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ornQXH 


CHRIS  I 


■s<r'ji;:r-:.-jc:r:Tjm. 


gicalSeJ^"^ 


BR  165  .R38213  1875  v. 6 
Renan,  Ernest,  1823-1892. 
The  history  of  the  origins 
of  Christianity  . . . 


H 


THE  HISTORY 

OF  THE 

ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 


BOOK  VI. 


COMPRISING 

THE   REIGNS 

OF 

HADEIAN   AND    ANTONINUS   PIUS 

(A.D.    117-161) 

BY 

ERNEST  'REN AN, 

Member  of  the  French  Academy,  and  of  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions 
and  Fine  Arts. 


MATHIESON    &    COMPANY, 
25  Paternoster  Square,  E.G. 


LONDON  :    PRINTED  BY  THE  TEMPLE  PUBLISHING  COMPANY. 


PREFACE. 


I  THOUGHT  at  first  that  tliis  Sixth  Book  would  finish 
the  series  of  volumes  which  I  have  devoted  to  the 
history  of  the  origins  of  Christianity.  It  is  certain 
that  at  the  death  of  Antoninus,  circa  A.D.  160,  the 
Christian  rehgion  had  become  a  complete  religion, 
having  all  its  sacred  books,  all  its  grand  legends,  the 
germ  of  all  its  dogmas,  the  essential  parts  of  its 
liturgies  ;  and  in  the  eyes  of  most  of  its  adherents,  it 
was  a  religion  standing  by  itself,  separated  from  and 
even  opposed  to  Judaism.  I,  however,  thought  it 
right  to  add  a  last  work,  containing  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal history  of  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  to  the 
preceding  books.  In  the  truest  sense,  the  reign  of 
Marcus  Aurelius  belongs  to  the  origins  of  Christianity. 
Montanism  is  a  phenomenon  of  about  the  year  170, 
and  is  one  of  the  most  notable  events  of  early 
Christianity.  After  more  than  a  century  had  elapsed 
since  those  strange  hallucinations  which  had  possessed 
the   apostles    at    the    Last    Supper    at   Jerusalem, 


IV  I^REFACE. 

suddenly  in  some  remote  districts  of  Phrygia  there 
sprung  up  again  prophecy,  the  glossolalia,  those 
graces  which  the  author  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
praises  so  much.  But  it  was  too  late  :  under  Marcus 
Aurelius,  religion,  after  the  confused  manifestations 
of  Gnosticism,  had  more  need  of  discipline  than  of 
miraculous  gifts.  The  resistance  that  orthodoxy,  as 
represented  by  the  episcopate,  was  able  to  offer  to 
the  prophets  of  Phrygia,  was  the  decisive  act  of  the 
constitution  of  the  Church.  It  was  admitted  that, 
above  individual  inspiration,  there  existed  the 
average  judgment  of  the  universal  conscience.  This 
average  opinion,  which  will  triumph  in  the  course  of 
the  history  of  the  Church,  and  which,  representing  as 
it  did  relative  good  sense,  constituted  the  power  of 
that  great  institution,  was  already  perfectly  char- 
acterised under  Marcus  Aurelius.  A  description  of 
the  first  struggles  which  thus  took  place  between 
individual  liberty  and  ecclesiastical  authority,  seemed 
to  me  to  be  a  necessary  part  of  the  history  which  I 
wished  to  trace  of  rising  Christianity. 

But  besides  that,  there  was  another  reason  that 
decided  me  to  treat  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius  in 
its  relations  to  the  Christian  community  in  the  fullest 
detail.  It  is  partial  and  unjust  to  represent  the 
endeavours  of  Christianity  as  an  isolated  fact,  as  a 
unique,  and,  in  a  manner,  a  miraculous  attempt  at 
religious  and  social  reform.  Christianity  was  not 
alone  in  attempting  what  it  alone  was  able  to  carry 
out.     Timidly  still  in  the  first  century,  openly  and 


PREFACE.  V 

brilliantly  ia  the  second,  all  virtuous  men  of  the 
ancient  world  were  longing  for  an  improvement  in 
morals  and  in  the  laws,  and  piety  thus  became  a 
general  requirement  of  the  time.  With  regard  to 
high  intellectual  culture,  the  century  was  not  what 
the  preceding  age  had  been  ;  there  were  no  men  of 
such  large  minds  as  Caesar,  Lucretius,  Cicero  and 
Seneca,  but  an  immense  work  of  moral  amelioration 
was  going  on  in  all  directions,  and  philosophy, 
Hellenism,  the  Eastern  creeds  and  Roman  probity, 
contributed  equally  to  this.  The  fact  that  Christianity 
has  triumphed  is  no  reason  for  being  unjust  towards 
those  noble  attempts  which  ran  parallel  with  its  own, 
and  which  only  failed  because  they  were  too  aristo- 
cratic, and  did  not  possess  enough  of  that  mystic 
character  which  was  formerly  necessary  in  order  to 
attract  the  people.  In  order  to  be  perfectly  just, 
the  two  attempts  ought  to  be  studied  together,  allow- 
ances ought  to  be  made  for  both,  and  it  ought  to 
be  explained  why  one  has  succeeded  whilst  the  other 
has  not. 

The  name  of  Marcus  Aurelius  is  the  most  noble 
among  all  that  noble  school  of  virtue  which  tried 
to  save  the  ancient  world  by  the  force  of  reason,  and 
thus  a  thorough  study  of  that  great  man  belongs 
essentially  to  our  subject.  Why  did  not  that  recon- 
ciliation between  the  Church  and  the  Empire,  which 
took  place  under  Constantine,  take  place  under 
Marcus  Aurelius?  It  is  all  the  more  important  to 
settle  this    question,  as   already  in  this  volume  we 


VI  PREFACE. 

shall  see  that  the  Church  identifies  her  destinies 
with  those  of  the  Empire. 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  second  century,  some 
Christian  doctors  of  the  highest  authority  seriously 
faced  the  possibility  of  making  Christianity  the  official 
religion  of  the  Roman  world,  and  it  might  almost  be 
said  that  they  divined  the  great  events  of  the  fourth 
century.  Looked  at  closely,  that  resolution  by  which 
Christianity,  having  entirely  changed  its  past,  has 
become  the  protSgS,  or  perhaps  we  had  better  say  the 
protector,  of  the  State,  from  having  been  persecuted 
by  it,  ceases  to  be  surprising.  St  Justin  and  Melito 
foresaw  this  quite  clearly.  St  Paul's  principle,  ''  All 
power  is  of  God,"  will  bear  its  fruits,  and  the  Gospel 
will  become,  what  Jesus  certainly  did  not  foresee, 
one  of  the  bases  of  absolution.  Christ  will  have 
come  into  the  world  to  guarantee  the  crowns  of 
princes,  and  in  our  days  a  Roman  Pontiff  has  tried 
to  prove  that  Jesus  Christ  preached  and  died  to 
preserve  the  fortunes  of  the  wealthy,  and  to  con- 
solidate capital. 

As  we  advance  in  this  history,  we  shall  find  that 
documents  become  more  certain,  and  preliminary 
discussions  less  necessary.  The  question  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel  has  been  so  often  treated  in  the  pre- 
ceding volumes,  that  we  need  not  return  to  that 
subject  now.  The  falseness  of  the  Epistles  to 
Timothy  and  Titus,  which  are  attributed  to  St  Paul, 
has  been  already  demonstrated,  and  the  apocryphal 
character  of  the  Second  Epistle  of  St  Peter  is  shown 


PREFACE.  vii 

by  the  few  pages  which  are  devoted  to  that  work. 
The  problems  of  the  epistles  attributed  to  St 
Ignatius,  and  of  the  epistle  attributed  to  St  Polycarp, 
are  absolutely  identical,  and  attention  need  only  be 
drawn  to  what  has  been  said  in  the  introduction  to 
our  preceding  work.  Nobody  has  any  further  doubt 
about  the  approximate  age  of  the  Pastor  of  Hermas. 
The  account  of  Polycarp's  death  bears  the  same 
characteristics  of  authenticity  as  the  epistle  to  the 
faithful  at  Lyons  and  Yienne,  which  will  be  men- 
tioned in  our  last  book,  and  to  discriminate  between 
the  authentic  and  the  supposititious  works  of  St 
Justin,  does  not  require  the  same  lengthy  explana- 
tion as  the  introductions  to  the  former  volumes 
naturally  did.  It  can  plainly  be  seen,  and  all  signs 
seem  to  point  to  the  fact,  that  we  are  approaching 
the  end  of  the  age  of  origins.  Ecclesiastical  history 
is  about  to  begin.  The  same  interest  is  felt  in  it, 
but  everything  takes  place  in  the  full  light  of  day, 
and  for  the  future,  criticism  will  no  longer  encounter 
those  obscurities  which  can  only  be  got  over  by 
hypotheses  or  bold  speculation.  Hie  cestus  artemque 
repono.  After  Irenaeus  and  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
our  old  works  on  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the 
seventeenth  century  are  almost  sufficient.  Any  one 
who  reads  in  Fleury  the  two  hundred  and  twenty 
pages  that  correspond  to  our  seven  volumes,  will 
perceive  all  the  difference.  The  seventeenth  century 
only  cared  to  know  what  was  quite  clear,  and  all 
origins  are  obscure ;   but  for  the  philosophic  mind, 


vili  PREFACE. 


they  are  of  unequalled  interest.  Embryogeny  is 
from  its  very  essence  the  most  interesting  of  sciences, 
for  by  it  we  can  penetrate  the  secrets  of  nature,  its 
plastic  force,  its  final  aims,  and  its  inexhaustible 
fecundity. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 


CHAPTER    I. 

HADRIAN. 

Trajan's  health  was  daily  growing  worse,  and  so  he 
set  out  for  Rome,  leaving  the  command  of  the  army 
at  Antioch  to  Hadrian,  his  second  cousin,  and  graijd- 
nephew  by  marriage.  He  was  forced  to  stop  at 
Selinus,  on  the  coast  of  Cihcia,  by  inflammation  of 
the  bowels,  and  there  he  died  August  11,  117,  at  the 
age  of  sixty-four.  The  condition  of  affairs  was  very 
unfortunate  :  the  East  was  in  a  state  of  insurrection  ; 
the  Moors,  the  Bretons,  the  Sarmatians  were  becom- 
ing menacing,  and  Judea,  subjugated  but  still  in  a 
state  of  suppressed  agitation,  appeared  to  be  threaten- 
ing a  fresh  outbreak.  A  somewhat  obscure  intrigue, 
which  appears  to  have  been  directed  by  Plotina  and 
Matidias,  bestowed  the  Empire  on  Hadrian,  under  these 
critical  circumstances. 

It  was  an   excellent  choice,  for  though  he  was  a 
man  of  equivocal  morals,  he  was  a  great  ruler.    Intel- 

A 


2  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

lectual,  intelligent,  and  eager  to  learn,  he  had  more 
greatness  of  mind  than  any  of  the  Caesars,  and  from 
Augustus  down  to  Diocletian,  no  other  Emperor  did 
so  much  for  the  constitution  as  he  did.  His  ad- 
ministrative capacities  were  extraordinary,  as,  al- 
though he  administered  too  much,  according  to  our 
ideas,  he  nevertheless  administered  well.  He  was 
the  first  to  give  the  Imperial  Government  a  definite 
organisation,  and  his  reign  marked  a  principal  epoch 
in  the  history  of  Roman  law. 

Up  till  his  time,  the  house  of  the  sovereign  had 
been  the  house  of  the  highest  personage  in  the  land, 
— an  establishment  composed  like  any  other  of  ser- 
vants, freemen,  and  private  secretaries.  Hadrian 
organised  the  palace,  and  for  the  future  it  was 
necessary  to  be  a  knight  in  order  to  arrive  at  any 
office  in  the  household,  and  the  servants  in  Caosar's 
palace  became  public  functionaries.  A  permanent 
council  of  the  prince,  composed  chiefly  of  juris- 
consults, undertook  all  definite  public  powers ;  those 
senators  who  were  specially  attached  to  the  govern- 
ment already  were  made  comtes  (counts)  ;  every- 
thing was  done  through  regular  ofiices,  in  the 
constitution  of  which  the  senate  took  its  proper 
share,  and  not  through  the  direct  will  of  the  prince. 
It  was  still  a  state  of  despotism,  but  of  despotism 
which  was  analogous  to  that  of  the  old  French 
royalty,  kept  in  check  by  independent  councils,  law 
courts,  and  magistrates. 

The  social  ameliorations  which  took  place  were  still 
more  important,  for  everywhere  a  really  good  and 
great  spirit  of  liberalism  was  manifested ;  the  position 
of  slaves  was  guaranteed,  the  condition  of  women 
was  raised,  paternal  authority  was  restricted  within 
certain  limits,  and  every  remaining  vestige  of  human 
sacrifices  was  abolished.  The  Emperor's  personal 
character  responded  to  the  excellence  of  these  re- 
forms, for   he   was   most   affable    towards    those    of 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  3 

lowly  station,  and  never  would  allow  himself  to  be 
deprived  of  his  greatest  pleasure — that  of  being 
amiable — under  the  pretext  of  his  imperial  greatness. 
In  spite  of  all  his  failings,  he  was  a  man  of  a  quick, 
unbiassed,  original  intellect.  He  admired  Epictetus 
and  understood  him,  without,  however,  feeling 
obliged  to  follow  out  his  maxims.  Nothing  escaped 
him,  and  he  wished  to  know  everything  ;  and  as  he 
did  not  possess  that  insolent  pride  and  that  fixed 
determination  which  altogether  excluded  the  true 
Koman  from  all  knowledge  of  the  rest  of  the  world, 
Hadrian  had  a  strong  incHnation  for  everything  that 
was  strange,  and  would  wittily  make  fun  of  it.  The 
East,  above  all,  had  strong  attractions  for  him,  for 
he  saw  through  Eastern  impostures  and  charlatan- 
ism, and  they  amused  him.  He  was  initiated  into  all 
their  absurd  rites,  fabricated  oracles,  compounded 
antidotes,  and  made  fun  of  the  medicine ;  and,  like 
Nero,  he  was  a  royal  man  of  letters  and  an  artist,  while 
the  ease  with  which  he  learnt  painting,  sculpture, 
and  architecture  was  surprising.  Besides  this,  he 
also  wrote  tolerable  poetry,  but  his  taste  was  not 
pure,  and  he  had  his  favourite  authors  and  singular 
preferences  ;  in  a  word,  he  was  a  literary  smatterer, 
and  a  theatrical  architect.  He  adopted  no  system 
of  religion  or  of  philosophy,  but  neither  did  he  deny 
any  of  them,  and  his  distinguished  mind  was  like  a 
weather-cock,  which  moves  its  position  with  every 
wind;  his  elegant  farewell  to  life,  which  he  mur- 
mured a  few  moments  before  his  death, 

"Animula,  vagula,  hlandula^" 

gives  us  his  measure  exactly.  For  him,  whatever 
he  examined  into  ended  in  a  joke,  and  he  had  a 
smile  for  everything  that  was  an  object  of  his 
curiosity.  The  sovereign  power  itself  could  not 
make  him  more  than  half  serious,  and  his  bearing 
always  had  that  easy  grace  and  negligence  of  the 


4  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

most  fluctuating  and  changeable  man  that  ever 
existed. 

