 
been  thus  prepared,  he  issued  an  edict  to  be  engraved  on 
brazen  pillars  in  the  cities,  declaring  Christianity  to  be 
an  "execrable  vanity,"  attributing  to  the  toleration  of 
Christians  all  the  calamities  that  had  come  upon  the 
land,  and  commanding  that  Christians  be  driven  far  from 
each  community.  This  edict  was  issued  in  response  to 
numeious  petitions  for  the  extermination  of  Christianity, 

1  While  they  prefer  that  all  should  conform  to  the  "retlffion  of  their  ancestors." 
recognition  Is  made  of  the  fact  that  some  Christians  have  Seen  driven  by  persecu- 
tion to  abandon  the  proper  worship  of  their  own  God,  and  yet  do  not  '*  offer  to  the 
heavenly  gods  the  worship  which  Is  due/'  The  result  Is  that  the  empire  suffers  loss 
from  their  failure  to  worship  any  god  aright  Permission  Is  given  Christians  to 
"rebuild  the  conventicles  In  which  they  were  accustomed  to  assemble,"  and  the 
opinion  Is  expressed  that  In  consideration  of  this  Indulgence  "they  ought  to  suppli- 
cate their  God  for  our  (the  emperors')  safety,  and  that  of  the  people,  and  their  own, 
that  the  public  welfare  may  be  preserved  In  every  place,  and  that  they  may  live 
•evurely  In  th«ir  several  homes  "  (Euseblus, "  Ch^r^h  History."  B|c  VU|.,  Chap.  17). 


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CHAP.  I.]  RELATION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  TO  THE  EMPIRE    17I 

which  Maximinus  himself  was  thought  to  have  inspired. 
After  the  victory  of  Constantine  he  was  constrained  to 
grant  complete  toleration  to  Christians,  with  the  restora* 
tion  of  confiscated  property. 

After  the  battle  of  the  Milvian  Bridge,  between  Con- 
stantine and  Maxentius,  in  which  Constantine,  being 
now  sole  emperor  in  the  West,  attributed  his  victory  to 
the  succor  of  the  God  of  the  Christians,  Constantine 
granted  full  toleration  to  the  Christians,  making  it  lawful 
for  any  one  that  wished  to  embrace  Christianity  (313). 
In  this  he  secured  the  co-operation  of  Licinius,  who  soon 
afterward  defeated  Maximinus  and  became  sole  emperor 
in  the  East.  This  edict  is  known  as  the  "  Edict  of  Milan,'' 
and  is  one  of  the  most  important  documents  of  the  age«  - 
The  more  significant  clauses  are  as  follows : 

Perceiving  long  ago  that  religious  liberty  ought  not  to  be  denied, 
but  that  it  ought  to  be  granted  to  the  Judgment  and  desire  of  each 
Individual  to  perform  his  religious  duties  according  to  his  own  choice, 
we  had  given  orders  that  every  man.  Christians  as  well  as  others, 
should  preserve  the  faith  of  his  own  sect  and  religion.  [There  fol- 
lows an  explanation  of  the  change  of  policy,  and  the  new  policy  is 
then  described.]  We  resolved  ...  to  grant  both  to  the  Christians 
and  to  all  men  freedom  to  follow  the  religion  which  they  choose, 
that  whatever  heavenly  divinity  exists  may  be  propitious  to  us  and 
to  all  that  live  under  our  government.  We  have,  therefore,  deter- 
mined, witii  sound  and  upright  purpose,  that  liberty  Is  to  be  denied  to 
no  one  to  choose  and  follow  the  religious  observances  of  the  Chris- 
tians, but  that  to  each  one  freedom  is  to  be  given  to  devote  his  mind 
to  tiiat  religion  which  he  may  think  adaptea  to  himself,  in  order  that 
the  Deity  may  exhibit  to  us  in  all  things  his  accustomed  care  and 
favor.  .  .  And  we  decree  still  further  in  regard  to  the  Christians, 
that  their  places,  in  which  they  were  formerly  accustomed  to  assem- 
ble ..  .  ^all  be  restored  to  the  said  Christians,  without  demanding 
money  or  any  other  equivalent,  with  no  delay  or  hesitation.  .  .  For 
by  tills  means  ...  the  divine  favor  toward  us  which  we  have  already 
experienced  in  many  matters  will  continue  sure  through  all  time.^ 

In  regard  to  this  edict  it  may  be  said :  (a)  That  it  is 
the  earliest  known  proclaniation  by  a  civil  government  of 
absolute  religious  liberty. 

(b)  It  involves  no  repudiation  of  paganism,  but  seems 
to  proceed  on  the  supposition  that  by  dealing  generously 
with  the  worshipers  of  all  gods  and  thus  promoting  their 
religious  devotion,  the  favor  of  all  gods  for  the  emperors 

1  S—  Eus«blus.  "  Church  History."  Bk.  X..  Chap.  %. 


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172  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  II. 

and  their  subjects  will  be  secured.  It  is  evident  how- 
ever that  the  emperors  recognize  the  God  of  the  Chris- 
tians as  of  extraordinary  importance. 

(c)  The  utilitarian  spirit  of  the  edict  is  everywhere 

manifest. 

In  319  Licinius,  always  at  heart  an  enemy  of  Chris- 

'  tianity  and  doubtless  suspecting  that  the  Christians  were 

I  favoring  Constantine's  ambitious  aspirations  after  uni- 

i  versal  sovereignty,  reversed  his  policy  of  toleration  and 

\  subjected  the  Christians  to  the  most  cruel  treatment.' 

\  Constantine  conquered  Licinius  in  323  and  became  sole 

\  emperor.    Thus  Christianity  triumphed  in  the  Roman 

\pmpire  after  a  struggle  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  years. 

1  Sm  EuaeUus.  "ChuKh  Hlstaiy/'  Bk.  X..  Chap.  t. 


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CHAPTER  II 

INTERNAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY  DURING  THE 
SECOND  AND  THIRD  CENTURIES 

I.  GENERAL  OBSERVATIONS. 

1.  In  a  world  filled  with  systems  of  philosophy  and  re- 
ligion, and  in  a  time  of  intellectual  activity,  such  as  was 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  it  could  not  be  ex- 
pected that  Christianity  would  long  be  able  to  hold  aloof 
from  other  systems,  neither  imparting  its  own  elements 
to  them,  nor  absorbing  foreign  elements.  Christianity 
drew  its  converts  from  two  grand  sources,  Judaism  and_ 
paganism.  It  would  have  been  strange,  indeed,  if  JewislT 
and  pagan  types  of  Christianity,  mutually  antagonistic, 
had  not  arisen,  and  if  each  had  not  made  a  distinct  im- 
pression on  the  more  catholic  type  that  resulted  from  the 
conflicts  of  the  second  and  third  centuries. 

2.  Even  among  the  New  Testament  writers  different 
jhades  of  opinion,  different  ways  of  conceiving  divine 
truth,  depending  on  the  attitude  of  each  writer  toward 
Judaism  and  toward  heathen  culture,  found  place.  Here, 
however,  the  diversity  is  comparatively  superficial  and 
easily  harmonizes  with  what  is  central  in  Christianity. 
But  uninspired  men  of  the  same  tendencies  and  feelings 
might  have  been  expected  to  go  to  extremes,  either  in 
making  Judaism  the  chief  thing  and  Christianity  a  mere 
appendage,  or  in  rejecting  Judaism  absolutely  and  sub- 
stituting heathen  philosophical  conceptions  therefor. 

3.  Such  an  antagonism,  having  once  entered  the  realm 
of  Christian  thought,  naturally  awakened  intellectual 
activity,  and  led  finally  to  the  accurate  definition  of 
Christian  doctrine  according  to  the  categories  of  the 
Greek  philosophy. 

Replying  to  Celsus'  charge  that  Christians  **  were  divided  and  split 
up  Into  factions,  each  individual  desiring  to  have  his  own  party," 
Origen  wrote:  *^ Seeing  Christianity  appeared  an  object  of  venera- 

^73 


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174  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.li 

tion  to  men,  and  not  to  the  laboring  and  serving  classes  alone,  but 
also  to  many  among  the  Greeks  who  were  devoted  to  literary  pur- 
suits, there  necessarily  originated  sects,  not  at  all,  however,  as  a 
result  of  faction  and  strife,  but  through  the  earnest  desire  of  man)! 
literary  men  to  enter  more  profoundly  Into  the  truths  of  Christianity. 
The  consequence  was,  that  understanding  differently  those  discourses 
which  were  believed  by  all  to  be  divine,  there  arose  sects,  which  re- 
ceived their  names  from  men  who  admired  Christianity  in  Its  fun- 
damental nature,  but  from  a  variety  of  causes  reached  discordant 
views." 

II.  HERETICAL  SECTS  OF  THE  PERIOD. 

I.  TheEbionites  or Judai^ing  Christians. 

LITERATURE:  Irenseus,  Bk.  1.,  Chap.  26;  Hippolytus,  Bk.  IX., 
Chap.  13-17;  Epiphanius,  Chap.  20,  30,  S3;  Clementine  (*' Homi- 
lies,'^ ••  Recognitions,*'  and  "  Acts  of  Peter  '* ) ;  Euseblus,  •*  Church 
History,"  Bk.  III.,  Chap.  27,  and  McGiffert's  valuable  notes ;  Schaff, 


v^iiiiouaii  L^vuuiuc.  p.  749  5«^.:  Mossman.  *'  Hlstoiy  of  the  Earty 
Christian  Church,'^  p.  188,  s#j. ;  Bunsen, "  Hippolytus  and  His  Age,*^ 
Vol.  1.,  p.  127,  siq. ;  Kitschl, ''  AHka$k.  Ktrdu;^  p.  104,  sea. ;  Lechler, 
*'  Das  Apost,  und  das  nachapostol,  ZiitalUr^**  p.  449«  s^q.  (also  English 
translation) ;  Baur,  **DuCkr,  Gnosis^*'  p.  300,  s«jf. ;  Mansel,  '*  The 
Gnostic  Heresies,"  p.  no,  s^^.;  Standmann,  **Das  Hebriur^BvaHgt" 
Imm*'  (Tsxts  und  Untersuchungiu^  V.,  3)  •  LIghtfoot,  *'  Epistle  to  Qie 
Galatians,"  p.  306, s$q, :  Matter, "  Hist,  Crit,  du  Gnosticisnu'*  f m.  II., 
p.  228,  ssq* ;  Langen,  *^Du  KUmmsronums** ;  Hamack,  ^^Dogmsmg^- 
schichu"  Bd,  I.,  S^H,  21^,  ssq,  (also  Enellsh  translation);  Lipsius, 
**Dtf  Qiullin  d.  RSmischiH  Pitrmssags"  ;  Uhlhorn.  *' Die  Hamtlim  u. 
Ruoguitumsu  d.  CUnums  Romamts  " ;  Schliemann,  *'  Die  Oementmm  " ; 
HtTZOK-HsLUck.^^Real'Encffkhpadis,"  art.  '' EhumHsn'' \  Schaff-Her 
zog,  ••  Dictionarypf  Christian  Btography,"  and  "  Encyclopaedia  Brl- 
Unnica,"  art.  **  Eblonltes." 

(i)  Origin  of  the  Sect.  From  the  book  of  Acts  and  the 
Pauline  Epistles,  we  see  that  there  existed  in  the  early 
church  an  extreme  Judaizing  party.  Paul  could  come  to 
an  understanding  with  James  and  Peter,  but  an  uncom- 
promising set  of  Judaizers  made  it  their  business  to  follow 
tn  his  footsteps  to  stigmatize  him  as  a  spurious  apostle,  to 
condemn  his  gospel  as  insufficient,  and  to  insist  on  a  rigid 
adherence  to  the  Jewish  law  as  necessary  to  salvation 
through  Christ.  Gradually  the  great  body  of  Christians, 
being  recruited  from  paganism,  became  emancipated  from 
Jewish  scruples  and  those  who  were  inclined  to  maike 


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CHAP.  II.]    INTERNAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY     I75 

much  of  Judaism  were  cast  off  as  heretics.  The  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem  (A.  D.  70)  greatly  promoted  the  separa- 
tion of  Judaizers  from  Christians  of  the  New  Testament 
type.  From  about  1 10  until  the  suppression  of  the  Jewish 
revolt  under  Barcochab  (132-135)  Judaism  enjoyed  a 
great  revival  over  the  Roman  Empire  and  Judaistic  Chris- 
tians naturally  were  confirmed  in  their  Judaism.  After 
the  suppression  of  the  revolt  the  hopes  of  Judaism  were 
crushed.  The  Judaistic  elements  soon  separated  them- 
selves from  Christianity,  but  the  extreme  Judaizing 
Christians  persisted  in  small  numbers  in  Palestine  and 
the  surrounding  countries  for  about  two  hundred  years 
longer.  The  separation  was  promoted  by  the  increasing  . 
stress  that  was  laid  by  the  non-Judaizing  Christians  on  U^ 
the  essential  and  absolute  Deity  of  Christ. 

(2)  Principles  of  Ebianism.  We  must  distinguish  be- 
tween the  earlier  Ebionism  and  the  later  Ebionism  as  it 
was  developed  under  the  influence  of  the  Alexandrian 
philosophy.  Earlier  and  later  Ebionism  agreed  in  main- 
taining that  the  true  God  is  the  maker  of  the  world  and 
the  author  of  the  Mosaic  law ;  in  holding  that  Jesus  was 
the  Messiah,  but  not  divine ;  in  rejecting  and  abom- 
inating Paul,  and  in  venerating  James  and  Peter.  The 
earlier  Ebionites  were  ascetics,  and  exalted  virginity. 
At  that  time,  James,  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  brother  of 
Jesus,  was  their  hero.  At  a  later  time,  when  the  ascetic 
spirit  had  been  developed  in  the  Gentile  churches,  they 
returned  to  the  Judaic  spirit  and  exalted  marriage  above 
virginity.    Peter  now  became  their  hero. 

Many  shades  of  opinion  regarding  the  person  of  Christ 
can  be  distinguished  among  the  Judaizing  Christians  of 
the  early  centuries.  Some  held  to  the  purely  human  gen- 
eration  of  Jesus,  while  others  acknowledged  his  super- 
natural birth.*  Some  modern  writers  distinguish  between 
Pharisaic  Ebionites  and  Essenic  Ebionites,  the  former 
term  denoting  those  who  held  fast  to  the  current  Jewish 
legalism  and  who  were  free  from  the  influence  of  the- 
osophy,  the  latter  denoting  the  theosophical  forms  of 
Jewish  Christian  thought. 

Cerinthus,  educated  in  Alexandria  but  active  chiefly 

>  OrlCM.  **€«*«  OfiMw."  v..  61. 


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176  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  a 

in  Asia  Minor,  to  refute  whose  teachings  the  Fourth 
Gospel  is  said  to  have  been  written,  was  the  first  noted 
Ebionite  of  the  speculative  type.  According  to  Irenseus 
and  Hippolytus/  he  held  that  the  world  was  not  made  by 
God  but  by  an  ignorant  being.  "  He  represented  Jesus 
as  not  having  been  born  of  a  virgin  .  •  .  but  as  having 
been  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  born  after  the  manner 
of  other  men,  though  distinguished  above  all  others  by 
justice  and  prudence  and  wisdom.  He  taught,  moreover, 
that  after  the  baptism  of  Jesus  the  Christ  descended 
upon  him  in  the  form  of  a  dove  from  that  Sovereign 
Power  which  is  over  all  things,  and  that  he  then  an- 
nounced the  unknown  Father  and  wrought  miracles ; 
but  that  toward  the  end  the  Christ  departed  again  from 
Jesus,  and  Jesus  suffered  and  rose  from  the  dead,  while 
the  Christ  remained  impassible  as  a  spiritual  being.'' 

Eusebius  quotes  Caius  (latter  part  of  the  second  cen- 
tury) to  the  effect  that  Cerinthus  was  a  propagator  o^ 
chiliastic  views,  which,  as  he  claimed,  were  "shown 
him  by  angels.'*  "  And  he  says  that  after  the  resurrec- 
tion tue  kingdom  of  Christ  will  be  set  up  on  the  earth, 
and  that  the  flesh  dwelling  in  Jerusalem  will  again  be 
subject  to  desires  and  pleasures.  And  being  an  enemy 
of  the  Scriptures  of  God,  he  asserts,  with  the  purpose  of 
deceiving  men,  that  there  is  to  be  a  period  of  a  thousand 
years  for  marriage  festivals."  Eusebius  quotes  also 
Dionysius  of  Alexandria  to  the  effect  that  Cerinthus 
''dreamed  that  the  kingdom  would  consist  in  those 
things  which  he  desired,  .  .  .  that  is  to  say,  in  eating 
and  drinking  and  marrying  .  .  .  and  in  festivals  and 
sacrifices  and  the  staying  of  victims.'"  It  is  probable 
that  Cerinthus'  views  of  a  temporal  reign  of  Christ  are 
somewhat  caricatured  by  these  writers. 

The  term  "  Ebionite  "  (of  Hebrew  derivation)  means 
"  poor,"  and  was  applied  to  the  early  Christians  in  gen- 
eral, who  were  poor  in  earthly  goods  and  poor  in  spirit. 
The  use  of  it  was  continued  by  the  Judaizing  party  or 
was  applied  to  them  by  their  enemies.  Some  of  the 
Jewish  Christians  of  the  second  and  third  centuries  were 
called  ''Nazarenes."    This  term  also  was  sometimes 

>  Irwueus.  Bk.  III.,  Chap.  11 ;  Hifpolytus.  Bk.  VII..  Clup.  si* 
•  ••  Church  HSfllory."  Bk  UL.  Chap.  >•. 


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CHAP,  il]   INTfiftKAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY     1 77 

applied  to  the  early  Christians  as  followers  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  (Acts  24  :  5).  It  may  have  adhered  to  certain 
communities  of  Jewish  Christians  from  the  earliest  time. 
Ebionites  and  Nazarenes  were  probably  separate  parties 
in  the  third  and  fourth  centuries.  Epiphanius  represents 
the  latter  as  the  more  orthodox  and  as  acknowledging 
the  supernatural  birth  of  Christ. 

According  to  Eusebius/  Symmachus,  who  made  a  new 
translation  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  into  Greek  about 
the  close  of  the  second  century,  was  an  Ebionite.  "  The 
Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews/*  which  appears  not  to 
have  been  the  Hebrew  original  of  our  Matthew,  was  in 
common  use  among  the  Ebionites. 

(3)  Elkesaite  Ebkntism  as  seen  in  the  Clementines.  The 
Clementine  "  Homilies  "  and  "  Recognitions  *'  are  among 
the  most  curious  products  of  the  religious  movements  of 
the  second  century.  Judaism  had  been  outlawed  by  the 
empire,  and  was  despised  by  Gentile  Christians  and 
Gnostics.  It  occurred  to  some  Jewish  Christian,  or 
Christians,  to  compose  books  purporting  to  have  been 
written  by  Clement  of  Rome  (the  third  pastor  of  the 
Roman  Church,  one  of  whose  genuine  Epistles  we  have), 
and  of  which  the  materials  should  be  the  supposititious 
discourses  and  acts  of  Peter.  This  would  afford  an  ex- 
cellent opportunity  for  combating  the  now  dominant 
Paulinism,  as  represented  by  the  Gentile  Christians  in 
general,  and  in  a  grossly  perverted  form  by  the  Gnostics. 
Simon  Magus  is  made  to  take  a  prominent  place,  and  to 
have  frequent  encounters  with  Peter,  who  confounds 
him  in  argument  and  drives  him  away.  Here  we  have, 
drawn  out  in  supposed  debates  between  Peter  and  Simon, 
a  speculative  Ebionitic  system,  somewhat  analogous  to 
those  of  the  Gnostics.  Peter  declares  that  he  will  be- 
lieve nothing  against  God  or  the  righteous  men  of  the 
Old  Testament  time,  even  though  recorded  in  Scripture. 
The  Old  Testament  Scriptures  are  not  Infallible,  but 
contain  much  that  is  false,  along  with  divine  truth. 
Adam  and  Christ  are  identified  (probably  in  opposition 
to  the  Pauline  antithesis,  Rom.  5),  and  constitute  the 
true  prophetic  spirit  in  all  ages.    Along  with  Adam  or 

>  "Church  History."  Bk.  VL.  Ch«^  17. 


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178  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.1L 

Christ,  was  created  a  female  nature  as  a  companion, 
differing  from  the  former  as  quality  from  substance,  as 
the  moon  from  the  sun,  as  fire  from  light.  She  was  en- 
trusted to  be  the  first  prophetess.  Everything,  there- 
fore, in  the  Old  Testament  that  seems  contrary  to  the 
righteousness  of  God  and  the  patriarchs,  is  to  be  attrib- 
uted to  this  inferior  earthly  prophecy,  which  has  misled 
and  perverted  mankind.  The  male  principle  is  wholly 
truth,  the  female  wholly  falsehood.  He  that  is  born  of 
male  and  female,  in  some  respects  speaks  truth;  in 
others,  falsehood.  Moses  did  not  write  the  law  himself, 
but  delivered  it  orally  to  seventy  wise  men.  Afterward 
it  was  written  down,  but  was  burnt  in  the  time  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar. Hence,  as  we  now  have  it,  the  law  con- 
tains false  and  true  elements.  Christ  is  declared  to  be 
begotten  and  sent,  and  hence  infinitely  inferior  to  the 
Father.  Here,  as  in  all  the  Gnostic  systems,  the  ques- 
tion as  to  the  origin  of  evil  comes  forward.  Peter's  main 
object  in  his  disputes  with  Simon  Magus  is  to  vindicate 
the  God  of  the  Old  Testament  from  all  imputations  of 
evil.  Simon  Magus  maintains  that  if  evil  and  the  devil 
exist,  and  if  God  is  the  maker  of  all  things,  then  God  is 
the  author  of  evil ;  hence,  not  himself  good.  Peter  ad- 
mits that  the  devil  was  created  by  God,  but  not  that  God 
created  evil.  God  created  four  substances — ^heat,  cold, 
moist  and  dry,  simple  and  unmixed.  When  they  were 
mingled  there  arose  freedom  of  choice  between  good  and 
evil.  God  permits  the  devil  to  exist  and  to  rule  over  the 
world,  in  order  that  he  may  punish  the  wicked.  The 
souls  of  men,  as  in  the  Pythagorean  philosophy,  are  par- 
ticles of  light.  Purgatory,  something  like  the  Platonic, 
with  the  annihilation  of  the  incorrigible,  is  spoken  of. 
Ebionism  showed  an  extraordinary  capacity  for  uniting 
with  whatever  foreign  elements  it  came  in  contact  with. 
Here  we  see  it  united  with  Pythagorean  and  Platonic 
elements.  Some  of  these  elements,  but  not  all,  are  at- 
tributed to  Ebionites  in  general  by  the  Christian  writers. 
The  points  given  as  common  to  all  are  the  essentials. 
In  the  minds  of  speculative  men  endless  variations  of 
view  found  place. 

The  Clementine  writings,  and  probably  the  Ebionites 
in  general,  laid  the  utmost  stress  on  baptism.    This  was 


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CHAP.  IL]    internal  development  of  CHRISTIANITY     179 

due  in  part  to  their  belief  that  Jesus  became  Christ,  or 
was  adopted  as  Son  by  the  Father,  in  connection  with 
his  baptism.  Some  of  the  more  striking  passages  are 
the  following: 

In  ''  Recognitions,"  I.,  39,  it  is  said  that  "  lest  haply  they  (the 
Jews)  might  suppose  that  on  the  cessation  of  sacrifice  there  was 
no  remission  of  sins  for  them,  he  [God's  Prophet— Christ]  instituted 
baptism  by  water  amongst  them,  in  which  they  might  be  absolved 
from  all  their  sins  on  the  invocation  of  his  name.  .  .  Subseauently 
also  an  evident  proof  of  this  great  mystery  is  supplied,  in  that  every 
one  who.  believing  in  this  Prophet  who  had  been  foretold  by  Moses, 
shall  be  kept  unhurt  from  the  destruction  of  war  which  impends  over 
the  unbelieving  nation."  This  last  probably  has  reference  to  the  fa- 
vorable treatment  accorded  to  the  Christians  as  compared  with  the 
cruel  punishment  inflicted  on  the  Jews  by  Hadrian  (135  onward). 

In  ^'  Recognitions,"  11.,  yi^  a  person  who  has  believed  is  said  to 
need  ''  the  purification  of  baptism,  that  the  unclean  spirit  may  go  out 
of  him,  which  has  made  its  abode  in  the  inmost  affections  of  his 
soul,"  and  that  he  may  eat  with  those  who  have  been  purified. 

In  "  Homilies,"  VII.,  8,  God's  service  is  said  to  be,  "to  worship 
him  only,  and  trust  only  In  the  Prophet  of  truth,  and  to  be  baptized 
for  the  remission  of  sins,  and  thus  by  this  pure  baptism  to  be  bom 
igain  unto  God  by  saving  water,"  etc. 

In  *'  Recognitions,"  VI.,  8,  9,  after  representing  water  as  the  first 
created  thing  and  as  that  from  which  all  things  are  produced,  and 
dwelt  on  its  regenerating  efficacy,  the  writer  proceeds :  "  And  do 
you  suppose  that  you  can  have  hope  toward  God,  even  if  you  culti- 
vate all  piety  and  all  righteousness,  but  do  not  receive  baptism? 
Yea.  rather,  he  will  be  worthy  of  greater  punishment,  who  does  good 
works  not  well.  .  .  Now  God  has  ordered  every  one  who  worships 
him  to  be  sealed  by  baptism ;  but  if  you  refuse,  and  obey  your  own 
will  rather  than  God's,  you  are  doubtless  contrary  and  hostile  to  his 
will.  But  you  will  perhaps  say.  What  does  baptism  of  water  con- 
tribute toward  the  worship  of  God?  In  the  first  place,  because  that 
which  hath  pleased  God  Is  fulfilled.  In  the  second  place,  because, 
when  you  are  regenerated  and  bom  again  of  water  and  of  God,  the 
frailty  of  your  former  birth,  which  you  had  through  men,  is  cut  off, 
and  so  at  length  you  shall  be  able  to  attain  salvation ;  but  otherwise 
It  is  impossible.  .  .  Betake  yourselves  therefore  to  these  waters,  for 
they  alone  can  quench  the  violence  of  the  future  fire ;  and  he  who 
delays  to  approach  them,  it  Is  evident  that  the  idol  of  unbelief  re- 
mains in  him,  and  by  it  he  Is  prevented  from  hastening  to  the  waters 
which  confer  salvation.  For,  whether  you  be  righteous  or  unright- 
eous, baptism  is  necessary  for  you  In  every  respect :  for  the  righteous, 
that  perfection  may  be  accomplished  in  him  and  he  may  oe  bom 
afl^ain  to  God :  for  the  unrighteous,  that  pardon  may  be  vouchsafed 
him  of  the  sins  which  he  committed  In  ignorance." 

Notwithstanding  their  belief  in  the  magical  eflftcacy  of 
baptism,  it  is  not  probable  that  the  Ebionites  adminis- 


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l8o  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IL 

tered  it  to  infants.  The  fact  that  Jesus  was  baptized  as 
a  mature  man  and  their  profound  conviction  that  he  first 
received  his  divine  Sonship  in  baptism  would  probably 
have  held  them  to  adult  baptism  after  it  had  become 
common  among  the  non-Jewish  Christians,  who  in  gen- 
eral attached  no  such  importance  to  the  baptism  of  Jesus. 

2.  The  Gnostics. 

LITERATURE:  IrenaBUs/'/fAvrs«s//fly«#5";  Hippolytus/* i^r/ir 
iatio  Onmmm  Hm.^ ;  Tertullian,  *'  D*  PrcKcriptionibus  Hofnticorum,^^ 
*'  Adwrsus  Marciomm^^  etc. ;  Clement  of  Alex,  and  Origen,  passim  ; 
Epiphanius,  *'y1dwrsus  Hasnsis  ";  Plotinus, "  Enmad.,''  Bk.  II.,  Chap. 

g;  '^  Pistis  Sophia  "  (a  Gnostic  Treatise  recently  discovered,  and  edited 
J/  Petermann,  Berlin,  1853) ;  Theodoret,  " Di  Hanntieorum  Fabulis'* : 
Eusebius, "//»/.  EccL" passim;  Giesder,  "Ecclesiastical  History,'^ 
VoL  I.,  p.  120,5^9.;  Vol.  11.,  p.  442,  s^:  MoUer,  VoLl.,p.  129,5/0.; 
Hiljjenfeld,  '^ K^t^^gssch." :  King,  "The  Gnostics  and  their  Re- 
mains," second  ed.,  1887  (sympatiietic  with  Gnosticism  and  rich  in 
archseological  materials);  Llghtfoot,  " The  Colossian  Heresy"  (in 
"Com.  on  Colossians");  Harnack,  **Dofminfisch,,**  Bd.  1.,  Seit. 
158,  s#9.  (also  English  translation) ;  Neanaer.  Vol.  1.,  p.  566,  ssq. ; 
/"  Pressensi,  "Heresy  and  Christian  Doctrine,"  p.  L,  s^q.;  Mansel, 
(  "  The  Gnostic  Heresies  " :  Burton, "  Heresies  of  the  Apostolic  Aee  " ; 
Bunsen,  "  Hippolytus  and  His  Age,"  Vol.  1.,  p.  61,  sgq, ;  Baur,  ^*  Dii 
Chr,  Gnosis*^  (more  concisely  in  liis  "  Church  History  of  the  First  - 
Three  Centuries,"  VoL  I.,  p.  185-245);  Ritschl,  ''Altkath,  Kirehs'' 
passim;  Lipsius,  "Df>  QuelUu  dsr  altesi  Kitxergeschicte'^ :  Hamack, 
*'  Zur  QtulUnkritih  dsr  Sisch,  des  Gnosticismus  "  ;  Matter,  *'  Hist,  CriU 
du  Gnosticismi  " ;  Lipsius,  "  Der  Gnosticismus^  siin  fVsssH^  Urspruftg, 
Entwick4lungsga$tg*\'  Mdller,  **  Gtsch.  d.  Cosmologis  d,  pigehischm 
Kirch$  his  an  Originis** ;  Amelineau.  ^*  Essai  sur  U  Gnosttdsms  igjf- 
tien'' ;  Bright,  '*^Gnostlcism  and  Irenaus"  (in  "Waymarks  of 
Church  History,"  1894);  Kostlin.  "DiV  gnostischi  ^stsm  d.  Buck 
Pistis  Sophia"  (in  ^^  Thiol,  Jahrh,'^  1854) ;  Mcrx,  ** Bardisams  von 
Edsssa** ;  Koffmane,  "Dm  Gnosis  nach  thnr  Ttndenru,  Organisa- 
tion";  Meyboom,  '^  Marcion  m  di  Mardomtin" ;  Gruber,  "M 
Ophitm":  Heinrid,  "Dw  VaUntin,  Gnosis  u,  d,  Hal,  Schriftm" ; 
"Gnosticism."  in  Herzog-Hauck 5  Lichtenbcreer ;  Wetzer  u.  Weltc : 
"Britannica'^  (ninth  ed.),  "Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography,'* 
and  Schaff-Herzog. 

The  term  includes  various  theosophical  bodies,  with 
Christian  elements,  that  flourished  during  the  second 
century  in  Syria,  Egypt,  Asia  Minor,  etc. 

(i)  The  Germs  of  Gnosticism  existed,  doubtless,  in  the 
apostolic  times.  Paul  speaks  of  knowledge  (^jn^ot^)  as 
"puffing  up,"  of  "oppositions  of  knowledge  (rwff«0 
falsely  so  called/'  etc.    In  the  writings  of  John  we  see 


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CHAP.  11.]    INTERNAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY     l8l 

still  clearer  evidences  of  Gnostic  opposition  to  Chris- 
tianity. In  Revelation  the  Nicolaitans  are  spoken  of  as 
holding  the  doctrine  of  Baal,  and  eating  things  sacrificed 
to  idols.  These  were  probably  Gnostics.  Irenaeus  testi- 
fies that  the  Gospel  of  John  was  written  to  oppose  Gnos- 
ticism as  represented  by  Cerinthus,  an  Ebionitic  Gnostic.  ,,/- 
So,  in  the  First  Epistle  ot  John,  Gnostic  tendencies  are 
combated  in  the  two-fold  aspect  of  denial  of  the  Divinity 
and  denial  of  the  humanity  of  Christ  (Docfitism).  Simon 
Magus,  who,  according  to  the  narrative  in  Acts,  gave 
himself  out  as  "the  great  power  of  God,*'  became  an 
arch-heretic  (unless  all  of  the  accounts  of  him  are  leg- 
endary, like  that  of  the  Clementines),  and  the  precursor, 
if  not  the  founder,  of  Gnosticism.  He  is  related  to  hav. 
gained  many  followers,  and  to  have  called  himself  the 
"  Word,"  "  Paraclete,"  "  Omnipotent,"  etc.* 

(2)  The  Philosophical  Basis  ofunosticism  was  the  ques- 
tion as  to  the  origin  of  evil.  The  answer  was  influenced 
by  an  idealized  conception  (Platonic  and  Pythagorean — 
seen  also  in  the  writings  of  Philo  of  Alexandria,  etc.)  of 
Absolute  Being.  The  world  was  seen  to  be  full  of  im- 
perfection ;  the  Supreme  Being  could  not,  therefore,  be 
its  author.  The  Old  Testament  represents  Jehovah  (or 
Elohim)  as  the  creator  of  the  world.  Hence  Jehovah  is 
an  imperfect  being,  and  the  religion  of  the  Jews  antag- 
onistic to  true  religion.  The  chief  aim  of  Gnosticism 
was  to  account  for  the  existence  of  the  present  order  of 
things  without  compromising  the  character  of  the  Su-  ^ 
preme  Being. 

(3)  Sources  of  Gnosticism.  The  most  direct  and  most 
important  source  of  Gnosticism  was  the  Jewish-Alexan- 
drian philosophy  as  represented  by  Philo.  We  can 
account  for  most  of  the  phenomena  of  Gnosticism  by  the 
supposition  of  attempts  to  combine  this  mode  of  thought 
with  Christian  doctrines,  especially  with  the  prologue  of 
John's  Gospel.  Many  points  of  resemblance  can  be 
traced  between  the  Gnostic  systems  and  the  Jewish 
Cabbala,  the  germs  of  which  probably  existed  in  the 
second  century;  but  it  is  impossible  to  tell  whether 
Gnosticism  borrowed  from  the  Cabbala,  or  viu  versa. 

1  Juitin.  "  ApoL."  I..  CiMp.  ai ;  irwuMis,  Bk.  L.  Chap.  %%, 

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l82  A  MANUAL  OP  CHURCH  HISTORY  [per  tt 

Both  were  certainly  dependent  on  Jewish-Alexandrian 
theosophy.  In  addition  to  this  chief  elenient,  the  Gnostic 
systems  (some  to  a  greater,  some  to  a  less  extent)  were 
influenced  by  Buddhism  and  Zoroastrianism,  which  sys- 
tems had  long  been  well  known  in  Alexandria.  The 
esoteric  theosophy  of  the  old  Egyptian  religion  must  have 
contributed  a  not  unimportant  factor  to  Egyptian  types  of 
Gnosticism.  The  intensely  dualistic  systems  are  doubt- 
less  connected  with  the  Zoroastrian  and  old  Babylonian 
dualism.  So  also  its  emanation  theories.  With  Buddhism 
may  have  been  connected  the  Gnostic  teachings  respect- 
ing the  antagonism  of  spirit  and  matter,  the  unreality  of 
derived  existence,  and,  to  some  extent,  the  origin  of  the 
world  from  successive  emanations  from  the  Absolute 
Being.^  Yet  it  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  a  direct  and 
conscious  employment  of  all  these  sources.  These  had 
more  or  less  influence  on  the  Jewish-Alexandrian  phi- 
losophy current  at  the  time.  Such  ideas  had  become 
common  property^  and  the  special  combinations  in  the 
hands  of  men  of  speculative  minds  who  had  cut  loose 
from  the  historical,  and  sought  only  to  devise  plausible  sys- 
tems, is  easily  accounted  for.  Philo,  under  the  influence 
of  Neo-Platonism,  Neo-Pythagoreanism,  and  old  Egyptian 
theosophy,  had  exalted  the  Supreme  Being  above  contact 
with  the  visible  world,  and  had  explained  all  passages  of 
the  Old  Testament  that  seemed  inconsistent  with  such 
exaltation,  as  referring  not  to  the  Absolute  Being,  but  to 
a  derived  being,  the  Logos.  He  had  adopted  an  allegori- 
cal method  of  interpretation,  according  to  which  the 
literal  meaning  of  the  Old  Testament  was  of  no  account, 
and  a  given  passage  could  be  made  to  mean  anything 
whatsoever,  according  to  the  fancy  of  the  interpreter. 
Philo's  Logos  doctrine  is  obscure  from  the  fact  that  he 
employed  the  term  in  several  different  senses,  viz :  a. 
As  a  divine  faculty,  whether  of  thought  or  of  creation,  or 
of  both  together ;  ft.  as  the  thinking,  creative  activity 
of  God ;  c.  as  the  result  of  thinking,  or  the  ideal  world 
itself;  d.  as  the  active  divine  principle  in  the  visible 
world.'  The  very  obscurity  and  ambiguity  of  Philo 
would  furnish  endless  material  for  speculation.    So  far 

^  C/.  Mansel,  "  Gnostic  Heresies,"  p.  %». 
>  Sm  Doramr,  "  Parson  of  Christ."  Div.  1..  Vol.  I.,  p.  a4.  sif. 

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CHAP.  II.]    INTERNAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY     183 

as  the  dependence  of  the  later  theosophical  systems  is 
concerned,  it  is  a  matter  of  little  importance  whether 
Philo,  in  any  of  his  representations  of  the  Logos,  meant 
to  teach  the  existence  of  the  Logos  as  a  distinct  person- 
ality. Certainly  there  is  abundant  material  in  Philo  that 
could  be  so  employed  by  uncritical  speculative  theolo- 
gians. 

Only  in  those  systems  in  which  Oriental  features  are 
marked  is  there  need  to  suppose  any  direct  connection 
with  Zoroastrianism  and  Buddhism. 

(4)  Characteristics  of  Gnosticism,  a.  Dualism,  in  some 
systems  absolute,  in  others  not.  Matter  being  regarded 
as  evil  could  not  have  been  created  by  the  Supreme 
Being,  b.  Docetism,  according  to  which  the  Messiah's 
body  was  only  an  appearance ;  or,  according  to  others,  a 
mere  human  body  temporarily  made  use  of  by  the  Mes- 
siah. This  docetism  was  the  result  of  a  theory  of  the 
inherent  evil  of  matter,  c.  Emanations.  Most  of  the 
Gnostic  systems  are  characterized  by  a  series  of  aeons  or 
emanations  from  the  Supreme  Being ;  the  more  remote, 
in  general,  the  more  degraded.  One  of  the  most  de- 
graded of  the  emanations  figures  as  the  Demiurge  or 
world-framer.  d.  Hostility  to  Judaism,  with  some,  abso- 
lute, Jehovah  being  regarded  as  positively  malignant  and 
actively  hostile  to  the  true  God,  and  hence  the  Jewish 
religion,  as  entirely  diabolical ;  with  others,  more  moder- 
*ate,  Jehovah  being  regarded  as  an  ignorant  and  imper- 
fect being,  and  Judaism  being  regarded  as  a  preparation 
for  the  revelation  of  the  Supreme  being  in  Christ.  ^.  As  -^ 
the  Ebionites  rejected  the  writings  of  Paul  and  regarded 
Paul  as  an  impostor,  so  the  Gnostics  rejected  not  only 
the  Jewish  religion  and  Scriptures,  but  all  of  the  New 
Testament  except  the  Pauline  Epistles  and  parts  of  the  Gos- 
pels, Peter  and  James  being  regarded  as  servants  of  the 
Demiurge,  who  tried  to  keep  the  people  whom  Christ 
had  come  to  free  in  the  slavery  of  the  Demiurge.  /.  *--^ 
Gnosticism  was  essentially  a  striving  after  system.  Un- 
satisfied with  detached  truths,  men  lelt  impelled  to  bring 
all  truth  into  absolute  harmony.  It  was  speculative  and 
not  practical,  conduct  being  regarded  as  entirely  subor- 
dinate to  comprehension  of  the  mysteries  of  the  universe. 
g.  Gnosticism  was  an  aristocratic  system.    A  man  was^^ 


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l84  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IL 

regarded  as  exalted  in  the  scale  of  being  in  proportion  to 
his  knowledge,  not  of  facts,  however,  but  of  supposed 
mysteries.  The  great  mass  of  mankind  were  sarkical 
(fleshly,  animal) ;  a  part  psychical  (capable  of  reasoning 
about  earthly  matters) ;  the  Gnostics  themselves  were 
spiritual  (capable  of  apprehending  the  divine  mysteries). 
A.  The  Gnostic  systems  were  all  fatalistic :  Man  is  in  his 
present  condition,  not  from  his  own  choosing,  but  from 
the  method  of  his  creation;  from  this  state  he  can  do 
nothing  toward  freeing  himself ;  he  is  absolutely  depend- 
ent upon  the  aid  that  comes  from  without,  i.  As  matter 
was  regarded  as  evil,  the  Gnostics  had  great  contempt  for 
the  flesh.  Some  of  them  practised  the  most  rigid  asceti- 
cism, in  order  to  overcome  the  flesh;  others  held  that 
everything  depended  upon  the  spirit  and  that  the  indul- 
gence of  the  flesh  was  a  matter  of  indifference,  and  gave 
the  utmost  license  to  their  fleshly  inclinations;  while 
others  held  that  the  flesh  ought  to  be  destroyed  by  vice. 
Some  of  the  Gnostics,  regarding  all  the  characters  that 
are  reprobated  in  the  Old  Testament  (as  Cain,  the  in- 
habitants of  Sodom,  etc.)  as  really  servants  of  the  true 
God,  thought  that  the  vices  of  these  ought  to  be  imitated. 
k.  Gnosticism  is  distinguished  from  other  theosophical 
systems — ^and  hence  demands  consideration  in  the  study 
of  church  history — ^from  the  fact  that  it  embraces  the 
>idea  of  redemption  through  Christ,  a  Divine  interposition 
in  the  world,  in  connection  with  the  origin  of  Christianity,* 
to  deliver  the  world  from  the  dominion  of  evil. 

The  opposition  of  the  two  principles,  with  the  Dualism  resting 
thereon,  and  the  Gnostic  repugnance  toward  anything  material ; 
the  succession  of  aeons,  through  which  the  relation  of  God  with  the 
worid  is  sought  to  be  mediated,  but  in  the  place  of  the  Jewish-Chris- 
tian idea  of  a  free  creation  of  the  world  the  doctrine  of  the  emanation 
of  the  world  from  God  is  posited:  the  separation  of  the  Creator  of 
the  worid  from  the  one  Supreme  God ;  the  putting  of  Christ  in  the 
same  category  with  other  divine  beings  whose  sameness  of  nature 
can  only  be  looked  upon  as  an  Infringement  upon  the  absolute  dig- 
nity of  Christ ;  the  whole  process  of  cosmic  development  in  which 
Christianity  is  so  completely  entangled  that  the  facts  of  redemption 
achieved  through  Christ  must  lose  not  only  their  ethical- religious 
meaning,  but  even  their  historical  character— all  this  formed  a  ver>' 
decided  opposition  to  the  fundamental  intuition  of  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness. .  .  On  the  other  side,  Gnosticism  had  so  much  that  was 
related  to  Christianity  and  in  agreement  with  it,  and  as  soon  as 


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CHAP. Il]    INTERNAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY     l8s 

Christianity  had  once  come  to  be  more  widely  disseminated  among 
the  higher  classes,  every  educated  man  initiated  in  the  dominant 
ideas  of  his  time  felt  so  keenly  the  need  of  himself  answering  the 
same  questions  with  whose  solution  the  Gnostics  were  oaupied,  that 
the  relation  of  Christianity  to  Gnosticism  could  be,  by  no  means,  a 
merely  hostile  and  repellent  one.^ 

(5)  Gnostic  Systems.  Gnosticism  was  so  speculative  in 
its  nature,  that  each  important  leader,  even  when  adopt- 
ing with  little  or  no  change  the  conceptions  of  his  prede- 
cessors, was  likely  to  invent  a  new  terminology.  This 
fact  resulted  in  the  almost  endless  multiplication  of 
Gnostic  parties,  each  of  which  is  Icnown  by  the  name 
of  its  founder  or  by  some  peculiarity  of  the  terminology 
or  the  imagery  employed  to  set  forth  its  ontological  and  /^ 
cosmological  scheme.  Egypt  and  Syria  were  the  great^"^*^ 
seminaries  of  Gnosticism,  but  Rome,  Asia  Minor,  Meso- 
potamia, Armenia,  and  Eastern  Persia  furnished  fruitful 
soil  for  its  propagation. 

a.  Early  Christian  tradition  made  Simon  Magus,  after 
Peter's  denunciation  of  his  unholy  proposal  to  purchase 
the  power  of  bestowing  the  Holy  Spirit  (Acts  8  :  18-24), 
a  malignant  opponent  of  apostolic  Christianity  and  an 
influential  disseminator  of  pestilential  heresy.  This 
Simon  of  Samaria  is  said  to  have  associated  with  himself 
a  disreputable  woman  named  Helena,  and  the  two  are 
said  to  have  been  worshiped  by  many  of  the  Samaritans 
as  the  male  and  female  principles  of  deity.'  He  is  said 
to  have  claimed  to  be  the  Word,  the  Paraclete,  and  the 
Omnipotent  One,  and  to  have  declared  Helena  to  have 
been  the  first  conception  of  his  mind.  Through  her  the 
angels  and  powers  of  the  lower  world  had  been  produced, 
and  through  these  angels  the  world  had  been  framed. 
He  himself  and  not  Jesus,  whom  he  regarded  as  a  mere 
man  who  had  received  a  divine  impartation  at  his  bap- 
tism, was  the  true  Redeemer  of  manlcind.  His  system 
seems  to  have  been  based  on  the  Syro-Phoenician  cos- 
mology and  to  have  had  an  elaborate  angelology  and  a 
well-developed  astrology.  These  elements  were  freely 
used  in  the  practice  of  sorcery.  The  most  noted  of 
Simon's  immediate  disciples  was  Menander,  who  seems 

1  Baur,  "  Dit  dra  ersitm  Jabrbundtritm**  pp.  S47.  S48. 
•JusUn  Martyr.  "  Apol./'  L.  ■6*  s6.  "  Dial,  witb  Trypbo."  lao. 

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I86  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  a 

to  have  been  content  with  propagating  the  views  of  his 
master,  but  to  have  put  himself  in  the  place  of  honor 
instead  of  Simon. 

b.  Saturninus,  the  founder  of  Syrian  Gnosticism,  is 
said  to  have  been  a  disciple  of  Simon  and  Menander. 
According  to  Irenaeus  (I.,  24)  he  ''taught  that  there  is 
one  Father  unknown  to  all,  who  made  angels,  archangels, 
powers,  and  principalities ;  that  the  world  and  all  that 
IS  therein  was  made  by  certain  angels,  seven  in  num- 
ber ;  and  that  man  was  made  by  the  angels."  He  was 
fashioned  after  the  likeness  of  a  bright  manifestation  of 
supreme  power ;  but  being  unable  to  stand,  "  the  superior 
power  pityins  him,  .  .  sent  a  spark  of  life,  which  raised 
him  upright.  '  "  The  God  of  the  Jews  .  .  .  was  one 
of  the  angels,  and  because  the  Father  wished  to  depose 
all  the  principalities  from  their  sovereignty,  Christ  came 
to  depose  the  God  of  the  Jews,  and  for  the  salvation  of 
those  who  trust  in  him ;  that  is  to  say,  of  those  who 
have  in  them  the  spark  of  life."  Marriage  and  procrea- 
tion he  attributed  to  Satan.  He  rejected  animal  food  and 
practised  a  rigorous  asceticism.  He  denied  the  human 
birth  of  the  Saviour  and  regarded  his  body  as  a  mere 
appearance. 

c.  Tatian,  a  learned  rhetorician,  who  had  been  con- 
verted to  Christianity  through  Justin  Martyr  at  Rome 
(c.  155),  and  had  written  an  apology  for  Christianity 
Ic,  165),  was  perverted  to  Syrian  Gnosticism  shortly 
afterward  and  wrote  the  "  Diatessaron,"  in  which  he 
combined  the  four  Gospel  narratives  into  one,  eliminat- 
ing the  genealogies  and  all  passages  referring  to  our 
Lord's  Jewish  descent  (c.  175).  He  advocated  and 
practised  extreme  asceticism,  condemning  marriage  and 
the  use  of  animal  food,  and  using  water  for  wine  in  the 
Supper.  He  regarded  the  creation  of  the  world  and  the 
Old  Testament  revelation  as  the  work  of  an  imperfect 
Demiurge.  The  "  Diatessaron  "  in  its  Syriac  form  was 
in  common  use  in  Syria  till  the  fifth  century.  Tatian 
had  vastly  more  knowledge  of  historical  Christianity 
than  had  most  of  the  Gnostic  teachers. 

d.  BasilideSy  a  man  deeply  versed  in  Greek  and  Jewish 
Alexandrian  philosophy  and  in  old  Egyptian  theosophy, 
and  who  may  have  come  under  the  influence  of  the  teach* 


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CHAP.  IL]   internal  development  of  CHRISTIANITY     187 

ings  of  Simon  Magus  and  Menander,  appeared  in  Alexan- 
dria as  a  religious  leader  about  133.  His  philosophy  was 
fundamentally  pantheistic.  His  favorite  designation  of 
God  was  the  **  Non-existent  One."  He  starts  out  with 
an  absolute  void  and  seeks  to  account  for  the  phenoin  • 
enal  world.  Hippolytus  attributes  to  him  the  following 
statement : 

Since,  therefore,  there  was  nothing,  neither  matter  nor  substance, 
nor  unsubstantial,  nor  simple,  nor  compound,  nor  Inconceivable, 
nor  imperceptible,  Tior  man,  nor  angel,  nor  God,  nor  in  short  any  of 
the  things  that  are  named  or  perceived  by  the  senses  or  conceived 
by  the  intellect,  but  all  things  being  thus,  and  more  minutely  than 
thus,  simply  obliterated,  the  non-existent  God  .  .  .  without  thought, 
«vithout  sense,  without  counsel,  without  choice,  without  passion, 
i^ithout  desire,  willed  to  make  a  world.  When  I  say  willed,  I  mean 
to  signify  without  will  and  without  thought  and  without  sense; 
and  by  tne  world  I  mean  not  that  which  was  afterward  made  and 
separated  by  size  and  division,  but  the  seed  of  the  world.  .  .  Thus 
the  non-existent  God  made  a  non-existent  world  from  things  non- 
existent, having  cast  down  and  deposited  a  single  seed,  having  in 
itself  the  universal  seed  of  the  world. 

This  seed  contained  the  three-fold  sonship,  of  the  same 
essence  as  the  non-existent  God.  The  first  was  purely 
spiritual,  the  second  was  thought  of  as  the  more  refined 
material  essences  (the  firmament  and  the  atmosphere), 
the  third  seems  identified  with  the  spiritual  essence  con- 
nected with  material  substance  of  the  grosser  sort  and 
as  in.  need  of  purification.  After  the  firmament  had  been 
formed  there  sprang  forth  out  of  the  seed  of  the  world 
the  Great  Ruler  {Archon),  "  the  wisest  and  most  power- 
ful and  brightest  of  mundane  existences,  superior  to  all 
beneath,  except  that  portion  of  the  divine  sonship  which 
still  remained  in  the  world."  Ignorant  of  what  was 
above  the  firmament  and  thinking  himself  supreme,  he 
undertook  the  work  of  creation.  Having  begotten  a  son 
more  powerful  than  himself  and  seated  him  on  his  right 
hand,  he  unwittingly  accomplished  the  counsel  of  the 
non-existent  God  in  forming  the  celestial  and  the  ethereal 
creation.  The  celestial  and  ethereal  spheres  and  their 
rulers  constitute  the  Ogdoad,  and  the  Great  Archon 
bears  the  mystical  name  Abrasax,  the  value  of  whose 
letters  makes  the  number  365.  This  would  seem  to 
identify  the  Great  Archon  with  the  sun  and  to  show 


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1 88  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  U 

the  relationship  of  the  system  to  the  current  sun-wor< 
ship. 

In  the  lower  sphere  a  second  Archon  is  developed  who 
forms  the  Hebdomad,  who  also  begins  with  the  begetting 
of  a  son  greater  than  himself.  This  second  ruler  is  iden- 
tified with  the  God  of  the  Jews  and  the  framer  of  this 
lower  world.  The  third  sonship  is  the  portion  of  the 
divine  life  and  light  that  has  become  imprisoned  in  matter^ 
and  the  work  of  redemption  consists  in  the  liberation  of 
this  divine  substance  and  its  lifting  up  through  the  Heb- 
domad and  the  Ogdoad  into  the  infinite. 

Basilides  secured  a  large  following  in  Rome  as  well  as 
in  Egypt,  and  the  influence  of  his  theosophizing  was 
widespread.  His  writings,  which  consisted  of  a  recen- 
sion of  the  gospel  narrative,  liturgical  works,  and  an  ex- 
position of  his  cosmological  and  soteriological  system 
have  perished,  except  the  few  fragments  that  are  pre- 
served by  his  opponents.  But  underneath  the  some- 
what fantastic  imagery  there  seems  to  have  been  serious 
and  profound  thinking  on  the  great  problems  of  being. 

e.  yalentinus,  also  a  Greek-speaking  Egyptian  philoso- 
pher, appeared  in  Rome  as  the  propagator  of  an  elabor- 
ate cosmological  and  soteriological  system  about  135, 
and  may  have  continued  to  labor  there  with  some  inter- 
missions until  about  160.  His  system  is  far  the  most 
elaborate  and  was  far  the  most  popular  of  those  devel- 
oped in  Egypt.  He  seems  to  have  remained  in  nominal 
connection  with  the  regular  churches  until  after  his 
departure  from  Rome.  His  was  the  form  of  Gnosticism 
with  which  Irenasus  came  into  closest  contact  and  which 
was  the  occasion  of  the  writing  of  his  great  work  against 
heresies.  The  philosophical  basis  of  his  system  was 
identical  with  that  of  Basilides  ;  but  he  was  not  so  care* 
ful  as  Basilides  to  insist  on  the  original  non-existence  of 
God  and  everything.  He  starts  oiit  with  Depth  (Buthos) 
and  Silence  (Sige)  as  the  eternal  male  and  female  prin- 
ciples. These  project  Mind  and  Truth,  which  in  turn 
project  Word  and  Life.  These  produce  Man  and  Church 
(not  the  mundane).  Rejoicing  in  their  productivity, 
they  produce  and  present  to  the  Father  ten  aeons,  a  per- 
fect number.  Man  and  Church  project  twelve  asons,  of 
which  the  last  is  Wisdom  (Sophia).    This  lowest  aon 


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CHAP.  II.]   INTERNAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY     1 89 

sought  to  emulate  the  Father  by  independently  produ- 
cing offspring.  The  result  was  an  abortion,  who  igno- 
rantly  proceeded  to  create  this  world  and  to  involve  in 
matter  a  portion  of  the  divine  substance  that  he  pos- 
sessed, this  Demiurge  was  identified  with  the  God  of 
the  Jews,  and  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  were  re- 
garded as  inspired  by  him.  Mind  and  Truth  projected, 
thereupon,  Christ  and  the  Holy  Spirit  to  restore  Form, 
to  destroy  the  abortion,  and  to  comfort  the  sorrowing 
Sophia.  The  work  of  redemption  is  to  liberate  the  spir- 
itual nature  in  man  from  the  evil  material  existence  and 
the  passions  by  which  it  is  enslaved  and  to  facilitate  its 
escape  into  the  pleroma  (divine  fullness).  For  this  pur- 
pose the  thirty  aeons  are  supposed  to  have  joined  in  pro^ 
jecting  Jesus,  the  great  High  Priest,  whose  incarnation 
was  only  apparent,  and  whose  task  it  was  to  restore 
Sophia  and  all  of  the  spiritual  substance  that  had  become 
diffused  and  enslaved  through  the  Demiurge. 

/.  The  "  Pisiis  Sopkia^^^  the  only  Important  Gnostic  writing  that 
has  reached  us  in  a  state  approximating  completeness,  was  probably 
writen  in  Greek  late  in  the  second  or  early  m  the  third  century,  but 
is  extant  only  in  a  Coptic  version.  It  exhibits  Gnosticism  in  a 
highly  developed  state  and  seems  to  make  more  of  historical  Chris- 
tianiW  than  did  many  Gnostic  writings.  The  title  consists  of  two 
Greek  words  meaning  **  Faith  Wisdom.*'  It  is  the  name  applied  to 
a  female  seon,  or  emanation  from  the  Supreme  Light,  who  having 
caught  a  glimpse  of  the  Supreme  Li^ht,  t>ecame  discontented  with 
her  position  and  consumed  with  a  desire  to  return  into  thie  infinite. 
To  punish  her  for  this  unholy  ambition,  Adamas,  the  ruier  of  her 
sphere,  led  her  by  a  false  light  to  plunge  into  chaos,  where  she  was 
beset  by  evil  spints,  eager  to  rob  her  of  the  light  that  she  possessed. 
The  visible  world,  including  mankind,  resulted  from  the  commin- 
fi^iing  of  light  with  darkness.  The  subject-matter  of  the  book  is  a 
nill  exposition  of  the  way  in  which  PIstis  Sophia,  including  all  the 
light  and  life  that  humanity  possesses,  is  delivered  and  restored. 

Several  mysteries,  or  secret  initiatory  rites,  are  here  described,  the 
efficacy  of  each  being  carefully  explained.  These  mysteries,  it  may 
be  presumed,  were  practised  by  the  Gnostics  themsdves,  the  degree 
of  attainment  in  Christian  knowledge  and  in  immunity  from  the 
powers  of  evil  being  marked  by  the  number  of  mystenes  through 
which  they  had  passed. 

The  work  is  in  the  form  of  dialogues  between  the  Saviour  and  his 
disciples.  Mary  Magdalene  is  the  most  frequent  questioner,  and 
she,  along  with  John,  is  represented  as  surpassing  the  other  dis- 
ciples in  spiritual  insight. 

Among  the  mysteries  baptism  occupies  a  prominent  place.  1  quote 
from  King  some  of  the  more  Interesting  statements:  '' Then  came 


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r 


190  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER  II 

forth  Mary  and  said :  Lord,  under  what  form  do  Baptisms  remit 
sins?  I  have  heard  thee  saying  that  the  Ministers  of  Conten- 
tions [accusing  evil  spirits]  follow  after  the  soul,  bearing  witness 
against  it  of  all  the  sins  that  it  hath  committed,  so  that  they 
may  convict  it  in  the  judgments.  Now,  therefore.  Lord,  do  the 
mysteries  of  Baptism  blot  out  the  sins  that  be  in  the  hands  of  the 
Receivers  of  Contention,  so  that  they  shall  utteriy  forget  the  same? 
Now,  therefore.  Lord,  tell  us  in  what  form  they  remit  sins ;  for  we 
desire  to  know  them  thoroughly?  Then  the  Saviour  answered  and 
said:  Thou  hast  well  spoken:  of  a  truth  those  Ministers  are  they 
that  testify  against  all  sins,  for  they  abide  constantly  In  the  places 
of  judgment,  laying  hold  upon  the  souls,  convicting  all  the  souls  of 
sinners  who  have  not  received  the  mystery,  and  they  keep  them 
fast  in  chaos  tormenting  them.    But  these  contentious  ones  cannot 

f)ass  over  chaos  so  as  to  enter  into  the  courses  that  be  above  chaos ; 
n  order  to  convict  the  souls  therefore  receiving  the  mysteries,  it  is 
not  lawful  for  them  to  force  so  as  to  drag  them  down  into  chaos, 
where  the  Contentious  Receivers  may  convict  them.  But  the  souls 
of  such  as  have  not  received  the  mysteries,  these  do  they  desire  and 
haie  into  chaos :  whereas  the  souls  that  have  received  the  mysteries 
they  have  no  means  of  convicting,  seeing  that  they  cannot  get  out 
of  their  own  place ;  and  even  if  they  did  come  forth,  they  could  not 
stop  those  souls,  neither  shut  them  up  in  their  chaos.  Hearken, 
therefore,  I  will  declare  to  you  in  truth  in  what  form  the  mystery  of 
baptism  remitteth  sins.  If  the  souls  when  yet  living  in  the  world 
have  been  sinful,  the  contentious  receivers  verily  do  come  that  they 
may  bear  witness  of  all  the  sins  they  have  committed,  but  they  can 
by  no  means  come  forth  out  of  the  regions  of  chaos,  so  as  to  con- 
vict the  soul  in  the  places  of  judgment  that  be  beyond  chaos.  But 
the  counterfeit  of  the  spirit  [probably  equivalent  to  conscience]  testi- 
fies against  all  the  sins  of  the  soul,  in  order  to  convict  it  in  the 
places  of  judgment  that  be  beyond  chaos ;  not  only  doth  it  testify, 
but  it  also  sets  a  seal  upon  all  tne  sins  of  the  soul,  so  as  to  print  them 
firmly  upon  the  soul,  that  all  the  rulers  of  the  judgment  place  of  the 
sinners  may  know  that  it  is  the  soul  of  a  sinner,  and  likewise  know 
the  number  of  the  sins  which  it  hath  committed  from  the  seals  that 
the  counterfeit  of  the  spirit  hath  imprinted  on  it,  so  that  they  may 
punish  the  soul  according  to  the  number  of  its  sins:  this  is  the 
manner  in  which  they  treat  the  soul  of  a  sinner.  Now,  therefore,  if 
any  one  hath  received  the  mysteries  of  baptism,  those  mysteries 
become  a  great  fire,  exceeding  strong  and  wise,  so  as  to  bum  up  all 
the  sins ;  and  the  fire  entereth  into  the  soul  secretly,  so  that  it  may 
consume  within  it  all  the  sins  which  the  counterfeit  of  the  spirit  hath 
printed  there.  Likewise  it  entereth  into  the  body  secretly,  that  it 
may  pursue  all  its  pursuers,  and  divide  them  into  parts— for  it  pur- 
sueth  within  the  body  the  counterfeit  of  the  spirit  and  Fate— so  that 
it  may  divide  them  apart  from  the  Power  and  the  Soul,  and  place 
them  in  one  part  of  the  body— so  that  the  fire  separates  the  counter- 
feit of  the  spirit.  Fate,  and  the  Body  into  one  portion,  and  the  Soul 
and  the  Power  Into  another  portion.  [According  to  this  representa- 
tion, human  nature  consists  of  five  parts :  conscience,  or  the  register- 
ing and  accusing  element ;  fate  or  destiny,  which  Implies  the  resist- 


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ChAP.  !l.]  INTERNAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY     I9I 

less  tendency  toward  evil  that  belongs  to  humanity  thus  constituted : 
ttie  body,  conceived  of  as  evil  and  as  a  hindrance  to  the  highest  end 
of  being ;  the  soul  in  the  more  limited  sense :  and  the  power,  which 
seems  to  mean  the  particle  of  deity  that  is  the  portion  of  each  indi- 
vidual.]  The  mystery  of  baptism  remaineth  in  the  middle  of  them, 
so  that  it  may  perpetually  separate  them,  so  that  it  may  purge  and 
cleanse  them  in  order  that  they  may  not  be  polluted  by  matter.  Now, 
therefore,  Mary,  this  is  the  manner  whereby  the  mystery  of  bap- 
tism remitteth  sins  and  all  transgressions."  ^ 
Then  follows  Mary's  interpretation  of  our  Lord's  saying,  Luke 


12  :  49-52 :  '*  I  came  to  cast  fire  upon  the  earth :  and  what  will  1, 
tf  it  is  already  kindled?  But  1  have  a  baptism  to  be  baptized  with  : 
and  how  am  1  straitened  till  it  be  accomplished  I    Think  ye  that  I 


am  come  to  give  peace  in  the  earth  ?  1  tell  you,  nay ;  but  rather  di- 
vision ;  for  there  shall  be  from  henceforth  five  in  one  house  divided, 
three  against  two,  and  two  against  three.  This,  saith  Mary, 
signifieth  the  mystery  of  baptism  which  thou  hast  brought  into 
the  world,  because  it  nath  brought  about  dissension  in  the  body  of 
the  world,  because  it  hath  divided  the  counterfeit  of  the  spirit,  the 
body  and  the  fate  thereof,  into  one  party,  and  the  soul  and  the 
power  into  the  other  party.  The  same  is.  There  shall  be  three 
against  two,  and  two  against  three.  And  when  Mary  had  spoken 
^ese  things  the  Saviour  said :  Well  done,  thou  Spiritual  One  in  the 
pure  light,  this  is  the  interpretation  of  my  saying.^' 

This  Gnostic  explanation  and  justification  of  the  doctrine  of  bap- 
tismal regeneration  has  a  great  advantage  over  those  of  other  parties 
in  that  it  seriously  undertakes  to  explain  the  process.  Human  nature 
has  in  it  five  elements,  three  evil  and  damning  in  their  character  and 
tendency,  and  two  fundamentally  good.  The  problem  is  to  separate 
these  and  to  place  an  insuperable  barrier  between  them.  This  is 
precisely  the  function  of  the  mysteiy  of  baptism,  which  enters  into 
the  nature  like  a  penetrating,  searching  fire  and  separates  and  keeps 
separate  these  elements,  leaving  the  good  elements  free  to  proceed 
toward  the  glorious  end  of  being. 

(g)  Marcion,  a  native  of  Pontus,  went  to  Rome  about 
138  or  139  and  became  a  member  of  the  Roman  church. 
Failing  in  an  attempt  to  bring  the  church  to  his  way  of 
thinking,  he  felt  constrained  to  organize  his  adherents 
into  a  separate  church  and  to  inaugurate  an  active  prop- 
aganda. Within  a  few  years  he  had  built  up  a  strong 
community  in  Rome  and  organizations  of  his  followers 
,  had  been  formed  in  most  of  the  provinces.  He  seems 
to  have  entertained  the  hope  of  gaining  universal  ac- 
ceptance for  his  views.  He  was  unquestionably  a  man 
of  profound  earnestness  and  of  marked  ability,  and  he 
labored  in  the  spirit  of  a  reformer.     He  was  almost 

1  •'  The  Gaostlct  aad  Tbtlr  Renuilos/'  p.  ml  Mf* 


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192  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  It 

wholly  free  from  the  speculative  spirit  that  permeated 
the  Egyptian  and  the  Syrian  Gnosticism.  He  did  not 
exalt  knowledge  above  faith,  he  did  not  embody  his 
views  in  fantastic  imagery  drawn  from  pagan  cults,  he 
did  not  distinguish,  as  did  most  Gnostics,  between  the 
esoteric  doctrines  understood  by  the  select  few  and  the 
exoteric  teachings  to  be  imparted  to  the  masses.  In  fact 
it  is  doubtful  whether  he  should  be  called  a  Gnostic  at 
all.'  He  had  become  convinced  that  Judaism  is  evil  and 
only  evil,  and  his  mission  was  to  eliminate  every  vestige 
of  it  from  the  religion  of  Christ.  Accepting  the  Old 
Testament  as  the  genuine  revelation  of  the  God  of  the 
Jews,  he  declared  that  Jehovah  could  not  be  the  same 
as  the  God  of  the  New  Testament.  He  based  his  con- 
ceptions of  Christianity  on  the  writings  of  Paul,  and 
formed  a  New  Testament  canon  embracing,  besides 
these,  a  modified  edition  of  Luke's  Gospel.  By  a  dili- 
gent study  of  the  Old  Testament,  he  gathered  every- 
thing contained  in  it  that  could  be  interpreted  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  reflect  on  the  character  of  Jehovah :  every- 
thing anthropomorphic  or  anthropopathic,  everything  that 
could  be  construed  into  requirement  or  approval  of  im- 
morality and  cruelty.  With  the  teachings  of  the  Old 
Testament  he  contrasted  the  spirituality,  the  gentleness, 
the  mercifulness,  and  the  lofty  morality  of  the  life  and 
the  teachings  of  Christ.  He  denied  that  God  is  an 
object  of  fear  ;  he  is  love  and  requires  love  alone  of  his 
children.  Christ  took  absolutely  nothing  from  the  king- 
dom of  the  Demiurge.  His  birth,  his  physical  life,  and 
his  death  were  merely  apparent.  Yet  he  laid  the  utmost 
stress  upon  the  redemptive  work  of  Christ,  which  he 
considered  absolutely  requisite  for  man's  salvation. 

Marcion  seems  not  to  have  speculated  as  to  the 
origin  of  evil.  The  Demiurge  and  his  kingdom  are  ap- 
parently regarded  as  existing  from  eternity.  Matter  he 
regarded  as  intrinsically  evil  and  he  practised  a  rigorous 
asceticism. 

Marcionism  found  ready  acceptance  in  Mesopotamia 
and  Persia,  where  dualism  had  existed  from  time  im- 
memorial, and  persisted  there  for  centuries.    Its  influence 

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<:hap.  il]  internal  development  of  CHRISTIANITY     195 

is  apparent  in  Manichaeism,  which  was  far  more  remote 
from  historical  Christianity,  in  Paulicianism,  which,  in 
its  purer  forms,  was  almost  free  from  dualism,  and  in 
early  Armenian  Christianity  in  general. 

(6)  Influence  of  Gnosticism  on  Christian  thought  and 
life.  During  most  of  the  second  century  and  part  of  the 
third  Gnosticism  was  highly  aggressive  and  became 
widely  diffused  throughout  the  Christian  churches.  In 
some  cases  Gnostic  teachers  carried  forward  their  propa- 
ganda as  members  of  regular  Christian  churches,  and 
were  able  to  win  many  of  the  most  intelligent  members 
before  their  withdrawal  became  necessary.  Few 
churches,  it  may  be  supposed,  were  wholly  free  from  the 
presence  and  personal  influence  of  parties  imbued  with 
Gnostic  teaching.  Professing,  as  did  the  Gnostics,  to 
solve  all  the  great  problems  of  the  universe  and  in  most 
cases  commending  themselves  to  pious  Christians  by 
great  earnestness  and  zeal  and  by  ascetic  living, 
they  easily  gained  followers  among  those  who  were 
predisposed  to  speculative  thinking  and  to  asceticism, 
despite  all  the  efforts  of  the  teachers  of  sound  evangeli- 
cal truth.  After  several  of  the  great  Gnostic  leaders 
had  been  excluded  from  fellowship  in  the  regular 
churches,  and  their  teaching  had  come  to  be  denounced 
as  heretical  by  churches  that  were  able  to  resist  their 
proselytizing  efforts,  it  became  comparatively  easy  for 
Christians  to  expose  their  errors  and  to  put  believers 
everywhere  on  their  guard  against  them.  The  influence 
cf  Gnosticism  on  Christian  life  and  thought  is  manifest 
in  the  following  directions :  a.  Christian  teachers  were 
obliged  to  defend  the  apostolic  faith  against  its  able  and 
seductive  assailants.  To  do  this  effectively  it  was  neces- 
sary for  them  not  only  to  study  the  writings  of  the  false 
teachers,  but  also  to  study  more  profoundly  than  they 
might  otherwise  have  done  the  Old  and  New  Testament 
Scriptures  and  the  writings  of  the  Greek  philosophers  on 
which  the  teachings  of  the  heretics  so  largely  rested. 
Such  study  led  to  the  philosophical  statement  of  Chris- 
tian doctrines.  Naturally  the  Greek  philosophy,  already 
deeply  imbedded  in  current  thinking,  was  the  molding  in- 
fluence in  the  transformation  of  the  unsystematized  ma- 
terials of  the  New  Testament  into  the  Christian  dogmas 


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194  A  MANUAL  or  CHURCH  HISTORY  [per.  11 

of  the  third  and  following  centuries,  b.  The  fondness  of 
the  Gnostics  for  **  mysteries  "  or  secret  rites,  which  they 
drew  largely  from  the  Greek  and  Egyptian  mysteries, 
and  their  introduction  of  elaborate  and  pompous  liturgical 
services,  no  doubt  stimulated  in  the  regular  churches  a 
taste  for  similar  accessories  to  worship,  c.  In  general  it 
may  be  said  that  Gnosticism  led  the  way  in  the  amal- 
gamation of  Christian  and  pagan  thought  and  life  that 
was  to  transform  the  religion  of  Christ  and  his  apostles 
into  the  Christianity  of  the  third  and  following  centuries. 

3.  7^  Manickceans. 

LITERATURE :  Archelaus,  '*  ^cta  Disfmt.  cum  Matuts,"  in  Routh 
'"Reliquia  Sac.,'*  V.,  3,  ssq.  (Enff.  tr.  "  Ante-Nic.  Libr."),  Alex- 
anderof  Lycop.  (Eng.  tr.  •'Antc-Nic.  Libr.");  Titus  Bostrensis, 
**  Contra  tAfanickaos*^;  Epiphanius,  66;  Augustine,  various  tracts 
against  Manichsans  in  '*  Qf>crq,"  vol.  Vlll.,  ed.  Bened.  (Eng.  tr. 
in  "  Nicene  and  Post-Nlcenc  Fathers,"  First  Series,  Vol.  IV.,  by 
Stothert  and  A.  H.  Newman,  with  notes  by  the  latter) ;  documents  in 
Fabricius,  "  Biblioih.  Gr,"  V.,  285,  ssq.,  and  VIlI.,  315,  uq^and  in 
Photius,  ''Bibliothfca,"  cod.  179.  Pressensc  "  Her.  and  Chr.  Doctr."  ; 
Gieseler,  I.;  203,  ssq,,  Schafr,  II.,  498*  s^Q-;  Mceller,  I.,  280.  sm,; 
Neander,  I.,  478,  uq, ;  Wegnem,  '*  Manichceorum  IndtUgetttiar^ ;  De 
Sacy,  *'  Mtmoiris  sur  'Dwirsss  Antiq,  d$  la  Peru,**  289,  ssq. ;  Beausobre, 
^^  Hist,  critiqui  de  Man.**;  Baur,  ^^  Das  Manichmsche  Reltgumssytem**: 
art.  '*  Mani,"  in  Herzog.  "  Britannica,"  and  •'Diet,  of  Ch.  Biog.,'* 
by  Kessler,  Hamacic,  and  Stokes,  respectively  ;  Flugel,*'  Mam\  seme 
Lehre  u.  seme  Schriften,  aus  dem  Ftkrist  d.  Ahi  Jakub  an  Nadim  **; 
Kessier,  **  Untersuchtmgen  ^r  Genesis  d.  Man.  ReL  Systems"  and  '*  Mam\ 
Oder  Beitrea.  {ur  Bekenntniss  </.  Relunonsmischung  im  Semitismns**; 
Mozley,  '*  Manichsans,"  etc.  (in  "  Ruling  Ideas  in  Early  Ages") ; 
Cunningham, "  St  Austin  and  his  Place  in  the  History  of  Christian 
Thought." 

(i)  Characterisation  of  Manichceism.  Manichsism  is 
Gnosticism,  with  its  Christian  elements  reduced  to  a 
minimum,  and  the  Zoroastrian,  old  Babylonian,  and  other 
Oriental  elements  raised  to  the  maximum.  Manichaeism 
is  Oriental  dualism  under  Christian  names,  the  Christian 
names  employed  retaining  scarcely  a  trace  of  their  proper 
meaning. 

(2)  Oririn  of  Manichansm.  Christianity  had  been 
introduced  into  Persia  at  an  early  date  and  was  either  of 
a  Gnostic  character  when  first  introduced,  or  soon 
became  such  from  contact  with  the  State  religion.  By 
the  middle  of  the  third  century  Christians  were  numer- 


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CHAP.  II.]   INTERNAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY     195 

ous  in  Persia,  and  had  made  considerable  impression 
upon  the  dominant  Zoroastrianism.  After  a  period  of 
decline  Zoroastrianism,  in  its  original  strongly  dualistic 
form,  was  restored  by  the  Sassanides  about  the  middle 
of  the  second  century.  Mani,  a  Mesopotamian,  who 
had  been  brought  up  in  connection  with  a  sect  of  old 
Babylonian  origin,  having  been  brought  into  contact  with 
Christianity,  conceived  the  idea  (probably  about  238)  of 
blending  Oriental  dualism  and  Christianity  into  a  har- 
monious whole.  Supposing  that  Christianity  had  been 
corrupted  by  the  preponderance  of  Jewish  elements,  he 
set  to  work,  in  Gnostic  fashion,  to  eliminate  all  Judaizing 
elements,  and  to  substitute  therefor  Zoroastrianism.  He 
regarded  himself,  at  the  same  time,  as  an  apostle  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  as  the  promised  Paraclete.  Mani  was 
skilled  in  various  sciences  and  arts — mathematics,  as- 
tronomy, painting — ^and  had  an  ardent,  profound  mind. 
He  seems  also  to  have  had  a  highly  attractive  personal- 
ity. He  was  thus  enabled  to  spread  his  views  with  great 
rapidity.  Driven  from  Persia,  he  is  said  to  have  traveled 
in  India  and  China.  Here  he  doubtless  came  in  contact 
with  Buddhism,  from  which  he  may  have  derived  new 
elements  for  his  theosophical  system.  Returning  to 
Persia,  he  was  greatly  honored  by  the  new  king,  but 
was  ordered  to  be  crucified  by  his  successor  (about  277). 
(3)  Doctrines  of  Manichmsm.  The  most  fundamental 
thing  in  Manichaeism  is  its  absolute  dualism.  The 
''kingdom  of  light  "and  the  ''kingdom  of  darkness," 
with  their  rulers,  stand  eternally  opposed  to  each  other. 
The  victory  is  not  doubtful,  but  belongs  to  the  '*  king- 
dom of  light."  Inside  of  this  dualism  exists  a  sort  of 
pantheism,  i.  e.,  each  element  of  the  dualism  is  conceived 
of  as  a  unity  evolving  itself  into  multiformity.  From  the 
ruler  of  the  "  kingdom  of  light "  emanates  the  "  mother 
of  life."  "The  mother  of  life  "  generates  the  "primi- 
tive man,"  with  a  view  to  opposing  him  to  the  powers  of 
darkness.  "  Primitive  man  "  is  worsted  in  the  conflict, 
and  appeals  to  the  ruler  of  the  "  kingdom  of  light "  for 
aid.  "  Primitive  man  "  is  raised  again,  but  the  "  king- 
dom of  darkness  "  has  swallowed  part  of  his  armor,  i,  e., 
part  of  his  light.  This  stolen  light  formed  the  mundane 
souU  now  mixed  up  with  matter.    The  object  of  the 


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196  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER  II 

creation  of  the  world  was  to  liberate  the  light  thus  mixed 
up  with  matter. 

(4)  Points  of  Contact  with  Christianity.  The  ''primi- 
tive man,"  who  was  withdrawn  from  the  "kingdom  of 
darkness,"  was  placed  in  the  sun  as  its  principle  of  heat 
and  light.  This  was  identified  with  the  Logos,  or  Son  of 
God.  All  growth,  whether  of  plants  or  of  animals,  is 
an  effort  of  the  fettered  powers  of  light  to  escape  from 
the  powers  of  darkness,  prompted  by  the  heat  and  light 
of  the  Sun,  or  the  Son  of  God.  The  ruler  of  the  kingdom 
of  darkness,  seeing  that  the  powers  of  light  which  he 
held  were  thus  about  to  be  liberated,  resolved  to  create 
a  being  in  whom  these  powers  might  be  charm-bound. 
Man  is  formed  from  the  longing  of  the  powers  of  dark- 
ness for  a  form  like  that  of  the  Sun-Spirit  The  object 
was  to  concentrate  all  the  powers  of  light  into  a  single 
being  that  should  be  able  to  attract  and  retain  the 
heavenly  light.  Man,  thus  created,  consisted  of  two 
opposite  principles — ^a  soul  like  the  kingdom  of  light,  and 
a  body  like  the  kingdom  of  darkness.  The  higher  nature 
was  tempted  by  the  lower,  and  the  soul  that  would  have 
ascended  to  the  kingdom  of  light  was  divided  by  propa- 
gation. The  object  of  the  historical  appearance  of 
Christ  in  the  world  (his  bodily  manifestation  was  only 
an  appearance — Docetism)  was  to  aid  the  good  principle 
in  man  to  overcome  the  evil,  and  by  this  means  to  liber- 
ate the  elements  of  light  from  their  bondage. 

(5)  Morals  and  Customs  of  the  Manichceans.  The 
Manichseans  were  divided  into  two  classes,  the  elect  or 
perfect  and  the  auditors.  The  former  alone  were  admitted 
to  the  secret  rites — baptism,  communion,  etc., — which 
are  supposed  to  have  been  celebrated  with  great  pomp, 
in  much  the  same  way  as  they  were  celebrated  by  the 
Catholics  a  little  later.  The  "  elect "  were  a  sacerdotal 
class,  forming  a  sort  of  connecting  link  between  the 
"  auditors  "  and  the  "  kingdom  of  light."  The  "  elect " 
practised  a  Buddhist  asceticism,  possessing  no  property, 
abstaining  from  marriage,  from  wine,  from  animal  food, 
were  extremely  careful  not  to  destroy  animal  or  vege- 
table life  (on  account  of  the  elements  of  light  they  con- 
tained), and  occupied  themselves  with  contemplatioi^ 
and  devotion.    The  "  auditors,"  who  always  constituted 


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Chap.  Ii.]  INTERNAL  bEVELOPMENT  OF  CHRlStlANlTY     I9? 

the  bulk  of  the  Manichasans,  were  allowed  more  free- 
dom, and  were  supposed  to  participate  in  the  holiness  of 
the  **  elect,"  in  consideration  of  bestowing  upon  them 
the  necessaries  of  life.  The  Manichseans  rejected  the 
Old  Testament,  and  treated  the  New  Testament  in  the 
most  arbitrary  way,  rejecting  whatever  seemed  unfavor- 
able to  their  views,  and  maintaining  that  even  the  apos- 
tles did  not  fully  understand  Christ. 

(6)  Effects  of  Manichceism  on  the  Regular  Churches. 
Absurd  and  unchristian  as  this  system  seems  to  us,  it 
claimed  to  be  the  only  true  Christianity,  and  by  its  lofty 
pretensions  and  the  personal  power  of  many  of  its  advo- 
cates drew  much  of  the  intellect  of  the  age  into  its  ranks. 
We  may  say  that,  in  connection  with  other  influences,  it 
stimulated :  a.  The  ascetical  spirit,  with  degradation  of 
marriage,  the  exaltation  of  virginity,  the  regarding  of  the 
sexual  instinct  as  absolutely  evil  and  to  be  overcome  by 
all  possible  means,  b.  The  introduction  of  pompous 
ceremonial  Into  the  church,  c.  The  systematizing  of 
Christian  doctrine,  d.  Sacerdotalism,  or  the  belief  that 
ministers  of  religion  are  intermediaries  between  God  and 
man,  possessing,  by  virtue  of  their  office,  extraordinary 
power  with  God.  e.  As  the  result  of  this  sacerdotalism, 
the  doctrine  of  indulgences  (though  in  its  development 
other  influences  can  be  distinguished)  was  introduced 
into  the  church. 

During  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  ManichaBism  gained  great 
popularity  in  Italy  and  North  Africa.  In  the  West  it  came  into  more 
vital  relations  with  Christianity,  and  for  a  time  was  a  most  danger- 
ous rival  of  orthodoxy.  Augustine,  the  greatest  of  the  Latin 
Fathers,  was  for  many  years  connected  with  the  Manichseans  and 
his  modes  of  thought  were  greatiy  affected  by  this  experience. 

4.  The  Monarchian  Heresies. 

Literature  :  See  pertinent  sections  in  the  works  on  the  History 
of  Doctrine,  by  Harnack,  Seebach,  Loofs,  Thomasius,  Baur,  Hagen- 
bach,  Shedd,  Sheldon,  and  Fisher:  Dorner,  *'  The  Person  of  Christ,*' 
Div.  L,  Vol.  II. ;  Conybeare,  '•  The  Key  of  Truth,"  1898 ;  and  arti« 
des  on  "  Monarchianfsm,"  and  on  the  various  subordinate  parties 
and  their  leaders  in  '*  Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography,''  and  the 
Herzog-Hauck  *'  RuO-Etu^klopaduy 

The  type  of  teaching  represented  by  Theodotus  and 
Paul  of  Samosata  is  commonly  designated  by  German 


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tQ^  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  II 

writers  Dynamistic  Monarchianism,  as  distinguished  from 
the  Modalistic  Monarchianism  of  Noetus,  Praxeas,  Sabel- 
liuSy  and  Beryllus.  In  the  one  case  the  man  Jesus  is  re- 
garded as  energized  and  exalted  by  the  Divine  Spirit,  in 
the  other  the  incarnation  is  regarded  as  only  a  mode  of 
the  Divine  activity  and  manifestation. 

(i)  Dynamistic  Monarchianism.  a.  The  t/llogoi.  This 
term  was  applied  by  Epiphanius  (c,  375)  to  those  who 
in  the  second  century  opposed  the  Logos  (Word)  doc- 
trine of  John's  Gospel.  They  are  said  to  have  re- 
jected not  only  the  fourth  Gospel,  but  the  Johannean 
Apocalypse  and  the  Johannean  Epistles  as  well.  Epi- 
phanius relates  that  they- not  only  denied  the  eternity  of 
the  Logos  as  a  person  of  the  Godhead,  but  attributed  the 
Johannean  Gospel  and  Apocalypse  to  Cerinthus,  who  is 
elsewhere  represented  as  the  arch-enemy  of  the  Apostle 
John.  They  sought  to  show  that  the  Christology  of  the 
fourth  Gospel  was  contradictory  to  that  of  the  Synoptic 
Gospels,  which,  they  claimed,  know  nothing  of  the 
eternal  sonship.  They  are  represented  as  having  arisen 
in  opposition  to  the  Montanistic  prophecy.* 

b.  The  first  representative  of  Dynamistic  Monarchian- 
ism whose  views  have  been  recorded  is  Theodoius  of  By- 
zantium, who  sought  to  propagate  his  views  in  the  Roman 
church,  about  190.  According  to  an  anonymous  writer,' 
Theodotus  held  to  the  supernatural  birth  of  Jesus,  but 
insisted  that  he  was  a  *'  mere  man  "  until  his  baptism, 
when  the  Holy  Spirit  came  upon  him  and  bestowed  upon 
him  Divine  attributes.  This  form  of  doctrine,  known  in 
the  later  times  as  Adoptionism,  was  condemned  by  the 
Roman  Church. 

c.  Paul  of  Samosata,  bishop  of  Antioch  (260  onward), 
was  for  some  time  a  sort  of  viceroy  to  Queen  Zenobia 
of  Palmyra.  About  269  he  was  excommunicated  by  a 
great  provincial  synod,  after  years  of  bitter  controversy. 
After  the  fall  of  Zenobia  (272),  the  Emperor  Aurelian 
sustained  the  party  that  had  the  approval  of  the  Italian 
bishops,  and  excluded  Paul  from  the  use  of  ecclesiastical 
property.    His  views  were  widely  propagated  in  Meso- 

1  See  Epiphanius,  **Hmrts."  so-S4* 

*  By  some  supposed  to  have  been  Hlppolytus.  by  others  Calus.  The  extant  fraf- 
nents  are  published  In  Routh's  "  nuiifuitt  Sacnr,"  English  translation  in  Auto* 
Micene  Library,  American  edition.  Vol.  v.,  p.  6oi,  uq. 


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CHAP.il]  internal  development  of  CHRISTIANITY     199 

potamia  and  Armenia,  and  his  name  was  probably  per 
petuated  in  the  great  Paulician  body,  who  have  iiept 
alive  his  form  of  doctrine  till  the  present  century.  Like 
Theodotus  and  his  followers  he  insisted  on  the  absolute 
unipersonality  of  God.  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit 
are  one  God,  one  person.  Logos  and  Wisdom  are  attri- 
butes or  faculties  of  God.  Christ  was  begotten  of  Mary 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  at  his  baptism  was  energized  by 
the  divine  Logos  (Word).  Yet  he  refused  to  identify 
Christ  with  the  Logos.  Thus  he  regarded  Jesus  as  a 
divinely  begotten  man,  energized  by  the  Holy  Spirit  (or 
the  Logos)  and  so  exalted  to  Divine  dignity  and  honor. 
Of  his  efficiency  as  the  Saviour  of  men  he  seems  to 
have  entertained  no  doubt. 

Only  a  few  sentences  from  his  writings  have  been 
preserved.  The  following  are  the  most  important,  and 
may  fairly  represent  his  mode  of  thought : 

Having  been  anointed  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  he  (Jesus)  was  given 
the  title  of  Christ.  He  suffered  according  to  his  nahire,  he  worked 
miracles  according  to  grace.  For  by  his  unflinching,  unblenched 
will  and  resolution  he  made  himself  like  unto  God ;  and,  having 
kept  himself  free  from  sin,  he  was  made  one  with  him,  and  was  em- 
powered  to  take  up,  as  it  were,  the  power  to  perform  miracles.  By 
means  of  these  he  was  shown  to  have  one  and  the  same  energy  in 
addition  to  the  will  (f.  /.,  of  God),  and  so  received  the  title  of  Re- 
deemer and  Saviour  of  our  race. 

Again  : 

The  Saviour  having  approved  himself  holy  and  just,  and  having 
overcome  by  conflict  and  labor  the  sins  of  our  forefather,— having 
won  these  successes  by  his  virtue,— was  joined  with  God,  having  by 
his  progressive  advances  in  goodness  attained  to  one  and  the  same 
will  and  energy  with  him.  And  having  preserved  the  same  undi- 
vided, he  doth  inherit  the  Name  that  is  above  every  name,  the  reward 
of  love  that  was  vouchsafed  to  him. 

Again : 

The  Word  is  greater  than  Christ,  for  Christ  became  great 
through  wisdom. 

Again  : 

Mary  did  not  bring  forth  the  Word,  for  Mary  was  not  before  the 
ages.    But  she  brought  forth  a  man  on  a  level  with  ourselves.    It  if 


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200  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.R 

the  man  that  is  anointed,  not  the  Word.    It  is  the  Nazarene,  our 
Lord,  that  was  anointed.^ 

d.  In  the  "t^cis  of  Archelaus,**  purporting  to  be  a 
record  of  a  disputation  between  Archelaus,  bishop  of 
Karkhar,  in  Persia,  and  Mani,  the  heretical  leader  (latter 
part  of  third  century),  views  similar  to  those  of  Paul  of 
Samosata  are  set  forth  by  the  bishop.  This  fact  would 
seem  to  indicate  the  prevalence  of  Adoptionist  teaching 
in  Persia  and  the  neighboring  parts  of  Armenia.  '*  Tell 
me,"  says  Archelaus,  "upon  whom  the  Holy  Spirit  de- 
scended as  a  dove  ?  Also,  who  is  it  that  was  baptized 
by  John  ?  If  he  was  perfect,  if  he  was  Son,  if  he  was 
virtue  (i.  e.,  Divine  power),  the  Spirit  could  not  have 
entered  into  him,  inasmuch  as  one  kingdom  cannot  enter 
into  another.  But  whose  voice  sounding  from  heaven 
testified  to  him,  saying :  *  This  is  my  beloved  Son  in 
whom  1  am  well  pleased '  ?  " 

Archelaus  asserts  the  Adoptionist  view  of  the  person  of 
Christ  in  opposition  to  the  docetism  of  Mani  and  the 
Gnostics.  The  idea  of  a  Divine  incarnation  seems  to 
have  been  inseparable,  in  his  mind,  from  the  view  that 
the  humanity  was  a  mere  appearance. 

Regarding  the  persistence  of  the  Adoptionist  Christology  in  the 
East,  see  the  section  on  the  Paulidans  in  the  next  Period. 

The  Theodotians  are  represented  as  seeking  to  substantiate  their 
views  by  a  critical  study  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  Scriptures, 
and  as  being  much  given  to  the  study  of  the  logical  and  mathemat- 
ical works  of  the  Greeks.  They  seem  to  have  rejected  the  allegorical 
method  of  interpretation,  and  may  be  regarded  as  the  forerunners  of 
the  Antiochian  school. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  this  view  of  the  person  of  Christ  is  In  es- 
sential agreement  with  that  of  the  Ebionites ;  but  there  is  no  reason 
to  suppose  that  Theodotus  and  his  followers  were  related  historically 
to  the  Judaizing  heresy.  The  Adoptionist  Christology  seems  to  be 
Implied  in  the  '^Shepherd  "  of  Hermas,  and  possibly  m  Justin  Mar- 
tyr's ''Dialogue  with  Trypho."  It  is  probable  that  this  type  of 
teaching  was  eariy  diffused  in  Mesopotamia,  Persia,  and  Armenia. 
It  was  to  become  the  prevailing  form  of  teaching  in  Armenia,  and  to 
be  perpetuated  there  by  the  Paulicians,  who  for  centuries  disputed 
the  ground  with  the  Gregorian  party. 

(2)  (Modalistic  SMonarchianism.  This  term  may  be 
used  to  include  the  views  of  Noetus  and  Sabellius,  com- 

^  Cf.  Conybcfo-e.  "  The  Key  of  Trutb/'  bitrodiictivii.  p.  xcfv..  «cf. 


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CHAP,  n.]  INTERNAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY     201 

bated  by  Hippolytus,  those  of  Praxeas,  elaborately  re- 
futed by  Tertullian,  and  those  of  Beryllus  of  Bostra, 
whom  Origen  convinced  of  his  error. 

a.  About  195,  Praxeas,  who  had  suffered  severely  for 
the  faith  in  Asia  Minor,  visited  Rome  in  order  to  prevent 
the  recognition  of  the  Montanists  by  the  Roman  bishop. 
When  Victor,  who  had  been  favorably  impressed  by  the 
representations  of  the  Montanists,  was  on  the  point  of 
giving  them  letters  of  commendation,  Praxeas  succeeded, 
as  Tertullian  puts  it,  in  expelling  the  Paraclete  and  cru- 
cifying the  Father,  1.  ^.,  in  causing  the  condemnation  of 
the  Montanists,  who  claimed  to  be  the  organs  of  the 
Paraclete,  and  in  spreading  his  Patripassian  heresy.  It 
does  not  appear  that  he  gained  many  followers  in  Rome, 
but  he  visited  Carthage  afterward,  and  his  propaganda 
there  was  very  successful.  About  210,  Tertullian,  now 
a  Montanist,  put  forth  the  most  powerful  polemic  against 
this  type  of  teaching  that  the  age  produced. 

b.  Noetus  of  Smyrna  sought  to  propagate  similar  views 
either  in  Smyrna  or  in  Ephesus,  about  the  time  of 
Praxeas'  visit  to  Rome.  When,  some  years  after,  he 
was  condemned  and  excommunicated  by  the  presbyters 
of  his  community,  he  claimed  that  he  was  guilty  of  noth- 
ing but  "glorifying  Christ."  His  disciple,  Epigonus, 
propagated  his  views  in  Rome  {c.  200  onward).  The 
bishop,  Zephyrinus,  and  his  coadjutor  and  successor, 
Callistus,  according,  to  Hippolytus,  secretly  aided  the 
propaganda.  Cleomenes  became  one  of  the  most  active 
of  the  propagandists.  Sabellius  was  won  over  to  this 
mode  of  thought,  notwithstanding  the  earnest  efforts  of 
Hippolj^us  to  save  him  from  this  fate.  Callistus,  when 
he  became  bishop  (217),  felt  obliged  to  condemn  Sabel- 
lius, but  is  represented  by  Hippolytus  as  fostering  a 
similar  form  of  teaching. 

It  is  difficult  to  get  at  the  exact  form  in  which  Modalistic 
Monarchianism  was  taught  by  this  party.  We  are  almost 
wholly  dependent  on  their  adversaries,  who  wrote  with 
such  passion  that  we  cannot  but  suspect  unfairness  of 
representation.  They  evidently  regarded  men  like  Hip- 
polytus and  Tertullian,  who  insisted  on  the  absolute 
Deity  of  Christ,  and  yet  distinguished  him  from  the 
Father,  as  ditheists.    They  were  equally  convinced  of  the 


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202  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  II 

absolute  Deity  of  Christ,  but  they  refused  to  distinguish 
between  Father  and  Son  as  different  personalities.  They 
identified  Christ  with  the  Father,  and  did  not  hesitate  to 
attribute  to  God  as  God  whatever  can  be  attributed  to 
God  incarnate,  including  birth,  suffering,  and  death. 
Hence  the  designation  **  Patripassian." 

For  further  information  about  the  Modalistic  MonarchianSt  see  tha 
sections  on  Hlppolytus  and  Tertullian  in  the  next  chapter. 

111.  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES. 

I.  Tbe  Mantatdsts. 

LITERATURE :  Tertullian,  Montanistic  writings,  esp.  *'  TV  Cb- 

**  Di  MoHogamia^'^  *'  'D#  PudicUiai^  *'  7)/  Jmrnm^^  '*  'D#  yirgmibMS 
yslandis''  ^*  T)$  Pallm  "  (Eng.  tr.  in  Ante-Nicene  Library) ;  Euse- 
bius.  "  Church  History/'  V.,  14-18  (based  upon  earlier  documents; 
McUiffert's  notes  are  of  great  value);  Epiphanius,  **//«r.,"  48 
and  49 ;  Sozomen,  *'  Church  History,^'  11.,  yi.  Pressensi  '*  Her. 
and  Chr.  Doctr.."  p.  loi,  ssq, ;  Mossman,  '^History  of  the  Early 
Christian  Church.,''  p.  401,  uq.;  Neander,  Vol.  L,  p.  508,  ssq.; 
Schaff,  Vol.  11.,  p.  40$,  s$q.;  Moeller.  Vol.  I.,  p.  if;6,  seq.;  Bon- 
wetsch,  **G$sch.  dss  Montanisfims** ;  Hamack,  *^  Dopiungssckicku" 
Bd.  1.,  Siit,  3C^,  siq. ;  Hilgenfeld,  **  Ktturgiseh.^**  SmT.  {OI.  ssq. ; 
De  Soyr^  *^Montanism  and  the  Primitive  Church";  Bishop  of 
Bristol,  '*The  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the  Second  and  Third  Cen- 
tury"; Uhlhom,  "Conflict  Between  Christianity  and  Heathen- 


ism "  ;  Rltschl,  **  AHkath.  Kirchi,''  Sift.  UM^^,  siq. ;  Baur,  *'  Church 
History  of  the  Three  First  Centuries,'*  Vol.  I.,  p.  245,  «f..  Vol.  II., 


Kirchi  d.  {Wiitm  JahrhumUrts"  ;  art  '^Montanism"  In  the  encyclo- 
pedias referred  to  above. 

(i)  Characteristics  of  Mantanism.  We  may  regard 
Montanism  :  j.  As  a  reactionary  movement  against  the 
innovations  that  were  being  introduced  into  the  churches 
through  the  influence  of  Gnosticism  and  of  paganism  in 
general ;  especially  against  the  emphasizing  or  knowledge 
at  the  expense  of  faith,  against  laxity  of  discipline  in 
the  churches,  and  consequently  of  morals  in  the  members, 
against  the  merging  of  the  churches  in  the  world,  against 
the  growth  of  hierarchy,  against  the  growing  disbelief  in 
contemporaneous  special  providences  and  revelations. 


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CHAP,  il]   internal  development  of  CHRISTIANITY     203 

b.  As  a  movement  Judaistic  in  its  tendencies :  not  in 
the  sense  of  exalting  Judaism  above  Christianity,  for 
the  Montanists  are  decided  in  their  preference  fof  Chris- 
tianity as  a  higher  stage  of  divine  revelation  than  Juda- 
ism ;  nor  in  the  sense  of  adhering  to  Jewish  forms  and 
customs,  for  many  things  approved  of  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, as  repeated  marriages,  the  use  of  wine,  etc.,  are' 
reprobated  by  the  Montanists ;  nor  in  the  sense  of  Ebio- 
nitic  denial  of  the  divinity  of  Christ,  for  they  maintained 
this  most  persistently.  But  in  spirit  the  J^tontanists  were 
Judaistic.  They  were  legalists,  attempting  to  make  re- 
ligion to  consist  largely  in  outward  observances.  They 
regarded  themselves  as  occupying  a  position  similar  to 
that  of  the  prophets  of  the'pld  Testament,  with  thei. 
ecstatic  visions,  etc. 

c.  We  may  say,  that  while  in  a  sense  Montanism 
was  a  reaction  against  innovation,  it  was  yet  innovating 
in  its  tendencies,  and  anticipated  the  post-Nicene  churches 
that  consider;»(r  themselves  **  Catholic  "  in  many  of  its 
most  distinctive  features.  In  general,  the  very  features 
of  Montanism  which  led  to  its  rejection  by  the  churches 
of  the  time  were,  within  two  centuries,  part  and  parcel 
of  the  doctrine  of  these  churches:  e.g.,  exaltation  of 
virginity  and  widowhood,  arbitrary  division  of  sins  into 
mortal  and  venial,  undue  exaltation  of  martyrdom,  etc. 

d.  Hence,  Montanism  may  be  regarded  as  in  one  sense 
a  forerunner  of  later  reformatory  bodies,  but  in  a  more 
important  sense  as  a  forerunner  of  the  ascetic  Christianity 
of  the  fourth  and  following  centuries. 

e.  The  Montanists  exaggerated  the  opposition  between 
Christianity  and  the  world.  They  had  an  almost  Gnostic 
contempt  for  the  flesh,^  and  believed  that  sensual  pleasure 
of  any  sort  was  hurtful  to  the  spiritual  life.  The  present 
life  they  regarded  as  of  no  consequence  except  as  a  time 
of  preparation  for  the  life  beyond.  Montanism  was, 
therefore,  an  impracticable  system.  In  the  nature  of 
things,  Christianity,  in  that  form,  could  never  become  a 
universal  religion. 

/.  Montanism  may  be  contrasted  with  Gnosticism  thus : 
Gnosticism  was  occupied  chiefly  with  speculations  as  to 
the  origin  of  the  universe ;  Montanism  with  speculations 
as  to  the  approaching  end  of  the  world. 


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:k)4  A  MANUAL  6P  CHu6CH  HISTOftV  IPEk^n, 

g.  Montanism  may  be  contrasted  with  Catholicism  o\ 
the  time  thus:  Montanism  insisted  upon  holiness — a 
legalistic  and  arbitrary  holiness,  it  is  true — at  the  ex- 
pense of  catholicity ;  Catholicism,  vice  versa .^ 

(2)  Origin  of  Montanism.  Montanism,  as  an  organized 
party,  originated  in  Phrygia,  about  135-160.  Montanus, 
with  two  women,  Priscilla  and  Maximilla,  claimed  to  have 
been  especially  enlightened  by  the  Paraclete ;  and  to 
have  been  divinely  commissioned  to  proclaim  the  setting 
up  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  on  earth  and  to  inveigh 
against  the  laxity  and  worldliness  of  the  churches  of  the 
time.  Their  denunciation  of  the  clergy,  whom  they 
stigmatized  as  psychical  in  contrast  with  their  own  spirit- 
uality, aroused  the  opposition  of  the  clergy  and  the  less 
earnest  laymen.  The  Montanists  were  cut  off  from 
the  communion  of  many  Phrygian  churches.  Believing 
themselves  to  be  the  only  true  apostolic  Christians,  they 
appealed  to  their  brethren  at  Rome  and  elsewhere  for 
recognition.  The  Roman  Church  was  about  to  recog- 
nize them,  but  owing  to  unfavorable  representations  o* 
their  doctrines  and  practices  by  Praxeas,  noted  for  Patri- 
passian  views  of  the  Godhead,  the  recognition  failed  and 
the  prophets  were  rejected.  The  Montanists,  against 
their  desire  and  original  intention,  were  thus  forced  into 
the  position  of  schismatics.  The  movement  was  one 
that  appealed  forcibly  to  the  more  earnest  Christians 
throughout  the  empire,  and  Montanistic  churches  multi- 
plied in  Asia  Minor,  in  Proconsular  Africa,  and  in  the 
remote  East. 

The  Phrygians  were  strongly  predisposed  to  extravagance  in 
religion.  Their  worship  of  Cybeie  was  grossly  immoral,  and  was 
accomi>anied  by  ecstatic  visions,  wild  frenzy,  and  fearful  self* 
mutilations.  The  enthusiastic,  perhaps  fanatical,  character  of  early 
Montanism  may  have  been  due  in  part  to  this  national  characteristic. 

(3)  Doctrines  of  the  Montanists.  In  general,  the  Mon- 
tanists did  not  differ  widely  in  point  of  belief  from  the 
orthodox  churches  of  the  time.  Says  Tertullian :  *  *'  They 
[the  psychical]  make  controversy  with  the  Paraclete; 
on  account  of  this  the  new  prophecies  are  rejected,  not 


1  The  Ust  two  observations  are  substantially  Baur's. 
•  ''Dtltfumis:*  Book  I.    C/.  "  Dt  Virg,  VelM  '    "  ~ 
4»,  x;  FInallianus.  in  Cyprian.  "i^./'LXXV. 


•  *'CUjefumisr  Book  I.    C/.  "Dtyirg.  yelamdtsr  Book  H. ;  Eplpbanlus,  "H^rr./ 


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CHAP.n.]   INTERNAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY     20$ 

that  Montanus  and  Priscilla  and  Maximilla  preach  another 
God,  nor  that  they  do  away  with  Jesus  Christ,  nor  that 
they  overthrow  any  rule  of  faith  or  hope."  We  can 
best  get  at  their  peculiarities  of  view  by  observing  the 
charges  made  against  them  by  their  adversaries. 

a.  One  of  the  most  distinctive  features  of  the  Mon- 
tanists  is  their  doctrine  of  the  Paraclete.  They  claimed  to 
be  the  recipients,  while  in  a  state  of  ecstasy,  of  special 
divine  revelations.  They  supposed  that  in  their  time 
and  in  them  was  fulfilled  the  saying  of  Christ:  ''  I  have 
still  many  things  to  say  to  you,  but  you  cannot  bear 
them  now,  but  when  he  comes,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  he 
will  guide  you  into  the  whole  truth,"  etc.  Accordingly, 
they  regarded  their  own  dreaming  as  of  more  importance 
than  the  written  word.  Says  Tertullian:*  "If  Christ 
abolished  what  Moses  taught,  because  from  the  beginning 
it  was  not  so  (Matt.  19  :  8),  .  .  why  should  not  the 
Paraclete  abolish  what  Paul  indulged,  because  second 
marriage  also  was  not  from  the  beginning  ?  " 

h.  The  points  in  which  they  claimed  to  be  especially 
instructed  by  the  Paraclete  are  chiefly  those  in  which 
the  Scriptures  are  not  sufficiently  ascetical,  showing  that 
the  most  fundamental  thing  was  their  legalistic  asceticism, 
and  that  the  Paraclete  was  with  them  an  expedient  for 
obviating  the  authority  of  Scripture  in  favor  of  greater 
rigor. 

c.  To  particularize:  The  Montanists  claimed  the  au- 
thority of  the  Paraclete  for  making  second  marriages 
equivalent  to  adultery,  and  hence  mortal  sin,  which  the 
church  is  incompetent  to  forgive ;  for  rejecting  entirely  the 
use  of  wine  and  insisting  on  frequent  and  long-continued 
fasts,  especially  the  xerophagies  (or  abstinence  from  moist 
food  of  any  kind) ;  for  making  flight  in  persecution  or  de- 
nial of  the  faith  under  at^  circumstances  mortal  (by  the 
church  unpardonable)  sin;  for  expecting  the  speedy  end  of 
the  present  dispensation.  Indeed  j  the  motive  for  the  Mon- 
tanistic  asceticism  was  the  vivid  expectation  of  the  end 
of  the  world. 

d.  As  indicated  above,  the  Montanists  drew  a  definite 
line — ^first,  so  far  as  we  know — ^between  morial  and  venial 

"  Oe  MoMgrnua^  Chap.  m. 


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206  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER  n 

sins:  the  former  comprising  homicide,  idolatry,  fraud, 
negation  (of  the  faith),  blasphemy,  adultery,  and  forni- 
cation ;  the  latter  embracing  all  those  minor  sins  to  which 
every  Christian  is  continually  subject.  The  former  are 
irremissible,  so  far  as  the  churches  are  concerned ;  the 
latter  are  forgiven  through  the  advocacy  of  Christ. 

(4)  Influence  of  Montanism  on  the  Church.  Few  of  the 
teachings  and  practices  for  which  the  Montanists  are  dis* 
tinguished  were  new  creations  of  the  Montanists.  Special 
prophetical  gifts,  e.g.^  are  spoken  of  by  Justin  Martyr 
and  Irenseus  as  appearing  in  their  time,  and  millenari- 
anism  was  by  no  means  peculiar  to  Montanism.  But  the 
Montanists  brought  forward  their  ideas  and  claims  in  an 
enthusiastic  and  one-sided  way,  having  been  aroused  to 
fanaticism  by  the  increasing  corruption  and  worldliness 
of  the  churches.  As  worldliness  and  corruption  con- 
tinued to  increase,  so  reactionary  movements  continued 
to  appear  until,  when  the  great  churches  as  such  were 
thoroughly  secularized  by  the  union  of  Church  and  State, 
the  reactionary  spirit  culminated,  as  we  shall  see  here- 
after, in  monasticism. 

2:  The  Naoatianists. 

LITERATURE:  Cyprian/* £)».,"  41-52;  Euscblus, " Ch.  Hist.," 
Bk.  VI.,  Chap.  43, 45 ;  Bk.  VIL,  Chap.  8;  Socrates,  "  Ch.  Hist.," 
Bk.  IV.,  Chap.  28;  Padanus, " 5*.  Trn  Cauir,  Nov,";  (the extant 
writings  of  Novatian  do  not  touch  specifically  upon  the  distinctive 
features  of  Novatianism) :  Neander,  Vol.  I.  j)p.  237-248 ;  Gieseler, 
Vol.  1.,  p.  2$4 ;  Moeller,  Vol.  I.,  p.  263,  s#a. ;  Tlllemont,  **  Memoirgs^** 
Tom. lll.,pp,  189, 209, 346, 353 ;  Walch, ** Kit^srhistoru,*' Bd.  U., Sn'l. 
185-310;  KitschU  **Mtka$h,  Kirche,''  S*ii.  331;,  538,  575;  Haraack, 
**  Dogimngisch^"  Bd,L^  Snt.  339,  siq, ;  encyclopedias  as  above,  swft.  w>c. 

(I)  Characteristics  of  Novatianism.  a.  After  what  has 
been  said  of  Montanism,  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  dis- 
cuss Novatianism  at  length.  Novatianism  was  Montanism 
reappearing  under  peculiar  circumstances  and  in  another 
age.  Many  of  the  Montanistic  ideas  had  been  absorbed 
by  the  general  churches.  The  prophetic  spirit  could  not 
long  sustain  itself.  After  the  time  of  Tertullian  we  hear 
nothing  of  prophetic  claims.  Nor  does  this  feature  of 
Montanism  reappear  in  Novatianism. 

b.  Novatianism  was  a  striving  after  ecclesiastical  purity, 
perverted  by  the  Montanistic  legalism.    The  churches 


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CHAP.  1l]   internal  development  of  CHRISTIANITY     207 

must  be  made  pure  and  kept  pure  by  the  rigorous  exclu- 
sion of  all  who  have  at  any  time  committed  one  of  the 
particular  sins  which  were  arbitrarily  classed  as  "mor- 
tal," especially  negation  of  the  faith. 

(2)  Origin  of  Novatianism.  So  far  as  the  Novatianist 
party  was  a  new  party,  it  originated  as  follows :  During 
the  Decian  persecution,  many  Christians  in  all  parts  of 
the  empire  denied  the  faith.  At  the  close  of  the  perse- 
cution, it  was  a  most  important  question  with  the  churches 
how  to  deal  with  the  multitudes  who  now  clamored  for 
readmission.  The  laxer  party,  which  was  at  this  time 
predominant  at  Rome,  was  in  favor  of  readmitting  them 
without  much  delay  or  ceremony.  An  influential  party, 
led  by  Novatian,  opposed  this  laxity,  and  when  they 
failed  to  carry  their  point  in  the  church,  withdrew,  No- 
vatian becoming  bishop  of  the  protesting  party.  The 
Novatianists  had  the  sympathy  of  a  large  element  in  the 
North  African  churches,  and  they  soon  formed  there  a 
strong  organization.  In  North  Africa  and  in  Asia  Minor 
they  probably  absorbed  most  of  the  Montanistic  party, 
which  was  still  important.  This  was  certainly  the  case 
in  Phrygia,  the  original  home  of  Montanism.  Nova- 
tianist congregations  persisted  till  the  flfth  century  or 
later. 

(3)  Doctrines  and  Practices,  a.  In  matters  of  doctrine 
and  church  organization,  the  Novatianists  were  at  one 
with  the  general  churches.  Novatian  himself  wrote  one 
of  the  ablest  treatises  of  the  period  on  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity.  It  was  the  matter  of  discipline  alone,  the  con- 
ditions of  church-membership  and  the  competency  of  the 
churches  to  forgive  certain  specific  sins,  that  furnished 
occasion  for  the  schism. 

b.  Believing  the  general  churches  of  the  time  to  be 
apostate,  they  naturally  rejected  their  ordinances,  and  re- 
baptiied  those  that  came  to  them  from  churches  with 
which  they  did  not  affiliate. 

c.  The  doctrine  of  baptismal  regeneration  had  become 
almost  universal  by  this  time,  and  the  Novatianists  held  to 
it  so  tenaciously  as  to  regard  it  as  a  matter  of  the  utmost 
consequence,  not  only  that  every  Christian  should  be 
baptized,  but  also  that  he  should  be  baptized  by  a  prop- 
erly qualified  person. 


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208  A  MANUAL  OP  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PEitU 

3.  The  Donatists. 

Literature  :  Optatus  MUevitanus,  *'  D$  SehtsmaU  DottaHOarmm,*^ 
Lib.  VIL,  ed.  Dupin  (this  edition  contains  also  a  collection  of  docu- 
ments relating  to  the  history  of  the  Donatists) ;  Au^stine,  various 
treatises  against  the  Donatists  ( Eng.  tr.  by  Kin^,  edited,  with  elabo- 
rate introductory  essay,  by  Hartranft,  in  Nicene  and  Post-Nic. 
Fathers,  first  ser.,  Vol.  IV. ) :  Norisius, "  Hist,  Donatistanm  ";  Hefele, 
"Councils,"  Vol.  I.  and  \U  passim;  Hardouin,  " Gw«?.,'^  VoL  L, 
passim ;  Neander,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  214-2^2 ;  Schaff ,  Vol.  III.,  p.  560,  stq. ; 
Ribbeck,  ^^ Donaius  und  Augustinus'^ :  Bindemann,  ^^DirhiH,  Augus- 
tim*s,"  'Bd.  II.,  Siit.  366,  5#a. ;  Bd.  III.,  S^rt.  178-353 ;  Voltcr,  "  Ur^ 
sprung  d,  Dtmatismus"  ;  Walch,  ^'Historii  dsr  Ktt^trsim*'  'Bd.  IV.  ; 
'Roux,  '*  D$  Atuatstino,  Mdxfirsario  DoHatistanm  "  ;  Tillemont.  '^  M#- 
fiw^#s,"  Tom.N\. ;  art.  in  the " Prcsb.  Rev.,"  1884,  by  T.  V/.  Hop- 
kins ;  Loofs,  "  Dogmgngesch,^^  SiiU  205,  seq, ;  Thummd, "  Zur  Beur- 
ihiilmg  d,  DoHoiismusr  1893  »  Seeck,  **  QuilUn  u,  Urktmdm  Hber  d, 
Anfimg4  d.  Donaiismus  "  (in  ^*  Zsitschr,  /.  Kirchtngssch.,'*  1889) ;  Reu- 
ter,  ^^Augustin.  Stttditn";  Deutsch,  *' Dr^i  AcUnstucks  ptr  Gesch,  d. 
Donaiismus^* ;  art.  "  Donatism,"  in  encyclopedias  referred  to  above. 
The  art.  by  Bonwetsch  in  the  third  ed.  of  the  Herzog-Hauck  "  R.  £.," 
Bd.  IV.,  Siit.  788-798, 1898,  is  of  special  value  and  brings  the  litera- 
ture up  to  date. 

(i)  Characteristics,  a.  The  Donatists  follow  in  the 
same  general  line  with  the  Montanists  and  the  Novatian- 
ists.  Like  the  earlier  bodies  they  were  concerned  chiefly 
with  questions  of  ecclesiastical  discipline;  and,  as  in  the 
earlier  movements,  their  scrupulosity  was  based  upon  a 
narrow  legalism. 

b.  The  Donatists  may  properly  be  called  the  High 
Churchmen  of  the  fifth  century.  Like  many  High  Church- 
men of  modern  times -they  were  distinguish^  for  their 
earnestness  and  zeal. 

c.  Their  protests  against  the  corruptions  of  the  churches 
were  entirely  justified,  but  the  spirit  of  their  protests  seems 
to  have  been  more  hopelessly  at  variance  with  true  spir- 
itual Christianity  than  that  of  their  comparatively  lax  and 
indifferent  opponents. 

(2)  Origin.  The  Donatists  arose  after  the  Diocletian 
persecution.  Those  who  delivered  up  the  Scriptures 
during  persecution  were  stigmatized  by  the  strict  party 
as  *'traditors.'*  The  strict  party  could  not  endure  the 
presence  of  traditors  in  the  churches,  especially  as  offi- 
cers. As  traditors  had  committed  a  sin  which  they 
felt  that  the  churches  had  no  right  to  pardon,  they  re- 


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CHAP.  IL]   INTERNAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHRISTIANITY     209 

garded  ordinances  performed  by  such  persons  as  invalid, 
and  churches  in  which  they  were  tolerated  as  un- 
worthy of  Christian  fellowship.  Mensurius,  bishop  of 
Carthage,  when  called  on  to  deliver  up  the  Scriptures, 
was  reported  to  have  put  in  their  place  some  heretical 
writings,  and  to  have  hidden  the  Scriptures  themselves. 
He  and  Cscilian,  his  deacon,  used  all  their  influence 
against  the  fanaticism  which  led  so  many  needlessly  to 
throw  themselves  into  the  hands  of  the  persecutors. 
They  also  sought  to  check  superstition  as  it  was  coming 
to  be  manifested  in  the  worship  of  relics,  e.tc.  In  311. 
Mensurius  died,  and  Caecilian  became  candidate  for  the 
episcopate.  In  Numidia,  several  influential  pastors,  es- 
pecially Donatus,  of  Casse  Nigrse,  and  Secundus,  of 
Tigisis,  had  taken  strong  ground  against  traditors.  A 
wealthy  lady,  Lucilla,  much  given  to  the  veneration  of 
martyrs  and  their  relics,  was  at  the  head  of  the  opposi- 
tion in  Carthage.  The  Carthaginian  presbyters  were 
almost  all  opposed  to  Csecilian.  The  Numidian  bishops, 
who  were  accustomed  to  take  part  in  the  consecration 
of  the  bishop  of  Carthage,  were  sent  for  by  the  party 
of  Lucilla,  and  meetings  were  held  in  her  house. 
Csecilian  knowing  that  he  would  be  opposed  by  these 
bishops,  got  himself  hurriedly  ordained  by  a  neighboring 
bishop,  Felix,  of  Aptunga.  The  Numidian  bishops  de- 
clared Cxcilian  deposed,  and  elected  Majorinus.  There 
were  now  two  rival  bishops  of  Carthage,  each  with  a 
strong  following,  and  the  utmost  bitterness  prevailed 
between  the  two  parties.  The  schism  thus  begun  at 
Carthage,  spread  all  over  North  Africa.  Much  of  the 
earlier  Montanism  and  Novatianism  was  probably  ab- 
sorbed by  the  new  party.  Indeed,  the  party  can  hardly 
be  called  new.  It  was  simply  a  fresh  manifestation  of 
the  strict  tendency  as  opposed  to  increasing  laxity  in  the 
churches. 

(3)  Doctrines  and  Practices,  a.  They  insisted  on  rigor- 
ous ecclesiastical  discipline,  and  pure  church-membership. 
b.  They  rejected  unworthy  ministers,  c.  They  protested 
against  civil  interference  in  matters  of  religion.  This 
feature,  however,  was  developed  only  after  they  had 
despaired  of  obtaining  the  support  of  the  civil  power. 
The  evils  of  State  Interference  must  be  experienced 

o 


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210  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  II 

before  the  system  could  be  vigorously  combated,  d. 
They  practised  episcopacy  in  the  same  sense  and  to  the 
same  extent  as  it  prevailed  in  the  general  churches  of 
the  time  ;  though  the  dioceses  were  for  the  most  part  very 
small,  and  many  bishops  were  pastors  of  single  churches. 
e.  They  believed  in  baptismal  regeneration  and  in  the 
necessity  of  baptism  to  salvation.  In  this  they  went 
beyond  the  Catholics  themselves,  maintaining  that  the 
human  nature  of  Christ  himself  needed  to  be  cleansed 
by  baptism.  Their  most  prominent  characteristic,  that 
of  baptizing  anew  those  that  had  already  been  baptized, 
whether  in  infancy  or  not,  by  those  whom  they  regarded 
as  unworthy,  is  evidence  of  the  fact  that  they  regarded 
the  salvation  of  the  soul  as  depending  on  the  administra- 
tion of  the  ordinance  by  a  blameless  person.  /.  They 
practised  infant  baptism.  This  they  were  probably  more 
scrupulous  in  doing  than  the  general  churches,  in  accord- 
ance with  their  more  vivid  sense  of  its  necessity,  g. 
They  were  intolerant  and  bigoted.  This,  however,  was 
in  a  large  measure  due  to  the  harsh  treatment  that  they 
received  at  the  hands  of  their  opponents.* 

iThe  lAttr  history  of  the  Donatlsts  will  b«  foand  In  the  next  p«rio4. 


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CHAPTER  III 

THE  CHRISTIAN  LITERATURE  OI:  THE  FIRST  THREE 
CENTURIES 

LITERATURE:  Original  texts  In  MIgne's  *' Patrohgia"  and  in 
critical  editions  to  be  referred  to  under  eacii  autlior ;  English  trans- 
lations in  '•  The  Ante-Niccne  Fathers,"  lo  vols.  New  Yorl<.  1885- 
q/S ;  Hamack,  *'  Giseh,  d.  AlicktisiU  Litteraiur  his  ^  Eus^biusy  1893 
onward  (Part  1.  consists  of  a  comprehensive  survey  of  the  entire 
body  of  extant  Christian  literature  so  far  as  it  had  come  to  light  at 
the  time  of  writing,  with  full  critical  information  regarding  each 
document.  Part  IL,  of  which  the  first  volume  was  issued  in  i8g7< 
treats  of  the  chronology  of  these  literary  remains.  This  monumental 
work  is  beins  prepared  under  the  auspices  of  the  Royal  Prussian 
Academy  of  Sciences) ;  Gebhardt  and  Harnack,  **  Ttxt4  und  Unter- 
suchungm "  (This  learned  work,  still  in  progress,  consists  of  mono- 
graphs b}^  various  scholars  on  various  literary  monuments  of  this 
age,  especially  on  newly  discovered  documents  and  such  as  are  of 
uncertain  date  and  authorship.  Fifteen  volumes  have  already  ap- 
peared); Robinson,  **  Texts  and  Studies"  (an  English  series  of 
monographs  by  different  writers  similar  to  Ihe  German  series  just 
referred  to,  stifl  in  course  of  publication)  ;  Cruttwell,  '*  A  Literary 
History  of  Early  Christianity,"  1893 ;  Rriiger,  **  History  of  Eariy 
Christian  Literature  in  the  First  Three  Centuries,"  English  transla- 
tion, 1898 ;  Donaldson,  "  A  Critical  History  of  Christ.  Literaturr 
and  Doctr.  from  the  Death  of  the  Apostles  to  the  Nicene  Council," 
1866;  Farrar,  "  Lives  of  the  Fathers." 

I.  PRELIMINARY. 

I.  The  Importance  of  this  Literature. 

The  Christian  literature  of  the  first  three  centuries 
stands  next  to  that  of  the  apostolic  age  not  only  in  time 
but  also  in  importance.  Some  of  the  writings  to  be 
here  considered  belong  to  the  apostolic  age  and  may  be 
earlier  than  some  of  the  New  Testament  books,  espe- 
cially the  Johannean  Gospel  and  Apocalypse.  The  im- 
portance of  this  literature  is  obvious  from  the  following 
considerations : 

(i)  The  distinct  inferiority  of  the  very  best  of  it  to  any 
of  the  New  Testament  books  is  strongly  confirmatory  of 
the  belief  that  the  selection  and  the  preservation  of  the 

an 


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212  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IL 

latter  no  less  than  their  original  writing  was  presided  over 
by  Divine  Providence. 

(2)  This  literature  is  our  only  source  of  information  as 
to  the  process  by  which  apostolic  Christianity  was  trans- 
formed in  doctrine,  polity,  life,  worship,  and  institutions 
into  the  Christianity  of  the  fourth  century,  and  by  which 
Christianity  became  so  widespread,  powerful,  and  secu- 
larized as  to  gain  recognition  as  the  religion  of  the  State. 

(3)  These  writings  contain  all  the  available  information 
regarding  the  use  of  the  New  Testament  Scriptures  in 
the  churches  of  the  first  three  centuries  and  reveal  the 
process  by  which,  and  the  influences  under  which,  the 
books  now  included  in  our  canon  secured  recognition  as 
the  authoritative  record  of  the  revelation  of  the  New 
Covenant  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others. 

(4)  This  literature  is  remarkably  varied  as  regards 
form,  contents,  and  type  of  teaching,  and  is  a  true  mir- 
ror of  the  diversified  forms  that  Christianity  assumed  in 
its  contact  and  conflict  with  the  Jewish  and  the  pagan 
world. 

2.  divisions  of  Early  Christian  Literature. 

We  may  divide  early  Christian  literature  as  follows  : 
(i)  The  edificatory  period.  (2)  The  apologetic  period. 
(3)  The  polemical  period.  (4)  The  scientific  period.  We 
shall  find  that  the  order  of  division  is  at  the  same  time 
logical  and  chronological. 

(i)  An  Obscure  and  Quiet  Growth.  It  was  natural  and 
necessary  that  Christianity  should  have  an  obscure  and 
quiet  growth  before  it  should  get  bold  enough  to  defend 
itself  publicly,  or  at  least  before  it  could  hope  for  a  pub- 
lic hearing.  Moreover,  in  the  age  immediately  succeed- 
ing the  apostolic  age  Christianity  had  in  its  ranks  few 
men  of  philosophical  culture  who  could  have  been  ex- 
pected to  attempt  the  public  defense  of  their  religion. 
The  shock  received  by  the  Christians  from  the  atrocities 
of  Nero,  repeated  in  a  somewhat  milder  form  by  Domi- 
tian,  would  have  deterred  them  in  any  case  from  attempt- 
ing to  influence  the  government  in  their  favor. 

(2)  Warding  off  Attacks.  Again,  it  was  natural,  after 
Christianity  had  made  considerable  progress  and  had 
won  to  its  support  a  number  of  cultured  minds,  that  it 


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CHAP,  in.]  LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES       21 3 

should  devote  its  attention  to  warding  off  the  attacks  of 
its  enemies  and  to  setting  forth  to  those  in  authority  its 
true  character,  and  should  abstain  as  far  as  practicable 
from  public  attacks  on  heathen  doctrines  and  practices. 
Not  all  of  the  apologists,  as  we  shall  see,  were  able  en- 
tirely to  refrain  from  ridiculing  the  absurdities  and  de- 
nouncing the  terrible  evils  that  were  involved  in  the 
polytheistic  worship  of  the  time ;  but  in  general  their  at- 
titude was  that  of  suppliants  for  mercy. 

(3)  A  voice  of  Condemnation.  Again,  it  was  natural, 
after  Christianity  had  grown  strong  enough  to  regard 
itself  and  to  be  regarded  as  a  mighty  rival  of  paganism 
and  as  destined  soon  to  supplant  it,  that  it  should  lift  up 
its  voice  in  condemnation  of  the  corruptions  of  paganism, 
especially  as  the  Christians  themselves  were  continually 
tempted  to  wrong-doing  by  the  presence  of  heathen  prac- 
tices. Heresy,  moreover,  was  aggressive  and  must  be 
vanquished.  Most  of  the  polemical  literature  is  directed 
against  false  forms  of  teaching. 

(4)  e/f  Scientific  Study  of  Christianity.  Again,  it  was 
necessary  that  Christianity  should  have  gained  not  sim- 
ply a  firm  foothold,  but  should  have  had  a  period  of  com- 
parative quiet  and  immunity  from  persecution,  before 
a  scientific  study  of  the  sacred  books  and  an  applica- 
tion to  them  of  the  philosophical  modes  of  thought  that 
belonged  to  the  highest  culture  of  the  age  should  take 
place.  This  scientific  study  of  Christianity  was  pro- 
moted by  attacks  upon  Christianity  by  heretics  and  pa- 
gans and  the  general  interest  that  cultivated  men  of  all 
classes  were  beginning  to  show  in  Christianity.  Men 
who  were  thoroughly  familiar  with  Greek  philosophy 
and  with  Gnostic  speculations  naturally  sought  to  ex- 
hibit Christianity  as  the  only  true  philosophy. 

II.  THE  EDIFICATORY  PERIOD,  OR  THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  APOS- 
TOLIC FATHERS. 

I.  General  Characteristics. 

(i)  Informal  Utterances.  The  writings  that  fall  under 
this  head  are  simple,  informal  utterances  of  pious  faith. 
No  attempt  is  made  at  a  systematic  exhibition  of  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  any  more  than  in  the  New  Testament. 


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214  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  II 

(2)  No  Knowledge  of  Pagan  Philosophy.  These  writers 
betray  no  knowledge  of  pagan  philosophy,  hence  no 
polemics  against  paganism  occur.  Little  allusion  is  made 
to  heresies.  Such  already  existed,  to  be  sure,  but  the 
writings  that  have  come  down  to  us  are  too  much  occu- 
pied with  the  internal  interests  of  religion  to  allow  of 
their  entering  formally  upon  their  refutation  ;  and  few  of 
the  writers  possessed  the  requisite  learning  for  effec- 
tively meeting  the  theosophical  errors  of  the  time. 

(3)  These  Writings  Shaw  us  Christianity  at  IVorh.  Indi- 
vidual responsibility  is  everywhere  recognized.  There 
is  evidence  that  the  missionary  spirit  was  still  thoroughly 
energetic.  The  type  of  piety  represented  in  these  writ- 
ings is  for  the  most  part  healthy  and  in  accordance  with 
the  New  Testament. 

(4)  Revere  Old  Testament.  While  these  writers  quote 
freely  and  lovingly  from  the  New  Testament  books,  it  is 
the  Old  Testament  that  they  reverence  most  of  all,  and 
to  this  only  is  final  appeal  made  in  support  of  doctrine. 
In  other  words,  they  use  the  New  Testament  for  sub- 
stance of  doctrine,  but  the  Old  Testament  for  proof. 
The  necessity  that  they  felt  of  finding  the  whole  of 
Christianity  in  the  Old  Testament  led  them  to  apply  the 
allegorical  method  of  interpretation  in  the  most  arbitrary 
manner.  In  this  they  but  followed  the  example  of  the 
Alexandrian  Jews  and  of  contemporary  pagan  writers. 

2.  Individual  Writings. 

{i)Ths  First  EpisHs  of  CUmttU  of  Ronu  to  iJu  Corinthian  Church. 

Literature  :  In  addition  to  works  referred  to  above,  "  Patrum 
Apostolicorum  Op^ra^^  ed.  Gebhardt,  Hamack,  and  Zahn  (this  is 
by  far  the  best  edition  of  the  "  Apostolic  Fathers."  It  contains  pro- 
legomena, Latin  translations,  with  ample  notes  and  critical  appara- 
tus);  Wrede,  *^  Untersuchungtn  turn  Erstm  CUmtnsbriif^^  1801; 
Lerame.  in  •*  tKmJahrhJ,  DoAsehi  ThsoU^^^  1892,  Siit.  375, s#^. ;  Light- 
foot,  '•  S.  Clement  of  Ffome  "  (the  best  edition  of  the  cp.,  with  Eng. 
trans,  and  all  necessary  apparatus);  Zahn,  in  ^"^ Zeitschrift  fur  d. 
Hist.  Theol.;'  1869:  Gebhardt,  in  ^' Ztitschrift,  fur  Ktreh.-Gtsch.,'' 
1876 ;  Wicseler,  in  ^'jahrhikhtr  fur  Dmtuhs  Thiol.J^  1875  ;  encyclo- 
pedias before  referred  to,  art.  **  Clement  of  Rome.'' 

a.  Authorship.  The  grounds  for  assigning  the  epistle 
to  Clement  are  not  decisive.    The  letter  is  addressed  by 


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CHAP.  UL]  LITERATURE  OF  RRST  THREE  CENTURIES        21 5 

**  the  church  of  God  that  sojourns  at  Rome  to  the  church 
of  God  that  sojourns  at  Corinth."  Dionysius  of  Corinth, 
about  170,  is  the  earliest  known  witness  to  its  Clemen- 
tine authorship.^  Irenxus  relates  that,  during  the  epis- 
copate of  Clement,  the  church  of  Rome  sent  a  most  ap- 
propriate letter  to  the  Corinthians,  exhorting  them  to 
peace  and  renewing  their  faith  and  calling  to  their  re- 
membrance the  tradition  that  they  had  recently  received 
from  the  apostles.  He  further  relates  that  this  Clement 
was  the  third  in  order  of  the  Roman  bishops,  having 
been  preceded  by  Linus,  appointed  by  the  apostles,  and 
by  Anacletus,  and  that  Clement  himself  had  seen  the 
apostles  and  associated  with  them.  The  statement  of 
Irenxus  seems  probable  enough.  According  to  this 
writer  the  epistle  was  still  being  used  in  religious  serv- 
ices by  the  Corinthian  church  in  his  time. 

Eusebius,  whose  chief  authority  on  this  point  was 
probably  Irenseus,  but  who  also  refers  to  Hegesippus, 
who  had  visited  the  Corinthian  church  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  second  century,  may  be  wrong  in  ascribing  the 
epistle  to  Clement  individually.  In  Eusebius'  time  such 
a  letter  would  have  been  sent  by  the  bishop,  as  lord  of 
his  church.  Hence  he  may  have  inferred  that  Clement, 
being  bishop  of  the  Roman  church,  himself  wrote  it. 
As  one  of  the  most  influential  and  intelligent  members 
of  the  church  he  may  have  prepared  the  letter,  but  if  so, 
he  did  it  as  the  representative  of  the  church  ;  hence  the 
superscription.  But  supposing  the  letter  to  have  been 
written  by  Clement,  pastor  of  the  Roman  church  in  the 
time  of  Domitian,  there  is  no  absolute  proof  that  this  was 
the  Clement  mentioned  by  Paul  in  Phil.  4  :  3.  The 
name  was  a  very  common  one. 

Some  modern  writers  (Lipslus,  Voikmar,  Erbes,  Hasendever) 
have  sought  to  identify  Clement,  me  Roman  bishop  or  presbyter,  to 
whom  the  authorship  of  the  epistie  has  been  attributed,  with  Flavius 
Clemens,  the  consul  and  relative  of  the  emperor,  who  suffered  mar- 
tyrdom under  Domitian.  This  identification  has  been  strongly  op- 
posed by  Zahn,  Wieseler,  Funk,  Harnack,  and  Uhlhorn.' 

There  has  been  much  difference  of  opinion  as  to  whether  the  writer 
of  the  epistie  was  a  Jewish  or  a  Gentile  Christian.  Lightfoot  and 
Lemme  contend  for  the  former  view,  Harnack  and  Wrede  for  the 

^  Etttebitts.  Blc  IV..  chap.  as. 
>  $f«  Uhlhorn,  In  «*  RuUBn^MopSuiitr  ttiird  td.,  &f.  IV.,  MU  16$.  Mf. 


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2l6  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IL 

latter,  while  Uhihorn  thinks  the  considerations  adduced  on  neither 
side  decisive. 

b.  T)ate  of  the  Epistle.  This  is  a  disputed  point,  but 
it  may  be  assigned,  with  some  probability,  to  a  time  be- 
tween A.  D.  93  and  97. 

{a)  Reasons  for  believing  it  not  earlier  than  93 :  First,  It 
must  have  been  written  considerably  after  the  death  of 
Peter  and  Paul,  for  their  martyrdom  is  treated  as  a  mat- 
ter of  history  (chap.  5).  So  also  their  activity  (chap.  42, 
etc.).  Secondly,  No  mention  is  made  of  the  strife  be- 
tween Jewish  and  Gentile  Christians  that  had  formerly 
prevailed  at  Rome  and  Corinth.  Some  time  must  have 
elapsed  since  Paul  wrote  his  Epistles.  Thirdly,  The 
Corinthian  church  is  spoken  of  (chap.  47)  as  ancient. 

(b)  Reasons  for  believing  it  not  later  than  07 :  First,  The 
martyrdom  of  Peter  and  Paul  is  spoken  of  as  belonging 
to  our  generation.  Secondly,  Presbyters  are  represented 
as  still  living  who  were  appointed  by  the  apostles. 
Thirdly,  No  mention  is  made  of  the  disturbances  created 
by  Gnostics  in  the  Roman  church  early  in  the  second 
century.  Fourthly,  The  Roman  church  is  represented  as 
having  just  come  out  of  great  tribulation  (chap.  i).  As 
there  is  no  intimation  that  the  Corinthians  suffered  at  the 
same  time,  this  persecution  could  hardly  be  the  wide- 
spread one  under  Trajan,  but  was  most  probably  a  local 
persecution  under  Domitian  (93-97). 

c.  Abstract  of  the  Epistle.  A  sedition  had  arisen  in  the 
Corinthian  church.  A  certain  faction  had  deposed,  with** 
out  just  grounds,  some  presbyters  of  the  church.  The 
writer  begins,  after  the  salutation,  with  excusing  the 
delay  of  the  Roman  church  in  responding  to  the  request 
for  advice  (the  excuse  being  the  severe  persecution  to 
which  the  Romans  had  been  subjected),  and  calls  atten- 
tion to  the  high  repute  in  which  the  Corinthian  church 
had  hitherto  stood.  The  sedition  is  attributed  to  the 
pride  that  follows  prosperity.  Part  of  the  church  had 
become  jealous  of  the  other  part.  The  evil  effects  of 
jealousy  are  shown  from  numerous  Old  Testament  ex- 
amples. Jealousy  lay  at  the  root  of  the  persecutions  in 
which  Peter,  Paul,  etc.,  suffered  martyrdom.  That 
there  is  room  for  repentance  on  the  part  of  the  offenders 
19  shown  from  Old  Testament  examples.     The  Cprin- 


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CHAP. IK]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        21 7 

thians  are  exhorted  to  humility  in  view  of  the  Messianic 
passage  (Isa.  53),  and  of  the  example  of  many  Old  Tes- 
tament heroes.  God  is  long-suffering  and  will  forgive 
the  penitent.  Yet  he  is  a  God  of  order.  He  keeps  the 
universe  in  order.  If  the  Corinthians  would  act  worthily 
of  such  a  God,  they  must  do  all  things  in  order  and 
peace. 

General  directions  follow  as  to  the  respect  due  to  pres- 
byters. As  a  motive  for  guarding  against  sedition  the 
Corinthians  are  reminded  of  the  second  coming  of  the 
Lord  and  of  the  resurrection.  The  resurrection  is  proved 
by  the  argument  from  analogy  (day — ^night ;  seed — ^plant ; 
the  Phoenix,  etc.). 

God's  blessing  is  to  be  found  in  faith,  but  not  without 
works. 

The  Roman  army,  in  which  each  member  has  a  par- 
ticular place  allotted,  and  contributes  to  the  completeness 
and  strength  of  the  whole,  should  be  an  example  to  the 
church.  The  Christian  ministry  is  compared  to  the 
Levitical  priesthood  as  regards  order,  etc.  Christ  was 
sent  from  God,  the  apostles  from  Christ.  These  ap- 
pointed bishops  and  deacons,  and  indicated  others  to  suc- 
ceed, in  case  the  first  should  die.  Now  the  Corinthians 
have  removed  some  holy  men  from  service.  The  influ- 
ence of  one  or  two  men  of  no  consequence  has  led  to  the 
deposition  of  men  appointed  by  the  apostles.  This  has 
given  an  occasion  to  the  enemies  of  the  gospel  to  blas- 
pheme the  Lord's  name.  The  seditious  should  confess 
their  sins.  Such  confession  is  shown  to  be  noble  from 
Old  Testament  examples.  They  should  be  willing,  in 
order  to  avoid  strife,  to  retire  to  whatever  place  the 
church  may  wish.  The  authority  of  the  presbyters 
should  be  respected,  especially  of  such  as  were  appointed 
by  the  apostles. 

The  Roman  letter  was  manifestly  based  upon  the  ixparU  state- 
ments of  the  aggrieved  presbyters.  It  is  very  possible  ^at  the 
younger  men,  who  had  gained  influence  enough  in  the  church  to 
secure  the  removal  of  the  old  presbyters  from  office,  would  have 
been  able  in  some  measure  to  justify  their  successful  efforts  for  a 
change  in  the  administration.  It  is  conceivable  that  the  old  presby- 
ters had  come  to  presume  too  much  on  their  apostolic  appointment, 
and  were  disposed  to  be  arbitrary,  or  had  become  inefficient  because 
Of  a|;e. 


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2l8  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  It 

d.  Theology  of  the  Epistle.  Whatever  of  a  theological 
nature  occurs  in  the  epistle  is  entirely  practical  and  not 
speculative. 

God  is  spoken  of  as  the  **  great  Creator  and  Lord  of 
all,"  **the  all  holy  Framer  and  Father  of  the  ages"  ; 
"  his  energy  pervades  all  the  operations  of  nature  " ;  his 
forbearance,  mercy,  and  love  are  emphasized. 

Christ  is  most  commonly  designated  as  **  our  Lord 
J^sus  Christ."  He  is  described  as  the  reflection  or  ra- 
diance of  God's  greatness.  He  was  "sent  by  God." 
"His  blood  was  given  for  us."  "On  account  of  the 
love  which  he  had  unto  us,  Jesus  Christ  gave  his  own 
blood  for  us,  and  his  flesh  for  our  flesh,  and  his  soul  for 
our  soul." 

The  nearest  approach  to  a  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  in 
Clement  is  in  chap.  46 :  "  Have  we  not  one  God,  and 
one  Christ,  and  one  spirit  of  grace  which  was  poured  out 
upon  us,  and  one  calling  in  Christ  ?  " 

Salvation  is  represented  as  being  in  and  through  Christ, 
but  is  also  connected  with  the  fear  of  God  and  with  love 
(chap.  48  ;  21  :  I  ;  22). 

The  idea  of  a  church  in  this  epistle  is  that  of  a  well- 
ordered  assemblage  composed  of  members  possessed  of 
equal  rights  and  privileges,  all  of  whom  are  essential  to 
each  other  as  parts  of  the  body  to  the  body,  but  some  of 
whom  being  more  highly  gifted,  are  to  direct  the  less  intel- 
ligent and  less  gifted  (chap.  37).  Only  two  classes  of  offi- 
cers are  recognized,  bishops  or  presbyters  and  deacons. 
No  class  is  recognized  as  having  an  inherent  right  to  con- 
trol the  church  ;  but  the  opinion  is  expressed  that  those 
who  were  appointed  by  an  apostle,  with  the  consent  of  the 
church,  and  who  had  performed  their  duties  blamelessly, 
ought  not  to  be  deposed. 

Remark.— The  so-called  Second  Epistle  of  Clement,  now  almost 
universally  regarded  as  a  fragment  of  a  homily,  was  probably  writ- 
ten not  earlier  than  A.  D.  130,  and  hence  cannot  well  be  the  work  of 
Clement,  the  third  pastor  of  the  Roman  church.  The  Clementine 
"Recognitions"  and  "Homilies"  ascribed  to  Clement  of  Rome, 
have  been  described  sufficiently  in  the  section  on  the  Ebionites. 
These  were  probably  written  about  a  century  after  Clement's  time. 
The  "  Epistles  to  Virgins  "  is  a  still  later  forgery,  representing  the 
full-fledged  ascetical  spirit  of  the  third  century.  A  number  of  other 
writin^^s  were  set  forth  under  the  name  of  this  author,  as  the  "  L<t« 


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CHAP.  III.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        219 

ter  to  James,"  the  "  Dialogue  of  Peter  and  Aplon,"  an  address  *'  To 
tbe  Holy  Spirit,"  etc.* 

{2)  Th4  EpistU  of  Barnabas. 

LITERATURE:  See  in  addition  to  authorities  cited  above,  full 
bibliography  in  Gebhardt,  Hamacic,  and  Zahn,  and  in  Lightfoot 

a.  t/tuthorship.  The  Epistle  has  often  been  ascribed 
to  Barnabas,  the  fellow-laborer  of  Paul. 

(a)  The  grounds  in  favor  of  this  view  are:  The 
authority  of  Clement  of  Alexandria^  who  regarded  it  as 
an  apostolical  writing  and  wrote  a  commentary  on  it.' 
Origen  also  evidently  regarded  it  as  the  work  of  the 
New  Testament  Barnabas.  Eusebius  mentions  the  epis- 
tle as  bearing  this  name,  but  classes  it,  along  with 
the  *•  Acts  of  Paul,"  the  "  Pastor  of  Hermas,"  and  the 
"  Apocalypse  of  Peter,"  as  a  book  that  had  been  regarded 
by  some  as  Scripture,  but  which  was  in  his  time  rejected. 
This,  however,  is  not  necessarily  against  its  having  been 
.written  by  the  New  Testament  Barnabas.  Jerome 
speaks  of  Barnabas,  ordained  by  Paul,  apostle  of  the 
Gentiles,  as  having  composed  an  epistle  pertaining  to  the 
edification  of  the  church,  which  is  read  among  apocry- 
phal writings.  It  is  found  in  the  "Codex  Sinaiticus'* 
(one  of  the  oldest  biblical  MSS.),  under  the  caption 
"Epistle  of  Barnabas." 

(p)  The  grounds  against  the  view  are  mainly  internal, 
as  those  in  favor  of  it  are  external.  They  are :  The 
unaccountable  blunders  which  the  author  makes  with 
regard  to  the  Jewish  ceremonial  law.  He  describes 
ceremonies  for  which  no  authority  can  be  found  either  in 
the  Old  Testament  or  the  Talmud  (chap.  7  and  8).  Now 
Barnabas,  the  companion  of  Paul,  was  a  Levite,  and  can- 
not Well  be  supposed  to  have  been  capable  of  such  blun< 
ders.  He  lays  stress  on  the  Greek  letters  that  repre- 
sent the  number  of  servants  that  Abraham  circumcised  a5 
making  up  the  name  Jesus.  The  Levite  Barnabas  could 
hardly  have  forgotten  that  the  Old  Testament  was  writ- 
ten in  Hebrew.     The  absurd  statements  with  regard 

1  For  full  information  on  the  pseudo-Clementine  literature,  see  Hamack,  '*  Cach,  4, 
AIL  Chr.  Ut."  Bd,  I.,  Snt.  47.  au.  m8.  5x8. 761.  m.  778 ;  'Bd.  \\.,pasnm ;  and  Uhlbom's 
article  in  the  Herzo^-Hauclc  "  Rgal-Eucyh,"  third  ed..  'Bd,  IV..  StU.  170.  uq, 

•  CI.  Alex..  "  Uronud.r  Blc  II..  chap.  6.  7.  w ;  Bic.  V..  chap.  10.  etc. 


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220  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IL 

to  the  habits  of  animals  are  a  probable,  though  not  de- 
cisive,  ground  against  the  theory  that  the  epistle  is  the 
work  of  the  New  Testament  Barnabas.  The  way  in 
which  the  author  looked  upon  Judaism,  not  as  a  prepara- 
tion for  Christianity,  but  rather  as  a  wicked  externaliz- 
ing of  what  God  meant  to  be  spiritual,  is  hardly  apos- 
tolic. The  extravagant  degree  to  which  the  allegory 
is  employed  seems  unsuitable  to  an  apostle. 

Thus  the  external  testimony,  which  is  not  contempo- 
raneous, is  in  conflict  with  internal  evidence  of  the 
strongest  kind. 

b.  Date.  The  epistle  must  have  been  written  after 
the  destruction  of  the  temple  (70),  which  is  pre-sup- 
posed  in  it  (16  :  3,  4 ;  4  :  14).  It  could  not  well  have 
been  written  later  than  137,  when  the  Jewish  insurrec- 
tion led  by  Barcochab  had  resulted  disastrously,  and  the 
restoration  of  the  temple  was  out  of  the  question.  Ha- 
drian had  expressed  at  the  beginning  of  his  reisn  a 
purpose  to  rebuild  the  temple.  Between  these  two  dates 
a  dozen  different  determinations  have  been  made.  It 
was  probably  written  about  1 19,  near  the  beginning  of 
Hadrian's  reign,  and  some  time  before  the  Jewish  insur- 
rection had  broken  out.  Bunsen,  on  internal  evidence, 
fixes  the  date  during  the  Domitian  persecution — hence 
95  or  earlier.  Lightfoot  assigns  a  still  earlier  date,  the 
earliest  possible,  70-79.  Harnack  thinks  130-131  the 
most  probable  date. 

c.  Abstract.  The  author  salutes  his  readers  as  sons 
and  daughters,  assures  them  that  he  loves  them  more 
than  his  own  life,  and  that  on  this  account  he  hastens  to 
write  to  them,  in  order  that  along  with  their  faith  they 
may  have  knowledge.  Since  the  days  are  evil  and  Satan 
has  authority,  they  ought  to  attend  carefully  to  the  de- 
crees of  God,  their  faith  being  aided  by  fear  and  patience. 

God  did  not  desire  ceremonial  service  even  under  the 
Old  Testament  dispensation,  much  less  now.  The  read- 
ers are  exhorted  not  to  be  like  those  that  heap  up  sins, 
saying  the  Testament  is  the  Jews'  and  ours.  It  is  ours 
only,  for  the  Jews  lost  their  part  in  it  when  Moses  broke 
the  tablets.  One  object  of  Christ's  coming  was  that  the 
sins  of  the  Jews  might  be  consummated  (chap.  6).  The 
real  meaning  of  the  Old  Testament  prophecies  can  be 


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CHAP,  ni.]  LITERATURE  OF  RRST  THREE  CENTURIES       221 

arrived  at  only  by  the  gnosis  (knowledge,  spiritual  in- 
sight), which  gnosis  the  author  proceeds  to  give,  finding 
types  of  Christianity  wherever  he  seeks  them  in  the  Old 
Testament. 

He  proves  allegorically  that  Christians  and  not  Jews 
are  the  true  heirs  of  the  covenant  (chap.  15).  Neither  do 
the  Jews  celebrate  the  right  Sabbath.  The  Lord  rejected 
the  new  moons  and  the  Sabbaths  of  the  Jews.  A  day 
with  the  Lord  is  as  a  thousand  years.  The  seventh 
thousand  of  years  is  therefore  the  true  Sabbath,  and  as 
this  commences  with  the  eighth  day,  the  day  of  the 
Lord's  resurrection,  we  Christians  celebrate  it  with 
gladness. 

The  Jews  also  made  a  mistake  with  regard  to  the  tem- 
ple, supposing  that  a  house  made  with  hands,  and  not 
rather  the  hearts  of  believers,  was  the  temple  of  God. 
The  epistle  concludes  with  a  description  of  the  way  of 
light  and  the  way  of  darkness,  and  an  exhortation  to  the 
readers  to  walk  in  the  one  and  avoid  the  other. 

There  has  been  much  discussion  since  the  discovery  of  the  '*  Di- 
da^''  (**  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles"),  as  to  the  relation- 
ship of  the  passage  in  Barnabas  on  the  two  ways  to  the  similar 
passage  in  the  "  Didach^.**  The  view  that  both  writers  drew  the 
material  from  a  common  source,  a  document  that  must  have  been  in 
general  use  at  a  very  early,  date,  seems  best  supported. 

d.  Theology  of  the  Epistle.  There  is  nothing  particu- 
larly striking  about  the  theology  of  the  Epistle  except 
its  manner  of  viewing  Judaism.  The  writer  goes  far  on 
the  road  that  led  many  in  his  age  to  Gnosticism. 

The  word  gnosis  (jr^<rii)  he  employs  again  and  again 
in  much  the  same  sense  as  that  given  it  among  the 
Gnostics.  His  hostility  to  the  Jews,  while  it  does  not, 
like  that  of  the  Gnostics,  lead  to  a  denial  of  the  good- 
ness and  supremacy  of  Jehovah,  escapes  such  denial 
only  by  the  supposition  that  the  Jews  entirely  misap- 
prehended the  revelation  made  to  them,  and  were  never 
properly  the  people  of  God. 

Like  the  Gnostics,  the  author  mduiges  without  scruple 
in  allegory. 

We  cannot  avoid  the  supposition  that  the  epistle  was 
written  by  a  man  who  had  come  under  the  influence  of 


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222  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IL 

the  Alexandrian  philosophy,  and  probably  of  the  earlier 
forms  of  Gnosticism  as  well. 

0)  Th$  Epistks  of  Ignatius. 

LITERATURE :  Text  and  ancient  testimonials  in  Gebhardt,  Har* 
nack,  and  Zahn ;  Zahn,  '*  Ignatius  von  Aniiochin^^^  1873  ;  Lightfoot« 
*'  Ignatius,''  188$ ;  R6ville,  In  ^'  Rsv,  d,  VHistoin  d,  Migions,''  three  arti- 
cles, 1890.  Lightfoot's  great  work  in  2  vols.  (3  parts)  contains  ail 
the  pertinent  materials  extant  in  Greek,  Syriac,  etc.,  translations  of 
the  epistles  and  of  other  important  documents,  and  elaborate  critical 
discussion  of  all  points  involved.  He  is  commonly  supposed  to  have 
settled  the  Ignatian  question  in  favor  of  the  shorter  Greek  form. 
For  an  admirable  summing  up  of  the  results  of  the  investigations  of 
Zahn,  Lightfoot,  and  Rcville,  see  article  by  Starbuck  in  '^Andover 
Review,''  September,  i8g2.  See  also  Bunsen,  "  ^Dis  drti  achtm  und 
dii  viiT  unackten  Bri$U  dis  Ignatius  von  Antiochsn  "  ;  Cureton,  "  The 
Ancient  Syriac  Versions  of  the  Epistle  St  Ignatius,"  edited  with  an 
English  translation,  and  Harnack's  review  of  Lightfoot,  *'  Expos- 
itor," January,  1886.  For  Harnack's  latent  view,  see  his  *'  G$sch, 
d,  Altchf,  Lit?' 

A  peculiar  interest  attaches  to  the  so-called  Ignatian 
Epistles,  partly  on  account  of  their  inherent  importance, 
and  partly  on  account  of  the  great  uncertainty  as  to  the 
true  text. 

a.  Forms  of  the  Epistles.  We  have  three  distinct  forms 
of  the  Ignatian  Epistles,  differing  greatly  as  to  number, 
length,  and  substance,  (a)  The  longer  Greek  form, 
which  contains  twelve  epistles.  This  rorm  is  now  uni- 
versally regarded  as  a  gross  fabrication,  and  is  supposed 
to  have  been  composed  in  the  fourtli,  fiftn,  or  sixth  cen- 
tury. It  is  full  of  anachronisms,  and  was  evidently  de- 
signed as  a  support  for  the  hierarchical*  church  at  the 
time  of  its  composition,  (ft)  The  shorter  Greek  form, 
which  embraces  the  seven  epistles  mentioned  by  Euse- 
bius,  addressed  to  the  Ephesians,  Magnesians,  Trallians, 
Romans,  Philadelphians,  Smyrnxans,  and  Polycarp.  (c) 
The  Syriac  version,  discovered  among  the  MSS.  from  the 
Nitrian  desert,  in  the  British  Museum,  and  published  by 
Cureton  in  1845.  This  recension  contains  only  three 
epistles,  viz :  those  to  the  Ephesians,  the  Romans,  and 
Polycarp,  and  these  in  a  very  short  form. 

The  shorter  Greek  form  had  long  been  strongly  sus- 
pected, owing  in  part  to  the  fact  that  the  longer  form 
was  acknowledged  to  be  spurious,  in  part  to  the  fact 


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CHAP.  III.]  LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        22$ 

that  episcopacy  seemed  to  have  an  emphasis  given  to 
it  out  of  keeping  with  what  was  otherwise  known  of  the 
church  polity  of  the  early  part  of  the  second  century, 
and  in  part  to  the  extravagances  and  lack  of  verisimili- 
tude in  the  writings  themselves.  Cureton's  discovery 
was  at  once  regarded  by  himself  and  many  other  scholars 
as  involving  a  simple  solution  of  the  whole  problem. 
Cureton  maintained  that  the  three  Syriac  epistles,  in 
which  most  of  the  objectionable  features  of  the  shorter 
Greek  epistles  are  wanting,  represent  the  original  Epis- 
tles of  Ignatius,  and  that  on  this  basis  had  grown  up  the 
whole  body  of  Ignatian  documents.  Bunsen  lent  the 
weight  of  his  great  name  to  this  theory,  and  for  a  time 
it  seemed  likely  to  prevail.  But  the  effect  of  the  latest 
criticism  by  Zahn,  Lightfoot,  R6ville,  and  others,  has 
been  to  demolish  the  claims  of  the  Syriac  form  to  priority, 
and  to  establish  the  comparative  originality  of  the  shorter 
Greek  form. 

b.  tAuthenticity.  (a)  Internal  Evidences.  As  already 
intimated,  Zahn  and  Lightfoot  have,  in  the  opinion  of  a 
large  majority  of  competent  judges,  established  the 
originality  of  the  shorter  Greek  form  of  the  epistles,  as 
compared  with  any  other  form.  If  there  are  any  genuine 
Ignatian  epistles,  these  alone  can  claim  to  be  such.  That 
just  seven  epistles  are  mentioned  by  Eusebius,  with 
identical  addresses,  is  favorable  to  the  claim.  The  con- 
siderations adduced  have  convinced  many  critics  that 
these  seven  epistles  were  written  by  Ignatius,  under  the 
circumstances  supposed.  Some  accept  these  writings  as 
in  the  main  genuine,  but  suppose  them  to  have  been  in- 
terpolated to  a  very  considerable  extent.  The  fact  that 
interpolation  and  forgery  figure  so  prominently  at  a  later 
time  in  connection  with  the  Ignatian  literature  would 
suggest  the  possibility  that  the  seven  epistles  may  repre- 
sent an  earlier,  more  moderate,  corruption  in  the  inter- 
ests of  episcopacy  and  asceticism.  Some  (so  V5lter) 
reject  the  epistle  to  the  Romans,  while  accepting  the 
substantial  genuineness  of  the  other  six  epistles. 

Harnack,  Zahn,  and  Lightfoot  have  so  completely 
mastered  the  pertinent  literature,  have  so  minutely  con- 
sidered every  objection  that  has  been  raised  or  is  likely 
to  be  raised,  and  have  answered  the  objections  with  such 


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224  ^  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PERU 

plausibility,  that  skepticism  as  to  the  authenticity  of  the 
epistles  would  almost  seem  to  be  out  of  place.  They 
have  sought  to  show  that  greater  difficulties  by  far  are 
involved  in  the  rejection  than  in  the  acceptance  of  the 
genuineness  of  the  writings.  A  later  writer,  they  claim, 
would  inevitably  have  fallen  into  anachronisms,  the  ex- 
istence  of  which  in  these  documents  is  denied.  They  hold 
that  there  is  nothing  in  the  circumstances  (the  condem- 
nation and  transportation  to  Rome  of  a  leading  Christian, 
the  freedom  to  meet  deputations  from  the  churches  and 
to  carry  on  an  extensive  correspondence  during  the 
journey,  the  implied  supposition  that  the  Christians  of 
Kome  might  be  able  to  secure  a  reversal  of  the  death 
sentence)  or  in  the  extravagant  desire  for  martyrdom 
that  finds  utterance  in  the  epistle  to  the  Romans,  incon- 
sistent with  the  supposition  that  they  were  written  by 
Ignatius  of  Antioch  in  the  time  of  Trajan. 

We  must  admit  the  possibility  of  the  supposed  circum- 
stances and  of  the  supposed  psychological  states  and 
consequent  acts  of  Ignatius ;  but  we  may  well  be  ex- 
cused if  we  find  ourselves  unable  to  agree  with  these 
great  scholars  as  to  the  probabilities  of  the  case.  The 
objection  based  upon  the  writer's  strong  episcopal  ten- 
dencies has  little  weight  (see  below)  ;  but  questions  like 
the  following  thrust  themselves  upon  us,  and  are  not  set 
aside  by  the  plausible  answers  that  have  been  given  :  Is 
it  psychologically  conceivable,  or  if  so,  is  it  within  the 
bounds  of  probability,  that  a  (Christian  man  who  had  as- 
sociated with  apostles,  and  who  by  reason  of  his  charac- 
ter and  abilities  had  attained  to  a  position  of  commanding 
influence  throughout  Syria  and  Asia  Minor,  could  think, 
write,  and  act  as  Ignatius  is  represented  as  doing  in  these 
documents  ?  Is  it  likely  that  a  man  condemned  to  a 
cruel  death  on  the  sole  ground  of  his  Christian  profes- 
sion and  guarded  night  and  day  by  ten  Roman  soldiers, 
should  have  been  accorded  the  privilege  of  meeting  with 
deputations  from  the  churches  on  the  route,  and  of  writ- 
ing such  a  body  of  letters  as  those  before  us  ?  Is  it 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  a  man  condemned  by  the 
emperor  for  being  a  Christian  should  imagine  the  Roman 
Christians  possessed  of  such  influence  and  such  bold- 
Qess  as  might  lead  them  to  secure  his  release  ?    Trajan 


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CHAP.  III.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        22$ 

can  scarcely  be  supposed  to  have  been  so  capricious  a 
ruler  as  to  condemn  the  bishop  of  Antioch  to  death  by 
wild  beasts  in  the  Roman  arena  on  the  ground  of  his 
faith  and  to  pardon  him  at  the  request  of  his  Roman 
fellow-Christians.  Lightfoot  attributes  failure  to  be  con- 
vinced of  the  conclusiveness  of  his  answers  to  these  and 
like  questions  to  deficiency  of  **  historic  imagination." 
So  much  for  the  internal  evidences  of  the  genuineness 
of  the  seven  epistles. 

(b)  External  Evidences.  The  external  evidences  must 
next  be  briefly  considered.  First  and  most  important  is 
the  testimony  of  Polycarp  of  Smyrna,  to  whom  one  of 
the  Ignatian  epistles  is  addressed.  Admission  of  the 
genuineness  of  the  epistle  of  Polycarp  to  the  Philip- 
pians  is  thought  to  carry  with  it  admission  of  the  genu- 
ineness of  the  Ignatian  epistles.  Polycarp  informs  the 
Philippians  that  he  is  sending  them  "the  letters  of  Ig- 
natius which  were  sent  by  him  to  us  together  with  any 
others  which  we  had  in  our  possession."  If  this  pas* 
sage  is  genuine,  there  must  have  been  in  circulation 
in  Asia  Minor,  shortly  after  the  supposed  martyrdom 
of  Ignatius,  a  considerable  body  of  Ignatian  epistles. 
Irenseus  (175-190)  quotes,  as  the  utterance  of  a  martyr, 
the  Ignatian  statement :  'M  am  the  wheat  of  God, 
and  I  am  ground  by  the  teeth  of  wild  beasts,  that  I 
may  be  found  pure  bread."  Other  supposed  slight  in- 
dications of  Ignatian  influence  have  been  pointed  out. 
The  sentence  quoted  might  well  have  been  handed 
down  by  tradition,  or  in  some  martyrology,  as  having 
been  uttered  by  Ignatius  or  some  other  martyr.  Light- 
foot  lays  much  stress  on  the  points  of  similarity  be- 
tween the  account  of  the  condemnation,  transportation, 
and  martyrdom  of  Ignatius  and  Lucian's  account  of  the 
death  of  reregrinus  Proteus,  and  maintains  Lucian's  in- 
debtedness to  the  Ignatian  epistles.  This  we  must  regard 
as  extremely  doubtful ;  for  even  if  the  interdependence 
of  the  two  narratives  could  be  proved,  Lucian's  may  well 
have  been  the  original.  Origen  (died  257)  mentions 
Ignatius  as  suffering  martyrdom  at  Rome,  and  quotes  a 
sentence.  Eusebius  (fourth  century)  is  the  earliest 
writer  to  give  any  detailed  account  of  the  Ignatian  litera- 
ture.   He  mentions  the  epistles  by  name,  and  so  char- 


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226  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IL 

acterizes  them  as  to  identify  them  to  some  extent  with 
those  under  consideration.  But  Eusebius'  notice  does 
not  exclude  the  possibility  that  the  documents  he  knew 
were  forged  or  interpolated,  or  that  the  documents  we 
possess  may  have  been  interpolated  since  his  time. 

We  conclude :  First,  that  there  probably  was  an  An- 
tiochian  bishop  in  the  time  of  Trajan  named  Ignatius ; 
secondly,  that  he  probably  suffered  martyrdom  at  Rome  ; 
thirdly,  that  he  probably  wrote  some  letters  on  his  jour- 
ney ;  fourthly,  that  what  he  wrote  furnished  the  basis  of 
the  extant  Ignatian  documents ;  fifthly,  to  what  extent 
interpolations  have  occurred  it  is  impossible  to  deter- 
mine. 

c.  General  Tone  of  the  Epistles.  The  tone  of  the  epis- 
tles is  excited  and  extravagant.  This  is  especially  the 
case  with  the  epistle  to  the  Romans.  The  style  is 
rhetorical  and  somewhat  artificial.  There  seems  to  be  a 
straining  after  effect.  They  are  taken  up  largely  with 
exhortations  to  the  churches  addressed  to  steadfastness, 
unity,  subjection  to  one  another,  to  the  presbyters,  over- 
seers, and  deacons.  The  epistle  to  the  Romans  con- 
sists of  a  flattering  salutation  to  the  church  (not  to  the 
bishop),  of  an  account  of  his  journey  under  guard  of  Roman 
soldiers,  of  rejoicing  in  his  prospective  martyrdom,  and 
of  an  urgent  request  that  the  Roman  Christians  may  do 
nothing  that  could  rob  him  of  the  opportunity  to  suffer 
for  Christ,  intimating  that  this  would  be  doing  him  the 
greatest  possible  injury.  He  is  the  "  wheat  of  God," 
and  wishes  to  be  ground  by  the  teeth  of  wild  beasts,  in 
order  that  he  may  "become  the  pure  bread  of  Christ." 
Not  as  Peter  and  Paul  does  he  instruct  them.  They 
were  apostles,  he  is  a  condemned  man.  They  were  free, 
he  is  even  until  now  a  slave  ;  but  if  he  suffers  he  will 
become  a  freeman  of  Jesus  Christ. 

d.  Date.  The  probable  date  of  the  martyrdom  of  Ig- 
natius, and  hence  of  the  original  Ignatian  epistles,  if 
there  were  such,  is  107  or  11;.  Trajan  was  in  Syria  at 
each  of  these  dates,  and  the  persecution  in  which  Igna- 
tius suffered  may  have  occurred  on  either  occasion. 

e.  The  ^(elation  of  the  Epistles  to  Episcopacy.  These 
epistles  have  formed  the  chief  bulwark  of  the  Romish 
church  for  its  doctrine  of  episcopacy.    In  this  interest 


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CHAP.  III.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        227 

the  epistles  have  been  interpolated  beyond  almost  any 
other  document  of  antiquity.  But  the  very  fact  that 
they  were  laid  hold  of  for  this  purpose  is  strong  evidence 
that  the  original  documents  had  at  least  something  of 
the  same  tendency.  Admitting  that  the  seven  Greek 
epistles  mentioned  by  Eusebius  are  genuine  (though  it 
is  highly  propable  that  they  are  interpolated  to  a  con- 
siderable extent),  we  may  say :  (a)  That  the  very  fact 
that  in  each  letter  Ignatius  should  have  felt  called  upon 
to  lay  so  much  stress  on  the  obedience  due  to  bishops  or 
overseers,  is  conclusive  evidence  that  such  subordination 
did  not  exist  in  the  churches.  We  have,  therefore,  the 
writer's  ideal  rather  than  a  record  of  historical  fact,  (ft) 
There  were  undoubtedly  at  this  time  elements  of  discord 
in  the  churches  addressed,  resulting  largely  from  the  in- 
fluence of  heretical  bodies.  The  churches  were  in  dan- 
ger of  being  rent  asunder.  Now,  Ignatius  looked  upon 
schism  as  the  greatest  evil.  He  saw  in  obedience  to  the 
bishops  a  means  of  preserving  unity.  Hence  the  fre- 
quent exhortations  to  obey  the  bishops,  and  to  do  nothing 
without  their  approval,  (c)  There  is  no  intimation  that 
at  this  time  the  word  **  bishop  "  meant  anything  more 
than  overseer  or  pastor  of  a  single  congregation,  and  the 
.hairman  of  the  Board  of  Elders.  Presbyters  are  nowhere 
in  the  epistles  exhorted  to  obey  the  bishops,  (d)  Ignatius 
wrote  to  churches  whose  bishops  he  knew  to  be  holy 
men.  He  probably  knew  that  these  men  were  far  su- 
perior in  point  of  intelligence  and  Christian  knowledge 
to  the  bulk  of  the  church-members,  such  superiority  in  re- 
ligious life  and  wisdom  having  been  the  ground  on  which 
bishops  were  chosen.  Why  should  not  Ignatius  have 
exhorted  the  brethren  to  look  upon  such  men  as  in  the 
place  of  Christ  ?  to  regard  them  as  representing  the  mind 
of  Christ  ?  (e)  Side  by  side  with  these  exhortations  to 
obedience  to  bishops  we  must  put  such  passages  as 
these :  **  Be  obedient  to  the  presbyters  "  (Eph.  20)  ; 
*'  Be  subject  to  the  presbytery  as  to  the  law  of  Jesus 
Christ  "  (Magnesians  2)  ;  "I  pray  that  he  (the  deacon 
Burrus)  may  abide  in  the  honor  of  you  and  of  the 
bishop  "  (Eph.  2)  ;  "  Reverence  one  another,  and  let  no 
one  look  upon  his  neighbor  according  to  the  flesh,"  etc. 
(Eph.  6)  ;  "  Be  ye  subject  to  the  bishop  and  one  to  aij.- 


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228  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.n 

Other"  (Eph.  13) ;  "  Let  all  reverence  the  deacons  as  a 
commandment  of  Jesus  Christ." 

{4)  Th$  Shiphird  of  Htnms, 

LITERATURE:  Text,  full  bibliography,  etc.,  in  Gebhardt,  Ha^ 
nack,  and  Zahn  :  text,  translation,  and  notes,  in  Lightfoot,  **  Apos- 
tolic Fathers  "  ;  Zahn,  ••  Dir  Hirt  dss  H$rmas  '^ ;  LIpsius.  art.  "  Hcr- 
mas,''  in  Schenkd's  ^* 'Btbil-Uxikon** ;  Bunsen,  *^  Hippolytus  and 
his  A^e,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  182,  siq, ;  Mossman,  '*  History  of  the  Early 
Christian  Church,''  p.  201,  ssq.;  Lightfoot,  ''Commentary  on 
Galatians.''  p.  324,  ssq*;  Sanday,  *'The  Gospels  in  the  Second 
Century,**  p.  2731  stq. 

