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7>1 


A   HISTORY  OF 

THE  CHEISTIAN  CHUEGH, 


A  HISTOEY 


CHRISTIAN    OHUECH 


DURtNG    THE 


Jfirst  Sb  €mimm. 


S.    CHEETHAM,    D.D.,    F.S.A., 

AECHDEACON   AND   CANON   OF   ROCHESTER; 

HONORARY   FELLOW    OF    CHRIST'S    COLLEGE,    CAMBRIDGE; 

FELLOW   AND  ESIERITDS    PROFESSOR   OF    KING's   COLLEGE,    LONDON. 


Hontou : 
MACMILLAN    AND    CO. 

AND   NEW  YORK. 

1894. 

[All  Bights  reserved.] 


PRINTED   BY   C.    J.    CLAY,    M.A.    &   SONS, 
AT    THE    UNIVERSITY   PRESS. 


TO   THE   EIGHT  REVEREND 

ANTHONY   WILSON   THOROLD,   D.D., 

LOKD    BISHOP    OP   WINCHESTEE, 

C^is  §00k  is  gziiURttti, 

WITH   GRATITUDE   FOR  MUCH   KINDNESS, 
BY  HIS  ATTACHED  FRIEND 

THE  AUTHOR. 


2066923 


PEEFACE. 

The  intention  of  this  work  is  to  provide  a  sketch  of 
the  History  of  the  Church  in  the  first  six  centuries  of 
its  existence,  resting  throughout  on  original  authorities, 
and  also  giving  references  to  the  principal  modern  works 
which  have  dealt  specially  with  its  several  portions.  It 
is  hoped  that  it  may  be  found  to  supply  a  convenient 
summary  for  those  who  can  give  but  little  time  to  the 
study,  and  also  to  serve  as  a  guide  for  those  who  desire  to 
make  themselves  acquainted  with  the  principal  documents 
from  which  the  History  is  drawn. 

The  narrow  limits  of  a  work  like  the  present  allow 
no  room  for  discussion.  The  author  is  only  able  to  give 
the  conclusions  at  which,  after  considering  the  various 
authorities  and  arguments,  he  has  himself  arrived.  In 
the  first  part  of  the  book,  in  particular,  a  controversy 
underlies  almost  every  sentence.  In  the  notes  however 
reference  is  made  not  only  to  those  documents  which 
confirm  the  statement  in  the  text,  but  to  those  also  which 
support  a  different  view. 

As  it  has  been  found  impossible  to  give  an  intelligible 
view  of  the  great  dogmatic  conflicts  and  of  the  growth 
of  institutions  without  following  their  several  courses  to 


viii  Preface. 

the  neglect,  for  the  time,  of  contemporary  events,  I  have 
thought  it  well  to  enable  my  readers  to  gain  some  idea 
of  the  general  state  of  the  Church  at  any  epoch  by  means 
of  a  Chronological  Table.  The  maps  will  supply  a  ready 
means  of  learning  at  a  glance  the  early  spread  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  the  territorial  divisions  which  the  Church 
adopted  when  it  became  the  dominant  religious  power  in 
the  Empire. 

The  books  which  I  have  had  constantly  before  me  in 
writing  this  sketch  are  Schrockh's  Christliche  Kirchen- 
geschichte,  Neander's  History  of  the  Christian  Religion 
and  Church  (Torrey's  translation),  Gieseler's  Lehrbuch 
der  Kirchengeschichte,  Kurtz's  Handbuch  der  Kirchen- 
geschichte,  Base's  Lehrbuch  and  Kirchengeschichte  auf  der 
Grundlage  aJcademischer  Vorlesungen,  F.  C.  Baur's  Ge- 
schichte  der  Christlichen  Kirche,  Alzog's  Universalge- 
schichte  der  Christlichen  Kirxhe,  and  (in  the  latter  part 
of  the  work)  Holler's  Kirchengeschichte.  References  to 
other  Histories  are  given  as  occasion  arises,  but  to  these 
I  owe  a  general  help  and  guidance  which  cannot  be 
acknowledged  in  detail.  I  have  also  to  express  my 
thanks  to  my  friend  Canon  Colson,  formerly  Fellow  of 
St  John's  College,  Cambridge,  for  his  kindness  in  reading 
the  proofs  and  making  many  suggestions. 


KOCHESTEB, 

18  Nov.,  1893. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Intkoduction  ...* 1 

PART   I. 

FROM  THE   ORIGIN   OF   CHRISTIANITY  TO   THE   EDICT   OF   MILAN 
(A.D.  313). 

CHAPTER   I. 

THE   PREPARATION  OF   THE   WORLD. 

1.  Paganism 4 

2.  Judaism       . 7 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE   APOSTOLIC   CHURCH. 

1.  The  Lord's  Ministry  and  the  Church  in  Jerusalem      .        .  13 

2.  St  Paul  and  the  Gentile  Church 16 

3.  St  James  the  Just 21 

4.  St  Peter 21 

5.  St  John 24 

6.  The  remaining  Apostles 25 

7.  Organization  and  Worshii^  of  the  Church    ....  26 

8.  Sects  and  Heresies 31 

CHAPTER   III. 

THE   EARLY   STRUGGLES   OF  THE  CHURCH. 

1.  Jewish  and  Roman  Persecution 34 

2.  The  Intellectual  Attack 49 

3.  The  Christian  Defence 53 


Table  of  Contents. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

GROWTH   AND   CHARACTERISTICS   OF  THE   CHURCH. 

PAGE 

1.  Early  Spread  of  the  Gospel 58 

2.  Asiatic  Churches 63 

3.  Alexandrian  School 68 

4.  Africa 75 

5.  The  Koman  Church .80 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE   GREAT   DIVISIONS. 

1.  Judaic  Christianity 86 

2.  Marcion 89 

3.  Montanism 92 

4.  Gnosticism 96 

5.  Manichffiism 102 

6.  The  CathoHc  Church 106 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  THEOLOGY  OF  THE  CHURCH  AND  ITS  OPPONENTS. 

1.  Sources  of  Doctrine. 

A.  Scripture 108 

B.  The  Eule  of  Faith  .......  Ill 

2.  Faith  in  the  One  God 114 

3.  The  Holy  Trinity  ........  115 

4.  Chiliasm 122 

CHAPTER   VII. 

THE   ORGANIZATION   OF  THE   CHURCH. 

1.  The  Christian  Ministry .124 

2.  Synods 137 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

SOCIAL   LIFE  AND   CEREMONIES   OP   THE  CHURCH. 

1.  Christian  Life 142 

2.  Asceticism 144 

3.  Hermits 145 

4.  Discipline    ..........  147 


Table  of  Contents. 


XI 


5.  Ceremonies 

6.  Sacred  Seasons    . 

7.  Architectural  and  otlier  Art 


PAGE 

151 
160 

165 


PART   II. 

FROM   THE   EDICT   OP   MILAN   (a.D.    313)   TO   THE  ACCESSION  OF 
POPE   GREGORY   THE   GREAT   (a.D.  590). 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   CHURCH   AND   THE   EMPIRE. 


1. 

2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 

The  Imperial  Church  ...... 

The  Hierarchy     ....... 

Patriarchs 

Eome  ......... 

Councils       ........ 

The  Fall  of  Paganism  .        .        . 

CHAPTER  X. 

THEOLOGY  AND   THEOLOGIANS. 

.  168 
.  175 
.  181 
.  186 
.  196 
.      199 

1. 

2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 

Literary  Character  of  the  Age      .... 
School  of  Antioch         ...... 

School  of  Edessa 

Alexandrian  School      .....         , 
Latin  Theology    ....„., 

.      213 

.  215 
.  222 
.  224 
.      239 

CHAPTER  XL 

CONTROVERSIES   ON   THE   FAITH. 

I.  Standards  of  Doctrine. 

1.  Holy  Scripture      .         .         .         „         , 

2.  The  Church  and  its  Tradition 

3.  Rules  of  Faith       ..... 

II.  The  Holy  Trinity. 

The  Ai'ian  Controversy        .... 

III.  The  Incarnate  Son. 

1.  ApoUinarianism    ..... 

2.  Nestorianism         ,         .         .         ,         . 

3.  Eutychianism        :,.... 

4.  Monophysitism      ...... 

IV.  Origenism         ....... 

V.  Priscillianism  . 

VI.  Pelagianism      ....... 


252 

254 
255 

256 

281 
283 
291 
295 
304 
310 
314 


xu 


Table  of  Contents. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

DISCIPLINE   AND   LIFE   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


1.  Law  and  Society  . 

2.  Donatism 

3.  Celibacy  of  the  Clergy 

4.  Monaehism  . 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


ECCLESIASTICAL   CEREMONIES   AND   ART, 


MAPS. 

Ecclesiastical  Dioceses 

Countries  reached  by  Christianity  in  the  First 
Three  Centuries 


PAGE 

328 
338 
348 
352 


I. 

Hites  and  Ceremonies        ...... 

.      369 

1.     Catechumenate  and  Baptism 

.      370 

2.     The  Holy  Eucharist 

.      374 

3.     The  Hour-Offices 

.       387 

4.     Matrimony    ....... 

.       888 

5.     Care  of  the  Sick  and  the  Dead 

.      390 

6.     Ordination    ....... 

.       392 

11. 

The  Cycle  of  Festivals      ...... 

.       394 

1.     The  Week     ....... 

.      395 

2.     Easter  and  Lent 

.       395 

3.     The  Saints  and  their  Festivals 

.       399 

4.     Calendars      ....... 

.      405 

5.     Holy  Places  ....... 

.      406 

III. 

Architecture  and  Art. 

1.     Structure  of  Churches 

.      407 

2.     Pictures  in  Churches     .         ,         .         .         . 

,      409 

3.     Sculpture 

.      412 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

GROWTH   OF  THE   CHURCH. 

I. 

The  Church  in  the  East 

.      415 

D. 

The  Conversion  of  the  Teutons ..... 

.      418 

1.     The  Goths     ....... 

.       420 

2.     The  Franks 

.       425 

III. 

The  British  Islands 

.       431 

1.     The  British  Church 

.       431 

2.     St  Patrick  and  the  Irish  Church  . 

.       435 

3.     St  Columba  and  lona 

.      440 

at  end  of  book. 


INTRODUCTION 


The  history  of  the  Church  of  Christ  is  the  history  of 
a  divine  Life  and  a  divine  Society;  of  the  working  of  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  in  the  world,  and  of  the  formation  and 
development  of  the  Society  which  acknowledges  Christ  as 
its  Head.  The  Church  is  distinguished  from  the  World, 
in  which  man  is  regarded  as  discharging  the  functions 
only  of  natural  life ;  and  again  from  the  State,  which 
is  primarily  an  organization  for  the  purposes  of  political 
life.  Yet  the  history  of  the  Church  cannot  be  treated 
as  if  it  were  wholly  independent  of  the  natural  and 
political  life  of  man;  for  the  form  which  Christianity 
assumes  in  particular  instances  is  largely  influenced  by 
the  natural  qualities  and  the  general  culture  of  those  to 
whom  it  comes ;  and  the  Church,  composed  of  men  who 
are  necessarily  citizens  of  some  state,  cannot  fail  to  in- 
fluence the  civil  constitution  of  the  states  in  which  it 
exists,  and  in  many  cases  to  be  itself  modified,  in  matters 
not  essential  to  its  existence,  by  the  civil  government. 

The  proper  task  and  constant  effort  of  the  Church  is, 
to  realize  in  itself  the  life  of  Christ  and  to  maintain  His 
Truth ;  and  again  to  bring  all  the  world  within  the  in- 
fluence of  Christian  Life  and  Christian  Truth.  Church 
History  has  to  relate  the  results  of  this  constant  effort ;  to 
describe  the  struggle  of  the  Church  to  maintain  at  first 
its  very  existence,  afterwards  its  proper  functions  and 
liberty,  against  the  powers  of  the  world,  whether  political 
or  intellectual ;  to  preserve  its  own  purity,  whether  against 
those  who  would  lower  the  standard  of  Christian  life,  or 
against  those  who  would  take  away  from  the  truth  or  add 
to  it;  its  own  unity  against  those  who  would  rend  it; 

c.  1 


Introduc- 
tion. 


Concep- 
tion of 
Church 
Uistonj, 

Church 
distin- 
guished 
from 
World, 
and  the 
State; 
hut  not 
separated. 


Work  of 

the 

Church. 


Persecu- 
tion. 


Heresy. 


Schism. 


Introduction. 


its  efforts  constantly  to  extend  its  borders,  and  to  con- 
solidate the  conquests  which,  it  has  already  won ;  and  again 
it  has  to  chronicle  the  changing  and  diverse  thoughts  which 
have  clustered  round  the  faith  once  for  all  delivered  to  the 
saints,  and  formed  the  Theology  of  the  Christian  Church. 

The  present  volume  is  concerned  mainly  with  what 
may  be  called  the  Ancient- Classic  Period ;  the  period, 
that  is,  during  which  the  old  classical  forms  of  literature 
and  civilization  were  still  in  a  great  degree  maintained. 
And  this  may  conveniently  be  separated  into  two  divi- 
sions. 

1.  The  early  struggles  of  the  Church  from  its  founda- 
tion to  its  victory  under  Constantine. 

2.  The  period  in  which  the  now  Imperial  Church 
defined  the  Faith  in  the  great  Councils,  and  entered  on 
its  task  of  bringing  under  the  yoke  of  Christ  the  northern 
tribes  which  everywhere  burst  in  upon  the  Empire.  This 
period  may  be  roughly  limited  by  the  accession  of  Gregory 
the  Great  to  the  Papacy. 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE   PREPARATION   OF   THE   WORLD  . 

It  was  in  the  fulness  of  time  that  the  Son  of  God  came 
into  the  world.  By  many  influences  the  way  had  been 
prepared  before  Him. 

That  the  unity  of  the  Empire  and  the  general  peace 
favoured  the  passage  of  the  first  preachers  of  the  gospel 
was  long  ago  observed  by  Origen^  And  not  only  could 
an  apostle  pass  from  the  borders  of  Persia  to  the  English 
Channel  unhindered  by  the  feuds  of  hostile  tribes;  the 
barriers  which  varying  culture  raises  up  hardly  existed 
among  the  more  educated  subjects  of  the  Empire.  In  every 
large  town  the  Greek  language  was  spoken,  Greek  modes 
of  thought  prevailed;  subtle  links  connected  the  Syrian 
apostle  with  the  Greek  philosopher.  "A  morality  not 
founded  on  blood-relation  had  certainly  come  into  exist- 
ence. The  Roman  citizenship  had  been  thrown  open  to 
nations  which  were  not  of  Roman  blood.  Foreigners  had 
been  admitted  by  the  Roman  state  to  the  highest  civic 
honours.  So  signally  were  national  distinctions  obliterated 
under  the  Empire,  that  men  of  all  nations  and  languages 
competed  freely  under  the  same  political  system  for  the 
highest  honours  of  the  state  and  of  literature.     The  good 


^  Of  the  numerous  works  which 
relate  to  the  preparation  of  the 
world  for  Christ  may  be  mentioned — 
J.  J.  I.  Dollinger,  The  Gentile  and 
the  Jeio  in  the  Courts  of  the  Temple, 
translated  by  Darnell  ;*  T.  W.  Alhes, 
The  Formation  of  Christendom;  H. 
Formby,  Ancient  Rome  and  its  Con- 
nexion loith  tlie  Christian  Religion; 
De  Pressens6,   Jesus  Christ;    the 


Lives  of  Christ  by  F.  W.  Farrar 
and  by  Cunningham  Geikie ;  Haus- 
rath,  Neutestamentliche  Zeitge- 
schichte ;  Schiirer,  Handbuch  der 
Neutestamentlichen  Zeitgeschichte ; 
Schmidt,  Essai  Historique  sur  la 
Societe  Civile  dans  le  Monde  Ro- 
main. 

2   c,   Celsum,  ii,    30;    Eusebius, 
Dem.  Evang.  iii.  6. 

1—^ 


Chap.  I. 


Roman 
Peace. 


Cosmopoli- 
tanism. 


The  Preparation  of  the  World. 


Aurelius  and  the  great  Trajan  were  Spaniards.  Severus 
was  an  African.  The  leading  jurists  were  of  Oriental  ex- 
traction \" 

And  at  the  same  time  the  old  religions  had  lost  much 
of  their  life  and  force.  Probably  indeed  there  never  was  a 
time  when  temples  were  more  splendid  or  pagan  worship 
more  august  than  in  the  days  when  the  Lord  appeared  on 
earth,  but  the  educated  classes  at  least  had  long  ceased  to 
believe  in  the  ancient  mythology  as  divine  or  authoritative. 
Livy^  sadly  contrasted  the  ages  of  faith  with  his  own  age, 
which  mocked  at  gods.  Philosophers  perhaps  rarely  denied 
in  set  terms  the  existence  of  deities,  but  they  transformed 
the  old  half-human  gods  into  shadows  or  abstractions. 
This  transformation  was  for  the  most  part  the  work  of  the 
Stoics.  Acknowledging  for  themselves  but  one  deity, 
pervading  the  universe  and  causing  all  phenomena,  they 
were  yet  reluctant  to  destroy  the  religion  of  those  who 
could  not  rise  to  this  height  of  contemplation.  They 
therefore  laid  it  down  that  the  ordinary  divinities  re- 
presented different  forms  of  the  manifestation  of  the  One. 
The  stars,  the  elements,  the  very  fruits  of  the  earth  might 
be  regarded  as  deities.  Zeus  is  in  this  system  no  longer 
the  president  of  the  gods,  but  the  ruling  spirit  or  law  of 
the  iiniverse,  of  which  the  subordinate  gods  represent 
different  portions.  Such  explanations,  however,  though 
they  might  make  it  easy  for  a  Stoic  to  take  part  in  the 
religious  ceremonies  of  his  country,  were  nevertheless  de- 
structive of  the  old  religion.  And  while  the  moral  philo- 
sophers resolved  the  deities  into  abstractions,  the  physicists, 
like  the  elder  Pliny  ^  held  that  speculation  about  things 
outside  the  material  universe,  itself  a  deity,  lay  beyond 
their  province  altogether.  In  a  word,  the  pagan  faiths 
were  undergoing  a  process  of  gradual  destruction,  though 
the  people  long  clung  to  their  traditional  observances. 

But,  in  truth,  even  in  its  palmy  days  the  worship  of 
the  Olympian  deities  supplied  nothing  to  guide  man  through 
life  or  to  console  him  in  death.  The  pagan  gods  were 
deities  of  the  tribe  or  the  nation,  not  of  the  individual 
soul.  The  Greek  religion  was  for  the  Greek  as  a  citizen ; 
it  was  an  artistic  and  elevated  idealization  of  Greek  life, 

1  Ecee  Umno,  l.Hl  f.  2  iJiaUrria,  x.  40. 

•'  Hist.  Nat.  II.  1. 


TIic  Preparation  of  the   World. 


with  its  excellencies  and  its  failings.  So  in  Rome,  the 
greater  gods  formed  a  glorified  senate,  while  the  religious 
ceremonies  of  the  minor  deities  were  interwoven  with 
almost  the  whole  life  of  a  Roman  \  With  this  national 
conception  of  religion,  the  deification  of  the  emperor  was 
little  more  than  a  natural  result  of  the  Roman  pride  in 
the  greatness  of  the  empire ;  and  at  the  same  time  the 
extension  of  the  empire  beyond  the  nation  tended  to 
obscure  the  old  national  deities.  Roman  statesmen  were 
indeed  anxious  to  maintain  a  religion  the  baselessness  of 
which  they  admitted,  because  they  thought  it  a  necessary 
prop  for  the  state ;  but  a  people  soon  finds  out  that  it  is 
being  governed  by  illusions ;  the  scepticism  of  the  rulers 
in  time  descends  to  the  subjects. 

In  the  decay  of  the  religions  of  western  Europe,  the 
gods  of  Asia  seemed  to  otfer  more  delightful  mystery.  In 
particular,  the  Egyptian  legend  of  the  suffering  Osiris — 
originally  a  mere  nature-myth — was  found  comforting  by 
men  who  sought  in  religion  relief  from  suffering.  And  as 
the  worship  of  Osiris  was  grateful  to  the  wretched,  so  was 
that  of  the  Persian  sun-god  Mithras  to  aspiring  humanity. 
The  unspotted  god  of  light,  who  was  engaged  in  a  never- 
ceasing  struggle  against  darkness,  drew  men's  hearts  to 
him  as  the  sensuous  Olympians  had  never  done.  Wherever 
the  soldiers  of  the  empire  encamped,  rude  sculptures 
testify  to  the  wide-spread  worship  of  Mithras.  The  Mys- 
teries too  came  into  greater  prominence  in  the  decay  of 
Greek  and  Roman  religion.  Whatever  their  origin,  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  in  the  mysteries  of  Demetcr  it 
was  taught  that  the  soul  of  man  survived  death,  and  that 
the  initiated  would  enjoy  the  light  and  bliss  of  the  under- 
world, while  the  faithless  and  abominable  wallowed  in 
misery*.  The  hope  of  escaping  the  fate  of  the  impious 
doubtless  drew  many  t(j  offer  themselves  for  initiation. 
Dionysus  also,  originally  a  myth  of  the  revival  of  the  vine 
after  the  storms  and  frosts  of  winter,  became  in  later  times 
the  representative  and  forerunner  of  man  rising  again  to 
immortality".  Cicero*  in  his  day  declared  that  of  all  the 
excellent  things  to  be  found  in  Athens,  the  most  precious 


*  Augustine,  De  Civ,  Dei,  vi.  9. 
-  Aristoph.  Frogs,  142. 
^  Hausratli,  ii.  76. 


*  De  Legihus,  ii.    14,   §  36;  cf. 
Verres,  v.  72,  §  187. 


Chap.  I. 


Oriental 
Religions. 


Mysteries. 


The  Preparation  of  the   World. 


were  the  mysteries,  since  in  them  men  found  not  only- 
happiness  in  life  but  hope  in  death.  Yet  they  not  seldom 
became  centres  of  corruption  which  rulers  repressed  and 
good  men  abhorred  ^ 

The  conceptions  which  were  found,  obscure  and  mixed 
with  much  evil,  in  the  mysteries,  appeared  in  a  purer 
form  in  Platonism.  To  Plato  mainly  is  due  the  thought 
which  took  so  deep  root  in  after  ages,  that  in  the  material 
world  is  but  vanity,  darkness,  and  decay;  in  the  ideal 
world,  reality,  light,  and  life.  In  the  Platonic  school  we 
find  a  constant  belief  in  one  God,  the  ground  of  all  exist- 
ence, in  the  continued  life  of  the  soul,  in  rewards  and 
punishments  after  death.  And  a  new  influence  came  into 
the  Roman  world  through  the  Stoics,  whose  most  famous 
teachers  were  not  only  Oriental  but  Semitic.  Such  of 
these  as  lived  on  the  confines,  or  even  within  the  borders, 
of  the  Holy  Land,  may  have  been  in  some  degree  in- 
fluenced by  the  Jewish  Schools,  though  it  was  certainly 
not  from  them  that  they  derived  their  main  doctrines. 
In  Seneca^,  St  Paul's  contemporary,  a  Stoic  much  in- 
fluenced by  Plato,  we  find  many  expressions  which  sound 
like  an  echo  or  an  anticipation  of  Christianity.  When  he 
describes  this  mortal  life  as  a  prelude  to  a  better ;  when 
he  speaks  of  the  body  as  a  prison  and  looks  forward  to  the 
enjoyment  of  a  diviner  life  when  he  is  freed  from  it' ; 
when  he  urges  that  the  body  of  one  departed  is  but  a 
fleeting  form,  and  that  he  who  is  dead  has  passed  into 
eternal  peace*;  when  he  describes  the  departed  soul  as 
enjoying  its  freedom,  contemplating  from  above  the 
spectacle  of  nature  and  of  human  life'';  when  he  tells 
of  the  glorious  light  of  heaven® ;  we  see  that  the  thoughts 
of  men's  hearts  were  being  prepared  to  receive  in  Christ 
the  full  assurance  of  these  lofty  hopes.  But  it  is  through 
Christ  that  these  hopes,  and  much  more  than  these,  have 
become  the  heritage  of  humanity;  without  Him  they 
would  have  remained  but  the  pleasant  fancies  with  which 
a  few  elevated  souls  comforted  themselves  in  the  distrac- 


1  Tacitus,  Amu  11,  31;  Clem. 
Alex.  Protrept.  i.  2,  p.  11;  Tertul- 
lian,  adv.  Valentin.  1. 

-  See  J.  B.  Lightfoot,  St  Paul 
and  Seneca,  in  Philijjpians,  pp.  26S 
—326. 


s  EpUtt.  102.  22,  23;  120.  14  f.; 
65.  16. 

*  Ad  Marcianam  da  Consol.  19. 
6;  24,  5. 

5  Ad  Polijb.  dc  Consol.  9.  3. 

6  Epist.  102.  20. 


Tlie  Preparation  of  the  World. 


tiuns  of  the  world.  There  are  not  wanting  indications 
that  man  felt  his  need  of  some  greater  one  to  help  and 
guide  him.  "  Let  the  soul  have  some  one  to  revere,"  said 
Seneca*,  "  by  whose  influence  even  his  secret  thoughts  may- 
be purified Happy  he  who  can  so  reverence  his  ideal 

as  to  i-ule  and  fashion  himself  after  him  by  the  mere 
memory  of  him  !  "  But  then,  where  was  the  pattern  to  be 
found  ?  Each  school  depreciated  the  ideal  of  every  other. 
The  scheme  of  the  Stoic  wanted  solidity.  It  was  in  Christ 
that  the  ideal  was  found  which  all  men  might  reverence 
and  to  which  all  men  might  aspire. 

And  even  among  the  heathen  there  was  in  the  first 
century  a  kind  of  belief  that  a  turning-point  in  the  history 
of  the  world  had  come.  The  Stoics  held  that  the  secular 
year  was  drawing  to  a  close,  that  the  course  of  the  ages 
would  soon  begin  to  run  over  again.  The  ninth  month 
ended  with  the  death  of  Julius  Cassar,  and  the  month  of 
Saturn,  the  golden  age,  was  already  returning^.  With  the 
upper  classes  this  expectation  was  probably  little  more 
than  a  literary  fancy;  but  the  lower  orders,  who  knew  to 
their  cost  that  they  lived  in  an  iron  age,  took  such  pro- 
phecies much  more  seriously. 

But  the  plot  into  which  the  seed  of  the  Word  was  first 
cast  was  Judaism.  Signs  were  not  wanting  that  the 
ancient  garden  of  the  Lord  had  lost  something  of  its  old 
fertility ;  prophecy  had  ceased ;  from  the  days  of  Malachi 
to  the  days  of  John  Baptist  no  man  had  been  recognized 
as  a  prophet  of  the  Lord.  But  idolatry,  against  which  so 
many  prophets  had  protested  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  was 
no  more  found  in  the  land ;  Israelites  still  felt  a  thrill  of 
pride  at  the  name  of  the  Maccabees ;  their  fathers  had 
endured  torture  and  death  rather  than  suffer  the  Lord  to 
be  dishonoured.  The  Scriptures  were  expounded  by  a 
multitude  of  scribes  and  doctors,  and  hundreds  of  admiring 
disciples  sat  at  their  feet  in  the  schools  and  the  synagogues. 
The  Jew,  said  Josephus^  knows  the  Law  better  than  his 
own  name.  No  doubt  they  often  used  the  words  of  the 
Book  as  mere  charms  or  amulets ;  but  at  least  a  verbal 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  was  widely  diffused  at  the 
time  when  He  came  on  earth  of  whom  Moses  in  the  Law 


1  Epist.  11. 

2  Virgil,   Eel.   iv.     See  Couing- 


ton's  notes. 

^  c.  Apion,  II.  18. 


Chap.  I. 


Saturnian 

Age. 


Judaism. 


Isrufil  pure 
from  idola- 
try. 


Know- 
ledge of 
Scripture. 


llie  Preparation  of  the  World. 


and  the  frophets  did  write.  And  there  was  among  the 
Jews  of  Palestine  a  general  expectation  that  Messiah 
would  speedily  come.  The  book  of  Daniel  spoke  of  four 
kingdoms  of  the  earth,  the  fourth,  in  spite  of  its  iron  teeth 
and  brazen  claws,  trodden  down  by  the  kingdom  of  the 
saints :  what  was  this  but  the  iron  empire  of  Rome,  over- 
thrown by  the  kingdom  of  the  Israelites*?  The  readiness 
with  which  pretenders  drew  followers  about  them  shewed 
the  excitement  of  the  popular  mind. 

The  Jews  of  Palestine  in  the  Apostolic  age  were  divided 
into  parties.  The  Sadducees,  the  men  of  wealth  and  official 
dignity,  were  the  conservatives  of  their  time.  They  ad- 
hered to  the  old  Mosaic  Law,  and  rejected  all  modern 
additions  as  innovations.  The  promises  to  the  faithful 
people  they  regarded  as  belonging  to  this  life  and  to  their 
own  land.  They  looked  for  no  resurrection,  no  Kingdom 
of  God  beyond  the  grave.  They  could  not  question,  they 
probably  regarded  as  theophanies,the  appearances  of  angels 
mentioned  in  the  Scriptures  ;  but  they  believed  in  no 
heaven,  no  abiding  world  of  angels  and  spirits ;  nor  did 
they  look  for  a  pure  and  perfect  Kingdom  of  God  on 
earth  ^  Such  opinions  as  these  were  no  good  preparation 
for  the  reception  of  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

But  the  Sadducees.,  though  wealthy  and  high  in  place, 
were  comparatively  few  in  number ;  the  national  party, 
the  party  which  represented  the  pride  of  the  Jew  and  his 
hatred  of  the  Gentiles,  was  that  of  the  Pharisees.  Know- 
ledge of  the  Law,  holiness  according  to  the  Law,  were  their 
watchwords.  Doubtless,  too  often  their  minds  and  their 
lives  were  filled  with  burdensome  trivialities ;  they  put 
the  letter  before  the  spirit  of  the  Law ;  yet  to  them  mainly 
it  is  due  that  the  belief  in  a  world  to  come  and  the  ex- 
pectation of  Messiah's  kingdom  took  deep  root  in  the 
minds  of  Israelites.  They  did  not  allow  the  noblest  con- 
ception of  Israel's  future  to  fade  out  of  memory;  from  the 
dark  present  they  looked  to  the  bright  future ;  they  made 
this  future  kingdom  a  household  word  among  the  people. 
Thus  they  laid  throughout  the  land  a  train  by  which  the 
fire  might  be  kindled  at  the  word  of  Christ*.     Of  a  con- 


1  Joscplius,  Antt.  X.  11.  7;  Bell. 
Jud.  VI.  5.  4. 

2  Josephus,  Bell.  Jvd.  ii.  8.  14 ; 
Antt.  XVIII.  1.  4;  Hippolytus,  Ilae- 


reses,  ix.  29. 

3  KeiTn,JesusqfNaznra,i.  329  ff. 
(Ransom's  Trauslatioa). 


The  Preparation  of  the  World. 


verted  Pharisee  we  have  a  conspicuous  instance  in  St  Paul ; 
we  can  hardly  imagine  a  converted  Sadducee. 

The  Essenes^  formed  communities  of  their  own  in 
Palestine  and  Syria,  in  which  they  endeavoured  to  reach 
a  degree  of  ceremonial  purity  and  a  complete  obedience 
to  the  Law  which  was  imattainable  in  the  haimts  of 
common  life.  "If  with  the  Pharisees  ceremonial  purity 
was  a  principal  aim,  with  the  Essenes  it  was  an  absorbing 
passion.  The  Pharisees  were  a  sect,  the  Essenes  were  an 
order.,.. They  were  formed  into  a  religious  brotherhood, 
fenced  about  by  minute  and  rigid  rules,  and  carefully 
guarded  from  any  contamination  with  the  outer  world." 
Jews  as  they  were,  "their  speculations  took,  a  Gnostic 
turn,  and  they  guarded  their  peculiar  tenets  with  Gnostic 
reserve*."  They  avoided  the  Temple-sacrifices,  they 
denied  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  and  they  appear  to 
have  cherished  no  Messianic  hopes.  A  counterpart  to  the 
Essenes  of  Palestine  is  found  in  the  Therapcutae  described 
by  Philo'  in  Egypt. 

"The  Samaritan  occupied  the  border  land  between  the 
Jew  and  the  Gentile.  Theologically,  as  geographically,  he 
was  the  connecting  link  between  the  one  and  the  other. 
Half  Hebrew  by  race,  half  Israelite  in  his  acceptance  of  a 
portion  of  the  sacred  canon,  he  held  an  anomalous  position, 
shunning  and  shunned  by  the  Jew,  yet  clinging  to  the 
same  promises  and  looking  forward  to  the  same  hopes'*." 

Even  in  Palestine  the  Jews  of  higher  rank  received  a 
tincture  of  Greek  cultivation;  in  the  Maccabean  family 
itself,  within  a  few  years  after  the  struggle  with  Antiochus, 
imitators  of  Greek  customs  were  found";  and  among  the 
rabbis,  from  Antigonus  of  Socho,  who  flourished  about 
two  centuries  before  Christ,  to  Gamaliel  the  teacher  of 
St  Paul,  a  taste  for  Greek  literature  was  frequently  mani- 
fested. Nevertheless,  in  the  people  of  the  Law,  and 
especially   in   the   Holy    City,    exclusiveness   and   hatred 


1  JosepliuR,  Bell.  Jud.  ii.  8.  2 
— 13 ;  Antt.  XIII.  5.  9,  xviii.  1.  5 ; 
Vita  2 ;  Philo,  Quod  omnis  probns 
liber,  c.  12  ff.  and  fragment  in 
Euseb.  Prcep.  Evang.  viii.  11. 

"  J.  B.  Lightfoot,  Colossiaiis,  pp. 
120,  92. 

'  If  the  treatise  De  Vita  Con- 
templativa  be  really  Philo's,  a  mat- 


ter admitting  considerable  doubt. 
See  Lucius,  Die  Therapeuten  und 
ihre  Stclhing  in  die  Gescliichte  der 
Askese.  Eusebius  (H.  E.  ii.  17) 
merely  follows  Philo. 

*  J.  B.  Lightfoot,  Galatiam,  p. 
282,  1st  edition. 

8  Josephus,  Antt.  xii.  5.  1;  xiii. 
11.  3 ;  13.  5. 


The  Preparation  of  the   World. 


everywhere, 
meetings  or 
of  worship. 


towards  the  stranger  on  the  whole  prevailed.  The  more 
fanatical  rabbis  excluded  from  eternal  life  those  who  loved 
the  Greek  learning  \  It  was  through  the  Jews  of  the 
Dispersion  that  Hebrew  and  Greek  thought  were  brought 
into  some  intimacy  of  contact.  "The  Jews,"  said  Strabo^ 
about  the  time  of  our  Lord's  birth,  "have  penetrated  into 
every  city,  and  you  will  not  easily  find  a  place  in  the 
empire  where  this  tribe  has  not  been  admitted  and  become 
influential."  In  some  cities  they  had  a  separate  civil 
orsranization  under  their  own  alabarchs  or  ethnarchs": 
in  spite  of  the  Roman  jealousy  of  private 
associations,  they  enjoyed  complete  freedom 
Where  their  means  did  not  suffice  for  a 
synagogue  they  at  least  fenced  off  some  quiet  spot — if 
possible  by  the  side  of  a  stream — to  which  they  might 
retire  for  prayer.  Where  they  were  rich  and  numerous, 
as  at  Alexandria,  they  reared  temples  which  rivalled 
the  magnificent  edifices  of  the  Greeks.  And  out  of 
Palestine,  the  Jews  were  somewhat  less  Jewish;  they 
adopted  for  the  most  part  the  Greek  language,  and  con- 
formed so  far  as  they  might  to  Gentile  usages.  The  fact 
that  they  were  removed  from  the  constant  view  of  the 
Temple  and  the  debasing  associations  which  moved  the 
Lord's  wrath,  was  not  without  its  influence.  It  was  easy 
to  idealize  a  sanctuary  which  was  not  always  before  their 
eyes.  Out  of  Palestine,  the  ceremonial  portions  of  the 
Jewish  Law  dropped  a  little  out  of  sight,  and  the  moral 
precepts  were  more  regarded.  In  Alexandria  in  particular, 
a  very  mixing-bowl  of  European  and  Asiatic  thought, 
Judaism  attained  a  new  development.  The  Greek  trans- 
lation of  the  Scriptures,  begun  probably  at  Alexandria  in 
the  third  century  before  Christ,  is  the  great  monument  of 
the  Hellenizing  of  the  Jew.  Through  it  the  thoughts  of 
Hebrew  prophets  first  became  intelligible  to  the  Gentile 
worW,  and  probably  to  many  among  the  Jews  themselves. 
Similarly  Luther's  translation  of  the  Bible  is  said  to  have 
had  a  great  effect  upon  the  Jews  of  Germany.  And  it  is 
evident  that  the  Greek  translators  had  breathed  the  air  of 
Hellenism,  and  endeavoured  to  adapt  the  simplicity  of  the 


^  K.  Akiba,   quoted  by  Keim,  i. 
300. 
2  In  Joseplius,  Antt.  xiv.  7.  2. 


3  Ihid.  XX.  5.  2,  etc. 

*  Philo,  Vita  Mosis,  ii.  140  (Mau- 

gey). 


Tlie  Preparation  of  the   World. 


11 


scriptural  expressions  to  the  Alcxaudriau  tune  of  thought. 
But  besides  the  slight  changes  of  the  text  which  were 
possible  in  a  translation,  Alexandrian  Judaism  set  itself  to 
soften  or  transform  its  ancient  Scriptures  by  means  of 
allegoric  interpretation.  To  men  who  had  adopted  the 
principles  of  Platonism,  the  history  of  the  Israelites  seemed 
too  mean  and  petty  to  be  divine;  by  means  of  allegory, 
history  and  law  and  poetry  were  made  to  speak  the 
language  of  philosophy ;  Moses  and  Plato  were  found  to  be 
at  one.  The  great  example  of  this  school  of  allegories  is 
Philo,  who  found  in  Scripture  the  same  views  of  the 
universe  which  he  admired  in  Plato  and  Zeno.  In  Philo 
the  conception  of  a  "Word"  or  "Reason"  of  God  became 
familiar  to  the  Jewish  mind\  By  many  literary  artifices 
the  Hellenizing  Jews  endeavoured  to  give  to  their  sacred 
history  a  form  which  might  be  attractive  to  the  Gentiles. 
And  in  all  such  works,  they  gave  prominence  to  those 
portions  of  their  theology  which  were  most  in  harmony 
with  Hellenic  thought.  The  pure  and  exalted  conception 
of  the  one  God,  Messianic  hope,  faith  in  a  kingdom  of  God 
to  come — these  are  the  points  which  are  made  prominent 
in  pseudonymous  Jewish  literature.  The  second  book  of 
Esdras,  or  "Revelation  of  EzraV'  written  almost  certainly 
by  an  Alexandrian  Jew,  is  a  proof  that  Hellenism  had  not 
obliterated  Messianic  hopes. 

That  the  Gentiles  for  the  most  part  looked  with  no 
friendly  eye  upon  the  Jews  who  dwelt  among  them  is 
evident  enough.  Still,  the  words  of  psalms  and  prophets, 
and  the  faith  of  the  Jew  in  his  own  religion,  had  power  to 
attract  many  who  were  astray  in  an  age  of  doubt*.  Women 
especially  found  comfort  in  the  services  of  the  synagogue. 
In  the  great  cities,  there  were  always  to  be  found  admirers 
and  adherents  of  the  Mosaic  ritual.  Some  were  merely  cu- 
rious lookers-on  at  the  Jewish  services ;  some,  more  earnest 
worshippers  (cr€^6/xei'oi,  evae/3el<;),  had  vowed  to  abstain 
from  certain  Gentile  practices  which  the  Jew  abhorred ; 
some,  the  true  "  proselytes,"  had  been  admitted  by  circum- 
cision to  the  full  privileges  of  the  children  of  Israel.    Thus 


^  On  the  difference  between  the 
Alexandrian  Logos  and  the  Memra 
of  the  Targums,  see  B.  F.  West- 
cott,  The  Gospel  of  St  John,  p.  xvi 

n. 


2  See  B.  F.  Westcott  in  Smith's 
Diet,  of  the  Bible,  i.  577. 

3  Seneca  in  Augustine,  De  Civ. 
Dei,  VI.  11. 


Chap.  I. 


Allegory. 


Pseudoin/- 
mous  Lite- 
rature. 


Proselytes. 


12 


The  Preparation  of  the  World. 


there  was  formed  in  every  city  a  body  of  men  acquainted 
with  the-  Scriptures,  who  shewed  by  the  very  fact  of  their 
worshipping  with  a  despised  race  that  they  were  in  earnest 
seeking  after  GoD,  and  who  were  much  less  fettered  by 
the  bonds  of  the  Law  than  those  who  were  children  of 
Abraham  after  the  flesh.  Among  these  "worshipping" 
Gentiles  Christianity  in  the  first  age  found  its  most  nume- 
rous and  most  satisfactory  converts.  Cornelius  of  Coesarea 
is  an  apt  type  of  the  class  which  formed  the  great  link 
between  the  first  Jewish  preachers  of  Christianity  and  the 
Gentile  world.  Yet  Paganism  was  interwoven  with  the 
very  structure  of  society;  it  was  environed  by  splendid 
temples,  a  numerous  priesthood,  costly  festivals,  hereditary 
rites,  the  strains  of  poets,  the  mighty  influence  of  use  and 
wont.  The  old  beliefs  and  still  more  the  old  customs  were 
not  abandoned  without  a  struggle ;  in  many  places  the 
rough  populace  was  fanatically  attached  to  the  pleasant 
and  stately  superstitions  of  the  old  religion,  while  the 
statesmen  wished  to  maintain,  in  the  interests  of  the  state, 
the  customs  which  formed  the  framework  of  society,  and 
the  philosopher  very  often  looked  on  the  old  mythology, 
under  the  twilight-glow  of  Neo-platonic  mysticism,  with  a 
kind  of  half-believing  affection.  But  there  was  in  the 
empire  a  great  middle  class,  swayed  neither  by  the  un- 
reasoning fanaticism  of  the  populace,  the  conservatism  of 
the  statesman,  nor  the  illuminism  of  the  philosopher. 
From  this  class  of  traders  and  artizans,  the  least  conspicu- 
ous in  public  life,  the  least  fettered  by  social  prejudice, 
were  drawn  in  early  time  the  most  valuable  converts; 
these  men  formed  the  steadfast  men-at-arms  of  the  force 
which  overcame  the  world. 


CHAPTER   II. 


THE  APOSTOLIC   CHURCH' 


1.  Such  was  the  state  of  the  world  when,  in  the 
fifteenth  year  of  Tiberius  Caesar,  the  word  of  God  came 
to  John  the  son  of  Zacharias  in  the  wilderness.  John 
was  soon  counted  as  a  prophet — the  first  since  the  days 
of  Malachi  who  had  been  so  recognized  in  Israel.  Yet  he 
was  but  the  forerunner  of  that  Greater  One  to  come,  even 
the  Light  of  the  world.  Probably  in  the  same  year  in 
which  St  John  began  his  ministry,  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ^ 
then  about  thirty  years  of  age,  began  to  preach  and  say, 
Repent,  for  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand.  He 
claimed  to  be  the  Messiah,  the  Christ,  the  Anointed 
Priest  and  King,  for  Whose  coming  all  faithful  Israelites 
looked  and  longed.  He  claimed  to  be  the  Son  of  God. 
Signs  and  wonders  followed  His  steps ;  multitudes  flocked 
round  Him ;  disciples  attached  themselves  to  Him,  espe- 
cially from  among  the  fishermen  and  husbandmen  of 
Galilee.  He  taught  them  that  the  entrance  into  the 
Kingdom,  which  He  was  founding  upon  earth,  was  not — as 
some  of  them  thought — through  fleshly  warfare,  but  through 
much  tribulation,  through  self-renunciation,  through  taking 


*  On  this  period  see  J.  J.  Blunt, 
First  Three  Centuries;  J.  B.  Light- 
foot,  St  Paul  and  the  Three  in 
Grt^Jians,  pp.  276 — 346;  H.  Cotte- 
rill,  The  Genesis  of  the  Church; 
J.  J.  I.  Dollinger,  First  Age  of 
Christianity  and  the  Church,  trans- 
lated by  H.  N.  Oxenham.  An  ac- 
count of  it  from  the  stand-point 
of  the  Tiibingen  School  may  be 
foimd  in  Schwegler,  Nachapost. 
Zeitalter,  and  more  briefly  in  R. 
W.  Mackay's  Rise  and  Progress  of 
Christianity. 


*  Of  the  numerous  Lives  of  Christ 
may  be  mentioned  those  by  A.  Ne- 
ander,  E.  de  Pressense,  K.  Hase, 
J.  Young,  C.  J.  ElUcott,  F.  W. 
Farrar,  C.  Geikie,  and  the  ano- 
nymous Ecce  Homo  and  Philo- 
christus.  On  the  chronology  of 
the  Lord's  Life,  see  Henry  Browne, 
Ordo  Sceclontm,  pp.  25—94;  T. 
Lewin,  Chronology  of  the  New 
Testament;  C.  E.  CasiJari,  Ghrono- 
logisch-Geographische  Einleitung  in 
das  Leben  Jcsa  Christi  (Hamburg, 
1869). 


Chap   II. 

John  the 
Bajjtist. 


The 
Lord's 
Ministry 
began  A.D. 
27  (?). 


14 


Tlie  Apostolic  Church. 


up  the  cross  and  following  Him.  But  one  who  claimed  to 
found  a  Kingdom,  and  yet  had  neither  court  nor  army; 
one  who  gave  counsel  to  render  unto  Caesar  the  things 
that  were  Csesar's,  did  not  satisfy  the  eager  expectations 
of  the  Jews.  The  Jewish  leaders  condemned  Him  for 
blasphemy,  because  He  made  Himself  the  Son  of  God; 
they  handed  Him  over  to  the  Roman  procurator,  who  con- 
demned Him  because  He  made  Himself  a  king.  He 
suffered  the  death  which  the  Romans  inflicted  on  rebels 
and  on  slaves — crucifixion.  In  His  death  was  Atonement 
made  for  the  sin  of  the  world.  But  He  could  not  be 
holdeii  of  death ;  on  the  third  day  He  rose  from  the 
tomb.  He  manifested  Himself  to  His  disciples,  being 
seen  of  them  at  intervals  during  forty  days,  and  speaking 
of  the  things  concerning  the  Kingdom  of  God\ 

Early  in  His  ministry  He  had  chosen  from  among  His 
disciples  twelve,  whom  He  named  Apostles,  to  be  the 
esi^ecial  companions  of  His  earthly  life  and  heralds  of  His 
Kingdom.  To  these  it  now  fell  to  carry  on  the  Society 
which  their  Lord  had  founded.  To  these  He  appeared  for 
the  last  time  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  and  bade  them  await 
in  Jerusalem  the  influx  of  the  Spirit  which  He  had  pro- 
mised to  send  from  the  Father.  While  the  words  were 
yet  on  His  lips  He  was  taken  up,  and  a  cloud  received 
Him  out  of  their  sight. 

They  waited  in  obedience  to  His  words.  At  Pentecost 
the  Spirit  descended  in  tongues  of  flame  on  each  Apostle, 
and  henceforth  they  shew  no  more  of  the  doubt  and  hesita- 
tion of  the  time  before  the  Resurrection^,  but  boldly  preach 
that  Jesus,  whom  the  Jews  had  crucified,  was  the  Messiah, 
the  Christ.  In  spite  of  the  violent  opposition  of  the  leading 
Sadducees,  the  number  of  converts  rapidly  increased.  The 
people  favoured  the  rising  sect;  the  people  thronged  to 
hear  Avhen  Peter  and  John  preached  the  Word,  while  the 
rulers  vainly  emijloyed  threats,  stripes  and  imprisonment 
to  silence  them  ;  even  a  great  company  of  the  j^riests  were 
obedient  to  the  faith  ^  The  believers  bore  for  the  present 
the  aspect  of  a  community  or  brotherhood  within  the 
limits  of  Judaism,  observing  in  all  points  the  Jewish  Law, 
attending   daily  in    the    Temj^le,  but  distinguished  from 


'  G.  Moberly,  The  Sayings  of  the 
Griat  Forty  Days  (Lond.  1844). 


2  J.  J.  Blunt,   Hulsean  Lectures, 
Lect.  8.  '•>  Acts  vi.  7. 


The  Ajwstolic  Church. 


15 


their  bretliren  by  acknowledging  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  the 
Messiah  whose  advent  was  looked  for  by  all  pious  Jews. 
In  the  first  fervour  of  brotherly  love,  they  had  all  things 
in  common. 

So  far,  the  Church  was  composed  wholly  of  Jews, 
either  Hebrews  or  Hellenists.  In  Jerusalem,  the  former 
party  was  probably  more  numerous  and  powerful.  It  is 
in  St  Stephen,  probably  a  Hellenist,  that  we  find  the  first 
indication  of  the  growing  church  breaking  the  strict  bonds 
of  the  Mosaic  Law.  The  witnesses  who  declared  that  he 
"ceased  not  to  speak  words  against  the  Holy  Place  and 
the  Law ;"  that  he  said  that  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth  shall 
destroy  this  place  and  change  the  customs  w^hich  Moses 
delivered  us\"  were  false  probably  as  they  w^ere  false  who 
accvised  the  Lord ;  they  distorted  and  gave  a  false  colour 
to  what  he  had  said,  rather  than  invented  what  he  had 
not  said.  Before  the  Sanhedrin  he  attempted  no  denial  of 
their  charges ;  his  speech — cut  short  indeed  by  the  wrath 
of  the  Jews — seems  intended  to  shew  that  God's  covenant 
with  man  existed  before  the  Mosaic  Law,  and  might  again 
receive  an  extension  beyond  it.  Not  without  reason  is 
Stephen  called  "  Paul's  master." 

The  rage  of  the  Jews  destroyed  Stephen  and  dispersed 
the  disciples.  Probably  the  first  fury  of  persecution  fell 
upon  those  who  were  suspected  of  depreciating  the  exclu- 
sive privileges  of  the  Jews,  for  the  Twelve,  still  retaining 
the  Mosaic  observances,  remained  at  their  post;  an  an- 
cient authority'^  tells  us  that  their  Lord  had  fixed  twelve 
years  as  the  period  of  their  stay  in  Jerusalem.  But 
Philii^,  like  Stephen  one  of  the  Seven  and  probably  also  a 
Hellenist,  preached  Christ  in  Samaria^  to  the  half- Jewish, 
half-Gentile  race  of  its  inhabitants,  and  Peter  and  John 
confirmed  the  work  which  Philip  had  begun.  This  recep- 
tion of  the  Samaritans  into  the  Church  is  a  further  step 
beyond  the  limits  of  Jewish  prejudice,  for  the  pvire  Jew 
hated  the  Samaritan,  who  claimed  a  share  of  his  privi- 
leges, almost  more  fiercely  than  he  desj^ised  the  uncircum- 
cised.  In  Samaria  we  meet  with  a  specimen  of  the  kind 
of  impostor  w^hich  is  produced  in  a  disturbed  and  excited 
time,  the  man  who  jjretends  to  esoteric  knowledge  and 


1  Acts  vi.  13,  14. 

*  Apollonius  in  Eusebius,  Hist. 


Eccl.  V.  18.  14. 
^  Acts  viii.  5  ff. 


16 


Tlie  Apostolic  Church. 


magic  power,  and  imposes  himself  upon  the  multitude  for 
"  some  great  one."  Simon  the  Samaritan  magician  came 
afterwards  to  be  regarded  as  the  head  and  fount  of 
Gnostic  heresy. 

A  further  advance  towards  the  reception  of  the  Gen- 
tiles was  made  when  Philip  baptized  an  Ethiopian 
eunuch';  a  proselyte  indeed,  but  hardly  joined  to  the 
Jewish  Church  by  its  characteristic  rite,  if  the  law  of 
Moses  was  duly  observed ^  But  a  much  more  decided 
step  was  made  when  St  Peter  was  taught  to  recognize  the 
absolute  universality  of  the  grace  of  God',  and  to  baptize 
the  Roman  centurion  Cornelius,  certainly  no  Jew,  though 
worshipping  with  the  Hebrews  among  whom  he  lived. 

While  these  things  were  going  on  in  Palestine,  the 
Church  was  spreading  and  developing  elsewhere.  Certain 
disciples,  unnamed  men  of  Cyprus  and  Cyrene,  preached 
the  gospel  in  the  Syrian  Antioch  to  the  Greeks* — seem- 
ingly heathens  and  idolaters — and  many  of  these  believed 
and  turned  to  the  Lord.  Here  we  have  for  the  first  time, 
a  purely  ethnic  community  adopted  into  the  Church ;  and 
to  these  pagan  adherents  of  Christ  was  first  given  the 
name  "  Christian  ^,"  formed  after  the  analogy  of  Roman 
party-names.  The  Twelve  sent  Barnabas,  a  native  of  the 
neighbouring  Cypnis,  to  report  on  the  astonishing  events 
of  which  they  heard.  That  large-hearted  man  rejoiced  to 
see  the  work  of  God  among  the  Gentiles,  and,  as  the 
Church  still  grew  and  prospered,  sought  help  from  one 
whom  he  had  already  known  at  Jerusalem. 

2.  When  the  blood  of  the  martyr  Stephen  was  shed, 
there  stood  by  an  ardent  young  Pharisee,  named  SauP,  a 
man  of  pure  Hebrew  lineage,  yet  a  Roman  citizen  and  a 
native  of  the  Hellenic  city  of  Tarsus,  educated  in  Jeru- 
salem at  the  feet  of  the  great  Rabbi  Gamaliel.  This 
persecutor   on  his  way  to  Damascus  was  struck  to  the 


1  Acts  viii.  26  ff. 

2  Deut.  xxiii.  1.       ^  Acts  x.  9  ff. 
■•  Acts  xi.  20.      I   assume   that 

"7r/)6s  Toi'j"EXX77j'as"  is  the  correct 
readinfj  of  thii  jiassage. 

^  Acts  xi.  'J 6.  On  the  name 
"Christian"  see  Conyheare  and 
Howson,  Life  of  Bt  Paul,  1. 140,  ed. 
1 858;  Baur,  Kirchcngesch  ichte,!.  4;{2 
note;  Ilenan,  Let,  Ajiotres,  p.  284. 


^  On  St  Paul,  see  J.  Pearson, 
Annates  Paulini ;  W.  J.  Conybeare 
and  J.  S.  Howson,  'The  Life  and 
Epistles  of  St  Paul;  F.  W.  Farrar, 
The  Life  and  Work  of  St  Paul;  T. 
Lewin,  Tlie  Life  and  Epistles  of 
St  Paul.  The  dates  in  the  life  of 
St  Paul,  some  of  which  are  much 
disputed,  are  given  here  from 
Conybeare  and  Howson. 


The  Apostolic  Church. 


17 


earth  and  blinded  by  a  vision  of  the  Lord  in  glory*;  he 
became  the  most  devoted  servant  of  Him  whom  once  he 
persecuted.  The  eager  spirit  which  led  him  to  persecute 
did  not  forsake  him  when  he  was  set  to  build  up  the 
church.  His  was  one  of  those  natures  which  move  alto- 
gether if  they  move  at  all;  everything  he  did  he  did 
earnestly  and  devotedly;  and  he  had  that  remarkable 
union  of  the  fervid,  sympathetic,  aspiring,  even  visionary 
nature  with  practical  ability  and  good-sense  which  is  so 
rarely  found,  and  which,  when  it  is  found,  gives  its  pos- 
sessor so  extraordinary  an  influence  over  his  fellow -men. 

It  was  this  Saul  of  Tarsus  whom  the  friendly  Barna- 
bas brought  up  from  Cilicia  to  Antioch,  a  journey  which 
forms  one  of  the  most  momentous  epochs  in  the  history 

.  of  the  Church ;  for  Paul  and  Barnabas  became  the  chief 
instruments  in  spreading  the  gospel  of  Christ  among 
the  Gentiles.  Antioch  became  the  centre  of  a  Gentile 
church ;  Saul  the  great  apostle  of  a  Christianity  absolutely 
free  from  the  shackles  of  the  Jewish  law.  During  this 
period  of  his  work  he  is  always  known  by  the  Gentile 
name,  Paulus^  Not  that  St  Paul  lost  his  love  for  his 
kindred  after  the  flesh;  his  first  message  was  always  to 
them ;  but  the  scene  in  Pisidian  Antioch,  where  the 
Apostle  turns  from  his  countrymen,  who  "judged  them- 
selves unworthy  of  eternal  life,"  to  the  Gentiles,  is  typical  of 
what  took  place  over  and  over  again  in  his  sad  experience ; 
proselytes  and  pagans  were  more  ready  to  receive  the 
gospel  than  the  pure  Jews.  His  eager  labours  founded 
churches  among  the  country  people  of  Asia  Minor;  the 
"  door  of  faith  "  was  opened  more  widely ;  and  the  church 
at  Antioch  would  probably  have  rejoiced  at  the  tidings, 
had  not  certain  brethren  come  down  from  Jerusalem  and 
taught  the  Antiochene  converts  that  they  could  not  be 
saved  unless  they  received  the  outward  sign  of  God's  cove- 
nant with  Israel  after  the  flesh  ^.  Paul  and  Barnabas 
resisted  this  attack  upon  Christian  liberty,  and  to  put 
an  end  to  the  dissension  and  party-spirit  which  arose, 
these  two  Apostles,  with  others,  were  deputed  to  confer 
with  the  Apostles  and  elders  at  Jerusalem  respecting  the 

I  observances  to  be  required  of  the  Gentiles.     After  long 

'       ^  Acts  is.  1  ff. ;  xxii.  2  ff. ;  xxvi.       for  the  adoption  of  this  name  see 
!   12  IT.  Conybeare  and  Howson,  i.  56. 

:       -  Acts  xiii.  xiv.     On  the  reasons  ^  Acts  xv,  1, 


Chap.  II. 


>S'(  Paul  in 
Antioch, 
A.D.  44. 


Gentile 
Christian- 
ity. 


St  FauVs 
Journey, 
A.D.  48. 

'Troubles  at 
Antioch. 


Conference 
at  Jerusa- 
/(.'m,  A.D. 50. 


C. 


18 


TJie  Apostolic  Church. 


discussion,  both  in  public  and  in  private,  the  brethren  at 
Jerusalem  agreed  that  circumcision  should  not  be  required 
of  the  Gentile  brethren ;  only  let  them  abstain,  in  defer- 
ence to  Jewish  prejudice,  from  blood  and  things  strangled; 
from  things  offered  to  idols,  for  they  could  not  be  partakers 
both  of  the  Table  of  the  Lord  and  the  table  of  demons ; 
from  the  licentious  life  and  incestuous  marriages  which 
were  of  little  account,  among  the  heathen  while  they  were 
an  abomination  to  the  Jew\ 

It  must  not  bo  supposed  that  such  a  decision  as  this 
was  final  and  conclusive.  It  does  not  present  itself  to  us 
as  a  universal  decree,  but  rather  as  a  compromise  entered 
into  between  the  churches  of  Jerusalem  and  Antioch^ 
But  even  if  it  were  certainly  a  decree  intended  to  compose 
the  matters  at  issue  throughout  the  whole  church,  it  ought 
not  to  surprise  us  to  find  the  old  dispute  constantly  re- 
viving; passion  and  party-spirit  are  not  put  down  by  a 
decree,  even  of  the  highest  authority.  In  Antioch  and  the 
neighbouring  churches  of  Syria  and  Cilicia  the  decree  was 
doubtless  long  observed,  and  we  read  of  its  being  delivered 
to  the  brotherhoods  of  Lycaonia  and  Pisidial  St  James, 
too,  some  years  afterwards,  refers  to  it  as  a  document  of 
which  the  authority  was  indisputable*.  But  in  more  re- 
mote churches  it  was  not  so  ;  long  afterwards  the  Ju- 
daizers  in  Galatia  attempted  to  force  even  circumcision  on 
St  Paul's  converts ;  the  Corinthians  do  not  seem  to  have 
heard  of  the  decree,  nor  does  St  Paul  in  his  letters  bring 
it  to  their  knowledge  ;  and  again,  it  is  not  referred  to 
in  the  Apocalyptic  rebukes  to  the  churches  of  Asia  Minor 
for  their  fornication  and  licentiousness*.  The  Judaic  spirit 
troubled  St  Paul  liis  whole  life  long;  it  caused  the  most  note- 
worthy weakness  recorded  of  an  apostle®,  it  interfered  with 
the  social  unity  of  churches  where  Jew  and  Gentile  were 
found — as  they  were  in  almost  every  church — together.  It 
died  out  at  last  from  causes  entirely  independent  of  decree 
or  argument.  While  it  lasted,  its  centre  was  of  course  Je- 
rusalem ;  in  the  shadow  of  the  Temple  the  Christian  Jew 
could  hardly  desert  the  traditions  of  his  forefathers. 

In  St  Paul,  emphatically  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles, 


1   See   J.  B.  Lightfoot  on  Gala- 
tiinis,  p.  287  (1st  ed.). 
-  Acts  XV.  23.         ^  Acts  xvi.  4. 


*  Acts  xxi.  2.5. 
6  Apoc.  ii.  14,  20. 
6  Gal.  ii.  11—14. 


The  Apostolic  Church. 


19 


God  gave  to  tlie  ChurcTi  its  greatest  missionary.  His 
early  labours  have  already  been  mentioned;  but  he  was 
not  content  with  these ;  under  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit 
he  carried  the  gospel  into  Phrygia — the  old  seat  of  many 
a  dark  superstition — and  founded  churches  among  the 
fervid  and  fickle  Kelts  of  Galatia.  In  Europe,  the  well- 
known  names  of  Philippi,  Thcssalonica,  Athens,  Corinth, 
mark  the  direction  of  his  journey;  in  Ephesus,  the  great 
seat  of  the  worship  of  the  Asiatic  Artemis,  a  very  academy 
of  magical  superstitions,  he  stayed  and  laboured  long,  until 
the  very  central  worship  of  the  renowned  city  was  thought 
to  be  in  danger.  Wherever  he  went,  he  remembered  his 
children  in  the  Lord;  the  wants  of  the  various  communi- 
ties which  he  had  founded  were  always  present  to  him; 
he  wrote,  he  sent  messengers,  when  possible  he  revisited 
churches  which  needed  his  exhortation  and  instruction*. 

This  earnest  activity  was  brought  to  an  end  for  a  time 
by  the  malice  of  the  Jews.  He  went  up  to  Jerusalem  for 
the  passover  of  the  year  58  in  the  midst  of  prophecies  and 
forebodings  of  evil.  There,  his  appearance  in  the  court  of 
the  Temple  occasioned  so  fierce  a  tumult,  that  a  party  of 
the  Roman  garrison  descended  from  their  barrack  and 
carried  him  off  as  a  prisoner ^  His  Roman  citizenship 
prevented  personal  ill-treatment,  but  he  was  detained  in 
custody  two  years  by  the  procurator  Felix,  and  then  sent 
to  Rome,  in  consequence  of  his  "appeal  unto  Ceesar,"  by  the 
succeeding  procurator,  Festus.  After  a  long  and  stormy 
voyage,  in  the  course  of  which  he  suffered  shipwreck,  he 
reached  Rome  in  the  spring  of  the  year  Gl,  where  he 
"  was  suffered  to  dwell  by  himself  with  a  soldier  that  kept 
him"  for  two  whole  years,  working  still  for  the  cause 
which  he  had  at  heart  both  by  his  personal  influence  in 
Rome  and  by  letters  to  his  distant  friends.  His  captivity 
became  the  means  of  spreading  the  gospel  both  in  the  Proe- 
torium  and  among  "those  that  were  of  Ca-sar's  household  I" 

At  the  end  of  St  Paul's  two  years  captivity  we  lose 
the  guidance  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  Ancient  tra- 
dition, however,  asserts  that  he  was  set  free  at  the  end  of 


^  Aots  xvi — XX.  and  the  Epistles 
to  the  Thessalonians,  Corinthians, 
Galatians,  and  Bomaus. 

»  Acts  xxi.  28  ff. 


3  Philippiaus  i.  13 ;  iv.  22.  See 
J.  B.  Lightfoot,  PlnUppians,  p.  169 
(2nd  ed.). 

2—2 


Chap.  II. 


Tumult  at 
Jenisolenu 
A.D.  58. 


Leaves 
Co'sarea, 
A.D.  60. 
At  Rome, 
A.D.  61. 


Release, 
A.D.  63. 


20 


The  Apostolic  Ohurch. 


the  two  years,  that  he  fulfilled  the  wish  of  his  heart  by 
taking  his  journey  into  Spaing  and  afterwards  again  visited 
the  East;  granting  this,  we  find  from  the  Pastoral  Epistles 
that  he  established  his  disciple  Titus  as  head  of  the  com- 
munity in  Crete,  Timothy  to  a  like  office  in  Ephesus ;  and 
that,  after  remaining  for  some  time  at  Nicopolis,  he  again 
visited  the  churches  of  Troas,  Miletus  and  Corinth.  After 
this,  tradition  tells  us  that  he  returned  to  Rome,  where 
the  Church  was  groaning  under  the  oppression  of  Nero, 
that  he  was  again  imprisoned,  and  put  to  death'' — as  a 
Roman  citizen  naturally  would  be — by  the  stroke  of  the 
lictor's  axe. 

When  St  Paul  received  the  "  crown  of  righteousness," 
he  had  spent  the  vigour  of  his  days  in  his  Master's  service; 
when  he  was  driven  to  appeal  to  his  work  and  his  suffering, 
he  could  refer  to  a  catalogue  of  perils  and  afflictions  such 
as  put  to  shame  those  of  his  opponents^.  He  was  hunted 
from  city  to  city  by  Jews  who  hated  the  apostate ;  he  had 
to  encounter  Judaizing  teachers  in  the  midst  of  the  Church 
itself  It  was  against  these  that  the  great  contest  of  his 
life  was  fought ;  the  great  founder  of  Hellenic  Churches 
had  to  maintain  that  Christ  was  a  Saviour  for  the  world, 
and  not  merely  a  Messiah  for  the  Jews.  It  is  under  the 
pressure  of  Judaic  opposition  that  his  own  doctrine  takes 
form ;  justification  by  the  faith  in  Christ  without  the 
works  of  the  law  is  the  corner-stone  of  his  teaching. 
Christ  is  to  him  not  merely  the  fulfilment  of  Messianic 
hopes,  but  the  revelation  of  the  great  mystery  of  God's 
dealings  with  mankind  from  the  very  foundation  of  the 
world.  Adam  and  Christ,  sin  and  righteousness,  the  flesh 
and  the  spirit,  death  and  life — these  are  the  constantly 
recurring  antitheses  in  his  writings.  It  is  evident  that  we 
have  here  a  Gospel  for  the  world,  not  for  the  Jews  only. 
True,  St  Paul's  thoughts  and  imagery  are  intensely  Jewish, 
and  he  yearns  after  his  kindred  in  blood  with  a  great 
longing*;  but  in  Christ  he  knows  of  no  distinction  of  Jew 


1  Clemens  Eomanus,  ad  Cor. 
i.  5 — a  passage  of  doubtful  inter- 
pretation ;  and  the  Muratorian 
Frugment;  see  Westcott,  On  tlie 
Canon,  p.  560. 

2  Euseb.  H.  E.  ii.  22.  Those 
who  reject  the    second   imprison- 


ment either  insert  the  Pastoral 
Epistles  in  St  Paul's  life  before 
A.D.  64,  or  deny  their  authenticity 
altogether.  See  the  whole  subject 
discussed  in  Conybearo,  andHowson, 
II.  535  ff. 

3  2  Cor.  xi.  21  ff.  Eom.  x.  1. 


The  Apostolic  Church. 


21 


or  Gentile,  bond  or  free ;  it  is  in  the  Church  of  Christ  that 
he  finds  the  tnie  Israel,  the  fulfilment  of  God's  pi^rpose 
from  all  eternity \ 

3.  The  centre  of  the  best  and  noblest  form  of  Jewish 
Christianity  was  naturally  the  Holy  City;  and  the  Church 
of  Jerusalem  was  ruled  by  one  who  was  more  than  blame- 
less in  his  observance  of  the  sacred  law,  St  James  the 
Lord's  brother.  Without  accepting  all  that  in  early 
tradition  gathered  round  his  name^,  we  cannot  but  believe 
that  he  remained  in  all  things  a  devout  Israelite,  an 
Israelite  in  whom  was  no  guile.  The  rights  of  the  converts 
of  the  Gentiles  to  a  place  in  the  Church  he  had  frankly 
admitted  in  the  conference  of  Jerusalem;  yet  the  Judaisers 
who  troubled  the  peace  of  Gentile  Churches  claimed  the 
authority  of  James ^  abusing  perhaps  a  venerable  name  to 
give  their  doctrine  a  weight  not  its  own.  In  his  epistle  he 
says  nothing  of  the  Gospel  or  of  the  Resurrection  of  the 
Lord,  dwelling  rather  on  faith  in  the  one  God  and  on 
obedience  to  the  law;  but  the  "law"  is  the  perfect  law  of 
liberty,  the  true  "liberty"  wherewith  Christ  has  made  us 
free;  and  so  far  is  he  from  leaning  to  the  self-complacent 
orthodoxy  of  the  Pharisee,  that  he  lays  it  down  in  the 
plainest  manner  that  the  true  ritual  or  "Divine  service*" 
consists  in  purity  and  works  of  love;  the  whole  tone  of  the 
epistle  recalls  our  Lord's  denunciations  of  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees,  and  seems  directed  against  a  kindred  spirit. 
St  James  the  Just  comes  before  us  in  the  declining  days 
of  Jerusalem  as  a  devout  soul  in  the  midst  of  factions 
whose  religion  was  warfare;  and  when  these  factions  put 
him  to  death,  "straightway,"  says  Hegesippus^  "Vespasian 
laid  siege  to  their  city;"  it  seemed  as  if  a  guardian  angel 
had  departed®. 

4.  St  Peter  is  a  less  conspicuous  figure  than  St  Paul 
in  the  history  of  the  Apostolic  Church.  We  know  that  he 
was  esteemed  a  "pillar  of  the  church"  in  Jerusalem^,  and 
that  the  fear  of  losing  his  reputation  with  the  Judaizers  at 


1  Eplies.  i.  3—13, 

*  Hegesippus  in  Eusebius,  //.  E. 
11.  23.  Compare  Josephus,  Antiq. 
XX.  9,  §  1.  On  the  whole  narrative, 
Bee  Lightfoot,  Galatiam,  p.  338  ff. 

=*  Galat.  ii.  12. 


■•  dprfcTKeia,  James  i.  27. 

'"  In  Euseb.  H.  E.  ii.  23,  §  18. 

'■  A.  P.  Stanley,  Sermons  and 
Essays  on  the  Apostolic  Age,  pp. 
291  Ii. 

7  Gal.  ii.  9. 


CilAP.  II. 


St  .James 

THE  JUST. 


St  Petek. 


22 


The  Apostolic  Church. 


Antioch  induced  him  to  comply  with  their  prejudices  \ 
At  the  time  of  writing  his  first  epistle  we  find  him  in 
Babylon*^,  and  the  address  to  the  "elect  sojourners  of 
the  dispersion"  of  Pontus,  Galatia,  Cappadooia,  Asia  and 
Bithynia  may  perhaps  be  taken  to  imply  that  he  had 
visited  those  countries.  Even  during  the  time  occupied 
by  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  we  know  little  of  his  move- 
ments, and  afterwards  much  less.  He  is  said  to  have  been 
bishop  of  Antioch^  and  of  Rome.  That  he  was  not  in 
Rome  at  the  time  of  St  Paul's  first  imprisoniaent  seems  an 
almost  certain  inference  from  the  silence  of  St  Luke;  nor 
does  St  Paul  mention  him  in  his  letters  to  or  from  Rome. 
An  ancient  tradition  asserts  that  he  suffered  at  Rome  at 
the  same  time  with  St  Paul,  being  crucified  (or  impaled) 
with  his  head  downwards^;  and  the  tombs  of  the  two 
saints  were  shewn  there  at  the  end  of  the  second  century®. 
The  legend  of  St  Peter's  twenty-five  years'  episcopate 
of  Rome  does  not  appear  to  be  older  than  the  fourth  cen- 
tury. Ignatius®  alludes  to  the  authority  of  SS.  Peter  and 
Paul  for  the  Romans  especially;  Irenseus^  speaking  of  the 
value  of  apostolic  tradition,  says  that  these  two  apostles, 
after  founding  and  building  the  Roman  Church,  gave  the 
oversight  of  it  {rrjv  t^?  ennaKOTrrj<;  Xeirovpylav  eve^etpiaav) 
to  Linus,  distinguishing  apparently  between  the  apostolic 
and  the  episcopal  office.  The  apocrj^hal  Petri  Prcedicatio^ 
speaks  of  the  meeting  of  SS.  Peter  and  Paul  in  Rome. 
The  Apostolical  Constitutions^  declare  that  Linus,  the  first 
bishop,  was  consecrated  by  St  Paul,  and  Clement,  his 
successor,  by  St  Peter;  here  too  the  office  of  an  apostle  is 
something    distinct  from    a  local   episcopate.      It  is   iu 


1  Gal.  ii.  11—14. 

2  Frequently  supposed  to  mean 
Eome  (Eusebius,  H.  E.  ii.  15,  and 
many  modern  authorities).  But 
we  should  scarcely  expect  to  find  a 
mystical  designation  used  as  the 
date  of  a  letter  written  by  no  means 
in  a  mystical  style. 

3  Eusebius,  H.  E.  in.  36;  Je- 
rome, Catal.  Scriptor.  c.  1.  Euse- 
bius, however,  contradicts  himself, 
for  in  H.  E.  in.  22,  he  makes  Evo- 
dius  the  first,  and  Ignatius  the 
secooxi  bishop  of  Antioch. 

*  TertuUian,  De  Prcescript.  36; 


Origen  in  Euseb.  H.  E.  in.  1.  The 
words  of  Clement  of  Kome  {ad  Cor. 

I.  5)  with  reference  to  St  Peter's 
martyrdom  do  not  necessarily 
imply  that  he  suffered  at  Rome, 
though  it  is  probable  that  he  had 
Roman  martyrs  in  view  in  the  whole 
passage. 

"*  Caiusof  Eome,  in  Euseb. //.  S. 

II.  25. 

^  Ad  Romanos,  c.  4. 
'  Hceres.  in.  3. 

8  Quoted  by  Pseudo-Cyprian,  de 
Rehaptism.  c.  17,  p.  90,  Hartel. 
»  vii.  46.  1. 


Tlie  Aj)ostolic  Church. 


23 


Jerome's  version  of  Eusebius's  Chron-icle*  that  we  first  find 
it  distinctly  stated,  inconsistently  with  Eusebius  himself  in 
the  history,  that  St  Peter  went  to  Rome  in  the  year  43 
and  remained  for  twenty-five  years  as  bishop  of  the  church 
in  that  city.  But  not  only  does  this  supposition  involve 
chronological  difficulties  of  the  most  serious  kind,  but 
Jerome  himself  states "''  that  the  title  of  bishop  was  not 
used  strictly  in  the  apostolic  age,  but  was  applied  to 
several  distinguished  leaders  at  the  same  time  in  a  church ; 
when,  therefore,  he  styles  St  Peter  "bishop"  of  Rome,  he 
must  not  be  understood  to  claim  for  him  the  same  kind  of 
local  pre-eminence  which  is  involved  in  the  modern  use  of 
the  term.  So  Epiphanius^  speaks  of  SS.  Peter  and  Paul  as 
bishops  of  Rome.  The  truth  seems  to  be,  that  from  about 
the  fourth  century  churches  claimed  as  their  "bishops," 
apostles  or  other  distinguished  teachers  who  were  asso- 
ciated with  their  early  traditions*. 

St  Peter  and  St  Paul  are  united  in  Roman  tradition, 
and  they  were  indeed  one  in  heart  though  sometimes  they 
might  seem  to  be  divided ;  once  St  Peter  denied  his  Lord, 
once  he  impaired  the  freedom  of  the  Gospel;  but  the  very 
narrative  of  the  latter  circumstance  implies  that  this  was 
contrary  to  the  habit  of  his  life^.  His  recognition  of 
Christ  crucified  as  the  centre  of  our  faith  and  the  source  of 
life  is  identical  with  St  Paul's®;  his  tendency  to  speak 
of  the  Church  of  Christ  under  images  derived  from  the 
older  dispensation  is  the  same;  Christ  is  the  Paschal 
Lamb^,  Christians  are  "  the  holy  nation,  the  peculiar  peo- 
ple ^"  The  main  difference — which  is  no  contrariety — 
between  him  and  his  great  fellow-worker  is,  that  he 
speaks  rather  of  the  earthly  life  and  sufferings  of  Christ, 
of  the  believer  and  the  world  around  him,  of  the  hope  of  a 
glorious  Advent,  than  of  the  eternal  Son  from  Whom  and 


^  Lib.  II.  anno  43.  Compare 
the  Catalogus  Scriptorum,  c.  1. 

^  Covim.  in  Tttum,  c.  1. 

■'  Hares.  27. 

■*  The  tradition  of  the  twenty- 
five  years'  Eoman  episcopate  is 
defended  by  Pagi  (on  Baronius,  an. 
43),  Valesius  (on  Euseb.  H.  E.  ii. 
25),  Baluze  (on  Lactantius,  De 
Mart.  Persec.  c.  2),  and  many 
others.     See  also  J.  Pearson,  Dis- 


sertationes  Diue,  in  Minor  Works,  ii. 
298  ff.;  S.  Van  Til,  De  Petro  Kom.c 
Martyre;  J.  Greenwood,  Cathedra 
Petri,  cc.  1  and  2 ;  E.  A.  Lipsius, 
Die  Quellen  der  Petrussage. 

5  Galat.  ii.  14.  See  Lightfoot's 
note. 

*  Compare  1  Pet.  ii.  24  with  Gal. 
ii.  20. 

7  1  Pet.  i.  19. 

8  Ihid.  ii.  9. 


Chap.  II. 


St  Peter's 
Teaching. 


24 


The  Amstolic  Church. 


through  Whom  and  to  Whom  are  all  things.  St  Peter 
was  no  doubt  "a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews"  in  thought 
as  in  birth,  yet  he  was  no  Judaizer;  the  law  he  never 
mentions,  nor  does  he  insist  in  any  way  on  the  perpetuity 
of  formal  ordinances.  It  was  without  support  from  his 
epistles  that  the  Judaizers  claimed  him  as  their  patron. 

5.  Of  the  beloved  disciple  we  see  no  more  in  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles  after  the  laying-on  of  hands  on  the  Sama- 
ritan disciples.  Of  the  date  when  he  left  Jerusalem  we 
have  no  information,  and  for  some  years  we  have  no  record 
of  his  work.  A  constant  tradition  tells  us  however  that 
he  took  the  oversight  of  the  church  in  Ephesus*  after  the 
departure  of  St  Paul,  and  we  may  well  believe  that  he 
extended  it  to  the  other  six  churches  which  are  addressed 
in  the  Apocalypse.  Of  the  fact  of  his  banishment  to  Pat- 
mos'  there  can  be  no  doubt,  though  it  is  placed  by  dif- 
ferent authorities  at  dates  varying  from  the  reign  of 
Claudius^  to  that  of  Domitian*.  St  John,  with  his  apo- 
stolic authority,  his  purified  warmth,  his  heavenly  spirit, 
was  placed  by  the  providence  of  God  in  the  very  spot 
which  most  bubbled  over  with  sects  and  heresies.  In  Asia 
he  abode,  says  Irenseus^  until  the  days  of  Trajan,  when 
he  fell  asleep  in  extreme  old  age  in  the  midst  of  his 
disciples. 

The  traditions  respecting  him  shew  how  deep  an  im- 
pression his  holiness  and  his  loathing  of  all  that  was  vile 
had  made  upon  those  who  surrounded  him.  His  life 
falls  into  two  divisions ;  the  Judaic  period  before  he  left 
Palestine,  ending  probably  with  the  banishment  to  Patmos 
and  the  writing  of  the  Apocalypse";  and  the  period  in  the 
midst  of  Jews  and  Gentiles,  of  error  and  heresy,  in  Ephesus 
and  other  cities  of  Asia  Minor.  In  the  Apocalypse  we  see 
the  "  son  of  thunder;"  here  indeed  "  the  testimony  of  Jesus 
is  the  spirit  of  prophecy  V  the  spirit  of  Ezekiel  and  Daniel. 
Here  too  the  gospel  is  to  the  Jew  first,  but  also  to  the 
Greek ;  if  we  see  first  the  twelve  tribes  gathered  round 


1  Irenasus,  Hares,  in.  1;  Cle- 
ment of  Alexandria  in  Euseb.  II.  E. 
in,  23 ;  Origen  in  Euseb.  //.  E. 
III.  1. 

2  Apocal.  i.  9. 

3  Epiphanius,  Hieres.  51,  c.  33. 
*  Eusebius,  H.  E.  in.  18. 


^  c.  Hccres.  n.  22,  §  5. 

^  Lightfoot,  OnGalatians,'p.BBi; 
Liicke,  Einleitung  in  die  Offenha- 
ritnfi,  quoted  by  Hase,  K.-G.  36. 
See  also  Browne's  Ordo  Sceclonim, 
p.  679. 

'  Apocal.  xix,  10, 


The  Apodolic  Church. 


25 


the  throne  of  the  Lamb,  we  see  also  the  great  multitude 
which  no  man  could  number,  of  all  nations  and  tribes  and 
peoples  and  tongues,  singing  praises  to  Him  that  sitteth 
upon  the  throne  and  to  the  Lamb\  We  do  not  find  the 
disciple  who  leaned  on  Jesus'  breast  giving  prominence  to 
the  Lord's  Humanity,  but  rather  the  contrary ;  He  is  not 
merely  the  faithful  and  true  witness,  but  the  source  {dpxn) 
of  the  creation  of  God^;  His  name  is  called  the  Word  of 
God^  In  the  thirty  years  which  perhaps  intervened  be- 
tween the  writing  of  the  Apocalypse  and  that  of  the 
Gospel  and  Epistles,  St  John  had  changed  the  scene  of 
his  life,  and  the  Church  itself,  agitated  by  new  move- 
ments, required  a  ne'w  setting-forth  of  old  truth.  These 
later  writings  represent  a  more  advanced  stage  of  the 
Church's  life  than  the  letters  of  St  Paul ;  they  set  forth 
the  very  same  view  of  a  gospel  for  mankind  which  is 
found  in  St  Paul,  not  now  controversially,  but  positively, 
and  with  an  authoritative  calmness  which  is  foreign  to 
the  eager  style  of  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles.  St  John 
does  not  dwell  on  the  feeling  of  sin  and  the  need  of 
redemption  with  the  same  emphatic  earnestness  as  St 
Paul ;  he  rather  looks  on  the  world  as  agitated  by  the 
great  contest  between  light  and  darkness,  the  Word  of 
God  and  the  power  of  evil ;  he  appeals  rather  to  the 
innate  longing  of  man  after  righteousness  and  perfection  ; 
he  speaks  less  of  faith  in  Christ  than  of  the  perfect  union 
in  love  which  is  to  knit  the  Church  to  God  in  Christ,  as  it 
knits  Christ  to  God*.  Yet  so  little  contrariety  is  there  in 
all  this  to  the  Pauline  teaching  that  certain  passages  in 
St  Paul's  writings  might  well  be  adopted  as  niottos  for 
St  John's®;  all  the  several  ways  of  the  apostles  meet  in 
one  end. 

6.  The  traditions,  that  the  apostles  before  their  de- 
parture from  Jerusalem  divided  the  several  portions  of  the 
world  by  lot  among  themselves,  and  that  they  formed  the 
Apostles'  Creed  (avfi^oXov)  by  each  contributing  a  clause, 
do  not  seem  to  be  older  than  the  fourth  or  fifth  century. 


^  Apocal.  vii.  4 — 10 ;  compare  St 
John's  Gospel,  iv.  22  ff. 
-  Apocal.  iii.  14. 
^  Apocal.  xix.  13. 
■»  StJohnxvii.il.   On  St  John's 


teaching,  see  B.  P.  Westcott,  The 
Gospel  of  St  John,  Introd.  pp. 
xxxii.  ff. 

'^  E.g.  1  Cor.  viii.  6;  xv.  47. 


The  Apostolic  Church. 


Earlier  accounts  say,  that  St  Thomas  had  Parthia  for  his 
province,  St  Andrew  Scythia^;  the  apocryphal  Acts^  of 
the  latter,  describing  his  martyrdom  at  Patras,  were  once 
supposed  to  be  a  genuine  letter  of  the  witnesses  of  his 
death,  and  have  certainly  influenced  some  of  the  early 
liturgies  I  Bartholomew  is  said  to  have  preached  in  India, 
and  to  have  left  there  the  Gospel  of  St  Matthew  in  Hebrew 
characters*;  there  he  suffered  martyrdom  by  beheading ^ 
Philip  the  apostle  was  gathered  to  his  rest  in  Hierapolis®. 
Thaddajus  is  said  to  have  been  sent  to  Abgarus,  king 
of  Edessal  Many  later  legends  have  gathered  round  the 
apostles ;  but  in  fact  their  labours  are  written,  for  the 
most  part,  not  in  the  pages  of  history,  but  in  the  Book  of 
Life. 

7.  The  Church  is  a  community  confeesing  the  name 
of  Christ,  and  pervaded  by  the  spirit  of  Christ.  It  is  of 
no  age  or  clime,  but  abiding  and  universal,  and  developes 
according  to  its  varying  circumstances  the  organs  which 
are  necessary  for  its  spiritual  life,  preserving  always  the 
ordinances  and  gifts  of  its  Divine  Founder. 

In  the  first  age,  as  in  all  ages,  it  was  through  baptism 
that  believers  were  admitted  into  that  holy  fellowship ; 
this  followed  at  once  upon  the  profession  of  faith  in 
Christ,  and  those  who  were  so  admitted  are  in  Scrip- 
ture language  "  the  brethren,"  the  "  saints,"  or  "  holy 
ones"  {ayiotY,  as  being,  like  the  Israelites  of  old,  set 
apart  and  consecrated  to  the  service  of  God.  These 
saints  are  "one  in  Christ ^V'  "  buried  with  Christ,"  that 
they  may  "walk  in  newness  of  life";"  these  are  "kings 
and  priests  to  God'^;"  "a  royal  priesthood,  an  adopted 
people"."  Not  only  individuals,  but  whole  households, 
were  admitted  at  once  to  baptism  into  the  name  of 
Christ**.    Baptism  was  followed  by  the  laying  on  of  hands, 


»  Euseb.  II.  E.  III.  1. 

-  In  Tischendorf's  Acta  Aposto- 
lorum  Apocrypha. 

^  See  the  Gregorian  Sacramen- 
tanj,  and  Mabillon's  Gallu-Gothic 
Missal,  on  St  Andrew's  Day. 

*  Eusob.  H.  E.  V.  10. 

^  Jerome,  De  Viris  IlluKtrihus, 
3(i. 

«  Euseb.  7/.  E.  in.  31 ;  v.  24. 

'    Ibid.  I.  13;  II.  1. 


8  See  G.  A.  Jacob,  Eccl.  Polity 
of  the  New  Testament,  and  Cotte- 
rill,  Genesis,  Pt.  in.  ch.  12. 

"  Koni.  i.  7 ;  1  Cor.  i.  2 ;  2  Cor, 
i.  1;  etc. 

10  Gal.  iii.  27,  28. 

"  Kom.  vi.  3,  4. 

12  Apocal.  i.  6;  V.  10. 

13  J  Y'ei,  ii.  9, 

1^  Acts  xvi.  15,  33;  1  Cor.  i.  16. 


The  Apostolic  Church 


27 


that  the  converts  might  "  receive  the  Holy  Ghost,"  the 
workings  of  which  were  in  the  apostolic  age  manifested 
in  various  special  gifts,  especially  those  of  tongues  and  of 
prophecy  \ 

From  that  "  first  day  of  the  week,"  when  Christ  rose 
from  the  dead,  Christians  have  eaten  the  Bread  and 
drunk  the  Cup,  shewing  forth  the  Lord's  Death  till  He 
come.  The  Eucharistic  celebration  was  connected  in 
early  times  with  a  solemn  meaP,  as  in  its  first  institution ; 
a  custom  which  at  Corinth  led  to  so  much  disorder  that 
St  Paul  had  to  rebuke  sternly  the  irreverence  of  those 
who  turned  the  Lord's  Supper  into  a  common,  and  even 
riotous,  meal,  "  not  distinguishing  the  Lord's  Body."  The 
"Kiss  of  LoveV  or  "Holy  Kiss*,''  was  given  at  these 
meetings.  The  Eucharist  was,  as  it  seems,  at  first  cele- 
brated in  the  midst  of  such  a  number  as  could  meet  in 
the  "upper  room"  of  some  disciple,  perhaps  sometimes  in 
the  midst  of  a  single  household ;  afterwards,  as  at  Corinth, 
in  assemblies  of  a  somewhat  more  public  kind,  to  which 
each  brother  brought  his  own  contribution^. 

In  sickness,  the  brethren  sent  for  the  elders  of  the 
Church,  who  prayed  over  them  and  anointed  them  with 
oil,  that  they  might  recover''.  "  Gifts  of  healing"  were 
among  the  special  endowments  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

As  to  the  manner  of  conducting  divine  worship,  whether 
at  the  celebration  of  the  Eucharist  or  in  other  meetings, 
we  know  that  prayer,  intercession,  and  thanksgiving,  were 
the  natviral  language  of  the  early  Church^  When  the 
brethren  came  together,  probably  portions  of  the  Old 
Testament,  certainly  apostolic  letters^  were  publicly  read ; 
psalms  were  sung,  and  before  long  the  Spirit  added  Chris- 
tian hymns  to  the  treasury  of  devotion®;  the  "word  of 
exhortation"  was  uttered,  not  only  by  the  presbyters,  but 
by  other  members  of  the  community,  as  the  Spirit  gave 


1  Acts  viii.  14 — 17;  xix.  1 — 8; 
Heb.  vi.  1—4. 

2  Acts  ii.  46  (nXQivTes  kut  oIkov 
6,pTov  fieTeXafi^avov  Tpo(prjs);  1  Cor. 
xi.  20  if. 

3  1  Pet.  V.  14. 

*  Rom.  xvi.  16,  etc. 
5  1  Cor.  xi.  21. 

"  James  v.  14, 15 ;  compare  Mark 
vi.  13, 


7  Acts  ii.  42 ;  1  Tim.  ii.  1. 

«  Col.  iv.  16. 

9  Eph.  V.  19 ;  Col.  iii.  16.  The 
passage  1  Tim.  iii.  16  is  by  some 
supposed  to  be  a  fragment  of  a 
Christian  hymn.  Pliny  (Epht.  x. 
97)  speaks  of  Christians  singing 
hymns  in  alternate  strains  to 
Christ  as  God. 


The  Apostolic  Church. 


them  utterance ;  each  brother  seems  to  have  exercised  the 
gift  which  the  Spirit  gave  him  for  the  good  of  the  whole, 
subject  only  to  the  natural  laws  of  fitness  and  order ;  one 
the  gift  of  prophecy,  another  the  gift  of  tongues,  another 
the  interpretation  of  tongues \  The  most  precious  of 
these  gifts  was  prophecy^,  the  power  of  speaking  under 
the  influence  of  the  Spirit  for  the  building  up  of  the 
Church. 

As  for  the  days  on  which  assemblies  for  worshij)  were 
held,  the  Apostle  taught  with  the  utmost  plainness  that 
the  Christian  was  not  bound  to  esteem  one  day  above 
another^  Many,  no  doubt,  of  the  Jewish  Christians  long 
continued  to  observe  the  seventh-day  Sabbath ;  but  the 
great  festival  of  the  Church  which  was  to  shew  forth  the 
life  of  the  risen  Lord  has  been  from  the  beginning  the 
first  day  of  the  week*,  the  "  Lord's  DayV'  which  seems  to 
have  been  observed  by  all  Christians,  whether  they  also 
hallowed  the  Sabbath  or  not^  It  is  probable  that  a  Pass- 
over was  also  celebrated  in  the  Church,  as  commemorating 
the  great  deliverance  from  sin  and  death  by  the  Resurrec- 
tion of  Christ^  As  to  the  usual  hour  of  assembling 
nothing  can  be  determined,  except  that  the  administra- 
tion of  Holy  Communion  accompanied  or  followed  the 
evening  meal. 

The  Lord,  before  His  Ascension,  gave  to  the  Apostles 
whom  He  had  chosen  the  charge  to  make  disciples  of  all 
nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  Father,  Son  and 
Holy  Spirit,  and  teaching  them  to  observe  the  laws  of 
Christ ;  adding  the  promise,  to  be  with  them  always,  even 
unto  the  end  of  the  world*,  to  shew  His  presence  by  "signs 
following."  To  the  Apostles  especially  was  it  committed 
to  commemorate  their  Lord  by  the  Breaking  of  the  Bread 
and  the  Blessing  of  the  Cup,  according  to  His  holy  insti- 
tution®; to  them  was  committed  the  power  of  forgiving 
sins  ";  they  were  to  be — as  Christ's  apostle  expresses  it — 


1  1  Cor.  xii.  1—11. 

2  1  Cor.  xiv.  1  ff. 

»  Gal.  iv.  9-11;  Col.  ii.  Ifi; 
Eom.  xiv.  5. 

*  Matt,  xxviii.  1;  Acts  xx.  7;  1 
Cor.  xvi.  2. 

''  Apocal.  i.  30. 

fi  See  J.  A.  Hessey,  in  Smith's 
Diet,  of  the  Bible,  s.  v.  Lord's  Day. 


^  The  observance  of  such  a  fes- 
tival however  is  not  proved  by  the 
well-known  passage  1  Cor.  v.  7. 

8  Matt,  xxviii.  18—20;  [Mark 
xvi.  15]. 

'■'  Luke  xxii.  19. 

1"  Matt,  xviii.  18;  John  xx.  21— 
23.  The  same  charge  to  St  Peter, 
Matt.  xvi.  19. 


The  Apostolic  Church. 


"  servants  of  Christ  and  stewards  of  the  mysteries"  of  God\" 
instniments  of  Christ's  working,  channels  of  divine  grace. 

While  yet  the  Church  of  Christ  consisted  of  a  single 
community  in  Jerusalem,  all  the  gifts  and  offices  of  the 
Christian  ministry  were  concentrated  in  the  twelve  Apostles. 
They  alone,  as  it  seems,  preached  and  taught;  at  their  feet 
were  laid  the  offerings  which  formed  the  suj^port  of  the 
Church,  while  as  yet  they  had  all  things  common.  The 
charge  of  "serving  tables,"  at  the  common  meals  or  dis- 
tribution of  food,  becoming  excessive,  gave  occasion  to  the 
first  committing  of  a  portion  of  the  work  of  the  ministry 
to  others.  The  apostles  desired  to  be  relieved  of  this  part 
of  their  burden,  that  they  might  give  themselves  to  the 
ministry  of  the  word  and  to  prayer.  The  body  of  the 
disciples  accordingly  chose  seven,  whom  the  apostles  con- 
secrated to  their  office  by  prayer  with  laying  on  of  hands ^ 
These  seven  are  commonly,  and  no  doubt  rightly,  called 
the  Seven  Deacons.  The  giving  of  alms  is  so  intimately 
connected  with  ghostly  consolation  that  we  are  not  sur- 
prised to  see  St  Stephen  a  leading  teacher  in  Jerusalem, 
and  St  Philii^  preaching  the  gospel  in  Samaria.  We  soon 
find  the  diaconate  in  the  Gentile  churches  also^;  a  dea- 
coness, no  doubt  especially  for  ministrations  to  the  half- 
secluded  women  of  a  Greek  town,  was  found  in  the  church 
at  Cenchrese*.  In  the  Philij)pian  church  the  "bishops 
and  deacons"  constitute  apparently  the  whole  recognized 
ministry^.  In  the  first  Ej)istle  to  Timothy,  towards  the 
close  of  his  life,  St  Paul  gives  very  particular  directions  as 
to  the  qualifications  both  of  deacons  and  deaconesses,  in 
terms  which  imply  the  dignity  and  importance  of  the 
office". 

The  office  of  deacon  was,  in  the  main,  a  new  one, 
called  forth  by  the  needs  of  the  Christian  Church.  The 
office  of  Presbyter  on  the  other  hand  seems  to  have 
been  already  existing  in  the  Jewish  polity,  in  which  each 
synagogue  was  governed  by  a  body  of  elders''.  Hence, 
when  presbyters  come  to  be  spoken  of,  there  is  not  a  word 
of  exj^lanation ;  it  is  taken  for  granted  that  the  familiar 


1  1  Cor.  iv.  1. 
"  Acts  vi.  1 — 6. 

3  Kom.  xii.  7,  and  perhaps  1  Cor. 
xii.  28. 

*  ilom.  xvi.  1. 


6  Philip,  i.  1. 
6  1  Tim.  iii.  8  ff. 
''  Vitringa,  de  Synag.  in.  i.  c. 
pp.  613  If. 


30 


The  Ajjostolic  Church. 


Avord  will  suggest  with  sufficient  accuracy  the  nature  of 
the  office.  At  Jerusalem  the  presbyters  receive  the  alms 
of  the  Gentile  churches';  they  are  associated  with  the 
apostles  in  the  whole  business  of  the  Jerusalem  confer- 
ence*; they  are  present  when  St  James  receives  St  Paul 
on  his  last  visit  to  Jerusalem  ^  And  wherever  SS.  Paul 
and  Barnabas  formed  a  church,  there  they  appointed 
presbyters*.  The  body  of  presbyters  was  in  all  cases  an 
essential  and  central  part  of  the  organization  of  a  Chris- 
tian community.  The  function  of  the  presbyter  was  pro- 
bably, in  the  first  instance,  like  that  of  the  Jewish  elders, 
rather  one  of  government  than  of  "labour  in  word  and 
doctrine V  though  such  labour  brovight  "double  honour" 
to  those  who  exercised  it ;  yet  it  is  required  that  the  pres- 
byter should  be  "apt  to  teach '^,"  clinging  stoutly  to  the 
faithful  word,  that  he  may  be  able  also  to  exhort  in  the 
sound  teaching  and  to  confute  gainsayers^;  a  sufficient 
proof  that  teaching  and  exhortation  were  ordinarily  ex- 
pected of  him. 

It  has  been  assumed  in  the  preceding  sentence  that 
the  word  "bishop"  (eVtV/coTro?) — a  term  only  used  in 
reference  to  Gentile  Churches,  and  probably  carrying  with 
it  Gentile  associations — is  in  the  New  Testament  absolutely 
synonymous  with  the  word  "  presbyter^"  This  may,  per- 
haps, be  taken  for  granted ;  but  it  by  no  means  follows 
that  such  a  minister  as  was  afterwards  designated  a  "bishop" 
was  not  found  in  the  apostolic  age.  St  Paul  delegated  to 
men  like  Timothy  and  Titus  the  same  kind  of  power  over 
particular  churches  which  he  himself  exercised  over  all  those 
of  his  own  foundation ;  this  is  evidently  the  beginning  of 
the  office  which  in  the  second  century  was  called  by  a  special 
name  derived  from  eTrtcr/coTro?,  and  which  still  bears  a 
similar  appellation  in  almost  every  European  tongue.  St 
James,  the  Lord's  brother,  clearly  enjoyed  in  Jerusalem 
the  local  preeminence  and  authority^  which  justified  later 


^  Acts  xi.  30.  This  circumstance 
has  led  some  to  suppose  that  the 
presbyters  were  the  successors  of 
the  seven  of  Acts  vi.  See  Ritschl, 
AUkathol.  Kirche,  p.  355. 

="  Acts  XV.  2,  4,  6,  22,  23;  xvi.4. 

3  Acts  xxi.  18. 

*  Acts  xiv.  23. 

6  1  Tim.  v.  17. 


"  1  Tim.  iii.  2. 

7  Tit.  i.  9. 

8  PhiUp.  i.  1 ;  Acts  xx.  17  com- 
pared with  XX.  28;  1  Pet.  v.  1,  2; 
1  Tim.  iii.  1—13;  Titus  i.  5—7. 
Sec  Lightfoot,  On  Philippians,  p. 
93  ff.  (2d  ed.). 

»  Acts  XV.  13;  xxi,  18;  Gal.  i.  19; 
ii.  12. 


The  Apostolic  Church. 


31 


writers  in  calling  him  bishop  of  Jeriisaleni ;  and  the  apo- 
stolic authority  of  St  John  was  probably  in  his  latter  days 
so  far  localized  in  Ephesus  and  its  neighbourhood  that  we 
may  well  call  him  bishop  of  that  city. 

We  thus  recognize  in  the  ajjostolic  age  a  threefold 
order ;  the  general  superintendence  exercised  by  the  apo- 
stles themselves — whether  over  several  churches  or  a  par- 
ticular church — a  powder  afterwards  delegated  to  "  faithful 
men"  in  the  several  communities;  and  the  powers  of 
administration  and  teaching  committed  to  presbyters  and 
deacons  in  each  church.  Of  other  ofHces  or  functions  men- 
tioned in  the  New  Testament\  that  of  the  "  shepherds," 
"presidents^"  and  "leadersV'  was  seemingly  identical  with 
that  of  the  presbyters ;  "  helps  "  and  "  governments  "  jDro- 
bably  belonged  to  deacons  and  presbyters  respectively; 
the  work  of  teaching  and  evangelizing  belonged  to  all  the 
orders ;  prophecy  was  not  appropriated  in  the  New  more 
than  in  the  Old  Dispensation  to  any  rank  or  dignity;  the 
w^onder-working  power,  gifts  of  healing,  kinds  of  tongues 
were  gifts  bestowed  by  the  free  grace  of  the  Spirit  on 
various  members  of  the  community  for  the  building  up 
and  completion  of  the  whole. 

8.  But  even  in  the  apostolic  age  there  were  spots  on 
the  fair  face  of  the  Church.  First  and  foremost  was  the  con- 
stant desire  of  Jewish  converts  to  enforce  on  all  Christians 
the  observance  of  the  Jewish  law,  to  import  into  the 
Christian  Church  the  distinctions  of  meats  and  drinks, 
of  new  moons  and  sabbaths,  which  were  to  cease  when 
they  had  subserved  their  j^roper  end*.  And  the  evils  of 
the  "  old  man "  in  the  Gentile  churches  were  even  more 
conspicuous  and  more  fatal.  The  Greek  spirit  of  partizaii- 
ship",  the  tendency  to  look  upon  some  higher  knowledge 
or  "gnosis"  as  the  great  end  and  aim  of  initiation  into  the 
mystery  of  Christ",  the  reluctance  of  idolaters  to  forsake 
the  gay  festivals  which  they  had  frequented  in  the  heathen 
temples',  their  low  standard  of  morality,  especially  as  re- 
gards the  intercourse  of  the  sexes®;  in  a  word,  the  desire 

1  See  especially   1  Cor.  xii.  28;  ^  'Uyovfievoc,  Hebr.  xii.  7. 

Eph.  iv.    11 ;   on   these   passages,  *  Col.  ii.  22. 

Eitschl,  Alt-kathoUsch.  Kirche,  p.  ^  i  Cor.  iiL  3  ff. 

348  ff.  (2nd  ed.).  6  Ibid.  viii.  1  ff.;  1  Tim.  vi.  20. 

^  IIpotiTTdfj.evoi,    1  Thcss.  V.   12;  ^  1  Cor.  X.  14  ii'. 

Horn.  xii.  8.  »  Ibid.  V.  1 ;  vi.  16  £f. 


Chap.  II, 


Three  fold 
Ministry. 


Sects  and 
Heresies, 


82 


The  Apostolic  Church. 


to  compromise  between  Christ  and  demons,  seemed  as  if  it 
would  drown  Christianity  in  paganism.  Even  the  cardinal 
doctrine  of  the  Resurrection  of  the  dead  was  denied  or 
obscvired  by  some  of  the  would-be  wise\  Oriental  forms 
of  asceticism^  and  tendencies  to  the  worship  of  hierarchies 
of  supernatural  beings,  intermediate  between  God  and 
man^,  seem  early  to  have  found  entrance  into  the  Church. 
The  Ej)istle  of  St  Jude  and  the  Apocalypse  of  St  John 
reveal  to  us  a  time  when  deceivers  were  frequent  and  men 
ready  to  be  deceived.  St  John's  insistance  on  the  reality 
of  the  human  body  of  Christ*  seems  to  indicate  that  the 
heresy  which  regarded  it  as  unreal  already  existed.  False 
Christs  and  false  proi^hets  were  not  wanting ;  one  Dosi- 
theus,  in  Samaria,  gave  himself  out  to  be  the  prophet 
whom  Moses  declared  that  the  Lord  would  raise  up  unto 
His  people,  and  preached  the  divinity  and  eternal  obliga- 
tion of  the  Mosaic  Law^;  Simon  Magus  came  to  be  recog- 
nized as  "the  power  of  God  which  is  called  Great V  and  his 
subsequent  history,  however  decorated  with  fable,  shews 
that  he  was  regarded  by  a  sect  as  a  kind  of  incarnation  of 
the  creative  power  of  the  Divinity'';  Menander  too  seems 
to  have  represented  himself  as  an  incarnate  deity,  and  to 
have  persuaded  his  followers  that  he  could  confer  upon 
them  the  gift  of  immortality  ^  Nor  are  indications  wanting 
that  others  also  cried  "  Lo,  here  is  Christ,"  and  found  some 
at  least  to  go  forth  to  them. 

The  Lord  foretold  that  tares  should  be  mingled  with 
the  wheat  in  the  field  of  the  world,  not  to  be  seiJarated 
by  hasty  hands;  yet  He  Himself  gave  the  precept  that  the 
offending  and  unrepentant  brother  must  be  excluded  from 
the  community ^  And  this  power  it  was  necessary  to 
exert  in  order  to  maintain  spiritual  life  and  sound  doctrine; 
the  evil  deed  and  foul  word  "  eat  as  doth  a  canker."  The 
apostles,  or  the  brethren  under  their  direction,  excluded 


1  1  Cor.  XV.  12  ff.;  2  Tim.  ii.  18. 

2  Kom.  xiv.  2,  21 ;  1  Tim.  iv.  3. 

3  Col.  ii.  18  (see  Lightfoot's  edi- 
tion, pp.  8'.»  f.,  101  f.,  110,  181  f.) ; 
compare  1  Tim.  i.  4;  Tit.  iii.  9. 

4  1  John  i.  1. 

5  Clementine  Horn.  ii.  24;  Ori- 
gan, Be  Pniicipiis,  iv.  1 — 17;  Epi- 
phauius,  Uteres.  13. 

6  Acts  viii.  10  [Laclimauu]. 


^  Justin  Martvr,  Ajwl.  i,  cc.  26, 
56;  Dial.  c.  Trypli.  c.  120;  Ii-e- 
naeus,  c.  Uceres.  i.  23;  Eusebius, 
H.  E.  II.  18;  Josephus,  A)itiq.  xx. 
7.  2. 

**  Justin,  Apol.  I.  c.  26;  Euseb. 
H.  E.  III.  26;  Epiphauius,  Hares, 
22. 

"  Matt,  xviii.  17. 


Tlie  Apostolic  Church. 


33 


from  the  communion  of  the  Church  those  who  were  guilty 
of  gross  immorality \  those  who  denied  or  deformed  the 
faith '^  those  who  caused  divisions  among  the  brethren^. 
Yet  exclusion  from  the  society  of  the  faithful  was  only 
resorted  to  in  the  last  necessity,  and  the  restoration  of  the 
offender  was  always  earnestly  desired ;  if  one  was  overtaken 
in  a  transgression,  the  "spiritual"  were  to  correct  and 
reinstate  him  tenderly*;  love  and  comfort  were  to  be 
bestowed  on  the  penitent®;  if  men  were  "judged,"  it  was 
that  they  might  not  perish  with  the  world  *';  if  one  was 
delivered  over  to  Satan  for  the  destruction  of  the  flesh,  it 
was  that  his  sj^irit  might  be  saved  in  the  day  of  the  Lord^ 
In  a  word,  the  end  of  excommunication  is  never  merely 
punishment,  but  the  preservation  of  the  Church  and  the 
reformation  of  the  offender. 


Chap.  n. 


1  1  Cor.  V.  1—5,  9—11. 

*  Gal.  vi.  1. 

2  1  Tim.  i.  20;  Gal.  i.  8,   9;  2 

5  2  Cor.  ii.  7,  8 

John  10,  11. 

c  1  Cor.  xi.  32. 

3  2  Thess.  iii.  14;  Tit.   iii.  10; 

"  Ibid.  V.  5. 

"Eom.  xvi.  17. 

Chap.  III. 

Jewish 

Peesecd- 

TION. 


Bar- 
cochba 
put  doivn, 
A.D.  135. 

Calum- 
nies. 


EOMAN 

Persecu- 
tion. 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE   EARLY   STRUGGLES   OF   THE   CHURCH. 

1.  The  first  external  enemy  which  nascent  Christi- 
anity had  to  encounter  was  the  malice  of  the  Jew.  To 
the  Jews  were  due  the  deaths  of  St  Stephen,  St  James  the 
Apostle,  and  St  James  the  Just.  .  It  was  by  the  Jews  that 
St  Paul  was  evil  entreated,  almost  to  the  death.  Even 
where  they  had  no  political  power,  their  irregular  animo- 
sity was  still  active  \  But  the  most  extensive  and  cruel  of 
all  the  persecutions  which  Christians  had  to  endure  at  the 
hands  of  the  Jews  was  that  which  befel  them  when  Bar- 
Cochba^  raised  the  standard  of  insurrection  against  the 
Romans.  Christians  of  course  refused  to  acknowledge  the 
pretended  "Son  of  the  Star^"  as  Messiah;  their  principles 
forbade  them  to  join  in  rebellion ;  hence  they  had  to 
endure  the  wrath  of  those  who  regarded  them  as  rene- 
gades, while  the  Roman  government  simply  looked  upon 
them  as  Jews.  The  rebellion  of  Bar-cochba  was  put  down, 
and  a  new  Roman  town,  ^Elia  Capitolina*,  built  on  the 
ruins  of  Jerusalem  by  the  direction  of  the  emperor 
Hadrian.  When  the  Jews  could  practise  no  violent  perse- 
cution they  made  amends  by  the  circulation  of  calumnies^ 
Their  schools  of  learning  at  Babylon  and  Tiberias  seem  to 
have  been  centres  of  this  kind  of  manufacture. 

But  the  great  internecine  struggle  was  between  the 


^  E.g.  against  Symeon  (Euseb. 
H.E.  III.  32);  Polycarp  (16.  iv.  15, 
8  29). 

2  Dio  Cassius  xlviii.  32 ;  xlix. 
12,  14;  Justin  M.  Jpol.  i.  31; 
Euseb.  II.  E.  IV.  6,  8. 


2  Numbers  xxiv.  17. 

*  Deyling,  Aeliae  Capit.  Origines 
(Leipzig,  1743). 

s  Justin  M.  Trypho,  c.  17;  Ter- 
tuU.  ad  Nationes,  i.  14. 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


35 


Church  and  the  Empire*.  The  Empire  was  no  doubt 
greatly  more  tolerant  in  matters  of  religion  than  the  small 
republics  of  Greece  had  been  ;  it  necessarily  sanctioned  the 
worship  of  the  gods  of  the  conquered  nations  which  were 
included  within  its  borders ;  but  it  was  not  indifferent  in 
matters  of  religion.  The  Roman  gods  were  the  gods  of 
the  state,  and  the  state  by  no  means  looked  favourably 
upon  forms  of  worship  which  tended  to  diminish  the  reve- 
rence due  to  them.  The  old  republic  was  extremely  jea- 
lous of  foreign  superstitions,  and  the  principle  of  the  law 
which  forbade  the  worship  of  foreign  gods  not  adopted  by 
the  state ""^  was  never  allowed  to  drop  wholly  out  of  sight. 
In  a  Roman  colony  we  find  the  comjjlaint  brought  against 
the  apostles,  that  they  taught  customs  which  it  was  not 
lawful  for  Romans  to  receive  or  to  observe^.  Pomponia 
Grajcina  was  accused  before  a  family  tribunal  of  practising 
"foreign  superstition"  in  the  days  of  Nero^  Magic  was 
forbidden  under  severe  penalties ;  the  laws  of  the  Twelve 
Tables  assigned  death  as  the  penalty  for  practising  incan- 
tation ;  and  probably  the  miracles  of  healing  attributed  to 
the  Christians,  especially  cures  of  demoniacs,  brought  upon 
them  the  suspicion  of  magic.  The  possession  of  magical 
books  was  also  a  crime,  and  the  sacred  books  of  Christians 
were  often  reputed  magicaP. 

We  have  the  testimony  of  Tertullian"  that  the  prin- 
cipal charges  against  Christians  were  those  of  sacrilege 
and  lese-majesty ;  and  his  words  imply  that  to  refuse  to 
worship  the  gods  of  the  Empire  was  to  be  guilty  of  sacri- 
lege. The  punishment  of  sacrilege  was  in  the  discretion 
of  the  proconsul,  who  might  apportion  it  according  to  the 
circumstances  of  the  case  and  the  age  and  sex  of  the 
criminal ;  in  extreme  cases  he  might  sentence  offenders  to 
be  burnt  alive,  crucified,  or  cast  to  wild  beasts  I     Under 


1  On  the  persecutions  generally, 
see  Martini,  Persecutiones  Christia- 
norum  sub  Impp.  Rom.;  Kopke  de 
Statu  et  conditione  Christianorum 
sub  Impp.  Rom.  II.  Sac;  B.  Aub6, 
Hist,  des  Persecutions.  On  the  laws 
of  the  Empire  bearing  on  Christians, 
Bee1!hie\,Altrom.  Rcchtsanschanung 
uber.  d.  Christl.  Rcligion,m  Tilbing. 
Quartulschrift,  1855,  2;  Le  Blant, 


Les  Bases  Juridiques  des  Poursuites 
diriyees  contra  les  Martyrs,  in  the 
Comptes  Rendus  de  VAcadem.  des 
Inscrip.     Paris,  1868. 

^  Cicero  De  Legibus,  ii.  8. 

■*  Acts  xvi.  21. 

*  Tacitus,  Ann.  xiii.  32. 

^  Origen  c.  Celsuni,  1.  vi.  p.  302. 

"  Apolog.  10. 

^  Digest,  xlviii.  tit.  13,  c.  6. 

3—2 


Chap.  III. 


Illicit 
religions. 


Magic. 


Sacrilege. 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


the  head  of  "la3sa  majestas^"  was  brought  every  act  and 
every  word  which  might  tend  to  impair  the  authority  of 
the  government  or  to  bring  it  into  discredit.  It  is  easy 
to  see  how  wide  a  range  charges  of  lese-majesty  might 
have.  Probably  the  rumour  that  Christians  expected  ex- 
isting states  soon  to  pass  away  and  a  new  kingdom  to 
succeed  brought  them  under  the  notice  of  the  tribunals. 
But  there  was  nothing  of  which  the  Empire  was  more 
intolerant  than  the  formation  of  associations  unknown  to 
the  law.  From  the  very  earliest  days  of  imperial  rule 
attempts  were  made  to  check  the  formation  of  clubs  and 
societies^,  and  severe  legislation  was  directed  against  them. 
One  who  held  an  unlawful  meeting  was  liable  to  the  same 
pains  and  penalties  as  one  who  seized  a  public  place  by 
armed  force ;  that  is,  to  the  penalties  of  lese-majesty. 
Some  exceptions  were  however  made ;  religious  meetings 
were  not  forbidden,  provided  that  they  were  so  conducted 
as  not  to  offend  against  the  laws  relating  to  illicit  collegia; 
and  benefit-societies  consisting  of  poor  people  (tenuiores) 
and  slaves,  were  permitted  in  Rome  to  meet  and  make 
their  payments  to  the  common  fund  once  a  month.  A 
rescript  of  Septimius  Severus  extended  this  provision  to 
all  Italy  and  the  provinces'.  Christian  congregations  may 
sometimes  have  received  legal  recognition  as  benefit-clubs, 
for  they  did  undoubtedly  contribute  at  their  meetings  to  a 
common  fund  for  the  purpose  of  mutual  succour,  though 
they  could  scarcely  have  complied  with  the  condition  of 
meeting  only  once  a  month.  But,  on  the  whole,  the  Church 
was  clearly  regarded  as  a  secret  society  of  a  very  dan- 
gerous kind,  having  occult  signs  and  pass-words,  and 
bound  together  in  a  confederation  which  extended  over 
the  whole  empire.  That  Christians  formed  unlawful  asso- 
ciations is  the  first  charge  brought  against  them  by 
Celsus*,  and  Tertullian^  a  Christian  advocate,  scarcely 
attempts  to  refute  it.  The  Roman  statesman  saw  in  the 
Christian  Church  either  the  ephemeral  product  of  fanatical 


^  Digest,  xLviii.  tit.  4. 

*  Sueton.  Julius,  42;  August.  32. 
On  the  whole  subject,  see  Momra- 
sen  De  Oollegiis  et  Sodaliciis  lio- 
manorum. 

3  Digest,    xlvii.    tit.    22.       On 


burial-clubs,  which  were  the  most 
common  form  of  benefit-club,  see 
Browiilow  and  Northcote,  Roma 
Sotteranea,  i.  64—109  ('2nd  ed.). 

*  Origen  c.  Cch.  lib.  i.  p.  4. 

<*  A'pol.  39 ;  cf.  De  Jejuniis,  c.  13. 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Ghui-ch. 


37 


folly  and  delusion,  or  a  slinking  gang  of  conspirators,  a 
"lucifiiga  natio,"  which  the  state  must  needs  put  down, 
were  it  only  for  its  own  safety. 

The  secrecy  of  their  meetings  in  time  of  persecution 
was  a  main  cause  of  the  calumnies  which  were  circulated 
against  them.  The  Empire  was  full  of  mysteries  and 
secret  orgies,  yet  against  none  do  we  find  such  vile  ac- 
cusations brought  as  those  which  were  reiterated  against 
the  Christians.  They  were  atheists  \  they  indulged  in 
Thyestean  banquets,  they  revelled  in  horrible  incest  '"^ ; 
they  worshipped  a  monster  with  an  ass's  head^  That 
they  should  be  called  atheists  was  perhaps  not  altogether 
unnatural ;  those  who  forsook  the  temples  of  the  gods  and 
worshipped  no  deity  graven  by  art  and  man's  device  were 
to  the  heathen  populace  of  course  atheists.  Their  nightly 
assemblies  for  the  feast  of  love  and  the  Holy  Communion, 
and  a  few  mystical  words  relating  to  the  Agape,  the  com- 
memoration of  the  death  of  Christ,  and  the  participation 
of  His  Flesh  and  Blood,  grossly  misunderstood,  gave  rise 
probably  to  the  horrible  charges  of  murder,  strange  food, 
and  illicit  love.  Such  rumours  as  these  caused  men  like 
Tacitus  to  regard  the  Church  of  Christ,  the  only  society  in 
the  empire  in  which  a  pure  and  noble  morality  was  taught, 
as  a  loathsome  superstition*.  It  was  thought  to  bring 
down  the  wrath  of  the  gods  on  the  state.  If  an  earth- 
quake shook  a  city  or  a  river  overflowed  its  banks,  or  the 
seasons  were  unpropitious,  the  cry  arose,  'To  the  lions 
with  the  Christians  ! '  ^  And  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that 
all  those  who  lived  by  pagan  worship  found  their  occupa- 
tion threatened ;  the  makers  of  silver  shrines  of  the  Ephe- 
sian  Artemis  were  but  specimens  of  a  class  found  wherever 
a  temple  existed.  And  not  only  those  whose  material 
interests  were  in  danger,  but  paganism  in  general  found 
its  old  mythology,  its  civic  feeling,  its  frank  enjoyment  of 
the  life  of  this  world,  called  in  question  by  a  sect  which 


1  Arnobius,  vi.  1. 

-  Minucius  Felix,  c.  9. 

3  Tertull.  Afol.  c.  18.  On  the 
burlesque-crucifix  with  an  ass's 
head,  see  Garrucci,  II  Crocifisso 
Gmffito(B.ome,  1857) ;H.  P.  Liddon, 
Bampton  Lect.,  p.  397;  R.  St  J. 
Tyrwhitt  in  Smith  and  Cheetham's 


Diet,  of  Chr.  Antiq.  p.  516.  See 
also  Dr  Pusey's  notes  on  the  pas- 
sage in  TertuUian  in  the  Oxford 
Library  of  the  Fathers. 

*  "Exitiabilis  superstitio."  An- 
nals, XV.  44. 

5  Tertullian,  Apol.  c.  40. 


38 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


preached  humility  and  self-renunciation,  offering  a  distant 
Heaven  in  return  for  the  j^leasures  of  the  present  life. 
Many  Christians  felt  it  perilous  to  the  soul  to  swear  the 
soldier's  oath  or  to  undertake  municipal  offices  \  True, 
they  were  submissive  to  lawful  authority,  but  the  general 
suspicion  against  them  was  so  strong,  that  their  professions 
of  allegiance  were  thought  to  savour  more  of  policy  than  of 
truth. 

The  Empire  could  perhaps  scarcely  be  expected  to 
tolerate  in  the  midst  of  it  such  a  society.  It  did  in  fact 
persecute  the  rising  sect  with  a  very  vigorous  animosity, 
yet  not  steadily  or  continuously,  but  according  to  the 
views  of  various  emperors  or  even  of  provincial  governors. 
What  was  at  first  popular  hatred  of  an  obscure  sect  be- 
came in  less  than  three  centuries  an  organised  effort  of 
the  pagan  power  to  put  down  its  growing  rival. 

When  Suetonius'"'  tells  us  that  Claudius  expelled  from 
Rome  "the  Jews  who  were  making  constant  uproar  with 
one  Chrestiis  as  a  ringleader,"  he  probably  refers  to  the 
fact  that  the  preaching  of  Christ  set  the  Jews'  quarter  at 
Rome  in  a  commotion.  So  far  however  Christianity 
appears  as  a  Jewish  sect,  not  subject  to  direct  persecution. 
It  is  under  Nero  that  the  Christians  first  appear  as  suffer- 
ing torture  and  death,  as  a  sect  everywhere  spoken  against. 
When  Rome  was  burnt,  and  rumour  assigned  the  guilt 
of  the  deed  to  Nero  himself,  he  sought  to  turn  the  popular 
rage  from  himself  to  the  Christians,  already  the  objects  of 
the  most  unreasonable  suspicions.  They  were  sewed  up 
in  hides  of  wild  beasts  and  torn  by  dogs;  they  were 
crucified ;  they  were  wrapped  in  tar-cloth  and  set  on  fire. 
Their  "hatred  of  the  human  race"  was  held  enough  to 
convict  them  of  this  incendiarism,  or  at  all  events  to  justify 
their  punishment  ^  The  tendency  of  the  Roman  jjopulace 
to  wreak  on  the  Christians  the  wrath  they  felt  at  some 
civic  or  national  misfortune  appears  here  for  the  first 
time. 

Yet  for  some  time  after  Nero  we  hear  no  more  of  perse- 
cution of  Christians.     Even  Domitian,  whom  Tertullian* 


1  TertuUian,  De  Pallio,  5;  De 
Cor.  Mint.  11;  Apolog.  38,  42; 
Ruinart,  Acta  Sincera,  p.  299  (2nd 
ed.). 

2  Claudius,  c.  25. 


3  Tacitus,  Arm.  xv.  44.  But  see 
C.  Merivale,  Romans  under  the  Em- 
pire, c.  54. 

^  Apolog.  c.  5. 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Ghurxh. 


39 


calls  a  "chip  of  Nero  for  cruelty/'  does  not  appear  to  have 
treated  Christians  with  mvich  greater  cruelty  than  the 
rest  of  his  subjects.  According  to  some  authorities^  it  was 
in  this  reign  that  the  apostle  John  was  immersed  in 
boiling  oil  uninjured  and  banished  to  Patmos.  That  a 
Flavins  Clemens  was  executed  by  order  of  Domitian  is  an 
historical  fact^  but  we  have  no  authority  for  identifying 
him  with  Clemens  the  bishop  of  the  Roman  Church.  In 
fact,  in  the  authentic  records  of  Domitian's  reign,  the 
charge  of  Christianity  is  nowhere  put  forward  distinctly  as 
a  reason  for  the  executions  ordered  by  the  tyrant,  though 
the  "atheism"  and  "superstition"  attributed  to  some  of 
his  victims  may  very  possibly  be  heathen  distortions  of 
their  Christianity.  It  is  of  course  only  too  probable  that 
Christians  suffered  from  outbreaks  of  popular  fury,  both  in 
Rome  and  in  the  provinces,  but  we  meet  with  no  distinct 
mention  of  any  action  of  the  state  against  them  until 
the  time  of  Trajan.  It  was  to  him  that  Pliny  the  younger, 
much  perplexed  at  the  number  of  Christians  discovered  in 
his  government  of  Bithynia,  wrote  his  famous  letter  ^ 
Was  he — he  asked  the  emperor — to  punish  Christians  as 
such,  even  if  they  were  guilty  of  no  offence  against 
public  law  or  morality  ?  He  himself  held  that  it  was 
his  duty  to  punish  those  who  admitted  themselves 
Christians,  and  could  not  be  frightened  into  recanting ; 
i'or  (he  said),  whatever  their  superstition  might  be,  they 
deserved  punishment  for  their  obstinacy.  Those  who 
consented  to  worship  the  gods  and  the  statue  of  the 
emperor  in  a  form  prescribed  by  himself,  and  to  curse 
Christ,  he  at  once  dismissed.  After  putting  two  deaconesses 
to  the  torture,  he  discovered  nothing  but  a  perverse  and 
extravagant  superstition.  Trajan*  approved  in  general 
Pliny's  proceedings,  and  laid  down  for  his  guidance  the 
principle,  that  no  search  should  be  made  for  Christians, 
but  that  those  who  were  brought  to  the  bar  should  be 
punished  with  death,  unless  they  proved  their  paganism 
by  sacrificing  to  the  gods.  Anonymous  accusations  were 
to  be  altogether  disregarded. 

1  Tertullian,  De  Prcescript.  c.  36;  218;  Jerome,  Epist.  96  [al.  27]. 
Euseb.  H.  E.  iii.  18.  3  Epigt^  x.  96  [al.  97]. 

2  Suetonius,    Domitian,    c.    15;  *  Plinii,   Epist.  x.    97   [al.    98]. 
Dio     Cassius     [Epit.      Xiphilini],  Compare  Tertullian,  Apolog.  c.  2, 
Lxvii.  14;  Euseb.    Chron.   Olymp. 


Chap.  III. 


Trajan, 
A.D.  98— 
117. 


Trajan's 
Rescript, 

A.D.  111. 


40 


Tlte  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


Chap.  ni. 


Death  of 
Symeon, 
A.D.  108, 
and  Igna- 
tius, A.D. 
107orll6? 


Edict  of 
Hadrian. 


Antoninus 
Pitis,  A.D. 
138—161. 


Justin's 
Martyr- 
dom, A.D. 
148? 


Poly- 
carp's,  A.D. 
155? 


Trajan  carefully  limited  his  decision  to  the  particular 
case  and  locality.  Still,  the  emperor's  rescript  furnished  a 
fatal  precedent;  henceforth,  whenever  the  magistrates 
were  disposed  to  persecute  Christians,  there  seems  to  have 
been  no  difficulty  in  finding  law  against  them^  Under 
Trajan  too  we  hear  the  ominous  cry,  "The  Christians  to 
the  lions!"  There  was  no  security  against  the  rage  of 
Jews  or  heathen.  The  aged  Symeon,  bishop  of  Jerusalem, 
is  said  to  have  been  crucified  to  gratify  the  former "'' ;  the 
fury  of  the  populace  of  Antioch  caused  Ignatius  to  be 
torn  by  lions  in  the  Coliseum,  as  a  spectacle  for  the 
latter  ^ 

When  Christianity  itself  was  recognised  as  a  crime, 
informers  were  not  wanting,  so  that  even  when  the  em- 
perors were  not  active  persecutors.  Christians  still  suffered 
from  the  unreasonable  hatred  of  their  pagan  neighbours. 
As  the  mob  of  the  towns  fell  into  the  habit  of  shouting  for 
the  blood  of  Christians  for  their  own  amusement  or  as  an 
offering  to  the  gods  in  time  of  public  calamity,  Hadrian 
issued  an  edict  against  these  riots*,  and  required  that  in 
all  cases  proceedings  against  the  Christians  should  be  con- 
ducted with  the  due  forms  of  law.  The  excellent  Anto- 
ninus Pius  is  not  commonly  regarded  as  a  persecutor,  and 
has  the  reputation  of  a  kind  and  just  ruler  both  in  pagan 
and  Christian  authorities^.  Yet  it  is  in  the  highest  degree 
l^robable  that  it  was  in  his  reign  that  Justin®  gained  the 
title  of  "martyr"  in  Rome  itself,  being  put  to  death  by 
Urbicus,  the  prefect  of  the  city,  mainly  in  consequence 
of  the  hostility  of  one  Crescens,  a  Cynic,  whom  he  had 
denounced  as  a  charlatan ;  and  that  in  his  reign  also 
Polycarp'',  the  venerable  bishop  of  Smyrna,  was  brought  to 


1  See  Justin  Martyr,  AjpoL  i.  2 — 
4,  and  Apol.  ii. 

2  Eusebius,  H.  E.  ni.  32, 

3  lb.  III.  36.  On  the  Acts  of  the 
Martyrdom  of  Ignatius  (Euinart, 
Acta  Sincera,  p.  7  ff. ;  Ignatii  et 
Pohjcarpi  Epistt.,  Martyria,  ed. 
Zahn)  see  Zahn,  Ignatius  v.  Antio- 
chien,  pp.  2 — 56. 

■*  Justin  Martyr,  Apol.  i.  c.  68; 
Ensebius  H.  E.  iv.  8  and  26. 

^  The  rescript  irpbs  to  koivov  rrj% 
Affiai,  however,  attributed  to  Anto- 
ninus by  Justin  (u.  s.)  and  to  Au- 


relius  by  Eusebius  {II.  E.  iv.  8  and 
26)  is  of  very  doubtful  genuineness. 
See  Keim  in  Theolog.  Jahrbiich. 
1856,  pt.  3. 

6  F.  J.  A.  Hort  in  Journal  of 
Philology  (Cambridge),  iii.  155  ff. 
Justin's  death  is  commonly  placed 
in  the  reign  of  M.  Aurelius,  on  the 
authority  of  Eusebius  [H.  E.  iv.  16), 
about  A.D.  165. 

'  Waddington,  Pastes  des  Pro- 
iiinces  Asiatiques,  i.  219;  Zahn  on 
Poly  carpi  Mart.  c.  21,  p.  163  £f. 
This  also  is  attributed  to  the  reign 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


41 


the  stake  in  his  own  city.  The  successor  of  Antoninus, 
Marcus  Aurelius,  the  throned  Stoic,  disliked  religious  ex- 
citement in  generaP  and  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Christians 
in  particular;  the  wise  man  should,  he  thought,  endure 
with  patience  the  thought  of  extinction  after  death,  and 
pass  out  of  life  undemonstratively^  However  little  belief 
he  had  in  the  old  Roman  religion,  he  thought  it  for  the 
good  of  the  state  that  it  should  be  maintained.  The 
proceedings  of  provincial  governors  against  the  Chris- 
tians were  at  least  unhindered,  if  they  were  not  actually 
promjDted  and  encouraged  by  the  emperor.  A  terrible 
persecution  befel  the  Churches  of  Lyons  and  Vienne ;  in 
this  case,  the  fury  of  the  populace  appears  to  have  been 
unchecked  by  the  magistrates,  and  even  illegal  methods  of 
proceeding  were  permitted.  It  was  in  this  storm  that  the 
venerable  bishoj)  Pothinus  of  Lyons  died.  Still,  in  spite 
of  losses  by  death  and  desertion,  a  remnant  was  left,  and 
these  told  their  own  pathetic  story  in  a  letter  to  the 
Churches  of  Asia  and  Phrygia''.  To  this  reign  is  assigned 
the  miracle  of  the  "  Thundering  Legion,"  composed  partly 
of  Christians,  who  in  the  campaign  against  the  Marcomanni 
and  Quadi  are  said  to  have  procured  rain  by  their  prayers 
when  the  imperial  army  was  suffering  the  last  extremity 
of  thirst*.  The  brutal  Commodus,  the  son  of  the  philoso- 
pher, is  said  to  have  been  influenced  by  his  mistress 
Marcia  in  favour  of  Christianity,  which  accordingly  made 
way  among  the  higher  classes  in  Rome  ;  yet  it  was  under 
him  that  Apollonius,  a  man  of  high  station  and  dis- 
tinguished culture,  was  put  to  death,  together  with  the 
slave  his  accuser^ 

The  reign  of  Septimius  Severus,  in  other  respects  also 
an  important  epoch,  changed  the  relation  of  the  state  to 


of  M.  Aurelius  (Euseb.  H.  E.  iv. 
15),  about  A.D.  167—168. 

^  "  Si  quis  aliquid  f ecerit  quo  leves 
hominum  animi  suiDerstitione  nu- 
minis  tenerentur,  Divus  Marcus 
hujusmodi  homines  in  insulam 
relegari  rescripsit."  Digest,  xlviii. 
tit.  19,  c.  30. 

^  Meditat.  xi.  3.  On  the  relation 
of  M.  Aurelius  to  Christianity,  see 
F.  D.  Maurice,  Philosophy,  i.  298  ff. 
(ed.  1873). 


3  Euseb.  H.  E.  v.  1—3. 

■*  Tertullian,  Apolog.  c.  5;  ad 
Scapulam,  c.  4;  Euseb.  H.  E.  y.  5; 
Orosius,  Historia,  vii.  15 ;  Dio  Cas- 
sius  [Epit.  Xiphilini],  lxxi.  8;  Ju- 
lius Capitolinus,  Marc.  Anton,  c.  21; 
See  Mosheim,  De  Rebtis  ante  Con- 
stant., p.  218;  Martigny,  Diet,  des 
Antiq.  Chret.  s.  v.  'Legio  Fulmi- 
natrix.' 

5  Euseb.  H.  E.  v.  21. 


Chap.  III. 

Marcus 
Aurelius, 

A.D.    161- 

180. 


Martyrs  of 
Lyons  and 
Vienne, 
A.D.  177. 


The  Thun- 
dering 
Legion, 
A.D.  174. 

Commo- 
dus, A.D. 
180—192. 


Septimius 
Severus, 
A.D.  193— 
211. 


42 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


Chap.  HI. 


About 
A.D.  203. 


Elagaba- 
lus,  A.D. 
218—222. 


Alexander 
Severus, 
A.D.  222— 
235. 


Christianity.  He  was  an  African,  his  wife  Julia  Domna 
a  Syrian,  and  the  emperors  of  their  race,  Caracalla, 
Elagabahis,  and  Alexander  Severus,  were  much  more 
oriental  than  Roman \  Men  such  as  these  had  not  the 
same  feeling  in  favour  of  the  Roman  state-religion  which 
had  so  strongly  influenced  the  Antonines  ;  they  rather 
regarded  with  interest  strange  forms  of  belief  and  worship. 
Yet  Septimius  is  reckoned  among  the  persecutors;  he 
referred  all  cases  of  holding  unlawful  assemblies  to  the 
judgment  of  the  prefect  of  the  city^  and  forbade  with 
equal  sternness  conversions  to  Christianity  and  to  Judaism^; 
confiscation,  torture,  and  death  befel  many  Christians. 
In  Alexandria  and  proconsular  Africa  in  particular  the 
persecution  was  so  severe,  that  men  thought  the  times 
of  Antichrist  nigh  at  hand*.  Leonides  the  father  of 
Origen^,  Potamiaena  with  her  mother  Marcella,  and  the 
soldier  Basilides  who  was  her  guard**,  were  put  to  death 
in  this  persecution ;  still  more  famous  martyrs  of  this 
epoch  are  the  young  matrons  Perpetua  and  Felicitas" 
of  Carthage ;  and  the  twelve  martyrs  of  Scillite^  in 
Africa,  who  bore  their  testimony  before  the  proconsul 
Vigellius  Saturninus.  Elagabalus  was  himself  a  dilettante 
in  religion,  and  tolerated  both  the  Jewish  and  the  Chris- 
tian fraternities,  intending  however  in  the  end  to  permit 
in  Rome  no  worship  but  that  of  Elagabalus  ^  The 
emperor  Alexander  Severus,  casting  about  for  objects  of 
veneration  in  a  faithless  time,  formed  a  kind  of  private 
chapel,  in  which,  with  Abraham,  Orpheus,  and  Apollonius 
of  Tyana,  he  set  up  a  bust  of  Christ '";  nay,  he  is  said  even 
to  have  contemplated  building  a  temple  to  his  honour,  and 
adopting  Christ  among  the  gods  of  Rome'\  His  mother, 
Julia  Mammsea,  when  staying  at  Antioch,  summoned  to 
her  presence  the  great  Origen,  of  whose  fame  she  had 
heard 'I  Such  an  emperor  was  not  likely  to  be  an  active 
persecutor;  he  practically  recognized  the  right  of  the 
Christians  to  exist  and  worship  in  the  Empire.     The  laws 


^  A.  Eeville,  in  Rhme  des  Deux 
Mondes,  Oct.  1,  1865,  pp.  622  ff. 
2  Digest,  lib.  i.  tit.  12,  c.  14. 
^  Spartianus,  Severvs,  c.  17. 
■"  Euseb.  H.  E.  vi.  7. 
B  Ibid.  VI.  1. 
6  Ihid.  VI.  5. 


29. 


7  Eiiinart,  Acta  Sincera,  p.  92  ff. 

8  lb.  p.  8(;  S. 

9  Lampridius,  Heliogal.  c.  3. 
^^  Lampridius,  Alex.  Severus,  c. 

D. 

"  lb.  c.  43. 
12  Euseb.  H.  E.  vi.  21. 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


43 


against  Christians  were  not  repealed,  but  in  spite  of  the 
existence  of  these  laws,  there  was  for  some  years  no 
persecution,  except  a  transitory  one  under  Maximin',  who 
was  ready  to  persecute  whatever  his  predecessor  had 
favoured  ;  one  emperor,  Philip  the  Arabian,  is  even  said  to 
have  been  a  Christian ^  Christianity  was  now  in  the 
popular  estimation  no  long-er  the  foul  superstition  that  it 
once  had  been ;  it  had  attracted  many  of  the  wealthy  and 
educated  class ^;  it  had  come  to  be  regarded  as  a  religion 
whose  claims  must  at  least  be  considered ;  there  was  no 
intrinsic  reason  why  it  should  not  take  an  equal  rank  with 
other  permitted  religions. 

With  Decius  came  again  a  change.  By  this  time,  the 
growth  of  the  Christian  Church  in  numbers  and  influence 
had  become  so  manifest,  that  Romans  began  to  see  the 
very  existence  of  Paganism  threatened,  while  at  the  same 
time  Christianity  had  lost  something  of  its  pristine  purity 
and  vigour ;  the  world  had  entered  the  Church*.  Perse- 
cutions from  this  time  are  no  longer  mere  outbreaks  of 
popular  fury,  but  direct  consequences  of  the  action  of  the 
state.  The  earlier  persecutions  had  been  partial,  and  the 
victims  comparatively  few®;  now,  persecution  was  ex- 
tended systematically  to  the  whole  Empire,  and  a  strenuous 
effort  was  made  to  exterminate  Christianity.  At  the  very 
beginning  of  his  reign,  Decius  issued  an  edict,  command- 
ing governors  of  provinces  under  the  severest  penalties  to 
put  in  force  every  means  of  terrifying  the  Christians  and 
bringing  them  back  to  the  old  religion''.  All  Christians 
were  to  sacrifice  to  the  gods  before  a  certain  day,  or  be 
handed  over  to  torture ;  the  bishops  in  particular  were 
marked  out  for  death.  Many  were  the  instances  of  Chris- 
tian heroism  in  this  pitiless  storm,  but  many  fell  away  and 
"lapsed"'  outwardly  at  least  into  heathenism.  The  j)er- 
secution  did  not  cease  even  with  the  death  of  Decius,  for 
public   misfortunes   roused    the    fury   of    the   city   mobs 


1  Euseb.  H.  E.  \i.  28 ;  Firmilian  to 
Cypriau,  Cypriani  Epist.  75,  c.  10. 

2  Euseb.  H.  E.  vi.  34 ;  Jerome, 
Chron.  an.  246. 

2  Origen,  c.  Gels.  iii.  8,  p.  117. 
*  Cyprian,  De  Lapsis,  6. 
^  Origen  contra  Celsum,  in.  8,  p. 
116. 


^  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  Vita  Greg. 
Thaumat.  {Opera,  in.  567.  ed.  Paris, 
1638). 

^  Smith  and  Cheetham's  Diet, 
of  Ghr.  Antiq.  s.  vv.  'Lapsi,'  'Li- 
belli.' 


Chap.  III. 

Maximin, 
A.D.  235— 
238. 

Philip  the 
Arabian, 
A.D.  244— 
249. 


Decius, 
A.D.  249- 
251. 


Edict  of 
Deciut!, 
A.D.  250. 


Gallus, 
A.D.  251- 
253. 


44 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


Chap.  HI. 


Valerian, 
A.D.  253- 
260. 


A.D.  258-9. 


Galliemis, 
A.D.  260  — 
268. 


Diocle- 
tian, A.D. 
284—305. 


against  the  stiff-necked  peojDle  who  would  not  offer  pro- 
pitiatory sacrifices  to  the  tutelary  gods  of  the  state. 
Among  the  victims  of  the  Decian  period  were  Fabian, 
bishop  of  Rome,  Baby  las  of  Antioch,  and  Alexander  of 
Jerusalem \  In  this  time  of  distress,  the  legend  says'**,  the 
"Seven  Sleepers"  began  their  long  slumber  at  E25hesus; 
they  roused  themselves  under  Theodosius  II.  to  see  the 
despised  Cross  on  every  coign  of  vantage.  After  a  short 
23eriod  of  rest,  persecution  was  renewed  under  Valerian, 
who  directed  his  attack  principally  against  the  bishoj)s, 
priests,  and  deacons  of  the  Church,  and  against  senators, 
knights,  and  other  persons  of  rank  who  had  joined  the 
hated  community^,  thinking  probably  that  if  the  more 
distinguished  persons  were  induced  to  forsake  Christ,  the 
multitude  would  follow  of  its  own  accord.  In  this  period 
of  oppression  fall  the  deaths  of  Sixtus,  bishop  of  Rome, 
with  Laurence  his  deacon*,  of  Cyprian^  at  Carthage,  and  of 
Fructuosus"  at  Tarragona.  With  the  sole  rule  of  Gallienus 
came  remission ;  he  put  a  stop  to  the  existing  persecu- 
tions, and  issued  a  letter'  to  the  bishops,  granting  them 
protection,  and  desiring  the  pagan  authorities  to  give 
them  back  their  churches  and  cemeteries.  This  implies 
that  the  Christian  communities  were  regarded,  for  the 
time,  as  at  least  lawful  associations.  Toleration  continued 
under  Claudius ;  Aurelian's  preparations  for  a  renewal  of 
persecution  were  cut  short  by  his  death ;  nor  was  the 
Church  molested  by  the  government  in  the  first  nineteen 
years  of  Diocletian.  In  this  period  of  rest  the  Church 
spread  abroad  greatly ;  Christians  were  entrusted  with  the 
government  of  provinces,  and  even  professed  their  religion 
openly  in  the  very  palace  of  the  emperor^  This  serenity 
was  soon  to  be  broken  by  the  most  severe  storm  that 
Christianity  had  to  encounter. 

Diocletian^  the    son  of  a   Dalmatian   freedman,  was 


1  Euseb.  H.  E.  vi.  39—42;  Cy- 
prian, De  LajJsis,  and  bis  Letters 
of  tbis  period. 

2  First  in  Gregory  of  Tours,  De 
Gloria  Martyrum,  i.  95.  Compare 
tbe  story  of  Epimenides  in  Pliny, 
Nat.  Hist.  VII.  52. 

3  Euseb.  H.  E.  vii.  10,  11;  Cy- 
prian, Epist.  80. 


*  Prudentius,  Peristeph.  Hymn  2. 

^  Life  of  Cyprian  by  Pontius,  and 
Acta  Proconsularia  in  Euinart,  p. 
205  ff. 

6  Buinart,  p.  219  ff. 

7  Euseb.  H.  E.  vii.  13. 

8  Ibid.  VIII.  1. 

"  Tbis  Emperor's  life  has  been 
written  by  A.  Vogel,   Der  Kaiser 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


45 


one  of  the  ablest  rulers  that  ever  mounted  the  imperial 
throne.  His  leading  thought  was  to  organize  the  unwieldly 
empire.  To  this  end,  he  associated  with  himself  (a.d. 
285)  Maximian  as  a  colleague  in  the  Empire,  and  after- 
wards (a.d.  293)  two  others,  Galerius  and  Constantius 
Chlorus,  in  a  somewhat  subordinate  position,  with  the 
title  of  "  Csesars " ;  the  superior  rulers  bore  the  name  of 
"  August! ".  Diocletian's  love  for  the  old  religion,  or  per- 
haps his  policy,  appears  in  his  taking  the  name  of  Jovius, 
while  he  gave  his  colleague  that  of  Herculius,  as  if  in- 
voking Jove  and  Hercules  for  the  protection  of  the  Emj^ire. 
If  the  legend  may  be  trusted,  Maximianus  Herculius  soon 
used  his  power  against  the  Christians ;  two  years  after  he 
became  a  ruler  he  is  said  to  have  caused  the  whole  of  the 
Theban  legion,  with  their  tribune  Mauritius,  to  be  put  to 
death  in  cold  blood  near  Martigny  in  Switzerland,  because 
they  refused  to  act  against  the  Christians  \  Diocletian 
however  was  not  disposed  to  persecute  the  Church;  on 
the  contrary,  in  the  early  part  of  his  reign  many  Christians 
had  positions  of  trust  about  his  person ;  but  the  Ca3sar 
Galerius,  who  was  his  son-in-law,  a  burly  ruffian  imbued 
with  heathen  superstition^,  became  the  tool  of  a  party 
which  was  eager  for  the  suppression  of  Christianity 
as  the  only  means  of  preserving  Paganism.  Diocletian 
shrank  from  a  struggle  the  horrors  of  which  he  clearly 
foresaw ^  but  at  last  with  great  reluctance  yielded  to 
the  urgency  of  his  colleague,  and  assented  to  decided 
measures  for  the  suppression  of  the  faith  of  Christ.  Three 
edicts  appeared  in  rapid  succession  in  the  year  303,  and 
a  fourth  in  the  following  year,  which  in  effect  delivered 


Diokletian;  Th.  Bernhard,  Dio- 
cletian in  s,  Verhaltniss  zu  d.  Chris- 
ten; Hunziker,  Zur  Riyicnmg  u. 
Christenverfolgung  d.  K.  Dioclet. ; 
A.  J.  Masou,  The  Persecntion  of 
Diocletian  (Camb.  1876) ;  see  also 
Burckhardt,  Die  Zeit  Constantino; 
M.  Ritter  De  Diocletiano.  On  the 
dates  of  Diocletian's  Edicts,  see 
Th.  Mommseu  in  the  TransactioTis 
of  the  Berlin  Academie  der  Wis- 
senschaften,  18G0,  pp.  339  —447. 

1  This  story  appears  first  in  a 
narrative  bearing  the  name  of 
Eucherius,  bishop  of  Lyons  about 


430  (Euinart,  Acta  Mart.  p.  271  ff.), 
but  possibly  the  work  of  a  later 
Eucherius  (Rettberg,  Kirchengesch. 
Deutscldands,  i.  94).  The  genuine- 
ness of  the  account  is  defended  by 
G.  Hickes,  Thehaean  Legion  no 
Fable;  J.  De  Lisle,  Defense  de  la 
verite  de  la  Leg.  Theb.;  J.Friedrich, 
K.-G.  Deutschlands,  p.  101  fT. ;  con- 
troverted by  J.  Dubordieu,  Diss. 
Grit,  sur  le  Martyre  de  la  Leg. 
Theb.,  and  Rettberg,  u.  s. 

2  Lactantius,  De  Mart.  Persec. 
c.  10. 

^  Lactantius  u.  s.  c.  11. 


Chap.  in. 


The 

Theban 
Legion, 
A.D.  287. 


Edicts 
against 
Chris- 
tians, A.  D. 
303. 


46 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


over  the  unfortunate  Christians  to  the  fanaticism  of  mobs 
and  the  arbitrary  will  of  provincial  governors.  By  the 
first  edict ^  assemblies  of  Christians  were  forbidden ;  their 
churches  and  sacred  books  were  ordered  to  be  destroyed 
and  Church  property  to  be  confiscated ;  those  who  refused 
to  renounce  their  faith  were  to  be  deprived  of  all  civil 
rights  and  dignities;  accusations  against  Christians  were 
to  be  entertained,  and  torture  might  be  applied  to  compel 
them  to  recant ;  Christian  slaves,  so  long  as  they  remained 
Christian,  could  not  be  manumitted.  The  disturbances 
which  arose  in  carrying  out  this  edict  occasioned  still 
further  measures  of  severity.  The  second  edict ^  directed 
that  all  bishops  and  clergy  should  be  imprisoned.  The 
third',  issued  on  the  twentieth  anniversary  (vicennalia)  of 
Diocletian's  accession,  was  a  kind  of  grim  jest.  It  bore 
the  form  of  an  amnesty,  and  ordered  the  imprisoned  clergy 
to  be  set  at  liberty,  if  they  would  but  consent  to  sacrifice 
to  the  gods ;  if  they  refused  this  beneficence,  they  were  to 
be  subjected  to  torture.  Under  these  edicts,  persecution, 
though  no  doubt  varying  much  in  intensity  in  different 
provinces,  became  severe  and  general.  Many  met  death 
with  wonderful  constancy;  old  men,  tender  women,  even 
young  children  became  martyrs,  often  under  circumstances 
of  great  horror ;  but  many  denied  the  faith,  and  many — 
stigmatised  as  ti^aditores — delivered  up  the  sacred  books 
to  save  themselves.  Still,  it  was  felt  that  the  end  of  all 
these  horrors  was  not  attained,  and  in  304  a  fourth  edict* 
was  published,  which  simply  offered  Christians  the  choice 
between  death  and  sacrifice.  Wherever  heathen  governors 
and  heathen  mobs  were  unfriendly  to  Christians,  the  work 
of  torture  and  death  went  vigorously  on.  The  greatest 
weight  of  this  persecution  fell  on  that  eastern  portion  of  the 
empire  which  was  under  the  immediate  rule  of  Diocletian 
and  Galerius ;  even  their  own  wives,  who  are  said  to  have 
favoured  Christianity,  were  compelled  to  sacrifice,  and 
court  officials  were  not  spared.  Diocletian  and  Maximian 
abdicated  in  the  year  305,  but  the  work  of  exterminating 
the  Christians  went  vigorously  on  under  Galerius  and 
his   colleagues.     The   western  provinces,   however,  Gaul, 


1  Eusebius,  H.  E.  vni.   2;  Lac- 
tantius,  De  Mart.  Persec.  c.  13. 

2  Euaebiua,  11.  E.  vin.  6,  §  8. 


»  lb.  §  10. 

*  Euseb.  De  Mart.  Palcest.  c.  3. 


Tlte  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


47 


Spain,  and  Britain,  enjoyed  comparative  immunity  under 
Constantius  Chlorus\  and  afterwards  under  his  son  Con- 
stantine,  who  was  elevated  to  the  rank  of  Cajsar  by  the 
acclamation  of  the  soldiery  on  the  death  of  his  father  at 
York. 

For  some  eight  years  the  Christians  had  to  endure 
every  kind  of  maltreatment  and  death.  At  last  even 
Galerius  was  satisfied  that  it  was  impossible  to  annihilate 
Christianity  and  give  to  the  gods  of  Rome  their  old 
supremacy.  Sick  and  weary,  he  consented  to  put  a  stop 
to  the  massacres  which  distracted  the  Empire,  and  issued 
from  Nicomedia,  in  conjunction  with  Constantino  and 
Licinius,  an  edict^  in  which  Christianity  is  recognized  as 
an  existing  fact.  The  terms  of  this  edict,  which  forms 
one  of  the  most  important  epochs  in  the  history  of  the 
Church,  are  much  to  be  observed.  The  rulers  say  in  their 
preamble,  that  they  had  been  anxious  to  bring  back  to  a 
good  mind  those  Christians  who  had  deserted  the  old 
customs  of  their  forefathers;  when,  however,  they  saw  that 
the  result  had  been  that  many  ceased  to  worship  the  God 
of  the  Christians  without  returning  to  the  due  service  of 
their  country's  gods,  they  thought  it  most  accordant  with 
their  well-known  clemency  and  tolerance  again  to  permit 
Christians  to  meet  for  worship,  so  that  they  did  nothing 
contrary  to  the  peace  and  good  order  of  the  state.  They 
felt  sure  that  the  Christians,  being  now  hurt  by  no 
persecution,  would  readily  acknowledge  the  duty  of  pray- 
ing to  their  own  God  for  the  emperors  and  the  state,  that 
the  Empire  might  maintain  itself  intact,  and  themselves 
live  a  peaceable  life  in  their  own  homes. 

Christianity  was  thus  admitted  to  be  a  religio  licita. 
For  nearly  three  centuries  it  had  been  in  actual  existence; 
it  seemed  best,  now  that  it  could  no  longer  be  treated  as 
an  innovation,  which  was  to  an  antique  Roman  much  the 
same  as  an  impiety,  to  attempt  to  adopt  the  God  of  the 
Christians  among  those  who  watched  over  the  well-being 
of  Rome. 

This  edict  did  not  wholly  put  a  stop  to  persecution  in 


1  Lactantius,  Be  Mort.  Pers.  cc. 
15,  16. 

^  Lactantius  De  Mort.  Persec. 
c.  34;  Euseb.  H.  E.  vm.  17.     See 


Keim,  Die  Rom,  ToJeranzedicte,  u. 
s.  w.,  in  Theolog.  Jahrbuch,  1852, 
pt.  2. 


Chap.  III. 

Constan- 
tineCccsar, 
A.D,  306. 


Edict  of 
Tolera- 
tion, 
April, 

A.D.  311. 


48 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


.the  Asiatic  provinces.  But  in  the  year  812  Constantine 
became  master  of  the  whole  western  empire  by  his  victory 
over  Maxentius,  the  ruler  of  Italy,  at  the  Milvian  bridge. 
It  was  on  his  way  to  this  decisive  battle  that  he  saw  the 
sign  in  the  heavens  (^),  afterwards  called  the  Labarum*, 
with  the  words  tovtw  vUa.  Maximin,  the  other  great 
opponent  of  Christianity,  was  not  put  down  until  the 
following  year. 

The  result  of  the  defeat  of  Maxentius  was  an  edict 
published  at  Milan  by  Constantine  and  Licinius^,  perhaps 
the  most  important  ever  issued  by  imperial  authority.  In 
this  the  emperors  give  full  liberty  to  all  their  subjects  of 
adopting  any  form  of  worship  by  which  the  supreme 
Divinity  in  the  heavens  may  be  propitiated ;  to  Christians 
in  particular,  they  grant  absolute  freedom  of  worship, 
without  any  of  the  limiting  conditions  to  which  they  had 
been  subjected  by  previous  edicts;  the  churches  were  to 
be  restored  to  their  original  owners  without  money  or 
price,  whether  they  had  been  sold  on  their  confiscation,  or 
granted  freely  to  some  favoured  person,  the  emperors 
undertaking  to  reimburse  those  whose  property  was  thus 
taken  away.  The  same  law  applied  to  other  property 
which  had  belonged  to  Christian  corporations.  All  these 
provisions  the  emperors  enjoined  their  officials  to  put  in 
force  with  all  completeness  and  despatch. 

What  were  the  conditions  which  previously  limited 
the  freedom  of  Christians  is  not  absolutely  certain,  but  it 
is  probable  that  the  edict  of  311,  which  conferred  freedom 
of  worship  on  existing  bodies  of  Christians,  did  not  give 
them  the  liberty  of  making  converts ;  if  so,  this  restriction 
was  removed.  When  the  emperors  give  full  liberty  to 
every  form  of  worship  "  whereby  the  Divinity  in  heaven 
may  be  propitiated,"  tliey  seem  still  to  retain  the  power  of 
putting  down  any  foul  and  impious  orgies  which  they 
judged  likely  rather  to  offend  than  to  propitiate  the 
supreme  deity.  But  the  essential  thing  is,  that  the  edict 
frankly  recognized  the  "  corpus  Christianorum,"  the  great 


1  Lactantius,  De  Mort.  Pers.  c. 
4'l.  speaks  of  tliis  as  occurring  in  a 
dream;  Eusebius  (F/^a  Coiist<intini, 
I.  27  ff.)  describes  it,  on  the  autho- 
rity of  the  Emperor  himself,  as  an 


actual  appearance  at  midday  in  the 
hoavens.  See  E.  Venables  in  Diet, 
of  Chr.  Aiiti<i.  s.  v. 

^  Euseb.  //.  K.  X.  5;  Lactantiup, 
De  Mort.  Persec.  c.  48. 


The  Early  Str-iiggles  of  the  Church. 


49 


orgauized  body  of  Christians  which  had  spread  itself  over 
the  Empire.  It  is  thus  indicated  that  the  policy  of  the 
state  had  undergone  a  comjjlete  revolution.  The  almost 
despairing  effort  of  Diocletian  and  Galcrius  had  been  to 
put  down  a  force  which,  they  thought,  tended  to  dissolve 
the  social  coherence  of  the  Empire  at  a  time  when  it  was 
so  sorely  iu  need  of  unity ;  in  the  edict  of  Constantine  and 
Licinius  we  see  that  this  attempt  is  abandoned. 

The  persecutions  were  reckoned,  before  the  end  of  the 
fourth  century,  to  be  ten  in  number,  so  as  to  correspond  to 
the  ten  plagues  of  Egjrpt.  The  persecutions  according  to 
this  account  were  those  under  Nero,  Domitian,  Trajan, 
Marcus  Aurelius,  Septimius  Severus,  Maximin,  Decius, 
Valerian,  Aurelian,  Diocletian.  The  artificial  and  falla- 
cious character  of  this  enumeration  was  long  ago  pointed 
ovit  by  Augustine  \ 

It  is  impossible  to  determine  with  certainty  the 
number  of  those  who  sviffered.  Origen  (as  we  have  seen) 
thought  it  inconsiderable  up  to  his  own  time,  though  at  a 
still  earlier  date  Irenteus"''  speaks  of  the  multitude  of 
martyrs  who  had  passed  from  earth  to  God;  and  in  the 
persecutions  under  Decius  and  Diocletian  at  any  rate  we 
can  scarcely  doubt  that  very  many  bore  torture  and  death 
for  the  faith  of  Christ. 

It  was  only  natural  that  events  terrible  in  themselves 
and  deeply  affecting  a  great  community  should  be  repeated 
in  succeeding  generations  with  much  unconscious  ex- 
aggeration. True  and  accurate  accounts,  even  notarial  re- 
cords, of  many  martyrdoms  were  no  doubt  preserved,  but 
round  these  clustered  a  large  number  of  legends  which 
either  arose  from  the  excited  imagination  of  a  troublous 
time  or  were  composed  as  works  of  edification  rather  than 
of  history.  Additional  infamy  was  in  this  way  heaped 
upon  the  persecutors  and  additional  glory  bestowed  upon 
the  martyrs.  Augustine''  lamented  the  scarcity  of  genuine 
Acts  which  might  be  read  in  the  services. 

2.  While  the  Church  was  suffering  from  the  opposition 
of  the  civil  government  and  the  passions  of  the  mob,  it 
was  also  attacked  by  the  literary  champions  of  heathen- 


^  Be  Civ.  Dei,  xviii.  52. 
^  Hcert's.  iv.  83,  9.     See  on  the 
whole  subject  H.  Dodwell,  Distscr- 


tationes  Cyprianicce,  p.  56  ff. ;  Rni- 
nart,  Acta  Sinccra,  Praef,  §  ii. 
^  Sermo  315,  c.  1. 

4 


Chap.  III. 


Number  of 
Persecu- 
tions. 


Number  of 
Martyrs. 


Legends 


The  In- 
tellec- 
tual 

A.TTACK. 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


Chap.  III. 

Literary 
oppo- 
nents. 
Fronto, 
living 
A.D.  166. 
Lucian, 
died  about 
A.D.  200. 


Celsus, 
wrote 
about  A.D. 
170. 


dom.  The  dislike  and  suspicion  which  educated  heathen 
felt  for  Christianity  found  definite  expression  in  various 
writings.  The  lost  oration  of  Fronto  seems  to  have  been 
an  advocate's  defence,  on  legal  grounds,  of  the  proceedings 
against  them  under  Marcus  Aurelius.  Lucian's  light 
raillery,  which  found  in  the  Greek  mythology  sub- 
jects for  his  wit  and  sarcastic  humour,  was  also  turned 
against  Christianity.  He  does  not  merely  echo  the 
popular  prejudice ;  it  is  evident  from  his  parody  that  he 
had  some  real  knowledge  of  the  manners  and  customs 
of  Christians,  but  he  only  regards  the  church  as  one  of 
the  varied  outgrowths  of  human  folly  and  superstition. 
His  history  of  Peregrinus  Proteus  was  no  doubt  in- 
tended, at  least  in  part,  to  ridicule  the  supposed  cre- 
dulity of  Christians  which  made  them  an  easy  prey  to 
a  clever  knave;  but  it  shews  incidentally  how  a  hea- 
then noticed,  without  admiring,  their  brotherly  love, 
their  courage  in  facing  death,  their  belief  in  immortality. 
Very  different  from  the  light  mockery  of  Lucian  is  the 
eager  hatred  of  his  contemporary  Celsus,  a  man  of  keen 
and  vigorous  intellect  who  had  really  studied,  though 
without  sympathy  or  insight,  both  Christianity  and 
Judaism.  Scepticism  has  hardly  discovered  an  objection 
to  Christianity  which  is  not  contained  in  some  shape  or 
other  in  the  work  of  Celsus' :  modern  ingenuity  has  done 
little  more  than  elaborate  the  arguments  of  the  ancient 
dialectician.  The  credibility  of  the  Gospel  history  in 
general,  the  reality  of  the  Incarnation  and  the  Resurrec- 
tion, the  belief  in  the  Atonement,  the  very  idea  of  a 
special  revelation  of  God,  are  attacked  with  no  mean 
ability.  He  utterly  repudiates  the  view  of  nature  in  which 
man  appears  as  the  final  cause  of  the  world  and  of  all  things 
that  are  therein,  and  attempts  to  set  Greek  philosophy 
and  religion  above  the  teaching  of  Christianity,  which  he 
accuses  of  having  borrowed — and  spoiled — many  of  the 
doctrines  of  Plato ;  further,  he  reproaches  Christians  with 


^  He  callerl  his  book  aX-qOrj  5X6705. 
It  is  known  to  us  only  from  the 
reply  of  Origen,  but  as  Origen 
quotes  his  adversary's  words  and 
replies  point  by  point,  we  may 
gather  the  original  work  of  Celsus 
from  his  pages,  just  as  we  may  ga- 


ther "Charity  Maintained"  from 
the  work  of  Chillingworth.  See 
C.  E.  Jachmann,  De  Celso  disseruit 
et  fragmenta  Libri  contra  Chris- 
tiayios  collegit  (Konigsberg,  1836); 
and  Th.  Keim,  Celsus' s  Wahrcs 
Wort  (Ziirich,  1873). 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


51 


their  gross,  corporeal  conception — as  he  thinks  it — of  God 
and  things  divine.  At  the  same  time,  he  attempts  to  set 
the  heathen  polytheism  and  idolatry  in  a  more  attractive 
light,  and  contends  that  they  were  not  incompatible  with 
the  worship  of  one  supreme  deity.  Altogether,  probably 
no  more  vigorous  assailant  than  Celsus  has  ever  attacked 
Christianity.  The  attack  of  so  skilful  a  polemic  is  a 
sufficient  proof  that  Christianity  was  regarded  as  an  im- 
portant phenomenon.  However  men  might  assume  con- 
tempt for  it,  when  a  man  like  Celsus,  of  high  ability, 
cultivation,  and  learning,  thought  it  worth  while  to  give  it 
so  careful  an  examination,  it  had  certainly  gained  at- 
tention beyond  the  ranks  of  slaves  and  artizans. 

The  remarkable  work  of  Philostratus,  the  "Life  of 
Apollonius  of  Tyana"\  may  also  be  considered  as  a  part 
of  the  polemic  against  Christianity,  though  of  a  very 
different  kind  from  the  uncompromising  attack  of  Celsus. 
Apollonius  was  a  real  person,  who  attained  some  fame  as  a 
magician  in  the  latter  part  of  the  first  century,  but  the 
"Life",  written  in  the  early  years  of  the  third,  is  probably 
so  highly  idealized  as  to  be  little  more  than  a  romance 
with  a  purpose.  It  belongs  to  the  syncretistic  age  of 
Septimius  Severus,  when  the  view  began  to  prevail  that 
the  wise  man  should  choose  what  was  best  and  noblest 
from  all  religions,  without  venturing  to  assert  that  any 
one  was  absolutely  true.  Hence  Philostratus,  who  was 
evidently  acquainted  with  the  Gospel  history,  attempts  to 
set  up  Apollonius  as  a  kind  of  Neo-Pythagorean  leader 
and  type  :  he  attributes  to  him  the  nobleness,  the  un- 
selfish devotion,  the  readiness  to  encounter  persecution 
and  death,  which  are  seen  in  the  greatest  heroes.  He 
contends,  not  that  Christianity  is  false,  but  that  Pytha- 
gorisra  deserves  to  be  set  above  it  as  a  practical  reli- 
gious power.  Philosophy,  in  truth,  took  at  this  time  a 
more  religious  direction^  and  was  not  wholly  disinclined 
to  satisfy  its  aspirations  from  a  system  which  had  so  high 
claims  to  be  a  divine  revelation  as  Christianity. 


CHAP.m. 


^  Translated  into  English  by 
Blount,  1680,  and  by  Berwick,  1809. 
F.  C.  Baur  has  treated  this  subject 
fully  in  his  Apollonius  von  Tyana 
xind  Chriatm.  See  also  A.  Chas- 
sang,    Apollonius    de     Tijane    far 


Philostrate ;  J.  K.  Mozley  in  Smith 
and  Wace's  Diet,  of  Clir.  Biog.  i. 
135. 

^  Zeller,  Philosophie  der  Griechen, 
III.  2,  490. 

4—2 


Philostra- 
tus, died 
about  A.D. 
230. 

Apollonius 
of  Tijana, 
died  about 
A.D.  96. 


52 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


But  the  man  whom  the  early  Christians  singled  out  as 
their  most  implacable  enemy,  their  bitterest  opponent,  was 
the  Neo-Platonist  Porphyry.  His  fifteen  books  against  the 
Christians  were  the  most  famous  production  of  heathen 
polemics  in  the  third  century,  and  were  thought  worthy  of 
refutation  by  such  men  as  Methodius  of  Tyre,  Eusebius  of 
Ca^sarea,  and  Apollinaris  of  Laodicea.  The  refutations 
have  perished,  and  but  a  few  fragments^  remain  of  the 
work  of  Porphyry.  To  judge  from  these  fragments, 
Porphyry  made  his  principal  attack  on  the  Scriptures, 
attempting  to  show  that  they  were  unworthy  of  the  divine 
inspiration  attributed  to  them.  He  examined  the  book  of 
the  prophet  Daniel,  contending  that  it  was  not  written 
in  the  sixth  century  before  Christ,  but  by  a  later  writer 
who  lived  under  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  and  that  it  was  in 
fact  not  proi^hecy,  but  history^;  he  found  great  fault  with 
such  expositors  as  Origen,  who  shrouded  the  plain  facts  of 
Israelitish  history  in  a  veil  of  allegory^;  he  fastened  on  the 
dispute  between  St  Peter  and  St  Paul  in  Galatia,  as  an 
event  discreditable  to  the  heads  of  the  community*;  and 
he  found  inconsistencies  in  the  Gospel  history  itself  ^  To 
him  also  appear  to  be  due  some  questions  which  have 
frequently  re-appeared  in  controversy,  such  as :  Why  did 
Christians  reject  sacrifice,  which  God  Himself  had  institu- 
ted in  the  Old  Covenant  ? 

Yet,  with  all  his  keen  dialectic  against  portions  of  the 
Christian  scheme.  Porphyry  was  probably  not  without 
admiration  for  the  character  of  Christ  himself.  The  Neo- 
Platonists  were  not  averse  to  the  thought  of  a  "  dwelling  of 
God  among  men®";  what  they  disj^uted  was,  the  claim  of 
Christ  Jesus  to  be,  in  an  absolute  and  exclusive  sense,  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh ;  and  it  was  probably  with  a  view 
of  setting  up  a  rival  manifestation  of  the  divinity,  that 
Porphyry  and  larnblichus  wrote  the  Life  of  Pythagoras,  the 
"good  spirit  (Saificov)  dwelling  in  Sainos,"  in  which  the 
great  teacher  of  old  Greece  is  magnified  into  divine  pro- 


^     See     Fabricius,     Bihliothcca 
GrcBca,  iv.  207. 

'  Jerome,  Prnoemium  i?i  Daniel. 
8  Euseb.  H.  E.  vi.  19. 

*  Jerome,  Promnium  in  Gnlat. 

*  Jerome,   Binl.  contra  Pchui.  ii. 
17.     Compare  Epist.  57.  {Ad  Vani- 


mach.)  c.  9. 

^  Eunapius,  in  the  Preface  to 
the  Lives  of  the  Sophiati;,  p.  3,  ed. 
Boissonade  (Amst.  1822).  Ulhnann 
has  discussed  the  Ivfluence  of  Chris- 
Hani  ti/  on  Porphyry  in  Studien  und 
Kritiken,  1832,  Heft  2. 


The  Early  Stimggles  of  the  Church. 


53 


portions.  The  same  line  of  thought  re-appears  in  Hierocles, 
whose  "  Truth-loving  Words  "  are  known  to  us  only  in  the 
refutation  by  Eusebius\  He  seems  to  have  set  himself  to 
show,  that  miracles  in  any  case  only  proved  the  existence 
of  superior  power  in  the  wonder-worker,  and  that  the 
miracles  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana  were  greater  and  better 
attested  than  those  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  would  grant, 
apparently,  that  Christ  was  divine,  but  not  the  one  only 
God. 

In  truth,  it  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that  Neo-Platonism 
was  to  many  minds  a  "schoolmaster  to  bring  them  to 
Christ;"  for  it  changed  the  whole  character  of  ancient 
philosophy.  With  such  men  as  Plotinus  and  Proclus, 
philosophy  is  no  longer  purely  an  affair  of  dialectic; 
they  are  seers  and  ecstatics,  looking  for  divine  revelation 
through  their  ascetic  and  contemplative  life,  eager  to  be 
freed  from  the  chains  of  sense  and  to  have  a  nearer  view 
of  heavenly  beauty.  Their  system — if  system  it  can  be 
called — was  accepted  by  a  large  number  of  the  most 
cultivated  men  throughout  the  empire ;  and  when  the 
minds  of  men  were  once  familiar  with  the  thought  of  a 
revelation  of  God  to  man,  of  a  divine  radiance  poured  into 
the  soul,  they  were  more  ready  to  acknowledge  the  reve- 
lation of  God  in  Christ,  and  the  life-giving  influence  of  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

3.  The  great  and  victorious  answer  to  heathen 
calumny  was  found  in  the  lives  of  Christians ;  with 
praying  and  djdng  they  overcame  the  world.  But  they 
fought  also  an  intellectual  combat  with  great  vigour  and 
success.  In  the  first  place,  they  had  to  repel  the  popular 
calumnies  which  pursued  them.  Against  the  accusation 
of  Atheism  they  alleged  the  piety  of  Christians  in  their 


1  Contra  Hierodem,  compare 
Lactantius,  De  Mortib.  Persec.  c. 
16.  The  destruction  of  this,  and 
most  of  the  other  early  writings 
against  Christianity,  is  mainly  due 
to  an  edict  of  Justinian  {Codex,  i. 
tit.  I.  const.  3)  ordering  the  sup- 
pression of  such  books. 

*  On  the  Apologists,  see  Fabri- 
cius,  Delectus  Argum.  et  Syllabus 
Scriptorum  qui  veritatem  Ret.  Chr. 
asseruerunt;  H.  Tzschirner,  Gesch. 


der  Ajyologetik;  Clausen,  Apolo- 
getae  Ecclesiae;  G.  van  Senden, 
Gesch.  der  Apologetik,  translated 
from  the  Dutch ;  W.  Jay  Bolton, 
The  Evidences  of  Christianity  as 
exhibited  in  the  Writings  of  its 
Apologists  down  to  Augustine  (Cam- 
bridge, 1852);  C.  Warner,  Gesch. 
d.  Apol.  u.  Polem.  Literatur;  J. 
Donaldson,  Hist,  of  Chr.  Litera- 
ture, vols.  2  and  3 ;  F.  Watson, 
Defenders  of  the  Faith  (S.P.C.K.). 


Chap.  III. 

Hierocles, 
circ.  A.D. 
300. 


Neo-Pla- 
tonism and 
Chris- 
tianity. 


The 

Cheistian 
Apolo- 
gists^. 

Calumnies. 


54 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


lives,  as  visible  to  their  heathen  neighbours,  and  explained 
the  nature  of  their  spiritual  worship ;  charged  with  un- 
natural crimes,  they  pointed  out  that  their  religion  bound 
them  before  all  things  to  purity  and  holiness  of  life; 
accused  of  treason  against  the  government,  they  referred 
to  their  prayers  for  the  emperor  and  their  quiet  sub- 
mission to  a  persecuting  power.  If  it  was  said  that  the 
misfortunes  of  the  empire  were  due  to  the  progress  of 
Christianity,  they  retorted  that  it  might  with  at  least 
equal  justice  be  said  to  be  due  to  the  persecution  of 
Christianity.  Heathen  rhetoricians  and  philosophers  were 
at  last  driven  back  upon  the  principle  that  men  ought  to 
accept  and  maintain,  in  matters  of  religion,  the  customs 
and  rites  derived  from  their  forefathers — the  last  refuge 
of  sceptical  conservatism.  Against  this  heathen  maxim 
of  the  duty  of  submission  in  all  cases  to  existing  authority 
and  tradition  the  early  apologists  protest.  They  contend^ 
with  great  vigour  for  the  rights  of  conscience  and  private 
judgment.  If  they  desert  their  country's  customs,  it  is  only 
because  they  have  discovered  them  to  be  impious ;  custom 
is  by  no  means  identical  with  truth  I  It  is  our  duty  to 
forsake  the  customs  of  our  country,  when  better  and 
holier  laws  require  it ;  we  must  obey  Him  who  is  above 
all  lords^  Yet,  though  obedience  would  be  due  to  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  even  if  it  were  an  innovation,  they  con- 
tended that  it  was  none ;  it  existed  already  in  the  days 
of  Abraham  and  Moses,  nay,  from  the  beginning  of  the 
world ;  they  represented  God  in  Christ  as  the  source  and 
fount  of  all  good  even  in  the  heathen  world.  The  same 
Word  which  wrought  in  Hebrew  prophets  produced  also 
all  the  truth  and  right  and  nobleness  which  existed 
among  the  Gentiles ;  all  who  have  lived  in  accordance 
with  the  divine  Word  or  Reason  were  Christians  even 
though,  like  Socrates,  they  were  thought  atheists ;  the 
great  achievements  of  lawgivers  and  philosophers  were 
not  without  the  Word,  though  imperfectly  apprehended ; 
what  was  seen  incomplete  and  dispersed  in  the  old  world 
was  at  last  found  complete  and  perfect  in  Christ*.  The 
many  phrases  in   which  heathens  expressed  their  sense 


1  Tertullian,  Apolog.  c.  24.;   ud 
Scapulain,  c.  2. 

-  Clemeut,  Strom,  iv.  7  ff. 


'  Origen,  Contra  Celsum,  v.  32. 
*  Justin  Martyr,  Apol.  I,  46 ;  II, 
10,  13. 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


55 


of  one  great  and  good  God  over  all,  in  spite  of  a  poly- 
theistic form  of  religion,  were  "the  utterances  of  a  soul 
naturally  Christian  "\  And  while  they  defended  them- 
selves, they  did  not  spare  their  adversaries,  pointing  out 
with  great  frankness  the  follies  and  frequent  impurities 
of  heathen  worship. 

Perhaps  the  earliest  of  the  formal  defences  of  Chris- 
tianity is  the  Letter'^  in  which  the  unknown  writer  points 
out  to  his  enquiring  friend  Diognetus  the  absurdities  of 
heathenism,  the  inadequacy  of  Judaism,  the  excellence 
of  the  Christian  religion.  When  the  emperor  Hadrian 
visited  Athens,  a  defence  of  Christianity  was  presented 
to  him  by  the  bishop,  Quadratus,  and  another  by  a 
philosopher  named  Aristides,  the  former  of  whom,  an 
old  man,  says  that  he  had  actually  seen  persons  upon 
whom  some  of  the  Lord's  miracles  had  been  wrought^. 
Not  long  after  Aristides,  Ariston  of  Pella*  wrote  a  defence 
of  Christianity,  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue  between  a  Jewish- 
Christian  named  Jason,  and  Paj^iscus,  an  Alexandrian 
Jew,  in  which  stress  a\:is  laid  on  the  argument  from  pro- 
phecy. Claudius  Apollinaris^  also,  bishop  of  Hiera23olis, 
and  the  rhetorician  Miltiades®  presented  to  the  emperor 
Marcus  Aurelius  Apologies  which  had  in  their  day  great 
repute.  But  the  great  age  of  Christian  Apologetic  is 
the  period  of  hope  and  fear  which  coincides  nearly  with 
the  reigns  of  the  Antonines.  It  was  then  that  Justin 
Martyr,  a  Christian  who  retained  the  philosopher's  gown, 
wrote  and  presented  to  the  rulers  of  the  world  his  "  De- 
fences" against  the  unjust  charges  heaped  upon  Christians, 
and  pleaded  for  the  protection  of  the  laws  of  the  empire. 
Let  Christians,  he  urges,  at  least  not  suffer  excej^t  as  male- 
factors ;  let  not  their  very  name  be  a  crime,  when  all 
kinds  of  monstrosities  rear  their  heads  in  safety ;  let  a 
philosophic  emperor  consider,  that  the  very  same  Word 
which  inspired  philosophers  spoke  in  clearer  tones  through 


1  Tertullian,  Apulng.  c.  17 ;  com- 
pare De  Testimonio  AnhiKe,  passim. 

2  B.  F.  Westcott,  Canon  of  N. 
T.  p.  95  ff.  (1st  ed.);  Dorner, 
Perso7i  Ghristi,  i.  178  note;  E.W. 
Benson  in  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biog.  n. 
162  ff.  J.  M.  Cotterill,  in  C'lmrch 
Quarterly  Rev.  April,  1877,  and  in 
Pcregr'mus  Proteus,  contends  that 


the  whole  Epistle  is  a  forgery  of 
H.  Stephens. 

^  Euseb.  H.  E.  iv.  3;  compare 
Jerome,  Catalogus,  c.  19  f. 

*  Origen,  c.  Cehum,  iv.  52,  p. 
199,  Spencer;  Cliron.  Pasch.  p.  477, 
Dindorf. 

5  Eusebius  H.  E.  iv.  27. 

«  lb.  V.  17. 


Chap.  III. 


Epistola 
ad  Diog- 
netum. 


Quadratus 
and  Aris- 
tides, 
about  A.D. 
130. 
Ariston, 

A.D.134(?). 


Apolli- 
naris  and 
Miltiades, 
c.  174, 


Justin 
Martyr. 
Apologies, 
A.D.  146? 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


prophets  and  apostles.  He  pleaded  in  vain  ;  the  vigour  of 
his  attack  on  the  pretensions  of  paganism  in  his  second 
Defence  probably  brought  about  his  own  end\  His  pupil, 
Tatian  the  Syrian,  attacked  the  perversions  of  Greek 
morality  and  philosophy  with  great  vigour.  Athena- 
goras,  in  the  "Plea  for  the  Christians"  which  he 
addressed  to  Marcus  Aurelius,  in  a  quiet  and  respect- 
ful tone  commends  to  the  favour  of  the  emperor 
his  fellow-believers,  whom  he  vindicates  from  the  charges 
so  often  brought  against  them.  Probably  to  the  same 
sovereign  and  about  the  same  time  Melito,  the  learned 
bishop  of  Sardes,  addressed  a  memorial  in  which  he  sets 
forth  the  injury  done  to  Christians  under  cover  of  the 
imperial  edicts,  by  evil  men  who  desired  nothing  but 
plunder;  and  insisted  that  the  continued  prosperity  of 
the  empire  since  the  days  of  Augustus  was  alone  sufficient 
to  show  that  the  star  of  Christ  was  propitious^  Theophilus, 
bishop  of  Autioch,  in  his  "  Three  Books  to  Autolycus,"  set 
himself  more  particularly  to  repel  the  scoffing  objections 
of  his  acquaintance  Autolycus  to  Christian  teaching  on  the 
nature  of  God  and  the  Resurrection ;  and  again,  at  his 
friend's  request  for  further  information,  he  went  on  to  speak 
of  the  creation  and  destiny  of  man,  and  the  venerable  an- 
tiquity of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.  His  style  is  clear  and 
agreeable.  Hermias,  in  his  "Worrying  of  the  Pagan 
Philosophers,"  retorts  upon  the  heathen  the  contradictions 
and  absurdities  with  which  they  charged  Christianity. 
The  "  Octavius "  of  the  rhetorician  Minucius  Felix,  a 
dialogue  in  the  style  of  Cicero,  contains  perhaps  of  all  the 
apologetic  writings  the  clearest  statement  of  the  great  ques- 
tions at  issue  between  Christian  and  pagan,  as  they  pre- 
sented themselves  to  educated  men  in  the  second  century, 
Ciecilius,  who  undertakes  the  defence  of  heathenism  and 
the  attack  on  Christianity,  is  permitted  by  the  dialogite- 
writer  to  state  his  case  with  unsparing  vigour,  and  the 
Christian  Octavius  replies,  if  always  with  earnestness,  yet 
calmly  and  fairly.  In  the  end,  Cascilius  admits  the  victory 
of  his  friend,  in  the  words,  "we  are  both  conquerors;  he 
has  conquered  mo,  I  have  triumphed  over  error."'    Tertul- 


1  See  above,  p.  40. 
•'  Euseb.  H.  E.  iv.  26.     The  Sy- 
riac  text  of  a  speech  of  Mehto's  is 


given  by  Cureton,  Spicilegium  Sy- 
riaciim. 

^  Octavius,  c.  3!). 


The  Early  Struggles  of  the  Church. 


57 


lian  burst  forth  with  his  glowing  southern  rhetoric  against 
the  ignorant  hatred  of  Christians  which  prevailed  in  the 
Empire;  they  were  treated  with  a  harshness  which  violated 
the  first  principles  of  right;  yet  they  were  good  subjects, 
though  they  offered  no  incense  to  the  emperor;  their  lives 
were  purer,  their  religion  was  nobler,  than  that  of  their 
heathen  neighbours;  who  could  think  of  the  old  mythologic 
fables  without  scorn?  If  Celsus  is  in  many  respects  the 
type  of  those  who  from  age  to  age  have  attacked  Chris- 
tianity with  cleverness  and  learning,  Origen  is  equally  the 
type  of  the  honest,  able,  learned,  and  laborious  defender. 
He  fastens  upon  the  work  of  Celsus,  which  seems  to  have 
been  a  hundred  years  in  the  world  without  meeting  with 
an  adequate  refutation,  and  deals  with  it  clause  by  clause ; 
the  attacks  of  the  pagan  on  the  credibility  of  the  Gospel 
history,  on  the  cardinal  doctrines  of  Christianity,  on  the 
idea  of  revelation ;  his  attempts  to  set  philosophy  above 
the  teaching  of  Christ,  and  polytheism  above  the  true 
worship ;  his  misconceptions  of  Christian  ideas, — all  these 
are  taken  in  turn  and  exposed  or  refuted.  "  Christian 
worship  " — says  Origen  in  the  reign  of  Decius — "  shall 
one  day  prevail  over  the  whole  world'." 