All  that  naturally  made  him  tolerant.  He  did  not 
indeed  abrogate  the  laws  which  indirectly  struck  at 
Christianity,  and  so  put  it  continually  in  the  wrong, 
and  he  even  allowed  them  to  be  applied  more  than 
once,  but  he  personally  very  much  modified  the 
effect  of  them.  In  this  respect  he  w^as  superior 
to  Trajan,  who,  without  being  a  philosopher,  had 
very  fixed  ideas  about  State  aifairs,  and  to  Antoni- 
nus and  Marcus  Aurelius,  who  were  men  of  high 
principle,  but  who  thought  that  they  did  right  in 
persecuting  the  Christians.  In  this  respect  Hadrian's 
laxity  of  morals  was  not  without  a  good  effect, 
for  it  is  the  pecularity  of  a  monarchy  that  the  defects 
of  sovereigns  serve  the  public  good  even  more  than 
their  better  qualities.  The  immorality  of  a  really 
witty  man,  of  a  crowned  Lucian,  who  looks  upon 
the  whole  world  as  some  frivolous  game,  was  more 
favourable  to  liberty  than  the  serious  gravity  and 
lofty  morality  of  the  most  perfect  Emperors. 

Hadrian's  first  care  was  to  settle  the  difficulties  of 
the  accession  which  Trajan  had  left  him.  He  was  a 
distinguished  military  writer,  but  no  great  general. 
He  clearly  saw  how  impossible  it  would  be  to  keep 
the  newly  conquered  provinces  of  Armenia,  Meso- 
potamia, and  Assyria,  and  so  he  gave  them  up.  That 
must  have  been  a  very  solemn  hour,  when,  for  the 
first  time,  the  Roman  eagles  retreated,  and  when  the 
Empire  was  obliged  to  acknowledge  that  it  had 
exceeded  its  programme  of  conquest,  but  it  was  an  act 
of  wisdom.  Persia  was  as  inaccessible  for  Rome  as 
Germany,  and  the  mighty  expeditions  which  Crassus, 
Trajan,  and  Julian  had  led  into  that  part  of  the 
world  failed,  whilst  less  am.bitious  expeditions — those 
of  Lucius  Verus  and  of  Septimus  Severus,  whose 
object  was  not  to  attack  the  very  foundations  of  the 
Parthian  Empire,  but  to  detach  the  feudatory  pro- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  5 

vinces  which  bordered  on  the  Roman  Empire,  from  it 

succeeded.  The  difficulty  of  relinquishing  conquests, 
which  was  so  humiliating  to  the  Roman  mind,  was 
increased  by  the  uncertainty  of  Hadrian's  adoption 
by  Trajan.  Lucius  Quietus  and  Marcus  Turbo  had  an 
almost  equal  right  to  adoption  with  him,  from  the 
importance  of  the  last  commission  that  they  had 
carried  out.  Quiltus  was  killed,  and  it  may  be 
supposed  that,  eager  as  they  were  to  find  out  the 
deaths  of  their  enemies,  in  order  to  discover  in  them 
a  token  of  celestial  vengeance,  the  Jews  saw  in  this 
tragic  death  a  punishment  for  the  new  evils  which 
the  fierce  Berber  had  inflicted  on  them. 

Hadrian  was  a  year  on  his  return  journey  to  Rome, 
thus  at  once  beginning  those  roaming  habits  which 
were  to  make  his  reign  one  continual  rush  through 
the  provinces  of  the  Empire.  After  another  year 
devoted  to  the  gravest  cares  of  government  admini- 
stration, which  was  fertile  in  constitutional  reforms, 
he  started  on  an  o&grI pi^ogress  {tour)  and  successively 
visited  Gaul,  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  Britain, 
Spain,  Mauritania  and  Carthage,  and  his  vanity  and 
antiquarian  tastes  made  him  dream  of  becoming 
the  founder  of  cities,  and  the  restorer  of  ancient 
monuments.  Moreover,  he  did  not  approve  of  the 
idleness  of  garrison  life  for  soldiers,  and  he  found  a 
means  of  occupying  them  in  great  public  works,  and 
that  is  the  reason  for  these  innumerable  construc- 
tions— roads, ports, theatres — temples  which  date  from 
Hadrian's  reign.  He  was  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of 
architects,  engineers,  and  artists,  who  were  enrolled 
like  a  legion.  In  each  province  where  he  set  his 
foot,  everything  seemed  to  be  restored  and  to  spring 
up  afresh.  At  the  Emperor's  suggestion,  enormous 
public  companies  were  formed  to  carry  out  great 
public  works,  and  generally  the  State  appeared  as  a 
shareholder.  If  any  city  had  the  smallest  title  to 
celebrity,  or  was  mentioned  in   classical  authors,  it 


6  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

was  sure  to  be  restored  by  this  archaeological  Caesar ; 
thus  he  beautified  Carthage  and  added  a  new  quarter 
to  it;  and  in  all  directions  towns  which  had  fallen 
into  decay  rose  up  from  their  ruins,  and  took  the 
name  of  Co  Ionia  u3^lia  Hadriana. 

After  a  short  stay  in  Rome,  during  which  he  ex- 
tended the  circumference  of  the  pomoesium  (the 
symbolical,  not  actual  wall  of  the  city),  he  started, 
during  the  course  of  the  year  121,  on  another  journey, 
which  lasted  nearly  four  years  and  a  half,  and  during 
which  he  visited  nearly  the  whole  of  the  East.  This 
journey  was  even  more  brilliant  than  the  former,  and 
it  might  have  been  said  that  the  ancient  world 
was  coming  to  life  again  beneath  the  footsteps 
of  a  beneficent  deity.  Thoroughly  acquainted  with 
ancient  history,  Hadrian  wished  to  see  everything, 
was  interested  in  everything,  and  wished  to  have 
everything  restored  that  had  existed  formerly.  Men 
sought  to  revive  the  lost  arts,  in  order  to  please 
him,  and  a  neo-Egyptian  style  became  the  fashion, 
as  did  also  a  neo-Phcenician.  Philosophers,  rhetoi'i- 
cians,  critics,  swarmed  about  him,  and  he  was  another 
Nero  without  his  follies.  A  number  of  ancient  civilisa- 
tions which  had  disappeared,  aspired  after  their 
resuscitation,  not  actually,  but  in  the  writings  of 
historians  and  archaeologists.  Thus  Herennius,  Philo 
of  Byblos,  tried — very  likely  under  the  direct  inspira- 
tion of  the  Emperor  himself — to  discover  ancient 
Phoenicia.  New  fetes,  the  Hadrianian  Games,  which 
the  Greeks  introduced — recalled  for  the  last  time  the 
splendour  of  Hellenic  hfe;  it  was  like  a  imiversal 
restoration  to  life  of  the  ancient  world,  a  brilliant  re- 
storation indeed,  but  it  was  hardly  sincere,  and  rather 
theatrica],  and  each  country  found,  in  Rome's  com- 
prehensive bosom,  its  former  titles  of  nobility  again, 
and  became  attached  to  them.  Whilst  studying  that 
siiigular  spectacle,  one  cannot  help  thinking  of  that 
and  of   resurrection  from  the    dead  which  our  own 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  7 

century  has  witnessed,  when,  m  a  moment  of  uni- 
versal goodwill,  it  began  to  restore  all  things,  to 
rebuild  Gothic  churches,  to  re-estabhsh  pilgrimages 
which  had  fallen  into  neglect,  and  to  reintroduce 
fetes  and  ancient  customs. 

Hadrian,  the  turn  of  whose  mind  was  more  Greek 
than  Roman,  favoured  this  ecclectic  movement,  and 
contributed  powerfully  towards  it,  and  what  he  did 
in  Asia  Minor  was  really  prodigious.  Cyzicus,  Nicasa, 
Nicomedia,  sprang  up  again,  and  everywhere  temples 
of  the  most  splendid  works  of  architecture,  immor- 
talised the  memory  of  that  learned  sovereign,  who 
seemed  to  wish  that  another  world,  in  all  the  fresh- 
ness of  its  youth,  should  date  from  him.  Syria  was 
no  less  favoured.  Antioch  and  Daphne  became  the 
most  delightful  places  of  abode  in  the  world,  and  the 
combinations  of  picturesque  architecture,  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  landscape  painter,  and  the  forces  of 
hydraulic  power,  were  exhausted  there.  Even 
Palmyra  was  partially  restored  by  the  great  imperial 
architect,  and,  like  a  number  of  other  towns,  took  the 
name  of  Hadrianople  from  him. 

Never  had  the  world  had  so  much  enjoyment  or  so 
much  hope.  The  Barbarians  beyond  the  Rhine  and 
the  Danube  were  hardly  thought  about,  for  the  liberal 
spirit  of  the  Emperor  caused  a  sort  of  feehug  of  uni- 
versal contentment  ;  and  the  Jews  themselves  were 
divided  into  two  parties.  Those  who  were  massed 
at  Bether,  and  in  the  villages  south  of  Jerusalem, 
seemed  to  be  possessed  by  a  sort  of  sombre  rage. 
Their  one  idea  was  to  take  the  city,  to  which  access 
was  denied  them,  by  force,  and  to  restore  to  the  hill 
which  God  had  chosen  for  his  own,  its  former 
honours.  Hadrian  had  not  at  first  been  obnoxious 
to  the  more  moderate  party,  especially  to  the  half- 
Christian,  half-Essenian  survivors  of  the  Egyptian 
catastrophe  under  Trajan.  They  could  imagine  that 
he  had  ordered  the  death  of  Quietus  to  punish  him 


8  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

for  his  cruelty  towards  the  Jews,  and  perhaps  for  a 
moment  they  conceived  the  hope  that  the  ecclectic 
Emperor  would  undertake  the  restoration  of  Israel, 
as  another  caprice  amongst  so  many.  In  order  to 
inculcate  these  ideas,  a  pious  Alexandrian  took  a 
form  of  thought  that  had  already  been  consecrated 
by  success.  In  his  poem  he  supposed  that  a  Sybil, 
sister  of  Isis,  had  had  a  disordered  vision  of  the  trials 
which  were  reserved  for  the  latter  centuries. 

Hatred  for  Rome  bursts  out  at  the  very  be- 
ginning : — 

O  Virgin,  enervated  and  wealthy  daughter  of  Latin  Rome, 
who  hast  joined  the  ranks  of  slavery  whilst  drunk  with  wine,  for 
what  nuptials  bast  thou  reserved  thyself  !  How  often  will  a 
cruel  mistress  tear  these  delicate  locks  ! 

The  author,  who  is  a  Jew  and  a  Christian  at  the 
same  time,  looks  upon  Rome  as  the  natural  enemy 
of  the  saints,  and  to  Hadrian  alone  he  pays  the 
homage  of  admiring  him  thoroughly.  After  enumer- 
ating the  Roman  Emperors,  from  Julius  Cassar  to 
Trajan,  by  the  nonsensical  process  of  ghematria,  the 
Sybil  sees  a  man  ascend  the  throne — 

Who  has  a  skull  of  silver,  who  will  give  his  name  to  a  sea.  He 
will  be  unequalled  in  every  way  and  know  everything.  Under 
thy  reign  0  excellent,  0  eminent  and  brilliant  sovereign,  and 
under  thy  offspring,  the  events  which  I  am  about  to  mention 
shall  take  place. 

According  to  custom,  the  Sybil  now  unfolds  the 
most  gloomy  pictures  ;  every  scourge  is  let  loose  at 
the  same  time,  and  mankind  becomes  altogether  cor- 
rupt. These  are  the  throes  of  the  Messianic  child- 
birth. Nero,  who  had  been  dead  for  more  than  fifty 
years,  was  still  the  author's  nightmare.  That  destruc- 
tive dragon,  that  actor,  that  murderer  of  his  own  rela- 
tions, and  assassin  of  the  chosen  people,  that  kindler 
of  numberless  wars,  will  return  to  put  himself  on  an 
equality  with   God.     He  weaves   the   darkest   plots 


THli  CHIIISTIAN  CHURCH.  9 

amongst  the  Medes  and  Persians  who  have  received 
him;  and,  borne  through  the  air  by  the  Fates,  he  will 
soon  arrive  to  be  once  more  the  scourge  of  the  West. 
The  author  vomits  forth  an  invective,  fiercer  still 
than  that  with  which  he  began ; — 

Unstable,  corrupted,  reserved  for  the  very  lowest  destinies, 
the  beginuing  and  end  of  all  suffeiing,  because  in  thy  bosom 
creation  perishes  and  is  born  again  continually,  source  of  all  evil, 
scourge,  the  point  where  everything  ends  for  mortal  men,  who 
has  ever  loved  thee  ?  who  does  not  detest  thee  internally  ? 
what  dethroned  king  has  ended  his  life  in  peace  within  thy 
walls?  By  thee  the  whole  world  has  been  changed  in  its  inner- 
most recesses.  Formerly  there  existed  in  the  human  breast  a 
splendour  like  a  brilliant  sun  ;  it  was  the  rays  of  the  unanimous 
spirits  of  the  prophets,  which  brought  to  all  the  nourishment  of 
life,  and  thou  hast  destroyed  these  good  gifts.  Therefore,  O 
imperious  mistress,  origin  and  cause  of  all  these  great  evils, 
sword  and  disaster  shall  fall  on  thee  .  .  .  Listen,  0  scourge  of 
humanity,  to  the  harsh  voice  which  announces  thy  misfortunes. 

A  divine  race  of  blessed  Jews,  come  down  from 
heaven,  shall  inhabit  Jerusalem,  which  shall  extend 
as  far  as  Jaffa,  and  rise  to  the  clouds.  There  shall  be 
no  more  trumpets  or  war,  but  on  every  side  eternal 
trophies  shall  rise,  trophies  consecrating  victories 
over  evil. 

Then  there  shall  come  down  from  heaven  once  more  an 
extraordinary  man,  who  has  stretched  out  his  hands  over  a 
fruitful  wood,  the  best  of  the  Hebrews,  who  formerly  stopped 
the  sun  in  his  course  by  his  beautiful  words  and  his  holy  lips. 

This  is  doubtlessly  Jesus,  Jesus,  in  an  allegorical 
manner,  by  his  crucifixion,  playing  the  part  of  Moses 
stretching  out  his  arms,  and  of  Joshua  the  saviour  of 
the  people. 