This  is  probably  the  most  remarkable  production  of 
the  early  church.  Its  position  in  the  early  church  was 
somewhat  analogous  to  that  of  **  Pilgrim's  Progress  "  in 
modern  times.  It  was  soon  translated  into  Latin  and 
>Ethiopic.  It  was  read  in  many  churches,  and  was  re- 
garded as  second  only  to  the  canonical  Scriptures.  In 
fact  we  find  it  in  the  Codex  Sinaiticus  in  connection  with 
the  New  Testament. 

a.  Form  of  the  IVriting.  It  is  that  of  a  religious  alle- 
gory. The  work  consists  of  three  parts :  Visions,  Com- 
mands, and  Similitudes. 

b.  ^ate  and  tAuthority.  It  is  now  generally  agreed,  on 
the  authority  of  the  Muratorian  Fragment,  that  it  was 
written  by  Hermas,  a  brother  of  Pius,  a  pastor  of  the 
Roman  Church,  about  130-140.  Its  latest  possible  date 
is  fixed  by  the  absence  or  any  indication  of  the  agitation 
among  Roman  Christians,  caused  by  the  activity  of  Mar- 
cion.  The  false  teaching  referred  to  was  probably  that 
of  the  Gnostic  Cerdo,  possibly  the  earlier  stages  of  the 
Valentinian  propaganda.  The  author  was,  at  an  early 
date,  confounded  with  the  Hermas  mentioned  (Rom.  16 : 
14)  by  Paul. 

Irenaeus,  quoting  from  the  book,  begins :  *'  Well  then 
declared  the  Scripture,  which  says,"  etc. 

The  Muratorian  Fragment  (c.  200)  denies  its  right 
to  a  place  in  the  Canon,  but  implies  that  this  dignity  has 
been  claimed  for  it  by  some. 

Tertullian  and  the  Montanists  rejected  it  as  a  Christian 
manual  for  reasons  to  be  given  below. 

Clement  of  Alexandria  appeals  to  it  again  and  again  as 
an  inspired  book. 


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CHAP.  IIL]  LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        229 

Origen  thought  that  the  author  of  the  Shepherd  of 
Hermas  was  the  Hermas  of  Rom.  16  :  14,  and  it  seemed 
to  him  divinely  inspired. 

Eusebius  mentions  it  as  spoken  against  by  some,  but 
by  others  judged  most  necessary  for  those  who  are  in 
need  of  introductory  grounding  in  the  elements  of  the 
Christian  faith. 

Athanasius  speaks  of  it  as  a  most  useful  book,  and 
quotes  from  it  extensively. 

Harnack  defends  the  unity  of  the  book  against  Ewald, 
Zahn,  Caspari,  and  Hilgenfeld,  but  supposes  that  it  grew 
slowly  into  its  present  form  in  the  hands  of  the  author, 
the  germ  having  been  the  second  Vision. 

c.  Contents.  The  supposed  narrator  represents  him- 
self as  a  slave  sold  by  his  master  to  a  Roman  lady  named 
Rhoda.  Having  allowed  himself  to  entertain  an  impure 
desire  for  a  beautiful  woman  whom  he  chanced  to  see 
bathing  in  the  river,  and  being  penitent  for  his  sin,  a 
vision  was  vouchsafed  to  him  in  which  the  woman  whom 
he  had  desired  appeared  to  him,  rebuked  him  severely 
for  his  fault,  and  gave  him  much  wholesome  advice  re- 
garding the  Christian  life.  Later  an  older  woman  ap- 
pears to  him  and  freely  answers  all  the  questions  regard- 
ing the  Christian  life  that  he  feels  inclined  to  ask.  The 
five  Visions  are  followed  by  twelye  Commands,  and 
these  by  ten  Similitudes. 

A  detailed  summary  of  the  contents  would  require  more  space  than 
can  be  spared.  That  the  Christian  life  of  the  time,  and  especially  in 
Rome,  abounded  in  corruption  is  evident  from  the  great  variety  of 
transjgressors  that  are  specifically  rebuked.  Among  these  may  be 
mentioned  informers  and  traitors ;  blasphemers,  or  those  that  yield 
to  the  demands  of  persecutors  to  curse  Christ ;  renegades,  or  Uiose 
that  on  account  of  cowardice,  or  to  save  their  property,  fled  from  per- 
secution ;  hypocritical  pretenders ;  libidinous  people ;  teachers  of  in- 
iquity, who  nave  deserted  the  true  way  and  disseminate  false  doc- 
tnnes ;  friends  of  the  heathen ;  those  wno  are  hampered  by  the  world 
with  its  riches  and  pursuits ;  calumniators,  contentious  ones,  schis- 
matics; those  who  bear  grudges;  those  who,  though  they  have 
known  the  truth,  withdraw  from  association  with  the  saints ;  ambi- 
tious men  eager  for  honor ;  insincere,  lukewarm,  and  vacillating  peo- 
ple ;  those  who  have  submitted  themselves  to  Christian  teaching  and 
yet  refuse  to  be  baptized ;  false  prophets  who,  after  the  manner  of  the 
heathen,  prophesy  for  gain,  and  followers  of  such ;  presidents  Qiead- 
elders)  who  are  unjust,  contentious,  vain,  malicious,  or  negligent* 
and  deacons  who  appropriate  the  goods  entrusted  to  them.    On  tht 


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230  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  11 

other  hand,  those  who  practised  all  manner  of  Christian  virtues,  and 
exemplified  in  their  lives  all  Christian  graces,  are  frequently  referred 
to.^ 

d.  Theology  of  the  Shepherd.  As  regards  the  Godhead 
there  is  little  that  is  peculiar  in  this  writing,  the  views 
being  in  general  accordant  with  the  teachings  of  the  New 
Testament.*    The  peculiarities  of  teaching  appear : 

ifl)  In  the  representation  of  the  relation  between  bap- 
tism and  regeneration.  It  is  said  :  "  Whoever  with  his 
whole  heart  changes  his  mind  (or  repents),  and  purifits 
himself  from  all  iniquity,  and  adds  no  more  to  his  sin, 
will  receive  from  the  Lord  a  cure  for  all  his  former  sins." 
Again  :  "  The  elect  of  God  will  be  saved  through  faith.'' 
Yet  in  Commandment  4  :  3,  baptism  is  represented  as 
having  a  very  important  relation  to  salvation  :  "  We 
went  down  into  the  water  and  received  remission  from 
our  former  sins."  Again,  in  Similitude  9  :  16 :  "  Into  the 
water,  therefore,  they  descend  dead  and  arise  living." 
The  writer's  view,  then,  is  evidently  that  baptism  is  the 
culminating  act  in  the  process  of  regeneration.  Repent- 
ance and  faith  necessarily  precede,  but  it  is  only  in  con- 
nection with  the  baptismal  act  that  the  remission  of  sins 
really  occurs. 

ip)  In  the  view  expressed  as  to  the  pardonableness  of 
post-baptismal  sins.  In  Commandment  4  Hermas  repre- 
sents the  Shepherd  as  commanding  that,  if  a  man  have  a 
believing,  adulterous  wife,  and  she  repent,  he  shall  re- 
ceive her  back.  If  he  **  receive  her  not  back,  he  sinneth 
a  great  sin  ;  .  .  for  there  is  one  repentance  to  the  serv' 
ants  of  God."  Again,  Hermas  says  to  the  Shepherd: 
'*  I  have  heard  from  certain  teachers  that  other  repent- 
ance there  is  none,  save  when  we  went  down  into  the 
water  and  received  remission  of  our  former  sins."  And 
the  Shepherd  answers  :  **  Thou  hast  heard  well,  for  so  it 
is."  "  But  I  say  unto  thee,  that  if  after  that  great 
and  blessed  calling,  one  tempted  by  the  devil  sin,  he  has 
one  repentance."    It  appears,  therefore,  that  at  the  time 

1  See  "Gebhardt.  Harnack.  and  Zahn,"  Fasc.  III.,  p.  LXXIX. 

*  Cotivbeare  ( "  The  Key  of  Truth."  p.  LXXXIX.)  finds  in  the  Shepherd  Indica- 
tions or  AdoptionistChristology.  This  view  seems  to  be  supported  by  Similitude 
5  :  s«  But  Hennas  writes  not  polemically  against  a  pneumatic  Christology.  but  wftt 
primitive  simplicity  and  without  being  aware  that  his  statements  Involved  a  degra- 
dation of  the  Redeemer. 


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CHAP.  III.]  LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        23I 

of  the  writing  of  this  book,  there  were  already  to  be  dis- 
tinguished a  strict  and  a  lax  party,  the  one  denying  the 
possibility  of  the  forgiveness  of  post-baptismal  sins,  and 
the  other  erring  in  the  opposite  direction.  Hernias  at- 
tempts to  mediate  between  the  two,  guarding  against 
license  on  the  one  hand,  and  against  excessive  rigor  on 
the  other.  It  was  this  slight  concession  to  laxity  that 
led  Tertullian,  after  he  became  a  Montanist,  to  stigmatize 
this  writing  as  licentious. 

(c)  There  is  a  sentence  in  the  Shepherd  that  has  been 
understood  to  contains  the  germs  of  the  doctrine  of  pur- 
gatory. In  Vision  3  :  7,  a  completed  tower,  representing 
the  one  holy  church,  made  of  stones  beautifully  adjusted 
to  each  other,  and  which  have  passed  through  the  water, 
having  been  shown  to  Hermas,  he  sees  also  other  stones 
that  have  been  cast  aside  and  not  fitted  into  the  tower. 
He  asks  whether  there  is  no  repentance  for  these  so  that 
they  may  be  fitted  into  the  tower.  The  answer  is : 
"  That  there  is  room  for  repentance,  but  not  a  chance 
for  a  place  in  this  tower.  But  that  another  and  much  in- 
ferior place  they  shall  fit  into,  and  this  when  they  have 
been  tortured  and  have  fulfilled  the  days  of  their  sins," 
etc.  It  is  quite  possible,  however,  that  the  writer  had 
in  view  the  penal  sufferings  of  the  present  life. 

(d)  The  church  is  represented  as  presided  over  by  pres- 
byters, and  no  distinction  is  apparent  between  presbyters 
and  bishops.  The  unity  of  the  church  is  emphasized 
continually,  and  illustrated  by  such  images  as  the  tower 
made  up  of  many  stones  deftly  fitted  to  each  other. 

(e)  The  Shepherd  was  designed  wholly  for  edification. 
There  is  no  writing  of  this  period  that  throws  a  tithe  as 
much  light  on  the  Christian  life  and  thought  of  the  time 
as  does  this.  Scarcely  any  class  of  evil-doers  seems  to 
have  been  absent  from  the  writer's  mind,  and  all  receive 
their  share  of  reproof  and  exhortation.  The  condition  of 
Christian  life  here  represented  is  far  from  pure. 

(5)  Ths  EpistU  ofPolycarp  to  ike  Pkilippians, 

LITERATURE:  Texts,  etc.,  as  above;  Donaldson,  **  Historv  of 
Christian  Literature  and  Doctrine,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  i54,  sea, ;  Bunsen, 
"  Hippolvtus  and  His  Age,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  225,  s$q, ;  Lighttoot,  '*  Igna- 
tius'':  Kenan,  "'^Journal  d$s  Savants,^*  1874;  ''Supernatural  (^^ 
li^on/'  VoL  1.,  p.  274,  s#^.,  second  edition* 


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232  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER  11 

a.  ^Authenticity.  The  authenticity  of  this  document 
has  been  called  in  question,  but  without  sufficient  ground. 
Lightfoot  has  defended  it  most  ably  as  one  of  the  chief 
witnesses  of  the  Ignatian  epistles.  A  number  of  schol- 
ars who  regard  the  passage  about  the  Ignatian  epistles  as 
an  interpolation,  admit  the  substantial  genuineness  of  the 
epistle.  Polycarp  is  represented  by  Irenseus,  who  was 
with  him  much  in  his  early  and  Polycarp's  later  life,  as 
a  disciple  of  the  Apostle  John,  and  of  other  apostles. 
Irenseus  says  that  he  *'  distinctly  remembers  how  Poly- 
carp used  to  describe  his  intercourse  with  John  and 
with  the  rest  who  had  seen  the  Lord,  and  how  he  would 
relate  their  words.  And  whatsoever  things  he  had 
heard  from  them  about  the  Lord,  and  about  his  miracles, 
and  about  his  teachings,  Polycarp,  as  having  received 
them  from  eye-witnesses  of  the  life  of  the  Word,  would 
relate  altogether  in  accordance  with  the  Scriptures." 

Polycarp  is  therefore  one  of  the  most  important  of  the 
Christians  of  the  second  century.  He  learned  from  the 
apostles,  lovingly  treasured  up  in  his  memory,  and  fre- 
quently communicated  to  other,  the  things  that  he  had 
learned.  Irenseus  appropriated  these  teachings  in  the 
spirit  in  which  they  had  been  repeated,  and  himself  re- 
tained a  vivid  remembrance  of  them  until  his  death,  near 
the  close  of  the  second  century.  The  fact  that  he  was 
a  man  of  no  originality,  as  we  see  from  the  writing  un- 
der consideration,  makes  it  more  probable  that  he  did  not 
modify  the  things  he  heard  from  John,  etc.,  by  his  own 
individuality.  He  was  for  many  years  pastor  of  the 
church  of  Smyrna,  and  suffered  martyrdom  about  i$$  or 
I  $6. 

It  is  probable  that  the  epistle  to  the  Philippians  has 
suffered  some  corruption,  but  we  are  justified  in  regard- 
ing it  as  in  the  main  genuine.^ 

0.  Date  of  the  Epistle.    The  manner  in  which  the  mar- 
tyrdom and  epistles  of  Ignatius  are  mentioned,  if  they 
are  not  interpolations,  would  lead  us  to  fix  the  date  of  the 
epistle  as  shortly  subsequent  to  the  martyrdom  of  Ig 
natius,  i.  e.,  about  io8  or  ii6. 

>  Thert  U  •  beautiful  account  of  the  martsnrdom  of  Polycarp,  which  purports  to  be 
a  letter  written  by  the  church  of  Smvma  to  the  church  in  Phlloneliun  In  Phrygla 
It  was  certainty  written  not  long  after  the  event,  as  It  is  mentioned  by  lren««s. 


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CHAP.  III.]  LITBRATURB  OF  FIRST  THREB  CENTURIBS       233 

c.  Character  of  the  Epistle.  The  epistle  shows  scarcely 
any  originality,  but  consists  almost  entirely  of  direct  or 
indirect  quotations  from  the  Scriptures.  From  the  early 
date  to  which  it  must  be  assigned,  if  its  genuineness  is 
acknowledged,  it  is  especially  important  for  the  testimony 
that  it  furnishes*  to  the  still  earlier  date  and  use  in  the 
churches  of  most  of  the  New  Testament  books.  Espe- 
cially does  it  show  clearly  by  its  numerous  citations  from 
the  writings  of  Paul  the  futility  of  the  efforts  of  the 
Tubingen  school  to  establish  the  fact  of  an  antagonism 
in  the  early  church  between  the  Pauline  and  Johannean 
theology. 

d.  fheology  of  the  Epistle.  This  is  eminently  scrip- 
tural, almost  every  doctrinal  expression  being  in  the 
words  of  the  New  Testament.  Docetism  is  denounced, 
but  in  the  words  of  John  (i  John  4  :  3).  The  church  is 
represented  as  administered  by  presbyters  and  deacons, 
and  the  duties  of  these  are  pointed  out  in  New  Testament 
language.  It  is  remarkable  that  though  Polycarp  wrote 
after  Ignatius,  nothing  of  a  hierarchical  tendency  occurs 
in  his  writing. 

(6)  Ttachmg  of  ih$  Tuih$  tApostUs 

Literature  :  Editions  of  Bryennios,  Hamack,  HUgenfeld,  J. 
Rendel  Harris,  and  Schaff.  The  last  named  (third  edition.  1889)  Is 
the  most  complete.  It  contains  facsimiU  of  MS.,  text,  and  transla* 
tion,  full  bibliography.  Illustrative  documents,  and  discussion  of  all 
*     1.    Harris' 


points  involved.    Harris'  edition  gives  the  entire  text  in  facsimiU^ 
and  contains  valuable  prolegomena  and  notes. 

The  writing  entitled  **  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apos- 
tles" was  discovered  a  few  years  ago  by  Philotheos 
Bryennios,  Metropolitan  of  Nicodemia,  in  the  Jerusalem 
Monastery  of  Constantinople,  and  was  edited  by  him  in 
1883.  The  MS.  was  written  about  io;6,  and  contains, 
besides  the  Teaching,  Chrysostom's  Synopsis  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments,  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas,  the 
Epistles  of  Clement  of  Rome  (the  only  complete  copy 
known),  the  spurious  Epistle  of  Mary  of  Cassoboli  to 
Ignatius,  and  the  twelve  Pseudo-Ignatian  Epistles. 

This  ''  find  ''  of  Bryennios  was  hailed  as  one  of  the 
most  important  of  modern  times,  and  in  a  short  time  a 
^^brary  of  books  and  articles  had  been  published  about  it 


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234  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PERU 

Much  of  the  interest  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  docu- 
ment was  supposed  to  have  originated  near  the  close  of 
the  apostolic  age.  With  many  the  chapter  on  baptism 
was  the  center  of  interest.  Probably  no  other  event  of 
recent  times  has  done  so  much  to  quicl<en  popular  inter- 
est in  early  Christian  literature. 

a.  Date  of  Composition.  The  utmost  diversity  of 
opinion  as  to  the  date  of  the  Teaching  has  existed  since 
its  publication.  Most  students  have  assigned  dates  within 
the  period  A.  D.  70-165  :  Bryennios,  120-160  ;  Harnack, 
130-i:.  160;  Hilgenfeld,  latter  half  of  second  century; 
Farrar,  c,  100;  Lightfoot,  80-110;  Warfield,  c.  100 ; 
Schaff,  70-100.  The  "archaic  simplicity"  of  its  prac- 
tical directions  and  the  apparent  primitiveness  of  its 
church  order  are  the  chief  grounds  on  which  the  claim 
of  antiquity  rests.  The  relation  of  the  first  chapters  on 
the  "two  ways  "  to  a  similar  section  of  the  Epistle  of 
Barnabas,  has  had  much  to  do  with  the  opinions  of 
scholars.  Those  who  hold  that  Barnabas  borrowed  from 
the  Teaching  incline  to  an  early  date  for  the  latter ;  those 
who  suppose  the  writer  of  the  Teaching  to  have  been 
indebted  to  Barnabas  naturally  give  to  the  former  a  later 
date.  The  better  opinion  probably  is,  that  both  writers 
used  an  older  widely  circulated  document.  The  primi- 
tiveness of  the  church  order  is  not  inconsistent  with 
a  much  later  date  than  the  earliest  assigned,  if  we  sup- 
pose (which  was  probably  the  case)  that  it  was  prepared 
and  first  used  not  in  a  great  ecclesiastical  center,  where 
hierarchical  development  made  great  strides  during  the 
latter  part  of  the  second  century,  but  in  some  region  re- 
mote from  the  great  currents  of  church  life.  (Compare 
the  simplicity  and  primitiveness  of  the  Coptic  and  Ethiopic 
Apostolical  Constitutions,  which  no  doubt  assumed  their 
present  form  about  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century.) 
There  is  therefore  no  reason  for  assigning  the  Teaching  to 
an  earlier  date  than  the  latter  part  of  the  second  century. 

b.  Place  of  Composition.  Here  also  opinions  vary. 
Syria  and  Egypt  have  each  its  advocates.  The  weight 
of  argument  seems  to  be  in  favor  of  Egypt.  Most  of  the 
early  evidence  of  the  use  of  the  document  is  found  in 
Egyptian  writers.  Its  similarity  to  the  Epistle  of  Barna^* 
bas,  to  the  Egyptian  Ecclesiastical  Canons  of  the  Holy 


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CHAP.  III.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES       ^35 

Apostles,  and  to  the  Apostolic  Constitutions,  favors  this 
view.  The  circumstances  supposed  in  the  chapter  on 
baptism  seem  to  accord  better  with  what  we  know  of 
Egypt  than  with  what  we  know  of  Syria.  The  mention 
of  mountains  in  the  eucharistic  prayer  (Chap.  IX.)  has 
been  adduced  in  favor  of  Syria.  In  any  case,  the  writing 
was  prepared  by  a  Jewish  Christian  for  use  in  a  Jewish 
Christian  community. 

c.  Authenticity.  It  is  doubtful  whether  the  writer  in- 
tended to  represent  the  Teaching  as  composed  by  the 
twelve  apostles.  He  may  have  meant  only  to  claim  for 
his  compilation  conformity  with  apostolic  teaching.  Few 
early  Christian  writings  are  so  poorly  attested.  Eusebius 
(Cn  325)  mentions  a  writing  called  **  Teachings  of  the 
Twelve  Apostles  "  as  being  among  spurious  writings 
Athanasius  (fourth  century)  mentions  a  writing  under 
this  name  as  proper  reading  for  catechumens.  There  is 
no  earlier  mention  of  the  Teaching.  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria (c.  202)  quotes  a  sentence  that  is  found  in  the 
Teaching ;  but  both  writers  may  have  derived  it  from 
some  earlier  document.  Little  importance  can  be  at- 
tached to  slight  coincidences  in  expression  with  passages 
in  the  Teaching  found  in  other  ante-Nicene  writers. 
There  is  no  certainty  that  the  document  we  possess  is 
identical  with  that  mentioned  by  Eusebius  and  Athana- 
sius, or  that  the  latter  was  as  ancient  as  the  second  cen- 
tury. 

d.  Sources  of  the  Teaching.  There  are  a  few  quota- 
tions from  the  Old  Testament,  and  several  allusions  to 
Old  Testament  and  apocryphal  books.  The  New  Testa- 
ment books  are  not  referred  to  by  name,  but  most  of  the 
gospel  precepts  that  are  quoted  are  to  be  found  in  Mat- 
thew's Gospel.  A  few  sentences  correspond  with  pas- 
sages in  Luke's  Gospel.  Whether  the  writer  had  before 
him  these  two  Gospels,  or  whether  he  had  a  combination 
Gospel,  we  cannot  say.  A  number  of  coincidences  have 
been  pointed  out  that  would  seem  to  indicate  some 
knowledge  of  Johannean  teaching.  There  is  no  direct 
reference  to  Paul  or  his  Epistles,  though  there  are  pas- 
sages that  may  have  been  suggested  by  Pauline  writings. 
Coincidences  with  other  New  Testament  writings  are 
scarcely  definite  enough  to  warrant  the  inference  that  the 


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236  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  II 

writer  was  acquainted  with  them.  Schaff  has  made  a 
detailed  study  of  the  seeming  quotations  from  and  allu- 
sions to  the  Old  and  New  Testament  writings^  and  has 
subjoined  a  tabulated  view. 

e.  station  of  the  Teaching  to  Other  ^Documents. 
Whether  the  Teaching  is  an  original  work  or  a  compila- 
tion it  is  not  easy  to  decide.  The  latter  is  the  more 
probable  view.  The  material  of  the  first  six  chapters, 
consisting  of  the  **two  ways,"  had  great  currency 
among  the  ancient  churches.  It  is  found  in  somewhat 
fuller  form  in  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas,  and  with  still 
greater  amplification  m  the  Ecclesiastical  Canons  of  the 
Holy  Apostles,  an  Egyptian  document  (preserved  in 
Greek,  Coptic,  and  Ethiopic,  probably  written  in  the 
third  century),  and  in  the  Apostolical  Constitutions  (fourth 
century),  which  purport  to  have  been  written  by  Clem- 
ent of  Rome.  In  the  Ecclesiastical  Canons  the  moral 
precepts  are  distributed  among  the  apostles.  It  is  not 
likely  that  the  Teaching  was  derived  from  either  of  these 
documents,  and  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  either  of 
these  was  derived  from  the  Teaching. 

/.  Contents.  The  first  six  chapters  consist  of  moral 
precepts,  adapted  to  purposes  of  catechetical  instruction. 
Chap.  VII.  gives  directions  as  to  baptism.  Trine  immer- 
sion, after  catechetical  instruction,  fastin;;,  and  prayer,  is 
^  prescribed.  In  case  of  absolute  lack  of  any  kl"^  ^^ 
^^  water,  affusion  is^allowed.  Chap.  VIII.  gives  directions 
for  fasting  and"  prayer,  Wednesdays  and  Fridays  being 
the  days  prescribed  for  fasting,  and  the  prescribed  form 
of  prayer  being  the  Lord's  Prayer,  to  be  used  thrice 
each  day.  Chap.  IX.  gives  directions,  with  forms  of 
prayer,  for  the  celebration  of  the  eucharist.  This  ordi- 
nance is  restricted  to  baptized  believers.  Chap.  X.  gives 
a  form  of  prayer  to  follow  communion.  Chap.  XI.  to 
XIII.  treat  of  apostles  and  prophets,  their  testing  and 
treatment.  The  utmost  caution  is  to  be  used  in  receiv- 
ing strangers  claiming  to  be  apostles  and  prophets ;  but 
every  true  prophet  is  worthy  of  his  food.  uhap.  XIV. 
treats  of  the  Lord's  Day  as  the  time  of  the  Christian 
sacrifice.  According  to  Chap.  XV.,  bishops  and  deacons 
are  to  be  elected  by  the  church,  and  are  to  be  held  in 
honor  along  with  prophets  and  teachers.    The  book 


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CHAP.  III.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        237 

closes  (Chap.  XVI.)  with  an  exhortation  to  watchfulness 
in  view  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord. 

(7)  FragmnUs. 

a.  Papias  of  Hierapolis,  a  disciple  of  John,  who  suf- 
fered martyrdom  about  155,  collected  much  information 
about  the  apostolic  age,  and  wrote  an  **  Explanation  of 
the  Lord's  Discourses."  Fragments  have  been  pre- 
served by  Irenseus  and  Eusebius.  These  are  of  value 
chiefly  in  relation  to  the  New  Testament  Canon. 

b.  The  Epistle  to  Diognetus  is  a  beautiful  exposition  of 
the  Christian  faith  by  an  unknown  author,  and  may  have 
been  written  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century. 

c.  To  Sixtus  (the  sixth  pastor  of  the  Roman  church, 
1 19-128)  is  ascribed  a  remarkable  collection  of  four 
hundred  and  thirty  •' Sentences"  or  aphorisms.  There 
is  much  doubt,  however,  as  to  the  authorship  of  these 
''Sentences." 

rf.  Of  the  large  body  of  New  Testament  Apocrypha 
and  Christian  Sibylline  books  that  have  been  preserved, 
a  considerable  number,  doubtless,  fail  within  the  age  of 
the  Apostolic  Fathers. 

III.  THE  APOLOGETICAL  PERIOD. 

LrrERATURE:  Otto,  *^  Corpus  Apologiianm  Christia$wnm  SofciUi 
Stamdi,**  This  edition  contains  critical  texts  of  all  the  extant  docu- 
ments, together  with  full  prolegomena,  critical,  exegetical,  and  his- 
torical notes,  Latin  translation,  etc. ;  English  translation  in  the 
••Ante-Niccnc  Fathers." 

By  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Hadrian,  Christianity  had 
attained  to  considerable  importance,  and  systematic  ef- 
forts for  the  securing  of  its  rights  began  to  be  made.  It 
came  to  be  felt  that  patient  endurance  might  be  carried 
to  an  extreme,  that  it  was  better  to  live  and  labor  than 
to  suifer  martyrdom.  The  apologists  are  Quadratus, 
Aristides,  Justin,  Tatian,  Athenagoras,  Theophilus,  Her- 
mias,  and  Melito.  Of  Quadratus  and  Melito  we  have 
only  fragments. 

I.  General  Observations. 

(I)  The  earlier  Christian  writers  show  little  culture  or 
intellectual  power.    Now  we  see  men  trained  in  the  pM« 


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238  A  JWANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.R 

losophy  of  the  time  bringing  to  the  defense  of  the  gospel 
all  of  their  ability  and  culture.  Such  men,  contributed 
greatly  toward  making  Christianity  respectable,  toward 
stimulating  Christian  thought,  and  toward  calling  the  at- 
tention of  the  educated  classes  to  Christianity. 

(2)  The  apologies  were  written,  not  so  much  with  a 
view  to  inducing  those  addressed  to  accept  Christianity, 
as  to  secure  for  Christians  the  right  to  exist. 

(3)  The  most  important  of  these  were  addressed  to 
emperors,  viz :  to  Antoninus  Pius  and  Marcus  Aurelius. 
This  fact  is  in  favor  of  the  view  that  the  persecution  of 
Christians  was  not  mainly  the  result  of  imperial  edicts, 
but  of  popular  prejudice  and  hatred. 

(4)  The  charges  against  which  they  defend  Christian- 
ity are  three :  Atheism,  licentiousness,  and  cannibalism. 

a.  Atheism  has  always  been  regarded  by  the  populace 
as  one  of  the  greatest  of  enormities.  The  Christians 
incurred  this  charge  by  their  rejection  of  the  pagan  gods, 
by  their  refusal  to  sacrifice,  and  by  their  disuse  of  images. 
Pagans  could  not  understand  how  any  one  could  really 
believe  in  a  god  without  these  accessories.  The  apolo- 
gists refute  this  notion  by  setting  forth  clearly  the  Chris- 
tian idea  of  God,  as  a  Spirit  to  be  worshiped  only  spir- 
itually. They  show  that  their  worship  of  God  is  far 
more  real  than  the  idol  worship ;  nay,  that  the  gods  of 
the  pagans  are,  according  to  their  own  representations, 
weak  and  contemptible,  given  to  all  sorts  of  human 
passions. 

b.  The  charge  of  licentiousness  arose  doubtless  from 
the  fact  that  Christians  frequently  met  in  secret  places 
at  night,  and  that  they  manifested  great  affection  one  for 
another.  The  pagans  were  unable  to  understand  what 
other  motive  than  licentiousness  they  could  have  for  such 
meetings.  The  apologists  in  defense  point  out  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine  in  regard  to  chastity,  which  makes  even  a 
licentious  thought  sin. 

c.  Whether  the  charge  of  cannibalism  arose  out  of 
pure  malice,  or  from  a  misunderstanding  of  the  state- 
ments of  Christians  about  eating  the  body  and  drinking 
the  blood  of  Christ,  it  is  impossible  to  determine.  The 
apologists  show  that  the  Christian  doctrine  in  regard  to 
the  deadly  sin  of  murder  is  entirely  antagonistic  to  the 


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CHAP.  111.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        239 

murdering  of  infants.  Nay,  Christians  will  not  even 
allow  the  exposure  of  children  (a  thing  common  among 
the  pagans).  Besides,  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the 
resurrection  would  prevent  Christians  from  eating  human 
flesh. 

(5)  They  seek  to  show  that  Christianity  is  the  oldest 
religion  in  the  world,  and  not,  as  their  enemies  main- 
tained, a  thing  of  recent  origin.  Justin,  e.  g.,  maintains 
that  Moses  wrote  the  Pentateuch  long  before  the  Trojan 
war,  and  hence  farther  back  than  the  Greeks  could  trace 
their  history.  Christianity  is  simply  a  fulfillment  of  the 
prophecies  and  types  of  the  Old  Testament.  It  is  main- 
tained that  all  that  is  pure  and  noble  in  Greek  lite^'ature 
was  stolen  from  the  Old  Testamen:;  that  Socrates  and 
Plato,  e.g.,  derived  their  'deas  of  God  from  Moses.  The 
Sibyl  is  quoteJ  as  prophecy. 

(6)  The  apologists  stake  everything  on  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. Christ  came  to  fulfill  Old  Testament  prophecy, 
and  to  impress  Old  Testament  teachings  on  men's  minds, 
but  he  taught  noth-ng  new.  To  make  these  things  ap- 
pear, the  allegorical  method  of  interpretation  is  freely 
employed. 

(7)  The  main  evidence  for  Christianity,  therefore,  is 
prophecy.  Miracles  might  be  wrought  by  demons,  but  a 
prediction  can  come  from  God  alone.  Much  effort  is 
made  to  show  definite  fulfillment  of  prophecies. 

(8)  The  purity  of  Christ's  life  and  teachings,  and  the 
marvelous  transforming  power  of  Christianity  are  con- 
stantly and  most  impressively  set  forth. 

2.  Individual  Writers. 

The  field  now  becomes  so  broad  that  we  shall  be 
obliged  to  examine  it  by  specimens.  We  select  Aristides 
as  the  earliest  apologist  whose  writings  are  extant,  and 
Justin  as  the  ablest  and  most  influential. 

(/)  Aristid4S. 

LrrERATURE :  Harris  and  Robinson,"  The  Apology  of  Aristides," 
1891 ;  in  Vol.  IX..  p.  257,  w.,  of  the  "  Ante-Nicenc  Fathers  "  New 
York,  1896,  Kay  has  published  translations  of  the  Greek  and  Syriac 
texts  in  parallel  columns,  with  introduction  and  notes ;  Egli,  '^Z#s^ 
sckriftf.  IVisstHsch.  Thiol.^^  Siit.qg,sM. :  Hilgenfeld,  ibsd.,  S#d.  103, 
f#g.;  MacDonald,  "  Indian  Ev.  Rev./'  January,  1892,  p.  279,  siq.; 


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240  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.U 

Harnack,  in  "  Thsol.  LHUratur^nttrng,**  1891,  Snt.  301,  u^.,  and  52; 
s/j..  in  Herzog-Haucic's  '^  Rtal-En^cklopadu,'^  second  edition,  'Bd. 
XVIIm  SiiU  675,  wj.,  and  in  "  G$sch,  I  Alichr.  L«r./*  Bd.  I.,  5«r. 
96,  sMf.,  'Bd,  11.,  5#f^  271,  stq.;  Seeberg,  in  ^^ZahtCs  Farsehmgtn^*^ 
'Bd.  v.,  Siii,  253,  uq.^  and  317 ;  Henneclce,  *'  7>x<#  mk/  UfO^suck* 
Httgm,'*  'Bd.  IV.,  TAWZ  3. 

^.  Recovery  of  the  Apology.  Eusebius  *  mentions  Aris- 
tides  as  *•  a  believer  earnestly  devoted  to  our  religion, 
who  left  an  apology  for  the  faith  addressed  to  Hadrian." 
This  document  was  until  recently  supposed  to  be  irre- 
coverably lost.  In  1878  a  fragment,  inscribed  '*  Aristides, 
the  Philosopher  of  Athens,"  was  discovered  and  published 
by  the  Mechitarist  monks  of  Venice,  in  an  Armenian  ver- 
sion. The  materials  available  for  forming  a  judgment  as 
to  its  authenticity  were  insufficient,  but  most  critics 
(Harnack  included)  pronounced  in  its  favor.  In  1889, 
Prof.  J.  Rendel  Harris  discovered  a  Syriac  version  In  the 
convent  of  St.  Catharine,  on  Mount  Sinai,  which  he 
edited  with  prolegomena,  translation,  and  notes,  in  1891. 
Not  long  afterward  Mr.  J.  A.  Robinson,  Harris'  collabo- 
rator, discovered  that  the  defense  of  Christianity  con- 
tained in  a  religious  novel  by  John  of  Damascus  (died  c. 
754),  entitled  *'  Life  of  Barlaam  and  Josaphat,"  consti- 
tuted the  Greek  text  in  a  practically  complete  form.  The 
Syriac  text  is  far  longer  than  the  Greek  as  found  in 
**  Barlaam  and  Josaphat,"  and  bears  evidence  of  deliber- 
ate expansion.  It  is  probable  that  the  Greek  text  was 
somewhat  condensed  for  insertion  in  the  story.  It  is  a 
remarkable  fact  that  the  main  part  of  the  Greek  story  in 
which  the  Apology  of  Aristides  is  embedded  is  taken 
from  a  Buddhist  story  entitled  "Lalita  Vistara,"  and  that 
•*  Josaphat  "  is  an  adaptation  of  Gautama  (Buddha)  who 
figures  in  the  original  story.  It  is  equally  remarkable 
that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  long  ago  canonized  the 
hero  of  the  story  as  *'  St.  Jehosaphat." 

b.  Date.  According  to  the  Syriac  version  the  Apol- 
ogy was  addressed  not  to  Hadrian,  as  Eusebius  supposed, 
but  to  Antoninus  Pius.  If  the  Syriac  version  is  correct, 
the  date  of  the  writing  could  not  have  been  earlier  than 
138,  and  it  could  not  well  have  been  written  later  than 
147.    Kay  is  inclined  to  credit  Eusebius  as  against  the 

"Church  History."  Bk.  IV., Chap.  III.  *"^ 


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CHAP.  III.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES       241 

Syriac  version,  and  to  date  the  document  about  125.  In 
any  case,  it  is  probably  the  earliest  extant  post-apostolic 
defense  of  the  Christian  religion.  The  only  known  pre- 
decessor in  this  branch  of  literature  is  Quadratus,  whose 
writing  is  lost. 

c.  Character  of  the  Apology.  It  is  largely  occupied 
with  an  exposition  of  the  Christian  idea  of  God  and  of 
Christ,  and  of  the  Christian  plan  of  salvation,  by  way  of 
comparison  with  heathen  religions.  The  author  displays 
a  remarkable  acquaintance,  not  only  with  Greek  and 
Roman  philosophy  and  religion,  but  also  with  the  Egyp- 
tian, Persian,  and  possibly  with  the  Indian  systems. 
The  writer  sets  forth  the  characters  of  the  heathen 
deities  in  a  repulsive  light,  and  the  apology  comes  near 
being  a  polemic  ;  but  the  writing  is  conciliatory  in  spirit, 
and  might  have  been  expected  to  make  a  favorable  im- 
pression on  an  emperor  who  had  little  regard  for  the  cur- 
rent polytheism.  No  nobler  defense  of  Christianity  was 
ever  written.  It  is  possible  that  it  had  something  to  do 
with  the  comparatively  favorable  attitude  of  Antoninus 
toward  Christians. 

(2)  Justin  (Martyr. 

LITERATURE:  See  in  addition  to  literature  given  above,  Gilder- 
sleeve's  excellent  edition  of  '*  Justin's  Apologies^';  Semisch.  ^*J«stm 
dtr  (Martyr.^^  (also  English  translation  of  same) :  Baur,  ''Dw  dni 
irsi,  Jakrh.^^*  passim;  Rltschl,  ** Altkath,  Kirch$^^  passim;  Bome- 
mann,  '*  Das  Taufspibold.  Jusims  Martyr.^**  in  '*  ZiHsckr.  f.  Ktrckm- 
r#sdk./'  Bd.  III.,  Siit.  i ;  Weizsacker.  *^Dii  ThtoL  d.  Justin  M'artj^.," 
in  ^'Jakrimchirfur  diutscb$  Th$ologUr  1S67,  Siit.  60,  uq. ;  Aub^,  *'5. 
Justin,  PkOos,  it  OAartyrr  187$ ;  Enffelhardt,  "  Das  Ckristsutkum 
Justms  dis  (Afartyr,^^^  1878 ;  encyclopedia  articles  on  **  Justin." 

a.  Shetch  of  Justin.  The  quasi-autobiographical  de- 
tails given  in  the  dialogue  with  Trypho  are  generally 
taken  to  be  substantially  accurate.  According  to  this 
account  he  was  a  Samaritan  by  birth,  saw  in  his  youth  a 
good  deal  of  persecution  of  Christians,  and  admired,  the 
endurance  they  displayed.  He  seems  to  have  been  pos- 
sessed of  ample  means,  and  to  have  enjoyed  excellent 
educational  advantages.  He  studied  for  a  while  with  a 
Stoic,  hoping  to  find  rest  for  his  troubled  soul.  But  find- 
ing himself  growing  none  the  wiser  with  regard  to  God, 
he  went  to  a  Peripatetic,  a  sharp  fellow  in  his  own  eyes. 


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242  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.n. 

Soon  disgusted  with  him,  he  betook  himself  to  a  cele- 
brated Pythagorean,  who  insisted  that  he  must  learn 
music,  astronomy,  and  geometry,  as  a  necessary  prepara- 
tion for  philosophical  studies.  Greatly  troubled  on  ac- 
count of  this  rebuff,  he  went  to  an  intelligent  Platonist, 
from  whom  he  learned  the  Platonic  philosophy,  and  for  a 
time  he  was  highly  elated  with  his  progress. 

About  this  time,  while  walking  near  the  seashore,  he 
fell  in  with  an  aged  Christian,  with  whom  he  conversed 
freely,  and  by  whom  he  was  convinced  of  the  truth  of 
Christianity.  After  his  conversion  we  know  very  little 
of  Justin's  life.  He  continued  to  wear  his  philosopher's 
robe,  while  as  an  evangelist  he  traveled  from  place  to 
place,  seeking  to  win  men  to  the  gospel.  He  seems  fre- 
quently to  have  sought  conferences  with  men  of  educa- 
tion, and  to  have  tried  to  convince  them  of  the  truth 
of  Christianity.  He  met  with  violent  opposition  from  the 
philosophers  about  the  court  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  his 
martyrdom  (c.  165)  was  probably  due  to  their  animosity. 

b.  First  Apology  of  Justin.  This  was  addressed  to  the 
Fmperor  Antoninus  Pius  and  his  adopted  son,  Marcus  Au- 
tef'us.  The  writer  gives  the  time  that  has  elapsed  since 
the  birth  of  the  Christ  as  one  hundred  and  fifty  years.* 
Other  internal  and  external  evidences  are  favorable  to 
this  date  (150),  or  a  few  years  later.  The  year  138  or 
139,  that  has  sometimes  been  insisted  upon,  seems  impos- 
sible, for  Marcus  Aurelius  addressed  as  a  '*  philosopher," 
was  still  a  youth,  and  Lucjus  (Commodus  ?),  also  ad- 
dressed as  son  of  a  Caesar,  was  only  eight  or  nine  years 
old.  It  is  written  with  care,  and  the  emperor  is  ad- 
dressed most  courteously.  The  Apology  is  naturally 
divided  into  three  parts.  In  part  first  he  shows  that 
Christians  ought  not  to  be  condemned  without  a  fair 
hearing,  and  that  they  are  innocent  of  all  crime.  Fn 
part  second  he  gives  the  arguments  for  the  truth  of  the 
Christian  religion.  In  part  third  he  describes  the  wor- 
ship of  the  Christians. 

Part  I.  After  the  address,  Justin  claims  for  Christians 
the  privilege  of  all  defendants.  It  is  unjust  and  demoni- 
acal to  condemn  Christians  unheard  for  the  mere  name's 

1  **  FIrtI  Apology/*  Chap.  44 


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CHAP,  ni.]  LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES       24} 

sake.  Christians  are  no  atheists.  They  worship  God 
the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost.  If  some 
Christians  are  convicted  of  crime,  let  them  suffer  as  in- 
dividuals. But  the  fact  that  Christians  prefer  death  to 
falsehood  proves  their  innocence.  Christians  are  not  to 
be  blamed  for  refusing  to  worship  images — an  absurd 
worship — nor  for  believing  that  God,  the  Creator  of  all 
things,  does  not  desire  gifts.  Again,  the  empire  has 
nothing  to  fear  from  Christianity ;  Christ's  kingdom  is 
not  of  this  world.  The  empire  has  no  better  subjects 
than  the  Christians. 

Justin  then  points  to  the  wonderful  changes  in  the 
character  of  men  wrought  by  Christianity;  the  strict 
obse  'ance  of  chastity,  of  love  for  all,  of  charity  to  the 
poor,  of  patience,  of  avoidance  of  swearing,  of  obedience 
to  rulers,  and  of  payment  of  tribute.  If  such  subjects 
are  to  be  despised,  the  emperors  are  in  danger  of  future 
judgment.  A  resurrection  of  the  body,  which  such 
judgment  involves,  is  no  more  difficult  for  God  than  cre- 
ation, and  there  is  not  half  so  much  absurdity  about  the 
mysteries  of  Christianity  as  about  those  of  paganism. 

Part  II.  Justin  undertakes  to  prove  three  things :  (i) 
That  truth  is  taught  by  Christianity  alone  ;  (2)  that  the 
Son  of  God  was  truly  incarnate  ;  (3)  that  the  fables  oi 
paganism  were  invented  by  demons  to  discredit  the  ad 
vent  of  Christ,  and  make  that  appear  a  fable  likewise 
The  incarnation  of  Christ  is  proved  from  prophecy,  and 
Justin  lays  down  rules  for  the  interpretation  ot  prophecy 
Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Christ's  death  and  suffer- 
ings were  predicted,  man's  will  is  free.  Those  that  went 
astray  before  the  incarnation  of  the  Logos  are  responsi- 
ble, for  the  seeds  of  the  Logos  were  in  all  (Chap.  46). 
The  fables  concerning  Zeus  were  invented  by  demons, 
wtth  a  view  to  throwing  discredit  on  the  coming  of  the 
Son  of  God.  That  Christ  was  to  come  they  had  learned 
from  the  prophets  ;  but  the  demons  did  not  understand, 
and  hence  were  not  able  to  imitate,  the  cross.  Justin 
enumerates  many  symbols  of  the  cross  (Chap.  55). 
The  demons  still  mislead  men  in  the  persons  of  such 
magicians  as  Simon,  Menander,  and  Marcion,  and  cause 
the  persecution  of  the  Christians. 

Part  IIL    Justin  here  shows  how  the  Christians  con- 


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244  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IL 

secrate  themselves  to  God  in  baptism,  celebrate  the 
Lord's  Supper,  etc. 

c.  The  Dialogue  with  Trypho  the  Jew.  This  production 
has  the  form  of  a  Socratic  dialogue,  extending  through 
some  days,  between  Justin  and  Trypho  with  his  six  com- 
panions. The  dialogue  may  be  divided  into  three  parts. 
First :  Justin  refutes  the  opinion  of  the  Jews  concerning 
the  law.  Secondly:  He  shows  that  the  true  Son  was 
begotten  by  God,  became  incarnate,  and  was  crucified 
for  our  sake.  Thirdly :  He  maintains  that  the  calling  of 
the  Gentiles  and  the  constitution  of  the  church  by  Christ 
were  predicted  and  prefigured  long  ago.  This  extended 
writing  is  of  great  importance  as  showing  the  attitude  of 
Jews  and  Christians  toward  each  other  about  the  middle 
of  the  second  century. 

d.  Theology  of  Justin,  (a)  God  the  Father  Justin  seems 
to  have  regarded,  with  almost  Gnostic  absolutism,  as  ab- 
sent in  relation  to  creation  and  Providence.  "  He  remains 
in  the  super-celestial  regions — never  appears  or  speaks 
to  any  one  by  means  of  himself."*  *'^lo  one  that  has 
but  a  small  particle  of  sense  would  dare  to  say  that  the 
Father,  leaving  all  things  above  heaven,  had  appeared  in  a 
little  portion  of  the  earth." '  Thus,  the  omnipresence  of 
God  seems  to  have  been  lost  sight  of. 

(b)  Christ,  with  Justin,  is  the  Son  of  God.  •'  As  a  be- 
ginning before  all  creatures,  God  begat  a  certain  rational 
power  from  himself,  who  is  also  called  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
'Glory  of  the  Lord,'  and  sometimes  'Wisdom,'  and 
sometimes  *  God,'  and  sometimes '  Lord,'  and  *  Logos.'  "• 
Through  Christ  all  things  were  made,  and  through  him 
all  things  are  ordered.  Justin  makes  no  distinction  be- 
tween the  divine  and  the  human  in  Christ. 

(c)  The  Holy  Spirit.  According  to  Justin,  the  chief  work 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  the  inspiration  of  the  prophets. 

(d)  The  IVUl.  Justin's  doctrine  of  free  will  would 
probably  have  been  regarded  at  a  later  time  as  Pelagian. 
The  freedom  of  the  human  will  is  not  affected  by  pro- 

Ehecy,  for  prophecy  is  simply  a  result  of  God's  fore- 
nowledge  of  what  would  be.*    Every  man  has  the 
power  of  choosing  good  or  evil.    Repentance  or  change 

>  "  Dial,  with  Tr.."  Chap.  96.        *  "  DIaL."  Chai>.  60.       •  "  Dial./'  Chap.  <>. 
«  ^'  First  Apolosy."  Chap.  64. 

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CHAP.  111.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        24S 

of  mind  is  an  act  of  man's  free  will,  by  which  he  turns 
from  evil  to  good.  When  a  man  changes  his  mind  toward 
Gody  God  at  once  pardons  all  his  sins/  Christ's  work 
in  regard  to  man's  salvation  was,  therefore,  not  to  satisfy 
the  Divine  justice,  but  by  enlightening  men's  minds  to 
turn  them  from  the  worship  of  demons  unto  God,  and 
as  a  sufferer,  to  go  through  all  the  trials  of  men,  over- 
come  them,  and  lead  men  to  the  same  victory. 

(e)  The  Church,  as  represented  by  Justin,  consists  of 
believers  only.  All  the  members  are  priests,  and  the 
sacrifices  that  these  priests  make  are  thanksgivings 
poured  out  over  the  cup  and  bread.  The  only  officers 
mentioned  are  deacons  and  presidents.  Baptism  is  ad- 
ministered only  to  believers,  after  fasting  and  prayer. 
Like  Barnabas  and  Hermas,  Justin  seems  to  have  re- 
garded baptism  as  the  culmination  of  the  process  of  re- 
generation, in  which  remission  of  sins  actually  takes 
place.  Christians  meet  together  every  Sunday.  Some 
one  reads  as  long  as  there  is  time  from  the  writings  of 
the  apostles  or  prophets.  Then  the  president  instructs 
or  exhorts  to  the  imitation  of  these  goo(j  things.  Then 
all  rise  together  and  pray.  After  this,  bread  and  wine 
mixed  with  water  are  brought.  The  president  gives 
thanks,  the  people  saying  '  Amen.'  Then  there  is  a  dis- 
tribution to  each  member  present,  and  a  part  is  sent  to 
the  sick.  A  collection  for  the  poor  follows.  Justin  gives 
us  the  most  detailed  and  lifelike  view  of  the  ordinances 
and  worship  of  the  early  Christians  that  we  have. 

The  so-called  '*  Second  Apology  "  of  Justin  has  been  proved  by 
BoU,  Zahn,  Hamack,  Veit,  it  al.^  to  be  no  Independent  work,  but  a 
sort  of  appendix  to  the  Apology  proper.  Justin  had  already  written 
a  somewnat  elaborate  ''Syntagma,"  against  the  Gnostic  heresies, 
which  has  perished,  but  the  substance  of  which  was  probably  in- 
corporated in  the  works  of  Irensus  and  Hippolytus. 

(j)  Othtr  tApologisis, 

a.  Tatian.  The  Apology  of  Tatian,  or  Oration  to 
the  Greeks  (c.  172),  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable, 
though  not  one  of  the  most  important,  of  the  apologies. 
Tatian  was  brought  up  in  heathenism,  was  a  sophist  or 
rhetorician,  and  was  therefoire  skilled  in  argumentation. 


1  '*  Dial.."  Chap.  4S. 


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246  A  JWANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.U 

His  Apology  Is  one  of  the  most  denunciatory  of  all  the 
apologies  of  this  time.  In  fact,  it  is  little  more  than  a 
tirade  against  paganism.  Every  pagan  practice  and  be- 
lief is  held  up  to  ridicule  with  great  acuteness  and  almost 
unrivaled  sarcasm.  The  effect  of  such  a  writing  could 
hardly  have  been  favorable  to  the  Christians.  His  classical 
references  and  quotations  are  more  numerous  than  those 
of  any  early  Christian  writer  except  Clement  of  Alexan* 
dria.  After  the  martyrdom  of  Justin,  who  seems  to 
have  helpfully  influenced  him,  he  adopted  Gnostic  views, 
repudiating  marriage  as  sinful,  rejecting  the  Old  Testa- 
ment as  the  revelation  not  of  the  true  God,  but  of  the 
Demiurge,  etc. 

ft.  Athenagoras.  Next  to  Justin  Martyr  may  be 
ranked  Athenagoras,  the  Athenian  philosopher,  who  em- 
braced Christianity  as  a  result  of  an  examination  of  the 
Scriptures,  with  a  view  to  their  refutation,  and  who  wrote 
an  apology  for  the  Christians  to  Marcus  Aurelius  and 
his  son  Commodus  (c.  177).  The  Apology  is  written  in 
a  rhetorical  style,  abounds  in  quotations  from  the  Greek 
classics,  and  is  ^ceedingly  conciliatory  in  tone,  verging 
upon  flattery.  The  arguments  employed  and  the  char- 
acter of  the  theology  are  not  very  different  from  those 
of  Justin.  In  some  respects  this  is  one  of  the  best  and 
most  admirable  of  all  the  Christian  apologies  of  this  age. 

c.  Theophilus.  The  next  in  importance,  perhaps,  is 
Theophilus  of  Antioch.  Theophilus  is  said  to  have  be- 
come bishop  of  Antioch  about  the  eighth  year  of  Marcus 
Aurelius,  1.  ^.,  169,  and  wrote  his  treatise  in  defense  of 
Christianity  to  Autolycus  during  the  reign  of  Commo- 
dus, probably  c.  190.  Unlike  the  apologies  of  Justin 
and  Athenagoras,  the  main  object  is,  not  to  defend  the 
Christians  (though  this  is  not  neglected),  but  rather  to 
convince  Autolycus  of  the  absurdity  of  heathenism  and 
the  truth  of  Christianity.  Theophilus,  like  Athenago- 
ras, shows  great  familiarity  with  Greek  classics,  and  his 
writings  are  frequently  resorted  to  by  critics  of  the  clas- 
sical Greek  texts  on  account  of  their  richness  in  citations. 

IV.  THE  POLEMICAL  PERIOD. 

There  were  polemical  treatises  in  the  preceding  period. 
Justin,  e.  g.,  wrote  extensively  against  heresies,  but 


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CHAP.  111.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES       247 

nothing  distinctively  polemical  has  reached  us  from  this 
period.  Side  by  side,  during  the  first  half  of  the  second 
century,  an  apologetical  and  a  heretical  literature  had 
sprung  up.  In  some  of  the  Apologists,  as  in  some  of  the 
Apostolic  Fathers,  we  see  tendencies  that  might  easily 
develop  Into  Gnosticism.  Gnostics,  about  the  middle  of 
the  second  century,  were  everywhere  attracting  by  their 
culture,  their  respectability,  their  extravagant  claims  to 
be  the  only  true  Christians,  and  by  their  aristocratical 
principles,  many  of  the  ablest  minds.  Many  that  did  not 
fully  accept  their  views  were  yet  deeply  affected  by 
them.  A  desire  for  system  was  one  of  the  fundamental 
characteristics  of  Gnosticism.  This  desire  became  con- 
tagious. The  Gnostics'  bold  speculations  with  regard  to 
the  Godhead,  the  origin  of  the  world,  of  sin,  etc.,  were 
the  means  of  arousing  those  who  would  otherwise  have 
been  content  with  simple  faith  to  a  systematizing  of 
Christian  doctrine.  They  felt  that  it  was  not  enough  to 
declare  the  Gnostic  systems  absurd.  They  must  put 
sometb\ng  better  in  place  of  these.  Christian  writers 
now  begin  to  express  themselves  accurately  on  doctrinal 
points. 

I.  General  Observations. 

(i)  In  the  preceding  period,  the  chief  writers  were 
men  who  had  just  emerged  from  heathenism,  and  had 
devoted  their  early  manhood  to  heathen  philosophy. 
They  brought  into  Christianity  much  of  their  previous 
modes  of  thought,  and  hence  we  find  a  great  deal  of 
crudeness  in  some  of  their  doctrinal  statements.  Now 
we  find  men  that  have  grown  up  under  the  greatly  im- 
proved Christian  culture  that  prevailed  after  the  middle 
of  the  second  century. 

(2)  The  Apologists  wrote  in  times  of  persecution  and 
aimed  to  ward  off  danger  from  without.  The  polemical 
writers  see  the  greatest  dangers  to  Christianity,  not  in 
outward  violence,  but  in  the  alarming  spread  of  error 
under  the  guise  of  Christian  truth. 

(3)  Now  for  the  first  time  the  New  Testament  Scrip- 
tures are  seen  to  occupy  their  proper  place.  The  Old 
Testament  is  not  discarded,  but  the  New  Testament  books 
are  quoted  as  authority  and  carefully  studied.    In  their 


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248  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  a 

contests  with  paganism,  when  the  great  reproach  to  be 
avoided  was  that  of  novelty,  we  have  seen  that  the 
Christian  Apologists  attempted  to  prove  Christianity  to 
be  the  oldest  religion  in  the  world,  and  to  this  end  ex- 
alted the  Old  Testament  as  the  only  source  of  authority. 
The  case  is  different  now.  The  polemical  writings  are 
mostly  directed  against  Gnostic  teachers,  who  entirely 
repudiated  the  Old  Testament  and  sought  to  connect 
their  systems  with  the  New  Testament  writings. 

(4)  Here  we  first  see  the  idea  of  an  orthodox  catholic 
church,  strongly  set  forth  in  opposition  to  heresy,  and  the 
basis  for  future  ecclesiastical  development  firmly  laid. 

(5)  Most  of  the  earlier  writers  had  been  Oriental  by 
birth  or  by  education.  The  ablest  of  the  polemical  writers 
belong  to  the  West. 

(6)  Some  writers  of  this  period  recognize,  from  seeing 
It  carried  to  extremes  by  the  Gnostics,  the  evil  results  of 
the  allegorical  interpretation  of  Scripture,  without,  how- 
ever, being  able  entirely  to  free  themselves  from  it. 

(7)  The  method  of  argumentation  most  in  favor  is 
that  of  the  reductio  ad  absurdum.  Arguments  from  Scrip- 
ture, especially  from  the  New  Testament,  occupy,  how- 
ever, an  important  place. 

2   Individual  Writers. 

(/)  Irmmms. 

Literature  :  Harvey's  and  Stieren's  editions  (the  former  has 
English  prolegomena  and  notes,  and  is  the  lust  edition ;  the  latter 
has  Latin  prolegomena  and  notes,  and  embraces  reprints  of  all  the 
principal  treatises  on  Irensus  from  Erasmus  onward):  English 
translation  In  "Ante-Nicene  Fathers";  Neander,  Vol.  L,  passim; 
Pressensi, ''  Martyrs  and  Apologists,"  fyassim;  Schaf7,  Vol.  II.,  p. 
746,  siq.;  Mceiler,  p.  109,  seq. ;  Bunsen.  "  Hippol.»"  Vol.  I.,jp.  246; 
Domer,  "  Person  of  Christ,"  Div.  I.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  303,  s$q. ;  Ritschl, 
''yfltkath.  Kirchi/'  p.  312,  uq, ;  Duncker,  ''  D.  Ckristologit  d  k. 
frnufus;  Hamack,  '^  Zeitschr.  /.  hsst.  Tkeol.,*'  1874,  p.  174,  m^.,  and 

t,  211,  seq.;  Zahn,  **  Zeitschr,  /.  hist,  Thiol.^^*  1875,  p.  72,  sm.  ; 
ightfoot, "  Contemporary  Review,"  August,  1896 ;  Kopes,  in  "  Bib- 
Uothica  Sacra^**  1877 ;  encyclopedia  articles  on  ''  Irensus." 

a.  Sketch.  Irenaeus  was  born  in  Asia  Minor,  about 
130-135,  and  in  his  youth  was  a  disciple  of  the  aged 
Polycarp.    He  received  a  liberal  education,  for  he  cites 


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CHAP.  III.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        249 

most  of  the  leading  Greek  classics.  He  was  a  diligent 
student  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  He  quotes  by 
name  almost  all  the  earlier  Christian  writers  of  whom 
we  know  anything.  He  was  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
the  heretical  literature  of  his  own  and  preceding  times. 
He  was,  moreover,  a  man  of  great  piety  and  zeal,  and  of 
simple  faith.  In  177,  when  Pothinus,  the  pastor  of  the 
Christian  church  at  Lyons,  had  suffered  martyrdom, 
Irenaeus,  who  had  been  laboring  in  the  region  for  some 
years  as  a  missionary,  bravely  took  the  dangerous  posi- 
tion. Persecution  ceased,  but  the  relaxation  caused  by 
Immunity  from  persecution  probably  caused  false  doc- 
trine to  gain  more  and  more  acceptance.  Toward  the 
close  of  his  busy  life  Irenaeus  wrote  his  "  Five  Books 
against  Heresies"  {c.  185),  in  which  the  views  of  the 
different  heretical  sects  are  stated  and  refuted,  and  in 
which  Christian  doctrine  is  ably  expounded.  The  sys- 
tematizing of  Irenasus  has  formed  the  basis  for  all  later 
efforts. 

b.  tAbstract  of  the  Five  Books  Against  Heresies,  Book 
I.  is  devoted  mainly  to  a  historical  account  of  the  various 
Gnostic  sects  (Chap.  1-9).  By  way  of  contrast  to  the 
heretical  teachings,  the  author  presents  a  declaration  of 
the  faith  of  the  Catholic  Church,  perhaps  the  first  dis- 
tinct statement  of  the  faith  formally  drawn  up  in  a  series 
of  propositions. 

Book  II.  is  a  philosophical  polemic  against  the  Valen- 
tinian  Gnostics,  interspersed  with  criticisms  of  their  false 
interpretations  of  Scripture.  The  philosophical  argu- 
ments are  designed  :  {a)  To  prove  the  unity  of  God,  and 
the  absurdity  of  the  Gnostic  distinction  between  the 
Supreme  Being  and  the  Demiurge  ;  (b)  to  overthrow  the 
Platonic  hypothesis  of  a  correspondence  between  the 
world  of  ideas  and  the  visible  world.  Many  Valentinian 
doctrines  rested  on  this.  Irenaeus  insists  that  when  the 
Scriptures  are  plain  and  unambiguous  they  shall  not  be 
explained  ambiguously  according  to  the  fancy  of  iht  in- 
terpreter. The  truth  is  never  to  be  arrived  at  in  this 
way,  for  the  method  of  discovery  has  been  rejected. 
Ambiguous  passages  (as  parables)  should  not  be  made 
the  source  of  doctrines  (Chap.  i).  Perfect  knowledge 
is  not  attained  in  this  life. 


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2$0  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IL 

Book  III.  is  chiefly  a  refutation  from  Scripture  of  the 
Gnostic  heresies :  First,  concerning  the  unity  of  God, 
and  secondly,  concerning  the  person  of  Christ.  The 
fact  that  the  Gnostics  differ  among  themselves,  and 
the  recent  nature  of  their  traditions,  is  contrasted  with 
the  agreement  of  Catholics  in  doctrine,  handed  down  di- 
rectly from  the  apostles.  The  Old  Testament  and  the 
New  Testament  agree  in  teaching  that  there  is  but  one 
God,  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  Cre- 
ator of  all  things.  Irenaeus  asserts  the  canonicity  and 
inspiration  of  the  four  Gospels  (Matthew,  Mark,  Luke, 
and  John),  and  of  these  only.  He  refutes  the  opinion  of 
those  who  attempt  to  establish  an  antagonism  between 
Paul  and  the  other  apostles  by  Paul's  own  testimony, 
that  the  same  God  wrought  in  Peter  to  the  apostleship 
of  the  circumcision  and  in  himself  to  that  of  the  Gen- 
tiles. He  proves  the  pre-existence,  incarnation,  and  suf- 
fering of  Christ  from  Old  and  New  Testament  passages, 
rejecting,  like  Justin,  the  translation  of  the  Hebrew  word 
in  Isa.  7  :  14,  **  young  woman,"  and  applying  the  proph- 
ecy to  the  birth  of  Christ  from  a  virgin. 

Book  IV.  consists  of  proof  from  the  words  of  Christ 
himself  that  he  recognized  but  one  God  and  Father,  and 
this  the  same  that  is  set  forth  in  the  Old  Testament. 
The  Gnostics'  perversions  of  the  words  of  Christ  are 
refuted.  Irenaeus  proceeds  to  combat  the  view  of  Mar- 
cion,  which  excluded  Abraham  and  his  posterity  from 
salvation  through  Christ,  showing  that  they  were  in- 
spired by  the  same  God  from  whom  Christ  came  (Chap. 
8-11).  The  Old  Testament  system  still  continues  in 
the  New  Testament  system.  Sacrifices  are  perpetu- 
ated in  the  Lord's  Supper  (Chap.  17,  18).  The  book 
concludes  with  a  vindication  of  the  Old  Testament  Scrip- 
tures against  the  cavils  of  the  Gnostics. 

Book  V.  is  devoted  chiefly  to  a  vindication  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  resurrection  against  the  Gnostic  objections. 
The  chief  objection  of  the  Gnostics  was  the  essentially 
evil  nature  of  matter,  and  hence  the  unsuitableness  of 
a  material  body  for  a  state  of  blessedness.  This  same 
feeling  led  them  to  deny  the  real  incarnation  of  Christ. 
Irenaeus  maintains  the  true  humanity  and  the  true  divin- 
ity of  Christ,  and  shows  how  both  are  necessary  to  the 


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CHAP.  111.]  LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES       251 

truth  of  our  Lord  himself  and  to  the  redemption  of  man- 
kind. This  established,  he  uses  it  as  a  proof  against 
those  who  deny  that  flesh  is  capable  of  salvation. 

c.  Theology  of  Irenaus.  (a)  God.  Irenaeus  does  not, 
like  Justin,  exalt  the  Supreme  Being  above  all  relations 
to  the  world.  The  result  of  such  exaltation  in  the 
Gnostic  systems  that  he  combats,  depriving  them  as  it 
did  of  any  firm  basis  of  thought  and  plunging  them  into 
endless  speculations,  would  save  him  from  such  an  error. 

(b)  The  Son.  The  emanation  theory  of  the  Gnostics 
would  have  prevented  Irenaeus  from  representing  the 
Son  as  created  or  as  emanating  from  the  Father.  With 
Irenaeus  the  Logos  is  eternal.  He  says :  **  God  being  all 
mind  and  all  Logos,  both  speaks  exactly  what  he  thinks 
and  thinks  exactly  what  he  speaks.  For  his  thought  is 
Logos,  and  Logos  is  mind,  and  mind,  comprehending  all 
things,  is  the  Father."  Thus  he  seems  to  identify  the 
Logos  with  the  Father.  Elsewhere  he  writes :  "  If  any 
man  say  to  us,  *  How  then  was  the  Son  produced  by  the 
Father  } '  we  reply  that  no  one  understands  that  produc- 
tion, or  generation,  or  calling,  or  revelation,  or  by  what- 
ever name  one  may  describe  his  generation,  which,  in 
fact,  is  indescribable."*  Perhaps  his  doctrine  of  the 
Logos  can  be  fairly  said  to  imply  no  more  than  that  the 
Logos  is  God,  considered  in  his  thinking,  creative,  and 
redeeming  aspect. 

(c)  The  Holy  Spirit^  according  to  Irenaeus,  is  identical 
with  the  Wisdom  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  is  God 
manifest  in  Providence,  revelation,  and  the  human  con- 
science. The  Trinity  of  Irenaeus  would  therefore  be  : 
God  in  the  world,  God  in  Christ,  and  God  in  himself. 

(d)  Freedom  of  the  Will.  In  opposition  to  the  fatalism 
of  the  Gnostics,  Irenaeus  maintains  the  freedom  of  the 
will,  and  asserts  that  with  God  there  is  no  coercion. 
Those  who  yield  obedience  to  God  have  the  promise  of 
eternal  good.  Only  by  regarding  the  will  as  free  can  he 
account  for  the  exhortations  in  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments to  do  good,  and  the  promises  made  to  those  that 
obey.* 

(e)  The  eternal  decree  of  redemption  is  represented  as 

1  Book  II..  Chap.  it.       *  Book  IV.,  Chap.  37. 


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2^2  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PHtU 

an  act  of  God's  love.  The  atonement  is  a  ransom  paid, 
not  to  God,  but  to  the  devil,  to  whom  all  who  have  dis- 
obeyed God  are  in  subjection. 

(/)  Irenaeus  looked  upon  the  Church  as  an  organic  unity 
whose  doctrine  had  been  handed  down  through  a  succes' 
sion  of  presbyters.  He  nowhere  lays  stress  upon  epis- 
copacy as  a  divine  institution,  but  makes  the  liberty  and 
independence  of  each  church  (including  a  city  with  its 
surrounding  villages)  the  fundamental  principle  of  the 
ecclesiastical  constitution.  !n  Irenaeus'  time,  the  ques- 
tion whether  Easter  should  be  celebrated  on  the  15th 
Nisan  on  whatever  day  of  the  week  it  might  occur,  or  on 
the  first  Sunday  after  the  vernal  full  moon,  was  raging. 
Victor,  pastor  of  the  Roman  church,  was  arrogant  enough 
to  break  off  communion  with  the  churches  of  Asia  Minor 
because  they  adhered  to  the  former  view.  Irenaeus,  in 
an  epistle  to  him  (cited  by  Eusebius),  while  agreeing  with 
him  in  opinion,  censures  severely  his  intolerant  conduct. 
"Christ's  apostles,"  he  says,  "have  ordained  that  no 
one  shall  disturb  men's  consciences  with  regard  to  such 
things.  It  is  not  right  to  tear  asunder  the  bonds  of 
Christian  communion  on  account  of  festivals  and  sea- 
sons, knowing  as  we  do  from  the  prophets  that  such 
things  celebrated  in  hatred  and  discord  do  not  please 
God." 

We  see  also  that  the  Roman  church  had  by  this  time 
great  prestige.  Irenaeus  believed  that  it  was  established 
by  Peter  and  Paul,  who  appointed  successors.  This  be- 
lief, together  with  the  position  of  the  Roman  church  in 
the  metropolis,  the  administrative  ability  that  it  early 
displayed,  and  the  readiness  with  which  it  sent  contribu- 
tions to  needy  Christians  in  other  places,  caused  it  to  be 
looked  up  to,  and  to  be  frequently  appealed  to  in  matters 
of  controversy  (so  even  in  the  time  of  Clement).  We 
see  also  that  a  formalizing  tendency  had  already  set  in 
at  Rome  and  in  Asia  Minor  (the  Easter  controversy) ;  but 
Irenaeus  did  not  favor  such  a  tendency. 


(3)  H^polytus. 

:arde's  editions : 

^     ;    Bunsen,  "Hi ..„    _„  . 

i8$2-6;  DoUlnger  '^//^te^itf  If.  Callistus/*  iSs^  (English  transla* 
tion,  187$);  Wordsworth,  "St.  Hippolytus  and   the  Church  ci 


LITERATURE :  De  Lagarde's editions:  English  translation  in  the 
••  Ante-Niccnc  Library";    Bunsen,  ••Hippofytus  and  his  Age," 


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CHAP.  III.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        253 

Rome";  Volkmar,  ^^H^4>olyius  u.  d.  torn.  ZHtgmossM^^  185$; 
Lip^us,  '*  Qyi^lUn  d.  dlUst.  KHtirg$uhichU,''  187$  ;  Achdis,  ''Hippo- 
Mshidwi,''  1897 ;  Caspar!, "  Quslhn  tut  G$sch,  d.  Tauf symbols,''  Bd. 
III.,  SiU.  377t  sfQ^y  187$*  A  new  edition  of  the  works  of  Hippo- 
lytus,  edited  by  Bonwetsch  and  Achelis,  is  in  process  of  publication 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Royal  Prussian  Academy  of  Sciences. 

a.  Sketch.  Considering  the  number  and  the  importance 
of  his  writings,  surprisingly  little  is  known  of  the  life  of 
Hippolytus.  Eusebius  seems  to  be  the  earliest  extant 
writer  to  mention  him,  and  his  knowledge  was  exceed- 
ingly limited.  He  was  born,  it  is  probable,  shortly  after 
the  middle  of  the  second  century,  whether  in  Rome  or 
in  the  East  is  unknown.  Like  most  of  the  leading 
Roman  Christians  of  the  second  century  he  was  of 
Oriental  origin  and  Greek  was  his  native  tongue.  He 
is  said  to  have  been  a  disciple  of  Irenseus,  but  when  or 
where  the  personal  intercourse  of  the  two  occurred  is 
not  recorded.  It  is  not  improbable  that  Irensus  on  one 
of  his  visits  to  Rome  gave  a  series  of  discourses  on  the 
Gnostic  heresies  that  formed  the  basis  of  his  great  work 
on  the  subject.  Eusebius  calls  him  "  bishop,"  but  does 
not  know  over  what  church  he  presided.  He  places  him 
in  the  time  of  Alexander  Severus  (222-235).  From  the 
*'  Refutation  of  All  Heresies  "  it  is  manifest  that  Hippo- 
lytus was  an  active  participant  in  Roman  church  matters 
during  the  pastorates  of  Zephyrinus  and  Callistus  (199- 
222).  It  would  seem  that,  for  reasons  given  in  another 
paragraph,  he  refused  to  recognize  Callistus  as  bishop, 
and  that  he  became  the  recognized  leader  or  bishop  of 
the  stricter  party  that  claimed  to  be  the  true  church  of 
Rome.  After  the  death  of  Callistus  he  probably  became 
reconciled  with  the  principal  church,  and  as  a  presbyter  of 
the  church  continued  his  ecclesiastical  and  literary  work 
until  235,  when  he  and  Bishop  Pontianus  were  trans- 
ported to  Sardinia  by  Maximinus  the  Thracian.  They 
probably  died  in  the  mines,  but  they  are  said  to  have 
been  buried  on  the  same  day  in  Rome,  where  they  were 
honored  as  martyrs.  A  statue  of  Hippolytus  has  been 
unearthed  in  modern  times  (1551),  bearing  a  catalogue 
of  his  writings  on  its  pedestal.  The  late  tradition  that 
he  was  bishop  of  the  Portus  (at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber) 
seems  to  be  diie  to  a  desire  to  account  for  the  fact  that 


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254  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.tt 

he  was  bishop  and  martyr  by  those  Ignorant  of  the  fact 
that  he  was  bishop  of  the  faction  that  opposed  Callistus. 
Hippolytus  was  one  of  the  four  greatest  scholars  and 
theologians  of  his  age  (ranking  with  Tertullian,  Clement 
of  Alexandria,  and  Origen),  was  a  most  rigorous  disci- 
plinarian, a  keen  and  hard-hitting  polemicist,  and  had 
much  in  common  with  contemporary  Montanism  and 
later  Novatianism. 

b.  IVritings.  Hippolytus  was  a  voluminous  writer. 
The  list  of  his  works  includes  dogmatic,  polemical,  and 
exegetical  treatises.  Most  of  these  have  been  preserved 
only  in  fragments.  In  1842  a  manuscript  was  discovered 
in  the  monastery  on  Mt.  Athos,  which  was  at  first  sup- 
posed to  be  the  lost  ''Philosophumena*'  of  Origen,  and 
was  published  as  such  by  E.  Miller  at  Oxford  in  18$  i. 
The  criticism  of  Bunsen,   Dollinger,  Volkmar,  et  al., 

E roved  that  it  was  the  "Refutation  of  All  Heresies,"  by 
lippolytus.  The  decisive  considerations  in  favor  of  this 
view  are,  (a)  that  the  style  of  the  work  is  such  as  to  ex- 
clude Origen's  authorship,  and  (fc)  that  the  author  refers 
to  a  work  of  his  own  whose  -title  is  given  in  the  list  of 
Hippolytus'  works  on  the  ancient  statue  referred  to. 

"  The  Refutation "  covers  substantially  the  same 
ground  as  the  great  work  of  Irenaeus,  which  in  many 
points  it  materially  supplements.  It  is  the  opinion  of 
many  recent  critics  (Lipsius,  Hilgenfeld,  Harnack,  et  al.), 
that  both  writers  drew  largely  from  Justin's  lost  ''Syn- 
tagma," that  Hippolytus  used  the  work  of  Irenaeus,  and 
that  he  had  access  to  a  number  of  Gnostic  works  that 
have  perished.  The  most  remarkable  part  of  "  The 
Refutation,"  and  that  which  has  been  most  provocative 
of  controversy,  is  Book  IX.,  in  which  he  makes  his 
refutation  of  the  heresy  of  Noetus  an  occasion  for 
denouncing  the  laxity  and  doctrinal  unsoundness  of 
Callistus. 

c.  The  Roman  Church  in  the  Time  of  Hippolytus. 
During  the  second  century  the  Roman  church  greatly 
increased  in  numbers  and  influence.  Persecutions  had 
occurred  from  time  to  time,  but  these  were  not  so  severe 
nor  continuous  as  seriously  to  interfere  with  the  develop- 
ment of  the  body.  No  doubt  it  continued  to  receive 
important   reinforcements   from    Asia  Mlnori  Greece^ 


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CHAP.  111.]  LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES       255 

Syria,  and  Egypt,  and  Greek  appears  to  have  been  still 
the  language  of  Ronaan  Christians.  With  the  exception 
of  Minucius  Felix,  all  Roman  Christian  writings  till  some 
time  after  the  close  of  the  second  century  were  Greek. 
Gnosticism,  Montanism,  Adoptionism,  and  Monarchianism 
had  found  their  way  to  Rome,  and  several  leading 
Gnostic  teachers  had  propagated  their  views  there  with 
considerable  success.  But  the  Roman  church,  so  far 
from  yielding  to  such  influences,  was  led  thereby  to 
strengthen  its  organization.  Monarchial  episcopacy  was 
one  of  the  results  of  its  contest  with  pagan  intoler- 
ance and  Gnostic  heresy.  From  the  beginning  the 
Roman  church  manifested  something  of  the  practical 
spirit  that  little  by  little  secured  for  it  a  place  of  leader- 
ship and  authority  among  the  churches.  Its  location  in 
the  great  metropolis,  its  practical  benevolence,  its  free- 
dom from  extreme  doctrinal  developments,  due  in  part  to 
its  poverty  in  speculative  theologians,  gave  it  a  great 
advantage  over  other  churches.  During  the  reign  of 
Commodus  and  his  immediate  successors  (180  onward) 
immunity  from  persecution  had  brought  into  the  church 
multitudes  of  imperfectly  Christianized  people  from  the 
wealthier  classes,  and  discipline  was  in  consequence 
gradually  relaxed.  In  the  time  of  Hippolytus  we  see  in 
the  church  two  distinct  parties,  a  rigorous  party  almost 
Montanistic  in  its  severity,  led  by  himself  and  apparently 
in  a  small  minority,  and  a  liberal  party  represented  by 
Zephyrinus  and  Callistus,  supported  by  the  wealth  and 
the  social  influence  of  the  church. 

Victor,  chief  pastor  of  the  church  (c.  189-199),  had 
been  a  man  of  great  sternness,  and  many  had  been 
restive  under  his  rigorous  discipline.  He  was  succeeded 
by  Zephyrinus  (199-219),  a  man  of  little  moral  or  intel- 
lectual weight,  who  permitted  the  flock  to  be  led  astray 
by  all  sorts  of  false  teachers  ;  and,  under  the  influence 
of  Callistus,  permitted  various  moral  delinquencies  to 
have  place  in  the  church.  Callistus,  a  slave,  had  been 
entrusted  with  a  large  sum  of  money,  had  embezzled  it, 
had  been  imprisoned,  then  released,  then  banished  to  the 
mines  of  Sardinia  for  having  caused  a  riot  in  a  Jewish 
synagogue.  Having  escaped  from  the  mines  through  the 
good  offices  of  Marcia,  the  emperor's  favorite,  he  re- 


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«56  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.U 

turned  to  Rome,  now  a  freed  man,  became  the  right-hand 
man  of  Zephyrinus,  and  succeeded  him  as  chief  pastor 
in  219. 

During  Zephynnus'  pastorate  the  Noetian  heresy, 
according  to  which  God  the  Father  and  Christ  are  abso 
lutely  identical,  and  hence  the  Father  was  born  of  a 
woman  and  suffered  on  the  cross,  had  been  introduced 
at  Rome.  Callistus,  apparently,  adopted  this  doctrine, 
and  brought  his  influence  to  bear  upon  the  young  and 
promising  Sabellius.  Hippolytus  and  his  party  strove 
earnestly  against  these  theological  errors,  and  were 
stigmatized  by  their  opponents  as  ditheists,  because 
Jiey  insisted  on  the  absolute  deity  of  Christ  and  yet 
.efused  to  identify  him  with  the  Father.  Hippolytus 
»emonstrated  with  Sabellius,  who  held,  that  the  terms 
••Father,"  "Son,"  and  "Spirit,"  are  only  designations 
of  the  three  different  phases  under  which  the  Divine 
essence  reveals  itself,  all  three  together  exhausting  the 
revelation  of  God  to  the  world. 

Callistus,  when  he  became  chief  pastor,  threw  off 
Sabellius  as  not  orthodox,  and  with  a  view  to  conciliating 
Hippolytus  and  his  party  set  forth  his  own  views  in  a 
form  slightly  differing  from  the  Noetian,  but  in  the 
opinion  of  Hippolytus  essentially  the  same.  This  modi- 
fied Sabellianism  Callistus  is  said  to  have  propagated 
with  the  greatest  diligence  and  success.  Callistus 
offended  Hippolytus  more  by  his  laxity  of  discipline 
than  by  his  doctrinal  unsoundness.  Many  that  had 
been  excluded  from  the  church  for  gross  misconduct 
were  restored,  Callistus  proclaiming  himself  ready  *'  to 
forgive  all  sins."  He  taught  that  if  a  bishop  should  be 
guilty  even  of  a  mortal  sin  he  could  not  be  deposed. 
He  maintained  that  Noah's  ark,  in  which  clean  and  un- 
clean beasts  were  preserved  together,  was  a  type  of  the 
church.  He  is  said  to  have  permitted  ladies  of  rank  who 
did  not  wish  to  marry  to  have  slaves  for  paramours. 

In  narrating  the  career  of  Callistus,  Hippolytus  manifests  so  much 
passion  that  his  representations  cannot  be  Implicitly  trusted.  Cal- 
listus must  have  been  a  man  of  marked  ability  and  more  than 
usually  attractive  personality  to  have  risen  from  slavery  and  a 
reputation  for  dishonesty  to  the  foremost  position  in  the  church.  He 
may  have  honestly  dltfered  from  Hippolytus  as  regards  the  dlsd- 


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CHAP,  in.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES       257 

plinary  policy  of  the  church.  Hippolytus  imputes  the  worst  of 
motives  to  all  his  actions,  and  represents  his  proceedings  in  the 
worst  possible  light.  Rumors  and  suspicions  figure,  apparently,  as 
undoubted  facts. 

It  is  by  no  means  certain  that  Caliistus  was  as  much  at  fault  in 
relation  to  Noetus  and  Sabellius  as  Hippolytus  would  have  us  be- 
lieve. The  views  of  these  teachers  he  caricatures.  No  doubt  they 
were  making  an  honest  effort  to  express  the  great  facts  of  revelation 
with  reference  to  the  Godhead  in  such  a  manner  as  to  avoid  dithe- 
ism or  tritheism,  the  Gnostic  emanation  theory,  and  the  Ebionitlc 
denial  of  the  true  deity  of  the  Son.  They  wished  to  hold  fast  the 
divine  unity  and  monarchy  and  the  absolute  deity  of  Christ.  The 
modal  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  was  the  result.  Sabellius  applied  the 
term  "  person  "  (»pow»or)  to  each  of  the  three  modes  of  divine  mani- 
festation (as  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit),  a  term  that  in  a  differ- 
ent sense  was  to  figure  prominently  in  the  orthodox  theology  of  the 
later  time. 

(^)  TsrhiUioH. 

LITERATURE :  Oehler's  edition  of  Tertullian ;  English  translation 
in  *'  Ante-Nicene  Fathers" ;  Neander,  ''Atttignosiicus^  Spirit  of  Ter- 
tullian," and  *' Ch.  History,"  Vol.  1.. passim:  Pressensi, '* Martyrs 
and  Apologists,"  p.  374,  s#j. ;  Schaft,  Vol.  II.,  p.  818,  siq, ;  Kaye 
(Bishop  of  Bristol),  ^'Ecclesiastical  History  of  the  Second  and 
Third  Centuries,  Illustrated  from  the  Writings  of  Tertullian  " ;  Baur 
and  Ritschl,  as  on  **  Montanism  " ;  Bonwetsch,"£)tf  SchrifUn  d,  Tirt> 
ttach  d.  Znt  ihrer  Vtrfassung^^  1879;  Harnacic,  ^^  Ziiischr.  /.  hist. 
ThtoL^^  1878,  p.  S72,  stq, ;  Hauschild,  *'  Tertullians  PsychoUm,*^ 
1880 ;  Haucic,  '*  Ttrt,  Ubm  und  Sckrift^J*  1877 ;  Nocldechen,  '^7>r- 
tullian,"  1800 ;  works  On  the  **  History  of  Doctrine,"  by  Hagenbach, 
Neander,  Baur,  Shedd,  Sheldon,  Cnppen,  Hamack.  Loofs,  Fisher, 
Seeberg,  etc. ;  encyclopedia  articles  on  *'  Tertullian." 

a.  Sketch.  Tertullian  (b.  1 50-160)  was  a  native  of 
Carthage  and  the  son  of  a  Roman  proconsular  centurion. 
He  was  educated  in  Roman  law  and  in  the  liberal  arts, 
and  had  attained  to  considerable  eminence  before  his 
conversion.  He  also  acquired  familiarity  with  the  Greek 
language,  and  is  said  to  have  written  some  works  in  it. 
He  was  greatly  influenced  by  Stoic  philosophy  in  its  later 
form,  as  is  manifest  in  his  theological  thinking.  He  is 
the  first  Christian  writer  in  whom  Roman  law  and  Stoic 
philosophy  appear  as  determining  elements.  His  conver- 
sion may  have  occurred  about  180,  under  what  influence 
we  are  not  informed.  His  ability  and  zeal  soon  led  to 
his  appointment  as  a  presbyter  in  the  Carthaginian 
church.  His  able  and  voluminous  Latin  writings  laid 
the  foundations  for  Latin  theology.    He  was  the  first 


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258  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  II 

important  Christian  writer  to  use  this  language,  and  he 
forged  it  into  shape  for  Cyprian,  Lactantius,  Jerome, 
and  Augustine.  According  to  Jerome,  "  he  was  a  man 
of  sharp  and  vehement  temper."  He  had  little  in 
common  with  the  Platonising  theologians,  and  had 
no  patience  with  Gnostic  theosophy.  **  He  apprehended 
Christianity  .  .  .  eminently  in  its  opposition  to  all  the 
pallid  wisdom  of  philosophy,  as  a  mighty  supernatural 
reality,  a  divine  foolishness  wiser  than  men,  creating 
and  transmuting,  challenging  and  disdaining  contradic- 
tion. His  was  a  fiery  nature,  rich  in  fantasy,  witty  and 
passionate,  and  inclined  to  paradox,  at  the  same  time 
endowed  with  a  certain  amount  of  Oriental  (Punic) 
warmth  and  sensuousness,  but  also  with  a  good  share  of 
Roman  sense  of  what  is  solid  and  effective."  * 

In  mid-career  his  views  underwent  an  important 
change.  By  way  of  reaction  against  laxity  in  discipline, 
that  was  so  glaringly  and  scandalously  manifest  in  the 
Roman  church  under  Zephyrinus,  he  was  carried  away 
by  the  rigor  and  enthusiasm  of  the  Montanists.  While 
there  is  no  lack  of  zeal  and  fervor  in  his  earlier  writings, 
the  later  are  still  more  intense  and  are  characterized  by 
the  forms  of  teaching  peculiar  to  Montanism.  His  works 
are  too  voluminous  to  be  adequately  described  in  this 
chapter.  The  more  important  ones  will  be  referred  to 
in  connection  with  the  characterization  of  his  chief 
adversaries  and  the  statement  of  his  distinctive  doctrinal 
positions.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  born  fighter  and 
throughout  his  career  to  have  been  much  engaged  in 
controversy.  He  is  pre-eminently  the  polemicist  of  the 
age. 

b.  Adversaries  of  Tertullian.  (a)  The  Monarchians  or 
Patripassians,  as  represented  by  Praxeas,  who  had  com- 
bated Montanism  in  Asia  Minor  and  **  when  the  bishop 
of  Rome  had  acknowledged  the  prophetic  gifts  of  Mon- 
tanus,  Prisca,  and  Maximilla,  and  .  .  .  had  bestowed 
his  peace  on  the  churches  of  Asia  and  Phrygia,"  had 
"  by  importunately  urging  false  accusations  against  the 
prophets  themselves  and  their  churches  .  .  .  compelled 
him  to  recall  the  pacific  letter  which  he  had  issued." 


1  MSiler.  "Ch.  Hist.."  Vol.  L,  p.  aoi. 


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CHAP.  lU.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        259 

He  availed  himself  of  his  visit  to  Rome  to  disseminate 
there  his  Monarchian  views  of  the  Godhead.  By  this 
visit  "  Praxeas  did  a  two-fold  service  for  the  devil  at 
Rome.  He  drove  away  prophecy,  and  he  brought  in 
heresy ;  he  put  to  flight  the  Paraclete,  and  he  crucified 
the  Father.'^* 

Monarchianism  had  become  widespread  by  the  beginning  of  the 
third  century.  The  ^ound  of  It  may  be  stated  thus :  Up  to  about 
I7J  most  of  the  Chnstian  writers  had  represented  Christ  as  the  pre- 
existent  Logos,  and  in  a  way  that  seemed  to  imply  subordination. 
In  opposition  to  Ebionism  the  church  gradually  freed  itself  from  this 
implied  subordination! sm.  But  the  difficulty  now  was  that  of  seem- 
ing to  postulate  two  Gods.  Hence  those  that  held  to  a  distinction 
between  Father  and  Son,  and  yet  refused  to  admit  the  subordination 
of  the  latter^ere  stigmatized  as  *'ditheists."  Those  that  rejected 
the  Gnostic  Docetism,the  Ebionotic  denial  of  Christ's  Divinity,  and 
the  setting  up  of  two  equal  personalities,  were  driven  to  views  like 
those  of  Noetus  and  Sabeilius.  The  most  decided  opposition  to  this 
tendency  was  that  offered  by  Montanism.  TertuUlan's  treatise,"/^*/- 
vtrsus  Pfoiuon^^  is  the  ablest  contemporary  refutation  of  Monarchian- 
ism. 

(ft)  Paganism,  as  represented  by  idolatry,  vicious 
spectacular  exhibitions,  the  persecution  of  Christians, 
etc.  Tortullian  displays  his  great  rhetorical  powers  to 
best  advantage  in  his  denunciation  of  paganism  and  In 
his  eulogizing  of  Christianity  by  way  of  contrast. 

(c)  The  various  Gnostic  systems  that  were  combated 
also  by  Irenaeus  and  Hippolytus.  Tertullian's  fiery 
African  nature  did  not  permit  him  to  reason  calmly,  and 
here,  as  in  all  his  polemics,  he  is  too  denunciatory  and 
fails  to  give  his  adversaries  credit  for  the  good  that  their 
systems  contain.  Yet  Tertullian  probably  did  more  to 
overthrow  Gnosticism  than  any  other  man. 

{S)  The  Jews.  The  "  Answer  to  the  Jews  "  was 
occasioned  by  a  discussion  that  occurred  between  a 
Christian  and  a  Jewish  proselyte.  The  reasoning  is  not 
very  different  from  that  of  Justin  in  his  "  Dialogue  with 
Trypho." 

c.  Tertullian  and  Montanism.  Tertullian  was  the 
great  theologian  of  the  Montanistic  movement.  His 
conversion  to  Montanism  was  probably  a  gradual  one, 
and  occurred  when  he  was  already  of  mature  age.     The 


^  "  Advnus  PrMMoii."  Chap.  1. 


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26o  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  II 

genius  of  Tertullian  was  too  great  to  exhaust  its  influ- 
ence upon  a  sect.  In  Latin  theology  nothing  had  ap- 
peared at  all  comparable  with  his  writings,  and  we  may 
suppose  that  they  were  eagerly  read  throughout  the 
Latin  churches.  Tertullian  was  so  stanch  a  defender 
of  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  Christianity  that  his  au- 
thority was  everywhere  great,  notwithstanding  his  Mon- 
tanism,  and  through  him  Montanistic  views  were  infil- 
trated into  the  dominant  form  of  Christianity  in  the  suc- 
ceeding time. 

d.  Theology  of  Tertullian.  (a)  With  regard  to  the 
Godhead.  As  an  opponent  of  Monarchianism,  especially 
in  the  form  of  Patripassianism,  Tertullian  held  most  tena- 
ciously to  the  distinction  of  the  Father  and  the  Son. 
No  earlier  writer  had  expressed  himself  with  so  much 
precision  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  His  clearest 
statement  is  found  in  his  treatise  ''/tdversus  Praxean/* 
Chap.  2 : 

We  believe  in  one  only  God,  yet  under  this  dispensation,  which 
we  call  "  economy,"  that  the  one  only  God  has  a  Son.  his  Word 
(ssrmo)t  who  proceeds  from  himself,  throup^h  whom  all  things  were 
madCc  and  without  whom  was  made  nothmg.  That  this  Son  was 
sent  by  the  Father  into  a  virgin  and  was  bom  of  her.  man  and 
God,  Sen  of  Man  and  Son  of  God,  and  named  Jesus  Ciirist ;  that 
he  suffered,  that  he  died  and  was  buried,  according  to  the  Scriptures, 
that  he  was  resuscitated  by  the  Father  and  taken  back  into  heaven, 
that  he  sits  at  the  riRht  hand  of  the  Father,  that  he  will  come  to 
judge  the  living  and  the  dead :  who  has  sent  thence  from  the  Father 
according  to  his  promise  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Paraclete,  the  sanctifier 
of  the  faith  of  those  that  believe  in  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit. 

And  farther  on  : 

And  nevertheless  the  sacrament  of  the  '*  economv  "  is  jeuardedi 
which  disposes  unity  into  trinity,  arranging  three.  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Spirit ;  three,  however,  not  in  state  but  in  degree ;  not  in  sub- 
stance but  In  form ;  not  In  power  but  In  aspect ;  but  of  one  sub- 
stance and  of  one  state  and  of  one  power,  because  it  Is  one  God 
from  whom  those  degrees  and  forms  and  aspects,  in  the  name  of 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,  are  reckoned. 

He  remarks  (in  Chap.  3)  that  the  greater  number  of 
the  Christians  of  his  time,  having  just  abandoned  poly- 
theism, are  in  mortal  dread  of  the  ** economy,"  "pre- 
suming that  a  numbering  and  disposition  of  trinity  is  a 
division  of  unity."    Tertullian  maintains  that  *' unity 


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CHAP.  III.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES       26l 

deriving  trinity  out  of  its  very  self  is  not  destroyed,  but 
administered  thereby."  Again  (in  Chap.  9):  "For 
the  Father  is  the  whole  substance,  as  he  himself  informs 
us :  *  The  Father  is  greater  than  I ' ;  but  the  Son  is  a 
derivation  and  portion  of  the  whole."  Thus  Tertullian 
distinctly  formulates  a  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  but  he 
seems  to  deny  the  co-eternity  and  co-equality  of  Son 
and  Spirit  with  the  Father.  Largely  as  a  result  of  his 
Stoical  training,  Tertullian  was  materialistic  and  could 
not  allow  that  God  himself  was  immaterial  and  formless, 
(fc)  With  regard  to  man's  original  and  actual  condition, 
Tertullian  advances  views  far  more  developed  than  those 
of  any  of  his  predecessors.  In  answer  to  Marcion's 
cavil  that  if  God  had  been  good  and  prescient  and 

?)tent,  he  would  not  have  allowed  man  to  fall  into  siny 
ertullian  argues  that ''  God  alone  is  good  by  nature,  for 
he  who  has  what  is  without  beginning  has  it  not  by 
institution,  but  by  nature.  But  man,  who  is  altogether 
by  institution,  having  beginning,  with  beginning  was 
allotted  a  form  in  which  he  should  be,  and  so  was  deter- 
mined to  the  good,  not  by  nature,  but  by  institution, 
not  having  as  his  own  to  be  good,  because  not  by  nature 
was  he  determined  to  the  good,  but  by  institution,  ac- 
cording to  the  Good  Institutor,  that  is  to  say,  the  Maker 
of  good  things." 

He  adds  that  free  will  was  given  to  man  in  order  that* 
he  might  attain  unto  a  good  of  his  own  analogous  to  that 
of  -God.  Had  man  remained  subject  to  the  Divine  will 
he  would  have  been  exalted  above  the  angels.  Sin  con- 
sisted in  the  fact  that  man  sought  to  free  himself  from 
subjection  to  the  Divine  will.  If  God  had  restrained 
man  from  sin  it  would  have  involved  a  withdrawal  of 
freedom  from  man,  which  was  potentially  the  instrument^ 
of  his  highest  good. 

Here  also  the  Influence  of  Stoicism  is  manifest.  The  Stoics  held 
that  evil  is  necessary  for  the  production  of  moral  virtue,  that  there 
is  no  virtue  where  tnere  is  no  choice,  and  that  man  was  created  fret 
to  choose.^ 

After  the  fall  the  "corruption  of  [man's]  nature  is 

1  "^dvenu$  mareioium,"  Bk.  II..  Chap,  s-9- 
*  Compare  Hatch.  "  Hibbert  Lectures,"  p.  a^i. 


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262  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IL 

another  nature,  having  its  own  god  and  father,  namely, 
the  author  of  corruption  himself,  yet  so  that  there 
inheres  also  that  principal,  that  divine  and  true  (gertna- 
num),  and  properly  natural,  good  of  the  soul.  For  what 
is  from  God  is  not  so  much  extinguished  as  beclouded. 
It  can  be  beclouded,  because  not  God  ;  it  cannot  be  ex- 
tinguished, because  from  God."* 

Man,  therefore,  assisted  by  the  grace  of  God,  freely 
bestowed  upon  all  through  Christ,  is  capable  by  the  seed 
of  good  that  remains  in  him  of  turning  unto  God  and 
attaining  to  salvation. 

Tertullian  was  the  first,  so  far  as  we  know,  to  formu- 
late the  doctrine  of  the  transmission  of  the  soul  by 
propagation  from  parent  to  child,  known  in  the  history 
of  doctrine  as  "  Traducianism."  His  psychology  is 
somewhat  materialistic,  in  harmony  with  his  Stoic  mode 
of  thought.  He  defines  the  soul  *  as  "  born  of  the  truth 
of  God,  immortal,  corporeal,  having  form,  simple  of 
substance,  .  .  free  of  will,  obnoxious  to  accidents, 
mutable  through  natural  dispositions,  rational,  dominat- 
ing, divining,  multiplying  from  one."  Elsewhere  he 
gives  an  account  of  a  Montanist  prophetess,  who  pro- 
fessed to  have  seen  a  soul  and  attempted  to  describe  its 
outward  appearance. 

(c)  Baptism.  No  Christian  writer  of  the  early  cen- 
turies wrote  so  extravagantly  regarding  the  magical 
effects  of  water  baptism.  His  attitude  toward  baptism 
was  due  in  some  measure  to  his  Stoical  conception  of 
the  essential  unity  of  matter  and  spirit  (materialistic 
monism). 

The  treatise  *'  D#  Bapt^mat$  "  begins :  '*  Blessed  is  our  sacrament 
of  water,  in  that,  by  washing  away  the  sins  of  our  early  blindness, 
we  are  liberated  into  eternal  life.'*^  Again:  "  But  we, little  fishes, 
after  the  example  of  our  ix^va  Jesus  Christ  [the  letters  of  this  Greek 
word  meaning  fish  are  the  initials  for  '  Jesus  Christ,  Son  of  God, 
Saviour,'  and  the  picture  of  a  fish  was  a  very  common  sign  among 
the  early  Christians],  are  born  in  water  "  (Chap,  i ).  He  dilates  on 
the  age  and  the  dignity  of  water  as  the  pnmeval  element  on  which 
the  Divine  Spirit  orooded.  "Water  was  the  first  to  produce  that 
which  had  lire,  that  it  mieht  be  no  wonder  in  baptism  if  waters 
knew  how  to  give  life"  (Cnap.  3).  He  argues  that  "  the  Spirit  of 
God,  who  hovered  over  (the  waters)  from  the  beginning,  would 

1  "  Dt  Atdmar  46.  *  Ikid,,  n. 


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CHAP. Ill]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        263 

continue  to  linger  over  the  waters  of  the  baptized."  "  Thus,"  he 
continues,  **  the  nature  of  the  waters,  sanctified  by  the  Holy  One, 
itself  conceived  withal  the  power  of  sanctifying. '  Again:  '*A11 
waters,  therefore,  in  virtue  of  the  pristine  privilege  of  their  origin, 
do,  after  invocation  of  God,  attain  the  sacramental  power  of  sanctl- 
fication."  Again:  "Therefore,  after  the  waters  nave  been  In  a 
manner  endued  with  medicinal  virtue  through  the  intervention  of  the 
angel,  the  spirit  is  corporeally  washed  in  £fie  waters,  as  the  flesh  is 
in  the  same  spiritually^'  (Chap.  4).  He  calls  attention  to  the  iustral 
rites  of  various  heathen  peoples  and  the  magical  efficacy  ascribed 
thereto,  but  it  does  not  seem  to  occur  to  him  that  he  is  paganizing 
Rather  he  argues  that  *'  if  the  mere  nature  of  water  .  .  .  leads  men 
to  flatter  themselves  with  a  belief  in  omens  of  purification,  how 
much  more  will  waters  render  that  service  through  the  authority  of 
God,  by  whom  all  their  nature  has  been  constituted  "  (Chap.  $).       ^ 

Tertullian  earnestly  dissuades  from  the  practice  of  • 
bapti:(ing  little  children  (not  infants),  which  appears  to 
have  been  becoming  somewhat  common  in  his  time. 
He  is  insisting  ^  upon  the  utmost  care  in  the  administra- 
tion of  baptism,  lest  those  should  be  baptized  who  have 
not  a  proper  understanding  of  the  efficacy  of  the  ordi- 
nance and  the  obligations  it  entails.  Believing  as  he 
did  in  the«unpardonableness  of  post-baptismal  sins,  he  • 
thought  that  no  one  should  be  baptized  who  was  not  in 
a  position  to  guard  his  life  most  scrupulously  from  the 
moment  of  his  baptism.  • 

"  Let  them  come,"  he  says,  "  while  they  are  adolescent,  while 
they  are  learning,  while  they  are  being  taught  wherefore  they  come ; 
let  them  become  Christians  when  they  become  able  to  know  Christ." 
Tertullian  opposed  the  baptism  of  nttle  children,  but  not  on  abso- 
lutely correct  principles.  The  custom  that  he  is  arguing  against 
appears  to  have  been  the  baptism  of  children  who  were  large  enough 
to  ^'hasten  to  the  remission  of  sins,"  but  who  yet  had  no  proper 
idea  of  Christianity.  On  the  same  ground  Tertullian  argues  that 
the  unmarried  and  virgins  ought  to  delay  their  baptism  until  they 
have  passed  through  their  maturity. 

(d)  State  of  Christian  life  represented  in  the  writings 
of  Tertullian.  The  opposition  between  the  worldly 
Christians  and  the  ascetical,  legalistic,  Montanistic  party 
had  reached  its  climax.  Abundant  evidence  of  the  cor- 
ruption of  morals  in  the  churches,  and  of  the  growing 
tendency  toward    episcopacy,   which    Tertullian  as   a 


'  D*  B^tismaU,**  17. 


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264  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER  11 

presbyter  combats,  is  furnished  by  the  writings  of  Ter- 
tullian. 

e.  The  Carthaginian  Church.  It  is  not  known  just  how 
or  when  Christianity  was  first  introduced  into  Carthage, 
but  almost  certainly  from  Rome,  in  the  first  half  of  the 
second  century.  Carthage  had  by  this  time  come  to  be 
one  of  the  great  cities  of  the  world.  Africa  was  the 
chief  source  of  grain  supply  for  Italy,  and  Carthage  was 
its  commercial  center.  It  had  adopted  the  language  of 
Rome  and  had  developed  considerable  intellectual  ac- 
tivity. It  combined  the  licentious  idolatry  of  the  East 
with  the  luxury  and  extravagance  of  Rome.  It  is  de- 
scribed by  an  ancient  writer  as  the  Rome  of  Africa  and 
as  surpassing  all  other  cities  in  corruption  and  vice. 

Yet  Christianity  found  acceptance  here  among  all 
ranks  of  people,  even  the  highest,  and  from  this  centre 
spread  all  over  Proconsular  Africa.  By  the  close  of  the 
second  century  the  Christians  numbered  many  thou- 
sands. A  distinct  type  of  Christianity  was  naturally 
developed  here,  combining  Roman  organization  with 
African  fire  and  impetuosity.  In  all  matters  the  North 
African  Christians  seem  to  have  tended  to  extremes. 
Nowhere  else  did  such  violent  schisms  occur  during  this 
period.  Carthaginian  Christianity  had  little  of  the 
speculative  spirit  of  the  Alexandrian,  and  its  speculative 
heresies  (Gnosticism.  Monarchianism,  etc.)  were  chiefly 
importations. 

Here,  as  at  Rome,  opposition  soon  arose  between  the  strict  and  the 
lax  elements.  It  is  only  necessary  to  read  Tertullian's  treatises  con- 
cerning Idolatry,  Spectacular  Exhibitions,  Chastity,  Modesty,  and 
Veiling  of  Virgins,  to  be  convinced  of  the  corruption  in  which  a  part 
of  the  Carthaginian  Christian  community  was  involved.  We 
learn  that  the  virgins  or  nuns  of  the  church  were  fond  of  fine  dress 
and  of  attending  the  public  baths  (no  sign  of  modesty);  that 
makers  of  idols  were  sometimes  admitted  into  the  church,  urging  in 
defense  of  their  conduct  inability  to  support  themselves  otherwise ; 
that  Christians  could  not  be  restrained  from  witnessing  spectacular 
exhibitions;  and  that  drunkenness,  gluttony,  and  lust  abounded. 
Such  things  were  condemned  by  the  strict  Montanistic  party,  which, 
driven  to  despair  by  the  condition  of  the  church,  doubtless  became 
somewhat  fanatical  in  its  zeal  for  purity  and  separation  from  the 
world,  exalting  virginity,  insisting  upon  abstemiousness  in  regard 
to  every  human  pleasure,  being  zealous  for  martyrdom,  etc. 

Fanaticism  in  religion  almost  always  springs  from  despair  in  rela* 


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CHAP.  111.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        265 

tion  to  the  actual  state  of  things  and  opposition  encountered  in  efforts 
for  reform. 

{4)  QfprioH, 

LITERATURE :  '*  Qfrtam  Omnia  Opsra^^^  various  editions,  Eras- 
mus, Fell,  Goldhom,  Hartel,  etc.  (A  critical  edition  of  Cyprian  is  a 
desideratum) ;  Pontius, " De  Vita Cppriam'* :  Eusebius, ** Hist.  Ecc.,'* 
Bk.  VIL,  Chap.  3 ;  Lactantius,  Bk.  V.,  Chap,  i ;  English  transla- 
tion of  Cyprian's  works  in  "  Ante-Nicene  Fathers^* ;  Neander, 
"  Ch.  Hist.,''  Voi.  L.passim ;  Pressens6, "  Mart,  and  Apol.,"  pp.  414, 
stq. ;  Poole,  **  Life  and  Times  of  Cyprian  "  ;  Rettberg,  **  Qprioftus 
nach  siitum  Uhen  md  IVirken'* ;  Long,  in  ''Baptist  Quarterly," 
1877 ;  O.  Ritschl,  **  Qyp,  von  Carthago,''  1885  ;  Greenwood,  **  Cathi- 
dra  Pttri,''  Vol.  I.;  TiUemont,  ''  Mimoins,'^  Tom.  IV.,  p.  76,  ssq. : 
•'  St.  Cyprian's  Correspondence  "  in  **  Church  Quarterly  Review,'* 
July,  1891 ;  Goctz,  *'  G$seh,  </.  Cypr,  Litteratwr''  1891 ;  Le  Provost, 
''  Etudi philosot>kiquiit  Uttsrain  sur  St.  Cyprien,'^  1888 ;  Freppei,  *'  5/. 
CypriiH  it  VEgliu  d'Affiqus^''  Third  Edition,  1889 ;  Bohringer,  "  Bio- 
paphien^'  Bd.  1.,  th.  2,  Seit.  813-1030;  Benson,  **  Life  of  St. 
Cyprian  "  ;  encyclopedia  articles,  especially  '*  Herzog,"  and  "  Diet, 
of  Chr.  Biog." 

a.  Sketch.  Cyprian  was  born  in  Proconsular  Africa, 
probably  in  Carthage,  about  200.  Like  Tertullian,  he 
was  the  son  of  a  Roman  officer  and  was  educated  as  a 
rhetorician.  He  was  a  brilliant  teacher  of  rhetoric  before 
his  conversion  to  Christianity.  Having  adopted  Christi- 
anity, he  at  once  became  zealous  in  defense  of  it,  and  de- 
voted his  ample  means  to  Christian  purposes.  He  was  an 
ardent  admirer  of  Tertullian,  and  may  be  regarded  as  his 
disciple.  Cyprian  became  bishop  of  the  Carthaginian 
church  so  shortly  after  his  conversion  as  to  cause  much 
dissatisfaction  among  the  presbyters.  But  the  Christian 
community  had  become  so  impressed  with  his  sanctity 
and  his  fitness  for  the  highest  position  in  the  North  Afri- 
can Church,  that  he  was  enthusiastically  appointed,  not- 
withstanding the  opposition. 

The  Decian  persecution  soon  broke  upon  the  North 
African  Church.  The  fury  of  Decius  was  directed  par- 
ticularly against  the  bishops.  When  Cyprian  could  no 
longer  remain  at  Carthage  with  any  safety,  he  went  into 
retirement.  This  exposed  him  to  the  charge  of  unfaith- 
fulness on  the  part  or  his  enemies  ;  yet  he  probably  had 
a  truer  view  of  Christian  duty  than  those  who  courted 
martyrdom.  His  letters  to  the  people  during  this  period  of 
separation  show  that  he  felt  the  profoundest  solicitude  for 


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266  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [per.  II 

their  welfare.  Having  returned,  he  suffered  martyrdom 
under  Valerian  (258). 

b.  Theological  Position  of  Cyprian.  Though  far  infe- 
rior to  Tertullian  in  learning  and  philosophical  ability, 
Cyprian  has  always  held  a  high  place  among  the  Fathers 
of  the  Church.  He  transferred  the  life  and  theology  of 
Tertullian  into  the  Catholic  Church.  Though  a  man  of 
great  holiness,  Cyprian  may  be  said  to  have  done  more 
for  the  development  of  hierarchical  views  than  any  man 
of  this  age.  The  circumstances  under  which  he  was 
placed,  the  difficulties  he  had  to  encounter,  together  with 
the  remarkable  administrative  powers  and  predilections 
which  were  his  by  nature,  led  him  to  take  a  position  in 
advance  of  his  age  in  favor  of  hierarchical  principles. 

Cyprian  was  the  first  to  establish  clearly  the  distinction 
between  presbyters  and  bishops,  and  the  primacy  of  the 
Roman  church  as  the  Cathedra  Petri, 

(a)  The  distinction  between  presbyters  and  bishops.  We 
have  seen  that  up  to  the  time  of  Irenaeus  the  distinction 
between  presbyters  and  bishops  was  by  no  means  clear. 
The  distinction,  firmly  established  from  the  time  of  Cyp- 
rian, was  brought  about  in  the  following  way:  The 
churches  had  come  to  be  large  bodies  difficult  to  manage, 
especially  in  times  of  persecution.  The  collection  and 
distribution  of  alms  had  assumed  vast  proportions,  and 
the  superintendence  of  this  work  devolved  upon  the 
bishop.  The  bishop  was  chairman  of  the  board  of  pres- 
byters and  the  leader  of  the  church  in  the  administration 
of  discipline.  Presbyters  often  disagreed,  and  the  feeling 
grew  that  there  should  be  in  each  Christian  community 
a  center  of  authority,  whereby  schism  might  be  prevented 
and  unity  preserved.  This  was  especially  the  case  in 
large  cities,  where  a  single  organization  was  maintained, 
with  many  places  of  worship,  each  presided  over  by  a 
presbyter  of  the  church.  Occasions  would  frequently 
arise  for  the  interference  of  the  bishop,  and  when  the 
need  for  episcopal  authority  came  to  be  strongly  felt  the 
vindication  of  such  authority  was  sure  to  follow. 

In  general,  a  struggle  took  place  between  the  aristo- 
cratical  government  of  the  presbyters  and  the  monarch- 
ical government  of  the  bishops.  Bishops  when  they  had 
strong  governing  talent  and  were  popular,  gradually 


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CHAP.  III.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES       267 

gained  the  upper  hand ;  so,  especially,  did  it  happen  in 
Cyprian's  struggle  with  the  Carthaginian  presbyters. 
The  triumph  of  episcopacy  undoubtedly  promoted  for 
the  time  tranquillity  and  order  ;  but  it  was  unfriendly  to 
the  free  development  of  ecclesiastical  life  and  led  to  the 
sacerdotalism  or  a  later  time. 

Cyprian,  while  in  retirement,  still  attempted  to  give 
direction  to  the  church  of  Carthage,  and  instructed  the 
presbyters  as  to  the  administration.  Whenever  he  had 
to  decide  anything  without  consulting  the  presbyters,  he 
was  careful  to  excuse  himself.  But  many  such  cases  oc- 
curred and  the  precedent  was  established. 

Yet  Cyprian  conceded  to  the  people  the  right  of  choos- 
ing worthy  bishops,  and  of  rejecting  unworthy  ones. 
The  fact  that  he  himself  was  elected  by  popular  vote, 
and  even  against  the  desire  of  some  of  the  presbyters, 
was  enough  to  secure  his  recognition  of  this  right.  But 
the  very  popularity  of  Cyprian  enabled  him  to  triumph 
over  the  presbyters,  just  as  Hildebrand,  at  a  later  time, 
triumphed  over  the  bishops  by  arousing  the  people  against 
them. 

He  was  a  genuine  pastor,  and  had  the  profoundest  re- 
gard for  the  welfare  of  each  member  of  the  flock.  He 
had  administrative  plans,  and  he  insisted  on  executing 
them.  The  interests  of  the  people  must  be  regarded, 
whether  the  presbyters  concurred  or  not.  His  motives 
seem  to  have  been  pure ;  but  when  the  same  method 
came  to  be  applied  by  less  worthy  bishops,  great  abuses 
resulted. 

(ft)  The  doctrine  of  the  suprema(y  of  the  %oman  Church 
as  the  Cathedra  Petri,  and  the  center  of  unity  of  the  one  Uni- 
versal Church.  Irenaeus  had  insisted  upon  the  unity  of 
the  church  ;  but  it  was  a  spiritual  unity,  resulting  from 
community  of  headship  in  Christ  and  from  community  of 
belief,  as  handed  down  through  a  succession  of  presby- 
ters, not  an  external,  organic  unity.  The  general  ten- 
dency of  the  church  from  this  time  forward  was  toward 
making  religion  external ;  and  the  idea  of  the  spiritual 
unity  of  the  church  was  easily  transformed  into  that  of 
outward  unity. 

The  same  tendencv  that  led  to  the  centralization  of 
power  in  the  bishop,  for  the  sake  of  securing  unity  and 


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268  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [per.  n 

order,  led  to  a  centralization  of  power  in  a  head  of  the 
universal  church.  If  the  church  was  an  outward,  organic 
unity,  it  needed  a  single  mouthpiece,  just  as  much  as  did 
a  single  community.  Controversies  were  arising  every- 
where among  bishops.  A  supreme  bishop — a  bishop  of 
bishops — was  needed  to  adjudicate  upon  these  controver- 
sies. There  arose  thus  in  the  minds  of  Cyprian  and 
others  a  desire  for  such  a  unifying,  authoritative  power  ; 
but  it  is  noticeable  that  such  a  power  was  desired  only  oi* 
the  supposition  that  the  authoritative  head  would  decide 
justly,  i.  e.,  on  Cyprian's  side.  The  thought  never  oc- 
curred to  Cyprian,  perhaps,  of  submitting  to  an  unjust 
decision,  i.  e.,  one  against  himself. 

In  his  work,  "  De  Unitate  EcclesicB^"  Cyprian  makes  use 
of  such  language  as  this :  "  The  primacy  was  given  to 
Peter,  that  one  church  of  Christ  and  one  chair  might  be 
pointed  out."  *'  Does  he  believe  that  he  is  in  the  faith, 
who  does  not  hold  this  unity  of  the  church  ?  Does  he 
trust  that  he  is  in  the  church  who  strives  against  and  re- 
sists the  church  ?  who  deserts  the  Cathedra  Petri  on 
which  the  church  has  been  founded  ?  "  "  There  is  one 
episcopate,  by  the  single  members  of  which  each  part  is 
held  in  solidity."  *'  Just  as  there  are  many  rays  of  the 
sun,  but  one  light ;  and  many  branches  of  the  tree,  but 
one  strength,  founded  on  the  tenacious  root ;  and  since 
from  one  source  many  streams  flow  forth,  the  numerosity 
may  seem  diffused  by  the  bounty  of  the  surging  stream, 
nevertheless  unity  in  origin  is  preserved.  Pluck  a  ray 
of  the  sun  from  the  body,  the  unity  of  the  light  does  not 
receive  a  division."  "  He  cannot  have  God  for  his  Father 
who  has  not  the  church  for  his  mother." 

There  is  considerable  ground  for  skepticism  regarding  the  authen- 
ticity of  these  strong  expressions  regarding  the  Caihidra  Petri  and  the 
primacy  of  the  Roman  bishop.  While  there  is  no  documentary  basis 
for  the  theory  of  interpolation,  it  seems  improbable  that  the  Cyprian 
who  was  so  self-assertive  in  his  intercourse  with  the  bishops  of  the 
Roman  church  in  his  time  should  have  sought  to  exalt  the  authority 
of  these  very  bishops.  But  it  may  be  that  the  object  he  had  in  view 
ill  writing  this  treatise  led  him  to  forget  for  the  time  his  personal 
attitude  toward  the  incumbents  of  the  Roman  See. 

c.  ^Adversaries  of  Cyprian,  (a)  With  regard  to  the 
treatment  of  the  ** lapsed.**    Large  numbers  of  nominal 


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CHAP.  III.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES       269 

Christians  were  le^  by  physical  fear  or  love  of  property 
to  deny  the  faith.  When  persecution  had  ceased  these 
clamored  for  re-admission  into  the  churches.  Martyrs 
and  confessors  had  always  been  highly  esteemed.  Some 
of  these  were  supposed  to  have  made  dying  requests  for 
the  restoration  of  the  fallen.  In  the  eyes  of  many  this 
was  a  sufficient  ground  for  indiscriminate  restoration.  A 
certain  Lucian  claimed  to  have  been  directed  by  a  well- 
known  confessor,  Paul,  to  give  "  letters  of  peace  "  to  all 
the  lapsed,  and  accordingly  spread  such  letters  broad- 
cast through  the  North  African  churches.  In  many  cases 
the  lapsed,  with  these  letters  in  their  hands,  overawed 
presbyters  and  bishops ;  but  Cyprian  was  not  to  be  thus 
overawed.  The  decided  stand  that  he  took  on  this  matter 
brought  him  into  controversy  not  only  with  the  confes- 
sors, but  also  with  some  of  the  presbyters  (those  chiefly 
that  were  already  against  him),  and  with  the  Roman 
church,  which  was  in  favor  of  leniency  toward  the 
lapsed. 

Cyprian  adopted  a  middle  course :  Those  who  showed 
signs  of  true  penitence  and  whose  sins  had  not  been  par- 
ticularly grave,  were  to  be  restored  ;  others,  not.  This 
was  one  of  the  hardest  battles  Cyprian  had  to  fight ; 
and  in  the  course  of  it  he  was  led  to  assert  the  divine 
right  of  bishops  as  successors  of  the  apostles,  appointed 
by  God  himself  and  acting  in  the  name  of  Christ,  and 
their  supremacy  over  presbyters. 

(b)  \Vith  regard  to  the  administration  of  church  finances^ 
etc.  Novatus  was  one  of  the  presbyters  who  opposed 
the  election  of  Cyprian.  In  direct  opposition  to  Cyp- 
rian's wish  he  soon  appointed  (or  caused  to  be  chosen) 
Felicissimus  as  deacon  in  his  church.  The  opposition  be- 
tween Cyprian  and  Novatus  and  Felicissimus  was  long  and 
fierce.  Before  Cyprian's  return  from  exile,  he  sent  two 
bishops  and  two  presbyters  to  examine  into  the  condition 
of  the  churches  and  to  make  a  schedule  of  all  the  poor 
who  were  to  be  supported  from  the  church  funds,  with 
notices  of  their  ages,  their  conduct  in  persecution,  etc. 
They  were  directed  to  give  to  the  poor  from  the  church 
funds  what  they  needed  for  immediate  support  and  to 
give  to  mechanics  who  had  lost  everything  in  persecution, 
money  for  purchasing  tools,  etc.  Felicissimus,  as  deacon 


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270  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  II 

and  treasurer,  refused  to  allow  Cypr^n  to  meddle  with 
the  finances  of  Novatus'  church.  This  church  now  be- 
came the  resort  of  many  of  the  lapsed,  and  a  schism  was 
effected  with  Felicissimus  at  its  head.  A  council  was 
called  by  Cyprian,  and  Felicissimus  and  his  party  were 
condemned.  Both  parties  appealed  to  Rome,  and  although 
the  Roman  church  agreed  with  Felicissimus  with  regard 
to  the  treatment  of  the  lapsed,  it  refused  to  recognize  a 
party  that  was  looked  upon  as  schismatical.  The  party 
of  Felicissimus  never  became  strong. 

(£:)  JVith  regard  to  the  validity  of  heretical  baptism. 
After  the  rise  and  diffusion  of  schismatical  bodies,  per- 
sons frequently  sought  admission  into  the  churches  who 
had  been  baptized  in  these.  The  churches  of  Asia  Minor 
maintained  the  invalidity  of  heretical  baptism.  This 
principle  was  rigidly  adhered  to  by  the  Montanists,  and 
had  come  from  Tertullian  to  Cyprian.  The  opponents 
of  Montanism  soon  began  to  oppose  re-baptism. 

In  255  Cyprian  secured  the  convening  of  a  council, 
which  decided  in  favor  of  the  stricter  principle  ;  although 
in  253,  Stephen,  bishop  of  Rome,  had  excommunicated 
the  bishops  of  Asia  Minor  for  holding  to  this  view,  stig- 
matizing them  as  "Anabaptists."  It  is  wonderful  how 
Cyprian's  tone,  in  correspondence  with  the  Roman 
bishop,  varies  according  to  circumstances.  He  now 
writes  to  Stephen,  giving  him  the  decision  of  the  African 
council  and  the  reasons  for  it,  without  once  alluding  to 
any  authority  of  the  Roman  bishop  to  reverse  the  decision. 
The  tone  is  somewhat  bold  and  defiant. 

(d)  With  regard  to  the  competemy  of  the  church  to  for- 
give the  lapsed,  Cyprian's  views  on  this  subject  are  his- 
torically connected  with  the  Novatian  schism,  discussed 
above.  It  is  remarkable,  that  although  Cyprian  tended 
toward  the  Montanistic  rigor  he  was  prevented  from  sup- 
porting the  Novatianists  by  two  considerations:  First, 
that  the  extreme  position  drove  men  to  despair,  and  he 
was  wise  enough  to  see  that  it  was  impracticable ;  sec- 
ondly, that  the  Novatianist  party  had  broken  the  unity  of 
the  church  by  setting  up  a  bishop  in  opposition  to  a  duly 
consecrated,  and  hence  divinely  apf>ointed,  bishop. 
Cyprian  could  endure  anything  rather  than  see  the 
unity  of  the  church  broken.     The  idea  of  the  one  Uni- 


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CHAP.  III.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES       27  i 

versa!  Church  was  gaining  a  strong  hold  upon  men's 
minds  in  Cyprian's  time,  and  any  party  that  should 
break  this  unity  was  sure  to  be  repudiated  by  the  most 
influential  Christians  and  churches,  however  holy  the 
life  or  pure  the  doctrine  of  such  party. 

V.  THE  SCIENTIFIC  PERIOD. 

Alexandria  at  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  was 
the  most  cosmopolitan  city  in  the  world.  Oriental  and 
Occidental  culture  met  and  blended  there  as  nowhere 
else.  The  Jewish-Alexandrian  philosophy,  as  seen  most 
fully  developed  in  the  writings  of  Philo,  was  one  of  the 
most  noteworthy  products  of  the  eclecticism  that  there 
prevailed.  Nowhere  was  a  new  religion  or  philosophy 
so  sure  of  a  hospitable  hearing.  Here  Gnosticism  and 
speculative  Ebionism  flourished.  The  first  introduction  of 
Christianity  into  the  city  is  veiled  in  obscurity.  Tradi- 
tion points  to  Mark  as  the  founder  of  the  Alexandrian 
church.  A  distinct  mode  of  theological  thought,  of  which 
Pantaenus,  Clement,  and  Origen  were  the  great  ex- 
ponents, was  here  developed.  Shortly  after  the  middle 
of  the  second  century  a  catechetical  school  was  estab- 
lished for  the  instruction  of  the  children  of  believers  and 
fresh  converts  from  paganism  in  the  fundamentals  of 
Christian  doctrine  and  morals.  The  first  teacher  of 
whom  we  have  information  was  Pantsenus,  whom  his 
more  distinguished  pupil  praises,  but  whose  writings  have 
not  survived.  The  instruction  at  first  must  have  been 
very  elementary  in  its  nature.  Under  Clement,  who 
succeeded  Pantsenus,  the  school  grew  in  popularity,  and 
the  instruction  became  more  scientific.  Clement  having 
fled  from  Alexandria  during  the  persecution  under  Se- 
verus  (202  or  203),  Origen,  a  mere  youth,  became 
teacher.  Under  him,  the  school  rose  to  its  highest  point 
(202-230),  attracting  large  numbers  of  pagans  and  Gnos- 
tics, as  well  as  Christians.  Clement  and  Origen  may  be 
regarded  as  the  first  really  scientific  students  of  Chris- 
tianity and  the  Christian  Scriptures ;  the  first,  the  Gnostic 
bodies  excepted,  who  attempted  to  reduce  Christianity 
to  a  consistent,  harmonious  system.  Alexandria  con- 
tinued to  be  a  chief  center  of  Christian  thought  and 
influence  until  the  seventh  century. 


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272  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.li 

/.  General  Characteristics. 

(i)  Earlier  Christian  writers  like  Irenaeus,  Hippolytus, 
and  TertulHan^  had  discussed  individual  doctrines  with 
special  reference  to  attacks  made  upon  them  by  heretics. 
But  the  idea  seems  never  to  have  occurred  to  them  to 
make  a  systematic  exposition  of  Christianity  as  a  whole ; 
to  apply  comprehensive  principles  to  the  interpretation 
of  Scripture ;  to  compare  systematically  the  different 
parts  of  Scripture  among  themselves.  Such  a  study  of 
Christianity  was  begun  toward  the  close  of  the  second 
century  at  Alexandria. 

(2)  Alexandria  being  the  seat  of  speculative  philoso- 
phy, whence  most  of  the  elements  of  Gnosticism  had 
come,  it  might  have  been  expected  that  Christianity, 
after  it  had  become  well  established  here,  would  assume 
a  speculative  form. 

(3)  The  Alexandrian  theologians  with  whom  the 
scientific  spirit  had  its  birth,  were  Platonists  (with  a 
strong  admixture  of  Pythagoreanism  and  Stoicism).  Not 
that  they  had  been  simply  brought  up  Platonists  (as 
were  Justin  and  Athenagoras,  who  yet,  after  they 
adopted  Christianity,  rejected  Platonism  as  the  work  of 
demons) ;  but  they  remained  Platonists,  and  sought  to 
explain  Christianity  according  to  the  Platonic  categories, 
in  somewhat  the  same  way  in  which  Philo  had,  two  cen- 
turies earlier,  attempted  to  explain  Judaism.  In  fact 
these  Christian  Platonists  were  greatly  indebted  to  Philo. 

(4)  The  chief  difference  between  the  theology  under 
discussion  and  that  of  the  Gnostics  is,  that  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  former  were  decided  Christians^  ad- 
hered to  the  historical,  and  admitted  the  divine  authority 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments ;  whereas,  the  latter 
had  little  sympathy  with  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  and 
paid  no  regard  to  the  historical. 

(5)  Heretofore,  the  allegorical  interpretation  had  been 
applied  to  the  Scriptures,  whenever  it  suited  a  writer's 
purpose.    Allegorizing  was  now  reduced  to  a  system. 

(6)  In  the  profound  speculations  of  this  school  of 
thought,  with  regard  to  the  origin  of  evil,  the  Godhead, 
the  will  of  man,  the  consummation  of  all  things,  etc.,  lay 
the  germs  of  many  lat:>r  doctrinal  developments. 


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CHAP.  III.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES       27  J 
2.  Individual  IVtiters. 

(/)  CUmitU  of  AUsumdria* 

LrrERATURE:  The  best  edition  of  the  works  of  Clement 
is  that  of  Dindorf,  though  this  is  very  defective:  Eng.  tr.  in 
"  Ante-Nicene  Fathers" ;  lusebius, "  Hist,  Ecc''  Bit.  V..  Chap.  11, 
Bic  VI.,  Chap.  II,  13;  Photius,  ^^Bibliothsca^^*  109-111 ;  Bunsen 
has  made  a  clever  attempt  to  reconstruct  the  *'  Ht^tuposiis^*'  from 
fragments  preserved  by  Theodotus  and  Photius,  m  his  "  AnaUcts 
AutiHic''  Vol.  I.,  p.  iw,  $$0.;  Bigg,  **  The  Chr.  Piatonists  of  Alex- 
andria" ;  Hatch,  "  The  Influence  of  Greek  Ideas  and  Usages  upon 
the  Christian  Church,"  1890 ;  Kutter,  '*  Clem.  v4Ux.  und  das  N.  7.," 
1897  ;  Merk,  **  CUm,  %AUx.  m  siimr  AhhangigluH  von  d.  grtsch.  Thilo- 
lophit^^  1879;  Lehmann,  ''Oir  KaUch$t$nschuU  ^  ^AUxandrim^^ 
1896 :  sections  on  Clem,  of  Alex,  in  the  works  on  the  history  ot 
doctrine,  by  Loofs,  Thomaslus,  Seeberg,  Fisher,  and  Sheldon; 
Allen,  "  The  Continuihr  of  Christian  Thought,"  p.  ^,  s$q, ;  Har- 
nack, ''  Dogminggsch.^'^  Bd.  I.,  5^.  501,  $$q, ;  Zahn,  *^  Forschimg$n!^ 
Bd.  III.,  SiS.  17-176;  Neander,  Vol.  I.,  D.691,  s$q.:  Schaff,  Vol. 
II.,  p.  781,  siq.;  Moeller,  p.  207,  ssa.;  Pressens6.  ''Martyrs  and 
Apologists,"  p.  540,  seq, ;  Bunsen,  ^  Hippolytus,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  239, 
s^^.  (highly  appreciative  and  apologetic)  ;  Mansel,  ''Gnostic  Her.,^' 
p.  261,  «^. ;  Domer,  "  Person  of  Christ,"  Div.  I.,  VoL  I.,  p.  285, 
Siq.;  Reinkens,  "  D$  CUm.  ^Ux.*';  Kling,  in  ''Studimu.  Kritihm}* 
1841 ;  Westcott,  art.  "  Clem,  of  Alex."  in  Smith's  "  Diet  of  Ch. 
Biog.,"  and  Bonwetsch,  in  "  Herzog  "  (third  edition). 

a.  Sketch.  Clement  was  born  about  160,  probably  at 
\thens.  Having  pursued  studies  under  various  masters, 
of  various  nationalities  and  of  various  religious  and 
philosophical  views,  he  at  last  found  rest  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Pantaenus,  the  head  of  the  catechetical  school 
in  Alexandria,  whom  he  regarded  as  the  greatest  of  them 
all.  He  always  speaks  of  Pantaenus  (not  often  by 
name)  in  terms  of  the  very  highest  praise.  Pantasnus 
was,  in  his  view,  the  **  deepest  Gnostic,*'  i.  e.,  possessed 
the  most  perfect  insight  into  the  significance  of  Christi- 
anity. 

Clement  was  already  profoundly  versed  in  Greek 
philosophy  and  literature  and  knew  something  of 
Christianity  when  he  came  under  the  influence  of  Pan- 
tasnus.  The  philosophical  Christianity  of  Pantasnus 
satisfied  his  needs  and  he  devoted  himself  with  ardor 
to  theological  studies.  He  succeeded  Pantaenus  as 
teacher  about  190,  and  continued  in  this  work  until 
about  202,  when  he  was  driven  from  his  post  by  perse- 

% 


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274  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISIORY  [PER.  a 

cution.  But  he  left  behind  him  a  pupil  who  soon  took 
his  place  and  gave  still  greater  lustre  to  the  school.  He 
was  probably  the  most  accomplished  Christian  scholar 
before  Origen.  Greek,  Gnostic,  and  Christian  literature 
he  had  not  only  read,  but  mastered.  His  writings 
abound  in  apt  quotations  from  the  rich  literature  at  his 
command.  He  was  an  elegant  writer  of  Greek,  and  few 
early  Christian  writers  are  so  attractive  to  the  modern 
reader. 

It  was  during  his  residence  at  Alexandria,  and  in  con- 
nection with  his  duties  as  teacher,  that  he  composed  the 
writings  on  which  his  fame  rests. 

In  Clement  we  see  a  man  of  a  profoundly  speculative 
mind,  with  a  high  appreciation  for  the  true,  the  beautiful, 
and  the  good,  wherever  he  might  meet  them,  who  at- 
tempted to  form  a  harmonious  system  of  Christianity  in 
its  relation  to  the  universe.  We  find  in  his  writings 
much  that  is  noble  and  instructive,  together  with  much 
that  is  fantastic  and  puerile. 

It  is  in  Clement  that  we  see  most  clearly  the  influence 
of  Greek  philosophy  upon  Christian  thought.  His  aims 
and  aspirations  were  very  similar  to  those  of  the  great 
Gnostic  leaders  ;  but  he  had  vastly  more  understanding 
for  historical  Christianity,  and  he  rejected  earnestly  all 
the  most  dangerous  of  the  Gnostic  views.  His  work  has 
been  pronounced  "epoch-making"  (Harnack).  He  un- 
dertook the  great  task  of  preparing  an  introduction  to  or 
an  initiation  into  that  which  is  inmost  and  highest  in 
Christianity. 

b.  Writings  of  Clement  The  principal  writings  of 
Clement  that  have  been  preserved  are:  The  ''Logos 
Protrepiikos/'  or  "Address  to  the  Greeks";  the  "  Paida- 
gogos,"  or  "Tutor";  the  '* Stromateis,*'  or  "Miscella- 
nies"; and  the  '' Hupotuposeis,"  or  "  Outlines  of  Scrip- 
ture Interpretation." 

The  conception  and  the  execution  of  this  series  of  works  has  been 
declared  by  Overbeck  to  be  "  the  boldest  literary  undertaking  in  the 
history  of  the  church."  He  was  the  first  to  attempt  "  to  represent 
Christianity  in  the  forms  of  the  profane  worid-literature  for  the 
Christian  community  itself."  "The  design  of  Clement  is  nothing 
less  than  an  introduction  to  Christianity,  or  to  speak  more  correctly 
and  more  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  work,  an  initiation 


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CHAP.  111.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        275 

into  Christianity.  For  .  .  .  tlie  taslc  that  Clement  sets  for  himself 
is  the  introduction  (of  his  readers)  into  that  which  is  inmost  an(} 
highest  in  Christianity  itself.  He  aims»  so  to  spealc,  with  a  woric 
of  literature  to  transform  Christians  into  perfect  Christians,  with 
such  a  worl<  to  repeat  for  the  Christian  wliat  the  life  has  already 
otherwise  accomplished  for  him,  but  to  raise  him  up  to  something 
still  higher  than  the  forms  of  Initiation  that  the  churcn  has  provide 
itself  with  have  disclosed.  To  this  end,  •  .  he  translates  the  ideal 
career  of  a  Christian  of  that  time  into  the  form  of  a  boolc  and  re- 
quires this  Christian  to  repeat  the  wandering  in  order  henceforth  to 
lead  him  to  the  highest  aims  thereof."  ^ 

*^  The  gospel  in  nis  view  is  not  a  fresh  departure,  but  the  meeting- 
point  of  two  converging  lines  of  progress,  Hellenism  and  Judaism. 
To  him  ail  history  is  one  because  all  truth  is  one.  *  There  is  one 
river  of  Truth,'  he  says,  '  but  many  streams  fall  into  it  on  this 
side  and  on  that.'  Among  Christian  writers  none  till  very  recent 
times,  not  even  Orieen,  has  so  clear  and  grand  a  conception  of  the 
development  of  spiritual  life."  • 

Clement  regarded  star-worship  as  a  divinely  given  stepping-stone 
to  a  purer  religion.'  He  compared  truth  to  the  body  ot  Pentheus, 
torn  to  pieces  by  fanatics,  each  of  whom  imagines  hfs  fragment  the 
whole.* 

(a)  The  ** Address  to  the  Greeks  *'  is  probably  the  ear- 
liest of  Clement's  writings,  and  may  have  been  com- 
posed about  190.  The  aim  of  the  address  is  to  prove  to 
those  conversant  with  Greek  philosophy  the  infinite  su- 
periority of  Christianity,  in  its  adaptability  to  all  human 
needs,  in  its  purity,  spirituality,  clearness,  and  substan- 
tiality. The  address  abounds  in  eloquent  passages.  See 
especially  his  description  of  the  mission  of  the  Word 
and  the  true  destiny  of  man  (Chap.  11). 

(Jb)  The  '* Pedagogue.'*  The  aim  of  the  "Address"  was 
to  win  heathen  to  the  acceptance  of  the  gospel ;  the  de- 
sign of  the  "  Pedagogue  "  was  to  convey  elementary  in- 
struction to  the  young  and  to  those  that  had  just  ac- 
cepted Christianity.  It  is,  therefore,  an  eminently  prac- 
tical work. 

Book  I.  contains  a  description  of  our  Pedagogue,  Christ,  his  char- 
acter, his  method  of  dealing  with  his  children.  The  Pedagogue  is 
practical,  not  theoretical;  his  aim  is  to  improve  the  soul,  not  to 
teach ;  and  to  train  up  to  a  virtuous,  not  to  an  intellectual  life. 
Clement's  theory  is,  that  those  coming  to  Christ  from  paganism 
need  first  to  be  cured  of  their  corrupt  habits  and  thoughts  before 


'  StromaMs. 


>See  Herxog-Hauck.  third  edition.  BJ.  IV.,  Stit  156.  uq. 

*  Bi».  "  The  Chr.  Platonlsts  of  Alex.."  p.  47.  Mf. 
romattis,^  Bk.  VI..  Chap.  14.  *IM.,  Bk.  I..  Chap.  x}. 

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276  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.n. 

special  instruction  in  the  doctrines  of  Christianihr  can  profit  them. 
The  mercy  and  purity  of  Christ  are  emphaslzedi  and  neld  up  for 
imitation. 

Boolcs  11.  and  111.  consist  of  practical  instructions  as  to  eating, 
drinking,  expensive  vessels  and  furniture,  behavior  at  feasts, 
laughter,  filthy  speaking,  relations  of  the  sexes,  sleep,  the  procrea- 
tion of  children,  clothes,  ornaments,  etc.  The  utmost  simplicity  and 
moderation  in  all  things  are  insisted  upon. 

Book  III.  is  exceedingly  important  for  the  light  it  throws  upon  the 
church  life  of  the  time,  and  the  nature  of  the  instruction  required  by 
the  converts  and  given  to  them  by  Christian  teachers. 

(c)  The  ^^Miscellanies.**  This  work  consists  of  a 
conglomeration  of  extracts  from  pagan  and  Christian 
writers,  interspersed  with  original  comments  and  occa- 
sional prolonged  discussions.  The  object  of  the  whole 
is  to  awaken  the  interest  and  to  exercise  the  ingenuity 
of  the  readers,  and  to  show  the  infinite  superiority  of 
the  Christian  religion  and  philosophy  to  the  pagan. 

Book  I.  Doints  out  the  office  and  origin  of  Greek  philosophy  in  re- 
lation to  Christianity  and  Judaism.  It  is  claimed  that  me  Greek 
philosophers  borrowed  directly  from  the  Old  Testament. 

Book  II.  shows  the  superiority  of  biblical  morality  to  that  of 
heathen  philosophy.  Faith  and  repentance  are  discussed  at  length. 
Likeness  to  God  is  declared  to  be  the  ideal  which  Christians  are  to 
set  before  them. 

Book  III.  contains  a  prolonged  discussion  of  the  doctrine  of  mar 
riage ;  the  licentious  views  of  pagans  and  some  Gnostics  are  stated 
nd  refuted.  On  the  other  hand,  abstinence  from  marriage,  on  the 
ground  of  the  evil  nature  of  matter,  is  condemned.  The  standard 
biblical  passages  are  thoroughly  discussed  in  answer  to  erroneous 
interpretations  of  heretics. 

Book  IV.  begins  with  a  statement  of  Clement's  plan  for  the  de- 
fense of  Christianity.  He  then  describes  the  true  "Gnostic"  or 
Christian  philosopher.  Self-sacrifice  that  does  not  shrink  from  mar* 
tyrdom,  love,  endurance,  are  among  his  traits.  Although  martyr- 
dom  is  extolled,  fanatical  seeking  for  martyrdom  is  shaiply  re- 
proved, and  the  views  of  certain  Gnostics  with  regard  to  martyrdom 
are  refuted.  The  perfect  man  does  good  neither  ror  glory  nor  repu- 
tation, nor  for  reward  either  from  men  or  God ;  but  so  as  to  pass 
life  after  the  image  and  likeness  of  the  Lord.  He  does  good  because 
he  Judges  it  right  to  do  good. 

Book  V.  discusses  faith,  hope,  and  enigmatic  teaching.  The 
mysteries  of  Pythagoreans,  Egyptians,  etc.,  are  compared  with 
those  of  the  Bible ;  and  the  principle  of  symbolic  teaching  is  vindi- 
cated. Here,  also,  he  attempts  to  prove  that  the  Greeks  have  bor- 
rowed from  the  Bible  by  citing  numerous  examples  of  supposed 
coincidence. 

Book  VI.  continues  the  Object  of  plagiarism  on  the  part  of  the 


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CHAP.  IIL]  LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES       277 

Greeks.  He  declares  the  Greeks  to  have  some  knowledge  of  God. 
He  asserts  that  the  gospel  was  preached  in  hades  both  by  Christ 
and  his  apostles  to  those  of  the  Hebrews  and  Greeks  wno  were 
righteous  according  to  the  law  and  philosophy.  Here,  again,  the 
Christian  philosopher  is  described  at  great  length.  The  delineation 
is  continued  through  Book  VII.  This  is  the  most  important  of  the 
writings  of  Clement,  and  was  designed  for  those  who  had  already 
adopted  Christianity,  and  had  received  the  preliminary  training  pre- 
scribed in  the  "  Pedagogue." 

(d)  The  ''Outlines.**  Only  fragments  of  this  are  pre- 
served. It  consisted  of  a  commentary  on  large  parts. of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  written  partly  in  refuta- 
tion of  false  interpretations  by  heretics. 

(e)  The  small  treatise  entitled  "  IVho  is  the  Rich  Man 
that  is  Saved?'*  is  an  eloquent  appeal  for  the  right  use 
of  wealth. 

c.  Theology  of  Clement,  (a)  God  the  Father  is  the 
"remoter  Cause  (i.  e.,  than  the  Son),  the  Father  of  all 
things,  the  oldest  and  most  beneficent  of  all,  yet  not 
representable  by  voice,  but  in  reverence  and  silence 
with  holy  astonishment  is  to  be  venerated  and  adored  in 
the  most  lordly  manner.'*  We  see  here  the  well-known 
Alexandrian  (Platonic)  tendency  to  exalt  the  Supreme 
Being  above  all  relations  to  the  world.^ 

(b)  The  Son  is  called  the  timeless  and  unoriginated 
Principle  of  existence,  from  whence  we  are  to  learn  the 
remoter  Cause.* 

Again,  having  declared  the  pious  man  to  be  the  best 
thing  on  earth,  and  an  angel  the  best  thing  in  heaven, 
he  adds:  "But  most  perfect  and  most  holy,  and  most 
lordly  and  most  princely,  and  most  royal  and  most 
beneficent  is  the  nature  of  the  Son,  which  is  nearest 
to  the  only  Omnipotent  One.  This  is  the  greatest  ex- 
cellence, which  orders  all  things  according  to  the  will  of 
the  Father,  and  steers  everything  in  the  best  way,  .  . 
for  the  Son  of  God  is  never  displaced  from  his  watch- 
tower,  not  being  divided,  not  being  severed,  not  passing 
from  place  to  place,  being  always  everywhere  and  con- 
tained nowhere ;  wholly  mind,  wholly  paternal  light, 
wholly  eye,  seeing  all  things,  knowing  all  things;  by 
power  examining  the  powers.'" 

1 "  SfnMMteix/'  Bic  Vn..  Chap.  z.  *  tbU,  *  /Ma*.,  Chap,  s. 


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278  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  II. 

This  Being  is  further  declared  to  be  the  same  that 
Christians  call  Saviour  and  Lord.  Inasmuch  as  the 
whole  universe  is  under  his  government,  he  is  Lord  of 
the  Greeks  and  barbarians.  He  it  was  who  gave  to  the 
Greeks  their  philosophy.  He  cares  continually  for 
every  human  being. 

The  Son  is  declared  to  be  the  '*  power  of  God,  as  being 
the  Father's  most  ancient  Word,  before  the  production 
of  all  things,  and  his  Wisdom."  He  is  declared  **to 
have  invested  himself  with  flesh,  and  to  have  come  for 
the  salvation  of  men."* 

Clement's  representations  of  the  Logos  are  various, 
some  of  them  obscure ;  but  we  may  safely  say  that  he 
insisted  upon  the  eternal  existence  of  the  Son  as  the 
Wisdom  of  God,  and  as  God's  instrument  in  the  creation 
and  the  governing  of  the  universe.  We  have  here,  in  a 
less  developed  form,  the  "eternally  begotten"  Logos 
of  Origen.  This  Logos,  according  to  Clement,  was  of 
the  very  essence  of  the  Father. 

(c)  ihe  Holy  Spirit.  Clement  has  no  clear  statement 
on  this  subject,  i.  e.,  no  statement  which  enables  us  to 
see  whether  he  distinguished  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
from  the  work  of  the  Logos  in  Providence,  in  the  human 
conscience,  etc.  He  writes:  "There  is  one  Father  of 
the  universe ;  there  is  also  one  Word  of  the  universe ; 
and  one  Holy  Spirit,  who  is  everywhere."' 

(d)  Anthropology.  Clement  held  most  decidedly  to 
the  freedom  of  man's  will ;  to  the  power  of  every 
man,  through  the  incarnation  and  death  of  Christ,  to 
overcome  sensuality  and  to  attain  unto  salvation. 

He  regarded  man's  original  state  as  infantile  and  free. 
The  account  of  the  temptation  he  regarded  as  an  alle- 
gory, meaning  that  man  was  overcome  by  sensuality. 
As  a  result  of  this,  mankind  has  ever  since  had  to  con- 
tend against  sensuality.  Christ  came  to  deliver  man 
from  the  power  of  sin  and  death.* 

Physical  death  he  regarded  as  a  natural  necessity  of 
the  Divine  economy  following  upon  generation.*  Re- 
garding Christ's  activity  in  human  history  as  constant 

1  "Strpmattis,"  Bk.  VII..  Chap.  a. 

*  See  Bunsen's  scheme  of  the  conplez  representations  of  the  Godhead  by  Cl«BUi% 
in  *'  HIppolytus  and  his  Age."  Vol.  I.,  p.  844. 
»  ••  Protrept,,"  BIc.  XI.  *  " SiromMitts, "  Bk.  HI..  Chap.  o. 


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CHAP.  III.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        279 

from  the  beginning,  Clement  supposed  that  Christ  came 
in  the  flesh  to  show  men  the  sufficiency  of  their  powers 
for  obeying  God's  commandments,  by  himself  living  in 
the  flesh  a  life  free  from  sin,  thus  overcoming  sin  and  de- 
stroying the  power  of  death.  This  he  did  as  an  example 
for  men.* 

To  the  Gnostic  dilemma :  '*  Man  was  created  either  perfect  or  imper- 
fect; if  imperfect,  how  is  the  work  of  a  perfect  God— especially 
man— Imperfect?  If  perfect,  how  does  he  transgress  the  command- 
ments?'' Clement  replies,  that  man  was  not  made  *' perfectly 
equipped,  but  fitted  for  attaining  to  virtue  ^  for  it  Is  Important  cer- 
tainly for  virtue,  to  be  fitted  for  the  possession  of  it.  But  he  wishes 
us  of  ourselves  to  be  saved.  .  .  All,  Indeed,  are  fitted  by  nature  for 
the  acquiring  of  virtue ;  but  one  more,  another  less,  advances  in 
discipline  and  training.  Wherefore,  also,  some  have  attained  even 
unto  perfect  virtue ;  others  have  arrived  at  some ;  but  others,  again, 
through  negligence,  even  if  they  were  otherwise  well-disposed,  have 
been  turned  into  the  opposite."  ^ 

d.  Ideal  of  Christian  Life.  In  his  delineations  of  the 
Christian  philosopher,  we  see  Clement's  ideal.  It  is 
that  of  a  man  who  by  self-discipline  and  study  has  over- 
come all  of  his  evil  propensities,  so  that  he  is  superior  to 
all  selfish  motives,  even  the  expectation  of  heavenly  re- 
ward. He  has  risen  to  a  state  of  exalted  contemplation, 
so  that  he  understands  the  methods  of  God's  providen- 
tial dealing,  and  the  meaning  of  God's  written  word. 
Clement's  system  wt.s,  therefore,  aristocratical.  His 
gradation  was:  Christ,  angels,  Christian  philosophers, 
the  great  bulk  of  Christians  who  never  attain  to  perfec- 
tion. Though  it  was  far  from  Clement's  intention,  his 
views  very  naturally  ministered  to  sacerdotalism. 

Thus  we  see  that  Clement  of  Alexandria  and  his  contemporary, 
Tertullian  of  Carthage,  were  antipodes  in  theological  thought.  The 
one  had  sympathies  as  broad  as  humanity ;  the  other  confined  the 
saving  efficacy  of  Christ  to  a  particular  type  of  Christian  life,  re- 
garding not  only  all  pagans,  but  all  Christians,  who  did  not  con- 
form to  his  narrow  system,  as  reprobated.  The  one  looked  upon 
humanity  and  human  life  as  inherently  noble,  and  as  capable  of  be- 
ing raisai  by  proper  discipline  to  a  state  of  perfection  ;  the  other.  In 
constant  expectation  of  the  end  of  the  world,  regarded  the  present 
life  as  of  no  account  except  as  a  time  of  preparation  for  a  future  life ; 
and  he  regarded  that  preparation  as  involving  a  constant  crucifixion 

1 "  Sinrntagis,"  Bk.  VII.,  Chap.  s.  •  fHJ.,  Bk.  VI.,  Chap.  19. 


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28o  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IL 

of  the  flesh.  Clement  believed  In  rational  instruction  as  a  means  of 
attaining  to  exaltation  of  character ;  Tertullian  enjoined  an  irrational 
asceticism. 

Clement  went  to  an  extreme  in  his  humanitarianism,  and  was  the 
forerunner  of  Pelagianism.  Tertullian  went  to  the  opposite  extreme, 
and  was  the  forerunner  of  Monasticism,  with  its  utter  repudiation 
of  human  nature. 

(a)  Oiigm. 

LITERATURE:  Various  editions  of  the  complete  works  of 
Origen,  of  which  the  most  convenient  is  that  of  Lommatzsch»  in 
twenty-five  volumes,  8vo ;  Eusebius,  '*  Hist.  Ecc.,**  Bk.  VI.,  Chap. 
i-^;  Gregorius  Thaumaturgus,  ^^Oratio  Tamgyrica  m  Orig.''^  and 
Pamphiius,  '' Atol,  Ortg?'  (Eng.  tr.  in  "Ante-Nicene  Fathers"); 
..^.     K..      .«  .,    ;^der,V(*  ' 


Vol,  II.,  p.  78J,  sea, ;  Moelier,  p.  209,  s$q, ;  Bigg,  '*  The  Chr.  Platon- 
ists  of  Alex.,'*^;  HeccnBcky^^Do^mmgesck.,^^  Bd.  L,  SiH,  $11,  sgq.; 
Domer,  "  Person  of  Christ,"  Div.  I^  Vol.  II.,  p.  104,  sgq, ;  Bunsen, 
"  HIppolytus,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  279,  s$q. ;  Thomasius,  "  Origmn  " :  Rede- 

Snnmg, ''  Origmes^^  (the  best  work  on  the  life  and  teachings  of 
riffen);  Ritter,  ''Gisch.  dtr  Chr.  Pkihs''  B^.  I.,  S«i.  465,  «g.; 
works  of  Neander,  Baur,  Hagenbach,  Shedd,  Loofs,  Seeberg,Pisher, 
and  Sheldon,  on  the  history  of  doctrine ;  encyc.  articles,  esp.  West- 
cott,  in  "  Diet,  of  Chr.  Bici." 

a.  Sketch.  Origen  was  born  c.  185,  of  Christian 
parents,  and  from  his  childhood  was  favored  with  excel- 
lent religious  training.  While  yet  a  child  he  could  re- 
peat from  memory  large  parts  of  the  Scriptures,  and  he 
often  perplexed  his  intelligent  father  by  the  subtlety  of 
his  questions.  His  father,  Leonides,  suffered  martyrdom 
about  202,  Origen  exhorting  him  to  steadfastness,  and 
being  restrained  with  the  utmost  difficulty  from  offering 
himself  up  for  martyrdom.  From  childhood  throughout 
life  he  practised  a  rigorous  asceticism  ;  he  possessed  but 
one  coat,  and  no  shoes ;  rarely  ate  flesh,  never  drank 
wine ;  devoted  much  of  the  night  to  study  and  prayer, 
and  slept  on  the  bare  floor. 

After  the  departure  of  Clement  he  was  appointed 
catechist  in  his  place  (203).  His  knowledge  of  Scripture 
and  other  literature  was  already  considerable  ;  but  now 
he  resolved  to  master  the  systems  of  the  leading  hereti- 
cal bodies  in  order  that  he  might  successfully  combat 
them.     The  Neo-Platonic  philosophy  was  just  coming 


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CHAP.  111.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        281 

into  prominence  under  the  leadership  of  Ammonius  Sac* 
cas.  Origen  studied  the  system  carefully  under  its  great 
representative.  His  reputation  was  soon  widespread. 
Heathen  and  Gnostics  in  large  numbers  attended  his 
lectures,  and  many  were  converted.  Ambrosius,  a 
wealthy  Gnostic,  was  converted,  and  spent  a  large  sum 
of  money  in  purchasing  an  extensive  library  for  Origen, 
and  in  racilitating  the  publication  of  his  works.  Julia 
Mammaea,  mother  of  Alexander  Severus,  invited  him  to 
Antioch  to  expound  to  her  the  Christian  religion.  An 
Arabian  prince  secured  a  visit  from  him  with  like  in- 
tent. 

With  a  view  to  attaining  a  better  understanding  of  the 
Old  Testament,  he  mastered  the  Hebrew  language  un- 
der the  most  discouraging  circumstances.  He  traveled, 
from  time  to  time,  to  Rome,  to  Arabia,  to  Palestine,  and 
to  Greece. 

While  in  Palestine,  in  228,  he  was  ordained  a  presby- 
ter by  Alexander  of  Jerusalem  and  Theoctistus  of  Caesa- 
rea.  This  proceeding  aroused  the  resentment  of  Deme- 
trius, bishop  of  Alexandria.  At  two  councils,  called  by 
Demetrius  in  231  and  232,  Origen  was  condemned  for 
false  doctrine,  self-mutilation  (committed  in  his  youth  in 
supposed  obedience  to  the  Saviour's  injunction.  Matt. 
19  :  12,  such  mutilation,  according  to  the  most  ancient 
ecclesiastical  law,  incapacitating  one  for  ordination),  and 
violation  of  church  laws,  and  was  deposed  from  his 
office.  His  study  of  philosophy  and  Gnosticism  had  not 
left  him  the  simple  believer  it  found  him.  With  im- 
mensely more  learning  and  logical  consistency  than 
Clement,  Origen  probably  indulged  in  even  wilder 
speculations  than  he. 

He  was  the  most  learned  man  and  one  of  the  pro- 
foundest  thinkers  in  the  ancient  church  (Jerome  was 
more  learned  in  Hebrew),  and  probably  exerted  more  in- 
fluence on  the  doctrinal  development  of  the  church  than 
any  other  man.  He  became  involved  in  controversy 
during  his  lifetime,  and  after  his  death  a  series  of  contro- 
versies based  upon  his  teachings  set  in  that  lasted  for 
centuries. 

The  remainder  of  his  life,  after  his  departure  from  Al- 
exandria, was  spent  chiefly  in  Palestine,  where  he  died 


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282  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  a 

about  254,  partly  as  a  result  of  imprisonment  and  tor- 
ture during  the  Decian  persecution, 

b.  Writings  of  Origen.  Origen  was  one  of  the  most 
voluminous  of  writers.  Jerome  says  that  he  wrote 
more  than  other  men  can  read.  Epiphanius  estimates 
the  whole  number  of  his  writings  at  about  six  thousand. 
Many  have  perished ;  others  are  preserved  only  in  frag- 
ments ;  most  that  we  have  are  in  indifferent  Latin  trans- 
lations. 

(a)  Critical,  Exegetical,  and  Edificatory  Works  on  the 
Bible.  Origen  was  the  first  to  study  the  Bible  scientifi- 
cally and  critically.  Clement's  exegetical  performances, 
so  far  as  we  can  judge  from  the  extant  fragments,  were 
insignificant  in  comparison.  There  is  no  writer  of  the 
early  church  to  whom  biblical  criticism  is  so  much  in- 
debted. Jerome  would  have  been  impossible  without 
Origen.    These  biblical  works  are  of  three  kinds : 

Works  on  the  Text — the  Hexapla  and  Tetrapla — (the 
former  an  Old  Testament  Polyglot,  with  Hebrew,  Hebrew 
in  Greek  letters,  LXX.,  and  three  other  Greek  versions 
in  parallel  columns — the  design  being  the  restoration  of 
the  LXX.  to  purity  ;  the  latter  containing  only  the  four 
Greek  versions).  Only  fragments  of  these  have  been 
preserved,  but  they  are  of  exceeding  value. 

Commentaries,  extending  over  almost  the  entire  Bible. 
These,  though  they  contain  much  that  is  fantastic,  are 
full  of  information  and  highly  suggestive. 

Homilies,  or  familiar  expository  discourses,  on  large 
portions  of  the  Bible. 

(Jb)  Apologetical.  One  of  the  maturest  of  Origen's 
works,  and  the  one  that  throws  most  light  on  the  rela- 
tion of  Christianity  to  paganism  in  Origen's  time,  is  the 
work,  **  Contra  Celsum.'*  Celsus,  a  Platonist  (or  Epicu- 
rean), had  written  a  most  scurrilous  work  against  Chris- 
tianity, probably  during  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius. 
This  appears  to  have  been  still  employed  by  the  pagans 
as  an  armory  against  Christianity  in  the  time  of  Origen, 
Origen's  refutation  of  pagan  charges  against  Christianity 
is  the  ablest  work  of  the  kind  that  the  early  church  pro- 
duced. 

(c)  DopnaticaL  Here  the  chief  work  is  the  "  De  Prin- 
cipiis.*'  This  is  the  first  attempt  at  a  systematic  exhibition 


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CHAP.  III.]  LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES       283 

of  Christian  doctrine.  It  was  written  some  time  before 
Origen's  departure  from  Alexandria,  and  contains  more 
of  crude  speculation  than  any  other  of  his  works.  We 
possess  this  work  only  in  the  professedly  unfaithful 
translation  of  Rufinus  (Rufinus  having  omitted  many  of 
the  more  offensive  expressions).  It  was  published  with- 
out his  permission  through  the  zeal  of  his  patron  Am- 
brosius.  Here  we  find  the  fundamental  Christian  doc- 
trines concerning  God,  the  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit, 
Free-will,  Immortality,  Eternity,  Eternal  Life,  etc., 
speculatively  discussed. 

(d)  Practical  Works.  Of  these,  the  most  important 
that  have  been  preserved  are,  the  treatise  on  Prayer, 
and  that  on  Martyrdom.  These  show  a  man  of  great 
piety  and  Christian  zeal.  The  work  on  Martyrdom 
was  addressed  to  his  friend  Ambrosius  in  time  of  perse- 
cution, and  is  somewhat  extravagant  in  its  exaltation  of 
martyrdom. 

c.  Theology  of  Origen.  Origin  distinguished  carefully 
between  those  points  of  doctrine  on  which  the  Scriptures 
contain  explicit  statements,  and  those  questions  which, 
though  not  answered  by  Scripture,  yet  obtrude  them- 
selves upon  the  Christian  thinker's  mind.  The  latter 
class  of  questions  must  be  answered,  as  far  as  possible, 
in  conformity  with  the  Scriptures  ;  but  still  much  ground 
is  left  for  speculation.  He  believed  strongly  in  allowing 
to  every  man  the  utmost  freedom  in  considering  such 
matters. 

In  his  great  dogmatic  work,  "D^  Principiis,*'  accord- 
ingly, he  sets  out  with  a  concise  statement  of  the  rule  of 
faith  of  the  universal  church.  There  is  nothing  espe- 
cially remarkable  about  this  rule  of  faith ;  but  having 
laid  down  this  as  a  basis,  he  proceeds  to  the  considera- 
tion of  other  questions  not  clearly  answered  by  Scrip- 
ture and  ecclesiastical  tradition. 

(a)  Concerning  God.  Origen  first  refutes  materialistic 
views  based  upon  expressions  like  :  *'  Our  God  is  a  con- 
suming fire,"  etc. ;  and  proves  that  God  is  a  Spirit, 
chiefly  from  New  Testament  passages.  God  is  not  only 
a  Spirit,  but  is  incomprehensible  and  inestimable.^    His 

>  "  D*  Principiis,*'  Bk.  I.,  Chap.  i. 


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284  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  II. 

idea  of  God,  therefore,  is  that  of  pure,  absolute  Being 
(Platonic,  seen  also  in  Justin  and  Clement).  He  is  know- 
able  only  through  his  works,  and  especially  thiough  his 
Son.  As  God  was  from  eternity  Father  and  Lord,  the 
generation  of  the  Son  and  the  creation  of  the  world  are 
eternal  processes.  Origen  could  not  think  of  the  Abso- 
lute Being  as  having  ever  been  idle. 

(b)  The  Son.  It  was  Origen 's  doctrine  of  the  Son, 
more  than  any  other  of  his  doctrines,  that  played  so  im- 
portant a  part  in  later  doctrinal  development.  Origen 
held  that  the  Son  was  "begotten  by  the  Father,"  yet 
that  "there  never  was  when  he  was  not."  The  beget- 
ting then  is  an  eternal  effect  of  the  Father,  yet  is  not  to 
be  regarded  as  a  projection  or  emanation  from  the  being 
or  substance  of  the  Father,  in  a  way  that  would  involve 
diminution  or  division  thereof.  The  Father  is  the  origi- 
nating cause  of  the  Son,  the  Son  of  all  other  creatures. 
The  begetting  of  the  Son  is  an  act  of  God's  will,  and  in 
so  far  the  Son  is  a  creature.  On  the  other  hand,  he  is 
uncreated,  God  of  God,  of  the  Divine  nature  and  essence. 
The  Son  differs  from  creatures  in  having  his  being  imme- 
diately from  the  primal  source,  and  in  that  his  divine 
nature  is  essential,  independent,  and  inalienable.  The 
Son,  or  the  Logos,  contains  in  himself  all  ideas  which  are 
realized  in  the  world  (Platonic).  He  constitutes  the  ra- 
tional element  in  all  intelligent  creatures.  The  activity 
of  the  Logos  in  the  guidance  and  instruction  of  the  human 
race  is  coeval  with  the  race.  He  gave  the  law,  inspired 
the  prophets,  and  enlightened  the  heathen,  so  far  as  they 
have  any  religious  or  moral  knowledge.  The  work  of 
the  Logos  is  to  lead  all  intelligent  creatures,  step  by  step, 
upward  to  the  contemplation  of  God.  From  the  human 
he  leads  up  to  the  angelic  ;  from  the  angelic  to  the  arch- 
angelic.  10  men  he  appears  as  man ;  to  angels  as  an 
angel. 

(c)  The  Holy  Spirit  Origen  regarded  as  the  first  and 
most  exalted  of  all  beings  produced  by  the  Father  through 
the  Son.  His  activity  differs  from  that  of  the  Logos,  in 
that  the  latter  extends  to  all  creatures,  whereas  the 
former  appears  only  in  connection  with  the  dispensation 
of  God's  grace. 

id)  Anthropology.    Origen  held  that  in  the  original 


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CHAP.  III.]  LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        285 

world  there  were  only  spiritual  existences.  Many  of 
these  spirits,  having  been  created  pure,  apostatized  from 
God,  The  material  world  was  created  out  of  nothing,  to 
be  the  abode  of  fallen  spirits,  the  object  being  at  the  same 
time  penal  and  reformatory.  The  account  of  Adam's 
fall  in  Genesis  Origen  regarded  as  an  allegorical  repre- 
sentation of  the  fate  of  the  whole  class  of  fallen,  embodied 
spirits.  Origen  held  to  the  Platonic  trichotomy  of  human 
nature :  the  material  body,  dead  in  itself ;  the  soul,  or 
vital  principle,  which  man  has  in  common  with  beasts ; 
the  spirit,  which  he  has  as  participating  in  the  being  of 
the  Logos. 

By  his  apostasy,  man's  reason  is  darkened  ;  he  is  de- 
prived of  the  true  spiritual  life ;  he  is  under  the  influence 
of  Satan  ;  yet  his  will  is  free  to  choose  good  or  evil. 

The  redemption  wrought  by  Christ  consisted  in  his 
uniting  in  himself  the  human  and  the  divine ;  in  his  ex- 
ample, his  teachings,  his  miracles,  his  death — which  re- 
deemed man  from  the  power  of  Satan. 

Origen  thus  believed  in  the  vicarious  sacrifice  of  Christ. 
Christ  is  a  sacrifice,  not  merely  for  all  men,  but  for  fallen 
angels.  The  merit  of  Christ  must  be  appropriated  by 
each  individual  through  faith.  By  believing  in  Christ 
we  become  like  him  in  character.  Origen  distinguished 
gradations  in  Christian  life:  mere  faith,  knowledge, 
wisdom. 

The  power  to  will  and  to  do  comes  from  God  ;  choice 
of  good  rests  with  man  ;  after  choice  for  good,  all  needful 
assistance  in  the  perfecting  of  Christian  character  is  fur- 
nished by  the  Holy  Spirit. 

(e)  Baptism.  Believing,  as  he  did,  that  children  are 
born  into  the  world  polluted  by  sin,  hence  that  little  chil- 
dren need  remission  of  sins,  and  believing  as  he  did  in 
the  efficacy  and  necessity  of  baptism  for  the  remission  of 
sins,  Origen  spoke  approvingly  of  the  baptism  of  little 
children  as  a  well-established  custom  of  the  churches. 

(/)  Eschatological  yiews.  Origen  did  not  believe  in  a 
resurrection  of  the  material  body  ;  the  resurrection  body, 
he  thought,  would  have  the  senne  farm,  but  not  the  same 
substance  as  the  present.  It  would  not  be  a  body  of 
flesh  and  blood,  but  a  spiritual  body. 

Origen  had  a  firm  belief  in  the  final  restoration  of  har- 


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286  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  II. 

mony  in  the  spiritual  world.  The  end  is  to  be  as  was 
the  beginning.  Even  the  damned  and  devils,  he  sup- 
posed, would,  after  having  undergone  sufficient  disci- 
plinary punishment,  be  brought  into  voluntary  subjec- 
tion to  Christ. 

d.  Method  of  Scripture  Interpretation.  Origen  was 
the  first  to  redfuce  the  allegorical  method  of  interpreta- 
tion to  a  system.  The  allegorical  interpretation  of  Scrip- 
ture had  been  extensively  employed  by  the  great  Jewish- 
Alexandrian  thinkers,  Aristobulus  and  Philo.  It  had 
been  taken  up  by  the  Gnostics,  and  was  practised  by 
most  of  the  Christian  writers  of  the  early  time.  The 
aim  of  the  allegorical  interpretation  was  to  harmonize  the 
Scriptures,  which  were  regarded  as  divinely  inspired, 
with  the  Platonic  modes  of  thought,  which  had  become, 
as  it  were,  part  and  parcel  of  the  being  of  such  Christians 
as  Origen.  Had  Origen  been  shut  up  to  a  literal  inter- 
pretation of  the  Old  Testament,  he  would,  probably,  like 
the  Gnostics,  have  rejected  the  Old  Testament  and  the 
God  of  the  Old  Testament. 

He  held,  therefore,  in  accordance  with  the  Platonic  trichotomy, 
that  every  passage  of  Scripture  has  three  senses,  the  literal,  the 
moral,  and  the  spiritual. 

To  the  literal  (earthly,  sensual,  carnal,  Jewish)  sense,  he  attached 
Mttle  importance,  save  as  a  basis  for  the  higher  senses ;  but  his  chief 
merit  as  an  exegete  consists  in  the  fact  that  he  did  industriously  seek 
to  ascertain  this  literal  sense.    The  literal  sense  is  not  always  true. 

But  there  underiics  every  passage  a  deeper  sense  (celestial,  intelli- 
gible, symbolical,  mystical,  secret),  which  is  distinguished  into  the 
moral  and  the  spiritual  sense. 

The  moral  sense  is  that  which  relates  to  matters  connected  with 
religious  life. 

The  spiritual  sense  is  that  which  relates  to  the  heavenly  life,  the 
world  to  come. 

e.  Influence  of  Origen  on  the  Later  Church,  (a)  His 
method  of  Scripture  interpretation  was  soon  adopted 
throughout  the  church  (except  the  Antiochian  school, 
which  went  to  the  opposite  extreme  of  adhering  rigidly 
to  the  literal  meaning),  and  prevailed  throughout  the 
Middle  Ages.  In  this  particular  Origen's  influence  was 
bad,  and  only  bad.  Yet  his  views  on  the  literal  meaning 
have  always  been  of  great  utility. 

(b)  The  effect  of  his  bold,  wild  speculations  was  two- 


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CHAP.  111.]   LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES        287 

fold :  (i)  Many  were  led  astray  by  his  example,  while 
(2)  others  were  frightened  by  his  boldness  into  a  denial 
of  the  right  of  freedom  of  thought. 

We  cannot  say  that  the  great  doctrinal  controversies  of  the  fourth 
and  following  centuries  would  not  have  taken  place  except  for  the 
speculations  of  Orlgen ;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  they  almost  all  cen- 
tered around  the  points  on  which  he  had  speculated  most  boldly.  If 
the  formulating  of  Christian  doctrine  whlcn  took  place  in  the  Nicene 
and  following  ages  was  a  beneficent  consummation,  then  Origen's 
merit  in  this  direction  was  very  great.  If  those  tierce  theological 
controversies  were  evil  and  hurtful  to  the  progress  of  the  kingdom  of 
Christ,  then  Origen's  responsibility  was  great. 