Chap.  III. 

Tertullian, 
Apol.  c. 
198. 


Origen 
agaiiist 
Celsus, 
about  A.D. 
249. 


1  c.  Celsiim,  VIII.  68;  p.  4'23,  Sp. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

GROWTH   AND   CHARACTERISTICS   OF   THE   CHURCH. 

1.  In  spite  of  persecution,  perhaps  because  of  persecu- 
tion, the  Church  grew  rapidly.  Even  before  the  last 
Apostle  left  the  earth,  the  light  which  rose  in  Palestine 
had  struck  the  three  great  peninsulas  of  Asia  Minor, 
Greece,  and  Italy ;  in  another  generation  it  had  reached 
almost  the  whole  coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  then  the 
great  highway  of  nations.  It  followed  in  the  track  of  the 
Jewish  Dispersion ;  wherever  there  was  a  Hebrew  colony, 
there  was  also  a  Christian  Church.  Merchants  brought 
back  from  their  journeys  the  news  of  the  Pearl  of  great 
price.  The  messengers  of  peace  followed  in  the  track  of 
the  Roman  armies,  and  liberated  captives  carried  to  their 
homes  the  tidings  of  the  new  religion  which  was  pervading 
the  Empire ^  Everywhere,  from  the  workshop  to  the 
palace,  were  found  devoted  men,  working  quietly  yet 
earnestly  for  the  furtherance  of  the  GospeP.  Looking 
first  to  the  eastward,  we  find  that  in  Edessa,  the  capital  of 
Osroene,  the  Church  first  ascended  a  throne ;  we  must  no 
doubt  reject  as  a  forgery  the  correspondence  of  Abgar  with 
the  Lord  Jesus*,  but  one  of  its  kings,  Abgar  Bar  Mauu, 
does  seem  to  have  been  converted  to  Christianity  about 
A.D.  165^  The  Chaldean  Christians  look  upon  Maris,  a 
disciple  of  St  Thaddyeus®,  as  their  apostle.  The  existence 
of  Christian  churches  in  Roman  Armenia  as  early  as  the 


^  See  J.  FaLricius,  Salutaris 
Lux  Evanfielii ;  J.  Wiltsch,  Geo- 
graphy and  Statistics  of  the  Church, 
trans,  by  Leitch. 

^  Sozomen,  Ilist.  Eccl.  ii.  6. 

3  Eusebius,  //.  E.  iii.  37. 


4  Euseb.  if.Je.  I.  13. 

*  Epiphaiiius,  Hceres.  56;  Asse- 
maui,  Bihliotheca  Orient,  i.  389, 
423. 

«  G.  Phillips,  The  Doctrine  of 
Addai,  the  Apostle  (London,  1876). 


Orowth  and  Characterifttics  of  the  Church. 


59 


third  century  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  a  letter  was 
addressed  to  them  by  Dionysius  of  Alexandria^  Pantsenus, 
head  of  the  catechetical  school  of  Alexandria,  is  said  to 
have  been  a  missionary  of  the  faith  in  "  the  land  of  the 
Indians,"  by  which  we  are  probably  to  understand  Arabia 
Felix'*;  an  Arabian  chief,  or  perhaps  rather  a  Roman  pro- 
curator stationed  in  Arabia,  is  said  to  have  desired  that  the 
great  Origen  should  be  sent  to  him  as  his  instructor^;  and 
about  the  same  period  we  find  Bostra  in  Arabia  mentioned 
as  a  bishop's  see^  In  Persia  the  Christian  faith  was 
widely  spread  when  Arnobius^  wrote,  towards  the  end  of 
the  third  century.  There  were  numerous  churches  in 
Syria  and  in  Asia  Minor  from  Apostolic  times.  In 
Bithynia,  the  well-known  letter  of  Pliny*'  to  Trajan  is  an 
impregnable  testimony  to  the  number  of  Christian  con- 
verts about  A.D.  106.  The  Cappadocian  CiBsarea  had  for 
its  bishop  in  the  middle  of  the  third  century  the  well- 
known  Firmilian,  Cyprian's  correspondent. 

Turning  now  to  Africa,  we  find  from  the  very  dawn  of 
ecclesiastical  history  a  chvirch  at  Alexandria,  the  home  of 
the  learned  Apollos.  St  Mark  was  regarded  as  its  founder 
and  first  bishop.  Dionysius,  who  became  bishop  in  246, 
was  one  of  the  most  famous  men  of  the  age  in  which 
fell  the  Decian  persecution.  Of  the  first  beginnings 
of  the  Church  in  Proconsular  Africa,  in  Mauritania  and 
Numidia,  nothing  is  known;  it  may  probably  have  re- 
ceived its  Christianity  from  Italy  ^;  certainly  the  North- 
African  is  to  us  the  earliest  Latin  church.  However 
originated,  Christianity  spread  so  rapidly  in  these  fervid 
regions,  that  early  in  the  third  century  Tertullian®  speaks 
— perhaps  a  little  rhetorically — of  Christians  forming  the 
majority  in  every  town.  At  the  end  of  the  second  century, 
Agrippinus  bishop  of  Carthage  is  said  to  have  assembled  a 
large  number"  of  African  and  Numidian  bishops,  and 
Cyprian,  who  held  the  same  see  in  the  middle  of  the  third 


1  Euseb.  H.  E.  vi.  46. 

2  Euseb.  H.  E.  v.  10.  See  Mos- 
heim,  De  Rebus  ante  Constant,  stec. 
II.  §  2.  p.  206. 

3  Euseb.  H.  E.  vi.  19. 

4  Euseb.  H.E.  vi.  33. 
^  Adv.  Gentes,  ii.  7. 

6  Epist.  X.  96  [al.  97]. 


^  TertuUian  is  thought  to  derive 
it  from  Eome  {De  Prascriptione,  c. 
36),  and  his  words  at  least  prove  an 
intimate  connexion  between  Eome 
and  Africa. 

^  Ad  Scapulam,  c.  2. 

8  "Episcopi  plurimi,"  Cyprian, 
Epist.  73,  c.  3, 


Growth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


century,  was  able  to  assemble  eighty-seven  bishops^  from 
the  three  North -African  provinces. 

Passing  over  to  Europe,  we  find  Anchialus  on  the  east 
coast  of  Thrace  the  see  of  a  bishop  in  the  middle  of  the 
second  century ;  Byzantium,  not  yet  dreaming  of  becoming 
the  seat  of  the  greatest  patriarchate  of  the  East,  seems  to 
have  received  its  first  bishoji  early  in  the  third  century ; 
Heraclea  had  a  bishois  who  received  the  crown  of  martyr- 
dom in  the  persecution  of  Diocletian.  Of  the  churches  of 
Macedonia,  after  the  apostolic  age,  scarcely  a  trace  is  found 
in  the  records  of  the  first  three  centuries.  Passing  onward 
into  Achaia,  we  find  little  enduring  effect  of  St  Paul's  work 
in  Athens,  where  the  whole  city  was  deeply  imbued  with 
Hellenic  culture  and  worship ;  but  at  Corinth,  where  there 
was  a  less  purely  Hellenic  population,  the  Christian  com- 
munity maintained  itself  from  the  days  of  the  aj^ostle. 
Hegesippus  on  his  journey  to  Rome  found  there  a  church, 
with  Primus  as  bishop,  who  was  succeeded  by  a  more 
famous  man,  Dionysius'^ 

Of  the  history  of  the  church  of  Rome'  in  early  days  we 
have  but  scanty  records.  That  it  received  the  Gospel  in 
very  early  times  we  know  from  the  testimony  of  St  Paul. 
The  earliest  Christians  of  whose  sojourn  in  Rome  we  have 
any  authentic  account  are  Aquila  and  Priscilla*,  St  Paul's 
companions.  The  foundation  of  many  other  churches  in 
Italy  is  ascribed  by  tradition,  often  early  tradition,  to  im- 
mediate disciples  of  the  apostles.  Such  sub-apostolic 
churches  are  found  in  Milan,  Bologna,  Lucca,  Fiesole, 
Ravenna,  and  Aquileia,  the  latter  of  which  claims  St  Mark 
as  its  founder.  The  church  of  Bari  in  Apulia  boasts  to  have 
received  its  first  bishop,  Maurus,  from  the  hands  of  St  Peter 
himself;  and  similar  legends  are  found  in  the  doubtless 
ancient  churches  in  many  parts  of  Italy®. 

The  visit  of  St  Paul  to  Spain,  though  probable,  cannot 
be  regarded  as  certain ;  that  of  St  James  the  son  of 
Zebedee,  whose  supposed  tomb  at  Compostella  has  been 
an  object  of  veneration  for  so  many  generations,  may  safely 


^  Heading  of  the  Cone.  Carthag. 
of  A.  I).  256,  in  Cyprian's  Works,  p. 
133  (Hartel). 

■  Euseb.  H.  E.  iv.  21,  22. 

••  See  p.  22. 


■•  Acts  xviii.  2. 

^  See  Selvaggio,  Antiquitates 
Christ,  lib.  i.  cc.  5—7;  and  Lami, 
Delicice  eruditorum,  torn,  viii,  praef. 
p.  25  ff. ;  torn.  XI,  praef. 


Growth  and  Chm'acteristics  of  the  Church. 


61 


be  set  down  as  apocryphal.  An  inscription  ^  thanks  the 
excellent  Nero  for  having  cleared  the  Spanish  province  from 
robbers,  and  from  the  presence  of  those  who  would  have 
subjected  mankind  to  a  new  superstition.  It  is  however 
highly  improbable  that  any  part  of  Spain  was  over-run 
with  Christians  in  the  days  of  Nero,  though  churches 
no  doubt  existed  there  in  early  times^  At  the  council  of 
Illibcris^  [Elvira]  in  the  year  306  nineteen  Spanish  bishops 
were  present.  In  the  Valerian  persecution  the  Spanish 
church  had  its  martjTS  in  the  persons  of  bishop  Fructuosus 
of  Tarragona  and  the  deacons  Augurius  and  Eulogius*. 

Gaul  received  its  first  Christianity  by  the  well-known 
commercial  route  from  Asia  Minor  to  Marseilles.  The 
legends  of  the  preaching  of  Lazarus,  of  Martha,  or  of  Mary 
Magdalene  in  southern  GauP  do  but  represent  the  fact, 
that  very  ancient  Christian  communities  existed  there*'. 
At  the  synod  of  Aries'"  (a.D.  314),  the  bishops  of  Rheims, 
Rouen,  Vaison,  Bordeaux,  and  Orange  were  present,  as  well 
as  representatives  of  other  churches. 

Both  Irenaius®  and  Tertullian^  speak  of  churches  exist- 
ing in  their  time  in  Germany,  that  is,  in  the  Roman  pro- 
vinces on  the  Rhine.  The  churches  of  Treves,  Metz,  and 
Cologne  have  undoubtedly  existed  from  very  early  times, 
and  Maternus,  bishop  of  the  latter  city,  is  said*"  to  have 
been  summoned  to  Rome  (A.D.  313)  to  aid  in  deciding  on 
the  Donatist  controversy.  In  the  Danubian  provinces  we 
find  early  traces  of  the  establishment  of  Christian  churches. 
The  oldest  of  these  is  thought  to  be  that  of  Lorch", 
whose  bishop  Maximilian  died  a  martyr's  death  in  the 
year  2S5 ;  in  the  great  persecution  of  303,  Afra^^  appears 
as  a  martyr  of  the  Church  in  Augsburg,  and  Victorinus  of 
Pettau  in  Styria ;  in  the  same  persecution  fell  the  bishop 


^  Gruter,  Thesaurus  Inscript.  p. 
2.SS,  no.  9.  The  inscription  is 
however  doubted  by  Scaliger,  and 
utterly  rejected  by  Muratori. 

2  Irenaeus,  c.  Hceres.  i.  10.  §  2 ; 
Tertnllian,  adv.  Jucheos,  c.  7. 

^  Hardouin,  Concilia,  i.  250. 

■*  Acts  in  Ruinart,  p.  218.  Ed. 
Amst.  1713. 

^  See  Petrus  de  Marca,  Epist.  de 
Evang.  in  Gallia  initiis,  in  Vale- 
Bius's  edition  of  Eusebius. 


^  For  the  massacres  of  Lyons  and 
Vienne,  see  ji.  41. 

''  Hardouin,  Concilia,  i.  266  f. 

8  Hceres.  i.  10.  §  2. 

*  adv.  JudcEos,  c.  7. 

^^  Optatus  of  Milevis,  cant.  Dona- 
tistas,  I.  23. 

11  See  the  ChroniconLaureacense, 
in  Pez,  Scriptores  Rerum  Austriac, 
torn.  I. 

1-  Ruinart,  p.  455. 


62 


Growth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


of  Sirmium  in  Lower  Pannonia.  Even  the  wild  Goths, 
who  troubled  the  borders  of  the  empire,  seem  in  the 
second  century  to  have  received  some  tidings  of  Christi- 
anity from  captives  of  their  sword. 

The  origin  of  British  Christianity  is  unknown.  The 
tradition  that  St  Paul  preached  in  Britain  is  supported  by 
no  early  authority,  and  probably  originated  in  a  misinter- 
pretation of  a  well-known  passage  in  Clement  of  Borne'; 
nor  is  much  credit  given  to  the  Venerable  Bede's  account^ 
that  a  British  prince,  Lucius,  sought  and  obtained  preach- 
ers of  the  Gospel  from  the  Roman  bishop  Eleutherius. 
The  Gospel  probably  here,  as  in  so  many  other  cases, 
followed  the  track  of  the  Boman  soldiers  and  colonists ;  at 
the  beginning  of  the  third  century,  Tertullian^  boasts  that 
the  armies  of  Christ  had  penetrated  parts  of  Britain  where 
those  of  Rome  had  failed.  In  the  persecution  under  Diocle- 
tian the  centurion  Albanus  or  Albinus  is  said  to  have  fallen 
for  the  faith  at  Verulam*,  giving  the  first  British  sufferer 
to  the  martyrologies.  At  the  synod  of  Aries  three  British 
bishops,  those  of  York,  London,  and  Lincoln,  are  said  to 
have  subscribed®. 

Thus  Christianity  in  three  centuries  had  penetrated 
the  greater  part  of  the  Roman  empire,  and  even  in  some 
cases  passed  beyond  its  boundaries.  We  ought  not  perhaps 
to  understand  quite  literally  the  rhetorical  expression  of 
early  apologists,  when  they  tell  us  that  the  Christians,  the 
growth  of  yesterday,  had  filled  the  courts,  the  camps,  the 
council-chambers,  even  the  very  palaces  of  the  Caesar^; 
but  it  is  clear  that  in  the  time  of  Constantino,  if  the 
Christians  did  not  form  the  most  numerous  portion  of  his 
subjects,  they  were  the  most  powerful ;  in  the  decline  of 
national  feeling,  no  other  body  of  men  was  left,  so  nume- 
rous and  widely  spread  as  the  Christian  Church,  animated 
by  one  spirit  and  subject  to  one  rule  I 


^  T6  ripfia  rrjs  Sutrews.  I  Corinth. 
c.  5. 

2  Hist.  Eccl.  I.  4;  see  Hussey's 
note. 

^  Adv.  Jiidaos,  c.  7 ;  compare 
Origen,  in  Matt.  Tract.  38;  Euseb. 
Dcm.  Evang.  iii.  7. 

•«  Bede,  H.E.  i.  6,  7. 

^  The  documents  relating  to  early 
British  Christianity  are  collected  in 


Haddan  and  Stubbs'  Councils  and 
Documents,  vol.  i. 

^  Tertulliau,  Apologet.  37 ;  see 
also  Justin  Martyr,  Dial,  luith 
Trypho,  c.  117;  Irenasus,  Hares,  i. 
10;  Arnobius,  Disp.  adv.  Gentcs, 
I.  16. 

7  On  the  spread  of  Christianity, 
see  the  remarkable  passage  of 
Augustine,  De  Civit.  Dei,  xxii.  5. 


Givwth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church 


63 


2.  To  come  to  the  more  particular  consideration  of 
the  several  churches.  Nowhere  was  there  greater  religious 
activity  than  in  the  early  Syrian  home  of  Christianity 
and  in  the  neighbouring  Asia  Minor.  The  people  of  these 
regions  seem  to  have  been  naturally  disposed  to  religion, 
and  that  with  a  heat  and  a  tendency  to  mysticism  which 
sometimes  led  them  astray.  It  was  there  that  the  Jewish 
converts  clung  most  tenaciously  to  their  ancient  rites.  It 
was  there  that  the  anticipation  of  a  thousand  years'  reign 
of  Christ  on  earth  was  most  deeply  rooted  and  adorned 
with  the  most  fantastic  imagery.  It  was  there  that 
Montanism  found  its  earliest  followers. 

We  cannot  fail  to  be  conscious  of  a  falling-off  in  spiritual 
power  when  we  pass  from  the  writings  of  the  Apostolic  age 
to  those  which  immediately  succeeded.  There  is  a  life  and 
fire  in  those  earlier  works  which  is  wanting  in  the  later. 
Moreover,  the  period  immediately  succeeding  the  Apostles 
is  practical  rather  than  speculative ;  the  Christian  com- 
munities of  this  age  show  us  rather  renewed  life  than 
intellectual  movement.  It  is  a  period  of  growth  rather 
than  of  blossoming.  The  struggle  against  Judaism  and 
heathendom  and  the  work  of  organizing  the  churches 
absorbed  a  large  portion  of  the  energies  of  Christians \ 

If  the  Epistle  which  bears  the  name  of  Barnabas^  be 
really  the  work  of  the  apostle,  it  belongs  to  Syria;  for 
we  know  him  in  connexion  with  Jerusalem  and  Antioch 
rather  than  with  his  native  country  of  Cyprus.  It  is  how- 
ever in  Alexandria',  where  it  was  placed  almost  on  an 
equality  with  the  canonical  writings,  that  we  first  find 
the  epistle  distinctly  mentioned,  and  some  portions  of  its 
contents  tempt  us  to  believe  that  it  may  have  been  the 
work  of  an  Alexandrian.  Its  tone  is  decidedly  anti- 
Judaic.     The  covenant  of  God  with  Israel  through  Moses 


1  See  J.  A.  Corner,  Person  Christi, 
Epoch  I.  ch.  I. 

2  W.  Cunningham,  A  Disserta- 
tion on  the  Epistle  of  S.  Barnabas, 
with  Greek  Text  edited  by  G.  H. 
Kendall.  Professor  Milligan  (in 
Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  i.  262)  thus  sums 
up  the  principal  opinions  as  to  the 
genuineness  of  the  Epistle:  "The 
authorship  of  Barnabas  is  rejected 


by,  among  others,  Ncander,  Ull- 
mann,  Hug,  Baur,  Hefele,  Winer, 
Hilgenfeld,  Donaldson,  Westcott, 
Miilier;  while  it  is  maintained  by 
Gieseler,  Credner,  Guericke,  Bleek, 
Mohler,  and  (though  with  hesita- 
tion) De  Wette." 

*  Clement  Alex.  Strom,  ii.  6.  31 ; 
7.  35,  etc.  See  J.  B.  Lightfoot, 
Clement  of  Rome,  p.  12. 


Growth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


was  annulled  from  the  very  first,  when  the  lawgiver,  coming 
down  from  the  mount,  broke  the  Tables  of  the  Law.  But 
if  there  is  no  profit  in  the  Old  Law  taken  literally,  in  its 
spiritual  (i.e.  allegorical)  sense  there  is  much  to  be  found 
which  is  instructive  for  Christians ;  to  discover  this  is  the 
true  Gnosis.  In  the  Law  we  may  find  gnostically  Jesus 
Christ,  His  Cross,  and  His  Sacraments.  The  Law  in  its 
true  import  belongs  to  Christians  and  not  to  Jews.  This 
teaching  is  Pauline,  so  far  as  it  lays  down  that  Christians 
need  not  observe  the  Jewish  law,  but  it  displays  none  of 
St  Paul's  yearning  love  for  his  countrymen.  One  of  the 
most  venerated  teachers  of  the  Syrian  church  was  Ignatius  ^ 
(Egnatius),  known  also  by  the  Greek  name  Theophorus, 
bishop  of  the  church  in  Antioch.  He  was  reputed  to 
have  been  a  pupil  of  St  John  the  Apostle  ^  and  doubtless 
prolonged  into  the  second  century  the  traditions  of  the 
first.  This  aged  bishop  the  emperor  Trajan,  on  his  visit 
to  Antioch,  condemned  to  death  and  sent  to  Rome  to  die. 
On  his  last  journey  he  wrote  letters'  to  his  friend  Polycarp 
at  Smyrna  and  to  the  churches  in  various  cities — letters 
which  have  all  the  earnest  simplicity — sometimes  almost 
eloquence — which  we  should   expect  from  one  who  was 


1  Theod.  Zahn,  Ignatius  von 
A7itiochien.    Gotha,  1873. 

'^  Mart.  Ignatii,  c.  1. 

3  Eusebius,  H.  E.  iii.  36.  The  his- 
tory of  the  letters  attributed  to 
Ignatius  is  curious.  After  the 
criticisms  of  Ussher  (164-4)  and  J. 
Vo'ssius  (1646)  it  was  generally 
admitted  that  only  seven — out  of  a 
much  larger  number  attributed  to 
him — were  genuine ;  but  even  these 
were  assigned  by  Daille  (J.  Dallseus, 
de  Scriptis  qucs  sub  Diongdi  et 
Ignatii  iiomm.  circumfernntur.  Ge- 
nevffi,  1666)  to  a  date  not  much 
before  the  reign  of  Constantine. 
With  Daille  J.  Pearson  {Vindicice 
Ignat.  Camb.  1672)  joined  issue, 
contending  for  the  genuineness  of 
the  seven  epistles.  The  asjject  of 
the  question  wasmaterially  changed 
by  the  discovery  (1836)  in  the 
NitriandesertofaSyriac  translation 
of  three  epistles,  which  thencefor- 
ward were  regarded  by  many  as  the 
only  genuine  portion  (W.  Cureton, 


The  ancient  Syriac  Version  of  the 
Epistles  of  Ignatius,  184-5  ;  C.  C.  J, 
von  Bunsen,  Die  drei  cchten... 
Briefe  des  Ign.  1847).  F.  C,  Baur, 
who  admitted  the  genuineness  of 
none  of  the  epistles,  replied  to 
Bunsen  in  his  Die  Ignat.  Briefe  u. 
ihr  neuester  Kritiker  (1848).  Den- 
zinger,  Hefele,  Chi-.  Wordsworth 
and  others  stiU  maintained  the 
genuineness  of  the  seven  epis- 
tles. The  latest  and  best  edition 
is  that  by  Theod.  Zahn  (Ignatii  et 
Polycarpl  Epistuhe  Martyria  Frag- 
?nc«fa,  Lipsiaj,  1876).  Bishop  Light- 
foot  (in  Zahn,  p.  vi)  is  inclined  to 
believe  that  the  seven  epistles  repre- 
sent the  genuine  Ignatius.  Compare 
Contemp.  Rev.  Febr.  1875.  The 
"Curetonian  Syiiac"  is  now  gene- 
rally regarded  as  a  series  of  extracts 
(Zahn,  p.  v).  In  the  text  I  have 
assumed  that  the  epistles  to  the 
Ephesians,  Magnesians,  Tralhans, 
Komans,  Philadelphians,  Smyr- 
nieans,  and  to  Polycarp  are  genuine. 


Growth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


65 


going  to  meet  his  death.  In  the  storm  which  he  foresees 
he  implores  Christians  to  cHng  together  in  love  and  to 
obey  those  who  had  the  rule  over  them.  He  is  eager  to 
warn  them  against  the  errors  of  the  time,  especially 
against  the  Judaic  Gnosticism  which  troubled  some  of  the 
Asiatic  Churches  in  the  first  century  \  For  himself  he  only 
desires  to  be  with  Christ ;  he  would  not  have  his  friends 
at  Rome  talce  measures  to  deliver  him,  even  if  it  were 
possible.  After  the  departure  of  Ignatius  there  3'et  re- 
mained one  who  was  born  within  the  apostolic  age  and  was 
the  dejDositary  of  many  of  its  traditions — the  venerable 
Polycarp,  bishop  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Smyrna.  His 
nearness  to  the  primitive  teachers  of  the  Church,  his  pro- 
phetic gift,  his  constant  prayers  for  the  Church  dispersed 
throughout  the  world  '\  gave  him  high  authority  throughout 
the  churches  of  Asia.  It  was  no  doubt  in  recognition  of  his 
position  as  well  as  of  his  personal  qualities  that  Anicetus, 
bishop  of  Rome,  allowed  him  to  consecrate  the  Eucharist 
in  the  Roman  Church  in  his  own  presence^.  The  letter 
which  he,  as  the  representative  of  the  Smyrnaean  pres- 
bytery, wrote  to  the  Philippians  is  principally  composed  of 
practical  exhortations  to  sobriety  of  life  and  doctrine  in 
the  midst  of  the  trials  which  encompassed  them.  It  is 
especially  valuable  for  its  abundant  citation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures of  the  New  Testament.  Contemporary  with  Poly- 
carp was  Papias*,  bishop  of  Hieraj^olis,  probably  the  first 
collector  of  anecdotes  in  the  Christian  Church.  He  made 
it  the  business  of  his  life  to  gather  from  the  lips  of  those 
who  had  known  the  Apostles  such  memories  as  still  sur- 
vived of  the  first  age,  which  were  not  embodied  in  written 
gospels.  From  such  researches  he  compiled  five  books  of 
the  sayings  of  the  Lord^.  He  was  respected  as  one  of  the 
"old  school,"  but  his  judgment  was  weak,  and  his  collec- 
tion contained  many  puerilities.  He  had  a  strong  expecta- 
tion of  a  corporeal  reign  of  the  Lord  on  earth  for  a 
thousand  years.  Hegesippus^,  who  wrote  during  the 
episcopate  of  Eleutherus  of  Rome,  was  of  Jewish  origin. 


^  J.  B.  Lightfoot,  Colossians,  p. 
70  ff. 

2  Mart.  Polycarpi,  5,  16. 

^  Euseb.  H.  E.  v.  24,  17. 

•*  Irenasus,  v.  33.  4;  Eusebius, 
H.  E.  HI.  3y. 


C. 


^  Aoyiuv  KvpiUKwi^  i^rjyrjais.  Only 
fragments  remain,  collected  in 
Gebhardt  and  Harnack's  Patres 
Apostolici,  I.  II.  87  ff. 

6  Eusebius,  H.  E.  iv.  8,  22. 


Chap.  IV. 


Polycarp, 
t  c.  160. 


Papias, 
t  c.  162. 


Hegesip- 
pus  wrote 
c.  180. 


66 


Grovdh  and  Characteristics  of  the  Chmxh. 


Chap.  IV. 


Not  a 
Judaizer. 


Churches 
IN  Gaul. 


IroKvm, 

bishop 

178. 


Of  his  life  scarcely  anything  is  known,  except  that  he  was 
at  Rome  in  the  time  of  bishop  Anicetus,  and  that  he 
visited  Corinth  on  his  journey  thither \  His  "Memoranda^" 
{v7ro/xv7]fiaTa)  have  commonly  been  regarded  as  a  collection 
of  materials  for  history  from  the  beginning  of  the  Church 
to  his  own  time.  It  must  however  in  this  case  have  been 
a  strange  arrangement  which  placed  the  death  of  St 
James  the  Just  in  the  fifth  and  last  book.  Moreover, 
Eusebius  places  him  first  on  the  list  of  those  who  had 
written  against  the  Gnostic  heresies.  As  he  is  not  known 
to  have  written  more  than  one  work,  it  seems  not  impro- 
bable that  it  was  in  controverting  heresy  that  he  narrated 
some  portions  of  the  early  history  of  the  true  Church.  In 
spite  of  his  origin,  he  can  scarcely  have  been  a  partizan  of 
Judaic  Christianity;  his  commendation  of  the  certainly  not 
anti-Pauline  epistle  of  Clement  seems  to  shew  to  the 
contrary ;  and  his  condemnation  of  a  passage  nearly  iden- 
tical with  one  found  in  St  Paul  (1  Cor.  ii.  9)  was  probably 
directed  not  against  the  apostle  but  against  the  Gnostics, 
whom  we  know  that  he  opposed^,  Clement,  in  fact,  whom 
Hegesippus  approves,  quotes  the  very  same  passage  for  the 
same  purpose  as  the  apostle.  Moreover  Eusebius,  who 
had  his  whole  work  before  him,  speaks  of  him  as  having 
preserved  the  unerring  tradition  of  the  apostolic  preach- 
ing— an  expression  which  he  could  not  have  used  if  he  had 
been  decidedly  hostile  to  St  Paul. 

An  offshoot  of  the  Church  of  Asia  Minor  established  it- 
self in  Gaul.  There  the  Greeks  who  composed  it  learned 
the  speech  of  their  Keltic  neighbours  and  taught  them  the 
faith  of  Christ.  The  first  head  of  the  Christian  community 
was  Pothinus;  and  when  he  fell  in  hoary  age  by  a  bar- 
barous death,  another  Asiatic  took  his  place.  This  was 
Irenseus*,  an  earnest  Christian^,  a  pupil  of  the  venerable 
Polycarp.  He  delighted  to  tell  how  through  his  master 
he  had  been  brought  close  to  the  traditions  of  the  time 
when  apostles,  and  others  who  had  seen  the    Lord,  yet 


>  Euseb.  H.  E.  v.  22. 

-  Fragments  in  Eouth's  Beli- 
quiae,  I.  205  ff.;  and  in  Grabe's 
Spicileghm,  ii.  203  ff. 

3  W."  Milligan,  in  Diet.  Chi: 
Biogr.  ii.  877. 

■•  See   the   Prolegomena   to   the 


editions  of  Irena,-as  by  Stieren  and 
by  W.  W.  Harvey;  also  J.  Beaven, 
An  Account  oftlie  Life  and  Writings 
of  S.  Ir  en  ecu's  (Loud.  1841);  E.  A. 
Lipsius  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  iii. 
253. 

5  Euseb.  if.  E.\.  4,5. 


Growth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


67 


moved  on  earth ;  how  he  could  point  out  the  very  seat 
where  the  old  man  had  sate  and  talked  of  the  days  of  his 
youth  \  He  became  a  kind  of  patriarch  of  the  churches 
throughout  Gaul.  He  too  is  said  to  have  suffered  martyr- 
dom under  Septimius  Severus.  Such  a  man  was  naturally 
grieved  and  angered  at  any  departure  from  the  simplicity 
of  the  faith.  The  startling  progress  of  Gnosticism  moved 
him  to  write  his  "  Confutation  and  Oversetting  of  Know- 
ledge falsely  so  called,"  a  work  partly  founded  on  the  now 
lost  Syntagma  of  Justin  Martyr,  Of  this  work,  which  is 
of  the  highest  value  for  the  history  of  the  early  heresies, 
only  fragments  remain  in  the  original  Greek,  but  the 
whole  is  preserved  in  an  archaic  and  evidently  very  literal 
Latin  translation.  It  was  perhaps  because  his  other  works 
contained  opinions — such  as  Chiliasm'^ — which  ceased  to 
prevail,  or  even  were  condemned,  in  the  Church,  that  they 
were  in  after  time  little  quoted  and  allowed  to  perish.  In 
his  attachment  to  the  faith  of  his  youth  and  his  eagerness 
to  save  the  Church  of  Christ  from  being  divided  and 
ruined  by  unheard-of  novelties  of  hasty  wits,  Irenseus  is 
certainly  one  of  the  most  interesting  figures  of  his  time. 

Among  Asiatic  writers  may  also  be  mentioned  Julius 
Africanus^  He  appears  to  have  passed  his  early  life  in 
Asia  Minor;  afterwards  we  find  him  living  at  Nicopolis 
[Emmaus]  in  Palestine,  and  thence  corresponding  with 
Origen.  His  Chronographia,  an  attempt  to  synchronize 
the  events  of  sacred  and  profane  history  on  which  Eusebius 
ba«ed  his  Chronicon,  is  unfortunately  lost.  His  letter  to 
Oiigen,  on  the  authorship  of  the  History  of  Susannah, 
shews  considerable  power  of  criticism. 

Here  may  also  be  noticed  Dorotheus  of  Antioch  and 
his  contemporary  Lucian  the  martyr,  in  whom  we  find  the 
first  beginning  of  that  sound  school  of  scriptural  interpreta- 
tion which  distinguished  Antioch  in  the  following  centuries. 
Of  the  first  of  these  Eusebius*  tells  us  that  he  was  a  man 
of  liberal  mind  and  of  Greek  culture,  able  also  to  read  the 
Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  in  the  original  Hebrew ; 


1  Irenaeus  in.  3.  4;  Euseb.  H.  E. 
IV.  14;  V.  20. 

2  Euseb.  H.  E.  in.  39. 

5  Euseb.   H.  E.  vi.   31 ;    Dem. 
Evang.  viii.  2;  Prcep.  Evan.  x.  10; 


Basil,  De  Sp.  Sancto,  c.  29;  Sozo- 
men,  H.  E.  i.  21.  The  fragments 
are  collected  in  Kouth's  Reliquiae, 
II.  219  ff. 

4  H.  E.  VII.  32;  IX.  6. 

5-2 


Chap.  IV. 


died  202 


Julius 
Africamia, 
t  c.  232. 


Dorotheus, 
fl.290,attrf 
Lucian, 
+  311. 


Growth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


Chap.  IV.  [  of  the  second,  that  he  was  not  only  a  man  of  pure  and 
active  life,  but  also  well  disciplined  in  sacred  learning. 

In  Armenia^  Christian  communities  are  said  to  have 
existed  in  the  time  of  Tertullian ;  but  it  is  to  Gregory  the 
Illuminator^  that  Christianity  owes  its  victory  over  perse- 
cution and  its  recognition  as  a  national  Church.  He 
became  the  first  Metropolitan  or  Catholicus  of  Armenia, 
and  so  strongly  did  his  character  impress  the  people,  that 
for  some  generations  the  Catholicus  was  chosen  from  his 
family. 

'^.  The  revelation  made  in  Christ  did  not  come  into 
the  world  as  philosophy,  but  as  fact.  The  great  fact  which 
lies  at  the  root  of  all  Gospel  teaching  is  the  Incarnation 
of  the  Son  of  God  for  the  redemption  and  renewal  of  man. 
But  it  soon  became  evident  that  a  system,  which  claimed 
to  deal  authoritatively  with  the  destiny  of  man  and  his 
relation  with  the  Deity,  must  have  some  kind  of  contact 
with  systems  of  philosophy  which  attempted  the  same 
task  ;  it  must  either  abrogate  them  or  define  the  relation 
which  it  bore  to  them.  And  again,  it  is  scarcely  possible 
for  man  to  receive  momentous  truths  into  his  mind  with- 
out some  attempt  to  explain  them,  to  systematize  them, 
to  allot  them  their  place  in  the  general  history  of  the 
world.  This  process  of  connecting  the  great  truths  of 
Christianity  with  the  truths  already  known,  and  of  blend- 
ing Christian  teaching  with  the  intellectual  life  of  the 
world,  began  early.  Justin  Martyr^  was  not  satisfied  to 
regard  revelation  as  given  only  to  the  then  small  body  of 
Christians.  He,  though  born  in  the  city  built  on  the  site 
of  the  ancient  Sichem,  was  almost  certainly  of  Hellenic 
race  and  certainly  a  pagan  by  early  training.     His  love  of 


1  Moses  Choron.,  Hist.  Armen, 
lib.  HI.  (ed.  Whiston,  Lond.  lYSfi) ; 
Chamick,  Hist,  of  Armenia,  trans, 
by  Avdall  (Calcutta,  1827);  S.  C. 
Malan,  A  Short  History  of  the  Geor- 
gian Church,  from  the  Russian  of 
Joselian  ^London,  1866);  G.  Wil- 
liams in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  i.  163. 

2  Agathangelus,  Acta  S.  Greg., 
in  Acta  SS.  Sept.  torn.  viii.  p.  402 
f[.  S.  C.  Malan,  The  Life  and 
Times  of  Gregory  the  Illuminator 
(from  the  Armenian),  with  a  Short 


Summary  of  the  Armenian  Church, 
etc.  (London  1868). 

3  Euseb.  H.  E.  iv.  16—18;  Je- 
rome, Catal.  23  ;  Photius,  Bihlioth. 
cod.  125.- — J.  Kaye,  Account  of  the 
Writings  and  Opinions  of  Justin 
M.\  J.  Donaldson,  Christian  Lite- 
rature. II.  62  ff.;  H.  S.  Holland  in 
Diet,  of  Chr.  Biogr.  in.  560  ff. ;  C. 
Semisch,  Justin  Martyr,  trans,  by 
J.  E.  Kyland  (Edinb.  1843);  Otto, 
Zur  Charakteristik  d.  H.  Justin, 


Gh'owth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


m 


learning  drove  him  to  philosophy,  but  in  the  philosophic 
schools  he  found  no  rest ;  there  was  always  something 
wanting.  He  was  impressed  by  the  constancy  with  which 
the  Christians  bore  their  sufferings  for  the  truth's  sakeS 
and — if  we  are  to  take  the  introduction  to  the  Dialogue 
with  Trypho"''  as  an  account  of  a  real  incident  in  his  own 
life — an  old  man  who  accosted  him  as  he  walked  on  the 
shore  directed  him  to  the  prophets  and  to  Christ.  But  he 
was  still  a  philosopher^ ;  he  regarded  his  conversion  as  a 
passing  from  an  imperfect  to  the  perfect  philosophy.  To 
the  Gentiles  also,  to  the  old  philosophers  and  legislators, 
something  of  the  divine  Word  was  given,  though  but  as  a 
germ  ■* ;  the  full  revelation  of  the  Word  was  found  only 
in  the  Incarnate  Son.  Even  the  Law  given  to  the  Jews 
was,  as  a  mere  historical  fact,  mean  and  imperfect,  but  the 
truths  typified  in  the  Law  and  foreshadowed  in  the  Pro- 
phets were  great  and  glorious ^  Justin  was  not  a  great 
man,  though  he  had  extensive  knowledge ;  his  style  is 
commonplace  and  often  inaccurate ;  but  he  represents  a 
tendency  which  largely  influenced  the  Church  at  a  most 
critical  period. 

But  it  was  in  Alexandria  that  Christian  philosophy 
attained  the  highest  development  which  it  reached  in  the 
period  which  we  are  now  considering.  That  famous  city, 
situated  almost  at  the  meeting-point  of  three  continents, 
became  soon  after  its  foundation  a  centre  of  intellectual 
life.  When  national  barriers  fell  before  the  universal 
dominion  of  Rome,  the  great  problems  of  the  nature  and 
destiny  of  man,  as  man,  engaged  more  closely  the  attention 
of  mankind ;  and  nowhere  was  man  so  cosmopolitan  as  at 
Alexandria.  Thither  flowed  the  thoughts  of  Greece  and 
Rome,  to  mingle  with  those  of  Syria  and  Arabia,  of  Persia 
and  India,  and  of  Egypt  itself.  Here,  more  than  else- 
where, philosophy  required  Christianity  to  give  an  account  | 
of  its  existence  and  its  work. 

In  Alexandria,  as  in  other  cities,  there  was  in  early 
times — we  cannot  tell  exactly  how  early — a  school  for 
the  instruction  of  candidates  for  Christian  baptism.     Here 


1  Apol.  II.  12. 

«  Dial.  c.  3. 

3  Euseb.  H.  E.  iv.  11,  §  8;  Dial. 


c.  1. 

*  Apol.  II.  8,  10. 

5  Dial.  ^L\  Trypho,  c.  16  ff. 


Chap.  IV. 


Alex- 
andria. 


70 


Growth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


alone  this  Catechetic  SchooP  became  a  philosophic  training- 
college,  to  which  many  of  the  most  distinguished  ecclesi- 
astics owed  their  early  education.  The  first  head  of  this 
school  whose  name  we  know  is  Pantsenus,  once  a  Stoic 
philosopher,  then,  after  some  years'  presidency  over  the 
Alexandrian  School,  a  missionary  in  the  East'^.  He  how- 
ever is  famous  only  through  his  pupils ;  no  works  of  his 
remain,  Titus  Flavins  Clemens^ — a  Greek,  in  spite  of 
his  Roman  name — after  wandering  unsatisfied  through 
the  schools  of  philosophy,  found  a  satisfactory  teacher  in 
Pantainus,  whose  assistant  he  became,  and  whom  he  ulti- 
mately succeeded  in  the  management  of  the  School.  In 
the  persecution  under  Severus  he  withdrew  from  Alexan- 
dria, and  the  last  glimpse  we  have  of  him  is  at  Jerusalem 
in  the  year  211.  His  principal  extant  works — the  'Ad- 
dress to  the  Greeks,'  the  'Tutor,'  and  the  '  Miscellanies' — 
correspond  to  the  three  stages  of  Christian  life,  conversion, 
conduct,  contemplation.  He  was  not  an  original  or  inde- 
pendent thinker,  but  he  was  well  acquainted  with  the 
current  systems  of  philosophy,  and  saw  more  clearly  than 
most  of  his  contemporaries  the  great  streaui  of  the  world's 
history.  He  is  not  an  adherent  of  one  particular  school ; 
when  he  speaks  of  philosophy  he  means,  not  the  Stoic  or 
the  Platonic,  the  Epicurean  or  the  Aristotelian,  but  what- 
ever each  sect  has  taught  which  tends  to  righteousness  of 
life  and  reverent  science*.  He  selects,  in  fact,  from  the 
several  systems  such  portions  as  correspond  with  the 
teaching  of  Christ. 

But  a  greater  teacher  still  was  Origen^,  a  born  Alexan- 


1  H.  E.  F.  Guerike,  De  Schola 
qucE  Alexandriae  floruit  Conim. 
Hist.  ;  C.  F.  G.  Hasselbach,  Be 
Schola  quce  Alexandriae  floruit 
Catechetica. 

2  Eusebius,  if.  E.  v.  10;  Jerome, 
Catalogus,  c.  36. 

3  Euseb.  H.  E.  vi.  13  f. ;  Jerome, 
Gatal.  c.  38 ;  Photius,  Cod.  109.— 
J.  Kaye,  Account  of  Writings  and 
Opinions  of  Clement  of  Alexandria  ; 
F.  Eylert,  Clemens  als  Philosopli.  u. 
Dichter ;  H.  Reinkens,  De  Cle- 
meiite;  H.  Eeuter,  dementis  Theo- 
logia  Moralis;  H6bert-Duperron, 
ha   Poleviique   et  La    Philos,    de 


Clem. ;  F.  D.  Maurice,  Moral  and 
Metaph.  Philos.  i.  307  ff.  (ed.  1873). 

*  Stromal,  i.  p.  338. 

5  Euseb.  H.  E.  vi.  16,  18  f.,  23  ff., 
30,  32,  36,  39;  vii.  1;  Jerome, 
Catal.  no.  54. — D.  Huet,  Origeniana, 
pretixed  to  his  edition  of  tlie  Com- 
mentaries, and  reprinted  in  Dela- 
rue's  ed.  of  Origen's  Works,  Vol. 
IV. ;  C.  Thomasius,  Origenes ;  Rede- 
penuing,  Origenes^  Leben  u.  Lehre; 
[G.  liust]  Letter  concerning  Origen 
and  his  Opinions,  in  the  Phenix, 
I.  1  (London,  1707) ;  B.  F.  West- 
cott,  Origen  and  Chr.  Phil.,  in 
Contemporary  Review,  May,  1879, 


Growth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


drian,  and  subjected  from  his  earliest  youth  to  the  in- 
fluences of  his  native  place.  He  was  the  son  of  a  Christian 
martyr,  Leonides,  whose  martyrdom  he  was  only  prevented 
from  sharing  by  the  tender  care  of  his  mother.  Religiously 
brought  up,  he  devoted  his  aspiring  spirit,  iron  will,  and 
untiring  industry  to  the  Alexandrian  learning.  From 
Clement,  who  left  Alexandria  in  the  year  of  his  father's 
death,  he  probably  learned  more  through  his  writings  than 
through  oral  instruction ;  but  he  was  a  pupil  in  the  philo- 
sophic school  of  Ammonius  Saccas,  commonly  regarded  as 
the  founder  of  Neoplatonism,  from  whom  he  no  doubt 
received  a  lasting  influence.  He  was  but  eighteen  when 
he  became  head  of  the  Catechetic  School,  where,  poor  as 
he  was,  he  declined  to  receive  fees  from  his  pupils,  pre- 
ferring rather  to  confine  his  wants  within  the  limits  of  his 
narrow  means.  Here  he  soon  left  to  an  assistant  the 
training  of  the  younger  children,  while  he  led  his  more 
advanced  hearers  through  Hellenic  culture  to  an  intelligent 
comprehension  of  Scripture  and  to  a  Christian  philosophy. 
His  irregular  ordination  as  presbyter  at  Cffisarea  brought 
upon  him  the  displeasure  of  his  bishop,  Demetrius,  already 
jealous  of  his  fame,  who  drove  him  from  the  Church  of 
Alexandria.  The  neighbouring  Churches  however  con- 
tinued to  hold  him  in  honour,  in  spite  of  the  hostility  of 
his  bishop,  and  he  lived  thenceforward  commonly  at 
Csesarea,  surrounded  by  pupils.  Twice  during  this  period 
he  was  summoned  to  synods  held  in  Arabia  a,gainst  heretics 
(Beryllus  of  Bostra  and  the  "Arabici"),  and  on  both 
occasions  he  succeeded  in  convincing  them  of  their  error. 
In  the  persecution  under  Decius  he  endured  great  suffer- 
ing with  steadfastness,  but  died  soon  after.  His  writings 
are  preserved  partly  in  the  original  Greek,  partly  in  the 
Latin  translation  of  Rufinus.  No  name  marks  a  more 
distinct  epoch  in  the  Church  than  that  of  Origen.  What- 
ever may  be  the  faults  of  his  Scriptural  exposition,  he 
was  the  first  to  apply  philology  to  the  study  of  the  Bible, 
the  first  who  was  conscious  of  the  necessity  of  settling  its 
text  on  a  firm  basis  of  documents.  And  his  work  on 
"Principles"  {Trepl  dp'y^oov)  may  be  said  to  be  the  first 
treatise  on  systematic  theology  which  the  Christian  Church 
produced.  No  one  of  his  time,  few  of  any  time,  mani- 
fested the  same  anxiety  to  discern  the  element  of  truth  in 


Chap.  IV. 


203. 


228. 


231. 


244,  218. 


d.  254. 

His  cha- 
racter and 
influence. 


72 


Growth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


the  tenets  of  the  several  warring  schools ;  no  one  com- 
bined in  an  equal  degree  purity  of  life  and  Biblical  learn- 
ing with  wide  knowledge  and  capacity  for  philosophical 
speculation.  His  influence  on  the  Church  has  probably 
not  been  less  than  that  of  Athanasius  or  Augustine ;  and 
even  those  who  in  after  time  condemned  his  tenets  were 
themselves  influenced  by  his  method. 

Clement  and  Origen  were  in  some  respects  wide 
asunder ;  yet  they  have  much  in  common,  and  the  views 
which  both  held  we  may  consider  as  representing  the 
doctrines  of  the  Alexandrian  School.  Both  are  sympa- 
thetic students  of  philosophy,  and  both  seek  a  system 
which  may  throw  light  upon  the  history  of  the  universe. 
Both  develope  the  doctrines  which  are  implicitly  contained 
in  the  bare  facts  of  Christianity,  avoiding  on  the  one 
hand  the  narrowness  of  Judaism,  on  the  other,  the  un- 
licensed speculations  of  Gnosticism.  In  the  writings  of 
Clement  and  Origen,  broadly  considered,  we  may  find 
something  of  a  system. 

God  alone  is  purely  incorporeal  energy.  As  this  energy 
can  never  be  idle,  an  infinite  series  of  worlds  must  have 
preceded  the  present  and  an  infinite  series  must  follow  \ 
The  present  world  is  the  refuge  and  the  school  of  souls 
who  have  sinned  in  another  state  of  existence.  Here  they 
expiate  their  guilt '^;  but  as  no  spiritual  being  ever  loses  its 
freedom  of  will,  they  have  the  capacity  for  raising  them- 
selves out  of  their  degradation  to  a  higher  life^.  Even  the 
condemned  suffer  purifying,  not  everlasting,  punishment*. 
God  has  revealed  Himself  at  various  times  and  in  many 
ways  through  the  Word  to  the  peoples  of  the  earth. 
Philosophy  was  a  tutor  to  bring  the  Gentiles  to  Christ,  as 
the  Law  to  bring  the  Jews^;  for  the  highest  and  final 
revelation  is  that  made  in  the  Incarnation  of  Christ. 
Popular  faith  or  belief  (Trto-rt?)  does  not  rise  above  the 
reception  of  the  most  necessary  truths  on  the  ground  of 


1  Clem.  Hypotyp.  in  Photius, 
Cod.  109 ;  Origen,  De  Pnncip.  in. 
5,  3. 

2  It  is  not  certain  that  Clem. 
Strom.  IV.  640  bears  this  meaniag; 
but  see  Origen,  De  Princip.  ii. 
9,6. 

3  Grig.  De  Princip.  i.  6,  2  and  3. 


*  Clem.  Strom,  vi.  6,  p.  851; 
Orig.  ill  Exodum,  Horn.  vi.  p.  148; 
in  Lucam,  Hom.  xiv.  p.  948;  com- 
pare c.  Celsum,  v.  p.  240  f. 

6  Clem.  Strom,  i.  pp.  331,  337, 
ed.  Potter;  cf.  Orig.  in  Genesin, 
Hom.  XIV.  c.  3. 


Growth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


73 


authority.  A  higher  stage  is  that  of  knowledge  (yvcoai^i), 
in  which  the  Christian  has  attained  to  a  scientific  demon- 
stration of  the  truths  revealed  in  Christ.  But  the  highest 
of  all  is  wisdom  {ao(f)La),  when  the  Christian  has  imme- 
diate intuition  of  divine  truth\  It  was  for  the  more 
highly  gifted  to  enquire  into  the  reasons,  the  philosophy, 
of  the  truths  which  the  apostles  taught  to  the  multitude^ 
But  besides  the  simple  and  necessary  doctrine  which  was 
given  to  all  believers,  the  Lord,  when  He  took  the  apostles 
aside  privately,  imparted  to  them  treasures  of  secret 
wisdom,  which  through  them  had  been  handed  down  to 
the  true  Gnostics*.  Both  Clement  and  Origen  express  a 
certain  dread  of  "  putting  a  sword  into  a  child's  hand  "  by 
publishing  to  the  many  doctrines  only  suited  for  the  few*. 
The  Christian  sage  or  Gnostic  must  aim  at  attaining  not 
only  a  higher  range  of  knowledge,  but  a  complete  freedom 
from  the  passions — even  the  passions  which  may  have  a 
good  end — which  move  the  greater  part  of  mankind^  He 
must  deserve  the  words,  "I  have  said,  ye  are  gods;"  he 
must  be  like  God,  in  a  sense  deified®.  To  this  end  he 
must  free  himself,  so  far  as  may  be,  from  the  bonds  of  the 
flesh^  And  he  must  pursue  his  great  end — that  of  seeing 
God  and  becoming  like  Him — with  no  reference  to  his  own 
personal  welfare ;  if  his  own  salvation  were  offered  him  on 
the  one  hand  and  the  knowledge  of  God  on  the  other,  he 
would  unhesitatingly  choose  the  knowledge  of  God*.  With 
the  view  which  the  Alexandrians  held  on  the  pleasures  of 
sense,  it  will  readily  be  understood  that  they  rejected  with 
horror  the  sensuous  conceptions  of  the  thousand-years' 
reign  of  Christ  on  earth  which  had  been  held  by  many  of 
the  early  teachers  of  the  Church®;  and  that  they  did  not 
regard  the  Resurrection  as  a  reconstitution  of  the  decaying 


1  Clem.  Strom,  vii.  p.  865 ;  Orig. 
c.  Cels.  VI.  p.  284.  Compare  1 
Cor.  xii.  8,  9. 

-  Origen,  De  Princip.  i.  Prasf. 
c.  3. 

3  Clem.  Strom,  vi.  p.  771;  Hy- 
potijp.  in  Euseb.  H.  E.  ii.  i.  2; 
Orig.  c.  Cels.  vi.  p.  279. 

*  Clem.  Strom,  i.  p.  324;  Orig. 
c.  Cels.  I.  p.  7;  in.  p.  159;  viii. 
p.  411;  De  Prwcip.  i.  vi.  1. 


5  Clem.  Strom,  vi.  pp.  775,  825. 
^  Clem.    Strom,  iv.   p.   632;   vi. 
p.  816;  VII.  894. 

7  Clem.  Strovi.  iv.  pp.  569,  626; 
VII.  p.  854;  Origen  in  Photius,  cod. 
234. 

8  Clem.  Strom,  iv.  pp.  576,  626. 

*  Excerpta  ex  Theodoto,  in  Clem. 
0pp.  II.  p.  1004;  Orig.  De  Princip. 
II.  11,  cc.  2,  6. 


Chap.  IV. 

Know- 
ledge. 
Wisdovi. 


Orowth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


relics  of  mortality,  but  as  a  rising  of  the  spiritual  body  to 
eternal  life*. 

Many  points  of  their  system  could  hardly  be  defended 
by  a  literal  interpretation  of  Scripture,  and  Origen  and  his 
school  no  doubt  made  free  use  of  allegory.  It  would  how- 
ever be  a  mistake  to  imagine  that  Origen  gave  greater 
scope  to  arbitrary  interpretation  than  he  found  existing ; 
rather,  he  systematized  it.  He  found  in  the  Scriptures  a 
threefold  sense,  historical,  moral,  and  mystic,  corresponding 
to  the  threefold  division  of  body,  soul,  and  spirit^  He  is 
in  fact  the  "  father"  of  grammatical  rather  than  of  mystical 
exposition. 

Doctrines  such  as  those  of  Origen  naturally  called 
forth  vehement  opposition  and  as  vehement  defence. 
Among  those  who  continued  the  tradition  of  Origen  was 
his  convert  and  pupil  Dionysius^,  himself  also  head  of  the 
Catechetic  School  and  afterwards  for  some  years  bishop  of 
Alexandria,  who  shews  in  the  remains  of  his  writings  both 
philosoi^hical  and  critical  power.  Like  his  master,  he  was 
much  opposed  to  the  sensuous  conceptions  of  the  thousand- 
years'  reign  of  Christ  on  earth*.  He  seems  to  have 
deserved  by  his  wise  and  temperate  spirit  the  epithet 
which  Eusebius^  bestows  upon  him  of  "  the  great  Bishop." 
Gregory,  bishop  of  Neocsesarea,  on  whom  a  later  genera- 
tion bestowed  the  name  of  Thaumaturgus*^  the  Wonder- 
worker, was  another  very  distinguished  pupil  of  Origen, 
following  him  perhaps  more  in  the  ascetic  than  in  the 
philosophic  direction.  It  is  highly  probable  also  that 
Hierax  or  Hieracas^  of  Leontopolis  derived  his  peculiar 
opinions  from  Origen  rather  than  from  the  Manichsean 
source  to  which  Epiphanius*  refers  them.  He  rejected 
the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh  and  all  sen- 
suous representations  of  the  life  to  come,  and  very  strongly 
discouraged  marriage  and  the  use  of  wine  and  flesh.     But 


1  Clem.  Picdag.  ii.  p.  230;  Orig. 
De  Princ.  ii.  10,  3,  and  c.  11. 

2  Orig.  in  Levit.  Horn.  v.  c.  5; 
and  De  Princip.  iv.  passim.  See 
Mosheim,  De  Eebus  ante  Constant. 
pp.  629  ff. ;  J.  A.  Ernesti,  De  Ori- 
gene  Interpretationis  SS.  granuna- 
ticcB  auctore,  in  his  Oj^»,sc«/<t,  p. 
218  ff. ;  C.  11.  Hagenbach,  Obserra- 
tiones    circa    Origenis    methodum 


interpretandce  SS. 

3  B.  F.  Westcott  in  Diet,  of 
Chr.  Biogr.   i.  850. 

*  Euseb.  H.  E.  vii.  24,  25. 

*  H.  E.  VII.  Prooem. 

6  H.  R.  Eeynolds  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Biogr.  u.  730  ff. 

^  J.  L.  Mosheim,  De  Rebus  Christ, 
p.  903  ff. 

8  Uceresis  Q7, 


Growth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


io 


even  the  exaggerations  of  Hierax  do  not  seem  to  have 
called  forth  any  formal  opposition  at  the  time.  The  first 
who  formally  impugned  the  teaching  of  Origen  appears  to 
have  been  Methodius  \  bishop  of  Tyre,  who,  though  himself 
of  the  Platonic  school,  attacked  his  doctrines  on  the  con- 
tinued evolution  of  worlds,  on  the  resurrection,  and  on 
the  absolute  freedom  of  the  human  will.  It  was  probably 
this  attack  which  drew  forth  a  Defence  from  the  excellent 
Pamphilus^,  a  presbyter  of  Csesarea,  perhaps  the  first 
wealthy  churchman  who  employed  his  means  in  collecting 
a  theological  library.  His  Defence  was  still  incomplete 
when  its  author  met  a  martyr's  death ;  it  was  completed 
by  his  devoted  friend  and  intellectual  son,  Eusebius^ — 
Pamphilus's  Eusebius,  as  he  came  to  be  called.  In  the 
next  generation  the  controversy  about  Origen  and  his 
opinions  blazed  out  with  greater  fierceness. 

4.  While  Alexandria  was  labouring  to  unite  religion 
and  philosophy,  a  very  different  school  was  dominant  in 
the  neighbouring  province  of  Roman  Africa.  Greek  seems 
to  have  been  commonly  understood  in  Carthage*,  but 
Latin  was  evidently  the  usual  language  of  society,  while 
the  country  folk  retained  their  native  Punic.  The  African 
was  the  first  Latin  Church ;  there  first  we  find  a  Latin 
literature  in  the  service  of  Christianity.  It  has  the 
rhetorical  character  which  we  find  in  the  Roman  literature 
of  a  purer  age,  vivified  and  at  the  same  time  deformed  by 
the  gloomier  genius  of  the  Punic  race.  A  translation  of 
the  Scriptures  into  this  vigorous  dialect  supplied  the 
wants  of  the  faithful  in  the  African  cities,  and  was  for  some 
generations  the  Bible  of  Latin  Christendom.  The  earnest 
mysticism  which  was  to  become  Montanism  flourished 
among  the  half-Oriental  Africans.  In  this  Church  the 
most  famous  name  is  that  of  Quintus  Septimius  Florens 
Tertullianus^,  as  characteristic  a  product  of  Roman  Africa 
as  Clement  was  of  Alexandria. 


1  Epiphanius,  Hares.  64;  Pho- 
tius,  Cod.  234—237.  Compare 
Deutinger,  Geist.  d.  Christl.  Ueber- 
liefening,  ii.  Abth.  2,  p.  65  ff. 

2  Euseb.  H.  E.  vi.  32,  33;  vii. 
32 ;  VIII.  13 ;  De  Mart.  Pal.  7,  11. 
J.  B.  Lightfoot  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr. 
II.  309  ff. 

3  J.  B.  Lightfoot,  u.  s.  p.  340. 


*  Tertullian,  De  Cor.  Mil.  6; 
De  Bapt.  15. 

^  Jerome  Catal.  c.  53;  Epist.  83 
ad  Magnum;  Vincent.  Lerin.  Com- 
monit.  c.  24. — Vita  and  Prolego- 
mena in  Migne  Patrol.  Lat.  v.  i, 
and  in  Oebler's  Tert.  Opera,  v.  iii. ; 
R.  Ceillier,  Auteurs  Sacres,  etc.  ii. 
374  ff. ;  A.  Neander,  Antignosticus, 


Chap.  IV. 

Methodius 
of  Tyre, 
t311(?). 


Pamphi- 
lus,  1 309. 


Eusebius 
Pamphili. 


Africa. 


76 


Growth  and  Gharacteristics  of  the  Church. 


TertuUian  was  born,  the  child  of  heathen  parents,  about 
the  year  160  at  Carthage,  at  that  time  one  of  the  most 
considerable  schools  of  literature  in  the  Roman  empire. 
He  understood  and  wrote  Greek,  he  was  a  skilful  rhetorician, 
and — as  his  works  abundantly  shew — well  acquainted  with 
Roman  jurisprudences  Converted  while  still  young  to 
Christianity  by  the  sight  of  the  constancy  of  the  Christian 
martyrs,  he  became  a  presbyter  of  the  Church  and  its  most 
vigorous  literary  defender.  If,  as  Jerome^  tells  us  was  the 
case,  he  reached  a  good  old  age,  his  days  were  probably 
prolonged  into  the  fourth  decade  of  the  third  century. 

With  much  of  the  imperious  character  of  the  Roman 
and  the  subtlety  of  the  lawyer,  he  has  an  impetuosity 
of  temper  and  warmth  of  imagination  which  are  perhaps 
due  to  Punic  blood.  Cliristianity  probably  has  rarely 
won  a  more  eager  and  uncompromising  convert.  In  his 
controversial  writings,  which  are  many,  he  upholds  the 
Catholic  faith,  according  to  his  conception  of  it,  against 
pagans,  Jews,  and  heretics ;  in  his  practical  works,  Chris- 
tian simplicity  against  the  corruptions  of  a  luxurious 
society ;  but  in  his  polemics  he  is  still  the  stern  moralist, 
in  his  practical  treatises  he  is  still  the  controversialist. 
His  excellencies  and  his  faults  alike  arise  from  his  vehe- 
mence and  his  incapacity  for  compromise.  He  saw,  as 
he  thought,  the  true  doctrines  of  the  Church  in  danger 
from  the  speculations  of  philosophy,  and  the  "  wisdom 
of  this  world"  became  the  object  of  his  keenest  scorn 
and  irony ;  the  Academy  has  nothing  in  common  with  the 
Church^.  It  was  natural  therefore  that  he  should  contend 
earnestly  against  Gnosticism,  a  development  of  the  cosmic 
theories  of  paganism.  For  himself,  he  prefers  that  which 
is  above  reason,  and  nothing  is  too  marvellous  for  his 
eager  faith  to  receive*.  He  is  realistic  to  the  verge  of 
materialism;  "incorporeal"  is  with  him  the  same  thing  as 
"non-existent^;"  the  soul  of  man,  God  Himself,  must  have 


or  Spirit  of  TertuUian,  English  Tr. 
with  his  Planting  and  Traininq 
(London,  1851);  J.  Kaye,  Eccl. 
Hist,  illustrated  from  the  Writings 
of  TertuUian;  Mohler,  Patrol,  p. 
701  ff. ;  F.  D.  Maurice,  Moral  and 
Metaph.  Phil.  i.  30-i  ff.  (ed.  1873) ; 
Ebert,  Christl.-Lat.  Lit.  i.  32  ff.; 
Grotemeyer,  Ueber  Tertullians  Le- 


ben  u.  Schriften. 

1  Eusebius  {H.  E.  ii.  2)  calls  him 
Toiis  'P(i}fiaiii)v  vofxovs  rjKpi^wKuis  dvrip. 

^  Catalogus,  c.  53. 

3  De  Prcescript.  c.  7. 

*  '  Certum  est  quia  impossibile,' 
De  Came  Chr.  c.  5. 

^  De  Came  Chr.  c.  11. 


Growth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


77 


some  kind  of  body.  And  again,  seeing  the  life  of  holiness 
in  danger  from  social  relaxation,  the  Spirit  in  danger  of 
being  quenched  by  ecclesiastical  routine,  he  inveighed 
against  all  the  pleasures  of  sense,  however  innocent,  and  at 
last  joined  the  party  of  the  Montanists,  where  he  hoped  to 
find  more  of  the  Spirit  and  greater  rigour  of  life.  In  theory, 
he  paid  great  respect  to  the  authority  of  the  leading 
Churches ;  but  he  was  not  the  man  to  accept  any  authority, 
however  exalted,  which  clashed  with  his  conception  of  the 
truth.  Christ,  he  says,  called  Himself  Truth,  not  Custom  \ 
The  great  representative  of  the  Church  of  Africa  in 
the  third  century  was  C3q)rian^.  Thascius  Csecilius 
Cyprianus,  the  son  of  wealthy  parents,  after  enjoying  for 
a  season  the  pleasures  of  pagan  society  at  Carthage,  where 
he  was  a  rhetorician  and  teacher  of  rhetoric,  sought  refuge 
in  the  Church  from  the  emptiness  of  the  life  which  he  was 
leading  I  In  the  glow  of  religious  feeling  immediately 
after  his  baptism  he  distributed  a  large  portion  of  his 
wealth  to  the  poor*,  and  all  his  life  long  he  was  distin- 
guished for  his  munificence \  Within  two  years  from  his 
conversion  he  became  a  presbyter  in  Carthage,  and  shortly 
afterwards,  though  reluctant,  recognized  the  voice  of  God 
in  the  voice  of  the  people  who  hailed  him  bishop^.  Plead- 
ing a  divine  command,  he  fled  in  the  persecution  of 
Decius^  though  from  his  retreat  he  still  continued  to 
administer  the  affairs  of  his  Church,  asking  pardon  that 
in  the  extraordinary  emergency  he  was  unable  to  consult 
the  presbyters  and  people  as  he  was  ever  wont**.  Re- 
turning after  a  year's  absence,  he  found  his  path  full  of 
obstacles.  The  small  party  which  had  opposed  his  election 
rose  in  rebellion  against  him®,  and  the  confessors  in  the 
late  persecution  claimed,  by  their  mere  word,  to  re-admit 
to  communion  those  who  had  "  fallen"  by  conformity  to 


^  De  Virgg.  VelaiuUs,  c.  1. 

"  Cypriani  Vita,  attributed  to 
Pontius  his  deacon,  printed  with 
Cyprian's  Works  (ii.  p.  xc,  ed.  Har- 
tel);  F.  W.  Rettberg,  Th.  C.  Cy- 
prianus dargestcllt  nacli  seiiicm 
Leben  u.  Wirkcn;  G.  A.  Poole,  The 
Life  and  Times  of  St  Cyprian  (Oxf. 
1840);  E.  J.  Shepherd,  Letters  on 
the  Genuineness  of  the  Letters  as- 
cribed   to    Cyprian   (Lond.   1853); 


E.W.  'Ei\ans,Biog.  of  Early  Church, 
II.  135  ff . ;  E.  W.  Benson  in  Diet,  of 
Chr.  Biogr.  i.  739  ff. 

^  Ad  Donatum,  c.  8  f. 

*  Vita,  cc.  6  and  15. 

5  Epist.  7 ;  14,  c.  2. 

6  Epist.  43,  c.  1;  59,  c.  6. 

7  Epist.  16,  c.  4. 

8  Epist.  14, 

9  Epist.  41. 


Chap.  IV. 


Cyprian. 


Converted 
A.D.  246. 


Bishop 
A.D.  248. 


The 

'  Lapsed.^ 


78 


Growth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


Paganism  in  the  troublous  time^  Again,  he  was  vexed 
by  the  conduct  of  the  bishop  of  Rome  on  the  question  of 
the  re-baptism  of  heretics".  He  had  to  maintain  the 
authority  of  the  bishop,  on  the  one  hand  against  those  of 
his  own  people  who  impugned  it,  on  the  other,  against  a 
foreign  power  which  claimed  to  override  it.  In  the  midst 
of  these  disputes  the  great  pestilence  of  the  year  253  fell 
upon  the  empire  and  with  special  severity  on  the  province 
of  Africa ;  the  good  bishop  was  probably  happier  in  suc- 
couring the  distress  of  this  terrible  time  than  in  disputes 
about  discipline  and  doctrine.  But  his  disputes  and  his 
beneficence  alike  came  to  an  end  in  the  persecution  under 
Valerian,  when  he  met  his  death  with  quiet  courage.  He 
was  beheaded  at  Carthage  in  the  year  258,  the  first  African 
bishop,  says  Prudentius,  who  suffered  martyrdom.  Cyprian 
called  Tertullian  his  master,  and  so  he  was ;  he  borrowed 
from  him  both  thoughts  and  expressions.  But  he  has 
neither  the  genius,  the  passion,  nor  the  imagination  of 
his  teacher;  his  ability  was  rather  that  of  a  ruler  and 
administrator,  and  in  this  capacity  he  shewed  great  mode- 
ration in  a  time  of  feverish  excitement.  In  his  style  we 
find  neither  the  glowing  fancy  nor  the  energetic  brevity  of 
Tertullian ;  but  it  is  clear  and  flowing,  rising  occasionally 
into  eloquence  and  imagery^.  On  the  whole,  he  gives  us 
the  impression  of  an  able,  cultivated  Christian  man,  sin- 
cerely religious  but  incapable  of  fanaticism. 

Among  African  writers  may  be  reckoned  Commodian*, 
the  earliest  representative  of  Christian  Latin  verse.  Born 
a  pagan,  he  was  converted,  as  he  himself  tells  us,  to  Chris- 
tianity by  the  reading  of  Holy  Scripture.  It  was  when 
Christianity  had  been  already  about  two  hundred  years  in 
the  world,  in  an  age  of  persecution®,  that  he  wrote  his 
"Equipments  against  the  gods  of  the  Nations" — eighty 
acrostic  poems  in  hexameters,  in  somewhat  barbarous 
language.  He  also  wrote  an  "Apologetic  Poem  against 
Jews  and  Gentiles."  It  is  in  Commodian's  works  that  we 
have  the  first  specimens  of  that  which  was  destined  to  pre- 


^  EpUt.  15,  c.  1;  16,  c.  2;  17, 
c.  2 ;  64,  c.  1 ;  iind  De  Lapsis. 

"  See  Firmilian's  letter,  Cypr. 
E])ist.  75;  Cone.  Cartlmq.  k.T>.  25G 
(H  irdouin's  Cone.  i.  159'ff.). 

3  Ebert,  Christl.-Lat.  Lit.  i.  55 


ff. 

^  Ebert,  Christlich-Latein.  Lite- 
rattir,  i.  86  ff. ;  Diet.  Christ.  Biog. 
I.  610. 

5  Commod.  histructiones,  vi.  2; 
LIII.  10. 


Groiuth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


79 


vail  in  modem  Europe — verse  written  solely  according  to 
accent,  with  no  regard  to  the  quantity  of  the  syllables. 
His  style  is  barbarous  and  prosaic,  though  not  without  a 
certain  rough  vigour,  but  his  matter — especially  his  pro- 
phecy of  the  two  Antichrists  and  the  Lord's  final  victory — 
is  sometimes  of  considerable  interest. 

Some  half-century  later  than  Cyprian  we  meet  with  a 
distinguished  African  man  of  letters,  Arnobius\  Of  him 
we  know  no  more  than  that  he  was  a  teacher  of  rhetoric  at 
Sicca  in  Africa,  and  that  after  his  conversion  to  Christianity 
he  wrote  seven  books  against  paganism.  He  is  very 
successful  in  shewing  the  absurdities  of  heathen  worship 
and  the  folly  of  the  attempts  to  rehabilitate  it ;  but  he 
evidently  holds  oj^inions  not  compatible  with  the  purity  of 
Christian  doctrine.  He  seems  to  have  been  drawn  into 
the  Church  partly  by  a  strong  reaction  from  heathenism, 
partly  by  the  sure  and  certain  hope  of  the  resurrection  to 
eternal  life  which  Christianity  proffered  him.  He  could 
not  accejDt  philosophy  as  a  substitute  for  religion. 

From  Arnobius  we  naturally  pass  to  his  pupil  Lactan- 
tius  Firmianus^,  though  a  considerable  portion  of  his  life 
was  passed  in  Europe,  and  his  style  betrays  no  African 
provincialism.  His  book  on  'the  Handiwork  of  God'  is 
probably  the  first  Christian  treatise  on  natural  theology. 
His  principal  work,  on  '  First  Principles  of  Things  Divine,' 
though  primarily  apologetic,  is  really  an  introduction  to 
Christian  doctrine  ;  he  is  not  content,  like  some  of  his  pre- 
decessors, with  a  merely  negative  position.  The  great 
contrast  between  the  morality  of  Christianity  and  that  of 
heathendom  he  treats  with  especial  vigour  and  success ; 
and  if  we  can  detect  here  and  there  some  weakness  in  his 
grasp  both  of  theology  and  of  philosophy,  his  work  must 
have  rendered  an  important  service  in  the  critical  time  in 


Chap.  IV. 


1  Jerome,  Catal.  c.  79;  Chron. 
Euseb.  ad  ann.  xx.  Constantini. 
Le  Nourry,  Apparatus  Criticus,  iu 
Migne's  Patrol,  v.  360  ff. ;  Ebert, 
Christl.-Lat.  Lit.  i.  61  ff.;  H.  C.  G. 
Moule  in  Diet,  of  Chr.  Biogr.  i. 
167  ff. ;  Stockl,  Phil,  in  Patrist. 
Zeit.  p.  240  ff. 

"  Jerome,  Catal.  c.  80 ;  Epist. 
70  ad  Magnum — Dissertationes  by 
Le  Nourry   etc.  in  Migne,  Patrol. 


VI.  and  VII.;  Stockl,  Philosophie  in 
Patrist.  Zeit.  p.  249  ff. ;  Ebert, 
Christl.-Lat.  Lit.  p.  70  ff . ;  and 
iiber  den  Verfusser  des  Bnches  '  De 
Mort.  Per  sec'  in  the  22nd  vol.  of 
Verhandl.  der  K.-SdchsiscJien  Ge- 
sellsch.  der  Wissensch.:  E.  S. 
Ffoulkes  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biography, 
III.  613  ff. ;  J.  H.  B.  Mountain, 
Summary  of  the  Writings  of  Lac- 
tantiits. 


Arnobius, 
wrote  c. 
305. 


Lactan- 
tills, 
De  Opi- 
Jicio  Dei, 
c.  304. 
Div.Instit. 
c.  308. 


80 


Growth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


which  it  was  produced,  just  on  the  eve  of  the  victory  of 
Christianity.  His  style  is  clear  and  pleasant,  certainly 
superior  to  that  of  the  best  of  his  pagan  contemporaries. 
In  his  treatise  '  on  the  Deaths  of  Persecutors'  we  have  the 
first  attempt  to  trace  the  judgments  of  God  in  history — 
especially  in  the  history  of  his  own  time — from  a  Christian 
point  of  view. 

5.  We  now  come  to  the  one  Apostolic  see  of  the  West, 
the  great  Church  of  Rome\  Here  there  was  a  large 
Jewish  colony,  and  here,  even  more  than  in  other  cities, 
the  Hebrew  community  drew  around  it  proselytes  and 
frequenters  of  its  worship  of  all  ranks,  from  a  slave  to  an 
empress.  Among  Gentiles,  proselytes  and  Jews  many 
converts  were  found '^  It  soon  became  probably  the  most 
numerous  of  Christian  Churches.  Tacitus'  describes  the 
Christians  of  Rome  as  a  "vast  multitude"  in  the  days  of 
Nero,  and  in  the  third  century  Cornelius,  its  bishop,  speaks 
of  the  Roman  Church  as  containing  a  very  large  number 
of  laymen,  forty-six  presbyters,  and  fifteen  hundred  widows 
and  other  distressed  persons  maintained  by  charity*. 

The  Judaic  Christians  for  some  generations  did  not 
fully  harmonize  with  their  Gentile  brethren.  But  it  was 
in  Rome  more  than  elsewhere  that  differences  were 
assuaged  and  compromises  made.  For  representatives  of 
all  nations  and  all  forms  of  thought  found  their  way  to 
the  central  city  of  the  world,  and  the  Roman  Church  early 
manifested  the  capacity  for  ruling,  organizing,  and  amal- 
gamating, which  had  long  distinguished  the  Roman  state. 
And  Rome  was  famed  for  beneficence ;  the  days  of  St 
Laurence,  when  the  poor  of  the  great  city  formed  the 
treasure  of  the  Church^  were  not  as  the  days  when  a 
Borgia  or  a  Medici  squandered  vast  wealth  on  luxury  or 
art.  The  common  language  of  this  mixed  multitude  was 
Greek.  Greek  was  the  language  of  its  principal  writers, 
and  Greek  inscriptions  appear  on  the  tombs  of  its  bishops 
as  late  as  the  year  275*^.     Victor  (A.D.  189)  is  apparently 


^  T.  Greenwood,  Cathedra  Petri; 
E.  J.  Shepherd,  Hist,  of  Ch.  of 
Rome  to  the  death  of  Damasus; 
J.  Laugen,  Gesch.  d.  Romischen 
Kirche  bis  Leo  I. 

2  On  the  composition  of  the 
early  lloman  Church,  see  B.  Jowett, 


on  Romaim,  u.  3ff. ;  J.  B.  Lightfoot 
in  Smith's  Diet,  of  the  Bible,  in. 
1055 ;  on  P}dUppia7is,  p.  13  ff. 
■*  Ann.  XV.  44. 

*  Euseb.  H.  E.  vi.  43,  §§  11,  12. 

*  Prudentius,  Peristeph.  Hymn  2. 
«  De  Eossi,  Ror)ia  Sott.  i.  p.  12G. 


Growth  and  Characteristics  of  the  ChurcJi. 


81 


the  first  Latin  bishoj)  of  Rome,  and  he  is  also  the  first  who 
is  known  to  have  had  relations  with  the  imperial  court\ 
and  to  have  claimed  for  his  see  something  like  universal 
dominion  ^ 

The  real  origin  of  the  Roman  Church  is  utterly  un- 
known, but  in  very  early  times  St  Peter  and  St  PauP 
came  to  be  regarded  as  its  founders.  The  belief  that  the 
former  had  preached  in  Rome  may  possibly  have  arisen 
from  the  Jewish-Christian  fiction  in  which  the  two  Simons, 
the  apostle  and  the  magus,  play  a  prominent  part ;  but  it 
is  much  more  probable  that  the  legend  was  localized  in 
Rome  in  consequence  of  St  Peter's  actual  presence  there. 
The  succession  of  the  early  bishops  is  involved  in  great 
obscurity.  Irenseus*  gives  the  order  Linus,  Anencletus, 
Clemens,  and  in  the  same  order  the  names  appear  in  the 
Canon  of  the  Roman  liturgy,  though  "  Cletus"  is  substi- 
tuted for  "Anencletus."  A  Clementine  fiction^  makes 
St  Peter  hand  on  his  authority  directly  to  Clement.  The 
ancient  Bucherian  catalogue**  (almost  certainly  derived  in 
its  earlier  portion  from  Hippolytus)  gives  the  order  Linus, 
Clemens,  Cletus,  Anacletus ;  while  the  Apostolical  Consti- 
tutions^ put  into  the  mouth  of  St  Peter  the  statement 
that  Linus  was  ordained  by  Paul,  and  Clement,  after  the 
death  of  Linus,  by  Peter  himself.  It  has  been  suggested*, 
as  a  way  of  reconciling  these  various  statements,  that 
there  may  have  existed  at  the  same  time  in  Rome  Jewish 
and  Gentile  communities,  having  separate  bishops  who 
derived  their  authority  from  St  Peter  and  St  Paul  respec- 
tively. On  the  whole  however  it  seems  probable  that  the 
list  given  by  Irenseus  is  the  correct  one^ 

In  the  early  part  of  the  third  century  we  have  a  curious 
glimpse  at  the  life  of  the  Roman  Church  through  the 
writings  of  Hippolytus'".    If  he  is  to  be  credited,  Callistus, 


1  Hippolytus,  Hicres.  ix.  12,  p. 
287  f. 

■  Euseb.  H.  E.  v.  24. 

^  Dionysius  of  Corinth  in  Euseb. 
H.  E.  II.  25  ;  Irenffius,  Hccres.  iii.  1. 

*  Hares,  in.  3,  §  3;  cf.  Euseb. 
H.  E.  III.  2,  13,  15. 

^  Epist.  ad  Jacohum,  c.  3. 

®  In  the  Appendix  to  Du  Gauge's 
ed.  of  the  Chronicon  Paschale.  See 
De  Smedt,  Introd.  Gener.  ad  Hist. 


V. 


Eccl.  p.   202  ff. ;   Diet,  of  Christ. 
Bioq.   s.  V.    Clironicoii   Caiiisianum, 
1.  5U6  f. 
''  VII.  46. 

8  By  Cave,  Lives  of  the  Fathers, 
Clemens,  c.  4,  and  Hist.  Lit.  s.  v. 
Clemens;  and  by  Bnnsen,  Hippo- 
lytus, I.  33  ff.  (2nd  Ed.). 

9  G.  Salmon,  in  Diet,  of  Chr. 
Bioar.  i.  551. 

lo"  Ha;res.  Ref.  ix.  11  ff. 

(3 


Chap.  IV. 


Founders. 


Early 
Bishops. 


Callistus, 
c.  218— 
223. 


82 


Growth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


a  runaway  slave,  a  fraudulent  bankrupt,  and  an  escaped 
convict,  found  it  possible  to  worm  himself  into  the  confi- 
deuce  of  the  weak  bishop  Zephyrinus,  and  to  become  his 
successor.  This  is  however  the  story  of  a  vehement  oppo- 
nent and  probably  an  anti-bishop  \ 

But  whatever  may  be  said  of  Callistus,  it  is  certain 
that  the  character  of  the  early  Roman  bishops  generally 
cannot  have  been  bad.  They  were  not  distinguished  as 
writers  or  theologians,  but  many  were  martyrs ;  and  men 
nurtured  in  Rome,  hearing  representations  from  all  sides, 
were  naturally  more  capable  of  comprehending  the  general 
bearings  of  a  question  than  the  worthy  men  who  occupied 
analogous  positions  in  provincial  towns.  At  the  same 
time,  they  were  devoted  to  the  interests  of  Rome. 

The  first  writer  of  the  Roman  Church  of  whom  we  have 
any  remains  is  its  bishop  Clement^,  possibly  identical  with 
the  Flavius  Clemens  who  was  put  to  death  by  Domitian^. 
His  only  extant  work  is  a  letter,  simple  in  style  and 
abounding  in  Old  Testament  quotations,  written  by  him, 
as  the  official  organ  of  communication  with  foreign 
churches ^  to  the  Church  of  Corinth.  The  main  purpose 
of  the  letter  is  to  restore  the  harmony  which  had  been 
broken  by  dissensions  and  by  a  revolt  against  the  authority 
of  the  presbyters ;  hence  the  duties  of  meekness,  and  of 
submission  to  those  who  are  in  authority  over  them  and 
bear  it  blamelessly,  are  especially  insisted  on.  The  subject 
of  the  Resurrection,  an  old  difficulty  in  the  Corinthian 
Church,  is  also  touched.  There  certainly  seems  to  be  a 
tone  of  authority  in  some  of  the  expressions  used",  and  the 
mere  fact  of  such  a  letter  being  written — probably  at  the 
request  of  those  who  were  aggrieved — seems  to  imply  that 
Rome  was  recognized  by  some  at  least  as  a  superior  authority. 

Another  production  of  the  Roman  Church  is  the  curious 
work  of  Hermas",  which  bears  the  name  of  '  the  Shepherd.' 


1  C.  C.  J.  Bunsen,  Hippolytits 
and  his  Age;  Chr.  Wordsworth, 
St  Hippolytus,  etc. ;  J.  J.  I.  Bol- 
linger, Hij^poli/ttts  and  Callistus 
(Eng.  trans.  Edinb.  1876). 

2  J,  B.  Lightfoot,  S.  Clement  of 
Rome  (1869)  and  Appendix  (1877) 
containing  the  newly  -  recovered 
portions.  Gebhardt  and  Harnack, 
dementis    Rom.    Ejnstulce    (Lips. 


1876)  give  the  full  text.  See  also 
G.  Salmon,  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr. 
I.  554  f. 

^  Suetonius,  Domitian,  c.  15; 
Dio  Cassius  lxvii.  14. 

^  Hernias,  Visio  ii.  4. 

6  cc.  59,  63. 

8  J.  A.  Doruer,  Person  Christi, 
I.  185  ff.;  Th.  Zahn,  Der  Hirt 
d.    Hermas ;  Prolegomena  to  Geb- 


Growth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


83 


He  writes  as  a  contemporary  of  Clement  \  but  the  writer 
of  the  Muratorian  Fragment  describes  him  as  the  brother 
of  bishop  Pius  (142 — 157?)  I  There  is  however  nothing  in 
the  book  incompatible  with  the  earlier  date.  The  book 
consists  of  a  series  of  dream-visions,  divine  commands  given 
to  him,  and  parables  or  similitudes,  related  in  an  artless 
style  which  is  not  unattractive.  The  writer  laments  the 
corruption  and  the  worldliness  of  the  Church ;  he  warns 
men  of  the  wrath  to  come,  when  the  dross  will  be  purged 
away ;  he  beseeches  them  to  repent  while  repentance 
is  still  possible.  He  distinctly  claims  to  be  a  prophet,  and 
his  position  is  in  some  respects  not  unlike  that  of  a  Monta- 
nist,  though  Tertullian^  in  his  later  days  violently  blamed 
his  want  of  Montanistic  rigour.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
book  which  savours  of  Judaism,  nor  indeed  any  mention  of 
the  Jewish  Law.  It  evidently  made  a  great  impression  on 
the  Church,  for  such  men  as  Irenseus'*  and  the  Alexandrian 
Clement^  quote  it  as  scripture  or  revelation,  and  a  fresco 
in  a  Neajsolitan  catacomb  represents  the  tower-building 
which  Hermas  describes  ^ 

Cains',  a  presbyter  of  Rome,  who  is  said  to  have 
written  in  the  days  of  Zephyrinus,  refuted  the  tenets  of 
Montanism  in  a  controversy  mth  Proclus,  the  head  of  that 
sect  in  Rome,  appealing  against  heretical  novelties  to  the 
authority  of  a  Church  which  was  able  to  jDoint  to  the 
"trophies"  of  St  Peter  and  St  Paul,  and  denying  that  the 
expectation  of  a  thousand-years'  reign  of  Christ  on  earth 
had  the  authority  of  an  apostle.  Nothing  is  known  of  his 
personal  history,  and  it  is  very  possible  that  the  name 
Caius  is  simply  that  of  a  person  in  a  dialogue  written  by 
Hippolytus^ 

This  Hippolytus^  is  the  most  remarkable  man  of  letters 
hardt   and  Harnack's  Ed.    of  the       Biog.  i.  384. 


Pastor;   O.   Salmon  in  Diet.   Chr. 
Biogr.  ii.  913  ff. 
'   Visio  II.  4,  3. 

2  B.  F.  Westcott,  Canon  of  N.  T. 
pp.  217  ff.,  562. 

3  De  Pudic.  c.  10. 
*  HcBres.  iv.  20,  2. 

6  Stromat.  i.  c.  29,  p.  426,  Potter. 
^  Garrucci,iS(onarf.  ArteChristi., 

tav.  96,  p.  113  f.;  W  Cunningham, 
Churches  of  Asia,  Frontispiece. 

7  Euseb.  //.  E.  II.  25;    iii.    28; 
VI.  20— G.  Sahnon  in  Diet,  of  Chr. 


8  J.  B.  Lightfoot  in  Journal  of 
Philology,  i.  98  ff. 

9  Euseb.  H.  E.  vi.  cc.  20  and 
22.  See  above,  p.  81.  G.  Salmon 
in  Diet.  Chr.  Ant.  iii.  385  ff.  This 
Hippolytus  is  not  to  be  confounded 
with  his  namesake,  the  supposed 
gaoler  and  convert  of  St  Laurence, 
who  was  commemorated  '  in  agro 
Verano.'  See  E.  W.  Benson  in 
Journ.  of  Class,  and  Saered  Philo- 
logy, I.  (1854)  p.  188  ff. 

(5—2 


Chap.  IV. 

97?  or 
c.  145? 


Caius  the 
Presbyter, 
201—219. 


84 


Growth  and  Characteristics  of  the  Church. 


produced  by  the  Church  of  Rome  in  the  first  three  centu- 
ries He  was  a  pupil  of  Irenaius ;  besides  his  great  work 
against  heresies  \  numerous  fragments  remain,  exegetical, 
apologetic,  controversial,  and  dogmatic.  He  was  also  a 
chronologist  and  compiled  a  Chronicle,  and  his  statue '^ 
found  in  the  Via  Tiburtina  in  1551  has  engraved  upon  it 
the  Paschal  Cycle  which  he  drew  up,  as  well  as  a  list  of 
his  writings.  It  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that  he  was  the 
bishop  of  some  portion  of  the  Christians  in  Rome^,  and  it 
is  clear  that  he  regarded  Callistus  as  the  mere  head  of 
a  school*,  and  not  as  a  Catholic  bishop. 

In  the  book  against  the  Heresies  the  writer,  starting 
from  the  assumption  that  heretics  do  not  find  their  support 
ill  Holy  8cripture,  but  in  astrology,  in  pagan  mysteries,  and 
in  Hellenic  philosophy,  proceeds  first  to  examine  these 
systems  and  then  the  heresies — Cnostic  and  Monarchian — 
which  he  believed  to  have  grown  out  of  them.  His  work 
is  consequently  of  considerable  importance  for  the  history 
of  philosophy,  as  well  as  for  that  of  the  thought  and  life  of 
the  Church  in  the  early  part  of  the  third  century,  of  which 
otherwise  we  have  little  contemj^orary  evidence. 

These  wrote  in  Greek.  But  it  is  possible  that  the  first 
in  the  long  array  of  Christian  Latin  writers  may  also 
belong  to  Rome.  Minucius  Felix,  an  advocate  converted 
in  middle  life  to  Christianity,  was  probably  a  Roman,  and 
evidently  shared  in  the  best  culture  of  his  time.  Regarded 
simply  as  literature,  his  work  is  superior  to  those  of  his 
pagan  contemporaries.  As  to  his  date  however  there  are 
great  diversities  of  opinion,  some'^  maintaining  that  he 
lived  before  Tertullian,  who  made  use  of  his  work,  others® 
that  he  lived  in  the  quiet  days  of  Alexander  Severus,  and 
made  use  of  the  work  of  Tertullian — a  much  more  original 
mind — in  the  compilation  of  his  dialogue  '  Octavius^' 


1  First  published  in  1851  at 
Oxford  from  a  MS.  from  the  Athos 
monastery,  by  E.  Miller,  under  the 
title  '  Origenis  Philosophuiiwna.'' 
yince  re-edited  under  its  proper 
title  by  Duncker  and  Schneidewin. 

^  Now  in  the  Lateran  Museum. 
Winkelmann  [Werke,  xvii.  1,  p. 
334)  believed  this  statue  to  be  of 
the  time  of  Alexander  Severus; 
Plainer  (Beschrcibutuj  Roms,  ii,  2, 
p.   329)   not  later  than   the  sixth 


century.  It  is  engraved  in  Bun- 
sen's  Hippohjtus. 

3  He  is  described  as  bishop  of 
Kome  by  ApoUinarius  in  the  fourth 
century  (Lagarde's  Hippolyti  0pp., 
no.  72,  p.  171),  and  generally  by 
Greek  authorities. 

■•  c.  Hares,  ix.  12. 

5  Ebert,  Chrixtl.-Lat.  Lit.  i.  25. 

8  Salmon  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr. 
III.  ;t20  If. 

'■  See  above  p.  5G. 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE   GREAT   DIVISIONS. 


We  have  already  seen  that  there  existed,  as  there 
could  not  but  exist  where  there  was  active  life,  various 
schools  of  thought  within  the  Church.  Men  apprehended 
variously  the  same  great  cardinal  truths ;  but  differences 
such  as  those  of  the  Alexandrians  and  the  Africans  were 
perfectly  compatible  with  the  recognition  of  the  common 
faith.  Some  teachers  however  either  exaggerated  a  par 
ticular  tenet  so  as  to  deform  the  proportion  of  the  faith, 
or  refused  to  receive  some  truth  essential  to  Christianity. 
There  were  Jews,  very  zealous  for  the  Law,  who  were  for 
retaining  the  legal  observances  of  the  Mosaic  code,  and 
even  for  enforcing  them  upon  converts  from  the  Gentiles; 
there  were  Marcionites,  who  exalted  the  teaching  of  St 
Paul  to  the  utter  disparagement  of  everything  belonging 
to  the  Jews;  there  were  Montanists,  who  were  for  main- 
taining the  freedom  of  pn)phetic  gifts,  and  a  higher  and 
purer  standard  of  life  in  the  Church,  even  to  the  loss  of 
ecclesiastical  unity ;  there  was  Gnosticism,  the  general 
name  given  to  a  number  of  systems  which  claimed  to 
supersede  at  once  Polytheism,  Judaism,  and  Christianity, 
and  to  provide  adequate  explanations  of  the  mysteries  of 
the  universe;  and  there  was  Mauichyeism,  which  resolved 
the  moral  and  spiritual  phenomena  of  the  world  into  the 
war  of  the  opposing  principles  of  Good  and  Evil.  And  in 
the  midst  of  the  storm  occasioned  by  these  winds  of  doc- 
trine, the  Church  became  more  and  more  conscious  that  if 
she  founded  upon  a  Rock,  that  there  was  a  basis  of  Catho- 
lic Truth  which  remained  altogether  unaffected  by  heresies 
and  schools  of  thought. 


Chap.  V. 

The 

Gkeat 
Divisions. 


Judaizers. 


Marcion- 
ites. 

Monta- 
nists. 


Gnosti- 
cism. 


Mani- 
cliceism. 


The  Catho- 
lic Churcli. 


The  Great  Divisions. 


1.  Where  the  Jew  and  the  Gentile  mingled  freely  in 
Christian  worship,  the  truth  that  in  Christ  was  neither 
Jew  nor  Greek  must  gradually  have  asserted  itself;  but  in 
Jerusalem  there  was  little  or  nothing  of  such  influence; 
there  all  alike  were  Jewish  converts,  all  reverencing  Moses 
under  the  shadow  of  the  Temple.  But  before  Jerusalem 
fell  and  the  Temple  was  razed  to  the  ground,  the  Christ- 
ians, heeding  their  Lord's  words,  fled  from  the  doomed 
city,  and  reconstituted  the  Church  of  the  Circumcision 
at  Pella,  a  city  of  the  Decapolis.  And  we  find  a  little 
body  of  Nazarenes  dwelling  in  Pella  and  its  neighbour- 
hood as  late  as  the  close  of  the  fourth  century '^  These 
held  themselves  bound  by  the  Mosaic  law,  but  did  not 
refuse  communion  with  the  Gentiles ;  according  to  some 
authorities^,  they  had  not  risen  to  the  full  apprehen- 
sion of  the  dignity  of  the  Person  of  Christ;  yet  Jerome, 
who  must  have  known  them,  seems  to  regard  them  as 
separated  from  Catholic  Christendom  chiefly  by  their 
retention  of  the  Jewish  law.  These  simple  folk  were,  we 
may  say,  inheritors  of  the  spirit  of  St  James  the  Lord's 
brother.  And  the  same  spirit  pervades  the  principal  literary 
production  of  the  Nazarene  School,  the  "Testaments  of 
the  Twelve  Patriarchs,"  which  "to  a  strong  Israelite  feel- 
ing unites  the  fullest  recognition  of  the  Gentile  Churches*." 
Our  Lord  is  represented  as  the  renovator  of  the  law ;  the 
imagerv  and  illustrations  are  all  Hebrew ;  certain  virtues 
are  strongly  commended  and  certain  vices  strongly  de- 
nounced according  to  a  Hebrew  standard;  many  incidents 
in  the  lives  of  the  patriarchs  are  derived  from  some  un- 
known legendary  Hebrew  source.  Yet  the  admission  of 
the  Gentiles  into  the  privileges  of  the  covenant  is  a 
constant  theme  of  thanksgiving  with  the  writer. 

But  a  much  larger  body  than  the  Nazarenes,  the 
Ebionites  (D''JV2X)^,  not  content  with  observing  the  Mosaic 


1  A.  Eitschl,  Entstehung  der 
Altkathollschen  Kirche,  p.  104  ff. 
(2nd  Ed.);  J.  B.  Lightfoot,  St  Paul 
and  the  Three,  in  Galatians,  p.  292 
ff.  ;  J.  J.  I.  DciUinger,  The  First 
Age  of  Christianity  and  the  Church, 
tr.  by  H.  N.  Oxenham;  A.  Schwegler, 
Nachapostol.  Zeitalter ;  G.  V. 
Lechler,  d.  Apostol.  u.  Nachapostol. 
Zeitalter. 


^  Epiphanius,  Hceres.  29.  7 ; 
Jerome,  Catalogus,  c.  3. 

3  Epiphaaius,  Hceres.  30.  9. 

■*  Lightfoot,  St  Paul  and  the 
Three,  p.  300. 

®  i.e.  "poor."  Tertullian's  men- 
tion {De  Frcescript.  Hceret.  c.  33)  of 
one  Ebion  or  Hebion  as  their 
founder  was  probably  occasioned  by 
his  ignorance  of  Plebrew.     Origen 


The  Great  Divisions. 


87 


law  themselves,  maintained  that  it  was  binding  on  all 
Christians,  and  regarded  as  impure  all  who  did  not  con- 
form; they  regarded  Jesus  as  the  Messiah,  while  they 
denied  His  Divinity;  they  rejected  the  authority  of  St 
Paul,  and  may  in  truth  be  regarded  as  the  successors  of 
the  false  brethren  who  dogged  his  steps  and  opposed  his 
doctrine.  These,  whom  we  may  call  for  distinction  Phari- 
saic, are  the  Ebionites  of  Irengeus  and  Hippolytus. 

The  other  and  more  widely-spread  type  of  Ebionism, 
agreeing  in  general  with  the  opinions  of  the  Pharisaic 
Ebionites,  added  to  them  new  elements  of  mysticism  and 
asceticism  derived  probably  from  contact  with  the  Essenes*. 
This  is  the  Ebionism  of  Epiphanius.  These  Ebionites, 
like  the  rest,  were  zealous  for  the  law,  but  the  law  must 
be  adapted  to  their  peculiar  tenets;  bloody  sacrifices  they 
looked  upon  with  horror,  and  the  prophets  they  utterly 
rejected.  They  laid  great  stress  on  certain  peculiar  ob- 
servances, especially  lustral  washings  and  abstinence  from 
flesh  and  wine;  they  maintained  "that  the  Word  or 
Wisdom  of  God  had  been  incarnate  more  than  once, 
and  that  thus  there  had  been  more  Christs  than  one, 
of  whom  Adam  was  the  first  and  Jesus  the  last. 
Christianity  in  fact  was  regarded  by  them  merely  as 
the  restoration  of  the  primaeval  religion ;  in  other  words, 
of  pure  Mosaism  before  it  had  been  corrupted  by  foreign 
accretions^."  These  Essenic  Ebionites  bear  a  strong  re- 
semblance to  the  Judaic  sectaries  who  disturbed  the  peace 
of  the  Church  at  Colossse  in  the  days  of  St  Paul.  They 
were  eager  to  spread  their  faith  and  displayed  great  literary 
activity;  they  may  be  traced  in  many  different  parts  of 
the  Empire,  and  produced  a  great  number  of  books  which 
have  not  been  without  influence  on  Christian  tradition, 
though  the  works  themselves  have  for  the  most  part 
perished.  There  are  still  extant  the  "Clementines'" — the 
Homilies  and  Recognitions  attributed  to  Clement  of  Rome 
— and  a  few  fragments  of  the  book  of  Elchasai.  Of  these 
the  Homilies  were  written  probably  in  the  latter  half  of  the 


{in  Matt.  t.  XVI.  c.  12)  gave  the 
correct  meaning.  See  Neander,  Ch. 
Hist.  II.  13  ff. ;  Gieseler,  K.  Gesch- 
icltte,  I.  113,  note  e. 

1  See  Baur's  Tract,  De  Ebioni- 
tarum  origine  et  doctrina  ab  Esscids 


repetenda,  Tubingen,  1831. 

-  Lightfoot,  St  Pauland  the  Three, 
305. 

3  Lightfoot,  U.S.  p.  306  ff. ; 
Ct.  Sahiion,  Clementine  Literature, 
in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  i.  567  ff. 


Chap.  V. 


Pharisaic. 


Essenic. 


Ebionite 
Litera- 
ture. 

Clemen- 
tines. 


The  Great  Divisions. 


second  century,  the  Recognitions,  known  only  in  the  free 
Latin  version  of  Ruffinus,  somewhat  later.  In  the  Homilies, 
Simon  Magus,  the  antithesis  of  Simon  Peter,  is  the  imper- 
sonation of  heresy;  various  traits  are  accumulated  in  his 
person,  and  some  of  these  are  manifestly  derived  from  St 
Paul;  in  the  Recognitions  the  animus  of  the  writer  against 
the  apostle  of  the  Gentiles  is  much  less  strongly  marked. 
The  book  of  Elchasai,  the  "hidden  power,"  professes  to  be 
Avritten  in  the  third  year  of  Trajan,  an  epoch  correspond- 
ing remarkably  with  that  mentioned  by  Hegesippus  as  the 
time  of  the  great  outbreak  of  heresies.  Whatever  its  date, 
it  maintains,  like  the  rest  of  the  Ebionite  writings,  the 
perpetual  obligation  of  the  Jewish  law  and  the  purely 
human  nature  of  Christ  \  Both  this  book  and  the  Cle- 
mentines have  a  strongly  Gnostic  tinge. 

The  system  of  the  Clementine  writings  makes  Chris- 
tianity itself  little  else  than  a  purification  and  renewal  of 
primaeval  Judaism;  Judaism  and  its  latest  development, 
Christianity,  stand  together  in  opposition  to  Heathenism. 
The  main  intention  of  the  works  in  question  seems  in 
truth  to  have  been,  to  unite  the  Judaic  and  anti-Judaic 
parties  in  the  Church  against  pagan  tenets,  whether  in  the 
Church  or  in  the  world  which  surrounded  it.  We  have 
here  no  separation  of  a  Demiurgus  from  the  Most  High 
God;  the  one  God  is  all  in  all.  God  created  the  universe 
through  the  Wisdom,  the  "operative  hand V'  which  is  with 
Him.  Christ  and  Satan  are  respectively  the  right  hand 
and  the  left  hand  of  God ;  with  the  one  He  brings  to  death, 
with  the  other  gives  life^;  to  Christ  is  made  subject  the 
world  to  come  ;  to  the  devil — who  was  not  created  evil,  but 
became  bad  by  a  mixture  of  extraneous  elements — is  made 
subject  this  present  world.  Man,  as  made  at  first  in  the 
image  of  God,  rejoiced  in  the  revelation  of  God  made 
through  the  prophets  of  truth.  This  line  of  true  prophets 
began  in  Adam,  and,  when  at  the  instigation  of  the  devil 
the  woman  had  brought  confusion  into  the  primaeval  reve- 
lation, was  renewed  in  Moses.  When  the  Mosaic  law  began 
to  lose  its  force  and  purity,  it  was  renewed  in  Christ,  who 
is  the  Son  of  God  in  a  sense  in  which  that  title  could  not 
be  given  to  Adam  or  to  Moses,  if  not  one  with  God  in  the 

1  HipiJolytus,  Hccres.  ix.  13,  14.        xvi.  12. 

2  Xei/)  brifuovpyov(ja  to  wav,  Uomil,  '^  Homil.  vii.  3. 


Tlie  Great  Divisions. 


89 


Christian  sensed  In  this  system  the  way  of  salvation  begins 
with  the  calling  from  God,  through  which  man  comes  to 
know  the  true  prophet ;  in  him  he  must  have  faith  and  in 
his  name  receive  baptism;  thence  he  advances  to  Gnosis, 
the  knowledge  of  the  true  nature  of  God  and  His  perfect 
righteousness,  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  of  man,  of  the 
judgment  to  come;  this  Gnosis  gives  men  power  to  fulfil 
the  law,  which  is  conceived  as  a  series  of  positive  ordi- 
nances. A  rigorous  asceticism  is  required,  involving  the 
utmost  possible  abstinence  from  the  things  of  earth,  espe- 
cially from  flesh  and  from  wine ;  but  the  Judaic  spirit  of 
the  system  appears  strongly  in  its  commendation  of  mar- 
riage. 

2.  If  the  system  represented  by  the  Clementines 
tended  to  exalt  Judaism,  even  at  the  expense  of  Chris- 
tianity, that  of  Marcion''  exalted  the  teaching  of  St  Paul 
at  the  expense  not  only  of  Judaism  but  of  other  Christian 
teachers.  St  Paul  alone  he  recognises  as  "the  Apostle," 
the  one  depositary  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  His 
object  throughout  is,  to  make  the  sharpest  and  most 
absolute  separation  between  Divine — i.e.  Pauline — Chris- 
tianity, and  the  not  merely  inferior  but  hostile  systems 
which  preceded  it.  "The  Law"  is  with  him  mere  hardness 
and  sternness,  "the  Gospel"  an  absolutely  new  revelation 
of  God,  for  which  nothing  in  the  previous  history  of  the 
world  had  prepared  the  way ;  it  is  a  sunrise  without  a 
dawn.  In  Marcion's  system  all  things  are  sudden,  which 
in  God's  providence  require  a  long  development.  John 
comes  suddenly,  Christ  comes  suddenly''.  He  is  always 
bringing  into  prominence  the  antithesis  of  Law  and  Gospel, 
righteousness  and  mercy,  fear  and  love. 

As  to  his  personal  history,  we  learn  that  Marcion  was 
the  son  of  a  bishop  of  Sinope,  by  whom  it  is  said*  that  he 


1  Homil.  XVI.  16. 

^  The  sources  are,  Irenseus, 
H<eres.  i.  27 ;  Tertullian,  adv. 
Marcionem ;  Hippolytus,  Hteres. 
Re/.,  VII.  29 — 31  ;  Epiphauius, 
Hares.  42 ;  Theodoret,  Hceret. 
Fabb.,  1.  24.  The  work  of  Esnig 
(an  Armenian  bishop  of  the  fifth 
century)  against  Marcion  is  noticed 
by  Neumann  in  Illgen's  Zeit- 
schrift,  1834,  Bd.    4.     Of  modem 


writers  may  be  mentioned,  A. 
Hahn,  De  Gnosi  Marcionis ;  A. 
Harnack,  Beitrdge  z.  Geschichte  d. 
Marcion  in  Zeitschr.  f.  Wissen- 
schaftl.  Theol.  1876  ;  K.  A.  Lipsius, 
Das  Zeitalter  Marcion's  in  Quellcri 
d.  altest.  Ketzergesch.  p.  225 ;  U. 
Salmon  in  Diet.  Ghr.  Biogr.  iii. 
816  ff. 

^  Tertullian,  c.  Marcionem,  iv.  11. 

*  Epiphauius,  Hceres.  42.  2. 


Chap.  V. 


Mabcion, 


The  Great  Divisions. 


was  excommunicated  for  some  juvenile  excesses.  He  found 
his  way  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century  to  Rome  ^, 
where  he  was  also  rejected  by  the  Church,  and  where,  with 
the  help  of  a  Syrian  Gnostic  named  Cerdon,  he  seems  to 
have  thought  out  his  system.  He  assumed  three  primal 
powers^;  the  Supreme  Deity,  or  "Good  God,"  the  righteous 
Demiurgus  or  creator,  and  Matter  with  its  ruler,  the  evil 
one.  The  Demiurgus,  putting  forth  the  best  of  his  limited 
powers,  created  a  world  of  the  same  nature  as  himself,  in 
which  he  chose  the  Jews  to  be  his  own  people,  and  gave 
them  merely  the  covenant  of  salvation  by  works.  Thus 
provided,  they  struggled  but  feebly  against  the  power  of 
evil,  until  at  last  the  Good  God,  of  his  great  love  towards 
mankind,  sent  his  son,  Christ,  clothed  in  a  body  of  no 
earthly  mould,  yet  capable  of  doing  and  suffering,  to  reveal 
his  hitherto  unknown  being  and  nature.  He  was  at  first 
taken  for  the  Messiah  of  the  Jews'  Deity,  but  when  he 
preached  the  Gospel  of  the  Good  God,  Demiurgus  in  wrath 
caused  him  to  be  crucified.  He  died  however  only  a 
seeming  death.  They  who  believe  in  Christ  and  lead  a 
holy  life  out  of  love  to  God  shall  attain  to  bliss  in  the 
heavenly  kingdom;  the  rest  belong  to  the  realm  of  De- 
miurgus, and  after  his  just  condemnation  are  destined  to 
receive,  according  to  their  works,  either  an  inferior  happi- 
ness or  utter  reprobation.  In  one  respect  only  does  Mar- 
cion  give  hope  for  the  heathen  world ;  the  Christ,  after  His 
seeming  death,  descended  into  Hell  (ad  inferos),  and  saved 
those  of  the  old  world,  whether  heathens  or  Jews,  who 
believed  on  Him. 

Marcion's  teaching  professed  to  be  founded  on  the  very 
words  of  Holy  Scripture ;  but  the  Canon  of  Scripture 
which  he  acknowledged  consisted  only  of  ten  epistles  of 
St  Paul — the  Pastorals  being  rejected — and  a  gospel  bearing 
the  name  of  St  Luke,  St  Paul's  disciple.  In  the  epistles, 
it  does  not  seem  probable  that  he  altered  the  words  of  the 
venerated  master  whose  doctrine  he  claimed  to  have 
restored ;  but  the  gospel  which  he  used  certainly  differed' 
from  the  canonical  gospel  according  to  St  Luke,  though  it 


1  Justin  M.  Apol.  i.  26;  Ter- 
tullian,  adv.  Marcion.  i.  19. 

2  The  older  authorities  (Justin, 
llhodon  in  Euseb.  H.  E.  v.  13, 
Irenseus,  and  Tertullian)  speak  only 


of  two  o.pxol ;  but  their  words  im- 
ply the  existence  of  an  evil  power, 
such  as  is  expressly  asserted  by 
Epiphanius,  Theodoret  and  Esnig. 


The  Great  Divisions. 


91 


may  be  doubted  whether  Marcion  himself  introduced  all 
the  variations  which  were  found  in  it*. 

He  passed  his  days  in  eager  contention  against  Avhat  he 
thought  the  prevalent  Judaism  of  the  Church,  and  in 
organizing  the  societies  of  those  whom  he  called  his  ''com- 
rades in  hate  and  persecution."  And  the  discipline  of  these 
societies,  however  different  from  that  of  the  Church,  was 
by  no  means  lax;  if  his  teaching  was  antinomian  in  its 
opposition  to  the  Jewish  law,  he  still  inculcated  an  asce- 
ticism springing  from  the  genuine  devotion  of  the  inner 
man  to  God.  Those  who  did  not  rise  to  this  asceticism,  and 
those  who  were  married'^,  he  retained  in  the  ranks  of  the 
catechumens,  but  to  these  he  gave  the  privilege  of  being 
present  at  all  the  rites  of  the  Church;  the  gospel  was  for 
all,  not  merely  for  an  inner  circle  of  disciples.  Like  the 
Catholics,  he  baptized  with  water,  he  anointed  with  oil,  he 
gave  milk  and  honey  to  the  neophytes,  and  bread  to  the 
communicants  in  the  Eucharist^;  but  wine  was  absent; 
his  disciples  used  neither  wine  nor  flesh.  A  second  and 
even  a  third  baptism  was  permitted,  and  it  is  not  impro- 
bable that  for  those  who  departed  unbaptized  a  vicarious 
baptism  was  performed.  Women  were  permitted  to  ad- 
minister the  baptismal  rite*. 

His  pupil  Apelles^  taught  that  there  was  but  one  primal 
Power,  the  Good  God;  he  it  was  who  created  the  inter- 
mediate Being  who  made  the  world,  the  imperfections  of 
which  arise  from  lack  of  power  in  him  who  made  it.  Then 
intervened  the  Being  who  spake  in  a  flame  of  fire  to 
Moses,  from  whose  inspiration  sprang  the  Old  Testament. 
At  the  prayer  of  the  world-creator  the  Good  God  sent  his 
Christ  into  the  world.  He  appeared,  lived,  ^vrought  and 
sufiered  in  a  real  body,  not  of  sinful  flesh,  but  compounded 
direct  from  the  pure  elements  without  spot  of  sin,  and 
resolved  at  death  into  the  elements  again.  In  his  later 
days  Apelles  seems  to  have  given  heed  to  the  utterances 


^  B.  F.  Westcotfc,  Cano7i  of  the 
Neiv  Test.  p.  345  ff.  ;  W.  Sanday, 
The  Gospels  in  the  Second  Century,  p. 
204  ff .  See  also  A.  Hahn,  De  Canone 
Marcionis  and  Das  Evang.  Mar- 
cion's;  A.  Ritschl,  Das  Evang.  Mar- 
cioji's  und d.  kanon.  Evang.  d.Lukas. 

2  Tert.  adv.  Marc.  i.  29. 

3  lb.  I.  14. 


*  Tertull.  de  Prescript,  c.  41 ! 
Jerome  on  Gal.  vi.  6 ;  Epiphan. 
H(er.  42,  4 ;  Chrysostom  on  1  Cor. 
XV.  29  {opp.x.  378). 

^  A.  Harnack,  De  Apellis  Gnosi 
Monarchic  a ;  Hilgenfeld,  Der  Gnos- 
tiker  Apelles  in  Zeitschr.f.  Ifisfen- 
schaft.  Theol.  1875,  pt.  1;  F.  J.  A. 
Hort,  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  r.  127  f. 


Chap.  V. 


Died, 
c.  170. 


Apelles, 
died 
c.  190, 


The  Great  Divisions. 


of  a  possessed  maiden,  Philumena,  and  to  have  more  and 
more  renounced  Gnosticism  and  approached  to  the  Catholic 
faith.  In  his  disputation  with  Rhodon^  he  declared  that 
all  would  be  saved  who  placed  their  hope  on  the  Crucified, 
provided  that  they  were  found  in  good  works. 

The  Marcionites  maintained  themselves  as  a  distinct 
society  as  late  as  the  sixth  century,  split  however  by  many 
schisms,  and  perverted  by  the  speculations  of  adherents 
from  various  Gnostic  sects.  An  inscription  which  once 
stood  over  the  doorway  of  a  Marcionite  meeting-house,  of 
the  year  630  of  the  era  of  the  Seleucidae  (a.  d.  318 — 
319),  was  found  a  few  years  ago  in  a  Syrian  village^. 

3.  There  has  always  existed  in  the  Church,  more  or 
less  openly,  an  opposition  between  established  routine  and 
the  freer  manifestation  of  religious  emotion.  In  the  Church 
of  the  second  century  the  more  ardent  spirits  began  to 
feel  that  the  love  of  many  had  waxed  cold ;  the  expectation 
of  the  Coming  of  Christ  was  less  vivid,  the  standard  of 
Christian  life  was  lower,  plain  living  and  high  thinking 
had  declined,  faith  in  the  perpetual  activity  of  the  pro- 
phetic and  other  gifts  of  the  Spirit  was  no  longer,  as  it  had 
once  been,  the  great  animating  principle  of  the  Church. 
A  Church  in  which  the  sternest  morality  was  not  insisted 
upon  seemed  to  them  no  true  branch  of  the  Church  of 
Christ.  The  true  Church  is  where  the  Spirit  is,  not  neces- 
sarily wherever  the  ecclesiastical  organization  is  complete. 
With  such  as  these  the  divine  inbreathing,  the  personal 
ecstasy,  of  the  prophet  lifted  him  high  above  those  whose 
authority  depended  upon  mere  ecclesiastical  appointment. 
Such  as  these  felt  it  a  matter  of  life  and  death  to  maintain 
primitive  Christianity — as  they  conceived  it — against  the 
increasing  worldliness  of  the  Church  on  the  one  hand, 
and  its  Gnostic  departures  from  the  simplicity  of  Christian 
doctrine  on  the  other. 

1  Euseb.  H.  E.  v.  13. 

"  Le  Bas  and  Waddington,  In- 
scriptions, III.  583,  no.  2558, 
quoted  by  G.  Salmon  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Biogr.  iii.  819.  "This  is  more 
ancient  than  any  dated  inscription 
belonging  to  a  Catholic  Church." 

^  The  authorities  are,  Tertullian 
in  many  treatises  ;  Euseb.  H.  E.  v, 
3,  14 — 19  ;  Epiphanius,  Uteres.  48. 
— (jt.  Wernsdorf,   De  Montanistis ; 


F.  Miinter,  Effata  et  Oracula  Mon- 
tanistarum ;  C.  Kirchner,  De  Mon- 
tanistis ;  Schwegler,  Der  Montanis- 
mus  und  die  Christliche  Kirche ;  A. 
Eitschl,  Altkath.  Kirche,  p.  462  ff.  ; 
E.  Stroehlin,  Essai  S2ir  le  Montan- 
isme  ;  J.  De  Soyres,  Montanism  and 
the  Primitive  Church,  contaiuiug  a 
careful  account  of  the  literature  of 
the  subject ;  G.  Salmon,  in  Diet,  of 
Chr.  Biogr.  in.  935  ff. 


The  Great  Divisions. 


93 


Their  feelings  general  ly,  and  especially  the  desire  to 
maintain  the  gifts  of  prophecy  within  the  Church,  found 
expression  in  the  voice  of  Montanus,  a  Mysian,  who  about 
the  year  130  began  to  claim  to  have  received  prophetic 
powers  and  a  new  revelation;  his  enemies  said  that  he  even 
claimed  to  be  the  Paraclete.  All  that  can  be  said  of  him 
with  certainty  is,  that  he  attracted  to  himself  a  large 
number  of  disciples,  including  several  women  of  high  social 
position,  among  whom  the  most  conspicuous  were  Maxi- 
milla  and  Priscilla,  or — as  she  is  sometimes  called — Prisca. 
These  two  constantly  appear  as  his  companions  and  as 
sharing  in  his  spiritual  gifts.  Of  the  other  women  whose 
utterances  were  received  as  divine  revelation,  the  only 
names  that  have  come  down  to  us  are  those  of  the  martyrs 
Perpetua  and  Felicitas\  The  Montanists  maintained,  as 
earlier  teachers  had  done^,  the  perpetuity  and  necessity  of 
the  gifts  of  prophecy  and  vision.  They  received  the  whole 
of  the  Christian  Scriptures;  there  was  no  heresy  in  their 
views  with  regai'd  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Spirit^.  They  held  very  earnest  and  very  precise  opinions 
as  to  the  speedy  coming  of  the  Lord,  and  are  said  to 
have  expected  the  descent  of  the  New  Jerusalem  at  a 
\illage  in  Phrygia,  Pepuza*,  whence  they  are  not  unfre- 
quently  called  Pepuziani.  Strangely  enough,  while  insist- 
ing on  the  ever-present  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  they 
laid  down  precepts  on  permitted  food  and  permitted  acts 
which  approached  Judaic  legalism.  Their  fasts  were  more 
niunerous  and  more  severe  than  those  observed  by  the 
Church  in  general.  Marriage  was  permitted*',  though  the 
married  were  clearly  placed  on  a  lower  level  than  the 
unmarried,  and  probably  remained  in  the  ranks  of  the 
catechumens.  Second  marriages  were  utterly  condemned', 
as  indeed  they  had  often  been  condemned  beforetime  in 
the  Church  I    With  regard  to  sin  after  baptism,  the  Spirit 


1  De  Soyres,  p.  138  ff. 

^  "Clement,  Ignatius,  Hernias, 
Justin  Martyr,  and  Irenaeus  unani- 
mously affirm  their  belief  in,  or 
even  their  experience  of,  these 
charismata.'"     lb.  p.  60. 

*  The  testimony  of  Epiphanius 
{Hceres.  48,  §  1),  a  hostile  witness, 
may  be  accepted  as  conclusive  on 
this  point. 


^  Epiphan.  Hceres.  49,  §  1 ; 
Euseb.  H.  E.  v.  18. 

°  Tertullian,  I)e  Jejuniis,  cc.  1, 
14,  15  ;  Hippolytus,  Hceres.  Ref. 
VIII.  19 ;  Jerome,  on  St  Matt.  ix. 
15. 

6  Tertullian,  De  Monogamiu,  c.  1. 
'unum  matrimonium  novimus.' 

"  Ih.  c.  4. 

**  E.  g.  by  Atbenagoras,  Legatio, 


Chap.  V. 

Montanus, 
c.  130. 


Second 
Advent. 


Fasts. 
Marriage. 


Absolu- 
tion. 


94 


The  Great  Divisions. 


declared  through  the  new  prophets,  'the  Church  has  power 
to  remit  sin,  but  I  will  not  do  it  lest  others  offend  \'  Mar- 
tyrdom was  by  no  means  to  be  avoided  by  flight,  but  it 
was  meritorious  only  if  endured  in  faith  and  out  of  pure 
submission  to  God's  wilP.  The  one  visible  Church  of  Christ 
included  all  who  had  been  duly  baptized^;  yet  many  of  its 
members  were  merely  psychic  or  "natural"  men;  the  spiri- 
tual or  pneumatic  were  those  alone  who  accepted  the  higher 
teaching  of  the  Spirit  by  the  mouth  of  His  prophets,  and 
each  one  of  these  was  endued  with  a  spiritual  priesthood*. 
Some  peculiar  rites  were  attributed  to  them.  That  women 
prophesied  in  the  churches  is  admitted  on  all  hands,  but 
there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  this  prophesying  took 
place  during  divine  service,  or  that  women  took  an}^  share 
in  celebrating  the  mysteries'\  The  unmarried  women  were 
closely  veiled  in  the  churches.  It  is  not  wholly  improbable 
that  the  Montanists  performed  vicarious  baptism  on  behalf 
of  those  who  had  died  unbaptized® ;  such  deaths  were  likely 
to  be  frequent  in  a  society  which  detained  the  majority  of 
its  members  in  a  long  catechumenate.  It  is  said  that  they 
used  cheese  in  the  Eucharist^;  but  this  may  probably  have 
been  as  an  offering,  rather  than  as  a  part  of  the  actual 
Eucharistic  celebration.  That  some  disorder  took  place  in 
their  assemblies  is  probable  enough;  there  have  perhaps 
never  been  assemblies  of  ecstatics  and  visionaries  which 
have  not  fallen  into  occasional  improprieties ;  but  it  is  im- 
possible to  accept  as  true  the  charges  of  child-murder  and 
of  horrible  food  given  in  their  secret  rites — charges  pre- 
cisely similar  to  those  of  the  heathen  against  the  whole 


c.  33;  Tlieophilus,  ad  Autol.  iii. 
15. 

^  Tertullian,  De  Pvdicitia,  c.  21. 

^  Tertullian,  De  Fuija  in  Perse- 
ciitione,  jiussim ;  Adv.  Praxeam,  c. 
1  (quoting  1  Cor.  xiii.  3). 

2  Tertull.  De  Virgg.  Velandis,  c. 
2. 

*  Tertull.  De  Jejuniis,  c.  11 ;  De 
Pudic.  c.  21  ;  De  Exhort.  Castit.  c. 
7. 

^  The  prophetess  gave  her  utter- 
ances 'dimissa  plebe'  (Tert.  De 
Anima,  c.  9).  The  ecstatica  men- 
tioned by  Firmiliau  (Cyprian  i, 
Epist.  75,  c.  10),  who  wa«  perhaps 


a  Montanist,  performed  some  kind 
of  eucharistic  rite,  but  "sinesaera- 
mento  solitse  praedicationis."  The 
"non"  inserted  before  "sine"  by 
some  editors  has  no  authority. 

^  The  direct  statement  of  Phi- 
laster  (De  Hceres.  49)  is  "Hi 
mortuos  baptizant." 

^  Tertullian  never  mentions  the 
practice,  whence  we  may  infer  that 
this  charge  was  not  brought  against 
the  Montanists  in  his  time.  It  is 
however  supported  by  the  later 
testimony  of  Augustine  (Hares.  26), 
Epiphanius  [Hares.  49,  2),  and 
I'hilaster  (Hares.  74). 


The  Great  Divisions. 


95 


body  of  Christians — which  were  circulated  in  a  later  age\ 
It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  Tertullian  and  Perpetua 
belonged  to  a  society  capable  of  horrible  crime  in  its  secret 
assemblies. 

Teaching  such  as  that  of  the  Montanists  naturally 
spread  rapidly  among  the  excitable  people  of  Phrygia. 
The  Church  in  that  region  was  alarmed ;  councils  of  the 
faithful  were  held  in  which  their  tenets  were  condemned 
and  themselves  excommunicated '^  Tidings  of  the  proceed- 
ings in  Asia  soon  reached  the  Asiatic  colony  in  southern 
Gaul,  and  the  confessors  yet  in  bonds,  under  stress  of  per- 
secution, wrote  letters  in  the  interests  of  peace  both  to  the 
brethren  in  Asia  and  Phrygia,  and  to  Eleutherus  bishop 
of  Rome^  One  bishop  of  Rome — either  Eleutherus  or 
Victor — acknowledged  the  prophetic  gifts  of  Montanus, 
Prisca,  and  Maximilla,  and  gave  peace  to  the  Churches  of 
Asia  and  Phrygia;  but  Praxeas  by  misrepresenting  the 
prophets  induced  him  to  recall  the  letters  of  peace  which 
he  had  issued  and  to  withdraw  his  recognition*.  Mon- 
tanism  had  probably  at  one  time  many  adherents  in  Italy, 
but  it  was  in  Africa  that  it  won  its  most  important  con- 
quest, Tertullian,  who  gave  to  its  cause  all  the  warmth  of 
his  African  nature  and  the  skill  of  a  practised  advocate. 
No  other  of  the  sects  of  the  ancient  Church  has  the  advan- 
tage of  presenting  itself  to  later  times  as  pictured  by  its 
greatest  convert. 

A  provincial  council  at  Iconium^  in  the  first  half  of 
the  third  century  declared  Montanist  baptism  invalid,  thus 
branding  Montanism  as  a  sect  separate  from  the  Church. 
Shortly  afterwards  Stephen,  bishop  of  Pome,  recognized  it 
as  valid".  Nicsea  passed  the  question  over  in  silence.  The 
synod  of  Laodicea'  in  the  latter  part  of  the  third  century 
enacted  that  the  "Phrygians"  should  be  catechized  and 
baptized  ere  they  were  admitted  to  the  Church ;  and  the 
oecumenical  council  of  Constantinople^ — even  more  strongly 


Chap.  V. 


1  First  by  Cyril  of  Jerusalem 
{Catech.  xvi.  4)  in  the  middle  of  the 
t'ourth  centuiy. 

2  Enseb.  H.  E.  v.  16,  §  10.  Other 
councils  against  Montanism  are 
mentioned  in  the  Libellus  Sytiodi- 
cus,  a  late  authority  (Hefele,  Con- 
ciliengeschichte,  i.  70). 

3  Euseb.  H.  E.  v.  3. 


*  Adv.  Praxeam,  c.  1. 

5  Firmilian,  in  Cypriani  Epist. 
75,  c.  19. 

«  Cyprian,  Epist.  74,  c.  1 ;  Euseb. 
H.  E^yii.  3. 

7  Can.  8  (Hardouin's  Cone.  i. 
781). 

8  Can.  7  (Hard.  i.  813). 


Councils. 


A.D.  157. 


Council  at 
Iconiuvi, 
c.  235. 


Laodicea, 
c.  372. 

Constan- 
tinople, 
381. 


The  Great  Divisions 


— that  the  "  Montanists,  here  called  Phrygians,"  should  be 
received  into  the  Church  in  precisely  the  same  manner  in 
Avhich  pagans  were  received.  Montanism  was  found  worthy 
of  notice  even  as  late  as  the  legislation  of  Justinian  in  the 
sixth  century,  and  probably  its  later  manifestations,  when 
it  was  a  mere  despised  sect,  cast  discredit  on  its  earlier 
and  purer  time.  But  it  was  already  practically  extinct  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  fourth  century,  when — as  Epiphanius 
tells  us^ — it  could  point  to  no  prophet.  Its  real  work  was 
done  in  the  protest  which  it  made  against  spiritual  dead- 
ness  in  the  Church  in  the  second  and  third  centuries. 

4.  The  desire  to  explain  the  mystery  of  the  universe, 
with  its  strange  contrasts  of  good  and  evil,  of  order  and 
anarchy,  is  probably  ineradicable  from  the  heart  of  man; 
and  with  this  has  often  been  joined  the  pride  of  possessing 
a  higher  wisdom  which  the  crowd  of  inferior  beings  can 
only  approach  in  gross  material  symbols.  Probably  the  most 
striking  exhibition  of  these  tendencies  with  which  we  are 
acquainted  is  to  be  found  in  the  various  systems,  existing 
in  every  part  of  the  Roman  empire  in  the  early  days  of 
Christianity,  which  have  received  the  general  name  of 
Gnostic  ^ 

The  origin  of  these  systems  has  been  much  disputed. 
The  contemporary  opponents  of  Gnosticism  thought  it 
little  else  than  the  Greek  philosophy  of  religion  putting 
on  a  mystic  disguise*.  Modern  enquirers  have  traced  it 
to  the  Zoroastrian  system  of  the  Zendavesta,  to  the  Hebrew 
Kabbala,  to  the  Talmud,  to  the  teaching  of  the  Buddhists. 
The  very  variety  of  these  theories  shows  that  no  one  of 
them  accounts  for  all  the  phenomena;  the  influence  of  all 
may  be  found  in  one  or  other  of  the  Gnostic  systems;  the 
antithesis  of  Light  and  Darkness  reminds  us  of  Persia,  the 


1  Hares.  48,  2. 

2  For  Gnosticism,  the  principal 
sources  are  Irenasus  adv.  Hareses ; 
TertuUian,  adv.  Marcion.,  De  Prce- 
scriptionibus,  adv.  Valentinianos,  c. 
Gnosticos;  Hippolytus,  Hccresium 
Refut.;  Plotinus,  Ennead.  ii.  9  ; 
Epiphanius,  Panarion  adv.  Hareses. 
Of  modern  authorities  may  be  men- 
tioned A.  Neauder,  Genetische  Ent- 
wickelunc]  der  Gnost.  Systeme ;  F.  C. 
Baur,  Die  Christliche  Gnosis;  J. 
Matter,  /!?<?.   Critique  du  GtwsH- 


cisme ;  E.  A.  Lipsius,  Gnosticismus 
in  Ersch  u.  Gruber's  Cyclop. ; 
C.  W.  King,  the  Gnostics  and  their 
Remains ;  H.  L.  Mansel,  The 
Gnoftic  Heresies. 

2  See  particularly  TertuUian,  De 
PrcEscript.  Hcer.  c.  7 ;  adv.  Hermog. 
0.  8;  deAnima.,c.22>.  The  Gnostics 
themselves,  by  the  help  of  allegori- 
cal interpretations,  found  their  sys- 
tem in  such  writers  as  Homer  and 
Aratus.  Hippolytus,  c.  Hceres.  v. 
8;  IV.  46. 


Tlie   Oreat  Divisions. 


97 


series  of  emauatious  from  the  divine  Essence  recalls  the 
Buddhists,  while  the  allegory  not  seldom  resembles  that 
of  the  Hebrew  Kabbala.  In  cities  like  Alexandria,  Antioch 
and  Ephesus  these  theories  ran  together  and  met  with 
nascent  Christianity. 

Gnosis  (yvMcri^)  is  knowledge;  in  a  special  sense,  an 
inner  and  deeper  knowledge  of  the  mystery  of  existence, 
not  accessible  to  the  vulgar  and  a  source  of  pride  to  the 
initiated.  But  the  Gnosticism  with  which  we  are  con- 
cerned, the  Gnosticism  which  came  in  contact  with  Chris- 
tianity, has  certain  special  characteristics. 

In  the  first  place,  some  evil  principle,  generally  identi- 
fied with  matter,  is  held  to  oppose  the  pure  creative 
energy  of  the  Divinity.  In  nothing  is  the  pagan  origin 
of  the  system  more  distinctly  visible  than  in  this ;  for 
ancient  speculation  rarely  rises  to  the  conception  of  one 
sole  creative  Will,  All  Gnostic  systems  derive  the  universe 
from  the  contact  of  Spirit  with  Matter;  but  Spirit  must 
lower  itself  by  a  gradual  descent  to  Matter;  the  great 
gulf  between  the  two  is  bridged  over  by  a  long  series 
of  emanations  from  the  highest  or  absolute  Being.  These 
emanations,  under  the  name  of  iEons  (alSvesi),  occupy  a 
very  important  place  in  most  Gnostic  systems. 

The  same  effort  to  provide  a  medium  between  spirit 
and  matter  is  found  in  the  Gnostic  conception  of  a 
"psychic"  or  animal  principle  between  the  purely  spiritual 
or  "pneumatic,"  and  the  mere  material  or  "hylic"  portion 
of  the  universe.  The  actual  creation  of  the  visible  and 
palpable  world  is  often  attributed  to  Demiurgus,  the 
working  or  forming  deity  whose  special  realm  is  "  psychic," 
separated  from  the  Most  High  God  by  a  long  series  of 
aeons,  and  acting  on  matter  as  His  subordinate.  In 
several  of  the  systems  this  Demiurgus  or  handicraft- 
deity  is  identified  with  the  God  of  the  Jews ;  yet  the  con- 
ception itself  seems  to  be  derived  from  Plato*  whose 
creator  of  heaven  and  earth  is  a  demiurgus,  superior  in- 
deed to  the  gods  of  the  old  mythology,  but  subject  to  the 
eternal  forms  which  rule  the  universe. 

So   far,    Gnosticism    seems    to  have  no   very  obvious 
contact  with  Christianity  ;  it  has  however  in  fact  a  very 
intimate  connexion  both  with  Christianity  and  with  Ju- 
1  Bepuhlic,  vii.  p.  730 ;  Timaus,  p.  28. 

c.  7 


Chap.  V. 


Gnosis. 


Evil 
principle. 


Emana- 
tions, 
yEo7is. 


Psychic 
principle. 


Demiur- 
gus. 


Gnosticism 
atid 


98 


The  Great  Divisions. 


daism.  In  the  first  place,  many  of  the  Gnostic  theosophists 
professed  to  draw  much  of  their  system  from  the  Scriptures. 
Just  as  Philo  and  his  school  found  a  whole  system  of 
Platonic  philosophy  in  the  plain  facts  of  scripture  history, 
so,  by  the  help  of  allegoric  or  esoteric  explanations,  these 
Gnostics  found  in  the  sacred  books  a  whole  series  of  divine 
beings  or  emanations.  The  number  thirty,  the  years  of 
our  Lord's  life  when  He  began  His  ministry,  became  the 
number  of  the  Valentinian  a^ons;  the  lost  sheep  of  the 
parable  became  Achamoth,  the  lower  or  earthly  wisdom 
wandering  from  its  true  home.  Nor  did  the  Gnostics 
appeal  only  to  Scriptvire;  they  set  up  a  tradition  of 
their  own  against  that  of  the  Church.  The  disciples  of 
Carpocrates,  for  instance,  asserted  that  Jesus  had  imparted 
their  doctrine  in  secret  to  His  Apostles,  bidding  them  in 
turn  impart  it  to  faithful  and  worthy  men^;  the  Ophites 
declared  that  the  Lord  in  the  interval  between  His  Resur- 
rection and  Ascension  had  taught  their  peculiar  wisdom  to 
those  few  disciples  whom  He  found  worthy  of  so  great  a 
trust  ^;  or  that  James  the  Lord's  brother  had  disclosed  it  to 
Mariamne^;  Basilides  professed  to  derive  his  system  from 
Glaucias,  an  interpreter  of  St  Peter,  Valentinus  his  from 
one  Tlieudas,  a  companion  of  St  Paul^;  both  appealed  to 
the  traditions  of  Matthias^;  and  Ptolemy  the  Valentinian 
claimed  an  "apostolic  tradition"  which  had  come  down  to 
him  through  a  succession  of  persons^. 

All  Gnostic  teachers  taught  their  disciples  to  look  for 
some  kind  of  Redemption.  This  was  generally  regarded 
as  the  liberation  of  the  pneumatic  element  from  the 
bonds  of  matter,  the  escape  of  the  spiritual  man  from 
the  realm  of  the  lower  world-forming  deity.  This  Re- 
demption was  said  to  be  effected  by  one  of  the  -^ons, 
of  vvhich  the  man  Christ  Jesus  was  merely  the  instrument, 
we  may  almost  say  the  mask  or  disguise.  All  the  Gnostics 
differed  widely  from  the  Catholic  teaching  on  the  Person 
of  Christ.  Many  taught  that  He  had  but  a  seeming  body 
and  suffered  only  in  appearance  {Kara  SoKrjatv),  whence 
they  received  the  name  of  Docetse  {Ao/crjrai). 


1  Ireiiicus,  IJceres.  i.  25.  5. 

^  Ireniuus,  i.  30.  14. 

3  Hippolytus,  c.  Hares,  v.  7. 

••  Ckmcub  Alex.  Strum,  vii.  17. 


106. 

5  Strom.  VII.  13.  82;  17.  108. 
^    Ad   Floram,   in    Epiphanius, 
Uccres.  33,  p.  222. 


The  Great  Divisions. 


99 


Again,  all  the  Gnostic  leaders  in  some  shape  or  other 
took  up  a  definite  position,  friendly  or  hostile,  to  Judaism. 
In  the  older  and  more  numerous  systems,  both  Judaism 
and  heathendom  are  represented  as  preparing  the  way  for 
the  advent  of  the  complete  and  perfect  I'eligion,  their  own; 
there  is  no  essential  opposition  between  them.  In  spite  of 
innumerable  differences  of  detail,  they  agree  in  this,  that 
the  old  religions  of  the  world  were  a  preparation  for  the 
complete  and  perfect  religion.  The  disciples  of  Marcion 
indeed,  as  we  have  seen,  supposed  Christianity  to  be  in 
absolute  contrariety  both  to  Judaism  and  heathenism ; 
while  the  Gnosticism  of  the  Judaizers  tended  to  the  exal- 
tation of  Judaism;  but  neither  of  these  systems  can  be 
considered  as  purely  and  simply  Gnostic. 

The  moral  system  of  the  Gnostics  was  the  natural 
outcome  of  their  religion.  As  they  regarded  matter  as 
the  seat  of  evil,  morality  consisted  to  a  large  extent  of  the 
stiniggle  to  free  the  spiritual  principle  from  the  influence 
of  matter,  that  so  it  might  acquire  Gnosis.  Hence  the 
really  serious  and  religious  Gnostics  tended  to  asceticism. 
Some  allowed  marriage,  some  even  enjoined  it  on  the 
"spiritual";  some — as  Saturninus  and  Tatian — seem  to 
have  forbidden  it  either  altogether,  or  at  least  for  those 
Avho  would  be  perfect.  The  coarser  natures  among  them, 
on  the  other  hand,  drew  very  different  conclusions  from 
the  same  premiss,  and  scorned  the  ordinary  restraints  of 
social  decency.  Mere  outward  acts  were,  they  contended, 
indifferent,  as  matter  was  distinct  from  spirit ;  self-restraint 
was  of  little  value  in  those  who  had  never  tasted  the 
delights  of  dissoluteness;  the  real  victory  was  for  the 
spirit  to  stand  unconquered  amid  the  passions  of  the 
lower  nature.  Carpocrates  and  Prodicus,  as  also  the  later 
Marcosians,  are  said  to  have  taken  this  direction.  Gnostics 
of  this  kind,  as  was  natural,  readily  conformed  to  pagan 
worship,  and  despised  those  who  endured  mart}Tdom  for 
conscience'  sa,ke. 

The  rise  of  Gnosticism  is  coseval  with  that  of  Chris- 
tianity. We  can  scarcely  doubt  that  when  Simon  Magus 
in  Samaria  was  accepted  by  the  people  as  "that  power  of 
God  which  is  called  Great S"  he  had  given  himself  out  to 


1  Acts  viii.  10. 


7—2 


Chap.  V. 
Judaism. 


Morality. 


Gnostic 
Teachers. 


100 


The  Great  Divisions. 


be  some  kind  of  Gnostic  emanation  from  the  divinity.  He 
was  regarded  indeed  in  later  times  as  the  head  and  source 
of  heresy  \  We  find  distinct  traces  of  Gnosis,  probably 
in  an  Essenic  form,  at  Colossse^  in  the  days  of  St  Paul, 
and  again  we  meet  with  an  angelology,  which  is  apparently 
Gnostic,  in  the  letters  to  Timothy.  It  was  against  Docet- 
ism  that  St  John  wrote  of  Him  Whom  his  eyes  had  seen 
and  his  hands  handled.  The  Nicolaitans  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse and  the  false  teachers  of  the  Epistle  of  Jude  may 
probably  have  based  their  licentious  views  on  Gnostic 
sjDeculations.  Towards  the  end  of  the  Apostolic  Age 
Cerinthus'  propagated  views  akin  to  Gnosticism  in  the 
district  of  Asia  Minor  which  was  under  the  influence  of  St 
John,  saying  that  the  Christ  descended  on  Jesus,  who  was 
mere  man,  at  his  baptism,  and  that  while  Jesus  suffered, 
the  Christ  ascended  again  into  heaven. 

In  the  age  immediately  succeeding  that  of  the  Apostles, 
the  simple,  practical  nature  of  the  Church's  work,  pressed 
upon  it  as  it  was  by  surrounding  heathenism,  was  not 
favourable  to  the  spread  of  Gnosticism ;  it  gained  more 
influence  as  the  desire  grew  stronger  for  theoretic  com- 
pleteness in  the  teaching  of  theology. 

Basilides*,  one  of  the  most  famous  Gnostic  teachers, 
a  younger  contemporary  of  Cerinthus,  was  said  to  be  a 
Syrian  by  birth,  but  passed  the  greater  part  of  his  active 
life  in  Alexandria,  and  there  his  son  also,  Isidorus,  became 
a  famous  teacher.  About  the  same  time  flourished  Carpo- 
crates®,  an  Egyptian,  and  his  son  Epiphanes,  as  also  the 
Syrian  Saturninus®  or  Saturnilus.  Even  in  these  early 
days  of  Gnosticism,  its  systems  present  the  greatest  diver- 
sities. 

In  Valentinus^,  an  Alexandrian  settled  in  Rome,  the 
speculative  and  imaginative  development  of  Gnosticism 
reached  its  highest  point.     He  produced  in  fact  a  highly 


1  Irenaius,  i.  23.  2;  in.  Prcef. 
"  J.  B.  Lightfoot,  Colossiaiis,  p. 
73  ff. 

*  Ii'enffius,  I.  26. 

*  Clemens  Alex.  Stromatcis  i.21, 
p.  408  (ed.  Potter);  ii.  3.  6,  p.  443; 
8,  p.  448;  20,  p.  488;  iv.  12,  p.  599; 
V.  1,  p.  645 ;  IreufEus,  i.  24.  3  ;  Hip- 
polytus,  Hceres.  Re/,  vii.  20ff.;  Epi- 


phanius,  Hceres.  24. — F.  J.  A.  Hort 
in  Diet.  Ghr.  Antiq.  i.  268  ff. 

^  Ii-enseus,  I.  25;  Hippolyt.  Hcer. 
Ref.  VII.  32;  Euseb.  H.  E.  iv.  7. 

^  Irenasus,  i.  24 ;  Epiphanius, 
Hceres.  23. 

^  Ircnacus,  i.  Iff.;  Hceres.  Ref. 
VI.  21  ff.;  Tertull.  adv.  Valcnt.; 
Epiphanius,  Hceres,  31. 


The  Great  Divisions. 


101 


poetic  account  of  the  creation  and  constitution  of  the  uni- 
verse, from  the  point  of  view  of  a  thoughtful  and  cultivated 
heathen.  His  school,  which  split  into  an  Eastern  and  a 
Western  (or  Italian)  branch,  produced  many  distinguished 
teachers ;  Heraclcon,  against  whom  Origen  wrote  his  com- 
ment on  St  John;  Ptoloma3usS  Marcus **,  Bardaisan  or 
Bardesanes''  an  Armenian  who  lived  long  in  Edessa,  and 
who  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  of  Syrian  hymn-writers. 
Contemporary  with  Valentinus  was  Cerdo,  who  initiated 
Marcion*  in  Gnostic  tenets.  To  this  period  also  belongs 
the  restless  Tatian^  who,  after  passing  through  the  most 
various  forms  of  religion,  at  last  settled  in  Gnosticism.  His 
disciples  received  the  names  of  Encratites,  from  the  ex- 
cessive rigour  of  their  lives ;  of  Hydroparastatse  or  Aquarii, 
from  their  abstinence  from  wine  even  in  the  Holy  Com- 
munion; and  sometimes  that  of  Severiani,  from  one  Severus, 
who  was  a  pupil  of  Tatian.  This  sect  still  existed  in  the 
fourth  century.  The  Ophites",  or  Naasseni',  who  re- 
garded the  serpent  as  the  beginner  of  true  knowledge  and 
the  great  benefactor  of  mankind,  probably  existed  before 
Christianity,  though  their  Gnostic  development  may  have 
been  as  late  as  the  second  century.  With  these  we  may 
reckon  the  Sethiani,  the  Cainites,  the  Peratici,  and  the 
Gnostic  Justin*  with  his  followers.  To  the  second  century 
also  we  may  refer  a  Gnostic  of  Arabian  origin,  mentioned 
only  by  Hippolytus,  Monoimus^  or  Menahem. 

It  is  difficult  to  estimate  the  number  and  the  influence 
of  the  Gnostics.  Nowhere  does  it  appear  that  the  Gnostic 
community  was  superior  to  the  Catholic  Church  of  the 
place,  but  almost  everywhere  there  were  Gnostics,  and 
Gnostics  distinguished  by  intellectual  activity  and  bold- 
ness. There  was  miich  in  Gnosticism  to  attract  the 
Greeks ;  its  generally  anti- Judaic  spirit,  its  promise  of  a 
conquest  over  matter  and  an  advance  to  the  fulness  and 


^  Epist.  ad  Floram,  in  Irensei 
0pp.  p.  357  ff. 

'-*  Irenseus,  i.  13  ff. ;  Hares.  Ref. 
VI.  39  f. ;  Epiph.  Hares.  34. 

3  Hares.  Ref.  vii.  31 ;  Euseb. 
Pnep.  Evang.  vi.  10;  Epiph.  Hcer. 
36.— F.  J.  A.  Hort  in  Diet,  of  Chr. 
Biogr.  i.  250. 

*  See  p.  89. 


">  Irenasus,  i.  28;  Clem.  Alex. 
Strom.  III.  pp.  547,  553  (Potter); 
Hares.  Ref.  viii.  16  ;  Epiphauius, 
Hares.  46 ;  Theodoret,  Haret. 
Fabb.  I.  20. 

"  Irenseus,  i.  30. 

7  Hares.  Ref  v.  Iff. 

8  lb.  V.  23. 

»  lb.  VIII.  12. 


The  Great  Divisions. 


perfection  of  knowledge,  the  imaginativeness  of  its  adven- 
turous systems,  the  ease  with  which  it  adopted  votaries. 
But  it  nevertheless  could  not  endure  the  steady,  disciplined 
attack  of  the  Church ;  its  unsubstantial  pageants  vanished 
before  the  light  of  truth ;  in  the  third  century  it  had 
already  lost  its  creative  force,  in  the  fourth  it  is  powerless; 
in  the  sixth  it  vanishes,  leaving  hardly  a  wreck  behind. 

The  effects  of  Gnosticism  on  the  Church  were  by  no 
means  wholly  disastrous.  The  efforts  of  the  Gnostics  to 
construct  a  system  which  should  explain  all  the  varied  and 
perplexing  phenomena  of  the  universe,  led  the  Christian 
teachers  to  point  out  with  more  distinctness  that  they  were 
explained  by  the  principles  already  revealed  in  Christ. 
The  contest  with  men  so  able  and  so  well  acquainted  with 
pagan  philosophy  as  many  of  the  Gnostic  teachers  were  led 
to  the  more  systematic  development  of  Christian  theology; 
and  as  a  truly  Christian  theology  was  developed,  the 
Jewish  elements  in  the  Church  fell  more  and  more  into  the 
background.  It  is  very  largely  due  to  the  pressure  of 
Gnosticism  that  art  and  literature  were  enlisted  in  the 
service  of  the  Church.  But  these  benefits  were  counter- 
balanced by  serious  evils.  The  Redemption  which  Gnosti- 
cism offered  was  merely  knowledge,  which  certamly  tended 
to  puff  men  up  with  a  vain  sense  of  their  own  superiority. 
Its  systems  were  based  not  upon  historic  reality,  but  upon 
the  mere  creations  of  erratic  fancy  in  an  ideal  world. 
Gnostic  asceticism  and  Gnostic  laxity  both  found  their 
way  into  the  Church,  and  corrupted  the  pure  springs  of 
Christian  morality.  It  is  not  wonderful  then  that  the 
Catholic  teachers,  conscious  that  the  religion  of  Christ 
is  for  man,  as  man,  not  for  a  select  coterie  of  initiated; 
conscious  that  speculation  is  not  religion,  and  that  life,  as 
well  as  truth,  is  to  be  found  in  Christ;  it  is  not  wonder- 
ful that  such  teachers  set  themselves  emphatically  to 
oppose  the  claims  and  the  allurements  of  the  Gnostics. 
Faith  conquered  knowledge  falsely  so  called. 

5.  In  the  third  century  arose  on  the  eastern  frontier 
of  the  Empire  a  system  which  was  destined  to  trouble  the 


1  The  principal  special  works  on 
Manichfleisni  arc,  Bcansobre,  His- 
toire  Critique  du  Manichte  et  dn 
Manicheisme ;  Georgi,  Alphahetum 


Thibetanum  (Rome,  1762);  F,  C. 
Baur,  Das  Mcuiichaische  Relir/io7is- 
SijHtem;  A.  Geyler,  Manichdisnnis 
und    Buddhismiis     (Jena,     1875) ; 


The  Great  Divisions. 


103 


Church  for  many  a  year.  This  was  the  doctrine  of  Mani, 
or  ManichsBiis,  which  was  in  its  origin  a  renewal  and  reform 
of  the  old  Zoroastrian  teaching,  with,  probably,  some  ad- 
mixture of  Buddhism.  This  religion  adopted  as  it  spread 
westward  a  certain  colouring  of  Christian  ideas  and  phrases, 
but  it  remained  a  foreign  and  rival  power,  not  a  heresy 
developed  from  the  bosom  of  the  Church  itself. 

The  accounts  of  Mani's  life  given  by  the  Eastern'  and 
the  Western''^  authorities  differ  materially.  We  can  hardly 
say  of  him  with  any  degree  of  certainty  more  than  this : 
that  in  the  revival  of  national  and  religious  life  in  Persia 
which  took  place  under  the  native  dynasty  of  the  Sas- 
sanidffi,  Mani,  a  member  of  a  distinguished  Magian  family, 
became  prominent  as  a  teacher.  By  his  eloquence  and  his 
many  accomplishments  he  acquired  fame  and  influence, 
and  the  favour  of  more  than  one  Persian  king,  but  was  at 
last  cruelly  put  to  death  by  Varanes  [Behram]  the  Second. 

Mani  attempted,  as  many  had  done  before  him,  to 
explain  the  enigmas  of  human  life  by  the  supposition  of 
two  eternal  all-pervading  principles,  a  good  and  a  bad ; 
the  good  God  and  his  realm  of  light  are  opposed  to  the 
Evil  Spirit  and  his  realm  of  darkness ;  good  struggles  with 
evil.  After  long  internal  conflict,  the  devilish  powers 
drew  together  their  forces  on  one  tremendous  day  to  battle 
against  the  army  of  light.  The  first-born  of  God,  the 
pattern  man,  fought  with  the  help  of  the  five  pure  ele- 
ments, light,  fire,  air,  earth,  and  water,  for  the  realm  of 
goodness,  was  overthrown,  and  again  delivered,  leaving 
behind  some  portion  of  his  light  in  the  power  of  darkness. 
For  the  reception  of  this,  God  caused  the  Living  Spirit  to 
form  the  material  universe,  in  which  the  vital  force,  or 


D.  Cliwolson,  Die  Ssahier  u. 
Ssabisni.:  G.  Fliigel,  Mani's  Lehre 
u.  Scltriften ;  Gr.  T.  Stokes  in 
Vict.  Ch'r.  IMo(j.  in.  792  ff. 

^  WlieihcXoi,  Bihliothequc  Orien- 
tale,  s.v.  Maui;  Silvestie  cle  Sacy, 
Memoires  sur  Diverses  Antiquitcs 
de  la  Perse. 

2  The  earliest  is  Archelai  ctmi 
Manete  Disputatio  (in  Mansi, 
Cone.  1. 11"29;  and  Routli,  Ileliqui<e 
V.  3) ;  other  autborities  are  Titns 
Bostrensis,     Kara     Mawxcti'wi'    (in 


Canisius,  Lectiones  Antiq.  i.  56,  ed. 
Basnage) ;  Epipbanius,  Uccres.  65 ; 
and  Augustine'snumerons  treatises, 
contra  Epist.  Manichcei,  c.  Fortu- 
natum,  c.  Adimantuni,  c.  Faustum, 
De  Actis  cum  Felice  Mem.  De  Na- 
tura  Boni,  De  Genesi  c.  Manich(Cos, 
De  Morilms  Eccl.  Gatli.  et  Mani- 
chaonnn.  For  the  fragments  of 
Mani's  own  writings,  see  Fabri- 
cius,  Biblioth.  Graca,  vir.  323  ff. 
(ed.  Harless). 


104 


The  Great  Divisions. 


"  soul  of  the  world,"  is  the  fragment  of  light  which  is  held 
in  the  bonds  of  darkness.  To  redeem  this  light  from  its 
bondage  God  sent  forth  two  powers,  Christ  and  the  Holy- 
Spirit  ;  the  one  as  Sun  and  Moon,  the  other  as  the  aether 
or  pure  supra-mundane  atmosphere,  attract  to  themselves 
the  elements  of  light  enveloped  in  earth.  To  retain  these 
elements  of  light,  the  Evil  Spirit  formed  man  after  the 
image  of  the  pattern-man,  making  of  him  a  microcosm, 
in  which  light  and  darkness  mingled  as  in  the  great  world. 
Man  then  had  within  himself  two  vital  principles,  the 
reasonable  soul,  which  aspires  to  the  source  of  light,  and 
the  unreasonable  soul,  full  of  jDassionate  lusts  and  longings; 
hence  he  was  constantly  subject  to  the  crafts  and  deceits 
of  the  evil  one.  Then  appeared  Christ  in  his  OAvn  person 
upon  earth,  in  a  seeming-human  body,  and  seemed  to 
suffer  death.  The  design  of  the  coming  of  the  "Jesus 
patibilis"  was  by  his  attractive  force  to  draw  to  himself 
the  kindred  spirit  distributed  throughout  the  world  of 
nature  and  of  man.  He  began  the  work  of  setting  free 
the  imprisoned  particles  of  light.  But  even  the  apostles 
misunderstood  him  through  the  force  of  Jewish  prejudice ; 
the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  were  the  work  of  evil 
spirits;  those  of  the  New  were  corrupted,  partly  by  the 
mistakes  of  men,  partly  by  the  guile  of  demons ;  Mani,  the 
promised  Paraclete,  came  to  reveal  all  mysteries  and  to 
teach  the  means  whereby  the  nobler  part  of  the  universe 
may  be  freed;  his  writings  alone  are  the  guide  to  all 
truth.  In  the  end,  the  light  shall  be  separated  from  the 
darkness,  and  the  powers  of  darkness  mutually  destroy 
each  other. 

Like  several  of  the  Gnostic  sects,  Mani  divided  his 
community  into  the  two  classes  of  Initiated,  or  Chosen, 
and  Hearers  or  Catechumens ;  the  latter  were  prepared 
by  a  long  course  of  instruction  for  the  revelation  of  the 
mysteries  of  man  and  nature  which  was  to  be  granted  to 
them  in  the  higher  stage.  These,  during  their  cate- 
chumenate,  received  indulgence^  for  the  enjoyment  of  the 
ordinary  pleasures  of  life  in  consequence  of  the  intercession 
of  the  Chosen.  The  society  was  organized  in  direct  imita- 
tion of  the  Catholic  Church  ;  during  Mani's  life,  he  was 

^  A.  de  Wcgnem,  Manichtecn-um  Iiululgcntia  (Lipsiae,  1827). 


The  Great  Divisions. 


himself  the  head  of  his  Church ;  after  his  death,  his  place 
was  supplied  by  a  succession  of  vicars  or  locum-tenentes. 
The  representative  of  the  founder  was  supported  and 
assisted  by  a  body  of  twelve  Masters  or  Apostles,  under 
whom  were  seventy- two  bishops,  and  under  these  again 
a  body  of  presbyters  and  deacons.  All  these  were  taken 
from  the  Initiated.  These  elect  disciples  received  the 
seal  of  the  mouth,  the  hand,  and  the  bosom;  the  first 
symbolized  their  abstinence  from  all  calumny  and  evil- 
speaking,  as  well  as  from  flesh  and  all  intoxicating  drinks ; 
the  second  their  desisting  from  all  common  toil,  and  from 
every  act  injurious  to  the  life  whether  of  man  or  beast; 
the  third  their  refraining  from  all  indulgence  of  fleshly 
lust.  The  Hearers,  not  yet  bound  to  so  strict  an  ob- 
servance, were  permitted  to  engage  in  trade  and  agri- 
culture, and  had  to  provide  food  for  the  Initiated,  who 
were  above  terrestrial  cares.  The  ministei-s  of  the  Mani- 
chsean  sect  were  said  to  grant  absolution  with  too  great 
readiness  for  sins  committed,  as  sins  were  regarded  rather 
as  the  work  of  the  evil  principle  within  him  than  of  the 
man  himself;  as  misfortunes  rather  than  crimes. 

Their  exoteric  worship  seems  to  have  been  extremely 
simple,  without  altars  or  elaborate  ceremony ;  Sunday  was 
a  fast-day ;  a  great  annual  festival,  called  the  Feast  of  the 
Bema  or  pulpit,  was  held  in  March  to  commemorate  the 
tragic  death  of  Mani ;  and  a  magnificent  pulpit,  as  symbol 
of  the  teaching  power  of  the  Paraclete,  stood  in  Manichsean 
meeting-houses,  raised  on  five  steps,  the  symbols  perhaps 
of  the  five  pure  elements.  The  esoteric  worship  of  the 
initiated  was  kept  a  close  secret.  It  was  thought  to  con- 
sist of  baptism  in  oil,  and  the  participation  of  a  sacred 
feast  without  wine,  a  parody  of  the  Eucharist. 

In  spite  of  the  terrible  fate  of  Mani,  his  disciples 
rapidly  increased  in  numbers ;  they  spread  in  a  short  time 
from  Persia  over  Mesopotamia,  Syria,  and  Palestine,  over 
Egypt  and  North  Africa,  and  even  reached  Italy,  Gaul, 
and  Spain.  But  a  few  years  after  the  death  of  Mani,  we 
find  Diocletian,  who  hated  religious  division  in  general 
and  a  new  sect  from  the  hostile  realm  of  Persia  in  par- 
ticular, addressing  a  severe  edict  ^  to  Julian,  proconsul  of 

^  Given  in  Gieseler,  i.  250. 


The  Great  Divisions. 


Africa,  against  this  abominable  gang  of  Manichseans,  and 
condemning  their  chiefs  to  the  flames,  their  adherents  to 
beheading  and  confiscation  of  goods.  They  spread  how- 
ever notwithstanding;  and,  though  their  public  worship 
was  suppressed  in  the  sixth  century,  we  find  scattered 
secret  societies  of  Manichseans  late  in  the  Middle  Ages,  if 
indeed  they  can  be  said  to  be  even  now  extinct. 

6.  In  the  stir  of  parties  and  the  struggles  of  sects 
there  became  manifest  a  great  unity,  the  Catholic  Church^; 
the  Church  not  of  Paul  or  Cephas,  of  Montanus  or 
Marcion,  but  of  Christ.  In  the  midst  of  the  winds  of 
doctrine  which  blew  from  all  quarters,  men  felt  it  the 
more  necessary  to  take  their  stand  upon  the  Rock.  The 
great  mass  of  the  disciples  clung  to  the  central  truths  of 
Christian  doctrine,  which  were  neither  Judaic  nor  Gnostic, 
but  Christian  and  Apostolic.  They  felt  that  behind  all 
partial  views  were  truths  which  are  indeed  universal, 
destined  for  all  men ;  in  spite  of  all  divisions,  there  was 
still  one  all-embracing  or  "  Catholic"  Church''',  of  which 
particular  Churches  were  members.  The  divisions  of  the 
early  generations  played  a  large  part  in  bringing  these 
things  into  distinct  consciousness.  Even  St  Paul  in  his 
lifetime  appealed  against  the  strange  opinions  of  isolated 
innovators  to  the  greater  antiquity  and  universality  of  the 
true  faith  ^;  and  after  the  death  of  the  last  surviving 
Apostle,  it  was  even  more  necessary  to  appeal  to  such  a 
standard  against  the  almost  infinite  variet}^  of  opinions 
which  claimed  to  be  in  some  sort  Christian.  The  sense  of 
unity  and  continuity  to  which  the  early  writers  appeal 
was  brought  into  greater  prominence  as  it  was  brought 
into  danger. 

And  as  the  expectation  of  the  speedy  coming  of  an 
earthly  reign  of  Christ  faded  away,  the  conception  of  the 
Church  as  itself  the  earthly  province  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God  asserted  its  true  place  in  men's  minds.  It  presented 
itself  as  a  divine  institution,  a  means  of  deliverance  from 


1  On  the  nature  of  the  Church, 
see  Hooker,  Eccl.  Vol.  Bk.  iii. ; 
Pearson  On  the  Creed,  p.  334  i^'  ; 
W. Palmer,  Treatise  on  tlie  Church; 
B.  F.  Westcott,  The  Historic  Faith, 
p.  115  £f. 


"  The  phrase  is  used  in  Ignatius, 
ad  Smyrn.  o.  8,  and  in  the  Letter  of 
the  Church  of  Smyrna  on  the 
martyrdom  of  PolycarjJ,  in  Euseb, 
II.  E.  IV.  15. 

3  Coloss.  i.  5,  6, 


The  Great  Divisions. 


107 


the  world  and  of  adoption  into  the  heavenly  kingdom. 
It  is  the  guardian  of  the  truth  committed  to  it,  and  the 
bestower  of  grace  through  the  Word  and  the  Sacraments 
which  Christ  ordained.  The  ministry  is  divinely  instituted 
as  a  continuation  of  the  apostolic  office.  It  is  the  Church 
under  the  guidance  of  the  successors  of  the  Apostles  which 
is  recognized  as  the  Apostolic  Church ;  it  is  the  whole 
congregation  of  Christian  people  dispersed  throughout  the 
world  which  is  recognized  as  Catholic.  To  belong  to  the 
Catholic  Church  is  not  only  to  hold  the  true  faith,  but  to 
be  a  member  of  that  great  and  unique  organization  to 
which  its  Lord  has  given  exceeding  great  and  precious 
privileges  and  promises.  To  be  outside  this  organization, 
to  be  disowned  by  it,  is  the  last  and  most  fatal  of 
penalties. 


Chap.  V. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  THEOLOGY  OF  THE  CHURCH  AND  ITS  OPPONENTS. 

1.  The  human  mind  naturally  attempts  to  connect 
and  systematize  the  truths  imparted  to  it ;  it  is  intolerant 
of  mere  isolated  fragments  of  truth.  And  this  systema- 
tizing faculty,  working  upon  the  truths  revealed  in  Christ, 
produced  in  the  course  of  ages  the  fabric  of  Christian 
theology.  But  in  the  early  years  of  the  Church  it  was 
perceived  that  there  must  be  some  limitation  of  the  truths 
which  could  be  considered  Christian  ;  neither  the  pretended 
revelations  and  traditions  of  the  Gnostics,  for  instance,  nor 
the  apocryphal  books  of  some  other  sects,  could  be  admit- 
ted to  be  sources  of  Christian  doctrine.  What  then  are 
the  genuine  sources  of  Christian  truth  ? 

A.  In  the  first  place,  Holy  Scripture \  The  Scriptures 
of  the  Old  Testament  were  received  from  the  first  in  all 
the  Churches  as  authoritative  declarations  of  the  Divine 
Will.  But  here  the  question  arose,  what  was  to  be  under- 
stood under  the  name  "  Holy  Scripture  "  ?  The  Hebrew 
Canon^  was  indeed  defined,  but  several  later  works  of 
Palestinian  and  Egyptian  Jews,  though  never  received  by 
the  Hebrew  doctors  as  equal  with  the  ancient  Sacred 
Books,  were  thought  by  many  to  possess  some  degree  of 
authority.  And  to  the  great  mass  of  Christians,  the  books 
of  the  ancient  Jewish  Canon  and  the  recent  additions  were 


1  Chr.  Wordsworth,  The  Canon 
of  Scripture ;  B.  F.  Westcott,  in 
Diet,  of  the  Bible,  i.  250  ff.  s.  v. 
Canon;  and  Canon  of  the  New 
Testament;  C.  A.  Swainson,  The 
Autliority  of  the  Neiv  Testament ; 
S.    Davidson,    The    Canon  of    the 


Bible;  A.  H.  Charteris,  The  New 
Testament  Scriptures. 

2  This  word  is  used  by  antici- 
pation; it  does  not  occur  in  this 
sense  until  a  later  period  than  the 
third  century  (Westcott,  D.  B.  i. 
250). 


The  Theology  of  the  Church  and  its  Opponents. 


known  alike  in  the  Greek  language.  It  was  not  easy 
to  distinguish  the  "  Canonical  "  from  the  "  Apocryphal " 
books — to  use  the  terms  by  which  they  came  to  be  desig- 
nated in  later  times — when  all  came  before  them  in  the 
same  form  and  with  no  outward  marks  of  distinction. 
And  this  confusion  was  propagated  in  the  West  by  the  old 
Latin  Version,  which  was  made  from  the  Greek.  The 
prevalence  of  this  uncertainty  induced  Melito  of  Sardes  to 
enquire  in  the  East  for  the  true  canon  of  the  ancient 
Books.  The  list  of  the  Books  of  the  Old  Testament  which 
he  gives ^  exactly  coincides  with  that  of  the  English 
Church,  except  in  the  exclusion  of  the  book  of  Esther. 
Origen*^  gives  in  the  main  the  same  catalogue,  including 
Esther,  and  perhaps  also  Baruch.  Although,  however, 
men  whose  attention  had  been  specially  directed  to  the 
subject  distinguished  between  the  ancient  Hebrew  books 
and  the  later  additions,  many  early  writers  quote  Apocry- 
phal books  as  of  authority.  In  the  case  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, we  have  to  do  with  the  formation  of  a  Canon,  not 
with  the  recognition  of  one  already  formed.  While  the 
teaching  of  the  Apostles,  and  of  others  who  had  seen  the 
Lord,  was  still  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  brethren,  the 
need  of  an  authentic  written  standard  of  the  facts  and 
doctrines  of  the  Gospel  was  scarcely  felt.  The  "  word  " 
was  a  message  or  proclamation ;  it  was  heard,  received, 
handed  down.  But  as  this  word  died  away,  a  variety  of 
written  documents  claimed  to  supply  its  place.  It  is  clear 
however  that,  from  the  earliest  date  at  which  we  could 
expect  to  find  evidence  of  such  a  fact,  the  Four  Gospels 
which  we  recognize  occupied  a  place  apart ;  the  picture  of 
Christ  which  we  find  in  the  earliest  Christian  writers  is 
the  picture  which  we  find  in  the  Gospels  and  not  elsewhere. 
Both  in  orthodox  and  heretical  writers  there  is  a  constancy 
of  reference  to  the  now-received  Gospels  such  as  cannot 
be  produced  in  favour  of  any  other  writings  whatever. 
Irenoeus,  connected  by  only  one  intervening  link  with  St 
John,  distinctly  recognizes  four  Gospels^ — undoubtedly  our 
four — and  no  more,  as  the  authentic  pillars  of  the  Church. 
The  Apostolical  Epistles  from  the  first  claimed  to  be  some- 

and  as  early  as  the 


thing  more  than  occasional  writings'* 


1  Euseb.  H.  E.  iv.  26. 

2  lb.  VI.  25. 


3  H(£r.  III.  11.  8. 

4  Col.  iv.  16 ;  1  Thess.  v.  7. 


110 


Tlte  Theology  of  the  Church  and  its  Opponents. 


time  when  the  Second  Epistle  of  St  Peter  was  written,  the 
Epistles  of  St  Paul  were  clearly  regarded  as  Scripture \ 
Basilides  the  Gnostic,  about  the  year  125,  quotes  as  Scrip- 
ture the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  and  the  First  to  the  Corin- 
thians^  Clement  of  Alexandria  recognizes  "  the  Apostle  " 
— the  collection  of  apostolic  writings — as  correlative  to 
"  the  Gospel  ^."  Tertullian  speaks  expressly  of  the  "New 
Testament "  as  consisting  of  "  the  Gospels "  and  "  the 
Apostle  *."  The  earliest  testimonies  to  the  existence  of 
the  New  Testament  as  a  whole  are  the  catalogue  con- 
tained in  the  famous  Muratorian  Fragment^,  written  about 
A.D.  170,  a  Western  document;  and  the  Syriac  version  of 
the  New  Testament,  called  Peshito,  made  about  the  same 
period,  which  to  a  great  extent  agrees  with  it.  In  the  third 
century  testimony  is  abundant  to  the  general  reception  as 
Scripture  of  nearly  all  the  books  of  the  New  Testament 
which  we  at  present  acknowledge.  Certain  books — the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  of  Jude,  2  Peter,  2  and  3  John, 
James,  and  the  Apocalypse — were  not  received  as  canonical 
with  the  same  absolute  unanimity  as  the  rest.  Of  these  it 
may  be  said,  that  by  the  end  of  the  third  century  "  the 
Apocalypse  was  universally  received,  with  the  single  ex- 
ception of  Dionysius  of  Alexandria,  by  all  the  writers  of 
the  period;  and  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  by  the 
Churches  of  Alexandria,  Asia(?),  and  Syria,  but  not  by 
those  of  Africa  and  Rome.  The  Epistles  of  St  James  and 
St  Jude  were  little  used,  and  the  Second  Epistle  of  St 
Peter  was  barely  known  ^"  And  the  reverence  with  which 
the  books  of  the  New  Testament  were  received  was  due  to 
the  belief  that  their  writers  had  the  special  guidance  of 
the  Holy  Spirit^.  The  Scriptures  are  divine  writings, 
oracles  of  God,  writings  of  the  Lord*.  The  prophets  spoke 
as  they  were  moved  by  a  spirit  given  by  God^  yet  in  such 


1  2  Pet.  iii.  16. 

-  Hippolyt.  HcET.  Eef.  vii.  25, 
26. 

3  Strom.  VII.  3,  p.  836 ;  cf.  vi.  11, 
p.  784. 

*  Adv.  Fraoceam  15.  Cf.  Adv. 
Marcion.  iv.  1. 

6  Eouth,  Rell.  Sacra;,  i.  394; 
Wcstcott,  Canon  of  N.  T.  pp.  235 
ff.,  557  ff. 

«  Westcott  in  Diet.  Bible,  i.  263. 


''  Westcott,  Introd.  to  the  Gos- 
pels, App.  B,  p.  383  ff.;  J.  De- 
litzsch,  De  Inspiratione  Script.  Sa- 
cra quid  statuerint  Patres  Aposto- 
lici,  etc.  (Lips.  1872). 

8  Ireiiffius,  Hcer.  ii.  27.  1 ;  i.  8. 
1 ;  V.  20.  2. 

^  Uveiifxari  iv9i<^,  Athenag.  Le- 
gat.  7  and  9.  See  De  Soyres, 
Montanism,  pp.  62  ff. 


The  Theology  of  the  Church  and  its  Opponents. 


Ill 


a  way  that  the  sphits  of  the  proj^hets  were  subject  to  the 
prophets,  not  in  the  blind  furor  or  ecstasy  of  a  pagan 
soothsayer  \  The  recognition  of  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit 
granted  to  the  sacred  writers  did  not  blind  the  early 
Fathers  to  the  differences  of  their  gifts.  Both  Irenajus'' 
and  Origcn'  made  excellent  remarks  on  the  peculiarities  of 
the  style  of  St  Paul,  and  TertuUian  speaks  of  him  in  the 
early  days  of  his  discipleship  as  still  raw  in  grace*,  as  if 
callable  of  after-development. 

It  was  an  object  of  great  importance  with  the  early 
defenders  of  the  faith  to  shew  the  essential  harmony  of  the 
Old  Testament  with  the  New,  a  harmony  which  Marcion 
and  some  others  denied.  It  is  in  view  of  such  an  opinion 
that  Irenseus^  lays  down,  that  it  is  the  same  Householder 
who  bringeth  forth  out  of  his  treasure  things  new  and  old. 
Both  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New  were  brought  forth 
by  one  and  the  same  Word  of  God,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
The  two  Testaments  are  the  two  pillars  upon  which  rests 
the  mighty  structure  of  the  Church.  The  method  of  the 
ancient  interpretation  of  Scripture  is,  for  the  most  part, 
neither  historical  nor  philological ;  it  is  the  effort  of  pious 
and  believing  minds  to  find  in  the  books  for  which  they 
felt  so  much  reverence  the  greatest  amount  of  edification 
for  their  souls. 

B.  But  the  appeal  to  the  Scriptures  against  heresy  was 
not  in  all  cases  conclusive.  Many  of  the  early  Christians 
knew  little  of  them ;  they  had  believed  without  paper  and 
ink'.  And  it  was  difficult  for  the  orthodox  teachers  to 
refute  the  allegorical  interpretations  by  means  of  which 
many  heretics  thrust  their  own  opinions  into  Scripture,  for 
they  themselves  also  practised  the  same  method.  Heretics 
frequently  claimed  to  possess  the  only  key  to  its  meaning. 

The  early  teachers  did  in  fact  appeal  to  the  doctrine  of 


^  Miltiades  in  Euseb,   H.  E.  v. 


17. 


liar.  III.  7. 

3  In  Euseb.  H.  E.  vi.  25.  11, 

■*  "  Gratia  rudis,"  c.  Marcion.  i. 
20. 

5  liar,  IV.  9.  1;  Fragment  27, 
p.  346. 

^  C.  A.  Heurtley,  Harmonia  Syni- 
boUca ;  Gilder  in  Herzog's  Real- 
Eiicyclop.    V,    178,  s.  v.    Glaulens- 


regcl;  J.  E.  Lumby,  Hist,  of  the 
Creeds;  C.  A.  Swainson,  TheNiccne 
and  Apostles'  Creeds,  etc. ;  A.  Hahn, 
Bibliothek  der  Symhole  und  Glau- 
hensregeln  der  alten  Kirche,  ed. 
G.  L.  Hahn;  C.  P.  Caspari,  Vn- 
gedruckte...Quellen  zur  Geschichte 
des  Tail/symbols  und  der  Glauhens- 
regel. 
''  Irenffius,  Hmr.  in.  4.  2. 


Chap.  VI. 


Harmony 
of  Old 
and  New. 


Interpre- 
tation. 


The  Rule 
ofFaith^. 


Apostolic 
Churches. 


112 


The  Theology  of  the  Church  and  its  Opponents. 


the  Apostles,  as  maintained  in  the  Churches  which  they 
had  founded.  They  appealed  to  the  actually  existing 
faith  in  the  Churches  of  such  cities  as  Jerusalem,  Antioch, 
E])hesus,  Alexandria,  Corinth,  Philippi,  Thessalonica,  Rome. 
Irena3us^  claimed  the  authority  of  his  old  friend  and 
master ;  Polycarp  had  seen  an  apostle,  Valentinus  had  not. 
He  claimed  the  authority  of  the  Church  of  Ephesus, 
founded  by  St  Paul,  instructed  by  St  John ;  and  generally 
appealed  to  the  store  of  faith  left  by  the  Apostles  in  the 
Churches.  In  precisely  the  same  strain  Tertullian^  affirms, 
that  what  the  Apostles  taught  is  to  be  discovered  through 
the  Churches  which  they  founded,  in  which  they  preached, 
to  which  they  wrote.  That  doctrine  is  to  be  held  true, 
which  agrees  with  that  of  the  apostolic  Churches,  the 
sources  and  springs  of  faith. 

And  it  was  natural  and  indeed  necessary  that  the 
essence  of  the  apostolic  teaching,  as  it  was  found  in  the 
memories  of  the  Churches  and  in  the  writings  of  the  New 
Testament,  should  be  summed  up  in  a  brief  and  easily 
grasped  shape  for  the  use  of  the  faithful.  Such  a  Rule  of 
Faith,  Rule  of  the  Church,  Rule  of  Truth ^  or  by  whatever 
name  it  may  be  called,  does  in  fact  soon  make  its  appear- 
ance. No  such  Rule,  as  far  as  we  know,  was  drawn  up  by 
any  Apostle  or  by  the  Apostles  collectively,  yet  a  document 
which  set  forth  the  primitive  doctrine  naturally  claimed 
the  authority  of  Christ  and  the  Apostles.  It  was  given  by 
teachers  in  a  briefer  or  more  extended  form  as  circum- 
stances required,  so  that  it  has  come  down  to  us  in  several 
shapes,  in  which  we  may  generally  trace  the  special  errors 
against  which  they  are  directed. 

Traces  of  such  a  Rule  are  found  in  Ignatius*  and  in 
Justin  Martyr®.  But  it  is  in  Irenseus^  first  that  we  find  a 
tolerably  complete  summary  of  the  Faith  which  the  Church 
dispersed  throughout  the  world  had  received  from  the 
Apostles  and  their  disciples ;  the  belief  in  one  God,  the 
Father  All-Sovereign^,  who  made  heaven  and  earth ;    in 


1  Hcer.  III.  3.  4. 

'  De  Prcescript.  c.  21.     Cf.  c.  26. 

^  d  eKKXrjcnaffTiKos  Kavwv  (Clem. 
Ak'x.  Sirom.  vn.  15,  p.  807) ;  Kavwv 
rrjs  dXrjOeias  (Ivenxus,  1.9.  2);  regula 
lidei  (TertuUian  De  Virgg.  Vel.  c. 
1 ;  De  Prescript,  c.  lii) ;  species 
eorum  qua;  per  prtcdicationem  apo- 


stolicam  manifeste  traduntur  (Oii- 
gen  De  Princip.  Prooem.). 

*  TraUian.  9;  Blagues.  11. 

s  Apul.  I.  6. 

"  liter.  I.  10.  1.  Compare  in.  4. 
1 ;  IV.  ;-53.  7. 

7  B.  F.  Westcott,  The  Historic 
Faith,  pp.  36,  215. 


TJie  Theology  of  the  Church  and  its  Oiiponents. 


113 


one  Christ  Jesus,  the  Son  of  God,  who  was  incarnate  for 
our  salvation ;  and  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  through  the 
prophets  proclaimed  the  life  and  death,  the  resurrection 
and  ascension  of  our  beloved  Lord,  and  His  coming  again 
in  the  glory  of  the  Father,  to  raise  up  all  flesh  of  all  man- 
kind, and  to  do  just  judgment  upon  all.  The  short  Rule 
given  by  Tertullian*  coincides  in  substance  with  that  of 
Irenaius,  with  the  addition  that  the  Virgin  Mary  and 
Pontius  Pilate  are  mentioned  byname.  In  Origen^  the 
statement  of  the  Rule  is  mingled  with  paraphrastic  com- 
ment referring  to  opinions  of  the  writer's  own  time,  but 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  substance  of  the  faith  taught  in 
Alexandria  was  identical  with  that  of  Gaul  and  of  Africa. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  the  summary  of  apostolic  teach- 
ing given  in  the  Apostolical  Constitutions  ^  where  it  is 
remarkable  that  the  twelve  Apostles,  with  St  James  the 
Lord's  brother  and  St  Paul,  are  said  to  have  drawn  up  this 
"  Catholic  teaching "  for  the  use  of  those  to  whom  the 
oversight  of  the  Church  had  been  entrusted.  In  these 
formularies  we  have  not  mere  individual  utterances,  but 
the  expression  of  what  the  Church  at  large  felt  to  be  the 
essence  of  its  faith.  These  cardinal  truths  remain  fixed 
and  firm,  while  matters  of  conduct  and  organization  admit 
of  change  from  time  to  time  under  the  influence  of  the 
grace  of  God*.  But  custom  and  tradition  are  by  no  means 
to  be  followed  contrary  to  the  words  of  Christ^ 

Side  by  side  with  the  conception  of  Catholicity  was 
developed  that  of  Heresy®,  They  who  did  not  accept 
in  its  fulness  the  apostolic  doctrine  embodied  in  the  Rule 


^  De  Virgg.  Vel.  1;  compare 
Adv.  Praxeam  2,  De  Prcescript. 
].S. 

-  De  Frincip.  Proctm.  c.  4. 

•'  VI.  11  and  14. 

••  Tert.  De  Virgg.  Vel.  1. 

*  Cyprian,  Epist.  63,  c.  14. 

**  The  word  al'pecrts  in  its  origin 
conveyed  no  sense  of  blame;  it 
simply  designated  any  party — as 
of  jiliilosopbers,  jurists,  or  theo- 
logians— drawn  together  by  hold- 
ing common  opinions.  The  parties 
of  the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees 
were  aip^aeis  (Acts  v.  17 ;  xv.  5) ; 
so  was  the  early  Church  in  relation 

C. 


to  the  Jews  (Acts  xxiv.  5;  xxviii. 
22).  It  is  evident  however  that 
St  Paul  felt  the  term  dishonourable 
(ib.  xxiv.  14) ;  he  places  alp^aeis 
among  the  evil  works  of  the  llesh 
(Gal.  V.  20),  and  regards  them  as 
trials  to  the  sound  in  faith  (1  Cor. 
xi.  19).  A  man  given  to  faction 
{aipeTLKOv)  he  would  reject  from 
the  community  (Tit.  iii.  10;  cf. 
2  John  10,  11).  In  hia  writings 
the  word  had  already  come  to  de- 
signate blameworthy  partisanship 
and  separation.  In  the  early  Fa- 
thers— as  Ignatius — the  word  is 
only  used  in  an  unfavourable  sense. 


ClIAP.  VI. 


TertulUan, 


Origen, 


Aposto- 
lical Con- 
stitutions. 


Heresy. 


114 


The  Theology  of  the  Church  and  its  Opponents. 


Chap.  VI. 


Baptismal 
confession. 


Faith  in 
THE  One 
God. 


of  Faith  were  heretics.  Heretics,  says  IrenaeusS  offer 
strange  fire;  doctrines,  that  is,  strange  to  the  Church. 
They  are  a  rebellious  minority.  It  is  of  the  essence  of 
heresy  that  it  claims  to  be  Christian ;  that  it  disguises  false 
doctrine  under  Christian  terms  ;  that  it  offers,  as  Ignatius^ 
says,  a  deadly  poison  mixed  with  honey- wine ;  its  wolves 
pass  for  sheep,  its  wild  beasts  for  men.  It  springs  from 
unbridled  self-assertion.  It  is  a  later  birth,  while  Catholic 
doctrine  is  from  the  beginning,  and  therefore  truel  The 
duty  of  Christians  is  to  avoid  heretics,  but  to  pray  for 
them,  that  they  may  be  brought  to  repentance*.  The 
Church  was  continually  arming  itself  against  heresy,  and 
so  to  some  extent  modified  its  own  attitude. 

Akin  to  the  Rule  of  Faith,  though  distinct  from  it  in 
origin,  is  the  baptismal  Confession.  From  the  earliest 
times  a  profession  of  faith  was  required  of  him  who  would 
be  baptized.  When  the  Lord  charged  His  Apostles  to 
admit  men  to  discipleship  by  baptism  into  the  Name  of 
the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost^  it  is 
clear  that  He  required  faith  in  the  Holy  Trinity  as  a 
condition.  A  man  must  "confess  the  good  confession^" 
in  order  to  receive  baptism.  But  in  the  course  of  a  few 
generations  it  came  to  pass  that  the  candidate  was  re- 
quired to  answer  "somewhat  more  than  the  Lord  laid 
down  in  the  Gospel^"  Something  was  added  of  the 
Church^  perhaps  also  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh^ 

2.  The  central  belief  of  Christians  in  one  God,  creator, 
ruler,  sustainer  of  the  universe,  was  contradictory  to  poly- 
theism. One  of  their  first  tasks  was  to  persuade  the  heathen 
that  their  rejection  of  a  plurality  of  deities  and  of  visible 
objects  of  worship,  was  not  atheism.  In  controversy  with 
them  they  appealed  both  to  the  works  of  nature,  and  to 
man's  inborn,  spontaneous  recognition  of  a  supreme  deity, 
when  his  eyes  were  not  blinded  that  they  saw  not.  The 
man  who  knows  himself,  shall  know  God***.  In  the  Chris- 
tian conceptions  of  xhe  deity  we  see  a  certain  variation  in 


1  Ilceres.  iv.  20,  2. 

2  Trail.  6;  Fhil<i(]elph.2;  Smyrn. 

*  Tertullian,  Adv.  Marcion.  iv.  4. 