Cease  at  length  to  break  thy  heart,  0  daughter  of  divine 
race,  0  treasure,  O  only  lovely  flowor,  delightful  brightness, 
exquisite  plant,  cherished  germ,  gracious  and  beautiful  city  of 
Judea,  always  filled  with  the  sound  of  inspired  hymns.  The 
impure  feet  of  the  Greeks,  their  hearts  filled  with  plots,  shall 
not  tread  thy  soil  under  them,  but  thou  shalt  be  surrounded  by 
the  respect  of  thy  illustrious  children,  who  shall  deck  thy  table 


10  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

in  accord  with  the  sacred  muses,  with  sacrifices  of  all  kinds,  and 
with  pious  prayers.  Then  the  just  who  have  suffered  pain  and 
anguish  will  find  more  pleasure  than  they  have  suffered  ills.  These, 
on  the  contrary,  who  have  hurled  their  sacrilegious  blasphemies 
towards  heaven  will  be  reduced  to  silence  and  to  hide  themselves 
till  the  face  of  the  world  changes.  A.  rain  of  burning  fire  shall 
descend  from  heaven,  and  men  shall  no  longer  gather  in  the  sweet 
fruits  of  the  earth  ;  there  shall  be  no  more  sowing,  no  more  labour, 
till  mortals  recognise  the  supreme,  immortal,  eternal  God,  and 
till  they  leave  oflT  honouring  mortals,  dogs,  and  vultures,  to 
which  Egypt  wishes  men  to  offer  the  homage  of  profane  mouths 
and  foolish  lips.  Only  the  sacred  soil  of  the  Hebrews  will  bear 
those  things  that  are  refused  to  other  men ;  brooks  of  honey 
shall  burst  from  the  rocks  and  springs,  and  milk  like  ambrosia 
shall  flow  for  the  just,  because  they  have  hoped,  with  ardent  piety 
and  lively  faith,  in  one  only  God,  the  Father  of  all  things,  One 
and  Supreme. 

At  last  the  runaway  parricide,  who  has  been  an- 
nounced three  times,  enters  upon  the  scene  again. 
The  monster  inundates  the  earth  with  blood,  and 
captures  Rome,  causing  such  a  conflagration  as  has 
never  been  seen.  There  is  a  universal  overturning 
of  everything  in  the  world  ;  all  kings  and  aristocrats 
perish,  in  order  to  prepare  peace  for  just  men — that  is 
to  say,  for  Jews  and  Christians,  and  the  author's  joy  at 
the  destruction  of  Rome  breaks  out  a  third  time. : — 

Parricides,  leave  your  pride  and  your  culpable  haughtiness,  for 
you  have  reserved  your  shameful  embraces  for  children  and  placed 
yoang  girls,  who  were  pure  up  till  that  time,  in  houses  of  ill-fame 
where  they  have  been  subjected  to  the  vilest  outrages  .  .  . 
Keep  silence,  wicked  and  unhappy  city,  thou  that  wast  formerly  full 
of  laughter.  In  thy  bosom  the  sacred  virgins  will  no  longer  find 
again  the  holy  fire  that  they  kept  alive,  for  that  fire,  which  was  so 
preciously  preserved,  went  out  of  its  own  accord,  when  I  saw  for 
the  second  time  another  tem[)le  fall  to  the  ground,  given  up  to  the 
fi  .mes  by  impure  hands,  a  temple  which  flourishes  still,  a  per- 
manent sanctuary  of  God,  built  by  the  saint?,  and  incorruptible 
throughout  eternity  ...  It  is  not,  indeed,  a  god  made  of  common 
clay  that  this  race  adores  ;  amongst  them  the  skilful  workman  does 
not  shape  marble ;  and  gold,  which  is  so  often  employed  to  seduce 
men's  souls,  is  no  object  of  their  worship,  but  by  their  sacrifices  and 
their  holy  hecatombs  they  honour  the  great  God  whose  Ijreath 
animates  every  living  thing. 


THE  CHR[STIAN  CHURCH.  11 

A  chosen  man,  the  Messiah,  descends  from  heaven, 
carries  off  the  victory  over  the  Pagans,  bailds  the  city 
beloved  of  God,  which  springs  up  again  more  brilHant 
than  the  sun,  and  founds  within  it  an  incarnate 
temple,  a  tower  with  a  frontage  of  several  stadii, 
which  reaches  up  to  the  clouds,  so  that  all  the  faith- 
ful may  see  the  glory  of  God.  The  seats  of  ancient 
civilisation — Babylon,  Egypt,  Greece,  Rome — disap- 
pear one  after  the  other  ;  above  all,  the  giant  monu- 
ments of  Egypt  fall  over  and  cover  the  earth ;  but  a 
linen-clad  priest  converts  his  compatriots,  persuades 
them  to  abandon  their  ancient  rites,  and  to  build  a 
temple  to  the  true  God.  That,  however,  does  not 
arrest  the  destruction  of  the  ancient  world,  for  the 
constellations  come  in  contact  with  each  other,  the 
celestial  bodies  fall  to  the  earth,  and  the  heavens  re- 
main starless. 

Thus  we  see  that  under  Hadrian  there  existed  in 
Egypt  a  body  of  pious  monotheists  for  whom  th^ 
Jews  were  still  pre-eminently  the  just  and  h'  .y 
people,  in  whose  eyes  the  destruction  of  the  Temple  of 
Jerusalem  was  an  unpardonable  crime,  and  the  real 
cause  of  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  ;  who  en- 
tertained a  cause  for  hatred  and  calumny  against 
Flavins  ;  who  hoped  for  the  restoration  of  the  Temple 
and  of  Jerusalem  ;  who  looked  on  the  Messiah  as  a 
man  chosen  of  God  ;  who  saw  that  Messiah  in  Jesus, 
and  who  read  the  Apocalypse  of  St  John.  Since 
then,  Egypt  has  for  a  long  time  made  us  grow 
accustomed  to  great  singularities  in  all  that  concerns 
Jewish  and  Christian  history,,  and  its  rehgious  de- 
velopment did  not  proceed  pa^A passu  with  that  of  the 
rest  of  the  world.  Accents  such  as  we  have  just 
heard  could  hardly  find  an  echo  either  in  pure  Juda- 
ism or  in  the  Churches  of  St  Paul.  Judea,  above 
all,  would  never  have  consented,  even  for  an  hour, 
either  to  regard  Hadrian  as  the  best  of  men,  or  to 
found  such  hopes  upon  him. 


12  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

CHAPTER    IL 

THE   RE-BUILDING  OF  JERUSALEM. 

During  liis  peregrinations  in  Syria,  Hadrian  saw  the 
site  where  Jerusalem  had  stood.  For  fifty-two 
years  the  city  remained  in  its  state  of  desolation, 
and  oiFered  to  the  eye  nothing  but  a  heap  of  im- 
mense blocks  of  stone  lying  one  on  another.  Only  a 
few  groups  of  miserable  houses,  belonging  to  Chris- 
tians for  the  most  part,  stood  out  from  the  top  of 
Mount  Sion,  and  the  site  of  the  Temple  was  full  of 
jackals.  One  day,  when  Eabbi  Aquiba  came  on  a 
pilgrimage  to  the  spot  with  some  companions,  a 
jackal  rushed  out  of  the  place  where  the  Holy  of 
Holies  had  stood.  The  pilgrims  burst  into  tears,  and 
said  to  each  other :  "  What !  is  this  the  place  of 
which  it  is  written  that  any  profane  person  who 
approaches  it  shall  be  put  to  death,  and  here  are 
jackals  roaming  about  in  it  I "  Aquiba,  however, 
burst  out  laughing,  and  proved  to  them  the  connexion 
between  the  various  prophecies  so  clearly,  that  they 
all  exclaimed :  "  Aquiba,  thou  hast  consoled  us  ! 
Aquiba,  thou  has  consoled  us  !  " 

These  ruins  inspired  Hadrian  with  the  thought 
with  which  all  ruins  inspired  him,  namely,  the  desire 
to  rebuild  the  ruined  city,  to  colonise  it,  and  to  give 
it  his  name  or  that  of  his  family  Thus  Judea  would 
become  once  more  restored  to  cultivation,  and  Jerusa- 
lem, raised  to  the  rank  of  a  fortified  place  in  the 
hands  of  the  Romans,  would  serve  as  a  check  upon 
the  Jewish  population.  All  the  towns  of  Syria,  more- 
over,— Gerasae,  Damascus,  Gaza,  Peah, — were  being 
rebuilt  in  the  Roman  manner,  and  were  inaugurating 
new  eras.     Jerusalem  was  too  celebrated  to  be   an 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  18 

exception  to  tliis  movement  of  historical  dilettantism 
and  of  general  restoration. 

It  is  very  probable  that  if  the  Jews  had  been  less 
unanimous  in  their  views,  if  some  Philo  of  Byblos 
had  existed  amongst  them  to  represent  to  him  the 
Jewish  past  as  nothing  but  a  glorious  and  interesting 
variety  amongst  the  differeut  literatures,  religions, 
and  philosophies  of  humanity,  the  curious  and  intelli- 
gent Hadrian  would  have  been  dehghted,  and  re- 
built the  Temple,  not  exactly  as  the  Doctors  of  the 
Law  would  have  wished  it,  but  in  his  ecclectic 
manner,  like  the  great  amateur  of  ancient  religions 
that  he  was.  The  Talmud  is  full  of  conversations 
between  Hadrian  and  celebrated  rabbis,  which  of 
course  are  fictitious,  but  wliich  correspond  very  well 
with  the  character  of  this  Emperor,  who  had  a  great 
mind,  and  was  a  great  talker,  very  fond  of  asking 
questions,  curious  about  strange  matters,  anxious  to 
know  everything,  that  he  might  make  fun  of  it  after- 
wards. But  the  greatest  insult  that  can  be  shown 
to  absolutists  is  to  be  tolerant  towards  them,  and  in 
this  respect  the  Jews  resembled  exactly  the  en- 
thusiastic Catholics  of  our  days.  Men  of  such  con- 
victions will  not  be  satisfied  with  their  reasonable 
share  ;  they  want  to  be  everything.  It  is  the  highest 
indignity  for  a  religion  which  looks  upon  itself  as  the 
only  true  one  to  be  treated  like  a  sect  amongst 
many  others  ;  they  would  rather  be  outside  the  pale 
of  the  law,  and  be  persecuted ;  and  this  violent  situa- 
tion appears  to  them  a  mark  of  divinity.  The  faithful 
are  pleased  at  persecution,  for  in  the  very  fact  that 
men  hate  them,  they  see  a  mark  of  their  prerogative, 
for  the  wickedness  of  men,  according  to  them,  is 
naturally  an  enemy  to  truth. 

There  is  nothing  to  prove  that  when  Hadrian 
wished  to  rebuild  Jerusalem,  he  consulted  the  Jews, 
or  wished  to  come  to  any  agreement  with  them. 
Nothing  either  leads  us  to  believe  that  he  entered 


14  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

into  any  relations  with  the  Christians  of  Palestine, 
who,  externally,  had  less  to  distinguish  them  from 
the  Jews  than  Christians  of  other  countries.  In  the 
eyes  of  the  Christians,  all  the  prophecies  of  Jesus 
Avould  have  been  overthrown  if  the  Temple  had  been 
rebuilt,  whilst  amongst  the  Jews  there  was  a  general 
expectation  that  it  would  be  rebuilt.  The  Judaism 
of  Jabneh,  without  Temple,  without  worship,  had  ap- 
peared as  a  short  interregnum,  and  all  uses  which 
presupposed  a  still  existing  Temple,  were  preserved. 
The  priests  continued  to  receive  the  tithe,  and  the 
precepts  of  Levitical  purity  were  still  strictly  ob- 
served. The  obligatory  sacrifices  were  adjourned 
till  the  Temple  should  be  rebuilt,  but  Jews  alone 
could  rebuild  it ;  the  slightest  deviation  from  any 
injunction  of  the  Law,  would  have  been  quite  enough 
to  cause  the  cry  of  Sacrilege  to  be  raised.  It  was 
better  in  the  eyes  of  pious  Jews,  to  see  the  sanctuary 
inhabited  by  beasts  of  prey,  than  to  owe  its  re- 
building to  a  profane  jester,  who  afterwards  would 
not  have  failed  to  utter  some  epigram  about  those 
extraordinary  gods  whose  altars  he  nevertheless 
restored. 

For  the  Jews,  Jerusalem  was  something  almost  as 
sacred  as  the  Temple  itself.  In  fact,  they  did  not 
distinguish  one  from  the  other,  and  at  that  time  they 
already  called  the  city  by  the  name  of  Beth  ham- 
migdas.  The  only  feeling  which  the  hasidim  felt 
when  they  heard  that  the  city  of  God  was  going  to 
be  rebuilt  without  them,  was  one  of  rage.  It  was 
very  shortly  after  the  extermination  which  Quietus 
and  Turbo  had  carried  out,  and  Judea  was  weighed 
down  by  an  extraordinary  terror.  It  was  impos- 
sible to  move,  but  from  that  time  forward  it  was 
allowable  to  foresee  in  the  future  a  revolution  that 
should  be  even  more  terrible  than  those  which  had 
preceded  it. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  15 

About  122,  probably,  Hadrian  issued  his  orders,  and 
the  reconstruction  commenced.  The  population  con- 
sisted chiefly  of  veterans  and  strangers,  and  no  doubt 
it  was  not  necessary  to  keep  out  the  Jews,  as  their 
own  feelings  would  have  been  enough  to  have 
caused  them  to  flee.  It  seems  that,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  Christians  returned  to  the  city  with  a 
certain  amount  of  eagerness,  as  sooo  as  it  was  habit- 
able. It  was  divided  into  seven  quarters  or  groups 
of  houses,  each  with  an  amphodarch  over  it.  As  the 
immense  foundations  of  the  Temple  were  still  in 
existence,  that  seemed  the  fittest  spot  on  which 
to  place  the  principal  sanctuary  of  the  new  city. 
Hadrian  took  care  that  the  temples  which  he  erected 
in  the  Eastern  Provinces  should  call  to  mind  the 
Roman  religion,  and  the  connection  between  the 
provinces  and  the  metropolis.  In  order  to  point  out 
the  victory  of  Rome  over  a  local  religion,  the  temple 
was  dedicated  to  Jupiter  Capitolinus,  the  god  of 
Rome,  above  all  others  a  god  whose  attitude  and 
grave  demeanour  recalled  Jehovah,  and  to  whom, 
since  the  time  of  Vespasian,  the  Jews  had  paid 
tribute.  It  was  a  tetrastyle  building,  and  like  in 
most  of  the  temples  erected  by  Hadrian,  the  enta- 
blature of  the  pediment  was  broken  by  an  arch, 
under  which  was  placed  a  colossal  figure  of  the  god. 