'*  Origen  may  well  be  placed  side  by  side  with  Augustine  as  one 
of  the  two  most  important  and  most  influential  theologians  of  the 
ancient  church.  He  is  the  father  of  ecclesiastical  science  in  the 
broadest  sense  of  the  word,  and  at  the  same  time  the  founder  of  that 
theology  which  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  reached  its  full  devel- 
opment and  which  in  the  sixth  century  definitely  denied  its  originator, 
yet  without  losing  the  impress  that  he  had  given  it.  Origen  created 
ecclesiastical  dogmatics,  and  he  laid  the  foundation  for  the  science  of 
the  sources  of  the  Jewish  and  Christian  religion.  He  proclaimed  the 
reconciliation  of  science  with  the  Christian  faith,  of  the  highest  cul- 
ture with  the  gospei,^^ -—Hamack. 

(s)  Gregory  Thaumaturgus. 

LITERATURE:  Text  in  "Mlgne,"  Vol.  X.,  p.  983,  seq.  (Eng.  tr. 
In  "  Ante-Nic.  Lib.,"  Am.  ed.,  Vol.  VI.,  p.  7,  seq.) ;  Ryssel,  *'Grig, 
Thaumaturgus^  sein  Lebm  u.  s,  Schrtftin,**  1881 ;  articles  In  "  Diet, 
of  Chr.  Biog.,"  Herzog-Hauck,  and  Schaff-Herzog. 

Gregory  Thaumaturgus,  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
of  Origen's  disciples,  was  born  at  Neo-Caesarea  in  Pon- 
tus  (c.  210).  Having  been  led  to  take  an  interest  in 
Christianity  he  availed  himself  of  an  opportunity  to  visit 
Caesarea  (Palestine),  where  Origen  was  laboring.  He 
was  by  this  great  teacher  led  into  the  light,  and  for  eight 
years  sat  at  his  feet.  Returning  to  Neo-Caesarea 
(c.  240),  he  found  only  seventeen  Christians  in  the 
whole  neighborhood.  By  his  zealous  labors,  continued 
through  thirty  years,  he  so  transformed  this  pagan  re- 
gion as  to  merit  the  title  "  Thaumaturgus "  (wonder- 
worker). 

His  most  important  extant  writing  is  his  "  Panegyric  '* 
on  Origen.  It  is  not  only  one  of  the  most  eloquent  dis- 
courses in  all  the  literature  of  the  age,  but  it  gives  us  a 


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288  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IL 

view  of  the  character  of  Origen  and  his  methods  of 
teaching  and  of  bringing  his  influence  to  bear  upon 
young  men,  that  we  should  not  otherwise  have  pos- 
sessed. 

Besides  the  "Panegyric,"  we  have  from  Gregory  a 
"Declaration  of  Faith/'  in  which  the  relations  of  the 
persons  of  the  Godhead  are  set  forth  in  Origenistic 
fashion;  a  "Metaphrase  of  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes/' 
which  consists  chiefly  of  moral  reflections  and  does  not, 
as  might  have  been  expected  of  a  disciple  of  Origen, 
contain  an  elaborate  allegorical  interpretation  of  the 
book  ;  and  a  "  Canonical  Epistle,"  giving  directions  for 
the  penance  and  the  discipline  of  those  who  when  taken 
captive  by  heathen  had  eaten  things  sacrificed  to  idols. 

Like  many  of  his  contemporaries  Gregory  shrank  from 
the  responsibilities  of  the  episcopal  office.  He  was  or- 
dained in  his  absence  by  a  neighboring  bishop,  whose 
determination  to  thrust  this  dignity  upon  him  he  was 
aware  of  and  whom  he  was  studiously  avoiding.  Early 
tradition  ascribed  actual  miracle-working  to  Gregory. 

{4)  Dumjysius  of  AUxandria. 

LITERATURE  :  Text  In  "  Mlgnc,"  Vol.  X..  p.  1237,  s$q.  ( Eng.  tr. 
••  Ante-Nic,  Lib./'  Am.  ed.,  Vol.  VI.,p.  81.  sio.) ;  works  of  Hamack. 
Seeberg,  Loofs,  Thomasius,  Baur,  and  Fisher,  on  the  history  of 
doctrine:  Domer,  **  Person  of  Christ" ;  articles  in  "  Diet,  of  Chr. 
Biog./'  Herzog-Hauck,  third  ed.,  and  Schaff-Herzog. 

Dionysius  of  Alexandria  (t:.  2CX>-265)  was  another 
distinguished  pupil  of  Origen,  and  after  a  considerable 
interval  (during  which  Heraclas  conducted  the  work), 
succeeded  him  as  head  of  the  catechetical  school  of 
Alexandria  (c.  232).  The  reputation  of  the  school  was 
well  sustained  by  this  great  teacher,  who  after  fifteen 
years  of  service  exchanged  this  position  for  the  bishop- 
ric of  Alexandria  (c.  246),  succeeding  Heraclas  in  this 
position  also.  The  fragments  of  his  works  that  have 
been  preserved  are  chiefly  polemical  and  exegetical.  He 
wrote  against  Sabellianism,  and  he  set  forth  in  an  epistle 
to  Dionysius,  bishop  of  the  Roman  church,  his  views  on 
the  Trinity.  He  insisted  on  the  absolute  eternity  of  the 
Son,  regarding  the  generative  process  as  an  eternal  one. 
Yet  he  held  that  "the  Son  has  existence  not  from  him- 


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CHAP.  Ul.]  LITERATURE  OF  FIRST  THREE  CENTURIES       289 

self,  but  from  the  Father.''  This  involves  the  subordi- 
nation of  the  Son,  which  Dionysius  did  not  know  how  to 
avoid.  Controversies  that  were  to  occupy  much  of  the 
energy  of  the  Christian  churches  for  the  following  cen- 
turies were  already  disturbing  the  minds  of  thinlcing 
men  and  the  harmony  of  the  churches. 

(5)  Tks  Eccksiastical  ConstihUwHs  and  Canons  of  ik$  j4pogtl4S. 

LITERATURE:  Schaff,  "The  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles." 

f>.  127,  M^.,  and  237.  s#9.  (Schaff  gives  full  information  regarding  the 
Iterature  and  the  Greek  text  with  an  English  translation); liar* 
nack,  *'  Tixts  u.  UnUrsnch.^**  Bd.  II.,  Ssit.  22$,  siq. ;  Shaw,  art. 
"Apost  Const.,"  in  "Diet,  of  Chr.  Antlq.";  and  Achelis,  art. 
**j4j>osiol  Kirchmordnwif^"  In  Herzog-Hauck,  third  ed.  In  his 
"  Hyppolytus  and  His  Age,"  Vol.  II.,  Bunsen  has  attempted  by  a 
critical  process  to  restore  from  the  Greek.  Coptic,  and  Ethiopic 
texts  the  "  Church-  and  House-Book  of  the  Ancient  Christians,''  in 
an  English  translation.  It  is  highly  probable  that  most  of  the  ma- 
terial thus  selected  Is  Ante-Nicene. 

The  *'  Ecclesiastical  Constitutions  and  Canons  of  the 
Apostles  *'  seems  to  have  formed  a  connecting  link  be- 
tween the  *'  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles  "  and  the 
''Apostolic  Constitutions/'  which  did  not  reach  their 
present  form  until  the  latter  part  of  the  fourth  or  the 
early  part  of  the  fifth  century.  That  it  was  widely 
used  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  it  has  been  preserved 
in  Greek,  Ethiopic,  Coptic  (Memphitic  and  Thebaic), 
and  Syriac. 

The  document  known  as  the  "  Two  Ways,"  which 
we  have  met  in  Barnabas  and  in  the  "  Teaching,"  is 
here  distributed  among  the  twelve  apostles,  who  are  sup- 
posed to  have  come  together  to  frame  a  body  of  moral 
instructions  and  who  each  in  turn  gives  utterance  to  his 
thoughts.  Martha  and  Mary  also  appear  as  speakers. 
The  precepts  as  given  in  the  "Teaching,"  are  consid- 
erably expanded,  much  new  material  being  introduced. 
The  first  thirteen  canons  are  parallel  with  the  "  Two 
Ways." 

The  remaining  seventeen  canons  give  directions  as  to 
the  qualifications,  the  manner  of  choosing  and  setting 
apart,  and  the  duties  of  the  various  classes  of  church 
officers.  A  somewhat  primitive  ecclesiastical  condition 
is  still  presupposed.    It  as  many  as  twelve  believing 

J 


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290  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  tt 

men  are  in  a  given  locality,  they  are  to  write  to  the 
churches  round  about  requesting  each  to  send  three 
chosen  men  to  examine  him  whom  they  have  chosen  for 
a  bishop,  and  if  he  is  found  worthy,  to  set  him  apart 
for  his  work.  The  bishop  thus  appointed  shall  examine 
and  ordain  two  or  three  presbyters  to  assist  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  ordinances  and  discipline.  Provision 
is  made  for  the  appointment  of  readers,  widows,  dea- 
cons, and  deaconesses. 

The  Coptic  Constitutions  give  detailed  directions  re- 
specting the  selection,  training,  baptizing,  and  admission 
to  communion,  of  catechumens.  The  utmost  care  is 
prescribed  in  the  reception  of  candidates  for  catechetical 
training,  those  engaged  in  disreputable  pursuits  being 
rigorously  excluded.  Three  years  is  given  as  the  nor- 
mal period  of  training  in  doctrine  and  in  life,  and  admis- 
sion to  baptism  at  the  end  of  the  period  is  conditioned 
on  a  favorable  report  of  the  catechist  as  regards  the  can- 
didate's good  behavior,  his  zeal  in  Christian  service,  and 
his  progress  in  Christian  knowledge.  Baptism  is  pre- 
ceded by  exorcism,  and  anointing  with  the  oil  of  exor- 
cism. The  candidate  goes  unclothed  into  the  water, 
makes  an  oral  profession  of  his  faith,  is  immersed  three 
times,  makes  another  fuller  confession,  then  having 
gone  up  out  of  the  water  is  anointed  by  the  presbyter 
with  the  oil  of  thanksgiving,  clothed,  and  allowed  to 
enter  the  church.  The  bishop  then  lays  his  hands  upon 
the  head  of  the  newly  baptized,  invokes  the  gift  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  again  anoints  his  head.  The  Lord's 
Supper  is  next  administered  to  the  new  members,  and 
they  are  given,  besides  the  bread  and  the  wine,  "milk 
and  honey  mixed,"  as  symbolizing  the  fact  that  they 
have  entered  into  a  state  of  blessedness  among  the 
saints. 


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CHAPTER  IV 

CONDITION  OF  CHRISTIANITY  AT  CLOSE  OF  THE  PERIOD 

I.  EXTERNAL  CONDITION. 

1.  Extent.  Christianity  had  by  this  time  permeated 
the  entire  Roman  Empire,  having  gained  adherents  even 
among  conquered  tribes.  From  Britain  to  India  the  name 
of  Christ  was  honored.  Ail  the  countries  bordering  on 
the  Mediterranean  Sea  abounded  in  Christians.  We  are 
not  to  infer  from  the  fact  that  Constantine  thought  it 
good  policy  to  make  Christianity  the  favored  religion, 
that  Christians  were  already  in  a  majority.  Even  in  the 
large  cities  they  still  constituted  but  a  small  minority, 
and  many  rural  districts  were  still  in  pagan  darkness. 
But  Christianitv  was  organized,  confident,  and  aggressive, 
and  to  it  the  future  evidently  belonged.  Paganism,  on 
the  other  hand,  was  without  organization,  without  hope, 
without  aggressiveness. 

2.  Social  Position.  Christianity  had  gained  a  high 
social  position  in  the  empire.  Before  the  Diocletian  per- 
secution Christians  held  many  high  civil  offices. 

3.  IVealth.  Christians  by  this  time  probably  had 
their  full  share  of  worldly  goods ;  the  churches  had,  in 
many  instances,  acquired  great  wealth ;  and  this  indi- 
vidual and  corporate  wealth  tended  at  the  same  time  to 
give  them  respectability  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  and  to 
facilitate  the  making  of  converts. 

4.  Culture.  Christianity  had  now  on  its  side  culture 
superior  to  that  of  the  pagans.  There  was  no  pagan 
philosopher  or  poet  of  the  third  century  who  bore  com- 
parison with  the  best  Christian  writers.  Apart  from  the 
great  teachers  and  writers,  whose  works  we  have  ex- 
amined, there  must  have  been  a  very  large  number  of 
educated  Christians  in  each  important  community.  The 
development  of  a  rich  literature  presupposes  a  public  to 
whose  needs  it  is  adapted. 

5.  Opponents.  Yet  Christianity  still  had  many  deadly 

291 


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292  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  a 

enemies:  philosophers,  especially  the  Neo-Platonists, 
who  attempted  to  make  of  their  philosophy  a  rival  re- 
ligion ;  priests  and  magicians,  whose  worldly  interests 
were  endangered  by  the  growing  power  of  Christianity  ; 
the  Manichaeans,  etc.  The  widely  diffused  Mithras 
worship  does  not  appear  to  have  been  so  distinctly  hos- 
tile to  Christianity  as  Neo-Platonism  and  Manichaeism ; 
and  many  converts  were  doubtless  drawn  from  this 
quarter. 

II.  INTERNAL  CONDITION. 

I.  Corrupting  Ideas.  That  Christianity  did  not  win  for 
Itself  popular  and  imperial   recognition  without  under- 

f;oin2  momentous  internal  changes  is  admitted  by  all. 
n  life,  doctrine,  church  order,  and  worship,  the  churches 
of  313  were  very  different  from  the  churches  of  icx). 
Those  who  regard  the  apostolic  churches  as  a  standard 
must  look  upon  these  changes  as  perversions.  The  fol- 
lowing corrupting  ideas,  derived  almost  wholly  from 
paganism,  may  be  distinguished : 

(i)  Meritoriousness  of  External  Works.  This  led  to, 
a.  Asceticism  and  fanatical  seeking  for  martyrdom,  b. 
Perversion  of  Christian  charity  into  indiscriminate  alms- 
giving, with  the  idea  that  almsgiving  secured  the  remis- 
sion of  sins.  c.  Perversion  of  the  ordinances  Into  mag- 
ical mysteries  whereby  spiritual  benefits  are  obtained. 

(2)  Fetichism,  the  idea  of  the  sanctity  and  the  spiritual 
potency  of  water,  the  element  of  baptism,  of  holy  places, 
of  the  bones  and  other  relics  of  saints  and  martyrs,  of 
the  cross  and  the  sign  of  the  cross,  of  the  sepulchre  of 
Christ,  etc. 

(3)  Sacerdotalism,  common  to  all  pagan  religions,  and 
closely  connected  with  (i):  a.  The  ordinances  possess- 
ing magical  efficacy  must  be  administered  by  a  properly 
qualified  priest,  b.  The  priest,  by  reason  of  his  cere- 
monial consecration,  a  mediator  between  God  and  man, 
the  channel  through  which  alone  the  ordinary  believer 
can  secure  spiritual  benefits,  c.  The  following  of 
priestly  directions  more  important  than  morality. 

(4)  ^tualism,  an  invariable  accompaniment  of  (i) 
and  (3).  Pompous  ceremonial  satisfies  the  desire  to  pro- 
pitiate Deity  by  external  performances  and  is  at  the 


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CHAP.  IV.]  CHRISTIANITY  AT  CLOSE  OF  THE  PERIOD       29) 

same  time  the  ready  device  of  priestcraft  for  securing 
and  maintaining  ttie  reverence  of  the  people. 

(5)  The  Allegorical  Interpretation  of  Scripture ^  by  virtue 
of  which  Scripture  could  be  used  in  support  of  any  doc- 
trine or  practice  whatsoever.  Nothing  so  completely 
destroys  the  authority  of  Scripture  as  a  standard  of  faith 
and  practice  as  this  method  of  interpretation,  which  had 
long  been  in  vogue  among  pagans  and  Alexandrian  Jews. 

These  corrupting  ideas  had  not  at  the  close  of  this 
period  fully  accomplished  their  work ;  but  their  growing 
influence  can  already  be  clearly  seen. 

2.  Changes  in  the  Ministry,  At  the  beginning  of  the 
period  we  had  only  two  classes  of  church  officers :  pres- 
byters or  bishops  and  deacons.  Now  we  find  not  only 
a  clear  distinction  established  between  presbyters  and 
bishops,  but  also  the  addition  of  a  number  of  subordinate 
officers,  viz.,  sub-deacons,  readers,  acolytes,  janitors, 
and  exorcists.  The  multiplication  of  officers  originated 
in  large  churches,  such  as  those  of  Rome,  Alexandria, 
and  Carthage.  The  number  of  deacons  was  usually 
limited  to  seven,  in  accordance  with  the  number  of 
brethren  appointed  to  administer  the  charities  under  the 
direction  of  the  apostles  (Acts  6),  and  these  required 
assistance  in  the  performance  of  their  functions. 

The  hierarchical  spirit  was  active.  The  same  tenden- 
cies and  circumstances  that  raised  the  bishops  above  the 
presbyters,  raised  presbyters,  as  being  entrusted  with 
the  ordinances,  far  above  deacons  and  laymen.  Presby- 
ters  continued  to  be  the  advisers  of  the  bishops,  and 
from  their  number  bishops  were  usually  chosen. 

Deacons,  as  being  limited  in  number  and  as  holding  an 
office  instituted  by  the  apostles,  were,  in  accordance  with 
the  same  hierarchical  tendency,  elevated  in  rank  above 
laymen.  Their  duties  consisted  chiefly  in  the  collection 
and  administration  of  the  finances  of  the  churches  under 
the  direction  of  the  bishops,  and  in  assisting  the  bishops 
in  the  exercise  of  discipline.  They  attended  also  to  the 
preservation  of  order  during  religious  services,  and  as- 
sisted in  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper  and  in  the 
administration  of  baptism  ;  but  they  were  not  permitted 
to  administer  either  ordinance  alone. 

Deaconesses,  apparently  recognized  in  the  New  Tes- 


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294  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  II. 

lament,  reappear  In  the  churches  of  this  period.  Their 
functions  were  prayer,  and  ministering  to  the  religious 
and  the  temporary  needs  of  women.  They  were  rigor- 
ously excluded  from  service  **  at  the  altar." 

The  sub-deacons  were  not  ordained  with  the  imposition 
of  hands,  and  their  duties  were  chiefly  to  relieve  the 
deacons  of  their  humbler  duties.  They  also  usually 
acted  as  carriers  of  ecclesiastical  correspondence. 

The  office  of  the  acolyte  was  to  light  the  candles  in  the 
church,  to  provide  wine  in  the  pitcher  for  the  celebration 
of  the  Lord's  Supper,  etc.  Such  were  the  liturgical 
services  of  the  acolytes,  but  doubtless  they  attended  to 
many  minor  matters  in  the  administration  of  the  diocese. 

The  duties  of  the  readers  was  to  read  the  Scriptures 
from  the  reading  desk.  Very  few  Christians  had  copies 
of  the  Scriptures,  and  the  great  mass  of  the  people  were 
dependent  upon  hearing  them  read  at  church. 

Eocordsts  were  those  supposed  to  be  especially  gifted 
with  the  power  of  casting  out  demons.  These  do  not 
seem  to  have  been  a  distinct  class  of  officers  especially 
ordained  for  this  purpose ;  but  the  power  might  belong 
to  one  occupying  any  ecclesiastical  position,  or  even  to 
an  unofficial  member. 

The  reason  for  the  multiplication  of  ecclesiastical  offices  was  the 
necessity  of  having  responsible  functionaries,  and  the  sacerdotal 
feeling  which  would  allow  laymen  to  perform  no  ecclesiastical  func- 
tions. 

The  hierarchical  development  at  which  Cyprian  aimed,  and  which 
he  in  a  measure  effected,  represents  the  highest  attainment  in  this 
direction  durine  the  period  under  consideration.  In  the  cities  the 
position  of  bishops  was  one  of  much  dignity  and  responsibility. 
They  had  almost  exclusive  control  of  the  church  funds,  including 
the  responsible  administration  of  the  charities.  They  had  the  super- 
vision of  a  large  number  of  congregations,  and  or  the  presbyters 
and  deacons  who  ministered  therein.  Their  authority  was  as  yet 
only  a  moral  authority,  but  in  many  cases  it  was  very  considerable. 
Country  bishops  were  mere  pastors  of  local  churches  until  long  after 
the  dose  of  this  period. 

3.  Synods  or  Councils.  As  early  as  the  middle  of  the 
second  century  we  have  evidence  of  the  meeting  to- 
gether of  the  clergy  of  different  communities  to  consider 
questions  affecting  the  interests  of  the  churches.  The 
earliest  meetings  of  this  sort  on  record  are  those  in  Asia 


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CHAP.  IV.]   CHRISTIANITY  AT  CLOSE  OF  THE  PERIOD       295 

Minor,  to  take  measures  against  Montanism,  and  those  in 
the  East  and  the  West  to  discuss  the  Easter  question 
(latter  part  of  second  century).^  As  diocesan  episcopacy 
became  developed  the  clergy  of  the  diocese  were  called 
together  annually,  or  oftener  in  case  of  emergency. 
Before  the  close  of  this  period  provincial  synods,  in 
which  many  bishops,  presbyters,  and  deacons  partici- 
pated, were  becoming  common.  Such  bodies  discussed 
and  legislated  upon  questions  of  doctrine  and  discipline; 
yet  their  decisions  had  only  a  moral  authority,  and  the 
individual  communities  were  free  to  accept  them  or  not. 
"Within  the  limits  of  his  own  community,"  writes 
Hatch,"  "  a  bishop  has  no  superior  but  God."  Cyprian, 
who  did  so  much  for  the  development  of  episcopal  pre- 
rogative, and  who  laid  great  stress  on  ecclesiastical 
unity,  refused  to  be  bound  by  the  decisions  of  councils 
of  bishops.  It  was  not  until  the  next  period,  when 
councils  were  called  under  the  imperial  authority  and 
when  their  decisions  received  the  importance  of  imperial 
ordinances,  that  these  latter  became  obligatory  upon  the 
churches. 

4.  Places  of  Worship  and  Sepulture.  Until  the  latter  part 
of  the  second  century  the  position  of  Christians  was  not 
secure  enough  to  allow  of  the  erection  of  church  build- 
ings. Meetings  were  still  held  secretly  in  private  houses. 
During  the  third  century  many  *'  Lord^s  houses  "  or 
"churches"  were  erected,  and  considerable  attention 
was  given,  in  the  wealthier  communities,  to  architecture 
and  to  internal  decoration. 

The  catacombs  were  underground  burial  places,  some 
of  which  may  have  originated  in  the  apostolic  age. 
During  the  second  and  third  centuries  such  cities  of  the 
dead  were  constructed  at  Rome,  Naples,  Milan,  Alex- 
andria, and  elsewhere.  Those  of  Rome  and  Naples  are 
of  great  extent  and  special  interest.  The  idea  that  they 
were  largely  used  for  purposes  of  worship  has  been 
abandoned,  owing  to  lack  of  evidence  of  the  existence 
of  chambers  large  enough  to  accommodate  any  consider- 
able gathering.  Burial  services  were  no  doubt  conducted 
with  much  solemnity,  and  Christians  frequently  visited 

1  BoteMos.  "Ch.  Hist."  Bk.  V..  Chap.  16  and  «4. 
I  "Tilt  Organization  of  the  parly  ChrittiaQ  Churches,"  p.  iff. 

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296  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  II. 

the  tombs  of  relatives  and  of  venerated  martyrs  and 
other  saints  for  devotional  exercises.  In  times  of  severe 
p<srsecution  (which  were  infrequent)  Christians  no  doubt 
hid  themselves  temporarily  in. these  subterranean  gal- 
,  leries.  Archaeologists  are  still  undecided  as  regards  the 
dates  of  many  of  the  mural  paintings  and  the  inscrip- 
tions. Very  few  belong  indisputably  to  this  period. 
Most  of  the  decoration  seems  to  belong  to  the  latter  part 
of  the  fourth  century,  when  the  use  of  the  catacombs 
for  sepulture  had  almost  ceased.  As  the  tombs  of  saints 
and  martyrs  they  were  venerated  and  filled  wijth  religious 
paintings  and  inscriptions.^ 

5.  T^tualistic^  Development.  The  externalizing  ten- 
dency that  we  have  so  frequently  observed  in  our  study 
of  this  period  was-  soon  to  express  itself  in  the  public 
worship  of  the  churches.  Under  various  influenctfsr 
that  of  paganism,  with  its  mysterious  rites,  especially 
those  of  the  widely  prevalent  Mithras  worship ;  that  of 
Gnosticism,  which  itself  imitated  the  Orphic,  Eleusinian, 
and  Pythagoreaij  mysteries ;  that  of  being  long  vobliged 
to  Worship  secretly ;  and  the  growth  of  sacerdotalism, 
with  which  ritualism  always  goes  hand  in  hancf,  Chris- 
tianity, by  the  close  of  this  period,  had  ceased  to  wor-, 
ship  and  perform  its  ordinances  in  the  free  and  simple 
way  represented  in  the  New  Testament  and  in  the 
**  Apology  "  of  Justin  Martyr.  , 

From  the  middle  of  the  second  century  onward  the 
Lord's  Prayer  seems  to  have  been  generally  employed 
in  the  churches  in  a  liturgical  way.  Gradually  other 
forms  were  added,  and  by  the  close  of  this  period  some- 
what elaborate  forms  of  prayer  and  praise,  with  full 
directions  for  the  solemn  administration  of  the  ordinances, 
had  been  introduced. 

There  was  at  first  no  effort  made  at  uniformity  of 
ritual.  Each  great  church,  in  general,  formed  a  ritual  of 
its  own,  and  this  was  usually  adopted  by  the  churches 
under  its  influence.  Hence  the  number  and  the  variety 
of  early  liturgies.  •  ^ 

6.  Christian  Education.  In  the  apostolic  age,  when 
most  of  the  converts  were  Jews  or  had  been  under  the 

1  See  the  well-known  works  of  Rossi.  Kraus.  Northcote  end  Brownk>w,  «nd  Perkei; 
00  the  Cetecomhs.  and  articles  in  the  encyclopedias. 


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CHAP.  IV.]  CHRISTIANITY  AT  CLOSE  OF  THE  PERIOD       297 

influence  of  Judaism,  and  hence  were  familiar  with  the 
Old  Testament  teaching,  baptism  was  usually  adminis- 
tered immediately  after  the  profession  of  faith  in  Christ. 
When  most  of  those  who  applied  for  admission  into 
the  churches  were  pagans,  and  had  but  inadequate  ideas 
of  the  true  God  and  of  the  Christian  religion  and  mo- 
rality, it  was  natural  and.  right  that  thejr  should  be  in- 
structed in  the  fundamental  truths  of  Christianity  before 
baptism  and  full  reception  into  the  churches.  During 
the  second  century  the  work  ot  teaching  such  applicants 
for  membership  was,  in  the  larger  churches,  entrusted 
to  a  catechist.  In  the  Alexandrian  school  the  catechu- 
mens were  divided  into  classes  according  to  their  ad- 
vancement. The  period  of  catechising  Frequently  ex- 
tended over  three  years,  but  was  in  many  instances 
much  shorter.  The  catechumen  was  first  instructed  in 
simple  moral  principles ;  afterward  he  was  admitted  to 
hear  the  gospel,  but  was  dismissed  before  the  prayer, 
and  especially  prevented  from  witnessing  the  celebration 
of  the  ordinances.  Baptism  was  finally  administered 
with  eonsiderable  pomp  and  ceremony,  and  the  cate- 
chumen was  thereby  received  into  full  fellowship. 

"^  Reference  has  been  made  in  an  earlier  chapter  to  the  catechetical 
school  of  Alexandria,  founded  by  Pantenus  and  made  illustrious 
by  Clement/Origen,  Heraclas,  and  Dionysius.  Antioch  did  not  so 
earljcbecome  a  seat  of  Christian  learning,  but  from  c.  270  oaward. 
under  Luclan,  It  came  Into  rivalry,  with  Alexandria  as  a  center  of 
theological  thought  and  influence.  In  the  great  christological  con- 
troversies of  the  fourth  and  following  centuries  Alexandria  and  An- 
tioch were  always  antagonists,  Alexandria  representing  a  mystical 
transcendentalism  and  promoting  the  allegorical  interpretation  of  the 
Scriptures;  Antioch  insisting  on  the  grammatico-historical  interpre- 
tation of  the  Scriptures,  and  having  no  sympathy  with  mystical 
mod^  of  thought. 

7.  Christian  Life.  We  can  probably  get  a  better  view 
of  the  state  of  Christian  life  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fourth^  century,  by  an  examination  of  the  so<alled 
*•  Cangjis  of  the  Holy  Apostles,"  which  may  have  taken 
their  present  form  toward  the  close  of  this  period,  and 
of  the  decrees  of  the  Councils  of  Elvira  (306),  of  Aries, 
Ancyra,  and  Neo-Csesarea  (314),  than  in  any  other  way. 
These  documents  show : 

(I)  A  great  amount  of  worldliness  among  the  clergy 


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298  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.1L 

Provisions  constantly  occur  against  their  engaging  in 
secular  pursuits ;  against  their  frequenting  taverns  and 
playing  at  dice ;  against  usury ;  against  their  removing 
from  place  to  place  without  sufficient  reason ;  against 
their  receiving  their  offices  through  secular  influence,  etc. 

(2)  It  appears  that  many  had  come  into  the  churches 
who  were  still  essentially  pagans.  Provisions  against 
pagan  practices  are  common. 

(3)  The  most  prevalent  and  crying  sin  of  the  age 
seems  to  have  been  licentiousness,  it  must  have  been 
common  among  all  classes  of  Christians,  including  bish- 
ops, presbyters,  deacons,  and  nuns.  A  large  proportion 
of  the  decrees  of  the  councils  of  this  period  are  directed 
against  some  form  of  sexual  sin. 

(4)  While  celibacy  of  the  clergy  was  not  insisted  upon, 
a  strong  effort  was  being  made  to  prevent  those  that 
came  into  the  clergy  unmarried,  from  marrying.  This 
feeling  was  promoted  :  a.  By  the  Gnostic  or  Manichsean 
idea  of  the  inherent  evil  of  the  sexual  relations,  b.  By 
the  fact  that  the  priesthood  was  coming  to  be  looked 
upon  as  a  distinct  class,  and  that  such  familiar  inter- 
course with  ordinary  mortals  as  the  family  involves  was 
felt  to  be  incompatible  with  priestly  dignity,  c.  The 
fact  that  the  clergy  had  complete  control  of  the  church 
finances  made  it  seem  undesirable  for  them  to  have  de- 
pendfsnt  families. 

(5)  Christianity  had  already  received  far  more  pagan 
material  than  it  could  assimilate,  and  had  become  cor- 
rupted thereby,  before  the  Diocletian  persecution.  When 
the  churches  had  become  predominatingly  pagan ;  when 
pagans  of  wealth  and  influence  entered  the  churches  in 
large  numbers,  especially  when  they  became  bishops,  as 
was  often  the  case,  it  was  perfectly  natural  that  the 
churches  should  be  made  to  conform  to  a  great  extent  to 
pagan  temples  ;  should  be  filled  with  images ;  should  in- 
troduce saint-worship  in  the  place  of  polytheism,  etc. 

(6)  Yet  we  must  beware  of  supposing  that  Christian- 
ity as  a  whole  was  thus  corrupt.  That  there  were  many 
who  abhorred  the  prevalent  laxity  of  morals  and  who 
earnestly  strove  for  reformation,  is  evident  from  the  very 
existence  of  the  documents  on  which  we  are  dependent 
fpr  pur  knowledge  of  the  f?icts  rnentioned,    Moreover, 


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CHAP.  IV.]  CHRISTIANITY  AT  CLOSE  OF  THE  PERIOD       299 

the  prevalence  of  laxity  was  the  cause  of  much  of  the 
extreme  asceticism  that  appeared  in  the  church  from  the 
time  of  Tertuliian  onward. 

8.  Multiplication  of  Ecclesiastical  Festivals.  At  the  be- 
ginning, the  Lord's  Day  and  the  Jewish  Sabbath  were, 
so  far  as  we  know,  the  only  days  to  which  Christians 
attached  any  particular  sanctity. 

(i)  Easter  may,  in  some  sense,  have  been  observed 
in  the  apostolic  age,  i.  e.,  the  Jewish  Passover  continued 
for  a  time  to  be  observed  by  Jewish  Christians,  the  chief 
thought  in  their  minds  being  probably  the  death  and  res- 
urrection of  Christ  Gradually  this  came  to  be  the  only 
thought.  We  have  seen  how  from  the  time  of  Polycarp, 
controversy  raged  with  regard  to  the  exact  time  of  its 
celebration. 

The  fact  that  vernal  festivals  were  general  among  pagan  peoples 
no  doubt  had  much  to  do  with  the  form  assumed  by  the  Easter  fes- 
tival In  the  Christian  churches.  The  English  term  '*  Easter"  is  of 
pagan  origin. 

(2)  So  also  the  feast  of  Pentecost  was  connected  with 
the  Jewish  feast,  the  Jewish  element  soon  dropping  out 
of  consideration,  and  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
coming  to  be  exclusively  thought  of. 

(3)  The  feast  of  Epiphany  probably  originated  in  the 
second  century,  and  was  designed  as  a  commemoration 
of  the  baptism  of  Christ,  when  he  was  manifested  to 
the  world  as  the  Son  of  God,  It  was  celebrated  on  Jan- 
uary 6.  At  a  very  early  date  the  idea  of  the  nativity 
was  added  to  that  of  baptism,  both  being  commemorated 
on  this  day.  it  was  not  until  about  the  middle  of  the 
fourth  century  that  the  birthday  and  the  baptismal  day 
were  separated,  the  former  being  placed  on  December 
25,  the  date  of  the  Roman  Vrumalta  at  the  close  of  the 
Saturnalia  (December  17-24),  and  of  the  Scandinavian 
Yule.  This  date  follows  immediately  the  winter  solstice, 
and  there  was  thought  to  be  a  peculiar  appropriateness 
in  identifying  the  birthday  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness 
with  that  of  the  physical  sun.* 

(4)  In  connection  with  these  festivals,  long  periods  of 

1  (y,  Coaybeare  "  The  History  of  Chrittaas/'  In  the  "  Anerican  Journal  of  Thf 
ology,"  for  January,  1899. 


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300  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.U 

fasting  were  observed  by  Montanists  and  other  asceticai 
Christians. 

(5)  Martyrs  have  already  come  to  be  venerated,  but 
there  is  no  evidence  that  their  festivals  were  definitely 
established  before  the  fourth  century. 

9.  The  Rule  of  Faith.  We  have  observed,  in  our  study 
of  the  writings  of  Irenseus,  Tertullian,  and  Origen,  that 
in  opposition  to  heresy  there  grew  up  in  the  churches  a 
clear,  concise  confession  of  faith,  which  tended  more  and 
more  to  become  stereotyped  into  a  creed.  At  a  later 
period  the  process  was  completed  by  attributing  the  fully 
developed  creed  to  the  apostles.  This  brief  statement 
was  early  used  as  a  baptismal  confession.  (See  the 
**  rule  of  faith,''  in  its  gradual  growth  from  the  apostolic 
age  to  the  fourth  century,  in  Schaff,  "  Creeds  of  Chris- 
tendom," Vol.  I!.,  pp.  11-55.) 

10.  The  New  Testament  Canon.  Until  after  the  middle 
of  the  second  century  there  was  no  such  thing  as  a 
definite  New  Testament  canon.  The  Old  Testament 
books,  chiefly  in  the  Septuagint  version  and  without  the 
exclusion  of  the  Apocrypha,  were  chiefly  appealed  to  as 
authoritative.  The  New  Testament  books  were  freely 
used  for  substance  of  doctrine,  but  rarely  quoted  with 
precision.  Evidence  of  the  use  of  all  the  New  Testa- 
ment books  by  c.  150  has  been  preserved.  Marcion, 
the  Gnostic  {c.  140),  seems  to  have  been  the  first  to 
form  a  definite  New  Testament  canon ;  but  this  was  a 
distinctly  subjective  and  partisan  selection,  consisting  of 
one  Gospel  only  (a  modification  of  Luke)  and  ten  Pauline 
Epistles  (including  the  Epistle  to  the  Laodiceans).  Ta- 
tian,  another  Gnostic,  constructed  a  combination  Gospel 
(Diatessaron),  probably  in  the  interests  of  his  peculiar 
views,  though  it  may  have  been  prepared  before  his 
separation  from  the  orthodox  communion.  The  Mura- 
torian  Fragment  (after  150),  a  document  of  unknown 
authorship,  gives  a  list  of  fully  received  New  Testament 
writings  from  which  Hebrews,  James,  i  and  2  Peter,  and 
3  John  are  definitely  excluded,  doubt  being  expressed 
about  2  John  and  Jude.  Irenseus  {c.  175)  quotes  all  of 
the  New  Testament  books  except  Philemon,  2  Peter,  and 
Jude,  but  seems  to  regard  the  ''Shepherd ''  of  Hermas 
as  also  inspired.     Clement  of  Alexandria  (c.  200)  uses 


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CHAP.  IV.]  CHRISTIANITY  AT  CLOSE  OF  THE  PERIOD        30I 

all  the  canonical  New  Testament  writings,  but  seems  to 
put  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  on  a  level  with  these. 
Origen  (c.  255)  includes  in  his  list  all  our  canonical 
books  except  James  and  Jude,  and  along  with  these 
Hermas,  Barnabas,  and  i  Clement.  The  Peshito  Syriac 
version  (c.  yxS)  omits  2  Peter,  2  and  3  John,  Jude,  and 
Revelation.  It  was  not  till  after  the  close  of  this  period 
that  perfect  definiteness  was  reached ;  for  in  Eusebius' 
time  {c.  32;)  the  canonical  authority  of  James,  Jude,  2 
Peter,  2  and  3  John,  and  Revelation,  while  upheld  by 
many,  was  disputed  by  some. 

in  conflict  with  heresy  the  Christian  leaders  were  led 
to  emphasize  more  and  more  the  importance  of  apostolic 
teaching  as  the  basis  of  doctrine  and  the  common  bond 
that  unified  all  true  Christian  churches.  As  the  au- 
thoritative exponents  of  apostolic  teaching,  the  apostolic 
writings  grew  in  importance.  As  a  consciousness  of 
church  unity  and  a  realization  of  the  necessity  of  uni- 
formity in  doctrine  and  practice  grew,  the  importance  of 
agreement  with  reference  to  the  body  of  apostolic  wrjf  • 
xcigs  that  should  be  held  as  authoritative  came  to  be  pro- 
foundly felt.  Such  writings  as  had  been  held  fn  sus- 
picion on  account  of  supposed  peculiarities  of  teaching 
were  gradually  received  into  favor,  and  attention  was 
given  to  harmonizing  seeming  discrepancies. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  formation  of  the  New  Testament 
canon  was  the  work  of  centuries.  From  the  human 
point  of  view  we  may  say  that  the  selection  of  books 
that  should  form  the  canon  was  a  product  of  Christian 
consciousness ;  from  the  divine  point  of  view  we  may 
say  that  this  process  was  presided  over  and  directed  by 
the  Holy  Spirit.* 

1  Sm  tb«  grtftt  world  of  Westcoll  and  Zaho  on  tht  Ntw  Ttstancnt  canon. 


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PERIOD  III 

FROM  THE  CONVERSION  OF  CONST ANTINP 
TO  THE  CORONATION  OF  CHARLE- 
MAGNE (3I2-«X)) 


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CHAPTER  I 

CHURCH  AND  STATE 

LITERATURE:  Eutropius,  '"Bnviartum  Hist.  l{m.,''  Bk.  IX.. 
X.;  Lactantlus,  *' Ds  OAorU  PtruaOorum" ;  Euseblus,  "A/.  E.r 
Bk.  IX.,  X.,  and  *"De  k'ita  Constantmi"  (Eusebius  was  a  thor- 
ough courtier,  and  his  praises  of  Constantlne  are  to  be  taken  with 
much  allowance) ;  Laws  of  Constantine  in  the  codes  of  Theodosius 
and  Justinian,  also  arranged  in  Migne's  '*Patrology"  under  the 
title,  '^ Optra  Constantmi'*;  Socrates,  '* H.  £.,"  Bk.  L;  Sozomen, 
'*H,  E,r  Bk.  I.,  IL  (Several  of  these  works  are  available  in 
English  in  the  **  Ante-Nicene"  and  the*'Nicene  and  Post-Nicene 
Libraries"  of  the  Fathers);  Neander,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  1-32,  and 
passim;  Schaff,  Vol.  11.,  pp.  1-37;  Stanley,  "Eastern  Church," 
passim;  Neale,  "The  Holy  Eastern  Church."  passim;  Newman, 
^'  Arians  of  the  Fourth  Century  "  ;  Milman,  '*  Latin  Christianity,*' 


Gr,*^;  Tozer,  "The  Church  and  the  Eastern  Empire";  Carr, 
"The  Church  and  the  Roman  Empire";  Gwatkin,  "The  Arian 
Controversy  " ;  Zahn,  "  Omstantin  d.  Grosss  u.  d,  Ktrchs^* ;  Brieger, 
"  Konstantin  d,  Gr,  als  ReUgionspolitiksr  " ;  Neander,  "  Kaisir  Julian  u. 
5.  Ztitalter^^ ;  Rendall,  "The  bmp.  Julian :  Paganism  and  Christi- 
anity"; Cutts,  "Constantine  the  Great";  Kine,  "Julian  the 
Emperor " ;  Tzschlmer,  "  T>,  Fall  d,  Hnd^thums^' ;  art.  on  the 
various  emperors,  events,  and  institutions  in  Smith  and  Wace  and 
Herzog-Hauck. 

I.  CONSTANTINE  AND  HIS  SUCCESSORS, 

I .  Constantine' s  Motives  in  Adopting  Christianity.  Con- 
stantine, like  his  father,  was  out  of  sympathy  with  the 
popular  religion  and  was  interested  in  the  worship  of  the 
Persian  sun-god  Mithras,  then  much  in  vogue  in  the  Ro- 
man army.  It  was  a  combination  of  Neo-PIatonic  with 
Zoroastrian  modes  of  thought,  and  was  made  attractive 
by  an  elaborate  and  imposing  ritual.  When  about  to 
lead  his  forces  against  the  tyrant  Maxentius  at  the  Mil- 
vian  bridge  near  Rome  he  felt  that  the  occasion  was  a 
most  critical  one.  Success  meant  ultimate  headship  of 
the  empire.    Defeat  would  be  utterly  disastrous.    He 

u  30s 


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306  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER,  III. 

was  aware  of  the  fact  that  Maxentius  had  exhausted  all 
the  possibilities  in  the  way  of  propitiating  the  popular 
deities,  and  he  could  not  hope  to  compete  with  him  for 
their  support.  He  had  been  brought  up  to  regard 
Christianity  with  some  degree  of  favor.  He  had  ob- 
served its  aggressiveness,  its  rapid  growth,  and  its 
thorough  organization.  In  his  anxiety  he  made  up  his 
mind  to  invoke  the  aid  of  the  God  of  the  Christians. 
Something  must  be  done  to  inspire  his  troops  with  confi- 
dence. He  declared  that  he  had  seen  in  the  sky  a  ban- 
ner in  the  form  of  a  cross  with  the  inscription  *•  By  this 
conquer.^'  He  had  a  splendid  labarum  made  after  the 
pattern  of  what  he  claimed  to  have  seen,  and  under  this 
banner  his  army  won  a  glorious  victory. 

Constantine's  subsequent  life  was  not  such  as  to  lead  us  to  credit 
his  account  of  the  divine  manifestation.  He  was  a  shrewd  and  un- 
scrupulous politician.  No  life  was  sacred  if  his  interests  seemed  to 
require  its  destruction.  He  had  Licinius  treacherously  slain  after 
his  defeat.  The  murder  of  nearly  all  his  relatives,  including  his 
nephew  Licinlanus  and  his  son  Crispus.  seems  wholly  unjustifiable 
and  could  not  have  been  the  work  of  a  Christian.  The  story  of  the 
murder  of  his  wife  Fausta  has  been  somewhat  discredited.  In 
general,  it  may  be  said,  that  while  his  character  compares  favorably 
with  that  of  pagan  despots,  and  had  many  admirable  and  amiable 
traits,  he  can  nardly  be  supposed  to  have  exercised  a  saving  faith. 

2.  Constantine's  Favors  to  Christianity.  Soon  after  the 
victory  over  Maxentius  he  had  a  statue  of  himself  erected 
in  Rome  with  a  cross  in  the  right  hand  and  the  inscrip- 
tion, "  By  virtue  of  this  salutary  sign,  which  is  the  true 
symbol  of 'valor,  I  have  preserved  and  liberated  your 
city  from  the  yoke  of  tyranny,"  etc.  The  Edict  of 
Milan  (313),  issued  jointly  by  Constantine  and  Licinius, 
proclaimed  liberty  of  conscience  and  showed  partiality 
for  Christianity.  His  policy  at  first  was  not  to  interfere 
with  pagan  worship,  but  by  filling  the  chief  offices  with 
Christians  and  surrounding  himself  with  Christian 
teachers  to  make  the  condition  of  Christians  enviable. 
Pagan  temples  that  were  peculiarly  offensive  to  Chris- 
tians on  account  of  their  immoral  rites,  or  to  which  pil- 
grimages were  made  from  superstitious  motives,  were  in 
some  cases  destroyed. 

He  exempted  the  Christian  clergy  from  military  and 


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CHAP.L]  CHURCH  AND  STATE  307 

municipal  duties  and  their  property  from  taxation  (313)  ; 
abolished  various  pagan  customs  and  ordinances  offen- 
sive to  Christians  (31$)  ;  facilitated  the  emancipation  of 
Christian  slaves  (315);  legalized  bequests  to  Christian 
churches,  a  very  important  measure  (321) ;  enjoined  the 
civil  observance  of  Sunday,  though  only  as  the  day  of 
the  Sun,  and  in  connection  with  an  ordinance  requiring 
the  consultation  of  the  soothsayer  (321);  contributed 
largely  toward  the  building  of  Christian  houses  of  wor- 
ship ;  and  gave  his  sons  a  Christian  education. 

In  324  he  Is  said  to  have  promised  to  every  convert  to  Christianity 
twenty  pieces  of  gold  and  a  white  baptismal  robe,  and  twelve  thou- 
sand men,  with  women  and  children  m  proportion,  are  said  to  have 
been  baptized  in  Rome  in  one  year.  The  persistent  adherence  of  the 
Roman  aristocracy  to  paganism  was  a  matter  of  great  concern  to 
Constantine,  and  he  took  especial  pains  to  overcome  the  antipathy 
of  the  Romans  toward  Christianity. 

In  325  he  issued  a  general  exhortation  to  his  subjects 
to  embrace  Christianity. 

3.  Constantine^s  f^iew  of  the  Relations  of  Church  and 
State.  As  the  Roman  emperor  was  Pontifex  Maximus 
of  the  pagan  State  religion,  he  would  naturally  assume 
the  same  relation  to  Christianity  when  it  became  pre^ 
dominant.  This  headship  the  gratitude  of  the  Christians 
heartily  accorded.  In  all  of  his  dealings  with  Christian 
matters  the  supreme  motive  seems  to  have  been  that  of 
securing  unity.  About  doctrinal  differences  he  was 
almost  indifferent.  But  he  dreaded  dissension  among 
those  on  whom  he  depended  for  the  support  of  his 
government.    . 

He  attempted  to  settle  the  Donatist  controversy  by 
negotiation  and  arbitration,  and  resorted  to  violence  only 
when  all  other  means  had  proved  ineffective. 

At  great  expense  he  convened  the  Nicene  Council  for 
the  adjudication  of  the  controversy  between  Arius  and 
Alexander.  His  persecution  of  Arianism  was  due  to  his 
conviction  that  only  thus  ecclesiastical  unity  could  be 
restored.  He  soon  came  under  the  influence  of  semi- 
Arian  bishops  (Busebius,  etc.),  and  the  year  before  his 
death  he  banished  Athanasius,  who  had  become  bishop 
of    Alexandria.     Constantine    did    not    formally  adopt 


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508  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  in 

Christianity  as  the  religion  of  the  State,  but  he  virtually 
gave  it  this  position. 

Though  he  considered  himself  a  *' bishop  of  bishops/' 
he  did  not  think  it  prudent  to  accept  baptism  until  just 
before  his  death  in  337.  No  doubt  this  delay  was  due  to 
his  belief  in  the  efficacy  of  baptism  to  wash  away  the 
sins  and  crimes  that  had  so  marred  his  life. 

When  the  Roman  people  refused  to  accept  the  new 
religion,  Constantine  transferred  his  capital  to  Byzan- 
tium  and  built  Constantinople  or  New  Rome.  Other 
reasons  doubtless  co-operated  with  his  desire  for  a 
Christian  capital. 

4.  The  Sons  of  Constantine.  Constantlne's  three  sons, 
Constantine  IL  (b.  312),  Constantius  If.  (b.  317),  and 
Constans  (b.  320),  succeeded  to  the  imperial  dignity 
with  the  good  will  of  the  armies.  The  other  relatives  of 
Constantine,  except  two  nephews,  Julian  and  Callus, 
were  foully  massacred,  Constantius  being  chiefly  re- 
sponsible for  the  crime.  The  empire  was  so  divided  that 
Constantine  11.  ruled  in  the  West,  Constans  in  Italy  and 
Africa,  and  Constantius  11.  in  the  East.  Constantine 
was  slain  in  a  battle  with  Constans  near  the  walls  of 
Aquileia  (340).  Constans  was  forced  to  commit  suicide 
by  one  of  his  generals  (350).  This  left  Constantius 
sole  emperor.  The  sons  of  Constantine  did  little  credit 
to  their  Christian  education  and  profession. 

Constantius  went  far  beyond  his  father  in  his  efforts 
to  destroy  paganism,  which  still  determinedly  held  its 
ground  in  Rome,  Alexandria,  and  in  many  other  parts  of 
the  empire.  In  341  a  law  was  promulgated  against  pagan 
superstition  and  sacrifice.  In  346  the  visiting  of  temples 
was  forbidden.  In  352  and  356  the  death  penalty  was 
affixed  to  heathen  sacrifices  and  to  conversion  to  Juda- 
ism. These  laws  could  not  be  enforced  in  Rome  or  in 
Alexandria.  Constantius  regarded  his  pagan  opponents 
as  traitors  and  pagan  rites  as  involving  conspiracy. 
Constantine  II.  and  Constans  favored  the  orthodox  of 
Athanasian  party  and  restored  Athanasius  repeatedly  to 
his  See.  Constantius  was  an  Arian  and  joined  with 
Athanasius'  opponents  in  repeatedly  banishing  him.  The 
growing  corruption  and  intolerance  of  Christians  and  the 
initating  and  arbitrary  measures  of  Constantius  prepared 


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CHAP.  I.]  CHURCH  AND  STATE  309 

the  way  for  the  pagan  reaction  that  was  to  follow  this 
reign. 

5.  Julian  the  Apostate.  Julian  and  his  elder  half- 
brother,  Callus,  nephews  of  Constantine  the  Great, 
were  saved,  through  the  intercession  of  a  bishop,  from 
the  common  massacre  of  relatives,  the  one  by  reason  of 
his  tender  youth,  the  other  because  of  supposed  mortal 
sickness.  Julian  received  a  Christian  education  under 
the  direction  of  Bishop  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia,  and  during 
his  residence  in  Cappadocia  he  is  said  to  have  ministered 
in  the  churches,  probably  as  reader.  He  studied  classical 
literature  in  Constantinople  and  in  Nicomedia,  where  the 
great  rhetorician  Libanius  was  teaching.  Forbidden  to 
attend  the  lectures  of  this  pagan  master  he  secretly  read 
his  writings  and  became  deeply  interested  in  the  Neo- 
Platonic  philosophy,  with  its  mysteries  and  its  manticism. 
The  fact  that  pagan  philosophy  and  life  were  forbidden 
fruit  no  doubt  whetted  his  appetite.  He  secured  initia- 
tion into  the  Eleusinian  mysteries,  and  while  remaining 
outwardly  a  Christian  was  really  an  enthusiastic  pagan 

In  356  he  was  made  a  Cssar  by  Constantius,  and  soon 
won  renown  as  a  general  in  the  Gallic  wars.  Jealous  of 
his  popularity  Constantius  sought  to  recall  a  large  part 
of  his  army.  The  troops  refused  to  leave  their  general 
and  proclaimed  him  Augustus.  He  now  declared  his  hos- 
tility to  Christianity  and  was  zealous  in  reopening  and 
rehabilitating  the  heathen  temples  that  had  been  closed 
by  Constantius.  Constantius  died  in  Cilicia  just  as 
Julian  was  approaching  Constantinople.  His  cause  was 
won  without  a  battle. 

He  proceeded  at  once  to  restore  the  temples  and  their 
sacrificial  services  and  to  reinstate  the  mystagogues  and 
priests  in  all  their  ancient  privileges,  and  withdrew  from 
the  Christian  clergy  the  privileges  and  immunities  that 
had  been  conferred  upon  them  by  Constantine  and  his 
sons.  He  borrowed  from  Christianity  whatever  he 
thought  likely  to  add  to  the  attractiveness  of  the  pagan 
public  services  (popular  preaching  by  purple-robed  priests, 
music,  hymnology,  etc.).'  He  prohibited  Christians  from 
teaching  classical  literature,  wishing  no  doubt  to  reduce 
Christianity  to  a  despised  and  illiterate  sect.  To  dis- 
credit the  Christian  prophecies  regarding  the  destruction 


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310  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [per.  III. 

of  Jerusalem  and  to  encourage  the  inveterate  enemies  of 
Christianity,  he  attempted  to  restore  the  Jewish  temple 
at  Jerusalem.  He  favored  Donatists  and  Arians  in  com- 
parison with  Catholics. 

it  does  not  appear  to  have  been  Julian's  intention  to 
persecute  Christians;  but  the  collisions  that  occurred 
between  the  Christians  and  the  officials  in  the  restora- 
tion to  pagan  purposes  of  property  long  used  for  Chris- 
tian purposes,  the  rigorous  enforcement  of  pagan  practices 
in  the  army,  and  the  necessity  of  punishing  deeds  of  out- 
lawry committed,  or  supposed  to  have  been  committed, 
by  Christians,  involved  much  hardship  that  could  scarcely 
be  distinguished  from  persecution. 

After  reigning  less  than  two  years  Julian  was  slain  in 
battle  with  the  Persians.  It  is  by  no  means  certain  that 
after  receiving  the  mortal  spear-thrust  he  cried  out: 
"  Galilean,  thou  hast  conquered." 

Christianity  was  tried,  but  not  cast  down,  by  this  short- 
lived attempt  to  galvanize  into  life  moribund  paganism.^ 

6.  Theodosius  the  Great  (378-395).  The  immediate  suc- 
cessors of  Julian  did  little  more  than  remove  the  restric- 
tions that  had  been  placed  upon  the  progress  of  Christi- 
anity and  gradually  restore  to  the  churches  the  privileges 
they  had  enjoyed  under  Constantine  and  his  sons. 
Gratian  (375-383)  refused  the  title  of  Pontifex  Maximus, 
prohibited  the  superstitious  consulting  of  victims,  abol- 
ished the  privileges  of  the  vestal  virgins,  had  the  much- 
prized  altar  of  Victory  removed  from  its  place  near  the 
Curia  of  the  Senate,  and  sought  in  every  way  to  break 
the  power  of  Roman  paganism.  These  measures  were 
carried  out  under  the  advice  of  the  great  soldier  and 
statesman  Theodosius,  who  became  joint-emperor  with 
Gratian  (378)  and  sole  emperor  (394). 

Theodosius  is  commonly  regarded  as  the  first  orthodox 
emperor  and  the  first  to  make  orthodox  Christianity  the 
exclusive  religion  of  the  State.  He  secured  from  the 
Roman  Senate  an  acknowledgment  that  the  religion  of 
Christ  was  true.  He  prohibited  sacrifices  and  even  visits 
to  pagan  temples,  prostration  before  idols,  the  worship  of 
household  gods,  and  all  other  idolatrous  practices. 

1  For  Julian's  own  statement  of  his  philosophical  and  religious  views,  sec  his 
works,  ed.  Hcrtlein,  Leipiig.  1875-76. 


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CHAP.  I.]  CHURCH  AND  STATE  31I 

Theodosius  died  soon  afterward  and  divine  honors 
were  paid  to  him  by  the  still  pagan  Romans  in  the  usual 
style.  Many  pagan  temples  were  destroyed  at  this  time 
by  fanatical  bands  of  Christians,  with  the  approval  of 
bishops  and  emperor.  The  desecration  of  the  temple  of 
Serapis  in  Alexandria  so  infuriated  the  pagans  of  the  city 
that  a  massacre  of  Christians  resulted.  The  temple  was 
destroyed  by  imperial  command,  and  the  famous  idol,  on 
whose  preservation  the  rising  of  the  Nile  was  supposed 
to  depend,  was  smitten  down.  The  Nile  is  said  to  have 
risen  higher  than  usual  that  year. 

Lactantius  in  the  time  of  Constantine  wrote:  *' Re- 
ligion cannot  be  compelled ;  nothing  is  so  voluntary  as 
religion."  Ambrose  and  Augustine  now  advocated  the 
forcible  suppression  of  paganism  and  heresy.  Many 
bishops  led  their  people  in  their  violent  onslaughts  on 
pagan  sanctuaries  and  did  not  shrink  even  from  blood- 
shed in  the  accomplishment  of  their  purposes.  Paganism 
made  a  desperate  struggle  for  existence,  but  it  did  not 
possess  the  religious  enthusiasm  that  enabled  early 
Christianity  to  survive  persecution.  It  had  its  revenge 
in  the  almost  complete  paganization  of  the  churches  that 
speedily  followed  the  enforced  conversion  of  its  unwilling 
adherents. 

II.  THE  STATE  CHURCH. 

While  it  is  undeniable  that  great  evil  resulted  to  Chris- 
tianity from  its  adoption  by  the  State,  we  must  not  close 
our  eyes  to  the  (temporarily)  beneficent  results  of  this 
adoption. 

That  Christianity  should  become  predominant  was,  of 
course,  highly  desirable.  We  may  say  that  it  ought  to 
have  spread  its  influence  by  purely  spiritual  means,  until 
its  teachings  should  have  pervaded  society  in  all  its  ele- 
ments ;  that  the  State  ought  to  have  become  Christian, 
but  that  it  ought  to  have  manifested  its  Christianity 
simply  by  putting  into  practice  the  spirit  of  Christianity. 
But  while  such  is  our  ideal,  we  could  scarcely  expect  the 
Christians  of  the  fourth  century  to  foresee  what  we,  with 
the  experience  of  more  than  fifteen  hundred  years  of  the 
effects  of  State  patronage  and  control  of  religion,  are  just 
beginning  to  see, 


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312  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  in 

I.  Beneficent  Results  of  the  Adoption  of  Christianity  as  the 
State  Religion. 

(1)  An  immensely  larger  number  of  peoplje  was  thus 
brought  somewhat  under  the  influence  of  Christianity 
than  would  otherwise  have  been  possible.  That  men 
were  induced  to  abandon  idolatry  and  attach  themselves 
even  outwardly  to  Christianity  was,  in  a  sense,  a  gain. 

(2)  Christianity  had  a  much  more  direct  and  powerful 
effect  upon  the  legislation  of  the  Roman  empire  than 
would  otherwise  have  been  possible.  The  most  funda- 
mental thing  in  the  Roman  political  system  was  the  all- 
importance  of  the  State  and  consequent  indifference  to 
the  rights  of  the  individual.  Christianity  gave  to  legis- 
lation a  high  sense  of  the  value  of  human  life ;  of  the 
rights  of  all  human  beings,  slaves,  foreigners,  and  bar- 
barians included.  We  have  ample  proof  of  the  benefi- 
cent effect  of  Christianity  on  Roman  legislation  in  the 
Theodosian  Code  (424-438),  which  contains  the  legisla- 
tion of  Constantine  and  his  successors ;  and  in  the  Jus- 
tinian Code,  which  contains  the  legislation  from  Hadrian 
to  Justinian  (527). 

The  position  of  women  was  greatly  elevated.  Con- 
stantine gave  to  women  the  right  to  control  their  own 
property.  Marriage  was  made  free  by  the  abolition  of 
the  old  penalties  against  celibacy  and  childlessness. 
Marriage  of  near  relations  was  restricted;  divorce  was 
rendered  difficult. 

Concubinage  was  forbidden,  and  adultery  was  punished 
as  one  of  the  greatest  of  crimes.  The  absolute  power  of 
parents  over  children,  extending  to  freedom  and  life,  was 
abolished,  and  child  murder  was  rendered  criminal. 

While  slavery  was  still  allowed,  its  evils  were  less- 
ened, and  the  manumission  of  slaves  was  encouraged. 

Gladiatorial  shows,  against  which  Christians  had 
striven  from  the  beginning  of  the  second  century,  were 
gradually  and  partially  abolished. 

(3)  Christianity  exerted  a  beneficent  effect  on  mo- 
rality. This  is  involved  in  its  influence  on  legislation. 
The  tone  of  morals  could,  of  course,  be  raised  only  very 
gradually;  but  undoubtedly  the  change  soon  became 
perceptible. 


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CHAP.l.]  CHURCH  AND  STATE  313 

2.  Evils  that  Christianity  Sufikred  in  Consequence  of  the 

Union. 

The  points  in  which  Constantine  and  his  followers 
favored  Christianity  may  also  be  regarded  as  involving 
evils.  When  he  put  restrictions  on  idolatry,  he  fosteced 
a  spirit  of  intolerance  in  Christians,  and  led  them  to  trust 
in  physical  power  rather  than  in  the  power  of  the  truth. 
When  he  enjoined  the  universal  observance  of  Sunday, 
it  ceased  to  be  a  spiritual,  and  became  a  legal  festival. 
When  he  legalized  Christian  corporations, — a  thing  right 
in  itself, — ^he  presented  a  great  temptation  to  Christian 
bishops  to  devote  themselves  largely  to  the  enrichment 
of  the  churches,  which  they  frequently  accomplished  by 
the  most  unfair  means.  When  he  offered  temporal  in- 
ducements to  the  profession  of  Christianity,  he  not  only 
brought  multitudes  of  unregenerate  people  into  the 
churches,  but  he  also  aided  in  making  it  a  part  of  public 
opinion  to  regard  the  profession  of  Christianity  as  a  mere 
form,  and  to  attach  a  magical  significance  to  the  ordinances. 
His  efforts  for  church  unity  greatly  interfered  with  free- 
dom of  thought,  and  fostered  the  spirit  of  intolerance  in 
the  favored  party.  The  favors  that  he  bestowed  upon 
the  bishops  increased  their  pride  and  worldliness,  and 
caused  an  unchristian  striving  for  important  bishoprics. 

We  may  particularize  as  follows : 

(i)  Christianity  was  secularized.  The  doors  of  the 
church  were  thrown  open  so  wide,  that  the  distinction 
between  Christianity  and  the  world  was  obliterated. 

Christian  churches  assumed  the  magnificence  of 
heathen  temples.  In  imitating  the  pomp.  Christians 
were  sure  to  imitate  the  practices  of  heathenism,  espe- 
cially as  the  most  influential  Christians  were  now  men 
that  had  been  brought  up  pagans,  and  had  adopted 
Christianity  chiefly  because  it  was  the  fashion. 

Many  Christian  preachers  rebuked  this  worldliness 
most  vehemently  ;  but  the  example  of  the  imperial  court 
was  more  influential  with  the  rank  and  file. 

(2)  As  pagans  had  been  accustomed  to  worship  a  host 
of  gods  and  goddesses,  they  felt  the  need,  after  becom- 
ing Christians,  of  numerous  objects  of  adoration.  The 
most  honored  characters  of  the  early  apostolic  and  suc- 


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314  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER  in 

ceeding  times  were,  of  course,  selected,  such  as  Mary, 
the  mother  of  Christ,  the  apostles,  and  other  martyrs. 

(3)  As  pagans  had  been  accustomed  to  worship  their 
gods  under  the  form  of  images,  the  new  converts  natu- 
rally required  images  of  the  saints,  and  the  churches 
were  soon  filled  with  these  objects.  That  pagans  so 
readily  gave  up  their  religion  and  embraced  Christianity 
can  be  accounted  for  only  by  the  fact  that  Christianity 
adapted  itself  so  entirely  to  their  ideas  as  to  make  the 
change  little  more  than  nominal. 

(4)  Hierarchical  development  was  stimulated.  Bishops, 
who  had  already  in  great  measure  gained  supremacy 
over  presbyters,  became  more  uniformly  and  entirely 
supreme  after  the  union. 

The  ecclesiastical  hierarchy  was  made  a  counterpart 
of  the  civil  government.  Constantine  divided  the 
empire  into  four  praetorian  prefectures — ^two  in  the  East 
and  two  in  the  West. 

The  East,  with  Antioch  as  its  capital,  embraced  five 
dioceses :  Syria ;  Egypt  (capital  Alexandria) ;  Pontus 
(capital  Caesarea) ;  Asia  (capital  Ephesus) ;  Thrace, 
Haemiontis,  Moesia,  and  Scythia  (capital  Constantinople). 

The  lllyrian  prefecture  comprised  Macedonia  and 
Dacia.  The  Italian  prefecture  was  divided  into  two 
vicariates:  Rome  (embracing  Southern  Italy  and  the 
Mediterranean  islands)  ;  the  Italian  vicariate  (Lombardy, 
and  territory  south  of  the  Danube,  capital  Milan).  To 
this  was  added  Western  Africa  (capital  Carthage)  and 
Western  Illyricum. 

The  fourth  prefecture  was  Gaul  (France,  Spain,  and 
Britain). 

As  bishops  of  the  capitals  of  the  provinces  had  for 
some  time  exercised  a  moral  influence  superior  to  that  of 
bishops  of  less  important  cities,  they  were  now  endued 
by  a  decree  of  the  Council  of  Nicaea,  enforced  by  impe- 
rial power,  with  authority  over  all  the  bishops  of  their 
respective  provinces.  The  bishops  highest  in  authority 
were  those  of  Rome,  Alexandria,  Antioch,  Ephesus,  and 
Jerusalem.  These  bishoprics  magnified  their  natural 
importance  by  their  tradition  of  apostolic  foundation,  and 
were  afterward  distinguished  (along  with  that  of  Con- 
stantinople) as  patriarchates. 


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CHAP.L]  CHURCH  AND  STATE  315 

As  Rome  was  the  chief  city  of  the  West,  and  the  seat 
of  government  for  the  entire  West,  the  Council  of  Nicaea 
gave  to  the  bishop  of  Rome  authority  over  all  bishops  in 
the  West  (including  Western  Africa,  Italy,  Gaul,  Spain, 
Britain,  etc.) ;  and  this  authority  being  so  much  more 
extensive  than  that  of  the  other  patriarchates,  naturally 
tended  to  encourage  the  Roman  bishops  to  the  assertion 
of  absolute  supremacy  over  all  the  churches.  Yet,  when 
Constantinople  became  the  seat  of  the  Empire,  the  patri- 
archate of  Constantinople  became  a  rival  to  the  Roman, 
although  it  had  no  apostolic  origin  to  boast. 

(5)  The  church  became  a  persecuting  power,  making 
use  of  the  civil  authority  for  the  suppression  of  dissent 
and  paganism.  There  had  been  bigotry  and  intolerance 
enough  before,  but  they  had  expressed  themselves  only 
morally.  Now  they  exhibited  their  true  character.  It 
will  not  seem  so  strange  to  us  that  this  secularized  Chris- 
tianity should  have  persecuted,  if  we  consider  the  fol- 
lowing facts : 

a.  The  Old  Testament,  with  the  majority  of  Christians, 
was  of  equal  authority  with  the  New  Testament,  and 
was  looked  upon  as  containing  a  model  of  church  polity. 
Now  the  Old  Testament  abounds  in  narrations  in  which 
the  persecuting  zeal  of  rulers  is  represented  as  highly 
pleasing  to  God.  Special  praise  is  accorded  to  those  who 
slaughtered  multitudes  of  heathen,  and  destroyed  their 
places  and  objects  of  worship.  Christian  rulers  felt  that 
they  were  glorifying  themselves  and  God  in  emulating 
such  examples  ;  and  Christian  preachers  felt  that  they 
were  filling  the  place  of  Old  Testament  prophets  when 
they  incited  the  rulers  to  the  violent  extermination  of 
paganism  and  heresy. 

b.  By  this  time  it  had  come  to  be  pretty  generally 
believed  that  out  of  the  church  there  is  no  salvation. 
The  idea  of  the  church  was  limited  to  those  who  adhered 
to  apostolic  unity  as  represented  by  the  dominant  party. 
By  persecution  some  would  be  brought  back  into  the 
church  (whether  honestly  or  not,  was  a  minor  con- 
sideration). If  some  were  slain,  they  were  only  made 
to  meet  their  inevitable  fate  a  little  sooner.  It  was  a 
question  of  saving  some,  or  letting  all  go  together  to 
perdition.    Moreover,  by  the  slaying  of  the  incorrigible, 


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3l6  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PSR.in 

Others  would  be  saved  from  their  corrupting  influence, 
and  still  others  would  be  deterred  through  fear  of  a 
like  fate.  Our  Lord's  injunction,  **  Compel  them  to 
come  in."  was  interpreted  literally,  and  regarded  as  a 
sanction  for  the  employment  of  force,  even  by  Augustine. 

c.  Alongside  of  these  more  honest  grounds  for  perse- 
cution must  be  placed  personal  considerations.  Those 
who  were  particularly  annoyed  by  the  presence  of  here- 
tics  or  pagans,  were  greatly  tempted  to  seek  their  ex- 
termination. 

d.  Add  to  these  the  political  need  of  the  unity  of 
religious  belief  and  practice,  so  strongly  felt  by  the 
rulers  of  a  great  empire,  and  the  encouragement  these 
gave  to  Christian  intolerance,  and  persecution  by  Chris- 
tians appears  as  a  matter  of  course.  The  church  has 
persecuted  Christians  far  more  cruelly,  and  has  de- 
stroyed vastly  more  Christians  than  pagans  have  done. 
The  Diocletian  persecution  is  as  nothing  when  compared 
with  the  work  of  the  '*  Holy  Office." 

(6)  Reaction  against  worldliness,  resulting  in  the  ex- 
cesses of  asceticism.  Monasticism  is  not  peculiar  to 
Christianity,  but  seems  naturally  to  occur  under  favor- 
able circumstances  in  connection  with  almost  any  system 
of  religion.  It  existed  in  the  most  exaggerated  forms 
among  Brahmins  and  Buddhists  long  before  the  Christian 
era.  The  Essenes  and  the  Therapeutae,  at  and  before 
the  time  of  Christ,  were  ascetics.  It  is  probable  that 
Christian  asceticism  was  historically  connected  with  the 
Oriental  theosophy,  though  not  very  directly  or  con- 
sciously derived  from  it. 

So  long  as  Christianity  was  persecuted.  Christians 
of  an  ascetic  turn  of  mind  usually  found  opportunity 
enough  for  self-denial  in  enduring  hardships  for  the  faith. 
We  see  the  ascetic  spirit  manifested  in  Montanists,  Nova- 
tians,  and  Donatists,  and  in  the  multitudes  that  were 
always  ready  to  deliver  themselves  to  death.  In  Gnosti- 
cism and  Manichaeism  it  had  a  thoroughly  perverse  de- 
velopment. 

From  the  true  Christian  idea  that  the  flesh  must  be 
crucified  and  the  lusts  thereof,  that  those  who  would 
come  after  Christ  must  deny  themselves,  etc..  Christians 
soon  came  to  look  upon  suffering  in  connection  with  re- 


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CHAP.  I.]  CHURCH  AND  STATE  317 

ligion  as  meritorious  in  itself,  and  were  willing  to  endure 
the  greatest  physical  agonies  for  the  peace  of  conscience 
thence  derivable.  The  New  Testament  opposition  be- 
tween spirit  and  flesh,  was  laid  hold  of  and  perverted. 

Now  this  ascetic  spirit  continued  to  exist  in  many  after 
persecution  had  ceased.  Nay,  it  was  intensified  by  the 
increase  of  worldliness  in  the  Christian  churches.  Such 
spirits  came  to  feel  that  it  was  impossible  to  live  a  truly 
Christian  life  in  the  worldly  churches.  How  was  the 
ascetic  spirit,  the  desire  for  self-sacrifice,  to  find  vent  ? 
The  ascetics  withdrew  from  society  and  retired  into 
waste  places,  where  they  spent  their  time  in  fasting 
and  prayer,  and  in  making  the  spirit  triumph  over  the 
flesh.  The  greater  the  rigor  of  their  self-discipline,  the 
greater  the  merit ;  so  endless  means  of  self-torture  were 
devised,  which  amounted,  in  many  instances,  to  suicide. 
Insanity,  in  various  degrees,  almost  always  resulted  from 
such  austerities.  (This  refers  to  the  earlier  stages  of 
hermit  life.)  We  may  distinguish  four  stages  in  the  de- 
velopment of  Monasticism : 

a.  The  asceticism  that  prevailed  in  the  churches  them- 
selves, varying  in  its  austerity. 

b.  Hermit  life  or  Anchoretism.  This  form  of  asceti- 
cism may  have  arisen  about  the  middle  of  the  third  cen- 
tury, but  it  became  common  only  after  the  union  of 
Church  and  State.  Jerome's  romantic  account  of  Paul 
of  Thebes,  and  Antony  of  Alexandria,  are  mainly  fabu- 
lous, as  is  also  much  in  the  life  of  Antony  attributed  to 
Athanasius.  But  these  and  like  narratives  may  have 
had  a  basis  of  fact,  and  they  exhibit  in  concrete  form  the 
ideals  that  prevailed  in  the  latter  half  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury. The  following  sketch  of  Antony,  without  the 
fables,  may  be  in  the  main  correct : 

Born  about  2$i,  he  became  in  early  manhood  an  enthusiastic 
ascetic,  sold  his  large  estate,  and  gave  the  proceeds  to  the  poor, 
committing  his  sister,  whose  guardian  he  was,  to  a  body  of  virgins. 
He  strove  to  detach  himself  from  the  world,  and  to  eradicate  all 
human  sensibilities  and  desires.  His  efforts  to  banish  evil  thoughts 
secm«d  only  to  Intensify  them.  In  order  to  make  his  separation 
from  the  world  more  complete,  he  removed  some  miles  from  his 
native  vlllaM,  and  occupied  a  cleft  in  a  rock.  His  imagination  was 
rendered  so  fervid  ^y  jifs  austerities,  that  he  supposed  himself  to  be 
assaulted  by  the  powers  of  darkness. 


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3l8  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.m. 

He  then  resorted  to  a  still  more  secluded  place,  where  he  remained 
twenty  years.  But  his  fame  had  now  spread,  so  that  large  num- 
bers came  to  him  for  spiritual  guidance,  many  adopting  the  same 
mode  of  life.  He  desired  to  escapee  from  men,  and  sought  a  stili 
more  retired  place ;  but  he  was  still  pursued,  being  reputed  to  pos^ 
sess  superhuman  sanctity  and  the  power  of  worlcing  miracles. 

Only  on  the  rarest  occasions  did  he  visit  Alexandria,  as  in  311,  in 
the  time  of  the  Diocletian  persecution,  for  the  purpose  of  encourag- 
ing the  Christians,  and  in  ^$2  to  counteract  the  spread  of  Arianism. 

Antony's  food  was  bread  and  salt,  never  tasted  until  after  sunset 
He  often  fasted  entirely  for  two  or  three  days.  He  watched  and 
prayed  all  night,  sleeping  only  a  little  time  on  the  ground.  He 
rejected  the  practice  of  bathing,  and  Is  said  never  to  have  seen  him- 
self nude.  Many  of  his  followers  far  surpassed  Antony  in  self- 
mortification. 

From  Egypt  hermit  life  spread  into  Syria  and  other 
parts  of  the  empire. 

c.  Coenobitic  or  cloister  life.  This  too  originated  in 
Egypt,  probably  from  the  example  of  the  Essenes  and 
Therapeutae.  The  hermits  had  become  numerous. 
Here,  as  always,  extensiveness  decreased  intensity. 
The  feeling  arose  that  the  true  interests  of  ascetics 
would  be  better  subserved  by  association  with  kindred 
spirits.  Moreover,  there  was  a  tendency  for  large  num- 
bers of  younger  hermits  to  flocl<  to  those  who  had  at- 
tained to  great  celebrity  for  instruction.  Such  was  true 
even  in  the  case  of  Antony,  and  he  himself  was  said  to 
have  encouraged  the  association  of  ascetics. 

The  anchoretic  life  was  not  at  all  adapted  to  females. 
Even  in  the  time  of  Tertullian  **  virgins*'  had  begun  to 
live  together  at  the  expense  of  the  churches. 

The  association  of  monks  was  at  first  informal.  When 
the  number  became  great  it  was  necessary  to  adopt  rules 
for  the  government  of  the  society  and  to  fix  terms  for 
admission. 

The  first  rules  of  importance  were  those  of  Pachomius. 
Near  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century  Pachomius,  a 
young  soldier,  obtained  release  from  military  service  and 
attached  himself  to  an  old  hermit,  with  whom  he  lived 
twelve  years.  He  was  not  satisfied  with  a  life  of  idle 
devotion,  but  felt  a  strong  impulse  to  do  good  to  his 
brethren.  Accordingly  he  organized  a  society  of  monks 
on  an  island  in  the  Nile,  which  during  his  lifetime  reached 
a  membership  of  three  thousand.    The  entire  body  of 


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CHAP.  I.]  CHURCH  AND  STATE  319 

monks  was  divided  into  twenty-four  classes,  according 
to  the  letters  of  the  alphabet.  The  gradations  were 
those  of  spiritual  advancement.  Over  each  class  was  a 
presiding  officer,  Pachomius  himself  being  the  abbot  or 
father  of  all.  They  supported  themselves  by  various 
kinds  of  labor :  agriculture,  ship-building,  tanning,  basket 
making,  etc.  No  one  had  anything  of  his  own,  but  all 
earnings  went  to  the  common  treasury,  from  which  all 
were  supported.  Particular  duties  were  assigned  to 
each  by  his  superior,  and  special  hours  of  devotion  were 
appointed  for  all. 

This  form  of  ascetic  life  became  popular.  Multitudes 
of  all  classes  of  society  flocked  to  the  cloisters.  Many 
monks,  losing  their  first  enthusiasm,  were  tormented  in 
spirit  and  became  insane.  Many  became  vicious.  Many 
entered  the  monasteries  to  escape  military  service  and 
other  hardships,  which  the  declining  empire  put  upon  its 
subjects. 

d.  The  founding  of  monastic  orders,  1.  ^.,  the  organiza- 
tion under  the  same  rule  and  name,  of  monastic  bodies 
in  various  regions.  Under  this  form  medieval  Monasti- 
cism  for  the  most  part  existed. 

Remark.— While  we  have  here  classed  Monasticlsm  in  general 
among  the  evil  results  of  the  union  of  Church  and  State,  we  must 
beware  of  regarding  it  as  only  evil.  In  its  favor  it  may  be  said  (a) 
that  it  made  strong  resistance  to  worldliness ;  (d)  it  was  a  powerful 
means  of  attracting  pagans  to  Christianity;  (c)  in  many  instances 
it  promoted  theological  study ;  (</)  it  afforded  a  refuge  and  means  of 
reformation  for  those  that  were  cast  out  from  society. 

On  the  other  hand :  U)  it  withdrew  large  numbers  of  good  men 
from  active  service  in  Christ's  cause;  (h)  it  fostered  spiritual  pride 
and  hypocrisy :  {c)  it  filled  Christendom  with  radically  wrong  ideas 
of  religion  and  morality;  {d)  it  brutalized  many  men:  (#)  it  was  a 
most  influential  factor  in  the  development  of  hierarchy.^ 


timiincpU,"  1897. 


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CHAPTER  II 
CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH 

It  was  doubtless  hoped  by  many  that  when  organized 
Christianity  had  gained  power  to  enforce  its  decisions 
there  would  be  an  end  of  controversy.  Yet  never  had 
controversy  raged  so  fiercely  as  in  the  fourth  and  follow- 
ing centuries.  The  parties  that  were  already  in  exist- 
ence now  came  forward  with  a  great  increase  of  polemi- 
cal energy,  and  new  parties  arose. 

Persecution  of  the  less  powerful  by  the  dominant 
parties  was  employed  without  scruple,  but  to  little  avail. 
It  seems  to  be  an  established  principle  that  persecution, 
if  not  carried  to  the  point  of  extermination,  and  if  not 
carried  on  so  constantly  and  severely  as  to  destroy  the 
spirit  of  the  persecuted,  really  promotes  their  spread. 

We  may  divide  the  controversies  of  the  period  into 
seven  classes:  (i)  On  ecclesiastical  polity;  (2)  on  the 
relations  of  the  godhead  ;  (3)  on  the  teaching  of  Origen  ; 
(4)  on  Christology ;  (5)  on  the  doctrine  of  the  person  of 
Christ ;  (6)  on  anthropology ;  (7)  controversies  involving 
protests  against  the  paganizing  of  Christianity. 

I.  ecclesiastical  polity— the  DONATIST  CONTROVERSY. 

We  left  the  Donatists  in  the  other  period  when  the 
schism  had  just  been  completed.  A  brief  sketch  of  the 
efforts  to  heal  the  schism  must  here  be  given  : 

I.  Their  Appeal  to  Constantine,  Constantine  having 
expressly  excepted  the  Donatists  from  the  privileges 
conferred  on  (Christians  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign, 
they  appealed  to  him  (then  in  Gaul)  to  name  judges  in 
that  country  to  inquire  into  the  nature  of  the  divisions 
in  Carthage  (313).  Constantine  referred  the  matter  to 
Melchiades,  bishop  of  Rome,  and  five  Gallic  bishops,  be- 
fore whom  the  accused  Caecilian  and  ten  African  bishops 
from  each  side  were  summoned.  A  hasty  decision  in 
favor  of  Caecilian  resulted. 


320 


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chap.il]     controversies  in  the  church  321 

The  Donatists  complained  that  their  cause  had  not 
been  fully  heard,  and  Constantine  ordered  a  second 
investigation  at  Aries  (314),  expressing  himself  against 
the  Donatists. 

A  large  conference  was  called,  to  be  composed  of 
bishops  of  both  parties  from  various  parts  of  the  empire. 
This  body  was  packed,  the  great  majority  of  the  bishops 
being  from  Gaul  and  Italy.  The  decision  was  on  the 
whole  favorable  to  Caecilian,  yet  it  was  enacted  that 
traditors  who  could  be  proved  to  be  such  from  public 
documents — not  from  mere  rumor — should  be  removed 
from  the  ministry.  The  Donatists  failed  to  prove  from 
public  documents  that  either  Mensurius  or  C^secilian  or 
Felix  of  Aptunga,  who  had  ordained  Caecilian,  was  a 
traditor. 

The  investigations  conducted  by  the  imperial  commissioners  had 
reference  chiefly  to  the  conduct  of  Pelix,  whose  traditorship  was  sup- 
posed by  the  Donatists  to  have  vitiated  the  ordination  of  Cseclllan. 

From  this  decision  the  Donatists  appealed  to  the 
emperor  himself.  He  decided  against  them  in  316,  and 
threatened  the  banishment  of  their  bishops  and  the 
confiscation  of  their  property  in  case  they  should  refuse 
to  yield. 

2.  Persecution  of  the  donatists.  Constantine's  threat 
was  soon  executed.  Donatists  were  deprived  of  their 
churches  and  harassed  in  various  ways.  This  persecu- 
tion had  the  effect  of  driving  many  of  them  already 
inclined  to  fanaticism  to  deeds  of  violence.  In  317 
Constantine  exhorted  the  Catholics  to  abstain  from  re- 
taliation. In  321  the  Donatists  sent  a  petition  to  the 
emperor,  saying  that  they  would  submit  to  anything 
rather  than  affiliate  with  the  rascally  Bishop  Caecilian. 
Constantine  thought  further  measures  useless  and 
granted  them  full  liberty  of  conscience. 

3.  Efforts  of  the  Emperor  Constans  to  Bribe  the  Donatists, 
and  the  Succeeding  Persecution.  In  340  Constans  made 
an  effort,  under  the  pretence  of  alms,  to  use  money  for 
conciliating  the  Donatists.  The  Donatist  bishops  were 
exasperated,  and  again  there  was  a  resort  to  force. 
They  were  once  more  deprived  of  their  churches  and 
their  assemblies  were    broken  up   by  armed   troops. 


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322  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.ia 

Those  that  resisted  were  in  many  instances  slain.  The 
Donatists  were  now  led  to  declare  boldly  their  opposition 
to  civil  interference  in  nnatters  of  religion.  This  was 
henceforth  one  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  party. 

4.  The  HDonatists  and  the  Emperor  Jidian.  Julian  at- 
tempted to  restore  paganism,  and  of  course  withdrew 
the  privileges  that  had  been  bestowed  upon  the  dominant 
form  of  organized  Christianity  by  his  predecessors. 
The  Donatists  appealed  to  him,  and  he  issued  an  edict 
annulling  whatever  had  been  undertaken  against  them 
and  restoring  to  them  their  churches. 

5.  The  donatists  and  /lugustine.  The  Donatist  schism 
was  still  unabated  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century. 
Augustine,  bishop  of  Hippo,  was  impelled,  not  only  by 
his  high  idea  of  church  unity,  but  also  by  the  annoyance 
that  the  schism  caused  him  personally,  to  write  against 
them  and  to  seek  to  compass  their  overthrow.  The 
leading  points  on  which  Augustine  bases  his  attacks  are: 

(i)  Their  persistent  separation  from  the  church,  which 
led  them  to  refuse  to  enter  even  into  social  relations 
with  the  Catholics. 

(2)  Their  insistence  on  the  rebaptism  of  the  Catholics 
as  a  condition  of  communion  with  them.  This  offered 
the  greatest  obstacle  to  union,  necessitating  a  complete 
surrender  on  the  part  of  the  Catholics  in  order  thereunto. 

(3)  He  rebuts  their  charges  of  persecution  on  the  part 
of  the  Catholics  by  setting  forth  the  intolerance  of  Do- 
natists themselves,  citing  as  instances  the  refusal  of 
Donatists  in  a  town  in  which  they  were  predominant  to 
sell  bread  to  Catholics,  and  the  forcible  manner  in  which  in 
a  schism  in  a  Donatist  church,  led  by  Maximianus,  the 
stronger  party  had  seized  the  church  property.  The  fact 
that  the  schism  was  afterward  healed  without  require- 
ment of  rebaptism  on  either  side  he  uses  against  the 
Donatists  to  show  their  inconsistency  in  requiring  rebap- 
tism of  Catholics.  The  deeds  of  the  fanatical  Circum- 
celliones  are  also  used  to  show  the  intolerant,  persecut- 
ing spirit  of  the  Donatists. 

6.  The  Donatists  and  the  Carthaginian  Council  (A.  D. 
411).  A  great  effort  having  been  made  (395  onw.)  to 
conciliate  the  Donatists  by  allowing  their  clergy  to  retain 
their  dignity  and  by  making  aa  amicable  adjustment  of 


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CHAP.  II.]        CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  323 

claims  to  church  property,  etc.,  with  little  success,  the 
emperor,  Theodosius  II,,  issued  an  edict  (41 1)  commanding 
the  Donatist  bishops  of  Africa  to  meet  the  Catholic 
bishops  at  Carthage  in  a  great  conference. 

The  Donatist  bishops  went  much  against  their  inclina- 
tion, having  no  confidence  in  such  measures.  They 
were  indignant  that  an  imperial  commissioner  should 
preside.  The  Donatists  were  sullen,  the  Catholics  im- 
perious, and  the  discussion  amounted  to  nothing. 

Of  the  Catholic  bishops  of  Proconsular  Africa  two  hundred  and 
eighty-six  were  present,  of  the  Donatists  two  hundred  and  seventy- 
nine.  It  is  evident  that  the  dioceses  were  small  and  that  Catholic 
and  Donatist  congregations  existed  side  by  side  in  nearly  every 
community. 

The  Donatists  were  condemned  and  a  fierce  persecu- 
tion ensued.  The  Vandals,  however,  put  an  end  to  party 
strife,  persecuting  Catholics  and  Donatists  alike,  and  in- 
troducing Arianism  (429  onw.).  The  Donatists  declined 
from  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century,  but  maintained 
themselves  as  a  distinct  party  until  the  sixth  century  or 
later. 

II.  ON  THE  RELATIONS  OF  THE  GODHEAD— THE  ARIAN  CON- 
TROVERSY. 

LITERATURE:  Athanasius,  *'  Orai.  Contra  Arianos'^  "D#  D$cniis 
Smodm  Wcamm^^  "D#  SenUniia  DionysU^^  **  Apologia  contr.  Arianos,^* 
*^Histon'a  Arianorum^^*  etc. ;  Basil,  **A(iv.  Emommm** ;  Greg.  Naz., 
**Oratfotus  Theologieof^^ ;  Greg.  Nys.,  ^^ Contra  Eunommm** ;  Hilary, 
•*  D0  TrmUaU  ";  Ambrose,  "  D$  Fid$  ";  Augustine,  "  De  Trinitait  Con- 
tra Maximinum  Arianum  ";  Epjphanius,  ^^Ancoratus  ";  Hardouin  and 
MansI,  *'  Concilia '' ;  "  Fragmenta  Arianorum^**  in  Mai's  '*  Scriptorum 
ygt.  Nov.  Coll"  Vol.  111. ;  TDorner, "  Person  of  Christ,"  Div.  L  Vol. 
II. ;  Neander,  Vol.  II.,  p.  403,  ssq. ,  Schaff,  Vol.  II.,  pp. 616-698 ;  Baur, 
••  Gtsch.  d.  Lihrt  der  Dnieinigkiit,^'  Bd,  I.,  Sfit.  3o6-«25,  and  *'  'Dog- 
nungesehichti^"  Bd.  I.,  Sdit.  13^-282;  Kolling,  '*  Gesch»  d,  Arianischen 
H'afisii^"  1874;  works  on  tne  history  of  doctrine,  by  Harnack, 
Loofs,  Seeberg,  Thomasius,  Hagenbach,  Shedd,  Sheldon,  and 
Fisher ;  Hefele,  "  Hist,  of  Councils,"  Vol.  I. ;  De  Broglie,  "  UEgliu 
it  VEmpirt^'  ;  Voigt,  "  Die  Uhrt  d.  tAthanasius'*;  Newman,  "The 
Arians  of  the  Fourth  Century  " :  Gibbon,  "  Dec.  and  Fall,"  Chap. 
21;  Stanley,  "Eastern  Church,*'  Lect  lI.-VII.:  Gwatkin,  "Stud- 
ies of  Arianism  "  and  "  The  Arian  Controversy  "  ;  articles  on  Arius 
(Arianism),  Athanasius,  Eusebius,  Eunomlus,  etc.,  in  Smith  and 
Wace,  Hauck-Herzog,  Wetzer  u.  Welte,  Lichtenberger,  and  McClIn* 
tock  and  Strong. 


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324  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PES.  in 

I.  Preliminary  Observations. 

It  was  the  doctrine  of  the  pre-existent  Logos  that 
more  than  any  other  had  agitated  the  world  of  theolog* 
ical  thought  during  the  second  and  third  centuries.  We 
have  seen  that  the  Christians  were  driven  to  the  ex- 
pression of  definite  views  on  this  subject  by  the  pressure 
of  Gnosticism  on  the  one  hand,  with  its  emanation 
theory,  and  of  Ebionism  on  the  other,  with  its  utter  re- 
jection of  Christ's  deity.  We  have  seen  that  an  influ- 
ential part  of  the  church,  represented  by  Noetus,  Praxeas, 
Sabellius,  and  Beryl,  had,  with  a  view  to  obviating  the 
Gnostic  and  Ebionitic  conclusions,  striven  to  identify 
Father  and  Son  absolutely.  This  involved  either  Patri- 
passianism  (the  maintenance  that  the  birth  and  suffer- 
ings of  the  Son  can  be  attributed  equally  to  the  Father) 
or  Docetism  (the  incarnation  and  the  sufferings  of  the 
Son  being  regarded  as  merely  phenomenal).  Patripas- 
sianism  was,  from  the  first,  repugnant  to  the  Christian 
consciousness  in  general,  and  its  success  in  gaining  ad- 
herents may  have  been  due,  in  part,  to  the  laxity  of  dis- 
cipline with  which  it  appears  to  have  been  commonly 
jissociated. 

The  problem  now  forced  itself  upon  the  minds  of 
Christian  thinkers,  of  distinguishing  between  Father  and 
Son,  without  denying  either  the  humanity  or  the  abso- 
lute deity  of  the  latter.  We  have  seen  how  Tertullian, 
by  his  **  Economy,"  and  Origen,  by  his  "  Eternal  Gen- 
eration," attempted  to  meet  the  case.  Dionysius  of 
Alexandria,  in  controversy  with  the  Sabellians  (about 
260),  declared  that  the  **  Son  of  God  is  a  work  and  a 
creature,  not  appertaining  to  him  by  nature,  but  as  re* 
gards  his  essence  as  foreign  to  the  Father  as  is  the  hus- 
bandman to  the  vine.  .  .  For,  as  a  creature,  he  did  not 
exist  before  he  was  produced."  These  expressions 
awakened  vigorous  opposition,  and  the  matter  was  laid 
before  Dionysius,  bishop  of  Rome,  who  called  a  synod 
for  the  consideration  of  the  question.  Dionysius  of  Alex- 
andria afterward  disowned  the  opinions  mentioned,  and 
in  the  Arian  controversy  his  authority  was  claimed  by 
both  parties. 

Dionysius  of  Rome  (with  the  concurrence  of  the  synod) 


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CHAR  II.]       COffTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  325 

rejected  the  expressions  of  his  Alexandrian  namesake, 
together  with  anything  that  would  imply  that  there  was 
a  time  when  the  Son  was  not.  He  held  that  the  Son  was 
always  in  the  Father  as  his  Power  and  Wisdom.  "  It  is 
necessary  for  the  divine  Logos  to  be  united  with  the  God 
of  the  universe,  and  in  God  the  Holy  Spirit,  also,  must 
be  embosomed  and  dwell.  And  now  it  is  altogether  nec- 
essary that  the  divine  Triad  be  summed  up  and  brought 
together  into  a  head,  as  it  were — I  mean  in  God,  the 
creator  of  the  universe." 

During  the  closing  years  of  the  third  century  and  the 
opening  of  the  fourth,  theological  thought  was  focused 
upon  this  great  question.  There  was  still  a  constant 
vacillation  between  subordinationism  and  Sabellianism. 
In  the  nature  of  things,  such  a  state  of  vacillation  on  a 
question  that  profoundly  agitated  men's  minds  could  not 
long  continue.  The  time  had  come  when  Christian 
thinkers  must  decide  either  that  the  Son  is  a  creature, 
and  hence,  not  eternal,  and  not  in  the  highest  sense 
divine ;  or,  that  he  is  uncreated,  eternal,  truly  God,  of 
the  same  essence  with  the  Father,  yet  with  a  personality 
distinct  from  that  of  the  Father. 

By  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  the  idea  of  the 
absoluteness  of  the  Christian  religion  had  taken  strong 
hold  upon  the  Christian  consciousness.  This  pre-sup- 
posed,  Christianity  could  not  long  remain  content  with 
any  statement  that  involved  the  subordination  of  its 
head.  If  Christianity  is  the  absolute  religion,  the  Christ 
must  be  regarded  as  absolutely  divine.  It  was,  there- 
fore, no  accident  that  the  Nicene-Athanasian  formulae  of 
the  relations  of  the  Godhead  should  have  finally  pre- 
vailed, and  should  have  become  part  and  parcel  of  the 
Christianity  of  the  subsequent  ages. 

We  observe  here,  as  we  shall  constantly  have  occa- 
sion to  observe,  the  speculative  character  of  Oriental 
theology,  as  contrasted  with  the  practical  tendency  of 
the  Occidental.  Western  Christians  saw  clearly  the 
practical  need  of  asserting  the  absolute  deity  of  Christ, 
and  were  somewhat  indifferent  to  minute  distinctions. 
Eastern  Christians,  on  the  other  hand,  often  spent  their 
energies  in  fruitless  hair-splitting. 

The  Arian  controveisy  was  widespread,  violent,  and 


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326  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  fll 

prolonged.  For  nearly  a  century  it  absorbed  a  large  share 
of  the  energies  of  almost  the  entire  Christian  brother- 
hood. It  was  the  occasion  of  innumerable  scenes  of 
bloodshed  and  violence,  and  it  rent  asunder  whole  sec- 
tions of  Christendom. 

2.  Rise  of  the  Controversy, 

We  have  seen  that  from  the  time  of  Origen  Oriental 
Christendom  was  constantly  agitating  the  question  of  the 
relations  of  the  Godhead.  Arius,  a  presbyter  of  the 
Alexandrian  church,  had  received  his  religious  training 
at  Antioch,  under  Lucian.  In  opposition  to  the  allegor- 
ical interpretation  which  prevailed  at  Alexandria,  Arius 
had  learned  to  interpret  the  Bible  grammatically  and  his- 
torically. He  seems  to  have  been  almost  destitute  of  the 
intuitive  faculty  for  which  Alexandrian  theologians  were 
distinguished,  and  his  mind  demanded  an  entirely  clear 
and  rational  statement  of  the  doctrine  that  was  agitating 
the  churches.  Origen's  theory  of  the  eternal  generation 
of  the  Logos  had  no  meaning  for  him.  "  We  must  either 
suppose  two  divine  original  essences,  without  beginning 
and  independent  of  each  other,  we  must  substitute  a 
dyarchy  for  a  monarchy,  or  we  must  not  shrink  from 
asserting  that  the  Logos  had  a  beginning  of  his  existence 
— ^that  there  was  when  he  was  not." 

Arius  was  a  man  of  pure  and  ascetical  life,  and  his  in- 
fluence in  Alexandria  soon  began  to  be  felt.  In  321 
Alexander,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  called  a  synod,  which 
deposed  him  from  the  presbyterate  and  excluded  him 
from  the  communion  of  the  church.  The  result  was  a 
schism  in  the  Alexandrian  church  which  soon  spread  far 
and  wide. 

3.  The  Three  Parties  in  the  Controversy. 

(i)  The  ^rian.  This  party  during  the  early  stages  rf 
the  controversy  was  not  strong.  Comparatively  few 
were  willing  to  accept,  without  qualification,  Arius*  state- 
ments with  regard  to  the  Logos.  But  a  very  large  num- 
ber, who  had  always,  after  the  example  of  Origen,  held 
to  a  subordination  of  the  Logos,  protested  against  the 
intolerance  of  Alexander,  and  hence  were  practically 
defenders  of  Arianism. 


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CHAP.  II.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  327 

We  may  sum  up  the  strict  Arian  view  as  follows : 

a.  The  Son  was  created  out  of  nothing ;  hence,  he  is 
different  in  essence  QrepooOato^)  from  the  Father ;  that  he 
is  Logos,  Wisdom,  Son  of  God,  is  only  of  grace.  He  is 
not  so  in  himself. 

b.  There  was,  when  he  was  not ;  i.  e.,  he  is  a  finite 
being. 

c.  He  was  created  before  everything  else,  and  through 
him  the  universe  was  created  and  is  administered. 

d.  In  the  historical  Christ  the  human  element  is 
merely  the  material ;  the  soul  is  the  Logos.  The  his- 
torical Christ,  therefore,  had  no  human  soul,  and  the 
human  elements  that  appear  so  prominently  in  the  Gos- 
pels, are  attributed  to  the  Logos.  This  is  one  of  the 
favorite  arguments  of  the  Arians  for  the  finiteness  and 
imperfection  of  the  Logos.  The  earlier  theologians,  with 
the  exception  of  Origen,  had  made  no  distinction  between 
the  divine  and  the  human  in  Christ,  and  the  orthodox 
theologians  were .  not  able  to  meet  this  telling  argument 
of  the  Arians  by  making  such  distinction. 

e.  The  Arians  held,  that  although  the  incarnate  Logos 
is  finite,  and  hence  not  God,  he  is  to  be  worshiped,  as 
being  unspeakably  exalted  above  all  other  creatures,  the 
immediate  Creator  and  Governor  of  the  universe,  and  the 
Redeemer  of  man. 

/.  The  Arians  adhered  to  the  Scriptures,  and  were  will- 
ing to  employ  as  their  own  any  scriptural  statements  of 
doctrine. 

(2)  The  tAthanasian  Party.  This  party  was  driven  to 
the  rigorous  definition  of  the  relations  of  the  Godhead 
by  the  harsh  polemical  statements  of  the  Arians.  The 
Origenistic  representation  was  too  metaphysical  and  was 
a  constant  occasion  of  theological  agitation.  The  needs 
of  the  case  were :  to  utterly  repudiate  the  hypothesis  of 
any  sort  of  subordination  on  the  part  of  the  Son ;  to  hold 
fast  to  the  absolute  deity  of  the  historical  Christ ;  and  to 
obviate  Patripassianism. 

According  to  the  Arian  theory,  which  was  thought  to 
be  the  logical  outgrowth  of  the  Origenistic,  the  Son  does 
not  even  know  the  Father  perfectly.  If  the  Son  does 
not  know  the  Father  perfectly,  then  Christianity  is  not 
the  absolute  religion.     But  Christianity  is  the  absolute 


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328  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  Ill 

religion,  therefore  the  Son  must  have. made  a  perfect 
revelation,  i.  e.,  must  be  absolutely  divine.  This  abso- 
lutely divine  Son  was,  as  a  matter  of  course,  identified 
with  the  historical  Christ. 

Patripassianism  never  had  a  very  strong  hold  upon  the 
Christian  consciousness,  and  was  by  this  time  looked 
upon  as  blasphemous.  "  Hence,  a  distinction  of  personal- 
ities in  the  Godhead  must  be  made,  if  the  life  and  the 
death  of  the  historical  Christ  were  real,  •which  was  not 
doubted. 

We  may  summarize  the  Athanasian  view  of  the  person 
of  Christ  as  follows : 

a.  The  Son  was  begotten,  not  by  the  will  of  the  Father, 
as  Origen  supposed,  but  by  a  necessity  of  the  Father's 
nature.  As  God  is  unchangeable,  there  never  was  wl\pn 
he  was  not  Father.  Just  as  God  is  good  and  merciful, 
not  by  an  exercise  of  will,  but  by  nature,  so  he  is  pa- 
ternal. Nature  goes  before  all  willing.  The  distinction 
of  Father  and  Son  is,  therefore,  an  eternal  distinction. 

b.  The  Son  is  identical  in  substance  (6fioou<Tto^)  with  the 
Father.  His  deity  is  identical  with  the  deity  of  the  Father. 
Athanasius  and  his  party  discarded  the  Platonic  exalta- 
tion of  God  above  all  relations  to  the  universe,  which 
Origen,  Arius,  etc.,  adhered  to.  Creation  was  the  work 
of  the  Son,  but  not  because  it  was  beneath  the  dignity  of 
the  Father.  The  Arian  view,  it  was  held,  in  denying  the 
absolute  deity  of  Christ,  destroys  the  possibility  of  the 
union  of  man  with  God.  If  Christ  is  not  God  there  is  no 
true  redemption  for  man. 

c.  Athanasius  emphasized  the  personality  of  the  Son 

Just  as  much  as  his  identity  in  essence  with  the  Father. 
Personality  is  involved  in  Athanasius'  idea  of  Sonship. 
The  Son  is  not  a  mere  attribute  or  mode  of  manifesta- 
tion of  the  Father,  but  an  independent  personal  subsist- 
ence. Yet  Athanasius  would  not  allow  anything  that 
involves  a  partition  of  the  divine  essence.  He  illustrates 
his  idea  of  the  relation  of  Father  and  Son  by  the  relation 
of  light  and  its  reflection,  thus  really  subordinating  the 
Son  to  the  Father. 

Athanasius  thus  set  forth  with  great  clearness  the  two 
elements  of  the  doctrine — the  sameness  of  essence  and 
the  distinction  of  personality  of  Father  and  Son.    Later 


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CHAP.  11.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  329 

theologians,  such  as  Basil,  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  and 
Gregory  Nazianzen,  attempted  to  reconcile  the  two 
propositions  of  Athanasius,  i.  e.,  to  make  clear  wherein 
the  oneness  and  wherein  the  trinity  consists. 

(3)  The  SemuArian  or  Eusebian  Party.  We  may  re- 
gard this  large  and  influential  party  as,  on  the  one  hand, 
a  continuation  of  the  Ante-Nicene  Origenistic  party,  and 
on  the  other  hand  as  a  mediation  between  Arianism  and 
Athanasianism.  Most  of  the  early  defenders  of  Arius 
were  not  willing,  with  Arius,  to  deny  absolutely  the 
deity  of  Christ,  yet  they  were  just  as  loth  to  accept  the, 
to  them,  self -contradictory  representation  of  Athanasius. 

The  creed  of  the  Semi-Arians  may  be  summed  up  as 
follows : 

a.  They  rejected  the  Arian  view  that  the  Son  was 
created  out  of  nothing,  and  hence  is  different  in  essence 
from  the  Father;  that  "there  was  when  the  Son  was 
not "  ;  that  the  Son  is  a  creature  or  a  birth  in  the  sense 
in  which  other  things  are  created  and  born. 

b.  On  the  other  hand,  they  declared  that  the  Son  was 
begotten  of  the  Father,  before  all  time,  God  of  God, 
entire  of  entire,  only  of  the  only,  perfect  of  the  perfect, 
;mage  of  the  deity,  the  essence,  the  will,  the  power,  and 
the  glory  of  the  Father.  Yet  they  denied  the  Athana- 
sian  sameness  of  essence,  holding  only  to  likeness  as  to 
essence  (6fjLoto6ino^). 

Remark.— This  party  appears  In  history  chiefly  in  an  apologetic 
way,  and  most  of  its  members  were  probably  nearer  to  the  Anans 
than  to  the  Athanaslans. 

4.  The  Arians  and  the  Nicene  Council. 

The  chief  object  of  the  Nicene  Council  was  to  settle 
the  Arian  controversy,  which  so  seriously  imperiled  the 
unity  of  organized  Christianity  that  Constantine  had 
much  at  heart.  In  the  council  were  three  distinct 
parties,  the  Arian,  the  Semi-Arian  or  Origenistic,  and 
the  Athanasian.  At  the  opening  of  the  council  the 
Arians  proposed  a  creed,  signed  by  eighteen  names. 
This  was  indignantly  rejected  and  torn  in  pieces.  All 
the  signers,  except  Arius  and  two  bishops,  now  aban- 
doned the  cause  of  the  Arians. 


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330  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.ni 

Eusebius  of  Csesarea  then  proposed  an  ancient  Pales- 
tinian creed,  which  acknowledged  the  divine  nature  of 
Christ  in  general  biblical  terms.  The  emperor  had 
already  expressed  a  favorable  opinion  of  this  creed. 
The  Arians  were  willing  to  subscribe  to  it,  but  this  latter 
fact  made  the  Athanasian  party  suspicious.  They  wanted 
a  creed  that  no  Arian  could  subscribe,  and  insisted  on  in- 
serting the  term  tneeining  identical  in  substance  (6/ioo64rto^), 

The  Nicene  Creed  in  nearly  its  present  form  was  then 
proposed,  and  the  emperor  having  decided  to  support  the 
Athanasian  party,  subscription  to  this  was  required  of  all 
the  bishops.  The  Semi-Arian  bishops,  who  maintained 
that  the  Son  was  not  identical  in  essence  with  the  Father, 
but  was  of  a  similar  essence  (6fioto6<rto^),  after  consider- 
able hesitation  signed  the  document  for  the  sake  of 
peace,  explaining,  by  way  of  protest,  their  precise 
position. 

Two  Egyptian  bishops,  Theonas  and  Secundus,  per- 
sistently refused  to  sign  it,  and  together  with  Arius  were 
banished  to  Illyria.  Thus  the  Athanasian  party  was  for 
a  time  victorious,  and  the  Arians  were  suppressed  as  far 
as  possible  by  imperial  force. 

Athanasius,  at  this  time  a  young  man,  soon  became 
the  acknowledged  leader  of  the  Nicene  party,  and  used 
his  great  dialectic  powers  in  writing  and  preaching 
against  Arianism. 

5.  Arian  and  Semi- Arian  Reaction. 

It  is  probable  that  Constantine  himself,  so  far  as  he 
had  any  convictions  on  the  subject,  was  from  the  first  in- 
clined to  Semi- Arianism.  Soon  after  the  closing  of  the 
council  the  Semi-Arians  began  to  assail  the  Nicene  creed 
and  to  insist  upon  the  similarity  over  against  the  same- 
ness of  essence. 

Constantine,  through  the  influence  of  Eusebius,  re- 
called Arius  and  his  party  from  exile  (328).  In  330  he 
required  Athanasius,  now  bishop  of  Alexandria,  to 
restore  Arius  to  his  office,  and  on  his  refusing  was  on 
the  point  of  deposing  him,  but  was  awed  by  the  person- 
ality of  Athanasius.  The  influence  of  the  Eusebian 
party  was  increasing,  and  in  33;  an  Arian  Synod  was 
convoked  at  Tyre  which  condemned  the  Athanasian 


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CHAP.  11.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  33 1 

party.  The  emperor  banished  Athanasius  to  Treves, 
and  Arius  was  about  to  be  restored  to  his  position  in  the 
Alexandrian  church  when  he  died  suddenly,  a^ed  eighty. 

After  the  death  of  Constantine  (337)  Constantius 
reigned  in  the  East  and  Constantine  II.  in  the  West. 
The  former  was  an  Arian,  the  latter  an  adherent  of  the 
Nicene  creed.  The  Western  church  was  all  along  pre- 
dominantly orthodox,  the  Eastern  predominantly  Arian 
or  Semi-Arian.  Constantine  II.  restored  Athanasius,  but 
he  was  deposed  again  after  the  death  of  this  emperor 
(340).  Constantius  restored  Athanasius  a  third  time 
(346),  but  after  the  death  of  Constans  (350)  he  was 
driven  from  Alexandria  by  Constantius  with  an  armed 
force. 

Constantius,  now  sole  emperor,  introduced  Arianism 
into  the  West.  The  orthodox  bishop  of  Rome  was 
dethroned  and  an  Arian  put  in  his  place,  but  the  former 
was  restored  after  the  death  of  the  latter  on  signing 
Arian  articles.  Even  Hosius  of  Cordova,  who  had  been 
foremost  in  the  Nicene  Council,  was  at  last  induced  to 
subscribe  Arian  articles. 

For  some  years  before  the  authoritative  introduction 
of  Arianism  into  the  West  the  Arians  had  been  zealously 
prosecuting  mission  work  among  the  Goths  and  other 
barbarians.  Ulfilas,  the  great  apostle  of  the  Goths, 
translated  the  Bible  into  Gothic  about  350.  Arianism 
gained  a  strong  hold  upon  these  nations  that  were  be- 
coming every  year  a  more  important  element  in  the 
politics  and  civilization  of  Europe. 

6.  yictoty  of  the  Athanasian  Party. 

Constantius  died  in  361.  Julian  was  indifferent  to 
Christian  parties.  The  Athanasian  party,  when  freedom 
was  again  allowed,  rapidly  regained  their  power  in  the 
West  and  made  progress  In  the  East.  The  Emperor 
Valens  (364-378)  persecuted  the  Athanasians  with 
fanatical  zeal.  Theodosius  the  Great  (392-39S)  com- 
pleted the  victory  of  orthodoxy  in  the  Roman  Empire, 
yet  Arianism  continued  for  a  long  time  to  prevail  among 
the  barbarians.  The  conversion  to  orthodoxy  of  Clovis, 
king  of  the  Franks  (496),  was  followed  by  a  rapid 
decline  of  Arianism  among  the  Teutonic  peoples. 


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333  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  lit 

III.  THE  ORIGENISTIC  CONTROVERSIES. 

Literature  :  a  large  body  of  important  matter  Is  published  in 
connection  with  the  Migne  edition  of  Origen's  works.  See  also 
the  pertinent  sections  in  the  works  on  the  history  of  doctrine; 
In  Dorner*s  "The  Person  of  Christ";  in  Hefele's  "History  of 
Councils";  In  the  general  works  on  church  histon^  and  in  the 
encyclopedias  of  Smith  and  Wace,  Wetzer  u.  Welte,  Herzog* 
Hauck,  and  Lichtenberger. 

Controversies  regarding  many  aspects  of  his  teachings 
arose  during  the  lifetime  6t  Origen  and  were  perpetu- 
ated until  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century.  Methodius, 
bishop  of  Patara  (Asia  Minor),  about  the  beginning  of 
the  present  period  assailed  with  great  bitterness  Origen's 
teachings  regarding  the  creation,  the  relation  of  soul  and 
body,  the  resurrection,  free  will,  etc.  Methodius  denied 
the  eternity  of  the  creative  process,  the  fall  of  the  soui 
in  a  pre-existent  state  and  its  probationary  imprison- 
ment in  the  body,  the  spirituality  of  the  resurrection 
(involving  denial  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body),  and 
the  inability  of  man  to  repel  evil  thoughts  with  the 
temptations  involved,  A  number  of  zealous  defenders 
of  the  great  master  were  promptly  in  the  arena,  among 
them  Eusebius  of  Csesarea  and  Pamphilus,  his  friend. 
The  following  are  the  more  important  of  the  phases  of 
the  controversy  that  fall  within  the  present  period  : 

I.  In  Relation  to  the  Arian  Controversy. 

At  first  there  was  a  disposition  on  both  sides  of  the 
Arian  controversy  to  ignore  the  teachings  of  Origen. 
But  some  of  the  aspects  of  Arianism  were  so  manifestly 
in  accord  with  Origen's  teachings  that  the  Athanasians 
began  to  stigmatize  him  as  ''the  father  of  Arianism." 
The  Arians  naturally  were  glad  to  claim  the  support  of 
so  great  a  name. 

Eusebius  of  Caesarea  and  the  Semi-Arians  zealously 
defended  the  reputation  of  Origen,  while  Pachomius,  the 
founder  of  monasticism,  who  had  adopted  anthropomor- 
phite  views,  regarded  the  spiritualistic  teachings  of  the 
Origenists  with  the  utmost  disfavor,  supposing  that  such 
views  polluted  the  bodies  as  well  as  the  souls  of  those 
who  accepted  them. 

Athanasius,  while  recognizing  the  errors  of  Origen, 


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CHAP.il]       controversies  in  the  church  333 

defended  him  against  the  fanatical  assaults  of  the  anthro- 
pomorphites.  During  the  course  of  the  century,  Basil 
the  Great,  Gregory  of  Nazianzen,  and  Gregory  of  Nyssa, 
sought  to  save  the  reputation  of  Origen  for  orthodoxy, 
while  Epiphanius  reiterated  the  charges  of  Methodius 
and  assailed  his  allegorical  method  of  interpreting  the 
Scriptures. 

The  controversies  of  this  time  were  almost  purely 
literary  and  did  not  enter  the  realm  of  ecclesiastical 
politics. 

2.  Politico-Ecclesiastical  Strife  in  Palestine  and  in  Egypt 
(A.  D.  390  onward). 

(i)  Jerome^  Aterbius,  Epiphanius,  and  Rufinus.  Pales- 
tine, where  Origen  had  spent  the  latter  half  of  his  life, 
had  always  been  devoted  to  his  memory  and  faithful  to 
his  teachings.  At  this  time  Jerome  and  his  devoted 
friend  Paula  from  Italy  were  presiding  over  monastic 
institutions  at  Bethlehem,  while  Rufinus  and  Melania, 
likewise  from  Italy,  had  established  religious  houses  on 
the  mount  of  Olives.  Without  accepting  all  his  teach- 
ings, Jerome  and  Rulinus  were  both  earnest  students  of 
Origen's  works  and  were  disposed  to  guard  his  reputa- 
tion from  unjust  imputations. 

In  392  Aterbius,  an  Egyptian  anthropomorphite  monk, 
came  to  Jerusalem  and  attacked  Jerome  and  Rufinus  as 
Origenists.  Jerome  repudiated  Origen's  errors,  but 
sought  to  minimize  them.  John,  bishop  of  Jerusalem, 
and  Rufinus,  stanchly  defended  Origen. 

In  394  Epiphanius,  bishop  of  Cyprus,  came  to  Pales- 
tine with  the  avowed  object  of  crushing  Origenism. 
Jerome  was  ready  by  this  time  to  co-operate  with  him 
in  his  onslaught  against  John  and  Rufinus.  Epiphanius 
undertook  to  excommunicate  John  and  to  install  in  his 
place  Paulinianus,  a  brother  of  Jerome. 

Theophilus,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  was  appealed  to  by 
John  and  sought  to  reconcile  the  contending  factions. 
Though  Origenistic  in  his  sympathies,  he  was  finally  led 
to  ally  himself  with  Jerome. 

Rufinus  made  peace  with  Jerome  and  soon  afterward 
returned  to  Italy,  where  he  translated  into  Latin  the 
defense  of  Origen  by  Pamphilus  and  Origen's  great 


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334  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.ni. 

work  on  "First  Principles.*'  He  rejected  some  of  the 
more  objectionable  expressions  in  Origen's  works  as 
interpolations  and  professed  his  aversion  to  the  charac- 
teristic errors  of  Origen  ;  but  Jerome's  polemical  zeal 
was  aroused  afresh  and  he  insisted  that  Rufinus  could 
not  escape  personal  responsibility  for  such  views  of 
Origen  as  he  had  put  forth  in  the  translation.  Jerome 
succeeded  in  inducing  the  Roman  bishop,  Anastasius, 
who  was  profoundly  ignorant  of  Origen 's  works,  to  con- 
demn them,  and  the  Emperor  Honorius  to  prohibit  their 
use  (A.  D.  400). 

(2)  TheophUus  and  the  AnthropomorphiU  Monks.  In 
399  Theophilus  aroused  the  anthropomorphite  monks  to 
a  murderous  fury  by  an  unhappy  expression  in  an 
Easter  letter.  To  escape  their  vengeance  he  disclaimed 
sympathy  with  Origenistic  teaching  and  made  use  of 
language  which  they  interpreted  in  an  anthropomorphic 
sense.  The  Origenistic  monks  (the  •'  Tall  Brethren  ") 
now  turned  against  their  bishop.  He  determined  to 
crush  Origenism,  and  secured  the  co-operation  of  Epi- 
phanius  of  Cyprus,  Anastasius  of  Rome,  and  of  a  synod 
in  Jerusalem.  Theophilus  now  put  forth  in  a  synodal 
letter  a  catalogue  of  the  heresies  of  Origen's  •*  First 
Principles, *'  including  his  teaching  regarding  the  ultimate 
restoration  to  divine  favor  of  evil  men  and  angels  and  of 
Satan  himself,  and  denounced  Origen  as  ''the  hydra  of 
all  heresies."  He  drove  three  hundred  of  the  Origenis- 
tic monks  from  the  Nitrian  desert,  who  with  others  took 
refuge  in  Constantinople  and  sought  the  protection  of 
Chrysostom,  the  patriarch. 

The  Emperor  Arcadius  was  led  by  the  reports  of 
Theophilus*  cruelties  to  summon  him  to  the  capital. 
Epiphanius  went  in  advance  to  explain  matters,  and  on 
Theophilus'  arrival  he  found  little  difficulty  in  vindicat- 
ing himself  and  in  procuring  the  condemnation  of  Chrys- 
ostom by  a  small  council  for  the  favor  he  had  shown  to 
the  Origenistic  monks  (403). 

(3)  Justinian's  Repressive  Measure  (c.  542).  The  Nes- 
torian  and  the  Eutychian  controversies  were  already 
raging,  and  controversy  en  the  teachings  of  Origen 
came  little  into  notice  until  about  $20  when  trouble 
arose  in  the  Palestinian  Laura.    The  expulsion  of  fou> 


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CHAP.  11.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  335 

Origenistic  monks  by  the  head  of  the  institution  and 
their  secret  restoration  some  time  afterward  by  his  suc- 
cessor led  to  an  appeal  to  Constantinople.  Avowed 
Origenism  rapidly  spread  throughout  Palestine.  After 
much  controversy  Justinian  was  led  to  issue  an  edict  for 
the  suppression  of  Origenism  throughout  the  empire 
(c.  542).  It  was  crushed  to  rise  no  more  as  a  distinct 
party,  though  Origen's  peculiar  views  have  rarely  been 
without  their  zealous  supporters. 

IV.  ON   CHRISTOLOGY— THE    NESTORIAN,    EUTYCHIAN,    AND 
MONOTHELITE  CONTROVERSIES,  ETC. 

I.  Preliminary  Observations. 

Very  little  effort  had  been  made  during  the  first  three 
centuries  to  analyze  the  person  of  Christ.  V/hether  he 
had  a  complete  human  and  a  complete  divine  nature  was 
not  an  agitated  question.  Origen  was  probably  the  first 
to  say  distinctly  that  Christ  had  a  human  soul,  this 
being  in  accord  with  his  theory  that  Christ  became  a  man 
to  save  men,  an  angel  to  save  angels. 

Arius  expressly  denied  that  Christ  had  a  human  soul, 
and  this  view  was  admirably  adapted  to  his  polemical 
purpose,  viz.,  that  of  showing  the  imperfection  of  the 
Logos. 

Athanasius  did  not,  as  he  might  have  been  expected 
to  do,  answer  Arius  with  the  assertion  of  the  complete 
divinity  and  the  complete  humanity  of  Christ  and 
ascribe  what  seemed  unsuitable  to  deity  in  the  New 
Testament  representation  to  Christ's  human  nature. 
But  he  answered  him  with  the  assertion  that  when 
Christ  spoke  or  acted  in  a  manner  inconsistent  with 
deity  (as,  e.  g.,  when  he  said :  "  My  God !  my  God ! 
why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ? ")  he  spoke  in  our  name, 
because  he  had  put  himself  into  our  place  and  had  taken 
upon  himself  our  guilt  and  abasement,  or  else  he  spoke 
by  way  of  accommodation  to  the  ignorance  of  his  dis- 
ciples. 

Gregory  Nazianzen  and  Gregory  of  Nyssa  adopted 
and  developed  the  Origenistic  doctrine  that  the  Logos 
united  himself  with  the  sensuous  nature  by  the  media- 
tion of  a  rational  human  soul.    They  held  that  the 


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336  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  la 

divine  Logos  took  all  parts  of  human  nature  into  fellow- 
ship with  himself  and  pervaded  them.  This  permeation 
of  the  human  by  the  divine  was  potential  from  Christ's 
birthy  but  was  fully  realized  only  after  the  resurrection 
and  ascension. 

Apollinaris  (about  370)  first  took  up  the  question  in  a 
polemical  way.  In  accordance  with  the  Platonic  trichot- 
omy (body,  soul,  and  spirit),  he  maintained  that  Christ 
had  a  human  body  and  soul,  but  that  the  divine  Logos 
took  the  place  of  the  human  spirit.  His  aim  was  to 
maintain  the  complete  union  of  the  divine  and  human  in 
Christ.  He  thought  it  absurd  to  speak  of  Christ  as 
wholly  God  and  wholly  man.  He  is  rather  a  mixture  of 
God  and  man.  This  view  he  illustrated,  without  irrever- 
ent intent,  by  the  case  of  hybrid  animals.  There  exists 
then  in  Christ  only  one  personality.  Apollinaris  laid  so 
much  stress  upon  the  complete  fusion  of  the  divine  and 
the  human  in  Christ  that  he  did  not  hesitate  to  say 
••  God  died,"  **  God  was  born,"  etc. 

This  theory  once  clearly  stated  aroused  opposition 
among  the  churches.  Athanasius  himself  was  now  led 
to  declare  the  complete  humanity  as  well  as  the  complete 
deity  of  Christ.  Gregory  Nazianzen  and  also  Gregory 
of  Nyssa  wrote  against  Apollinaris.  This  doctrine  was 
condemned  in  several  minor  synods,  and  finally  in  the 
Second  Constantinopolitan  Council  (381). 

But  it  was  in  the  Antiochian  school  that  Apollinaris 
found  his  most  formidable  opponents,  viz.,  Diodorus  of 
Tarsus  and  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia,  These  writers  in- 
sisted on  the  completeness  and  the  persistent  integrity 
of  the  humanity  of  Christ.  Theodore  fully  elaborated 
the  theory  known  in  the  history  of  doctrine  as  Nes- 
torianism. 

2.  The  Nestorian  Controversy. 

LrrERATURE:  Homilies  of  Nestorfus*  In  Mlgne's  Patrology, 
Vol.  XLVIU.  (Ut.  trans.);  ''Acta  Omc,  Eik.,''\Ti  Hardouln  and 
Mansi;  Theodoret,  writings  against  Cyril;  Theodore  of  Mop* 
suestla,  Fragments;  Evagnus,  ^H.  £.,"  Bk.  I.,  Chap.  2-7,  Soc- 
rates, *•//.  £.,"  Bk.  VU.,  Chap.  29-35;  Cyril,  writines  against 
Nestorius;  Neander,  Vol.  II.,  p.  505,  s/j. ;  SchafF,  vol.  11.,  p. 
714,  s$q.:  Milman,  "Latin  Cnristianity,^'  Vol.  I.,  p.  iq;,  stq,.. 
Gieseler,  Vol.  I.,  p.  343.  seq, ;  Baur,  **  Uhrt  von  d.  i)reitmigkeii^*^ 
Bd.  I.,  S«r.  695,  uq, ;  Dorner,  "  Person  of  Christ,"  Div.  IL,  VoL 


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CHAP.  II.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  337 

I.«  p.  SI,  s#ff..  etc.:  works  on  the  history  of  doctrine,  referred 
to  above;  and  artldes  on  '*  Nestorius,*'  '*  Cyril/'  ''Johnof  Anti- 
och,"  "  Leo  the  Great,"  '« Theodoret,"  the  Councils  of  *«  Ephesus," 
and  **  Chalcedon,"  etc..  in  the  encyclopedias,  eq)ecially  Smith  and 
Wace  and  Herzog-Hauck. 

(/)  Riu  ofiks  %^0stariaH  Catrtrav^sf. 

We  have  seen  the  rise  and  progress  of  two  modes  of 
thought  with  regard  to  the  person  of  Christ:  the  one 
insisting  upon  the  completeness  of  both  natures  and  yet 
not  able  to  show  clearly  the  consistency  of  this  repre- 
sentation with  unity  of  personality ;  the  other  emphasiz- 
ing the  unity  of  personality  in  the  incarnate  Christ  and 
denying  the  completeness  of  his  humanity  from  its  sup- 
posed inconsistency  with  such  unity.  The  former  view 
prevailed  among  the  Antiochian  theologians,  who,  by 
reason  of  their  grammatico-historical  interpretation  of 
Scripture,  naturally  tended  to  emphasize  the  human  side 
of  Christ's  nature ;  the  latter,  among  the  Alexandrian. 

Nestorius,  a  devout,  learned,  and  eloquent  monk,  was 
presbyter  of  the  cnurch  of  Antioch,  and  in  428  was 
made  patriarch  of  Constantinople.  At  Constantinople 
he  found  many  erroneous  expressions  and  modes  of 
thought  current  in  the  church.  Especially  offensive  to 
him  was  the  term,  "  mother  of  God  "  (^eorrfxoy),  applied 
to  Mary.  He  declared  that  if  this  representation  were 
true,  the  heathen  were  right  in  representing  their  gods  as 
having  mothers.  Mary  did  not  bear  God,  but  the  man 
(Jesus)  who  is  the  organ  of  the  deity.  Opposition  was 
aroused  at  Constantinople,  but  Nestorius  found  his 
fiercest  antagonist  in  Cyril,  patriarch  of  Alexandria. 

(2)  StaUnuta  of  th$  Oppas^  ywps  m  ihs  Caittrav^sf» 

a.  Nestorius*  yiew  of  the  Relations  of  the  Human  and 
Divine  in  Christ.  Nestorius  as  an  Antiochian  and  as  a 
disciple  of  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia,  in  whom  the  Anti- 
ochian humanism  may  be  said  to  have  culminated,  held 
to  the  following  views : 

(jz)  That  in  Christ  the  two  natures  remained  distinct, 
yet  are  closely  joined  together  and  are  harmonious  in 
will. 

(b)  That  only  by  accommodation  can  Mary  be  spoken 
of  as  the  mother  of  God  (atorrfxo^).    We  may  venerate 

w 


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338  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  Ill 

the  human  on  account  of  its  close  connection  with  the 
divine,  but  we  must  beware  of  confounding  it  with  the 
4ivine. 

(f)  Nestorius  explained  by  this  theory  all  those  pas« 
sages  in  the  Gospels  in  which  Christ  is  represented  as 
being  subject  to  temptations,  wants,  sufferings,  etc.  In 
fact,  the  method  of  interpreting  Scripture  that  prevailed 
in  Antioch  lay  at  the  foundation  of  this  extremely 
humanistic  view  of  the  historical  Christ. 

b.  Cyril's  Opposing  ytews.  Cyril  of  Alexandria  was 
one  of  the  most  violent  polemicists  of  that  polemical 
age,  and  into  this  controversy,  as  well  as  that  with  the 
Neo-Platonists,  he  entered  with  fanatical  zeal. 

Apart  from  dogmatical  considerations,  he  was  probably 
glad  of  an  opportunity  to  humiliate  the  patriarchates  of 
Constantinople  and  Antioch,  and  to  this  end  he  did  not 
scruple  to  employ  the  ready  instrumentality  of  court 
intrigue. 

After  some  correspondence  with  Nestorius  he  pre- 
sented twelve  propositions,  with  anathemas  attached, 
for  his  acceptance.    They  are  for  substance  as  follows : 

(a)  God  is  in  truth  Immanuel,  and  on  this  account  the 
holy  virgin  is  mother  of  God,  for  she  brought  forth 
carnally  the  Word  of  [proceeding  from]  God  become 
flesh. 

(6)  The  Word  [proceeding]  from  God  the  Father  is  in 
the  flesh  one  in  essence,  and  Christ  with  his  own  flesh 
Is  one  and  evidently  at  the  same  time  God  and  man. 

(c)  Hence,  after  the  union,  the  natures  in  the  one 
Christ  are  not  to  be  distinguished,  nor  is  it  to  be  said 
that  they  are  merely  joined  together  in  dignity  or  power* 
Rather  they  have  come  together  according  to  natural 
(^wTtx6^)  unity. 

(d)  The  application  of  certain  facts  and  expressions 
in  the  New  Testament  to  the  human  as  unworthy  of  the 
divine  nature,  and  of  others  to  the  divine  as  too  exalted 
for  the  human,  is  condemned. 

(e)  Christ  is  not  to  be  called  a  theophoric  (God-bear- 
ing) man,  but  rather  God  in  truth,  as  one  Son  by  nature. 

(/)  Neither  is  It  to  be  said  that  the  Word,  which  is 
from  God  the  Father,  is  God  or  Master  of  Christ,  but 
rather  that  he  is  at  the  same  time  God  and  man. 


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CHAP.n.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  339 

(g)  It  must  not  be  said  that  Jesus  as  a  man  was  ener- 
gized by  the  Word  of  God,  and  that  the  dignity  of  the 
only  begotten  was  bestowed,  as  being  another  apart 
from  himself, 

(A)  it  must  not  be  said  that  the  man  having  been 
assumed  is  to  be  worshiped  and  glorified  together  with 
God  the  Word,  and  is  to  be  called  God  in  a  sense  not 
involving  a  recognition  of  him  as  ImmanueL 

(i)  It  must  not  be  said  that  the  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
was  glorified  by  the  Spirit,  using  through  him  (the 
Spirit)  a  power  foreign  to  himself,  but  rather  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  his  very  own  and  is  used  by  him. 

(AJ  The  Word  of  God  actually  became  flesh  according 
to  the  Scripture,  and  he  offered  up  himself  not  for  him- 
self, but  rather  for  us  alone. 

(/)  The  flesh  of  the  Lord  is  life-giving,  as  being  an 
integral  part  of  the  Word  of  God  himself. 

(m)  God  the  Word  suffered  in  the  flesh,  was  crucified 
in  the  flesh,  tasted  death  in  the  flesh. 

The  favorite  text  of  Cyril  was :  "  The  Word  became  flesh." 
The  purport  of  this  senes  of  propositions,  in  which  Cyril  meant  to 
exclude  every  phase  of  the  Antiochian  view,  is :  That  the  Incarnate 
Word  Is  absolutely  one ;  is  at  the  same  time  absolutely  divine  and 
absolutely  human. 

Whatever  is  said  about  Christ  Jesus  in  the  New  Testament,  is 
said  about  this  one  divinehuman  being.  Such  expressions  as  were 
regarded  as  unsuitable  to  Deity  were  sometimes  explained  by  this 
party  docetically,  i.  ^.,  were  represented  as  a  mere  accommodation 
to  the  ignorance  of  the  disciples,  etc* 

(j)  Progress  ofth$  Contraarsy. 

a.  The  Appeal  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  and  Agitation  by 
Cyril.  After  some  correspondence  between  Nestorius 
and  Cyril,  both  parties  laid  their  views  before  Coelestin, 
bishop  of  Rome.  The  fact  that  Nestorius  had  recently 
shown  some  favor  to  the  Pelagians,  predisposed  the  Ro- 
man bishop  against  him ;  and  in  a  Roman  synod  (430) 
Nestorius'  views  were  condemned,  and  he  was  com- 
manded to  recant  on  pain  of  excommunication.  To 
Cyril  was  entrusted  the  office  of  making  known  the 
decree  to  Nestorius.  The  Constantinopolitans  and  the 
Oriental  bishops  were  warned  against  the  errors  of  Nes- 
torius. 


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340  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.in 

Cyril  had  from  the  beginning  of  the  controversy  made 
the  fullest  use  of  all  the  means  at  his  disposal  for  arous- 
ing hostility  to  Nestorius :  the  fanatical  monks ;  clergy, 
whose  vanity  had  been  Injured  by  the  appointment  of  a 
foreigner  rather  than  one  of  themselves  to  the  patriarch- 
ate ;  the  corrupt  and  powerful  Puicheria,  the  emperor's 
sister ;  the  bishop  of  Rome,  who  was  glad  of  any  oppor- 
tunity to  get  his  judicial  prerogatives  recognized. 

b.  The  Council  ofEphesus  (431).  The  emperor,  Theo- 
dosius  II.,  was  suspicious  of  Cyril,  and  reproached  him 
for  trying  to  meddle  with  the  affairs  of  the  imperial  court, 
and  with  the  patriarchate  of  Constantinople. 

When  Cyril  had  issued  his  twelve  propositions  for  the 
acceptance  of  Nestorius,  the  controversy  ceased  to  be  a 
private  one  between  Cyril  and  Nestorius. 

John,  Patriarch  of  Antioch,  had  advised  Nestorius  to 
allow  the  use  of  the  expression  *' Mother  of  God,'*  in  a 
modified  sense.  Cyril's  propositions  showed  that  it  was 
no  longer  a  question  of  the  employment  or  rejection  of  a 
word.  Cyril  had  attacked  the  Antiochian  theology,  and 
in  such  a  way  to  leave  no  room  for  evasion.  The  con- 
troversy now  became  general  between  the  Antiochians 
and  the  Alexandrians. 

Nestorius  issued  counter-propositions  and  anathemas, 
and  Theodoret  of  Cyrus,  one  of  the  foremost  scholars 
and  thinkers  of  the  age,  now  entered  the  field  of  contro- 
versy as  a  representative  of  the  Antiochian  theology. 
Neither  party  understood,  nor  cared  to  understand,  the 
position  of  the  other.  Each  sadly  misrepresented  the 
other,  and  by  stating  its  own  views  and  those  of  its  op- 
ponents in  the  extremest  form  made  the  breach  as  wide 
as  possible. 

The  emperor  saw  no  other  way  of  restoring  peace  than 
by  calling  a  General  Council.  It  was  his  intention  to 
have  both  sides  fairly  represented,  to  secure  an  impartial 
investigation  of  the  matters  in  dispute,  and  thus  to  have 
the  truth  prevail. 

The  bishop  of  Ephesus,  Memnon,  was  a  friend  of  Cyril, 
and  as  a  metropolitan,  may  have  been  jealous  of  the  su- 
premacy of  the  patriarch  of  the  Eastern  capital.  A  large 
body  of  fanatical  monks  were  j)resent,  ready  to  carry  out 
any  riotous  measures  that  Cyril  and  Memnon  might  sug* 


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CHAP.  II.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  341 

gest.  John  of  Antioch  was  delayed  by  the  prevalence  of 
famine  at  Antioch,  by  stormy  weather,  etc.,  so  that  he 
did  not  reach  Ephesus  until  many  days  after  the  ap- 
pointed time. 

Neither  did  the  deputies  of  the  Roman  bishop  arrive 
promptly.  It  was  never  the  intention  of  Cyril  to  over- 
come his  opponents  by  fair  means.  With  the  support  of 
Memnon  and  his  followers,  together  with  that  of  the  large 
body  of  subservient  clergy  whom  he  had  brought  from 
Alexandria,  he  was  sure  of  an  easy  victory  over  Nes- 
torius. 

Nestorius  was  pressed  to  sit  in  council  with  this  fa- 
natical mob,  but  he  persistently  refused.  The  imperial 
commissioner  tried  in  vain  to  preserve  order,  and  refused 
to  give  the  imperial  sanction  to  the  ex  parte  council  of 
Cyril.  Cyril  and  Memnon,  with  their  dependents,  met 
notwithstanding  the  imperial  prohibition,  deposed  Nesto- 
rius, and  anathematized  his  doctrines.  Cyril  thus  put 
himself  in  direct  opposition  to  the  imperial  will.  He  had 
now  before  him  the  task  of  winning  over  the  court  to  his 
support. 

Some  days  after  these  transactions,  John  of  Antioch, 
with  his  subordinates,  arrived.  The  imperial  commis- 
sioners endeavored  in  vain  to  get  the  two  parties  to 
unite  in  a  deliberative  assembly.  John,  with  his  own 
thirty  bishops  and  a  few  others,  met  together  in  council, 
and  excommunicated  Cyril  and  Memnon  for  their  illegal 
proceedings. 

Both  parties  were  strictly  prohibited  from  visiting 
Constantinople.  Cyril,  however,  sent  an  agent  under 
the  guise  of  a  beggar,  with  a  letter  to  Dalmatius,  an 
aged  monk  of  great  influence,  who  had  lived  in  soli- 
tude for  forty-eight  years.  Dalmatius  had  long  since 
warned  the  people  against  Nestorius,  and  was  aroused  to 
fanaticism  by  the  representations  of  Cyril.  At  Dalma- 
tius' summons  the  monks  and  abbots  left  their  cloisters, 
and  forming  an  immense  torchlight  procession,  marched 
to  the  imperial  palace.  Multitudes  of  the  people  joined 
in  the  procession.  Dalmatius  was  admitted  to  the  im- 
perial presence,  and  gave  vigorous  expression  to  his  sense 
of  the  guilt  of  Nestorius,  and  of  the  wrong  done  by  the 
emperor  to  the  party  of  Cyril. 


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342  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IIL 

(4)  Triumph  ofiht  tAUxandrian  Party  and  ih$  T{*iirtmmt  of  N$sU>rius. 

This  was  the  turning  point  in  favor  of  Cyril.  The 
agents  of  Cyril  were  freely  admitted  to  the  imperial 
presence.  By  bribery  and  other  means  all  influential 
parties  in  Constantinople  were  conciliated. 

The  emperor  saw  that  the  popular  feeling  was  too 
strong  to  admit  of  Nestorius'  continuance  in  the  patri- 
archate, and  he  was  permitted  to  retire  to  his  cloister. 

Cyril  had  thus,  while  acting  in  the  face  of  law  and 
order,  triumphed  over  Nestorius  and  gained  the  imperial 
acquiescence.  But  he  was  held  responsible  for  the  pre- 
vailing turmoil  in  ecclesiastical  affairs ;  and  he  felt  that 
his  triumph  would  be  more  complete  and  lasting  if  he 
could  gain  the  acquiescence  of  the  Antiochians  in  the 
proceedings  of  the  council. 

In  433,  accordingly,  after  considerable  negotiation  to 
this  end,  Cyril  agreed  to  sign  a  creed  in  which  **  Mother 
of  God  "  was  applied  to  Mary  in  a  limited  sense,  while 
John  acquiesced  in  the  condemnation  of  Nestorius,  and 
sanctioned  the  appointment  under  Cyrilian  influence  of 
Maximianus  as  his  successor.  This  compromise  was 
effected  under  imperial  pressure. 

It  was  hoped  that  harmony  would  be  thus  restored. 
But  the  friends  of  Cyril  were  dissatisfied  with  his  con- 
cessions to  the  Antiochians.  The  Antiochians,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  still  averse  to  the  Alexandrian  doc- 
trine, regarding  it  as  leading  logically  to  Apollinarianism. 
Controversy,  therefore,  continued,  and  was  revived  in 
an  intensified  form,  about  444,  in  the  Eutychian  con- 
troversy. 

3.  The  Eutychian  Controvert. 

LITERATURE:  "j^iMM/fVoif  oi/v/rfftf  Trogetdiam  Irgtuei":  the  Acts 
of  the  Councils  of  Constantinople,  Ephesus  II.,  Chalcedon; 
epistles  of  Leo  the  Great.  These  and  other  documents  are  to  be 
found  in  lAansU  "  Concilia,''  V.,  VI.,  VII.,  IX.  and  in  Hardouin, 
•'  Cone.**  I.  and  II. ;  Theodoret,  ''Optra,'*  Vol.  IV. ;  Evagrius,  '*//. 
£.,"  Bk.  I.,  Chap.  9,  s^q.;  Neander,  Vol.  II.,  p.  560,  sea. ;  Domer, 
"  Person  of  Christ,*'  Div.  II.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  79.  s^q- ;  Baur,^'  Uhr$  v.  d. 
Dreinnigkiit"  Bd.  I.,  Siit,  890,  seq, ;  Gleseler,  **  Commentatio  qua 
MonophysHarum  veierum  variai  d$  Christi  Persona  .  .  .  illustraniur  ; 
Walch,  *•  Hist  d,  Kiiureien^  'Bd.  VI.,  Seit.  ^,  seq. :  Herzog,  "  ^briss 
d.  Kkchengeschichie,"  Bd.  I.,  Sett.  505,  sea, ;  Moeller,  *'  Ch.  Hist.,"  Vol. 
I.,  p.  419,  seq. :  Perry,  "  The  Second  Synod  of  ephesus  "  (contains 


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CHAP.  II.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  343 

the  **  Syriac  Acts  of  the  Robber  Synod,"  with  English  Translation); 
Kriiger,  '*  Monopkvs,  SinHigkiiUfr^ ;  worlcs  on  me  history  of  doc- 
trine, especially  those  of  Baur,  Hamacl<,  and  Loofs,  ana  encycio- 
pedia  articles  on  the  men«  councils,  etc.,  referred  to  in  this  section. 

(/)  Riuofihs  Coutroversiy. 

We  have  seen  that  the  tendency  of  the  Nestorian  con- 
troversy was  to  drive  both  parties  to  extremes.  The 
compromise  between  the  Antiochian  and  the  Alexandrian 
schools  really  effected  nothing;  for  though  Cyril  sub- 
scribed to  an  Antiochian  creed,  he  never  abandoned  his 
twelve  propositions  and  anathemas. 

The  fact  that  Cyril  should  have  regarded  it  as  expe- 
dient to  sign  such  a  creed  shows  that  a  reaction  had  set 
in,  or  at  all  events  that  the  emperor  was  no  longer  will- 
ing to  support  him  in  his  extreme  dogmatizing. 

The  learned  Theodoret  had  assumed  the  leadership  of 
the  Antiochian  party,  and  his  dialectic  power  was  only 
equaled  by  his  wonderful  tact.  In  448  he  published  his 
*'Eranistes,"  or  "  Beggar,"  in  which  he  set  forth  in  the 
strongest  light  the  logical  tendencies  of  Monophysitism. 
He  maintained  that  Monophysitism  cannot  escape  repre- 
senting God  as  subject  to  suffering  and  change ;  that  in 
a  heathenish  way  it  confounds  the  human  and  divine. 
He  did  not  direct  his  arguments  against  Cyril  personally, 
but  rather  against  Apollinaris  and  his  followers.  In  this 
he  showed  great  tact.  His  method  was,  not  to  confine 
himself  to  the  express  doctrinal  statements  of  his  oppo- 
nents in  their  proper  connection,  but  to  put  the  most  ob- 
jectionable construction  on  every  statement,  and  then  to 
deduce  the  worst  possible  consequences  from  such  con- 
structions. 

Cyril  had  died  in  444,  and  had  been  succeeded  by  Di- 
oscurus,  a  man  of  worse  character  and  far  less  ability 
than  Cyril.  Dioscurus  was  Cyril's  ecclesiastical  suc- 
cessor, but  his  theological  successor  was  the  venerable 
monk,  Eutyches,  archimandrite  of  a  cloister  in  Constan- 
tinople. 

In  448,  a  synod,  held  at  Constantinople,  took  substan- 
tially the  same  ground  that  Theodoret  had  taken  in  op- 
position to  Monophysitism.  Eutyches  was  charged  with 
holding  to  extreme  Monophysite  views,  and  refusing  to 


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344  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.nL 

admit  a  duality  of  natures  in  the  incarnate  Christ,  and 
the  sameness  in  essence  of  Christ's  body  with  our  own, 
was  deposed. 

(2)  SiaUmna  ofihs  Opposing  Viiws. 

a.  Eutyches*  yiew  of  the  Person  of  Christ.  Eutychea 
carried  Cyril's  doctrine  of  the  complete  fusion  of  the 
natures  to  its  logical  result.    He  held : 

(fi)  That  the  body  of  Christ  was  not  the  body  of  a  man 

(^ewfia  Sa/^pmnao),  but  a  human  body  (jsmiia  dv^pdmvov^, 

(b)  That  the  body  of  Christ  was  not  the  same  in  es- 
sence with  our  bodies  (6pLooufftov), 

(c)  That  before  the  union  our  Lord  was  born  of  two 
natures ;  after  the  union  there  was  only  one  nature  dis- 
tinguishable. 

Eutyches  is  said  to  have  illustrated  his  view  of  the  di- 
vine and  the  human  in  Christ  by  the  case  of  a  drop  of 
honey  in  the  ocean.  The  human  remains  in  some  sense, 
but  is  so  overwhelmed  by  the  divine  infinity  as  to  be 
practically  annihilated. 

b.  Opposing  Views.  Theodoret  did  not  make  any  es- 
sential innovation  upon  the  views  of  Theodore  and 
Nestorius. 

(a)  In  opposition  to  Eutyches'  denial  of  the  sameness 
of  essence  of  Christ's  body  with  our  own,  he  maintained 
this  sameness. 

(b)  He  held  that  a  union  of  the  two  natures  had  oc- 
curred; hence  he  confessed  one  Christ,  one  Son,  one 
Lord. 

{c)  According  to  this  view  of  the  unmingled  (dMfjpno^) 
union,  he  confessed  that  the  holy  virgin  was  the  '*  mother 
of  God." 

c.  Substance  of  Leo^s  Letter  to  Flavian.  The  occasion 
and  the  historical  importance  of  this  epoch-making  docu- 
ment will  be  discussed  hereafter.  It  is  characteristic  of 
Western  theology  by  reason  of  its  practical  character  and 
its  lack  of  delicate  distinctions.  It  is  an  attempt  to  recog- 
nize the  elements  of  truth  in  both  Nestorianism  and  Eu- 
tychianism,  without  following  either  to  its  extreme  con- 
sequences.   Leo  maintains,  therefore : 

(a)  The  true  humanity  of  Christ.  He  supposes  that 
the  teachings  of  the  New  Testament  are  unequivocal  on 


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CHAP.  II.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  345 

this  point.  He  regards  it  as  essential  to  Christ's  redemp- 
tive worl<  that  he  should  have  truly  taken  our  nature. 
Hence,  he  rejects  unconditionally  the  Eutychian  view 
which  reduced  the  humanity  of  Christ,  after  the  union  of 
the  two  natures,  to  an  infinitesimal. 

(b)  The  true  divinity  of  the  incarnate  Word.  This  he 
maintained  in  common  with  both  parties  in  the  contro- 
versy. 

(0  While  each  nature  and  substance  maintained  its 
own  properties  unimpaired,  the  two  came  together  in  one 
personality. 

By  reason  of  his  human  nature  Christ  was  able  to  die ; 
by  reason  of  his  divine  nature  he  was  not  able  to  die. 
He  assumed  the  form  of  a  servant  without  the  contami- 
nation of  sin,  augmenting  the  human,  not  diminishing  the 
divine.  As  God  is  not  changed  by  the  compassion,  so 
man  is  not  consumed  by  the  dignity.  Each  form  does 
with  the  communion  of  the  other  what  is  proper  to  it ; 
the  Word,  namely,  operating  what  belongs  to  it;  the 
flesh  executing  what  belongs  to  the  flesh.  The  one 
gleams  with  miracles ;  the  other  succumbs  to  injuries. 

Leo's  position  was  essentially  that  of  the  Antiochians. 
His  chief  merit  here  consists  in  the  fact  that  he  adhered 
rigidly  to  the  Scriptures,  allowing  full  weight  to  the  hu- 
manistic as  well  as  to  the  theistic  representations  of  the 
incarnate  Christ. 

The  new  element  that  he  introduced  was  the  theory  of 
two  complete  natures  in  one  person.  Yet  he  did  not  give 
any  satisfactory  explanation  of  this  point. 

He  uses  the  term  person  somewhat  vaguely.  What  he 
means  by  two  complete  natures  in  one  person  seems  to 
be  this :  the  divine  Word  and  the  man  Jesus  united,  as 
they  are,  form  Jesus  Christ.  Of  this  complex  being  we 
have  in  the  New  Testament  representations  which  are 
only  applicable  to  his  human  nature:  suffering,  dying, 
etc. ;  and  representations  which  are  applicable  only  to 
his  divine  nature :  oneness  with  the  Father,  the  perform- 
ance of  miracles,  etc. 

It  was  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  the  Roman  See  that 
this  formula  of  the  union  of  two  perfect  natures  in  one 
person,  which  has  from  that  time  been  a  leading  article 
of  Christian  faith,  though  crudely  developed  and  imper- 


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346  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  Ill 

fectly  apprehended,  should  have  proceeded  from  a  Ro- 
man bishop. 

The  adoption  of  Leo's  view  by  the  Council  of  Chal- 
cedon,  was  an  important  victory  for  the  papacy. 

is)  Thi  Stcond  Council  of  Ephesus^  or  ike  '*  Rohbir  ^fmod"  (449)* 
The  condemnation  of  Eutyches  in  the  Constantinopol- 
itan  synod  had  aroused  the  most  bitter  enmity  of  the 
monks  of  Constantinople,  Ephesus,  Alexandria,  etc., 
against  Flavian,  patriarch  of  Constantinople.  Dioscurus 
was  in  constant  communication  with  the  imperial  court, 
and  brought  all  his  influence  to  bear  against  Flavian  and 
his  party.  Both  parties  wrote  to  Leo,  bishop  of  Rome. 
Leo  addressed  to  Flavian  the  celebrated  epistle  treated 
above,  the  drift  of  which  was  entirely  adverse  to  Eu- 
tychianism.  Through  the  influence  of  Dioscurus  and 
Eutyches,  the  emperor  was  induced  to  call  a  council  for 
the  adjustment  of  the  matter.  From  the  first  there  was 
no  intention  of  allowing  a  free  discussion  of  the  doctrinal 
points  involved.  Theodoret,  the  great  theologian  of  the 
Antiochian  party,  was  excluded  from  the  council.  Dios- 
curus was  appointed  president  of  the  council  by  the  em- 
peror, and  the  friends  of  Dioscurus  were  made  assessors. 
Flavian  and  his  supporters  were  allowed  to  attend  not  as 
judges  or  voters,  but' to  learn  the  decision  of  the  council. 
Troops  of  ferocious  monks  were  introduced  into  the 
assembly  room  for  the  purpose  of  intimidating  such  as 
might  be  inclined  to  oppose  the  proceedings  of  Dioscurus. 
Leo  had  sent  deputies  to  the  council  with  instructions  to 
secure  the  reading  and  recognition  of  his  doctrinal  letter. 
But  Dioscurus  would  not  even  allow  the  letter  to  '")e  read. 
Some  that  refused  to  join  in  the  condemnation  of  Flavian 
and  his  party  were  shut  up  in  the  assembly  room,  and 
were  forced  by  threats  and  blows  to  subscribe  to  the  de- 
crees of  Dioscurus.  Flavian  received  bodily  injuries 
which  are  thought  to  have  resulted  in  his  death.  Such 
proceedings  as  these  were  sure  to  lead  to  a  reaction  in 
favor  of  the  condemned  party,  especially  as  the  indefat- 
igable Leo  was  committed  alike  by  his  letter  to  Flavian, 
and  by  his  sense  of  official  dignity  which  had  been 
grossly  offended  by  the  above-mentioned  proceedings,  to 
the  support  of  the  opposite  party. 


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CHAP.IL]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  347 

(4)  Tki  Catmctl  0/ Chalcsdon  (4$i). 

Flavian,  after  the  adjournment  of  the  "  Robber  Synod/' 
had  lodged  with  the  deputies  of  the  Roman  bishop  an  appeal 
to  another  council  to  be  held  in  Italy.  For  such  a  coun- 
cil Leo  labored  most  strenuously,  bringing  his  influence 
to  bear  upon  Valentinian,  the  western  emperor,  and  upon 
Theophilus  and  Pulcheria.  During  the  lifetime  of  The- 
ophilus  he  met  with  little  encouragement,  but  he  had 
gained  the  good  will  of  Pulcheria ;  and  when  (450)  Pul- 
cheria ascended  the  throne  and  associated  with  herself 
Marcian,  the  plans  of  Leo  seemed  likely  to  be  realized. 
In  accordance  with  his  wishes,  the  deposed  bishops  were 
restored,  and  assurances  were  given  to  Leo  of  co-opera- 
tion in  his  plans. 

But  the  unsettled  condition  of  the  West,  resulting  from 
barbarian  invasion,  made  an  Italian  council  impracti- 
cable, and  Leo  was  at  last  obliged  to  relinquish  his  plan 
and  to  content  himself  with  the  hope  of  controlling  a 
general  council  in  the  East. 

In  451,  in  accordance  with  the  imperial  summons,  six 
hundred  and  thirty  bishops  met  at  Nicaea ;  but  for  certain 
reasons  the  emperor  transferred  the  council  to  Chalce- 
don.  The  council  was  disorderly  and  tumultuous.  Dios- 
curus,  after  a  somewhat  dignified  defense  of  his  proceed- 
ings at  Ephesus,  and  a  persistent  refusal  to  subscribe 
Leo's  doctrinal  epistle,  was  deposed.  Much  opposition 
was  at  first  manifested  in  the  council  by  Alexandrians 
and  by  Antiochians  alike,  to  the  acceptance  of  the  epistle 
of  Leo.  The  Roman  deputies  declared  that  if  the  epistle 
was  rejected,  another  council  would  be  held  in  the 
West,  and  the  Emperor  Marcian,  who  had  determined 
upon  the  ratification  of  the  epistle,  fortified  this  threat 
with  his  own  authority.  The  epistle  was  finally  ratified, 
and  a  Confession  of  Faith  embodying  its  substance  was 
accepted. 

Besides  accepting  Leo's  epistle,  the  council  recognized 
the  orthodoxy  of  the  writings  of  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia, 
the  father  of  Nestorianism,  of  Theodoret,  its  ablest  de- 
fender, and  of  Ibas,  a  Persian  bishop,  who  in  a  letter  to 
Maris  had  expounded  the  Nestorian  views.  This  action 
of  the  council  proved  fruitful  of  trouble. 


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548  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.I1L 

(5)  Substanc4  of  ihs  Chalcidonian  Symbol, 

The  Chalcedonian  is  one  of  the  most  important  of  the 
ancient  ecclesiastical  symbols.  Its  Christology,  based 
upon  that  of  Leo's  epistle,  set  forth  as  it  is  in  a  series  of 
simple  propositions,  has  been  from  that  time  to  this  the 
Christology  of  the  great  majority  of  Christians. 

a.  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  declared  to  be  perfect  in 
deity  and  perfect  in  humanity. 

b.  He  is  consubstantial  with  the  Father,  and  consub- 
stantiai  with  us. 

c.  He  was  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  the  mother  of  God. 

d.  This  one  and  the  same  Christ,  Son,  Lord,  only-be- 

f;otten,  is  to  be  acknowledged  in  two  natures,  incon- 
usedly,  unchangeably,  indivisibly,  inseparably ;  the  dis- 
tinction of  the  natures  being  by  no  means  taken  away 
through  the  union,  but  rather  the  property  of  each  nature 
being  preserved,  and  concurring  in  one  person  and  one 
subsistence. 

(6)  PiTsisUnu  ofihi  Cantrowr^. 

Ten  Egyptian  bishops  refused  to  anathematize  the 
doctrines  of  Eutyches  and  to  subscribe  the  letter  of  Leo. 
In  Egypt  and  Alexandria  the  controversy,  led  by  fanat- 
ical monks,  soon  raged  more  fiercely  than  ever  before. 
The  Eutychians  came  to  be  commonly  known  as  Mono- 
physites  (because  of  their  insistence  on  the  oneness  of 
nature  in  the  person  of  Christ).  They  had  their  strong- 
hold in  Egypt  and  Abyssinia,  but  were  numerous 
throughout  the  East. 

(7)  Justinian  and  ih$  '*  Thru  ChapUrs.'^ 

Justinian  was  an  earnest  adherent  to  the  symbol  of 
Chalcedon,  but  the  notorious  Theodora,  his  wife,  favored 
the  Monophysites. 

By  her  intrigues,  Theodora  managed  to  secure  the  elec- 
tion of  the  unprincipled  Vigilius  as  bishop  of  Rome,  who, 
in  turn,  recognized  the  orthodoxy  of  Theodora's  Mono- 
physite  favorites  in  the  East.  Justinian  was  anxious  for 
ecclesiastical  unity,  and  was  willing  to  this  end  to  make 
concessions  to  the  Monophysites. 

The  Monophysite  leaders  objected  to  the  Chalcedonian 
symbol  on  the  ground  that  avowed  favorers  of  Nesto- 


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CHAP.IL]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  349 

rianism  had  been  participants  in  the  council,  and  their 
writings  recognized  as  orthodox.  They  objected  espe- 
cially to  the  recognition  of  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia,  The- 
odoret,  and  Ibas.  They  agreed  to  submit  to  the  authority 
of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  on  condition  that  Theodore 
and  his  writings,  Theodoret's  writings  against  Cyril  and 
in  defense  of  Nestorius,  and  Ibas'  letter  to  Maris,  should 
be  anathematized  by  imperial  edict,  and  that  these  writ- 
ings or  the  recognition  of  their  orthodoxy  should  be  ex- 
punged from  the  acts  of  the  council.  To  this  Justinian 
agreed,  and  he  issued  such  an  edict,  anathematizing  at 
the  same  time  any  that  should,  with  these  exceptions, 
reject  the  authority  of  the  Chalcedonian  council. 

This,  of  course,  aroused  far  more  strife  than  it  allayed. 
Especially  in  the  North  African  and  the  Ulyrian  churches 
was  the  opposition  to  the  condemnation  of  the  *'  Three 
Chapters  "  manifested.  Vigilius,  the  unprincipled  Roman 
bishop,  was  caressed  and  imprisoned  and  excommuni- 
cated in  turn.  He  was  induced  to  take  oaths  to  use  his 
influence  against  the  "Three  Chapters,"  which  oaths, 
when  freed  from  restraint,  he  persistently  violated. 
Bishops  in  Northern  Africa  and  in  lilyria  were  deposed 
by  imperial  command,  and  others  set  up  in  their  places, 
not  without  much  shedding  of  blood. 

At  length  in  553,  having  long  and  earnestly  endeav- 
ored to  allay  the  strife,  Justinian  called  a  council  at  Con- 
stantinople  which  condemned  Theodore  but  vindicated  ; 
Theodoret  and  Ibas. 

But  even  this  did  not  end  the  controversy. 

4.  The  Manothelite  Controversy. 

LITERATURE:  Documents  and  Acts  of  Councils,  in  Mansi, 
'•  Cone"  X.,  XL,  and  In  Hardouin, "  Omc.''  III. ;  Nicephori,  "Brm^ 
armm  Hisiana^\-  Combeslsil,  *' //tttoria  Hctresis  MonoihiUkarum*^ ; 
Domer,  "  Person  of  Christ,"  DIv.  11.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  155,  m^.  :  Neander, 
VoL  III.,  p.  17$,  seq.;  Baur,  *^  Uhu  v.  d.  Onwuigkiit^^^  Bd.  II., 
*' DogmitigesehKhU,'*  Bd,  II.,  S^.  88,  s#^.;  pertinent  sections  In  the 
works  on  the  history  of  doctrines ;  Herzog-Hauck,  and  Wetzer  u. 
Welter.  Art.  '*  MancthiUtsn." 

(/)  Ris0  of  ihs  CofOraoir^. 

From  the  time  of  Justinian  the  doctrine  of  the  two 
natures  may  be  said  to  have  been  supreme  in  the  Roman 


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350  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER  III 

empire,  both  eastern  and  western.  The  Monophysites, 
being  no  longer  tolerated  in  the  established  church,  now 
became  a  schismatical  party,  with  church  organization, 
bishops,  and  patriarchs  of  their  own.  In  the  East,  chiefly 
under  the  leadership  of  James,  bishop  of  Edessa,  a  great 
missionary  activity  was  developed,  and  the  Monophysites 
spread  into  Armenia  and  Persia.  Antioch,  which  had 
been  the  birthplace  and  the  chief  nursery  of  Nestorian- 
ism  (Dyophysitism),  became  the  chief  center  of  Mono- 
thelitism  and  has  continued  to  the  present  day  to  be  the 
residence  of  the  patriarchs  of  the  party  that  adopted  the 
name  of  James  ('*  Jacobites  ").  In  Egypt,  by  the  begin- 
ning of  the  seventh  century,  the  Monophysites  had  come 
to  outnumber  those  in  the  communion  of  the  established 
church  ten  to  one;  and  from  Egypt  they  spread  into 
Abyssinia,  where  also  they  still  constitute  a  strong  party. 

Probably  in  the  fifth  century,  there  appeared  among 
the  Monophysites  that  strange  body  of  writings  purport- 
ing to  have  been  composed  by  Dionysius  the  Areopagite, 
who  was  converted  under  Paul's  preaching  at  Athens. 
The  transcendental  character  of  these  writings,  resulting 
from  the  mixture  of  Platonism  with  Christianity,  was  in 
entire  accord  with  the  Monophysite  ideas  of  the  rela- 
tions of  the  human  and  the  divine  in  Christ.  This  writ- 
ing was  very  popular  among  the  Monophysites,  and 
afterward  among  the  Catholics.  Through  this  work  and 
through  other  instrumentalities,  Monophysitic  conceptions 
had  become  widespread  outside  of  Monophysitism.  A 
favorite  argument  with  the  Monophysites  against  the 
doctrine  of  the  two  natures  was  the  fact  that  two  natures 
required  the  supposition  of  two  wills.  This  they  regarded 
as  contradictory  to  the  fact,  and  maintained  that  there 
remained  in  Christ  after  the  union  one  nature,  and 
hence,  one  will. 

The  question  as  to  the  human  will  of  Christ  was  not 
brought  out  distinctly  either  by  the  Antiochians,  or  by 
Leo  the  Great,  or  by  the  Council  of  Chalcedon.  Main- 
taining, as  they  did,  the  persistent  integrity  of  Christ's 
human  nature,  they  may  be  supposed  to  have  held  im- 
plicitly to  the  persistence  of  the  human  will,  side  by  side 
with  the  divine,  and  in  perfect  harmony  therewith. 

In  614  the  Persians  invaded  Syria  and  Palestine,  and 


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CHAP.ll.]        CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  35 1 

plundered  Jerusalem.  Afterward  they  laid  wai,te  North- 
ern Africa,  as  far  as  Carthage.  In  621  the  Persian  army 
was  threatening  Constantinople.  The  encroathments  of 
the  Persians  led  the  Emperor  Heraclius  to  make  use  of 
all  available  means  for  self-defense.  A  large  proportion 
of  his  subjects  were  alienated  from  him  on  account  of  the 
Monophysite  schism,  and  these  seemed  likely  to  throw 
themselves  into  the  arms  of  the  Persians,  and  thus  to 
prove  an  element  of  weakness  to  the  empire.  It  occurred 
to  Heraclius  and  his  advisers  that  something  ought  to  be 
done  for  the  conciliation  of  the  Monophysites.  As  before 
remarked,  a  strong  Monophysite  tendency,  as  opposed  to 
the  extreme  Dyophysite  interpretation  of  the  Chalce- 
donian  Symbol,  had  become  diffused  throughout  the 
churches.  Dionysius  the  Areopagite  had  employed  the 
expression,  "divine-human  energy "  (^eav^/>«w?  ivipj^tta), 
as  descriptive  of  Christ's  activity.  Sergius,  patriarch  of 
Constantinople,  thought  that  by  the  confession  of  two 
natures  and  one  energy  in  Christ,  the  Monophysites  might 
be  conciliated  without  sacrificing  entirely  the  Chalcedo- 
nian  Symbol. 

In  626  the  emperor  had  a  conference  with  Cyrus, 
bishop  of  Phasis,  and  by  means  of  arguments  and  prom- 
ises of  promotion,  made  of  him  a  zealous  advocate  of  the 
compromise  measure.  Cyrus  became  patriarch  of  Alex- 
andria in  630. 

In  629  the  emperor  won  over  to  nis  position  Athanasius, 
the  leader  of  the  Syrian  Monophysites,  and  made  him 
patriarch  of  Antioch.  There  were  now  three  Monothe- 
lite  patriarchs.  Cyrus  took  measures  at  once  for  carry- 
ing out  the  imperial  scheme  of  union,  and  drew  up  a 
series  of  articles  to  be  submitted  to  the  Monophysites. 
In  the  seventh  article  the  divine  and  the  human  phe- 
nomena in  the  life  of  Christ  are  declared  to  be  the  result 
of  one  divine-human  energy. 

The  Monophysites  of  Egypt,  Thebes,  and  Libya,  read- 
ily accepted  the  terms  of  conciliation,  rejoicing  that  the 
established  church  had  at  last  come  substantially  to  their 
own  position.  But  Sophronius,  a  learned  monk,  objected 
to  these  proceedings,  and  after  he  became  patriarch  of 
Jerusalem  (634)  wrote  most  violently  against  the  Mono- 
thelites,  and  secured  their  condemnation  in  a  synod  of 


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352  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  Ill 

his  own  bishops.  Sergius,  seeing  that  his  most  earnest 
efforts  to  prevent  the  breaking  out  of  controversy  were 
futile,  now  wrote  to  Pope  Honorius,  representing  to  him 
the  good  service  that  had  been  accomplished  by  the  com- 
promise in  uniting  to  the  church  the  great  body  of  Mono- 
physites,  and  the  evil  that  was  likely  to  flow  from  the 
controversy  that  Sophronius  was  about  to  stir  up.  Hon- 
orius  sympathized  heartily  with  Heraclius,  Sergius,  and 
Cyrus  in  their  efforts  to  re-unite  the  church ;  and  spoke 
contemptuously  of  the  useless  subtleties  of  Sophronius. 
The  controversy  now  became  general. 

{2)  Siaitmmi  of  Opposing  yiiws* 

a.  The  f^iews  ofSergius,  Honorius,  and  the  Monothelites. 
During  the  early  stages  of  the  controversy  the  term 
energy,  and  not  will,  was  chiefly  employed.  The  shib- 
boleth of  Sergius  and  his  party  was :  **  One  is  the  energy 
of  Christ,"  and  this  one  energy  was  defined  as  a  "divine- 
human  energy."  The  employment  of  the  term  **  energy  " 
was  somewhat  ambiguous,  in  that  it  might  mean  either 
the  volition  or  the  effects  of  a  volition.  This  ambiguity 
was  favorable  to  the  irenical  purposes  of  Sergius  and 
Cyrus,  inasmuch  as  all  would  admit  the  use  of  the  word 
in  the  latter  sense.  Honorius,  having  been  appealed  to 
by  Sergius,  entered  warmly  into  the  controversy  with  the 
distinct  assertion  of  two  natures,  each  working  in  its  own 
way,  but  one  will,  which  he  assigned  to  the  one  person- 
ality, recognized  by  Leo  and  the  Council  of  Chalcedon.* 

At  a  later  time  Honorius  advised  a  discontinuance  of 
the  employment  of  the  term  "one  energy"  or  "opera- 
tion," and  the  substitution  of  the  term  "one  operator 
Christ,  who  works  by  means  of  both  natures." 

Heraclius  now  issued  his  "Ecthesis**  in  which  the 
unity  of  the  will  in  Christ  is  expressly  taught,  and  in 
which  disputes  about  the  unity  or  the  duality  of  the 
energies  are  strictly  forbidden.*  In  643  the  Emperor  Con- 
stans  finding  that  the  '*Ecthesis*'  had  failed  of  its  pur- 
pose, substituted  for  it  the  "  Typos,"  in  which  all  contro- 
versy with  regard  either  to  the  energies  or  the  will  is 
prohibited.    The  unity  of  will  was  not  given  up,  but  the 

1  HtfdouiB.  Vol  III.,  p.  1319.  Mff.  *  /M^.,  p.  nt»  «^. 


• 


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CHAP.  IL]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  353 

emperor  was  weary  of  controversy,  and  attempted  to  re* 
press  it  by  the  severest  legislation. 

b.  The  yiews  of  Sophronius  and  the  other  Dyothelites. 
Sophronius  was  the  first  to  oppose  the  Monothelitic  com- 
promise. He  insisted  that  Christ  was  perfect  in  deity 
and  perfect  in  humanity;  that  he  was  consubstantial 
with  the  Father  as  God,  and  consubstantial  with  his 
mother  and  with  us  as  man.  These  two  natures  are  un- 
confusedly  but  inseparably  united  in  one  person.  This 
divine-human  person,  accomplished  through  the  medium 
of  the  divine  and  the  human  natures  the  things  that  be- 
long to  deity,  and  the  things  that  belong  to  humanity. 
While  maintaining,  therefore,  the  persistent  integrity  of 
the  divine  and  the  human  natures  (he  does  not  assert 
the  existence  of  two  wills),  he  practically  makes  the 
human  nature  a  passive  instrument  of  the  divine-human 
personality. 

The  successors  of  Pope  Honorius,  John  IV.,  Theodore, 
and  Martin  V.,  repudiated  the  Monothelitic  view  of  Hon- 
orius, and  united  Northern  Africa,  Libya,  etc.,  in  a  po- 
litico-religious opposition  to  the  Eastern  Empire  and  to 
Monothelitism.  In  640  a  council  was  held  at  the  Lateran, 
in  which  the  "Ecthesis,  the  "TJ^s,"  Sergius,  and  his  suc- 
cessors were  anathematized,  and  the  doctrine  of  two  wills 
was  distinctly  asserted.*  The  ablest  defender  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  two  wills  was  Maximus,  a  monk,  who 
was  a  member  of  the  Lateran  Council.  In  reply  to  the 
objections  of  the  Monothelites,  that  to  say  that  there  are 
two  wills  is  to  presuppose  that  there  are  two  who  will, 
Maximus  answered,  that  the  will  pertains  to  the  nature 
and  not  to  the  personality,  since  otherwise  there  would 
be  three  wills  in  the  Holy  Trinity.  But  duality  of  wills 
does  not  involve  antagonism  ;  for  antagonism  could  only 
arise  from  evil,  and  there  was  no  evil  in  Christ.  Free- 
will, or  self-determination,  Maximus  held,  is  an  essential 
part  of  human  nature.  If  Christ's  human  nature  had  not 
an  independent  will,  Christ  was  an  imperfect  man. 