*  Ign.  Smijrn.  4. 

"  Matt,  xxviii.  19. 


«  1  Tim.  vi.  12. 

7  Tertullian,  De  Cor.  Milit.  3. 

8  Id.  De  Baptismo,  6. 

9  Id.  l>e  Prascript.  36. 

'"  Clem.  Alex.  Fcedag.    iii.  1,  p. 
250, 


The  Tlieology  of  the  Church  and  its  Opponents. 


115 


teachers  of  different  schools.  Tertullian^  ascribes  a  bodily 
form  to  God,  but  then  he  understands  by  "  body"  any 
medium  by  which  "  an  existing  thing  manifests  its  exist- 
ence ;"  his  "body"  is  not  necessarily  gross  and  palpable. 
At  the  other  extreme  are  the  Alexandrian  theologians, 
whose  great  effort  it  was  to  keep  the  conception  of  God 
clear  of  the  conditions  of  time  and  sense.  Origen  naturally 
would  not  hear  of  God's  being  described  as  in  any  sense 
corporeal. 

Unlike  the  heathen  philosophers,  Christian  teachers 
almost  invariably  held  that  God  had  made  the  world, 
not  from  pre-existing  formless  matter,  but  from  nothing^ ; 
that  He  was  the  cause  of  matter  as  well  as  of  form.  Justin 
Martyr*  and  Athenagoras'  are  apparent  rather  than  real 
exceptions.  No  one  of  the  early  writers  has  more  vigorously 
attacked  the  pagan  view  than  Tertullian,  in  his  treatise 
against  Hermogenes.  Against  the  Gnostics  the  doctors 
of  the  Church  earnestly  contend  that  no  inferior  handi- 
craft deity  was  the  creator  of  the  world,  but  the  very 
same  almighty  Power  who  redeemed  it.  And  against 
the  Gnostics  also  it  was  maintained,  that  it  was  not  in 
consequence  of  any  overpowering  necessity,  but  of  His 
own  will,  of  His  own  love,  that  God  made  the  world.  The 
pagan  notion  of  a  supreme  Destiny  or  Fate,  to  which  even 
gods  were  subject,  was  rejected.  God  was  the  creator 
not  only  of  the  visible  universe,  but  also  of  the  invisible 
world  of  angels  and  spirits,  by  whose  agency  He  rules  the 
world. 

3.  But  if  the  unity  of  the  Deity  was  carefully  asserted 
by  the  early  Church  against  pagan  polytheism  and  Gnostic 
dualism,  no  less  earnestly  was  it  maintained  that  in  this 
Unity  is  a  Trinity  of  Persons,  equally  divined     This  One 


^  De  Game  Christi,  11,  Melito's 
treatise  irepl  ivawixATov  6eov  (Euseb. 
H.  E.  IV.  26.  2)  probably  related  to 
the  Incarnation.  See  G.  Salmon 
in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  in.  898. 

'  J.  Pearson,  On  the  Creed,  p. 
47  ff.;  B.  F.  Westcott,  The  His- 
toric Faith. 

»  2  Maceab.  il  28,  that  God 
made  all  things  i^  ouk  ivroiv,  is 
quoted  as  an  authority.     See,  on 


tho  whole  subject,  Pearson,  On  the 
Greed,  p.  52  ff. 

^  Apul.  I.  10:  but  see  Trypho  5. 

'  Legat.  10,  15. 

^  See  G.  IBull,  Defensio  Fidei 
Nicance  ex  Scriptis... intra  tria  pri- 
ma Ecclesice  Scecula;  F.  C.  Baur, 
Die  christi.  Lehre  von  der  Drei- 
einigkeit  and  Vorlesungen  ilber  Dog- 
metigeschichte,  vol.  i.  392  ff. ;  J.  A. 
Dorner,    Pertson    Christi,  trans,  in 

8—2 


Chap.  VI. 


Crea- 
tion^. 


The  Holt 
Trinity. 


116 


The  Theologi/  of  the  Church  and  its  Opponents. 


God  in  Three  Persons  is  the  object  of  Christian  worship 
and  contemplation  \  In  the  early  ages  it  was  sought  to 
give  adequate  expression  to  the  central  blessing  of  Christi- 
anity, the  union  of  the  life  of  God  with  the  life  of  Man  ; 
and  this  end  could  only  be  attained  by  such  a  conception 
of  the  divine  and  human  in  Christ  Jesus  as  should  make 
clear  both  the  perfect  God  and  perfect  Man  in  Christ,  and 
this  without  confusion  of  Persons.  Hence  the  Ebionite 
conception  of  Christ  as  a  being  essentially  human,  though 
filled  with  the  Spirit  of  God  and  even  in  wondrous  wise 
begotten  of  the  Spirit,  was  rejected  as  altogether  short  of 
the  truth.  Equally  inadequate  was  the  conception  of  a 
being  essentially  divine,  seemingly  appearing  in  human 
form,  or  seemingly  united  with  the  man  Jesus.  All  con- 
ceptions, in  a  word,  were  rejected,  which  seemed  to  en- 
danger either  the  true  divinity  of  the  Son  of  God,  or  the 
true  humanity  of  the  Son  of  Man,  or  the  true  union  of 
God  and  Man  in  one  Christ.  If  it  is  in  Christ  that  the 
one  real  Atonement  is  made  between  God  and  Man,  faith 
must  contemplate  in  Him  at  once  God  with  us  and  the 
true  and  perfect  Man. 

This  it  was  which  the  Church  of  the  early  ages  set 
itself  to  express  in  its  teaching.  The  earliest  pagan  wit- 
ness testifies  expressly  that  Christians  sang  a  hymn  to 
Christ  as  God''.  Clement  of  Rome^,  Barnabas*,  Ignatius^, 
without  special  exactness  of  expression,  assert  the  tran- 
scendent dignity  of  the  Person  of  the  Son. 

The  word  Logos  (X0709),  already  used  by  Philo  to 
designate  both  the  reason  and  the  creative  utterance  of 
God,  was  applied  by  St  John  to  the  incarnate  Son,  and, 
after  him,  by  Justin  Martyr  and  other  Apologists.  The 
Logos  is,  in  the  usage  of  the  latter,  the  deity  in  Christ,  as 
distinct  from  His  human  nature^  The  Logos  existed 
with  the  Father  at  first  only  potentially,  but  was  brought 
into  actual  existence  before  the  creation  of  the  world  and 


Clark's  Theol.  Library;  J.  Kuhn, 
Kathol.  Dogmatik,  vol.  3;  L.  Dun- 
ker,  Zur  Geschichte  d.  christl.  Lo- 
gosUhre. 

^  The  word  rpids  is  first  applied 
to  the  Deity  by  Theoi^hilus  of  An- 
tioch,  ad  Autolycum,  11.  15;  "Tri- 
nitas"    by    Tertnllian,  De    Pudi- 


citia,  21. 

2  Pliny,   Epist.    x.   96  [al.   97]. 
Compare  Euseb.  H.  E.  v.  28.  5. 

3  Ad  Cor.  16. 
*  Epist.  c.  5. 

^  Rom.  Prooem.  and  c.  2;  Ephes. 
15,  18,  20. 

8  Justin,  Dial.  c.  Tryphone,  128. 


The  Theology  of  the  Church  and  its  Opponents. 


117 


with  a  view  to  that  creation \  God  manifests  Hiinself  in 
Him,  just  as  human  reason  is  manifested  in  the  utterance 
of  an  articulate  word  I  The  Word  is  in  this  mode  of 
conception  subordinate.  Irenseus"  on  the  other  hand 
deprecates  as  over-subtle  all  speculation  on  the  manner 
in  which  the  Son  was  produced  from  the  Being  of  the 
Father,  while  holding  fast  the  doctrine  of  His  divinity. 
As  regards  the  Holy  Spirit,  difficulties  arose  from  the 
attempt  to  explain  to  the  understanding  His  essence  and 
relation  to  the  Father.  Some,  as  Theophilus*,  made  the 
Logos  coordinate  with  the  Wisdom  or  Holy  Spirit  of  God; 
some,  as  Justin,  seem  to  make  little  distinction  between 
Logos  and  Spirit^;  Logos,  Spirit,  Power,  seem  almost 
identical  terms. 

Several  teachers  deviated  from  the  Catholic  doctrine 
of  the  Holy  Trinity,  tending  towards  one  of  two  extremes. 
Either,  in  their  anxiety  to  preserve  the  unity  of  God,  they 
identified  the  Father  and  the  Son,  or  they  made  the  Son, 
however  exalted,  something  less  than  God.  The  first, 
starting  from  the  cardinal  truth  of  the  divine  Unity,  con- 
tended that  the  advocates  of  a  Trinity  preached  two  or 
three  gods,  and  called  themselves  advocates  of  the  mon- 
archy" of  the  Deity.  This  "Monarchian"  tendency  de- 
veloped itself  in  different  directions. 

One  party  held  that  the  Supreme  Being  simply  worked 
upon  or  influenced  the  man  Christ.  This  opinion  had 
several  adherents.  Theodotus  was  the  first  who,  since  the 
days  of  the  Ebionites,  taught  that  the  Lord  was  mere 
man,  for  which  heresy  he  was  excommunicated  by  Victor, 
bishop  of  Rome.  The  same  view  was  maintained  by 
another  Theodotus,  a  money-changer,  and  also  by  Arte- 
mon'',  who  further  maintained  that  his  view  was  that  of 
the  primitive  Church.  In  this  class  must  also  probably 
be  included  those  whom  Epiphanius^  calls  Alogi,  who 
rejected  the  whole  doctrine  of  the  Logos.  But  the  most 
conspicuous  of  those  who  maintained  this  heresy  is  Paul 


'  Apol.  II.  6. 
"  Tryph.  61. 
*  Hccres.  ii.  28. 
"  Ad  Autol.  I.  7. 
^  Apol.  I.  33. 

^  "Monarchiam,  inqniunt,  tene- 
mus";  Tertull.  adv.  Praxeavi  3. 


7  On  these  three,  see  Euseb. 
H.  E.  V.  28.  Theodoret  {Hccret. 
Fabh.  II.  5)  gives  extracts  from  the 
Little  Labyrinth  written  against 
Theodotus  ami  Artemon. 

8  Hares.  54. 


Chap.  VI. 


Irenceus. 


Theophi- 
iws. 


Heretical 
Opinions. 


Dynamis- 

tic 

Monarch- 


118 


The  Theology  of  the  Church  and  its  Opjionents. 


of  Samosata,  the  worldly,  splendour-loving  bishop  of 
Antioch  in  Syria.  He  denied  that  the  Son  of  God  came 
down  from  Heaven,  and  asserted  that  Christ  was  a  mere 
natural  man  like  other  men\  God's  Logos  and  God's 
Sjiirit  remained  always  in  God,  just  as  a  man's  Reason 
or  Discourse  remains  in  his  own  heart ;  the  Son  was  no 
distinct  substance  or  person  (/x?)  elvai  evvirocnaTov),  but 
in  God  Himself;  the  Logos  came  and  dwelt  in  Jesus,  who 
was  a  man ;  but  the  divine  Wisdom  dwelt  in  Him  not  in 
essence,  but  as  a  quality.  He  denied  that  his  doctrine 
involved  the  suffering  of  God  the  Father,  saying  that 
the  Word  alone  wrought  upon  Christ,  and  ascended  again 
to  the  Father^  Paul  was  deposed  by  a  synod  held  at 
Antioch^  in  the  year  269,  but  his  party,  under  the  name 
of  Paulianists  or  Samosatenians,  maintained  itself  into  the 
fourth  century. 

Others  again  altogether  obliterated  the  distinction 
between  the  Father  and  the  Son.  The  first  who  became 
conspicuous  by  the  advocacy  of  this  confusion  was  Praxeas, 
who  came  from  Asia  Minor  to  Rome  in  the  days  of 
Eleutherus  and  Victor,  and  combatted  Montanist  views 
with  great  success.  His  doctrine  of  the  Person  of  Christ 
is  said  to  have  found  considerable  acceptance  in  the  im- 
perial city.  Tertullian  says  of  him,  with  characteristic 
vigour,  that  he  accomplished  two  tasks  for  the  devil — he 
banished  prophecy  and  introduced  heresy,  he  put  to  flight 
the  Paraclete  and  crucified  the  Father*.  He  seems  to 
have  taught,  that  the  Father  and  the  Son  were  one 
Person,  the  former  in  a  spiritual  state  of  existence,  the 
latter  in  the  flesh.  It  follows  that  the  Father  must  have 
suffered  for  us,  whence  those  who  held  this  opinion  re- 
ceived the  name  of  Patripassians^ 


1  Euseb.  H.jB.  v.  27;  30.  11. 

^  Epiphanius,  Hares.  65, 1  ;  read 
together  with  the  fragments  of  the 
circular  letter  of  the  Antiochene 
synod  preserved  in  Leontinus  of 
Byzantium  c.  Nestor,  et  Eutych. 
(ill  Galland's  Bihlioth.  Patr.  xii. 
623  ff.).  Of  the  documents  in 
Mansi  (Cone.  i.  1033  ff.)  only  the 
Epist.  Episcoporum  ad  Pauluvi 
seems  beyond  suspicion.  This  is 
also  given  in  Bouth's  Reliquice, 
in.  289. 


^  According  to  the  Letter  of  the 
Semiarians  (c.  a.  d.  858)  referred 
to  by  Athanasius  (De  Synod.  43), 
Hilary  of  Poitou  {De  Synod.  86), 
and  Basil  [Epist.  22),  this  council 
decided  /xt)  eZyat   6fiooij<noy  rbv  vlov 

TOV    6eOV    T(fi    TTCLTpi. 

*  Adv.  Praxeam  1.  Tertullian's 
treatise  against  Praxeas  is  our  only 
authority  for  all  that  relates  to  him, 

^  Pearson,  On  the  Creed,  pp.  158, 
322,  notes. 


Tlie  Theology  of  the  Church  and  its  Opponents. 


119 


Similar  views  were  propounded  by  Noetiis\  a  native 
of  Smyrna,  where  he  was  excommunicated  for  his  heresy 
about  the  year  200.  He,  if  we  may  trust  the  accounts 
of  his  opponents,  held  that  the  one  God  and  Father,  the 
Maker  of  the  universe,  appears  and  disappears  when  He 
will  and  as  He  will ;  one  and  the  same  Person  is  visible 
and  invisible,  begotten  and  unbegotten ;  unbegotten  from 
the  beginning,  begotten  when  He  willed  to  be  born  of  a 
virgin ;  in  His  own  nature  incapable  of  suffering  and 
death,  and  again  of  His  own  free  will  capable  of  suffering 
and  death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross.  The  same  Person 
bears  the  name  of  Father  or  Son,  as  circumstances  require. 
Noetus's  doctrine  was  propagated  in  Rome  by  his  disciple 
Epigonus'^  who  there  won  over  Cleomenes,  and  in  Rome 
it  found  its  most  able  and  conspicuous  opponent  in  Hip- 
polytus.  This  distinguished  teacher  held  the  Person  of 
the  Son  to  be  distinct  from  the  Person  of  the  Father,  but, 
in  order  to  preserve  the  primordial  unity  of  the  Deity,  he 
maintained  that  Christ  must  be  described  as  a  "  begotten 
God"  [Oeo'i  yevvTjTO'i).  The  Logos  has  no  doubt  a  distinct 
personality,  but  He  first  became  a  Person  by  proceeding 
forth  from  God  the  Father  as  His  first-born,  through 
Whom  all  things  were  made.  Hippolytus  himself,  in  fact, 
regarded  the  Son  as  a  Being  created  simply  by  the  will  of 
the  Father^.  Against  this  view  Zephyrinus,  then  bishop 
of  Rome,  declared  that  he  at  least  acknowledged  only 
one  God;  he  believed  Christ,  the  incarnate  Son  of  God, 
to  be,  not  another  God  distinct  from  the  Father,  but  in 
His  divine  Being  or  Substance  the  same  with  God  the 
Father.  Zephyrinus  had  probably  no  intention  of  denying 
the  Personality  of  the  Son,  but  simply  wished  to  protest 
against  what  he  considered  the  ditheism  of  Hippolytus. 
The  latter  however  retorted  upon  him  fiercely :  and  when 
Zephyrinus's  successor  in  the  bishopric,  Callistus,  entered 
the  lists  against  him,  he  attacked  him  with  still  greater 
bitterness;  a  bitterness  intensified  probably  by  circum- 


^  Hippolytus,  c.  H(sr.  Noeti  (in 
Hipp.  Opjy.  p.  43  f.  ed.  Lagarde), 
and  Hceres.  Ref.  ix.  10 ;  Epiphanius 
Hares.  57;  Theodoret  Haret.  Fab. 
III.  3. 

-  This  is  the  account  of  Hii^po- 


lytus  [Hcer.  Ref.  ix.  7).  Theodoret 
[Uceret.  Fahb.  in.  3),  perhaps  out 
of  mere  misunderstanding  of  Hip- 
polytus, makes  Epigonus  and  Cleo- 
menes the  teachers  of  Noetus. 
3  Hicrcs.  Ref.  x.  33,  p.  436. 


Chap.  VI. 

Noetus, 
fl.  c.  200. 


Noetian- 
ism  ill 
Rome, 
c.  215. 


Zephyri- 
nus. 


Callistus. 


120 


TJie  Theology  of  the  Church  and  its  Opponents. 


stances  which  are  very  imperfectly  known  to  us\  Making 
allowance  for  the  evident  bias  of  Hippolytiis,  onr  only  au- 
thority on  this  matter,  it  seems  probable  that  Callistus 
attempted  to  maintain  the  unity  of  Substance  in  the  Deity 
against  Hippolytus,  while  protesting  against  the  confusion 
of  Persons  introduced  by  Noetus  and  others.  For  while 
Rome  was  yet  agitated  by  the  opinions  of  Noetus,  a  new 
form  of  error  had  found  its  way  thither,  the  "modalism" 
of  Sabellius. 

It  is  uncertain  whether  this  remarkable  person  sprang 
from  Libya  or  from  Italy.  It  is  certain  that  in  the 
episcopate  of  Zephyrinus  he  was  at  Rome,  where  he  was 
won  over  to  the  opinions  of  Cleomenes,  which  he  developed 
after  his  o%\ti  fashion.  When  Callistus,  who  had  previously 
seemed  to  encourage  him,  became  bishop,  he  disowned 
Sabellius,  and  it  was  perhaps  for  this  reason  that  the 
latter  left  Rome  for  the  East  and  became  a  presbyter  at 
Ptolemais,  where  his  success  induced  Dionysius  of  Alex- 
andria to  write  a  treatise  against  him.  His  system  pro- 
bably derived  something  from  the  same  Gnostic  source  which 
influenced  the  Clementine  Homilies^.  The  Monad,  he  says, 
becomes  by  extension  a  Triad ;  God  extends  and  again  con- 
tracts Himself.  As  there  are  diversities  of  gifts,  but  the 
same  spirit,  so  the  Father  always  remains  the  same,  but  is 
extended  into  Son  and  Spirit^  The  same  God,  remaining 
One  in  substance,  transforms  Himself  according  to  the 
several  needs  which  arise,  and  now  addresses  us  as  Father, 
now  as  Son,  now  as  Holy  Sj)irit.  In  the  Old  Testament 
He  legislated  as  Father ;  in  the  New  He  became  man  as 
Sun  ;  as  Holy  Spirit  He  descended  upon  the  Apostles*. 
And  he  compared  the  Deity  to  the  sun,  which  though 
always  remaining  one  substance,  has  three  energies  or 
modes  of  manifestation ;  first,  his  actual  mass  or  disc ; 
second,  that  which  causes  light ;  third,  that  which  causes 
heat'. 

In  the  same  class  with  Noetus  and  Sabellius  may  be 
placed  Beryllus  of  Bostra,  whose  leading  tenet  was,  that 
the  Son  before  His  Incarnation  had  no  defined  personal 


*  See  p.  82,  note  1. 

2  Horn.  XVI.  12. 

3  Athanasius,  c.  Avian.  Orat.  iv. 


12  aucJ  25. 
*  Tlicodoret,  Hcrret.  Fahb.  ii.  9. 
5  Epii^hanius,  llcrrcs.  62,  §  1. 


The  Theology  of  the   Church  and  its  Opponents. 


121 


existence  \  Beryllus,  however,  was  convinced  of  his  error 
by  the  arguments  of  Origen. 

In  the  working  out  of  the  human  expression  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  the  teaching  of  Origen"^  is 
of  great  importance.  With  him,  God  is  the  one  real 
existence,  the  ground  of  all  the  phenomena  of  the  universe. 
But  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  God,  the  supreme  energy, 
resting  in  idleness  and  immobility ;  He  must  therefore 
exert  His  ceaseless  energy  in  creative  work,  and  He  must 
reveal  Himself*.  The  link  between  the  eternal  God  and 
the  creation  is  the  Son,  the  very  image  of  His  substance ; 
the  word  "  Wisdom,"  applied  to  Him  in  the  older  writings, 
denotes  the  totality  of  the  primal  thoughts,  which  are  the 
eternal  forms  of  the  universe,  the  source  of  which  is  the 
Son.  The  expression  "  Logos"  denotes  the  revelation  and 
communication  of  these  same  thoughts  which  are  contained 
in  the  Divine  Wisdom.  But  we  must  not  attribute  all 
this  to  the  Will  of  the  Father  only ;  for  the  Will  of  God 
is  itself  impersonated  in  the  Son.  The  Son  is  begotten 
of  the  Father;  but  we  must  not  say  that  a  portion  of 
the  substance  of  the  Father  is  transformed  into  the  Son, 
or  that  He  was  created  out  of  nothing  by  the  Father; 
there  was  never  a  time  in  which  God  was  not  the  Father 
of  the  Son ;  with  God  all  things  are  present \  The  Son 
.is  a  consubstantial  emanation  from  the  glory  of  the  Father. 
Yet  is  this  identity  of  substance  a  conditional  one,  for  the 
Father  alone  is  the  absolute  God ;  in  this  respect  the  Son 
is  inferior  to  the  Father.  The  Father,  He  said,  is  greater 
than  I.  The  Father  therefore  alone  is  the  proper  object 
of  worship.  Origen  even  sometimes  speaks  of  the  Son  as 
created  or  fashioned.  The  subordination  of  the  Son  shows 
itself  in  His  work,  the  Son  does  the  same  as  the  Father, 
but  the  impulse  comes  from  the  Father;  He  is  the  in- 
strument by  which  the  Father  works. 

The  Holy  Spirit  is  made  through  the  Son,  for  all 
things   were  made  through  Him^;  He   is  the  first  and 


'  Mtj  Trpov<pe(TTa.vai  Kar'  I8iav  ov- 
fflas  ■irepiypa<prjv,  Euseb.  11.  E.  vi. 
33. 

2  See  p.  72  ff. 

^  De  Principiis,  iii.  5.  3. 

*  Oiig.  ill  Genes.  (0pp.  ii.  1,  ed. 


Delarue).  Cf.  De  rrincip.  i.  2; 
IV.  28;  fragment  in  Athanasius, 
de  Decret.  Syn.  Nic.  c.  27. 

^  In  Joannem,  i.  3  (Ojjp.  iv.  60, 
ed.  Delarue). 


The  Theology  of  the  Church  and  its  Opponents. 


chiefest  Being  made  by  the  Father  through  the  Son,  and 
subordinate  to  the  Son,  as  the  Son  to  the  Father.  He 
it  is  Who  sanctifies  the  elect  people  of  God. 

In  Origen's  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Trinity  therefore 
there  is  clearly  subordinationism.  In  teaching  the  consub- 
stantiality  of  the  Son,  Origen  is  the  forerunner  of  Atha- 
nasius;  when  he  teaches  subordinationism,  he  may  be 
appealed  to  by  the  Arians. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  Church  few  Latin  writers 
appear  as  theologians.  Tertullian,  however,  is  a  vehement 
opponent  of  Patripassianism.  He  is  himself  a  decided 
subordinationist,  considering  the  Father  as  the  whole  sub- 
stance of  the  Godhead,  and  the  Son  as  a  portion  of,  or 
effluence  from,  Him\  The  Holy  Spirit  in  Tertullian's 
scheme  occupies  the  same  subordinate  position  as  in  Ori- 
gen's. How  widespread  was  the  Patripassian  theory  is 
shown  by  the  fact,  that  the  poet  Commodian  held  it, 
apparently  without  any  consciousness  that  he  had  deviated 
from  the  faith  of  the  Church. 

4.  Many,  perhaps  most,  of  the  early  Christians  re- 
garded the  second  coming  of  Christ,  and  His  final  victory 
over  all  that  opposed,  as  rapidly  approaching.  And  to  most 
of  these  the  coming  of  the  Lord  presented  itself  in  the 
form  of  Chiliasm,  the  expectation  of  a  thousand-years  reign 
of  the  Redeemer,  with  His  risen  and  glorified  saints,  upon 
earth,  as  a  preparation  for  the  final  consumm.ation  of  all 
things'^  Probably  the  contest  against  Gnosticism  tended 
to  strengthen  the  belief  in  a  material  aspect  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  which  the  Gnostics  denied.  The  Epistle 
of  Barnabas^  first  lays  it  down,  that  as  one  day  is  with 
the  Lord  as  a  thousand  years,  the  first  six  thousand  years 
of  the  world's  existence  are  as  the  six  days  of  creation. 


1  Adv.  Praxeam,  cc.  7,  8,  9,  26. 
•'Fuit  tempus  cum  et  Filius  non 
fuit."     c.  Hervwgenem,  c.  3. 

2  J.  M.  Gerhard,  Loci  Theolo- 
gici,  XX.  95  ff.  ed.  Gotta;  Joseph 
Mede,  Clavis  Apocalyptica,  espe- 
cially The  Thousand  Years,  in  Ap- 
pendix (Works,  vol.  2);  J.  Light- 
foot,  De  Chiliasmo  Prcesenti,  in 
Critici  Sacri,  Thesaurus  Novus,  ii. 
1042;  T.  Burnet,  The  Millenanj 
Reign  of  Christ,  in  De  Statu  Mor- 


tuorum,  vol.  2;  [H.  Corrodi],  Kri- 
tische  Geschichte  des  Chiliasmus; 
Chr.  Wordsworth,  Lectures  on  the 
Apocalypse,  Lect.  i. ;  S.  Waldegrave, 
New  Test.  Millennarianism;  E.  B. 
Elliott,  Horce  Apocalypticce,  vol.  4; 
Miinscher,  Lehre  vom  tausendjah- 
rigen  Reich,  in  Henke's  Magazin, 
VI.  2,  p.  233  ff. ;  J.  A.  Dorner, 
Person  Christi,  i.  240. 
3  c.  15,  §§  4,  5. 


The  Theology  of  the  Church  and  its  Opponents. 


123 


and  the  seventh  period  is  to  be  a  thousand  years  of 
sabbatic  peace  and  rest.  Justin  Martyr'  expects  Christ 
to  reign  a  thousand  years  in  Jerusalem.  The  materialistic 
and  sensuous  view  of  the  reign  of  Christ  appears  in  the 
description  of  the  blessings  of  the  saints  quoted  from 
Papias  by  Irenseus''.  Irena^us  himself  derives  his  imagery 
from  such  passages  as  those  which  speak  of  the  wolf 
dwelling  with  the  lamb,  of  the  fruit  of  the  vine  to  be 
drunk  in  the  Father's  Kingdom,  of  the  fashion  of  this 
world  passing  away.  TertuUian,  as  a  Montanist,  was  of 
course  extremely  emphatic  in  his  belief  of  the  speedy 
coming  of  the  Lord.  At  the  end  of  the  second  century 
these  opinions,  when  they  were  propagated  at  Rome  by 
Cerinthus,  were  strongly  opposed  by  Caius  the  presbyterl 
In  Alexandria,  they  met  still  more  vigorous  opposition, 
and  under  the  great  influence  of  Origen^,  came  to  be 
regarded  as  at  any  rate  fanatical,  if  not  heretical. 


1  Trypho,  cc.  80,  81. 

2  c.  HareK.  v.   3.3.   3.     In   Geb- 
hardt  and  Harnack's  Pair.  Apoot. 


II.  87. 

3  Euseb.  H.  E.  in.  28. 

*  Dt  Principiis,  u.  11,  §  2. 


Chap.  VI. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


THE   ORGANIZATION   OF  THE   CHURCH. 


From  the  first,  the  Church  of  God  had  a  deep  con- 
sciousness of  its  unity ;  its  members  were  bound  together 
by  a  common  feeling  for  religion,  a  common  system,  a 
common  hope^.  Wherever  there  were  Christians,  a  brother 
found  himself  at  home.  Whoever  came  to  a  Church  and 
brought  the  true  teaching  was  to  be  received  and  enter- 
tained^. Especially  were  they  to  be  honoured  who  spoke 
the  Word  of  God*.  The  Apostles,  Prophets  and  Teachers^ 
who  passed  from  Church  to  Church  without  being  of 
necessity  officials  of  any,  had  no  doubt  a  large  share  in 
keeping  alive  the  sense  of  unity  in  the  scattered  com- 
munities. These  were  men  raised  up  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
for  the  work  which  they  undertook.  There  is  no  record 
of  their  being  elected  or  ordained ;  the  Church  recognized 
the  gift  which  was  in  them.  Careful  arrangements  were 
made   for  their   reception  in  the    Churches  which    they 


1  L.  Thomassin,  Vctus  et  Nova 
EcclesicB  Disciplina ;  J.  B.  Light- 
foot,  The  Christian  Ministry,  in  his 
ed.  of  the  Epist.  to  the  Philijypians, 
p.  179  ff.  (1869) ;  Charles  Words- 
worth, Outlines  of  the  Christian 
Ministry,  and  Remarks  on  Dr  Light- 
foot's  Essay;  Edwin  Hatch,  The 
Organization  of  the  Early  Christian 
Churches,  Bampton  Lectures,  1880; 
F.  Probst,  Kirchlicke  Disciplin  in 
den  drei  ersten  christlichen  Jahr- 
hunderten;  A.  Harnack,  Texte  und 
Untersuchungen  zur  Geschichte  der 


altchristlichen  Literatur,  Band  ii. 
Heft  1  u.  2,  §  5. 

2  Tertullian,  Apol.  39. 

^  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles, 
XI.  1. 

^  Ih.  IV.  1.  Compare  Hebr.  xiii. 
7. 

5  1  Cor.  xii.  28.  Cf.  Ephes.  ii. 
20 ;  iii.  5 ;  Hermae  Pastor,  Visio 
III.  5.  1.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  title  dirdaroXos  (  =  mission- 
ary) is  not  hmited  to  the  Twelve.  On 
the  Prophets,  see  E.  H.  Plumptre, 
Biblical  Studies,  p.  323. 


The  Organization  of  the  Church. 


125 


visited,  and  directions  given  to  guard  against  impostors' ; 
for  in  very  early  times  tares  were  found  among  the  wheat. 
But  besides  teachers  specially  raised  up,  a  regular  organi- 
zation for  teaching  and  government  was  found  in  each 
Church. 

The  distinction  of  clergy^  (KXrjptKot)  and  laity  {XalKoi) 
is  found  at  an  early  age  of  the  Church.  Clement  of  Rome* 
hints  not  obscurely  a  parallel  between  the  order  of  the 
priesthood  in  the  Jewish  Church  and  that  of  the  Christian 
ministry.  The  Ignatian  letters  are  full  of  references  to 
a  distinct  order  of  ministry  with  several  ranks ;  Polycarp 
has  much  to  say  on  its  claims  and  duties.  Irenseus  speaks* 
rather  of  the  distinction  conferred  by  moral  and  spiritual 
excellence,  the  Alexandrian  Clement  rather  of  the  privi- 
leges of  the  true  Christian  "gnostic,^"  than  of  a  formal 
order  of  ministers,  though  clearly  recognizing  a  distinction 
between  the  presbyter,  the  deacon,  and  the  layman^  It 
is  in  Tertullian  that  we  first  find  the  words  "  sacerdos " 
and  "  sacerdotium "  applied  directly  to  the  Christian 
ministers  and  ministry';  yet  he  asserts  distinctly  enough 
the  priesthood  of  the  community  in  Christ,  though  the 
authority  of  the  Church  made  a  distinction  between  clergy 
and  laity,  "  ordo "  and  "  plebs,"  as  was  plainly  indicated 
in  the  separate  bench  assigned  to  the  former^  A  few 
years  later  Hippolytus  speaks''  of  himself  as  sharing  in 
the  grace  of  high-priesthood  (dp-)^c€paT€ia<i). 

But  in  no  early  writer  do  we  find  the  sacerdotal  claims 
and  functions  of  the  ministry  put  forward  so  distinctly  as 
they  are  by  Cyprian  ;  he  frankly  applies  to  the  officers  of 
the  Christian  Church  passages  relating  in  the  first  in- 
stance to  the  privileges  and  duties  of  the  Aaronic  priest- 
hood^" ;  those  who  oppose  the  priesthood  are  guilty  of  the 
sin  of  Korah,  Dathan,  and  Abiram".     The  language  of  the 


^  Teaching,  xi — xiii ;  Hermffi 
Pastor,  Maudat.  xi. 

2  On  the  derivation  of  the  word, 
see  Baur,  K.  Geschichte,  i.  2GG,  note 
3 ;  Ritschl,  Alt-Kathol.  KircJie,  p. 
388  ff. ;  Lightfoot  on  Philippians, 
p.  245  ff.  (2na  ed.). 

^  Ad  Corinthios,  cc.  40 — 44. 

•*  E.g.  Hares,  iv.  8.  .3 ;  v.  34.  3. 

8  Strom.  VI.  13,  p.  793. 


«  lb.  III.  12,  p.  552. 

''E.g.  De  Fnescript.  c.  41;  r>e 
Baptismo,  c.  17 ;  De  Virqin.  Vel. 
c.  9. 

8  De  Exhort.  Cast.  c.  7. 

*  Hceres.  Ref.  Prooem.  p.  3. 
1"  See,  for  instance,  Epistt.  3,  4, 
43,  59,  66. 

"  De  Ecel.  Unit.  cc.  18,  19;  p. 
220  f.  ed.  Hartel. 


126 


The  Organization  of  the  Church. 


Apostolical  Constitutions  \  probably  contemporary  with 
Cyprian,  is  not  less  strong. 

With  regard  to  the  particular  offices  of  the  ministry, 
we  have  already  seen''  that  instances  of  one  person  exer- 
cising in  a  Church  an  authority  such  as  we  call  episcopal 
are  not  wanting  in  the  Apostolic  age.  The  leading  in- 
dications of  the  several  orders  of  the  ministry  in  early 
writers  are  as  follows. 

The  Apostles,  says  Clement  of  Rome*,  appointed  their 
first-fruits  as  "bishops  and  deacons"  of  those  who  should 
join  the  faith  ;  here,  as  in  St  Paul's  epistles,  all  officers 
of  the  Church  deriving  authority  from  the  Apostles  seem 
to  be  included  under  the  two  categories  of  direction  or 
supervision  and  executive  or  ministerial  activity.  More- 
over, they  directed  that  after  they  had  fallen  asleep  other 
approved  men  should  succeed  to  their  office  (Xeirovpyiav) ; 
therefore,  continues  Clement,  those  who  had  either  been 
appointed  by  the  Apostles  themselves,  or  by  men  of  con- 
sideration with  the  consent  of  the  Church,  were  not  lightly 
to  be  deposed  from  their  office ;  expressions  which  seem 
to  imply  that  after  the  time  of  the  Apostles,  the  chief 
officers  of  a  Church  were  appointed  by  a  council  of  its  most 
distinguished  members,  with  the  assent  of  the  general 
body  of  the  faithful. 

The  Shepherd  of  Hermas  describes  as  the  squared 
stones  of  the  great  building,  "  Apostles,  and  bishops  and 
teachers  and  deacons^",  where  the  "  teachers"  are  probably 
presbyters,  regarded  in  their  teaching  capacity;  so  that 
the  division  of  offices  here  appears  to  be  equivalent  to 
that  into  bishops,  presbyters,  and  deacons. 

Before  the  middle  of  the  second  century  we  find  a 
distinct  recognition  of  the  three  orders  of  the  Christian 
ministry,  bishops,  presbyters,  and  deacons'*.  And  opposite 
parties  agree  in  inculcating  the  most  profound  respect  for 
the  bishops,  who  are  the  centres  of  unity.  Nothing  was 
to  be  done  without  the  bishop  and  the  presbyters;  the 


'  E.g.  II.  33  f. 

2  Above,  p.  30. 

^  On  tlie  office  of  Lishop,  see  A. 
W.  Hadflan,  in  Smith  and  Cheet- 
ham's  Diet,  of  Chr.  Antiq.  i.  208  ff. 

*  Ad  Corinthios,  c.  44. 


"  oUtoI  daiv  01  dirdffroKoi  Kal  iirl- 
(TKowoi  Kal  di8d(rKa\oi.  Kal  8idKovoi. 
Visio  III.  5.  See  Gebliardt  and  Har- 
nack's  eJ.  pp.  89,  40. 

"  iRnatins,  ad  Polycarpum,  c.  6. 


The  Organization  of  the  Church. 


127 


faithful  were  to  obey  the  bishop  even  as  Christ^ ;  in 
obeying  the  bishop,  they  obeyed  God  I  Such  is  the 
language  of  the  opponents  of  Judaism.  Nor  is  that  of 
the  Judaizers  themselves  less  emphatic ;  the  bishop  sits 
in  the  scat  of  Christ^;  he  is  the  look-out  at  the  bows  of 
the  ship  of  the  Church* ;  is  entrusted  with  the  place  of 
Christ;  whoso  honours  him  honours  Christ^ ;  he  presides 
over  and  guards  the  truth  delivered  to  the  Church®. 
Irenseus  and  Tertullian,  at  the  end  of  the  second  century, 
assume  everywhere  the  universal  prevalence  of  episcopacy 
from  the  time  of  the  Apostles  themselves ;  they  know 
nothing  of  any  other  form  of  government. 

And  not  only  do  we  find  opposing  parties  agreeing  in 
paying  the  highest  respect  to  the  episcopal  ofiice,  but  the 
succession  of  bishops  in  many  cities  is  traceable  to  a  very 
high  antiquity'. 

The  statement  of  Jerome®,  that  episcopacy  was  de- 
veloped out  of  presbyterianism  in  consequence  of  the 
increase  of  faction  and  schism,  which  rendered  necessary 
the  predominance  of  one  head  in  each  Church,  is  probably 
not  well  founded,  and  is  contradicted  by  other  authorities^. 
But  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  dissensions  of  the 
early  ages,  especially  the  struggles  of  Judaism  and  Gnos- 
ticism against  catholic  Christianity,  turned  men's  thoughts 
to  the  advantage  arising  from  the  recognition  of  one  head 
in  each  Church ;  the  due  succession  of  bishops  was  the 
chief  security  for  the  maintenance  throughout  the  world 
of  the  teaching  transmitted  from  the  Apostles  themselves*"; 
in  the  universal  prevalence  of  episcopacy  was  the  varied 
unity  of  the  Church  most  clearly  seen". 

Yet,  even  when  a  distinct  episcopal  order  is  fully 
recognized,  bishops  are  still  called  presbyters  by  Greek'''^ 
and  sacerdotes  by  Latin *^  writers;  the  offices  of  bishop  and 


Chap.  YH. 


1  Ignatius,  ad  Magn.  c.  7 ;  Trail. 
c.  2;  Philadelph.  cc.  3,  7;  Smyrn. 
cc.  8,  9. 

^  Ephes.  cc.  5,  6. 

^  Clementine  Iloin.  iii.  60. 

*  Clementine  Epist.  ad  Jacobum, 
c.  14. 

6  Horn.  HI.  66. 

^  Ejnst.  ad  Jacob,  cc.  2,  6,  17. 

^  J.  J.  Blunt,  First.  Three  Gentn- 
riea,  ch.  iv. 


8  On  Titus  i.  5  (0^;^.  vii.  694, 
ed.  Vallarsi) ;  Epist.  146  ad  Evang. 
(i.  1082). 

^  E.  g.  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia 
on  1  Tim.  iii.  1. 

I'*  Irenseus,  Hceres.  iv.  33.  §  8. 

"  Cyprian,  De  Unit.  Eccl.  c.  5 ; 
Fpist.  55,  c.  24  (ed.  Hartel). 

1-  Ireuseus,  iii.  2.  2. 

!■''  Cyprian,  Epist.  55,  c.  8;  61, 
c.  1. 


Promi- 
nence of 
Episco- 
pacy in 
contro- 
versy. 


Bishops 
and  Pres- 
byters. 


128 


The  Organization  of  the  Church. 


presbyter  were  not  separated  by  so  broad  a  line  as  those 
of  presbyter  and  deacon;  "  every  bishop  is  a  presbyter,  but 
every  presbyter  is  not  a  bishop*";  the  practice  of  the 
Church,  rather  than  any  fundamental  distinction,  made  the 
episcopate  greater  than  the  presbytery '^  In  truth,  in 
the  earliest  times,  the  bishop  is  never  divorced  from  the 
presbytery,  which  forms  a  "  spiritual  coronal"  around  him^; 
it  is  the  especial  duty  of  the  presbyters  to  support  and 
encourage  their  bishop'' ;  they  are  to  him  as  strings  to  the 
lyre^ ;  the  faithful  are  to  submit  themselves  not  only  to 
the  bishop  but  to  the  presbyters,  as  apostles  of  Christ 
and  the  council  of  God^  In  each  Church  there  is  one 
bishop  as  there  is  one  sanctuary,  and  with  each  bishop  is 
joined  the  presbytery  and  the  deacons'. 

Every  city  in  which  a  Church  was  formed  had  its  bishop, 
whose  position  in  many  respects  resembled  that  of  the 
rector  of  a  parish  surrounded  by  his  assistant  clergy  rather 
than  that  of  the  modern  bishop  of  a  diocese,  containing 
perhaps  several  large  towns.  To  him  it  belonged  to  preside 
over  the  assemblies,  whether  of  the  presbyters  or  of  the 
brethren  at  large  ;  to  decide  finally  on  the  reception  or 
exclusion  of  members ;  to  grant  commendatory  letters  to 
members  of  his  flock  passing  into  other  dioceses  ;  to  main- 
tain correspondence  with  other  Churches** ;  to  ordain,  to 
preach,  to  administer  the  Sacraments ;  the  two  latter  offices 
he  might,  and  often  did,  delegate  in  case  of  necessity  to 
his  presbyters. 

As  the  number  of  the  faithful  increased,  it  became 
more  and  more  necessary  to  prevent  the  ministers  of  the 
Church  from  being  entangled  in  worldly  affairs ;  a  bishop 
was  forbidden  even  to  undertake  the  guardianship  of 
children,  as  tending  to  withdraw  him  from  his  proper 
avocations  ^  This  withdrawal  of  the  highest  order  from 
secular  affairs  tended  to  give  greater  prominence  and  in- 
fluence to  the  order  which  had  from  the  first  the  principal 
charge  of  charitable  organization  of  the  Church — that  of 


^  Pseudo-Ambrosius  [Hilary]  on 
1  Tim.  iii.  10. 

-  Augustine,  Epist.  82,  c.  33  (p. 
202,  ed.  Ben.). 

3  Ignatius,  ad  Mngn.  e.  13. 

*  Ad  Trail,  c.  12. 

"  Ad  Ephes.  c.  4. 


8  Ad  Trail,  cc.  3  and  4. 

'^  Ad  PMladelph.  c.  4. 

8  Hennas,  Pastor,  Visio  ii.  4.  3. 
St  Clement  wrote  his  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians  as  representing  the 
Church  of  Rome ;  Ep.  i.  1. 

3  Cyprian,  Epist.  1,  c.  1. 


The  Organization  of  the  Church. 


129 


deacons  \  ministri,  or,  as  they  soon  came  to  be  called, 
Levites.  These  formed  a  link  between  the  higher  clergy 
and  the  laity;  besides  preaching  and  baptizing  by  the 
bishop's  authority,  they  kept  order  in  the  cliurches,  they 
received  the  offerings  of  the  faithful,  prepared  the  Holy 
Table,  read  the  Gospel,  administered  the  Sacrament,  both 
to  the  faithful  who  were  present  at  the  Lord's  Supper  and 
to  those  who  were  absent  by  reason  of  sickness ^  In 
numberless  ways  they  were  the  active  agents  of  the  bishop. 
One  of  their  number,  who  was  more  especially  attached  to 
his  service,  received  the  name  of  archdeacon,  and  became 
one  of  the  most  important  officers  of  the  Church.  In  some 
Churches,  the  original  number  of  deacons,  seven,  was  not 
exceeded  for  several  generations  ^  That  the  deacons, 
possessing  so  much  actual  power,  did  not  always  confine 
themselves  within  the  proper  limits  of  their  office,  is 
evident  from  a  decree  of  the  early  part  of  the  fourth 
century*. 

But  the  needs  of  the  Church  occasioned  a  still  further 
extension  of  the  ranks  of  the  ministry.  In  the  third 
century  we  find  already,  besides  the  superior  orders,  sub- 
deacons,  acolyths,  exorcists,  readers,  and  door-keepers^. 
Those  who  were  destined  for  the  higher  office  passed  in 
most  instances  through  a  period  of  probation  in  these 
lower  stations. 

There  is  possibly  a  trace  of  the  office  of  Reader  even 
in  Scripture  itself;  and  the  homily  which  is  known  as  the 
Second  Epistle  of  Clement^,  and  which  is  not  later  than 


^  Smith  and  Cheetham,  Diet. 
Chr.  Antiq.  i.  526. 

2  Justin  Martyr,  Apol.  i.  65 ; 
Cyprian,  De  Lapsis,  c.  25  ;  Epist. 
5,  c.  2;  17,  c.  1;  15,  c.  1;  16,  c.  3 
(ed.  Hartel), 

3  Cone.  Neo-Cccsar.  c.  14  [al.  15]. 
(Mansi,  n.  546 ;  Eoutli's  Reliquia, 
IV.  185.)  Seven  was  the  number  of 
Roman  deacons  in  the  middle  of 
the  third  century.  Euseb.  H,  E. 
VI.  43.  11. 

*  Cone.  Arelat.  cc.  15, 18  (Mansi, 
II.  566). 

*  On  the  minor  orders  in  the 
first  two  centuries  see  A.  Harnack, 
Ueber  den  Unsprung  des  Lertorats 

C. 


und  der  anderen  niederen  Weilien, 
in  his  Texte  und  Untersuehungen, 
Band  ii.  Heft  5. 

6  Letter  of  Cornehus,  bishop  of 
Eome,  in  Euseb.  H.  E.  vi.  43.  11. 
The  Apostolieal  Constitutions  (viii. 
46.  7)  mention  only  subdeacous  and 
readers  (in  addition  to  the  higher 
orders)  as  appointed  by  the  Apo- 
stles. 

7  Eevel.  i,  3;  1  Tim.  iv.  13.  Com- 
pare Justin,  Apol.  I.  67. 

8  c.  19,  1 ;  a  passage  in  c.  17,  3 
seems  to  exclude  the  supposition 
that  it  was  to  be  read  by  a  pres- 
byter. 


9 


Chap.  VII. 
Deaeons, 


Areh- 
deacon. 


Other 

officers^. 
Circ. 
A.D.  250. 


Reader. 


130 


The  Organization  of  the  Church. 


the  middle  of  the  second  century,  certainly  seems  to  have 
been  written  with  a  view  to  being  publicly  delivered  by  a 
reader.  In  the  most  ancient  du'ections  for  the  ordination 
of  Church  ministers,  the  reader  is  mentioned  before  the 
deacon,  and  is  required  (among  other  qualifications)  to 
possess  the  gift  of  fluency,  "knowing  that  he  discharges 
the  office  of  an  evangelist^".  All  this  indicates  that  in 
the  early  days  of  the  Church  the  reader  was  a  person 
possessing  a  special  gift,  regarded  as  akin  to  that  of  pro- 
phecy, though  in  the  third  century  his  office  had  become 
mechanical,  and  he  was  ranked,  as  we  have  seen,  last  but 
one  of  the  minor  officials.  Even  then,  however,  when  his 
office  was  limited  to  the  reading  aloud  of  the  selected 
portions  of  Scripture  in  the  congregation,  he  retained 
traces  of  his  former  quasi-prophetic  office.  The  stipend 
which  is  assigned  to  hiin  is  said  to  be  "for  the  honour  of 
the  prophets  V'  and  in  his  ordination  the  Lord  is  implored 
to  bestow  upon  him  the  prophetic  spirit ^  It  is  noteworthy, 
that  all  the  ancient  Western  ordinals  refer  the  election  of 
the  reader  to  the  brethren,  meaning  probably  the  clergy*. 
He  was  anciently  ordained  with  laying- on  of  hands  ^;  later, 
by  the  delivery  of  the  book  from  which  he  was  to  read^ 

The  office  of  Exorcist  was  also  one  which  required  a 
special  gift — that  of  casting  out  evil  spirits^ — which  could 
not  be  conferred  by  the  laying-on  of  hands.  Hence  the 
exorcist  does  not  receive  ordination  in  that  form ;  the 
grace  that  is  in  him  is  manifest  to  alP.  The  ancient 
Western  ordinals  direct  the  bishop  to  constitute  an 
exorcist  by  delivering  to  him  a  book  of  exorcisms^ — the 
office  then  implying  duties  little  more  than  mechanical. 

Two  causes  contributed  to  render  necessary  an  order  of 
Subdeacons.  As  the  congregations  became  larger  and  the 
services  more  elaborate,  the  deacons  were  found  to  be  no 
longer  capable  of  discharging  all  the  offices  which  fell  to 
them,  in  the  congregation  and  out  of  it;  while  at  the  same 
time  a  religious  scruple  prevented  the  authorities  in  many 


^  Aiarayal  tQiv  'Attoctt.  c.  19 ;  in 
Harnack,  Texte  etc.  Bd.  ii.  p.  234 ; 
and  Lectorat  etc.  p.  17. 

2  Const.  Apost.  II.  28.  2. 

3  lb.  vni.  22;  Lagarde's  Iteli- 
quice  Juris  Eccl.  c.  11,  15.  8. 

*  E.  Hatcli  in  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq. 


s.v.  Ordination,  p.  150(5. 
"  Const.  Apost.  VIII.  22. 
e  Hatch,  u.s.  p.  1509. 
^  Cyprian,  Epist.  69,  c.  15. 

8  Const.  Apost.  vni.  26;  Lagarde's 
Beliquice,  c.  15. 

9  Hatch,  U.S.  p.  1609. 


The  Organization  of  the  Church. 


181 


cases,  even  in  large  towns,  from  appointing  a  larger  num- 
ber of  deacons  than  the  mystic  seven  sanctioned  by  the 
practice  of  the  Apostles  in  Jerusalem  \  Hence  a  subordi- 
nate order  was  instituted  to  discharge  such  portions  of  the 
Deacons'  office  as  might  be  delegated  to  them.  These 
officers  were  probably  first  appointed  in  a  Greek-speaking 
Church,  such  as  that  of  Rome,  for  even  Cyprian  speaks  of 
them  as  "hypodiaconi."  It  is  noteworthy  that  Fabian, 
who  was  bishop  of  Rome  in  the  middle  of  the  third 
century,  is  said'"*  to  have  appointed  seven  subdeacoos  in 
addition  to  the  already  existing  seven  deacons,  as  if  to 
bring  up  the  nvmiber  of  the  two  together  to  that  of  the 
"regions"  of  the  city,  to  which  greater  importance  had 
recently  been  given  by  the  appointment  of  a  kind  of  sub- 
prefect  in  each  by  Alexander  Severus.  We  have  not  suffi- 
cient information  to  enable  us  to  give  any  exact  definition 
of  the  duties  of  the  subdeacon  in  the  first  three  centuries. 
C}7)rian^  employed  them  as  his  messengers  to  the  Churches 
under  his  charge. 

The  aKoXouOo^;,  sometimes  spoken  of  under  the  equiva- 
lent Latin  name  "  se-^^uens*,"  was  the  follower  or  personal 
attendant  of  some  higher  official,  probably  a  presbyter. 
Their  appointment  seems  to  indicate  a  certain  increase  of 
state  and  dignity  in  the  higher  officials,  but  they  are  not 
mentioned,  in  this  early  period,  in  such  a  way  as  to  indicate 
with  any  exactness  the  duties  of  their  office.  The  number 
of  acolyths  at  Rome  mentioned  in  the  letter  of  Cornelius 
was  forty-two — just  thrice  the  number  of  the  regions  in 
the  city. 

As  the  deacons  came  to  be  more  and  more  occupied 
with  higher  duties,  the  lower  were  delegated  to  officials  of 
a  different  class.  Among  these  were  the  door-keepers 
(ostiarii  or  OvpwpoX)  who  discharged  the  duty  of  watching 
the  doors,  to  prevent  the  intrusion  of  improper  persons. 
They  are  first  mentioned  in  the  letter  of  Cornelius  of 
Rome  already  referred  to. 

These  were  the  male  officers  of  the  Church.  But  it  was 
thought  well  to  give  to  women  also  a  share  in  the  sacred 


1  See  above,  p.  129. 
"^  Liber  Pontijicalis,  no.  ii.  p.  148, 
ed.  Duchesne. 


'  Epist.  29 ;  34,  c.  4  etc. 
*  Lib.  Pontif.  no.ii.pp.  137,  161. 
Ed.  Duchesne. 

9—2 


Chap.  Vn. 


Acohjth. 


Door- 
keepers. 


132 


The  Organization  of  the  Church. 


ministry*.  The  widows  about  whom  directions  are  given 
in  the  Pastoral  Epistles^  seem  to  be  rather  those  whose 
maintenance  was  undertaken  by  the  Church  than  a  band 
of  workers.  No  mention,  at  least,  is  made  there  of  any 
special  work  entrusted  to  them,  though  the  fact  that  those 
placed  on  the  roll  were  required  to  be  already  distinguished 
for  good  works  seems  to  indicate  that  they  were  not  mere 
dependents  on  the  bounty  of  the  Church.  The  word 
"  widow  "^  however  soon  came  to  be  applied  to  single 
women  who  devoted  themselves  to  Church  work,  so  that 
Ignatius*  salutes  "the  virgins  who  are  called  widows,"  and 
Tertullian®  mentions — and  denounces — the  case  of  a  virgin 
who  had  been  entered  on  the  roll  of  widows  before  she  was 
twenty.  The  widows  were  to  be  engaged,  some  in  interces- 
sion and  in  waiting  for  the  enlightenment  of  the  Holy 
Spirit;  some  in  nursing  the  sick,  and  reporting  to  the 
presbyters  such  cases  as  required  their  help''. 

The  seclusion  of  women  in  the  East  rendered  them  in 
many  cases  inaccessible  to  the  ministrations  of  men,  and 
the  office  of  deaconess  was  created  to  reach  them^.  Thus 
we  find  Phoebe  called  by  the  same  title  as  a  male  deacon  ^ 
and  directions  given  about  the  qualifications  of  women- 
deacons".  Deaconesses,  like  widows,  might  be  either  vir- 
gins, or  widows  who  had  been  once  married*"'.  The  widows 
were  placed  under  the  orders  of  the  deaconesses",  who  are 
again  made  subject  to  the  deacons*^  The  duties  of  the 
deaconess,  besides  that  of  paying  pastoral  visits  to  women 
under  the  direction  of  the  bishop,  were,  to  keep  the  door 
of  the  women's  entrance  to  the  church,  and  to  perform 
such  portions  of  the  baptismal  rite  as  could  not  without 
indelicacy  be  undertaken  by  men".  She  was  to  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  bishop  only,  not  by  any  inferior  ofiicer". 

The  members  of  Christian  communities  in  the  neigh- 


^  dkiarayal,  C.  24. 

2  1  Tim.  V.  3—15. 

^  It  should  be  borne  in  mind 
that  neither  xvp''-  nor  vidua  of  their 
own  proper  force  imply  loss  of  a 
husband  or  wife.  See  W.  L.  Bevan 
in  Smith's  Diet,  of  the  Bible,  s.  v. 
Widoiv,  Vidua  is  used  in  classical 
Latin  for  unmarried  (Livy,  i.  46). 

'^  Ad  SmynuEos,  13. 

5  De  Virginihm  Vel.  9. 


^  AcaTayai,  C.  21. 

^  Const.  Apost.  III.  15.  5. 

^  AiaKovos,  Eom.  xvi.  1. 

9  1  Tim.  iii.  11.     See  Lightfoot, 
Philip,  p.  189. 
1"  Const.  Apost.  VI.  17. 
"  lb.  III.  7.  7. 

12  lb.  II.  26.  3. 

13  lb.  II.  57.  7;  III.  15.  6;  viii. 
23.  4. 

"  lb.  III.  11. 


The  Organization  of  the  Church. 


133 


bourhood  of  a  city  attended  its  services^  and  acknow- 
ledged the  authority  of  its  bishop.  Those  which  were 
more  remote  were  cared  for  by  their  own  presbyters  and 
deacons  * ;  or  sometimes  even  a  deacon,  without  bishop  or 
presbyter,  had  charge  of  a  congregation,  though  not,  of 
course,  so  as  to  exercise  specially  episcopal  functions  ^ 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  third  century  mention  is 
made  of  bishops  of  country  districts  {a'ypwv*)  as  well  as  of 
towns,  and  a  little  later  we  find  such  bishops  recognized 
under  the  title  of  'x^copeirlaKOTroi,  or  district-bishops ;  these, 
however,  had  no  power  of  ordaining  without  a  commission 
from  the  city-bishop  to  whom  they  were  subject^  We 
see  here  a  difference  of  rank  within  the  limits  of  the 
episcopal  order  itself 

As  to  the  election  of  bishops  and  other  officers  of  the 
Church,  Clement  of  Rome'*  describes  the  "bishops  and 
deacons,"  after  the  death  of  the  apostles,  as  being  ap- 
pointed by  "  men  of  consideration  "  with  the  assent  of  the 
whole  Church.  By  these  dvSpe^  eWoyt/Moi  may  possibly 
be  understood  men  like  Titus  and  Timothy,  commissioned 
by  the  apostles  themselves  to  "appoint  elders";  but  it 
seems  more  probable  that  the  term  is  intended  to  de- 
signate those  who  from  the  length  of  time  that  they  had 
been  disciples,  their  rank,  or  their  personal  qualities, 
exercised  a  dominant  influence  in  the  community ;  the 
"  seniors'"'  of  a  later  time.  At  all  events,  the  assent  of  the 
whole  Church  is  appealed  to  as  a  proof  of  the  validity  of 
the  appointment  of  the  rulers  who  succeeded  the  apostles. 
And  we  find  the  popular  election  of  bishops  still  main- 
tained in  the  third  century;  Cyprian*  represents  the  vote 
of  the  whole  brotherhood  in  a  city  as  necessary  for  the 
valid  appointment  of  its  bishop,  the  lay  people  as  having 
a  dominant  influence  in  choosing  good  pastors  and  reject- 
ing bad.  Even  if  there  were  in  a  city  but  three  Christians 
competent  to  vote,  they  were  still  to  have  a  bishop,  but 


^  Justin  Martyr,  Apol.  r.  c.  67. 
^  Cyprian,  Epist.  15,  c.  1. 
3  Cone.  Elib.  c.  77"(Mansi,  ii. 
18). 

*  In  a  letter  of  the  Church  of  An- 
tioch,  in  Euseb.  H.  E.  vii.  30.  10. 

*  Cone.  Ancijr.  c.  13  (Mansi,  ii. 
517) ;    compare   Cone.  Neo-Ccesar, 


c.  13  [al.  14],  (Mansi,  ii.  546). 

^  Ad  Corinth,  c.  44. 

^  Gesta  Purgationis  CcBciliani 
etc.  p.  268  (in  Optatus's  Worhs) ; 
in  this  passage  "  seniores"  are  dis- 
tinct from  "presbyteri." 

8  Epist.  67,  cc.  3—5;  55,  c.  8, 
Compare  Const.  Apost.  Yin.  4.  2. 


Chap.  VII. 


Chor- 
episcopi. 


Election  of 
Bishops. 


134 


The  Organization  of  the  Church. 


their  choice  was  to  be  assisted  and  ratified  by  their 
brethren  from  a  neighbouring  city\  But  after  that  the 
relations  of  Churches  and  bishops  to  each  other  had  been 
developed  and  organized,  another  element  appears  in  the 
choice  of  prelates, — the  assent  of  the  neighbouring  com- 
provincial bishops".  But  this  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
universally  required ;  in  Alexandria,  at  least,  up  to  the 
middle  of  the  third  century,  the  presbyters  always  nomi- 
nated as  bishop  one  chosen  out  of  their  own  body,  just 
as  an  army  might  elect  a  generaP.  A  later  authority* 
says  that  it  was  not  until  the  time  of  Alexander  (a.d. 
313 — 336)  that  the  presbyters  ceased  to  ordain  the 
patriarch. 

The  choice  of  the  person,  however,  to  whom  the 
episcopal  office  was  to  be  committed  was  a  matter  entirely 
distinct  from  the  conferring  of  the  distinctive  authority 
of  the  office.  The  person  once  chosen  received  the  im- 
position of  hands  from  his  fellow  bishops,  and  was  regarded 
not  simply  as  the  elected  head  of  the  community,  but  as 
invested  with  an  authority  derived  from  the  Lord  Himself^; 
the  voice  of  the  people  was  the  voice  of  God*^;  the  bishops 
were  successors  of  the  Apostles';  the  gifts  conferred  by 
ordination  were  divine.  Three  bishops,  or  two  at  least, 
were  to  lay  hands  on  the  head  of  the  person  to  be 
consecrated  ^ 

Nor  was  it  the  bishop  only  who  was  chosen  by  the 
voice  of  the  community  over  which  he  was  to  preside ; 
ministers  of  other  orders,  not  only  presbyters  and  deacons, 
but  even  readers,  were  not  appointed  in  ordinary  cases 
without  the  people  being  summoned  to  deliberate  on 
their  merits ;  though  in  cases  where  a  special  fitness  was 
manifest  the  bishop  might  exercise  his  individual  judg- 
ment and  authority**.  In  ordination  to  inferior  offices,  not 
more  than  one  bishop  was  required  to  lay  hands  on  the 


1  Aiarayal  tGiv  'Attoctt.  C.  16,  in 
Harnack,  Texte  etc.  ii.  2,  p.  232. 

2  Cyprian,  Epist.  59,  c.  5,   and 
67,  c.  5. 

3  Jerome,  Epist.  146,  ad  Evang. 
(0pp.  I.  1082). 

*  Eutychius,     Annales,    i.     331 
(quoted  by  Lightfoot,  229). 


"   Cyprian,  Epist.  3,  c.  3  ;    66, 
c.  9. 

6  Cyprian,  Epist.  58,  c.  5;  66, 
c.  1. 

7  lb.  45,  c.  3. 

8  Cone.  Arelat.  (a.d.  314),  c.  20, 
in  Mansi,  ii.  473;  Can.  Apust.  1. 

9  Cyprian,  Epist.  38. 


The  Organization  of  the  Church. 


135 


head  of  the  candidate  \  In  some  cases  unction  was  added 
to  the  laying-on  of  hands. 

The  bishop  was  for  the  most  part  chosen  from  the 
members  of  the  Church  over  which  he  was  to  preside,  and 
generally  from  among  those  who  had  already  borne  some 
office  in  the  ministry';  he  who  had  borne  well  the  in- 
ferior office  earned  for  himself  a  higher  place.  That  in 
times  of  j^eril  the  communities  endeavoured  to  choose  men 
fitted  by  age,  character,  and  holiness  to  guide  them  aright 
will  readily  be  understood.  The  training  of  the  Spirit, 
the  education  of  practical  work,  superseded  in  early  days 
special  schools  for  the  clergy ;  yet  the  catechetic  school  of 
Alexandria  rose  into  fame  in  the  third  century,  and  came 
to  be  regarded  as  an  advantageous  place  of  training  for 
those  who  were  to  undertake  the  sacred  ministry;  and 
schools  frequented  by  Christians  were  formed  at  Csesarea, 
Antioch  and  Rome.  The  older  Christian  writers,  as 
Clement  of  Alexandria  and  the  Apologists,  owed  their 
learning  and  cultivation  to  heathen  and  not  to  Christian 
schools. 

While  Christian  teachers  were  insisting  on  the  parallel 
between  the  Christian  ministry  and  the  Jewish  priest- 
hood, in  one  respect  at  least  they  entirely  deserted  this 
analogy.  Marriage  had  been  held  in  honour  among  the 
Jews,  and  Jewish  priests  had  been  always  married.  But 
even  in  early  days  a  notion  that  marriage  implied  im- 
perfect sanctity  crept  into  the  Christian  Church ;  and 
as  imperfect  sanctity  was  certainly  not  befitting  those 
who  served  the  altar,  the  celibacy  of  priests  came  first 
to  be  recommended  and  then  to  be  enjoined.  Second 
marriages  of  the  clergy  were  from  the  first  discom- 
mended'*, and  even  held  to  exclude  from  ecclesiastical 
offices^;  but  no  evidence  is  found®  of  the  actual  pro- 
hibition of  marriage  to  the  higher  orders  of  the  ministry 


1  Constt.  Apost.  viii.  cc.  16 — 22. 

'■^  Cyprian,  Epist.  55,  c.  8. 

^  H.  C.  Lea,  Historical  Sketch  of 
Sacerdotal  Celibacy  (Philadelphia, 
1869);  J.  A.  and  A.  Theiner,  Die 
Einftihrung  der  erzioungenen  Ehe- 
losigkeit. 

*  1  Tim.  iii.  2;  TertuUian,  De 
Exhort.  Cast.  c.  11. 


^  Origen,  in  Lucam,  Horn.  17, 
p.  953. 

^  The  passage  inserted  by  Ri- 
gault's  MS.  in  TertuUian,  De  Ex- 
hort. Cast.  c.  10,  even  if  genuine, 
is  very  far  from  proving  that  the 
church  of  the  second  century  en- 
joined the  celibacy  of  the  clergy. 


Chap.  VII. 


Qualifica- 
tions, 


Celibacy'^. 


136 


The  Organization  of  the  Church. 


until  the  very  end  of  the  third  century  or  the  beginning 
of  the  fourth.  At  that  period  a  diversity  of  practice 
clearly  existed  in  the  Church ;  we  find  excommunication 
denounced  against  any  bishop,  presbyter,  or  deacon  who 
should  put  away  his  wife  under  pretence  of  living  a  more 
ascetic  life';  while  of  those  who  were  unmarried  when 
ordained,  only  readers  and  choristers  were  permitted  to 
marry '^;  again,  it  is  laid  down  that  bishops,  presbyters, 
deacons,  and  other  clerks  engaged  in  the  work  of  the 
ministry  should  not  dwell  with  their  wives*.  A  special 
provision  was  made  by  the  council  of  Ancyra*  for  the 
case  of  deacons.  If  a  deacon  on  ordination  declared  that 
he  could  not  engage  to  lead  a  life  of  continence,  he  was 
permitted  to  marry ;  but  if  he  was  ordained  without  any 
such  declaration,  he  was  to  be  degraded  from  his  office  if 
he  afterwards  married.  It  is  evident  however  that  there 
was  at  this  time  no  absolute  and  universal  prohibition 
of  marriage  to  the  clergy,  for  several  distinguished  clerics 
of  the  fourth  and  later  centuries  are  known  to  have  been 
married ;  nor  does  that  state  seem  in  their  case  to  have 
been  regarded  as  in  any  way  involving  disgrace  or  in- 
feriority. 

We  find  in  the  earliest  age  of  the  Church  no  distinct 
ordinance  as  to  the  maintenance  of  its  ministers;  no  doubt 
many,  like  St  Paul,  lived  by  the  labour  of  their  hands; 
yet  the  great  principle,  that  the  labourer  is  worthy  of  his 
hire,  and  that  those  who  preach  the  gospel  should  live  of 
the  gospel,  was  always  admitted ;  they  who  waited  at  the 
altar  became  partakers  of  the  offerings  of  the  faithful  at 
the  altar;  and  these  free-will  offerings  soon  came  to  be 
regarded  as  the  equivalents  for  the  tithes  of  the  Mosaic 
law^  As  the  clergy  were  more  and  more  withdrawn 
from  all  participation  in  secular  affairs  ^  it  became  more 
and  more  necessary  to  provide  them  an  independent  sub- 
sistence. 

It  is  evident  from  the  very  nature  of  the  Church  of 
Christ  that  the  church  of  any  one  city  could  not  remain 
in  loveless  isolation  from  other  churches ;  the  community 


^  Can.  Apost.  5. 

2  lb.  26;     compare   Cone.   Neo- 
Cccsar.  (a.d.  314)  c.  1. 
8  Cone.   Eiiber.    c.   33;    Arelat, 


c.  6. 


*  Can.  10. 

^  Cyprian,  Epist.  1,  c.  1. 

"  Can.  Apost.  6. 


The  Organization  of  the  Church. 


137 


of  life,  discipline,  and  doctrine,  which  are  inherent  in  the 
very  conception  of  the  church,  forbade  it.  As  individuals 
formed  a  particular  church,  so  all  the  churches  taken  to- 
gether formed  the  Catholic  Church ;  and  as  the  bishop  with 
his  presbyters  formed  the  council  of  a  particular  commu- 
nity, so  an  assembly  of  bishops  formed  the  council  of  a 
district  or  province.  Synods  were  a  natural  product  of 
the  life  of  the  church ;  they  were  the  principal  manifesta- 
tions of  its  unity  both  in  doctrine  and  discipline ;  it  was 
their  work  to  concert  common  action  for  the  resisting  of 
heresy,  the  healing  of  schism,  the  restoration  of  discipline. 
The  bishop  seems  in  all  cases  to  have  represented  his 
church  at  these  assemblies ;  as  each  bishop  was  the  centre 
of  unity  in  his  own  church,  so  the  assembled  bishops  repre- 
sented'"' the  unity  of  a  larger  portion  of  the  church  uni- 
versal. Of  general  councils  we  of  course  hear  nothing 
until  the  cessation  of  persecution  permitted  the  assembling 
of  prelates  from  every  quarter  of  the  Roman  world. 

But  though  bishops  were  the  ordinary  and  indispens- 
able members  of  a  synod,  yet  presbyters  also  took  part  in 
their  deliberations.  In  Cappadocia,  seniors  and  presidents^ 
assembled  every  year  to  arrange  matters  of  common  con- 
cern. At  the  synod  of  Antioch,  it  was  the  presbyter  Mal- 
chion  who  refuted  Paul  of  Samosata,  and  in  the  synodal 
letter  the  presbyters  Malchion  and  Lucius  are  named  ^ 
expressly,  while  several  of  the  bishops  are  not.  The  regu- 
lar constitution  of  a  council  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourth 
century  was  probably  that  described  in  the  preamble  to 
the  canons  of  Elvira*;  "when  the  bishops  had  taken  their 
seats,  twenty-six  presbyters  also  sitting  with  them,  and 
the  deacons  and  the  whole  commonalty  (plebs)  standing 
by;  the  bishops  said  "...The  canons  run  in  the  name  of 
the  bishops,  though  the  presbyters  no  doubt  took  part  in 


1  Hefele,  Conciliejigeschichte,  Bd. 
I.  (tr.  in  Clark's  Theol.  Library) ; 
A.  W.  Haddan,  in  Smith  and  Cheet- 
ham's  Diet,  of  Chr.  Antiq.  s.v. 
Council  (i.  473  ff.). 

-  The  word  "  reprsesentatio "  is 
Tertullian's  (Be  Jejuniis,  c.  13). 
It  seems  probable,  on  the  whole, 
that  his  "concilia  ex  universis  ec- 
clesiis"  were  not  Montanistic. 


^  "  Seniores  et  praepositi"  (Fir- 
milian  to  Cyprian,  Cypr.  Epist.  75, 
c.  4).  It  is  not  quite  certain  here 
that  "  seniores"  are  identical  with 
"l^resbyteri." 

*  Euseb.  H.  E.  vii,  30;  Eouth's 
Reliquice,  ni.  287  ff. 

*  See  the  various  readings  in 
Bruns's  Canones,  ir.  1. 


Chap.  VU. 


Synods^. 


Composi- 
tion of 
Synods. 


138 


The  Organization  of  the  Church. 


the  deliberations,  and  the  deacons  and  people  had  perhaps 
the  same  kind  of  tumultuary  influence  as  the  commons  at 
an  English  witenagemot. 

When  it  became  usual  for  the  bishops  of  neighbouring 
churches  to  meet  for  deliberation  on  matters  of  common 
interest,  it  was  necessary  that  some  one  of  their  number 
should  have  the  power  both  of  summoning  assemblies  and 
of  presiding  in  them.  Thus,  although  in  spiritual  powers 
all  bishops  were  equal,  a  certain  precedence  in  dignity 
came  to  be  assigned  to  the  occupants  of  certain  ancient 
and  important  sees.  It  is  probable  indeed  that  a  certain 
subordination  among  churches  existed  from  the  first.  As 
in  every  city  where  Jews  were  found  in  large  numbers, 
its  sanhedrin  exercised  authority  over  the  councils  of 
the  smaller  synagogues  in  the  neighbourhood ;  so,  when 
the  faith  of  Christ  came  to  be  preached — and  it  was  first 
preached  by  preference  in  cities  containing  Jewish  com- 
munities—a presbytery  with  its  bishop  was  formed  from 
the  converts  \  which  naturally  took  the  oversight  of  smaller 
neighbouring  communities  in  much  the  same  way  that 
the  Jewish  presbytery  had  done  that  of  its  dependents. 
In  some  cases  the  senior  bishop,  without  reference  to  his 
see,  presided  in  councils;  but  generally  the  bishop  of  the 
chief  town  of  a  province — where  also  the  church  generally 
claimed  an  apostle  or  apostolic  man  as  its  founder — sum- 
moned and  presided  in  assemblies,  and  exercised  a  vague 
authority  over  his  comprovincial  bishops.  The  great  me- 
tropolitan sees  were  the  following, 

Jerusalem  itself,  blessed  with  the  presidency  of  St 
James  and  afterwards  of  others  of  the  same  family,  had  a 
natviral  preeminence  among  Jewish-Christian  churches'. 
But  when,  after  the  rebellion  in  the  time  of  Hadrian,  the 
purely  Gentile  town  of  ^Elia  Capitolina  rose  upon  the 
ruins  of  the  sacred  city  *,  its  prerogative  passed  to  Csesarea, 
the  political  capital  of  Palestine,  where  the  church  was  at 
any  rate  of  apostolic  origin,  and  illustrious  from  the  memory 
of  St  Peter  and  of  St  Philip  the  Evangelist.  In  Syria 
and   the    neighbouring    countries    the    pre-eminence    of 


^  The  parallelism  of  Jewish  and 
Christian  organization  is  noticed 
by  DoUinger,  Ilandhuch,  i.  354. 

-  Diet,  of  Chr.  Antiq.  s.v.  Metro- 


politan. 

=*  Hegesippus  in  Euseb.  H.  E. 
III.  32.  6. 

4  See  p.  51. 


The  Organization  of  the  Church. 


139 


Antioch,  the  first  meeting-point  of  Jewish  and  Gentile 
Christianity,  was  long  acknowledged.  Alexandria^  rose 
into  prominence  at  a  somewhat  later  period.  Here  was 
found  the  most  numerous  and  important  Jewish  com- 
munity existing  beyond  the  limits  of  Palestine ;  and  here 
too  was  formed  in  the  course  of  the  first  two  centuries  a 
Christian  church  so  important  that  its  bishop  ranked  first 
among  the  bishops  of  the  East,  though  it  was  not  of  the 
very  highest  antiquity,  nor  founded  by  an  Apostle.  The 
authority  of  this  church  extended  itself — like  that  of  the 
Sanhedrin  in  the  same  place — over  the  communities  in 
the  Cyrenaica  and  in  Libya,  though  Cyrene  and  Libya- 
Mareotis  belonged  politically  to  the  province  of  Africa  and 
not  to  Egypt ;  a  proof  that  the  ecclesiastical  was  not  always 
identical  with  the  political  province. 

Rome  had  probably  a  larger  Jewish  population  than 
any  other  city  of  the  West,  and  here  too  a  Christian  church 
was  formed,  if  not  by  an  Apostle,  at  least  in  the  lifetime  of 
many  Apostles.  It  was  inevitable  that  the  church  in  the 
capital  of  the  world,  when  it  came  to  be  an  important 
body,  should  exercise  a  dominant  authority  over  the 
churches  of  the  neighbouring  cities.  Such  was  in  fact 
the  case,  though  its  predominance  was  not  at  once  recog- 
nized. 

The  first  and  natural  centre  of  the  church  on  earth 
was  of  course  Jerusalem,  where  the  Holy  Spirit  was  first 
given ;  hence  Jewish-Christian  fiction  in  the  second 
century  gives  to  St  James  the  Lord's  brother  the  title  of 
"bishop  of  bishops^,"  and  regards  him  as  the  centre  of  eccle- 
siastical unity.  But  on  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by 
Hadrian,  the  central  power  of  Christendom  passed,  by  a 
kind  of  natural  affinity,  to  the  middle  point  of  the  political 
world,  Rome ;  henceforth,  St  Peter  and  not  St  James  is 
the  central  figure  with  the  Christians  of  the  Hebrew  fac- 
tion. It  is  again  in  Judaizing  fiction  that  St  Peter — the 
first-fruits  of  the  Lord  as  the  primaeval  bishops  were  of  the 
apostles — is  represented  as  possessing  supreme  authority 


1  Eutychius  of  Alexandria,  Ec- 
clesiic  suce  Origines,  from  the  Ara- 
bic, in  Seldeni  Opera,  ii.  410 ;  J. 
M.  Neale,  Hist,  of  the  Eastern  Ch., 
Patriarchate  of  Alexandria,  Bk.  i, 


-  Clementine  Epist.  ad  Jacohum, 
"KXi)/;iijs  'laKw^u)  TCf  Kvpic^  Kal  iwi- 
(TKuwajv  iTrKTKOjru}."  Compare  Ham. 
III.  C2. 


Chap.  VII. 

Antioch. 

Alex- 
andria. 


Rome. 


St  James. 


St  Peter 
in  the 
Clement- 
ines. 


140 


The  Organization  of  the  Church. 


in  the  Roman  church,  and  handing  on  the  privileges  of  his 
cathedra  to  his  faithful  disciple  Clement  \  Yet  Dionysius 
of  Corinth,  who  had  the  greatest  respect  for  the  Roman  See, 
knows  nothing  of  the  See  of  St  Peter,  but  refers  the  foun- 
dation of  the  Roman  church  to  St  Paul  and  St  Peter  in 
common ^  Tertullian  ranks  Rome,  with  Corinth,  Philippi, 
Thessalonica  and  Ephesus,  among  the  apostolic  sees*,  and 
agrees  with  the  Clementines  in  regarding  St  Peter  as  first 
bishoj)  of  Rome  and  as  having  ordained  Clement  as  his 
successor*;  yet  he  treats  with  the  utmost  scorn  the  claim 
of  the  "  pontifex  maximus  "  to  be  a  bishop  of  bishops,  or 
by  his  own  authority  to  grant  remission  of  penalties  for 
certain  ofiences^  Irenseus,  in  an  interesting  passage®, 
refers  to  the  ancient  and  glorious  Roman  see  as  the  ac- 
knowledged preserver  of  the  traditions  derived  from  the 
two  great  apostles  its  founders,  and  therefore  having  a 
natural  precedence^  among  the  churches.  Cyprian,  who 
regards  Rome  as  certainly  the  see  of  Peter  and  the  centre 
of  unity  in  the  church*,  urges  that  the  gift  of  the  Lord  to 
St  Peter  was  identically  the  same  as  that  to  all  the 
Apostles ;  if  it  was  given  to  one  in  token  of  its  unity,  it 
was  given  to  many  in  token  of  its  variety®;  all  bishops 
alike  are  successors  of  St  Peter";  for  one  bishop  to  claim 
an  episcopate  over  his  brother  bishops  is  simple  tyranny". 
The  claim  of  Rome  to  be  "cathedra  Petri"  was  ac- 
knowledged from  the  end  of  the  second  century.  But  it  is 
needless  to  seek  the  grounds  of  the  Roman  primacy  in  a 
supposed  supremacy  of  St  Peter  and  a  supposed  commis- 
sion of  St  Peter  to  those  who  should  occupy  the  Roman 
see.  The  causes  which  really  led  to  the  pre-eminence  of 
the  Roman  church  and  its  bishop  are  sufficiently  obvious. 


^  Epist.  ad  Jac.  2.  On  the 
Papal  claims  see  I.  Barrow,  Trea- 
tise of  the  Papers  Supremacy ;  L. 
E.  Dupin,  De  Primatu  Romani 
Pontificis,  in  his  De  Ant.  Ecclesice 
Disciplina;  J.  Bass  Mullinger  in 
Smith  and  Cheetham's  Diet,  of 
C'hr.  Antiq.  s.v.  Pope;  G.  Phillips, 
Kirchenrecht,  vol.  v.;  J.  Green- 
wood, Cathedra  Petri,  vol.  i.;  J.  F. 
von  Schulte,  Concilien,  Pcipste,  und 
Bisclwfe ;  T.  W.  Allies,  per  Cru- 
cem  ad  Lucem,  vol.  ii.  p.  217  ff. 


2  Euseb.  H.  E.  ii.  25.  8. 

2  De  PrcBscript.  c.  36. 

^  Ih.  c.  32. 

"  De  Pudicitia,  c.  1. 

«  Ha!res.  in.  3.  2. 

^  Potior  [al.  potentior]  principal- 
itas. 

8  Epist.  59,  c.  14;  55,  c.  8. 

»  De  Unit.  Eccl.  c.  4. 
10  Epist.  33,  c.  1. 

1^  Concil.  Carthag.  in  Cyprian,  p. 
436  (ed.  Hartel). 


The  Organization  of  the  Church. 


141 


All  the  roads  in  the  world  led  to  Rome,  all  nations  and 
sects  were  represented  there;  and  probably  those  obscure 
bishops  of  Rome  in  the  second  century  had  more  of  the 
governing  instinct  than  their  more  literary  and  contem- 
plative brethren  in  the  East.  The  majesty  of  the  eternal 
city  could  not  fail  to  add  dignity  to  its  bishop.  It  was 
not,  so  far  as  we  can  now  trace,  the  greatness  of  particular 
bishops  which  raised  the  church  of  Rome  to  its  pre-eminence; 
if  there  were  among  them  saints  and  martyrs,  there  were 
also  some  whose  name  bears  no  good  odour;  but  all  were 
eager  for  Roman  interests.  Callistus  was  probably  a  man 
of  doubtful  character^  but  he  at  least  strengthened  the 
position  of  the  episcopate  by  the  declaration,  that  a  bishop 
could  in  no  case  be  deposed  by  the  presbytery,  not  even  in 
case  of  mortal  sin.  If  Marcellinus  offered  incense  to  idols, 
the  Roman  legend  turns  even  his  fall  to  account,  saying 
that  it  was  only  by  his  own  voice  that  he  was  condemned, 
for  "  the  first  see  is  judged  by  no  man**."  In  spite  of  indi- 
vidual failures,  the  Roman  church,  like  the  Roman  nation, 
steadily  pursued  its  aim  of  ruling  the  peoples.  It  gained 
its  end,  so  far  as  the  western  churches  are  concerned, 
yet  not  without  many  struggles.  Its  claim  to  settle  con- 
troversy by  an  authoritative  decision  was  vehemently 
rejected  in  the  second  and  third  centuries  by  the  Asiatic 
and  the  African  churches,  and  it  was  not  until  political 
causes  powerfully  co-operated  with  spiritual  that  the  power 
of  the  great  Roman  patriarchate  was  consolidated.  With- 
in the  first  three  centuries  it  exercised  authority  over  the 
"suburbicarian"  provinces  in  Central  and  Southern  Italy, 
and  a  vague  influence  over  the  churches  of  southern  Gaul, 
to  which  bishops  were  sent  from  Rome^. 


1  See  p.  81. 

-  Roman  Breviary,  Apr.  26,  Lect. 
v;  Hardouin,  Concilia,  i.  217. 


3  Cyprian,   Epist,  68 ;    compare 
Gregory  of  Tours,  Hist.  Franc,  i. 

28. 


Chap.  VII. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


SOCIAL   LIFE   AND   CEREMONIES   OF   THE   CHURCH. 


1.  We  might  express  the  great  difference  between 
the  life  of  Christians  and  that  of  the  world  around  them 
by  saying  that  within  the  Church  were  special  gifts  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  Outward  signs  of  the  presence  of  the  Spirit 
— prophecy,  healing  of  disease,  casting  out  of  demons — 
were  still  recognized  in  the  first  three  centuries  I  Ter- 
tullian''  speaks  as  if  it  were  an  e very-day  matter  for  a 
Christian  to  compel  a  demon  to  disclose  himself  and  quit 
the  afflicted  person.  And  not  less  certain  signs  of  the 
presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  were  seen  in  the  love  and 
beneficence  of  the  brethren  towards  each  other.  Family 
life  received  a  new  sacredness.  Children  were  looked  upon 
as  a  precious  trust,  to  be  trained  in  the  chastening  of  the 
Lord  for  a  higher  life.  Husband  and  wife  who  were  heirs 
together  of  the  grace  of  life  were  drawn  together  in  a 
closer  bond.  Tertullian*  draws  a  charming  picture  of  the 
serene  happiness  of  a  wedded  pair  who  have  all  their 
thoughts  in  common ;  who  share  one  hope  and  one  service 
of  God ;  who  pray  together,  fast  together,  and  approach 


^  C.  Schmidt,  Im  Societe  Civile 
et  sa  Tramformation  par  le  Chris- 
tiariismc,  tr.  by  Mary  Thorpe,  under 
the  title  Social  RestiUs  of  Early 
Christianity,  Lond.,  1885;  F.  Miiu- 
ter,  die  Christin  im  Heidn.  Hause: 
C.  C.  J.  Bunsen,  Ilippolyttis  and  his 
Ape,  vol.  3;  C.  J.  Hefele,  Ueher 
den  Rigorismus  in  dem  Lehen  der 
alien  Christen  (in  his  Beitriige  zur 
Kirchengeschichte  n.  s.  w.  i.  16  ff.) ; 
W.E.H.  Lecky,  History  of  European 
Morals,   vol.   2 ;   M.   Carriere,   Die 


Kunst  in  Zusammenhang  der  Cultur- 
entwickelung,  vol.  3;  E.  de  Pres- 
sense,  Christian  Life  and  Practice 
in  tlie  Rarly  Church,  from  the  French 
by  A.  Harwood-Holmden. 

2  Irenffius  ii.  32,  4.  5;  Euseb. 
H.  E.  V.  7. 

=*  Ad  Scapulam  2,  4;  Apol.  23; 
cf.  Justin  M.  Apol.  ii.  8;  Trypho 
85;  Origen  c.  Cels.  iii.  p.  133  sp. 

*  Ad  U.rorem  u.  9.  Compare 
Clement  Strom,  in.  10. 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


143 


together  the  Table  of  the  Lord.  Marriage  was  regarded 
as  indissoluble,  except  in  case  of  adultery  \  Nay,  in  the 
view  of  some  even  death  itself  did  not  dissolve  it,  and 
second  marriage  was,  to  such,  only  respectable  adultery  I 
Doubts  were  early  raised  whether  marriage  was  permitted 
to  the  clergy^.  Marriages  between  Christians  and  heathens 
were  of  course  looked  upon  with  disfavour*.  The  poor, 
widows  and  orphans,  those  who  were  sick  or  in  prison,  and 
friendless  Christian  strangers,  were  the  charge  of  the 
community.  For  these  contributions  were  made  at  the 
celebration  of  the  Eucharist^  Ladies  visited  the  poor  at 
their  own  homes".  Large  sums  were  given  for  the  re- 
demption of  captives^  Never  was  the  helpfulness  and 
the  courage  in  the  presence  of  danger  which  distinguished 
the  brotherhood  more  marked  than  in  time  of  pestilence. 
While  pagans  deserted  their  nearest  kindred,  or  cast  them 
half-dead  into  the  streets.  Christians  gave  the  utmost  care 
to  the  sick  and  the  dead.  Christian  or  pagan,  regardless 
of  the  deadly  atmosphere  which  they  breathed**.  The 
Christian  regarded  his  whole  life  as  guarded  by  Christ 
and  loved  the  sign  of  His  Cross". 

Christians  lived  in  the  world  as  not  of  the  world. 
They  were  serious  while  much  of  the  world  around  them 
was  frivolous.  Many  of  the  amusements  and  occupations 
of  paganism  seemed  incompatible  with  a  life  vowed  to 
God.  The  pagan  divinities  seemed  to  them  evil  demons'", 
and  their  votaries  given  over  to  a  strong  delusion.  And 
as  splendid  dress  and  decorative  art  were  largely  in  the 
service  of  pagan  worship,  they  looked  with  suspicion  and 
dislike  upon  all  artificial  attractions.  Every  trade  which 
ministered  to  idolatry  was  of  course  forbidden ;  and  some 
regarded  the  disguises  of  a  stage-player  as  a  kind  of 
deceit  and  fraud  not  permitted  to  true  worshippers".  Such 
teachers  also  inveighed  against  elegance  and  attractive- 
ness in  women's  dress  as  unwoi'thy  of  those  who  should  be 
devoted  to  Christ ^l     And  even  without  such  admonition. 


1  Jerome,  Epist.  30,  c.  1. 

-  Athenagoras,  Legal.  33. 

3  Above,  p.  135. 

*  Tertullian,  Ad  Uxorem,  ii.  3,  4. 

^  Justin  M.  Apol.  i.  67. 

6  TertuU.  Ad  Uxor.  ii.  4,  8. 

'  Cyprian,  Epist.  62. 


8  Pontius,  Vita  Cypriani,  c.  12; 
Euseb.  H.  E.  vir.  22. 

"  Tertullian,  de  Cor.  Militis  3. 

!•>  lA.De  Idolol.  20;  Origen  c.  Cels. 
bk.  VII.,  p.  378,  sp. 

"  Tertullian,  I)e  Spectacidis  23. 

12  Id.  De  Cultu  Feminarum,  ii.  2. 


Ch.  VIII. 


144 


Social  Life  and  Geremonies  of  the  Church. 


in  time  of  persecution,  the  realities  of  life  were  too  ab- 
sorbing to  permit  much  attention  to  be  given  to  its  orna- 
mentation. Civic  life  was  so  interwoven  with  pagan 
worship,  so  many  common  observances  implied  a  recog- 
nition of  some  deity,  that  Christian  life  in  the  midst  of 
heathenism  was  full  of  pitfalls.  It  was  doubted  by  some 
whether  it  was  lawful  to  wear  a  garland  on  the  head\  or 
to  wreathe  the  door  posts,  on  occasions  of  public  festivity. 
Already  in  the  time  of  St  Paul  perplexity  arose  from  the 
fact  that  portions  of  the  victims  offered  in  sacrifice  were 
publicly  sold  at  the  shambles,  and  this  must  have  con- 
tinued so  long  as  pagan  sacrifices  were  tolerated.  Some 
doubted  whether  it  was  lawful  for  a  Christian  to  serve 
in  the  Roman  armies,  under  standards  which  implied  a 
deification  of  the  emperor  ^  Those  who  served  could  how- 
ever point  to  the  examples  of  the  centurion  at  Capernaum 
and  of  Cornelius,  who  are  not  recorded  to  have  left  their 
military  profession. 

2.  The  horror  which  the  Christian  felt  towards  the 
Pagan  world  expressed  itself  in  an  extreme  form  in  the 
rigorous  life  which  was  known  as  Asceticism^ ;  a  life,  that 
is,  of  self-denial  such  as  was  not  expected  from  the  ordinary 
Christian.  Ascetics  were  distinguished  by  their  with- 
drawing— so  far  as  might  be — from  the  world,  and  devoting 
themselves  to  prayer  and  meditation  on  holy  things ;  by 
their  scanty  diet  and  abstinence  from  marriage.  To  such 
was  assigned  a  special  rank  in  the  house  of  prayer*.  As 
early  as  the  latter  half  of  the  second  century  we  find  both 
men  and  women  devoting  themselves  to  life-long  celibacy 
in  the  hope  of  nearer  communion  with  God^  The  apo- 
logist Tatian  was  a  leader  of  those  who  from  their  severe 
self-control  were  called  Encratites"^ ;  and  Hieracas'',  a  pupil 
of  Origen  and  in  many  ways  a  distinguished  man,  held 


^  Tertullian,  De  Corona  Militis. 

2  Justin  M.  Apol.  i.  14 ;  Athena- 
goras,  Leg.  c.  35;  Tertullian,  De 
Idolol.  c.  19;  De  Cor.  Mil.  cc.  10, 
11;  Origen,  c.  Cels.  v.  33;  vii.  26; 
VIII.  73.  It  is  certain  however  that 
in  fact  many  Christians  served ;  see 
Tertullian,  Apol.  37,  42;  Euseb. 
H.  E.  VIII.  4;  X.  8;  and  the  story 
of  the  Thundering  Legion,  Tert. 
ad   Scap.    4  ;    see   p.    41    of    this 


volume,  and  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  s.  v. 
War. 

3  Bingham's  Antiq.  Bk.  vii. ;  I. 
Gregory  Smith,  in  Diet,  of  Chr. 
Antiq.  s.  v. 

*  Constt.  Apost.  VIII.  13.  4. 

^  Athenagoras,  Legatio  33. 

^  Epiphanius,  Hceres.  47. 

^  See  above,  p.  74;  Epiphan. 
Hcer.  67.  Neander,  Ch.  Hist.  ii. 
515  (Torrey's  Tr.). 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


145 


principles  hardly  less  rigid.  Under  the  influence  of  such 
principles,  women  lived  unmarried  under  vows,  not  yet 
absolutely  perpetual  ^  Some,  in  their  exaltation,  were  led 
to  attempt  that  which  is  above  nature,  living,  while  vowed 
to  continence,  in  the  same  house  and  in  the  utmost 
familiarity  with  men  bound  by  similar  vows'^  Such  arro- 
gant purity,  which  was  found  to  have  evil  consequences, 
was  forbidden  by  a  definite  enactment  in  the  beginning 
of  the  fourth  century^  This  appreciation  of  virginity  not 
unnaturally  led  to  depreciation  of  marriage,  to  which  no 
doubt  some  of  the  coarse  associations  of  heathenism  still 
clung.  So  much  coarseness  in  truth  was  found  in  pagan 
marriage-feasts  that  Cyprian*  thought  them  no  fit  scenes 
for  the  presence  of  a  disciple  of  Christ. 

3.  The  feeling  of  the  vanity  of  earthly  things  and  of 
the  need  of  self-discipline  and  self-mortification  combined 
with  horror  of  the  pagan  world  to  drive  enthusiastic  de- 
votees into  the  desert.  Many  souls  in  all  ages  of  Chris- 
tianity have  felt  the  deep  longing  to  withdraw  from  the 
vain  and  unsatisfying  pleasures  and  pomps  of  the  world 
into  the  deep  unbroken  solitude  in  which  communion  with 
God  seems  more  possible.  The  first  great  saint  of  the 
desert — the  first,  that  is,  who  made  a  great  impression  on 
the  world — was  Antonius,  whom  we  commonly  know  as 
St  Anthony".  Born  near  Memphis  in  the  middle  of  the 
third  century,  he  was  impelled  by  the  hearing  of  the 
gospel  precepts,  "Sell  all  that  thou  hast"  and  "Take  no 
thought  for  the  morrow,"  to  divest  himself  of  all  his 
worldly  wealth.  He  visited  some  who  were  already  her- 
mits, to  learn  their  manner  of  life,  and  soon  after  fixed  his 
dwelling  in  the  midst  of  barren  hills,  about  a  day's  journey 


^  To  leave  this  state  after  pro- 
fession was  however  a  scandal  (Cone. 
Ancyr.  19). 

^  Hermae  Pastor,  Sim.  ix.  11 ;  Tert. 
De  Jejuniis  17;  Cyprian,  Epist. 
4;  13,' §  5;  Cone.  EUb.  c.  27;  Epi- 
phanius,  H ceres.  47.  3. 

*  Cone.  Aneyr.  c.  19  (according 
to  the  versions  of  Dionysius  and 
Isidore)  and  Cone.  Niece,  c.  3. 

*  De  Hahitu  Virginum,  c.  18. 

s  HeribertRosweyd,  VitcePatrum, 
sive  Hhtorice  Eremitiae  Libri  X.; 
J.  C.  W.  AuKHsti,   Handhueh  der 

C. 


Christlichen  Arehfioloyie,  i.  1.54  ff., 
418  ff. ;  I.  Gregory  Smith  in  Diet. 
Chr.  Ant.  s.  v. 

^  Athanasius,  Vita  S.  Antonii  ; 
Socrates,  i/. E.I. 21;  Sozomen  i.l3; 
Jerome,  Catal.  88.  The  authenticity 
of  the  first-named  has  been  ques- 
tioned by  Weingarten  [Der  Ur- 
sjyrimg  des  Monehthums)  but  on  weak 
grounds.  See  Hase,  K-Geseh.  nuf 
Grundlage  Akadem.  Vorlesungen, 
Th.  1,  p.  381,  and  Jahrbiieher  fllr 
Prot.  Theol.  1880,  Hft.  3. 

10 


Ch.  VIII. 

Perpetual 
Chastity, 


Hermits' 


St  An- 
thony. 


146 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


Ch.  VIII. 


from  the  Red  Sea,  in  a  ruined  tower,  the  entrance  to 
which  he  blocked  up  with  stones.  There  he  remained  for 
many  a  year,  seeing  no  human  countenance,  unless  it  were 
that  of  a  friend  who  twice  a  year  brought  him  a  supply 
of  bread.  It  was  in  this  solitude  that  he  experienced  the 
temptations  which  have  become  famous.  Outraged  nature 
rose  against  him,  and  filled  his  imagination,  sometimes 
with  horrible  forms  of  demons,  sometimes  with  alluring 
phantoms  of  beautiful  women.  The  tidings  of  the  per- 
secution of  Maximin  lured  him  from  his  retreat  to  Alex- 
andria, where  the  Alexandrians  looked  with  wonder  on  the 
strange  form  from  the  desert.  He  encouraged  confessors 
before  the  judge  and  ministered  to  the  saints  in  prison, 
but  found  not  the  martyr's  crown.  His  visit  to  the  haunts 
of  men  however  spread  abroad  his  fame,  and  his  desert 
became  populous  with  disciples,  on  whom  he  enjoined  the 
great  duties  of  prayer  and  work.  Here  we  see  the 
beginning  of  the  coenobium,  the  common  life  of  ascetics, 
afterwards  so  largely  developed.  He  himself  continued  to 
lead  a  life  of  watchings  and  fastings,  hardly  consenting  to 
take  sufficient  food  to  sustain  life.  He  was  unlearned, 
but  wise  with  long  experience  of  the  human  heart.  His 
saying — "  As  the  demons  find  us,  so  they  behave  towards 
us,  and  according  to  the  thoughts  which  are  in  us  they 
direct  their  assaults" — shows  that  he  was  no  brain-sick 
visionary.  At  his  word  the  sick  were  sometimes  healed 
and  demons  driven  out ;  but  he  was  neither  elated  when 
God  heard  his  prayer,  nor  angry  when  his  23rayer  was  not 
answered ;  in  all  things  he  praised  the  Lord.  A  true 
physician  of  the  soul,  he  reconciled  enemies  and  comforted 
mourners.  In  the  midst  of  this  poverty  which  made  many 
rich  it  was  made  known  to  him  where  he  would  find  one 
who  was  more  perfect  than  himself.  Paul^  of  Thebes  had 
dwelt  since  the  persecution  of  Decius  in  a  cave  of  the 
desert,  where  a  palm-tree  gave  him  shade,  clothing,  and 
food.  For  ninety  years  he  had  been  lost  to  men,  and  was 
found  by  Anthony  as  he  lay  at  the  point  of  death.  As 
his  own  end  drew  near,  he  withdrew  from  the  veneration 
and  the  disquiet  of  human  kind  further  into  the  desert, 
and  only  reappeared  occasionally  to  defend  the  faith  or  to 

^  Jerome,   Vita  PauU  Ercmitcc ;  Opp.  ii.  1,  ed.  Vallarsi. 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


147 


protect  the  oppressed.  He  departed  at  last  in  extreme 
old  age,  leaving  behind  him  the  fame  of  a  pure  and  simple 
character,  and  a  great  posterity  in  the  numerous  army  of 
hermits. 

4.  The  great  end  and  aim  of  Christian  teaching,  witli 
regard  to  man's  life  among  his  fellows,  is  to  produce  in 
each  man  such  a  condition  of  heart  and  mind  as  will  of 
itself  impel  him  to  right  conduct.  But  Christian  morality 
has  also  another  aspect.  There  is  given  to  the  Church, 
considered  as  a  theocratic  community,  a  code  specially  re- 
vealed, and  sanctioned  by  glorious  promises  and  terrible 
penalties.  This  code  has  to  be  enforced  and  the  purity 
of  the  society  guarded.  Hence  within  the  Church  the  great 
problems  of  morality  tended  to  assume  a  juristic  aspect. 
The  heads  of  the  community  are  not  merely  teachers  of 
morality  or  ministrants  in  sacred  things,  but  also  jurists 
administering  a  code\  determining  what  censure  or  penalty 
should  be  inflicted  in  particular  cases.  The  great  penalty 
was  the  exclusion  of  offenders  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period 
from  the  privileges  of  membership ;  and  these  privileges 
could  only  be  regained  by  a  long  process  of  prayer,  fasting, 
and  humiliation — a  process  comprehended  under  the  one 
word  "  penitence" — together  with  public  confession  of  sin 
in  the  midst  of  the  congregation^.  Excommunication, 
with  its  consequences,  became  in  fact  the  great  earthly 
sanction  of  the  moral  law.  The  judgement  on  such  cases 
was  committed  to  the  presbyters  under  the  presidency  of 
their  bishop ;  but,  as  is  evident  from  the  history  of  the 
Church,  the  bishops  exercised  a  dominant  influence,  and 
were  held  responsible  for  the  severity  or  laxity  of  the 
proceedings.  The  germ  of  the  code  which  guided  the 
decisions  of  the  ecclesiastical  judge  was  found  in  the  com- 
mands of  the  Lord  Himself  and  in  the  Decalogue.  With 
regard  to  other  precepts  of  the  Mosaic  Law,  the  early 
Church  does  not  seem  to  have  laid  down  any  definite 
principle  by  which  commands  of  pei^petual  obligation  might 
be  distinguished  from  those  which  were  merely  national 


^  H.  Sidgwick,  Outlines  of  the 
History  of  Ethics,  c.  iii.  §  2. 

*  J.  Morinus,  De  Sacramento  Pie- 
nitentia ;  Jas.  Ussher,  Answer  to  a 
Challenfie  made  by  a  Jesuit  (Works 
III.  90,  ed.  Dublin  1847  ff.) ;  N.  Mar- 


Bhall,  The  Penitential  Discipline  of 
the  Primitive  Cliurch;  G.  Mead,  in 
Smith  and  Cheetham's  Diet,  of  Chr. 
Antiq.  s.  w.  Exomologesis  and  Peni- 
tence. 

10—2 


Ch.  VIII. 


Disci- 
PLraE. 


Excommu- 
nication. 

Penitence. 
Con- 
fession. 


148 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


Ch.  VIII. 


and  temporary.  There  were,  for  instance,  different  opinions 
as  to  the  necessity  of  abstaining  from  things  strangled 
and  from  blood \  In  the  Church,  as  in  other  societies, 
circumstances  arose  which  were  not  explicitly  provided  for 
by  the  law,  and  decisions  of  Chvirches  or  bishops  from  time 
to  time  enlarged  the  scope  of  old  precepts.  Hence  there 
was  formed  a  mass  of  traditional  or  "common"  law,  which 
was  often  in  fact  new  while  it  claimed  to  be  old,  and  which 
passed  current  under  venerable  names.  A  collection  of  such 
precepts  is  found  in  the  "  Teaching  of  the  Lord  through 
the  Twelve  Apostles,'"'^  in  the  "  Ordinances  of  the  Holy 
Apostles"*  which  are  derived  from  it,  and  in  the  so-called 
"Apostolical  Constitutions"*  and  "Canons  of  the  Holy 
Apostles.'"^  The  "  Constitutions"  consist  of  eight  books,  of 
which  the  first  six  clearly  reflect  the  customs  and  practices 
of  the  Eastern  Church  of  the  first  three  centuries,  the 
seventh  is  founded  upon  the  "  Ordinances,"  the  eighth, 
though  it  may  contain  matter  belonging  to  an  earlier 
period,  embodies  the  ritual  of  the  middle  of  the  fourth 
century,  and  has  been  thought  to  exhibit  traces  of  Arian- 
ism.  The  Canons  which  bear  the  name  of  the  Apostles® 
are  a  collection  of  precepts  from  the  Constitutions,  or  from 
the  Acts  of  various  synods  up  to  the  fourth  century.  It 
may  be  observed,  that  although  these  collections  bear  the 
names  of  Apostles   or  Apostolic  men,  they  were  never 


1  Tertunian,  Apol.9.  The  Western 
Church  in  general  did  not  observe 
this  prohibition,  while  the  Eastern 
retained  it. 

^  First  published  by  Pliilotheos 
Bryennios,  from  a  ms  of  the  year 
lOoG,  at  Constantinople  in  1883. 
Edited  by  De  llomestin,  Spence, 
P.  Schaff,  A.  Harnack  (Texte  unci 
Untersuclmiujini,  vol.  ii.,  jits  1  and 
2),  and  others. 

*  Aiarayal  or  Kai'oces  eKKXijcria- 
ariKol  TLov  ayliov  ' ATroaroXiov;  in 
Harnack  u.  s.  p.  225  S. 

*  See  0.  Krabbe,  Ueher  den  Ur- 
sprung  unci  den  Inhult  der  Apost. 
Constt. ;  J.  S.  von  Drey,  Neue  lUiter- 
Kuchunc/eniiier  die  Constt.  u.  Kuno- 
neii  der  Apostel;  Bickell,  Gescliichte 
des  Kirchcnrechtu,  vol.  i. ;  B.  Shaw, 
in  Smith  and  Chcetluuii's  Diet,  of 
Chr.  Anticj.  119  ff.    There  is  a  con- 


venient edition  by  Ueltzen. 

^  W.  Beveridge,  ^wodiKov  sive 
PandectcE  Canonuin  1. 1  ff.,  and  Cote- 
lerii  Patres  Apostolici,  i.  424  £f. ; 
O.  Krabbe,  De  God.  Canon,  qui 
Apostol.  dicuntur ;  C.  J.  Hefele, 
Conc.ilicncieschichte,  i..  Appendix 
(1st  Edn);  De  Lagarde,  Reiiquice 
Juris  Can.  Ant.;  B.  Shaw,  in  Diet. 
Chr.  Antiq.  110  ff. 

^  The  whole  of  these  Canons,  85 
in  number,  were  inserted  by  Joannes 
Scholasticus  in  his  Nomocctnoa  in 
tliu  middle  of  the  sixth  century 
(Justelli,  liibUoth.  Juris  Ant.  ii.  1  ff.), 
and  received  as  of  authority  by  the 
Trullan  Council  (c.  2)  at  the  end 
of  the  seventh.  The  Roman  Church 
rejects  them  as  apocryphal  (Corpus 
J.  Can.,  Decreti  P.  i.,  Dist.  xv., 
0.  3,  §  04 ;  decree  attributed  to  Ge- 
lasius). 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


149 


placed  by  the  ancient  Church  on  an  equality  with  Scrip- 
ture. 

As  may  readily  be  supposed,  the  administration  of 
this  system  of  penalties  was  by  no  means  free  from  diffi- 
culty. Penitents  were  readmitted  to  communion  in  one 
Church  with  much  more  facility  than  in  another.  One  of 
the  grounds  for  the  attack  of  Hippolytus  on  Callistus\ 
bishop  of  Rome,  was  his  excessive  readiness  to  restore  to 
communion  all  manner  of  sinners,  so  as  to  lower  the 
standard  of  Christian  holiness.  Hippolytus  appears  to 
have  been  chosen  anti-bishop  by  the  party  discontented 
with  the  mild  rule  of  Callistus.  And  again,  at  a  later 
period,  when  Cornelius  declined  to  make  heavy  the  yoke 
which  since  the  time  of  Callistus  had  been  light,  one  of 
his  presbyters,  Novatianus^,  rose  up  against  him,  and  was 
made  the  bishop  of  an  opposition.  This  was  a  man  of 
considerable  culture,  of  ascetic  life  and  nervous  tempera- 
ment, who  had  received  benefit  from  the  prayers  of  a 
Christian  exorcist,  and  so  been  won  for  Christianity.  Like 
Justin  Martyr,  he  was  reputed  a  philosopher.  He  laid 
down  the  principle,  that  the  first  duty  of  ecclesiastical 
rulers  was  to  preserve  the  Church  as  a  pure  society  of 
saints  or  "Kathari;"  hence,  that  one  who  by  sin  had 
separated  himself  from  God  and  been  excluded  from  the 
Church  could  never  be  received  back  into  it ;  though  he 
exhorted  the  fallen  to  repentance  even  without  hope  of  re- 
turning to  the  Church^.  The  Novatianists  refused  com- 
munion with  the  Catholic  Church,  and  baptized  anew  those 
who  came  over  to  them  from  Catholicism.  Novatianus 
died  as  a  martyr  under  Valerian,  but  the  schism  per- 
petuated itself  for  some  generations.  One  of  the  Nova- 
tianist  bishops  was  Acesius,  whom  at  the  Council  of  Nicsea 
Constantino  bade  to  plant  a  ladder  and  go  up  into  heaven 
by  himself*. 

Meantime,  a  schism  had  arisen  on  opposite  grounds  at 
Carthage.  In  the  severity  of  persecution,  there  were  some 
who  had  delivered  up  to  the  pagans  their  copies  of  Holy 


1  See  p.  81. 

"  Cyprian,  Epistt.  44 — 48  (ed. 
Hartel) ;  the  Letter  of  Cornelius  to 
Fabius  (Euseb.if.  JB.  vi.43;  Routh's 
Rell.  III.  20)  where  the  schismatic 
is  called   Nooi'dros;   those  of  Dio- 


nysius  of  Alexandria  to  Novatianus 
(Euseb.  H.  E.  vi.  45),  and  to  Dio- 
nysius  of  Rome  [lb.  vii.  8). 

3  Cyprian,  Epist.  55,  c.  28. 

*  Socrates,  H.  E.  i.  10.  See 
Stanley,  Eastern  Ch.  175. 


Ch.  VIIT. 


Callistus, 
c.  220-235. 


Novati- 
anus, 251. 


Kathari. 


Schism  of 
Felicissi- 
imis,  250. 


150 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


Scripture  {traditores),  some  who  had  actually  sacrificed 
to  idols  (lapsi),  and  some  who,  without  sacrificing,  had 
obtained  from  the  magistrates,  by  favour  or  bribery,  cer- 
tificates^ of  having  sacrificed  (lihellatici).  When  such 
offenders  desired  to  be  restored  to  the  Church,  it  became 
a  pressing  question  how  they — especially  the  "  lapsed"  who 
had  actually  sacrificed — should  be  dealt  with.  Were  they 
to  be  readmitted  to  the  Church,  and,  if  so,  on  what  con- 
ditions ?  At  Carthage  Cyprian^  refused  to  receive  at 
once  men  who  had  denied  their  Lord,  even  though  some 
who  had  suffered  in  the  persecution — "  confessors,"  as  they 
were  now  called — desired  them  to  be  readmitted,  giving 
them  certificates  of  reconciliation  (lihelli  pads).  Thus 
there  arose  a  discontented  party,  composed  of  the  aggrieved 
confessors,  those  who  were  dissatisfied  with  Cyprian's  ad- 
ministration, and  the  lapsed  who  were  eager  to  be  received 
again  into  communion.  These,  with  Novatus  at  their 
head,  rebelled  against  Cyprian  as  being  unworthy,  in  con- 
sequence of  his  fiight  during  the  persecution,  to  rule  over 
men  who  had  endured  torture  with  heroic  constancy.  They 
chose  a  deacon  of  their  own,  one  Felicissimus,  and  set  up 
Fortunatus,  one  of  their  adherents,  as  bishop  of  their 
party^  Cyprian's  severe  views  unfortunately  set  him  at 
variance  with  the  milder  bishop  of  Rome.  When  able  to 
hold  a  synod,  he  so  far  modified  his  decree  as  not  to  hand 
over  the  lapsed  to  despair,  but  to  readmit  them  to  com- 
munion, after  long  penitence,  in  prospect  of  death*.  Lihel- 
latici were  at  once  readmitted^.  And  in  the  troublous 
time  when  his  diocese  suffered  from  war  and  pestilence, 
he  acknowledged  works  of  mercy  as  an  atonement  for  all 
sin^  Novatus,  who  had  been  a  champion  of  the  laxer 
rule  at  Carthage,  found  his  way  to  Rome,  where  he  be- 
came an  adherent  of  the  stricter  party  of  Novatianus,  and 
did  much  to  encourage  the  schism. 

If  we  may  trust  the  account  of  Epiphanius',  the  schism 


1  On  these  Lihelli,  see  E.  W.  Ben- 
son in  Diet,  of  Chr.  Antiq.  s.  v. 

2  See  p.  77. 

2  Cyprian,  De  Ltipsis,  and  Epist. 
41,  42,  43,  45,  59. 
*  Id.  Epist.  57.  1;  55.  6. 
''  Epist.  55.  14. 
^  Cypr.  De  Opere  et  Eleemosynis. 


^  Hccrcs.  68.  Other  accounts  are 
found  in  the  letters  of  four  Egyptian 
bishops  to  Meletius,  with  an  anony- 
mous Appendix,  and  of  Peter  him- 
self (in  Eouth's  Reliquice,  iv.  91 
ff.) ;  and  in  Athanasius,  Apol.  c. 
Arian.  cc.  11,  5il,  Epist.  ad  Episc. 
Aegypti,  cc.  22,  23,  who  is  followed 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


151 


of  Meletius  in  Egypt  was  of  the  same  kind  as  that  of 
Novatianus  in  Rome.  According  to  him,  during  the  per- 
secution of  Diocletian,  many  Christians  who  had  denied 
their  Lord  entreated  mercy  and  forgiveness.  Peter,  the 
bishop  of  Alexandria,  who  was  himself  in  prison  with 
most  of  his  brethren,  was  inclined  to  gentle  courses,  and 
would  have  granted  communion  to  such  of  the  lapsed  as 
were  ready  to  do  penance  for  their  fault.  Meletius,  how- 
ever, bishop  of  Lycopolis  in  the  Thebaid,  who  was  also  a 
prisoner,  opposed  this,  and  would  at  any  rate  defer  the 
readmission  of  the  penitents  until  the  persecution  should 
be  over.  A  majority  of  the  bishops  took  his  part.  Soon 
after  this  Peter  died  in  consequence  of  the  torture  which 
he  had  endured,  and  Meletius  was  sentenced  to  slavery  in 
the  mines.  On  his  way  however  to  his  place  of  banish- 
ment he  ordained  several  presbyters  and  deacons,  and  the 
schism  which  thus  arose  was  still  dangerous  at  the  time 
of  the  Council  of  Nicsea.  Meletius  on  the  cessation  of 
persecution  had  returned  to  Egypt. 

5.  The  beginning  of  Christian  life  was  Baptism. 
Those  adults  who  desired  to  be  admitted  through  the  laver 
of  regeneration  into  the  Body  of  Christ  had  to  submit  to 
a  course  of  instruction,  during  which  they  were  called 
Catechumens  \  and  were  not  allowed  to  be  present  at 
the  celebration  of  Holy  Communion.  In  primitive  times, 
this  instruction  seems  to  have  been  of  a  practical  kind, 
impressing  on  the  candidate  the  great  distinction  between 
the  way  of  life  and  the  way  of  death  ^  The  catechumenate 
lasted  ordinarily,  at  the  end  of  the  third  century,  two 
years,  or  even  three,  though  it  might  be  shortened  in 
special  cases  I  In  the  times  immediately  succeeding  the 
apostolic,  we  find  that  the  candidate,  after  instruction,  was 
taken  to  some  place  where  there  was  water — if  possible, 


in  the  main  by  Socrates,  H.  E.  i. 
6,  p.  15  and  Theodoret,  H.  E.  i. 
9,  p.  31. 

^  J.  Bingham,  Antiq.  Bk  x.; 
E.  H.  Pkimptre,  in  Smith  and 
Cheetham's  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  s.  v. 

2  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles, 
cc.  1—6. 

^  Cone.  Elib.  c.  42;  Constt.  Apost. 
VIII.  32.  9. 

•*  F.  U.  Calixtus,  De  Antiq.  circa 


Baptismum  Ritibus;  A.  van  Dale, 
Hist.  Baptismorum  Hebr.  et  Christ.; 
J.  G.  Walch,  De  Bit.  Baptism.  Sccc. 
II.;  J.  Bingham,  Antiq.  Bk  xi. ; 
J.  W.  F.  Hoiiing,  Das  Sacrament 
der  Taufe;  F.  Probst,  Sacramente 
und  Sacramentalien  in  den  drei 
ersten  Ckristlichen  Jahrhunderten, 
p.  97  ff.;  W.  B.  Marriott  in  Smith 
and  Cheetham's  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq. 
s.  V.  Baptism. 


Ch.  VIII. 


Gebe- 

MONIES. 


Cate- 
chumens. 


Baptismal 
Rites*. 


152 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


Ch.VIII. 


Interroga- 
tions. 
Renuncia- 
tions. 
Exorcism. 
Benedic- 
tion of 
Water. 
Unction. 
Milk  and 
Honey. 
Imposition 
of  Hands. 

Baptism  of 
Infants. 


Sponsors. 


Baptism  of 
Blood. 


to  a  running  stream — both  the  baptized  and  the  baptizer 
fasting,  and  there  phniged  into  the  water  in  the  name  of 
the  Holy  Trinity.  Warm  water  might  be  used  in  case  of 
necessity,  and  it  was  sufficient,  when  circumstances  ad- 
mitted of  nothing  else,  to  pour  water  thrice  on  the  head 
of  the  candidate  ^  Later,  at  the  end  of  the  second  and 
the  beginning  of  the  third  century,  we  find  a  more 
elaborate  ritual.  The  candidate  was  questioned  as  to  his 
faith ^;  he  renounced  the  devil  and  his  pomps'*,  and  was 
exorcised  to  free  him  from  his  power*;  the  water  was 
blessed  by  the  bishop^;  before  baptism,  which  took  place 
by  trine  immersion  or  affusion  in  the  name  of  the  Holy 
Trinity,  he  was  anointed,  and  again  on  leaving  the  water®, 
when  he  was  also  given  to  taste  of  milk  and  honey ^;  and 
immediately  afterwards  he  received  imposition  of  hands 
with  prayer  for  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit®.  This  laying 
on  of  hands,  being  in  the  West  reserved  to  the  bishop, 
soon  became  a  separate  rite^.  That  in  early  times  infants 
were  baptized^",  in  accordance  with  the  principle  laid  down 
by  Irena3us",  is  evident  from  Tertullian's^^  indignant  re- 
monstrance. Origen"  in  the  third  century  found  infant- 
baptism  an  immemorial  custom,  held  to  be  Apostolic. 
Sponsors^''  were  held  necessary  both  for  adults  and  infants, 
in  the  first  case  as  guarantees  of  the  honest  intention  of 
the  candidate,  in  the  second  to  give  additional  security 
that  the  children  should  be  brought  up  as  Christians. 

If  one   who   had   professed    his   readiness  to  receive 
baptism  died  the  martyr's  death  without  having  actually 


^  Teaching  of  the  Ticelve  Apostles, 
c.  7;  Justin  M. /l^;oL  I.  c.  61.  Com- 
pare Cyprian  Epist.  68,  c.  12. 

2  Tertullian,  De  Cor.  Mil.  3; 
Cyprian  Epist.  70,  c.  2.  See  above, 
p.  114. 

3  Tert.  De  Cor.  Mil.  3. 

*  This  seems  to  be  imjjlied  in  the 
account  of  the  Council  of  Carthage 
of  A.  D.  256;  Cyprian,  O^ip.  i.  435, 
ed.  Hartel. 

*  Cyprian,  Epist.  70,  c.  1. 

"  Comtt.  Apost.  in.  16;  vii.  22; 
Tert.  De  Baptismo,  7. 
7  Tert.  De  Cor.  Mil.  3. 
**  Id.  De  Baptismo,  c.  8. 
"  Cyprian  (Epist.  72,  c.  1)  speaks 


of  baptism  aud  laying  on  of  hands 
as  "sacramentum  utrumque. "  See 
also  Cone.  Elib.  c.  77. 

i»W.  Wall,  History  of  Infant- 
Baptism;  J.  G.  Walch,  Historia 
Pcrdohaptismi  in  his  Miscellanea 
Sacra,  p.  487.  C.  Taylor,  Tracts 
(London,  1815). 

"  c.  Hares,  n.  22.  4, 

1*  De  Baptismo,  18.  Compare 
Cyprian,  De  Lapsis,  6. 

^3  InLevit.  Hom.  8,  0pp.  ii.  230; 
in  Lncam.  Hom.  14,  Ujjp.  iii.  948. 

1*  Tert.  u.  s.;  Constt.  Apost.  iii. 
16;  VIII.  32;  the  two  latter  passages 
speak  of  deacons  as  inroSoxoi  or  /xap- 
Tvpes. 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


153 


passed  through  the  purifying  flood,  the  "  baptism  of  blood" 
was  always  held  to  be  at  least  equivalent  to  that  of  water. 
Both  kinds  were  typified  in  the  blood  and  water  which 
flowed  from  the  Lord's  wounded  side';  those  who  suffer 
martyrdom  unbaptized  share  in  the  blessing  of  the 
penitent  robber^. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  second  century  Tertullian' 
raised  the  question,  whether  baptism  conferred  by  heretics 
was  valid,  and  answered  it  in  the  negative.  Agrippinus*, 
bishop  of  Carthage,  agreed  with  him,  and  baptized  anew 
Montanists  who  came  over  to  the  Church.  The  same 
practice  prevailed  in  Asia  Minor,  Alexandria,  and  many 
other  Eastern  Churches,  and  was  sanctioned  by  a  series  of 
provincial  synods  at  Carthage,  Iconium,  and  Synnada. 
The  ancient  practice  of  the  Roman  Church  was  different ; 
in  Rome  the  heretic  who  returned  to  the  Church,  if  he 
had  been  baptized  in  the  name  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  was 
admitted  to  communion  by  simple  imposition  of  hands'',  as 
penitents  were.  The  Churches  of  Carthage  and  Rome 
were  brought  into  contact  in  consequence  of  their  common 
concern  with  Novatianism,  and  each  was  offended  at  the 
other's  practice.  Stephen,  bishop  of  Rome,  was  not  dis- 
posed to  tolerate  a  custom  which  varied  from  his  own,  and 
threatened  to  withdraw  from  communion  with  the  African 
and  Asiatic  Churches  if  they  persisted  in  their  offence. 
An  absolute  breach  was  however  prevented  by  the  media- 
tion of  Dionysius  of  Alexandria®.  But  Cyprian  was  unable 
to  reconcile  the  Roman  principles  with  his  conception  of 
the  Catholic  Church.  There  could  be  no  true  baptism  out- 
side the  Church,  for  heretics  could  not  confer  gifts  of  the 
Spirit  which  they  did  not  themselves  possess'.  Against 
the  authority  of  the  Roman  see,  he  protested  that  this  was 
not  a  matter  to  be  settled  by  tradition,  but  by  reason*; 
nor  was  one  bishop  to  lord  it  over  another,  since  all  were 
partakers  of  a  like  grace.  Stephen  thereupon  refused  to 
receive  the  legates  of  Cyprian  in  Rome,  and  withdrew 


Ch.  viu. 


1  Tert.  De  Bajytismo,  16. 

"  Cyprian,  Epist.  73,  c.  22. 

'  De  Baptismo,  15.  Compare 
Clement,  Strom,  i.  19.  96. 

*  Cyprian,  Ejnst.  71,  c.  4;  72,  c.  3. 

5  Cypr.  Epist.  74,  cc.  1  and  2; 
Eusebius,  H.  E.  vii.  2. 


6  Enseb.  H.  E.  vii.  5. 

7  Dt  Eccl.  Vnitate,  11;  Epistt.  69, 
c.  1 ;  70,  cc.  2  and  3 ;  73 ;  (Firmilian) 
75,  c.  7. 

'^  "Non  est  de  consnetudine  prsB- 
scribendum,  sad  ratione  viucen- 
dum."    Epist.  71,  c.  3. 


Heretical 
Baptism. 

A.D.  218— 
222. 


230—235. 


Stephen. 


Cyprian. 


154 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


Ch.  VTII.  1  from  communion  with  him  and  his  Church.  He  even  went 
so  far  as  to  call  Cyprian  a  false  Christ,  a  false  prophet, 
a  deceitful  worker  \  A  council  of  the  African  province 
in  the  year  256,  under  Cyprian's  presidency,  decided  in 
favour  of  their  ancient  custom  ^  The  Asiatic  Churches 
generally  took  the  same  side,  and  their  metropolitan, 
Firmilian,  bishop  of  Csesarea  in  Cappadocia,  wrote  to 
Cyprian  a  formal  declaration  of  their  opinion  on  the 
matter  at  issue,  containing  a  strong  condemnation  of  the 
conduct  of  the  bishop  of  Rome.  The  contest  was  an 
obstinate  one,  and  outlived  both  the  principal  combatants ; 
Stephen  suffered  martyrdom  in  257,  and  Cyprian  in  the 
following  year.  Meantime  the  kindly  and  judicious  Dio- 
nysius  of  Alexandria  had  again  intervened,  and  the  per- 
secution under  Valerian  no  doubt  turned  men's  thoughts 
to  more  pressing  needs.  A  friendly  message  from  Xystus, 
Stephen's  successor,  was  brought  to  Cyprian  shortly  before 
his  execution^  Gradually  the  Roman  practice  prevailed. 
It  was  sanctioned  by  a  synod  at  Aries,  at  which  several 
Numidian  bishops  were  present,  in  the  year  314'*. 

Christians  assembled  themselves  together,  mindful  of 
the  Lord's  promise  and  the  Apostle's  warning,  to  worship 
God,  to  strengthen  and  refresh  their  own  souls,  to  realize 
their  union  with  Christ  and  with  each  other.  These 
ends  they  sought  especially  in  the  Supper  of  the  Lord 
or  Holy  Eucharist.  The  earliest  account  remaining  to  us 
of  this  celebration®  teaches  us  that  believers  met  on  the 
Lord's  Day,  when  they  confessed  their  sins,  and  were 
warned  that  no  one  who  was  at  enmity  with  his  brother 
should  approach  the  feast  of  love.  Over  the  Cup  thanks 
were  given  for  the  holy  vine  of  David,  made  known  to  us 
through  Jesus  Christ ;  over  the  broken  Bread,  for  the  life 


1  Firmilian  to  Cyprian  (Cypr. 
Epist.  75,  c.  25). 

2  Cypriani  Oj^p.  i.  435  £f.  (ed. 
Hartel) ;  Hardouin,  Coiic.  i.  159  ff. 

^  Pontius,  Vita  Ci/priani,  c.  14. 

*  c.  8;  Hardouin,  Gone.  i.  265. 

"  D.  Blondel,  De  Eucharistid 
Vet.  Ecclesice;  G.  M.  Pfaff,  Dc 
Oblatione  Eucharistice  in  Primi- 
tiva  Eccl.  usitata;  P.  Gueranger, 
Institutions  Liturgiques,  tome  i ; 
P.  Freeman,  Principles  of  Divine 


Service,  vol.  ii,  pt.  2 ;  K.  Eothe,  De 
Primordiis  Cultns  Sacri  Christian- 
orum  (Bonn  1851) ;  H.  A.  Daniel, 
Codex  Liturgicus,  vol.  iv,  Prole- 
gomena; F.  Probst,  Litnrgie  der 
drei  Ersten  Ghristl.  Jahrhunderte ; 
Smith  and  Cheatham,  Diet.  Chr. 
Antiq.  I.  267,  s.  v.  Canon  of  the 
Liturgtj,  and  i.  412,  s.  v.  Commu- 
nion, Holy. 

®  Teaching  of  the   Twelve  Apos- 
tles, cc.  9,  lb,  14, 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


155 


and  knowledge  made  known  to  us  through  Him ;  and 
prayer  was  made  that  the  disciples  should  be  gathered 
into  the  Kingdom,  even  as  the  scattered  grains  were  made 
one  loaf.  After  reception,  thanks  were  given  for  God's 
Holy  Name  revealed  to  us,  and  for  knowledge  and  faith, 
for  spiritual  meat  and  drink ;  for  immortal  life  made 
known  to  us  through  the  Son ;  and  prayer  was  made  for 
the  perfecting  of  the  Church  and  the  passing  away  of  the 
present  world.  The  service  ended  with  an  invitation  to 
those  who  were  without,  and  the  watch-word  Maran  atha, 
"the  Lord  cometh."  From  the  account  of  Justin \  later 
in  age  and  dilTering  in  place  from  that  of  the  Teaching, 
we  find  that,  in  the  Sunday  service,  portions  were  read 
from  the  "  Memoirs  of  the  Apostles " — probably  the 
Gospels — and  from  the  Prophets.  The  reading  was  followed 
by  an  exhortation  from  the  presiding  brother,  and  then 
all  stood  up  to  pray.  After  this,  bread,  and  wine  mixed 
with  water,  were  brought,  and  the  president  uttered 
prayer  and  thanksgiving.  Then  those  present  partook, 
and  portions  were  sent  to  the  absent  by  the  hands  of  the 
deacons.  Upon  this  followed  the  offering  of  alms,  which 
were  deposited  with  the  president  to  be  administered  for 
the  benefit  of  the  sick  and  needy.  The  "  holy  kiss "  is 
mentioned  in  Justin's  description  of  the  Eucharist  which 
immediately  succeeded  a  baptism,  but  not  in  that  of  an 
ordinary  Sunday.  Both  the  "  Teaching  "  and  Justin  speak 
of  the  eucharistic  service  as  a  "sacrificed"  Elsewhere 
Justin  mentions^  that  in  the  Eucharist  thanks  were  given 
for  our  creation  and  for  our  redemption  through  Christ. 
Irenseus  too  speaks  of  the  giving  of  thanks  over  the 
elements.  "  We  offer,"  he  says,  "  unto  God  the  bread  and 
the  cup  of  blessing,  giving  thanks  unto  Him  for  that  He 
bade  the  earth  bring  forth  these  fruits  for  our  sustenance ; 
and... we  call  forth  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  declare  (or  manifest) 
this  sacrifice — even  the  Bread  the  Body  of  Christ  and  the 
Cup  the  Blood  of  Christ,  that  they  who  partake  of  these 
copies  (dvTiTVTTcov)  may  obtain  remission  of  their  sins  and 
everlasting  life*."     The  intercessions  which,  according  to 


•  Apol.  I.  65—67. 

^  dvala.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  this  word  had  a  wide  meaning. 
Hermas  {Sim.  v.  3.  8)  speaks  of 
fasting    as    a   Ovaia;    and  Justin 


(Trypho,  c.  117)  of  prayers  and 
thanksgivings  as  the  only  perfect 
and  acceptable  dvulai. 

^  Trypho,  c.  41. 

■*  Irenseus,   Fragment   38;   com- 


Cn.  VIII. 


Justin 
Martyr, 
c.  160. 


Irenceus, 
c.  190. 


156 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


Tertullian,  the  faithful  made  on  behalf  of  emperors  and 
the  peace  of  the  empire*,  and  for  enemies^;  their  prayers 
for  fruitful  seasons^ ;  their  commemoration  of  and  inter- 
cession for  the  dead*,  all  probably  took  place  in  connexion 
with  the  Eucharist ^  Tertullian  implies  that  a  thanks- 
giving took  place  in  the  Church  over  the  elements" ;  and 
he  also  mentions  that  prayers,  called  "  orationes  sacrifici- 
orum,"  followed  communion.  Consecrated  bread  was  kept 
in  private  houses,  and  tasted  before  other  food^  Origen* 
speaks  of  the  "  loaves  offered  with  thanksgiving  and  prayer 
over  the  gifts  "  as  having  been  made,  in  consequence  of  the 
prayer,  "  a  certain  body,  holy  and  hallowing  those  who  use 
it  with  sound  purpose."  Cyprian  first  distinctly  puts  forth 
the  principle  that  the  Lord's  acts  in  the  Last  Supper  are  to 
be  followed  by  the  celebrant  in  the  Eucharist.  "  Because," 
he  says®,  "  we  make  mention  of  the  Lord's  Passion  in  all 
our  sacrifices.  ..we  ought  to  do  no  other  thing  than  He 
did ;  for  Scripture  says  that  so  often  as  we  offer  the  Cup 
in  commemoration  of  the  Lord  and  His  Passion,  we  should 
do  that  which  it  is  evident  that  He  did."  We  also  find 
from  Cyprian  that  in  the  Eucharist  intercession  was  made 
for  brethren  in  affliction'",  whose  names  were  recited",  as 
were  also  the  names  of  those  who  had  made  offerings*^  and 
of  the  faithful  departed '^ 

A  much  more  developed  form  of  Liturgy  than  any 
described  in  earlier  documents  is  found  in  the  second 
book  of  the  Apostolical  Constitutions".  There,  bishops, 
presbyters,  and  deacons  take  part  in  the  service ;  the 
lections  from  the  Old  Testament  are  intermingled  with 
psalmody ;  there  follow  lections  from  the  New  Testament, 
ending  with  the  Gospel ;  then,  silence  is  kept  for  a 
space,  followed  by  exhortation  from  the  presbyters  and 
bishop.     This  ended,  catechumens  and  penitents  depart. 


pare  Hceres.  iv.  18.  4,  5 ;  v.  22.  3 ; 
1.  13.  2. 

1  Apol.  cc.  30,  39. 

■^  Apol.  c.  31. 

^  Ad  Scaptilam  4. 

*  De  Exhort.  Cast.  11 ;  De  Mo- 
nogamia  10. 

^  Ad  Scapiilam  2. 

"  c.  Marcion.  i.  23. 

7  Tertullian,  ad  Uxorem  ii.  5 ; 
Cyprian  Be  Lapsis  26. 


^  c.    Celsum,    lib.    viii.    p.    399 
Spencer. 
9  Epist.  63,  c.  17. 
1"  Epist.  61,  c.  4. 

11  Epist.  62,  c.  5. 

12  Epist.  16,  c.  2. 

13  Epist.  1,  c.  2. 

1*  II.  57.  Krabbe,  not  without 
reason,  suspects  this  passage  to  be 
an  interpolation  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury. 


Social  Life  aiid  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


157 


and  the  faithful,  turning  to  the  East,  the  abode  of  God, 
the  seat  of  Paradise,  stand  up  and  pray.  Then  follows 
the  oblation  of  the  elements,  the  warning  to  those  in 
enmity  or  in  hypocrisy,  the  kiss,  the  prayer  of  the  deacon 
for  the  Church  and  the  world,  the  bishop's  blessing  in  the 
words  of  the  Hebrew  priest',  his  prayer,  and  the  sacrifice, 
followed  by  comminiion.  The  doors  are  guarded,  that  no 
uninitiated  person  may  enter.  The  eucharistic  service, 
as  described  here,  is  summed  up  in  the  words,  "  the 
reading  of  the  prophets,  the  proclaiming  of  the  Gospels, 
the  oblation  of  the  sacrifice,  the  gift  of  the  holy  food*^". 

In  primitive  times  the  bread  was  broken  and  the  cup 
blessed  at  a  meal ;  at  first  the  meal  of  a  household'* ; 
afterwards,  a  more  public  one  to  which  each  brother 
brought  his  contribution*.  This  seems  to  have  been  still 
customary  at  the  time  when  the  "  Teaching  "  was  written  ^ 
but  in  Justin's  time,  in  the  middle  of  the  second  century, 
it  seems  clear  that  no  food  was  partaken  of  at  Communion 
except  the  consecrated  bread  and  wine.  So  long  as  the 
Communion  continued  to  be  celebrated  in  the  primitive 
manner,  it  was  almost  certainly  held  in  the  evening,  at  the 
usual  hour  of  the  principal  meaP.  But  even  in  Pliny's 
time  Christians  held  a  meeting  before  dawn,  and  their 
habit  of  meeting  in  obscurity  caused  the  heathen  to  re- 
proach them  with  loving  darkness  rather  than  light'.  In 
the  African  Church  of  the  second  and  third  centuries  it  is 
clear  that  Christians  communicated  before  dawn,  though 
it  seems  probable  that  in  some  cases  they  received  in 
the  evening  also*.  Of  the  evening  participation  however 
Cyprian  seems  to  speak  as  if  it  were  rather  a  domestic 
than  a  public  rite. 

Besides    the    Eucharist,  Christians  also  assembled  at 
meals — "  tables  "    or   "  love-feasts  "® — for   social 


common 


^  Numbers  vi.  24 — 26. 
2  Coimtt.  Apost.  II.  59.  2. 

*  Acts  ii.  4t; ;  see  above,  p.  27. 

*  1  Cor.  xi.  20  If. 

^  It  seems  to  be  implied  in  the 
words  " /iera  t6  ifiwXTjcrdrjvai,'^ 
Teaching  of  the  Tivelve  Apoxtles, 
c.  10. 

^  See  Baronius,  ad  annuiii  34, 
c.  61. 


7  Minucius  Felix,  Octavius  8; 
compare  Justin,  Trypho  10 ;  Ori- 
gen,  c.  C'elmm,  i.  3,  p.  5,  Spencer. 

8  Tertullian,  ad  Uxorem  ii.  4 ; 
De  Corona  Mil.  3  ;  Cyprian,  Epist. 
63,  cc.  15,  16. 

«  Acts  vi.  2;  Jude  12.  It  is 
probably  to  such  feasts  that  Pliuy 
(Epist.  '  96  [97])  refers  when  he 
speaks    of    "cibus    promiscuus"; 


Cn.  VIII. 


Commun- 
ion at  a 
meal. 


c.  110. 


Love- 
feasts. 


158 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


Ch.  viil 


Hours  of 
Prayer. 


c.  300. 


Marriage. 


Burial  of 
the  Dead. 


intercourse  and  edification.  Tertullian*  describes  the 
modest  table  and  the  sober  joyousness  of  these  festivals, 
which  afterwards  in  his  Montanistic  fervour  he  calum- 
niated^  It  is  however  in  fact  evident  that  the  love-feasts 
in  some  cases  degenerated  into  mere  scenes  of  enjoyment^ 
Directions  are  given  in  the  Apostolical  Constitutions*  for 
the  proper  distribution  of  portioos  to  the  several  ministers 
by  the  host  who  gives  a  love-feast. 

Prayer  was  an  essential  part  of  Christian  life.  The 
third,  sixth,  and  ninth  hours  were  marked  out  by  scriptural 
precedent^  and  we  find  them  observed  as  special  times  of 
prayer  in  the  second  century^  In  the  third  there  was 
added  a  prayer  earlier  than  that  of  the  third  hour  and  a 
prayer  later  than  that  of  the  ninth  hour''.  Tlie  earlier 
authorities  give  no  ground  for  supposing  that  these  prayers 
were  said  in  churches,  but  in  the  Apostolical  Consti- 
tutions* the  people  are  exhorted  to  come  to  the  Church 
daily,  morning  and  evening. 

In  the  early  days  of  Christianity  marriage  must  of 
course  have  been  celebrated  in  accordance  with  the  law  of 
the  land,  in  order  to  obtain  legal  validity,  but  it  was  early 
recognized  that  the  union  of  believers  should  be  sanctified 
by  God's  blessing **,  and  men  of  the  stricter  school  came  to 
regard  a  marriage  not  publicly  declared  in  the  church  as 
no  valid  marriage  at  alP".  The  marriage  ring  and  the  veil 
seem  to  have  been  retained  from  old  Roman  custom", 
but  the  wreath,  from  its  pagan  associations,  was  dis- 
approved ^^  Marriages  of  Christians  with  heathen  were 
naturally  discouraged*^.  Divorce  was  permitted  for  the 
one  cause  only  which  was  recognized  as  valid  by  the 
Lord — adultery  ". 

In  the  Church  the  bodies  of  the  departed  acquired  a 


for  they  were  intermitted  when  he 
pointed  out  that  they  were  a  viola- 
tion of  the  law  against  hetierisB, 
;ind  we  can  scarcely  suppose  that 
(Jhristians  would  have  intermitted 
the  Eucharist. 

'  Apologia  39. 

-  l)e  Jejuidis  17. 

'  Clement,  Padnq.  ii.  1.  4. 

*  II.  28.  1. 

'  Ps.  Iv.  17;  Dan.  vi.  10;  Acts 
iii.  1 ;  X.  y,  30. 

6  TertuUian,  De   Oral.   20;   Be 


Jejuniis  10 ;  Clement,  Strom,  vii.  7. 
§40. 

''  Cyprian,  De  Orat.  35  f. 

8  II.  59.  The  date  of  this  por- 
tion is  however  uncertain. 

^  Ignatius  ad  Polycarpum  5. 

"  TertuUian,  De  Pudic.itia  4. 

11  Tert.  Apol.  8;  De  Virgg.  Vet. 
11. 

!•'  Tert.  De  Cor.  Mil.  13. 

1^  Cyprian,  De  Lapsis  6. 

'•*  Clem.  Alex.  Sirom.  ii.  23.  § 
144;  Tert.  ad  Marc.  iv.  34. 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


159 


new  sacredness,  and  were  laid  to  rest  with  tender  care. 
Christian  feeling  shrank  from  reducing  the  body  of  a 
believer  to  ashes,  after  the  heathen  fashion,  and  preferred 
to  lay  it  reverently  in  the  bosom  of  earth',  to  await 
the  general  resurrection.  The  body  was  frequently  em- 
balmed ^  The  clergy,  as  well  as  the  friends  and  kinsfolk 
of  the  departed,  accompanied  it  to  the  grave,  chanting 
psalms  as  they  went^  Nor  were  the  dead  forgotten  when 
they  were  laid  to  rest.  The  anniversary  of  a  brother's 
departure  was  observed  by  the  faithful  with  oblations, 
love-feast,  prayer  and  celebration  of  the  Eucharist,  if 
possible  at  the  tomb,  in  which  special  mention  was  made 
of  the  departed ^  As  was  natural,  Christian  brethren 
desired  to  rest  near  each  other,  and  the  places  set  apart 
for  the  reception  of  their  remains,  whether  on  the  surface 
of  the  ground  or  in  catacombs,  were  called  cemeteries 
or  "sleeping-places^".  The  custom  of  placing  lamps  or 
tapers  in  places  of  burial  seems  to  have  arisen  at  an  early 
period®. 

Like  the  Hebrews,  Christians  loved  to  deposit  their 
dead  in  tombs  hewn  in  the  rock.  In  the  neighbourhood 
of  towns,  it  was  of  course  rarely  possible  to  obtain  such 
burying-places  except  by  subterranean  excavation.  Such 
excavations  are  found  at  Alexandria,  in  Sicily,  at  Naples, 
at  Chiusi,  at  Milan,  but  most  of  all  near  Rome,  where  in 
later  times  they  were  known  as  catacombs^     These  form 


1  Minucius  Felix  {Octav.  34.  10) 
speaks  of  interment  as  the  better 
cuatoni,  but  nevertheless  points  out 
that  the  disposal  of  the  remains  is, 
with  reference  to  the  resurrection, 
a  matter  of  indifference  (compare 
11.  3,  4).  The  Christians  of  Lyons, 
in  the  second  century,  lamented 
that  they  were  unable  to  commit 
their  martyrs  to  the  earth,  in  ac- 
cordance with  what  was  evidently 
the  usual  practice.  (Euseb,  H.  E. 
V.  1.  Gl). 

2  Tert.  Apol.  42. 

8  Coristt.  AjMst.  II.  30. 

*  Tert.  De  Cor.  Mil.  3 ;  De  Ex- 
hort. Castit.  11 ;  De  Monogamia 
10.  E.  Venables  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Antiq.  s.  V.  Cella  Memoriae. 

^  Koifj.Tr}rripia,    Dormitoria — both 


words  used  by  classical  writers  for 
sleeping-rooms.  The  earliest  use 
of  Koi/xrjTTipioi'  for  a  burial-place 
seems  to  be  in  Hippolytus,  Uteres. 
Ref.  ix.  12.  See  E.  Venables  in 
Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  s.  v.  Cemetery. 

6  Cone.  Eliher.  (a.d.  305  ?)  c.  34. 

^  Originally  "  ad  catacumbas,"  a 
phrase  describing  the  locality  of  a 
particular  cemetery.  The  cata- 
combs have  given  rise  to  an  exten- 
sive literature.  The  first  great 
work  on  the  subject  was  that  of 
Bosio  (Roma  Sotterranea,  1632),  who 
was  followed  by  Ai'inghi  {Roma  Sub- 
terranea,  1651),  Boldetti  [Osserv. 
sojjra  i  Cimiteri  1720),  and  Bottari 
(Scidture  e  pitture,  1737  ff.).  A 
now  era  began  with  Padre  Marchi 
(I  momimenti  delle  Arti  Cristiane, 


Cn.  VIII. 


Cata- 
eombs. 


160 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


Ch.  VIII. 


Sacred 

Seasons. 

The 

Sabbath. 


The  liOrWs 
Day. 


an  immense  series  of  chambers  for  burial,  connected  by  long 
corridors  and  galleries,  and  were  undoubtedly  excavated 
in  the  soft  "  tufa  granolare  "  for  the  purpose  for  which  they 
were  actually  used.  The  earliest  appear  to  be  almost 
coeval  with  the  first  appearance  of  Christianity  in  Rome. 
As  Christians  enjoyed,  in  general,  the  same  protection 
for  their  dead  as  other  subjects  of  the  Empire,  there  is  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  the  catacombs  were  formed  simply 
to  conceal  Christian  burial-places ;  yet  it  is  noteworthy 
that  from  the  time  that  Christianity  was  recognized  as 
the  religion  of  the  Empire,  burials  in  the  catacombs 
became  infrequent  and  gradually  ceased'. 

6.  As  was  natural,  Christians  from  the  first  dedicated 
special  days  to  special  observances.  Christians,  says  Ig- 
natius""', no  longer  observed  the  Sabbath.  Yet  this  must 
not  be  understood  as  if  they  paid  it  no  respect,  for  some, 
at  any  rate,  observed  it  as  a  day  of  joyful  thanksgiving 
for  the  creation  of  the  worlds  But,  whether  they  observed 
the  Sabbath  or  not,  they  always  recognized  the  weekly 
cycle,  and  their  great  weekly  festival  was  the  first  day  of 
the  week,  the  day  on  which  Christ  rose  from  the  dead. 
This  day  was  already  called  Sunday^  a  name  which 
Christians  soon  adopted ;  but  its  distinctively  Christian 
appellation  was  "the  Lord's  Day'".     On  this  day,  dedi- 


1844),  who  first  shewed  that  the 
catacombs  were  not  deserted  sand- 
pits. But  the  most  complete  and 
satisfactory  work  on  the  subject  is 
that  of  the  brothers  J.  B.  and  M.  S. 
De'  Rossi  {Roma  Sotterranca,  1864 
ft'.),  the  substance  of  which  has 
been  made  accessible  to  English 
readers  by  J.  S.  Northcott  and  W. 
R.  Brownlow  {Roma  Sotterranea, 
2nd  ed.  1879  ff.).  The  works  of 
L.  Ferret  {Les  Catacovibes  de  Rome), 
Raoul-Eochette  {Tableau  des  Cata- 
rombes),  C.  Maitland  (The  Church 
in  the  Catacombs),  and  E.  Venables 
in  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  s.v.  Catacombs, 
should  also  be  mentioned. 

1  It  is  pretty  clear  that  they  were 
deserted  when  Jerome  was  a  boy  at 
Rome,  about  a.d.  304.  See  Comm. 
in  Kzek.  40,  p.  4(58. 

'■*  Ad  Matjnesios  9. 

*  Co)i£tt.Apost.  II.  59. 1;  vii.  23. 


2.  The  seventh  day  is  still  called 
"  sabbati  dies"  in  Latin  Calendars, 
and  the  French  "Samedi"  is  a 
corruption  of  this  name,  as  the 
German  "Samstag"  is  of  "  Sab- 
batstag." 

■*  'H  Tov  7j\lov  XeyoiJiii'r)  rjixipa, 
Justin  M.  Apol.  i.  67 ;  compare 
TertuUian,  Apol.  16;  Ad  Nationes, 
I.  13.  On  the  name  "Sunday", 
and  the  similar  names  of  the  other 
days  of  the  week,  see  Julius  Hare 
in  Philolofi.  Museum,  i.  1  (1832), 
and  Diet,  of  Chr.  Antiq.  ri.  2031, 
8.  V.  IVeek. 

^  'H  KvptaKTi  rj/j^pa,  dies  dominica; 
see  P.  Heylyn,  Ilist.  of  the  Sabbath, 
in  his  Historical  and  Miscell. 
Tracts;  J.  A.  Hessey,  Siindni/,  its 
Origin,  History,  etc.,  and  A.  BaiTj, 
in  Diet,  of  Chr.  Antiq.  8.  v.  Lord's 
Day. 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Churclt. 


161 


cated  to  wholly  joyful  and  exultant  commemoration,  it 
was  not  permitted  to  fast,  or  even  to  adopt  the  humble 
posture  of  kneeling  in  prayer  \  Some  also  abstained  from 
kneeling  in  their  prayers  on  the  Sabbath  I  To  abstain,  so 
far  as  possible,  from  ordinary  business  on  the  Lord's  Day 
had  come  to  be  recognized  as  a  duty  as  early  as  the  end 
of  the  second  century**.  The  Wednesday  in  each  week  (as 
the  day  on  which  the  rulers  of  the  Jews  took  counsel 
to  put  Jesus  to  death)  and  the  Friday  (as  the  day  of  the 
Lord's  Crucifixion)  were  towards  the  end  of  the  second 
century  observed  as  "  Stations,"  days  on  which  Christians 
were  to  be  specially  on  guard  (in  statione)  against  the 
assaults  of  the  enemy,  when  they  .  had  special  devo- 
tions*. 

The  year  was  also  marked  by  a  cycle  of  Festivals. 
The  venerable  feast  of  Pascha  continued  to  be  observed  in 
the  Church  with  a  great  change  of  significance.  About 
the  time  of  its  observance  early  arose  serious  divisions 
in  the  Church °. 

Under  the  Jewish  Law,  the  Paschal  Lamb  was  sacri- 
ficed on  the  14th  day  of  the  lunar  month  Nisan,  and 
on  the  16th  was  offered  the  sheaf  which  represented  the 
first-fruits  of  the  harvest^  Thus  the  offering  of  the  Lamb 
was  always  at  or  near  the  time  of  full-moon. 

As  the  Lord  suffered  and  rose  again  at  the  Paschal 
season,  this  festival  naturally  became  to  the  Christians  a 
commemoration  of  the  Passion  and  the  Resurrection ;  but 
there  were  considerable  differences  in  early  times  both  as 
to  the  time  and  the  manner  of  the  observance.  The 
Ebionites,  as  they   maintained   generally   the   perpetual 


1  TertuUian,  Be  Cor.  Mil.  3;  Ire- 
nseus,  Fragm.  7 ;  Cone.  Niccenum, 
c.  20. 

2  TertuUian,  De  Oral.  18  [al. 
23]. 

•'  Tert.  u.  8. 

■•  Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apo- 
stles, c.  8;  Tert.  Be  Oral.  14  [al. 
18] ;  24  [al.  29] ;  Be  Jejuniis  1,  10 ; 
Ad  Uxorem,  ii.  4. 

''  On  the  Paschal  question  gene- 
rally, see  H.  Browne,  Ordo  ScbcIo- 
ruvi,  pp.  53  ff.,  465  ff. ;  L.  Hens- 
ley,   in  Bict.    Chr.  Antiq.  i.  586, 


s.  V.  Easter;  S.  Butcher,  The  Ec- 
clesiastical Calendar,  pp.  257  ff. 
The  views  on  this  matter  of  the 
Tubingen  critics,  who  point  out 
a  seeming  discrepancy  between  the 
practice  of  the  Asiatic  Church  and 
the  date  assigned  to  the  Crucifixion 
in  St  John's  Gospel,  may  be  found 
in  A.  Hilgenfeld,  Ber  Paschastreit 
der  Alien  Kirche.  See  also  E. 
Schiirer,  Be  Controversiis  Pasch.  n. 
Sac.  exortis  (Lipsia,  1869). 

^  Levit.  xxiii.  11 ;  Josephus,  An- 
tiq. III.  X.  5. 

11 


Ch.  VIII. 


Stations. 


The  Chris- 
tian Year. 
The 
Pascha. 


Jewish. 


Christian. 


1.  Ebion- 
ite. 


162 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church 


Ch.  VIII. 


2.  Jewish- 
Christian. 


Quarto- 
decimans. 


3.    Gentile 
Chris- 
tians. 


Polycarp 
at  Rome. 
A.D.  155. 


Victor  and 
Poly- 
crates, 

A.D.  1%. 


obligation  of  the  Mosaic  law,  even  in  ceremonial  matters, 
kept  their  Pascha  on  the  14th  Nisan  with  all  the  old 
ceremonies,  holding  that  the  Lord  had  also  done  this  on 
the  day  before  His  death.  The  Catholic  Jewish-Christians, 
whose  practice  was  extensively  followed  by  the  Churches 
of  Asia  Minor,  while  agreeing  with  the  Ebionites  as  to  the 
season  for  observing  their  Pascha,  gave  it  a  decidedly 
Christian  significance.  Christ,  they  held,  the  true  Paschal 
Lamb,  had  Himself  been  slain  on  the  14th  Nisan,  and  had 
consequently  not  held  an  ordinary  Pascha  with  His  dis- 
ciples. They  therefore  commemorated  the  Crucifixion  on 
the  14th  Nisan,  and  the  Resurrection  on  the  16th\  These 
were  in  later  times  known  as  Quartodecimans.  But  in 
the  West,  and  especially  in  Rome,  where  the  influence  of 
Judaism  was  less,  the  variation  from  the  ancient  Jewish 
observance  was  much  greater.  There  it  was  held,  that  as 
there  was  already  a  weekly  commemoration  of  the  Resur- 
rection on  the  first  day  of  the  week — the  week-day  on 
which,  as  all  were  agreed,  the  Lord  actually  rose — the 
great  annual  festival  in  honour  of  the  same  great  event 
should  take  place  on  no  other  day.  The  commemoration 
of  the  Crucifixion  would  consequently  fall  on  the  sixth  day 
of  the  week,  Friday.  If  therefore  the  14th  Nisan  did  not 
fall  on  a  Friday,  the  Romans  commemorated  the  Cruci- 
fixion on  the  Friday  next  after  it,  and  the  Resurrection  on 
the  following  Sunday. 

For  some  years  this  divergency  of  practice  continued  in 
the  Church  without  collision.  The  first  signs  of  division 
were  given  on  occasion  of  a  visit  of  Polycarp  of  Smyrna  to 
Rome.  The  Roman  bishop  Anicetus  appealed,  in  defence 
of  his  own  practice,  to  the  tradition  of  his  Church,  while 
Polycarp,  in  defence  of  the  Asiatic  custom,  alleged  that  he 
had  himself  actually  celebrated  a  Pascha  with  the  Apostle 
St  John.  Neither  would  yield  to  the  other,  but  the  two 
bishops  at  last  parted  in  peace'"'.  Some  forty  years  later, 
however,  the  contest  was  renewed  with  much  greater 
violence   by  Victor,  bishop    of  Rome,  and  Polyerates  of 


^  Our  information  as  to  the 
Jewish- Christian  manner  of  keep- 
ing Pascha  is  mainly  derived  from 
the  fragments  preserved  in  the 
Chronicon  Paschale  (i.  pp.  12 — 14, 


ed.  Dindorf).  In  the  interpreta- 
tion of  these  I  have  followed  Kurtz, 
Handbuch,  i.  243  ff. 

-  Eusebius,  H.  E.  xv.  14 ;  v.  24, 
§1G. 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


163 


Ephesus.  The  former  even  went  so  far  as  to  refuse  to 
hold  communion  with  the  Asiatic  Churches  so  long  as  they 
continued  to  observe  the  Paschal  season  in  their  accus- 
tomed manner.  This  high-handed  proceeding  was  however 
generally  resented ;  Irenseus  in  particular,  himself  sprung 
from  Asia  Minor,  remonstrated  warmly  with  the  bishop  of 
Rome,  with  full  agreement  of  his  Gallican  brethren \ 
The  question  remained  still  for  some  generations  un- 
decided, but  the  Roman  practice  seems  to  have  spread. 

In  the  third  century  a  new  difficulty  arose.  In  early 
times  Christians  had  been  content  to  accept  the  current 
Jewish  Paschal  season  as  their  own.  Now,  however,  it 
came  to  be  alleged  that  the  Jews  themselves  had  varied. 
In  ancient  times  (it  was  said)  the  Jews  had  always  so 
arranged  their  calendar  that  the  14th  Nisan  was  the  day  of 
the  first  full-moon  after  the  vernal  equinox  ;  but  after  the 
fall  of  Jerusalem  they  had  ceased  to  observe  this,  so  that 
their  Paschal  full-moon  was  sometimes  before  that  epoch '^ 
As  some  Christians  observed,  while  others  neglected,  the 
rule  as  to  the  equinox,  it  was  possible  for  one  Church  to 
be  celebrating  its  Pascha  a  month  earlier  than  another. 
It  was  i:)robably  this  uncertainty  about  the  correct  reckon- 
ing of  the  Pascha  which  induced  Christian  teachers  to 
attempt  an  independent  calculation,  taking  account  of  the 
official  Roman  calendar.  Hippolytus  of  Rome  drew  up 
a  cycle  for  indicating  the  true  Paschal  full-moon,  based  on 
the  suppositions,  that  the  vernal  equinox  fell  on  the  1 8th 
March,  and  that  after  sixteen  years  the  full-moons  again 
fell  on  the  same  days  of  the  year^     His  cycle  found  great 


Ch.  VIII. 


^  Eusebius,  if.JS.v.24;  Socrates, 
H.  E.  V.  22. 

2  See  Socrates,  H.  E.  v.  22,  p. 
293.  It  should  be  observed  that 
the  Jewish  months  were  lunar.  As 
12  lunar  months  contain  only  354 
days,  a  month  was  intercalated  at 
certain  intervals  to  keep  Nisan  in 
such  a  position,  with  regard  to  the 
solar  year,  as  to  admit  of  the  sheaf 
being  offered  on  the  16th;  and  a 
day  which  admitted  of  the  offering 
of  the  first-fruits  of  the  corn  would 
almost  certainly  be  after  the  vernal 
equinox.  Possibly  when  the  Jews 
ceased  to  be  an  agricultural  people, 


and  were  dispersed  in  various 
countries,  they  were  less  careful 
about  the  offering  of  the  sheaf;  or 
the  cycle  of  intercalation  which 
they  used  may  have  had  an  in- 
herent imperfection  which  in  time 
brought  the  14th  Nisan  before  the 
vernal  equinox. 

3  Eusebius,  H.  E.  vi.  22.  Hip- 
polytus's  cycle  is  engraved  on  the 
back  of  his  marble  statue  found 
near  Rome  in  1551,  engraved  in 
Buusen's  IlippoUjtus.  See  (j.  Sal- 
mon in  Diet.  Ckr.  Biorjr.  i.  508 ; 
III.  yi. 

11—2 


Paschal 
cycles. 


164 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


Ch.  VIII. 


Fasting. 


Quadra- 
gesima. 


Ascension 
Day. 

Pentecost. 


acceptance  in  the  West.  For  the  Alexandrian  Church  a 
different  cycle  was  drawn  up  by  its  bishop  DionysiusS 
This  was,  however,  soon  superseded  by  the  cycle — correct 
in  so  far  as  it  assumed  the  recurrence  of  the  full-moons  on 
the  same  year-day  in  nineteen  years — of  Anatolius  of 
Laodicea^.  But  diversity  of  practice  continued  to  exist, 
and  the  Paschal  question  was  one  of  those  brought  before 
the  Council  of  Nicsea. 

The  commemoration  of  the  Lord's  Crucifixion  was  from 
ancient  times  preceded  by  a  fast".  In  the  second  century 
we  find  that  some  fasted  at  this  time  one  day,  some  two 
days,  some  forty  hours;  and  that  these  differences  were 
mutually  tolerated*.  Socrates^  states  that  the  Roman 
custom  was  to  fast  three  weeks,  while  in  Greece  and 
Alexandria  a  forty-days'  fast  was  observed.  Uniformity  in 
this  respect  was  not  established  before  the  fifth  or  sixth 
century.  In  the  week  immediately  preceding  Easter 
Sunday  the  fast  was  (in  some  Churches  at  least)  very  strict, 
most  of  all  on  the  two  days — Good  Friday  and  the  "Great 
Sabbath" — before  Easter  Sunday®.  Many  spent  the 
whole  night  between  the  Great  Sabbath  and  Easter 
Sunday  in  devotion  in  the  churches'',  and  hailed  with  joy 
the  dawn  of  the  Easter  morning. 

The  seven  weeks  which  followed  Easter  were  a  time  of 
special  joyfulness,  during  which  the  faithful  did  not  bend 
the  knee,  but  prayed  standing^  The  fortieth  day  after 
the  festival  of  the  Resurrection,  corresponding  to  the  day 
of  the  Lord's  Ascension,  was  naturally  one  of  triumphant 
jubilation ^  The  festal  season  ended  with  the  fiftieth  day, 
Pentecost,  the  day  of  the  great  outpouring  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  at  Jerusalem,  the  birthday  of  the  Christian  Church  "*. 
The  followers  of  Basilides  are  said  to  have  kept  a  festival, 


1  Eusebius,  H.  E.  vii.  20.  See 
Fabricius,  Bibliotheca  Graca,  iii. 
462. 

2  Eusebius,  //.  E.  vii.  32,  13  ff. 

2  P.  Gunning,  The  Paschal  or 
Lent  Fast,  reprinted  in  Library  of 
Anglo-Cath.  Theol.,  1845. 

*  Irenseus  in  Euseb.  H.  E.  v.  24. 
§12. 

6  Hist.  Eccl.  V.  22,  p.  294. 

6  Constt.  Apost.  V.  19. 

^  Tertullian,  ad   Urorem,  ii.  4 ; 


Constt.  Apost.  V.  19. 

8  Irenseus,  Fragm.  vn.  p.  342 ; 
of.  Tertullian,  de  Corona  Mil,  3. 

»  Constt.  Ajwst.  V.  19. 

^^  Pentecost  is  one  of  the  three 
special  days  mentioned  by  Origen 
(c.  Cclsum,  p.  392,  ed.  Spencer),  the 
others  being  Good  Friday  and 
Easter  Day.  The  English  name 
for  Pentecost,  Whitsunday,  no 
doubt  =  White  Sunday.  SeeSkeat's 
Etymol.  Diet.  s.v.  Whitsunday. 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


165 


with  a  vigil  preceding,  in  commemoration  of  the  baptism 
of  the  Lord  in  the  Jordan'. 

Another  class  of  yearly  festivals  arose  from  the  annual 
commemorations  of  martyrs,  which  took  place  on  the  day 
of  their  death,  and  (where  it  was  possible)  at  their  tombs. 
From  the  first,  the  faithful  shewed  the  greatest  anxiety 
to  obtain  possession  of  the  mortal  remains  of  those  who 
had  fallen  in  the  great  fight ^  and  with  like  care  they 
noted  the  day  of  departure',  the  birth-day*  of  their 
brother  into  a  higher  life.  Besides  the  ceremonies  usual 
at  the  graves  of  the  faithful  departed  ^  the  acts  of  the 
martyr  were  recited,  and  probably  before  the  end  of  the 
third  century  it  became  customary  to  pass  the  night 
preceding  the  festival — sometimes  with  much  disorder — 
at  his  tomb^ 

7.  It  is  not  probable  that  in  the  earliest  times  of 
Christianity  Chiistians  raised  special  buildings  for  their 
worship.  When  they  were  rejected  by  the  synagogue, 
those  who  held  Christ  for  the  Messiah  met  wherever  they 
could  obtain  leave  to  meet ;  in  the  large  upper-room  or 
loft  of  a  disciple^  in  the  lecture-theatre  of  a  rhetorician®, 
in  the  great  hall  of  a  Greek  or  Roman  house*".  Early  in 
the  third  century  Christians  had  acquired  land  with  a 
view  to  erecting  a  place  of  worship",  and  it  is  probable 
that  at  this  time  they  possessed  buildings  of  their  own, 
resembling  the  scholce  or  lodge-rooms  which  various  guilds 
or  corporations  erected  for  their  meetings.  During  the 
dark  days  of  Decius  and  Diocletian  they  sometimes  met 
in  the  silence  and  secrecy  of  the  subterranean  cemeteries, 
portions  of  which  have  been  thought  to  be  arranged  as 
churches '^  But  in  the  peaceful  period  between  those 
emperors  the  work  of  church-building  went  actively  for- 


1  Clement  Alex.  Strom,  i.  21,  p. 
407,  Potter. 

*  Martyrium  Pohjcarpi,  18 ;  Lug- 
dunensium  Epistola  in  Euseb.  H.  E. 
V.  1,  §  61. 

'  Cyprian,  Epist.  12. 

*  'U/jL^pa.  yeviOXioi,  Mart.  Pohje. 
18 ;  dies  natalis,  natalitia,  Tert. 
de  Cor.  Mil.  3. 

'  Antea,  p.  159. 

«  Cone.  Eliber.  c.  35. 

''  G.  Baldwin  Brown,  From  Schola 


to  Cathedral  (Edinburgh,  1886.) 

^  Actsi.l3;xx.  8;Pseudo-Lucian 
PhUopatris,  23. 

^  Acts  xix.  9. 

^■^  Clemenime  Recognitions,  iv.  6; 
X.  71 ;  Gesta  Purgationis  Cteciliani 
(in  Augustine,  0pp.  ix.  794,  ed. 
Migne),  referring  to  a  transaction 
of  A.D.  303. 

^'^'La,mT^vidi\ViS,  Alexander  Severus, 
0.49. 

12  Marchi,  Monumenti,  pp.  180  ff., 


ch.  vm. 

Saints' 
Days. 


Vigils. 

Architec- 
tueal  and 

OTHER 
ART. 

Build- 
ings'^. 


Scliolce. 


166 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


Ch.  VIII. 


Fittings. 


Painting. 


ward.  The  increased  congregations  were  no  longer  satis- 
fied with  their  old  narrow  rooms,  but  built  everywhere 
large  and  conspicuous  churches \  The  stately  church  of 
Nicomedia  was  visible  from  the  emperor's  palace  ^  Of 
the  fittings  and  ornaments  of  churches  in  the  first  three 
centuries  little  is  known,  except  that  each  church  had  a 
Table  or  Altar''  for  the  administration  of  the  Eucharist, 
and  a  desk  or  raised  footpace  for  the  reader  or  preacher. 
The  supposed  church  in  the  catacomb  of  St  Agnes  has  at 
one  end,  hewn  in  the  tufa,  a  chair  which  is  thought  to  be 
the  seat  of  the  bishop ;  and  the  earliest  description*  of  a 
church  places  the  bishop's  throne  in  the  middle  of  the 
east  end,  with  the  seats  of  the  presbyters  on  each  side. 

As  all  Christian  buildings  of  the  first  three  centuries 
have  long  disappeared,  it  is  only  in  the  catacombs  that  we 
can  look  for  remains  of  early  Christian  art^  There  we 
find  that  from  the  earliest  times  the  faithful  decorated 
with  paintings  the  chambers  where  they  laid  their  dead, 
and  where  the  living  sometimes  assembled.  They  adopted, 
as  was  inevitable,  the  style  and  many  of  the  subjects  of 
their  pagan  contemporaries.  As  in  the  houses  of  pagan 
Pompeii,  so  in  the  Christian  vaults,  the  vine  trails  over 
the  walls,  birds  and  butterflies  and  winged  genii  display 
their  beauties,  and  graceful  draped  female  figures  are 
not  absent ;  but  the  Vine  symbolized  the  Saviour,  and  the 
other  representations  also  received  a  new  significance. 
Even  the  figure  of  the  mythic  Orpheus  came  to  symbolize 
the  attractive  power  of  Christ.  The  Fish^  represented 
both  the  Saviour  Himself,  and  the  disciple  who  draws  life 
from  the  vivifying  water.    Under  the  image  of  the  Fisher- 


taw,  xxxv — XXXVII ;  Diet.  Chr.  An- 
tiq.  I.  313;  From  Scliola  to  Cathe- 
dral, p.  60. 

1  Eusebius,  H.  E.  viii.  1. 

-  Lactantius,  Be  Mort.  Persec. 
12. 

3  Tpdirefa  (the  usual  liturgical 
word),  dvaiacTT^piov  (less  common), 
niensa,  altare,  ai'a  Dei  (Tert.  de 
Orat.  14). 

*  In  Gonstt.  Apost.  ii.  57.  4. 

^  See  the  works  referred  to  antea, 
p.  159,  note  7 ;  and  add  Serous 
d'Agincourt,  L'Histoire  de  VArt 
par    les    Monuments ;     Ciampini, 


Vetera  Monumenta;  A.  W.  C.  Lind- 
say (Lord  Lindsay),  Sketches  of  the 
History  of  Christian  Art ;  F.  Kugler, 
Handbook  of  Painting  (Italy),  from 
the  German  by  Eastlake ;  J.  W. 
Burgon,  Letters  from  Rome;  E.  St. 
John  Tyrwhitt,  Tlie  Art  Teaching 
of  the  Primitive  Church;  E.  Gar- 
rucci,  VHistoire  de  VArt  Chretien; 
E.  Venables  in  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq., 
s.  V.  Fresco. 

8  The  Greek  word  'IxdOs  is  the 
acrostic  of  'IrjaoOs  Xpiarbs  QeoO 
Ttds  'Eurrip. 


Social  Life  and  Ceremonies  of  the  Church. 


167 


man  Christ  is  seen  as  the  great  "fisher  of  men,"  and  under 
that  of  the  Shepherd  He  gathers  His  sheep  in  His  arms 
or  leads  them  to  pasture.  Scenes  from  the  Old  Testament 
are  made  to  symbolize  the  truths  of  the  New.  Direct 
representations  of  Christ  and  His  saints  are  generally 
avoided  in  the  earliest  Christian  pictorial  art. 

Gems*  were  early  engraved  with  Christian  symbols. 
The  devices  which  Clement^  recommends  are  the  dove,  the 
fish,  the  ship,  the  lyre,  the  anchor,  the  fisherman;  and 
very  early  specimens  are  extant  bearing  these  and  similar 
figures. 

Tertullian'  alludes  to  the  figure  of  the  Good  Shepherd 
carrying  the  lost  sheep,  which  Christians  loved  to  see  on 
the  bottom  of  cups,  seemingly  glass  cups.  The  bottoms 
of  many  such  cups,  bearing  various  representations  in 
gold-leaf  enclosed  between  two  layers  of  glass,  are  found 
embedded  in  the  mortar  of  the  catacombs^  Not  only 
does  the  Good  Shepherd  appear  in  these,  with  many  other 
Christian  symbols,  but  heads  are  found,  intended  seem- 
ingly for  portraits  of  apostles  and  other  saints  whose 
names  are  appended. 

Such  were  the  small  beginnings  of  the  arts  which  in 
eighteen  centuries  have  raised  magnificent  buildings  and 
displayed  glorious  representations  of  sacred  scenes  in  the 
most  enlightened  countries  of  the  world. 


1  Martigny,  Des  Anneaux  chez 
les  premiers  Chretiens ;  C.  D.  E. 
Fortnum,  in  Arclioiological  Journal 
1869  and  1871,  on  Early  Chris- 
tian Finger-rings;  C.  W.  King, 
Antique  Gems,  ii.  24  ff ;  Churchill 
Babington  in  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  s,v. 


Gems. 

2  Ptedag.  m.  11.  59. 

3  De  Pudicitia,  7. 

*  E.  Garrucci,  Vetri  Ornati  di 
figure  in  Oro;  Churchill  Babington 
in  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  s.  v.  Glass, 
Christian. 


Ch.  VIII. 


Engraved 
Gems. 


Glass. 


Ch.  IX. 

The  Im- 
perial 
Church. 
Constan- 
tine  and 
Liciiiius, 
A.D.  313. 


A.D.  314. 
A.D.  316. 


A.D.  321. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


THE   CHURCH   AND   THE   EMPIRE. 

1.  In  the  year  313  Constantine*  and  Licinius  found 
themselves  masters  of  the  Roman  world.  They  had 
joined  in  the  edict  which  gave  full  toleration  to  Christ- 
ianity, but  with  very  different  feelings.  Licinius,  without 
actually  declaring  his  hostility,  harassed  the  Christian 
communities  within  his  dominions  by  the  hundred  petty 
annoyances  which  are  always  at  the  command  of  persons 
in  authority.  Constantine,  though  no  doubt  restrained  in 
some  degree  by  consideration  for  his  partner  in  the  em- 
pire, shewed  in  many  ways  the  favour  which  he  bore  to 
Christianity.  Several  of  the  measures  by  which  he  bene- 
fited the  Church  belong  to  the  period  in  which  he  still 
had  Licinius  for  his  colleague.  He  caused  large  sums  to 
be  given  to  the  Churches  of  Africa**;  he  conferred  on 
Christian  masters  the  power  of  manumitting  their  slaves 
without  the  presence  of  a  magistrate^ ;  he  exempted  the 
clergy  from  the  obligation  of  undertaking  burdensome 
municipal  offices* ;  he  permitted  Churches  to  accept  lega- 
cies^ ;  he  commanded  labour  to  cease,  with  the  exception 


^  Le  Nain  de  Tillemont,  Histoire 
des  Emperewrs;  J.  C.  F.  Manso, 
Das  Leben  Constantins ;  J.  Burck- 
hardt.  Die  Zeit  Constantins ;  Th. 
Keirn,  Der  Uebertritt  Constantins; 
J.  Wordsworth,  Constantinus  I.  in 
Diet.  Chr.  Biog.  i.  624  ff.  See  also 
A.  de  Broglie,  L'Eylise  et  VEmpire 
au  IF'"'  Steele,  vols.  1  and  2 ;  H.  H. 
Milman,  Hist,  of  Christianity, vol.  2 ; 
A,  P.  Stanley,  Eastern  Church, 
Led.  VI.;  W.  Bright,  Hist,  of  the 


Church  from  313—451. 

2  Euseb.  H.  E.  x.  6. 

^  Rescript  to  Hosius,  in  Codex 
Justin.  I.  xiii.  1. 

*  Euseb.  H.  E.x.l;  Codex  Theod. 
XVI.  ii.  1,  2.  This  edict  however  did 
not  exempt  ecclesiastics  from  bur- 
dens which  fell  upon  them  as  land- 
oioners,  when  they  possessed  estates. 
See  Guizot's  note  on  Gibbon,  iii. 
31,  ed.  W.  Smith. 

5  Codex  Theod.  xvi.  ii.  4. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


169 


of  necessary  Avork  in  the  fields,  on  Sunday\  This  last 
order,  however,  must  not  be  assumed  to  have  been  given 
out  of  pure  respect  to  the  great  weekly  festival  of 
Christians.  It  is  clear  that  Constantine  dreamed  in  these 
days  of  directing  to  one  form  of  worship  the  common  ten- 
dency of  all  mankind  to  reverence  the  divinity,  thinking 
that  such  a  universal  religion  would  be  an  admirable  bond 
for  the  distracted  empire'^.  The  worship  of  the  Sun,  espe- 
cially under  the  name  of  Mithras,  was  very  widely  preva- 
lent in  the  empire,  and  it  may  have  seemed  to  the  great 
ruler  possible  to  unite  the  worship  of  the  material  sun 
with  that  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness.  Certainly  many 
of  his  coins  bear  on  one  face  the  sign  of  the  Cross  or  the 
Labarum,  on  the  other  the  sun-god  ^  He  retained  the 
title  of  Pontifex  Maximus  and  discharged  the  sacrificial 
duties  belonging  to  the  office.  In  fact,  Constantino's  real 
feeling  towards  the  faith  of  Christ  is  involved  in  great 
obscurity.  He  was  apparently  capable  of  religious  emo- 
tion, and  was  fond  of  preaching  to  his  courtiers*.  Yet  he 
always  remained  outside  the  Church,  and  was  baptized 
only  on  his  death-bed®.  It  is  certain  that  his  Christianity 
did  not  prevent  him  from  putting  to  death  his  son  Cris- 
pus  and  his  wife  Fausta.  A  generation  or  two  later  a 
story  was  current®  that,  in  great  remorse  at  his  bloody 
deeds,  he  had  appealed  to  pagan  priests  or  flamens  to 
cleanse  him  from  his  guilt,  and  that  it  was  only  when  the 
pagans  declared  that  they  had  no  lustration  for  guilt  such 
as  his  that  he  turned  to  the  Christians,  who  promised  him 
purification.  This  story  contains  several  improbabilities, 
but  it  is  not  inconceivable  that  a  man  of  so  complex  a 
character  may  have  had  some  dealings  with  pagan  hiero- 
phants  even  after  the  date  of  Nicsea,  as  Saul  resorted  to 


1  Codex  Justin,  ni.  xii.  3;  Eu- 
seljius,  De  Vita  Constantini,  iv.  18, 
19,  20. 

"  Tr]V  OLTravTwv  twv  edvQv  nepi  rb 
Otiov  wpodeaiv  els  /Mas  ^^ecos  avcTaCLV 
ivwffai. .  .Trpovdv/xT^dr) ;  Euseb.  Vita  C. 
11.  65. 

3  F.  W.  Madden,  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Antiq.  1277  ff.  On  the  earliest 
coins  of  Constantine,  however,  the 


:;^  appears  on  the  emperor's  helmet, 
as  if  it  were  a  personal  badge. 

■*  Euseb.  Vita  C.  iv.  29. 

5  Socrates,  i.  39 ;  Sozomen,  ii.  34 ; 
Philostorgius,  ii.  16. 

^  Given  by  Zosimus,  ii.  29.  So- 
zomen (Hist.  Eccles.  i.  5)  men- 
tions a  similar  story,  which  he 
regards  as  a  calumny  and  utterly 
disbelieves. 


Chap.  IX. 


Constan- 

tine's 

views. 


A.D.  326. 


170 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


Chap.  IX. 

Constan- 
tine 
against 
Licinins. 


Constan- 
tine  alone, 
A.D.  323. 


Constanti- 
nople 
founded 
325,  dedi- 
cated 330. 


Organiza- 
tion. 


the  witch  of  En-dor  even  after  he  had  endeavoured  to  put 
down  witchcraft. 

But  it  was  clear  that  Constantine,  with  whatever  reser- 
vation, was  favourable  to  the  Church,  while  Licinius  was 
against  it.  The  heathen  consequently  regarded  the  latter 
as  their  champion,  while  the  Christians  flocked  round  the 
former ;  and  when  in  323  the  smouldering  jealousy  of  the 
two  Augusti  broke  out  into  open  conflict,  the  war  was  in 
fact  one  of  religion,  and  the  victory  of  Constantine  was 
the  victory  of  the  Church.  He  caused  his  conquered  rival 
to  be  put  to  death,  and  stood  sole  master  of  the  empire. 
Then  he  could  carry  out  with  greater  freedom  his  plans 
for  the  reorganization  of  the  state  and  the  recognition  of 
the  Church. 

He  began  with  the  foundation  of  New  Rome,  the  city 
of  Constantine,  on  the  beautiful  site  of  the  old  Byzantium, 
in  Europe,  but  over  against  Asia'.  This  city  was  adorned 
with  a  lavish  hand  by  the  master  of  the  treasures  of  East 
and  West.  Old  Rome  was  no  longer  the  centre  of  the 
empire.  It  clung  with  great  tenacity  to  the  old  religion 
under  which  its  conquests  had  been  won;  its  traditional 
republicanism  was  not  extinct ;  and  its  pagan  and  repub- 
lican citizens  by  no  means  hailed  with  enthusiasm  a 
monarch  who  deserted  the  old  deities ^  The  transference 
of  the  seat  of  the  imperial  government  to  Byzantium  had 
very  important  consequences  for  the  Church.  If  Rome 
had  remained  the  capital  of  the  empire,  the  development 
of  the  papacy  would  almost  certainly  have  been  retarded, 
and  the  whole  course  of  its  history  changed.  Hardly  less 
important  was  the  character  of  Oriental  despotism  which 
the  empire  rapidly  acquired  in  its  new  seat,  and  which 
would  probably  have  gro^vn  more  slowly  in  old  Rome. 
Constantinople  became,  however,  the  great  bulwark  of 
Christianity  against  Islam,  and  the  nursery  of  Greek  lite- 
rature during  the  Middle  Ages.  It  was  there,  in  fact,  that 
the  seeds  of  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century  were 
preserved. 

His  great  city  founded,  Constantine  proceeded  with 


^  Socrates,  1. 16;  Sozomen,  ii.  3; 
Philostorgius,  ii.  9.  On  the  dates, 
see  Pagi  on  Baronius,  auu.  324,  n. 


19;  330,  n.  4. 

2  Ghronicon  Paschale,  p.  517,  ed. 
Dindorf. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


171 


the  organization  of  the  empire,  in  the  way  which  promised 
to  render  the  control  of  the  central  government  most 
effective.  He  unfortunately  at  the  same  time  increased 
the  oppressive  weight  of  taxation  which  in  time  crushed 
the  unfortunate  provincials. 

Constantine  said  to  a  party  of  bishops  at  his  table, 
that  he  was  bishop  of  matters  external,  while  they  were 
bishops  in  the  internal  affairs  of  the  Churchy  intending 
probably  little  more  than  to  gratify  the  prelates  by  a 
polite  speech.  The  distinction  was  at  any  rate  not  very 
accurately  observed  in  subsequent  times ;  but  a  succession 
of  edicts  by  Constantine  and  his  successors  increased  the 
power,  the  wealth,  and  the  dignity  of  the  Church.  Bishops 
had  long  arbitrated  in  ecclesiastical  matters,  and  in  civil 
suits  between  Christians  who  were  unwilling  to  go  to  law 
before  unbelievers;  a  law  of  the  year  376  gave  to  the 
decisions  of  these  courts  of  arbitration  the  same  legal 
force  which  belonged  to  those  of  the  imperial  magistrates*. 
Somewhat  later,  no  accusation  against  a  cleric  could  be 
heard  otherwhere  than  before  the  tribunal  of  the  bishop  I 
The  Church  itself  had  already  treated  with  great  severity 
those  who,  being  condemned  by  an  ecclesiastical  court, 
ventured  to  appeal  to  an  imperial  tribunal*.  That  bishops 
should  bring  before  the  emperor's  court  cases  in  which 
injustice  had  been  done  to  the  weak  and  friendless  was 
right  and  becoming ;  but  they  were  forbidden  to  sully  the 
dignity  of  their  office  by  taking  up  unworthy  or  frivolous 
cases^  They  took  cognizance,  as  was  natural,  of  matters 
which  were  rather  offences  against  the  moral  law  than 
against  the  state,  and  sometimes  succeeded  in  overawing 
even  high-placed  offenders.  The  privileges  of  bishops 
were  considerably  extended  by  the  legislation  of  Justinian, 
which  gave  them  civil  jurisdiction  over  monks  and  nuns°, 
as  well  as  clerics,  and  added  legal  sanction  to  the  over- 


1  Euseb.  Vita  C.  iv.  24. 
^  Codex  Theodos.  xvi.  ii.  23;  So- 
zomen,  H.  E.  i.  9. 

*  Codex  Theodos.  xvi.  ii.  41,  47. 
But  a  law  of  Leo,  a.d.  459  (quoted 
by  Hatch,  Organizatioyi  146,  n.  17), 
makes  clerks  amenable  only  to  ry 
iirdpx'iP  Tuv  TTpaiTwplwv. 

*  Cone.  Antioch.  cc.  11,  12;  Con- 


stantinop.  i.  c.  6;  Garthag.  in.  9; 
Chaleedon.  9.  Athanasius  however 
{Apologia  c.  Arianos  9)  expressed 
his  willingness  to  plead  before  the 
emperor  himself. 

5  Cone.  Sardic.  c.  8  (Lat.),  7  (Gr.). 

6  Justiniani  Novella,  79.  83.  123, 
c.  21. 


Chap.  IX, 


Privileges 

of  the 

Clergy. 