The  worship  of  Venus  was  no  less  intended  than 
that  of  Jupiter  by  the  choice  of  the  founder  of  the 
colony.  Everywhere  Hadrian  built  temples  to  her, 
the  protectress  of  Rome,  and  the  most  important  of 
his  personal  edifices  was  that  great  temple  of  Venus 
and  Rome,  the  remains  of  which  can  still  be  seen 
near  the  Coliseum,  and  so  it  was  only  natural  that 
Jerusalem  should  have,  by  the  side  of  its  temple  of 
Jupiter  Capitolinus  its  temple  of  Venus  and  Rome. 
It  happened  that  this  second  temple  was  not  far 
from  Golgotha,  and  this  fact  gave  rise,  later  on,  to 
singular  reflections   on  the  part   of  the  Christians. 


1  6  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

In  this  close  approximation  they  thought  that  they 
discerned  an  insult  to  Christianity,  of  which  Hadrian 
certainly  never  thought.  The  works  proceeded  but 
slowly,  and  when,  two  years  later,  Hadrian  retraced 
his  steps  towards  the  West,  the  new  Colonia  ^Elia 
Capitolina  was  still  more  a  project  than  a  reality. 

For  a  long  time  a  strange  story  went  about 
amongst  the  Christians,  to  the  effect  that  a  Greek  of 
Sinope,  called  Aquila,  who  was  nominated  overseer 
of  the  works  for  the  rebuilding  of  ^lia  by  Hadrian, 
knew  the  disciples  of  the  Apostles  at  Jerusalem,  and 
that,  struck  by  their  piety  and  their  miracles,  he  was 
baptised.  But  no  change  in  his  morals  followed  on 
his  change  of  rehgion.  He  was  given  to  the  follies 
of  astrology  ;  every  day  he  cast  his  horoscope,  and 
was  looked  upon  as  a  learned  man  of  the  first  order 
in  such  matters.  The  Christians  regarded  all  such 
practices  with  an  unfavourable  eye,  and  the  heads  of 
the  Church  addressed  remonstrances  to  their  new 
brother,  who  took  no  notice  of  them,  and  set  himself 
up  against  the  views  of  the  Church.  Astrology  led 
him  into  grave  errors  on  fatalism  and  man's  destiny, 
and  his  incoherent  mind  tried  to  associate  together 
things  which  were  utterly  opposed  to  each  other. 

The  Church  saw  that  he  could  not  possibly  merit 
salvation,  and  he  was  driven  outside  the  pale,  in 
consequence  of  which  he  always  entertained  a  pro- 
found hatred  for  her.  His  relations  with  Adrian 
may  have  been  the  reason  why  that  Emperor  seems 
to  have  had  such  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
the  Christians. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  17 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  RELATIVE  TOLERANCE  OF  HADRIAN — THE 
FIRST  APOLOGISTS. 

The  period  was  one  of  toleration.  Colleges  and  re- 
ligious societies  were  on  the  increase  everywhere. 
In  A.D.  124,  the  Emperor  received  a  letter  from 
Quintus  Licinus  Silvanus  Grauianus,  Pro-consul  of 
Asia,  which  was  written  in  a  spirit  very  much  the 
same  as  that  which  dictated  to  Pliny  that  beautiful 
letter  of  his,  so  worthy  of  an  upright  man.  Roman 
functionaries  of  any  weight  all  objected  to  a  pro- 
cedure which  admitted  implicit  crimes  that  indi- 
viduals were  supposed  to  have  committed,  because  ot 
the  mere  name  they  bore.  Granianus  showed  how 
unjust  it  was  to  condemn  Christians  on  the  strength 
of  vague  rumours,  which  were  the  fruit  of  popular 
imagination,  without  being  able  to  couvict  them  ot 
any  distinct  crime,  except  that  of  their  Christian 
profession.  The  drawling  by  lot  for  the  appoint- 
ments to  the  Consular  Provinces  having  taken  place 
a  short  time  afterwards,  Caius  Minucius  Fundanus, 
a  philosopher  and  distinguished  man  of  letters,  a 
friend  of  Pliny  and  of  Plutarch,  who  introduces  him 
as  asking  questions  in  one  of  his  philosophic  dia- 
logues, succeeded  Granianus,  and  Hadrian  answered 
Fundanus  by  the  following  rescript : — 

Hadrian  to  Minicius  Fundanus.  I  have  received  the  letter 
which  Licinius  Granianus,  an  illustrious  man  whom  you  have 
succeeded,  wrote  to  me.  The  matter  seemed  to  me  to  demand 
inquiry,  for  fear  lest  people  who  are  otherwise  peacefully  disposed 
may  be  disquieted,  and  so  a  free  field  be  ojjcned  to  calumniators. 
If  therefore  the  people  of  yojr  province  have,  as  they  say,  any 
weighty  accusations  to  bring  against  the  Christians,  and  if  they 
can'maintain  their  accusation  before  the  tribunals,  I  do  not  for- 
bid th-m  to  take  legal  steps;  but  I  will  not  allow  them  to  go 


18  THb:  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

on  sending  petitions  and  raising  tumultuous  cries.  In  such  ii 
case,  the  best  thing  is  for  you  yourself  to  hear  the  matter.  Th<;re- 
fore,  if  anyone  comes  forward  as  an  accuser,  and  proves  that  the 
Christians  break  the  laws,  sentence  them  to  punishments  com- 
mensurate to  the  gravity  of  the  offence.  But,  by  Hercules,  if  any- 
body denounces  one  of  them  calumniously,  punish  the  libeller  still 
more  severely  according  to  the  degree  of  his  malice. 

It  would  seem  that  Hadrian  gave  similar  replies 
to  other  questions  of  the  same  nature.  Libels 
against  the  Christians  were  multiplying  everywhere, 
and  they  paid  very  well,  for  the  informer  got  part  of 
the  property  of  the  accused  if  he  were  found  guilty. 
Above  all,  in  Asia  the  provincial  meetings,  ac- 
companied by  public  games,  almost  invariably  ended 
in  executions.  To  crown  the  festivities,  the  crowd 
would  demand  the  execution  of  some  unfortunate 
creatures.  The  redoubtable  cry: — 21ie  Chridians  to  the 
lions,  became  quite  common  in  the  theatres,  and  it 
was  a  very  rare  occurrence  when  the  authorities  did 
not  yield  to  the  clamour  of  the  assembled  people. 
As  has  been  seen,  the  Emperor  opposed  such 
wickedness  as  fai'  as  he  could  ;  the  laws  of  the  Em- 
pire were  really  alone  to  blame  for  giving  substance 
to  vague  accusations  which  the  caprice  of  the  multi- 
tude interpreted  according  to  its  own  pleasure. 

Hadrian  spent  the  w^inter  of  125-12(3  at  Athens. 
In  this  meeting-place  for  all  men  of  culture  he 
always  experienced  the  greatest  enjoyment.  Greece 
had  become  the  plaything  to  amuse  all  Roman 
men  of  letters.  Quite  reassured  as  to  the  political 
consequences,  they  adopted,  the  easy  liberalism  of 
restoring  the  Pnyx,  the  popular  assemblies,  the 
Areopagus ;  of  raising  statues  to  ihe  great  men  of  the 
past,  of  giving  the  ancient  constitutions  another  trial, 
and  of  setting  up  Pan-hellenism — the  confederation  of 
the  so-called  free  states—  again.  Athens  was  the  centre 
of  all  this  childish  folly.  Enlightened  Ma3cenases — 
especially  Herod  Atticus,  one  of  the  most  distinguished 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  19 

spirits  of  the  age,  and  those  Philopappuses,  the  last 
descendants  of  the  Kings  of  Commagene  and  of  the 
Seleucidas,  who  about  this  time  raised  a  monument 
on  the  hill  of  the  Museum,  which  still  exists, — had 
taken  up  their  abode  there. 

This  world  of  professors,  of  philosophers,  and  of  men 
of  enlightenment,  was  Hardrian's  real  element.  His 
vanity,  his  talent,  his  taste  for  brilliant  conversation, 
were  quite  at  their  ease  amongst  colleagues  whom  he 
honoured  bv  making  himself  their  equal,  without, 
however,  the  least  yielding  his  royal  prerogative. 
He  was  a  clever  arguer,  and  thought  that  he  only 
owed  the  advantage,  which  of  course  always  re- 
mained with  him,  to  his  own  personal  talent.  It 
w^as  an  unlucky  thing  for  those  who  hurt  his  feelings 
or  who  got  the  better  of  him  in  an  argument.  Then 
the  Nero  whom,  though  carefully  hidden,  he  always 
had  in  him,  suddenly  woke  up.  The  number  of 
new  professorial  chairs  that  he  founded,  or  of 
literary  pensions  that  he  bestowed,  is  incalculable. 
He  took  his  titles  of  archon  and  agonothetes  quite 
seriously.  He  himself  drew  up  a  constitution  for 
Athens,  by  combining  in  equal  proportions  the  laws 
of  Draco  and  of  Solon,  and  wished  to  see  whether 
they  would  work  satisfactorily.  The  whole  city  was 
restored.  The  temple  of  the  Olympian  Jupiter,  near 
the  river  Ilisus,  begun  by  Pisistratus,  and  one  of  the 
wonders  of  the  world,  w^as  finished,  and  the  Emperor 
took  the  title  of  Olympian.  Within  the  city,  a  vast 
square,  surrounded  by  temples,  porticos,  gymnasia, 
estabhshments  for  public  instruction,  dated  from  him. 
All  that  is  certainly  very  far  from  possessing  the  per- 
fection of  the  Acropolis,  but  these  buildings  excelled 
anything  that  had  ever  been  seen,  by  the  rarity  of 
their  marbles  and  the  richness  of  their  decorations. 
A  central  Pantheon  contained  a  catalogue  of  the 
temples  which  the  P]mperor  had  built,  repaired  or 
ornamented,  and  of  the  gilts  which  he  had  bestowed 


20  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

on  Greek  or  barbarian  cities;  and  a  library,  open  to 
every  Athenian  citizen,  occupied  a  special  wing.  On 
an  arch,  which  remains  to  our  day,  Hadrian  was  made 
equal  to  Theseus,  and  one  of  the  Athenian  quarters 
was  called  Hadrianopolis. 

Hadrian's  intellectual  activity  was  sincere,  but  he 
lacked  a  scientific  mind.  In  those  meetings  of 
sophists  all  questions,  human  and  divine,  were  dis- 
cussed, but  none  were  settled,  nor  does  it  seem  that 
they  went  so  far  as  complete  rationalism.  In  Grreece 
the  Emperor  was  looked  upon  as  a  very  religious  and 
even  as  a  superstitious  man.  He  wished  to  be  initi- 
ated into  the  mysteries  of  Eleusis,  and,  on  the  whole, 
Paganism  was  the  only  thing  that  gained  by  all  this. 
As,  however,  liberty  of  discussion  is  a  good  thing, 
good  always  results  from  it.  Phlegon,  Hadrian's 
secretary,  knew  a  little  about  the  legend  concerning 
Jesus,  and  the  wide  expansion  which  the  spirit  of 
controversy  assumed  under  Hadrian  gave  rise  to  an 
altogether  new  species  of  Christian  literature,  the 
apologetic,  which  sheds  so  much  brightness  over  the 
century  of  the  Antonines. 

Christianity,  preached  at  Athens  seventy-two  years 
previously,  had  borne  its  fruit.  The  Church  at  Athens 
had  never  had  the  adherents  nor  the  stability  of  cer- 
tain others  ;  its  peculiar  character  was  to  produce 
individual  Christian  thinkers,  and  so  apologetic  liter- 
ature naturally  sprang  from  it. 

Several  persons,  who  were  specially  called  philo- 
sophers, had  adhered  to  the  doctrine  of  Jesus.  The 
name  philosopher  implied  severity  of  morals,  and  a  dis- 
tinguishing dress, — a  sort  of  cloak,  which  sometimes 
made  the  wearer  the  subject  of  the  jokes,  but  more 
often,  the  respect,  of  the  passers  by.  When  they  em- 
braced Christianity,  the- philosophers  took  care  neither 
to  repudiate  their  name  nor  their  dress,  and  from 
that  there  proceeded  a  category  of  Christians  un- 
known till  then.     Writers  and  talkers  by  profession, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  21 

these  converted  philosophers  became,  from  the  very 
first  outset,  the  doctors  and  polemical  members  of 
the  sect.  Initiated  into  Greek  culture,  they  were  far 
greater  dialecticians,  and  had  greater  aptitude  for 
controversy,  than  purely  apostolic  preachers,  and 
from  that  moment  Christianity  had  its  advocates. 
They  disputed,  and  others  disputed  with  them.  In 
the  eyes  of  the  government  they  were  much  more 
likely  to  be  taken  seriously  than  those  good  people 
without  any  education  who  were  initiated  into  an 
eastern  superstition.  Up  till  then  Christianity  had 
never  ventured  to  address  a  direct  demand  to  the 
Roman  authorities  to  have  the  false  position  in  which 
it  found  itself  rectified.  Certainly  the  characters  of 
some  of  the  preceding  Emperors  did  not  by  any 
means  invite  any  such  explanations,  and  any  petition 
would  have  been  rejected  unread.  Hadrian's  curiosity, 
his  facile  mind,  the  idea  thathe  was  pleased  when  some 
new  fact  or  argument  was  presented  to  him,  now  en- 
couraged overtures  which  would  have  had  no  object 
under  Trajan.  To  this  was  added  an  aristocratic 
feeling,  which  was  alike  flattering  to  the  sovereign 
and  the  apologist.  Christianity  was  already  begin- 
ning to  let  the  policy  be  seen  which  it  was  to  follow 
from  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  and  which 
consisted,  above  all,  in  treating  with  sovereigns  over 
the  heads  of  the  people.  "  We  will  dispute  with  you, 
but  it  is  too  much  honour  for  the  common  herd  to 
give  it  our  reasons." 

The  first  attempt  of  this  sort  was  the  work  of 
a  certain  Quadratus,  an  important  personage  of  the 
third  Christian  generation,  and  of  whom  it  was  said 
that  he  had  even  been  a  disciple  of  the  Apostles. 
He  sent  an  apology  for  Christianity  to  the  Em- 
peror, which  has  been  lost,  but  whicli  was  very 
highly  thought  of  during  the  first  centuries.  He  com- 
plained of  the  annoyances  to  which  wicked  people 
subjected  the  faithful,  and  proved  the  harmles.sness 


!>2  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

of  the  Christian  faith.  He  went  still  further,  and 
tried  to  convert  Hadrian  by  arguments  drawn  from 
the  miracles  of  Jesus.  Quadratus  alleged  that  even 
in  his  time  some  of  those  whom  the  Saviour  had 
healed  or  raised  from  the  dead  were  known  to  be 
alive.  Hadrian  would  certainly  have  been  very 
much  amused  to  see  one  of  those  venerable  cente- 
narians, and  his  freedman  Phlegon  would  have  em- 
bellished his  treatise  on  cases  of  longevity  with  the 
fact,  but  it  would  not  have  convinced  him.  He  had 
witnessed  so  many  other  miracles,  and  the  only  con- 
clusion he  drew  from  them  was  that  the  number  of 
incredible  things  in  this  world  is  infinite.  In  his 
teratological  collections,  Phlegon  had  introduced 
several  of  the  miracles  of  Jesus,  and  certainly 
Hadrian  had  conversed  with  him  more  than  once  on 
this  subject. 