In  most  of  Christ's  actions,  the  two  wills,  while  work- 
ing independently,  arrived  at  the  same  results.  In  some 
instances  we  see  the  working  of  the  divine  will  alone ; 

>  Hardoum,  VoL  111.,  p.  t^,  Mf. 

X 


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354  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.UL 

in  ethers  the  working  of  the  human  will  alone,  though 
never  antagonistic  the  one  to  the  other. 

The  duality  of  wills  in  Christ  was  proved  by  the 
Dyothelites  from  such  expressions  of  Christ,  as :  "I 
came  from  heaven  not  to  do  my  own  will,  but  the  will  of 
the  Father  which  sent  me  "  ;  **  not  as  I  will,  but  as  thou 
wilt";  ''my  meat  is  to  do  the  will  of  him  that  sent 
me,"  etc. 

The  third  Constantinopolitan  Council  (680-681),  con- 
voked by  the  Emperor  Constantinus  Pogonatus,  with  a 
view  to  reuniting  the  church,  and  especially  to  concili- 
ating the  Roman  See,  was  directed  chiefly  by  Pope 
Agathon,  whose  letter  on  the  person  of  Christ,  addressed 
to  the  council,  was  substantially  adopted.  The  council 
amended  the  Symbol  of  Chalcedon  so  as  to  teach  explic- 
itly two  natural  wills,  not  opposed  to  each  other,  but  the 
human  will  following  the  divine  will,  and  in  subjection 
thereto.  In  the  one  hypostasis  of  Christ  may  be  discerned 
his  two  natures,  and  by  this  personality  he  both  performed 
his  miracles  and  endured  his  sufferings  in  such  a  manner 
that  each  of  his  two  natures  willed  and  worked  what  was 
proper  to  it,  in  conjunction  with  the  other.* 

(j)  Concluding  Rtmarks, 

a.  Thus  Dyothelitism  triumphed  chiefly  through  the 
influence  of  the  Roman  See,  notwithstanding  the  fact, 
that  Honorius,  a  Roman  pope,  was  a  Monothelite ;  that 
a  long  line  of  emperors  had  sustained  Monothelitism  by 
argument  and  by  the  employment  of  outward  force  ;  that 
the  incumbents  of  the  great  Patriarchal  Sees  of  the  East 
were  almost  all  Monothelites ;  that  a  Roman  pope  and 
the  great  theologian  of  the  Dyothelites  had  died  as  mar- 
tyrs in  banishment;  and  that  thousands  of  others  had 
suffered  for  their  Dyothelitism. 

b.  The  reasons  for  the  triumph  of  Dyophysitism  were 
probably  the  following : 

(a)  The  fact  that  the  Christian  consciousness  required 
\n  Christ  a  perfect  manhood.  This  had  been  asserted  in 
the  earlier  controversies  ;  but  the  existence  of  two  wills, 
which  is  involved  in  the  assertion  of  perfect  manhood 
and  perfect  deity,  had  not  been  explained. 

1  Hardouin,  VoL  HI,,  p.  1043.  Mf* 


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CHAP.  II.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  355 

(b)  The  Monothelites  were,  from  the  beginning,  ac- 
tuated by  motives  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  policy  rather 
than  by  a  desire  to  arrive  at  the  truth.  The  Dyothelites 
seem  to  have  had  more  at  heart  the  interests  of  the  truth. 

(c)  The  persecuting  measures  of  the  Monothelite  em- 
perors tended  to  unite  the  whole  West  and  a  large  part  of 
the  East  in  common  opposition  to  tyranny  and  false 
doctrine.  The  cause  of  the  Roman  party  from  the  time 
of  the  **Ectkesis  "  and  the  *'  Typos,"  and  especially  after 
the  Lateran  Synod  (649),  was  the  gaining  cause. 

Thus  after  four  hundred  years  of  controversy  on  the 
person  of  Christ,  a  formula  was  arrived  at  which  the 
great  majority  of  Christians  from  that  time  to  this  hav# 
recognized  as  correct  and  in  accordance  with  the  Scrip* 
tures. 

5.  The  Adoptionist  Controversies. 

LITERATURE:  Conybeare, "  The  Key  of  Truth"  1858  (Intro- 
duction and  Appendices) ;  writings  of  the  Adoptionists,  Glipandus 
and  Felix,  in  Migne's  "  Patrohgia  Latma,"  Vol.  XCVI. ;  writings 
of  the  chief  opponents  of  the  Western  Adoptionists,  Beatus,  Heterius, 
Alculn,  Agobardus,  and  Paulinus,  in  Migne's  **  Patrol.  Lat.^*^  Vols, 
XCVI..  XCIX.,  C,  CI.,  and  CIV.;  Walch.  ''Hist,  Adopti- 
anorum**  1755;  Dorner,  "Person  of  Christ,"  Div.  II.,  Vol.  L,  p. 
248,  uq,<,  Vol.  II.,  p.  338, 5#g.,  Vol.  III.,  p.  301, 5/^. ;  Gams,  *'  Ktreh- 
itutisch.  von  SpanUn^^^  Bd.  If.,  SeH.  261,  uq, ;  Baudlssin,  "  Eulogms  u. 
Alvar."  Snt.  61,  seq.;  Hamack, ''  Dogmngfsch,,'*  Bd,  III.«  Sift.  248, 
S4q.;  Hauck,  ''  Kirchengesch.  DnttschlandsP  Bd.  II.,  5^'/.  256,  $$q.; 
Grossler,  "  Di$  Austottung  d.  Adoptianismus  im  Rtieht  Karls  d.  Gr?* ; 
pertinent  sections  and  articles  in  the  manuals  of  church  history 
and  doctrine  history,  and  in  the  encyclopedias. 

( / )  Prelimmary  Rgmarks. 

In  the  preceding  period  reference  was  made  to  the 
wide  diffusion,  during  the  second  and  third  centuries, 
of  Adoptionist  views  of  the  person  of  Christ.  In 
many  cases,  i)o  doubt,  the  use  of  Adoptionist  language 
by  otherwise  orthodox  teachers  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  doctrine  of  the  person  of  Christ  had  not  yet  been 
made  the  subject  of  exhaustive  study,  and  the  logical 
consequences  of  such  language  were  not  understood ;  but 
in  other  cases  (as  in  that  of  Theodotus  and  his  followers) 
Adoptionism  was  maintained  polemically  against  those 
who  were  asserting  the  absolute  deity  of  Christ. 

Reference  was  also  made  to  the  fact  that  this  type  of 


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356  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.nL 

Christianity  was  widely  propagated  in  Persia  and  Ap 
menia  through  the  disciples  or  Paul  of  Samosata  and 
otherwise,  and  that  the  adherents  of  this  type  of  teaching 
in  Armenia  resisted  the  intrusion  of  the  teachings  of  the 
Greek  Church,  and  when  the  influence  of  the  latter  be- 
came dominant  persisted  as  a  persecuted  party  during 
the  Middle  Ages,  and  even  to  modern  times,  under 
the  name  of  " Paulicians/'  "The  Key  of  Truth,"  an 
Armenian  writing  found  in  the  possession  of  the  modern 
Paulicians  of  Thondrak,  that  embodies  the  doctrines  and 
practices  of  the  party,  contains  a  most  interesting  state- 
ment of  the  Adoptionist  Christology  in  a  form  that  Cony- 
beare  attributes  to  the  present  period.  Our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  is  here  represented  as  first  receiving  at  his  bap- 
tism the  priesthood,  the  kingdom,  and  the  office  of  Chief 
Shepherd. 

Moreover,  he  was  then  chosen,  then  he  won  lordship,  then  he  be- 
came resplendent,  then  he  was  strengthened,  then  he  was  revered, 
then  he  was  aopointed  to  guard  us.  then  he  was  glorified,  then  he 
was  made  giaa,  then  he  shone  forth,  .  .  then  he  oecame  chief  of 
beings  heavenly  and  earthly,  then  he  became  the  li^t  of  the  world, 
then  he  became  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life.  Then  he  became 
the  door  of  heaven ;  then  he  became  the  rock  Imprc^^nable  at  the 
gate  of  hell ;  then  he  became  the  foundation  of  our  filth ;  then  he 
became  Saviour  of  us  sinners ;  then  he  became  filled  with  the  God- 
head ;  then  he  was  sealed,  then  anointed ;  then  he  was  called  by  the 
voice;  then  he  became  the  loved  one;  then  he  came  to  be  guarded 
by  angels ;  then  to  be  the  Lamb  without  blemish.  Furthermore,  he 
then  put  on  the  primal  raiment  of  light,  which  Adam  lost  in  the 
garden.  Then,  accordingly,  was  It  that  he  was  invited  by  the  Spirit 
of  God  to  converse  with  fhe  Heavenly  Father ;  yea,  then  also  was 
he  ordained  King  of  beings  In  heaven  and  on  earth  and  under  the 
earth. 

This  view  was  held  in  connection  with  the  acceptance 
of  the  supernatural  birth  of  Christ,  and  involved  a  recog- 
nition of  his  exaltation  to  the  highest  conceivable  dignity, 
glory,  and  authority. 

{2)  Tlu  Spamsh  CoHtracirsy, 

a.  Source  of  the  Spanish  Adoptionism  of  the  E^hth  Cen- 
tury.  To  what  extent  the  Adoptionism  of  Elipandus, 
bishop  of  Toledo  (c.  780)  and  his  followers  was  influ- 
enced by  Mohammedan  thought  and  a  desire  to  present 
Christianity  in  a  form  as  acceptable  as  possible  to  the 


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CHAP.  IL]       CONTROVERSIES  !N  THE  CHURCH  357 

cultured  Saracens  that  ruled  the  country,  is  a  question 
on  which  scholars  are  divided.  It  is  certainly  a  remark- 
able fact  that  Adoptionism  in  the  East  (Paulicians)  as 
well  as  in  the  West  was  in  very  close  contact  with  Mo- 
hammedanism,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  in  both  cases 
Christian  thought  was  consciously  or  unconsciously  in- 
fluenced by  the  enthusiastic  monotheism  of  the  Saracens. 
But  it  is  certain,  as  already  intimated,  that  Adoptionist 
modes  of  expression  were  widely  current  in  the  early 
Christian  centuries,  and  their  persistence  till  after  the 
Mohammedan  conquests  is  by  no  means  improbable.  It 
may  be  that  the  enthusiastic  propagandism  of  Adoptionist 
views  in  the  eighth  century  was  due  to  a  kindling  of  the 
surviving  Adoptionism  of  the  older  type  by  contact  with 
the  fiercely  aggressive  monotheistic  teaching  of  the 
Saracens. 

b.  Statement  of  the  Adoptionist  yiew.  The  Spanish 
Adoptionists  of  the  eighth  century,  appealing  in  support 
of  their  views  to  the  authority  of  Ambrose,  Hilary, 
Jerome,  Augustine,^  and  Isidore  of  Seville,  maintained 
(a)  That  the  eternal  Son  of  God  is  to  be  distinguished 
from  the  man  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  ''Jesus  Christ  is 
adoptive  in  his  humanity  and  by  no  means  adoptive  in  his 
divinity."  According  to  his  divine  nature,  he  is  the  true 
and  proper  Son  of  God,  and  could  with  propriety  say, 
"  I  and  the  Father  are  one."  According  to  his  humanity 
he  is  the  Son  of  God,  '*  not  by  generation,  but  by  adop- 
tion ;  not  by  nature,  but  by  grace."  (ft)  That  this 
adoption  of  Christ  as  man  sustained  a  close  and  neces- 
sary relation  to  the  adoption  of  believers  as  sons  of  God. 
According  to  his  deity  he  is  the  "  only  begotten,"  accord- 
ing to  his  humanity  he  is  "the  first  born  among  many 
brethren."  Believers  are  **  adoptive  with  the  adoptive 
one — Christ  with  Christ."  Christ  is  *'a  God  among 
gods"  (/.  ^.,  believers,  cf.  John  lo  :  34,  seq.).  The 
**  adoptive  members"  must  have  "an  adoptive  head." 
(c)  Great  stress  is  laid  upon  the  baptism  of  Jesus  (as  by 
the  Paulicians)  as  the  occasion  or  means  of  his  adoption, 
and  as  absolutely  necessary  to  his  mediatorial  work. 

*  Aufttstlne  was  at  one  sUge  of  hit  development  e  thorourh-8:oliic  Adoptlonitt ; 
but  he  was  able  to  extricate  hlBiscIf  fron  thlt  as  fron  nany  otber  erroneous  nodee 
of  thought 


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3S8  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  III. 

The  Redeemer  according  to  his  humanity  comprehended 
in  himself  two  births:  "the  first,  that  is  to  say,  which 
he  received  from  the  Virgin  by  being  born,  the  second, 
indeed,  which  he  initiated  in  the  bath,  by  rising  from  the 
dead."  This  coupling  of  baptism  and  the  resurrection 
seems  to  indicate  that  the  process  of  adoption  begun  in 
baptism  was  consummated  in  the  resurrection.  A  close 
connection  was  supposed  between  Christ's  birth  in  bap- 
tism and  the  regeneration  of  believers  in  baptism. 

c.  Polemics  against  the  Adoptionists.  Among  the  most 
important  opponents  of  Adoptionism  was  Alcuin,  the 
great  British  prelate  and  educator.  The  Adoptionists 
were  charged  with  Nestorianism,  inasmuch  as  they  sep- 
arated the  humanity  from  the  deity  of  Christ  so  as  to 
postulate  two  sonships.  Christ  is  not  **  man  "  but  "the 
God-man."  He  is  **  not  in  everything  like  us  apart  from 
sin,"  but  "in  many  things  " — in  most  things  and  the  most 
important  things  he  is  unlike  us.  Alcuin  even  went  so 
far  as  to  deny  that  Christ  prayed  for  himself  or  for  his 
disciples.  As  God-man  he  could  have  no  need  to  pray 
for  himself  and  he  was  abundantly  able  to  bestow  every 
needed  blessing  on  his  disciples ;  he  had  no  occasion  to 
pray  for  them.  What  seem  to  be  prayers  were  merely 
for  effect.  It  was  insisted  that  the  God-man,  a$  such, 
is  Son  of  God,  not  by  adoption  or  by  grace,  but  eternally 
and  by  nature. 

This  controversy  extended  far  into  the  Middle  Ages 
and  may  have  persisted  in  some  of  the  sects  until  the 
time  of  the  Reformation  and  later.  It  is  probable  that 
the  Christology  of  the  Antiochian  school  was  directly  or 
indirectly  influential  in  the  Adoptionist  Christology. 

IV.  ON  ANTHROPOLOGY :  THE  PELAGIAN  AND  SEMI-PELAGIAN 
CONTROVERSIES. 

Literature:  Works  of  Augustine,  Pelagius,  Jerome,  Marius 
Mercator,  Paulus  Orosius,  Cassianus,  Prosper,  Fulgentius,  in 
Migne's  '^ Patrologia** ;  English  translation  of  Augustine's  "Anti- 
Pelagian  Writings,"  with  elaborate  Introductory  Essay  by  Warficid, 
in  "  Nic.  and  Post-Nic.  Fathers,"  Ser.  I.,  Vol.  V. ;  older  modem 
works  by  Vossius,  Gamier,  Norisius,  Jansenius,  Sirmond,  Tillemont, 
Walch,  and  Geffken ;  Wiggers,  "  yirsuch  iiner  pragmai.  DarsUUmg 
d.  tAugustmismus  u.  Pelagianistma^^^  1821-1833  (cng.  trans,  of  Pan 
I.,  Andover»  1840) ;  Cunningham,  "  S.  Austin  and  his  Place  in  the 


d,  tjiugustnUsmus  u.  Pelagianisnms"  1821-1833  (cng.  trans,  of  Pan 
I.,  Andover»  1840) ;  Cunningham,  "  S.  Austin  and  his  Place  in  the 
History  of  Christian  Thought,"  1886;  Bindemann,  *' Dir  htaigi 


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CHAP.n.]        CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  359 

j4iigusiimis"  1844-1869;  Domer,  **^ugustinu5^  ssin  Thiol.  SysUm  u. 
uim  RtligiaHsphihsophischs  Anschauung^'^  1873 1  Warfield, "  Augustine 
and  the  Pelagian  Controversy/'  1^7 ;  Reuter,  "  tAngustinischi  Siu- 
dim^^  1887 ;  pertinent  sections  in  the  worlds  on  the  history  of  doc 
trine  and  in  tne  encyclopedias. 

I.  Antecedents  of  Augustinianism  and  Pelagianism. 

Before  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  the  attention 
of  Christian  thinlters  had  never  been  focused  on  the 
great  anthropological  questions  that  figure  in  the  Pelagian 
controversy.  Many  expressions  regarding  the  original 
and  actual  condition  of  man  can  be  found  in  the  ante- 
Nicene  and  the  fourth  century  writings  ;  but  they  were 
employed  without  dogmatic  or  polemical  purpose  and  are 
significant  as  showing  the  trend  of  thought  rather  than  as 
expressing  the  well-reasoned  convictions  of  the  writers. 

(i)  Writers  Vikejustin^  Irenceus^  and  Hippofytus,  in  com- 
bating Gnostic  fatalism  were  careful  to  vindicate  the 
freedom  of  man  to  obey  the  divine  precepts  and  to  avail 
himself  of  the  means  of  salvation  graciously  provided, 
and  his  responsibility  for  the  use  or  the  neglect  of  the 
means  of  grace.  They  were  careful  to  guard  against 
the  Gnostic  supposition  that  the  world,  including  man,  is 
the  creature  of  an  imperfect  or  malignant  demiurge,  and 
to  insist  upon  the  original  goodness  of  the  work  of  the 
good  Creator ;  yet  they  regarded  imperfection  as  inhering 
in  the  finiteness  of  created  beings.  Because  of  his  lim- 
itations man  was  subject  to  temptation  and  liable  to  fall. 
Free  from  evil,  but  without  experience,  and  susceptible 
to  temptation  because  of  their  sensuous  nature,  our  first 
parents  yielded  to  the  solicitations  of  the  tempter.  If 
they  had  persisted  in  obedience  to  God,  they  would  have 
attained  to  communion  with  God  and  to  eternal  life.  By 
disobedience  they  became  involved  in  evil,  yet  retained 
freedom  of  will,  the  indelible  image  of  God  in  man. 

(2)  Tertullian^  who  was  inclined  to  regard  the  fall  as  a 
fearful  catastrophe,  still  insisted  most  earnestly  on  free- 
dom of  will  as  an  inalienable  element  of  human  nature 
and  as  constituting  in  man  ability  to  appropriate  the  pro- 
visions  of  divine  grace.  Yet  he  regarded  divine  grace 
as  absolutely  necessary  to  man's  salvation.  He  was 
probably  the  first  to  set  forth  clearly  the  propagation  pf 


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360  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  UL 

souls  together  with  their  good  and  evil  qualities  (Tradu- 
danism). 

(3)  Clement  of  Alexandria  looked  upon  the  fall  as  a  far 
less  momentous  event.  Man  was  created  in  an  infantile 
state,  with  his  sensuous  nature  far  better  developed  than 
his  moral  and  intellectual.  By  yielding  to  sensuality  he 
became  involved  in  disobedience  to  God.  Sin  consists 
chiefly  in  subjection  to  sensuality.  The  effect  of  Adam's 
sin  upon  the  race  was  chiefly  that  of  example.  Inherited 
tendency  to  sin  is  recognized,  but  sin  as  guilt  inherent 
in  human  nature  finds  no  place  in  his  system.  The  ex- 
ample and  the  precepts  of  Christ  he  regarded  as  divinely 
provided  helps  whereby  man  is  able  to  overcome  sensu- 
ality and  to  attain  to  exaltation  of  character ;  but  not, 
apparently,  as  absolutely  indispensable  to  man's  salva- 
tion. 

(4)  Origen  also  maintained  the  freedom  of  the  will  and 
the  power  of  every  man  to  avail  himself  of  the  salvation 
of  Christ ;  yet  he  accounted  for  the  sinful  condition  of 
human  souls  by  the  supposition  of  a  fall  in  a  previous 
state  of  existence.  He  seems  to  have  had  a  somewhat 
more  adequate  conception  of  the  sinfulness  of  human 
nature  and  the  need  of  atonement  than  did  Clement; 
but  he  laid  chief  stress  on  the  moral  influence  of  Christ's 
life  and  death  in  the  plan  of  salvation. 

(5)  Paul  cf  Samosata  is  said  to  have  magnified  man's 
natural  ability  and  to  have  made  little  of  the  special 
grace  of  God  as  a  factor  in  man's  salvation.  In  this  as 
in  other  respects  Arius  followed  in  Paul's  footsteps.  Re- 
garding Christ  as  a  result  of  the  union  of  the  divine 
Logos  (a  created  being)  with  a  human  body,  and  sup- 
posing that  he  had  attained  to  his  present  exalted  po- 
sition by  the  choice  of  good  when  a  contrary  choice  was 
possible,  it  was  natural  for  him  to  lay  undue  stress  on 
man's  ability  to  follow  Christ  in  this  respect.  Athana- 
sius  understood  him  to  make  the  higher  divine  character 
of  Christ  dependent  on  his  purely  human  activity.  It 
was  inevitable,  therefore,  that  Arianism  should  develop 
a  superficial  view  of  sin,  redemption,  and  divine  grace. 
Athanasius  was  justified  in  charging  Arius  with  robbing 
humanity  of  grace  by  his  separation  of  the  Word  from  the 
Father  as  regards  essence  and  dignity. 


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chap.il]     controversies  in  the  church  361 

(6)  tApollinaris  was  almost  Manichaean  in  his  concep* 
tion  of  the  essential  evil  of  human  nature.  He  would  not 
admit  that  Christ  had  a  complete  human  nature,  for  he 
could  not  understand  how  he  could  in  that  case  have 
escaped  the  contagion  of  sin.  As  the  divine  Logos  took 
the  place  of  the  human  spirit  in  Christ,  so  the  salvation 
of  believers  consists  in  their  likeness  to  Christ  and  their 
imitation  of  him  and  not  in  renewal  and  restoration  (first- 
fruits).  Here  also  we  have  an  inadequate  view  of  grace 
in  redemption.  The  appropriation  of  Christ's  salvation 
is  represented  as  a  subjective  process  of  imitation  and 
assimilation,  dependent  wholly  on  the  will  of  the  indi- 
viduaL 

(7)  The  cordiality  with  which  Pelagians  were  received 
in  Antiochian  circles  during  the  early  stages  of  the  Pela- 
gian controversy  shows  the  close  affinity  between  the  Pe- 
lagian and  the  Antiochian  (Nestorian)  modes  of  thought. 
The  emphasis  laid  by  the  Nestorians  on  the  persistent 
integrity  of  Christ's  humanity,  including  freedom  of  will, 
and  their  utter  aversion  to  any  view  of  Christ's  humanity 
that  savored  of  Docetism,  involved  a  relatively  favorable 
view  of  the  condition  of  human  nature  as  such.  The 
Augustinian  view  of  man's  depravity,  lack  of  freedom, 
and  absolute  dependence  on  special  divine  grace  for  de- 
liverance, was  distasteful  to  them  ;  and  while  they  were 
not  prepared  to  accept  the  extreme  statements  of  the 
Pelagian  anthropology,  it  was  easy  for  a  shrewd  apol- 
ogist like  Julian  or  Coelestius  to  win  the  approval  of  men 
like  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia  and  Nestorius. 

2.  Augustine  and  Pelagius. 

The  temperaments  and  the  experiences  of  the  two 
protagonists  in  this  controversy  no  doubt  had  much  to  do 
with  the  radical  differences  of  their  conceptions  regarding 
nature  and  grace. 

(i)  t^Ufrustine's  was  a  tempestuous,  passionate  nature. 
Despite  his  wonderful  intellectual  power  it  was  with  the 
utmost  difficulty  that  he  could  keep  his  body  under.  The 
excesses  and  irregularities  of  his  youth  and  early  man- 
hood were  to  him  a  lifelong  subject  of  regret,  almost  of 
remorse.  His  ideas  of  human  depravity  were  derived 
from  the  correspondence  of  his  own  experience  with 


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362  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  in 

Paul's  representation  of  the  antagonism  between  the 
flesh  and  the  spirit,  between  the  law  of  the  mind  and  the 
law  of  the  members  (Rom.  7).  His  *'  Confessions  "  con- 
stitutes one  of  the  most  remarkable  psychological  dis- 
closures in  all  literature  and  should  be  read  by  every  one 
who  wishes  to  sound  the  depths  of  human  experience  in 
relation  to  the  religious  life.  His  connection  with  the 
Manichseans  for  nine  years  accustomed  him  to  regarding 
human  nature  as  fundamentally  evil  and  human  freedom 
as  a  delusion.  Delivered  from  the  thraldom  of  Mani- 
chseism  through  the  medium  of  Neo-Platonism  (Plotinus), 
he  was  perilously  near  to  exchanging  Manicha^an  dualism 
for  semi-pantheism,  and  by  contemplating  God  in  his 
absoluteness  to  lose  sight  of  the  relative  freedom  of  man. 
Yet,  in  contending  with  the  Manichseans,  he  went  so  far 
in  his  assertion  of  human  freedom  as  greatly  to  embar- 
rass him  in  his  controversy  with  the  Pelagians. 

(2)  Pelagius,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  learned  monk 
of  cold,  even  temperament,  and  of  abstemious  life.  To 
him  it  seemed  easy  to  live  uprightly.  He  was  conscious 
of  freedom  to  perform  the  dictates  of  his  higher  nature. 
He  saw  no  need  of  supposing  that  Adam's  posterity  had 
inherited  his  guilt.  To  him  man  seemed  fully  equipped 
by  nature  for  living  a  life  of  righteousness  by  the  use  of 
such  helps  as  have  been  graciously  provided  by  God  and 
are  available  in  some  measure  to  all. 

The  early  tradition  that  Pelagius  was  bom  in  Britain  and  that  his 
views  of  Christianity  were  tinctured  with  the  naturalism  of  the 
Dmids  may  rest  on  a  foundation  of  fact.  Yet  we  find  him  |)erfectly 
at  home  among  the  Latin  theologians  of  Italy.  North  Africa,  and 
Gaul,  and  among  the  Greek  theologians  of  the  East,  it  seems 
probable  that  he  had  resided  for  many  years  in  these  regions  before 
we  meet  him  in  Rome,  about  400.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  that  a 
man  brought  up  in  Britain  and  reaching  middle  life  there  should  have 
been  so  completely  at  home  in  the  great  centers  of  Christian  life  as 
he  seems  at  that  time  to  have  been.  He  enjoyed  the  friendship  of 
Paulinus  of  Noia,  and  of  Sulpicius  Severus,  the  great  promoters  of 
ascetic  life,  and  for  a  time  that  of  Jerome.  He  was  highly  honored 
because  of  his  learning  and  the  purity  of  his  life. 

3.  Rise  of  the  Controversy. 

Pelagius  was  strongly  averse  to  controversy.  It  was 
his  more  aggressive  disciple  Ccelestius,  a  Roman  lawyer 

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CHAP.n.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  363 

of  noble  birth,  who  having  been  won  over  by  him  to  the 
ascetic  life,  presented  his  teaching  in  polemical  form  and 
precipitated  the  great  conflict  with  Augustine.  Pelagius 
and  (Joelestius  had  taken  refuge  in  North  Africa  at  the  time 
of  Alaric's  invasion  of  Italy  (41 1),  and  Pelagius  had  formed 
a  pleasant  acquaintance  with  Augustine,  bishop  of  Hippo. 
Ccelestius  sought  admission  to  the  Carthaginian  min- 
istry. From  Italy  the  Carthaginians  were  warned  of  his 
doctrinal  unsoundness.  In  a  Carthaginian  synod  he  de- 
fended the  Pelagian  teachings.  That  which  awakened 
most  opposition  was  the  implication  that  infant  baptism 
was  unnecessary  to  salvation.  This  view  was  involved 
in  his  denial  of  original  or  hereditary  sin.  He  sought  to 
satisfy  his  opponents  by  allowing  that  infant  baptism  ad- 
mitted to  the  kingdom  of  God,  though  eternal  life  did  not 
depend  upon  it.  The  controversy  thus  begun  soon  spread 
throughout  Christendom. 

4.  Stattment  of  the  Views  of  the  Contending  Parties. 

(I)  The  yiews  of  the  Pelagians.  Pelagius  and  his  chief 
coadjutors,  Ccelestius  and  Julian,  did  not  always  express 
themselves  consistently.  Their  extreme  desire  to  vin- 
dicate their  orthodoxy  often  led  them  to  make  partial, 
compromising  statements.  There  has  been  considerable 
diversity  of  opinion  among  modern  writers  as  to  which 
point  of  Pelagius'  teaching  is  to  be  regarded  as  funda- 
mental. Some  give  the  primacy  to  the  doctrine  of  free 
will,  others  to  denial  of  original  sin,  others  to  the  denial 
of  the  necessity  of  infant  baptism,  others  to  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  natural  necessity  of  physical  death,  others 
still  to  the  superficial  view  of  sin.  The  fact  is,  that  from 
either  of  these  positions  all  the  rest  of  the  features  of  the 
system  can  be  logically  derived.  If  we  must  choose  one 
principle  as  most  fundamental,  that  of  the  freedom  of  the 
will  seems  to  have  the  advantage. 

a.  Freedom  of  the  IVill.  Pelagius  maintained  that  man 
was  created  with  perfect  freedom  to  choose  between  good 
and  evil,  and  that  this  freedom  inheres  in  every  man  at 
all  times. 

Wc  contradict  the  Lord  when  we  say  "It  is  hard,"  "It  is  diffi- 
cult," "we  cannot,"  "we  are  men,"  **we  are  encompassed  with 
mortal  flesh."    On,  blind  nonsense  1    Oh,  unholy  audacity  1    We 


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364  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  111. 

charge  God  with  a  two*fold  ig;noTance :  that  he  does  not  seem  to 
know  what  he  has  made,  nor  what  he  has  commanded :  just  as  )f 
he,  forgetting  the  human  weakness  of  which  himself  is  the  author, 
has  imposedlaws  on  man  which  he  cannot  endure.^  In  this  capacity 
for  a  two-fold  choice  ...  lies  the  superiority  of  the  rational  soul.  In 
this  consists  the  honor  of  our  nature ;  in  this  its  dignity.'  The  ra- 
tional creature  has  the  advantage  over  all  others  in  this,  that  while 
the  latter  have  only  a  goodness  of  condition  and  of  necessity,  the 
former  alone  has  it  of  will.'  Sin  that  is  necessary  is  not  sin  at  all. 
Man  is  neither  good  nor  evil  because  he  is  free ;  but  neither  coukl  he 
be  good  or  evil  unless  he  were  free.*  It  is  easier  to  avoid  Darridde 
andsacrilese  and  adultery,  or  like  things,  than  to  commit  them.' 
Free  will  after  sins  have  oeen  committed  is  Just  as  complete  as  it 
was  before.' 

b.  Sin.  Closely  connected  with  the  doctrine  of  free 
will  was  the  Pelagians'  doctrine  of  sin.  Sin  is  purely  a 
matter  of  will.  Adam  sinned  by  the  exercise  of  his  free 
will.  Most  of  his  posterity  have  sinned  after  his  example, 
but  not  all.  To  assert  the  heredity  of  sin  involved,  in 
their  opinion,  the  acceptance  of  the  theory  of  the  prop- 
agation of  the  soul  (Traducianism),  which  they  regarded 
as  materialistic  and  horrible.  Each  soul  is  created  pure 
and  has  as  perfect  freedom  to  do  good  or  evil  as  Adam 
had.  If  sin  is  a  man's  own,  it  is  voluntary ;  if  it  is  vol* 
untary,  it  can  be  avoided. 

**  What  then  Is  sin  ? "  wrote  Julian.  "  It  is  the  appetency  of  free 
will  for  what  Justice  prohibits  ...  the  will  to  do  what  Justice  for* 
bids  and  what  there  Is  freedom  to  abstain  from.  .  .  Does  God  Im- 
pute what  he  knows  cannot  be  avoided?^  God  .  .  .  does  not  make 
evil :  a  littie  child  before  the  decision  of  his  own  will  has  nothing 
save  what  God  made  in  him.  Naturally,  therefore,  there  can  be  in 
him  no  sin."'  Sin  is  represented  by  Julian  as  having  its  origin  in 
one's  own  appetite.' 

c.  Infant  Baptism.  As  remarked  above,  the  implied 
needlessness  of  infant  baptism  was  at  first  the  chief 
ground  on  which  Pelagius  and  his  disciples  were  at- 
tacked. Denying  hereditary  sin  they  were  unable  to 
find  any  adequate  justification  for  this  practice.  Yet 
they  were  not  sufficiently  interested  in  anti-pedobaptism 
to  be  willing  to  make  it  a  plank  in  their  platform. 

^"Bp,s4  Dmitr,;*  Chap.  19.  •  IM^  Chap.  «.  •  IHd„  Chap.  ). 

«  Auffustlne. '^0^.  imp.,"  Bk.  V..  Chap.  n. 

•  JttllAB,  In  '*  Op.  Imp,r  Blc  ni..  Chiip.  ixx.  •  /fc/.  Bk.  I..  Chap.  91. 

T  AogustiM.  "Q».  Imp,r  Bk.  V..  Ch«p.  it. 
•  Jttllan.  la  *'  Op.  Imp  J'  Bk.  V..  Cbap.  63.    •  "  Qp.  tmf7*  Bk.  I..  Chap.  44.  Mf . 


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CHAP. n]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  365 

Pelagians  admitted  that  baptism  mi^ht  properly  be  administered 
to  infants  with  the  use  of  the  regular  rituai  for  older  people.  Pela- 
gius  went  so  far  as  to  denounce  the  refusal  of  baptism  to  infants  as 
p^odlessness.  He  had  heard  one  heretic  so  wiciced  as  to  deny  that 
infants  should  be  baptized.^  Infants  answer  truly  through  their 
sponsors  that  they  believe  in  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  meaning  the 
sins  of  those  who  are  guilty.  Julian  Insisted  that  *'  the  grace  of 
baptism  "  was  *'  useful  to  all  ages,"  and  **  would  smite  with  an  eter- 
nal anathema  all  who  do  not  thinl<  it  necessary  even  for  little  chil- 
dren." '  He  thought  that  by  the  grace  of  baptism  *'  a  sinner  from  a 
wicked  becomes  a  perfectly  good  man ;  but  an  innocent  person  who 
has  no  evil  of  his  own  will,  becomes  from  a  good  a  better  person, 
that  is,  the  best.  Both  Indeed  become  members  of  Christ  by  bap- 
tism ;  only  the  one  had  before  led  a  wicked  life,  the  other  was  of  an 
uncorrupted  nature."  By  baptism,  he  maintained,  we  become  chil- 
dren of  God  and  members  of  his  kingdom.'  Pelagius  distinguished 
between  ftmtal  lifi^  which  belongs  to  unbaptlzed  infants,  and  the 
kmgdam  e/hsavM  in  which  only  the  baptized  participate. 

d.  Divine  Grace,  Pelagius  and  his  followers  used  the 
expression  **  divine  grace  '*  to  include  the  fact  of  our  cre- 
ation, of  our  being  alive,  of  our  being  rational,  of  our 
being  in  the  image  of  God,  of  our  possessing  free  will,  of 
our  enjoying  God's  unceasing  beneficence,  of  our  having 
the  divine  law  given  us  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  above 
all  the  fact  of  our  enjoyment  of  the  teachings,  the  ex- 
ample, and  the  sufferings  of  the  incarnate  Son.*  They 
maintained  that  salvation  is  possible  without  law  or  gos- 
pel and  was  attained  by  some  before  the  giving  of  the 
law ;  that  it  was  easier  to  attain  under  the  law ;  and 
that  the  gospel  dispensation  greatly  facilitates  its  attain- 
ment. 

(2)  tAugustine^s  yiews.  Augustine's  position  in  this 
controversy  was  exceedingly  embarrassing.  In  opposi- 
tion to  Manichaean  fatalism  he  felt  obliged  to  insist  upon 
such  a  degree  of  freedom  as  would  furnish  a  basis  for 
human  responsibility,  and  over  against  the  Manichaean 
doctrine  of  the  absolute  and  essential  evil  of  human 
nature  he  felt  obliged  to  maintain  that  it  was  not  utterly 
corrupt.  He  held  with  Pelagius,  against  the  Manichaeans, 
that  all  nature  is  good,  because  it  proceeds  from  God. 

a.  OAan's  Original  State  and  His  Possibilities.  Man 
came  from  the  hand  of  his  Maker  faultless.   He  possessed 

>  "  Of  Grakm  CMmH,**  Chap.  }a ;  "  Of  Pu.  Orig,r  Chtp,  il. 

•  *'Op,  imp./'  Bk.  1..  Chap.  «>.  s«f.  •  IhidT,  Bk.  V..  Chap.  «. 

«  "  Op,  Imp., "  Bk.ll.,  Chap.  94 ;  I.,  X4«. 

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366  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  Ill 

freedom  to  do  good,  reason  to  know  God,  and  the  grace 
of  God.  By  the  latter  he  means  that  supernatural  assist- 
ance whereby  alone  men  and  angels  could  have  perse- 
vered in  goodness.  To  man,  as  a  moral  being,  the  pos- 
sibility of  sinning  was  necessary,  but  sinning  only  pos- 
sible. If  he  had  persevered  in  obedience  he  would  have 
attained  to  a  state  in  which  sinning  would  have  been  im- 
possible. His  bodily  nature,  mortal  in  itself,  would  thus 
have  become  immortal. 

b.  Vie  Fall.  This  consisted  in  the  fact  that  the  original 
possibility  of  sinning  became  by  willful  disobedience  a 
reality.  Augustine  attributes  the  fall  to  the  seductive 
influence  of  the  serpent,  who  inspired  pride  and  self- 
seeking  first  in  the  woman  as  the  weaker.  The  sin  was 
committed  before  the  fruit  was  eaten.  The  consequences 
of  the  fall  are :  loss  of  freedom  of  choice  (in  matters  per- 
taining to  salvation),  a  beclouding  of  the  mind,  loss  of  the 
grace  of  God  for  performing  the  good  that  his  freedom 
willed,  loss  of  paradise,  subjection  to  concupiscence  (in- 
cluding all  sensuous  obstacles  to  the  dominance  of  the 
spirit),  and  physical  death. 

c.  Hereditary  Sin.  Augustine  maintained  that  the  con- 
dition of  Adam  after  the  fall  is  the  condition  of  the  race. 
To  the  end  of  his  life  he  was  greatly  perplexed  regarding 
the  origin  of  the  soul.  The  Traducian  theory,  with  which 
the  Pelagians  never  wearied  of  reproaching  him,  claiming 
as  they  did  that  it  was  logically  involved  in  his  doctrine 
of  hereditary  guilt,  seemed  too  materialistic  to  harmonize 
with  his  Platonizing  mode  of  thinking.  The  Creation 
theory  seemed,  as  was  insisted  upon  in  season  and  out 
of  season  by  the  Pelagians,  irreconcilable  with  his  doc- 
trine of  original  sin,  or  else  with  the  goodness  of  God. 
In  his  *'  Retractations  *'  he  confessed  his  ignorance  on  this 
point,  but  insisted  that  Adam  was  the  representative  and 
the  progenitor  of  the  race,  and  that  in  Adam  all  sinned. 
He  felt  the  need  of  Traducianism,  but  could  not  bring 
himself  openly  to  adopt  it. 

d.  Baptism.  By  baptism  the  guilt  of  this  original  sin  is 
taken  away,  but  not  sin  itself.  Unconscious  infants 
dying  without  baptism  are  damned  by  virtue  of  their  in- 
herited guilt.  The  sinful  nature  remains  after  baptism 
and  with  the  dawn  of  moral  consciousness  actual  sm  ap- 


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CHAP,  a]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  367 

pears  in  the  choice  of  evil  through  the  dominance  of  con- 
cupiscence. This  post-baptismal  sin  will  inevitably  lead 
to  eternal  perdition  if  it  be  not  healed  by  penance,  by 
good  works,  and  by  the  intercession  of  the  glorified 
Saviour.  The  real  conversion  of  the  will  by  divine 
grace,  so  that  it  becomes  free  for  goodness,  is  independ- 
ent of  baptism  and  usually  comes  long  after  the  latter 
has  been  received.  In  such  conversion  of  the  will  grace 
manifests  itself  in  revelation  and  teaching  and  in  the  in- 
breathing of  the  divine  love. 

e.  Divine  Grace.  Augustine  maintained  that  special 
divine  grace  was  freely  given  to  our  first  parents  in  such 
measure  as  would  have  enabled  them  to  persevere  in 
obedience.  To  fallen  man  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to 
his  willing  or  doing  good,  it  is  unmerited,  and  it  is  irre- 
sistible. He  conceived  of  all  mankind  as,  on  account  of 
Adam's  fall,  "a  certain  mass  of  sin  (or  of  corruption), 
amenable  to  the  divine  and  supreme  justice ;  whether 
this  punishment  is  exacted  or  remitted,  no  injustice  is 
done."  Out  of  this  indistinguishable  mass  God  brings 
some  to  salvation  and  allows  others  to  become  repro- 
bates. The  very  willing  to  secure  salvation  is  a  gift  of 
God  withheld  from  some,  whom  he  makes  "vessels  of 
contumely  "  ;  not  that  he  is  the  author  of  sin,  but  those 
from  whom  grace  is  withheld  become  vessels  of  dishonor 
and  contribute  to  the  harmony  of  the  divine  system, 

/.  Predestination,  Election,  Perseverance,  and  Reproba- 
tion. Augustine  taught  that  with  fallen  humanity  in 
mind  God  "justly predestined  to  punishment "  (or  death) 
a  part  of  the  race,  while  some  "  he  benignantly  predes- 
tined to  grace,  not  because  we  were  holy,  but  that  we 
might  be."  He  maintained  the  final  perseverance  of  the 
elect,  but  admitted  that  election  could  be  known  in  indi- 
vidual cases  only  from  observation  of  perseverance  to 
the  end.  He  did  not  distinctly  teach  that  God  determined 
to  create  man  in  order  that  all  the  race  might  become  in- 
volved in  sin  and  that  he  might  save  some  by  his  grace 
and  damn  others  for  the  manifestation  of  his  justice 
(Supralapsarianism),  though  he  comes  perilously  near  to 
this  conception  in  making  the  existence  and  the  punish- 
ment of  evil  beings  essential  to  the  harmony  of  the 
divine  scheme. 


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368  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  Vl 

4*  Proceedings  Against  the  Pelagians. 

(i)  Synods  at  Jerusalem  and  Diospolis.  After  his  con- 
demnation by  a  Carthaginian  synod  (412)  Pelagius  visited 
Palestine,  where  he  won  the  confidence  of  Bishop  John  of 
Jerusalem.  Jerome,  the  opponent  of  John  (see  Origen- 
istic  controversies  above),  who  had  been  informed  by 
Augustine,  through  the  presbyter  Orosius,  of  Pelagius' 
errors,  wrote  a  sharp  polemic  against  him.  Pelagius 
succeeded  in  stating  his  views  in  a  Jerusalem  synod  to 
the  satisfaction  of  John,  who  bade  Pelagius  keep  quiet 
until  the  bishop  of  Rome  could  be  heard  from  on  the 
matter.  Further  attacks  from  the  West  led  to  a  fresh 
investigation  in  a  synod  at  Diospolis  (Lydda)  under 
Bishop  Eulogius  of  Csesarea.  On  this  occasion  Pelagius 
declined  to  be  held  responsible  for  the  teachings  of 
Ccelestius  and  by  sophistical  modes  of  statement  gained 
the  recognition  of  the  body. 

(2)  Popes  Innocent  I.  and  Zosimus.  At  the  Instance  of 
the  African  bishops,  Innocent  I.  condemned  Pelagius 
(416).  Innocent's  death  occurring  shortly  afterward, 
Coelestius  was  able  to  convince  his  successor  of  the  or- 
thodoxy of  the  Pelagians.  Zosimus  rebuked  the  Africans 
for  listening  to  slanderous  reports  against  these  excellent 
men.  The  African  bishops  declined  to  withdraw  their 
condemnation  until  Pelagius  and  Coelestius  should  un- 
equivocally assert  "that  the  grace  of  God  by  Jesus 
Christ  assists  us  not  only  to  the  knowledge,  but  also  to 
the  exercise,  of  righteousness  in  every  single  act,  so  that 
without  it  we  should  be  able  to  think,  to  say,  or  to  per- 
form nothing  truly  pious  or  holy." 

In  418  a  General  Council  of  the  African  churches  con- 
demned the  chief  positions  of  the  Pelagians,  and  Zosimus 
of  Rome  felt  constrained  to  withdraw  his  support  and 
caused  their  condemnation  in  a  Roman  synod.  Julian, 
bishop  of  Eclanum,  refused  to  accept  the  decision  of  the 
synod  and  was  henceforth  by  far  the  most  acute  and 
courageous  defender  of  Pelagian  principles.  It  was  in 
controversy  with  him  that  Augustine  wrote  his  most  im- 
portant anti-Pelagian  works.  In  these  are  incorporated 
Julian's  statements  and  arguments  that  would  otherwise 
have  perished.    This  controversy  with  Julian  was  the 


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CHAP.  II.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  369 

occasion  of  Augustine's  working  out  with  great  fullness 
his  doctrines  of  freedom  of  will,  sin,  grace,  predestina- 
tion, etc. 

(3)  Pela^ns  and  Nestmans.  Pelagius  seems  to  have 
remained  in  the  East  and  is  soon  lost  sight  of.  Julian 
and  Coelestius  again  sought  and  won  the  support  of  such 
Oriental  bishops  as  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia  and  Nesto- 
rius.  The  fall  of  Nestorius  (see  Nestorian  controversy 
above)  rendered  his  approval  worse  than  useless,  and 
they  were  condemned  along  with  him  by  the  Synod  of 
Ephesus  (431). 

5.  The  Semi-Pelagians. 

(i)  Jerome,  Prosper,  yincentius,  and  Cassianus.  The 
Pelagians  had  failed  signally  to  win  Christendom  to  the 
acceptance  of  their  views.  Augustine  and  his  adherents 
had  industriously  discredited  them  wherever  they  sought 
to  introduce  their  teachings. 

But  neither  was  Augustinianism  to  be  the  dominant 
theology  of  the  age.  As  it  was  radically  different  from 
the  theology  of  the  past,  so  it  was  out  of  accord  with  the 
dominant  tendencies  of  the  immediately  succeeding  time. 
Luther  and  Calvin  were  the  true  successors  of  Augustine. 
His  own  age  was  not  ripe  for  his  teachings.  He  laid  too 
much  stress  on  the  inner  Christian  life  and  too  little 
stress  on  external  ceremonies  to  suit  the  spirit  of  the 
age.  While  he  held  that  baptism  destroys  the  guilt  of 
original  sin,  he  repudiated  the  thought  that,  apart  from 
special  divine  grace  working  a  change  in  the  direction  of 
the  will  and  producing  righteous  character,  salvation  is 
possible  to  those  that  reach  moral  consciousness.  He 
was  an  earnest  advocate  of  asceticism,  but  he  denied 
that  the  mere  torture  of  the  flesh,  apart  from  the  trans- 
formation of  the  life  into  Christlikeness,  avails  anything. 
He  regarded  the  Supper  as  a  **  communion  of  the  body  of 
Christ,"  yet  he  did  not  admit  that  the  mere  eating  and 
drinking  of  the  elements  were  of  any  benefit  apart  from 
the  faith  of  the  partaker.  He  taught  the  perseverance  of 
the  saints,  but  he  denied  that  any  one  could  be  assured 
of  the  possession  of  the  gift  of  perseverance  until  the 
end  of  life.  His  teachings  were  radically  opposed  to  the 
«acramentalism  and  to  the  idea  of  salvation  by  external 

V 


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370  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  UL 

works  that  more  and  more  dominated  the  Christian 
thought  of  the  time. 

Even  Jerome,  who  joined  with  Augustine  in  condemn- 
ing the  Pelagians,  was  far  from  being  an  Augustinian. 
Prosper  of  Aquitania  and  Hilary  of  Aries  remonstrated 
with  Augustine  regarding  the  rigor  of  his  predestinarian- 
ism,  Vincentius  of  Lerins  (434)  put  forth  a  vigorous, 
though  covert,  attacic  on  Augustine's  teachings,  laying 
stress  on  ecclesiastical  traditionalism  and  insisting  that 
the  greatest  care  should  be  taken  that  "  we  hold  fast  to 
what  has  been  believed  everywhere,  always,  and  by  ail  '* 
(QUod  ubique,  quod  semper,  quod  ab  omnibus  creditum  est). 
These  Gallic  opponents  of  Augustine  insisted  on  the  rec- 
ognition of  such  a  degree  of  free  will  as  would  make  each 
man's  salvation  dependent  on  himself.  *'  All  who  perish, 
perish  against  the  will  of  God  "  (Cassianus). 

(2)  The  *'  Prcedestinatus  "  and  Faustus  of  Lerins.  About 
450  appeared  an  anonymous  work  called  **  Prcedestinatus,** 
in  which  the  doctrine  of  predestination  was  set  forth  with 
the  utmost  harshness.  "Those  whom  God  has  once 
predestinated  to  life,  even  if  they  are  negligent,  even  if 
they  sin,  even  if  they  are  unwilling,  yet  unwillingly  are 
conducted  to  life  ;  but  those  whom  he  has  predestinated 
to  death,  even  if  they  run,  even  if  they  hasten,  labor 
in  vain."  The  immoral  and  almost  blasphemous  teach- 
ings of  this  book  aroused  the  polemical  zeal  of  many 
earnest  Christian  thinkers. 

Faustus,  abbot  of  Lerins,  who  represented  the  mod- 
erate anti-Augustinianism  of  the  Gallic  monks,  attacked 
extreme  Augustinianism  with  great  vigor.  He  denounced 
''the  error  of  predestination,"  defended  **the  free  choice 
of  the  human  mind,"  and  identified  the  current  predes- 
tinarian  doctrine  with  pagan  and  Manichaean  fatalism. 
He  does  not  attack  Augustine,  but  aims  his  blows  at  the 
later  somewhat  exaggerated  Augustinianism.  While  ad- 
mitting that  holiness  cannot  be  attained  without  divine 
grace,  he  made  great  claims  for  the  efficacy  of  asceticism 
in  elevating  character. 

(3)  The  Scythian  Monks  and  Fulgentius.  About  519 
some  Scythian  monks  residing  in  Constantinople  began 
to  agitate  in  favor  of  Augustinianism  and  pressed  upon 
Pope  Hormisdas  the  utter  inconsistency  of  his  recognizing 


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ChAP.IL]        CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  37I 

both  Augustine  and  Faustus  as  orthodox.  One  or  the 
other  must  be  a  heretic.  This  led  Fulgentius,  an  Afri- 
can theologian,  to  defend  the  doctrine  of  predestination 
against  Faustus'  assaults ;  yet  he  rejected  the  idea  of 
predestination  to  sin  (reprobation). 

(4)  MedicBval  Orthodoxy  as  fixed  by  Gregory  the  Great. 
After  much  controversy  Semi-Pelagianism  was  seemingly 
vanquished,  but  the  dominant  type  of  Roman  Catholic 
theology,  as  embodied  in  the  works  of  Pope  Gregory  the 
Great  (59CH604),  was  not  Augustinianism,  although  much 
of  the  language  of  Augustine  was  freely  used ;  but  rather 
the  ascetic  theology  of  Jerome,  modified  by  the  deepening 
asceticism  and  formalism  of  the  fully  developed  hierarch- 
ical church. 

V.  CONTROVERSIES    OCCASIONED    BY    PROTESTS    AGAINST 
THE     PROGRESSIVE     PAGANIZATION     OF    CHRISTIAN 
LIFE  AS  SEEN    IN   ASCETICISM,  THE  VENERA- 
TION OF  SAINTS  AND  RELICS,  ETC. 

Long  before  the  close  of  the  fourth  century  the  ascet- 
ical  view  of  Christian  life,  already  aggressive  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  present  period,  had  become  dominant. 
The  religious  life  was  identified  with  asceticism.  The 
perfection  of  Christian  character  could  be  approximated 
only  by  voluntary  celibacy,  poverty,  and  withdrawal 
from  secular  life. 

Martin  of  Tours  (d.  c.  400)  established  a  monastery  at 
Poictiers  (c.  367),  where  he  practised  the  most  rigorous 
asceticism  and  acquired  the  reputation  of  being  a  mira- 
cle worker.  Sulpicius  Severus,  a  Gallic  nobleman  of 
character  and  culture,  became  his  enthusiastic  disciple 
and  biographer.  He  attributed  to  his  master  the  raising 
of  the  dead  (several  cases),  the  stopping  of  a  falling 
tree,  the  arrest  of  the  progress  of  a  fire,  the  healing  of 
demoniacs  and  lepers,  etc.  As  bishop  of  Tours  he 
founded  a  multitude  of  churches  and  greatly  extended 
the  influence  of  Christianity  in  Gaul.  Sulpicius  em- 
ployed the  revenues  of  his  great  estates  and  his  personal 
influence  in  the  promotion  of  ascetical  Christianity. 

Paulinus  of  Nola,  an  Italian  noble  of  enormous  wealth 
and  elegant  culture  (he  has  been  designated  '*  the  Chris- 
tian Cicero"),  became  a  Christian  and  adopted  the  as- 


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372  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  HI 

cetical  life  (c^  379).  He  devoted  his  income  to  charity 
and  the  founding  of  a  church  and  a  monastery  in  which 
relics  and  images  of  saints  and  martyrs  were  collected 
and  where  a  truly  pagan  cult  was  established.  He  spent 
much  of  his  time  prostrate  before  the  image  of  St.  Felix, 
his  patron  saint,  and  every  year  wrote  a  birthday  poem 
in  his  honor, — bestowing  on  him  epithets  suitable  only  for 
Deity,  attributing  to  his  favor  the  blessing  of  life,  and 
imploring  his  good  offices  for  the  future.  The  influence 
of  Martin,  Sulpicius,  and  Paulinus,  was  widespread. 
Christian  churches  became  assimilated  to  pagan  temples 
and  the  ascetical  life  grew  apace. 

Jerome  (c.  341-420),  the  greatest  scholar  of  his  age, 
was  mastered  by  the  ascetical  spirit  (c.  372),  and  to  es- 
cape hell  and  expiate  his  sins  betook  himself  to  the  des- 
erts of  Syria,  where  he  lived  a  life  of  incredible  aus- 
terity, waging  meantime  the  fiercest  battle  with  his  pas- 
sions. After  four  years  of  the  most  rigorous  hermit  life 
and  a  brief  residence  at  Antioch,  he  returned  to  Rome, 
where  (c.  382)  he  found  the  church  in  the  most  shameful 
disorder  on  account  of  a  disputed  succession  to  the  epis- 
copal chair.  Here  he  promoted  ascetical  life,  especially 
among  women  of  rank,  and  established  such  intimate  re- 
lations with  two  young  widows,  Paula  and  Marcella,  as 
to  awaken  grave,  but  probably  unjust,  suspicions.  In 
385  he  left  Rome,  which  he  now  called  "Babylon,"  to 
take  up  his  abode  in  Bethlehem,  where  he  prepared  his 
edition  of  the  Latin  Bible  (Vulgate)  and  wrote  many  of 
his  controversial  and  other  works.  He  was  a  fanatic  of 
the  most  pronounced  type  and  was  one  of  the  most  vio- 
lent and  unscrupulous  piolemicists  of  the  age.  He  com- 
posed fabulous  lives  of  early  ascetics  (Antony,  Paul, 
Malchus,  and  Hilarion),  in  which  he  drew  freely  upon 
the  erotic  pagan  romances  of  the  earlier  time  and 
thought  only  of  exalting  the  most  extreme  forms  of 
asceticism.  He  carried  on  an  extensive  correspondence 
with  the  leading  Christians  of  all  parts  of  the  world  and 
exerted  a  profound  influence  in  favor  of  world-flight  and 
celibacy. 

A  milder  and  more  rational  type  of  asceticism  was 
represented  and  fostered  in  Syria  and  Asia  Minor  by 
Basil  (d.  379),  Gregoiy  Nazianzen,  Gregory  of  Nyssa, 


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CHAP.  II.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  373 

Diodorus  (d.  394),  Chrysostom  (d.  407),  Nestorius, 
Theodore  of  Mopsuestia,  Theodoret  of  Cyrus,  etc.,  and 
in  Italy  and  Africa  by  Ambrose  (d.  397)  and  Augustine 
(d.  430).  From  the  writings  of  these  latter  it  is  evident 
that  the  ascetical  spirit  had  become  dominant,  and  they 
were  concerned  to  guard  against  its  abuses  and  to  insist 
upon  the  possibility  and  the  duty  of  true  Christian 
morality  in  secular  life. 

Closely  connected  with  the  growth  of  asceticism  was 
the  rapid  development  of  the  most  groveling  idolatry — 
worship  of  saints,  relics,  images,  holy  places,  etc. 

It  was  against  the  corrupt  practices  and  corrupting 
tendencies  indicated  above  that  the  protests  occasioning 
the  following  controversies  were  uttered. 

I.  The  Airian  Controvert. 

LITERATURE:  Epiphanlus, " PoHorum'*  (  "  Hasns.,''  75).  Walch, 
"  Hisf.  d.  Kit^trswi^'  Bd.  III.,  Siit.  321*  ssq. ;  Ncandcr, "  Ch.  Hist.,*' 
Vol.  II.,  p.  342,  ssq. ;  encyclopedia  articles. 

Aerius,  presbyter  and  superintendent  of  a  Christian 
almshouse  at  Sebaste,  Asia  Minor,  was  intimately  asso- 
ciated with  Eustathius,  who  became  bishop  ^.355.  Con- 
troversy regarding  the  administration  of  the  institution 
arose  between  Aerius  and  the  bishop,  and  the  former 
was  obliged  to  resign  his  position  c.  360.  A  large  num- 
ber of  the  constituents  of  the  diocese  supported  Aerius, 
who  vigorously  attacked  not  only  the  personal  adminis- 
tration of  Eustathius,  but  the  corruptions  in  doctrine 
and  practice  that  were  coming  to  prevail  in  that  region. 
He  accused  Eustathius  of  being  too  much  concerned 
about  the  acquisition  of  property,  insisted  upon  the 
equality  of  presbyters  and  bishops  on  scriptural  grounds, 
denounced  the  practice  of  seeking  the  intercession  of  de- 
parted saints  and  of  celebrating  the  Supper  as  an  offer- 
ing for  the  dead,  opposed  the  laws  regulating  fasts  (fixed 
seasons),  and  especially  the  celebration  of  the  Passover, 
which  he  regarded  as  a  Judaizing  practice  out  of  place  in 
a  Christian  church.  He  charged  the  dominant  form  of 
Christianity  with  substituting  the  bondage  of  Jewish 
legalism  for  the  liberty  of  the  gospel. 

Driven  from  the  churches  and  severely  persecuted, 


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374  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  lit 

Aerlus  and  his  followers  were  soon  widely  scattered. 
They  were  obliged  to  hold  their  meetings  in  fields,  for 
ests,  and  in  mountainous  retreats.  They  were  soon  lost 
sight  of  as  a  distinct  party ;  but  it  is  probable  that  the 
spirit  of  their  protest  persisted  in  Paulicianism,  or  rather 
that  it  formed  part  of  the  early  evangelical  movement 
which  became  prominent  in  Paulicianism  at  a  later  date. 

2.  The  Jovinianist  Controversy. 

LITERATURE:  Jerome,  ** Mvirsus Jaoinumum''  (Eng.  tr.In  "  NIc. 
and  Post-Nic.  Fathers,"  Ser.  2,  Vol.  Vi.) ;  Augustine,  *'  flasres.;'  82, 
"D^  'Bono  ConfuMlt,'^  and  "D#  Virginiiate'^:  Lindner,  ^^  Dtjomn- 
iano  it  yigiLantio  Turioris  Doctrirus  j4ntesi'gnanis^  1839 ;  Schaff ,  Ch. 
Hist."  Vol.  Hi.,  p.  226,  siq,;  Neandcr,  "Ch.  Hist.,"  Vol.  II.,  p. 
269,  ssq.;  Walch,  *'Hist.  der  Ktt{irtien^'*  'Bd,  111.,  Sett,  635,5^^.; 
Zockler,  **  Huronjmms"  Siit,  194,  5#g.;  Comba,  "/  Nostrs  Protss' 
ianti,''  Vol.  I.,  pp.  8?-ii4 ;  Belling,  '*  Ueberjovmian  "  (in  Zeitsckr.  /. 
KirchMgesch,^"  Bd.  IX.,  Seit.  391,  ssq.);  encyclopedia  articles. 

(i)  T^seof  the  Controversy.  Jovinianus,  whom  Nean- 
der  calls  "the  Protestant  of  his  time/'  a  well-educated 
Roman  monk,  began  {c.  378)  to  assail  the  ascetical  teach- 
ings and  practices  represented  by  Jerome  and  his  party. 
Up  to  this  time  he  had  practised  a  rigorous  asceticism. 
Jerome  represents  him  as  allowing  himself  more  liberty 
henceforth  and  even  hints  at  Epicurean  indulgence  ;  but 
there  seems  no  reason  to  believe  that  he  exceeded  the 
limits  of  sane  Christian  living.  Augustine  finds  no  fault 
with  his  life,  but  accuses  him  of  Stoicism  in  putting  all 
sins  on  a  parity  and  of  denying  the  perpetual  virginity  of 
Mary.  In  this  last  particular  Jovinian  followed  in  the 
footsteps  of  Helvidius,  whom  Jerome  had  a  few  years 
before  (c.  383)  elaborately  confuted  {*^^dv.  Helvidium*'). 

(2)  Points  at  Issue.  We  are  indebted  for  most  of  our 
information  regarding  the  protest  of  Jovinianus  to  Je- 
rome, who  ascribes  to  him,  apparently  in  his  own  lan- 
guage, four  '*  Vv.i.omous  "  propositions  in  which  he  hears 
**the  hissing  of  the  serpent."  These  are  as  follows: 
a.  That  "  virgins,  widows,  and  married  women,  who 
have  been  once  washed  in  Christ,  if  they  do  not  differ 
in  respect  to  other  works,  are  of  the  same  me'-it." 

b.  That  "those  who  have  been  baptized  cannot  be 
tempted  (elsewhere  "subverted")  by  the  devil."    He 


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CHAP.  11.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  375 

defined  his  meaning  by  saying :  "  But  those  who  have 
been  tempted  are  shown  to  have  been  baptized  by  water 
only  and  not  by  the  Spirit,  as  we  read  in  the  case  of 
Simon  Magus."  Jerome  further  states  Jovinian's  posi- 
tion thus :  *'  He  denies  tl\at  those  who  with  full  faith 
have  obtained  baptism  can  thenceforth  sin."  Elsewhere  * 
Jerome  represents  Jovinianus  as  saying :  "  That  those 
who  with  full  faith  have  obtained  baptism  cannot  be 
tempted ;  nay,  in  other  words,  that  a  baptized  man,  if 
he  be  unwilling  to  sin,  sins  no  further."  That  he  did 
not  mean  to  teach  that  the  truly  regenerate  man  is  of 
necessity  absolutely  sinless  is  evident  from  the  state- 
ment attributed  to  him  by  Jerome:  "Between  that  brother 
who  had  always  been  with  the  Father,  and  him  who  as 
a  penitent  was  afterward  received,  there  is  no  diversity." 
It  is  probable  that  he  meant  simply  to  teach  that  suffi- 
cient divine  grace  is  bestowed  upon  the  truly  regenerate 
man  to  enable  him  to  resist  the  temptations  of  the  evil 
one,  and  that  such  a  one  will  inevitably  persevere  to  the 
end. 

Jovinianus  seems  to  have  attached  no  Importance  to  mere  water 
baptism,  and  to  have  regarded  baptism  as  the  outward  symbol  of 
the  inner  transformation  wrought  through  faith.  Like  the  Christian 
writers  of  the  second  century,  he  probably  regarded  it  as  the  com- 
pletion of  the  process  of  regeneration  conditioning  the  remission  of 
sins. 

c.  That  *'  there  is  no  difference  between  those  that 
abstain  from  foods  and  those  that  partake  of  them  with 
thanksgiving."  He  argued  that  "  all  things  were  created 
to  serve  for  the  use  of  mortal  men,"  and  appealed  to  the 
example  of  Christ,  who  was  called  a  '*  winebibber  and  a 
glutton."  He  repudiated  the  idea  that  starvation  con- 
duces to  holiness. 

d.  That  ''to  all  who  shall  have  preserved  their  bap- 
tism (t.  e.,  have  been  baptized  on  a  profession  of  saving 
faith  and  hence  do  not  fall  away)  there  is  one  remunera- 
tion in  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  He  insisted  that "  Christ 
dwells  in  all  equally  and  is  in  us  without  any  difference 
of  degrees.  .  .  So  also  we  are  in  Christ  without  de- 
grees.      Believers  are  '*  a  temple  of  God,  not  temples." 

I "  'Dial.  0nn  Felofiitms"  Bk.  H*.  cb«p.  04.. 


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576  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  lA. 

He  divided  mankind  rigorously  into  two  classes,  the 
saved  and  the  unsaved,  and  refused  to  allow  that  there 
is  any  distinction  to  be  made  among  the  saved.  Salva- 
tion being  of  grace  and  not  of  merit,  all  who  are  saved 
are  saved  absolutely.  In  these  statements  Jovinianus 
was  protesting  against  the  current  teaching  regarding 
works  of  supererogation,  whereby  saints  and  martyrs 
were  supposed  to  be  able  efficaciously  to  intercede  for 
sinners. 

Jerome  devotes  the  first  half  of  his  treatise  to  the  refutation  of  the 
first  proposition,  insisting  that  in  the  parable  of  the  sower  the  thirty- 
fold,  sixty-fold,  and  hundred-fold  fruitage  of  the  seed  sown  in  good 
ground  Indicates  the  relative  merit  of  married  life,  voluntary  widow- 
hood, and  virginity.  Marriage  is  recommended  by  Paul  not  because 
it  is  good,  but  because  it  is  less  bad  than  consuming  lust.  He  is 
able  to  quote  much  Scripture  in  favor  of  his  contention  that  there  are 
among  Christians  differences  in  spiritual  attainment,  and  that  the 
rewards  of  the  saved  and  the  sufferings  of  the  lost  are  graded  ac- 
cording to  desert.  If  Jovinianus  is  correctly  represented  by  Jerome 
and  Augustine,  he  was  certainly  at  fault  in  insisting  upon  absolute 
equality  as  regards  rewards  and  punishments,  which  his  opponents 
were  probably  right  In  attributing  to  the  Stoic  philosophy. 

(3)  Proceedings  and  ^(esults.  That  the  protest  of  Jo- 
vinianus awakened  great  interest  and  received  influential 
support  is  evident  from  the  excited  polemics  of  Jerome, 
and  from  the  public  proceedings  that  were  instituted 
against  him  in  Rome  and  Milan.  In  390  a  Roman  synod 
under  Bishop  Siricius  condemned  him,  along  with  seven 
of  his  adherents,  and  notified  other  bishops  of  the  fact. 
A  Milanese  synod  under  Ambrose  excommunicated  the 
Jovinianists  shortly  afterward.  Jerome  in  his  writing 
against  Vigilantius  (406)  refers  to  the  death  of  Jovinianus. 
An  edict  of  the  Emperor  Honorius  (412)  condemns  one 
Jovinianus,  who  had  been  holding  unauthorized  conventi- 
cles in  the  neighborhood  of  Rome,  to  scourging  and  ban- 
ishment; but  if  Jerome's  statement  and  the  dates  of 
both  documents  are  correct  another  Jovinianus  must  be 
supposed.  The  persistence  of  the  influence  of  Jovin- 
ianus is  seen  in  the  movement  led  by  Vigilantius.  It  is 
not  unlikely  that  followers  of  Jovinianus  took  refuge  in 
the  Alpine  Valleys,  and  there  kept  alive  the  evangelical 
teaching  that  was  to  reappear  with  vigor  in  the  twelfth 
century  (Arnoldists,  Petrobrusians,  Henricians,  etc.). 


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CHAP.  11.]        CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  377 

3.  The  yigilantian  Controversy. 

Literature  :  Jerome. "  Ep.  ad  yigOataium  "  and  "  Ado,  yigOof^ 
twm''  (Eng.  tr.  in  "  Nicene  and  Post-Nic.  Fathers,"  Scr.  a.,  VoL 
Vi.);  Lindner, '' D$ Joomiano  it  yigOaniio'* ;  Schmidt,  '*  yigOatUms. 
Sim  Virkaltms  {wn  hiil,  HuronymuSy^  i860 ;  Zocicler,'*  Hiironymus^^^ 
Sett.  503,  siq. ;  Lea,  *'  Sacerdotal  Celibacy,"  2d  ed.,  p.  70,  uq, ; 
GUly,  '^Vig!  and  his  Times" ;  Neander.  '^Ch.  Hist.,"^Vol.  II.,  p. 
313,  s#g.;  373.  sio.;  Schaff,  "Ch.  Hist.,"  Vol.  111.,  p.  226,  Mg.  ; 
encyclopedia  articles. 

^i)  Sketck  of  yigUantim.  Vigilantius  was  a  native  of 
Gaul  and  was  a  dependent  of  Sulpicius  Severus,  who 
discerning  his  capabilities  liberated  and  educated  him. 
He  was  ordained  presbyter  about  390.  Four  years  later 
he  was  sent  by  his  patron  to  visit  the  great  ascetics  of 
Italy  and  the  Hast  He  spent  some  time  with  Paulinus 
of  Nola  (see  above),  who  received  him  with  the  utmost 
kindness,  and  became  warmly  attached  to  him.  He 
seems  from  the  first  to  have  been  somewhat  shocked  by 
the  introduction  of  so  much  of  paganism  into  Christian 
worship  as  he  saw  at  Nola.  A  visit  to  Jerome  at  Bethle- 
hem intensified  his  aversion  to  the  excesses  of  asceticism, 
and  he  felt  constrained  to  argue  the  matter  with  this 
impetuous  and  intolerant  ascetic.  He  journeyed  thence 
to  Egypt,  and  became  familiar  with  the  most  repulsive 
features  of  monastic  life  through  contact  with  the  swarms 
of  ascetics  who  inhabited  the  Nitrian  desert.  The  fact 
that  in  Palestine  and  in  Egypt  the  Origenistic  controversy 
was  raging  so  furiously  at  the  time  no  doubt  contributed 
to  his  dislike  for  asceticism.  It  is  probable  that  he  had 
already  become  familiar  with  the  protest  of  Jovinianus 
through  the  reading  of  Jerome's  polemic  or  otherwise. 
On  his  homeward  journey  he  seems  to  have  visited 
Milan  and  Alpine  Italy,  and  no  doubt  came  into  direct 
touch  with  the  Jovinianist  movement. 

By  this  time  he  had  become  thoroughly  convinced  that 
asceticism  and  idolatrous  practices  of  every  kind  are  for- 
eign to  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  and  he  returned  to 
Gaul  full  of  zeal  for  the  restoration  of  apostolic  doctrine 
and  practice.  His  reforming  views  found  much  accept- 
ance, Sulpicius  Severus  and  the  bishop  of  Toulouse  at 
first  expressing  approval.  Jerome,  however,  was  soon 
in  the  field  with  a  most  virulent  and  scurrilous  polemic. 


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J78  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  Ill 

and  the  forces  of  the  hierarchy  were  soon  arrayed  against 
him. 

(2)  yiewsofyiplantius.  In  general  they  were  identi- 
cal with  those  of  Jovinianus ;  but  he  did  not  concern 
himself  with  doctrinal  matters  so  much  as  with  the  moral 
results  of  the  ascetical  and  idolatrous  practices  that  were 
coming  to  dominate  the  churches.  From  Jerome's  ex- 
aggerated statement  we  can  best  ascertain  where  the 
emphasis  was  placed  in  his  protest : 

He  charges  him  with  denying  "that  religious  rever- 
ence is  to  be  paid  to  the  tombs  of  the  martyrs.  Vigils, 
he  says,  are  to  be  condemned ;  Alleluia  must  never  be 
sung  except  at  Easter ;  continence  is  a  heresy ;  chastity 
a  hotbed  of  lust."  He  spoke  contemptuously  of  relics 
of  the  martyrs  as  "the  mysterious  something  or  other 
which  you  (Jerome  and  the  ascetics)  carry  about  in  a 
little  vessel  and  worship,"  and  as  "a  bit  of  powder 
wrapped  up  in  a  costly  cloth  in  a  tiny  vessel."  Jerome 
insists  that  so  long  as  the  devil  and  demons  wander  freely 
through  the  world  martyrs  are  not  to  be  kept  shut  up  in 
a  coffin.  Vigilantius  maintained  that  "  so  long  as  we  are 
alive  we  can  pray  for  one  another ;  but  once  we  die, 
the  prayer  of  no  person  for  another  can  be  heard." 
Jerome  insists  that  apostles  and  martyrs  can  intercede 
more  efficaciously  now  than  when  they  were  encumbered 
with  the  flesh  and  their  own  sufferings.  Vigilantius 
charged  that  the  vigils  at  the  tombs  of  saints  were  the 
occasion  of  the  grossest  immorality  on  the  part  of  the 
men  and  women  who  participated  in  them.  Jerome 
admits  the  fact,  but  denies  that  a  good  thing  should  be 
disused  because  of  abuses.  He  denounced  indiscriminate 
almsgiving,  especially  for  the  support  of  idle  monks. 
He  regarded  world-flight  as  cowardly  :  "This  is  not  to 
fight,  but  to  run  away.  Stand  in  line  of  battle,  put  on 
your  armor  and  resist  your  foes,  so  that,  having  over- 
come, you  may  wear  the  crown."  Jerome  confesses  his 
cowardice  :  "  I  would  not  fight  in  the  hope  of  victory, 
lest  some  time  or  other  I  lose  the  victory.  If  I  flee,  1 
avoid  the  sword  ;  if  I  stand,  I  must  eitheV  overcome  or 
fall.  But  what  need  is  there  to  let  go  certainties  and 
follow  after  uncertainties  ?  .  .  .  You  who  fight  may 
either  be  overcome  or  may  overcome.    1  who  fly  do  not 


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CHAP.  II.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  379 

overcome,  inasmuch  as  I  fly  ;  but  I  fly  to  make  sure  that 
1  may  not  be  overcome." 

(3)  Fate  of  the  Movement.  The  movement  was  lost  in 
the  invasion  of  the  Alans  and  Vandals  ;  but  as  we  And 
early  in  the  Middle  Ages  evangelical  bodies  of  Christians 
in  Southern  Gaul,  it  is  somewhat  probable  that  the  influ- 
ence of  Vigilantius  persisted  to  some  extent  during  the 
intervening  time. 

4.  The  Paulician  Controversy. 

LITERATURE:  PtttT  Skulus,  *' Histaria  Mamchofonm"  ;  Photius, 
^^Advtrsus  Rscmtiorts  (Mamchaos''  (in  Wolf's  ^' Amc,  Gr."  Vol.  I., 
II.);  also  numerous  casual  notices  in  *^ 'Biblioikua  Scr,  'Bjnatiimo^ 
rum,''  ed.  Niebuhr ;  Gieseler,  "  Ch.  Hist.,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  21,  ssg.,  231, 


rother,  Bd.  i.,  SeiU  524,  stq, ;  Joh.  Ozniensis,  "  Opira,''  ed.  Aucner, 


18 J4 ;  Gelzer,  *'  Dis  Anfanp  dtr  Armmischm  Kifchi''  1895  ;  Fried- 
rich,  "  Btricht  ub^  d.  PaiUihiantr''  (SitpmgsbmckU  d,  k,  b,  Akad.  d. 
yyisssnschafUn  ^  (MunchiH,  1896).  The  above  works,  valuable  as 
regards  the  external  history  of  the  movement,  have  been  almost 
superseded  by  the  following  in  respect  to  the  doctrines  and  practices 
of  the  body :  Karapet  Ter-Mkrttschian,  '*Df>  Paulikiamr  im  Byuw 
tinischin  Kaiserreicht  und  vifwandU  ErschiinungeH  in  Arrmniin"  ioQ3, 
and  Conybeare,  **  The  Key  of  Truth.  A  Manual  of  the  Paulician 
Church  of  Armenia.  The  Armenian  Text,  Edited  and  Translated 
with  Illustrative  Documents  and  Introduction,"  1898.  The  former 
of  these  scholars,  an  Armenian  priest  educated  in  Germany,  has 
thoroughly  discredited  the  accounts  of  the  Paulicians  given  by  Peter 
Siculus  and  Photius,  and  by  the  monk  Georgius,  without  being  able 
to  reach  any  important  positive  results ;  the  latter,  the  foremost  Eng- 
lish authonty  on  Armenian  church  history,  has  brought  to  light  the 
manual  of  the  ancient  Paulician  Christians,  which  has  continued  in 
use  to  recent  times,  and  has  given  in  his  Introduction  and  Appen- 
dices much  important  documentary  material  not  hitherto  avallaDle. 

(i)  Rise  of  the  Paulicians.  The  representation  of  the 
monkish  chronicler  Georgius,  Peter  Siculus,  and  Photius, 
that  the  Paulicians  arose  in  the  latter  half  of  the  seventh 
century  and  had  for  their  founder  one  Constantine,  who 
having  received  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament  from  a 
Christian  returning  from  captivity  among  the  Saracens, 
was  greatly  interested  by  the  Pauline  Epistles  and  re- 
solved as  far  as  in  him  lay  to  secure  a  restoration  of 
Christianity  to  its  primitive  Pauline  form,   may  have 


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38o  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  Ill 

had  a  basis  of  fact  in  the  reforming  labors  of  an  evangel- 
ical leader  of  that  time.  But  the  efforts  of  these  writers 
to  fasten  upon  the  Paulicians  the  stigma  of  Manichaean 
(or  Marcionitic)  dualism  were  doubtless  due  to  the  un- 
scrupulous polemical  methods  of  the  time,  in  accord- 
ance with  which  the  most  damaging  heresies  might 
legitimately  be  attributed  to  theological  opponents.  A 
careful  comparison  of  the  "Key  of  Truth,"  which 
contains  an  account  of  the  doctrines  and  practices  of 
the  Paulicians  from  about  the  eighth  century  onward, 
with  the  Adoptionist  literature  of  the  second  century, 
seems  to  establish  the  fact  that  Paulicianism  is  a  per- 
petuation of  the  form  of  Christianity  that  was  first  in- 
troduced into  Armenia  and  represents  a  very  early 
type  of  doctrine  and  practice.  Reference  has  already 
been  made  in  another  section  to  the  Adoptionist  Chris- 
tology  of  the  '*  Key  of  Truth  "  and  to  the  fact  that  Adop- 
tionism  is  known  to  have  been  the  prevailing  type  of 
Christology  in  Persia  and  Armenia  during  the  early  cen- 
turies. Paulicianism  was  not  so  much  an  attempt  to 
introduce  in  Armenia  a  new  form  of  Christianity  as  a 
struggle  against  the  encroachments  of  the  Greek  Chris- 
tology, with  its  accompanying  Mariolatry,  saint-worship, 
iconolatry,  asceticism,  intolerance,  and  moral  corruption. 
The  name  Pauliciani  was  probably  derived  not  from 
Paul  the  apostle,  but  from  Paul  of  Samosata,  deposed 
from  the  bishopric  of  Antioch  by  a  synod  for  teaching 
Adoptionist  Christology  in  269  and  forced  to  relinquish 
his  charge  by  the  Emperor  Aurelian  in  272.  This  is  the 
representation  of  Gregory  Magistros  (eleventh  century) 
and  of  the  Escurial  Fragment,  from  which  Photius,  Peter 
Siculus,  etc.,  drew  their  materials.  This  document  rep- 
resents Paul's  mother  as  a  Manichaean  and  thus  accounts 
for  the  supposed  Manichsan  features  of  Paulicianism. 
But  even  if  we  could  be  sure  of  this  derivation  of  the 
name,  this  would  constitute  no  proof  that  the  form  of 
Christianity  that  came  to  be  thus  stigmatized  had  its 
origin  at  this  late  date. 

Convbeare  is  probably  justified  In  asserting  that  "the  Paulkian 
Churcn  was  not  the  national  church  of  a  particular  race,  but  an  old 
form  of  the  apostolic  church,  and  that  It  included  within  itself 
Syrians,  Greeks,  Armenians,  Africans,  Latins,  and  various  other 


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CHAP.  IL]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  381 

races.  Finding  refuge  in  southeastern  Armenia,  when  it  was  nearly 
extirpated  in  the  Roman  Empire,  it  there  nursed  its  forces  in  com- 
parative security  under  the  protection  of  the  Persians  and  Arabs, 
and  prepared  itself  for  that  magnificent  career  of  missionary  enter- 
prise in  the  Creels  world,  which  the  sources  relate  with  so  much  bit- 
terness." 

It  was  the  "huge  recess  or  circular  dam"  formed  by 
the  Taurus  mountain  range  that  furnished  a  comparatively 
secure  abiding  place  for  this  ancient  form  of  Christianity, 
when  the  Graeco-Roman  form  of  Christianity,  supported 
by  the  imperial  authority,  was  gradually  making  its  in- 
fluence felt  throughout  the  more  exposed  parts  of  Ar- 
menia. But  the  peculiarities  of  Armenian  life  and 
thought  were  never  obliterated,  and  from  the  fifth  century 
onward  the  Graeco-Roman  influence  was  largely  counter- 
acted by  the  Persian  and  later  by  the  Saracen  (Moham- 
medan). Under  these  influences,  which  also  had  much 
to  do  with  the  uprising  against  image  worship  in  the  By- 
zantine Empire,  there  was  a  widespread  revival  of  the 
old  faith  in  Armenia  in  the  eighth  century.  It  is  to  this 
aggressive  and  uncompromising  hostility  to  the  Christi- 
anity of  the  empire,  that  the  term  "  Paulician  "  is  com- 
monly applied. 

Leo  the  Isaurian  (717-741),  the  iconoclastic  emperor, 
was  virtually  a  Paulician,  and  it  has  been  maintained 
that  his  successor,  Constantine  Copronymus  (741-775), 
was  **a  pure  Paulician."*  As  the  imperial  influence, 
with  its  Graeco-Roman  type  of  Christianity,  declined  in 
Armenia,  the  dominant  form  of  Christianity  (Gregorian) 
in  this  region  became,  it  would  seem,  more  shamelessly 
corrupt  than  before.  Bishops  were  at  the  heads  of  clans 
and  ecclesiastical  offices  came  to  be  hereditary.  Infant 
baptism  had  been  introduced,  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the 
old  Adoptionist  Christology,  as  a  concomitant  of  this 
political  form  of  Christianity.  Blood-offerings  had  been 
instituted,  in  accord  with  the  old  pagan  practice,  to  expi- 
ate for  the  sins  of  the  dead.  Crosses  had  been  set  up 
as  objects  of  superstitious  reverence. 

(2)  Paulician  Doctrines  and  Practices,  From  the  *'  Key 
of  Truth,"  compared  with  other  sources  of  information, 

1  Conybearep  on  the  Authority  of  Theopb«nes.    S—  *'  Key  of  Truth."  Iotro4«t 
to.  cxvi. 


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382  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  la 

the  position  of  the  Paulicians  at  about  the  close  of  this 
period,  and  presumably  from  the  early  time,  may  be 
summarized  as  follows :  a.  They  did  not  call  themselves 
"Paulicians"  or  ''Thondralcians"  (a  name  commonly 
applied  to  them  because  the  movement  had,  during  the 
mediaeval  time,  Thondrak  for  its  center),  but  rather  "the 
holy,  universal,  and  apostolic  church."  The  Roman, 
Greek,  and  Armenian  churches  are  regarded  as  abso- 
lutely evil  and  Satanic,  and  are  on  every  occasion  de- 
nounced in  the  bitterest  way.  This  was  no  doubt  due  to 
the  terrible  persecutions  suffered  by  the  Paulicians  at 
the  hands  of  the  dominant  bodies.  The  ascription  of 
acts  of  these  bodies  to  Satanic  agency  by  the  Paulicians 
may  have  given  color  to  the  charge  of  Manichsean  dual- 
ism so  constantly  preferred  against  them  by  their  adver- 
saries. Satan  occupies  a  very  prominent  place  in  the 
"  Key  of  Truth,"  as  he  does  in  Luther's  writings. 

J.  The  Adoptionist  Christology,  that  forms  so  promi- 
nent a  feature  of  the  Paulician  system,  has  been  fully 
set  forth  in  an  earlier  section.  This  did  not  involve  any 
lack  of  reverence  for  Christ  or  any  depreciation  of  his 
absoluteness  as  Saviour  and  Lord. 

c.  The  Paulicians  were  uncompromisingly  opposed  to 
infant  baptism.  The  arguments  of  those  who  '*  baptize 
the  unbelieving,  the  reasonless,  and  the  unrepentant " 
are  declared  to  be  ''deceitful,"  and  those  that  thus  per- 
vert Christ's  ordinance  are  declared  to  be  "  utterly  false 
and  full  of  the  deceit  of  demons," *  are  said  to  "lie  un- 
der the  ban  of  the  Lord  and  of  the  holy  apostles,"  and 
to  be  prompted  in  this  "  by  the  spirit  of  the  adversary 
of  the  Father."" 

Therefore,  according  to  the  word  of  the  Lord,  we  must  first  bring 
them  unto  the  faith,  and  then  give  it  (baptism)  unto  them.'  As  the 
holy,  universal,  and  apostolic  catholic  church  having  learned  from 
our  Lord  Jesus  Clirist  did  proceed :  so  also  must  ye  after  them  do. 
For  they  first  taught ;  secondly,  asked  for  faith ;  thirdly,  induced  to 
repent ;  and  after  that,  granted  holy  baptism  to  those  who  were  of 
full  age,  and  in  particular  were  cognizant  of  their  original  sin. 
A^aln  ye,  the  elect  ones,  must  observe  the  utmost  care  that  they  re- 
ceive before  baptism  instruction  and  training,  both  of  body  and 
soul,  as  St.  Paul  saith :  "  Practise  thyself  in  godliness."  So  must 
ye  without  delay  bring  those  who  come  unto  faith,  hope,  love,  and 

»  "Kty  of  Truth,"  Chap.  1.  > /iMf.,  Chap.  a.  «/Ki.«Ch«p.7 


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CHAP.  11.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  383 

repentance,  and  with  extreme  care  and  testing  practise  them,  no 
matter  who  they  be,  lest  peradventure  any  one  should  be  an  im- 
postor, or  deceitful,  or  a  wizard  lil<e  Simon.  .  .  Whether  men  o" 
women,  you  must  not  at  once  baptize  them  nor  communicate  them 
until  they  have  been  completely  tested.^ 

In  one  passage  it  seems  to  be  implied  that  as  Jesus 
was  not  baptized  until  he  was  thirty  years  old,  so  be- 
lievers should  postpone  baptism  until  this  age  is  reached  ; 
but  it  is  probable  that  only  maturity  and  full  testing  were 
insisted  upon. 

A  somewhat  elaborate  baptismal  ritual  is  given,  but 
the  manuscript  is  incomplete  and  some  portions  are  ob- 
scure. The  candidate  is  required  to  "come  on  his  knees 
into  the  midst  of  the  water,"  and  **  with  great  love  and 
tears  "  to  make  a  solemn  profession  of  his  faith.  Trine 
affusion  follows.  It  is  the  opinion  of  Conybeare  that 
this  affusion  was  followed  by  trine  immersion,  as  was  the 
practice  of  the  orthodox  Armenian  Church,  and  as  we 
should  expect  from  the  fact  that  the  candidate  is  re- 
quired to  go  naked  on  his  knees  into  the  midst  of  the 
water.  But  immersion  is  not  explicitly  required  in  the 
document  as  it  has  been  preserved. 

d.  The  Supper  is  called  "  the  mystery  of  salvation." 
The  *'  blessed  "  bread  and  wine  are  said  to  be  "changed 
into  his  (Christ's)  body  and  blood."  "False  popes" 
"with  bread  cajole  all  men  and  make  that  their  own 
flesh  and  blood,  and  not  Christ's.  .  .  Whosoever  shall 
make  any  water,  any  mere  bread,  or  any  moistened 
morsel,  and  distribute  deceitfully  to  the  simple  people,  it 
is  their  own  flesh  and  blood  and  not  Christ's."  These 
statements  might  seem  to  imply  a  doctrine  of  real  pres- 
ence ;  but  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  wicked  priests  are  rep- 
resented as  changing  the  elements  into  their  own  flesh 
and  blood.  It  is  probable  that  the  writer  meant  to  teach 
only  the  spiritual  partaking  of  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ  by  the  believer.  Undoubtedly  this  ordinance, 
like  baptism,  was  celebrated  with  the  utmost  solemnity. 
It  Is  probable  that  the  Paulicians  attached  undue  impor* 
tance  to  both  these  ordinances. 

e.  Ministers  of  the  gospel  were  selected  with  the  ut- 
most care.    The  positive  and  negative  qualifications  \xf*t 

»  "  Key  of  Truth,"  Chap.  it. 


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384  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  UL 

like  those  prescribed  in  the  New  Testament,  but  more 
detailed  and  explicit.  Much  importance  was  attached  to 
the  solemn  setting  apart  of  the  "elect  ones"  with  the 
laying-on  of  hands.  '*  It  is  necessary  for  that  man  to 
be  on  all  sides  free  from  blemish,  before  we  give  him 
authority  of  priesthood,  of  episcopate,  of  doctorate,  of 
apostleship,  of  presidency,  and  of  election.  For  all 
these  are  one  and  the  same  thing ;  nor  are  they  one 
greater  or  lesser  than  another.  But  they  are  on  an  en- 
tire level."  The  graded  ministry  of  the  Latins,  Greeks, 
and  Armenians  is  explicitly  condemned.  *'  Authority  if 
one,  and  is  not  greater  or  less.  For  one  was  the  Holy 
Spirit  which  came  down  upon  the  universal  apostles  and 
made  them  the  universal  and  apostolic  catholic  holy 
church."* 

It  seems  that  their  church  order  was  connectional  and 
that  a  general  superintendent  presided  over  the  entire 
body.  Language  is  used  in  some  instances  which  would 
seem  to  imply  undue  reverence  for  the  '*  elect  ones." 

/.  Consecrated  places  and  objects  and  idolatrous  prac- 
tices of  every  kind  were  rejected  with  the  utmost  de- 
cision. A  beautiful  form  of  consecration  to  be  adminis- 
tered in  the  home  by  the  **  elect  one  "  seven  days  after 
the  birth  of  the  child  is  given  in  the  *'  Key." 

(3)  Sketch  of  tite  Movement.  Most  of  the  history  of 
the  Paulicians  as  a  distinct  and  organized  form  of  Chris- 
tianity falls  in  the  succeeding  period  ;  but  it  seems  best 
to  give  a  brief  outline  here.  The  Paulicians  suffered  se- 
vere persecution  at  the  hands  of  the  Emperors  Constan- 
tine  Pogonatus  and  Justinian  II.  (684  and  690),  many  of 
them  dying  at  the  stake.  The  then  leader  of  the  move- 
ment, Gegnaesius  (715-745),  was  brought  to  Constanti- 
nople for  trial  before  the  patriarch  by  order  of  Leo  the 
Isaurian.  The  Byzantine  accounts  represent  him  as 
having  cleared  himself  by  dissimulsition  ;  but  it  is  proba- 
ble that  Leo,  as  an  iconoclast,  was  predisposed  in  his 
favor.  During  the  reign  of  Leo  the  Isaurian  (714-741) 
and  Constantine  Copronymus  (741-775)  the  Paulician 
body  had  a  remarkable  growth  and  spread  over  Armenia 
and  into  many  other  parts  of  Asia  Minor.     Under  Con* 


"  Key  of  Truth/'  Chap.  m. 


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CHAP.  U.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  385 

stantine  VI.  and  Irene  (c.  780)  they  suffered  terrible 
persecution.  From  this  time  they  allied  themselves  more 
or  less  closely  with  the  Saracens  and,  aroused  to  almost 
fanatical  zeal  by  the  persecutions  suffered,  devastated 
the  portions  of  the  Eastern  empire  within  their  reach. 
Sergius  was  their  great  leader  (801-835)  and  was  almost 
worshiped  by  his  people.  Under  the  Empress  Theodora, 
a  hundred  thousand  of  the  Paulicians  are  said  to  have 
been  massacred  {c.  844).  Tephrike,  their  stronghold, 
was  captured  in  873  and  their  power  was  broken.  The 
destruction  of  this  great  Protestant  organization  in  the 
East  was  the  death-knell  of  Oriental  Christianity.  The 
Paulicians  formed  a  mighty  barrier  against  Mohamme- 
danism so  long  as  they  were  tolerated.  But  because 
of  the  persecutions  directed  against  them  they  were 
forced  at  last,  as  a  means  of  self-preservation,  to  co- 
operate with  the  enemies  of  Christianity  in  overthrow- 
ing the  Christian  empire.  Their  struggle  was  a  heroic 
one,  and  they  have  well  been  called  **  Christian  Macca- 
baeans." 

Constantine  Copronymus  had  encouraged  a  large 
body  of  Paulicians  to  settle  in  Thrace.  The  colony 
flourished  and  their  principles  were  disseminated  in  east- 
ern Europe.  During  the  ninth  century  the  Paulicians  of 
the  Taurus,  according  to  Peter  Siculus,  who  spent  some 
months  at  Tephrike,  sent  forth  zealous  missionaries  to 
evangelize  Bulgaria.  About  970  the  Emperor  Tzimiskes, 
himself  an  Armenian,  sent  a  hundred  thousand  Paulicians 
to  the  lower  Danubian  region.  That  this  great  body  of 
evangelical  Christians  should  have  leavened  eastern  Eu- 
rope with  their  teachings  might  have  been  expected. 
The  historical  connection  between  the  Paulicians  and 
the  widespread  and  highly  influential  evangelical  move- 
ment in  central  and  western  Europe  from  the  eleventh 
century  onward  cannot  at  present  be  accurately  traced, 
but  is  no  less  certain. 

Though  greatly  depressed  in  the  Taurus  region  by  con- 
tinuous persecution,  the  Paulicians  have  survived  to  the 
present  century  in  the  neighborhood  of  Thondrak,  and  it 
was  among  a  party  of  refugees,  who,  after  the  Russo- 
Turkish  War  (1828-1829),  had  settled  in  a  portion  of  Ar- 
menia acquired  by  Russia,  that  the  '*  Key  of   Truth  " 

2 


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386  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  Itt 

was  discovered  and,  by  an  inquisitorial  process,  much  in- 
teresting information  was  brought  to  light/ 

5.  The  Iconoclastic  Controversy. 

Literature  :  Documents  in  Hardouin,  **  Cone.^''  Vol.  IV.,  and 
Mansi,  "Coiw.,"  Vol.  XII.-XIV.;  Goidast.  '' Imperialia  Dtcrtta  dt 
cultu  Imaginum  in  utroqui  Impirio** ;  John  of  Damascus,  **  Dt  Imagi- 
Mtbus,*'  efc. ;  Nlcephorus,  ''Brem'arwm  Historic" ;  Theophanes  Con- 
fessor, "  Chfonoeraphia  ";  Hcfeie, "  Omcilungtsch,,''  Bd.  111.,  Snt.  366, 
ssq.;  Gieseler,  Bd.  II.,  Siit.  14,  stq.;  Neander,  Vol.  111.,  p.  igS^ssq.; 
Alzog,  Vol.  II.,  p.  206,  ssq, ;  Milman,  **  Latin  Christianity,"  Vol.  II. ; 
Greenwood.  **  Cathedra  Pitrt\^'  Vol.  11.,  p.  463,  seq» ;  p.  532,  seq.:  Her- 

rrother,  *^  KirchtngtschiehU^^*  Bd.  I.,  Sett.  528,  seq,  (Roman  Catho- 
but  remarkably  satisfactory) ;  Herzog,  "  Kirchengeschichte"  Bd. 
II.,  Sett.  10,  seq. ;  Schwarzlose,  **  Der  Btlderstreit,  ein  Kampf  d.  Cr. 
Kirche  urn  ihre  Eigenart  u.  ikre  Fretheit "  ;  Herzog-Hauck,  3(f.  ed.,  art. 
*'Bilderstreitigkeiten  tmd  Bilderverehrung^^ ;  Smith  and  Cheetham, 
"  Die.  of  Chr.  Antlq.,"  art.  "  Images.*^ 

(/)  Preliminary. 

a.  Introduction  of  Image  Worship  into  the  Christian 
Churches.  During  the  first,  second,  and  third  centu- 
ries, Christians  rejected  with  abhorrence  anything  like 
a  veneration  of  images.  They  were  reproached  by  the 
pagans  as  atheists,  from  the  fact  that  they  carefully  ab- 
stained from  anything  savoring  of  idolatry. 

When  the  pagans  replied  to  the  charge  of  image  wor- 
ship preferred  by  Christians  against  them,  that  they 
worshiped,  not  the  images,  but  the  gods  that  the  images 
represent,  Christians  asked  them  why  then  they  did  not 
turn  their  eyes  toward  heaven."  The  Synod  of  Elvira 
(305)  decreed  that  "pictures  ought  not  to  be  in  the 
churches,"  the  reason  assigned  being  the  danger  lest  the 
painting  or  image  be  worshiped  or  adored.  This  decree 
IS  evidence  of  the  fact  that  pictures  were  already  begin- 
ning to  be  venerated.  From  the  time  of  Constantine 
onward  this  practice  developed  rapidly. 

b.  Causes  of  the  Prevalence  of  Image  Worship,  (a)  To  a 
very  great  extent  it  was  transferred  immediately  from 
paganism.  Men  of  influence  came  from  paganism  to 
Christianity  with  little  change  of  views.  Such  men 
were  in   many  cases  appointed  to  high  offices  in  the 

^  Set  Conybeare's  edition  of  the  "  tCey  of  Truth."  Introd.,  p.  ei,  g«f. 
«  Ucuntlus.  "  Uus.  Dsv.r  Bk.  IL.  Ch*p.  e. 

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CHAP.  II.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  387 

churches,  and  they  devoted  their  energies  to  the  assim- 
ilation of  Christian  churches  to  heathen  temples,  (b)  It 
was  not  at  first  intended  that  the  pictures  should  be 
actually  worshiped.  The  aim  was  rather  to  instruct  the 
uneducated  in  Christian  truth,  (c)  The  monastic  system, 
with  its  perversion  of  the  imagination,  was  very  favor- 
able to  an  entire  perversion  of  the  use  of  images  to 
actual  idolatry. 

c.  Images  in  the  East  and  in  the  West.  Oriental  and 
Occidental  Christians,  as  they  differed  widely  in  other 
respects,  so  also  in  the  use  of  images.  As  monasticism 
had  its  most  perverse  and  extreme  development  in  the 
East,  so  the  use  of  images  was  sure  to  lead  to  the  worst 
results  there.  It  seems  that  the  Oriental  mind  is  so  con- 
stituted as  to  be  incapable  of  using  images  at  ail  in  con- 
nection with  religion,  without  making  them  actual  objects 
of  worship.  The  worship  of  images  had,  by  the  seventh 
century,  become  so  marked  that  Christians  were  re- 
proached by  Jews  and  Mohammedans  as  idolaters. 

(2)  Rist  ofiht  Controvert, 

The  Saracens  had  by  the  eighth  century  established 
themselves  firmly  in  Palestine,  Syria,  Armenia,  etc.,  and 
were  still  aggressive.  In  723  the  Caliph  Jezid  had  com- 
manded the  removal  of  all  pictures  from  Christian 
churches  within  his  realm.  The  agitation  of  the  subject 
in  the  Saracen  regions  extended  into  Asia  Minor.  From 
the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century  several  bishops — 
Constantine  of  Nicolia,  in  Phrygia,  Theodosius  of  Ephe- 
sus,  Thomas  of  Claudiopolis,  etc. — had  opposed  image 
worship.  These  men  had  great  influence  with  the  Em- 
peror Leo  the  Isaurian  (718-741),  who  may  also  have  im- 
bibed his  aversion  to  image  worship  from  his  dealings 
with  the  Saracens.  Leo  looked  upon  image  worship  not 
only  as  an  abomination  in  itself,  but  also  as  a  chief  ob- 
stacle to  the  conversion  of  the  Jews  and  the  Saracens. 
He  had  repelled  a  great  Saracen  invasion,  and  he  now 
desired  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  permanent  peace  with 
this  aggressive  power.  He  thought  that  the  extirpation 
of  image  worship  would  not  only  increase  the  unity  of 
his  empire  and  promote  peaceable  relations  with  the 
Taracens,  but  would  also  greatly  promote  the  enlight- 


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388  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IU 

enment  of  his  people.  A  volcanic  eruption  (726)  led  him 
to  take  still  more  decisive  ground  aggiinst  image  worship. 
He  now  issued  an  edict  prohibiting  prostration  before  im- 
ages, and  directing  that  images  be  put  so  high  that  the 
people  could  not  kiss  them.  The  execution  of  this  de- 
cree met  with  much  opposition,  and  was  the  occasion  of 
many  bloody  riots.  The  monks,  especially,  who  were 
much  given  to  idolatry  and  who  were  engaged  to  a  great 
extent  in  the  painting  of  religious  pictures,  were  chiefly 
instrumental  in  fomenting  insurrection.  The  patriarch 
of  Constantinople,  Germanus,  opposed  the  iconoclastic 
measures  and  was  deposed  from  his  office  (730). 

())  Siattnunt  of  Opposing  yisws. 

a.  Views  of  Pope  Gre^ty  II.  and  other  Advocates  of  the 
feneration  oj  Images.  The  arguments  in  favor  of  images 
are :  (a)  That  God  commanded  cherubim  and  seraphim 
to  be  made.  (Jb)  That  pictures  of  Christ,  alive  and  dead, 
and  pictures  of  the  apostles  and  martyrs,  were  taken  by 
spectators  to  be  looked  upon  by  those  that  should  come 
after,  {c)  That  Christ  himself  sent  his  own  picture  to 
King  Abgarus,  at  Edessa.  {d)  The  commandment  not 
to  make  graven  images,  etc.,  was  necessary  at  the  time 
to  preserve  the  Israelites  from  heathenish  idolatry ;  but 
circumstances  are  different  now.  God  was  invisible  then 
and  could  not  be  represented.  In  Christ  he  became 
visible  and  capable  of  representation,  (e)  Those  that 
venerate  images  are  not  to  be  called  idolaters.  Rather 
the  memory  is  thereby  aroused  ;  the  inexperienced  and 
ignorant  mind  is  erected  and  borne  on  high  through  those 
whose  names,  whose  appellations,  whose  images  these 
are. 

It  was  attempted  to  make  a  distinction  between  w^^- 
xuvi^ffn:  (adoration  or  prostration  before  images)  and  Xarptta 
(worship  in  the  highest  sense).  The  latter  must  be  ren- 
dered to  God  alone ;  the  former  may  be  rendered  to 
pictures  of  Christ  and  the  saints. 

b.  Views  of  the  Iconoclasts.  The  grounds  which  the 
Iconoclasts  urged  in  favor  of  their  position  are :  (a)  That 
image  worship  is  prohibited  by  the  Old  and  the  New  Tes- 
taments (Deut.  5  : 4,  8  ;  John  4  :  24  ;  Rom.  i  :  23-25)  and 
fcy  the  Fathers  of  the  early  church,    (b)  That  it  consists 


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CHAP.U.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  389 

in  the  application  of  a  heathenish  art  to  purposes  of  re- 
ligion, which  is  an  abomination,  and  which  is  dishonoring 
to  Christ  and  the  saints  whom  it  is  sought  thus  to  rep- 
resent, (c)  That  Christ  having  established  the  Supper 
indicated  thereby,  that  under  the  form  of  bread  and  wine 
alone  he  desired  to  be  represented,  (d)  The  venera- 
tion of  images  involves  either  Eutychianism  or  Nestori- 
anism  ;  that  is  to  say,  such  a  union  of  the  humanity  and 
deity  in  Christ  that  only  the  deity  is  perceptible  (in  this 
case  the  image  would  represent  the  divine),  or  such  a  dis- 
tinction of  the  natures  that  the  humanity  can  be  repre- 
sented separately.  The  hypostatical  union  of  the.  divine 
and  the  human  in  Christ  is  inconceivable,  and  hence 
cannot  be  represented  pictorially. 

{4)  Pfogrtss  of  ih$  Contraoersy. 

a.  Pope  Gregory  II.  Opposes  Leo.  Pope  Gregory  II.  wrote 
a  denunciatory  letter  to  Leo  (c.  730)  reproaching  him  for 
placing  stumbling-blocks  before  the  weak  ones  of  Christ, 
urging  him  to  trust  to  the  judgment  of  the  councils  and 
the  Fathers  in  the  matter  of  images  rather  than  to  his 
own  ignorance,  and  setting  forth  the  grounds  mentioned 
above  in  favor  of  the  veneration  of  images. 

b.  Leo's  Reply  to  Pope  Gregory  II.  Leo  was  not  a  man 
to  be  turned  aside  from  his  purpose  by  the  denunciations 
of  a  pope.  The  purport  of  his  reply  is :  (a)  That  the  six 
general  councils  had  said  nothing  about  images,  (b)  He 
declared  that  he  himself  was  at  the  same  time  emperor 
and  bishop,  /.  e.,  was  supreme  in  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
matters,  (c)  He  threatened  to  destroy  the  image  of  St. 
Peter  at  Rome  and  to  imprison  the  pope. 

c.  "l^pman  Synod  against  Iconoclasm  under  Gregory  III. 
In  731  at  a  synod  of  ninety-three  bishops,  called  by 
Gregory  HI.,  a  decree  of  excommunication  was  passed 
against  whomsoever  should  thenceforth  remove,  destroy, 
or  injure  images  of  Mary,  Christ,  or  the  saints. 

d.  Leo's  Retaliation.  Leo  retaliated  by  cutting  off  the 
papal  revenues  in  Sicily  and  Calabria,  and  by  annexing 
the  churches  of  Illyria  to  the  patriarchate  of  Constan- 
tinople. 

e.  Constantine  V.  and  Iconoclasm.  Constantine  was  not 
less  averse  to  image  worship  than  his  father  had  been. 


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390  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  III. 

From  743  to  775  he  carried  on  an  exterminating  war 
against  image  worship.  All  public  officials,  and  all  eccle- 
siastics and  monks  were  required  to  abjure  image  wor- 
ship, and  those  that  refused  were  ruthlessly  slaughtered. 
He  seamed  bent  upon  the  utter  extermination  of  the 
monks.  In  754  he  called  a  council,  in  which  image  wor- 
ship was  stigmatized  as  Satan's  poison  in  the  church, 
and  it  was  declared  that  God  had  raised  up  the  emperor 
for  its  extirpation.  The  grounds  against  image  worship 
mentioned  above  were  set  forth  on  this  occasion.  The 
religious  pictures  were  now  almost  all  destroyed — some 
burned,  some  concealed  by  whitewashing  the  walls,  and 
in  their  places  were  put,  in  some  instances,  landscape  and 
hunting  scenes.  Few  fiercer  persecutions  are  recorded 
in  history  than  those  of  Constantine  Copronymus. 

/.  Leo  /K  and  Iconoclasm.  His  successor,  Leo  IV.,  was 
also  an  Iconoclast,  but  was  weak  of  purpose.  His  wife, 
Irene,  was  a  favorer  of  image  worship.  Leo  IV.  died 
780,  and  was  succeeded  by  Constantine  VI.,  a  boy  nine 
years  of  age. 

g.  Irene  and  the  Second  Council  ofNiccea  (787).  Irene 
was  now  practically  empress,  and  she  at  once  set  about 
devising  plans  for  the  restoration  of  image  worship. 
The  army,  which  had  received  its  training  from  Constan- 
tine Copronymus,  was  known  to  be  decidedly  averse  to 
images.  The  ecclesiastics  throughout  the  empire  had 
taken  oaths  against  images,  as  a  condition  of  their  instal- 
lation. Irene  began  by  appointing  monks  to  the  most 
important  ecclesiastical  offices.  She  opened  the  way  for 
all  ranks  of  her  subjects  to  become  monks.  The  patri- 
arch of  Constantinople,  Paulus,  who  had  been  a  zealous 
Iconoclast,  was  induced  to  lay  down  the  patriarchal  dig- 
nity and  to  recommend  for  the  position  Tarasius,  first 
Secretary  of  State,  who  was  known  to  be  entirely  sub- 
servient to  the  will  of  Irene.  In  accordance  with  a  pre- 
concerted plan,  Tarasius  declined  to  accept  the  proffered 
dignity,  except  on  condition  that  measures  be  taken  for 
restoring  the  Eastern  Church  to  fellowship  with  the  rest 
of  Christendom.  He  insisted  on  calling  an  oecumenical 
council  for  the  purpose  of  reuniting  the  church.  To  this 
end  he  entered  into  a  correspondence  with  Pope  Hadrian 
I.,  setting  forth  his  own  orthodoxy,  and  requesting  Ha- 


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CHAP.  II.]       CONTROVERSIES  IN  THE  CHURCH  391 

drian  to  send  delegates  to  a  council  to  meet  at  Constan- 
tinople. Hadrian  was  satisfied  with  Tarasius'  orthodoxy, 
and  agreed  in  this  case  to  overlook  the  irregularity  of 
his  elevation  to  the  patriarchal  dignity.  It  was  de- 
signed to  make  this  council  oecumenical,  /.  ^.,  to  have 
represented  in  it  all  the  patriarchates  of  the  East  and  the 
West.  Alexandria  and  Antioch  were  under  the  dominion 
of  the  Saracens,  and  it  was  impracticable  for  them  to 
send  representatives.  But  to  secure  the  semblance  where 
the  reality  was  wanting  some  monks  were  introduced  to 
represent  these  patriarchates.  The  council  was  con- 
vened at  Constantinople  in  786,  but  the  imperial  troops, 
abetted  probably  by  a  large  faction  of  the  bishops,  be- 
sieged the  church  where  it  was  to  be  held,  and  by  their 
threats  dispersed  the  gathered  prelates.  Irene  yielded 
for  the  time,  but  took  measures  for  securing  a  guard  on 
which  she  could  rely,  and  in  787  convened  a  council  at 
Nicaea.  By  this  time  the  bishops,  who  were  for  the  most 
part  men  of  no  moral  or  intellectual  force,  had  all  made 
up  their  minds  to  yield  to  the  will  of  Irene.  They  came 
to  the  council  ready  to  confess  their  sins,  and  professing 
to  have  become  convinced  by  the  declarations  of  Scrip- 
ture and  the  Fathers  that  the  use  of  images  was  in  ac- 
cordance with  apostolic  tradition. 

The  council  laid  down  the  distinction  mentioned  above, 
between  bowing  down  before  or  kissing,  eind  worshiping. 
The  former  may  be  bestowed  upon  images ;  the  latter, 
upon  God  alone.  Image  worship  was  thus  once  more 
established  in  the  East. 

A.  Opposition  to  the  Second  Nicene  Council  by  Charle- 
magne. Charlemagne,  aided  by  his  theologians,  published 
the  **  Four  Caroline  Books  "  against  the  Second  Nicene 
Council.  In  this  he  condemns  alike  the  Iconoclasts  and 
the  image  worshipers.  Images  are  useful  for  the  orna- 
mentation of  the  churches,  and  for  the  perpetuation  of 
holy  deeds.  The  idea  that  images  are  necessary  for  per- 
petuating the  memory  of  holy  things  is  scouted.  The 
image  worshipers,  it  is  maintained,  acknowledge  them- 
selves incapable  of  looking  beyond  the  sensible  into  the 
spiritual.  Christians  having  fellowship  with  Christ,  ought 
to  have  him  always  present  in  their  hearts.  The  Scrip- 
tures, and  not  images,  are  the  proper  outward  means  for 


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392  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  111. 

gaining  acquaintance  with  Christ.  This  writing  of  Char- 
lemagne is  a  remarkably  clear  and  evangelical  discussion 
of  the  whole  question. 

At  a  Prankish  Council  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  called 
by  Charlemagne  in  794,  the  "  adoration  and  service  of 
images"  was  condemned.  It  is  probable  that  the  wor* 
ship  of  images  had  never  gone  to  the  same  extreme  in 
the  Prankish  Church  as  in  the  East.  The  general  en- 
lightenment,  moreover,  that  was  introJuced  and  fostered 
by  Charlemagne,  could  not  fail  to  bring  out  truer  views 
with  regard  to  images. 

I.  Iconoclastic  Reaction  in  the  East.  The  Iconoclasts  had 
been  suppressed,  but  not  exterminated.  In  the  army 
especially,  the  iconoclastic  spirit  prevailed,  and  a  large 
proportion  of  the  subjects  of  the  Eastern  emperor  were 
ready,  on  the  slightest  encouragement,  to  renew  the 
struggle  against  images.  In  813,  Leo  the  Armenian,  a 
soldier  and  an  Iconoclast,  became  emperor.  He  intended 
to  proceed  cautiously,  but  the  iconoclastic  spirit  of  the 
army  could  not  be  restrained,  and  in  814  he  issued  an 
edict  against  image  worship.  In  815  the  decrees  of  the 
Second  Nicene  Council  were  declared  null  and  void  by  a 
synod  held  in  Constantinople.  Persecution  followed, 
but  by  no  means  so  fierce  as  that  under  Leo  the  Isaurian 
and  Constantine  Copronymus. 

A.  Final  klctory  of  the  Image  Worshipers  in  the  East. 
After  image  worship  had  been  opposed  with  varying 
energy  by  several  emperors  the  decrees  of  the  Sec- 
ond Nicene  Council  were  re-enacted  under  the  regency 
of  Theodora  (842-867),  images  were  restored  to  the 
churches,  and  the  Iconoclasts  were  persecuted  with  great 
severity. 

The  Eastern  Church  has  restricted  its  Images  to  pictures  and  mo- 
saics, conformed  rigorously  to  traditional  and  conventional  models. 
The  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  given  the  freest  scope  to  religious 
art^  encouraging  sculpture  as  well  as  painting,  and  allowing  each 
artist  to  depict  Christ  and  the  saints  according  to  his  own  ideals. 
The  image  worship  of  the  East  is  probably  more  degrading  than 
that  of  the  West. 


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CHAPTER  III 

THE  RISE  AND  GROWTH  OF  THE  PAPAL  POWER 

LITERATURE:  Works  of  leading  popes  in  MIgne's  *'Pairologia 
Latma*' ;  coilections  of  Canons  of  Councils  by  Mansi,  Hardouin, 
and  Hefeic ;  Jaff6,  "  Rigista  Pont,  Rom,^^ ;  Greenwood.  *'  Cathidra 
Pttri^' ;  Milman,  '*  Lat.  Christianity  "  ;  Pennington,  **  Epochs  of 
the  Papacy"  ;  Lea,  "  Studies  in  Ch.  Hist."  ;  Bryce,  "The  Holy 
Roman  Empire"  ;  Gibbon,  "  Dec.  and  Fall "  :  Langen,  **  G$sch.  d, 
Rom.  Kirchr;  Guizot,  "  Hist,  of  Civilization'* ;  "The  Fathers  for 


Eng.  Readers"  ("Leo  the  Great"  and  "Gregory  the  Great"); 
Alzog,  "Univ.  Ch.  Hist."  (R.  Cath.),  Sec.  87,  125-131, 161-166; 
Guizot, "  Hist,  of  France,"  Vol.  1. :  Bright, "  The  Roman  See  In  the 


Early  Church,"  1896 ;  works  on  cL  hist,  and  encyclopedia  articles 
on  tne  various  popes  and  emperors  involved.  For  an  admirable  sum- 
mary of  the  history  of  the  relations  between  Church  and  State  from 
Constantine  to  Charlemagne,  see  Greenwood,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  5-52. 

I.  PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS. 

I.  Claims  of  Rome  as  to  Early  Pre-eminence. 

We  have  seen  that  from  the  beginning  of  the  second 
century  the  position  of  the  Roman  church  was  a  highly 
honorable  one,  and  that  it  was  often  appealed  to  by  con- 
tending factions  in  other  churches.  But  of  such  appeals 
it  may  be  said,  first,  that  Rome  haci  no  monopoly  of  them, 
as  every  church  of  influence  and  repute  was  frequently 
asked  for  advice  and  moral  support ;  and  secondly,  that 
the  rescripts  carried  no  authority  with  them  beyond  what 
naturally  grew  out  of  the  good  repute  of  the  church. 
This  remark  would  apply  fully  to  the  transactions  of  pro- 
vincial churches  with  Rome  in  the  time  of  Cyprian. 
Cyprian  could  speak  in  the  most  extravagant  way  of  the 
authority  of  Rome  when  it  suited  his  purpose  to  do  so ; 
but  when  Rome  failed  to  sustain  him,  no  man  could  re- 
buke the  bishop  of  Rome  more  severely.  As  one  of  the 
f[reat  metropolitan  churches  that  could  boast  of  apostolic 
oundation,  Rome  occupied  an  influential  position  side  by 
side  with  Alexandria,  Antioch,  etc. 
During  the  first  three  centuries  the  Roman  church 

393 


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394  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IIL 

did  little  in  the  way  of  theological  advancement.  Hip- 
polytus  and  Novatian  are  the  only  important  writers  pro- 
duced, and  of  these  the  former  was  completely  out  of 
harmony  with  the  church  and  denounced  its  bishops  in 
the  most  unsparing  manner,  while  the  latter  felt  himself 
obliged  to  lead  a  schism  and  become  head  of  a  sect.  But 
what  Rome  lacl<ed  in  literary  and  theological  ability  was 
more  than  counterbalanced  by  its  practical  wisdom  and 
its  organizing  ability.  In  some  respects  the  absence  of 
the  speculative  and  systematizing  spirit  was  advanta- 
geous to  Rome  in  the  struggle  for  ascendency,  for  it 
served  to  prevent  such  doctrinal  strife  as  kept  the  Ori- 
ental churches  in  perpetual  turmoil,  enabled  it  to  main- 
tain a  high  reputation  for  orthodoxy,  and  so  favored  its 
influential  interference  during  the  great  doctrinal  contro- 
versies of  the  East.  Besides,  the  church  was  thereby 
left  free  to  devote  itself  to  practical  questions,  and  was 
enabled  to  be  on  the  alert  for  opportunities  of  aggran- 
dizement. 

The  interference  of  the  Arian  Emperor  Constantius 
with  the  government  of  the  Roman  church,  the  expul- 
sion of  Bishop  Liberius,  and  the  effort  to  secure  the 
recognition  of  Felix,  proved  unsuccessful,  as  the  Roman 
people  adhered  to  Liberius.  A  most  unseemly  struggle, 
accompanied  by  bloodshed,  occurred  (366)  between  Da- 
masus  and  Ursinus,  rival  claimants  of  the  Roman  bishop- 
ric. Damasus  triumphed.  Siricius  (384-399)  set  forth 
claims  of  universal  jurisdiction  somewhat  liKe  those  of 
later  popes.  From  this  time  onward  Rome  pursued  an 
aggressive  career. 

2.  The  Relative  Position  Accorded  to  Rome  by  the  Nicene 
Council, 

The  sixth  canon  of  the  Nicene  Council  gives  to  the 
lij^lRfcip^j^    bishops  of  Alexandria,  Antioch,  and  Rome  a  certain  au- 
"  thority  over  the  bishops  of  the  great  divisions  of  the  em- 

pire of  which  these  cities  were  centers,  but  there  is  no 
hint  of  according  a  primacy  to  Rome.  In  fact,  both  the 
other  patriarchates  are  mentioned  quite  as  prominently 
as  Rome.  The  canon  reads,  according  to  the  Greek 
text: 


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caAP.IIL]    RISE  AND  GROWTH  OF  PAPAL  POWER  395 

Let  the  ancient  usages  which  exist  in  Egypt,  and  Libya,  and  Pen- 
tapolis,  remain  in  force,  to  the  effect  that  the  bishop  of  Aiexandria 
should  have  authority  over  all  these,  since  this  Tthe  exercise  of  au- 
thority over  the  provincial  churches  of  the  West]  is  customary  also 
for  the  bishop  who  is  in  Rome ;  and  similarly,  both  as  to  Antioch 
and  in  the  other  provinces,  let  the  churches  have  their  privileges 
secured  to  them. 

A  clause  was  interpolated  into  tliis  canon  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  Roman  primacy  as  follows:  "Rome  has 
always  held  the  primacy."  This  interpolation  was  first 
used,  so  far  as  we  know,  by  the  representatives  of  Leo 
the  Great  at  the  council  of  Chalcedon  (451). 

3.  Relation  of  Constantinople  to  Rome  in  the  Struggle  for 
Supremacy. 

Constantinople  was  virtually  a  new  city  founded  by 
the  Emperor  Constantine  as  the  imperial  capital.  The 
church  of  Byzantium  had  no  claim  to  apostolic  founda- 
tion, but  was  subject  to  the  bishop  of  Heraclea  in  Thrace. 
The  Eastern  emperors  naturally  sought  to  give  to  their 
capital  a  primacy  in  ecclesiastical  matters,  and  inasmuch 
as  apostolic  foundation  was  thought  to  be  essential  to 
ecclesiastical  dignity,  the  Heraclean  foundation,  by  a  sort 
of  legal  fiction,  was  transferred  to  Constantinople.  Con- 
stantinople wa9  dependent  on  Antioch  and  Alexandria  for 
an  educated  clergy,  and  we  have  seen  how  great  was  the 
rivalry  between  these  two  centers  in  regard  to  the  theo- 
logical control  of  the  capital.  The  immediate  surveil- 
lance of  the  imperial  government  left  littie  opportunity 
to  the  patriarchs  of  Constantinople  to  develop  independ- 
ent power.  Their  attitude  toward  Rome  at  any  time  was 
determined  wholly  by  imperial  policy.  When  the  Eastern 
empire  was  flourishing  there  was  a  disposition  to  exalt 
the  patriarchate  of  Constantinople.  When  an  important 
political  end  could  be  subserved  by  asserting  the  superior 
dignity  of  the  Roman  See,  the  emperors  did  not  as  a  rule 
hesitate  to  recognize  the  pretensions  of  Rome. 

4*  The  Relations  of  Imperial  to  Patriarchal  and  Papal 
Authority. 

The  Eastern  emperors  from  Constantine  onward  re- 
garded themselves  as  supreme  rulers  of  the  Church  as 


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396  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [per.  la 

well  as  of  the  State.  In  fact  they  regarded  the  hierarchy 
simply  as  a  part  of  the  political  machinery,  and  they  be- 
stowed care  and  money  and  dignity  on  the  church  simply 
as  a  means  to  the  promotion  of  civil  order  and  unity 
Constantine  regarded  himself  as  a  bishop  of  bishops 
He  called  the  Nicene  Council  and  presided  over  it,  occu- 
pied himself  with  the  suppression  of  heresy,  and  legis- 
lated freely  for  the  church.  His  successors  followed  in 
his  footsteps  in  this  particular.  The  legislation  of  the 
empire  from  Constantine  to  Justinian  as  embodied  in  the 
** Corpus  Juris  Civilts,*'  compiled  under  the  direction  of 
the  latter,  makes  the  foregoing  statement  abundantly  evi- 
dent. There  was  during  this  age  no  thought  in  the  im- 
perial mind  of  a  Church  independent  of  or  superior  to  the 
State. 

5.  Circumstances  that  Favored  the  Growth  of  the  Papal 
Power. 

(i)  The  supposed  Petrine  foundation  and  the  supposed 
primacy  accorded  by  Christ  to  Peter. 

(2)  Rome  early  enjoyed  a  recognized  supremacy  in 
the  West  and  was  free  from  local  rivalry.  In  the  East 
Constantinople  had  Alexandria  and  Antioch  to  contend 
against,  and  these  were  often  willing  to  recognize  the 
supremacy  of  Rome  afar  off,  in  view  of  the  moral  support 
that  Rome  could  render,  rather  than  that  of  Constanti- 
nople which  was  nearer  at  hand  and  often  oppressive. 

(3)  The  transference  of  the  imperial  capital  from  Rome 
to  Constantinople  and  the  feebleness  of  the  Western 
emperors  after  the  division  of  the  empire  gave  free  scope 
to  the  bishops  of  Rome.  They  soon  came  to  be  looked 
upon  as  the  most  important  personages  in  the  West,  and 
Eastern  emperors  who  wished  to  gain  advantages  in  the 
West  were  glad  to  avail  themselves  of  papal  influence. 
This  they  could  do  only  by  recognizmg  the  high  claims 
of  the  popes. 

(4)  The  barbarian  invasions,  with  the  setting  up  of  a 
number  of  rival  governments  in  Southern  Europe,  gave 
to  the  popes  many  opportunities  to  form  advantageous 
alliances,  and  so  great  was  the  political  sagacity  of  the 
Roman  See  that  these  opportunities  were  usually  made 
the  most  of. 


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CHAP.  III.]    RISE  AND  GROWTH  OF  PAPAL  POWER  397 

(5)  The  growth  of  Christianity  from  the  fifth  century 
onward  was  almost  entirely  in  the  West.    In  the  East 
Christendom  was  rent  asunder  by  doctrinal  controversies, 
and  the  Persian  and  Mohammedan  powers  soon  began  to  j 
encroach  upon  Christian  territory.    In  the  West  the  bar-  . 
barian  tribes,  many  of  whom  had  been  evangelized  by  ' 
the  Arians,  were  speedily  brought  to  a  nominal  ortho- 
doxy, their  rulers  being  glad  to  enjoy  the  moral  support    . 
of  Rome  in  their  efforts  to  extend  and  confirm  their  do- 
minions.   Rome  had  the  advantage,  therefore,  of  occupy- 
ing the  center  of  influence  in  the  part  of  the  world  where 
Christianity  was  to  make  its  greatest  conquests. 

(6)  The  great  doctrinal  conflicts  in  the  East  and  the 
mutual  jealousies  of  patriarchs  and  metropolitans  caused 
frequent  appeals  to  be  made  to  Rome,  and  gave  to  Rome 
many  opportunities  for  advantageous  interference. 

(7)  The  almost  unsullied  orthodoxy  of  the  Roman 
Church  during  the  Arian  and  succeeding  controversies 
greatly  added  to  the  prestige  of  Rome. 

«.  LEO  THE  GREAT  AND  THE  PAPACY  (440-461). 

LITERATURE:  Greenwood,  Vol.  I.,  p.  343,  siq. ;  Mllman.  Vol.  I., 
p.  253,  5#j. ;  Tillcmont.  "  Mem.,"  XV.,  p.  4i4»  ssq, ;  Gore,  ''Leo  the 
Great,"  also  art.  in  "  Diet  of  Chr.  Biog."  ;  MuUer, '' Kirchmgssch.,'* 
Bd.  I.,  SiiU  263,  seq, ;  Langen,  "  G$seh,  d.  T{.  Kircht  v.  Uo  /.  bis  Nika- 
laus  /.,"  5#f'/.  1-140;  Lea,  passim;  Schaff,  Vol.  111.,  p.  314,  siq,; 
Giesder,  Vol.  1.,  p.  394,  s^q.;  Mailer,  p.  345,  s#g.;  Alzog,  Sec.  130. 

Leo  was  elected  by  the  clergy,  senate,  and  people  of 
Rome  during  his  absence.  A  Roman  in  sentiment  as  in 
birth,  possessed  of  the  learning  of  his  age,  a  statesman 
of  the  shrewdest  type,  he  embodied  all  the  pride  and 
aggressiveness  of  imperial  and  ecclesiastical  Rome.  The 
times  were  highly  favorable  for  the  realization  of  his  am- 
bitious aims,  and  he  lost  no  opportunity  that  presented 
itself  for  securing  advantages  for  the  Roman  See. 
Among  his  achievements  the  following  may  be  men- 
tioned : 

1.  He  condemned  the  Manichaeans  of  Rome  and  se- 
cured their  banishment  by  the  Emperor  Valentinian  III. 

2.  In  Proconsular  Africa  he  availed  himself  of  the 
disorder  caused    by  the  Vandal    conquest  (Donatists, 


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398  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [«>bR  fll^ 

Catholics,  and  Arians  being  in  conflict)  to  secure  recog 
nition  of  his  authority  by  the  Catholic  party. 

3.  In  Gaul  he  humiliated  Archbishop  Hilary  of  Aries 
and  secured  the  recognition  of  his  authority.  Hilary, 
an  able  and  pious  prelate,  had,  with  the  advice  of  a 
Synod,  deposed  a  bishop  named  Celedonius,  because  he 
had  married  a  widow  and  before  his  ordination  had  pre- 

iSided  as  judge  at  a  criminal  proceeding  that  had  resulted 
In  capital  punishment,  either  of  which  acts,  according  to 
the  recognized  ecclesiastical  law  of  the  time,  disqualified 
him  for  the  episcopal  office.  The  right  of  Hilary  to  deal 
with  Celedonius  grew  out  of  the  fact  that  he  was  metro- 
politan of  the  region  in  which  the  diocese  of  Celedonius 
was  situated.  Leo's  predecessor  had  twenty-eight  years 
before  expressly  recognized  this  relation.  Celedonius 
appealed  to  Rome  and  persuaded  Leo  that  Hilary  had  ex- 
ceeded his  jurisdiction.  Leo  ignored  the  previous  de- 
cision, set  aside  Hilary's  act  in  deposing  Celedonius, 
received  Celedonius  into  communion,  and  restored  him 
to  his  bishopric.  Hilary  journeyed  on  foot  to  Rome  and 
remonstrated  with  Leo.  He  was  thrown  into  prison  for 
his  arrogance,  cut  off  from  the  communion  of  Rome,  and 
restored  only  after  he  had  thoroughly  humiliated  himself. 

4.  In  connection  with  the  foregoing  transaction,  the 
Emperor  Valentinian  III.,  who  was  greatly  under  Leo's 
influence,  confirmed  Leo's  sentence  in  the  matter  of 
Hilary  and  Celedonius,  commanded  the  governor  of  Gaul 
to  aid  in  carrying  out  Leo's  decision,  and  decreed  *'that 
not  only  no  Gallic  bishop,  but  no  bishop  of  any  other 
province,  be  permitted  in  contradiction  to  ancient  custom 
to  do  anything  without  the  authority  of  the  venerable 
pope  of  the  Eternal  City  ;  but  on  the  contrary  to  them 
and  to  all  men,  let  whatsover  the  authority  of  the  Apos- 
tolic See  has  ordained,  does  ordain,  or  shall  ordain,  be  as 
law,  so  that  any  bishop  being  summoned  to  the  Judgment 
seat  of  the  Roman  pontiff  be  thereunto  compelled  by 
the  governor  of  the  province."  This  joint  action  of 
pope  and  emperor  constituted  an  alliance  offensive  and 
defensive  between  the  spiritual  and  temporal  sovereigns. 
The  State  spiritual  is  thenceforth  to  be  represented  as 
fully  and  as  universally  by  the  bishop  of  Kome  as  the 
State  temporal  is  represented  by  the  emperor. 


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CHAP.  III.]    RISE  AND  GROWTH  OF  PAPAL  POWER  399 

5.  He  asserted  his  authority  in  Illyricum  by  taking 
sides  with  the  metropolitan  of  Thessalonica,  who  was  in 
revolt  against  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople. 

6.  In  connection  with  the  Eutychian  Controversy  in 
the  East,  Leo  gained  several  substantial  advantages. 
The  appeals  to  Leo  by  both  parties  ;  his  doctrinal  letter ; 
the  rejection  of  this  letter  by  the  **  Robber  Synod  " ; 
its  acceptance  by  the  Council  of  Chalcedon ;  his  con- 
trolling influence  in  this  council  through  his  legates,  who 
insisted  on  the  fullest  recognition  of  his  authority,  are 
familiar  facts.  Anatolius,  who  had  succeeded  Flavian  in 
the  patriarchate  of  Constantinople  and  was  Eutychian 
at  heart,  was  compelled  by  the  emperor  to  subscribe 
Leo's  letter.  Leo  followed  up  the  advantage  he  had 
thus  gained  over  his  rival  by  sending  him  minute  direc- 
tions as  to  the  administration  of  the  affairs  of  his  diocese. 
Anatolius  was  thus  brought  into  a  position  of  recognized 
dependence  on  the  pope.  The  Council  of  Chalcedon 
(451),  composed  of  six  hundred  and  thirty  bishops,  was 
on  the  whole  highly  favorable  to  the  papal  pretensions. 
The  legates  of  Leo  presided  in  regard  to  ecclesiastical 
matters  and  their  demands  were  for  the  most  part  ac- 
corded. Leo's  doctrinal  letter  was  accepted  as  a  doctrinal 
standard,  and  those  who  had  impugned  Leo's  authority 
in  the  "  Robber  Synod  "  were  severely  dealt  with.  Yet 
the  twenty -eighth  canon  aroused  the  indignation  of  Leo  by 
bestowing  on  the  bishop  of  New  Rome  (Constantinople), 
as  the  center  of  imperial  government,  equal  authority 
with  that  of  Old  Rome,  and  giving  him  the  right  to  or- 
dain the  metropolitans  of  Pontus,  Asia,  and  Thrace. 
Leo  protested  most  vigorously  against  the  supposed  in- 
fringement of  his  prerogative.  When  Anatolius  at- 
tempted to  exercise  the  authority  bestowed,  Leo  promptly 
excommunicated  him  and  threatened  to  array  against 
him  the  dioceses  of  the  East.  Anatolius  was  compelled 
by  the  emperor  to  yield.  The  emperor  himself  declared 
that  the  assent  of  the  bishop  of  Rome  was  essential 
to  the  validity  of  the  acts  of  councils,  and  Leo  thus 
gained  a  substantial  victory.  It  should  be  said  that  the 
canon  in  question  only  asserted  a  secondary  rank,  after 
Rome,  for  Constantinople.  The  protest  against  this 
canon  has  continued  to  the  present. 


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400  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  ill 

7.  Leo's  statesmanship  in  dealing  with  the  barbarian 
invaders  added  much  to  his  prestige.  On  two  occasions 
he  saved  Rome  from  being  sacked,  first  by  Attila,  the 
Hun,  and  secondly  by  Genseric,  the  Vandal. 

III.  THE   PONTIFICATE  OF  GELASIUS  (492-496). 

LITERATURE:  Greenwood,  Vol.  II.,  p.  42,  s#g.;  Mllman,  Vol.  I., 
p.  347«  s^q- ;  Lea, passim;  Moeller,  p.  349. 

Gelasius,  an  African  by  birth,  united  African  zeal  with 
Roman  astuteness.  He  had  all  the  pride  of  power  and 
position  that  characterized  Leo.  He  was  prepared  to 
utilize  all  the  advantages  that  Leo  had  gained  and  to  go 
forward  to  new  conquests.  With  him  begins  a  new 
phase  of  the  controversy  between  Rome  and  Constanti- 
nople. 

I.  He  refused  to  receive  into  communion  Euphemius, 
patriarch  of  Constantinople.  Eutychians  were  still 
strong  in  the  East,  and  adherents  to  the  Chalcedonian 
symbol  looked  to  Rome  as  the  bulwark  of  orthodoxy. 
Gelasius  took  advantage  of  the  fact  that  a  number  of 
names  of  heretical  bishops  had  been  retained  on  the 
calendar  of  the  Eastern  Church  and  refused  to  recognize 
the  patriarch  of  Constantinople  until  such  names  should 
be  erased.  The  patriarch  and  the  Emperor  Anastasius 
strove  in  vain  to  conciliate  him.  When  it  was  com- 
plained that  the  excommunication  of  the  bishops  in 
question  was  outside  of  the  prerogative  of  the  bishop  of 
Rome  according  to  the  decision  of  the  Nicene  Council, 
he  replied  that  they  knew  not  what  they  were  talking 
about,  as  they  were  the  first  to  violate  the  canons  in 
refusing  obedience  to  the  primate  of  all  the  churches. 
From  the  decrees  of  Rome,  he  urged,  there  is  no  appeal. 
He  seems  to  have  based  his  claim  on  the  sixth  Nicene 
canon  (interpolated),  on  Leo's  achievements,  and  on  the 
edict  of  Valentinian  III. 

'  2.  Gelasius  seems  to  have  gone  beyond  Leo  in  his 
view  of  the  relation  of  the  civil  to  the  ecclesiastical 
power.  The  Emperor  Anastasius  had  complained  that 
Gelasius  was  withdrawing  from  him  the  allegiance  of  his 
subjects  by  his  persistent  refusal  of  fellowship  to  the  See 
of  Constantinople.    Gelasius  in  reply  professed  absolute 


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CHAP.  III.]    RISE  AND  GROWTH  OF  PAPAL  POWER  4OI 

submission  to  the  emperor  in  all  matters  of  lawful  obedi- 
ence. But  the  world  is  governed  by  two  powers,  the 
pontifical  and  the  royal.  The  former  is  the  more  grave 
and  important  of  the  two,  for  it  must  render  account 
unto  God  for  the  deeds  of  kings  themselves.  Though 
the  king  rules  over  men  in  the  world,  he  is  yet  in  duty 
bound  in  spiritual  things  to  submit  to  his  prelates.  In 
relation  to  the  administration  of  divine  ordinances,  he  is 
not  a  ruler  but  a  subject.  The  defiant  attitude  of  Gela- 
sius  shows  that  the  papacy  was  conscious  of  power 
equal  to  the  imperial  in  any  conflict  that  might  arise. 

IV.  THE  PONTIFICATE  OF  SYMMACHUS  (498-514)- 

LITERATURE:  Greenwood.  VoL  II.,  p.  (A,s4a.;  Schaff,  VoL  III., 

^324,  ssg,;  Milman,  VoL  I.,  p.  350:  Gieseler,  VoL  L,  p.  406: 
(Bller,  p.  350;  *'Dict.  of  Chr.  Biog.,^'  Herzog-Hauck,  and  Wet- 
zer  u.  Welte,  art.  **  Symmachus." 

A  striking  proof  of  the  futility  of  Gelasius'  claim  to 
independence  of  the  civil  rulers  is  to  be  seen  in  the  fact 
that  in  498,  when  two  rival  claimants  of  the  papal  chair 
appeared,  Theodoric  the  Ostrogoth,  an  Arian,  interfered, 
secured  the  election  of  Symmachus  as  pope  and  the 
appointment  of  his  rival  to  a  bishopric,  called  a  council 
and  caused  it  to  adopt  a  canon  restraining  criminal  ambi- 
tion in  seeking  the  papal  office,  and  appointed  a  visitor 
with  power  to  reform  the  disorders  that  prevailed  in  the 
Roman  church.  Symmachus  was  suspended  until  the 
charges  against  him  could  be  investigated.  He  promised 
to  submit  to  the  decision  of  the  council,  but  finding  that 
the  bishops  were  unwilling  to  see  the  papacy  thus  de- 
graded, and  being  popular  in  Rome,  he  determined  to 
resist  investigation  and  to  stand  upon  prerogative. 

1.  The  theory  advanced  in  Symmachus'  interest,  in 
his  conflict  with  Theodoric,  was  that  of  papal  irresponsi- 
bility. No  tribunal,  it  was  claimed,  can  compel  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  pope  or  pronounce  sentence  against  him 
in  his  absence. 

2.  One  of  the  Roman  deacons  maintained  that  by 
virtue  of  his  office  the  pope  is  impeccable,  and  in  503 
Symmachus  convoked  a  council  that  made  this  opinion  a 
dogma  of  the  church. 


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402  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY         [PER.  UL 

3.  The  controversies  in  the  East  continued  to  rage, 
and  Symmachus  was  implored  in  view  of  the  extreme 
difficulty  of  fulfilling  the  demands  made  by  Rome  to 
excuse  the  toleration  of  a  certain  amount  of  heresy. 
Symmachus  would  not  listen  to  any  compromise,  and  in- 
sisted on  the  anathematizing  of  all  Eutychian  leaders  as 
a  condition  of  fellowship. 

V.  HORMISDAS  (514-523). 

LITERATURE:  Greenwood,  Vol.  L,  pp.  84-119;  Miiman.  VoL  1., 
p.  423 ;  Lea,  pp.  285,  287 ;  encyclopedias,  '*  Hormlsdas." 

He  was  a  man  of  the  same  stamp  as  Leo  and  Gelasius, 
and  succeeded  in  accomplishing  what  his  predecessors 
had  labored  for  in  vain. 

1.  In  $13  the  Emperor  Anastasius  proposed  a  general 
council  for  the  pacification  of  the  church.  Eutychianism 
was  gaining  the  ascendency,  and  civil  affairs  were  in  the 
utmost  confusion.  Hormisdas  required  as  a  condition  of 
the  papal  sanction  an  immediate  and  unqualified  adoption 
of  the  decrees  of  Chalcedon,  together  with  Leo's  doc- 
trinal letter,  and  the  absolute  submission  of  the  emperor 
and  the  Oriental  bishops  to  the  papal  guidance.  The 
demands  were  not  at  this  time  acceded  to,  but  Anastasius 
was  succeeded  in  518  by  Justin  L,  and  with  him  ortho- 
doxy again  became  triumphant  in  the  East. 

2.  Justin  proceeded  to  make  advances  to  the  pope,  and 
finally  yielded  to  the  demands  made  of  Anastasius. 
Constantinople  was  humiliated  by  having  the  names  of 
a  number  of  bishops  erased  from  the  calendar.  Rome 
had  triumphed  at  last.  The  mass  of  Eastern  Christians, 
however,  were  glad  to  see  unity  and  orthodoxy  restored 
at  any  price. 

VI.  JUSTINIAN  AND  THE  PAPACY  (527-565). 

LITERATURE:  '' Corpus  Juris  Cwtlis'*;  Hadley,  "Rom.  Law"; 
Morey,  "  Rom.  Law" ;  Greenwood,  Vol.  I.,  ro.  120-172;  Miiman, 
Vol.  I.,  pp.  449-514;  Lta,i>assim;  Tozer,  '*The  Ch.  and  the  E. 
Emp.,"  passim ;  Gibbon,  Chaps.  40-45 ;  encyc.  articles  on  "  Jus- 
tinlan,"  *'  Roman  Law,"  etc. 

After  the  death  of  Theodoric  anarchy  prevailed  in 
Italy.    Corrupt  practices  ki  striving  after  the  papal  chair 


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CHAP.  III.]   RISE  AND  GROWTH  OF  PAPAL  POWER  4^3 

were  more  shameless  than  ever.  Yet  even  the  most 
worthless  popes  were  careful  to  maintain  and  advance 
papal  prerogative. 

I.  Justinian  and  the  Independence  of  the  Papal  Power. 

From  Justinian's  letters  and  legislation  it  is  evident 
that  he  had  no  idea  of  admitting  the  irresponsibility  of 
ecclesiastical  government.  He  believed  in  and  exercised 
the  right  to  legislate  for  every  department  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal life.  The  imperial  dignity,  in  his  view,  transcended 
every  other.  Though  Rome  was  in  the  power  of  the 
Goths,  he  maintained  his  right  to  it,  and  was  able  at  last 
to  secure  the  recognition  of  his  authority. 

2.  Justinian's  Declaration  Regarding  the  Patriarchate  of 
Constantinople. 

During  his  reign  a  number  of  bishops  revolted  from 
the  rule  of  the  metropolitan  of  Thessalonica,  who  was 
now  an  adherent  of  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople, 
claiming  that  they  were  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
bishop  of  Rome,  Justinian  supported  the  claims  of  the 
patriarch  of  Constantinople  and  gave  him  the  title  of 
(Ecumenical  Patriarch. 

3.  Justinian's  Declaration  with  Regard  to  the  Pope. 

In  the  preamble  to  a  decree,  in  532,  Justinian  declared 
that  he  had  been  diligent  both  in  subjecting  and  in 
uniting  to  the  Roman  See  all  the  clergy  of  the  entire 
region  of  the  East,  and  expressed  a  firm  resolve  never 
to  permit  any  matter  affecting  the  general  state  of  the 
church  to  be  transacted  without  notifying  the  head  of  all 
the  churches. 

4.  Capture  of  Rome  by  Belisarius  and  the  Elevation  of  the 
Profligate  Vigilius  to  the  Papal  Chair. 

Belisarius,  one  of  the  greatest  generals  of  his  age,  was 
sent  by  Justinian  to  secure  the  recognition  of  the  im- 
perial authority  in  Italy.  He  seems  to  have  had  a  cor- 
rupt understanding  with  the  Empress  Theodora  that  he 
would  use  all  his  authority  for  placing  Vigilius,  a  Euty- 


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404  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.nL 

chian,  in  the  papal  chair.  Vigilius  at  once  sent  letters  of 
communion  to  the  Eutychian  bishops  of  the  East  and 
abjured  the  doctrines  of  Chalcedon.  Justinian  hearing 
of  these  scandalous  proceedings  compelled  Vigilius  to  re- 
affirm his  adherence  to  the  doctrines  of  Chalcedon. 

Thus  Justinian,  while  maintaining  the  rights  of  the 
patriarch  of  Constantinople,  acknowledged  a  kind  of 
superiority  in  the  Roman  See  without  defining  wherein 
that  superiority  consisted.  He  gave  many  additional 
privileges  to  the  clergy  in  general  and  particularly  to  the 
bishops,  entrusting  to  the  latter  extensive  civil  juris- 
diction. 

VII.  THE  MEROVINGIAN  KINGDOM  AND  THE  CHURCH  {496-752). 

Literature  :  Milman,  Vol.  I.,  p.  378,  ug. ;  Greenwood,  Vol.  I., 
0.48$.  5^.,  Vol.  11.,  p.  i84i  ssq.,  p.  272,  ug.;  Guizot,  **  Hist,  of 
Civ.,''  Lcc.  12  and  13, "  Hist,  of  France,"  Vol.  1. ;  Brycc,  p.  34, 
ssq. ;  Schaff,  Vol.  lV.,p.  80.  5*j,;  Stq)hen,  "  Lcct  on  the  Hist,  of 
France":  Bradley,  "The  Goflis";  Merlvale,  "The  Continental 
Teutons,'*  p.  57.  «#g.;  Alzog,  Sec.  155;  Kitchln,  "Hist  of  Fr.," 
Vol.  1. 

The  conversion  of  the  Merovingian  chieftain,  Clovis, 
to  the  Catholic  faith  is  an  event  of  primary  importance 
in  the  history  of  the  papacy.  Starting  out  with  a  mere 
handful  of  followers,  Clovis  had  by  his  military  prowess 
attached  a  number  of  tribes  to  himself.  Brought  up  in 
the  Arian  faith,  he  had  married  a  Catholic  wife.  Ob- 
serving the  power  and  influence  of  the  papacy,  and 
anxious  to  avail  himself  of  papal  support,  he  professed 
conversion  in  496,  and  his  entire  following  united  with 
him  in  adherence  to  Catholicism,  three  thousand  of 
whom  were  baptized  along  with  himself  soon  after  his 
conversion.  As  he  expected,  the  Catholics  rallied 
around  him  as  the  only  Catholic  prince  in  the  West,  and 
assisted  him  in  conquering  the  Arian  princes.  The  Goths 
had  become  luxurious  and  disinclined  to  the  hardships  of 
war,  and  were  easily  overcome  by  the  Prankish  warrior. 
Victory  followed  victory  until  Gaul,  Burgundy,  and 
Bavaria  were  more  or  less  firmly  united  under  one 
government.  Thus  was  established  a  vigorous  Catholic 
power,  which  found  its  interest  in  promoting  the  papacy, 
and  which  in    turn    was    zealously  supported    by  it 


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CHAP.  IIL]   RISE  AND  GROWTH  OF  PAPAL  POWER  405 

Clovis  and  his  successors  bestowed  considerable  terri- 
torial possessions  upon  the  church,  and  acquiesced  to 
some  extent  in  the  papal  claims.  But  the  Franks  were 
little  civilized,  and  the  rulers  dealt  in  the  most  arbitrary 
way  with  bishops  and  clergy.  When  a  Prankish  king 
bestowed  territory  upon  the  church  for  a  bishopric  it  was 
regarded  as  given  in  feudal  tenure,  the  rights  of  suze- 
rainty being  retained.  Excommunication  and  interdicts 
were  employed  against  them  in  vain.  Obsequiousness 
was  the  price  of  their  support. 

VIII.  THE  PONTIFICATE  OF  GREGORY  THE  GREAT  (590-604). 

LITERATURE:  Greenwood,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  21 1-24 1 ;  Milman,  VoL 
II.,  pp.  39-103 ;  Schaff,  Vol.  IV.,p.  211,  s^q.;  Bamby,  "Greg,  the 
Great"  (also  in  **  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.") ;  Lea, passim.   ^ 

From  the  time  of  Justinian  to  that  of  Gregory  the 
papacy  gained  little  advantage.  Italy  had  been  deprived 
of  her  independence  and  stripped  of  her  resources  by  the 
Eastern  Empire  and  by  barbarian  invasion.  The  Lom- 
bards invaded  Italy  in  570,  and  in  ^77  the  Roman  See 
became  independent  of  the  emperor.  Gregory  became 
pope  in  the  midst  of  pestilence  and  civil  turmoil.  It  is 
not  wonderful  that  he  should  have  hesitated  to  assume 
so  dangerous  and  responsible  a  position.  His  tastes  were 
those  of  a  recluse  rather  than  those  of  a  politician,  but 
his  learning,  his  confidence  in  papal  prerogative,  his  per- 
sistence in  pursuing  a  policy  of  papal  aggrandizement^ 
his  political  shrewdness,  and  his  reputation  for  sanctity, 
made  him  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  successful  of 
popes. 

1.  Rome  had  lost  much  of  the  ascendency  that  it  had 
gained  over  Constantinople.  When  the  Emperor  Mau- 
rice was  assassinated  by  Phocas  and  the  latter  ascended 
the  throne,  Gregory  congratulated  him  on  the  event, 
and  thus  sought  to  gain  his  allegiance  to  the  papal  cause^ 

2.  He  established  the  practice  of  bestowing  the  pallium 
upon  bishops,  thus  attempting  to  make  the  pope's  con- 
sent necessary  to  the  validity  of  episcopal  ordinations. 

3.  He  insisted,  with  great  vehemence,  on  the  celibacy 
of  the  clergy.  Being  himself  a  monk,  and  swayed  by 
monkish  ideals,  he  aimed  to  bring  the  entire  body  of  the 


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406  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  UL 

clergy  into  an  essentially  monkish  position.  Yet  when 
other  ends  were  to  be  subserved  thereby,  he  was  willing 
to  relax  the  rigor  of  his  requirements,  as  in  the  case  of 
British  missions. 

y^A'  He  sent  missionaries  to  Britain  and  Germany, 
where  a  free,  evangelical  form  of  Christianity  had  long 
existed,  with  a  view  to  subjugating  these  Christians  to 
the  Roman  See. 

$•  He  succeeded  in  greatly  extending  the  authority  of 
the  Roman  See  by  missionary  enterprise  and  by  forming 
advantageous  alliances  with  civil  rulers  in  the  West  as 
well  as  with  the  emperor  in  the  East. 

y/^*  By  preparing  forms  of  worship  and  by  insisting  on 
uniformity  of  worship  throughout  Catholic  Christendom, 
he  did  much  toward  unifying  and  solidifying  the  papal 
^omain. 

IX.  THE  CARLOVINGIAN  KINGDOM  AND  THE  PAPACY. 

LITERATURE:  ** Works  of  Charlemagne"  in  MIgne's  '*P«lr. 
I^.,"  Vol.  XCVII.  and  XCVIII.;  Baluzius,  ''CatHmUtria  Rmm 
Francarum" ;  Greenwood.  Vol.  III.,  pp.  52-127;  Milman,  Vol.  11., 

SK  402-551 :  Schaff,  Vol.  IV.,  p.  203,  s#j. ;  Cutts, "  Charlemagne  "  ; 
uizot,  ^*Hist  of  Civ.'';  encyc.  Sides  (esp.  "Diet  oTChr. 
Biog."  and  Herzog-Hauck)  on  "Charlemagne,"  "Pwln," 
"Charles  Martd,"  •^Boniface"  (Winfrld),  " Stephen  HI.," ^Do- 
nation of  Constantine,"  etc. 

By  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century  the  church  had 
sunk  very  low.  The  civilization  of  Southern  Europe 
had  been  swept  away  and  the  new  civilization  had  not 
yet  taken  its  place.  Learning  was  almost  extinct,  ex- 
cept in  Ireland,  Scotland,  and  Wales.  The  barbarian 
rulers  were  accustomed  to  appoint  as  bishops  their  rela- 
tives and  military  followers,  without  reference  to  their 
literary,  moral,  or  spiritual  qualifications.  Bishops  so 
appointed  spent  their  time  in  revelry,  hunting,  warfare, 
the  management  of  their  estates,  etc.  The  Merovingian 
rulers  soon  degenerated  and  their  power  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  mayors  of  the  palace.  These  were  more 
attentive  to  the  interests  of  the  church  than  the  earlier 
Merovingian  rulers  had  been.  Pepin,  mayor  of  the 
palace  (687-714),  founded  more  than  twenty  bishoprics 
and  bestowed  vast  territorial  possessions  on  the  church. 


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CHAP.  III.]    RISE  AND  GROWTH  OF  PAPAL  POWER  407 

Charles  Martel,  mayor  of  the  palace  (714-741),  con- 
quered the  Saracens  in  733,  and  more  completely  in  739, 
when  he  drove  them  from  Provence.  Charles  Martel 
dealt  with  ecclesiastical  endowments  as  with  any  other 
portion  of  the  royal  domain.  He  gave  to  his  liege  Milo, 
the  archbishoprics  of  Rheims  and  Treves ;  to  his  nephew 
Hugh,  the  archbishoprics  of  Rouen,  Paris,  and  Bayeux, 
with  the  abbeys  of  Fontenelle  and  Jumieges.  After 
exercising  the  functions  of  royalty  for  years,  Pepin  as- 
sumed the  royal  title  in  752. 

1.  Wishing  to  secure  for  himself  the  moral  support  of 
the  papacy,  Pepin  got  himself  crowned  first  by  Arch- 
bishop Boniface,  with  the  consent  of  the  pope,  and  after- 
ward by  the  pope  himself  (Stephen  111.)  in  753. 

2.  There  was  an  agreement  entered  into  by  pope  and 
archbishop  on  the  one  hand,  and  Pepin  on  the  other,  that 
the  latter  should  aid  the  former  in  extirpating  paganism 
and  heresy,  and  that  the  former  should  use  all  their  in- 
fluence in  favor  of  Pepin's  civil  authority. 

3.  The  position  of  the  papacy  at  this  time  was  such  as 
to  make  an  alliance  of  this  kind  peculiarly  welcome. 
The  exarchate  of  Ravenna,  which  had  represented  the 
authority  of  the  Eastern  empire  in  the  West  and  had 
afforded  a  certain  amount  of  protection  to  the  popes,  was 
overthrown  in  753  by  Aistulph,  the  Lombard.  The  pope 
tried  in  vain  to  secure  from  Aistulph  a  recognition  of  his 
sovereignty  over  the  Duchy  of  Rome.  Failing  in  this, 
the  pope  now  betook  himself  to  the  court  of  Pepin,  where 
the  following  treaty  was  made :  Pepin,  his  sons,  his 
court,  and  his  nobles,  swore  to  secure  ample  satisfaction 
for  the  pope  and  the  church,  and  engaged  to  reduce  the 
Lombards  to  submission  and  to  insist  on  the  fullest  resti- 
tution of  all  the  rights  and  possessions  of  the  papacy  in 
Italy.  Stephen  proclaimed  Pepin  and  Bertrada  king  and 
queen  of  the  Franks,  and  bestowed  the  royal  dignity  on 
Carlman  and  Charles,  their  sons.  Pursuant  to  this 
agreement,  Pepin  invaded  Lombardy  in  754  and  com- 
pelled the  restoration  of  a  part  of  the  territory  claimed 
by  the  pope. 

4.  Charles  (afterward  known  as  Charlemagne  or 
Charles  the  Great)  became  joint  king  with  Carlman  in 
768,  sole  king  in  792.    By  favoring  circumstances  and 


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408  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER,  III 

great  military  and  administrative  ability,  tie  succeeded  in 
vastly  extending  the  Prankish  domains  and  in  consoli- 
dating his  acquisitions.  Charles  carried  out  the  policy 
of  Pepin  with  reference  to  the  papacy.  He  regarded  the 
relation  of  Church  and  State  as  that  of  mutual  helpful- 
ness. The  State  was  to  honor  and  protect  the  Church, 
and  discipline  it  if  need  be ;  the  Church  was  to  aid  the 
State  in  maintaining  unity  and  order.  To  the  hierarchy 
he  accorded  the  greater  degree  of  sanctity,  and  he  was 
willing  to  receive  the  imperial  crown  at  the  hands  of  a 
pope  ;  but  to  the  civil  power  belonged  practical  suprem- 
acy in  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical  matters.  The  Capit- 
ularies of  Charlemagne  and  Louis  the  Pious  are  taken  up 
far  more  with  ecclesiastical  than  with  civil  legislation. 

,^S.  The  growth  of  the  papal  power  went  hand  in  hand 
with  that  of  the  Carlovingians.  The  Catholic  missionary 
had  the  full  support  of  the  civil  arm  in  his  effort  to  over- 
come heresy  and  paganism.  When  gentler  means  proved 
unavailing,  the  Church  did  not  hesitate  to  ask,  nor  the 
State  to  accord,  the  use  of  forcible  measures.  Bishops 
were  given  a  recognized  administrative  position,  side  by 
side  with  civil  officials,  whose  jurisdiction  covered  the 
same  territory,  and  each  was  expected  to  co-operate 
heartily  with  the  other.  The  Holy  Catholic  Church  and 
the  Holy  Roman  Empire  were  regarded  as  the  counterpart 
one  of  the  other,  and  each  had  before  it  the  dominion  ol 
the  world  as  its  goal. 

y"  6.  Both  Pepin  and  Charlemagne  were  imposed  imon, 
perhaps  not  unwillingly,  by  the  forged  "  Donation  of  Con- 
stantine."  The  popes  based  their  claim  to  the  territory 
that  the  Lombards  had  deprived  them  of  upon  a  docu- 
ment that  was  long  ago  proved  to  be  a  forgery,  in  accord- 
ance with  which  Constantine  had  bestowed  large  terri' 
torial  possessions  upon  Pope  Sylvester  and  his  successors. 
U  is  possible  that  the  Carlovingians  would  have  bestowed 
these  possessions  on  the  church  without  the  production 
of  this  spurious  document,  but  the  influence  of  the  docu- 
ment was  probably  considerable. 

7.  Charlemagne  wrought  assiduously  and  systematic* 
ally  for  the  revival  of  learning.  He  brought  into  Gaul 
the  best  scholars  to  be  found  in  Britain  and  elsewhere, 
and  gave  a  great  impulse  to  education.    This  proved 


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CHAP.  111.]    RISE  AND  GROWTH  OF  PAPAL  POWER  409 

highly  advantageous  to  the  church,  as  the  educational 
work  was  left  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  clergy. 

X.  THE  CHRISTIANITY  OF  BRITAIN  IN  RELATION  TO  THE 
PAPACY. 

Literature  :  Works  of  Gildas,  Beda,  Nennius ;  *'  Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle"  :  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  '*  Councils  and  Eccl.  Doc.  rel.  to 
Gr.  Brit,  and  Ireland  " ;  Madear '^Conv.  of  the  West "  ("  The  Eng- 
lish," "  The  Celts  " ) ;  Bright, "  Ear.  Eng.  Ch.  Hist." ;  Prycc, "  Anc. 
Br.  Ch." :  McLaughlan/'  Ear.  Scot.  Ch." ;  Stokes,  *•  Irei.  and  the 
Celt.  Ch.'* ;  Collins, "  The  Beginnings  of  Eng.  Christianity,"  1898 : 
Mason,  **  The  Mission  of  St.  Augustine  according  to  the  Original 
Documents";  Wilson,  "The  Mission  of  St.  Augustine";  Ught- 
foot,  "  Leaders  of  the  Northern  Church" ;  Haverfield,  "  Early  Brit 
Christianity  "  ("  Eng.  Hist.  Rev.",  July,  1896) ;  Bund, "  Celtic  Ch. 
in  Wales,"^  1898 ;  Loofs,  "  Vi  Aniiqua  Britonum  Scotorumqtu  Eccl^ 
sia";  Skene,  •^Celtic  Scotiand"  ;  Rhys,  "  Celtic  Britain*' ;  Cath- 
cart, "  Ancient  British  and  Irish  Churches" ;  German  works  on  the 
Iro-Scottish  Ch.,  Boniface,  etc.,  by  Ebrard,  Forster,  Fischer,  Wer- 
ner, Muller,  etc. ;  Hauck,  "  D,  Kirchengesch.  d.  Deutsch lands,''  'Bd,  L, 
second  ed.,  1898;  Greenwood.  VoK  II.,  pp.  28^343;  Milman,  Vol. 
II.,  pp.  I7S-23S;  Schaff,  Vol.  IV.,  p.  19,  5^.;  encyclopedia  articles 
on  the  leading  personages. 

The  traditions  in  accordance  with  which  Christianity 
was  introduced  into  Britain  during  the  apostolic  age  are 
unhistorical.  It  is  impossible  to  determine  the  exact  date 
or  manner  of  the  conversion  of  the  Britons.  It  was  prob- 
ably in  connection  with  the  Roman  army,  and  as  early 
as  the  latter  part  of  the  second  century.  There  are  some 
indications  of  the  influence  of  Gallic  Christianity,  which, 
through  IrensBus,  came  directly  from  the  East.  By  the 
beginning  of  the  fourth  century  Christianity  had  attained 
to  considerable  influence  in  Britain.  Several  British 
bishops  sat  in  the  Synod  of  Aries  (314),  and  still  more  in 
the  Council  of  Ariminium  in  350.  There  is  no  evidence 
that  any  Britons  sat  in  the  Nicene  Council  (325).  Pela- 
gius  and  his  disciples,  Faustus  and  Fastidius,  are  said  to 
have  been  Britons,  and  Coelestius,  another  leading  dis- 
ciple, was  probably  a  Scot.  Whether  the  early  British 
Christianity  was  Pelagian  in  character  is  uncertain.  After 
the  withdrawal  of  the  Roman  army  froin  Britain,  about 
410,  there  was  little  intercourse  between  the  British 
Christians  and  those  under  the  influence  of  Rome. 
About  449  the  Angles,  Saxons,  Jutes,  etc.,  from  the  con- 


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410  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IlL 

tinenty  began  to  invade  Britain.  The  British  Christians 
were  gradually  forced  westward  into  the  mountain  fast- 
nesses of  Wales,  and  here  they  organized  themselves  in 
a  semi-monastic  way  for  Christian  life  and  work.  They 
seem  to  have  formed  themselves  into  vast  communities, 
each  presided  over  by  an  abbot.  These  institutions  were 
conducted  in  a  communistic  manner.  Each  individual 
seems  to  have  been  assigned  to  that  kind  of  work  for 
which  he  was  supposed  to  be  best  fitted.  A  large  num- 
ber devoted  themselves  to  study,  and  the  Bible  was  their 
chief  text-book.  Their  teachings  in  the  fourth  century 
do  not  seem  to  have  been  more  primitive  than  those  of 
the  Gallic  Christians  with  whom  they  were  closely  asso- 
ciated. Their  semi-monastic  organization  was  probably 
a  perpetuation  of  the  Celtic  clan  system. 

I.  Peculiarities  of  the  British  Christians. 

Information  on  this  point  is  exceedingly  scanty.  When 
an  effort  was  made,  about  the  close  of  the  sixth  century, 
to  bring  them  into  subjection  to  Rome,  they  were  found 
to  be  very  tenacious  of  their  practices.  From  the  records 
of  the  discussions  that  took  place  between  the  emissaries 
of  Rome  and  the  leaders  of  the  British  Christians  we 
may  deduce  the  following  statement :  (i)  Diocesan  epis- 
copacy did  not  exist.  (2)  Great  attention  was  given  to 
the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  numerous  semi-monastic  col- 
leges having  been  established  for  the  promotion  of  Bible 
study  and  Christian  life.  (3)  They  were  full  of  mission- 
ary zeal  and  were  doing  an  extensive  and  successful 
missionary  work  among  the  Picts  of  the  North,  in  France 
and  in  Germany.  (4)  They  absolutely  refused  to  recog- 
nize human  authority  in  matters  of  religion,  indignantly 
repelling  the  efforts  put  forth  to  bring  them  into  subjec- 
tion to  the  pope,  (j)  They  insisted  upon  humility  and 
simplicity  in  Christian  life,  and  were  offended  by  the 

?)mp  and  worldliness  of  the  Romish  missionaries.  (6) 
hey  differed  from  the  Romanists  in  several  matters, 
e.  g.t  as  to  the  time  of  celebrating  Easter,  the  mode  of 
baptism,  tonsure,  etc. 

These  differences  do  not  seem  at  all  fundamental.    The  Britons 
followed  the  Eastern  method  of  reckoning  in  regard  to  Easter.    The 


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CHAP,  in.]    RISE  AND  GROWTH  OF  PAPAL  POWER  4I I 

point  at  issue  respecting  baptism  was  probabiy  single  vs*  trine  im- 
mersion. That  tlie  Britons  shouid  refuse  to  recognize  tlie  authority 
of  any  foreign  preiate  was  natural,  and  their  uncompromising  rejec- 
tion of  proposals  in  this  direction  was  due  in  part  to  their  determfna* 
tion  to  be  independent,  in  part  to  their  belief  that  alliance  with  Rome 
would  involve  submission  to  their  mortal  enemies  the  Saxons,  and 
in  part,  perhaps,  to  their  opposition  to  hierarchical  church  govern- 
ment of  any  Icind.  It  should  be  remariced  that  it  was  the  Iro- 
Scottish  Celts  rather  than  the  British  that  engaged  so  largely  in 
missionary  worlc.  The  Britons  proper  seem  to  have  made  no  at- 
tempt to  evangelize  the  Saxons.  Perhaps  they  could  hardly  have 
been  expected  to  labor  for  the  spiritual  well-being  of  those  who  had 
driven  them  from  their  homes  and  destroyed  so  many  of  their  kin- 
dred. The  Scottish  Christians  labored  among  the  northern  Teutonic 
settlements  of  England  zealously  and  successfully. 

2.  T(pman  Interference. 

In  596  Gregory  the  Great,  who  before  his  elevation  to 
the  papal  chair  had  intended  to  go  to  Britain  with  a  view 
to  converting  the  Saxons,  sent  thither  Augustine,  a  monk, 
together  with  about  thirty  other  monkish  missionaries, 
including  some  Prankish  interpreters.  By  making  a  pa- 
rade of  ascetical  life,  by  pretended  miracles,  and  by  prom- 
ises of  earthly  advantages,  they  succeeded  in  converting 
Ethelbert,  king  of  the  Saxons,  who  with  about  ten  thou- 
sand followers  received  baptism  in  a  river  at  the  hands 
of  the  missionaries.  A  firm  alliance  having  been  formed 
between  the  kindand  the  Roman  See,  the  missionaries  ad- 
dressed themselves  to  the  far  more  difficult  task  of  sub- 
jecting the  British  Christians  to  Rome.  When  all  other 
means  proved  unavailing,  they  persuaded  the  Saxon  king 
to  make  an  expedition  against  them.  Three  thousand  of 
the  British  Christians  were  slaughtered  on  one  occasion^ 
For  centuries  the  Christians  of  the  old  British  type,  in 
Wales,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  as  well  as  in  various  parts 
of  Germany,  resisted  with  all  their  might  the  encroach- 
ments of  Rome,  and  it  is  probable  that  Christianity  of 
this  type  was  never  wholly  exterminated. 

Ethelbert  was  no  doubt  already  favorably  inclined  toward  Chris- 
tianity because  of  Bertha,  his  Prankish  Christian  wife,  who  had 
been  allowed  to  have  a  Prankish  chaplain.  The  methods  employed 
by  Augustine  savor  of  imposture,  but  he  had  doubtless  reached  the 
conviction  that  deceit  in  a  good  cause  is  allowable.  Ethelbert  was 
not  disposed  to  force  his  subjects  to  accept  Christianity.  '*  Only  he 
treated  believers  with  a  closer  affection  as  fellow-dtizens  with  nim 


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412  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.nL 

in  the  kingdom  of  lieaven."  ^  By  6oi  a  thorough  orRanization  had 
been  effected,  Augustine  having  been  constitute  arcnbishoo,  and  a 
number  of  churches  and  monasteries  having  been  established* 

3.  British  Missions. 

Nothing  is  more  characteristic  of  the  early  British 
Christians  than  their  zeal  and  success  in  missionary 
work.  In  no  country  and  in  no  age  do  we  find  the  mis- 
sionary spirit  more  active  and  aggressive.  A  brief  ac- 
count of  the  careers  of  the  three  most  eminent  mission- 
ary leaders  is  all  that  can  be  here  attempted. 

(i)  Patrick,  born  in  Britain  about  400,  son  of  a  deacon, 
grandson  of  a  priest,  taken  captive  by  Irish  pirates  when 
about  sixteen  years  of  age,  having  been  released  from 
captivity  and  educated  in  theology,  was  seized  with  an 
irresistible  desire  to  carry  the  gospel  to  the  heathen  Irish. 
Whether  he  received  part  of  his  theological  education  at 
the  monastery  of  Lerins  in  Gaul  is  by  no  means  certain. 
Later  Roman  Catholic  writers  have  sought  to  make  it 
appear  that  he  received  a  commission  from  the  pope  to 
evangelize  the  Irish.  His  own  writings  make  no  mention 
of  such  commission,  and  it  is  highly  improbable  that  he 
consulted  the  pope  with  reference  to  his  great  life-work. 
Going  into  Ireland  with  a  few  coadjutors,  about  432,  he 
labored  for  many  years  with  wonderful  zeal  and  success, 
evangelized  more  or  less  thoroughly  the  whole  of  Ireland, 
and  left  a  reputation  for  sanctity  of  life  and  spiritual 
power  that  entitles  him  to  be  considered  one  of  the 
greatest  of  missionaries. 

It  cannot  be  supposed,  of  course,  that  anjr  very  large  proportion  of 
the  multitudes  that  nominally  accepted  Christianity  on  his  invitation 
and  submitted  to  baptism  at  his  hands  actually  experienced  saving 
grace.  It  is  probable  that  in  many  cases  chieftains  were  persuaded 
by  Patrick's  earnest  advocacy  that  Christianity  was  better  than 
their  heathen  cult,  and  that  they  adopted  it  outwardly  without  any 
marked  transformation  of  character.  Clansmen  seem  to  have  been 
ever  ready  to  follow  their  leaders  in  such  matters.  It  was  Patrick's 
powerful  personality  that  enabled  him  so  easily  to  master  the  Irish 
clans  and  to  fill  them  with  partisan  zeal  against  paganism.  Bui  the 
converts  of  Patrick  seem  to  have  been  no  less  tierce  and  resentful 
than  their  pagan  neighbors. 

(2)  Equally  worthy  of  admiration  is  the  missionary 

>  Be4e,  Bk.  1..  Ch.  s6. 