Church 

Courts 

legalized, 

376. 


A.D.  412. 


Justinian, 
527—505. 


172 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


sight  of  public  morality  and  the  protection  of  the  suffer- 
ing which  they  had  hitherto  practised  on  the  authority 
of  the  Church,  It  enjoined  and  empowered  them  to 
take  charge  of  prisoners,  minors,  imbeciles,  foundlings,  and 
other  waifs  and  strays  of  society^ ;  it  gave  them  authority 
to  put  down  gaming"^  and  to  supplement  the  judgments  of 
lay  tribunals* ;  and  it  endowed  them  with  co-ordinate 
authority  in  the  management  of  municipal  property*. 
Bishops  thus  became  very  important  civil  officials,  and 
the  secular  judges  were  forbidden  to  summon  them  as 
witnesses  or  to  administer  an  oath  to  them^  Bishops 
were  also  freed,  like  other  high  officials  of  the  empire, 
from  the  patria  potestas^  From  the  fourth  century  on- 
ward they  enjoyed  the  same  right  of  intercession  for  cri- 
minals which  had  once  been  enjoyed  by  the  Vestals,  espe- 
cially on  behalf  of  those  who  were  sentenced  to  deaths 
The  right  of  asylum,  too,  which  had  belonged  to  certain 
heathen  temples,  passed  by  custom  to  Christian  churches, 
and  was  formally  legalized  by  Theodosius  in  the  fifth 
century ^ 

In  addition  to  these  privileges  the  Church  also  received 
under  the  Christian  emperors  large  additions  to  its  pro- 
perty. From  the  municipal  income  of  cities,  from  the 
spoils  of  heathen  temples  and  occasionally  of  heretical  con- 
venticles, riches  flowed  in  upon  the  Church  ^  which  was 
now  empowered  to  receive  legacies  and  gifts  from  the 
faithful.  One  effect  of  this  permission  was,  that  increased 
wealth  occasioned  a  great  extension  of  the  works  of  bene- 
ficence for  which  the  Church  even  in  its  poverty  had  been 
distinguished.  Attempts  were  made  to  succour  all  kinds 
of  suffering  and  distress ;  and  so  greatly  did  this  increase 
the  influence  of  the  Church,  that  the  emperor  Julian  at- 
tempted to  transplant  charitable  institutions  into  his  re- 


1  Codex  Just.  I.  iv.  22,  24,  27,  28, 
30,  33. 

2  lb.  25. 

3  lb.  21,  31. 
*  lb.  26,  §  4. 

5  Novella,  123,  §  7. 

6  Novella,  81. 

^  See  Ambrose,  Epist.  vn.  58,  ad 
Studlum;  Augustine,  Epist.  15S,  ad 
Macedonium;  133,  ad  MarceUinum. 
The   attempts    at    forcible   rescue 


which  were  sometimes  made  led 
to  legislative  repression.  Codex 
Thcodos.  IX.  xl.  15,  16,  a.d.  392,  398. 

8  Codex  Theodos.  ix.  xlv.  1,  2,  3. 

»  Euseb.  Vita  C.  iv.  28;  Sozomen, 
I.  8;  Theodoret,  H.  E.  i.  11;  In- 
certus  Auctor,  de  Constant,  (quoted 
by  Hatch,  Organization,  p.  150,  n. 
28) ;  Theophanes,  p.  42,  ed.  Classen; 
Nicephorus  Callisti,  vn.  46;  Ced- 
renus,  pp.  478,  498. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


173 


vived  paganism.  With  the  increase  of  wealth  came  also 
the  necessity  to  arrange  for  its  equitable  distribution. 
For  this  Gelasius  I.^  decreed  that  the  total  income  of  a 
church,  whether  derived  from  property  or  from  the  offer- 
ings of  the  faithful,  should  bo  divided  into  four  equal  parts, 
of  which  one  should  be  given  to  the  bishop,  one  to  the 
other  clergy,  one  to  the  poor,  and  one  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  buildings.  The  council  of  Braga^,  a  generation 
or  two  later,  divided  the  income  of  a  church  into  three 
portions,  one  for  the  bishop,  one  for  the  rest  of  the 
clergy,  and  the  third  for  the  reparation  or  lighting  of  the 
church. 

The  relations  of  the  clergy,  and  especially  of  the  bishops, 
to  the  emperor  and  other  high  officials  present  curious 
contrasts.  The  respect  paid  to  the  bishop  was  from  the 
first  very  great,  and  it  was  certainly  not  diminished  when 
he  became  a  conspicuous  person  in  the  eyes  of  the  world. 
Even  emperors  bowed  the  head  before  him  and  kissed  his 
hand'.  Jerome*,  whose  life  was  simple  and  ascetic,  was 
indignant  at  the  lofty  bearing  of  some  of  the  prelates  and 
presbyters,  and  begged  them  to  remember,  that  the  faith- 
ful were  their  fellow-servants,  not  their  bond-servants. 

But  whatever  respect  the  emperors  might  pay  to  the 
Church  and  its  officers,  they  had  in  fact  immense  influence 
over  it.  From  the  time  when  the  emperors  became  Chris- 
tian, says  Socrates^,  the  affairs  of  the  Church  depended 
upon  them.  It  could  hardly  be  otherwise.  Privileges 
were  conferred  by  law  upon  the  Catholic  Church  alone  **, 
and  occasions  unfortunately  soon  arose  when  it  was  ne- 
cessary for  the  emperor  to  say  which  of  two  contending 
parties  he  considered  Catholic.  If  the  defeated  party 
asked,  what  the  emperor  had  to  do  with  the  Church,  the 
victors  replied,  that  the  Church  was  in  the  state,  and  that 
none  was  over  the  emperor  but  God^      The  Fathers  at 


1  Efist.  9,  c.  27. 

2  Canon  7. 

»  Theodoret,  H.  E.  iv,  6,  p.  153 
(see  Valesius's  note,  and  Bing- 
ham's Antiq.  bk.  ii.  c.  9) ;  Chry- 
sostom,  De  Sacerdotio,  iii.  1. 

*  In  Titum,  c.  1 :  "  Sciat  episcopus 
et  presbyter  sibi  populum  conser- 
vum  esse  non  servum." 


"  H.  E.  V.  Preface. 

^  Codex  Theod.  xvi.  i.  2  (Law  of 
Constantine,  an.  326). 

''  Optatus  Milev.  De  Schism.  Do- 
natist.  I.  22;  iii.  3.  The  Donatists 
repudiated  the  authority  of  the  or- 
thodox Constantine  (Optatus,  u.  s.), 
and  the  Catholics  that  of  the  Arian 
Constantius  (Hosius  ad  Constant. 


Chap.  IX. 

Distribu- 
tion. 
492-496. 


563. 


The  Clergy 
and  the 
Crown. 


Uespect 
imid  to  the 
Emperor. 


174 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


Constantinople  in  the  year  448,  when  an  imperial  rescript 
had  been  read,  cried  out  "  Long  live  our  High-Priest,  the 
Emperor  ^ ! "  Edicts  issued  by  the  emperor  were  pub- 
lished in  the  churches".  And  as  the  emperor,  by  influence 
or  direct  nomination,  secured  the  election  of  many  bishops, 
especially  of  those  of  Constantinople ^  the  episcopal  order 
was  generally  disposed  to  do  him  homage.  Justinian 
shewed  much  favour  to  the  Church,  but  at  the  same  time 
he  made  it  more  directly  subject  to  the  state.  Whomso- 
ever he  may  have  consulted  privately,  his  edicts  on  the 
affairs  of  the  Church — even  on  a  matter  so  strictly  eccle- 
siastical as  the  tone  in  which  the  Liturgy  should  be  said*, 
— run  in  precisely  the  same  style  as  those  on  purely 
secular  matters;  no  authority  but  that  of  the  emperor 
appears  in  them  ;  he  issues  his  commands  to  the  patriarchs 
of  Old  Rome  and  of  Constantinople  as  if  they  were  im- 
perial ofiicials.  The  Italian  bishops  however  always  main- 
tained a  certain  independence,  ancl  noted  with  some  degree 
of  contempt  the  subservience  of  their  Eastern  brethren^ 
And  generally,  in  spite  of  the  temptation  to  compliance, 
there  were  never  wanting  ecclesiastical  leaders  courageous 
enough  to  enforce,  even  upon  emperors  and  their  favour- 
ites, the  claims  of  the  Church  to  a  higher  sovereignty  than 
that  of  temporal  princes®.  Chrysostom  could  brave  im- 
perial anger  and  go  calmly  into  exile';  Ambrose  could 
repel  Theodosius,  bloody  with  massacre,  from  his  church^ 
Nor  were  these  solitary  instances. 

It  was  perhaps  an  almost  inevitable  result  of  the  inti- 
mate connexion  between  the  Church  and  the  Empire 
that  dissidents  from  the  faith  recognized  as  Catholic  were 
persecuted.  The  greatest  leaders  of  Christian  thought 
were  indeed  opposed  to  all  coercion  in  matters  of  faith. 


in  Athanasii  Hist.  Arian.  ad  Mo- 
nachos,  c.  44),  in  almost  the  same 
terms. 

1  Kurtz,  Handhuch,  ii.  22. 

-  The  words  "lecta  in  ecclesia 
Romana"  appear  at  the  end  of  an 
edict,  Codex  Theod.  xvi.  ii.  20. 
Other  instances  of  similar  publi- 
cation are  given  in  Godefroy's  note 
on  this  passage. 

3  Thomassiu,  EcclesicP  Disci- 
plina,  P.  II,  lib.  2.  c.  (J. 


■*  Novella, 123.  Justinian's  theory 
of  he  relation  between  Sacerdotium 
and  Imperium  is  set  forth  in  the 
Preamble  to  his  sixth  Novel. 

5  See  the  Epistle  of  the  Italian 
clergy  in  Hardouin's  Concilia,  iii. 
48  (Mansi,  ix.  153),  a.d.  552. 

^  Gregory  of  Nazianz.  Oral.  xvii. 
p.  271. 

7  Theodoret,  E.  H.  v.  3 1. 

8  lb.  V.  18. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


175 


Hilary  of  Poictiers*,  for  instance,  set  forth  the  blessings  of 
religious  freedom,  and  the  worthlessness  of  enforced  com- 
pliance, with  admirable  clearness  and  force.  Chrysostom'^ 
would  limit  persecution  to  forbidding  the  assemblies  of 
heretics  and  depriving  them  of  their  churches.  The  great 
name  of  Augustin,  however,  appears  among  the  advocates 
of  persecution.  He  had  indeed  in  his  earlier  days  con- 
tended for  the  freedom  of  religious  convictions,  but  the 
obstinate  resistance  of  the  Donatists  to  his  earnest  per- 
suasions convinced  him  that  there  were  some  who  would 
own  no  argument  but  force''.  Theodosius  I.  enacted  severe 
laws  against  those  who  did  not  accept  the  Catholic  faith, 
but  these  were  not  executed* ;  and  the  first  Christian 
prince  who  actually  caused  men  to  be  put  to  death  on 
account  of  religion  was  the  usurper  Maximus^  whose  pro- 
ceedings called  forth  general  indignation  and  found  no 
imitator  for  many  generations.  The  excellent  Martin  of 
Tours  protested  in  this  case,  that  it  was  an  outrage  for 
a  secular  judge  to  try  an  ecclesiastical  case,  and  that  no 
other  punishment  could  fittingly  be  inflicted  on  heretics 
but  that  of  excommunication**. 

2.  The  great  lines  of  the  Christian  hierarchy  remained 
after  the  public  recognition  of  Christianity  the  same  as  in 
the  previous  period,  though  the  changed  condition  of  the 
Church  occasioned  the  appointment  of  some  new  officers. 
The  needs  of  the  great  cities,  often  visited  by  pestilence, 
called  for  the  Parabolani',  who  hazarded  their  lives  in  at- 
tendance on  the  sick ;  and  the  Copiatse^  who  buried  the 
dead.  As  the  property  of  the  Church  increased  it  required 
the  attention  of  special  stewards  or  managers^,  under  the 
bishops'  direction.  A  special  body  of  lawyers  was  created 
to  defend  the  interests  of  the  Church,  and  especially  of 
the  poor,  in  the  courts",    A  large  number  of  notaries"  took 


'  Ad  Constantium,  i.  2,  7. 
2  In  Mattlueum,  Horn.  29,  c.  40 ; 
compare  Socrates,  vi.  19. 

*  Retractationes,  ii.  5 ;  Epist.  93 
ad  Vinceiitium,  c.  17  ;  185,  ad  Boni- 
facium,  c.  21.  He  did  however  ex- 
hort officials  to  gentleness  in  their 
proceedings,  Epist.  100,  ad  Donatnni 
proconsulem. 

*  Sozomen,  vri.  12. 


s  Sulpicius   Severus,    Chron.   ii. 
49—51. 

6  Sulpicius,  u.  s.  c.  iJO,  §  5. 

'  Codex  Theodos.  xvi.  ii.  42,  43. 

8  Codex  Justin,  i.  ii.  4. 

9  Cone.  Chalced.  c.  26  (a.d.  451). 
i»  Codex  Eccl.  Afric,  cc.  75,  97. 

See  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  s.  vv.  Advo- 
catus  and  Defensor. 

"  Augustin,  De  Ductr.  Chr.  ir.  2G ; 


Chap.  IX. 


A.D.  385. 


The  Hier- 
archy. 


Parabo- 
lan  i. 
Copiatce, 

Oeconomi. 
Def en- 
sores. 

Notarii. 


176 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


minutes  of  important  proceedings  and  drew  legal  docu- 
ments. As  the  archives  of  the  great  Churches  accumu- 
lated, it  became  necessary  to  put  them  under  the  charge 
of  a  keeper  of  the  records  in  each  Church \  The  important 
matters  which  came  into  the  hands  of  patriarchs  and  me- 
tropolitans caused  them  to  require  the  assistance  of  privy- 
councillors  or  ministers,  and  their  intercourse  with  the 
government  made  the  services  of  legates  at  the  Imperial 
court  almost  indispensable  I 

In  the  ordinary  ministry  of  the  Church  ^  the  office  of 
deacon  remained  in  theory  the  same.  But  the  deacons, 
being  constantly  by  the  bishop's  side  as  his  helpers  and 
secretaries,  often  attempted  to  set  themselves  above  the 
presbyters — a  presumption  which  was  checked  by  the 
decrees  of  several  councils*.  The  archidiaconus  or  chief  of 
the  deacons®,  in  particular,  became  commonly  the  bishop's 
confidential  adviser  and  representative  ;  frequently  his  suc- 
cessor. The  order  of  deaconesses  gradually  lost  its  early 
prominence;  which  however  it  retained  much  longer  in  the 
East,  where  the  seclusion  of  women  rendered  their  services 
important,  than  in  the  West^  The  Western  Church  reso- 
lutely opposed  the  ordination  of  deaconesses,  and  at  last 
forbade  it  altogether''.  The  bishop  was,  as  of  old,  the 
head  and  chief  administrator  of  the  district  committed  to 
him.  He  represented  it  in  all  its  external  relations,  and 
especially  in  councils.  He  summoned  and  presided  over 
its  synod.  To  him  alone  it  belonged  to  ordain  presbyters 
and  deacons ;  to  him  alone,  in  the  Western  Church,  to  lay 
hands  on  those  who  had  been  baptized.  He  was  the 
proper  minister  of  the  Word  and  Sacraments,  though  he 


Collat.  Donat.  die  ii.  c.  3;  Cone. 
Tolet.  IV.  c.  4.  See  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq. 
B.  V.  Notary. 

'  See  Ducange's  Glossaries  and 
Suicer's  Thesnunis,  s.  v.  xo-pro<l><uKa^. 

2  Diet,  of  Chr.  Antiq.  s.  w.  Syn- 
cellus  and  Leqate,  p.  969. 

»  See  p.  124  ff. 

*  Niccemim,  c.  18,  Ldodicenum, 
c.  20. 

^  See  H.  Gotze,  De  ArcJtidiaco- 
norum  in  vet.  eecl.  officiis  et  aitctori- 
tate  (Lipsiffi  1705);  J.  G.  Pertsch 
I'om  Urspruntid.  Archidiah.  (Hildes- 


heim  1743);  L.  Thomassin,  Eccl. 
Diseiplina,  i.  ii.  17 — 20 ;  Bingham's 
Antiq.  ii,  c.  21. 

^  Directions  for  the  ordination  of 
a  deaconess  are  given  in  the  Constt. 
Apost.  VIII.  19  f.  The  decree  of 
Nicfea  (c.  19)  which  speaks  of  their 
not  having  ordination  clearly  refers 
to  Paulianist  deaconesses. 

^  Cone.  Araiisic.  c.  26  (a.d.  441); 
Epaon.  c.  21  (a.d.  517);  Aurelian. 
c.  18  (A.n.  533).  See  J.  S.  Howson, 
Deaconesses. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


177 


might  delegate  these  functions  to  inferior  ministers.  He, 
with  his  council  of  presbyters,  excommunicated  offenders 
and  readmitted  penitents ;  without  him  neither  exclusion 
nor  reconciliation  could  take  place.  He  also  granted 
letters  of  commendation  to  members  of  his  flock  travelling 
abroad. 

The  Council  of  Nica^a'  laid  down,  that  a  bishop  must 
be  approved  and  chosen  by  the  faithful  of  the  city  over 
which  he  Avas  to  preside,  with— in  the  particular  case 
before  them — the  assent  of  the  bishop  of  Alexandria.  He 
was  to  be  ordained  and  admitted  to  his  office^  by  the 
bishops  of  the  same  province,  or  by  three  of  them  at  least. 
And  this  seems  to  have  been  generally  recognized  as  the 
rule  of  the  Church,  that  the  whole  body  of  the  faithful 
(o  \a6<i)  should  at  least  have  an  opportunity  of  saying 
whether  a  candidate  proposed  w^as  worthy  or  unworthy  ^ 
Even  after  the  election  was  supposed  to  have  taken  place, 
opposition  might  shew  itself  When  Theodorus  of  Hera- 
clea  enthroned  Demophilus  at  Constantinople  many  of 
those  who  were  present  cried  out  "  unworthy*."  But  not 
unfrequently  distinguished  men  were  actually  chosen 
bishops  by  the  acclamation  of  the  peoj)le,  as  Ambrose 
at  Milan^,  Martin  at  Tours®,  Eustathius  at  Antioch', 
Chrysostom  at  Constantinople ^  Various  customs  how- 
ever prevailed  locally.  In  Southern  Gaul  the  bishops 
— presumably  the  comprovincial  bishops — were  to  choose 
three,  from  whom  the  clergy  and  people  (cives)  were  to 
choose  one  to  be  the  bishop  of  their  city^  In  Spain  the 
clergy  and  people  of  the  city  were  to  choose  two  or  three, 
whose  names  were  to  be  submitted  to  the  metropolitan 
and  bishops  of  the  province,  and  one  chosen  by  lot'". 
But  in  many  cases  pow^erful  persons,  whether  bishops  or 
others,  were   able  to  override  rules".     The  emperors  at 


Chap.  IX. 


1  Sy nodical  Epistle  in  Theodoret 
il.  E.  I.  9;  p.  32. 

-  KadlaraaOai,  Gone.  Niece.  C.  4. 

3  Gonstt.  AjMst.  VIII.  4 ;  Ambrose 
Be  Saeerdot.  5. 

*  Philostorgins  H.  E.  ix.  10. 

*  Theodoret  H.  E.  iv.  7. 

^  Sulpicius  Severus,  Vita  Mar- 
tini, c.  y. 


C. 


7  Theodoret  H.  E.  i.  7. 

"  Socrates  H.  E.  vi.  2. 

*  Gone.  Arelat.  ii.  54  (a.d.  452). 

1"  Gone.  Bareinon.  ii.  3  (a.d.  599). 

"  Valentinianin.  complains  (A^o- 
vel.  24,  appended  to  Gode.x  Theod.) 
that  Hilary  of  Aries  ordained  per- 
sons even  against  the  wish  of  the 
laity  who  were  interested ;  and  the 

12 


Election. 


178 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


CUAP.  IX. 


PreshiJ- 
ters. 


A.D.  498. 


Sy nodus 
Falmaris, 
A.D.  503. 


Under 

Teutonic 

Kings. 


Coiistantiuople,  in  particular,  generally  secured  the  elec- 
tion of  those  whom  they  favoured. 

The  same  principles  which  regulated  the  choice  of 
bishops  prevailed  also  in  the  election  of  presbyters.  To 
speak  generally,  a  bishop  could  ordain  no  one  without 
consulting  his  clergy  and  obtaining  the  testimony  and  the 
assent  of  the  lay  people  of  the  city  \ 

Elections  in  which  the  people  of  a  city  took  so  large  a 
share  were  apt  to  become  tumultuary^  In  Rome  in 
particular,  where  the  city  was  large  and  populous  and  the 
office  of  bishop  unusually  important,  scenes  of  great 
violence  were  often  witnessed  at  an  episcopal  election. 
The  partisans  of  Symmachus  and  Laurentius,  at  the  end 
of  the  fifth  century,  are  said  to  have  contended  with  so 
much  violence  that  the  streets  were  strewn  with  dead,  and 
at  the  synod  which  was  held  a  few  years  afterwards  under 
Symmachus,  it  was  complained  that  the  laity  had  the 
election  wholly  in  their  own  hands,  contrary  to  the  ancient 
canons. 

There  was  in  fact  a  constant  danger  lest  in  a  popular 
election  mere  mob-violence  should  prevail,  and  from  an 
early  period  attempts  were  made  to  check  this^  apparent- 
ly with  no  great  effect.  Justinian*  laid  down  that  the 
clergy  and  chief  men  of  a  city  should  nominate  three 
persons  on  a  vacancy  in  their  see,  and  that  from  these 
three  one  should  be  chosen  by  the  consecrator — generally 
the  metropolitan — to  fill  the  vacant  throne.  At  that  time 
probably  the  term  "  chief  men  "  {irpwroi,)  was  understood 
of  a  definite  class. 

The  Teutonic  dominion  in  Europe  naturally  made  a 
great  change  in  the  position  of  the  chief  officers  of  the 
Church.  Considerable  estates  were  conferred  upon  eccle- 
siastical persons ;  bishops  became  the  king's  liegemen  and 
were  often  employed  on  the  business  of  the  state.  The 
lands  of  the  Church  were  freed  from  many  imposts,  but 
remained  subject  to  feudal  service,  whence  it' came  to  pass 


third  Council  of  Paris  (c.  8)  in- 
veighs against  the  interference  of 
princes. 

1  Cone.  Carthag.  iv.  22  (a.d.  398). 
Compare  Possidius  Vita  Augustini, 
c.  21;  Jerome,  Epist.  iv.  ad  llusli- 


cum. 


2  Neander,  Hist,  of  Church,  in. 
203  (Edinb.  1848). 

3  Gone.  Laodic.  13. 

^  Novel.  123,  c.  1.    Compare  Co- 
dex I,  tit.  3,  De  Episcop.  1.  42, 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


179 


that  bishops  wore  armour  and  fought  in  battled  Under 
such  circumstances,  territorial  lords  came  to  look  upon  the 
holders  of  ecclesiastical  benefices  in  much  the  same  light 
as  their  other  feudal  tenants,  and  would  only  enfeofif 
persons  who  were  agreeable  to  them^  They  thus  ac- 
quired at  any  rate  a  veto  on  the  nomination  of  bishops, 
and  in  most  cases  prevented  all  difficulty  by  themselves 
nominating ;  they  even  sometimes  sold  their  presenta- 
tions*. The  status  of  the  clergy  generally  was  also  ma- 
terially changed  by  the  laws  of  the  Franks.  No  free  man 
could  be  taken  into  the  ranks  of  the  clergy  without  the 
king's  license ;  the  clergy  were  therefore  mainly  recruited 
from  among  the  unfree*.  The  ordinary  presbyters  there- 
fore came  to  be  looked  upon  as  an  inferior  class,  and  their 
rights  were  sometimes  little  regarded  even  by  their 
bishops^  The  power  of  the  bishops  was  great,  and  it 
was  well  that  persons  of  some  cultivation  and  refine- 
ment should  be  able  to  influence  the  rough  warriors 
who  bore  rule.  A  law  of  Clotaire^,  the  son  of  Clovis,  gave 
the  bishops  a  general  power  of  reviewing  the  decisions  of 
lay  judges;  and  excommunication  came  to  be  more 
dreaded  when  it  carried  with  it  civil  disabilities'". 

During  the  fourth,  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  the  rela- 
tions of  the  bishop  to  his  presbyters  remained  in  theory 
much  the  same  as  they  had  been  in  the  previous  i^eriod, 
but  practically  they  underwent  considerable  change.  The 
importance  of  bishops  increased  and  that  of  presbyters 
diminished.  Yet  in  some  cases  the  presbyters  seem  to 
have  gained  in  importance.  In  earlier  ages  a  bishop  was 
charged  with  the  oversight  of  the  faithful  in  a  city ;  the 
scattered  congregations  in  the  country  districts  were  cared 
for  by  rural  bishops  with  less  extensive  powers^     Con- 


Chap.  IX. 


^  Gregory  of  Tours,  Hist.  Franc. 
IV.  43  [al.  37]. 

2  Bishops  were  still  in  theory 
chosen  "juxta  electionem  oleri  et 
plebis,"  but  also  "cum  voluntate 
regis."  Gone.  Aurel.  v.  c.  10  (a.d. 
549). 

^  Gregory  of  Tours,  Vita  Patrum, 
c.  3. 

*  This  does  not  mean  slaves,  but 
persons  who  h  ved  among  the  Franks 
without  having  the  rights  of  citizens 


in  the  Frankish  community.  They 
were  probably  in  most  cases  the  de- 
scendants of  the  older  inhabitants 
of  the  country. 

^  Gone.  Garpentorat.  (527) ;  Tolet. 
III.  20  (589). 

^  In  Baluze,  Gapitularia  Beg. 
Franc,  t.  7. 

''  Decree  of  Childebert,  a.d.  595, 
quoted  by  Gieseler,  i.  708,  note  p. 

8  yee  pp.  128,  133. 

12—2 


Law  of 
Glotaire, 
A.D.  560. 


Presby- 
ters. 


180 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


Chap.  IX. 


Canonici. 


Arch- 
presbyters. 

Periodcu- 

t(B. 


gregations  were  sporadic.  But  after  Constautiue  the 
whole  empire  was  covered  by  the  ecclesiastical  system. 
A  bishop  became  the  ecclesiastical  ruler  of  a  region,  not 
of  a  city  only.  Every  town  or  village  was  included  in 
some  diocese.  Presbyters  consequently  who  held  office  at 
a  distance  from  the  bishop  naturally  came  to  discharge, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  functions — such  as  preaching  and 
the  administration  of  the  sacraments — which  had  once 
been  regarded  as  belonging  specially  to  the  bishop.  Such 
presbyters  appear  to  have  been,  at  any  rate  frequently, 
appointed  by  the  bishop  \  though  no  doubt  with  the 
consent  of  the  local  community'' ;  and  in  some  instances — 
as  in  that  of  St  Augustine^ — the  local  church-people 
chose  their  candidate,  whom  they  presented  to  the  bishop 
for  ordination.  Presbyters  appointed  to  the  charge  of  a 
place  where  there  was  no  bishop  were  said  to  rule  (regere) 
a  Church,  and  hence,  in  the  West,  were  called  rectors*. 
In  the  time  of  Justinian  we  see  the  beginning  of  lay- 
patronage,  in  a  law^  which  permitted  persons  who  built  an 
oratory  and  maintained  a  body  of  clergy,  and  also  their 
heirs,  to  nominate  to  the  bishop  fit  clerics  to  serve  the 
chapel. 

It  was  in  this  period  that  the  clergy  of  a  city  were 
first  brought  to  live  together  in  one  house,  under  the 
presidency  and  control  of  the  bishop".  Some  bishops,  as 
Eusebius  of  Vercellae,  Ambrose  of  Milan,  Augustin  of 
Hippo,  and  Martin  of  Tours,  set  an  example  of  monastic 
austerity  to  the  clergy  who  were  domiciled  with  them,  and 
the  rules  which  they  gave  were  imitated  by  others.  Such 
clergy  were  forbidden  to  meddle  with  secular  business^ 

From  the  fourth  century  onward  the  presbyters  who 
had  charge  of  churches  were  grouped  under  the  presidency 
and  general  superintendence  of  archpresbyters,  after- 
wards called  in  the  West  rural  deans^  The  bishops  also 
employed  periodeutse  or  travelling  inspectors — presbyters 


1  Jerome,  In  Titum  t.  5;  Ad  Ne- 
potiamim. 

"  The  principle  of  Leo  the  Great 
(Epist.  12,  c.  5),  "NuUns  invitis  et 
noil  petentibus  ordinetur,"  pre- 
vailed also  in  earlier  ages  of  the 
Church. 

^  Possidius,  Vita  August,  c.  4. 


*  Statuta  Antiqua  (iv.  Carthag.), 
c.  36;  IX.  ToUtan.  c.  2. 

5  Novella  57,  c.  2. 

6  Cone.  Tolet.  ii.  (a.d.  531),  c.  1; 
Turon.  ii.  (a.d.  5(J7),  c.  12. 

7  Cone.  Atari,  in.  (a.d.  538),  c.  11. 

*  W.    Dansey,    Hora    Decanica 
liurales. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


181 


under  their  o^vn  immediate  authority — to  take  cognizance 
on  their  behalf  of  the  parochial  clergy.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances the  chorepiscopi  or  rural  bishops — who  had 
besides  sometimes  abused  their  power  of  ordination — 
became  superfluous  and  were  abolished \ 

3.  In  the  period  before  the  recognition  of  the  Church 
by  the  State  groups  of  dioceses  had  already  been  formed, 
and  the  bishops  of  certain  cities  presided  over  their  bre- 
thren within  a  certain  district  or  province,  under  the  name 
of  metropolitans^.  The  political  organization  of  the  empire 
had  naturally  considerable  influence  on  the  constitution  of 
the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy.  The  most  remarkable  pheno- 
menon in  the  government  of  the  Church  in  this  period  is 
the  rise  of  the  great  Patriarchates. 

At  the  time  of  the  Council  of  Nicwa  it  was  clear  that  the 
metropolitans  of  Rome,  Alexandria,  and  Antioch,  held  a  su- 
perior rank  among  their  brethren,  and  had  a  kind  of  ill-de- 
fined jurisdiction  over  the  provinces  of  several  metropolitans. 
The  fathers  of  Nicsea  recognized  the  fact  that  the  privi- 
leges of  these  sees  were  regulated  by  customs  already  re- 
garded as  primitive,  and  these  customs  they  confirmed. 
Alexandria  was  to  have  authority  over  Egypt,  Libya,  and 
Pentapolis — an  authority  of  the  same  kind  as  that  Avhich 
the  Roman  bishop  had  over  his  subject  provinces*.  In 
like  manner  theii*  ancient  privileges  were  secured  to  An- 
tioch and  other  super-metropolitan  Churches.    The  empire 


1  Cone.  Antioch.  c.  10  (341) ;  Lao- 
dic.  c.  57  (37-2 •?) ;  Sardic.  c.  6  (347). 
Compare  Basil  E2)ist.  54. 

^  I).  Blondel,  Traite  Historique 
de  la  Primaute;  J.  Morinus,  Exer- 
citationes  Ecclesiasticcs,  Diss,  i,  De 
Patriarcharum...Ori(jine;  E.  Du- 
pin,  Be  Antiqua  Ecclesics  Disci- 
plina.  Diss.  i. ;  L.  Thomassin, 
Eccl.  Disciplina,  i.  i.  7 — 25;  J. 
Bingham,  Antiq.  ii.  ce.  IG — 18;  W. 
C.  L.  Ziegler,  Pragiuat.  Gesch.  der 
Kirchl.  Verfassungsformen,  p.  1G4 
ff.;  G.  J.  Planck,  Gesch.  d.  Christl.- 
Kirchl.  Gesellschafts-Verfassung,  i. 
p.  598  ff. 

3  See  p.  138. 

*  Cone.  Niccenum,  c.  6,  according 


to  the  Greek.  But  the  Latin  version 
of  this  canon  which  was  produced 
at  Chalcedon  (actio  16,  Hardouin  ii. 
638)  runs — "Ecclesia  Eomana  sem- 
per habuit  primatum.  Teneat  au- 
tem  et  JLgyptus  ut  episcopus  Alexan- 
dx'ise  omnium  habeat  potestatem, 
quoniam  et  Romano  episcopo  hasc 
est  consuetude."  While  in  the 
version  of  llufinus  (Hardouin  i.  333) 
we  have,  "Et  ut  apud  Alexandriam 
et  in  urbe  Eoma  vetusta  consue- 
tudo  servetur,  ut  vel  ille  iEgypti  vel 
hie  suburbicariarum  ecclesiarum 
solicitudinem  gerat."  There  are 
also  several  other  variations  in  the 
Latin  versions  of  the  canon,  see 
Hardouin,  i.  825. 


Chap.  IX. 

Cliorepi- 
scopi. 


Patki- 
ARCHS  -. 


Metropoli- 
tans. 


Niece  a, 
325. 


182 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


Chap.  IX. 


was  afterwards  divided  for  the  purposes  of  civil  govern- 
ment into  four  Prefectures,  as  follows*:  1.  The  Prefecture 
of  the  East,  subdivided  into  the  dioceses  of — the  East,  con- 
taining fifteen  provinces,  and  having  Antioch  for  its  capi- 
tal ;  Egypt,  containing  nine  provinces,  with  Alexandria  as 
its  capital ;  Asia,  containing  twelve  provinces,  with  Ephesus 
as  its  capital ;  Pontus,  consisting  of  thirteen  provinces, 
with  Csesarea  in  Cappadocia  as  its  chief-town ;  and  Thrace, 
consisting  of  six  provinces,  which  had  its  seat  of  govern- 
ment first  at  Heraclea,  afterwards  at  Constantinople.  2. 
The  Prefecture  of  Eastern  Illyricum,  with  Thessalonica  for 
its  chief-town,  subdivided  into  the  dioceses  of  Macedonia 
with  seven  provinces  and  Dacia  with  six.  3.  The  Prefec- 
ture of  Italy,  subdivided  into  the  dioceses  of  Rome,  with 
ten  "  suburbicarian  "  provinces,  and  Rome  itself  for  a  capi- 
tal ;  Italy,  with  seven  provinces  and  Milan  as  its  capital ; 
Western  Illyricum,  with  seven  provinces  and  Sirmium  as 
its  capital ;  Africa,  divided  into  six  provinces,  with  Car- 
thage as  its  capital.  4.  The  Prefecture  of  the  Gauls,  again 
divided  into  the  dioceses  of — Gaul,  which  contained  seven- 
teen provinces  and  had  Treves  for  its  capital ;  Sjjain,  which 
had  seven  provinces;  and  Britain,  which  had  five.  The 
chief-towns  of  the  two  last-mentioned  dioceses  are  uncer- 
tain. The  organization  of  the  Church  followed  in  its  main 
lines  that  of  the  empire.  It  also  had  its  dioceses  and 
provinces,  coinciding  for  the  most  part  with  the  similarly 
named  political  divisions.  Not  only  did  the  same  circum- 
stances which  marked  out  a  city  for  political  preeminence 
also  indicate  it  as  a  fit  centre  of  ecclesiastical  rule,  but  it 
was  a  recognized  principle  with  the  Church  that  the  eccle- 
siastical should  follow  the  civil  division^     At  the  head  of 


1  On  the  civil  divisions  of  the 
empire,  the  principal  authorities 
are  Zosimus,  ii.  32,  33,  and  the  No- 
titia  dignitatum  (c.  a.d.  400)  printed 
in  Graevii  Thesaurus  Antiq.  Roman. 
VII.  1309  ff,  and  published  separately 
by  Booking  (Bonn  1839,  1853)  and 
Seeck  (Berlin  1876).  See  also 
Becker  and  Marquardt,  Handbuch 
der  Romischen  A  Iter  thinner,  in.  i. 
p.  240,  and  Smith's  Gibbon,  ii.  315. 
On  the  diocesan  arrangements  of 


the  Eastern  Church,  see  J.M.  Neale, 
Holy  Eastern  Church,Introd.  Bk.  i. 
^  Cone.  Antioch.  (a.d.  341)  c.  9; 
Chalcedon.  (a.d.  451)  cc.  12,  17. 
St  Basil,  it  is  true,  objected  to  the 
province  of  Cappadocia  being  di- 
vided ecclesiastically  simply  be- 
cause it  was  civilly  divided  (Greg. 
Nazianz.  Oral.  48,  c.  58),  but  this 
seems  to  have  been  an  exceptional 
case. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


183 


a  diocese  was  a  patriarch  \  at  the  head  of  a  province  was 
a  metropolitan*;  the  territory  of  a  simple  bishop  was  a 
parish  ^  Thus  the  civil  diocese  of  the  East  was,  in  mat- 
ters ecclesiastical,  under  the  sway  of  the  patriarch  of  An- 
tioch  ;  that  of  Egypt  under  that  of  the  patriarch  of  Alex- 
andria ;  and  the  bishops  of  the  political  capitals,  Ephesus, 
Csesarea,  and  Heraclea,  had  j)atriarchal  authority  over  the 
dioceses  of  Asia,  Pontus,  and  Thrace.  In  the  second 
canon  of  the  oecumenical  Council  of  Constantinople,  by 
which  the  bishops  of  a  "  diocese  "  are  forbidden  to  intrude 
into  the  territory  of  their  neighbours,  it  seems  to  be 
assumed  that  the  limits  of  the  political  and  the  ecclesias- 
tical diocese  are  identical.  The  same  council*  ordained 
that  the  bishop  of  Constantinople — which  had  now  super- 
seded Heraclea  as  the  seat  of  diocesan  civil  government — 
should  have  precedence,  as  bishop  of  New  Rome,  next 
after  the  bishop  of  Rome.  The  bishop  of  Constantinople 
not  unnaturally  desired  an  increase  of  power,  as  well  as 
additional  dignity,  and  his  position  as  bishop  of  the  impe- 
rial city  enabled  him  to  gain  much  of  what  he  aimed  at. 
He  appears  at  once  to  have  made  himself  master  of  the 
diocese  of  Thrace,  thrusting  aside  the  bishop  of  Heraclea, 
whose  city,  on  the  founding  of  Constantinople,  had  ceased 
to  be  the  seat  of  the  imperial  government.  But,  not  con- 
tent with  this,  he  set  himself  to  bring  under  his  jurisdic- 
tion the  dioceses  of  Asia  and  Pontus,  which  also,  helped  by 
his  position  at  court,  he  did  in  fact  make  subject  to  his 
sway.  This  arrangement  still  lacked  the  sanction  of  the 
Church,  when  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  gave  him  his  op- 
portunity. This  council  recognized  the  exclusive  right  of 
the  bishop  of  Constantinople  to  consecrate  the  metropo- 
litans of  Thrace,  Pontus  and  Asia,  expressly  on  the  ground 


1  A  name  earlier  applied  vaguely 
to  any  bishop  (Suicer's  Thesaurus, 
8.  V.  Ilarptapxris)-  First  used  in  the 
stricter  sense  at  the  Council  of  Con- 
stantinople, A.D.  381  (Socrates  v.  8). 
In  Cone.  Ghalced.,  c.  9,  the  prelate 
of  a  diocese  is  called  l^apxos.  In 
the  acts  of  the  first  Council  of 
Ephesus  the  patriarchs  of  Rome 
and  Alexandria  are  several  times 
called  dpxtiTriiTKOTroL. 


2  Metropolitans  were  also  called 
^^apxoL  [Cone.  Sardic.  c.  6).  The 
name  metropohtan  was  not  used  in 
the  West,  where  the  bishop  of  a 
province  was  called  archiepiscopus. 
Patriarchs,  metropolitans  and  other 
bishops  ahke  write  themselves  tirl- 
(TKoiroi.    See  (e.g.)  Hardouin  1. 1423. 

^  wapoiKia.  See  E.  Hatch  in 
Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  s.  v.  Farish. 

*  Canon  3. 


Chap.  IX. 


A.D.  381. 


A.D.  451, 


184 


The  Church   and  the  Empire. 


Chap.  IX. 


Jerusalem. 


that  as  Constantinople  was  now  the  seat  of  empire  it 
should  enjoy  the  same  privileges  which  Rome  had  enjoyed 
as  the  seat  of  empire  \  The  once  patriarchal  sees  of  He- 
raclea,  Csesarea  and  Ephesus  thus  became  simply  metro- 
politan, though  their  occupants  had  the  title  of  exarch, 
and  precedence  before  other  bishops  of  the  same  diocese. 
The  same  council  ordered^  that  a  bishop  or  other  cleric 
who  had  a  complaint  against  his  own  metropolitan  should 
bring  his  case  before  the  exarch  of  the  diocese  or  before 
the  patriarchal  throne  of  the  imperial  city  of  Constanti- 
nople, so  that  he  might,  if  he  chose,  ignore  his  own  exarch 
altogether.  The  see  of  Constantinople  thus  became  the 
oriental  counterpart  of  that  of  Rome. 

The  same  council  had  before  it  the  question  of  the 
state  and  dignity  of  the  mother  of  all  Churches,  Jerusalem, 
which  had  been  for  some  time  ambiguous  and  unsatisfac- 
tory. Jerusalem  has  associations  which  have  in  all  ages 
secured  it  the  reverence  of  Christians,  yet  it  was  at  the 
time  we  speak  of  too  unimportant  a  see  to  secure  for  its 
bishop  a  distinguished  position  in  the  Church.  It  was  in 
fact  overshadowed  by  the  political  chief  town  of  Palestine, 
Csesarea,  which  became  the  ecclesiastical  metropolis.  The 
Council  of  Nicsea^  assigned  to  Jerusalem  precedence  im- 
mediately after  the  sees  of  Rome,  Alexandria  and  An- 
tioch,  but  without  giving  it  any  power  beyond  that  of  an 
ordinary  episcopal  throne,  Ccesarea  being  still  recognized 
as  having  jurisdiction  over  the  other  sees  of  Palestine. 
The  relation  thus  created  was  strained  and  unnatural,  and 
it  is  no  wonder  that  the  bishop  of  Jerusalem  struggled  to 
emancipate  himself  from-  the  yoke  of  Csesarea.  The  see 
rose  in  fame  after  the  peace  of  the  Church  under  Con- 
stantino, in  consequence  of  the  increasing  reverence  paid 
to  the  holy  places,  and  at  the  Council  of  Ephesus,  Ju- 
venalis,  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  had  the  courage  to  claim  for 
his  see  patriarchal  jurisdiction  over  Palestine,  Phoenicia, 
and  Arabia.  This  claim  was  rejected  by  the  council,  but 
he  nevertheless  obtained  from  the  emperor  Theodosius  II. 
a  rescript  granting  to  him  the  provinces  which'  he  had 
claimed.      The   bishop  of  Antioch,   Maximus,   of  course 


^  Cone.   Chalcedon. 
douin  II.  611). 


c.   28  (Har- 


2  Canon  \). 
••  Canon  7. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


185 


regarded  this  as  an  attack  upon  his  long- established  rights, 
and  a  long  controversy  arose  between  the  two  bishops, 
which  was  at  last  put  an  end  to  by  a  compromise  which 
received  the  sanction  of  the  Council  of  Chalcedony  This 
provided  that  the  patriarch  of  Antioch  should  receive 
back  his  provinces  of  Phoenicia  and  Arabia,  while  the 
bishop  of  Jerusalem  should  possess  patriarchal  authority 
over  the  three  provinces  of  Palestine.  He  thus  became 
an  actual  patriarch,  though  of  a  small  diocese.  There 
were  then  in  the  Roman  empire,  after  the  practical  sup- 
pression of  the  patriarchal  rights  of  the  other  diocesan 
thrones,  five  patriarchal  sees,  those  of  Rome,  Constanti- 
nople, Alexandria,  Antioch,  and  Jerusalem.  Justinian 
indeed  attempted^  to  give  to  the  see  of  his  native  city, 
Achrida,  patriarchal  authority  over  the  prefecture  of  lUy- 
ricum ;  but  so  artificial  an  arrangement  did  not  long 
endure.  There  were  however  still  in  Christendom,  and 
even  in  the  empire,  metropolitans  who  acknowledged  no 
patriarch  or  exarch  over  them,  claiming  to  be  "  autocepha- 
lous"  or  independent.  Such  was  the  metropolitan  of 
Salamis  or  Constantia  in  Cyprus,  who  at  the  Council  of 
Ephesus'  successfully  vindicated  the  ancient  rights  of  his 
see  against  the  claims  of  the  patriarch  of  Antioch.  And 
even  in  Italy  the  authority  of  the  see  of  Rome  was  not 
everywhere  acknowledged. 

A  patriarch  held,  within  his  own  diocese,  the  supreme 
ecclesiastical  authority,  and  his  diocesan  synod  was  the 
highest  court  of  appeal  for  ecclesiastical  business.  With- 
out the  consent  and  cooperation  of  the  patriarchs  no  valid 
oecumenical  council  could  be  held.  But  the  patriarchal 
system  of  government,  like  every  other,  suffered  from  the 
shocks  of  time.  The  patriarch  of  Antioch  had,  in  the  first 
instance,  the  most  extensive  territory,  for  he  claimed 
authority  not  only  over  the  civil  diocese  of  the  East,  but 
over  the  Churches  in  Persia,  Media,  Parthia,  and  India, 
which  lay  beyond  the  limits  of  the  empire.  But  this  large 
organization  was  but  loosely  knit,  and  constantly  tended 
to  dissolution.  Palestine,  as  we  have  seen,  shook  itself 
free.     In  consequence  of  the   Nestorian  controversy  the 


Actio  7  (Hardouin  ii.  491). 
Novella  11  and  131. 


Actio  7,  Hardouin  r.  1617 


Chap.  IX. 


A  uto- 
ccphali. 


Fate  of  the 
Patriarch- 
ates. 


Antioch. 


186 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


Chap.  IX. 

A.D.  498. 
527. 

638. 

A  lexan- 
dria. 


k.-D.  640. 

Jerusalem. 

637. 


Rome. 


Rise  of  the 
Papacy. 


Persian  Church  asserted  its  independence  and  set  up  a 
patriarch  of  its  own  at  Seleucia ;  Armenia  somewhat  later 
determined  to  have  its  own  Monophysite  patriarch,  and 
the  Syrian  Monophysites  chose  a  schism  atical  patriarch  of 
Antioch,  After  the  conquests  of  CaUph  Omar  the  great 
see  of  Antioch  sank  into  insignificance.  The  region  sub- 
ject to  the  Alexandrian  patriarch  was  much  smaller  than 
that  of  Antioch,  but  it  was  better  compacted.  Here  too 
however  the  Monophysite  tumult  so  shook  its  organization 
that  it  was  no  longer  able  to  resist  the  claims  of  the  pa- 
triarch of  Constantinople.  It  also  fell  under  the  dominion 
of  the  Saracens — a  fate  which  had  already  befallen  Jeru- 
salem. In  the  whole  East  there  remained  only  the  pa- 
triarch of  Constantinople  in  a  condition  to  exercise  actual 
authority. 

4.  According  to  Rufinus's^  version  of  the  sixth  canon 
of  the  Council  of  Nicsea,  the  bishop  of  Rome  had  entrusted 
to  him  the  care  of  the  suburbicarian  churches.  What  we 
are  to  understand  by  these  suburbicarian  Churches  is  by 
no  means  absolutely  clear.  Considering  however  how 
closely  the  ecclesiastical  followed  the  civil  divisions,  it  is 
extremely  probable  that  the  suburbicarian  Churches  are 
those  included  in  the  ten  suburbicarian  provinces  which 
were  under  the  authority  of  the  vicarius  of  the  civil  diocese 
of  Rome,  and  which  included  the  greater  part  of  Central 
Italy  and  the  whole  of  Lower  Italy,  with  Sicily,  Sardinia, 
and  Corsica ;  and  this  interpretation  is  strongly  confirmed 
by  the  letter  of  the  Council  of  Sardica  to  Julius,  bishop  of 
Rome,  which  recognizes  him  as  the  official  channel  of 
communication  with  the  faithful  in  Sicily,  Sardinia  and 
Italy  I 

But  many  causes  tended  to  extend  the  authority  of  the 
Roman  patriarch  beyond  these  modest  limits.  The  pa- 
triarch of  Constantinople  depended  largely  for  his  autho- 
rity on  the  will  of  the  emperor,  and  his  spiritual  realm 
was  agitated  by  the  constant  intrigues  of  opposing  parties. 
His  brother  of  Rome  enjoyed  generally  more  freedom  in 
matters  spiritual,  and  the  diocese  over  which  he  presided, 


'  H.  E.  X.  6,  "  suburbicariarum 
ccclesiarum  solicitudinem  gerat." 
See  p.  181,  note  4. 


^   In    Hardouin    i.    654.      See 
Kurtz's  Handbuch,  §  163.  1. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


187 


keeping  aloof  for  the  most  part  from  controversies  on 
points  of  dogma,  was  therefore  comparatively  calm  and 
united.  Even  the  Orientals  were  impressed  by  the  ma- 
jesty of  old  Rome,  and  gave  great  honour  to  its  bishop. 
In  the  West,  the  highest  respect  was  paid  to  those  sees 
which  claimed  an  Apostle  as  founder,  and  among  these  the 
Church  of  St  Peter  and  St  Paul  naturally  took  the  highest 
place.  It  was,  in  fact,  the  one  apostolic  see  of  Western 
Europe,  and  as  such  received  a  unique  regard.  And 
the  tendency  to  regard  Rome  as  an  ecclesiastical  centre 
and  standard  was  no  doubt  increased  by  the  fact  that  in 
the  provincial  civil  courts  of  the  empire  matters  not  regu- 
lated by  local  law  or  custom  were  decided  according  to  the 
law  of  the  city  of  Rome^  Doubtful  questions  about  apo- 
stolic doctrine  and  custom  were  addressed  certainly  to 
other  distinguished  bishops,  as  Athanasius  and  Basil^,  but 
they  came  more  readily  and  more  constantly  to  Rome,  as 
already  the  last  appeal  in  many  civil  matters.  We  must 
not  suppose  however  that  the  Churches  of  the  East  were 
ready  to  accept  the  sway  of  Rome,  however  they  might 
respect  the  great  city  of  the  West.  When  Julius  of  Rome, 
who  refused  to  concur  in  the  deposition  of  Athanasius, 
invited  him  and  his  opponents  to  appear  by  delegates 
before  a  council  of  the  Western  Church,  the  Orientals  as- 
sembled at  Antioch  declared  that  he,  a  foreign  bishop,  had 
no  right  to  propose  himself  as  judge  in  the  affairs  of  the 
Eastern  Church  ;  that  every  synod  was  free  to  decide  as  it 
thought  best ;  that  the  mere  fact  that  he  was  bishop  of  a 
great  city  gave  him  no  superiority  over  other  bishops  of  apo- 
stolic sees  ;  that  his  predecessors  had  never  ventured  to  in- 
terfere in  the  internal  affairs  of  the  Eastern  Church  I  But, 
in  spite  of  this  rebuff,  the  disputes  about  Athanasius,  in 
the  end,  undoubtedly  tended  to  strengthen  the  position  of 
the  see  of  Rome,  which  sided  with  the  orthodox  and  victo- 
rious party.     The  Council  of  Sardica^  after  the 


1  Digest,  I.  iii.  32. 

"^  The  EpistolcB  Canonica  of 
these  and  other  bishops  were  oc- 
casioned by  such  appeals. 

■•*  A  summary  of  their  letter  is 
given  by  Sozomen,  Hist.  Eccl.  in.  8. 

*  c.  3,  in  Hardouin  i.  637.     This 


secession 


council,  after  the  secession  of  the 
Orientals  to  Philippopolis,  had  of 
course  no  claim  to  be  considered 
oecumenical.  In  the  West,  how- 
ever, the  canons  of  Sardica  came 
to  be  appended  to  those  of  Nica9a, 
and  even  quoted  as  Nicene  (Maas- 


Chap.  IX. 


Appeals. 


Antioch, 
341. 


Sardica, 
344  (?) 


188 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


Chap.  IX. 


378, 


Gratian. 


Siricius, 
392. 


The  See  of 
St  Peter. 


Innocent  I. 

A.D.  415, 

416. 


of  its  Oriental  members,  gave  to  bishojjs  who  were  ag- 
grieved by  a  provincial  decision  leave  to  appeal  to  Julius, 
bishop  of  Rome,  meaning  no  doubt  to  give  to  those  who 
were  oppressed  by  Arian  synods  a  protector  in  one  who 
was  a  steady  friend  of  orthodoxy.  But  the  precedent  was 
not  forgotten.  A  generation  later,  at  the  request  of  a 
Roman  synod  presided  over  by  Damasus,  the  emperor 
Gratian  issued  a  rescript^  permitting  in  many  cases  an 
appeal  from  provincial  tribunals  to  the  see  of  Rome.  But 
the  decrees  of  provincial  synods  were  still  regarded  as 
binding.  Pope  Siricius^  himself,  when  appealed  to  against 
the  decision  of  a  synod  at  Capua,  declared  himself  incom- 
petent to  entertain  a  question  already  decided  by  compe- 
tent judges;  and  Ambrose  ^  speaking  of  the  same  matter, 
urged  that  the  decision  of  a  judicial  committee  nominated 
by  the  synod  was  of  the  same  binding  force  as  that  of  the 
synod  itself 

The  authority  of  the  Roman  see  increased  from  causes 
which  are  sufficiently  obvious  to  historical  enquirers.  But 
the  greatest  of  the  Roman  bishops  were  far  too  wise  to 
tolerate  the  supposition  that  their  power  depended  on 
earthly  sanctions.  They  contended  steadfastly  that  they 
were  the  heads  of  the  Church  on  earth,  because  they  were 
the  successors  of  him  to  whom  the  Lord  had  given  the 
keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  St  Peter*.  And  they  also 
contended  that  Rome  was,  in  the  most  emphatic  sense,  the 
mother-church  of  the  whole  West.  Innocent  I."  claims 
that  no  Church  had  ever  been  founded  in  Italy,  Gaul, 
Spain,  Africa,  Sicily,  or  the  Mediterranean  islands,  except 
by  men  who  had  received  their  commission  from  St  Peter 
or  his  successors.     At  the  same  time,  they  admitted  that 


Ben,  Geschichte  der  Quellen  des  Can. 
Bechts,  I.  50  ff).  Kev.  E.  S.  Ffoulkea 
and  Prof.  Aloisius  Vincenzi  (De  Ile- 
brceorum  et  Christianorum  Sacra 
Monarchia)  agree  in  supposing  the 
so-called  canons  of  Sardica  to  be 
forgeries ;  Prof.  Vincenzi  supposing 
them  to  have  been  forged  by  the 
orthodox  bishops  in  Africa,  Mr. 
Ffoulkes  in  or  near  Home.  See 
Did.  Chr.  Bioqr.  in.  530,  note  6. 

1  In  Hardouin  i.  842. 

^  Epist.  de  Bonoso  Episcopo,  in 


Hardouin  i.  859. 

3  Quoted  by  Siricius  u.  s. 

*  It  may  be  observed  that  the 
term  "vicarius"  in  early  times 
meant  no  more  than  "successor". 
Cyprian  {Epist.  68,  c.  5)  begs  Stephen 
of  Kome  to  honour  Cornelius  and 
Lucius,  whose  "vicarius  et  suc- 
cessor" he  was.  The  same  au- 
thority holds  that  a  bishop  (sacer- 
dos)  should  be  held  "ad  tempus 
judex  vice  Christi"  (Epist.  59,  c.  5). 

®  Epist.  25  ad  Decentium,  c.  2. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


189 


the  privileg-os  of  the  see  were  not  whully  derived  imme- 
diately from  its  founder,  but  were  conferred  by  past  gene- 
rations out  of  respect  for  St  Peter's  see\  But  the  bishop 
who  most  clearly  and  emphatically  asserted  the  claims  of 
the  Roman  see  to  pre-eminence  over  the  whole  Church  on 
earth  was  no  doubt  Leo  I.,  a  great  man  who  filled  a  most 
critical  position  with  extraordinary  firmness  and  ability. 
Almost  every  argument  by  which  in  later  times  the  autho- 
rity of  the  see  of  St  Peter  was  supported  is  to  be  found  in 
the  letters  of  Leo.  If  the  power  to  bind  and  loose  was 
conferred  on  all  the  Apostles,  it  was  through  St  Peter  that 
it  was  transmitted  to  them^.  It  was  to  St  Peter  that 
power  and  commandment  was  given  to  feed  the  flock  of 
Christ,  and  it  was  in  Rome,  the  place  of  his  burial,  that 
the  power  given  to  St  Peter  was  in  all  ages  to  be  found.  So 
far  was  the  Roman  bishop  from  receiving  dignity  from  the 
capital  of  the  world,  that  it  was  through  his  presence  that 
Rome  became  what  it  was.  He  conferred  honour  on  the 
city,  but  the  city  gave  no  dignity  to  him.  It  was  in  the 
name  of  St  Peter  that  he,  Leo,  presided  over  the  Church ; 
it  was  as  God  and  St  Peter  prompted  him  that  he  gave 
judgment.  He  called  on  the  other  bishops  to  help  him  in 
the  care  of  all  the  Churches,  but  the  plenitude  of  power 


1  Zosimus  Epist.  2  ad  Episcopos 
Afric.  c.  1.  Some  aiithorities  doubt 
the  authenticity  of  this  letter. 

-  The  ancients  generally  in- 
terpreted the  "rock"  [ireTpa)  of 
St  Matthew  xvi.  18  as  referring 
to  St  Peter's  confession  (Hilary, 
Gregory  of  Nyssa,  Ambrose,  Chry- 
sostom,  and  others) ;  or  to  Christ 
Himself  (Jerome,  Augustin).  More 
rarely  it  was  referred  to  St  Peter. 
Origen  (in  Matth.  torn.  xii.  c.  10) 
laid  down  that  every  disciple  of 
Christ  was  a  "rock" — Trirpa  ivas 
6  XpiffToO  /xadTjTys — and  ridiculed 
the  notion  that  a  "power  of  the 
keys"  was  given  to  St  Peter  which 
was  not  given  to  the  other  Apostles. 
Somewhat  similarly  St  Augustin 
held  that  "has  claves  non  homo 
unus  sed  unitas  accei^it  ecclesire " 
{Serm.  295, c.  2, Dc  Sanctis ;  compare 
in  Evaiig.  Joannis  Tract.  124,  c.  5). 
Siricius  however  asserted  that  "per 


Petrum  et  apostolatus  et  episco- 
patus  in  Christo  cepit  exordium" 
(Epist.  ad  Episc.  Afric.  in  Har- 
douin  I.  857) ;  and  Innocent  (Re- 
script, ad  Cone.  Carthag.  in  Har- 
douin  I.  1025)  describes  himself  as 
following  the  Apostle  "a  quo  ipse 
episcopatus  et  tota  auctoritas  no- 
minis  hujus  emersit."  The  lloman 
legates  at  the  Council  of  Ephesus  in 
431  (actio  3,  in  Hardouin  i.  1477) 
frankly  described  St  Peter  as  the 
foundation  (6  defieXios)  of  the  Ca- 
tholic Church.  Leo  maintained 
(Epist.  10  [al.  89]  adEpiscop.  Prov. 
Vienn.)  that  it  was  through  St  Peter 
that  the  gifts  of  divine  grace  were 
conveyed  to  the  Church ;  and  (Epist. 
12  [al.  14]  ad  Anastasium,  c.  1),  that 
the  See  of  St  Peter  has  the  same 
authority  over  the  whole  Church 
which  a  metropolitan  has  over  his 
province  (compare  Epist.  1  [al- 12] 
ad  A  fricanos). 


Chap.  IX. 

Zosimus, 
417. 


Leo  I. 
440—461. 


190 


The  Churcli  and  the  Empire. 


remained  his  own  peculiar  attribute \  If  however  St 
Peter  appears  in  the  forefront,  Leo^  does  occasionally 
bethink  him  of  St  Paul,  who  was,  he  admits",  a  partner  in 
St  Peter's  glory  at  Rome,  though  he  was  much  occupied 
with  the  care  of  other  Churches.  Generally,  however,  from 
about  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  St  Paul  is  but  little 
sjDoken  of  in  connexion  with  Rome. 

The  Empire  of  the  West  never  seriously  interfered 
with  the  proceedings  of  the  Roman  bishop ;  and  when  it 
fell,  the  Church  became  the  heir  of  the  empire.  In  the 
general  crash,  the  Latin  Christians  found  themselves  com- 
pelled to  drop  their  smaller  differences,  and  rally  round 
the  strongest  representative  of  the  old  order.  The  Teu- 
tons, who  shook  to  pieces  the  imperial  system,  brought 
into  greater  prominence  the  essential  unity  of  all  that  was 
Catholic  and  Latin  in  the  empire,  and  so  strengthened 
the  position  of  the  see  of  Rome.  The  Church  had  no 
longer  by  its  side  one  great  homogeneous  state.  The 
Gothic  kings  were  not  inclined  to  meddle  with  the  internal 
affairs  of  the  Church.  Odoacer'  indeed  issued  an  edict 
that  no  election  to  the  papacy  should  be  held  without  the 
sanction  of  the  civil  government ;  but  Theoderic*  laid  down 
the  golden  rule — little  regarded  in  after  times — that  he 
could  not  exercise  sovereignty  in  matters  of  religion,  be- 
cause no  man  can  believe  upon  coercion ;  and  Theodahad® 
held  that  as  God  permits  diversity  in  religion,  it  would  be 
presumptuous  in  a  king  to  attempt  to  enforce  uniformity. 

The  East-Gothic  dominion  in  Italy  was  in  fact  in 
more  than  one  respect  advantageous  to  the  popes.  The 
kings  of  the  Arian  Goths  were  disposed  to  befriend  them 
because  they  were  generally  in  opposition  to  Constanti- 
nople ;  while  at  the  same  time  the  Catholic  people  of  the 
West  honoured  them  as  their  rallying-point  against  the 
incursions  of  Arianism.  It  is  not  wonderful  that  under 
these  circumstances  the  claims  of  the  popes  increased 
and  multiplied.  They  claimed  to  be  the  highest  court  of 
appeal  for  the  Western  Church,  and  to  have  a  general 


^  See  the  letter  to  Anastasius, 
referred  to  above. 

2  Serm.  82,  c.  4. 

3  This  edict  of  Odoacer  is  only 
known  by  the  reference  to  it  in  the 


edict  which  repealed  it,  Hardouin 
11.  977. 

*  Cassiodorus,  Varia,  n.  27. 

6  Ibid.  X.  26. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


191 


authority  in  matters  of  faith  and  discipline  over  the  whole 
Church  throughout  the  world.  In  support  of  these  claims 
they  appealed  to  imperial  edicts  and  canons  of  councils. 
They  were  as  anxious  as  ever  to  ground  their  claims  on 
the  privileges  conferred  on  St  Peter,  but  they  could  not 
always  avoid  an  appeal  to  the  civil  power.  In  the  dis- 
puted election  of  Symmachus  to  the  papacy,  both  he  and 
his  rival  Laurentius  appealed  to  the  Gothic  king  Theoderic 
at  Ravenna,  who  placed  Symmachus  on  the  apostolic 
throne*.  But,  consistently  with  his  principle,  he  allowed 
an  edict  of  Odoacer,  ordaining  that  no  election  to  the 
papacy  should  be  held  without  the  concurrence  of  the 
civil  government,  to  be  annulled  in  a  Roman  synod  ^ 
The  partizans  of  Laurentius  persisting  in  their  charges 
against  Symmachus,  another  synod — the  "Synodus  Pal- 
maris" — was  held  in  the  following  year,  which  acquitted 
Symmachus,  or  rather  expressed  its  reluctance  to  try  a 
de  facto  pope  under  any  circumstances  ^  Ennodius,  the 
official  defender  of  this  council,  frankly  laid  down  the 
principle  that  the  occupant  of  the  see  of  Rome  could  be 
judged  by  none  but  God*.  It  was  probably  about  this 
time  that  forgery  and  interpolation  began  to  be  resorted 
to  with  a  view  of  giving  to  these  claims  some  appearance 
of  antiquity.  The  Acts  of  the  supposed  Council  of  Sinu- 
essa^,  which  desu'ed  pope  Marcellinus,  accused  of  sacrificing 
to  idols,  to  judge  himself,  as  being  alone  competent  in 
such  a  case,  are  no  doubt  a  forgery;  so  is  the  Constitution 
attributed  to  Silvester  and  Constantine®,  which  declares 
the  Roman  see  above  the  judgment  of  any  human  tri- 
bunal ;  so  is  the  supposed  report  of  the  trial  of  Sixtus  III.'' 
Cyprian's  treatise  on  the  unity  of  the  Church  had  been 
altered  to  suit  the  views  of  the  Roman  see  before  the  time 
of  Pelagius  II.  It  was  at  this  time,  too,  that  the  Roman 
bishops  began  to  claim  the  title  of  "  pope*,"  which  however 


1  Liber  Pontificalis,  Symmachus, 
c.  52. 

2  Hardouin,  Cone.  ii.  977  ff. 

3  "Pontifieem  sedis  istius  apud 
nos  audiri  nullum  constat  exem- 
plum."  Hardouin,  Cone.  n.  974. 
There  is  much  confusion  as  to  the 
councils  which  were  held  about 
this  time. 


*  Libellus  pro  Synodo,  p.  316, 
Ennodii  Opera,  ed.  Hartel. 

s  Hardouin,  Cone.  i.  217.  Har- 
douin says,  frankly  enough,  "sup- 
posititium  censent  viri  eruditi." 

6  Hardouin,  i.  294. 

7  Ibid.  I.  1737. 

^  In  the  Eoman  synods  under 
Symmachus,   and    in    Ennodius's 


Chap.  IX. 


A.D.  498. 

A.D.  502. 
A.D.  503. 


192 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


Chap.  IX. 


A.D.  48.-?. 

A.D.  5'i'6. 


A.D.  535 — 
554. 


A.D.  537. 


A.D.  555. 


for  some  generations  was  also  given  to  the  incumbents  of 
other  apostolic  sees\  But  the  popes  still  admitted  that 
they  were  subject  to  general  councils,  nor  did  they  claim 
jurisdiction  over  other  bishops,  unless  they  were  brought 
before  them  as  the  highest  court  of  appeal. 

So  long  as  the  Roman  see  agreed  with  them  in  hos- 
tility to  Constantinople,  the  Gothic  kings  were  willing  to 
allow  them  a  large  measure  of  freedom ;  but  when  the 
popes  came  to  an  agreement  with  the  see  of  Constanti- 
nople, they  became  much  more  suspicious  and  watchful  of 
their  movements.  John  I.  having,  contrary  to  the  tra- 
ditions of  his  see,  paid  a  visit  to  Constantinople,  where  he 
was  received  with  the  utmost  distinction,  was  on  his  return 
regarded  by  Theoderic  as  a  traitor,  and  thrown  into  prison, 
where,  after  languishing  for  nearly  a  year,  he  died^  The 
kings  also  interfered  actively  in  the  elections  to  the  papacy, 
and  even  nominated  the  person  to  be  elected.  Theoderic 
nominated  Felix  III.",  and  Athalaric  issued  an  edict 
against  bribery  in  papal  and  episcopal  elections^  Still, 
even  so  the  Gothic  dominion  was  not  so  perilous  to  the 
papacy  as  the  restoration  of  imperial  rule  which  followed 
Justinian's  conquest  of  Italy.  Justinian,  it  is  true,  paid 
great  respect  to  the  see  of  Rome ;  but  he  paid  like  honour 
to  that  of  Constantinople,  and  was  not  unwilling  to  use 
one  against  the  other.  His  object  was,  in  short,  to  extend 
his  own  power  over  Church  as  well  as  State.  Pope  Sil- 
verius  was  deposed  and  banished  by  desire  of  the  empress 
Theodora,  Vigilius  installed  in  his  place  by  command  of 
Belisarius ;  and  when  Vigilius,  after  a  miserable  life,  sank 
into  an  unhonoured  grave,  Pelagius  was  elevated  to  the 
see  by  command  of  Justinian — an  appointment  so  un- 
popular, that  the  new  pope  was  actually  unable  to  induce 


lAhcUux,  the  bishop  of  Eome  is  con- 
stantly spoken  of  as  "  papa."  But 
even  so  late  as  the  middle  of  the 
ninth  century  Walafrid  Strabo  {De 
Reb.  Ecclcs.  c.  7)  looks  upon 
'  papa '  as  a  respectful  name  given 
to  the  clergy  generally,  '  clericorum 
congruit  diguitati.'  Gregory  VII. 
in  the  year  1075  first  exjjressly 
limited  the  title  to  the  bishop  of 
Borne.    In  the  East  the  title  irdiras 


was  used  esi^ecially  of  the  patriarchs 
of  Alexandria  and  Bome. 

1  This  title  also  was  not  confined 
to  the  see  of  Bome.  Pelagius  I. 
{ad  Valerianum,  in  Mansi  ix.  732) 
speaks  of  apostolic  sees  in  the 
l^lural. 

-  IJber  Pontificalis,  Joannes,  c. 
54  ;  Milman's  Lat.  Christ,  i.  412 

3  Cassiodorus  Varue,  viu.  15. 

4  lb.  IX.  15. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


193 


three  bishops  to  take  part  in  his  consecration  \  In  many 
ways  the  popes  were  made  to  feel  the  bitterness  of  de- 
pendence on  the  Byzantine  court.  They  were  forced  into 
heresy,  or  what  seemed  to  be  heresy,  and  on  this  account 
a  large  part  of  Italy  withdrew  from  their  communion. 
The  sees  of  Milan  and  Ravenna  were  reconciled  after  a 
comparatively  short  interval,  but  that  of  Aquileia  was 
more  resolute,  and  it  was  not  until  the  year  698  that  it 
re-entered  into  communion  with  Rome. 

The  dependence  of  Rome  on  Byzantium  was  brought 
to  an  end  by  the  Lombard  invasion.  The  dominions  of 
the  Greek  empire  in  Italy  were  thenceforth  limited  to 
Rome,  Ravenna,  and  a  part  of  southern  Italy.  This  pro- 
vince was  governed  by  exarchs  seated  at  Ravenna ;  the 
authority  of  the  emperors  declined  in  Rome,  and  passed 
ahnost  insensibly  to  the  popes,  many  of  whom  were  very 
capable  of  sustaining  it.  The  Byzantine  sovereigns  being 
often  too  weak  to  defend  their  distant  province,  the 
Italians  had  to  defend  themselves ;  and  at  their  head 
in  this  struggle  was  the  pope  of  Rome,  the  person  of 
highest  dignity  in  the  city,  the  natural  protector  of  the 
Catholics  against  the  Arian  Lombards,  and  the  greatest 
landowner  in  Italy.  For  the  estates  of  the  see  had  been 
growing  since  the  time  when  Constantine  permitted 
bishoi^s,  as  such,  to  receive  gifts  and  legacies,  and  were  in 
the  sixth  century  of  great  extent  I  The  prelates  of  that 
age  appear  to  have  been  good  landlords,  and  to  have  spent 
their  revenues  freely  for  the  public  good.  For  twenty- 
seven  years,  says  Gregory  the  Great",  the  popes  had  lived 
in  the  midst  of  Lombard  swords,  and  all  that  time  their 
income  had  been  drawn  upon  for  the  clergy,  the  monas- 
teries, the  poor;  for  the  wants  of  the  people  generally  and 
for  defence  against  the  Lombards.  As  was  natural,  the 
see  gained  infinitely  in  dignity  and  influence,  and  became, 


1  Milman,  Lat.  Christ,  i.  432  ff. 
(3rd  edn.). 

2  The  donation  of  Constantine 
to  pope  Silvester  is  now  universally 
admitted  to  be  a  fiction.  The  es- 
tates of  the  Koman  see  were  called, 
after  the  same  fashion  as  those  of 
other  churches,  by  the  name  of  its 
patron -saint,     "patrimonium     S. 

C. 


Petri."  See  Zaccaria  De  Patri- 
moniis  S.  Rom.  Eccl.  in  his  Disser- 
tationes  de  Rebus  ad  Hist,  perti- 
nentibus,  ii.  68  ff.;  C.  H.  Sack  De 
Patrim.  Eccl.  Rom.  circa  finem  scec. 
VI.  in  his  Dissertationes  tres,  p. 
25  ff. 

*  Epist.  V.  21  {Ad  Constiintinam 
Aiig.). 


Chap.  IX. 


A.D.  570— 
580. 


The  Lom- 
bards. 
A.D.  568. 


Increased 
authority 
of  the 
popes. 


A.D.  321. 


194 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


Chap.  IX. 


Jiesisiance 
to  Rome. 


A.D.  417. 


A.D.  425. 


in  matters  ecclesiastical,  less  and  less  dependent  on  the 
Byzantine  court.  Under  the  influence  of  many  causes, 
the  see  of  Rome  had  risen  to  a  great  and  unrivalled 
position  in  the  West,  and  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  century 
the  way  was  prepared  for  Gregory  the  Great,  with  whom 
a  new  era  begins. 

It  must  not  however  be  supposed  that  the  views  of 
the  Roman  bishops  as  to  the  authority  of  Rome  were 
universally  accepted  even  in  the  West.  Many  Churches 
had  grown  up  independently  of  Rome  and  were  abun- 
dantly conscious  of  the  greatness  of  their  own  past. 
Milan,  for  instance,  a  great  city  and  the  chief  town  of  a 
civil  diocese,  always  maintained  a  certain  attitude  of  in- 
dependence towards  Rome,  and  the  authority  of  so  power- 
ful a  prelate  as  Ambrose  contributed  greatly  to  render  its 
see  practically  patriarchal.  The  see  of  Ravenna,  too, 
from  the  time  when  Honorius,  fleeing  from  the  Goths, 
made  that  city  his  capital,  was  not  disposed  to  acknow- 
ledge in  Rome  a  supremacy  in  ecclesiastical  matters 
which  it  had  ceased  to  possess  politically.  And  in  the 
African  Church  the  reluctance  to  submit  to  Roman  dic- 
tation which  had  shewed  itself  in  Cyprian's  time  was 
maintained  for  many  generations.  In  the  Pelagian  con- 
troversy the  Africans  firmly  opposed  Zosimus  of  Rome, 
who  had  taken  the  side  of  Pelagius.  And  when  the  same 
Zosimus  tried  to  compel  them  to  reinstate  a  deprived 
presbyter,  Apiarius,  who  had  appealed  to  Rome,  they  were 
reluctant  to  obey.  In  vain  he  appealed  to  the  canons  of 
Sardica,  which  he  quoted  as  Nicene;  they  rejoined  that 
the  canons  in  question  were  not  Nicene,  and  admonished 
the  bishop  of  Rome  to  proceed  with  more  moderation  and 
equity*.  And  when  bishop  Cselestinus  a  few  years  later 
again  urged  the  restoration  of  Apiarius,  they  most  em- 
phatically repudiated  his  authority,  and  forbade,  under 
pain  of  excommunication,  any  appeal  to  a  foreign  bishop. 
They  begged  the  bishop  to  consider,  whether  it  was  pro- 
bable that  God  would  grant  to  an  individual  a  power  of 
correct  judgment  which  He  refused  to  a  synods  But  the 
course  of  events  broke  the  spirit  of  the  African  church- 


'  This  rejoinder  is  addressed  to 
Boniface,  who  had  succeeded  Zosi- 
mus in  418.     See  Cone.  Carth.  vi. 


(an.  419)  in  Hardouin,  i.  1242  fif. 

-  See  the  letter  of  the  African 
bishops  in  Hardouin,  i.  047  f. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


195 


men.  Their  country  was  overrun  by  the  Arian  Vandals, 
and  in  their  distress  they  were  glad  to  cling  to  such 
support  as  they  could  find  in  Rome.  They  were  not 
disposed  to  dispute  the  claims  of  Leo  the  Great  as  they 
had  done  those  of  Zosimus. 

In  Gaul  too  there  was  a  vigorous  resistance  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  see  of  St  Peter.  The  see  of  Aries, 
which  was  really  ancient  and  claimed  to  be  more  ancient 
than  it  was,  constantly  asserted  metropolitan  rights,  which 
were  acknowledged  at  Rome.  One  of  its  most  famous 
bishops,  Hilary,  felt  himself  strong  enough  to  resist  even 
Leo  the  Great,  and  refused  to  allow  a  sentence  passed  by 
himself  and  his  provincial  synod  to  be  reviewed  at  Rome*. 
In  consequence  of  this  contumacy  Leo  withdrew,  so  far  as 
in  him  lay,  the  metropolitan  privileges  of  Aries'^,  and 
obtained — for  he  did  not  refuse  to  use  the  secular  power 
when  it  was  on  his  side — the  famous  rescript  of  the 
emperor  Valentinian  III.  giving  an  emphatic  supremacy 
to  Rome  over  all  Churches,  and  enjoining  provincial 
governors  to  compel  the  attendance  of  bishops  who  might 
be  summoned  thither ^  Practically,  however,  these  pro- 
ceedings do  not  seem  in  the  end  to  have  had  much  effect 
on  the  position  and  authority  of  the  see  of  Aries*.  And 
when  the  Franks  came  to  be  rulers  in  Gaul,  the  power  of 
the  popes  in  that  country  was  much  weakened ;  for  the 
bishops  were  compelled  to  pay  more  respect  to  a  liege 
lord  close  at  hand  than  to  an  ecclesiastical  superior  at  a 
distance  who  could  not  protect  them  from  him.  Similarly 
in  Spain,  after  the  conversion  of  the  Gothic  king  to 
Catholic  Christianity^  the  archbishop  of  Toledo,  supported 
by  the  civil  power,  was  able  to  assert  a  large  measure  of 
independence  for  his  province.  The  British  Church, 
isolated  by  its  position,  seems  to  have  had  from  the  first 
a  very  loose  connexion  with  Rome ",  and  after  the  with- 
drawal of  the  Roman  troops,  scarcely  any. 

'  Honoratus,  Vita  Hilarii,  c.  22       v.  c.  5,  art.  8;  E.G.  Perthel,  Papst 
(Acta  SS.,  0  May). 

2  Leonis  Ejnst.  10  [al.  89],  c.  7. 

2  In  Leonis  Opera,  ed.  Ballerini, 
Epist.  11. 

*  On  the  controversy  between 
Rome  and  Aries,  see  De  Marca,  De 
Concordia  Sacerd.  et  Imp.  v.  33; 
Natalis  Alexander,  Hist.  Eccl.  saec. 


Leo's  Streit  mit  d.  Bischof  v.  Aries, 
in  Illgen's  Zeitschrift,  1843,  pt.  3; 
J.  G.  Cazenove  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr. 
III.  G9  ff. 

^  See  Cone.  Tolet.  in.  Proce- 
mium. 

°  E.  Stillingfleet,  Origines  Bri- 
tannica;  J.  Inett,  Origines  Angli- 

13—2 


Chap.  IX. 


A.D.  429— 
449. 


A.D.  445. 


A.D.  461. 


196 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


5.  Ecclesiastical  councils  were  already  summoned  in 
the  previous  period^  but  when  the  Church  was  under 
the  protection  of  the  Empire  they  assumed  a  more  regular 
and  systematic  character.  There  arose  a  regular  gradation 
of  parochial,  provincial,  diocesan  or  patriarchal,  and  finally 
oecumenical  councils. 

In  the  first  place,  a  bishop  assembled  round  him  for 
deliberation  on  matters  of  common  interest  the  presbyters 
of  his  "parochia,"  the  modern  diocese.  At  these  councils 
deacons  and  laymen  also  attended,  with  what  powers  it  is 
not  quite  certain  ^ 

Secondly,  a  metropolitan  held  councils  of  all  the 
bishops  of  his  province.  The  Council  of  Nicsea  enjoined" 
that  a  provincial  council  should  be  held  twice  every  year, 
to  receive  appeals  from  the  judgment  of  individual  bishops 
with  regard  to  excommunications  and  other  matters.  It 
was  also  a  court  for  the  trial  of  charges  against  bishops  of 
the  province*,  though  in  troubled  times  it  not  unfrequently 
happened  that  it  was  unable  to  make  its  authority  re- 
spected by  influential  offenders,  supported  perhaps  by  the 
civil  power. 

A  yet  more  important  assembly  was  the  council  of  a 
patriarchate,  a  diocese  in  the  old  sense  of  the  word.  Such 
a  synod,  assembled  in  Constantinople,  constituted  and 
ordained  Flavian  bishop  of  Antioch^ 

Such  were  the  legislative  and  judicial  assemblies  which 
in  ordinary  times  sufficed  for  the  needs  of  the  Church. 
But  when  the  whole  empire  was  divided  and  agitated  by 
dogmatic  questions  of  the  highest  importance,  it  was  felt 
that  nothing  short  of  a  representative  assembly  of  the 
Church  of  the  whole  empire  {rj  oiKovfievrj)  could  give  an 
authoritative  decision.  To  such  a  General  or  QEcumenical 
Council^  the  bishops  of  the  whole  Church  were  summoned 


cance;  J.  Pryce,  The  Ancient  Brit i>:h 
Church  (London,  1878);  Haddan 
and  Stubbs,  Councils  and  Docu- 
ments, vol.  I. 

^  See  pp.  136  f. ;  and  refer  to 
E.  B.  Pusey,  Councils  of  the 
Church, 

2  See  A.  W.  Haddan,  in  Diet. 
Chr.  Antiq.  i.  473. 

■'  Canon  5.  The  power  of  the 
provincial  synod  is  also  recognised 


in  canons  4  and  6. 

^  Cone.  Antioch.  c.  15. 

6  Theodoret,  H.  E.  v.  9,  p.  206, 
suh  finem. 

^  A  distinction  is  frequently 
drawn  between  General  and  (Ecu- 
menical. "The  term  (Ecumenical 
has  been  consecrated  by  usage  to 
mean  'a  General  Council,  lawful, 
approved,  and  received  by  all  the 
Chnrfh'...To   be  lawful  and  truly 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


197 


by  the  emperoi'\  The  bishop  had  always  been  the  con- 
stitutional organ  of  his  Church  in  its  relations  with  other 
Churches,  and  no  one  could  be  more  truly  representative 
of  each  Church  than  the  man  whom  his  fellow-churchmen 
had  chosen  to  be  their  head.  Others  than  bishops  were, 
however,  not  unfrequently  present,  as  Athanasius — then  a 
deacon — at  the  first  Council  of  Nicoea. 

And  it  was  scarcely  possible  that  such  bodies  should 
be  called  together  without  at  least  the  assent  of  the  civil 
power.  In  the  time  of  which  we  are  treating  religious 
questions  were  debated  with  the  most  eager  animosity. 
The  Empire  was  as  keenly  excited  over  the  question  of 
our  Lord's  Divinity  or  the  Double  Procession  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  as  England  is  during  a  general  election  which  is  to 
decide  the  most  momentous  political  measures.  For  the 
sake  of  maintaining  the  peace  of  their  dominions,  it  was 
necessary  for  the  emperors  to  exercise  some  control  over 
the  councils  whioli  so  largely  influenced  their  subjects. 
And  as  members  of  the  Church  they  were  bound  to  con- 
sider its  welfare.  It  was,  says  Eusebius*,  as  set  up  by 
God  to  take  the  general  oversight  of  the  Church  that 
Constantine  assembled  councils  of  the  ministers  of  God. 
And  Constantine  himselP,  addressing  a  Syrian  synod,  tells 
them  that  he  had  sent  Dionysius,  a  consular,  both  to  care 
for  the  orderly  conduct  of  the  council,  and  to  admonish 
those  bishops  who  were  bound  to  attend  that  they  would 
incur  the  emperor's  highest  displeasure  if  they  failed  to 
obey  his  summons.  Similarly,  at  a  later  date  the  tribune 
Marcellinus  was  deputed  to  regulate  and  preside  over  the 
conference  between  the  Catholics  and  the  Donatists  in 
Africa*.  The  imperial  commissioners  "  generally  had  the 
place  of  honour  in  the  midst  before  the  altar-rails,  were 
first  named  in  the  minutes,  took  the  votes,  arranged  the 
order  of  the  business,  and  closed  the  sessions^"  In  an 
oecumenical  synod  the  emperor,  either  in  person  or  by  a 


cDCumenical  it  is  necessary  that  all 
that  occurs  should  be  done  regu- 
larly, and  that  the  Church  should 
receive  it."  A.  P.  Forbes,  Thirty- 
nine  Articles,  i.  p.  297. 

1  See  L.  Andrewes,  Right  and 
Power  of  Calling  Assemblies,  in 
Sermons,   v.    160  S. ;   and   Tortura 


Torti,  pp.  193,  422  ff. 

2  Vita  Gonstantini,  i.  44. 

8  Euseb.  F.  C.  iv.  42. 

*  Gesta  Collationis  Carthag.,  in 
Hardouin,  Gone.  i.  1051. 

5  Hefele,  quoted  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Antiq.  p.  479. 


Chap.  IX. 

bij  the 
emperor. 


Empe7-or 
presided. 


198 


Tlie  Church  and  the  Empire. 


representative,  took  the  seat  of  honour,  as  Coiistantine 
himself  did  at  the  opening  of  the  Council  of  Nicsea.  And 
this  imperial  presidency  was  sometimes  more  than  formal. 
The  emperor  Marcian  in  person  presided  with  great  ap- 
plause over  the  sixth  session  of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon, 
proposed  the  questions,  and  conducted  the  business \  It 
was  however  unusual  for  an  emperor  to  preside  in  person, 
and  it  is  a  matter  much  controverted  who  were  the  actual 
presidents  in  the  earlier  General  Councils.  That  certain 
members  of  the  synod  were  presidents  is  clear,  but  by 
whom  they  were  appointed  is  very  doubtful.  At  Chalcedon, 
however,  one  of  the  legates  of  Rome  is  repeatedly  said  to 
have  presided,  and  their  names  stand  first  among  those 
who  signed  the  decrees^  And  emperors  ratified  the  decrees 
of  the  councils  which  they  had  called.  Constantine  com- 
mended the  decrees  of  Nicsea  to  his  subjects ^  and  the 
Fathers  of  Constantinople  supplicated  Theodosius,  as  he 
had  honoured  them  by  sending  out  letters  of  summons, 
to  complete  the  graciousnoss  of  his  act  by  giving  authority 
to  their  conclusions*.  Athanasius,  however,  repudiates  in 
the  strongest  terms  the  notion  that  the  emperor's  sanc- 
tion added  anything  to  the  decrees  of  a  council.  "  When," 
he  asks^  "did  a  decision  of  the  Church  receive  its  binding 
force  from  the  emperor  ?" 

The  earlier  assemblies  of  the  faithful  had  contented 
themselves  with  condemning  erroneous  doctrine ;  general 
councils  often  found  themselves  compelled  to  define  the 
true.  Hilary  of  Poictiers®  looked  regretfully  back  to  the 
time  when  men  were  content  simply  to  receive  the  Word 
of  God,  and  lamented  the  necessity  which  was  laid  upon 
his  own  age  of  defining  the  infinite  and  expressing  the 
inexpressible.  It  is  indeed  to  be  feared  that  in  some 
cases  the  combatants  fought  somewhat  at  random.  When 
once  a  partizan  spirit  was  aroused,  men  were  apt  to  forget 
that  the  proper  object  of  their  contention  was  truth,  and 
not  merely  victory. 


1  Hardouin,  Co7Jc.  ii.463ff.  Com- 
pare A.  W.  Haddan,  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Antiq.,  pp.  478  f. 

2  A.  W.  Haddan,  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Antiq.  478;  Hardouin,  Cone.  ii. 
4G5  ff. 

8  Euseb.   Vita  Constant,  in.  17- 


19 ;  Socrates,  H.  E.  i.  9. 

*  Epist.  Cone.  (Eeumen.  II.  {Con- 
staiUinop.  381)  ad  Theodos.  Imp.,  in 
Hardouin,  i.  808. 

'  Hist.  Arian.  ad  Monaclios,  c. 
52,  p.  815  c.  (ed.  Colon.  1686). 

^  De  Trinitate,  ii.  1. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


199 


It  might  have  been  supposed  that  the  conclusions  of 
so  imposing  a  body  as  an  oecumenical  council  would  have 
made  strife  to  cease.  In  the  end  this  was  no  doubt  the 
case ;  the  principal  dogmatic  statements  of  the  great 
councils  have  been  received  into  the  life  of  the  Church. 
But  at  the  time  when  the  councils  sat,  a  defeated  and  dis- 
appointed party  could  always  find  grounds  for  cavilling  at 
their  decrees,  and  emperors  were  invoked,  not  always 
in  vain,  to  overrule  ecclesiastical  synods.  The  defeated 
Arians  sought  the  help  of  the  Arian  Constantius,  and 
Athanasius^  makes  that  emperor  address  an  assembly  of 
bishops  at  Milan  in  the  words,  "  What  I  will,  let  that  be 
taken  for  a  fixed  rule.  Obey,  or  ye  shall  be  driven  from 
the  empire."  But  it  was  not  without  indignation  that 
men  saw  the  interference  of  the  emperor  in  the  affairs  of 
the  Church.  Leontius^  bishop  of  Trijjolis,  though  an 
Arian,  reproached  Constantius  with  deserting  his  proper 
province,  the  superintendence  of  the  state  and  the  army, 
to  interfere  with  matters  which  properly  belonged  to  the 
bishops  alone. 

6.  While  the  Church  was  spreading,  growing,  and 
organising  itself  under  its  new  circumstances,  the  old 
heathenism  was  declining  and  withering  away.  When 
Constantino  came  into  power  heathenism  still  covered  the 
empire ;  its  adherents,  however  inferior  in  all  that  gives 
life  to  religion,  were  probably  greatly  superior  in  numbers 
to  the  servants  of  Christ.  In  the  time  of  Justinian  it  did 
but  drag  on  a  feeble  existence  in  some  carefully  concealed 
den  in  a  great  city  or  among  the  rude  dwellers  in  some 
mountain  fastness.    How  was  this  brought  about  ? 

It  was  not  by  a  sudden  and  violent  suppression.  The 
emperor  Constantino,  whatever  were  his  real  sentiments 
with  regard  to  religion,  proceeded  very  cautiously  with 
regard  to  paganism.  He  used  his  power  against  it  only  so 
far  that  in  the  East  he  converted  some  almost  disused 


^  Hist.  Arian.  ad  Monachos,  c.  33. 

2  Suidas  s.v.  Kf.bvTws,  quoted  by 
Gieseler,  K.-G.  i.  482,  note  k. 

3  H.  G.  Tzschirner,  Der  Fall 
des  Heidenthums,  herausg.  von  M. 
C.  W,  Niedner;  S.  T.  Eudiger, 
De    statu    Paganorum    sub   Impp. 


Christ,  post  Constantinum;  A. 
Beugnot,  Hist,  de  la  Destruction 
dxL  Paganisme  en  Occident, \  E. 
Chastel,  Hist,  de  la  Destruction 
du  Paganisme  dans  V Empire  d'O- 
rient;  Ernst  v.  Lasaulx,  Untergang 
des  Hellenismus. 


Chap.  IX. 


The  Fall 
OF  Pagan- 


Constan- 

tine, 

313—337. 


200 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


temples  into  Christian  churches,  and  suppressed  certain 
worships  which — like  those  of  Aphrodite  and  of  some 
Oriental  and  Egyptian  deities — were  morally  offensive*. 
To  acknowledge  himself  personally  a  Christian  was  one 
thing ;  to  attack  the  ancient  religions  of  the  empire  was 
another.  Even  on  the  earliest  of  his  coins  the  Christian 
symbol  ^  appears  on  his  helmet  as  a  kind  of  personal 
badge ;  but  it  was  not  until  the  year  323  that  the  image 
of  Mars,  the  tutelary  deity  of  the  Roman  armies,  and 
the  inscription,  "  Soli  invicto  comiti,"  vanished  from  the 
imperial  coinage.  In  their  place  appeared  allegorical 
figures,  with  inscriptions  such  as  "  Spes  publica,"  "  Beata 
tranquillitas,"  which  were  not  distinctly  either  pagan  or 
Christian  I  His  new  city  of  Constantinople  he  endeavoured 
to  preserve  from  the  contamination  of  paganism  ^  though 
even  here  the  ol'd  goddess  Rhea  and  the  Fortune  of  Rome 
had  shrines*.  At  the  end  of  his  life  he  is  said  to  have 
formally  forbidden  idolatry.  His  son  Constantius  alludes 
to  this  in  a  law  of  the  year  341®,  and  it  seems  to  be  con- 
firmed by  the  words  of  Eusebius  and  Theodoret".  Still,  it 
is  remarkable  that  no  such  law  is  to  be  found  in  any 
collection,  and  some  have  consequently  supposed  that  it 
was  almost  immediately  repealed,  others  that  it  related 
only  to  immoral  forms  of  idolatry,  against  which  the  em- 
peror had  already  begun  to  wage  war'.  Certainly  it  was 
never  carried  into  execution ;  and  the  pagan  rhetorician 
Libanius*,  many  years  later,  could  appeal  to  the  fact  that 
Constantino  had  not  interfered  with  the  legal  ceremonies 
of  the  old  religions. 

Constantino  left  three  sons,  the  eldest  of  whom,  Con- 
stantino II.,  fell  in  battle  against  his  brothers.  The  two 
remaining,  very  inferior  to  their  father  in  the  art  of  ruling, 
divided  the  heritage,  Constans  becoming  Emperor  of  the 
West,  Constantius  of  the  East.  Neither  of  them  kept 
towards  the  old  religions  the  same  moderation  which  their 
father  had  done.     They  joined  in  issuing  a  severe  edict 


^  Eusebius,  Vita  Constantini,  iii. 
54—58. 

2  F.  W.  Madden,  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Antiq.  p.  1277. 

^  Eusebius,  V.  C.  in.  48. 

''  Zosimus,  II.  31. 

^  Codex  Theodos.  xvi.  tit.  10, 1.  2. 


6  Euseb.  V.  C.  II.  55 ;  cf.  iv.  23, 
25;  Theodoret,  H.  E.  v.  21. 

^  Eusebius,  Vita  Constant,  ii.  45. 

^  Oratio  pro  Templis,  3  (ii.  161, 
ed.  Eeiske),  ttjs  Kara  vofiovs  tIepaTrelas 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


201 


against  paganism  \  bnt  Constans  had  to  act  in  his  own 
government  with  caution  and  discretion,  as  paganism  still 
retained  a  firm  hold  on  the  people  of  the  West.  Thus  he 
forbade^  the  destruction  of  heathen  temples  outside  the 
city  walls,  as  being  often  rather  adjuncts  of  public  games 
than  special  supports  of  paganism.  A  traveller^  who 
visited  Rome  in  347  found  there  seven  vestals  still  remain- 
ing, and  the  worship  of  Jupiter,  of  the  Sun,  and  of  the 
Mother  of  the  gods,  still  carried  on.  Constantius  was  less 
fettered,  as  in  his  portion  of  the  empire  paganism  was  less 
powerful ;  and  when  in  350  the  death  of  his  brother  left 
him  sole  emperor  he  proceeded  against  heathen  super- 
stitions with  great  rigour.  As  the  edicts  hitherto  issued 
failed  to  put  down  heathen  practices,  in  the  year  353  he 
forbade*  he  told  heathenish  ceremonies  under  pain  of  death 
and  confiscation  of  goods.  Prefects  who  did  not  enforce 
the  law  were  to  be  liable  to  the  same  punishments.  Only 
to  Rome  and  Alexandria  it  was  not  applied.  The  em- 
peror himself  saw  without  emotion  the  old  ceremonies  still 
maintained  in  Rome,  and  did  not  interfere  with  the  cus- 
toms which  he  found  there^  But  he  saw  danger  to  the 
state  in  the  continued  existence  of  paganism,  while  the 
Christians  approved  of  his  measures  against  it,  and  urged 
him  to  further  efforts.  One  effect  of  the  severe  laws 
against  paganism  was,  that  many  persons  came  into  the 
Church  who,  convinced  perhaps  of  the  weakness  of  the 
heathen  deities  who  endured  such  insults®,  had  no  very 
solid  belief  in  Christ  nor  much  disposition  to  practise 
Christian  virtues'.  And  some,  perplexed  by  the  ceaseless 
strife  of  conflicting  parties,  attempted  to  frame  a  religion 
on  the  ground  of  the  great  truths  recognised  by  all.  Such 
were  the  Massalians,  or  "praying  people,"  described  by 
Epiphanius®  as  gathering  together,  from  the  time  of  Con- 
stantine,  in  simple  places  of  prayer,  often  mere  open  en- 


1  God.  Theodos.  lib.  xvi.  tit.  10, 
1.2. 

'^  Codex  Theodos.  xvi.  10.  3. 

^  See  the  anonymous  Vehis 
Orhis  Descriptio,  p.  35  (ed.  J. 
Gothofred),  quoted  by  Gieseler, 
I.  844,  note  o, 

4  Codex  Theod.  xvi.  10.  4. 

B  See  Symmachus,  Ejnst.  x.  61 ; 


given  also  in  Ambrosii  Opera  in. 
872  (ed.  Benedict.). 

8  Eusebius,  VitaConstant. iii. 57. 

^  lb.  IV.  54;  Libanius,  Or  at.  pro 
Templis  (ii.  177,  ed.  Eeiske). 

8  Haresis  80,  cc.  1,  2.  Cyril  of 
Alexandria  {De  Adoratione,  lib.  iir. 
(t.  92,  ed.  Aubert)  mentions  these 
as  Oeoae^Hs. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


closures,  to  worship  the  one  God  whom  they  called  the 
All-sovereign';  or  again  in  other  places  meeting  at  dawn 
and  at  sunset,  with  abundant  kindling  of  lights,  uttering 
chants  and  songs  of  praise^  made  by  earnest  men  of  their 
own  brotherhood.  These  worshippers  were  found  princi- 
pally in  Palestine  and  Phoenicia.  A  kindred  sect  existed 
about  the  same  time  in  Cappadocia,  of  which  we  have 
some  account  in  Gregory  Nazianzen's  funeral  sermon^  for 
his  father,  who  had  belonged  to  it  in  his  youth.  These 
too  worshipped  only  the  All-sovereign,  the  Most  High*, 
but  in  their  practices  they  seem  to  have  mingled  Parsism 
and  Judaism.  They  rejected  idols  and  sacrifice,  but 
honoured  fire  and  lights;  they  reverenced  the  Sabbath, 
and  observed  the  Mosaic  prescriptions  as  to  clean  and 
unclean  meats,  while  they  rejected  circumcision.  The 
"  Worshippers  of  HeavenV'  who  appeared  at  the  end  of 
the  fourth  century  in  Africa,  were  probably  a  kindred 
sect. 

The  pagans  were  now  in  the  condition  in  which  the 
Christians  had  been  a  generation  or  two  earlier — they 
were  persecuted  by  the  civil  government.  As  was  natural, 
they  attacked  the  Church  with  such  weapons  as  were  at 
their  command.  They  spoke  and  wrote  against  Chris- 
tianity; what  was  good  and  true  in  it  was,  they  said, 
borrowed  from  the  old  philosophers ;  what  it  had  of  its 
own  was  superstition.  Nay,  sacred  things  were  even 
burlesqued  in  the  theatres^  And  the  disputes  among 
Christians  about  matters  which  were  to  the  heathen  unin- 
telligible did  not  incline  them  to  look  favourably  on  their 
religion.  Heathenism  long  kept  its  hold  on  the  schools 
and  on  literature.  Heathens  taught  rhetoric  at  Athens 
and  philosophy  at  Alexandria.  The  principal  orators  of 
the  time  were  still  heathens,  like  Libanius,  the  teacher  of 
John  Chrysostom.  Neoplatonism  sought  to  rejuvenize 
paganism,  to  defend  it  philosophically,  to  cover  its  im- 
moral myths  with  a  decent  cloak  of  allegory.     In  this 


^  HavTOKpdropa,  the  word  uced  in 

the  first  clause  of  the  Nicene  Creed. 

*  'EiiKprjfj.iai,    whence    the    name 

3  Oral.  18  [al.  19],  c.  5.  See 
K.  UUmann,  Gregory  of  Nazianzum, 
tr.  by  Cox. 


^  Tw  v\piiTTov,  whence  the  name 
Hypsistarii. 

'  Codex  TJieod.  xvi.  5,  43,  and 
8,  19 ;  laws  of  408  and  409. 

6  Euseb.  V.  G.  ii.  61;  Greg. 
Nazianz.  Oral.  i.  p.  34. 


The  Church  and  the  Emjnre. 


way  unstable  spirits  were  sometimes  attracted  and  drawn 
aside'. 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  fourth  century  the  hopes  of 
the  pagans  experienced  a  sudden  revival.  Julian^  the 
son  of  Julius  Constantius  younger  brother  of  the  great 
Constantino,  had  been  brought  up  as  a  Christian  among 
men  whose  Christianity  was  little  likely  to  attract  a  very 
imaginative  boy.  It  was  probably  his  dreamy  tempera- 
ment, as  it  seemed  unlikely  to  lead  him  to  strive  for  pre- 
eminence in  the  empire,  which  saved  him  from  the  watch- 
ful jealousy  of  his  cousin  Constantius,  who — Christian  as 
he  thought  himself — had  no  scruple  in  removing  any  one 
who  stood  in  his  way.  When  in  early  manhood  he  studied 
at  Athens,  his  fellow-student  Gregory  of  Nazianzus^  fore- 
boded the  misery  which  he  was  destined  to  bring  on  the 
Empire ;  while  the  pagan  teacher  Libanius  thought  that 
his  profession  of  Christianity  hung  upon  him  like  an  ass's 
skin  on  a  lion.  Julian  was  evidently  fascinated  by  the 
beauty  and  naturalness  of  the  Greek  classical  literature 
much  as  many  Italian  princes  of  the  Renascence  were,  but 
we  must  not  suppose  that  he  adopted  the  myths  and 
opinions  of  popular  paganism.  This  was  hardly  possible 
in  that  age  and  with  his  training.  It  was  with  paganism 
as  it  appeared  in  the  allegories  of  the  Neoplatonists,  and 
in  the  mysteries  which  were  the  delight  of  the  initiated, 
that  he  was  in  love ;  a  paganism  which  gave  its  main 
worship  to  one  supreme  deity,  and  regarded  the  gods  of 
the  Pantheon  as  mere  personifications  of  his  varied  attri- 
butes. The  Christianity  of  the  house  of  Constantine  re- 
pelled him,  as  indeed  it  could  scarcely  fail  to  do. 

Sent,  still  young  and  inexperienced,  to  preside  in  Gaul, 
then   torn  by   intestine   divisions  and  harassed   by   the 


1  Gregory  of  Nazianzus  complains 
(Orat.  XX.  p.  331;  xuii.  p.  787)  of 
the  injurious  influence  of  the  schools 
iit  Athens. 

2  On  Julian,  see  S.  Johnson, 
Julian  the  Apostate  (London,  1682); 
A.  Neander,  der  Kaiser  Julia  n  ii.sein 
Zeitalter  (trans,  by  G.  V.  Cox) ;  V. 
Teuffel,  De  Juliano  Christ ianismi 
contemptorc  etosore;  D.  F.  Strauss, 
Der  Ilomanticer  aiif  dem  Throne  der 
Cdsaren;   C.  Semisch,  Julian  der 


Abtriinnige;  J.  F.  A.  Muecke,  Fla- 
vitis  Claudius  Julian  us;  F.  Kode, 
Geschichte  der  Reaction  K.  Julians 
gegen  die  Ghristl.  Kirche;  H.  A. 
Naville,  Julien  I'Apostat  et  sa  Phi- 
losophic de  P oly the i sine ;  G.  H. 
Eendall,  The  Emperor  Julian  (Cam- 
bridge, 1879),  gives  an  excellent 
bibliography  of  the  subject;  J. 
Wordsworth,  in  Diet,  of  Chr. 
Biogr.  in.  484  ff. 

^  Oratio  v.  pp.  161  f. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


Teutonic  tribes  on  the  frontier,  in  four  years  he  pacified 
the  country  and  secured  it  for  the  time  from  external 
invasion\  His  success,  while  it  endeared  him  to  the 
provincials  and  the  army,  excited  the  jealousy  of  his 
cousin  the  emperor,  and,  to  save  his  own  life,  he  was 
compelled  to  lead  his  army  against  that  of  Constantius. 
The  mastership  of  the  empire  hung  in  doubt,  when  Con- 
stantius fell  sick  and  died  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Tarsus. 
Julian,  the  next  heir,  was  generally  accepted  as  his  suc- 
cessor, and  in  December  of  the  same  year  made  his  entry 
into  Constantinople  ^ 

As  ruler  of  the  Roman  world  Julian  could  not  but  give 
effect  to  the  convictions  which  had  mastered  him.  Even 
on  his  march  through  Illyria  against  his  cousin  he  had 
caused  the  temples  of  the  national  deities  to  be  opened  and 
their  worship  resumed.  Fairly  on  the  throne,  he  pro- 
claimed general  freedom  of  worship,  and  exhorted  every 
one  frankly  to  confess  the  faith  that  was  in  him,  and  to 
live  in  accordance  with  it^.  But  with  all  his  professed 
regard  for  religious  equality,  he  looked  upon  himself 
as  chosen  by  the  gods  to  restore  the  old  religions  in  the 
empire.  He  was  too  wise  to  proceed  against  Christianity 
by  the  method  of  blood  and  iron  which  had  already  so 
signally  failed,  but  he  set  in  motion  a  more  light-handed 
persecution  which  might  in  time  have  produced  important 
effects.  Paganism  was  restored  to  almost  all  its  old 
privileges.  An  edict  was  issued  for  the  restoration  to 
the  temples  of  their  confiscated  endowments,  most  of 
which  had  been  transferred  to  Christian  churches.  Much 
trouble  and  litigation  ensued.  The  Christian  clergy  lost 
its  privileges,  payments  to  Christian  churches  from  the 
public  funds  were  withdrawn,  the  philosophic  emperor 
alleging  that  he  did  the  Christians  no  wrong  in  conferring 
on  them  the  blessing  of  poverty.  He  forbade  the  use  of 
classical  literature  in  Christian  schools,  on  the  ground — no 
doubt  ironical — that  it  was  unseemly  that  books  written 
by  men  who  served  the  old  heathen  deities  should  be 
expounded  by  those  who  believed  the  gods  of  Greece  to  be 
mere  evil  demons,  misleading  the  minds  of  men^     As 


1  Ammianus    Marcellinus,   libb. 

XVI,  XVII. 

-  Amm.  Marcellinus,  xxii.  2,  3. 


3  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  XXII.  5. 

■*  Juliaui     Epiat.     42 ;    Orosius, 

Hist.  VII.  30 ;  Socrates,  //.  E.  iii. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


205 


Christianity  had  not  yet  produced  a  philosophic  literature 
of  its  own,  he  was  aware  that  his  edict,  if  carried  into 
effect,  would  separate  the  rising  generation  of  Christians 
from  the  highest  culture  of  their  time.  He  had  a  great 
contempt  for  much  that  he  saw  in  the  Christianity  of  his 
time,  but  he  had  not  lived  in  the  midst  of  it  without  find- 
ing something  in  it  which  was  lacking  in  heathendom. 
He  was  conscious  of  a  moral  and  spiritual  power  in  the 
religion  of  Christ  which  he  would  fain  have  transferred  to 
paganism.  He  recommended  in  the  strongest  terms  to 
his  pagan  subjects  brotherly  love  and  mutual  helpfulness  ; 
the  priests  of  his  religion,  in  particular,  he  exhorted  to 
lead  pure  and  beneficent  lives';  but  he  rejected  with  scorn 
the  "  Galikean  "  who  was  the  source  of  the  virtues  which 
he  admired. 

The  effect,  however,  of  Julian's  proceedings  was  pro- 
bably much  less  than  he  had  expected.  The  pagans  doubt- 
less walked  with  a  prouder  step,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that 
some  professing  Christians  joined  the  religion  of  the  court. 
The  fierce  dissensions  among  Christians  no  doubt  en- 
couraged their  enemies  to  hope  that  the  time  of  their 
dissolution  was  at  hand.  But  in  fact  the  restoration  of 
paganism  made  little  progress.  Julian  himself  complained 
that  few  offered  sacrifice,  and  those  only  to  please  him  ; 
there  was  no  love  for  the  old  gods.  And  in  truth  the 
emperor's  own  personality  did  not  give  dignity  and  im- 
pressiveness  to  his  religion.  He  was  no  pagan  of  the  old 
type,  vigorous  and  healthy  in  mind  and  body.  He  was 
rather  an  ascetic  professor,  careless  about  his  dress  and  his 
person,  and  with  an  odd  manner  which  suggested  nervous 
disorder^.  But  what  he  might  have  effected  in  a  long 
reign  must  remain  unknown.  In  the  midst  of  his  reforms 
he  marched  against  the  Persians,  carrying  on  a  war  which 
Constantius  had  bequeathed  to  him,  and  fell  in  battle 
bravely  fighting  and  encouraging  his  hard-pressed  troops, 
Avhen  he  had  reigned  little  more  than  a  year  and  a  half. 
With  him  fell  the  hopes  of  a  pagan  revival.  The  Galilteau 
had  indeed  conquered.   Well  had  the  banished  Athanasius 


11  ff.;    Sozomen,  H.  E.  v.  16  ff.; 
Thfodoret,  H.  E.iu.  8ff. 

^  See  his  letter  to  Arsacius,  in 


Sozomen,  H.  E.  v.  16. 

^  Greff.  Nazianz.  Orat.  v.  c.  23. 


The  Church  and  the  Emjiire. 


prophesied  of  Julian,  that   he  would  pass  away  like  a 
cloud. 

A  kind  of  awe  fell  upon  the  army  at  the  death  of 
Julian.  None  of  the  pagan  generals  were  willing  to 
succeed  him,  and  the  army  chose  Jovian,  aPannonian,  who 
was  so  zealous  a  Christian  that  his  religion  had  brought 
him  into  discredit  with  the  late  emperor.  He  however 
died  before  he  reached  Constantinople,  and  another 
Pannonian,  Valentinian,  was  chosen  by  the  soldiery  to 
succeed  him.  He,  with  their  assent,  shared  the  imperial 
dignity  with  his  brother  Valens,  to  whom  he  entrusted  the 
command  of  the  Eastern  portion  of  the  empire,  while  he 
himself  took  charge  of  the  West.  Valentinian  was  too 
much  occupied  with  the  wars  and  troubles  of  his  time  to 
interfere  much  with  the  affairs  of  religion,  but  Valens,  a 
decided  Arian,was  guilty  of  great  cruelty  towards  those  who 
opposed  him.  Valentinian  was  succeeded  in  the  Empire  of 
the  West  by  his  two  sons,  Gratian  and  Valentinian  II,  the 
latter  a  child  of  four  years  old.  The  real  control  rested  of 
course  with  the  former,  who  after  the  death  of  Valens 
associated  with  himself  the  Spaniard  Theodosius,  a  worthy 
fellow-countryman  of  Trajan,  as  Emperor  of  the  East. 
Gratian  was  under  the  influence  of  the  greatest  prelate  of 
the  West,  Ambrose  of  Milan\  First  of  the  Roman  em- 
perors, he  renounced  the  dignity  of  Pontifex  Maximus^ 
and  withdrew  from  the  Vestal  virgins,  on  whom  the  very 
existence  of  the  city  was  thought  to  depend,  the  privileges 
and  the  endowments  which  the  Christian  emperors  had 
hitherto  respected ^  After  Gratian's  death,  Valentinian 
caused  the  altar  of  Victory  to  be  removed  from  the 
vestibule  of  the  senate-house  at  Rome.  This  venerable 
altar,  with  its  statue  of  the  winged  Victory,  had  been 
placed  there  by  Augustus,  and  before  it  for  many  genera- 
tions the  senators  had  taken  their  oath  of  fealty  to  the 
state.  It  had  been  removed  by  Constans,  but  Julian  had 
restored  it  to  its  place.     The  removal  of  an  object  so  long 


^  C.  Merivale,  Early  Church 
History,  pp.  19  ff. 

*  Zosimus.iv.  3G.  On  the  dignity 
of  Pontifex  Maximus,  see  J.  A. 
Bosius,  De  Pontificatu  Maxivio 
Impp.  Christ.,  inGnevii  'Thesaurus, 
V.  271  ff.;  De  la  Bastie,  Du  Souve- 


rain  Pontif.    des  Emp.    Rom.,   in 
M6m.   de   VAcaddmie  des  Inscript. 

XV.  75  ff. ;  J.  Eckhel,  Doct.  Nuvim. 
Vett.  386  ff. 

3  Symmachus,     Epist.    x.     61 ; 
Ambrose,  Epist.  17;  Code.v  Theod. 

XVI.  10.  20. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


207 


venerated,  and  associated  with  so  long  a  line  of  successes, 
could  not  fail  to  rouse  the  deepest  emotion  in  the  ad- 
herents of  the  old  faith.  These  had  a  worthy  representa- 
tive in  the  consular  Symmachus,  the  prefect  of  the  city, 
who  addressed  the  emperor  in  words  which  are  not  without 
a  certain  pathos,  begging  him  earnestly  to  leave  to  the 
senate-house  its  chief  ornament,  to  permit  senators  who 
had  now  grown  old  to  hand  on  to  their  descendants  the 
emblem  of  good  fortune  which  had  been  committed  to 
them  in  their  youth,  to  leave  undisturbed  the  form  of 
worship  under  which  they  had  driven  Hannibal  from  their 
walls  and,  in  victory  after  victory,  subdued  the  world. 
The  humility  of  Syramachus's  appeal  shews  the  great 
change  which  had  come  over  the  great  city;  the  once 
dominant  and  arrogant  heathenism  pleads  for  the  toleration 
of  a  single  observance.  It  pleaded  in  vain.  Ambrose 
insisted  that  the  Christian  faith  forbade  the  restoration  of 
the  altar,  and  the  emperor  decided  that  what  the  Christian 
faith  required  should  be  done\ 

Theodosius  I.,  one  of  the  greatest  rulers  of  the  de- 
clining empire,  did  much  to  complete  the  work  which  was 
begun  under  Constantine.  When  he,  after  the  death  of 
Valentinian  II.,  became  sole  ruler  of  the  empire,  he  for- 
bade in  the  most  emphatic  terms  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  men  to  offer  sacrifice  to  senseless  idols,  or  even  to 
practise  private  worship  before  the  domestic  shrines.  To 
pour  a  libation  of  wine  to  the  tutelary  genius  or  to  hang  a 
garland  before  the  penates  was  made  criminaP,  though 
heathen  worship  still  lingered  in  Rome^  and  Alexandria. 
But  the  zeal  of  Christian  mobs  had  outrun  the  legislation 
of  the  emperors.  Already  many  temples  had  been  de- 
stroyed^  Some  few  were  turned  into  churches,  but  gene- 
rally Christians  had  too  great  a  horror  of  spots  once  dedi- 
cated to  the  worship  of  denions  to  permit  such  a  trans- 
formation. The  statues  of  the  deities  were  broken  to 
fragments.     In  vain  Libanius  pleaded  with  his  country- 


1  Symmachus,  Epist.  x.  61; 
Ambrose,  Epist.  17  and  18  ad 
Valentiiiianum;  cf.  Epist.  57  ad 
Eugenivm.  There  is  a  good  ac- 
count of  the  controversy  between 
Symmachus  and  Ambrose  in  Ville- 


main's  Eloquence  Chrelienne,  pp.       v.  21. 


514  ff.  (ed.  1858). 

'  Codex  Theod.  xvi.  10,  12. 

3  Zosimus,  IV.  59. 

*  Libanius,  Pro  Templis,  pp.  162, 
168,  192  ff.  (ed.  Eeiske);  Sozomen, 
//.  E.   VII.  15;    Theodoret,  H.  E. 


The  GJnirch  and  the  Empire. 


men  to  spare  the  temples  as  monuments  of  art  and  orna- 
ments of  the  towns ;  the  destruction  went  on.  St  Martin 
of  Tours  was  especially  active  in  promoting  the  destruction 
of  temples  in  his  neighbourhood,  not  without  vigorous 
opposition  from  the  inhabitants \  And  the  African  bishops 
in  the  year  899  ^  supplicated  the  emperors  to  remove  the 
remains  of  idolatry  from  Africa,  and  to  destroy  at  any  rate 
those  temples  which,  being  in  remote  places,  served  no 
purpose  of  ornament.  But  the  emperor  Honorius,  dread- 
ing perhaps  the  wrath  of  the  pagans,  who  were  still 
numerous  and  attributed  every  public  misfortune  to  the 
neglect  of  the  ancient  deities,  tried  to  restrain  the  zeal  of 
the  Christians,  and  put  forth  two  edicts^,  to  the  effect 
that  popular  festivals  were  not  to  be  interfered  with,  and 
that  temples  which  had  been  cleared  of  superstitious  ob- 
jects were  not  to  be  destroyed.  The  Goths,  however, 
under  Alaric,  who  had  none  of  the  old  Roman  respect  for 
antiquity,  destroyed  ruthlessly.  It  was  when  Arcadius  was 
emperor  that  the  Vandal  Stilicho  caused  the  Sibylline 
books  to  be  burned ;  the  Rome  of  the  Sibyl  was  indeed 
near  its  end. 

As  was  natural,  heathendom  lingered  longest  among 
the  country  folk  (pagani)  of  remote  districts,  slow  to 
receive  new  ideas,  and  so  the  word  "  paganus  came  to  be 
equivalent  to  heathen^"  But  it  was  not  only  among 
unlettered  labourers  that  Christianity  was  slow  to  find 
admission ;  many  old  families  prided  themselves  on  be- 
longing still  to  their  ancestral  religion.  In  the  last  agony 
of  the  Western  Empire,  when  Alaric  was  before  the  walls 
of  Rome,  the  pagans  in  the  senate  determined  to  sacrifice 
on  the  Capitol  and  in  other  temples® — a  proceeding  con- 
nived at,  says  a  pagan  historian",  by  Pope  Innocent  him- 
self And  many  of  the  philosophic  class  clung  to  the  new 
paganism,  or  at  any  rate  refused  Christianity.  One  of  the 
most  famous  of  these  was  Hypatia,  daughter  of  the  philo- 
sopher Theon.  This  lady  was  a  distinguished  teacher  of 
the  Neoplatonic  school  at  Alexandria,  and  was  thought  to 


1  Sulpicius  Severus,  Vita  S.  Mar- 
tini, cc.  13 — 15. 

2  Codex  Eccl.  Afi-icame,  c.  58. 

3  Codex  Theod.  xvi.  10.  17,  18. 

■»  Codex  Theodos.  xvt.  7.   2;  10. 


20.  "Quos  usitato  nomine  paga- 
nos  vocamus,"  Angustin,  Retract. 
II.  43. 

®  Sozomen,  H.  E.  ix.  0. 

"  Zosimus,  V.  41. 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


209 


have  great  influence  with  Orestes,  the  prefect  of  the  city, 
who  was  not  on  good  terras  with  Cyril,  the  bishop.  What- 
ever may  have  been  the  immediate  cause,  she  was  seized 
one  day  by  a  rabble  of  Christians,  and  dragged  from  her 
carriage  into  a  neighbouring  church,  where  she  was  killed 
with  potsherds,  and  her  body,  torn  limb  from  limb,  carried 
out  and  burnt.  This  deed,  says  Socrates \  a  Christian 
witness,  brought  grievous  shame  on  Cyril  and  the  Church 
in  Alexandria,  where  all  men  respected  the  talent  and  the 
modesty  of  Hypatia. 

Until  the  reign  of  Justinian  nothing  was  added  to  the 
laws  against  paganism.  Sacrifice  remained  forbidden,  and 
either  ceased  altogether,  or  was  celebrated  in  secrecy  and 
silence.  Pagan  celebrations  were  no  longer  public  and 
national,  but  the  mysteries  of  adepts.  In  Rome  itself, 
however,  heathen  practices  long  retained  a  kind  of  pub- 
licity. Even  in  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  Salvian* 
complained  that  the  sacred  fowls  were  still  kept  by  the 
consuls,  and  auguries  still  sought  from  the  flight  of  birds. 
And  at  a  yet  later  date  the  festival  of  the  Lupercalia, 
perhaps  as  old  as  the  city  itself,  and  intended  as  a  puri- 
fication of  the  primitive  settlement  on  the  Palatine,  was 
still  celebrated,  and  was  thought  to  give  fertility  to  the 
land,  to  its  flocks,  its  herds,  and  its  human  inhabitants. 
Pope  Gelasius  issued  a  decree^  against  it.  The  Romans 
dreaded  the  curse  of  infertility  if  the  usual  propitiations 
were  unperformed,  but  the  bishop  was  resolute,  and 
threatened  to  excommunicate  the  whole  city  if  his  decree 
was  disobeyed.  The  rude  festival  came  to  an  end,  and  it 
has  sometimes  been  supposed  that  the  Christian  feast  of 
the  Purification,  held  in  the  same  month,  was  designed  to 
take  its  place*.  Justinian  resolved  to  put  an  end  to  what- 
ever remained  of  heathenism.  For  this  purpose  he  sought 
to  crush  the  non-Christian  philosophy  which  nourished 
pagan  modes  of  thought.  He  closed  the  philosophic 
schools  of  Athens  ^  which  had  been  for  centuries  a  kind  of 


1  H.  E.  VII.  15. 

-  J>e  Guhernatione  Dei,  vi.  2 
(p.  127,  ed.  Pauly). 

^  Adv.  And romachiim  Senatorem, 
in  Mansi,  viii.  95  ff. 

*  Durandus,     Beleth,    Baronius 


and  Pope  Benedict  XIV.  adopt  this 
supposition;  see  Diet,  of  Christ. 
Antiq.  p.  1141. 

*  Joh.   Malala,  Hist.  Chron.   pt. 
II.  p.  187  (ed.  Hody). 

14 


Chap.  IX. 


Salvian, 
c.  440. 


Luper- 
calia sup- 
pressed, 
c.  492. 


Justinian. 

Athenian 
schools 
closed, 
529. 


210 


TJie  Church  and  the  Empire. 


Chap.  IX. 
533. 


Slavonic 
invasion, 
578—589. 


Fall  of 
Home,  410. 


Augustin 
De  Civi- 
taie  Dei. 


university.  Many  of  the  philosophers  took  refuge  under 
the  more  tolerant  sway  of  the  Persian  king\  who,  when 
he  was  able  to  make  terms  with  the  emperor,  stipulated 
that  they  should  be  allowed  to  return  to  their  own  country. 
The  schools  however  remained  closed.  But  Justinian  was 
not  satisfied  with  forbidding  pagan  observances;  he  ordered 
that  his  subjects  should  be  baptized*,  on  pain  of  confisca- 
tion and  exile — a  violation  of  the  rights  of  conscience 
which  had  hitherto  been  unknown.  The  patrician  Photius 
sought  death  itself  rather  than  submit  to  the  Christian 
rite^ — one  of  the  few  martyrs  of  paganism,  if  a  suicide 
may  bear  that  name. 

From  this  time  there  was  in  the  Empire  but  little 
open  and  avowed  paganism,  whether  in  East  or  West. 
An  important  part  of  the  Empire  however,  including 
Macedonia,  Thessaly,  Hellas,  and  the  Peloponnesus,  was 
soon  after  Justinian's  time  overrun  by  a  swarm  of  Sla- 
vonic tribes,  who  introduced  their  own  form  of  paganism 
and  maintained  it  until  the  ninth  century.  And  the 
Mainotes  in  Peloponnesus,  secure  in  their  mountains  and 
their  poverty,  continued  to  worship  Poseidon  and  Aphrodite 
until  Basil  the  Macedonian  in  the  ninth  century  compelled 
them  to  conform  to  Christianity*.  In  Sicily,  in  Sardinia, 
and  in  Corsica  there  were  many  heathens  at  the  end  of  the 
sixth  century,  and  for  these  even  Gregory  the  Great  did 
not  hesitate  to  recommend  such  methods  of  conversion  as 
flogging  and  imprisonment  ^  But  in  general  it  may  be 
said  that  after  the  time  of  Justinian  heathen  practices 
either  vanished  altogether  or  were  disguised  under  Chris- 
tian names. 

It  was  in  the  great  crash  of  the  Roman  world,  when 
Alaric  and  his  Goths  were  ravaging  the  West,  when  men's 
hearts  were  failing  them  for  fear,  and  many  said  that  the 
desertion  of  the  old  gods,  under  whose  auspices  Rome  had 
conquered  the  world,  was  the  cause  of  the  presents  mis- 
fortunes, that  Augustin  wrote  his  great  work  on  the  City 
of  God.     Of  this  he  himself  gives  ®  the  following  account. 


1  Agathias,  De  hup.  Jvstiniani, 
II.  30.  See  Wesseling,  Obscrvat. 
Varia,  i.  28. 

2  Ciidex  Justin,  i.  11  (De  Pa- 
ganis),  1.  10. 

^  Gilibon's  Rome,  c.  47  (vi.  37, 


ed.  Smith). 

*  Constaut.  Porphyrog.  De  Ad- 
ministr.  Imj).  c.  50. 

6  Greg.  Episti.  iii.  62;  iv.  26;  v. 
41;  VIII.  1;  IX.  l]5. 

^  Eetractationes,  ii.  43. 


The  Church  and  the  Eininre. 


211 


It  consists  of  twenty-two  books.  In  the  first  five  he  sought 
to  refute  those  who  asserted  that  temporal  prosperity  de- 
pended on  the  due  payment  of  worship  to  the  many  gods 
of  the  Gentiles ;  in  the  next  five,  those  who,  admitting 
that  no  form  of  religion  could  avert  the  misfortunes  which 
were  the  lot  of  humanity,  contended  that  polytheism  was 
necessary  to  secure  happiness  in  the  world  to  come.  In 
the  remaining  books  he  passes  from  refuting  his  adver- 
saries to  developing  the  positive  side  of  his  faith  in  God's 
government  of  the  world.  In  the  first  four  books  of  this 
second  part  he  describes  the  rise  of  the  two  kingdoms,  the 
kingdom  of  God  and  the  kingdom  of  this  world ;  in  the 
next  four  their  spread  and  progress ;  in  the  last  four,  the 
purposes  which  they  severally  subserve.  The  heathen,  he 
indignantly  observes,  far  from  complaining  of  Christianity, 
ought  to  be  grateful  to  it  for  the  protection  which  it  had 
given  them.  When,  in  the  whole  history  of  the  pagan 
world,  had  it  been  heard  that  the  victors  had  spared  the  van- 
quished for  the  sake  of  the  gods  of  the  vanquished  ?  But 
in  the  sack  of  Rome  the  Christian  shrines  had  been  found 
a  safe  refuge  from  the  Gothic  soldiery.  They  were  not  to 
think  that  a  catastrophe  such  as  the  fall  of  Rome  was  to 
be  regarded  with  despair ;  it  was  but  the  passage  from  the 
old  order  to  the  new,  the  painful  birth  of  a  better  age\ 
The  same  God  who  had  caused  the  Romans,  still  pagan,  to 
rise  to  such  a  height  of  empire,  could  under  the  yoke  of 
Christ  give  them  a  better  kingdom^.  And  Orosius',  who, 
at  Augustin's  instigation  wrote  a  sketch  of  the  history  of 
the  world  with  the  intention  of  vindicating  the  ways  of 
God  to  man,  saw  even  more  clearly  than  his  master  that 
the  barbarians  were  beginning  a  new  era,  and  that  future 
generations  would  look  back  to  rude  warriors  of  that  day 
as  kings  and  founders  of  kingdoms.  Salvian*  saw  the 
manifest  judgment  of  God  in  the  success  of  the  Teutonic 
tribes.  They  increase,  he  said,  day  by  day,  we  decrease ; 
they  are  lifted  up,  we  are  cast  down ;  they  flourish,  we  are 
withered.  And  he  found  a  reason  for  this  superiority  in 
the  greater  social  purity  of  the  Goths  and  Vandals.  What 
hope,  he  exclaims,  can  there  be  for  the  Roman  state  when 


ClIAP.  IX. 


^  De  Civitate  Dei,  i.  If.;  n.  2. 
^  Sermo  105  j  De  Civ,  Dei,  iv.  7, 
28;  V.  23, 


3  Hist,  adv.  Paganos,  vii.  39,  41. 
*  De  Guhernatione  Dei,  vii.  11, 
23. 

14—2 


Orosiu.< 


212 


The  Church  and  the  Empire. 


Chap.  IX 


the  barbarians  are  more  chaste  and  pure  than  the  Romans? 
Nay  rather,  when  there  is  chastity  among  the  barbarians 
and  none  among  ourselves.  Such  were  some  of  the 
thoughts  called  forth  by  the  fall  of  heathendom  and  of  the 
great  heathen  city  which  had  been  enabled  for  so  long  a 
time  to  riile  the  nations.  Faithful  souls  saw  in  the 
calamities  which  then  fell  upon  the  earth  at  once  the 
punishment  of  sin  and  the  hope  of  better  things  to  come.  • 


CHAPTER  X. 

Theology  and  Theologians, 

1.  The  fourth  century,  which  gave  to  the  Church 
power  and  dignity,  brought  also  a  great  accession  of 
literary  activity.  In  the  Greek  Church  especially  the  ex- 
position of  Scripture  was  steadily  prosecuted  and  Christian 
eloquence  largely  developed.  General  culture  still  remained 
classical.  If  some  of  the  Christian  writers  had  their  genius 
nursed  in  the  solitude  of  the  desert,  many  shared  in  the 
highest  education  of  their  time.  The  school  of  Athens  still 
flourished.  There  were  to  be  found  philosophers  who  were 
ready  to  initiate  disciples  into  the  mysteries  of  Neopla- 
tonism,  sophists  who  taught  the  dialectic  art,  grammarians 
who  expounded  the  great  writers  who  were  the  glory  of 
ancient  Greece.  There  some  of  those  who  were  afterwards 
to  adorn  Greek  theology  studied  under  the  guidance  of 
the  most  illustrious  teachers  of  paganism.  But  the 
general  feeling  towards  the  great  pagans  was  in  this  age 
very  different  from  that  which  had  animated  Clement  of 
Alexandria  and  the  early  apologists.  These  sought  in  the 
ancient  documents  of  heathendom  for  traces  of  the  work- 
ing of  the  ever-present  Word ;  the  Christian  writers  of  the 
second  period,  while  many  of  them  were  fully  conscious  of 
the  intellectual  greatness  and  the  perfect  form  of  the 
Greek  and  Latin  models,  were  yet  torn  with  scruples  if 
they  gave  to  them  an  eager  and  admiring  study.     Jerome 


1  Full  accounta  of  the  authors 
of  this  period  are  to  be  foiind  iu 
Dupin's  Nouvelle  Bibliotlirque  des 
Autenrs  Eccl.,  Ceillier's  Hist.  G4- 
nerale  des  Autetirs  Sacres  et  Eccl., 


Cave's  Scriptorum  Eccl.  Ilist.Lite- 
rarin,  Fessler's  Institutioncs  Patro- 
lo(jiae,  Mzog'a  Grundrint<  der  Palro- 
lofjie,  and  other  Patrologies. 


Chap.  X. 
Literary 

ClIARAC- 


A  thens. 


Ivfluence 
of  the 
Classics. 


Shrink  iiu/ 

from 

Paganism. 


214 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


Chap.  X. 


Chalcedon, 
451. 


Want  of 
Original- 
ity. 


Compilers 
and  Epit(> 
mators. 


Contempt 
for  Style. 


was  filled  with  horror  and  remorse  for  the  ardent  study 
and  admiration  which  he  had  given  to  Cicero ;  Augustin 
deplored  the  "wine  of  error"  which  was  given  to  the 
young  Christian  to  drink  in  the  choice  words  of  the 
ancient  writers \  Such  men  were  conscious  that  a  spirit 
which  was  not  that  of  Christ  underlay  the  beauty  of  the 
old  world. 

But  in  spite  of  this  feeling,  we  are  conscious  that 
Christian  literature  shines  with  the  evening-glow  of  clas- 
sical culture  up  to  about  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century. 
The  Council  of  Chalcedon  seems  to  mark  an  epoch.  The 
long  dogmatic  controversies,  though  they  caused  much 
writing,  were  not  favourable  to  the  quiet  cultivation  from 
which  the  best  literature  proceeds.  As  is  natural,  there 
is  found  a  correspondence  between  the  general  culture  of 
any  period  and  its  theology,  for  theology  arises  from  the 
application  of  the  intellect  to  revealed  truth.  Christian 
truth  came  into  contact  with  philosophy  both  as  a  friend 
and  as  an  enemy;  in  both  characters  it  received  an  influ- 
ence. And  when  Greek  philosophy  came  to  an  end,  all 
the  vigour  and  originality  of  Christian  theology  came  to  an 
end  with  it^  Men  like  Athanasius  and  Basil  are  found 
no  more  after  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century.  And  the 
barbarian  invaders  of  the  Empire  destroyed  much  of  the 
old  social  life.  In  the  end,  they  produced  the  great 
literature  of  modern  Europe ;  but  at  first  the  Teutons 
were  a  destructive  rather  than  a  creative  force.  What- 
ever the  cause,  about  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  a 
great  change  came  over  Christian  literature.  The  vigorous 
intellectual  life  of  an  earlier  period  was  lost  in  dulness  or 
tawdriness.  We  see  no  longer  the  spirit  of  enquiry  and 
philosophy;  literature  contents  itself  with  bringing  toge- 
ther and  epitomizing  old  matter,  with  a  view  rather  to 
edification  than  to  the  extension  of  knowledge.  So  utterly 
did  even  a  Roman  of  high  rank  come  to  despise  the  graces 
of  style,  that  Gregory  the  Great  exults,  in  the  manner  of 
a  modern  Puritan,  that  he  had  no  need  to  trouble  himself 
with  the  rules  of  Donatus';  and  he  is  very  indignant  with 


^  Confess.,  i.  26. 
2  See  Eanke,  Weltgeschichte,  iv. 
2,  p.  20  £f. 

'^  Epist.   ad  Leandrinii,  prefixed 


to  the  Exposition  of  Job.  Do- 
natus  was  a  well-known  Roman 
grammarian,  wLo  was  Jerome's 
teacher. 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


215 


Desiderius  of  Vienne  for  having  ventured  to  lecture  on 
some  of  the  classical  writers \  The  story  told  by  John  of 
Salisbury^,  that  he  burned  the  ancient  treasures  of  the 
Palatine  library,  is  perhaps  not  worthy  of  belief.  It  was 
a  highly  significant  sign  that  original  literature  and  frank 
discussion  had  ceased  when  pope  Hormisdas — if  it  was  he 
— put  forth  a  list  of  books^  which  the  Mthful  were  not 
permitted  to  read.  Most  of  these  are  however  really 
heretical  or  falsely  attributed  to  the  persons  whose  name 
they  bear. 

We  find  everywhere  the  two  great  principles  of  human 
nature  in  perpetual  conflict.  On  the  one  hand,  respect 
for  authority,  dread  of  change,  desire  to  maintain  the  state 
of  things  in  which  each  man  finds  himself.  On  the  other, 
more  reliance  on  the  powers  which  God  has  given  to  man, 
more  hopefulness,  more  readiness  to  leave  the  things 
which  are  behind  and  to  press  forward  to  those  which  are 
before.  To  speak  generally,  we  may  say  that  the  Latin 
Church  took  the  conservative  side,  the  Greek  that  of  fi-ee 
discussion  and  enquiry.  But  this  description  is  by  no 
means  complete  and  exhaustive.  The  Churches  were 
separated  by  no  impassable  barrier;  much  respect  for 
authority  was  found  in  the  East,  and  some  free  enquiry 
in  the  West. 

2.  The  great  representative  in  the  East  of  the  freer 
tone  in  matters  of  dogma  and  exegesis  was  the  School  of 
Antioch*.  It  owes  its  origin,  no  doubt,  to  the  impulse 
given  by  Origen  to  theology,  but  it  ran  an  independent 
course.  Instead  of  the  Origenistic  allegorizing  of  the 
Bible,  in  the  School  of  Antioch  the  leading  men  insisted 
on  the  necessity  of  grammatical  and  historical  exposition^ 
Not  that  they  rejected  type  and  allegory,  but  that  they 
insisted  that  all  edifying  exegesis  must  be  founded  on  au 


^  Epist.  XI.  54  ad  Desiderium. 

^  Policratiats,  ii.  20;  viii.  19. 

^  In  Decretum  Gratiani,  P.  i. 
Dist.  XV.  c.  3;  Hardouin,  Cone.  ii. 
940.  It  is  commonly  ascribed  to 
Gelasius  (494),  but  it  is  doubtful 
whether  it  is  really  older  than  the 
eighth  century.  See  W.  E.  Scuda- 
more,  in  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  ii.  1721, 
s.v.  Prohibited  Books. 

*  See   p.    07.     Sijecial    treatises 


on  the  Antiochene  School  are  Miin- 
ter.  Die  Antioch.  Seltule,  in  Staud- 
lin  und  Tzschirner's  Archiv,  vol.  i. 
pt.  1;  C.  Hornung,  Schola  Antio- 
elicna;  Kihn,  Die  Bedeutung  der 
Antioeh.  Schule  axtf  Exeget.  Gebiet; 
Hergenrother,  Die  Antioch.  Schule. 
®  ToO  a\\y]yopLKov  to  'urropiKov 
ir\etaTov  oaov  TrporifxcS/xev,  says  Dio- 
dorus,  quoted  by  Harnack,  Dog- 
mengeachichle  ii.,  p.  78  note. 


Chap.  X. 


Prohibited 
books, 
514  (?). 


Schools  of 
Thought, 


School  of 
Antioch  i. 


216 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


accurate  understanding  of  the  words  of  Scripture  in  their 
literal  and  historical  sense,  which  the  allegorists  pure  and 
simple  altogether  disregarded.  "  The  authority  of  Christ 
Himself  and  of  His  Apostles  encourages  us  to  search  for  a 
deep  and  spiritual  meaning  under  the  ordinary  words  of 
Scripture,  which  however  cannot  be  gained  by  any  arbi- 
trary allegorizing,  but  only  by  following  out  patiently  the 
course  of  God's  dealings  with  man\"  This  was  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  Antiochenes.  They  looked  to  reason  rather 
than  to  authority  to  explain  and  develope  dogma,  taking 
theu^  stand  on  Scripture.  They  were  anxious  that  the 
human  element  in  the  Lord  Himself,  in  His  Word,  and  in 
His  Church,  should  receive  the  consideration  which  it 
sometimes  seemed  in  danger  of  losing.  In  this  effort  it  is 
not  to  be  denied  that  some  of  them  took  too  little  account 
of  the  divine  element,  and  failed  to  grasp  the  full  signifi- 
cance of  the  work  of  Christ  as  Incarnate  Saviour  and 
Redeemer.  The  influence  of  this  school  was  great  in  the 
East  during  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  and  when  it 
grew  weak  in  its  early  home  the  Antiochene  Cassian 
planted  an  offshoot  in  Gaul. 

A  very  noteworthy  figure  in  the  School  of  Antioch  is 
Eusebius,  bishop  of  Emesa,  of  whom  Jerome  *  wrote  that 
his  elegant  and  forcible  style  caused  him  to  be  much 
studied  by  those  who  wished  to  distinguish  themselves  in 
popular  oratory.  In  the  fragments  which  remain  of  his 
numerous  works  Eusebius  appears  as  a  representative  of 
those  who  thought  that  much  of  the  theological  dissension 
of  his  time  arose  from  the  morbid  desire  to  know  more 
than  Scripture  had  revealed.  "  Confess,"  he  says,  "  that 
which  is  written  of  the  Father  and  the  Son,  and  do  not 
require  that  which  is  not  written."  "  If  a  dogma  is  not  in 
Scripture  let  it  not  be  taught ;  if  it  is  in  Scripture,  let  it 
not  be  extinguished  ^"  His  desire  to  avoid  adding  to  Scrip- 
ture propositions  of  man's  device  seems  to  have  perplexed 
his  contemporaries,  for  while  Jerome*  describes  him  as  a 
ringleader  of  the  Arians,  Socrates^  and  Sozomen"  agree 


1  E.  F.  Westcott,  Introduction 
to  the  Gospels,  p.  382. 

*  Catalogus,  c.  91. 

8  See  Hase,  Kirchengescliichtc 
auf  Grundlage  Akadein.   Vorlesun- 


gen,  i.  502. 

*   Chronicon,    ad    ann.    X   Cou- 
Btantii. 

^  H.  E.  II.  9. 

6  //.  E.  III.  6. 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


217 


in  saying  that  he  was  suspected  of  holding  Sabellian 
opinions. 

Cyril,  bishop  of  Jerusalem \  lived  through  the  greater 
part  of  the  eventful  fourth  century.  Once  suspected  of 
heretical  opinions,  he  was  persecuted  by  the  Arian  emperor 
Valens  for  his  adherence  to  orthodoxy,  and  was  among 
those  who  sat  at  the  Council  of  Constantinople  in  381. 
The  Catechetical  Lectures  which  he  delivered  while  still  a 
presbyter  in  Jerusalem,  the  first  part  of  the  series  to  those 
who  were  preparing  for  baptism,  the  latter  part  to  the 
newly  baptized,  are  a  most  valuable  record  both  of  the 
instruction  which  it  was  thought  necessary  to  give  to  those 
who  came  to  be  baptized,  and  of  the  state  of  the  liturgy  of 
Jerusalem  at  the  time  when  they  were  delivered. 

But  the  most  flourishing  period  of  the  Antiochene 
School  begins  with  Eusebius's  pupil  Diodorus^  who  in  the 
year  378  was  consecrated  by  Meletius  to  the  see  of  Tarsus'. 
He  wrote  commentaries  on  many  of  the  books  of  the  Old 
Testament,  giving  his  principal  attention  to  the  actual 
words  of  Scripture  and  disregarding  allegory  in  his  desire 
to  reach  the  true  historical  sense  of  the  text*.  He  seems 
however  to  have  fully  recognised  the  divine  element  in  the 
typical  events  of  the  sacred  history.  He  was  an  energetic 
defender  of  the  orthodox  faith  against  the  Arians,  and 
taught  John  Chrysostom  his  principles  of  Scripture  inter- 
pretation. 

John  ®,  sometimes  called  from  his  see  John  of  Constan- 


1  W.  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.  i.  211; 
Colin  in  Ersch  u.  Gruber'sEyicycZ. 
vol.  23,  s.v. :  J.  van  Volleuhoven 
De  Cyrilli  Catechesihus;  H.  Plitt, 
De  Cyr.  Oratt.  Catechet.;  J.  H. 
Newman,  Pref.  to  translation  in 
the  Library  of  the  Fathers ;  E. 
Venables  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  i. 
760. 

2  Jerome,  Catal.  119;  W.  Cave, 
Hist.  Lit.  I.  266;  E.  Venables  in 
Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  i.  836 ;  L.  Diestel, 
Gesch.  d.  Alt.  Test.  128. 

»  Theodoret  H.  E.  v.  4. 

*  Socrates  H.E.  v.  3;  Sozoraen 
VIII.  2. 

^  Palladius,  Dialogus  de  Vita 
J  oh.      Chrys.,     in     Montlaucon's 


Chrysost.  Opera,  vol.  13;  Socrates 
H.  E.  VI.  3—21;  Sozomenviii.  2 — 
23;  Theodoret  //.  E.  v.  27—31; 
Isidore  Pelus.  Epistt. — Lives  by 
Montfaucon  (Chrys.  Opera,  xiii. 
91  ff.).  Cave  {Lives  of  the  Fathers, 
III.  237  ff.),  Neander  (Der  Heilige 
Chrysostomos),  Am.  Thierry  {St 
Jean  Chrys.  et  I'Lnp.  Eudoxie), 
Btihringer  (in  Die  Kirche  Christi 
u.  ihre  Zexigen,  vol.  ix.  2nded.),  W. 
B.  W.  Stephens  {St  Chrysostom, 
his  Life  and  Times),  F.  H.  Chase 
(Chrysostom,  a  Study  in  the  Hist, 
of  Biblical  Interpretation),  B.  W. 
Bush  {Life  and  Times  of  St  Chry- 
sostom, B.T.  S.),  F.  W.  Farrar,  Lives 
of  the  Fathers,  ii.  615  ff. 


218 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


Chap.  X. 


BajHized 
c,  369. 


In 

retirement^ 
c.  374. 


Priest, 
386. 


Sermons 
"u)i  the 
Statues,'' 
387. 


tinople,  and  afterwards,  from  his  splendid  eloquence,  John 
of  the  Golden  Mouth,  Chrysostomos,  was  born  about  the 
year  347  at  Antioch,  of  distinguished  family  both  on  his 
father's  and  his  mother's  side.  His  father  died  while  the 
son  was  yet  a  child,  and  the  young  widow  Anthusa,  devoting 
herself  to  the  education  of  her  son,  implanted  in  his  infant 
mind  the  seeds  of  that  earnest  piety  which  he  never  lost. 
His  early  training  under  the  pagan  rhetorician  Libanius, 
who  regretted  that  the  Christians  had  stolen  his  most  pro- 
mising pupil  \  in  no  way  injured  his  faith  in  Christ.  After 
he  had  for  a  short  time  practised  as  an  advocate  with  so 
much  success  that  the  highest  offices  seemed  open  to  him, 
he  withdrew  from  the  turmoil  of  a  worldly  life,  and  de- 
voted himself  to  reading  and  meditating  on  Holy  Scripture. 
Meletius,  bishop  of  Antioch,  seeing  how  highly  gifted  he 
was,  instructed  him  in  the  great  Christian  verities,  bap- 
tized him,  and  ordained  him  to  the  office  of  reader.  When 
in  the  troublous  year  370  Meletius  and  several  of  the 
neighbouring  bishops  were  deposed,  it  was  hoped  that 
John  would  be  induced  to  fill  one  of  the  vacant  sees.  He 
however  avoided  the  unquiet  dignity  which  he  induced  his 
friend  Basil  to  accept.  A  few  years  later,  his  mother 
being  probably  dead,  he  joined  a  community  of  monks  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Antioch,  where  he  thought  he  had 
found  a  harbour  of  refuge  from  the  rough  waves  of  this 
troublesome  world.  Here,  in  company  with  men  like- 
minded,  such  as  Theodore,  afterwards  of  Mopsuestia,  he 
devoted  himself  to  the  ascetic  life  and  the  study  of  the 
Bible  under  the  guidance  of  the  learned  Diodorus,  after- 
wards bishop  of  Tarsus,  and  Carterius^  until  about  the 
year  380.  To  this  period  belong  his  earliest  writings. 
His  health  having  broken  down  under  the  severity  of  his 
ascetic  practices  he  returned  to  Antioch,  where  Meletius, 
now  restored  to  his  see,  ordained  him  deacon,  and  his  suc- 
cessor Flavian  promoted  him  to  the  priesthood,  giving 
him  special  permission  to  preach  in  the  cathedral  church. 
His  reputation  rose  to  the  highest  pitch  when  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  he  preached  a  course  of  sermons  to  encourage 
the  people  of  Antioch  when  they  were  dreading  the  em- 
peror's vengeance  for  a  tumult  in  which  his  statues  had 


1  Sozonien,  viii.  2. 


^  Socrates  vi.  3. 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


219 


been  overthrown.  For  several  years  he  continued  to  use 
his  great  influence  in  Antioch  against  sects  and  heresies 
and  against  the  pagan  frivolity  and  luxury  which  were 
corrupting  the  Christian  Church. 

In  the  year  397  this  career  came  to  an  end.  The 
emperor  Arcadius  chose  him,  very  much  against  his  own 
wish,  to  be  patriarch  of  Constantinople  in  succession  to 
Nectarius,  and  he  received  consecration  as  bishop  from 
Theophilus  of  Alexandria,  who  was  afterwards  to  over- 
throw him.  As  in  his  high  position  he  spared  neither 
heresy  nor  corruption  in  high  places,  and  endeavoured 
strenuously  to  introduce  a  higher  standard  of  life  and  work 
among  the  bishops  and  clergy,  there  were  soon  many 
powerful  persons  who  desired  the  removal  of  this  new 
John  Baptist.  These  made  common  cause  with  the  em- 
press Eudoxia,  who  had  herself  been  greatly  offended  by 
the  freedom  of  John's  preaching  against  licentiousness  of 
life.  Theophilus  of  Alexandria,  who  had  himself  been 
summoned  to  Constantinople  to  answer  before  the  patri- 
arch and  the  council  of  his  diocese  to  grave  charges,  was 
ready  enough  to  prefer  counter-charges  against  John.  A 
synod  summoned  at  The  Oak,  a  suburb  of  Chalcedon,  at 
which  Theophilus,  supported  by  the  empress,  himself 
presided,  deposed  the  good  patriarch  in  his  absence, — 
for  he  steadily  refused  to  acknowledge  its  authority.  The 
emperor  Arcadius,  requested  by  the  synod  and  influenced 
by  his  wife  at  all  costs  to  remove  him  from  his  see,  caused 
him  in  the  dusk  of  a  September  evening  to  be  conducted 
to  the  coast  of  Bithynia.  Thereupon  there  arose  in  the 
city,  where  the  people  generally  had  been  deeply  im- 
pressed by  the  holiness  and  beneficence  of  their  bishop, 
so  fierce  a  tumult  that  the  terrified  emperor  ordered  his 
recall.  With  the  most  enthusiastic  expressions  of  joy  he 
was  escorted  back  to  the  church  from  which  he  had  been 
expelled.  The  hostility  of  the  empress  however  knew  no 
remission,  and  the  good  bishop  who  reproved  her  was 
again  banished,  first  to  Nicsea,  then  to  Cucusus  in  the 
bleak  district  of  the  Taurus  range.  Even  from  this 
remote  spot  his  influence  was  felt,  and  the  emperor 
ordered  his  removal  to  Pityus  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the 
Black  Sea.  He  died  however  under  brutal  treatment,  on 
his  journey  thither. 


220 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


In  this  great  teacher  we  see  the  most  eager  zeal  for 
perfect  smiplicity  and  even  rigour  of  life  united  with  the 
most  tender  love  for  the  souls  of  men.  With  all  his 
championship  of  orthodoxy  in  belief,  with  all  his  devotion 
to  monastic  austerity,  he  still  preached  Christian  love  and 
beneficence  as  the  most  excellent  gifts ;  and  his  practice 
corresponded  to  his  preaching.  But  his  greatest  legacy 
to  the  Church  is  found  in  the  sermons  and  homilies,  in 
which  he  expounded  a  large  part  both  of  the  Old  and 
the  New  Testament.  In  this  exegetic  work,  uniting  as  he 
does  simple  and  natural  explanation  of  the  text  with 
earnest  and  eloquent  application  of  it  to  the  cii'cumstances 
of  his  hearers,  he  is  the  flower  of  the  great  School  of 
Antioch.  Few  nobler  names  are  found  in  the  Church's 
roll  of  saints  than  that  of  John  Chrysostom. 

Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  product  of  the  Antio- 
chene  school  of  Scriptural  interpretation  was  Theodore*,  a 
presbyter  of  Antioch  who  became  bishop  of  Mopsuestia  in 
Cilicia.  He  was  a  steady  opponent  of  the  allegorical 
method  of  interpreting  Scripture,  and  perhaps  carried  the 
historical  and  critical  spirit  to  excess.  He  anticipated,  in 
fact,  several  of  the  conclusions  which  have  become  more 
familiar  to  us  in  the  present  century  I  But  through- 
out the  history  of  the  Israelites  he  sees  God's  prepa- 
ration of  His  people  for  better  things  to  come,  he  finds 
types  of  the  Saviour,  and  he  always  acknowledges  the 
reality  of  prophecy ^  Few  men  were  in  higher  repute 
for  earnest  work  and  sanctity  of  life.  Everywhere  he  was 
regarded  as  the  herald  of  the  truth  and  the  teacher  of  the 
Church ;  even  distant  Churches  received  instruction  from 
him.  "  We  believe  as  Theodore  believed ;  long  live  the 
faith  of  Theodore,"  was  a  cry  often  heard  in  the  Churches 
of  the  East*.     Yet  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  years 


i  P.  F.  Sieffert,  Theod.  Mops. 
Veteris  Test,  sobrie  interpretandi 
Vindex;  0.  F.  Fritzsehe,  De  Theod. 
Mops.  Vita  et  Scriptis ;  H.  Kihn, 
Theod.  V.  Mops,  und  Junilius  Afri- 
canus  als  Exegeten;  H.  B.  Swete 
in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  iv.  934. 

2  The  allegations  against  Theo- 
dore are  found  in  ii.  Cone.  Constant. 
GoUat.    IV.  §  C3  ff.,  in   Ilardouiu 


Cone.  III.  8G  ft'.;  and  in  Leontius 
c.  Nestorium,  in  Galland,  Bibl. 
Patrum  xii.  G86  ff.  He  was  de- 
fended by  Facundus,  De/t'ns.  Trium 
Capit.  (Galland,  us.  xi.  665  ff.) 

*  L.  Diestel,  Gesch.  d.  Alten 
Testaments,  129  ff. 

*  Cyril  Alexand.  Epist.  69 
((| noted  by  Swete,  D.  C.  B.  iv. 
937). 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


221 


after  his  death  the  fifth  General  Council,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Justinian,  condemned  his  works.  It  was  perhaps 
the  stir  which  followed  this  condemnation  which  caused 
some  of  his  works  to  be  translated  into  Latin  and  circulated 
in  the  West,  where  they  had  hitherto  been  almost  un- 
known. 

To  the  Antiochene  School  belongs  also  Theodoret^ 
Born  at  Antioch,  from  his  cradle  devoted  to  a  life  of 
religion,  and  visited  frequently  by  ]:»ious  monks,  it  is  not 
wonderful  that  when  he  became  a  man  he  entered  a 
monastery,  from  which  he  reluctantly  withdrew  on  being 
chosen  bishop  of  Cyrus  or  Cyrrhus  in  the  Euphratensis, 
a  wide-spread  diocese  containing  many  churches,  and 
abounding  in  heresies  of  various  kinds  which  the  good 
bishop  endeavoured  to  combat.  In  his  interpretation  of 
Scripture  he  is  a  disciple  of  Theodore,  but  without  the 
occasional  extravagance  of  his  master.  "  For  appreciation, 
terseness  of  expression,  and  good  sense,  [his  commentaries 
on  St  Paul]  are  perhaps  unsurpassed;... but  they  have 
little  claim  to  originality,  and  he  who  has  read  Chrysostom 
and  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia  will  find  scarcely  anything  in 
Theodoret  which  he  has  not  seen  before... He  professes 
nothing  more  than  to  gather  his  stores  from  the  blessed 
fathers ^"  In  controversy  and  in  history  he  is  as  remark- 
able as  in  exegesis.  He  presents  himself  to  us  in  his 
works  and  in  the  accounts  of  his  contemporaries  as  "a 
great  and  holy  bishop,  an  accomplished  man  of  letters,  an 
acute  and  accurate  scientific  theologian,  a  sound  and 
skilful  controversialist,... a  church  historian  learned  and 
generally  impartial ;  an  eloquent  and  persuasive  preacher, 
almost  rivalling  in  his  celebrity  and  his  power  over  his 
hearers  his  great  fellow-townsman  John  Chrysostom^." 
He  has  "  a  place  of  his  own  in  the  literature  of  the  first 
centuries,  and  a  place  in  which  he  has  no  rival  ^"     We 


^  J.  Gamier,  Dissertationes,  ap- 
pended to  Sirmond's  edition  of 
Theod.  Opera;  lie  N.  Tillemont, 
Mem.  Eccl.  xiv.,  xv. ;  W.  Cave, 
Hist.  Lit.  I.  405  (ed.  Basel);  J.  A. 
Fabricius,  Bibl.  Gr(eca,vu.,  429  ff., 
VIII.  277  ff.  ;  E.  Binder,  Etudes  sur 
Theodoret  (Geneva,  1844) ;  Specht, 


Theod.  V.  Mopsuest.  u.    Theodoret 
(Miinchen,  1871). 

2  J.  B.  Lightfoot,  Ep.   to   Gala- 
tiam,  p.  220  (1st  Ed.). 

*  B.    Venables,   in    Diet.    Chr. 
Biogr.  iv.  905. 

*  J,     H.     Newman,    Historical 
Sketches,  in.  32G. 


Chap.  X. 


TlKodoret, 
borne. 3'JO. 


Bishop  of 
Ci/rrhvs, 
423. 
Died 
c.  457. 


222 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


"  feel  towards  him  as  we  can  hardly  feel  towards  any  of 
his  contemporaries  in  East  or  West^" 

3.  While  in  Western  Syria  the  Greek  language  and 
Greek  culture  prevailed,  in  Eastern  Syria  the  native  tongue 
was  the  language  of  theology,  which  there  took  oriental 
forms  of  thought  and  style.  Here  arose  a  divinity  decked 
with  florid  poetical  imagery,  exhorting  men  to  a  holy 
and  ascetic  life,  and  often  tinged  with  mysticism.  It 
resembled  the  West-Syrian  School  in  favouring  an  exe- 
gesis which  took  account  of  the  exact  and  literal  sense  of 
the  words  of  Scripture,  though  in  dogmatic  prepossessions 
it  came  nearer  to  the  later  Alexandrian  school.  The 
principal  seats  of  this  school  were  Nisibis  and  Edessa. 

James,  bishop  of  Nisibis^  though  a  Syrian  and  living 
on  the  confines  of  the  Empire,  took  an  eager  interest  in  the 
dogmatic  controversies  of  his  time,  defending  the  orthodox 
cause  in  many  writings.  His  works  have  perished,  but  his 
influence  lived  in  his  pupil  Ephraem^  also  a  Syrian.  This 
distinguished  "prophet  of  the  Syrians"  was  born  probably 
at  Nisibis,  but  when  Nisibis  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Persians  removed  to  Edessa,  near  which  city  he  lived  an 
ascetic  life  and  was  greatly  venerated  by  his  countrymen. 
It  was  mainly  Ephraem's  influence  which  gave  to  the 
theological  literature  of  the  Syrians  its  peculiar  form,  in 
which  the  dogma  of  the  Church  is  presented  rather  in  the 
figurative  style  which  is  dear  to  the  East  than  in  the 
dialectics  of  the  West.  This  is  true  especially  of  his  homi- 
lies and  treatises,  which  are  written  in  a  poetical  form 
attractive  to  those  whom  he  addressed.  This  gives  his 
compositions  a  certain  elevation  of  style,  and  occasionally 
raises  them  to  the  rank  of  true  lyric  poetry.  He  also 
commented  on  the  Old  Testament,  and  on  the  Diatessaron 
of  Tatian.  All  his  works  seem  to  have  been  written  in 
Syriac,  though  they  were  soon  translated  into  Greek. 


^  W.  Bright,  Later  Treatises  of 
Athanasius,  p.  149  (quoted  by 
Veiiables,  U.S.). 

-  Theodoret,  Hist.  Relig.  c.  1; 
II.  E.  II.  30.— W.  Cave,  Ilis^t.  Lit. 
I.  189;  E.  Venables  in  Lict.  Chr. 
Biogr.  III.  325. 

■'  C.  V.  Lcngerke,  Be  Ephraemo 
Syro  Sacrce   Scripturce   Interprets, 


and  De  Ephraemi  arte  hermeneu- 
tica;  3.  Alsleben,  Lebeii  d.  Ileil. 
Ephracm;  R.  Payne  Smith  in  Diet. 
Chr. Biogr.  ii.  137  ff.  Select  Hymns 
and  Homilies  of  Ephraem,  and  also 
some  of  his  expositions,  were  trans- 
lated into  English  by  the  Eev.  H. 
Buigess. 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


223 


Beyond  the  bounds  of  the  Roman  Empire,  in  the  king- 
dom of  Persia,  seems  to  have  existed  in  the  fourth  century 
a  Christianity  almost  untouched  by  the  dogmatic  storms 
which  agitated  the  Greek  Church,  of  which  the  most 
remarkable  representative  is  the  Persian  sage  Aphrahat 
(Aphraates^),  who  was  bishop  of  Mar  Mattai  near  Mosul. 
His  homilies  or  tracts  shew  that  he  was  influenced  by 
Jewish  methods  of  exposition,  though  he  blames  the  Jews 
for  their  legalism,  their  national  exclusiveness,  and  theii- 
refusal  to  acknowledge  Jesus  as  the  Messiah.  He  appears 
to  have  made  use  of  Tatian's  Diatessaron,  and  to  have  been 
to  some  extent  influenced  by  his  views.  In  his  confession 
of  faith  ^  he  seems  to  have  derived  nothing  from  the  current 
formularies  of  his  time,  but  to  have  drawn  his  views  of  our 
Lord's  Divinity  direct  from  Scripture  itself 

A  conspicuous  leader  of  the  West-Syrian  party  was 
Ibas',  bishop  of  Edessa,  where  he  had  previously  taught 
theology,  and  where  he  had  great  influence.  He  was  an 
ardent  admirer  of  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia,  whose  works  he 
translated  into  Syriac  and  constantly  recommended.  As 
was  natural,  he  did  not  escape  the  suspicion  of  heresy 
which  fell  upon  Theodore,  and  his  postumous  fame  is  in 
fact  due  quite  as  much  to  the  controversy  which  arose 
about  him  as  to  his  own  merits,  for  there  is  nothing  to 
indicate  that  he  was  a  man  of  original  genius. 

Procopius  of  Gaza*  heads  the  long  series  of  those 
useful  commentators  who  are  simply  compilers,  putting 
together  the  thoughts  of  those  who  have  gone  before  them 
without  venturing  on  originality.  He  wrote  in  a  neat  and 
concise  style  commentaries  on  most  of  the  books  of  the 
Old  Testament. 


1  W.  Wright,  The  Homilies  of 
Aphruates  (London,  186'J),  and 
Cutal.  of  Syr.  MSS.  in  Brit.  Mus. 
II.  401 ;  Sasse,  Proleg.  in  Aphr. 
Serm.  (Lpz.,  1879);  J.  Forget,  De 
Vita  et  Scriptis  Aphr.  (Louvain, 
1882);  G.  Bert,  Vbersetzung  etc.  in 
Gebbardt  u.  Harnack's  Texte  u. 
Vntersuchungen  in.  3  and  4  ;  W. 
Moller,  Kirchengeschichte  i.  417- 

2  Horn.  I.  15. 

3  Many  particulars  of  Ibas's 
Life    are    found    in   the   Defensio 


Tritim  Capit.  by  Facundus  of  Her- 
ruiane.  Ibas's  famous  letter  to 
Maris  is  quoted  in  the  Acta  of  the 
Second  Council  of  Constantinople. 
Collat.  6  (Hardouin  in.  140).— W. 
Cave,  Hist.  Lit.  i.  426  ;  Assemani, 
Biblioth.  Orient,  i.  199  ff.  and  in. 
Ixx.  ff.  ;  E.  Venables  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Biogr.  in.  192. 

*  Photius,  Codices  160,  206;  W. 
Cave,  Hist.  Lit.  i.  504 ;  L.  Diestel, 
Gesch.  d.  Alten  Test.  125. 


Chap.  X. 

Aphraates. 

Fourth 

Century. 


Ihas, 
bishop  of 
Edessa, 
c.  436— 
457  (?). 


Procopius 
of  Gaza, 
fl.  c.  520. 


224 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


Chap.  X. 

Junilius 
Africamts. 


c.  551. 


Primasius. 


Alex- 
andrian 
School^. 


Nciv 
School. 


Eiisebiiis 

Pamphili, 

bornc.270. 


A  notable  off-shoot  of  the  Syrian  School  was  Junilius\ 
an  African,  who  held  high  office  in  the  imperial  palace  at 
Constantinople.  He,  at  the  urgent  request  of  Primasius 
of  Adrumetum,  who  visited  Constantinople  in  consequence 
of  some  of  the  disputes  of  the  sixth  century,  wrote  a  book 
which,  under  the  title  of  "Instituta  regularia  Divinge 
Legis,"  is  in  fact  an  "  Introduction "  to  Holy  Scripture, 
founded  on  one  by  Paul,  a  Persian  trained  at  Nisibis.  We 
have  in  this  work  a  reflexion  of  the  views  of  Theodore  of 
Mopsuestia  as  to  the  relative  value  of  the  books  of  Holy 
Scripture.  Primasius'"'  himself  also  published  comments 
on  St  Paul's  Epistles  and  on  the  Apocalypse,  drawn  from 
the  works  of  earlier  expositors. 

4.  The  old  characteristics  of  Alexandria,  the  Alexan- 
dria of  Clement  and  Origen,  were  the  eager  pursuit  of 
learning,  the  application  of  pagan  culture  and  philosophy 
to  the  discussion  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  the  allegorical 
interpretation  of  Scripture.  And  these  characteristics 
were  still  found  in  many  of  the  prominent  Alexandrians 
of  a  subsequent  period.  This  school  of  thought  however 
gradually  died  out  in  the  course  of  the  fourth  century,  and 
was  succeeded  by  a  race  of  theologians  who  attached  very 
much  more  importance  to  tradition  and  the  authority  of 
the  Church.  These  were  opposed  to  their  brethren  at 
Antioch  in  that  they  tended  to  dwell  on  the  divine  rather 
than  the  human  nature  of  the  Incarnate  Word^  Eusebius 
of  Caesarea  may  be  said  to  represent  the  older  school,  Atha- 
nasius  the  transition,  while  Cyril  is  the  most  conspicuous 
example  of  the  new. 

In  the  fourth  century  the  man  who,  though  not  an 
Alexandrian  by  birth,  best  represents  the  learning,  the 
breadth,  the  general  culture  of  the  Alexandrian  School,  is 
certainly  Eusebius®  of  Cossarea.     At  Csesarea  in  Palestine 


1  H.  Kihn,  Theodor  v.  Mops, 
tintl  Junilius;  G.  Salmon,  in  Diet. 
Clir.  Biogr.  in.  534. 

2  W.  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.  i.  525; 
H.  Kihn,  Theodor,  p.  248  ff. 

3  See  p.  70,  u.  1,  and  add  E, 
Vacherot,  Histoire  Crit.  de  VEcole 
d'Ale.xaiidrie,  and  C.  Kingsley, 
Alexandria  and  her  Schools. 

*  "It  is  only  as  the  apologist  of 


Catholic  Christianity  that  Gregory 
of  Nyssa  feels  himself  fully  com- 
mitted to  the  historical  personality 
of  Christ.  Where  he  plays  the 
philosopher  and  steps  out  freely  he 
lias  little  or  nothing  to  say  of  the 
historical  Christ."  A.  Harnack, 
Dogmengcschiehte,  ii.  167. 

^  Scattered   notices   of  him  are 
found  in  the  works  of  Athanasius, 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


226 


he  passed  his  youth  ;  there  he  listened  to  the  expositions 
of  Dorotheus^ ;  there  he  revelled  with  the  delight  of  a  book- 
worm in  the  splendid  library  of  the  rich  presbyter  Para- 
philusl  So  conscious  was  he  of  his  obligations  to  this 
munificent  friend  that  he  chose  to  be  distinguished  as 
"Pamphilus's  Eusebius;"  what  he  was,  Pamphilus  had 
made  him.  He  saw  in  the  persecution  under  Diocletian 
the  churches  levelled  with  the  ground,  the  Holy  Books 
committed  to  the  flames,  the  clergy  hunted  hither  and 
thither  amid  the  jeers  and  insults  of  the  mob^  Pam- 
philus himself  died  a  martyr's  death.  Eusebius  in  later 
times  was  accused  of  having  escaped  death  by  sacrificing*. 
There  seems  however  to  be  no  evidence  of  this,  and  in 
the  fierce  disputes  of  the  fourth  century  any  testimony 
which  existed  would  certainly  have  been  produced.  It 
was  probably  not  long  after  the  restoration  of  peace  to  the 
Church  that  Eusebius  was  chosen  bishop  of  Csesarea,  and 
in  that  office — though  an  effort  was  made  to  translate  him 
to  a  more  important  see — he  died. 

At  the  Council  of  Nicsea  he  played  a  prominent  part. 
His  learning  and  ability  no  doubt  entitled  him  to  distinc- 
tion, but  the  position  which  he  held  was  probably  due 
rather  to  his  intimacy  with  the  emperor  than  to  his  own 
excellent  qualities.  "He  was  the  clerk  of  the  imperial 
closet ;  he  was  the  interpreter,  the  chaplain,  the  confessor 
of  Constantine^."  Nor  do  these  cordial  relations  with  his 
imperial  friend  appear  to  have  suffered  any  interruption. 
He  had  in  fact  that  union  of  pliancy  and  ability  which 
fitted  him  to  become  the  confidant  of  a  great  man  who  on 
some  points  needed  informing  and  guiding. 

Eusebius's  relations  with  the  emperor  and  the  Church 


Jerome,  Socrates,  Sozomen,  and 
Theodoret;  but  his  own  writings 
are  the  principal  sources  of  in- 
formation as  to  his  life.  Cave, 
Tillemont  and  Fabricius  give  much 
information  about  him  and  his 
writings.  See  also  Valesius  Be 
Vita  Scriptisqvf  Eusebii  prefixed 
to  his  edition  of  the  Hist.  Eccl.; 
Stroth,  Lebeii  v.  Schriften  d.  Exis., 
prefixed  to  his  translation  of  the 
Ch.  Hist.;  H.  Stein,  Eusebius  v. 
Cdsarea;  W.  Bright,  Life  prefixed 

C. 


to  Oxford  reprint  of  Hist.  Eccl. 
(1872);  J.  B.  Lightfoot  in  Diet. 
Chr.  Biogr.  ii.  308  ff. 

1  See  p.  67. 

2  See  p.  75. 

3  Hist.  Eccl.  viri.  2  ff. 

■•  By  Potammon  at  the  Council 
of  Tyre  (335) ;  see  Epiphanius, 
Haeres.  68,  c.  8 ;  and  Lightfoot  in 
D.  C.  B.  311. 

5  A.  P.  ^t&nlej,  Eastern  Church, 
p.  102  (3rd  Ed.). 

15 


Chap.  X. 


d.  before 
341. 


226 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


Chap.  X. 


must  have  brought  upon  him  very  onerous  and  anxious 
duties,  yet  he  found  time  for  much  study  and  incessant 
literary  productiveness.  He  wrote  history;  he  defended 
Christianity  against  Jews  and  Gentiles;  he  discussed 
dogma;  he  interpreted  Scripture;  he  delivered  orations; 
and  he  had  a  large  correspondence.  In  fact,  he  must  have 
been  one  of  the  most  unwearied  workers  that  the  world 
has  seen.  He  is  best  known  by  his  ecclesiastical  history, 
which  shews  an  extraordinary  amount  of  reading,  and  the 
general  sincerity  and  good  faith  of  which  can  scarcely  be 
doubted  \  In  spite  of  defects  which  are  patent  to  a  later 
time,  he  had  probably  in  his  own  age  no  superior  in  the 
critical  faculty  any  more  than  in  multifarious  learning  and 
in  knowledge  of  mankind.  No  ancient  writer  is  so  abso- 
lutely indispensable  to  the  student.  "  In  the  Ecclesiastical 
History,  in  the  Chronicle,  and  in  the  Preparation,  he  has 
preserved  for  us  a  vast  amount  of  early  literature  in  three 
several  spheres,  which  would  otherwise  have  been  irre- 
trievably lost,"  He  had  the  instinct  of  genius  for  choosing 
themes  which  are  of  permanent  and  not  merely  temporary 
interest.  Standing  as  he  did  between  the  old  world  of 
paganism  and  the  new  world  of  Christianity,  "  he  saw  the 
greatness  of  the  crisis ;  he  seized  the  opportunity  ;  he,  and 
he  only,  preserved  the  past  in  all  its  phases,  in  history,  in 
doctrine,  in  criticism,  even  in  topography,  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  future.     This  is  his  real  title  to  greatness-." 

Writing  while  paganism  was  still  a  living  force,  he 
gave  much  of  his  thought  and  toil  to  the  vindication  of 
Christianity^  Not  only  in  his  directly  apologetic  works, 
but  everywhere,  his  mind  turns  to  the  defence  of  the 
Faith.  A  true  Alexandrian,  "he  sought  out  the  elements 
of  truth  in  pre-existing  philosophical  systems  or  popular 
religions ;  and,  thus  obtaining  a  foothold,  he  worked 
onward  in  his  assault  on  paganism. . .  .It  was  the  only  method 
which  could  achieve  success^" 

His  works  were  after  his  death  fiercely  attacked  and 
defended.  But  probably  the  words  of  Pope  Pelagius  11.^ 
— "  Holy  Church  weigheth  the  hearts  of  her  faithful  ones 


1  Lightfoot  in  D.  G.  B.  324. 

2  Ibid.  345. 

'  His  success  in  this  is  noted  by 
Evagrius,  if.£.  i.  1. 


*  Lightfoot  in  D.  C.  B.  346. 
^  Epist.  5,  quoted  by  Lightfoot, 
D.C.i?.  848. 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


227 


with  kindliness  rather  than  their  words  with  rigour" 
— express  the  general  sentiment  of  the  learned  in  the 
Church  towards  one  of  the  ablest  of  her  sons.  At  an  early 
date  he  was  numbered  among  the  saints,  and  May  30 
assigned  to  his  commemoration  ^ 

But  the  most  impressive  figure  among  the  Alexan- 
drians is  no  doubt  Athanasiusl  This  great  man  was  born 
iu  Alexandria  of  Christian  parents  towards  the  end  of  the 
third  century.  Even  as  a  child  sportively  imitating  the 
ceremonies  of  the  Church  he  attracted  the  notice  of  the 
bishop  of  that  city,  Alexander,  who  received  him  into  his 
own  house  and  caused  him  to  receive  the  best  education 
of  his  time  ^  His  theological  studies  led  him  to  ponder 
especially  on  the  great  mystery  of  the  relation  of  the 
Father  to  the  Son  and  to  mankind.  Drawn  afterwards 
by  the  spirit  of  asceticism  into  the  wilderness,  he  passed 
some  time  in  retirement  with  the  famous  hermit  St  An- 
thony*, and  never  ceased  to  admire  and  recommend  the 
ascetic  life.  On  his  return  to  his  native  city  bishop 
Alexander  ordained  him  deacon  and  adopted  him  as  a 
confidential  adviser  and  secretary.  In  his  earliest  writings 
he  entered  the  lists  as  the  champion  of  Christianity 
against  the  assaults  of  educated  paganism,  but  the  publi- 
cation in  320  of  the  specious  errors  of  Arius  made  the 
contest  against  Arianism  in  defence  of  the  true  deity  of 
the  Son  the  work  of  his  life.  In  this  no  pressure  of  theo- 
logians of  a  broader  school,  no  frowns  of  high-placed 
tyranny,  no  suffering  or  banishment,  could  bend  his  in- 
trepid spirit.  In  328  he  was  chosen,  on  the  death  of  his 
friend  Alexander,  to  be  bishop  of  Alexandria,  and  in  that 
see,  after  attempts  at  deposition  by  the  Imperial  powxr 


^  In  an  ancient  Syrian  Martyr- 
ology  translated  from  the  Greek, 
which  can  hardly  be  dated  more 
than  fifty  years  after  his  death. 
See  Lightfoot,  u.s. ,  where  may  also 
be  seen  the  curious  story  of  his 
canonisation  in  the  West. 

-  The  principal  authority  for 
the  life  of  Athanasius  is  found  in 
his  own  writings.  Those  treatises 
which  contain  the  chief  biographi- 
cal information  have  been  collected 
and  edited  by  W.  Bright  (Oxford, 


1881).  There  are  modern  Lives  by 
B.  de  Montfaucon,  in  the  Bene- 
dictine Edition  of  his  works;  J.  A. 
Mohler,  Athanasius  der  Crrosse; 
W.  Bright  in  Diet.  Ghr.  Biogr.  i. 
179  ff.;  F.  W.  Farrar  in  Lives  of 
the  Fathers,  i.  445  if.;  E.  Wheler 
Bush,  St  Athanasius  (S.P.C.K.); 
E.  Fialon,  St  Athanase. 

8  Sozomen  ii.  17 ;  Theodoret 
H.  E.  I.  26. 

*  See  the  Preface  to  his  Life  of 
St  Anthony. 

15—2 


Chap.  X. 


Athana- 
sius, horn 
c.  296. 


Deacon, 
319. 


Bishop, 
328. 


228 


Theology  and  Theologiam 


Chap.  X. 


Died,  May 
2,  373. 


Works. 


Cliaracter. 


and  repeated  banishment,  he  died.  No  calumny  was  able 
to  shake  the  affection  which  his  flock  bore  him.  Whenever 
he  was  able  to  return,  the  city  rejoiced.  When  he  died 
Arianism  was,  mainly  in  consequence  of  his  efforts,  draw- 
ing near  extinction.  He  had  sometimes  stood  almost  alone 
against  the  world,  but  in  the  end  he  triumphed. 

In  spite  of  his  wandering  and  persecuted  life  he  left 
behind  numerous  works  of  the  highest  value.  He  intro- 
duced into  the  defence  of  Christianity  against  unbelievers 
a  more  systematic  method  than  that  of  the  earlier  apolo- 
gists, shewing  from  the  principles  of  reason  which  all 
acknowledged  both  the  truth  of  the  revelation  of  GoD  in 
the  Word  and  the  absurdity  of  the  pagan  objections  to  it. 
He  treated  in  dogmatic  and  controversial  treatises  of  the 
great  doctrines  of  the  Incarnation  and  the  Holy  Trinity; 
he  made  valuable  contributions  to  the  history  of  his  own 
time ;  he  interpreted  Scripture ;  he  exhorted  men  to  holi- 
ness of  life.  And  in  all  his  writings  he  appears  as  a  true 
Alexandrian,  a  disciple  of  Clement  and  Origen.  It  is  the 
constant  presence  of  the  creative  Word  in  the  world  that 
He  has  made  which  gives  it  its  law  and  its  harmony; 
and  where  the  Word  is,  there  is  also  the  Father\  We 
are  not  to  regard  the  universe  as  something  apart  and 
aloof  from  God,  but  as  maintained  by  a  constant  exertion 
of  the  divine  power.  God  never  leaves  man,  His  last 
great  work,  even  when  fallen  from  his  first  estate ;  man 
too  is  renewed  by  the  Word^. 

Few  men  have  combined  in  the  same  degree  as  Atha- 
nasius  the  active  and  the  contemplative  faculties.  Capa- 
ble as  he  was  of  regarding  fixedly  the  highest  mysteries 
of  the  Godhead,  he  shewed  gi-eat  skill  and  dexterity  in  the 
practical  conduct  of  affairs.  He  knew  how  to  avoid  snares 
and  to  seize  opportunities.  If  the  perversity  of  those  who 
attempted  by  sophistry  to  draw  aside  the  faithful  from 
the  right  way  sometimes  provoked  him  to  vehemence  of 
expression,  with  fair  and  reasonable  ojiponents  he  was 
calm  and  charitable.  Of  all  the  Greek  Fathers  he  is  the 
least  diffuse,  the  most  simple,  and  consequently  the  most 
forcible.     He  writes  as  one  too  much  in  earnest  to  be 


»  Contra  Gentea,  §§  40—45.    See 
Dorner,  Person  Christi,  p.  833  £f. 


De   Incarnatione,  §§  1 — 7,  11 


-16. 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


229 


anxious  about  expression.  It  was  not  without  reason  that 
his  contemporaries  regarded  him  as  the  model  bishop,  the 
standard  of  orthodoxy,  the  trumpet  that  gave  no  uncer- 
tain sound'.     And  this  reputation  lives  even  to  this  day. 

The  man  who  perhaps  best  maintained  in  Alexandria 
itself  the  method  of  Origen  was  Didymus"^,  who,  though 
blind  from  his  childhood,  made  himself  acquainted  with 
all  the  science  accessible  to  him,  and  acquired  a  wonderful 
knowledge  of  Holy  Scripture.  Appointed  by  Athanasius 
to  take  charge  of  the  catechetical  school,  he  was  the  last 
teacher  who  maintained  something  of  its  ancient  fame, 
and  taught  such  men  as  Jerome  and  Rufinus.  After  his 
death  about  895  it  sank  into  obscurity.  Of  his  numerous 
exegetical  works,  once  in  high  repute,  only  a  small  por- 
tion remains,  but  some  of  his  other  works  are  preserved, 
either  in  the  original  or  in  a  Latin  version.  The  earnest 
worker,  seeking  knowledge  without  the  aid  of  sight  and 
clinging  to  the  best  traditions  of  his  school  even  when 
they  had  fallen  under  suspicion,  is  a  venerable  and  pathe- 
tic figure. 

The  two  writers  who  bear  the  name  of  Apollinaris  or 
Apolinarius  are  so  intimately  connected  that,  in  their 
purely  literary  labours,  it  is  hardly  possible  to  separate 
them.  The  elder  was  born  at  Alexandria,  but  is  found, 
about  the  year  335  at  Laodicea,  where  he  was  a  presbyter. 
Here  he  married  and  had  a  son  of  the  same  name,  after- 
wards bishop  of  Laodicea.  Both  father  and  son  were  on 
intimate  terms  with  the  heathen  rhetoricians  Libanius 
and  Epiphanius  of  Petra,  whose  lectures  they  attended, 
and  from  whom  they  no  doubt  derived  some  culture. 
When  Julian  interdicted  the  reading  of  pagan  authors  in 
Christian  schools,  an  attempt  was  made  to  produce  a 
Christian  literature  which  might  take  their  place.  The 
father  and  son,  working  together,  turned  the  early 
portion  of  the  biblical  history  into  a  Homeric  poem  in 
twenty-four  books,  and  produced  lyrics,  tragedies,  and 
comedies,  after  the  manner  of  Pindar,  Euripides  and  Me- 
nander:  even  the  writings  of  the  New  Testament  were 


1  Gregor.  Nazianz.  Oratio  21,  c. 
37;  25,  c.  11;  Basil,  Epist.  80. 

*  Jerome,  De  Viris  Illust.  109 ; 
Epist.  84 ;  Apol.  adv.  Lib,  Bufmi,  i. 


6;  11.  16;  iii.  27;  Socrates,  iv.  25; 
Sozomen,  iii.  15;  Theodoret,  H.  E. 
IV.  29. 


Chap.  X. 


Didymus, 
borne. 310. 


c.  340. 


Died, 
c.  395. 


Apolli- 
naris the 
elder,  at 
Laodicea, 
c.  335, 


the 

younger, 
died  390. 


Their 

works. 


230 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


Chap.  X. 


Epipha- 
nms,  born 
c.  315. 


Bishop  of 

Salaviis, 

367. 


Died,  403. 


brought  into  the  form  of  Platonic  dialogues,  the  Psalms 
turned  into  Greek  hexameters,  by  this  unwearied  pair.  It 
cannot,  however,  be  said  that  those  productions  of  this 
kind  which  remain  to  us  shew  any  poetical  genius,  or  were 
ever  likely  to  supersede  the  writers  whom  they  imitated 
or  plagiarized.  They  were  only  produced  to  supply  a 
special  want,  and  when  the  occasion  for  them  passed  away 
they  ceased  to  be  read.  It  was  the  younger  Apollinaris 
who  in  the  latter  part  of  the  fourth  century  propounded 
the  peculiar  opinions  by  which  his  name  came  to  be  too 
well  known. 

One  of  the  most  learned  men  of  the  fourth  century 
was  Epiphanius\  who,  born  of  Hebrew  parents  in  Pales- 
tine about  the  year  315,  early  devoted  himself  to  the 
ascetic  life,  and  founded,  while  still  a  young  man,  a  mo- 
nastery near  Eleutheropolis  in  his  native  country.  In 
middle  life  he  was  called  to  the  episcopal  see  of  Salamis 
— the  modern  Constantia — in  Cyprus,  and  was  conspicuous 
from  that  time  forth  as  an  ardent  promoter  of  monasticism 
and  a  leading  opponent  of  the  more  philosophical  treat- 
ment of  the  Christian  faith  which  originated,  he  believed, 
with  Origen.  It  is  therefore  not  surprising  that  he 
plunged  eagerly  into  the  Origenistic  controversy,  in  which 
he  displayed  perhaps  more  learning  than  judgment.  He 
died  in  the  year  403,  leaving  behind  him  several  writings, 
of  which  by  far  the  most  important  is  the  Paiiarion,  a 
Treatise  against  the  Heresies,  which  is  of  the  highest 
value  to  the  historian  of  the  Church.  The  writer  is  indeed 
credulous  and  uncritical,  but  he  has  preserved  many  frag- 
ments of  lost  works,  and  many  traditions  which  would 
otherwise  have  perished.  His  hot  temper  frequently  led 
him  astray,  but  he  was  all  his  life  a  faithful  defender  of 
the  orthodox  belief.  His  own  age  regarded  him  as  a 
saint. 