Another  apology,  written  by  a  certain  Aristides, 
an  Athenian  philosopher  and  a  convert  to  Chris- 
tianity, was  also  presented  to  Hadrian.  Nothing  is 
known  about  it,  except  that  amongst  the  Christians 
it  was  held  in  as  high  repute  as  the  one  of  which 
Quadratus  was  the  author.  Those  who  had  the 
opportunity  of  reading  it,  admired  its  eloquence,  the 
author's  intellect,  and  the  good  use  he  made  of 
passages  from  heathen  philosophers  to  prove  the 
truth  of  the  doctrines  of  Jesus. 

These  writings,  striking  as  they  were  by  their 
novelty,  could  not  be  without  their  effect  upon  the 
Emperor.  Singular  ideas  with  regard  to  religion 
crossed  his  mind,  and  it  seems  that  more  than  once 
he  showed  Christianity  marks  of  true  respect.  He 
had  a  large  number  of  temples  or  basilicas  built, 
which  bore  no  inscription,  nor  had  they  any  known 
purpose.  Most  of  them  were  unfinished  or  not 
dedicated,  and  they  were  called  liadrianea,  and  these 
empty,  statueless  temples  lead  us  to  believe  that 
Hadrian  had  them  built  so  purposely.     In  the  third 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  23 

ceritiiiy,  after  Alexander  Severus  had  really  wished 
to  build  a  temple  to  Christ,  the  Christians  spread  the 
idea  that  Hadrian  had  determined  to  do  the  same, 
and  that  the  hadrianea  Avere  to  have  served  to  intro- 
duce the  new  religion.  They  said  that  Hadrian  had 
been  stopped  because,  on  consulting  the  sacred 
oracles,  it  was  found  that  if  such  a  temple  were 
built  the  whole  world  would  turn  Christian,  so  that 
all  the  other  temples  would  be  abandoned.  Several 
of  these  hadrianea,  especially  those  of  the  Tiberiad 
and  Alexandria,  became,  in  fact,  churches  in  the 
fourth  century. 

Even  the  follies  of  Hadrian  with  Antinous  pos- 
sessed an  element  of  the  Christian  apology.  Such 
a  monstrosity  seems  the  culminating  point  of  the 
reign  of  the  devil.  That  recent  God,  whom  all  the 
world  knew,  was  made  great  use  of  to  beat  down 
the  other  gods,  who  were  more  ancient  and  so  easy 
to  lay  hold  of.  The  Church  triumphed,  and  later 
the  period  of  Hadrian  was  looked  upon  as  the  lumin- 
ous point  in  a  splendid  epoch  in  which  the  truths 
of  Christianity  shone  without  any  obstacle  in  all 
eyes.  They  owed  some  thanks  to  a  sovereign  whose 
defects  and  good  qualities  had  had  such  favourable 
results.  His  immorality,  his  superstitions,  his  empty 
initiation  into  impure  mysteries  were  not  forgotten  ; 
but  in  spite  of  all,  Hadrian  remained,  at  any  rate  in 
the  opinion  of  part  of  Christianity,  a  serious  man, 
endowed  with  rare  virtues,  who  gave  to  the  world 
the  last  of  its  beautiful  days. 


24  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

CHAP  TEE   IV. 

THE  JOHANNINE    WRITINGS. 

It  would  appear  that  about  this  time  a  mystical  book 
was  heard  of,  of  which  the  faithful  thought  a  great 
deal ;  it  was  a  new  Gospel,  far  superior,  as  was  said, 
to  those  which  were  already  known ;  a  really  spiritual 
Gospel,  as  much  above  St  Mark  and  St  Matthew  as 
mind  is  above  matter.  That  Gospel  was  the  produc- 
tion of  that  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved, — of  St  John,  who, 
having  been  his  most  intimate  friend,  naturally  knew 
much  that  others  were  ignorant  of,  so  as  even  to  be 
able  on  many  points  to  rectify  the  manner  in  which 
they  had  represented  matters.  The  text  in  question 
was  a  great  contrast  to  the  simplicity  of  the  first 
Evangelical  narratives  ;  it  put  forward  much  higher 
pretensions,  and  certainly  it  was  the  intention  of  those 
who  propagated  it  that  it  should  replace  those  humble 
accounts  of  the  life  of  Jesus  with  which  men  had 
been  contented  hitherto.  The  writer,  who  was  still 
spoken  of  in  a  mysterious  manner,  had  leant  upon 
the  Master's  breast,  and  alone  knew  the  divine  secrets 
of  his  heart. 

This  new  work  came  from  Ephesus,  that  is  to  say, 
from  one  of  the  principal  homes  of  the  dogmatic 
elaboration  of  the  Christian  religion.  It  is  quite 
possible  that  John  may  have  passed  his  old  age  and 
finished  his  days  in  that  city.  It  is  at  least  quite 
certain  that  in  the  early  ages  of  Christianity  there 
were  those  at  Ephesus  who  claimed  St  John  as  their 
own,  and  did  all  they  could  for  his  aggrandisement. 
St  Paul  had  his  Churches  which  ardently  cherished  his 
memory,  and  St  Peter  and  St  James  had  also  their 
famihes  by  spiritual  adoption.  The  adherents  of  St 
John,  therefore,  wished  that  he  should  be  in  the  same 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  25 

position  ;  they  desired  to  make  hira  St  Peter's  equal ; 
and  it  was  maintaiued,  to  the  detriment  of  the  latter, 
that  he  had  held  the  first  rank  in  the  Gospel  history, 
and  as  the  existing  accounts  did  not  bear  out  these 
pretensions  suiSciently,  recourse  was  had  to  one  of 
those  pious  frauds  which,  in  those  days,  caused 
nobody  any  scruples.  Thus  it  may  be  explained 
how,  shortly  after  the  apostolic  age,  there  emerged 
obscurely  from  Ephesus  a  class  of  books  which  Avere 
destined  to  obtain  in  later  times  a  higher  rank  than 
all  the  other  inspired  writings  in  the  system  of 
Christian  theology. 

It  can  never  be  admitted  that  St  John  himself 
wrote  these  words,  and  it  is  even  very  doubtful 
whether  they  were  written  with  his  consent  in  his  old 
age,  and  by  any  one  of  his  own  immediate  surround- 
ings. It  seems  most  probable  that  one  of  the 
Apostle's  disciples  who  was  a  depository  of  many  of 
his  reminiscences,  thought  himself  authorised  to  speak 
and  to  write  in  his  name — some  twenty-five  or 
thirty  years  after  his  death — what  he  had  not,  to 
his  followers'  great  regret,  authoritatively  put  down 
during  his  lifetime.  Certainly  Ephesus  had  its  owu 
traditions  about  the  life  of  Jesus,  and,  if  I  may  ven- 
ture to  say  so,  a  life  of  Jesus  for  its  own  particular 
use.  These  traditions  dwelt  especially  in  the  memory 
of  two  persons  who  were  looked  upon,  in  those  parts, 
as  the  two  highest  authorities  with  regard  to  Gospel 
history,  namely,  one  man  who  bore  the  same  name 
as  the  Apostle  John,  and  who  Vv^as  called  Presbnteros 
Johannes,  and  a  certain  Aristion,  who  knew  many  of 
the  Lord's  discourses  by  heart.  At  about  this  time 
Papias  consulted  these  two  men  as  oracles,  and  care- 
fully noted  their  traditions,  which  he  intended  to  in- 
sert into  his  great  work,  The  Discoui^ses  of  the  Lord. 
One  remarkable  feature  in  the  Preshitcvi'S  was  tlie 
opinion  which  he  gave  regarding  St  Clark's  Gospel. 
He  considered  it  altogether  insufficient,  and  written 


26  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

in  complete  ignorance  of  the  exact  order  of  the  events 
of  the  life  of  Jesus.  Preshuteros  Johannes  evidently 
thought  that  he  knew  the  real  facts  much  better,  and, 
if  he  really  wrote  it,  his  tradition  must  altogether 
differ  from  the  plan  of  that  of  Mark. 

We  are  inclined  to  think  that  the  fourth  Gospel 
represents  the  traditions  of  this  Preshuteros  and  of 
Aristion,  which  might  go  back  as  far  as  the  Apostle 
John.  It  seems,  moreover,  that  to  prepare  the  way 
for  this  pious  fraud  a  preliminary  Cathohc  Epistle, 
attributed  to  John,  was  published  preliminarily,  which 
was  intended  to  accustom  the  people  of  Asia  to  the 
style  which  it  was  intended  to  make  them  receive  as 
that  of  the  Apostle.  In  it  the  attack  against  the 
Docetse — who  at  that  time  formed  the  great  danger 
to  Christianity  in  Asia — was  opened.  An  ostentatious 
stress  was  laid  on  the  value  of  the  Apostle's  testimony, 
as  he  had  been  an  eye-witness  of  the  Gospel  facts. 
The  author,  who  is  a  skilful  writer  after  his  own 
fashion,  has  very  likely  imitated  the  style  of  St 
John's  conversation,  and  that  small  work  is  conceived 
in  a  grand  and  lofty  spirit,  in  spite  of  some  Elcesaitic 
peculiarities.  Its  doctrine  is  excellent,  and  it  incul- 
cates mutual  charity,  love  for  mankind,  and  hatred 
for  a  corrupt  world  ;  and  its  touching,  vehement,  and 
penetrating  style  is  absolutely  the  same  as  that  of 
the  Gospel;  and  its  faults — its  prolixity,  and  dryness — 
the  results  of  interminable  discourses  full  of  abstruse 
metaphysics  and  personal  allegations,  are  far  less 
striking  in  the  Epistle. 

The  style  of  the  pseudo-Johannic  writings  is 
something  quite  by  itself,  no  model  for  which 
existed  before  the  Preshuteros.  It  has  been  too 
much  admired;  for  whilst  it  is  ardent  and  occa- 
sionally even  sublime,  it  is  somewhat  inflated, 
false,  and  obscure,  and  it  altogether  lacks  simplicity. 
The  author  relates  nothing,  he  merely  demonstrates 
dogmatically,  and  his  long  account  of  miracles,  and 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  27 

of  those  discussions  which  turn  on  misapprehen- 
sions, and  in  which  the  opponents  of  Jesus  are 
made  to  play  the  parts  of  idiots,  are  most  fatigu- 
ing. How^  preferable  to  all  this  verbiose  pathos  is 
the  charming  style,  altogether  Hebrew  as  it  is,  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  that  cleaniess  of 
narrative  which  constitutes  the  charm  of  the  first 
Evangelists.  No  need  for  them  to  repeat  continu- 
ally that  they  that  saw  it  hear  record,  and  that  their 
record  is  true;  for  their  sincerity,  unconscious  of 
any  possible  objection,  has  not  that  feverish  thirst 
for  those  repeated  attestations  which  go  to  prove 
that  incredulity  and  doubt  have  already  sprung  up. 
One  might  almost  say,  from  the  slightly  exalted 
style  of  this  new  narrator,  that  he  feared  that  he 
might  not  be  believed,  and  that  he  sought  to  dupe 
the  religious  belief  of  his  readers  by  his  own  em- 
phatic assertions. 

Whilst  insisting  strongly  on  his  qualities  as  an 
eye-witness,  and  on  the  value  of  his  own  testimony, 
the  author  of  the  fourth  Gospel  never  once  says 
I,  Jb/m,  for  his  name  does  not  appear  in  the  wliole 
course  of  the  work,  but  only  figures  as  its  title; 
but  there  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  John  is  the 
disciple  intended  or  designated  in  a  hidden  manner 
in  different  passages  of  the  book,  nor  is  there  any 
doubt  that  the  forger  intended  to  cause  it  to  be 
beheved  that  that  mysterious  personage  was  the 
author  of  the  book.  It  was  merely  one  of  those 
small  literary  artifices  such  as  Plato  is  so  fond  of 
affecting,  and  the  result  is  that  the  recital  is  often 
very  elaborate,  and  contains  investigations,  observa- 
tions, and  literary  pranks  which  are  totally  un- 
worthy of  an  Apostle.  Thus  John  mentions  him- 
self without  mentioning  his  own  name,  and  praises 
himself  without  doing  it  openly,  and  he  does  not 
debar  himself  from  that  literary  method  wliich 
consists   in    showing,    in   a    very    carefully-managed 


28  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

semi-light,  those  secrets  which  one  keeps  to  oneself 
without  revealing  them  to  every  chance  comer. 
How  pleasant  it  is  to  be  guessed  at,  and  to  allow 
others  to  draw  conclusions  favourable  to  oneself,  to 
which  oneself  only  gives  a  half  expression. 