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CHAP.  III.]   RISE  AND  GROWTH  OF  PAPAL  POWER  41 3 

activity  of  Columba,  "  Irish  by  birth,  Irish  by  education, 
Irish  in  his  life's  work  and  devotion,"  born  in  521,  edu- 
cated at  the  monastic  school  of  Clonard  (famous  at  that 
time  for  learning  and  Christian  zeal),  he  spent  the  earlier 
years  of  his  life  in  mission  work  in  Ireland,  where  he  is 
said  to  have  planted  hundreds  of  churches.  Expelled 
from  Ireland  for  having  occasioned  a  war  that  resulted  in 
the  slaughter  of  about  three  thousand  of  his  enemies,  he 
went  as  a  missionary  to  the  Picts  in  Scotland,  by  whom 
the  Irish  colony  of  Dalraida  was  in  danger  of  being  op- 
pressed or  destroyed.  He  succeeded,  against  much  Dru- 
idical  opposition,  in  securing  the  conversion  of  the  king 
of  the  ricts,  and  through  his  influence  was  enabled  to 
plant  Christian  churches  throughout  Scotland.  He  made 
lona,  a  small  island,  his  headquarters,  and  had  mastered 
the  language  of  the  Picts  and  converted  his  near  neigh- 
bors before  undertaking  his  great  work.  In  the  conver- 
sion of  the  Picts  he  had  the  co-operation  of  several  Picts 
who  had  received  their  training  in  Ireland  and  who  spoke 
the  language  fluently.  Columba  was  a  great  politician 
as  well  as  a  great  missionary,  and  on  more  than  one  oc- 
casion his  influence  was  of  momentous  importance. 

(3)  Cdumban  is  worthy  of  being  placed  by  the  side 
of  Patrick  and  Columba.  Born  in  Leinster,  Ireland,  in 
543,  educated  at  Bangor,  one  of  the  most  famous  monas- 
tic colleges  of  the  age,  he  spent  his  active  life  in  plant- 
ing evangelical  churches  in  Burgundy,  Switzerland,  and 
Northern  Italy.  In  fact,  the  influence  of  his  work  may 
be  said  to  have  extended  throughout  the  Rhine  region  of 
Germany  and  the  Netherlands.  His  extant  writings 
show  that  he  was  one  of  the  most  accomplished  men  of 
the  age,  and  his  devotion  to  mission  work  was  admirable. 
About  585,  with  thirteen  companions,  he  went  to  Bur- 
gundy, where  he  was  kindly  received  by  rulers  and 
people.  He  founded,  one  after  another,  three  great 
monastic  mission  stations,  which  formed  the  centers  of 
the  most  self-denying  mission  work  extending  over  a 
wide  territory.  The  high  moral  standard  of  the  lives 
and  teachings  of  Columban  and  his  followers  contrasts 
strikingly  with  those  of  the  Gallic  clergy  who  were  in 
alliance  with  Rome.  Columban's  John-the-Baptist-like 
denunciation  of  the  immoralities  of  the  court  and  his 


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414  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  Ill 

resolute  refusal  to  abandon  the  peculiarities  of  the  Irish 
Church  in  favor  of  those  of  the  Roman  and  the  Gallic 
brought  upon  him  the  enmity  of  court  and  clergy,  and 
after  about  twenty  years  of  labor,  when  about  sixty 
years  old,  he  was  driven  from  Burgundy.  With  a  body 
of  faithful  companions  he  made  his  way  up  the  Rhine  to 
Switzerland,  and  founded  a  number  of  stations  in  that 
region.  Here  his  enemies  after  a  few  years  again  mo- 
lested him.  Leaving  an  undying  influence  behind  him, 
he  went  to  Northern  Italy,  where  in  his  old  age  he 
formed  another  center  of  mission  work.  In  many  re- 
spects Columban  was  the  greatest  and  best  of  the  Irish 
missionaries,  and  the  influence  of  his  work,  and  that  of 
those  who  were  like-minded  with  him,  remained  until  it 
was  violently  suppressed  by  the  Carlovingian  rulers  and 
the  Roman  missionaries  of  a  later  time ;  nay,  there  is 
reason  to  think  that  it  was  never  wholly  lost,  but  after  a 
period  of  latency  reappeared  in  the  evangelical  parties  of 
the  Middle  Ages./ It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  those  very 
regions  in  which  the  Iro-Scottish  mission  work  was  most 
successful  during  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries  were 
precisely  the  regions  in  which  the  evangelical  sects  of 
the  later  times  flourished  most/  There  was  no  doubt 
much  in  the  methods  of  these  missionaries  that  we  should 
scarcely  approve,  but  considering  the  age  and  the  circum- 
stances in  which  they  lived  we  must  pronounce  their 
lives  marvels  of  Christian  heroism. 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  doctrines,  practices,  or 
missionary  methods  of  the  Iro-Scottish  Christians  of  the  fifth,  sixth, 
and  seventh  centuries  were  In  every  respect  apostolic  or  in  accord 
with  modern  evangelical  ideas.  They  represent  a  far  more  primitive 
type  of  Christian  life  and  thought  than  that  of  the  Roman  Church 
of  the  time  of  Gregory  the  Great ;  but  It  was  the  Christianity  of 
the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century  rather  than  that  of  the  first  that 
they  perpetuated.  Even  this  was  modified,  as  might  have  been  ex- 
pected, by  the  national  characteristics  and  the  sociological  conditions 
of  the  primitive  peoples  of  the  British  Isles.  While  they  rejected 
the  Roman  hierarchy  and  had  no  very  elaborate  hierarchical  organi- 
zation of  their  own,  their  leaders,  like  Patrick,  Columba,  and 
Columban,  were  arbitrary  and  autocratic  in  the  highest  degree. 
They  seem  to  have  been  completely  free  from  Mariolatry  and  saint- 
worship  In  every  form,  and  from  every  kind  of  idolatry.  They 
seem  to  have  recognized  no  authority  outside  of  the  Scriptures. 
But  their  views  of  the  Christian  ordinances  seem  to  have  been  those 
of  the  third  or  fourtii  century  rather  than  those  of  the  apostles ;  fMR 


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CHAP.  III.]   RISE  AND  GROWTH  OF  PAPAL  POWER  41$ 

views  of  Christian  life  were  highly  ascetical ;  they  laid  great  stress 
upon  the  observance  of  their  rigorous  monastic  rules,  enforcing 
absolute  obedience  to  superiors,  silence  during  protracted  periods, 
abstinence  from  any  but  the  plainest  foods,  the  Infliction  of  corporal 
punishment  for  the  infraction  of  even  the  least  important  rules,  etc. 
Columban's  rules,  that  have  been  preserved  in  apparently  authentic 
form,  do  not  differ  greatly  in  their  tone  from  those  that  prevailed  in 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  of  the  time.^ 

XI.  THE    ADVANCEMENT    OF    PAPAL    DOMINION    THROUGH 
MISSIONARY   ENDEAVOR. 

LrTERATURE :  In  addition  to  literature  referred  to  in  the  preceding 
section,  see  works  of  Gr^ory  the  Great,  Boniface  (Wintrid),  and 
Chariemagne ;  Willibald,  ^'  Vita  Banifacii" ;  recent  monographs  on 
Boniface  by  Cox,  1853,  J.  P.  Miiller,  1869,  Werner,  1875,  Pfaler, 
1880,  Buss,  1880,  Fischer,  1882,  Ebrard,  1882,  Loofs,  1881,  Hahn, 
1883 ;  Hauck,  "  KirchiHgesch.  'DnasekUmds^''  second  ed.,  Bd.  I.,  5#fir. 
432-578 ;  encyclopedia  articles  on  the  persons  concerned. 

I.  Great  Romish  Missionaries. 

Reference  has  been  made  in  an  earlier  section  to  the 
efforts  of  Gregory  the  Great  to  extend  the  dominion  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  through  an  organized 
missionary  propaganda,  and  to  the  conversion  of  the 
Saxons  in  Britain  through  his  emissary,  Augustine. 
Within  a  few  years  a  well-organized  and  well-equipped 
State  Church,  enthusiastically  devoted  to  Rome  and  the 
pope,  had  been  developed  in  the  extensive  Saxon 
dominions.  Large  numbers  of  monasteries  had  been 
formed,  in  which,  as  in  the  similar  institutions  of  the  Iro- 
Scottish  Christians,  zeal  for  learning  was  combined  with 
missionary  enthusiasm.  Nowhere  during  the  seventh 
and  eighth  centuries  was  Roman  Catholicism  so  vigorous 
and  aggressive  as  in  Britain.  It  was  from  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  monasteries  that  most  of  the  great  missionaries  to 
the  continent  of  Europe  went  forth,  and  to  them  Charle- 
magne was  to  look  for  leaders  in  the  great  educational 
movement  that  he  inaugurated  in  the  early  years  of  the 
next  period. 

(i)  Augustine.  An  account  has  already  been  given  of 
his  attempt,  first  by  diplomacy  and  afterward  by  armed 
force,  to  subject  the  ancient  British  Christians  to  the 

1  Sm  the  monastic  rules  of  Columban  in  critical  text  edited  by  SeebM*.  *•  "  *•*•" 
ukri/if.  Kircb9»g€scb.r  1896.  S»t.  axS.  m«. 


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4l6  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.1IL 

Roman  Church  and  to  the  newly-Christianized  Saxons. 
An  estimate  of  his  character  as  a  missionary  may  here' 
be  given.  Having  succeeded  in  winning  to  the  Catholic 
faith  King  Ethelbert,  which  virtually  meant  the  winning 
of  his  entire  people,  he  returned  to  Gaul,  where  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  wish  of  Gregory  the  Great  he  was 
consecrated  '*  Archbishop  for  the  English  people/'  No- 
vember, 597.  In  601  Gregory  granted  him  a  pall,  gave 
him  directions  for  drawing  up  a  liturgy,  and  counseled 
the  establishment  of  several  other  dioceses  (London, 
York,  etc.). 

If  complete  success  in  the  accomplishment  of  a  vast 
undertaking  is  a  criterion  of  greatness,  Augustine  was 
assuredly  a  great  missionary.  But  if  we  are  to  judge  of 
him  by  his  correspondence  with  Gregory  the  Great,  the 
impression  is  by  no  means  so  favorable.  It  is  taken  up 
largely  with  the  asking  of  paltry  questions  as  to  the  con- 
duct of  his  work,  which  a  great  enlightened  Christian 
leader  might  have  been  expected  to  settle  promptly  and 
independently.  In  nothing  do  we  see  more  clearly  the 
fundamental  difference  between  the  Romish  missionary 
and  the  Iro-Scottish  than  in  the  scrupulosity  with  which 
the  former  looked  to  Rome  for  directions  in  the  most 
trivial  matters.  A  spirit  of  abject  obedience  to  his  great 
superior  characterized  the  work  of  Augustine  from  be- 
ginning to  end.  This  presupposed  as  the  guiding  prin- 
ciple of  his  life,  he  did  his  work  with  the  utmost  fidelity 
and  with  remarkable  success.  "At  his  coming  in  597 
the  English  people  were  entirely  heathen  ;  when  he  died 
the  Church  of  the  English  was  an  accomplished  fact."* 
But  it  must  not  be  overlooked,  as  the  author  just  quoted 
also  points  out,  that  "a  very  large  part  of  England — 
possibly  the  larger  part — was  converted  from  the  north," 
that  is,  by  the  Iro-Scottish  missionaries.'  Augustine  died 
in  604. 

(2)  IVillibrard,  Under  the  Merovingian  rulers  of  the 
first  half  of  the  seventh  century,  Lothair  II.  and  Dago- 
bert  1.,  the  people  of  Friesland  were  to  some  extent 
brought  under  the  influence  of  Christianity ;  but  the 
temporary  decline  of  the  Prankish  power  led  to  the 

1  CoUias,  "  The  Beeinaings  of  Eng.  Christianity.'*  p.  T^  *  Md,,  p^^,m§. 

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CHAP.  111.]   RISE  AND  GROWTH  OF  PAPAL  POWER  417 

throwing  off  of  the  government  and  the  religion  of  their 
oppressors.    It  is  not  likely  that  the  Catholic  evangeliza- 
tion of  the  Frisians  had  ever  gone  very  far,  and  the 
number  that  had  been  brought  under  the  influence  of 
the  Iro-Scottish  missionaries  was  probably  small.    In 
690,  the  year  of  Willibrord's  arrival  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Rhine,  the  land  was  virtually  heathen.  Willibrord,  b.  658 
in  Northumberland,  England,  son  of  an  Anglo-Saxon  re- 
ligious enthusiast  and  ascetic  named  Wilgils,  was  brought 
up  in  a  monastery  that  had  been  founded  by  King  Alch- 
frid  for  Iro-Scottish  monks  but  had  been  transferred  by 
him  to  Wilfrid,  a  zealous  Catholic.     In  678  he  left  Ripon, 
probably  on  account  of  the  expulsion  of  Wilfrid  by  the 
king,  and  betook  himself  to  Ireland,  where  he  spent 
twelve  years  under  the  guidance  of  the  noted  ascetic 
leaders,  Egbert  and  Wigbert.     By  Egbert  he  was  sent  in 
690,  with  eleven  companions,  for  the  conversion  of  the 
Frisians.    The  Franks,  under  Pepin,  had  just  restored, 
in  a  measure,  their  authority  over  the  Frisians,  and  were 
ready  to  give  protection  and  support  to  the  Anglo-Saxon 
missionaries.     But  the  subjugation  of  the  liberty-loving 
people  had  intensified  their  hatred  of  Christianity  (Ro- 
man Catholicism),  and  Willibrord  felt  that  the  chances 
were  small  of  winning  them  to  the  faith.   He  first  betook 
himself  to  Pepin  to  consult  about  the  work  to  be  under- 
taken and  the  means  to  be  employed.     Afterward  he 
visited    Rome   in    order  to  secure   papal  co-operation. 
Armed  with  the  authority  of  the  Prankish  king  and  the 
pope,  he  returned  to  his  work,  and  by  693  the  success  of 
the  missionaries  had  been  so  great  that  they  chose  one 
of  their  number,  Suidbert,  bishop,  and  sent  him  to  Eng- 
land to  be  ordained  by  Wilfrid.   This  seems  to  have  been 
displeasing  to  Pepin,  who  insisted  that  Willibrord  should 
be  the  religious  leader,  and  should  proceed  to  Rome  for 
ordination  as  archbishop  of  Prankish  Priesland  (695). 

Willibrord  had  been  brought  up  to  regard  the  authority 
of  the  pope  as  supreme,  and  on  this  occasion  he  put 
himself  absolutely  at  the  disposal  of  the  Roman  pontiff, 
sought  his  permission  to  enter  upon  the  work  of  evangel- 
izing the  Frisians  and  his  blessing  upon  the  work,  and 
obtained  from  him  relics  for  the  churches  to  be  founded. 
The  Anglo-Saxons  were  at  this  time  far  in  advance  of 


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4l8  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IJL 

the  Prankish  Christians  in  their  zeal  for  papal  authority 
as  well  as  in  missionary  enthusiasm  and  in  learning. 

Returning  to  Friesland  fully  equipped  with  royal  and 
papal  authority  and  support,  the  work  of  organizing  an 
ecclesiastical  system,  building  churches,  educating  min- 
isters, etc.,  advanced  with  wonderful  rapidity.  Pepin 
believed  that  in  no  way  could  his  political  authority  be 
rendered  so  stable  as  by  the  establishment  of  organized 
Christianity  in  obedience  to  himself  and  the  pope,  and 
he  bestowed  unsparingly  of  his  means  for  the  promotion 
of  the  work  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  missionaries.  Willibrord 
and  his  associates  did  not  confine  their  propaganda  to 
Prankish  Priesland,  but  the  neighboring  regions  of  Ger- 
many were  also  brought  under  their  influence. 

The  independent  portion  of  Priesland  repelled  with 
decision  every  effort  for  their  evangelization,  identifying, 
as  they  did,  Christianity  with  Prankish  dominion.  Wil- 
librord's  efforts  for  the  conversion  of  the  Danes  were  not 
more  successful.  But  so  great  was  his  zeal  that  no  fail- 
ure could  quench  it.  In  the  island  of  Heligoland  he 
sought  to  break  down  the  superstition  of  the  natives  by 
baptizing  a  convert  in  a  sacred  spring  and  narrowly 
escaped  the  fury  of  the  outraged  mob. 

That  the  success  of  Willibrord  and  his  associates  was 
chiefly  external  and  material,  and  that  the  masses  of  the 
Prisians  were  still  bitterly  antagonistic  to  Prankish  rule 
and  political  Christianity,  became  fully  manifest  after  the 
death  of  Pepin  (714).  The  Prisians  joined  hands  with 
the  enemies  of  Charles  Martel,  the  Prisian  church  organ- 
ism fell  to  pieces,  Willibrord  fled  the  country,  priests 
were  hunted  down,  many  church  buildings  were  de- 
stroyed, and  relapse  into  paganism  was  almost  complete. 

A  change  in  political  conditions  enabled  Willibrord  to 
return  to  his  work  with  the  full  support  of  Charles  Mar- 
tel, who  had  re-established  his  authority  in  Priesland. 

In  734  Charles  Martel  subjugated  the  independent 
Prisians,  destroyed  their  pagan  sanctuaries  and  forced 
Christianity  upon  the  population. 

Willibrord  died  in  739,  having  been  permitted  to  see 
the  whole  of  Priesland  brought  into  subjection  to  the  hu- 
man hierarchy,  and  nominally  Christian.  But  a  general 
return  to  heathenism  succeeded  his  death. 


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CHAP.IIL]   RISE  AND  GROWTH  OF  PAPAL  POWER  419 

(3)  "Boniface  (Winfrid).  Of  still  greater  importance  was 
the  work  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  monk  Winfrid,  commonly 
known  as  Boniface,  "the  Apostle  of  the  Germans/'  Son 
of  a  Wessex  noble  (born  c.  672),  he  early  left  his  uncon- 
genial home  to  enter  a  monastery  at  Exeter,  situated  on 
the  border  between  the  Saxon  and  the  British  populations. 
The  Abbot  Wynbert  was  devout  and  learned  and  was 
often  employed  by  the  king  in  drafting  public  documents. 
Winfrid  made  rapid  progress  in  learning  and  enjoyed  the 
favor  of  the  archbishop  and  the  nobles.  He  had  already 
been  entrusted  with  important  diplomatic  work,  and  had 
he  chosen  to  remain  in  England  a  distinguished  career 
would  almost  certainly  have  been  open  to  him.  His  gifts 
were  those  of  an  ecclesiastical  statesman. 

But  the  missionary  enthusiasm,  characteristic  alike  of 
the  Iro-Scottish  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  Christians  of  this 
age,  impelled  him  to  turn  his  back  upon  fatherland  and 
politico-ecclesiastical  position  and  to  devote  his  life  unre- 
servedly to  the  Christianization  of  the  heathen  peoples 
of  the  Continent.  He  had  become  thoroughly  imbued 
with  the  idea  that  the  well-being  of  Christendom  depends 
upon  the  unity  of  the  church  under  the  lordship  of  the 
pope,  and  he  believed  that  the  most  expeditious  way  of 
securing  the  conversion  of  pagan  peoples  was  by  bringing 
them  into  subjection  to  Catholic  princes  and  compelling 
them  to  abandon  all  idolatrous  practices  and  to  accept 
outwardly  at  least  the  forms  of  Christianity. 

He  visited  Rome  (718),  entered  into  the  most  confi- 
dential relations  with  Gregory  II.,  and  received  from  him 
authority  to  conduct  missionary  work  among  the  heathen 
populations  of  Germany.  He  undertook  to  administer 
baptism  according  to  the  Roman  custom  and  to  refer  aU 
difficulties  that  might  arise  to  Rome.  He  had  already 
conceived  the  idea  of  a  thoroughly  organized  and  mag- 
nificently equipped  German  Church  in  complete  subjec- 
tion to  the  papacy. 

Thuringia  was  already  to  a  considerable  extent  Chris- 
tian, but  a  large  proportion  of  the  churches  were  of  the 
Iro-Scottish  type  and  did  not  recognize  the  authority  of 
Rome,  while  heathen  rites  were  still  openly  performed 
by  the  pagan  population.  Boniface,  as  a  papal  emissary, 
sought  by  negotiations  with  the  nobles  and  clergy  to 


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420  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.ni 

secure  the  prohibition  of  independent  form's  of  Christi- 
anity and  of  pagan  practices. 

Next  he  visited  Charles  Martel  in  order  to  secure  his 
co-operation  in  the  work  of  ecclesiastical  reformation  in 
Thuringia.  But  his  work  in  Thuringia  was  interrupted 
by  what  seemed  to  him  a  providential  opportunity  for 
successful  work  among  the  Frisians  in  the  death  of  King 
Radbod,  the  enemy  of  Prankish  rule  and  religion. 

For  three  years  (719-722)  he  labored  under  Willibrord 
and  received  further  preparation  for  his  work  in  Southern 
and  Central  Germany.  Willibrord  sought  to  make  him 
a  bishop  and  connect  him  permanently  with  the  Frisian 
work  ;  but  he  preferred  to  labor  elsewhere. 

Hesse  for  a  time  occupied  his  attention.  Here  the 
mass  of  the  population  was  still  pagan  and  had  suffered 
greatly  from  Saxon  incursions.  Boniface  and  his  associ- 
ates knew  how  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  wretched  con- 
dition of  the  people.  Living  in  the  most  abject  poverty, 
they  went  from  place  to  place  preaching  the  gospel,  or 
what  purported  to  be  such,  and  multitudes  professed  con- 
version and  were  baptized  into  the  Roman  Catholic  faith. 
Never  did  Boniface  labor  with  greater  success. 

Throughout  his  career  he  kept  in  the  closest  touch 
with  the  pope,  professing  complete  dependence  and  un- 
conditional obedience,  and  asking  for  minute  instructions 
with  regard  to  every  important  proceeding.  Revisiting 
Rome  after  the  Hessian  mission,  he  received  episcopal 
consecration  and  was  clothed  with  all  needful  authority 
for  the  great  work  he  was  about  to  undertake  (722  or 

723). 

The  work  laid  out  for  him  by  the  pope  was  the  con- 
version of  the  remaining  heathen  in  the  eastern  Frankish 
provinces  and  the  subjugation  to  Rome  of  all  erroneous 
forms  of  Christianity.  Not  only  were  there  large  num- 
bers of  Christians  of  the  Iro-Scottish  type  in  these 
regions,  but  many  of  the  Frankish  Catholics  fell  far 
short  of  Boniface's  ideal  of  true  obedience  to  the  pope. 
Charles  Martel  seconded  his  efforts  with  money,  lands, 
and  military  force.  His  brethren  in  England  supported 
his  mission  with  money,  books,  and  workers<r<^ast 
Franconia,  Bavaria,  Thuringia,  and  Hesse  were  the 
principal  scenes  of  his.  activity. 


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CHAP.  III.]    RISE  AND  GROWTH  OF  PAPAL  POWER  42 1 

By  731  most  of  the  Christian  opposition  to  papal  au- 
thority in  these  provinces  had  been  overcome  and 
heathenism  had  been  forcibly  suppressed.  Vast  num- 
bers of  churches  and  monasteries  had  been  erected,  im- 
mense territorial  possessions  had  been  acquired,  and 
southern  and  central  Germany  had  been  covered  by 
organized  Roman  Catholicism/  He  was  now  consecrated 
archbishop  by  Gregory  111.  (732),  and  a  number  of  well- 
endowed  bishoprics  were  established  :  four  in  Bavaria, — 
Salzburg,  Freising,  Passau,  and  Regensburg  (739),  and 
four  in  Central  Germany, — ^Wiirzburg,  Buraburg,  Erfurt, 
and  Eichstadt  (742).  The  principal  monasteries  founded 
under  Boniface  were  those  at  Erfurt,  Fritzlar,  Ohrdurf, 
Bishofsheim,  Homburg,  and  Fulda. 

In  743  the  archiepiscopal  dignity  was  definitely  affixed 
to  the  See  of  Mainz.  With  Mainz  as  his  center  of  ad- 
ministration, he  supervised  ecclesiastical  matters  from 
Cologne  to  Switzerland  and  from  Austria  to  Belgium. 

In  744  Boniface,  with  the  co-operation  of  Pepin  III., 
assembled  a  synod  for  West  Franconia  at  Soissons, 
which  condemned  the  chief  opponents  of  the  organized 
Catholicism  for  which  he  stood,  enacted  laws  for  the 
abolition  of  many  ecclesiastical  abuses,  and  in  general 
confirmed  Boniface's  policy  of  a  unified  and  organized 
ecclesiastical  system  supported  by  the  Prankish  rulers 
and  absolutely  obedient  to  the  pope.  Twenty-three 
bishops  were  present,  besides  a  number  of  civil  dignita- 
ries.   Pepin  gave  legal  force  to  the  decrees  of  the  synod. 

In  747  he  assembled  his  last  synod,  in  which  the  com- 
plete subjection  of  the  German  Church  to  Rome  was,  if 
possible,  still  more  energetically  expressed. 

In  753  the  aged  missionary  laid  aside  his  archiepiscopal 
dignity,  appointed  Lullus,  a  faithful  disciple,  to  adminis- 
ter the  affairs  of  the  German  Church,  and  once  more 
went  forth  to  evangelize  the  heathen.  Friesland  had  re- 
lapsed into  heathenism,  and  It  was  his  earnest  desire  to 
win  it  to  Christ  and  the  church.  His  labors  were  not 
crowned  with  success,  and  in  755  he  was  murdered  by 
the  heathen. 

The  greatness  of  the  achievements  of  this  Anglo-Saxon  mission- 
ary is  undeniable.  That  he  was  an  ecclesiastical  statesman  of  the 
first  rank  must  be  admitted  by  all.    That  he  was  an  intolerant  and 


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422  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [per.  IIL 

bigoted  papist,  and  that  he  subordinated  everything  dse  to  the 
securing  of  papal  dominion,  is  clear  from  his  own  writings  and  the 
writings  of  tils  contemporaries.  It  is  doubtful  whether  any  pope  did 
so  much  for  the  advancement  of  papal  absolutism  as  did  tnis  Anglo- 
Saxon  monl<.  Circumstances  were  no  doubt  favorable  lust  at  this 
time  for  the  completion  of  the  Christianization  and  the  politico- 
ecclesiastical  organization  of  Germany ;  but  only  a  man  of^  genius 
could  have  wrought  the  wonderful  changes  that  occurred  In  the 
generation  722-75  5.  That  he  extirpated  a  large  amount  of  Christian 
life  of  a  more  evangelical  type  than  his  own,  and  that  he  Incorpo- 
rated in  his  politico-ecclesiastical  system  a  vast  amount  of  unre- 
generate  pagan  life,  is  certain.  Whether  he  is  to  be  regarded  as  a 
benefactor  or  a  malefactor  will  depend  upon  our  opinion  as  to  the 
desirability  or  the  undesirability  of  a  State-Church  system  covering 
the  whole  ground  and  bringing  the  entire  population  under  its  influ- 
ence. The  establishment  of  such  a  system,  in  complete  subjection 
to  the  pope,  was  in  Boniface's  opinion  the  means  by  which  pagan- 
ism and  heresy  could  best  be  overcome  and  Christianity  made  tri- 
umphant 


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CHAPTER  IV 

THE  CHRISTIAN  WORLD  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  PERIOD 

I.  THE  EAST  AND  THE  WEST 

DIFFERENCES  between  Oriental  and  Occidental  Chiris- 
tianity  have  been  repeatedly  referred  to  in  the  foregoing 
chapters.  These  differences  were  no  doubt  due  in  part 
to  ethnological  characteristics  which  science  has  as  yet 
only  partially  explained,  and  in  part  to  the  different 
social  and  political  conditions  by  which  Christianity  was 
environed  in  the  East  and  the  West  respectively.  The 
East  had  been  covered  and  exploited  by  great  despotisms 
for  thousands  of  years,  and  civilization  was  already  in  a 
stagnant  and  declining  state  when  Christianity  appeared. 
The  Macedonian  empire  had  spread  the  civilization  of 
Greece  and  had  awakened  a  considerable  amount  of 
intellectual  activity.  The  Roman  rule  had  given  a 
measure  of  temporary  relief  to  the  Eastern  peoples  from 
galling  oppression.  But  the  Roman  Empire  itself,  espe- 
cially after  the  time  of  Constantine,  had  taken  on  the 
character  of  an  Oriental  despotism,  and  there  was  no 
place  for  aggressiveness  in  Christian  life  and  thought. 
The  Eastern  empire  not  only  lost  its  control  of  Italy, 
Northern  Africa,  the  Mediterranean  Islands,  lllyricum, 
and  of  course  the  provinces  of  Western  Europe,  through 
barbarian  conquest,  but  the  encroachments  first  of  the 
Persians  and  afterward  of  the  Saracens  had  by  the  end 
of  this  period  restricted  its  dominion  to  Asia  Minor, 
Thrace,  a  portion  of  Macedonia,  and  a  portion  of  Greece. 
The  narrowing  of  the  empire  involved  the  gradual  re- 
ceding of  Christian  influence  from  the  alienated  territory. 
The  Christianity  of  the  East  was  already  too  corrupt 
and  unaggressive  to  make  any  serious  efforts  at  winning 
the  conquerors,  and  was  content  to  be  tolerated  and  to 
become  still  further  fossilized  by  inactivity.  It  is  one  of 
the  strangest  and  saddest  facts  of  history  that  the  land 

4^3 


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424  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  Ill 

that  gave  birth  to  Christianity,  and  the  lands  in  which 
the  apostles  labored  so  abundantly,  should  have  become 
so  completely  lost  to  Christian  influence  as  now  to  con- 
stitute mission  fields  of  the  most  discouraging  character. 

In  the  West,  on  the  other  hand,  the  dissolution  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  while  it  was  accompanied  by  a  decline  of 
learning  and  a  temporary  loss  of  much  of  the  older  civil- 
ization, was  succeeded  by  the  rapid  growth  of  a  new  and 
better  civilization  made  iip  of  the  remnants  of  the  Graeco- 
Roman,  of  the  institutions  of  the  vigorous  and  aggressive 
and  liberty-loving  Teutonism  of  the  conquering  tribes, 
and  of  Christianity  corrupted  but  still  aggressive  and 
ready  for  every  opportunity  to  increase  its  influence. 
The  readiness  with  which  the  Teutonic  peoples  accepted 
Christianity  in  the  form  in  which  it  was  presented  to 
them  is  as  remarkable  as  the  utter  insusceptibility  to 
Christian  influence  of  the  Oriental  conquerors  of  the 
Eastern  empire.  The  Prankish  empire,  at  the  close  of 
this  period  (under  Charlemagne)  embracing  the  territory 
now  covered  by  Italy,  France,  Belgium,  Switzerland,  the 
Netherlands,  and  a  large  part  of  that  covered  by  Ger- 
many and  Austria,  was  in  the  closest  alliance  with  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  wished  to  be  regarded  as 
the  Holy  Roman  Empire.  Still  more  remarkable  is  it  that 
Christianity,  an  Oriental  religion,  should  have  had  its 
chief  development  among  Occidental  peoples. 

The  period  closes  with  Eastern  Christianity  divided 
into  several  parties,  each  contending  most  strenuously 
for  some  minute  point  of  doctrine  and  anathematizing 
the  rest  and  all  alike  tending  to  become  stagnant,  and 
with  Western  Christianity  tending  to  become  uniform, 
with  a  powerful  and  comprehensive  organization,  and 
with  the  great  mass  of  the  population  of  central  and 
western  Europe  already  nominally  Christian  and  ready 
to  be  molded  by  the  powerful  hierarchy  that  centered  in 
Rome. 

A  few  more  definite  points  of  comparison  between  East- 
ern and  Western  Christianity  may  not  be  out  of  place. 

I.  doctrinal  Development.  The  Eastern  theology  was 
speculative  and  transcendental  (Origenistic,  Arian,  Apol- 
linarian,  Nestorian,  Eutychian,  Monothelite  controversies) 
and  Eastern  theologians  took  little  interest  in  the  great 


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CHAP,  IV.]  CHRISTIAN  WORLD  AT  CLOSE  OF  PERIOD      425 

practical  anthropological  questions  that  agitated  the  West 
(Pelagian  and  Semi-Pelagian  controversies).  The  interest 
of  the  West  In  the  great  Christological  controversies  was 
slight  and  almost  limited  to  their  practical,  political  as- 
pects. Greek  theology  received  its  character  largely 
from  Greek  philosophy ;  Latin  theology  was  greatly  in- 
fluenced by  Koman  law. 

2.  Church  Polity.  The  Eastern  churches  did  little  after 
the  Nicene  age  in  the  way  of  developing  church  polity. 
The  emperors,  beginning  with  Constantine,  undertook 
the  control  of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  and  there  was  little 
opportunity  for  initiative  on  the  part  of  prelates.  For 
imperial  purposes  it  was  convenient  to  have  the  ecclesi- 
astical system  center  in  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople ; 
but  this  official  was  the  creature  of  the  emperor  and  could 
be  deposed  at  his  will.  The  development  of  the  Roman 
hierarchy  was  rapid  and  striking  and  constitutes  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  features  of  Western  Christianity. 

3.  Monastidsm.  Nothing  better  illustrates  the  funda- 
mental differences  between  Eastern  and  Western  Chris- 
tianity than  a  comparison  of  Eastern  and  Western  mo- 
nasticism.  Monasticism,  as  an  outgrowth  of  the  ascetical 
spirit,  was  a  product  of  Eastern  Christianity  influenced 
by  Oriental  pagan  practices  and  modes  of  thought.  East- 
ern monasticism  was  intensely  ascetical  and  in  its  better 
form  contemplative  and  speculative ;  but,  like  Oriental 
Christianity  in  general,  it  soon  became  stagnant  and  de- 
void of  initiative.  Missionary  zeal  has  been  manifest 
among  Oriental  monks  only  in  isolated  cases  and  in 
slight  measure.  In  the  West,  great  monastic  orders,  like 
the  Benedictines,  spread  themselves  over  Europe  and 
became  the  pioneers  of  civilization.  The  aggressive 
work  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  from  the  time  of 
Gregory  the  Great  has  been  done  almost  exclusively  by 
monks.  Whenever  an  emergency  has  arisen  that  exist- 
ing orders  have  seemed  incapable  of  meeting,  new  orders 
have  sprung  into  existence  peculiarly  adapted  to  the 
work  to  be  done.  No  such  phenomenon  appears  In  con- 
nection with  Eastern  monasticism,  where  all  is  stagna- 
tion. 

4.  The  Ordinances.  The  Eastern  Church  was  content 
to  perpetuate  the  stage  of  development  that  had  been 


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426  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.nL 

reached  Dy  the  Nicene  age.  Trine  immersion  was  still 
almost  universal  at  that  time.  This  became  the  stere- 
otyped form  in  the  Eastern  Church,  whereas  the  West- 
ern Church  has  felt  perfectly  free  to  vary  the  mode  of 
baptism  to  suit  its  convenience.  The  use  of  the  cup  by 
the  laity  and  infant  communion  have  been  perpetuated 
by  the  Eastern  Church,  but  disused  by  the  Western.  In 
its  doctrine  and  its  practice  with  regard  to  the  ordinances 
the  Western  Church  has  allowed  itself  the  utmost  free- 
dom, while  the  Eastern  has  adhered  rigorously  to  the 
teaching  and  practice  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries. 
So  also  in  confirmation,  extreme  unction,  and  other  rites. 

5.  Liturgical  Development.  Here  also  the  Eastern 
Church  has  remained  almost  stationary  since  the  fifth 
century,  but  the  Western  has  allowed  itself  the  utmost 
freedom  in  the  development  of  its  forms  of  worship  and 
in  its  use  of  church  music. 

6.  The  Use  of  Painting  and  Sculpture  for  Religious  Pur- 
poses.  It  has  been  noticed  that  early  Christianity  rejected 
entirely  the  use  of  art  in  connection  with  religion.  With 
the  paganization  of  Christianity  came  the  use  of  images 
of  Christ,  the  Virgin  Mary,  the  apostles,  and  noted  saints 
and  martyrs,  and  this  use  of  images  became  scarcely  dis- 
tinguishable from  pagan  idolatry.  The  great  uprising  in 
the  East  against  image  worship  (Iconoclastic  contro- 
versy), under  Persian  and  Mohammedan  influence,  was 
settled  by  the  triumph  of  image  worship.  The  Oriental 
Church  restricted  the  use  of  Images  to  pictorial  represen- 
tations, and  these  to  conventionalized  forms.  The  result 
has  been  the  mechanical  reproduction  of  the  representa- 
tions of  Christ,  Mary,  the  apostles,  etc.,  that  were  in  use 
at  the  time  of  the  controversy.  These  inartistic  pictures 
are  still  regarded  with  the  greatest  reverence. 

In  the  West  little  interest  was  taken  in  the  Iconoclastic 
controversy,  and  pictures  were  freely  used,  not,  It  was 
said,  to  be  worshiped,  but  as  a  means  of  commemorating 
the  deeds  of  the  heroes  of  the  faith,  and  instructing  and 
inspiring  the  people.  They  were  regarded  as  useful  but 
not  necessary,  and  the  reverence  paid  to  them  probably 
fell  considerably  short,  in  most  minds,  of  idolatry.  The 
Roman  Catholic  Church  has  not  conventionalized  its  im- 
ages, and  allows  the  fullest  scope  to  the  genius  of  painters 


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CHAP.  IV.]  CHRISTIAN  WORLD  AT  CLOSE  OF  PERIOD      427 

and  sculptors  alike  in  idealizing  the  lineaments  of  Christ 
and  the  saints.  While  the  use  of  images  in  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  can  scarcely  be  regarded  as  free  from 
superstition  and  idolatry,  it  has  never  sunk  so  low  as  the 
iconolatry  of  the  East.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  has 
from  the  Middle  Ages  onward  been  a  chief  promoter  of 
art. 

7.  Eastern  and  Western  Sects.  In  the  earlier  time 
Gnosticism,  Ebionism,  Montanism,  Manichaeism,  Sabel- 
lianism,  and  Arianism,  all  had  their  origin  and  chief  devel- 
opment in  the  East,  whereas  Novatianism  and  Donatism 
were  the  products  of  the  West.  Early  Eastern  sects  were 
speculative,  early  Western  sects  were  practical  in  their 
origin  and  in  their  tendency.  Out  of  the  great  Christo- 
logical  controversies  of  the  East  grew  a  number  of  mu- 
tually antagonistic  parties  or  denominations :  Nestorians, 
Monophysites  (Jacobite,  Coptic,  and  Abyssinian  divi- 
sions), Maronites,  Gregorians  (orthodox  Armenian  Chris- 
tians), which  at  the  time  of  their  separation  each  became 
fossilized  and  practically  insusceptible  of  further  internal 
development  or  of  modification  by  external  religious  in- 
fluences. 

In  the  West  the  case  is  quite  different.  The  older 
parties  gradually  vanished  in  the  face  of  organized  Ca- 
tholicism. Donatism  persisted  with  vigor  in  Northern 
Africa  until  the  Arianized  Vandals  broke  its  power. 
Arianism,  that  had  won  to  Christianity  the  Teutonic 
tribes  (Goths,  Vandals,  Franks,  etc.),  speediiy  disap- 
peared through  the  diplomacy  of  the  bishops  of  Rome. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  Arianism  as  a  speculative  form  of 
Christianity  ever  had  any  foothold  among  the  Teutonic 
peoples.  It  happened  to  be  the  form  in  which  Christi- 
anity was  first  presented  to  them,  its  general  features 
were  in  accord  with  their  modes  of  thought,  and  it  was 
made  acceptable  to  them  by  the  bearing  of  its  preachers. 
But  these  rude  peoples  were  little  concerned  about  the 
metaphysical  subtleties  that  agitated  the  East.  When 
interest  demanded  co-operation  with  the  bishop  of  Rome, 
the  princes  were  ready  to  drop  Arianism  and  with  their 
people  to  become  Catholics.  Pelagianism  can  scarcely 
be  said  to  have  become  organized  into  a  sect.  The  same 
{s  true  of  Priscillianism.    The  ancient  Celtic  Christians 


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428  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IU 

(British  and  Iro-Scottish)  represented,  as  compared  with 
the  Roman  Catholicism  of  the  time,  an  earlier  stage  of 
Christian  development  under  different  surroundings,  and 
they  long  strenuously  opposed  the  pretensions  of  the 
popes  and  sought  to  propagate  their  more  primitive  type 
of  Christianity  on  the  continent  of  Europe.  But  these 
too  were  obliged  to  yield  to  the  aggressive  politico- 
ecclesiastical  organization  that  had  its  center  in  Rome 
and  its  head  in  the  papacy. 

By  the  close  of  the  present  period  organized  opposition 
to  ecclesiastical  unity  and  centralized  ecclesiastical  gov- 
ernment was  almost  at  an  end.  Corruption  and  oppres- 
sion in  ecclesiastical  life  and  administration  would  here- 
after provoke  widespread  revolt,  and  evangelical  parties 
almost  exterminated  in  the  onward  sweep  of  the  great 
politico-ecclesiastical  organism  would  reappear  later  with 
vigor  and  effect.  But  for  the  time  Catholic  unity  was 
well-nigh  realized  in  the  West,  while  Eastern  Christi- 
anity was  hopelessly  divided  and  without  a  great  central- 
izing force. 

II.  LITERATURE  AND  LEARNING. 

The  intellectual  and  literary  activity  that  marked  the 
close  of  the  preceding  period  received  a  great  impetus 
from  the  favorable  conditions  attending  the  conversion 
of  Constantine  and  the  ultimate  union  of  Church  and 
State.  In  the  East  appeared  great  theologians,  like 
Eusebius,  Athanasius,  Apollinaris,  Theodore  of  Mopsues- 
tia,  Theodoret  of  Cyrus,  Cyril  of  Alexandria,  Basil, 
Gregory  Nazianzen,  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  Chrysostom, 
and  John  of  Damascus,  the  greatest  systematizer  of 
the  period.  The  theological  schools  of  Alexandria 
and  Antioch  flourished,  and  new  ones  were  founded  at 
Edessa  and  Nisibis.  But  many  Christian  students  of 
position  and  means  were  not  content  with  the  learning 
to  be  acquired  in  Christian  institutions,  but  resorted  to 
great  pagan  teachers  at  Athens,  Alexandria,  and  else- 
where. 

The  West  produced  such  theologians,  preachers,  and 
religious  leaders  as  Ambrose,  Augustine,  Pelagius,  Julian 
and  Ccelestius  (Pelagians),  Faustus  (Manichsean),  and 
Leo  the  Great  and  Gregory  the  Great. 


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CHAP.  IV.]  CHRISTIAN  WORLD  AT  CLOSE  OF  PERIOD      429 

From  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  learning  steadily 
declined  in  the  West,  while  in  the  East  intellectual  stag- 
nation set  in  and  little  of  value  was  produced. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  Christians  became  the  chief  con- 
servators of  learning  and  of  missionary  enthusiasm  for 
the  West.  The  most  noted  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  theolo- 
gians of  this  period  are  the  Venerable  Bede  (d.  735)  and 
Alcuin  (d.  804).  A  certain  amount  of  educational  work 
was  carried  on  in  the  monasteries  throughout  the  East 
and  the  West,  but  nowhere  with  such  vigor  as  in  Eng- 
land and  Ireland  at  the  close  of  this  period. 

A  comparatively  rich  hymnology  grew  up  during  this 
period  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  churches  alike.  Among 
the  most  noted  of  the  Greek  hymnists  are  Anatolius 
(died  c.  458),  John  of  Damascus  (died  c.  780),  and  Cos- 
mas  of  Jerusalem  (died  c.  760).  John  and  Cosmas  were 
foster-brothers,  members  of  the  same  monastery,  and 
closely  associated  in  literary  labors.  They  were  extreme 
ascetics,  zealous  saint-worshipers,  and  enthusiastic  oppo- 
nents of  iconoclasm. 

Among  the  Latin  hymnists  of  this  period  may  be 
mentioned  Ambrose  of  Milan  (d.  397),  Venantius  Fortu- 
natus  (died  c.  609),  Gregory  the  Great  (d.  604),  and  the 
Venerable  Bede. 

For  full  bibliography  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  hym- 
nology of  the  period  see  Schaff,  Vol.  IV.,  p.  402,  seq. 
and  416,  seq. 

III.  CHURCH  DISCIPLINE. 

I.  In  proportion  as  the  churches  drew  into  their  mem- 
bership masses  of  unregenerate,  half-pagan  people,  and 
accorded  church  privileges  to  those  baptized  in  infancy 
without  any  profession  of  conversion,  did  the  difficulty 
of  controlling  the  churches  increase.  It  was  natural 
that  the  higher  ecclesiastical  authorities  should  provide 
the  local  priests  with  minute  directions  regarding  the 
punishment  to  be  inflicted  upon  persons  of  every  condi- 
tion for  offenses  of  every  description.  The  disciplinary 
rules  drawn  up  from  time  to  time,  before  and  after  the 
beginning  of  the  present  period,  gradually  assumed  a 
systematized  form  in  the  *'  Penitential  Books.''  Among 
the  earliest  books  of  this  kind  was  that  of  Columban,  the 


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430  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  Ill 

Iro-Scottish  missionary,  already  referred  to.  Corporal 
punisliment  was  prescribed  for  the  sliglitest  infringement 
of  the  rules. 

One  of  the  most  interesting'  of  the  Penitential  Books  is  that  of 
Theodore,  archbishop  of  Canterbury  (66^-690).  It  prescribes  depo- 
sition for  persistent  drunkenness  on  the  part  of  bishops,  thirty  days 
penance  for  the  drunken  monk,  forty  for  the  drunken  presbyter  or 
deacon,  fifteen  for  a  drunken  layman,  allowance  being  made  for  un« 
due  susceptibility  to  the  influence  of  intoxicants  caused  by  lone 
abstinence,  and  for  festival  occasions.  Fornication,  incest,  and  aD 
sorts  of  unnatural  sins  are  punished  with  penance  extending  from 
forty  days  to  twenty-two  )rears,  and  even  to  the  end  of  life.  The 
form  of  penance  was  prescribed  by  the  priest,  and  consisted  in  some 
sort  of  self-denial  and  deprivation  of  church  privileges,  according  to 
the  heinousness  of  the  offense.  This  Penitential  Book  contains  also 
minute  directions  regarding  the  treatment  of  theft,  homicide,  heresy, 
and  perjury,  deposition  from  the  ministry,  bars  to  ordination,  com- 
munion, idolatry,  etc. 

2.  Canon  Law.  Long  before  the  union  of  Church  and 
State,  ecclesiastical  canons  had  been  drawn  up  and  were 
in  common  use.  Each  great  section  of  Christendom  had 
canons  of  its  own,  but  the  interchange  throughout  the 
churches  of  the  Roman  Empire  was  so  close  that  con- 
siderable uniformity  of  practice  resulted.  The  so-called 
Apostolic  Canons  were  in  common  use  as  early  as  the 
fourth  century.  The  general  councils  from  Nicaea  on- 
ward furnished  a  large  amount  of  canonical  material. 
In  the  sixth  century  John  the  Scholastic  made  a  digest  of 
ecclesiastical  law,  incorporating  the  ecclesiastical  legisla- 
tion of  Justinian.  In  the  West,  near  the  close  of  the 
fifth  century,  Dionysius  Exiguus,  a  learned  monk,  made 
a  very  full  collection,  containing  not  only  canons  of 
councils  and  apostolic  canons,  but  also  decretals  of 
popes.  Isidore  of  Seville  (seventh  century)  added  to 
this  work  from  later  decretals  and  other  sources. 

3.  Means  Employed  for  Enforcing  Ecclesiastical  Decisions. 
The  possession  of  the  power  of  the  keys  gave  to  the 
hierarchy  the  prerogative  of  admitting  to  church  privi- 
leges or  excluding  from  them.  It  was  believed  that  out 
of  the  church  there  is  no  salvation.  Hence  permanent 
exclusion  from  church  privileges  meant  loss  of  salvation, 
and  temporary  exclusion  involved  more  or  less  peril. 
Excommunication  was  one  of  the  most  terrible  penalties 


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CHAP.  IV.]   CHRISTIAN  WORLD  AT  CLOSE  OF  PERIOD      43 1 

that  could  be  inflicted.  When  accompanied,  as  was  often 
the  case,  with  anathema,  its  terror  was  intensified.  The 
use  of  the  interdict,  involving  the  prohibition  of  religious 
services  (including  marriage  and  burial,  but  not  baptism 
and  extreme  unction)  in  an  entire  community,  was  fre- 
quently resorted  to  in  order  to  enforce  ecclesiastical  de- 
crees on  an  unwilling  community,  or  to  punish  offenses  in 
which  a  large  part  of  the  community  was  implicated. 
These  penalties  were  inflicted  far  more  commonly  and 
effectively  in  the  succeeding  period  :  but  they  were  the 
recognized  weapons  of  the  hierarchy  long  before  the 
close  of  the  present  period. 

IV.  MOHAMMEDANISM  AS  A  RIVAL  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

Just  as  Christianity  was  mastering  the  barbarian  peo- 
ples and  preparing  the  way  for  a  politico-ecclesiastica/ 
organization  that  should  cover  and  control  Europe,  there 
arose  in  the  East  a  politico-religious  organism  that  was 
within  a  few  years  to  expand  to  immense  proportions, 
greatly  narrow  the  boundaries  of  Eastern  Christendom, 
erect  an  effectual  barrier  against  any  further  Christian 
aggression  in  the  East,  and  dispute  with  Christianity  the 
possession  of  Europe  itself. 

I.  Rise  of  Mohammedanism.  Arabia  was  inhabited  by 
star-worshiping  Semites,  with  an  intermingling  of  half- 
heathen  Jews  and  Christians.  It  appears  that  the  Arabs 
of  the  sixth  century  generally  recognized  Abraham  as  their 
father,  although  they  were  hostile  to  their  Jewish  and 
Christian  neighbors.  Mecca  was  their  sacred  city  and  the 
Kaaba  (a  small  temple  containing  the  Black  Stone)  their 
chief  sanctuary.  They  had  the  characteristics  of  the  mod- 
ern Arab,  and  were  admirably  fitted  to  become  the  follow- 
ers of  a  religious  fanatic  in  a  career  of  conquest.  Moham- 
med (born  c.  570,  of  a  young  widow),  epileptic  in  child- 
hood, brought  up  without  education  by  relatives,  came 
into  close  touch  with  Christianity  and  Judaism  during  a 
commercial  journey  to  Syria  with  an  uncle.  He  was 
employed  during  his  early  manhood  in  caravans  and  as 
a  shepherd.  When  twenty-five  years  of  age  he  married 
a  rich  widow,  Chadijah,  who  was  ready  to  believe  in  his 
visions  and  to  forward  his  plans  for  founding  a  new  re- 
ligion.  During  the  fifteen  years  that  intervened  between 


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432  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.nL 

his  marriage  and  his  definite  entrance  on  a  prophet's 
career  he  was  subject  to  frequent  attacks  of  epilepsy, 
which  he  at  first  attributed  to  demoniacal  possession,  but 
afterward  to  divine  agency.  He  became  filled  with  en- 
thusiasm for  monotheism  and  hatred  of  idolatry,  and  in 
6io  professed  to  have  been  commanded  by  God  through 
the  angel  Gabriel  to  *'  cry  in  the  name  of  the  Lord." 

After  struggling  for  some  time  against  his  convictions, 
he  entered  upon  his  career.  His  first  three  years  were 
devoted  to  the  conversion  of  family  and  friends.  Next 
he  preached  to  the  pilgrims  resorting  to  Mecca,  de- 
nouncing idolatry  and  incurring  considerable  persecution. 
In  622  he  was  forced  to  fly  from  the  wrath  of  the  pagan 
Arabs  to  Medina  (the  Hegird),  where  multitudes  accepted 
him  as  prophet  and  lawgiver.  By  624  he  had  resolved 
to  subdue  the  world  to  his  monotheistic  faith  and  with 
an  army  of  three  hundred  and  five  enthusiasts  he  de- 
feated double  the  number  of  pagan  Arabs.  His  motto 
soon  became  *'  Islam,  tribute,  or  the  sword."  No  quarter 
was  to  be  given  to  persistent  infidels,  but  Christians  and 
Jews  were  in  many  cases  tolerated  on  their  consenting 
to  pay  tribute.  Those  who  submitted  were  usually  in- 
spired with  his  enthusiasm  and  were  ready  to  take  up  the 
sword  for  Islam.  Jewish  and  Christian  communities 
were  attacked  and  six  hundred  resisting  Jews  were  mas- 
sacred in  a  single  day,  the  women  and  children  being 
enslaved. 

In  630  he  entered  Mecca  with  a  considerable  army,  de- 
stroyed the  three  hundred  and  sixty  idols  in  the  I^ba, 
and  secured  recognition  as  the  leader  of  the  Arabs.  The 
discordant  and  unorganized  tribes  of  Arabia  were  thus 
welded  into  a  nation  and  filled  with  enthusiasm  for  the 
destruction  of  idolatry  and  for  universal  conquest. 

During  these  twenty  years  Mohammed  had  professed 
to  be  receiving  revelations  from  time  to  time,  which  he 
dictated  to  his  followers  and  which  became  the  Koran. 
He  died  in  632  as  he  was  planning  a  great  campaign 
against  the  Eastern  empire. 

2.  Principles  of  Mohammedanism.  These  are  fully  em- 
bodied in  the  Koran  and  exemplified  in  the  history  of 
Mohammedan  conquest,  rule,  and  life,  (i)  Monotheism 
occupies  the  foremost  place.    The  oneness  and  soleness 


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CHAP.  IV.]  CHRISTIAN  WORLD  AT  CLOSE  OF  PERIOD  '    433 

of  God  are  in  the  Koran  continually  asserted.  *'  There  is 
no  god  but  Allah,  and  Mohammed  is  his  prophet/'  This 
abstract  monotheism  was  maintained  in  opposition  not 
only  to  polytheism  but  also  to  Christian  trinitarianism. 
God  is  thought  of  as  omnipotent  and  omniscient,  as  a 
despotic  ruler  mercilessly  smiting  down  his  opponents, 
and  as  fate  compelling  all  things  to  fulfill  his  will ;  but 
his  love  and  his  fatherhood  are  practically  ignored,  and 
no  provision  for  the  redemption  of  mankind  appears. 

(2)  Jesus  is  recognized  as  Messiah  and  prophet,  but  his 
deity  Is  repudiated  as  involving  blasphemy.  His  super- 
natural birth  and  his  miracles  are  admitted.  He  was  not 
crucified  in  reality,  but  taken  up  by  God  into  Paradise. 
Mohammed  claimed  to  be  the  Paraclete  promised  by 
Jesus. 

(3)  Ethics.  Resignation  to  the  will  of  God  is  the  chief 
virtue.  Prayer,  fasting,  almsgiving,  abstinence  from  pork 
and  wine  (and,  of  course,  alcoholic  drinks  of  every  kind), 
are  insisted  upon.  Polygamy  and  concubinage  were 
practised  by  Mohammed  and  are  encouraged.  Slavery 
is  approved  and  practised.  War  to  the  death  against  un- 
believers is  a  sacred  duty.  Those  who  die  in  fighting  for 
the  faith  are  supposed  to  enter  at  once  upon  a  glorious 
existence  in  which  sensual  delights  abound.  No  system 
has  ever  made  men  more  enthusiastic  or  readier  to  lay 
down  their  lives  for  its  promotion.  No  system,  it  is 
probable,  hardens  men  more  effectually  against  the  in- 
fluence of  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

3.  Achievements  of  Mohammedanism  before  the  Close  of 
this  Period.  The  successors  of  Mohammed  entered  at 
once  upon  the  world-conquest  that  he  died  too  soon  to 
accomplish.  Palestine,  Syria,  and  Egypt  were  speedily 
overrun,  and  thousands  of  Christian  churches  destroyed 
or  turned  into  mosques.  Constantinople  narrowly  es- 
caped falling  into  their  hands  (668  and  717)  The  East- 
ern empire  had  become  so  weakened  by  internal  corrup- 
tion, barbarian  invasion  on  the  west  and  Persian  attacks 
on  the  east,  and  by  long-continued  religious  controversy, 
that  it  was  unable  to  cope  with  so  vigorous  and  deter- 
mined a  foe.  Persecuted  Christian  parties  were  in  many 
cases  willing  to  aid  the  Saracens  against  their  Christian 
oppressors.    Toleration  was  granted  to  such  Christians 

2C 


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434  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  HL 

and  Jews  as  would  recognize  their  sovereignty  and  pay 
tribute.  In  707  Northern  Africa  fell  into  their  hands. 
Four  years  later  they  occupied  the  southern  portion  of 
Spain  and  established  the  califate  of  Cordova,  subju- 
gating the  Visigoths.  In  732  they  crossed  the  Pyrenees 
and  threatened  to  overthrow  the  Prankish  kingdom  and 
to  use  St.  Peter's  in  Rome  as  a  stable  for  their  horses. 
Their  ambition  was  boundless  and  they  believed  that  no 
power  on  earth  could  stay  their  progress.  They  were 
defeated  by  Charles  Martel  and  their  conquest  in  the 
West  was  brought  for  centuries  to  a  period. 

In  the  East  they  overran  Persia,  Afghanistan,  and  part 
of  India,  and  soon  brought  to  the  front  as  enthusiastic 
fighters  for  Islam,  the  Turks,  who  have  since  figured  so 
prominently  in  political  and  religious  history. 

For  an  admirable  account  of  Mohammedanism  in  its  relation  to 
Christianity  and  a  full  bibliography,  see  Schaif,  Vol.  IV.,  pp.  I4^- 
201.  The  best  translation  of  the  Koran  with  introduction,  etc.,  is 
that  by  Palmer,  in  *'  Sacred  Books  of  the  East."  See  also  Muir, 
''  The  Coriln :  Its  Composition  and  Teaching ;  and  the  Testimony 
it  bears  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,**  third  ed.,  1878;  Sprenger,  ^*T)as 
LehiH  und  di$  Ukr$  d$s  Mohammad"  ;  Bosworth  Smith,  "  Mohammed 
and  Mohammedanism";  Stobart,  *Mslam  and  its  Founder";  and 
encyclopedia  articles  on  **  Mohammed,"  *' Mohammedanism.' 
'*  Islam,"  etc. 


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PERIOD  IV 

FROM  THE  CORONATION  OF  CHARLEMAGNE 

AS  EMPEROR  OF  THE  ROMANS  TO  THE 

OUTBREAK  OF  THE  PROTESTANT 

REVOLUTION  (800-1517) 


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CHAPTER  I 

SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIiCVAL  CIVILIZATION 

I.  PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS 

I.  The  Constituent  Elements  ofMediasval  Civili^^ation 

Considerable  progress  had  already  been  made  by  the 
beginning  of  the  ninth  century  in  the  blending  of  the 
Christianized  Graeco-Roman  civilization  with  the  modes 
of  thought  and  life  and  the  social  and  political  institutions 
of  the  Teutonic  peoples. 

Monkish  missionaries  had  been  the  chief  agents  in 
disseminating  throughout  Teutonic  Europe  the  form  of 
Christianity  that  had  resulted  from  the  conversion  of  the 
Roman  empire  by  Christianity  in  its  Graecised  form. 
Teutons  had  for  centuries  fought  against  the  Romans 
and  had  learned  much  about  the  empire  and  its  institu- 
tions from  this  hostile  contact.  They  had  afterward 
filled  the  Roman  armies  and  had  thus  come  into  still 
more  effective  contact  with  this  great  civilized  power. 
Roman  military  and  administrative  posts  throughout  the 
conquered  territories  had  also  exerted  their  influence. 
But  more  efficient  than  all  was  the  covering  of  heathen 
Europe  with  monastic  mission  stations,  which  not  only 
won  the  people  to  a  nominal  adherence  to  Christianity 
and  familiarized  them  with  its  teachings,  but  which  made 
them  acquainted  with  the  arts  and  sciences,  as  they  were 
understood  at  the  time,  and  transformed  heathen  hordes 
into  civilized  communities. 

It  was  political  shrewdness  quite  as  much  as  religious 
zeal  that  led  the  Prankish  kings  to  bestow  so  much  of 
wealth  and  effort  on  the  conversion  of  the  Teutonic  peo- 
ples and  the  establishment  of  a  well-endowed  and  com- 
[>rehensive  hierarchical  system  throughout  their  domains, 
n  no  other  way  could  they  hope  to  accomplish  so  much  in 
the  direction  of  welding  the  peoples  into  a  political  unity 
and  securing  an  efficient,  centralized  civil  administration. 

437 


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438  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

If  they  were  over  sanguine  as  regards  the  possibility  of 
maintaining  a  great  empire  made  up  of  heterogeneous 
and  partially  civilized  peoples,  they  at  least  adopted  the 
most  efficient  means  within  their  reach  to  the  end  in 
view.  Mediaeval  civilization  was  essentially  the  outcome, 
as  suggested,  of  the  blending  of  Christianized  Graeco- 
Roman  civilization  with  Teutonism  ;  but  its  course  was 
to  a  considerable  extent  modified  by  the  Saracen  (Arabic) 
and  the  Turkish  conquests  and  contact. 

2.  The  Middle  Ages  a  Period  of  Progress. 

It  is  a  grave  mistake  to  regard  the  Middle  Ages  as  a 
period  of  stagnation  or  retrogression.  If  we  compare  the 
best  Christian  life  that  we  know  of  in  the  ante-Nicene 
age  with  the  corrupt  Roman  Catholicism  of  the  present 
period,  the  latter,  of  course,  appears  at  a  great  disadvan- 
tage. But  when  we  remember  that  outside  of  the  hier- 
archical churches  there  were  throughout  the  Middle  Ages 
in  the  East  and  the  West  vast  numbers  of  evangelical 
Christians,  and  that  inside  of  the  established  churches 
even  at  their  most  corrupt  estate  a  large  number  of 
earnest  Christians  were  to  be  found,  it  can  hardly  be 
asserted  that  Christianity,  on  the  whole,  lost  ground. 
But  the  achievements  of  Christianity  during  this  period 
appear  to  still  greater  advantage  If  we  compare  the  bar- 
barian Europe  of  the  fifth  century  with  the  Christianized 
and  educated  Europe  of  the  sixteenth.  Christianized 
Roman  law  took  the  place  of  the  law  of  wager,  the 
ordeal,  torture,  and  the  wergeld}  Life  and  property 
became  reasonably  secure.  Industrial  development  and 
organization  made  wonderful  strides.  Commerce  de- 
veloped to  world-wide  proportions.  Great  cities,  with 
magnificent  architecture,  were  built  up  from  the  Mediter- 
ranean to  the  Baltic,  in  England,  and  throughout  the 
Danubian  Valley.  Almost  every  important  town  had  its 
university  and  education  was  becoming  widely  diffused. 
There  remained  much  of  ecclesiastical  corruption  and  in- 
tolerance and  much  of  political  and  social  oppression  and 
injustice,  which  modern  Christianity  is  gradually  elim- 

*  Money  compensatloa  for  the  maiming:  or  the  killing  of  a  person,  which  was  HmU 
an  advance  on  the  older  law  of  reuliation. 


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CHAP.  I.]  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIiCVAL  CIVILIZATION   439 

inating;  but  the  Middle  Ages  represent  the  transition 
period  from  the  earlier  barbarism  to  modern  civilization. 

There  was  retrogression  in  the  East,  caused  chiefly  by  the  gradual 
encroachment  of  the  Saracens  and  the  Turks  on  the  Christianized 
Grsco-Roman  civilization  of  the  Eastern  empire  and  the  ultimate 
extinction  of  the  latter. 

II.  THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE. 

LITERATURE:  Bryce,  "The  Holy  Roman  Empire";  Emerton, 
''  Introd.  to  the  Study  of  the  Middle  Ages  "  :  Adams, ''  Hist,  of  Civ- 
ilization dur.  the  Middle  Ages  " ;  Guizot, ''  Hist,  of  Civilization  " ; 
Haliam, "  The  Middle  Ages '* :  Greenwood, "  Cathidra  Pari"  ;  Mil- 
man,  "Lat.  Christianity" ;  Giesebrecht,  **  Gesch,  d.  dmischitt  Kau 
s^teit " ;  Hauck,  '*  Kirchingisch.  Diutschkmds  " ;  Stephens,  ''  HIide- 
brand  and  his  Times";  Balzini,  ''The  Popes  and  the  Hohen- 
staufen";  Raumer,  ''Gssch.  d.  HotUnstaufm*^ ;  Fisher, ''The  Me- 
diaeval Empire,"  id^S. 

I.  The  Idea  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire.  The  coronation 
of  Charlemagne  by  the  pope,  December  25,  8cx),  was  a 
great  event  from  a  political  no  less  than  from  an  ecclesi- 
astical point  of  view.  The  grandeur  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire and  the  legality  and  stability  for  which  it  stood  had 
made  a  profound  impression  on  the  Teutonic  peoples. 
With  the  decline  and  at  last  the  virtual  extinction  of  the 
authority  of  the  Eastern  empire  in  Italy  and  the  growth 
of  Prankish  influence  throughout  Europe,  it  was  natural 
that  the  greiatest  of  the  Prankish  rulers,  having  been  in- 
vited to  Italy  by  the  pope  again  and  again  to  guard  the 
papal  estates  from  the  Lombards,  and  having  become  the 
virtual  ruler  of  Italy,  should  think  it  worth  his  while  to 
assume  along  with  his  imperial  authority  the  dignity  and 
the  name  of  Roman  Emperor.  At  one  time  he  had  strong 
hopes  of  extending  his  dominion  over  the  Eastern  empire 
by  marriage,  alliance,  or  conquest. 

That  he  should  have  been  willing  to  receive  his  crown 
at  the  hands  of  the  pope  is  easily  comprehensible.  Por 
a  long  time  the  pope  had  been  the  chief  representative 
of  the  old  imperial  power  in  Italy.  A  firm  alliance  had 
long  existed  between  Charlemagne's  predecessors  and 
himself  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  popes  on  the  other,  for 
the  mutual  advancement  of  each  other's  interests.  He 
had  becpme  seized  with  the  idea  of  a  Holy  Roman  Empire, 


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440  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PEItlV. 

co-ordinate  with  the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  each  having 
world-wide  dominion,  each  advancing  the  interests  of  the 
other,  each  supreme  within  its  own  sphere,  and  both  to- 
gether bringing  peace  and  the  blessings  of  civilization  to 
all  mankind.  We  have  seen  how  essential  he  regarded 
the  conversion  to  Christianity  of  conquered  peoples,  and 
how  ready  he  was  to  aid  in  the  organization  and  the  en- 
dowment of  provincial  churches. 

This  idea  of  a  Holy  Roman  Empire  and  a  Holy  Catholic 
Church  was  a  grand  and  impressive  one  and  was  prob- 
ably never  lost  sight  of  even  in  times.of  most  complete 
disintegration. 

It  should  be  remarked  that  while  pope  and  emperor  were  wQUng  to 
rule  the  world  conjointly,  and  each  was  desirous  of  the  aid  of  the 
other,  neither  was  willing  to  recognize  the  supremacy  of  the  other, 
and  each  was  inclined,  when  occasion  offered,  to  assert  his  own  supt- 
riority.  Charlemagne's  idea  of  the  relation  of  the  pope  to  the  em- 
peror and  the  emperor  to  the  pope  was  based  upon  that  of  Moses  to 
Aaron.  He  presided  over  an  ecclesiastical  council  which  legislated 
in  important  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  in  civil  matters.  He  did  not 
hesitate  to  take  strong  ground  in  the  matter  of  image  worship 
against  popes  and  councils.  He  appointed  bishops  and  abbots  with 
the  utmost  freedom. 

Charlemagne  was  succeeded  by  Louis  the  Pi6us  (814-840),  who 
though  far  weaker  than  Charlemagne,  and  greatiy  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  clergy.  Insisted  on  recognition  of  the  imperial  right  to 
control  the  church.  He  claimed  a  veto  power  on  the  appointment  of 
popes,  and  rebuked  Paschal  I.  for  falling  to  recognize  this  right. 
Pooe  Eugene  II.  (824-827)  compelled  the  Roman  clergy  to  take  the 
oatn  of  allegiance  to  the  emperor.  Louis  In  turn  confirmed  the  terri- 
torial grant  and  other  privileges  that  the  popes  had  received  from  his 
predecessors. 

Louis  published  a  constitution  in  which  he  defined  the  relations  of 
the  Imperial  and  papal  governments.  He  simply  formulated  the 
principles  that  underlay  me  policy  of  Charlemagne,  the  Imperial  su- 
premacy being  carefully  guarded. 

2.  TTie  Dismemberment  of  the  Empire. 

The  sons  of  Louis  (Lothair,  Louis,  and  Charles)  were 
placed  by  him  in  positions  of  administrative  responsibility. 
They  were  given  the  almost  independent  control  of  vast 
territorial  possessions.  Upon  Lothair  he  bestowed  the 
imperial  dignity.  He  could  not  satisfy  them.  They  re- 
belled against  him.  He  was  compelled  to  abdicate,  but 
was  afterward  restored.    He  became  a  mere  tool  of  con- 


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CHAP.  I.]  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDI/EVAL  CIVILIZATION    441 

tending  factions.  The  bishops  forced  him  to  do  penance 
in  a  humiliating  way.  War  broI<e  out  shortly  after  his 
death. 

The  Partition  of  Verdun  (843)  gave  to  Charles  the  Bald 
Neustria  and  Aquitania ;  to  Lothair  a  narrow  strip  ex- 
tending from  the  North  Sea  to  the  Mediterranean,  to 
Louis  the  territory  east  of  the  Rhine  within  the  Prankish 
domain.  Lothair  retained  the  title  of  emperor.  His  do- 
main was  soon  divided  into  three  kingdoms,  Italy,  Bur- 
gundy, and  Lotharingia  (Lorraine).  The  imperial  sceptre 
passed  to  Charles  the  Fat  (881)  and  with  him  virtually 
ended  the  Carlovingian  empire  (888).  The  process  of 
disintegration  went  rapidly  forward  and  Europe  was  di- 
vided into  a  multitude  of  petty  sovereignties  with  mutu- 
ally antagonistic  interests  and  policies. 

3.  The  Restoration  of  the  Empire  by  Otho  the  Great. 

By  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century  feudalism  had  com- 
pleted its  disintegrating  work  and  the  former  domains  of 
Charlemagne  were  in  a  most  deplorable  condition.  Bryce 
has  concisely  described  the  situation  as  follows : 

The  Saracen  wasted  the  Mediterranean  coasts  and  sacked  Rome 
herself.  The  Dane  and  Norsemen  swept  the  Atlantic  and  the  North 
Sea,  pierced  France  and  Germany  by  their  rivers,  burning,  slaying, 
carrymg  off  into  captivity ;  pounng  through  the  straits  of  Gibraltar, 
they  fell  upon  Provence  and  Italy.  By  land,  while  Wends  and 
Czechs  and  Obotrites  threw  off  the  German  yoke  and  threatened 
the  borders,  the  wild  Hungarian  bands,  pressing  in  from  the  steppes 
of  the  Caspian,  dashed  over  Germany  line  the  fiving  spray  of  a  new 
wave  of  barbarism,  and  carried  the  terror  of  their  batue-axes  from  the 
Apennines  to  the  ocean.  Under  such  strokes  the  already  loosened 
fabric  quickly  dissolved.  .  .  The  grand  vision  of  a  universal  Chris- 
tian empire  was  utterly  lost  in  the  isolation,  the  antagonism,  the  in- 
creasing localization  of  all  powers :  It  might  seem  to  have  been  but  a 
passing  gleam  from  an  older  and  better  world. 

Henry  the  Fowler,  a  descendant  of  Charlemagne  (fe- 
male line),  stayed  the  destructive  forces  by  driving  away 
the  Magyars  and  the  Wends  and  introducing  administra- 
tive order  in  Lotharingia.  He  died  just  as  he  was  about 
to  seek  the  imperial  crown  at  the  hands  of  the  degenerate 
papacy.  Otho  the  Great,  who  succeeded  Henry  (936), 
carried  forward  the  work  of  reconstruction,  and  by  962 


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442  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IV 

was  in  a  position  to  restore  order  in  Italy,  where  anarchy 
had  long  prevailed,  and  to  receive  the  imperial  crown 
from  a  pope  whom  he  afterward  condemned  and  deposed. 
His  claim  to  be  emperor  rested  on  the  fact  that  he  was 
master  of  Germany  (or  a  considerable  part  of  it)  and  that 
he  was  in  a  position  to  control  Italy. 

Henry  had  been  only  a  rough  barbarian  warrior,  im- 
moral, illiterate,  without  any  appreciation  of  culture  or  of 
the  proprieties  of  life ;  but  deliberate  and  foresighted  in 
political  affairs.  Otho  was  a  man  of  marked  independ- 
ence, wearing  his  beard  in  disregard  of  the  prevailing 
usage,  and  in  general  careless  of  conventionalities ;  but 
fond  of  pageantry  (as  in  his  coronation  at  Aix  and  at 
Rome)  and  ambitious  to  emulate  the  glories  of  Charle- 
magne. It  was  not  so  much  a  care  for  religion  as  a  desire 
to  bring  order  into  his  domains  that  led  him  to  interest 
himself  in  ecclesiastical  reforms.  He  paid  far  more  atten- 
tion than  his  predecessors  had  paid,  or  were  in  a  position 
to  pay,  to  the  qualifications  of  bishops  and  abbots,  and 
insisted  strenuously  on  the  right  of  investiture,  the  be- 
stowal on  the  newly  appointed  bishop  of  the  shepherd's 
staff  as  a  symbol  of  his  right  to  rule  his  flock,  accom- 
panied by  the  bishop's  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  king. 

The  contest  regarding  investiture  between  popes  and 
civil  rulers  was  to  be  bitterly  waged  for  many  years  and 
formed  a  marked  feature  of  the  later  history. 

Otho  and  his  successors  utterly  failed  to  re-establish 
the  empire  of  Charlemagne:  Europe  had  become  hope- 
lessly divided  into  small  political  aggregations.  France, 
itself  subdivided  into  many  more  or  less  independent 
provinces,  gradually  became  unified  and  centralized,  and 
was  unalterably  opposed  to  being  incorporated  in  a  Ger- 
man empire.  Germany  itself  was  hopelessly  divided 
and  the  rule  of  a  German  emperor  was  of  a  very  lim- 
ited and  uncertain  character.  Italy  was  and  remained 
throughout  the  Middle  Ages  and  until  very  recent  times 
divided  into  a  number  of  principalities  that  stubbornly 
resisted  all  efforts  at  amalgamation. 

The  imperial  office,  which  for  a  time  was  virtually 
hereditary,  was  nominally  elective  ;  and  in  case  a  proper 
hereditary  successor  were  not  available  or  another  ap- 
peared who  was  prepared  to  enforce  his  claini  to  leader- 


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CHAP.  I.]  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIAEVAL  CIVILIZATION    443 

ship,  actual  election  frequently  occurred.  An  emperor 
commonly  procured  the  election  of  his  eldest  son  during 
his  own  lifetime.  By  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century 
there  seems  to  have  been  a  distinct  body  of  imperial 
electors,  consisting  of  the  archbishops  of  Maintz,  Treves, 
and  Cologne,  representing  the  German  ecclesiastical 
estate,  and  the  dukes  of  Franconia,  Swabia,  Saxony,  and 
Bavaria.  The  Golden  Bull  (1356)  redistributed  somewhat 
the  electoral  franchises  and  regulated  definitely  the  elec- 
toral process.  The  ecclesiastical  electors  remained  the 
same.  The  secular  electors  were  thenceforth  the  Count 
of  the  Palatinate,  the  King  of  Bohemia,  the  Duke  of  Sax- 
ony, and  the  Margrave  of  Bradenburg. 

The  Holy  Roman  Empire  is  of  interest  to  the  church 
historian  chiefly  as  the  counterpart  of  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church.  From  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century  until 
the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  these  two  powers, 
that  were  theoretically  the  counterpart  the  one  of  the 
other,  were  for  the  most  part  in  mortal  combat.  Em- 
perors deposed  popes  and  procured  the  election  of  others 
in  their  place.  Popes  excommunicated  emperors  and  co- 
operated with  rivals  in  securing  changes  of  dynasty. 
Each  furnished  a  sort  of  check  upon  the  other  and  it  is 
probable  that  this  contest  prevented  the  triumph  of  ec- 
clesiastical absolutism  on  the  one  hand  and  of  imperial 
absolutism  on  the  other. 

III.  FEUDALISM. 

LITERATURE:  Greenwood,  Vol.  III.,  p.  61,  uq.:  Bryce,  p.  125, 
uq.  it  passim ;  Guizot.  **  Hist,  of  Civ."  Lect  IV.,  '*  Hist  of  France/' 
Vol.  I.,  p.  227,  seq. ;  May,  "  Democracy  in  Eur.,"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  232, 
237,  253,  255,  260,  ei  passim;  Blanqui,  '^  Hist,  of  Pol.  Econ.,"  p.  116, 
sea.,  155 :  *^Encyc.  Brit."  art. "  Feudalism  " ;  Hallam, "  Mid.  Ages,'^ 
Cnap.  11. ;  Hosack,  "The  Law  of  Nations,"  pp.  23, 60, 100,  uq,; 
Freeman,  "Norm.  Conq.," ^tfS5fm  (see  Index);  Kitchin,  "Hist  of 
France,"  Vol.  L,  p.  235,  uq.,  391,  seq,;  Emerton, "  Introd.  to  the 
Study  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  p.  236,  seq,:  Adams,  "  Hist  of  Civiliza- 
tion during  the  Middle  Ages/' ;  Waltz,  ^'Anfangtdir  yassalitaU''  and 
"  Dmtschi  Vtrfasstmgsgeseh.,^'  Bd.  II.,  III.,  und  iV., passim;  De  Cou- 
langes,  *' Us  Origims  du  Rigims  fuodaV^ ;  Roth,  ^' C«<:A.  d.  Bifw 
ficiahusens  "  ;  Brunner,  "  Dis  LandvirUihungtn  d,  Merovinger  u.  Karo- 
linger:' 

One  of  the  most  characteristic  institutions  of  the  early 
Middle  Ages  was  feudalism.    The  essence  of  feudalism 


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444  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

"was  the  combination  of  the  tenure  of  land  by  military 
service  with  a  peculiar  personal  relation  between  the 
landlord  and  his  tenant,  whereby  the  one  was  bound  to 
render  fatherly  protection,  the  other  aid  and  obedience" 
(Bryce).  Politically  it  might  be  defined  "  as  the  system 
which  made  the  owner  of  a  piece  of  land,  whether  large 
or  small,  the  sovereign  of  those  who  dwelt  thereon,  an 
annexation  of  personal  to  territorial  authority.  On  this 
principle  were  founded  and  by  it  are  explained  feudal  law 
and  justice,  feudal  finance,  feudal  legislation,  each  tenant 
holding  toward  his  lord  the  position  which  his  own  ten- 
ants held  toward  himself.  It  resulted  in  a  concentration 
of  power  in  the  hands  of  a  land-holding  caste.  The 
monarch  lost  his  ancient  character  as  leader  and  judge  of 
the  people,  to  become  the  head  of  a  tyrannical  oligar- 
chy."* Feudal  tenure  is  used  in  contradistinction  to  al- 
lodial possession,  or  possession  in  fee  simple.  As  a  result 
of  conquest,  etc.,  tenure  of  the  latter  kind  almost  disap- 
peared, so  that  under  Charlemagne  and  his  sons  most  of 
the  property  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  principal  followers 
and  officials  of  the  sovereign. 

I.  Feudal  Classes  and  Feudal  Terms, 

The  five  classes  of  persons  in  feudal  society  were 
Leudes,  Antrustions,  Freemen,  Serfs,  and  Freedmen. 

(i)  The  first  included  all  who  held  their  possessions 
directly  of  the  sovereign  and  constituted  the  nobility. 
Personal  performance  of  military  service  was  required  of 
all  Leudes,  whether  lay  or  ecclesiastical.  (2)  The  second 
class  embraced  the  noblest  and  most  powerful  among  the 
Leudes,  including  prelates  and  abbots.  To  these  was 
entrusted  the  matter  of  administration  of  justice,  etc. 
(3)  Freemen  included  the  first  two  classes,  and  in  addi- 
tion all  who  were  not  serfs  and  bondsmen.'  (4)  The 
Serfs  were  the  chattels  of  their  lords  and  were  bound  to 
the  soil.  (5)  Another  class,  the  Freedmen,  might  be 
mentioned.  They  had  many  of  the  privileges  of  Free- 
men though  not  all.  Both  alike,  when  landless  and  with- 
out handicrafts,  were  abject  and  dependent. 

1  Bryc«,  p.  X*},  s<f.  >  Gr««nwoe4.  Vol.  HI.,  p.  tt,  scf. 


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CHAP.L]  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIiCVAL  CmUZATION    445 

2.  The  Elements  of  Feudalism .^ 

The  forms  assumed  by  feudalism  dilffered  greatly  at 
different  periods  and  in  different  countries.  It  would  be 
difficult  to  describe  feudalism  in  general  terms  in  a  way 
that  would  be  universally  applicable.  The  following 
particulars  regarding  feudal  tenure  are  characteristic  of 
the  system  as  a  whole : 

(i)  Terms  of  Service.  The  holding  of  land  upon  terms 
of  service  (in  beneficium)  applied  whether  the  land  was 
bestowed  originally  as  a  fief  or  was  placed  by  the  original 
owner  under  the  guardianship  of  a  more  powerful  land* 
owner  (in  commendam). 

(2)  Vassalage.  Those  receiving  land  as  fiefs  or  com- 
mending land  to  more  powerful  owners  for  protection 
undertook  to  serve  the  feudal  lord  with  their  lives.  The 
act  by  which  they  became  vassals  was  known  as  ''hom- 
age (from  homo  J  man) ;  they  became  the  men  of  the 
superior. 

(3)  Immunity.  A  person  becoming  a  vassal  and  the 
holder  of  a  fief  secured  in  the  contract  immunity  from 
any  kind  of  interference  with  the  government  of  the 
estate  beyond  what  was  implied  in  the  vassalage.  Apart 
from  the  service  due  to  the  higher  lord  he  became  abso- 
lute sovereign  within  the  territory  acquired.  Bishops 
and  abbots  as  well  as  secular  nobles  received  vast  grants 
of  land  in  which  absolute  sovereignty,  apart  from  the 
service  of  the  king,  was  guaranteed.  This  immunity  in- 
volved, the  right  to  maintain  an  army,  to  administer 
justice,  and  to  raise  money  at  his  own  pleasure  for  any 
purpose  whatsoever. 

Holders  of  large  fiefs  could,  by  submfiudaiitm^  subdivide  their  terri- 
tory on  precisely  similar  terms,  and  these  in  turn  could  still  further 
subdivide. 

3.  Effects  of  Feudalism  on  the  Church. 

(i)  It  retarded  the  progress  of  centralization  of  author- 
ity in  the  papacy  by  making  the  prelates  Leudes  and 
Antrustions,  who  did  homage  to  civil  rulers  for  their  pos- 
sessions, and  whose  interests  lay  in  military  and  civil 
duties  rather  than  in  ecclesiastical  aggrandizement. 

1  Co«p<n  Emerton.  "  Introd.  to  th«  Study  of  th«  Middl*  Ag«s/'  p.  949,  Mf . 


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446  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

The  Roman  bishopric  itself  was  for  a  long  time  a  bone 
of  contention  among  Italian  nobles  9nd  lost  its  prestige 
by  becoming  unspealcably  degraded  and  corrupt. 

Religious  worlc,  even  from  the  Roman  Catholic  point 
of  view,  was  greatly  neglected,  owing  to  the  absorption 
of  higher  and  lower  clergy  in  secular  affairs. 

(2)  On  the  other  hand,  feudalism  was  on  the  whole 
favorable  to  the  final  realization  of  hierarchical  power. 
It  put  the  church  in  possession  of  a  vast  amount  of  real 
property  which,  though  given  in  feudal  tenure,  could 
afterward  be  claimed  in  fee  simple. 

At  that  time  tenure  of  land  was  the  chief  means  of  ex- 
erting influence.  Apart  from  the  acceptance  of  fiefs  and 
thus  becoming  an  influential  landholder,  it  is  difficult  to 
see  how  the  church  could  have  held  its  own  in  those 
troublous  .times.  As  nearly  all  the  education  was  in  the 
possession  of  the  clergy,  their  influence  on  legislation 
and  jurisdiction  was  very  great.  The  importance  of  pre- 
lates in  civil  matters,  acquired  during  the  early  feudal 
period,  could  not  fail  to  give  a  great  advantage  to  the 
church  in  later  struggles  for  power. 

The  humane  treatment  bestowed  upon  the  serfs  and 
other  subordinates  by  the  better  class  of  prelates  con- 
trasted strikingly  with  the  cruelty  and  oppression  of  most 
of  the  lay  lords  and  made  service  under  the  former  highly 
desirable. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  strong  hold  which  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  has  always  had  upon  the  masses 
of  the  people  was  acquired  in  part  by  means  of  the  feu- 
dal relation. 

As  soon  as  the  papacy  became  somewhat  free  from 
the  interference  of  Italian  nobles,  the  claims  of  preroga- 
tive were  revived  and  made  still  stronger.  The  influence 
that  had  been  secured  over  the  masses  of  the  people  was 
of  the  utmost  value.  Prelates  having  gained  all  the  ad- 
vantages they  could  hope  to  secure  from  the  lay  lords 
grew  weary  of  subserviency  and  sought  deliverance 
through  papal  aid.  As  centralization  advanced,  the  popes 
were  able,  by  utilizing  the  vast  ecclesiastical  power  al- 
ready attained,  to  exert  a  controlling  influence  in  civi 
matters,  and  even  to  set  up  and  depose  kings  and  cip* 
perors. 


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CHAP.  l]  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDI>EVAL  CIVILIZATION    447 

IV.  CANON  LAW  AND  FORGED  DECRETALS. 

LITERATURE:  '' Corpus  Juris  Canonid'' ;  Greenwood,  Vol.  III., 
pp.  152-226;  Lea,  **  Stud,  in  Ch.  Hist.,"  pp.  44-102 ;  Hailam,  Chap. 
VlL;  encyc.  articles;  Alzog,  Sec.  186:  Janus  (Dollinger),  "'The 
Pope  and  the  Council,"  pp.  78-122 ;  Savigny,  **  G^sch,  d.  rim. 
Rechts  m  MitUlalier^^  \  Hinschius,  **  DecrttaUs  Psiuda-isidariamf  $i 
CapHula  AngilramnV^  \  Schulte,  ''Das  Kathol,  Ktrchmncht"  and 
'*  Du  Gtsch,  d.  Quillm  tf.  LUteratur  d.  Canon,  Richts  von  Gratian  bis 
mt/d.  Geiinwart^;  Phillips,  " /rfrtfA/iir«:A/ " ;  Friedberg,  '' Ktrchm- 
rukt'\'  Hinschius,'* Kirchmrfcht,*' 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  rise  and  early 
development  of  canon  law.  During  the  present  period 
It  assumed  an  importance  second  to  that  of  no  other  in- 
stitution. 

I.  The  Pseudo-Isidorian  Decretals. 

As  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  grew  more  ambitious 
and  became  more  completely  involved  in  secular  affairs, 
the  need  was  felt  of  stronger  documentary  support  for 
its  claims  than  could  be  found.  The  "  Donation  of  Con- 
stantine"  is  one  of  the  earliest  examples  of  the  manufac- 
ture of  documentary  evidence  of  a  valuable  kind.  The 
success  of  this  forgery  was  so  complete  that  it  was  sure 
not  to  be  the  last.  Here  again  we  see  the  popish  doc- 
trine that  the  end  justifies  the  means,  while  not  formu- 
lated, yet  consistently  acted  upon.  The  weakness  and 
subserviency  of  Louis  the  Pious  encouraged  the  hierarchy 
to  promulgate  one  of  the  boldest  and  most  magnificent 
forgeries  of  history.  The  **  Pseudo-Isidorian  Decretals" 
appeared  between  833  and  857.  in  the  former  year  a 
body  of  spurious  documents  was  presented  to  Pope 
Gregory  IV.  as  a  means  of  fortifying  him  in  his  proceed- 
ings against  Louis  the  Pious.  To  what  extent  these 
writings  corresponded  with  the  fully  developed  Pseudo- 
Isidorian  collection  is  uncertain.  On  the  basis  of  the 
older  Isidorian  collection,  a  vast  body  of  spurious  decre- 
tals and  patristic  citations  was  foisted  upon  Christendom. 
Many  older  forgeries,  the  "  Donation  of  Constantine,"  the 
"Canons  of  the  Apostles,"  the  "Letters  of  Clement  to 
James,"  etc.,  were  incorporated,  along  with  decretals  of 
the  popes  of  the  second  and  third  centuries,  in  which  the 
fully  developed  claims  of  the  hierarchy  are  set  forth. 


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448  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV 

The  aims  of  the  forgery  seem  to  have  been,  to  free 
bishops  from  secular  jurisdiction  and  to  give  them  juris- 
diction in  secular  as  well  as  in  ecclesiastical  matters ;  to 
free  bishops  from  dependence  on  metropolitans  and  pro- 
vincial synods ;  and  to  establish  for  bishops  the  unlim- 
ited right  of  appeal  to  Rome,  the  center  and  source  of 
ecclesiastical  authority.  It  is  probable  that  the  forgeries 
did  not  emanate  from  Rome  ;  but  Rome  was  not  slow  to 
utilize  them. 

2.  Canon  Law  versus  Civil  Law. 

Canon  law  grew  more  and  more  influential  and  im- 
portant as  the  papal  power  and  ambition  increased.  Ec- 
clesiastical courts  of  every  grade  corresponding  with  civil 
courts  and  culminating  in  the  Roman  Curia,  the  "Court 
of  Appeal  for  all  Christendom,"  came  into  the  keenest 
rivalry  with  the  civil  courts.  As  every  crime  could  also 
be  regarded  as  a  sin,  the  ecclesiastical  courts  claimed  the 
right  to  a  large  portion  of  properly  civil  jurisdiction.  The 
study  of  canon  law  became  popular  and  constituted  an 
indispensable  qualification  for  a  high  ecclesiastical  career. 
A  prelate  might  be  a  theologian,  but  he  must  be  a  canon- 
ist. Canon  law  was  from  the  beginning  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal studies  in  the  mediaeval  universities.  Bologna  was 
the  first  great  center  of  canon  law  study  and  the  Univer- 
sity of  Bologna  grew  out  of  a  private  law  school  (Roman 
civil  law).  About  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century 
Gratian,  a  monk  of  Bologna,  threw  into  systematic  form, 
after  the  example  of  the  Justinian  codification,  the  entire 
body  of  canonical  matter,  including  the  Pseudo-lsidorian 
forgeries.  The  **  Decretum  of  Gratian,"  supplemented  by 
the  "  Decretum  of  Gregory  IX."  (1234),  the  "Uber  Sex- 
tus/' of  Boniface  VIII.  (1298),  the  ^'Clementines"  (1311), 
the  **Extravagantes"  of  John  XXII.  (1316-34),  and  the 
" Extravagantes  Communes  "  (1488),  make  up  the  "Corpus 
Juris  Canonici,"  corresponding  with  the  "Corpus  Juris 
Civilis"  of  Justinian,  which  was  much  studied  in  the 
Middle  Ages. 

The  canon  law  defines  in  the  minutest  way  the  duties  and  riffhts 
of  prelates,  clergy,  monks,  nuns,  and  layment  fixing  the  penames 
for  all  transgressions.  Much  stress  is  laid  upon  pronibited  degrees 
in  matrimony,  relationships  falling  within  the  prohibited  degrees  bdng 


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CHAP.L]  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIitVAL  CIVILIZATION    449 

carefully  indicated.  The  ages  and  other  qualifications  for  the  vari- 
ous stages  of  clerical  life  are  definitely  fixed.  From  the  dealing  of 
the  hierarchy  in  general  and  the  Roman  Curia  in  particular  with 
transgressions  of  canon  law,  it  is  evident  that  the  authorities  in 
workmg  out  this  elaborate  system  were  intent  not  upon  guarding 
priests  and  people  from  sin,  but  upon  bring^ing  into  the  ecclesiastical 
courts  as  many  cases  as  possible  and  deriving  as  large  a  revenue 
and  as  much  power  therefrom  as  they  could. 

V.  THE  ROMAN  CURIA. 

LITERATURE:  Bangen,  "T).  Rom.  Kuris'' ;  Bonix.  ''T)$  Cma 
*Romana^^ ;  De  Montault,  "* La  Sacri  ColUgidis  Cardintaux^^ ;  Phil- 
lips, "  Kirchinrtcht,"  Bd.  VI.,  Ssit.  6c-^;  Bering,  '*  S^s.  d.  KtrchiH- 
Ticktes^^^  Sec.  104,  s$q, ;  art. **  Kuris"  and  "  Kardmal "  in  Herzog  and 
Wetzer  u.  Welte;  art.  "Curia"  and  "Cardinal"  in  Schaff-ffirzog 
and  McClintock  and  Strong ;  art. "  Rom.  Curia "  in  "  Cont.  Rev.." 
1874;  Alzog,  Sec.  194  and  229;  Greenwood  and  Milman,  passim; 
Gottlob,  "t/^itf  dtr  Camera  Appsioliea  des  XV,)ahrh:' ;  Woker, "  Das 
KirMichi  Fman^isen  d$r  TafsU" :  Hinschius,  **  ^Um  d,  Kathol, 
Khrchmrechtis  fur  Dmtschlandj  Th.  u^SiH.  309-498 ;  Lea, "  A  Formu- 
lary of  the  Papal  Penitentiary  in  the  Thirteenth  Century"  (Latin 
Text,  Translation,  and  Introduction).  -8€e  also  encyc.  art.  on  "  Con- 
clave," "Consistory,"  "Rota,"  "Penitentiary,"  "^Pope." 

It  is  important  that  we  should  know  something  of  the 
character  and  constitution  of  the  papal  court  that  wielded 
such  power  over  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages.  As 
early  as  the  fourth  century  the  city  of  Rome  was  divided 
for  ecclesiastical  purposes  into  twenty-five  parts,  each 
presided  over  by  a  presbyter.  Each  of  these  parishes 
was  called  a  titulus,  and  the  presbyters  were  called  in- 
titulated  presbyters.  For  charitable  purposes  the  city 
was  divided  into  seven  parts,  each  presided  over  by  a 
deacon.  In  the  eighth  century  the  suburbican  bishops 
were  added  to  these  presbyters  and  deacons,  and  from 
the  eleventh  century  the  body  thus  formed  was  known 
as  the  college  of  cardinals.  During  the  later  Middle 
Ages  many  princes  secured  the  right  to  nominate  each 
one  or  more  cardinals.  These  were  known  as  crown 
cardinals. 

The  term  cardinal  is  derived  from  cardo^  a  hinge.  It  was  applied 
in  the  early  time  to  clergy  in  general  with  regular  charges.  Gradu- 
ally its  use  became  restncted  to  the  clergy  with  regular  functions  in 
cathedral  churches,  these  churches  being  regarded  as  the  hinges  on 
which  the  other  churches  revolved.  In  the  eleventh  century  its  ap- 
plication was  still  further  limited  so  as  to  denote  the  bishops,  presby- 
ters, and  deacons  of  Rome  and  the  States  of  the  Church,  who  consti- 

aD 


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450  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

tuted  the  official  advisers  or  senate  of  the  pope  In  his  administration 
of  ecclesiastical  affairs.  ?oj>t  Leo  IX.  put  the  matter  thus :  *'  As  the 
whole  door  Is  ruled  by  the  hinRe,  so  by  Peter  and  his  successors  the 
emolument  of  the  whole  church  is  disposed.  .  .  Whence  his  clergy 
are  called  cardinals,  as  adhering  more  closely  to  that  hinge  by  which 
other  things  are  moved." 

I.  Functions  of  the  College  of  Cardinals. 

To  the  clergy  of  Rome  it  belonged  in  the  earlier  time 
to  nominate  the  bishop  of  Rome,  the  people  having  the 
right  to  vote  on  the  nomination.  Leo  the  Ureat,  Gregory 
the  Great,  and  even  Hildebrand,  were  elected  by  popular 
acclaim.  The  presbyters  and  deacons  constituted  a  sort 
of  senate  for  the  bishop  in  administering  the  affairs  of 
the  diocese.  As  the  ambition  and  power  of  the  popes 
increased,  the  business  of  the  Roman  Curia  grew  in 
amount  and  importance.  When  Rome  became  the  court 
of  appeal  for  all  Christendom  and  came  to  sustain  the 
most  multiform  and  complicated  relations  with  all  the 
civil  governments,  as  well  as  with  every  bishop  and 
abbot,  it  became  necessary  to  systematize  the  work  of 
administration.  The  college  of  cardinals  assembled  for 
business,  with  the  pope  at  their  head,  constitute  the  Con- 
sistory ;  assembled  for  the  election  of  a  pope  they  form 
a  Conclave.  The  Signature  of  Grace  and  the  Signature 
of  Justice  have  to  do,  the  former  with  all  cases  of  bind- 
ing and  loosing,  the  latter  with  appeals  from  Italy.  The 
Penitentiary  deals  with  cases  of  heresy,  indulgences, 
etc.,  in  a  more  public  way  than  the  Signature  of  Grace. 
The  Rota  is  the  supreme  court  of  appeal  for  Christendom. 
The  Datary  is  a  Board  of  control  registering  and  dating 
incoming  and  outgoing  communications.  During  the  six- 
teenth century  a  number  of  Congregations  were  formed, 
each  with  a  specialty  :  the  Congregations  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion, of  Prohibited  Books,  of  Indulgences,  etc.  In  con- 
nection with  each  of  these  courts,  congregations,  etc.,  a 
large  number  of  lawyers  and  clerks  are  employed.  The 
number  of  cardinals  has  varied  from  thirteen  to  seventy- 
six.     A  majority  are  always  Italians. 

2.  ^(elation  of  the  Curia  to  Papal  Power  and  Corruption. 

The  development  of  this  vast  mass  of  administrative 
machinery  was  in  a  sense  a  necessary  result  of  the  at- 


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CHAP.  I.]  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIAEVAL  CIVILIZATION    4$  I 

tempt  of  Rome  to  secure  universal  ecclesiastical  and  civil 
control.  For  a  time  it  contributed  greatly  to  the  consol- 
idation of  papal  power ;  but  its  maintenance  involved 
vast  expenditures  of  money  and  greatly  promoted  eccle- 
siastical corruption.  The  presence  of  this  great  ecclesi- 
astical machine  makes  all  attempts  to  reform  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  from  within  hopeless.  It  is  not  the  pope 
that  controls  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, — it  is  the  Ro- 
man Curia.  It  is  doubtful  whether  a  pope  earnestly  de- 
sirous of  reforming  the  church  in  its  head  and  members 
could  accomplish  anything  permanent  in  that  direction. 

The  Roman  Curia  was  deeply  interested,  both  financially  and 
administratively,  in  encouraging  appeals  from  all  parts  of  Chris- 
tendom. It  came  to  be  well  understood  that  the  disciplinary  de- 
cisions of  metropolitans,  abbots,  and  bishops,  could  be  easily  reversed 
in  the  Curia,  if  the  aggrieved  party  could  command  sufficient  money 
or  influence.  Bishops  appealed  against  the  censure  of  archbishops 
or  metropolitans,  lower  clergy  appealed  against  the  censure  of 
bishops,  wealthy  laymen  were  sure  of  kindly  consideration  in  Rome. 
The  benignancy  of  Rome  in  granting  dispensations  appears  very 
clearly  in  the  "Formulary  of  the  Papal  Penitentiary"  published  by 
Lea.  Bishops  who  were  disposed  to  be  rigorous  in  their  discipline 
were  helpless.  The  facility  with  which  any  sort  of  crime  was  con- 
doned by  the  Roman  Curia  had  a  piost  demoralizing  effect  on  clergy 
and  people.  It  became  evident  that  Rome  was  intent  not  on  enforcing 
the  observance  of  the  canon  law  or  even  of  ordinary  morality,  but 
rather  on  the  collection  of  fees  for  their  violation.  See  Lea's  excel- 
lent account  of  papal  dispensations  in  the  Introduction  to  the  work 
above  referred  to. 

VI.  MEDIAEVAL  MONASTICISM. 

LITERATURE:  Montalambert,  "The  Monks  of  the  West"; 
Cutts,  "Scenes  and  Char,  of  the  Mid.  Ages,"  p.  i,  stq, ;  Lacrolx, 
"  Military  and  Religious  Life  in  the  Mid.  Ages  " ;  Helyot, "  dsch.  d. 
KlosUf'  und  Rittsuardm,**  17^4 ;  Hospinlanus,  "  De  Monachis,**  1609 ; 
Lea,  "  An  Historical  Sketch  of  Sacerdotal  Celibacy  in  the  Christian 
Church,"  second  ed.,  1884;  Mohler,  '' Gtsch.  d,  Monchthums^^ 
(Sckriftm^  'Bd.  II.,  5^'/.  i6c,  sea.) ;  Hamack,  "  'Das  Monchthum,  uine 
IdioU  ».  seim  Geschichte^^ :  Base,  ** Handbuch  d.  Trot.  Tolemtk^^ 
fourtti  ed.,  StH,  Tji),  sgq. ;  Miiller,  "  'Die  Anfan&  d.  Minaritinordtns  "  ; 
Knox-Littie.  "St.  Francis  of  Assisi,"  1897 ;  Sabatler,  " Life  of  St. 
Francis  of  Assisi " ;  Heimbucher,  "  Du  Ordm  und  Congrtgaiionm  d, 
Kath.  Kircht^'^  i8g6;  Danzas,  ^*  Etudes  sur  le  Temps  primitifs  de 
fOrdre  di  St.  Domrn.,''  1873-1885  ;  Champly,  ''Hist,  de  fAbbajfede 
ClugHjfy^  1866 ;  Schultze,  "  Forschungen  per  Gesch.  d.  Klosterreform  im 
X.  Jakrh.:'  1883 ;  Neandcr, "  St.  Bernard  "  ;  Storrs, "  St.  Bernard  "  ; 
Alzog,  Sec.  2^9-2^1;  Stephen,  "Essays  in  Eccl.  Biog.,"  "St. 
Francis  of  Assisi  ^  ;  Hurter, "  Innocent  III.,"  Vol.  III.,  p.  .^37f  ssq. ; 


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452  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV 

Neander,  Vol.  IV.,  PP*  239-293 ;  encyc.  art.  on  various  orders  and 
monastic  leaders. 

No  institution  more  faithfully  reflects  the  spirit  of  me- 
diaeval Christianity  than  monasticism  as  it  appeared  in 
the  great  monastic  orders. 

I.  Fundamental  Characteristics. 

Monasticism  represents  the  externalizing,  legalistic, 
pagan  view  of  religion  as  opposed  to  a  spiritual  view.  It 
represents  asceticism,  which  nearly  all  pagan  religious 
systems  have  exalted.  It  lays  chief  stress  on  obedience 
to  authority.  It  had  completeness  of  organization.  Its 
votaries  were  enthusiastic  and  single  minded. 

2.  Reasons  far  the  Enormous  development  of  Monasttcism 
in  the  Middle  Ages. 

(i)  The  general  belief  in  the  meritoriousness  of  mo- 
nastic life.  (2)  The  perfect  adaptation  of  the  monastic 
orders  for  the  purposes  of  the  hierarchy  and  the  great 
encouragement  given  to  them  by  the  popes.  (3)  The 
disordered  state  of  Europe,  and  the  prevailing  mis^y  led 
multitudes  to  seek  refuge  in  the  monasteries  from  the 
ills  of  life.  (4)  Such  as  had  a  taste  for  learning  found  in 
the  monasteries  during  the  earlier  Middle  Ages  almost 
the  only  means  of  gratifying  this  taste.  (5)  Many  were 
brought  into  the  monasteries  through  the  enthusiastic 
advocacy  of  great  monastic  preachers  like  Benedict,  Ber- 
nard, Francis,  and  Dominic.  (6)  The  popes  favored  mo- 
nasticism by  making  the  monasteries  independent  of  the 
bishops,  by  using  monks  for  responsible  positions,  by 
giving  to  monastic  preachers  the  right  to  preach,  hear 
confessions,  etc.,  without  the  permission  of  bishops  or 
parish  clergy,  and  in  many  other  ways.  From  the  time 
of  Gregory  the  Great  onward  it  was  the  aim  of  the  more 
aggressive  popes  to  bring  the  entire  body  of  the  clergy 
into  a  monastic  mode  of  life. 

3.  Achievements  of  the  Monastic  Orders. 

(i)  They  absorbed  most  of  the  Christian  life  of  the 
age.    (2)  The  monasteries  were  the  conservatories  of 


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CHAP.  I.]  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIi€VAL  CIVILIZATION    453 

learning.  (3)  The  monks  performed  almost  all  the  mis- 
sionary work  of  the  age  and  were  foremost  in  all  kinds 
of  Christian  and  philanthropical  work.  (4)  They  were 
the  great  writers,  preachers,  philosophers,  and  theolo- 
gians of  the  age.  (5)  They  were  at  the  head  of  the  Cru- 
sades and  the  Inquisition.  (6)  The  monasteries,  owing 
to  the  great  popularity  of  monasticism,  acquired  immense 
wealth,  which  invariably  led  to  grievous  corruptions, 
necessitating  the  periodic  formation  of  new  orders  by 
those  who  wished  to  stem  the  tide  of  worldliness.  (7) 
To  the  monasteries  we  are  indebted  for  such  men  as 
Tauler,  Staupitz,  Luther,  and  Erasmus.  (8)  The  monastic 
orders  sustained  somewhat  the  same  relation  to  mediaeval 
Christianity  as  modern  denominations  sustain  to  Protes- 
tant Christianity.  They  were  characterized  each  by  a 
peculiar  type  of  life  or  doctrine.  So  long  as  absolute 
obedience  to  the  Roman  Curia  was  preserved  a  generous 
freedom  was  for  the  most  part  accorded  them  in  matters 
of  life  and  doctrine.  Apart  from  the  freedom  given  to 
peculiarities  of  life  and  doctrine  in  monastic  orders  it  is 
probable  that  a  far  larger  amount  of  earnest  Christian 
life  would  have  separated  itself  from  the  dominant 
church.  Thus  monasticism  was  a  means  of  conserving 
the  unity  of  the  hierarchical  church. 

4.  Evils  of  Monasticism. 

(i)  From  mediaeval  Catholic  sources  it  is  possible  to 
construct  a  picture  of  monastic  life  and  work  in  which 
heroism,  self-sacrifice,  industry,  zeal  for  sacred  learning, 
literary  activity,  missionary  enthusiasm,  purity  and  sim- 
plicity of  life,  and  every  moral  and  religious  virtue 
abound ;  and  a  picture  in  which  idleness,  luxury,  discon- 
tent, nameless  vices,  ignorance,  and  utter  moral  worth- 
lessness  are  the  prominent  features.  It  is  abundantly 
evident  from  monastic  literature  that  the  great  majority 
of  the  inmates  of  monasteries  represented  a  very  low 
type  of  intellectual,  moral,  and  spiritual  life.  Living  was 
beset  with  difficulties  during  the  Middle  Ages,  and  multi- 
tudes took  refuge  in  monasteries  from  the  hardships  and 
perils  of  life  with  no  thought  but  that  of  living  at  ease. 
Many  whose  lives  had  been  disreputable  sought  to  hide 
themselves  in  monasteries  from  public  contempt.    Given, 


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454  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

a  body  of  men  or  women,  many  of  them  young  and 
sensually  inclined,  the  great  mass  devoid  of  high  moral 
and  religious  principles,  all  pledged  to  celibacy,  minis- 
tered to  by  monastic  oflficials  and  by  clergy  who  in  many 
cases  set  the  example  of  vicious  living  and  were  ready 
to  debauch  their  charges,  freed  to  a  great  extent  from 
outside  observation  and  from  the  jurisdiction  of  secular 
courts,  and  the  moral  rottenness  of  mediaeval  monasteries 
can  be  easily  accounted  for.  Add  to  this  the  fact  that 
the  confessors  were  instructed  to  ask  questions  that  pre- 
supposed moral  vileness  in  each  individual  and  caused 
vice  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  slight 
disciplinary  penance  was  supposed  to  make  good  the 
gravest  breaches  of  morality,  and  especially  the  fact  that 
many  priestly  confessors  were  ready  to  use  their  power 
of  absolution  for  making  victims  of  the  weak  and  the  ig- 
norant, and  the  wonder  would  be  that  any  should  escape 
the  contagion. 

(2)  Narrowness,  bigotry,  intolerance,  avarice,  secta- 
rian zeal,  characterize  mediaeval  monasticism  at  its  best 
estate. 

(3)  While  in  the  earlier  time  monastic  colonies  were  a 
means  of  diffusing  civilization  and  were  thus  econom- 
ically valuable,  the  enormous  expansion  of  monastic  life 
was  economically  hurtful.  The  withdrawal  of  so  large 
an  amount  of  life  from  productive  activity  and  the  accu- 
mulation of  wealth  for  the  support  of  so  vast  a  popula- 
tion could  be  justified  only  on  the  ground  that  their  moral 
and  intellectual  activity  compensated  for  the  loss  to  the 
communities  in  which  they  were  situated  and  tended 
powerfully  to  make  the  lives  of  the  remaining  population 
nobler  and  more  productive.  It  is  not  probable  that  the 
monasteries  in  most  communities  were  worth  to  them 
anything  like  what  they  cost. 

(4)  Again,  the  choice  of  monastic  rather  than  domestic 
life  by  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  and  women  dimin- 
ished by  so  much  the  number  of  possible  homes  and  pre- 
vented such  a  growth  of  productive  population  as  would 
have  been  in  the  interest  of  the  countries  of  mediaeval 
Europe.  Prostitution,  illegitimate  births,  abortion,  and 
infanticide  everywhere  abounded,  largely  as  a  result  of 
monasticism  and  of  clerical  celibacy. 


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CHAP.  I.]  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIiCVAL  CIVILIZATION    45$ 

5.  Founding  and  Characteristics  of  the  Various  Orders. 

While  monasticism  had  its  rise  in  the  East,  it  had  its 
most  remarkable  development  in  the  West.  The  Bene- 
dictines established  in  529  by  Benedict  of  Nursia,  re- 
formed and  strengthened  in  817  by  Benedict  of  Aniane, 
had  a  remarkable  revival  about  the  middle  of  the  eleventh 
century.  Clugny,  founded  in  910,  was  the  great  center 
from  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century  onward.  By  the 
middle  of  the  twelfth  century  there  were  two  thousand 
convents  subject  to  Clugny,  mostly  in  France.  The  Cis- 
tercians (convent  of  Citeaux)  arose  about  1098  from  a 
desire  on  the  part  of  the  more  zealous  of  the  Benedictines 
to  escape  the  luxury  and  corruption  of  the  now  wealthy 
monasteries.  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  gave  great  lustre  to 
the  new  order  during  the  first  half  of  the  twelfth  century. 
The  Carmelites  were  founded  in  connection  with  the 
Crusades  on  Mount  Carmel  in  1209,  and  received  full 
papal  recognition  in  1224.  The  Augustinians  were 
formed  out  of  a  number  of  older  bodies  in  1244.  The 
great  preaching  orders,  the  Dominican  and  the  Francis- 
can, were  founded  during  the  early  years  of  the  thir- 
teenth century  under  Innocent  III.,  but  failed  to  receive 
unconditional  papal  approval  till  the  time  of  Honorius 
111  (the  former  in  1216,  the  latter  in  1223).  They  arose 
at  a  time  when  heresy  was  spreading  rapidly  in  France, 
Italy,  and  elsewhere,  and  constituted  the  most  effective 
agency  that  the  hierarchy  employed  to  crush  out  dissent. 
The  Franciscans  (Minorites)  represented  the  intensely 
emotional  form  of  ascetical  piety  and  sought  to  win  back 
to  the  churches  the  masses  of  the  people  through  enthu- 
siastic preaching  and  through  extreme  asceticism ;  the 
Dominicans  represented  a  more  intellectual  type  of  life 
and  work  and  were  forward  in  theological  disputation  and 
in  the  founding  and  management  of  the  Inquisition.  The 
three  great  military  orders  were  founded  in  connection 
with  the  Crusades :  the  Hospitalers  of  St.  John  the  Bap- 
tist (1092),  the  Templars  (11 18),  the  Teutonic  Knights 
(1 190).  Many  other  orders  were  founded  during  the 
Middle  Ages,  most  of  which  still  exist.  Most  of  the  or- 
ders had  related  organizations  for  women,  and  tertiaries, 
or  outside  secular  adherents. 


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4S6  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV 

VII.  THE  CRUSADES. 

LITERATURE :  Cox,  "  The  Crusades  " ;  Guizot,  "  Hist,  of  Fr.,' 
VoL  L,  pp.  296-380;  Michaud,  **  Hist,  of  the  Crusades";  Wllken, 
*'  Giscfi,  d,  Kfna{{ug0** ;  Greenwood  (see  Chronol.  Index) ;  Milman, 
Vol.  IV.,  pp.  15-67,  etc.;  Alzog,  Sec.  216;  Lane- Poole, " Saladin 
and  the  Fall  of  the  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem,'*  i8q8;  Kugler,  '*  Gfsch, 
d.  Kretai{ug$:'  1880  (from  Oncken,  "^Uggm.  Gtsch.,''  Bd.  II.) ;  Sy- 
bel,  *^  Gesch.  d,  erstsn  Krmt{{uges** ;  Hahn,  ^^  Ursofihtn  u.  Folgm  d. 
KrtuMugen" ;  Prutz, '' Kulturg^sch.  d.  Kr0ut{{iig4n,'*  1880 ;  Raumer, 
*'  Gtsch.  d,  Hoh^nstaufm^'*  Bd.  I.,  Sett.  37-^31. 

I.  Occasion  of  the  Crusades. 

(i)  The  long  series  of  religious  wars  for  the  rescue  of 
the  Holy  Land  and  the  holy  places  from  the  desecrating 
possession  of  the  enemies  of  the  cross  of  Christ  occupy  a 
position  of  great  prominence  in  the  history  of  mediaeval 
civilization.  In  a  sense  they  represent  the  reawakening 
of  the  spirit  of  adventure  and  conquest  that  had  been 
slumbering  during  the  centuries  that  followed  the  some- 
what definite  settlement  of  Europe.  Feudalism,  with  its 
subdivisions  of  territory  and  its  limitations  of  the  areas 
of  intercourse  had  greatly  hampered  and  narrowed  the 
lives  of  the  people  and  when  once  a  great  moving  cause 
for  breaking  over  territorial  bounds  and  embarking  in 
world-wide  adventure  appeared  the  masses  of  the  people 
were  likely  to  respond  with  great  enthusiasm.  The  gen- 
erally prevailing  misery  and  hopelessness  of  the  impov- 
erished classes  made  them  ready  to  grasp  at  any  oppor- 
tunity for  social  amelioration.  The  feudal  rulers  were 
finding  war  with  their  neighbors  less  and  less  profitable 
and  the  danger  of  an  overwhelming  Mohammedan  inva- 
sion from  the  East  was  constantly  before  them.  Besides, 
the  popes  were  coming  to  interfere  more  and  more  influ- 
entially  in  the  political  strifes  of  Christendom  and  were 
appropriating  to  themselves  the  advantages  that  came 
from  European  wars. 

(2)  The  conversion  of  the  Normans  to  the  Catholic 
faith  (911)  was  an  event  of  primary  importance  in  the 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  history  of  Europe.  The  rapid  ex- 
tension of  the  Norman  conquests  until  they  possessed 
not  only  a  large  part  of  France,  but  also  England  (1072) 
and  Southern  Italy,  and  the  willingness  of  Norman 
princes  like  William  the  Conqueror  and  Robert  Gulscard 


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CHAP.L]  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIiCVAL  CIVILIZATION    457 

to  recognize  the  claims  of  the  popes  and  to  co-operate 
with  them  in  their  schemes  of  aggrandizement,  raised  up 
in  the  Mediterranean  a  maritime  power,  which  along 
with  those  of  Pisa  and  Genoa,  was  deeply  interested  in 
driving  the  Saracens  from  the  western  Mediterranean 
and  in  crippling  or  destroying  their  power  in  the  East. 
The  rescue  of  Sicily,  Sardinia,  and  Corsica  (c.  1090)  from 
the  grasp  of  Mohammedanism  was  the  achievement  of 
the  Normans  and  increased  their  appetite  for  Oriental 
conquest.  The  subjugation  of  the  Eastern  empire  and 
ultimately  of  the  Saracen  powers  was  an  object  of  their 
ambition  and  they  were  careful  to  keep  to  the  front  as  the 
religious  motive  for  conquest  the  spread  of  the  Catholic 
faith  and  the  destruction  of  all  opposing  forms  of  religion. 
Thus  the  war  with  the  Saracens  was  opened  long  before 
the  first  Crusade. 

(3)  But  apart  from  these  more  secular  considerations, 
there  were  forces  at  work  that  enable  us  to  account  for 
the  even  more  important  religious  enthusiasm  that  lay  at 
the  basis  of  the  Crusades.  Mediaeval  Roman  Cathol- 
icism was  a  religion  of  forms  and  ceremonies,  and  super- 
stition abounded.  The  veneration  of  shrines  and  relics 
and  the  belief  in  their  capacity  to  work  miracles  and  to 
confer  spiritual  benefits  was  almost  universal.  From  the 
fifth  century  onward  pilgrimages  to  the  Holy  Land  and 
to  the  Holy  Sepulchre  had  been  regarded  as  the  surest 
way  to  acquire  merit  and  to  atone  for  the  most  grievous 
sins.  Pilgrims  without  purse  or  scrip  often  set  out  on 
foot  to  beg  their  way  to  Palestine,  fortified  by  the  belief 
that  the  loss  of  life  in  such  an  enterprise  would  involve 
immediate  entrance  into  heavenly  bliss.  The  early  Mo- 
hammedan rulers  had  guaranteed  to  Christians  the  right 
to  visit  the  holy  places  without  molestation.  The  fail- 
ure of  the  year  1000  to  bring  the  end  of  the  age,  almost 
universally  expected  by  Christians,  greatly  stimulated 
pilgrimages. 

(4)  The  conversion  of  Hungary  (c.  997)  opened  up  an 
overland  route  to  the  Holy  Land,  which  also  tended  to 
multiply  the  number  of  pilgrims. 

(5)  In  loio  the  Sultan  Hakem,  a  mad  fanatic,  ordered 
the  destruction  of  the  chief  Christian  sanctuaries  in  Jeru- 
salem,   The  conquest  of  Asia  Minor  and  Syria  by  the 


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458  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PBR.IV. 

Seljuk  Turks  (c.  1076)  greatly  increased  the  hardships  of 
the  multitudinous  pilgrims.  Extortionate  tolls,  robbery, 
imprisonment,  and  acts  of  sacrilege,  greatly  exasperated 
the  pious  pilgrims,  and  the  story  of  these  atrocities  rap- 
idly spread  throughout  Europe. 

(6)  Pope  Sylvester  II.  (999)  had  exhorted  Christendom 
to  take  measures  for  the  protection  of  pilgrims  and  of 
Christian  interests  in  Jerusalem.  Gregory  VII.  addressed 
to  the  Christians  of  his  time  letters  of  exhortation  to  go 
to  Jerusalem  for  the  sake  of  the  faith  and  to  "defend  our 
Christian  brothers." 

2.  The  Preaching  of  the  First  Crusade  (1095). 

(i)  In  1095  the  Greek  Emperor  Alexius,  sorely  beset 
by  the  Turks,  sent  ancibassadors  to  the  Council  of  Pia- 
cenza  to  pray  for  the  aid  of  Western  Christendom.  Pope 
Urban  II.  was  profoundly  impressed  with  the  opportunity 
to  extend  the  dominion  of  his  church  and  to  do  a  highly 
meritorious  work.  Peter  the  Hermit  had  returned  from 
a  pilgrimage  and  preached  a  crusade  with  consuming 
zeal. 

(2)  At  the  Council  of  Clermont  (1095)  Urban  II.  and 
Peter  both  appeared  and  aroused  the  crusading  enthusi- 
asm to  the  point  for  immediate  action.  An  extract  from 
the  pope's  address  will  best  exhibit  the  spirit  of  the  move- 
ment : 

That  land  in  which  the  light  of  truth  first  shone ;  where  the  Son 
of  God,  in  human  guise,  deigned  to  walk  as  man  among  men; 
where  the  Lord  taught  and  suffered,  died,  and  rose  again ;  where 
the  work  of  man's  redemption  was  consummated,— this  land,  conse- 
crated by  so  many  holy  memories,  has  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
Impious.  The  temple  of  God  has  been  profaned,  his  saints  slain, 
and  their  bodies  cast  out  upon  the  plains  for  the  fowls  of*  the  air  and 
the  beasts  of  the  field  to  feed  upon.  The  blood  of  Christians  flows 
like  water  in  and  about  Jerusalem,  and  there  is  none  to  do  the  poor 
service  of  giving  burial  to  their  remains.  Strong  in  our  tmst  in  the 
divine  mercy,  and  by  virtue  of  the  authority  of  Sts.  Peter  and  Paul, 
of  whose  fullness  we  are  the  depositary,  we  hereby  grant  full  remis- 
sion of  any  canonical  penalties  whatever  to  all  the  faithful  of  Christ 
who  from  motives  of  devoUon  alone  and  not  for  theprocurement  of 
honor  or  gain  shall  have  gone  forth  to  the  aid  of  God's  church  at 
Jemsalem.  But  whosoever  shall  have  died  there  in  true  repentance 
shall  undoubtedly  have  the  remission  (indulgiiaiam)  of  sins  and  the 
fruit  of  eternal  reward. 


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CHAP.  I.]  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDli€VAL  CIVILIZATION    459 

He  promised  to  all  who  would  enlist  the  plenary  re- 
mission of  all  the  infinite  penalties  and  penances  they 
had  incurred  by  their  past  sins,  and  the  immediate  pro- 
tection of  Peter,  Paul,  and  the  holy  church,  for  their  per- 
sons and  estates,  and  pronounced  an  anathema  upon  any 
that  should  molest  them. 

The  multitude  rose  to  their  feet  and  cried  out  repeatedly :  *Mt  is 
the  will  of  God!'*  The  pope  then  exhibited  the  cross  and  said: 
**  Wear  it  upon  your  shoulders  and  upon  your  breasts ;  let  it  shine 
upon  your  arms  and  upon  your  standards ;  it  will  be  to  you  the 
surety  of  victory  or  the  palm  of  martyrdom ;  it  will  unceasingly 
remind  you  that  Christ  died  for  you,  and  that  it  is  your  duty  to 
die  for  him/'  This  gave  the  name  to  the  movement  (crusade,  from 
crux,  cross). 

(3)  The  pope  proclaimed  a  truce  of  God  among  the 
princes  of  Europe  and  bade  them  join  in  the  great  effort 
for  the  rescue  of  the  Holy  Land.  So  great  was  the  en- 
thusiasm that  they  were  for  the  most  part  ready  to  obey. 
Insolvent  debtors  were  liberated  from  their  obligations. 
The  prisons  of  Europe  were  emptied  of  all  who  would 
join  in  the  Crusade.  The  truce  of  God  was  extended  so 
as  to  embrace  the  full  protection  of  the  lives  and  belong- 
ings of  all  crusaders. 

(4)  About  six  hundred  thousand  men,  besides  women 
and  children,  are  said  to  have  embarked  on  the  First 
Crusade.  It  was  a  motley  and  disorganized  host.  Freed 
by  their  plenary  indulgence  from  all  moral  obligations 
and  compelled  to  support  themselves  to  a  great  extent 
on  the  populations  through  which  they  moved,  they  car- 
ried devastation  everywhere.  Pestilence  and  famine 
rapidly  reduced  their  numbers.  Jerusalem  was  captured 
in  1099,  about  forty  thousand  crusaders  having  been 
spared  to  participate  in  the  glory.  Godfrey  of  Bouillon, 
the  chief  leader,  was  proclaimed  king,  but  he  refused  to 
wear  the  crown  of  royalty  where  Christ  had  worn  a 
crown  of  thorns. 

The  success  of  the  crusaders  was  only  partial  and 
temporary. 

3.  Later  Crusades. 

It  will  not  be  practicable  in  the  present  work  to  give 
the  details  of  the  successive  efforts  of  united  Europe  to 


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460  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

destroy  the  power  of  the  Saracens  and  the  Turks.    A 
few  outstanding  facts  must  suffice  : 

(1)  The  Second  Crusade  (1147-1153),  of  which  Ber- 
nard of  Clairvaux  was  the  chief  promoter,  is  said  to  have 
numbered  about  one  million  two  hundred  thousand  fight- 
ing men.  It  was  a  complete  failure.  Nearly  all  the  host 
was  destroyed.  Bernard,  when  confronted  with  the  fail- 
ure of  his  prophecies,  attributed  the  disaster  to  the  guilt 
of  the  pilgrims  themselves. 

(2)  The  Third  Crusade  (1190-1193),  in  which  Richard 
the  Lion-hearted  and  Saladin  figure  so  prominently,  ac- 
complished little.  Richard  himself  was  taken  captive  and 
long  held  for  ransom. 

(3)  The  Fourth  Crusade  (1196-1197)  resulted  in  a 
complete  defeat  and  a  terrible  massacre  of  crusaders  at 
Jaffa. 

(4)  The  Fifth  Crusade  (i 201-1204)  was  under  the  di- 
rection of  Innocent  111.,  the  most  powerful  of  the  popes. 
It  expended  its  efforts  chiefly  in  gaining  control  of  Con- 
stantinople and  establishing  a  Latin  empire  in  the  East, 
with  Baldwin  of  Flanders,  at  its  head.  By  this  means 
the  pope  could  bring  the  Eastern  Church  into  obedience. 
This  Latin  empire  lasted  till  1261,  when  the  Greeks  re- 
gained control.  The  alienation  between  the  Eastern  and 
the  Roman  Catholic  churches  was  intensified  by  this  at- 
tempt at  coercion. 

(5)  The  Sixth  Crusade  (1216-1229)  was  rendered  fruit- 
less by  the  lack  of  harmony  between  the  popes  and  the 
Emperor  Frederick  II.,  and  the  disposition  of  the  latter  to 
disregard  the  interests  of  the  papacy  in  his  treaty-making 
with  the  Saracens.  Frederick  was  in  no  proper  sense  a 
crusader,  and  had  regard  solely  to  political  and  personal 
considerations. 

(6)  The  Seventh  Crusade  (1239-1242)  was  made  up  of 
a  French  and  English  expedition,  in  which  neither  pope 
nor  emperor  co-operated  fully.  It  was  without  important 
results. 

(7)  The  Eighth  Crusade  (1248)  was  led  by  Louis  IX.,  of 
France.  His  army  was  almost  completely  destroyed  and 
he  was  taken  prisoner ;  but  he  had  the  satisfaction  of 
visiting  Nazareth  in  sackcloth  on  a  permit  issued  by  the 
Sultan  of  Damascus. 


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CHAP.  I.]   SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIAEVAL  CIVILIZATION    461 

(8)  The  Ninth  Crusade  (1259-1291)  embraces  several 
feeble  expeditions.  The  crusading  spirit  was  almost 
extinct,  and  the  most  desperate  efforts  to  reawaken  it 
proved  futile. 

(9)  Mention  should  be  made  of  the  Children's  Crusade 
(i2i2)»  in  which  thirty  thousand  French  children,  led  by 
the  boy  Stephen,  went  forth  under  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
time,  they  knew  not  whither.  Multitudes  died  of  ex- 
posure and  hardship,  and  several  thousands  who  secured 
passage  to  the  East  were  seized  by  the  Arabs  and  sold 
into  slavery.  A  similar  movement,  in  which  twenty 
thousand  boys  and  girls  were  involved,  occurred  in 
Germany.  About  five  thousand  reached  Genoa,  where 
they  were  detained.  Many  of  these  became  prosperous 
citizens. 

(10)  There  were  many  crusades  against  heretics  in 
Europe,  as  against  the  Albigenses  (1208-1249)  and  against 
the  Hussites  (1420-1431).  These  were  accompanied  by 
the  indiscriminate  massacre  of  the  helpless  populations 
in  the  regions  invaded. 

4.  Attitude  of  the  Popes  toward  the  Crusades. 

From  the  beginning  the  popes  recognized  in  the  Cru- 
sades a  means  of  influence  and  aggrandizement  and 
favored  them  to  the  utmost.  They  sought  to  impress 
upon  the  princes  the  wickedness  of  warring  among 
themselves,  while  infidels  were  allowed  to  desecrate 
the  Holy  Land  and  the  holy  places.  They  granted 
plenary  indulgence  to  all  who  would  go.  This  involved 
forgiveness  of  past  sins  and  the  forgiveness  in  advance 
of  any  sins  they  might  commit  while  engaged  in  cru- 
sading, with  the  assurance  of  freedom  from  purgatorial 
pains.  The  prisons  of  Europe  were  thrown  open  and 
the  worst  criminals  were  encouraged  to  join  the  cru- 
sading hosts  on  the  same  generous  conditions.  Thus 
for  two  hundred  years  the  popes  were  at  the  head  of  a 
movement  that  was  thoroughly  popular  and  absorbed  the 
attention  of  Christendom.  As  feudalism  had  added  vastly 
to  the  territorial  possessions  of  the  church,  the  Crusades 
confirmed  the  church  in  the  possession  of  the  territory 
already  acquired  and  gave  an  opportunity  for  acquiring 
enormous  additional  wealth.    Many  an  enthusiastic  cru- 


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462  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV 

sader,  to  make  his  salvation  doubly  sure,  bequeathed  his 
entire  estate  to  the  church  in  case  of  his  failure  to  return. 
Many  in  starting  needed  ready  money,  which  the  church 
was  prepared  to  furnish  on  good  security.  Thus  the 
church  came  to  possess  about  one  third  of  the  real  prop- 
erty of  Europe. 

5.  Summary  of  the  Results  of  the  Crusades. 

(i)  The  breaking  up  of  feudalism  and  the  establish- 
ment of  great  nations.  Having  secured  enormous  advan- 
tages during  the  periods  of  turmoil,  the  church  was  ready 
to  avail  itself  fully  of  the  opportunities  that  awaited  it 
during  the  period  of  the  consolidation  of  the  States  of 
Europe. 

(2)  The  great  increase  of  the  wealth  and  the  power  of 
the  papacy.  The  power  of  the  pope  was  beyond  all 
comparison  greater  than  that  of  any  civil  ruler.  The 
policy  of  the  papacy  was  consistent,  while  that  of  the 
civil  rulers  was  fluctuating.  The  princes  became  accus- 
tomed to  follow  the  leadership  of  popes  and  obey  their 
orders. 

(3)  The  opening  up  of  commerce.  This  resulted  from 
the  long-continued  intercourse  between  the  East  and  the 
West  and  had  great  influence  upon  civilization.  Manu- 
factures went  hand  in  hand  with  commerce  and  the  face 
of  Europe  was  changed.  The  vast  wealth  squandered  in 
the  Crusades  was  far  more  than  made  good  by  the  revival 
of  trade  and  manufactures. 

(4)  The  general  diffusion  of  enlightenment.  Contact 
with  the  learning  and  the  civilization  of  the  East  was  not 
without  its  effect  on  the  crusaders.  An  intellectual  ac- 
tivity such  as  had  not  been  known  before  became  almost 
as  general  and  as  absorbing  as  the  Crusades  themselves 
had  been.  The  founding  of  the  great  universities  of  the 
Middle  Ages  and  the  revival  of  learning  were  indirect  re- 
sults of  the  Crusades. 

(5)  The  building  up  of  great  commercial  centers  whose 
interest  lay  in  opposing  feudalism  and  in  promoting  free- 
dom of  thought  and  action  was  largely  due  to  the  Cru- 
sades. 

(6)  The  Crusades  tended  to  fuse  Christendom  into  a 
homogeneous  mass  by  uniting  it  in  a  common  cause. 


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CHAP,  l]   SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEOliCVAL  CIVILIZATION   463 

(7)  The  Crusades  proved  in  the  end  a  means  of  weak- 
ening, as  earlier  they  were  the  means  of  strengthening, 
the  papal  cause.  The  popes  continued  to  urge  the  rulers 
to  engage  in  crusades  long  after  the  spirit  of  crusading 
had  departed,  and  thus  had  the  misfortune  to  advocate 
an  unpopular  cause.  Moreover,  the  growth  of  intelli- 
gence, freedom  of  thought,  commercial  and  manufacture 
ing  enterprise,  strong  national  governments,  etc.,  was 
adverse  to  papal  absolutism. 

VIII.  THE  INQUISITION. 

LITERATURE:  Llmbord^,'* Lib^r SfnUntiarum Inamsitiams  Tolosatut^ 
1 307-1^23,"  i^«  Llorente,  ^'Histoirt  Critiqus  at  V Inquisition  ttEs- 
tagm^  1^17 ;  Gams,  "^  Di$  Kirchtngisch.  von  Spani^n,**  Bd.  III. ;  Ber- 
nardus  Guidonis,  '^  Practica  Inquisitionts  Hirttica  Pravitatis,'^  ed. 
Douais,  1886;  Dollinger/*  Btitwe  {ur  Sektsng$sch.  d.  M,  /^.,"  Bd.  II. 
(contains  many  important  inquisUonal  documents);  Fredericq/*  Cor- 
tus  Docummtorum  Inquisitionts  H^rsticaf  Pravitatis  Nurlandicm^  1889* 
seq*;  Molinier, '' U Inquisition  dans  I4  midide  la  Francs au XIII,  ttauXik^, 
SucU,''  1881 ;  Hoffmann,  ''Gesch.  d.  Inquisition,''  1878 ;  Lea, "  A  Hist, 
of  the  Inquisition  of  the  Middle  Ages,^  3  vols.,  1888  (by  far  the  best 
work  in  any  language,  being  based  upon  exhaustive  research  and 
written  with  masterly  skill). 

I.  T^iseofthe  Inquisition. 

(i)  The  inquisition  of  heresy  was  from  the  early  time 
a  function  of  each  bishop,  and  in  a  sense,  of  each  parish 
priest.  The  theory  had  long  prevailed  that  out  of  the 
church  there  is  no  salvation  and  the  toleration  of 
heresy  was  looked  upon  as  involving  the  gravest  and 
most  culpable  neglect  of  duty.  As  the  organization  of 
the  hierarchical  church  grew  more  complete,  and  as  doc- 
trine came  to  be  more  rigorously  defined,  it  was  natural 
that  increasing  stress  should  be  laid  upon  the  enforce- 
ment of  uniformity  in  doctrine  and  practice.  Aggressive 
and  ambitious  popes  were  sure  to  insist  with  even  greater 
rigor  upon  the  diligent  inquisition  and  punishment  of 
heresy  on  the  part  of  metropolitans,  bishops,  and  civil 
rulers.  When  heresy  became  so  widespread  and  aggres- 
sive  as  to  threaten  the  foundations  of  ecclesiastical  au- 
thority, it  might  have  been  expected  that  the  Roman 
Curia  and  General  Councils  would  adopt  measures  of 
universal  applicability  for  its  extermination,  and  as  the 
business  of  searching  out  and  punishing  heresy  became 


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464  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

great  and  complicated  it  might  have  been  expected  that 
an  Inquisitor  General  and  a  special  Board  or  Congrega- 
tion would  be  created  in  the  Curia  for  its  superintend- 
ence. Heresy  was  generally  looked  upon  by  churchmen 
as  the  greatest  possible  evil,  and  the  heretic  as  the 
enemy  of  God  and  meti  and  as  worthy  of  no  humane 
consideration. 

(2)  The  early  tradition  (confirmed  by  a  bull  of  Pope 
Sixtus  V.)that  Dominic  (founder  of  the  Dominican  order) 
was  commissioned  by  Innocent  HI.  to  establish  the  In- 
quisition, seems  not  to  be  in  accord  with  the  facts.*  But 
that  the  Dominicans  were  from  the  beginning  the  chief 
promoters  and  agents  of  the  Inquisition  there  can  be  no 
doubt. 

(3)  The  Councils  of  Montpelier  and  Lateran  (1215) 
both  enacted  rigorous  decrees  for  compelling  bishops 
to  greater  diligence  in  the  inquisition  of  heresy.  The 
Council  of  Narbonne  (1227)  made  it  obligatory  upon 
every  bishop  to  constitute  in  each  parish  a  special  com- 
mission for  searching  out  and  reporting  cases  of  heresy. 
Where  bishops  were  suspected  of  indifference  or  ineffi- 
ciency papal  legates  (usually  monks)  were  sent  into  their 
dioceses  to  assist  in  the  matter,  and  if  necessary  to  act 
independently. 

(4)  The  Emperor  Frederick  II.,  though  a  pronounced 
antagonist  of  the  papacy,  joined  hands  with  the  popes  in 
the  persecution  of  heresy  (1220-1239).  Laws  were  en- 
acted requiring  those  suspected  to  purge  themselves,  de- 
privation of  all  civil  rights  being  the  penalty.  Heresy  of 
every  kind  was  made  a  criminal  offense.  Obstinate 
heretics  were  condemned  to  the  stake;  those. that  re- 
canted were  to  be  imprisoned  for  life ;  those  that  re- 
lapsed were  to  be  executed  ;  the  property  of  heretics 
was  to  be  confiscated  and  their  heirs  disinherited ;  favor- 
ers of  heretics  were  to  be  banished  and  their  property 
confiscated  ;  houses  of  heretics  and  their  friends  were  to 
be  destroyed  and  never  rebuilt ;  the  lands  of  civil  rulers 
who  should  neglect  to  purge  them  of  heresy  were  to  be 
open  for  occupancy  by  any  Catholic  who  would  extirpate 
heresy  therefrom.    Frederick  was  prompt  to  place  at  the 

1  Sm  LtA»  V«L  L.  p.  999»  Mf. 


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CHAP.  I.]   SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIAEVAL  CIVILIZATION   465 

disposal  of  the  organized  Inquisition  all  the  machinery  of 
the  civil  government.  A  more  sanguinary  code  can 
hardly  be  conceived. 

(5)  In  1233  Gregory  IX.  assigned  the  prosecution  of 
heresy  to  the  Dominicans  and  armed  them  with  au- 
thority to  carry  on  their  work  everywhere  independently 
of  the  bishops.  From  their  decisions  there  was  to  be  no 
appeal,  and  they  were  authorized  to  call  in  the  aid  of  the 
secular  arm.  1  he  transition  from  the  earlier  episcopal 
inquisition  to  the  Inquisition  as  a  department  of  the  papal 
government  entrusted  to  the  Dominicans  was  thus  a 
gradual  one.  For  years  permanent  tribunals  had  existed 
in  the  south  of  France  (Toulouse,  Carcassone,  etc.)  con- 
ducted under  the  direction  of  the  popes.  The  papal  bulls 
of  1233  completed  the  process  of  supplanting  the  epis- 
copal inquisition  by  the  papal.  Yet  the  bishops  were  not 
wholly  relieved  of  responsibility ;  but  were  urged  to 
greater  diligence  and  to  hearty  co-operation  with  official 
inquisitors. 

(6)  Another  stage  in  the  development  of  the  Inquisition 
is  marked  by  the  bull  of  Innocent  IV.  ("^44  Extirpanda/' 
May,  1252).  The  aim  of  this  document  was  to  extend 
the  organized  inquisition  of  heresy  to  every  community. 
All  rulers  are  required  to  put  heretics  under  the  ban. 
Each  magistrate  must  appoint,  on  the  nomination  of 
the  bishop  and  of  representatives  of  the  Dominican  and 
Franciscan  orders,  twelve  good  Catholics  and  several 
clerical  assistants,  whose  sole  business  it  should  be  to 
arrest  heretics,  seize  their  goods,  and  deliver  them  up  for 
trial  to  the  bishop  or  his  representatives.  Their  wages 
and  expenses  were  to  be  paid  by  the  civil  government 
and  by  fines  and  confiscations.  They  were  to  be  ap- 
pointed for  six  months,  subject  to  removal  at  any  time 
and  to  reappointment.  They  were  to  be  exempt  from 
civil  duties  and  from  interference  by  civil  authorities. 
As  the  commission  went  from  place  to  place  it  was  to  be 
accompanied  by  a  deputy  of  the  civil  ruler  who  was  re- 
quired to  summon  three  men  of  good  repute  and  to  compel 
them  to  give  full  information  regarding  heretics  within 
their  knowledge.  The  civil  authorities  were  required  to 
act  in  entire  subserviency  to  the  inquisitors,  and  to  have 
lists  of  all  heretics  made  out,  to  be  read  three  times  a 

n 


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466  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

year  in  public.  The  local  inquisitors  were  to  have  a 
third  of  the  proceeds  of  confiscations  and  fines,  the  cities 
a  third,  and  the  bishops  the  other  third.  Officials  were 
required,  on  pain  of  excommunication  for  themselves 
and  interdict  for  the  city,  to  inscribe  these  regulations  in 
the  statute  books.  Every  ruler  was  required  to  appoint 
three  good  Catholics,  nominated  by  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities,  whose  business  it  should  be  to  prosecute  him 
for  any  failure  to  carry  out  the  requirements  of  the  bull 
and  to  report  on  the  conduct  of  his  predecessor  in  office. 
Revised  editions  of  this  bull  were  issued  in  1254,  1255, 
1256,  1257,  1259,  and  1265. 

(7)  The  completeness  with  which  these  requirements 
were  carried  out  depended  upon  the  subserviency  of  the 
civil  rulers.  In  Italy,  Spain,  and  Southern  France  the 
Inquisition  was  established  in  all  of  its  irresponsibility 
and  terrible  rigor.  In  most  parts  of  Germany  it  was  ap- 
plied only  partially  and  spasmodically. 

(2)  The  office  of  Inquisitor  General  was  created  by 
Urban  IV.  in  1262,  one  of  the  cardinals  having  been  up 
to  this  time  charged  with  the  general  superintendency  of 
inquisitorial  work. 

2.  The  Inquisitorial  Process. 

(i)  The  evils  of  the  Inquisition  were  exaggerated  by 
the  fact  that  the  avarice  of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities 
and  of  informers  was  greatly  stimulated  by  the  practice 
of  confiscating  the  estates  of  convicted  heretics  and  of 
dividing  the  proceeds  between  the  authorities  and  the  in- 
formers. The  censure  and  obloquy  resting  upon  officials 
of  the  Inquisition  who  should  fail  to  convict  any  one  who 
might  afterward  be  proved  guilty  was  so  grave  that  in- 
quisitors felt  bound  to  use  all  diligence,  and  to  convict 
by  all  means  if  grave  suspicion  rested  upon  the  accused. 
The  benefit  of  the  doubt  was  by  no  means  likely  to  be 
given  to  one  who  had  fallen  into  the  clutches  of  the  In- 
quisition. As  evidence  must  be  found  for  the  conviction 
of  suspected  heretics,  torture  in  its  most  exquisite  and 
varied  forms  was  employed  in  order  to  compel  confession 
of  personal  guilt  and  betrayal  of  accomplices.  Skilled 
cross-questioners  were  employed  to  use  every  device  for 
betraying  the  victims  into  damaging  admissions,  and 


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CHAP.  I J   SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIiCVAL  CIVILIZATION   467 

false  promises  of  favor  were  often  made  to  secure  con- 
fession. 

(2)  Abundant  information  has  been  preserved  in  the 
handbool<s  of  the  Inquisition  as  to  the  means  employed 
for  eliciting  evidence.  The  facts  ascertained  in  any  way 
with  reference  to  each  sect  or  class  of  heretics  were  care- 
fully recorded  and  placed  at  the  disposal  of  inquisitors 
everywhere.  The  particular  methods  that  had  succeeded 
in  given  cases  were  described  for  the  guidance  of  others. 
Modes  of  expression  or  the  avoidance  of  particular  words 
and  phrases  were  carefully  noted.  In  fact,  everything 
that  would  occur  to  a  skilled  detective  was  sure  to  be 
thought  out  by  one  or  other  of  the  multitude  of  able  men 
employed  in  inquisitorial  processes  and  even  if  the  in- 
quisitors had  been  scrupulously  careful  not  to  condemn 
the  innocent  there  was  little  chance  that  one  really 
guilty  should  escape.  The  details  of  the  inquisitorial 
process,  including  the  accusation,  the  denunciation,  the 
examination,  the  application  of  torture,  imprisonment  in 
the  dungeons  of  the  Inquisition  with  all  the  horrible  ac- 
cessories that  human  ingenuity  could  devise,  the  sen- 
tence (with  its  mocking  prayer  to  the  civil  authorities  for 
executive  clemency),  the  execution,  the  confiscation  of 
estates,  the  branding  of  the  families  of  condemned  here- 
tics with  perpetual  infamy,  cannot  be  given  here.* 

3.  Effects  of  the  Inquisition. 

(i)  It  could  not  have  failed  to  brutalize  those  who 
were  immediately  engaged  in  the  work  and  all  who 
sympathized  therewith.  The  frequent  perpetration  in 
every  community  of  the  horrible  scenes  accompanying 
the  trial  and  execution  of  heretics,  and  the  unpitying,  often 
gloating,  attitude  of  inquisitors  and  spectators,  must  have 
exerted  a  powerfully  demoralizing  influence.  The  earlier 
influence  of  Christian  teaching  and  life  upon  barbarian 
sentiment  and  custom  was  humanizing  and  refining.  In 
the  Inquisition  all  the  worst  features  of  pagan  cruelty 
were  revived  and  indefinitely  intensified  and  multiplied. 
The  encouragement  given  to  the  gratification  of  private 

1  The  reader  Is  referred  to  Lea's  great  work  for  the  details  of  the  process  and  for 
concrete  cases  of  Its  application  In  the  different  countries  of  Europe. 


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468  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

malice  and  avarice  must  have  wrought  disastrously  to 
the  public  sense  of  righteousness  and  fair  dealing.  In 
general,  it  appealed  to  and  stimulated  the  basest  passions 
and  propensities  of  the  human  soul.  It  reacted  power- 
fully  upon  civil  law  and  administration  and  largely  neu- 
tralized the  humanizing  effects  that  Christianized  Roman 
law  had  earlier  produced.  It  tended  to  destroy  good 
neighborliness  among  the  people.  Each  was  under  ob- 
ligation to  act  as  a  spy  upon  the  private  religious  life  of 
the  other,  and  each  regarded  the  other  as  his  possible 
betrayer. 

(2)  It  powerfully  stimulated  and  intensified  dissent 
from  the  hierarchy,  which  could  not  fail  to  be  regarded  as 
antichristian  by  those  who  knew  something  of  the  spirit 
of  the  gospel.  The  Inquisition  destroyed,  it  is  probable, 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  most  earnest  and  steadfast 
representatives  of  evangelical  Christianity.  A  far  larger 
number  in  each  community  were  compelled  by  tortures 
and  despair  to  deny  their  faith.  It  was  the  experience 
of  inquisitors  that  such  rarely  became  good  Catholics, 
but  continued  secretly  and  sometimes  openly  to  practise 
and  propagate  their  heresy.  It  is  in  accord  with  the 
principles  of  human  nature  that  the  sufferings  endured 
would  intensify  their  hatred  of  the  pretended  Christi- 
anity of  which  they  were  the  victims.  Again,  it  dissem- 
inated the  persecuted  forms  of  Christianity  throughout 
Europe.  Even  the  most  remote  and  inaccessible  regions 
became  filled  with  anti-Romanist  Christians.  It  led  the 
various  bodies  of  evangelical  Christians  to  perfect  their 
organization  and  their  methods  of  secret  propagandism. 
The  organized  and  omnipresent  vigilance  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion had  to  be  met  by  equal  astuteness  and  resourceful- 
ness on  the  part  of  the  hunted  evangelicals.  Europe 
became  covered  with  a  system  of  secret  evangelical 
agencies  that  could  carry  forward  Christian  work  in  the 
very  teeth  of  the  Inquisition.  The  multitudinous  trade- 
guilds  and  secret  societies  of  various  kinds  became  most 
efficient  agencies  for  the  propagation  of  anti-Romanist 
teaching.  Along  with  the  growth  of  evangelical  dissent 
skepticism  and  infidelity  greatly  increased  by  way  of 
revolt  against  papal  atrocity  and  dogmatism. 

(3)  It  co-operated  with  other  influences  in  bringing  the 


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CHAP.  I.]   SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDI>£VAL  CIVILIZATION   469 

papacy  into  disrepute  and  effecting  the  papal  captivity 
and  schism  ;  in  causing  the  revolt  of  Germany  against 
the  papacy  (under  Louis  the  Bavarian,  1324  onward),  of 
England  (Wycliffite  movement,  1360  onward),  of  Bohe- 
mia (Hussite  movement,  1410  onward) ;  and  finally  in 
bringing  about  the  Protestant  Revolution  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  The  Christian  consciousness  was  outraged  by 
the  Inquisition,  and  was  sure  to  have  its  revenge. 

IX.  MEDIi€VAL  UNIVERSITIES. 

LITERATURE:  Denlfle,  '* Die  EntsUhung  d,  Unrc,  d.  MitUlaltirs" ; 
Rashdail,  **  Universities  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  3  vols. ;  Budseus, 
^'Historia  Unhtrsitatis  Paris,**  6  vols.,  16(55-73;  Dollinger,  '' Du 
Uniwrsitdiin  Sonsi  wtd  J$ttt'* ;  Brodrick.  *' A  Hist,  of  the  Univ.  of 
Oxford"  :  Mullinger,  '^A  Hist,  of  the  Univ.  of  Cambridge" ;  art. 
••Universities"  in  ••  Encyc.  Brit.";  Lacroix,  ••Sc.  and  Ut.  in  the 
Mid.  Ages,"  pp.  1-40. 

The  impulse  given  to  education  by  Charlemagne  was 
never  entirely  lost.  The  Palatine  school  in  which  Alcuin 
taught  and  in  which  Charlemagne  and  his  court  learned 
was  not  a  university,  but  was  a  precursor  of  universities. 
In  the  schools  of  Charlemagne  and  his  successors  were 
taught  the  trivium  (grammar,  logic,  and  rhetoric)  and 
the  quadrivium  (music,  arithmetic,  geometry,  and  astron- 
omy). During  the  early  Middle  Ages  teaching  was  almost 
confined  to  the  monasteries.  The  intellectual  activity 
awakened  by  the  Crusades  began  to  manifest  itself 
everywhere  during  the  twelfth  century.  Eagerness  for 
knowledge  may  be  said  to  have  been  epidemic  during 
the  twelfth,  thirteenth,  and  fourteenth  centuries. 

I.  Origin  of  Universities. 

We  may  distinguish  two  classes  of  universities :  those 
that  were  developed  out  of  monastic  or  cathedral  schools, 
as  Paris,  Oxford,  etc.,  and  those  that  grew  up  around  some 
great  teacher,  or  were  founded  by  States  or  municipali- 
ties. The  great  importance  that  came  to  be  attached  to 
civil  and  canon  law  during  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  cen- 
turies created  a  demand  for  teaching  in  these  branches 
of  study.  There  appeared  in  Bologna  about  i  icx)  a  cele- 
brated teacher  of  Roman  law,  Irnerius  by  name.  His  rep- 
utation soon  extended  over  Europe  and  students  flocl<ed 


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470  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

to  Bologna  from  all  quarters.  His  more  advanced  pupils 
were  naturally  drawn  into  the  work  of  teaching  to  meet 
the  ever-growing  demand.  It  was  not  long  before  in- 
struction in  civil  law  was  supplemented  by  faculties  of 
canon  law,  theology,  etc.  Emperors  and  popes  vied  with 
each  other  in  extending  protection  and  more  material 
favors  to  the  institution.  The  university  idea  once  hav- 
ing taken  hold  upon  the  public  mind  it  became  the  am- 
bition of  every  province  and  of  every  great  city  to  have 
one.  The  earliest  of  the  universities  were  Bologna 
(1158),  Paris  (I2CX)  or  earlier),  Montpelier  (about  1180), 
Oxford  (about  1200),  Salerno  (before  1200).  During  the 
thirteenth  century  eight  new  universities  were  founded, 
during  the  fourteenth  century  about  twenty,  during  the 
fifteenth  about  twenty  more,  and  two  were  founded  at 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Many  of  these 
universities  numbered  their  students  by  thousands,  some 
by  tens  of  thousands. 

The  term  **  university  "  was  not  universally  or  exclusively  applied 
to  higher  institutions  of  learning.  Unnsfrsitas  means  primarily  a 
cofparatioH^  and  was  applied  in  the  Middle  Ages  to  civil  corporations, 
etc.  Among  the  terms  commonly  applied  in  mediseval  documents  to 
higher  educational  institutions  are  stydium  gemraU,  studhtm  com^ 
ntum^  siudmm  untvirsaU^gemralis  disciplma^  as  well  as  universitas 
and  uHtviTsitas  studii.  The  term  unmersitas  seems  never  to  have 
meant,  in  mediaeval  usage,  an  institution  where  all  branches  of 
learning  were  taught.^  It  was  sometimes  applied  to  a  single  faculty 
of  an  institution  of  higher  learning. 

2.  Internal  Organisation  of  Mediaeval  Universities. 

At  first  there  was  little  or  no  organization.  Those  who 
could  teach  taught,  the  more  advanced  scholars  assisting 
the  teachers  proper.  There  were  no  fixed  rules  of  gov- 
ernment,  each  case  of  discipline  being  disposed  of  on  its 
own  merits.  But  the  concourse  of  thousands  of  men  and 
youths  of  various  nationalities  and  degrees  of  culture 
soon  made  it  absolutely  necessary  to  develop  a  complete 
organization.  Relations  between  students  and  teachers, 
between  students  and  teachers  of  one  nation  and  those 
of  another,  and  between  university  and  city  or  province, 
had  to  be  definitely  determined.    Regular  forms  of  pro- 

>  Denlfle.  S«it.  3a.  Mf . 


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CHAP.  I.]   SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIiCVAL  CIVILIZATION   471 

motion  to  the  teacher's  office  and  to  various  academic  de- 
grees must  be  prescribed,  etc. 

(i)  Relations  between  Students  and  Masters.  Two  classes 
of  universities  may  here  be  indicated:  Universities  of 
scholars  and  universities  of  masters.  The  Italian  univer* 
sities  grew  up  for  the  most  part  out  of  law  and  medical 
schools  and  in  the  midst  of  republican  forms  of  govern- 
ment and  republican  sentiment.  These  were  accordingly 
universities  of  scholars.  In  these  the  appointment  of 
officers  and  the  government  of  the  entire  body  was  in 
the  hands  of  students  and  teachers  alike.  At  the  begin- 
ning most  of  the  students  were  doubtless  mature  and 
earnest  and  little  risk  was  involved.  The  University  of 
Paris  and  the  universities  modeled  after  it,  were  univer- 
sities of  masters.  This  is  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact 
that  it  was  developed  out  of  a  monastic  or  cathedral 
school  in  which  rigorous  discipline  had  been  practised 
and  the  old  relation  was  sustained  in  the  new  order  of 
things.  The  work  of  masters  or  doctors  was  three-fold : 
lecturing,  repeating,  and  disputing. 

(2)  nJiviston  into  Nations.  All  the  nations  together 
elected  a  rector,  who  held  his  position  for  a  stated  time 
and  who  stood  at  the  head  of  university  administration. 
Each  nation  elected  a  procurator,  or  counselor,  to  repre- 
sent it  in  general  university  affairs  and  to  preside  in  all 
matters  affecting  the  internal  interests  of  the  nation. 
The  procurators  constituted  a  sort  of  senate  for  the 
rector. 

The  *^  nations'*  in  the  various  universities  did  not  strictly  follow 
national  lines.  The  masters  and  students  of  several  nations  were 
often  grouped  in  one  '*  nation,"  and  those  belonging  to  the  same 
nationality  were  sometimes  subdivided  into  several  "  nations."  In 
the  University  of  Paris  the  nations  were  France,  England,  Nor- 
mandy, and  Picardy.  All  but  England  were  virtually  French,  and 
England  embraced  not  only  Great  Britain  but  neariy  the  whole  of 
Northern  and  Eastern  Europe.  The  intention  was  to  give  to  French- 
men a  preponderance  in  tne  government  of  the  institution.  The 
'*  English  nation"  became  the '^German  nation"  in  1437  because  of 
hostility  between  France  and  England. 

(3)  Privileges  and  Immunities  of  Universities.  Univer- 
sities usually  sought  and  obtained  the  right  of  self-gov- 
ernment, involving  immunity  from  municipal  interference. 
Misconduct  of  students  often  led  to  serious  conflicts  with 


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472  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

the  police,  and  jeopardized  the  right  of  self-government. 
Threats  to  remove  the  university  to  another  town  usually 
brought  the  municipal  authorities  to  terms  and  the  **  boy- 
cott "  was  very  treely  and  persistently  employed  as  a 
means  of  punishing  obnoxious  inn-keepers  and  shop* 
keepers.  The  university  authorities  dictated  the  price 
of  lodgings,  provisions,  writing  materials,  manuscript 
books,  etc. 

3.  The  University  of  Paris. 

We  may  illustrate  the  constitution  and  work  of  a  me- 
diaeval university  by  giving  some  particulars  regarding 
the  University  of  Paris,  the  greatest  and  most  influen- 
tial of  them  all.  The  faculty  of  arts  embraced  the  Mv- 
ium  and  the  quadrivium.  There  were  faculties  of  the- 
ology, canon  law,  civil  law,  and  medicine.*  The  fac- 
ulty of  arts  had  four  proctors,  one  for  each  nation.  The 
faculty  of  theology,  besides  its  dean,  appointed  each  year 
a  syndic  to  manage  its  business.  The  other  faculties 
had  each  a  dean.  The  proctors  and  deans,  with  the  rec- 
tor, who  was  nominated  by  the  proctors  and  who  must 
belong  to  the  arts  faculty,  constituted  the  highest  tribu- 
nal of  the  university.  The  rector  while  in  office  had 
almost  absolute  power. 

The  University  of  Paris  was  fostered  by  popes  and 
kings  alike.  The  Sorbonne,or  theological  faculty  (founded 
by  Robert  Sorbon  in  1250),  came  to  be  the  highest  the- 
ological authority  in  the  world,  not  excepting  that  of  the 
popes  themselves,  with  whom  it  was  frequently  in  col- 
lision. 

The  glories  of  the  University  of  Paris  are  eloquently 
set  forth  by  Lacroix  : 

If  BoloRna  might  boast  her  civil  lawyers.  Salerno  her  physicians, 
Paris  might  vie  with  these  great  schools  in  their  peculiar  studies, 
and  in  herself  concentered  the  fame  of  all,  especially  of  the  highest- 
theology.  The  university  of  Paris  had  its  inviolable  privileges,  its 
own  endowments,  government,  laws,  magistrates,  jurisdiction;  it 
was  a  State  within  a  State,  a  city  within  a  city,  a  cnurch  within  a 
church.    It  refused  to  admit  within  its  walls  the  sergeant  of  the 

1  Accordlnir  to  an  early  account  canon  and  civil  law  were  at  one  time  grouped  to- 
retlier  and  "  rational,  natural,  and  moral  philosophy  "  formed  the  fourth.  This  four- 
fold division  of  what  Is  called  the  "  fountain  of  wisdom  **  is  compared.  In  a  *'  letter 
of  the  university  of  masters  and  scholars  studying  at  Paris,"  »$4*  to  the  tour  rtvert 
of  paradise.    (See  penlfle,  Sftt,  67,  uq.) 


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CHAP.  I.]   SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MED1>EVAL  CIVILIZATION    473 

mayor  of  Paris,  the  apparitors  of  the  bishop  of  Paris ;  It  opened  Its 
gates  sullenly  and  reluctantly  to  the  king's  officers. 

4.  Contents  of  the  Courses  of  Instruction. 

The  necessity  of  dictating  both  the  text  and  the  eluci- 
dation greatly  limited  the  ground  that  could  be  covered 
in  any  department. 

(i)  in  theology  the  Bible  and  the  "  Four  Books  of  Sen 
tences,"  by  Peter  Lombard,  were  the  customary  text 
books.  Six  years  were  normally  spent  in  biblical  study 
This  completed,  the  student  became  a  "sententiary,' 
and  began  to  study  Peter  Lombard.  With  the  comple 
tion  of  the  third  book  he  became  a  '*  formed  bachelor.* 
After  the  completion  of  the  fourth  book  he  must  remain 
for  three  years  in  the  university  to  exercise  himself  in 
disputing  and  preaching  before  he  could  become  a  "  mas- 
ter "  in  theology.  This  course  presupposes  the  arts  de- 
gree or  its  equivalent.  (2)  In  canon  and  civil  law  the 
"Decretum  of  Gratian,"  the  "Theodosian  Code,"  and 
the  Justinian  books  comprised  the  texts.  (3)  In  medicine, 
Avicenna  (an  Arabian  author),  Hippocrates,  and  Galen 
were  the  chief  texts.  (4)  In  arts  Aristotle,  Porphyry, 
and  Priscian  were  most  frequently  used.  (5)  The  mas- 
ters sometimes  compiled  summaries  of  the  authors  stud- 
ied, which  practically  took  the  place  of  the  full  texts. 
Readers  were  in  many  cases  employed  to  dictate  texts. 
(6)  Besides  the  texts  and  the  lectures  by  the  masters 
disputations  were  frequently  held  between  masters  and 
students  for  the  benefit  of  the  latter.  Masters  also  held 
public  disputations  among  themselves  which  did  much 
toward  devoloping  the  dialectic  spirit.  The  quodlibeta- 
rian  disputations,  in  which  masters  offered  to  discuss 
any  subject  that  might  be  mooted  with  any  one  who 
might  present  himself,  always  awakened  great  interest 
as  occasions  on  which  brilliant  men  could  distinguish 
themselves  for  learning  and  dialectic  skill.  (7)  From 
this  brief  account  it  will  be  evident  that  there  was  in  the 
mediaeval  universities  no  such  thing  as  research.  The 
inductive  method  had  not  yet  been  introduced,  and  the 
methods  of  discovering  truth  were  not  yet  available. 
There  was  abundance  of  zeal  for  learning,  but  it  was  not 
according  to  understanding,  and  the  universities  did  little 


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474  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IV. 

beyond  conserving  the  learning  of  the  older  time,  per- 
fecting the  scholastic  philosophy  and  theology,  sharpen- 
ing the  intellect  by  excessive  application  to  dialectics, 
and  making  skilled  sophists.  Most  of  the  independent 
thinking  of  the  age  was  outside  of  university  circles. 

X.  MEDIAEVAL  THEOLOGY. 

LITERATURE:  Pertinent  sectioifs  In  the  histories  of  Philosophy, 
by  Uet)erweff,  Erdmann,  Ritter,  Windelband,  and  Weber ;  Maurice, 
*•  Mor.  and  Metaph.  Philosophy,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  432,  stq,^  Vol.  II.,  p.  i, 
s$q, ;  works  of  the  leading  mediaeval  theologians  (Roscellinus,  Scotus 
Erigena,  At)elard,  Peter  Lombard,  Anselm,  Thomas  Aquinas,  Duns 
Scotus,  Albertus  Magnus,  Bonaventura,  Occam,  etc. ) ;  Hampden, 
••  Bampton  Lectures  " ;  Lacroix, "  Science  and  Literature  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages,"  pp.  41-76;  works  on  the  history  of  doctrine,  by  Har- 
nack,  Loofs,  Seeberg,  Baur,  Fisher,  Sheldon,  etc. ;  Werner, "  Dis 
Scholastik  dn  spateren  Mitttlalttrs  " ;  Rousselot, ''  Etudss  sur  la  Phil, 
dans  U  Moytn-lAgt^^ ;  Harper,  **  The  Metaphysics  of  the  Schools "  ; 
Lowe,  "  Dif  Kamtf  twischin  dim  T{talismus  und  Nommalismus  im  Mil- 
Ulalter^* ;  Nitzsch,  ^*  Di$  Ursachtn  des  Umschwmgs  wid  olufschwimgs 
dif  Scholastik  im  XllL  Jahrh."  ;  Reuter,  **  dsch.  d,  nl.  Mufkidruni  tm 
M.  j4";  encyclopedia  articles  on  '*  Scholasticism  "  and  the  leading 
scholastics. 

The  beginning  of  the  present  period  found  theological 
science  in  a  degenerate  and  moribund  condition.  The 
achievements  of  the  preceding  periods  were  not  even 
being  properly  conserved,  and  advance  was  out  of  the 
question.  The  impulse  given  by  Charlemagne  to  the 
revival  of  learning  was  never  wholly  lost  in  the  time  of 
feudalistic  disintegration  and  demoralization ;  and  the 
age  of  the  Crusades,  as  has  already  been  pointed  out, 
brought  with  it  a  reawakening  of  interest  in  theological 
science.  Only  a  brief  outline  of  the  history  of  mediaeval 
theological  thought  is  here  practicable.  The  doctrinal 
controversies  of  the  period  are  relatively  unimportant. 

I.  Incipient  Scholasticism. 

The  term  scholasticism  (or  the  teachings  of  the 
schools)  has  long  been  used  to  designate  the  formal  the- 
ologizing conducted  according  to  the  categories  of  the 
Aristotelian  philosophy  and  with  the  use  of  the  deductive 
method,  that  prevailed  during  the  Middle  Ages  and  later. 

Scholasticism  was  philosophy  in  the  service  of  established  and 
accepted  theological  doctrines,  or,  at  least,  in  such  subordination  to 


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CHAP.  1.]   SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIiCVAL  CIVILIZATION    475 

them,  that  where  philosophy  and  theology  trod  on  common  ffround, 
the  latter  was  received  as  the  absolute  norm  and  criterion  or  truth. 
More  particularly,  scholasticism  was  the  reproduction  of  ancient 
philosophy  under  the  control  of  ecclesiastical  doctrine,  with  an  ac- 
commodation in  cases  of  discrepancy  between  them,  of  the  former  to 
the  latter.' 

(i)  The  first  great  representative  of  the  methods  of 
thought  and  of  discussion  that  afterward  was  developed 
into  full-fledged  scholasticism  was  John  Scotus  Erigena 
(b.  800-810),  probably  an  Irishman  by  birth  and  educa- 
tion, who  was  invited  (843)  by  Charles  the  Bald  to  the 
headship  of  the  palatine  school  at  Paris,  which  the  king 
sustained  after  the  example  of  Charlemagne.  He  was 
employed  by  the  king  to  translate  into  Latin  the  Pseudo- 
Dionysian  (Christian  Neo- Platonic)  writings,  with  the 
spirit  of  which  he  became  deeply  imbued.  He  was 
somewhat  acquainted  with  the  writings  of  Plato  and  of 
Aristotle.  A  very  imperfect  translation  of  some  of  Aris- 
totle's dialectical  works  by  Boethius  (d.  525),  a  Roman 
statesman  and  philosopher,  had  long  been  in  use  in 
Christian  education  and  had  before  this  time  produced  a 
marked  impression  on  theological  thought.  As  a  Chris- 
tian Neo-Plafonist,  Scotus  Erigena  opposed  the  Aristo- 
telian theologians,  whom  he  called  ''dialecticians.'' 

The  most  noteworthy  features  of  his  system  were  the 
following :  a.  He  set  the  example  to  later  scholastic  the- 
ologians of  placing  the  *'  Fathers  "  on  the  same  level  of 
authority  as  the  Scriptures.  It  is  not  for  us  to  pass  judg- 
ment on  the  wisdom  of  the  Fathers,  but  piously  and  rev- 
erently to  accept  their  teachings.  Where  they  seem  to 
contradict  each  other  we  are  at  liberty  to  choose  what 
seems  to  us  more  in  accord  with  the  divine  oracles. 

b.  With  Augustine,  he  insisted  on  the  identity  of  true 
philosophy  and  true  religion.  He  refused  to  identify  true 
religion  with  the  current  orthodoxy.  "  Authority  pro- 
ceeds from  true  reason,  but  true  reason  by  no  means 
proceeds  from  authority.  All  authority  that  is  not  ap- 
proved by  true  reason  seems  to  be  weak.'"  He  was 
thus  fundamentally  a  rationalist  and  so  far  fell  short  of 
fully  developed  scholasticism. 

>  Ueberweg.  *'  Hist  of  Phil..*'  Vol.  I.,  p.  jss* 
<  *'  Dt  DMsiomt  Ngturte,"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  39.  n. 


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476  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

c.  With  Pseudo-Dionysius  he  insisted  that  God  alone 
** essentially  subsists,"  that  he  alone  "truly  is,"  that  he 
is  '*the  essence  of  all  things,"  and  that  he  is  "the  be- 
ginning, middle,  and  end  of  all  things."  Our  life  is 
God's  life,  it  is  "the  Holy  Trinity  in  us"  that  "loves, 
sees,  moves."  His  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  was  deeply 
tinged  with  Neo-Platonism. 

d.  His  doctrine  of  universals  laid  the  basis  for  the  later 
realism.  He  held  that  universals  are  before  and  also  in 
the  individual  objects ;  but  he  did  not  develop  his  real- 
istic teaching.  As  a  Neo-Platonist  he  could  not  consist- 
ently have  held  to  nominalism,  the  doctrine  in  accord- 
ance with  which  universals  are  mere  abstractions  formed 
in  the  mind  by  a  contemplation  of  individual  objects. 
Universals  rather  are  the  divine  ideas,  which  alone  are 
realities  and  of  which  individual  objects  are  the  non-sub- 
stantial copies.  The  Platonic  realism,  in  accordance  with 
which  universals  exist  apart  from  and  before  the  individ- 
uals, was  tempered  in  Scotus  Erigena's  scheme  by  the 
Aristotelian  view  that  universals  exist  only  in  the  indi- 
viduals.   They  exist  both  before  and  in  the  individuals. 

e.  The  influence  of  Aristotle  is  everywhere  manifest  in 
his  methods  of  discussion. 

(2)  j4nselm  of  Canterbury  (1033-1109)  represents  an- 
other important  stage  in  the  development  of  scholas- 
ticism. He  was  a  contemporary  of  Hildebrand  and  of 
Peter  Damiani  and  was  in  thorough  sympathy  with  the 
aggressive  hierarchical  strivings  of  these  great  prelates. 
He  has  been  designated,  with  some  propriety,  "the  fa- 
ther of  scholasticism."  He  is  best  known  for  his  elab- 
oration of  the  ontological  argument  for  the  existence  of 
God  (in  his  **  Proslogium  ")  and  of  the  satisfaction  theory 
of  the  atonement  (in  his  **Cur  Deus  Homo?*').  He 
adopted  the  Socratic  method  of  argumentation,  and  most 
of  his  writings  are  free  from  the  formalism  and  the  end- 
less definitions  and  distinctions  of  the  fully  developed 
scholasticism. 

He  differed  from  Scotus  Erigena  and  agreed  with  the 
later  scholastics  in  the  following  particulars :  a.  He  in- 
sisted on  unconditional  submission  to  ecclesiastical  au- 
thority. "I  believe,  that  I  may  know,"  was  his  favorite 
maxim,  and  his  creed  was  the  dogma  of  the  church. 


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CHAP.  I.]   SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIi€VAL  CIVILIZATION   477 

Scientific  insight  the  theologian  should  seel<  to  attain ; 
but  reason  is  to  be  held  in  the  strictest  subordination  to 
creed. 

b.  While  he  made  considerable  use  of  Platonism  and 
Neo-Platonism,  he  was  not  dominated  by  these  modes  of 
thought. 

c.  He  was  fundamentally  a  realist,  but  his  realism  was 
further  removed  from  pantheism  than  that  of  Scotus 
Erigena.  His  realism  appears  in  his  proof  of  the  exist- 
ence of  God,  in  his  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  in  his 
doctrine  of  hereditary  sin. 

(3)  Roscellinus,  a  contemporary  of  Anselm,  if  not  the 
founder  of  nominalism,  was  the  first  to  develop  it  fully 
and  to  advance  its  positions  in  a  polemical  manner. 
Roscellinus  insisted  that  universals  are  mere  mental  ab- 
stractions formed  from  the  contemplation  of  individuals, 
mere  names.  He  applied  this  theory  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity  in  such  a  way  as  to  call  down  upon  himself 
the  censure  of  Anselm  and  others  and  condemnation  at 
the  Council  of  Soissons  (1092)  for  tritheistic  heresy.  He 
insisted  that  just  as  color  is  nothing  apart  from  the  body 
in  which  it  inheres,  so  personality  is  nothing  apart  from 
the  person.  Assuming  the  orthodox  doctrine  of  the  tri- 
personality  of  the  GcShead,  he  maintained  that  these 
three  persons  have  each  a  distinct  subsistence,  yet  are 
absolutely  the  same  in  will  and  power. 