Next  to  Athanasius  in  importance  among  Greek  theo- 


1  The  principal  sources  for  the 
life  of  Epiphanius  are — beside  his 
own  works — Socrates,  H.E.  vi.  10, 
12—14;  Sozomen,  //.  E.  vi.  32, 
VII.  27,  vin.  14,  15;  Jerome,  De 
Viris  Illiist.  114;  Epist.  38  [Gl] 
Ad  Pammach. ;  39  [02]  Ad  Theo- 
phil.;  Apol.  adv.  Rujlnum,  lib.  ii.; 


Palladius,  Dial,  de  Vita  Chrysost. 
Modern  works  relating  to  him  are 
Gervais,  L'Histoire  et  la  Vie  de 
St  Epiphane  ;  Fabricius,  Bibl, 
Graeca,  viii.  261  ff.  (ed.  Harless); 
R.  A.  Lipsius  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr. 
II.  149  ff. ,  and  Zur  Quellenhritik 
des  Epiphanios, 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


231 


logians  are  no  doubt  the  great  Cappadocians,  Basil  with 
his  friend  Gregory  of  Nazianzus  and  his  brother  Gregory 
of  Nyssa. 

Basil ^  was  born  about  the  year  330  at  Caesarea  in 
Cappadocia.  His  father,  of  the  same  name,  was  a  Christian, 
a  man  of  considerable  wealth  and  a  much-respected  citizen. 
His  mother  Emmelia  was  the  daughter  of  a  martyr,  so 
that  the  future  bishop  was  brought  up  in  a  family  where 
the  memory  of  the  early  struggles  of  the  Church  was  still 
lively,  and  where  his  youthful  imagination  would  be 
stimulated  by  hearing  of  the  constancy  of  those  who  gave 
their  lives  for  the  faith.  The  results  shew  how  deep  an 
impression  was  made  upon  the  children,  Basil  was  edu- 
cated first  in  Ccesarea,  then  in  Constantinople, — perhaps 
under  Libanius — and  finally  in  Athens,  where  the  literary 
culture  was  as  yet  but  slightly  tinged  with  Christianity, 
under  the  famous  sophist  Himerius  and  others ^  Here  a 
common  devotion  to  the  studies  of  the  place  and  to  the 
faith  of  Christ  drew  him  into  still  closer  friendship  with 
Gregory,  afterwards  known  as  Nazianzen,  whom  he  already 
knew  as  a  fellow-countryman.  Here  the  two  young  men 
saw  the  future  emperor  Julian,  already  perhaps  pondering 
on  the  restoration  of  the  paganism  which  he  loved.  On 
Basil's  return  home  he  was  seized  with  a  passion  for  the 
monastic  life  to  which  he  was  to  give  so  powerful  an 
impulse,  and  declined  the  opportunities  for  worldly  ad- 
vancement which  his  position,  his  ability,  and  his  educa- 
tion offered  him.  After  a  period  of  retirement  he  began 
the  work  of  the  ministry  as  reader  in  the  church  of  his 
native  Cassarea.  Hitherto  he  had  taken  no  part  in  the 
dogmatic  contests  which  were  waged  around  him  ;  now  he 
came  in  contact  with  the  Homoiousian  party,  but  soon 
threw  in  his  lot  with  those  who  maintained  the  formula 
of  Nicsea,  and  became  one  of  their  chief  leaders  in  the 
later  conflicts  which  led  to  the  Council  of  Constantinople 


^  Jerome,  De  Viris  Illustr.  c.  116; 
Theodoret,  H.  E.  rv.  19;  Philo- 
storgius,  H.  E.  viii.  11  ff. ;  Vita  by 
Garnier  in  the  Bened.  Ed.  ol  Opera 
Greg.;  F.  Bohringer,  Die  Kirche 
Christi  m.  ihre  Zeugen,  Band  3  ; 
E.  Fialon,  Etude  sur  St  Basile  etc.; 
A.  F.  Villemain,  Eloquence  Chrit. 


104  £f. ;  E.  Venables  in  Bict.  Chr. 
Biogr.  i.  282  ff.;  F.  W.  Farrar, 
Lives  of  the  Fathers,  ii.  1  ff. ;  K. 
Travers  Smith,  Basil  the  Great 
(S.P.C.K.). 

2  Greg.  Nazianz.  Oratio4:3,  c.  14; 
Socrates,  iv.  26;  Sozomen,  vi.  17. 


Chap.  X, 

The  Three 
Cappado- 
cians. 
Basil,  born 
c.  330, 


c.  357. 


232 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


Chap.  X. 

Bishop, 
c.  370. 
Died  379. 


Gregory 

Nazianzen, 

6or7ic.325. 


c.  361. 


and  the  extinction  of  Arianism.  In  the  year  370  he  was 
chosen  bishop  of  Cajsarea,  where  nine  years  later  he  died, 
having  done  a  great  work  in  a  life  which  did  not  pass  its 
fiftieth  year. 

His  theology  was  mainly  founded  on  the  study  of 
Origen,  from  whose  works  he  made,  with  the  help  of  his 
friend  Gregory,  a  series  of  characteristic  extracts,  still 
preserved,  under  the  title  of  Philocalia.  The  influence  of 
Origen  is  manifest  in  Basil's  famous  work  on  the  Six  Days 
of  Creation — the  Hexaemeron — although  the  tendency  to 
allegory  appears  here  in  a  less  extravagant  form  than  in 
Origen.  But  however  Basil  may  have  leaned  towards  the 
theology  and  exegesis  of  Origen,  he  was  in  all  the  essen- 
tial points  of  Christian  doctrine  truly  Athanasian.  No 
one  saw  more  clearly  the  real  nature  of  the  points  in 
dispute  between  the  Arians  and  their  opponents,  as 
appears  from  his  books  against  Eunomius  and  on  the 
Holy  Spirit.  His  letters  too,  which  have  a  pleasant 
classical  tinge,  are  of  the  highest  interest.  St  Basil  was, 
as  we  shall  presently  see,  an  ardent  promoter  of  monas- 
ticism,  but  he  had  none  of  the  littleness  which  sometimes 
clings  to  an  ascetic.  No  one  among  the  Fathers  gives  a 
stronger  impression  of  largeness  and  fairness  of  mind,  so 
that  he  might  seem  to  have  been  divinely  sent  to  heal 
the  wounds  of  an  age  of  controversy.  His  blameless  life, 
his  beneficence,  his  weight  of  character,  his  learning  and 
clearness  of  thought  all  contributed  to  this  end.  It  was 
not  without  reason  that  after  ages  called  him  "the  Great." 

With  Basil  is  naturally  coupled  his  life-long  friend 
Gregory  Nazianzen*,  whose  father — also  named  Gregory — 
after  belonging  in  early  life  to  the  theistic  sect  called 
Hypsistarii,  had  been  brought  into  the  Church  by  the 
influence  of  his  devout  wife  Nonna,  and  in  the  end  became 
bishop  of  Nazianzus.  The  son,  after  his  years  of  study  in 
Athens,  for  a  while  shared  Basil's  monastic  retirement. 
When  he  returned  to  the  world  he  was  ordained — not 
without  reluctance — to  the  priesthood  by  his  father*,  and 


^  Life  by  Clemencet  prefixed  to 
the  Benedictine  Edition  of  his 
Works ;  C.  Ullmann,  Gregorius 
von  Nazianz.  (tr.  by  Cox);  Benoit, 
St  Gregoire  de  Nazianze;  H.   W. 


Watkins  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  ii. 
741  ff. ;  F.  W.  Farrar,  Lives  of  the 
Fathers,  i.  659  S. 

^  Carmen  xi.  de  Vita  sxia,  340  ff. 
See  also  Oratio  2,  De  Fuga  sua. 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


233 


a  few  years  later  was  sent  by  Basil  as  bishop  to  a  little 
town  called  Sasima.  Here  he  found  himself  out  of  place*, 
and  was  glad  to  escape  from  it  and  become  coadjutor  to 
his  aged  father  at  Nazianzus.  On  his  death  he  declined  to 
become  his  successor  and  went  into  retirement,  until,  after 
the  death  of  the  emperor  Valens,  tlie  orthodox  community 
which  still  maintained  itself  in  Constantinople  chose  him 
for  their  bishop.  There  he  employed  his  active  mind  and 
well-trained  eloquence  in  defending  the  doctrines  of  the 
Nicene  Fathers,  and  gained  the  name  of  Theologus,  the 
assertor  of  the  divinity  of  the  Logos.  He  was  listened  to 
by  crowds,  on  whom  he  did  not  fail  to  impress  the  need  of 
love  to  God  and  a  holy  life  as  well  as  of  a  right  belief, 
Theodosius  transferred  him  and  his  followers  to  the  prin- 
cipal church  in  Constantinople,  from  which  the  Arian 
bishop  was  expelled,  and  at  the  synod  of  Constantinople 
in  the  year  381  he  was  formally  chosen  as  bishop  of  that 
city.  This  election  was  however  by  many  regarded  as 
invalid,  and  it  was  not  long  before  Gregory,  weary  of  the 
strife  of  tongues  and  longing  for  rest,  resigned  his  see  ^  and 
passed  the  remainder  of  his  life  in  quiet  in  his  native  city 
or  in  the  neighbouring  Arianzus.  He  died  about  the  year 
389. 

There  may  be  seen  in  Gregory's  varied  and  troubled 
life  a  struggle  between  the  shrinking  of  a  cultivated  and 
sensitive  man  from  the  rudeness  of  ecclesiastical  conflict, 
and  the  sense  of  duty,  quickened  perhaps  by  the  conscious- 
ness of  power,  which  impelled  him  to  engage  in  it.  If  the 
time  had  permitted  it  he  would  perhaps  have  led  his  life 
"  in  cot  or  learned  shade,"  but  he  lived  in  an  age  when  no 
good  man  could  be  a  mere  spectator,  and,  with  whatever 
shrinking,  he  came  forward  to  defend  the  truth.  He  left 
behind  him  discourses,  letters  and  poems.  It  is  evident 
that  he,  like  Basil,  had  a  real  love  for  the  old  classic  litera- 
ture ;  yet  he  thought  that  the  true  philosophy  was  to  be 
found  in  monastic  retreat  from  the  world*.  He  assailed 
Julian  in  two  orations  which  he  called  pasquinades* ;  he 
defended  himself  before  the  people  of  Nazianzus  for  his 
reluctance  to  undertake  the  priesthood  ;  he  preached  fre- 


1  Carm.  xi.  439  ff. 
«  Oratio  42. 


*  Oratio  2,  cc.  5  and  7. 


234 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


quently  on  festivals;  but  his  most  famous  sermons  are 
those^  in  which  he  maintained  the  Divinity  of  the  Son 
and  the  Holy  Spirit — a  subject  to  which  indeed  he  con- 
stantly recurs.  His  letters,  which  are  written  in  a  clear 
and  simple  style,  often  supply  valuable  material  for  history. 
His  poems,  especially  that  which  contains  a  half- satirical 
account  of  his  own  life,  are  of  some  value  for  their  matter 
if  not  for  their  poetry.  Generally,  we  may  say  that  while 
Gregory  sometimes,  when  his  feelings  are  roused,  rises  to 
true  eloquence,  his  manner  is  too  often  artificial,  self-con- 
scious, and  overloaded  with  allusions  which  are  to  us 
obscure.  In  originality  and  force  of  reasoning  he  is  not 
to  be  compared  with  Athanasius  or  even  with  Gregory  of 
Nyssa. 

Gregory  of  Nyssa  ^  was  a  younger  brother  of  Basil,  who 
about  the  year  371  sent  him,  though  married,  to  preside 
as  bishop  over  the  little  town  of  Nyssa  in  Cappadocia'. 
In  the  persecution  which  befel  the  Nicene  party  in  the 
reign  of  Valens  he  was  deposed  by  a  synod,  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  Demosthenes,  the  governor  of  Cappadocia,  for  various 
crimes  falsely  alleged  against  him,  and  withdrew  into  soli- 
tude. He  returned  however  after  the  death  of  Valens, 
and  was  received  with  great  joy  by  the  community.  Hence- 
forth he  was  a  prominent  figure  in  the  Church,  and  at 
Constantinople  in  the  year  381  pronounced  the  funeral 
oration  over  the  remains  of  Meletius,  who  died  there,  and 
a  few  years  later  over  those  of  the  young  Pulcheria, 
daughter  of  Theodosius  I.,  and  the  empress  Flacilla.  He 
was  present  in  a  council  at  Constantinople  in  the  year 
394*,  and  probably  died  soon  after.  Gregory  of  Nyssa  is 
the  most  philosophical,  and  the  most  infiuenced  by  the 
theology  of  Origen,  of  the  Cappadocian  trio ;  but,  however 
speculative,  he  was  as  firm  as  Athanasius  himself  in  his 
defence  of  the  orthodox  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  and 
stood  by  the  side  of  his  brother  Basil  in  his  contest  against 


1  Orattones  27— 31. 

'^  Tlie  principal  authorities  for 
the  life  of  Gregory  are  his  own 
works  and  the  letters  of  Basil  and 
Gregory  Naz. ;  Jerome,  De  Viris 
must.  c.  128;  Socrates,  iv.  2G; 
Theodoret,  H.  E.  iv.  30;  v.  8. 
Livea  in   Cave,   Hist.   Lit.  i    244 


(ed.  1741) ;  Schrockh,  K.  G.  xiv. 
1  ff.;  J.  Eupp,  Gregors  v.  Nyss. 
Lehcn  u.  Meinungen ;  E.  Venables 
in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  ii.  7G1  &.  ;  F. 
W.  Farrar,  Lives  of  the  Fathers,  ir. 
75  ff. 

3  Basil,  Kj'ist-  225. 

*  Hardouiu,  i.  955. 


Tlieology  and  Theologians. 


235 


heretical  dogma.  He  also  wrote  on  the  soul  and  the  re- 
surrection, and  a  "  Catcchetic  Discourse,"  intended  to  shew 
by  what  methods  Jews,  Gentiles  and  heretics  might  best 
be  brought  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth.  His  disposition 
seems  to  have  been  gentle  and  amiable,  and  no  one  of  the 
Fathers  stands  more  clear  of  all  suspicion  of  meanness  or 
underhand  dealing.  It  was  not  without  reason  that  Vincen- 
tius  of  Lerins'  pronounced  him  a  worthy  brother  of  St  Basil, 
and  that  the  second  Council  of  Nicsea^  quoted  him  as  of 
the  highest  authority. 

Isidore,  head  of  the  monastery  near  the  Pelusiote 
mouth  of  the  Nile,  stands  out  as  one  who  in  an  age  of 
fierce  controversy  never  became  a  mere  partizan.  While 
on  the  whole  siding  with  Cyril  of  Alexandria,  he  never 
lent  himself  to  his  violent  measures ;  while  he  did  not 
wholly  reject  allegorical  interpretation,  he  yet  valued 
highly  the  historical  method  of  the  School  of  Antioch. 
His  numerous  letters,  some  of  which  give  spiritual  counsel, 
while  others  discuss  matters  of  interpretation,  are  of  great 
value  for  the  history  of  his  time.  He  lived  so  ascetically 
that,  says  Evagrius^  he  passed  to  the  angelic  life  while  yet 
on  earth. 

A  remarkable  product  of  the  pagan  schools  of  Alex- 
andria is  Synesius*.  Born  about  the  year  370  of  a  good 
family*  at  Cyrene  in  the  Egyptian  Pentapolis,  he  studied 
Neo-Platonism  under  Hypatia'',  the  lady  in  the  doctor's 
gown,  of  whom  to  the  last  he  spoke  with  affection  as  his 
intellectual  mother.  He  afterwards  visited  Athens  only 
to  be  disillusioned  ;  it  had  nothing  but  great  memories,  he 
says ;  the  real  focus  of  philosophy  was  found  in  Alexandria^ 
From  about  the  year  400  he  spent  his  time  principally 


^  Covimonitorium,  c.  30. 

2  Actio  6;  Hardouin,  r\'.  725. 

3  H.  E.  I.  15.— H.  A.  Niemeyer, 
De  Isid.  Pelus.  Vita  Scriptis  et 
Boctrina;  W.  Bright  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Biogr.  III.  315. 

*  D.  Petavius,  Vita  Synesii,  ap- 
pended to  Synesii  Opera,  1G41 ;  L. 
Holstenius,  Be  Sijnesio,  in  Read- 
ing's Edition  of  Script.  Hist.  Eccl. 
III.  612  ff. ;  G.  Krabinger,  Sijne.'iios 
Leben,  prefixed  to  his  edition  of 
the  Speech  to  Arcadiiis,  and  art.  in 


Wetzer  u.  Welte's  Kirchenlex.  x. 
594  ff. ;  H.  Druon,  Etudes  sur  la 
Vie  de  Synesius;  W.  Volkmann, 
Sijnesius  von  Cyrene;  J.  E.  Hal- 
comb  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  iv. 
756  ft.;  A.  Gardner,  Sy7tesius  of 
Cyrene  (S.P.C.K.).  See  also  J. 
Huber,  Die  Philosophie  der  Kir- 
chenvater,  315  ff. ;  Yi\\ema.in,  Elo- 
quence Chret.  209  ff. 

■'  Epistt.  50  and  57. 

6  Ibid.  10  and  16. 

'  Ibid,  136. 


Chap.  X. 


Isidore  of 
Pelusium, 
borne. 370, 
died  c.  450. 


Synesins, 
6orH  C.370; 


236 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


on  his  estate  at  Gyrene,  leading  the  life  of  a  cultivated 
country-gentleman,  engaged  in  agriculture  and  field-sports. 
He  also  kept  up  his  philosophic  studies,  though  in  this  he 
felt  himself  isolated  in  the  midst  of  people  who  hardly 
knew  whether  they  were  not  living  in  the  reign  of  Aga- 
memnon \  It  was  on  another  visit  to  Alexandria  that  he 
married  a  Christian  wife^,  a  circumstance  which  no  doubt 
aided  his  conversion  to  Christianity,  the  history  of  which 
is  obscure.  He  was  living  at  Cyrene  when,  in  the  year 
409,  the  people,  oppressed  by  a  brutal  governor,  begged 
him,  theii'  most  influential  neighbour,  to  be  their  bishop 
and  protector^  He  was  extremely  reluctant  to  undertake 
this  office ;  not  only  was  he  married  and  unwilling  to 
separate  from  his  wife,  but  his  views  in  several  points 
were,  he  felt,  hardly  to  be  reconciled  with  the  current 
theology  of  the  time,  and  he  was  conscious  that  it  would 
be  difficult  for  him  to  adopt  the  decorous  life  of  a  bishop. 
Still,  his  love  for  his  people  and  the  persuasion  of  Theophi- 
lus  of  Alexandria  prevailed.  He  was  consecrated  to  the 
see  of  Ptolemais,  and  discharged  his  duty  faithfully  in  a 
time  of  great  difficulty  and  distress.  He  is  supposed  to 
have  died  about  the  year  414,  bowed  down  by  the  weight 
of  public  and  private  cares.  With  him  comes  to  an  end 
the  history  of  the  ancient  Christianity  of  the  Libyan  Pen- 
tapolis.  Synesius  does  not  belong  to  the  first  order  of 
minds,  but  he  is  a  remarkable  example  of  one  whose 
philosophical  principles  were  coloured  and  ennobled  rather 
than  displaced  by  ChrLstianity^  and  he  gives  a  clearer  and 
purer  reflexion  of  his  school  than  a  stronger  character 
would  have  done. 

Nemesius*,  bishop  of  Emesa  in  Syria,  is  also  an  in- 
stance of  a  Christianized  philosopher.  Although,  so  far 
as  is  known,  he  was  a  perfect)}^  orthodox  teacher,  he  seems 
to  have  turned  his  attention  mainly  to  the  great  questions 
which  interest  all  thoughtful  men  from  age  to  age — the 
nature  of  man,  his  relation  to  the  universe,  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  the  reconciliation  of  the  freedom  of  the 
will  with  the  providence  and  omnipotence  of  God.     His 


1  ETpist.  101. 

2  Ihid.  105. 

3  Evagrius,  H.  E.  i.  15. 
*  Epist,  95. 


5  H.  Bitter,  Christl.  PMlosophie, 
II.  461  ff. ;  J.  Huber,  Philosophie 
der  Kirchenvater,  321  ff. ;  E.  Ven- 
ables  in  Diet.  Ghr.  Biogr,  iv.  16. 


Tlieology  and  Tlieologians. 


237 


treatise  on  the  Nature  of  Man,  still  extant',  shews  him 
to  have  studied  human  physiology  as  well  as  psychology, 
and  is  an  important  contribution  to  philosophical  theory. 

Cyril,  the  famous  archbishop  of  Alexandria^,  is  the 
chief  representative  of  an  Alexandrian  School  very  diffe- 
rent from  that  which  derived  its  first  impulse  from  Origen. 
He  was  the  nephew  and  successor  of  bishop  Theophilus, 
by  whom  he  had  been  brought  up,  and  whom  in  character 
he  much  resembled.  His  election  to  the  see  was  not 
effected  without  violence,  and  he  had  not  long  occupied  it 
when  a  quarrel  arose  between  the  archbishop  and  the 
Jews  which  led  to  his  expelling  them  from  the  city  at  the 
head  of  a  furious  mob.  Some  of  Cyril's  partizans  pelted 
Orestes,  the  prefect  of  the  city,  with  stones, — conduct 
which,  rightly  or  wrongly,  brought  discredit  on  their 
bishop.  Cp'il  entered  with  great  zeal  and  vigour  into  the 
controversies  of  his  time,  and  it  is  indeed  as  a  very  able 
controversial  leader  and  writer  that  he  is  chiefly  known. 
His  best  friends  will  scarcely  deny  that  he  was  too  vehe- 
ment and  imperious  to  be  altogether  wise,  or  even  just; 
but  his  "faults  were  not  inconsistent  with  great  and 
heroic  virtues,  faith,  firmness,  intrepidity,  fortitude,  endur- 
ance, perse\^erance\" 

We  see  in  the  writings  which  bear  the  name  of  Diony- 
sius  the  Areopagite^  a  Neo-Platonic  system  disguised 
under  terms  taken  from  the  language  of  the  Church. 
God  is  absolute  and  unconditioned  Being.  To  Him  no 
definition,  no  description,  hardly  any  epithet  can  properly 
apply.  He  is  beyond  all  time  and  space.  He  is  the 
source  of  all  existence^     But  He  condescends  to  develope 


1  In  De  la  Bigne's  jBtftZfotfe.  Vett. 
Patrum,  torn.  8;  Migne's  Patrol. 
Series  Gr.  torn.  40.  Separate  ed. 
by  J.  Fell,  Oxon.  1671. 

2  W.  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.  i.  391.— 
W.  Bright  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  i. 
763  ff. ;  Kopallik,  Cyril  von  Ale.r- 
and.  (Mainz,  1881). 

3  3.  B..'Kev{nia.n,  Historic  Slietch- 
es,  III.  342. 

*  J.  Ussher,  Diss,  de  Scriptis 
Dion.  Areop.,  appended  to  his  Hist. 
Dogmatical  J.  L.  Mosheim,  De 
turbata  per  recent.  Platonicos  Ec- 
clesia;  J.  G.  Engelhardt,  De  Dion. 


Areop.  Plotinizante,&ndiDe  Origine 
Script.  Areop.;  A.  Frothingham, 
Stephen  Bar  Sudaili,  the  Syrian 
Mystic,  and  the  Book  of  Hiero- 
theos;  B.  F.  Westcott  in  Contemp. 
Bev.  May,  1867;  J.  Huber,  PhUo- 
sophie  der  Kirchenvriter,  327  ff. ; 
J.  H.  Lupton  ia  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr, 
I.  841  ff.  Pearson  (Vind.  lywit.  c. 
10)  supposes  these  writings  to  be 
of  the  fourth  century ;  Baumgarten- 
Crusius  (De  Dion.  Areop.)  of  the 
thud. 

®  De  Divinis  Nominibus,  i.  1,  7; 
in.  1;  V.  4,  etc. 


Chap.  X. 


Cyril, 
Patriarch 
of  Alexan- 
(/ria,412— 
444. 


Dionysins 
the  Areo- 
pagite, 
c.  500. 


238 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


Himself  in  a  series  of  beings,  a  heavenly  and  an  earthly 
hierarchy,  through  whom  on  the  one  hand  He  reveals 
Himself,  so  far  as  may  be,  to  man,  and  on  the  other 
enables  man  to  ascend  towards  the  Being  of  Beings  Him- 
self \  At  the  head  of  the  heavenly  hierarchy  stands  the 
Holy  Trinity ;  the  earthly  hierarchy  through  the  sacra- 
ments or  "mysteries"  of  the  Church  provides  man  with 
the  means  of  purification  and  of  rising  towards  God. 
These  remarkable  treatises  were  first  cited,  so  far  as  we 
know,  by  the  Monophysites  at  a  Conference  in  Constanti- 
nople'^ in  the  sixth  century,  and  were  probably  written  by 
some  disciple  of  Proclus  of  Constantinople  in  the  previous 
generation.  It  is,  however,  possible  that  the  main  por- 
tions of  them  were  written  anonymously  at  an  earlier  date 
— perhaps  in  the  fourth  century — and  were  interpolated 
at  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  by  some  controversialist 
Avith  the  view  of  making  them  pass  for  the  work  of  Dio- 
nysius^  At  the  Conference  their  spuriousness  was  at  once 
recognised,  but  nevertheless  from  the  beginning  of  the 
seventh  century  to  the  days  of  Laurentius  Valla  in  the 
fifteenth  they  were  in  the  highest  repute,  and  their 
account  of  the  ranks  and  degrees  of  angels  was  generally 
accepted.  Their  teaching  also  largely  influenced  mediaeval 
theory  about  the  Sacraments  of  the  Church. 

During  the  period  when  Christian  doctrine  was  still  in 
some  respects  undefined,  the  philosophy  of  Plato,  a  seeker 
i-ather  than  a  dogmatist,  had  been  a  dominant  influence 
in  the  formation  of  theology.  But  when  theology  became 
more  definite  the  logical  system  of  Aristotle  was  found 
better  adapted  for  the  use  of  theologians.  The  influence 
of  Aristotelian  modes  of  thought  is  found  in  Leontius  of 
Byzantium*,  a  Scythian  monk,  who  was  conspicuous  in 
controversy  in  the  sixth  century ;  and  even  more  in 
Johannes  Philoponus^  the  labour-lover,  who  took  the 
opposite  side  in  the  divisions  of  Justinian's  time. 


^  This  is  found  in  the  treatises 
ou  the  Celestial  and  the  Eccle- 
siastical Hierarchy.  Dean  Colet's 
tract  on  these  works  has  been  pub- 
lished by  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Lupton. 

*  Hardouin,  C<mc.  ii.  1162. 

3  Dom  Pitra,  Analecta  Sacra, 
torn.  III. 


*  Fr.  Loofs,  Leontius  V.  Bijzant., 
in  Texte  und  Untersiichungen  von 
Gebhardt  u.  Harnack,  iii.  1  and  2. 

^  Trechsel  in  Studieu  u.  Krit. 
1835;  A.  Nauck  in  Ersch  u.  Gru- 
her's  Encycl.  s.  v.;  T.  W.  Davids 
in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  iii.  425. 


Theolofjy  and  Theologians. 


239 


5.  The  (Jhurches  of  the  West  were  much  less  disturbed 
by  speculative  questions  than  those  of  the  East.  The  Latin 
theologians  were  for  the  most  part  rather  deeply  interested 
spectators  of  the  contest  which  in  the  fourth  and  fifth 
centuries  shook  the  oriental  Churches  to  their  foundations, 
than  active  combatants,  though  they  were  greatly  influ- 
enced by  the  works  of  their  Greek  contemporaries.  On  the 
other  hand,  in  practical  questions,  such  as  the  nature  and 
powers  of  the  Church,  the  relation  of  the  gi^ace  of  God  to 
the  soul  of  man,  and  the  like,  they  took  a  much  keener 
interest  than  their  Eastern  brethren.  The  Romans  when 
they  accepted  the  yoke  of  Christ  retained  the  old  govern- 
ing spirit  of  the  Empire,  and  the  Latin  theology  generally 
has  more  of  the  practical  than  of  the  speculative  spirit. 
When  Greek  philosophy  came  to  an  end,  and  no  longer 
supplied  a  training  for  theologians,  the  Romans  still  found 
in  the  study  of  law  an  intellectual  exercise  which  preserved 
their  minds  from  torpidity.  Latin  theology  is  in  fact  the 
work  of  men  who  regarded  the  problems  submitted  to 
them  with  the  eyes  of  lawyers  rather  than  of  philosophers. 
The  greatest  names  among  the  Latins  are  those  of  St 
Ambrose,  St  Augustine,  and  Leo  I.,  who,  while  retaining 
their  own  distinctive  traits,  were  in  harmony  with  the 
Alexandrian  school  of  Athanasius  and  his  followers. 
Hilary  of  Poitiers,  Jerome  in  his  earlier  days,  and  Rufinus, 
were  more  du'ectly  influenced  by  the  theology  to  which 
Origen  had  given  its  character.  In  the  south  of  Gaul  was 
found  a  group  of  theologians  who  had  drawn  their  original 
inspiration  from  the  school  of  Antioch. 

Hilary^  (Hilarius),  the  Athanasius  of  the  West,  was 
bom  at  Poitiers  about  the  year  320  of  heathen  parents, 
but,  after  trying  in  vain  to  satisfy  the  hunger  of  his  soul 
with  philosophy,  was  admitted  by  baptism  into  the  Church 
of  Christ.     Chosen  about  the  year  350  to  be  bishop  of  his 


1  For  the  literary  characteristics 
of  the  Latin  writers  see  J.  C.  Balir, 
Die  Christlichen  Dichter  unci  Ge- 
scJiichtschreiber  Boms;  Die  Christ- 
lich-Romische  Theologie;  and  A. 
Ebert,  Gesch.  der  Christlich-Latei- 
nischen  Literatur. 

2  Jerome,  De  Viris  Illust.  c.  100 ; 
Gregory  of  Tours,  De  Gloria  Con- 
fess, c.  2.     J.  Eeinkens,  Hilarius 


von  Poitiers;  Hansen,  Vie  de  St 
Hilaire ;  Baltzer,  Die  Theologie  des 
Hil.  von  Poitiers;  J.  Forster,  Zur 
Theologie  des  Hil.  in  Studien  u. 
Kritiken,  1888 ;  J.  Fessler,  Patro- 
logie,  I.  436  ff.;  A.  Ebert,  Gesch. 
der  Christlich-Lateinischen  Litera- 
tur, I.  128  ff. ;  J.  G.  Cazenove  in 
Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  in.  5-1  ff. 


Chap.  X. 

Latin 
Theo- 
logy'. 


Hilary  of 

Poitiers, 

bornc.320. 


Bishop, 
c.  350. 


240 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


native  city,  he  contended  so  earnestly  for  the  faith  which 
was  then  persecuted  that  in  the  year  856  the  Arian 
Emperor  Constantius  banished  him  to  Phrygia.  When  in 
the  year  860  he  was  permitted  to  return  to  his  see,  he 
used  his  utmost  efforts  for  the  restoration  of  orthodoxy 
both  in  his  own  country  and  in  Italy,  where  at  a  council 
in  Milan  he  entered  the  lists  against  the  Arian  bishop  of 
that  city,  Auxentius.  He  died  in  the  year  866.  Hilary 
was  one  of  the  few  Latins  who  understood  the  theology  of 
the  East,  which  he  no  doubt  learned  more  thoroughly 
during  his  banishment;  hence  he  was  a  most  valuable  link 
between  the  Greek  and  the  Latin  Church.  He  wrote 
commentaries  on  Scripture  which  shew  the  influence  of 
Origen,  but  he  is  best  known  by  his  great  treatise  on 
the  Trinity,  in  which  he  defends  the  Faith  of  Nicsea. 
He  also  wrote  hymns,  but  it  is  by  no  means  certain 
that  any  of  these  have  come  down  to  our  time.  Hilary 
recognised,  much  more  than  most  of  his  contemporaries, 
the  importance  of  a  good  literary  style  as  a  vehicle  of 
truth.  When  he  invokes  God's  help  for  his  work  on  the 
Holy  Trinity,  he  prays  not  only  for  enlightenment  but 
also  for  the  power  of  correct  exjjression^;  he  who  conveys 
the  message  of  a  King  should  do  it  in  words  not  unworthy*. 
If,  in  spite  of  his  pains,  his  does  not  rival  the  style  of  the 
Classical  or  even  of  the  Silver  age  of  Latinity,  we  must 
remember  that  he  had  to  find  or  fashion  equivalents  for 
Greek  theological  terms  in  Latin — a  much  less  copious 
and  flexible  language.  Under  the  circumstances,  he  could 
scarcely  avoid  occasional  obscurity  and  inelegance.  Yet 
he  is  always  terse  and  forcible,  and  his  manifest  earnest- 
ness and  unaffectedness  keep  the  reader's  attention  better 
than  the  more  rhetorical  displays  of  some  other  writers. 

One  of  the  noblest  and  most  impressive  figures  in  the 
great  company  of  the  saints  is  St  Ambrose  \     Ambrosius, 


^  De  Trin.  i.  38. 

^  Tract,  in  Ps.  xiii. 

^  The  Life  by  I'aulinus,  a  second 
translated  from  the  Greek,  and  a 
carefully  compiled  Life  by  the 
Benedictines  themselves,  are  to  be 
found  in  the  Benedictine  ed.  of  the 
works  of  Ambrose.  Others  are, 
W.   Cave,   Hist.   Lit.   i.   2G1 :    F, 


Bohringer,  Die  Kirche  Christi  u. 
Hire  Zeugen,  vol.  10  (2nd  ed.);  J. 
Forster,  Ambrosius  von  Mailand; 
J.  LI.  Davies,  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr. 
I.  91  if. ;  C.  Merivale,  Lectures  on 
Early  Ch.  Hist.,  Lect.  i;  F.  W. 
Farrar,  Lives  of  the  Fathers,  ii. 
112  £f. 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


241 


the  son  of  a  Roman  of  high  military  rank,  became  an 
advocate  in  Rome,  where  he  practised  until  he  was  ap- 
pointed "  consular "  governor  of  North  Italy,  and  came  to 
reside  at  Milan.  In  the  year  374  the  see  of  Milan  became 
vacant  by  the  death  of  the  Arian  bishop  Auxentius,  and 
the  people  clamorously  demanding  Ambrose,  who  shewed 
Christian  virtues  though  he  was  not  yet  baptized,  for 
their  bishop,  he  found  himself  unable  to  resist  a  call 
which  he  recognized  as  the  voice  of  God,  He  sold  his 
property,  distributed  the  proceeds  among  the  poor,  and  at 
once  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  theology  and  the 
duties  of  his  office.     He  died  on  April  4,  397. 

His  literary  works  are  not  of  the  first  importance  and 
do  not  shew  much  originality.  He  drew  largely  from 
Greek  sources,  and  was  influenced  in  his  interpretation  of 
Scripture  by  the  Alexandrian  School,  sometimes  perhaps 
directly  by  Philo,  His  work  on  the  Duties  of  the  Clergy 
is  a  treatise  on  morality,  founded  on  Cicero's  well-known 
discourse  on  Duties,  but  penetrated  throughout  by  the 
spirit  of  Christianity;  while  the  earlier  writer  has  in  his 
mind  the  typical  Roman  statesman,  the  Christian  contem- 
plates one  who  serves  God  here  and  is  to  serve  Him 
better  hereafter.  He  is  also  believed  to  have  written 
hymns  which  have  maintained  their  vogue  even  to  this 
day.  And  if  his  writings  do  not  shew  much  creative 
power,  we  at  least  see  in  them  not  the  facile  declamation 
of  a  rhetorician,  but  the  sober  style  of  one  to  whom  the 
old  classics  were  familiar,  and  who  had  been  trained  in 
great  affairs.  But  the  bent  of  his  mind  was  practical. 
His  personal  influence  was  extraordinary,  in  his  own  city 
almost  irresistible.  He  could  defy  so  powerful  a  person 
as  Theodosius,  while  over  the  young  emperor  Gratian  he 
seems  to  have  had  complete  ascendancy.  The  very  soldiers 
could  not  be  induced  to  act  against  the  great  prelate.  St 
Augustin^  gives  an  interesting  account  of  his  manner  of 
life  at  Milan,  where  his  door  was  open  to  all  and  whoso- 
ever would  might  enter  unannounced,  though  no  one 
ventured  to  disturb  him  if  he  was  found  with  his  eyes 
bent  on  a  book.  He  received  his  clients  as  an  old  Roman 
patrician  might  have  done.     For  many  years  he  was  the 


^  Confess,  vi.  3. 


Chap.  X. 


Bishop, 
374. 


Died, 

4  Apr.  397. 
Works. 


C. 


10 


242 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


Chap.  X. 


St  Jerome, 
5or?ic.346. 


At  Rome, 
c.  363. 


Aquileia, 
370—873. 


In  Syria, 
373. 


most  powerful  man  in  the  Western  Church,  in  which  no 
important  matter  was  transacted  without  him ;  but  perhaps 
the  greatest  and  most  fruitful  of  his  works  was  the  con- 
version of  St  Augustin. 

St  Jerome  \  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  Latin  Fathers, 
was  born  rather  more  than  three  hundred  years  after  the 
Lord's  death  in  a  little  town  called  Stridon  on  the  frontier 
between  Dalmatia  and  Pannonia,  on  the  border  of  the 
modern  Herzegovina,  being  thus  one  of  that  race  of  hardy 
mountaineers  which  in  the  declining  days  of  the  Roman 
Empire  supplied  so  many  able  men  to  her  service.  His 
name,  Eusebius  Hieronymus,  is  Greek,  but  he  always 
wrote  in  Latin,  though  he  had,  as  we  shall  see,  a  far  more 
intimate  connexion  with  the  East  than  any  other  Latin 
Father.  His  parents,  who  were  Christian,  were  rich 
enough  to  give  him  an  excellent  education **.  Still  young, 
he  went  to  Rome,  where  he  not  only  received  a  literary 
training  but  also  cultivated  that  dialectic  skill  which  in 
later  days  served  him  well  in  his  numerous  controversies^. 
Here  he  began  to  acquire  a  library*,  and  to  study  Greek 
philosophy.  Here  too  he  was  baptized,  no  doubt  after  the 
usual  careful  preparation.  From  the  great  city  he  passed 
to  Treves  and  thence  to  Aquileia^  still  eagerly  pursuing 
his  studies. 

But  a  great  change  was  soon  to  pass  over  the  life  of 
the  young  student.  It  was  probably  in  Aquileia  that  he 
received  the  first  impulse  to  asceticism,  and  it  was  perhaps 
this  which  drove  him  to  the  East,  then  the  land  of  monks 
and  hermits.  In  Syria  a  dear  friend  who  was  with  him 
died,  and  he  himself  lay  long  on  a  sick-bed.  While  his 
fevered  mind  was  distracted  between  love  for  the  old 
classic  writers  and  the  feeling  that  he  ought  to  live  more 
completely  to  Christ,  he  was  deeply  impressed  by  a  vivid 


^  St  Jerome's  own  letters  are  the 
principal  authority  for  his  life,  as 
he  is  but  little  mentioned  by  his 
contemporaries.  Modern  biogra- 
phies are: — Am.  Thierry,  St  Je- 
rome; A.  F.  Villemain,  Eloquence 
Chretienne,  p.  320  flf.  (ed.  1858); 
O.  Zockler,  Hieronymus,  sein  Le- 
ben  und  Wirken;  W.  H.  Fremantle 
in  Diet.  Chr.   Biogr.   in.   29  £f. ; 


F.  W.  Farrar,  Lives  of  the  Fathers, 
II.  203  ff. ;  E.  L.  Cutis,  St  Jerome 
(S.  P.  C.  K.). 

2  See  his  Preface  to  Job ;  Epist. 
21,  c.  30;  66,  0.  4;  c.  Rufinum, 
1.30. 

3  Epist,  50,  0.  1;  in  Galat.  ri. 
13. 

*  Epist.  22,  c.  30. 

5  Ibid.  3,  c.  5;  4,  c.  10. 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


243 


dreamt  He  abandoned,  for  the  time  at  least,  his  classics 
and  his  philosophy,  and  rushed  into  the  Syrian  desert. 
There  he  occupied  himself  at  first  with  the  hand-labour 
which  has  often  soothed  burning  brains,  and  afterwards 
with  the  transcription  of  books.  But  he  found  no  peace. 
His  desert  solitude  was  filled  with  voluptuous  visions  of 
the  world  which  he  wished  to  leave.  Prayer  and  medita- 
tion were  often  impossible ^ 

But  one  thing  happened  in  Jerome's  retirement  which 
makes  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church; 
he  learned  Hebrew  from  a  converted  Jew^.  He  was  pro- 
bably the  first  member  of  the  Latin  Church  who  was  able 
to  read  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament  in  the 
original  tongue;  and  this  learning  was  to  bear  much  fruit. 

When  Jerome  left  the  desert  he  betook  himself  to 
Antioch,  where  he  was  ordained  priest  with  the  under- 
standing that  he  was  not  to  be  required  to  undertake  a 
pastoral  charge*.  Thence  he  passed  to  Constantinople, 
where  he  read  the  Scriptures  with  Gregory  of  Nazianzus 
and  improved  his  knowledge  of  Greek®.  About  two  years 
after  his  arrival  in  Constantinople  we  find  him  again  in 
Rome,  where  he  acted  as  secretary  to  pope  Damasus,  and 
was  for  a  time,  though  still  only  a  presbyter,  one  of  the 
greatest  powers  in  Christendom.  It  was  at  the  bidding 
of  Damasus  that  he  undertook  a  revision  of  the  Old  Latin 
translation  of  the  New  Testament",  the  copies  of  which 
varied  in  an  extraordinary  degree;  he  also  revised  the 
Latin  Version  of  the  Old  Testament  with  the  help  of  the 
Septuagint,  and  somewhat  later  translated  it  afresh  from 
the  Hebrew^.  His  labours  were  received  with  no  favour  by 
the  multitude.  The  Old  Latin  was  the  only  Bible  they 
knew ;  in  the  instruction  of  the  young,  in  sermons  and 
devotional  writings,  it  had  grown  familiar ;  its  quaintness, 
its  very  faults  were  dear.  But  in  the  end  Jerome's  revised 
vei'sion  became,  what  it  is  to  this  day,  the  Bible  in  common 


^  Epist.  22,  c.  1, 

2  To  this  period  belong  Epistt. 
5 — 14.  See  De  Viris  Illustr.  c. 
135. 

3  Epist.  125,  c.  12. 

*  C.  Joarmem  Hierosol.  c.  41. 
^  III  Esaiam,  vi.  1 ;  in  Eplies.  v. 
32;  De  Viris  Illust.  c.  117;  c.  Jo- 


vinianuvi  i.  13. 

6  Epistt.  19,  20,  21, 

'  He  gives  some  account  of  this 
in  the  Prologus  Galeatus  to  tlie 
Books  of  Kings.  See  B.  F.  Westcott 
in  Smith's  Diet,  of  the  Bible,  iii. 
1G96  ff. 

IG  — 2 


Chap.  X. 

In  the 
desert,  374. 


Ordained 

Priest, 

379?. 

In  Con- 
stantino- 
ple, 380. 

At  Home, 
382? 


Reinses 
Old  Latin, 

383. 


391. 


244 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


CUAP.  X. 


Influence 
in  Rome. 


Leaves 
Rome,  385. 

At  Bethle- 
hem, 386. 


Died,  420. 


use,  the  Versio  Vulgata,  in  every  part  of  the  Latin 
Church.  Its  influence  on  Latin  theology  has  been  enor- 
mous, since  for  a  thousand  years  Latin  writers,  with  the 
rarest  possible  exceptions,  knew  the  Scriptures  in  no  other 
form  than  that  which  Jerome  had  given  them. 

But  Jerome's  life  in  Rome  was  by  no  means  wholly 
literary;  he  gained  there  a  very  remarkable  influence  in  the 
highest  ranks.  He  was  not  a  man  to  compromise  with 
the  paganism  which  still  pervaded  Roman  society.  In  the 
midst  of  luxury  he  practised  and  advocated  simplicity  and 
even  rigour  of  life.  Over  certain  noble  ladies,  in  particu- 
lar, his  influence  was  great  and  lasting \  Fashionable 
society  lampooned  him,  and  in  the  year  385  he  left  the 
half  pagan  city"^  for  the  Holy  Land,  and  in  the  following 
year,  when  he  was  about  forty  years  old,  settled  at  Bethle- 
hem. His  devoted  friend  Paulla,  a  Roman  lady  of  rank 
and  wealth,  soon  followed  him,  and  by  her  means  a  monas- 
tery was  built  over  which  Jerome  presided,  and  a  convent 
for  women  of  which  she  herself  was  the  head.  There  was 
also  a  hospice  for  the  pilgrims  who  now  began  to  pour 
into  Palestine  to  visit  the  place  made  sacred  by  the  Lord's 
footsteps  ^  There  he  passed  the  last  thirty-four  years  of 
his  life,  and  there  he  died,  worn  out  with  constant  toil, 
and  in  poverty,  which  he  sometimes  mentions  in  his 
letters,  but  of  which  he  never  complains.  He  and  Paulla 
had  spent  their  means  on  the  establishments  at  Bethle- 
hem. The  day  of  his  death  is  generally  believed  to  have 
been  Sept.  80,  A.D.  420,  when  he  must  have  been  between 
seventy  and  eighty  years  of  age*.  But  as  to  this  there  is 
much  uncertainty. 

Though  the  last  years  of  Jerome's  life  were  spent  in 
one  spot,  they  were  full  of  mental  activity.  It  was  at 
Bethlehem  that  he  finished  his  translation  of  the  Bible. 
But  beside  this  great  work  there  was  hardly  a  controversy 
of  his  time  in  which  he  did  not  eagerly  engage,  so  that  he 
left  behind  a  large  collection  of  letters  and  other  writings. 


1  Epistt.  39,  c.  1;  45,  cc.  2,  3, 
5,  7;  49,  cc.  1  and  4;  50,  c.  3;  66, 
0.  9.  lu  this  period  Epistt.  23,  34, 
and  37 — 44,  weie  written. 

2  Ibid.  45. 

3  Ibid.  108,  cc.  6,  14,  10;  66, 
c.  14;  129,  c.  4. 


*  Prosper  Aquitan.  Chronicon 
ad  an.  420  (col.  741  0pp.  ed.  Paris). 
Spurious  works  relating  to  St  Je- 
rome are  attributed  to  Eusebius  of 
Cremona,  Augustin  and  Cyril  of 
Jerusalem. 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


245 


St  Jerome  is  generally  painted  as  an  emaciated  man, 
in  a  cave  or  cell,  with  a  book;  and  this  representation 
indicates  the  two  things  for  which  he  is  chiefly  remarkable 
— his  devotion  to  the  ascetic  life  and  his  learning.  Until 
the  time  of  Erasmus  he  remained  the  first  scholar  of  the 
Western  Church ;  a  scholar,  not  only  in  his  love  for  the 
old  classic  writers,  and  in  his  vigorous  and  expressive 
style,  but  in  bringing  a  scholarly  spirit  to  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Bible.  He  was  not  content,  like  his  prede- 
cessors in  the  West,  to  know  the  Scriptures  only  at  second 
hand ;  he  would  know  the  original  text,  and  illustrate  it 
by  all  the  grammatical  and  historical  knowledge  which 
was  within  his  reach.  His  great  snare  was  his  vehemence 
of  temperament.  With  his  incisive  satirical  bitterness 
and  contempt  for  his  opponents  he  scarcely  ever  put  pen 
to  paper  without  making  a  life-long  enemy.  Still,  with 
all  his  faults,  Jerome  had  immense  influence  on  his  own 
age,  and  remains  one  of  the  most  striking  figures  in 
Christian  antiquity. 

One  whose  name  is  always  connected  with  that  of 
Jerome,  his  friend  in  youth,  his  foe  in  old  age,  was  Tp-an- 
nius  Rufinus.  Born  near  Aquileia,  he  early  entered  a 
monastery  in  that  city.  His  passion  for  the  ascetic  life 
drew  him,  like  Jerome,  to  the  old  home  of  asceticism, 
Egypt,  where  he  saw  the  great  Athanasius  and  visited 
many  of  the  monks  and  hermits  who  peopled  the  Thebaid. 
But  he  also  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  learned  Didy- 
mus  in  Alexandria,  where  he  stayed  several  years,  and 
acquired  that  love  for  the  Greek  theology,  and  most  of  all 
for  Origen,  which  bore  fruit  in  after  years.  In  the  year 
377  he  passed  on  to  Jerusalem,  where  for  twenty  years  he 
lived  as  a  monk  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  during  which 
period  he  was  embroiled  with  Jerome  on  the  questions 
which  arose  about  Origen.  In  the  year  397  he  returned 
to  Italy,  having  been  for  the  time  reconciled  to  Jerome. 
The  strife,  however,  broke  out  anew,  and  was  carried  on 
by  both  the  parties  with  the  most  ruthless  animosity. 
From  the  time  of  his  return  to  Italy,  Rufinus  lived  mostly 
at  Aquileia,  engaged  in  literary  work,  until  the  invasion 
of  the  West-Goths  drove  him  to  seek  refuge  in  the  South. 
He  died  in  Messina  in  the  year  410.  The  fame  of  Rufinus 
rests  principally  on  his  translations.     He  published  a  free 


Chap.  X. 
Character. 


Rufinus, 
born  C.S4.0. 


Monk, 
c.  370. 


At  Jerusa- 
lem, 377. 


In  Italy, 
397. 


Died,  410. 


246 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


Chap.  X.  |  translation  or  adaptation  of  Eusebius's  Church  History, 
which  he  continued  to  the  death  of  Theodosius  I.;  he 
collected  and  translated  lives  of  the  Egyptian  ascetics ;  he 
made  Origen  known  in  the  West  by  translating  a  portion 
of  his  works ;  and  it  is  to  him  that  we  owe  our  knowledge 
of  the  Clementine  Recognitions,  the  original  of  which  is 
lost.  Without  being  a  man  of  original  power  he  rendered 
great  service  to  the  Western  Church.  His  Lives  of  the 
Saints  have  retained  considerable  influence  even  to  our 
own  time. 

The  greatest  of  the  Latin  Fathers,  the  source  and 
fount  indeed  of  most  of  the  Latin  theology,  was,  it  is 
generally  agreed,  Aurelius  Augustinus,  whom  we  com- 
monly know  as  St  Augustin\  And  of  all  the  Fathers  he 
is  best  known  to  us,  for  in  his  Confessions  he  gives  us  a 
history  of  his  religious  opinions  such  as  few  men  have  left 
behind.  He  was  born  on  the  13th  Nov.,  354,  at  Tagaste 
in  Numidia,  and  received  his  first  religious  impressions 
from  his  good  Christian  mother  Monica"''.  Endowed  with 
the  highest  mental  gifts  and  a  temperament  burning  with 
Southern  passion,  he  was  in  early  days  equally  eager  in 
the  study  of  letters  and  in  the  pursuit  of  sensuous  enjoy- 
ment. In  this  life  of  excitement  the  religious  impressions 
of  his  childhood  were  for  a  time  obliterated.  It  was  the 
reading  of  Cicero's  Hortensius  which  roused  again  in 
him  the  longing  for  the  attainment  of  truth  and  for  a 
higher  and  nobler  life^.  He  read  Scripture,  but  found  its 
simplicity  bald  and  unsatisfying^  He  turned  in  his  rest- 
lessness to  the  pretentious  sect  of  the  Manichaeans*,  then 
widely  spread  in  South  Africa,  attracted  by  their  rigorous 
life  and  their  claim  to  possess  a  hidden  wisdom.  From  his 
nineteenth  to  his  twenty-eighth  year  he  remained  in  the 
outer  circle  of  the  sect,  hoping  at  last  by  initiation  to 


1  Possiclius,  Vita  S.  Aur.  Anqus- 
tini;  Vita  S.  Augustini  in  the  Bene- 
dictine Opera;  vol.  15,  p.  1  ff.  ed. 
Bassano  1797;  vol.  32,  p.  66  ff.  in 
M\gixQ'a  Patrologia;  F.  IBobringer, 
Die  Kirclie  Chr.  u.  ihre  Zeugen, 
vol.  11  (2nd  ed.) ;  C.  Bindemann, 
Der  Heilige  Augustinus;  Flottes, 
Etudes  sur  St  Augustin;  B.  C. 
Trench,  Augnstin  as  Interpreter  of 
Scripture,  in  his  Exposition  of  the 


Sermon  on  the  Mount  from  St  Au- 
gustin; W.  Cunningham,  S,  Austin 
and  his  Place  in  the  History  of 
Christian  Thought;  E.  L.  Cutts, 
St  Augustine  (S.  P.  C.  K.) ;  F.  W. 
Farrar,  Lives  of  the  Fathers,  ii. 
403  ff. 

^  Confessiones,  i.  11. 

3   lb.  HI.  4. 

*  lb.  III.  5. 
6  lb.  m.  6. 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


247 


attain  the  knowledge  of  their  mysteries  \  Undeceived  at 
last,  he  fell  into  despair  of  all  truth  I  From  this  painful 
state  he  was  to  some  extent  relieved  by  the  works  of  the 
Neo-Platonists,  which  led  him  into  a  new  world  of  thought. 
While  the  Manichseans  had  represented  the  world  as 
agitated  by  the  ceaseless  contest  of  good  and  bad,  of  which 
man  was  the  almost  helpless  sport,  Neo-Platonism  taught 
him  that  the  good  was  the  only  real  existence,  that  the 
bad  was  but  the  absence  of  good'. 

It  was  in  this  state  of  mind  that  Augustin,  who  had 
already  taught  rhetoric  with  success  in  Tagaste  and  in 
Carthage,  passed  over  to  Rome  and  thence  to  Milan.  He 
was  then  religious  after  a  fashion,  but  regarded  Chris- 
tianity as  only  for  such  as  could  not  rise  to  the  heights  of 
philosophy.  It  was  at  this  time  that  he  became  conscious 
of  the  divine  force  of  St  Paul's  Epistles  and  that  he  fell 
under  the  influence  of  St  Ambrose.  He  attended  his 
preaching  from  admiration  of  his  oratory  and  found  him- 
self pricked  to  the  heart  by  the  truths  which  he  delivered. 
After  a  painful  inward  struggle  he  acknowledged  the  truth 
as  it  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  was  baptized  by  Ambrose  in 
the  year  387,  together  with  his  natural  son  Adeodatus. 
From  this  time  began  the  controversy,  which  only  ended 
with  his  life,  against  his  old  allies  the  Manichseans. 

In  the  year  after  his  baptism  he  returned  to  Africa, 
where  he  lived  in  the  country  in  a  kind  of  monastic  soli- 
tude, until  in  392  he  was  ordained  presbyter,  much  against 
his  will,  in  Hippo  Regius.  Three  years  later  he  became 
its  bishop.  Henceforward,  though  bishop  of  a  little  town 
of  no  fame  or  importance,  he  belonged  to  the  Church  at 
large.  He  was  in  constant  communication  with  all  parts 
of  the  Latin  Church,  urging,  advising,  controverting.  He 
died  on  the  28th  of  August,  430,  while  Hippo  was  besieged 
by  the  invading  army  of  the  Vandals. 

He  had  unceasingly  employed  both  tongue  and  pen  in 
the  service  of  the  Church.  He  vindicated  the  ways  of 
God  to  man  against  those  who  distrusted  divine  provi- 
dence; he  asserted  the  true  idea  of  the  Church  against 
those  who  resisted  its  authority ;  in  a  society  still  hot  with. 
the  embers  of  the  Arian  controversy  he  expounded  the 


^  Confessiones,  iv.  1. 


2  lb.  V.  7,  10,  11. 


3  lb.  VII.  9  if. 


Chap.  X. 


in  Rome, 
383. 
Milan, 
384. 


Baptized, 
387. 


Presbyter, 
392. 

Bishop  of 
Hippo, 
395. 


Died,  430. 


248 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


mystery  of  the  Holy  Trinity;  he  maintained  man's  need 
of  the  grace  of  God  against  those  who  contended  that 
his  natural  powers  were  sufficient  for  him.  In  a  word, 
there  was  no  prominent  question  of  his  time  which  he  did 
not  discuss  and  illustrate,  and  his  influence  generally 
settled  the  disputed  points  in  the  form  which  he  preferred. 
He  had  a  quick  and  lively  fancy,  and  a  mind  of  almost  un- 
equalled ingenuity  and  readiness.  Arguments  and  analo- 
gies never  fail  him.  Probably  no  writer  has  produced  so 
many  striking  maxims.  But  it  is  not  his  imagination  or 
his  dialectic  skill  which  has  given  him  the  immense  and 
abiding  influence  which  he  has  in  fact  exercised  in  Latin 
Christianity.  This  he  owes  to  a  combination  of  dialectic 
power  with  an  earnestness  in  believing,  a  conviction  of 
the  lost  condition  of  those  who  deliberately  reject  the  gifts 
which  Christ  has  left  in  His  Church,  a  knowledge  of  the 
human  heart,  a  devoutness,  tenderness,  and  sympathy, 
such  as  has  fallen  to  the  lot  of  few.  It  would  be  too 
much  to  say  that  his  treatment  of  great  questions  is 
always  adequate  and  satisfactory.  His  extraordinary  skill 
in  reply  seems  sometimes  to  have  hidden  even  from  him- 
self the  real  force  of  the  statement  which  he  answers ;  and, 
writing  as  he  did  in  haste  and  with  warmth,  he  found  in 
cooler  moments  many  things  in  his  own  works  which  he 
wished  to  withdraw  or  modify  \  But,  take  him  for  all  in 
all,  no  writer  in  the  Latin  Church  was  ever  endowed  with 
more  brilliant  gifts  or  used  them  with  greater  zeal  for  the 
glory  of  God  than  St  Augustin. 

An  excellent  instance  of  a  man  of  wealth  and  culture 
brought  to  forsake  the  world  is  Paulinus  of  Nola^,  who 
was  born  at  Bordeaux  of  a  wealthy  and  distinguished 
Roman  family.  While  still  in  Bordeaux  he  was  a  pupil  of 
the  poet  Ausonius,  a  friend  of  his  father's.  In  379  he  was 
consul  and  everything  seemed  to  promise  him  a  brilliant 
secular  career,  when  a  new  influence  turned  him  aside. 


'  Few  writers  have  displayed  so 
much  candour  iu  acknowledging 
their  own  errors  as  St  Augustin  in 
his  Retractationcs, 

2  H.  Vaughan,  The  Life  of  the 
blessed  Paulinus  (Lond.  1654) ;  A. 
Buse,  PauUn  v.  Nola  u.   s.  Zeit; 


J.  J.  Ampere,  Hist.  Lit.  de  la 
France,  torn.  i.  p.  271  ff. ;  La- 
grange, Vie  de  St  Paitlin  (reviewed 
by  Gaston  Boissier  in  Revue  des 
deux  Moiides,  1878,  vol.  28);  A. 
Ebert,  Christ.  Lat.  Lit.  i.  284  ff. ; 
W.  Moller  Kirchengeschichte,  i.  384. 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


249 


He  was  greatly  struck  by  the  veneration  paid  to  Christian 
martyrs ;  Martin  of  Tours  and  Ambrose  gained  great  influ- 
ence on  his  mind,  and  he  was  seized  with  a  great  anxiety 
lest  the  last  day  should  overtake  him  while  engaged  in 
things  that  profit  not.  When  a  much  longed-for  child 
was  taken  away  after  a  few  days'  life,  he  and  his  wife,  who 
was  also  rich,  agreed  to  sell  that  they  had  and  give  to  the 
poor,  and  so  to  withdraw  from  the  peril  of  riches  and  from 
the  deceitful  world.  His  family  were  greatly  troubled, 
but  Martin  was  delighted  with  the  man  who  had  supplied 
an  almost  unique  example  of  obedience  to  a  hard  precept 
of  the  Gospel\  In  a  hospice  which  they  had  built  at 
Nola  he  and  his  wife  spent  their  days  in  the  most 
rigorous  self-mortification.  But  in  all  his  austerity  Pauli- 
nus  retained  his  naturally  kindly  and  genial  character. 
Friend  as  he  was  of  Jerome  and  Augustin,  he  did  not 
break  with  Rufinus  and  Pelagius.  His  writings  consist 
of  Letters  and  Poems,  often  of  great  interest  for  the 
history  of  the  time  as  well  as  for  the  life  of  the  poet  him- 
self. It  is  curious  to  see  the  utmost  rudeness  of  life 
recommended  in  the  language  of  courtly  and  artificial 
poetry ;  almost  as  if  Quakerism  had  been  preached  in  the 
style  of  Pope.  He  was  chosen  Bishop  of  Nola  in  the  year 
409,  and  died  there  in  431. 

Another  Latin  poet,  like  Paulinus  of  distinguished 
family  and  engaged  in  early  years  in  affairs  of  state,  was 
the  Spaniard  Prudentiusl  He,  feeling  as  he  grew  old 
that  the  pursuits  in  which  he  had  been  engaged  were  such 
as  profit  not  in  the  day  of  judgment,  set  himself  to  hymn, 
in  a  style  imitative  of  the  old  Roman  poets,  the  heroes  of 
the  noble  army  of  martyrs,  and  even  to  inveigh  in  verse 
against  the  enemies  of  Christian  truth. 

Leo^,  the  first  pope  of  that  name,  was  also  the  first 


^  Sulpicius  Severus,  Vita  Mar- 
tini, c.  25. 

2  J.  Brys,  Be  Vita  et  Scriptis 
Pnid.  (Louvain,  1855) ;  DclaviRiie, 
De  Lyrica  apiid  Prud.  Poesi  (Tou- 
louse 1849)  ;  C.  Brockhaus,  Pru- 
dentins's  Bedeutung  fiir  die  Kir- 
che;  A.  Ebert,  Christl.  Pat.  Lit. 
I.  243  ff.;  W.  Lock  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Biogr.  iv.  500.    Some  of  his  poems 


have  been  translated  by  the  Ecv. 
F.  St  John  Thackeray  and  others. 

'  W.  Arendt,  Leo  der  Grosse  u.  s. 
Zeit;  A.  de  St  Ch6ron,  Hist,  de 
St  Leon;  E.  Perthel,  Leo's  I.  Le- 
hen  %i.  Leliren;  A.  Ebert,  Christl. 
Lat.  Lit.  I.  447  ff.  ;  C.  Merivale, 
Lectures  on  Early  Ch.  Hist.,  Lect. 
3. 


250 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


pope  of  whom  we  know  any  literaiy  productions.  It 
was  during  his  tenure  of  the  Papacy  that  he  delivered 
the  sermons  which  have  come  down  to  us.  If  they  have 
not  Augustin's  wealth  of  thought  nor  Ambrose's  eloquence, 
they  are  written  in  a  style  which  is  good  for  its  time, 
clear,  vigorous,  and  by  no  means  common-place.  He 
attains  perhaps  his  highest  eloquence  when  he  speaks  of 
that  see  of  Rome  which  he  had  himself  done  so  much  to 
raise  to  power  over  the  Church.  Leo's  letters  are  also  of 
the  highest  interest  as  documents  of  Church  History,  but 
these  should  perhaps  be  regarded  rather  as  despatches 
from  the  papal  chancery  than  as  the  work  of  the  pope 
himself  \     In  any  case,  they  are  well  written. 

Severinus  Boethius^  a  Roman  philosopher  and  states- 
man, holds  a  place  apart  in  the  history  of  the  Church. 
Born  in  Rome,  he  rose  to  high  place  and  dignity  under 
the  gi-eat  king  of  the  East-Goths,  Theoderic.  Falling, 
however  under  suspicion  of  a  treasonable  correspondence 
with  the  court  of  Byzantium,  he  was  cast  into  prison  and 
in  the  year  525  put  to  death.  During  his  captivity  he 
wrote  his  treatise  "on  the  Consolation  of  Philosophy," 
which,  though  it  rather  breathes  the  spirit  of  the  old 
Roman  Stoicism  than  of  Christianity,  brought  to  its 
author  the  reputation  of  a  great  theologian  and  was  much 
studied  in  the  Middle  Ages,  as  the  work  of 

"That  holy  soul  who  maketh  manifest 
The  cheating  world  to  him  who  hears  aright^." 

Mediaeval  readers  probably  found  in  him  something  which 
was  wanting  in  the  Scholastic  theology.  In  Pavia,  where 
he  was  buried,  he  has  even  been  venerated  under  the  title 
of  St  Severinus,  and  the  Papal  Congregazione  dei  Riti  in 


1  Arendt,  Leo  d.  G.  p.  421. 

"^  The  principal  authorities  for 
the  life  of  Boethius  are  the  letters 
of  Cassiodorus  and  Ennodius,  and 
the  History  of  Procopius.  Modern 
writings  are  [Gervais]  Hist,  de 
Boece  (Paris,  1715);  Heyne,  Cen- 
sura  Boethii,  in  Opusc.  vi.  143;  F. 
Hand,  in  Ersch  u.  Gruber's  En- 
cyclop.  XI.  283;  Gust.  Baur,  De 
Boethio  (Darmst.  1841) ;  F.  Nitzsch, 


d.  System  d,  Boeth.  and  Boeth.  u. 
Dante;  Prietzel,  Boethius  u.  seine 
Stellung  zum  Christentum;  A.  Hil- 
debrand,  Boethius  u.  seine  Stellung 
zum  Christentum;  E.  M.  Young  in 
Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  i.  320.  Boe- 
thius's  treatise  De  Consol.  Phil. 
was  translated  by  King  Alfred. 

^  Dante, Paradise,  x.  125  (Plump- 
tre's  translation);  compare  Con- 
vito,  II.  13. 


Theology  and  Theologians. 


251 


1884  expressly  allowed  this  cultus.  His  translations  and 
explanations  of  some  of  the  treatises  of  Aristotle  greatly 
influenced  the  philosophy  of  the  Schoolmen.  It  is  doubt- 
ful whether  he  was  really  the  author  of  the  dogmatic 
treatises  attributed  to  him. 


Chap.  X. 


CHAPTER  XL 
Controversies  on  the  Faith. 

I,     Stall  dards  of  Doctrine. 

1.  The  Scriptures^  had  in  the  fourth  century,  as  in 
all  ages,  a  unique  respect.  Every  dogmatic  statement 
must  be  capable  of  proof  from  Scripture^,  and  opinions 
which  wanted  this  support  could  not  be  recognized  as 
essential  to  the  Catholic  faith.  This  universal  recognition 
of  Scripture  as  of  the  highest  authority  seems  to  presume 
that  the  limits  of  Scripture  are  exactly  known.  But  in 
fact,  though  there  was  in  ancient  times  no  very  conspicuous 
controversy  on  the  matter,  there  was  no  absolute  agree- 
ment in  all  parts  of  the  Church  as  to  the  contents  of  the 
Sacred  Canon. 

With  regard  to  the  Old  Testament,  the  most  compe- 
tent judges  among  the  ancient  Fathers  recognized  only  the 
books  of  the  Hebrew  canon  as  irrefragable,  and  regarded 
the  later  additions  of  the  Alexandrians,  contained  in  the 
Septuagint,  as  of  much  less  weight  and  value.  This  view 
prevailed  in  the  Greek  Church,  and  was  supported  by  the 
great  authority  of  Athanasius^  He  recognized  only  the 
books  of  the  Hebrew  canon  as  in  the  strictest  sense  cano- 
nical ;  others,  contained  in  the  Greek  canon,  he  held  might 
be  read  "  for  example  of  life  and  instruction  of  manners" — 
a  rule  adopted  by  the  English  Church — while  he  applied 


1  See  p.  108,  n.  1,  and  add  J. 
Kirchhofer,  Quellensamrnlung  zur 
Geschichte  des  Neutestam.  Canons; 
Overbeck,  Zur  Geschichte  des 
Canons;  Th.  Zahn,  Geschichte  des 
Neutest.  Canons. 


'  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  Catech.  iv. 
17 :  del  yap  irepl  tQu  Trjs  niffreciis 
fivaTrjpiwv  /j.7]5e  rh  rvxbv  avev  tuv 
OeLuiv  Trapadi8oa0ai  ypacpwv. 

3  Epist.  Festal,  (a.d.  365),  torn.  i. 
pt.  ii.  p.  962  (ed.  Ben.). 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


253 


the  term  "  apocrypha "  to  spurious  books  which  claimed  Chap.  XI. 
authority  under  venerable  names.  Still,  copies  of  the 
Septuagint  translation,  to  which  a  special  sanctity  was 
given  by  the  legend  of  its  origin,  continued  to  be  sent 
forth,  and  gave  currency  to  the  non-Hebrew  books  which 
formed  part  of  it,  though  it  can  scarcely  be  said  that  even 
to  this  day  the  Greek  Church  has  adopted  the  Alexandrian 
canon.  In  the  Western  Church  Rufinus'  gave  his  authority 
to  a  division  equivalent  to  that  of  Athanasius.  The  first 
class,  from  which  the  faith  is  to  be  established,  he  called 
Canonical ;  the  second  Ecclesiastical ;  the  third  Apocryphal. 
Jerome^  however  used  the  word  "Apocrypha"  so  as  to 
include  all  books  not  found  in  the  Hebrew  canon,  and  this 
is  the  sense  which  has  become  familiar  in  the  Anglican 
Church.  This  usage  is  also  adopted  in  the  so-called  six- 
tieth canon  of  the  Council  of  Laodicea^  which,  if  not 
genuine,  is  probably  an  ancient  gloss.  Still,  the  current 
Latin  Bible  was  a  translation  from  the  Septuagint,  giving 
no  indication  that  the  books  contained  in  it  were  not  all  of 
the  same  authority,  and  the  great  leaders  of  the  Latin 
Church  were  unwilling  to  draw  distinctions  which  might 
shake  the  received  tradition.  Hence  Augustin,  who  is 
followed  by  the  great  mass  of  later  Latin  writers,  cites  all 
the  books  in  question  as  alike  Scripture,  and,  when  he 
gives  a  list  of  the  books  of  which  "  the  whole  canon  of  the 
Scriptures  "  consists*,  makes  no  clear  distinction  between 
the  strictly  canonical  and  the  other  books.  It  was  doubt- 
less under  his  influence  that,  at  the  third  Council  of  Carth- 
age^  a  list  of  the  books  of  Holy  Scripture  was  agreed  upon 
in  which  the  Apocryphal  books  are  mingled  with  those  of 
the  Hebrew  canon.  From  this  period  "  usage  received  all 
the  books  of  the  enlarged  canon  more  and  more  generally 
as  equal  in  all  respects ;  learned  tradition  kept  alive  the 
distinction  between  the  Hebrew  canon  and  the  Apocrypha 
which  had  been  drawn  by  Jerome**." 

As   regards  the    New   Testament,  the  Latin  Church 
adopted  in  the  fourth  century  the  complete  canon  which 


^  Expos,  in  SyviboL,  cc.  37,  38. 

2  In  the  Prologus  Galeatus,  pre- 
fixed to  the  Books  of  Kings. 

3  Hardouin,  Cone.  i.  791. 

*  De  Doctrina  Christiana,  ii.  8. 


s  Can.  47,  in  Hardouin,  Cone.  r. 
9G8. 

"  Westcott,  Bible  in  the  Chtirdi, 
p.  190. 


254 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


is  received  at  present,  though  occasional  doubts  were  still 
expressed  as  to  the  admission  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
and  the  apocryphal  Epistle  to  the  Laodiceans  was  often 
inserted  among  those  of  St  Paul.  The  Church  of  Alex- 
andria also  received  the  full  canon  of  the  Latin  Church. 
In  the  East  generally  it  was  otherwise.  The  great  writers 
of  the  Syrian  Church  supply  no  evidence  of  the  use  of  the 
Epistle  of  Jude,  2  Peter,  2  and  3  John,  or  the  Apocaljrpse, 
while  Junilius  places  the  Epistle  of  St  James  in  the  same 
class  with  these  books  which  were  not  universally  re- 
ceived. The  Churches  of  Asia  Minor  received  generally 
all  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  contained  in  the 
African  canon  except  the  Apocalypse.  This  is  definite- 
ly excluded  from  the  list  of  Gregory  of  Nazianzus", 
and  pronounced  spurious  in  that  of  Amphilochius^  It  is 
not  included  in  the  Laodicene  canon,  nor  in  that  given  by 
Cyril  of  Jerusalem  ^  Epiphanius  however,  though  he 
notices  the  doubts  which  were  entertained  as  to  this  book, 
adopts  the  canon*  of  Africa  and  the  West,  which  includes 
it.  The  Church  of  Constantinople  does  not  seem  to  have 
recognized  it  until  a  late  period. 

Everywhere  and  by  all  schools  of  thought  the  Holy 
Scriptures  were  accepted  as  inspired,  in  a  very  special 
manner,  by  God  Himself^;  and  almost  everywhere  the 
allegorical — often  called  the  spiritual — method  of  inter- 
pretation was  adopted.  Plain  history  vanished  in  a  cloud 
of  mystic  meaning,  often  of  gi-eat  beauty.  Orthodox  and 
heretical  disputants  alike  commonly  used  this  method.  So 
clear-sighted  a  theologian  as  Athanasius  however,  though 
brought  up  in  the  very  home  of  allegory,  saw  the  necessity, 
for  any  sound  interpretation  of  St  Paul,  of  taking  account 
of  the  time  of  writing,  the  person  of  the  writer,  and  the 
matter  about  which  he  wrote''. 

2.  Besides  the  Scriptures,  it  was  generally  acknow- 
ledged that  very  great  respect  was  to  be  paid  to  the  voice 
of  the  actually  existing  Church,  to  the  developments  of  a 


1  Carmina,  xii.  31;  in  Westcott 
on  the  Canon,  574. 

2  Iambi  ad  Seleucum;  in  West- 
cott, 575. 

3  Cateches.  iv.  33. 

*  Hares.  76,  p.  941  Petav. 


5  See  Westcott's  essay  on  the 
Primitive  Doctrine  of  Inspiration, 
in  his  Introduction  to  the  Gospels, 
p.  383  ff. 

*  Orat.  c.  Arianos,  i.  54, 


r 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


255 


body  having  a  coutiuuous  and  divine  life.  In  matters  of 
ritual,  the  actual  usage  of  the  Church  was  held  sufficient 
to  justify  such  things  as  the  trine  immersion  in  baptism, 
or  the  words  of  the  Invocation  in  the  Holy  Eucharist, 
which  were  confessedly  not  found  in  Holy  Scripture*.  But 
in  matters  of  doctrine  also,  in  an  age  when  there  was  a 
fierce  war  of  parties  which  all  claimed  the  support  of  the 
Scriptures,  appeal  was  made  to  the  voice  of  the  Church 
itself  This  voice  was  found  in  the  formularies  of  faith  set 
forth  by  the  representatives  of  the  whole  Church  solemnly 
assembled  in  council.  In  the  end,  it  turned  out  not  to  be 
always  easy  to  determine  what  councils  were  to  be  held  to 
represent  the  whole  Church  I 

3.  We  have  seen  already^  that  it  was  found  necessary 
to  draw  up  short  summaries  of  the  faith  of  Christians, 
both  for  the  instruction  of  those  who  were  without  and 
for  the  confirmation  of  those  who  were  within  the  Church. 
Such  Rules  of  Faith  were  found  at  this  period  in  various 
Churches,  but  no  one  formula  was  universally  adopted  by 
the  whole  of  the  Christian  Church.  In  the  fourth  century 
this  was  changed.  The  whole  Church  by  its  representatives 
in  council  set  forth  a  confession  of  faith ^  which  was  to  be 
adopted  by  all  Catholics  throughout  the  world.  The 
Church  itself  appears  as  giving  authority  to  a  Creed,  not 
as  independent  of  Scripture,  but  as  founded  on  it.  It 
was  admitted  that  a  council  which  fairly  represented 
the  Church  at  large,  meeting  and  deliberating  as  in  God's 
sight,  might  look  for  special  guidance  and  enlightenment 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Constantino^  claims  such  guidance 
for  the  Council  of  Nicsea ;  Isidore  of  Pelusium®  speaks  of 
it  as  divinely  inspired;  Basil  the  Great^  says  that  the 
Fathers  of  Nicsea  spake  not  without  the  influence  of  the 
Holy  Spirit ;  the  Fathers  themselves  *  express  a  humble 
trust  that  what  they  have  done  is  well-pleasing  to  God  the 


^  Basil,  De  Spiritu  Sancto,  §  67, 
ed.  Bened. 

2  See  p.  196. 

8  p.  lllff.  Add  to  note,  C.  A. 
Swainson,  art.  Creed,  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Biogr.i.  695  ff. 

*  'Ei'  oKlyoi^  Tocs  (TtIxois  rb  Trfic 
doyfia  ttJs  irlareois  TrepiXa/xjSai'dyue- 
vov.    Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  Cateche.f. 


V.  12. 

»  Socrates,  H.  E.  i.  9,  p.  30. 

«  Epist.  TV.  99. 

7  Epist.  114. 

*  In  their  Synodical  Epistle, 
Theodoret,  //.  E.i.8,  p.  33.  The 
coj^y  in  Socrates  (H.  E.  i.  9,  p.  30) 
differs  somewhat  from  that  given 
by  Theodoret. 


256 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


The  Abian 

CONTEO- 


Father  in  the  Holy  Spirit.  Yet  even  St  Augustin  did  not 
regard  the  decisions  of  an  oecumenical  council  as  absolutely 
conclusive  for  all  time ;  a  later  council  may  be  called  upon 
to  amend  the  decisions  of  an  earlier*;  when  Rimini  is 
quoted  against  Nicsea,  recourse  must  be  had  to  that  which 
all  parties  acknowledge — Scripture  and  reason^ 

II.     The  Holy  Trinity. 

1.  The  greatest  dogmatic  conflict  which  the  Church 
had  to  endure  broke  out  in  the  early  part  of  the  fourth 
century.  Alius  was  a  person  of  considerable  mark  among 
the  presbyters  of  Alexandria.  He  is  described  as  a  man 
of  impressive  appearance  and  of  strictly  ascetic  life,  yet 
with  kindly  and  attractive  manner  and  bearing;  but  he 
was  charged  with  a  certain  vanity  and  lightness  of  mind. 
He  had  been  a  pupil  of  the  famous  Lucian  of  Antioch, 
who  had  been  accused  of  sharing  the  opinions  of  Paul  of 
Samosata^,  and  these  views  he  also  was  thought  to  hold. 
The  first  beginnings  of  the  strife  are  obscured  by  discrep- 
ancy of  testimony,  but  on  the  tenets  of  Arius  there  is 
practically  no  doubt.  In  his  view  the  Son  is  a  creation  out 
of  nothing  by  the  will  of  God  the  Father ;  a  divine  being, 
created  before  the  worlds,  but  still  a  creature.  As  a  father 
must  exist  before  his  son,  the  Son  of  God  is  not  co-eternal 
with  the  Father ;  there  was  a  time  when  He  was  not.  It 
was  through  Him  that  God  made  the  worlds,  yet  He  is  not  in 
His  proper  nature  incapable  of  sin,  though  by  the  exertion 
of  His  own  will  he  was  preserved  from  it^.     Against  this 


'  De  Baptismo  c.  Donatistas, 
n.  3. 

2  C.  Maximin.  Avian,  ii.  14.  3. 

3  The  original  documents  on  this 
subject  are  the  histories  of  Euse- 
bius,  Socrates,  Sozomen,  Theodo- 
ret,  and  Philostorgius.  The  last- 
named,  of  whose  work  only  an 
epitome  by  Photius  remains,  gives 
the  Arian  view.  Information  of 
the  highest  value  is  found  in  the 
works  of  Athanasius,  and  some 
fragments  of  Arian  works  are  pre- 
served; see  Fragmenta  Arianorum, 
in  Angelo  Mai's  Script.  Vet.  Nova 
Collectio,  torn.  3  (Rome,  1828).  See 
also   Epiphanius,   Hceres.   69 — 77. 


Of  modern  works  on  the  subject 
may  be  mentioned,  besides  the  prin- 
cipal Church-histories,  L.  Maim- 
bourg,  Histoire  de  VArianisme;  0. 
W.  F.  Walch,  Hist,  der  Ketzereien, 
vols.  2  and  3;  J.  H.  Newman, 
Avians  of  the  Fourth  Century ;  F.  C. 
Baur,  Lehre  von  der  Drtieinigkeit, 
I.  306—825;  J.  A.  Dorner,  Person 
Christi,  i.  773—939  (2nd  Ed.), 
trans,  by  Alexander  and  Simon; 
H.  M.  Gwatkin,  Stzidies  of  Arian- 
ism ;  A.  Harnack,  Lehrhuch  der 
Do(imengeschichte,  ii.  182 — 275. 

*  See  p.  118. 

^  Arius's  opinions  were  stated 
by  himself  in  a  letter  to  Eusebius 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


257 


Alexander,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  asserted  the  co-existence 
of  God  the  Father  and  God  the  Son  from  all  eternity; 
never  was  there  a  time  when  the  Father  was  not  the 
Father,  when  the  Son  was  not  the  Son^  Doctrines  so 
startling  as  those  of  Arius  could  not  pass  unquestioned. 
For  some  years  the  Church  in  Alexandria  was  disturbed 
by  the  disputes  which  arose  about  them.  Alexander 
probably  hoped  to  overcome  Arius  by  gentle  treatment. 
When  he  was  disappointed  in  his  hope,  Arius  was  at 
length  excommunicated  by  a  synod  of  about  one  hundred 
African  and  Libyan  bishops,  and  with  him  certain  presby- 
ters and  deacons  of  Alexandria,  while  the  Libyan  bishops 
Theonas  and  Secundus  were  deposed  from  their  offices. 

Driven  from  Alexandria,  Arius  betook  himself  to 
Palestine,  whence  he  wrote  to  his  old  fellow-student  under 
Lucian,  Eusebius  the  influential  bishop  of  Nicomedia,  who 
at  once  bestirred  himself  to  gain  adherents  for  him.  He 
was  so  successful  that  a  Bithynian  synod  under  his  influ- 
ence pronounced  in  favour  of  the  opinions  of  Arius,  and 
Eusebius  of  Ca^sarea  attempted  to  mediate  between  Alex- 
ander and  his  presbyter ^  To  whatever  influence  it  may 
have  been  due,  Arius  returned  to  Alexandria  and  resumed 
his  functions.  Several  bishops  took  his  part,  but  Alex- 
ander and  his  friends  remained  firm.  And  not  only  did 
bishop  contend  with  bishop ;  mob  contended  with  mob  in 
many  cities  of  the  East. 

It  was  at  this  critical  time  that  Constantine  overcame 
Licinius  and  became  sole  ruler  of  the  Eoman  world. 
When  the  strife  in  the  Church  came  to  his  knowledge,  he 
wrote,  or  caused  to  be  written,  a  remarkable  letter'  to 
Alexander  and  Arius.  The  discussion  appeared  to  him  a 
mere  play  of  nimble  wits,  asking  questions  which  ought  not 
to  be  asked  and  giving  answers  which  ought  not  to  be 
given;  he  begs  the  combatants  therefore  to  restore  to 
their  emperor  his  quiet  days  and  tranquil  nights  by  making 
such  mutual  concessions  as  may  restore  peace  to  the 
Church.     The  letter  however  produced  no  good  result, 


of  Nicomedia  preseryed  by  Theo- 
doret,  H.  E.  i.  5.  Compare  his 
Epist.  ad  Alexandrum,  in  Athana- 
sius,  dc  Synodo  Arim.  c.  16. 

1  See  the  letter  of  Alexander  in 


C. 


Theodoret,  i.  4,  p.  11  f. 

2  Sozomen,  H.  E.  i.  15,  p.  33. 

3  In  Eusebius,  Vita  Constant,  ii. 
64—73. 

n 


Chap.  XI. 


Sijnod  at 
Alex- 
andria, 
c.  320. 


A.D.  323. 
Constan- 
tine^s 
Letter. 


258 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


Chap.  XI. 


Athana- 


Constan- 
tine 

summons  a 
Council. 


Niccea, 
A.D.  325. 


nor  could  Hosius  of  Cordova,  the  emperor's  confidential 
adviser,  who  brought  it  to  Alexandria,  effect  a  reconcilia- 
tion between  the  opposing  parties\  There  was  one  in 
Alexandria  who,  though  his  works  belong  mainly  to  a 
later  period,  had  already  the  influence  which  his  character 
could  not  fail  to  win,  and  who  would  certainly  not  tolerate 
any  compromise  with  error.  This  was  Athanasius,  who 
was  constantly  by  the  side  of  Alexander,  and  who  main- 
tained now,  as  throughout  his  eventful  life,  with  all  his 
force  the  great  truth,  that  the  Son  was  God  from  all 
eternity,  and  that  He  became  very  Man.  It  is  to  be 
observed,  that  Athanasius  connects  the  Divinity  of  the 
Son  with  the  Redemption  of  man  much  more  prominently 
than  his  contemporaries.  How,  he  asks,  could  Christ 
make  us  partakers  of  the  Divine  nature,  if  He  were  Him- 
self only  a  partaker,  and  not  the  source  and  origin  of  it  ? 
This  lies  indeed  at  the  root  of  the  Athanasian  theology; 
in  the  Son  we  have  the  Father ;  whoso  knoweth  the  Son 
knoweth  the  Father ;  if  the  Son  be  a  creature,  we  cannot 
worship  Him^.  One  who  held  these  views  could  evidently 
not  concede  one  jot  or  one  tittle  to  the  Arians. 

Constantino's  well-meant  attempt  therefore  came  to 
nothing.  As  however  the  emperor  attached  the  utmost 
importance  to  the  unity  of  the  Church,  which  he  hoped  to 
make  the  chief  bond  of  the  unwieldy  empire,  he  deter- 
mined to  make  yet  another  effort  to  secure  it.  He 
resolved,  by  the  advice  of  Hosius,  to  invite  the  bishops  of 
the  whole  Church  to  a  council  at  Nicsea^  in  Bithynia,  not 
far  from  the  southern  shore  of  the  Black  Sea.  The  em- 
peror himself  issued  the  summonses,  placed  the  public 
posting-houses  at  the  disposal  of  the  bishops  who  journied 
to  Bithynia,  and  provided  for  their  maintenance.  From 
all  parts  ©f  the  empire  they  came,  and  even  from  beyond 
its  limits  arrived  a  Persian  and  a  Scythian ^  They  came, 
we  may  well  believe,  full  of  hope  at  the  new  prospects 
which   were   opening    to    the    Church,   and   with   some 


1  Sozomen,  H.  E.  i.  16. 

^  See,  for  example,  De  Synodis, 
c.  51 ;  c.  Arian.  Orat.  i.  10,  12,  30, 
38,  39;  II.  16,  17,  20,  24;  iii.  16. 

8  Among  the  principal  works  on 
this  Council  are,  T.  Ittig,  Hist. 
ConciUi   Nir<'')ii;    J.   Kaye,   Atha- 


nasius and  the  Council  of  Niccea; 
C.  J.  Hefele,  Conciliengeschichte,  i. 
219  ff.;  A.  P.  Stanley,  Eastern 
Church,  Lectt.  2 — 5 ;  A.  de  Broglie, 
L'Eglise  et  VEmpire,  vols.  1  and 
2. 
4  Socrates,  H.  E.  i.  8,  p.  19. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


curiosity  to  see  the  great  ruler  of  the  Roman  world.  The 
bishop  of  Rome,  who  was  precluded  by  his  advanced  age 
from  undertaking  the  journey  to  Nica?a,  was  represented  by 
two  presbyters.  His  name  does  not  appear  in  any  of  the 
documents  connected  with  the  council,  and  it  is  quite  un- 
certain whether  he  was  one  of  those  whose  advice  the 
emperor  privately  sought.  Eusebius^  reckons  the  number 
of  bishops  who  took  part  in  the  council  at  more  than  two 
hundred  and  fifty,  and  these  were  accompanied  by  a  very 
large  number  of  presbyters,  deacons,  and  other  attendants. 
Among  the  deacons  was  Athanasius.  Athanasius'^  makes 
the  whole  number  three  hundred  and  eighteen,  a  number 
which  Ambrose'  observed  with  delight  was  that  of  Abra- 
ham's trained  servants*,  and  which  has  ever  since  remained 
the  traditional  number  of  attendants  at  the  council,  so 
that  it  is  frequently  referred  to  as  "the  three  hundred  and 
eighteen."  The  Greeks  attended  in  large  numbers;  of 
the  Latins,  who  were  much  less  numerous,  the  most  dis- 
tinguished representatives  were  the  well-known  Hosius 
and  Csecilian  of  Carthage.  Many  of  those  who  were 
present  were  highly  respected  for  their  piety  and  for  the 
sufferings  which  they  had  endured  in  the  still  recent 
persecution ;  some  were  distinguished  theologians ;  some 
were  probably  simple  men  to  whom  the  very  watch- 
words of  the  contest  were  new  and  strange.  There  were 
present  also  at  some  of  the  preliminary  discussions  many 
laymen,  skilled  rhetoricians,  ready  to  advocate  the  views 
of  one  side  or  other.  It  was  the  fluent  talk  of  these 
gentlemen  which  roused  one  of  the  confessors,  himself  a 
layman,  to  declare  that  Christ  and  the  Apostles  handed 
down  to  us  no  dialectic  art  or  vain  craft,  but  simple 
maxims  guarded  by  faith  and  good  works".  It  is  not 
improbable  that  (as  Rufinus"  implies)  even  heathen  philo- 
sophers took  part  in  these  informal  debates. 

The  great  assembly  met  in  the  largest  room  of  the 
palace  at  Nicsea,  in  which  there  was  placed  at  one  end  a 
gilded  chair  for  the  emperor,  while  the  seats  of  the  bishops 
were  arranged  on  each  side.     When  the  members  of  the 


1  Vita  Constant,  in.  8. 
^  Epist.  ad  Afros,  c.  2. 
'  Epist.  ad  Gratian.  De  Fide,  i. 
prol.  3. 


•*  Gen.  xiv.  14. 

B  Socrates,  H.  E.  i.  8,  p.  19. 

«  Hist.  Eccl.  X.  3. 

17—2 


260 


Controve7's{es  on  the  Faith. 


council  were  placed,  the  emperor,  in  splendid  robes,  en- 
tered the  hall,  without  military  guard,  and  passed  with 
stately  tread  to  the  seat  placed  for  him,  in  which  however 
he  did  not  place  himself  until  some  of  the  bishops  mo- 
tioned him  to  do  so.  When  he  was  seated,  one  of  the 
bishops — either  Eusebius  of  Csesarea^  or  Eustathius  of 
Antioch^ — rose  and  addressed  him.  When  this  address 
was  ended,  Constantine  rose,  and  with  a  pleasant  counte- 
nance and  in  a  gentle  voice  made  his  reply,  thanking  God 
for  having  permitted  him  to  see  the  representatives  of  the 
Church  brought  together  into  one  assembly,  and  earnestly 
entreating  his  hearers  to  maintain  the  peace  and  harmony 
which  became  the  ministers  of  God^.  On  concluding  his 
speech — which  was  in  Latin,  and  was  at  once  rendered 
into  Greek  by  an  interpreter — he  handed  over  the  conduct 
of  the  meeting  to  the  presidents  and  left  the  hall.  Who 
the  presidents  {irpoehpot)  were  is  uncertain.  It  is  natural 
to  suppose  that  Hosius  of  Cordova,  who  was  the  emperor's 
confidant,  and  whose  name  stands  first  among  the  signa- 
tures to  the  decrees,  was  at  any  rate  one  of  them.  Others 
were  probably  the  prelates  of  the  two  great  sees  of  Alex- 
andria and  Antioch,  Alexander  and  Eustathius ;  perhaps 
also  Eusebius  of  Csesarea. 

There  were  three  groups  in  the  assembly;  the  small 
party  of  Arians,  under  the  guidance  of  Eusebius  of  Nico- 
media;  the  party  of  Alexander,  to  which  the  Western 
bishops  generally  belonged;  and  the  moderate  men, 
who  looked  upon  Eusebius  of  Csesarea  as  their  leader. 
It  was  acknowledged  on  all  hands  that  the  council  was 
bound  to  produce  such  an  authoritative  statement  of  the 
true  faith  as  might  serve  to  guide  the  minds  of  believers 
in  their  present  perplexity.  The  party  who  were  soon 
called  Eusebians,  from  their  leader  the  bishop  of  Nicome- 
dia,  first  proposed  a  form  of  Creed  which  was  little  less 
than  undisguised  Arianism.  When  this  had  been  rejected 
with  indignation,  Eusebius  of  Csesarea  put   forward   for 


1  Sozomen,  i.  17. 

2  Theodoret,  i.  6.  The  extant 
oration  however  said  to  have  been 
delivered  by  Eustathius  on  this  oc- 
casion (see  Fabricius,  Bihl.  Gnec. 
ix.  p.  132  ff.)  is  unquestionably  of 
much  later  date  than  the  council. 


and  Bishop  Lightfoot  (Bid.  Chr. 
Biogr.  ii.  313)  has  no  doubt  that 
Eusebius  was  the  orator. 

2  Eusebius,  Vita  Const,  in.  12; 
Sozomen,  i,  19;  Socrates,  i.  8; 
Theodoret,  H.  E.  i.  7. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


adoption  the  Creed  which  he  had  himself  received  as  a 
catechumen  and  taught  as  a  presbyter  and  a  bishop ^ 
This  was  drawn  up  in  terms  either  actually  Scriptural  or 
already  familiar  to  the  Church.  The  emperor  approved 
it;  the  council  at  first  said  nothing  against  it.  But  it 
did  not  in  set  terms  repudiate  Arian  doctrine.  Alex- 
ander and  his  friends  consequently  insisted  on  the  inser- 
tion of  more  exact  definitions,  and  this  was  supported  by 
the  earnest  eloquence  and  keen  dialectics  of  Athanasius. 
After  several  proposals  and  long  debates  a  formula  was  at 
length  arrived  at  to  which  all  but  a  very  small  minority 
were  content  to  subscribe^.  This  differs  in  several  parti- 
culars from  the  Creed  with  which  we  are  familiar  under 
the  name  "Nicene."  The  beginning  of  the  second  clause 
ran  thus: — "And  in  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God,  begotten  from  the  Father  only-born,  that  is  from  the 
essence  of  the  Father,  God  from  God,  Light  from  Light, 
Very  God  from  Very  God,  begotten,  not  made,  of  one  and 
the  same  essence  with  the  Father;  through  Whom  all 
things  were  made."  And  the  Creed,  which  ends  with  the 
words  "and  in  the  Holy  Ghost,"  was  followed  by  an  ana- 
thema on  those  who  say  that  there  was  a  time  when  the 
Son  was  not,  that  before  He  was  begotten  He  was  not, 
that  He  came  into  being  out  of  things  that  were  not ; 
and  on  those  who  allege  that  He  is  of  a  different 
substance  or  essence  from  God  [the  Father]  and  is 
capable  of  being  created  or  changed  or  altered.  In  a 
word,  all  the  characteristic  opinions  of  the  Arians  were 
condemned.  To  this  Creed  nearly  all  the  bishops  who 
were  present  assented,  some — as  Eusebius  of  Csesarea 
— with  great  reluctance.  Only  two  refused  at  the  time 
to  accept  it,  but  two  others — Eusebius  of  Nicomedia 
and  Theognis  of  Nicsea — continued  to  hold  communion 
Avith  Arius.  The  latter  was  condemned,  and  banished  by  a 
decree  of  the  emperor,  who  endeavoured  to  fix  upon  him 
and  his  adherents  the  nick-name  "  Porphyiian,"  from 
Porphyry,  the  well-known  pagan  enemy  of  the  faith  of 
Christl 


1  Theodoret,  i.  12,  p.  38. 

2  This  is  found  in  the  letter  of 
Eusebius  to  the  peoijle  of  Ctesarea, 
given  in  Theodoret,  H.  E.  i.   12, 


p.  38  f.;   Socrates,  i.  8,  p.  24;  in 
Mansi,  Cone.  ii.  916 ;  Hahn's  Bihlio- 
thek,  p.  78  ff. 
3  Socrates,  i.  9,  p.  31. 


262 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


It  might  have  been  expected  that  the  ahnost  luiauimous 
decision  of  such  an  assembly  as  that  of  Nicaea  would  have 
put  an  end  to  the  strife.  This  was  however  very  far  from 
being  the  case ;  it  was  rather  the  beginning  than  the  end. 
The  West  indeed  generally  accepted  the  Nicene  Faith,  but 
in  the  East  there  arose  opponents  of  it  in  almost  every 
city.  It  was  not  that  all  these  sympathized  with  the 
views  of  Arius,  but  that  a  large  party  in  the  Church 
was  reluctant  to  receive  a  document  which  described 
the  mysteries  of  the  faith  in  other  than  Scriptural  terms, 
and  which  even  adopted  a  word  (o/xoovo-io'i)  which  had 
been  condemned  by  a  provincial  council  as  favouring  the 
views  of  Paul  of  Samosata,  who  denied  the  Divinity  of 
the  Son  altogether  \  This  party  was  commonly  called 
Semiarian.  Eusebius  of  Csesarea  however,  its  leader, 
was  himself  orthodox  ^  He  expressly  repudiates  the 
two  main  theses  of  Arius,  that  the  Word  was  a  creature 
and  that  there  was  a  time  when  He  was  not^.  The 
opposition  to  the  Nicene  decision  was  moreover  strength- 
ened by  the  fact  that  the  views  of  the  emperor  himself 
changed,  probably  under  the  influence  of  his  sister 
Constantia,  a  disciple  of  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia.  This 
prelate  kept  up  a  vigorous  agitation  against  Athanasius, 
who  had  become  bishop  of  Alexandria,  and  several  re- 
spected bishops  took  the  side  of  Arius,  who  had  meantime 
diffused  his  views  in  a  popular  work  called  Thalia.  Arius 
was  allowed  to  submit  to  the  emperor  a  statement  of  his 
belief  which  avoided  the  particular  terms  which  had  given 
most  offence.  Constantine  was  still  bent  upon  promoting 
unity ;  and  he  seems  to  have  been  led  to  believe  that  it 
would  conduce  to  this  end  if  both  Athanasius  and  his 
active  supporter  Eustathius  were  removed  from  the 
positions  which  they  occupied.  Eustathius  was  deposed 
and  banished  in  the  year  330,  and  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia 
then  proceeded  to  attack  Athanasius  by  stirring  up  against 
him  all  the  discontented  in  his  own  diocese,   especially 


1  See  p.  118,  n.  3.  The  word 
ofjioovaios  first  occurs  in  Irenseus's 
account  of  the  Valentinians,  Hceres. 
I.  5.  §  1. 

2  Bishop  Bull  and  Dr  Cave  are 
among  Ins  defenders,  and  even  Dr 
Newman   admits   {ArianK,  p.  2G2) 


that  there  is  nothing  in  his  works 
to  convict  him  of  heresy. 

*  C.  Marcelhim,  i.  4,  p.  22;  De 
Eccl.  Theol.  i.  2,  3,  p.  61  f.,  ib.  8, 
9,  10,  p.  66  f.;  Theoph.  ii.  3.  See 
Lifjhtfoot,  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  ii. 
317. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


263 


the  Meletians',  who  thought  that  they  were  aggl•ieved^ 
Athanasius  however  was  able  to  defend  himself  successfully 
before  the  emperor  against  these  attacks.  But  his  enemies 
gave  him  no  rest,  and  in  the  year  335  he  had  to  appear 
before  a  synod  convened  by  the  emperor  at  Tyre*,  at 
which  sixty  bishops,  mainly  Eusebians,  were  present. 
This  synod  deposed  Athanasius  from  his  see,  and  the 
bishops  who  composed  it,  proceeding  to  Jerusalem  for  the 
consecration  of  the  church  of  the  Anastasis  which  the 
emperor  had  built,  declared  themselves  favourable  to  the 
recall  of  Arius  *.  Athanasius  meantime  had  presented  him- 
self before  the  emperor  at  Constantinople,  and  his  visit  had 
at  first  the  effect  which  his  remarkable  personal  influence 
seldom  failed  to  produce.  But  when  his  opponents  ap- 
peared, and  alleged  against  him  that  he  had  boasted  that 
he  was  able  to  prevent  the  usual  fleet  of  corn-ships  from 
leaving  the  harbour  of  Alexandria,  the  emperor  changed 
his  mind,  and  sentenced  him  to  be  banished  to  Treves. 
Preparations  were  made  for  the  solemn  restitution  of  Arius 
to  his  office  in  Alexandria,  which  were  however  stopped  by 
his  sudden  death.  After  the  death  of  Constantine  Atha- 
nasius returned  to  his  see,  but  the  influence  of  Eusebius 
of  Nicomedia,  who  had  been  raised  by  Constantius,  the 
new  ruler  of  the  East,  to  the  throne  of  Constantinople, 
rendered  his  position  untenable.  He  was  compelled  to 
give  place  to  an  intruding  bishop,  Gregory,  who  was  thrust 
upon  the  exasperated  Alexandrians  by  actual  armed  force. 
He  was  kindly  received  in  his  exile  by  Julius,  bishop  of 
Rome.  At  Rome  too  Marcellus^  bishop  of  Ancyra,  who 
had  been  at  Nictea  one  of  the  most  ardent  defenders  of 
the  Homoousian  creed,  was  hospitably  entertained.     In  his 


1  See  above,  p.  151. 

2  Epiphanius(7/(P)Ts.68,p.  72.3a) 
seems  to  imply  that  Athanasius 
dealt  roughly  with  them — "7)^07- 
Kal^ev,  e|3tdf ero." 

3  Athanasius,  Apol.  11.;  Socrates, 
I.  28ff. ;  Sozomen,  II.  25  ;  Theodo- 
ret,  I.  28  ff.  Documents  in  Har- 
douin,  Cone.  i.  539  ff. ;  a  good 
summary  in  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.,  1. 
353  (ed.  Basel,  1741). 

^  Athanasius,  Aj)ol.  11.;  Socrates, 
I.  28  f.;  Sozomen,  11.  25;  Theodo- 


ret,  I.  29 ff.;  Hardouin  i.  551  ff. 

5  The  views  of  Marcellus  are 
known  princijially  from  the  two 
treatises  of  Eusebius  of  Ctesarea 
(c.  Marcelluvi  and  De  Theolopia 
Eccl.)  against  him.  See  also  Cyril 
of  Jerusalem,  Catech.  xv.  27 — 33 ; 
Epiphanius,  Hares.  72.  Modern 
works  on  him  are:  H.  Eettberg, 
Marcelliana  (Gottingen,  1794) ;  Th. 
Zahn,  Marcell  von  Ancyra;  also 
his  art.  in  Herzog's  R.  E.  p.  279 
(2nd  ed.). 


264 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


horror  of  Aiianism,  this  prelate  seems  to  have  fallen  into  a 
doctrine  too  nearly  resembling  Sabellianism.  He  repre- 
sented the  Word  in  such  a  way  that  He  did  not  appear  as 
the  Second  Person  in  the  Godhead,  the  Son  from  all  eternity. 
The  name  "  Son  "  is  properly  given  to  Him  (in  this  view) 
only  so  far  as  He  was  incarnate,  not  in  His  proper  nature. 
Doubtless  the  Word  proceeded  forth  from  God,  and  in  His 
humanity  was  a  distinct  Person ;  but  He  is  destined,  when 
He  shall  have  delivered  up  the  Kingdom  to  GoD  the 
Father,  again  to  be  absorbed  into  the  Divine  Unity.  The 
synod  at  Constantinople  in  336  condemned  his  doctrine 
and  deposed  him  from  his  office.  Like  Athanasius,  he 
returned  to  his  see  on  the  death  of  Constantine,  and  like 
him  he  was  compelled  to  flee  for  refuge,  which  he  found  at 
Rome.  Here  he  presented  to  the  bishop  his  confession  of 
faith,  in  terms  practically  identical  with  the  creed  of 
Rome\  and  was  admitted  to  communion. 

When  it  became  known  in  the  East  that  men  deprived 
of  office  by  Eastern  synods  had  been  admitted  to  com- 
munion at  Rome,  great  dissatisfaction  arose.  An  important 
synod  was  held  at  Antioch  (known  as  the  "Dedication- 
Synod,"  from  the  circumstance  that  the  bishops  composing, 
it  attended  the  dedication  of  a  church  in  that  city),  the 
canons  of  which  were  afterwards  adopted  into  the  universal 
code.  At  this  assembly  no  less  than  four  confessions  of 
faith  were  produced ^  the  second  of  which — known  as 
Lucian's — without  using  the  word  Homoousios,  repudiated 
in  the  strongest  terms  the  characteristic  doctrine  of  the 
Arians  with  regard  to  the  Person  of  the  Son,  while  the 
third  condemned  the  opinions  of  Marcellus,  who  is  classed 
with  Sabellius  and  Paul  of  Samosata.  This  synod  con- 
firmed the  sentence  passed  at  Tyre  upon  Athanasius,  and 
condemned  generally  any  bishop  who,  being  deposed  by  a 
synod,  should  appeal  to  another  synod  of  the  same  kind,  or 
to  the  emperor^.  In  the  winter  of  the  same  year  pope 
Julius  held  the  council,  of  which  he  had  some  months  before 
given  notice  to  the  Eastern  prelates,  in  Rome\     Athana- 


1  Epiphanius,  Hares.  72,  c.  3, 
p.  836.  The  creed  of  Marcellns 
may  conveniently  be  compared  with 
the  Eoman  in  Heurtley's  Harmonia 
Symholica,  p.  21  ff,,  or  Hahn's 
Bibliothek,  p.  13  f .   See  also  Lumby, 


Creeds,  p.  122. 

2  Hahn's    Bibliothek,    pp.     184, 
103  ff. 

3  Canons  4  and  12. 

*  Sijnodical  Epistle  in  Hardouin 
I.  609  ff. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith 


265 


sius,  after  a  full  examination  of  the  charges  against  him, 
was  pronounced  innocent,  and  his  right  to  communicate 
with  the  Roman  Church  fully  recognized.  Marcellus  was 
declared  orthodox.  There  was  thus  a  clear  divergence  of 
the  West  fi-om  the  East. 

With  a  view  of  putting  an  end  to  this  dissension,  the 
two  emperors,  Constans  and  Constantius,  agreed  to  call  a 
Council  at  Sardica^ — S^fia  in  Bulgaria — on  the  frontiers 
of  the  two  empires,  but  in  the  dominion  of  the  Western. 
This  however  was  far  from  promoting  unity.  No  sooner 
did  the  Eastern  clergy  who  were  present  learn  that  their 
Western  brethren  intended  to  treat  Athanasius  and  Mar- 
cellus as  lawful  bishops  than  they  left  the  council  and 
assembled  separately  at  Philippopolis.  Those  who  remained 
at  Sardica  again  acquitted  Athanasius  of  the  charges 
against  him,  and  passed  sentence  of  deposition  against 
some  of  the  most  prominent  bishops  of  the  opposing  party. 
Those  who  assembled  at  Philippopolis,  on  the  other  hand, 
sent  out  to  the  bishops  of  their  party,  and  to  the  clergy  in 
general,  a  letter^  explaining  their  position,  and  condemning 
the  conduct  of  Athanasius  and  Marcellus.  To  this  was 
appended  a  confession  of  their  faith',  founded  on  the  fourth 
of  those  which  had  been  produced  at  Antioch.  They  con- 
demned the  opinions  of  Arius  and  those  of  Marcellus  alike. 

The  bishops  of  the  East,  assembled  at  Antioch,  feeling 
that  they  were  regarded  with  suspicion  in  the  Western 
Church  as  inclining  to  Arianism,  again  endeavoured  to 
clear  themselves  from  the  charge.  In  an  Exposition  of 
their  Faith,  which  from  its  length  came  to  be  known  as 
the  Prolix  Exposition,  they  expressed  their  belief  in  "  the 
only-born  Son  of  GoD,  begotten  of  the  Father  before  all 
ages ;  God  from  God,  Light  from  Light ;  through  Whom 
all  things  were  made;"  and  they  anathematized  those  who 
affirmed  that  the  Son  was  made  from  nothing  (e^  ovk 
ovTcov),  or  from  a  different  substance  (e^  erepa<i  viroGTo.- 
creo)?),  or  that  there  was  a  time  when  He  was  not.  The 
ninth  chapter  of  the  Prolix  Exposition  might  indeed  be 


1  On  the  canons  of  Sardica,  see 
above,  p.  187,  n.  3 ;  on  the  date,  see 
Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  p.  1842;  Diet. 
Chr.  liiofir.  i.  190;  Mansi,  m.  87  ff. 
The  original  authorities  are  Socra- 


tes, II.  20;  Sozomen,  iii.  12. 

-  Hardouin,  i.  671  ff. ,  from  Hilary, 
De  Stjnodis,  c.  34. 

3  In  Hahn,  p.  107  f. 


Chap.  XI. 


Council  of 
Sardica, 
3-44  (?) 


Philip- 
popolis. 


345. 


Prolix  Ex- 
position. 


266 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


considered  as  a  paraphrase  of  the  word  Homoousios.  But 
they  also  condemned  those  who  said  that  it  was  not  by 
wishing  or  willing  that  the  Father  begat  the  Son.  In  this 
they  condemned  the  Athanasians,  who  held  that  the  eternal 
generation  of  the  Son  is  of  the  essence  of  the  Father,  as 
inseparable  from  Him  as  His  holiness  or  His  wisdom.  To 
say  that  the  Son  was  produced  by  the  wish  or  will  of  the 
Father  seemed  to  them  to  approach  perilously  near  to 
saying  that  He  was  a  creature — though  against  this  conclu- 
sion the  bishops  at  Antioch  had  expressly  guarded  them- 
selves. The  Eastern  bishops  seem  to  have  been  genuinely 
anxious  to  find  terms  of  agreement  with  their  Western 
brethren,  and  they  were  certainly  very  far  from  holding 
those  opinions  of  Arius  which  had  been  condemned ;  but 
no  reconciliation  was  effected.  A  Western  council  at 
Milan  rejected  their  overture. 

They  also  found  themselves  under  the  necessity  of  con- 
demning a  new  heresy,  that  of  Photinus\  He  was  a  fellow- 
countryman  and  disciple  of  Marcellus,  and  the  Antiochene 
sentence  of  condemnation  seems  to  attribute  to  him  little 
or  nothing  beyond  the  views  of  his  master.  As  however 
the  Western  council  at  Milan  also  condemned  Photinus 
while  it  protected  Marcellus,  it  seems  probable  that  he 
maintained  not  merely  that  the  Son  had  no  personal 
existence  from  eternity,  but  that  Christ  was  simply  a  man, 
destined  by  God  to  a  unique  work,  and  so  wrought  upon 
by  His  inworking  as  to  attain  divine  excellence'''. 

The  emperor  Constantius  had  hitherto  been  unfriendly 
to  Athanasius  and  his  party.  At  last,  hard  pressed  by  the 
Persians  and  anxious  at  all  costs  to  restore  peace  in  his 
dominions,  he  permitted  the  great  bishop  to  return  to 
Alexandria,  where  meanwhile  the  intruder  Gregory  had 
died.  He  was  received  with  a  tumult  of  joy  by  his  faith- 
ful people.  The  Orientals  were  dissatisfied  at  the  restora- 
tion of  Athanasius  without  the  decree  of  a  council,  but 
otherwise  the  difference  between  the  opposing  parties  seems 
at  this  time  to  have  been  reduced  to  two  points — the 
refusal  of  the  Western  bishops  to  condemn  Marcellus,  and 


1  Of  Photinus's  writings  not 
even  fragments  are  preserved.  His 
opinions  are  gathered  from  Epi- 
phanius,  Hares.  71,  and  from  the 


condemnations  of  councils. 

2  A.  Harnack,  Dofimcn-Gesch.  ii. 
242,  n.  1.  But  see  Zahu,  Marcell, 
p.  192. 


Gontrovei'sies  on  the  Faith. 


267 


the  continued  rejection  by  the  Easterns  of  the  word  Ho- 
moonsios.  Those  opinions  of  Arius  which  had  been  con- 
demned at  Nicsea  were  ahnost  everywhere  rejected. 

But  the  death  of  Constans  brought  about  a  great 
change  in  the  politics  of  the  time.  Constantius  had  paid 
a  certain  deference  to  his  brother,  who  favoured  Atha- 
nasius ;  now  he  asserted  his  independence,  and  perhaps 
wished  to  repay  the  humiliation  which  he  thought  he  had 
suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  Western  bishops.  A  synod 
which  met  at  Sirmium  in  351  put  forth  a  Confession  of 
Faith  ^  identical  with  the  fourth  of  Antioch,  and  deposed 
Photinus,  who  had  up  to  this  time  remained  in  possession 
of  the  see  of  Sirmium.  To  the  Confession  was  appended  a 
long  series  of  anathemas,  in  the  eighteenth  of  which  the 
Son  is  expressly  declared  to  be  subordinate  to  the  Father 
(inTOTeTaj/u,evo<;).  This  was  not  generally  accepted  in  the 
West,  though  so  high  an  authority  as  Hilary''^  of  Poictiers 
thought  it  compatible  with  orthodoxy.  When,  shortly 
afterwards,  Constantius  became,  by  his  victory  over  the 
usurper  Magnentius,  the  sole  ruler  of  the  empire,  he  acted 
with  more  vigour  and  decision  in  the  affairs  of  the  Church. 
From  synods  assembled  at  Arles^  and  Milan^he  succeeded 
in  extorting  the  condemnation  of  Athanasius  as  a  rebel, 
leaving  the  theological  question  for  the  present  out  of 
sight.  The  orthodox  were  not  compelled  to  accept  any 
new  formula  of  belief,  but  the  more  sharp-sighted  among 
them  could  not  fail  to  be  aware  that  in  the  condemnation 
of  Athanasius  lurked  more  than  a  personal  question.  The 
few  bishops  who  refused  to  concur — Paulinus  of  Treves, 
Eusebius  of  Vercelli,  Lucifer  of  Cagliari,  and  Dionysius 
of  Milan — were  driven  into  exile,  and  to  these  were  soon 
added  Liberius  of  Rome,  Hilary  of  Poictiers,  and  the  aged 
Hosius  of  Cordova.  Early  in  the  year  356  his  sentence  of 
deposition  was  formally  communicated  to  Athanasius,  who 
at  once  withdrew  into  the  wilderness  and  was  lost  to  sight. 
He  was  beyond  the  emperor's  power,  for  no  one  would 
earn  the  price  put  upon  his  head  by  betraying  him  to  his 


1  111  Athanasius,  De  Synodis, 
c.  27  ;  Socrates,  ii.  30;  Hahn, 
p.  115;  Hardouin,  i.  701. 

=  De  Synodis,  c.  37ff. 

3  Sulpicius    Severus,    Citron,    ii. 


39.  2;  Hilar.  Pictav.  Lib.  ad  Con- 
stant. 

■*  Athanasius,  Hist.  Avian,  ad 
Monach.  Socrates,  ii.  3G;  Sozo- 
men,  iv.  9;  Hardouin,  i.  607. 


CUAP.  XI. 


Death  of 
Co7istans, 
350. 


First 
Sinn  i  an 
Formula, 
351. 


Fall  of 
Magnen- 
tius, 353. 


Synods  of 
Aries,  353, 
3Iilan, 
355. 


Athana- 
sius's 
Third 
Exile, 
Feb.  856. 


268 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


Chap.  XI. 


A  etius, 
Eunomius, 

Anomoe- 
ans. 


Homoiou- 
sians. 


enemies.  George  of  Cappadocia  was  brought  into  Alex- 
andria by  force  of  arms  as  his  successor.  The  unity  of  the 
Church  seemed  to  be  restored ;  the  emperor  seemed  to  be 
supreme  over  it ;  the  party  opposed  to  Athanasius  seemed 
to  be  completely  victorious. 

But  in  fact  the  political  victory  of  the  Eastern  bishops 
brought  about  their  ruin.  No  sooner  was  the  pressure  of 
adversity  removed  than  the  anti-Nicene  party  flew  asunder. 
They  had  only  been  united  by  their  hostility  to  Athanasius 
and  the  Homoousion.  The  real  Arianism,  the  Ai'ianism 
which  had  been  condemned  at  Nicsea,  started  once  more 
into  full  view,  Aetius*  and  Eunomius"'',  keen  and  ruthless 
dialecticians,  carried  it  to  its  logical  issue  and  declined  all 
compromise  with  orthodoxy.  These  "  Anomojans  "  declared 
that  the  Son  was  different  in  essence  from  the  Father, 
unlike  (aVoyLtoto?)  in  essence  and  in  all  respects.  However 
superior  the  Son  might  be  to  the  other  parts  of  creation, 
He  was  still  created.  The  great  majority  of  the  Oriental 
theologians  did  not  share  these  views.  They  maintained 
that  the  Son  was  like  (o/xoio<;)  the  Father  in  esseuce  and 
in  all  respects,  and  that  His  Eternal  Generation  was  by  no 
means  an  act  of  creation*.  But  they  declined — alarmed, 
perhaps,  by  the  theories  of  Marcellus — to  admit  that  the 
Father  and  the  Son  are  of  one  and  the  same  essence.  The 
leaders  of  this  Homoiousian  party  were  George  of  Laodicea, 
Eustathius  of  Sebaste,  Eusebius  of  Emesa,  and  Basil  of 
Ancyi'a,  and  their  views  made  some  impression  even  upon 
eager  advocates  of  the  Nicene  doctrines,  like  Hilary  of 
Poictiers*,  who  were  in  exile  among  them. 

The  emperor  was  still  eager  for  unity  at  any  price,  and 
the  court-party  among  the  bishops — especially  the  pliant 
Ursacius  of  Singidunum  and  Valens  of  Mursa,  with  Acacius 
of  Cajsarea  and   Eudoxius  of  Antioch — were  anxious  to 


1  Epiphanius,  Hares.  76,  c.  10, 
p.  924  ff.;  Gregory  Nyssen,  c.  Eu- 
nomium,  i.  6;  J.  A.  Fabricius, 
Biblioth.  Grceca,  ix.  227  ff.  (ed. 
Harless). 

2  The  treatises  of  Basil  and 
Gregory  Nyssen  against  Euno- 
mius; Socrates,  iv.  7 ;  Sozomen,  vi. 
8,  26  ;  Philostorgius  iii.  20 ;  rv.  8, 
9;  V.  3;  VI.  5,  4;  Fabricius,  Bibl. 
Gr.  IX.    207  ff.     C.  R.  W.  Klose, 


Gcschichte  unci  Lehre  des  Euno- 
mius (Kiel,  1833). 

^  Athanasius  himself  admitted 
{Be  Synodis,  c.  41)  that  the  ex- 
pression ofMoios  Kar'  ovalav,  taken 
in  connexion  with  the  distinction 
drawn  between  begetting  and  cre- 
ating, was  capable  of  an  orthodox 
interpretation. 

*  As  is  evident  from  his  De  Sy- 
nodis. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


269 


devise  a  formula  which  should  unite  Homoeans  and  Ano- 
moeans.  By  a  third  Sirmian  council,  at  which  the  emperor 
was  present,  the  words  Homoousios  and  Homoiousios  were 
absolutely  forbidden,  as  not  contained  in  Scripture,  and  as 
attempting  to  define  matters  above  the  reach  of  man's 
understanding \  The  subordination  of  the  Son  was  again 
affirmed.  This  formula  was  mainly  the  work  of  Western 
bishops,  hitherto  the  great  champions  of  orthodoxy,  but  it 
was  highly  displeasing  in  the  East.  Constantius  seems 
in  some  way  to  have  been  won  over  to  the  views  of  the 
more  moderate  party,  and  a  fourth  Sirmian  council  put 
forth  as  their  Faith  that  which  had  been  set  forth  at  the 
Dedication-Council  of  Antioch  in  the  year  341,  together 
with  the  condemnation  of  Paul  of  Samosata  and  Photinus 
which  had  been  agreed  upon  at  Sirmium  ten  years  later^ 

In  the  year  858  the  exiled  Liberius  bought  his  return 
to  Rome  by  subscribing  (to  use  his  own  words)  "  the  true 
Catholic  Faith  received  at  Sirmium  by  many  brethren 
and  fellow-bishops,"  and  repudiating  Athanasius\  What 
was  the  formula  which  he  subscribed,  whether  the  First 
or  the  Second  of  Sirmium,  has  been  matter  of  vehement 
dispute.  It  is  however  hardly  possible  to  suppose  that 
the  indignation  which  Hilary*  expresses  against  the  weak- 
ness of  the  Roman  bishop  can  have  been  called  forth  by 
his  having  accepted  a  formula  which  he  himself  thought 
compatible  with  orthodoxy.  He  must  therefore  have  sub- 
scribed the  Second.  Hosius  was  also  allowed  to  return 
home  on  accepting  this  formula,  which  he  did  under 
durance,  but  without  repudiating  Athanasius^ 

The  emperor  however  was  still  dissatisfied.  He  de- 
signed that  a  great  synod  under  his  own  influence  should 
devise  a  formula  in  which  the  various  parties  might  agree. 


1  Socrates,  ii.  30,  p.  128;  Atha- 
nasius,  De  Synodis,  c.  28;  the 
original  Latin  in  Hilary,  De  Sy- 
nodis, c.  11.     Hahn,  p.  119. 

2  Sozomen,  H.  E.  iv.  15,  p.  150. 
^  Of  the  fall  of  Liberius  there  is 

the  most  express  and  undoubted 
testimony  in  Athanasius,  Hist. 
Arian.  41;  Apol.  c.  Arian.  89; 
Hilary,  c.  Constantium,  11;  Sozo- 
men IV.  15;  Jerome,  De  Viris  II- 
lust.  97. 


"*  Fragment  vi.,  where  Liberius's 
own  letter  is  given  with  Hilary's 
comments.  The  genuineness  of 
this  letter  is  admitted  by  almost 
all  the  most  distinguished  histo- 
rians and  critics  from  Baronius  to 
Dr  Dbllinger  and  Cardinal  New- 
man. 

^  Athanasius,  Hist.  Arian.  44. 
See  T.  D.  C.  Morse  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Bioqr.  ni.  171  ff. 


Chap.  XI. 

Second 
Sirmian 
Formula, 
357. 


Third 
Sirmian 
Formula, 
358. 


Fall  of 
Liberius, 

358. 


270 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


Chap.  XI. 

Council  of 

Rimini, 

359. 


Council  at 
Nice,  359. 


Formula  of 
Rimini. 


Synod  of 
Seleucia, 
359. 


What  actually  came  to  pass  however  was  not  one  synod 
but  two.  In  May,  359,  four  hundred  Western  bishops  as- 
sembled at  Rimini^  who  were  required  by  the  emperor  to 
debate  only  matters  of  doctrine,  and  forbidden  to  separate 
until  they  should  have  arrived  at  a  conclusion.  Ursacius 
and  Valens  however,  who  acted  as  the  emperor's  ministers 
in  ecclesiastical  affairs,  were  at  first  altogether  unable  to 
carry  out  his  wish  that  the  formula  lately  settled  at  Sir- 
mium  should  be  accepted.  The  great  majority  of  the 
assembly  held  firmly  to  the  faith  of  Nicsea,  condemned 
Arianism  and  deposed  its  friends — including  Ursacius  and 
Valens — from  their  sees.  But  the  delegates  who  carried 
the  decrees  of  the  synod  to  the  emperor,  without  being 
admitted  to  an  audience,  were  carried  by  Ursacius  and  his 
friends  to  Nice''  in  Thrace,  where  a  small  council  was  held, 
which  was  compelled  or  persuaded  to  accept  a  formula — 
known  as  that  of  Nice — in  all  its  main  points  identical 
with  that  to  which  the  Western  bishops  had  assented  at 
Sirmium  two  years  before.  This  declared  the  Son  "  like 
the  Father  Who  begat  Him  according  to  the  Scriptures, 
Whose  begetting  no  man  knows  but  the  Father  Who 
begat  Him."  Bearing  this  confession,  and  still  carrying 
with  them  the  delegates,  Ursacius  and  Valens  returned  to 
Rimini,  where  by  mingled  threats  and  persuasions  they 
caused  the  weary  and  terrified  bishops  to  accept  it. 

Meantime,  an  Oriental  s_yaiod  had  assembled  at  Seleu- 
cia I  The  Homoiousians,  with  whom  some  of  the  Nicene 
party  had  made  common  cause,  were  in  the  majority, 
among  them  being  the  much-respected  Hilary  of  Poictiers, 
then  in  exile  in  the  East ;  but  the  minority  of  decided 
Arians,  under  the  leadership  of  Acacius  and  Eudoxius, 
was  still  considerable.  Passion  ran  high  in  the  council, 
and  the  majority  ended  by  passing  sentence  of  deposition 


1  Socrates,  ii.  37 ;  Sozomen,  iv. 
17,  IH,  19;  Theodoret,  H.  E.  ii. 
18  ff. ;  Sulpicius  Severus,  Chron. 
II.  41  ff.  Some  fraj^ments  of  the 
Acta  are  preserved  in  Jerome's 
Dial.  adv.  Lucifcrum.  Hardouin, 
Cone.  I.  711  ff. 

2  Socrates,  ii.  37,  p.  141;  Sozo- 
men, iv.  19,  p.  159  ;  in  Halin,  p.  12G; 
some  portions  of  the  Acta  are  pre- 
served in  the  Vragmenta  of  Hilary 


of  Poictiers;  Hardouin  i.  719.  So- 
crates (u.s.)  declares  that  Nice  {tSIktJ) 
was  expressly  chosen  as  the  seat  of 
the  council  in  order  that  its  canons 
mif^ht  be  confused  with  those  of 
Niciea  (Nt^aia). 

^  Socrates,  ii.  39,  40;  Socrates, 
IV.  23,  24;  Sulpicius  Severus,  ii. 
42;  Hilary,  c.  Gonstantium;  Basil, 
Epist.  74;  Hardouin  i.  721. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


271 


on  their  chief  opponents.  But  the  emperor  had  still  to 
be  reckoned  with,  and  he  determined,  while  shewing  his 
repugnance  to  the  extreme  Arians  by  banishing  Aetius, 
to  force  the  formula  of  Nice  upon  the  East  as  well  as  the 
West.  He  gained  his  end,  and  in  a  council  at  Constanti- 
nople^ in  the  following  year  this  confession"  was  again  put 
forth,  with  the  addition,  that  the  word  ova-la,  which  was  not 
commonly  intelligible  and  which  had  given  gi-eat  offence, 
should  no  longer  be  used;  and  that  the  word  v7r6aTaai<i 
should  not  be  applied  to  the  Persons  of  the  Holy  Trinity. 
The  emperor  seemed  for  the  moment  to  have  brought  to 
pass  the  unity  for  which  he  was  so  anxious ;  but  a  scarcely 
disguised  Arianism  was  in  fact  established  in  the  Church, 
and  even  Eunomius  obtained  a  bishopric.  In  Gaul,  where 
Julian,  who  was  indifferent  to  Christian  dogma,  had  already 
been  proclaimed  Augustus,  the  orthodox  bishops  made 
their  voices  heard.  In  November,  361,  Constantius  died 
on  his  march  against  his  cousin. 

The  emperor  Julian  was  an  implacable  enemy  of 
Christianity,  yet  his  short  reign  was  in  fact  a  blessing  in 
disguise.  For  nearly  two  years  the  Church,  however 
injured  in  its  property  and  its  privileges,  was  entirely 
free  from  imperial  interference  in  matters  of  doctrine. 
The  gain  in  this  far  outweighed  the  loss,  for  during  this 
period  the  leaders  in  the  Church,  no  longer  harassed  by 
imperial  politics,  came  to  understand  each  other  better, 
and  even  to  discern  points  of  agreement  where  all  had 
once  seemed  hostile. 

For  some  time  past  the  Homoiousians  seem  to  have 
been  coming  to  the  conviction  that,  in  spite  of  their 
repugnance  to  the  Homoousion,  their  views  were  in  fact 
much  nearer  to  those  of  the  Nicene  party  than  to  those  ol 
such  Arians  as  Aetius  and  Eunomius^.    Athanasius,  again 


1  Socrates,  ii.  41 ;  Nicephorus  ix. 
44;  Athanasius,  De  Synodis,  c.  30. 

2  In  Hahn,  p.  129.  It  is  worthy 
of  note  that  Ulphilas  the  Goth  was 
one  of  those  who  subscribed  to  this 
formula. 

^  By  th  i  s  time  the  leading  thinkers 
had  seen  the  latent  ambiguity  in  the 
word  6/jioouaios.  If  the  word  ovala 
means  the  essence  of  an  individual — 
that  which  makes  him  what  he  is — 


then  to  apply  the  word  o^oot'tnos 
to  the  Son  would  be  to  merge  His 
Personality  in  that  of  the  Father, 
to  make  Father  and  Son  one  indi- 
vidual. In  this  sense  no  doubt  the 
term  had  been  rejected  at  Antioch. 
But  St  Basil  pointed  out  {Epist. 
42)  that  ovaia  denotes  that  which  is 
common  to  all  the  individuals  of  a 
species,  and  so  bfj^oomios  maybe  used 
to  describe  the  identity  of  nature 


Chap.  XI. 


Council  at 
Ctmxtanti- 
nople,  360. 


Council  of 

Paris, 

3G0? 

Julian, 
3G1— 363. 


Approxi- 
mation of 
parties. 


272 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


Chap.  XI. 


Synod  of 
A  lexan- 
dria,  362. 


Doctrine 
of  til t' Holy 
Spirit. 


returned  from  banishment,  earnestly  sought  to  unite  all 
the  parties  which  were  not  absolutely  Arian.  He  did  not 
indeed  waver  in  his  allegiance  to  the  Nicene  Faith,  but 
he  induced  a  synod  which  met  at  Alexandria^  to  pardon 
the  fall  of  those  who  had  been  unawares  seduced  into 
Arianism,  and  to  facilitate  their  admission  to  communion 
with  the  orthodox  Church.  And,  what  was  even  more 
important,  the  opposing  parties,  when  they  were  face  to 
face,  came  to  understand  the  ambiguity  Avhich  lurks  in 
such  words  as  "essence^"  and  "substance^"  The  Nicene 
party  admitted  that  their  opponents,  when  they  spoke  of 
three  "Substances,"  by  no  means  intended  to  deny  the 
unity  of  the  Godhead ;  their  opponents  allowed  that  those 
who  maintained  the  "  one  essence  "  did  not  intend  to  deny 
the  Trinity  of  Persons*.  It  would  seem  that  the  synod 
deprecated  the  use  of  the  ambiguous  terms  altogether®. 

The  settlement  of  the  dispute  was  however  rendered 
difficult  by  two  circumstances. 

In  the  first  place,  the  doctrine  of  the  personality  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  ^  which  had  attracted  little  attention  during 
the  first  thirty  years  of  the  Arian  divisions,  now  came  into 
prominence.  At  Nicsea  the  simplest  expression  of  belief  in 
the  Holy  Ghost  had  been  held  sufficient.  The  Lucianist 
Confession''  of  341  added  to  this  the  words  "which  is 
given  for  the  comforting  and  sanctifying  and  perfecting  of 
them  that  believe."  The  synod  of  Sirmium  of  351  indi- 
cates that  diversity  of  opinion  on  this  subject  had  already 
begun,  when  it  anathematizes*  those  who  spoke  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  as  "  unbegotten."  When  the  question  was 
once  mooted,  Athanasius,  as  might  have  been  expected, 
made  a  firm  stand  against  error.  It  was  clear  to  him 
that  it  was  of  vital  importance  to  recognize  the  Holy 
Ghost  as  God.     Either  the  Holy  Ghost  is  God,  or  He  is  a 


in  the  Father  and  the  Son  without 
impairing  the  distinction  of  thuir 
Persons.  That  this  was  the  sense 
in  which  o/xooi^o-ios  was  adoioted  by 
the  Church  is  clear  from  the  Creed 
of  Chalcedon,  which  calls  the  Son 
o/JLooijo'iov  T(j3  Uarpl  Kara  t7}v  OedTTjTa 
Kal  ofioovcrtov  t6v  avrbv  rjfuv  Kara  ttjv 
dvOpcoTrSTTiTa. 

1  Socrates,  in.  7 ;  Sozomen,  v.  12; 
RufinuR,  H.  E.  I.  28 ;  Kpistola  Sy- 


noiJalis  in  Hardouin,  i.  729. 

2  Oi5(T/a. 

^  'TwdcrTacni. 

*  See  the  Synodal  Letter,  Har- 
douin, I.  733. 

5  Socrates,  m.  8,  p.  179. 

"  On  this  controversy,  see  H.  B. 
Swete,  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biog.  iii.  120  ff. 

^  Hahn,  p.  18(5.  See  above,  p. 
264. 

8  Avafhfivi.  20,  in  Hahn,  p.  118. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


273 


creature;  and  a  creature  He  can  not  be\  He  can  not  be, 
as  was  held  by  some,  merely  one  of  the  ministering  spirits 
sent  forth  to  do  service  for  them  that  shall  inherit  salva- 
tion I  As  such  views  as  these  were  in  the  air,  Athanasius 
required  the  members  of  the  Alexandrian  council  not  only 
to  accept  the  Creed  of  Nica^a  but  to  repudiate  the  doctrine 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  was  a  creature.  This  was  however 
vehemently  opposed  by  a  party  to  whom  Epiphanius'  gives 
the  name  Pneumatomachi,  but  who  were  more  commonly 
known  as  Macedonians  from  their  following  the  leadership 
of  Macedonius^  This  Macedonius  had  more  than  once 
appeared  as  the  Arian  candidate  for  the  episcopal  throne 
of  Constantinople,  and  was  in  fact  chosen  by  his  party  and 
placed  in  possession  of  his  church  by  the  authority  of  Con- 
stantius,  amid  scenes  of  violence  and  blood®.  It  was  by 
the  favour  of  Constantius  that  he  was  supported,  and  when 
this  was  withdrawn  he  fell^  In  his  retirement  he  is  said 
to  have  put  forth  the  view  with  which  his  name  is 
connected,  that  the  Spirit  is  not  Very  God,  and  is  there- 
fore a  creature  and  minister  of  God.  Many  of  those  who 
shrank  from  the  Arian  depreciation  of  the  Son  of  God 
were  yet  not  disposed  to  admit  that  the  Holy  Spirit  also 
is  of  one  essence  with  the  Father.  From  this  arose 
divided  counsels.  In  the  end  those  who  held  the  lower 
view  of  the  Holy  Spirit  came  to  be  so  completely  identified 
with  the  Semiarians  that  this  term  was  used  as  synony- 
mous with  Pneumatomachi  ^ 

The  union  of  all  the  enemies  of  Arianism  was  also 
much  hindered  by  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  important 
metropolis  Antioch.  Its  bishop  Eustathius,  an  active  and 
much-respected  member  of  the  Nicene  party,  had  been 
deposed  in  the  year  830.  He  had  been  followed  by  men 
of  the  middle-party  which  prevailed  in  the  East,  until  in 
847  a  decided  Arian,  Eudoxius,  in  an  irregular  manner, 
became   bishop.      On   his   translation   to   Constantinople 


1  Athauasius,  ad  Serapion.  i.  23, 
24. 

2  Heb.  I.  li. 

3  Hares.  74. 

*  They  were  also  called  Maratho- 
nians,  from  Marathonius,  who  had 
served  as  deacon  under  Macedonius, 
and  was  thought  to  have  been  the 

C 


real  author  of  the  opinions  which 
bear  the  latter's  name.     See  So- 
crates II.  45,  p.  162. 
5  Socrates  ii.   6,   16;    Sozomen 

III.  7,  9. 

^  Socrates  ii.  38,  42;   Sozomen 

IV.  24. 

7  Cone.  Constantino]}.  (381)  c.  1. 

18 


Chap.  XI. 


341. 


360. 


Antioch. 
Eusta- 
thius de- 
posed, 330. 

Eudoxius 

Bishop, 

347. 


274 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


Chap.  XI. 

Meletius 

Bishop, 

361. 


Enzoius 
Bishop, 
361. 


Lucifer  of 
Cagliari. 


Meletius,  previously  bishop  of  Sebaste  in  Aimenia,  was 
chosen  by  the  dominant  party  to  succeed  him\  He, 
though  at  the  time  of  his  election  thought  to  incline  to 
Arianism,  taught  as  bishop  a  doctrine  too  nearly  allied  to 
the  Nicene  Faith  to  be  pleasing  to  the  Arians.  He  was 
consequently  dispossessed  by  the  emperor  and  the  Arian 
Euzoius  set  up  in  his  place '';  but  a  considerable  portion  of 
the  Antiochene  church  continued  to  regard  Meletius  as 
their  lawful  bishop.  There  were  thus  in  Antioch  at  the 
time  of  the  Alexandrian  council  three  separate  commu- 
nions; the  Eustathians,  whose  leader  and  guide  was  then 
a  presbyter  called  Paulinus;  the  Meletians;  and  the 
Euzoians.  The  policy  of  Athanasius  and  other  leaders  of 
the  council  was  to  permit,  so  far  as  possible,  those  in 
actual  possession  of  ecclesiastical  offices  to  retain  them, 
provided  that  they  received  the  Faith  of  Nicsea,  With 
regard  to  Antioch,  the  council  naturally  felt  itself  bound 
to  support  the  Eustathians,  who  in  troublous  times  had 
adhered  to  the  orthodox  belief.  As  however  the  Eusta- 
thians differed  in  fact  but  little  from  the  Meletians,  and 
had  no  bishop  of  their  own  in  Antioch  ^  there  was  good 
ground  for  hope  that  they  would  accept  Meletius  on  his 
return  as  their  bishop,  and  that  in  this  way  the  Eusta- 
thians and  Meletians  would  be  united.  But  the  hot- 
headed Lucifer  of  Cagliari,  with  more  zeal  than  discretion, 
hurried  to  Antioch,  where  he  arrived  before  the  delegates 
from  the  council,  and  consecrated  Paulinus  as  bishop  of 
that  city\  There  was  thus  introduced  a  discord  which 
extended  far  beyond  the  walls  of  Antioch,  since  the 
Orientals  generally  did  not  recognize  Paulinus,  but  Mele- 
tius, as  lawful  bishop  of  Antioch,  while  Athanasius  and 
the  Western  bishops  could  not  repudiate  Paulinus,  as 
being  the  representative  of  the  most  steadfast  confessors 
of  the  Nicene  Faith.  Lucifer,  an  eager  and  honest  fanatic, 
was  altogether  opposed  to  the  gentler  methods  which  were 
in  favour  at  Alexandria,  from  which  it  would  occasionally 
result,  that  men  who  had  suffered  and  been  banished  for 


^  Socrates  ii.  44. 

"  Socr.  u.  s. 

^  It  is  just  possible  that  Exista- 
thius  was  still  living  (Herzog's 
Real-Encycl.   ix.    534    note:    2nd 


ed.),  but  he  was  at  any  rate  at 
a  distance  and  had  resigned  his 
see. 
*  Socrates  in.  6. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


275 


their  steadfast  adherence  to  the  orthodox  faith  might,  on 
their  return  home,  find  their  places  occupied  by  those 
whose  greater  pliancy  had  permitted  them  to  adopt  the 
views  of  the  dominant  power  for  the  time  being.  He  con- 
tended that  no  one  who  had  committed  himself  by  adhesion 
to  an  erroneous  creed  under  the  iron  rule  of  Constantius 
should  be  admitted  to  the  communion  of  the  Church  with- 
out loss  of  the  office  which  he  held,  and  that  all  who  had 
been  banished  for  conscience  sake  should  re-enter  on  all 
their  old  privileges.  As  Lucifer's  principle  would  have  de- 
posed, for  instance,  all  the  bishops  who  had  subscribed  the 
conclusions  of  Kimini,  it  could  of  course  not  be  accepted; 
and  he,  as  many  other  good  men  have  done  who  cannot 
admit  compromise,  gradually  drifted  away  from  the  Catholic 
Church,  in  which  he  thought  that  a  base  worldliness  pre- 
vailed over  right  and  justice.  The  party  of  Luciferians 
was  however  neither  numerous  nor  of  long  continuance. 

In  the  following  year  an  important  synod  was  held  at 
Aiitioch,  at  which  the  Nicene  Faith  was  accepted  and  a 
document  sent  to  the  emperor — Julian's  successor  Jovian 
— in  which  it  was  explained  that  "essence"  in  the  Nicene 
Faith  was  not  used  in  the  philosophic  sense,  but  was 
intended  to  repudiate  the  error  of  those  who  maintained 
that  the  Son  was  created  out  of  nothing\  The  hostility 
of  Valens,  Jovian's  successor,  who  was  a  decided  Arian, 
tended  to  consolidate  the  union  of  parties,  and  the  time 
was  now  at  hand  when  men  of  philosophic  training,  belong- 
ing to  a  generation  which  had  not  known  the  acrimony  of 
the  early  struggles,  made  their  iufluence  felt.  The  most 
important  of  these  were  the  great  Cappadocians,  Basil  and 
the  two  Gregories,  of  Nyssa  and  of  Nazianzus. 

On  the  death  of  Jovian,  Valentinian  was  chosen  em- 
peror by  the  troops,  and  at  once  adopted  as  colleague  his 
brother  Valens,  to  whom  he  gave  the  charge  of  the  East. 
Valentinian  favoured  the  Nicene  views  which  were  domi- 
nant in  the  West.  Here  there  was  little  Arianism,  though 
a  few  Arian  bishops  appointed  by  Constantius — as  Aux- 
entius  at  Milan — still  held  their  sees.  A  Roman  synod 
under  Damasus  declared  its  adhesion  to  the  Nicene  faith, 
deposed  Auxentius,  and  excommunicated  him  and  his  fol- 

^  Socrates  in.  25;  Sozomen  vi.  4j  Hardouin  i.  741. 

18—2 


Chap.  XI. 


Synod  at 
Antioch, 
363. 


Valenti- 
nian I. 
364—375. 
Valens, 
364—378. 


Roman 
Synod, 
369? 


276 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


Chap.  XI. 

Illyrian 

Council, 

374? 

Avihrose, 

Bishop  of 

Milan, 

374—397. 


Death  of 
Athana- 
sius,  373. 


370. 


Synod  at 
Lamp- 
sacus,  365. 


lowers';  and  an  Illyrian  council  a  few  years  later  applied 
the  word  Homoousios  to  each  of  the  Persons  of  the  Holy 
Trinity^  The  successor  of  Auxentius  at  Milan  was  the 
great  Ambrose,  who  was  not  only  himself  a  bulwark  of 
orthodoxy,  but  was  able  to  control  in  ecclesiastical  matters 
the  young  emperor  Gratian. 

In  the  East  however  Valens,  who  had  been  baptized 
by  the  Arian  bishop  Eudoxius  of  Constantinople  and  was 
still  under  his  influence,  wished  to  walk  in  the  steps  of 
Constantius.  Athanasius  was  too  powerful  a  person  in 
Alexandria  to  be  removed  from  his  see,  but  on  his  death 
his  orthodox  successor  Peter  was  thrust  out  by  main  force, 
and  an  Arian  named  Lucius  enthroned  in  his  place.  The 
Egyptian  monks,  who  had  been  devoted  to  Athanasius, 
suffered  persecution.  But  the  further  East,  where  Valens 
generally  resided  with  the  view  of  watching  the  Persian 
frontier,  suffered  most  from  his  ill-tempered  violence.  The 
most  horrible  act  attributed  to  him  was  the  death  of  a  large 
number  of  delegates  of  the  orthodox  party  who  had  come 
to  lay  before  him  the  wrong  and  injustice  which  they  had 
to  endure.  They  were  put  on  board  a  ship,  which  took 
fire  when  out  at  sea — set  on  fire,  it  was  believed,  in  ac- 
cordance with  instructions  from  high  quarters — and  all  the 
delegates  perished,  the  crew  alone  making  their  escape'. 

Throughout  this  disastrous  period  however  the  recon- 
ciliation of  the  Homoiousian  with  the  Nicene  party  con- 
tinued to  make  progress.  The  former  did  indeed,  in  a 
council  held  at  Lampsacus*,  maintain  the  views  expressed 
in  the  Dedication-Council  at  Antioch  more  than  twenty 
years  before ;  but  as  they  condemned  the  Eudoxians  they 
had  to  suffer  at  the  hands  of  the  emperor  the  same  per- 
secution as  the  Nicene  party.  In  their  distress  they 
turned  to  the  Western  emperor  and  the  Roman  bishop, 
sending  three  bishops  as  a  deputation  to  Valentinian  and 
Liberius,  with  instructions  to  accept  the  Homoousion  and 
to  seek  communion  with  Rome.  Valentinian  being  in  Gaul, 
Liberius  alone  received  them  on  their  arrival  in  Rome. 
To  him  the  deputies  explained,  that  when  they  spoke  of 


1  Sozomen  vi.  23 ;  Theodoret  ii. 
22;  Hardouin  i.  771. 

^  EpistolaSynodicainJI&vdouiai. 
793. 


3  Socrates  iv.  16;   Sozomen  vi. 
14 ;  Theodoret  iv.  24. 
^  Socrates  iv.  4:  Sozomen  vi.  7. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


277 


the  Son  as  "  like  the  Father  in  all  things "  they  meant 
precisely  what  was  intended  to  be  expressed  by  Homo- 
ousion ;  and  they  handed  him  a  document  as  the  confession 
of  their  faith  in  which,  after  anathematizing  Arius  and 
several  other  heretics,  they  declared  their  hearty  assent  to 
the  Nicene  Creed.  Liberius  now  admitted  them  to  com- 
munion, and  dismissed  them  with  letters  to  the  bishops 
who  had  sent  them\  Difficulties  however  were  not  at  an 
end,  for  one  of  the  delegates,  Eustathius  of  Sebaste,  fell 
back  into  Arianism  and  drew  others  after  him.  But  it 
was  now  evident  that  the  real  convictions  of  the  great 
majority  of  Church  teachers  inclined  to  the  doctrines  ol' 
which  Athanasius  had  been  the  great  exponent  and  de- 
fender. The  negotiations  with  Rome  for  the  restoration 
of  peace  to  the  Church,  though  supported  by  Basil  and — 
so  long  as  he  lived — by  Athanasius,  proceeded  for  some 
time  but  slowly  in  consequence  of  the  distrust  which 
the  Western  leaders  felt  towards  the  theologians  of  the 
East.  On  the  death  of  Valens,  however,  in  the  year  378, 
a  great  change  came  over  the  political  circumstances 
of  the  empire.  Gratian,  the  surviving  emperor,  who  had 
always  been  favourable  to  Athanasian  teaching,  permitted 
the  bishops  who  had  been  banished  by  Valens  to  return 
to  their  sees.  In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  an  im- 
portant council  of  one  hundred  and  forty-six  Eastern 
bishops  was  held  at  Antioch^  at  which  the  letter  of  Dama- 
sus  and  the  Roman  sjmod  of  the  year  369^,  in  favour  of  the 
Nicene  Faith,  was  approved  and  accepted.  In  the  follow- 
ing year  Gratian  chose  as  his  colleague  in  the  empire  the 
noble  Spaniard  Theodosius,  who  immediately  after  his 
baptism  issued  an  edict*  in  favour  of  the  orthodox  faith  in 
the  Holy  Trinity,  and  strongly  condemnatory  of  heresy. 
In  the  year  381  met  the  Council  of  Constantinople,  which, 
though  only  attended  by  one  hundred  and  fifty  bishops, 
and  those  entirely  from  the  Eastern  Empire,  came  to  be 
regarded,  from  its  epoch-making  character,  as  cecumenical^ 


1  Socrates  iv.  12;  Sozomen  vi. 
11 ;  Hardouin  i.  743. 

2  See  Gregory  Nyssen,  Vita  Ma- 
crina,  p.  187,  and  Oratio  de  vis  qui 
adi'iuit  Hierosoh/ma.  The  Synodi- 
cal  Epistle  which  appears  as  the 
69th  of  St  Basil's  letters  was  pro- 


bably sent  forth  by  this  Synod. 

*  Sozomen  vi.  23. 

^  Codex  Theodos.  xvi.  i.  2 ;  So- 
crates Yii.  4;  Theodoret,  H.  E. 
IV.  16. 

^  It  calls  itself  ij  olKovixeviKT)  avvo- 
5os   in  its  Synodical  Epistle;    see 


Chap.  XI. 

Depu- 
tation to 
Liberius, 
366. 


Death  of 
Valens, 
Aug.  378. 


Council  of 

Antioch, 

378. 


Theodo- 
sius 

Emperor, 
379. 
Second 
(Ecu- 
menical 
Council, 
381,  382. 


278 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


This  famous  assembly  confirmed  the  Creed  agreed  upon 
at  Nicsea,  and  anathematized  those  who  rejected  or  im- 
pugned its  It  has  frequently  been  stated  that  at  this 
council  the  Creed  of  Nicsea  was  brought,  by  certain  alter- 
ations, omissions  and  additions,  into  the  form  in  which  it 
is  now  recited  in  our  churches.  This  is  however  an  error. 
The  Creed  which  we  know  as  "  Nicene"  is  found  in  a  tract 
of  Epiphanius^  which  can  scarcely  be  dated  later  than  the 
year  374,  and  does  not  appear  there  as  anything  new.  It 
is  in  fact  the  Creed  of  Jerusalem  with  certain  Nicene 
additions '.  No  early  historian  mentions  any  Creed  having 
been  put  forth  by  this  council  as  its  own,  but  all  mention 
its  adhesion  to  the  Nicene  ;  while  the  Fathers  of  Constan- 
tinople themselves  assert  most  emphatically  that  whatever 
persecutions  or  afflictions  they  had  endured  they  had  borne 
for  the  sake  of  the  evangelic  faith  ratified  at  Nicaea  in 
Bithynia  by  the  three  hundred  and  eighteen  Fathers*. 
No  words  could  more  plainly  express  the  fact  that  they 
supposed  themselves  to  have  ratified  the  very  Creed 
adopted  at  Nicsea,  and  not  any  subsequent  modification 
of  it.  If  they  put  forth  the  "  Constantinopolitan  "  Creed, 
they  can  only  have  done  so  in  the  belief  that  it  was  the 
Nicene ;  and  it  is  hardly  credible  that  a  hundred  and  fifty 
bishops  from  all  parts  of  the  East,  in  an  age  when  dogmatic 
formulas  were  keenly  scrutinized,  can  have  been  so  mis- 
taken. What  is  certain  is  that  the  Creed  in  question  was 
produced  at  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  in  451,  and  was 
ultimately  received  by  the  whole  Church. 

But  Theodosius  was  still  anxious  about  the  unity  of 
the  Church,  which  had  even   now  been  but  imperfectly 


Theodoret,  H.  E.  v,  9,  p.  206.  No 
external  aiithority  seems  to  call  it 
(Ecumenical  before  the  middle  of 
the  fifth  century  in  the  East.  The 
West  was  still  later  in  acknow- 
ledging it. 

1  Socrates  v.  8;  Sozomen  vii. 
7—9;  Theodoret,  H.  E.  v.  8f.; 
Hardouin  i.  807  £f. ;  Cave,  Hist. 
Lit.  I.  363  ff. 

2  Ancoratus,  c.  118,  p.  122  f. 
Epiphanius  appears  to  regard  it 
as  the  Creed  of  Nicaea,  used  at 
Jerusalem. 

3  On  this  point    see   F.  J.  A. 


Hort,  T2V0  Dissertations,  p.  73  ff . ; 
J.  R.  Lumby,  Creeds,  p.  69  tf. ; 
C.  A.  Swainson,  Creeds,  p.  92  ff. 
The  "Constantinopolitan"  Creed 
may  be  conveniently  compared  with 
the  real  Nicene  Creed  and  with 
the  Creed  of  Jerusalem,  in  Hort, 
p.  140  ff. 

*  Theodoret,  H.  E.  v.  9,  p.  205. 
The  so-called  seventh  canon  of 
Constantinople,  to  which  this 
Creed  is  appended,  is  almost  cer- 
tainly wrongly  attributed  to  that 
council.  See  Hardouin's  marginal 
note,  I.  812. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


279 


attained.  In  the  year  383  he  caused  a  conference  to  be 
held  at  Constantinople  \  to  which  representatives  of  the 
various  parties  were  summoned  and  presented  written 
statements  of  their  faith.  Even  Eunomius  gave  in  his 
creed.  The  emperor,  after  reading  the  various  professions, 
accepted  that  which  declared  the  several  Persons  of  the 
Holy  Trinity  Homoousian.  Those  who  refused  it  he  de- 
clared heretical,  forbade  to  teach,  to  ordain  bishops,  or  even 
to  meet  together  for  worship'^ 

In  the  West  the  empress  Justina,  who  ruled  in  the 
name  of  her  young  son  Valentinian  II.,  was  a  passionate 
supporter  of  the  Arians.  Under  her  influence  complete 
freedom  of  worship  was  granted  to  those  who  accepted  the 
formula  of  Rimini,  and  all  who  opposed  the  carrying  out  of 
this  measure  were  threatened  with  severe  punishment^ 
From  all  parts  of  the  empire  the  discomfited  Arians  sought 
refuge  at  Milan,  where  she  held  her  court.  She  would  fain 
have  given  them  possession  of  a  church,  but  here  she  found 
herself  powerless  against  the  great  Ambrose,  whose  influ- 
ence in  the  city  was  greater  than  hers*.  Justina  however 
died  in  the  year  388,  and  her  son  could  scarcely  refuse  to 
Theodosius,  who  had  given  him  the  victory  over  the  usurper 
Maximus,  the  support  which  he  desired  for  the  orthodox 
party.  From  this  time  Arianism  declined  throughout  the 
empire  and  gradually  died  away.  From  the  end  of  the 
fourth  century  it  is  only  found,  as  a  living  force,  among 
the  nations  which  pressed  in  from  the  frontiers. 

The  Arian  controversy,  beginning  with  the  great  ques- 
tion of  the  nature  of  the  Divine  Son,  His  eternal  Sonship, 
had  in  its  course  involved  the  question  of  the  Personality 
and  Coequality  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  led  to  a  more  exact 
definition  of  the  Trinity  in  Unity.  It  came  to  be  recog- 
nised that  while  the  Father  is  God,  the  Son  is  God,  and 
the  Holy  Ghost  is  God,  yet  they  are  not  three  Gods,  but 
one  God.  In  Greek  theology,  mainly  under  the  influence 
of  Basil  the  Great  and  his  school,  the  expression  of  the 
great  mystery  which  obtained  general  currency  was,  "  one 
Essence®    in   three    Substances®"   or  personalities.     The 

1  Socrates  V.  10;  Sozomenvn.  12.  Sermo  de  Basilicis  Tradendh;  So- 

^  Codex  Theod.  Tit,  DeHcsreticis,  crates    v.    11;    Sozomen  vii.    13; 

leges  11  and  12.  Theocloret,  //.  E.  v.  Id. 

»  Codex  Theod.  xiii.  i.  3.  ^  Ovala. 

*  Ambrose,  E^'^stf.  20, 21,  and  the  *  'TTrodTclo-ets. 


Chap.  XI. 

Conference 
at  Con- 
stanti- 
nople, 383, 


Justina 
and  the 
Arians. 


385,  386. 


Justina 
dies,  388. 


280 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


Chap.  XI. 


First 

Council  of 

Toledo, 

447? 

Third, 

589. 


special  characteristic  of  the  Father  is  that  He  is  unbegot- 
ten,  of  the  Son  that  He  is  begotten,  of  the  Holy  Ghost  that 
He  proceeds^  from  the  Father,  or — to  use  the  form  now 
for  many  centuries  current  in  the  West — from  the  Father 
and  the  Son.  There  were  however  some  who — taking  the 
word  "  substance  "  to  be  equivalent  to  "essence" — preferred 
to  express  the  distinction  of  being  by  the  word  "  person  ^ " 
rather  than  "  substance."  In  the  West,  the  language  of 
theology  on  this  point  was  elaborated  mainly  by  St  Augus- 
tin^.  He,  holding  that  in  Latin  there  was  no  distinction 
between  "  essentia  "  and  "  substantia,"  expressed  the  three- 
fold distinction  in  the  one  "  substantia "  by  the  words 
"  Tres  Personge*."  The  so-called  Athanasian  Creed  pro- 
bably does  not  fall  within  the  period  treated  in  this  book. 
It  is  however  little  more  than  a  full  and  methodical  ex- 
pression of  the  views  of  St  Augustin. 

With  regard  to  the  "  Procession  "  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
the  Orientals,  anxious  to  avoid  any  appearance  of  recog- 
nizing more  than  one  source  or  origin  of  being,  always 
clung  to  the  expression  of  the  "  Constantinopolitan  "  Creed, 
whicli  represents  the  Spirit  as  proceeding  from  the  Father. 
In  the  West,  the  gi-eat  influence  of  Hilary  of  Poictiers, 
Ambrose  and  Augustin  gave  weight  to  the  proposition 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  proceeds  from  the  Father  and  the 
Son,  and  this  received  the  authority  of  the  first  council  at 
Toledo^  In  the  year  589,  the  third  council"  at  the  same 
place  set  forth  the  "Constantinopolitan"  Creed  itself  with 
the  clause  relating  to  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  form  "ex 
Patre  et  Filio  procedentem,"  and  in  this  form  it  has  for 
many  centuries  been  recited  in  the  Western  Church. 


'  The  Father  is  dyiwTjToi,  the 
Son  yevuyjTos,  the  Holy  Ghost  iK- 
iropevTos. 

^    UpoaWTTOV. 

2  In  the  treatise  De  Trinitate. 

*  Ylp6(Tuirov  and  Persona  however 
are  not  fully  equivalent.  The  former 
always  retained  something  of  its 
original     meaning  —  countenance. 


The  latter,  a  Roman  law  term,  more 
decidedly  expressed  individual  ex- 
istence. 

5  Hardouin,  Cone.  i.  993;  Hahn, 
Bibliothek,  p.  130.  This  council 
probably  took  place  as  late  as  the 
time  of  Leo  I.;  see  H.  B.  Swete  in 
Diet,  of  Chr.  Antiq.  iii.  129  ff. 

«  Hardouin  iii.  471. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


281 


III.     The  Incarnate  Son. 

The  Arian  controversy  was  critical  and  indeed  vital  for 
the  Church  inasmuch  as  it  concerned  the  very  essence  of 
Christianity,  The  whole  scheme  of  redemption  failed  if 
the  Son  was  not  indeed  from  all  eternity  "  Very  God  from 
Very  God."  But  it  was  equally  true,  to  look  at  the  matter 
from  the  other  side,  that  Christ  could  not  be  the  true  re- 
presentative of  humanity  unless  He  were  "perfect  Man 
of  the  substance  of  His  mother  born  in  the  world,  of  a 
reasonable  soul  and  human  flesh  subsisting,"  so  that  "  God 
and  Man  is  one  Christ."  The  controversies  then  on  the 
nature  of  the  Incarnation  which  followed  that  on  the  Con- 
substantiality  of  the  Eternal  Son  were  scarcely  less  im- 
portant. So  the  opinions  of  Apollinaris,  who  denied  to  the 
Incarnate  Son  a  "reasonable  soul;"  of  Nestorius,  who  re- 
garded the  body  of  the  Lord  simply  as  an  instrument 
moved  by  the  indwelling  deity ;  of  the  Monophysites,  who 
either  considered  the  Human  Nature  to  be  absorbed  by 
the  Divine,  or  the  two  Natures  to  be  so  mingled  and  con- 
fused as  to  form  but  one ;  all  these  had  to  be  met  and 
overcome  in  order  to  preserve  the  faith  of  the  Church. 

1.  Apollinaris  of  Laodicea\  a  keen  opponent  of  Arian- 
ism,  was  led  in  the  course  of  his  dialectic  to  consider  the 
union  of  God  and  Man  in  one  Person.  A  complete  man 
he  held  to  consist  of  three  parts,  a  material  body,  an 
"  irrational  soul "  or  vital  principle  animating  the  body, 
and  a  spirit,  intellect  or  rational  souP,  which  includes 
not  only  intelligence  but  will.  Now  the  third  and 
highest  of  these  could  not,  he  believed,  coexist  in  the 
same  individual  with  the  divinity;  he  taught  therefore 
that  in  the  Incarnation,  instead  of  the  spirit,  intellect  or 
rational  soul,  the  Divine  Logos  or  Word  entered  into  a 
man.  In  short,  the  Incarnation  was  simply  the  entering 
of  the  Word  into  the  living  body  of  a  man,  which  with- 
out it  would  have  been  simply  animal.  What  in  an  ordi- 
nary man  is  the  human  reason  and  will,  was  in  the  Saviour 
the  Divine  Logos. 


Chap.  XI. 


Arianism 
leads  to 
heresies  on 
the  Incar- 
nation. 


1  See  p.  229.  Greek  authors  write 
his  name  'AiroKii'dpios.  Socrates  ii. 
46;  Theodoret,  if.  E.  v.  3. 


^  'Edfia,  ij/vxv  oKoyoi,  and  irveu^a, 
vovi,  or  ^vxh  XoyiKtj. 


Apollin- 
aris, 
Nestorius 

Mono- 
physites. 


Apollin- 
aeianism. 
Apollin- 
aris 
teaches, 
c.  362. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


This  doctrine  soon  attracted  great  attention.  It  open- 
ed a  new  line  of  thought  and  suggested  new  difficulties  to 
those  who  wished  to  define  exactly  to  themselves  the  great 
mystery  of  the  union  of  the  Human  and  the  Divine  in 
one  person.  ApoUinaris's  literary  talent  soon  brought  him 
many  adherents.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  it  was 
with  reference  to  him,  though  his  name  is  not  mentioned, 
that  the  Alexandrian  Council  of  the  year  362  insisted  that 
the  body  of  the  Saviour  was  not  an  irrational  one\ 

The  importance  attached  to  the  doctrine  of  Apollinaris 
is  evident  from  the  numerous  refutations  bestowed  upon  it 
by  some  of  the  greatest  teachers  of  the  time,  which  form 
now  our  principal  authorities  for  the  history  of  the  Apol- 
linarian  heresy.  Athanasius",  Gregory  of  Nazianzus^ 
Gregory  of  Nyssa*,  and  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia^  wrote 
against  it.  These  theologians  pointed  out  how  perilous 
were  the  opinions  of  Apollinaris  to  the  Christian  faith, 
and  controverted  the  expositions  of  Scripture  by  which  he 
sought  to  defend  them.  Athanasius  in  particular  insists 
upon  the  folly  and  impiety  of  attempting  to  define  so 
ineffable  a  mystery  as  the  union  of  God  and  man  in  one 
person.  Even  in  an  ordinary  man  the  indwelling  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  not  a  thing  explicable  in  the  forms  of  human 
understanding.  Theodore,  as  able  in  dogma  as  in  exe- 
gesis, asserted  vigorously  the  presence  in  Christ  of  a  true 
rational  soul.  Without  a  soul  capable  of  human  suffering, 
how  could  He  feel  the  agony  in  Gethsemane  ?  Unless 
He  had  a  human  mind,  how  could  He  grow  in  wisdom  ? 
Growth  of  mind  and  mental  agony  imply  the  presence  of 
human  qualities,  not  merely  of  an  animal  body.  There 
must  therefore  have  been  two  complete  natures,  the  divine 
and  human,  in  the  Lord.  In  the  West  also  opposition 
sprang  up  to  the  new  conception  of  the  indwelling  of  the 
Deity  in  Christ.  Hilary  of  Poictiers  opposed  Apollinaris 
in  the  spirit  of  Athanasius.  Augustin  also  contended  for 
the  presence  of  a  true  human  soul — not  merely  a  vital 


^  'Eijifxa...ovK  dvorjTOv  eXx^v  6  2w- 
T7)p.    Hardouin,  Cone.  i.  736. 

^  Delticarnatione  c.Apolinarivm. 
Athanasius  does  not  name  him, 
though  he  combats  his  opinions. 

3  Epistt.  ad  Nectarium  and  ad 
Chelidonium  (Orat.  51,  rt'2). 


*  Antirrheticus  c.  ApoUn. 

°  Fragments  of  Theodore's  work 
are  preserved  in  the  records  of  the 
Council  of  Constantinople  (553) 
which  condemned  liim  (Hardouin 
III.  14  ff.). 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


283 


principle — in  the  Lord  ;  there  were  two  natures  in  His  one 
Person, 

But  while  Apollinaris's  sharp  definitions  were  gener- 
ally rejected,  there  were  probably  many  orthodox  believers 
who  unconsciously  read  Apolliuarian  treatises  under  the 
venerable  names  of  Justin  Martyr,  Gregory  Thaumatur- 
gus,  Julius  of  Rome,  and  even  Athanasius  himselP.  Some 
of  the  adherents  of  the  new  sect  were  apparently  not  very 
scrupulous  as  to  the  means  whereby  they  gave  currency  to 
their  opinions. 

In  the  year  375  Apollinaris  left  the  Church  and  became 
the  leader  of  a  sect,  which  was  one  of  those  anathematized 
by  the  First  Council  of  Constantinople*.  He  died  fifteen 
years  later,  but  his  followers  maintained  themselves  under 
various  appellations — such  as  Dimoerites^,  from  their  re- 
cognizing in  Christ  only  two  of  the  three  component  parts 
of  human  nature — in  spite  of  persecution  by  the  state, 
until  they  were  either  reconciled  to  the  Catholic  Church 
or  absorbed  into  the  Monophysites. 

2.  The  movement  begun  by  Apollinaris  soon  caused 
further  agitation.  When  speculation  once  seized  on  the 
great  mystery  of  the  union  of  God  and  Man  in  one  Person, 
it  was  difficult  for  the  fallible  human  intellect  to  avoid 
error,  even  when  sincerely  aiming  at  truth.  The  theolo- 
gians of  the  Antiochene  School  took  occasion  from  the 
controversy  with  Apollinaris  to  insist  more  emphatically 
on  the  reality  and  perfection  both  of  the  Divine  and  the 
Human  Nature  in  Christ.  The  most  distinguished  teach- 
ers among  them,  Diodorus  of  Tarsus  and  Theodore  of  Mo- 
psuestia,  insisted  on  the  perfect  Manhood  of  Christ  in  their 
writings,  which  were  held  in  the  highest  esteem  in  the 
Eastern   churches.     Thus   Theodore*   taught    that   "  Our 


Chap.  XI. 


1  The  greater  part  of  the  ^ndeais 
rri's  irlareus  attributed  to  Justin, 
the  treatise  t;  Kara  fx^pos  tticttis  at- 
tributed to  Gregory  Thaumatiirgus, 
the  supposed  letter  of  JuHus  of 
Kome  to Dionysius,  with  the  treatise 
under  the  same  author's  name  Trepl 
T7JS  €v  'Kpi.a'Tqj  €v6Tr]Tos,  and  the  short 
book  De  Incarnatione  Dei  Verbi 
which  bears  the  name  of  Athana- 
sius, are  thought  to  be  the  work  of 
Apollinaris  or  his  disciples.     See 


Caspari,  Alte  u.  Neue  Quellen  zur 
Geachichte  des  Tan/symbols,  p.  65  ff. 
(Christiania,  1879)  ;  Draseke  in 
Zeitschrift  fiir  KirchengescMchte, 
VI.  Iff.;  503 ff.;  Titus  Bostrensis, 
ed.  Lagarde. 

^  Canon  1. 

3  Epiphanius,  Hares.  11. 

*  His  Confession  is  given  in 
Mansi  iv.  1347  ff. ;  Hardouin  i. 
1515  ff.  ;  Hahn,  Bihliothek  der 
Symbole,  229  ff.;  the  portion  quoted 


Apollin- 
aris leaves 
the 

Church, 
375, 
dies  390. 


Nestori- 

ANISM. 

Continued 
specula- 
tion on  the 
Incarna- 
tion. 


Theodore 
of  Mo- 
psuestia. 


284. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


Lord  God  the  Word  took  upon  Him  perfect  Man  of  the 
seed  of  Abraham  and  David... of  a  reasonable  soul  and 
human  flesh  subsisting.  Which  Man,  like  us  in  nature, 
fashioned  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  Virgin's 
womb,  born  of  a  woman,  born  under  the  law,  He  in  an 
ineffable  manner  connected  with  Himself."  After  the 
Ascension  "  He  receives  the  adoration  of  all  creation, 
inasmuch  as  the  connexion  which  He  has  with  the 
Divine  Nature  is  an  indissoluble  one."  These  words, 
"  connected  with  Himself,"  "  connexion V'  which  were 
thought  insufficient  to  express  the  union ^  of  the  two 
Natures,  were  destined  to  bear  a  prominent  part  in 
controversy.  The  Alexandrians  on  the  other  hand  inclined 
to  exalt  the  Godhead  in  our  Lord,  even  at  the  risk  of  di- 
minishing the  perfection  of  his  Manhood.  They  were  ac- 
customed, in  fact,  to  speak  of  Christ  as  in  all  respects  God, 
even  during  His  humiliation,  His  "emptying  of  Hhnself," 
on  earth.  Hence  it  is  not  very  surprising  that  a  Galilean 
monk  in  Africa,  Leporius,  who  had  taught,  not  that  Very 
God  was  born  Man,  but  that  the  Perfect  Man  was  born 
together  with  God,  was  admonished  to  confess  that  the 
eternal  Son  of  God,  born  before  the  ages  from  the  Father, 
in  these  last  days  was  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  Mary  ever- 
virgin  made  Man,  born  God®.  This  was  in  fact  to  say 
that  the  Blessed  Virgin  was  the  "  Mother  of  God,"  and  that 
epithet  seems  from  about  this  time  to  have  been  commonly 
applied  to  her  by  those  who  favoured  the  Alexandrian 
theology,  as  a  protest  against  those  who  spoke  of  the  Di- 
vinity of  Christ  as  merely  "  connected  with  "  His  Humanity. 
Nestorius*,  who  had  been  long  a  monk  and  afterwards 
a  presbyter  in  Antioch,  was  in  the  year  428  raised  to  the 
patriarchal  throne  of  Constantinople.     He  was,  if  not  an 


above  in  Gieselcr,  if.-G.  i.  441  n.b. 
Latin  translation  in  Maiius  Mer- 
cator,  p.  41  ff.  (ed.  Baluze). 
1  avvrjxpev  €avT(^,  ffvvacpeia. 

^    'dvUldLV. 

3  The  Epistola  Episcop.  Africm 
ad  Episc.Gallicc  and  Leparii  L-ibellus 
Emendatlo7iis  are  in  Mansi  iv.  517 
ff. ;  Hardouin  1. 1261  ff.;  the  Libelhis 
in  Hahn,  Bibliothek,  226  ff.  See 
Hefele,  Conriliengeschichte,  ii.  124. 

*  The  original  documents  of  Nes- 


torianism  in  Mansi,  Cone.  iv.  567  ff. 
and  v.;  Hardouin,  Cone.  i.  1271  ff.; 
Marius  Mercator  ,De  Hceresi  Nestor.; 
Liberatus,  Breviarium  Causce  Nes- 
tor, et  Eutych.;  Leontius  Byzant., 
De  Sectis,  act.  5-10. — See  also  Ja- 
blonski,  De  Nestoriamsmo ;  Salig, 
de  Eutychidnhmo  ante  Eutychem; 
C.  W.  F.  Walch,  Ketzerhhtorie 
V. — VIII.;  F.  C.  Baur,  Dreieiniykeit, 
I.  69;?  ff. ;  J.  A.  Dorner,  Person 
Christi,  vol.  ii. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


285 


actual  pupil  of  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia,  at  any  rate  thorough- 
ly imbued  Avith  the  spiint  of  the  Antiochene  School.  He 
was  a  pious  and  zealous  man,  but  in  the  government  of  his 
diocese  he  shewed,  as  might  perhaps  have  been  expected 
from  his  previous  training,  great  stiffness  and  want  of  tact 
in  dealing  with  men,  together  with  too  great  readiness 
to  persecute  opponents.  "  Give  me,"  he  exclaimed  to  the 
emperor  in  his  inaugural  discourse,  "a  land  purged  of 
heretics,  and  I  will  give  you  heaven  in  return ;  help  me 
to  vanquish  the  heretics,  and  I  will  help  you  to  vanquish 
the  Persians^"  With  these  views  it  is  not  surprising  that 
he  set  himself  to  put  down  all  heresies  without  discrimi- 
nation. To  doubt  the  cousubstantiality  of  the  Son  and  to 
celebrate  Easter  on  the  wrong  day  were  in  his  eyes  equally 
criminal.  It  was  not  long  before  he  broached  that  opinion 
on  the  Incarnation  which  caused  his  fall. 

Anastasius,  a  presbyter  whom  Nestorius  had  brought 
with  him  from  Antioch,  declared  from  the  pulpit — "  Let 
no  man  call  Mary  the  Mother  of  God^,  for  she  is  a  human 
being,  and  it  is  impossible  for  God  to  be  born  of  a  human 
being ^"  It  was  not  perhaps  altogether  unnatural,  while 
men  were  vehemently  asserting  the  Son  of  God  to  have 
been  begotten  of  the  Father  before  all  ages,  that  Anasta- 
sius and  others  like-minded  should  have  been  startled  to 
hear  it  affirmed  that  Christ,  as  God,  was  born  of  His 
human  mother.  But  Anastasius's  protest  seems  to  have 
been  misunderstood ;  it  was  taken  as  if  the  preacher  had 
represented  Jesus  to  have  been  a  mere  man.  The  ex- 
citement increased  when  a  bishop,  Dorotheus,  who  chanced 
to  be  in  the  capital  at  the  time,  exclaimed  in  a  sermon, 
"  Cursed  be  the  man  who  calls  Mary  the  Mother  of 
God,"  and  Nestorius  neither  restrained  nor  censured 
him*.  The  question  whether  the  title  "Mother  of  God" 
could  properly  be  applied  to  the  Virgin  Mary  was  from 
this  time  vehemently  discussed  by  both  clergy  and  laity. 
At  last  Nestorius  himself  intervened.  In  his  teaching  he 
rejected  the  disputed  expression  as  giving  rise  to  false 
conceptions ;  but  he  carefully  guarded  himself  against  the 
supposition  that  he  denied  the  Divinity  of  the  Lord,  and 


^  Socrates  vii.  29. 

^    deOTOKOS. 

2  Socrates  vii.  32 ;  Evagrius  i.  2. 


*  Cyril  Alex.  Epist.  6,  p.  30 ;  9, 
p.  37. 


Chap.  XI. 


Anasta- 
sius. 
"The 
Mother  of 
God." 


286 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


proposed  to  give  to  the  Virgin  the  title  "  Mother  of  Christ '." 
While  he  was  preaching  a  sermon  in  which  this  view  was 
expounded,  he  was  interrupted  by  a  layman  exclaiming, 
"  The  Eternal  Word  Himself"  submitted  to  a  second  birth '^" 
Thereupon  arose  a  violent  disturbance,  as  some  of  the 
audience  took  the  part  of  Nestorius  while  others  sided 
with  the  layman  who  had  interrupted  him.  Nestorius 
resumed  his  discourse,  praised  the  zeal  of  those  who  had 
taken  his  part,  and  spoke  contemptuously  of  the  interrup- 
ter. In  this  excited  state  of  public  feeling  Proclus  of 
Cyzicus,  on  the  invitation  of  Nestorius  himself,  preached  in 
Constantinople  on  a  festival  of  the  Virgin.  In  the  presence 
of  the  patriarch  he  delivered  a  florid  panegyric  of  the 
Virgin  as  Mother  of  the  Incarnate  Word,  and  declared 
that  those  who  refused  her  that  title  denied  by  impli- 
cation the  Divinity  of  Christ.  When  he  ceased,  Nes- 
torius himself  spoke,  and  begged  the  assembly  not  to  be 
dazzled  by  the  brilliant  oration  which  they  had  heard. 
He  afterwards  preached  several  sermons'  on  the  same 
subject,  in  which  he  explained  in  what  sense  he  could 
accept  the  expression  "  Mother  of  God,"  and  even  went  so 
far  as  to  say  that  Mary  was  to  be  honoured  because  she 
had  received  God  within  her.  According  to  Cyril*,  Nes- 
torius taught  as  follows.  As  the  woman  produces  the  body 
of  her  child,  but  God  breathes  into  it  a  soul,  and  hence 
the  woman  cannot  be  called  the  mother  of  the  soul,  but 
only  of  the  animal  portion  of  the  human  being;  so  Mary 
bore  the  human  being  who  was  interpenetrated  by  the 
Word  of  God,  and  is  consequently  not  the  Mother  of 
God.  This  was  not  satisfactory ;  the  excitement  grew 
stronger.  A  paper  was  displayed  publicly  in  Constanti- 
nople in  which  Nestorius  was  compared  to  Paul  of  Samo- 
sata.  A  monk  went  so  far  as  to  attempt  to  hinder  him 
from  ascending  the   pulpit,  thinking   him  a  heretic  and 


1  Extracts  from  Nestorius's  Ser- 
mons in  the  Acta  of  the  Council  of 
Ephesus,  Mansi  iv.  1197  ff. ;  Latin 
translation  in  Marius  Mercator, 
p.  53 ff.  (ed.  Baluze).  In  the  first 
sermon  occurs  the  phrase — "Non 
peperit  creatura  increabilem,  sed 
peperit  hominem  deitatis  instru- 
mentum." 


2  Crril  Alex.  Adv.  Nestorium,  i. 
5,  p.  20. 

3  Extracts  from  Nestorius's  ser- 
mons are  given  in  Mansi  iv.  1197; 
and  in  Marius  Mercator,  p.  53  ff. 
(ed.  Baluze).  See  Gieseler,  K.-G. 
I.  444. 

^  Adv.  Nestorium,  i.  2. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


287 


unworthy  to  teach  the  Christian  peopled  And  the  fire 
which  smouldered  in  the  city  was  soon  stirred  by  an 
impulse  from  without. 

Cyril  of  Alexandria  was  the  most  prominent  representa- 
tive of  the  Alexandrian  School.  Even  before  Nestorius 
was  raised  to  the  see  of  Constantinople,  Cyril  had  expressed 
in  a  treatise  on  the  Incarnation  views  not  easily  to  be 
reconciled  with  his.  When  he  controverted  Nestorius, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  he  did  so  from  sincere  conviction. 
Yet  it  would  seem  that  in  the  heat  of  controversy  he  attri- 
buted to  his  opponent  opinions  which  he  did  not  hold ;  he 
perhaps  disliked  him  for  his  efforts  to  restore  the  fair  fame 
of  Chrysostom^;  and  the  conflict  was  embittered  by  the 
rivalry  between  the  ancient  see  of  Alexandria  and  the 
new  throne  of  Constantinople. 

When  he  heard  of  the  proceedings  in  the  capital  he 
proceeded  at  first  gently  and  cautiously,  for  Nestorius 
was  in  favour  at  the  imperial  court.  Without  naming  him, 
he  defended  the  use  of  the  title  "  Mother  of  God  "  in  one 
of  his  usual  Easter  Pastorals,  and  also  in  an  admonitory 
letter  to  the  monks  of  Egypt,  among  whom  were  found 
adherents  of  the  Nestorian  opinion.  By  this  second  letter, 
which  was  widely  circulated,  Nestorius  felt  himself  ag- 
grieved. Cyril  sought  to  justify  what  he  had  said  in  a 
letter  to  Nestorius^,  and  the  latter^  replied.  After  this 
Cyiil  used  his  utmost  efforts  to  strengthen  his  party  in 
Constantinople,  and  to  weaken  the  influence  of  Nestorius 
at  court.  Moreover  he  brought  the  Western  Church  into 
the  conflict  by  a  letter  to  pope  Celestinus^  in  which  he 
charged  Nestorius  with  denying  the  Divinity  of  Christ 
and  asserting  that  it  was  but  a  man  who  died  for  us.  In 
vain  Nestorius  explained^  that  he  was  ready  to  style  the 


^  Basilii  Diac,  et  Monach.  Sup- 
pUcatio,  in  Hardouin,  Cone.  i. 
1338. 

^  Marcellinus  Comes  mentions 
{Ckronicon,  ann.  428)  that  immedi- 
ately after  Nestorius's  accession  to 
the  See  of  Constantinople,  John, 
"who  had  been  driven  into  exile 
by  the  envy  of  bad  bishops,"  began 
to  be  commemorated  there  on 
Sep.  26. 

3  Hardouin  i.  1273. 


4  Hardouin  i.  1277. 

5  In  Mansi  iv.  1012  ff. ;  together 
with  the  memorandum  given  to 
Posidonius,  his  legate.  Nestorius 
(in  Mansi  v,  762)  says  that  Cyril 
turned  to  Celestinus  "ut  ad  sim- 
pliciorem  quam  qui  posset  vim 
dogmatum  subtilius  penetrare." 
That  he  did  not  understand  the 
points  at  issue  is  likely  enough. 

^  In  Epist.  III.  ad  Celestinum; 
Mansi  rv.  1021,  v.  725. 


Chap.  XI. 


Cyril's  in- 
tervention. 


Cyril's 
proceed- 
ings. 


288 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


Chap.  XI. 


Roman 
Synod, 
430. 


CyriVs 

Anathe- 

matisiiis. 


Nestorius'i 

Anathe- 

matisms. 


Council  of 

Ephesus, 

431. 


Nestoriiis 
condemn- 
ed. 


Virgin  the  M(jther  of  God,  if  that  title  was  understood  to 
refer  to  the  union  of  God  and  Man  in  one  Christ ;  he  was 
declared  a  heretic  by  a  Roman  synods  Celestinus  charged 
Cyril  to  execute  the  decree  of  this  synod,  and  if  Nestorius 
refused  to  recant,  to  remove  him  from  his  see'"' — an  unheard- 
of  claim  on  the  part  of  the  bishop  and  a  provincial  synod 
of  Rome.  The  support  of  Rome  did  however  no  doubt 
give  confidence  to  Cyril,  who  went  on  his  way  undaunted- 
ly. He  wrote  to  Nestorius  a  letter  in  the  name  of  an  Alex- 
andrian synod,  calling  upon  him  to  recant  his  errors,  and 
subjoining  a  schedule  of  twelve  propositions  which  were 
condemned'.  The  most  important  point  in  these  was, 
that  the  natural  union  of  the  two  natures  in  Christ  was 
insisted  upon,  and  the  notion  of  a  mere  binding  together 
in  one  person  condemned*.  Nestorius  responded  by  a  list 
of  twelve  condemned  propositions  of  an  opposite  character^ 
These  were  received  with  favour  in  the  churches  of  Syria 
and  Asia  Minor,  where  Cyril's  opinions  were  distrusted  as 
involving  a  mingling  or  coalescing  of  the  two  natures  in 
Christ.  Theodoret,  the  church-historian,  at  the  suggestion 
of  John  bishop  of  Antioch,  wrote  a  special  treatise  to  refute 
them.  To  remedy  the  confusion  and  division  which  arose, 
Theodosius  II.  called  a  general  Council  at  Ephesus,  to 
which  both  Cyril  and  Nestorius  were  summoned.  Cyril 
with  his  adherents  arrived  first  at  the  place  appointed, 
and — in  spite  of  the  solemn  warning  of  Isidore  of  Pelu- 
sium® — refusing  to  wait  the  arrival  of  the  Asiatic  bishops, 
who  had  been  detained  on  the  way,  and  were  still  a  few 
days'  journey  from  the  city,  opened  the  proceedings.  Nes- 
torius, himself  a  member  of  the  synod,  was  summoned  as 
to  a  tribunal  which  was  to  judge  him,  and,  on  his  refusal 
to  appear,  was  condemned  and  a  sentence  of  deposition 
pronounced  against  him''.  A  few  days  after  this  the 
Asiatic  bishops  arrived,  and  found  to  their  surprise  that 
the  great  question  was  already  decided.     They  met  under 


1  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.  i.  474. 

2  The  letter  of  Celestinus  in  Har- 
douin  I.  1321. 

2  These  dvade/j.aTta/j.ol  are  given 
in  Hardouin,  Coiic.  i.  1291  ff.;  and 
in  Gieseler,  K.-G.  i.  449  f. 

*  ^vuffts  <pv(n,K'ri,  not  merely  avvd- 


^  These  are  given  in  a  Latin 
translation  by  Marius  Mercator, 
p.  142  ff.  (ed.  Baluze).  In  Har- 
douin I.  1297 ff.;  Gieseler  i.  451  f. 