The  two  objects  which  the  author  had  in  view 
were  to  prove  the  divinity  of  Jesus  to  those  who  did 
not  believe  in  Him,  but,  even  more  than  that,  to  make 
a  new^  system  of  Christianity  prevail.  As  miracles 
Avere  the  proofs,  above  all  others,  of  His  divine 
mission,  he  improves  on  the  accounts  of  the  wonders 
that  disfigure  the  earlier  Gospels.  It  seems  on  the 
other  hand  that  Cerinthus  was  one  of  the  manu- 
facturers of  these  strange  books.  He  had  become 
almost  Hke  John's  spectre,  and  the  versatility  of 
his  mind  now  attracted  him  to,  and  then  repelled 
him  from,  those  ideas  which  were  agitating  religious 
circles  at  Ephesus,  so  that  at  the  same  time  he  was 
regarded  as  the  adversary  whom  the  Johannine 
writings  were  striving  to  combat,  and  as  the  veritable 
author  of  those  writings  ;  and  the  obscurity  that 
reigns  over  the  Johannine  question  is  so  dense  that 
it  cannot  be  said  that  it  must  be  wrong  to  attribute 
the  authorship  to  him.  If  it  be  a  fact,  it  would 
correspond  very  well  to  what  we  know  of  Cerinthus, 
who  was  in  the  habit  of  covering  his  thoughts  under 
the  cloak  of  an  apostolic  name,  and  it  Avould  explain 
the  mystery  as  to  what  became  of  that  book  for 
nearly  fifty  years,  and  the  vehement  opposition 
which  it  encountered.  The  ardour  with  which 
Epphianius  combats  this  opinion  would  lead  us  to 
believe  that  it  is  not  without  foundation,  for  in  those 
dark  days  everything  was  possible ;  and  if  the 
Church,  when  it  venerates  the  fourth  Gospel  as  the 
work  of  St  John,  is  the  dupe  of  him  whom  she  looks 
upon  as  one  of  her  most  dangerous  enemies,  it  is  not, 
after  all,  any  stranger  than  so  many  other  errors  which 
make  up  the  web  of  the  religions  history  of  humanity. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  29 

It  is  quite  cei'tain,  however,  that  the  author  is  at 
the  same  time  the  father  and  the  adversary  of 
Gnosticism,  the  enemy  of  those  who  allowed  the 
real  human  nature  of  Jesus  to  evaporate  in  a  cloudy 
Uocetism,  and  the  accomplice  of  those  who  would 
make  him  a  mere  divine  abstraction.  Dogmatic 
minds  are  never  more  severe  than  they  are  towards 
those  from  whom  they  are  divided  by  a  mere  shade 
of  difference.  That  Anti-Christ  whom  the  pseudo- 
John  represents  as  already  in  existence,  that  monster 
who  is  the  very  negation  of  Jesus,  and  whom  he 
cannot  distinguish  from  the  errors  of  Docetism,  is 
almost  he  himself  How  often  in  cursing  others, 
does  one  curse  oneself!  and  thus  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Church,  the  personality  of  Jesus  became  the  object 
of  fierce  strife.  On  the  one  hand  there  was  no 
checking  the  torrent  which  carried  away  every  one 
to  the  most  exaggerated  ideas  as  to  the  divinity  of 
the  founder  of  Christianity,  and  on  the  other  hand 
it  was  of  the  highest  importance  to  uphold  the  true 
character  of  Jesus,  and  to  oppose  the  tendency  which 
so  many  Christians  had  towards  that  sickly  idealism 
which  was  soon  to  end  in  Gnosticism.  Many  spoke 
of  the  Eon  Christos  as  of  a  being  that  was  quite 
distinct  from  the  man  called  Jesus,  to  whom  it  was 
united  for  a  time,  and  whom  it  abandoned  at  the 
moment  of  the  crucifixion.  Gerinthus  had  main- 
tained this,  and  so  did  Basilides,  and  to  such  heresy 
a  tangible  Word  must  be  opposed,  and  this  was  just 
what  the  new  Gospel  did.  The  Jesus  whom  it 
preaches  is  in  some  respects  more  historical  than  the 
Jesus  of  the  other  evangelists,  and  yet  he  is  only  a 
metaphysical  first  principle,  a  pure  conception  of  tran- 
scendental theosophy.  This  may  shock  our  tastes,  but 
theology  has  not  the  same  requirements  as  esthetics, 
and  the  conscience  of  Christianity,  after  trying  in  vain 
for  a  hundred  years  to  settle  what  right  conception  it 
should  make  to  itself  of  Jesus,  at  last  found  rest. 


.^0  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

In  the  baginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with 
God,  and  the  Word  was  God. 

The  same  was  in  the  beginning  with  God. 

All  things  were  made  by  him  ;  and  without  him  was  not 
anything  made  that  was  made. 

Jn  him  was  life  ;  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men. 

And  the  light  shineth  in  darkness  ;  and  the  darkness  compre- 
hended it  not. 

There  was  a  man  sent  from  God,  whose  name  was  John. 

The  same  came  for  a  witness,  to  bear  witness  of  the  Light, 
that  all  men  through  him  might  believe. 

He  was  not  that  Light,  but  was  sent  to  bear  witness  of  that 
Light. 

That  was  the  true  Light,  which  lighteth  every  man  that 
Cometh  into  the  world. 

He  was  in  the  world,  and  the  world  was  made  by  him,  and 
the  world  knew  him  not. 

He  came  unto  his  own,  and  his  own  received  him  not. 

But  as  many  as  received  him,  to  them  gave  he  power  to  be- 
come the  sons  of  God,  even  to  them  that  believe  on  his  name  : 

Which  were  born,  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh, 
nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God. 

And  the  W^ord  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us  (and 
we  beheld  his  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  of  the 
Father),  full  of  grace  and  truth, — St  John,  L  1-14. 

What  follows  is  not  less  surprising.  We  have  be- 
fore us  a  life  of  Jesus  which  is  very  different  to  that 
which  the  writings  of  Mark,  Luke,  or  the  pseudo- 
Matthew  have  put  before  us.  It  is  evident  that  those 
three  Gospels,  and  others  of  the  same  sort,  were  but 
little  known  in  Asia,  or  at  any  rate  had  very  little 
authority  there.  During  his  lifetime,  John  no  doubt, 
was  in  the  habit  of  relating  the  life  of  Jesus  on  a 
totally  different  plan  to  that  slight  Galilean  outline 
Avhich  the  traditionists  of  Batanea  had  created,  and 
which  served  as  a  model  after  them.  He  knew  that 
Jerusalem  had  been  one  of  the  chief  centres  for 
Jesus'  activity,  and  he  drew  persons  and  details 
which  the  first  narrators  were  unacquainted  with, 
or  had  neglected.  As  to  Jesus'  discourses  as  given 
in  the  Galilean  tradition,  the  Church  at  Ephesus,  sup- 
posing that  they  were  known  there,  allowed  them  to 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHUKCH.  3l 

fall  into  obliviou.  According  to  the  spirit  of  the  age, 
there  was  no  more  difficulty  in  putting  discourses 
into  Jesus'  mouth  which  were  intended  to  found 
such  and  such  doctrines,  than  the  authors  of  the 
Thora  and  the  prophets  of  old  found  in  making  God 
speak  according  to  their  own  prejudices. 

Thus  the  fourth  Gospel  came  to  be  produced,  and 
though  it  is  of  no  value  if  we  wish  to  know  how 
Jesus  spoke,  it  is  superior  to  the  synoptic  Gospels 
in  the  order  of  facts.  The  various  visits  of  Jesus  to 
Jerusalem,  the  institution  of  the  eucharist,  his 
anticipated  agony,  a  number  of  circumstances  re- 
lating to  the  Passion,  the  Resurrection  and  his  life 
after  he  had  risen  ;  certain  minute  details,  e.  g.,  con- 
cerning Cana,  the  apostle  Philip,  the  brothers  of  Jesus, 
the  mention  of  Cleopas  as  a  member  of  his  family, 
are  so  many  features,  which  assure  to  the  pseudo- 
John  an  historical  superiority  over  Mark  and  pseudo- 
Matthew.  Many  of  these  details  might  be  drawn 
from  John's  own  accounts  of  events  ^vhich  had  been 
preserved,  whilst  others  sprang  from  traditions  which 
neither  Mark  nor  he  who  amplified  his  narrative 
under  the  name  of  Matthew,  knew  anything  about. 
In  several  cases  in  fact,  where  pseudo-John  deviates 
from  the  arrangement  of  the  synoptic  narrative,  he 
presents  singular  features  of  agreement  with  Luke, 
and  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews,  More- 
over, several  features  of  the  fourth  Gospel  are  to  be 
found  in  Justin,  and  in  the  pseudo-Clementine 
romance,  although  neither  Justin  nor  the  author  of 
the  romance  knew  the  fourth  Gospel.  It  is  clear, 
therefore,  that,  besides  the  synoptists,  there  existed 
a  collection  of  traditions,  and  of  ready-made  expres- 
sions, which  were,  so  to  speak,  scattered  about  in 
the  atmosphere,  which  the  fourth  Gospel  partially 
represents  to  us;  and  to  treat  this  Gospel  as  an 
artificial  composition  with  no  traditional  basis  is 
to  mistake  its  character  just  as  seriously  as  when  it 


32  THb:  CHRISTIAN  CHUROIl. 

is  looked  upon  as  a  document  at  first  Iiand,  and 
original  from  beginning  to  end. 

The  discourses  which  are  put  into  the  mouth 
of  Jesus  in  the  fourth  Gospel  are  certainly  artificial, 
and  without  any  traditional  basis,  and  criticism 
ought  to  put  them  on  the  same  footing  as  the 
discourses  with  which  Plato  honours  Socrates.  There 
are  two  striking  omissions  in  it  ;  it  does  not  contain 
a  single  parable,  nor  a  single  apocalyptic  discourse 
about  the  end  of  the  world,  and  the  appearance  of 
the  Messiah  ;  and  one  feels  that  the  hopes  of  an 
approaching  manifestation  in  the  clouds  had  partly 
lost  their  force.  According  to  the  fourth  Gospel, 
Jesus'  real  return  after  he  had  left  the  world,  would 
be  the  sending  of  the  Paraclete,  his  other  self,  who 
would  comfort  his  disciples  for  his  departure.  The 
author  takes  refuge  in  metaphysics,  because  material 
hopes,  already  at  times  appear  to  him  mere  chimeras, 
and  the  same  thing  seems  to  have  happened  to 
St  Paul.  The  taste  for  abstraction  was  the  reason 
why  then  little  weight  was  attached  to  what  is 
regarded  as  the  most  really  divine  in  Jesus.  Instead 
of  that  refined  feeling  of  the  poetry  of  the  earth 
which  fills  the  Galilean  Gospels,  we  find  here  nothing 
but  a  dry  system  of  metaphysics  and  dialectics, 
which  turn  on  the  ambiguity  between  the  literal  and 
the  figurative  sense.  In  the  fourth  Gospel,  indeed, 
Jesus  speaks  for  himself,  for  he  makes  use  of  lan- 
guage which  no  one  could  be  expected  to  understand, 
as  he  uses  words  in  a  different  sense  to  their  general 
acceptation,  and  then  is  angry  because  he  is  not 
understood.  This  false  situation  produces  an  impres- 
sion of  fatigue  in  the  end,  and  at  last  one  thinks  that 
the  Jews  were  excusable  for  not  comprehending 
those  new  mysteries  which  were  presented  to  them 
in  such  an  obscure  fashion. 

These  defects  are  the  consequence  of  the  exagger- 
ated attitude  which  the  author  has  given  to  Jesus, 


THE  CHEISTIAN  CHURCH.  33 

for  it  is  one  which  naturally  excludes  anything 
natural.  He  declares  Himself  to  be  the  Truth  and  the 
Life,  and  that  he  is  God,  and  that  no  one  can  come 
to  the  Father  but  by  him.  Such  weighty  and  solemn 
assertions  could  not  be  made  without  an  air  of  shock- 
ing presumption.  In  the  synoptic  Gospels,  he  does 
not  assert  that  he  is  God,  but  reveals  himself  by  the 
charm  of  his  impersonal  discourses,  whereas,  in  this 
one,  the  Deity  argues  in  order  that  he  may  prove 
its  Divinity.  It  is  as  if  the  rose  were  to  dispute  in 
order  to  prove  that  it  is  fragrant.  The  author,  in 
such  a  case,  cares  so  little  for  probabilities  that  at 
times  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  where  the  discourses 
of  Jesus  finish  and  the  dissertations  of  the  narrator 
begin.  At  other  times  he  reports  conversations  at 
which  nobody  could  have  been  present,  and  one  feels 
that  his  true  object  is  not  to  relate  words  which  were 
really  spoken,  but  that  above  all  he  wishes  to  impress 
the  mark  of  authority  on  some  cherished  ideas  of  his 
own,  by  putting  them  into  the  mouth  of  the  Divine 
Master. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  A  SYSTEM  OF  CHRISTIAN 
PHILOSOPHY. 

That  religious  philosophy  which  serves  as  the  basis 
for  all  those  exemplications  which  were  so  foreign 
to  the  mind  of  Jesus,  is  by  no  means  original.  Philo 
had  expounded  its  essential  principles  more  harmoni- 
ously and  logically.  Both  Philo  and  the  author  of 
the  fourth  Gospel  attach  very  little  importance  to 
the  fulfilment  of  the  words  of  the  Messiah  or  to  apoca- 
lyptic belief.     All  the  imagination  of  popular  Judaism 

0 


34  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

is  replaced  by  metaphysics  in  the  structure  of  which 
Egyptian  theology  and  Greek  philosophy  had  their 
full  share.  The  idea  of  Incarnate  Reason,  i.e.,  of 
Divine  Reason  assuming  a  finite  shape,  is  quite 
Egyptian.  From  the  earliest  ages  down  to  the 
Hermes  Trismegistos  books,  Egypt  proclaimed  a 
God,  living  alone  in  substance,  but  eternally  be- 
getting his  own  likeness,  one,  and  yet  twofold 
at  the  same  time.  The  Sun  is  that  firstborn,  pro- 
ceeding eternally  from  the  Father,  that  Word  who 
made  everything  that  exists,  and  without  whom 
nothing  has  been  made.  On  the  other  hand,  it  had 
for  a  loDg  time  been  the  tendency  of  Judaism,  in 
order  to  escape  from  its  somewhat  dry  system  of 
theology,  to  create  a  variety  of  the  Deity  by 
personifying  abstract  attributes,  such  as  Wisdom, 
the  Divine  Word,  Majesty,  the  Presence.  Already 
in  the  ancient  books  of  wisdom,  in  the  Proverbs 
and  in  Job,  Wisdom  personified  plays  the  part  of 
an  assessor  to  the  Divinity.  Metaphysics  and 
Theology,  so  severely  restrained  by  the  Mosaic 
law,  took  their  revenge,  and  would  soon  invade 
everything. 

The  expression  dahar,  in  Chaldean,  memara^  i.e.,  *'  the 
Word,"  become  especially  fruitful.  Ancient  texts 
made  God  speak  on  all  solemn  occasions,  which 
justified  such  phrases  as :  "  God  does  everything 
by  His  word  ;  God  created  everything  by  His  word." 
Thus  people  were  led  to  regard  "  the  Word  "  as  a 
divine  minister,  as  an  intermediary  by  whom  God 
works  on  the  outer  world.  By  degrees  this  inter- 
mediary was  substituted  for  God  in  visible  mani- 
festations in  apparitions,  in  all  relations  of  the  Deity 
.with  man.  That  mode  of  expression  had  much 
greater  consequences  amongst  the  Egyptian  Jews 
who  spoke  Greek.  The  word  Logos,  corresponding 
to  the  Hebrew  dahar^  and  the  Chaldean  memara, 
and  having  the  twofold  meaning  of  The  Word^  and 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  35 

also  of  Reason,  enabled  them  to  enter  into  a  whole 
world  of  ideas  in  which  they  reunited,  on  the  one 
hand,^  the  symbols  of  Egyptian  theology  which  are 
mentioned  above,  and  on  the  other,  certain  Platonic 
speculations.  The  Alexandrine  Book  of  Wisdom, 
which  is  attributed  to  Solomon,  already  dehghts  in 
those  theories.  There  the  Logos  appears  as  the 
metationos,  the  assessor  of  the  Deity,  and  it  soon 
became  usual  to  attribute  to  the  Logos  all  that 
ancient  Jewish  philosophy,  said  of  the  Divine  Wisdom. 
The  Breath  of  God  (rouah),  which  is  mentioned  at  the 
beginning  of  Genesis  as  life  giving,  becomes  a  sort  of 
Demiurge  by  the  side  of  dahar. 