(4)  Realism,  in  a  more  decided  form  than  that  of  An- 
selm, was  popularly  taught  by  William  of  Champeaux 
(1070-1121),  who  for  some  years  before  1108  was  at  the 
head  of  the  cathedral  school  at  Paris  and  who  ended  his 
life  as  Bishop  of  Ch&lons. 

(5)  Abelard  (1079-1142)  was  taught  by  Roscellinus  and 
William  of  Champeaux  and  was  one  of  the  greatest 
thinkers  and  teachers  of  his  age.  Erdmann  characterizes 
him  as  an  "  incarnation  of  French  scholasticism  with  its 
acuteness  and  elegance."  His  romantic  love  affair  with 
Heloise,  a  highly  gifted  young  woman  for  whom  he  con- 
ceived an  undying  affection,  caused  much  scandal  and 
greatly  marred  his  career.  He  was  accused  also  of  inor- 
dinate ambition  and  of  avarice,  shown  in  his  relations  to 
William  of  Champeaux  in  the  Paris  cathedral  school.  He 
was  bitterly  assailed  for  heresy  by  Bernard  of  Clair- 


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478  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

vaux  and  made  his  peace  with  the  church  by  abject  hu- 
miliation and  recantation  of  the  errors  with  which  he 
was  charged.  He  was  strongly  inclined  toward  rational- 
ism  and  was  combative  in  a  high  degree  ;  but  he  had  not 
the  moral  courage  of  which  martyrs  are  made,  and  his 
career  was  an  inglorious  one. 

The  most  characteristic  features  of  his  theology  (or 
philosophy)  are :  a.  His  attempt  to  mediate  between  the 
nominalism  of  Roscellinus  and  the  extreme  realism  of 
William  of  Champeaux.  He  insisted  that  universals  ex- 
ist not  in  words  as  such  (voces),  but  in  words  employed 
to  express  thought  {semtones).  In  opposition  to  Wil- 
liam's contention  that  the  universal  in  its  totality  dwells 
in  each  individual  object,  he  insisted  that  the  universal 
is  that  whose  nature  it  is  to  be  predicated  of  several 
objects. 

Abelard's  view  is  frequently  designated  conceptualism ;  but  it 
falls  far  short  of  the  fully  developed  conceptualism  of  the  later  time. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  Roscellinus  would  have  objected  to  his  max- 
im that  only  words  conveying  thought  (sirmones)  are  predlcable,  as 
contrasted  with  mere  words  (voces).  Most  nominalists  would  have 
accepted  it.  Abelard.  therefore,  may  properly  be  classed  with  the 
nominalists,  though  his  language  doubtless  suggested  the  concep- 
tualism of  the  later  time. 

b.  He  combated  the  extreme  realistic  position  that 
universals  have  an  independent  existence  before  the 
individuals  (Platonic  ideas). 

c.  He  was  strongly  inclined  to  reject  the  absolute  au- 
thority of  the  church,  but  did  not  have  the  courage  to 
remain  steadfast  in  this  position.  In  his  work  "  Yes  and 
No"  C'Sic  et  Non")  he  arrays  the  authorities  against 
each  other  on  each  matter  of  discussion,  thus  exhibiting 
the  worthlessness  of  human  authority.  No  doubt  he 
was  himself  a  decided  skeptic  and  his  methods  of  discus- 
sion greatly  promoted  skepticism.  Bernard  had  a  correct 
Instinct  when  he  was  remorselessly  pursuing  him  as  an 
enemy  of  orthodoxy  and  of  ecclesiastical  authority.  He 
insisted  on  the  right  and  duty  of  investigation  and  sought 
to  show  that  skepticism  is  a  condition  of  earnest  research. 
Where  absolute  proof  regarding  any  doctrine  cannot  be 
reached,  the  moral  consciousness  must  be  our  guide. 
Peter  de  Bruys  and  Arnold  of  Brescia  were  his  pupils. 


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CHAP.  1.]  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIi€VAL  CIVILIZATION    479 

Bernard  claimed  that  Abelard  "  savored  of  Arius  when  he  spoke 
of  the  Trinity,  of  Pelagius  when  he  spoke  of  grace,  and  of  Nes- 
tonus  when  he  spoke  of  the  person  of  Christ,"  and  that  **  while  he 
labored  to  prove  Plato  a  Christian,  he  showed  himself  a  heathen.*' 

(6)  Peter  Lombard  (d.  1160)  wrought  the  orthodox 
scholasticism  of  his  time  into  a  convenient  handbook 
(''Four  Books  of  Sentences ")  which  for  centuries  served 
as  a  text-book  in  many  of  the  universities.  The  great 
scholastic  theologians  made  the  "  Sentences  "  the  basis 
of  their  lectures. 

2.  Mediaeval  Arabian  Philosophy. 

During  the  early  part  of  the  present  period  the  Chris- 
tians of  Syria  developed  considerable  interest  in  Greek 
philosophy  and  science  and  made  translations  of  the 
works  of  Aristotle,  Theophrastus,  Themistius,  Alexander 
of  Aphrodisias,  etc.  These  Syriac  versions  were  trans- 
lated into  Arabic  by  Mohammedan  scholars.  A  number 
of  the  writings  of  Plato  and  the  Neo-Platonists  were  also 
rendered  from  the  Syriac  into  the  Arabic  during  the  early 
Middle  Ages.  On  the  basis  of  the  Greek  philosophy  and 
science,  considerably  modified  by  this  process  of  transla- 
tion and  retranslation,  there  grew  up  in  the  East,  in 
North  Africa,  and  in  Spain,  a  remarkable  Saracenic  cuN 
ture.  "The  whole  philosophy  of  the  Arabians  was  only 
a  form  of  Aristotelianism,  tempered  more  or  less  with 
Neo-Platonic  conceptions  "  (Ueberweg). 

The  most  important  of  the  Arabic  philosophers  as 
regards  their  influence  on  mediaeval  Christian  thought 
were  Avempace  (d.  11 38),  Abubacer  (d.  1185),  and  Averr- 
oes  (d.  1 198). 

This  vigorous  Neo-PIatonized  Aristotelianism  was  made 
available  to  Christian  thinkers  in  part  directly  through 
the  sojourn  of  Christian  students  among  the  Arabs,  and 
in  part  indirectly  through  the  Jewish  philosophers,  who 
mastered  the  Arabic  learning  and  developed  a  Jewish 
speculative  philosophy  of  which  the  Cabbala  is  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  products,  and  of  which  Avicebron 
(d.  1080)  and  Moses  Maimonides  were  the  most  illustrious 
representatives. 

To  the  Arabs  and  the  Jews  mediaeval  Christian  the- 
ologians were  indebted  for  a  remarkable  scientific  im- 


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48o  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV 

pulse  and  for  a  better  knowledge  of  Aristotle,  Plato,  and 
the  Neo-Platonic  writers.  For  further  details  reference 
must  be  made  to  the  works  on  the  history  of  philosophy 
and  to  monographs  on  the  individual  writers  and  doc- 
trines concerned. 

3.  Fully  Developed  Scholasticism. 

( / )  Th$  FwidammUal  Prme^U  of  Scholasticism, 

This  was  absolute  submission  to  authority.  Nothing  is 
right  or  wrong,  good  or  evil  in  itself.  If  God  should  re- 
verse the  relations  of  right  and  wrong,  good  and  evil, 
we  should  be  bound  to  call  wrong  right  and  evil  good. 
The  church  is  the  final  and  absolute  judge  of  what  the 
will  of  God  is  at  any  particular  time  and  under  any  par- 
ticular circumstances.  The  teachings  of  the  church  must 
therefore  be  accepted  and  defended  without  regard  to  the 
dictates  of  conscience  or  reason.  The  tendency  of  the 
entire  mediaeval  system  was  in  the  direction  of  dethron- 
ing conscience  in  the  individual  and  making  the  will  of 
the  hierarchy  the  conscience  of  the  entire  priestly  and 
monastic  body,  and  through  this  body,  of  the  entire  con- 
stituency of  the  church. 

(2)  ThtMaUrial. 

The  teachings  of  the  church  are  to  be  found  in  the 
Bible  (including  the  Old  Testament  Apocrypha),  the 
decretals  of  popes,  the  canons  of  councils,  the  writings 
of  the  early  Fathers,  etc.  The  Bible  is  authoritative 
only  as  it  has  been  authoritatively  interpreted  by  the 
church,  and  so  ceases  to  have  any  independent  influence 
upon  thought.  The  premises  for  philosophical  and  the- 
ological reasoning  are  thus  unalterably  fixed  for  the  indi- 
vidual. There  is  no  inducement  to  apply  the  intellect  to 
the  searching  after  truth  by  scientific  methods.  To  at- 
tempt to  arrive  at  the  exact  teaching  of  the  Scriptures  by 
a  study  of  the  original  languages  and  the  application  of 
correct  exegetical  principles  would  have  been  regarded 
as  an  impertinence,  and  would  have  subjected  a  person 
to  persecution  for  heresy.  For  the  same  reason  the 
history  of  the  growth  of  opinion  had  no  interest  for 
scholastics. 


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CHAP.L]  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIiCVAL  CIVILIZATION    481 

(^)  ThiFarm. 

The  theology  and  philosophy  of  the  earlier  Middle  Ages 
had  consisted  largely  of  a  concatenation  of  pertinent  pas- 
sages from  Fathers,  decretals,  etc.,  in  support  of  each 
authoritative  proposition.  Commentaries  on  the  Bible 
were  scarcely  more  than  catetut  of  exegetical  remarks 
gleaned  from  earlier  writers.  Later  the  dialectics  of 
Aristotle  came  to  be  applied  and  theology  assumed  a 
more  systematic  form.  The  authority  of  Aristotle  in  all 
matters  of  formal  reasoning  came  to  be  regarded  as  al- 
most absolute.  The  work  of  the  theological  writer  was 
now  to  draw  out,  according  to  the  categories  of  Aristotle, 
as  many  conclusions  as  possible  from  each  authoritative 
proposition.  Little  reference  was  had  to  the  practical 
value  of  the  conclusions,  and  theology  degenerated  into 
idle  hairsplitting,  sometimes  into  gross  irreverence. 

{4)  Effects  of  Scholasticism, 

a.  It  sharpened  the  logical  faculties  without  furnishing 
fresh  materials  for  thought.  The  outward  form  of  the- 
ology came  to  be  regarded  as  of  supreme  importance,  the 
spirit  of  Christianity  being  lost  sight  of. 

b.  Scholasticism  being  a  product  of  papal  Christianity 
and  partaking  of  its  spirit,  became  one  of  the  greatest 
bulwarks  of  the  papacy  and  has  constituted  one  of  the 
chief  obstacles  to  the  reformation  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church. 

c.  The  frivolousness  and  formalism  of  mediaeval  the- 
ology brought  about  reactions  which  resulted  in  evan* 
gelical  revolt,  mysticism,  humanism,  and  finally  in  the 
Protestant  Revolution. 

(5)  Lioding  RipriSitUaUois  of  fiulff  Ditilopsd  Scholasticism, 

a.  tAlexander  of  Hales  (d.  1245),  surnamed  the  "Irref 
ragable  Doctor'^  and  the  "Monarch  of  Theologians,*' 
was  the  first  scholastic  theologian  to  make  full  use  of 
Aristotle's  works  as  they  were  known  among  the  Sara- 
cens and  of  the  Arabic  commentaries  thereon.  He  be- 
came a  member  of  the  Franciscan  Order  and  joined  with 
the  Franciscans  in  insisting  upon  the  immaculate  concep- 
tion of  Mary.     He  souebt  to  justify  the  withholding  of 


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48a  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  QPER.IV. 

the  cup  from  the  laity  on  the  ground  that  the  body  con- 
tains the  blood,  i.  e.,  that  the  transubstantiated  bread 
contains  both  body  and  blood.  He  was  the  first  to  de- 
velop fully  the  doctrine  of  the  'Mndelible  character"  of 
baptism,  confirmation,  and  ordination.  He  gave  definite 
form  to  the  distinction  between  attrition  and  contrition 
(the  former  indicating  sorrow  for  sin  proceeding  from 
fear  of  punishment,  the  latter,  sorrow  for  sin  proceed- 
ing from  love  to  God,  in  connection  with  repentance), 
attrition  being  considered  sufficient.  He  regarded  the 
pope  as  "immediately  under  God,"  and  so  as  possessing 
supreme  earthly  authority.  He  was  a  realist  of  the 
moderate  type,  denying  that  universals  are  separately 
subsisting  substances  before  the  individuals  and  main- 
taining that  the  universal  is  in  the  thing  as  its  form. 

b.  'Bonaventura,  the  ''Seraphic  Doctor"  (d.  1274),  was 
a  Franciscan  and  was  General  of  the  Order  (1257  on- 
ward). His  piety  was  of  a  strongly  emotional  type,  like 
that  of  the  founder  of  the  Order,  and  his  theology  per- 
petuated the  ascetical  mysticism  of  Bernard  of  Clair- 
vaux  and  Hugo  of  St.  Victor.  As  a  pupil  of  Alexander 
of  Hales  he  followed  him  closely  in  most  doctrinal  mat- 
ters. The  influence  of  Neo-Platonism  prevented  him 
from  being  fully  dominated  by  the  newly  recovered 
knowledge  of  Aristotle,  whom  on  the  contrary  he  fre- 
quently censured.  He  denied  the  immaculate  conception 
of  Mary,  holding  that  the  sanctification  occurred  in  her 
mother's  womb.  He  laid  less  stress  than  Alexander, 
Duns  Scotus,  or  Thomas  Aquinas  on  church  authority 
and  upon  the  mere  will  of  God ;  but  sought  rather  to 
find  rational  grounds  for  each  position  taken.  Baptism 
he  regarded  as  not  simply  working  the  forgiveness  of 
sins  but  as  communicating  supernatural  virtues.  He  in- 
terested himself  little  in  the  question  of  universals,  con- 
tenting himself  with  the  assertion  that  God  is  not  only 
the  beginning  and  end  of  all  things,  but  their  archetypal 
ground  as  well.  He  insisted  on  God's  providential  care 
of  earthly  things,  with  which  he  supposed  the  Aristotelian 
objection  to  the  immanence  of  the  ideas  of  things  in  the 
divine  mind  was  inconsistent. 

c.  fAlbertus  Magnus  (d.  1280),  the  "  Universal  Doctor," 
mastered  the  whole  of  Aristotle  as  known  by  the  Arabs 


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CHAP.  I.]  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDliCVAL  CIVILIZATION    483 

and  the  works  of  the  Arabic  commentators  more  com- 
pletely than  any  of  his  predecessors  had  done.  He  was 
regarded  as  a  marvel  of  learning  and  of  philosophical  in- 
sight. More  than  any  of  his  predecessors  he  sought  to 
adapt  the  doctrines  of  Aristotle  to  the  purposes  of  the 
church.  He  was  deeply  indebted  to  the  Arabic  philoso- 
pher Avicenna  and  to  the  Jewish  Maimonides.  He  re- 
jected Aristotle's  theory  of  the  eternity  of  the  creation, 
which  he  did  not  attempt  philosophically  to  explain,  but 
classed  with  the  miraculous  as  to  be  accepted  on  faith. 
Universals  he  regarded  as  existing  before  the  thing  (in 
the  divine  mind),  in  the  thing,  and  after  the  thing.  He 
sought  thus  to  combine  what  was  true  in  realism,  nom- 
inalism, and  conceptualism.  Like  Alexander  and  Bona- 
ventura  he  was  a  Franciscan. 

d.  Thomas  Aquinas^  the  "Angelic  Doctor"  (d.  1274), 
was  a  pupil  of  Albertus  Magnus,  and  was  the  greatest  of 
all  the  scholastic  theologians.  His  ''Sumtna  Theologice** 
still  occupies  the  highest  rank  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  and  the  student  of  mediaeval  thought  can  find  it 
here  in  its  most  perfect  form.  More  completely  than 
Albert  had  done,  he  exploited  the  works  of  Aristotle  for 
purposes  of  Christian  theology.  He  rightly  regarded  the- 
ology as  the  empress  of  all  the  sciences  and  as  using  all 
other  sciences  for  her  own  purposes.  More  than  other 
scholastic  theologians  he  uses  the  Scriptures,  but  only  for 
the  confirmation  of  ecclesiastical  dogma.  He  represents 
the  principle  of  absolute  subserviency  to  ecclesiastical 
authority  in  its  complete  form.  He  was  a  realist  of  the 
moderate  type,  rejecting  as  absurd  the  Platonic  doctrine 
of  ideas  existing  as  substantial  entities  in  the  divine 
mind  apart  from  individuals,  but  holding  that  everything 
existed  in  the  divine  thought  before  it  came  into  separate 
existence.  His  demonstration  of  the  existence  of  God, 
based  upon  that  of  Aristotle,  is  wrought  out  with  great 
thoroughness.  Thomas  was  a  member  of  the  Dominican 
Order  and  from  this  time  onward  the  Dominican  theolo- 
gians were  commonly  pronounced  realists  and  were 
called  Thomists  to  distinguish  them  from  the  nominalistic 
followers  of  Duns  Scotus,  who  were  designated  Scotists. 

e.  John  Duns  Scotus,  the  "Subtle  Doctor"  (d.  1308, 
aged  forty -three  or  thirty -four,  whether  Scotch,  Irish,  or 


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484  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

English  is  uncertain),  was  a  Franciscan  and  gained  great 
distinction  in  the  University  of  Oxford,  where  several  of 
his  works  were  published.  He  was  removed  by  the  au- 
thorities of  his  Order  to  Paris  to  defend  the  immaculate 
conception  of  Mary  against  the  Dominicans,  and  through 
the  performance  of  this  task  and  his  brilliant  lectures  in 
the  University  of  Paris,  won  the  reputation  of  being  the 
foremost  theologian  in  the  world.  In  the  midst  of  his 
glorious  career  he  was  ordered  by  his  general  to  take 
charge  of  a  convent  in  Cologne.  This  he  did  without 
even  taking  time  to  bid  adieu  to  his  brethren  in  Paris 
and  without  a  murmur.  The  principle  of  absolute  and 
unquestioning  obedience  to  his  superiors  dominated  his 
life. 

Even  supposing  the  longer  period  assigned  to  his  life  to  be  correct, 
the  amount  and  Quality  of  his  literary  product  is  astonishing.  He 
had  the  work  of  Albert  and  of  Thomas  t>ehind  him,  and  the  full 
fruitage  of  mediaeval  Mohammedan  and  Jewish  thought  was  readily 
available  to  him.  He  accepted  unquestioningly  the  authority  of 
Scripture  and  that  of  the  church.  '*  Nothing  is  to  be  held  as  of  the 
substance  of  the  faith,  except  what  can  be  expressly  had  from  Scrip- 
ture, or  has  been  expressly  declared  through  the  church,  or  evidently 
follows  from  something  plainly  contained  in  Scripture  or  plainly  de- 
termined by  the  church,"  He  extended  considerably  the  scope  of 
Christian  teaching  that  must  be  accepted  on  faith  and  could  not  be 
rationally  established.  What  the  church  declares  heresy  must  be 
accepted  as  such  without  question.  The  principle  of  blind  submis- 
sion to  papal  authority  was  never  accepted  with  less  reserve.  His 
subtlety  was  expended  almost  wholly  on  efforts  to  discredit  the 
reasoning  by  which  his  predecessors  had  sought  to  establish  church 
dogma.  Naturally  Thomas  Aquinas,  the  great  Dominican,  was  the 
chief  object  of  his  attack.  He  not  only  showed  the  inadequacy  of  the 
rational  g^rounds  on  which  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  and  omer  spe- 
cifically Christian  doctrines  were  based,  but  also  denied  that  the  doc- 
trine of  the  creation  of  the  world  out  of  nothing  and  the  immortality 
of  the  soul  could  be  demonstrated.  He  attached  less  importance  to 
Aristotle  and  more  to  Plato  and  the  Neo-PIatonists  than  did  Thomas. 
He  was  a  moderate  realist,  like  Thomas,  holdlne  that  universals  are 
before.  In,  and  after  individuals.  His  univers^  skepticism  regard- 
ing the  inadequacy  of  rational  proofs  for  Christian  doctrines  was  far 
more  widely  influential  during  the  stormy  times  that  followed  his 
death  (Papal  Captivity,  Papal  Schism,  Renaissance,  etc.)  than  his 
Insistence  on  blind  submission  to  authority ;  and  the  later  nominal- 
ism, with  its  bold  skepticism  even  In  relation  to  church  authority, 
was  a  legitimate  outcome  of  his  teachings. 

/.  William  Occam  (d,  1347)  was  the  reviver  of  nom- 
inalism, and  to  his  influence  is  due  the  renewed  emphasis 


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CHAP.  I.]   SOME  AFFECTS  OF  MEDIi€VAL  CIVILIZATION    485 

that  was  placed  by  the  Thomists  on  the  defense  of  real- 
ism as  a  bulwark  of  orthodoxy.  From  this  time  onward 
scholastic  theology  was  divided  into  two  hostile  factions, 
realists  (Thomists)  and  nominalists  (Scotists).  Occam 
went  beyond  Duns  Scotus  in  his  skepticism,  denying  that 
any  theological  doctrines  are  demonstrable  by  pure  reason. 
He  maintained  that  universals  do  not  exist  in  things,  but 
in  the  thinking  mind.  Outside  of  the  mind  they  are  only 
words.  Ideas  do  not  exist  in  God  as  substantial  entities, 
but  only  as  thoughts  or  plans.  He  laid  great  stress  on 
intuition  as  a  source  of  knowledge.  Occam  prepared  the 
way  for  the  application  of  the  inductive  method  to  the 
study  of  nature  and  of  mind.  He  was  among  the  most 
zealous  advocates  of  ecclesiastical  and  political  reform. 

4.  Mediofval  Mysticism. 

Literature:  Published  works  of  Eckart,  Suso.  Tauler,  Ruys- 
broek.  and  Thomas  a  Kempls;  the  "German  Theology"  (Engflsh 
trans.) ;  Preger,  "  C^sch.  d*  dnUdun  Mysiik  im  M.  ^." ;  Jundt, 
^^Histairt  du  PoMthiisnu  popuiain  au  Af.  ^.;  Denlfle,  **MmUr  Echaris 
LaUiniscki SchrtfUn  und  dis  GruudoMschauuHg  siiner  Uhre "  (in  ^^Archiv 
/.  Lit,  u.  KirciiHgtsch,  d.  Af.  -r<.,"  'Bd.  11.,  pp.  417-^8) :  Vaughan, 
*'  Hours  with  the  Mystics  ";  Pfelifer,  *'  'Drntscht  MysUlur^':  Schmidt, 
''Eiudn  smr  U  Aifstidstiu  alUmand  au  XIV.  SucU" ;  Schmidt,  '7. 
Ta$d^  von  Strasshtrg" ;  articles  on  **  Afystik"  and  on  the  various 
mystics  with  full  bibliography  in  Herzog-Hauck. 

The  influence  of  Neo-Platonism  (especially  of  the 
Pseudo-Dionysian  literature)  on  the  devout  thinking  of 
the  mediaeval  times  was  from  the  beginning  of  the  period 
considerable.  It  gave  intensity  and  fervor  to  the  ascet- 
ical  piety  of  Bernard,  of  Hugo  and  Richard  of  St.  Victor, 
of  Albertus  Magnus,  of  Bonaventura,  and  of  many  other 
eminent  thinkers.  The  dominance  of  Aristotelian  dia- 
lectics, and  the  degeneration  of  Christian  thinking  into 
hairsplitting  subtleties  and  barren  abstractions,  could  not 
fail  to  produce  a  reaction  in  the  minds  of  those  who 
cared  more  about  the  reality  of  religious  experience  than 
about  mere  formal  statements  of  truth.  1  he  growth  of 
sacramentalism,  which  attached  saving  grace  to  mere 
outward  forms  and  ceremonies,  and  which,  by  making  the 
priesthood  the  channel  through  which  alone  spiritual 
benefits  could  be  procured,  tended  to  destroy  the  imme- 
diate communion  of  the  soul  with  God,  and  failed  to  sat- 


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486  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

isfy  those  who  felt  that  direct  communion  with  God  is 
alone  efficacious. 

In  the  Dominican  Order,  which  produced  a  Thomas 
Aquinas  and  was  the  chief  agency  in  establishing  and 
conducting  the  Inquisition,  there  arose  in  Germany  to- 
ward the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century  that  peculiar 
type  of  religious  thought  and  life  known  as  Mysticism. 

(/)  Characteristics  of  German  Mysticism, 

a.  One  of  the  most  fundamental  features  of  German 
mysticism  was  an  intense  striving  in  the  present  life  to 
transcend  the  human,  and  to  attain  to  a  state  of  perfect 
union  and  communion  with  God. 

b.  A  fundamental  doctrine  with  the  mystics  was  the 
absoluteness  of  God  and  the  nothingness  of  man.  To 
God  alone  can  being  be  ascribed.  God  is  above  all 
names.  Names  given  him  by  men  simply  indicate  his 
relations.  All  creatures  have  their  source  of  life  in  him. 
Being  capable  of  self-knowledge  and  self-revelation,  God 
developed  the  Trinity  out  of  himself.  God  as  Son,  by 
means  of  the  Spirit,  disseminated  the  divine  essence  in 
the  visible  world.  According  to  its  very  nature  the  di- 
vine principle  seeks  to  return  to  its  original  oneness. 
This,  then,  is  the  ideal  of  Christian  life  :  to  seek  absorp- 
tion into  the  divine  essence.  In  these  conceptions  we 
see  the  influence  of  Platonism,  especially  as  developed 
in  the  works  of  Pseudo-Dionysius  the  Areopagite. 

c.  Enjoying,  as  they  supposed,  perfect  and  constant 
communion  with  God,  the  mystics  claimed  to  speak  from 
divine  inspiration,  and  exalted  their  own  reveries  above 
the  written  word. 

d.  Most  of  the  eminent  mystics  were  Dominican  friars. 
It  is  remarkable  that  while  in  France,  Italy,  and  Spain, 
the  Dominican  zeal  manifested  itself  in  persecuting  her- 
etics, in  Germany  it  expended  itself  in  profound  contem- 
plation of  the  love  of  God,  and  in  striving  after  oneness 
with  God. 

e.  The  pantheism  that  characterized  much  of  the  Ger- 
man mysticism,  was  based  upon  realism.  Ideas  in  the 
divine  mind  are  realities.  If  God  thinks  of  man  he  is  a 
man  ;  if  he  thinks  of  a  stone  he  is  a  stone.  So  man  be- 
comes what  he  contemplates.    If  he  contemplates  God 


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CHAP.  I.]   SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIiCVAL  CIVILIZATION    487 

he  becomes  one  with  God.  If  he  contemplates  the  suf- 
ferings of  Christ,  he  becomes  united  with  Christ  in  his 
sufferings. 

(2)  T^sprgsentatws  Afystics. 

From  the  large  number  of  able,  earnest  men  that 
sought,  by  bringing  the  people  to  realize  the  immanence 
of  God  and  the  immediateness  of  their  relations  to  him, 
to  deliver  them  from  thraldom  to  priestcraft  and  sacra- 
mentalism,  two  of  the  greatest  may  be  selected  for  con- 
cise treatment, 

a.  Master  Eckart  (d.  1327),  a  German  of  noble  birth, 
became  a  Dominican  early  in  life  and  was  probably  edu- 
cated at  Cologne.  Later  {c.  1300)  he  studied  in  the 
University  of  Paris,  where  he  received  his  Master's  de- 
gree. He  was  promoted  from  one  official  position  in  the 
Order  to  another  until  (1310)  he  was  chosen  Provincial 
by  the  Teutonic  Province  of  the  Order.  He  has  been 
fitly  called  the  "father  of  German  speculation."  He 
was  a  voluminous  writer,  producing  besides  the  large 
body  of  popular  speculative  and  devotional  works,  by 
which  he  has  been  chiefly  known,  a  number  of  scholastic 
works  in  Latin  that  have  recently  been  brought  to  light. 
As  a  scholastic  theologian  he  did  not  differ  materially 
from  the  orthodox  theologians.  A  recent  writer  has  de- 
clared that  *'  Eckart  is  before  everything  else  and  essen- 
tially a  scholastic.*'  *  But  *'  in  precision  and  elegance  of 
representation  he  falls  far  behind  Thomas."  The  con- 
trast between  scholasticism  and  mysticism  is  not  so  great 
as  has  sometimes  been  supposed.  The  liberty  that  the 
leading  scholastics  took  of  discriminating  between  the 
things  that  can  be  rationally  proved  and  the  things  that 
have  to  be  accepted  by  faith  on  the  authority  of  the 
church,  gave  them  much  freedom  to  speculate  about 
transcendental  matters,  their  orthodoxy  being  saved  by 
their  profession  of  submissiveness  in  each  case  to  the 
authority  of  the  church. 

Eckart's  speculations  found  expression  chiefly  in  his 
sermons  and  other  popular  discourses.  He  was  an  en- 
thusiastic preacher  and  was  earnestly  desirous  of  im- 
pressing upon  the  monks  and  nuns  to  whom  he  minis- 

1  Pentfcb,  in  H«no{|f-Hftiick,  third  cd.,  art  "  Eckart." 


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488  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV 

tered  his  profound  thoughts  about  **  the  divine  nature  in 
its  unity  and  trinity,  the  relation  between  God  and  the 
creature,  especially  between  God  and  the  human  soul, 
about  the  nature  of  the  soul,  about  regeneration  and 
union  with  God,  to  which  he  is  constantly  recurring."* 

(a)  His  view  of  God  was  hardly  distinguishable  from 
pantheism.  His  expressions  correspond  closely  with 
those  of  Gnostics  like  Basileides  and  with  extreme  Neo- 
Platonism. 

'•  All  that  is  in  the  Godhead  Is  one.  Thereof  we  can  say  nothing. 
It  is  above  all  names,  above  all  nature.  The  essence  of  all  creatures 
is  eternally  a  divine  life  in  Deity.  It  is  God  who  worlds,  not  the 
Godhead.  .  .  Tlierein  are  they  distinguished— in  worthing  and  not 
worlting."  He  was  not  content  with  the  definition  of  Pseudo-Dlo- 
nysius:  "God  is  not,'*  rather  he  is  the  negation  of  negation 

S'ichtssuicht),  He  applies  the  expression  **unnatured  nature''  to 
ity.  The  Trinity  Is  the  self-revelation  of  the  indistinguishable 
and  indefinable  Godhead,  or  ''natured  nature."  God  as  Father 
knows,  speaks^  generates.  His  Fatherhood  exists  only  in  relation 
to  the  Son.  The  Son  is  in  all  things  like  the  Father  except  in  gen- 
eration. Out  of  the  pleasure  and  love  that  Father  and  Son  have  in 
each  other  proceeds  tne  Holy  Spirit. 

(b)  All  creatures  he  regarded  in  a  pantheistic  manner 
as  having  their  existence  in  God.  This  is  especially  the 
case  of  the  human  soul. 

**  There  Is  soroethins;  in  the  soul  which  is  above  the  soul,  divine, 
simple,  an  absolute  nothing,  rather  unnamed  than  named,  unknown 
than  known.  •  .  It  is  absolute  and  free  from  all  names  and  forms, 
as  God  is  free  and  absolute  in  himself.  It  is  higher  than  knowledge, 
higher  than  love,  higher  than  grace.  In  this  power  doth  blossom 
and  flourish  God,  with  all  his  Godhead.  .  .  In  this  power  doth  the 
Father  bring  forth  his  only  begotten  Son,  as  essentially  as  in  him- 
self, and  in  this  light  arisetn  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  spark  rejects  all 
creatures,  and  will  have  only  God,  simply  as  he  Is  m  himself.  It 
rests  satisfied  neither  with  the  Father,  nor  the  Son,  nor  the  Holy 
Ghost,  nor  with  the  three  Persons,  as  far  as  each  exists  in  its  re- 
spective attributes.  .  .  This  light  is  satisfied  only  with  the  super- 
essential  essence.  It  is  bent  on  entering  into  the  simple  ground,  the 
still  waste,  wherein  is  no  distinction,  neither  Father,  Son,  nor  Holy 
Ghost."  Again:  "God  in  himself  was  not  God— in  the  creature 
only  hath  he  become  God." 

(c)  From  the  above  quotations  it  is  evident  that  he 
regarded  the  whole  process  of  revelation  and  redemption 

>  Deutsch,  at  before  cited. 


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CHAP.L]  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIiCVAL  CIVILIZATION    489 

as  taking  place  in  each  individual.  God  is  conscious  only 
in  the  creature.  Prayer  is  unnecessary,  for  we  have  all 
truth  and  all  Godhead  essentially  in  ourselves. 

**  God  and  I  are  one  In  knowing.  God's  essence  is  his  knowing, 
and  God's  knowing  makes  me  to  know  him.  Therefore  is  his 
knowing  my  knowing.  .  .  Mine  eye  and  the  eye  of  God  are  one 
eye,  one  vision,  one  knowledge,  and  one  love." 

The  birth  of  the  Son  takes  place  in  each  soul  that  submits  itself  to 
divine  influence  as  It  occurred  in  Jesus.  Historical  Christianity  with 
Its  revelation  and  its  redemption  sinks  Into  insignificance  in  compari- 
son with  the  individual  experience  of  union  and  communion  with  the 
infinite  source  of  being.  The  incarnation  he  regarded  as  the  result 
of  the  striving  of  all  creatures  since  the  fall  to  produce  a  man  who 
should  restore  harmony.  In  the  creation  of  the  first  man  Christ  was 
the  object.    The  earthly  life  of  Christ  is  valuable  as  an  example. 

(d)  Sin  consists  in  directing  the  will  toward  the  finite 
and  taking  pleasure  therein.  Salvation  consists  in  attain- 
ing to  a  consciousness  of  our  unity  with  God  and  in  hav- 
ing the  Son  begotten  in  us.  Absorption  in  Deity  involves 
the  purging  away  of  all  sensuous  and  creaturely  affec- 
tions and  the  attainment  of  perfect  Christlikeness. 

b.  John  Tauler(d.  1361),  a  Dominican  and  a  pupil  of 
Eckart,  early  became  a  preacher  of  great  power.  In 
mid-career  he  came  under  the  influence  of  a  "Friend  of 
God,"  whose  identity  will  probably  ever  remain  shrouded 
in  the  deepest  mystery,  and  had  a  profound  religious 
experience  which  he  regarded  as  conversion  (1350  ^^' 
ward).  After  years  of  meditation  and  study  he  resumed 
his  preaching  in  Strasburg,  where  he  attracted  great  au- 
diences, whom  he  marvelously  impressed  with  his  impas- 
sioned eloquence.  He  was  one  of  the  foremost  preachers 
of  the  mediaeval  time  and  by  his  sermons  and  writings 
did  more,  it  is  probable,  than  any  other  man  for  the  dif- 
fusion of  evangelical  mysticism  and  the  promotion  of 
spiritual  Christianity. 

It  must  suffice  at  present  to  say  that  he  avoided  to  a 
great  extent  the  pantheistic  extravagance  of  Eckart, 
while  yet  insisting  on  the  completeness  of  the  union  of 
the  believer  with  God  and  the  directness  of  the  inner 
experience  of  divine  truth. 

c.  Among  the  other  more  influential  mystics  may  be 
mentioned  Henry  Suso  (d.  1365),  who  was  also  an  eloquent 
Dominican  preacher  .and  who  almost  equaled  Eckart  m 


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490  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PBR.IV. 

the  extravagance  of  his  pantheistic  expressions;  John 
Ruysbroek  (d.  1381X  the  chief  of  the  Dutch  mystics  and 
almost  as  evangelical  as  Taukr ;  Rulmann  Merswin  (d. 
1382),  a  Strasburg  merchant  who  founded  (1366)  a  re- 
ligious house  for  the  "  Friends  of  God,"  or  the  evangel- 
ical mystics,  who  sought  by  a  semi-monastic  organization 
to  carry  forward  their  evangelical  preaching  and  educa- 
tional work;  the  author  of  the  anonymous  "German 
Theology/'  whose  influence  on  Luther  and  others  will 
be  noticed  hereafter;  and  Thomas  a  Kempis  (d.  1471), 
author  of  the  ''Imitation  of  Christ,"  which  has  held  its 
place  as  one  of  the  great  devotional  works  of  the  ages. 

{))  InfluiHCi  of  Mysticism  upon  Christian  Lifi  and  Thought, 

The  writings  and  sermons  of  the  German  mystics 
made  a  powerful  impression  upon  the  minds  of  a  large 
number  of  Christians.  Comparatively  few  were  led  to 
the  extreme  of  mystical  contemplation  at  which  the 
leaders  arrived.  But  a  strong  current  of  earnest  Chris- 
tian life,  as  opposed  to  the  outward,  formal  Christianity 
that  prevailed,  proceeded  from  these  men,  and  was  per- 
petuated by  their  writings.  It  was  not  an  altogether 
wholesome  mode  of  viewing  Christianity.  Yet  it  was 
very  effective  in  its  opposition  to  the  dead  formalism 
into  which  Christianity  had  sunk.  Luther,  Carlstadt, 
MUnzer,  Denck,  Schwenckfeldt,  and  many  other  leading 
men  in  the  Reformation  time,  acknowledged  or  mani- 
fested their  deep  indebtedness  to  the  mystics,  and  by 
these  their  theological  views  were  in  a  great  measure 
determined. 

Xl.  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

LITERATURE :  Pater,  "  Studies  in  the  Hist,  of  the  Renaissance  "* ; 
Symonds,  '*  The  Renaissance  in  Italy '' ;  Roscoe,  '*  Life  of  Lorenzo 
de'  Medici,"  and  "  Life  of  Leo  X."  ;  Reumont,  "  Lorenzo  de'  Medi- 
ci ";  Haliam, "  Int.  to  the  Literature  of  Europe  in  the  Fifteenth,  Six- 
teenth, and  Seventeenth  Centuries,"  Chap.  I.  and  II. ;  Berington, 
•'Lit.  Hist,  of  the  Middle  Ages";  Gregorovlus,  *' Gesch.  d,  Stadt 
Rom,*'  "Bd,  VII.  (also  Eng.  trans.) ;  Burckhardt, '' Kultur  </.  Renais- 
sanci" :  Voigt,  "  Humamsmus'* ;  Crelghton,  **  Hist,  of  the  Papacy," 
Vol.  lli.  and  IV. j  Villari,  "Savonarola";  Schaif,  "The  Renais- 
sance" ;  George  Eliot."  Romola"  (a  historical  novel  of  great  power 
and  value) ;  and  Ranke,  "  Hist,  of  the  Popes."  See  also  encyclo- 
pedia articles  on  the  leading  humanists. 


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CHAP.  I]   SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIiEVAL  CIVILIZATION    49I 

I.  Preliminary  Observations. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  phenomena  of  the  latter 
part  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  the  revival  of  learning. 
The  decline  of  the  Roman  Empire  witnessed  a  corre- 
sponding decline  in  literary  production.  The  barbarian 
invasions  swept  away,  for  the  most  part,  the  culture  that 
remained.  Charlemagne  took  energetic  measures  for 
the  revival  of  learning,  and  gave  a  great  stimulus  to  the- 
ological studies. 

From  the  time  of  Charlemagne  there  was  considerable 
literary  activity  in  the  monasteries,  but  this  was  for  the 
most  part  misdirected.  Under  the  influence  of  dead  for- 
malism in  general,  and  of  Aristotelian  philosophy  and 
dialectics,  which  gave  shape  to  the  theological  and  philo- 
sophical productions  of  the  Middle  Ages,  theology  and 
philosophy  degenerated  into  endless  and  aimless  hair- 
splitting. Deductive,  rather  than  inductive  in  its  meth- 
ods, mediaeval  theology  consisted  in  the  drawing  out 
from  a  single  proposition  recognized  as  authoritative  (a 
text  of  Scripture,  or  an  expression  of  a  pope,  council,  or 
early  theologian),  of  as  many  conclusions,  positive  and 
negative,  as  possible.  From  each  of  these  conclusions, 
arrived  at  by  logical  processes,  in  like  manner  an  almost 
infinite  number  of  other  conclusions  were  drawn. 

Thus  resting  entirely  upon  ecclesiastical  authority, 
there  was  little  effort  or  inclination  among  the  mediaeval 
theologians  to  arrive  at  new  views  of  truth.  The  church 
had  determined  how  Scripture  was  to  be  interpreted,  and 
the  Latin  text  of  the  Bible  was  regarded  as  infallibly 
correct.  There  was,  therefore,  no  reason  why  mediaeval 
theologians  should  attempt  to  find  out  the  true  meaning 
of  the  Scriptures  by  a  study  of  their  original  languages, 
and  of  the  historical  relations  of  their  different  parts. 
Mediaeval  theology  thus  furnished  one  of  the  strongest 
barriers  to  the  progress  of  true  enlightenment. 

While  the  Saracen  occupancy  of  Spain  was  regarded 
by  Christians  as  a  great  evil.  Christians  received  from 
the  Saracens  more  of  enlightenment  during  the  Middle 
Ages  than  from  any  other  source.  The  influence  of 
Arabic  learning  upon  Christian  thought  that  had  already 
become  manifest,  was  still  more  marked  during  the  pe- 


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492  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IV. 

riod  of  the  Crusades,  and  especially  in  the  thirteenth 
century.  Yet  there  was  in  this  Arabic  influence  little 
that  tended  to  progress.  Indeed,  the  most  scholastic  of 
the  mediaeval  theologians  and  philosophers  were  those 
that  were  most  under  the  influence  of  Arabic  learning. 

The  universities,  as  we  have  seen,  were  dominated  by 
the  spirit  of  scholasticism,  and  while  they  conserved  and 
diffused  the  learning  of  the  past  did  little  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  science  in  any  of  its  branches. 

Freedom  of  thought  was  greatly  promoted  by  the  dis- 
ordered and  divided  state  of  the  hierarchical  church  dur- 
ing the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries.  The  skep- 
ticism of  the  nominalists  became  widely  diffused. 

The  contact  of  Western  Christians  with  the  Greek 
learning  of  the  East,  during  the  fourteenth  and  the  early 
part  of  the  fifteenth  centuries,  and  the  emigration  of 
Greek  scholars  to  Italy,  promoted  the  awakening  interest 
in  classical  learning. 

2.  Rise  of  the  New  Learning. 

In  the  thirteeth  century  the  Latin  and  Greek  classics, 
long  since  almost  forgotten  in  the  West,  had  begun  to  be 
studied  and  admired.  Dante  and  Petrarch,  the  founders 
of  Italian  literature,  had  interested  themselves  in  Latin 
poetry,  and  Boccaccio  had  applied  himself  to  Greek  po- 
etry as  well.  By  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century 
considerable  interest  in  classical  studies  had  already 
been  awakened  in  Italy. 

The  continued  encroachment  of  the  Turks  upon  the 
Greek  Empire,  and,  finally,  the  fall  of  Constantinople 
(1453),  caused  a  large  number  of  Greek  scholars  to  take 
refuge  in  Italy.  Here  they  were  welcomed,  and  their 
services  as  teachers  of  the  Greek  language  and  philosophy 
were  in  great  demand.  In  1450  a  school  was  founded  by 
Cosmo  de'  Medici  for  the  promotion  of  classical  studies. 
The  writings  of  Plato  were  especially  cultivated,  and  the 
Platonic  philosophy  was  contrasted  with  the  scholastic 
theology  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  latter.  It  was  even 
shown  that  the  schoolmen  had  not  properly  understood 
Aristotle,  whom  they  professed  to  follow. 

The  study  of  antiquity  became  an  enthusiasm.  The 
monastic  libraries  were  ransacked  for  manuscripts  of  the 


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CHAP.  I.]  SOME  ASPECTS  OF  MEDIiCVAL  CIVILIZATION    493 

Greek  and  Roman  classics,  which  were  regarded  as  more 
precious  than  gold.  To  write  in  a  Ciceronian  style  be- 
came a  great  object  of  ambition  and  the  study  of  Greek 
became  the  fashion  of  the  day.  The  art  of  printing,  dis- 
covered about  the  middle  of  the  century,  was  a  powerful 
auxiliary  to  the  new  learning.  Architecture,  painting, 
and  sculpture  participated  in  the  great  esthetic  awaken- 
ing. Popes  and  civil  rulers  alike  were  lavish  in  their  ex- 
penditures on  literature,  architecture,  and  the  fine  arts. 

3.  Characteristics  of  the  New  Learning. 

(i)  As  might  have  been  expected,  the  tendency  of  the 
one-sided  cultivation  of  the  Greek  classics  was  to  pro- 
mote aesthetic,  far  more  than  religious  advancement. 

(2)  The  cultivation  of  the  elegant  literature  of  Greece 
and  Rome  incapacitated  men  for  appreciating  even  the 
good  elements  of  the  barbarously  written  scholastic  the- 
ology. The  elevated  sentiments  and  ideal  conceptions 
of  Platonism  were  held  by  many  to  be  far  more  divine 
than  the  stiff  formalism  of  a  Thomas  Aquinas. 

(3)  Such  cultivation  and  admiration  of  classical  litera- 
ture was  sure  to  lead  to  the  extreme  of  denying  the  su- 
periority of  the  Christian  religion  to  paganism  ;  but  after 
the  first  reaction,  a  harmonizing  of  Christianity  with 
Platonism  was  naturally  attempted.  This  effort  led  to 
the  study  of  the  Neo-Platonic  writings  (Plotinus,  Por- 
phyry, Proclus,  Pseudo-Dionysius,  etc.),  and  to  a  com- 
parison of  these  with  the  biblical  writings  in  their  original 
languages.  Thus  the  study  of  the  Greek  and  Hebrew 
Scriptures  was  revived. 

(4)  This  study  of  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  Scriptures, 
without  scholastic  prepossession,  was  sure  to  lead  to  a 
better  understanding  of  the  Scriptures  and  a  better  ap- 
preciation of  the  spirit  of  Christiiainity.  Without  the  re- 
vival of  learning,  Colet,  and  Reuchlin,  and  Erasmus,  and 
Luther,  and  Zwingli,  and  Calvin,  would  have  been  im- 
possible. 

(5)  The  Renaissance  involved  an  earnest  application 
of  the  mind  to  nature  with  the  determination  to  penetrate 
its  secrets.  It  involved  a  recognition  of  the  dignity  of 
life  and  of  mind,  and  of  the  right  and  duty  of  the  indi- 
vidual to  cultivate  his  powers  to  the  utmost,  and  to  enjoy 


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494  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

in  a  rational  way  what  nature  has  provided.  The  super- 
stitions of  the  past  had  to  give  way  before  the  spread  of 
enlightenment  by  the  new  learning,  with  its  new  philoso- 
phy and  its  new  science.  The  spirit  of  the  Renaissance 
pervaded  the  religious,  social,  and  political  life  of  the 
time.  The  papacy  itself  came  under  its  spell,  and  several 
of  the  popes  were  far  more  devoted  to  literature  and  art 
than  to  the  interests  of  religion  or  even  the  maintenance 
of  ecclesiastical  power.  Educational  methods  were  rev* 
olutionized.  Theology  itself  experienced  a  new  birth  at 
the  hands  of  men  like  Pico  de  Mirandola,  Reuchlin, 
Erasmus,  and  Colet.  Philosophy  was  transformed  under 
Nicolas  of  Cusa,  Pico,  Reuchlin,  Agrippa  of  Nettesheim, 
and  Galileo. 

(6)  We  may  say  that  in  connection  with  the  revival  of 
learning,  the  principle  of  emancipation  from  authority  in 
matters  of  thought  and  worship,  which  is  the  distinctive 
idea  of  modern  times,  as  compared  with  mediaeval,  was 
developed.  This  idea,  though  a  fundamental  one  in 
Protestantism,  was  not  fully  apprehended  by  the  great 
Reformers.  While  it  was  claimed  on  their  own  behalf, 
it  was  not  accorded  to  others.  But  it  was  so  involved  in 
the  origin  of  the  movement  and  in  the  spirit  of  the  times, 
that  it  was  perfectly  sure  of  final  recognition. 

(7)  The  Reformation  was,  therefore,  only  a  single 
phase  of  a  movement  which  had  already  made  consider- 
able progress.  The  first  manifestations  of  the  modern 
spirit  were  humanistic,  and  were  lacking  in  religious  ear- 
nestness and  zeal.  The  movement  of  which  Erasmus 
was  the  best  representative,  only  needed  to  have  infused 
into  it  the  patriotic  and  religious  spirit  of  a  Luther  in 
order  that  it  might  be  able  to  shake  the  religion  of  Eu- 
rope to  its  very  foundations. 


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CHAPTER  II 
THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

I.  THE  POPES  FROM  800-1044 

LITERATURE :  Greenwood, "  Cathsdra  Titri,''  Vo..  III.,  pp.  51- 
446;  Mllman,  **Lat.  Christianity,"  Vol.  111.;  Adams,  ''Hist,  of 
Civilization  dur.  the  Middle  Ages" ;  Emerton,  ''An  Introd.  to  the 
Study  of  the  Middle  Ages  " ;  Bryce,  "  The  Holy  Roman  Empire  "  ; 
Eginnard,  *'  Life  of  Chariemagne"  ( Eng.  trans.) ;  Hauck,  **  Kirdun- 
gtsch,  DiiUschlands^*^  TM,  II. ;  Simson,  ^^Jahrhuchtr  d,  Frdnkiscktn 
Riichs  uHt$r  Lmtwii  d,  Fr,** ;  Diimmler,  **  dsch,  d.  Ostfr'ank,  Rucks  "; 
Wenck,  **  Das  Frank.  Riick  nock  dim  Virirag  van  y$rdm  " :  Simson, 
**  Of>  EntsUkmg  d.  Psiudisidorisckm  Fdlsckmigin  in  U  Mans '' ;  Diimm- 
ler, **  Auxilius  und  l^ulgarius :  Quellm  umd  torsckungtn  {iir  Gisck.  d, 
P4>sttkums  m  Anfang  a,  X.Jakrhundtris^^  1866;  Langen,  **  Gisck.  d. 
rotmsckm  Kireh$  von  NikoUms  /.  his  Gr$gor  VIL^^  1892;  Niehues, 
'*  G$sek.  d.  yirkalinissm  ^wisckm  Kais$rtum  u.  Papsttum  im  MitUk 
alter ^^  1887;  Gregorovius,  **  Geuk.  d,  Stadi  T{om^"  'Bd.  HI.  (also 
Eng.  trans.) ;  He&e, '' KimttlitngisckickU,''  Bd,  IV. ;  Jaifi-Watten- 
bach, '* /?tf#5/a  Tontificorum^^ :  articles  on  the  various  popes  con- 
cerned in  Herzog-Hauck  and  Wetzer  u.  Wdte. 

A  FIRM  alliance  had  been  established  between  Charle- 
magne,  king  of  the  Franks,  and  Pope  Hadrian  I.,  each 
being  pledged  to  use  all  of  his  resources  for  the  advance- 
ment of  the  interests  of  the  other.  These  interests  were 
not  thought  of  as  in  any  sense  antagonistic.  The  head  of 
the  great  Christian  civil  power  of  the  West  was  willing  to 
recognize  the  ecclesiastical  authority  throughout  his  do- 
mains of  the  Roman  pontiff,  while  the  latter  was  ready  to 
support  with  his  spiritual  authority  the  civil  government 
of  the  Prankish  ruler.  It  is  probable  that  each  looked 
upon  his  own  authority  as  supreme  and  thought  chiefly 
of  the  advantages  he  was  to  reap  from  the  alliance ;  but 
both  were  so  well  satisfied  with  a  mutually  advantageous 
arrangement  that  it  was  not  thought  necessary  to  define 
rigorously  the  spheres  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  adminis- 
tration. By  the  joint  efforts  of  pope  and  emperor  the 
Saxons  had  been  won  to  the  empire  and  the  church.  In 
this  both  alike  could  rejoice.    Chariemagne  was  eager 

495 


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496  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

to  gain  all  the  power  and  prestige  that  the  pope  could 
confer  ;  but  he  had  not  the  remotest  idea  of  renouncing 
a  particle  of  his  own  sovereignty  over  lands  or  persons. 

1.  To  Pope  Leo  III.  (795-816)  was  accorded  the  privilege 
of  placing  the  imperial  crown  upon  the  head  of  the  great 
Prankish  monarch.  The  coronation  of  Charlemagne  as 
emperor  of  the  Romans  marks  an  epoch  in  the  history  of 
the  papacy  no  less  than  in  the  political  history  of  Europe. 
As  early  as  774  Hadrian  I.  had  made  Charlemagne  a 
Roman  patrician.  With  the  growth  of  his  dominions  and 
the  complete  withdrawal  of  the  Eastern  empire  from 
effective  interference  in  Italian  politics,  the  importance  of 
restoring  the  Roman  Empire,  and  by  this  means  legalizing 
and  confirming  the  authority  of  his  government,  became 
more  and  more  apparent  to  Charlemagne  and  his  ad- 
visers. Shortly  after  the  death  of  Hadrian,  Leo  had  sent 
to  Charlemagne  the  **  keys  of  the  confessional  of  St. 
Peter,"  along  with  the  standard  of  the  city,  and  had  on 
behalf  of  the  citizens  of  Rome  tendered  to  him  an  oath 
of  fidelity.  In  709  Leo  was  driven  from  the  city  by  a 
hostile  faction.  He  visited  the  court  of  Charlemagne, 
and  was  assisted  by  him  in  regaining  his  authority. 

In  8cx),  having  established  peace  and  tranquillity 
throughout  his  vast  realm,  Charlemagne  betook  himself 
to  Rome  with  the  purpose,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted,  of 
securing  recognition  as  the  successor  of  the  Cssars.  On 
Christmas  Day,  while  he  was  kneeling  with  the  pope  at 
the  altar  prior  to  communion,  the  latter  placed  upon  his 
head  a  jeweled  crown,  and  the  multitude  cried  out:  "To 
Charles  Augustus,  crowned  by  God,  the  great  and  pacific 
emperor  of  the  Romans,  long  life  and  victory." 

Charlemagne  affected  to  be  surprised  and  somewhat 
shocked  at  this  proceeding,  but  he  at  once  exchanged 
the  title  of  Patrician  for  that  of  Emperor  Augustus,  and 
compelled  all  his  subjects  to  take  a  fresh  oath  of  allegi- 
ance to  him  as  such. 

Leo  was  involved  in  local  disturbances  and  by  causing 
some  of  his  enemies  to  be  executed  aroused  a  storm  of 
opposition,  which  might  have  resulted  disastrously  for 
him  had  not  death  intervened. 

2.  Stephen  /K  (816-817)  crowned  Louis  the  Pious  and 
his  bride  at  Rheims,  the  emperor  having  prostrated  him- 


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CHAP.  II.]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  497 

self  before  the  pope  and  treated  him  with  greater  consid- 
eration than  had  ever  before  been  shown  by  an  emperor 
to  a  pontiff. 

3-  Gregory  ly.  (827-844)  was  a  feeble  pope  and  was 
used  by  able  but  unscrupulous  churchmen  for  the  perpe- 
tration upon  Christendom  of  a  body  of  spurious  documents 
in  support  of  papal  prerogative.  The  sons  of  the  feeble 
emperor  were  in  rebellion  against  him  and  had  managed 
to  get  Gregory  committed  to  their  support.  Yet  he 
scrupled  to  take  extreme  measures  against  so  pious  an 
emperor.  The  Abbot  of  Wala  and  his  associate,  Pascha- 
sius  Radbertus,  overcame  his  scruples  by  exhibiting  to 
him  "certain  writings  and  documents,  founded  on  the 
authority  and  under  the  hands  of  his  own  holy  predeces- 
sors/' showing,  among  other  things,  **that  in  him  dwelt 
the  fullness  of  that  living  power  which  came  down  from 
God  and  the  Apostle  Peter,  whereby  he  was  ordained  to 
be  judge  of  all  men  and  of  all  things ;  and  in  such  wise 
that  he  himself  should  be  judged  of  no  man."*  He  no 
longer  hesitated  to  complete  the  overthrow  of  Louis  and 
to  recognize  Lothair,  his  son,  as  emperor  (833).  "  The 
Field  of  Lies"  was  a  term  fittingly  applied  by  contem- 

Eoraries  to  this  transaction  and  others  that  followed. 
)espite  the  wishes  of  Gregory  and  his  advisers,  the  sons 
of  Louis  proceeded  to  apportion  the  empire  among  them- 
selves and  the  unified  civil  government  on  which  church- 
men had  counted  so  confidently  for  aid  in  the  centraliza- 
tion of  ecclesiastical  authority  was  at  an  end. 

Whether  the  documents  presented  to  Gregory  constituted  the  en- 
tire body  of  Pseudo-Isidorian  decretals  or  only  a  limited  number  of 
spurious  documents  that  formed  the  basis  of  the  great  collection  Is 
uncertain.  But  the  full-grown  collection  was  soon  available  and  was 
used  with  the  utmost  confidence  for  the  promotion  of  papal  power 
and  irresponsibility. 

Gregory  denounced  the  partition  of  the  empire  after 
the  death  of  Louis  (Treaty  of  Verdun,  843)  and  his  au- 
thority was  repudiated  by  the  sons  of  Louis,  whose  con- 
spiracy he  had  furthered.  During  his  later  years  he 
was  much  occupied  with  defending  Rome  against  the 
Saracens. 

>  PMChAs.  Rftdbertus,  In  his  "  Kito  IVaia/*  Ub,  II.,  Ch«p.  x6.  quoted  by  Green- 
wood. Vol.  III.,  p.  149. 


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498  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV 

4.  Nicholas  I.  (858-867)  came  to  the  pontificate  just 
after  a  time  of  wild  disorder,  when  a  rival  claimant  of 
the  oflfice  had  taken  possession  of  the  city,  sacked  the 
churches,  destroyed  the  images,  and  imprisoned  the  pope 
(Benedict  III.)-  Louis  II.  treated  him  with  the  utmost 
reverence.  The  imperial  power  was  little  more  than  a 
shadow.  Feudalism  had  almost  completed  the  work  of 
disintegration.  The  domains  of  Louis  II.  were  limited  to 
a  portion  of  Italy  and  he  was  willing  to  join  hands  with 
the  pope  for  the  extension  of  influence.  The  Saracens 
had  been  successfully  repelled.  Internal  strife  had  sub- 
sided. Nicholas  was  glad  to  be  protected  against  Prank- 
ish interference  by  an  Italian  kingdom.  He  had  fully  ap- 
propriated the  teachings  and  implications  of  the  Pseudo- 
Isidorian  decretals  and  was  prepared  to  wage  a  relentless 
warfare  against  any  that  should  impugn  the  absolute 
sovereignty  and  the  irresponsibility  of  the  Roman  See. 

Archbishop  John  of  Ravenna  defied  the  pope's  au- 
thority. He  was  deposed  and  anathematized,  and  was 
restored  only  after  the  most  humiliating  submission. 

The  right  of  appeal  to  Rome  and  the  supreme  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  pope  were  insisted  upon  by  Nicholas  and  suc- 
cessfully enforced  in  a  number  of  test  cases. 

HIncmar,  archbishop  of  Rheims,  had  deposed  Bishop  Rothald,  of 
Soissons,  because  of  his  refusal  to  obey  the  mandates  or  a  provincial 
synod.  He  appealed  to  the  pope,  who  insisted  on  his  being  rein- 
stated, and  Hincmar  was  obliged  to  apologize  to  the  pope  and  to  rec- 
ognize his  right  to  interfere. 

Lothair  11.  divorced  his  wife,  Tietberga,  and  married  Waldrada. 
Tietberga  appealed  to  the  pope,  who  espoused  her  cause,  denounced 
Waldrada  as  a  harlot,  and  insisted  upon  the  right  of  the  pope  to  ex- 
ercise moral  superintendence  over  civil  rulers  as  being  the  sole  source 
of  their  authonty  and  responsible  to  God  for  their  nghteous  admin- 
istration. 

5.  Hadrian  II.  (867-872),  an  able  and  aggressive  pope, 
was  unable  to  hold  the  papacy  at  the  point  of  influence 
reached  by  his  predecessor.  His  attempt  to  fix  the  do- 
mains of  Lothair  II.  upon  the  Emperor  Louis  II.,  in  defi- 
ance of  the  claims  of  Charles  the  Bald,  supported  by  the 
prevailing  sentiment,  secular  and  ecclesiastical,  of  the 
land,  was  a  complete  failure,  and  he  was  powerless  to 
avenge  the  severe  rebuke  of  Archbishop  Hincmar. 

6.  John  HIL  (872-882)  was  obliged  to  appeal  to  Charles 


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CHAP.  II.]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  499 

the  Bald  (now  emperor)  for  protection  against  local  en- 
emies and  the  Saracens.  The  death  of  Charles  (877) 
left  him  in  a  lamentable  position.  He  was  obliged  to 
make  a  humiliating  treaty  with  the  Saracens.  The  Car- 
lovingian  Empire  was  approaching  its  end  and  the  papacy 
became  involved  in  the  general  dissolution  of  society. 

7.  From  Martin  II.  (882)  to  Christopher  (903).  Never 
was  the  papacy  more  degraded  than  from  880-icxx). 
After  the  breaking  up  of  the  Carlovingian  Empire  Eu- 
rope lapsed  into  a  state  of  almost  complete  anarchy. 
Italy  was  rent  into  fragments  by  contending  factions. 
Bishoprics  and  abbeys  were  seized  upon  by  warring 
nobles  for  their  sons  or  other  dependents.  Bishops  thus 
appointed  were  anything  rather  than  pious  or  learned  in 
theology.  The  papacy  lost  almost  all  its  power  and 
prestige  and  came  to  be  a  bone  of  contention  among 
rival  factions.  Pope  Formosus  (891-898)  having  been 
treated  with  the  utmost  indignity  by  one  party  and  hav- 
ing been  enabled  afterward  to  wreak  bloody  vengeance 
upon  his  enemies,  was  probably  poisoned.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded (after  fifteen  days,  during  which  Boniface  VI.  be- 

fan  and  ended  his  pontifical  reign)  by  his  mortal  enemy, 
tephen  VI.,  who  had  his  body  exhumed,  tried,  con- 
demned, deposed,  stripped  of  pontifical  robes,  cut  to 
pieces,  and  thrown  into  the  Tiber.  The  pontifical  acts 
of  Formosus  were  of  course  abrogated  by  Stephen.  In 
about  a  year  the  other  party  triumphed  and  Stephen  was 
imprisoned  and  strangled.  Stephen's  successor,  Marinus, 
reigned  four  months  and  Marinus'  successor  three  weeks. 
John  X.  was  elected  by  the  party  that  had  sustained 
Formosus  (898)  and  devoted  his  energies  to  annulling  the 
proceedings  of  Stephen.  Leo  V.  (903)  having  reigned 
for  two  months  was  murdered  by  his  chaplain,  who  suc- 
ceeded him.  The  murderer  was  murdered  and  succeeded 
by  Sergius  III.,  after  eight  months  of  pontifical  glory. 

8.  The  Pomocracy.  With  Sergius  was  inaugurated  what 
is  known  in  history  as  the  Pomocracy.  Marozia,  a  licen- 
tious noblewoman,  as  mistress  of  Sergius,  directed  the 
papal  government  for  seven  years.  His  successor  John 
X.  was  appointed  by  his  mistress  Theodora.  He  led  in 
person  a  successful  military  expedition  against  the  Sara- 
cens, but  returned  to  be  driven  into  exile  by  Marozia. 


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500  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

Through  the  influence  of  another  licentious  woman  he 
succeeded  in  reinstating  himself,  but  through  the  influ- 
ence of  Marozia  he  was  soon  afterward  strangled  in  a 
dungeon.  The  next  three  popes  were  creatures  of  Maro- 
zia, the  third  (John  XI.)  her  bastard  son  by  Pope  Sergius, 
a  youth  of  twenty-one.  From  936  to  956  a  sort  of  Ro- 
man Republic,  with  Alberic  at  its  head,  prevailed.  Al- 
beric  appointed  four  popes  in  succession  and  restrained 
them  from  political  interference.  A  son  of  Alberic  (a 
boy  of  twelve  or,  as  others  say,  eighteen),  profligate  be- 
yond his  years,  succeeded  his  father  in  the  civil  govern- 
ment and  moreover  assumed  the  papal  office  (John  XII.). 
He  was  charged  by  his  contemporaries  with  the  violation 
of  almost  every  principle  of  morality  and  religion :  sac- 
rilege, adultery,  violation  of  widows,  living  with  his 
father's  mistress,  invocation  of  Jupiter  and  Venus,  and 
turning  the  papal  palace  into  a  brothel.  He  was  driven 
from  the  city  at  the  request  of  the  people  by  the  aid  of 
the  German  emperor  Otho  before  whom  he  had  been 
tried.  After  a  time  he  was  restored  through  the  inter- 
vention of  harlots,  but  was  soon  afterward  killed  by  the 
injured  husband  of  a  paramour. 

The  authority  of  Otho  the  Great  was  increasing  and 
he  was  earnestly  endeavoring  to  bring  order  out  of  chaos. 
He  secured  control  in  Italy  in  962  and  from  that  time  as- 
sumed the  responsibility  of  appointing  popes.  Thus  the 
papacy  was  delivered  from  the  debasing  position  into 
which  it  had  fallen  and  was  enabled  to  enter  anew  upon 
the  aggressive  policy  that  had  so  long  been  kept  in  abey- 
ance. The  tradition  of  past  greatness  was'  still  preserved 
and  with  the  revival  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  by  Otho 
the  papacy  entered  upon  a  career  of  brilliant  conquest. 

9.  Otho  the  Great  and  the  Papa(y.  In  962,  following  the 
example  of  Charlemagne,  Otho  sought  to  fortify  his  im- 
perial authority  by  receiving  anointing,  although  he  had 
already  assumed  the  imperial  crown,  at  the  hands  of  the 
pope,  even  the  disreputable  John  XII.  Otho  is  said  to 
have  solemnly  promised  to  do  all  that  in  him  lay  to  exalt 
the  Church  of  Kome  and  her  pastor,  and  to  protect  them 
in  the  enjoyment  of  their  dignities  and  territorial  posses- 
sions. When  John's  vicious  life  was  brought  to  his  at- 
tention he  treated  the  matter  lightly,  expressing  the  hope 


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CHAP.  II.]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  50I 

that  with  increasing  age  he  would  learn  to  conduct  him- 
self with  more  propriety.  But  on  learning,  soon  after- 
ward, that  John  was  seeking  to  induce  Greeks  and  Hun- 
garians to  invade  Italy  and  to  expel  the  Germans,  he 
proceeded  to  capture  Rome,  and  in  963  convoked  a  synod 
of  bishops  and  cardinals  for  the  deposition  of  the  pope 
and  the  appointment  of  a  successor.  A  layman  was 
appointed  pope  under  the  name  Leo  VIII.  On  Otho's 
withdrawal  from  Italy  John  was  able  to  drive  out  the 
new  pope  and  to  reoccupy  the  papal  chair.  John  died 
in  964  and  his  friends  appointed  a  successor  under  the 
name  Benedict  V.  Otho  returned  to  Italy,  recaptured 
Rome,  and  convoked  a  synod  of  bishops  from  the  various 
divisions  of  his  empire,  which  deposed  Benedict.  Leo 
VIII.,  with  the  approval  of  the  synod,  issued  a  decree 
recognizing  the  right  of  Otho  and  his  successors  to  nom- 
inate thenceforth  the  rulers  of  Italy,  to  appoint  all  future 
popes,  and  to  invest  all  archbishops  and  bishops. 

After  the  death  of  Otho  I.  Italy  relapsed  into  anarchy 
and  the  papacy  shared  the  same  fate.  Murder,  intrusion, 
and  robbery  resumed  their  sway.  Otho  III.,  however, 
regained  control  and  appointed  Gerbert,  one  of  the  most 
learned  men  of  the  time,  pope,  under  the  name  of  Syl- 
vester II.  (999).  Gerbert  had  studied  in  Cordova  under 
Saracen  scholars,  and  his  scientific  knowledge  was  so 
much  in  advance  of  that  of  his  contemporaries,  that  he 
was  suspected  of  practising  "  black  magic"  (witchcraft). 
Otho  is  said  to  have  added  at  this  time  eight  counties  to 
the  States  of  the  Church,  though  the  authenticity  of  the 
deed  has  been  called  in  question.  Sylvester  II.  was  the 
first  French  pope,  and  the  first  pope,  so  far  as  is  known, 
to  propose  a  crusade  for  the  deliverance  of  the  Holy  Sep- 
ulchre from  the  hands  of  the  Saracens. 

Henry  II.  (ic»2-i024)  was  noted  for  his  religious  zeal. 
He  rebuked  the  vices  of  clergy,  high  and  low,  promoted 
men  to  ecclesiastical  offices  on  the  ground  of  merit,  and 
instituted  vigorous  measures  for  reforming  the  church. 
Conrad  II.  and  Henry  III.  (1024-1056)  pursued  the  same 
general  policy ;  but  the  Italian  clergy  proved  irreform- 
able.  Benefices  were  bought  and  sold  with  the  utmost 
recklessness;  licentiousness  was  rampant.  Henry  111. 
in  his  zeal  for  reform  called  a  synod  at  Sutri  (1046),  sum- 


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502  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [per.  IV 

moned  Pope  Gregory  VL,  deposed  him  for  simony,  along 
with  the  pope  from  whom  he  had  purchased  the  office 
and  another  rival  pope,  and  appointed  a  respectable  Ger- 
man bishop,  Suidgar  of  Bamberg,  to  the  position  under 
the  name  Clement  II.  Henry  purposed  to  carry  out  the 
good  work  thus  begun  into  every  department  of  ecclesi- 
astical government  and  life.  In  1049  Bruno,  bishop  of 
Torel,  Henry's  uncle,  was  elevated  to  the  papacy  as  Leo 
IX.,  who  forthwith  associated  with  himself  Hildebrand  as 
subdeacon  and  administrator  of  the  Patrimony  of  Peter. 
With  the  co-operation  of  the  emperor  strenuous  measures 
were  entered  upon  for  the  abolition  of  simony  and  im- 
morality among  the  clergy.  Many  of  the  more  upright 
clergy  rejoiced  in  his  well  directed  efforts  and  heartily 
co-operated  with  him. 

It  should  be  noted  that  the  close  of  the  first  miiienniuni  was 
looked  forward  to  by  many  Christians  with  grave  apprehension  as 
the  date  of  the  closing  of  the  dispensation,  or  the  end  of  the  world. 
Otho  III.  shared  in  this  morbid  anxiety.  When  the  year  iocx>  passed 
without  a  catastrophe  there  was  universal  rejoicing. 

n.  THE  HILDEBRANDINE  SCHEME  OF  REFORM. 

LITERATURE:  Greenwood,  Vol.  IV.,  pp.  i3o-'422;  Mllman,  Vol. 
IV.;  Stephens,  ''Hildebrand  and  His  Times";  Stephen,  ''Essays  in 


(Uutsch.  Kaissr^iii,"  Bd,  III. ;  Gregorovius,  "  Gisch.  d,  Stadt  T{om'' 
(and  Eng.  trans.);  Hauck,  ** Kirchmgisch,  Deutsehlands^^^  Bd,  HI., 
1896 ;  Langen,  *^Gesch.  d,  rom,  Kircht  van  Nikolaus  I.  bis  Gregory  K//."; 
Mirbt,  "  T>f>  PMitistih  im  Zeitalter  Gngors  yil.,*^  1894 ;  Martens, 
"  Gng.  yiL,  Sim  Ubni  u.  IVirken,''  1894 ;  Potthast,  "  Bibliothsca  His- 
toriea MedHMvi^^  second  ed.,  1896 ;  Sagmuller, "  Du  Thdtigkiit  u,  Stel- 
lung  d.  Kardin'aU  his  Pt^st  Bonifar  yUL*^  1896 ;  Bryce,  p.  159,  uq.  ; 
Freeman,  "Norm.  Conq."  (see  Index);  works  of  Hildebrand  and 
Peter  Damlani;  Jaff^-Wattenbach,  ^^  FUgisia  Pontiflcum** ;  Alzog, 
Sec.  214. 

I.  Hildebrand  as  the  Maker  and  Ruler  of  Popes.  As  the 
Roman  hierarchy  gradually  regained  its  power  under  the 
fostering  care  of  the  emperors,  a  high  church  party  came 
to  the  front  under  the  leadership  of  Hildebrand,  which 
resented  civil  interference  in  matters  of  religion  as  out- 
rageous and  sacrilegious,  and  sought  to  emancipate  the 
church  from  dependence  upon  civil  rulers  by  centralizing 
all  ecclesiastical  authority  in  the  papacy.     Hildebrand, 


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CHAP.  II.]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  503 

of  whose  early  history  scarcely  anything  is  known, 
seems  to  have  been  born  about  1020  of  plebeian  Italian 
parents.  He  first  appears  as  chaplain  of  Gregory  VI. 
(1044-1046),  resided  at  Clugny,  where  he  carried  for- 
ward his  education  and  became  filled  with  monkish  zeal 
(1046-1049),  became  subdeacon  and  cardinal  under  Leo 
IX.  (1040),  and  thenceforth  controlled  the  papal  policy  as 
the  chief  statesman  of  the  Roman  Curia  until  1073,  when 
by  the  acclamation  of  the  people  and  clergy  of  Rome, 
ratified  by  the  cardinals,  he  became  pope.  He  had  dic- 
tated the  appointment  of  several  of  his  predecessors  and 
might  on  several  occasions  have  secured  election  for 
himself,  but  he  preferred  up  to  this  time  to  labor  in  a 
subordinate  position  and  assumed  the  tiara  at  last  under 
strong  pressure.  He  was  unquestionably  the  greatest 
ecclesiastical  statesman  of  the  Middle  Ages.  In  him  the 
spirit  of  the  papacy  became  incarnate.  He  identified 
papal  supremacy  in  the  most  absolute  way  with  the  will 
of  God  and  allowed  nothing  to  stand  in  the  way  of  the 
realization  of  his  ideal  of  universal  papal  dominion  in 
spiritual  and  secular  things.  With  a  shrewdness  rarely 
equaled  and  a  boldness  of  conception  and  action  never 
surpassed,  he  set  to  work  to  utilize  the  current  reforming 
spirit  for  the  building  up  of  ecclesiastical  authority.  His 
aim  was  to  take  disciplinary  power  out  of  the  hands  of 
civil  rulers  and  to  use  it  for  the  complete  subjugation  of 
clergy  and  laity  to  the  pope.  More  definitely  stated,  the 
policy  of  the  Hildebrandine  party  was :  (i)  To  free  the 
papacy  and  the  church  in  general  from  lay  interference. 
(2)  To  reduce  all  metropolitans,  bishops,  abbots,  and 
clergy  to  absolute  subjection  to  the  papacy.  (3)  To  re- 
duce civil  rulers  to  the  necessity  of  acting  in  the  papal 
interests. 

2.  Decrees  of  the  Roman  Synod  of  lo^g.  Advantage  was 
taken  by  the  Hildebrandine  party  of  the  death  of  Henry 
III.  (1059)  and  the  infancy  of  his  successor  to  inaugurate 
the  new  policy.  At  a  synod  convened  in  Rome  the  fol- 
lowing points  were  settled  :  (i)  Nomination  of  popes  re- 
stricted to  cardinal  bishops.  After  the  nomination  the 
cardinal  clergy  to  be  brought  in.  After  these  bodies 
have  agreed,  the  nomination  to  be  brought  before  the 
inferior  clergy  and  the  laity  for  approval,    A  terrible 


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504  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

anathema  involving  excommunication,  ''the  wrath  of 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit  and  the  fury  of  the  Apostles 
Peter  and  Paul  "  is  pronounced  upon  all  who  shall  impugn 
this  decree.  (2)  No  clerk  under  any  pretense  whatever 
to  accept  church  or  benefice  from  or  by  procurement  of 
any  lay  person  or  be  amenable  to  lay  jurisdiction.  (3) 
No  Christian  man  shall  hear  mass  sung  by  any  priest 
known  to  keep  a  concubine.  This  included  all  married 
priests,  as  no  distinction  was  made  by  the  Hildebrandine 
party  between  married  and  concubinary  clergy. 

3.  Peter  Damiani  the  Coadjutor  of  HUdebrand,  Peter 
Damiani  (born  c.  1007  at  Ravenna)  early  became  a  pro- 
nounced ascetic  and  a  leading  writer  on  ascetical  sub- 
jects, was  appointed  cardinal  bishop  of  Ostia,  the  highest 
position  in  the  college  of  cardinals  (1057),  and  was 
thenceforth  the  ablest  literary  defender  of  the  Hilde- 
brandine scheme.  He  maintained  that  every  invasion 
of  the  prerogative  of  the  Roman  Church  is  heresy  and. 
should  be  dealt  with  as  such  ;  that  all  law,  even  the  law 
of  God  himself,  may  be  set  aside  if  this  should  be 
deemed  by  the  church  necessary  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  its  purposes ;  that  the  divine  law  bends  to  the 
exigencies  of  the  church ;  that  the  present  interests  of 
the  church,  the  church  itself  being  the  judge,  represent 
God's  will  and  must  be  secured  even  if  the  violation  of 
God's  will  otherwise  expressed  be  involved ;  that  the 
church  may  and  should  violate  any  compacts  made  with 
civil  rulers  if  contrary  to  the  interests  of  the  church. 
He  did  not  say  it  in  so  many  words,  but  it  is  clearly  im^ 
plied,  that  the  end  justifies  the  means  and  that  no  faith 
is  to  be  kept  with  heretics.  He  fully  sympathized  with 
Hildebrand  in  his  uncompromising  warfare  against  simony 
and  clerical  marriage. 

Peter  Damlani's  idea  of  the  relations  of  the  papacy  and  the  em- 
pire is  succinctly  set  forth  in  the  following  paragraph  from  his 
'*  Disceptatio  Synodalis  "  :  *'  The  supreme  priesthood  ana  the  Roman 
Empire  should  be  joined  together  In  mutual  compact  to  the  end  that 
the  numan  race,  which  is  ruled  In  both  respects  (ecclesiastical  and 
civil)  through  these  two  supreme  powers,  may  be  rent  asunder  in 
none  of  its  parts,  and  so  the  eminences  of  the  world  may  concur  In 
a  union  of  perpetual  iove,  .  .  to  the  end  that  these  two  exalted 
personages  may  be  joined  together  with  so  great  unanimity  that  by 
a  certain  cement  of  mutual  love  the  king  may  be  found  in  the  Ro 


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CHAP.  II.]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  Jo;; 

man  pontiff  and  the  Roman  pontiff  in  the  l^ing."  He  did  not  al- 
ways work  harmoniously  with  Hildebrand,  whose  supremacy  In 
ecclesiastical  affairs  he  resented.  The  following  caustic  epigram 
(written  In  verse)  expresses  his  feelings :  '*  The  pope  I  rightly  wor- 
ship, but  thee  I  prostrate  adore :  thou  makest  him  lord, lie  makes 
thee  God."    He  died  in  1072. 

This  scheme  involved  a  desperate  struggle  with  the 
clergy  on  the  one  hand  and  the  civil  rulers  on  the  other. 
In  this  struggle  Hildebrand  availed  himself  fully  of  all  the 
means  of  influence  that  the  past  had  placed  within  his 
reach, — monastic  orders,  forged  decretals,  popular  super- 
stitions, and  admiration  for  asceticism,  etc. 

4.  Hildebrand^s  Achievements,  (i)  In  the  face  of  the 
gravest  difficulties  and  the  most  determined  opposition 
on  the  part  of  the  clergy  he  remorselessly  enforced  the 
law  of  celibacy.  Married  clergy  were  stigmatized  as 
concubinaries,  or  worse ;  the  people  were  forbidden  to 
confess  to  them  or  to  receive  religious  service  of  any 
kind  from  them  ;  monks  were  commissioned  to  go  into 
parishes  where  there  was  a  reluctance  to  obey  and  to 
arouse  popular  sentiment  against  recalcitrant  clergy  to 
such  an  extent  that  they  were  compelled  in  many  cases 
either  to  renounce  their  wives  or  flee.  Bishops  and  ab- 
bots were  refused  recognition  in  case  they  had  secured 
appointment  through  lay  Influence.  They  must  either 
renounce  any  sort  of  dependence  on  the  lay  patrons  and 
submit  themselves  absolutely  to  the  pope  or  see  their 
offices  usurped  by  papal  appointees.  There  was  much 
resistance,  but  Hildebrand  was  for  the  most  part  able  to 
carry  his  point. 

(2)  The  civil  rulers  were  very  reluctant  to  abandon 
the  patronage  they  had  enjoyed  from  time  immemorial. 
By  the  use  of  the  interdict  and  other  means  of  making 
his  power  felt,  Hildebrand  gained  some  great  triumphs 
over  his  lay  adversaries,  notably  over  the  Emperor 
Henry  IV.  The  humiliation  of  Henry  at  Canossa  be- 
came one  of  the  most  noted  events  in  the  history  of  the 
struggle  of  Church  and  State  for  supremacy. 

(3)  Besides  reducing  the  clergy  into  almost  complete 
submission,  securing  a  general  recognition  of  the  papa^ 
marriage  laws  and  humiliating  the  emperor,  Hildebrand 
fully  established  the  legatine  power,  by  virtue  of  which 


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506  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

he  had  duly  accredited  and  fully  recognized  representa- 
tives in  all  parts  of  his  constituency.  The  legates  were 
chiefly  monks,  whose  training  had  been  such  that  he 
could  delegate  large  powers  to  them  in  full  assurance 
that  they  would  represent  him  faithfully.  Thus  the 
pope  was  able  to  be  virtually  omnipresent  so  far  as  the 
interests  of  the  hierarchy  were  concerned.  Yet  in  no 
respect  was  his  triumph  complete.  Henry  did  not  long 
remain  in  the  Canossa  frame,  but  was  soon  capturing 
Rome  and  driving  the  pope  from  his  throne.  Neither 
did  he  fully  succeed  in  subjugating  the  clergy. 

(4)  He  employed  the  interdict  for  the  enforcing  of 
ecclesiastical  censures  far  more  effectively  than  any  of 
his  predecessors  had  been  able  to  do. 

(5)  Yet  he  died  in  exile,  having  been  driven  from  the 
city  by  his  lifelong  enemy,  Henry  IV.  His  dying  words 
are  characteristic  of  the  man  :  "  Because  I  have  always 
loved  righteousness  and  hated  iniquity,  therefore  1  die  in 
exile." 

5.  Hildebrand's  Claims  Regarding  Papal  Prerogative. 
The  position  of  Hildebrand  in  the  history  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  papacy  is  so  important  as  to  justify  the  quo- 
tation of  some  of  his  more  striking  utterances  on  papal 
prerogative.  In  a  letter  to  William  the  Conqueror  he 
writes : 

Like  the  two  great  luminaries  fixed  by  the  Creator  in  the  firma- 
ment of  the  heaven  to  give  light  to  his  creatures,  so  also  hath  he 
ordained  two  great  powers  on  earth  by  which  all  men  are  to  be  gov- 
erned and  preserved  from  error.  These  powers  are  the  pontifical  and 
the  royal ;  but  the  former  is  the  greater,  the  latter  the  lesser  light. 
Yet  under  both  the  religion  of  Christ  is  so  ordered  that,  by  God's 
assistance,  the  apostolical  power  shall  govern  the  royal ;  and  Scrip- 
ture teacheth  that  the  apostolic  and  pontifical  dignity  is  ordained  to 
be  responsible  for  all  Christian  kings,  nay,  for  all  men.  before  the 
divine  tribunal,  and  to  render  an  account  to  God  for  their  sins.  If, 
therefore,  I  be  answerable  before  the  dreadful  judgment  seat,  judge 
ye  whether  ye  are  not  bound  upon  the  peril  of  your  soul,  and  as  you 
desire  to  possess  your  kingdom  in  peace,  to  yield  unto  mi  wteondi' 
tional  obedtinct,  for  that  is  no  more  than  to  prefer  the  honor  of  God 
to  your  own  honor  and  to  love  him  in  a  pure  mind,  with  all  your 
heart  and  with  ail  your  strength. 

Exhorting  his  subjects  to  renounce  their  allegiance  to 
Henry  IV.  he  writes : 


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CHAP.  II.]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  50; 

For  this  reason  we  cry  aloud  and  spare  not ;  as  saith  the  prophet : 
*'  If  thou  declare  not  unto  the  wicked  his  evil  way,  his  blood  will  I 
require  at  thy  hand  "  ;  and  again :  *'  Cursed  be  he  that  wlthholdeth 
the  sword  from  blood."  God  is  herein  our  witness,  that  we  are  not 
moved  by  any  desire  of  temporal  advantage  or  by  carnal  respects  of 
any  kind  in  reproving  wicked  princes  or  imperious  priests ;  but  that 
all  we  do  is  done  from  pure  regard  for  our  high  office  and  for  the 
honor  and  prerogative  of  the  Apostolic  See :  for  it  were  a  hundred- 
fold better  that  we  should  suffer  the  death  or  the  body  by  the  hand 
of  the  tyrant  than  for  our  own  profit  or  from  fear  to  hold  our  peace 
and  therein  consent  to  the  overthrow  of  the  Christian  law ;  for  we 
are  clearly  taught  by  the  holy  fathers  that  he  upon  whom  the  duty 
resteth.  yet  neglecteth  to  resist  the  wicked  man,  m  reality  consentetn 
unto  the  evil,  and  himself  commits  the  sin  it  was  nis  duty  to 
punish. 

Defending  his  right  to  excommunicate  princes,  hav- 
ing cited  a  number  of  false  decretals,  he  goes  on  to  say  : 

But  perhaps  there  are  persons  who  will  pretend  that  when  God 
thrice  committed  his  church  to  the  blessed  Peter  by  the  words  *'  feed 
my  sheep,"  he  excepted  kings.  But  let  them  reflect  that  when  he 
gave  to  Peter  the  power  to  bind  and  loose  in  heaven  and  on  earth, 
he  excepted  nothing  out  of  that  power.  He  that  denies  that  he  may 
be  bound  by  the  chains  of  the  cnurch  must  go  on  to  affirm  that  he 
cannot  be  absolved  by  the  same  authority.  But  whosoever  affirms 
this  separates  himself  from  the  body  or  Christ ;  and  verily  if  the 
Apostolic  See,  by  virtue  of  the  principality  divinely  conferred,  ad- 
judicates upon  spiritual  things,  why  should  it  not  have  power  to 
adjudicate  in  temporal  things  also?  The  kings  and  princes  of  this 
world  who  prefer  their  own  honor  and  temporal  advantage  to  the 
righteousness  of  God  are,  as  you  well  know,  the  members  of  him 
whom  they  serve ;  they,  on  the  other  hand,  who  prefer  the  will  of 
God  to  their  own  will,  and  obey  him  rather  than  man,  are  members 
of  Christ,  just  as  the  former  are  members  of  antichrist.  If  there- 
fore spiritual  men  are  when  needful  themselves  brought  to  judgment, 
why  should  they  not  have  power  to  punish  carnal  men  for  their  evil 
lives?  But  perchance  they  imagine  that  the  royal  dignity  is 
superior  to  the  episcopal.  Now  let  us  try  the  two  powers  bv  their 
source  and  origin.  The  former  was  engendered  in  human  prids^  the 
latter  m  dnim  uligion;  the  one  Is  incessantly  grasping  at  empty 
glory,  the  latter  always  aspiring  to  celestial  life. 

In  connection  with  the  second  excommunication  of 
Henry  IV.,  Hildebrand  concludes  an  elaborate  document 
as  follows : 

And  now,  O  ye  princes  and  fathers,  most  holy  Apostles  Peter 
and  Paul,  deal  ye  with  us  in  such  wise  that  all  the  world  may  know 
and  understand  that  you,  having  power  to  bind  and  to  loose  In 
heaven,  have  the  like  power  upon  earth,  according  to  men's  merits 


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508  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

to  give  and  to  take  away  empires,  kingdoms,  principalities,  duke- 
doms, marquisates,  earidoms,  and  ali  manner  of  human  rights  and 
properties,  for  have  you  not  oftentimes  taken  away  patriarchates, 
primacies,  archbishoprics,  and  bishoprics,  from  the  unworthy  and 
given  them  to  religious  men  ?  And  having  such  mighty  power  in 
spiritual  things,  wnat  is  there  on  earth  that  may  transcend  your  au- 
thority in  temporal  things?  And  if  you  judge  the  angels,  who  are 
high  above  the  proudest  of  princes,  wnat  may  you  not  do  unto  those 
beneath  them?  Let  the  kings  and  princes  of  the  earth  know  and 
feel  how  great  you  are,  how  exalted  your  power.  Let  them  tremble 
to  despise  the  commands  of  your  church.  But  upon  the  said  Henry 
do  juagment  quickly,  that  all  men  may  know  that  it  is  not  by  fortune 
or  chance,  but  by  your  power  that  he  has  fallen.  May  he  thus  be 
confound^  unto  repentance  that  his  soul  may  be  saved  in  the  day 
of  the  Lord. 

6.  The  Hildebrandine  Theocratic  Scheme  in  its  Relation 
to  Civil  and  Religious  Liberty.  The  following  general 
statement  on  this  topic  from  an  article  by  the  author,  en- 
titled "  Liberty  and  Creed,"*  may  be  here  reproduced : 

The  Hildebrandine  scheme,  which  owed  many  of  its  features  to 
Hildebrand's  great  contemporary,  Peter  Damianl,  represents  the 
ideal  of  the  theocracy  in  an  almost  completed  form.  The  church  is 
conceived  of  as  an  institution  absolutely  divine.  It  consists  virtually 
of  the  hierarchy,  the  great  body  of  the  laity  being  in  the  position  of 
materials  to  be  ruled  and  exploited.  The  pope  Is  the  head  of  the 
sacerdotal  body,  through  which  alone  it  is  possible  for  mankind  to 
derive  spiritual  blessings.  The  church,  with  its  papal  head,  is  con- 
ceived of  as  that  for  whose  welfare  the  world  exists,  and  to  whose 
interest  everything  else  is  secondary.  Civil  governments  exist  only 
by  divine  (papal)  permission  and  tnat  they  may  subserve  the  inter- 
ests of  the  church. 

God's  supreme  concern  being  for  the  dominion  of  the  church,  he 
has  bestowed  upon  Peter  and  his  successors,  the  bishops  of  Rome, 
all  the  power  that  would  belong  to  Christ  if  he  were  personally 
reigning  on  earth.  The  pope  is  the  vicar  of  Christ.  As  Peter  ex- 
hibited two  swords  and  his  Master  said  it  is  enough  (not  too  many), 
so  to  his  successors  have  been  committed  the  spiritual  and  the  secu- 
lar dominion.  Civil  rulers  rightly  occupy  their  positions  only  by 
virtue  of  the  approval  of  the  vicar  of  Christ.  As  perfect  unity  and 
harmony  in  the  administration  of  the  world  are  the  ideal  to  be  at- 
tained, and  there  can  be  no  center  of  unity  other  than  the  divinely 
appointed  vicar  of  Christ,  all  secular  rulers  and  ali  ecclesiastical 
rulers  must  submit  themselves  absolutely  to  his  authority.  To 
tolerate  civil  or  ecclesiastical  insubordinanon,  where  power  to  sup- 
press it  exists,  would  be  in  the  highest  degree  blameworthy. 

As  the  divine  will  is  identical  with  the  maintenance  and  advance- 
ment of  this  ecclesiastical  authority,  any  available  means  may  be 

> "  American  Jounul  of  TbMlogy."  January,  1898. 


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CHAR  II.]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  509 

employed  to  this  end,  even  though  the  divine  will,  as  expressed  in 
Scnpture  and  in  conscience,  must  be  vioiated.  Does  heresy  arise 
and  spread?  It  must  l>e  rooted  out,  although  in  the  process  multi- 
tudes of  the  faithful  themselves  may  be  destroyed.  Does  a  civil 
ruler  resist  the  encroachment  of  the  papal  power  r  His  throne  may 
be  declared  vacant  and  offered  to  any  Catholic  prince  who  will  seize 
it,  the  allegiance  of  the  subjects  forbidden,  an  interdict  placed  ui)on 
the  administration  of  the  sacraments  of  the  church  until  submission 
shall  have  been  made,  a  deadly  crusade  preached  against  the  king- 
dom. Everything  was  on  principle  subordinated  to  this  one  central 
aim  of  securing:  absolute  temporal  as  well  as  absolute  spiritual  do- 
minion. The  Crusades  in  the  East  were  fostered  and  forced,  when 
need  appeared,  in  the  interest  of  this  world  dominion.  The  union  of 
the  kings  of  Europe  under  the  papal  banner  in  this  great  enterprise 
was  in  Itself  a  great  achievement  tor  the  papacy.  The  hope  of  sub- 
duing the  Eastern  empire  and  the  Mohammedan  power  greatly 
added  to  the  interest  of  the  papacy  in  these  terribly  destructive  ex- 
peditions. The  securing  of  vast  territorial  possessions  In  Europe 
through  skillful  use  of  advantages  offered  by  tne  Crusades  was  in  tne 
highest  degree  promotive  of  the  papal  aim  of  universal  dominion. 

Here  we  nave  a  theocracy  of  the  most  complete  type.  The  pope, 
as  the  head  of  the  theocracy,  occupies  the  place  of  God  on  earth,  and 
he  is  free,  as  even  God  is  not.  to  make  use  of  the  most  immoral 
means  for  the  enforcement  of  his  authority.  The  scheme  is  a  mag- 
nificent one.  It  provides  for  the  uniform  administration  of  the 
world  from  a  single  center,  according  to  a  single  ideal.  Its  advo- 
cates no  doubt  believed  that  such  a  government,  putting  an  end,  as 
it  would,  to  civil  and  religious  strife,  would  result  in  universal  peace, 
universal  good  will,  universal  righteousness.  Yet  it  is  easy  to  see 
that  to  realize  or  perpetuate  such  a  system,  civil  and  religious  free- 
dom must  be  remorselessly  suppressed.  The  only  freedom  possible 
would  be  that  enjoyed  by  those  who  were  thoroughly  in  sympathy 
with  the  ideal  of  the  theocracy  and  who  found  their  highest  delight 
In  submission  to  its  authority. 

III.  THE  CONTROVERSY  ON  INVESTITURE  AND  THE 
CONCORDAT  OF  WORMS  (1122). 

LITERATURE:  Greenwood,  Vol.  IV.,  p.  672,  s^.;  Mllman,  Vol. 
IV.,  p.  144,  ssq. ;  Bryce.  p.  163  :  Hinschius,  *'  Kirchtnncht  d.  Katho- 
lisctun  u.  TroUstanten,'^  Bd,  II..  Siit.  530-658;  Meltzer,  '' Papst 
Gngor  yiL  u.  d.  'Bisho/swahUtt,*^  seconcf  ed.,  1876 ;  Witte,  "  For- 
schungin  ^  dsch,  d,  fVormstr  Konkordatis"  1877. 

I.  Grounds  of  the  Controversy.  The  term  '*  investi- 
ture "  designates  the  conferring  of  the  insignia  of  office 
upon  bishops,  abbots,  etc.  That  the  civil  rulers  should 
have  insisted  on  exercising  this  function  grew  out  of  the 
feudal  relations  that  subsisted  between  them  and  their 
ecclesiastical  beneficiaries.  As  members  of  the  feudal 
state,  having  territorial  possessions  corresponding  with 


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5IO  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

those  of  the  larger  subordinate  nobles,  bishops  and  abbots 
enjoyed  the  same  privileges  and  immunities  as  the  secular 
nobles,  participated  like  these  in  the  general  legislation 
and  administration,  and  were  naturally  expected  to  share 
the  burdens  of  common  defense  and  administration. 
Kings  who  had  set  apart  great  tracts  of  land  for  bishoprics 
and  abbacies  could  not  afford  to  allow  the  administration 
of  these  lands  to  fall  into  hostile  or  indifferent  hands,  and 
might  have  been  expected  to  insist  on  nominating  to 
these  positions  trusted  men  who  would  swear  fealty  to 
them.  It  was  against  the  exercise  of  this  right  that 
Hildebrand  and  his  successors  carried  on  a  determined 
warfare.  To  receive  investiture  was  declared  to  be 
simony,  and  was  regarded  as  incapacitating  the  recipient 
for  the  valid  performance  of  ecclesiastical  functions ;  and 
for  a  civil  ruler  to  arrogate  to  himself  the  right  to  be- 
stow investiture  was  looked  upon  as  a  sacrilegious  in- 
trusion. 

2.  The  Concordat  of  Worms.  After  the  death  of  Gregory 
VII.  the  struggle  between  emperor  and  pope  continued 
with  varying  results,  the  pope  holding  the  balance  of 
power  between  the  emperor  and  other  rulers,  but  being 
for  much  of  the  time  an  exile  from  Rome,  with  a  rival 
pope  of  imperial  appointment  in  his  place.  In  1122  peace 
was  made  between  Calixtus  II.  and  Henry  V.  on  the 
following  conditions:  (i)  Elections  to  bishoprics  and 
abbeys  in  the  emperor's  dominions  to  be  held  in  the 
emperor's  presence,  without  simony  or  any  kind  of  com- 
pulsion, the  emperor  to  have  the  right  to  decide  in  dis- 
puted elections.  (2)  The  bishop  or  abbot  elect  to  receive 
from  the  emperor  the  temporalities  of  the  office  by  the 
delivery  of  a  rod  or  sceptre,  the  pope  to  have  the  sole 
right  of  investing  with  the  ring  and  crozier.  (3)  The 
pope  to  absolve  all  who  had  incurred  ecclesiastical  disa- 
bilities through  attachment  to  the  emperor,  the  emperor 
to  restore  in  full  the  territorial  possessions  of  the  Roman 
See  and  to  lend  his  aid  to  the  pope  whenever  required. 

It  is  scarcely  needful  to  say  that  neither  party  adhered 
to  the  agreement  any  longer  than  convenience  dictated. 
The  imperial  advantages  of  the  Concordat  were  formally 
abandoned  in  1125  by  Lothair  III.  as  the  price  of  urgently 
needed  papal  support. 


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CHAP.  II.]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  51I 

IV.  THE  HOHENSTAUFEN  EMPERORS  AND  THE  POPES. 

LITERATURE:  Greenwood,  Vol.  V.,  pp.  57-668;  VoL  VL,  pp. 
1-109;  Milman,  Vol.  IV.,  pp.  261-554;  Bryce,  pp.  166-220 ;  Alzog, 
Sec.  219-224;  Balzani, ''  Th4  Popss  and  the  Hohinstaufm  ^';  Raumer, 
''Gisch.  d,  HohtnstaufiH'\-  Hurter,  "/««.  ///.";  Reuter.  "/^I#je. 
///.";  Freeman  and  Froude  on  Thomas  a  Becket;  Geffcken, 
"  Church  and  State  " ;  Ribbeck,  "  Fnd.  /.  u,  d.  Romiseke  Kurur 
1881 ;  Giesebrecht, "  Gesch.  d,  Diutsckm  Kaiserteit,''  1885 ;  Wolfram, 
*'Fr#rf.  /.  «.  d.  IVorms^r  Concordat'':  Prutz,  *' Kaiser  Fred.  /.,'' 
1871-74 ;  Hunt, "  The  Eng.  Ch.  in  the  Middle  Ages,"  1888 ;  Deutsch, 
**Papst  Innocmt  III.  u.  ssin  Einfluss  auf  d.  Kirchi^'  1876;  Watten- 
bach,  **  Gtsch.  d.  ronmchtn  Papstthums^'^  i%76\  Gregorovius,  **Gisch. 
d.  Siadt  Rom  im  OditUlalter,''  'Bd.  V.  (also  Eng.  tr.) ;  Stubbs,  **  Con- 
stitutional History  of  England,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  520,  seq. 

A  new  line  of  German  emperors  began  with  Conraa 
III.  in  1 137.  With  Frederick  1.  (Barbarossa)  was  re- 
newed a  bitter  conflict  that  was  to  last  for  centuries. 
The  name  of  the  chief  German  antagonist  of  the  emperor 
(the  Duke  of  Welf)  was  transferred  to  Italy  as  the  party 
name  of  the  supporters  of  papal  absolutism  under  the 
form  Guelf.  The  imperial  supporters  accepted  the  name 
Ghibeiline  (Waibeling). 

I.  ^Alexander  HI.  (^11^9-1181). 

(i)  Contest  with  Frederick  Barbarossa.  Frederick,  the 
greatest  of  the  Hohenstaufens,  invaded  Italy  in  11 58 
with  one  hundred  and  fifteen  thousand  troops.  He  at- 
tempted to  reconstruct  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical  gov- 
ernments. He  filled  vacant  bishoprics  with  men  of  his 
own  party.  He  bestowed  the  estates  of  the  Countess 
Matilda,  the  friend  of  Hildebrand,  which  had  been  left  to 
the  Roman  See,  upon  the  Duke  of  Bavaria.  Hadrian  IV., 
who  died  in  11 59,  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  pope  to  set 
up  the  claim  of  exclusive  jurisdiction.*  Alexander  III.,  who 
as  cardinal  had  for  some  time  directed  the  movements  of 
the  ultra-papal  party,  was  chosen  by  a  small  majority 
(1 159).  The  minority  of  the  cardinals,  supported  by  the 
clergy,  Senate,  and  people  of  Rome,  set  up  a  rival  (Victor 
IV.).  The  emperor  called  a  council  to  adjudicate  the  mat- 
ter.   Alexander  treated  with  contempt  the  imperiaj  sum- 


1  GrMOWood.  Vol.  v..  p.  m-  *IM.,  Vol.  V..  p.  107. 


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512  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

der  denounced  the  procedure  in  vigorous  language  and 
appealed  to  the  nations.  He  secured  the  support  of  Eng- 
land, France,  Spain,  Hungary,  and  Sicily.  Frederick 
captured  Rome  in  1166,  but  immediately  afterward  his 
army  was  attacked  by  pestilence  and  he  was  obliged  to 
withdraw  with  a  small  fraction  of  it  surviving.  This 
was  a  partial  victory  for  Alexander,  but  his  rival  still 
held  the  Roman  See.  Again  in  1174  Frederick  invaded 
Italy,  but  in  1 176  he  suffered  a  disastrous  defeat.  In  the 
treaty  of  Agnani  the  emperor  renounced  the  anti-pope 
and  agreed  to  restore  the  Patrimony  of  Peter,  including 
the  estates  of  Matilda.  In  the  treaty  of  Venice  (1177) 
the  emperor  abandoned  all  claims  to  sovereignty  within 
the  pontifical  territory,  and  submitted  himself  in  the  most 
abject  way  to  the  pope,  the  sole  condition  being  that  he 
and  his  wife  should  be  recognized  as  emperor  and  em- 
press of  the  Romans. 

(2)  The  Council  of  the  Lateran  Cn79)'  This  council 
attempted  to  settle  the  title  and  territorial  claims  of  the 
pope  and  to  unite  Christendom  in  opposition  to  heresy, 
which  was  making  alarming  headway.  The  basis  of  the 
Inquisition  was  here  laid.  The  law  as  to  the  election  of 
popes  was  made  so  definite  as  entirely  to  exclude  any 
participation  therein  by  the  emperor  or  by  the  clergy  and 
people  of  Rome,  The  Hildebrandine  laws  against  simony 
were  restated  with  emphasis,  and  it  was  decreed  that  no 
pecuniary  burden  or  tax  of  any  kind  should  be  imposed 
upon  the  clergy  for  any  secular  purpose.  Christian 
princes  and  people  are  called  upon  to  take  up  arms 
against  heresy  and  are  assured  of  plenary  indulgence 
while  engaged  in  this  work,  with  full  forgiveness  of  sins 
in  case  of  death. ^ 

(3)  Alexander  and  England.  Henry  11.  was  a  strong- 
willed  and  arrogant  ruler.  Since  the  Norman  conquest 
the  ecclesiastical  power  had  been  encroaching  more  and 
more  upon  the  civil.  The  national  spirit  was  being 
developed  anew  and  Henry  represented  this  spirit  in  its 
extreme  form.  In  1163  Thomas  a  Becket,  by  the  king's 
mandate,  was  made  archbishop  of  Canterbury.  Henry 
had  reason  to  expect  a  large  measure  of  subserviency 

1  Greenwood,  Vol.  V.,  p.  igo. 


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CHAP.  II.]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  513 

from  Becket.  In  this  he  was  sadly  mistaken.  Becket 
had  not  oeen  iong  in  office  before  he  showed  himself  the 
almost  fanatical  advocate  of  papal  absolutism.  The 
Constitutions  of  Clarendon  were  adopted  in  1164  by  a 
great  national  council  called  by  Henry.  The  articles  of 
the  constitution  forbid  the  encroachment  of  ecclesiastical 
courts  on  the  civil,  restrain  English  prelates  from  going 
to  Rome  without  the  king's  license,  and  forbid  the  exer* 
cise  by  the  pope  or  by  his  representatives  of  excommuni- 
cation or  interdict  without  the  king's  license.  The  king  is 
to  constitute  the  highest  court  of  appeal.  Ecclesiastical 
vacancies  are  to  be  filled  under  the  direction  of  the  king, 
and  the  revenues  during  vacancies  are  to  go  into  the 
royal  exchequer.  These  constitutions  struck  at  the  root 
of  papal  pretensions.  Becket  resisted  the  royal  policy 
in  the  most  determined  and  insulting  way.  Ill  feeling 
steadily  increased  between  Henry  and  Becket,  until  at 
last  the  former  became  so  exasperated  as  to  procure  the 
assassination  of  the  latter.  The  martyrdom  of  Becke^ 
turned  the  tide  of  sentiment  against  Henry  in  favor  of 
the  papal  cause.  England  was  put  under  an  interdict 
and  Henry  was  compelled  to  humiliate  himself  and  to 
abrogate  the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon  in  1172. 

2.  Innocent  III.  (^1188-1216). 

Innocent  was  one  of  the  ablest  and  by  far  the  most 
successful  of  popes.  He  came  to  the  office  at  the  most 
favorable  time.  He  had  the  work  of  Hildebrand  and 
Alexan.der  III.  behind  him.  The  Crusades  had  given 
immense  authority  and  vast  resources  to  the  church,  and 
the  crusading  spirit  was  still  at  its  height.  Canon  law 
was  fully  developed  and  the  great  intellectual  activity 
that  resulted  from  the  Crusades  was  manifesting  itself 
in  the  founding  of  universities,  a  chief  object  of  which 
was  the  defense  of  church  dogma.  Innocent  had  com- 
pletely grasped  the  papal  idea  of  absolute  civil  and  eccle- 
siastical control,  and  he  approached  more  nearly  to  a 
realization  of  this  idea  than  any  other  pope  ever  did. 
He  was  the  first  pope  to  designate  himself  the  represent- 
ative of  God  on  earth. 

(i)  Relation  of  Innocent  to  the  Empire.  Henry  VI.  had 
left  an  infant  son.     His  widow  was  under  the  influence 

au 


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514  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

of  Innocent,  and  she  appointed  him  guardian  of  the 
future  emperor  and  regent  of  his  hereditary  domain.  A 
struggle  over  the  imperial  dignity  having  arisen  between 
Philip  of  Swabia  (Guelf)  and  Otho  IV.  (Hohenstaufen), 
Innocent  had  the  privilege  of  deciding  between  them. 
Without  comntitting  himself  fully  to  either,  he  favored 
the  cause  of  Otho.  Philip's  popularity  grew  so  great 
that  Innocent  was  on  the  point  of  recognizing  him  as 
emperor  when  he  was  assassinated.  The  way  was  now 
clear  for  him  to  crown  Otho,  which  he  soon  did.  Otho 
having  attained  to  the  object  of  his  ambition  grew  inso- 
lent and  insubordinate,  and  undertook  to  meddle  with 
Italian  affairs.  His  enemies  in  Germany  were  so  many 
and  strong  that  Innocent  had  little  difficulty  in  deposing 
him  and  putting  Frederick  II.  on  the  imperial  throne. 
Frederick  disappointed  the  papal  expectations.  He  had 
received  the  crown  on  the  two-fold  condition  that  on  the 
birth  of  a  son  he  should  resign  the  crown  of  Sicily,  and 
that  he  should  organize  and  lead  a  crusade  within  the 
next  three  years.  This  latter  promise  Frederick  was 
most  reluctant  to  fulfill.  Innocent  failed  during  the  four 
years  that  remained  to  him  to  induce  him  to  fulfill  his 
promise,  and  the  spirit  of  insubordination  that  led  to  the 
prolonged  conflict  between  Frederick  and  the  successors 
of  Innocent,  to  the  excommunication  of  Frederick,  to  his 
determination  to  put  an  end  to  papal  tyranny,  to  his  ful- 
filling his  crusading  vow  in  an  independent  crusade,  and 
his  crowning  himself  in  the  church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre, 
etc.,  was  manifest  long  before  the  death  of  Innocent. 

(2)  Innocent's  Dealings  with  Other  Rulers  and  Countries. 
In  England  King  John  for  political  reasons  insisted  upon 
the  appointment  of  John  de  Grey  to  the  archbishopric  of 
Canterbury.  Part  of  the  electors  refused  to  vote  for 
John  de  Grey  and  set  up  a  rival.  Both  parties  appealed 
to  Rome.  Innocent  set  aside  both  claimants  and  caused 
the  appointment  of  Stephen  Langton,  whom  he  duly 
consecrated.  King  John  was  exasperated,  and  in  re- 
sponse to  the  pope's  threat  to  put  England  under  an 
interdict,  he  threatened  to  banish  the  clergy  and  mutilate 
every  Italian  he. could  lay  hands  upon.  After  many 
threats  and  counter-threats,  Innocent  excommunicated 
John,  released  his  subjects  from  their  fealty,  and  called 


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CHAP.  II.]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  515 

upon  Christian  princes  to  depose  him  and  talte  the  Iting' 
dom.  John  was  very  unpopular  at  home,  and  Philip 
Augustus  of  France,  with  the  papal  support,  was  pre- 
paring to  take  possession  of  England.  John  was  re- 
duced to  such  straits  that  he  was  glad  to  surrender  his 
Icingdom  to  the  pope  and  to  receive  it  back  as  a  fief.  By 
reason  of  his  blundering  dealings  in  civil  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal matters  and  the  disgrace  that  he  had  thus  brought 
upon  the  country,  the  barons  levied  war  against  him 
and  compelled  him  to  sign  Magna  Charta,  the  great 
charter  of  the  liberties  of  the  English  people.  Innocent 
compelled  Alphonso  of  Spain  to  break  off  a  matrimonial 
engagement  with  his  niece.  He  compelled  Philip  Au- 
gustus of  France  to  take  back  his  divorced  wife.  He 
summoned  Peter  of  Aragon  to  Rome,  took  away  his 
crown  and  restored  it  only  on  condition  that  he  should 
recognize  the  pope's  sovereignty  by  the  payment  of  an 
annual  tribute.  His  influential  interference  in  political 
matters  extended  to  Hungary,  Poland,  Norway,  and 
even  to  the  East,  where  his  supporters  founded  in  1203 
a  Latin  empire.  The  glory  of  this  performance  was 
short-lived,  but  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  governing  a 
patriarch  of  Constantinople,  and  thus  gratifying  an  in- 
veterate ambition  of  the  papacy.  The  fact  is  that  he 
had  his  hand  upon  every  part  of  the  political  and  ecclesi- 
astical machinery  of  Christendom  and  was  generally 
able  to  carry  his  point. 

(3)  The  Fourth  Lateran  Council  (72/5).  When  the 
papal  power  had  reached  its  zenith  shortly  before  the 
death  of  its  most  mighty  pope,  one  of  the  most  august 
and  important  councils  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  held  in 
Rome.  There  were  in  attendance  seventy-one  primates 
and  archbishops,  four  hundred  and  twelve  bishops,  and 
eight  hundred  priors  and  abbots.  East  and  West  partici- 
pated. Most  of  the  Oriental  patriarchates  were  repre- 
sented. The  organization  of  a  new  crusade  was  the 
most  prominent  topic  of  discussion.  It  was  enacted 
that  the  "peace  of  God"  be  kept  among  Christian 
princes  for  five  years  to  this  end.  Union  with  the 
Greek  Church  was  also  considered.  The  doctrine  of 
Transubstantiation  was  now  for  the  first  time  defined  in 
opposition  to  the  followers  of  Berengarius  and  to  evan- 


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5l6  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

gelical  dissent.  The  word  itself  seems  to  have  been 
now  first  used.  Ample  provision  was  made  for  the 
persecution  of  heretics.  Toleration  of  heresy  was  made 
a  ground  for  punishment  and  even  death. 

.  3.  The  Papacy  During  the  Thirteenth  Century. 

(i)  Guelfs  and  Ghibellines.  The  most  uncompromising 
warfare  was  waged  between  the  emperor  and  the  popes 
during  the  lifetime  of  Frederick  II.  (d.  1250),  who  had 
been  greatly  embittered  against  the  papacy  by  the  arro- 
gant conduct  of  Innocent  III.  Identifying  Christianity 
with  priestcraft  he  seems  to  have  become  an  avowed 
unbeliever,  and  his  contact  with  Mohammedanism  during 
the  crusade  In  which  he  engaged  led  to  his  adopting  the 
modes  of  life  and  thought  of  the  arch-enemies  of  Christi- 
anity. He  interested  himself  in  Saracen  science  and 
philosophy,  had  Saracens  in  his  court,  used  Mohammedan 
soldiers  to  fight  against  Christians,  and  maintained  a 
harem  of  Saracen  women.  Every  community  was  di- 
vided into  factions  by  this  long-continued  feud  and 
bloody  encounters  were  frequent.  In  1241  Gregory  IX. 
convoked  a  council.  About  one  hundred  prelates,  who 
had  embarked  at  Genoa  for  Rome,  were  captured  by 
Enzio,  son  of  Frederick,  and  a  number  of  them  mur- 
dered. On  the  election  of  Innocent  IV.  (1243),  Fred- 
erick is  said  to  have  remarked :  **  As  cardinal,  Fieschi 
was  my  friend  ;  but  as  pope,  he  will  be  my  enemy.  No 
pope  can  be  a  Ghibelline."  A  council  held  at  Lyons  in 
1245  excommunicated  and  deposed  Frederick  for  infi- 
delity, heresy,  perjury,  sacrilege,  and  collusion  with  the 
Saracens.  Frederick  died  in  the  midst  of  a  campaign 
against  the  supporters  of  the  papacy,  having  during  the 
last  years  of  his  life  treated  the  popes  and  their  support- 
ers with  every  conceivable  indignity. 

(2)  Gregory  IX.  (1227-1241),  a  nephew  of  Innocent  III., 
was  more  explicit  than  his  great  relative  in  the  assertion 
of  the  absolute  authority  of  the  papacy.  He  declared 
that  the  pope  "possesses  the  principality  of  the  whole 
world  (in  universe  mundo)  of  things  and  of  persons  (jerum 
et  corporum).'*  Gregory  published  five  books  of  decre- 
tals, to  counteract  the  imperial  legislation  of  Frederick, 
and  these  became  part  of  the  "  Body  of  Canon  Law.'* 


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CHAP,  n.]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  J 17 

(3)  Innocent  ly.  (1243-1254)  attempted  still  further  to 
fortify  the  assertion  of  universal  and  absolute  papal 
domination.  He  denied  that  Constantine  had  given  sec- 
ular power  to  the  papacy,  which  possesses  this  power 
directly  from  Christ  himself,  who  founded  a  kingdom 
and  gave  to  Peter  the  keys  both  of  heavenly  and  earthly 
authority.  He  insisted  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every  cler- 
ical person  to  obey  the  pope  even  if  he  should  command 
what  is  wrong  (unless  heresy  be  involved).  Laymen 
need  only  to  know  that  there  is  a  God  who  rewards  the 
good,  and,  for  the  rest,  they  are  to  believe  implicitly 
what  the  church  believes.  Bishops  and  pastors  need  to 
know  well  the  Apostles'  Creed ;  other  clergy  need  know 
no  more  than  the  laity,  except  that  the  body  of  Christ  is 
made  in  the  sacrament  of  the  altar. 

(4)  Clement  /K.  (1265-1268)  asserted  the  right  of  the 
Roman  pontiff  to  dispose  of  all  benefices  vacant  or  other- 
wise according  to  his  good  pleasure.  By  this  decree  he 
intended  to  give  legitimacy  to  the  practice  of  selling  ex- 
pectancies, already  becoming  an  important  source  of 
papal  revenue.  This  proceeding  seems  to  have  called 
forth  the  pragmatic  sanction  of  Louis  IX.,  the  great 
crusader  and  champion  of  the  church.  The  pragmatic 
sanction  was  an  assertion  of  the  liberties  of  the  French 
church  (Gallicanism)  over  against  papal  claims  of  uni- 
versal jurisdiction.  "  The  kingdom  of  France,  recogniz- 
ing no  other  superior  or  protector  than  God  Almighty,  is 
independent  of  all  men,  and  consequently  of  the  pope." 
It  involves  a  vigorous  protest  against  the  corrupt  and 
extortionate  methods  of  raising  money  employed  by  the 
papacy  and  the  attempt  of  the  papacy  to  dominate  the 
civil  governments,  and  insists  on  the  restoration  of  the 
church  to  its  primitive  spirituality  and  purity. 

(5)  Gregory  X.  (1271-1276)  made  a  desperate  but 
wholly  unsuccessful  effort  to  inaugurate  a  new  crusade, 
and  in  connection  with  a  council  at  Lyons  (1274)  suc- 
ceeded in  inducing  the  feeble  Eastern  emperor  and  some 
of  the  Greek  bishops  to  assent  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
Roman  Church  and  to  the  supremacy  of  the  pope.  But 
this  affiliation  was  looked  upon  with  such  abhorrence  in 
the  East  that  fasts,  ablutions,  and  processions  were  re- 
sorted to  as  a  means  of  expiating  the  guilt  involved. 


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5l8  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

Excommunication  and  punishment  of  heresy  was  made 
the  duty  of  Christian  princes  and  of  all  the  faithful.  To 
facilitate  the  conviction  of  heretics  it  was  made  oblig- 
atory upon  every  Christian  to  confess  and  receive  the 
Eucharist  at  least  once  a  year.  Failure  to  do  this  was  to 
incur  the  penalty  of  excommunication  and  persecution  for 
heresy.  In  general  the  object  of  the  council  was  to  con- 
solidate, conserve,  and  extend  the  power  and  preroga- 
tives that  had  been  attained.  The  Inquisition  was  not 
yet  formally  established,  but  its  principles  were  enacted. 

4.  Theocratic  Principles  Established  at  the  Death  of 
Innocent  III. 

(i)  The  bishop  of  Rome  representative  of  the  Almighty 
on  earth.  (2)  The  pope  and  the  priesthood  constitute  the 
visible  church.  (3)  Territorial  fixity  and  material  endow- 
ments belong  to  the  outward  body  of  the  church.  (4) 
The  title  of  the  church  to  its  possessions,  however  ob- 
tained, indefeasible.  (5)  The  pope  the  ultimate  judge  in 
religious  matters.  (6)  The  pope  the  sole  dispenser  of 
temporal  honors.  (7)  The  pope  the  supreme  criminal 
judge  even  of  princes.  (8)  The  pope  the  sole  guardian 
of  the  faith,  to  repress  and  exterminate  gainsayers.* 

V.  DECLINE  OF  THE  PAPAL  POWER. 

Literature  :  Greenwood,  Vol.  VI.,  pp.  277-560 ;  Milman,  Vol. 
VI.  and  VII. ;  Creiehton,  "  Hist,  of  the  Papacy  during  the  Refor- 
mation," VoL  I.  and  II.;  Alzog,  Sec.  226,227,265-272;  Gieseler, 
Vol.  III.,  pp.  i-ioo,  215-289  (very  valuable);  Schmidt,  **TapstL 
Urkunden  und  Rigesia  aus  denjahren  I2g$-i^^2  ;  Pottliast,  **  T{egesta 
Poniifieum  "/Rletzler,  **  Die  liUr.  IVtdffsacher  d.  PdpsU  {ur  Zest  Ludvig 
d4s  'Baiifs  "  ;  Lechler,  *'  Der  Kirckinstaat  und  die  Opposition  gegen  den 
pdpstl,  Ahsolutismus  im  Anfang  d.  XIV.  Jahrh." ;  Souchon,  **  Dig 
Tapstwahlen  von  'Bonif,  VIll.  bis  Urban  W' :  Gregorovius,  "  Gesch. 
d.  Stadt  Rom,"  'Bd.  V.  (also  Eng.  trans.) ;  Wattenbach,  '*  Gesck.  d. 
rom,  Papsithums" ;  Geffckcn,  "Church  and  State";  and  encyclo- 
pedia articles  on  the  various  popes,  councils,  etc. 

I.  Causes  of  the  Decline. 

In  general  it  may  be  said  that  most  of  the  factors  that 
entered  into  the  growth  of  the  papal  power  afterward  co- 
operated in  working  its  overthrow.    The  papacy  under 

1  Greenwood.  Vol.  VI..  p.  3.  seq. 


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CHAP. IL]   THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  Jig 

Innocent  III.  overreached  itself.  The  irresponsible  au- 
thority that  he  was  able  temporarily  to  exercise  by 
reason  of  personal  power  and  highly  favorable  circum- 
stances, could  by  no  possibility  have  been  maintained. 
Frederick  II.  resisted  the  successors  of  Innocent  in  the 
most  determined  way,  and  called  upon  the  princes  of 
Europe  to  join  him  in  overthrowing  the  intolerable  tyr- 
anny of  the  papacy.  We  may  particularize  as  follows : 
(i)  The  Crusades  that  had  done  so  much  for  the 
papacy  were  influential  in  its  overthrow.  The  crusading 
enthusiasm  had  entirely  subsided  by  the  close  of  the 
thirteenth  century.  Yet  the  successors  of  Innocent  III. 
continued  in  season  and  out  of  season  to  press  for  new 
crusades,  to  the  disgust  of  princes  and  people.  The  lib- 
eralizing effects  of  the  Crusades  made  them  strongly 
averse  to  the  maintenance  of  papal  absolutism,  as  did 
also  the  growth  of  commercial  and  manufacturing  enter- 
prise, the  growth  of  great  municipalities,  the  consolida- 
tion of  the  States  of  Europe,  etc.,  which  were  due  in  part 
to  the  Crusades. 

(2)  The  rigid  enforcement  of  uniformity  in  doctrine 
and  practice  by  the  Inquisition  and  other  means  proved 
so  oppressive,  that  dissent,  heretofore  latent  and  unag- 
gressive, was  forced  into  publicity  and  powerfully  stimu- 
lated. It  is  noticeable  that  just  as  the  church  reached 
the  highest  point  of  exaltation  dissent  manifested  itself 
almost  everywhere  and  soon  a  large  proportion  of  the 
population  was  in  open  revolt. 

(3)  The  vast  increase  in  the  machinery  of  the  church 
brought  about  by  the  introduction  of  the  legatine  power, 
by  the  Crusades  and  the  Inquisition,  by  the  universal 
judicial  authority  claimed  and  exercised,  by  the  wars  of 
the  popes  in  defending  the  Patrimony  of  Peter,  by  the 
introduction  of  luxurious  living  into  the  Roman  Curia, 
necessitated  the  raising  of  immense  revenues  and  led  to 
the  devising  of  the  most  unscrupulous  and  oppressive 
methods  of  getting  money :  Annates  or  first  fruits  (the 
first  year's  revenues)  were  exacted  of  bishops  and  ab- 
bots, and  in  order  to  make  occasions  for  extorting  an- 
nates as  frequent  as  possible  Collation  from  one  bishopric 
to  another  was  frequently  resorted  to.  Thus  a  single 
vacancy  might  be  made  an  occasion  for  several  changes, 


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520  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

each  furnishing  opportunity  for  the  exaction  of  annates. 
Some  of  the  richest  benefices  in  each  country  were  re- 
served by  the  popes  (Reservations)  for  their  own  use  and 
that  of  the  cardinals  and  other  fa%^orites.  Vast  revenues 
were  thus  drawn,  without  any  compensating  service. 
Not  only  were  vacant  benefices  sold  to  the  highest  bid- 
der, but  Expectancies  were  sold  as  well.  The  same  ex- 
pectancy was  often  sold  to  a  number  of  applicants,  and 
when  the  vacancy  occurred  the  claimant  that  would  bid 
highest  was  likely  to  carry  the  day.  Indulgences,  which 
had  previously  been  given  for  going  on  crusades,  were 
now  shamelessly  sold.  Canon  law  having  put  burden- 
some restrictions  upon  almost  every  relation  of  life,  Dis- 
pensations for  the  violation  of  these  restrictions  were 
readily  granted  for  money.  It  became  a  leading  aim  with 
the  popes  to  enrich  their  relations,  especially  their  illegiti- 
mate children.  Hence  Nepotism  was  practised  in  such  a 
way  as  to  scandalize  Christendom.  It  came  to  be  said, 
even  by  faithful  Catholics,  that  in  the  Roman  Curia 
everything  could  be  had  for  money. 

(4)  The  enforcement  of  celibacy  on  the  clergy  and  the 
vast  increase  of  the  number  and  the  membership  of  mo- 
nastic orders,  in  the  absence  of  any  proper  ethical  princi- 
v^iples,  led  to  an  appalling  increase  in  immorality.  The 
most  horrible  licentiousness  became  widely  prevalent 
and  the  moral  influence  of  clergy  and  monks  was  highly 
corrupting. 

(5)  The  papacy  became  more  and  more  an  object  of  am- 
bition. The  cardinals  restricted  the  choice  to  their  own 
number.  Bitter  factions  were  developed  among  thera. 
Weeks  and  sometimes  months  elapsed  before  an  election 
could  be  reached  and  frequently  rival  popes  were  elected 
by  rival  factions.  It  became  a  common  practice  of  the 
cardinals  to  elect  the  oldest  and  most  infirm  of  their 
number  as  pope,  so  that  the  next  election  might  not  be 
unduly  delayed.  Thus  the  papal  government  became 
weak  and  contemptible. 

(6)  After  the  fall  of  the  Hohenstaufens  (1254)  the  Ger- 
man emperors  for  some  time  neglected  their  sovereignty 
in  Italy  and  Sicily.  What  might  have  seemed  a  victory 
for  the  papacy  proved  the  reverse.  The  French  influ- 
ence bec^ipe  ipore  s^nd  mpre  donoinant.    The  policy  of 


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CHAP.  11.]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  521 

the  French  kings  was  to  strengthen  their  hold  upon  Italy 
and  Sicily  by  securing  a  preponderance  of  Frenchmen  in 
the  college  of  cardinals.  The  Babylonish  captivity  of 
the  church  was  the  result  of  this  policy. 

2.  Boniface  yilL  and  Philip  the  Fair  0^94-' S^S)* 

(i)  Boniface  having  secured  the  abdication  of  Cceles- 
tine  v.,  a  weak-minded  old  hermit  who  had  been  ap- 
pointed by  virtue  of  a  compromise  between  two  factions, 
on  his  assumption  of  the  pontificate  found  the  Roman 
Curia  banished  from  Rome  and  the  papal  power  in  a 
state  of  degradation.  In  fact  the  whole  of  Europe  was 
in  a  very  unsettled  condition  at  the  time.  He  was  a 
man  of  considerable  learning  and  unbounded  arrogance, 
and  he  made  a  determined  but  foolhardy  attempt  to  play 
the  part  of  Innocent  III.  At  his  coronation  a  king  held 
each  of  his  stirrups  and  the  ceremony  was  of  the  most 
Imposing  character.  He  attempted  to  appoint  a  king  of 
Sicily  who  was  to  accept  the  kingdom  as  a  fief  from  the 
Holy  See  ;  but  the  people  chose  a  king  for  themselves  in 
defiance  of  the  pope.  Boniface  tried  excommunication, 
interdicts,  etc.,  but  the  time  for  such  things  had  passed 
and  they  fell  flat.  He  was  soon  carrying  on  a  war  with 
the  Colonna  family,  two  of  whom  were  cardinals,  and 
succeeded  in  banishing  its  principal  members.  He  busied 
himself  with  overthrowing  the  Ghibellines  in  Italy  and 
advancing  the  interests  of  the  Guelfs, 

His  most  famous  struggle  was  that  with  Philip  the  Fair, 
of  France.  France  and  England  were  at  war.  The  pope 
commanded  them  to  make  peace.  They  refused.  Philip 
levied  a  heavy  tax  on  the  French  clergy.  Many  of  them 
were  unwilling  to  submit  and  appealed  to  the  pope. 
Boniface  forbade  Philip's  taxing  the  clergy  and  threat- 
ened excommunication,  interdicts,  etc.  Philip  retaliated 
by  forbidding  the  exportation  of  gold,  silver,  and  precious 
stones,  thus  cutting  off  the  papal  revenue  from  France. 
Boniface  was  compelled  to  withdraw  his  extravagant 
statements,  or  to  put  so  mild  an  interpretation  on  them 
as  to  make  them  innocuous ;  and  to  appease  Philip  he 
canonized  his  grandfather,  Louis  IX.  The  peace  arrived 
at  was  not  permanent.  In  1301  the  struggle  was  re- 
sumed, 


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522  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

(2)  The  bull  "  Unam  Sanctam  "  was  issued  by  the  pope 
with  the  concurrence  of  a  synod  to  which  some  French 
prelates,  contrary  to  the  orders  of  the  king,  had  gone. 
This  document  represents  the  papal  claims  in  their  most 
extravagant  form.  Philip  responded  by  calling  together 
the  three  estates  of  his  realm.  Boniface  was  accused  by 
the  French  nation,  including  the  ecclesiastics,  of  many 
crimes,  and  an  appeal  was  made  to  a  General  Council. 
When  about  to  carry  his  folly  to  greater  extremes  still, 
he  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  agents  of  Philip.  He  was 
released  by  a  mob,  but  was  imprisoned  again  by  one  of 
the  cardinals.  Owing  to  old  age  and  hardships,  he  died 
shortly  afterward. 

The  bull  **UHam  Sanctam  "  purports  to  be  a  scriptural  proof  of  the 
absolute  universality  of  papal  dominion.  Jer.  i :  10,  '*  Behold,  I 
have  set  thee  over  Kingdoms  and  empires,"  is  his  principai  text. 
There  being  but  one  faith  and  one  baptism,  and  the  church  consti- 
tuting  but  one  body,  there  can  of  necessity  be  but  one  head.  The 
Invisible  head  is  Jesus  Christ ;  the  visible,  his  representatives,  the 
successors  to  Peter.  Christ  has  established  two  swords  or  powers 
In  the  church— the  one  temporal,  the  other  spiritual.  The  latter  he 
has  committed  to  the  priesthood,  the  former  to  kings ;  and  both  being 
in  the  church,  both  have  the  same  end.  The  temporal  power  being 
inferior.  Is  subject  to  the  spiritual,  which  Is  the  higher  and  more 
noble,  and  directs  the  former  as  the  soul  does  the  body.  Should  the 
temporal  power  turn  aside  from  Its  prescribed  course.  It  is  the  duty 
of  the  spiritual  to  recall  it  to  Its  tme  destiny.  It  is  of  the  faith  that 
all  men,  even  kings,  are  subject  to  the  pope ;  for  If  kings  were  not 
subject  to  the  censures  of  the  church  whenever  they  might  sin  in  the 
exercise  of  the  power  committed  to  them,  they  would  as  a  conse- 
auence  be  out  or  the  church,  and  the  two  powers  would  be  essentially 
distinct,  having,  in  this  case,  their  origins  in  two  different  and  oppo- 
site principles,  an  error  not  far  removed  from  the  heresy  of  the  Mani- 
chaeans. 

(3)  Boniface's  arrogant  assertion  of  papal  supremacy 
not  only  called  forth  in  France  the  assertion  of  the  liber- 
ties of  France  and  of  the  Galilean  church,  but  was  the 
occasion  of  a  remarkable  defense  of  the  empire,  that  the 
popes  had  almost  destroyed,  by  Dante,  the  great  poet  of 
the  Middle  Ages.  In  his  treatise  on  Monarchy  (**^« 
tMonarchia**)  he  insisted  that  the  empire  derived  its  exist- 
ence and  its  rights  immediately  from  God  and  by  no 
means  from  the  church,  that  it  existed  before  the  church, 
that  Christ  sanctioned  it  by  being  born  in  it,  and  still 
further  by  submitting  to  condemnation  and  death  at  its 


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CHAP.  11.]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  525 

hands,  that  he  gave  to  the  church  no  authority  over  the 
empire,  that  the  empire  is  necessary  to  the  well-being  of 
mankind,  the  end  of  society  being  unity  and  unity  being 
possible  only  through  obedience  to  one  head.  This  was 
followed  by  a  number  of  other  defenses  of  civil  govern- 
ment over  against  papal  absolutism.  Egidius,  of  Rome, 
published  a  disputation  in  which  the  arguments  for  and 
against  the  papal  power  are  set  forth,  the  advantage 
being  given  to  the  latter.  John,  a  Dominican  monk  of 
Paris,  published  a  treatise  on  "  The  Royal  and  the  Papal 
Power."* 

3.  The  Babylonish  Captivity  of  the  Church  (/ 305-/ 376). 

After  the  death  of  Boniface  and  a  pontificate  of  less  than 
a  year  by  his  successor,  Philip  secured  the  appointment 
of  Clement  V.,  who  seems  to  have  made  a  secret  pledge 
to  remove  the  papal  court  to  France,  to  annul  the  pro- 
ceedings of  Boniface,  to  anathematize  Boniface,  and 
(probably)  to  destroy  the  Templars.  A  period  of  terri- 
ble corruption  ensued.  Nothing  did  so  much  to  weaken 
the  papacy  as  the  papal  residence  at  Avignon.  The 
luxury  of  the  papal  court  went  far  beyond  anything  that 
had  been  known  in  the  past.  Every  known  way  of 
raising  money  was  resorted  to.  Venality,  mendacity, 
and  licentiousness  abounded.  The  spirit  of  resistance 
to  papal  absolutism  that  had  long  ago  begun  to  manifest 
itself  now  became  well-nigh  universal.  The  removal  of 
the  papal  court  to  Avignon  weakened  the  papacy  in  the 
following  ways : 

(i)  By  the  manifest  subserviency  of  the  papacy  to 
French  interests  other  nations  were  alienated. 

(2)  The  shameless  immorality  of  the  papal  court  de- 
stroyefl  respect  for  the  hierarchy  and  caused  a  general 
demand  for  reform. 

(3)  Every  known  way  of  raising  money  was  carried 
to  its  extreme  development,  and  the  intolerableness  of 
the  burden  came  to  be  generally  felt  throughout  Europe. 
The  conviction  grew  that  the  people  were  being  imposed 
upon.  The  French  government  itself  and  the  Univer- 
sity of  Paris  soon  became  utterly  disgusted  with  the 

1  These  two  writings  «re  available  la  GoMast,  *'  MoMMrektm  S.  'RomMmi  ImptrU,** 


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524  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

Avignon  court  and  were  among  the  most  persistent  advo- 
cates of  reform.  Germany,  England,  and  Bohemia,  one 
after  another,  revolted  from  papal  domination.  The 
pope  was  declared  by  theologians,  jurists,  and  poets  to 
be  unworthy  of  confidence.  Many  regarded  him  as 
antichrist.  We  can  only  refer  at  present  to  the  great 
revolt  in  Germany  under  Louis  the  Bavarian,  that  in 
England  with  which  the  name  of  Wycliffe  is  so  closely 
associated,  and  that  in  Bohemia  connected  with  the 
name  of  Huss.  In  all  of  these  countries  there  grew  up 
an  extensive  vernacular  literature  in  which  the  vices  of 
clergy  and  monks,  high  and  low,  were  mercilessly  ridi- 
culed or  scathingly  condemned.  These  anti-papal  move- 
ments will  come  up  for  fuller  consideration  in  a  later 
chapter. 

(4)  Each  pope  during  this  period  was  compelled  as  a 
condition  of  his  election  to  promise  to  restore  the  papal 
court  to  Rome,  but  each  found  some  excuse  for  violating 
his  oath.  The  perfidy  of  the  popes  intensified  the  con- 
viction that  they  were  antichrist. 

(5)  The  destruction  of  the  Templars  and  the  confisca- 
tion of  their  estates  was  an  unpopular  movement  and  did 
much  to  weaken  the  papal  cause. 

(6)  Prophetesses,  like  Brigitta  and  Catherine  of  Siena, 
denounced  the  divine  judgment  upon  the  Avignon  papacy 
and  enthusiastically  urged  the  return  of  the  papal  court 
to  Rome. 

The  details  of  papal  history  during  this  period  must  be  omitted  in 
the  interest  of  brevity.  The  destruction  of  the  Templars,  a  military 
order  that  had  acquired  great  wealth  and  influence  in  France, 
and  that  had  awakened  both  the  jealousy  and  the  cupidity  of  the 
king,  seems  to  have  been  due  to  a  secret  understanding  between 
pope  and  king.  A  criminal  offered  to  testify,  as  the  price  of  his 
liberation,  that  he  had  been  informed  by  a  member  of  the'order,  a 


fellow-prisoner,  that  the  Templars  were  guilty  of  blasphemy,  sac- 
rilege, and  of  every  conceivable  abomination  (spitting  on  the  cru- 
cifix and  trampling  it  under  foot,  worshiping  a  hideous  idol,  denying 


the  existence  of  God,  practising  unnatural  lust,  broiling  their  ille- 
gitimate children,  etc.).  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the 
specific  charges  on  which  they  were  condemned  were  true,  or  that 
tneir  moral  and  religious  principles  were  worse  than  those  that  pre- 
vailed In  the  papal  court.  Some  of  the  Templars,  under  torture, 
were  induced  to  admit  the  charges ;  but  their  condemnation  was  a 
foregone  conclusion.  The  Council  of  Vienna  ( 1311-1312)  consented 
to  the  suppression  of  the  order  as  a  matter  of  expediency. 


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CHAP.  II.]   THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  525 

John  XXII.  (1J16-1334),  whose  struggle  with  Louis  the  Bavarian 
will  be  dealt  with  in  another  chapter,  was  accused  of  heresy  by  the 
Dominican  theologians  and  the  Universit>r  of  Paris,  for  asserting 
that  departed  souls  could  not  enioy  the  intuitive  vision  of  God  until 
after  the  general  judgment  ana  the  resurrection  of  the  body.  He 
recanted  on  his  death-bed.  He  aaumulated  eighteen  millions  of 
gold  florins  and  seven  millions'  worth  of  jewels,  the  chief  sources  of 
revenue  having  been  annates,  expectancies,  and  tithes.  Some  of 
the  Franciscans  asserted  that  Christ  and  his  apostles  practised  pov- 
erty, having  no  possessions  either  as  individuals  or  in  common. 
The  Dominicans  declared  this  assertion  heresy  and  were  supported 
by  the  pope.  The  Franciscans  declared  the  pope  a  heretic.  Wil- 
liam of  Occam,  one  of  the  greatest  thinlcers  or  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  Michael  of  Cesena.  general  of  the  Franciscans,  defended  the 
Franciscan  position,  and  wrote  strongly  against  the  |>oi>e's  claim  of 
temporal  power  and  of  infaliibilitv  in  doctrine,  and  msisted  that  a 
;eneral  council  is  the  highest  eartKlv  tribunal.  By  13(2  France  had 
come  so  turmoiled  and  weakened  by  war  with  England  that  the 
pes  no  longer  found  advantage  in  residence  at  Avignon.  Urban 
.  was  removed  to  Rome  in  1367,  but  the  city  was  in  ruins  and  Italy 
in  an  unsettled  condition.    He  returned  to  Avignon  in  1370. 

The  States  of  the  Church  having  been  reduced  to  obedience. 
Gregory  XI.  took  up  his  residence  in  Rome  (i377)«  but  he  found 
himself  beset  with  difficulties  and  died  soon  afterward  (1378). 


gen 
beo 
I50] 


4.  The  Papal  Schism  i  1378-14)9). 

The  papal  schism,  occasioned  by  persistent  eflforts  on 
the  part  of  the  Italians  and  others  to  secure  the  restora- 
tion of  the  papal  court  to  Rome,  was  a  source  of  still 
greater  scandal  than  the  captivity,  and  utterly  confused 
Christendom.  During  part  of  the  time  France,  Scotland, 
Savoy,  Lorraine,  Castile,  Aragon,  and  Naples  adhered  to 
one  pope,  while  Germany,  England,  Denmark,  Poland, 
Prussia,  and  the  rest  of  Italy,  adhered  to  another.  The 
spectacle  of  two  popes  (sometimes  three)  excommuni- 
cating and  anathematizing  each  other  was  by  no  means 
edifying.  The  disaffection  that  had  long  been  manifest- 
ing itself  in  England  and  Bohemia  broke  out  into  open 
schism  during  this  period. 

After  the  death  of  Gregory  XI.  the  utmost  solicitude  was  felt  by 
the  Roman  people  lest  his  successor  should  forsake  the  city.  Of 
the  sixteen  cardinals  at  that  time  in  Rome  eleven  were  French.  The 
French  cardinals  were  known  to  be  disgusted  with  the  squalor  and 
the  barbarism  of  Rome.  United  they  could  easily  have  elected  a 
Frenchman  pledged  to  return  to  Avignon.  The  mob  without  the 
conclave  shouted  unceasingly :  **  We  want  a  Roman  pope,  or  at 
least  an  Italian.* '  While  awaiting  the  result,  they  broke  into  the  papai 


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526  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

wine  cellars,  and  their  enthusiasm  for  a  Roman  pope  was  thereby 
mightily  increased.  The  archbishop  of  Bari  (not  a  Roman)  was 
elected,  but  the  cardinals  feared  to  face  the  mob.  At  last  some  one 
falsely  reported  that  the  cardinal  of  St  Peter's  was  pope  and  the 
cardinals  made  good  their  escape.  The  anger  of  the  mob  on  learn- 
ing of  the  deception  was  such  tnat  they  were  ready  to  tear  the  pope- 
elect  to  pieces,  but  after  a  few  days  quiet  was  restored  and  he  was 
duly  crowned  as  Urban  VI.,  April,  1378. 

Within  a  few  weeks  a  majority  of  the  cardinals,  who  had  retired 
to  Anagni,  having  gained  political  and  military  backing,  renounced 
Urban  vl.  as  havins  been  elected  under  the  pressure  of  a  Roman 
mob,  and  in  September  elected  Robert  of  Geneva  as  Clement  VII., 
who  made  Avignon  his  capital.  Thus  was  precipitated  the  great 
schism  that  was  to  last  for  sixty  years,  notwithstanding  the  most 
earnest  and  persistent  efforts  of  princes  and  clergy  to  reconcile  the 
factions  and  to  restore  unity  to  the  administration  of  ealesiastical 
affairs. 

5.  Efforts  to  Heal  the  Schism  {1)94-1409). 

The  papal  schism  became  so  distressing  to  the  nations 
of  Europe  that  concerted  measures  for  the  restoration  of 
unity  were  earnestly  considered.  Among  the  first  to 
move  in  favor  of  a  general  council  was  the  University  of 
Paris.  The  theologians  of  the  Sorbonne  had  just  tri- 
umphed in  a  controversy  with  the  Dominicans,  supported 
by  Pope  Clement  VII.,  on  the  immaculate  conception  of 
the  Virgin  Mary,  Dominicans  and  pope  denying.  In  1394 
Nicolas  de  Clemangis  presented  to  the  king  on  behalf  of 
the  Sorbonne  a  plan  of  reformation.  It  provided  that 
both  popes  should  resign  ;  that  arbitrators  should  be  ap- 
pointed by  both  popes ;  and  that  a  general  council  should 
be  convoked  by  the  king,  which  by  its  own  authority 
should  put  an  end  to  the  existing  state  of  things.  Clem- 
ent died  shortly  afterward.  Notwithstanding  the  king's 
injunction  to  abstain  from  an  election,  the  Avignon  car- 
dinals proceeded  to  elect  Benedict  XIII.,  one  of  the  ablest 
and  most  upright  of  their  number.  He  had  professed  a 
willingness  to  abdicate  in  case  the  interests  of  the  church 
should  require  this  action.  The  king  was  enraged  and 
called  a  national  synod  to  deal  with  the  matter  ;  but  the 
synod  made  the  mistake  of  recognizing  Benedict  ad  in- 
terim. Public  calamities  occurring  about  this  time  had 
made  the  king  willing  to  be  rid  of  the  papacy. 

The  University  of  Paris  joined  with  the  king  in  his  efforts  to  com- 
pel Benedict  to  resign,  but  he  was  obstinate,  defying  all  the  author- 


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CHAP.  U.]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  527 

Ities  arrayed  against  him.  The  l<ing  of  Castile  and  the  University 
of  Toulouse  came  to  his  support.  He  even  succeeded  in  attaching 
to  himself  such  reformers  as  Nicolas  de  Clemangis  and  Peter  d* Ailly 
of  the  University  of  Paris.  The  retirement  of  these  great  leaders  to 
enter  the  papal  service  enhanced  the  violence  of  the  opposition  to 
Benedict  in  the  university.  It  was  now  proposed  that  the  pope  be 
declared  guilty  of  heresy  and  mortal  sin  in  refusing  to  abdicate,  that 
the  cardinals  renounce  obedience  to  him,  that  his  censures  be  un- 
heeded, and  that  he  be  compelled  b}^  a  general  council  to  abdicate. 
John  Gerson,  the  greatest  of  the  Paris  theologians,  counseled  milder 
measures,  but  when  Benedict  interfered  with  the  university  an  ap- 
peal was  made  to  a  future  pope  who  should  be  **  one,  true,  orthodox* 
and  universal."  By  1397  England,  Germany,  and  Spain  were  ready 
to  join  with  France  in  a  determined  effort  to  heal  the  schism.  Bene- 
dict continued  defiant  and  the  allegiance  of  France  was  withdrawn 
from  him  (1398).  He  was  besieged  in  Avignon,  September,  1398- 
April,  1399,  and  Imprisoned  from  the  latter  date  to  March,  1403,  when 
by  reason  of  a  popular  reaction  in  his  favor  he  was  able  to  escape. 
Two  months  later  the  cardinals  induced  the  king  to  restore  to  Bene- 
dict the  allegiance  of  France,  but  fresh  difficulties  soon  arose. 

In  Rome  a  somewhat  similar  war  was  waged  between  Boniface 
IX.  and  the  German  emperor,  Wenzel,  in  which  the  pope  was  vic- 
torious. Boniface  was  one  of  the  most  avaricious  of  the  popes  and 
made  the  most  unscrupulous  use  of  all  available  means  for  gaining 
wealth.  When  asked  on  his  deathbed  how  he  was,  he  answered : 
**  If  I  had  more  money,  1  should  be  well  enough."  It  was  hoped 
that  his  death  ( 1404I  would  facilitate  the  healing  of  the  schism,  but 
amid  the  wildest  confusion  such  cardinals  as  could  get  together  pro- 
ceeded to  elect  a  successor  as  Innocent  Vll. 

Gregory  XII.,  who  had  succeeded  Innocent  VII.  as  Roman  pope 
(1406),  professed  a  consuming;  zeal  for  papal  unity.  He  would  go 
in  a  nsning-boat  or  on  foot,  if  necessary,  to  confer  with  his  rival. 
In  a  letter  to  Benedict  he  besought  his  co-operation  in  '*  bringing 
health  to  the  church  that  has  been  so  long  diseased."  To  this  end 
he  would  resign,  if  Benedict  would.  The  University  of  Paris  was 
again  urging  that  France  should  renounce  Benedict.  A  synod  assem- 
bled for  the  consideration  of  this  demand  (November,  1406-January, 
1407)  decided  to  leave  to  him  his  spiritual  dignity,  but  to  deprive  him 
of  his  revenues.  In  this  action  the  king  joined.  Gregory's  pacific 
utterances  caused  much  rejoicing  in  France.  Benedict  professed  also 
a  desire  for  the  restoration  of  unity,  but  only  •*  by  way  of  justice." 
Negotiations  between  the  two  popes  during  this  and  the  following 
years  were  fruitless.  Each  longed  for  unity,  with  himself  at  the 
head ;  neither  could  be  persuaded  that  the  interests  of  the  church 
required  his  abdication. 

6.  The  Reforming  Councils  {1409-144)). 

In  1408  both  popes  found  themselves  in  a  forsaken 
and  desperate  situation.  Four  cardinals  of  each  met  at 
Livorno  and  agreed  to  re-establish  the  unity  of  the 
church  by  a  general  council.    Those  who  had  been  at- 


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$28  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

tached  to  Gregory  issued  a  letter  calling  upon  the  faith- 
ful to  withdraw  from  him  obedience  and  financial  sup- 
port. A  like  exhortation  was  sent  forth  by  Benedict's 
cardinals.  Both  bodies  of  cardinals  united  in  calling  a 
general  council  to  meet  at  Pisa,  May  29,  1409. 

(i)  The  Council  of  Pisa  (1409).  This  council  was  called 
under  the  protection  of  Charles  VI.  of  France.  Two  sets 
of  cardinals,  representing  Benedict  XIII.  and  Gregory  XII., 
were  present.  Every  effort  had  been  made  by  the  cardi- 
nals and  the  princes  of  Europe  to  make  the  body  really 
ecumenical.  There  assembled  twenty -two  cardinals,  the 
Latin  patriarchs  of  Alexandria,  Antioch,  and  Jerusalem, 
twelve  archbishops  in  person  and  fourteen  by  proxy, 
eighty  bishops  in  person  and  one  hundred  and  two  by 
proxy,  eighty-seven  abbots  in  person  and  two  hundred 
by  proxy,  a  large  number  of  priors  and  generals  of  orders, 
deputies  of  the  universities  of  Oxford,  Cambridge,  Paris, 
Florence,  Cracow,  Vienna,  Prague,  etc.,  more  than  three 
hundred  doctors  in  theology,  ambassadors  from  the  kings 
of  England,  France,  Portugal,  Bohemia,  Sicily,  Poland, 
Cyprus,  Brabant,  Burgundy,  etc. 

The  rival  popes  were  summoned  and,  not  appearing, 
were  declared  contumacious  by  a  sentence  affixed  to  the 
church  door.  After  much  negotiation  and  controversy 
both  sets  of  cardinals  were  induced  to  abandon  their 
allegiance  to  their  respective  popes.  Both  popes  were 
declared  to  be  **  schismatical,  abettors  of  schism,  heretics, 
and  guilty  of  perjury,"  and  were  deposed  and  excommu- 
nicated. 

The  cardinals  were  compelled  to  promise,  each  for 
himself,  that  if  elected  pope  he  would  continue  the  coun- 
cil until  the  church  should  be  reformed  in  its  head  and 
members,  and  they  were  shut  up  and  kept  under  guard 
until  an  election  should  take  place.  The  aged  and  feeble 
cardinal  of  Milan  was  appointed  and  assumed  the  name 
Alexander  V. 

Notwithstanding  the  apparent  strength  of  the  council, 
the  schism  was  not  healed.  There  were  now  three  popes 
instead  of  two,  who  persisted  in  heaping  upon  each  other 
the  most  terrific  anathemas.  Benedict  (at  Avignon)  was 
acknowledged  by  Spain,  Portugal,  and  Scotland ;  Gregory 
(at  Rome)  by  Naples,  Hungary,  and  parts  of  Germany  ; 


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CHAP,  u]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  529 

while  Alexander  was  supported  by  France,  England,  and 
other  parts  of  Germany. 

Alexander  V.  died  the  following  year  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  John  XXIII.,  one  of  the  most  infamous  of 
men. 

(2)  The  Council  of  Constance  (1414-1418).  The  aim  of 
this  council  was  to  heal  the  schism,  to  condemn  and  sup- 
press heresy  (especially  that  of  Huss  in  Bohemia),  and 
to  reform  the  church  in  its  head  and  members.  It  was 
called  by  John  XXIII.,  and  was  the  most  numerously  at- 
tended council  of  the  Middle  Ages;  eighteen  thousand 
clergy  are  said  to  have  been  present,  and  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  people,  many  of  whom  were  mounte- 
banks, strolling  actors,  money  lenders,  and  prostitutes, 
are  said  to  have  thronged  the  city  at  one  time.  These 
numbers  are  probably  exaggerated,  but  the  attendance 
was  certainly  immense.  The  retinue  and  luggage  of  the 
pope  were  conveyed  by  sixteen  hundred  horses,  those  of 
the  emperor  by  one  thousand.  John  had  intended  to 
control  the  council  by  packing  it  with  Italians.  To  ob- 
viate this  it  was  arranged  to  have  the  voting  by  nations. 
Thus  the  German,  French,  and  English,  being  united  in 
main  points,  were  able  to  overbear  the  papal  influence. 
John  was  accused  of  the  most  immoral  and  atrocious 
conduct,  of  the  most  abominable  heresy  (infidelity, 
swearing  by  the  devil),  etc.  He  was  deposed  and  de- 
prived, though  afterward  he  was  appointed  cardinal 
bishop.  The  claims  of  the  other  popes  were  repudiated. 
The  doctrine  which  had  already  been  elaborated  by  John 
Gerson  and  Peter  d'Ailly  that  the  church  universal  as- 
sembled in  council  is  the  highest  ecclesiastical  tribunal 
on  earth,  and  that  to  such  a  court  it  belongs  to  depose 
unworthy  popes  and  to  do  anything  necessary  for  the 
well-being  of  the  church,  was  clearly  enunciated  and  was 
put  into  practice.  The  burning  of  John  Huss  and  of 
Jerome  of  Prague  by  the  council  will  be  considered  in 
another  chapter. 

In  November,  I4i7t  the  cardinals,  under  the  direction  of  the 
council,  appointed  Cardinal  Otho  Colonna  pope,  who  was  crowned 
as  Martin  V.  The  new  pope,  with  the  help  of  the  officials  of  the 
Roman  Curia,  busied  himself  at  once  with  editing  the  rules  of  the 
papal  chancery.    The  extortionate  methods  of  raising  money  that 

ax 


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530  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV 

were  in  vogue  (including  the  exaction  of  annates,  the  reservation  of 
the  chief  dignities  in  cathedral,  collegiate,  and  conventual  churches, 
and  the  sale  of  expectancies,  dispensations,  indulgences,  etc.)  were 
confirmed. 

After  concordats,  fixing  the  relations  between  the  church  and  the 
various  nations,  had  been  drawn  up  and  confirmed,  the  council  was 
adjourned  in  Aprii,  1418.  The  pope  had  promised  to  carry  forward 
the  work  of  reformation :  but  it  nad  become  well  understood  that  he 
had  no  sympathy  with  the  Galilean  idea  of  the  relation  of  popes  and 
general  councils,  and  that  he  was  determined  to  insist  upon  papal 

firerogative  as  it  had  been  established  by  Gregory  VII.  and  Innocent 
11.  A  few  weeks  after  the  adjournment  of  the  council  he  declared 
that  it  was  *'  unlawful  for  any  one  either  to  appeal  from  the  Judg- 
ments of  the  Apostolic  See,  or  to  reject  its  decisions  in  matters  of 
faith." 

The  council  of  Constance  virtually  put  an  end  to  the 
schism,  though  Benedict  XIII.  continued  till  his  death 
(1424)  to  claim  the  papal  dignity  and  to  anathematize  all 
but  his  handful  of  followers.  In  1425  three  of  Benedict's 
cardinals  elected  a  new  pope,  who  called  himself  Clement 
VIII.  Another  of  these  cardinals,  who  was  absent  at  the 
time  of  the  election,  took  the  responsibility  of  electing 
another  pope  as  Benedict  XIV.  The  former  was  sup- 
ported for  a  time  by  Alfonso  V.  of  Aragon,  but  aban- 
doned his  pretensions  in  1429. 

Martin  V.  had  promised  to  convoke  a  council  at  an 
early  date  for  the  further  reformation  of  the  church.  In 
response  to  an  invitation  (which  he  privately  neutralized) 
a  few  bishops,  etc.,  assembled  at  Pavia  (1423)  and  after- 
ward at  Siena ;  but  nothing  was  accomplished.  Shortly 
before  his  death,  in  view  of  the  great  Hussite  schism,  he 
was  induced  to  call  a  council  to  meet  at  Basel. 

(3)  The  Council  of  Basel  (1431-1449).  A  crusade  against 
the  Hussites  (1427)  had  completely  failed  and  the  Bohe- 
mians were  raiding  Germany  (1430).  The  Hussites  in- 
sisted that  they  were  true  Catholics  and  demanded  that 
the  points  at  issue  between  themselves  and  the  papal 
church  be  adjudicated  in  a  general  council.  The  pres- 
sure for  a  council  became  so  great  by  143 1  that  Martin 
felt  it  unwise  longer  to  defer  its  convocation.  The 
council  was  formally  opened  under  the  authority  of 
Eugenius  IV.  (July  1431),  who  had  succeeded  Martin  in 
February.  A  last  attempt  at  subjugating  the  Hussites, 
attended  by  fearful  slaughter  and  devastation,  was  still 


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CHAP.  IL]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  531 

in  progress.  It  resulted  in  the  disastrous  defeat  of  the 
crusaders.  The  news  of  the  disaster  produced  a  deep 
impression  upon  the  assembly.  A  letter  was  addressed 
to  the  Bohemians  inviting  them  to  join  with  the  council 
in  restoring  the  unity  of  the  church  and  offering  safe- 
conduct  to  their  representatives.  "Send,  we  beseech 
you,  men  in  whom  you  trust  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  rests, 
gentle,  God-fearing,  humble,  desirous  of  peace,  seeking 
not  their  own  but  the  things  of  Christ,  whom  we  pray  to 
give  to  us  and  to  you  and  all  Christian  people  peace  on 
earth,  and  in  the  world  to  come  life  everlasting." 

This  letter  was  probably  drafted  by  Cardinal  Cesarini,  who  had 
led  the  last  crusade  and  was  deeply  concerned  for  the  restoration  of 
church  unity.  Eugenius  was  fearful  lest  in  their  anxiety  to  concili- 
ate the  Bohemians  the  council  should  compromise  the  papal  dignity 
and  authority.  He  issued  a  bull  dissolving  the  council  (Nov.,  1431 ). 
The  council  refused  to  accept  the  bull  and  Cesarini  wrote  the  pope  a 
letter  of  earnest  remonstrance.  He  pointed  out  that  the  morals  of 
the  German  clergy  were  such  that  if  not  amended  the  people  would 
rise  up  against  them  as  the  Hussites  were  doins.  *'  Even  if  the  Bo* 
hemian  heresy  were  extinguished,  another  would  rise  up  in  its  place." 
To  refuse  to  meet  the  Bohemians,  now  that  they  had  been  mvited, 
would  be  as  disgraceful  as  the  flight  of  the  German  army  had  been. 
**  If  we  do  not  let  this  council  alone,  we  shall  lose  our  temporalities, 
and  our  lives  and  souls  as  well." 

The  Emperor  Sigismund  tried  in  vain  to  induce  the 
pope  to  withdraw  his  bull  of  dissolution.  Only  when  he 
saw  that  the  council,  with  Sigismund's  support,  were  de- 
termined to  go  forward  and  that  his  own  deposition  was 
imminent,  did  the  pope  at  last  consent  to  permit  the 
body  to  proceed  with  its  work  (Feb.,  1433).  Before  the 
arrival  of  the  pope's  legates  the  council  passed  a  decree  in 
favor  of  decennial  councils, — as  the  council  of  Constance 
had  done, — declaring  the  right  of  a  council  to  reassemble 
without  papal  authority,  and  making  suspension  and 
deprivation  the  penalties  of  an  attempt  by  a  pope  to  im- 
pede or  prorogue  a  council.  On  the  arrival  of  the  papal 
legates  the  right  of  sharing  in  the  presidency  was  refused 
them. 

Eugenius  was  driven  from  Rome  in  1434  and  the  council 
proceeded  with  its  reformatory  measures  and  its  negotia- 
tions with  the  Hussites.  The  renewal  of  negotiations 
with  the  Greeks,  who  were  being  sorely  pressed  by  the 


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532  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

Turks  and  felt  the  need  of  the  aid  of  Western  Christen- 
dom (1433),  greatly  complicated  the  situation.  Eugenius 
was  anxious  to  bring  about  the  removal  of  the  council 
from  Basel,  in  the  hope  that  thereby  he  might  regain 
control.  He  arranged  to  bring  to  Italy  the  Greek  em- 
peror and  a  large  number  of  Greek  prelates  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  council.  Basel  was  not  sufficiently  acces- 
sible for  the  purpose.  As  a  compromise  the  council 
chose  Avignon  as  the  place  for  meeting  the  Greeks.  In 
1437  the  council  suffered  schism,  about  seventy  members 
stubbornly  insisting,  with  the  pope,  on  an  Italian  loca- 
tion, and  about  two  hundred  adhering  to  Avignon,  not- 
withstanding the  protest  of  the  Greeks. 

The  pope  recognized  the  minority  as  the  true  council 
and  ratified  their  choice  of  Florence  or  Udine.  The  ma- 
jority summoned  the  pope  to  Basel,  and  on  his  failure 
to  appear  declared  him  contumacious.  The  pope  pro- 
nounced the  council  dissolved.  Both  parties  sent  embas- 
sies and  galleys  for  the  Greeks,  who  after  some  hesita- 
tion committed  themselves  to  the  papal  party. 

The  Emperor  Sigismund  tried  in  vain  to  heal  the  breach 
between  pope  and  council ;  for  he  was  deeply  interested 
in  the  pacification  of  Bohemia  as  a  means  of  securing 
recognition  for  himself  as  king.  Slgismund's  death  (Dec, 
1437)  left  the  council  free  to  proceed  against  the  pope. 
The  remnant  of  the  council,  now  supported  by  the  king 
of  Aragon  and  the  dukes  of  Milan  and  Savoy,  suspended 
the  pope  (Jan.,  1438).  Most  of  the  other  leading  rulers 
protested. 

Early  in  1438  the  papal  party  assembled  a  council  at 
Ferrara  (transferred  to  Florence,  Jan.,  1439)  to  confer  with 
the  emperor,  the  patriarch,  and  several  bishops  erf  the 
Greeks.  The  doctrines  of  purgatory,  the  procession  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  the  supremacy  of  the  pope,  and  the  use 
of  unleavened  bread,  were  elaborately  discussed.  The 
Greeks  finally  accepted  the  Latin  views  on  the  points  in 
dispute,  including  the  supremacy  of  the  pope.  But  the 
sentiment  in  the  East  was  so  bitterly  and  uncempromis- 
ingly  opposed  to  the  measure  that  it  was  speedily  aban* 
doned.  In  1443  the  patriarchs  of  Jerusalem,  Antioch, 
and  Alexandria  issued  an  encyclical  in  which  thev  de- 
nounced the  council  of  Florence  as  a  ''  council  or  rob- 


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CHAP,  n.]  THE  Papacy  during  thb  middle  ages       sit 

bcrs,"  and  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople  as  ''a  matri- 
cide and  a  heretic.''  The  fall  of  Constantinople  ten 
years  later  put  an  end  to  attenipts  at  union. 

In  July,  1436,  legates  of  the  council,  with  the  Emperor 
Sigismund,  met  the  Bohemian  envoys  at  Iglau,  and  the 
Compactata,  the  terms  of  which  had  previously  been 
agreed  upon,  was  signed.  It  provided  for  communion  un- 
der both  kinds  (bread  and  wine),  the  use  of  means  for  the 
reformation  of  the  lives  of  the  clergy,  a  certain  amount  of 
freedom  of  preaching,  and  the  removal  of  some  grievances 
regarding  the  holding  and  administration  of  church  prop- 
erty. Thus  the  council  condescended  to  treat  on  equal 
terms  with  heretics  and  to  grant  special  privileges  to  those 
that  had  openly  defied  the  authority  of  the  church. 

A  number  of  reformatory  measures  were  adopted  by 
the  council,  including  prohibition  of  clerical  concubinage, 
abuse  of  appeals  to  the  Roman  Curia  and  of  interdicts, 
collection  of  annates,  and  sacrilegious  disorders  in  con- 
nection with  ecclesiastical  feasts.  It  prescribed  the  mode 
of  electing  popes  and  the  qualifications  of  candidates  for 
the  pontificate  and  sought  to  legislate  for  the  reformation 
of  the  Roman  Curia. 

In  May,  1438,  a  national  French  synod  at  Bourges, 
called  by  Charles  VII.,  adopted  the  reformatory  .decrees 
of  the  council  (Pragmatic  Sanction  of  Bourges)  and  thus 
France  virtually  declared  against  Eugenius  and  in  favor 
of  the  council.  Germany  had  already  declared  her  neu- 
trality, which  meant  the  repudiation  of  the  authority  of 
the  pope. 

In  May,  1439,  ^^^  council  declared  Eugenius  guilty  of 
heresy  for  denying  that  a  general  council  has  power  over 
a  pope  and  for  attempting  to  dissolve  a  general  council 
lawfully  constituted,  and  in  June  deposed  him  from  his 
office.  In  October  electors  were  nominated  for  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  new  pope.  The  choice  fell  upon  Amadeus 
VIII.,  duke  of  Savoy,  who  by  reason  of  his  wealth  and 
connections  was  a  man  of  weight.  A  few  years  before 
he  had  retired  from  active  life  and  with  seven  compan- 
ions was  living  in  religious  seclusion.  The  electors  repre- 
sented equally  France,  Italy,  Germany,  and  Spain.  The 
new  pope  assumed  the  name  Felix  V.,  and  the  council 
(Feb.,  1440)  commanded  all  men  everywhere  on  pain  of 


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534  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IV. 

excommunication  to  obey  him.  In  July  he  entered  Basel, 
ajccompanied  by  his  two  sons  and  the  Savoyard  nobility, 
and  was  crowned  pope  in  the  presence  of  fifty  thousand 
spectators.  Felix  failed  to  secure  the  hoped-for  recogni- 
tion of  the  great  powers.  He  had  been  elected  in  part 
because  of  his  wealth,  but  he  demanded  that  the  council 
should  make  financial  provision  for  the  support  of  his 
court,  and  it  was  obliged  to  resort  to  methods  of  raising 
money  that  it  had  solemnly  condemned.  Having  made 
every  effort  to  gain  the  adherence  of  Frederick  III.,  the 
new  German  emperor,  and  finding  his  relations  with  the 
council  unsatisfactory,  he  retired  to  Lausanne  in  1443. 
Thenceforth  the  council  was  a  vanishing  quantity. 

By  bribery  and  bargaining,  conducted  chiefly  through 
/Eneas  Sylvius  Piccolomini,  one  of  the  most  astute  eccle- 
siastical politicians  of  the  age  (afterward  to  become  Pope 
Pius  II.,  1458),  Germany  was  won  to  the  support  of  Eu- 
genius  and  his  successor,  Nicolas  V.  (1447-1453).  The 
Concordat  of  Vienna  (1448)  was  the  fruit  of  these  negoti- 
ations. It  was  a  provisional  arrangement  between  pope 
and  emperor,  which  somewhat  limited  the  scope  of  papal 
reservations  and  provisions  (benefices,  except  the  chief 
positions  in  cathedrals  and  collegiate  churches,  falling 
vacant  in  alternate  months  were  to  be  at  the  pope's  dis- 
posal), but  allowed  the  collection  of  annates  and  the 
papal  confirmation  of  elections.  The  advantages  of  this 
concordat  were  wholly  on  the  side  of  the  pope. 

Nicolas  was  disposed  to  be  conciliatory  and  was  willing 
to  treat  with  kindly  consideration  the  remnant  of  the 
council  of  Basel  and  the  anti-pope.  Felix  V.  abdicated 
(April,  1449)  and  was  promptly  admitted  into  the  College 
of  Cardinals.  The  council  of  Basel  elected  Nicolas  V. 
pope  and  dissolved.  Nicolas  restored  to  the  cardinalate 
d'Allemand,  who  for  some  years  had  been  leader  of  the 
council,  and  accepted  three  of  the  cardinals  who  had  been 
created  by  Felix.  Thus  the  schism  was  healed.  It  was 
the  good  fortune  of  Nicolas  also  to  aid  materially  in  the 
pacification  of  Italy  and  especially  in  the  restoration  of 
order  in  the  Papal  States.  The  papacy  had  lost  much  of 
prestige  through  the  captivity  and  the  schism,  but  it  had 
at  last  triumphed  over  the  opponents  of  its  high  prerog- 
atives and  was  prepared  to  enter  afresh  upon  a  career  of 


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CHAP.  II.]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  535 

irresponsibility  and  self-aggrandizement.  The  last  state 
of  this  great  institution  was  to  prove  worse  than  the 
firsf. 

in  1452  Fredericlc  III.  visited  Rome,  took  the  oath  of 
obedience  to  the  pope,  was  made  a  canon  of  St,  Peter's, 
and  was  solemnly  crowned  emperor  of  the  Romans. 
Many  special  immunities  and  privileges  were  conferred 
upon  the  emperor  in  consideration  of  his  subservient 
attitude.*  Yet  Frederick  failed  to  secure  the  support  of 
the  Austrian  and  German  estates  and  the  pope  shared  in 
his  humiliation. 

The  fall  of  Constantinople  (1453)  led  Nicolas  to  preach 
a  crusade  against  the  Turks.  He  was  persuaded  by 
i4Eneas  Sylvius  that  a  successful  crusade  under  papal 
guidance  would  be  the  crowning  glory  of  his  reign  ;  but 
the  princes  of  Europe  were  too  much  occupied  with  their 
own  affairs  to  give  heed  to  the  call. 

He  devoted  much  attention  to  the  restoration  of  the 
architecture  and  fortifications  of  Rome  and  the  Papal 
States.  Among  his  architectural  achievements  are  the 
Vatican  palace  and  the  basilica  of  St.  Peter's.  The  Vat- 
ican library  was  his  creation.  His  architectural  plans 
were  sufficiently  numerous  and  expensive  to  have  oc- 
cupied several  pontificates.  He  died  in  1453,  after  hav- 
ing launched  the  papacy  on  a  career  of  extravagance  in 
architectural  and  artistic  enterprise. 

Calixtus  III.  (14; 3-1458)  owed  his  election  to  his  age 
and  feebleness.  He  declared  war  against  the  Turks  and 
sent  a  fleet  against  them  ;  but  he  was  unable  to  arouse 
Europe  to  crusading  fury.  He  devoted  much  attention 
to  the  promotion  of  his  near  relatives.  Two  of  his 
"  nephews "  (Borgias)  he  made  cardinals,  a  third  he 
made  prefect  of  Rome,  etc.  iCneas  Sylvius,  who  had 
been  chief  agent  of  Nicolas  V.  in  Germany  and  Austria, 
became  cardinal  under  Calixtus  and  joined  hands  with 
the  Borgias  in  their  schemes  for  self-aggrandizement. 

VII.  THE  POPES  OF  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

LITERATURE:  Creighton.  "A  Hist,  of  the  Papacy  During  the 
P^iod  of  the  Reformation,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  233,  uq..  Vols.  111.,  IV.  (this 
\^  by  far  the  best  work  in  English,  If  not  in  any  language.    It  is 

*  S«t  Creighton,  Vol.  II..  p.  n^  m^. 


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536  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER  IV. 

based  upon  a  masterly  use  of  the  sources) :  Pastor,  *'  dsck.  d. 
Tdpsit^^*  Bd.  I.  (also  bng.  trans.);  Gregorovlus,  '* Gtuh.  d.  Stadt 
'Rom,''  Bd,  VII.  and  Vlil.  (also  Eng.  trans.);  Hefde, '' Comnlitw 
oschichu'*  Bd.  VIII.  (written  bv  Hergenr5ther),  1887 »  Voigt,  '*  Eiua 
Silvius  di^  Ticcolomini  als  Papst  Pius  //.'* ;  Gebhardt,  *'  Die  Gravamina 
dtr  diuAschm  NaiioHy'  1884 ;  Symonds,  *'  The  Age  of  the  Despots  "  ; 
Ranke,  *'Z>f#  romischen  Papstt  in  din  Ut{iin  vier  Jahrh.,''  sixth  ed., 
1874  (Eng.  trans,  of  earlier  ed.) ;  Roscoe,  "  The  Life  and  Pontificate 
of  Leo  X?'  For  excellent  sketches  of  the  various  popes,  with  ample 
bibliographies,  see  latest  ed.  of  the  Herzog-Hauck  ^^ Rial-Encyklopd- 
dii''  (the  third  ed.  is  in  progress  and  six  vols,  have  appeared  to 
August,  1899). 