6  Epist.  I.  310. 

^  Sentence  in  Hardouin  i.  1421 ; 
Mansi  v.  783 ;  Gieseler  i.  455. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


289 


the  presidency  of  John  of  Antioch,  and  passed  sentence  of 
deposition  on  Cyril  and  his  principal  ally,  Memnon  bishop 
of  Ephesus\  Theodosius,  offended  by  the  arrogant  beha- 
viour of  Cyril,  at  first  confirmed  all  the  three  sentences. 
In  the  end  however  Cyril  and  Memnon  were  allowed  to 
remain  in  possession  of  their  sees,  while  Nestorius  was 
compelled  to  withdraw  to  the  monastery  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Antioch  whence  he  had  come.  The  emperor  how- 
ever, thinking  there  was  no  essential  difference  between 
the  parties,  was  anxious  for  a  reconciliation,  for  which 
John  of  Antioch  and  Theodoret  also  exerted  themselves"''. 
Cyril  did  not  formally  withdraw  his  list  of  condemned 
propositions,  but  he  agreed  to  accept  a  Confession  of  Faith 
probably  drawn  up  by  Theodoret  at  the  request  of  John. 
In  this  the  Lord  is  confessed  as  "of  a  reasonable  soul  and 
a  body  subsisting ;  begotten  of  the  Father  before  the  ages 
as  touching  His  Godhead,  and  incarnate  in  these  last  days 
for  us  and  for  our  salvation  of  Mary  the  Virgin  as  touching 
His  Manhood ;  for  there  came  to  pass  a  union  of  two 
natures.... According  to  this  conception  of  union  without 
confusion  we  confess  the  Holy  Virgin  to  be  Mother  of 
God,  because  God  the  Word  took  flesh  and  became  Man, 
and  from  His  conception  united  with  Himself  the  shrine 
[i.e.  the  human  body]  received  from  her^"  This  formula 
was  by  no  means  generally  acceptable  to  Cj^il's  partizans. 
Cyril  himself  and  the  emperor  seem  to  have  been  as 
anxious  for  peace  as  John  and  Theodoret ;  but  a  consider- 
able number  of  the  Eastern  bishops  who  favoured  Nestorius 
remained  in  opposition.  Nestorius  himself  was  about  four 
years  after  his  return  to  Antioch  driven  from  his  monas- 
tery and  sentenced  to  pass  the  rest  of  his  days  at 
Petra*.  It  is  probable  however  that  this  sentence  was 
not  carried  out,  as  we  find  that  he  actually  went  to  an 
oasis  in  Upper  Egypt.  There  he  was  carried  off  by  a 
wandering  tribe,  and,  after  being  set  at  liberty,  was 
dragged  hither  and  thither  by  imperial  officials  until 
he  died  an  unknown  death^. 


1  Hardouin  i.  1450  ff. 

^  See  the  documents  in  Hardouin 
I.  1690  f.;  Mausi  v.  291  ff.;  Hahn, 
Bibliothek,  137  f.  Compare  Hefele, 
Coiiciliengeschichte,  u.  211  f.  and 
245  f. 


C. 


^  Mansi  v.  291;  Hardouin  i. 
1691 ;  Hahn  137. 

■*  Imperial  Decree  iu  Hardouin 
I.  1670. 

s  Evagrius,  H.  E.  i.  7. 


Chap.  XI. 

Second 
council 
condemns 
Cyril. 


Anti- 
ochene 
Confes- 
sion, 433. 


Nestorius 
banished, 
435. 


Died  after 
439. 


290 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


Chap.  XI. 


Fortunes 
of  Nest or- 
ianism. 


RahuJds  of 
Edessa 


We  have  seen  that  the  difference  between  Nestorius 
and  his  opponents  was  not  so  fundamental  but  that  men 
like  Cyril  on  one  side  and  John  of  Antioch  on  the  other 
could  discover  terms  of  accommodation.  But  important 
matters  did  in  fact  underlie  the  controversy.  It  was  not 
only  the  true  Humanity  of  the  Son  which  was  in  question 
but  also  the  estimation  in  which  the  Virgin  was  to  be 
held.  When  Nestorius  asked, "  If  God  has  a  Mother,  why 
should  we  blame  the  heathen  who  speak  of  mothers  of 
gods^  ?"  he  was  an  unskilful  controversialist  and  gave  need- 
less offence.  Still,  it  was  from  this  time  that  the  process 
began  which  in  the  end  transferred  to  the  Virgin  Mary 
the  old  pagan  title  of  "  Queen  of  Heaven ^"  And  in  the 
Christological  controversy  there  is  a  real  and  important 
difference  between  the  thorough-going  members  of  each 
party.  The  Nestorian  extreme  is  the  recognition  of  two 
natures  in  Christ  so  distinct  as  to  be  incapable  of  forming 
a  unity.  The  Cyrillic  extreme  is  the  conception  of  God 
clothed  in  flesh  abiding  among  men ;  God  taking  man's 
physical  frame  upon  Him  rather  than  man's  nature ;  for  a 
human  reason  and  will  are  essential  to  the  completeness 
of  man's  nature.  Nestorius  by  no  means  intended  to  make 
tw^o  persons  in  Christ,  Cyi'il  by  no  means  intended  to  deny 
that  He  was  Very  Man;  but  in  this  case,  as  in  many 
others,  consequences  were  drawn  from  j)roposi1^ions  which 
their  authors  would  certainly  have  disowned. 

Nestorianism  did  not  come  to  an  end  on  the  condem- 
nation of  its  founder,  though  Cyril  and  his  party  gained 
more  and  more  the  upper  hand  and  won  over  both  the 
emperor  and  John  of  Antioch.  Nestorius  was  succeeded 
in  the  see  of  Constantinople  by  Proclus,  so  that  within  a 
short  time  after  the  Council  of  Ephesus  the  three  great 
Patriarchal  sees  of  Alexandria,  Constantinople  and  Rome 
were  in  the  hands  of  opponents  of  Nestorianism.  Great 
efforts  were  made  to  crush  it,  but  some  of  the  Eastern 
bishops  refused  to  be  put  down.  Rabulas  bishop  of  Edessa, 
though  himself  a  pupil  of  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia,  joined 
Cyril  in  condemning  the  writings  of  Diodorus  and  Theo- 
dore, and  expelled  from  the  school  of  Edessa  those  teachers 


1  Sermon  I.,  in  Marius  Mercator, 
p.  53.     See  Gieseler,  A'.-G.  i.  444. 
^  Jeremiah  vii.  18.     Ave  lleglna 


ccclorum  and  BeqinaCali  hctare  are 
well-known  hymns  to  the  Virgin. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


who  were  suspected  of  Nestorian  leanings.  But  John  of 
Antioch  was  opposed  to  blackening  the  memory  of  these 
distinguished  Antiochenes,  and  the  emperor  forbade  the 
post-mortem  condemnation  of  men  who  had  departed  in 
communion  with  the  Church.  On  the  death  of  Rabulas  in 
435,  Ibas,  one  of  the  teachers  expelled  from  Edessa  and  an 
avowed  disciple  of  Theodore,  became  his  successor.  Some 
other  of  the  banished  teachers  betook  themselves  to  Persia, 
where,  especially  in  Nisibis,  the  opinions  of  Theodore  were 
held  in  high  respect.  These  Persian  Nestorians  maintain- 
ed an  active  intercourse  with  Edessa  so  long  as  Ibas  ruled 
there.  At  a  later  date,  under  the  emperor  Zcno,  the  school 
of  Edessa,  the  last  stronghold  of  the  Nestorians  within  the 
empire,  was  destroyed.  Its  teachers  for  the  most  part 
took  refuge  under  the  more  tolerant  sway  of  Persia,  and 
founded  there  a  Church  which  was  not  in  communion 
with  the  Church  of  the  empire.  This  body  produced 
several  men  of  learning,  and  is  not  extinct  even  at  this 
day. 

3.  The  compromise  entered  into  between  Cjnril  and 
John  of  Antioch  did  not  permanently  settle  the  serious 
question  which  was  mooted  in  the  Nestorian  dispute.  It 
broke  out  afresh  when  Dioscorus,  a  hot-headed  and  violent 
man,  succeeded  Cyril  as  patriarch  of  Alexandria,  and  at 
once  began  to  attack  those  whom  he  suspected  of  Nes- 
torianism.  Actual  division  however  did  not  arise  until 
Eutyches,  the  aged  archimandrite  of  a  monastery  in  Con- 
stantinople and  an  old  adherent  of  Cyril's,  proclaimed  his 
views.  Into  the  Person  of  Christ,  he  said,  there  enter  no 
doubt  two  distinct  Natures,  but  after  their  union  only  one  is 
to  be  recognised :  the  Humanity  in  Him  is  so  completely 


1  The  original  authorities  in 
Mansi  v  and  vi,  Hardouin  ii.  1 — 
768;  Gelasius  (?),  Breviculiis  Hist. 
Eutychian.  in  Mansi  vii.  1060  ; 
Libcratus,  Breviarium;  Evagrius, 
H.  E.  I.  9ff. ;  the  Acts  of  the 
Second  Synod  of  Ephesus  in  Syriac, 
puliUshed  with  Enghsh  translation 
by  Periy  (London,  1887);  a  sup- 
posed account  by  Dioscorus  of  the 
Council  of  Chalcedon  translated 
from  the  Coptic  by  lievillout  (Re- 
inie  Egyptol.  1880,  p.  187,  1882,  p. 


21,  1883,  p.  17)  is  declared  by  E. 
Amelineau  [Moivnnents  pour  servir 
a  VHistoire  de  I'Eyypte  Chret.  aux 
lyme  gf  yme  Siccle/)  to  be  spurious 
(see  Moller,  K.-G.  -I-IO).— C.  W.  F. 
Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzereicn,  vi. 
1 — 640 ;  J.  A.  Dorner,  Person 
Cliristi,  Yol.  II.;  Hefele,  Conciiien- 
ficschichte  ii.  126 — in.  284.  On 
Pope  Leo's  intervention,  see  Guer- 
rino  Amelli,  S.  Leone  e  VOrienfe 
(Home  1882). 

19—2 


died  43.5. 

Ibas  suc- 
ceeds. 


Nestorians 
in  Persia. 

School  of 
Edessa 
destroyed, 
489. 


EOTY- 
CHIANISM^ 


Dioscorus 
Patriarch 
of  Ale.ran- 
dria,  444. 


292 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


Chap.  XI. 


Syiiod 
under 
Flavian, 
■418, 


Eiityches 
condemn- 
ed. 


Synod  at 
Constanti- 
nople, 4i9. 


absorbed  by  the  Divinity,  that  even  the  Body  of  Christ 
is  not  to  be  regarded  as  of  the  same  species  with  ours. 
This  was  startling  even  to  those  who  might  be  considered 
members  of  the  same  party.  Eusebius,  bishop  of  Dory- 
Iseum,  once  an  eager  partisan  of  Cyril  and  a  vigorous 
opponent  of  Nestorius,  laid  the  case  before  Flavian,  pa- 
triarch of  Constantinople,  and  his  domestic  counciP. 
Flavian,  a  moderate  follower  of  the  Antiochene  school, 
took  action  reluctantly,  foreseeing  the  troubles  which 
might  follow,  and  Eutyches  at  first  refused  to  appear. 
After  three  summonses  however  he  presented  himself, 
and  declared  that  as  to  one  of  the  charges — that  of  having 
said  that  Christ  brought  His  Body  with  Him  from 
Heaven — he  was  guiltless.  As  to  the  rest,  he  said  that 
he  had  never  allowed  himself  to  enquire  curiously  into 
the  nature'''  of  the  Lord's  Body,  and  had  not  been  accus- 
tomed to  say  that  it  was  of  the  same  esseuce  as  ours^; 
but  if  it  was  his  duty  to  say  that  He  took  flesh  of  the 
Virgin  and  was  of  the  same  essence  with  us,  he  would 
say  it ;  but  he  persisted  that,  though  the  Lord  was  pro- 
duced from  two  Natures  before  the  union^,  after  the 
union  there  was  but  one^  In  the  end  Eutyches  was 
deprived  of  his  orders,  excommunicated,  and  deposed  from 
his  office  of  archimandrite*^.  He  had  however  powerful 
supporters ;  he  was  favoured  by  the  imperial  Court,  and 
also  by  Dioscorus,  who  readily  seized  this  opportunity  to 
join  in  the  fray.  By  favour  of  the  empress,  Eutyches 
obtained  a  rehearing  of  his  case  before  a  synod  at  Con- 
stantinople'' in  the  following  year,  which  however  did  not 
reverse  the  previous  sentence.  Dioscorus  then,  in  spite 
of  the  opposition  of  Flavian  and  Pope  Leo,  induced  the 
emperor  to  summon  to  Ephesus  an  oecumenical  council, 
at  which,  to  use  the  expression  of  the  emperor's  letter 
to  the  synods  all  that  devilish  root  might  be  extirpated 


^  The  crvi'odoi  ivSTj/xovcra,  com- 
posed of  bishoiDS  and  other  eccle- 
siastical dignitaries  who  hapjiened 
to  be  in  Constantinople  at  the  time. 
It  is  said  to  have  consisted  of  about 
56  bishops  and  archimandrites. 
Cave,  Hist.  Lit.  i.  480.  The  Acts 
of  this  Council  are  in  Mansi  vi. 
G40ff.;  Hardouinii.  649  ff. 

-  (pvcrioXoyetv. 


'  ofioovai.oj'  rjfjuv. 

*  yeyefvijadai   tK   5vo  (pvcrecji'  wpb 

5  Compare  with  this  the  letter 
of  Eutj'ches  to  Pope  Leo,  in  Mansi 
V.  1015. 

^  See  the  sentence  in  Hardouiu 
11.  167. 

7  In  Hardouin  ii.  171  If. 

8  Hardouin  ii.  7'J. 


Contr'oversies  on  the  Faith. 


29^ 


and  the  Nestorians  cast  out  of  the  churches.  Dioscorus 
himself  presided  in  the  council ^  which  soon  became  a 
scene  of  the  utmost  violence  and  confusion.  Eutyches 
was  restored  to  his  rank  and  office,  while  his  accuser, 
Eusebius  of  Dorylseum,  was  not  even  granted  a  hearing, 
but  was  deposed,  together  with  Flavian,  by  the  intimi- 
dated bishops.  When  some  of  them  gave  signs  of  pro- 
testing, Dioscorus  called  in  a  band  of  soldiers  and  monks, 
who  with  loud  shouts  and  threats  put  down  all  opposition. 
"  Cut  in  two  those  who  talk  of  two  Natures,"  was  the  cry. 
Flavian  was  so  roughly  handled  that  he  died  on  his  way 
to  the  place  of  banishment  to  which  he  had  been  sen- 
tenced. Hilary,  the  legate  of  the  Roman  bishop,  saved 
himself  by  flight,  as  did  also  Eusebius  of  Doryloeum.  In 
subsequent  sittings  the  most  distinguished  members  of 
the  Antiochene  party — Ibas  of  Edessa,  Irenaeus  of  Tyre, 
Domnus  and  Theodoret, — had  sentence  of  deposition  passed 
upon  them,  while  the  emperor  forbade  the  circulation  of 
Theodoret's  writings,  and  condemned  them  to  be  burnt. 
This  "Band  of  Brigands'"',  as  Leo  of  Rome  called  it,  marks 
the  culmination  of  the  power  of  the  Alexandrian  patriarch 
and  his  party. 

But  the  reaction  soon  set  in.  On  the  death  of  Theo- 
dosius  II.  the  imperial  government  came  into  the  hands 
of  his  sister  Pulcheria  and  her  husband  JMarcian,  a  man 
of  real  ability.  The  bishop  of  Rome  had  already,  in  a 
letter  to  Flavian^  endeavoured  to  set  forth  the  right 
doctrine  which  was  endangered  by  the  errors  of  Nestorius 
and  Eutyches,  but  at  the  Ephesine  meeting  his  legates 
had  not  been  heard.  All  those  who  had  been  injured 
by  the  Band  of  Brigands  now  turned  for  help  to  Leo,  who 


1  The  Acta  in  Mansi  v. — vii. ; 
Hardouin  ii.  71  ff.  Special  treatises 
on  this  Council  are  Lewald,  Die 
sogenannte  Rduher-Synode,  in  Zeit- 
schrift  fiir  Hist.  Theol.  xin.  1 ; 
Martin,  Le  Paeudo-Synode  de  Bri- 
ganddf/e  (Paris,  1875). 

^  "  Latrocinium  Ephesinum," 
Leo,  Epist.  95  ad  Pulcheriam ;  aivo- 
Sos  \Tj(TTpLK7i,  Theophanes,  Chrono- 
graph, p.  86  (Gieseler  i.  464). 

3  This  famous  letter,  the  "  Tome" 
of  Leo,  is  Eiiist.  28  in  the  Ballerini 


edition  of  Leo's  Works.  Given  by 
Harvey,  Viyidex  CathoUcus,  i.  209 
3.  Its  most  characteristic  phrases 
are — "In  Integra  veri  hominis  per- 
fectaque  natura  natus  est  Deus, 
totus  in  suis,  totus  in  nostris... 
humana  augens,  divina  non  minu- 
ens... Tenet  enim  sine  defectu  pro- 
prietatem  suam  utraque  natura,  et 
sicut  formam  servi  Dei  forma  non 
adimit,  ita  formam  Dei  servi  forma 
non  minuit. " 


Chap.  XL 

The 

"Band  of 
Brigands," 
449. 


Leo's 
Letter, 
13  June, 
449. 


294 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


Chap.  XI. 


Council  of 
Chiilcedon, 
Vol. 


was  very  willing  to  decide  the  matter  in  a  Western  council 
under  his  own  influence.  The  course  however  preferred 
by  the  rulers  of  the  state  was  to  summon  an  oecumenical 
council  in  some  spot  not  too  far  removed  from  Constanti- 
nople to  be  under  the  influence  of  the  Court.  Such  a 
council  accordingly  met  at  Chalcedon^  in  the  year  451, 
annulled  the  decisions  of  the  Band  of  Brigands,  and  de- 
posed Dioscorus  on  account  of  his  violent  injustice.  It 
recognised  Cyril  as  orthodox ;  but  when  it  was  proposed 
to  vindicate  the  orthodoxy  of  Theodoret  also,  there  arose  a 
vehement  opposition,  and  the  resolution  respecting  him 
was  not  passed  until  he  had  agreed  to  condemn  Nestorius. 
On  the  basis  of  the  compromise  of  483  and  Leo's  letter 
to  Flavian  a  formula''*  was  drawn  up  to  the  following 
effect.  Our  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  perfect  in  Godhead 
and  perfect  in  Manhood,  Very  God  and  Very  Man  of  a 
reasonable  soul  and  a  body,  of  one  essence  with  the  Father 
as  touching  His  Godhead,  of  one  essence  with  us  as  touch- 
ing his  Manhood  ^  in  all  respects  like  to  us,  sin  only  ex- 
cepted ;  begotten  of  the  Father  before  the  ages  as  touching 
His  Godhead,  but  in  these  last  days,  for  us  and  for  our 
salvation,  born  of  Mary  the  Virgin,  the  Mother  of  God, 
as  touching  His  Manhood ;  one  and  the  same  recognised  as 
Christ,  Son,  Lord,  Only-begotten,  in  two  Natures*  without 
confusion,  without  change,  without  distinction,  without 
separation.  And  the  difference  of  Natures  is  in  no  way 
abolished  by  the  Union ;  rather,  the  projoerties  of  each 
Nature  are  preserved  and  run  together  in  one  Person  and 
one  Substance:  the  one  Son,  Only-begotten,  God- Word, 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  not  parted  or  divided  into  two 
Persons.  The  intention  of  this  was  to  reject  both  Euty- 
ches's  practical  denial  of  two  Natures  in  the  Incarnate 
Son,  and  the  division  of  the  Godhead  and  the  Manhood 
which  was  attributed  to  Nestorius.      But,  with  all  the 


1  Evagrius,  H.  E.  n.  4. 

2  In  Hardouin  ii.  450 ;  Mansi  vii. 
108;  Harvey  Vindex  Cathol.  ni. 
.•{8  ff. ;  Ronth,  Opiiscula,  422  ff. ; 
flahn,  Bibliothek,  p.  84  f. 

^  ofioovffws  Ti3  warpl  KOLTa,  ttjv 
OeSrrjTa  /cat  6/xoovai.os  rjfuy  Kara  T-qv 
avOpuirbrr^Ta. 

*  iv  Si'io  (pvcreaiv.     Tliat  tLis,  and 


not  iK  8vo  ipvaeijj',  is  the  right  read- 
ing is  evident  from  the  discussion 
in  the  Council  itself,  from  the 
Latin  translation  "in  duabus  na- 
turis,"  and  from  abundant  testi- 
mony besides.  See  Hahn  u.  s. 
note  347,  and  Hefele,  Concilien- 
gesch.  ii.  451  f. 


(Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


295 


care  with  which  it  was  drawn,  it  still  seemed  to  favour 
Nestorius  rather  than  Eutyches,  and  was  to  those  who 
followed  the  teaching  of  Cyril  a  stone  of  stumbling  and  a 
rock  of  offence.  It  was  from  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  that 
there  sprang  the  gi-eat  Monophysite  controversy  which 
raged  from  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  to  the  end 
of  the  sixth,  and  shook  to  their  foundations  both  the 
Church  and  the  empire. 

4.  The  first  signs  of  the  coming  trouble  appeared  in 
Palestine.  A  monk  named  Theodosias,  on  his  return  from 
Chalcedon,  caused  by  his  fanatical  preaching  against  the 
council  an  alarming  disturbance^  With  the  help  of  liber- 
ated convicts  Jerusalem  was  sacked  and  burnt,  its  bishop 
Juvenal  compelled  to  take  flight,  and  Theodosius  ruled  for 
more  than  a  year  in  his  stead.  In  vain  the  emperor 
Marcian*  strove  to  overcome  the  prejudices  of  the  monks  ; 
they  held  on  their  way,  supported  by  the  widow  of  the 
emperor  Theodosius  II.,  Eudocia — once  Athenais* — who 
was  then  living  in  Palestine.  When  the  insurrection  was 
at  last  put  down  Theodosius  took  refuge  among  the  monks 
on  Sinai,  where  the  emperor  was  powerless  to  reach  him. 
In  Egypt  a  powerful  party  refused  to  acknowledge  the 
deposition  of  Dioscorus  by  the  council,  and  the  election  of 
Proterius  as  his  successor  in  the  see  of  Alexandria  led  to 
a  riot  in  which  a  party  of  soldiers  was  burned  alive  by 
the  mob  in  the  Serapeum,  to  which  they  had  retreated^ 
Proterius  was  only  safe   under  a  military  guard.     After 


Chap.  XI. 


1  The  principal  authorities  are, 
the  documents  in  Mausi  vn. — ix.; 
Hardouin  ii.  and  in.;  Zacharias 
Rhetor,  in  Land's  Anecdota  Syri- 
aca,  vol.  3  (Leyden,  1870);  Eva- 
grius  H.  E.  libb.  2 — 5;  Liberatus, 
Breviarium  ;  John  of  Ephesus, 
Church  History,  Syriac,  ed.  Cure- 
ton  (Oxford,  1853),  English  by 
Payne-Smith  (Oxf.  18G0);  Theo- 
phanes,  Chi-onographia,  in  Corpus 
Scriptorum  Byzant.,  and  in  separate 
edition  by  De  Boor  (Leipzig,  1883 
— 5);  the  writings  of  Leontius  of 
Byzantium ;  Timotheus  Presbyter, 
De  Receptione  Hceret.  in  Cotelerius, 
Monum.  Eccl.  Grcecce,  ii.  377;  Aua- 
8tasiusSinaita,'057;76sadv.ylc<'^}/(a- 
los  (in  Migne,  Ser.  Gr.89) — Gieseler, 


Commentatio  qua  Monophys.  opi- 
niones  illustrantur,  2  parts  (Gottin- 
gen  1835  and  1838);  Loofs,  Leon- 
tius von  Byzanz. 

2  On  the  events  of  this  period, 
see  the  Life  of  St  Euthymius  by 
Cyril  of  Scythopolis  in  Cotelerii 
Monumenta  Eccl.  Grcecce  ii.  200  ff.; 
and  in  a  shorter  and  probably  more 
authentic  form  in  the  Benedictine 
Analecta  Grceca,  p.  1  ff.  (Paris, 
1688). 

^  See  his  letter,  Hardouin  ii.  667 
ff. 

*  On  this  lady  see  Gibbon,  oh- 
32  (iv.  164,  ed.  Smith),  and  Gre- 
giirovius,  Athenais  oder  Gesch.  einer 
Byzant.  Kniscrin. 

^  Evagrius,  H.  E.  ii.  5. 


TheMono- 
physitks^ 
Troubles  in 
Palestine, 
451. 


453. 


452. 


296 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


the  death  of  the  emperor  Marcian  and  the  accession  of 
Leo,  the  adherents  of  Dioscorus  took  courage  to  elect  as 
patriarch  Timotheus  Aehirus  \  who  had  followed  Dioscorus 
into  banishment.  In  the  disturbances  which  followed, 
Proterius  was  murdered  by  the  partisans  of  Timotheus  in 
a  baptistery  to  which  he  had  fled  for  refuge  ^  After  a 
majority  of  the  bishops  had  expressed  themselves  in  favour 
of  the  maintenance  of  the  definition  of  Chalcedony  the 
emperor  Leo  I.  restored,  so  far  as  external  power  could, 
the  authority  of  the  orthodox  Church.  Timotheus  Aelurus 
was  banished,  and  another  Timotheus,  known  as  Salopha- 
ciolus  or  Basilicus,  was  chosen  in  his  place*.  Even  in 
Antioch,  the  very  place  where  in  general  Alexandrian 
theology  was  most  unfavourably  received,  Monophysitism 
now  cropped  up  at  the  instigation  of  a  monk  known  as 
Peter  the  Fuller,  who  was  supported  by  the  emperor's 
son-in-law  Zeno.  Peter  had  sufficient  influence  to  cause 
to  be  inserted  in  the  Trisagion  the  words  "  who  wast 
crucified  for  us "  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it  appear 
that  the  Son  of  God  in  His  deity  suffered  for  us®.  After 
the  death  of  Leo  I.  and  his  grandson,  the  Monophysite  Zeno 
himself  succeeded,  only  to  be  overthrown  by  Basiliscus. 
This  usurper  depended  on  the  support  of  those  who  were 
opposed  to  the  Definition  of  Chalcedon,  which  in  a  circular 
letter  or  Encyclic"  he  expressly  rejected.  The  Encyclic 
was  accepted  by  many  bishops,  and  those  who  had  been 
banished  by  Leo,  Timotheus  Aelurus  and  Peter  the 
Fuller  among  them,  returned  to  their  sees.  Basiliscus 
was  however  in  his  turn  overthrown  by  Zeno,  and  the 
adherents  of  the  Chalcedonian  formula  came  again  into 
power,  Peter  Mongus,  who  on  the  death  of  Timotheus 
Aelurus,  which  had  occurred  in  the  meanwhile,  had 
succeeded  him  on  the  throne  of  Alexandria,  was  com- 
pelled to  vacate  it,  and  Salophaciolus,  who  was  popular 


^  MXovpos  iu  Evagrius,  "EXou/5oj 
in  Theophanes.  It  lias  been  sng- 
gestecl  that  this  is  a  corruption  of 
"Epoi'Xos,  the  HeruHan.  See  Moller, 
K.-G.  p.  444,  n.  2,  As  it  stands, 
it  means  "the  cat." 

2  Evagrius,  H.  K.  ii.  8. 

3  See  their  letters  in  Hardouin 
II.  705  ff. 

*  Evagrius  ii,  11. 


^  So  that  the  Greek  rpiaayLov  ran 
— ^'A7ios  6  6e6<s,  aycos  lax^'P^^t  dyios 
dOlvaros  [6  (XTavpioOels  8i'  ij/itds], 
iXi-qaov  ri/xds.  See  Smith  and 
Cheetham's  Diet,  of  Chr.  Antiq.  p. 
1997.  That  God  was  crucitied  for 
us  was  a  favourite  tenet  of  the 
Monophysites. 

®  In  Evagrius,  H.  E.  in.  4, 


Controversies  on  the  Fnith. 


207 


with  all  parties,  was  restored.  Peter  the  Fuller  was  com- 
pelled to  leave  Antioch.  Zeno,  who  had  (as  we  have  seen) 
once  favoured  the  Monophysites,  but  who  had  probably 
no  very  strong  conviction  on  the  matter,  saw  the  import- 
ance of  putting  an  end  to  the  theological  feud.  He  put 
forth,  with  the  advice  of  Acacius,  patriarch  of  Constanti- 
nople, who  had  greatly  aided  him  to  recover  power,  a 
Confession  of  Faith  intended  to  promote  union,  commonly 
called  the  Henoticon  ^  It  attempted  to  avoid  at  any  rate 
the  terms  which  had  given  most  offence.  After  describing 
the  Lord  as  co-essential  with  the  Father  and  also  with 
Man  in  the  terms  adopted  at  Chalcedon,  and  giving  the 
epithet  Theotokos  to  the  Virgin,  it  proceeded  to  insist 
that  it  was  one  and  the  same  person  who  wrought  wonders 
and  endured  suffering — thus  virtually  accepting  the  "  God 
crucified"  of  the  Monophysites — and  it  anathematized 
those  who  held  other  views  whether  in  the  Council  of 
Chalcedon  or  in  any  other.  This  was  submitted  to  the 
bishops  for  subscription. 

The  Henoticon  had  not  the  effect  which  the  emperor 
had  hoped  from  it,  but  it  had  others  which  he  had  not 
contemplated.  Peter  Mongus  accepted  it,  and  was  there- 
fore confirmed  by  imperial  power  in  the  patriarchal  throne 
of  Alexandria  to  which  he  had  been  elected  as  a  Mono- 
physite.  Peter  the  Fuller  was  made  patriarch  of  Antioch. 
But  the  strict  Monophysites  were  just  as  little  contented 
with  it  as  the  adherents  of  the  Chalcedonian  Definition, 
and  the  latter  sought  and  found  support  in  Rome.  The 
then  pope,  Felix  HI.,  finding  that  his  threats  remained  un- 
noticed and  that  his  legates  were  overawed  and  cajoled  by 
Acacius,  at  last  condemned  the  Henoticon  and  excommu- 
nicated Acacius '^  Thus  intercommunion  ceased  between 
the  Latin  Church  and  so  much  of  the  Greek  Church  as 
remained  in  communion  with  Acacius,  though  the  ad- 
herents of  Chalcedon  throughout  the  empire  maintained 
communion  with  Rome.  The  Henoticon,  in  fact,  was  very 
far  from  being  a  bond  of  union.  In  Constantinople  the 
decrees  of  Chalcedon  were  highly  esteemed,  in  Alexandria 


Chap.  XI. 


^  T6  evioTiKOf.  In  Evagrius  in. 
14. 

2  Evagrius  in.  18.  Felix's  letter 
conveying  the  seuteuce  in  Mansi 


VII.  1053.  Acacius  retaliated  by 
striking  out  the  name  of  Felix 
from  the  Diptychs  (Theophanes,  p. 
114.) 


The 
Henoticon, 

482. 


485. 


484. 


401. 


29S 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


they  were  rejected,  in  the  East  opinions  were  divided. 
The  Henoticon  might  serve  to  promote  formal  unity, 
but  there  could  not  fail  to  arise  friction  between  the 
parties  and  sometimes  open  division.  Anastasius  when 
he  ascended  the  imperial  throne  set  himself  simply  to 
maintain  peace  and  good  order  in  the  empire  \  He  held 
that  it  was  unworthy  of  an  emperor  to  persecute  the  wor- 
shippers of  Christ  and  the  citizens  of  Rome  ^  and  faithfully 
observed  the  promise,  which  he  had  made  to  the  patriarch 
on  his  accession,  to  make  no  change  in  the  Henoticon. 
Nevertheless  the  Monophysite  party  tended  to  gain  strength, 
Xenajas,  called  by  the  Greeks  Philoxenus^  who  had  been 
made  bishop  of  Hierapolis  in  the  days  of  Peter  the  Fuller, 
contended  strongly  for  the  Monophysite  view,  and  was 
certainly  not  discouraged  by  the  emperor.  He  was  aided 
by  Severus  a  monk  who  had  gained  considerable  power  at 
the  imperial  court.  When  however  under  his  influence  an 
attempt  was  made  to  introduce  at  Constantinople  also  the 
Monophysite  interpolation — "  who  wast  crucified  for  us  " — 
into  the  Trisagion,  so  fierce  a  revolt  took  place  that  Ana- 
stasius, brave  soldier  as  he  was,  grew  timid,  and  ranged 
himself  more  decidedly  with  the  adherents  of  the  Chalce- 
donian  decrees.  Moreover,  he  entered  into  negotiations 
with  Rome  for  the  renewal  of  intercommunion,  but  the 
discussions  as  to  the  terms  of  peace  were  prolonged,  and  no 
definite  conclusion  had  been  reached  at  the  end  of  his 
reign.  When  he  died  he  shared  the  fate  of  all  who  in 
times  of  heated  controversy  have  not  been  partisans ;  his 
memory  was  loaded  with  opprobrious  epithets,  as  "Arian" 
and  "  Manichsean  ^"  When  Justin  succeeded,  the  guidance 
of  ecclesiastical  affairs  came  practically  into  the  hands  of 
his  nephew  Justinian.  There  was  at  once  a  change.  The 
patriarch  John  of  Constantinople  found  himself  compelled 
to  anathematize  the  Monophysites  and  solemnly  to  accept 
the  Decrees  of  Chalcedon.  The  orthodox  throughout  the 
East  everywhere  rose  against  their  late  oppressors,  and  the 


1  Evagrius  iii.  30. 

-  Gibbon's  Rome,  c.  47  (vi.  .31 
ed.  Smith). 

•*  He  was  the  patron  of  the  well- 
known  Philoxenian  Version  of  the 
New  Testament,  which  was  maile 


by  Polycari)  (.508)  and  dedicated  to 
him.  See  Westcott  in  Smith's 
Diet,  of  the  Bible,  in.  1635. 

4  Evagrius,  H.  E.  m.  32 ;  Theo- 
dorus  Lector,  H.  E.  ii.  C. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


299 


emperor  made  overtures  to  Hormisdas  for  the  restoration  | 
of  peace  and  intercommunion  with  Rome,  which  actually  | 
came  to  pass  in  519,  Severus,  who  had  become  patriarch 
of  Antioch,  and  other  leading  Monophysites  were  driven 
from  their  sees,  and  fled  to  Egypt,  where  their  party  was 
so  strong  that  the  imperial  government  did  not  think  it 
prudent  to  interfere. 

Alexandria  seemed  to  be  infected  with  a  morbid 
passion  for  theological  distinctions.  No  sooner  did  the 
Monophysite  leaders  find  themselves  together  in  that  city 
than  they  became  divided  among  themselves  S  Severus 
maintained  that  the  Body  of  the  Lord  was  not  so  changed 
by  the  iudwelling  of  the  Divinity  but  that  it  re- 
mained liable  to  corruption,  whence  his  adherents  received 
from  their  opponents  the  nickname  of  "  Phthartolatrse," 
worshippers  of  the  corruptible ;  while  Julius,  bishop  of 
Halicarnassus,  asserted  that  the  Human  Nature  of  Christ 
was  so  absorbed  in  the  Divine  that  He  was  not  subject  to 
the  accidents  of  humanity  or  to  corruption ;  what  He 
suffered  He  had  sutfered  from  no  natural  necessity,  but  of 
His  own  free  will  for  the  redemption  of  man.  Hence  the 
followers  of  Julian  were  styled  Aphthartodocetse,  as  hold- 
ing the  opinion  of  the  incorruptibility  of  Christ's  Body. 
Again,  Themistius,  an  Alexandrian  deacon,  propounded 
the  question,  whether  Christ  during  His  life  on  earth  was 
omniscient.  And  at  a  later  date,  as  if  there  were  not  al- 
ready divisions  enough,  the  great  Aristotelian,  Johannes 
Philoponus^,  asserted  that  if  there  are  two  natures  in  Christ, 
there  must  needs  be  two  substances,  for  "  nature "  and 
"  substance  "  are  the  same  thing  ;  he  also  represented  the 
Resurrection  as  a  wholly  new  creation,  and  was  thought  to 
have  fallen  into  Tritheism  in  his  view  of  the  Holy  Trinity; 
while  Damian,  patriarch  of  Alexandria,  on  the  other  hand, 
was  held  to  have  fallen  into  Sabellianism.  At  the  same 
time  the  Alexandrian  sophist  Stephen  Niobes  ^  put  forth 
the  opinion,  condemned  by  the  other  Monophysites,  that 


1  These  divisions  are  specially 
treated  by  Timotheus  Presbyter  in 
his  Be  Variis  Htereticis  etc.  (Cote- 
lerius  Momim.  Eccl.  Gr.  iii.  377 
ff.).  See  also  Walch,  Ketzerhis- 
torie,  viii.  520  ff. 

2  Leontius,  De  Sectis,  Act.  5,  c. 


6,  quoted  by  Gieseler,  i.  635,  note. 
See  also  Job.  Damascenus  De  Ihc- 
resibus,  c.  83. 

3  Dionysius  Patr.  Antiocli.  in 
Assemani,  Bibl.  Orient,  ii.  72  ; 
Timotheus  u.  s.  pp.  307,  407  ff., 
417  ff. 


Chap.  XI. 


519. 


Severians. 


Juliaiiists. 


Johannes 
Fhilopu- 
nus,  c.  5G0. 


Damian- 
ites. 

Niobites, 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


after  the  Incarnation  there  was  in  Christ  no  distinction  of 
Natures  whatever. 

Justinian,  when  he  became  emperor,  was  probably 
much  more  anxious  to  restore  unity  to  the  Church  than 
to  give  the  victory  to  any  particular  phase  of  doctrine ; 
while  his  wife  Theodora,  a  woman  of  great  force  of 
character  and  very  influential  in  the  government,  was 
believed  to  favour  the  Monophysites.  It  was  part  of  the 
emperor's  great  task  of  restoring  the  reign  of  law  and  order 
in  the  empire  to  put  an  end  to  the  distracted  condition  of 
the  Church.  He  caused  conferences  to  be  held  between 
Catholic  and  Monophysite  bishops  \  without  much  result. 
The  Monophysite  formula,  "  God  was  crucified  for  us," 
which  had  already  occasioned  so  much  disturbance,  and 
which  was  rejected  by  many  Catholics,  was  declared  by 
Justinian,  in  a  formal  enactment^  to  be  orthodox ;  he 
anathematized  those  who  refused  to  confess  that  one  of 
the  Persons  of  the  Holy  and  Consubstantial  Trinity  was 
crucified  for  us.  This  was  accepted  by  the  pope^,  but  did 
not  conciliate  the  Monophysites.  They  were  still  in 
Egypt  the  dominant  party,  though,  under  the  emperor's 
influence,  a  Catholic,  Paulus,  had  become  patriarch  of 
Alexandria.  For  a  short  time  they  had  a  supporter  in 
the  See  of  Constantinople,  Anthimus,  whose  election  had 
been  furthered  by  Theodora.  In  the  year  536  however 
the  Roman  bishop  Agapetus,  who  had  come  to  Constanti- 
nople to  plead  for  the  Gothic  king,  Theodahad,  then  hard 
pressed  by  Beli sarins,  had  sufficient  influence  to  bring 
about  the  disgrace  of  Anthimus,  and  Mennas  was  raised 
to  the  vacant  throne.  The  latter  in  the  year  of  his  elec- 
tion held  a  council  at  Constantinople*  at  which  Anthimus 
and  other  leading  Monophysites  were  excommunicated ; 
and  Justinian  forbade  Anthimus  and  Severus  to  enter  the 
capital.  Meantime  Agapetus  had  died  at  Constantinople, 
and  the  deacon  Vigilius,  who  was  in  his  company,  is  said 
to  have  made  a  compact  with  Theodora,  that  if  he  were 


^  The  minutes  of  the  Collatio 
Gatholicoruni  cum  Severianis  in 
Mansi  viii.  817  ff. ;  Hardouin  ii. 
1159  ff.  Several  conferences  are 
mentioned  in  a  document  given  by 
Assemani,  Bihl.  Orient,  ii.  8i). 

■■^  Coder,     I.    1.    6 ;    Justinian's 


Epist.  ad  Joannem  Papain  in  Har- 
douin II.  1146. 

^  See  his  letter  in  reply  to 
Justinian,  Hardouin  ii.  1148 ;  Mansi 
VIII.  797. 

*  Hardouin  ii.  1185 ff.;  Cave, 
Hht.  Lit.  I.  556  f. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


JOl 


chosen  pope  he  would  disregard  the  Council  of  Chalcedon 
and  re-enter  into  communion  with  those  who  refused  to 
accept  its  definition.  In  his  absence  Silverius  had  been 
chosen  pope  in  Rome,  but  Belisarius,  then  all-powerful  in 
Italy,  at  Theodora's  bidding  easily  procured  the  banish- 
ment of  Silverius  on  a  charge  of  treason,  and  the  election 
of  the  time-serving  Vigilius,  who  managed  to  hold  his 
own  against  the  rightful  pope.  But  in  the  midst  of  the 
orthodox  West  he  found  it  impossible  to  keep  the  promise 
which  he  had  made  to  the  heterodox  Theodora \  His 
duplicity  is  indeed  very  evident ;  for  while  to  the  Mono- 
physite  bishops  he  professed  entire  agreement  with  their 
principles,  to  Justinian  and  to  the  orthodox  patriarch  he 
declared  his  perfect  orthodoxy  I 

Meantime  Theodorus  Ascidas,  bishop  of  the  Cappa- 
docian  CaBsarea,  had  presented  himself  at  the  imperial 
court  and  gained  the  confidence  of  the  emperor.  This 
prelate  persuaded  Justinian®  that  he  might  gratify  the 
Monophysites  without  actually  rejecting  the  decrees  of 
Chalcedon,  if  he  were  to  condemn  not  only  Theodore  of 
Mopsuestia,  whom  even  the  orthodox  held  in  suspicion, 
but  also  the  treatises  in  which  Theodoret  had  opposed 
Cyril,  and  the  letter  of  Ibas  to  Maris,  although  at  Chalce- 
don the  two  latter  had  been  expressly  declared  orthodox. 
In  the  year  544  he  accordingly  issued  an  edict'*  in  which 
all  these  writings  were  condemned,  commonly  known  as 
the  edict  of  the  Three  Chapters  or  Articles,  which  was 
generally  welcomed  in  the  East,  but  steadily  resisted  in 
the  West.  Justinian,  nothing  daunted,  summoned  Vigilius 
to  Constantinople,  where  he  succeeded  in  persuading  or 
compelling  him  to  issue  a  formal  decision^  to  the  same 
effect  as  the  edict.  But  in  yielding  to  the  emperor  he 
gave  the  gravest  offence  to  the  clergy  of  his  own  province. 


1  Letter  to  Anthimus  etc.  in 
Liberatus,  Breviarium,  c.  22,  and 
in  the  Chronicon  of  Victor  Tumin. 
(Canisii  Lectiones  Ant.  i.  330). 

-  Epistola  ad  Justinianuiii,  in 
Mansi  rx.  35  f.  ;  ad  Mennam,  3S  f. 

•*  See  on  this  point  the  evidence 
of  Domitian  of  Ancyra  in  Faciindi 
Dejensio  Trium  Capit.  iv.  4;  and 
Liberati  Brev.  c.  24  ;  in  Gieseler  i. 
641,  note  i. 


■*  Of  this  edict  only  a  few  fra<,'- 
ments  have  been  preserved,  by 
Facundus,  Defensio,  ii.  3;  iv.  4. 
See  Walch,  Ketzerldstorie,  viii.  150 
ff. 

^  This  judicatum  is  also  lost, 
with  the  exception  of  a  fragment 
contained  in  Justinian's  letter  to 
the  Fifth  fficum.  Council;  Mansi 
IX.  181.  The  circumstances  are 
narrated  by  Facundus. 


Chap.  XL 


Vigilius 
Pope,  538. 


Theodorus 
Ascidas. 


Tria. 

Capiliilii, 

544. 


Vifiilius^s 

judicatuiii, 

548. 


302 


Cojitroversies  on  the  Faith. 


Chap.  XI. 

Illyrian 
Council, 
549. 
Facundus. 


African 
Council, 
550. 


(Ecuvieni- 
cdlCouvcil 
at  Con- 
stantino- 
ple, 553. 


Vilnius 
(lies,  555. 


A  synod  in  Illyria  sent  to  the  emperor  a  set  defence  of 
the  writings  which  he  had  impugned  ^  In  Africa  the 
condemned  writings  were  defended  by  one  of  the  ablest 
men  of  the  time,  Facundus  of  Hermiane,  who  wrote  in 
a  fearless  and  candid  spirit  without  regard  to  temporary 
popularity.  He  saw  clearly  the  evils  which  sprang  from 
the  constant  hair-splitting  of  the  Greeks,  from  the  ten- 
dency of  ignorant  persons  to  pronounce  arrogant  judg- 
ments, and  from  the  interference  of  the  civil  government, 
which,  after  all,  cannot  coerce  men's  thoughts^.  Guided 
by  him,  the  African  bishops  not  only  controverted  the 
emperor's  views,  but  also  formally  excommunicated  Vi- 
gilius'.  Under  this  pressure  the  unlucky  pope  summoned 
courage  to  refuse  to  accept  a  dogmatic  statement*,  em- 
bodying the  condemnation  of  the  Three  Articles,  which 
the  emperor  put  forth  in  the  year  551.  Justinian,  much 
perplexed,  summoned  a  council  at  Constantinople,  known 
as  the  Fifth  Oecumenical,  which  Vigilius  refused  to  at- 
tend; he  even  defended  the  condemned  writings  in  a 
formal  ordinance  ^  The  council  thereupon,  under  the 
emperor's  influence,  approved  all  the  edicts  on  matters  of 
dogma  which  he  had  put  forth,  and  directed  the  name 
of  Vigilius  to  be  removed  from  the  list  of  those  commemo- 
rated in  the  Eucharists  While  these  things  were  done 
at  Constantinople,  Narses  had  restored  the  imperial 
authority  in  Italy;  and  tlie  pope  saw  with  dismay  that 
even  in  Rome  he  would  not  be  out  of  the  reach  of  the 
emperor's  arm.  It  was  perhaps  this  consideration  which 
induced  him  to  accept  the  decrees  of  the  council,  which 
he  did  in  554''.  In  the  following  year  he  left  Constanti- 
nople to  return  to  Rome,  but  died  on  his  journey  at 
Syracuse.  Pelagius,  who  was  chosen  as  his  successor  by 
those  who  favoured  the  emperor's  proceedings,  ignoring 


^  Victor  Tunun.  Chronicon,  p. 
332. 

^  See  his  Defensio,  xii.  4  ;  quoted 
by  Neander,  iv.  274  f. 

3  Victor  Tunun.  u.  s.,  quoted  by 
Gieseler,  K.-G.  i.  G43,  note  p. 

•*  'Ofj.o\oyia  wi(TT€0}s  'lovar.  Avto- 
Kparopos,  in  Chron.  Alexandr.  p. 
3 14  ff.  (ed.  Diifresne) ;  in  Mansi  ix. 
537  fif.  On  Vigilius's  conduct,  see 
the  Epistola  Clcricorinn  Italics  (a.d. 


551)  in  Mansi  ix.  151  ff.;  Hardouin 
HI.  47. 

^  Mansi  ix.  61  ff. ;  Hardouin  iii. 
10  ff. 

"  The  Acta  of  this  Council  are 
in  Mansi  IX.  157 ff.;  Hardouin  in. 
51  ff. 

''  See  his  Epist.  ad  Eutychium, 
in  Mansi  ix.  413  ff. ;  Hardouin  iii. 
213  ff. 


Cont7'oversies  on  the  Faith. 


503 


his  own  previous  declarations,  at  once  accepted  the  decrees 
of  the  Fifth  Council  i. 

Justinian  was  oven  still  not  weary  of  interfering  in 
theological  controversies,  and  shortly  before  his  death, 
in  his  eagerness  at  all  costs  to  bring  the  Monophysites 
back  to  the  Church,  he  declared  the  views  of  the  Aphthar- 
todocetse  to  be  orthodox^  Eutychius,  patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople, was  banished  for  refusing  to  accept  this,  and 
Anastasius  Sinaita,  patriarch  of  Antioch,  only  escaped  a 
similar  fate  by  the  death  of  the  emperor.  His  successor, 
Justin  II.,  did  not  attempt  to  carry  out  his  policy. 

Justinian's  attempts  to  regulate  the  dogma  of  the 
Church,  while  it  alienated  the  Western  Church,  did  not 
win  the  Monophysites.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  in  his 
reign  that  they  drew  together  and  formed  separate  com- 
munities. Few  of  the  Egyptians  accepted  the  Patriarch 
of  Alexandria  who  had  been  appointed  under  the  influence 
of  Justinian  ;  the  great  majority  chose  a  Patriarch  of  their 
owTi,  and  so  formed  a  schismatical  church  which  was  never 
reconciled^ ;  and  the  ^thiopic  Church^  cast  in  its  lot  with 
the  Alexandrian.  In  Armenia®  also  the  Monophysite 
party,  favoured  by  the  Persian  rulers  of  the  country,  gained 
the  upper  hand  towards  the  end  of  the  fifth  century. 
Early  in  the  sixth  the  synod  of  Theoria  declared  itself  in 
favour  of  Monophysite  views,  and  about  the  year  six  hun- 
dred the  Armenian  Church  ceased  to  be  in  communion 
with  the  Iberian,  which  adhered  to  the  decrees  of  Chalce- 
don.  In  S}Tia  and  Mesopotamia  the  Monophysites,  perse- 
cuted and  forsaken,  seemed  on  the  point  of  disappearing 
altogether,  when  they  were  revived  by  the  extraordinary 
energy  of  Jacob  Baradai,  and  in  consequence  came  to  be 
called  Jacobites®.  In  the  West  too  there  arose  a  long- 
enduring  schism  in  consequence  of  the  acceptance  by  the 


Chap.  XI, 


Justinian's 
last  effort, 
564, 


death,  .565. 

Schisms 
arise. 


A  lexan- 
dria. 

.Ethiopia. 

Armenia. 


Syria  and 
Mesopota- 
mia, 

Jacob 

Baradai, 

541—578. 


^  Victor  Tunun.,  Chronicon,  an. 
555,  quoted  by  Gieseler  i.  645, 
note  X. 

2  Evafrrius,  H.  E.  iv.  .39 — 41, 

3  See  Taki-Eddini  Makrizi,  Hist. 
Cojititaruni  Christiunorum,  Arabic 
and  Latin,  ed.  H.  J.  Wetzer  (Sulz- 
bach  1828)  ;  E.  Eenaudot,  Hist. 
Patriarch.  Ale.randr.  Jacohit.  ;  M. 
Lo  Quien,  Oriens  Christianus,  ii. 
357  ff.  (ed.  Paris  1740). 


*  J.  Ludolph,  Hist.  ^Ahiopica; 
M.  Veyssier  La  Croze,  Hist,  dti 
Christianisme  d'Ethiopie  et  d'Arme- 
nie  (La  Haye,  1739). 

^  Saint-Martin,  Memoires  sur 
VArminic  (Paris,  1828);  Clem. 
Galanus,  Hist.  Armena  Eccl.  et 
Politica;  Le  Quien,  O.  C.  i.  136 ff. 

^  Assemani,  Biblioth.  Orient., 
torn.  2. 


804 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


Chap.  XI.  I  Eoman  pontiff  of  the  decrees  of  Constantinople.  The 
churches  which  acknowledged  Aquileia  as  their  metropolis 
renounced  communion  with  the  Roman  Church,  as  did 
also  the  western  portion  of  Northern  Italy  under  the  au- 
thority of  Milan.  Never  perhaps  was  the  dignity  of  the 
see  of  Rome  in  so  great  peril  as  in  the  days  when  the 
weakest  of  the  popes  was  brought  into  collision  with  the 
strongest  of  the  emperors.  The  papacy  lost  for  the  time 
the  prestige  of  independence  which  was  its  proudest  pre- 
rogative. The  strong  hand  of  Gregory  the  Great  brought 
back  Milan  and  the  greater  part  of  Northern  Italy  to  the 
Roman  obedience,  but  it  was  at  the  cost  of  ignoring  the 
Fifth  GEcumenical  Councils 

IV.     The  Origenistic  Controversy. 

Origen  was,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  third  century  the 
great  teacher  of  theology  in  the  Christian  Church.  The 
time  however  came  when  they  who  had  followed  in  his 
footsteps  turned  against  their  guide.  Origen's  teaching 
was  that  of  a  time  of  seeking  and  forming,  and  seemed  to 
some  of  those  who  looked  back  to  it  from  the  stand-point 
of  a  more  definite  system  to  transgress  the  bounds  of  ortho- 
doxy. All  the  great  party-leaders  of  the  fourth  century 
had  appealed  to  him.  The  Arians  claimed  his  support  for 
their  doctrine  that  the  Lord  was  a  created  being  and  sub- 
ordinate to  the  Father ;  their  opponents  found  in  his  works 
the  assertion  that  the  Son  was  begotten  of  the  Father 
fi^om  all  eternity.  He  had,  in  fact,  for  several  generations 
many    distinguished    adherents  both   in  Antioch  and  in 


^  See  Ins  Ejnslolce,  iv.  2 — 4,  38, 
39.  He  accepts  the  first  four 
(Ecumenical  Councils,  and  is  silent 
about  the  Fifth. 

2  The  priuciijal  original  authori- 
ties are,  for  the  first  part,  Soci-ates 
■VI.  7ff.,  Sozomen  viii.  11  ff.,  and 
Jerome's  letters  of  the  period  ;  for 
the  second,  the  Life  of  St  Sabas 
by  Cyril  of  Scythopolis  (in  Cote- 
lerii  Monum.  Eccl.  Graccc,  iii.  220 
if.):  Liberati  Breviarium  (in  (lal- 
land,  Bihlioth.  Patrnm,  xii.  Ill)  ft'. ; 
and  in  Migne,  Patrol.  Lat.  Ixviii.); 
and  Evagrius  H.  E.  iv.  38. — More 


recent  works  on  the  subject  are 
Huet's  Origeiiiava,  in  his  edition  of 
the  Commentaries,  rej^rinted  in 
Migne,  Patrol.  Gr.  torn.  17;  C.  W. 
F.  Walch,  Hist,  dcr  Ketzereien,YU. 
3S3ff.;  ^iii.  280  ff.;  Viucenzi,  St 
Greg.  Ny-'^s.  et  Origcnis  Nova  De- 
feiisio  (Rome  1865),  criticised  in 
Thcol.  Qiuirtalschrift  (Tubingen) 
1867,  p.  331  ff.;  Hcfele  in  Wetzer 
and  Welte's  Kirchen-Lexikon,  vii. 
844  ff. ;  A.  W.  W.  Dale  in  Smith 
and  Wace's  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  iv. 
142  ff. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


505 


Alexandria.  These  no  doubt  studied  and  understood  him  ; 
but  many  joined  in  the  fray  who  did  not.  Men  whose  con- 
ceptions of  God  and  of  the  soul  of  man  were — however  little 
they  were  conscious  of  it — materialistic,  naturally  hated  his 
spiritual  teaching,  and  regarded  him  as  the  most  subtle 
and  the  most  dangerous  of  heretics.  Many  of  the  monks 
were  of  this  anthropomorphic  school ;  yet  it  was  among 
monks  and  hermits  that  Epiphanius  detected  what  he 
thought  a  heresy  derived  from  the  teaching  of  Origen,  and 
he  felt  himself  bound,  as  the  champion  of  orthodoxy,  to 
try  to  close  the  source  of  error  \  His  first  steps  with  this 
view  were  taken  on  a  visit  which  he  paid  to  Jerusalem. 
Here  in  the  later  years  of  the  fourth  century  had  been 
formed  a  group  of  men  devoted  equally  to  ascetic  life  and 
to  the  study  of  theology.  The  centre  of  this  group  was 
John,  the  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  himself  an  ardent  admirer 
of  Origen.  Among  its  members  were  Rufinus,  who  during 
his  stay  in  Egypt  had  been  a  pupil  of  the  Origenist  Didy- 
mus ;  and  Jerome,  then  an  eager  student  of  the  works  of 
Origen,  whose  fame,  whether  as  a  theologian  or  as  an  expo- 
sitor of  Scripture,  he  desired  to  emulate.  He  had  already 
begun  to  make  his  master  known  to  the  West  by  means 
of  Latin  translations,  when  murmurs  against  his  orthodoxy 
reached  his  ears,  and  soon  afterwards  Epiphanius  came 
into  his  neighbourhood  and  preached  against  his  errors. 
Epiphanius  was  generally  reverenced  as  a  saint,  and  great 
regard  was  paid  to  his  opinions.  Bishop  John  however, 
who  seems  to  have  regarded  him  as  a  narrow-minded 
fanatic,  was  not  won  over.  Epiphanius  thereupon  broke  off 
communion  with  him,  and  requii'ed  Jerome  and  his  monks 
at  Bethlehem  to  do  the  same.  He  himself,  ignoring  the 
episcopal  rights  of  John,  ordained  Jerome's  brother,  Pauli- 
nianus,  to  the  priesthood.  Jerome  now  found  many  errors 
in  the  author  whom  he  had  lately  admired,  and  so  severed 
himself  from  his  old  friend  Rufinus,  who  could  not  so 
readily  leave  his  first  love. 

By  the  intervention  of  Theophilus  of  Alexandria  the 
strife  in  Palestine  was  for  the  time  appeased  ^.  But  Rufi- 
nus after  his  return  to  the  West  published  a  translation  of 
Pamphilus's  Defence  of  Origen,  in  the  preface  to  which  he 


1  The  Ori^enists  form  the  G4th 
heresy  in  Epiphanius's  Panarion. 


'^  Jerome,   Epistt.    59 — 63; 
ed.  Vallarsi) ;  [al.  80— 9r.]. 

20 


111 


Chap.  XI. 


Palestin- 
ian Ori- 
genists. 


Epipha- 
nius in 
Palestine, 
391. 


Riifinvs's 
Transla- 
tions, 898. 


306 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


Chap.  XI. 


Jerome's 
objections 
to  Origeii, 


Anastashis 
summons 
Evjinus, 
399. 


glanced  at  his  detractors,  but  at  the  same  time  guarded 
himself  against  the  supposition  that  he  himself  shared  the 
opinions  attributed  to  him  on  the  Trinity  and  on  the 
Resurrection.  These  opinions,  he  contended,  were  not 
Origen's,  but  interpolated  by  heretics  into  his  works. 
Further,  in  the  preface  to  his  translation  of  Origen  JDe 
Principiis  he  attempted  to  defend  his  practice  of  toning 
down  certain  risky  expressions  of  his  author,  alleging  that 
Jerome  in  his  Origenistic  period  had  done  the  same.  Je- 
rome, greatly  provoked,  replied\  denying  the  truth  of  some 
of  Rufinus's  allegations,  and  trying  by  all  means  to  clear 
himself  of  the  charge  of  Origenism.  The  principal  false 
opinions  which  he  attributed  to  the  incriminated  teacher 
were  these.  Origen  declares  that  as  it  is  improper  to  say 
that  the  Son  can  see  the  Father,  so  it  is  unbefitting  to 
suppose  that  the  Spirit  can  see  the  Son ;  and  that  souls 
are  in  this  body  bound  as  in  a  prison-house,  while  before 
man  was  created,  they  were  among  the  blessed  beings  in 
heavenly  places.  He  asserts  that  the  devil  and  the  evil 
spirits  will  sometime  repent  and  be  numbered  among  the 
blessed  ones.  He  interprets  the  "  coats  of  skins  "  which 
were  given  to  Adam  and  his  wife  after  the  Fall  to  mean 
human  bodies.  He  denies  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh. 
He  allegorizes  Paradise  in  such  a  way  as  to  deprive  it  of 
all  historical  reality,  making  the  trees  angels  and  the  rivers 
the  heavenly  virtues.  The  waters  which  were  above  the 
heavens  he  understands  to  be  divine  and  supernal  powers, 
the  waters  on  and  under  the  earth  devilish  and  infernal 
powers.  He  asserts  that  man,  after  his  expulsion  from 
Paradise,  lost  the  image  and  likeness  of  God  in  which  he 
had  been  made.  Thereupon  arose  a  painful  literary  con- 
test between  Jerome  and  Rufinus^  exasperated  probably 
by  the  former  friendship  of  the  combatants.  The  Roman 
bishop  Anastasius,  instigated  by  Marcella  and  other  friends 
of  Jerome,  summoned  Rufinus  to  appear  and  answer  for 
himself  before  his  tribunal.  Rufinus  however,  though  he 
sent  a  written  defence,  did  not  appear,  and  Anastasius 
proceeded  to  condemn  Origen,  of  whose  works  he  avowedly 
knew  nothing,  and  to  express  strong  disapproval  of  Rufinus*. 

^  Epist.  41  [al.  84].  Apologia  adv.  Rufimim;  in  Hieron. 

2  Oil  one  side,  Eufini  Apologia  in       Opera,  ii.  455  ff.  ed.  Vallarsi. 
Hieron.;  on  the  other,  Hierouymi  ^  Anastasii  Epist.    ad  Joannem 


Gontroversies  on  the  Faith. 


307 


Theophilus  himself  had  in  399  declared  himself  op- 
posed to  the  anthropomorphism  which,  in  the  strongest 
opposition  to  the  views  of  Origen,  attributed  to  God  a 
human  form ;  God,  he  contended,  alone  of  all  existing 
things,  was  to  be  conceived  as  purely  immaterial.  In  con- 
sequence of  this  declaration  he  was  fiercely  attacked  by 
some  of  the  fanatical  monks  of  the  Egyptian  desert,  and  so 
cowed  that  he  consented  to  condemn  the  works  of  Origen \ 
On  this  change  of  views,  he  attacked  the  Nitrian  monks, 
who  were  for  the  most  part  devoted  to  Origen,  and  with 
whom  he  had  once  been  in  entire  sympathy.  Against 
these  men  and  all  who  held  their  views  he  proceeded  with 
unrelenting  harshness.  At  a  synod  in  Alexandria^  about 
the  year  400  a  sentence  of  condemnation  was  passed  on  all 
who  taught  the  doctrines  of  Origen  or  even  read  his  books. 
When  the  Origenistic  monks  refused  to  obey  the  decrees 
of  the  synod,  Theophilus  incited  the  anthropomorphists 
among  them,  who  were  the  majority,  to  drive  out  these 
Origenist  brethren.  These,  escaping  with  some  difficulty, 
found  no  refuge  even  with  their  friend  John  of  Jerusalem  ; 
for  Theophilus  in  an  encyclical  letter  had  stigmatized 
them  as  wild  and  dangerous  fanatics.  They  at  last  re- 
solved to  present  themselves  at  the  imperial  court  at  Con- 
stantinople, where  they  hoped  for  the  support  of  its  bishop, 
John  Chrysostom^ 

The  bishop  received  them  kindly  and  took  measures 
for  their  maintenance.  As  they  were  for  the  present  under 
anathema,  he  felt  himself  precluded  from  admitting  them 
to  communion,  but  he  wrote  to  Theophilus,  begging  him 
to  absolve  the  refugees.  These  however  had  no  mind  to 
submit  tamely  to  Theophilus's  proceedings  and  desired  to 
bring  a  formal  charge  against  him  before  the  emperor.  It 
was  at  the  same  time  f^xlsely  reported  to  Theophilus  that 
John  had  admitted  the  monks  to  communion.  Chrysostom 
was  anxious  to  keep  clear  of  a  violent  controversy,  but  the 
aggrieved  monks  gained  the  ear  of  the  empress  Eudoxia, 
and  brought  it  to  pass  that  the  emperor  summoned  a 


Hieros.  (Coustant,  p.  719;  Migne's 
Patrol.  Lat.  xx.  1)8  ff. ;  Gieseler, 
K.-G.  I.  410). 

'  Socrates,  fl".  £.  VI.  7;  Sozomen 
H.  E.  VIII.  11. 

2  Socrates  vi.  7;  Sulpicius  Seve- 


rus,  Dialogus  i.  6.  Fragments  of 
its  decrees  are  found  in  Justinian's 
Letter  to  Mennas,  afterwards  re- 
ferred to. 

3  Socrates  vi.  9;   Sozomen  viii. 
13. 

20—2 


Chap.  XI. 

Theophilus 
changes 
^ides,  399. 


Synod  at 
Alexan- 
dria, 400  ? 


Expelled 
monks  at 
Constanti- 
nople. 


308 


Controversies  on  tlie  Faith. 


Chap.  XI. 

Proposed 
Synod. 


Cyprian 

Synod, 

401? 


Controver- 
sy renewed 
in  the  sixth 
century. 
520. 


Sahas  at 
Constanti- 
nople, 530, 


synod  to  Constantinople,  over  which  the  bishop  of  that 
city  was  to  preside,  to  pass  judgment  on  the  proceedings 
of  Theophihis,  who  was  duly  cited  to  appear.  The  effect 
of  this  citation  was  that  he  conceived  a  violent  hatred  for 
Chrysostom,  whom  he  determined  to  ruin.  He  worked 
upon  Epiphanius,  now  a  very  old  man,  to  take  a  fresh  step 
in  his  opposition  to  the  opinions  of  Origen.  This  bishop 
summoned  a  synod  of  his  diocese,  Cyprus,  which  anathe- 
matized the  writings  of  OrigenS  He  then  took  a  journey 
to  Constantinople'^,  where  he  requested  Chrysostom  to 
withdraw  his  protection  from  the  monks  and  join  in  the 
condemnation  which  had  just  been  pronounced  in  Cyprus. 
Chrysostom,  though  by  no  means  an  undiscriminating  ad- 
mirer of  Origen,  not  unnaturally  resisted  this  attempt  at 
dictation,  and  Epiphanius,  a  man  of  honest  and  straight- 
forward character,  finding  that  he  had  been  misled  as  to 
the  views  of  his  opponents',  probably  began  to  suspect 
that  he  was  being  made  the  tool  of  an  intriguer.  He 
therefore  left  the  capital  and  sailed  for  Cyprus,  but  died 
before  he  reached  home.  The  further  proceedings  of 
Eudoxia  and  Theophilus  against  the  good  bishop  of  Con- 
stantinople do  not  belong  to  the  Origenistic  controversy*. 
His  enemies  were  determined  to  accomplish  his  ruin,  and 
the  charges  brought  against  him,  without  any  regard  to 
their  truth,  were  such  as  gave  the  civil  power  a  pretext 
for  interfering.  Theophilus,  in  spite  of  all  he  had  said 
against  him,  continued  to  devote  himself  to  the  study  of 
Origen,  and  for  this  and  other  reasons  incurred  the  con- 
tempt of  all  right-minded  men^ 

In  spite  of  official  condemnation  the  influence  of  Ori- 
gen's  genius  lived  on.  In  the  sixth  century  there  were 
many  Origenists  among  the  monks  of  the  great  monasteries 
founded  by  St  Sabas  in  Palestine,  and  four  of  these  were 
expelled  from  the  "  New  Laura  ^ "  by  their  abbat  Agapetus 
on  account  of  their  opinions.  His  successor  Mamas  rein- 
stated them,  but  in  the  year  530  Sabas  himself  visited 
Constantinople  and  begged  the  emperor  Justinian  to  expel 


^  Socrates  vi.  10 ;  Sozomon  viii. 
14.— Cave,  Hist.  Lit.  i.  370. 
2  Socrates  vi.  12. 
•'  Sozomen  viii.  15. 
^  See  p.  21'J. 


^  Socrates  vi.  17. 

^  A  LavTi-a  was  an  a;.'gregation  of 
separate  cells,  under  the  control  of 
a  .superior.  See  Diet.  Chr.  Ant.  ii. 
934. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith 


SO!) 


the  Origenists.  Before  however  any  steps  could  be  taken 
to  effect  this,  Sabas  died,  and  Origenism  continued  to 
spread  in  Palestine,  especially  through  the  influence  of  a 
monk  named  Domitian,  and  of  Theodoras  Ascidas^  who 
was  prominent  in  the  Monophysite  controversy.  Both 
these  men  had  influence  at  court,  and  under  their  protec- 
tion the  Origenists  gained  the  upper  hand  in  the  Lauras, 
and  expelled  their  opponents.  The  latter  were  however 
favoured  by  Ephraim,  patriarch  of  Antioch  '\  and  the  em- 
peror Justinian,  when  the  dispute  was  brought  before  him, 
was  induced  by  the  Roman  legate  Pelagius  (afterwards 
pope),  to  put  forth  a  theological  treatise  against  Origen, 
ending  with  a  list  of  opinions  which  he  held  to  deserve 
anathema^.  This  was  subscribed  by  Mennas  the  patriarch, 
and  by  "  those  bishops  who  were  in  Constantinople  at  the 
time* ; "  that  is,  by  those  who  constituted  the  Home 
Synod®  of  that  city.  The  same  synod  appears  to  have 
anathematized  fifteen  propositions  found,  or  said  to  be 
found,  in  the  works  of  Origen".  As  however  Cyril  of 
Scythopolis  and  Evagrius  agree  in  stating  that  the  Fifth 
Q^^cumenical  Council,  held  at  Constantinople,  condemned 
Origen,  these  anathemas  have  been  attributed  to  that 
council,  even  by  authorities  as  early  as  the  latter  part  of 
the  eighth  century.  But  as  three  popes  of  the  sixth  century 
attribute  to  the  Fifth  Council  only  the  decision  on  the 
"  Three  Chapters  ^ "  and  say  nothing  of  any  canon  affecting 
Origen,  while  the  Acts  of  the  council  contain  no  mention 
of  any  discussion  of  Origen's  opinions,  we  may  fairly  pre- 
sume that  the  anathemas  have  the  sanction  only  of  the 
Home  Synod  of  Constantinople,  which  was  simply  the  echo 
of  Justinian.  Origen  appears  indeed  to  be  condemned  in 
the  eleventh  canon  of  the  Fifth  Council,  but  the  name  is 
probably  interpolated  I  Theodoras  Ascidas  seems  in  fact 
to  have  diverted  the  emperor's  attention  from  the  Origen- 


1  See  p.  301. 

2  Cyril  Scyth.  Vita  S.  Sahae,  c. 
85. 

3  Mansi  ix.  487  ff.  ;  Hardouin 
III.  243  ff. 

*  "Quam  subscripserunt  una 
cum  Menna  archiepiscopo  episcopi 
apud  Constantinopolim  reperti." 
Liberatus,  Breviariicm,  c.  23. 


6  I,vvoSo9  ev5t]fj.ova-a.    See  p.  292. 
«  Hardouia     ni.    283  ff.     These 

anathemas  were  brought  to  light 
by  Peter  Lambeck  of  Vienna  in  the 
seventeenth  century. 

7  See  p.  301. 

^  This  is  Hefele's  opinion,  Kir- 
chen-Lex.  yii.  850. 


Chap.  XI. 

dies  531. 

Domitian 
and 

Theodorus 
Ascidas. 


3Iennas's 

Synod, 

540? 


A  nathemas 
attributed 
to  Fifth 
(Ecumen. 
Council. 


810 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


ists,  whom  he  favoured  though  he  had  subscribed  the 
emperor's  edict  against  them,  and  under  his  protection 
they  became  dominant  in  Palestine.  They  were  soon  how- 
ever divided  against  themselves.  One  party,  considering 
the  soul  of  Christ  to  have  existed  before  the  Incarnation 
and  to  be  itself  divine,  received  from  their  friends  the  name 
of  Protoktista3,  but  from  their  enemies  that  of  Tetraditje, 
as  making  four  persons  in  the  divine  essence.  Another 
was  that  of  the  Isochristi,  who  taught  that  in  the  end  all 
souls  would  become  like  that  of  Christ.  A  representative 
of  the  latter,  Macarius,  the  second  of  that  name,  was  even 
elected  to  the  patriarchal  throne  of  Jerusalem.  The  Pro- 
toktistae  now,  seeing  the  danger  of  being  crushed,  gave 
up  their  theory  of  preexistence  and  rejoined  the  orthodox 
Church.  Macarius  was  driven  from  his  see  by  Justinian, 
who  caused  the  Catholic  Eustochius  to  be  appointed  in  his 
stead.  The  Lauras  of  Palestine  were  purged  of  Origenists. 
From  this  time  the  Origenists  as  a  party  vanish  from 
history,  but  there  have  never  been  wanting  distinguished 
men  who  have  honoured  Origen  as  one  of  the  leaders  of 
Christian  thought. 

V.     Priscillianism. 

A  Western  echo  of  Eastern  error  is  probably  to  be 
found  in  the  Spanish  sect  of  Priscillianists.  This  derived 
its  origin  and  its  name  from  Priscillian  \  a  man  of  wealth, 
family  and  education  ^,  and  evidently  of  an  enthusiastically 
religious  temperament.  In  his  works  Priscillian  shews 
himself  an  earnest  believer  in  Christ  the  only  God  ;  in  fact, 


1  Priscilliani  qua  supersunt,  dis- 
covered in  a  Wiirzburg  MS.  in  1885, 
and  published  by  the  discoverer, 
Gr.  Schejjss,  at  Vienna  in  1889 
(Corpus  Script.  Eccles.  Lat.,  vol. 
18) ;  Sulpicius  Severus,  Chronicon 
II.  46 — 51,  and  Dialogus  iii.  11  ff. ; 
Pacati  Drepanii  Paiwgi/ricus  (XII. 
Pant'pyrici  Latini,  ed.  Biihrens,  p. 
297  ff.) ;  P.  Orosii  Gommonitorium 
(with  Priscillian's  Remains,  ed. 
Schepss);  Augustin,  De  Hccres.  c. 
70 ;  Jerome,  Df  Viris  lUust.  c.  121 ; 
Leonis  M.  Epist.  93  ad  Turrihlum. 
— C.  W.  F.  Walch,  Hist,  der  Ket- 
zereien,  iv.  378 ff.;  v.  Vries,  Diss. 


Crit.  de  Prise.  (Utrecht  1745); 
Liibker,  De  Hceres.  Prise.;  Man- 
dernach,  Gesch.  des  Priscill.  These 
are  to  some  extent  antiquated  by 
the  discovery  of  Priscillian's  Ee- 
mains.  Since  that  time  have  been 
published,  G.  Schepss,  Priscillia- 
71US,  ein  neu  aufge/uudener  Schrift- 
steUer  (Wiirzburg  1886),  reviewed 
by  Loofs,  Theol.  Literaturzeitung, 
1886,  col.  392  ff. ;  W.  Moller,  Kir- 
chengeschichte,  i.  462  ff.  ;  Paret, 
Priscill.  ein  Reformator  des  4.  Jahr- 
hunderts. 

2  Sulpicius  Severus,  Chronic,  ii. 
46. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


311 


he  so  emphasizes  the  Godhead  of  Christ  and  the  unity  of 
God  as  to  suggest  that  he  regarded  the  Holy  Trinity  some- 
what as  Svvedenborg  in  later  days  regarded  it^ ;  and  he 
seems  to  have  taken  a  view  of  the  Incarnation  which  did 
not  much  differ  from  that  of  ApoUinaris.  He  insisted 
with  great  earnestness  on  the  wide  distribution  of  the  gift 
of  prophecy  in  the  Church  of  Christ ;  it  Avas,  he  taught,  by 
no  means  limited  to  the  prophets  of  the  Canonical  Scrip- 
tures^; everywhere  and  at  all  times  might  God  raise  up 
witnesses  for  Himself.  Doubtless  he  regarded  himself  as 
such  a  witness.  From  his  exposition  of  the  Creed  it  may 
probably  be  inferred  that  he  believed  in  the  immortality 
of  the  soul,  hardly  in  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh ^,  What- 
ever dogmas  he  may  have  held,  it  is  clear  that  he  was 
possessed  by  a  strongly  ascetic  spirit.  He  felt  keenly  the 
contrast  between  the  Church  and  the  world ;  that  the 
friendship  of  the  world  is  enmity  with  God  was  a  living 
principle  with  him*.  He  seems  to  have  been  influenced 
by  Origen,  perhaps  also  by  the  Luciferians,  the  disciples  of 
Lucifer  of  Cagliari^,  who  were  numerous  in  Spain.  What- 
ever may  have  been  the  errors  of  Priscillian,  we  can  hardly 
fail  to  recognize  in  him  one  of  those  eager  sj)irits  which 
can  draw  to  them  sympathetic  souls. 

Not  finding  the  Church  of  his  own  day  sufficiently 
pure  from  the  world,  he  established  meetings  of  his  dis- 
ciples, not  with  a  view,  it  would  appear,  of  separating 
them  from  the  Catholic  Church ",  but  of  raising  them  to 
a  higher  level  of  Christian  life.  These  conventicles  had 
however  probably  the  effect  of  making  the  Priscillianists 
less  regular  attendants  at  the  public  worship  of  the  Church  ; 
at  all  events,  they  gave  offence  to  those  in  authority.  The 
bishop  of  Cordova,  Hyginus,  informed  the  metropolitan, 
Idacius  of  Merida,  of  the  spread  of  this  irregular  worship, 
and  a  council,  at  which  twelve  bishops  attended,  was  held 
at  Saragossa^  to  consider  the  matter.  It  passed  eight  canons 
intended  principally  to  check  the  irregular  meetings.  They 


CUAP.  XI. 


^  "Nullum  alium  deum  esse  cre- 
dentes  nisi  Christum  Deum  Dei 
Filium,"  Tractatus  i.  p.  31 ;  cf.  pp. 
25,  39,  and  Orosii  Covimonit.  p. 
155. 

2  Tractatus  i.  p.  82 ;  iii.  p.  41  ff. 

3  lb.  II.  p.  37. 


4  Ih.  IV.  p.  57. 

6  See  p.  274. 

®  "Qui  sibi  sectarum  nomen  impo- 
nunt  Christiani  nomen  amittunt." 
Tract.  11.  p.  39. 

''  Sulpicius  Sev.  Chron.  ii.  47; 
Hardouin,  Co7ic.  i.  805. 


Priscillian 
forms  con- 
venticles. 


Council  at 

Saragassa, 
380. 


312 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


forbade  women  to  be  present  at  conventicles  where  men 
exhorted,  or  themselves  to  meet  for  mutual  instruction. 
They  forbade  all  persons  to  go  into  seclusion  during  Lent 
or  during  the  three  weeks  preceding  the  Epiphany,  and 
strictly  enjoined  them  to  attend  the  services  in  their 
churches  regularly  during  those  periods.  They  forbade 
such  ascetic  practices  as  fasting  on  Sunday  or  walking 
barefoot.  They  forbade  any  man  to  assume  the  title  of 
teacher  (doctor)  without  authority.  That  these  canons 
were  directed  against  the  Priscillianists  there  is  no  doubt, 
though  they  are  nowhere  named  in  them\  They  do  not 
impute  false  doctrine  to  those  whom  they  have  in  view, 
but  censure  irregularities  and  excessive  asceticism ;  an 
asceticism  which  probably  disinclined  those  who  practised 
it,  as  it  did  the  English  Puritans  in  later  days,  to  take 
part  in  the  festivities  of  Christmastide.  The  Priscillian- 
ists were  not  present  at  the  council,  having  apparently  not 
been  summoned^,  but  in  their  absence  two  bishops,  In- 
stantius  and  Salvianus,  who  had  been  won  over  to  the 
side  of  the  ascetics,  with  Elpidius  and  Priscillian  himself, 
who  were  laymen,  were  condemned  and  excommunicated  ^ 
Ithacius,  bishop  of  Sossuba — who  was  probably  the  more 
ready  to  proceed  vigorously  against  ascetics,  as  he  was 
himself  a  man  much  given  to  self-indulgence  * — was  com- 
missioned to  bring  this  decree  to  the  knowledge  of  all 
bishops,  and  especially  of  Hyginus  ^,  who  had  received  the 
heretics  to  communion.  Idacius,  after  his  return  to  Merida, 
was  accused  of  some  unnamed  transgression,  upon  which 
many  of  his  clergy  withdrew  from  communion  with  him^ 
Priscillian,  now  bishop  of  Avila,  coming  to  Merida  with  a 
view  to  make  peace,  was  beaten  by  some  of  Idacius's 
partizans,  but  seems  nevertheless  to  have  found  some  fa- 
vour with  the  laity  of  the  place '. 

There  was  now  serious  division  and  heated  controversy 
in  several  cities  of  Spain,  and,  as  is  usual  in  such  cases, 
charges  and  counter-charges  flew  thickly  about.     It  was 


^  The  heading  "contra  Priscilli- 
anistas,"  which  is  given  in  Har- 
douin  and  elsewhere,  is  modern. 

2  Prise.  Tract,  ii.  p.  35. 

3  Sulpic.  Sev.  Chron.  ii.  47. 

*  "Fuit  audax,  loquens,  impii- 
dens,  sumptuosus,  ventri  et  gulae 


plurimum     impertiens"     (Sulpic. 
Sev.  Chron.  ii.  50). 

6  I  read  (with  Moller,  K.-G.  465) 
"commonefacerefin  Sulpicius  u.s. 
47. 

6  Priscill.  Tract,  ii.  p.  39. 

7  lb.  p.  40. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


313 


discovered  that  the  Priscillianists  were  Gnostics  or  Mani- 
chseans,  and  given  to  magical  arts — a  charge  to  which 
some  plausibility  was  given  by  their  seclusion  and  asceti- 
cism. Priscillian  himself  repudiated  and  condemned  Manes 
in  the  most  emphatic  manner  \  as  he  did  also  the  Arians, 
the  Patripassians  and  many  other  heretics ;  but  it  is  not 
improbable  that,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  he  agreed 
with  some  of  the  Gnostics  in  regarding  the  soul  as  having 
left  the  realms  of  light  and  purity  and  become  entangled 
in  the  chains  of  evil  matter^.  He  not  only  adopted  the 
curious  fancy,  which  appears  in  almanacs  even  to  our  own 
time,  that  the  several  signs  of  the  Zodiac  influenced  each 
some  particular  part  of  the  human  body,  as  Aries  the  head, 
Taurus  the  neck,  Gemini  the  arms.  Cancer  the  breast,  and 
so  forth ;  but  he  recognized  a  similar  correspondence  in 
the  twelve  Patriarchs  to  the  parts  of  the  soul,  as  Reuben 
to  the  head,  Judah  to  the  breast,  Levi  to  the  heart,  and 
the  rest^  As  he  was  followed  by  certain  ladies  who  were 
devoted  to  him,  it  is  not  wonderful  that  charges  of  immo- 
rality were  made  against  him. 

Whatever  was  his  guilt,  his  enemies  were  powerful,  and 
procured  from  the  weak  emperor  Gratian  a  rescript  banish- 
ing the  Priscillianists  from  the  empire  *.  Priscillian  then, 
with  the  bishops  of  his  party,  betook  himself  to  Italy  ^ 
hoping  to  convince  Damasus  of  Rome  and  the  great  Am- 
brose, one  of  the  chief  advisers  of  the  young  emperor,  of 
his  innocence.  In  this  he  failed,  but  he  succeeded — it  was 
said  by  bribery — in  procuring  a  rescript,  repealing  that 
which  had  been  issued  against  him  and  his  followers,  and 
ordering  the  restitution  of  their  churches,  to  which  they 
accordingly  returned''.  Ithacius  now  became  an  exile. 
Just  at  this  crisis  Maximus,  a  Spaniard,  put  Gratian  to 
flight  and  seized  the  imperial  power.  To  him  Ithacius 
turned,  and  induced  him  to  order  Instantius  and  Priscillian 


1  Tract.  I.  p.  22;  ii.  p.  39. 

2  Orosii  Cummonit.  c.  2  ;  Leo, 
Epist.  93  ad  Turribium.  Sulpicius 
(Chron.  ii.  46)  supposes  that  he 
mibibed  Gnosticism  from  Marcus, 
an  Egyptian  Gnostic,  through  his 
teacher  Elpidius.  The  teaching  of 
Basilides  seems  to  have  reached 
Spain  (Baur,  Kirchen-Gesch.  ii. 
74).     Priscillian  and  his  followers 


highly  valued  an  apocryphal  book 
called  Memoria  Apostolorum.  Oro- 
sius,  Commonit.  c.  2,  p.  154. 

2  Orosius,  Commonit.  c.  2;  Leo 
ad  Titirib.  Pref.  and  cc.  11  and  12. 

4  Sulpic.  Sev.  Chron.  ii.  47,  §  (5. 

^  lb.  II.  48.  Priscillian's  ai^peal 
to  Damasus  forms  Tractatiis  ii. 
in  Scliepss'  edii. 

6  Sulpic.  Sev.  u.  s.  48,  §^  5,  6. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


Chap.  XI.  I  to  be  brought  before  a  synod  at  Bordeaux.  Instantius  was 
"^;  '^r~^  deposed  from  his  bishopric,  while  Priscillian,  refusing  to 
admit  the  authority  of  the  council,  appealed  to  the  usurp- 
ing emperor  \  He  deputed  Evodius,  a  man  of  harsh  and 
stern  character,  to  hold  the  trial,  at  which  Ithacius,  who 
had  so  keen  a  scent  for  heresy  that  he  discovered  it  even 
in  the  saintly  Martin  of  Tours,  appeared  as  his  accuser. 
Evodius  found  the  accused  guilty  of  sorcery  ^  and  the 
emperor  sentenced  him  to  death,  together  with  some  of 
his  followers.  Instantius  was  banished  to  the  Scilly 
islands.  The  remains  of  those  who  were  put  to  death 
were  carried  to  Spain,  where  the  devotees  who  had  before 
honoured  Priscillian  as  a  saint  now  reverenced  him  as  a 
martyr  ^ 

The  charge  on  which  Priscillian  was  condemned  was 
fairly  within  the  cognizance  of  an  imperial  tribunal,  but  as 
everyone  knew  that  he  had  in  fact  suffered  as  a  heretic, 
many  of  the  best  men  of  the  time  were  offended  that 
spiritual  error  should  have  been  punished  by  a  civil  court, 
and  that  even  to  the  shedding  of  blood.  Martin  of  Tours 
remonstrated  in  the  most  energetic  manner  both  with 
Maximus  and  with  Ithacius*,  and  public  feeling  was  so 
strong  against  the  latter  that  he  was  deposed  from  his  see. 
Idacius  quitted  his  by  voluntary  resignation.  The  whole 
proceeding  had  in  the  opinion  of  a  contemporary,  Sulpicius 
Severus*,  a  very  unfortunate  effect  upon  the  Church.  Pris- 
cillian and  his  companions  head  the  long  and  dreary  list  of 
those  who  have  suffered  for  their  opinions  at  the  hands  of 
Christians  the  same  pains  and  penalties  which  Christians 
had  once  endured  at  the  hands  of  pagans. 


VI.     Pelagianism^. 

The  relation  of  man's .  will  to  God's  will  is  a  mystery 
which  has  exercised  the  wit  of  man  in  almost  all  ages, 
though  it  did  not  become  the  occasion  of  discussion  and 


1  Sulpic.  Sev.  u.  s.  49. 

2  "Maleficii."  Sulpicius  {Chron. 
II.  50)  states  that  he  did  not  deny 
"  obscenis  se  studuisse  doctiinis, 
nocturnos  etiam  turpium  foomina- 
rum  egisse  couventus  nudumque 
orare  solitum." 


3  Sulpic.  Sev.  u.  s.  .51  §  7. 

4  lb.  50  §  5, 

5  lb.  51,  §§  5,  6. 

*  The  sources  for  the  Pelagian 
controversy  are  Pelagius's  writings, 
Expositiones  in  Epistt.  Pauli, 
Epist.  ad  Demetriadem,  and  Libel- 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


315 


division  in  the  Church  until  the  bcffinnincj  of  the  fifth 
century.  Up  to  that  time  theologians  and  simple  Chris- 
tians had  alike  been  contented  to  believe  that  both 
human  effort  and  divine  grace  were  necessary  for  the  work 
of  salvation,  without  attempting  to  allot  to  each  its  exact 
influence.  This  acquiescence  was  brought  to  an  end  by 
St  Augustin.  He,  a  man  of  warm  feeling  and  vivid 
imagination,  supremely  conscious  of  the  divine  mercy  by 
which  he  had  been  brought  from  darkness  to  light, 
eminently  capable  of  giving  an  intellectual  form  to  his 
convictions  and  of  stating  a  belief  in  a  definite  proposition, 
gave  in  his  teaching  so  much  weight  to  the  grace  of  God 
in  leading  us  to  good,  that  he  left,  or  seemed  to  leave, 
nothing  to  the  will  of  man.  The  great  problem  of  grace 
and  free-will  had  not  indeed  presented  itself  to  him  in  the 
early  days  after  his  conversion  with  the  force  with  which 
it  came  upon  him  in  later  life ;  but  before  he  wrote  his 
Confessions  he  had  reached — perhaps  through  his  Neo- 
Platonic  studies — the  conclusion  that  as  all  good  comes 
from  God,  from  Him  comes  even  the  gift  of  faith,  the 
beginning  of  good  in  man\  His  opinions  were  developed 
and  defined  in  the  course  of  controversy,  but  they  did  not 
originate  in  it. 

It  was  probably  about  the  year  405  that  Pelagius,  a 
British  monk  of  ascetic  life,  began  at  Rome  to  exhort  men 
to  leave  the  worldly  and  frivolous  life  which  too  many  of 
them  led.  Often  he  received  the  reply,  "  it  is  too  hard  for 
us ;  we  cannot  do  it ;  we  are  but  men ;   sinful  flesh  doth 


his  Fidei  ad  Innocentium ;  all  in 
Hieronymi  Opera,  torn.  xi.  (ed. 
Vallarsi);  Augustin's  Antipelagian 
treatises  in  vol.  x.  of  the  Benedic- 
tine edn.,  the  jji-incipal  of  which 
have  been  published  at  Oxford  in 
one  vol.  edited  by  W.  Bright;  Je- 
rome's Ejnst.  ad  Ctesiphontem  and 
Dhilogi  c.  Pelag.  in  vol.  2  of  Opera, 
ed.  Vallarsi;  V.  Oxos,m.&,  Liber  Apolo- 
geticus  (Opera,  p.  601  ff.  ed.  Zange- 
meister) ;  Marius  Mercator,  Coniiiio- 
nitoriiim  adv.  Hceres.  Pelagli  et 
Ccelestii  and  Commonit.  super  No- 
mine C celesta  {Opera, ed.  Baluze,  pp. 
Iff.  and  132  ff.);  Acta  of  Councils 
relating  to  Pelagiauism. — There  are 
learned  works  on  Pelagianism  by 


G.  J.  Voss  (Hist,  de  Controvers. 
Pelag.)  H.  Noris  (Hist.  Pelagiana), 
C.  F.  W.  Walch  {Ketzerhistorie, 
IV.  and  v.),  F.  Wiggers  (Pragin. 
Darsfclltiiig  des  Augustinismus  u. 
Pelag),  Worter  (Der  Pelagianis- 
vius),  Klasen  {Die  innere  Enttoicke- 
lung  des  Pelagianismus),  and  J. 
L.  Jacobi  {Die  Lehre  des  Pela- 
gins).  The  relation  of  Augustin  to 
Pelagianism  is  well  described  by  J. 
B.  Mozley  {The  Augustinian  Doc- 
trine of  Predestination).  Much  valu- 
able matter  is  found  in  Jean  Gar- 
nier's  editions  of  Julian  of  Eclanum 
and  Marius  Mercator. 

1  De  Prcedesiinatione  7 ;  De  Dono 
Persev.  55;  Contra  Julianumvi.  39. 


CUAP.  XI. 

defined  in 

Early 

Church. 


Augustiii's 
influence. 


Pelagius 
in  Rome, 
c.  405. 


316 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


grossly  close  us  in\"  He  heard  too  Augustin's  famous 
words  repeated — "  Grant  what  Thou  commandest,  and  cora- 
raand  what  Thou  wilt^" — and  was  offended  thereat  ^  This 
view  seemed  to  him  to  leave  nothing  for  man  to  do ; 
obedience  became  almost  mechanical.  Here  two  great 
principles  are  found  opposed.  St  A.ugustin's  was,  in  the 
main,  that  of  St  Paul,  that  not  he  himself  lived,  but 
Christ  lived  in  him ;  but  his  early  Manicha^an  training 
had  given  his  mind  a  bias  which  led  him  to  regard  man 
too  much  as  the  sport  of  hostile  forces,  a  good  and  an  evil. 
Pelagius's  view  of  life  tended  to  approximate  to  that  of 
the  old  pagan  philosophers,  especially  to  that  of  the  Stoics. 
In  ancient  philosophic  systems  man  is  always  regarded  as 
the  master  of  his  own  destiny;  it  is  always  presumed  that  if 
he  sees  the  right  he  will  pursue  it ;  no  account  is  taken  of 
the  weakness  which  arises  from  the  defects  of  .human 
nature.  And  this  contrast  of  principles  was  no  doubt 
heightened  by  the  character  of  those  who  were  the  most 
prominent  disputants.  St  Augustin  was  eager  and 
earnest,  sympathizing  keenly  with  the  weakness  and  the 
struggles  of  the  multitude  who  sought  his  counsel.  Pela- 
gius  was  a  monk.  So  far  as  we  can  gather  from  our 
imperfect  sources,  he  was  a  man  of  calm  temperament  to 
whom  the  great  struggle  of  the  spirit  against  the  flesh 
was  comparatively  unknown.  He  was  anxious  to  promote 
virtuous  living,  to  rouse  an  enervated  generation  to  the 
need  of  strenuous  effort  and  self-denial,  to  forward  the 
half-Stoical  teaching  which  had  unconsciously  influenced 
so  many  educated  Christians.  He  had  studied  Greek 
theology  to  an  extent  very  unusual  in  the  West,  and  is 
thought  to  have  derived  some  of  his  opinions  from  Theo- 
dore of  Mopsuestia.  Caslestius,  whom  we  constantly  find 
by  the  side  of'Pelagius,  and  who  probably  exaggerated 
his  opinions,  had  been  an  advocate  in  Rome  until  he  was 
converted  by  Pelagius.  Both  Pelagius  and  Ca3lestius  were 
laymen  when  they  first  become  known  to  us. 

When  Pelagius  controverted  St  Augustin 's  opinions,  his 
opposition  does  not  seem  to  have  occasioned  any  excite- 
ment at  Rome.  He  appears  to  have  been  cautious  and 
circumspect ;  but  his  pupil  Caslestius  was  younger,  bolder, 


^  Epist.  ad  Demetriadem,  c.  3. 
^  Angiistiu,  Confessiones,  x.  29. 


^  De  Dovo  Persev.  53. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


317 


full  of  the  zeal  of  a  new  convert,  and  not  afraid  of  the 
logical  consequences  of  his  principles.  In  him  appears  a 
new  feature  of  the  great  controversy.  He  was  understood 
to  deny  the  transmission  of  Adam's  sin  to  his  descendants, 
and  from  this  to  draw  the  inference  that  in  the  baptism  of 
infants  there  is  no  remission  of  sins\  About  the  year  411 
we  find  both  Pelagius  and  Crelestius  in  Africa.  Pelagius, 
who  was  no  lover  of  strife,  seems  to  have  left  that  pro- 
vince when  he  found  that  his  presence  there  occasioned 
dissension,  but  Ca^lestius  sought  to  be  appointed  a  pres- 
byter in  Carthage.  There  in  the  year  412  Paulinus,  a 
deacon  of  Milan,  before  a  synod  over  which  the  bishop  of 
Carthage  presided,  charged  him  with  holding  the  following 
erroneous  opinions  ^  That  Adam  was  created  mortal,  and 
would  have  died  even  if  he  had  not  sinned ;  that  the  sin 
of  Adam  injured  himself  alone,  and  not  mankind ;  that 
new-born  children  are  in  the  same  state  of  innocency  in 
which  Adam  was  before  his  fall ;  that  all  do  not  die 
through  the  death  or  fall  of  Adam,  nor  through  the  Resur- 
rection of  Christ  shall  all  rise ;  that  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  may  be  attained  through  the  Law  as  well  as 
through  the  Gospel ;  that  even  before  the  coming  of  the 
Lord  a  man  might  live  without  sin,  if  he  would.  Cseles- 
tius,  admitted  to  plead  his  own  cause,  declared  that  he 
held  that  infants  ought  to  be  baptized.  The  transmission 
of  Adam's  sin  he  considered  an  open  question,  since  he 
had  heard  Catholics  both  affirm  and  deny  it.  In  the  end 
he  was  excommunicated  by  the  council,  and  passed  over 
to  Ephesus,  whence,  after  becoming  a  presbyter,  he  betook 
himself  to  Constantinople. 

Pelagius  meantime  had  gone  into  Palestine,  whence  he 
wrote  a  conciliatory  letter  to  Augustin,  who  replied,  if 
with  considerable  reserve,  at  any  rate  amicably'.  He  also 
attempted  to  become  friendly  with  Jerome ;  but  as  he  had 
already  been  admitted  to  the  friendship  of  John  of  Jeru- 
salem, with  whom  Jerome  had  a  quarrel,  he  found  there 
no  favour.  Jerome  wrote  fiercely  against  him*,  connecting 
him — probably  not  unjustly — with  the  already  suspected 


1  Augustin,  De  Peccatorum  Mcri- 
tis,  III.  12. 

^  Augustin,  De  Peccato  Orif/.  ii. 
2  ff. ;  in  Hardouin  Cone.  i.  1201. 


^  Augustin,  De  Gestis  Pelagii,  c. 
52. 

■*  Ivpiat.  133  ad  Gtcsii^hontcrn, 
autl  Dialogi  c.  FeUujiuin. 


Chap.  XI. 

Opinions 
of  Gceles- 
tiim. 

No  heri- 
tage of  sin. 

Pelagius 
in  A  frica, 
c.  411. 


Council  at 
Ciirthage, 
413. 


C(elesti^(s 
in  Con- 
stanti- 
nople. 


318 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


Origen.  A  statement  of  his  own  opinions,  which  Cselestius 
had  circulated,  and  which  became  widely  known,  also  tended 
to  bring  the  more  cautions  Pelagius  into  ill  repute. 
Orosius,  the  well-known  pupil  and  friend  of  Augustin,  at 
last  brought  it  to  pass  that  John  cited  Pelagius  to  answer 
for  himself  before  a  meeting  of  the  presbytery  of  Jeru- 
salem. Before  this  assembly  Pelagius  declared  that  he 
believed  a  sinless  life  to  be  impossible  without  the  grace 
of  God,  and  was  thereupon  acquitted'.  Orosius  had  to 
speak  through  an  interpreter,  and  probably  failed  to  make 
his  audience  understand  the  importance  of  a  speculation 
altogether  unfamiliar  to  them.  But  the  opponents  of 
Pelagius  did  not  rest.  In  December  of  the  same  year 
they  brought  his  doctrines  before  a  Palestinian  synod  at 
Diospolis",  the  ancient  Lydda.  He  did  not  deny  that  he 
held  the  opinions  attributed  to  him,  but  was  able  so  to 
explain  them  that  the  assembled  prelates,  fourteen  in 
number,  declared  his  orthodoxy  unimpeachable.  The  pro- 
positions of  C^elestius  which  had  been  condemned  at  Car- 
thage were  then  produced,  and  Pelagius  was  asked  whether 
he  assented  to  them.  Some  of  them  he  expressly  re- 
jected ;  as  to  others,  he  held  that  he  ought  not  to  be 
questioned,  since  the  sayings  were  none  of  his ;  but  he 
nevertheless  anathematized  those  who  held  them.  The 
synod  thereupon  decided  that  he  was  a  true  Catholic,  and 
worthy  of  admission  to  communion^  His  mode  of  thought 
was  in  fact  much  more  consonant  than  St  Augustin's  with 
that  prevailing  in  the  East. 

But  in  Africa  the  decisions  of  Diospolis  were  very  far 
from  satisfactory.  In  the  year  416  synods  assembled  at 
Carthage  and  at  Milevis;  at  Milevis  Augustin  was  present. 
Both  these  assemblies  condemned  Pelagius,  and  appealed 
for  support  to  Innocent,  bishop  of  Ilome\  He  received 
the  appeal  with  delight,  regarding  it  as  an  acknowledge- 
ment that  nothing  could  be  finally  concluded  by  a  pro- 
vincial synod  without  the  assent  of  the  see  of  Rome,  and 
at  once  decided  that  Pelagius   and   Ca?lestius  should  be 


^  Orosius  himself  wrote  an  ac- 
count of  these  transactions  in  his 
Liber  Apologeticus  {Opera,  ed. 
Zangemeister,  G03  ff.) ;  Ilardouin, 
Cone.  I.  1207. 

2  Hardouin  i.   1209.     Short  ac- 


count in  Augustin,  De  Pecc.  Orig. 
II.  11. 

3  Augustin,  De  Gestis  Pelagii, 
§44. 

*  The  synodical  epistles  in  Au- 
gustin, Epistt.  175,  176. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


319 


excommunicated  until  they  had  extricated  themselves  from    Chap.  xi. 
the  snare  of  the  deviP. 

Upon  this  Pelagius  sent  to  Rome  his  ably  drawn 
Confession  of  Faith^  with  a  treatise  in  defence  of  it^ 
Some  of  the  things  laid  to  his  charge  he  declared  to  be 
inventions  of  the  enemy,  others  he  explained  away ;  but 
he  adhered  to  his  main  proposition,  that  all  men  had 
received  from  God  such  a  power  of  will  as  to  enable  them 
to  perform  good  works,  while  Christians  had  special  means 
of  grace.  This  document  never  came  into  the  hands  of 
Innocent ;  he  was  dead  before  it  reached  Rome.  It  was 
received  by  his  successor  Zosimus.  At  the  same  time  Zosimus 
Ccelestius  softened  some  of  his  more  offensive  propositions,  ^M^^t  417. 
especially  with  regard  to  infant  baptism*,  and  the  result 
was  that  Zosimus  at  a  Roman  synod  restored  both  him 
and  Pelagius  to  communion,  and  blamed  the  Africans  for 
their  too  hasty  zeal^.  In  Carthage  there  was  great  indig- 
nation, and  a  synod  convened  to  consider  the  matter 
refused  to  repeal  the  former  decision".  This  energetic 
resistance  daunted  the  pope,  who  now  wrote  that  the 
Africans  had  misunderstood  him,  if  they  supposed  that 
he  had  come  to  a  final  decision  in  the  matter  of  Cselestius; 
the  case  was  still  undecided''.  Immediately  on  the  receipt 
of  this  epistle  a  council  was  held,  attended  by  more  than  Council  at 
two  hundred  bishops  from  all  the  provinces  of  Africa,  at  j  ^^^^^''"'d^' 
which  not  only  was  Pelagianism  condemned  in  the  most 
direct  and  unambiguous  terms,  but  appeals  to  Rome  were 
forbidden  on  pain  of  excommunication  ^  A  fresh  person 
now  appeared  on  the  scene;  the  emperor  put  forth  a 
rescrijDt  condemning  the  new  heretics^  Zosimus  there- 
upon faced  about.  He  joined  in  the  excommunication 
of  Pelagius  and  Caelestius,  having  discovered  that  such 
matters  as  grace,  free-will,  and  original  sin  were  of  the 
essence  of  the  Faith,  and  required  all  bishops  to  subscribe 
his  circular  letter*"  of  condemnation.     Eighteen  refused, 


1  Innocentii  Epistt.  30 — 33;  Au- 
giistini  Epiatt.  181—184. 

•-  In  Hahn's  Bibliothek,  §  133. 

•*  Fragments  of  this  are  found  in 
Avigustin,  De  Gratia  Ghristi  and  De 
Fecc.  Orig. 

*  Fragment  of  his  Libellus  in 
Aug.  De  Pecc.  Orifj.  5  ff. 


'  Zosimi  Epistt.  3,  4. 

*  Prosper,  c.  Collatorem  5. 

^  Zosimi  Epist.  15. 

8  Canons  with  those  of  Milevis, 
Hardouin  i.  1217. 

9  In  Hardouin  i.  1229. 

^^  Epistola  tractoria  ;  fragments 
in  Augustin    x.   App.  p.   108   (ed. 


320 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


among  them  a  very  notable  person,  Julian  of  Eclanum. 
He  was  more  vigorous  and  downright  than  the  cautious 
Pelagius  and  more  wary  than  the  fiery  Ciaelestius^  He 
had  considerable  dialectic  power,  and  was  never  weary  of 
discussing  and  defining.  This  prelate  wrote  in  the  name 
of  the  eighteen  dissenting  bishops  two  very  frank  letters 
to  the  pope,  not  however  maintaining  all  the  propositions 
of  Ceelestius.  From  this  time  Julian  becomes  a  prominent 
figure.  St  Augustin,  who  was  a  friend  of  Julian's  family, 
replied  to  his  letters  with  gentleness  and  moderation. 
But  Julian — a  rash  youth,  as  St  Augustin  calls  him — 
had  no  reverence  for  the  greatest  man  in  Christendom ; 
he  drew  remorselessly  all  the  logical  consequences  of  his 
doctrines,  and  pointed  out  the  Manichaan  mode  of  thought 
which  was  latent  in  them.  Augustin  protested  that  he 
had  no  conscious  leaning  to  Manichseism,  but  it  was  not 
easy  to  shew  that  no  relics  of  his  Manichsean  training 
lingered  in  his  mind.  From  this  arose  a  controversy 
which  lasted  as  long  as  Augustin  lived,  and  in  the  stress 
of  which  he  developed  the  decidedly  predestinarian  views 
which  are  found  in  his  later  treatises''. 

The  end  of  Pelagius  is  obscure;  he  simply  vanishes 
from  history.  The  unwearied  Ceelestius,  though  banished 
from  Italy,  was  able  to  induce  pope  Cselestinus  to  investi- 
gate the  matter  afresh.  By  this  however  he  gained 
nothing,  and  departed  to  Constantinople,  which,  as  Julian 
and  other  friends  also  settled  there,  became  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Pelagian  camp.  The  friendship  which 
the  patriarch  Nestorius  shewed  them  had  important  con- 
sequences ;  on  the  one  hand  it  drew  on  Nestorius  the 
displeasure  of  the  pope,  on  the  other  it  brought  upon 
the  Pelagians  the  suspicion  of  Nestorianisra.  It  was 
perhaps  in  consequence  of  this  supposed  connexion  that 
the  followers  of  Nestorius  and  of  Cselestius  were  con- 
demned together  at  the  Council  of  Ephesus^  in  431.     In 


Bened.).  Tillemont  (xiii.  738  ff.) 
has  shewn  that  this  letter  was  not 
written  before  the  council  and  the 
Imperial  Rescript.  The  change  of 
front  at  Rome  is  alluded  to  hy 
Augufitin,  C .  dims Epistt.  I'elag. 11.  '6. 
^  Julian's  statement  of  his  behef 
is  given   in   Hahu's  Bihliothek,  § 


135,  p.  219. 

2  This  controversy  brought  out 
Augustin's  C.  duas  Epistt.  Pelag., 
De  Nuptiis,  etc.,  Libb.  vl  c.  Julia- 
num,  and  Opus  Imperfertum  c,  JxlI., 
on  which  he  was  working  at  the 
time  of  his  death. 

^  Canon  4,  in  Hardouin  i.  1623. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


321 


spite  however  of  this  mention  in  an  CEcumenical  Council, 
there  were  probably  few  theologians  in  the  East  who  had 
studied  Pelagianism,  and  still  fewer  who  sided  with 
Augustin. 

The  positions  of  the  Pelagians  which  were  condemned 
were,  in  brief,  (1)  that  the  Grace  of  God  is  not  absolutely 
necessary  for  every  man,  whether  before  or  after  baptism, 
in  order  to  his  eternal  salvation  ;  and  (2)  that  there  is  no 
hereditary  transmission  of  the  sin  of  Adam,  and  therefore 
that  in  the  baptism  of  infants  there  is  not,  strictly,  any 
remission  of  sins.  On  the  other  hand,  the  doctrine  of 
St  Augustin  was,  that  mankind  has  become  through  the 
fall  of  Adam  a  mass  of  sin,  so  that  a  man  cannot  turn 
and  prepare  himself,  by  his  own  natural  strength,  to  faith 
and  calling  upon  God ;  and  that  we  have  no  power  to  do 
good  works  pleasant  and  acceptable  to  God  without  the 
grace  of  God  through  Christ  preventing  us  that  we  may 
have  a  good  will,  and  working  with  us  when  we  have  that 
good  will.  We  need  for  our  salvation,  to  use  the  common 
terms,  grace  prevenient  and  grace  cooperant.  This  grace 
is  freely  given,  not  for  any  merit  in  them,  to  a  certain 
fixed  number  of  persons  who  are  called,  chosen,  justified, 
sanctified,  and  brought  to  everlasting  life,  in  accordance 
with  God's  eternal  decree.  In  baptism,  the  "  laver  of 
regeneration,"  the  taint  of  original  sin  is  washed  away, 
but  the  capacity  for  actual  sin  remains.  Renewal  is  still 
needed. 

Pelagianism  was  condemned,  but  Augustinism  was  not 
received  as  the  doctrine  of  the  Catholic  Church.  The 
doctrine  of  predestination,  of  irresistible  gi'ace  given  to  a 
limited  number,  seemed  to  many  something  new  and 
startling.  Even  in  the  lifetime  of  Augustin,  the  oppo- 
sition to  his  innovation,  as  many  thought  it,  made  itself 
felt.  Was  then  the  human  will,  it  was  asked,  altogether 
inoperative  in  the  work  of  salvation  ?  Were  good  works 
altogether  superfluous  ?  Was  it  possible  for  men  to  sit 
with  their  hands  in  their  laps,  making  no  effort  to  obey 
their  Lord's  commands,  and  yet  be  saved  ?  The  monks  of 
Hadrametum  in  North  Africa,  in  particular,  seem  to  have 
held  that  such  was  St  Augustin's  teaching,  and  to  have 
drawn  the  inference  that  it  was  useless  to  attempt  the 
conversion   of  a   sinner,    except   by   intercessory  prayer, 

c.  21 


Chap.  XI. 


Contrast 
of  Pela- 
gianism 
and  Axi- 
gustinism. 


/Second 
stage  of 
Peia- 
gianism. 


Monks  at 
Hadra- 
metum. 


322 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


Chap.  XI. 

Augustin 
writes  to 
them. 


Augustin 
dies,  430. 

The  oppo- 
sition to 
Pnrdes- 
tiuariaii- 
ism*. 

Cassian 
and  Vin- 
cent ius. 


Cassian's 
tenets. 


Augustin,  hearing  of  their  perversion,  as  he  deemed  it,  of 
his  words,  wrote  to  them^  explaining  that  he  was  by  no 
means  indifferent  as  to  the  life  of  believers ;  that  a  child 
of  God  must  feel  himself  impelled  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
do  right;  that  men  who  have  not  such  grace  ought  to 
pray  that  they  may  receive  it;  but  he  still  maintained 
that  the  bestowal  of  such  grace  depends  wholly  upon 
God's  eternal  decree. 

Soon  afterwards.  Prosper  and  other  friends^  informed 
him  that  in  Marseilles,  and  elsewhere  in  Southern  Gaul, 
the  doctrine  of  irresistible  grace  was  not  accepted,  because 
it  seemed  to  leave  no  room  for  exhortations  to  Christian 
life.  Augustin  replied^  in  such  a  way  as  to  strengthen 
the  hands  of  his  friends,  while  he  gave  fresh  offence  to 
his  opponents.  Soon  afterwards  he  died,  leaving  disciples 
to  carry  on  the  war  who  resembled  their  master  rather  in 
zeal  than  in  ability.  The  monks  of  Southern  Gaul  now 
broke  out  into  more  open  opposition ;  it  is  easy  to  under- 
stand how  St  Augustin's  doctrine  presented  itself  to 
ascetics  trained  mainly  under  Greek  influence.  Among 
these  the  two  most  distinguished  were  John  Cassian,  the 
father  of  South-Gallican  monasticism,  and  Vincentius  of 
Lerins,  a  monastery  on  an  island  not  far  from  Antibes. 
The  former  had  already  stated  his  views  on  absolute  pre- 
destination and  the  doctrines  which  follow  from  it.  He 
was  offended  at  unconditional  predestination,  limited 
grace,  and  the  bondage  of  the  human  will.  The  grace  of 
God  is,  he  said,  indispensably  necessary  to  our  salvation. 
Still,  the  good  will,  good  thoughts,  right  belief  which 
prepare  for  the  reception  of  the  grace  of  God  are  attainable 
by  man.  Grace  is  necessary  for  the  perfecting,  but  not 
for  the  beginning  of  our  faith.  It  is  only  those  who  strive 
to  enter  in  who  are  helped  by  graced      It   works    with 


^  The  treatise  De  Gratia  et 
Libero  Arhitrio. 

2  Aug.  Epistt.  225,  226. 

3  In  the  treatises  De  Prcedestina- 
tione  Sanctorum  and  Dc  Bono  Per- 
severantice. 

*  Those  who  joined  this  opposi- 
tion are  commonly  called  in  mo- 
dern books  Semi-Pelagians.  As 
however  this  term  does  not  occur 
in    any  contemporary,   or    nearly 


contemporary,  document,  and  does 
not  fairly  describe  their  position, 
it  seemed  best  to  avoid  it. 

^  "Ut  dicimus  conatus  humanos 
adprehendere  [perfectionem]  per 
se  ipsos  non  posse  sine  adjutorio 
Dei,  ita  pronuntiamus  laborantibus 
tantum  et  desudantibus  misericor- 
diam  Dei  gratiamque  conferri." 
Instit.  XII.  14. 


Contr'oversies  on  the  Faith. 


323 


mau's  will.  It  is  only  exceptionally  that  God's  grace  goes 
before,  occasioning  the  first  exertion  of  man's  will,  and 
even  then  it  is  not  irresistible.  It  is  a  fundamental  truth 
that  God  wills  the  salvation  of  all  men,  and  not  of  a 
certain  limited  number  only.  As  to  the  Fall,  he  taught 
that  the  sin  of  Adam  and  Eve  has  corrupted  the  whole 
race  and  occasioned  an  irresistible  propensity  to  sin. 
Still,  man's  nature  is  not  so  wholly  corrupt  that  it  retains 
no  capacity  for  good\  In  short,  Cassian  was  more  alive 
than  most  of  his  contemporaries  to  the  truth  that  God's 
judgments  are  far  above  out  of  our  sight,  and  that  the 
mystery  of  the  coexistence  of  man's  free-will  and  God's 
omnipotence  cannot  be  explained  by  a  sharply  defined 
theory.  Perhaps  in  his  anxiety  to  avoid  fatalism  he 
somewhat  tended  towards  justification  by  our  own  works. 

Vincentius,  in  a  treatise  which  is  now  probably  the 
best  known  of  all  the  writings  of  that  age,  discussed  the 
whole  question  of  the  test  of  heresy.  His  general  teach- 
ing may  be  summed  up  in  the  words — innovation  is 
heresy.  Innovators  may  quote  Scripture  to  their  pur- 
pose, but  if  their  opinions  differ  from  those  of  the  Fathers 
who  have  lived  holily,  wisely,  and  consistently  in  the  faith 
and  communion  of  the  Catholic  Church,  they  are  heretics. 
Against  such  a  consent  no  holy  and  learned  man,  bishop, 
confessor,  or  martyr  though  he  be,  is  to  be  listened  to 
for  an  instant.  And  he  condemns  under  his  canon  those 
who  declare  that  in  their  society  there  is  so  great,  so 
special,  so  personal  an  influx  of  the  grace  of  God,  that 
without  toil,  without  zeal,  without  earnestness,  though 
they  neither  ask  nor  seek  nor  knock,  their  votaries  are 
held  up  by  angels  so  that  they  dash  not  their  foot  against 
a  stone.  The  reference  to  some  who  held  a  perversion 
of  Augustinian  theology  is  manifest,  but  it  is  also  tolerably 
clear  that  Vincentius  refers  to  a  sect^  and  not  to  those 
doctors  within  the  Church  who  defended  the  views  of 
Augustin. 


Chap.  XI. 


^  "Non  amisissehumanum  genua 
post  praevaricationem  Adte  scien- 
tiam  boni  etiam  apostoli  sententia 
evidentissime  declaratur."  Collatio 
XII.  12  §  3. 

•■'  When  he  speaks  (c.  37,  al.  26) 
of  persons  who  state  that  "in  ec- 


clesia  sua,  id  est,  in  communionis 
su£e  conventiculo,"  such  gifts  are 
given,  he  seems  to  refer  to  some 
sectarian  body,  Hke  those  which 
have  been  common  enough  in 
recent  times,  all  the  members  of 
which  were  supposed  to  be  "  saved." 

21—2 


Vincen- 
tius^ 8 
Comvtoni- 
torhivi,  c. 
484. 


324 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


Chap.  XI. 

Prosper  of 
Aquitaine. 


The  De 

Vocaiione 

Gentium. 


"  Pr  cedes- 
tinatus," 
c.  445? 


Faustus  of 
lilez,  tl.  c. 
494. 


Si/ nod  at 
Aries, 
c.  475. 


After  the  death  of  Augustiu  his  friend  Prosper  of 
Aquitaine  became  the  principal  champion  of  Augustin- 
ism^  He  admitted  that  his  master  had  spoken  some- 
what harshly'^  when  he  said  that  God  did  not  will  the 
salvation  of  all  men ;  and  he  represented  that  predestina- 
tion was  to  life  and  not  to  death,  that  God's  choice  was 
not  capricious,  but  just  and  righteous.  He  failed  to  con- 
vince the  monks,  but  he  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  letter 
from  pope  Cffilestinus  ^  in  which  the  opponents  of  Augus- 
tinism  were  blamed,  while  little  was  said  as  to  the  main 
points  in  dispute.  After  this  Prosper  again  replied  to 
Cassian,  maintaining  with  considerable  ability  his  Au- 
gustinian  views,  and  then  retired  from  the  conflict.  The 
unknown  writer  of  the  treatise  on  the  Calling  of  the 
Gentiles*  sought  to  reconcile  the  proposition,  that  God 
wills  that  all  men  should  be  saved,  with  the  fact  that 
all  men  are  not  saved.  The  book  shews  at  any  rate  that 
some  of  the  Augustinians  were  conscious  of  the  difficulty 
of  their  position,  and  it  was  no  doubt  written  in  the  in- 
terests of  peace.  On  the  other  hand,  there  appeared, 
probably  about  the  year  445,  a  book  called  'Pradesti- 
natus'®,  in  which  a  forged  Augustinian  treatise,  setting 
forth  fatalist  doctrine  in  a  form  which  no  genuine  Augus- 
tinian would  recognise,  was  criticised  from  a  Pelagian 
point  of  view.  What  was  the  effect  of  this  unprincipled 
work  we  have  no  means  of  knowing ;  but  we  know  that 
the  monks  of  Southern  Gaul  held  their  ground,  and  pro- 
duced in  Faustus  bishop  of  Riez  their  ablest  champion. 
This  able  and  excellent  j^relate,  who  took  part  in  all  the 
controversies  of  his  time,  had  been  abbot  of  Lerins,  and 
in  his  see  never  forgot  his  love  for  the  monastic  life. 
He  opposed  both  the  teaching  of  the  Pelagians,  and  the 
immoral  doctrine  (as  he  held  it  to  be)  of  absolute  pre- 
destination and  the  utter  annihilation  of  the  human  will. 
It  was  no  doubt  under  his  influence  that  a  synod  at 
Arles^,  about  the  year  475,  and  another  at  Lyons,  con- 


1  He  wrote  Pro  Augustino  respon- 
siones  ad  Capitula  ohjectionum  Gal- 
lorum calumniantium;  Eespimsioiics 
,  .  ad  capit.  Ohjectionum  Vincen- 
tiariim;  and  other  works. 

2  "Durius,"  Resp.  ad  Capit.  Gall., 
quoted  by  Harnack,  D.-G.  iii.  223. 


3  Epist.  21. 

*  In  Prosper's  Works,  p.  847,  ed. 
Palis  1711.  Also  in  Leo's  Works, 
ii.  167  ft',  (ed.  Ballerini). 

s  First  brought  to  light  in  1643 ; 
in  Galland,  Biblioth.  Patr.  x.  357  ff. 

*  Hardouiu  ii.  805  ff. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


325 


demned  the  predestinarian  error;  and  it  was  to  defend 
their  decision  that  he  wrote  his  treatise  on  Grace  and 
Freewill  \  His  contention  is  that,  granting  that  man 
since  the  Fall  is  unable  to  attain  salvation  by  his  own 
power,  he  is  still  capable  of  resisting  or  yielding  to  the 
Grace  of  God.  Though  it  be  true  that  without  grace 
man  cannot  turn  to  God,  still  grace  will  be  given  through 
means,  such  as  preaching  and  the  threatening  of  the  law. 
To  those  who,  like  the  monks,  prided  themselves  on  their 
works,  he  says,  what  have  we  that  we  have  not  re- 
ceived ? 

While  in  Gaul  the  middle-party,  with  the  powerful 
aid  of  Faustus,  held  its  own,  in  Africa  the  tradition  of 
Augustin  was  still  lively,  and  in  Rome  his  name  at  least 
carried  weight.  In  the  early  years  of  the  fifth  century 
certain  Scythian  monks,  who  had  already  fomented  dis- 
sension in  Constantinople,  mingled  in  the  fray  in  the 
West.  Their  leader  was  Maxentius.  These  monks 
handed  to  the  legate  of  pope  Hormisdas  in  Constanti- 
nople a  statement  of  their  belief,  in  which  they  emphati- 
cally rejected  the  views  of  those— Faustus  of  Riez  is 
specially  censured — who  denied  the  absolute  necessity  of 
divine  grace  to  begin  the  work  of  salvation,  and  said  that 
it  is  for  man  to  will,  for  God  to  finish  the  work.  Four 
of  their  number  journeyed  to  Rome,  where  they  found 
no  favour.  Their  statement  however  found  much  accept- 
ance among  the  African  bishops  who,  under  pressure  of 
the  Vandal  invasion  of  Africa,  had  found  refuge  in  Sar- 
dinia, especially  with  Fulgentius  of  Ruspe,  their  champion, 
a  man  of  considerable  intellectual  power.  He  wrote  not 
only  against  Pelagius  but  against  Faustus,  whom,  without 
naming,  he  accused  of  depreciating  God's  grace  in  com- 
parison with  man's  powers.  When  Possessor,  an  African 
bishop,  wrote  to  Hormisdas,  asking  his  judgment  on  the 
matters  stirred  by  the  Scythian  monks,  the  pope  replied 
with  very  great  caution,  referring  to  Augustin  as  an 
exponent  of  the  belief  of  the  Roman  Church  in  regard 
to  grace  and  freewill  '\     His  caution  brought  out  a  reply 


Chap.  XI. 


'  His  principal  works  are  in 
Bibliotheca  Mux.  Patrum.  viii.  523 
£f.  Epist.  ad  Lucidum  in  Hardouin 


The 

Scythiai: 

Monks. 

519. 


11.  809. 

2  Hardouin  ii.  1038. 


Africans 
in 

Sardinia. 
Fulgen- 
tius, 
d.  533. 


Possessor, 
520. 


326 


Controversies  on  tJie  Faith. 


Chap.  XI. 

Maxen- 
tius. 


c.  521. 


Council  of 

Orange, 

529. 


Council  at 
Valence. 


from  Maxentius^  which  was  at  any  rate  sufficiently  out- 
spoken ;  if,  he  said,  the  writings  of  Augustin  were  to  be 
taken  as  a  standard,  Faustus  was  beyond  all  doubt  a 
heretic.  Fulgentius  continued  the  controversy  against 
the  middle-party,  in  certain  treatises  in  which,  while 
strongly  maintaining  Augustinian  predestination,  he  at- 
tempted to  shew  that  it  did  not  involve  predestination 
to  sin.  The  African  bishops  also  from  their  Sardinian 
exile  sent  a  declaration^  to  Constantinople,  in  which  they 
directed  attention  to  Hormisdas's  acceptance  of  Augustin 
as  a  standard,  and  drew  the  inference  that  Faustus,  so 
far  as  he  differed  from  him,  must  be  a  heretic.  Gradually 
even  in  Gaul  itself,  the  very  focus  of  the  opposition, 
there  arose  a  reaction  in  favour  of  Augustinism,  the 
leaders  of  which  were  Avitus  of  Vienne  and  Csesarius 
of  Aries,  the  latter  of  whom  was  favoured  by  pope 
Felix  IV.  In  the  year  529,  on  the  occasion  of  the  con- 
secration of  a  church,  a  council  was  held  at  Orange  ^  in 
the  province  of  Aries,  over  which  Csesarius  presided  as 
metropolitan.  The  conclusions  were  subscribed  by  four- 
teen bishops  and  eight  men  of  illustrious^  rank,  including 
Liberius,  the  prefect  of  the  Gauls  and  founder  of  the 
church.  These  canons,  which  follow  the  general  lines 
of  a  document  sent  down  from  Rome,  contain  an  un- 
ambiguous acceptance  of  the  Augustinian  doctrine  of 
original  sin  and  of  the  impotence  of  man's  will  to  turn 
to  good,  so  that  faith  itself  is  a  gift  of  grace ;  but  they 
do  not  admit  a  predestination  to  evil ;  those  who  do  evil 
do  it  of  their  own  free  will*.  And  they  lay  down  that 
all  baptized  persons  receive  through  Christ  such  a  gift 
of  grace  that  they  may,  if  they  will,  fulfil  all  the  con- 
ditions necessary  for  salvation  ^  These  conclusions  were 
confirmed  by  the  Roman  bishop,  Boniface  II.  A  council 
at  Valence  ^,  which  took  place  about  the  same  time,  and 
was  attended  not  only  by  the  bishops  of  the  province 
of  Vienne,  but  by  representatives  of  the  province  of  Aries, 


'  Responsio  ad  Epist.  Hormisdae 
Papa;,  in  lUbl.  Max.  Pair.  ix.  570; 
Migne's  Patrol.,  Ser.  Gr.  86,  p.  93. 

2  In  Hardouin  ii.  1055  ff. 

3  Hardouin  ii.  1097. 

••  The  "illustrious"  were  Roman 


officials  of  the  highest  rank  (Gib- 
bon, c.  17). 

5  Can.  23. 

«  Can.  25, 

7  Hardouin  II.  1103. 


Controversies  on  the  Faith. 


327 


made  decrees  in  a  similar  sense.  Pelagianism  was  thought 
to  be  at  an  end. 

The  Pelagian  controversy  constitutes  an  epoch  in  the 
history  of  dogma.  Hitherto  dogmatic  contests  had  been 
almost  wholly  about  the  object  of  Christian  faith,  the 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit.  The  opinions  of  Pelagius 
were  in  fact  not  recognised  at  first  as  dogmatic,  either  by 
himself  or  by  others  ^ ;  they  belonged  (it  was  thought)  to 
that  region  of  theological  opinion  within  which  men  may 
lawfully  differ.  And  the  language  used  on  both  sides  was 
full  of  unobserved  ambiguities.  "  Liberty  "  was  sometimes 
taken  to  mean  the  power  of  willing  freely,  sometimes  to 
mean  the  power  of  acting  as  one  wills.  It  is  commonly 
used  to  designate  freedom  from  external  coercion,  but 
St  Augustin  uses  it  to  designate  freedom  from  the  power 
of  sin.  The  time  had  not  yet  come  for  men  to  recognise 
an  "  antinomy  of  reason  " ;  to  admit  that  the  laws  of  the 
human  mind  may  force  us  to  acknowledge  truths  which 
are  to  our  limited  faculties  incompatible.  Since  the  ex- 
istence of  antinomies  has  been  admitted,  it  has  come  to 
be  felt  by  the  thoughtful  everywhere,  that  they  who 
discuss  "  fixed  fate,  free  will,  foreknowledge  absolute," 
will  find  "  no  end,  in  wandering  mazes  lost  \"  The  ex- 
treme predestinarian  views  have  consequently  come  to  be 
merely  opinions  of  sects  and  parties. 

Even  the  immense  authority  of  St  Augustin  could 
not  indvice  men  to  accept  frankly  all  the  consequences 
which  were  drawn  from  his  theory  of  man's  lost  and 
ruined  condition.  His  views  in  their  origin  did  not 
satisfy  the  rule  of  Vincentivis ;  they  had  not  been  ac- 
cepted at  all  times  by  all  men  in  all  places ;  and  in  fact 
they  never  became  Catholic.  We  see  plainly  enough 
in  the  works  of  Gregory  the  Great  that  he  labours  in 
vain  to  adopt  Augustin's  views  in  their  integrity ;  almost 
in  spite  of  himself,  he  addresses  men  as  if  they  were 
free  to  receive  and  obey  his  exhortations,  and  so  to  attain 
salvation  *. 


1  See  the  Creed  of  Caelestius,  in 
Kahn^ B  BibUothek,  §  134;  Harnack, 
Dogmengeschichte,  iii.  153,  161. 


-  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  ii.  560. 
^  See  P.  C.  Baur,  K.-G.  ii.  215  f. 


Chap.  XI. 

General 

conclu' 

sions. 


Augustin's 

views 
did  not 
prevail. 


Chap.  XH. 

Law  and 
Society. 
Code  of 
Morality. 


Formation 
of  Church 
Law. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


DISCIPLINE   AND   LIFE   OF   THE   CHURCH. 

1.  It  has  already  been  observed^  that  the  precepts  of 
Christian  morality  tended  to  become  a  code  of  positive 
law^  having  its  own  interpreters  in  the  rulers  of  the 
Church.  This  tendency  becomes  more  prominent  in  the 
fourth  and  following  centuries.  Men  came  to  look  more 
and  more  to  the  authority  of  the  Church  to  determine 
both  the  special  acts  and  the  general  conduct  which  were 
to  be  required  of  Christians.  Hence  there  arose  a  more 
systematic  treatment  of  moral  questions  and  a  more  regu- 
lar method  of  dealing  with  sin  and  disorder. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  period  of  which  we  are  treat- 
ing each  province  had  its  own  code  and  customs,  but 
local  peculiarities  were  gradually  eliminated,  and  the 
whole  Church  within  the  empire  came  to  have  one  law. 
A  kind  of  public  opinion  was  formed  on  the  matter  before 
any  actual  codification  took  place.  It  was  generally 
agreed  that  the  canons  of  oecumenical  synods  and  certain 
imperial  decrees  accepted  by  the  Church  were  of  universal 
obligation ;  but  there  were  some  synods,  of  too  much  im- 
portance to  be  regarded  as  simply  provincial  and  yet 
scarcely  universal,  about  the  canons  of  which  there  was 
doubt.     Several  of  these  in  course  of  time  came  to  be 


1  P.  147. 

"  See  p.  148,  note  5;  and  add 
G.  et  H.  Justelli  Bihliotheca  Juris 
Canon.  Vet. ;  J.  Pitra  Juris  Eccl. 
GrcBcorum  Hist   et  Momimenta ;  F. 


Maassen  Geschichte  der  Quellen... 
des  Canon.  Rechts  in  Abendlande; 
F.  Walter  Lehrbuch  des  Kirchen- 
rechts.  Book  II. 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


329 


recognised  as  everywhere  valid.  The  codes  of  Theodosius 
and  of  Justinian  contained  many  provisions  relating  to 
matters  ecclesiastical,  and  it  was  perhaps  the  example 
of  the  imperial  codification  which  induced  Joannes  Scho- 
lasticus,  originally  a  lawyer,  afterwards  patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople, about  the  year  570  to  arrange  systematically 
the  whole  ecclesiastical  law  of  the  Eastern  Churchy  This 
became  the  standard  book  of  reference  and  manual  of 
instruction  for  Oriental  students.  He  also  added  to  his 
collection  of  canons  the  imperial  laws  relating  to  the 
several  matters  treated  of  in  the  canons.  This  work, 
called  the  Nomocanon,  was  composed  apparently  within 
the  year  after  Justinian's  death".  A  later  hand  added 
four  laws  of  Heraclius  relating  to  matters  ecclesiastical. 

The  Roman  Church  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 
century  recognized  only  the  canons  of  Nicsea,  under  which 
name  however  those  of  Sardica  were  included,  as  of  uni- 
versal oblig;itionl  Others,  said  Innocent  I.,  the  Church 
does  not  accept.  But  in  the  latter  half  of  the  same 
century  we  find  extant  a  Latin  translation  of  a  Greek 
collection  of  canons*.  The  imperfection  and  obscurity  of 
this  translation  however  induced  Dionysius  Exiguus,  a 
Scythian  monk  who  understood  both  Greek  and  Latin,  to 
undertake  a  new  edition,  which  probably  appeared  in  the 
time  of  pope  Symmachus,  between  the  years  498  and 
514^  The  first  part  of  this  collection  contains  a  careful 
translation  of  those  canons  which  were  generally  acknow- 
ledged by  the  Greeks,  together  with  the  Latin  canons  of 
Sardica,  and  the  code  which  was  sanctioned  by  a  council 
at  Carthage  in  the  year  419  for  the  use  of  the  African 
Church.  The  second  part  contains  the  decretals  of  the 
popes,  so  far  as  they  could  then  be  discovered  in  Rome, 
from  Siricius,  who  became  pope  in  38.5,  to  Anastasius, 
who  died  in  497.  These  decretals  are  for  the  most  part 
letters   giving   opinions   on   cases   submitted   by  distant 


1  Printed  in  Justelli  Bibliotlipca, 
II.  499  ff.  Compare  Assemani  Bib- 
liotheca,  iii.  354  ff. 

"  Zaccliariae  Hist.  Juris  Grceco- 
Rom.  §  22,  nn.  3,  4,  7 ;  Heimbach 
'AuiKdora,  I.  p.  xliv.  ff. 

3  See  the  Ballerini  in  Galland 
De  Vetustis   Canonum  Collectioni- 


bus,  I.  303  ff. 

*  Justelli  Bihliotheca  i.  275  ff. ; 
also  in  Leonis  M.  Opera,  ed.  Bal- 
lerini, ni.  473  ff.,  and  Mansi  Cone. 
Yi.  1005  ff. 

5  Ed.  F.  Pithoeus  (Paris,  1687) ; 
Justelli  Biblioth.  i.  97 ff.;  cf.  Bal- 
lerini in  Leonis  Opera  in.  174. 


Chap.  XII. 

Code  of 
Theodo- 
sius, 438, 
of  Justi- 
nian, 534. 
Syntagma 
of  Joannes 
Scholasti- 
cus,  c.  570. 


Nomo- 
canon. 


Rome. 


Dionysius 

Exiguus, 

498—514. 


330 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


authorities.  This  Code  of  Dionysius  came  to  be  received 
in  Rome  and  in  the  West  generally  as  having  the  autho- 
rity of  law,  and  was  completed  by  the  addition  from  time 
to  time  of  later  documents.  A  collection  of  canons  for 
the  use  of  the  Spanish  Church  was  made  probably  in  the 
first  half  of  the  seventh  century  by  Isidore  of  Seville \ 
This  contains  in  its  first  division,  together  with  the  greater 
part  of  the  current  Greek  Church-law,  certain  canons  of 
Spanish  and  of  Gallican  councils ;  in  the  second  division 
the  decretals  of  the  Dionysian  Code,  with  the  addition  of 
certain  letters  of  the  popes  relating  to  Spanish  and  Galli- 
can affairs.  The  "Breviarium"  drawn  up  by  Fulgentius 
Ferrandus^  a  deacon  of  Carthage,  about  the  year  547, 
independently  of  the  Dionysian  Code,  seems  to  have  at- 
tained less  vogue. 

Another  source  of  Church-law  was  the  penitential 
system,  the  beginnings  of  which  we  have  already  seen^ 
They  who  sinned  against  the  law  of  God  were  at  once 
punished  and  purified  by  passing  through  a  course  of 
humiliation  and  mortification  before  they  could  be  re- 
admitted to  the  full  privileges  of  the  faithful.  This  course 
was  called  by  the  general  name  of  penitence  or  penance, 
and  those  who  were  undergoing  it  were  penitents.  This 
system  brought  with  it  the  necessity  of  instruction  in  the 
application  of  appropriate  remedies;  for  penalties  might 
vary  from  a  short  period  of  fasting  or  abstinence  to  a 
sentence  which  hardly  permitted  the  offender  to  receive 
the  sacrament  on  his  death-bed.  Many  directions  on  these 
matters  are  given  in  the  canons  of  councils ;  but  in- 
structions were  also  issued  from  time  to  time  by  dis- 
tinguished ecclesiastics  with  a  view  of  securing  uni- 
formity in  the  administration  of  penitential  discipline. 
Such  documents,  for  instance,  as  the  epistles  of  St  Basil 
and  his  brother  Gregory  of  Nyssa  on  the  subject  of  peni- 
tence were  held  in  such  respect  as  to  have  almost  the 
force  of  law.  That  of  St  Gregory*  is  rather  a  treatise 
on  what  we  may  call  the  psychology  of  sin  than  an  at- 
tempt to  assign  special  penalties  to  special  sins;  while 


1  Codex  Canonnm  Eccl.  Ilispa- 
nicF.  (Madrid,  1808);  Galland  Bih- 
linth.  I.  500  ff. 

2  Justelli  Biblioth.  i.  456  ff. 


3  P.  147. 

^  In  Beveridge's  Synodicon,  ii. 
151  ff. 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


331 


those  of  Basil  \  dealing  mainly  with  the  sins  of  idolatry, 
murder,  and  fornication,  allot  to  each  form  of  sin  its 
appropriate  punishment.  The  latter  had  great  influence 
in  the  East,  and  received  synodical  sanction  at  the  Trullan 
council-  in  692.  In  the  West,  the  papal  decretals  some- 
times deal,  though  not  systematically,  with  sins  for  which 
penitence  is  prescribed.  Fragments  still  exist  of  British 
and  Irish  penitentials  of  great  antiquity,  mainly  devoted 
to  the  enforcement  of  purity  of  life  and  the  discharge  of 
Christian  duty,  and  to  the  extirpation  of  the  ferocious 
and  licentious  passions  of  the  old  heathen  life.  Sixteen 
canons  are  extant  of  the  book  of  St  David  of  Menevia  ^ 
— now  called  from  him  St  David's — and  similar  canons 
of  councils  held  under  the  same  bishop,  which  imply  a 
rude  and  impure  state  of  life  among  those  for  whom  they 
were  intended.  Another  ancient  penitential,  bearing  the 
name  of  Vinniaus  or  Finian^,  and  probably  contemporary, 
or  nearly  so,  with  St  David's,  enumerates  the  principal 
sins  of  clergy  and  laity,  with  their  appropriate  penalties. 
Of  about  the  same  date  is  the  Prefatio  Gildce  de  Peni- 
tential, which  gives  a  more  detailed  account  of  the  several 
penances  than  the  other  early  books.  Among  the  earliest 
existing  penitentials  are  those  of  Ireland'',  some  possibly 
drawn  up  by,  or  under  the  influence  of,  St  Patrick  him- 
self In  these  appears  the  system  of  compounding  for  sins 
by  the  surrender  of  money  or  other  worldly  goods,  which 
was  afterwards  conspicuous  both  in  the  ecclesiastical  and 
the  civil  codes  of  the  Northern  nations  of  Europe.  The 
numerous  and  interesting  English  Penitentials  do  not  fall 
within  the  chronological  limits  of  this  work. 

In  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  a  great  change  crept 
over  the  whole  penitential  system.  The  old  rule,  that  an 
excommunicated  person  could  only  once  in  his  lifetime  be 
re-admitted  to  the  Church,  after  confession  and  penance,  fell 


^  The  three  Canonical  Letters  to 
Amphilochius  (in  Synodicon,  n. 
47  ff.).  These  letters  are  not  how- 
ever quoted  by  any  writer  before 
Joannes  Scholasticus  in  the  sixth 
century,  and  are  thought  by  Bin- 
terim  (Denkwurdigkeiten,  V.  3, 
36G  ff.),  following  Molkenbuhr,  to 
be  spurious. 


^  Canon  2. 

^  Haddan  and  Stubbs  Councils 
and  Documents,  i.  118  ff. 

*  Wasserschleben  Bussordnun- 
gen,  108  ff. 

^  Councils  and  Documents,  i. 
113  ff. 

•^   Biissordnunr/en,  13H  ff. 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


into  disuse.  The  same  person  was  more  than  once  admitted 
to  the  ranks  of  penitents  and  to  the  hope  of"  restoration. 
It  was  one  of  the  charges  made  against  Chrysnstom  at  the 
Synod  of  the  Oak\  that  he  had  said,  "if  thou  sinnest  again, 
again  repent ;  as  often  as  thou  sinnest,  come  to  me  and 
I  will  heal  thee."  In  the  days  immediately  following  the 
Decian  persecution,  when  large  numbers  of  the  lapsed 
flocked  to  obtain  absolution  from  the  Church,  so  that 
their  public  confessions  became  a  scandal,  a  discreet 
presbyter  was  chosen  to  decide,  after  private  hearing, 
what  penance  the  offenders  should  undergo  before  ad- 
mission to  communion l  Such  a  penitentiary  presbyter 
was  generally  appointed  in  the  several  Churches  until 
Nectarius,  patriarch  of  Constantinople  in  891  abrogated 
the  office  in  his  own  Church,  in  consequence  of  a  scandal 
which  had  arisen,  and  many  other  bishops  followed  his 
example,  Socrates^  seems  to  imply  that  after  this  it  was 
left  to  each  man's  conscience  to  decide  whether  he  was 
worthy  to  approach  the  mysteries.  In  Rome,  pope  Sim- 
plicius  appointed  a  penitentiary  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
fifth  century.  This  private  confession  was  the  natural 
result  of  the  extension  of  Christianity  to  society  in 
general.  Sins  which  might  be  confessed  to  a  small  as- 
sembly of  friends  bound  together  by  the  most  intimate 
union  of  thought  and  feeling  could  hardly  be  uttered 
before  a  large  congregation  of  comparatively  indifferent 
persons.  Moreover,  some  of  the  sins  which  excluded  the 
sinner  from  communion  were  also  crimes  which  might 
bring  him  under  the  cognizance  of  the  law  of  the  land, 
and  some  sins,  as  adultery,  involved  others  besides  the 
person  confessing. 

Augustin^  contemplates  the  daily  prayer  as  sufficient 
atonement  for  the  little  sins  which  we  inevitably  commit 
in  daily  life,  while  the  more  deadly  sins,  which  separate 
men  from  the  Body  of  Christ,  require  public  and  formal 
penance.  These  more  deadly  sins  are  those  against  the 
majesty  of  God  Himself,  as  blasphemy,  idolatry,  heresy 
and  sorcery;  or  actual  offences  against  one's  neighbour,  as 
murder,  adultery,  theft  and  perjury,  and  openly  expressed 


^  Hardouin  i.  lOil. 
"  Sozomen  vii.  IG. 


3  H.  E.  V.  19. 

"•  Be  Symb.  ad  Catcch.  c.  7. 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


333 


hatred'.  No  layman  who  had  done  penance  could  ever  be 
admitted  to  the  ranks  of  the  clergy,  and  no  cleric  could 
be  admitted  to  penance  without  previous  deposition  from 
his  office ^  The  general  principle  which  Augnstin'  laid 
down,  that  secret  sins  might  be  confessed  secretly,  while 
open  sins  must  be  confessed  openly,  was  probably  largely 
adopted  by  bishops  in  their  penitential  discipline,  Leo 
the  Great*,  however,  condemned  in  vigorous  language  the 
conduct  of  those  bishops  who  compelled  penitents  to  read 
aloud  in  the  church  a  complete  list  of  their  sins,  holding 
that  it  was  sufficient  for  the  relief  of  the  conscience  if 
men  confessed  their  sin  to  the  priests  alone,  and  that  this 
course  was  also  desirable  for  the  avoiding  of  scandal. 
From  this  time,  probably,  public  confession  of  sin  became 
rare. 

Almsgiving,  or  bequests  to  the  Church,  also  came 
to  be  recognised  as  a  means  of  atoning  for  sin.  "If 
thou  hast  money,"  says  St  Ambrose®,  "buy  off  thy  sin. 
The  Lord  is  not  for  sale  (venalis),  but  thou  thyself  art  for 
sale ;  buy  thyself  off  by  thy  works,  buy  thyself  off  by 
thy  moneys.  Vile  is  money,  but  precious  is  mercy." 
Salvian'  insists  that  the  only  thing  which  a  man  can 
do  on  his  death-bed  for  the  good  of  his  soul  is  to  leave  all 
his  goods  to  the  Church ;  but  the  offering  must  be  ac- 
companied by  real  contrition  of  heart  in  order  to  be 
efficacious.  Men  like  St  Augustin®  warned  their  flocks 
against  leaving  money  to  the  Church  in  a  fit  of  anger 
against  their  natural  heirs,  but  still  the  practice  grew  of 
making  the  Church  the  legatee  of  at  least  a  portion  of  a 
man's  worldly  goods. 

And  not  only  did  the  dying  leave  their  goods  to  the 
Church;  offerings  were  also  made  for  the  departed.  "It 
cannot  be  denied,"  says  St  Augustin^  "that  the  souls  of 
the  departed  are  comforted  by  the  piety  of  their  surviving 
friends  when  the  mediatorial  sacrifice  is  offered  for  them 
and  alms  are  given  on  their  behalf  in  the  church;   but 


1  Cone.  Arelat.  ii.  c.  50. 

^  Sirieius  ad  Himer.  c.  14,  in 
Hardouin  i.  851. 

»  Sermo  82,  c.  7,  §  10. 

•»  Epist.  168  [al.  136]  c.  2. 

^  De  Elia  et  Jejiniio,  C.  20. 
(Gieseler  i.  584,  n.  b.) 


6  Cf.  Daniel  iv.  24,  Vulg. 

^  Ad  Ecclesiam  i.  10. 

*  Sermo  49  De  Diversis  (quoted 
by  Ford  St  Mark  illustrated,  p. 
159). 

^  Enchiridion  ad  Laiirentium,  c. 
110. 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


these  things  only  profit  those  who  so  lived  as  to  deserve 
to  be  benefited  by  them."  As  few  would  believe  that 
their  friends  had  lived  so  ill  as  to  receive  no  benefit  from 
their  offerings,  or  so  well  as  not  to  require  them,  the  effect 
of  this  principle  was  that  offerings  were  made  for  almost 
all  the  departed. 

The  Christian  Church  brought  comfort  to  an  age  in 
the  throes  of  dissolution;  before  a  generation  which  had 
fallen  into  moral  laxity  it  held  up  a  standard  of  nobler 
and  purer  life.  It  handed  on  to  the  new  world  which 
arose  on  the  ruins  of  the  Western  Empire  the  torch  of 
truth  which  it  had  received  from  above.  It  diffused 
through  Society  a  more  tender  feeling  for  the  weak  and 
suffering,  and  so  in  the  end  introduced  a  more  humane 
spirit  into  general  legislation*  and  popular  customs.  The 
gladiatorial  shows  which  had  delighted  the  Romans  were 
forbidden  indeed  by  Constautine^  but  they  were  not  really 
put  down  until  the  noble  self-sacrifice  of  the  monk  Tele- 
machus  produced  so  deep  an  impression  that  the  rescript 
against  the  practice,  which  Honorius  issued  immediately 
afterwards,  really  brought  it  to  an  end''. 

Attempts  were  made  to  restrain  scenical  representa- 
tions within  the  bounds  of  decency  and  good  order*.  The 
wretched  lot  of  slaves  and  captives  was  mitigated ;  the 
almost  unlimited  power  which  the  old  Roman  law  gave  to 
a  father  over  his  children  was  restricted ;  above  all,  the 
condition  of  women  was  changed,  and  the  same  chastity 
was  looked  for  in  men  which  had  once  been  expected 
only  from  women.  The  laws  which  inflicted  disabilities 
on  the  unmarried  were  repealed^,  and  celibates  placed  on 
an  equality  with  the  married ;  while  difficulties  were 
placed  in  the  way  of  second  marriages  ^  With  regard 
to  divorce  a  discrepancy  arose  between  the  law  of  the 
empire  and  the  law  of  the  Church,  which  had  never  re- 
cognized any  ground  for  divorce  except  adultery.  The  great 
freedom  of  separation  which  prevailed  in  pagan  times 
was  indeed  restrained,  but  the  civil  law  permitted  many 


^  It  was  noticed  (Euseb.  Vita 
Constant,  iv.  26)  that  this  process 
had  already  begun  under  Constan- 
tine. 

2  Codex  Theod.  xv.  12. 


3  Theodoret  H.  E.  v.  26. 

*  Codex  Theod.  xv,  titt.  5,  6,  7. 

*  lb.  VIII.  16. 
«  lb.  III.  8. 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


335 


divorces  which  the  Church  did  not  sanction',  and  from 
this  permission  scandals  arose.  "Hear  ye  now,"  cries  a 
preacher^  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  "ye  that 
change  your  wives  as  readily  as  your  cloaks,  ye  that  so 
often  and  so  easily  build  bridal  chambers,  ye  that  on 
a  small  provocation  write  a  bill  of  divorcement,  ye  that 
leave  many  widows  while  ye  still  live;  be  ye  fully  assured 
that  marriage  is  dissolved  only  by  death  and  by  adultery." 
Jerome  also  bewails  the  difference  of  the  laws.  "  The 
laws  of  Caesar,"  he  says^,  "differ  from  those  of  Christ; 
Papinian  [the  great  jurist]  lays  down  one  thing,  Paul 
a  different  thing." 

The  duty  of  beneficence,  whether  to  ascetics  or  to 
others  who  were  in  need,  came  into  prominence  in  the 
Church  and  produced  great  results.  The  Church,  be- 
come rich  through  the  privileges  bestowed  upon  it,  was 
the  principal  protector  of  the  poor  and  helpless  in  the 
needful  time  of  trouble.  The  bishops  had  generally  the 
chief  control  of  ecclesiastical  funds,  and  they  were  rarely 
found  wanting  in  their  due  administration.  In  large  cities 
the  lists  of  those  who  were  supported  or  succoured  by  the 
alms  of  churchmen  often  included  some  thousands  of 
names.  Rome  was  divided,  for  the  purpose  of  poor-relief, 
into  seven  regions,  each  under  the  care  of  a  deacon,  and  in 
each  region  a  special  edifice*  was  built  for  his  use  in  dis- 
tributing relief.  When  St  Chrysostom  was  at  Antioch  three 
thousand  names  were  on  the  list  of  those  who  depended 
on  the  Church  for  daily  bread®,  and  in  Constantinople  the 
same  excellent  prelate  fed  seven  thousand.  Special  insti- 
tutions were  developed  for  the  care  of  the  stranger,  the 
sick,  the  helpless  of  every  kind.  The  great  hospital  which 
St  BasiP  founded  at  Csesarea  was  no  doubt  a  model  for  many 
others.  Similar  hospitals  were  soon  erected  in  many  cities 
both  of  the  East  and  the  West.  The  well-known  friends 
of  Jerome,  Fabiola  and  Pammachius,  founded  hospitals  in 
Rome  and  in  the  neighbouring  Portus'';  Paulinus  estab- 


^  Codex  Theod.  iii.  16. 

*  Asterius  Amasenus  IIoiii.  5, 
in  Combefis  Auctarium  Novum  i. 
82 ;  Gieseler  i.  608,  note  o. 

3  Epist.  84  [al.  30]  Ad  Oceanum, 
c.  1. 

■*  Diaconia.     See  Diet.  Chr.  An- 


tiq.  p.  549. 

5  Horn.  66  [al.  67]  iu  Matthauvi. 

6  Epistt.  94  [al.  372]  ad  Hcliam; 
142  [al.  374];  143  [428];  Greg. 
Nazianz.  Oral.  20. 

7  Jerome  Epist.  66,  §  11. 


CnAP.  XII. 


Benefi- 


St  Basil's 
Hospital, 
c.  870. 


836 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


Chap.  XU. 


Property 
of  the 
Church. 


Faults  of 
the  Laity. 


Nominal 
Christians. 


lished  one  in  Nola.  Such  institutions  were  maintained 
either  from  the  common  funds  of  the  Church,  or  from 
special  donations  of  land  or  money. 

The  income  of  the  Church  in  its  earlier  and  simpler 
ages  was  derived  from  the  offerings  of  the  faithful ;  but 
when,  under  the  privilege  granted  by  Christian  emperors, 
the  Church  itself  became  possessed  of  considerable  property, 
these  oblations  became  relatively  of  less  importance.  Still, 
rich  offerings  were  made,  especially  on  Saints'  Days  and 
other  high  festivals,  which  were  devoted  partly  to  the 
maintenance  of  the  clergy,  partly  to  the  succour  of  the 
poor.  The  bishops,  who  disposed  of  great  riches,  generally 
lived  very  simply,  though  there  were  no  doubt  some  who 
justified  the  sneer  of  Ammianus  Marcellinus^  that  it  was 
no  wonder  that  men  fought  for  the  possession  of  the  see  of 
Rome,  seeing  the  wealth  and  splendour  which  they  enjoyed 
who  attained  it. 

But  while  there  was  in  the  Church  no  lack  of  Christian 
virtues,  evils  also  appeared  which  were  perhaps  insepar- 
able from  a  time  of  transition.  When  Constantine  gave 
his  favour  to  the  Church,  a  multitude  pressed  into  it  who 
were  still  pagan  at  heart,  taking  with  them  many  of  the 
vices  and  superstitions  of  heathenism.  Constantine  seems 
to  have  contemplated  this  bringing  over  of  the  common 
herd  from  impure  motives  as  one  end  of  his  liberality 
to  the  Church.  Few,  he  said,  were  influenced  by  a 
real  love  of  truth  '^ ;  he  could  draw  men  to  the  doctrine 
of  salvation  more  readily  by  abundant  largess  than  by 
preaching^  He  bestowed  honours  and  privileges  upon 
cities  which  accepted  Christianity  ^  Christian  writers 
did  not  deny  that  many  entered  the  Church  who  were 
Christian  only  in  name.  Eusebius '  tells  us  that  he  had 
himself  observed  the  injury  done  by  the  flocking  in  of 
greedy  and  worthless  men  who  lowered  the  standard  of 
social  life,  and  by  the  dissimulation  of  those  who  slunk 
into  the  Church  with  a  mere  outward  show  of  Christianity. 
Augustin "  declares  that  few  sought  Jesus  for  Jesus'  sake ; 
most  sought  their  own  ends  in  their  proiession   of  the 


^  Rerum  Gestaruvi  Lib.  xxvii.  3. 


14. 


2  Eusebins  Vita  Constant,  iii.  21. 

3  lb.  HI.  58. 


*  lb.  IV.  38,  39. 

6  lb.  IV.  54. 

^  In  Joannem,  Tract,  25,  §  10. 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


337 


faith.  When  Christians  said  these  things  it  is  not  wonder- 
ful if  a  pagan  *  declared  that  many  of  those  who  filled  the 
Churches  were  no  more  Christians  than  a  player-king  is 
a  king.  It  was  necessary  to  forbid  even  men  in  Holy 
Orders  to  use  art-magic  or  incantations,  to  cast  horoscopes 
or  to  practise  astrology,  to  make  phylacteries  or  amulets^; 
and  to  warn  all  persons  against  practising  secret  idolatry 
and  attending  heathen  festivals*.  Nor  was  the  Church 
altogether  free  from  superstitions  of  Jewish  origin  *. 

And  the  clergy  did  not  in  all  cases  give  to  the  laity 
an  example  of  the  highest  Christian  life.  When  office  in 
the  Church  no  longer  brought  with  it  trouble  and  danger, 
but  honour  and  power,  it  was  eagerly  sought  for,  and  that 
sometimes  by  unworthy  means.  Gregory  of  Nazianzus* 
laments  and  Jerome^  declaims  against  the  eager  pressing 
of  ambitious  and  self-seeking  men  into  places  of  honour 
in  the  Church ;  the  luxury,  the  flattery,  the  legacy- 
hunting,  the  trading  of  some  unworthy  members  of  the 
clergy.  We  must  of  course  bear  in  mind  that  the 
language  of  Gregory  is  that  of  a  sensitive  man  weary  of 
the  strife  of  tongues  and  the  wiles  of  intrigue,  while 
Jerome's  is  that  of  a  bitter  and  unsparing  satirist,  him- 
self devoted  to  the  ascetic  life ;  but  neither  one  nor  the 
other  is  likely  to  have  spoken  utterly  without  warrant. 
And  if  confirmation  of  their  words  be  required,  it  is  un- 
fortunately to  be  found  in  a  law  of  the  emperor  Leo  of 
the  year  469 '',  which  forbids  men  to  gain  Holy  Orders 
by  bribery,  and  rebukes  the  avarice  which  hung  as  a 
cloud  over  the  altar.  Far  from  seeking  the  sacred  office 
a  man  should  not  accept  it  unless  compelled.  We  have 
here  the  germ  of  710I0  episcopari. 

Two  causes,  it  is  to  be  feared,  tended  to  demoralize 
the  clergy.     One  was  the  excessive  prevalence  of  dog- 


^  Libanius  Orat.  pro  Templis 
(ii.  177,  ed.  Reiske). 

2  Cone.  Laodic.  c.  36,  in  Har- 
douin  I.  787. 

3  lb.  35,  39. 

4  Chrysostom  adv.  Judceos  Ora- 
tiones  viii.,  in  Opera  i.  716  ff. 

6  Orat.  43  [al.  20]  in  Laudem 
Basilii;  Apol.  de  Fuga  sua,  Orat. 
1   [al.   2].     Compare  the   curious 

C. 


passage  from  his  Carmen  de  se 
ipso,  in  Gieseler  i.  590. 

^  Epist.  34  [al.  2]  ad  Nepotianum  ; 
18  [al.  22]  ad  Eustochimn.  See 
also  the  sermon  printed  with  those 
of  Ambrose  (In  Dom.  xxii  post 
Pentec.)  and  Augustin  {App.  Sermo 
82)  on  Luke  iii.  14. 

7  Codex  Justin,  i.  3.  31. 


22 


Chap.  XII. 


Super- 
stitions. 


Faults  of 
the  Clergy. 


Laio  of 
469. 


Influence 
of  dispute. 


338 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


Chap.  XII. 

and 
intrigv£s. 


DONATISM.2 

Questions 
stirred. 


Tradttores. 


matic  disputes,  which  sometimes  withdrew  men's  thoughts 
from  the  necessity  of  a  holy  life.  It  is  easier,  and  perhaps 
more  profitable,  to  be  a  partizan  than  a  saint.  The  other 
was,  for  the  East,  the  imperial  Court  at  Constantinople\ 
When  the  emperor  perpetually  interfered  in  affairs  of 
dogma,  and  it  was  of  the  last  importance  to  gain  his  ear, 
bishops  and  priests  jostled  with  courtiers  and  lackeys  in 
the  ante-rooms  of  the  palace,  and  no  doubt  lost  in  spiritu- 
ality what  they  gained  in  power. 

2.  When  the  world  mingled  with  the  Church,  the 
question  could  scarcely  fail  sometimes  to  arise — Can  an 
organisation  be  said  to  be  the  Church  of  Christ  when 
not  only  many  of  its  members,  but  some  even  of  its 
priests,  are  leading  lives  which  shew  no  trace  of  Christian 
holiness  ?  Are  the  sacraments  efficacious  which  are  ad- 
ministered by  impure  hands  ?  What  amount  of  corrup- 
tion in  an  existing  Church  justifies  those  of  its  members 
who  desire  purity  in  forming  a  separate  society?  Can 
anything  justify  separation  ?  These  were  the  questions 
which  underlay  the  wretched  conflict  in  the  African 
Church  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  though  the  con- 
troversy first  arose  on  a  special  point,  and  that  one  which 
could  not  emerge  except  in  an  age  of  persecution. 

The  schism  referred  to  arose  out  of  the  last  persecu- 
tion, when  they  who  delivered  up  the  sacred  books  to 
the  persecutors  were  stigmatized  as  "  traditores."  Men- 
surius^  bishop  of  Carthage   is   said   to   have   given  up 


1  See  the  picture  of  this  court  in 
Ammianus  Marcellinus  xxii.  4. 

2  Optatus  Milev.  De  Schismate 
Donatistarum  (Dupin  in  his  edition 
of  this  work  gives  a  Historia  Dona- 
tistarum, Monumenta  Vet.  ad  Hist. 
Donatist.  pertinentia,  and  other 
documents) ;  Augustin  c.  Epist. 
Partneniani,  De  Bivptismo,  c.  Literas 
Petiliani,  c.  Cresconium,  Breviculus 
Gollationum.  In  the  Appendix  to 
vol.  IX.  of  the  Benedictine  edition 
of  Aug.  Opera  are  given  Excerpta 
et  scripta  Vetera  ad  Donat.  Hist, 
pertinentia.  There  is  an  essay  by 
Valesius  De  Schismate  Donat.  ap- 
pended to  Eusebius  (i.  775  ff.  Bead- 
ing's Edition).  See  also  H.  Noris 
Hist.  Donatistarum  in  his  Opera 


(ed.  Ballerini),  vol.  iv.  C.  P.  W. 
Walch  Ketzerhistorie,  Bd.  iv. ;  F. 
Eibbeck  Donatus  u.  Augustin;  C. 
Bindemann  Der  Heilige  Augus- 
tinus,  n.  366  ff.;  in.  178  ff.;  D. 
Volter  Ursprung  des  Donatismus; 
Hefele  in  Kirchenlexicon  in.  254  flf. ; 
J.  M.  Fuller  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biog.  i. 
881  ff. ;  F.  W.  Farrar  Lives  of  the 
Fathers,  n.  514  ff. 

8  For  Augustin's  account  of  Men- 
surius  see  Breviculus  Collat.  D.  iii. 
c.  13,  no.  25;  cf.  Csecilian,  lb.  c. 
14,  no.  26.  The  Donatist  account 
in  the  Acta  Saturnini  etc.  (Baluze's 
3Iiscellanea,u.72 ;  DuTpin's  Optatus 
156  ff.)  is  obviously  a  gross  exag- 
geration (Gieseler  i.  323,  n.  2). 


Discijdine  and  Life  of  the  Cliurch. 


339 


heretical  books  to  the  agents  of  the  government  instead 
of  those  which  they  sought — an  act  which  to  the  more 
rigorous  appeared  an  unworthy  evasion.  But  he  and  his 
archdeacon  Caecilian  had  probably  given  deeper  offence 
by  opposing  the  extravagant  honours  given  to  confessors, 
and  the  belief  in  the  efficacy  of  relics.  When  Mensurius 
died,  Caecilian  was  somewhat  hastily  elected  as  his  suc- 
cessor by  the  bishops  of  the  Carthaginian  province  only, 
and  at  once  consecrated  by  Felix,  bishop  of  Aptunga\ 
As  the  bishop  of  Carthage  had  primatial  jurisdiction  over 
Numidia  also,  the  bishops  of  that  province  were  naturally 
aggrieved  that  the  election  had  taken  place  without  them. 
In  their  anger  they  declared  that  the  newly- consecrated 
bishop  was  almost  a  traditor,  and  that  his  consecrator 
was  no  better.  The  offer  of  Caecilian,  to  be  reconsecrated 
by  Numidian  bishops  if  anything  had  been  done  irregu- 
larly, was  received  by  them  with  scorn  and  contumely. 
Passion  was  already  too  hot  to  listen  to  the  words  of  truth 
and  soberness.  They  chose  as  bishop  a  reader  named 
Majorinus^,  and,  on  his  death  in  315,  Donatus,  who 
headed  the  schism  with  so  much  zeal  and  ability  that  it 
came  to  be  known  by  his  name. 

Everywhere  but  in  Africa  Caecilian  was  recognised  as 
the  legitimate  bishop  of  Carthage.  In  Africa,  the  party 
which  had  chosen  Majorinus,  soon  after  the  battle  of  the 
Milvian  Bridge  had  made  Constantino  master  of  Western 
Europe,  applied  to  him  to  name  Gallican  judges  who 
might  decide  the  questions  at  issue  between  them  and 
Caecilian.  Constantino  was  very  unwilling  to  interfere  in 
the  affairs  of  the  Church,  but  nevertheless  named  Ma- 
ternus  of  Cologne,  Reticius  of  Autun,  and  Marinus  of 
Ai"les  to  adjudicate.  These  three,  with  fifteen  Italian 
bishops,  met  at  Rome  under  the  presidency  of  the  bishop 
of  that  city,  and,  finding  that  the  charges  were  not  proved, 
fully  acquitted  Caecilian^.  To  the  dissident  bishops  the 
proposal  was  made  that,  if  they  would  return  into  the 
fold  of  the  Church,  each  bishop  should  retain  his  office ; 
and  that  in  a  city  where  there  were  two  bishops,  the 
senior  should  remain,  while  for  the  other  a  see  should  be 


1  Optatus  I.  18. 

2  Optatus   (i.  19)   declares  that 
many   of  the   bishops  who   chose 


Majorinus  were  themselves  tradi- 
tors.     See  also  Aug.  Epist.  43,  §  10. 
^  Optatus  I.  25. 

22—2 


Chap.  XIL 


CcBcilian 
Bixhop  of 
Carthage, 
311. 


Majori- 
nus, then 
Donatus, 
schis- 
matieal 
bishops. 
Resist- 
ance to 
Ccecilian. 


313. 


340 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


Chap.  XII. 


Council  at 

Aries, 

314. 


Donatists 
appeal  to 
Constan- 
tine, 
316. 


provided  elsewhere.  When  the  Synod  broke  up,  both 
Csecilian  and  Donatus  were  for  a  time  detained  in  Italy, 
while  two  of  its  members  were  deputed  to  carry  the 
official  tidings  of  its  decision  into  Africa  \  The  Donatists 
were  in  no  way  appeased,  but  complained  that  their  charge 
against  Felix  of  Aptunga,  the  consecrator  of  Csecilian, 
had  not  been  heard.  He  was  accordingly  brought  before 
the  proconsul  at  Carthage,  and  the  falsehood  of  the  charge 
against  him  made  abundantly  clear  by  the  evidence  of 
the  imperial  officials  who  had  been  concerned  in  the  per- 
secution 2.  Further,  the  whole  matter  was  referred  to 
a  Council  at  Aries  ^ — the  first  ever  called  by  imperial 
authority — which  decided  again  in  favour  of  Csecilian  and 
against  his  accusers.  The  proposal  which  had  been  made 
in  the  previous  year  by  the  Synod  at  Rome  to  Donatist 
bishops  who  renounced  their  schism,  was  renewed.  On 
the  point  specially  at  issue  it  was  laid  down  that  an 
ordination  by  a  traditor  was  valid,  if  the  person  ordained 
was  duly  qualified*.  It  was  also  enacted,  no  doubt  with 
a  view  to  the  Donatists,  that  false  accusers  should  incur 
the  penalty  of  excommunication  ® ;  and  declared  that  bap- 
tism in  the  name  of  the  Holy  Trinity  was  valid,  even 
when  conferred  by  a  heretic''.  In  these  decisions  as  to 
ordination  and  baptism  the  principle  is  of  course  affirmed, 
that  the  sacraments  are  effectual,  because  of  Christ's  in- 
stitution and  promise,  though  they  be  ministered  by  evil 
men. 

The  Donatists  were  still  dissatisfied,  and  again  appealed 
to  the  emperor,  who  now  determined  to  hear  the  parties  in 
person.  He  sat  for  this  purpose  at  Milan,  and  after  hear- 
ing the  pleadings  on  both  sides  acquitted  Csecilian  and 
declared  the  charges  against  him  to  be  calumnies.  Constan- 
tine  however  soon  became  aware  that  the  Donatists,  far  from 
respecting  his  sentence,  were  more  active  and  aggressive 
than  ever  under  their  vigorous  head,  Donatus  "the  Great," 
and  was  at  last  moved  to  take  secular  measures  against 
them.  He  decreed  that  their  churches  should  be  taken 
from  them,  and  their  most  distinguished  bishops  driven 


'  Optatus  I.  26. 

2  Optatus  I.  27. 

3  Tlie  documents  connected  with 
this  conncil,  and  the  canons,  are 


given  in  Haidouin  i.  259  ff. 
*  Canon  13. 
6  c.  14. 
«  c.  8. 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


341 


into  exile.  These  measures  roused  the  schismatics  to  fury, 
and  probably  first  caused  the  formation  of  the  bands  of 
ruffians,  who  were  afterwards  so  notorious  under  the  name 
of  Circumcellions.  They  did  not  fail  also  to  try  to  gain  the 
ear  of  the  emperor,  to  whom  they  wrote,  that  they  would 
never  hold  communion  with  his  blackguard  of  a  bishop*, 
and  requested  full  freedom  for  their  worship  and  the  recall 
of  the  banished  Donatists.  In  a  few  years  the  emperor 
seems  to  have  become  convinced  that  it  was  impossible  to 
crush  the  sect  by  violence,  and  that  it  was  worth  while  to 
try  the  effect  of  gentle  treatment.  He  repealed  therefore 
all  the  edicts  against  them,  permitted  the  return  of  their 
bishops,  and  declared  in  a  rescript  to  his  vice-gerent  in 
Africa  that  these  frantic  people  must  be  left  to  the  judg- 
ment of  God.  He  also  exhorted  the  Catholics  to  patience, 
which  was  indeed  much  required,  as  the  schismatics  not 
only  behaved  in  the  most  outrageous  manner  towards 
them  generally,  but  even  drove  them  out  of  their  own 
churches^  Of  any  further  measures  of  Constantino  with 
reference  to  the  Donatists  we  know  nothing,  but  we  know 
that  in  his  life-time  they  so  increased  and  multiplied  in 
Africa,  that,  at  a  Synod  which  they  held  in  the  year  330, 
two  hundred  and  seventy  bishops  of  their  party  were 
present.  But  outside  Africa  they  fovmd  few  adherents. 
We  hear  only  of  two  Donatist  congregations  in  Europe — 
one  in  Spain,  the  other  in  Rome.  They  seem  to  have 
been  particularly  anxious  to  establish  themselves  under 
the  shadow  of  the  apostolic  see,  but  here  they  were  only 
able  to  hold  a  meeting  on  a  hill  outside  the  city,  whence 
they  were  nicknamed  Montenses,  Campitse,  and  Rupitae. 

When  Constans  succeeded  to  that  portion  of  the 
empire  to  which  Africa  belonged,  and  attempted  to  put 
down  the  Donatists,  the  Circumcellions  burst  out  into 
new  furyl  Contemporary  authorities  describe  them  as 
gangs  of  fanatics,  generally  of  the  lowest  class,  who,  misled 
by  some  of  better  condition,  under  pretence  of  extraordi- 
nary zeal  declined  all  honest  labour  and  held  a  kind  of 
communism.  They  begged  or  seized  food  and  led  a 
vagabond  life,  haunting  and  plundering  the  farmers'  barns 
and  granaries,  whence  they  derived  the  name  by  which 


1  "Antistiti    ipsins    nebuloni," 
Aug.  Breviculus  Collat.  m.  39. 


2  Optatus  VI.  6,  7. 

3  Optatus  ni.  4. 


Chap.  XII. 


321. 


Outrages 
of  the 
Circum- 
celliunx. 


342 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


Chap.  XII. 


G(Bcilian 
dtecZc.343. 


Cons  tans' 
Commis- 
sion. 


they  are  best  known\  They  called  themselves  Agonistici, 
combatants  for  Christ.  With  the  help  of  these  sturdy 
marauders  the  Donatist  chiefs  resisted  the  agents  of  the 
civil  power,  and  not  unfrequently  seized  the  churches  of 
the  Catholics  by  main  force.  They  often  scoured  the 
highways  in  great  companies,  treated  those  whom  they 
met,  especially  priests  of  the  Catholic  party,  with  the 
greatest  brutality,  committed  burglaries,  and  indulged  in 
drunkenness  and  all  kinds  of  violence"''.  With  all  this, 
they  had  a  morbid  longing  for  martyrdom.  They  inter- 
rupted the  worship  both  of  Christians  and  of  pagans  in  the 
most  outrageous  manner  with  the  deliberate  purpose  of 
being  killed  by  the  incensed  worshippers  ;  nay,  it  is  even 
said  that  they  bribed  men  to  put  them  to  death.  Their 
war-cry  of  "Deo  laudes"  was  heard  with  terror^  This 
state  of  lawlessness  continued,  with  some  intermission,  up 
to  and  during  the  time  when  Augustin  was  bishop  of 
Hippo.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  all  the  Donatists, 
many  of  whom  were  undoubtedly  men  of  pure  life,  looked 
with  favour  upon  the  conduct  of  these  vagabonds.  Far 
from  it.  About  the  year  345  some  of  the  Donatist  bishops 
besought  the  imperial  general  Taurinus  to  put  them  down 
by  force  of  arms,  and  he  did  his  best  to  comply*. 

About  the  year  343  died  Csecilian  of  Carthage,  whose 
election  to  the  bishopric  had  been  the  beginning  of  strife. 
As  however  a  Catholic,  Gratus,  was  chosen  to  succeed  him, 
the  Donatists  continued  in  schism.  Africa  was  at  this 
time  in  a  wretched  and  impoverished  condition,  and  the 
Circumcellion  bands  had  probably  been  swelled  by  the 
addition  of  many  whose  principal  desire  was  at  any  rate  to 
get  food.  Constans  therefore  in  348  sent  two  commis- 
sioners, Paulus  and  Macarius,  to  that  country  to  relieve 
the  distress  and  to  attempt  the  restoration  of  peace.  But 
Donatus  and  other  leaders  of  this  party  roused  a  re- 
bellion, which  compelled  the  commissioners  to  assert  their 


^  Augustin  c.  Cresconiiim  i.  28. 
"Genus  hominum  . . .  maxime  in 
agris  territans  et  victus  sui  causa 
cellas  circumieus  rusticanas,  unde 
circumcellionum  nomen  accepit." 
See  also  in  Ps.  132,  §  3.  See  I. 
Gregory  Smith  in  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq. 
I.  393. 


2  Optatus  II.  17,  18,  19,  23;  iii. 
4;  VI.  1 — 6;  Aug.  c.  Cresconium 
in.  §  46. 

^  Augustin  Hceres.  c.  G9 ;  c.  Gau- 
deiitium  i.  §  32;  Epist.  185,  §  12. 

^  Aug.  in  Ps.  32,  §  6;  c.  Literas 
Petiliani  ii.  §  14R. 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


343 


authority  by  force,  and  so  to  bring  about  a  state  of  things 
of  which  the  Donatists  bitterly  complained.  Macarius 
caused  several  to  be  executed,  and  others  to  be  driven 
into  exile,  among  the  latter  the  great  Donatus  him- 
self \  The  effect  of  these  measures  was,  that  so  long  as 
Constans,  and  after  him  Constantius  reigned,  the  Donatists 
were  reduced  to  silence  and  secrecy. 

A  change  took  place  under  Julian,  who  did  not  interfere 
in  ecclesiastical  quarrels,  and  allowed  exiled  ecclesiastics 
of  all  parties  to  return  to  their  homes.  Among  these  the 
Donatists  returned,  and  the  apostasy  of  their  deliverer  did 
not  prevent  the  advocates  of  purity  in  the  Church  from 
singing  his  praises,  Donatus  had  died  in  exile,  but  Par- 
menian'"'  was  chosen  in  his  place  as  schismatical  bishop  of 
Carthage,  and  his  followers,  no  longer  repressed  by  the 
civil  power,  again  committed  all  kinds  of  excess,  and  it 
was  not  until  Valentinian  I.  and  Gratian  came  into  power 
that  measures  were  taken  to  repress  them.  After  earlier 
edicts  had  failed,  Gratian,  in  the  year  378,  issued  an  edict 
forbidding  all  assemblies  of  the  Donatists  and  confiscating 
their  churches  I  But  their  own  divisions — which,  says 
Augustin,  were  innumerable — were  more  injurious  to 
them  than  imperial  persecution.  The  first  schism  within 
the  schism  was  formed  by  the  learned  Tichonius,  He 
combated  the  two  most  characteristic  tenets  of  his  sect — 
that  a  church  which  tolerates  sinners  ceases  to  be  a  true 
church,  and  that  those  who  come  over  from  such  a  church 
should  be  re-baptized  ^  He  probably  desired  to  bring 
about  a  reconciliation  between  the  Church  and  the  schis- 
matics, but  he  only  incurred,  as  mediators  usually  do,  the 
hatred  of  the  leaders  of  his  party.  The  Kogatians,  the 
party  of  Rogatus,  bishop  of  Cartenna,  who  repudiated 
the  Circumcellions,  and  were  (says  Augustin®)  the  most 
moderate  of  the  Donatist  sects,  shared  the  same  fate. 
These  appear  to  have  been  small  parties,  but  other  leaders 


1  Optatus  III.  cc.  1 — 7;  Passio 
MarcuU,  in  Mabillon's  Analecta 
Vet.  p.  182  ff.;  Passio  Maximiani 
et  Isaac,  in  Dupin's  Monument. 
Donat.  p.  197  ff.;  Augustin  c.  Epist. 
Parmen.  i.  11 ;  c.  Lit.  Petil.  ii.  20, 
39  f.;  in.  25  f.;  c.  Crescon.  in.  49. 

2  On  Parmenian's  character  and 


writings,  see  Optatus  i.  4,  5;  and 
Augustin  c,  Parmeniiin. 

3  Codex  Theod.  lib.  xvx.  tit.  0, 
1.  2. 

^  August,  c.  Parmenian.  i.  1 ;  ii. 


13,  31. 

^  c.    Epist. 
Petil.  II.  83. 


Chap,  XII. 


Donatus 
exiled. 


Julian, 
301, 


Parmenian 

Donatist 

bishop. 


Schism  of 
Tichonius, 
c.  373. 


Rogntians, 
c.  3G8. 


Parmen.    i.    10;    c. 


344 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


attracted  a  larger  following.  Primian,  who,  on  the  death 
of  Parmenian,  about  the  year  392,  became  Donatist  bishop 
of  Carthage,  very  much  relaxed  the  strict  rule  which  had 
hitherto  prevailed,  and  admitted  to  communion  persons 
who  were  highly  offensive  to  the  more  rigorous  party\ 
When  these  openly  opposed  him,  they  were  themselves 
excommunicated.  Among  the  excommunicated  was  a 
deacon  called  Maximian.  A  considerable  number  of  the 
Donatist  bishops  sided  with  him,  and,  at  a  council  held 
about  the  year  393,  deposed  Primian,  and  chose  Maximian 
in  his  place ^.  Primian,  however,  resisted  deposition,  and 
a  still  more  numerous  council,  held  at  Bagai,  deposed 
Maximian,  excommunicated  him  and  his  adherents,  and 
declared  Primian  to  be  still  bishop '.  After  this  the 
Maximianists  had  to  endure  the  most  furious  persecution 
at  the  hands  of  the  main  body  of  their  fellow-schismatics. 
While  Donatism  was  torn  by  these  internal  struggles, 
Augustin  became  bishop  of  Hippo  and  Hunorius  emperor 
of  the  West.  From  the  time  when  Augustin  took  charge 
of  his  diocese,  where  the  Donatists  were  very  numerous, 
he  did  not  cease  to  attempt  the  conversion  of  the  schis- 
matics by  treatises,  by  preaching,  by  conferences,  by 
letters.  At  the  same  time  he  set  himself  so  to  raise 
the  standard  of  Christian  life  in  his  own  community  that 
the  puritans  should  have  no  excuse  for  remaining  separate 
from  it.  In  the  local  councils  which  were  held  under  his 
influence  very  easy  conditions  were  offered  to  those  schis- 
matics who  desired  to  return  to  the  Church*,  even  so 
far  as  to  permit  their  clergy  to  retain  the  positions  which 
they  had  assumed.  Few  Donatist  bishops  were  willing 
to  engage  in  the  conferences  which  he  proposed ;  they 
not  unnaturally  shrank  from  meeting  so  powerful  a  dis- 
putant as  the  bishop  of  Hippo  face  to  face,  and  some 
preferred  to  calumniate  him  behind  his  back.  Even  a 
formal  invitation  to  a  conference  which  was  put  forth  by 
a  council  at  Carthage  in  the  year  403®  was  flatly  de- 
clined by  the  Donatists.  They  were  in  fact  enraged  by 
Augustin's  success  in  making  proselytes,  and  again  broke 


^  Augustin,  Sermo  II  in  Ps.  36. 
2  Augustin  u.  s.  and  c.  Crescon. 
IV.  6  ff.,  c.  Parmen.  i.  4. 
8  Aug.  c.  Crescon.  iv.  4. 


■*  Codex  Eccl.  African,  c.  66,  in 
Hardouin  i.  899. 

«  76.  c.  92,  Hard.  i.  914. 


Discipline  and  Life  of  tJie  Church 


345 


out  into  acts  of  violence,  which  probably  led  to  the  edict 
of  Honorius  against  those  who  disturbed  religious  ser- 
vices \  Up  to  this  time  the  Catholic  bishops  had  ab- 
stained from  invoking  the  secular  arm  against  the  schis- 
matics ;  Augustin  in  particular  had  protested  against  it 
with  some  vehemence.  The  violence  of  the  Donatists 
however  at  last  induced  them  to  have  recourse  even  to 
this,  and  a  Synod  at  Carthage  in  the  year  404  stipplicated 
the  emperor  to  put  in  force  a  law  of  Theodosius  which 
inflicted  a  heavy  fine  on  frequenters  of  schismatical  as- 
semblies ^  Before  however  the  deputies  from  the  Synod 
reached  the  emperor,  he  had  already  issued  an  edict 
punishing  lay  schismatics  by  fines  and  their  clergy  by 
banishment ;  and  he  soon  after  published  a  series  of  still 
more  severe  decrees  ^  enjoining  that  the  Donatists  in 
particular  should  be  deprived  of  their  churches.  Many 
conversions,  or  seeming  conversions,  followed,  and  there- 
upon another  edict  was  issued  in  the  year  407  in  which, 
while  free  pardon  was  offered  to  those  who  returned  to 
the  Church,  the  severest  punishment  was  denounced 
against  those  who  remained  obdurate.  In  the  year  409 
however  the  political  circumstances  of  that  disturbed 
time  induced  Honorius  to  change  his  policy,  and  gi^ant 
freedom  in  the  practice  of  their  religion  to  all  parties 
alike — a  toleration  which  lasted  only  a  few  months. 
About  the  same  time  when  this  edict  was  withdrawn, 
the  Catholic  bishops  renewed  their  proposal  of  a  con- 
ference, to  be  held  under  imperial  authority.  The  em- 
peror at  once  gave  directions  for  such  a  conference  to  be 
held  at  Carthage*,  and  in  411  sent  the  tribune  Mar- 
cellinus  to  Africa  as  his  commissioner,  to  preside  over 
the  disputation  and  to  decide  in  his  name  on  the  ques- 
tions at  issue.  Marcellinus  was  a  man  of  high  character 
and  a  good  Christian ;  but  he  had  a  fatal  disqualification 
for  the  task  which  he  had  undertaken — he  was  an  in- 
timate friend  of  Augustin's,  who  had  dedicated  to  him 
his  great  work  on  the  City  of  God.  It  was  therefore 
impossible  for  the  Donatists,  already  suspicious,  to  accept 


^  Codex  Theod.  xvi.  ii.  31. 

2  Hardouin  i.  917. 

8  Codex  Theod.  xvi.  tit.  5. 

*  Minutes  of  the  Collatio  in  Har- 


douin I.  1043  ff.  There  is  also  a 
Brevicidus  Collationis  by  Augustin 
{0pp.  xir.  685  ff. ). 


Uhap.  XII. 

Edict  of 

Honorius, 

398. 


Synod  at 
Carthage, 
404. 


Edicts  of 
Honorius, 
405. 


Conference 
at  Car- 
thage, 411. 


Marcel- 
linus 
presides. 