Philo  combined  such  forms  of  expression  with  his 
notions  of  Greek  philosophy.  His  Logos  is  the 
Divine  in  the  universe — it  is  an  exteriorised  God  ; 
it  is  the  legislator,  the  revealer,  the  organ  of  God 
as  regards  spiritual  man.  It  is  the  Spirit  of  God, — 
the  wisdom  of  Holy  Scripture.  Philo  has  no  idea 
of  the  Messiah,  and  establishes  no  connection  be- 
tween his  Jjogos  and  the  divine  being  which  was 
dreamt  of  by  his  compatriots  in  Palestine.  He  never 
departs  from  the  abstract,  and  for  him  the  Logos 
is  the  place  of  spirits  just  as  space  is  the  place  of 
bodies ;  and  he  goes  so  far  as  to  call  it  "  a  second 
God,"  or  "the  man  of  God  ;"  that  is  to  say,  God, 
considered  as  anthropomorphous.  The  end  of  man 
is  to  know  the  Logos,  to  contemplate  reason ;  that 
is  to  say,  God  and  the  universe.  By  that  know- 
ledge man  finds  life,  the  true  manna  that  nourishes. 

Although  such  ideas  were,  by  their  origin,  as 
far  as  possible,  removed  from  Messianic  ideas,  one 
can  see  that  a  sort  of  effusion  might  be  brought 
about  between  them.  The  possibihty  of  a  full  incar- 
nation of  the  Logos  is  quite  in  accordance  with 
Philo's  ideas.  It  was  a  generally  received  opinion,  that 
in  all  the  various  divine  manifestations  in  which 
God   wished   to    make  Himself  visible,  it  was   the 


.36  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Logos  who  assumed  the  human  form.  These  ideas 
were  favoured  by  numerous  passages  in  the  most 
ancient  historical  books,  where  "  the  Angel  of 
Jehovah,"  Maleak  Jelwvah,  indicates  the  divine  ap- 
pearance which  shows  itself  to  men,  when  God, 
who  is  ordinarily  hidden,  reveals  Himself  to  their 
eyes.  This  Maleah  Jehovah  frequently  does  not 
differ  at  all  from  Jehovah  himself,  and  it  is  a  habit 
with  translators  of  a  certain  period  to  substitute 
that  word  for  Jehovah,  whenever  God  is  supposed 
to  have  appeared  on  earth,  and  thus  the  Logos  came 
to  play  the  part  of  an  anthropomorphous  God.  It 
was  therefore  natural  that  the  appearance  of  the 
Messiah  should  be  attributed  to  the  L^ogos,  and  that 
Messiah  should  be  considered  as  the  incarnate 
Logos. 

Certainly  the  author  of  the  book  of  Daniel  had  no 
idea  that  his  Son  of  Man  had  anything  in  common 
with  the  Divine  Wisdom,  whom,  in  his  time,  some 
Jewish  thinkers  were  already  elevating  into  a  person- 
ality ;  but  with  the  Christians  the  two  ideas  were 
very  easily  reconciled.  Already,  in  the  Apocalypse 
the  triumphant  Messiah  is  called  "  the  Word  ot 
God,"  and  in  St  Paul's  later  Epistles,  Jesus  is 
separated  almost  altogether  from  his  human  nature. 
In  the  fourth  Gospel,  the  identification  of  Christ 
and  the  Word  is  an  accomplished  fact,  and  the 
national  avenger  of  the  Jews  has  totally  disappeared 
under  a  metaphysical  conception  ;  henceforth,  Jesus 
is  the  Son  of  God,  not  by  virtue  of  a  simple  Hebrew 
metaphor,  but  in  a  strictly  theological  sense.  The 
very  slight  reputation  in  which  the  writings  of  Philo 
were  held  in  Palestine,  and  amongst  the  popular 
classes  of  Jews,  must  be  the  only  explanation  why 
Christianity  did  not  bring  about  such  a  necessary 
evolution  till  such  a  late  period,  but  this  evolution 
took  effect  in  several  directions  simultaneously, 
for  St  Justin   has  a  theory  which    is  very   similar 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  37 

to  that  of  pseudo-John,  and  yet  he  did  not  take  it 
from  the  gospel  that  bears  his  name. 

Side  by  side  with  the  theory  of  the  Logos  and 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  developed  that  of  the  Para- 
clete, who  was  not  kept  very  distinct  from  the 
former.  In  Philo's  philosophy,  Paraclete  was  an 
epithet  of,  or  an  equivalent  for,  Logos.  For  Chris- 
tians he  became  a  sort  of  substitute  for  Jesus, 
proceeding  from  the  Father  as  he  did,  and  who 
was  to  console  the  disciples  for  the  absence  of 
their  Master  when  he  should  have  left  them.  That 
Spirit  of  Truth,  which  the  world  does  not  know, 
is  to  inspire  the  Church  throughout  all  time.  Such 
a  manner  of  raising  abstract  ideas  into  personalities 
was  quite  in  keeping  with  the  fashion  of  the  time. 
Allius  Aristides,  who  was  a  contemporary  and  a 
compatriot  of  the  author  of  the  fourth  Gospel, 
expresses  himself  in  his  sermon  on  Athene,  in  a 
manner  which  is  hardly  distinguishable  from  that 
of  the  Christians  : — 

She  dwells  in  her  father,  closely  united  to  his  essence  ;  she 
breathes  in  him,  and  is  his  companion  and  counsellor.  She  sits 
at  his  right  hand  and  is  the  supreme  minister  of  his  orders,  and 
their  wills  are  so  conjoined  that  to  her  may  be  attributed  all  h&r 
father's  acts. 

It  is  well  known  that   Isis   played   the  same  part 
with  regard  to  Ammon. 

The  profound  revolution  which  each  idea  must 
introduce  into  the  manner  of  looking  at  the  life  of 
Jesus  is  self-evident.  For  the  future  he  was  to  have 
no  more  human  qualities,  and  would  know  neither 
temptation  nor  weakness.  In  him  everything  existed 
before  it  happened  ;  everything  was  settled  a  priori, 
nothing  happened  naturally  ;  He  knew  his  life  in 
advance,  and  did  not  pray  to  God  to  save  him  from 
that  fatal  hour.  One  fails  to  see  why  he  lived  this 
life  which  was  forced  upon  him,  gone  through 
merely   as   a  part,   without  any  sincerity  about  it. 


38  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

But,  however  revolting  such  a  change  may  be  to 
our  feelings,  it  was  necessary.  The  Christian  con- 
science desired  more  and  more  that  everything  in 
the  life  of  their  founder  should  be  supernatural. 
Marcion,  without  knowing  the  writings  of  pseudo- 
John,  did  exactly  the  same  thing  as  he  did,  for  he 
manipulated  St  Luke's  Gospel  till  he  had  got  rid 
of  every  trace  of  Judaism  or  reality  from  it. 
Gnosticism  was  to  go  even  further,  for  that  school 
Jesus  was  to  become  a  mere  entity,  an  seon,  an 
eternal  intelligence  that  had  never  lived.  Valentine 
and  Basilides  really  only  go  a  step  further  along 
the  road  on  which  the  author  of  the  fourth  Gospel 
had  gone.  They  all  use  the  same  specific  terms : 
Father  (in  the  metaphysical  sense).  Word,  Arche, 
Life,  Truth,  Grace,  Paraclete,  Fulness,  Only  Son. 
The  origins  of  Gnosticism  and  that  of  the  fourth 
Gospel  meet  in  the  far  distance;  they  both  start 
from  the  same  point  in  the  horizon  without  our 
being  able,  on  account  of  the  distance,  to  point  out 
more  precisely  the  circumstances  which  attended 
their  common  appearance,  for  in  such  a  thick  atmo- 
sphere the  visual  rays  of  criticism  are  apt  to  become 
confused. 

Naturally,  the  conditions  under  which  a  book 
became  known,  were  so  different  then  to  what  they 
are  now,  that  we  must  not  be  surprised  at  singular- 
ities which  would  be  inexplicable  in  these  days. 
Nothing  is  more  deceiving  than  to  imagine  to  our- 
selves writings  of  that  date,  as  a  printed  book, 
offered  to  everybody's  reading,  with  newspapers  to 
review  the  new  work,  favourably  or  otherwise.  All 
the  Gospels  were  written  for  restricted  circles  of 
readers,  and  no  edition  aspired  to  being  the  last  and 
final  one.  It  was  a  species  of  literature  which  could 
be  practised  at  will,  like  the  legends  of  Hasan  and 
Hossein  amongst  the  modern  Persians.  The  fourth 
Gospel  was  a  composition  of  the  same  order.     In  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  39 

first  instance  the  author  may  have  written  it  for 
himself  and  a  few  friends  as  his  conception  of  the 
life  of  Jesus.  There  is  no  doubt  that  he  communi- 
cated his  work  with  great  reserve  to  those  who  knew 
that  such  a  work  could  not  have  originated  with  John, 
and  up  till  the  end  of  the  second  century  the  work 
encountered  nothing  but  indifference  and  opposition. 
During  that  time  the  Gospels  which  are  called 
synoptic  give  the  outlines  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  and  the 
tone  of  the  discourses  attributed  to  him  is  that  of 
Matthew  and  Luke.  Towards  the  end  of  the  second 
century,  however,  the  idea  of  a  fourth  Gospel  was 
accepted,  and  pious  legends  and  mystic  reasons  were 
discovered  to  support  this  tetrad. 

To  sum  up,  it  seems  most  probable  that,  several 
years  after  the  Apostle  John's  death,  somebody  or 
other  determined  to  write  in  his  name,  and  to  his 
honour  a  gospel  that  should  represent,  or  should  be 
supposed  to  represent,  his  traditions.  The  definite 
success  of  the  book  was  just  as  brilhant  as  its  begin- 
ning had  been  obscure.  This  fourth  Gospel,  the  last 
to  appear,  which  had  been  manipulated  in  so  many 
respects,  where  Philonian  tirades  were  substituted 
for  the  actual  discourses  of  Jesus,  took  more  than 
half  a  century  to  assume  its  place,  but  then  it 
triumphed  all  along  the  line.  It  was  very  con- 
venient for  the  theological  and  apologetic  require- 
ments of  the  time,  to  have  a  sort  of  metaphysical 
drama  which  could  escape  from  the  objections  which 
a  Celsus  was  already  preparing,  instead  of  a  small, 
very  human  history  of  a  Jewish  prophet  in  Galilee. 
The  Divine  Word  in  the  bosom  of  God  ;  the  Word 
creating  all  things ;  the  Word  made  flesh,  dwelling 
amongst  men,  so  that  certain  privileged  mortals  had 
the  happiness  of  seeing  and  even  touching  him! 
Having  regard  to  the  especial  turn  of  the  Greek  in- 
tellect, which  seized  upon  Christianity  at  a  very 
early  date,  this   seemed  most   sublime,  and  a  whole 


40  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

system  of  theology  after  the  manner  of  Plotinns 
might  be  extracted  from  it.  The  freshness  of  the 
Galilean  idyl,  illuminated  by  the  sun  of  the  kingdom 
of  God,  was  but  little  to  the  taste  of  true  Greeks. 
They  naturally  preferred  a  gospel  in  which  they 
were  transported  to  abstract  dreams,  and  from  which 
the  belief  in  the  approaching  end  of  the  world  was 
banished.  In  the  present  instance,  there  was  no 
mention  of  a  material  appearance  in  the  clouds,  no 
more  parables,  no  persons  possessed  of  devils, 
nothing  about  the  kingdom  of  God  or  of  the  Jewish 
Messiah,  no  millennium,  not  even  any  more  Judaism. 
It  was  forgotten  and  condemned  ;  the  Jews  are  held 
up  to  reprobation  as  enemies  of  the  truth,  for  they 
would  not  receive  the  Word  which  came  amongst 
them.  The  author  will  know  nothing  of  them, 
except  that  they  killed  Jesus  ;  just  as  amongst  the 
modern  Persian  Shiies,  the  name  of  Arab  is  synony- 
mous with  an  impious  man  and  a  miscreant,  as  Arabs 
slew  the  holiest  amongst  the  founders  of  Islam. 

The  literary  faults  of  the  fourth  Gospel  thus 
make  up  its  general  character.  It  frees  Christianity 
from  a  number  of  its  original  chains,  and  gives  it 
free  scope  for  that  which  is  essential  for  any  inno- 
vation, i.e.,  ingratitude  towards  what  has  preceded 
it.  The  author  seriously  believes  that  no  prophet 
ever  came  out  of  Galilee.  Christian  metaphysics 
already  sketched  out  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians, 
and  in  that  which  is  called  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephe- 
sians,  are  fully  developed  in  the  fourth  Gospel.  It 
would  be  dear  to  all  those  who,  humihated  at  the 
fact  that  Jesus  was  a  Jew,  would  neither  hear  of 
Judeo-Christianity,  nor  of  the  millennium,  and  who 
would  have  liked  to  have  burnt  the  Apocalypse. 
Thus  the  fourth  Gospel  takes  its  stand,  in  the  great 
work  of  separating  Judaism  from  Christianity,  far 
above  St  Paul.  He  wished  that  Jesus  had  abrogated 
the  Law,  but  he  never  denies  that  he  lived  under  the 


THE  GHtllSTIAN  CHURCH.  41 

Law.  His  disciple  St  Luke,  by  a  certain  devout  im- 
provement, presents  Jesus  to  our  view  as  fulfilling  all 
the  precepts  of  the  Law.  St  Paul  thought  that  the 
prerogatives  of  the  Jews  were  still  very  great  ; 
whilst,  on  the  other  hand,  the  fourth  Gospel  shows 
a  great  antipathy  to  the  Jews,  both  as  a  nation  and 
as  a  religious  society.  Jesus,  speaking  to  them, 
says :  *'  Your  law,"  and  there  is  no  question  now  of 
justification  by  faith  or  by  works,  for  the  problem 
has  gone  far  beyond  the  bounds  of  those  simple 
terms.  The  knowledge  of  the  truth  and  science 
have  now  become  essential,  and  men  are  to  be  saved 
by  their  gnosis^  their  initiation  into  certain  secret 
mysteries,  so  that  Christianity  has  become  a  sort  of 
hidden  philosophy  which  certainly  neither  Paul  nor 
Peter  ever  dreamt  of. 