I.  Pius  II.  (1458-1464)  was  a  diplomatist  and  a  states- 
man of  the  Machiavellian  type.  He  had  taken  a  leading 
part  in  the  council  of  Basel  and  for  a  time  served  Felix 
V.  as  secretary.  He  was  noted  for  his  elegant  Latinity 
and  for  his  poetical  gifts  no  less  than  for  his  agreeable- 
ness  of  manners  and  his  astuteness  as  a  man  of  affairs. 
His  life  was  most  careless  and  self-indulgent.  In  1442, 
with  Felix's  consent,  he  became  secretary  to  the  Emperor 
Frederick  111.  In  1443  he  was  won  to  the  service  of  Eu- 
genius  IV.  and  devoted  some  years  to  attempts  at  concil- 
iating pope  and  emperor.  Nicolas  V.  bestowed  upon  him 
two  bishoprics  and  Calixtus  III.  made  him  cardinal.  By 
shrewd  management  he  was  elected  pope  over  a  strong 
French  candidate.  As  Pius  11.  he  was  ambitious  to  raise 
the  papacy  to  its  former  grandeur  and  he  believed  that 
a  successful  crusade  against  the  Turks  was  the  most 
effective  means  to  this  end.  He  founded  a  new  order  of 
knights,  the  Hospital  Order  of  St.  Mary  of  Bethlehem, 
and  called  together  at  Mantua  (1459-1460)  a  council  of 
princes  to  arrange  for  a  i)owerful  expedition  against  the 
Turks. 

The  effort  was  a  failure.  He  took  occasion  at  Mantua  to  denounce 
appeals  from  a  pope  to  a  general  council.  Several  appeals  were 
soon  afterward  made.  He  sent  Cardinal  Bessarion  to  Germany  to 
labor  for  a  crusade ;  but  a  fresh  body  of  grievances  was  the  result. 
His  own  liberal  attitude  in  the  council  of  Basel  was  constantly  quoted 
against  him  when  he  undertook  to  insist  upon  papal  prerogative. 
He  felt  obliged  afterward  in  a  bull  of  retractations  to  apologize  for 
the  errors  into  which  as  a  youth  he  had  fallen ;  but  he  rather  weak- 
ened than  strengthened  his  cause  thereby.  He  attempted  by  a  letter 
to  convert  the  sultan  to  Christianity.  When  he  announc«l  his  de- 
termination to  lead  a  crusade  in  person  and  offered  the  usual  plenary 
indulgences  and  immunities  to  those  who  would  join  him,  only  the 
rubble  responded.    He  died  just  as  he  was  about  to  embark. 


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CHAP.  II.]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  $37 

From  this  time  onward  to  the  Protestant  revolution  the  College  of 
Cardinals  showed  their  utter  disregard  of  religious  principles  and 
even  of  common  decency  by  appointing  to  the  papacy  some  of  the 
most  depraved  of  their  number  and  making  for  themselves  the  best 
terms  possible  at  each  election.  Luxury  and  license,  murder  and  ra- 
pine, aoounded.  The  Turkish  war  and  the  completion  of  St.  Peter's 
tumished  pretexts  for  the  extorting  of  extraordinary  taxes  from 
Christendom. 

2.  Sixtus  ly.  (1471-1484)  was  chiefly  intent  on  exalt- 
ing and  enriching  his  humble  family.  To  this  end  he 
stirred  up  strife  among  the  Italian  republics  and  brought 
-the  papacy  into  general  contempt. 

3.  Innocent  niL  (1484-1492),  though  he  had  promised 
the  cardinals  that  he  would  not  promote  more  than  one 
of  his  relatives  to  the  cardinalate  and  that  he  would  em- 
ploy no  layman  in  administrative  matters,  proceeded  at 
once  to  use  his  position  for  the  advancement  of  his  seven 
illegitimate  children,  whom  he  openly  acknowledged.  He 
multiplied  the  offices  of  the  Roman  Curia  and  sold  them 
for  large  sums,  spent  much  money  on  architecture,  and 
bestowed  considerable  patronage  on  the  new  learning. 
He  was  amiable,  but  unscrupulous  and  without  political 
ability.  In  the  last  year  of  his  reign  the  Moors  were 
driven  from  Grenada,  their  last  stronghold  in  Spain,  and 
Columbus  discovered  the  new  worfd.  Savonarola  was 
just  beginning  his  wonderful  career  as  preacher  and 
prophet  in  Florence.  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  the  great  pro- 
moter of  the  new  learning,  died  the  same  year  with  Inno- 
cent. The  immorality  of  Rome,  already  appalling,  was 
made  still  more  flagrant  by  the  pope's  entertainment  of 
his  illegitimate  children  in  the  Vatican. 

4.  Alexander  VI.  (1492-1503).  Roderigo  Borgia  was 
over  sixty  years  of  age  when  he  was  made  pope,  and  he 
had  been  a  cardinal  thirty-six  years.  He  had  combined 
business  shrewdness  with  matchless  opportunities,  and 
was  the  richest  of  the  cardinals.  Besides  a  number  of 
children  of  whose  mother  (or  mothers)  nothing  is  known, 
he  had  a  family  of  four  children  by  a  Roman  woman  with 
whom  he  lived  somewhat  regularly.  He  was  regarded 
as  a  genial,  kindly  man,  and  beyond  his  affection  for  his 
family  and  his  efforts  for  their  promotion,  there  seemed 
no  reason  why  he  should  not  make  a  satisfactory  pope^ 
In  fact,  great  things  were  expected  of  him.    It  soon  ap- 


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538  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV 

peared  that  he  was  capable  of  any  crime  that  the  inter- 
ests of  himself  or  his  children  seemed  to  require.  He 
entered  at  once  on  a  series  of  intrigues  with  the  Italian 
princes,  the  king  of  France,  the  emperor,  the  king  of 
Spain,  and  the  sultan.  He  made  his  eldest  son  Juan, 
duke  of  Gandia,  and  bestowed  upon  him  the  duchy  of 
Benevento,  which  belonged  to  the  States  of  the  Church. 
He  caused  a  combination  of  the  emperor,  the  king  of 
Spain,  the  doge  of  Venice,  and  the  duke  of  Milan 
against  Charles  VIII.  of  France,  whom  he  had  first  op- 
posed and  then  aided  in  his  efforts  to  conquer  Naples. 
The  exclusion  of  the  French  from  Italy  left  Alexander 
and  his  son  Caesar  Borgia  to  work  their  will  upon  the 
minor  rulers.  Caesar,  whom  he  made  cardinal,  usurped 
the  administration  of  the  States  of  the  Church,  causing 
the  imprisonment,  assassination,  or  poisoning,  of  any 
that  stood  in  his  way.  Of  the  cardinals  that  had  opposed 
Alexander's  election  some  were  murdered,  some  impris- 
oned, and  others  fled  from  the  city.  Caesar  was  sus- 
pected of  causing  the  death  of  his  brother  Juan,  to  whose 
estates  he  succeeded.  In  1498  Alexander  made  a  treaty 
with  Louis  XII.  of  France,  who  made  Caesar  Borgia  a 
duke  and  gave  him  a  French  princess  in  marriage.  The 
pope  added  to  Caesar's  possessions  and  dignities  the 
principality  of  Romagna. 

The  marriages,  divorces,  and  Intrigues  or  Lucretia  Bocgia,  the 
pope's  daughter,  were  equally  scandalous.  Contemporary  Catholic 
writers  have  perpetuated  the  current  suspicion  that  she  was  crimi- 
nally intimate  with  the  pope  himself.  So  shocking  were  the  crimes 
of  these  three  that  nothing  was  supposed  to  be  too  monstrous  for 
either  of  them  to  do.  Lucretia' s  later  life  as  the  wife  of  Alfonso  of 
Ferrara  seems  to  have  been  free  from  scandal  and  it  is  probable  that 
in  her  earlier  irregularities  she  was  more  sinned  against  than  sin- 
ning. That  Alexander  was  a  monster  of  iniquity  Roman  Catholic 
writers,  contemporary  and  recent,  agree  in  admitting ;  that  he  was 
the  most  depraved  of  all  popes  is  not  so  certain. 

^.Julius  IL  (1503-1513)  held  Alexander  and  Caesar 
Borgia  in  utmost  abhorrence.  The  latter  fled  from  Italy 
and  died  in  the  military  service  of  his  brother-in-law,  the 
king  of  Navarre.  Julius  professed  a  determination  to 
reform  the  Roman  Curia  and  issued  a  decree  against 
simony;  but  he  soon  became  involved  in  war  for  the 
•restoration  of  the  States  of  the  Church,    He  formed  an 


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CHAP.  IL]  THE  PAPACY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES  539 

alliance  with  the  king  of  France  and  the  emperor  to 
secure  the  submission  of  Venice.  He  then  joined  with 
Venice  and  Spain  against  France,  bestowing  on  Ferdi- 
nand the  claim  of  the  French  king  to  Naples.  Soon 
France  and  the  empire  were  arrayed  against  the  pope 
(1 510)  and  called  a  general  council  at  Pisa  for  the  refor- 
mation of  the  church.  This  council  was  of  no  weight, 
being  made  up  almost  exclusively  of  French  prelates. 

The  pope  retaliated  by  calling  an  ecumenical  Lateran 
council  (1 5 12)  and  made  a  firm  alliance  with  Spain, 
Venice,  England,  and  Switzerland,  whereby  he  was  able 
to  drive  the  French  from  Italy.  The  pope  died  soon  after 
the  opening  of  the  council  (Feb.,  15 13). 

Julius  was  the  most  warlike  of  all  the  popes.  He  could 
not  endure  the  presence  of  foreign  powers  in  Italy  and 
he  maintained  and  used  great  armies  in  driving  them  out. 
He  was  far  more  a  soldier  than  an  ecclesiastic. 

6.  Leo  X.  (1 5 1 3-1 521).  A  member  of  the  Medici  family 
of  Florence,  he  had  been  made  a  cardinal  in  his  boyhood 
and  had  been  brought  up  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  Re- 
naissance. He  was  only  thirty-eight  years  of  age,  and 
it  was  well  understood  that  his  inclination  would  be  for 
peace  and  splendor.  He  was  reported  to  have  said  after 
his  election  :  '*  Let  us  enjoy  the  papacy,  since  God  has 
given  it  to  us."  His  contemporaries  smiled  when  he  took 
the  name  Leo^  saying  that  ^gnus  would  suit  his  character 
better.  He  surrounded  himself  with  men  of  letters  and 
artists,  and  spent  immense  sums  in  literature  and  art. 
He  was  far  more  interested  in  the  revived  paganism  of 
the  Renaissance  than  in  Christianity  and  is  said  to  have 
regarded  the  narratives  of  the  origin  of  Christianity  as 
fabulous.  His  court  was  in  the  highest  degree  luxurious 
and  licentious.  Yet  he  was  alive  to  the  political  neces- 
sities of  the  papacy  and  the  opportunity  that  the  office 
presented  for  the  enrichment  and  the  aggrandizement  of 
his  own  family.  He  took  a  deep  interest  in  foreign  poli- 
tics and  made  from  time  to  time  such  alliances  as  suited 
his  purposes,  but  he  gained  his  ends  by  peaceable  means, 
and  discouraged  war. 

The  Lateran  Council  was  continued  under  Leo.  In 
this  he  refused  to  deal  harshly  with  the  cardinals  who 
were  in  rebellion  in  the  interests  of  France  or  to  press 


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540  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IV 

for  the  immediate  abolition  in  France  of  the  Pragmatic 
Sanction.  The  council  reasserted  the  papal  prerogatives 
in  the  spirit  of  the  bull  ^^Unam  Sanctam  "  of  Boniface  VIII., 
and  made  some  pretense  at  reform.  But  most  of  the  re- 
forms were,  in  the  words  of  a  contemporary,  "slight, 
almost  futile,  not  to  say  puerile."  Reformation  was  as 
far  as  possible  from  the  thoughts  of  Leo  and  his  advisers. 
The  council  took  note  of  the  rapidly  spreading  infidelity 
of  the  Renaissance  and  prohibited  the  teaching  of  the  mor- 
tality of  the  soul  in  the  universities.  A  decree  in  favor 
of  the  pacification  of  Europe  was  unanimously  adopted. 
The  intrigues  of  the  pope  with  various  European  powers 
during  the  next  few  years  cannot  be  here  narrated.  In 
i;i6,  after  he  had  long  schemed  in  vain  for  the  discom- 
fiture of  France,  he  entered  into  the  most  friendly  rela- 
tions with  the  king.  The  Pragmatic  Sanction  was  with- 
drawn and  a  concordat  was  signed  between  pope  and 
king  in  accordance  with  which  the  king  was  to  nominate 
abbots  and  bishops,  papal  reservations  were  abolished, 
papal  provisions  were  limited,  university  graduates  were 
to  be  appointed  to  vacant  benefices  during  four  months 
of  the  year,  limitations  were  put  upon  appeals  to  Rome 
and  the  exercise  by  the  pope  of  excommunication  and 
interdict,  and  concubinary  clergy  were  to  be  disciplined  ; 
the  pope  retained  the  right  of  collecting  annates  and 
other  ecclesiastical  taxes.  This  arrangement  was  ratified 
in  the  Lateran  Council  still  in  session.  Oh  March  i6, 
1 5 17,  the  Lateran  Council  was  dissolved.  On  October 
31  Luther  posted  his  ninety -five  theses  and  the  Protes- 
tant Revolution  was  inaugurated. 


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CHAPTER  III 

REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES 

I.  PRELIMINARY  OBSERVATIONS 

1.  The  Pauiicians,  the  "Protestants  of  the  East,'* 
continued  their  struggle  against  ecclesiastical  corruption 
and  oppression  in  Asia  Minor  during  the  present  period, 
and  were  settled  in  vast  colonies  in  Thrace  and  Bulgaria. 
That  their  influence  throughout  eastern  Europe  should 
become  widespread  and  pervasive  might  have  been  ex- 
pected. It  is  certain  that  it  extended  to  western  Europe 
as  well,  and  in  a  somewhat  corrupted  form  had  much  to 
do  with  the  extensive  Catharistic  movement. 

2.  It  is  highly  probable  that  Manichasan  modes  of 
thought,  disseminated  so  aggressively  in  the  fourth  and 
fifth  centuries,  were  perpetuated  with  greater  or  less 
vigor  until  the  eleventh  century,  when  they  co-operated 
with  Paulician  and  other  influences  in  producing  the 
Catharism  referred  to  in  the  preceding  paragraph. 

3.  It  is  equally  probable  that  evangelical  forms  of 
Christianity  survived  in  greater  or  less  strength  and 
purity  during  the  dark  ages  that  followed  the  barbarian 
invasions  and  that  the  evangelical  parties  that  appeared 
in  the  twelfth  and  following  centuries  were  consciously 
or  unconsciously  influenced  by  earlier  evangelical  life. 
The  historical  connection  of  the  Paulicianism  of  the 
present  period  with  the  evangelical  life  and  thought  of 
early  post-apostolic  Christianity  seems  well  established. 
The  persistence  of  the  older  British  type  of  Christianity 
in  England,  Wales,  and  Scotland,  even  after  Hilde- 
brand's  vigorous  efforts  to  suppress  it,  is  unquestioned, 
and  the  connection  of  the  later  Lollardism  with  this  old 
evangelical  doctrine  and  life  is  highly  probable.  From 
what  we  know  of  the  persistence  of  types  of  religious 
life  and  doctrine  we  have  reason  to  suspect  that  earlier 
types  persisted  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  in  almost 

541 


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542  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

every  part  of  Europe ;  but  opportunity  and  a  certain 
amount  of  stimulus  from  without  were  necessary  to 
bring  them  into  activity  and  publicity.  The  rapidity 
with  which  evangelical  parties  spread  over  Europe  and 
the  hearty  reception  everywhere  accorded  to  evangelical 
preachers  by  the  masses  can  be  best  accounted  for  by 
the  supposition  that  latent  evangelical  life  was  widely 
diffused. 

4.  The  persistence  of  these  and  other  early  types  of 
religious  thought  and  life  and  the  action  and  reaction  of 
these  upon  each  other  and  upon  the  dominant  form  of 
Christianity,  and  of  this  upon  them,  with  the  influence 
of  racial  and  other  sociological  factors,  enables  us  to  ac- 
count, in  a  general  way,  for  the  multiplex  phenomena  of 
dissenting  Christian  life  during  the  Middle  Ages.  But  in 
most  cases  the  historical  materials  are  too  meager  to 
allow  us  to  determine  the  precise  relations  of  any  par- 
ticular movement  to  the  past  or  to  determine  precisely 
which  of  the  earlier  modes  of  thought  have  entered  into 
it  and  in  just  what  proportions.  This  is  true  in  a  meas- 
ure even  of  modern  religious  movements,  where  the 
documentary  materials  are  relatively  abundant. 

5.  It  should  be  remarked  that  for  the  history  of 
mediaeval  dissenting  parties  we  are  dependent  almost 
•vholly  on  data  preserved  by  their  enemies.  By  far  the 
largest  and  most  important  part  of  extant  information 
regarding  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  the  "  heretics  " 
of  the  period  is  due  to  the  work  of  Romish  inquisitors. 
Such  representations  are  necessarily  unsympathetic  and 
unfair.  Much  of  the  material  is  due  to  the  confessions 
of  ** heretics"  under  the  most  excruciating  tortures. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  was  the  business  of  inquisitors  to 
ascertain  accurately  and  to  put  on  record  for  the  guid- 
ance of  other  agents  of  the  Inquisition  the  peculiar  fea- 
tures and  all  the  details  of  the  doctrine  and  practice  of 
each  persecuted  party.  While  allowance  must  therefore 
be  made  for  extorted  confession  of  corrupt  and  abomi- 
nable practices,  we  may  place  considerable  confidence  in 
the  detailed  accounts  of  doctrine  and  polity  given  in  the 
inquisitorial  records. 

6.  Again,  we  are  dependent  on  inquisitorial  records  for 
our  knowledge  of   the  numbers  and  the  diffusion  c^ 


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CHAP.  111.]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         $43 

**  heretics/*  As  the  work  of  the  Inquisition  was  by  no 
means  uniformly  thorough  in  all  parts  of  Europe,  or 
equally  so  at  all  times,  and  as  "heretics"  of  the  va- 
rious types  became  exceedingly  skillful  in  evading  the 
officers  of  the  Inquisition,  allowing  themselves  in  many 
cases  to  conform  outwardly  to  the  established  church 
and  to  use  ambiguous  language  in  answering  inquisitors, 
we  may  be  sure  that  those  actually  arraigned  consti- 
tuted a  very  small  fraction  of  what  actually  existed. 
It  is  also  certain  that  the  inquisitorial  records  preserved 
represent  a  very  small  part  of  the  actual  inquisitorial 
proceedings.  With  these  considerations  in  mind,  we  can 
perhaps  form  some  just  estimate  of  the  importance  of 
mediaeval  dissent. 

The  anti-Romanist  Christian  life  of  the  Middle  Ages 
may  be  conveniently  classified  as  follows:  (i)  Dualistic 
parties  ;  (2)  Pantheistic  parties ;  (3)  Chiliastic  parties ; 
(4)  Evangelical  separatists;  ($)  Churchly  reforming 
parties. 

DUALISTIC  DISSENT. 

LITERATURE:  Doilinger, '' BeitraMt  {mt  SskUngtsch.  disOi,  A.^\' 
Schmidt,  "  Histoire  tt  Doctrim  di  la  Sscte  d$$  Caihofis  ou  Anng$ois  "  ; 
Conybcarc, " The  Key  of  Truth"  (Introduction  and  Appendix). 
See  also  literature  on  the  Waldenses,  a  large  part  of  which  is  com- 
mon to  the  two  parties.  Cf.  my  "  Recent  Researches  Concerning 
Medieval  Sects'^  (in  ''Proceedings  of  the  Am.  Soc.  of  Ch. 
Hist.,"  Vol.  IV.). 

I.  The  BogomUes. 

(i)  T^se  of  the  Party.  The  Bogomiles  were  a  Bul- 
garian sect,  about  whose  origin  little  has  been  definitely 
ascertained,  and  the  extant  accounts  of  whom  are  *'  for 
the  most  part  hopelessly  confused  and  untrustworthy."* 
They  are  thought  to  sustain  a  very  intimate  relation  to 
the  Paulicians,  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  the  Cathari  of 
western  Europe  on  the  other. 

The  settlement  in  Thrace  of  a  vast  number  of  Paul- 
icians under  Constantine  Copronymus  (middle  of  eighth 
century)  and  of  one  hundred  thousand  more  under  John 
Tzimiskes  (970)  was  an  event  of  fundamental  importance 
to  the  religious  development  of  Eastern  Europe.    Peter 

1  ConybMTt.  "  Kty  of  Truth/*  p.  cxviii.  of  Introd. 


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544  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY         [per.  IV. 

Siculus»  who  resided  for  nine  months  in  Tephrik,  the 
ancient  Paulician  stronghold  (c.  870),  refers  to  the  send- 
ing of  missionaries  by  the  Paulicians  of  Asia  Minor  to 
the  heathen  Bulgarians.  It  is  probable  that  among  the 
non-dualistic  Paulicians,  who  emigrated  to  Thrace  and 
who  evangelized  the  Bulgarians,  there  were  considerable 
numbers  of  dualistic  Christians  (Messalians,  Euchites, 
etc.).  If  the  account  of  Cedrenus  (c.  1050)  can  be 
trusted,  the  dualistic  type  of  teaching  soon  became 
prevalent  throughout  the  whole  of  the  European  part  of 
the  Eastern  empire.  The  Bogomiles  seem  thus  to  have 
been  a  product  of  the  dissemination  of  this  dualistic 
Christianity  among  the  Slavonic  populations.  The  name 
*'  Bogomiles  "  is  said  to  mean  *'  Friends  of  God." 

(2)  Teaching  of  the  Bogomiles.  About  iiii  the  Em- 
peror Alexius  Comnenus,  alarmed  by  the  rapid  spread 
of  the  Bogomiles,  insinuated  himself  into  the  confi- 
dence of  their  leader  and  induced  him  to  give  a  full  ex- 
position of  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  the  party, 
which  concealed  scribes  carefully  recorded.  From  this 
record  we  gather  the  following  particulars  : 

a.  An  elaborate  dualistic  cosmology,  like  that  of  the 
Gnostics  and  Manichaeans,  seems  to  have  been  funda- 
mental to  their  system.    The  details  need  not  be  given. 

b.  They  held  to  a  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  resembling 
the  Sabellian.  The  Incarnation  was  a  mere  appearance 
(Docetism).  Christ's  work  on  earth  wa^  to  overthrow 
the  rule  of  fallen  spirits  that  were  dominant  here. 

c.  They  are  said  to  have  rejected  water  baptism,  and 
to  have  substituted  for  it  a  very  solemn  purificatory  cere- 
mony, preceded  by  seven  days  of  fasting  and  prayer. 
The  ceremony  consisted  in  placing  upon  the  head  of  the 
candidate  the  Gospel  of  John,  invoking  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  repeating  the  Lord's  Prayer.  After  a  further  period 
of  testing  and  instruction  in  the  mysteries  of  the  sect, 
the  candidate  was  admitted  into  the  inner  circle.  The 
initiatory  ceremony  was  concluded  with  the  laying-on  of 
hands. 

d.  They  are  represented  as  rejecting  the  Lord's 
Supper,  holding  that  the  bread  of  the  Communion  is  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  and  that  the  cup  is  the  last  discourses  of 
our  Lord  in  the  Gospel. 


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CHAP.  IIL]   REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         54$ 

e.  Like  the  Manichsans  thev  are  said  to  have  rejected 
marriage  and  the  use  of  flesh  for  food. 

/.  Like  the  Paulicians  they  rejected  the  use  of  images 
as  idolatry  and  regarded  the  Greek  and  Roman  Catholic 
churches  as  Satanic. 

g.  They  are  represented  as  accepting  cne  Old  Testa- 
ment psalms  and  prophets,  but  as  rejecting  the  Mosaic 
law  as  the  work  of  Satanael  (the  evil  deity)  devised,  for 
the  corruption  and  enslavement  of  mankind. 

A.  They  employed  the  allegorical  method  of  interpret- 
ing the  Scriptures  in  the  most  fantastic  way. 

(3)  Fate  of  the  Party.  Severe  persecution  followed  the 
discoveries  made  by  Alexius.  Multitudes  of  the  Bogo- 
miles  were  massacred.  But  they  are  said  to  have  sur» 
vived  in  -mall  numbers  to  modern  times.  It  seems  cer- 
tain that  the  western  Cathari  long  looked  upon  Bulgaria 
as  the  source  and  center  of  their  denominational  life  and 
ihat  they  recognized  the  head  of  the  Bogomiles  as  their 
spiritual  father. 

2.  The  Cathari. 

(i)  Rise  of  Catharism.  It  is  probable  that  Manichseism 
survived  to  some  extent  in  southwestern  Europe  from 
the  sixth  to  the  eleventh  century.  The  same  may  be 
said  of  Priscillianism.  The  presence  of  the  Saracens  in 
Spain  was  highly  favorable  to  the  development  of  Ori- 
ental forms  of  heresy,  especially  as  these  latter  had  in 
many  cases  joined  hands  with  the  Mohammedans  against 
persecuting  Catholicism.  In  991  Gerbert  (afterward  Pope 
Sylvester  II.),  on  the  occasion  of  his  consecration  as 
Archbishop  of  Rheims,  took  occasion  to  denounce  certain 
Gnostic  errors,  which  were  doubtless  giving  trouble  at 
the  time. 

After  several  isolated  cases  of  dualistic  heresy  had 
been  brought  to  light,  an  extensive  dualistic  movement 
was  discovered  in  Aquitania  and  Orleans  (1022).  These 
heretics  are  represented  by  a  contemporary  monk  as 
"  seducing  the  populace,  denying  holy  baptism  and  the 
virtue  of  the  cross,  abstaining  from  foods,  as  if  they  were 
monks,  and  simulating  chastity."*  The  heresy  is  said  to 
have  been  brought  from  Italy  by  a  certain  woman,  who 
led  astray  not  only  the  common  people,  but  also  many 


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546  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

among  the  better  educated  of  the  clergy.  Ten  of  the 
canonical  clergy  were  burned  in  Orleans  (1022). 

About  1025  a  band  of  heretics  appeared  at  Arras.  Like 
the  later  mystics  they  rejected  the  ordinances  of  the  papal 
church,  and  regarded  outward  ordinances  in  general  as 
matters  of  small  importance.  They  claimed  to  hold  to 
nothing  but  the  Scriptures,  but  to  hold  to  these  in  word 
and  in  deed.  Their  principles  were:  to  relinquish  the 
world,  to  curb  the  flesh  from  concupiscence,  to  obtain 
support  by  the  labor  of  their  own  hands,  to  injure  no  one» 
to  show  charity  to  their  fellow-believers.  This  standard 
attained,  there  was  no  need  of  baptism.  Especially  was 
infant  baptism  worthless.  So  also  they  rejected  cere- 
monial marriage  and  the  veneration  of  confessors,  and 
denied  the  efficacy  of  penitence  for  sins  committed  after 
profession.  The  arguments  of  their  opponents  indicate 
that  they  rejected,  after  the  manner  of  the  Manichaeans. 
all  intercourse  of  the  sexes.  They  held  a  private  room 
to  be  as  sacred  as  a  church,  and  altars  to  be  no  bette/ 
than  other  heaps  of  stones.  They  were,  therefore,  in- 
tense Protestants  and  mystics ;  and  had,  apparently, 
some  dualistic  tendencies.*  These  bands  of  heretics 
multiplied  in  France  during  the  eleventh,  twelfth,  and 
thirteenth  centuries. 

(2)  Doctrines  and  Practices  of  the  Cathari,  From  the 
records  of  the  Inquisition  and  from  other  Roman  Catholic 
accounts  we  have  detailed  information  regarding  the 
doctrines  and  practices  of  the  Cathari  in  general  and  of 
the  different  parties  among  them.  The  only  important 
extant  documents  originating  with  themselves  are  a  Rit- 
ual and  a  version  of  the  New  Testament.  According  to 
Salva  Burce  (1235)  and  Rainer  Sacchoni  (c.  1259)  there 
were  two  chief  parties  of  the  Cathari,  who  according  to 
the  former,*  "are  called  Albanenses  and  Concorricii," 
and  whom  he  represents  as  at  mortal  enmity,  each  claim- 
ing to  be  exclusively  "the  church  of  God."  He  also 
refers  to  a  third  party  called  Calojani  or  Francigense, 
He  speaks  of  unsuccessful  efforts  that  have  been  made 
to  harmonize  these  parties  in  order  that  they  might  more 
effectively  contend  against  the  Catholics. 

*  D'Achery.  "  SptciUtium,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  fer,  wf. 
<  Sm  "  Stiprm  Stglia,"  Dnuioger.  Bd.  11.,  S«>i.  SS.  Mff^ 


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CHAP.  III.]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFOR.MING  PARTIES         547 

a.  He  represents  the  two  chief  parties  as  agreeing  in 
rejecting  marriage  as  fornication  and  as  an  ordinance  of 
the  devil,  the  Albanenses  giving  a  spiritual  meaning  to 
all  New  Testament  passages  referring  to  matrimony,  the 
Concorricii  admitting  that  some  passages  refer  to  carnal 
matrimony,  but  holding  that  it  is  not  allowable  in  the 
church,  i.  e.,  for  those  that  aspire  to  evangelical  perfec- 
tion. 

b.  The  Albanenses  denied  that  Christ  and  his  apostles 
actually  healed  the  bodies  of  men,  regarding  the  flesh  as 
a  work  of  the  devil  and  as  unworthy  of  divine  considera- 
tion ;  the  Concorricii  admitted  that  Christ  healed  the 
bodies  as  well  as  the  souls  of  men. 

c.  The  Albanenses  were  absolute  dualists,  holding 
"  that  there  are  two  creators  without  beginning  and  mid- 
dle and  end,"  and  accounted  for  the  blending  of  good 
and  evil  in  the  present  world  and  in  man  in  a  purely 
Manichaean  fashion.  The  Concorricii  maintained  that 
there  was  "only  one  creator,"  and  accounted  for  the 
evil  in  man  by  the  fall  of  Satan,  who  divided  the  ele- 
ments of  the  good  God  and  fashioned  thereof  the  body 
of  Adam,  into  which  he  forced  one  of  the  minor  angels 
so  that  he  became  a  living  soul.  They  taught  that  Eve, 
who  was  extracted  from  Adam,  was  seduced  by  the  ser- 
pent of  whom  she  conceived  Cain,  and  herself  seduced 
Adam.  They  claimed  that  "all  human  generation  in  its 
totality  proceeds  from  Adam  according  to  the  flesh  and 
according  to  the  spirit,  in  such  manner  that  all  our  spirits 
have  descended  from  the  angel  that  Lucifer  .  .  .  placed 
in  Adam ;  whence  they  say  that  what  is  born  of  the  flesh 
is  flesh,  and  what  is  born  of  the  spirit  is  spirit." 

d.  Both  parties  agreed  in  ascribing  the  Old  Testament 
to  the  prince  of  evil.* 

e.  Both  parties  held  to  a  docetic  view  of  Christ,  deny- 
ing that  he  ate,  drank,  suffered,  etc.,  and  that  he  had  a 
carnal  body. 

/.  Both  laid  great  stress  upon  the  imposition  of  hands 
(the  Consolamentum),  whereby  those  that  are  already 
sanctified  (the  perfect)  impart  the  Holy  Spirit  and  salva< 

>  For  the  C«th«rittic  argunents  to  prove  the  evil  origin  and  character  of  the  OI4 
Testament  see  a  docoment  fron  the  archives  of  the  Inquisition  of  Carcassonne  In 
Lea.  "  Hist,  of  the  Inquisition."  Vol.  I.,  p.  s6s.  »«• ;  «/•  Moncta,  "Advenui  Oakaros" 
Ub.  n..  Cath  6. 


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548  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

tion  to  others.  This  was  administered  after  a  long  period 
of  training  and  the  most  solemn  promises  of  fidelity  and 
secrecy.  The  Consolamentum^  according  to  all  the  sources, 
took  the  place  of  water  baptism.  The  validity  of  this  or- 
dinance depended  wholly  upon  the  worthiness  of  the  ad- 
ministrator, and  it  must  be  repeated  in  case  the  adminis- 
trator prove  to  have  been  unworthy. 

g.  The  outer  circle  (believers)  seem,  according  to  the 
best  accounts,  to  have  ordinarily  postponed  the  reception 
of  the  Consolamentum  till  death  was  supposed  to  be  ap- 
proaching. This  enabled  them  to  mingle  somewhat  freely 
in  the  world  and  to  enter  the  future  life  with  all  their  sins 
forgiven.  Having  received  it,  even  in  cases  where  re- 
covery seemed  possible,  food  was  sometimes  withheld, 
lest  the  benefit  of  the  Consolamentum  should  be  lost. 
This  starving  of  the  '*  consoled  "  was  called  the  Endura, 
and  their  enemies  made  the  most  of  the  criminality  in- 
volved in  the  transaction. 

The  Albleenslan  Ritual  shows  that  the  Endtira  was  not  atwavs 
employed ;  tor  it  gives  directions  as  to  the  course  to  be  pursued  by 
one  consoled  on  a  sick-bed  in  case  of  recovery.  No  doubt  in  some 
Instances  the  candidate  preferred,  after  having  been  fully  prepared 
for  death,  to  avoid  the  means  to  recovery ;  and  it  is  probable  that  in 
^me  cases  the  elect  favored  the  practice  of  withholding  food. 

(3)  The  Provencal  Ritual  of  the  Albigemes.  This  im- 
portant document,  preservecf  in  a  Lyons  Codex,  has  re- 
cently been  translated  into  English  by  Conybeare.*  It 
is  preceded  by  a  number  of  short  invocations.  It  begins 
with  a  somewhat  elaborate  confession  of  sins  and  prayer 
for  pardon,  each  paragraph  concluding  with :  "  Bless, 
spare  us"  (Benedicite,  parcite  nobis).  Then  follows  the 
ceremony  of  the  reception  by  a  believer  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  The  believer  appears  fasting  and  washed,  per- 
forms with  considerable  ceremony  his  Melioramentum,  or 
act  of  contrition,  and  receives  the  book  from  the  hand  of 
an  elder.  An  elaborate  exhortation  to  purity  and  fidelity 
precedes  the  delivery  to  him  of  the  Lord's  Prayer.  He 
now  for  the  first  time  receives  from  God,  the  elders,  and 
the  church  the  right  to  use  this  prayer.  This  imparta- 
tion  of  the  power  carries  with  it  the  obligation  henceforth 

1 "  Kty  of  Truth."  A|>»m4Ix  VI. 


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CHAP.  III.]   REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         549 

"to  say  it  all  the  time  of  *'  his  "  life,  by  day  and  by  night, 
alone  and  in  company."  It  is  to  be  used  always  before 
eating  and  drinking. 

Directions  for  the  administration  of  the  Consotamentum 
follow,  with  elaborate  ceremonial.  Abundant  scriptural 
authority  is  given  for  the  laying-on  of  hands  and  the  im- 
partation  therewith  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  '*  This  holy  bap- 
tism by  the  imposition  of  hands  was  instituted  by  Jesus 
Christ.'*  It  corresponds  with  the  baptism  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  with  fire  spoken  of  by  John  the  Baptist.  It 
is  claimed  that  '*  this  holy  baptism  by  which  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  given,  the  church  of  God  [meaning  their  own 
communion]  hath  kept  from  the  apostles  until  now,  and 
it  hath  passed  from  good  men  to  good  men  until  the 
present,  and  will  continue  to  do  so  until  the  end  of  the 
world." 

The  person  thus  "  baptized  "  puts  himself  under  obli- 
gation to  live  according  to  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and 
places  himself  and  his  property  at  the  disposal  of  the 
church. 

The  Ritual  closes  with  directions  for  the  administration 
of  the  Consotamentum  to  the  sick. 

The  Ritual  shows  a  firm  gra^  of  New  Testament  principles.  It 
makes  no  reference  to  the  Old  Testament,  which  was  probably  re- 
jected by  its  authors.  There  is  nothing  distinctively  dualtstic  m  the 
document,  but  it  probably  represents  the  moderate  dualism  of  the 
Concorricii.  There  is  no  reference  to  the  Lord's  Supper.  This  or- 
dinance was  probably  identified  with  their  regular  meals,  which  must 
be  preceded  by  the  Lord's  Prayer.  It  is  altogether  lilcely  that  this 
ritual  was  used  by  a  large  party  of  Catharistic  Christians,  in  whom, 
by  contact  with  Petrobrusians,  Waldenses,  etc.,  dualistic  elements 
had  been  reduced  to  a  minimum,  and  evangelical  conceptions  had 
been  brought  into  prominence. 

(4)  The  Diffusion  and  Fate  of  Catharism.  Within  a  few 
years  of  their  first  appearance  in  France  and  Italy,  the 
Cathari  had  spread  over  France,  Italy,  Spain,  Germany, 
the  Netherlands,  and  even  into  England.  They  are 
represented  by  a  monkish  opponent  as  like  the  sands  of 
the  sea  for  multitude. 

a.  Through  the  influence  of  Peter  de  Bruys,  Henry  of 
Lausanne,  and  their  followers,  and  of  the  Cathari,  who 
had  already  gained  many  adherents,  almost  the  whole  of 


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550  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

Southern  France  had  become  anti-Catholic  by  the  middle 
of  the  twelfth  century. 

In  1 147  Bernard,  the  great  preacher  of  his  age,  trav- 
ersed the  country  with  a  view  to  recalling  the  people 
from  their  heretical  pravity,  but  could  not  get  a  hearing. 
Princes  and  nobles  protected  the  heretics.  In  11 78  a 
cardinal  legate,  Peter,  attended  by  numerous  prelates 
and  monks,  made  a  similar  attempt  with  like  results.  In 
1180  Alexander  III.  sent  forth  a  Cardinal  Henry  to  preach 
a  crusade  against  the  Albigenses.  Many  were  slain,  and 
others  forced  to  abjure,  but  the  heresy  remained  as  pow- 
erful as  before.  At  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury nearly  all  the  princes  and  barons  of  the  south  of 
France  were  favorers  of  the  heretics,  and  the  heretics 
were  allowed  to  assemble  for  worship  in  castles  and  for- 
tified towns. 

The  Albigenses  *  are  represented  by  Catholic  writers, 
indiscriminately  as  Cathari  or  Manichaeans.  That  many 
of  them  were  such,  rejecting  the  Old  Testament,  out- 
ward ordinances,  etc.,  and  holding  to  a  dualistic  idea  of 
God  and  the  universe,  is  probable.  Yet  there  were  un- 
doubtedly among  them  many  evangelical  followers  of 
Peter  de  Bruys  and  Henry.    See  below. 

b.  After  the  many  vain  attempts  to  suppress  the  Albi- 
gensian  heresy.  Innocent  III.,  when  he  became  pope,  re- 
solved to  extirpate  it.  He  sent  forth  two  legates,  with 
full  power  over  bishops  and  princes,  and  offered  indul- 
gences to  those  that  should  aid  them.  Diego,  bishop  of 
Osma,  with  Dominic  (afterward  founder  of  the  Domini- 
can order),  persuaded  the  legates  to  adopt  more  apostol- 
ical measures.  Accordingly  the  legates,  with  a  number 
of  others,  wandered  barefooted  from  place  to  place,  with- 
out money,  etc.,  and  held  several  conferences  with  the 
heretics.  This  failing,  they  resorted  to  violent  measures. 
The  legate,  Peter  of  Castelnau,  was  murdered  in  1208. 
Count  Raymond  of  Toulouse  was  suspected  of  com- 
plicity in  the  murder.  Innocent  III.  now  caused  a  cru- 
sade to  be  preached  against  the  region  :  the  extirpators 
of  heresy  were  to  have  the  territory  and  the  spoils,  and 
plenary  indulgence  was  to  be  granted  to  those  that  should 

>  TlM  Bane  AlblgtUM  Is  4crlv«4  from  the  regloa  of  Albl,  in  SMtben  Franc*. 


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CHAP.  III.]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         $$1 

take  part.  A  large  army  was  soon  raised,  with  the  fanat- 
ical  Arnold,  the  papal  legate  who  had  preached  the  cru- 
sade, at  its  head.  City  after  city  was  sacked,  and  the 
inhabitants  slaughtered  and  outraged.  The  work  of  de- 
vastation went  on  for  years,  and  the  country  was  almost 
depopulated.  Some  of  the  heretics  escaped  to  Spain, 
where  they  were  afterward  hunted  down  by  the  Inquisi- 
tion. Many  took  refuge  in  the  Netherlands,  where  her- 
etics were  numerous  till  the  Reformation.  In  a  word, 
they  were  scattered  throughout  Europe.  They  seem  to 
have  continued  throughout  the  period,  though  they  were 
doubtless  gradually  absorbed  by  the  more  evangelical 
parties.  The  blending  of  the  more  evangelical  types  of 
Catharism  with  the  non-dualistic  evangelical  life  enables 
us  to  account  for  the  dualistic  features  sometimes  as- 
cribed to  parties  that  were  otherwise  thoroughly  evan- 
gelical. 

11.  CHILIASTIC  AND  ENTHUSIASTIC  SECTS. 

As  the  hierarchy  grew  more  and  more  corrupt  and  op- 
pressive, and  as  the  hopes  of  reform  from  within  became 
less  and  less,  enthusiasts  arose,  who  on  the  basis  of  the 
apocalyptic  Scriptures  undertook  to  prophesy  regarding 
the  course  of  events  that  should  lead  through  a  time  of 
still  greater  disaster  to  a  glorious  age  in  which  righteous- 
ness and  blessedness  should  prevail. 

I.  Joachim  ofFloris  and  the  Joachimites. 

LITERATURE :  Works  of  Joachim ;  Dollingcr,  "  The  Prophetic 
Spirit  and  the  Prophecies  of  the  Christian  Era,''  ed.  H.  B.  Smith; 
Renan,  *^ Joachim  d$  Flart  tt  VEvangiU  Etmul**  (in  '' 7{gv.  d$  Dmx 
OAondis^  1866,  pp.  94-142);  Preger,  *' G^sch.  d,  IMystik^^^  Bd.  I., 
Siii.  IQO,  uq,^  ana  **  Das  Evangtlium  Etirnum  u.  Joach.  von  Fhris  "  ; 
Reuter,  ^^  Uesch.  d,  tAufhfarmg  im  M.  A.^^  Bd.  II.,  Seii.  191-218; 
Lea,  "  Hist,  of  the  Inquis.,"  Vol.  III.,  p.  10,  uq, ;  Tocco,  "  U  Ensia 
ml  tMidio  Evo,"  p.  265,  seq. ;  Hahn,  ^^Gesck.  d,  Kit^tr  im  M.A."  Bd. 


S4it,  49*  Siq.) 


(i)  Sketch  of  Joachim.  Joachim,  a  Sicilian  (b.  c.  1145), 
made  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land  and  soon  afterward 
became  abbot  of  a  Cistercian  monastery  in  Italy  (c.  1178), 


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552  A  AUNUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.fV 

and  began  to  prophesy  (c.  1183  or  earlier).  He  conferred 
with  and  greatly  interested  three  popes,  Lucius  HI. 
(1 183),  Urban  ill.  (1185),  and  Clement  ill.  (1188). 
About  1 190  he  left  his  monastery  and  went  into  retire- 
ment, but  soon  afterward,  supported  by  the  Emperor 
Henry  VI.,  he  founded  a  new  monastery  at  Floris,  whose 
rigorous  rules  were  approved  by  Pope  Coriestine  MI. 
(1 196).  The  order  spread  rapidly  and  Joachim's  fan- 
tastic expositions  of  Scripture  were  highly  appreciated 
by  popes  and  people.  A  large  body  of  apocalyptic  liter- 
ature, in  addition  to  his  own  products,  became  associated 
with  his  name,  and  his  influence  in  later  enthusiastic 
chiliastic  movements  was  very  great.  He  claimed  to 
have  had  the  entire  fullness  of  the  meaning  of  the  Apoc- 
alypse miraculously  revealed  to  him,  and  he  supposed 
that  all  the  mysteries  of  Scripture  were  as  clear  to  him 
as  to  the  biblical  prophets  themselves.  Joachim  died  c. 
1202. 

(2)  Joachim's  Prophetical  Scheme.  He  divided  the  his- 
tory of  the  world  into  three  epochs :  that  of  the  Father 
(or  the  Petrine),  up  to  Christ ;  that  of  the  Son  (Pauline), 
from  the  birth  of  Christ  to  1263;  and  that  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  (Johannean),  1260  onward.  He  attempted  to 
give  in  detail  the  events  from  I2CX)  to  1260.  The  papacy, 
which  had  made  the  church  '*  a  house  of  prostitution  " 
and  *'a  den  of  robbers"  and  which  he  identified  with 
Antichrist,  was  to  fall  into  utter  ruin  at  the  hands  of  the 
emperor,  who  was  to  deprive  it  of  power  and  possessions. 
The  empire  was  then  to  be  destroyed  by  the  Saracens 
and  ten  kmgs  from  the  East,  who  in  turn  were  to  be  an- 
nihilated by  the  Tartars  from  the  North.  The  divine 
instrument  for  the  reformation  of  the  church  and  the 
ushering  in  of  the  epoch  of  the  Holy  Ghost  was  to  be 
an  order  of  contemplative  monks.  Such  a  spirited  pro- 
gramme, announced  by  himself  and  his  disciples  with  the 
utmost  confidence  and  enthusiasm,  naturally  caused  in- 
tense excitement.  The  complete  failure  of  these  proph- 
ecies, including  that  of  the  inauguration  of  a  new  age  in 
1260,  was  somewhat  discouraging,  but  the  prophets  were 
ready  with  their  explanations,  and  they  modified  their 
scheme  from  time  to  time  to  suit  the  exigencies  as  they 
arose. 


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CHAP.  III.]   REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         553 

Joachim  was  not  the  originator  of  this  type  of  religious  thought, 
but  he  wrought  it  out  with  great  fullness,  and  from  him,  directly  or  in- 
directly, most  later  chiliastic  systems  have  derived  their  impulse.  It  is 
surprising  how  little  freshness  there  is  in  modem  chiliastic  schemes. 

2.  The  Spirituous. 

LITERATURE :  Lea,  **  Hist,  of  the  Inquisition ''  Vol.  III.,  pp.  1-89 ; 
Miiller,  **  *Du  %Anfang$  dn  iMmarHinardens  "  ;  Dollinger  (as  on  Jo- 
achim);  Loofs.  **Uas  ftsiamsHi  d.  Franfvon  Assisi^^  {**  Chrisil. 
IVili,''  1894) ;  Lives  of  Francis  of  Assisi,  t)y  Sabatier,  Hase,  Wil- 
kens,  Knox-Little,  Bohringer,  Monnier,  etc. ;  Zockler,  ^^tAsktu  u* 
tMoHckihum^^ ;  and  art.  on  ^^ Fran^  von  Assisi^*^  in  Herzog-Hauck, 
third  ed.,  where  a  full  bibliography  is  given. 

(i)  The  Early  Spiritual  Franciscans.  It  was  among  the 
stricter  element  of  the  Franciscan  order  that  the  doctrines 
of  Joachim  found  most  acceptance  and  the  Spirituales  or 
the  Spiritual  Franciscans  are  to  be  regarded  as  essentially 
Joachimites.  Francis  was  an  ascetic  of  the  most  extreme 
type,  and  it  was  his  intention  that  the  rule  of  absolute 
poverty  should  be  perpetually  enforced  by  his  order  as 
regards  individuals  and  the  community  as  a  whole.  To 
assure  this  end,  he  left  behind  him  a  will  in  which  he 
made  the  rules  of  the  order  unchangeable.  Some  time 
before  his  death  (1226)  a  party  of  progress  had  appeared, 
led  by  Elias  of  Cortona,  who  repudiated  the  principle  of 
communal  poverty  and  insisted  that  the  order  could  do 
its  proper  work  only  by  accumulating  all  the  wealth  pos- 
sible, erecting  imposing  buildings,  etc.  After  Francis' 
deatli  discord  in  the  order  soon  became  acute.  Elias  was 
not  at  once  appointed  his  successor,  but  he  controlled  the 
policy  of  the  new  general  and  began  at  once  to  collect 
funds  for  the  erection  of  a  magnificent  church  as  a  recep- 
tacle of  the  bones  of  Francis.  This  provoked  contro- 
versy. In  1230  Elias  sought,  on  the  occasion  of  the 
translation  of  the  corpse  of  Francis  to  its  new  abiding 
place,  to  secure  by  intrigue  the  deposition  of  the  general 
and  his  own  election.  Turbulent  proceedings  resulted 
in  his  temporary  defeat,  but  in  1232  the  general,  Gio- 
vanni, was  deposed  and  Elias  elected.  He  soon  showed 
himself  a  most  unscrupulous  and  cruel  tyrant.  Those 
who  resisted  his  measures  were  scourged,  imprisoned, 
and  some  of  them  put  to  death.  Pope  Honorius  ill.  had 
refused  to  sustain  the  will  of  Francis,    Gregory  IX.  was 


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S54  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

appealed  to  by  the  persecuted  party  and  was  induced  to 
condemn  and  excommunicate  Elias,  who  took  refuge  with 
the  Emperor  Frederick  If.,  the  enemy  of  the  pope.  But 
the  lax  party  speedily  gained  the  ascendency.  The  order 
was  spreading  rapidly  and  with  the  pope's  consent  ac- 
quiring property.  In  1248  the  strict  party  secured  the 
election  of  John  of  Parma  as  general,  who  earnestly 
sought  to  restore  the  order  to  its  original  purity  and  sim- 
plicity and  was  unsparing  in  his  denunciations  of  the  lax 
party.  Innocent  IV.  supported  the  lax  party  and  Alex- 
ander IV.  removed  all  restrictions  to  the  academic  activity 
of  the  order  (1257),  facilitating  their  access  to  the  pro- 
fessorships of  the  universities. 

(2)  The  Everlasting  Gospel.  By  this  time  the  leaders 
of  the  strict  party  had  become  imbued  with  the  prophetic 
spirit  and  the  chiliasm  of  the  Joachimites.  In  1254  ap- 
peared "The  Everlasting  Gospel"  (referring  to  Rev. 
14  :  6).  It  consisted  of  three  of  Joachim's  prophetical 
works,  with  introduction,  notes,  and  applications  to  cur- 
rent events.  Joachim's  date  for  the  end  of  the  age 
(1260)  still  held  good,  and  the  dispensation  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  would  be  inaugurated  in  six  years.  The  publica- 
tion of  this  work  created  immense  excitement.  Gherardo, 
a  leader  of  the  strict  party,  who  had  obtained  a  chair  in 
the  University  of  Paris,  seems  to  have  been  the  editor. 
It  constituted  one  of  the  boldest  attacks  on  the  papacy 
that  had  yet  been  made,  and  the  Spiritual  Franciscans 
who  sympathized  with  it  thereby  put  themselves  in  the 
position  of  a  heretical  sect.  Gherardo  was  thrown  into 
prison  where,  on  a  diet  of  bread  and  water,  he  languished 
for  eighteen  years,  remaining  faithful  to  his  convictions. 
John  of  Parma  resigned  and  retracted,  and  is  said  for 
thirty-two  years  to  have  lived  the  life  of  an  angel  and  to 
have  remained  a  faithful  Joachimite.  Bonaventura,  his 
successor,  sought  to  harmonize  the  discordant  elements 
and  to  curb  the  laxity  of  the  dominant  party. 

(3)  Persecution  of  the  SpirittuUes.  The  council  of  Lyons 
1374)  gave  the  Mendicants  the  right  to  hold  property, 
"his  action  intensified  the  inner  strife  of  the  Franciscans. 

The  Spirituales  were  now  cruelly  persecuted,  large  num- 
bers of  them  rotting  in  prison,  deprived  of  spiritual  as 
well  9S  material  help.     Bonif$ice  IX.  surrendered  then? 


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^ 


CHAP.  III.]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         $$$ 

to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  Inquisition  (1296-1297).  The 
details  of  their  sufferings  cannot  here  be  given. 

(4)  Pierre  Jean  Olivi.  The  most  noted  representative 
of  the  Spirituales  during  the  latter  part  of  the  thirteenth 
century  was  Pierre  Jean  Olivi,  whose  writings  were  con- 
demned and  who,  after  his  death  (1298),  was  adjudged  a 
heretic. 

The  modified  Joachimism  of  the  Spiritual  Franciscans  became 
widespread  through  persecution  and  we  need  henceforth  never  be  at 
a  loss  to  account  for  the  appearance  of  this  mode  of  thought.  The 
Identification  of  the  papacy  with  Antichrist  became  one  of  the  fixed 
thoughts  in  the  minds  of  chiliastic  reformers  evervwhere.  We  see 
the  influence  of  Joachim  and  the  Spirituales  in  Wvcliffe,  in  the  prede- 
cessors of  Huss  in  Bohemia,  such  as  Militz,  Mattnias  of  Janow.etc, 
in  the  Taborites,  and  in  the  chiliastic  Anabaptists  of  the  sixteenth 
century. 

III.  PANTHEISTIC  HERESY. 

I.  ^malric  ofBena  (d.  1207). 

LITERATURE :  Preger,  ''Geseh.  d.  diutschen  MysiiV  Bd.  I.,  SeH,  166, 
uq.t  and  I73«  seq. ;  Jundt,  *'  Hist,  du  Panthiisme  populairf  au  Af.  j4.*': 
Lea."  Hist,  of  the  Inquisition,"  Vol.  II., p. 320,  siq. ;  art.  "  Amalric •* 
in  Herzog-Hauck,  third  ed. 

(i)  Sketch  of  Amalric.  Amalric  was  professor  of  phi- 
losophy and  then  of  theology  in  the  University  of  Paris 
and  was  a  favorite  of  Prince  Louis,  the  heir  apparent. 
Condemned  for  heresy  oy  the  university  (1204),  he  ap- 
pealed to  the  pope,  who  compelled  him  to  abjure  (1207). 
He  is  said  to  have  died  of  mortification  shortly  afterward. 
He  was  charged  with  teaching  that  "  God  is  everything 
(or  all  things),  that  each  Christian  is  bound  to  believe 
that  he  is  a  member  of  Christ,  no  one  who  does  not  be- 
lieve this  being  saved,  and  that  to  those  constituted  in 
love  no  sin  is  imputed." 

(2)  The  Amalricians.  His  followers  are  said  to  have 
divided  religious  history  into  three  ages :  the  age  of  the 
Father,  beginning  with  the  incarnation  of  God  in  Abra- 
ham ;  the  age  of  the  Son,  beginning  with  the  incarnation 
of  God  in  Mary  (Jesus)  ;  the  age  of  the  Spirit,  beginning 
with  the  incarnation  of  God  in  the  Amalricians.  With 
the  inauguration  of  the  age  of  the  Son  the  Mosaic  law 
ceased  to  be  binding  (antinomianism).  'With  the  inaugu- 


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556  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IV. 

ration  of  the  age  of  the  Spirit  the  ordinances  of  Christ 
were  abrogated.  They  rejected  therefore  all  external 
ordinances.  The  resurrection  of  the  dead  they  supposed 
to  be  accomplished  in  the  regeneration  of  the  believer. 
Hell  they  identified  with  a  consciousness  of  sin.  They 
claimed  that  God  spoke  in  Ovid  as  much  as  in  Augustine, 
and  that  every  man  is  God  in  precisely  the  same  sense  as 
Christ  is  God.  They  are  said  to  have  held  that  to  one 
who  is  in  the  Spirit  the  deeds  of  the  flesh  do  not  consti- 
tute sin. 

The  Amalridans  seem  never  to  have  become  very  numerous.  From 
time  to  time  they  fell  Into  the  hands  of  the  Inquisition.  Their  influ- 
ence on  later  bodies  will  appear  hereafter. 

2.  Vegkards  and  Beguities. 

LITERATURE :  Mosheim,  '*  Th  B^ghardis  ";  Hahn,  ''G^uh.  d.  Kgh 
Xif,"  'Bd.  II.,  Snt.  420,  sfq.  ;  Jundt.  '^  Hist,  du  Panihsisme  M.^**p. 
42,  ssq.;  Lea,  *'Hist.  of  the  Inq.,''  Vol.  11.,  p.  3$o,  s#g.;  Haupt, 
*'  7>.  fW.  S^Uh  in  Franksn,^'  Ssii.  S,  i#9.,  and  art.  in  Herzog-Hauck. 
third  ed.;  OoUlnger,  "  SskUngsschichU,"  Bd.  11.,  5#f'/.  378»  ssq.,  and 
702,  uq. 

These  semi-monastic  brotherhoods  and  sisterhoods 
probably  owed  their  origin  to  the  priest  Lambert  de 
B^gue  (d.  1 187).  The  sisterhoods  seem  first  to  have 
come  into  prominence.  The  age  was  one  of  great  relig- 
ious excitement,  and  the  Crusades  had  withdrawn  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  men  from  the  population,  leaving 
multitudes  of  women  without  opportunity  of  marriage 
and  unprovided  for.  This  accounts  in  part  for  the  found- 
ing of  these  institutions,  whose  members  engaged  largely 
in  the  work  of  caring  for  the  sick,  and  who  supported 
themselves  by  manual  labor  and  if  necessary  by  begging. 
Many  of  them  became  fanatical  under  the  influence  of 
the  Spiritual  Franciscans  and  from  other  causes.  Similar 
institutions  for  men  appeared  early  in  the  thirteenth 
century.  They  spread  rapidly  throughout  Europe,  being 
especially  numerous  in  the  Netherlands  and  adjoining 
countries.  Some  of  the  brotherhoods  and  sisterhoods 
came  under  the  influence  of  the  pantheistic  teachings  of 
the  Amalricians  and  adopted  the  immoral  views  and  prac- 
tices ascribed  to  the  latter. 


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CHAP.  III.]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         $$7 

3.  "Brethren  of  the  Free  Spirit. 

LITERATURE:  Hahn,  **  dsch.  d.  Kititr^''  Bd.  II.,  Snt.  470,  stq.; 
Lea,  '*  Hist,  of  the  Inq.,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  123,  s$q,^  322.  uq,^  404.  s/9. 


^        ik/ami|f  tm  Af.  /^.,"  a</.  II.,  Sff/.  240,  i/ff. ;  Haupt,  in  Herzog-Hauck, 
I        third  ed.,  "  /Wrf^  d.  fr.  GiisUs^ 

The  Brethren  of  the  Free  Spirit  are  not  accurately  dis- 
tinguished in  medieval  writings  from  the  Amalricians  and 
the  Beghards.   It  is  not  probable  that  all  the  parties  thus 
\       designated,  who  were  arraigned  from  time  to  time  in  dif- 
I       ferent  parts  of  Europe  from  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth 
century  onward,  were  historically  connected  the  one 
with  the  other,  but  all  alike  were  directly  or  indirectly 
related  to  Amalric.   It  is  probable  that  the  later  Brethren 
^       of  the  Free  Spirit  owed  their  origin  more  directly  to  the 
I       pantheistic  teachings  of  Master  Eckart,  which  the  un- 
learned and  less  churchly  could  easily  have  perverted 
f       into  the  antinomianism  with  which  they  are  charged. 
'       Some  of  the  Brethren  are  represented  as  ascetical  and 
pure  in  their  lives,  but  as  rejecting  all  church  ordinances 
,       and  holding  to  the  set  of  views  known  as  Amalrician, 
.       while  others  are  represented  as,  like  some  of  the  Amal- 
ricians, denying  that  carnal  indulgences  are  sinful  for  the 
I       spiritual  man. 

'  There  Is  no  sufficient  reason  for  connecting  the  Brethren  of  the 

i        Free  Spirit  with  the  Ortidiebarians,  who  seem  to  have  been  funda- 
I        mentally  a  Catharistic  sect  with  Waldensian  antecedents,  or  with 
Nicholas  of  Basely  the  "  Friend  of  God  "  (d.  1397). 

There  was  no  doubt  in  some  cases  a  blending  of  the  apocalyptic- 
chiliastic  teaching  of  the  Joachimites  with  the  pantheistic  teachings 
f        of  Amalric. 

)  The  popular  pantheism  of  the  Middle  Ages  persisted  until  the  six- 

j  teenth  century,  when  it  reappeared  In  the  Libertines  and  related  par- 
ties. In  one  form  or  other  It  still  reappears  from  time  to  time  (as  in 
•'Christian  Science,"  etc.). 

IV.  EVANGELICAL  SEPARATISM. 

I.  The  Petrobrusians  and  the  Henricians. 

LITERATURE :  Peter  tiie  Venerable,  *'  Tractatus  aduirsus  Tiirohw 
stoHos  Hargiieos*';  Doliinger*  '* SektsngiukichU^**  Bd.  \.,Siii.  7$«  ug.; 


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558  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

Gieselcr,  "  Ecc.  Hist./'  Vol.  II.,  p.  533.  sm.  ;  Lea,  "  Hist,  of  the  In- 
quisition," Vol.  I.,  p.  69,  uq,;  Neander,  *^  T:>ir  kdl,  Bernard  u,  mm 
Ziitaltsr";  Hahn,  '' Gssch.  d.  Kit^ir  im  M.  /#.,"  'Bd.  L;  FiissUn, 
*'  Ktrchm-  und  Kititrggsch.^''  Bd.  I.,  S$it.  189,  s$q. 

(i)  Antecedents  and  Rise  of  these  Parties,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  determine  with  certainty  tlie  source  of  the  im- 
pulse that  started  the  Roman  Catholic  priest  Peter  de 
Bruys  and  the  Roman  Catholic  monic  Henry  of  Lausanne 
on  their  reformatory  careers.  No  doubt  a  considerable 
amount  of  evangelical  life  and  thought  had  been  perpet- 
uated in  the  corrupt  churches  that  had  come  under  the 
control  of  the  Roman  hierarchy.  Protests  against  eccle- 
siastical corruption  had  been  uttered  by  churchmen  from 
time  to  time  during  the  period  of  growing  corruption. 

a.  Claudius  of  Turin  (d.  832  or  earlier),  a  native  of 
Spain,  sent  by  the  Emperor  Louis  the  Pious  as  bishop  of 
Turin  to  counteract  Mohammedan  influence  and  to  con- 
tend against  the  prevailing  heathenism  in  northern  Italy, 
adopted  Augustine's  theology,  after  eliminating  its  sacer- 
dotal elements,  and  on  the  basis  of  the  Scriptures  in- 
sisted upon  the  immediateness  of  the  relation  of  the  be- 
liever to  God.  '*  Whoever  seeks  from  any  creature  in 
heaven  or  on  earth  the  salvation  which  he  should  seek 
from  God  alone,  is  an  idolater."  He  denounced  image 
worship  and  removed  images  from  the  churches  over 
which  he  presided.  Departed  saints,  he  taught,  do  not 
wish  to  be  worshiped  and  can  render  us  no  service. 
Prayers  for  the  dead  are  of  no  avail.  The  worship  of  the 
cross  he  regarded  as  absurd.  We  had  as  well  worship 
every  virgin,  because  Christ  was  born  of  a  virgin,  and 
every  manger  because  he  rested  in  one.  We  are  to  bear 
the  cross,  not  worship  it.  Crucifixes  were  an  abomina- 
tion to  him.  Pilgrimages  to  Rome  and  elsewhere  for 
merit  he  discountenanced,  holding  to  the  futility  of  all 
external  works  as  means  of  gaining  the  divine  favor.  He 
denied  that  any  one  is  apostolical  because  he  sits  in  the 
seat  of  an  apostle.  He  denied  that  Peter  had  received 
any  power  to  bind  and  to  loose  and  regarded  him  as  the 
divinely  commissioned  founder  of  the  Jewish,  as  Paul 
was  of  the  Gentile,  church.  That  so  thoroughgoing  and 
aggressive  an  evangelical  should  have  been  permitted  to 
end  his  life  in  the  episcopate  of  the  hierarchical  church  is 


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CHAP.  III.]   REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES^         559 

evidence  of  the  comparative  freedom  that  still  existed, 
and  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  his  influence  long 
continued  to  be  felt  in  Northern  Italy  and  Southern 
France.  Claudius  may  be  regarded  as  having  revived 
or  perpetuated  the  influence  of  Jovinian  and  Vigilantius, 
and  as  a  connecting  link  between  these  early  reformers 
and  the  evangelicals  of  the  twelfth  century. 

b.  Again,  it  is  possible  that  side  by  side  with  the  dual- 
istic  heresy  that  from  time  to  time  attracted  the  atten* 
tion  of  the  authorities  during  the  eleventh  century  a 
purer  form  of  evangelical  dissent  may  have  found  place. 
From  the  considerations  set  forth  in  the  preceding  section 
it  is  evident  that  the  Cathari  differed  greatly  among 
themselves  in  the  nature  and  degree  of  their  dualism.  It 
is  probable  that  in  some  the  dualistic  element  did  not 
much  exceed  the  bounds  of  orthodoxy,  and  that  the 
evangelical  element  closely  approached  in  its  strength 
and  purity  what  we  find  in  the  Petrobrusians  and  their 
successors.  Men  educated  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
like  Peter  and  Henry,  might  well  have  been  awakened 
by  the  purity  of  life,  the  zeal,  and  the  self-sacrificing 
spirit  of  the  better  class  of  Cathari,  while  their  knowledge 
of  the  Scriptures  and  of  the  evangelical  writings  of  the 
earlier  time  would  have  sufficed  to  guard  them  from  dual- 
istic error. 

To  conclude  with  DolUnger,  that  because  we  can  find  only  Ca- 
tharistic  antecedents  for  the  Petrobrusians  and  Henricians,  and  be- 
cause the  latter  agreed  with  the  former  in  rejecting  infant  baptism, 
image  worship,  cross  worship,  saint  worship,  the  use  of  consecrated 
church  buildings,  and  all  of  the  non-scriptural  appurtenances  of  the 
hierarchical  church,  Peter  and  Henry  were  themselves  Cathari,  is 
wholly  unjustified.  That  they  were  not  Cathari  is  evident  from  the 
following  considerations :  (a)  The  Cathari,  as  we  know  them,  re- 
jected water  baptism ;  the  Petrobrusians  are  charged  with  rejecting 
Infant  baptism  and  with  rebaptizing  those  christened  in  Infancy. 
{b)  The  Cathari  abstained  from  animal  food ;  the  Petrobrusians  are 
accused  of  violating  fasts,  {c)  The  Cathari  rejected  marriage;  Peter 
is  charged  with  compelling  monks  "by  terrors  and  torments  to 
marry, '^  and  Henry  with  removing  impediments  to  marriage  and 
urging  men  and  women  who  had  lived  irregularly  to  enter  the  mar- 
ried state,  (d)  Their  chief  Catholic  opponent  does  not  stigmatize 
them  as  Manichsan  and  refrains  from  accusing  them  of  rejecting  the 
OldTestoment.* 

1  For  fuller  rtfutatlon  of  DOlllngcr's  position  mo  orticic  by  the  author  l«  **  Plo- 
coodings  of  the  American  Socltty  of  Clivrtai  Hltlory."  Vol.  IV..  p.  181.  Mf. 

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560  A  AUNUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PQLIV 

(2)  Sketches  of  Peter  and  Henty.  a.  Little  is  known  of 
the  life  of  Peter  de  Bruys  before  his  appearance  as  a  re- 
former (c.  1 104).  For  the  facts  of  his  career  we  are  de- 
pendent almost  wholly  on  the  polemical  writing  of  Peter 
the  Venerable,  and  a  slight  notice  in  Abelard  s  "  Intro- 
duction to  Theology."  From  these  we  learn  that  he  was 
a  priest ;  that  he  was  a  pupil  of  Abelard,  the  great  free- 
thinker of  the  century ;  that  for  over  twenty  years  he 
preached  throughout  Southern  France,  where  the  Cathaii 
already  abounded,  with  enthusiasm  and  success,  baptizing 
large  numbers  on  a  profession  of  their  faith,  denouncing 
the  use  of  crosses  and  destroying  them  when  he  couM, 
and  causing  priests  and  monks  to  be  despised  and  some 
times  roughly  handled  by  the  people ;  that,  though  his 
preaching  was  subversive  of  the  established  order,  he  was 
able  for  many  years  to  defy  the  hierarchy  and  to  preserve 
life  and  liberty ;  and  that  he  was  at  last  burned  (c.  1126) 
on  a  heap  of  crosses  that  he  had  lighted,  are  the  chie! 
facts  recorded. 

Peter  the  Venerable,  addressing  the  autiiorities  in  a  region  whot 
Peter  and  Henry  had  been  at  work,  wrote :  '*  In  your  parts  the  peopfe 
are  rebaptlzed,  the  churches  profaned,  the  altars  overmrown,  a 
burned,  on  the  very  day  of  our  Lord's  passion  flesh  is  publicly  1 


priests  are  scourg^,  monks  imprisoned  and  compelled  oy  lerrofs  and 
tortures  to  marry."  Again :  "  O  miserable  men,  whoever  you  are, 
who  have  yielded  not  to  many  nations,  but  to  two  wretched  little 
men  only,  Peter  de  Bruys  and  Henry,  his  pseudo-apostle." 

b.  To  the  wonderful  eloquence  and  popularitj"  of  Henr>' 
of  Lausanne  abundant  testimony  is  borne  by  his  Catholic 
contemporaries.  We  first  meet  him  (c.  1 1 16)  as  a  Clugn- 
iac  monk,  left  in  charge  of  the  spiritual  work  of  his 
diocese  by  the  bishop  of  Mans  during  his  visit  to  Rome. 
The  records  of  the  diocese  show  how  he  utilized  his  posi- 
tion. He  had  already  gained  a  great  reputation  for  strict- 
ness of  living,  humility,  and  courage.  "  By  his  speech," 
it  was  said,  "  a  heart  of  stone  could  easily  be  moved  to 
compunction.*'  He  soon  had  the  diocese  thoroughly 
awakened  regarding  spiritual  things.  Clergy  and  people 
were  moved  to  tears  by  his  earnest  appeals.  He  is  said 
to  have  resounded  in  so  oracular  a  manner  that  it  ap- 
peared as  if  legions  of  demons  howled  forth  their  mur- 
murs at  one  opening  of  his  mouth.     **  Nevertheless  he 


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CHAP.  III.]   REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         $61 

was  in  a  wonderful  manner  eloquent^  his  speech  infused 
through  their  ears  adhered  to  the  minds  of  the  common 
people  like  fresh  poison."  The  people  rose  up  in  fury 
against  the  clergy  and  their  familiars,  regarding  them  as 
heathen  and  publicans,  and  refusing  to  sell  to  them  or 
buy  from  them.  It  was  thought  that  had  not  the  civil 
authorities  intervened  they  would  have  destroyed  the 
priests'  houses,  scattered  their  goods,  and  would  have 
stoned  the  priests  themselves.  Immoral  women  were  in- 
duced publicly  to  burn  their  meretricious  attire  and  their 
hair.  He  convinced  the  people  that  they  need  not  insist 
upon  receiving  with  their  wives,  gold,  silver,  possessions, 
or  marriage  portions,  or  bestow  a  dowry,  but  that  an 
empty-handed  man  might  marry  an  empty-handed 
woman,  and  that  all  conventionalities  In  regard  to  mar- 
riage might  be  ignored.  Some  who  had  lived  unchastely 
together  were  induced  to  marry.  He  took  up  collections 
in  order  that  some  provision  might  be  made  for  the  ex- 
tremely poor.  He  seems  to  have  regarded  marriage  as 
the  best  remedy  for  the  terrible  immorality  that  prevailed 
in  the  diocese. 

Henry  is  said  to  have  associated  himself  with  Peter  de 
Bruys  and  for  ten  years  these  zealous  preachers  carried 
on  conjointly  their  evangelistic  work.  In  1134  he  was 
arrested  by  the  archbishop  of  Aries  and  was  pronounced 
a  heretic  in  the  Council  of  Pisa,  but  he  was  on  some 
ground  permitted  to  depart  and  he  resumed  his  propa- 
ganda with  unabated  zeal.  In  1 147  Pope  Eugenius  III. 
commissioned  Bernard  of  Clairvaux  and  the  Cardinal 
Albericus  to  counteract  his  destructive  work  in  Langue- 
doc,  etc.  It  was  found  that  the  people  would  not  come 
near  the  churches,  despised  the  "divine  mystery,"  and 
refused  to  pay  the  customary  dues  or  to  accord  the  cus- 
tomary reverence  to  the  priests.  Henry  was  thrown  into 
prison,  where  he  probably  died  in  1148. 

(3)  Doctrines  and  Practices  of  Peter  and  his  Followers. 
Peter  the  Venerable,  a  contemporary,  charges  them  with 
the  following  heretical  (?)  views : 

a.  They  denied  that  children  before  they  had  come  to 
an  intelligible  age  could  be  saved  by  the  baptism  of 
Christ ;  that  another  person's  faith  could  profit  those 
that  could  not  use  their  own — according  to  the  Scripture  : 

aL 


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562  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

"He  that  believeth,"  etc.  They  protested  against  the 
charge  that  they  rebaptized,  regarding  the  christening  of 
infants  as  unworthy  of  the  name. 

b.  They  maintained  that  temples  and  churches  ought 
not  to  be  built,  and  that  those  built  ought  to  be  torn 
down ;  that  sacred  places  were  not  necessary  for  wor- 
ship ;  that  God  hears  prayers  as  well  in  a  tavern  as  in  a 
church,  in  a  market-place  as  in  a  temple,  before  a  stable 
as  before  an  altar. 

c.  They  maintained  that  crosses  ought  to  be  broken  to 
pieces  and  burned,  denying  that  the  instruments  by 
which  Christ  was  cruelly  slain  should  be  adored,  or  ven- 
erated, or  supplicated. 

d.  They  denied  that  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ 
could  be  wrought  and  offered  by  the  priest,  regarding  the 
claim  to  do  so  as  absurd  and  sacrilegious.  They  are 
charged  mpt  simply  with  rejecting  the  papal  view  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  but  also,  apparently,  with  rejecting  the 
outward  ordinance  altogether,  if  so,  it  was  probably  on 
account  of  its  superstitious  associations. 

e.  Sacrifices,  prayers,  alms,  and  other  works  for  the 
dead,  made  by  the  living,  they  derided,  holding  that  such 
things  were  of  no  avail,  each  one's  lot  being  decided  per- 
manently at  death. 

/.  That  God  is  mocked  by  ecclesiastical  chanting,  be- 
cause he  who  delights  in  pious  feelings  alone,  can  neither 
be  appealed  to  by  high  tones,  nor  soothed  by  musical 
modulations. 

g.  In  addition  to  these  points,  Peter  the  Venerable  in- 
forms us  casually  that  Peter  de  Bruys  rejected  the  au- 
thority of  the  Fathers  and  of  tradition,  adhering  to  the 
Scriptures  alone.  Peter  the  Venerable  had  heard  that 
they  held  only  to  the  Gospels,  rejecting  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  parts  of  the  New  Testament,  but  was  not  sure 
that  this  was  true. 

2.  Arnold  of  Brescia,  the  Amoldists,  the  Humiliati,  and  the 
Poor  Men  ofUmbardy. 

LITERATURE:  R.  Breyer,  ''tAmold  von  Buscia''  (In  Mauren- 
brecher's  '' Historischtn  Taschenbuch,"  1889). '*Oi#  j^rnoldistinJ*  (In 
Brieeer's  ^*  Ziitschrift  fur  Ktrchtngischichte,  XII.,  1891);  Gicse- 
brecht,  '*  Arnold  von  Brtscia^''  1873 ;  Tocco,  *'  U  Ertsia  ml  Maiio  Evo" 


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CHAP.  111.]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         563 

1884;    Hausrath,  "Arnold  von  Bnscia"  i8qi  ;   excellent  art.  by 
Deutsch  in  Herzog-Hauck,  third  ed.,  Bd.  II.,  Ssit.  117-122. 

(i)  Sketch  of  Arnold.  The  main  facts  of  Arnold's  re- 
markable career  are  well  known.  He  was  of  noble  line- 
age, and  was  born  and  reared  at  Brescia.  Like  Peter  de 
Bruys  he  studied  under  the  famous  teacher  and  free- 
thinker, Peter  Abelard.  On  his  return  to  Italy,  full  of 
zeal  for  the  reformation  of  Church  and  State,  he  was  ad- 
mitted into  one  of  the  lower  grades  of  the  clergy.  But 
he  saw  in  the  secularization  of  the  church,  and  in  the 
devotion  of  clergy,  high  and  low,  and  of  the  monastic 
orders  as  well,  to  the  accumulation  of  wealth  as  means 
of  luxury  and  oppression,  the  root  of  the  corruptions  of 
the  time,  and  he  was  able  to  give  all  the  greater  empha- 
sis to  his  scathing  denunciations  of  ecclesiastical  corrup- 
tion by  reason  of  his  own  austerity  and  sanctity  of  life. 
He  demanded  the  complete  renunciation  of  all  wealth, 
on  the  part  of  the  church  as  a  whole  and  of  individual 
clergy  and  monks,  high  and  low,  and  a  complete  with- 
drawal from  all  secular  affairs,  insisting  that  to  the  civil 
rulers  alone  all  property  rightly  belongs,  to  be  adminis- 
tered for  the  well-being  of  the  people,  and  that  the  clergy 
should  be  supported  entirely  by  the  freewill  offerings  of 
the  people.  Owing  to  a  general  recognition  of  the  ex- 
treme corruptions  of  the  time,  his  views  met  with  general 
acceptance  throughout  Northern  Italy,  but  having  been 
accused  of  heresy  by  his  bishop  in  a  Lateran  synod  he 
was  obliged  to  leave  Italy  in  11 39.  He  returned  to 
France,  where  he  defended  Abelard  against  Bernard  and 
others,  and  soon  had  this  fierce  and  unrelenting  heresy- 
hunter  on  his  track.  He  went  thence  to  Switzerland, 
where  he  labored  with  acceptance  and  success  for  a  time 
under  the  protection  of  the  liberally  inclined  bishop  of 
Constance,  until  the  zeal  of  Bernard,  who  warned  the 
bishop  not  to  harbor  this  "roaring  lion,"  this  "enemy  of 
the  church,"  wrought  his  expulsion  from  Switzerland. 
He  found  protection  with  a  papal  legate  who  soon  became 
Pope  Coelestin  IL,  and  in  Rome  during  a  decade  (1145- 
II 55)  he  was  at  the  head  of  a  popular  movement  that 
aimed  at  the  restoration  of  the  ancient  form  of  govern- 
ment and  was  able  to  expel  the  pope  and  to  establish  and 


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$64  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV 

maintain  for  a  while  a  new  rlgime.  In  the  treaty  between 
Frederick  Barbarossa  and  Pope  Alexander  III.  he  was 
basely  sacrificed  by  the  former  to  the  latter,  and  executed 
in  pursuance  of  this  arrangement.  He  was  hanged,  his 
dead  body  was  burned,  and  his  ashes  were  cast  into  the 
Tiber,  lest  his  followers  should  gather  his  remains  for 
sacred  relics. 

(2)  Arnold* s  Reformatory  l/iews.  The  questions  about 
which  there  has  been  difference  of  opinion  are  the  fol- 
lowing :  Was  Arnold  a  religious  schismatic  as  well  as  a 
social  and  political  agitator  ?  Did  he  attack  the  doctrinal 
system  of  the  church  ?  Did  he  found  a  sect  ?  We  should 
attach  very  little  importance  to  Bernard's  railings,  who 
stigmatizes  him  as  a  schismatic,  if  we  had  no  better  evi- 
dence to  rely  upon. 

Otto,  of  Freising,  one  of  the  best  informed  and  most 
judicial  of  the  contemporary  authorities,  remarks  that 
"  besides  these  things  (that  is,  his  demand  for  reform  in 
the  directions  mentioned  above),  he  is  said  to  have  been 
astray  with  reference  to  the  sacrament  of  the  altar  and 
the  baptism  of  infants."  The  former  part  of  this  state- 
ment is  confirmed  by  several  writers ;  the  second  part 
has  commonly  been  supposed  to  be  unconfirmed  and  to 
rest  upon  a  confounding  of  Arnold  with  Peter  de  Bruys 
and  Henry  of  Lausanne. 

It  has  recently  been  claimed  by  Breyer,  to  whom  the 
writer  is  deeply  indebted,  that  Durandus  confirms  Otto's 
-eport  as  to  Arnold's  unsatisfactory  views  on  infant  bap- 
tism,' and  that  this  notice  of  Otto's  can  no  longer  be 
looked  upon  as  resting  on  a  confounding  of  Arnold  with 
the  Petrobrusians.  It  is  pretty  certain,  at  all  events, 
that  Arnold  was  no  mere  churchly  reformer,  but  that  he 
held  to  views  radically  antagonistic  to  the  current  ortho- 
doxy. It  would  be  natural  to  suppose,  in  view  of  his 
long-continued  activity  and  his  strong  influence  over  the 
masses,  that  he  impressed  his  views  regarding  the  sacra- 

1  Tht  passage  cited  by  Breyer  has  reference  not  directly  to  Arnold,  but  rather  to 
the  Amoldlsts.  The  use  made  of  it  by  Breyer  Is  lustifiable  only  on  the  supposition 
that  the  Amoldlsts  derived  their  views  from  Arnold  of  Brescia.  Durandus  does  not 
even  say  directly  that  the  Amoldlsts  were  astray  as  regards  Infant  baptism ;  but 
their  denial  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  received  in  connection  with  the  baptismal  act  is 
probably  thought  by  Breyer  to  Imply  a  radically  antUR6manist  conception  of  the  or* 
dlnance  as  such.  The  passage  is  as  follows:  " AmoldtUm  .  .  .  userumt,  fuoi 
nunquam  ptr  ht^smum  mqiur  homines  Spiritum  $mutum  mecipimitt  »*c  S^nmaritsm  hi^ 
l»^«fi  Mum  reetperumt,  donee  mMius  tmponHomem  meetperumi** 


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CHAP.III.J   REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         565 

ments,  as  well  as  regarding  political,  social,  and  religious 
reform,  on  large  numbers  of  his  contemporaries. 

it  is  highly  probable  in  itself  that  he  founded  a  sect. 
The  testimony  of  contemporaries  changes  the  probability 
into  a  certainty.  It  is  related  by  Johannes  Saresberiensis 
in  his  '*  Historia  Ponttficalis,"  that  during  his  stay  in 
Rome  Arnold  **  founded  a  sect  of  men  which  is  still 
(about  1 164)  called  the  heresy  of  the  Lombards/'  and 
that  its  adherents,  on  account  of  the  uprightness,  rigor, 
and  piety  of  their  lives,  had  found  the  most  enthusiastic 
support  among  the  people  and  especially  among  pious 
women.  Johannes  was  resident  in  Rome  during  Arnold's 
time,  and  must  have  known  whereof  he  affirmed.  Arnold 
was  beyond  doubt  the  founder  of  a  sect. 

(3)  The  Arnoldists.  The  next  question  to  be  settled  is, 
whether  he  was  founder  of  the  sect  known  during  the 
succeeding  century  as  the  Arnoldists.  The  affirmative 
has  been  maintained  by  most  writers,  including  Leger, 
Fusslin,  Muratori,  Dieckhoff,  Tocco,  and  Keller ;  the 
negative  by  Gottfried  Arnold,  Guadagnini,  and  Giese- 
brecht.  The  latter  view  has  rested,  no  doubt,  on  a  fail- 
ure to  find  convincing  evidence  that  Arnold  held  to  anti- 
Catholic  views,  or  that  he  was  the  founder  of  any  sect. 
Those  who  accept  the  evidence  that  Arnold  founded  a 
sect  can  hardly  fail  to  regard  it  as  highly  probable  that 
the  Arnoldists  of  history  derived  their  impulse  as  well  as 
their  name  from  Arnold  of  Brescia.  The  fact  that  the 
Arnoldists  flourished  in  Lombardy,  where  Arnold's  influ- 
ence is  known  to  have  been  greatest,  is,  moreover, 
strongly  favorable  to  the  identification  of  the  Arnoldists 
with  the  followers  of  Arnold  of  Brescia. 

What,  then,  were  the  views  of  the  Arnoldists,  and  what 
do  we  know  of  their  history?  They  agreed  with  Cathari, 
Petrobrusians,  and  other  sects,  in  their  uncompromising 
hostility  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  directed  espe- 
cially against  the  secularization  and  the  corrupt  lives  of 
the  clergy,  whose  ministration  of  the  sacraments  they 
considered  invalid.  They  denied  the  efficacy  of  water 
baptism  to  secure  remission  of  sins,  and  laid  considerable 
stress  upon  the  imposition  of  hands  as  complementary  to 
baptism^  That,  like  the  Cathari,  they  rejected  water 
baptism   and  substituted  therefor  the  Consolamentum^ 


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566  A  MANUAL  OP  CHUftCri  HISTORY         [per.  IV. 

there  is  no  credible  evidence.  Our  information  about 
the  Arnoldists  is  extremely  meager ;  but  they  are  men- 
tioned with  sufficient  frequency  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
literature  of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  to 
prove  that  they  persisted  as  a  distinct  party  until  long 
after  the  rise  of  the  Waldenses.  It  is  certain  that,  like 
Arnold  and  Peter  de  Bruys,  they  made  the  apostolic 
church  their  model,  and  aimed  to  restore  Christianity  to 
its  primitive  purity  and  simplicity.  Tocco  affirms  *'that 
the  Poor  Men  of  Lombardy  descended  in  a  direct  line 
from  the  Arnoldists." 

(4)  The  Humiliati.  The  origin  of  this  party  as  regards 
circumstances  and  date  is  exceedingly  obscure.  It  seems 
to  have  arisen  some  time  between  1017  and  1184,  prob- 
ably during  the  reign  of  Frederick  I.  There  is.  an  old 
tradition,  not  improbable  in  itself,  that  it  was  organized 
by  a  party  of  Italian  noblemen  who  were  taken  captive 
to  Germany,  and  on  their  return  resolved  to  abandon 
rank,  to  devote  themselves  to  a  semi-monastic  communal 
life,  and  to  support  themselves  by  the  labor  of  their  hand:,. 
Their  chief  industry  seems  to  have  been  wool-weaving, 
and  they  are  said  to  have  had  almost  a  monopoly  of  this 
industry  in  certain  parts  of  Italy. 

Little  is  known  of  their  views,  except  that  they  rejected 
oaths.  The  party  seems  at  first  to  have  been  composed 
chiefly  of  laymen,  and  celibacy  was  not  required.  Be- 
fore the  close  of  the  twelfth  century  there  were  two  par- 
ties, one  of  which  was  in  harnrjony  with  the  church,  and 
the  other  classed  by  the  church  among  heretics.  It  is 
highly  probable  that  the  heretical  Humiliati  became  so 
through  Arnoldistic  influence. 

In  1 184  Pope  Lucius  III.,  in  a  bull  against  the  heresies 
of  the  time  in  Lombardy,  mentioned  the  Humiliati  and 
the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons  as  if  they  were  one  and  the  same 
party  (qui  se  hutniliatos  vel  pauperes  de  Lugduno  falso 
nomine  mentiuntuf).  It  is  improbable  that  such  a  state- 
ment would  have  found  place  in  an  official  document 
emanating  from  the  Roman  Curia  with  reference  to 
contemporary  Italian  sects,  unless  at  that  time  some 
sort  of  relationship  was  known  to  have  been  established 
between  the  anti-churchly  Humiliati  and  the  followers 
of  Peter  Waldo. 


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CHAP.  UI.]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         567 

3.  Early  Evangelical  Movements  in  the  Netherlands  and  the 
%hine  trolley. 

LITERATURE :  Hahn,  "G«<:A.  d.  Ketur  im  M.  /f .,"  Bd.  I.,  SiiU  459i 
uq.^  and  463,  stq. ;  Schmidt, "//»/.  et.  Uoctr.  d$  la  Sects  d$s  Cathans/* 
Vol.  I.,  p.  48.  siq.j  Lea,  "  Hist,  of  the  Inquisition,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  64, 
siq,;  6icselcr,''^^ccl.  rflst.,"  Vol.  11.,  p.  532,  ssq.;  MUlIcr,  **  ATir- 
chingesch,^^^  Bd.  I.,  5^'/.  495,  uq, 

(i)  Tanchelm  (1115-1124),  a  contemporary  of  Peter  de 
Bruys,  preached  with  enthusiasm  and  success  in  the 
Netherlands.  Multitudes  thronged  his  discourses  and 
treated  him  like  a  king.  He  denounced  the  churches  as 
brothels ;  denied  that  the  priestly  consecration  in  the 
Supper  was  of  any  value, — their  rites  being  pollutions 
rather  than  sacraments ;  insisted  that  the  virtue  of  sac- 
raments depends  upon  the  character  of  the  adminis- 
trator, and  dissuaded  the  people  from  receiving  the 
eucharist  at  the  hands  of  the  priests  and  from  paying 
tithes  for  their  support.  He  is  charged  with  claiming  to 
be  equal  to  Christ  in  sanctfty  and  in  the  possession  of 
the  plenitude  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  His  disciples  are  said 
to  have  held  him  in  such  reverence  that  they  drank  the 
water  in  which  he  bathed.  These  reports  have  the  ap- 
pearance of  gross  exaggerations.  Apart  from  the  fanat- 
icism that  seems  to  be  involved  in  these  charges,  his 
teaching  seems  to  have  closely  resembled  that  of  Peter 
de  Bruys. 

(2)  Eudo  de  Stella  (d.  c.  1148),  preached  with  like  fer- 
vor in  Brittany.  He  was  of  noble  birth,  but  is  said  to 
have  been  illiterate.  He  is  charged  with  having  made 
fanatical  claims  regarding  his  divine  commission  to  re- 
form Christendom.  The  people  were  attracted  to  him  in 
great  numbers  and  followed  him,  it  is  said,  as  if  he  had 
been  the  Lord  of  lords.  Under  the  influence  of  his  violent 
denunciations  of  ecclesiastical  corruptions  the  people  went 
forth  destroying  churches  and  monasteries,  ihe  civil 
authorities  long  sought  in  vain  to  apprehend  him.  In 
1 148  he  was  seized  and  was  condemned  to  perpetual  im- 
prisonment by  the  council  of  Rouen  under  Pope  Eugenius 
III.     He  probably  died  soon  afterward. 

The  following  description  of  the  heresy  that  abounded  In  this  re- 
^on  by  Hugo,  archbishop  of  Rouen  (114$),  Is  thought  to  ref^r  to  Q)^ 


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568  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER  IV. 

teachings  of  Eudo  and  his  disciples :  *'  The  sacraments  profit  oniy 
the  intelligent,  not  the  ignorant ;  they  profit  adults,  they  bestow  noth- 
ing upon  Tittle  children.  They  condemn  the  baptism  of  little  children 
and  infants  and  say :  '  In  the  gospel  we  read,  IVhosotwr  shall  haw 
Miivid,  etc. ;  but  little  children  do  not  believe.  Therefore  baptisms 
do  not  profit  little  children.'  Asain :  '  If  justification  is  of  faith  and 
salvation  is  of  baptism,  what  does  confirmation,  made  by  the  hand 
of  a  pontiff,  add  to  those  who  believe  and  have  been  baptized,  to 
those  who  are  justified  and  saved  ? ' " 

(3)  Similar  bands  of  dissenters  appeared  at  about  the 
same  time  in  the  Rhenish  provinces.  About  1115a  num- 
ber of  heretics,  among  them  two  presbyters,  were  brought 
before  the  authorities  at  Treves.  They  denied  the  trans- 
mutation of  the  bread  and  the  wine  into  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  in  the  hands  of  the  priests,  "  nor  did  they 
say  that  the  sacrament  of  baptism  profits  little  children 
unto  salvation."  The  reporter  charged  them  with  having 
taught  many  other  erroneous  things  that  he  thought  it 
wrong  to  record. 

In  a  letter  to  Bernard  (1146),  Evervin,  provost  at  Stein- 
feld,  describes  certain  Catharistic  heretics  that  infested 
the  neighborhood  of  Cologne  and  carefully  distinguished 
from  these,  as  ''absolutely  at  variance  with  them,  certain 
other  heretics  in  our  land  " : 

They  deny  that  the  body  of  Christ  is  made  at  the  altar,  on  the 

Sound  that  all  the  priests  of  the  church  are  not  consecrated.  For 
e  apostolic  dignity,  they  say.  has  been  corrupted,  implicatinj^  itself 
in  secular  affairs :  and  in  the  chair  of  Peter  not  fighting  with  God,  as 
did  Peter,  it  has  deprived  itself  of  the  power  of  consecrating,  which 
was  given  to  Peter.  .  .  And  so  they  make  void  the  priesthood  of  the 
church,  and  condemn  the  sacraments,  except  baptism  alone,  and  this 
in  adults,  who,  they  say,  are  baptized  by  Christ,  whoever  may  be  the 
administrator  of  the  sacrament.  In  me  baptism  of  little  children 
they  have  no  confidence  on  account  of  that  gospel  passage : "  Whoso- 
ever shall  have  believed,"  etc.  They  are  further  represented  as  re- 
jecting marriage  unless  both  parties  are  virgins,  as  repudiating  the 
suffrages  of  the  saints  and  fasts  and  other  afflictions  for  sins,  and 
as  calhng  *'  superstitions  "  all  observances  in  the  church  that  *'  Christ 
and  his  apostles  have  not  established."  They  rejected  the  doctrine 
of  purgatory,  maintaining  *'  that  immediately  after  they  go  forth  from 
the  body  souls  pass  either  into  eternal  rest  or  eternal  punishment." 

4.  The  IValdenses. 

LITERATURE:  Waldensian  documents  published  in  Leger. 
Hahn,  Herzog,  etc. ;  *'  Rgscr^tum  Hfrniarcharum  Lamhardii  ad  Tom- 


Digitized  by  LjOOQ IC 


CHAP.  Ill  ]   REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         569 

tifis  d$  Lugduno  qui  stmt  in  Alamama^^^  recently  discovered  and  edited 
by  Preger— a  most  important  document ;  Bernhard,  ''%Adv,  fVaUbn' 
stum  Sictam^*  ((Max.  Bib,  XXIV.);  Alanus  ab  Insulis,  ^'Suntma  quad-^ 


genfre,  1.) ;  Rainerius,  '^Sumtna  dt  Catharis  ft  Uouistis  sm  Paupfr- 
ibus  dt  Lugdutto"  (Martene  ft  Durand,  V.);  Moneta,  ^^v^dv» 
Catharas  ft  JValdfttsfS "  ;  *'  De  Hat.  Pa^^ffr.  d$  Lugduno''  (in  Martene 
ft  Durand,  V.);  Limborch,  ^^Libfr  Sftttfntiarum  Inquisitionis  To- 
iosana'*;  Hahn,  '' Gfsch.  d.  IVaidftisir'* ;  Dieclthoff,  "'Dw  IVah 
dfttsfr^\'  Herzog,  *'Dw  T{omanisehfn  IVahUnsfr^^;  Preger,  ^^  Bfitr'agf 
twr  GfuhichU  dtr  Waldesitr  im  Mittflaliff,"  187S.  '*  Dfr  Tractat  dfs 
'David  van  Augsburg  ubtr  di»  Waldtsitr^^  1878,  *'  Ufhfr  das  k^ffhaltnis 
dfr  TahoritfH  {u  dm  IValdfsifru  dfs  Xl^.  Jahrkwidfrts,"  1887.  ''Ufbfr 
dit  Vfrfassung  dfr  fran^osischfn  Waldfsitr  in  dfu  dltfTfn  Zfit^**  1S90; 
M tiller,  '*  T>if  IValdfttsfT  ttnd  ihrf  fitiultifn  Grvppfn  bis  turn  Anfang  dts 
Xiy.JahrhuHdfrts''  (first  published  in  the  "  ThtoL  Studifu  tmd  Kri- 
tikfnr  1886,  Hfft  IV.,  and  1887,  Hfft  I.),  Review  of  writings  of 
Keller,  Haupt,  and  Jostes  on  the  '*  Codfx  TfpUnsis^^*  in  the  **  Thfol. 
StudifH  mid  Kritikfn,"  Hfft  II.,  1886,  and  Hfft  111..  1887 ;  Haupt,  *'  Di$ 
rfligiosfH  SfktfH  in  Frannsn  vor  dtr  %fformation^  1882,  '*  Dif  dfutschf 
BibflubfTSftptng  dfr  miitflaltfrlichfn  IVaUfnsfr,'^  i88^  '*  Dfr  IVatdfu- 
sischf  Ursprtmg  dts  Codtx  TfpUnsis  tmd  dtr  vorluthtrischtn  dtutschtn 
Bibtldruckt,*'  i«86,  ''IVaUtnsia "  (In  ''ZtitschriftfiirKirchtngtschichtt," 
Bd,  X.,  Hfft.  II.,  1888), ''  Waldfnstrthum  und  Inquisition  im  sudostlichtn 
Dfutsfkland^**  1800 ;  Keller,  *'  Dif  Rffarmatian  und  dit  alttrtn  Rtform' 
partiisn^^^  188$,  ^^  Dif  IValdtnsfr  una  dit  Dtutschtn  BibtHbtrsttprnftn. 
IJifbst  BfHrdgtn  ntr  Gtschichtt  dtr  R$formation^^  1886,  **  Zur  Gtschtchtt 
dtr  Alttvangtliscntn  Gtrntindtn,  yartrag^  gthalttn  {tf  Btrlin  am  20  ApriL 
1887"  1887,  ''Johann  von  Staupitt  und  dit  An/angt  dtr  Rtformaiion^^^ 
1888 ;  W.  Wattenbach,  **  Utbtr  dit  Inquisition  gtgtn  dit  fValdtnstr  in 
Pommtrn  und  dtr  Mark  Brandtnbufg^  1886 ;  Comba,  *'  Valdo  td  i  VaU 
dtsi  a:oanti  la  Riforma^^  1880,  *^  Storia  dtlla  Riforma  in  Italia  narrata 
col  Sussidio  di  Nuovi  Documtntt^'*  1881,  ^^  Histoirt  dts  Vaudois  d*Italif 
dtpuis  Ifurs  Origims  iusqu'a  ttos  Jours,  Primitrt  Partit :  Avant  la  7{0- 
formt,'*  1887  (also  Eng.  tr.  "The  Waldenses  of  Italy,  from  their 
Origin  to  the  Reformation,"  London,  1888) ;  Dollinger,  "  BtHragt 
tur  Sthttngtschichtt  dts  Mitttlalttrs,"  1  Thtil:  **  Gtschichtt  dtr  Gnos- 
tisch'Manick'aischtn  Stkttn^^;  2  Thtil:  "  Dokumtntt  vomthmlich  ^  Gt^ 
schichtf  dtr  Valdtsitr  und  Kathartr^'^  1890 ;  Lea,  "  A  History  of  the 
Inquisition  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  New  Yori^,  iSSS,passim;  C.  Douais, 
"  Tractica  Inquisitionis  Htrttict  Pravitatis,  Auctort  Btrnardo  Guidonis 
Ordinis  Fratrum  Trtdicatortwt.  Dociwttnt  publii  pour  la  prtmitrtfoiSf^* 
Paris,  1886 ;  Friess,  *'  Patartntr^  Btghardtn  und  tValdtnstr  in  Otsttr- 
rtich  v'ahrtnd  dts  Mitttlalttrs,**  1872 ;  Knatz,  **  ^audois  tt  Taboritts" 
i88q;  Fredericq,  ^*  Corpus  Doeumtntorum  Inquisitionis  littrlandicce^^ 
1889 ;  Duverger,  "  V Inquisition  tn  Btlfiaut,'*  1888 ;  Goll,  "  Dit  tVal- 
dtnstr  im  Mitttlalttrtmdjhrt  Littratttr  ^^{In  **  Mitthtiltmgtn  dts  Inst,  fur 
Otsttrr,  Gtsch..*'  ~*  "^  """^  *»--.. 
Gtschichtt  dtr  i 
Codfx  Ttpltnsis,^ 


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570  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV 

hahirische  deutsche  BibtliUf^rsit^ungM"  188$,  *'  Dis  TepUr  BtMubsrsH^ 
{img.  Eiiu  {iciiU  Kritik,''  1886 ;  WeiSS,  *'  UniinuchungiH  fur  B^stiw 
tmsttg  dis  DiaUctes  dis  Codix  TgpUnsis,"  1887 ;  Rachel,  '^  Utb^  du 
Fr$$trg$r  Bibelhandschrift  nsbst  BiHrdgin  nir  Gtsch,  d,  vorluthsrisekm 
Bibtljibirs4t{ung,''  1886 ;  S.  Berger,  ''U  BibU  Frati^isg  au  Mqym  j^gs," 
1884;  Niontet, '*  Histoiu  Littsratn  des  yaudois  du  Pumont^"  Paris, 
188; ;  Kolde,  '7.  von  Statebitz,  tin  IVcddmsir  md  tin  H^iidtriau/ir'* 
("  Zeitsch.f.  Kirchtngisch,/'  1885);  W.  Bohm,  "  Friidrick  RHstr's  '«#- 
formation  diS  K.  Sigmund/ ''  i87iS ;  Tocco,  '*  V  Ensia  ml  Mtdio  Evo" 
1884 ;  F.  Palacky*  '*  Uiber  dis  Bs{ishungM  wid  das  VifhaUms  dtr 
^aldgnser  pi  din  eksmiligen  Sikten  in  Bohmm^^  1869 ;  Mdller,  Review 
of  Preger's  *'  Uehir  dis  Vsrfassung  dsr  fran^otischin  Waidni^^^  and 
of  Haupt's  **  IValdsnssrthum  und  Inquisition  im  sudostlichsH  Deutsche 
land^^  in  '*  Thsologischs Littsratur-Zsitung"  No.  1$,  1891 ;  L.  Lemme. 
Review  of  Keller's  *V*  ^<^  Staupitr  und  dis  Anfangs  dsr  RtforwuUion^ 
in  '*  Thsologischs  Studisn  und  Krittksn,''  Hsft  1.,  1890;  Melia,  '*The 
Origin,  Persecutions,  and  Doctrines  of  ttie  Waldenses,"  1870. 

(i)  Origin  of  the  Waldenses.  According  to  early  ac- 
counts, the  founder  of  the  sect  was  Peter  Waldo,  a 
wealthy  merchant  of  Lyons,  who,  from  curiosity  to  know 
the  contents  of  the  Scriptures,  which  he  was  accustomed 
to  hear  in  Latin,  employed  two  priests,  the  one  to  trans- 
late, and  the  other  to  copy  into  the  vernacular,  large  por- 
tions of  the  Scriptures.  It  is  probable  that  he  was  already 
inclined  to  make  the  Scriptures  his  guide.  Certainly, 
when  he  came  to  a  knowledge  of  scriptural  truth  he  was 
not  slow  to  put  it  into  practice.  Following  the  command 
given  by  Christ,  when  sending  forth  the  Seventy,  and  in 
view  of  Christ's  expressions  with  regard  to  the  danger  of 
wealth  to  the  Christian  life,  Peter  distributed  his  means 
to  the  poor,  secured  numerous  followers,  and,  both  per- 
sonally and  through  his  disciples,  taught  the  Scriptures 
to  all  that  would  hear  throughout  that  region,  urging 
them  to  turn  from  their  sins  (c.  1170). 

The  Archbishop  of  Lyons  forbade  their  preaching,  on 
the  ground  that  they  were  laymen ;  but  they  replied : 
*'We  must  obey  God  rather  than  men."  When  the 
archbishop  insisted  upon  a  cessation  of  their  work,  they 
appealed  to  Pope  Alexander  111.  (1179),  sending  him  some 
of  their  translated  bopks.  Alexander  commended  their 
poverty,  but  refused  to  come  between  them  and  the 
archbishop.  They  continued  to  teach  and  preach,  and 
appealed  to  Lucius  IIL,  successor  to  Alexander  (1183). 
At  the  synod  of  Verona  they  were  excommunicated  (i  184), 


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CHAP.  III.]   REACTlONAftV  AND  ftEFORMmO  PARTIES         571 

They  now  assumed  a  more  decidedly  hostile  attitude 
toward  the  hierarchical  church,  and  through  their  evan- 
gelical zeal  spread  rapidly  all  over  the  South  of  France 
and  Piedmont,  and  into  Italy,  Spain,  the  Rhine  Valley,  etc. 

Even  as  late  as  12 12  some  of  the  Waldenses  appealed 
to  Innocent  III.,  who  gave  them  permission  at  Metz  to 
assemble  and  read  the  Scriptures. 

It  is  probable  that  Peter  Waldo  had  been  to  some  ex- 
tent affected  by  the  evangelical  life  developed  in  connec- 
tion with  the  labors  of  Peter  de  Bruys  and  Henry  of 
Lausanne,  though  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  entered 
into  any  relations  with  these.  He  was  content  to  carry 
on  his  evangelistic  work  within  the  church.  His  object 
at  first  was  to  reform  the  church  by  teaching  the  Scrip- 
tures and  preaching  the  gospel  to  the  common  people 
in  their  own  language.  If  the  church  had  allowed  him 
this  liberty,  he  would  probably  not  have  become  a 
separatist. 

(2)  The  Poor  Men  of  Lyons,  the  Poor  Men  of  Lombardy, 
their  Relations  to  Each  Other,  and  to  the  German  and  Aus- 
trian Evangelical  Parties.  We  have  decisive  proof  that 
the  followers  of  Peter  Waldo  entered  into  relations  of 
some  kind  with  some  evangelical  party  in  Lombardy. 
According  to  the  '*  Rescript  of  the  Heresiarchs  of  Lom- 
bardy to  the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons  who  are  in  Germany,"* 
a  convention  was  held  at  Bergamo,  Lombardy,  in  1218, 
between  representatives  of  the  Poor  Men  of  Lombardy 
and  the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons  or  followers  of  Peter  Waldo, 
for  the  purpose  of  endeavoring  to  harmonize  differences 
that  had  arisen  between  the  two  parties.  From  this  doc- 
ument it  is  evident  that  the  Waldenses  had  some  time 
before  formed  a  more  or  less  closely  cemented  union  with 
an  evangelical  party  that  they  found  already  in  Italy. 

The  chief  points  of  difference  were  as  follows :  a.  The  , 
Italians,  like  Arnold  and  his  followers,  insisted  that  the 
validity  of  the  sacraments  depends  on  the  character  of 
the  person  administering  them ;  the  Waldenses  attributed 
the  efficacy  to  the  words  of  consecration. 

b.  The  Italians  insisted  on  the  toleration  of  '*  congre- 
.gations  of  workmen  *'  for  such  as  preferred  this  mode  of 

^  '*  Iteuriplum  Htrtsiarebum  LombardU  ad  *Pauperts  de  Lufduno.  qui  sunt  in  Ais^ 
Ik    written  about  sajo  or  earlier,  and  Itnt  edited  by  Preger  In  x87S* 

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572  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV 

life ;  while  the  Waldenses  were  strenuous  in  their  de- 
mand for  the  abolition  of  such  congregations.  In  this 
they  doubtless  reflected  the  opinion  of  Waldo  himself, 
who  had  opposed  this  institution  because  of  its  incompat- 
ibility with  the  enthusiastic  evangelism  for  which  he 
stood.  It  is  probable,  as  the  Italians  seem  to  admit,  that 
the  life  of  these  institutions  was  far  below  the  standard 
required  by  the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons  and  that  reform  was 
urgently  needed.  These  congregations  of  workmen  were 
probably  heretical  Humiliati. 

These  two  i)oints  of  difference  furnish  a  highly  probable  ground 
for  the  conclusion  reached  by  Preger  (and  in  this  conclusion  Breyer 
and  Karl  Miilier  concur),  that  the  party  of  Italians  that  entered  into 
relationship  with  the  followers  or  Waldo  represents  a  blending  of 
Arnoldist  with  Humiliatlst  elements.  If  this  conclusion  is  accqpted 
as  valid,  the  thoroughgoing  Protestantism  of  the  Amoldists,  omer- 
wise  probable,  is  strongly  confirmed.  Since  the  publication  of  Doi- 
linger's  volume  of  documents,  we  are  able  to  speak  more  positively 
than  was  possible  before  as  to  the  early  relations  of  the  Poor  Men  of 
Lombardy  and  the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons  According  to  a  writing 
called  **5t^a  SUlla^^  (12^5)1  certain  Italian  brethren,  under  John 
Roncho,  separated  themselves  from  the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons.  The 
mention  of  Roncho  as  the  leader  of  the  Lombardy  party  enables  us 
to  identify  the  Runcarians,  mentioned  by  David  of  Augsburg  as. 
along  with  the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons,  the  Ortidlebarians,  the  Arnold- 
ists,  and  the  Waldenses,  having  formerly  constituted  one  sect  with 
the  Italian  party  of  the  "  'Riscriptum." 

The '*'Reseriptum^'  and  Xht'^ Supra  SUlla,^'  mentioned  In  the  pre- 
ceding section,  when  taken  in  connection  with  statements  of  David 
of  Augsburg  and  of  an  anonymous  writer  in  Martene  and  Durand,' 
show  that  the  followers  of  Peter  Waldo  had,  soon  after  the  beginning 
of  his  reformatory  career,  formed  a  union  more  or  less  complete  with 
certain  evangelical  Christians  in  Lombardy ;  that  the  union  was 
soon  dissolve  (1205)  owin^  to  serious  differences  of  view ;  that  rep- 
resentatives of  the  two  parties  met  in  convention  at  Bergamo  in  1218 
with  a  view  to  harmonizing  these  differences ;  that  some  time  after- 
ward, when  the  "  Tttscriptum  "  was  written,  the  breach  is  as  far  as 
ever  from  being  healed ;  and  that  at  the  date  of  the  writing  of  *'  S^tpra 
Stella^*  (1235)  the  two  parties  are  still  recognized  as  distinct. 

c.  Another  point  at  issue  was  that  of  a  general  super- 
intendency.  The  Italians  had  asked  to  Be  assured  as  to 
the  position  of  the  Ultramontanes.  Waldo,  they  had 
been  informed,  had  strongly  opposed  the  appointment 
during  his  lifetime  or  after  his  death  of  a  general  super- 

1  Omnes  Pauptres  uMusqus  ttetm  mmdtm  atodmrn  comsscrstutt  ttmtkmiii  ,  .  .  jwfo  divt' 
tunum  qua  fuit  itUtr  40S. 


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CHAP,  in.]   REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         573 

intendent  {propositus),  and  they  had  asked  to  be  informed 
whether  the  Ultramontanes  were  resolved  to  adhere  to 
this  position.  The  Ultramontanes  had  expressed  a  will- 
ingness to  meet  with  the  Italians  and  in  co-operation 
with  them  to  elect  superintendents  for  life  or  rectors  for 
a  time,  as  might  be  thought  more  useful  to  the  commu- 
nity of  believers  or  more  in  the  interest  of  peace.  The 
Italians,  it  would  seem,  had  adopted  the  former  practice, 
the  Ultramontanes  the  latter.  The  practice  of  the  two 
parties  in  the  matter  of  appointing  and  ordaining  minis- 
ters was  likewise  at  variance,  the  Italians  appointing  for 
life,  the  Ultramontanes  for  a  limited  time. 

d.  The  next  question  regards  baptism.  To  certain  in- 
quiries of  the  Ultramontanes  the  Italians  had  replied: 
"  We  say  that  no  one  rejecting  baptism  of  material 
waters  can  be  saved,  least  of  all  do  we  believe  that  chil- 
dren not  truly  baptized  are  saved,  and  this  we  beseech 
them  (the  Ultramontanes)  to  believe  and  acknowledge.'* 
The  Ultramontanes  had  mildly  assented  to  this  position 
in  the  following  words:  "We  believe  that  no  one  is 
saved  unless  he  shall  have  been  baptized  materially  in 
water." 

e.  As  regards  the  permanence  of  the  married  relation 
che  Italians  had  expressed  themselves  thus:  "We  be- 
lieve that  no  one  ought  to  separate  those  lawfully  mar- 
ried except  for  cause  of  fornication  or  by  the  consent  of 
both  parties."  The  Ultramontanes  expressed  a  some- 
what laxer  view  as  follows:  lawful  wedlock  "should  not 
be  dissolved  except  through  the  will  of  both  parties,  un- 
less, in  the  opinion  of  the  congregation  of  believers,  just 
occasion  should  intervene." 

The  Poor  Men  of  Lyons  insisted  upon  the  celibacy  of  the  Inner 
circle  of  evangelists,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  dissolve  the  marriage  re- 
lation In  favor  of  evangelism,  which  they  emphasized  above  every- 
thing else. 

On  the  foregoing  points  the  two  parties,  though  they 
were  not  entirely  at  one,  were  able  to  come  to  a  good 
understanding.  On  two  points  they  failed  to  reach  a 
satisfactory  basis  of  agreement. 

/.  The  Ultramontanes  insisted  that  the  Italians  should 
acknowledge  that  Waldo  and  Vivetus  (one  of  his  chief  co- 


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574  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV 

laborers)  *'are  in  God's  Paradise,"  and  made  such  ac- 
knowledgment an  indispensable  condition  of  peace.  The 
Italians  would  go  no  further  than  to  say  that  "  if  before 
their  death  Waldo  and  Vivetus  satisfied  God  for  all  their 
faults  and  offenses,  they  could  be  saved." 

Six  representatives  of  each  party  had  held  a  prolonged  conference 
over  this  question  without  reaching  a  more  satisfactory  result.  The 
significance  of  this  contention  about  Waldo  and  Vivetus  has  been 
pointed  out  in  an  instructive  way  by  Muller.  The  probability  is  that 
Waldo  had  recenUy  died  and  that  his  death  was  the  occasion  of  the 
efforts  to  reunite  the  parties.  The  **  faults  and  offenses  "  referred  to 
would  doubtless  denote  the  Italians'  view  of  the  proceedings  of  Waldo 
and  others  that  led  to  the  schism. 

g.  The  other  point  of  serious  difference  was  with  regard 
to  the  Eucharist.  Both  parties  believed  in  the  real  pres- 
ence, apparently  in  transubstantiation.  The  question  at 
issue  was,  whether  transubstantiation  takes  place  through 
the  simple  utterance  of  the  divine  words,  so  that  even  a 
Jew,  a  heathen,  or  a  harlot  can  work  the  change ;  or 
whether  it  takes  place  only  in  answer  to  the  sincere 
prayer  of  a  believer  who  has  been  set  apart  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  ordinances.  The  Ultramontanes  held 
to  the  former  view,  the  Italians  to  the  latter.  The  Ultra- 
montanes based  their  contention  on  the  theory  that  the 
administration  of  baptism  and  that  of  the  Supper  are  to 
be  placed  on  the  same  level.  Both  parties  admitted  that 
even  a  harlot  could  in  an  emergency  validly  baptize ;  If 
so,  said  the  Ultramontanes,  why  could  she  not  validly 
administer  the  Supper  ? 

Such  are  the  chief  points  of  agreement  and  difference  between  the 
two  parties,  according  to  this  interesting  and  important  document. 
It  must  be  confessed  mat  neither  party  is  as  evangelical,  according  to 
this  document,  as  we  would  fain  regard  it.  Of  the  two  parties  the 
Italian  is  dearly  the  more  anti-Catholic.  Both  alike  hola  to  infant 
baptism ;  both  alike  insist  on  the  necessity  of  water  baptism  to  sal- 
vation—the Italians  more  emphatically  than  the  Ultramontanes ;  both 
hold  to  transubstantiation,  or  something  bordering  on  it,  the  Ultra- 
montanes placing  the  transubstantiating  efficacy  in  the  words  of  cele- 
bration, the  Italians  in  the  personal  character  of  the  minlstrant. 

(3)  The  IValdenses  as  Represented  by  Catholic  Writers, 
about  1260.  Fortunately  we  are  not  wholly  dependent 
on  the  **  l^scriptum  "  for  our  information  concerning  the 


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CHAP  III.]   REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         575 

Poor  Men  of  Lyons.  During  the  generation  that  fol- 
lowed the  negotiations  between  the  two  parties  a  marked 
advance  toward  an  evangelical  position  seems  to  have 
been  made  by  both  parties.  Two  contemporary  writings 
are  available,  both  describing  the  views  and  work  of  the 
Poor  Men,  but  one  representing  a  party  more  closely 
related  to  the  Italian  party  of  the  "  Rescript,"  the  other 
to  the  Ultramontane  party  (c.  1260).  These  writings  are 
abundantly  confirmed  by  other  documents  of  the  imme- 
diately succeeding  time. 

a.  The  writer  of  the  first  document  to  be  considered  is 
designated  by  Preger  the  **Passau  Anonymous."  It  is 
in  connection  with  his  work  that  the  ''  Rescript "  has  been 
preserved.  This  is  one  indication  of  the  close  relation- 
ship of  the  Passau  *'  Leonists  "  of  1260  with  the  Italian 
Poor  Men  of  the  *'  Rescript." 

The  author  mentions  forty-two  places  in  the  diocese  of  Passau  that 
were  infested  with  the  heresy  described.  In  twelve  of  these  there 
were  "  schools  "  (conventicles)  and  in  one  of  them  a  **  bishop."  He 
characterizes  them  as  free  from  pride  in  the  matter  of  attire,  dressing 
neither  luxuriously  nor  meanly.  Their  teachers  are  weavers  and 
shoemakers.  They  avoid  lyinp;,  swearing,  and  deceit.  They  are 
content  with  the  necessaries  of  life  and  free  from  avarice.  They  live 
chastely.  They  are  moderate  in  eating  and  drinking.  They  avoid 
ail  kinds  of  fnvolous  pastimes.  They  are  all  the  time  working, 
learning,  or  teaching.  Both  men  and  women  among  them  commit 
large  portions  of  Scripture,  some  of  them  the  entire  New  Testament, 
to  memory.  The  writer  is  frank  enough  to  say  that  a  clergyman 
can  rarely  be  found  who  can  repeat  three  chapters  of  Scripture. 
They  labor  with  great  caution,  but  very  effectively,  among  the  upper 
classes  of  the  people.  He  gives  uc  some  interesting  information  as 
to  their  method  of  inculcating  their  views.  He  enumerates  the  abuses 
in  the  church  that  lead  to  heretical  reaction,  and  a  frightful  exhibition 
of  depravity  this  enumeration  surely  is. 

He  represents  the  heretics  as  decidedly  hostile  to  the  church  and 
the  clergy.  He  says  that  in  Lombardv  the  heretics  (meaning  the 
same  party  whose  presence  in  Austna  he  bewails)  have  more 
**  schools  "^(conventicles)  than  the  theologians  and  also  more  hearers. 
They  dispute  publicly  and  call  the  people  to  solemn  assemblies  in  the 
market-place  or  In  the  open  field.  Nobody  dares  hinder  them  on  ac- 
count or  their  numbers. 

A  Roman  Catholic  document  of  1398  represents  the  Austrian  Wal- 
denses  as  rejecting  ninety-two  points  of  papal  doctrine  and  practice, 
and  holding  to  thorougnly  evangelical  views.  There  Is  evidence, 
therefore,  tnat  the  partv  in  Austria  became  more  and  more  evangel- 
ical, and  it  is  certain  that  this  party  had  much  to  do  with  the  later 
evangelical  movement  in  Bohemia  and  Moravia,  and  so  with  the 
Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century. 


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576  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IV. 

b.  The  other  Roman  Catholic  document  which  we 
must  consider  is  the  "  Tractate  of  David  of  Augsburg/** 
a  Franciscan  friar.  David's  writing  is  almost  contempo- 
rary with  that  of  the  **  Passau  Anonymous."  Like  the  lat- 
ter he  was  an  inquisitor,  and  the  aim  of  his  writing  was  to 
aid  future  inquisitors  in  detecting  heresy.  The  heretics 
he  has  in  view  are  the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons,  whom  he  de- 
clares to  be  more  noxious  than  others  on  account  of  thdi 
cautious  methods  of  work,  and  their  apparent  simplicity 
of  life  and  piety.  He  gives  with  some  modifications  the 
usual  Roman  Catholic  account  of  the  rise  of  the  Poor 
Men  of  Lyons.  He  makes  no  mention  of  Waldo,  bu» 
simply  of  **  certain  simple  laymen  "  who,  in  a  spidt  ct 
presumption,  undertook  "to  live  absolutely  according  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  gospel  and  to  keep  it  perfectly  to  the 
letter."  Having  sought  and  failed  to  secure  papal  recog- 
nition, they  began  to  claim  that  they  were,  in  an  espedaJ 
manner,  ''  disciples  of  Christ  and  successors  of  the  apos- 
tles," and  that  "they  alone  were  the  imitators  o: 
Christ." 

Having  been  excommunicated  for  presuming  to  teach 
and  preach  without  papal  authority,  they  "reputed  that 
excommunication  an  eternal  benediction  to  themselves, 
glorying  in  being  successors  of  the  apostles,"  in  suffering 
persecution,  as  did  the  apostles,  at  the  hands  of  "scribes 
and  Pharisees." 

He  represents  these  heretics  as  rejecting  absolutely  all  ecdcstas- 
tlcal  miracles,  all  statutes  of  the  church  enacted  after  Christ's  as- 
cension, all  festivals,  fasts,  orders,  benedictions,  and  offices  of  the 
church,  saying  that  these  things  had  been  introduced  into  the  church 
by  the  clergy  for  avaricious  ends.  '*  They  sav  that  a  man  is  thea 
first  baptized  when  he  has  been  inducted  into  th'dr  heresy.  But  som 
say  that  baptism  is  of  no  avail  to  little  children,  inasmuch  as  thev  a?v 
not  yet  able  actually  to  believe."  "  The  sacrament  of  confirmation 
they  reject,  but  their  leaders  {magistri)  impose  their  hands  upon  ibd: 
disciples  instead  of  this  sacrament."  **  They  do  not  believe  that  tfef 
body  and  blood  of  Christ  are  truly  present  ( in  the  Eucharist),  but  on:% 
blessed  bread  which  in  a  certain  figure  is  called  the  body  of  Christ '^ 
^*  But  this  (the  valid  administration  of  the  Supper)  some  say  ts  dor.e 
only  through  good  men,  but  others  through  all  who  know  the  words 

1  This  document  was  published  In  a  frafrmentarv  form  bv  Mart^ne  and  Dwaad  *? 
their  "  Tbtiaurus  Novus  Anecdotorum**  and  the  author  was  long  supposed  to  be  a 
Dominican  friar  named  Yvonetus.  Prefer  discovered  the  real  author  and  pnbiis^ 
A  full  and  critical  text  with  prolegomena  under  the  title.  "  7X;r  TrmetM  dn  u^mi  «* 
Auis^rg  vUr  dte  Waldetitr**  Miinchen.  s^8 


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CHAP.  III.]   REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         577 

of  consecration.^  This  also  they  celebrate  in  their  own  conventldes, 
reciting  those  words  of  the  gospel,"  etc. 

*'  They  say  also  that  a pnest  who  is  a  sinner  cannot  bind  or  loose 
any  one,  since  he  himseli  is  bound  by  sin,  and  that  any  good  and 
intelligent  layman  whatever  can  absolve  another  and  impose  pen- 
ance. 

**  They  say  that  matrimony  is  sworn  fornication  unless  they  live 
continently.*^ 

*'  They  say  that  every  oath,  even  concerning  what  is  true,  is  un- 
lawful and  IS  a  mortal  sin."  Yet  he  says  they  allow  those  whose 
lives  are  in  danger,  etc.,  to  swear.  **  They  say  that  it  is  not  lawful 
to  slay  evil-doers  through  secular  judgment." 

He  subjoins  certain  Manichaean  views  which  he  attributes  to 
"  some,"  but  which  are  quite  antagonistic  to  the  rest  of  the  views  of 
the  Waldensian  party  he  describes. 

4«  1-1. xu .....  ..... ...  ..__  ^yjug  P35S  immedl- 

ijected  prayers,  offer- 
\  faith  in  prayers  to  de- 
parted saints,  or  in  their  intercession'for  believers. 

'*  The  Old  Testament  they  do  not  receive  for  believing,  but  only  to 
learn  some  things  from  it  in  order  therewith  to  attack  us  or  to  defend 
themselves." 

The  fact  seems  to  be,  that  they  rejected  the  use  that 
was  made  of  the  Old  Testament  by  the  monks  and 
clergy  of  the  time,  in  support  of  the  persecution  of  here- 
tics, concubinage,  sacerdotalism,  legalism,  etc.,  and  held, 
in  David's  own  words,  that  "the  gospel  supervening,  all 
old  things  passed  away." 

He  mentions  also  the  use  made  by  them  of  the  patristic 
writings  in  defense  of  their  dogmas. 

"  But  not  only  do  the  men  among  them  teach,  but  also 
the  women,  because  to  women  there  is  better  opportunity 
for  perverting  women,  that  through  them  they  may  also 
pervert  the  men." 

According  to  David,  there  were  two  classes  among  the 
Poor  Men  of  Lyons :  the  **  perfect "  (by  whom  he  doubt- 
less means  the  masters  or  ministers),  who  practised  vol- 
untary poverty  and  celibacy,  and  who  devoted  themselves 
entirely  to  religious  work ;  and  the  "disciples,"  who  min- 
istered to  the  temporal  wants  of  the  masters,  provided 
places  of  meeting,  collected  congregations,  and  in  every 
way  strove  to  promote  the  objects  of  the  party."    Our 

>  This  reminds  us  of  the  controversy  between  the  Italian  and  the  Ultramontane 
brethren ;  yet  the  change  of  sentiment  as  to  the  nature  of  the  ordinance  is  remark- 
able. 

•  The  relation  between  the  "  perfect "  and  the  "  dlsciptet,**  as  D«vld  repretenta  It 


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578  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

author  gives  an  interesting  account  of  the  secret  methods 
which  they  were  obliged  to  adopt,  and  of  the  inaccessible 
and  remote  places,  such  as  subterranean  caverns,  where 
for  safety  they  were  in  the  habit  of  holding  their  meet- 
ings. 

He  naively  mentions  the  fact  that  "  they  do  not  call 
themselves  heretics,  which  they  are,  but  *  true  Christians/ 
*  friends  of  God,'  *  poor  men  of  God,'  "  etc. 

He  calls  attention  to  the  existence  of  various  parties 
among  the  heretics,  and  mentions  four  of  them :  The 
Poor  Men  of  Lyons,  the  Ortidiebarians,  the  Arnostustians 
(probably  the  Arnoldists  are  meant),  the  Runcharians, 
and  the  Waltenses.  He  does  not  mention  the  particulars 
in  which  they  are  at  variance,  but  says  that  ''they  all 
unanimously  hold  the  church  in  detestation." 

(4)  Church  Polity  of  the  Waldenses.  As  has  already 
appeared,  the  Waldenses  consisted  of  an  inner  and  outer 
circle.  The  inner  circle  (the  peifecti,  or  the  Poor  Men 
proper)  constituted  the  of5ficers  and  the  itinerant  evangel- 
ists of  the  party.  Only  after  years  of  training  and  test- 
ing were  candidates  admitted  to  the  inner  circle.  This 
took  place  at  the  great  annual  meetings  of  the  body 
(usually  held  in  Lombardy).  Renunciation  of  private 
property,  celibacy,  and  a  promise  to  devote  themselves 
unreservedly  to  religious  work,  were  conditions  of  ad- 
mission. This  inner  circle  had  much  in  common  with 
the  monastic  orders,  especially  with  the  Franciscan. 
The  annual  meeting  of  these  initiated  workers  received 
reports  of  work  from  the  entire  field,  received  and  dis- 
tributed the  funds  collected  during  the  year,  appointed 
each  worker  to  his  sphere  of  labor,  admitted  candidates 
into  the  ranks  of  the  perfecti,  appointed  and  consecrated 
the  general  superintendent,  elders,  and  deacons,  as  occa- 
sion arose,  disciplined  or  excluded  the  unworthy,  etc. 
The  organization  combined  the  features  of  a  connectional 
church  and  a  missionary  society.  The  general  superin- 
tendent, usually  appointed  for  life,  was  virtually  the 
monarchical  head  of  the  body.  Presbyters  and  deacons 
constituted  the  other  ranks  of  their  three-fold  ministry. 


Is  very  simiUr  to  that  which  subsisted  between  the  various  monastic  orders  and  tb« 
Tertlaries  of  these  orders.  These  Tertlarles  were  very  |"*neral  after  the  rise  of  tht 
Dominican  and  Franciscan  orders. 


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CHAP,  m.]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         579 

Bernard  Guy  ^  gives  in  an  apparently  authentic  form  full  Informa- 
tion regarding  the  three-fold  ministry  and  the  methods  of  appointing 
and  consecrating  members  of  each  ranl<.  He  supposes  the  possible 
presence  of  another  bishop  {mafor)  at  the  ordination  of  a  bishop.  It 
IS  probable  that  at  certain  ^ochs,  if  not  throughout  the  later  Middle 
Ages,  the  territory  covered  by  Waldensian  work  was  subdivided  into 
two  or  more  provinces.  There  are  some  other  indications  of  such 
subdivision.  It  is  possible  that  bishops  disabled  by  age  and  infirm- 
ities sometimes  retired  from  the  active  superintendency  and  assisted 
in  choosing  and  setting  apart  their  successors. 

Each  newly  appointed  evangelist  was  obliged  to  travel  for  years 
in  company  with  an  experienced  man  before  he  was  allowed  to  itin- 
erate independently.  Waldensian  evangelists  became  familiar  with 
all  of  the  by-ways  and  became  experts  in  disguising  themselves  and 
evading  their  persecutors. 

Hospices,  presided  over  usually  by  elderly  women,  were  main- 
tained by  the  society  in  each  center  of  worlc,  for  the  entertainment  of 
itinerant  preachers  and  as  places  of  meeting  for  the  outer  circle.  The 
organization  of  the  body  was  so  complete  that  it  was  possible,  even  in 
times  of  dire  persecution,  to  carry  forward  the  work  with  consider- 
able vigor.  The  trade  guilds  were  no  doubt  in  many  cases  largely 
under  their  influence  and  furnished  important  aid  for  their  propa- 
ganda. 

As  a  means  of  avoiding  detection  the  Waldenses  usually  allowed 
themselves  to  conform  outwardly,  as  far  as  seemed  necessary,  to  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church.  In  many  cases  they  had  their  infants  bap- 
tized by  the  priests  and  occasionally  attended  mass.  When  brought 
before  the  Inquisition  a  large  proportion  usually  recanted,  but  the  in- 
quisitors soon  learned  that  such  recantation  amounted  to  nothing 
and  that  they  almost  invariably  relapsed. 

(5)  Concluding  Remarks,  a.  From  the  materials  that 
have  been  presented  it  appears  that  Waldo  and  his  im- 
mediate followers  differed  little  from  enthusiastic  churchly 
reformers  like  Dominic  and  Francis,  who  secured  recog- 
nition from  the  hierarchy  and  constituted  monastic  orders. 
When  freedom  to  teach  was  refused  them  they  repudi- 
ated church  authority  and  followed  their  religious  im- 
pulses. It  was  some  time  after  Waldo's  death,  and  after 
his  followers  had  come  into  influential  contact  with  the 
more  radical  reformers  of  an  earlier  type,  that  they  at- 
tained to  a  thoroughly  evangelical  position. 

b.  The  Waldenses,  like  most  of  the  churchly  and  non- 
churchly  reforming  parties  of  the  Middle  Ages,  were  anti- 
Augustinian  in  their  theological  conceptions.  They  laid 
especial  stress  on  the  direct  teachings  and  the  example 
of  our  Lord.   The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  they  interpreted 

>  "  PrMcHcm  InquitiHomt,**  mL  Douais,  p.  136.  Mf. 


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58o  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PCR.1V. 

somewhat  literally  and  attempted  to  carry  out  its  pre- 
cepts in  their  lives.  On  this  ground  they  rejected  oaths, 
warfare,  magistracy,  capital  punishment,  and  usually 
even  the  right  of  self-defense.  They  laid  great  stress  oa 
suffering  for  and  with  Christ  as  a  test  of  true  disciple- 
ship.  Private  property,  especially  in  the  case  of  the  in- 
ner ci/cle,  was  renounced.  Marriage  was  thought  to  be 
inconsistent  with  unreserved  devotion  to  evangelistic 
work  and  was  even  dissolved  in  favor  of  such  work. 
The  ascetical  principle  was  not  carried  by  them  to  the 
extreme  reached  in  monasticism,  asceticism  being  re- 
garded by  them  not  as  an  end  in  itself  but  as  a  means  to 
the  great  end  of  evangelizing  the  world. 

c.  From  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  onward 
the  Waldenses  and  related  parties  seem  to  have  repudi- 
ated the  papal  church  with  all  its  corruptions  and  depart- 
ures from  New  Testament  Christianity,  and  to  have 
earnestly  striven  for  the  realization  of  apostolic  simp]icit> 
and  purity.  They  rejected  the  Roman  Catholic  doctrine 
of  transubstantiation  and  insisted  that  Christ  is  present 
in  the  bread  and  the  wine  only  spiritually.  Many  of  them 
rejected  infant  baptism,  as  did  Peter  de  Bruys  and  most 
of  the  evangelicals  whom  we  meet  in  the  twelfth  centur>' 
before  Waldo.  The  New  Testament  was  their  text-book 
and  even  the  women  and  children  mastered  it  in  a  man- 
ner that  surprised  the  ignorant  priests  of  the  time.  This 
they  circulated  in  vernacular  versions. 

The  '*  Codix  TtpUnsis^^  discovered  a  few  years  ago  in  a  Babe 
mian  monastery,  has  been  proved  to  be  a  copy  of  an  early  Wakte- 
sian  version  and  to  represent  the  text  of  the  earliest  German  prinlHl 
Bible.    Romance  versions  have  also  been  preserved.^ 

d.  It  is  impossible  to  form  any  well-assured  estimate 
as  to  the  numbers  of  the  Waldenses  and  related  parties 
during  the  later  Middle  Ages.  But  we  have  enough  facts 
to  justify  a  belief  that  they  existed  in  nearly  every  part 
of  Europe  and  that  their  adherents  numbered  tens,  if  net 
hundreds,  of  thousands.  The  fifteenth  century  was  highly 
favorable  for  the  spread  of  the  old  evangelical  Christi- 
anity because  of  the  continued  and  flagrant  corruption  of 
the  papal  church  and  the  relaxation  of  the  work  of  the 

1  See  the  author  Is  "  Recent  Researches  Cone.  Med.  Sects.**  ^  sts.  saf. 


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CHAP.  III.]   REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         581 

Inquisition.  It  was  unfavorable  to  the  preservation  of 
historical  data  regarding  their  work  precisely  because  of 
the  lethargy  of  the  authorities  to  whose  inquisitorial  pro- 
ceedings we  are  chiefly  indebted  for  information. 

5,  The  Taborites. 

LITERATURE:  Krummel,  '' UtraqtmtM  u.  Tabanitn" ;  Preger, 
"  Ufbif  d,  yerhaltnis  d.  TabarsUn  {u  d.  IVakUsiem  d.  XIV.  Jakrh.''  ; 
Palacky,  '*  Utb^  d.  Be^uhmgm  u.  d,  yerhaltms  d.  IValditutr  tu  d, 
itumaligm  Stktm  in  Bohmm  "  ;  Zezschwitz,  **  D,  Katechisnun  d,  IVal' 
diHser  fi.  Bohmischin  BrwUr  "  ;  Gindely,  **  dseh,  d.  'Bohm^  'Brudif"  ; 
Bezold, ''  Ziif  Gjsch.  d.  Husitisnms  "  ;  Haupt, ''  IValdtnurthum  u.  In- 
quisiiioH  im  sudostlichen  Dsutschland"  ;  Loserth,  **  'Biitrags  par  Cisch. 
d.  Husitisehen  Bfwegung" ;  Goll,  **  QwlUn  u.  Untersuchungtn  {iff 
Cisch,  d.  'Bohm.  'Brudir^^^  csp.  Part  11.,  pp.  47-64. 

The  Taborites  represent  the  extreme  democratic  and 
religious  development  in  connection  with  the  Hussite 
movement  in  Bohemia.  Owing  to  the  fearful  persecu- 
tion to  which  they  were  subjected,  the  Taborites  came 
to  despair  of  the  resources  that  are  available  for  Chris- 
tians under  the  present  dispensation  and  to  take  refuge 
in  millenarian  expectations.  But  fundamentally  they 
were  so  evangelical  that  they  may  properly  be  consid- 
ered here. 

(i)  "Elation  of  the  Taborites  to  the  IValdenses.  This 
question  has  been  much  discussed  within  recent  years. 
It  has  been  abundantly  proved  by  Preger  and  others  that 
the  Waldenses  of  the  stricter  (Italian)  party  were  numer- 
ous and  aggressive  in  Bohemia  during  the  fourteenth 
century.  Heretics  supposed  to  have  been  Waldenses 
were  so  numerous  in  the  possessions  of  the  Baron  of 
Neuhaus  (southern  Bohemia)  about  1340  as  to  defy  their 
Catholic  adversaries,  whom  they  are  said  to  have  threat- 
ened to  destroy  in  case  their  liberties  were  interfered 
with.  The  teachings  of  the  Taborites  were  almost  iden- 
tical with  those  of  the  more  evangelical  Waldenses.  On 
the  other  hand,  Loserth  has  proved  the  identity  of  most 
of  the  teachings  of  the  Taborites  with  those  of  Wycliffe. 
whose  writings  were  at  this  time  widely  circulated  in 
Bohemia  and  whose  thoughts  had  been  popularized  by 
Huss.  It  seems  best  to  suppose  that  these  two  sets  of 
influences  were  combined  in  the  Taborite  movement. 


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582  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

(2)  Sketch  of  the  Movement.  The  execution  of  John 
Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague  by  the  council  of  Constance 
(141 5)  and  the  measures  adopted  by  the  council  for  the 
extirpation  of  heresy  from  Bohemia,  led  to  a  popular  up- 
rising under  the  leadership  of  Nicholas  of  Hussinetz  and 
John  Ziska.  Mount  Tabor  became  their  chief  stronghold 
and  thousands  gathered  there  to  enjoy  religious  privileges 
and  to  resist  their  enemies  (1419).  The  ecclesiastical 
leaders  of  Prague  were  inclined  to  make  the  best  com- 
promise they  could  with  the  imperial  and  papal  authori- 
ties. This  exasperated  the  radicals,  who,  under  Ziska, 
marched  upon  Prague  and  administered  terrible  chastise- 
ment. The  death  of  King  Wenceslaus  and  the  refusal 
of  the  Bohemians  to  submit  to  the  Emperor  Sigismund 
threw  the  country  into  anarchy.  The  Taborites  formu- 
lated their  teachings,  constituted  themselves  into  a  the- 
ocracy, and  for  years  resisted  the  efforts  of  the  Catholics 
and  of  the  Hussites  to  subdue  them.  They  remind  us  of 
the  Paulicians  in  the  fierceness  with  which  they  resisted 
their  oppressors  and  in  their  iconoclastic  zeal,  as  well  as 
in  the  evangelical  character  of  their  teachings.  For  years 
they  carried  on  a  devastating  warfare.  The  terrible 
stress  of  conflict  with  the  powers  of  Antichrist  drove 
many  of  the  Taborites  into  a  fanatical  expectation  of 
special  divine  interposition  and  of  the  setting  up  of  a  mil- 
lennial kingdom  through  the  sword  of  Gideon. 

In  1433  peace  was  made  between  the  Hussites  and  the 
Catholics.  For  a  number  of  years  the  Taborites  enjoyed 
a  measure  of  freedom  under  Sigismund.  After  many 
efforts  at  conciliation  on^  the  part  of  the  dominant  party 
they  were  conquered  and  scattered  by  George  Podiebrad 
(1453).  They  ceased  from  this  time  to  exist  as  an  or- 
ganized party,  but  many  congregations  long  continued  to 
propagate  their  radical  reformatory  views  in  secret  and 
many  of  the  more  moderate  were  absorbed  by  the  Bohe- 
mian Brethren. 

(2)  doctrines  and  Practices  of  the  Taborites.  a.  The 
Taborites  were  just  as  decided  as  the  Italian  Waldenses  in 
their  rejection  of  the  apocryphal  Scriptures,  of  tradition, 
and  of  ecclesiastical  authority,  and  in  their  assertion  of  the 
sole  and  absolute  authority  of  the  canonical  Scriptures  in 
matters  of  faith  and  practice.    In  their  Confession  of 


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CHAP.  111.]   REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         583 

Faith  of  1420  it  is  asserted,  *'  That  no  written  or  spoken 
statements  of  any  doctors  whatsoever  are  to  be  held  or 
universally  (catholice)  believed,  except  what  are  explic- 
itly contained  in  the  canon  of  the  Bible,"  and  that  "  no 
decrees  of  the  holy  fathers  or  institutions  of  the  elders, 
no  rites  of  any  sort  or  tradition  humanly  invented,  are  to 
be  held  ;  but  all  such  things  are  to  be  abolished  and  de- 
stroyed as  traditions  of  Antichrist."  The  Masters  of 
Prague,  or  the  Hussites  proper,  were  just  as  explicit  in 
their  denial  of  this  principle :  "  Let  no  one  dare  to  say  that 
only  those  things  are  to  be  believed  for  faith  or  otherwise 
held  that  are  expressed  and  explicitly  posited  in  Sacred 
Scripture,"  etc. 

b.  Like  the  Waldenses  of  all  parties  in  the  later  time, 
and  those  of  the  Italian  party  from  the  beginning,  the 
Taborites  believed  their  own  sect  to  constitute  the  true 
church  of  Christ,  in  which  alone  salvation  was  to  be 
found,  regarded  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  as  "the 
church  of  the  malignant  and  of  the  beast  and  of  the  har- 
lot," as  "the  house  of  lies,"  and  maintained  that  "all 
Catholics,  little  children  alone  excepted,  are  worthy  of 
damnation,"  etc. 

c.  As  regards  the  ordinances,  the  Taborites  took  a  po- 
sition, in  most  respects,  alongside  of  the  more  advanced 
of  the  Waldenses.  They  maintained  that "  no  chrism,  or 
sacred  oil,  or  baptismal  water  ought  to  be  consecrated  or 
sanctified."  They  rejected  the  use  of  exorcism,  and 
maintained  the  sufficiency  of  any  fresh  water,  anywhere, 
for  baptismal  purposes.  In  one  respect  alone  they  seem 
to  have  been  less  radical  than  the  most  radical  of  the 
Waldenses,  namely,  in  the  retention  of  infant  baptism. 
Their  theory  and  practice  in  reference  to  the  Supper  were 
equally  at  variance  with  Roman  Catholic  and  Hussite, 
and  equally  accordant  with  the  most  advanced  Walden- 
sian  theory  and  practice.  They  rejected  the  entire  body 
of  ceremonies  that  had  grown  up  in  connection  with  the 
mass,  insisting  on  the  use  of  an  ordinary  unconsecrated 
cup  and  simple  bread,  and  making  the  validity  of  the  or- 
dinance, thus  simply  administered,  independent  of  con- 
secrated places.  They  rejected  transubstantiation  and 
consubstantiation  alike,  and  held  to  the  spiritual  presence 
of  Christ  in  the  devout  celebration  of  the  ordinance. 


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584  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV 

d.  Like  the  Petrobrusians  and  the  Waldenses,  they 
rejected  with  the  utmost  decision  all  ecclesiastical  fasts 
and  festivals,  except  such  as  have  apostolic  sanction,  and 
ecclesiastical  chanting  and  all  liturgical  devices,  and  re- 
pudiated the  doctrines  of  purgatory,  prayers  for  the  dead, 
intercession  of  saints,  the  veneration  of  relics,  shrines, 
images,  etc.  They  agreed  with  the  Waldenses  and  earlier 
evangelical  parties  in  condemning  all  forms  of  luxury  and 
frivolity  in  food,  drink,  dress,  social  intercourse,  etc.,  in- 
sisting on  the  greatest  simplicity  and  purity  of  life.  Like 
the  Waldenses  of  all  parties  they  rejected  oaths. 


6.  Marsilius  of  Padua. 

LITERATURE :  His  "  D^fmsar  Pacts"  (first  printed  at  Basel,  1522. 
then  at  Frankfurt,  1C98,  and  more  recently  in  Goldast,  ^^iMonarehia 
Sancti  Rom.  ImperiL"  Vol.  11.,  pp.  I  $4-312,  copious  extracts  in  Gie- 
seler,  "  Eccl.  Hist.,*'  Vol.  111.,  pp.  29-33) ;  Lechler,  '7.  van  l^iclif;' 
Bd.  I.,  Sett.  107,  seq.;  Riezler,  '*  'DUlitirar.  IVidersacher  d.  Papstt  {ur 
Ziit  Ludufu^  d,  'Bayifs^^  SnU  30,  5/9.,  76,  s$q,^  122,  s/^.,  193-240 ; 
Muller,  "  Tier  Kampf  Ludwigs  d,  'Bay.  mit  d,  T{om.  Kun'e,"  'Bd.  L,  Srf/. 
161,  uq..  Bd.  II.,  Sett.  IS9,  m^.,  etc. ;  Meyer,  *'  Etttde  sur  (MarsiU  ds 
Tadoue^*:  Jourdan, '' Etude  sur  Afarsih  deTadoueJ*  1892;  Sullivan, 
"Marsiglio  of  Padua  and  William  of  Ockam^'  (in  "Am.  Hist. 
Rev.,"  Apr.  and  Jui.,  1897) ;  articles  in  Herzog-Hauck  and  Lichten- 
berger. 

(i)  Sketch  of  Marsilius.  Marsilius  of  Padua,  rector  of 
the  University  of  Paris  (1312),  espoused  the  cause  of  the 
Emperor  Louis  the  Bavarian  against  Pope  John  XXIL 
(1323  onward),  and  wrote,  in  collaboration  with  John  of 
Jandun,  the  '*  Defensor  Pacis^'  (1324),  in  which  he  set 
forth  views  in  almost  every  respect  thoroughly  in  accord 
with  those  of  the  Waldenses  and  related  parties,  with  a 
philosophical  insight  that  was  for  the  most  part  foreign 
to  the  evangelical  teachers.  For  years  he  was  court  phy- 
sician to  the  emperor  and  no  doubt  powerfully,  influenced 
the  sentiments  and  the  policy  of  his  patron.  The  friends 
of  the  excommunicated  emperor  treated  the  hierarchy 
with  the  utmost  contempt.  In  some  cases  the  clergy 
were  driven  out  of  the  cities  and  otherwise  abused,  and 
a  large  measure  of  freedom  was  given  to  the  various 
forms  of  dissent. 

(2)  Views  of  Marsilius.  Marsilius  insisted  on  the  ex- 
clusive authority  of  the  canonical  Scriptures  naturally 


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CHAP.  Hi]   REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         585 

interpreted  by  the  consensus  of  believers,  without 
priestly  interference.  **  For  defining  doubtful  opinions 
regarding  the  divine  law  a  general  council  of  believers, 
and  not  any  kind  of  partial  body  of  men  or  any  individual 
person  of  whatever  condition  he  may  be,  ought  to  be 
solely  authoritative."  **  There  is  no  gospel  precept  for 
compelling  any  one  by  pains  and  penalties  to  observe 
the  precepts  of  the  divine  law."  "  The  precepts  of  the 
new  divine  law  alone  (the  New  Testament),  and  the 
things  that  are  necessarily  involved  in  these,"  and  '*by 
no  means  all  the  precepts  of  the  ancient  law,"  are  ob- 
ligatory for  Christians.  '*  In  regard  to  the  divine  pre- 
cepts or  prohibitions  of  the  new  law  no  one  can  grant 
dispensation."  To  prohibit  things  permitted  by  the  New 
Testament  belongs  only  to  a  general  council  or  to  a 
Christian  civil  legislator.  *'The  sole  human  legislator 
is  the  entire  body  of  the  citizens,  or  the  stronger  part 
(valentiorem  partem)  thereof."  **  Decretals  or  decrees  of 
Roman  pontiffs  or  of  any  pontiffs  whatsoever,  unitedly 
or  dividedly,  constituted  without  the  concession  of  the 
human  legislator  (a  majority  of  the  citizens)  oblige  no 
one  to  inflict  or  suffer  temporal  pains  and  penalties." 
"To  excommunicate  any  one  or  to  interdict  the  perform- 
ance of  religious  services,  without  the  authority  of  the 
Christian  legislator,  is  lawful  for  no  bishop  or  priest  or 
body  of  them."  "  All  bishops  are  of  equal  authority, 
immediately  through  Christ."  He  insists  on  the  right  of 
other  bishops  to  excommunicate  the  bishop  of  Rome,  de- 
nies the  right  of  the  latter  to  promote  men  to  ecclesias- 
tical dignities,  urges  the  right  of  the  people  as  the  sole 
legislators  to  determine  the  number  of  churches  and 
church  officials  that  shall  be  maintained,  and  the  right  of 
the  human  legislator  (the  people)  to  use  the  revenues 
from  ecclesiastical  property  for  purposes  of  public  utility 
and  defense  as  well  as  for  charitable  and  purely  religious 
purposes.  It  belongs  to  a  general  council  alone  to  pro- 
hibit the  marriage  of  the  clergy,  if  this  be  thought  ex- 
pedient. He  insists  that  the  terms  "presbyter"  and 
"bishop"  were  synonymous  in  the  primitive  church,  the 
former  having  reference  to  age,  the  latter  to  dignity  or 
to  watchcare  over  others.  He  repudiated  the  claim  of 
the  Roman  church  to  be  the  Cathedra  Petri,  or  to  have 


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586  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

any  superiority  over  other  churches.  As  regards  Peter  he 
denies  that  there  is  any  scriptural  proof  that  he  was  bishop 
of  the  Roman  church  or  even  that  he  ever  visited  Rome. 
Paul  rather  than  Peter  was  indubitably  a  Roman  bishop. 
Peter  was  bishop  of  Antioch.  He  explains  intelligently 
the  rise  of  the  papal  power  and  its  growth  until  it  reached 
the  arrogance  of  Boniface  VIII.  and  his  successors. 

7.  Peter  Chelcicky. 

LITERATURE:  Goll.  ^' Qjulltn  md  Unttrsuckwtgm  {ur  G$$ck.  d, 
Bohm.  BrwUr,**  Thtil  II.  (an  excellent  exposition  of  Cheldcky's 
teachings,  with  copious  extracts  from  his  writings).  See  also  the 
Literature  on  the  Bohemian  Brethren. 

(i)  Sketch,  Peter,  called  Chelcicky  from  his  native 
town  Chelcic,  in  Bohemia,  was  born  about  1385.  Nothing 
is  known  of  his  earlier  life,  or  of  his  educational  advan- 
tages. We  first  meet  him  in  Prague  about  1419,  when 
he  protested  vehemently  against  the  proposal  of  Nicholas 
of  Hussinetz  and  John  of  Ziska  to  take  up  arms  in  de- 
fense of  religious  freedom.  He  was  one  of  the  foremost 
thinkers  and  popular  writers  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and 
was  deeply  indebted  to  the  writings  of  Wycliffe  and  Huss, 
to  the  Waldenses,  and  probably  to  the  Taborites.  He 
has  been  fittingly  called  the  spiritual  father  of  the  Bohe- 
mian Brethren.  For  years  he  sustained  intimate  relations 
with  Rokycana,  the  leader  of  the  Utraquist  Hussites. 

(2)  His  Teachings  and  Influence.  In  a  far  more  emphatic 
way  than  Marsilius,  he  contrasts  the  old  law  with  the 
new.  In  his  discussion  with  Rokycana,  the  head  of  the 
Hussite  party  that  had  compromised  with  Rome,  he 
shows  the  utter  inadmissibility  of  defending  hierarchical 
church  government  by  connecting  it  with  the  sacerdotal 
system  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  old  law  was  cor- 
poreal and  had  to  be  observed  according  to  the  letter. 
It  is  otherwise  with  the  new  law.  This  is  spiritual,  and 
is  embraced  in  a  few  words,  in  which,  however,  great 
things  are  implicitly  contained.  It  has  nothing  in  com- 
mon with  men  who  do  not  possess  God's  wisdom  and 
Christ's  spirit.  He  repudiates  with  decision  all  prelatical 
or  churchly  authority. 

The  only  source  of  faith,  according  to  Chelcicky,  is  the 


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CHAP. Ill]   REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         587 

will  of  God  as  made  known  authoritatively  and  exhaust- 
ively, once  for  all,  through  the  apostles  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament Scriptures.  The  idea  of  development  or  of  change 
by  church  authority  was  intolerable  to  him.  This  law  of 
God  is  absolutely  sufficient  in  all  things.  Christians  live 
in  the  State,  but  have  no  part  in  it.  They  must  not 
bring  their  disputes  for  decision  before  worldly  magis- 
trates. Apostasy  began  when  the  relations  of  Church 
and  State  changed.  If  all  the  heathen  who  by  baptism 
became  nominally  Christian  had  become  such  in  reality, 
the  State  would  thereby  have  ceased  to  exist;  for  its 
whole  organism  would  have  become  unnecessary  and 
superfluous.  For  non-Christian  people  the  State  is  nec- 
essary, but  it  is  a  necessary  evil ;  the  greater  evil,  how- 
ever, is  the  so-called  Christian  State  ;  the  greatest  of  all 
the  civil  power  in  its  union  with  the  church.  Before  the 
union  of  Church  and  State,  under  Constantine,  Chris- 
tians lived  under  heathen  ;  since  that  time  good  and  true 
Christians  live  under  bad  ones.  The  only  advantage  he 
can  see  in  this  arrangement  for  true  Christians  is  that 
thereby  they  have  an  opportunity  to  endure  suffering 
and  so  to  confirm  their  faith.  The  very  expression 
"  Christian  State  *'  involves  an  insoluble  contradiction. 
It  is  Christian  only  in  name,  for  it  belongs  to  the  essence 
of  the  State  to  use  compulsion  and  violence,  which  is 
completely  foreign  to  the  spirit  of  Christianity.  In  seek- 
ing to  reconcile  the  State  and  Christianity  Augustine 
sucked  blood,  instead  of  milk,  from  Scripture.  All  do- 
minion, all  class  divisions,  he  regarded  as  a  violation  of 
Christ's  command  of  brotherly  equality  (Luke  22  :  24- 
27).  Equality  and  brotherhood  he  considered  fundamen- 
tal requirements  of  God's  law,  and  he  was  able  to  con- 
ceive of  no  form  of  civil  government  in  which  these  could 
be  realized.  Like  most  of  the  old  evangelicals  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  like  the  Anabaptists  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  he  rejected,  along  with  magistracy,  as  a  Chris- 
tian institution,  oaths,  warfare,  and  capital  punishment. 
He  laid  great  emphasis  upon  the  imitation  of  Christ, 
but  did  not  lose  sight  of  his  atoning  work.  Christ  is  not 
only  teacher  and  exemplar,  but  also  Saviour  and  eternal 
Mediator  between  the  creature  and  the  Creator.  Through 
his  blood  he  has  cleansed  the  human  race  from  sin  and 


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;88  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

as  high  priest  stands  continually  before  God  to  intercede 
for  believers. 

Man's  will  even  after  the  fall  has  remained  free.  Good 
and  evil  stand  before  it :  choose !  Only  the  freely  chosen 
good  is  truly  good  and  valuable.  Yet  man  does  not  at- 
tain to  this  choice  without  God's  help.  Inner  regenera- 
tion cannot  be  introduced  without  God's  grace,  nor  can 
the  will  of  man  be  brought  into  harmony  with  the  divine 
will.  It  is  the  inner  regeneration  that  gives  man  a  new 
heart,  a  new  understanding,  new  thoughts,  new  works. 
He  derives  salvation  from  God's  grace  alone ;  yet  so  that 
man  is  not  passive  but  active  in  the  appropriation  of  it. 
Good  works  are  to  be  performed  not  of  compulsion,  not 
from  fear  of  hell,  but  from  love  to  God.  The  idea  of 
meriting  salvation  he  regarded  as  absurd.  No  man  in 
this  life  can  be  perfectly  well  pleasing  to  God.  As 
Christ  transformed  water  into  wine,  so  our  imperfect 
works  may  be  transformed  so  as  to  be  found  sufticient. 
On  Christ's  death  and  the  grace  of  God  alone  rests  our 
hope  of  salvation. 

Chelcicky  recognized  only  two  sacraments,  in  the  strict 
sense,  baptism  and  the  Supper.  Regarding  the  former, 
after  quoting  the  Great  Commission,  he  proceeds : 

*'  Open  and  clear  is  the  word  of  the  Son  of  God :  first  he  speaks  of 
faith,  then  of  baptism  .  .  .  and  since  we  find  this  doctrine  in  the 
gospel  we  should  now  also  hold  fast  to  it.    But  the  priests  err  griev- 


ously in  baptizing  the  great  mass,  and  no  one  is  found  whether  old 
or  younp;  who  knows  God  and  believes  his  Scripture,  and  this  is 
evident  in  their  works  .  .  .  nevertheless  all  without  discrimination 
are  baptized  and  receive  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ.  .  .  But  we 
should  rather  hold  fast  to  the  view  that  baptism  belongs  to  those  who 
know  God  and  believe  his  Scripture.  .  .  In  order  to  receive  baptism 
In  truth,  a  man  must  have  the  will  to  die  to  sin." 

He  regarded  baptism  as  freeing  the  recipient  from  the  guilt  of 
hereditary  sin,  but  not  from  hereditary  sin  itself,  which  remains  as 
lon^  as  life  lasts.  The  above  teachings  would  seem  to  involve  a  re- 
jection of  infant  baptism ;  but  he  found  a  place  for  it  in  his  system : 
'*  If  true  Christians  desire  baptism  for  their  children  they  cannot 
be  blamed  for  it."  A^ain :  "  It  such  have  children,  baptism  should 
be  bestowed  upon  their  children  in  their  (the  parents')  conscience." 

His  view  of  the  Supper  involved  denial  of  transubstan- 
tiation  and  probably  fell  short  of  consubstantiation  ;  yet 
he  does  not  seem  to  have  regarded  it  as  a  mere  memorial. 


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CHAP.  III.]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         589 

He  seems  to  teach  that  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  are 
partaken  of  spiritually  by  the  believer. 

Chelcicky  made  an  earnest  effort  to  win  Rokycana 
(archbishop  elect)  to  his  evangelical  position,  and  was  in 
close  communication  with  those  who  organized  them- 
selves as  the  Bohemian  Brethren  (Unitas  Fratrum).  He 
seems  not  to  have  entered  into  this  organization,  prefer- 
ring to  keep  aloof  from  parties  and  to  conserve  his  wider 
influence  as  an  independent  teacher. 

8.  7he  Lollards. 

LITERATURE :  Wllkins,  "  Concilia  Moffim  'BrUannim!^  Tom.  III. ; 
Foxc,  "Acts  and  Monuments" ;  Lechler,  "yoA.  von  IVielif  tmd  du 
yorgtschichU  d.  Reformation^'  (Eng.  trans,  of  part  of  the  work  by 
Lorimer) ;  Green, ^*  Hist,  of  the  Eng.  People"^;  Trevelyan,  "  Eng- 
land in  the  Age  of  Wycliffe." 

The  history  of  evangelical  life  in  England  before  and 
after  the  time  of  Wycliffe  has  received  little  attention  in 
comparison  with  that  given  to  Continental  parties.  No 
doubt  there  is  a  relative  sparsity  of  materials,  due  in 
some  measure  to  the  fact  that  the  Inquisition  was  never 
fully  established  in  England.  It  is  certain  that  the  influ- 
ence of  the  early  British  and  Iro-Scottish  form  of  Chris- 
tianity survived  the  strenuous  efforts  to  suppress  it  and 
persisted  until  long  after  the  Norman  conquest.  We 
have  occasional  notices  of  the  appearance  in  England,  in 
^he  thirteenth  and  fourteeth  centuries,  of  heretics  from 
the  Continent,  especially  from  the  Netherlands.  That 
many  of  the  persecuted  sectaries  of  the  Continent  should 
have  taken  refuge  in  England,  where  the  authorities 
were  less  vigilant  than  in  most  other  countries,  was  to  be 
expected.  The  comparatively  evangelical  teachings  of 
several  of  Wycliffe's  predecessors  were  doubtless  due  in 
some  measure  to  the  prevalence  of  evangelical  views 
among  the  people  and  in  turn  greatly  promoted  evangel- 
ical life  and  thought.  It  seems  certain  that  in  Wales  and 
the  neighboring  English  counties  a  large  part  of  the  pop- 
ulation remained  comparatively  free  from  Roman  Cath- 
olic influence.  The  circulation  of  the  popular  writings  of 
Wycliffe  and  of  his  version  of  the  Bible,  and  the  evan- 
gelizing activity  of  his  "  Poor  Priests,"  brought  out  into 


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590  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

publicity  and  aggressiveness  much  of  the  older  evangel- 
ical life  that  had  long  been  latent  and  multiplied  the 
numbers  of  those  who  would  recognize  no  other  authority 
in  religion  than  the  word  of  God. 

It  is  remarkable  that  Wycliffe's  followers  consisted 
largely  of  the  noble  and  educated  classes.  This  was  due 
in  part  to  the  fact  that  his  reformatory  teachings  had  a 
distinctively  patriotic  basis. 

The  Lollards  were  not  hampered  by  Wycliffe's  philo- 
sophical realism,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  become  schis- 
matics. 

The  history  of  the  Lollards  may  be  conveniently  di- 
vided into  four  stages:  (i)  From  Wycliffe's  death  till  the 
elevation  to  the  throne  of  the  house  of  Lancaster  (1384- 
1399).  (2)  From  1399  till  the  execution  of  Lord  Cobham 
(1417).  (3)  From  1417  till  the  close  of  the  persecution 
(1431).    (4)  From  1431  till  the  Reformation. 

(I)  The  Lollards  until  i^gg.  The  Lollards  spread  rap- 
idly during  this  time.  We  know  of  many  evangelists 
who  preached  with  great  power  throughout  England  and 
Wales.  It  is  asserted  by  a  Roman  Catholic  writer  of  the 
time,  that  one  could  scarcely  see  two  men  on  the  road,  but 
that  one  was  a  Wycliffite.  These  evangelists  were  also 
active  in  forming  a  popular  literature,  and  many  of  their 
writings  have  been  preserved.  The  most  noted  of  these 
preachers  and  writers  were  Hereford,  Aston,  and  Purvey, 
who,  with  many  other  Lollards,  had  received  university 
training,  and  were  thoroughly  versed  in  Scripture.  These 
were  protected  by  such  noblemen  as  John  of  Montacute, 
Count  of  Salisbury,  Sir  Thomas  Latimer,  Sir  Thomas 
Trussell,  and  Sir  Lewis  Clifford.  In  fact,  most  of  the 
gentry  and  many  of  the  nobility  seem  to  have  been  fa- 
vorers of  the  new  party. 

In  1395  the  Lollards  presented  a  memorial  to  Parlia- 
ment, in  which  it  is  declared  that  the  corruption  of  the 
church  is  the  result  of  pride  ;  that  the  priesthood  which 
began  in  Rome  is  not  that  priesthood  that  Christ  or- 
dained ;  that  the  law  of  celibacy  induces  unnatural 
vice ;  that  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation  leads  to 
idolatry ;  that  exorcisms  and  blessings  made  on  wine, 
bread,  water,  wax,  etc.,  are  practices  of  necromancy  ; 
that  prayers  for  the  dead  are  a  false  foundation  of  alms  ; 


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CHAP.  HI.]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         S9I 

that  auricular  confession  exalts  the  pride  of  the  priests, 
and  gives  them  opportunity  for  secret  conversations  for 
vicious  purposes ;  that  homicide  through  war,  or  under 
pretence  of  law,  is  expressly  contrary  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment; that  vows  of  celibacy  made  in  the  church  by 
women  are  the  cause  of  the  most  horrible  crimes  (sins)  ; 
that  arts  that  do  not  minister  to  actual  wants,  but  to 
pride,  should  be  abolished. 

This  memorial  is  of  interest,  as  showing  the  boldness  and  zeal  of 
the  reforming  party,  as  well  as  the  spirit  of  the  reform— a  return  to 
primitive  simplicity  and  purity  of  doctrine  and  lite. 

The  Lollards  of  Leicester  denied  the  power  of  pope  or 
prelates  to  excommunicate  any  one  not  previously  ex- 
communicated by  God,  or  to  grant  indulgences.  They 
held  that  any  layman  has  a  right  to  preach  and  teach 
the  gospel  anywhere ;  that  every  good  man  is  a  priest 
whether  he  knows  literature  or  not ;  and  that  no  ecclesi- 
astic in  a  sinful  state  is  able  to  administer  ordinances 
validly. 

in  1 391  Walter  Brute,  a  Welshman,  who  had  studied 
at  Oxford  and  had  been  for  some  time  engaged  in  evan- 
gelistic work,  was  arraigned  before  the  Bishop  of  Here- 
ford.    After  a  prolonged  examination  he  submitted. 

The  following  particulars  with  regard  to  the  belief  of  the  Lollards, 
may  be  learned  from  his  statements : 

He  agreed  with  Wydiffe  in  putting  all  authority  in  Scripture,  and 
m  making  Christ  the  sole  head  of  the  church.  In  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per, he  held  that  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  are  present  only  sym- 
Dollcally.  He  rejected,  as  Wydiffe  did  not,  the  idea  of  sacrifice  in 
the  Eucharist.  He  denied  the  power  of  papal  excommunication,  the 
validity  of  ordinances  performed  by  vicious  priests,  etc.  He  had  a 
clear  insight  into  the  nature  of  the  gospel  and  its  distinction  from 
the  law.  He  set  forth  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  far  more 
dearly  than  Wydiffe  had  done. 

We  may  say  of  the  Lollards  of  this  time,  that  they  had  attained  to 
a  position  far  more  evangelical  than  that  of  Wydiffe.  With  regard 
to  infant  baptism,  and  the  rebaptism  of  those  baptized  in  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  the  writer  has  not  found  any  expressions. 

Up  to  1395  no  adequate  measures  had  been  adopted 
for  the  suppression  of  the  reforming  party.  The  presen- 
tation of  the  memorial  to  Parliament,  the  accession  to 
the  archbishopric  of  Canterbury  of  Thomas  Arundel, 


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592  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

the  deposition  of  Richard  II.,  and  the  accession  of  Henry 
IV.y  of  the  house  of  Lancaster  (1399),  led  to  the  adoption 
of  more  rigorous  measures.  Archbishop  Arundel  was  a 
violent  opponent  of  the  reform  party,  and  from  the  be- 
ginning took  the  side  of  the  house  of  Lancaster  against 
Richard. 

(2)  The  Lollards  from  1)99  till  1417.  Henry  IV.  at  once 
threw  himself  into  the  arms  of  the  papists,  promised  the 
clergy  immunity  from  taxation,  and  offered  all  needful  aid 
in  the  extirpation  of  heresy.  In  1400  an  act  was  passed  for 
the  burning  of  Lollards,  with  full  provisions  for  the  arrest 
and  trial  of  such.  All  unauthorized  conventicles,  schools, 
books,  and  preaching  were  to  be  suppressed.  Under  this 
legislation,  together  with  other  legislation  in  the  same  di- 
rection (1414),  the  inquisition  of  heresy  was  now  pushed 
forward  with  vigor.  Many  Lollards  were  burned,  espe- 
cially preachers;  the  University  of  Oxford  was  har- 
assed ;  Wycliffe's  books  were  destroyed  in  large  num- 
bers. 

Lord  Cobham  (Sir  John  Oldcastle),  distinguished  for 
military  ability  and  for  uprightness  of  character,  had  long 
been  a  follower  of  Wycliffe.  He  disregarded  the  legis- 
lation against  heretics,  and  continued  to  promote  evan- 
gelical preaching  in  his  extended  domain.  After  the 
death  of  Henry  IV.  (1413),  Convocation  brought  accusa- 
tion against  Oldcastle,  and  urged  Archbishop  Arundel  to 
take  steps  against  him.  This  did  not  seem  advisable  to 
Arundel,  on  account  of  the  confidential  relations  that  ex- 
isted between  Oldcastle  and  the  king.  The  king,  having 
been  informed  of  Oldcastle's  heresy,  had  an  interview 
with  him  and  endeavored  to  persuade  him  to  renounce 
his  heresy.  This  failing,  the  king  urged  the  archbishop 
to  proceed  against  Oldcastle.  Oldcastle  protected  him- 
self for  some  time,  but  was  at  length  brought  before  par- 
liament (1417)  and  condemned  to  the  stake.  Up  to  this 
time  the  Lollard  movement  had  been  looked  upon  as 
political  rather  than  ecclesiastical,  and  little  notice  had 
been  taken  of  it  outside  of  England.  Now  it  came  to  be 
regarded  as  a  heresy  in  the  same  sense  in  which  the 
Waldenses  were  heretics.  Before  the  death  of  Cobham, 
the  party  had  hoped  by  political  influence  to  carry  out 
its  reformatory  plan.    This  hope  was  now  at  an  end. 


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CHAP.Ul.]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         $93 

(3)  The  Lollards  after  1417.  After  this  time  the  party 
was  driven  into  secrecy,  and  necessarily  declined.  From 
time  to  time  Lollards  were  discovered,  and  numerous 
martyrdoms  occurred.  From  143 1  onward  the  author- 
ities seem  to  have  thought  that  the  heresy  was  utterly 
exterminated.  Yet  the  Lollards  persisted  in  considerable 
numbers  till  the  Reformation. 

9.  The  Bohemian  brethren. 

LITERATURE :  Besides  the  pertinent  Items  in  the  Literature  on  the 
Taborites,  Czerwenka, "  Gtsch.  d.  Evang,  Kirchs  hn  Boknun  ";  Croger, 
"  Gesch.  d.  alUn  Brudirhircht'' ;  De  SchweiniU,  "  The  Hist,  of  the 
Church  l<nown  as  the  Unitas  Fratrum '' ;  J.  Mulier.  **  Bischo/thum 
d.  BrudsrimHdt^^^  and  his  comprehensive  account  of  the  Brethren  in 
Herzog-Hauck,  third  ed.,  Bd.  III.,  5Mr.  44$-467. 

(i)  Origin  of  the  Party.  In  general  it  may  be  said  that 
the  Bohemian  Brethren  embodied  the  thorough-going 
evangelical  results  of  the  Hussite  movement.  After  the 
compromise  of  the  moderate  Hussite  party  (Utraquists  or 
Calixtines)  with  Rome  on  the  basis  of  the  Compactata, 
which  it  was  well  understood  the  Roman  Curia  had  no 
intention  of  permanently  observing,  and  the  overthrow 
of  the  Taborites  that  resulted  from  this  compromise,  a 
large  number  of  earnest  men  in  various  parts  of  the 
country  felt  that  something  must  be  done  for  the  con- 
servation and  expansion  of  the  evangelical  life  that  had 
been  developed  during  the  preceding  half-century  in  Bo- 
hemia and  Moravia.  The  evangelical  teachings  of  Wye- 
liffe  and  Huss  had  pervaded  the  land.  The  Waldenses 
were  numerous  in  Bohemia  and  were  in  close  contact 
with  the  still  more  numerous  body  in  Austria.  Their  in- 
fluence was  widespread  and  profound  in  favor  of  evan- 
gelical teaching  and  practice. 