346 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


him  as  an  impartial  judge  in  their  cause.  There  Hocked 
to  Carthage  two  hundred  and  eighty-six  Catholic  bishops 
and  two  hundred  and  seventy-nine  Donatists.  Each  side 
chose  seven  representatives.  On  the  Catholic  side  Aure- 
lian  of  Carthage  and  Augustin  himself  were  the  leaders 
in  debate ;  on  the  side  of  the  Donatists,  Primian  of  Car- 
thage, Petilian  of  Constantine  and  Emeritus  of  Csesarea. 
Before  the  debate  began,  the  Catholics  declared  formally 
in  writing  that  if  the  Donatist  could  prove  that  the 
Church,  except  in  the  Donatist  society,  had  utterly  died 
out  under  the  plague  of  sin,  they  would  all  submit  them- 
selves and  resign  their  sees.  If  on  the  other  hand  they 
(the  Catholics)  should  demonstrate  that  the  Church  of 
Christ  dispersed  throiighout  the  world  could  not  possibly 
have  died  out  through  the  sins  of  some  of  its  members, 
then  it  would  be  the  duty  of  the  Donatists  to  return  to 
communion  with  the  Chvirch  for  the  salvation  of  their 
souls ;  and  they  declared  that  in  thus  acting  the  bishops 
should  not  lose  their  office  \  On  this  the  conference 
began,  exactly  one  hundred  years  after  the  commence- 
ment of  the  schism,  and  continued  three  days.  The 
Donatists,  who  at  first  objected  to  sit 'with  the  sinners, 
that  is,  with  the  Catholics,  made  various  attempts  to  lead 
the  discussion  to  subordinate  questions,  and  it  was  not 
until  the  third  day  that  they  could  be  induced  to  face 
the  question  of  principle,  whether  a  Church  which  tole- 
rates sinners  in  the  midst  of  it  ceases  to  be  a  Church; 
and  the  question  of  fact,  who  was  the  cause  of  the  schism. 
With  regard  to  the  first,  Augustin  soon  reduced  the 
Donatists  to  silence.  With  regard  to  the  second,  the 
evidence  of  authentic  contemporary  documents  so  clearly 
proved  the  innocence  of  Csecilian  and  of  Felix  of  Ap- 
tuDga,  that  Marcellinus  gave  a  formal  decision  that  the 
Catholics  had  proved  their  case  on  all  points.  A  few 
days  afterwards  he  issued  an  edict,  under  the  powers  of 
the  emperor's  commission,  forbidding  Donatists  to  hold 
any  kind  of  religious  meeting  and  commanding  them  to 
hand  over  their  churches  to  the  Catholics.  The  Donatists 
appealed  to  the  emperor,  but  he  confirmed  the  decision 
of  his  plenipotentiary,  and  in  412  put  forth  a  new  edict '^ 

^  CoZiatio6,  inHardouini.  1056f.      ^  Codex  Theod.  xvi.  v.  52. 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church 


347 


inflicting  heavy  fines  on  the  Donatists  and  banishment  Chap.  XII. 
on  their  bishops  if  they  continued  in  their  schism.  Many 
hundreds  now  returned  in  their  terror  to  the  Church.  | 
Marcellinus,  who  had  presided  over  the  Conference,  him- 
self fell  under  suspicion  of  treason  and  was  executed  in 
the  year  418,  but  Honorius  still  proceeded  against  the 
Donatists ;  and  in  414  published  another  edict  by  which 
those  of  them  who  persisted  in  their  schism  were  de- 
prived of  civil  rights ;  and  soon  afterwards,  in  spite  of 
the  protest  of  Augustin,  he  forbade  them  to  assemble  for 
worship  under  pain  of  death  \  From  this  time  the  num- 
ber of  the  Donatists  began  to  diminish,  though  the  em- 
perors still  thought  it  necessary  to  issue  severe  edicts 
against  them.  But  in  the  year  428  North  Africa  was 
conquered  by  the  Vandals,  when  Catholics  and  Donatists 
were  lost  in  the  Arian  cloud.  Some  small  remnants  seem 
however  to  have  maintained  themselves  until  their  country 
fell  in  the  seventh  century  under  the  dominion  of  the 
Saracens, 

There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  leaders  of  the 
Donatists  were,  however  mistaken,  men  worthy  of  respect ; 
and  the  principle  for  which  they  contended  was  a  highly 
important  one — no  less  than  the  purity  of  the  Church 
of  Christ.  The  Church,  said  a  Donatist  bishop  ■,  should 
be  pure  and  undefiled.  True,  the  Lord  predicted  that 
there  should  be  tares  among  the  wheat,  but  that  was 
in  the  field  of  the  world,  not  of  the  Church.  Our  oppo- 
nents, said  another^,  seem  to  regard  the  name  "Catholic" 
as  belonging  to  certain  nations  or  races ;  but  that  name 
properly  belongs  to  a  society  in  which  the  sacraments 
are  administered  with  full  efficacy,  which  is  perfect,  which 
is  undefiled,  not  to  races.  They  contended,  in  short,  that 
the  conception  of  Catholicism  includes  not  only  outward 
and  visible  connexion  with  the  Church,  but  a  holiness  of 
life  worthy  of  a  disciple  of  Christ ;  that  the  presence  of 
the  Spirit  must  be  attested  by  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit, 
and  this  especially  in  the  case  of  the  ministers  of  the 
Church, 


1  Codex  Theod.  xvi.  v,  54  and  55. 

2  CoUatio  Carthag.  iii.  c.  258. 

3  lb.  III.  c.  102.    We  might  com- 
pare   Montaigne,   Essais  ii.    12 — 


"Nous  sommes  Chrestiens  k  mesme 
tiltre  que  nous  sommes  ou  Peii- 
gordins  ou  Allemans." 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Ghurch. 


So  far  well.  But  when,  instead  of  trying  to  raise  the 
standard  of  holiness  within  the  Church,  they  constituted  a 
society  of  their  own  outside  it,  virtually  unchurching  the 
rest  of  the  world,  their  spiritual  pride  wrought  its  usual 
results.  They  became  "  heady,  high-minded " ;  their 
moving  principle  came  to  be,  not  desire  for  greater  holi- 
ness, but  furious  party-spirit  and  contempt  for  their  oppo- 
nents. St  Paul  recognized  the  corrupt  Church  of  Corinth 
as  a  Christian  Church  because  he  saw  there  the  Gospel 
taught  and  the  sacraments  duly  administered ;  the  Dona- 
tists  were  not  content  to  acknowledge  the  Church  of 
Carthage  on  these  grounds.  To  hold  the  sacraments 
invalid  because  administered  by  men  whom  a  sect  or 
party  hold  to  be  unworthy  of  their  sacred  office,  while 
they  are  not  condemned  by  the  legitimate  ecclesiastical 
tribunals,  would  be  to  cast  a  shade  of  uncertainty  upon 
all  sacred  ministrations  whatever.  Few  will  hesitate  to 
admit  that  St  Augustin  was  right  in  resisting  the  arro- 
gant claim  of  a  part  of  the  community  to  pronounce  who 
can  and  who  cannot  administer  a  valid  sacrament. 

But  perhaps  the  worst  effect  of  the  Donatist  con- 
troversy was  the  appeal  which  resulted  from  it  to  the 
civil  power  to  put  down  the  schismatics  by  force.  The 
Catholics  had  of  course  a  right  to  require  that  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country  should  preserve  order,  protect  its 
subjects  from  violence,  and  secure  them  in  the  possession 
of  their  own  buildings  and  other  property.  There  is  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  Augustin  and  his  friends  were 
animated  by  anything  but  a  sincere  desire  for  the  good 
of  the  Church ;  but  when  they  begged  the  emperor  to 
put  down  the  Donatists,  as  such,  by  temporal  penalties, 
they  entered  on  the  way  which  led  directly  to  the  Holy 
Inquisition  and  the  statute  De  Heretico  Comhurendo.  The 
office  of  Inquisitor  of  the  Faith,  the  name  of  which  after- 
wards became  so  odious,  was  actually  instituted  under 
Theodosius  ^ 

8.  Donatism  was  a  headstrong  and  unfortunate  at- 
tempt to  constitute  a  pure  society  in  the  midst  of  a  Church 


1  Gibbon's  Rome,  c.  27,  p.  374, 
ed.  Smith. 

-  G.  Calixtus  De  Conjiigio  Cleri- 
corum;  Ant.  u.  Aug.  Theiner  Die 


Einfithning  der  erzwungenen  Ehelo- 
sigkeit  hei  den  Christl.  GeistUchen; 
von  Holtzendorf  Der  Priestercoli- 
hat;  H.  C.  Lea  Sketch  of  Sacerdotal 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


349 


too  hastily  judged  impure.  This  had  no  enduring  effects  ; 
but  a  puritan  movement  of  another  kind  had  an  influence 
upon  the  Church  which  was  both  deep  and  lasting.  When 
the  world  and  the  Church  were  mingled  together,  the 
mass  of  Christians  came  to  be  far  removed  from  the 
eager  faith  which  had  enabled  the  little  band  of  earlier 
days  to  endure  persecution  with  steadfastness  and  even 
mth  joy.  The  multitude  led  a  life  influenced  no  doubt 
by  the  commands  of  Christ,  yet  not  very  gi-eatly  differing 
from  that  of  such  pagans  as  truly  sought  to  do  their  duty 
according  to  the  light  which  was  given  them.  Hence  there 
came  into  prominence  a  distinction,  not  altogether  un- 
known in  earlier  days,  between  the  commands  which  all 
men  are  bound  to  obey  and  the  counsels  of  perfection 
which  comparatively  few  can  observe.  There  are,  says 
EusebiusS  within  the  Church  two  kinds  of  life.  First, 
that  which  is  above  the  ordinary  social  life  of  man,  which 
admits  not  of  marriage,  nor  of  the  possession  of  property, 
nor  of  any  superfluity,  but  devotes  itself  wholly  and  en- 
tirely to  the  service  of  God  through  the  excess  of  heavenly 
love.  Those  who  follow  this  life,  guided  by  the  right  pre- 
cepts of  true  piety  and  the  promptings  of  a  soul  cleansed 
from  sin,  give  themselves  to  good  words  and  works,  by 
which  they  propitiate  the  Deity  and  offer  sacrifice  on 
behalf  of  their  fellow-men.  Secondly,  there  is  the  lower 
and  more  natural  life,  which  permits  men  to  enter  into 
chaste  marriage,  to  attend  to  the  business  of  the  house, 
to  aid  those  who  are  carrying  on  a  just  war,  to  engage, 
so  far  as  religion  allows,  in  farming  and  merchandize  and 
the  other  occupations  of  civil  life,  giving  set  seasons  to 
mortification,  to  instruction,  and  to  hearing  the  Word 
of  God.  To  this  lower  stage  of  Christian  life  all,  Greek 
or  barbarian,  are  bound  to  attain.  That  is,  a  distinction 
was  drawn  between  the  counsels  of  perfection  which  were 
necessary  for  the  higher  life,  and  the  universal  precepts 
which  all  are  bound  to  observe.  Those  who  attain  the 
former  are  to  the  general  body  of  Christians  what  trained 
athletes^    are   to    those    whose    bodily   powers    are    not 


Celibacy  (Philadelphia,  1869) ;  Lau- 
rin  Der  GuUhat  der  Geistlichen  nach 
kanonischen  Recht;  A.  W.  W.  Dale 
The  Synod  of  Elvira  and  Christian 


Lije  in  the  Fourth  Century. 

^  Demonstratio  Evang.  i.  8. 

2  The  word  dcr/cetc  was  especially 
used  of  the  training  for  athletic 


850 


DiscijjUne  and  Life  of  the  Churcli. 


specially  developed.  To  these  ascetics  everything  that 
tended  to  give  grace  and  beauty  to  the  life  of  man,  un- 
less in  the  actual  service  of  the  sanctuary,  seemed  at 
best  superfluous,  probably  sinful.  Marriage,  in  particular, 
was  no  longer  regarded  by  such  teachers  as  a  blessed 
state,  instituted  by  God  in  the  time  of  man's  innocency, 
but  as  a  necessary  evil,  which  inevitably  brought  with 
it  a  low^ering  of  the  spiritual  state  and  entangled  a  man 
in  the  affairs  of  this  world.  It  is  only  permitted  to  the 
common  herd ;  they  who  aspire  to  the  angelic  life  must 
neither  marry  nor  be  given  in  marriage.  Not  content  with 
rendering  their  due  honour  to  purity  and  chastity,  with 
reverencing  those  who  lived  in  continence  for  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven's  sake,  many  teachers  represented  the 
great  passion  which  was  implanted  in  man  for  the  con- 
tinuance of  his  race  as  in  itself  sinful ;  nay,  as  the  very 
source  and  fount  of  sin.  St  Augustin,  unconsciously  in- 
fluenced by  his  early  Manichseism,  greatly  contributed 
to  diffuse  this  view  of  life  \ 

When  this  view  of  the  superior  holiness  of  celibacy 
came  to  prevail  in  the  Church,  it  followed  almost  of 
course  that  Christians  desired  those  who  were  engaged 
about  their  most  sacred  mysteries  to  be  celibate.  Early 
in  the  fourth  century  it  began  to  be  recommended  that 
the  clergy  of  the  three  higher  orders,  if  they  had  wives, 
should  be  as  though  they  had  none^  In  the  great 
council  of  Nicsea  it  was  proposed  by  some  of  the  ascetic 
party  to  introduce  this  practice  into  the  Church  at  large. 
This  was  however  defeated  by  Paphnutius,  an  Egyptian 
ascetic  of  high  repute,  who  vehemently  entreated  the 
bishops  not  to  lay  an  intolerable  yoke  upon  the  clergy, 
since  honourable  is  marriage  and  the  bed  undeflled.  It 
was  sufficient  to  lay  down,  according  to  a  custom  already 
ancient,  that  no  man  should  contract  marriage  after  ad- 
mission to  Holy  Orders  ^  To  this  the  Synod  assented, 
hence,    by    a    natural      lib,  xiv. 


exercises 

figure,  it  was  applied  to  those  who 
trained  themselves  by  self-denial 
to  run  with  endurance  the  race 
which  is  set  before  us.  'Aa-Kriral 
are  equivalent  to  ddX-qral,  Plato 
nepub.  403  E. 

1  See  particularly  the  treatises 
against  Julian,  and  De  Civ.  Dei, 


2  Cone.  Elih.  (c.  310)  c.  33 
(Hardouin  i.  253). 

3  Socrates  1. 11.  Compare  Stan- 
ley's Eastern  Church,  Lect.  v.  §  3  ; 
and  Bishop  Hooper  in  Words- 
worth's Eccl.  Biogr.  ii.  377  (3rd 
edition). 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


351 


The  Council  of  Gangra\  somewhat  later  than  that  of 
Nicsea,  went  so  far  as  to  anathematize  those  who  refused 
to  receive  the  Eucharist  from  a  married  priest.  Still, 
the  general  drift  of  opinion  in  the  Church  was  unfavour- 
able to  the  marriage  of  the  clergy  of  the  higher  orders, 
and  it  was  generally  felt,  both  by  the  laity  and  by  the 
clerics  themselves,  that  the  celibacy  of  the  monks  gave 
them  a  reputation  for  holiness  among  the  faithful  which 
was  disadvantageous  to  the  married  clergy.  Hence,  it 
came  to  be  the  rule  in  the  East  that  bishops  at  any  rate, 
if  they  were  married,  should  live  as  if  they  were  not. 
Even  to  this,  however,  there  were  exceptions.  Socrates  ^ 
tells  us  that  many  bishops  in  the  East  had  children  in 
lawful  wedlock  during  their  episcopate,  though  most  of 
them  voluntarily  practised  continence.  It  seems  pro- 
bable that  Gregory  of  Nazianzus  was  born  after  his  father 
became  a  bishop'.  Synesius  early  in  the  fifth  century 
accepted  the  bishopric  of  Ptolemais  only  on  condition 
that  he  should  be  allowed  to  retain  his  wife  *,  which  was 
evidently  contrary  to  the  usual  rule. 

In  the  West  a  stricter  custom  prevailed.  In  385  the 
Roman  bishop  Siricius  ®,  stigmatizing  in  no  measured 
terms  the  vile  passions  of  the  married,  enjoined  celibacy 
on  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons.  Edicts  of  Innocent  I.  ^ 
in  the  year  405,  and  of  Leo  I.''  in  the  year  443,  enjoined 
at  any  rate  the  strictest  continence,  which  was  also  pre- 
scribed in  the  canons  of  numerous  councils^  It  was  far, 
however,  from  receiving  universal  obedience.  The  great 
Church  of  Milan,  claiming  the  authority  of  its  greatest 
bishop,  St  Ambrose,  and  bearing  the  repute  of  having 
the  best  clergy  in  Italy,  was  content  with  the  ancient 
rule  which  permitted  only  one  marriage  to  a  cleric.  When 
Hildebrand  in  the  eleventh  century  entered  on  his  re- 
forms, "  marriage  was  all  but  universal  among  the  Lom- 


^  Procem.  and  can.  4. 

2  H.  E.  V.  22,  p.  296. 

3  H.  W.  Watkins  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Biogr.  ii.  741. 

*  Synes.  Epist.  105,  p.  246; 
Calixtus  De  Conjug.  Cleric,  p. 
235 ;  Schrockh  K.-G.  vn.  163  ff. 
T.  B.  Halcomb  (in  Diet.  Chr. 
Biogr.  iv.  775)  thinks  it  improbable 
that  he  continued  to  cohabit  with 


his  wife. 


7  (in 


^  Epist.   ad   Uimerium, 
Hardouin  i.  849). 

^  Ad  Victricium,  §  9  (Hardouin 
I.  1001). 

'^  Ad  Rusticum,  §  2  (Hardouin 
I.  1761). 

8  E.g.  II  Carthag.  c.  2;  I  Tolet. 
0.  1 ;  I  Arausia.  22,  23 ;  II  Arelat. 
c.  2. 


Chap.  XH. 

Gangra, 
360? 


Western 
Custom. 
Siricius, 
385. 


Milanese 
Clergy. 


352 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


bard  clergy  \"  Even  the  famous  archbishop  Heribert  of 
Milan  was  married,  and  "  his  wedlock  neither  diminished 
his  power  nor  barred  his  canonization ^"  In  the  British 
and  Irish  Churches  the  marriage  of  the  clergy  seems  to 
have  been  practised  to  a  comparatively  late  date  I 

The  civil  legislation  followed  the  ecclesiastical  but 
slowly.  Edicts  of  Constantius  and  Constans*  in  the 
years  358  and  357  expressly  exempted  from  certain 
exactions  the  wives  and  children  of  the  clergy,  who  are 
clearly  recognized  as  legitimate.  Justinian  by  a  law  of 
A.D,  528  enacted  that  no  one  should  be  chosen  bishop 
who  had  children  or  grand-children,  because  the  charge 
of  a  family  tended  to  distract  a  man  from  spiritual 
things  ^.  At  a  later  date  he  recognized  ^  the  ancient 
exclusion  from  the  priesthood  or  diaconate  of  such  as 
had  married  two  wives  or  a  divorced  person  or  a  widow. 
In  all  this  it  seems  to  be  admitted  that  otherwise  married 
men  might  be  admitted  to  the  ranks  of  the  clergy. 

4.  The  desire  for  the  more  perfect  state  produced  also 
further  effects.  If  the  higher  life  involved  the  renuncia- 
tion of  marriage,  of  property  and  of  secular  business,  it 
could  not  be  led  in  the  midst  of  an  ordinary  household  or 
among  the  usual  cares  and  distractions  of  a  world  still 
half-pagan.  Hence  arose  the  strong  impulse  which  led 
multitudes  to  betake  themselves  to  utter  solitude  in  the 
desert,  or  to  form  communities  in  which  the  spiritual  life 
should  be  the  first  object  of  existence.  Hermits  and  monks 
were  a  protest  against  the  merely  secular  life,  only  re- 


1  Milman,  Latin  Christianity, 
Bk.  VI.  c.  3  (vol.  III.  p.  440,  3rd 
edition).  In  the  note  here  will  be 
found  an  account  of  the  various 
readings  of  the  passage  of  St  Am- 
brose which  is  appealed  to. 

2  Milman  u.  s.  p.  441. 

*  "The  canons  attributed  to  St 
Patrick  (but  of  the  seventh  century), 
canon  6,  recognize  the  relation  of 
the  'clericus  et  uxor  ejus.'"  J. 
Pryce,  Ancient  British  Church,  p. 
201,  n.  2. 

*  Codex  Theod.  lib.  xvi.  tit.  ii. 
11.  10,  14. 

^  Codex  Justin,  lib.  i.  c.  de  Epi- 
scopis,  1.  42, 


•'  Novell.  Const.  G,  quoted  by 
Schrockh  K.-G.   xvi.  328. 

^  E.  Hospinianus,  De  Origine  et 
Progressu  Monachatus ;  L.  Bulteau, 
Hist.  Monastique  d'Orient;  B.  P. 
Helyot,  Hist,  des  Ordres  Religieux; 
B.  Pez,  Bihliotheca  Ascetica;  C.  W. 
F.  Walch,  Pragmatische  Geschichte 
der  vomehmsten  Mi'mchsorden  ;  A. 
P.  Alteserra,  Asceticon;  L.  Hol- 
stenius,  Codex  Regularum;  J.  A. 
Mohler,  in  Gesammelte  Schriften,  i. 
165  ff. ;  W.  Mangold,  De  Monachatus 
Originihus  et  Causis;  A.  Harnack, 
Das  Monchthum,  seine  Ideale  u. 
seine  Geschichte;  I.  Gregory  Smith, 
The  Rise  of  Christian  Monasticism. 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


353 


lieved  by  a  few  religious  observances,  into  which  too  many 
Christians  allowed  themselves  to  fall.  The  motives  which 
led  the  various  brethren  to  become  ascetics  no  doubt 
differed  as  the  men  differed ;  but  it  is  not  difficult  to 
understand  the  charm  which,  in  the  midst  of  a  restless 
and  yet  enervated  world,  was  found  in  a  life  which  offered, 
or  seemed  to  offer,  rest  and  freedom  from  worldly  care. 
And  the  terrible  calamities  which  fell  upon  the  empire  in 
the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  no  doubt  increased  the  desire 
to  fly  away  from  tumult  to  calm  and  safety. 

Solitude,  the  perfect  quiet  of  a  hut  or  cave  in  the 
desert,  where  a  spring,  a  little  garden  and  a  palm-tree 
supplied  all  that  was  necessary  for  human  life  in  the 
genial  climate  of  Egypt,  first  drew  men  to  leave  the  haunts 
of  their  fellows.  We  have  seen  already  how  St  Anthony 
withdrew  into  the  wilderness.  Many  soon  followed  his 
example.  And  it  was  not  long  before  the  unrestrained 
fancy  of  the  solitaries  led  them  to  adopt  strange  forms  of 
life.  Some  spent  long  years  on  the  top  of  lofty  pillars. 
Simeon\  the  most  noted  of  these  pillar-saints,  who  lived 
in  the  early  part  of  the  fifth  century,  established  himself 
on  a  column  which  was  finally  raised  to  the  height  of  sixty 
feet  from  the  ground.  There  he  remained  some  thirty 
years,  exhorting  to  repentance  those  who  flocked  to  him, 
settling  disputes,  making  enemies  to  be  at  one,  converting 
pagans.  Men  otherwise  careless  were  arrested  by  so  extra- 
ordinary a  spectacle.  The  danger  that  men  would  come 
to  think  that  some  special  merit  attached  to  this  form  of 
mortification  was  early  pointed  out  by  Nilus^  himself  an 
ascetic ;  there  was  nothing  worthy  of  praise  in  living  on  a 
pillar,  but  there  was  great  danger  lest  a  pillar-saint  should 
be  intoxicated  by  the  undeserved  praise  which  he  actually 
received.     "He  that  exalteth  himself  shall  be  abased." 

A  still  more  strange  phenomenon  were  the  BoaKOi  or 
Grazers,  who  divested  themselves  of  almost  all  the  attri- 
butes of  humanity.  They  had  no  habitations,  but  wandered 
about,  like  wild  beasts,  on  mountains  and  uncultivated 
plains,  supporting  a  wretched  existence  on  such  herbs  and 


1  EvagriusH.Jf.i.  13;  Theodoret 
Hist.  Reliy.  c.  26;  Lives  in  Acta 
Sanctorum,  5  Jan.  pp.  264  £f. ;  Fa- 
bricius,  Blblioth.  Grceca,  x.  522 ;  S. 


C. 


E.  Assemani,  Acta  SS.  Mariyrum, 
II.  227  ff.;  E.  M.  de  Vogue,  Syrie 
Centrale,  i.  141  ff. 
2  Epist.  ii.  114. 

23 


Chap.  Xn. 


Solitaries. 


StylitcE. 
Simeon,  c. 
390—460. 


Basel. 


354 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


Chap.  XII. 


Evils  of 
solitude. 


Lauras. 


Sabas, 
439—531. 


Paclw- 
viius. 


Cxiiohiuiu 
at  Taben- 
na,  c.  335. 


fruits  as  the  earth  brought  forth  of  itself  They  seem 
however  to  have  come  together  for  the  services  of  the 
Church  \ 

But  Christian  virtues,  the  excellencies  of  those  w^ho  by 
their  very  profession  belong  to  a  body,  cannot  be  fully 
developed  in  solitude.  It  is  hard  to  reconcile  the  life 
of  a  hermit  with  the  essential  character  of  Christian  love, 
since  the  hermit  regards  his  own  good  only,  while  charity 
seeketh  not  her  own.  Nor  will  a  man  in  solitude  come  to 
the  knowledge  of  his  own  defects,  since  he  has  no  one  to 
admonish  and  correct  him.  "Woe  to  him  that  is  alone 
when  he  falleth,  and  hath  not  another  to  lift  him  up^" 
Hence  men  soon  came  to  feel  the  necessity  for  community 
in  the  religious  life.  A  common  life  brings  with  it  the 
necessity  of  rule  and  order,  and  so  tends  to  correct  the 
fantastic  excesses  into  which  solitaries  too  readily  fell. 

The  first  step  towards  the  formation  of  a  religious 
community  was  taken  when  a  number  of  hermits  built 
their  cells  near  to  each  other,  "like  the  wigwams  of  an 
Indian  encampment,  clustering  round  the  chapel  of  the 
community  I"  Such  an  assemblage  of  huts  crowded  to- 
gether was  called  a  Laura.  The  hermits  who  inhabited 
it  assembled  together  for  divine  service,  and  admitted  the 
authority  of  a  chief,  generally  the  person  whose  fame  had 
drawn  others  about  him.  The  most  famous  founder  of 
communities  of  this  kind  was  St  Sabas,  the  remains  of 
whose  earliest  buildings  are  still  to  be  found  on  the  river 
Kidron. 

But  the  first  who  gave  a  definite  rule  and  order  to  a 
body  of  men,  withdrawn  from  the  world  for  the  sake  of 
religion  and  living  a  common  life,  seems  to  have  been 
Pachomius*,  who  gave  rules  for  a  body  of  monks  dwelling 
together  on  an  island  of  the  Nile  called  Tabenna^  He 
founded  not  merely  a  monastery  but  an  Order,  for  daughter- 


1  Sozomen  H.  E.  vi.  33 ;  Theo- 
doret  H.  E.,  i.  21,  §§  11,  12. 

2  Ecclesiastes  iv.  10.  See  Basil, 
RegulcE  Fusius  Tract,  c.  7,  and 
Nilus,  Epist.  III.  73  (quoted  by  Ne- 
ander,  iii.  331). 

^  I.  Gregory  Smith,  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Antiq.  n.  QSi. 

*  Sozomen  in.  14.  Lives  of  Pa- 
chomius,   of    doubtful    value,    are 


given  in  Eosweyd's  Vita  Patnim 
(Migne's  Patrol.  Lat.  73,  230  ff.), 
Acta  Sanctorum,  14  Mali,  iii.  295, 
and  in  Surius,  Hist.  Sanctorum, 
14  Mali,  p.  408  (from  Simeon  Me- 
taphrastes). 

5  Valesius  (on  Sozomen  iii.  14) 
contends  that  the  proper  name  of 
the  island  was  Tabennesus.  Others 
write  Tabennie. 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


355 


monasteries  soon  sprang  up  which  followed  the  Hule  of 
Tabenna  and  acknowledged  the  authority  of  its  head, 
called  the  Abbas,  or  Father.  It  is  not  easy  to  say  how 
much  of  the  extant  Rule'  which  bears  the  name  of  Pacho- 
mius  is  really  due  to  him,  how  much  to  subsequent  de- 
velopment, but  the  general  characteristics  we  can  scarcely 
err  in  attributing  to  the  Founder.  The  brethren  of  this 
society  were  taught  to  avoid  the  temptations  which 
arise  from  idleness.  They  plaited  mats  and  baskets  from 
the  reeds  of  the  Nile,  they  cultivated  the  ground,  they 
built  boats.  Tailors,  smiths,  carpenters,  and  tanners  were 
found  among  them.  The  sale  of  their  products  first  sup- 
plied the  wants  of  the  society,  and  then  that  which  re- 
mained over  was  given  to  relieve  the  wants  of  the  sick  and 
the  poor  and  needy.  Prisoners  also  were  not  forgotten. 
Twice  a  year  the  superiors  of  the  several  daughter-com- 
munities met  at  the  chief  monastery,  when  each  gave  an 
account  of  the  administration  of  his  office.  A  candidate 
for  admission  to  the  brotherhood  was  not  received  at  once. 
He  was  first  asked  whether  he  was  seeking  refuge  from 
some  civil  penalty ;  whether  he  was  a  free  man  and  there- 
fore competent  to  choose  for  himself  his  mode  of  life ; 
whether  he  was  capable  of  resigning  all  that  he  had.  If 
he  was  able  to  answer  these  questions  satisfactorily,  he 
had  to  submit  to  a  three  years'  period  of  probation. 
Finally,  if  he  passed  through  this  successfully,  he  was 
admitted  to  the  brotherhood,  solemnly  pledging  himself 
to  live  according  to  the  monastic  rule.  On  the  first  and 
last  day  of  each  week  the  monks  laid  aside  the  skins  which 
they  commonly  wore  and  came  into  the  sanctuary  to  receive 
the  holy  mysteries.  Every  day  and  night  they  said  fre- 
quent prayers.  Palladius  is  said  to  have  founded  also  the 
earliest  convent  for  women,  with  a  rule  similar  to  that  of 
the  men''.  To  these  sisters  was  given  the  name  "nonna," 
derived  perhaps  from  an  Egyptian  word^  whence  such 


1  A  Latin  translation  of  the  so- 
called  Rule  of  Paehomius  is  in 
Holstein's  Codex  Regularum,  i.  95  ff. 
An  outline  of  it  is  given  by  Palla- 
dius, Hist.  Lausiaca  c.  38,  and  by 
Sozomen  iii.  14. 

2  Rosweyd's  Vita;  Pat  rum  i.  c. 
28;  Hist.  Lausiaca,  cc.  34  and  38. 


3  According  to  Jablonski  [Opusc. 
ed.  Te  Water,  i.  176,  quoted  by 
Gieseler  i.  541)  the  word  is  properly 
"Enuueneh"  or  "  Nueneh."  But 
"nonna"  is  more  probably  a  child's 
word,  formed  like  "papa"  and 
"mama."  See  Skeat,  Etymol. 
Diet.  s.v.  l^tin. 

23—2 


Chap.  XII. 


Rule  of 
Tabenna. 


856 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


sisters  have  almost  everywhere  been  distinguished  as 
"nuns"  or  by  some  equivalent  appellation.  The  general 
characteristics  of  the  Tabenna'ite  monasticism  may  be  said 
to  be  simplicity  of  life,  labour,  devotion,  and  obedience. 

A  greater  than  Pachomius,  St  Basil,  was  the  founder  of 
an  Order  ^  which  endures  in  the  Greek  Church  even  unto 
this  day.  He  designed,  says  his  panegyrist  Gregory  of 
Nazianzus*^,  to  unite  the  excellencies  of  the  contemplative 
and  the  practical  life,  and  his  Rule  bears  the  stamp  of  his 
good  sense  and  knowledge  of  mankind.  He  recommends 
nothing  repulsive  or  unpractical.  What  he  regarded  as 
the  proper  end  and  aim  of  asceticism  was  to  render  the 
body  the  obedient  servant  of  the  higher  nature,  not  to 
cripple  it  by  unmeaning  austerities.  His  monks  were  to 
praise  God  and  pray  to  Him,  after  the  Psalmist's  example, 
seven  times  a  day,  but  they  were  not  to  make  devotion  an 
excuse  for  idleness.  They,  like  those  of  Pachomius,  were 
to  labour  for  their  own  living  at  such  trades  as  could  be 
pursued  without  noise,  and  especially  at  the  tilling  of  the 
ground.  All  that  was  earned  was  the  property  of  the 
community ;  no  man  called  anything  his  own.  All  that 
was  required  was  kept  in  a  common  storehouse  and  dis- 
pensed at  the  discretion  of  the  superior.  No  special  rule 
was  made  as  to  the  food  to  be  taken,  but  the  superior  was 
to  judge  what  was  sufficient  in  each  case.  The  use  of 
wine  was  not  forbidden.  The  monk's  clothing  was  to  be 
of  the  simplest  and  coarsest  kind.  Signs  were,  so  far  as 
possible,  to  take  the  place  of  words,  except  in  divine 
service.  Children  who  were  presented  by  their  lawful 
guardians  were  to  be  received  and  trained,  but  were  not 
to  be  entered  on  the  list  of  monks  until  they  were  of  an 
age  to  understand  the  meaning  of  monastic  vows.  All 
postulants  had  to  undergo  a  period  of  probation.  St  Basil's 
mother  and  sister  united  with  other  women  to  lead  a 
monastic  life.  He  permitted  those  who  desired  to  enter 
a  convent  to  take  the  vows  at  sixteen  or  seventeen  years 
of  age^  The  African  Church  at  a  somewhat  later  date 
did  not  permit  this  before  twenty-five*,  and  a  law  of  the 


^  St  Basil's  ascetic  precepts  are 
found  in  his  Sermones  Ascetici,  his 
Regulce  fusius  tractatce,  and  his 
Eegulce  brevius  tractatce. 


2  Orat.  20  in  Laud.  Basil. ,  p.  358, 
quoted  by  Gieseler  i.  537. 
•*  Regula,  c.  7. 
*  Cone.  Hippoji.,  c.  1. 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


357 


Turbulent 
monks. 


empire  refused  to  recognize  such  vows  as  valid  if  taken  \  Chap.  Xll 
before  the  age  of  forty  \ 

St  Basil's  institutions  were  wise,  and  where  he  ruled 
they  were  doubtless  wisely  carried  out;  but  the  adminis- 
tration of  even  the  wisest  code  will  sometimes  fall  into 
incompetent  hands.  Men  found  their  way  into  cloisters 
who  had  no  real  vocation  for  the  ascetic  life.  Some  came 
in  who  had  nothing  to  leave  in  the  world  and  much  to  gain 
in  the  convent,  making  their  profession  of  godliness  a 
means  of  gain^  Such  were  eager  to  find  occasion  for 
activity  outside  their  house.  These  formed  the  black 
rabble  who  incurred  the  contempt  of  cultivated  heathens ', 
who  plundered  and  destroyed  temples,  who  were  constantly 
employed  as  the  tools  of  fanatical  partizans  in  the  disputes 
about  dogma  of  which  they  understood  no  more  than  the 
Ephesian  mob  did  of  the  teaching  of  St  Paul. 

There  were  many  who,  like  Chrysostom,  acquired  in  |  Evilsofth 


monastic  retirement,  from  their  own  failures  and  re- 
coveries, a  deep  knowledge  of  the  weakness  of  human 
nature  and  of  the  way  to  peace.  But  many,  attempting 
to  annihilate  desires  which  are  deeply  rooted  in  man,  were 
persecuted  by  impure  thoughts ;  and  there  was  a  general 
tendency  to  attempt  to  cure  these  rather  by  bodily  morti- 
fication than  by  heartfelt  devotion,  A  seeking  after 
Pharisaic  self-righteousness,  combined  with  an  abject  fear 
of  malignant  fiends,  too  often  took  the  place  of  the  trustful 
spirit  of  Christian  love. 

A  peculiar  form  of  monasticism  was  that  of  the  Audians, 
who  were,  says  Epiphanius*,  restive  and  schismatical,  but 
not  heretical.  These  took  their  rise  from  one  Audius,  or 
Udo,  a  layman  of  Mesopotamia,  whose  zeal  for  religion  was 
offended  by  what  he  thought  the  easy  and  luxurious  lives 
of  the  higher  clergy.  He  founded  several  ascetic  societies, 
in  which  the  Paschal  festival  was  celebrated  at  the  same 
time  as  that  of  the  Jews,  and  the  literal  interpretation  of 
such  passages  of  Scripture  as  seem  to  ascribe  a  human 
body  to  the  Deity  was  insisted  upon.  Audius  at  an 
advanced  age  was  banished  to  the  northern  coast  of  the 

1  Edict  of  Majorian,  a.d.  458,  ^  Zosimus  v.  23 ;  Eunapius  Vita 
quoted  by  MoUer,  K.-G-.  395.  Com-  JEdesii,  quoted  by  Gieseler,  n. 
pare  Cone.  Casaraug.  i.  c.  8.  537,  n.t. 

2  Nilus  Tract. ad  Magnam,  p.  297,  *  Hceres.  70,  c.  1.  See  also  Theo- 
quoted  by  Neander,  iii.  340,  doret,  H.  E.  iv.  10, 


cloister. 


Ati/lianf!, 
c.  340. 


358 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


Chap.  XII. 


Western 
Monach- 
ism^. 

Athana- 
sius  in 
Eonie,  340. 


Jerome 
in  Rovie, 
382—385. 


Angustin, 

388. 


Island 
Monns- 
tcries. 


Black  Sea,  where  he  is  said  to  have  introduced  monasticism 
among  the  Goths.  This  sect  is  believed  to  have  dis- 
appeared about  the  end  of  the  fourth  century. 

In  the  West,  as  was  natural,  monasticism  ran  a  very 
different  course.  The  practical  good  sense  and  calmer  judg- 
ment of  the  Western  leaders  gave  it  such  a  form  as  answered 
to  the  needs  of  their  Church.  When  first  the  banished 
Athanasius  brought  monks  into  the  West  they  were  looked 
upon  as  something  extravagant ;  but  under  the  fostering 
care  of  men  like  Ambrose  in  Milan,  Jerome  in  Rome,  and 
Martin  in  Tours,  they  soon  became  familiar  objects. 

In  Rome,  Jerome  attained  extraordinary  influence, 
especially  with  the  weaker  sex.  The  country-houses  of 
Roman  ladies  became  nunneries,  where  devout  widows 
and  maidens  led  an  ascetic  life.  Tenderly  nurtured  women 
sacrificed  to  this  over-mastering  impulse  position,  friends, 
even  life  itself.  At  a  time  when,  in  spite  of  the  Christianity 
of  the  emperors,  a  large  portion  of  the  Romans  who  were 
most  distinguished  in  literature  and  politics  still  clung  to 
the  old  faith ;  when  many  of  the  leading  ecclesiastics  were 
engaged  in  unseemly  squabbles  and  contests  for  place'^; 
the  more  sensitive  souls  were  driven  to  seek  a  refuge  in 
monastic  life.  Augustin  found  in  Rome  about  the  year  388 
several  convents  presided  over  by  men  of  worth  and  ability, 
where  the  brethren  led  a  peaceful  life  without  needless 
restrictions,  maintaining  themselves  by  the  labour  of  their 
hands ;  and  houses  of  women  in  which  the  sisters  were 
instructed  in  faith  and  doctrine  by  the  superiors,  and 
occupied  themselves  in  spinning  and  weaving.  Both  men 
and  women  performed  miracles  of  fasting. 

The  islands  on  the  West  coast  of  Italy,  and  soon  after- 
wards those  on  the  South  coast  of  Gaul,  came  to  be  peopled 
with  men  seeking  a  refuge  from  the  storms  of  the  world 
and  opportunity  for  Christian  contemplation,  who  mingled 
their  chants  with  the  plashing  of  the  waves.  Pious  ladies, 
such  as  Jerome's  friend  Fabiola,  turned  the  stream  of  their 
munificence  to  these  island-monasteries,  which  in  the 
terrible  times  of  the  Teutonic  invasion  became  places  of 
refuge  for  arts  and  letters,  as  well  as  for  Christian  life. 


^  J.  Mabillon,  Observationes  de 
Monachis  in  occidente  ante  Bene- 
dictum,  in  Acta  SS.  Bened,  i.  1  ff. ; 


C.  de  Montalembert,  The  Monks  of 
the  West. 
2  Sec  antca,  p.  178. 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Ghnrch. 


S59 


Of  these  island-monasteries  by  far  the  most  famous  was 
that  of  Lerinum.  Honoratus',  born  of  a  noble  family  of 
Belgic  Gaul,  was  warned  by  a  divine  voice  to  repair  to  the 
island,  to  which  his  name  was  afterwards  given.  It  was 
then  absolutely  desolate,  but  he  set  himself  to  establish  a 
monastery  there,  and  soon  drew  round  him  a  body  of 
disciples,  among  the  first  of  whom  was  a  young  man 
named  Hilary,  whom  by  prayers  and  tears  he  prevailed 
upon  to  renounce  the  world.  The  fame  of  his  piety  caused 
him  to  be  chosen  bishop  of  Aries,  but  he  held  that  dignity 
no  more  than  two  years,  dying  somewhat  suddenly  in  the 
early  part  of  the  year  429.  Lerinum  became  an  im- 
portant clergy-school  for  Southern  Gaul,  and  trained  many 
bishops,  among  them  Hilary  of  Aries  and  Eucherius  of 
Lyons,  while  two  successive  abbats,  Maximus  and  Faustns, 
became  bishops  of  Riez.  From  this  monastery  too  came 
forth  one  of  the  most  famous  books  of  the  fifth  century, 
the  Commonitorium  of  Vincentius. 

On  the  Continent,  the  religious  house  which  was  founded 
by  St  Martin  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Poitiers  about  the 
year  360  is  regarded  as  the  earliest  monastery  in  Gaul. 
But  a  far  more  important  community  was  that  founded  in 
Southern  Gaul  by  John  Cassian. 

Cassian^  was  probably  born  in  Southern  Gaul,  to  which 
his  writings  unquestionably  belong,  about  the  year  360. 
While  still  young  he  entered  a  convent  at  Bethlehem^, 
where  he  received  his  first  training  in  religion.  Once 
initiated  in  the  ascetic  life,  he  was  seized  with  a  longing 
to  visit  the  native  land  of  asceticism,  Egypt.  Among  the 
Egyptian  monks  and  hermits  he  remained  in  all  ten  years, 
and  then  passed  on  to  Constantinople,  where  he  was 
ordained  deacon  by  the  great  John  Chrysostom.  When 
the  patriarch  was  banished,  it  is  thought  that  Cassian 
paid  a  visit  on  his  behalf  to  Rome.  Ten  years  later  we 
find  him  in  Marseilles,  near  which  place  he  founded  two 
convents,  for  men  and  for  women  respectively,  after  the 


Chap.  XII. 

Lerinum, 
founded 
c.  410. 


^  Hilarii  Sermo  de  Vita  S.  Hono- 
rati,  in  Migne  Patrol.  Lat.  l. 
1249  ff.,  and  in  Surius,  Hist.  Sanct. 
Jan.  16;  Gallia  Christiana  1.527; 
R.  Gravers  Smith  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Bioqr.  III.  138. 

-  W.  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.  i.  410;  G. 


F.  Wiggers,  De  J.  Cassiano  3Ias- 
siliensi  {Rostock,  1824);  J.  Fessler, 
Instit.  Patrologice,  ii.  751  ff. ;  I. 
Gregory  Smith,  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr. 
I.  414;  A.  Ebert,  Christlich-Latein. 
Literatur,  i.  331. 
^  De  Goinoh.  Inst.  in.  4. 


Monastery 
near 
Poitiers, 
c.  3G0. 


John 

Cassian,  o. 
3G0— 433. 


c.  390. 


405. 

Convents 
near 
Marseilles. 


860 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church 


model  of  those  which  he  had  seen  in  the  East.  By  the 
example  of  these  monasteries,  and  still  more  by  the  series 
of  writings  which  he  now  began,  he  gave  an  immense 
impulse  to  the  spread  of  monastic  institutions,  especially 
in  Gaul  and  Sj^ain.  He  died  at  a  very  advanced  age,  in 
the  highest  reputation  for  sanctity,  probably  shortly  after 
the  year  433.  He  wrote  in  later  life  on  the  Nestorian 
controversy,  but  his  most  famous  works  are  the  book  on 
Monastic  Institutions^  and  the  account  of  certain  conversa- 
tions which  he  describes  himself  as  having  held,  in  company 
with  his  friend  Germanus,  with  some  of  the  most  renowned 
Egyptian  anchorites.  In  the  first-named  book  he  describes 
principally  the  Egyptian  system  with  a  view  to  the  in- 
struction of  Gaul.  He  shews  us  the  dress  of  the  Egyptian 
monks,  the  girdle  of  their  loins,  the  hood  just  covering  the 
head,  the  linen  tunic  with  sleeves  barely  reaching  to  the 
elbow,  the  cord  through  which  the  skirts  of  the  garment 
may  be  drawn  for  greater  freedom  in  labour,  the  short 
mantle  over  head  and  shoulders,  the  goat-skin  thrown  over 
all ;  the  sandals  on  the  feet  and  the  staff  in  the  hand.  He 
wisely  orders  that  if  a  hair-shirt  is  worn — he  does  not 
recommend  it — it  shall  be  concealed,  not  made  a  show 
of  ^;  and  generally  he  reminds  the  brethren  that  a  monk's 
dress  should  be  distinguished  by  simplicity,  not  singularity, 
and  that  the  Egyptian  dress  is  not  in  all  respects  suited 
for  the  climate  of  GauP.  The  postulant  for  admission  must 
sit  at  least  ten  days  before  the  door  of  the  monastery, 
enduring  the  scorn  and  the  contemptuous  questions  of  the 
brethren  as  they  pass  to  and  fro*.  When  admitted,  he 
spends  his  first  year  in  a  novices'  room,  outside  the  convent 
proper,  under  the  care  of  one  of  the  older  monks®;  and 
when  permitted  to  enter  the  convent  itself,  he  is  again 
under  the  special  charge  of  one  of  the  seniors,  until  he  has 
perfectly  learned  the  lesson  of  implicit  obedience.  If  he 
cannot  endure  the  trial,  the  clothes  in  which  he  entered 
are  put  upon  him  again  and  he  is  sent  forth  into  the 
worlds  It  is  worth  noting,  that  although  the  monk  must 
part  with  his  worldly  goods,  the  house  which  he  enters 

1  Its  full  title  is  De  Coenobioruvi  *  Instit.  i.  10. 
Institutis  et  de   oeto  principalmm  *  lb.  iv.  3. 
vitiorum  remediis  libri  duodecim.  ^  lb.  iv.  7. 

2  Instit.  I.  2.  «  lb.  IV.  C 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


361 


is  on  no  account  to  receive  them\  Once  within  the 
monastery,  the  monk  is  to  have  nothing  of  his  own — 
not  even  his  thoughts^  The  meals  of  the  Gallican  monks 
were  to  be  meagre,  but  not  so  scanty  as  those'  in  Egypt, 
which,  Cassian  is  aware,  would  not  be  sufficient  to  sustain 
life  in  GauP.  In  Egypt  they  were  eaten  in  silence,  in 
Cappadocia  with  reading  of  Scripture*.  Of  offences,  some 
were  to  be  corrected  by  spiritual  rebuke,  some  with  stripes 
or  by  expulsion  from  the  house'. 

In  the  latter  portion  of  the  work  Cassian  treats  of  the 
principal  sins  and  failings  to  which  hermits  and  monks 
were  especially  liable,  their  causes  and  their  cure.  These 
are  gluttony,  sins  of  the  flesh,  avarice,  anger,  gloominess, 
torpor®,  vanity,  and  pride.  These  seem  to  be  mentioned  in 
the  order  of  the  difficulty  of  their  treatment.  The  coarser 
and  more  obvious  sins,  which  can  be  readily  subjected  to 
discipline,  stand  first ;  then  come  those  more  subtle  sins 
which  are  often  the  product  of  the  ascetic  life  itself. 
Torpor  was  the  special  trial  of  the  solitary,  whom  it 
attacked  most  in  the  weary  hour  of  noon,  whence  it  was 
known  as  the  demon  that  destroyeth  in  the  noon-day^ 
Useful  labour  was  the  great  antidote ;  and  here  the  writer 
takes  occasion  to  commend  the  industry  of  the  monks  of 
Egypt,  who  not  only  maintained  themselves  by  their 
labour,  but  also  assisted  to  support  othersl  The  nature 
of  vanity,  that  juggling  fiend  which  can  put  on  the  dis- 
guise of  a  virtue,  and  which,  when  it  seems  to  be  over- 
come, rises  again  to  make  the  sinner  vain  of  his  own 
victory^,  is  sketched  with  a  masterly  hand.  Pride,  though 
the  first  of  sins,  is  nevertheless  the  last  to  make  its  ap- 
pearance ;  it  rises  out  of  the  excellent  virtues  which  a  man 
possesses,  and  spoils  them  all'".  With  the  combating  of 
this  most  subtle  evil  the  book  concludes. 

The  "  Collations  "  may  be  regarded  as  a  supplement  to 
the  Institutes,  being  intended  to  lead  ascetics  to  a  yet 


1  Tiistit.  IV.  4. 
^  lb.  IV.  9. 

3  lb.  IV.  11. 

4  lb.  IV.  17. 

5  16.  IV.  16. 

*!  Acedia  (d/ojS^a),  the  dulness  of 
feeling  which  sometimes  steals  over 
a  man,  and  renders  him  indifferent 
even     about    his    own    salvation; 


"torpor  mentis  bona  spiritualia 
inchoare  abhorrentis "  (Ferraris 
Bibliotheca,  s.  v.) 

7  "D8emoniummeridiannm,"P». 
90  [our  91]  V.  6  Vulg. ;  Instit.  x.  1, 

8  Instit.  X.  22. 

»  lb.  XI.  7. 

10  lb.  XII.  ^. 


362 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


higher  degree  of  holiness  than  that  contemplated  in 
the  earlier  work.  Cassian  recognises^  the  much  greater 
difficulty  of  his  present  task,  inasmuch  as  the  forming  of 
the  inner  man  so  as  to  enable  it  steadily  to  contemplate 
God  and  to  rise  towards  perfection  is  greater  than  that  of 
subjecting  the  outer  man  to  authority  and  precept.  These 
Collations,  which  were  specially  written  with  a  view  to  being 
read  by  monks  and  hermits,  were  intended  to  point  the 
way  to  the  ideal  perfection  of  ascetic  life  by  shewing  how 
the  principal  questions  likely  to  arise  in  such  a  life  were 
treated  by  those  who  were  its  leaders.  Here  we  find  the 
results  of  meditation  as  well  as  the  lessons  of  practical  life, 
philosophic  discussion  as  well  as  moral  precept,  frequently 
illustrated  by  examples  from  the  stores  of  memory  or 
legend.  The  end  and  aim  of  the  monk's  calling^;  the 
respective  advantages  of  the  monastic  and  the  solitary 
life^;  the  three  great  renunciations  which  the  monk  makes 
— of  his  earthly  riches,  of  his  own  passions  and  propensi- 
ties, and  of  the  present  world*;  perfection,  and  most  of  all 
divine  love^;  spiritual  knowledge,  and  especially  the  various 
methods  of  interpreting  Holy  Scripture*';  God's  gifts  of 
graced  under  which  head  many  miracles  are  related,  with 
the  wholesome  caution,  that  the  great  lesson  to  be  learned 
of  Christ  is  not  to  work  wonders,  but  to  be  meek  and 
lowly  of  heart ;  the  various  kinds  of  prayer  and  thanks- 
giving^— such  and  suchlike  are  the  subjects  treated  of 
The  speculative  spirit  which  is  visible  throughout  shews 
that  the  great  leaders  of  asceticism  were  not  unfaithful  to 
the  Christian  philosophy  which  was  still  found  in  the 
Alexandrian  schools.  The  influence  of  the  book  was  im- 
mense, as  St  Benedict^  ordered  it  to  be  constantly  read  at 
a  certain  hour  in  the  houses  of  his  oi'der;  and  it  was 
perhaps  the  philosophic  thought  which  is  found  in  many 
of  the  Collations  which  gave  to  the  monks  that  bent 
to  mental  toil  and  abstract  discussion  which  made  the 
monasteries  of  the  West  for  many  generations  the  chief 
centres  of  literature  and  intellectual  life. 


1  Preface  to  Pt.  I. 

•>  Collatio  14. 

2  Collatio  1. 

•>  lb.  15. 

3  Ih.  19. 

8  lb.  9. 

4  D).  3,  §G. 

9  liecjuJa  c.  42 

'^  lb.  11. 

Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


363 


But  all  the  efforts  of  previous  founders  of  monasteries 
fall  into  the  shade  when  we  compare  them  with  those  of 
Benedict  of  Nursia.  The  career  of  the  Benedictine  Order 
is  the  most  signal  testimony  to  the  virtue  and  the  wisdom 
of  its  first  legislator.  Benedict,  the  son  of  a  noble  family 
in  Umbria,  received  a  literary  education  in  Rome,  but, 
shocked  at  the  dissipated  life  which  he  saw  around  him, 
fled  at  an  early  age  from  the  great  city  and  took  refuge  in 
an  almost  inaccessible  cave  in  the  Sabine  hills,  near 
Subiaco,  where  he  depended  for  sustenance  on  the  charity 
of  the  neighbours.  Like  very  many  who  have  attempted 
to  crush  the  natural  passions,  he  was  haunted  by  visions 
of  the  fair  forms  which  he  had  left  behind.  He  shared 
the  fate  of  other  famous  hermits,  in  that  his  solitude 
became  populous  with  the  throng  of  men  who  were 
attracted  by  his  fame.  It  was  probably  this  circumstance 
which  induced  him  to  forsake  Subiaco  with  his  com- 
panions, and  to  journey  southward  to  Monte  Cassino  in 
Campania,  where  he  founded  what  became  the  most 
famous  monastery  in  the  world,  the  model  after  which, 
more  or  less  directly,  all  other  Western  monasteries  have 
been  formed.  The  Rule  which  he  gave  was  stern,  but  not 
too  stern  for  human  frailty  to  endure.  It  trained  men  to 
be  strong,  not  fanciful. 

At  the  head  of  every  monastery  was  a  paternal  ruler, 
an  abbat,  chosen  by  the  major  part  of  the  monks  them- 
selves; under  him  was  a  "prsepositus"  or  provost  whom  he 
appointed,  and  again  under  him,  if  the  monastery  was  so 
large  as  to  require  them,  subordinates  called  "decani"  or 
deans,  who  took  the  superintendence  each  of  ten  brethren. 
As  each  new  brother  was  admitted  to  a  monastery  he  was 
required  to  pledge  himself  in  the  most  solemn  manner 
to  the  three  great  principles  of  monastic  life,  firmness  of 
resolution,  change  of  life,  and  obedience  to  God  and  His 
saints  ^  As  it  was  of  the  very  essence  of  monastic  vows 
that  they  should  be  lifelong,  no  one  was  allowed  to  take 


1  B.  Haeften,  Disquisit.  Monast. 
lib.xii;  ^ctoS.S'.Bollandi,  21  March; 
J.  Mabillon  Acta  SS.  Ord.  Bened., 
and  Annales  Ord.  Bened.;  Fabri- 
cius,  Biblioth.  Lat.  i.  43 ;  Rule  in 
Holstein'a  Codex  Regularum,  i. 
Ill  n.—L.  Tosti,  Storia  di  Monte 


Cassino  (Napoli  1842) ;  C.  Brandes, 
d.  Bened.  Orden,  in  Tithing.  Qiiar- 
talschrift  1851,  pt.  1.  Dautier,  Les 
Monasteres  Benedictins. 

^  "  Stabilitas,  conversio  morum, 
obedientia  coram  Deo  et  Sanctis 
ejus." 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Ghurcli. 


them  until  he  had  passed  through  a  period  of  probation, 
in  which  every  opportunity  was  given  to  the  novice  to 
learn  the  real  nature  of  his  own  calling,  and  to  the 
superiors  of  the  society  to  discover  whether  he  had  the 
qualities  which  a  good  monk  should  have.  With  a  view 
of  deterring  waverers,  the  act  of  reception  was  made  an 
especially  solemn  one.  The  novice  to  be  received  had  to 
lay  on  the  altar  of  the  church  of  the  monastery,  with 
solemn  invocation  of  the  saints  whose  relics  were  there,  a 
written  engagement  to  observe  the  Rule.  The  man  who 
could  not  with  a  clear  conscience  affirm  his  earnest  inten- 
tion of  remaining  in  the  brotherhood  to  his  life's  end  could 
be  no  true  monk;  nor  the  man  who  could  not  resign  his 
natural  wishes  and  passions  so  as  to  be  guided  in  all 
things  by  the  monastic  Rule.  As  in  the  Rule  of  Pacho- 
mius,  so  in  the  Benedictine,  not  only  did  the  brethren 
observe  the  several  hours  of  the  Divine  Office,  but  they 
had  to  undertake  regular  manual  labour,  often  of  some 
severity.  Idleness  was,  their  founder  thought,  the  mortal 
enemy  of  the  soul.  In  order  to  cut  off  any  excuse  for  the 
monks'  absenting  themselves  from  their  house,  each  convent 
was  enjoined  to  provide  for  itself,  so  far  as  might  be,  all  ne- 
cessary supplies  of  food  and  clothes  and  the  like.  The  third 
vow  bound  the  monk  to  the  most  absolute  and  implicit 
obedience  to  the  superior.  Whatever  was  commanded  by 
one  in  authority  he  was  bound  to  obey  at  once  as  a  Divine 
command.  This  prompt  obedience  was  the  first  step  in 
the  road  of  humility;  by  it  the  monk  testified  that  nothing 
was  dearer  to  him  than  the  work  of  Christ.  When  the 
novice  was  required  to  regard  his  abbat  as  one  who  stood 
in  the  place  of  Christ,  we  may  clearly  see  that  the  Bene- 
dictine Order  was  from  the  first  a  Church  within  the 
Church ;  what  the  bishop  was  to  the  diocese,  that  was  the 
abbat  to  his  convent.  The  difference  was,  that  the  nar- 
rower circle  aimed  at  a  higher  level  of  Christian  life  than 
was  possible  for  the  wider.  And  as  the  strength  of  the 
Church  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is  a  growing  tree,  capable 
of  adapting  itself  to  its  environment,  so  the  Benedictine 
Order,  without  departing  from  the  intention  of  its  founder, 
has  been  able  to  accommodate  itself  to  each  of  the  many 
ages  through  which  it  has  lived.  Benedict  did  not  enjoin 
upon  his  monks  an  excessive  asceticism.     While  his  prin- 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


365 


ciples  were  stern  and  unbending,  he  did  not  make  the 
monastic  life  wearisome  by  petty  restrictions.  His  Rule 
became  the  model  for  all  the  monastic  Rules  of  the  West, 
in  which  we  consequently  find,  with  all  differences  of 
detail,  a  certain  uniformity  of  type.  The  great  glory  of 
the  Benedictine  Order  is,  that  it  impressed  upon  a  world 
in  the  process  of  dissolution  the  capacity  for  renewal  which 
is  to  be  found  in  a  life  of  order,  industry,  obedience  and 
simplicity.  Whether  in  the  humbler  office  of  tilling  the 
land,  or  in  the  higher  of  preserving  literature  and  promot- 
ing sound  and  thorough  study,  the  Benedictines  have  a 
well-earned  fame,  though  they  wrought  for  the  sake  of 
the  work,  and  not  for  their  own  glory.  The  literary  labours 
however  for  which  the  Benedictines  have  been  so  distin- 
guished were  not  directly  prescribed  by  the  founder;  the 
credit  of  setting  monks  to  work  at  literature  belongs  to 
Cassiodorus. 

Magnus  Aurelius  Cassiodorus^  (or  Cassiodorius)  was  a 
Roman  of  distinguished  family,  who  held  high  offices  of 
state  under  the  Gothic  king  Theoderic.  On  the  fall  of 
the  East-Gothic  kingdom  in  540,  being  now  an  old  man, 
he  withdrew  to  his  property  in  Bruttium,  where  he 
founded  a  convent,  the  Monasterium  Vivariense.  He 
thought  it  nobler  to  be  the  slave  of  Christ  than  to  rule 
the  kingdoms  of  this  world  I  In  the  wreck  of  the  empire 
he  was  anxious  to  preserve  learning.  To  this  end  he  gave 
to  his  society  his  own  excellent  library,  which  he  continued 
to  augment  until  his  death ^  "Not  only  were  the  monks 
incited  by  his  example  to  the  study  of  classical  and  sacred 
literature;  he  trained  them  likewise  to  the  careful  tran- 
scription of  manuscripts,  in  the  purchase  of  which  large 
sums  were  continually  disbursed.  Bookbinding,  gardening, 
and  medicine  were  among  the  pursuits  of  the  less  intellec- 
tual members  of  the  fraternity*.  The  system  took  root  and 
spread  beyond  the  boundaries  of  Italy,  so  that  the  multipli- 


1  Vita  Cassiodori,  prefixed  to 
Garet's  edition  of  his  Opera  (Roueu, 
1G79;  Migne's  Patrol.  Lat.  vol.  69); 
Denis  de  Ste  Marthe,  Vie  de  Cas- 
siodore  (Paris  1694) ;  De  Buat, 
Leben  Cassiodors,  in  Trans,  of  R. 
Acad.  Munich,  i.  79  ff.;  A.  Thor- 
becke,  Cassiodorus  Senator  (Heidel- 


berg 1867);  A.  Franz,  iV.  A.  Cas- 
siodorius Senator  (Breslau  1872) ;  E. 
M.  Young,  in  Diet.  Chr.  Blogr.  i. 
416  ff. ;  A.  Ebert,  Christl.-Latein. 
Lit.  I.  474ff. 

*  De  Anima,  sub  Jin. 

8  De  histit.  Divin.  Lit.  c.  8. 

*  lb.  28,  30,  31. 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


cation  of  manuscripts  became  gradually  as  much  a  recog- 
nised employment  of  monastic  life  as  prayer  or  fasting \" 

The  tendency  to  asceticism  was  not  unopposed.  Even 
St  Chrysostom,  himself  a  monk  and  an  earnest  advocate 
of  monastic  life,  emphatically  rejected  the  distinction  which 
was  in  his  day  commonly  drawn  between  the  counsels  of 
perfection  which  were  for  the  few  and  the  easier  precepts 
which  might  suffice  for  the  many.  He  knew  how  degrad- 
ing was  the  notion  that  men  could  not  attain  true  Christian 
life  in  the  midst  of  the  family  and  the  world.  The  beati- 
tudes, the  precepts  of  the  Lord  and  His  Apostles,  these 
are  not  for  the  monk  alone,  but  for  all  the  members  of 
Christ  ^  A  man  who  has  a  wife  and  children  may  see  the 
Lord,  as  Isaiah  saw  Him,  if  he  has  but  Isaiah's  spirit ^ 
Those  who  run  away  from  the  world  in  which  the  battle 
has  to  be  fought  are  deserters  from  the  great  army\ 

A  very  different  kind  of  critic  was  Jovinian^,  who  had 
also  originally  been  a  monk,  but  had  become  convinced  of 
the  unsoundness  of  the  principle  on  which  monasticism 
was  generally  defended.  He  declared  (it  was  said)  that 
the  merits  of  virgins  are  just  the  same  as  those  of  the 
married  and  the  widowed  who  have  been  bajDtized  into 
Christ,  if  the  general  holiness  of  their  lives  is  the  same; 
and  that  abstinence  from  food  has  no  higher  merit  than 
the  thankful  participation  of  it^  Inorthodox  opinions 
are  also  attributed  to  him  with  which  we  are  not  at 
present  concerned.  Jovinian's  reasoning  is  said  to  have 
influenced  certain  nuns  so  strongly  that  they  broke  their 
vows  and  married.  His  teaching  excited  the  indignation 
of  pope  Siricius,  who  in  a  consistory  of  the  Roman  clergy 
condemned  and  excommunicated  him  and  eight  of  his 
adherents  as  guilty  of  innovation  and  heresy^  Jovinian 
betook  himself  to  Milan,  hoping  perhajDS  for  the  protection 
of  the  emperor,  who  then  held  his  court  there.  But  in 
matters  of  faith  Ambrose  was  there  almost  all-powerful, 


1  E.  M.  Young  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr. 
I.  417. 

^  In  Hebrceos,  Horn.  vii.  c.  4. 

*  Horn,  de  Seraphinis  (vi.  138  ed. 
Montf.). 

^  In  II  Corinth.  Horn.  vi.  c.  4. 

^  Jerome  Adv.  Jovinianum;  Au- 
gustin  De  Nupt.  et  Concept,  ii.  23 


Retractat.  ii.  23.— C.  W.  F.  Walch, 
Hist,  der  Ketzereien,  in.  635  ff. ; 
W.  B.  Lindner,  De  Joviniano  et 
Vigilantio. 

6  Jerome  Adv.  Jov.  i.  2;  Aug.  Dc 
Hares,  c.  82. 

7  Hardouin  Cone.  i.  852. 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


367 


and  from  Milan  also  the  heretic  had  to  flee.  Ambrose 
also  issued  a  letter^  of  warning  against  some  of  his  own 
monks  who,  like  Jovinian,  denied  the  peculiar  merit  of 
celibacy. 

Monks,  as  such,  were  at  first  simply  lay  people,  and 
attended  the  services,  or  at  any  rate  received  the  Eucharist, 
at  some  neighbouring  church'"'.  In  process  of  time  however 
it  was  felt  to  be  unfitting  that  the  brethren  of  a  monastery 
should  depend  for  sacred  ministrations  on  the  clergy  of  a 
church  which,  as  the  founders  of  religious  houses  preferred 
remote  sites,  was  often  at  some  distance,  and  it  became 
customary  for  one  of  the  older  brethren,  generally  the 
abbat  himself,  to  be  a  presbyter  and  to  administer  the 
sacraments  within  the  convent  walls^.  The  society  had 
then  precisely  the  same  relation  to  the  bishop  of  the 
diocese  as  a  village  with  its  presbyter.  It  was  not  until 
the  time  of  Benedict  that  it  was  regarded  as  essential  for 
a  convent  to  have  its  own  church  and  its  own  clergy*. 
But  as  the  monastic  life  was  regarded  as  the  highest  form 
of  Christianity  and  attracted  many  men  who  would  other- 
wise have  become  clergymen,  it  became  usual  from  the 
time  of  pope  Siricius^  to  ordain  monks.  From  the  end 
of  the  fourth  century,  in  fact,  the  monasteries  came  to  be 
looked  upon  as  the  best  schools  for  the  clergy,  and  especially 
for  the  bishops.  Monks  were  not  unfrequently  ordained 
against  their  own  wish®,  and  even  those  of  the  clergy  who 
were  not  monks  frequently  lived  in  a  community  which 
differed  little  from  a  convent. 

The  old  custom  of  making  monasteries  subject  to  the 
bishop  of  the  diocese  was  broken  in  upon  in  Africa  early 
in  the  sixth  century.  Religious  Houses  there  sought 
greater  independence  by  making  themselves  subject  to 
distant  bishops,   especially  to  the   bishop    of  Carthage  I 


1  Epist.  63. 

2  Theodoret  Hist.  RcHg.  c.  12; 
Cassian  Iiistit.  v.  26 ;  Collat.  vii.  34. 

^  Augustin  De  Moribus  Eccl. 
Cath.  c.  33.  The  famous  abbat 
Papbnutius  was  a  presbyter,  but 
he  walked  five  miles  to  church  on 
Saturday  and  Sunday,  though  he 
was  the  sole  teacher  and  director 
of  his  community.  See  Cassian 
Collat.  Ill,  1;  X.  2. 


*  Alteserrae  Asceticon  vii.,  c.  2, 
r.  597. 

^  Epist.  1  ad  Himcrium,  c.  13. 

^  See  instances  in  Eosweyd  Vit(S 
Patrum  iii.  99;  Theodoret  Hist. 
Relig.  cc.  13,  15,  19,  21;  Socrates 
H.  E.  VII.  6,  p.  320. 

''  Synodus  Carthag.  a.d.  525,  dies 
ii,  in  Hardouin  Cone.  ii.  1082  S. 
Compare  Cone.  Carth.  a.d.  534, 
Hardouin  it.  1178. 


Chap.  XII. 


Monks  not 
elergy. 


Monks 
ordained, 
c.  385. 


Monks  and 
Bishops. 


368 


Discipline  and  Life  of  the  Church. 


Chap.  XII.  |  Elsewhere  the  right  of  each  bishop  to  take  the  spiritual 
oversight  of  convents  within  his  diocese  was  strenuously 
maintained S  but  this  was  carefully  restricted  to  such 
matters  as  belong  to  the  office  of  a  bishop ;  the  general 
care  of  the  "lay  multitude"  of  monks  was  reserved  to  the 
abbat  alone,  unless  the  interference  of  the  bishop  was 
specially  invoked^ 

The  imperial  government,  which  found  it  necessary  to 
provide  that  men  should  not  escape  their  civic  duties,  and 
especially  the  duty  of  tax -paying,  by  receiving  ordination, 
made  an  exception  in  favour  of  those  who  had  become 
monks  in  early  youth^;  these  might  receive  Orders, 
forfeiting  thereupon  a  fourth  part  of  their  property.  The 
law  also  provided  that  a  married  person,  man  or  woman, 
should  not  carry  off  all  the  family  property  on  adopting 
the  monastic  life*,  and  it  dissolved  the  marriage  when  one 
of  the  parties  took  the  vows^  It  deprived  parents  of  the 
right  to  forbid  their  children  to  enter  a  monastery,  or  to 
disinherit  them  for  that  cause";  and  masters  also  could 
not  prevent  their  bond-servants  from  becoming  monks''. 
But  if  it  made  entrance  easy,  it  made  exit  difficult.  A 
monk  who  left  his  monastery,  whether  to  enter  another  or 
to  go  into  the  world,  was  to  leave  whatever  goods  he  had 
in  the  hands  of  that  which  he  had  first  entered^ 


^  Cone.  Aurelian.  i.  c.  19  (a.d. 
511) ;  Epaon.  c.  19  (a.d.  517) ;  Are- 
lat.  v.,  c.  2  (a.d.  554). 

2  Cone.  Arelat.  iii.  (c.  a.d.  455), 
in  Hardouin  ii.  780. 


Codex  Justin,  i.  iii.  53.      *  lb, 
Justin  Novella  123,  c.  40. 
Codex  I.  iii.  55. 
Novella  v.  De  Monachis,  c.  2, 
lb.  c.  4. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

ECCLESIASTICAL  CEEEMONIES   AND  ART. 

I.  The  most  essential  portions  of  Christian  worship 
were  not  exposed  to  all  men  without  distinction  \  The 
fear  of  impious  imitations  or  parodies,  such  as  Justin* 
thought  that  he  saw  in  the  mysteries  of  Mithras,  no  doubt 
restrained  Christians  from  making  public  in  a  world  still 
largely  pagan  rites  which  they  themselves  reverenced  with 
the  deepest  awe.  In  Justin's  description,  it  does  not 
appear  that  any  but  the  baptized  were  present  at  the 
administration  of  Baptism  or  the  Eucharist,  nor  is  the 
form  of  the  consecration  of  the  elements  revealed.  As  in 
the  apostolic  age  non-believers  might  be  present  at  ordi- 
nary meetings  for  reading  of  the  Scriptures  and  preaching^, 
so  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  unbaptized  persons 
were  admitted  to  hear  the  Bible  lessons  and  exposition 
which  might  prepare  them  for  admission  to  the  inner 
mysteries  of  the  faith.  Those  who  were  admitted  to  this 
more  open  worship  were  however  for  the  most  part  not 
mere  heathens,  but  either  catechumens  seeking  admission 
to  the  mysteries,  or  penitents  desiring  re-admission;  and 
the  portion  of  the  eucharistic  service  at  which  they  were 


1  On  this  Disciplina  Arcani  see 
Theod.  Meier  (who  is  said  to  have 
invented  the  phrase)  De  Recondita 
Vet.  Eccl,  Theolof)ia  (Heknstadt 
1677);  E.  von  Schelstrate  in  his 
Antiquitas  Illustrata  (1678)  and  in 
a  special  treatise,  De  Disciplina 
Arcani  (1685),  the  latter  a  reply 
to  W.  E.  Tenzel's  Diss.  De  Discip. 
Arcani  (1683);  Tenzel  rejoined  in 
a  much  larger  work,  printed  in  his 

C. 


Exercit.  Selectee,  pars  posterior,  p. 
19ff;  seealso Bingham's. -Ijii/r/x/f/Vs, 
Bk.  X.  c.  5;  Frommaun,  De  Disci- 
plina Arcani;  E.  Eothe,  De  Discipl. 
Arcani,  and  art.  in  Herzog's  E.  E. 
I.  469  ff. ;  C.  A.  G.  v.  Zezschwitz, 
System  der  Christl.  Kirchl.  Kate- 
chetik,  I.  154  ff. 

2  Apologia  i.  66.     Comijare  Ter- 
tuUiau  De  Prccscript,  40. 

3  1  Cor.  xiv.  23. 

24 


Ch.  XIII. 

ElTES  AND 

Ceremo- 
nies. 
The 
Mtjsteries. 


370 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


Ch.  xm. 


CatecJm- 
vienate. 


Seasons  of 
Baptism. 


present  was  called  the  Liturgy  (or  the  Mass)  of  the  Cate- 
chumens. To  these,  at  the  end  of  their  instruction,  which 
might  extend  over  two  or  three  years,  were  imparted  what 
were  regarded  as  the  most  sacred  treasures  of  the  Christian 
faith — the  essentials  of  the  baptismal  rite  and  the  confes- 
sion of  faith  to  be  made  by  the  baptized,  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  the  form  of  consecrating  and  administering  the 
Holy  Eucharist.  The  baptismal  confession  became  the  pass- 
word ^  by  which  Christians  knew  each  other,  and  also  the 
solemn  promise  of  allegiance  which  the  Christian  soldier 
made  to  the  great  Captain  \  As  may  be  supposed  from 
the  reservation  of  the  Creed,  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy 
Trinity  was  not  spoken  of  in  the  presence  of  heathens  ^ 
To  the  carefully  guarded  secrets  of  the  Christians  the 
name  "  mystery  "  came  to  be  applied,  as  to  rites  only  known 
to  the  initiated^ 

1.  The  mystery  which  surrounded  the  most  sacred  rites 
of  the  Church  of  course  gave  greater  importance  to  the 
catechumenate®,  the  preparatory  instruction  through  which 
all  candidates  for  baptism  had  to  pass.  The  usual  solemn 
seasons  of  baptism  were  Easter  and  Pentecost,  the  latter 
called  in  English  White-Sunday,  from  the  appearance  of 
the  newly-baptized  in  their  white  robes '' ;  but  in  the  East 
the  Epiphany,  when  the  baptism  of  the  Lord  was  com- 
memorated, was  regarded  as  an  appropriate  time  for 
baptism,  and  in  the  West  Christmas  and  Saints'  Days, 
especially  the  Nativity  of  St  John  Baptist.  The  bishops 
of  Rome  however  strongly  insisted  on  the  observance  of 
the  ancient  seasons,  unless  in  the  case  of  those  who  were  in 
danger  of  death  ^     Where  the  great  season  of  baptism  was 


1  Si5/x/3oXov.  "  Symbola  discreta 
unusquisque  dux  suis  militibus  tra- 
dit...ut  si  forte  occurrerit  quis  de 
quo  dubitetur,  interrogatus  sym- 
bolum  prodat  an  sit  hostis  an  so- 
cius."  Eufinus,  De  Symholo,  2. 
Maximus  of  Turin  (quoted  by  Zez- 
schwitz,  1. 173)  ai^plies  the  military 
word  "tessera"  to  tlie  Creed  in  the 
same  sense. 

^  "Hoc  Sacramento  militans  ab 
hostibus  provocor. "  Tertull.  Scor- 
piace  4.  But  "sacramentum"  is 
also  used,  in  a  more  general  sense, 
for  the  rites  of  Baptism  and  the 


Eucharist,  as  in  "ecclesiarum  sa- 
cramenta,"  Adv.  Marcion.  in.  22. 
^  Cyril.  Hierosol.  Catech.  vi.  29. 

■*    MvffTTjpLOl'. 

^  Me/j.vrjfx^i'oi. 

^  Von  Zezschwitz,  Katechetik, 
I.  227  ff. ;  E.  H.  Plumptre  in  Diet. 
Chr.  Antiq.  i.  317  ff. 

7  This  is  clearly  shewn  by  W.  W. 
Skeat,  Etymolog.  English  Diet.  s.  v. 
Whitsunday.  Ti'ie  Old-EngHsh  name 
for  this  day  was  however  Pente- 
coste. 

8  Siricius  Ad  Himerium,  c.  2, 
in  Hardonin  i.  847 ;  Leo,  Ad  Epi- 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  A  rt. 


871 


Easter-Eve,  those  among  the  catechumens  who  were  near 
the  end  of  their  course  were,  during  Lent,  brought  under 
more  special  instruction.  To  these  "  competentes,"  as  they 
were  called  \  the  articles  of  the  Creed,  the  nature  of  the 
Sacraments  and  of  the  penitential  discipline  of  the  Church, 
were  carefully  explained.  The  forty  days  of  catechizing 
were  a  period  of  fasting,  vigil,  prayer,  and  continence.  An 
epoch  in  the  instruction  was  the  solemn  delivery  of  the 
Creed  by  word  of  mouth  to  the  candidates,  which  took 
place  at  Rome  in  the  fourth  week  of  Lent,  generally  on 
the  Wednesday ;  at  Milan  on  the  eve  of  Palm-Sunday ;  in 
Gaul  and  in  Gothic  Spain  on  Palm-Sunday  itself;  in  Pro- 
consular Africa  probably  on  the  eve  of  the  fourth  Sunday 
in  Lent  I  This  was  followed  by  the  giving  of  the  Lord's 
Prajyer^,  At  Rome,  and  perhaps  elsewhere,  the  giving  of 
the  Creed  was  preceded  by  the  solemn  handing  over  of  the 
Gospels  ^ 

The  ceremonies  of  baptism  itself — the  interrogations, 
the  renunciations,  the  exorcisms,  the  blessing  of  the  water, 
the  unctions,  the  three  immersions,  the  milk  and  honey,  the 
imposition  of  hands — remained  essentially  the  same  as  in 
the  preceding  period  ^  though  with  some  additional  details. 
The  kindling  of  lamps  immediately  after  the  baptism  is 
first  heard  of  in  the  fourth  century ;  as  is  also  the 
putting-on  of  white  apparel®,  which,  if  first  assumed  on 
Easter-Eve,  was  worn  until  the  Sunday  after  Easter,  known 
as  the  Sunday  of  the  Putting-off  the  White  Garments^. 
Another  ceremony  which  appears  early  in  the  fourth 
century  is  the  washing  of  the  feet  of  the  baptized  ^     But 


scvpos  Sicilice,  c.  1,  in  Hardouin  i. 
1755.  Compare  Cone.  Gerundense 
2;  Autissiodorense,  c.  17.  See 
Smith  and  Cheetham's  Diet.  Chr. 
Antiq.  p.  165. 

1  The  more  elaborate  classifi- 
cation of  catechumens,  which  is 
sometimes  supposed  to  have  existed, 
is  probably  founded  on  a  mis- 
understanding of  the  authorities. 
See  F.  X.  Funk  in  the  Tubingen 
TJu'ol.  Quartalschrift,  1883,  pp.  41 
ff. 

^  See  W.  E.  Scudamore  in  Diet. 
Chr.  Antiq.  s.  v.  Traditio  Symboli, 
p.  1994. 

'  St  Augustin's  sermons  56—59 


were  composed  for  such  an  occasion. 
See  Duchesne,  Culte,  p.  291. 

*  The  Abbe  Duchesne  (u.  s.)  be- 
lieves that  this  scene  is  represented 
typically  in  that  of  the  Lord  giving 
the  Law,  frequently  found  in  an- 
cient art. 

6  See  p.  152. 

6  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  Cateeh. 
Myst.  IV.  c.  8;  Ambrose  De  Mys- 
teriis,  c.  6.  (The  authenticity  of 
this  treatise  is  doubted;  but  see 
Fessler's  Instit.  Patrol,  r.  688.) 

''  Dominica  in  albis  depositis ; 
J£vpLaK7]  TTJs  diaKaiv7]crl/j,ov. 

**  Ambrose  u.  s. 

24—2 


Ch.  XIII. 


372 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


if  the  changes  in  the  actual  ceremony  were  unimportant, 
its  general  asj)ect  changed  much  when  the  Church  gained 
its  freedom.  "  It  would  be  difficult  to  imagine  any  scene 
more  moving  than  that  pictured  to  us  in  the  pages  of  St 
Cyril  \  when  on  the  eve  of  the  Saviour's  resurrection,  at 
the  doors  of  the  church  of  the  Anastasis  [at  Jerusalem] 
the  white-robed  band  of  the  newly-baptized  was  seen 
approaching  from  the  neighbouring  baptistery,  and  the 
darkness  was  turned  into  day  in  the  brightness  of  unnum- 
bered lights.  As  the  joyous  chant  swelled  upwards — 
Blessed  is  he  whose  unrighteousness  is  forgiven  and  whose 
sin  is  covered — it  might  well  be  thought  that  angels'  voices 
were  heard  echoing  the  glad  acclaim — Blessed  is  the  man 
unto  whom  the  Lord  imputeth  no  sin,  and  in  whose  spirit 
there  is  no  guile  ^." 

It  is  clear  that  in  the  period  with  which  we  are  dealing 
baptism  was  commonly  administered  to  such  as  were 
capable  of  instruction  in  the  mysteries.  Yet  infants  were 
also  baptized.  "  Let  the  lambs  of  our  flock  be  sealed  from 
the  first,"  said  Isaac  the  Great  ^  in  the  early  part  of  the 
fifth  century,  "that  the  Robber  may  see  the  mark  im- 
pressed upon  their  bodies  and  tremble... Let  the  children 
of  the  kingdom  be  carried  from  the  womb  to  baptism."  A 
great  hindrance  to  the  baptism  of  infants  was  the  desire 
to  reserve  for  a  later  age  the  sacrament  which  might  (it 
was  thought)  wash  away  the  sins  of  the  previous  life. 
Even  the  pious  Monica  preferred  to  defer  her  son's  baptism 
when  she  saw  him  no  longer  in  peril  of  death*.  Those 
who  were  lovers  of  pleasure  rather  than  lovers  of  God 
wished  to  defer  the  purifying  washing  to  the  latest  moment 
of  their  lives.  Against  this  view,  which,  as  may  be  sup- 
posed, was  not  favourable  to  morality,  the  greatest  teachers 
most  earnestly  protested  ^  and  it  gradually  ceased  to 
prevail. 

The  chrismation  and  laying-on  of  hands  followed  in 
ancient  times  immediately  on  the  washing  of  water,  and 


^  Prcefat.  ad  Catcch. 

^  W.  B.  Marriott  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Antiq.  p.  157. 

3  In  Assemani's  Bihlioth.  Orient. 
r.  221,  quoted  by  Marriott  u.  s.  p. 
170.  Compare  Constt.  Apost.  vi. 
15   §  4,  "BaTrrffere  8i  v/xwi'  Kal  ra 


priTTia. 

*  Augustin,  Confess,  i.  11. 

5  Gregory  of  Nyssa  wrote  against 
those  who  deferred  baptism  (Opera, 
u.  124  and  215,  Ed.  Paris,  1638) 
and  Basil  (Opera,  ii.  1057,  ed.  Ben. 
1839)  exliorted  men  to  receive  it. 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


373 


thiw  is  still  the  custom  of  the  East.  In  the  West,  if  no 
bishop  was  present  at  the  baptism,  the  baptized  were 
presented  to  him  afterwards  at  some  convenient  season, 
this  part  of  the  service  being  reserved  to  the  episcopal 
order.  The  Arabic  canons,  called  Nicene\  desire  the 
chorepiscopus  in  his  circuits  to  cause  the  boys  and  girls  to 
be  brought  to  him,  that  he  may  sign  them  with  the  cross, 
pray  over  them,  lay  his  hands  upon  them,  and  bless  them. 
When  heretics  were  readmitted  to  the  Church,  even  if  their 
baptism  was  held  valid,  they  were  in  almost  all  cases 
required  to  receive  imposition  of  hands  from  a  Catholic 
bishop. 

A  layman  was  permitted  to  baptize  one  who  lay  in 
peril  of  death,  who,  if  he  survived,  was  to  be  brought  to 
the  bishop  for  the  laying-on  of  hands  2.  An  African 
Council  in  the  year  398  forbade  women  to  baptize  '^ ;  not- 
withstanding which  in  later  times  mid  wives  were  instructed 
to  baptize  new-born  infants  in  case  of  need. 

The  question  of  the  validity  of  baptism  conferred  by 
heretics,  already  agitated  in  the  second  century,  reappear- 
ed at  a  later  time,  especially  in  connexion  with  the 
Donatists.  The  general  conclusion  arrived  at  in  the 
West  may  be  stated  in  the  words  of  St  Augustin  with 
regard  to  Marcion.  "  If  Marcion,"  he  says  *,  "  hallowed 
baptism  by  the  Evangelic  Words,  in  the  name  of  the 
Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  rite 
was  sound,  even  though  his  own  faith,  as  he  understood  by 
those  words  something  different  from  that  which  Catholic 
truth  teaches,  was  not  sound,  but  stained  with  the  fictions 
of  falsehood."  And  he  elsewhere  defines  his  conception  of 
the  effect  of  baptism  among  heretics.  In  heresy  men 
may  have  baptism,  although  it  does  not  begin  to  avail  them 
unto  salvation  until  they  have  been  converted  from  the 
error  of  their  ways  ^  On  this  principle  the  Second  Council 
of  Aries®  directed  that  Photinians  coming  over  to  the 
Church  should  be  baptized,  but  that  Bonosians  should  not, 


1  Canon  55,  in  Hardouin  i.  472. 
See  on  the  whole  subject  Martene, 
De  Bit.  Antiq.  lib.  i.  c.  ii. 

2  Cone.  Eliberit.  c.  38,  in  Har- 
douin I.  254. 

^  Cone.  Garthag.  iv.  c.  100; 
Hard.  i.  984. 


*  C.  Petilianum,  c.  3. 

®  De  Baptismo  c.  Donatistas,  i. 
12;  IV.  4  and  25;  v.  5  and  8,  etc. 
See  Marriott  in  Diet.  Chr.  Ant. 
173. 

^  Canons  16,  17;  probably  a.d. 
452. 


Ch.  XIII. 


Lay 

Baptism. 


Heretical 
Baptism. 

Western 
view. 


374 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


Ch.  XIII. 

Eastern 
view. 


Jovinian 
on 

Baptism, 
c.  388. 


A.D.  389. 

Euchar- 
ist ic 
Doctrine. 


Presence 
in  t}ie 
Elements. 


as  they  had  already  received  baptism  in  the  name  of  the 
Holy  Trinity.  Id  the  East  the  view  prevailed  that  bap- 
tism must  be  received  from  blameless  priests  or  it  became 
pollution  \  To  this  effect  Athanasius  ^  declares  that  he 
who  is  sprinkled  by  heretics  is  rather  defiled  in  ungodliness 
than  redeemed  with  the  ransom  of  Christ. 

Jovinian,  a  man  in  other  respects  also  eccentric,  as- 
cribed extravagant  effects  to  baptism.  He  endeavoured 
to  shew,  said  his  opponent  Jerome^,  that  they  who  had 
received  baptism  in  the  fulness  of  faith  could  not  be 
tempted  of  the  devil.  If  any  were  so  tempted,  they  had 
received  the  baptism  of  water  only,  and  not  of  the  Spirit. 
All  who  had  kept  their  baptism  unstained  had  the  same 
reward  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  as — on  the  other  hand 
— all  who  fell  had  the  same  punishment.  His  views 
were  condemned  by  Ambrose*  and  by  Siricius^  bishop  of 
Rome. 

2.  The  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Eucharist,  important  as  it 
is,  did  not  become  the  subject  of  any  conspicuous  controversy 
or  of  synodal  decision  within  the  first  six  centuries.  There 
was  no  sharp  authoritative  definition  of  the  effect  of 
Eucharistic  consecration.  Various  teachers  expressed  their 
opinions  in  diverse  ways  without  condemning  those  who 
expressed  theii'  views  differently.  All  agreed  that  there 
was  something  in  the  Mystery  to  be  looked  upon  with 
reverence  and  awe" ;  all  agreed  that  the  Bread  and  Wine 
became,  by  priestly  consecration,  in  some  sense  the  Body 
and  Blood  of  Christ;  but  the  nature  of  the  change  was 
variously  conceived  and  expressed.  Some  regarded  the 
Presence  of  Christ  in  the  Elements  as  a  spiritual  one, 
effectual  only  to  the  faithful  receiver ;  others  conceived 
the  effect  of  consecration  rather  as  a  change  of  substance' 
in  the  Bread  and  Wine ;  while  the  greater  number  of 
teachers  adopted  neither  of  these  views  to  the  exclusion 
of  the  other.     Almost  all  spoke   of  a  change  or  trans- 


^  Constt.  Apost.  VI.  15;  Canones 
Apost.  47,  68. 

^  Contra  Arian.    Oratio,  n.  §  43. 

^  Adv.   Jovinian.  ii.    1,  35;    19, 

20.  Compare  Angnstin,  De  Hcercs, 
82. 

*  Epist.  42  ad  Siricium. 

®  Epist.  7  ad  Diversos  Episc.  in 


Hardouin  i.  852. 

^  ^pLKrbp  and  "tremendum"  are 
common  epithets. 

"^  "Substance"  is  here  used  as 
equivalent  to  oiffla  or  {jirbdracns, 
that  which  underlies  the  visible  and 
palpable  in  any  object  (Socrates, 
H.  E.  iii.  7). 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


375 


formation^,  terms  which  were  also  applied  to  the  baptismal 
Avater  and  to  chrism  after  benediction.  Those  who  were 
most  under  the  influence  of  Origen,  as  Eusebius  of 
Csesarea'^,  Athanasius^,  and  Gregory  of  Nazianzus^  in- 
clined to  the  more  spiritual  view,  which  also  found 
vigorous  support  in  the  West  from  Augustin^  and  his 
followers,  influenced  as  they  were  by  the  belief  that  only 
those  who  were  predestinated  to  life  could  really  and 
truly  feed  upon  the  Son  of  God.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem^ 
Chrysostom^,  Hilary  of  Poictiers^  and  Ambrose®  incline 
rather  to  the  conception  of  a  change  in  the  substance  of 
the  Elements.  Gregory  of  Nyssa'"  held  the  peculiar  view 
that  as,  during  the  Lord's  earthly  life,  bread  and  wine 
became  by  assimilation  part  of  His  natural  Body,  so,  after 
His  Ascension,  by  the  working  of  His  divine  power,  the 
consecrated  Bread  and  Wine  become  part  of  His  glorified 
Body.  The  Nestorian  controversy  was  not  without  effect 
upon  the  views  which  were  held  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
Eucharistic  change.  Those  who  held  that  the  divine 
Nature  of  Christ  did  not  annihilate  the  human,  also  held 
that  the  presence  of  Christ  in  the  Eucharistic  Elements 
did  not  annihilate  the  proper  substance  of  the  Bread  and 
Wine.  It  remains,  said  Theodoret",  in  its  own  essence  or 
substance ;  the  proper  nature  or  substance  of  the  Bread 
and  Wine,  said  pope  Gelasius^'^,  does  not  cease  to  exist. 
Still,  the  popular  tendency  was  naturally  to  the  more 
obvious  and  easily  conceivable  view  of  the  mystic  change, 
and  this  is  found  embodied  in  liturgies.  The  definite 
doctrine  of  transubstantiation  emerged  from  the  scholastic 
philosophy  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

We  have  already  seen  that  from  very  ancient  times 
the  Eucharist  was  regarded  as,  in  some  sense,  a  sacrifice, 
as  in  it  was  commemorated  and  pleaded  the  one  all- 
sufficient   sacrifice  of  Christ.     This  conception  acquired 


^  Mera^oXi?,  transfiguratio. 

"  Denwnstratio  Evaiig.  i.  10,  § 
28  ff. :  Thcol.  Ecclesiast.  iii.  12. 

3  E2)ist.  4  ad  Serapionem. 

*  Omt.  1,  p.  38;  3,  p.  70;  17,  p. 
273. 

5  In  Joannem,  Tract.  25,  pars 
2;  26,  c.  18;  Be  Civ.  Dei,  xxi.  25. 

®  Catech.  22,  c.  4;  but  compare 
c.  3. 


^  Horn.  54  on  John  vi.  54;  com- 
pare Horn.  83  on  Matt,  xxviii. 

s  De  Trinitate,  vin.  13. 

8  De  Mysteriis,  c.  9. 

"  Oratio  Gatechet.  c.  37. 

"  Eranistes,  Dial.  2  (iv.  126 ;  ed. 
Schultze). 

1-  DeDtiabusNaturis  ;  inEouth's 
Opuscula,  493. 


Cn.  XIII. 


Euchar- 
istic 
Sacrifice. 


376 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


Ch.  XIII. 


The  Holy 
Eucharist. 


Missa 

Catechu- 

inenorum. 


Prophecy, 
Epistle 
and 
Gospel. 


greater  prominence  in  the  fourth  century,  and  the  Fathers 
sometimes  use  expressions  which  almost  seem  to  imply 
that  in  the  Holy  Eucharist  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  is  re- 
peated, without  shedding  of  blood.  Such  expressions  as 
"  the  spiritual  sacrifice,"  "  the  bloodless  service,"  are 
frequent,  both  in  sermons  and  in  liturgies \  but  still  they 
imply  rather  a  commemoration  than  an  actual  sacrifice^. 
Yet  Chrysostom  also  speaks  as  if  in  the  consecrated 
Eucharist  the  Lamb  that  was  slain  were  actually  lying 
on  the  altar^  The  connexion  of  propitiatory  masses  with 
the  doctrine  of  purgatorial  fire  is  not  found  before  the 
time  of  Gregory  the  Great. 

In  the  celebration  of  the  Holy  Eucharist  the  same 
elements  are  found  which  were  already  in  use  in  the  third 
century,  but — as  in  the  case  of  baptism — with  some 
amplification  and  added  splendour.  The  first  portion  of 
the  service,  to  which  catechumens  were  admitted,  con- 
sisted principally  of  prayer  and  reading  of  passages  of 
Holy  Scripture'*. 

The  readings  of  Scripture  in  the  Eucharistic  office 
were  in  ancient  times  three ;  the  Prophecy^,  or  reading 
from  the  Old  Testament ;  the  Apostle  or  Epistle ;  and  the 
Gospel.  A  rubric  in  the  Liturgy  of  St  James"  directs  the 
reading  of  a  passage  from  the  Old  Testament ;  and  the 
practice  still  continued  in  the  West  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  sixth  century''.  The  reading  of  a  portion  from  "  the 
Apostle" — that  is,  St  Paul — or  from  an  epistle  of  some 
other  apostolic  writer,  and  from  a  Gospel,  has  probably 
been  universal  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  present  day. 
The  allusions  to  the  practice  are  almost  innumerable. 
At  an  early  date  certain  books  seem  to  have  been  appro- 
priated to  certain  ecclesiastical  seasons,  and  the  readings 


1  Cyril,  Catechet.  23,  c.  8 ;  Lit.  S. 
Jacobi in  Neale's  Tetralo(jia,-p.  137 ; 
S.  Chrysost.  ib.  p.  136. 

^  'AvdnvrjO'tv  epya^6/j.e9a.  dvaLas, 
Chrysostom,  Horn.  17  in  Hebr.  c. 
3;  "  Christiani  peracti  sacrificiime- 
moriam  celebrant."  Augustin,  C. 
Faustum,  20,  c.  18. 

'  Sermons  32  and  35,  pp.  416, 
435,  quoted  by  Kurtz,  Ilamlbuch, 
I.  2,  p.  324. 

^  The   distinction    between    the 


Liturgy  of  the  Catechumens  and 
that  of  the  Faithful  of  course  be- 
came unmeaning  when  Infant- 
baptism  prevailed  everywhere  and 
paganism  was  unknown;  but  the 
form  remained. 

^  See  W.  E.  Scudamore  in  Diet. 
Clir.  Antiq.  s.  v.  Prophecy. 

^  Neale's  Tetralogia,  p.  31. 

''  Gregory  of  Tours,  Hist.  Franc. 
iv.  16. 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


377 


to  have  been  taken  from  them  in  order,  unless  the  course 
was  interrupted  by  some  festival  for  which  there  were 
proper  lections.  It  was,  for  instance,  an  established  rule 
in  St  Chrysostom's  time  that  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
should  be  read  in  the  period  between  Easter  and  Pente- 
cost*; and  St  Augustin^  apologizes  for  interrupting  his 
course  on  St  John,  in  which  he  had  followed  the  order  of 
the  Eucharistic  lections,  because  a  Saint's  Day  intervened 
the  lections  of  which  he  was  not  at  liberty  to  change. 
No  table  of  Epistles  and  Gospels  now  exists  which  is 
certainly  earlier  than  the  time  of  Gregory  the  Great,  but 
"  even  the  earliest  Greek  manuscripts  bear  distinct  traces 
of  having  been  used  for  liturgical  purposesV'  and  "  the 
fact  that  the  same  lections  were  employed  by  the  Fathers 
of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  as  the  subjects  of  their 
homilies  proves  the  very  early  date  of  their  assignment  to 
particular  days*." 

The  word  of  exhortation  and  the  exposition  of  Scrip- 
ture were,  as  we  have  already  seen®,  regarded  as  a  due 
preparation  for  the  Eucharistic  feast.  In  the  fourth 
century  jjreaching  was  regarded  as  a  special  function  of 
the  bishop,  but  not  to  the  entire  exclusion  of  presbyters. 
Chrysostom,  still  a  presbyter,  says  at  the  end  of  a  sermon 
preached  at  Antioch,  that  he  must  now  be  silent  and 
make  way  for  his  Master.  No  layman,  not  even  a  monk, 
however  distinguished,  was  permitted  to  preach  in  a 
church  I  In  some  cases,  a  portion  of  a  sermon  was  ad- 
dressed to  the  general  congregation,  including  catechumens 
and  others,  while  another  was  reserved  for  the  faithful 
when  they  alone  remained^     Sozomen^  tells  us  that  in 


^  Chrysost.  Horn.  i.  in  Acta 
Apost. 

2  Exposit.  in  i.  Joan.  p.  235 
(quoted  by  Kurtz,  Handbuch,  ii. 
342). 

<*  F.  H.  Scrivener  in  Diet.  Chr, 
Antiq.  s.  v.  Lectionary,  p.  1)54. 

^  E.  Venables  in  D.  C.  A.  s.  v. 
Epistle,  p.  622.  See  also  W.  E. 
Scudamore,  ib.  s.  v.  Gospel,  pp.  940 
ff. 

5  B.  Ferrarius,  De  Ritu  Sacra- 
rum  Eccl.  Vet.  Concionum;  H.  T. 
Tzschirner,  De  Claris  Eccl.  Vet. 
Oratoribus    Gomm.    IX.     (Leipzig, 


1817  ff.);  Paniel,  Geschichte  der 
Christl.  Beredsamkeit;  Lentz, 
Gesch.  d.  Christ.  Homiletik;  A. 
Nebe,  Zur  Gesch.  d.  Predigt;  R. 
Eothe,  Gesch.  d.  Predigt;  Moule, 
Christian  Oratory  of  the  First  Four 
Centuries  (Camb.  1864) ;  Ker,  Lec- 
tures on  the  Hist,  of  Preaching. 

6  p.  154. 

^  Leo  I.  Eplst.  32  ad  Pamma- 
chiuni. 

^  Mdller,  Kirchengeschichte,  i. 
560. 

3  Hist.  Eccl.  VII.  19.  See  Bing- 
ham's Antiq.  xiv.  iv.  3. 


ch.  xm. 

Readings 
proper  for 
Seasons. 


Preach- 
ing 5, 


378 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


Rome  neither  the  bishop  preached  nor  anyone  else.  If 
this  was  the  case,  the  custom  certainly  was  broken  through 
in  the  fifth  century  by  Leo  the  Great,  of  whom  we  have 
many  sermons.  To  speak  generally,  preaching  was  fre- 
quent in  the  great  town  churches,  but  comparatively  rare 
in  the  country  villages ;  not  that  presbyters  in  charge  of 
a  church  where  there  was  no  bishop  were  forbidden  to 
preach,  but  that  they  frequently  lacked  the  will  or  the 
power.  It  was  to  correct  this  state  of  things  that  pres- 
byters were  everywhere  enjoined  to  preach,  and  that, 
where  they  were  unable  to  do  so,  deacons  were  empowered 
to  read  homilies  of  the  Fathers \  The  bishop  commonly 
delivered  his  address  sitting  on  his  throne  at  the  east  end 
of  the  sanctuary,  though  he  often  came  forward,  in  order 
to  be  better  heard,  to  the  rail  which  separated  the 
sanctuary  from  the  nave,  or  to  the  desk  from  which  the 
lessons  were  read. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  it  was  only  in 
the  Eucharistic  office  that  sermons  were  preached.  There 
are,  for  instance,  two  sermons  of  Augustin's  on  the  same 
subject^  the  second  of  which  must  have  been  preached  in 
the  afternoon.  Chrysostom  also  preached  at  a  later  hour 
than  that  of  communion,  though  it  appears  that  he  had  to 
combat  a  superstitious  objection  to  hearing  sermons  after 
taking  foodl 

Oratory  occupied  in  the  early  centuries  but  a  subor- 
dinate place  in  the  Western  Church,  but  in  the  East 
it  was  much  more  prominent  and  important,  and  was 
sedulously  cultivated,  the  Greek  preachers  adopting  the 
style  which  was  taught  in  the  schools  of  rhetoric  by  such 
men  as  Libanius.  From  the  schools  also  the  practice 
of  applauding  admired  passages  passed  into  the  churches, 
much  against  the  wish  of  the  greatest  preachers.  Chrys- 
ostom* has  to  remind  his  hearers  that  they  did  not  come 
to  church  to  see  a  stage-play.  Sermons  were  for  the 
most  part  carefully  prepared  orations  delivered  without  a 
manuscript;  but  we  hear  occasionally  of  sermons  being 
read.  In  Syria  sermons  in  a  loosely  metrical  style  were 
in  much  favour. 


1  Cone.  Vasense  u.  c.  2  (a.d.  529). 

2  Psalm  88. 

3  Horn.  10  in  Genesin.     See  Scu- 


damore,   Notitia   Eucharistica,   p. 
271,  note  3  (1st  ed.). 

*  Horn,  in  Matt.  xvii.  c.  7. 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


379 


Of  the  later  portion  of  the  Liturgy,  at  which  only  the  in- 
itiated, the  enlightened,  were  allowed  to  be  present,  St  Cyril 
of  Jerusalem,  in  the  last  of  his  lectures  to  his  catechumens^ 
sujDplies  us  with  an  exact  and  trustworthy  account,  as  it 
existed  in  the  mother  of  Churches  in  the  middle  of  the 
fourth  century.  It  is  to  this  effect.  First,  the  deacon 
presents  to  the  bishop,  and  to  the  presbyters  who  encircle 
the  sanctuary,  water  to  wash  their  hands,  symbolizing  the 
purity  with  which  we  ought,  to  approach  the  holy  mys- 
teries. He  then  exhorts  the  brethren  to  give  each  other 
the  Holy  Kiss,  a  token  of  the  oneness  of  their  souls.  The 
bishop  then  exclaims,  "  Lift  up  your  hearts,"  and  the  faith- 
ful respond,  "  We  lift  them  up  unto  the  Lord ; "  then,  "Let 
us  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord  our  God,"  to  which  the 
response  is,  "  It  is  meet  and  right."  Then  God's  mercies 
in  heaven  and  earth,  through  angels  and  men,  are  com- 
memorated, the  strain  ending  in  "  Holy,  Holy,  Holy,  Lord 
God  of  Sabaoth."  "Then,"  proceeds  Cyril,  "  we  beseech  the 
merciful  God  to  send  forth  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the 
elements  displayed  on  the  altar,  that  He  may  make  the 
bread  the  Body  of  Christ  and  the  wine  the  Blood  of 
Christ ;  for  certainly  whatever  the  Holy  Spirit  may  have 
touched  is  hallowed  and  changed.  Next,... over  that  pro- 
pitiatory sacrifice  we  beseech  God  for  the  peace  of  the 
Church,  for  the  good  ordering  of  the  world,  for  kings,  for 
our  soldiers  and  allies,  for  those  who  are  sick  or  in  trouble, 
and  in  short  we  all  pray  for  all  who  need  help,  and  so  we 
offer  this  sacrifice.  Then  we  commemorate  those  who 
have  gone  to  rest  b3fore  us,  first  among  them  patriarchs, 
prophets,  apostles,  martyrs,  that  God  through  their  prayers 
and  intercessions  may  accept  our  prayer.  After  these,  we 
commemorate  those  holy  fathers  and  bishops  and  all  others 
of  our  body  who  have  gone  to  rest  before  us,  believing  that 
the  greatest  benefit  will  accrue  to  their  souls  on  whose 
behalf  prayer  is  offered  while  the  holy  and  awful  sacri- 
fice is  displayed."  Upon  this  intercession  followed  the 
Lord's  Prayer.  Then  the  bishop  says,  "  Holy  things  for 
holy  men  " — the  consecrated  elements  are  holy,  fit  for  the 
holy  alone  to  receive — to  which  the  response  is  made, 
"  One    only  is   holy.  One  only  is  the  Lord,  even  Jesus 


1  Gatech.  Mtjstag.  v.   p.  323   ed. 
Beued.;  in  Harvey's  Eccl.  Anglic. 


Vindex,  in.  307  ff. 


Ch.  XIII. 

Missa 
Fidelium. 


Washing 
of  hands. 


Kiss. 


Siirsum 
Cor da. 


Preface. 
Sanctus. 
Epiklesis. 


Interces- 
sion for 
the  living, 


and  the 
dead. 


The 

Lord's 

Prayer. 

"Holy 

Things." 


380 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


Christ."  Then  the  chanter  sings  the  words,  "  0  taste  and 
see  how  gracious  the  Lord  is,"  and  the  communicants 
approach,  holding  out  the  right  hand  supported  by  the 
left,  so  as  to  receive  the  Body  in  the  palm,  saying  Amen 
upon  reception.  Cyril  recommends  his  neophytes  to  touch 
their  eyes  with  the  holy  particle  before  partaking.  After 
the  Body,  the  cup  of  the  Blood  is  received,  reverently, 
with  bowed  head,  the  recipient  saying  Amen.  With  the 
moisture  remaining  on  the  lips  the  communicant  is  recom- 
mended to  touch  the  forehead,  the  eyes  and  the  other 
organs  of  the  senses.  Then  he  is  to  wait  for  the  prayer 
and  to  give  thanks  to  God  Who  has  granted  to  him  so 
great  mysteries. 

In  this  description  it  may  be  observed  that  there  is  no 
mention  of  the  recitation  of  the  Words  of  Institution  or  of 
the  Oblation  of  the  Consecrated  Elements.  St  Cyril  was 
perhaps  unwilling  to  mention  these  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  run  the  risk  of  bringing  them  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
heathen.  However  this  may  have  been,  they  are  so 
absolutely  universal  in  all  existing  liturgies  that  it  is 
impossible  to  doubt  that  they  are  derived  from  very  early, 
if  not  absolutely  from  primitive  times^. 

The  characteristics  above  enumerated  are  found,  with 
many  differences  of  detail  and  of  arrangement,  in  almost 
all  the  liturgies  which  have  come  down  to  us.  These  fall 
into  five  divisions ;  the  Palestinian,  of  which  the  Greek 
Liturgy  of  St  James,  corresponding  in  its  principal  features 
with  that  described  by  St  Cyril,  is  probably  the  earliest 
example;  the  Alexandriaa, typified  by  that  called  St  Mark's; 
the  East-Syrian  or  Nestorian ;  the  Hispano-Gallican ;  and 
the  Roman,  from  which  the  Ambrosian  differs  but  little. 
Of  these  the  first  three  may  be  called  Eastern,  the  other 
two  Western,  though  the  latter  also,  especially  the  Spanish, 
shew  traces  of  an  Eastern  origin. 

We  find  in  nearly  all  liturgies,  after  the  Sanctus,  Com- 
memoration of  the  Lord's  Life,  or  of  some  event  in  it,  and 
of  the  Institution  of  the  Eucharist,  Oblation,  prayer  for 
living  and  dead,  leading  on  to  the  Lord's  Prayer,  with  its 


1  It  is  certain  that  the  recitation 
of  the  Words  of  Institution  in  con- 
secrating the  Eucharist  was  re- 
garded as  an  immemorial  custom 


in  the  fourth  century;  see  Chrys- 
ostom,  Horn.  i.  de  Prodit.  Judce, 
c.  6. 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


381 


Embolismus  or  expansion  of  the  petition,  "  Deliver  us  from 
evil."  In  the  Eastern  liturgies  always,  sometimes  in  the 
Gallican  and  Spanish,  but  not  in  the  Roman  or  Ambrosian, 
we  have  an  Epiklesis  or  prayer  for  the  descent  of  the  Hol}'^ 
Spirit  upon  the  elements.  In  the  Alexandrian  (St  Mark's) 
liturgy  alone,  the  prayers  for  the  living  and  the  dead,  and 
for  acceptance  of  the  sacrifice,  are  inserted  in  the  Preface 
which  intervenes  between  the  Sursum,  Corda  and  the 
Sanctus.  The  East- Syrian  liturgies  differ  from  Pales- 
tinian mainly  in  having  the  intercession  for  living  and 
dead  before  the  Epiklesis.  The  most  remarkable  pecu- 
liarity of  the  Roman  rite  is,  that  the  commemoration  of 
the  living  is  separated  from  that  of  the  dead  and  precedes 
consecration.  The  peculiarities  of  the  Gallican  rite  shew 
that  it  belongs  to  a  wholly  different  family  from  the 
Roman.  In  it  the  prayers  for  living  and  dead,  with  the 
kiss  of  peace,  follow  the  oblation  of  the  unconsecrated 
elements  and  precede  the  Sursum  Corda.  The  Sanctus 
is  immediately  followed  by  the  prayer  called  Collectio  post 
Sanctus,  and  this  again  by  the  recitation  of  the  words 
of  Institution.  The  solemn  processions  at  the  bringing 
in  of  the  Book  of  the  Gospels — the  "  Lesser  Entrance  " — 
and  at  the  bringing  in  of  the  Elements — the  "  Greater 
Entrance  " — are  peculiarly  Eastern.  And  it  is  not  only 
in  arrangement  and  in  some  details  that  the  Eastern 
liturgies  differ  from  the  Western.  While  in  the  East  the 
liturgical  forms  are  fixed,  and  nothing  varies  from  day  to 
day  except  the  Lections  and  some  of  the  Hymns ;  in  the 
West  almost  everything  changes  with  the  festival.  The 
Roman  Liturgy  has  regularly  changing  Collects,  as  well  as 
Lections  and  Hymns,  and  had  anciently  an  almost  equal 
store  of  changing  Prefaces \  In  the  Liturgies  of  the 
Gallican  type  even  the  prayers  which  accompany  the 
Consecration  change  with  the  season.  And  the  style  of 
the  East  is  markedly  different  from  that  of  the  West. 
While  the  prayers  of  the  East  are  long,  and  remarkable 
for  a  certain  solemn  magniloquence,  in  those  of  the  West, 
of  which  we  have  familiar  instances  in  our  own  Anglican 
Collects,  we  are  at  once  struck  by  a  terse  and  even  laconic 
expressiveness.       The    "gorgeous    East"    is    contrasted 


1  The  number  of  Prefaces  in  the 
Gelasian    Sacramentary    is    much 


larger  than  in  the  modern  Eoman 
Missal. 


Ch.  XIII. 

Eastern, 


A  lexan- 
driun, 


East- 
Syrian, 

Roman, 


Gallican 
peculiari- 
ties. 


882 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


Ch.  XIII. 

The 

Elements. 
Bread 
leavened. 


Wine 

mixed  ivitli 
water. 


Eulofjia. 


Infant 
Com- 
munion. 

Frequency 
of  Com- 
munion. 


here,  as  in  many  other  points,  with  the  more  sober  and 
practical  West. 

The  Elements  were  still  offered  by  the  members  of  the 
Church.  It  would  seem  to  follow  that  the  bread  was  that 
which  was  commonly  used  in  households,  though  it  may 
no  doubt  have  been  specially  prepared.  In  the  East  there 
is  no  question  that  from  the  first  the  bread  provided  for 
the  Eucharist  has  always  been  leavened,  while  in  the 
West  there  can  scarcely  be  said  to  be  any  distinct  proof  of 
the  use  of  unleavened  cakes  before  the  time  of  Leo  IX. 
(c.  1050)\  It  was  indifferent  whether  the  wine  was  white 
or  red,  so  that  it  was  made  from  the  juice  of  the  grape^ 
The  mixing  of  water  with  the  wine  was  almost  universal,  and 
was  thought  to  symbolize  the  blood  and  water  which  flowed 
from  the  Lord's  pierced  side,  or  the  two  Natures  in  the 
Person  of  Christ^  To  avoid  the  latter  symbolism  the 
Armenian  Monophy sites  used  pure  wine*.  The  conse- 
crated elements  were  called  Eulogise,  a  name  afterwards 
applied  to  that  portion  of  the  oblations  which  had  not 
been  consecrated,  and  which  was  distributed  after  celebra- 
tion to  those  who  had  not  communicated^.  The  old  custom 
of  sending  consecrated  eulogise,  as  a  sign  of  brotherly  feel- 
ing, to  distant  Churches  or  Bishops,  was  forbidden  by  the 
Council  of  Laodicea  in  the  fourth  century ^  Ordinarily, 
any  remains  of  the  consecrated  elements  were  consumed 
by  the  clergy,  or,  it  would  seem,  in  some  cases  by  innocent 
children'',  infant-communion  being  still  practised^  Com- 
munion in  one  kind,  that  of  bread  only,  was  only  heard  of 
among  the  Manichseans^ 

As  in  the  course  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  the 
commemorative  and  sacrificial  aspect  of  the  Holy  Eu- 


^  Bona,  De  Rebus  Liturg ids,  lib. 
I.  0.  23;  W.  E.  Scudamore,  Notitia 
Eucharistica,  p.  749  ff.  (Ist  ed.); 
Smith  and  Cheetham's  Diet.  Chr. 
Antiq.  s.  V.  Elements. 

2  Scudamore,  Notitia,  p.  769  f.; 
Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  p.  604. 

2  Clementine  Liturgy,  Constt. 
Apost.  viii.  12,  §  16;  there  are 
similar  directions  in  most  of  the 
Greek  Liturgies.  See  also  Cone, 
Garth,  in.  c.  24;  Codex  Can.  Afri- 
can, c.  37. 


*  This  practice  was  condemned 
by  the  Cone.  Trullan.  c.  32,  to- 
gether with  that  of  the  Aquarians, 
who  used  water  without  wine. 

^  Called  also  avridoopov  (Scuda- 
more, Notitia,  p.  793  J  Diet.  Chr, 
Antiq.  628  f.). 

6  About  A.D.  365,  in  canon  14. 

7  Evagrius,  //.  E.  iv.  36. 

8  Scudamore  in  Diet.  Chr.  An- 
tiq. s.v.  Infant-Cov)vui)ii)iii. 

9  See  p.  105. 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


883 


charist  came  to  be  more  regarded  than  the  receiving  the 
heavenly  food,  the  faithful  communicated  less  frequently. 
In  the  East  they  are  said  to  have  contented  themselves 
with  one  communion  in  the  year^ ;  but  daily  communion 
was  not  infrequent,  and  Christian  teachers  urged  the 
faithful  to  communicate  at  least  weekly  2.  Councils 
threatened  with  excommunication  those  who  did  not  at 
any  rate  communicate  at  the  three  great  festivals^. 

Even  in  the  time  of  Tertullian*  it  seems  to  have  been 
regarded  as  becoming  that  the  recipients  and  the  ministers 
of  Holy  Communion  should  be  fasting.  But  the  necessity 
of  communicating  fasting  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
recognised  before  the  fourth  century.  From  that  time 
there  is  a  general  consent  of  testimony^  that  the  sacra- 
ment could  only  be  given  to  those  who  had  not  taken 
food  on  the  day  of  reception.  It  was  emphatically  laid 
down  by  conciliar  decrees^  that  the  clergy  who  administered 
the  Eucharist  must  be  fasting.  The  one  exception  was  on 
Maundy  Thursday'. 

The  whole  service  took,  during  the  fourth  and  following 
centuries,  an  aspect  of  greater  stateliness  and  splendour. 
The  number  of  clergy  was  greatly  increased,  and  they 
appeared  in  special  and  appropriate  vestments  ^  These 
were  derived  from  the  dress  once  almost  universal  among 
the  upper  classes  of  the  Empire  both  in  East  and  West ; 
the  long  tunic  with  some  kind  of  super-vestment,  which 
bore  various  names.  The  white  tunic  used  as  the  cere- 
monial dress  of  a  Christian  minister  came  to  be  known 
simply  as  alba,  the  modern  alb.  Other  varieties  of  the 
tunic  were  the  dalmatic  and  the  Greek  sticharion,  both  of 


^  Pseudo-Ambrosius,  De  Sacra- 
mentis,  v.  4. 

2  Augustin,  Epist.  54  ad  Janu- 
arhim;  Gennadius,  De  Dogm.  Ec- 
cles.  c.  23. 

•*  Cone.  Agathense  (a.d.  506),  c. 
18. 

*  De  Corona,  c.  3;  De  Orationc, 
c.  14. 

"  e.g.  Basil,  Horn.  ii.  De  Jejunio, 
p.  13;  Chrysostom  in  1  Cor.  Ham. 
27,  p.  231;  Ad  Pop.  Antioch.  Serrn. 
9,  p.  103 ;  Epist.  125,  p.  683 ;  Au- 
gustin, Epist.  118  c.  6. 

^  Autissiod.  0.  19;  Mati^con.  ii. 


c.  9. 

''  Augustin  ?<.  s.;  Codex  Canon. 
Afric.  c.  41=111.  Cone.  Carthag. 
c.  29. 

8  W.  B.  Marriott,  Vestiarium 
Christianum;  C.  J.  Hefele,  Die  li- 
turgischen  Geiodnder,  in  Beitriige 
zur  Kircliengeschielite  u.  a.  w.  ii. 
150  ft'. ;  D.  Eock,  Hierurgia,  p.  414 
ff. ;  F.  Bock,  Die  liturgisrhen  Ge- 
xv'dnder  des  Mittelalters ;  the  ar- 
ticles on  the  several  vestments  in 
Smith  and  Cheetham's  Diet.  Chr. 
Aniiq. 


Cn.  XIII. 


Fasting 
Com- 
munion. 


Vestments. 


Alb. 


884 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


which  we  find  mentioned  as  lay  garments  before  they 
were  appropriated  to  the  services  of  the  sanctuary.  The 
upper  robe  appears  as  the  <^aiv6\r)<i,  or  planeta;  at  a 
later  date  as  the  casiila,  our  "chasuble."  A  strip  of  cloth 
passed  round  the  neck,  so  that  the  ends  hung  down  in 
front,  or,  for  a  deacon,  passed  over  the  left  shoulder,  was 
called  the  orarium,  in  much  later  times  the  stole ;  and  a 
similar  strip  passed  round  the  wrist,  the  maniple.  There 
is  little  doubt  that  the  omophorion  and  the  pallium  are 
simply  modifications  of  the  stole.  "The  colour  of  the 
liturgical  vestments  up  to  the  Middle  Ages  was  always 
white,  for  all  orders  of  the  clergy^"  As  early  as  the 
fourth  century  we  find  the  pastoral  staff  regarded  as  one 
of  the  insignia  of  a  bishop^  Rings  were  used  by  bishops, 
as  by  other  dignified  persons,  from  early  times';  but  there 
seems  to  be  no  distinct  proof  of  their  being  regarded  as 
symbols  of  office  before  the  latter  half  of  the  sixth 
century*.  Early  in  the  seventh  century  we  find  stole, 
ring,  and  staff  recognised  as  characteristic  of  a  bishop, 
stole  and  chasuble  of  a  priest,  stole  and  alb  of  a  deacon^ 
The  Gregorian  Sacramentary  states  expressly^,  that  no 
cleric  stands  in  the  church  at  any  time  with  covered  head, 
unless  he  have  an  infirmity.  "  It  may  be  safely  asserted 
that  no  case  has  been  at  all  made  out  for  a  general  use  of 
an  official  head-dress  of  Christian  ministers  during  the 
first  eight  or  nine  centuries  after  Christ ^" 

The  burning  of  incense,  as  a  natural  symbol  of  praise 
and  prayer  rising  towards  God,  and  as  surrounding  offerers 
and  offerings  with  a  sweet  odour,  seems  to  have  come  into 
use  in  the  fourth  century.  Incense  is  permitted  by  the 
Apostolical  Canons^  to  be  presented  at  the  time  of  offering, 


1  Hefele,  Lit.  Gewander,  p.  156. 

2  Gregory  Nazianz.  Orat.  42, 
quoted  by  H.  T.  Armfield  in  Diet. 
Ghr.  Antiq.  p.  1567.  Compare  Ce- 
lestinus  Ad  Episc.  Gallia,  c.  1,  in 
Hardouin  i.  1258 ;  Isidore  of  Se- 
ville, De  Off.  Eccl.  c.  5. 

3  The  ring  of  Caius,  bishop  of 
Eome  (t  296),  was  found  when  hia 
tomb  was  opened  in  1622  (Aringhi, 
Jlovia  Subt.  ii.  426;  Boldetti,  Cimit. 
p.  102  f.). 

*  C.    Babington    in   Diet,    Ghr. 


Antiq.  p.  1805.  See  also  Martigny, 
Des  Anneaux  chez  les  Premiers 
Chretiens  et  de  VAnneau  episeopal 
en  particulier  (Macon  1858),  and 
Diet,  des  Antiq.  Chret.  s.  v.  An- 
neau  episcopal. 

^  IV.  Cone.  Tolet.  c.  28  (a.d.  633). 

"  p.  38,  in  Quadragesima. 

^  E.  Sinker,  in  Diet.  Ghr.  Antiq. 
1216.  But  see  the  instance  of  Gre- 
gory of  Nazianzus,  infra,  p.  394. 

8  Canon  3  [al.  4]. 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


385 


but  the  Pseudo-Dionysius^,  possibly  writing  in  the  fourth 
century,  seems  to  be  the  first  who  distinctly  testifies  to 
its  use  in  religious  ceremonial.  Its  use  is  prescribed  in 
ancient  liturgies",  but  it  is  difiicult  to  fix  a  date  for  their 
several  component  parts.  A  thurible  of  gold  is  said^  to 
have  been  sent  by  a  king  of  Persia  to  a  church  in  Antioch 
about  the  year  594.  The  sign  of  the  cross  was  constantly 
used  both  by  the  ministers  in  divine  service  and  by  lay 
people.  "  Make  the  sign  of  the  cross,"  says  Cyril  of  Jeru- 
salem^, "on  thy  forehead,  that  the  demons,  seeing  the 
mark  of  the  King,  may  tremble  and  flee  away.  Make  this 
sign  when  thou  eatest  and  when  thou  drinkest,  when  thou 
liest  down  and  when  thou  risest  up,  when  thou  speakest 
and  when  thou  walkest."  The  kiss  of  peace ^  was  almost 
everywhere  introduced  in  the  Eucharistic  celebration ; 
and  the  faithful,  as  a  mark  of  reverence,  frequently  kissed 
the  door-posts  of  the  holy  house  or  the  steps  of  the 
sanctuary",  while  the  officiating  ministers  kissed  the  altar 
and  the  book  of  the  Gospels''.  "  At  an  early  period  we 
find  fountains,  or  basins  supplied  with  fresh  water,  near 
the  doors  of  churches,  especially  in  the  East,  that  they 
who  entered  might  wash  their  hands  at  least  before  they 
worshipped  ^"  The  earliest  mention  of  blessing  water, 
other  than  that  for  baptism,  seems  to  be  that  in  the 
Apostolical  Constitutions^  which  describes  the  practice 
probably  of  the  latter  part  of  the  fourth  century.  There 
is  no  trace  of  the  use  of  holy  water  in  the  West  until  a 
much  later  period.  The  ceremonial  use  of  lights'"  was 
probably  earlier.  Beginning  in  the  assemblies  before 
dawn  or  in  the  darkness  of  the  catacombs,  the  use  of 


1  Hierarch.  Ecclesiant.  c.  3,  sec. 
2. 

2  e.g.  that  of  St  James,  Tetra- 
logia  Liturri.  55. 

*  By  Evagrius,  II.  E.  vi.  21 
§  18.— See  E.  F.  Littledale,  In- 
cense, a  Liturgical  Essay ;  W.  E. 
Scuclamore,  art.  lucerne,  iu  Diet. 
Chr.  Antiq.  p.  830  ff. 

*  Catech.  rv.  14.  Compare  Chrys- 
ostom  in  I.  Cor.  Horn.  12;  Au- 
gustin,  Sermo  19  De  Sanctis. 

^  See  (e.g.)  Lit.  S.  Jacobi,  in 
Daniel's  Code.v  Liturg.  iv.  104 ; 
S.  Marcilb.  149. 


C. 


0  Ambrose,  Epist.  33  [al.  14]; 
Pseudo-Dionys.  Hierarch.  Eccl. 
c.  II.  §  4 ;  Chrysostom  in  II.  Cor. 
Horn.  30,  §  1,  Prudentius,  Peristeph. 
Hymn.  ii.  519;  xi.  193;  Paulinas 
Nol.  ill  Natal,  S.  Felicis,  Poem.  vi. 
250. 

''  See  on  the  whole  subject  W. 
E.  Scudamore  in  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq. 
p.  902  ff. 

^  W.  E.  Scudamore  inDict.  Chr. 
Antiq.  p.  777. 

9  viii.  29. 

1°  W.  E.  Scudamore  in  Diet. 
Chr.  Antiq.  p.  993  ff. 

25 


Ch.  XIII. 


Sign  of  the 
Cross. 


The  Kiss. 


Washing 
of  hands. 


Holy 

Water. 

Lights. 


3SC 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


Ch.  XIII. 


Posture  of 
Prayer. 


Turnhig  to 
the  East. 


Music. 


Anti- 
phonal 
Chanting 
atAntioch, 


at  Milan, 


lamps  was  maintained  when  the  services  were  in  the  light 
of  day  on  account  of  their  symbolism  and  their  festive 
character^  There  are  also  traces  as  early  as  the  fourth 
century  of  the  practice  of  maintaining  an  ever-burning 
lamp  in  the  sanctuary '^.  Kneeling  was  the  usual  posture 
of  prayer  in  the  churches,  except  on  Sundays  and  in  the 
season  between  Easter  and  Pentecost,  when  it  was  desired 
to  express  exulting  joy  rather  than  humiliation,  and  so 
the  faithful  prayed  standing.  The  praying  figures  of  the 
Roman  catacombs  are  represented  standing  with  arms 
expanded  and  hands  open^  All  faces  were  turned  to- 
wards the  East^  where  the  sun  arose,  the  natural  symbol 
of  the  Light  of  the  World. 

In  early  times  the  voices  of  the  congregation  had  no 
doubt  taken  a  large  share  in  the  responsive  portion  of  the 
service,  but  as  the  music  came  to  be  more  elaborate  it  fell 
more  and  more  into  the  hands  of  the  trained  singers  who 
formed  the  choir.  The  Council  of  Laodicea^  would  indeed 
have  confined  all  singing  in  church  to  these.  The  singing 
consisted  either  of  sentences  chanted  by  the  lay  people  in 
response  to  the  clergy,  or  of  psalms  or  psalm-like  com- 
positions chanted  in  alternate  strains  by  a  choir  divided 
into  two  bands.  The  latter  method  is  believed  to  have 
been  introduced,  perhaps  after  the  example  of  the  Syrians, 
by  Flavian  and  Diodorus  about  the  year  350  at  Antioch, 
whence  it  spread  rapidly  throughout  the  world".  This 
kind  of  music  was  brought  into  use  by  Ambrose  at  Milan 
to  cheer  the  hearts  of  the  faithful  under  the  oppression  of 
the  Arian  empress  Justina',  and  soon  spread  over  the 
Western  Church.  Augustin  however  somewhat  dreaded 
the  concord  of  sweet  sounds  ^  thinking  that  he  was  some- 
times more  moved  by  the  music  than  by  the  matter  of 
what  he  heard ;  and  he  says  that  Athanasius  preferred 


^  In  earlier  times  the  kindling 
of  useless  lights  gave  miich  offence. 
See  Tertullian,  Apol.  35  and  46 ; 
De  Idolol.  15;  Lactantius,  Instit. 
VI.  2. 

^  Epiphauius,  Epist.  ad  Joann. 
Jlieros.  (opp.  iv.  2,  p.  85,  ed.  Diu- 
dorf);  Pauliuus  Nol.  Carm.  Nat. 
III.  98. 

8  Diet.   Chr.  Antiq.,  pp.  723  ff. 


and  1463  ff.,  s.  w.  Genuflexion  and 
Oranti. 

*  Constt.  Apost.  ii.  57,  10;  Basil 
De  Spiritu  Sancto,  c.  66  [al.  27]. 

6  Can.  15  (c.  a.d.  370). 

6  Theodoret,  H.  E.  ii.  24,  §  9; 
Basil  Epist.  207,  ad  Clericos  Neo- 
aesar. 

^  Augustin,  Confessiones,  jx.  7. 

8  u.  s.  X.  32. 


Ecclesiastical  Cei'emomes  and  Art. 


387 


a  simple  monotoue  to  more  elaborate  music.  Jerome^  was 
indignant  with  the  operatic  singers  of  his  time,  and 
Chrysostom^  did  not  like  the  devil's  tunes  to  be  applied 
to  the  songs  of  angels. 

3.  Besides  the  Eucharistic  celeorations,  the  faithful 
had  also  meetings  for  worship  of  another  kind.  We  have 
already  seen^  that  before  the  end  of  the  third  century, 
hours  of  prayer  were  prescribed  for  the  devout ;  in  the 
fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  centuries  the  hour-system  was 
developed  so  that  seven  hours  were  observed^  The 
Eastern  and  Western  offices  for  the  several  hours,  widely 
us  they  now  differ,  probably  owe  their  origin  to  a  common 
source.  The  earliest  form  "  appears  to  have  consisted  in 
the  recitation  of  psalms,  together  with  prayers  and  hymns, 
but  with  no  lessons ;  and  to  have  been  designed  for  use 
during  the  night  and  in  the  early  morning.  SS.  Basil^ 
and  Chrysostom  and  others  often  speak  of  these  services. 
The  origin  of  these  prayers  has  been  traced"  with  much 
probability  to  the  '  Eighteen  Prayers '  used  in  the  Jewish 
synagogue.... The  earliest  form  of  the  Roman  office  appears 
to  have  consisted  solely  of  the  psalter,  so  distributed  as  to 
be  recited  once  a  week.  At  the  end  of  the  appointed 
number  of  psalms  for  the  daily  office  Pater  Noster  was 
said'.  This  seems  to  have  constituted  the  entire  office, 
which  contained  no  lessons,  hymns,  or  collects... Lessons 
were  in  early  times  only  read  at  the  mass... The  nocturnal 
office  of  the  Eastern  Church  and  the  Mozarabic  matins 
contain  no  lessons  at  the  present  time^"  But  the  Council 
of  Laodicea®  (about  A.D.  360)  enjoined  that  in  assemblies 
for  worshij)  the  psalms  should  not  be  said  continuously, 
but  that  after  each  psalm  there  should  be  a  lection,  and 
this  only  from  Canonical  Scripture ;  and  in  Cassian's" 
time  we  find  that  the  custom  of  reading  two  Scripture 
lessons  between  every  twelve  psalms  was  an  immemorial 


1  III  Epist.  ad  Ephes.  v.  I'J. 

^  Horn.  1  in  illiid  Vidi  dominum, 
p.  97  E. 

3  p.  158. 

*  The  Egyptian  practice  is  de- 
scribed by  Cassian  Instittit.  ii.  c. 
1 — 4;  for  the  Western,  see  Martene, 
De  Antiq.  Eccl.  Ritibus,  lib.  iv. 
and  De  Antiq.  Monachorum  Ritibus. 


s  See    especially,   Epist.    G3   ad       about  a.d.  416. 


Neocicsar. 

^  P.  Freeman,  Principles  of  Di- 
vine Service,  i.  64  ff. 

'  Pseudo-Athanasius,    De     Vir- 
gin it  ate. 

^  H.   J.    Hotham  in   Diet.  Chr. 
Antiq.  p.  1444  li'. 

'■'  CO.  17  and  60. 
1"  Distitut.   II.  4  and  6,    written 


25—2 


Ch.  XIII. 


llovr- 

ojjiees. 


Psalter. 


Lections. 


388 


Ecclesiastical  Cer^emonies  and  Art. 


Ch.  XIII. 


Beading 
of  Holy 
Scripture. 


Rogations, 
452. 


Marriage. 


custom  with  the  monks  of  Egypt.  St  Benedict^  in  the 
offices  which  he  instituted  prescribed  no  lesson  during  the 
short  nights  of  summer,  but  during  the  winter  half  of  the 
year  there  were  to  be  three  lections,  and  these  not  only 
from  Scripture,  but  from  those  doctors  of  the  Church  who 
were  in  the  highest  repute.  The  elaborate  system  of  hour- 
offices  ultimately  formed  could  naturally  only  be  kept  up 
in  a  religious  house. 

If  lections  did  not  from  the  first  form  part  of  the  non- 
eucharistic  office,  the  reading  of  Scripture  was  at  any  rate 
highly  commended.  It  was  the  mark  of  a  good  Christian 
to  be  familiar  with  Holy  Scripture^  Copies  of  the  Bible 
were  commonly  on  sale'',  and  rooms  were  provided  in 
churches  to  which  those  who  would  might  retire  to  medi- 
tate on  God's  law*.  Such  teachers  as  Chrysostom  and 
Augustin  rejected  with  indignation  the  excuses  of  the  lay 
people,  who  alleged  that  they  had  no  time  to  read  the 
Scriptures,  or  that  they  were  unable  to  understand  them. 
The  former,  in  fact,  traces  the  corruptions  of  the  Church 
to  the  prevailing  ignorance  of  Scripture ^ 

Litanies  or  "  Rogationes,"  processions,  that  is,  about 
the  fields,  with  supplications  for  fruitful  seasons  and  for 
freedom  from  pestilence  and  famine,  were  instituted  by 
Mamertus,  bishop  of  Vienne,  in  the  year  452,  on  the  three 
days  immediately  preceding  Ascension  Day®. 

4.  Marriage  \  signifying  to  us  as  it  does  the  mystical 
union  that  is  betwixt  Christ  and  His  Church  ^,  has  from 
primitive  times  received  the  blessing  of  the  Christian 
ministry.  The  anxious  care  of  the  Church  for  the  sacred- 
ness  of  family  life  caused  it  to  forbid  the  union  of  near 
kindred  whether  by  blood  or  by  mai-riage  ^  while  in  some 


1  Ch.  9. 
p.  951,  s.  V. 


Antiq. 


See  Diet.  Chr. 
Lection. 

2  Jerome,  Epist.  107  §  12. 

"*  Augustin  in  Ps.  36,  i.  §  2. 

*  Paulinus  of  Nola,  Epist.  321. 

^  Procem.  in  Epist.  ad  Rom.  See 
Neander,  iii.  377  ff. 

®  Sidonius  Apolliuaris,  Epistt. 
V.  14;  VII.  1;  Gregory  of  Tours,  ii. 
34.    See  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  p.  1809. 

'  C.  F.  Stiiudlin,  Geschichte  dcr 
Vorstellungen  u.  Lehre  von  der 
Ehe;  Bingham's  A)itiq.  Bk.  22; 
Martene,  De  Antiq.  Eccl.  Ritibus, 


I.  ix.  3;  A.  J.  Binterim,  Denkwiir- 
digkeiten,  Bd.  6,  Th.  2;  J.  M. 
Neale,  Eastern  Church,  Ditroduc- 
tion,  p.  1011  ff.;  F.  Mejrick  in 
Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  p.  1092  ff.;  J.  H. 
Kurtz,  Handbuch  der  K.-G.  §  278. 

8  The  word  "saeramentum,"the 
Vulgate  rendering  of  ixvarrtpiov  in 
Eph.  V.  32,  is  frequently  applied  to 
marriage.  See  Augustin,  De  Nupt. 
et  Concup.  i.  11. 

9  Cone.  Agath.  c.  61  (a.d.  506); 
Epaon.  c.  30  (a.d.  517). 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


389 


cases  it  recognised  the  validity  of  unions  which  the  state 
did  not  sanction,  as,  for  instance,  those  between  slave  and 
free*.  Marriages  of  Catholics  with  heathens,  Jews  or 
heretics  were  naturally  discouraged,  and  were  punished  by 
a  period  of  penance.  Adultery  of  either  husband  or  wife 
was  generally  recognised  as  a  ground  of  divorce,  and  also 
unnatural  crimes  and  apostasy  from  the  faith.  Remarriage 
of  persons  who  had  been  divorced  was  permitted  by  some 
authorities  ^  but  in  the  end  came  to  be  forbidden  even  to 
the  innocent  party  ^ 

Prayers  and  benedictions  for  the  Mass  which  accom- 
panied marriage  are  found  in  the  Gelasian  Sacramentary  ^; 
but  no  account  of  the  marriage  ceremonies  of  the  West, 
which  differed  in  some  points  from  those  of  the  East,  seems 
to  be  found  earlier  than  that  of  Pope  Nicholas  I.  in  the 
ninth  century,  who  describes  to  the  Bulgarians  ^  the  im- 
memorial usage  of  the  Latin  Church — a  usage  which  pro- 
bably dates  from  an  earlier  period  than  the  sixth  century. 
With  us,  he  says,  no  band  of  gold  or  silver,  or  of  any  other 
metal,  is  placed  on  the  heads  of  the  contracting  parties  in 
the  marriage  ceremony.  We  have,  first,  the  betrothal,  an 
engagement  to  contract  marriage  at  a  future  time,  entered 
into  with  the  full  consent  of  the  parties  themselves  and  of 
those  in  whose  power  they  are,  their  parents  or  guardians. 
The  bridegroom  gives  earnest  (arrhae)  to  the  bride  by 
placing  a  ring  on  her  finger,  and,  either  then  or  at  some 
other  time  appointed,  hands  to  the  bride,  in  the  presence 
of  witnesses  summoned  for  the  purpose,  a  formal  contract 
to  provide  the  dowry  mutually  agreed  upon.  In  the 
church,  they  present  themselves  with  the  oblations  which 
they  are  to  offer  to  God  by  the  hand  of  the  priest,  and  not 
till  then  do  they  receive  the  sacred  veil  anci  the  benedic- 
tion, as  the  first  pair  received  a  blessing  in  Paradise. 
Those  who  marry  a  second  time  however  do  not  receive 
the  veil.      On  leaving  the  church  there  are  placed  on 


1  It  is  to  such  cases  that  I.  Cone. 
Tolet.  c.  17  (a.d.  398),  which  seems 
to  sanction  concubinage,  refers. 

^  Ambrosiaster  [Hilary]  in  1  Cor. 
vii.  15;  Epiphanius,  Hceres.  59,  c. 
4.  Augustin  (De  Fide  et  Opere  c. 
19)  is  doubtful. 

»  Codex  Keel.  Afric.  c.  102 ;  In- 
nocent I.  ad  Exsupcrium,  c.  G,  in 


Hardouin  i.  1005.  See  H.  Ham- 
mond On  Polygamij  and  Divorees, 
in  Works,  i.  447  ff.  (Loud.  1774), 
and  E.  B.  Pusey  in  Library  of 
the  Fathers,  x.  443  ff. 

■*  ni.  52,  vol.  74,  p.  1213  ff. 
Migne. 

^  Hardouin  Cone.  v.  854. 


Ch.  XIII. 


Gere- 
monies. 
Nuptial 
Mass. 


Betrothal. 


Ring. 


Dowry. 
Oblations. 


Veiling 
and  Bene- 
diction. 


390 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


Ch.  XIII. 

Croions. 
Exhorta- 
tion. 


Mutual 
Consent. 

Greek 
Crmonbif). 


Joining  of 
Hands. 


Care  of 
Sick  and 
Btjing. 


their  heads  crowns  which  are  kept  there  for  the  purpose ; 
and,  the  nuptial  rites  being  thus  completed,  they  are 
exhorted,  with  God's  help,  to  lead  a  life  of  unity  for  ever 
after.  These  are,  the  pope  says,  the  principal  ceremonies 
in  marriage,  tliough  there  are  others  in  use  which  he 
does  not  think  it  necessary  to  specify ;  and  he  lays  it 
down  very  clearly  that  nothing  is  absolutely  necessary 
for  a  valid  marriage  but  the  mutual  consent  of  the  parties 
to  be  married,  quoting  Chrysostom  to  the  same  effect  \ 

The  Greek  practice,  with  which  the  pope  contrasts  his 
own,  was  to  place  crowns  on  the  heads  of  the  bride  and 
bridegroom  soon  after  the  service  began.  The  use  of  the 
ring  seems  almost  universal,  but  while  in  the  West  the 
bridegroom  alone  gives  a  ring  to  the  bride  as  earnest  in 
the  betrothal  ceremony,  in  the  East  the  bride  also  gives  a 
ring  to  the  bridegroom  ^.  The  crowning  is  so  important  a 
rite  in  the  Greek  Church  that  it  gives  name  to  the  mar- 
riage-service^  while  in  the  Latin  Church  it  seems  little 
more  than  a  country-custom  of  putting  a  peculiar  head- 
dress on  the  wedded  pair  when  they  left  the  church.  The 
pope  does  not  mention  the  joining  of  hands,  but  it  is  clear 
that  this  was  a  usual  observance  both  in  East  and  West  *. 
The  veil  spoken  of  is  not  the  bride's  veil,  but  a  purple 
covering  spread  over  both  bride  and  bridegroom  at  the 
time  of  the  benediction  as  a  token  of  their  union^ 

5.  As  may  readily  be  supposed,  the  Christian  Church 
did  not  neglect  the  sick  and  dying.     Not  only  did  the  mini- 


1  IIomil.?>2  inMatthaum.  "The 
itiedia3val  formula  Ego  conjungo 
vos  in  matr i monium ...ha,s  not  a 
little  contributed  to  form  wrong 
ideas  on  the  subject  of  marriage 
with  the  rites  of  religion,  and  to 
give  credit  to  the  notion  that  the 
bond  of  matrimony  depends  on  the 
authority  of  the  priest.  The  Coun- 
cil of  Trent  {Sess.  xxiv.  De  Refonn. 
Matr.  c.  1)  mentions  the  formula 
without  making  it  obligatory." 
Duchesne,  Culte  Chret.  p.  415  n.  1. 

^  'Appapusvil^eTai.  See  the  ^Ako- 
\ov0la  i-rrl  fxvTjarpois  in  Daniel  Co- 
dex Lit.  IV.  518. 

^  ' AKoXovOia  rod  (rTe(pavwfiaTOS, 
Daniel  u.  s.  520.     There  are  allu- 


sions to  this  practice  in  Palladius, 
Hist.  Lausiaca,  c.  8;  Evagrius, 
H.  E.  vi.  1 ;  Gregory  of  Tours,  i. 
42;  Acta  S.  Amatoris  in  Acta  SS. 
May  1,  quoted  by  Marteue,  B.  A. 
ii.  i25. 

•*  It  is  alluded  to  by  TertuUian, 
De  Virgg.  Velandis  c.  11,  and  by 
Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  Epist.  57 
ad  Anysium. 

^  St  Ambrose  {Exhort,  ad  Virg. 
c.  6)  derives  nubere  from  this  veil 
or  "cloud."  See  also  De  Virgini- 
tate,  c.  15;  Epist.  19;  Siricius  ad 
Div.  Episcop.  in  Hardouin  Cone. 
i.  852;  Isidore  Hisp.  De  Div.  Off. 
ii.  c.  12,  quoted  by  Martene,  B.  A, 
ii.  125. 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


891 


sters  of  the  Church  visit  the  sick  ^,  offer  prayer  with  and 
for  them,  lay  hands  upon  them,  and  administer  Holy 
Communion  to  them,  but  they  also,  after  the  Apostolic 
precept  and  example,  anointed  them  with  oil  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord  '\  Innocent  I.  early  in  the  fifth  century  seems 
to  have  been  the  first  to  apply  the  word  "  sacramentum  " 
to  this  rite,  and  it  was  not  until  a  much  later  period  that 
it  came  to  be  regarded  simply  as  a  safeguard  for  one 
actually  on  the  point  of  death  and  to  be  called  Extreme 
Unction.  According  to  the  Pseudo-Areopagite  ^  the  body 
of  the  departed  was  anointed  with  oil  in  a  quasi-sacra- 
mental manner,  but  this  testimony  is  unsupported,  and 
probably  represents  the  writer's  sense  of  what  would  be 
fitting,  rather  than  the  fact.  The  wreath  often  placed  on 
the  head  of  the  corpse  was  probably  intended  simply  as 
an  emblem  of  victory  over  death,  but  found  objectors  as 
savouring  of  paganism.  The  superstitious  custom  of 
placing  a  consecrated  host  within  the  lips  of  a  corpse  or  in 
the  coffin  was  condemned  by  several  councils*.  Violent 
expressions  of  grief,  tearing  of  the  garments,  the  use  of 
sackcloth  and  ashes,  the  bearing  of  cypress-branches, 
and  the  like,  were  held  to  belong  rather  to  those  who 
sorrowed  without  hope  than  to  those  who  had  Christ  in 
them,  the  hope  of  glory  ^  The  fimeral-|)rocession  was 
almost  always  in  the  full  light  of  day,  though  lamps  and 
torches  were  borne  in  it,  as  well  as  branches  of  olive  and 
palm.  The  philosophic  emperor  Julian  forbade  funerals 
in  the  daytime,  especially  on  the  ground  that  to  meet 
them  was  of  ill  omen^     From  the  fourth  century  onward 


1  Possidius,  Vita  Augustini,  c. 
27. 

2  On  this  rite,  which  has  been 
the  subject  of  much  controversy, 
see  Mabillon,  J)e  Extrerna  Unc- 
tione  in  the  Preface  to  Acta  SS. 
Ben.  Sffic.  I.;  Martene,  De  Ant. 
Eccl.  Ritibus,  Ub.  i.  c.  7 ;  J.  Dal- 
laius,  De  Duobus  Latinorum  ex 
inictione  Sacraineittis ;  C.  Kortholt 
Diss,  de  extrerna  Unctions,  in  Diss. 
Anti-Baroniance,  vi.  163  ff. ;  W.  E. 
Scudamore  in  Diet.  Ghr.  Antiq. 
p.  2004. 

*  Hierarch.  Eccl.  c.  7.  On  the 
whole  subject  of  Burial,  see  Mar- 


tene, De  Rit.  Eccl.  Antiq.  lib.  iii. 
cc.  12—15;  L.  A.  Muratori,  De 
Vet.  Christ.  Sepidchris  in  Anecdota 
I.  Dis.  17,  and  De  Antiq.  Chr. 
Sej).  in  Anecdota  Grceca,  Dis.  3 ; 
Bingham's  Autiq.  Bk.  23,  c.  8; 
Rejjort  on  Burial  Rites  to  Lower 
House  of  Convocation,  1877;  Diet. 
Chr.  Antiq.  s.  vv.  Burial  and  Ob- 
sequies of  the  Dead. 

*  III.  Carthag.  c.  6  (a.d.   397); 
Trullan.  c.  83  (a.d.  692). 

■'  Gone.   III.    Tolet.   c.   22    (A.n. 
589). 

*  Codex  Tlieodos.  ix.  17,  5. 


Oh.  Xm. 


Unction. 


Anointing 
of  Corpse 


Wreath. 


Vehement 
grief 
depre- 
cated. 


Funerals 

in 

daytime. 


392 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


Ch.  XIII. 


Ordina- 
tion, who 
disquali- 
fied for. 


attempts  seem  to  have  been  made  to  bury  as  near  as  possi- 
ble to  a  church,  for  an  edict  of  Gratian  repeats  the  old 
law  against  burying  in  cities,  and  expressly  provides  that 
no  exception  is  to  be  made  for  places  hallowed  by  the 
remains  of  apostles  or  martyrs  \  The  custom  of  holding  a 
banquet,  or  celebrating  the  Eucharist  at  the  tomb  "^  still 
lingered  in  the  fourth  century.  A  custom  arose  in  early 
times  of  placing  lights  on  graves.  This,  which  seems  to 
have  been  derived  from  paganism,  was  condemned  by  the 
Council  of  Elvira  ^,  and  in  the  early  part  of  the  fifth  century 
was  attacked  by  Vigilantius,  to  whom  Jerome*  replied  in 
rather  a  half-hearted  way,  pleading  that  it  was  a  practice 
of  simple-minded  people  who  meant  no  harm  by  it. 

G.  Great  care  was  exercised  in  the  choice  of  persons 
to  be  ordained  ^  Some  classes  were  altogether  excluded,  as 
catechumens,  persons  newly  baptized,  baptized  privately 
in  severe  sickness,  or  by  heretics,  or  who  after  baptism 
had  lived  unworthily  of  their  vocation ;  penitents ;  those 
who  had  been  twice  married ;  possessed  or  epileptic  per- 
sons, or  such  as  had  suffered  any  bodily  mutilation ;  all 
who  exhibited  themselves  on  the  stage  or  in  the  cii'cus; 
all  slaves,  and  even  freedmen  who  were  not  clear  of  every 
obligation  towards  their  former  masters;  all  whose  con- 
dition of  life  did  not  afford  them  the  necessary  freedom  to 
devote  themselves  to  the  service  of  the  Church,  as  soldiers 
or  members  of  the  civil  service.  The  state  forbade  those 
who  were  responsible  for  the  payment  of  the  imperial 
taxes — the  curiales — to  be  withdrawn  from  this  duty  by 
ordination^  In  early  times  a  bishop  seems  not  to  have 
been  ordained  under  the  age  of  fifty  years;  Justinian's 
legislation  required  thirty-five ;  in  practice,  it  was  held 
sufficient  if  a  bishop-elect  had  attained  thirty  years. 
Strict  enquiry  was  made  as  to  a  candidate's  soundness 
in  the  faith,  his  blamelessness  of  life,  and  his  social  con- 


1  Codex  Theodos.  ix.  17,  6. 

2  See  p.  159. 

*  Can.  34,  probably  about  a.d. 
325,  but  possibly  earlier. 

*  C.  Vigilantium,  §  8. 

"  J.  Morinus,  De  Sacris  Ordina- 
tionihus;  F.  Halierius  De  Sacris 
Electionibus  et  Ordinationibus  (Ro- 
ma) 1749) ;  Martene,  De  Rit.  Eccl. 


Antiquis,  lib.  i.  c.  8;  Bingham's 
Antiq.  Bks.  2  and  3;  E.  Hatch  in 
Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  s.vv.  Orders, 
Holy;  Ordinal;  Ordination. 

^  This,  with  other  conditions 
imposed  by  the  imperial  govern- 
ment, is  found  in  Justinian's  No- 
vella 123  (Migne's  Patrol.  Lat.  72. 
p.  1019  ff. ). 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


393 


dition.  A  provincial  council^  in  the  sixth  century  decreed 
that  no  one  should  be  ordained  to  the  priesthood  who  had 
not  served  a  year  at  least  as  lector  or  subdeacon.  No  one 
was  ordained  except  to  a  particular  church,  his  title  to 
orders^  Among  the  few  exceptions  to  this  rule  were 
Paulinus  and  Jerome.  The  clergy  in  the  period  of  which 
we  are  now  treating  were  probably  rarely  educated  for 
their  work  in  a  school  of  theology^.  Such  schools  do  not 
appear  to  have  existed  in  the  West,  and  in  the  East  those 
which  arose  at  Alexandria,  Antioch,  and  elsewhere,  seem 
to  have  come  to  an  end  or  lost  their  influence  in  the 
troubles  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries.  So  long  as  the 
great  pagan  schools,  such  as  those  of  Athens  and  Alex- 
andria, continued  to  flourish,  many  young  men  of  Christian 
families  sought  in  them  general  culture  and  philosophical 
training,  while  they  afterwards  specially  prepared  them- 
selves for  the  priesthood  in  the  subordinate  offices  of  the 
Church  or  in  monastic  retirement.  When,  however,  it 
became  customary  for  the  clergy  of  a  city  to  live  together 
in  one  dwelling  under  the  superintendence  of  the  bishop, 
such  clergy-houses  commonly  became  seminaries  in  which 
candidates  for  orders  were  trained  for  their  future  work. 

The  ceremonies  which  were  used  in  admitting  a  person 
to  the  office  for  which  he  had  been  chosen  were  mainly 
two ;  the  imposition  of  hands,  with  prayer  for  the  special 
grace  required ;  and  the  formal  delivery  of  the  insignia  and 
instruments  of  office.  The  laying  on  of  hands  with  a  view 
to  the  conferring  of  spiritual  gifts  was  in  most  cases  the 
privilege  of  the  episcopal  order  only,  but  the  presbyters 
who  were  present  also  laid  their  hands  on  the  head  of  one 
who  was  being  ordained  presbyter,  and  there  was  no  laying 
on  of  hands  in  the  admission  to  office  of  subdeacons  and 
others  who  filled  the  lower  ranks  in  the  service  of  the 
Church*.  The  delivery,  to  one  admitted  to  an  office,  of  the 
instruments  which  he  was  to  use  was  a  natural  inaugura- 


^  Bracarense  i.  [al.  ii.]  c.  20 
(a.d.  5G3),  in  Hardouin  Cone.  iii. 
352. 

2  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  pp.  1486, 
1556,  1966.  The  rule  is  found  in 
Cone.  Chalced.  c.  6  (a.d,  451). 

^  Justinian  (Nov.  123)  insists  on 
the  necessity  of  training  for  the 


clergy.  That  it  had  been  neglected 
appears  from  his  words,  "alii  [cle- 
rici]  ne  ipsas  quidem  sacras  obla- 
tionis  et  sacri  baptismatis  preces 
scire  dicuntur." 

*  The  Constt.  Apostt.  however 
(viii.  21,  22),  prescribe  imposition 
of  hands  for  subdeacon  and  reader. 


Cn.  XIII. 
Title. 


Training 
of  the 
Clergy. 


Ttites  of 
Ordina- 
tion. 


394 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


Ch.  XIII. 


The  Cycle 
OF  Festi- 
vals. 
Socrates 
oil  Festi- 
vals. 


tion  of  his  new  functions.  A  reader  had  to  read;  the 
book  was  delivered  to  him,  and  he  read\  A  subdeacon 
had  to  wash  the  bishop's  hands ;  a  pitcher  and  towel  were 
delivered  to  him,  as  well  as  the  chalice  and  paten  of  which 
he  was  to  have  charge ^  A  deacon  had,  in  southern  coun- 
tries, to  drive  away  insects  from  the  oblations  upon  the 
altar;  a  fan  for  this  purpose  was  delivered  to  him^  The 
delivery  of  the  eucharistic  vessels  to  a  presbyter  is  not 
found  in  the  oldest  Western  ordinals*.  Gregory  of  Na- 
zianzus  tells  us^  that  when  he  was  made  bishop  he  was 
vested  by  his  ordainers  in  a  long  tunic  or  alb  and  a  mitre, 
but  scarcely  any  other  allusion  to  the  custom  of  vesting  a 
candidate  is  found  until  a  much  later  date®.  A  peculiar 
ceremony  in  the  oixlination  of  a  bishop  was  the  holding  of 
the  book  of  the  gospels  over  his  head  by  two  bishops  while 
he  received  the  benediction  and  the  imposition  of  the  hands 
of  the  other  bishops''.  The  use  of  chrism  in  ordination 
is  first  alluded  to  by  Gregory  the  Greats  From  early 
times  the  clergy  were  forbidden  to  wear  long  hair, and  "in 
the  latter  part  of  the  sixth  century  the  tonsure  seems  to 
have  become  definitely  established  as  a  mark  of  separation 
between  clergy  and  laity"."  The  shape  of  the  tonsure 
varied  in  different  Churches. 

II.  Socrates^"  the  historian,  noticing  the  diversity  of 
practice  in  different  regions  with  regard  to  the  observance 
of  the  Paschal  festival,  points  out  that  the  observance  of 
special  days  and  months  and  years  had  no  Scriptural 
authority.  The  Mosaic  law  had  (he  says)  no  direct  bear- 
ing upon  the  Christian  Church,  and  the  ceremonies  and 
observances  which  he  saw  in  actual  use  had  arisen, 
for  the  most  part,  simply  from  local  use  and  wont.  The 
cycle  of  festivals  satisfied  a  craving  of  human  nature.  As 
for  the  Apostles,  they  did  not  aim  at  giving  rules  for 
feast  days,  but  at  promoting  piety  and  righteousness. 
This  is  true ;  the  end  of  the  observance  of  special  days 
and  hours  is  the  maintaining  and  raising  of  the  spiritual 


1  Statuta  Eccl.  Antiqua,  c.  8. 

2  lb.  c.  5. 

^  Euchologion,  p.  253.  See  Mar- 
tene,  De  Rit.  Eel.  Antiq.  i.  iv.  8, 
§  5  and  viii.  11,  ordo  19;  E.  Vari- 
ables in  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  675  f, 

*  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  p.  1508. 


^  Orat.  X.  in  seipsum,  p.  241. 
«  Cone.  Tolet.  iv.  c.  28  (a.d.  633). 
''  Stat.  Eeel.  Antiq.  c.  2. 
^  Expos,  in  I.  Regum,  c.  4. 
»  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  p.  1491. 
1"  Hist.  Eccl.  V.  22,  p.  292. 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


395 


life  of  the  Church ;  but  in  time  festivals  and  fasts  of  uni- 
versal observance  ac(|uire  a  sacredness  which  few  dispute. 

i.  The  Lord's  Day  and  the  "stations"  of  Wednesday 
and  Friday  were  already  observed  before  the  end  of  the 
third  century.  Constantino  is  said^  to  have  closed  the  law- 
courts  and  forbidden  labour  on  the  Friday  as  well  as  on 
the  Sunday,  the  Wednesday  being  probably  always  a  day 
less  strictly  observed.  Socrates^  notes,  as  a  primeval 
custom  of  the  Alexandrians,  that  on  the  Wednesday  and 
Friday  the  Scriptiu'es  are  read  and  expositions  given  in 
the  churches ;  that,  in  short,  everything  belonging  to  the 
solemn  assembly  is  done,  except  the  actual  celebration. 
Everywhere,  in  the  early  part  of  the  fifth  century,  there 
was  a  celebration  of  the  Holy  Eucharist  on  the  Sabbath 
(Saturday),  excepting  at  Alexandria  and  Rome,  where  a 
local  custom  forbade  it ;  while  in  the  parts  of  Egypt  bor- 
dering on  Alexandria  and  in  the  Thebaid  the  inhabitants 
had  a  custom  on  that  day  differing  from  that  of  the  rest  of 
Christendom ;  they  partook  of  the  Eucharist  in  the  even- 
ing after  a  sumptuous  repast^  In  the  West,  however, 
and  particularly  at  Rome,  Saturday  became  a  fast-day, 
and  had  no  celebration  of  the  Eucharist*.  Four  times  in 
the  year,  once  in  each  of  the  four  seasons  of  the  year 
(quatuor  tempera),  three  days  of  the  week,  our  Ember 
Days,  were  observed  with  special  solemnity.  This  custom 
appears  to  be  peculiar  to  the  Roman  Patriarchate,  and  not 
to  be  older  than  the  fifth  century^ 

2,  The  disputes  as  to  the  proper  time  of  celebrating 
Easter  still  continued  in  the  period  with  which  we  are 
now  concerned.  At  the  Council  of  Nicoea  it  was  agreed 
that  all  the  Churches  should  conform  to  the  use  which 
was  observed  in  Egypt,  Africa,  Italy,  and  the  West 
generally^.  It  is  not  clear  that  the  council  laid  down 
any  rule  for  the  determination  of  Easter-Day^ ;  certainly 


1  Sozomen,  i.  8,  p.  20. 

2  V.  22,  p.  295.  This  resembles 
tbe  custom  of  the  EngUsh  Church, 
of  saying  the  "Ante-commuuion" 
Service,  and  preaching,  when  no 
celebration  follows. 

a  Socrates,  v.  22,  p.  295;  Sozo- 
men, VII.  19,  p.  308.  This  pecu- 
liarity was  probably  derived  from 
the    Jews,   whose  custom  was  to 


"eat the  fat  and  drink  the  sweet" 
on  a  day  which  was  "holy  to  the 
Lord."     See  Nehemiah  viii.  10. 

4  Cone.  Elih.  c.  26  (title);  Du- 
chesne, Gulte  Chretien,  p.  222. 

^  Duchesne,  u.  s.  p.  223. 

8  Theodoret,  H.  E.  i.  10;  So- 
crates, i.  9;  Eusebius,  Vita  Con- 
stant, iii.  18. 

"^  Ambrose  however  (EpLst.  23  ad 


Cn.  XIII. 

The  Week. 


Ember 
Days. 


Date  of 
Easter. 


Nicene 
arrange- 
ment. 


896 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


it  did  not  put  an  end  to  the  controversy.  The  Qiiartode- 
ciman  practice  still  required  to  be  repressed  at  the  time  of 
the  Council  of  Constantinople*  in  the  year  381,  and,  indeed, 
did  not  die  out  until  the  sixth  century.  Even  Rome  and 
Alexandria  often  celebrated  their  Easter  on  a  different 
day.  This  difference  arose  partly  from  the  fact  that  the  two 
Churches  used  different  cycles  for  the  computation  of  the 
day  of  the  Paschal  full-moon,  partly  from  the  Komans  holding 
that  Easter-Day  must  never  fall  earlier  than  the  16th  day 
of  the  Paschal  moon,  while  the  Alexandrians  allowed  it  to 
be  celebrated  on  the  15th;  and  the  Roman  tradition  did 
not  allow  Easter-Day  to  fall  later  than  April  21st,  while 
Alexandrian  custom  extended  the  Paschal  limit  to  the 
25th^  The  Britons  observed  Easter-Sunday  so  early  as 
the  14th  day  of  the  Paschal  moon,  if  it  so  fell  according 
to  their  anti(|uated  cycle^— a  practice  which  became  a 
point  of  difference  between  them  and  the  Roman  mis- 
sionaries under  Augustin.  An  important  step  towards 
uniformity  was  made  when  Victorius  of  Aquitaine,  about 
A.D.  457,  composed  a  new  cycle  combining  the  Alexandrian 
lunar  cycle  of  nineteen  years  with  the  solar  cycle  of 
twenty-eight  years,  thus  forming  the  Victorian  Period  of 
532  years.  Still,  discrepancies  occurred'*,  until  the  matter 
was  finally  set  at  rest  by  the  Roman  abbat  Dionysius 
Exiguus,  the  same  who  introduced  the  era  "Anno  Domini" 
into  Chronology.  He  employed  the  Victorian  Period  in 
the  Easter  Table  which  he  constructed,  and  in  fact  seems 
to  have  done  little  more  than  adapt  the  Victorian  calcula- 
tions to  his  own  era  of  the  Nativity.  The  Table  of 
Dionysius  was  received  almost  universally  in  East  and 
West,  and  from  this  time  we  have  little  controversy  about 
the  date  of  Easter-Day,  except  where,  as  in  Britain,  the 
Roman  missionaries  found  a  Church  standing  on  older 
ways  than  their  own. 

The  forty  days  preceding  Easter  are  mentioned  as  days 


Episc.  per  Mmil.),  believed  that  the 
Council  did  lay  down  a  rule.  See 
Butcher,  Ecclesiastical  Calendar, 
p.  267. 

1  Canon  7. 

^  De  Rossi,  Inscript.  Christiana:, 
I.  Ixxxii. — xcvii. ;  Br.  Krusch,  T)cr 
Hi-JiiJirige     Ostercyclus     u.     seine 


Quellen  (Leipzig  1880);  Bulletin 
Critique,  i.  2^3. 

3  Bede,  H.  E.  ii.  2. 

*  Br.  Krusch,  Die  Einfilhrung 
des  Gricchischcn  Paschalritus  im 
Abendlande,  in  Neues  Arcliiv,  ix. 
99fif. 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


397 


of  special  observance  from  the  fourth  century  \  and  are  Ch.  XIII. 
regarded  as  the  time  for  preparing  candidates  for  baptism, 
penitents  for  absolution,  and  the  faithful  generally  for 
joining  worthily  in  the  Paschal  festival.  One  of  the  ob- 
servances of  such  a  season  was  naturally  fasting,  but  the 
nature  and  extent  of  this  varied  considerably  in  different 
places.  The  extension  of  the  Lenten  fast  in  the  Alex- 
andrian patriarchate  may  be  traced  in  the  Festal  Letters 
of  Athanasius  from  the  year  329  to  347.  At  the  earliest 
date  he  speaks  of  the  season  of  the  Forty  Days  and  the 
week  of  fasting ;  at  the  latest,  of  the  Forty  Days'  fast  and 
the  Holy  Week  before  Easter-.  At  Rome  only  three 
weeks  before  Easter  were  at  this  time  observed  by  fasting, 
and  even  in  these  the  Sabbath  and  the  Lord's  Day*  were  not 
lasts.  In  the  Church  of  Antioch  and  its  dependencies  the 
Forty  Days  seem  to  have  been  distinguished  from  Holy 
Week^,  while  at  Jerusalem,  Alexandria,  and  Rome,  Holy 
Week  was  included  in  them®.  Towards  the  middle  of  the 
fifth  century  the  Churches  generally  agreed  in  observing 
specially  the  six  weeks  preceding  Easter.  Deducting- 
Sundays,  this  period  included  only  thirty-six  days®  of 
actual  fasting — a  circumstance  which  led  to  the  addition 
to  the  Lent  fast  of  the  four  days  preceding  the  First 
Sunday  in  Lent.  This  addition  was,  however,  not  made, 
in  Rome  at  least,  until  after  the  time  of  Gregory  the 
Great. 

The  week  which  immediately  precedes  Easter  Day, 
the  emphatically  "Holy"  Week,  was  specially  observed 
from  a  very  early  period.  The  term  "  Palm  Sunday "  does 
not  seem  to  be  applied  to  the  Lord's  Day  which  begins 
this  week  by  any  earlier  authority  than  Isidore  of  Seville^, 
in  the  early  part  of  the  seventh  century.  On  the  Thurs- 
day in  this  week,  our  Maundy  Thursday,  the  Institution 
of  the  Holy  Eucharist  was  specially  commemorated,  and 
in  some  Churches  the  faithful  communicated  on  this  day^ 


Ilolti 
Week. 


1  Cone.  Laodiceniiin,  c.  49  ff. 
(c.  A.D.  370). 

-  Duchesne,  Culte  Ghret.  232. 

3  Socrates,  v.  22,  p.  294. 

*  Chrysostom  in  Genesin,  Horn. 
30,  c.  1 ;  Goiist.  Apost.  v.  13.  See 
Duchesne,  u.  s.  233. 

6  Duchesne,  u.  s. 


''  This  was  regarded  as  the  tithe 
of  the  year;  see  Cassian  Collat, 
XXI.  25. 

7  Be  Officiis,  i.  28. 

8  Cone.  Garthag.  m.  c.  29  (a.d. 
397);  Augustin,  Epist.  118  ad 
Jannar.  c.  7;  Chrysostom,  F.pist. 
12;-,,  p.  683. 


398 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


Ch.  XIII. 


after  taking  their  evening  meal — a  reminiscence  of  the 
circumstances  of  the  original  Institution.  Good  Friday, 
the  day  on  which  tlie  Lord's  Crucifixion  was  commemo- 
rated, was  a  day  for  the  strictest  fasting  and  for  every 
display  of  sadness  and  mourning.  On  this  day  there  was 
no  Eucharists  At  Jerusalem,  the  true  Cross  was  exposed 
to  the  faithful,  who  on  this  day  alone  were  permitted  to 
ajiproach  and  kiss  it.  On  Easter-Eve  the  joy  of  the 
approaching  festival  began  to  appear ;  troops  of  neophytes 
were  buried  with  Christ  in  baptism,  and  numbers  of  the 
faithful  passed  the  night  in  the  churches  waiting  for 
His  Resurrection ^  Abundant  lamps  were  lighted^,  and 
in  some  places  fires  were  kindled^  The  introduction  of 
the  blessing  of  the  Paschal  Taper  is  attributed^  to  Pope 
Zosimus,  early  in  the  fifth  century.  The  Day  of  the 
Resurrection  itself  was  celebrated  with  every  sign  of  joy 
and  exultation,  which  was  prolonged  in  some  degree  to 
the  Feast  of  Pentecost.  From  the  middle  of  the  fourth 
century  the  fortieth  day  after  Easter,  Holy  Thursday,  was 
observed  as  a  commemoration  of  the  Lord's  Ascension^ 
In  the  East  the  Manifestation  of  the  Lord,  both  at  His 
birth  and  at  His  baptism,  was  celebrated  on  the  sixth  of 
January  in  the  fourth  century',  while  at  the  same  period 
in  Rome  and  its  dependencies  the  twenty-fifth  of  December 
was  observed  as  the  day  of  Christ's  Nativity ^  but  the 
Festival  of  Jan.  6  seems  to  have  been  then  unknown 
there.  In  the  fifth  century  the  observance  of  the  25  Dec. 
as  the  Nativity  had  spread  into  the  East,  and  that  of  the 
6  Jan.  as  the  Epiphany,  the  Manifestation  of  Christ  to 


1  At  what  date  it  became  custo- 
mary to  celebrate  no  Eucharist  on 
this  day  is  uncertain,  but  none  is 
mentioned  in  the  directions  for  the 
observance  of  Good  Friday  given 
in  Apost.  Const,  v.  18.  Duchesne 
(CitUe,  238)  thinks  that  tlie  early 
portion  of  the  Eoman  Liturgy  for 
this  day  preserves  the  ancient  type 
of  a  service  without  consecration. 
The  Mass  of  Presanctified  is  not 
earlier  than  the  seventh  or  eighth 
century. 

-  Const,  A^mst.  v.  1!(. 

■*  Cyril,  Catech.  i.  15 ;  Eusebius, 
Vifn  Const,  iv.  22. 


4  Martone,  De  Bit.  Antiq.  iv.  24. 
3 ;  G.  T.  Stokes  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr. 
IV.  204,  s.  Y.  Patricius. 

^  By  the  Liher  Pontificalis,  re- 
ferred to  by  Duchesne,  Culte,  242. 

^  See  H.  Browne,  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Antiq.  i.  145. 

^  Cassian,  CoUat.  x.  2. 

8  The  Liherian  Calendar  (a.d. 
330)  has  the  entry:  "viii  kal.  Jan. 
natus  Christus  in  Betleem  Judea," 
but  no  notice  of  the  Epiphany  on 
Jan.  6  (Duchesne,  Cultc,  248).  See 
E.  Sinker  in  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  s.  v. 
Christmas. 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  avd  Art. 


899 


the  Gentiles  and  also  His  Baptism,  had  extended  into  the 
West,  so  that  both  festivals  were  observed  by  almost  the 
whole  Church.  The  first  mention  of  the  Epiphany  in  the 
West  appears  to  be  in  the  year  SGO,  when  Julian,  not  yet 
a  declared  pagan,  attended  the  Church  services  on  that 
day  at  Vienne  in  GauP.  Forty  days  after  the  com- 
memoration of  the  Lord's  Nativity  followed  that  of  His 
Presentation  in  the  Temple.  On  the  octave  of  the 
Nativity  was  commemorated  His  Circumcision,  when  the 
name  Jesus  was  given.  The  25  December  was  probably 
chosen  for  the  conmiemoration  of  Christ's  birth  because  it 
was,  according  to  the  Roman  Calendar  then  current,  the 
winter  solstice.  The  day  on  which  the  sun,  as  it  were 
new-born,  turns  again  towards  us  was  thought  a  fitting 
epoch  to  commemorate  the  advent  of  the  Sun  of  Right- 
eousness. 

3.  From  an  early  age,  commemorations  of  the  prin- 
cipal saints  mentioned  in  Scripture  came  to  have  special 
days  assigned  to  them,  A  commemoration  of  the  Holy 
Virgin  seems  to  have  been  associated  with  that  of  the 
Lord's  Birth  ^.  Rome  does  not  seem  to  have  adopted 
any  festival  in  honour  of  the  Virgin  before  the  seventh 
century^  St  Stephen,  St  Peter,  St  James,  St  John  and 
St  Paul  were,  at  any  rate  in  some  Churches,  commemorated 
between  Christmas  and  New- Year's  Day*.  And  not  onl}^ 
these,  but  the  other  Apostles,  came,  as  might  be  expected, 
to  receive  special  commemorations  in  every  land  which 
the  sound  of  their  voices  had  reached.  But  besides  the 
Scriptural  saints,  a  crowd  of  names  of  martyrs  and  others 
who  had  served  Christ  in  their  generation  came  to  be 
held  in  great  honour  and  venerated  with  special  service 
on  special  days. 

When  after  struggle  and  persecution  the  flock  of  Christ 
obtained  rest,  it  was  natural  that  they  should  look  back 
with  love  and  veneration  to  the  heroes  of  the  faith  who 
had  fallen  in  the  great  fight.  From  the  first,  martyrs  and 
confessors  had  been  held  in  reverence;  devout  men  carried 


'  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  xxi.  2. 

2  Duchesne,  Culte  Ghret.  258; 
R.  Sinker  in  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq. 
11.3'J  ff. 

^  Duchesne,  u.  s,  259. 


^  Gregory  Nyssen.  In  Laudevi 
Banilii,  in  Opera,  in.  479;  Syriac 
Menology  (ed.  Wright)  in  Journal 
of  Saci-i'd  Literature,  vol.  viii.  pp. 
45  ff.  423  ff.  (1865-G). 


Ch.  XIII. 


Festivals 
of  Scrip- 
tural 
Saints. 


Other 
Saints. 


Ho  1 10  UTS 

to  Saiids 
departed. 


400 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


them  to  their  burial  and  commemorated  their  death-days ; 
but  iu  time  of  cahn  those  who  had  braved  the  storm  came 
to  be  even  more  honoured. 

The  belief  arose  that  by  making  our  requests  known 
to  the  martyrs,  who  enjoy  the  presence  of  the  Deity,  we 
might  the  better  make  them  known  unto  God.  We  can 
put  no  bonds,  said  Jerome^  on  the  Apostles ;  they  who 
follow  the  Lamb  whithersoever  He  goeth  are  of  course 
present  wherever  He  is.  Gregory  of  Nazianzus^  prays 
the  martyr  whom  he  is  eulogizing  to  look  down  from 
above  upon  his  people,  and  to  join  in  the  pastoral  care  of 
the  flock.  Sulpicius  Severus*,  grieving  for  the  loss  of 
St  Martin,  comforts  himself  and  his  friend  Aurelius  with 
the  thought  that  the  departed  will  be  present  with  them 
as  they  speak  of  him  and  stand  over  them  as  they  pray ; 
that  he  will  give  them  glimpses  of  his  glory  and  guard 
them  with  his  perpetual  benediction.  St  Basil*  regards 
the  local  martyrs  as  guarding  the  country  from  the  on- 
slaughts of  enemies,  though  their  power  is  not  limited  to 
the  defence  of  one  region  only.  He  that  is  in  tribulation, 
he  says,  has  recourse  to  the  martyrs,  and  he  that  is  in 
wealth  runs  to  them  no  less ;  the  one  to  seek  help  in  his 
misfortunes,  the  other  that  his  prosperity  may  be  con- 
tinued. The  pious  mother  praying  for  her  children,  the 
wife  supplicating  for  the  return  of  her  absent  husband  or 
the  recovery  of  the  sick — these  trust  that  their  prayers 
may  be  granted  by  the  aid  of  the  martyrs.  Martyi-s  co- 
operate with  our  prayers  and  are  our  most  powerful 
ambassadors.  And  the  poets^  as  might  perhaps  be  ex- 
pected, go  even  beyond  the  orators  in  the  influence  which 
they  ascribe  to  the  saints  in  glory. 

Up  to  the  fifth  century  prayers  were  made  in  the 
liturgy  for  saints  and  martyrs  as  well  as  for  others  who 
have  departed  in  the  faith  of  Christ.  "  We  make  our 
commemoration,"  says  Epiphanius^  "both  for  the  righteous 
and  for  sinners.  For  sinners,  beseeching  God  to  have 
mercy  upon  them ;  for  the  righteous,  fathers  and  patri- 
archs, prophets,  apostles,  and    evangelists,    martyrs   and 


'  Adv.  Vigilantium. 

2  Orat.  18  in  Laud.  Cyprinni, 
p.  286. 

8  Epist.  II,  de  Ohitu  B.  Martini, 
p.  145  (ed.  Halm). 


*  Horn.  19  in  XL.  Martyres,  c.  8. 

^  See  especially  the  poems  of 
rnidentius  and  of  Paulinns  of  Nola 
on  the  festivals  of  martyrs. 

8  HfPrPft.  1?>,  c.  7. 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


401 


confessors,  bishops  and  anchorites,  and  the  whole  order  of 
saints,  that  we  may  distinguish  the  Lord  Jesus  Chiist 
fi-ora  those  who  are  ranked  merely  as  men,,.. remembering 
that  the  Lord  is  not  to  be  placed  on  an  equality  with  any 
man."  To  this  correspond  the  intercessions  in  the  liturgy 
of  the  Apostolic  Constitutions ^  and  in  some  of  the  Nes- 
torian  liturgies^,  which  probably  in  this  respect  retain  the 
form  which  they  had  before  the  schism.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  the  liturgy  described  by  Cyril  of  Jerusalem^,  in 
that  which  bears  the  name  of  St  James,  and  generally  in 
the  later  liturgies,  commemoration  is  made  of  the  Virgin 
Mary  and  of  the  saints  "in  order  that  by  their  prayers 
and  intercessions  we  may  obtain  mercy*."  It  would  be  a. 
wrong,  says  St  Augustine®,  to  pray  for  the  martyrs  whose 
intercession  we  seek. 

The  names,  whether  of  those  saints  whose  intercession 
was  asked,  or  of  those  for  whom  the  Church  on  earth 
interceded,  were  in  ancient  times  read  at  the  altar  frojn 
folding  tablets,  called  diptychs.  "  The  authority  by  which 
a  name  was  inserted  in  this  list... was,  until  at  least  the 
tenth  century,  that  of  the  bishop,  with  (no  doubt)  the 
consent  of  his  clergy  and  people,  and,  as  time  went  on,  of 
the  synod  and  metropolitan"." 

Further,  it  came  to  be  thought  that  prayers  offered  on 
the  very  spot  where  the  body  of  a  saint  rested  were  of 
greater  efficacy  than  those  offered  elsewhere.  The  pos- 
session of  their  bones  was  a  kind  of  pledge  that  they 
would  regard  the  place  where  they  lay  and  would  watch 
over  the  lives  of  those  who  dwelt  there^  Reverence  is  to 
be  paid  to  all  martyrs,  but  most  of  all  to  those  whose  relics 
are  with  us.     All  help  us  by  their  prayers  and  their  pas- 


^  Lib.  VIII.  c.  12. 
-  Renaudot,  Liturg.    Orient,    ii. 
620,  633. 

*  Uatech.  Mystag.  v.  9. 

*  Neale's  Tetralogia  Liturgica, 
p.  93. 

^  Sermo  17.  This  passage  is 
(juoted  by  Innocent  III.,  Decret. 
Gregor.  iii.  tit.  41,  c.  6,  §  2,  as 
"sacra  scriptura,"  to  explain  the 
change  of  "annue  nobis,  Domiue, 
lit  animse  famuli  tui  Leonis  hiec 
prosit  oblatio, "  into  ' '  annue  nobis, 


C. 


quassumus,  Domine,  ut  interces- 
sione  B.  Leonis  haec  nobis  prosit 
oblatio." 

8  A.  W.  Haddan  in  Diet.  Ghr. 
Antiq.  i.  283.  See  further  Salig, 
Dc  Diptychis  Veterum :  Donati,  Dei 
Dittici  dcgli  Antichi ;  K.  Gibbings, 
Prtelectiun  on  the  Diptyclis  (Dublin, 
1864);  Bingham,  Antiq.,  bk.  xv. 
eh.  3;  Martene,  De  Hit.  Antiq., 
I.  iv.  8,  §  7  ff. ;  K.  Sinker,  in  Diet. 
Chr.  Antiq.  p.  560  ff. 

''  Ambrose,  De  Viduis,  o.  9. 

26 


Ch.  XIIL 


Chavge  in 

Fifth 
Cfntury. 


The 
DipfycliH 


Bodies  of 
Saiiits. 


402 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Ai't. 


Ch.  XIII. 


Egyptian 
embalm- 
ing. 


Transla- 
tions. 


Law  of 
Theodo- 
sius,  386. 


Devotions 
at  tombs. 


sion,  says  a  writer  of  the  fifth  century  \  but  with  our  owu 
saints  we  have  a  kind  of  intimacy.  They  abide  with 
us,  they  watch  over  us  while  we  are  in  the  body,  they 
receive  us  when  we  quit  it.  When  nearness  to  the 
remains  of  the  saints  was  so  much  desired,  it  is  not 
wonderful  that  it  was  desired  to  preserve  them.  In 
Egypt,  where  the  dead  had  been  embalmed  from  time 
immemorial,  the  custom  sprang  up  of  making  mummies 
of  the  bodies  of  famous  saints,  especially  of  martyrs,  paying 
them  the  funeral  honours  due,  and  then  laying  them  on 
couches  in  their  own  dwellings.  St  Anthony  was  shocked 
at  this  practice,  thinking  it  right  that  the  bodies  of  the 
departed  should  be  laid  in  tombs,  as  those  of  the  patriarchs 
and  of  the  Lord  Himself  had  been^  But  even  where 
no  embalming  was  attempted,  the  body  of  one  who  had 
suffered  martyrdom  or  had  been  distinguished  for  saintli- 
ness  of  life  was  regarded  as  a  precious  possession.  The 
first  to  move  the  bodies  of  the  saintly  dead  was  the 
emperor  Constantino ^  who,  to  give  his  new  city  something 
of  the  sanctity  which  old  Rome  derived  from  the  remains 
of  St  Peter  and  St  Paul,  brought  over  to  Constantinople 
the  holy  relics  of  Andrew,  Luke,  and  Timothy*.  At  a 
later  date  such  translations  were  expressly  forbidden  by  a 
law  of  Theodosius^  The  same  law  forbids  the  sale  of  the 
holy  bodies,  a  practice  which  had  arisen  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  fourth  century.  There  were  even  serious  conflicts 
with  considerable  bloodshed  for  the  possession  of  the 
corpses  of  those  who  were  regarded  as  martyrs  ^  Un- 
expected discoveries  of  the  bodies  of  saints  were  also  not 
uncommon.  Theodoret'  describes  the  flocking  of  the 
faithful  to  the  magnificent  tombs  of  the  martyrs  which 
were  everywhere  to  be  found.  It  was  not  once  or  twice  a 
year  that  they  were  solemnly  visited ;  many  times  annually 


^  Pseudo-Ambrosius  (perhaps 
Maximus  of  Turiu),  Sertno  VI.  de 
Sanctis,  quoted  by  Gieseler,  i.  559. 

^  Athanasius,  Vita  Antonii,  p. 
502.  Compare  Tlieodoret,  Hist. 
Relig.  cc.  3,  15. 

•*  "Quod  Constantino  iDrimum 
sub  Cajsare  factum  est."  Paulinus, 
Poem.  XIX.  321. 

■*  Jerome,  c.  Vigilantium,  c.  5; 
Procopius,  De  Aedijiciis,  i.  4;  TLoo- 


dorus  Lector,  H.  E.  ii.  61. 

5  Theod.  Codex,  ix.  tit.  17,  1.  7. 

^  Cassian,  Collatio,  vi.  c.  1. 
The  monka  whose  bodies  were  in 
this  case  the  object  of  contention 
had  not  fallen  in  defence  of  the 
faith,  but  had  been  killed  by  Arab 
plunderers.  Compare  Theodoret, 
imt.  Relig.  c.  21. 

''  Grcecarmn  Affect.  Curat.  Dis- 
put.  8,  p.  921  (ed.  Schultze). 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


403 


high  festival  was  held  there,  many  times  a  day  Avere  hymns 
sung  there  to  their  Lord.  There  the  healthy  prayed  for 
the  preservation  of  their  health,  the  sick  for  recovery,  the 
childless  for  offspring.  They  who  contemplated  a  journey 
prayed  the  martyrs  to  be  their  guides  and  companions ; 
those  who  had  returned  offered  thanks  which  were  due. 
Not  that  they  approached  them  as  gods,  but  that  they 
supplicated  them  as  godlike  men  and  besought  them  to 
become  their  intercessors.  And  that  they  obtained  what 
they  sought  was  manifested  by  the  votive  offerings  which 
shewed  what  cures  had  been  effected;  for  men  offered 
representations  in  gold  or  silver  of  eyes  or  feet  or  hands  to 
commemorate  their  healing.  It  was  not  to  be  wondered 
at  if  the  heathen^  now  retorted  on  the  Christians  the 
reproaches  which  the  latter  had  formerly  made  against 
them,  of  building  splendid  temples  over  dead  men's 
bones ^ 

But  far  above  all  other  saints  was  the  Mother  of  the 
Lord  honoured.  We  have  already  seen  that  the  applica- 
tion of  the  epithet  "Mother  of  God"  to  the  Virgin  had 
been  a  main  cause  of  Nestorianism.  But  it  was  not 
merely  the  disputes  on  the  Incarnation  that  gave 
exceeding  dignity  to  her  who  was  so  highly  favoured ;  the 
ever-increasing  reverence  for  virginity,  the  feeling  that 
a  woman  has  more  ready  sympathy  than  a  man  and  that 
a  mother  must  be  powerful  with  her  son — such  considera- 
tions as  these  led  men  to  attach  greater  efficacy  to  the 
intercession  of  the  Virgin  than  to  that  of  other  saints. 
As  Christ  was  the  Mediator  between  God  and  man,  so  she 
came  to  be  regarded  as  the  mediator  between  man  and 
Christ.  It  has  been  said  with  some  degree  of  truth  that 
almost  everything  which  the  Arians  had  said  of  Christ 
was  said  of  the  Virgin  in  the  fifth  century.  She  also,  like 
the  Christ  of  the  Arians,  was  divine  though  not  one  with 
God  the  Father. 