The  Taborites,  though  their  power  was  broken  and 
their  membership  scattered,  still  exercised  a  considerable 
influence  In  favor  of  radical  reform.  It  is  probable  that 
after  the  failure  of  the  Taborite  theocracy  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  membership  had  their  eyes  opened  to  the 
unreality  of  their  millenarian  expectations  and  came  to 
understand  that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  not  to  be  set  up 
by  "  the  sword  of  Gideon.*'    The  writings  and  the  per- 


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594  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

sonal  influence  of  Peter  Chelcicky  were  highly  influen- 
tial in  the  organization  of  the  Unitas  Fratrum. 

Rokycana  as  archbishop-elect  of  Prague  wrought  zeal- 
ously (1448  onward)  in  favor  of  moral  reform  and  inner 
piety.  He  had  insisted  that  the  law  of  God  is  the  highest 
of  all  laws  and  that  the  lives  of  individuals  and  the  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  power  must  be  brought  into  subjection 
thereto.  He  had  made  a  profound  impression  by  the 
sharpness  of  his  criticism  of  Catholics  and  (Jtraquists. 
In  fact  he  was  looked  upon  by  the  thorough-going  evan- 
gelicals as  one  who  would  lead  them  in  their  struggle  for 
the  restoration  of  primitive  Christianity. 

His  nephew  Gregory,  a  young  noble,  adopted  an  ascet- 
ical  mode  of  life  and  became  zealous  for  religious  reform. 
He  was  the  center  of  a  small  group  of  enthusiasts  (1453- 
1454),  who  insisted  on  carrying  out  practically  the  re- 
formatory teachings  of  Rokycana.  It  was  Rokycana's 
insistence  on  a  spiritual  ministry  that  had  particularly 
impressed  the  Brethren.  They  made  it  their  business  to 
get  into  communication  with  all  the  good  priests  of  whom 
they  could  learn  and  to  draw  them  into  their  circle. 
Rokycana  directed  them  to  Peter  Chelcicky,  whom  he 
had  long  known  as  one  of  the  ablest  and  devoutest  of 
religious  thinkers. 

In  1457-1458  they  obtained  through  Rokycana  permis- 
sion from  the  regent,  George  Podiebrad,  to  settle  in  the 
village  of  Kunwald,  in  the  province  of  Lititz,  for  the 
working  out  of  their  religious  ideals.  The  people  of  this 
district  were  largely  Taborites. 

(2)  Early  Organisation  of  the  Brethren  and  their  Pro- 
ceedings  to  1464.  The  aims  of  the  Brethren  were  in 
many  respects  similar  to  those  of  the  founders  of  mo- 
nastic orders.  A  community  in  which  every  detail  of  life 
should  be  prescribed  and  brought  into  harmony  with  the 
law  of  Christ  was  their  ideal.  An  organization  was  pri- 
vately effected  soon  after  their  settlement  at  Kunwald 
(1457-1458).  They  called  themselves  at  first  **  Brethren 
of  the  Law  of  Christ."  Fearing  lest  this  should  cause 
them  to  be  looked  upon  as  monks,  they  afterward  changed 
it  to  "  Brethren,"  and  again  to  "  Unity  of  Brethren  " 
(^Unitas  Fratrum), 

They  had  no  thought,  it  appears,  of  organizing  a  new 


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CHAP.IIL]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         $9$ 

church.  Like  John  Wesley  and  his  associates  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  they  aimed  to  establish  a  fraternal 
association  which  should  cultivate  a  high  type  of  piety 
and  should  labor  earnestly  for  the  reformation  of  the 
national  church.  Twenty-eight  elders  were  appointed 
for  the  spiritual  guidance  of  the  people.  The  names  of 
these  have  been  preserved.*  Other  elders  or  directors 
were  added  a  little  later. 

During  the  years  145^1459  the  numbers  of  the 
Brethren  increased.  Rokycana  treated  them  with  con- 
sideration until  after  the  election  of  George  Podiebrad, 
who  had  for  some  years  been  regent,  to  the  Bohemian 
throne. 

Since  1434  Rokycana's  great  ambition  had  been  to  secure  papal 
recognition  of  his  election  to  the  archbishopric  of  Prague.  When 
this  seemed  utterly  hopeless  he  became  a  bold  reformer  (as  about 
i4$4-i4S8.  He  now  hoped  that  his  friend  Podiebrad  might  be  able 
to  make  favorable  terms  with  the  papacy  and  it  would  not  do  for 
him  to  ^how  friendship  for  the  Brethren.  He  may  be  designated  as 
the  Cranmer  of  his  time. 

Difficulties  arose  among  the  Brethren  about  1459  ^^' 
yarding  the  Supper,  some  insisting  on  the  simple  Taborite 
view,  which  denied  the  real  presence,  others  holding  to 
the  Utraquist  or  even  the  Roman  Catholic  view  (consub- 
stantiation  or  transubstantiation).  A  compromise  was 
reached  in  the  adoption  of  Peter  Cheldcky's  view,  which 
was  formulated  thus :  **  All  who  receive  the  sacrament 
in  truth,  through  faith,  believe  and  confess  that  it  is  the 
true  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  according  to  his  word  and 
mind  without  adding  anything  or  taking  away  anything, 
and  rejecting  all  human  explanations." 

Later  it  was  resolved  that  the  Brethren  **  should  be  satisfied  with 
God's  word  and  simply  believe  what  it  taught,  avoiding  all  tracts 
(referring  to  the  polemical  discussions  of  the  time) ;  and  that  even 
such  as  seemed  to  approximate  to  the  truth  ought  not  to  be  read  until 
they  had  been  examined  and  approved  by  the  elders."  It  Is  manifest 
that  they  were  pursuing  an  unwise  course  in  seeking  to  maintain 
harmony  by  stifnng  discussion.  But  it  answered  the  purpose  for  the 
time.  Large  numbers  of  Taborites  from  Moravia  united  with  the 
Brethren  in  1460. 

1  Sm  Dt  SchwtiBitt,  p.  109,  Mf. 


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$96  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

George  Podiebrad,  though  a  liberal  at  heart,  had  ac- 
cepted the  crown  on  condition  that  he  should  be  obedient 
to  the  pope  and  destroy  all  heresy.  Complaints  came  to 
the  throne  regarding  the  rapid  increase  and  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  Brethren  and  of  the  growing  influence  of  the 
Taborites  in  the  movement.  It  was  found  that  several 
professors  and  masters  and  many  students  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Prague  were  sympathetic  with  the  Brethren. 
A  royal  edict  of  banishment  was  issued  (1461)  against  all 
who  should  refuse  to  be  Utraquist  or  Catholic.  Gregory, 
who  was  in  Prague  for  conference  with  sympathizers 
there,  was  imprisoned  and  tortured,  along  with  several 
others.  The  rest  recanted,  but  he  abode  steadfast.  Many 
of  the  Brethren  were  cast  into  prison  in  various  places  ; 
some  were  burned  alive.  Rokycana  felt  obliged  to  ac- 
quiesce in  these  shameful  proceedings.  Only  thus  could 
he  retain  the  favor  of  the  king  or  hope  to  be  recognized 
by  the  pope.  The  Brethren  remonstrated  with  him  and 
when  they  could  gain  no  satisfaction  declared :  "Thou 
art  of  the  world  and  wilt  perish  with  the  world."  This 
angered  him  and  he  now  joined  more  heartily  in  their 
persecution.  Political  complications  soon  afterward  led 
the  king  to  discontinue  his  persecuting  measures. 

(3)  Vie  Completed  Organization  (^1464-146'/).  The  pol- 
icy of  persecution  pursued  by  Podiebrad  and  Rokycana 
convinced  the  Brethren  that  there  was  no  place  for  them 
in  the  national  church  and  that  a  separate  church  organi- 
zation was  a  necessity.  At  a  synod  held  at  Reichenau 
in  1464  statutes  were  agreed  upon  for  the  government 
of  the  Brethren  in  all  their  inner  and  outer  relations. 
Community  of  goods  is  not  insisted  upon  therein,  but  is 
highly  recommended ;  and  the  care  of  the  needy  and  the 
persecuted  is  made  a  matter  of  Christian  obligation.  The 
type  of  life  advocated  is  that  of  gentleness,  submissive- 
ness,  helpfulness  to  each  other  and  to  those  who  are 
without,  obedience  to  elders  and  other  leaders,  disregard 
of  temporal  comforts,  and  absorption  in  spiritual  things. 
These  rules  are  probably  similar  to  those  privately 
adopted  in  1457-1458.  Doctrinal  matters  are  kept  out 
of  sight.  The  question  of  a  complete  church  organiza- 
tion was  discussed,  but  the  time  for  decision  was  not 
yet.    Three  of  the  elders,  Gregory,  Procopius,  and  John 


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CHAP,  in.]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         $97 

Klevonsky,  were  appointed  chief  elders  for  tlie  general 
superintendency  of  the  body. 

The  question  of  a  separate  church  organization  and  an 
independent  ministry  continued  to  be  a  subject  of  pray- 
erful consideration.  Among  the  most  earnest  advocates 
of  independent  organization  was  Martin  Lupac,  who  had 
been  a  Taborite  and  who  had  afterward  been  appointed 
suffragan  bishop  under  Rolcycana. 

Another  synod  was  called  about  1465  for  the  consider- 
ation of  this  question.  The  Brethren  determined  to  let 
the  Lord  decide  the  matter  through  the  use  of  the  lot. 
The  lot  was  cast  and  answered  affirmatively  the  ques- 
tions :  **  Is  it  God's  will  that  we  shall  separate  entirely 
from  the  power  of  the  papacy  and  hence  from  its  priest- 
hood ?  Is  it  God's  will  that  we  shall  institute,  according 
to  the  model  of  the  primitive  church,  a  ministerial  order 
of  our  own  ?  " 

In  1467  a  synod  was  held  at  Lhota  for  the  completion 
of  the  organization.  After  Gregory  had  voiced  the  sen- 
timents of  the  body  in  favor  of  the  action  about  to  be 
taken,  a  hymn  of  thanksgiving  and  praise  composed  for 
the  occasion  was  devoutly  sung.  Then,  in  token  of  their 
separation  from  Rome  and  its  corruptions,  each  member 
of  the  synod  received  a  new  baptism.  Until  1535  the 
Brethren  regularly  rebaptized  all  that  came  to  them  from 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  They  abandoned  the  prac- 
tice then  to  avoid  the  odium  of  Anabaptism. 

As  the  lot  had  convinced  them  that  God  willed  the 
constitution  of  a  separate  church  organization  and  a  sep- 
arate ministry,  so  they  were  content  to  leave  the  selec- 
tion of  the  leaders  to  God  speaking  through  the  lot. 
First  of  all  nine  men  distinguished  for  piety  and  zeal 
were  nominated  by  ballot.  Then  twelve  strips  of  paper, 
three  of  them  marked,  were  placed  in  a  vessel.  After 
prayer  for  divine  guidance,  a  lad  was  called  in  to  draw 
out  the  slips  and  distribute  them  to  the  nominees.  All 
three  of  the  marked  slips  were  drawn.  Two  priests, 
Matthias  of  Kunwald  and  Elias  of  Chrenovik,  and 
Thomas  of  Prelouc,  a  layman,  were  the  chosen.  There 
were  present  two  other  priests,  Michael  of  Bradacius,  and 
an  aged  Waldensian.  It  was  determined  by  lot  that  the 
latter  should  ordain  the  brethren  who  had  been  chosen. 


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598  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PBtlv. 

Some  of  the  brethren  were  dissatisfied  with  this  merely 
presbyterial  ordination  and  felt  episcopal  ordination  to  be 
desirable.  The  synod  appointed  a  deputation  to  seek 
episcopal  ordination  from  the  Waldensian  bishop  Stephen, 
who  resided  in  Moravia.  The  priest  Michael  was  conse- 
crated by  Stephen  and  bestowed  consecration  on  Mat- 
thias, from  whom  in  turn  he  received  it  (his  third  conse- 
cration), and  Matthias  ordained  again  Thomas  and  Elias. 
The  Waldenses  claimed  apostolic  succession  for  their  epis- 
copacy and  the  Brethren  felt  that  they  had  made  their 
position  doubly  sure  by  adding  to  their  Roman  Catholic 
succession  that  of  these  old  evangelicals.  Michael  laid 
down  his  episcopal  dignity  in  favor  of  Matthias,  who  thus 
became  the  general  superintendent  of  the  body. 

To  satisfy  such  scruples  as  still  remained,  a  deputation 
was  sent  to  the  far  East  to  confer  with  old  Christian 
parties  and,  if  they  were  satisfied  with  the  teachings  and 
life  of  these  Christians,  to  secure  episcopal  ordination 
from  this  source.  But  they  found  the  Oriental  churches 
so  corrupt  and  unevangelical  that  succession  through 
such  a  channel  was  thought  undesirable. 

It  is  apparent  from  the  above  that  the  church  order 
of  the  Brethren,  like  that  of  the  Waldenses,  was  connec- 
tional  and  episcopal.  A  three-fold  ministry  was  provided 
for.  The  ministers  were  required  to  abandon  private 
property  and  to  depend  wholly  for  support  on  the  offer- 
ings of  the  private  members.  Like  the  Waldenses  they 
rejected  oaths,  magistracy,  warfare,  capital  punishment 
and  such  pursuits  as  seemed  to  involve  the  seeking  of 
advantages  at  the  expense  of  others  or  to  minister  to 
luxury,  vice,  or  war. 

(4)  Later  History  of  the  Movement.  The  proceedings  of 
1467  intensified  the  wrath  of  Podiebrad  and  Rokycana 
against  the  Brethren  and  caused  a  renewal  of  persecu- 
tion. Both  of  these  dignitaries  died  in  1471  and  a  con- 
siderable measure  of  freedom  was  for  some  years  the 
portion  of  the  Unitas  Fratrum.  They  spread  rafMdly 
over  Bohemia  and  Moravia,  absorbing  most  of  the  rem- 
nants of  the  Taborites  and  a  considerable  number  of  the 
Waldenses.  They  were  commonly  called,  in  the  Cath- 
olic and  Utraquist  writings  of  the  time,  Waldenses  or 
Pickards  (Beghards). 


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CHAP.  IlL]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         $99 

Efforts  were  made  from  time  to  time  to  consummate 
an  organic  union  with  the  Waldenses;  but  the  latter 
could  not  be  induced  to  declare  in  favor  of  absolute  sep- 
aration  from  Rome  or  to  abandon  occasional  conformity 
to  the  ceremonies  of  the  established  church. 

Large  numbers  of  Bohemian  and  Moravian  noblemen 
were  sympathetic  with  the  Brethren  and  protected  them 
on  their  estates.  Some  desired  membership  in  the  body. 
By  1490  the  rule  against  magistracy,  including  ail  exer- 
cise of  public  civil  functions,  and  the  rule  prohibiting  en- 
?;agement  in  military  service  even  in  case  of  urgent  need 
or  warding  off  hostile  attacks,  had  become  exceedingly 
embarrassing.  Violation  of  these  rules  provoked  contro- 
versy. Procopius  of  Neuhaus,  one  of  the  constituent 
members  of  the  body,  advocated  the  modification  of  the 
rules.  He  received  the  support  of  Lukas  of  Prague,  a 
university  graduate,  who  from  1496  to  1528  (from  15 17 
he  was  the  bishop  or  official  head)  was  the  leading  spirit 
in  the  body.  The  more  liberal  principle  prevailed  and 
the  more  radical  elements  in  some  cases  withdrew. 

Under  the  leadership  of  Lukas  the  Brethren  still  fur- 
ther perfected  their  organization  and  defined  their  doc- 
trine. Education  was  systematically  promoted.  The 
Brethren  made  the  freest  use  of  the  printing  press  soon 
after  it  came  into  general  use,  and  printed  and  circulated 
during  the  last  years  of  the  fifteenth  century  and  the 
early  years  of  the  sixteenth  far  more  literature  than  the 
Catholics  and  Utraquists  of  Bohemia  and  Moravia  com- 
bined. They  had  numerous  schools,  that  drew  students 
from  Austria  and  Germany  as  well  as  from  their  imme- 
diate constituencies. 

The  Brethren  differed  among  themselves  regarding  infant  baptism. 
A  contemporary  document  states:  ''Some  baptize  children,  but 
many  do  not."  "  To  sum  up,"  says  the  writer  referred  to,  "  almost 
all  the  articles  of  the  Anabaptists  have  place  in  the  synagogue  of  the 
Waldenses." » 

About  I5(X)  onward.  King  Wladislaus,  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  Pope  Alexander  VI.  and  some  courtiers,  under- 
took to  deprive  the  Brethren  and  the  Waldenses  of  their 
privileges.    In  1508  their  meetings  were  prohibited,  their 

1  Sf  DOllincer.  *' StltUrngtub,:*  *Bd,  U..  S«i/.  66z. 


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600  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  Ill 

writings  were  condemned  to  the  flames,  and  they  them* 
selves  were  ordered  to  unite  with  the  Catholic  or  the 
Utraquist  Church.  Considerable  suffering  ensued  in  Bo- 
hemia; but  the  Moravian  Diet  peremptorily  refused  to 
accept  or  to  execute  these  measures. 

At  the  close  of  the  present  period  the  Bohemian 
Brethren  and  the  Waldenses  together  constituted  a 
widely  distributed,  intelligent,  aggressive,  evangelical 
force  in  the  religious  life  of  Europe.  Through  them 
many  editions  of  the  Bible  and  of  Bible  portions  were 
being  widely  circulated  in  several  of  the  vernaculars  of 
the  territories  covered.  Their  public  activities  were  con- 
siderably hampered  by  the  unfriendliness  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical and  the  civil  authorities ;  but  they  were  thoroughly 
organized  and  had  learned  to  do  efficient  work  under  ad- 
verse circumstances.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose 
that  the  Lutheran  Reformation  represents  the  inaugura- 
tion of  evangelical  life  and  thought  in  Germany.  Lu- 
ther himself  recognized  the  evangelical  character  of  the 
Brethren  and  made  no  claim  to  originality  in  his  efforts 
at  religious  reform. 

v.  EVANGELICAL  CHURCHLY  REFORMERS. 

The  movements  to  be  here  considered  have  much  in 
common  with  the  more  or  less  separatist  parties  that 
have  just  been  considered  and  stand  in  the  closest  rela- 
tionship to  these  as  effects  and  causes.  The  Wycliffite 
and  the  Hussite  movements  were  to  a  great  extent  due 
to  the  older  evangelical  influence  that  manifested  itself 
chiefly  in  the  Waldenses  and  related  parties,  and  in  turn 
exercised  a  considerable  influence  on  the  subsequent 
history  of  these  parties.  They  were  in  many  respects 
thoroughly  evangelical,  but  they  were  hampered  seri- 
ously in  their  reformatory  efforts  by  their  horror  of 
schism,  based  in  most  cases  upon  their  realistic  view  of 
the  church. 

I.  The  Wycliffite  Movement 

LITERATURE :  Only  a  few  of  Wycllffe's  writings  were  published 
until  the  present  generation.  The  Wycliffe  Society  of  England 
undertook  some  vears  ago  to  publish  a  complete  critical  edition  of 
hi$  voluminous  Catln  works.    Several  volume?  huve  already  ap- 


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CHAP.IIL]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         6oi 

glared,  edited  by  Buddenseig«  Poole,  Loserth,  Beer,  Pollard,  and 
ziewicky.  See  also  WycTiffe's  "Select  English  Works,"  ed. 
Arnold:  ^' Fasciculi  Ziramorum  Mag,  J.  fVicUA*' ed.  Shirky ;  "The 
Eng.  Works  (of  W.)  Hitherto  Unpubrfshed ."  ed.  Mathew;  the  "  Tri- 
alogus "  and  the  "  Ds  Officio  PasioraU"  (of  W.)»  cd.  Lechler ;  Grosse- 
tite,  **  Epistola^*^  ed.  Luard;  Foxe,  *^Acts  and  Monuments,"  ed. 
Townsend ;  Lechler,  "y.  von  tViclif  u,  d.  VofgnchichU  d,  Riforma- 


People" ;  Buddensdg,  "/.  fyicli/u.  s$ini  ZiH, 


(i)  Antecedents,  a.  The  enslavement  of  England  to 
the  papacy,  and  the  uprising  of  the  barons,  which  re- 
sulted in  the  securing  of  Magna  Charta  (121 5)  under 
John,  produced  a  powerful  reaction  against  the  papal  ab- 
solutism that  Innocent  III.  was  attempting  to  establish  in 
England.  England  was  now  recovering  from  the  con- 
fusion that  had  followed  the  blending  of  nations  at  the 
Norman  conquest.  The  spirit  of  national  unity  was  de- 
veloping. In  1240  the  students  at  Oxford  almost  mobbed 
a  cardinal  legate. 

b.  In  1235,  Robert  Grossetfite,  was  appointed  to  the 
bishopric  of  Lincoln.  He  was  a  man  of  profound  religious 
convictions,  great  learning,  and  great  pertinacity.  He 
set  to  work  to  reform  his  diocese,  deposing  without 
scruple  unworthy  priests.  He  held  it  to  be  the  duty  of 
a  bishop  to  preach  to  everybody  in  the  diocese  ;  and  as 
this  was  impracticable,  he  determined  to  assemble  the 
whole  body  of  clergy  at  stated  times,  and  so  to  instruct 
them  that  they  should  be  able  to  instruct  the  people. 
He  resisted  with  great  zeal  plurality  of  benefices,  insist- 
ing that  every  holder  of  a  benefice  should  reside  in  the 
parish.  As  few  of  the  clergy  could  preach,  he  encour- 
aged the  mendicant  monks  to  enter  their  parishes  and 
preach  to  the  people. 

About  1250  he  presented  a  memorial  to  Pope  Innocent 
IV.,  in  which  he  bewailed  the  corrupt  state  of  the  church. 
The  cause  of  this  corrupt  state  is  the  want  of  good  pas- 
tors, the  prevalence  of  bad  ones,  and  the  limitation  of  the 
power  of  the  parish  clergy.  The  Roman  Curia  is  the 
source  of  this  want,  not  only  because  it  does  not  sup- 
press corruption,  but  because  by  dispensations,  pro- 
visions, collations,  etc.,  the  parishes  ?ire  thrown  into  the 


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602  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [l 

hands  of  bad  shepherds,  who  care  for  the  flock  not  for 
its  own  sake,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  milk  and  the  wcc!, 
and  thus  the  souls  of  men  are  delivered  over  to  perditioc. 
The  bishops  themselves,  when  they  would  reform  the:: 
own  dioceses,  are  hampered  by  the  privileges  of  cloister?, 
and  the  right  of  appeal  to  the  archbishop  or  pope.  He 
exhorts  the  pope  to  abolish  these  abuses.  . 

In  1258,  Innocent  IV.  appointed  one  of  his  relations  tc 
a  benefice  in  Robert's  cathedral  without  consulting  him, 
making  the  threat  that  if  any  one  should  oppose  his  en- 
tering upon  his  benefice,  the  opposer  should  appear  at 
Rome  in  two  months  to  answer  for  it.  The  bishop,  no» 
eighty  years  of  age,  defied  the  pope  and  thus  became 
more  popular  than  ever. 

The  influence  of  Robert  upon  the  English  thought  of 
the  next  century,  and  especially  upon  Wycliffe,  is 
clearly  discernible.  He  was  regarded  by  the  people  in 
(i:eneral  as  a  saint.  Heavenly  music  was  reported  to 
have  been  heard  at  his  death,  and  miracles  to  have  beec 
wrought  at  his  tomb.  The  spirit  of  Robert  was  perpetu- 
ated in  England  till  the  time  of  Wycliffe,  who  quoted  hin 
as  a  high  authority. 

c.  In  1299  Boniface  VIII.  set  forth  in  a  bull  the  claim 
that  Scotland  belonged  to  the  pope.  If  Edward  I.  thought 
he  had  any  right  to  it,  he  might  submit  to  the  pope  the 
documents  on  which  his  claim  was  based.  Edward  I.  put 
the  matter  before  Parliament,  which  boldly  sided  with 
the  king  against  the  papal  claims.  Parliament  decided 
that  it  would  not  allow  the  king,  even  if  he  desired  it,  tc 
€ubmit  his  claims  to  papal  jurisdiction.  Great  surprise 
and  disgust  were  expressed  by  the  nobles  at  the  audacity 
of  the  pope. 

d.  From  1339  England  was  at  war  with  France,  and  the 
dependence  of  the  papacy  on  the  king  of  France,  together 
with  the  notorious  corruption  of  the  papal  court,  tended 
still  further  to  promote  the  spirit  of  independence. 

When,  in  1343,  Clement  VI.  bestowed  English  bene- 
fices on  two  newly  appointed  cardinals  (one  of  them 
his  nephew  or  illegitimate  son),  Parliament  united  in 
an  open  letter  to  the  pope,  demanding  a  reversion  of 
this  action,  maintaining  that  the  revenues  of  church 
property  in  England  ought  to  be  employed  entirely  ia 


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CHAP.  III.]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         603 

maintaining  worship  and  assisting  the  poor  in  England, 
and  that  it  was  contrary  to  the  intention  of  those  who 
endowed  English  churches  that  the  revenues  should  be 
bestowed  on  non-resident  foreigners.  When  these  car- 
dinals sent  their  agents  to  collect  their  revenues  they 
were  driven  away  in  disgrace.  The  pope  appealed  to  the 
king,  who,  in  turn,  wrote  with  great  boldness  and  sever- 
ity against  the  unrighteousness  of  the  papal  proceedings. 
Edward  1.  had  thus  attempted  to  shake  off  the  papal  op- 
pression, but  under  Edward  IK  the  pope  regained  the 
power  he  had  lost  in  England. 

Edward  III.,  during  his  long  and  vigorous  reign,  took 
still  more  decisive  measures.  In  1350  the  Statute  against 
Provisors  was  enacted  by  Parliament.  In  this  are  set 
forth  at  length  the  great  evils  that  England  has  suffered 
from  the  bestowment  of  provisions  contrary  to  the  design 
of  those  who  endowed  benefices,  upon  unworthy  men, 
foreigners,  etc.,  who  performed  no  service  for  the  English 
people ;  and  it  is  ordered  and  established  that  the  free 
elections  of  archbishops  and  bishops  and  of  all  other 
dignities  and  benefices  elective  in  England  shall  be 
henceforth  according  to  the  original  intention  of  the 
endowments.  And  in  case  reservations,  collations,  or 
prohibitions  be  made  by  the  pope,  in  disturbance  of  free 
elections,  collations,  etc.,  the  king  shall  have  the  rev- 
enues from  the  time  when  the  benefice  becomes  void, 
etc.  In  case  the  papal  provisors  cause  disturbance  in 
trying  to  collect  their  revenues,  contrary  to  the  law, 
they  shall  be  imprisoned  and  fined  according  to  the 
king's  will.  ■ 

In  1352  the  Statute  of  Praemunire  was  enacted,  in  ac- 
cordance with  which  it  was  made  treason  for  any  subject 
of  England  to  be  arraigned  before  any  foreign  tribunal,  or 
to  take  any  case  that  falls  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
king,  to  a  foreign  court.  This  was  a  blow  aimed  at  the 
Roman  Curia,  which  was  usurping  the  rights  of  civil 
rulers  by  calling  Englishmen,  etc.,  to  account  in  matters 
of  church  property,  etc.  In  1363  the  Statute  of  Provisors 
was  reaffirmed.  In  1386  it  was  enacted  that  no  English 
subject  should  go  or  send  beyond  the  sea  for  the  pur- 
chase of  a  benefice. 

We  see,  therefore,  that  at  the  time  of  Wycliffe  there 


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604  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

was  a  widespread  opposition  to  papal  usurpations — a 
strong  national  feeling  for  the  maintenance  of  English 
independence.  This  feeling  was  chiefly  political,  but  it 
afforded  a  grand  opportunity  for  an  able  religious  leader 
to  combat  the  hierarchical  church  on  religious  grounds. 
Such  a  man  was  Wycliffe,  combining  patriotism  and  re- 
ligious zeal  in  a  remarkable  degree,  one  of  the  greatest 
theologians  of  his  day,  and  in  every  way  fitted  to  lead  all 
classes  of  Englishmen. 

(2)  iVydiffe's  Reformatory  Plan.  a.  Wycliffe,  like  his 
predecessors,  was,  at  first,  a  thorough  churchman.  He 
had  strong  convictions  with  regard  to  the  unity  of  the 
church.  As  a  Realist  he  looked  upon  schism  as  the 
greatest  of  evils.  As  the  church  is  one,  so  it  ought  to 
have  a  single  head.  Yet  he  was  led  little  by  little  to 
assume  positions  decidedly  at  variance  with  the  hierarch- 
ical church.  We  can  trace  three  stages  in  his  attitude 
toward  the  papacy. 

(a)  Previous  to  the  time  of  the  papal  schism  (1378),  he 
recognized  to  some  extent  the  pope's  authority  as  the 
head  of  the  church,  while  rejecting  boldly  his  usurpa- 
tions. Even  before  the  schism  he  declared  that  "they 
blaspheme  who  extol  the  pope  above  all  that  is  called 
God,"  etc. 

(ft)  The  papal  schism  made  upon  Wycliffe  a  deep  im- 
pression, and  from  this  time  forth  he  declared  that  it 
would  be  better  for  the  church  of  Christ  if  both  popes 
were  deposed. 

(c)  During  Wycliffe's  controversy  on  the  Lord's  Sup- 
per, he  was  led,  by  the  opposition  that  he  -met,  to  pro- 
nounce the  pope  to  be  Antichrist,  and  to  see  in  the 
papacy  the  fulfillment  of  the  Apocalyptic  prophecies  with 
regard  to  Antichrist.  He  now  declared  that  only  two 
orders  of  ministry  were  established  by  Christ — presby- 
ters and  deacons — ^and  that  the  introduction  of  other 
orders  was  the  result  of  the  se<;ularization  of  the  church. 
Wycliffe's  reformation,  if  it  could  not  succeed  through- 
out the  whole  church,  must  necessarily  lead  to  schism. 

b.  The  aspects  of  the  papacy  that  most  offended  Wyc- 
liffe were :  the  extortion  of  funds  from  England,  involving 
the  impoverishing  of  the  State  and  the  robbing  of  the 
poor ;  the  appointment  of  foreigners  to  benefices,  rather 


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CHAP,  in.]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         605 

than  such  as  would  minister  to  the  people ;  and  the  send- 
ing forth  of  mendicant  monks,  who  were  at  this  time 
gaining  predominance  in  the  University  of  Oxford,  and 
whose  mendicant  proceedings  in  robbing  the  poor  filled 
him  with  indignation. 

Wycliffe's  first  public  appearance  was  in  a  contest 
with  the  monks  in  the  university.  At  first  he  was  sus- 
tained by  the  archbishop  (1363),  but  after  the  death  of 
the  archbishop  Wycliffe  lost  his  place  (1366).  He  ap- 
pealed to  the  Roman  Chancery.  While  his  case  was 
pending  the  pope  demanded  a  large  sum  of  money  as  quit 
rent  in  virtue  of  the  feudal  relation  to  the  papacy  in  which 
England  was  placed  by  King  John.  Parliament  was  de- 
termined to  resist,  and  Wycliffe  wrote  in  defense  of 
parliament.  By  this  proceeding  he  gained  the  favor  of 
the  court,  was  made  chaplain  to  the  king,  and  at  once 
entered  upon  a  brilliant  career  in  the  university. 

In  1374  Wycliffe  was  sent  as  an  ambassador  to  Avig- 
non, where  he  remained  about  two  years.  Observation 
of  the  proceedings  at  Avignon  confirmed  him  in  his  oppo- 
sition to  the  avarice  and  unscrupulousness  of  the  papal 
court.  The  fundamental  point  in  Wvcliffe's  earlier  ac- 
tivity was  the  deliverance  of  England  from  the  oppression 
and  extortion  of  this  court,  and  his  polemics  were  chiefly 
against  the  monks,  who  were  the  agents  and  instruments 
of  this  oppression  and  extortion. 

c.  As  a  means  of  counteracting  the  influence  of  the 
monks,  Wycliffe  wrote  numerous  popular  treatises  in 
English,  and  appointed  what  he  called  "  poor  priests  "  to 
evangelize  throughout  England.  In  1380  he  published 
his  translation  of  the  Bible,  which  was  distributed  by  his 
"poor  priests."  These  missionaries  met  with  great  ac- 
ceptance wherever  they  went,  and  large  numbers  were 
brought  through  them  to  reject  the  papal  church,  and  to 
despise  the  monks. 

d.  Although  Wycliffe  was,  in  the  first  instance,  moved 
to  oppose  the  papacy  by  political  considerations,  there  is 
no  reason  to  doubt  but  that  he  was  actuated  at  the  same 
time  by  religious  motives.  Certain  it  is,  that  from  the 
time  of  his  entrance  upon  public  life,  his  zeal  for  the 
purity  of  the  church  of  Christ,  and  for  the  instruction  of 
yie  people  in  the  way  of  salvation,  knew  no  bounds,  and 


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6o6  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [per.  IV 

he  would,  apparently,  have  been  ready  to  die  for  his 
principles. 

e.  In  general,  Wycliffe  aimed  to  reform  the  church  by 
abolishing  the  corrupt  financial  system  which  he  believed 
had  led  the  church  into  apostasy,  and  by  bringing  the 
Bible  into  general  use  as  a  guide  for  doctrine  and  life. 

The  monks  he  regarded  as  an  abomination,  and  as  the 
cause  of  much  evil.  They  begged  not  for  the  supplying 
of  their  wants,  but  for  the  enriching  of  the  monasteries, 
and  used  all  sorts  of  methods  for  extorting  money  from 
rich  and  poor.  Hence  he  aimed  to  abolish  mendicancy. 
In  some  of  his  Latin  polemical  tracts  he  seeks  to  identify 
the  mendicants  with  every  class  of  evil-doers  denounced 
in  the  New  Testament.  His  exceeding  bitterness  against 
these  **  four  sects"  is  one  of  the  most  marked  features 
of  these  tracts,  in  which  he  passes  by  no  opportunity  to 
rebuke  them. 

(3)  Wycliffe' s  Doctrinal  Position.  It  is  difficult  to  de- 
termine precisely  Wycliffe's  doctrinal  views.  We  may 
say  in  general  that  he  tended  to  depart  more  and  more 
from  Roman  Catholic  dogma.  From  his  "Trialogue," 
one  of  his  latest  productions,  we  gather  the  following : 

1.  He  maintained  a  rigorous  predestinarianism,  amount- 
ing almost  to  fatalism.  He  says :  "  It  seems  probable  to 
me  that  God  necessitates  each  active  creature  to  each  of 
its  acts."  He  did  not  hesitate  to  express  the  supralap- 
sarian  view  of  man's  fall.  This  view  of  the  relation  of 
God  to  man  was  necessitated  by  his  extreme  realism. 
It  was  inconceivable  to  him  that  there  should  be  in  the 
divine  mind  ideas  that  were  not  real.  Hence  God  him- 
self could  do  only  what  he  actually  did. 

2.  He  rejected  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  main- 
taining that  before  the  loosing  of  Satan  (A.  D.  looo)  all 
the  teachers  of  the  church  were  in  accord  with  his  own 
view.  When  it  is  said,  this  bread  is  the  body  of  Christ, 
it  is  implicitly  affirmed  that  it  is  bread  and  remains  bread, 
and  is,  at  the  same  time  bread  and  the  body  of  Christ. 
The  eucharistic  controversy  occupied  a  very  important 
place  in  Wycliffe's  polemics.  The  Roman  Catholic  view 
was,  that  in  the  same  sacrament  we  have  **accidens  sine 
subjecto,"  I.  e.,  that  while  the  bread  and  the  wine  main- 
tain their  form  and  taste,  the  substance  is  annihilated,  or 


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CHAP.  III.]   REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         607 

transformed  into  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ.  This 
Wycliffe  denied  on  realistic  grounds.  He  supposed  that 
the  cause  of  men's  falling  into  this  error  was  that  they 
discredited  the  gospel,  and  accepted  rather  papal  laws 
and  apocryphal  sayings.  'Mf  there  were  one  hundred 
popes,  and  all  the  friars  were  turned  into  cardinals,  their 
opinion  ought  not  to  be  acceded  to  in  matters  of  faith  ex- 
cept in  so  far  as  they  base  themselves  on  Scripture." 

3.  While  he  believed  in  baptismal  regeneration,  he 
thought  it  possible  that  God  might  save  such  infants  as 
died  without  it,  but  denied  that  any  injustice  would  be 
involved  in  case  he  should  damn  such. 

With  all  of  his  doctrinal  rigidity,  Wycliffe  possessed  a 
truly  evangelical  spirit.  He  spent  much  of  his  time  in 
preaching  the  gospel,  as  he  understood  it,  to  the  people, 
and  sent  forth  scores  of  tracts  in  the  vernacular  language 
for  their  instruction. 

(4)  Proceedings  against  IVycliffe.  No  public  proceedings 
were  instituted  against  Wycliite  until  about  1381,  when 
he  began  to  impugn  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation. 
The  chancellor  of  the  university  at  once  condemned 
Wycliffe's  view,  whereupon  he  appealed  to  the  king. 
He  was  prohibited  from  speaking  again  on  that  doctrine. 
He  disregarded  the  prohibition,  and  expressed  his  views 
more  elaborately  than  before.  About  the  same  time  oc- 
curred a  great  insurrection  of  the  peasants.  This  was 
attributed  to  the  influence  of  Wycliffe's  doctrines,  as  dis- 
seminated by  the  "poor  priests."  In  1382  the  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  at  a  council  in  London,  con- 
demned a  series  of  propositions  from  Wycliffe's  writings 
as  heretical,  Wycliffe  was  now  obliged  to  leave  Oxford, 
and  to  withdraw  to  his  parish  at  Lutterworth.  The  rest 
of  his  life  he  spent  in  writing  and  preaching.  Forty-four 
years  after  his  death  (Dec.  31,  1384)  he  was  condemned 
as  a  heretic  by  the  council  of  Constance  (1418),  and  it 
was  ordered  that  his  bones  be  removed  from  consecrated 
ground.  They  were  burned  and  the  ashes  were  thrown 
into  the  Severn. 

2.  The  Hussite  Movement. 

LITERATURE:  ** Hisioria  it  MommsfOa  J.  Huss  atqw  Huroiwmi 
(contains  alsc  the  extant  writings  of  Matthias  of  Janow) ;  Palacky, 


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eo8  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [per.  IV. 

*'DocumsHta  Mag.  J.  Huss  VUam  .  .  .  illusirantia'' ;  Hardt,  ''Cam. 
Omstantwisis,"  lib.  IV. :  iCneas  Sylvius,  ''Hist.  Boksmia'';  Bonne- 
chose,  ''  Letters  of  J.  Huss'' ;  Denis,  "Huss  tt  la  Giurrs  dss  //«»- 
itss  ";  Giliet, "  The  Life  and  Times  of  John  Huss  "  :  Neander, "  Ch. 
H.,"  Vol.  v.:  Lechler,  "Johann  vom  WtcUf!'  Bd.  II.,  SsU.  110-489 
(this  part  of  Lechler's  great  work  has  been  unfortunately  omitted 
from  Lorimer's  translation) ;  Krummel,  "  Gesch,d.B6hmischM  R0f.9" 
also  "Utraqmstmu.  Taboritm*';  Palacky,  "UrhmdlicJu  'B$itrag4  fMT 
Gisch.  BohmtHs  ";  Hofler,  "Urkundm  tur  Biliuehtungd.  Ges.  Bohm^ns "; 
Loserth,  •' Wycliffe  and  Huss" ;  Creighton,  "History  of  the  Pa- 
pacy."  Vol.  L,  pp.  37-60,  and  passim;  Friedrich,  " Dit  Ukn  d.  J. 
Hus '' ;  Berger,  ^'  /.  Huss  u.  Komg  Stgismund.'* 

(i)  Antecedents,  a.  Bohemia  received  the  gospel,  not 
from  the  Roman,  but  from  the  Greek  Church  (ninth  cen- 
tury). The  invasion  of  Bohemia  by  the  Magyars  (eleventh 
century)  led  the  Bohemians  to  seek  German  alliances, 
and  gradually  the  forms  of  the  Latin  Church  were  intro- 
duced. Yet  up  to  the  time  of  Huss  there  seems  always 
to  have  been  considerable  opposition  to  the  Roman  rule, 
and  the  Bohemians  were  always  ready  to  receive  those 
who  opposed  the  pretensions  of  Rome,  as  the  Bogomiles 
and  the  Waldenses. 

Under  Charles  IV.  (i 346-1 378),  a  most  zealous  Roman 
Catholic,  Bohemia  was  brought  fully  under  papal  control ; 
the  bishopric  of  Prague  was  erected  into  an  archbishopric ; 
and  the  University  of  Prague  was  established  with  its 
thousands  of  students.  Magnificent  cathedrals  were 
erected  in  various  places.  The  most  rigorous  laws 
against  heretics  were  enacted. 

Yet  the  apparent  triumph  of  the  papal  church  was  to 
be  succeeded  immediately  by  an  almost  complete  defec- 
tion. The  very  means  by  which  it  seemed  to  triumph 
led  to  a  reaction.  The  university,  established  for  the 
propagation  of  papal  doctrine  throughout  Bohemia,  Mo- 
ravia, etc.,  became  the  chief  stronghold  of  opposition  to 
the  papacy.  The  enrichment  of  the  churches  led  to  such 
a  degradation  of  morals  among  the  clergy  as  to  cause  a 
general  desire  for  reform. 

Here,  as  in  England,  the  papal  financial  system  was  in 
full  operation,  and  had  the  same  effect  on  civil  rulers  and 
people.  In  1379-13803  grand  inspection  of  the  morals 
of  the  Bohemian  clergy  was  undertaken.  Of  thirty-nine 
curates  that  were  visited,  sixteen  were  convicted  of  im- 


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CHAP.  UI.]   REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         609 

moralities,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  answered  the 
charges  showed  great  lacic  of  moral  sense. 

b.  The  Archbishop  of  Prague.  Pardobitz  was  a  man  of 
great  purity  of  life,  and  was  earnest  in  his  efforts  to  re- 
form the  morals  of  clergy  and  monks.  From  1339  ^^' 
ward  he  held  synods  in  which  measures  were  taken  for 
the  purification  of  the  church.  It  was  forbidden  to  the 
clergy  to  keep  concubines,  to  frequent  the  taverns,  gam* 
ble,  bear  arms,  etc.  It  was  enjoined  upon  them  to  teach 
the  people  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Creed,  and  the  Com- 
mandments. All  efforts  for  the  reformation  of  the  clergy 
were  favored  by  Charles  IV. 

c.  A  Number  of  Eloquent  and  Zealous  Evangelical  Preach- 
ers now  Appeared,  (a)  Conrad  of  U^aldhausen,  an  Aus- 
trian,  an  Augustiniar«  monk,  having  previously  gained  a 
high  reputation  for  eloquence  at  Vienna,  was  called  to 
Prague  through  the  influence  of  Charles  IV.  (1360  or 
1362).  He  was  full  of  zeal,  feeling  that  the  salvation  of 
his  own  soul  and  that  of  the  people  depended  upon  his 
preaching  of  repentance  to  the  utmost  of  his  ability.  He 
rebuked  in  the  most  thoroughgoing  way  the  sins  of  high 
and  low,  laymen  and  clergy.  The  more  severe  his 
preaching,  the  more  the  people  flocked  to  hear  him. 
Women  laid  aside  their  costly  dresses;  usurers  made 
haste  to  restore  their  ill-gotten  gains ;  libertines  made 
vows  of  chastity.  His  denunciation  of  monks  and  clergy 
aroused  their  animosity.  They  brought  various  accusa- 
tions against  him,  and  a  day  for  trial  was  appointed  ;  but 
the  monks  prudently  failed  to  appear.    Conrad  preached 

n  German  and  Latin ;  hence  a  large  part  of  the  popula- 
tion of  Prague  were  affected  only  indirectly  by  his 
preaching. 

(ft)  But  before  his  death  (1369)  a  native  Bohemian  of 
greater  genius  than  Conrad  had  appeared,  Militsch  of 
Kremsier.  Militsch  already  held  a  high  ecclesiastical  po- 
sition when  Conrad  appeared  in  Bohemia,  and  was  also 
private  secretary  to  Charles  IV.  As  archdeacon,  In  his 
visitation  journeys,  he  had  an  opportunity  to  observe  the 
extreme  corruption  of  the  church.  In  1363  he  renounced 
his  dignities  and  income,  adopted  an  ascetical  mode  of 
life,  and  resolved  in  humility  and  poverty  to  follow  Christ 
in  preaching  the  gospel. 

ao 


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6lO  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

He  soon  began  to  preach  In  Bohemian — a  new  thing. 
At  first  he  had  few  hearers,  but  in  a  short  time  his  min- 
istry was  thronged,  so  that  he  preached  every  day  two 
or  three  hours  at  a  time,  and  on  Sundays  and  fast  days 
from  two  to  five  times.  He  soon  had  great  influence  with 
all  classes.  When  he  was  not  preaching,  most  of  his  time 
was  taken  up  in  ministering  consolation  and  direction  in 
private  to  the  multitudes  that  visited  him.  More  than 
two  hundred  prostitutes  were  induced  to  abandon  their 
life  of  shame.  An  ill-famed  part  of  the  town — ^the  *'  Little 
Venice  " — was  destroyed  by  his  direction,  and  in  its  place 
was  built  a  house  of  refuge  for  these  reformed  women 
—"Little  Jerusalem." 

By  a  study  of  the  apocalyptic  Scriptures,  Militsch  be- 
came convinced  that  Antichrist  had  come  in  the  corrup- 
tion of  the  church.  In  1367  he  went  to  Rome  to  inform 
the  pope  of  the  new  light  that  he  had  received,  and  to 
urge  him  to  take  in  hand  the  reformation  of  the  church. 
The  pope  was  absent,  and  he  published  his  views  on  the 
door  of  St.  Peter's.  For  this  he  was  arrested  and  im- 
prisoned until  the  pope  returned,  wnen  he  was  liberated. 
He  returned  to  Prague  much  discouraged,  but  soon  went 
to  work  with  renewed  zeal,  and  in  addition  to  his  former 
activities,  undertook  the  work  of  training  evangelists. 
In  1372  the  monks  brought  accusation  against  him,  but  in 
1374  he  journeyed  to  Avignon  and  vindicated  his  ortho- 
doxy.   While  there  he  fell  sick  and  died. 

(c)  Matthias  ofjanow,  son  of  a  Bohemian  knight,  had 
spent  six  years  in  the  University  of  Paris  as  a  student  of 
philosophy  and  theology.  He  had  also  traveled  much  in 
Germany  and  Italy,  and  was  one  of  the  most  cultivated 
men  of  the  time.  He  represents  himself  as  having  been, 
during  his  early  student  life  at  Prague,  a  slave  to  his  pas- 
sions. But,  probably  under  the  influence  of  Militsch, 
there  "entered  into  his  breast  a  certain  fire,  subtle,  new, 
strong,  and  unusual,  but  exceedingly  sweet."  He  now 
came  to  feel  himself  called  to  preach  the  pure  gospel,  and 
by  his  writings  to  diffuse  the  truth.  In  1381  he  became 
a  prebendary  at  Prague,  where  he  spent  much  time  in 
preaching  and  in  pastoral  work.  But  Matthias'  chief 
merit  is  as  a  writer.  As  a  theological  writer  he  stands 
second  only  to  Huss  among  Bohemian  reformeis,  while  in 


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CHAP,  ni.]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         6l  I 

some  matters  he  seems  to  have  gone  beyond  Huss  him- 
self. His  work,  "  Concerning  the  Rules  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament,"  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  the 
reformatory  productions  of  the  Middle  Ages.  It  was  read 
and  admired  by  professors  and  students  and  learned 
men  in  general,  but  being  written  in  Latin  it  could  have 
only  an  indirect  influence  upon  the  people.  Matthias, 
with  his  clear  reformatory  views,  seems  *'to  have  lacked 
only  exterior  action  for  becoming  the  chief  of  the  Bohe- 
mian revolution."  The  papal  schism  had  already  been 
consummated  when  he  entered  upon  active  life.  Two 
or  three  rival  popes  were  demanding  the  allegiance  of 
the  people  and  anathematizing  one  another.  He  was 
therefore  enabled  more  definitely  than  Militsch  to  center 
his  notions  of  Antichrist  upon  the  papacy. 

A  leading  thought  with  Matthias,  therefore,  is,  that 
Antichrist  is  in  the  world.  Antichrist  and  his  doings  are 
alluded  to  and  condemned  on  almost  every  page.  He 
inquires  as  to  the  cause  of  the  papal  schism.  It  arose, 
"not  because  they  loved  Jesus  Christ  and  his  church, 
but  because  they  loved  themselves  and  this  world."  The 
body  of  Antichrist  is  thus  rent  asunder,  but  not  the  body 
of  Christ.  Matthias  believed  in  the  church  as  an  organic 
unity,  with  its  one  head  and  its  gradation  of  officers. 
His  great  complaint  was  of  the  selfishness,  tyranny,  and 
secularization  of  pope  and  bishops.  He  regarded  the 
guidance  of  the  church  by  means  of  the  word  of  God 
taught  by  the  parish  clergy  as  a  most  important  thing, 
and  he  bewailed  the  viciousness  of  the  great  body  of  the 
clergy  and  their  lytter  neglect  of  duty. 

The  multiplication  of  ecclesiastical  laws  seemed  to  him 
to  be  at  the  bottom  of  much  of  the  corruption  of  clergy 
and  people.  Human  ordinances,  with  superiors  whose 
business  it  was  to  enforce  them,  had  come  to  make  more 
impression  on  men's  minds  than  divine  ordinances, 
whose  nature  is  spiritual.  Thus  men  lose  sight  of  Christ 
crucified,  so  that  they  are  ashamed  even  to  mention  his 
name. 

Matthias  combated  the  notion  that  the  clergy  are  the 
church,  and  that  ordinary  Christians  should  be  admitted 
to  the  Lord's  Supper  as  seldom  as  possible.  He  regarded 
the  Supper  as  a  most  important  means  of  grace,  which 


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6l2  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.IV. 

ought  to  be  provided  frequently  for  the  people.  He 
strongly  emphasized  the  universal  priesthood  of  believ- 
ers. This  was  one  of  the  burning  ideas  in  the  Bohemian 
revolution,  and  involved  the  right  of  laymen  to  commun- 
ion under  both  kinds. 

Matthias'  exposition  of  the  corruption  of  monks  and 
clergy  drew  upon  him  the  ill-will  of  these  classes.  At  a 
synod  held  in  Prague  (1389)  he  was  called  to  account, 
especially  with  regard  to  his  expressions  in  favor  of  the 
full  right  of  laymen  to  the  Lord's  Supper ;  yet  he  con- 
tinued to  strive  for  the  reformation  of  the  church  till  his 
death  (1394). 

d.  What  Matthias  did  toward  awakening  the  reform- 
atory spirit  among  the  learned,  Thomas  of  Stitny  did 
among  the  masses.  The  requirement  made  of  each 
bachelor  of  arts  in  the  university,  that  he  should  devote 
at  least  two  years  to  teaching,  had  diffused  intelligence 
throughout  a  large  part  of  the  community.  Stitny  was 
educated  in  the  University  of  Prague,  a  thorough  Bohe- 
mian, and  a  charming  writer  in  the  Bohemian  language. 
His  writings  combine  religious  earnestness  with  Bohem- 
ian patriotism  and  recognition  of  the  rights  of  the  lower 
classes.  The  tendency  of  his  writings  was  strongly  rev- 
olutionary, and  they  did  more  than  any  other  agency, 
perhaps,  to  prepare  the  great  mass  of  the  Bohemian 
people  for  the  uprising  against  Roman  and  German  op- 
pression. 

The  Bohemians  belonged  to  the  Slavic  race,  and  could 
never  be  induced  to  merge  themselves  in  the  German. 
For  generations  they  had  been  dependent  upon  Ger- 
many. Most  of  the  great  landed  proprietors  and  nobles 
were  German,  as  were  also  the  wealthy  tradesmen  and 
officials  of  the  cities.  Bohemians  were  ineligible  to  high 
civil  offices.  The  great  body  of  serfs  was  Etohemian,  as 
were  many  of  the  laborers  and  artisans  in  the  cities. 

The  Bohemian  people,  through  hatred  of  their  op- 
pressors, were  ready  for  revolution.  They  required  only 
strong  leaders.  The  landed  proprietors  and  the  rich  mer- 
cantile class  opposed  revolution  with  all  their  might. 
Stitny  had  awakened  the  mass  of  the  Bohemian  popu- 
lation. 

The  great  university  was  attended  by  thousands  of 


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CHAP,  in.]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         613 

Germans,  and  here,  also,  the  Germans  were  attempting 
to  dominate.  The  Bohemians,  under  the  leadership  ol 
Huss,  resisted  their  encroachments,  and  the  revolution 
may  be  said  to  have  begun  with  the  departure  from 
Prague  of  the  German  students  (1409). 

e.  The  arbitrary  manner  in  which  Waclav  IV.,  the 
successor  of  Charles  IV.,  a  weak  and  vicious  ruler,  had 
proceeded  with  the  clergy  (arresting  and  treating  with 
indignity  the  archbishop,  and  ordering  a  monastery  to  be 
pillaged),  and  the  support  he  had  lent  to  the  Bohemians 
in  the  university  against  the  Germans,  tended  to  de- 
crease the  respect  of  the  Bohemians  for  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  and  to  prepare  the  peasants  to  rise  up 
against  their  oppressors. 

/.  The  writings  of  Wycliffe  had  been  introduced  into 
the  University  of  Prague  before  the  close  of  the  four- 
teenth century.  After  the  marriage  of  Anne,  daughter 
of  Charles  IV.,  to  Richard  II.  of  England  (1382),  consid- 
erable intercourse  had  been  established  between  the 
universities  of  Oxford  and  Prague ;  and  by  the  time  of 
Huss'  public  appearance  Wycliffe's  writings  were  held  in 
high  esteem,  and  were  subjects  of  frequent  discussion. 
The  immediate  influence  of  these  writings  on  Huss  was 
very  great. 

(2)  Reformatory  Work  of  John  Huss.  John  Huss,  born 
1367,  was  educated  at  the  University  of  Prague,  where 
he  became  bachelor  in  1393,  master  in  1396,  lecturer  in 
1398,  dean  of  the  philosophical  faculty  in  1401,  and  rector 
of  the  university  in  1403.  In  1402  he  was  appointed 
preacher  in  the  '*  Bethlehem  '*  chapel,  which  had  been 
established  some  years  earlier  by  two  wealthy  citizens 
of  Prague,  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  evangelical 
preaching  in  the  Bohemian  language — a  result  of  the 
labors  of  Militsch. 

Up  to  1402  Huss  had  taken  more  interest  in  philos- 
ophy and  scholastic  theology  than  in  evangelical  work. 
He  had  studied  the  philosophical  writings  of  Wycliffe,  and 
had  used  them  in  his  lectures.  He  had  adopted  the  real- 
ism of  Wycliffe,  and  had  already  come  into  controversy 
with  the  nominalistic  Germans. 

His  duty  as  preacher  to  the  people,  and  his  sense  of  the 
responsibility  of  his  position,  led  him  to  study  the  Scrip- 


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6l4  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV. 

tures  as  he  had  never  done  before.  He  came  to  feel  that 
the  great  evils  in  the  church  had  resulted  largely  from 
neglect  of  biblical  study.  About  the  same  time  he  became 
acquainted  with  Wycliffe's  theological  works  through 
Jerome  of  Prague,  who  had  studied  at  Oxford,  and  who 
became  even  more  zealous  than  Huss  for  reform. 

Huss  soon  won  great  reputation  as  a  moral  preacher. 
In  1405  he  began  to  denounce  the  corruption  of  the  clergy 
in  the  synods,  in  which  he  was  supported  by  King  Waclav. 
By  preaching  against  the  clergy  he  made  many  enemies, 
and  his  Bohemian  patriotism  and  his  zeal  in  defending 
Wycliffe  and  disseminating  his  views,  made  him  odious 
to  the  Germans  in  the  university. 

In  the  church  at  Wilsnack  miracles  were  supposed  to 
be  wrought  by  the  pretended  blood  of  Christ  there  ex- 
hibited. In  140;  Huss  was  appointed  on  a  commission 
to  visit  the  place  and  investigate  the  matter.  The  fraud 
was  exposed,  and  pilgrimages  to  Wiisnack  forbidden. 

The  strife  between  the  Bohemian  nation  and  the  Ger- 
man, in  the  university,  induced  partly  by  the  strong 
national  aversion  of  Bohemians  to  Germans,  partly  by 
differences  of  philosophical  views,  led  in  1409  to  the  dim- 
inution of  the  privileges  of  the  Germans,  and  their  with- 
drawal from  Bohemia. 

Huss  was  now  completely  dominant  in  the  university. 
The  archbishop  had  become  jealous  of  Huss'  influence, 
especially  as  he  felt  himself  rebuked  by  some  of  the  re- 
former's denunciations  of  the  clergy.  In  1410  he  pro- 
cured from  Pope  Alexander  V.  a  bull  forbidding  preach- 
ing in  private  chapels  and  requiring  the  burning  of  Wyc- 
liife's  works.  Huss,  supported  by  king  and  queen,  no- 
bility and  university,  continued  to  preach  in  the  "  Beth- 
lehem "  chapel  and  to  write  in  defense  of  Wycliffe  ;  and 
Archbishop  Sbynko  revoked  his  accusation  of  heresy. 

In  141 2  the  pope  issued  a  crusading  bull  against 
Waclav,  with  the  usual  promise  of  indulgences.  Huss 
and  Jerome  now  protested  with  greater  zeal  than  before 
against  indulgences  and  their  abuses.  This  led  to  the 
condemnation  of  Wycliffe's  works  at  Rome  and  to  the 
excommunication  of  Huss  (141 3). 

Huss  now  wrote  his  great  work  on  the  church,  and 
retired  from  Prague.    He  was  summoned  to  appear  be- 


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CHAP,  m.]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         6l$ 

fore  the  council  of  Constance  (1414),  and  went  under  the 
safe-conduct  of  the  Emperor  Sigismund.  He  felt  secure 
from  the  fact  that  he  was  not  charged  with  heresy,  and 
that  the  object  of  the  council  was  reformation.  But  it 
was  made  known  at  Constance  about  the  time  of  his 
arrival,  that  James  of  Misa,  a  priest  of  Prague,  had  begun 
giving  the  communion  to  the  laity  under  both  kinds,  and 
this  was  considered  the  result  of  Huss'  teaching.  More- 
over, Huss  was  regarded  as  the  chief  cause  of  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Germans  from  the  university.  On  November 
28,  1414,  Huss  was  thrown  into  prison  on  the  charge  of 
heresy.  Despite  the  protest  of  the  Prague  University 
and  the  Bohemian  nobles,  the  safe-conduct  of  the  em- 
peror was  violated,  and  without  the  show  of  a  fair  trial 
Huss  was  burned,  July,  141 5. 

(3)  Reasons  for  the  Condemnation  of  Huss.  a.  The  con- 
demnation of  Huss  was  due,  probably,  not  to  any  doc- 
trinal aberration  on  his  part,  but  to  the  fact  that  he  was 
the  leader  of  a  party  that  threatened  the  existence  of  the 
hierarchical  church.  His  unsparing  denunciations  of  the 
clergy  had  brought  the  latter  into  disrepute.  The  visible 
striving  of  the  Bohemian  nation  for  political  freedom  from 
the  Germans  was  seen  to  tend  toward  freedom  from  ec- 
clesiastical authority.  Moreover,  Huss  was  a  zealous 
defender  of  Wycliffe,  and  the  results  of  Wycliffe's  views, 
as  seen  in  Lollardism,  were  well  known.  It  required  no 
extraordinary  amount  of  penetration  to  see  that  similar 
results  would  follow  the  teachings  of  Huss  and  Jerome. 

b.  Again,  Huss  appeared  to  the  council  to  be  obstinate 
and  self-willed,  and  to  set  up  his  own  views  of  truth  in 
opposition  to  those  of  the  universal  church. 

c.  Again,  the  very  fact  that  the  Council  of  Constance 
was  a  reformatory  council,  led  by  such  spirits  as  John 
Gerson,  Peter  d'Ailly,  etc.,  helps  us  to  account  for  the 
condemnation  of  the  reformer  Huss.  The  members  of  the 
council  felt  that  they  were  taking  a  bold  step  in  assem- 
bling without  papal  summons,  and  to  deal  with  popes. 
They  must  guard  against  any  appearance  of  sympathy 
with  revolutionary  spirits,  else  the  council  would  fail  to 
secure  the  general  recognition  necessary  to  the  accom- 
plishment of  its  ends.  It  was  clear  that  Huss  was  a 
revolutionary  spirit.    If  allowed  to  return  to  Bohemia, 


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6l6  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PER.  IV 

he  would,  without  fall,  carrv  on  a  revolution  which  would 
result  in  the  alienation  of  Bohemia  from  the  church. 

d.  Again,  the  council  was  called  by  Sigismund,  who  was 
hated  by  Bohemians,  and  who  had  no  sympathy  with 
them.  The  preponderance  of  power  in  the  council  was 
German  ;  Huss  was  looked  upon  as  the  great  champion 
of  Bohemian  liberty,  and  it  was  remembered  that  he 
had  been  chiefly  instrumental  in  driving  away  the  Ger- 
mans from  Prague.  The  members  of  the  council  were, 
therefore,  extremely  prejudiced  against  him. 

(4)  Doctrinal  Position  of  Huss.  a.  On  the  Church.  The 
holy  Catholic  Church  is,  according  to  Huss,  the  whole 
number  of  all  the  predestinated — ^present,  past,  and 
future.  Hence,  he  distinguished  between  being  in  the 
church  and  being  of  the  church.  Of  this  universal 
church  Christ  alone  is  the  head.  Neither  pope  nor  car- 
dinals are  necessary  to  the  regimen  of  the  church. 

b.  The  Eucharist.  Huss  was  accused  of  holding,  with 
Wycliffe,  that  the  bread  and  wine  remain  bread  and  wine 
after  consecration.    This  he  absolutely  denied. 

Apart  from  his  view  with  regard  to  the  church,  and 
his  denial  of  the  authority  of  pop>es  and  clergy,  when 
corrupt,  nothing  like  heresy  could  be  established  against 
Huss.  He  was  a  man  of  less  originality  and  power  than 
Wycliffe.  In  fact,  most  of  his  writings  are  made  up 
almost  wholly  of  excerpts  from  Wycliffe.* 

(5)  The  Hussite  Wars,  The  contempt  which  the  council 
of  Constance  showed  for  Bohemia,  the  decree  pro- 
nouncing heretics  those  who  should  insist  on  communion 
under  both  kinds,  the  execution  of  Huss  and  afterward 
of  Jerome  of  Prague,  exasperated  the  Bohemians,  already 
restless  and  desirous  of  revolution. 

James  of  Misa  defended  communion  under  both  kinds 
against  the  council ;  Huss  was  honored  as  a  martyr ;  the 
Bohemian  and  Moravian  nobles  assembled  and  wrote  a 
condemnatory  letter  to  the  council,  and  formed  a  league 
for  six  years  for  the  protection  of  purity  of  doctrine  ;  the 
university  pronounced  for  communion  under  both  kinds, 
and  the  Bohemian  people  were  now  ready  to  defend  this 
view  with  their  lives. 

— • 

1  Set  Losertb.  '*  Wlcllf  and  Has/'  p.  iti.  $§§, 


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CHAP.  lU.]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         617 

The  council  issued  instructions  for  the  putting  down  of 
the  schism,  and  the  pope  sent  legates  to  carry  out  the 
plan  of  the  council,  under  Nicolas  of  Hussinecz,  and 
John  Ziska,  noblemen,  thousands  of  Bohemians  gathered 
for  self-defense.  This  enthusiastic  host  ascended  Mount 
Tabor,  and  there  celebrated  the  Lord's  Supper  under  both 
kinds.  The  city  of  Tabor  was  founded,  and  the  Tabor* 
ites  became  fanatical  in  their  zeal  for  reform.  Waclav 
was  utterly  unable  to  control  the  different  parties  or  to 
keep  order. 

In  1419  Ziska  moved  upon  Prague,  and  in  a  most  san- 
;uinary  manner  took  vengeance  upon  the  council.  When 
■  aclav  died  (1419)  the  people  were  so  determinedly  op- 
posed to  Sigismund  that  complete  anarchy  prevailed. 

There  now  appeared  two  parties  of  Hussites :  the  Huss- 
ites of  Prague,  who  did  not  go  beyond  Huss  and  James  of 
Misa,  who  simply  demanded  the  cup  (Calixtines  or  Utra- 
quists,  from  calix,  a ''  cup,"  and  sub  utraque  specie,  **  under 
both  kinds''),  who  did  not  desire  to  make  a  complete 
schism  with  the  hierarchical  church,  who  held  in  general 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  Romish  Church,  but  desired  to  see 
the  church  reformed  in  morals ;  and  the  Taborites,  who 
assumed  a  position  of  the  most  uncompromisinfi;  hostility 
to  the  papal  church,  and  under  the  influence  of  the  Wal- 
denses  and  other  older  sects,  made  the  Scriptures  their 
absolute  authority  and  guide. 

3.  Brethren  of  the  Common  life. 

LrrERATURE:  Ullmann,  **  Reformers  Before  the  Reformattun  " ; 
Preger,  **  'Bntragi  ntr  Gssch.  </.  r//.  Btwigung  in  </.  OfudirUmdin  in  d. 
rw^SiH  HalfU  d.  Xft^.Jakrh.";  Kettleweil,^' Thomas  a  Kempis  and 
the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life  " ;  art.  by  Schultze  on  '*  'Brudir  d. 
gfmmsamm  Lshms  "  In  Herzog-Hauck,  third  ed.,  Bd,  ill.,  Siit.  472- 
$07  (this  able  account  of  the  Brethren  is  preceded  by  a  full  bibliog- 
raphy). 

The  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life  originated  in  the 
Netherlands  as  a  result  of  the  evangelical  mysticism  of 
Joh.  Ruysbroek.  Its  founders  were  Gerhard  Groot  and 
Florentius.  It  combined  the  most  evangelical  type  of 
mysticism  with  semi-monastic  life  and  enthusiastic  devo- 
tion to  evangelistic  work,  to  education,  and  to  literary 
production.    It  arose  about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 


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6l8  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [I 

century,  during  the  "  Babylonish  exile  '*  of  the  papac>\ 
With  the  permission  of  his  bishop  and  with  the  counst 
of  the  aged  Ruysbroek,  Groot  began  preaching  repent- 
ance and  conversion  to  multitudes  of  eager  listeners  at 
Deventer,  Zwolle,  Leyden,  Delft,  Gouda,  and  Amster- 
dam (c.  1379).  A  number  of  well-educated,  evangelical 
men  were  soon  at  his  side,  ready  to  carry  forward  tbe 
work  thus  inaugurated.  Florentius  was  among  his  earli- 
est converts  and  succeeded  him  in  the  leadership  of  tbe 
movement  (1384). 

Religious  houses  were  soon  organized  in  these  and  a 
number  of  other  places  in  the  Netherlands  and  in  many 
of  the  chief  centers  of  Northern  Germany.  Similar 
houses  for  sisters  were  speedily  founded  in  a  number  0^ 
places,  and  the  influence  of  the  brotherhood  became 
widespread  and  beneficent.  It  was  at  its  height  aboLt 
the  close  of  the  period,  and  many  of  the  Brethren  wel- 
comed the  Protestant  revolution  and  joined  hands  widi 
the  Reformers. 

There  was  no  intention  on  the  part  of  Groot  and  his 
coadjutors  to  break  with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 
Groot  hesitated  to  introduce  the  communal  principle,  be 
lieving  that  the  mendicant  orders  would  never  tolerate 
them,  but  he  was  persuaded  by  Florentius  to  make  the 
experiment  and  to  leave  the  results  to  God. 

The  peculiarity  of  their  organization  consisted  in  their 
dispensing  with  vows,  and  voluntarily  associating  on  the 
basis  of  devout  living  combined  with  labor  for  support. 
Mendicancy  was  forbidden.  The  Brethren  copied  books 
and  did  various  other  kinds  of  remunerative  work  foe 
their  support,  and  engaged  as  far  as  practicable  in  teach- 
ing and  preaching. . 

They  have  been  compared  by  Acquoy  to  the  modem 
Methodists  and  by  RitschI  to  the  Pietists.  While  they 
preached  justification  by  faith,  they  were  careful  to  in- 
sist on  the  necessity  of  upright  and  devout  living.  They 
emphasized  the  freedom  of  the  will,  like  most  of  th« 
evangelicals  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  like  the  Anabaptists 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  No  doubt  their  piety  was  oft 
somewhat  ascetical  type  and  fell  somewhat  short  in  its 
freedom  and  joyfulness  of  the  best  types  of  niod«ro 
evangelical  lif^, 


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CHAP. Ill]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         619 

4.  ^^  Reformers  Before  the  Reformation^ 

Literature  :  Ullmann,  *'  Reformers  Before  the  Reformation  " ; 
Clemen,  'VoA.  Tupptr  vou  Goch  *' ;  Friedrich,  *'Joh.  H^esul,  gin  'BtU 
am  d.  KirchiHgisck.  d.  XV.  JakrV ;  Gleseler/' Ecd.  Hist./'  Vol. 
III.,  p.  4i3«  S4q. ;  Lea,  "  Hist,  of  the  Inouisition,''  VoL  III.,  p.  209, 
SM.  (on  Savonarola);  Villari,  '*Llfe  of  Savonarola";  Creighton, 
••Hist,  of  the  Papacy,"  Vol.  III., passim. 

The  designation  "  Reformers  before  the  Reformation  '* 
has  been  somewhat  exclusively  applied,  without  any  suf- 
ficient reason,  to  a  number  of  able  reforming  spirits  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  including  John  Pupper  of  Goch, 
John  of  Wesel,  John  of  Wessel,  and  Savonarola. 

(i)  Savonarola  (d.  1498)  was  a  Dominican  monk  of  the 
extreme  ascetical  type,  who  attempted  in  Florence  by 
bold  (rash)  denunciations  of  political  and  ecclesiastical 
corruption,  to  bring  about  a  reformation  of  abuses.  The 
stress  of  his  enthusiastic  efforts  for  reform  seems  to  have 
destroyed  his  mental  equipoise,  and  he  assumed  the  rdle 
of  a  prophet  with  the  usual  fanatical  manifestations. 
Savonarola  was  not  an  evangelical  Christian  in  the  mod- 
ern sense  of  the  term,  and  his  success  would  not  have 
meant  the  restoration  of  Christianity  to  its  primitive  sim- 
plicity and  purity.  He  fell  a  victim  to  civil  and  papal 
intolerance. 

(2)  John  Pupper  of  Goch  (d.  1475),  under  the  influence 
of  the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life,  of  the  Renaissance, 
of  the  revived  study  of  the  works  of  Augustine,  and  of 
evangelical  mysticism,  emphasized  the  authority  of  the 
Scriptures  rightly  interpreted,  over  against  traditionalism 
and  ecclesiastical  authority.  He  laid  great  stress  on  love 
to  God  and  love  to  man  as  embodying  the  essence  of 
religion.  He  was  an  extreme  nominalist  in  philosophy 
and  repudiated  the  speculations  of  scholasticism  as  vain 
and  useless.  He  denied  that  reason  could  p>enetrate  the 
realms  of  the  supernatural.  Only  the  *'  light  of  faith  and 
of  grace"  can  apprehend  the  "supremely  true "  and  the 
"supremely  good.'*  He  preached  justification  by  faith 
in  the  Augustinian  sense,  and  repudiated  Pelagianism 
and  Semi-pelagianism  as  well  as  the  whole  mediaeval 
system  of  justification  by  works.  He  regarded  saving 
fsrith  as  a  transforming  process  wherein  the  subject  is 
not  simply  declared  righteous  but  made  righteous. 


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620  A  MANUAL  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY  [PBtn 

He  probably  received  his  early  training  in  a  school  ca 
the  Brethren  of  the  Common  Life.  He  studied  at  Cok^ae 
and  then  in  the  University  of  Paris.  From  1459  onwiit 
he  presided  over  an  Augustinian  monastery  for  women 
that  he  had  founded. 

(S)  John  of  IVesel  (d.  1482)  was  professor  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Erfurt  during  the  middle  years  of  the  centun 
(c.  i44S-i4$6).  He  had  been  profoundly  influenced  h 
the  new  learning  and  by  the  revived  study  of  Augustice. 
As  preacher  at  Worms  he  denounced  indulgences  and  tbe 
entire  sacerdotal  system  of  the  hierarchical  church  « 
which  indulgences  rested.  '*  Whom  God  wishes  to  sa« 
he  would  save  by  giving  him  grace,  if  all  the  priests 
should  wish  to  damn  and  excommunicate  him."  He  re- 
pudiated the  authority  of  the  church  to  interpret  tte 
Scriptures  for  believers.  The  personal  authority  of  tte 
church  extends  no  farther  than  its  agreement  with  tbe 
gospel.  The  law  of  Christ  he  made  supreme.  He  insiste: 
that  the  elect  are  saved  by  grace  alone.  He  rejected  the 
Roman  Catholic  doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  holdu)^ 
that  the  substance  of  the  bread  and  the  wine  remair. 
He  was  arraigned  before  the  church  authorities  at  Mai:.! 
and  after  defending  his  positions  as  well  as  he  could  N 
felt  obliged  to  recant  (1479).  He  died  in  prison  three 
years  later. 

(4)  John  oflVessel  (d.  1480),  educated  in  a  school  of  the 
Brethren  of  the  Common  Life,  in  the  University  of  Co- 
logne, and  in  the  University  of  Paris,  was  one  of  the  nos: 
eminent  scholars  and  thinkers  of  his  age.  He  was  callec 
by  his  contemporaries  the  **  light  of  the  world."  He 
taught  in  the  universities  of  Cologne,  Lou  vain,  Paris,  aci 
Heidelberg,  and  ended  his  wonderful  career  in  peace. 
Luther  said :  'Mf  he  had  been  read  by  me  beforehand,  i: 
might  well  have  seemed  to  my  enemies  that  I  had  drawt 
everything  from  Wessel,  so  completely  does  the  ^Irit  a: 
us  two  conspire  into  one.'*  In  him  also  we  see  a  con- 
vergence of  the  influence  of  the  Renaissance,  of  the  re- 
vived  study  of  Augustine,  and  of  evangelical  mysticism. 
Like  John  of  Wesel  he  clearly  proclaimed  the  doctrine  ct 
justification  by  faith.  "  He  who  thinks  to  be  justified 
through  his  own  works  does  not  know  what  it  is  to  be 
just.'^   Like  John  of  Wesel,  and  on  the  same  groundSi 


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9   CHAP.IIL]  REACTIONARY  AND  REFORMING  PARTIES         62 1 

:  he  attacked  indulgences.  Works  of  supererogation  on 
.  which  they  were  in  part  based  he  declares  to  be  impos- 
r  sible  for  sinful  man. 

',  The  possibility  of  carrying  on  with  so  little  interrup- 
tion the  evangelical  work  of  the  Brethren  of  the  Com- 
.  mon  Life  and  of  the  great  reforming  teachers  whose 
.  activity  has  been  considered,  was  due  in  a  large  measure 
.  to  the  widespread  popular  desire  for  evangelical  teaching 
.    and  in  part  to  the  tolerant  spirit  of  the  Renaissance. 

If  we  consider  the  civilizing  forces  that  were  at  work 
•    at  the  close  of  the  present  period,  as  set  forth  very  briefly 
I   and  imperfectly  in  Chapter  1.,  the  appalling  corruption  of 
'    the  hierarchical  church,  as  set  forth  in  Chapter  II.,  the 
evangelical  forces  that  were  leavening  the  population  of 
'"    Europe,  which  have  been  only  partially  described  in  the 
'    present  chapter,  and  the  widespread  discontent  of  the 
■    masses  with  the  social  and  economic  conditions  that  pre- 
''    vailed,  the  Protestant  Revolution  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, with  its  true  and  its  false  elements,  can  be  easily 
understood. 


END  OF  VOLUME  I 


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GENERAL  INDEX 


▲belaid:  sketch  of,  477,  eeg.;  men- 
tioned, Ma  668. 

Aoolytee,  referred  to,  294. 

Acti :  why  abruptly  terminated,  118 ; 
19:  82, 39,  4a  41, 125;  9:81,125;  16: 
5, 126;  2:  46. 187;  20:  7, 11, 187. 

**  Acts  of  Pilate,*'  mentioned,  170. 

Adoptionlsm,  early:  account  of,  196; 
of  Archelaus,  200 ;  of  Hermas.  200. 

Adoptlonist  oontroveny,  dlacuflwd, 
8»,M9. 

Aella  Capitollna,  mentioned.  154. 

Adrian  oontroversy,  outlined,  878,  teg. 

ASrius.  mentioned,  878,  tea. 

Agapat  (ftyttvai)  187,  teq.,  14a 

Ahilman,  86,  87. 

Albanensea,  the,  sketch  of,  646, 9eq, 

Albertus  ICagnus,  sketch  of,  4^2,  teg. 

Alblgenses,  the,  account  of,  648, 9eq, 

Aibinus,  117. 

Alcuin,368. 

Alexander  of  Hales,  sketch  of,  481,  teq, 

Alexander  ScTerus,  Bmperor,  162,  teq. 

Alexander  the  Great :  a  pupil  of  Aris- 
totle, 24 ;  the  Influence  of  his  con- 
Quests,  27 ;  treats  the  Jews  kindly, 


r 


Alexander  III.,  Fope,  511,  seg. 

Alexander  V..  Pope,  628. 

Alexander  VL,  FOpe,  687.  mo. 

Alexandria :  a  center  of  culture  and 
of  cults,  27,  teg.;  the  place  of  the 
Jews  in.  89^  teg. 

Alexandrian  school:  its  relation  to 
Philo,  62;  under  Alexander  Seye- 
ras.  162;  rise  of,  271 ;  teaching  and 
influence  of,  272 ;  Chiistology  of.  887. 

Allegorical  method  of  interpretation : 
adopted  by  Philo,  59.  tea,;  use  of. 

r  earlier  QreelES,  Egyptians, 

bristians,  60;  use  of,  in  '*E^. 
of  Barnabas,"  221 ;  polemical  writers 
feel  its  weakness,  218;  rejected  by 
Irenaus,  249 ;  reduced  to  a  system 
Iqr  the  Alexandrian  school,  2f72 ;  rise 
and  progress  of,  286;  Origen's  use 
of,  286;  place  of,  at  beginning  of 
fourth  century,  296. 

Alogoi.  the,  reffBrred  to.  166. 198. 

Alaog,  as  a  church  historian,  16. 

Amalric,  sketch  of,  666. 

Amalridans,  the,  sketch  of,  665,  seg. 

AmbiQsius.  the  friend  of  Origen,  28L 

Ameietat,  mentioned.  87. 

American  church  historians.  16. 

Anabaptist,  use  of  the  term  la  pyp- 
rlan*s  time,  27a 


Anaoletus,  Roman  bishop,  215. 
Anastasius  of  Rome,  his  attitude  to> 

ward  Origea,  834. 
Anatollus,  referred  to,  899. 
Anchoretism,  referred  to,  817. 
Andrew,  mentioned,  lia 
Angels:    in    Zoroastrianlsm,  87:    in 

Riarisaism,  49 ;  in  Philo,  61 ;  of  the 

Seven  Churches,  184. 
Annates,  referred  to,  619. 
Anselm,  sketch  of,  476,  teg. 
Antony,  the  hermit»  817.  teg. 
Anthropology,  diacuaBedjSaS, seg. 
Antichrist,  referred  to,  128. 
Antioch :  its  rise,  27 ;  eTangellsed,  89, 

90;  an  eyangelizing  center.  9a 
Anttochian  school:    forerunners  of, 

200;  its  history  and  teachings,  297, 

826 ;  Christology  of,  386,  teg. 
Antlochus  Eplpnanes,  mentioned,  46. 
Antiochus  in.,  mentioned.  45. 
Antoninus  Pius,  mentioned,  164. 
Antrustions,  defined,  444. 
Apocalypse.    (Bee  Revelation.) 
Apocrypha,  mentioned.  41, 42. 
ApolUnarls,  views  of,  886. 
Apollonius  of  Rome,  martyrdom  oi; 

ApoUonins  of  Tyana,  82. 161. 

Apologists,  early  Christian,  237,  teg. 

ApolloB,  referred  to,  99,  seg..  111. 

Apostle,  two  senses  of  the  word,  182. 

Apostolic  influence  ceases,  128, 124. 

Apostolic  succession,  158. 

Apotheosis  of  the  emperors,  its  two- 
fold Influence  on  the  people,  13. 

Arabic  philosophy.  479,  sm. 

Archangels  in  Zoroastriaiusm,  86. 

Archelaus,  acts  of,  200. 

Arian  controversy,  324,  seg. 

Arianism :  its  teaching.  806,  tea. ;  for- 
tunes of,  880i  seg.,-  its  relation  to 
Origan's  teachings,  882 ;  Its  view  of 
sin,  86a 

Arius,  sketch  of.  826:  at  the  Nicene 
Council,  829,  teg.;  his  Christology, 
886. 

" Aristides.  Apology  of*' :  referred  to, 
165;  its  recovery,  history,  and  oon- 

Arlstotie:  his^laoe  in  Greek  philos- 
ophy. 24;  his  influence  on  pre-Chris- 
tian thought,  24;  his  Influence  on 
mediasval  theology.  24:  his  views, 
24,  seg. ;  his  approximation  to  Chria- 
tlan  doctrine.  26 :  his  influence  on 
nUlo,  60;  his  Influence  on  Bcotos 
623 


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624 


GENERAL  INDEX 


/ 


Briffena,  47S,  teg.;  hli  Infloenc*  on 
Araoio  i>hlloiopb7,  479:  his  inila- 
enoe  on  itcliolaitidfliii.  481,  488 ;  pio- 
tesli  of  the  Mystlci  against.  486. 

Aruiinian  Christlauity,  influenced  by 
Mardon.  1«. 

Arnold,  Gottfried,  refsned  to,  14. 

Arnold  of  Breeda,  M8,  teo. 

Araoldists.  665. 

Ariihtat,  87. 

Artazenei  LongimanuB,  aids  the 
Jews,  86. 

Artisans,  their  piece  in  the  spread  of 
Cliristianity,  142. 

Anindel,  mentioned,  592. 

Asoeticism:  among  the  Essenes,  51. 
9eq. ;  of  the  Bbionites,  176 ;  in  Gnos- 
ticism. 184,  186;  of  Tatian,  186;  of 
the  Manichnans,  196,  »eq.:  of  the 
Montanists.  206. 205 ;  of  Origen,  280 ; 
at  the  dose  of  the  fourth  century, 
371,  seo. ;  protests  against,  874.  877. 

Asha  Vahisbta.  menUoned.  86. 

Asia  ICinor,  the  Jews  in,  66. 

Aslii,  mentioned,  87. 

Atar.  mentioned,  87. 

Aterhlus,  attitude  of  toward  Oi1gen*s 
opinions,  383. 

Athanasius:  views  of,  828:  becomes 
/  leader  of  opposition  to  Arius,  880; 
his  attitude  toward  Oiigen*s  teach- 
,        ings,  882.  teq. 

Athanasiiis.  patriarch  of  Antloch,  851. 

Athanasiaus,  the:  Tiews  of,  887,  828, 
335 ;  triumph  of,  881. 

Athenagoras.  "  Apology  '*  ot  2S7, 246. 

Athens,  Paul's  work  in,  96. 

Augurs,  among  the  Romans,  80. 

Augustine:  on  the  Donatists.  822: 
characterised.  861.  teq.;  doctrinal 
views  of.  865,  #09. ;  his  views  not  im- 
mediately accepted,  809,  #09. 

Augustine,  the  monk:  mentioned. 
411 :  sketch  of,  415.  sm.  ;  influence 
of  his  writings  at  the  dawn  of  the 
Refbrmation.  619, 620. 

Augustinian  order  of  monks,  466. 

Augustinlanism,  its  antecedents,  869. 
neq. 

Augustus,  the  Emperor :  his  vain  strug- 
gle against  UMlonal  unbelief.  81: 
becomes  Fontlf^z  Mazimus,  81. 

Aurdlan,  the  Bmperor,  referred  to, 
196. 

Authorship  of  early  writings.  (See 
Pseudepigrapha. ) 

A.vignon,  papalresldenoe  at^  628,  ssg. 

Asarias,  prayer  of.  41. 

Babylonian  captivity  of  the  Jews,  Its 

effects.  85. 
Babylonian  dualism,  relation  ot  to 

Gnoeticidm.  182. 
Babylonian  secti  at  Alexandria,  28. 
Babvlonish  captivity  of  the  church, 

Baptism :  among  the  Bnenes,  51, 64 : 
Of  Jewish  proselytes,  58,  69;  of 
John,  70;  of  Jesus,  70;  the  Fente- 


.  82:  at  day  oT  Puulauil  B 

fint.  of  Gentile  into  fcUonfetai  * 
of  tnoee  who  bad  known  of  Jois} 
baptism  only.  101 :  Its  maaalng  sk 
form  in  New  TestaiDcnL  W:  &^ 
nack,  Hanek,  and  looii  oo,  H 
Zenos  on,  137;  in  **  dnBawineL 
178,  179;  among  tbe  EbhwHw.  n 
180:  In  the  ^ FiMit  ^BiipMa,*  ym.ht 
vatian'S  view  o|,2py;  Dniiitrt  nv 

**  i^ad&ng  of  tbe  Twelvn."  fli;  i 
Justin  Martyr,  M5:  TatalHci 
view  of,  26^288;  OriBen^  vfcv  d 
285;  In  **Eoc&esiasaenI  Gdasn 
tions."290:  at  the  beginning  of  n> 
fourth  oentniy, 286w  297 ;  viewsola 
validly  when  perfonnml  by  1 


ties.  270:  PelKlaa  view  at  » 
Augustine's  view  of.  M6:  Jeo 
lan's  view  of,  S75:  rtatiea: 
views  ot  882.888; 
about,  4101411:  Baa 
doctrine  of.  425.  496:  : 

view  of.  482:   Fetroi 

ot  561,  562:  Arnold's  viewa  cLIm 
Kudo's  views  of,  SC7.  608;  Bfaeaa* 
disnnters'  views  oC  MB;  y^gm-i 
Poor  Men  of  Lyons  and  of  I^ 
bardy  regarding,  574:  Waldons 
views  of75aO:Cbeleiek7"a  vicvsot 
588;  views  of  Bota«inlaa  Bt^tae. 
raKardlng,  599;  Wrellfle^  view  d. 

Barcochab,  rebellion  otl56.  i:&. 
Barnabas:  weleomea   Pant,  99:  t? 

misrion  work  with  Fan!,  n.  sk.  ;  ^ 

mlsundeistanding  with  PM.  » 

tradition  regarding.  UOl 
"Barnabas,   Bplstle  oi;**  tts  artte 

ahip.  date,  oontenta.  eea^  SHL  nf 
Bartholomew,  the  apoatia,  ■moUomL 

llOi 
Baroch.  referred  to.  4L 
Basil  of    ~ 


BasiUdea,  his  _ 

expounded,  186,  mq. 
Baur,  as  a  church  hisiorlaa.  & 
Beeket,  Thomas  a»  512. 5U. 
Beghards,  the.  sketch  of.  866L 
Begulnes.  the,  sketch  oC,  iSi^ 
Bel  and  the  r 


Dragon. 
Benedict  xni.rsu. 
Benedictine  order  of  1 
Bernard  of  Clalrvanx: 

455,  460:  preaches  t 

550:  preachea  and  wiffeaa 

Arnold  of  Breaela.  568. 
Beroea.  Paul's  work  at;  18. 
Beryllua.  referred  to,  VL 
Beysehlag.  his  eatlmate  of  iba  a» 

acter  and  influence  of  Jean^  Ti. 
Bible.    (See  SerlptoreaL) 
Biblical  oittldsmrOilB«n  tiM  MMr 

of.  282. 
Bin.  his  view  of  Phllo,  gL 
BiSop:  place  of.  In  •*!  dtaitfi' 

IM;  place  of,  in  Kaw  l^alaw* 


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GENERAL  INDEX 


625 


]»,  184;  ideptloal  with  praibjter. 
184 ;  meMiing  in  time  of  Ignatius, 
327 ;  place  of.  in  •«  Heiinae/'  881 ;  po- 
sition at  beginning  of  fourth  cen- 
tury, 298,  295;  Cyprian  the  flntto 
distinguish  from  presbyter,  286. 


Black  Stone  of  Edessa,  162. 
dus,  translator  of 
totleil75. 


fioCthius,  translator  of  works  of  Aiia- 


BogomJles,  history  and  doctrines  of, 

Bohemia,  Christianity  in,  606. 

Bohemian  Brethren,  sketch  of,  598, 
teq, 

Bologna :  became  center  for  the  study 
of  Boman  law,  448;  Uniyeralty  of, 
47a 

Bonaventura:  sketch  of,  482;  men- 
tioned, 554. 

Boniface,  Archbishop  of  Malnts,  419, 


BoflSft 


Jfice  VIII.,  821,  fcg. 

Boniface  IX.,  554. 

BoBBuet,  as  a  church  historian,  14. 

Brethren:  of  the  Free  Spirit,  557; 
Common  Life,  617,  mo. 

Breyer,  on  Arnold  of  Bresda,  664. 

Brlgitta  of  Sweden,  prophetess,  524. 

Britain,  early  Chrii^ianity  in,  408,  teq. 

British  Empire,  compared  with  the 
Roman,  as  regards  evangelisation, 
82. 

British  church  historians,  16. 

Brotherhood,  Pythagorean.  22. 

Bruce,  A.  B.,  on  the  character  and  in* 
iluence  of  Jesus,  78. 

Brute,  Walter,  Tiews  of,  681. 

Buddhism :  relation  to  Bnenlsm,  68 ; 
relation  to  Qnosticism,  182;  in- 
fluence of,  on  Mani,  195. 

Bunsen,  on  the  **  Ignatian  Epistles." 

Cabbala,  referred  to.  181. 
Cncilian,  of  Carthm,  209,  820, 821. 
Casarea :  Paul  at,  IM ;  Origen*s  home, 

287. 
Caligula,  Emperor,  enrages  Jews  of 

Palestine.  116. 
Callistus,  bishop  of  Rome,  201,  255, 

CaSSctns  III.,  Pope,  585. 

Canon  Law:  disooTered.  480;  and 
forged  decretals.  447,  teg. 

Canon :  Old  Testament.  89;  New  Tes- 
tament, 212;  Irenteus  on.  250;  his- 
tory of  New  Testament.  801.  teq. 

CaptiTity,  Babylonian,  effects  of,  85. 

Caraealla.  Emperor.  161. 

Cardinal:  origin  of  the  term,  448^ 
MO. ;  functions  of,  450. 

CarioTingian  kingdom,  and  the  pa- 
pacy. 406,  eeq. 

Carmelite  order  of  monks.  455. 

Carthage :  early  church  life  in.  264 ; 
council  of,  in  relation  to  Donatism, 
822.  teq. 

Cassiodoms.  mentioned.  13. 

Catacombs,  use  of,  for  Christian  wor^ 
ship,  167, 295,  teg. 


Catechizing,  early  nse  of,  297. 
Cathari :  sketch  of,  545,  teq. ;  relation 

of.  to  Peter  de  Bruys  and  Henry  ol 

Lausanne,  559. 
Catharine  of  Sieua.  prc^etess,  501 
Cathedra  Fetri,  Church  of  Rome  first 

regarded  as,  267. 
Catholic   (Roman)   doctrine,  antici- 
pated by  the  Montani«ts,  208. 
Celedonius.  a  Gallic  bishop,  898. 
Celibacy   of   clergy:    iu  rise,   296; 

Gregory  the  Great  insists  on,  406i 

(See  also  Asceticism.) 
CelKUs,  the  philosopher,  writes  against 

Christianity,  150 ;  answered  by  Oil- 

gen,  282. 
Cerdo,  Gnostic  teacher.  228. 
Cerinthus,  speculative  Ebionite,  128, 

Chalcedon.  council  of,  847,  teq. 

Chalcedonlau  symbol.  848. 

Charity  among  early  Christians :  dis- 
cussed. 128,  129. 148 ;  by  whom  dis- 
tributed. 184,  185;  perverted.  292; 
how  distributed  in  days  of  Cyprian, 
260,27a 

Charlemagne:  sketch  of,  407.  mo.; 
and  Holy  Roman  Empire.  489, 440 ; 
opposes  image  worship,  891,  892; 
influence  of,  in  spread  of  learning, 
460 ;  relation  of,  to  the  papacy,  495, 
496. 

Charles  Martel,  418, 420, 484. 

Charles  the  Bald.  441. 

Charles  the  Fat,  441. 

Chelcicky,  Peter:  work  and  views  of, 
586,  teq. ;  influence  of,  on  the  Bohe- 
mian Brethren.  608.  teq, 

i 

i 


29 


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626 


GENERAL  INDEX 


▼ored  by  GaUleniiB,  1C7 :  peraeeuted 
by  Diocletian.  16»-170:  pottettes 
■ome  digtioguished  oonyerts.  168: 
penecuted  by  Mazimlnus  in  the 
East,  170;  partial  toleration  of,  170; 
oomplete  toleration  of.  171 :  triumph 
of,  in  Roman  Empire,  172:  parties 
in,  173, 174 :  secti  of,  174,  teq. :  philo- 
sophical statement  of,  occasioned  by 
Qnoeticlsm,  193 ;  influence  of  mys- 
teries on,  IM :  ritual  from  Onostic 
influences,  194;  influenced  by  pa- 
ganism, 194;  influenced  by  Mani- 
chttism,  197;  conditions  for  scien- 
tiflc  statement  of,  213 ;  piety  of,  in 
flnt  to  third  centuries,  214;  influ- 
enced by  Montani8m,280:  condition 
of,  at  beginning  of  fourth  century, 
291.  te?.,  296,  299 ;  Oonstautlue's  atti- 
tude toward,  80S,  teq, ;  opposed  by 
Julian,  809,  810:  supportea  by  law 
nnder  Theodosius.  310. 811 :  was  in- 


fluenced by  union  with  the  State, 
811,  $eq,;  Its  influence  on  Roman 
law^  812 ;  becomes  a  persecutor,  315 : 


lavT,  o&A  ,  wouuuicB  ■  t»ctBomii>ur,  tun  • 

of  East  and  West  compared.  825 ;  at 
beginning  of  eighth  century,  406; 
at  close  of  eighth  century,  421,  teq. 

Christian  science,  medi»7al  parallel 
to.  557. 

Christian  thought:  influenced  by 
Pythagoras,  22 ;  influenced  by  Plato, 
23.  24 ;  influenced  by  Aristotle,  25 ; 
influenced  by  Stoicism,  26;  influ- 
enced by  Gnosticism.  193, 194 :  amal- 
gamation of.  with  pagan  thought, 
194;  how  influenced  by  Origen,  286, 
287. 

Christians:  community  of  goods 
among.  83,  84:  of  Jerusalem  with- 
drew to  Fella,  118 ;  forced  to  meet  in 
secret,  148 ;  meetings  of,  in  Trajan's 
time,  151 :  public  calamities  arouse 
the  people  against,  154, 156, 166 :  tor- 
ture used  against,  158;  charged 
with  arson.  168;  their  confiscated 
property  restored,  171:  gradually 
acouire  culture,  212, 213 :  moral  con- 
dition of  in  time  of  Hennas,  229- 
281;  culture  spreads  among,  238: 
serious  charges  made  against,  149, 
157, 288 :  at  beginning  of  fourth  cen- 
tury, 297,296. 

Christmas,  when  it  was  first  celebra- 
ted. 299. 

Christology :  of  Paul  of  Samosata,  196 : 
of  Sabelfius,  201 :  of  Justin.  244 :  of 
IrensBUS.  25a  251;  of  Tertullian. 
260. 261 :  type  of.  In  Carthage.  264 :  of 
Clement  of  Alexandria,  277.  278 :  of 
Oriffen,  281 :  of  Dionysius  of  Alex- 
andria, 288,  289 ;  becomes  center  of 
rigorous  discussion,  824,  mo..  885. 
•07. ;  of  Leo.  844.  845 :  a  satUfactory 
formula  arrived  at,  854, 855 :  of  the 
Adoptioniits,  855,  teq.     (See    also 

^UlgOfc) 


Chronology:  of  the  Qoipels,  71;  of 
-      >B  flfc,  9a 


Paul's  I 


Chrysoftom,  condemned,  Z2L 

Church :  the  first  Christian,  83,  m 
the  Pentecostal.  88:  ofllcialsof.  i 
use  of  ttie  term  in  the  New  Tes 
ment,  125. 126 ;  New  Testament  con- 
ditions of  membership  in,  129:  re- 
lation of,  to  kingdom  of  heaven, 
126 :  pagans  flock  into,  167 ;  Gnostic 
teachers  excluded  from,  198;  view 
of  in  "  1  Clement,'*  218 ;  Justin's  view 
of.  245:  idea  of  an  orthodox.  248: 
Irenseus'  view  of,  2S2;  different 
views  regarding  discipline,  256.  257 : 
its  moral  condition  in  Tertullian's 
time.  268, 264. 

Churoh  buildings,  for  worship  when 
introduced.  142, 162,  295,  296. 

Church :  discipline  in.  at  end  of  eighth 
century.  429,  aeq. :  power  of  enforcing 
its  decrees.  43a  431. 

Church  hiKtory :  defined,  4 :  its  task. 
5;  what  it  presupposes,  5:  sources 
of,  9.  10 ;  its  history  (a)  ancient,  12; 
18.  (6)  medisval,  13,  (e)  Reforma- 
tion, 13. 14,  (d)  recent.  14-16 ;  periods 
of,  16.  17 :  reasons  for  ita  study,  17- 
19 :  equipment  for  its  study,  6*  6, 11, 
12 :  schools  of,  6-9. 

Churoh  organisation :  helped  by  Paul, 
92 ;  nature  of,  implied  in  Phllippians, 
97:  relation  to  Jewish  synagogue, 
128, 129:  in  apostolic  times,  131-135: 
in  *'  Teaching  of  Twelve,"  234 ;  in 
Justin  Martyr,  215 :  in  "  Ecclesiastl- 
cai  ConstituUons."2t»,  290;  how  in- 
fluenced by  union  of  Church  and 
State.  314,  815. 

Cisteroians,  mentioned,  455. 

Claudius,  the  Emperor:  banishes 
Jews,  56.  111.  112;  conciliates  Jews 
of  Palestine,  116. 

Claudius  of  Turin,  sketch  of,  558. 

Clement  of  Alexandria :  his  position, 
lea  271 :  life  and  works  of.  273,  tea.  ; 
genius  and  influence  of,  274.  275; 
contrasted  with  Tertullian,  279, 28a 

Clement  of  Rome :  '*  First  Epistle  "  ot 
referred  to,  121 :  discussed  and  anst- 
lyaed,  128,  124;  authorship,  date, 
etc.  214-219:  "Second  f^istle"  of 
(so-called).  215. 

Clement  IV..  Pope.  517. 

*'  Clementine  Homilies  and  Recogni- 
tions." referred  to.  177.  218. 

Cleomenes.  mentioned,  201. 

Cloister  life,  referred  to,  818. 

ClovlB,  sketch  of.  404,  405. 

Clugny,  mentioned.  455. 

Cobnam,  Lord,  defends  Lollards  and 
suffers  martyrdom.  692. 

Ccsnobitic  life,  early,  818. 

CoBlestius,  Pelagian  teacher,  868. 

Collations,  to  benefices,  519. 

Colossians.  Epistle  to.  105. 

Columba.  Irish  missionary,  418. 

Colnmban.  Irish  missionary.  411  ssg^ 

Oommodus,  Emperor,  159.  ssg. 

Community  of  goods  annw*  «Arly 
Ohriatians,  88.  #07. 


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GENERAL  INDEX 


627 


OompaOttta.  between  fhe  emperor  and 

the  Huasites,  538. 
GonclaTe.  of  Roman  Curia,  45a 
Concordat  of  Worms,  5ia 
Couoorricii,  a  Catharistic  party,  616, 


ConieflBorB,  great  influence  of,  280. 

Congregatious,  EU>man,  defined,  450. 

Conrad  of  Waldhauaen,  mentioned, 
609. 

OmMfomflifiim.  a  Catharistic  rite,  548. 

Constance,  council  of,  529  •eq. 

CouMtans:  referred  to,  SOB;  his  atti- 
tude toward  Donatir*"  **"•  **•*" 

Conscantine  Oopronyn  i, 

881 :  and  ioiage-won 

Constantine  the  Ore  1 

Augustus.  170 :  his  m  r 

ing  Christianity,  805  i 

toward    Christianit;  1 

paganism,   806,  807  I 

Church  and  State,  a  e 

toward  Donatfsts,  81  l- 

tude  toward  Nioen  \ 

881. 

Constantius  II.:  becomes  emperor, 
806:  attacks  paganism,  806,  809;  re- 
ferred to,  881. 

Constantinople :  becomes  center  of  the 
empire,  806 ;  council  of  (see  Coun- 
cils) ;  church  in,  395,  #09. ;  dispute 
with  Rome,  899,  teq. ;  defeated  by 
Rome.  408. 

Constantinopolitan  council,  and  sym- 
bol of  Chalcedon,  354. 

Constantius,  Emperor,  169,  »eq„  831. 

Constitutions  of  Clarendon,  513. 

Corinth :  Paul's  labors  in,  96,  99, 102 : 
state  of  church  in,  99 ;  Clement  sends 
letter  to.  128.  215. 

Corinthians :  Epistles  of  Paul  to.  99 
•09..  102:  1  Cor.  16 :  9. 126;  1  Cor.  10 : 
16-22,  188:  2  Cor.  10-12,  supposed 
by  some  to  be  a  separate  epistle.  100 : 
lost  epistles  to,  100 :  Epistle  of  Clem- 
ent of  Rome  to,  12,  asg.,  214  9eq. 

Consistory,  defined.  45a 

Councils:  rise  of.  294:  of  Nicsea,  807. 
329.  880:  of  Constantinople,  con- 
demns Apollinarianism.  336:  of 
Sphesns,  84a  341:  of  Ephesus  (the 
second),  346 :  of  Chalcedon.  347  9eq.  ; 
of  Nicsea,  the  second,  its  deliverances 
and  their  fate,  391.392:  of  the  Lateran. 
512,  515,  569.  54a  9eq. ;  of  Lyons,  517, 
564:  of  Pisa.  828:  of  Constance.  629, 
660:  of  Basel,  580.  581:  of  Ferrara, 
532. 

Creeds,  beginning  of,  SOa 

Crescens.  pagan  philosopher:  infln- 
ence  of,  on  M.  Aurelius,  156 ;  opposes 
Justin  Martyr.  157. 

Crucifixion,  date  of.  71. 

Crusades :  discussed  466. 9eq. ;  results 
of.  462, 468 ;  operate  against  ^e  pa- 
pacy, 519. 

Culture :  not  possessed  by  Christians 
at  first,  148 :  now  it  helped  and  how 
it  hindered,  148;  growing 


.,  oppoees  Nestoriu, 


Christians,  158;  gradually  acquired 
by  Christians.  212,  218:  spread  of. 
among  Christians.  288 :  high  quality 
of,  among  Christians  at  beginning 
of  fourth  century,  291 ;  Anglo-Saxons 
became  conservators  of,  429 ;  spread 
of,  in  Bfiddle  Ages.  409. 

Cureton,  on  "  Ignatian  Epistles."  222, 
228. 

Curia,  Roman,  the,  discossed.  449-151. 

Cyprian:  mentioned.  166;  life,  doc- 
trines, etc..  of,  266-271 :  his  views  of 
the  church  of  Rome,  396. 

Cyprus,  eyangeiised,  89, 9a 

Cyrene.  Jews  in,  56. 

Cy  rilof  Alexandria,  0 
838,  MQ. 

Cyrus,  lung  of  Persia,  helps  the  Jews. 
34. 

Cyrus,  patriarch  of  Alexandria,  men- 
tioned, 851. 

Dalmatlus,  the  monk,  supports  Cyril, 
841. 

I  in,  6a 

}utor  of  Hilde- 

ditions  to,  4L 
ipire,522. 

U  Tractate  of,*' 

Testament,  185; 
th  century,  TSU, 


294. 
Deacons:  in  New  Testament.  134, 185; 

in  Clement,  218 ;  in  Polycarp,  238 ; 

in  Justin  Martyr,  245 :  at  beginning 

of  fourth  century,  296.  294. 
Decius  Trajan,  referred  to.  164-166. 
Declaration  of  faith,  the  earliest.  249. 
**  Defentor  Poets,**  of  Marsilius  of  Pa- 
dua, 684. 
Demetrius   of    Alexandria,   opposes 

Origen,  281. 
Demiurge :  Plato's  view  of.  23 :  in  tjW' 

tem  of  Basilides.  186;  in  system  of 

Valentinus,  188,  189;  according  to 

Marcion.  191. 192. 
Diana's  temple  at  Ephesus,  101. 
"  Diatessaron,**  of  l^tian,  referred  to, 

186.800. 
Diocletian,  acooant  of,  166-170. 
Diodoms  of  Tarsus,  Christology  of, 

836. 
"  Diognetus,  Epistle  to.'*  237. 
Dionysins:   of  Alexandria,  referred 

to.  288.  289;  of  Rome,  referred  to. 

824.825. 
Dionysius  the  Areopagite:  tradltioB 

about.  96 :  writinn  ascribed  to,  850. 
Dioecurua.  patriarch  of  Alexandria, 

referred  to,  843.  346. 
Dispensation,  the  old.  terminated,  118. 
Dispensations,  referred  to.  62a 
Dispersion,  the  Jewish,  its  causes  and 

extent.  66,  6a 
Divine  honors  claimed  by  Domlttaa, 

laa 


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628 


GENERAL  INDEX 


Docettsm:  in  John's  time,  128:  of 
QnostiGt,  181 ;  of  HanlcluBana,  196. 

Dftlllnger:  as  a  church  hlMtorian,  16: 
his  views  of  the  Petiobruaians  and 
Henriclaus  criticised,  S&O. 

Domestic  happinesfi.  of  the  Jews,  57. 

Dominic,  mentioned,  65a 

Dominicans,  the:  mentioned,  456; 
their  place  in  the  Inquisition,  464, 
465 ;  rise  of  mysticism  among,  486^ 

Domitian,Kmperor:  mentioned,  120; 
perhaps  referred  to  in  Revelation, 

Donatism :  referred  to,  169 ;  history  of, 


Donatist  oontroyersy,  described,  820 

D^tists,  the:    discussed,    20»-21O; 

persecution  of,  821,  822. 
Donatus,  mentioned,  209. 
Dorotheos,  referred  to,  168. 
Dualism  of  Zoroaster,  how  it  helps 

morality,  87. 
Duns  Sootus,  sketch  of,  488,  484. 
Dryer,  as  a  church  historian,  16. 
Dyothelites,  compared  with  Monothe- 

liteb,  854,  855. 
Dyothelitlsm  triumphant,  855. 


Mt,  the :  at  dose  of  eighth  century, 
428.  teq,;  compared  with  West,  424, 


ir,  celebration  of,  299. 

Baster  controversy:  rise  of,  156;  In 
time  of  Irenaus,  292. 

EMonism :  alluded  to  in  the  BpisUe  to 
the  Hebrews,  116:  in  John's  time, 
128 :  origin  and  principles  of,  1T4,  esg. 

Ebrard.  mentioned,  15^ 

Bcclesla  (  jmAi}^*),  125. 

"Ecclesiastical  Annals,*'  mentioned, 
14. 

"  Ecclesiastical  Constitutions,"  dis- 
cussed. 289.  290l 

Ecclesiasticus,  referred  to,  42. 

Xckhart,  views  of,  487,  teg. 

Bckhart,  influence  of,  on  Brethren  of 
the  Free  Spirit,  567. 

Eclecticism:  of  Phila  60:  of  Helio- 
gabalus,  161 ;  of  Alexander  Severus, 
162. 

"  Bcthesls.'*  The,  of  the  Emperor  Her- 
aclius,  892,  teo. 

Bdificatory  writings  of  flrst  to  third 
century.  218,  teq. 

Education :  promoted  by  stodr  of 
church  history.  17 :  religious,  vigor- 
ously prosecuted  after  exile.  88: 
Christian,  makes  progress.  162;  at 
beginning  of  fourth  century,  296. 
297 :  forbidden  by  Julian,  809. 

Edward  HI.  and  the  papacv.  608,  604. 

Egjpt  and  the  Jews,  »,  40.  66. 

Sivptian  theosophy,  relation  of,  to 
Gnosticism.  182. 

Ciders :  silence  of  New  Testament  re- 
garding introduction  of,  127 :  place 
of,  in  •'  1  Clement,"  124. 217 ;  in  New 
Testament,  188,  184;  identical  with 


Msbops,  184 :  place  of.  in  *'  Hermaa.** 
281;  place  ox,  in  Polycarp,  288;  at 
*     '  of  fourth  century,  298, 

the  first  to  distinguiah 
from  bishops,  266. 

Election.  Augustine's  view  of.  867. 

Ellas  of  Cortona,  referred  to.  653,  564. 

Elkesaites,  referred  to.  177. 

Emperor,  election  of,  in  Middle  Ages. 
4C2,443. 

Emperors,  The  Roman:  list  of,  IfHL 
teq. :  their  varying  attitude  toward 
Christianity,  150 :  which  of  them  be- 
came Christians.  168:  their  aim  In 
persecuting  during  third  century, 

"  Enoch.  Book  of."  discussed,  48,  44. 

Enthusiasm :  early  Christian,  142 :  dis- 
tasteful tophilosophers,  150. 

Ephesians,  E^dstle  to.  105. 

Ephesus,  Paul  at,  99-101 ;  council  of. 
(See  Council.) 

Bpicureaniam,  its  place  and  inilnenoe. 

Epigoniis,  mentioned,  201. 
^Imeletes  (i«ifi«AirT^),  in  pagan  or- 
ganizations, 129. 
Epiphanius,  attitude  of,  toward  Ori- 

B^lfSiany,  feast  of.  its  origin,  299. 

EpisooDMy:  in  **Ignatlan  Epistiee," 
226-2W;  in  IrensBUs,  2fQ;  in  time 
of  Tertullian,  268 ;  development  of. 
under  Cyprian,  286,  267 ;  history  of 
its  growth,  286.  287 :  stimuhited  by 
union  of  Church  and  State,  814. 

Episcopate,  monarchical :  rise  of,  155; 
growth  of.  158. 

Episcopos  (iviVxMVf).  in  pagan  or- 
ganizations, 129. 

SKhatology:  the  Jewish.  63.  64;  of 
Thessalonians,  97.  96;  of  2  Peter, 
108 ;  of  Montanists,  305 ;  of  *'  1  aem- 
ent,"  217:  of  Irenteus,  250;  of  Ori- 
gen,  289, 286.    (See  also  Judgment.) 

1  Bsdras,  referred  to.  41. 

Esoteric  philosophy  of  Bnrp^  enteri 
the  cuirent  of  thought,  28. 

Bssenes:  discussed,  50i  teq.;  their 
teaching  and  that  of  Jesus,  52, 58. 

Esther,  apocrvphal  additions  to,  4L 

Eteroousios  (tr«poov««oc),  827. 

Ethelbert  converted.  411. 

Ethiopia.  Jews  in.  56. 

Eucharist,  yearly  observance  of,  made 
obligatory,  518. 

Eudo  de  Stella,  sketch  of.  567.  568. 

Eugenius.  mentioned,  531.  562. 

Eusebius,  referred  to.  12.  882. 

Eustathius,  mentioned.  878. 

Eutychean  controverqr.  desorfbed, 
84il.M9. 

Eutyches,  discussed.  848,  teq. 

Evsgrius.  referred  to,  18. 

Evangelical  doctrines,  survival  of,  in 
pre-Reformation  times,  541.  «eo. 

Evangelical  separatism  of  Middle 
Ages,  557.  aeg. 


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629 


BraDgelifti*  In  New  Testament.  188. 
Bzorcif  ts,  at  beginuing  of  fourth  cen- 
tury, 294. 
Bxpectandes,  referred  to,  500. 
Imk,  hii  reforms,  25. 

Fairbaim.  his  estimate  of  the  charac- 
ter and  influeuce  of  Jesus,  79. 

Fasting,  in  •'  Teaching  of  the  Twelve," 
286. 

Faustus  of  Lerins,  attacks  Augustini- 
anfsm,  870. 

Feet-washing,  referred  to,  140. 

Feliclsslmus,  referred  to,  260, 27a 

Felicitas,  referred  to,  161. 

Felix,  referred  to,  104, 116. 

Felix  v.,  mentioned.  658, 654. 

Festivals,  ecclesiastical,  multiplica- 
tion of,  299. 

Festus,  referred  to,  104, 116. 

Fetichism,  at  beginnlnig  of  fourth  cen- 
tury. 292. 

Feudalism,  discussed,  448,  teq. 

Fisher,  referred  to,  16. 

FlavU  Domltilla,  referred  to,  120, 142. 

Flavian,  mentioned.  846. 

Flavins  Clemens,  referred  to,  120, 215. 

Florentius,  mentioned.  617,  618. 

Florus,  referred  to,  117. 

Forgeries,  documentary,  referred  to, 

France,  in  the  Middle  Aces,  442. 

Francis  of  Assisi.  referred  to,  558,  sm. 

Franciscans,  the:  mentioned,  465; 
parties  among,  558,  «eg. 

Fravashi,  referred  to,  87. 

Frederick  Barbarossa,  512. 

Frederick  II..  516. 

Freedmen,  referred  to,  444. 

Freemen,  referred  to,  444. 

Free-will:  in  Pharisaism,  49:  in 
'*  Clementines,"  178 :  Wvcliire*s  view 
of,  606 :  views  of  "  Brethren  of  Com- 
mon Life"  concerning,  618.  (See 
also  Will.) 

Fronto,  Influence  of,  on  Marcus  Aure- 
lius,  156. 

Fulgentius,  mentioned,  871. 

Fullness  of  time,  discussed,  67. 

Funk,  mentioned,  16. 

Oalatians.  Bpistle  to.  discussed,  95. 

Oallicanism.  origin  of.  517. 

Gallienus,  mentioned,  167. 

Qalerius :  expels  Christians  from  the 
army,  168 ;  as  emperor,  169, 17a 

Galilee,  welcomes  Jesus,  76. 

Oallus,  mentioned,  166. 

Oeiger,  on  Pharisees  and  Sadducee8.48. 

Qelasius.  referred  to.  400.  401. 

Gentiles,  their  place  discussed.  98,  94. 

German  writers  of  church  history,  16. 

Germany.  In  Middle  Ages.  442. 

Gerson,  John,  referred  to.  527. 

Gherardo,  mentioned,  554. 

Ghlbbellne.  origin  of  the  term,  511. 

Gieseler.  referred  to.  16. 

Gladiatorial  shows,  suppressed  by  in- 
fluence of  Christianity.  812. 


Gnostic  views,  adopted  by  Tatlan,  246. 

Gnosticism :  Christianity  organiaed  to 
meet,  155;  its  history  and  princi- 
ples. 18a  teq. :  its  influence  on  Chris- 
tian life  and  thought,  198, 194 ;  Mon- 
tanlsm  a  reaction  against,  202:  re- 
futed by  IreusBUS,  24a  250;  attacked 
by  Tertullian.  259 ;  influences  of,  on 
Cnristlau  worship,  296. 

Gnostics:  influenced  by  Pythagoras, 
21,  22:  influenced  by  PhUorS;  in- 
fluence of,  In  second  century,  247. 

God:  Jewish  doctrine  of.  57;  Philo's 
idea  of,  60;  Gnostic  Idea  of,  187; 
Justin's  view  of,  244 :  Irenaus*  view 
of,  2Sa  251;  Tertullian's  view  of, 
260;  Clement's  view  of,  277;  Ori- 
gen's  view  of,  288.  284. 

Gods,  Greek  Ideas  of.  21. 

Gorgonios.  mentioned.  168. 

Gospels:  discussed,  119;  their  cano- 
nicity  recognized  by  IrensBus,  25a 

Grace,  Augustine's  view  of,  367 ;  Pela- 
gian view  of,  865. 

Gratian.  mentioned,  8ia 

Greece:  its  contribution  to  the  world's 
culture.  20-27 ;  the  Jews  in.  56. 

Greek  culture :  spread  by  Alexander's 
conquests,  27 ;  Influence  of,  in  Clem- 
ent of  Alexandria,  278,  274. 

Greek  language :  its  diffusion,  27 ;  used 
by  early  Christian  writers,  255. 

Greek  literature,  how  used  by  the 
arologists,  289 ;  and  the  Renaissance, 

Greek  phlloeophy :  history  of,  21-27 ; 
its  influence  on  Roman  thought.  81 ; 
related  to  the  Old  Testament  by 
Phllo,  59 ;  influence  of.  on  Alexan- 
drian school,  272 ;  ascribed  by  Clem- 
ent to  the  Son.  278. 

Greek  religion :  its  nature,  2a  21 ;  fails 
to  satisfy  the  heart.  28,  29. 

Greeks :  contrasted  with  Romans,  29 ; 
influence  their  Roman  conquerors, 
8a 


of.  287.  288. 

Groesetdte.  Robert,  work  and  Influ- 
ence of.  601.  602. 

Groot.  Gerhard,  mentioned.  617,  618. 

Gnelf.  origin  of  the  term.  511. 

Guilds.  Oraco-Roman.  their  influence 
on  church  organisation,  128 


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OymoatiQm,  erected  in  Jeraalem,  46. 

Hadrian:  reign  of.  158,  IM;  rescript 
of.  158. 

Hadrian  U.,  referred  to,  496. 

Hamack:  his  place  in  historiography, 
16 ;  on  the  mode  of  baptism.  136 ;  nis 
view  of  the  "  Ignatian  Epistles  "  dis- 
cussed. 223-226. 

Hase,  mentioned,  15. 

Hauclc,  on  tbe  mode  of  baptism.  186. 

Hauryatat  (wholeness),  mentioned,  87. 

Hebrews,  Epistle  to:  author  of,  HO. 
HI;  summary  of,  115,  116;  gospel 
acoordiiig  to,  177. 

Heffisippus,  meutioned,  12. 

Helloaorus,  referred  to,  45. 

Heliogabalus,  referred  to,  161, 162. 

Heliopolis,  referred  to,  4a 

Hell.  In  Zoroastrianism,  87. 

Hellenistic  influences :  dominated  the 
Roman  Empire,  28 ;  reach  the  Jews 
through  Macedonian  conquest.  89. 

Henricians,  the,  sketch  of.  557,  teq. 

Henry  the  Fowler,  mentioned,  441. 442. 

Henry  II.  (of  England),  referred  to, 
512,518. 

Henry  IV.,  mentioned,  506, 506. 

Henry  of  Lausanne,  referred  to,  549, 
•09. ;  sketch  of.  560,  9eq, 

Heracllus,  and  the  Monophysites,  351. 

Heresy :  attacked  by  Irenteus,  249,  teg.; 
becomes  a  crime,  464. 

Hergenr5ther,  mentioned.  16. 

Hennas:  mentioned,  228;  "Shep- 
herd *' of,  228-231. 

Hermias,  mentioned,  287. 

Hermit  life,  referred  to,  817. 

Hertsog,  mentioned.  16. 

Hilary  of  Aries,  referred  to,  89g. 

Hildeorand :  bis  influence  in  develop- 
ing the  papacv.  602,  tea. ;  his  achieve- 
ments, 505;  nis  claims  regarding 
papal  prerogative,  506^506 ;  views  of. 
on  dvil  and  religious  liberty.  508. 
509;  his  attitude  regarding  investi- 
ture. 5ia 

Hlppolytus:  referred  to.  168;  life, 
writings,  etc..  of.  252-257, 

Historical  perspective,  Philo's  lack  of, 
60. 

Histoiy.  defined.  8. 

Holy  QhoBt,  Catharistic  views  of.  548. 
sgq. 

Holy  Roman  Empire,  the,  discussed, 
439,  M^. 

Holy  Spirit:  Justin's  view  of.  244: 
Irenseus'  view  of.  251 ;  Clement  of 
Alexandrians  view  of.  278;  Orlgen*8 
view  of.  284.    (See  also  Paraclete.) 

Hormisdas,  work  of.  402. 

Honorius,  Pope,  Monothelitic  views 
of,  352. 

Hospitalers,  the.  mentioned.  455. 

Humiliati,  the.  sketch  of,  566. 

Hunst,  referred  to,  16. 

Huss,  John :  sketch  of,  618,  aeq, ;  rea- 
sons for  his  condemnation,  05,  616 ; 
views  of,  616. 


Hussite  movement,  the,  609,  tea. 
Hussites,  the,  persecution  of,  580,  mq, 
Hvar.  mentioned,  37. 
Hymns,  among  early  Christians,  151. 
Hymn  writers,  before  end  of  eighth 
century,  429. 


Ibas,  vindicated,  849. 
Ichthi 


us  ( IXOYS),  a  symbol  for  Chrfst, 
262. 

Iconoclastic  controversy,  outlined, 
386,  9eq, 

*'  iKuatius,  Epistles  of,"  their  authen- 
ticity and  contents,  222-228. 

Images,  use  of,  in  East  and  West,  892, 

Image-worship :  origin  and  causes  of, 
386, 387 ;  arguments  for  and  against, 
388, 389 ;  history  of,  889.  9eq. 

Immortality:  Pharisees'  view  of,  48; 
pre-Christian  belief  in,  63. 

Incarnation,  Philo  sees  no  need  of,  62. 
(See  also  Chrlstology.) 

Indulgences :  doctrine  of.  stimulated 
by  Hanichseans.  197;  to  cniaaders, 
referred  to.  520. 

Infant  baptism :  not  practised  in 
apostolic  churches,  196;  probably 
not  practised  by  Ebionites,  179, 180 ; 
Pelagian  view  of,  864.  (See  also 
Baptism.) 

Informers:  discouraged  by  Trajan, 
152:  discouraged  by  Hadrian,  158; 
discouraged  by  Antoninus  Plus,  156 : 
encouraged  by  M.  Aurellus,  158. 

Innocent  I.,  attitude  toward  Pela- 
gians, 868. 

Innocent  III. :  reign  of,  518,  teq. ;  ex- 
tirpates the  Cathari.  650,  teq. 

Innocent  IV..  referred  to.  517. 

Innocent  VIII.,  pontificate  of.  587. 

Inquisition,  The :  discussed,  486,  teg. : 
operates  against  the  papacy,  519* 
information  preserved  by.  50,  ssg. 

Intermediate  State,  in  Jewish  cscba- 
tology,  64. 

Interpretation  of  Scripture :  prind^ce 
of.  according  to  Irenseus.  249 ;  Ori- 
gen's  principles  of,  286.  (See  also 
Allegorical  Method.) 

Investiture,  controversy  regarding, 
442.  509,  5ia 

Irenseus,  life,  works,  and  doctrines  of, 
248-252. 

Irene,  and  image-wonhip,  89(^  891. 

Isaiah  45 :  5-7.^ :  and  42 : 1-14,  78. 

Italy,  in  Middle  Ages,  442. 

James:  at  Jerusalem  conference,  96, 
109;  pastor  of  Jerusalem  church, 
109;  his  attitude  toward  Mosaic 
law.  109:  traditions  of  his  holiness, 
109 :  tradition  of  his  death,  ua 

Jason,  mentioned,  46. 

Jehoehaphat.  Saint,  mentioned,  24a 

"Jeremiah,"  apocryphal  letter  of.  42. 

Jerome :  his  attitude  toward  Ortgen. 
838,  aeq.:  his  attitude  toward  the 
Pelagians.  868 ;  the  triumph  of  hli 


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631 


flews,  871 :  aUitode  toward  aieed- 
<l8m.  872;  attitude  toward  Jovin- 
lanui,  874.  tea.;  Vigrllantiua  visits, 
877 ;  opposes  Vlgilantius,  377,  teq, 

Jerusalem  :  desecrated,  46  :  confer- 
ence at,  92-94 :  church  at.  109 ;  de- 
struction of,  110,  9eq,:  influence  of 
church  at,  180. 181. 

Jesus  Christ:  his  place,  work,  and 
doctrines,  67-«);  satieties  the  yearn- 
ings of  the  heart,  68 :  duration  and 
divisions  of  his  public  ministry,  71, 
72 ;  his  conception  of  his  life-work, 
72,  78 :  his  methods  of  teaching.  74 ; 
nls  works  of  power.  74, 75 ;  his  rejec- 
tion and  its  cau»e,  76, 76 ;  his  trial 
and  oruciiixion,  76,  77;  his  resur- 
rectiou  and  ascension,  77;  results 
of  his  ministry,  76 ;  Stalker.  Bruce. 
Falrbalrn,  Beyschlag.  and  Weudt  on 
his  character  and  influence,  78-80 ; 
his  bust  placed  in  chapel  by  Alex. 
Severus.  162 ;  his  divinity  insisted 
on.  175 :  views  of,  among  Eblonites, 
175, 176 :  his  place  in  the  **  Clemen- 
tines," 177,  ift:  his  place  in  Onos- 
tlcism,  184 ;  his  place  in  system  of 
Valentinus,  189;  his  place  among 
the  Alogoi,  196 :  Paul  of  Samosata's 
view  of,  199 :  Mohammed*s  view  of, 
438.    (See  also  Christology.) 

Jewish- Alexandrian  philosophy:  re- 
ferred to,  69:  John's  relation  to, 
122 ;  influences  Gnosticism.  181, 182  ; 
traces  of,  in  "Bamabaii,*'221. 

Jews:  cease  to  be  a  nation.  118:  lose 
political  influence,  119:  forbidden 
by  Hadrian  to  enter  Palestine,  164. 

Joachim  of  Floris :  sketch  of,  651, 662 ; 
influence  of.  654, 655. 

John,  Gospel  of:  prologue  to,  com- 
pared with  Philo.  62 ;  discussed.  119 ; 
relation  of,  to  Jewish-Alezandrian 
philosophy,  122. 

John  Hyrcanus,  referred  to,  47. 

John  in.,  referred  to,  498. 

John  IV..  Pope,  repudiates  Monothe- 
litism,  868. 

John  of  Antioch,  attitude  in  the  Nes- 
torian  controversy,  840, 841. 

John  of  England,  some  account  of, 
514.  515. 

John  of  Parma,  referred  to.  564. 

John  of  Weeel,  sketch  of,  620. 

John  of  WesMl,  sketch  of,  620,  621. 

John  Pupper  of  Goch,  sketch  of,  619, 
•20.  ..   . 

John  the  Apostle :  meagreness  of  infdr- 
mation  regarding,  110:  banishment 
of,  121:  residence  of.  at  Ephesus, 
122 :  Polycarp's  memories  of.  282. 

John  the  Baptist,  referred  to,  60.  7a 

John  (1).  the  Epistle,  2 :  18. 20, 28  and 
4  :  2,  referred  to.  128. 

John  XXII.,  referred  to.  525. 

John  XXIII..  referred  to.  529. 

Jonathan,  mentioned,  46. 

Josephus,  describes  destnictlon  of 
Jeninlem,  117. 


Jovinian,  survival  of  his  doctrine,  559. 
Jovinianist  controversy,  outlined.  874, 

JovinianuB,  life  and  doctrine  of,  874, 


*'  JubUees,  Book  of."  referred  to.  44. 

Judaism :  its  spread  and  methods.  57; 
not  an  obscure  sect,  68 :  deathblow 
of  its  influence  on  Christianitr,  154; 
enjoys  a  revival,  175;  crushed.  175; 
struggles  in  the  *' Clementines'*  for 
ascendency,  177 ;  Marcion's  enmity 
toward,  11K2;  in  Montaulsm,  208 ;  in 
•*  Barnabas  "220,  221. 

Judaisers:  discussed,  94,  96:  at  Coi^ 
inth,  100;  their  influence  in  Ebion- 
ism,  174,  teq. 

Judas  HaccaDBBUs.  referred  to,  46. 

Jude,  referred  to,  lia 

Jude  12. 138. 

Judea:  turns  away  from  Jesus,  76; 
procurators  of,  136. 

Judgment :  in  Zoroastrianism,  87 ;  in 
Pharisaism.  48.  (See  also  Bseha- 
tology.) 

Judith,  referred  to,  42. 

Julia  Domna,  her  influence  on  relig- 
ious policy,  161. 

Julia  Mamn 


163. 


mentioned,  161,  162. 


Julia  Moesa.  mentioned.  161. 

Julian  the  Apostate,  reign  of,  809, 8ia 

Julian  of  Eclanum,  referred  to,  368, 
869. 

Julius  II.,  sketch  of.  688, 689. 

Justin  I.,  mentioned,  402. 

Justin  Martyr :  "  Apology  "  of,  155, 242, 
248 ;  martyrdom  of,  157 ;  life  of,  241, 
242 ;  "  Dialogue  with  Trypho,"  244. 

Justinian :  suppresses  Orlgenism.  834, 
335 ;  and  the  '*  Three  Chapters,"  348 : 
in  relation  to  the  papacy,  402,  teq. 

"  Key  of  Truth.  The,"  856.  385. 

Khshathr^  VairTs,  referred  to,  86. 

Kingdom.  Messianic :  Jesus'  view  of, 
72,  73;  its  relation  to  the  church, 
126.    (See  also  Eschatology.) 

Kraus,  mentioned,  16. 

Kurtz,  mentioned,  15. 

Lapst,  the :  referred  to,  166 ;  Cyprian's 

attitude  toward.  268-271. 
Lateran:    council    of,  512;    fdurth 

council  of,  615,  teg. 
Lateran  Council,  689.  64a 
Latin,  Tertollian  among  the  fhnt  to 

use  it  f6r  theolonr,  257,  258. 
Law.     ceremonial     observance    of, 

ceases,  118. 
Legates,  papal,  used  by  Hildebrand, 

Leo  the  Great :  sketch  of,  897,  teq. ; 

his  letter  to  Flavian,  844.  teq. 
Leo  III.,  crowns  Charlemagne,  496. 
Leo  X..  sketch  of,  689,  64a 
Leo  the  Isaurian:   mentioned,  881; 

hii  Tiews  of  image  worship.  887, 


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GENERAL  INDEX 


licontopolis,  temple  of.  118. 
Leudes,  referred  to,  444. 
UbeUaticU  referred  to,  166. 
Liberty,  religious :  its  evlieet  oonoee- 

don  by  a  civil  government,  171; 

attitude  of  Augustine  and  Ambrose 

toward.  811. 
Library  of  Alexandria,  referred  to,  27. 
Liotnius,  mentioned,  170, 172. 
Lightfoot,  his  view  of  '*  Ignatian  Spia- 

tlcs  '*  dbeussed.  223-228. 
Linus,  mentioned,  215. 
Litanies,   Zoroastrian  like  Catholic, 

Vt       /fljkoiklivt  Wnnihln.^ 

PllU0*8 

lew  of. 
Paul  of 
meat's 
3f,284; 
,n  the- 
>f,  827; 
ultury, 
11) 


1  early 
o  Sab- 
}f  the 
yr,  245. 
!7,Mo.; 
a.  187; 
nmen- 

.ntiSes 
lepara- 
idmin- 
water 
Teach- 
i,"  de- 
al Con- 
n,  588, 
S,  607; 

296. 
Boh«- 

40.441, 


497. 


Louts  the  Pious,  mentioned,  440. 447. 

496. 
Love-feast,  referred  to.  187, 188, 140. 
LuoHla,  mentioned,  209. 
Lnkasof  Prague,  mentioned.  509. 
Luke,  referred  to,  111 ;  Qospel  of,  21  : 

20-28,  discussed,  119. 
Lyons,  council  of.  517.  518. 
Lyons,  persecution  ox  chureh  at,  157. 

Maccabees :  books  of,  42 ;  struggles  of, 

Macedonia,  Jews  in,  56. 
Macedonian  conquest,  its  influence  on 

the  Jews,  89. 
Macedonian  period,  monuments  of,  in 

Jewish  history,  40.  teq. 
Maorlnus,  mennoned.  161. 
"  Magdeburg  Centuries,**  referred  to, 


Mah.  menticiMd.  17. 

Maiorinus,  menttooed,  208. 

"  MauaMes,  Prayer  of/*  referred  to,  4L 

Maui,  referred  to,  195. 

Maiiichsism :  Diocletian's  decree 
against,  168;  influenced  by  Marcion, 
196;  origin  and  doctrines  of,  IM- 
197;  its  influence  on  Christianity, 
197. 

Maroia,  referred  to,  150. 16a 

Marcian.  mentioned.  847. 

Marcion:  sketch  of.  191-198;  his  rela- 
tion to  New  Testament  canon.  300. 

Marcus  Aurelius,  reign  of.  156-150. 

Mark:  his  experience  in  mission 
work,  96;  hiK  relation  to  Alexan- 
dria, lia 

Mark,  Gospel  of:  referred  to.  119: 
Peter's  relation  to,  108 ;  when  writ- 
ten. 110. 

Marsilius  of  Padua,  sketch  of,  564-586. 

MarUn  V..  referred  to,  529.  58a 

Martin  of  Tours,  helps  asceticism,  STL 

Martyrdom:  of  Stephen,  85,  86;  of 
Peter  and  Paul.  100 :  of  JusUn  Mar- 
tyr. 157.    (See  also  Persecutions.) 

Mattathias  and  his  sons,  referred  to, 
46,47. 

Matthew:  referred  to,  110:  Gospel  of. 
referred  to,  119 ;  21 :  43.  119;  &  :  87- 
89. 119:  16 :  18, 125;  18  :  17.  as?.,  126. 

Matter,  Philo*s  idea  of,  6a  61. 

Matthias  of  Janow,  sketch  of.  610412. 

Maxentius.  mentioned.  17a 

Maximian,  mentioned.  169, 17a 

Maximilla,  mentioned.  204. 

Maximinus  the  Thncian,  mentioned. 
168;  referred  to,  17a 

Maximus.  a  defender  of  Dyothelitism, 

Medisvai  civilisation,  discussed,  487, 

Media,  many  Jews  in.  5a 

Melito.  referred  to.  287. 

Memnon.  attitude  of,  on  Neatorlaa 

controversy,  84a  841. 
Menander.  mentioned.  185. 
Menelaus.  mentioned.  4a 
Mensurius,  mentiohed,  200. 
Merovingian  kingdom,  the,  referred 

to.  404.  405. 
Merswin,  Rulmann.  referred  to,  49a 
Mesopotamia,  many  Jews  in.  5a 
Messfah.  Jewish  conception  of.  68. 
Messianic  hope:  in  "snoch,**  44;  in 

Judaism  generally.  02-64. 
Messianic  programme  of  Jesus.  72. 
Methodius,  rejects  Origen's  views.  882. 
Middle  Ages,  The.  not  a  time  of  retro- 
gression. 488. 
Milan,  edict  of:  mentioned.  171;  its 

effect  on  Christianity.  80a  807. 
Militsoh  of  Kremsier,  sketch  of,  60a 

6ia 
Millenarianism.  in  Mfcldle  Ages,  551. 
Milvian  Bridge,  battle  of.  171. 
Miracles  of  Jesus,  referred  to,  71 
Miracle-working,  ascribed  to  Gregory 

Thaumaturgus.  28a 


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GENERAL  INDEX 


633 


Mtelonary  methods  among  early 
Christians,  142, 148. 

Missions,  spirit  of,  in  Britain,  412,  seq. 

Mithra,  referred  to,  87. 

Mitbras-worsliip :  referred  to,  292 ;  in- 
fluence of,  on  Christianity,  296 ;  ca^ 
tore  of.  805. 

Hodaiism,  discuised.  200,  teq, 

Moeller,  mentioned,  15. 

Mohammedanism,  history  and  doc- 
trines of,  481,  teq, 

Monarchianism :  Dynamlstic,  ex- 
plained, 196-200:  Modalistic,  dis- 
onsnd  and  explained,  108,  200-202; 
its  spread  and  influence,  258,  250. 

Monaiticism:  among  Ewenes,  50; 
Tertullian  the  forerunner  of,  280: 
its  place  in  Christianity,  816,  aeq.  ; 
its  grades  and  its  effects,  817-819 ;  of 
Bast  and  West  contrasted,  425 ;  me- 
di»Tal,  described  and  discussed, 
451,  SCO.;  defined,  452;  in  Wycliffe's 
day.  604,  605. 

Monobasus  of  Adiabene,  mentioned, 
58. 

Monophysitism :  Theodoret  opposes, 
848 :  further  history  of,  848,  85£851. 

Monotbelite  oontroTeny,  history  of, 
849,  era. 

MontanfBm:  rise  of.  156.  158;  char- 
acteristics, origin,  doctrines,  and  In- 
fluence of,  202-206;  Tertullian  goes 
over  to,  258-260 :  influences  Cliristi- 
anity  througn  Tertullian.  260. 

Montanists,  their  attitude  toward  he- 
retical baptism,  270. 

Montanus,  referred  to,  204. 

Moutpelier,  Uniyersity  of,  470. 

Mosheim,  mentioned,  14. 

Mttller.  Karl,  mentioned,  16. 

Mysteries,  Greek,  their  influence  on 
Christian  worBliip,  296. 

Mysticism :  of  Julia  Domna  and  her 
aswdatas,  161 ;  medisTal,  485,  teq. 

Name,  the,  persecution  for,  115. 154. 

Naiarenes,  referred  to,  176, 177. 

Neander,  referred  to.  15. 

Nehemiah,  his  reforms.  84. 

Neo-GoBsarea,  the  home  of  Gregory 
Thaumatnrgus,  287. 

Neo-Platonism,  Origan's  xelatlon  to, 
280,281. 

Nepotism,  referred  to,  520. 

Nero :  gentle  In  early  years,  112 ;  Paul 
appeals  to.  112;  tils  later  cruelty, 
112, 118 ;  persecutes  Christians,  118 : 
influence  of  Jews  on.  114;  belief 
that  he  would  return,  121. 

Neronian  persecution,  referred  to  in 
Revelation,  121. 

Nestorian  oontroTeny,  its  nature  and 
history.  337-389. 

Neetorius.  his  yiews,  etc.,  887-842. 

New  Jerusalem,  Jewish  expectation 
of,  64. 

New  Testament:  canon  of.  211.  212; 
how  regarded  in  first  and  third  cen- 
turies, 214;  place  of,  In  Folycarp, 


288 ;  place  of,  In  "  Teaching  of  the 
TwelTe,"  285, 236 ;  as  used  by  polemi- 
cal writers.  247 ;  its  connection  with 
Old  Testament  In  view  of  IrensBUs, 
250 ;  its  place  in  first  and  third  cen- 
turies, 800, 801.  (See  also  Scriptures.) 

Nicene  Council.    (See  Ooundl.) 

Nioomedia,  persecution  at,  169. 

Nicholas  I.,  referred  to.  498. 

Nicholas  v.,  mentioned.  584. 586w 

Nicholas  of  Hussinets,  mentioned,  682. 

Niedner,  referred  to,  15. 

Noetian  heresy,  described,  256. 

Noetus,  referred  to,  201. 

Nominalism,  referred  to.  476,  477. 

Normans,  importance  of  their  oonvo 
sion,456,457. 

Novauanists,  described,  206, 207. 

Novatian,  referred  to,  207. 

Novatian  schism,  referred  to,  167. 

Novatus,  referred  to,  269. 

Occam,  WUliam  of,  sketch  of,  484.  485. 

Officers  of  church :  election  of,  85 ;  in 
apostolic  days,  181-185:  in  '*1  Clem- 
ent," 218.  (See  also  Blsnop,  Elder, 
and  Deacon.) 

Oldcastle,  Sir  John,  defends  Lollards, 
602. 

Old  Testament:  canon  of,  39:  related 
to  Greek  philosophy  by  Philo.  69: 
Marcion's  view  of.  192 :  attitude  of 
ManlchsBism  toward,  197;  how  re- 

red  in  first  and  third  centuries, 
how  used  in  "  1  Clement,"  216 ; 
how  used  in  "  Barnabas,"  2m,  221 ; 
place  of.  in  Folycaxp,  288 ;  place  of,  in 
^'  Teaching  of  the  Twelve,"  285,  236 : 
use  of,  by  apologists,  239;  Tatian's 
yiew  of,  246 :  Irenieus'  defense  and 
use  of,  250 ;  Clement's  yiew  of  its  use 
by  Greeks,  276.  277 ;  its  place  in  first 
and  third  centuries.  800;  influence 
of,  in  stimulating  persecution,  815. 
(See  also  Scriptures.) 

Ollyi.  Pierre' Jean,  mentioned,  565. 

Omolousios  (ofiotov«-ioc),829. 

Omoousios  (ofAoov«-»of ),  828, 844. 

Onesimus,  referred  to,  105. 

Onias,  mentioned,  4a 

Onias  III.,  mentioned.  46. 

Ordinances:  of  apostolic  churches, 
135 ;  peryerted.  292. 

Ordination,  need  of.  felt  by  Bohemian 
Brethren,  596. 

Ornnisation  of  churchea  (See 
Church  Organization.) 

Oriental  religions :  emigrate  to  Rome, 
81,  32 ;  Romans  receiye,  57. 

Origen :  sayed  from  maiityrdom,  160 : 

-  instructs  Julia  Mammaw,  162;  at 
GsBsarea,  168:  at  Alexandria,  271; 
life,  works,  and  doctrine  of,  280-287 ; 
influence  of,  on  Christian  thought, 
286,  287 ;  fate  of  his  yiews  after  his 
death,  882-886;  school  of,  272;  in- 
fluences Clement,  277;  influenoes 
Apollinaris.  836. 

Onnasd,  raftered  to,  86. 


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Ortldiebvlaiis,  mentioowv.  '^7.  572. 
Otho  the  Great:  restores  the  empire. 
441, 442 :  seeks  to  reform  the  papacy, 

Otto/oTrreislng,  mentioned,  664. 
Oxford,  UniveiSty  of,  470. 

Fachomius:  niles  of,  818,  819;  atti- 
tade  of,  toward  Orlgen,  382. 

Pagan  writers,  begin  to  study  Christi- 
anity, 159. 

Paganism:  becomes  alarmed,  166; 
not  repudiated  by  edict  of  Milan, 
171:  amalgamatea  with  Christian 
thought,  194 ;  in  time  of  Constaii- 
tlne.  291 :  how  treated  by  Constan- 
tine,  806,  807 ;  adherence  of  aristoc- 
racy to,  307;  attacked  by  Constan- 
tius  II..  306:  restored  by  Julian,  809 ; 
its  victory  in  defeat,  811, 818.  814. 

Panns,  flock  into  Christiaii  churches, 

Pamphilus,  mentioned,  882. 

Pantenus,  mentioned,  271 ;  Clement's 
opinion  of,  278. 

Pantheistic  heresy  of  Middle  Ages, 
665-^7. 

Papacy:  important  yictory  for,  S46; 
nse  and  growth  of.  893,  teq.;  the 
circumstances  favoring  it,  386,  teq.  ; 
impeccability  claimed  for,  401 ;  Jus- 
tinian's attitude  toward,  40B,  404; 
and  the  MerovingianB,  404,  406; 
and  Gregory  the  Great,  406,  teq. , 
and  the  Cariovinglans,  406 ;  effect  c« 
Crusades  upon,  462,  463;  effect  of 
Inquisition  upon,  4i68,  469:  during 
the  Middle  Ages,  496.  teq,;  de- 
Teloped  by  Hildebrand,  50*2,  teq.; 
ppsltion  of.  at  death  of  Innocent 
III..  518:  decline  of,  518,  teq,;  in 
Babylonish  captivity.  523,  teq,  (see 
also  Roman  Catholicism) ;  Its  rela- 
tion to  councils,  582.  588 ;  immedi- 
ately before  the  Reformation,  537 ; 
its  claims  to  Scotland  rejected,  602 : 
the  attitude  of  Edward  III.  toward, 
608 :  Wycllffe'R  attitude  toward,  604, 
teq.:  in  Bohemia.  608,  teq.;  Mi- 
litsch's  view  of.  610:  Matthias*  at- 
titude toward,  611 :  Huss'  views  of, 
616. 

Papal  schism,  the.  discussed,  625,  526. 

Papiaa.  Fragments  of.  287. 

Paraclete :  Simon  Magus  regarded  as, 
185 :  Manl  professes  to  be,  196 ;  Mon- 
tanistic  view  of,  205.  (See  also  Holy 
Spirit.) 

Parendi,  mentioned,  87. 

Paris,  University  of,  470,  472. 

Parties,  in  Christianity,  173, 174. 

'*  Passau  Anonymous,  The,"  referrod 
to.  675. 

Patrick,  sketch  of,  412. 418. 

Patripassianlsm :  referred  to,  202; 
spread  and  influence  of.  258. 259. 

Paul :  first  appearance  of,  86 ;  a  per- 
secutor. 88;  conversion  and  events 
following,  88,  89;   enters  missloii 


field,  90;  origin  of  his  name,  «; 
first  misslouary  journey,  91,  92;  at 
Jerusalem  conference,  93;  rebukes 
Judaizers,  94:  second  missionary 
Journey.  96 ;  third  missionary  jour- 
ney, lUO;  opposition  to  him  snows 
success  of  nis  work,  108 ;  at  Troea, 
102 :  last  visit  to  Jerusalem.  108.  KM ; 
plot  against,  104 :  Imprisonment  at 
OsBsarea,  104 ;  appeals  to  GsBsar,  104 ; 
voyage  to  Rome,  104 ;  imprisonment 
at  Rome,  104 ;  martyrdom  of,  106^ 
216 ;  date  of  his  death.  115. 

Paul  of  Samosata,  referred  to,  197-199. 

PauUcian  controversy,  outlined,  879, 

Paulicianlsm,  influenced  by  Marcion, 
198 ;  foreglearos  of.  874 ;  outiine  of. 
881,  teq,:  historical  sketch  of,  886. 
teq. ;  the  fateful ness  of  its  suppres- 
sion, 886 ;  the  influence  of,  385. 

Paulicians:  mentioned,  199:  referred 
to,  856,  857 ;  sketch  of,  879,  teq.:  con- 
nection of,  with  the  Reformation, 
541.  M9. 

Paulinusof  Kola :  and  asceticism,  871 ; 
Influences  Vigllautius,  877. 

Pelagian  controversy,  outilned,  862, 
•09. 

Pelaglanism :  Clement  of  Alexandria 
the  forerunner  of,  280 :  antecedents 
of,  859,  teq. 

Pelagians:  views  of,  368.  teq,;  pro- 
ceedings against,  868.  869. 

Felagius,  characterised,  362. 

Pella.  referred  to,  118. 

Penitentiary,  defined,  450. 

Pentecost :  referred  to,  82 ;  as  a  Chris- 
tian festival,  299. 

Pepin :  his  attitude  toward  the  papacy, 
406,  teq. :  referred  to.  417,  418. 

Perpetua,  mentioned,  161. 

Persecution  :  the  first  general,  86,  87 : 
the  flntt  imperial  (Neronian),  111- 
115;  under  Domltian.  120.  121 ;  rela- 
tion of.  to  spread  of  gospel.  148; 
causes  of.  148-150:  under  Marcus 
Aurelius.  156-159 :  at  Lyons  and  Vi- 
enne.  157;  at  Pergamus,  157.  156: 
under  Sept.  Severus.  160;  under 
Maziminus.  163 :  under  Decius,  164- 
166;  nnder  Valerian.  166,  167;  dar- 
ing third  century,  remarks  on,  167 ; 
under  Maxlmlnus  in  the  East.  170; 
gives  rise  to  Kovatianism  and  Do- 
natism,  207.  208:  under  Julian.  810; 
of  heresy,  etc.,  by  Christiana,  816, 
816,321. 

Perseverance.  Augustine's  view  of, 
867. 

Persians :  their  contact  with  the  Jews, 
36,  87:  their  influence  on  Jewish 
thought,  8ft.  89,  53.  54 :  Invade  the 
Roman  Empire.  8.V),  851. 

Peter :  spokesman  of  apostles,  82 : 
early  ministry  of,  89 ;  at  Jerusalem 
conference.  96 :  at  Antiooh.  94 ;  after 
Jerusalem  conference,  ino ;  Paul's 
Influence  over,  106;  at  Rome,  107; 


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traditions  of  death  of.  107 :  relations 
to  Asia  Minor.  107 ;  relation  to  Mark, 
106 ;  apocryphal  works  ancrlbed  to. 
108 :  relation  to  Roman  Church,  108 : 
date  of  death  of,  115 ;  "  1  Clement  ** 
•on  death  of,  216:  First  Epistle  of, 
106 :  2 :  18-17. 112 ;  Second  Epistle  of. 
108 :  place  of.  In  the  canon,  108 ;  2  : 
18,  !». 

Peter  de  Bruys :  referred  to,  649,  550 : 
sketch  of.  56a 

Peter  Chelcicky,  work  and  views  of, 
686'589.  « 

Peter  the  Hermit  mentioned.  458. 

Peter  Lombard,  mentioned.  479. 

Peter  the  Venerable,  mentioned,  560, 
561. 

Peter  Waldo,  sketch  of.  570.  bU. 
■  Petrobroslans,  the,  sketch  of,  557,  »eq. 

Pharisaism,  discussed.  47.  4& 

Pharisees:  nearer  than  Sadducees  to 
doctrines  of  Jesus,  48 ;  their  charac> 
teristic  teachings,  48,  49;  oppoee 
Jesus,  75,  76. 

Philemon :  Yet.  2,  explained,  126 :  re^ 
ferred  to,  105. 

Philip,  referred  to.  86.  87, 108, 110. 

Philip,  the  Arabian,  referred  to.  168. 

Philip  the  Pair,  referred  to.  521.  522. 

Phllippi :  Paul's  work  at.  96 :  Paul's  re- 
lations with  church  at,  97. 

Phillppians,  Epistle  to:  referred  to, 
97,105;  4:8,215;  4:15.126. 

"  Philippians.  Polycarp'i  Epistle  to,  *' 
discussed.  78\,  238. 

Philo:  his  place  in  the  history  of 
thought,  n;  metliods,  Tiews,  etc., 
of,  50-82 ;  lacks  historical  perspec- 
tive, 60 ;  his  view  of  the  Logos,  183, 
188. 

Philostratus,  referred  to,  161. 

Phcsnida.  evangelised,  89,  9a 

Pisa,  council  of.  528. 

"  PUU$  Sophia."  referred  to,  189. 

Pius  II. :  mentioned,  543 ;  sketch  of. 
586. 

Plato,  "  the  philosopher  of  the  Spirit  **: 
his  place  in  philosophy,  28 :  his 
views.  28.  24 ;  his  influence  on  Jew- 
ish and  on  Christian  thought,  28. 24 : 
Goethe's  opinion  of.  28:  Eusebius* 
opinion  of.  24 :  Westcott's opinion  of. 
24 :  Influence  of.  on  Philo,  60, 61 :  in- 
fluence on  "Clementines."  178;  in- 
fluences Gnosticism,  181 ;  his  views 
attacked  by  Irenseus.  249 :  influences 
Alexandrian  thought.  272:  influ- 
ences Scotus  Erigena.  475.  476:  in- 
fluences Arabic  philosophy,  479:  in- 
uences  the  Mystics.  485;  influences 
leaders  of  New  Learning.  492. 

Pliny,  correspondence  of.  with  Trajan. 
151. 

Podiebrad.  proceeds  against  the  Bohe- 
mian Brethren.  596.  .^08. 

Polemical  Period,  discussed.  246,  $eq 

'*Polycarp.  Epistle  of":  discuased. 
882-288 :  referred  to.  155. 182. 

Pompey,  takes  Jews  to  Rome.  56. 


Pontianus.  mentioned.  168. 

Pontifex  Maximus:  among  the  Ro 
mans.  30  ;  Augustus  becomes,  31  ; 
equivalent  of.  In  State  Church,  807. 

Poor  Men  of  Lombardy,  referred  to, 
571. 

Poor  Men  of  Lyons,  the :  referred  lo. 
566:  relation  of.  to  Poor  Men  of 
Lombardy.  571.  Sfo. 

Pornocracy,  the,  outlined,  499,  500. 

Pramunire,  Statute  of,  608. 

Pragmatic  Sanction,  the:  adopted, 
538;  withdrawn,  54a 

Praxeas,  discussed.  201,  258.  259. 

Prayer :  in  "  Teaching  of  the  Twelve," 
236 :  forms  of,  how  introduced.  298. 

Predestination:  in  Pharisaism,  49; 
Augustine's  view  of,  867. 

Presbyter.    (See  Elders.) 

Priests,  among  the  Romans,  29, 8a 

Prisca.  mentioned,  108. 

Prlsdlla,  Montanlst  prophetess.  204. 

Prophecy.  Old  Testament,  its  impor- 
tance for  the  apologists,  289. 

Prophets,  place  and  authority  of,  in 
New  Testament.  182. 188. 

Proselytes  Jewish :  nature  and  num- 
bers of,  57,  58 :  two  classes  of.  58. 

Proselytism,  early  Christians  charged 
with.  149. 

Protdpon  (vpovMvor),  referred  to.  257. 

Protestants,  before  iho  Reformation. 
543.  K9- 

ProvIsoTS.  Statute  of,  608. 

"  Psalter  of  Solomon,"  mentioned.  48. 

Pseudeplgrapha  :  discussed.  42-44  : 
their  number.  48;  still  written  In 
second  and  third  centuries.  44. 

Pseudo-Isidoiian  Decretals,  the.  dis- 
cussed. 447.  448. 

Ptolemies,  the :  promote  learning,  27 : 
found  Jewish  colonies.  28 :  have  Old 
Testament  translated  into  Greek, 
28 ;  considerate  to  Jews,  60. 

Pulcheria,  mentioned.  847. 

Purvatory:  in  Zoroostrianlsm.  87:  in 
"Clementines."  178;  germs  of.  in 
"  Hermas."  281. 

Pythagoras :  the  basis  of  his  philoso- 
phy. 21 :  his  Influence  on  the  Qnoe- 
tlcs.  21 ;  propagation  of  his  ideas, 
22 ;  influence  on  early  Christian 
thought,  22.  (See  also  nrthagorean- 
Ism.) 

Pythagoreanism :  and  Essenism.  58. 
54:  in  Philo.  60:  in  the  "Clemen- 
tines," 178;  in  Gnosticism,  181. 

Quadratos.  mentioned.  287. 

Quod  vMque,  etc.,  the  flrst  use  of.  870. 

Ramsay,  his  South  Galatlan  view,  95. 

Rashnu.  mentioned.  87. 

Realism.  476. 

Redemption,  promise  of.  by  Jews.  57. 

Reformation,  the :  precurHors  of,  54L 

teg. :  preparation  for.  600. 
Reformers,  before  the  Reformatiaii, 

619.  sag. 


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Relici,  worship  of.  209. 

Religion,  its  InflueDoe  on  its  adher- 
ents, 4. 

Religious  yearnings:  not  satisfied  hj 
Greece  or  the  East.  29,  31. 82,  87 ;  sat- 
isfied by  ChrUt.  es. 

Renaissance,  slcetch  of,  490,  teg. 

Repentance,  its  relation  to  the  liesi- 
anic  kingdom,  68. 

Reprobation,  Augostine's  view  of,  887. 

Reservations,  papal,  600. 

Resurrection:  in  Zoroastrianism.  87: 
in  Pharisaism.  48 ;  pre-Christian  be- 
lief in,  63 :  place  oi.  in  early  Chris- 
tian preaching,  83,  84. 

Reyelatlon.  book  of :  reason  for  its  ob- 
scurity, 118:  Its  date,  121.  122:  6 :  9. 
teg.,  explained,  121:  17  :  11,  ex- 
plained, 121 :  17  : 5.  explained.  122. 

ReTille,  on  "  Ignatiaii  Epistles."  228. 

Rhenish  dissenters,  the.  referred  to, 
668. 

Rhoda.  in  *'  Hennas."  229. 

Ritual:  helped  by  Gnostics,  194; 
stimulated  by  Manichssism,  197:  at 


b^inning  of  fourth  century,  296: 
causes  of  development  of.  296. 
Ritual,  of  the  AlbigenseB.  548. 


'Robber  Synod,  The,"  referred  to. 

846. 
Robert  Grossetftte,  work  and  influence 

of,  601,  WL 
Robertson,  mentioned,  16. 
RokTcana,  referred  to.  694.  696,  696, 

Roman  Oatholic  Church :  its  early  be- 
ginnings. 156 ;  effect  of  Leo's  letter 
upon.  846 :  historians  of.  16 :  media- 
▼al  opposition  to,  classified.  648.  se?.; 
attitude  of  Marsilius  of  Padua 
toward.  586.  566:  attitude  of  Chel- 
eicky  toward.  588:  Lollards'  atti- 
tude toward,  590.  591 :  Waldensian 
attitude  toward,  576,  577. 

Roman  Catholicism :  triumphant  in 
the  West.  427.  428:  how  affected  by 
feudalism.  445.  teq.;  the  Curia  In. 
449-451 :  effect  of  Crusades  upon,  461. 
seg.    (See  also  Papacy.) 

Roman  Church :  prevailingly  Gentile 
in  Paul's  time.  102 :  prestige  of.  in 
scoond  century.  252. 255 :  its  primacy 
first  advocated  by  Cyprian.  266.  267 : 
historyof  its  supremacy  as  Oaihedra 
Pttfi,  267.  268. 

Roman  Empire :  prepares  the  way  for 
the  spread  of  Christianity.  82.  83: 
early  political  contact  of  the  Jews 
with.  56.  56 :  protec1«  Jews  of  the 
Dispersion.  55 :  tiow  regarded  in  the 
Apocalypse.  121,  122:  attitude  of. 
toward  secret  societies.  128:  sus- 
pects Christianity.  149 :  shows  sifrns 
of  decay,  164 :  Persians  invade.  850. 
851. 

Roman  law,  its  infiuence  on  Tertol- 
lian.  257. 

Roman  officials:  protect  Paal.  108; 
protect  early  ChiMana.  IIL 


Roman  lellgioo: 
effecu  on  the  people. 


9:  pbd 


of  priestt  in.  29,  ao :  (lu«aicDed  i 
Christianity  and  nllica  for  ddeai 
101.165. 

Romans :  contrasted  wfth  the  Gieefa 
29 :  their  views  of  rd%ioB.  9;  ^ 
fiuenocd  by  conqoeiea  Greeks.  > 
their  policy  coucerains  ttitgiom  c 
conquered  peoples,  SO.  31. 

Romans.  Epistle  to:  diar. ii— id.  :c 
18 : 1-7.  explained.  112 :  1«,  is  a  ij^ 
placed?  102. 

Rome :  cosmopolitan.  28 :  its  task.  S 
Jewsin.  56 ;  PauKa  work  in.  KM.  I» . 
Peier  in.  107 :  oonflagnUioo  at^  IT 
ecclesiastical  oiKanisation  ot  4a 
growing  power  of  church  la.  m 
•eg. 

Roscellinus,ach 

Rotbe.  mentioned.  I&. 
Rufinus:  referred  to.  IS:  transkM 
Orlgen,  288 ;  attitude  toweid  (Mgea. 

888.834. 
RuTsbroek,  John,  lefened  to,  69G.  C 

Sabbath,  attitude  of  Chrlatiaai 

toward.  141. 
Sabellius.  201, 256. 257. 
Sacerdotalism:  uosopport'fioriBy.T. 

129 :  stimulated  1^  Manlchahw  b:. 

helped  by  dement  of  Alexaadi^ 

379 :  at  beginning  of  fotuth  oeater 

292. 
Saddncees:  arirtocratoand  tieethte> 

ers.49. 50:  regard  Je 

75.76. 
Sadduceelam.  oatllned.  47.  «L 
Sanris.  martyrdom  of.  15A. 
Salerno,  University  of.  47a 
Samaria,  a  fruitfid  aoO  for  < 

herefty,  55. 
Samaritan  Pentateoch.  referred  to.  H 
Samaritans,  referred  to.  54.  5& 
Sanhedrin :  rise  of,  47 :  in  ~ 

synagogues.  127. 
Saracens,  the.  Christians  atteek.  4Sr 
Saseanides,  referred  to.  19&. 
Satominus.  mentlooed,  ISft. 
Saul.    (See  Paul.) 
Savonarola,  short  sketch  of.  iiiL 
Saviour :  pre-Christian  history  item 

need  of.  29 :  expected  bj  ZoraasK 

ans.  37. 
Schaff.  mentioned,  tft. 
Scholasticiam,  ontUncd,  474.  ss«^  4B 

§eg. 
Sootns  Erigena.  sketch  of,  «Bl 
Scribes,  their  origin.  39. 
Scriptures :  great  principlea  oC.  exf» 

plffled  by  church  historr.  n :  IX^ 

detlan  orders  their  deetmettoe.  3« 

169:    Symmachus   transieiea.  tm 

Greek.  177   (see  aim  8e 

Gnostic  use  of.  I81.1S:  A 

converted  by  stndr  of. 

ieal  writers  acooid 


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217, 248 :  reading  of,  at  beginning  of 
fourth  century,  2M ;  their  place  in 
flrM  to  third  century,  8U0 ;  translated 
into  Gothic.  331 ;  Wycliffe  translates, 
into  English,  006.  (See  also  New 
Testament  and  Old  Testament.) 

Secret  societies :  relation  of,  to  Roman 
government,  128:  formally  pro- 
scribed by  Traian,  161 ;  law  against, 
enforced  by  Pliny,  162. 

Sects:  Jewish.  dcTelopment  of,  47; 
Christian.  174,  teq. 

Secundus,  mentioned.  200. 


Simon  Maccabeus,  referred  to,  48. 

Simon  Magus:  in  Acts.  87;  in  the 
**aementines."  177,  178.  181;  in 
Gnostic  systems,  185. 

Sin :  Greek  ideas  of.  21 ;  Philo*s  yiew 
of,  62 :  in  **  Clementines.*'  178 :  Gnos- 
tic Tiew  of.  181 :  classified  by  Mon- 
tanists.  206.  206 ;  post-baptismal,  ac- 
cording to  Hermas.  280.  281 :  Tertul- 
lian's  yiew  of.  261.  262:  post-bap- 
tismal, according  to  Tertulilan.  263 ; 
history  of  theology  of,  before  Pela- 
gios,  Sno,  teq. ;  Pelagian  Tiew  of,  364 : 
Augustine's  views  of.  866. 

Siztus :  bishop  of  Rome,  167 :  '*  Sen- 
tences '*  of,  287. 

SIztus  IV..  menUoned.  687. 

Skepticism,  prevalent  among  the  edu- 
cated. 81. 

Smith,  mentioned.  16. 

Socrates,  his  place  in  philosophy  and 
his  views,  22 ;  writer  of  church  his- 
tory. 18. 

**  Solomon.  Wisdom  of."  mentioned. 
42 :  '*  Psalter  of."  mentioned,  48. 

Song  of  the  three  children,  41. 

Sorbonne.  the.  referred  to.  472. 

Sophronius,  the  monk,  referred  to.  851 . 


Soteriology:  of  Mani,  106:  of  Clem, 
ent,  218 :  of  Justin,  245 :  of  Irenteus, 
251, 252:  of  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
278,279;  ofOriKen.  285. 


Taborites:  sketch  of.  681,  wo.;  doc- 
trines of.  582-.'S84 :  mentioned.  617. 

Tacitus,  describes  persecution  of 
Christians.  118. 114. 

Talmud,  referred  to.  47. 

Tanchelm,  sketch  of,  667. 

Targums:  mentioned,  47:  the  Word 
in.  61. 

Tatian.  mentioned,  186, 287,  246. 24A. 

Tauler.  John,  views  of,  489.  teq. 

Teachers,  in  New  Testament.  188. 

"Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles " : 
date,  authenticity,  etc..  m-287 :  re- 
lation to  "Ecclesiastical  Constitu- 
tions," 289. 

Telesphorus.  mentioned.  164. 

Templars,  the:  mentioned.  455:  de- 
stroyed. ,S24. 

Temple  of  Jerusalem,  destroyed  by 
Titus.  117.  ' 


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638 


GENERAL  INDEX 


Temptation  of  Jesos :  iti  rignlflcftnce, 
70;  when  related  to  the  disciples, 
70. 

Tertulllaa :  attitude  toward  Praxeas, 
201 ;  life,  works,  etc..  of,  257,  teq.  ; 
contrasted  with  Clement  of  Alexan- 
dria, 279,  280 ;  influence  of,  on  Cyp- 
rian, 265. 

Teutonic  Knights,  the,  mentioned,  456. 

Teutonic  peoples,  the,  relation  of,  to 
Christianity,  437. 

Thaddeus,  referred  to,  110. 

Theodore,  bishop  of  Rome,  repudiates 
Monotheliti8m.353. 

Theodore  of  Mopsuestia :  Christology 
of,  886 ;  condemned,  349. 

Theodoret:  mentioned,  13:  defends 
Nestorlanism,  340:  opposes  Mono- 
physltism.  343:  opposes  Eutyches, 
844;  excluded  from  '*Robber 
Synod,"  346 :  vindicated,  349. 

Theodoms,  meutloned,  13. 

Theodoeius  the  Qreat,  referred  to, 
810,  311. 

Theodoeius  II.,  attitude  of,  toward 
Cyril,  340. 

Theodotus,  referred  to,  197, 198. 

Theology  in  Middle  Ages.  474. 

Theophiius.  referred  to,  237,  246;  atti- 
tude of,  toward  Origen,  834. 

Theosophv  of  India,  encouraged  at 
Alexandria,  28. 

Thessalonians,  Kplstle  to,  discussed, 
97. 

Thessalonica,  Paul's  work  at,  97. 

Thomas,  mentioned.  110. 

Thomas  a  Kempis,  referred  to,  490. 

Thomas  Aquinas,  sketch  of,  483. 

Thomas  of  Stltnev,  mentioned,  612. 

Thraseas,  martyrdom  of,  158. 

"  Three  Chapters,"  fate  of,  349. 

Tiberius,  allows  Jews  to  return,  66. 

Tillemont,  mentioned,  14. 

Timothy:  chosen  by  Paul,  96;  1  Ep. 
to,  106;  2  £p.  to,  106;  1  Tim.  8  :  15, 
125. 

Tishtrya,  referred  to,  87. 

Titus,  mentioned,  117. 

Toblt,  referred  to,  42. 

Tradition,  its  place  among  the  Phari- 

TWufftors,'  referred  to.  169,  206. 

Traducianism.  Tertulllan  its  first  ad- 
vocate, 262,  359.  860. 

Trajan :  referred  to,  151 ;  correspond- 
ence with  Pliny,  151;  policy  re 
Christians,  152. 

Transubstantiatlon,  defined  for  the 
first  Ume,  515. 

Trinity:  In  "1  Clement,"  218;  Nean- 
der's  view  of,  251 ;  Tertullian's  view 
of,  260,  261. 

Troas,  Paul  at_102. 

"Two  Ways,  The":  in  "Barnabas," 
221;  in  "Teaching  of  the  Twelve," 
ZH',  in  "  Boclolastlcal  Constitu- 
tions," 280. 

"Tvpos,  The,"  of  the  Emperor  Hera- 


Uhlhom,  on  Roman  goTemnent  and 

Christianity,  83. 
Ulfilas,  referred  to.  881. 
Ulpian,  referred  to.  163. 
"  Dnam  jtenefam."  bull  of,  622. 
Uniias  J^ratrum  explained,  594. 
Unity,  Christian :  promoted  by  slodT- 

log  church  history,  18;  Cyprlan^i 

view  of  its  importance,  270.  ifl. 
Universities:    of    Middle   Ages,   469, 

ieq. :  origin  of  the  name.  470. 
Urban  II.,  nis  relation  to  theCruaadei, 

458. 

Valentinus:  referred  to,  188,  189;  hla 

views  attacked  by  Irenaus,  249. 
Valeria,  referred  to.  168. 
Valerian,  referred  to,  166. 167. 
Vatican,   palace  and  library,  when 

built.  5807 
Verethraghna,  referred  to,  87. 
Vespasian:  besieges  Jerusalem,  117; 

policy  toward  Christians  and  Jews, 

119,  120l 
"  Vicar  of  God,"  when  the  term  was 

first  used,  518. 
Victor  of    Rome:    attitude   toward 

Praxeas,  201 :  attitude  regarding  the 

Easter  controversy,  252;  his  dupo* 

sition,  255. 
Vienne,  persecution  at,  167. 
Vigilantlan  controversy,  mentioned, 

377,  MO. 
Vigilanttus,  sketch  of,  877.  teg, 
Vlgllantius,  survival  of  his  doctrine, 

Vigilius,  mentioned,  408.  404. 
Vlncenaus  of  Lerins,  mentioned,  370. 
*'  Virgins,  Epistles  to,"  referred  to,  218. 
Vohu  Manah,  referred  to,  36. 

Waldenaee,  the.  sketch  of.  569,  tea. 

Waldo,  Peter,  sketch  of,  570.  6n. 

Water,  its  sanctity  extolled  by  Tertul- 
llan, 262,  263. 

Wendt,  on  character  and  influence  of 
Jesus.  79. 

West  of  Europe:  at  dose  of  eighth 
century,  428,  teq.;  compared  with 
the  last.  424,  teq. 

Will :  Justin's  view  of,  244 :  Irensns* 
view  of,  251 ;  Tertullian's  view  of, 
261 ;  Clement  of  Alexandria's  view 
of,  278,  279 :  history  of  theology  of. 
before  Pelagiua,  &■».  teq.:  Pelagian 
view  of,  3f%  aro. ;  Augustine's  vlewi 
of,86^366.    (See  also  Free  Will.) 

William  of  Champeaux,  referred  to, 
477. 

Willibrord,  sket(  h  of,  410,  teq. 

Winifrid.    (See  Ronifece.) 

**  Wisdom  or  Solomon,"  mentioned,  42. 

Works,  of  merit,  among  Christians  at 
beginning  of  fourth  century,  292. 

Woridllness:  its  presence  In  the 
churches,  165;  in  the  churches  at 
end  of  third  century,  167 ;  Montan- 
ist  protest  against,  206;  of  Chria- 
tbttia  in  time  of  Tertulllan.  9M;  of 


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GENERAL  INDEX 


639 


Christians,  giyes  rise  to  monmsti- 
dsm,  817. 

Woridiy  power,  its  relation  to  Chris- 
tian growth,  148. 

Worms,  Concordat  of,  510. 

Worship:  in  early  cnurehcs,  140-142; 

{places  for,  among  early  Christians, 
42;  of  relics,  209;  in  Justin  Mar- 
.  tyr's  writings,  245 ;  at  beginning  of 
fourth  century,  292,  295 ;  was  influ- 
enced by  union  of  Church  and  State, 
313,  814. 
Wydiffe :  influences  Taborites,  561 ;  his 

Slan  of  reformation,  604.  $eq.;  his 
octrinal  views.  606,  teq.:  proceed- 
ings against,  607:  influence  of  his 
writings  in  Bohemia,  618,  614. 
Wycliffite  movement,  the.  sketch  of, 
600k  9eq, 


Yasatas,  referred  to,  87. 

Zahn,  his  view  of  the  "  Ignatian  Epis- 
tles "  discussed,  22fr-226. 

Zealots,  Jewish,  in  the  wars  with 
Bome  A.  D.  70  onward,  117,  teq, 

Zenobia,  referred  to,  196. 

Zenos,  on  the  mode  of  baptism,  187. 

Zephyrinus,  mentioned,  201,  255,  256. 

Ziska,  John,  mentioned,  582. 

Zoroastrianism :  at  Alexandria,  26; 
outline  of,  36,  87 :  relation  to  Bssen- 
ism,  58,  54 ;  relation  to  Gnosticism, 
182 ;  revival  of,  195. 

Zosimus,  attitude  of  toward  Pelagi- 
ans, 868. 


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