It  came  to  be  believed  that  St  Mary  remained  a  virgin 
even  after  the  bii-th  of  her  Divine  Son,  a  theory  which 
earlier  ages  would  probably  have  rejected  as  favoui-ing  the 
Docetic  notion  that  the  Lord's  Body  was  not  composed  of 


^  As  the  emperor  Julian,  quoted 
by  Cyril,  Adv.  Julianum,  x.  p.  335; 
Eunapius,  Vita  Aidesii,  p.  65  (ed. 


Genev.  1616),  quoted  by  Gieseler, 
I.  566. 

2  Arnobius,  Adv.  Nationes,  vi.  6. 

26—2 


Ch.  XIII. 


Votive 
offerings. 


The  Virgin 
Martj. 


St  Manfs 

ever-vir- 

ginity. 


404 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


Ch.  XIII. 


CoUyri- 
dians. 


Antidico- 
viarian- 
ites,  c.  370. 

Helvidiits, 
c.  380. 


Boiiosus 

and 

Jovinian, 

condemned 
390,  392. 

Anyels. 


solid  tiesh.  TertuUian^  in  fact,  an  ardent  opponent  of 
Gnosticism  in  all  its  forms,  very  evidently  regards  her 
as  having  undergone  the  lot  of  all  mothers  in  the  birth  of 
her  Son,  and  for  this  he  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
blamed.  And  even  BasiP  the  Great  in  the  fourth  century 
admits  that  the  perpetual  virginity  is  no  necessary  article 
of  Christian  faith,  though  (he  says)  lovers  of  Christ  cannot 
endure  to  hear  that  the  mother  of  God  ever  ceased  to  be  a 
virgin.  A  strange  kind  of  worship  was  paid  to  the  Virgin 
in  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century  in  Arabia.  There 
certain  women  who  came  from  Thrace  paid  her  divine 
honours  by  offering  to  her  cakes  (KoWupiSes:)^,  as  renegade 
Jewesses  had  formerly  done  to  Astarte  the  queen  of  hea- 
ven^  It  was  probably  such  extravagance  as  this  which 
led  certain  teachers,  also  in  Arabia,  whom  Epiphanius  nick- 
named Antidicomarianites®,  to  maintain  an  opinion  which 
was  offensive  to  the  Church  at  large — that  St  Mary,  after 
bringing  forth  her  first-born*'  Son,  bore  children  to  Joseph. 
And  about  the  year  880  Helvidius^  who  lived  in  Rome, 
published  a  treatise  in  which  he  maintained  that  the 
Lord's  brethren  were  the  sons  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  and 
must  have  found  adherents,  for  the  Helvidians  are  spoken 
of  as  a  sect  or  party.  Similar  views  were  maintained 
about  the  same  time  by  Bonosus,  bishop  of  Sardica,  and 
by  Jovinian,  who  has  already  been  mentioned  as  denying 
the  special  merit  of  virginity.  The  latter  was  condemned 
by  synods  held  at  Rome  and  at  Milan  about  the  year  390, 
and  the  former  by  one  assembled  at  Capua  in  392^. 

That  divine  messengers,  angels,  both  do  God  service  in 
Heaven  and  succour  men  on  earth  has  been  a  pious  belief 


1  De  Monogamia,  c.  8 ;  Z>e  Came 
Christi,  c.  23  and  elsewhere. 

^  Horn,  in  sanctam  Christi  gene- 
rationcm,  c.  5  (ii.  p.  600).  Garnior 
professes  to  doubt  the  authenticity 
of  this  Homily,  hut  the  main  ar- 
gument against  it  appears  to  be 
the  occurrence  of  this  very  passage. 

3  Epiplianius,  Hitres.  79.  The 
Quini-Sext.  Council  (Constanti- 
nople, A.D.  092)  censures  those 
who,  after  the  day  of  the  Lord's 
Nativity,  boiled  and  distributed  to 
each  other  fine  flour  (ff€fji,l5a\i.v) 
in  honour  of  the  child- bed  of  the 


Virgin- Mother. 

4  Jeremiah,  xliv.  19. 

^  Epiphanius,  Ilures.  78. 

^  "The  prominent  idea  conveyed 
to  a  Jew  by  the  term  'first-born' 
would  not  be  the  birth  of  other 
children,  but  the  special  conse- 
cration of  this  one."  Lightfoot, 
Galatiam,  p.  257  (first  ed.). 

^  Our  iuformation  about  Hel- 
vidius  is  derived  almost  wholly 
from  Jerome's  treatise  Adv.  Hel- 
vidium. 

*  Hefele,  Conciliengesch,,  ii.  47  f. 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art 


405 


of  Christians  in  all  ages  of  the  Church.  They  were  not,  |  Ch.  XIII. 
however,  invoked  in  the  same  way  as  sainted  men ;  there 
seemed  a  danger  lest  Christians  should  lose  the  prize  of 
their  calling  by  worshi^apiug  of  angels\  and  the  angels 
themselves  refused  adoration  when  offered  ^  Some  kind 
of  supplication  was  nevertheless  addressed  to  them  as  the 
guardians  of  frail  humanity^  and  it  seems  that  in  the 
fourth  century  churches  were  dedicated  in  the  names  of 
angels,  which  were  especially  visited  by  votaries  who  be- 
lieved that  supplications  offered  there  would  be  most 
effectual*. 

4.  When  annual  commemorations  became  numerous  I  Calendars. 
it  was  necessary  to  draw  up  lists  of  them  in  order  to  their  | 
proper  observance.  Of  such  calendars  or  heortologia  the 
earliest  which  remain  to  us  are  the  two  published  by 
Bucherius^  and  often  known  by  his  name.  Of  these  the 
first  contains  a  record  of  the  burial-days  (depositiones)  of 
the  Roman  bishops  from  Lucius  (a.d.  253)  to  Julius  I. 
(a.D.  352) ;  the  second,  the  burial-days  of  the  martyrs 
of  the  Roman  Church.  This  latter  De  Rossi''  takes  to  be 
a  complete  account  of  all  the  immovable  festivals  observed 
in  the  Church  of  Rome  at  the  time  when  the  list  was 
drawn  up ;  i.  e.  in  the  fourth  century.  They  amount  to 
twenty-four.  There  is  also  extant  a  calendar  of  the  Car- 
thaginian Church,  which  appears  to  be  of  the  fifth  or 
sixth  century'.  There  were  no  doubt  similar  documents 
everywhere  which  have  not  come  do^vn  to  us,  containing 
the  names  of  local  saints  and  festivals,  in  addition  to  those 
which  were  observed  throughout  the  Church.  Some  of 
the  defenders  of  Christianity  frankly  pointed  to  the  long 
array  of  saints'  days  in  the  Christian  calendar  as  the  equiva- 
lents for  the  old  pagan  holidays.  "  Our  Lord,"  says  Theo- 
doret  to  the  heathen^  "  has  given  us  our  own  dead  as 


^  6pr](TK€iaTwi' dyyiXiov,  Col. a. 11. 

^  Trpo(TKvv7](ns,  Rev.  xix.  10 ;  xxii. 
8,  9. 

3  Ambrose,  De  Viduis,  c.  9;  "ob- 
secrandi  sunt  angeli  qui  nobis  ad 
praesidium  dati  sunt." 

*  Didymus,  De  Trinitate,  ii.  7, 
quoted  by  Harnack,  Dogmentjesch., 
11.  448. 

^  De  Doctrhia  Tempontm,  c.  15, 
pp.  266  ff.  (Antwerp,  16.35).     They 


are  also  printed  by  De  Smedt, 
Introdiictio  ad  Hist.  EccL,  pp.  512 
ff.  See  Diet.  Clir.  Antiq.  s.  vv. 
Calendar  and  Martyrology. 

"  Roma  Sotterraiiea,  i.  126. 

"  This  was  discovered  by  Ma- 
billou,  and  is  given  in  Euinart's 
Acta  Martyrum,  pp.  618  f.,  and  in 
Migne's  Patrol.  Lat.  xiii.  1219. 

8  GrcEcanim  Affect.  Curat.  Disp. 
8  (IV.  923,  ed.  Schultze). 


Christian 
Festivals 
substituted 
for  pagan. 


406 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


substitutes  for  your  gods  ;  these  He  has  brought  to  nothing, 
to  those  He  has  allotted  their  honours.  Instead  of  the 
Pandia,  the  Diasia,  the  Dionysia,  and  the  rest  of  your 
holidays,  there  are  celebrated  public  feasts^  of  Peter  and 
Paul  and  Thomas  and  Sergius  and  our  other  martyrs." 
Chrysostom^  pointed  out  that  the  spirit  of  the  several 
festivals  should  animate  our  whole  life,  not  special  days 
only.  "We  keep  a  particular  day,  the  Epiphany,  in  memory 
of  the  Lord's  manifestation  upon  earth,  but  He  should  be 
manifest  to  us  every  day ;  we  keep  our  Paschal  festival 
in  memory  of  the  Lord's  Death  and  Resurrection,  but 
whenever  we  eat  the  Bread  and  drink  the  Cup  we  shew 
forth  the  Lord's  Death  ;  we  keep  our  Pentecost  in  memory 
of  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  we  hope  to  have 
Christ  always  present  with  us  through  the  Spirit." 

5.  Very  nearly  connected  with  the  reverence  paid  to 
the  bodies  of  saints  is  the  sacredness  attributed  to  the 
places  where  they  had  lived  and  moved,  especially  to  those 
which  had  been  pressed  by  the  feet  of  the  Son  of  God.  The 
empress  Helena  set  the  example  of  pilgrimage  to  Pales- 
tine for  the  sake  of  visiting  the  holy  places  where  the 
Lord  had  been  born,  died,  and  risen  again**.  Churches  were 
built  over  the  spots  where  the  Lord  was  born  and  where 
He  was  laid  in  the  tomb^  It  was  even  believed  that  the 
actual  Cross  upon  which  the  Lord  had  suffered  had  been 
found  buried  in  the  earth^    From  this  time  pilgrimages  be- 


^  dTjfiodoLviaL. 

2  Horn.  I.  in  Pentecosten,  c.  1. 

^  Eusebius,  Vita  Const,  in.  42  ff. 

*  lb.  HI.  2.5  ff.  See  also  the 
Bordeaux  Pilgrim  (a.d.  3'4'6)  in 
Wesseling's  Vetera  Itineraria,  p. 
593.  The  authenticity  of  the  spot 
now  covered  by  the  church  of  the 
Holy  Sepulchre  has  been  assailed 
by  E.  Kobinson  {Biblical  Researches 
in  Palestine),  and  J.  Fergusson 
{Topograiihy  of  Jerusalem),  the 
latter  of  whom  regards  the  Dome 
of  the  Rock  as  the  chui-ch  built  by 
Constantine.  It  is  ably  defended 
by  G.  "Williams  (The  Holy  City, 
with  an  essay  on  the  chuich  by 
Prof.  Willis).  There  is  a  sum- 
mary of  the  arguments  in  Stanley's 
Palestine,  c.  14,  pp.  4,53  £f.  Much 
has  beeu  elucidated  of  late  years 


by  the  researches  of  the  Palestine 
Exjjloratiou  Fund;  see  W.  Besant 
in  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  ii.  1881  ff. 

5  Eusebius  and  the  Bordeaux 
Pilgrim  say  nothing  of  this.  It  is 
first  mentioned  by  Cyril  of  Jeru- 
salem (Epist.  ad  Constantium,  c.  3). 
The  genuineness  of  this  letter, 
which  is  not  mentioned  in  Jerome's 
Catalogue  of  Cyril's  works,  has 
been  called  in  question  (see  Wit- 
sius,  Miscell.  Sacra,  ii.  exerc.  xii. 
§  27).  It  is  certain  however  that 
Cyi'il  speaks  {Catech.  iv.  10,  x.  19, 
XIII.  4)  of  fragments  of  the  true 
Cross  being  spread  over  the  whole 
world.  The  tradition  is  found, 
with  some  differences  of  detail,  in 
Ambrose,  De  Morte  Theodosii,  c. 
46,  Paulinus  of  Nola,  Epist.  31  [11], 
Rufinus,  H.  E.  x.  7  f.,  Socrates,  i. 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


407 


came  frequent.  Religious  zeal  longed  to  see  the  very  places 
where  the  Lord  had  walked  and  suffered,  whence  He  had 
risen  and  ascended  into  Heaven.  Happy  was  the  man 
who  possessed  a  little  dust  from  these  places  or  a  splinter 
from  the  wood  of  the  very  Cross  itself,  which  suffered 
no  diminution  though  fragments  were  daily  taken  from  it. 
The  only  person  from  whom  these  fragments  could  be 
obtained  was  the  bishop  of  Jerusalem^,  a  circumstance 
which  no  doubt  increased  the  number  of  pilgrims  to  the 
Holy  City.  Many  also  came  to  Palestine  in  hopes  of 
being  baptized  in  the  Jordan^,  which  Constantino  himself 
purposed  but  was  unable  to  accomplish*. 

III.  It  was  natural  that  when  Christians  became 
numerous  and  services  splendid,  churches  should  become 
more  spacious  and  dignified.  So  Eusebius  tells  us  that 
when  the  Church  had  rest  Christian  temples  rose  much 
more  lofty  and  magnificent  than  those  which  had  been 
destroyed,  so  that  in  every  city  there  were  consecrations 
of  newly-built  houses  of  prayer^ 

1.  The  churches  of  the  period  from  Constantine  to 
Justinian  are  for  the  most  part  either  of  the  basilican  or  the 
domed  type.  The  Christian  basilica®,  which  in  its  general 
traits  strongly  resembles  the  secular  buildings  of  the  same 
name  which  were  used  as  tribunals  and  market-houses, 
was  an  oblong  hall  divided  by  rows  of  columns  into  a 
central  space  and  two  or  (occasionally)  four  side  aisles. 
Above  the  columns  rose  a  wall  pierced  with  windows 
which  admitted  a  flood  of  light  into  the  interior.     The 


17,  Sozomen,  ii.  1,  Theodoret,  H. 
E.  I.  18,  Sulpicius  Severus,  Chron. 
II.  34.  See  11.  Sinker  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Antiq.  i.  503  ff.;  M.  F.  Argles  in 
Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  ii.  882  ff. 

1  Paulinus,  Epistt.  30  and  31. 

2  Eusebius,  De  Locis  Ebneis, 
s.  V.  HTjOa^apd. 

3  Id.  De  Vita  Const,  iv.  02. 

^  On  Christian  Architecture,  see 
P.  Kugler,  Kunstiieschichte  and 
Geschiehte  der  Baukunst;  H. 
Hiibsch,  Die  Altchristl.  Kirchen; 
.T.  Fergusson,  Hist,  of  Architec- 
ture, vol.  2;  W.  Liihke,  Gesch.  der 
Architectur ;  G.  Dehio  u.  G.  v. 
Pezold,  Die  Kirchl,  Baukunst  des 


Abendlandes;  H.  Holtzinger,  Die 
Altchristl iehe  Architectur;  A.  Nes- 
bitt  in  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  s.vv.  Ba- 
silica and  CInirch. 

5  H.  E.  X.  2.  3. 

"  P.  Sarnelli,  Antica  Basilico- 
(jraphia  (Neapol.  1686) ;  Platner 
u.  Ilostcll,  Rovis  Basiliken,  in 
Beschreibunfi  d.  Stadt  Rom,  Bd.  i ; 
Bunsen,  Die  Basiliken  d.  Christl. 
Rom;  Zestermann,  Die  Basiliken; 
Messmer,  Ursprilnrjl.  Entivickcl.  u. 
Bedeutung  d.  Basilika;  O.  Mothes, 
Die  Basil ikenform ;  Baldwin  Brown, 
From  Schola  to  Catlirdral,  Yip.  115 
ff. 


Cii.  XITI. 


fraqments 
of.' 


Activity  in 

church 

huilding*. 


Types  of 
churches. 

Basilica. 


Nave  and 
aisles. 


408 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


Ch.  XIII. 

Roof. 
Entrance. 

Apse  or 
Bona. 
Holij 
Table. 

Dove. 


One  Altar. 

Soleas. 

Anihones. 


Trhtmphal 
Arch. 


Transept. 


CanceJU. 
Confessio. 

Atrium. 
Pliiala. 


Narthex. 


roof  was  in  some  cases  open,  so  as  to  shew  the  timbers  of 
the  construction,  in  others  concealed  by  a  ceiling,  often 
richly  decorated.  The  entrance  was  generally  from  the 
west.  At  the  other  end  the  central  nave  terminated  in 
an  apse,  round  the  wall  of  which  were  the  seats  of  the 
bishop  and  the  other  clergy,  while  the  holy  table  or  altar 
— in  primitive  times  of  wood,  but  from  the  middle  of  the 
fourth  century  usually  of  stone — stood  nearly  in  the 
centre  of  the  semicircle.  From  a  canopy  above  it  was 
frequently  suspended  a  dove  of  precious  metal  in  which 
the  Eucharist  was  reserved.  It  was  probably  not  custom- 
ary before  the  end  of  the  sixth  century  to  place  more  than 
one  altar  in  a  church.  Immediately  in  front  of  the  bema 
was  frequently  a  raised  platform  for  the  choir,  at  the 
corners  of  which  were  desks  or  ambones  for  the  readers. 
At  one  of  these  desks  the  preacher  sometimes  stood,  but 
a  bishop  seems  always  to  have  preached  from  his  cathedra 
in  the  bema  itself  In  most  churches  the  colonnades 
stretched  in  an  unbroken  line  to  the  wall  beside  the  apse ; 
but  in  the  grander  churches,  such  as  the  old  St  Peter's  at 
Rome,  they  did  not  reach  the  apse,  but  came  to  an  end 
at  a  point  considerably  short  of  it,  where  a  lofty  arch — 
the  "  triumphal  arch  " — was  thrown  over  the  nave.  This 
left  a  free  space  in  front  of  the  apse,  which  was  sometimes 
prolonged  beyond  the  lateral  walls  of  the  church  so  as 
to  form  a  transept.  The  floor  of  the  apse  or  bema  was 
always  raised  above  that  of  the  nave,  and  was  approached 
by  a  broad  flight  of  steps.  It  was  separated  from  the 
nave  by  a  screen  or  railing.  Beneath  the  altar  was  fre- 
quently an  excavation  or  vault — called  "confessio" — to 
receive  the  relics  of  some  saint.  Before  the  principal 
entrance  was  a  forecourt,  generally  surrounded  by  cloisters, 
in  the  midst  of  which  was  the  basin  at  which  the  faithful 
performed  ceremonial  ablutions  before  entering  the  church. 
That  portion  of  the  cloister  which  ran  along  the  wall  of 
the  church  formed  an  ante-church  to  which  persons  were 
admitted  who  were  not  in  full  communion.  Where  there 
was  no  such  portico  a  space  was  marked  off  for  non- 
communicants  within  the  church  itself,  at  the  end  furthest 
from  the  altar  and  nearest  the  entrance.  In  Oriental 
churches  galleries  for  the  women  were  sometimes  placed 
over  the  side-aisles.      From  an  early  date,   certainly  as 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


409 


early  as  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  churches 
were  solemnly  dedicated  and  set  apart  from  profane  uses^ 
The  precinct  of  a  church  was  generally  surrounded  with  a 
wall,  which  also  enclosed  subsidiary  buildings,  especially 
one  destined  for  the  administration  of  holy  baptism  and 
called  a  baptistery^,  containing  a  bath  in  which  adults 
might  be  immersed.  When  it  became  usual  to  baptize 
infants,  a  font'*,  generally  of  stone,  was  placed  in  the 
church  itself. 

Even  to  this  day  the  Gothic  churches  of  the  West 
bear  manifest  traces  of  their  derivation  from  the  ancient 
basilica.  The  other  form  adopted  by  the  early  builders  of 
churches  was  the  dome.  This  was  probably  suggested  by 
the  circular  or  polygonal  domed  buildings,  such  as  the 
tombs  of  Cecilia  Metella  and  of  Hadrian  at  Rome,  placed 
over  the  remains  of  famous  persons.  Christians  built 
similar  structures  over  the  graves  of  martyrs,  and  used 
them  for  worship.  Such  was  probably  the  lofty  octagonal 
church  built  by  Constantine  in  the  year  327  at  Antioch^ 
The  famous  "  Dome  of  the  Rock "  at  Jerusalem  may 
possibly  be  of  the  same  age.  To  Constantine  is  also  to 
be  attributed  the  circular  domed  church  of  Sta.  Costanza 
at  Rome,  by  some  considered  a  baptistery.  But  all  ancient 
domed  edifices  yield  in  splendour  to  the  magnificent 
edifice  dedicated  to  St  Sophia  at  Constantinople'^,  in  which 
nave  and  apse  are  combined  with  the  dome.  In  this 
church  the  capabilities  of  the  domed  style  became  ap- 
parent, and  it  spread  accordingly  throughout  the  Eastern 
empire.  In  Italy  there  is  a  most  striking  example  of  it 
in  the  church  of  St  Vitalis  at  Ravenna,  nearly  contempo- 
rary with  St  Sophia. 

2.  The  Council  of  Elvira  in  the  beginning  of  the 
fourth  century  probably  expressed  a  feeling  very  general 
in  the  Church  when  it  resolved"  that  it  was  not  fitting  to 


1  Euseb.  H.  E.  x.  3,  4;  Vita 
Const,  iv.  4;^.  See  H.  Bailey  in 
Diet.  Chr.  Antiq.  pp.  426  ff. 

-  A.  Nesbitt  in  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq. 
p.  173. 

3  E.  Venables,  lb.  680. 

*  Eusebius,  Vita  Const,  iii.  50; 
.Terome,  Contra  Joannem  Hieros. 
37. 

^  This    church  is   described    in 


verse  by  Paul  the  silentiary,  who 
saw  it  built.  It  is  also  described 
by  Procopius  {De  ^dific.  Justin. 
I.  1  ff.),  Evagrius  {H.  E.  iv.  31), 
and  Agathias  {Hist.  v.  9).  In 
modern  times  by  W.  Spangenberg, 
Altchristl.  Baudenkmale  Constanti- 
vopels  (Berlin,  1854).  See  also  Du- 
cange,  Constantinop.  Christiana. 
"  Canon  36, 


Cii.  xm. 


Dedica- 
tion. 


Baptis- 
tevij. 

Font. 


Domed 
churches. 


Churches 

at 

Antioch, 


Consta>iti- 

nople, 

St  Sopiiia, 

532—537; 


Eavenna, 
St  Vitalis, 
526—547. 

Fr inn  live 
feeling 
against 
pictures. 


410 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


introduce  pictures  into  churches,  lest  the  objects  of  worship 
should  be  portrayed  on  the  walls.  Eusebius^  blamed  the 
painters  of  pictures  of  St  Peter,  St  Paul,  and  the  Lord 
Himself,  such  as  he  had  himself  seen,  as  having  unwarily 
followed  pagan  examples;  and  when  the  emperor's  sister 
Constantia  begged  him  to  send  her  a  picture  of  the 
Saviour,  he  replied  with  some  asperity  that  he  had  no 
such  thing,  and  that  he  had  himself  taken  away  two  pic- 
tures of  pagan  philosophers,  which  some  woman  vaunted 
as  portraits  of  our  Lord  and  St  Peter,  lest  the  heathen 
should  suppose  that  Christians  had  become  idolaters'**. 
At  a  later  date  Epiphanius^,  seeing  a  curtain  in  a  village 
church  in  Palestine  adorned  with  a  representation  of 
Christ  or  of  some  saint  tore  it  down ;  and  Asterius  of 
Amasea*  begged  that  no  paintings  should  be  made  of  that 
human  form  which  Christ  once  bore  for  us. 

Notwithstanding  this,  however,  during  the  fourth  and 
subsequent  centuries  the  walls  of  churches  came  to  be 
covered  with  representations  of  sacred  persons  and  scenes^ 
Gregory  of  Nyssa"  describes  the  painting  of  a  martyrdom 
in  a  church  dedicated  to  a  martyr ;  and  Paulinus  of  Nola' 
contends  that  the  pictures  in  the  church  which  he  him- 
self built  attracted  and  instructed  the  country  folk  who 
entered  it.  Nilus*,  a  famous  ascetic  contemporary  with 
Augustin,  replying  to  a  friend  who  was  about  to  build 
and  decorate  a  church,  says  that  a  man  of  masculine  and 
vigorous  mind  would  be  content  to  place  at  the  east  end 
of  his  church  one  single  cross  as  the  emblem  of  our  salva- 
tion; but  he  would  not  object  to  place  on  the  side  walls 
representations  of  scenes  from  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment, from  the  hand  of  the  best  painter  attainable,  as  the 
books  of  the  unlettered. 


1  H.  E.  VII.  18, 

^  Quoted  in  Gone.  Nicaa  ii.  Act. 
0.  (Hardouin,  Cone.  iv.  405) ;  more 
fully  by  J.  Boivin  in  a  note  to  Ni- 
cephorus  (Hist.  Byzant.  ii.  p.  1801, 
ed.  Bonn.) 

^  Opera,  iv.  2,  p.  85,  ed.  Dindorf. 

*  In  Gieseler,  i.  571. 

s  See  p.  166,  n.  5,  and  add  Mn- 
ratori,  De  Templorum  ajnul  Vet. 
Christ.  Ornatu;  J.  Gr.  Mliller,  Bihl- 
liche    Darstellungen    in    Sanctua- 


rium;  P.  Kugler,  Gesch.  der  Male- 
rei  neit  Gonstantln;  X.  Kraus,  Bie 
Chr.  Kunst  in  ihren  Anfungen. 

"  Oral,  de  Laudibus  Theodori  M. 
c.  2. 

7  Natal.  Felicis,  9 ;  Epist.  30  [al. 
12]. 

*  Epist.  iv.  61,  ad  Ohjmpiodo- 
rnm,  in  Hardouin,  Cone.  iv.  185 ; 
and  in  Holtzinger's  Architecture 
p.  2G5  f. 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


411 


Pictures  for  the  decoration  of  churches  were  almost 
always  executed  in  mosaic  work;  they  were  jjro- 
duced,  that  is,  by  arranging  small  cubes  or  tesserae  of 
different  colours  in  the  required  forms.  These  tessene 
were  at  first  cut  from  various  coloured  marbles,  hard 
stones,  or  earthenware,  but  when  the  art  was  discovered 
of  making  coloured  tesserae  of  vitreous  paste  scarcely  any 
other  material  was  used  in  church  mosaics.  Pictures  so 
formed  were  almost  indestructible  except  by  direct  vio- 
lence ;  and  if  the  material  was  incapable  of  producing 
flowing  lines,  subtle  gradations  of  colour,  and  the  expres- 
sion of  lively  feeling,  it  was  not  ill-adapted  to  portray 
a  certain  majestic  calm  and  exaltation  above  the  world. 
]\Iosaics  dating  from  the  time  of  Constantine  onwards  are 
found  at  Rome,  at  Thessalonica,  at  Ravenna,  and  else- 
where ;  the  earliest  having  the  gay  and  festive  character 
of  pagan  art.  In  the  most  ancient  mosaics  "  the  position 
of  chief  dignity,  the  centre  of  the  conch  of  the  apse,  was 
always  occupied  by  Christ,  either  standing  or  enthroned, 
supported  on  either  hand  by  the  Apostles,  St  Peter  and 
St  Paul  standing  next  Him,  together  with  the  patron 
saints  and  founders  of  the  Church.  Subsequently  the 
place  of  our  Lord  was  usurped  by  the  patron  saint  (as  at 
St  Agnes  at  Rome),  or  by  the  Blessed  Virgin  holding  the 
Divine  Child  in  her  lap  (as  at  Parenzo  and  St  Mary  in 
Dominica).  A  hand  holding  a  crown  is  usually  seen  issuing 
from  the  clouds  above  the  chief  figure,  a  symbol  of  the 
Supreme  Being.  The  river  Jordan  fiows  at  the  feet  of 
Christ,  separating  the  Church  triumphant  above  from  tlie 
Church  militant  below.  In  a  zone  below  we  usually  find 
in  the  centre  the  Holy  Lamb,  the  head  surrounded  by 
a  cruciform  nimbus,  standing  on  a  mount  from  which  gush 
the  four  rivers  of  Paradise,  symbolizing  the  four  Evangel- 
ists. Trees,  usually  palm-trees,  laden  with  fruit,  typify 
the  Tree  of  Life,  while  the  phoenix  with  its  radiant  plum- 
age symbolizes  the  soul  of  the  Christian  passing  through 
death  to  a  new  and  glorified   life.      On  either  side   six 


^  Appell,  Christian  Mosaic  Pic- 
tures; Barbet  de  Juoy,  Mosalijites 
de  Rome;  Fuiietti,  De  Musivis; 
Grimouarcl  de  St.  Laurent,  Guide 
de  VArt    Chretien;    .J.    H.    Parker, 


Archaeology  of  Rome;  De  Kossi, 
Musalci  Cristiani;  Texier  et  Pullan, 
Etjlises  Byzantines;  Digby  Wyatt, 
Art  of  Mosaic;  E.  Venables  in 
Dirt.  Ghr.  Antiq.  a.  V.  Mosaics. 


Ch.  xin. 

Mosaics^, 


of  glass 
■paste  f 


in  tJie 
ajjse. 


412 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


sheep,  types  of  the  Apostles,  and  through  them  of  believers 
iu  general,  issue  from  the  gates  of  the  two  holy  cities, 
Jerusalem  and  Bethlehem.  On  the  Western  face  of  the 
great  arch  of  the  apse,  or  the  arch  of  triumph,  we  see 
at  the  apex  a  medallion  bust  of  Christ,  or  the  Holy  Lamb, 
or,  which  is  very  frequent,  the  book  with  seven  seals 
elevated  on  a  jewelled  throne.  On  either  side  are  ranged 
angels,  the  evangelistic  symbols,  and  the  seven  golden 
candlesticks,  in  a  horizontal  band,  the  spandrels  below 
containing  the  twenty-four  white-robed  elders  of  the  Apo- 
calypse offering  their  crowns,  with  arms  outstretched  in 
adoration,  to  the  Lamb,  In  the  larger  basilicas,  where  a 
transept  separates  the  nave  from  the  apse,  a  second  trans- 
verse arch  is  introduced,  the  face  of  which  is  also  adorned 
with  subjects  taken  from  the  Apocalypse \"  At  Ravenna, 
however,  in  the  Church  of  St  Vitalis,  not  only  are  sacred 
scenes  and  symbols  depicted,  but  also  Justinian  with  his 
attendants  and  Theodora  with  her  ladies,  making  their 
costly  offerings  at  the  dedication  of  the  church \  The 
Church  of  St  Sophia  at  Constantinople  is  decorated  with 
magnificent  mosaics,  which  shew  that  "  in  Byzantium 
itself  the  stiffening  influence  of  Byzantine  pictorial  tradi- 
tions had  hardly  begun  to  operate  in  the  sixth  century  I" 

3.  Not  only  architecture  and  mosaic  were  enlisted 
in  the  service  of  the  Church  ;  sculpture  also  came  to  be 
applied  to  Christian  uses.  The  only  examples  which  remain 
to  us  of  early  Christian  statues  are  the  marble  statuettes 
of  the  Good  Shepherd  in  the  Lateran  Museum,  the  bronze 
figure  of  St  Peter  in  the  great  church  at  Rome  which  bears 
his  name,  and  the  marble  statue  of  Hippolytus,  also  in  the 
Lateran  Museum.  Both  the  statue  of  St  Peter,  however, 
and  those  of  the  Good  Shepherd  have  been  thought  to 
be  of  pagan  origin.  But  we  have  abundant  remains  of  early 
Christian  bas-reliefs  in  the  decoration  of  sarcophagi, 
which  seem  to  have  been  set  in  places  where  they  were 
open  to  view.  The  work  of  pagan  artists  was  in  early 
days  sometimes  used  to  receive  the  bodies  of  Christians, 


'  E.  Venaliles  in  Diet.  Clir.  An- 
tiq.  pp.  1323  f. 

•^  lb.  1331. 

^  lb.  1335.  They  are  known  only 
from  the  drawings  of   Sakenberg 


(Altchrixll.  Baudenkmalc)  taken 
during  a  temporary  removal  of  the 
plaster.  See  also  Fossati,  Agia 
Sofia. 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


413 


and  when  Christian  sculptors  were  employed  they  adapted 
the  style  of  their  pagan  predecessors  to  the  treatment  of 
Christian  subjects.      "  Nowhere   is  the  rapid  decline  of 

art    more   recognizable  than    in  the    sarcophagi The 

compositions  are  crowded  and  ill-balanced ;  the  figures 
are  usually  ill-drawn,  with  short  thick  bodies,  large  heads, 
stiff  draperies,  and  a  general  absence  of  dignity  and  grace. 
They  are  rather  architectural  and  pictorial  than  sculptural 
or  statuesque  \"  They  represent  scenes  from  the  Bible, 
Christ  and  the  Apostles,  the  raising  of  Lazarus,  the  story 
of  Jonah,  the  miracle  of  the  loaves,  the  healing  of  the 
blind,  Moses  striking  the  rock,  Daniel  in  the  lions'  den, 
and  the  like.  One  of  the  oldest  and  most  beautiful  sar- 
cophagi is  that  of  the  prefect  Junius  Bassus  (d.  359). 
The  finest  perhaps  of  those  found  in  Kome  is  that  of 
Petronius  Probus  (d.  395),  in  the  subterranean  church 
of  St  Peter.  Christian  sarcophagi  have  also  been  found 
at  Aries  and  at  Treves.  In  the  scul])tures  at  Ptavenna  the 
biblical  cycle  of  illustration  is  less  prominent  than  else- 
where, but  they  are  richer  in  decorative  work ;  the  cross, 
the  vine,  the  monogram  of  Christ,  doves  and  peacocks  are 
freqviently  repeated  around  single  figures  of  the  Lord  and 
His  Apostles. 

Representations  of  faithful  servants  of  Christ  working 
or  dying  in  the  service  of  their  Lord,  so  long  as  they  were 
fitting  and  reverent,  would  seem  not  only  innocent  but 
profitable.  But,  in  some  cases  at  least,  they  came  to  be 
regarded  with  superstitious  reverence,  and  the  tendency 
to  give  them  undue  honour  was  no  doubt  increased  by  the 
belief  that  sacred  pictures  had  wrought  miracles.  Augus- 
tin  was  far  from  being  hostile  to  paintings  in  churches,  but 
he  bewails  the  use  which  was  often  made  of  them,  and 
begs  that  the  Catholic  Church  may  not  be  blamed  for  the 
folly  of  some  of  her  children  who  worshipped  tombs  and 
pictures — a  folly  which  she  herself  condemned^.  Christ 
and  His  Apostles  were  to  be  sought  in  the  sacred  books, 
nob  on  painted  walls*.  Towards  the  end  of  the  sixth 
century  Leontius-*,  bishop  of  Neapolis  in  C_yprus,  dis- 
cussed  the   question   of  the  respect  paid  by  Christians 


On.  xni. 


1  E.  Venables  in  Diet.  Chr.  An- 
tiq.  p.  1864. 

■■^  De  Morihus  Eccl.  Cath.  i.  Si. 


^  De   Consensu   Evangelistarum, 
I.  10. 

*  In  Hardouin,  Cone.  iv.  193  ff. 


Scenes 
repre- 
sented. 


Iluvcnna. 


Reverence 

JHlid  to 

pictures. 


Leant  inn 
c.  590. 


414 


Ecclesiastical  Ceremonies  and  Art. 


Ch.  XIII. 

Reverence 
to 'pictures. 


to  images,  with  a  view  to  rebut  the  charges  of  the  Jews. 
The  obeisance  or  genuflexion  (TrpoaKvvrjai'i)  made  by 
Christians  before  images  was  no  act  of  worship,  but  a 
symbol  of  respect;  and  it  was  not  paid  to  the  mere 
material  image,  but  to  that  which  the  image  represents. 
In  the  same  way  Christians  reverenced  the  holy  places, 
not  as  divine  in  themselves,  but  as  memorials  of  Christ. 
Everything  depends  on  the  intention  of  an  act  of  rever- 
ence. Thus  the  respect  paid  by  Christians  to  pictures 
came  to  be  defended  by  the  same  arguments  which  had 
been  used  a  few  generations  earlier  by  the  pleaders  for 
pagan  idolatry. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


GROWTH   OF  THE   CHUliCII. 


I.  Christianity  was  largely  diffused,  without  direct 
missionary  effort,  by  the  natural  intercourse  between 
different  parts  of  the  world.  It  followed  the  track  of  the 
Roman  legions  and  accompanied  commerce  from  shore  to 
shore.  Wherever  Christians  were  found,  there  was  found 
Christian  worship,  and  the  curiosity  which  was  excited 
about  the  new  faith  generally  led  to  its  extensions 

But  there  were  also  conversions  of  heathen  nations  of 
a  different  kind.  The  history  of  the  foundation  of  the 
Abyssinian  Church  is  strange  and  romantic^.  A  Christian 
philosopher  of  Tyre,  named  Meropius,  undertook  a  voyage 
of  exploration  in  the  direction  of  what  was  then  vaguely 
called  India.  He  was  wrecked  on  the  coast  of  Abyssinia 
and  put  to  death  with  the  whole  of  the  ship's  crew,  with 
the  exception  of  two  kinsmen  of  his,  Frumentius  and 
^desius,  who  were  spared  on  account  of  their  tender  age, 
and  sent  as  slaves  to  the  king  of  the  country.  There- 
^desius  was  made  the  king's  cupbearer,  and  Frumentius 
the  chief  keeper  of  the  public  records.  The  king  before 
his  early  death  freed  the  two  Tyrian  slaves,  who  were 
entreated  by  the  widowed  queen  to  take  charge  of  the 
young  king,  her  son.  Frumentius  in  particular  acquired 
great  influence,  which  he  used  to  promote  the  settlement 


^  See  antea,  p.  58. 

2  Rufinus,  H.  E.  x.  9,  who  is 
copied  by  Socrates  i  19 ;  Sozomen 
II.  24 ;  and  Theodoret,  H.  E.  i.  23. 
— J.  Pearson,  Vindic.  Ignat.  P.  i. 
c.  xi.  s.  3;  H.  Ludolph,  Hist. 
JEthiopica  (1681),  with  Comment. 
ad  Hist.  JJlthiop.  (1691)  and  Ap- 
pendix (1691) ;  Lacioze,  Hist,  du 


Christianisme  d'Ethiopie,  etc. ;  W. 
Hoffmann  in  Herzog's  Real-Encycl. 
1. 45  (1st  ed.) ;  Dillmann  in  Zeitschr. 
d.  Morgcnl.  Gesellschaft  vii.  (1852), 
and  liber  die  Anfdnge  d.  Axumi- 
tischen  Reichs,  in  Abhand.  d.  Ber- 
liner Akad.  1878  and  1880;  H.  R. 
Reynolds  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  ii. 
232  ff. 


Ch.  XIV. 

The 
Choecii 

IN  THE 

East. 


Abyssi- 
nian 
Church. 


Frumen- 
tius and 
Jidesius, 


416 


Growth  of  the  Church. 


of  Christian  merchants  in  the  country,  and  to  procure 
them  freedom  of  worship.  When  the  king  came  of  age, 
^desius  returned  to  Tjrre,  while  Frumentius  betook 
himself  to  Alexandria,  where  he  besought  Athanasius, 
then  bishop  of  that  see,  to  send  priests  to  confirm  and 
strengthen  the  new  colony  of  the  Church,  Athanasius 
could  devise  no  better  method  than  to  send  Frumentius 
himself  as  bishop  to  Abyssinia,  where  he  was  called 
Abba  Salama.  King  Aizan  and  his  brother  were  bap- 
6e/orc'368.  tized,  and  the  faith  made  rapid  progress.  During  the 
Arian  controversy  Frumentius  remained  faithful  to  the 
Catholic  cause,  and  persuaded  the  king  to  reject  an 
Arian  patriarch  whom  the  emperor  Constantius  wished 
to  force  upon  him.  It  has  been  supposed  that  the 
ancient  iEthiopic  version  of  the  Scriptures  was  made 
in  Abyssinia  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  "but 
from  the  general  character  of  the  version  itself  this  is 
improbable,  and  the  Abyssinians  themselves  attribute 
it  to  a  later  period \"  Lying  remote  from  the  general 
movement  of  the  world,  the  Abyssinian  Church  has 
preserved  some  old  customs  which  have  elsewhere  be- 
come obsolete.  As  some  of  these  are  Judaic,  it  has 
been  supposed  that  the  Abyssinians  were  converted  to 
Judaism  before  they  adopted  Christianity,  but  this  seems 
very  improbable^ 

Christianity  had  already  reached  Arabia  in  the  pre- 
vious period.  Under  Constantius  the  Arian  Theophilus 
of  Diu  is  said^  to  have  had  considerable  success  among 
the  Himyaritic  (Homerite)  people  in  Yemen,  and  to  have 
converted  their  chief,  who  built  three  churches.  A 
Catholic  king  of  Abyssinia,  Elesbaan^  is  believed  to  have 
conquered  the  country  and  restored  orthodoxy  in  the 
sixth  century.  In  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  the 
monks  and  anchorites  made  a  great  impression  on  the 
nomad  Arabs  of  the  desert  who  surrounded  them^ 


1  S.  p.  Tregelles  in  Diet,  of  the 
Bible,  III.  1613. 

-  Tellesius  [Tellez]  Hist.  M- 
thiop.;  Isenberg  and  Krapf,  Jour- 
nal of  Proceedings  in  Shoa,  etc.; 
W.  C.  Harris,  Highlands  of  Jithi- 
opia,  II.  177 ;  in.  144. 

3  By  Pbilostorgius,  Epit,   ii,  6; 


in.  4  ff. 

*  F.  Paget,  in  Diet.  Chr.  Antiq. 
II.  70  ff. 

s  Jerome,  Vita  Hilar ionis;  So- 
crates IV.  36;  Sozomen  vi.  38  5 
Theodoret,  H.  E.  iv.  23;  Hist. 
IxcUg.  c.  26. 


Growth  of  the  Church. 


417 


In  Persia^  Christianity  had  been  introduced  in  the 
third  century,  and  had  a  metropolitan  at  Ctesiphon, 
the  capital  city.  The  revived  Persian  kingdom  of  the 
Sassanian  dynasty  was  however  by  no  means  favourable 
to  the  faith  of  Christ.  Its  monarchs  were  generally 
anxious  to  revive  the  old  Persian  religion,  and  when  their 
enemies,  the  Roman  emperors,  became  Christian,  the 
Persians  regarded  Christians  as  friends  of  Rome.  Con- 
stantius  in  vain  made  representations  to  Shahpoor  (Sapor) 
in  favour  of  the  Church  within  his  dominions.  A  persecu- 
tion began  in  the  year  843,  and  lasted  with  more  or  less 
violence  to  the  death  of  the  king  in  381.  The  aged 
bishop  of  Ctesiphon,  Symeon,  was  one  of  the  first  victims 
of  this  outbreak.  From  Shahpoor's  death  to  the  year 
414  was  an  interval  of  peace  and  quiet;  king  Yezdegerd, 
under  the  influence  of  bishop  Maruthas  of  Tagrit,  was 
even  favourable  to  the  Christians  and  did  all  in  his  power 
to  protect  them  from  injury.  This  happy  state  of  things 
was  however  brought  to  an  end  by  the  fanaticism  of 
bishop  Abdas  of  Susa,  who  caused  a  fire-temple  of  the 
Persians  to  be  rased  to  the  ground.  The  king,  with 
many  reproaches,  ordered  him  to  rebuild  the  temple,  and 
when  he  obstinately  refused,  began  a  persecution  which 
lasted  several  years,  and  in  which  many  Christians 
suffered  death  under  horrible  torture^,  Theodosius  II., 
however,  after  a  victory  over  Bahram  (Varanes),  the  son 
and  successor  of  Yezdegerd,  stipulated  for  the  cessation 
of  these  fearful  atrocities,  and  at  the  same  time  granted 
toleration  to  the  Zoroastrians  in  the  empire. 

In   Armenia^   the  Gospel  was  preached   at  an  early 


1  T.  Hyde,  Vet.  Persarum  Ee- 
ligio?iis  Hist. ;  J.  Malcolm,  Hist, 
of  Persia  (Lond.  1815);  J.  B. 
Fraser,  Hist,  and  Descript.  Account 
of  Persia  (Lond.  1834) ;  J.  Piggot, 
Persia,  Ancient  and  Modern;  G. 
Bawlinson,  The  Seventh  Great 
Oriental  Monarchy ;  Th.  Noldeke, 
Atifsdtze  zur  Persischen  Geschichte. 

2  S.  E.  Assemani,  Acta  Marty- 
rum  Orient,  etc.  torn.  i. ;  Uhlemaun, 
Die  Verfohj.  in  Persien,  in  Zeit- 
schr.  fiir  Hist.  Theologie,  1861 ; 
G.  Hoffmann,  AuszUge  aus  den  Syr. 
A  Men  Pers.  Martyr  er,  in  Abhd.fiir 


d.   Kunde  d.  Morgenlande.   Bd.   7 
(1880). 

^  Sources  are  Faustus  of  By- 
zantium, Hist,  of  Armenia,  extant 
in  Armenian  translation  (Venice, 
1822) ;  French  tr.  in  Langlois, 
Collection  des  Historiens  de  VArme- 
nie,  torn.  i.  (Paris,  1868);  Agath- 
angelos.  Hist,  of  King  Terdat,  etc. 
(in  Armenian,  Venice,  1835,  French, 
ib.  1843),  a  compilation  probably  of 
the  fifth  century ;  Moses  Chorensis, 
Hist.  Armen.,  ed.  with  Latin  tr.  by 
W.  and  G.  Whiston  (London,  173G), 
French  tr.  by  Le  Vaillant  de  Flo- 

27 


Ch.  XIV. 

Persia, 


Persecu- 
tion,Z4Z— 
381. 


114— 4-22. 


Theodo- 
sius, 422. 


Armenia. 


418 


Growth  of  the  Church. 


Ch.  XIV. 


N arses 
Gatholi- 
cus,  36G. 


Armenian 
transla- 
tion of  the 
Bible. 


CONVER- 
iilON  OF 


date.     Gregory  the  Illuminator,  who  is  regarded  as  the 
apostle  of  Armenia,  was  succeeded  in  the  primacy  by  his 
son  Aristakes,  who  sat  as  bishop  at  the  Council  of  Nicsea, 
and    the   primacy  long  remained  in  his  family.     Narses, 
called  the  Great,  was  recognised  in  the  year  366  at  the 
synod  of   Valarshapad  as  patriarch  or  catholicus,  and  it 
was  at  the  same  time  determined  that  the  head  of  the 
Armenian    Church    should   no   longer  be  nominated  and 
consecrated  by  the  Archbishop  of  Ctesarea,  but  by  the 
Armenian    bishops   themselves.      Isaac    (Sahak),   son   of 
Narses,  became  patriarch  about  the  year  390,  and  did 
much  for  the  extension  of  the  Church  and  for  the  regula- 
tion of  its  rites  and  ceremonies.     It  was  in  his  days  that 
we  find  the  beginning  of  Christian  literature  in  Armenia. 
Mesrob,  Isaac's  lifelong  friend,  had   resigned   the   office 
of  king's  secretary  in  order  to  devote  himself  to  solitary 
asceticism,  but  at  the  bidding  of  his  friend  had  left  his 
solitude  to  preach  the  Gospel  in  his  native  land.     While 
he  was  thus  occupied  he  found  the  need  of  vernacular 
Scriptures,  in  which  his  converts  might  read  in  their  own 
tongue  the  wonderful  works  of  God.     Up  to  his  time  the 
lections  from  the  Bible  were  read  to  the  people  in  Syriac, 
which  they  did  not  understand.   This  Syriac  version  Isaac 
and  Mesrob  undertook  to  translate ;  but  when,  in  the  year 
431,  their   pupils   Joseph  and  Eznak  returned  from  the 
Council  of  Ephesus  with  a  Greek  copy  of  the  Scriptures, 
Isaac  and  Mesrob  threw  aside  what  they  had  begun,  in 
order  to  make  a  version  from  the   Greek ;  but  finding 
themselves  insufficiently  acquainted  with  that  language, 
they   sent  Joseph   and    Eznak,   with   Moses   of  Khoren 
(Chorenensis),  who   is   the   narrator  of  these  events,  to 
study  Greek  at  Alexandria.     The  result  was  the  extant 
Armenian  version,  though  the  present  printed  text  pro- 
bably contains  variations  introduced  at  a  later  period \ 

II.     But  the  conquests  of  the  Church  in  the  East  and 
South  are  insignificant  in  their  effect  upon  the  history  of 


rival  (Venice,  1841),  and  in  Lang- 
lois,  u.  s.  II.  47 — 175,  in  the  ori- 
ginal by  the  Mechitarists  (Venice, 
1827,  and  in  Works,  1843—1864); 
Elisffius,  Hist,  of  Vartan,  etc.  tr. 
from  Armen.  by  Neumann  (London, 
1838),     See  Petermann  in  Herzog, 


Beal-Encyclop.  i.  663  ff.  (2nd  ed.); 
G.  Williams  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr. 
I.  163  ff.;  E.  168  ff.;  E.  L.  Cutis, 
Christians  under  the  Crescent.  Also 
p.  68,  n.  1,  of  this  book. 

1  S.   P.    Tregelles,   in    Did.    of 
Bible,  III.  1616  f. 


Groivth  of  the  Church. 


419 


the  world  compared  with  the  conversion  of  the  Teutonic 
tribes ^  In  them  was  found  a  fresh  and  unexhausted 
stock  on  which  the  engrafted  Word  grew  and  flourished 
in  new  life  and  vigour. 

The  deities  of  the  Teutons  were  for  the  most  part, 
like  those  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  personifications  of 
the  powers  of  nature.  The  classical  writers  had,  indeed, 
no  hesitation  in  identifying  these  divinities  with  their 
own.  But  there  was  in  the  Teutonic  mythology  nothing 
of  the  lightness  and  frivolity  which  often  appears  in  the 
classical.  It  was  grave  and  solemn,  sometimes  cruel ;  and 
if  we  may  trust  the  account  of  Tacitus",  that  the  Germans 
shrank  from  any  attempt  to  enclose  heavenly  beings 
within  the  walls  of  temples,  or  to  give  them  the  semblance 
of  humanity,  they  were  not  altogether  unprepared  to 
worship  Him  who  is  invisible.  A  very  marked  trait  of 
the  Teutonic  character  was  the  strong  feeling  of  loyalty 
which  bound  every  Teuton  to  his  chief.  The  fealty  which 
they  gave  to  an  earthly  lord  they  gave  to  their  heavenly 
Lord  and  Master  when  He  was  made  known  to  them. 
His  battles  they  were  ready  to  fight.  The  love  of  freedom, 
the  sense  of  personal  dignity,  which  had  been  almost 
lost  in  the  empire  through  the  all-absorbing  claims  of  a 
despotic  state,  were  still  in  full  activity  among  the 
Germans.  Among  such  a  people  a  Gospel  which  taught 
the  preciousness  of  individual  souls  was  likely  to  find  an 
easy  reception.  The  respect  paid  by  the  Teutons  to  their 
women  also  no  doubt  conduced  to  the  spread  of  Chris- 
tianity. It  is  remarkable  in  how  many  cases  Christian 
princesses  bent  the  hearts  of  their  husbands  to  the  cause 
of  Christ. 

There  were  however  great  differences  in  the  religious 
condition  of  the  various  jjeoples.  Among  the  more  remote 
tribes  which  came  little  in  contact  with  foreign  influence, 
as  the  Saxons,  the  Frisians,  and  the  Danes,  paganism  was, 
in  the  period  of  which  we  are  now  speaking,  very  vigorous 


1  See  J.  G.  Pfister,  Gesch.  d. 
Teutsclien, Bd.  i. ;  F.linhn, Deutsche 
Geschichte,  Bd.  i. ;  Eiickert,  Cul- 
turgesehichte  d.  Deutschen  Volkes 
in  d.  Zeit  d.  Uebergangs  au)i  d. 
Heidentltuiii  in  d.  Christentlium; 
G.  Kanfmann,  Deutsche  Gesch.  i. ; 


W.  Krafft,  K.-G.  d.  German.  Vdl- 
ker;  Alb.  Hauck,  K.-G.  Deutsch- 
latids,  ler  Th.  (Leipzig,  1821); 
G.  Merivale,  The  Continental  Teu- 
tons (S.  P.  O.K.). 
-  Germania,  c.  9. 

27—2 


Ch.  XIV. 

THE 

Tedtoxs. 


Teii  tonic 
Religion. 


Loyalty, 


Resprctfor 
Women. 


State  of 
different 
tribes. 


420 


Growth  of  the  Church. 


Ch.  XIV. 


Christian- 
ity on  the 
Rhine ; 


313 


on  the 
Danube, 


Lorch, 
303 


Pettau, 

Augsburg, 

Sirmium. 


The  Goths. 


and  rooted  in  the  affections  of  the  people.  But  in  the 
settlements  within,  or  on  the  borders  of,  the  empire,  the 
superior  spiritual  and  intellectual  force  of  Christianity- 
made  itself  felt.  Even  where  the  Christians  were  con- 
quered, they  overcame  their  vanquishers  by  the  arts  of 
peace,  as  the  Greek  had  once  overcome  the  Roman.  It 
is  probable  that  the  race  which  sprang  from  the  mixture 
of  the  invaders  with  the  old  inhabitants  of  the  empire 
was  generally  Christian. 

Among  the  Germans  on  the  Rhine  Christianity  was 
introduced  at  an  early  date.  To  pass  over  expressions  of 
ancient  writers  which  are  rather  rhetorical  than  exact. 
Churches  appear  to  have  existed  at  the  end  of  the  third 
century  at  Treves,  Metz  and  Cologne.  Maternus,  bishop 
of  Cologne,  was  one  of  the  commissioners  appointed  to 
adjudicate  in  the  matter  of  the  DonatistsS  and  in  the 
following  year  he  appeared  at  the  Council  of  Aries,  where 
appeared  also  Agrsecius,  bishop  of  Treves.  The  date  of 
the  origin  of  the  Churches  at  Tongres,  Spires,  and  Mainz 
(where  Crescentius  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  bishop) 
is  uncertain,  though  no  doubt  ancient.  On  the  Danube, 
in  Noricum,  Rhsetia  and  Vindelicia,  we  have  more  certain 
accounts  of  the  first  planting  of  Christianity.  Probably 
it  made  its  way  through  the  Roman  garrisons,  and  it  is  in 
places  where  there  were  colonies  or  stationary  camps  that 
we  first  find  it.  The  oldest  Church  in  this  region  is 
believed  to  be  that  of  Lorch  (anciently  Laureacum), 
where  Maximilian-  the  martyr  was  bishop.  Among  the 
martyrs  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century  we  find 
Victorinus  of  Pettau  in  Styria  and  Afra  of  Augsburg. 
In  Pannonia  the  seat  of  a  bishop  was  fixed  at  Sirmium, 
an  occupier  of  which,  Irenseus^,  suffered  death  in  the 
persecution  of  Diocletian.  These  however  are  but  scanty 
gleanings  compared  with  the  great  harvest  which  in  the 
course  of  a  few  generations  was  to  be  brought  into  the 
garners  of  the  Church. 

1.  In  the  early  part  of  the  third  century  a  group 
of  loosely  connected   tribes  which   had   their  habitation 


^  Optatus,  De  Schis77t.  Donat.  i. 
23.     See  antea,  p.  339. 

^  Anonymous  Life  in  Acta  SS. 
Oct.  torn.  VI.  p.  52  &.,  and  in  Fez, 


Scri}itores  Rerum  Austriac.  i.  22  ff. 
■*  liuinart,    Acta    Martyrum,    p. 
401  (ed.  2da). 


Irovjth  of  the  Church. 


421 


between  the  Vistula  and  the  Danube  were  known  to  the 
Romans  as  Goths.  It  was  in  combat  with  them  that  the 
emperor  Decius  lost  his  life.  In  the  days  of  Valerian 
and  Gallienus  hordes  of  Goths  pressed  into  the  empire 
as  far  as  Asia  Minor,  where  they  destroyed  many  precious 
monuments  of  antiquity,  among  them  the  famous  temple 
of  Diana  at  Ephesus.  After  crushing  defeats  they  soon 
became  again  formidable,  and  were  a  constant  cause  of 
dread  to  the  empire,  until  Constantino  made  a  definite 
peace  with  them,  and  enlisted  from  their  number  a  body 
of  forty  thousand  under  the  imperial  banners.  Peace 
lasted  so  long  as  the  family  of  Constantino  was  on  the 
throne.  During  their  incursions  into  the  empire  the 
Goths  had  carried  back  with  them  into  their  own  country 
many  Christian  captives,  including  some  clergy,  by  whose 
means  many  of  the  captors  became  Christians.  It  would 
even  seem  that  a  regular  hierarchy  was  established  in 
their  territory,  for  a  Gothic  bishop^  subscribed  the  decrees 
of  the  Council  of  Niciea. 

But  the  real  founder  of  Gothic  Christianity  was  one 
of  their  own  kindred,  Ulfilas-.  Born  about  311  in  a 
Christian  family,  which  had  been  carried  away  captive 
from  Cappadocia  into  the  Gothic  territory,  he  received 
a  name  no  doubt  in  familiar  use  among  the  Goths. 
There  he  grew  up  under  Christian  influences,  speaking 
Gothic  as  his  native  tongue,  but  probably  acquainted  also 
with  Greek.  While  still  among  the  Goths  he  seems  to 
have  become  a  reader  in  the  Church,  but  about  the  year 
340  he  was  sent  by  the  Gothic  king  as  an  ambassador  to 
Constantinople,  and  was  there  consecrated  bishop  of  the 
Goths,  probably  by  prelates  of  the  Arian  party,  to  which 
he    always   remained    attached.     He    was    present    at   a 


1  He  is  described  as  "Provinciae 
Gothiae,  Theophilus  Gothite  Me- 
tropolis" (Hardouin,  Cone.  i.  320). 
Some  have  supposed  that  he  be- 
longed to  the  Crimean  Goths 
(Moller,  K.-G.  ii.  27). 

^  The  original  authorities  are 
Socrates  iv.  33  ff. :  Sozomen  vi. 
37 ;  Philostorgius,  H.  E.  ii.  5 ;  the 
sketch  of  Ulfilas's  life  by  Auxentius, 
in  G.  Waitz,  Leben  u.  Lehre  des 
XJlfila ;  Jornandes  or  Jordaues,  De 


Origine  Actibusque  Getarum,  ed. 
by  Mommsen  in  Monumenta  Ger- 
miinie,  Auctt.  Ant.  xv. ;  Procopius, 
De  Bello  Guthico;  Isidorus  Hisp. 
Chronicon  Gothorum,  in  Migne  Pa- 
trol. Lat.  vol.  83. — Bessel,  Ueber 
das  Leben  u.  die  Lehre  des  XJlfila; 
G.  Kaufmann  in  Zeitschrift  filr 
Deutsches  Alterthum,  Bd.  27  ;  C.  A. 
Scott,  Ulfilas  the  Apostle  of  Die 
Goths  (Loudon,  1885). 


Cn.  XIV. 


In  Asia 
Minor, 
258— y. 


Ulfilas, 
born, 
c.  311, 


bishop, 
340. 


422 


Growth  of  the  Church. 


Ch.  XIV. 


Athanaric 
persecutes, 
c.  350. 


Gothic  mi- 
gration. 


Perseiu- 
tion  re- 
neiced, 
370. 


council  at  Constantinople  in  360,  and  assented  to  the 
creed  then  set  forth,  which  was  an  attempt  to  set  aside 
altogether  the  principal  technical  terms  on  which  the 
controversy  turned,  while  acknowledging  Christ  to  have 
been  begotten  of  God  the  Father  "  before  all  ages  and 
before  all  beginning\"  The  declaration  of  faith  however 
which  Ulfilas  left  behind  does  not  coincide  with  this  or 
indeed  with  any  other  symbol  known  to  us.  In  this  he 
says  nothing  of  the  eternal  generation  of  the  Son,  but 
describes  Him  as  "  our  Lord  and  God,  creator  and  maker 
of  the  universe,  not  having  any  like  Him  I"  Whatever 
were  the  exact  views  of  Ulfilas,  it  is  beyond  question  that 
the  Goths  among  whom  he  worked  with  so  great  success 
became  Arian.  When  Arianism  was  dominant  in  the 
empire,  the  pagan  chief  of  the  West-Goths,  Athanaric, 
became  alarmed  at  the  rapid  increase  of  those  whom  he 
regarded  as  the  natural  allies  of  their  coreligionists 
in  the  empire,  and  began  a  persecution.  Many  Goths 
suffered  loss  and  injury,  and  even  death  itself,  for  their 
faith.  It  was  probably  by  Ulfilas  that  the  Arian  emperor 
Constantius  was  induced  to  permit  the  settlement  of  the 
Arian  Goths  on  Roman  territory.  Mingled  with  their 
still  pagan  kindred  they  passed  in  great  bands  over  the 
Danube  into  Moesia,  and  extended  their  settlements  to 
the  foot  of  the  Haemus  range.  This  was  the  principal 
scene  of  Ulfilas's  work,  but  his  activity  reached  also  the 
Goths  on  the  North  bank  of  the  Danube,  where  he  had 
the  help  and  support  of  other  missionaries.  The  number 
of  his  converts  alarmed  Athanaric,  who  persecuted  those 
Goths  who  remained  within  his  dominion,  and  there  were 
again  many  martyrs  ^  Fritigern,  however,  Athanaric's 
rival,  who  was  anxious  to  remain  for  a  time  in  friendship 
with  the  Arian  emperor  Valens,  protected  the  converted 
Goths  and  permitted  missionary  work  to  go  forward  un- 
hindered. 


1  Halin,  Bibliotheli,  p.  129;  see 
above,  p.  271. 

^  "  Unigenituiti  Filium  ejus,  Do- 
minum  et  Deum  nostrum,  opifieem 
et  factorem  universe  naturae,  uon 
habeutem  similem  suum."  It 
vvoukl  almost  seem  as  if  in  the  last 
words  Ulfilas  contradicted  the  o/xoiof 


of  the  Arians  (see  Socrates,  ii.  41). 
This  creed  is  found  (imperfect)  in 
Waitz,  Lehcn  Ulf.  p.  10  f. ;  Caspari, 
Quellen,  ii.  H03  f. ;  Hahn,  Bibliothek, 
§  126,  p.  I'jy. 

^  See  Ruinart,  Acta  Martyrum, 
598  11. 


Growth  of  tJie  Church. 


423 


It  was  in  this  period  of  anxiety  and  varied  fortunes 
that  Ulfilas  wrought  out  the  great  work  which  has  given 
him  his  most  enduring  title  to  fame.  He  gave  the  Goths 
the  alphabet^  in  which  their  language  was  written,  and 
translated  the  Scriptures  from  the  Greek  into  the  Gothic 
tongue.  The  bouks  of  Kings  he  left  untranslated,  as  he 
thought  the  accounts  of  the  wars  of  the  Jews  only  too 
likely  to  inflame  the  warlike  passions  of  the  Gothsl  This 
translation  is  a  masterpiece  of  its  kind,  very  faithful  to 
the  Greek  text,  but  not  following  it  so  closely  as  to  do 
violence  to  the  Gothic  idiom, 

Ulfilas's  Avork  on  the  northern  side  of  the  Danube  had 
continued  under  Fritigern's  protection  but  a  few  years, 
when  the  Goths  were  driven  from  their  ancient  seat  by 
the  Huns,  and  settled  in  large  numbers  in  Thrace  under 
the  protection  of  Valens.  Not  very  long  after  this  migra- 
tion, the  hard  treatment  which  they  received  from  the 
imperial  officials  caused  war  to  break  out  between  Goths 
and  Romans — a  war  in  which  Ulfilas  and  the  Goths  who 
had  crossed  the  Danube  with  him  at  the  time  of  the  first 
persecution  decided  to  take  no  part.  In  vain  Ulfilas 
attempted  to  mediate  between  Fritigern  and  Valens, 
The  emperor  fell  in  battle  with  the  Goths  at  Adrianople, 
and  the  victors  pressed  on,  wasting  the  land  with  fire  and 
sword,  to  the  Adriatic  seaboard  and  to  the  very  walls  of 
Constantinople.  The  great  Theodosius  delivered  the 
empire  from  its  pressing  danger ;  and  so  anxious  was 
he  to  unite  the  Goths  with  the  Church  as  well  as  the 
empire,  that  he  summoned  a  council  at  Constantinople  in 
the  year  383 — though  the  Second  (Ecumenical  had  but 
just  propounded  its  Creed — which  was  to  attempt  to 
devise  articles  of  union ^  Ulfilas  attended  it,  but  only  to 
find  himself  branded  as  a  heretic  when  emperor  and 
council  agreed  in  maintaining  unaltered  the  Constan- 
tinopolitan  Creed.  The  distress  which  he  must  have 
experienced  perhaps   hastened  his  end,  for  in  the  same 


1  Socrates,  iv.  32.  This  alphabet 
may  be  seeu  in  Hickes'  Thesaurus, 
p.  3,  and  in  Skeat's  Mviso-Gothlc 
Glossary,  p.  287. 

-  Philostorgius,  H.  E.  ii.  5.  This 
translation  no  longer  exists  in  a 
complete  state.   That  which  ia  now 


extant  is  contained  in  the  Codex 
Argenteus,  now  at  Upsala,  the 
Codex  Carolinus  at  Wolfenbiittel, 
and  the  Milan  fragments  published 
by  Mai. 
^  Sozomeu,  vii.  12. 


Ch.  XIV. 

Vljilas's 
transla- 
tion of  the 
Scriptures. 


Invasion 
of  the 
iluns, 
375. 


Gothic 

conquests, 

378, 


Council, 
383. 


Death  of 

umias, 

383. 


424 


Growth  of  the  Church. 


year  he  died.  There  were  not  wanting  however  ardent 
disciples  to  carry  on  his  work.  The  Goths  remained 
Ariari,  a  fact  which  greatly  influenced  their  subsequent 
histoiy,  inasmuch  as  it  introduced  an  important  difference 
between  them  and  the  Catholic  inhabitants  of  the  em])ire 
which  they  overran.  The  Arian  dominion  led  the  latter 
more  and  more  to  look  for  help  to  the  emperor  and  the 
pope.  Yet  the  Goths  were  for  the  most  part  merciful 
conquerors  and  sovereigns.  The  capture  of  Rome  by 
Alaric,  king  of  the  West-Goths,  sent  a  shudder  throughout 
the  empire ;  many  thought  that  the  end  of  the  world 
had  come ;  but  the  conqueror  gave  orders  to  spare  the 
churches  and  those  who  had  fled  to  them  for  refuge,  while 
the  treasures  of  the  cathedral  church  were  openly  carried 
to  a  place  of  safety.  And  when,  after  his  early  death, 
his  successor  Ataulf  married  Galla  Placidia,  the  daughter 
of  Theodosius,  and  shewed  himself  friendly  to  the  con- 
quered race,  even  the  Romans  began  to  see  the  promise 
of  a  better  time.  In  Spain  the  invading  Goths  brought 
over  to  Arianism  the  Suevi,  earlier  settlers,  who  had 
adopted  the  Catholic  faith  which  they  found  there.  The 
Vandals,  who  had  been  permitted  by  Constantino  to 
settle  in  Pannonia,  had  there  been  converted  to  Arianism 
by  missionaries  of  the  West-Goths ;  but,  unlike  their 
teachers,  who  everywhere  treated  with  forbearance  the 
Catholics  under  their  dominion,  the  Vandals  bore  a 
fanatical  hatred  to  the  adherents  of  the  Nicene  faith, 
and  persecuted  them  wherever  they  had  the  power.  In 
Africa,  in  particular,  especially  when  they  were  led  by 
king  Hunneric,  they  inflicted  all  imaginable  outrages 
upon  the  Catholics  and  their  churches'.  A  conference 
which  Hunneric  brought  about  between  orthodox  and 
Arian  bishops  had  no  result,  except  to  stimulate  the 
Vandal  king  to  fresh  violence.  After  the  death  of 
Hunneric,  the  persecution  continued  under  his  nephews 
Gundamund  and  Thrasimund.  A  milder  period  followed 
the  death  of  the  latter ;  but  this  period  was  short,  for  in 
the  year  533  the  Vandal  power  was  overthrown  by  Beli- 
sarius,  and  the  African  province,  weakened  and  desolated, 
was  restored  to  the  empire. 

'  Victor  Vitensis,  Hist.  Perseciitionis  AfriearuB  ProvincicB. 


Grotuth  of  the  Church. 


425 


In  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  a  large  proportion 
of  the  Teutonic  tribes  who  were  dominant  in  Western 
Europe  belonged  to  the  Arian  confession.  This  state  of 
things  was  however  completely  changed  by  the  conversion 
of  the  Franks  to  Catholic  Christianity. 

2.  The  Salian  Franks  were  a  powerful  Teutonic  tribe, 
or  rather  federation,  who,  pressing  southwards  from  their 
earlier  seat  on  the  lower  Rhine  had  taken  possession  of 
the  fertile  plains  on  the  Meuse  and  the  Sambre,  and  had 
thence  extended  their  boundaries  to  the  Somme.  This 
people  was  led  in  the  latter  part  of  the  fifth  century  by  a 
chieftain  of  extraordinary  power,  Chlodwig^,  who  overthrew 
the  Romans  under  Syagrius  in  north-eastern  Gaul,  and 
made  himself  master  of  the  country  up  to  the  Seine.  He 
married  Clotilda,  the  orphan  daughter  of  the  murdered 
Burgundian  king  Chilperic,  who  endeavoured  to  win  over 
her  pagan  spouse  to  the  Catholic  Christianity  in  which 
she  had  been  reared.  But  Chlodwig  found  no  satisfaction 
in  the  doctrine  of  a  crucified  Saviour,  though  he  did  very 
reluctantly  consent  to  the  baptism  of  his  infant  son.  War 
however  brought  to  pass  that  which  peaceful  persuasion 
had  in  vain  attempted.  The  Allemanni,  a  still  pagan 
tribe,  had  by  great  prowess  in  a  series  of  struggles  esta- 
blished themselves  in  a  wide  and  fruitful  territory  on 
both  banks  of  the  Upper  and  Middle  Rhine.  Desiring 
still  to  extend  their  territory,  they  invaded  that  of  the 
neighbouring  Ripuarian  Franks.  The  pressing  danger 
led  the  Frankish  tribes  to  forget  their  internal  dissensions, 
and  Chlodwig  advanced  against  his  warlike  foes  at  the 
head  of  the  whole  force  of  the  nation.  The  opposing 
armies  met  near  Ziilpich,  about  twenty  miles  west  of 
Bonn.  The  battle  was  long  and  bloody,  and  at  last  the 
Franks,  after  terrible  losses,  seemed  to  waver.  In  this 
strait  Chlodwig  bethought  him  of  the  words  of  his  wife, 
who  had  told  him  of  an  Almighty  God,  unlike  those  of 
wood  and  stone,  and  vowed  that  if  he  conquered  he  would 
worship  Christ  Who  gives  victory  to  those  who  trust  in 

^  The  principal  authority  is 
Gregory  of  Tours,  Historia  Fran- 
corum  (Migne,  Fatrol.  Lat.  vol.  71 ; 
Monum.  German.,  ScrijJt.  Merov. 
I.) — W.  C.  Vevxy;The  Franks  from 
their  first   appearance   in  History 


to  the  death  of  king  Pepin  (London, 
1807). 

-  The  name  appears  as  Ludwig  in 
German,  and  as  Glovis  and  Louis  in 
French. 


Ch.  XIV, 

Preva- 
lence of 
Arianism. 


The 
Franka 


Chlodwig, 
481—511, 


mames 

Clotilda, 

193. 


liattle  of 
Ziilpich, 
496. 


Chlnd- 
wig's  vow. 


426 


Orowtli  of  the  Church. 


Ch.  XIV. 


Chlod- 

wig's 

baptism. 


Character 
of  his 
conver- 


The  AUe- 


Him^  After  this  the  battle  raged  with  new  fury,  but 
the  Franks  gained  the  upper  hand ;  the  king  of  the 
Allemanni  himself  fell,  and  his  death  caused  panic  among 
his  warriors,  who  fled  in  confusion  towards  the  Rhine. 
Flushed  with  victory,  Chlodwig  returned  to  Rheims, 
where  he  was  met  at  the  gate  by  his  queen  Clotilda  and 
the  archbishop  Remigius,  and  conducted  through  the 
crowded  streets  to  the  cathedral,  where  he  bowed  his 
haughty  head  to  receive  baptism  from  the  hands  of  the 
archbishop-.  Three  thousand  of  his  chief  men  were 
received  into  the  Catholic  Church  by  baptism  after  the 
example  of  their  leader.  A  portion  of  the  army  however 
refused  the  yoke  of  Christ  and  renounced  their  allegiance 
to  Chlodwig,  but  returned  after  some  time  to  his  sove- 
reignty. It  must  be  confessed  that  Chlodvvig's  baptism 
did  not  confer  upon  him  the  Christian  graces  of  gentleness 
and  mercy.  He  remained  what  he  had  been  before,  bold, 
able,  cruel  and  crafty.  As  after  his  conversion  he  shewed 
little  or  nothing  of  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  it  has 
frequently  been  supposed  that  it  was  a  mere  matter  of 
policy,  intended  to  conciliate  the  Catholic  inhabitants  of 
Gaul  and  to  give  him  a  pretext  for  attacking  the  Arian 
Goths.  That  it  had  this  effect  there  is  no  doubt.  Still, 
though  he  did  not  understand  by  conversion  that  change 
of  heart  which  we  associate  with  the  word,  there  seems 
no  reason  to  doubt  that,  after  his  rough  fashion,  he  was 
sincerely  devoted  to  Christ  Who  had  helped  him  in  his 
need,  and  that  he  was  proud  of  his  position  as  the  most 
powerful  champion  of  the  Faith  in  Europe.  He  is  not 
a  man  whom  we  should  readily  suspect  of  hypocrisy  in 
religion,  though  towards  men  he  was  certainly  capable  of 
bad  faith. 

But  little  is  known  of  the  conversion  of  the  conquered 
Allemanni.  The  Franks  do  not  seem  to  have  attempted 
to  bring  them  by  compulsion  to  the  Catholic  faith,  but 
it  was  probably  by  their  influence  that  it  was  diffused  in 


1  Gregory  of  Tours,  Hist.  Franc. 
ii,  30. 

2  Ibid.  ii.  31.  The  legend  that 
on  this  occasion  a  white  dove 
brought  an  ampulla  of  sacred  oil 
to  anoint  the  king  is  first  alluded 
to  by  Hincmar,  nearly  four  hun- 


dred years  after  the  supposed 
event.  The  fully  developed  legend 
is  found  in  Flodoard's  Hist.  Eccl. 
Remensis  (i.  13,  in  Migne's  Patrol. 
Lat.  vol.  135,  p.  52  c),  written  in 
the  tenth  century. 


Growth  of  the  Church. 


427 


the  conqnered  territory.  Their  earliest  teacher  is  said 
to  have  been  FridolinS  a  noble  Irishman,  the  reputed 
founder  of  the  monastery  of  Seckingen,  on  an  island  in 
the  Rhine  above  Basel.  Certainly  when  the  Allemannic 
code  of  laws  was  drawn  up  about  630  the  nation  appears 
to  be  Christian.  The  Burgundians,  a  Teutonic  tribe, 
inhabiting  the  banks  of  the  Elbe,  were  driven  westward 
by  the  pressure  of  the  Huns,  and  in  the  end  came  to 
occupy  a  considerable  territory  in  south-eastern  Gaul. 
They  had  been  converted  under  Catholic  influence,  and 
lived  on  a  footing  of  Christian  brotherhood  with  the  con- 
quered race^.  They  seem  however  to  have  lapsed  into 
Arianism.  These  also  were  overthrown  by  Chlodwig  in  a 
great  battle  near  Dijon,  and  twenty-three  years  later 
their  dominions  were  added  to  the  Frankish  kingdom. 
Meantime  they  had  been  brought  back  to  Catholicism 
by  the  strenuous  efforts  of  Avitus,  the  famous  bishop 
of  Vienne,  and  an  orthodox  council  was  held  at  Epaon 
in  the  year  511  to  regulate  the  afftiirs  of  the  Burgundian 
Church.  To  a  man  of  Chlodvvig's  character  it  was  natural 
to  regard  love  for  the  Catholic  Church  and  the  treading 
down  of  Arian  peoples  as  one  and  the  same  thing.  The 
West-Goths  occupied  a  large  portion  of  southern  Gaul. 
"  I  cannot  bear,"  said  the  Frankish  king,  "  that  these 
Ai'ians  should  be  masters  in  a  part  of  Gaul.  Let  us  go 
and  (with  God's  help)  conquer  them,  and  bring  their  land 
into  our  own  power ^"  He  conquered  them,  and  took 
possession  of  the  country  up  to  the  Pyrenees,  thus  be- 
coming lord  over  almost  the  whole  of  Gaul.  Beyond 
the  Pyrenees  the  West-Goths,  who  had  been  practically 
masters  of  the  country  from  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 
century,  were  still  Arian,  but  the  older  inhabitants  re- 
tained their  Catholic  faith,  and  were  sufficiently  numerous 
and  powerful  to  be  a  constant  danger  to  their  Arian 
lords — a  danger  which  was  much  increased  when  the 
Frankish  champions  of  Catholicism  extended  their  do- 


1  Acta  SS.  March  6,  pp.  429— 
440;  Colgan's  Acta  SS.  Uihern.  pp. 
479—493;  S.  Baring  Gould,  Lives 
of  the  Saints,  iii.  91  ft". 

2  Orosius,  Hist.  vii.  32.  Socrates 
(vii.  30)  gives  a  more  detailed  ac- 
count of  their  conversion,  but  his 


date  is  certainly  wrong  and  the 
whole  story  somewhat  doubtful. 
See  Baronius,  an.  413,  c.  26; 
Kettberg,  K.-G.  Deutschlmids,  i. 
254. 

*  Gregory,  Hist.  Franc,  ii.  37. 


Cn.  XIV. 

Fridolin, 
c.  510. 


Burgun- 
dians 


converted, 
c.  413  (?). 


conquered, 
500. 


Council  at 
Epaon, 
511. 

Chlodwig 
overcomes 
the  West- 
Goths, 
507. 


West- 
Gotlis  in 
Spain, 


428 


Orowtli  of  the  Church. 


minions  to  the  Spanish  frontier,  for  the  Catholic  Spaniards 
would  be  the  natural  allies  of  a  Catholic  invader.  Various 
attempts  were  made  by  the  Arian  kings  to  compel  their 
subjects  to  adopt  their  own  creed  and  enter  their  own 
Church — in  vain.  At  last  king  Reccared,  under  the 
guidance  of  Leander,  the  excellent  bishop  of  Seville,  took 
the  opposite  policy.  In  a  council  summoned  by  himself 
at  Toledo  in  the  year  589  he  declared  that  he  felt  himself 
obliged,  for  the  honour  of  God  and  the  welfare  of  his 
people,  to  receive  fully  the  orthodox  faith  in  the  Holy 
Trinity  on  behalf  of  himself  and  the  nation,  including  the 
Suevi  who  were  among  his  subjects\  From  this  time 
Arianism  made  but  feeble  attempts  to  lift  its  head  in 
Spain.  Thus  by  the  end  of  the  sixth  century  Catholic 
princes  ruled  from  the  Rhine  to  the  Atlantic.  Arianism 
was  indeed  almost  extinct  in  Europe,  except  that  the 
Lombards,  who  in  5G8  had  established  themselves  in  the 
northern  region  of  Italy,  did  not  relinquish  their  Arianism 
and  paganism  until  the  following  century. 

Rulers  like  Theoderic  the  East-Goth  had  found  it 
possible  to  live  on  good  terms  with  their  Catholic  subjects, 
but  they  had  not  attempted  to  unite  them  in  one  polity 
with  their  own  nation.  With  the  Franks  we  first  find 
that  fusion  of  races  which  in  the  end  caused  the  con- 
(|uering  Teutons  to  adopt  the  "Rustic-Roman"  speech  of 
the  conquered  Gauls.  From  the  time  of  Chlodwig  we 
find  men  of  Teutonic  stock  in  the  ministry  of  the  Church, 
hitherto  the  privilege  of  the  Romanized  inhabitants.  At 
the  Council  of  Orleans  in  511  we  find  among  the  thirty- 
two  subscribing  bishops  two  Teutonic  names,  and  at 
that  which  was  held  at  the  same  place  thirty-eight  years 
later  eight  Teutons  appear  among  the  sixty-eight  sub- 
scribers^; afterwards  the  proportion  becomes  higher.  But 
the  old  Roman  cultivation  of  the  Gallican  clergy,  even 
in  its  decay,  asserted  its  power.  Indispensable  for  the 
conduct  of  the  administration,  the  bishops  became  more 
and  more  involved  in  politics,  and  secular  business  gene- 
rally. The  most  remarkable  product  of  the  Romano- 
Gallican  cultivation  of  this  period  was  Gregory  of  Tours^, 


1  Hardouin,  Cone.  iii.  4G8  f.  This 
council  inserted  "Filioqne"  in  the 
Creed.     See  antea,  p.  280. 


2  Hardouin,  i.  1012,  1448. 

3  On  Gregory's  Life,  see  Ruinart'a 
Preface  etc.  to  his  Ed.  of  Opera; 


Growth  of  the  Church. 


429 


the  Frank  Herodotus.  Georgius  Florentins,  who  called 
himself  Gregorius  after  his  maternal  grandfather,  the 
canonized  bishop  of  Langres,  was  born  about  the  year 
540  of  a  senatorial  family  at  Arverna,  now  Clermont- 
Ferrand.  He  became  deacon  in  his  native  town,  but  his 
remarkable  gifts  soon  made  him  conspicuous.  Kings 
emplo3'ed  him  in  the  business  of  the  state,  and  he  w'as 
chosen  bishop  of  Tours  with  the  assent  of  all,  high  and 
low,  clergy  and  laity\  In  his  see,  while  he  gave  much 
attention  to  the  secular  matters  of  which  he  was  so  dis- 
tinguished a  master,  he  proved  himself  a  true  shepherd 
of  the  flock  committed  to  his  charge.  Tours,  the  city  of 
St  Martin,  was  at  that  time  in  fact  the  ecclesiastical 
metropolis  of  Gaul,  and  the  influence  of  its  able  ai'ch- 
bishop  was  felt  far  and  wide.  Under  king  Chilperic 
Gregory  valiantly  defended  the  rights  of  the  Church 
against  the  encroachments  of  secular  tyranny ;  to  king 
Childebert  he  was  counsellor  and  friend  in  all  the  diffi- 
culties which  he  had  to  encounter.  He  died,  much 
mourned,  in  the  year  594.  His  History  of  the  Franks,  of 
the  greatest  value  for  his  own  time,  is  a  curious  mixture 
of  history  and  legend.  To  him  history  is  the  narrative 
of  God's  power  working  in  the  world,  and  in  this  point  of 
view  the  miracles  of  the  saints  are  at  least  as  important 
as  the  overthrow  of  those  who  are  without  God.  The 
orthodox  Chlodwag  is  always  victorious,  while  heretical 
kings  come  to  nothing.  Gregory  desired  to  write  classical 
Latin,  but  the  country  speech  which  he  heard  around  him 
frequently  betrays  itself,  and  supplies  us  with  interesting 
examples  of  the  way  in  which  the  tongue  of  old  Rome 
was  gradually  changed  into  the  modern  Romance  lan- 
guages. 

But  as  the  Roman  culture  in  Gaul  died  out,  bishoprics 
and  abbacies  fell  into  the  hands  of  ruder  men.  Eccle- 
siastics received  benefices  from  the  crown  which  were  a 
cause  of  embarrassment ;  for  as  the  crown  often  claimed 
the  power  of  recalling  what  it  had  given,  the  system  of 

the   Prefaces   of   Bordier,    Jacobs,  (Biblioth.    de   VEcole    des    Hautes 

and   Giesebrecht  to   their   French  Etudes,  Fasc.  9) ;  T.  K.  Buchanan 

and  German  translations;   J.    W.  jn   j^i^t.    Chr.   Biogr.   ii.    771   ff.; 

LoebeU,    Grcgor    von    Tours    und  Ebert,  Christl.  Lat.  Lit.  i.  539  ff. 
seine  Zeit;  G.  Monod,  Etudes  Cri-  ^  Venantius     Fortunatus,     Car- 

tiques  sur  VEpoque  Merovingienne  viina,  etc.,  v.  3. 


Ch.  XIV. 

born, 
c.  540, 


bishop), 
573, 


died,  594. 


Bishops 

more 

secular. 


430 


Growth  of  the  Church. 


grants  tended  to  make  the  prelates  subservient  to  the 
king^  On  the  other  hand,  when  the  crown,  as  was  some- 
times the  ease,  sought  the  aid  of  the  bishops  against  its 
unruly  feudatories,  they  in  their  turn  naturally  used  the 
opportunity  to  gain  concessions  for  themselves.  In  the 
election  of  bishops,  the  choice  of  the  clergy  and  people 
was  little  regarded,  during  the  Merovingian  period,  in 
comparison  with  the  will  of  the  king^  The  lands  of  the 
Church  were  subject  to  tribute  and  the  cultivators  bound 
to  service  in  war ;  even  bishops  took  the  field  and  bore 
armsl  Councils  were  not  assembled  without  the  consent 
of  the  king,  and  their  canons  had  no  force  without  his 
sanction ;  and  as  ecclesiastical  affairs  came  to  be  dealt 
with  in  the  great  council  of  the  nation,  where  both  clergy 
and  laity  were  present,  synods  of  the  clergy  alone  declined 
in  importance.  The  bishops  were  however  very  powerful 
persons ;  they  exercised  in  many  cases  judicial  functions, 
and  their  excommunication  was  much  dreaded  both  for 
its  spiritual  and  its  temporal  consequences.  Over  their 
own  clerks  in  particular,  who  were  frequently  drawn  from 
the  vassal  class — for  the  free  warriors  did  not  generally 
find  the  clerical  state  attractive — they  exercised  almost 
despotic  power;  but  they  were  themselves  responsible 
to  the  king.  "  If  one  of  us,"  said  Gregory  of  Tours*  to 
Chilperic,  "turns  aside  from  the  way  of  righteousness, 
he  can  be  corrected  by  thee ;  but  if  thou  turnest  aside, 
who  shall  admonish  thee  ?"  In  this  state  of  things,  as 
may  readily  be  supposed,  the  power  of  the  see  of  Rome 
was  little  legarded.  The  pope  was  reverenced  as  the 
chief  bishop  of  Christendom,  but  in  the  period  with  which 


^  The  Council  of  Clermont  (Ar- 
vernense,  a.d.  535)  c.  5,  sought  to 
check  the  practice  of  bishops  seek- 
ing grants  from  the  civil  list.  See 
also  that  of  Paris  (a.d.  557)  c.  1. 

2  Co7ic.  Aurcl.  V.  c.  10  (a.d.  549). 
Gregory  of  Tours,  De  SS.  Pa- 
trvm  Vita,  c.  3.  The  fifth  Council 
of  Paris  (a.d.  615)  enacted  that, 
on  a  vacancy  in  a  see,  that  person 
shall  succeed  "quern  metropoli- 
tanus  a  quo  ordinandus  est  cum 
provincialibus  suis,  clerus  vel  po- 
pulus  civitatis,  absque  uUo  coin- 
modo    vel    datione    pecunise,   ele- 


gcrint;"  but  the  king  in  his  letter 
of  confirmation  added,  "si  persona 
condigna  fuerit,  per  ordiuationem 
principis  ordinetur  " — thus  reserv- 
ing to  himself  a  right  of  veto  (Har- 
douin,  iii.  554). 

3  Two  bishops,  Salonius  and  Sa- 
gittarius, "  galea  et  lorica  sasculari 
armati,"  are  said  to  have  killed 
many  men  with  their  own  hands 
in  a  battle  with  the  Lombards  in 
the  year  572  (Gregory,  il/if.  Franc, 
IV.  43  [al.  37]). 

*  Hist.  Franc,  v.  49. 


Grotuth  of  the  Church. 


431 


we  are  now  concerned  there  is  little  trace  of  his  inter- 
ference with  the  Gallican  Church. 

III.  The  Britons  under  the  Roman  dominion  seem  to 
have  gained  a  high  degree  of  civilization.  The  founda- 
tions and  the  mosaic  pavements  of  handsome  villas  are 
found  in  the  south  of  England  as  frequently  as  in  the 
Rhineland,  and  the  higher  school-training  passed  on  from 
the  Gauls  to  their  kindred  beyond  the  strait.  In  the  time 
of  Hadrian,  said  the  satirist  \  British  pleaders  learned  the 
art  of  speaking  from  glib-tougued  Gaul,  and  even  Thule 
(meaning  probably  the  Shetlands)  was  thinking  of  engaging 
a  tutor.  Plutarch^  tells  us  of  a  conversation  which  he  had 
with  a  Greek  teacher  whom  he  met  at  Delphi,  who  was  on 
his  way  home  from  Britain  to  Tarsus.  It  is  probable 
from  such  instances  that  the  educated  classes  may  to 
some  extent  have  adopted  the  Roman  tongue,  as  we  know 
was  the  case  in  Gaul. 

1.  There  is  abundant  testimony  to  the  existence  of  a 
regular  settled  Church  in  Britain  in  Roman  times,  in 
communion  with  the  Church  throughout  the  world.  Our 
remote  island  had  learned  the  power  of  the  Word,  and  had 
its  churches  and  altars*;  there  too  was  a  theology  founded 
on  Scripture',  there  were  heard  the  denunciations  and  the 
promises  of  the  Gospel^  It  is  even  probable  that  the 
British  had  their  own  Latin  translation  of  the  Scriptures'. 
Britain  worshipped  the  same   Christ,  and   observed   the 


1  Juvenal,  Sat.  xv.  111. 

2  Quoted  by  Mommsen,  Romi- 
sche  Geschichte,  v.  177. 

*  The  original  authorities  for 
British  Church  history  are  Gildas, 
Epistola;  Nenuius,  Hist.  Britonum 
(both  printed  by  the  English  His- 
torical Society;  English  transla- 
tions in  Six  Old  English  Chronicles, 
in  Bohn's  Antiquarian  Library); 
and  notices  in  Bede,  Hist.  Eccl. 
(On  Nennius  see  H.  Zimmer,  Nen- 
nius  Vindicatus  ;  iiber  Entsteltung, 
Geschichte  u.  Quellen  der  'Hist. 
Britonum').  The  principal  pas- 
sages bearing  on  the  history  of 
the  British  Church,  including  Gil- 
das, are  collected  in  Haddan  and 
Stubbs,  Councils  and  Documents, 
I.  1 — 121. — J.  Ussher,  Britanni- 
carum    Ecclesiarum    Antiquitates ; 


E.  Stilliugfleet,  Origines  Britan- 
niccB;  F.  Thackeray,  Researches 
into  the  Ecclesiastical  State  of 
Ancient  Britain;  J.  Williams,  Ec- 
clesiastical Antiquities  of  the  Cymry 
or AncientBritisli  Church;  J.  Prj'cc, 
The  Ancient  British  Church;  Loofs, 
Antiquce  Brit.  Scotorumque  Eccle- 
site  quales  fuerint  Mores  (Lipsias, 
1882). 

*  Eusebius,  Dem.  Evang.  in.  5 ; 
Chrysostom,  Adv.  Judccos  (i.  575 
ed.  Montfauc),  in  H.  and  S.  5,  10. 

^  Chrysostom,  De  Util.  Lect. 
Script,  (ill.  71),  in  H.  and  S.  10. 

6  Id.  in  II.  Cor.  Horn.  27  (x, 
638) ;  in  Matth.  Horn.  80  (vii.  767); 
Serm.  I.  in  Pentecost,  (in.  791),  in 
H.  and  S.  10,  11. 

^  See  the  evidence  of  this  in 
Haddan  and  Stubbs,  170  ff. 


Ch.  XIV. 


The 
British 

AND 

Scottish 
Kelts. 


British 
Church^. 


432 


Growth  of  the  Church. 


same  Rule  of  Truth  as  Africa,  Persia,  and  India \  British 
pilgrims  visited  the  Holy  Places  in  the  East  from  the  end 
of  the  fourth  century  onwardsl  Constantino  included  the 
British  bishops  in  his  invitation  to  the  Council  of  Nicsea, 
and  Athanasius  testihes  that  British  bishops  asssented  to 
its  conclusions^  At  the  Council  of  Sardica  Britons  were 
numbered  among  those  who  acquitted  Athanasius*.  Hilary 
of  Poictiers®,  the  Athanasius  of  the  West,  bore  witness  in 
the  year  358  to  the  orthodoxy  of  Britain,  but  in  the 
following  year  the  British  prelates  who  were  present  at 
Rimini  were  coaxed  and  bullied — like  the  great  majority  of 
their  brethren — into  giving  their  assent  to  the  inorthodox 
formula  of  the  council  which  met  there®.  We  learn  inci- 
dentally that  three  of  the  British  bishops,  on  account  of 
their  poverty,  accepted  the  imperial  allowance,  which  the 
rest  of  the  Britons  and  the  Gauls  of  Aquitaine  declined. 

But  with  all  these  signs  of  life  the  history  of  the 
British  Church  in  Roman  times  is  almost  a  blank.  No 
scrap  of  writing  of  any  inhabitant  of  Britain  in  that  age 
has  come  down  to  us.  The  rhetorical  exaggeration  of 
Gildas  in  the  sixth  century  and  the  legends  written  down 
by  Nennius  (if  this  be  indeed  the  name  of  a  real  person) 
at  some  later  date;  the  scanty  entries  in  the  Saxon 
Chronicle ;  the  few  particulars  which  Bede  in  the  eighth 
century  gave  of  a  Church  which  had  already  vanished 
from  the  greater  part  of  the  island — these  are  all  the 
literary  materials  which  we  have  for  a  history  of  the 
ancient  British  Church.  And  archaeological  research  helps 
us  little.  We  have  a  few  remains  of  perhaps  some  six  or 
eight  Romano-British  churches'^,  and  some  forty  or  fifty 
sepulchral  slabs  and  objects  of  various  kinds  of  the  Roman 
period  are  thought  to  bear  indications  of  Christianity^ 


1  Jerome,  Epist.  10,  Ad  Evan- 
gelum  (iv.  ii.  803  ed.  Bened.)  in 
H.  and  S.  11. 

-  Id.  Epist.  44  ad  Paulam  (iv. 
ii.  551)  in  H.  andS.  11;  Palladius, 
Hist.  Lausiaca,  c.  118,  in  H.  and 
S.  14. 

3  Euseb.  Vita  Const,  iii.  19; 
Athanasius  ad  Jovian.  Imp.  (0pp. 
I.  781.  ed.  Paris,  1698)  in  H.  and 
S.  7. 

4  Atbauas.   Apol.  c.   Arian.    (i. 


123) ;  Hist.  Arian.  ad  Monach.  (i. 
360),  in  H.  and  S.  8,  9. 

5  De  Synodis,  Prolog,  and  c.  2, 
in  H.  and  S.  9. 

^  Sulpicius  Severus,  Chronicon, 
II.  41. 

^  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  i.  38.  To 
the  remains  mentioned  there  may 
now  be  added  the  foundations  of  a 
basilica  at  Silchester. 

8  Ih.  39  f.,  162  ff. 


Grotvth  of  the  Church. 


433 


Perhaps  no  Church  in  the  world  has  left  in  the  region 
which  it  once  occupied  so  few  traces  of  its  existence. 
Probably,  as  seems  to  be  indicated  by  the  poverty  of  its 
bishops  at  Rimina,  the  British  Church  was  poor,  its 
churches  for  the  most  part  slight  buildings  of  wood',  and 
its  art  rudimentary.  Its  vessels  of  precious  metal  and  its 
books  no  doubt  vanished  in  the  Saxon  storm.  It  may  be 
that  its  history  was  uneventful.  It  seems  to  have  been 
little  hurt  by  persecution.  If  St  Alban  and  his  com- 
panions suffered  for  the  faith  in  the  bad  days  of  Diocletian, 
this  must  not  be  supposed  to  indicate  any  general  massacre, 
for  we  have  the  express  testimony  of  Lactantius^  and 
Eusebius^ — contemporary  witnesses — that  the  division  of 
the  empire  over  which  Constantius  bore  sway  enjoyed 
calm  while  the  rest  of  the  world  was  beaten  with  the 
tempest.  The  principal  event  in  the  internal  history  of 
this  Church  which  remains  on  record  is  connected  with 
the  Pelagian  heresy.  Pelagius,  though  a  Briton,  does  not 
appear  to  have  propagated  his  peculiar  opinions  in  his 
native  island.  They  were  introduced  by  Agricola,  the  son 
of  a  Pelagian  bishop,  from  Gaul'*.  In  this  trouble,  a  deacon 
named  Palladius,  probably  a  Briton,  induced  Pope  Coeles- 
tinus  to  send  to  Britain  Germanus,  bishop  of  Auxerre,  who 
was  accompanied  by  Lupus,  bishop  of  Troyes®.  These  excel- 
lent men,  preaching  not  only  in  the  churches,  but  in  the 
streets  and  lanes  and  fields,  strengthened  the  Catholics  in 
the  faith  and  convinced  gainsayers.  During  this  visit 
Germanus  is  said  to  have  led  a  body  of  newly-baptized 
Britons  against  the  pagan  Picts  and  Saxons,  and — with  a 
loud  shout  of  Alleluia  at  the  moment  of  onset — to  have 
gained  a  great  victory®  over  them  at  a  place  near  Mold  in 


1  Bede's  expression  {H.  E.  in. 
4),  that  Niniau  (c.  401)  built  a 
stone  chui'ch  "  insolito  Brittonibus 
more,"  might  conceivably  refer  to 
the  shape  and  size  of  the  church ; 
but  it  is  more  probably  to  be  un- 
derstood as  implying  that  the 
Britons  had  not  before  seen  a 
church  of  stone. 

2  De  Morte  Persec.  c.  15. 

3  H.  E.  VIII.  13,  §  13 ;  De  Mart. 
Palmst.  13,  §  12 ;  Sozomen,  H.  E. 
I.  6. 

*  Prosper  Aquitan.   Chron.  au. 

C. 


429,  in  H.  and  S.  15. 

^  Id.  u.  s.  and  Gont.  Gollatorem, 
c.  21,  in  H.  and  S.  16.  Constan- 
tius however  {Vita  Germani,  i.  31, 
35  =  Bede,  H.  E.  i.  17),  a  good 
Gallican  authority,  says  that  an 
embassy  from  Britain  came  to 
Gaul,  and  that  a  numerous  council 
of  Gallican  bishops  deputed  Ger- 
manus and  Lupus  to  go  to  Britain. 
The  pope  is  not  mentioned. 

^  Constantius,  Vita  Germani,  I. 
40  =  Bede,  i/.  E.  i.  20. 

28 


Cii.  XIV. 


No  per- 
secution. 


Pelagian- 
ism,  429. 


The 

A  llehiia 
Victory. 


434 


Growth  of  the  Church. 


Ch.  XIV. 

Germanus' 
second 
visit, 
C.447. 


Saxons  in 
Kent,  449. 


Battle  of 
Frithern 
on  the 
Severn, 
584. 


Flintshire,  which  still  retains  the  name  of  Maes  Garmon, 
German's  Field.  The  same  heresy  however  broke  out 
again,  and  about  the  year  447  the  good  Germanus,  then 
an  old  man,  was  again  summoned  to  give  peace  to  the 
island.  This  time  he  was  accompanied  by  Severus,  bishop 
of  Treves,  and  the  efforts  of  the  two  were  so  successful 
that  the  heretical  leaders  were  expelled,  and  from  that 
time  the  Catholic  faith  in  the  island  remained  inviolate  \ 

From  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  a  dark  cloud 
covered  Britain  for  about  a  hundred  yearsl  From  the 
time  when  the  Romans  gave  up  the  island — perhaps 
earlier — Saxons^  had  settled  here  and  there  on  the  coast, 
but  in  449  they  landed  in  force  in  Kent,  and  began  to 
push  their  conquests  inland.  The  contest  between  the 
natives  and  the  invaders  was  very  different  from  that  on 
the  Continent.  There,  one  or  two  battles  generally 
sufficed  to  make  the  Teutons  masters  of  a  country ;  they 
settled  down  as  rulers  without  uprooting  all  its  social 
institutions.  Here,  the  fight  lasted  for  several  genera- 
tions; so  late  as  the  year  584  we  find  the  Britons  still 
valiantly  resisting  in  the  West^  The  result  of  this  long 
period  of  war  and  unrest  was,  that  the  Britons  were 
exterminated  or  reduced  to  slavery  in  the  South  and 
centre  of  the  country,  and  the  remains  of  Romano-British 
civilization  annihilated  by  the  pagan  invaders ^  The  Church 
however  survived,  though  with  a  much  diminished  terri- 
tory, in  the  Cambrian  mountains,  where  the  Britons  still 
worship  God  in  their  churches  in  the  ancient  tongue  of 
their  forefathers;  in  Cumbria,  in  Cornwall,  and  perhaps  in 
Armorica — the  Little  Britain  beyond  the  sea  which  we 
now  call  Brittany.  As  was  natural,  when  the  British 
Christians  were  almost  cut  off  from  the  Continent  by  the 
mass  of  pagan  intruders,  they  retained  several  customs 
which    had    either   been    abandoned    by    the    Church    in 


1  Constantius,  Vita  Gcrmani,  ii. 
l—4  =  Bede,H.E.  i.  21. 

2  There  is  an  entry  in  H.  and  S., 
p.  44,  "a.d.  450 — 547,  no  records." 

^  I  have  thought  it  best  to  iisu 
the  word  "Saxon"  as  a  general 
name  for  the  Teutons  who  invaded 
Uritaiu,  as  it  is  usually  so  under- 
stood in  England,   The  word  "  En- 


glish" has  come  to  mean  the  na- 
tion formed  by  the  fusion  of  all 
the  tribes. 

^  Saxo7i  Chronicle,  an.  584. 

s  On  the  question  how  far  En- 
glish institutions  were  influenced 
by  Roman,  see  F.  Palgrave,  The 
Rise  and  Progress  of  the  English 
Commonwealth. 


Oroiuth  of  the  Church. 


435 


general,  or  had  been  always  peculiar  to  themselves.  They 
differed  as  to  the  time  of  their  Easter,  their  foiTQ  of 
baptism  and  of  ordaining  bishops,  and  their  tonsure'. 

Before  it  was  swept  away  from  the  most  important 
portion  of  its  old  domain,  the  British  Church  had  already 
begun  the  great  work  of  Christianizing  its  pagan  neighbours. 
St  Ninian  or  Ninias*,  a  bishop  of  British  race  who  had 
been  trained  at  Rome,  early  in  the  fifth  century  preached 
the  Gospel  to  the  southern  Picts,  Kelts  who  had  never 
been  brought  under  the  dominion  of  the  Romans,  and  who 
were  consequently  in  a  much  ruder  state  than  their  kins- 
men within  the  empire.  Among  these  he  built  a  church 
of  stone — a  strange  sight  to  the  Britons — at  Whithorn,  in 
Galloway,  where  he  placed  his  episcopal  seat,  and  which 
he  dedicated  in  the  name  of  St  Martin  of  Tours,  whom  he 
had  probably  visited  in  his  journeys  across  Gaul  to  and 
from  Italy.  There  he  died  and  was  buried.  Probably  his 
work  had  little  permanent  effect,  for  the  district  appears  to 
have  been  pagan  when  Columba  reached  its  shores  towards 
the  end  of  the  sixth  century. 

2.  During  the  time  when  the  British  Church  was 
enjoying  quietness  under  the  "Roman  peace"  which  re- 
strained the  warring  tribes,  the  great  island  to  the  west  of 
it  was  still  lying  in  darkness.  It  was  called  by  Greek 
writers  lerne,  by  the  Latins  Hibernia  and  Juverna,  but 
from  the  fifth  century  for  many  generations  it  bore  the 
name  of  Scotia,  Scotland^,  and  its  inhabitants  were  Scots, 
from  that  tribe  of  Milesian  settlers  who  came  most  in 
contact  with  their  neighbours  on  the  eastern  side  of  the 
Hibernian  Sea.  The  early  Irish  poems  and  romances  give 
the  impression  that,  even  before  the  advent  of  Christianity, 
there  was  in  the  island  an  ancient  civilization  of  a  type 
different  from  that  of  the  Romans  or  the  Teutons,  and 
even  from  that  of  the  Kelts  of  Britain  or  the  Continent. 


Ch.  XIV. 


1  On  the  British  Easter  see  p. 
396.  For  otlier  differences,  Hard- 
wick's  Ch.  Hist.  (Middle  Age),  p.  7, 
n.  4. 

^  Our  knowledge  of  Ninias  is  de- 
rived almost  wholly  from  Bede 
(H.  E.  in.  4),  for  the  Lives  are  of 
late  date.  See  H.  and  S.  p.  35. 
Modern  authorities  are  A.  P.  Forbes, 
Lives  of  SS.  Ninian  and  Kentigern, 


Introd.;  W.  Grub,  Fa-cI.  Hist,  of 
Scotland,  i.  c.  2;  W.  F.  Skene, 
Celtic  Scotland,  ii.  3,  444 ;  J.  Pryce, 
The  Ancient  British  Church,  1U4 
ff. ;  J.  Gammack  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Biogr.  iv.  45  f. 

^  King  Alfred  in  his  translation 
of  Orosius  (p.  258,  Bohn)  speaks  of 
"Hibernia,  which  we  call  Scot- 
laud." 

28—2 


Ninins 
amonq   the 
Picts',  iOl? 


Ninian 
died,  432? 


Ireland, 


called 
Scotland. 


Irish 
civiliza- 
tion. 


436 


Growth  of  the  Church. 


Ch.  XIV. 


Palladius 
sent  to 
Ireland, 
431. 


StPatrick, 


Early  in  the  fifth  century  however  a  missionary  went, 
probably  from  our  shores,  to  the  western  island.  All  that 
is  really  known  of  him  is,  that  it  is  recorded  under  the 
year  431  that  Palladius,  the  same  who  induced  pope  Coeles- 
tinus  to  send  Germanus  to  the  Britons,  was  himself  ordained 
by  that  pope,  and  sent  as  their  first  bishop  to  the  Scots 
who  believed  in  Christ  \  Nennius  tells  us  that  he  passed 
from  Hibernia  to  Britain,  where  he  died  in  the  land  of  the 
Picts^  Of  his  work  we  have  no  history,  but  a  cloud  of 
legend  has  gathered  round  him,  as  was  natural  where  little 
was  known''. 

But  all  previous  mission  work  in  Ireland  was  thrown 
into  the  shade  by  that  of  St  Patrick*,  who  is  universally 
reverenced  as  the  apostle  of  Ireland.  This  great  saint  was, 
like  St  Paul,  freeborn.  His  father  was  Calpurnius,  a 
deacon,  who  was  also  a  decurio — one  of  the  council,  that 

the  Acts  of  St  Patrick  (c.  700)  in 
the  Book  of  Armagh,  but  the  author 
admits  that  even  when  he  wrote 
the  facts  had  become  obscure  (see 
E.  W.  Hall  in  Schaff's  Encyclop. 
p.  1764).  The  Book  of  Armagh 
contains  also  the  annotations  of 
Tirechan  (of  uncertain  date),  por- 
tions of  which  may  be  derived 
from  very  ancient  sources.  In 
addition  to  these,  there  are  many 
legendary  lives,  seven  of  which 
were  published  by  Colgan  in 
his  Trias  Thaumaturga,  torn.  ii. 
(Loiivain,  1647).  The  principal 
documents  are  in  the  Bollandist 
Acta  SS.  17  March,  with  Cummen- 
tarius  Prcevius,  tom.  ii.  p.  517  ff., 
and  Appendix,  p.  580  ff. — Of  mo- 
dern Lives,  J.  H.  Todd's  St  Patrick, 
the  Apostle  of  Ireland,  superseded 
aU  its  predecessors.  See  also  La- 
nigan,  Eccl.  Hist,  of  Ireland; 
Nicholson,  St  Patrick  (Dublin, 
1868);  G.  T.  Stokes,  Ireland  and 
the  Celtic  Church;  and  art.  Pa- 
tricius  in  Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  iv.  200 
ff. ;  Whitley  Stokes,  The  Tripartite 
Life  of  St  Patrick.  C.  Scholl  {De 
Eccl.  Britonum  Scotorumqne  His- 
tories Fontihus)  gives  a  fair  account 
of  the  early  literature,  and  his 
art.  Patricius  in  Herzog's  Real- 
Encyclop.  is  worth  consulting. 


1  Prosper    Aquitan.    Chronicon, 
an.  431. 

*  Nennius,  Hist.  Britonum,  c.  50. 
'*  See  the  authorities  discussed 

by  Ussher,  Antiq.  Eccl.  Britan- 
nicarum,  c.  16;  J.  H.  Todd,  St 
Patrick,  p.  270;  G.  T.  Stokes  in 
Diet.  Chr.  Biogr.  iv.  176  f. 

*  The  only  contemporary  au- 
thorities for  the  life  of  St  Patrick 
are  his  Confessio  and  Epistola  ad 
Corotici  Subditos,  the  former  of 
which  is  found  (imperfect)  in  the 
Book  of  Armagh,  an  ancient  Irish 
MS.,  where  it  claims  to  have  been 
copied  from  the  saint's  own  auto- 
graph. Of  the  genuineness  of  these, 
which  are  among  the  most  in- 
teresting documents  of  ancient  his- 
tory, there  can  be  no  reasonable 
doubt.  The  Irish  Hymn  of  St 
Patrick,  "the  Breastplate,"  is  also 
believed  to  be  genuine,  and  gives  a 
touching  picture  of  his  faith.  The 
early  (perhaps  before  a.d.  500) 
Hymn  of  St  Sechnall  (Secundinus) 
to  St  Patrick  gives  no  historical 
particulars.  The  Hymn  of  St  Fiacc 
(not  earlier  than  the  latter  part  of 
the  6th  cent.)  does  contain  some 
notices  of  the  life.  All  these  are 
printed  in  Haddan  and  Stubbs, 
Councils  and  Documents,  n.  289 — 
361.     The  oldest   life  is  probably 


Growth  of  the  Church. 


487 


is,  of  a  mnnicipium — who  was  son  of  Potibius,  son  of  Odissus, 
a  presbyter \  He  was  born,  he  tells  us,  at  Bannavem 
Tabernise,  a  place  of  which  nothing  is  known,  except  that, 
since  it  had  decuriones,  it  must  have  been  within  the 
empire.  It  was  probably  on  the  west  coast  of  Britain, 
south  of  the  wall  of  Antoninus^  Wherever  it  was, 
when  he  was  sixteen  years  of  age  he  was  carried  ofif  by 
marauders,  with  his  father's  menservants  and  maid- 
servants, and  thousands  of  others,  to  IreIand^  There,  a 
beardless  boy,  rough,  untaught,  he  herded  the  cattle  of  his 
master — and  prayed.  In  answer  to  his  prayers  he  heard 
a  voice  in  the  night  telling  him  that  he  would  return  to 
his  native  land*.  He  found  a  ship  and  was  carried  over 
the  sea  to  the  home  of  his  parents,  who  rejoiced  that  among 
the  pagans  he  had  not  fallen  from  the  faith ^  But  he 
could  not  rest.  He  heard  his  old  companions  in  the 
Western  Isle  calling  on  him  to  return,  and  an  inward 
voice  wax-ned  him  that  he  was  to  become  a  bishop ^  He 
proposed  to  go  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  those  whom  he  had 
left  behind.  Friends  naturally  dissviaded  him  from  rush- 
ing again  into  peril  among  a  people  that  knew  not  God, 
but  he  withstood  their  prayers;  he  had  vowed  to  God  to 
teach  the  pagans  even  to  the  loss  of  life  itself,  if  it  so 
pleased  Him^  He  returned,  and  God  gave  him  grace,  he 
says  in  his  simple  way,  to  convert  many  people  and  ordain 
many  clergy*.  In  particular,  he  tells  us  more  than  once® 
of  the  number  of  his  converts  who  devoted  themselves 
to  the  ascetic  life.  Young  Scots  became  monks,  and 
chieftains'  daughters  innumerable  became  liandmaids  of 
Christ.  St  Patrick's  work  succeeded,  but  not  without 
suffering.  He  carried  his  life  in  his  hand,  and  always 
looked  for  death,  captivity,  or  slavery.  Chieftains  seized 
him  and  his  companions  with  a  view  to  kill  them\  On  at 
least  one  occasion  a  body  of  the  newly  baptized,  still  in 
tlieir   white    raiment,   were    butchered    or   led    captive^; 


^  Confessio,  p.  296  (in  Haddaii 
and  Stubbs) ;  Ad  Corot.  (ib.  314). 

2  Some  good  authorities  how- 
ever (as  G.  T.  Stokes)  suppose  it 
to  have  been  on  the  north  coast  of 
Gaul. 

*  Confessio,  p.  299 ;  Corot.  p. 
316. 


^  Confessio,  p.  300. 
5  Confessio,  p.  303. 
«  lb. 

7  Ib.  p.  306;  Corot.  p.  314. 

8  Confessio,  p.  307. 

9  Ib.  p.  308;  Corot.  p.  317. 

1  Confessio,  pp.  311,  312. 

2  Corot.  p.  314. 


Ch.  XIV. 


born 
0.  378? 


captive  in 
Ireland, 
394  ? 


returns  to 

Ireland, 

432? 


438 


Growth  of  the  Church. 


Christians  were  sold  to  heathen  Picts^;  baptized  women 
and  the  lands  of  orphans  were  distributed  to  the  boon 
companions  of  chiefs*.  How  long  his  work  in  Ireland 
lasted  is  uncertain,  as  the  dates  given  by  the  older 
authorities  for  his  death  vary  from  457  to  493\  Nor  is  it 
known  where  or  by  whom  he  was  ordained.  He  himself 
in  his  Confession  tells  us  nothing  on  this  point,  though  he 
seems  to  imply  that  there  was  some  opposition  to  his  con- 
secration as  bishop*.  The  ancient  hymn  of  St  Sechnall 
gives  the  impression  that  he  received  his  apostleship,  like 
St  Paul,  direct  from  heaven^  Some  ancient  authorities 
describe  him  as  spending  some  time  with  Germanus®  of 
Auxerre,  and  as  being  ordained  by  him',  but  nothing  of 
this  appears  to  be  known  to  Constantius,  Germanus's 
almost  contemporary  biographer.  According  to  some 
accounts  Germanus  sent  him  to  Rome,  to  be  ordained  by 
Coelestinus  himself,  while  again  Coelestinus  is  described®  as 
causing  him  to  be  ordained  by  the  "priest-king  Amatho;" 
but  Prosper,  the  pope's  secretary,  knows  nothing  of  any 
connexion  of  Coelestinus  with  Patrick,  though  he  records 
the  mission  of  Palladius,  and  the  author  of  the  life  of 
Coelestinus  in  the  "Liber  Pontificalis"  is  equally  silent. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  St  Patrick  laid  special 
stress  on  the  inclination  of  the  Scots  of  Ireland  to  the 
ascetic  life,  a  circumstance  which  gave  so  great  prominence 
to  the  monasteries  which  sprang  up  in  all  parts  of  the 
country  that  the  ecclesiastical  system  established  there 
may  be  described  as  monastic  rather  than  diocesan.     A 


1  Corot.  p.  318. 

2  Ih.  p.  219. 

^  All  the  dates  in  St  Patrick's 
life  are  very  uncertain.  Those 
given  in  the  margin  are  the  Bol- 
landist  dates,  which  seem  as  pro- 
bable as  any. 

*  Confessio,  p.  304. 

B  In  H.  and  S.  p.  324  S.  "A- 
postolatum  a  Deo  sortitus  est... 
Quem  Deus  misit  ut  Paulum  ad 
gentes  apostolum...Quem  Deus  Dei 
elegit  custodire  popalum...Quem 
pro  meritis  Salvator  provexit  pon- 
tificem...Christus  ilium  sibi  legit 
in  terris  vicarium. " 

*  "He  went  across  all  the  Alps 


...until  he  staid  with  German  in 
the  south,  in  the  south  part  of 
Latium."  St  Fiacc's  Hymn,  in 
H.  and  S.  357.  Fiacc  probably 
confuses  the  legend  of  a  journey 
to  Rome  with  the  legend  of  a  visit 
to  Germanus. 

^  Heiricus,  Miracula  Germani,  ii. 
21  (Acta  SS.,  31  July),  quoted  by 
Scholl,  Real-Encycl.  p.  207.  See 
G.  T.  Stokes  in  D.  C.  B.  iv.  203. 

*  "Der  al teste  Biograph"  says 
that  the  pope  after  the  retreat  of 
Palladius  "habe  den  Patricius  von 
dem  Priesterkonig  Amatho  ordi- 
niren  lassen."    Scholl,  u.  s.  p.  207. 


Growth  of  the  Church. 


monastery  rather  than  an  episcopal  see  was  regarded  as 
the  centre  of  ecclesiastical  life  and  organization  for  a 
district.  Sometimes  the  abbat  was  himself  a  bishop, 
sometimes  he  had  among  his  monks  a  bishop,  who  was 
under  his  jurisdiction,  and  performed  episcopal  offices  for 
the  monastery  and  its  dependent  district^ — a  state  of 
things  probably  scarcely  to  be  found  elsewhere,  though 
bishop-monks  existed  in  the  churches  of  St  Denys  and  St 
Martin  of  Tours  in  France '^  The  greatest  promoter  of 
monasticism  in  Ireland  was  Brigida*,  now  known  as  St 
Bridget  or  St  Bride,  who  is  said  to  have  been  born  of  noble 
blood,  at  Faugh er,  near  Dundalk,  about  the  year  453. 
There  is  a  legend  that  in  her  infancy  the  house  in  which 
she  was  blazed  with  light  and  yet  nothing  was  burned — a 
story  which  has  led  some  to  suppose  that  traits  which 
originally  belonged  to  the  myth  of  a  fire-goddess  have 
been  transferred  to  the  saint,  and  it  is  stated  that  the 
Celtic  goddess  who  was  the  patron  of  smiths  was  named 
Brigit,  "the  fiery  arrow."  Giraldus  Cambrensis  tells  us 
that  at  Kildare  St  Bridget  had  a  perpetual  fire  watched 
by  twenty  nuns.  All  that  we  know  of  her  early  life  indi- 
cates vigour  of  character  and  sweetness  of  disposition,  and 
an  old  hymn  speaks  of  her  as  "a  marvellous  ladder  for 
pagans  to  visit  the  kingdom  of  Mary's  Son"*."  She  refused 
marriage,  and  at  last  her  father  permitted  her  to  dedicate 
herself  to  the  Lord.  The  great  event  of  her  life  was  the 
foundation  of  the  monastery  of  Kildare,  for  men  and 
women,  which  soon  had  many  affiliated  establishments  in 
all  parts  of  the  country.  Bridget,  like  other  heads  of  con- 
vents, had  her  own  bishop,  and  with  him  she  governed  the 
other  houses  of  her  rule,  together  with  their  bishops.  She 
is  believed  to  have  died  at  Kildare  on  the  1st  Feb.  523,  on 
which  day  she  is  commemorated  in  the  Calendar,  having 
earned  by  her  works  and  her  character  the  title  of  "  the 
Mary  of  Ireland."     Churches  dedicated  to  St  Bride  in  all 


1  Todd's  St  Patrick,  pp.  51  f., 
88  f. 

^  DucariRe's  Glossary,  s.  v.  Epi- 
scopi  vagantes. 

*  Life  iu  Three  Middle-Irish 
Homilies,  ed.  Whitley  Stokes  (Cal- 
cutta) ;  Acta  SS.  1  Feb. ;  Colgan's 
Trias  Thaumat.;  J.  H.  Todd's  St 


Patrick,  pp.  10—26;  O'Eeilly's 
Irish  Dictionary,  Suppl.  s.  v.  Bri- 
git; Lanigan's  Eccl.  Hist.  Irel. 
vol.  I.  ;  A.  P.  Forbes  in  Diet.  Chr. 
Biogr.  I.  337  f.;  T.  Olden  in  Diet. 
National  Biogr.  vi.  340  ff. 

•*  Broccan's    Hymn,    quoted    by 
Olden,  D.  N.  B  341. 


439 


Ch.  XIV. 


St  Bridget, 
horn 
c.  453. 


Founds 
Monastery 
of  Kildiire, 

c.  467. 


dies  523? 


440 


Growth  of  the  Church. 


Cu.  XIV. 

Irish 
Christi- 
anity, 


St  Colum- 
ba,  born 
c.  521, 


f 01171  ds 

Durrow 
and  Dcrrij 
c.  544; 


at  lona, 
5G3? 


parts  of  the  British  islands  testify  to  the  widespread  reve- 
rence of  her  name. 

Christianity  found  a  congenial  soil  in  Ireland,  Her 
warm-hearted  and  emotional  people  received  with  eager- 
ness the  story  of  the  self-sacrifice  of  Christ  and  of  the 
saints  who  followed  Him.  After  the  time  of  St  Patrick 
there  was  little  or  no  persecution.  They  had  a  natural 
bent  towards  poetry  and  art,  and  this  was  readily  turned 
to  Christian  subjects;  their  songs  soon  came  to  celebrate 
Christian  saints  instead  of  pagan  heroes.  Nowhere  per- 
haps was  the  whole  literature  of  a  country  more  distinctly 
influenced  by  the  teaching  of  the  Church,  while  retaining 
its  own  national  character.  And  the  remote  situation  of 
Ireland  favoured  her  spiritual  and  intellectual  develop- 
ment. While  Britain  and  the  Continent  were  overwhelmed 
by  the  Teutonic  invasion,  she  enjoyed  calm,  and  became  a 
light  to  lighten  the  mainland  of  Europe,  as  well  as  her 
nearer  neighbours. 

3.  The  earliest  of  the  great  Scoto-Irish  missionaries 
was  St  Columba\  He  was  born  in  Ireland,  probably  in 
the  year  521,  of  a  noble  family  connected  with  the  Dalriads 
of  Caledonia,  and  is  thought  to  have  begun  the  foundation 
of  monasteries,  of  which  the  chief  were  Durrow  and  Derry, 
about  the  year  544,  when  he  had  received  priests'  orders. 
Various  reasons,  among  which  it  is  difficult  to  distinguish 
the  true  one,  are  given  for  his  leaving  Ireland.  Whatever 
the  cause,  in  the  year  563,  the  forty- second  of  his  age,  he 
crossed  the  strait  in  a  frail  bark  of  wicker  covered  with 
hides,  and  landed  with  twelve  companions  on  the  small 
isle  of  I,  Hy,  or  lona^  afterwards  known  as  Icolmkille, 
"the  isle  of  Columba's  cell,"  separated  by  a  narrow  strait 


1  The  Life  of  St  Columba,  uritten 
hy  Adamvdu,  ninth  Ahhat  of  lona, 
ed.  by  W.  lieeves,  leaves  nothing  to 
be  desired,  either  as  regards  criti- 
cism of  the  sources  or  biography. 
J.  Colgan,  Trias  Thanmat.  319— 
514,  gives  five  Lives.  A  ms.  col- 
lection of  matter  relating  to  St 
Columba,  by  M.  O'Donnell,  is  in  the 
Bodleian  Library,  Eawlinson  B.  514 
(see  N.  Moore  in  Diet.  Nat.  Biog, 
XI.  413).  See  also  Lanigan's  Eccl. 
Hist.  Ircl.;  Innes'  Hist,  of  Scotland 


(Spalding  Club,  1853) ;  A.P.  Forbes, 
Kalcndars  of  Scottish  Saints; 
Skene's  Celtic  Scotland,  vol.  ii. ; 
J.  Gammack  and  C.  Hole  in  Diet. 
Chr.  Biogr.  i.  602  ff. 

2  Bede,  H.  E.  iii.  4 ;  v.  24.  On 
lona,  see  L.  Maclean,  Historical 
Account  of  lona  (Edinb.  1833); 
Alexander  Ewing,  The  Abbey  or 
Cathedral  Church  of  lona;  Duke 
of  Argyll,  lona ;  James  Drummond, 
Sculptnred  Moiiuments  in  lona,  etc. 


Growth  of  the  Church. 


441 


from  the  larger  island  of  Mull.  There  he  founded  a 
monastery,  and  made  it  the  centre  whence  he  and  his 
followers  preached  the  Gospel  to  the  Picts,  and  revived 
religion  among  the  Scots,  who  were  already  to  some  extent 
Christian.  Hy  was  henceforth  his  chief  abode,  but  he  was 
too  fully  possessed  by  the  eager  spirit  which  urged  so 
many  of  his  countrymen  to  distant  travel  to  remain  quietly 
in  one  house.  He  and  his  monks  undertook  many  journeys, 
penetrating,  it  is  thought,  as  far  north  as  Inverness  and  as 
far  east  as  Aberdeen.  So  far  as  we  know,  it  was  he  who 
first  taught  Christianity  north  of  the  Clyde  and  the  Tay. 
He  also  frequently  visited  Ireland  to  take  the  oversight  of 
the  monasteries  of  his  foundation.  The  chronology  of  this 
period  is  somewhat  obscure,  but  it  is  probable  that  he 
died,  after  a  life  of  constant  activity,  on  June  9,  A.D.  597. 
If  this  is  correct,  the  Keltic  apostle  of  Caledonia  died  in 
the  very  year  in  which  Augustin  set  foot  on  the  shore  of 
Kent.  A  goodly  company  of  disciples  carried  on  Columba's 
work.  The  monastery  of  lona,  like  other  Keltic  founda- 
tions of  that  age,  had  its  bishop,  subject  to  the  abbat,  and 
for  two  centuries  it  was  the  nursery  of  bishops,  the  centre 
of  education,  the  asylum  of  religion,  the  ecclesiastical 
metropolis  of  the  Keltic  race.  During  those  two  centuries 
its  abbat  retained  an  undisputed  supremacy  over  all  the 
monasteries  and  churches  of  Caledonia,  and  over  those  of 
half  Ireland.  A  Rule  bearing  the  name  of  Columba  is 
extant  in  the  old  Irish  tongue  \  but  this  is  almost  certainly 
a  later  production  of  some  Columbite  monk  or  hermit. 

It  is  clear  that  the  Scoto-Irish  Church  was  developed 
in  perfect  independence  of  Rome,  for  it  held  for  many 
generations  customs — such  as  the  predominance  of  abbats 
over  bishops,  a  peculiar  Easter  and  a  peculiar  tonsure — 
which  Rome,  when  it  had  the  power,  put  down.  In  the 
end,  the  Keltic  Churches  were  absorbed  by  the  Roman. 
It  is  curious  to  reflect  that  if  they  had  been  able  to  main- 
tain their  position  the  numerous  missionaries  who  went 
forth  from  this  island  might  have  propagated  on  the 
Continent  a  non-papal  Christianity,  and  Boniface  might 
never  have  brought  Germany  under  the  dominion  of  the 
Supreme  Pontiff.     In  that  case,  as  the  dissensions  between 

1  Printed  by  Hacldan  and  Stubbs,  CounciU,  ii.  119  ff. 


Ch.  XIV. 


442 


Growth  of  the  Church. 


Ch.  XIV. 


the  Empire  and  the  Church  were  for  centuries  the  leading 
events  in  Europe,  the  whole  course  of  medigeval  history- 
would  have  been  changed.  It  is  conceivable  that  the 
Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century,  largely  occasioned 
as  it  was  by  the  hatred  felt  by  the  Teutons  for  Italian 
ecclesiastics,  might  never  have  been  required,  or  might 
have  taken  an  entirely  different  coursed  But  it  is  idle  to 
attempt  to  write  the  history  of  that  which  might  have 
been. 

^  Kurtz,  Handhuchy  ii.  78. 


'^^'^*avM 


n4dcA 


X«^ 


,4X3  Minor 


'Oi. 


u 


C 


IS  20 


f 


^ 


uRheffuan 


J\.BRIAT 


""•^^^i 


M. 


AiigOA 


Xondon:   Macmilla' 


e 


p. 


c 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 


B.C. 

31     Augustus  emperor. 
4  ?    Birth  of  Jesus  Christ. 

A.D. 

14     Tiberius  emperor. 
27  ?     The  Lord  begins  His  ministry. 
30  ?     Death,  Resurrection  and  Ascension  of  the  Lord. 

The  Great  Day  of  Pentecost. 
36  ?     The  Seven  appointed.     Death  of  St  Stephen. 
St  Philip  at  Samaria.     Simon  Magus. 
Conversion  of  St  Paul. 
42  ?     Gospel  preached  to  Gentiles  at  Antioch. 
St  Peter  bajitizes  Cornelius. 
44     SS.  Paul  and  Barnabas  in  Antioch. 
48     St  Paul  in  Asia  Minor.     Judaizers  at  Antioch. 
50     Conference  at  Jerusalem. 
51^58     St  Paul's  journeys. 

58     St  Paul  at  Jerusalem.     Imprisonment. 
61     St  Paul  at  Eome. 

63  Release  of  St  Paul  and  renewed  activity. 

64  Burning  of  Rome.  Nero.  Christians  ])ersecuted. 
Death  of  St  James  the  Less,  Bishop  of  Jerusalem. 
St  John  at  Ephesus. 

68 1    Death  of  St  Peter  and  St  Paul. 
70    Jerusalem  captured  and  destroyed  by  Titus. 

Ebionite  community  at  Pella. 
81     Domitian  emperor.     St  John  in  Patmos(?). 
Teaching  of  Ccrinthus. 
c.  90     Apollonius  of  Tyana. 
c.  95     Epistle  of  Clement  of  Rome. 

98     Trajan  emperor.     Death  of  St  John  (?). 
101  ?    Book  of  Elchasai. 
107 — 117     Deaths  of  Symeon  of  Jerusalem  and  Ignatius  of  Antioch. 
Ill     Christians  in  Bithynia.     Trajan's  Rescript. 
117     Hadrian  emperor.     Edict  against  Christian-baiting. 
The  Gnostics  Basilides  and  Saturninus  teach. 
130?    Apologies  of  Quadratus  and  Aristides.  Montanus  teaches. 

138    Antoninus  Pius  emperor. 
145  ?    Hermas,  Pastor. 


444  Chronological  Table. 

A.  D. 

147  ?  Justin  Martyr's  Apologies. 

148 1  Martyrdom  of  Justin  Martyr. 

c.  150  Marcion  at  Eome. 

c.  175  Praxeas  teaches. 

c.  177  Apologies  of  Athenagoras  and  Melito. 

178  Ireneeus  bisboiJ  of  Lyons. 

c.  180  Apologies  of   Theophilus   and   Miuucius   Felix.     Hege- 

sippus  writes. 

c.  190  Tertidliau  ordained  presbyter. 

193  Septimius  Severus  emperor. 

c.  198  TertuUiau's  Apology. 

c.  200  Noetus  teaches. 

c.  202  Irenseus  dies.     Clement  head  of  Alexandrian  School. 

203  Severe  persecution  in  Alexandria  and  North  Africa. 
Origen  (aged  18)  begins  to  teach  in  Alexandria, 

c.  210  Caius  the  Roman  presbyter  writes. 

c.  215  Sabellius  teaches. 

218  Callistus  bishop  of  Eome.    Question  of  heretical  baptism 
arises. 

c.  220  Hippolytus  wi'ites. 

c.  238  Mani  (Manichseus)  begins  to  teach. 

246  Dionysius  bishop  of  Alexandria. 

248  Cyprian  bishop  of  Carthage. 
c.  249  Origen  writes  against  Celsus. 

249  Decius  emperor. 

c.  250     Besides  the  higher  orders,  subdeacons,  acolyths,  exorcists, 
readers  and  doorkeepers  are  found. 

250  Edict  against  Christians.     Severe  persecution.     Contro- 

versy as  to  the  "  Lapsed." 
Schism  of  Felicissimus  and  Novatus  at  Carthage. 

251  Schism  of  Novatianus  at  Rome. 

253  Valerian  emperor.     Persecution. 

254  Origen  dies. 

256  Coimcil  at  Carthage. 

258 — 9  Death  of  St  Cyprian  and  St  Laurence. 

260  Paul  of  Samosata  teaches. 

c.  270  Gregory   Thaumaturgus   dies.     St   Anthony  becomes  a 
hermit. 

277  Mani  put  to  death. 

c.  280  Porphyry  writes  against  Christianity. 

284  Diocletian  emperor.     Nineteen  years'  peace, 

c.  290  Dorotheus  and  Lucian  at  Antioch. 

302  Gregory  the  Illuminator  Bishop  in  Armenia. 

303  Three  edicts  against  Christians,  Diocletian  reluctant. 

304  Fourth  and  more  severe  edict, 
c.  304 — 8  Lactantius  writes. 

305  Diocletian  and  IMaximian  abdicate.     Galerius  carries  on 

the  persecution. 
Ai'nobius  writes. 

306  Meletiau  schism. 
311     Edict  of  Toleration, 


Chronological  TahJc.  445 

A.D. 

Schism  at  Carthage. 

312  Battle  of  the  Milvian  Bridge.    Constantine  master  of  the 

Western  empire. 

313  Constantine  and  Licinius  issue  the  Edict  of  Milan. 
314 — 321     Measures  of  Constantine  favouring  the  Church. 

314  Synod  of  Aries  decides  against  Carthaginian  schismatics. 

315  Douatus  schismatical  bishop  of  Carthage. 

316  Donatists  appeal  to  Constantine. 

c.  320     Arius  teaches  at  Alexandria  that  the  Son  of  God  is  not 
co-eternal  with  the  Father. 
323     Constantine  overcomes  Licinius  and  becomes  sole  em- 
peror. 

325  Foundation  of  New  Rome,  afterwards  called  Constan- 

tinople. 
Constantine  summons  the  First  Ecumenical  Council  at 

Nicsea.     Creed  adopted  asserting  the  co-eternity  and 

consubstantiahty  of  the  Son  with  the  Father.     An 

Arian  party  formed. 
Pachomius  founds  Egyptian  monasticism. 

326  Helena  in  Palestine. 

327  Frumentius  converts  the  Ethiopians. 

328  Athanasius  bishop  of  Alexandria. 
330     Dedication  of  New  Rome. 

335  Athanasius  deposed  by  the  Synod  of  Tyre. 
Coenobium  at  Tabeima. 

336  Athanasius  exiled.     Marcellus  of  Ancyra  deposed  from 

his  see.     Death  of  Arius.     Julius  becomes  pope. 

337  Death    of    Constantine.       Constans,    emperor    of    the 

West,  and  Constantius,  emperor  of  the  East,  favour 
Arianism. 
Donatist  outrages  in  Africa. 

340  Rise  of  the  Audians. 

341  A  Council  at  Antioch  decrees  the  deposition  of  Athana- 

sius and  draws  up  four  Formularies  of  Faith. 
Monasticism  becomes  known  at  Rome,  and  is  introduced 
into  Syria  and  Palestine  by  Hilariou. 
343     Persecution  of  Christians  in  Persia  by  Savior  II. 
Ulfilas,  the  Apostle  of  the  Coths,  made  bishop. 
344 1     Councils  of  Sardica  and  Philippopolis  ;   the  former  ac- 
quits, the  latter  condemns  Athanasius. 

345  CouncU  at  Antioch  ;  the  "  Prolix  Exposition." 
Photinus  condemned. 

346  Athanasius  returns  to  Alexandria. 

348     Paulus  and  Macarius,  imperial  commissioners,  attempt 
to  restore  peace  in  Africa.     Donatus  exiled. 

350  Constantius  sole  emperor.     Persecution  of  Gothic  Chris- 

tians.    Ulfilas  in  Nicopolis. 
Theophilus  of  Diu  in  Arabia. 

351  Synod  at  Sirmium.     First  Sirmian  Formula. 
Photinus  deposed. 

352  Liberius  becomes  Pope. 


446  Chronological  Table. 


A.  D. 

353     Anti-Niceue  Synod  at  Aries  ;  Athanasius  condemned  as 
a  rebel. 

355  Synod  at  Milan.     Liberius  of  Eome,  Hilary  of  Poitiers, 

Lucifer  of  Cagliari,  and  others,  driven  into  exile. 

356  Athanasius  flees  into  the  wilderness. 

357  Arian  Council  at  Sirmium.     Second  Sirmian  Formula. 
c.  358     Rule  of  St  Basil. 

358  Third  Sirmian  Formula. 

Liberius    subscribes    (probably)    the    Second    Sirmian 
Formula. 

359  Council  at  Rimini ;  majority  at  first  Nicene. 

Council  at  Nice  (NtVjj)  adopts  substantially  the  Second 
Sirmian  Formula,  which  is  then  accepted  at  Rimini. 

360  Council  at  Constantinople  adopts  the  Formula  of  Nice  ; 

vise  of  ovaia  and  vnoa-Taais  forbidden. 
Ariauism  apparently  dominant. 

361  Death  of  Constantius.     Julian  succeeds  and  attempts  to 

revive  paganism,  which  after  his  time  steadily  declines. 
Athanasius  returns  to  Alexandria. 

362  Council  at  Alexandria  attempts  to  restore  union  to  the 

Church.     Luciferian  schism  at  Antioch. 
Apollinaris  teaches. 

363  Julian  dies  and  is  succeeded  by  Jovian. 
Synod  at  Antioch. 

364  Valentinian  I.  emperor  in  the  West,  Valens  (an  Arian) 

in  the  East. 
366     Damasus  Pope.     Narses  Catholicus  of  Armenia. 

Basil  the  Great,  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  Gregory  of  Nazianzus, 
and  Cyril  of  Jerusalem  are  prominent  as  defenders  of 
the  Faith. 
c.  368     Frumentius  in  Abyssinia. 
c.  370    Renewed  persecution  of  Christian  Goths.     Ulfilas  begins 

his  translation  of  the  Bible. 
c.  370    Basil's  hospital  at  Csesarea. 

Antidicomarianites, 
c,  372     Council  of  Laodicea.     Canon  made  on  Scripture. 

373  Death  of  Athansius. 

374  Ambrose  chosen  Bishop  of  Milan. 

375  The  emperor   Gratian  renounces  the  title  of  Pontifex 

Maximus. 
Apollinaris  becomes  schismatic. 
Priscillianists  in  Spain  (?). 

378  Death  of  Valens. 

379  Theodosius  emperor  in  the  East ;  favours  orthodoxy. 

In  the  West  Justina,  mother  of  Valentinian  IL,  supports 
Arianism. 

380  Synod  at  Saragossa  condemns  the  Priscillianists. 

381  Second    Oecumenical    Council    at   Constantinople ;    re- 

affirms  the   Nicene  Creed  ;   condemns  the  tenets   of 
Apollinaris. 
Helvidius  denies  the  perpetual  virginity  of  St  Mary. 


Chronological  Table.  447 

A.  D. 

382  Jerome  in  Rome. 

383  Ulfilas  dies  in  Constantinople. 

384  Symmachus  protests  against  the  removal  of  the  altar  of 

Victory  from  the  Senate-house  at  Rome. 

385  Siricius   becomes    Pope.     The    earliest    genuine    pajial 

decretals   are   his.     Enjoins   celibacy   of   the   clergy. 
Execution  of  Priscillian  and  two  adherents. 
Theophilus  made  bishop  of  Alexandria, 

387  Augustin  baptised. 

388  Death  of  Justina.     Henceforth  Arianism  declines. 
c.  388     Jovinian  denies  the  merit  of  asceticism. 

389  Jovinian's  opinions  on  Baptism  condemned. 

393  Donatist  Council  in  Africa. 

394  Epiphanius  in  Palestine.     Beginning  of  Origenistic  con- 

troversy. 

395  Ilonorius  emperor  in  the  West,  Arcadius  in  the  East. 
395     Augustin  bishop  of  Hippo. 

Simeon  Stylites. 

397  Death  of  Ambrose.     John  Chrysostom  bishop  of  Con- 

stantinople. 

398  Rutinus  and  Jerome  intervene  in  Origenistic  controversy. 
400     Persecution  of  Christians  in  Persia  begins. 

Hostility  of  Theophilus  towards  Chrysostom. 

400  ?     A  Synod  at  Alexandria  condemns  Origen's  books.     End 

of  first  period  of  Origenistic  controversy. 

401  ?     Ninias  among  the  Picts. 

402  Innocent   I.    Pope.      The   Synod   of   the   Oak   deposes 

Chrysostom,  who  is  exiled. 

403  Chrysostom  recalled. 

404  Chrysostom  again  banished. 

Synod  at  Carthage  entreats  the  emperor  to  put  down 
schismatical  assemblies. 

The  self-sacrifice  of  Telemachus  puts  an  end  to  gladia- 
torial combats. 

405  Jerome  completes  his  translation  of  the  Bible. 
Pelagius  at  Rome.     Cassian  founds  convents  near  Mar- 
seilles. 

Edicts  of  Honorius  against  Donatists. 
407     Chrysostom  dies  in  exile. 

410  The  West-Goths  under  Alaric  take  Rome. 

411  Conference  with  the  Donatists  in  Carthage. 
Pelagius  and  his  disciple  Coelestius  in  Africa. 

413  A  Council  at  Carthage  condemns  the  opinions  of  Coeles- 

tius. 

414  Severe  edicts  against  Donatists. 
Persecution  renewed  in  Persia. 

415  Synod  at  Diospolis  pronounces  Pelagius  orthodox. 

416  Synods  at  Carthage  and  Milevis  condemn  Pelagius. 
St  Augustin  writes  against  his  opinions. 

417  Pope  Zosimus  restores  Pelagius  and  Coelestius  to  com- 

munion. 


448  Chronological  Table. 

A.  D. 

418    Council  at  Carthage  again  condemns  Pelagianism,  and 
forbids  appeals  to  Rome. 

428  Nestorius  rejects  the  expression  "  Mother  of  God." 

429  Vandal  conquest  of  North  Africa. 

Pelagianism  in  Britain.     Mission  of  Germanus  and  Lu- 
pus. 

430  A  Roman  synod  under  Ccelestinus   declares   Nestorius 

heretical.     Cyril's  Anathematisms. 
Death  of  Augustin.    Monks  of  Southern  Gaul  oppose  his 
predestinarian  opinions. 

431  (Ecumenical  Council  of  Ephesus   condemns  Nestorius 

and  Coelestius.     Counter-coimcil  condemns  Cyril. 
Prosper  of  Aquitaine  defends  Augustinianism. 
Mission  of  Palladius  to  Ireland. 

432  St  Patrick  returns  to  Ireland,  and  begins  the  work  of 

conversion. 

433  Antiochene  Confession. 

c.  434    Vincentius's  Commonitorium. 

435     Nestorius  banished.     Nestorian  School  at  Edessa  and  in 

Persia. 
444     Eutyches  teaches  that  the  Humanity  in  Christ  is  com- 
pletely absorbed  in  the  Divinity. 
c.  445     The  book  Prcedestinatus  published. 
447  ?     First  Council  of  Toledo  ;  the  Holy  Spirit  "a  Patre  Filio- 
que  procedens." 
Second  visit  of  Germanus  to  Britain. 

448  Eutyches  condemned  by  a  Synod  at  Constantinople. 

449  The  "  Band  of  Brigands  "  at  Ephesus. 
The  "  Tome  "  of  Leo. 

Pagan  Saxons  land  in  Kent. 

451  CEcumenical  Council  at  Chalcedon  recognises  Cyril  as 

orthodox;   defines  that  our  Lord  is  "of  one  essence 
with  the   Father  as  touching   His  Godhead,  of  one 
essence  with  us  as  touching  His  Manhood";  deposes 
Dioscorus,  bishop  of  Alexandria. 
Monophysite  troubles  begin  in  Palestine. 

452  Violence  of  the  party  of  Dioscorus  in  Alexandria. 
Rogations  instituted  by  Mamertus  at  Vienne. 

457     Leo  I.  emperor. 

Easter-Cycle  of  Victorius  of  Aquitaine. 
c.  467     St  Bridget  founds  the  monastery  of  Kildare. 
c.  469     Laura  of  St  Sabas  founded. 

470     The  Monophysite  Peter  the  Fuller,  bishop  of  Antioch, 
adds  to  the  Trisagion  "God... Who  wast  crucified  for 
us." 
c.  470    A  penitentiary  priest  appointed  at  Rome. 

474  Zeno  emperor. 

475  Synod  at  Aries  condemns  Prsedestinarianism. 

482     Zeno's  Henoticon,  intended  to  put  an  end  to  the  Mono- 
physite troubles. 
491     Anastasius  emperor. 


Chronological  Table.  449 

A.  D. 

496  Battle  of  Zlilpich.     Baptism  of  Chlodwig. 

500  The  Burgundians  conquered  by  the  Franks. 

c.  500  Collection  of  Canons  by  Dionysius  Exiguus. 

507  The  West-Goths  in  Gaul  overcome  by  the  Franks. 

511  Council  at  Epaon. 

514  Anti-Monophysite  riots  at  Constantinople. 

518  Justin  emperor.     Orthodoxy  triumphant. 

520  Renewal  of  Origenistic  Controversy. 

527  Justinian  emperor. 

529  Council  at  Orange  affirms  Augustinian  doctrine. 
Benedict  founds  the  Monastery  of  Monte  Cassino. 

530  Sabas  at  Constantinople  against  Origenists. 
532     Easter-Cycle  of  Dionysius  Exiguus. 

532  Building  of  St  Sophia  at  Constantinople. 

533  Belisarius  subdues  the  Vandals  in  Africa. 
538     Vigilius  Pope. 

c.  540  Cassiodorus  founds  the  Monasterium  Vivariense. 

544  Justinian's  Tria  Capitula. 

c.  547  Breviarium  of  Canon  Law  by  Fulgentius  Ferrandus, 

548  Vigilius'  Judicatum. 

549  Illyrian  Council  opposes  the  emperor  ;  so  also 

550  an  African  Council. 

553  (Ecumenical   Council   at    Constantinople    confirms    the 

emperor's  Edicts  ;  strikes  out  the  name  of  Vigilius 
from  the  diptychs.  Condemnation  of  Origen  attributed 
by  some  to  this  council. 

554  Vigilius  accepts  the  decrees  of  the  council. 
Monophysite  schism  becomes  permanent. 

c.  563     St  Columba  at  lona, 
573     Gregory  bishop  of  Tours. 
589     Council   at   Toledo   affirms   the   Catholic   Faith.     First 

appearance  of  "Fihoque"  in  the  (so-called)  Nicene 

Creed. 


29 


INDEX. 


Abdas  of  Susa  417 

Abgar  58 

Abyssinian  Church  415 

Acacius  of  Caesarea  268 

Acacius  of  Constantinople  excom- 
municated by  Felix  III.  297 

Achaia,  Christianity  in  60 

Acolyths  131 

^(lesius  415 

Aetius,  his  teaching  2G8  ;  banished 
271 

Africa,  Christianity  in  59 

African  School  75 

African  Church  resists  claims  of 
Eome  194 

African  Council  (a.d.  550)  302 

Agapse  157 

Aizan,  king  415 

Alb  (vestment)  383 

Allegorical  interpretation,  Jewish 
11 ;  Christian  74,  254 

Alexander  opposes  Anus'  teaching 
257 

Alexandria,  Jews  in  10;  Chris- 
tianity in  59 ;  School  of  69,  72, 
224 ;  eminence  of  139 ;  diocese 
of  183 ;  Synod  of  (a.d.  362)  272, 
(c.  A.D.  400)  307;  Monophysite 
riots  at  295 

Almsgiving  as  atonement  333 ;  duty 
of  335 

Altar  408 

Ambones  408 

Ambrose,  St,  life  240 

Anastasius,  emperor  298 

Anastasius,  Pope,  condemns  Ru- 
finus  306 

Anastasius,  presbyter,  protests 
against  the  title  "  Mother  of  God  " 
285 

Andrew,  St  26 


Angels,  reverence  for  404 

Anomoeans  268 

Anthimus  of  Constantinople  de- 
posed 300 

Anthony,  St  145 

Antidieomarianites  404 

Antioch,  Gentile  Church  at  16; 
eminence  of  139  ;  diocese  of  183; 
School  of  215;  troubles  at 
(a.d.  362)  273;  council  of 
(A.D.  341)  264,  (A.D.  345)  265, 
(a.d.  378)  277;  confession  of 
(A.D.  433)  289 

Antiphonal  chanting  386 

Apelles  91 

Aphraates,  life  223 

Aphthartodocetffi  299,  803 

Apocrisiarii  176 

ApoUinaris,  the  two,  life  229; 
teaching  of  281 ;  condemned  at 
Alexandria  282  ;  treatises  forged 
to  support  their  opinions  283 ; 
become  schismatic  283 

Apollonius  of  Tyana  51 

ApoUonius,  martyr  41 

Apologists,  Christian  53 

Apostles,  the  Twelve  14 

Apostolic  Churches,  authority  of 
112 

Apostolic  Constitutions,  148 

Appeals  to  Eome  allowed  by  Council 
of  Sardica  187 ;  forbidden  by 
African  Church  319 

Aquarii  101 

Aquileia  separates  from  Roman 
Church  304 

Arabia,  Christianity  in  59,  416 

Archdeacon  129,  176 

Architecture  165,  407 

Archpresbyters  180 

Ariminum,  Council  of  270 


Index. 


451 


Aristides,  Apologist  55 

Arius,  his  teaching  256;  condemned 
by  Council  of  Nicfea  261 

Aristotle,  influence  of  238 

Aries,  see  of,  resists  claims  of  Rome 
195  ;  Council  of  (a.d.  314)  340, 
(A.D.  353)  267,  (a.d.  475)  324 

Armenia,  Christianity  in  58,  68, 
417 

Armenian  version  of  the  Bible  418 

Arnobius  79 

Ascension  Day  164,  398 

Asceticism  144,  349 

Asia  Minor,  Christianity  in  59,  63 

Asylum,  right  of  172 

Athanaric,  king,  persecutes  422 

Athanasius,  St,  life  227;  deposed 
and  banished  to  Treves  263  ;  at 
Rome  Ih. ;  deposition  confirmed 
at  Antioch  264 ;  acquitted  by 
Roman  Synod  265  ;  returns  to 
Alexandria  (a.d.  346)  266;  con- 
demned as  rebel  withdraws  into 
the  wilderness  267  ;  returns  from 
exile  272 ;  brought  monks  into 
the  West  358 

Athenagoras,  Apologist  56 

Athens,  School  of,  closed  209 

Atrium  408 

Audians  357 

Augustin,  St,  life  and  works  246 ; 
influences  Western  expression  of 
the  mystery  of  the  Trinity  280 ; 
engages  in  Pelagian  controversy 
317 ;  in  Donatist  controversy 
344 ;  on  the  Fall  of  Rome  210 

Autocephali  185 

Avitusof  Vienne,  Augustinian,  326; 
converts  Burgundians  427 

"Bandof  Brigands,"  the  293 

Baptism,  in  Apostolic  times  26; 
confession  in  114 ;  rites  of  151, 
371 ;  of  infants  152,  372 ;  in  blood 
152;  by  heretics  153;  seasons  of 
370;  deferred  372;  lay  373;  he- 
retical 373 

Baptistery  409 

Barcochba  34 

Barnabas,  Epistle  of  63 

Bartholomew,  St  26 

Basil  the  Great,  St,  life  231; 
Canonical  Epistles  331 ;  Rule  of 
356 

Basil  of  Ancyi'a,  Homoiousian  268 

Basilican  churches,  407 


Basilides  100 

Basin  for  ablution  408 

Bema  of  church  408 

Benedict  founds  monastery  of  Monte 
Cassino  363 ;  Riale  of  lb. 

Beneficence  of  the  Church  335 

BeryUus  120 

Betrothal  389 

Bible,  see  Scripture 

Bishops  30,  126;  one  bishop  in  a 
city  128;  election  of  133;  conse- 
cration of  134;  under  the  Em- 
pire 176 ;  election  of  177 ;  under 
Teutonic  kings  179 ;  ordination 
of  394;  married  351;  monastic 
439 

Bithynia,  Christians  in  39 

Boethius  250 

Bonosus  404 

Books,  prohibited  215 

Bosci  353 

Bread,  Eucharistic  382 

Bridget,  St  439 

British  Church  62,  431;  slightly 
connected  with  Rome  195 ;  scanty 
records  of  432 

British  customs  434 

Burial  of  the  Dead  158 

Burial-clubs  36 

CaBcilian,  bishop  of  Carthage  339 

Cffilieolse  202 

Caesarea  in  Palestine,  privileges  of 

Church  of  138 
Csesarius  of  Aries,  Augustinian  326 
Cainites  101 

Caius  the  Roman  Presbyter  83 
Calendars  405 
Callistus  81;  his  Christology  120; 

laxity  of  149 
Calumnies  against  Christians  37 
CampitsB  341 
Canon  Law  148,  328 
Canon  of  Scripture  108,  252 
Canonici  180 
Cancelli  408 
Carthage,  Synod  of  (a.d.  404)  345, 

(A.D.  416)  318,  (a.d.  418)  319 
Cassian    founds   monasteries  359; 

his    De    Goeiiobiorum     Institutis 

360 ;    CoUationes    Patrum    3-61 ; 

opposes  predestinarian  opinions 

322 
Cassiodorus   founds   Monasterium 

Vivariense  365 
Catacombs  159 

29—2 


452 


Index. 


Catechumeuate  151,  370 
Catliari  149 

Celibacy,  civil  penalties  on  abolish- 
ed 334 
Celibacy  of  clergy  135,  350 ;  in  the 
West   351 ;    civil  legislation  on 
852 

Celsus's  attack  on  Christianity  50 

Cerdon  90 

Cerinthus  100 

Chalcedon,  (Ecumenical  Council  of 
294 

Chaldtea,  Christianity  in  58 

Chartophylax  176 

Chastity,  vows  of  145 

Chasuble  384 

Chiliasm  122 

Chlodwig,  king  of  the  Franks,  mar- 
ries Clotilda  425 ;  his  vow  425 ; 
conquers  the  Alemanni  426 ; 
baptism  426  ;  conquers  the  Bur- 
gundians  and  the  West-Goths 
427 

Chorepiseopi  133;  abolished  181 

"Christian,"  the  name  given  16 

Christians  recognised  as  a  Corpo- 
ration 48 

Christian  Life  142,  334,  349 

Christmas-Day  398 

Chrysostom,  St  John,  life  217 ; 
on  monachism  366 

Churches,  building  of  166,  407; 
arrangements  of  166,  408  ; 
domed  409;  dedication  of  409 

Circumcellions  341 

Circumcision,  festival  399 

Classics,  influence  of  on  Christian 
writers  213 

Clement  of  Home,  life  82 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  life  70 

Clementine  writings  87 

Clergy  and  Laity  125 

Clergy,  qualifications  of  135  ;  main- 
tenance of  136 ;  privileges  of, 
under  the  Empire  171 ;  faults  of 
337 ;  training  of  393  ;  Prankish 
428  ;  become  more  secular  429 

Coelestinus  declares  Nestorius  here- 
tical 288 

Ccelestius  (see  Pelagius),  his 
opinions  316 ;  condemned  by 
council  at  Carthage  317  ;  friendly 
with  Nestorius  320  ;  condemned 
with  him  at  Ephesus  320 

Collegia  36 

Collyridians  404 


Columba,  St,  at  lona  440 

Commodian  78 

Communion,  Holy,  rites  of  27,  157, 
380 ;  frequency  of  382  ;  fasting 
383 

Competentes  371 

Confessio  for  relics  408 

Confession  of  sin  147,  333 ;  bap- 
tismal 114 

Confirmation  26,  152,  372 

Consecration  of  bishops  134 ;  of 
churches  409 

Constantino  joins  in  issuing  an 
Edict  of  Toleration  47  ;  and  Edict 
of  Milan  48 ;  his  measures  in 
favour  of  the  Church  168  ;  his 
character  169 ;  foiinds  New  Eome 
170 ;  his  letter  to  Alexander  and 
Arius  257 

Constantinople,  foundation  of  170; 
diocese  of  183 ;  Council  of 
(a.d.360)271;  (Ecumenical  Coun- 
cil of  (a.d.  381)  277;  Creed  of 
278 ;  Council  of  (a.d.  449)  292  ; 
Council  at  (a.d.  483)  423  ;  (Ecu- 
menical Council  at  (a.d.  553)  302 

Constitutions,  Apostolical  148 

Copiatae  175 

Cornelius  baptized  16 

Councils  137;  later  system  of  196; 
decrees  of  ratified  by  emperors 
198 

Creation,  doctrine  of  115 

Creed,  the  255 ;  see  Rules  of  Faith 

Cross,  sign  of  143,  385 ;  the  true 
406 

Crown  in  marriage  390 

Cyprian,  life  77 

Cyril  of  Alexandria,  life  237 ;  his 
proceedings  against  Nestorius 
287 ;  his  anathematisms  288 ; 
deposed  by  a  council  at  Ephesus 
289 ;  accepts  Confession  of  An- 
tioch  289 

Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  life  217 

Damianites  299 
De  Vocatione  Gentium  324 
Deacons  29,  129 
Deaconesses  132,  176 
Dead,  offerings  for   333 ;   interces- 
sion for  379 
Defensores  175 
Didymus  of  Alexandria  229 
Diocesan  councils  196 
Diocese  defined  182 


Index. 


453 


Diocletian  persecutes  44  ;  abdicates 
46 

Diodorus  of  Tarsus,  life  217 

Diognetus,  Epistle  to  55 

Dionysius  of  Alexandria  74 

Dionysius  the  Areopagite  237 

Dionysius  of  Milan  banished  2G7 

Dionysius  Exig.,  Collection  of 
canons  329 ;  Paschal  cycle  of  396 

Dioscorus  proceeds  against  Nes- 
torius  292 

Diospolis,  Synod  of  (a.d.  415)  318 

Discipline  147,  328 

Divorce,  laws  of  143,  334 

Docetism  98,  100,  116 

Dovtinica  in  Albis  Depositis  371 

Donatus,  schismatical  bishop  of 
Carthage  339 ;  exiled  343 

Donatists,  Constantine's  commis- 
sion on  839;  condemned  by  Coun- 
cil of  Aries  340 ;  appeal  to  Con- 
stant! ue  340 ;  behave  violently 
in  Africa  341 ;  Constans'  com- 
mission on  342  ;  Gratian's  edict 
against  343 ;  council  344  ;  op- 
posed by  Augustin  344 ;  by 
African  councils  344  ;  edicts  of 
Honorius  345,  347 ;  conference 
with,  at  Carthage  345 ;  end  of 
347 

Door-keepers  131 

Dorotheus  of  Antioch  67 

Dorotheus,  bishop,  protests  against 
the  title  "Mother  of  God"  285 

Dositheus  32 

Dove,  Eucharistic  408 

East,  turning  to  157,  386 

Easter,  disputes  as  to  time  of  ob- 
serving 161,  395;  cycles  163, 
396  ;  how  celebrated  398 

Ebionites  86;  their  Christology 
116 

Edessa,  Christianity  in  58  ;  School 
of  222,  291 

Election  of  bishops  133,  177;  of 
other  clergymen  134 

Elements,  Eucharistic  382 

Elesbaan,  king  416 

Ember  Days  395 

Emperor,  influence  of  on  the 
Church  173 

Epaon,  Council  of  427 

Encratites  101,  144 

Ephesus,  CEcumenical  Council  of 
288;  Council  of  (a.d.  449)  293 


Ephraem  the  Syrian  222 

Epiklesis,  liturgical  379 

Epiphanius,  life  230 ;  begins  Ori- 
genistic  Controversy  305 

Epiphany  398 

Epistle,  liturgical  376 

Esdras,  Second  Book  of  11 

Essence  (owla)  explained,  271  f., 
275 

Essenes  9 

Eucharist,  Holy  27,  154,  374;  a 
sacrifice  375 

Euchetae  201 

Eudocia  295 

Eudoxius  of  Antioch  268 

Eulogias  382 

Eunomius,  his  teaching  268 

Euphemitae  202  n.  2 

Eusebius  of  Dorylaum  292,  293 

Eusebius  of  Emesa,  hfe  216;  Ho- 
moiousian  268 

Eusebius  of  Nicomedia  opposes 
Athanasius  262;  bishop  of  Con- 
stantinople 263 

Eusebius  Pamphili,  life  224;  not 
Arian  262 

Eusebius  of  Vercelli  banished  267 

Eustathius  of  Antioch  260 ;  de- 
posed 262 

Eustathius  of  Sebaste,  Homoiou- 
sian  268,  277 

Eutyches,  his  views  on  the  Person 
of  Christ  291 ;  excommunicated 
292 

Euzoius,  bishop  of  Antioch  274 

Excommunication  32,  147 

Exorcists  130 

Facundus  of  Hermiane  302 
Faustus  of  Eiez,  influence  of  324 
Felicissimus,  schism  of  at  Carthage 

149 
Felix  III  Pope  condemns  the  Hen- 

oticon  297 
Festivals,  cycle  of  394 
Flavian  of  Constantinople  292 
Font  409 

Fortunatus,  anti-bishop  150 
Frankish   kings,  power  of  in  the 

Church  430;  clergy  429 
Franks,  conversion  of  the  425 
Free  Will,  see  Pelagius  and  Pela- 

giauism 
Friday,  a  station  161 
Fritigeru,  king  422 
Frumentius  415 


454 


Index. 


Fulgentii  Breviarium  330 
Fulgentiiis  of  Ruspe  325 
Funerals,  hour  of  391 

Gaul,  Christianity  in  61,  66 
Gems  bearing   Christian   symbols 

167 
Gentile  Church  in  Antioch  16 
Genuflexion  before  pictures  414 
George  of  Gappadocia  in  Alexandria 

268 
George  of  Laodicea,  Homoiousian 

268 
Germanus  in  Britain  433 
Germany,  Christianity  in  61 
Glass  with  Christian  symbols  167 
Gnostic,  the  Christian  73 
Gnosticism  96 ;  influence  of  101 
Good  Friday  398 
Gospel,  liturgical  376 
Goths  in  the  empire  420;  converted 

to  Arianism  421 
Gratian's  Rescript  on  appeals  188 ; 

favours   orthodoxy    277 ;   issues 

rescript    against    Priscillianists 

313 
Greek  culture  in  Palestine  9 
Gregory  the  Illuminator  68 
Gregory  Thaumaturgus  74 
Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  life  232 
Gregory  of  Nyssa,   life    234 ;    on 

penitence  330 
Gregory  of  Tours,  life  429 

Hadrametum,  Predestinarian 

monks  at  321 
Hadrian's  Edict  touching  Christians 

40 
Hands,  wasliing  of  379,  385 
Hegesippus  65 
Helena  in  Palestine  406 
Helvidius  404 
Heresy,  conception  of  113 
Hermas  82 
Hermias's  attack  on  philosophers 

56 
Hermits  145 
Hetserise  36 
Hierax  74 
Hierocles's  "  Truth-loving  Words" 

53 
Hilary  of  Poitiers,  life  239 ;  banish- 
ed 267 ;  on  Liberius  269 
Hippoly  tus  of  Portus  84 ;  his  Christo- 

logy  119 ;  anti-bishop  to  Callistus 

149 


Hydroparastatffi  10 1 

Hyginus  of  Cordova  311 

Hypatia,  murder  of  208 

Hypsistarii  202 

Holy  Days  28,  160,  394 

Holy  Places  406 

Holy  Spirit,  doctrine  of  272 

Holy  Things,  liturgical  form  379 

Holy  water  385 

Holy  Week  164,  397 

Homoousios  {bfioovawsi)  the  word, 
condemned  at  Antioch  (a.d.  269) 
118  note  3;  adopted  at  Nicsea 
(a.d.  325)  261;  ambiguity  of  271 
note  3 

Honoratus,  St  359 

Hormisdas  on  Pelagianism  325 

Hosius  of  Cordova  advises  Coustan- 
tine  258;  banished  267 

Hours  of  Prayer  158,  387 

Hospitals  335 

Ibas  of  Edessa,  life  and  work  223, 

291 
Iconium,  Council  at  95 
Idacius  of  Merida  311 
Idolatry  forbidden  207 
Ignatius,  life  and  letters  64 ;  death 

40 
Illiberis,  Council  of  61 
Illyi-ian   Council    (a.d.  374?)  (a.d, 

549)  276,  302 
Illicit  religions  35 
Incarnation,   controversies  on  the 

281 
Incense  384 

Infants,  Communion  of  382 
Innocent  I.  on  the  claims  of  Rome 

188 
Inspiration  of  Scripture  110 
Intercession,  right  of  172 
Ii'enseus,  life  of  66 
Ireland,  Christianity  in  435 
Irish  Church,  monasticism  promi- 
nent in  438 
Isaac,  translator  of  the  Bible  418 
Isidore  of  Pelusium  235 
Isidore  of  Seville,  his  Collection  of 

canons  330 
Italy,  Christianity  in  60 
Ithacius  of  Sossuba  312 

Jacob  Baradai  303 

James,  St,  the  Just  21 

James  of  Nisibis,  222 

Jerome,  St,  hfe  and  works    242; 


Index. 


455 


finds  errors  in  Origen  305 f.; 
quarrels  with  Kufinus  306;  pro- 
motes monachism  358 

Jerusalem,  Church  of,  precedence 
of  138;  diocese  of  184 

Jesus  Cheist  begins  His  Ministry 
13;  crucified  14 

Jewish  Dispersion  10 

Johannes  Philoponus  238,  299 

Johannes  Scholasticus,  his  Syn- 
tagma 329 

John,  St,  the  Baptist  13;  The  Evan- 
gelist 24 

John  of  Antioch  289,  291 

John  of  Jerusalem,  Origenist  305 

Jovinian,  against  asceticism  366; 
condemned  by  Siricius  Ih. ;  on 
baptism  374 ;  denies  that  St  Mary 
was  ever-virgin  404 

Judaism  in  the  time  of  Christ  7; 
in  the  Apostolic  age  31 

Julian  the  emperor,  his  measures 
in  favour  of  paganism  203 

Julian  of  Eclanum,  Pelagian  320 

Julianists  299 

Julius  Africanus  07 

Junilius  Africanus  224 

Justin  Martyr,  Apology  55 ;  his 
opinions  68;  his  account  of  the 
Eucharist  155 

Justin  the  Gnostic  101 

Justin,  emperor,  supports  decrees 
of  Chalcedon  298 

Justinian,  emperor,  suppresses 
paganism  209  ;  intervenes  in 
Monophysite  controversy  300 ; 
his  Three  Articles  301 ;  calls 
(Ecumenical  Council  302;  writes 
against  Origen  309 

Justina,  empress,  supports  Arian- 
ism  279 

Kathari  149 

Kiss  in  Eucharist  379,  385 

Kneeling  in  prayer  386 

Labarum,  the  48 

Lactantiua  79 

Lampsacus,  Council  at  276 

Laodicea,  Council  of  95 

Lapsed,  the  77 

Latin  theology  239 

Lauras  354 

Law  of  the  Church  147,  328 

Lections  27, 155, 156,  376;  in  hour- 

offices  387 
Legends  of  martyrs  49 


Lent,  observance  of  164,  396 

Leo  I.  (pope),  life  and  works  249; 

on  the   claims    of  Eome    189; 

letter  of  293 
Leo  I,  emperor  296 
Leontius  of  Byzantium  238 
LeiDorius,    his    erroneous    opinion 

284 
Lerinum,  monastery  of  359 
Liberius    (pope),    banished     267  ; 

subscribes  Sirmian  formula  269 ; 

receives  Eastern  bishops  277 
Lights,  ceremonial  use  of  385 
Literature,  decline  of  214 
Liturgies,  families  of  380 
Living,  intercession  for  379 
Logos,  The  116,  121 
Lombards,  Arian  428 
Lord's  Day,  observance  of  160,  395 
Love-Feasts  157 
Lucian  the  satirist  50 
Lucian  of  Antioch  67 ;  his  Confes- 
sion 264 
Lucifer  of  Cagliari,  banished  267 ; 

at  Antioch  274 
Lueiferians  275 
Lupercalia  at  Eome  209 
Lupus  in  Britain  433 

Macedonians  273 

Majorinus,  schismatical  bishop  of 
Carthage  339 

Manichagism  102 

Maniple  384 

Marathonians  273,  n.  4 

Marcellinus,  Imperial  Commis- 
sioner in  Africa  345 

Marcellus  of  Ancyra,  his  opinions 
263  ;  condemned  264  ;  acquitted 
by  Roman  Synod  265 

Marcion  89 

Maris  58 

Marcus  Aurelius,  jDersecutes  41 

Marriage,  sacredness  of  142  ;  rites 
of  158,  388 

Martin  of  Tours  promotes  destruc- 
tion of  temples  208 ;  opposes 
trial  of  Priscillian  by  a  civil 
tribunal  314 

Marseilles,  convents  near  359 

Martyi'S,  number  of  49 

Mai7,  St,  the  Virgin  403 

Massalians  201 

Maundy  Thm'sday  397 

Maximus  causes  Priscillian  to  be 
tried  314 


456 


Index. 


Meletiau  schism  150 

Melito,  Apologist  56 

Menander  32 

Mensurius  of  Carthage  338 

Meropius  415 

Mesrob,    translator    of   the    Bible 

418 
Methodius  of  Tyre  75 
Metropolitans  138,  181 
Milan,  Edict  of   48 ;    Councils  at 

266,  267 
Milevis,  Synod  of  (a.d,  416)  318 
Ministry  of  the  Church  28,  124 
Minucius  Felix,  his  Octavius   56; 

date  of  84 
Missa  catechumenorum  376  ;  Fide- 

lium  379 
Mitre,  bishop's  394 
Monachism  352  ;  evils  of  357 
Monarchians  117 
Monks  at  first  not  clergy  367  ;  not 

always   subject   to   bishops   Ih.\ 

civil  laws  respecting  368 
Monoimus  or  Menahem  101 
Monophysites,    their  heresy    295 ; 

conference     with     300;      their 

churches  303 
Montanism  92 
Montenses  341 
Mosaics  in  churches  411 
Moses  of  Khoren  418 
Music  386 
Mysteries,  pagan  5;   the  Christian 

369 


Noetus  119 
Nomocanoii  329 
Notarii  175 

Novatianus  at  Eome  149 
Novatus  at  Carthage  150 
Nun,  the  name  355 

CEconomic  175 

(Ecumenical  councils  196 ;  how  re- 
lated to  the  civil  government  197 

Ophites  101 

Orange,  Council  of  (a.d.  529)  partly 
lay  326 

Orders  of  the  Ministry  126 

Ordination,  qualifications  for  392  ; 
rites  of  393 

Oriental  Eeligions  5 

Origen,  life  70  ;  against  Celsus  57 ; 
his  Christology  121 

Origenist  opinions  opposed  by  Epi- 
phanius  305  ;  defended  by  Ku- 
finus  lb. ;  opposed  by  Jerome 
lb. ;  condemutd  by  Anastasius 
306;  and  Theophilus  307;  at 
Alexandria  307  ;  in  Cyprus  308 ; 
appear  in  monastery  of  St  Sabas 
308 ;  condemned  by  Justinian 
309;  by  Home  Synod  of  Con- 
stantinople 309  ;  said  to  be  con- 
demned by  Fifth  CEcumenical 
Council  309 

Orphans,  care  of  143,  335 

Orosius  on  the  Teutonic  invasion, 
211 


Naasseni  101 

Narses,  Catholicus  418 

Narthex  408 

Natures,  two,  in  Christ  294 

Nazarenes  86 

Nemesius  286 

Neo-Platonism  and  Christianity  53 

Nestorians  at  Edessa  and  in  Persia 
291 

Nestorius,  patriarch  of  Constanti- 
nople 284 ;  protests  against  the 
title  "Mother  of  God"  285; 
condemned  at  Ephesus  288 ;  re- 
tires to  a  monastery  289 ;  death 
lb. 

Nicaea,  Council  of,  meets  258; 
creed  of  261 ;  results  of  262 

Nice  (Nkij),  Council  of  270 

Ninian  preaches  to  the  Picts  435 

Niobites  299 

Nitrian  monks,  Origenist  307 


Pachomius,  Eule  of  355 

Paganism,  state  of  4;  resistance  of 
12  ;  measures  of  Constantine 
against  199 ;  of  Constans  and 
Constantius  200 ;  of  Gratian  and 
Valentinian  206;  of  Theodosius 
207;  of  Justinian  209;  Julian's 
measures  in  favour  of  204;  de- 
fends itself  202;  lingers  long  in 
Eome  209  ;  and  elsewhere  210 

Palladius  in  Ireland  436 

Palm  Sunday  397 

Pamphilus  75 

PantiBnus,  preaches  in  "India"  59 

Papacy,  how  affected  by  the  Fall  of 
the  Western  Empire  190;  re- 
sistance to  claims  of  194.  See 
Eome 

Papias  65 

Paiabolani  175 

Parmenian,  Donatist  bishop  343 


Index. 


457 


Parochial  councils  196 

Paris,  Council  of  (a.d.  3G0)  271 

Parish  defined  183 

Paschal  festival  161,  397;  cj'cles 
163,  396 

Patriarchs  181 

Patriarchal  councils  196 

Patrick,  St,  in  Ireland  436 

Patripassians  118 

Paul,  St,  converted  16 ;  at  Antioch, 
in  Asia  Minor,  in  Jerusalem  17 ; 
new  travels  18 ;  arrested  at  Jeru- 
salem 19;  at  Kome  Ih.;  death 
20 

Paul  of  Samosata  118 

Paulinus  of  Nola,  life  248 

PauUnus  of  Treves  banished  267 

Pelagianism  in  fifth  century  321 ; 
supported  by  monks  of  Southern 
Gaul  323;  opposed  by  Prosper 
324;  modified  by  Faustus  324; 
opposed  by  African  bishops  325 ; 
by  Hormisdas  325;  condemned 
by  Councils  of  Orange  and  Va- 
lence 326 ;  in  Britain  433 

Pelagius  (heretic),  teaches  at  Eome 
315;  in  Africa  317;  in  Palestine 
Ih. ;  acquitted  by  Synod  at  Dios- 
polis318;  condemned  by  African 
Synod  318  ;  his  Confession  319 

Pelagius  I,  Pope  302 

Penance  147 

Penitentials,  British  and  Irish  331 

Penitentiary  priest  332 

Penitential  System  330 ;  change  of 
in  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  331 

Peratici  101 

Pentecost,  the  Great  Day  of  14 ; 
festival  of  164 

Persecutions  of  Christians  by  Jews 
34;  by  Eomans  35;  under  Nero 
38 ;  Trajan  39 ;  Antoninus  Pius 
40;  M.  Aurelius  41;  Decius  43; 
Valerian  44 ;  Diocletian  44  ; 
number  of  49;  of  heretics  by 
Christians  174 

Periodeutje  180 

Persia,  Christianity  in  59,  417 

Persons  in  Holy  Trinity  280 

Peter,  St,  in  Jerusalem  21 ;  at  An- 
tioch 22 ;  death  lb.  ;  Eoman 
episcopate  lb. ;  his  teaching  23 

Peter  the  Fuller  at  Antioch  296; 
expelled  297 

Peter  Mongus  at  Alexandria  296 

Pharisees  8 


Phiala  408 

Philip,  St,  at  Samaria  15 ;  baptises 

Ethiopian  Eunuch  16;  death  26 
Philippopolis,  Council  of  365 
Philo  allegorizes  11 
Philostratus,  pagan  writer  51 
Philoxenus      (Xenajas)      supports 

Monophysite  view  298 
Photinas  condemned  266 
Phthartolatrffi  299 
Pictures  in  churches  166,  409;  re- 
verence paid  to  413 
Pilgrimages  to  Holy  Places  406 
Platonism  6 

Pliny's  letter  to  Trajan  39 
Pneumatomachi  273 
Poictiers,  monastery  near  359 
Polycarp,  life  of  65 
Pope,  title  of  191 
Porphyry's  attack  on  Christianity 

52 
Possessor,  African  bishop  325 
Pothinus  66 
Prcedestinatus  324 
Praxeas  118 
Prayer    28;    hours   of  158,    387; 

standing  or  kneeling  386 
Preaching  27,  155,  377 
Predestination,    see  Pelagius   and 

Pelagianism 
Preface,  Uturgical  379 
Prefectures  of  the  Empire,  182 
Presbyters  29,126;  election  of  178 
Primasius  224 

Primian,  Donatist  bishop  344 
Priscillian,    his    opinions    313  f. ; 

his  conventicles  condemned  311; 

excommunicated  312 ;  said  to  be 

Gnostic  313;  put  to  death  314 
Procession  of  Holy  Spirit  280 
Proclus  preaches  against  Nestorius 

286 
Procopius  of  Gaza,  life  223 
Prohibited  books  215 
Prolix  Exposition,  the  265 
Property  of  the  Church  172,  326 
Prophecy,  liturgical  376 
Proselytes  to  Judaism  11 
Prosper  of  Aquitaine,  champion  of 

Augustinism  324 
Protoktistffi  310 
Province  defined  182 
Provincial  councils  196 
Prudentius  249 
Psalter  387 
Pseudonymous  Jewish  literature  11 


458 


Index. 


Quadragesima  164,  396 
Quadratus,  Apologist  55 

Eabulas  of  Edessa  290 

Eavenna  resists   claims   of  Eome 

194 
Eeaders  129 
Eeccared,  king  428 
Eectors  180 
Eimini,  Council  of  270 
Eing  in  marriage  389 
Eoman  Peace  facilitated  the  spread 

of  the  Gospel  3 
Eorae,  Christianity  in  60  ;  Church 

of  80  ;  Primacy  claimed  for  139 ; 

diocese   of    186 ;     extension    of 

power  of  187;  synod  at  (a.d.  341) 

364;  (A.D.  369?)  275;   (a.d.  430) 

against  Nestorius  288 
Eogations  388 
Eufiuus,  life   245;   defends  Origen 

305 ;  translates  some  of  his  works 

306 
Eule  of  Faith    111,  255;    Nicene 

261 
Eupitfe  341 

Sabas,  laura  founded  by  354  ;  Ori- 
genists  in  308 

Sabbath,  observance  of  160,  395 

SabelHus  120 

Sadducees  8 

Saints,  festivals  of  165,  399,  405  ; 
intercession  of  400 ;  prayers  for 
lb. ;  relics  of  401 ;  devotions  at 
tombs  of  402 

Salama,  Abba  415 

Samaritans  9 

Sanctns  379 

Saragossa,  Council  of  (a.d.  380) 
311 

Sarcophagi  412 

Sardica,  CouncU  of,  on  appeals  to 
the  Pope  187 ;  acquits  Athana- 
sius  265 

Saturnilus  100 

Saxons  in  Britain  434 

Scholffi  165 

Scotland,  now  Ireland  435 

Scripture,  Canon  of  108,  252;  in- 
spiration of  254  ;  allegorical  in- 
terpretation of  254;  reading  of 
388 ;  translation  of,  Latin  75, 
109,  243,  431 ;  Syriac  298,  n.  3 ; 
J^thiopic  416  J  Armenian  418 ; 
Gothic  423 


Sculpture  412 

Scythian  monks  in  Constantinople 

325 
Seleueia,  Coimcil  of  270 
Semiarian  party  262 
Seneca  6 
Sermons  378 
Sethiani  101 
Severiani,  Gnostic   101 ;  heretical 

299 
Severus,  bishop,  in  Britain  434 
Severus,   emperor,  his   syncretism 

42 
Sick  and  dying,  care  of  390 
Simeon  Stylites  353 
Simon  Magus  at  Samaria  15,  32 ; 

as  Gnostic  99 
Surmium,  Councils  of  267,  269 
Society,  improvement  of,  by  Chris- 
tianity 334 ;  failings  of  336 
Soleas  408 
Solitaries  353 
Spain,  Christianity  in  60 
Sponsors  152 
Staff  (episcopal)  384 
Stations  161 
Statues  412 
Stephen's,  St,  preaching  and  death 

15 
Stoicism  6 
Stole  384 
StyhtaB  353 
Sub-deacons  130 
Substance  (virdcrTacis)  and  essence 

279 
Suevi,  Arian  424 
Sunday  160,  395 
Superstitions  337 
Sursum  Corda  379 
Syria,  Christianity  in  59 
Symbolum  370,  n.  1 
Symeon,  death  of  40 
Symeon  of  Ctesiphon  417 
SyncelU  176 
Synesius  235 
Synods  137 

Tabenna,  coenobium  at  354 
Tatian,  his  attack  on  the  Greeks 

56  ;  becomes  Gnostic  100 
Telemachus    causes    abohtion    of 

shows  of  gladiators  334 
Tertullian,  life    76;   Apology  57; 

becomes  Montanist  95 
Testaments  of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs 

66 


Index. 


459 


Tetraditse  310 

Teutons,  religion  of  419 ;  conver- 
sion of  420 
Thaddseus,  St  26 
Themistius  299 
Theoderic  appealed  to  by  the  Pope 

191 
Theodora  300 
Theodore  of  Mopsuestia,  life  220 ; 

his  opinions  on  the  Incarnation 

283 
Theodoret,  life  221 ;  writes  against 

Cyril  288;  draws  up  Confession 

of  Faith  289 
Theodorus  Ascidas  301 
Theodosius,     emperor,     condemns 

heresy  277 
Theodosius  the  monk  causes  trouble 

at  Jerusalem  295 
Theophilus  to  Autolycus  56 
Theophilus  of  Alexandria  condemns 

Origen  307 ;  hostile  to  Chrysos- 

torn  30S 
Theophilus  of  Diu  416 
Thomas,  St  26 
Thrace,  Christianity  in  60 
Tichoiiius,  Donatist,  schism  of  343 
Timotheus  Aelurus  at  Alexandria 

296 
Timotheus  Salophaciolus  296 
Toledo  independent  of  Eome  195  ; 

councils  of  (a.d.  447,  589)  428 
Toleration,  Edict  of  47 
Tonsure  394 

Tradition  of  the  Church  254 
Traditores  338 

Trajan's  Eescript  to  Pliny  39 
Translation  of  bodies  of  saints  404 
Tria  Capilula  301 
Trinity,  the  Holy,  doctrine  of  115, 

256 
Trisagion  interpolated  by  Peter  the 

Fuller  296 
Triumphal  arch  408 
Tyre,  Synod  of  263 

Ulfilas,  bishop  421 ;  works  among 


the  Goths  422  ;  translates  Scrip- 
tures 423 ;  dies  lb. 

Unction  of  sick  27,  391 

Ursacius  of  Singidunum  268,  270 

Valence,  Council  of   (c.  a.d.  529) 

326 
Valens  of  Mursa  268,  270 
Valens  and  Valentinian,  emperors 

275 ;    Valens   favours  Arianism 

276;  death  277 
Valentinus,  Gnostic  100 
Vandals,  Arian,  overthrown  424 
Veil  in  marriage  389 
Vestments,  liturgical  383 
Victorius,  Paschal  cycle  of  396 
VigUs  165 
Vigilius  becomes  Pope    301 ;    his 

Judicatum  lb. 
Vincentius   of  Lerins  opposed  to 

Predestination  322 ;  his  test  of 

heresy  323 
Vivariense  Monasterium  365 
Vh-gin,  the  Blessed  403 
Votive  offerings  403 

Wednesday,  a  station  161 

Week,  the  Christian  395;  Holy 
397 

West-Goths  in  Spain  become  Catho- 
lic 427 

Whithorn,  church  at  435 

Whitsuntide  164 

Wine,  in  Eucharist,  mixed  with 
water  382 

Wreath  on  head  of  corpse  391 

Yezdegerd,  king,  favours  Christians 

417 

Zeno,  emperor,  his  Henoticon  297 
Zephyrinus's  Christology  119 
Zosimus,   Pope,   restores   Pelagius 

319 ;  condemns  him  lb. ;  on  the 

claims  of  Rome  189 
Ziilpich,  battle  of  425 


// 


CambrtUgc: 

PBINTED   BY    C.    J.    CLAY,    M.A.    AND    SONS, 
AT   THE   UNIVERSITY   PRESS,