The  future  belonged  altogether  to  transcendental 
idealism.  This  Gospel,  attributed  to  the  well-beloved 
disciple,  which,  transports  us  at  first  into  the  pure 
atmosphere  of  the  Spirit  and  of  Love,  which  sub- 
stitutes the  love  of  truth  for  everything  else,  and 
proclaims  the  sway  of  Mount  Gerizim  and  of  Jeru- 
salem equally  at  an  end,  was  bound  in  time  to 
become  the  fundamental  Gospel  of  Christianity. 
No  doubt  it  will  be  said  that  this  was  a  great  histori- 
cal and  literary  error;  but  it  was  also  a  theological 
and  political  necessity  of  the  first  order.  The  idealist 
is  always  the  worst  revolutionary,  and  a  definite 
rupture  with  Judaism  was  the  indispensable  con- 
dition of  the  foundation  of  a  new  religious  system. 
The  only  chance  of  success  that  Christianity  had 
was,  that  it  should  be  a  perfectly  pure  form  of 
worship,  independent  of  any  material  creed.  "  God 
is  a  spirit,  and  they  that  worship  Him  must  worship 
Him  in  spirit  and  in  truth."  If  Jesus  is  understood 
in  such  a  manner,  he  is  no  longer  a  prophet,  and 
Christianity  under  that  aspect  is  no  longer  a  sect  of 
Judaism  ;  it   becomes  the  Religion   of  Reason,  and 


42  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

thus  it  came  about  that  the  fourth  Gospel  imparted 
consistency  and  stabihty  to  the  ApostoHc  work. 
Whoever  its  author  was,  he  was  the  cleverest  of  all 
the  apologists.  He  was  successful  in  bringing 
Christianity  out  of  its  old  beaten  tracks  that  had  got 
too  narrow  for  it ;  which  all  the  Christian  orators  of 
our  time  have  attempted  in  vain.  He  betrayed  Jesus 
in  order  to  save  him,  just  as  those  preachers  do  who 
put  on  a  pretence  of  liberalism,  and  even  of  socialism, 
to  win  over  those  who  may  possibly  be  seduced  by 
those  words  through  a  pious  fraud.  The  author  of 
the  fourth  Gospel  has  withdrawn  Jesus  from  the 
Jewish  reality  in  which  he  was  lost,  and  has  launched 
him  boldly  into  metaphysics.  That  purely  spiritual 
philosophical  manner  of  understanding  Christianity, 
to  the  detriment  of  facts,  and  to  the  profit  of  the 
mind,  found  in  this  singular  book  an  example  to 
encourage,  and  authority  to  justify  it. 

Only  those  who  are  not  well  acquainted  with 
religious  history  will  be  surprised  to  see  such  a  part 
filled  by  an  anonymous  writer  in  the  history  of 
Christianity.  The  editors  of  the  Thora,  most  of  the 
Psalmists,  the  author  of  the  book  of  Daniel,  the  first 
editor  of  the  Hebrew  Gospel,  the  author  of  the 
Epistles  to  Timothy  and  Titus,  which  are  attributed 
to  St  Paul,  gave  works  of  the  greatest  importance  to 
the  world,  and  yet  they  are  anonymous.  If  it  is 
admitted  that  the  Gospel  and  the  Epistle  which  is  so 
closely  connected  with  it  are  the  work  of  Presbuteros 
Johannes,  it  might  be  thought  that  it  would  be  all 
the  less  difficult  to  accept  those  writings  as  the 
works  of  St  John,  since  the  forger's  name  was  John, 
and  he  appears  oiften  to  have  been  confounded  with 
the  apostle.  He  was  merely  called  Presbuteros,  and 
after  the  falsely  so-called  Epistle  of  John,  there  are 
two  short  letters  by  some  one  who  seems  to  call  him- 
self "  The  Elder."  The  style,  the  thoughts,  and  the 
doctrine  are  very  nearly  the  same  as  in  the   Gospel 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  43 

and  Epistle  said  to  be  written  by  St  John.  We 
believe  that  Preshuteros  was  also  the  author  of  them  ; 
but  this  time  he  did  not  wish  to  pass  off  his  sHght 
works  as  those  of  John  ;  and,  like  the  letters  to 
Timothy  and  Titus,  they  ought  rather  to  be  called 
specimens  of  the  pastoral  style  than  Epistles. 
Thus,  in  the  first,  the  name  of  the  person  for  whom 
it  is  intended  is  left  a  blank,  and  is  filled  up  with 
the  formula  :  "  To  the  Elect  Lady ; "  In  the  second, 
the  person  to  whom  it  is  written  is  given  as  Gaius, 
which  was  often  the  equivalent  for  our  So  and  so. 
In  these  short  letters  some  resemblance  to  the 
pseudo-Johannine  Epistle,  and  to  those  of  St  Paul, 
has  been  discovered,  and  it  is  probable  that  our 
Presbuteros  has  sometimes  concealed  his  identity 
behind  these  anonymous  presbuteroi  who  had  seen 
the  Apostles,  and  whose  traditions  Irenaeus  so  mys- 
teriously reproduces. 

At  the  end  of  the  third  century  two  tombs  were 
mentioned  at  Ephesus,  which  were  held  in  the 
highest  veneration,  and  to  both  of  which  the  name  of 
John  was  given.  In  the  fourth  century  when,  from 
the  passage  in  Papias,  the  idea  of  the  distinct  ex- 
istence of  Presbuteros  Johannes  was  being  firmly 
established,  one  of  these  tombs  was  allotted  to  the 
Apostle  and  the  other  to  the  Presbuteros.  We  shall 
never  know  the  exact  truth  of  those  extraordinary 
combinations  in  which  history,  legends,  fable,  and,  up 
to  a  certain  point,  pious  fraud  were  all  united  in  pro- 
portions which  we  cannot  separate  now.  An  Ephe- 
sian  called  Polycrates,  who  was  destined  to  become, 
one  day,  with  his  whole  family,  the  centre  of  Asiatic 
Christianity,  was  converted  A.D.  131,  and  this  Poly- 
crates fully  admitted  the  pseudo-Johannine  tradition, 
and  cited  it  most  confidently  in  his  old  age. 

Everybody  allows  that  the  last  chapter  of  the 
fourth  Epistle  is  an  appendix  which  was  added  after 
the  work  had  been  written,  though  possibly  it  was 


44  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

added  by  the  author  himself ;  in  any  case,  the  source 
from  which  it  was  drawn  is  the  same.  It  was  de- 
sirable to  complete  all  that  had  to  do  with  the  re- 
lations between  Peter,  and  John  by  some  touching 
feature,  and  the  author  shows  that  he  is  a  great  par- 
tisan of  Peter,  and  does  his  best  to  pay  homage  to 
him  in  his  rank  as  supreme  pastor  which  was 
attributed  to  him  in  various  degrees.  He  also  makes 
a  point  of  explaining  the  views  that  prevailed  about 
the  long  life  of  John,  and  of  showing  how  the  aged 
Apostle  might  die  without  the  edifice  of  the  promises 
of  Jesus  and  of  Christian  hopes  tailing  into  ruins  at 
his  decease.  Men  began  to  fear  that  the  unequalled 
privilege  of  those  who  had  seen  the  Word  during  his 
life  on  earth  might  discourage  future  generations, 
and  already  that  profound  saying,  which  was  attri- 
buted to  Jesus,  "  Blessed  are  those  that  have  not 
seen  and  yet  have  believed,"  was  incorporated  into 
a  Gospel  anecdote. 

With  the  Johannine  writings  begins  the  era  of 
Christian  philosophy  and  of  abstract  speculation, 
which  had  hitherto  found  but  little  room  in  the 
world,  whilst  at  the  same  time  dogmatic  intolerance 
increased  most  lamentably.  The  mere  fact  ol  salut- 
ing a  heretic  was  represented  as  an  act  of  communion 
with  him.  How  tar  we  are  from  Jesus  here !  He 
wished  us  to  salute  everybody,  even  at  the  risk  of 
saluting  the  unworthy,  in  imitation  of  our  Heavenly 
Father,  who  looks  on  all  with  a  paternal  eye,  but  yet 
now  it  was  to  be  obligatory  to  ascertain  the  opinions 
of  anyone  before  saluting  him.  The  essence  of 
Christianity  was  transferred  to  the  realm  of  dogma ; 
gnosis  was  everything,  and  salvation  consisted  in  know- 
ing Jesus  and  knowing  him  in  a  certain  manner. 
Theology,  that  is  to  say,  a  rather  unwholesome 
application  of  the  intellect,  was  the  result  of  the 
fourth  Gospel,  and  the  Byzantine  world,  from  the 
beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  wore  itself  out  by 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  45 

this  study,  which  would  have  had  just  as  fatal  conse- 
quences for  the  West  if  the  demon  of  subtility  had 
not  found  firmer  muscles  and  less  volatile  brains  to 
deal  with. 

In  this  matter  Christianity  decidedly  turned  its 
back  on  Judaism ;  and  Gnosticism,  which  is  the 
highest  expression  of  speculative  Christianity,  had 
some  reason  for  pushing  its  hatred  of  Judaism  to  the 
highest  point.  The  latter  made  religion  consist  in 
outward  observances,  and  left  everything  that 
bordered  on  philosophic  dogma  as  a  matter  of  private 
opinion,  and  the  Cabala  and  Pantheism  would  natur- 
ally find  an  easy  development  by  the  side  of  observ- 
ances which  were  carried  to  the  minutest  details. 
A  Jewish  friend  of  mine,  as  liberal  a  thinker  as  can  be 
found,  and  at  the  same  time  a  scrupulous  Talmudist, 
said  to  me,  "  One  makes  up  for  the  other.  Close 
observances  are  a  compensation  for  wideness  of 
ideas,  and  our  poor  humanity  has  not  enough  intel- 
ligence to  support  liberty  in  two  directions  at  the 
same  time.  You  Christians  did  wrong  in  insisting 
that  the  bonds  of  communion  should  consist  in  certain 
beliefs,  for  a  man  does  what  he  pleases,  but  he 
believes  what  he  can,  and  I  would  rather  go  without 
pork  all  my  life,  than  be  obliged  to  believe  in  the 
dogmas  of  the  Trinity  and  of  the  Incarnation.'' 


CHAPTER    VI. 

PROGRESS  OF   THE  EPISCOPATE. 

The  progress  of  the  Church  in  discipline  and  in  her 
hierarchy  was  in  proportion  to  her  progress  in  dogma. 
Like  every  living  body  she  developed  an  astonishing 
instinctive  cleverness  in  completing  all  that  was  still 
wanting   for  her  solid    foundation    and    her   perfect 


46  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 

equilibrium.  As  the  hopes  for  the  end  of  the  world, 
and  of  the  reappearance  of  Messiah  become  fainter, 
Christianity  obeyed  two  natural  tendencies ;  the 
one  to  reconcile  itself  with  the  empire  as  well  as  it 
could,  and  then  to  organise  itself  so  that  it  might 
become  lasting.  The  first  church  at  Jerusalem,  the 
first  churches  of  St  Paul,  were  not  established  with 
any  view  to  their  endurance,  for  they  were  only  so 
many  assemblies  of  the  saints  at  the  end  of  the  world, 
who  were  preparing  themselves  by  prayer  and  divine 
rapture  for  the  coming  of  God.  The  Church  felt 
that  now  the  time  had  come  for  her  to  be  an  abiding 
city  and  a  real  society. 

The  strangest  movement  that  ever  took  place  in 
a  democracy  took  place  within  the  Church.  The 
ecclesia,  the  voluntary  reunion  of  persons  meeting  on 
a  footing  of  equality  amongst  themselves,  is  the  most 
democratic  thing  that  can  be  imagined ;  but  the 
ecclesia,  the  club  has  that  fatal  defect  which  causes 
every  association  of  that  kind  to  fall  to  pieces,  and 
that  defect  is  anarchy,  the  ease  with  which  schisms 
arise.  But  more  fatal  still  are  the  contentions  for 
pre-eminence  in  the  midst  of  small  confraternities 
which  have  been  founded  on  an  altogether  spon- 
taneous vocation.  That  seeking  after  the  highest 
place  was  the  principal  evil  which  affected  the 
Christian  churches,  and  which  caused  the  greatest 
trouble  to  the  simple  and  faithful  members  of  the 
flock.  It  was  thought  that  this  danger  might  be 
prevented  by  supposing  that  Jesus,  in  a  similar  case, 
could  have  taken  a  child  and  said  to  the  contending 
parties,  *'  This  is  the  greatest."  On  different 
occasions  the  Master  had,  as  was  said,  opposed  the 
ecclesiastical  primacy,  brotherly  as  it  was,  to  that  of 
the  depositories  of  worldly  authority  who  were  given 
to  assume  a  masterful  manner.  But  that  was  not 
enough,  and  the  association  of  Christians  would  soon 
be  menaced  by  a  great  danger,  if  some  salutary  in- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  47 

stitution  did  not  rescue  it  from  its  own  internal 
abuses. 

Every  ecclesia  presupposes  a  small  hierarchy  of  its 
own, — what  we  call  in  these  days  a  committee,  a 
president,  assessors,  and  a  small  body  of  assistants. 
Democratic  clubs  take  care  that  these  functions  shall 
be  as  limited  as  possible  both  as  to  time  and  priv- 
leges,  but  there  is  something  precarious  in  that,  and 
the  result  has  been  that  no  club  has  outlived  the 
circumstances  which  called  it  into  existence.  The 
synagogues  had  a  much  longer  continuance,  although 
the  personnel  was  never  a  clerical  body.  The  reason 
for  that  is,  the  subordinate  position  which  Judiasm 
held  for  centuries,  so  that  the  pressure  from  without 
counterbalanced  the  unwholesome  effects  of  internal 
divisions.  If  the  Christian  Church  had  suffered  from 
the  same  want  of  discretion,  she  would  no  doubt  have 
missed  her  destinies  ;  and  if  ecclesiastical  powers  had 
continued  to  be  regarded  as  emanating  from  the 
Church  itself,  she  would  have  lost  all  her  hieretic 
and  theocratic  character  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
was  fated  that  the  clergy  should  monpolise  the 
Christian  Church,  and  should  substitute  itself  in  her 
place.  Speaking  in  her  name,  representing  itself  in 
everything  as  her  sole  authorised  agents,  that  clergy 
would  constitute  her  strength,  but  would  at  the  same 
time  be  her  canker-worm,  and  the  chief  cause  of  her 
future  decline. 

History  has  no  example  of  a  more  wonderful 
transformation.  What  happened  in  the  Christian 
Church  is  just  what  would  happen  in  a  club,  if  the 
members  were  to  abdicate  all  their  powers  into  the 
hands  of  the  committee,  and  the  committee  to 
abdicate  theirs  into  the  hands  of  the  president,^  so 
that  neither  those  who  were  present,  nor  the  seniors 
in  office,  wovild  have  any  deliberative  voice ;  no 
influence,  no  control  over  the  management  of  the 
funds,  so  that   the  president  might   be  able  to  say 


48  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

"  I,  alone,  am  the  club."  The  preshutoroi  (the  elders), 
the  episcopi  (the  officers,  overseers),  very  soon 
became  the  only  representatives  of  the  church,  and 
very  shortly  after  another  and  even  more  import- 
ant revolution  took  place.  Amongst  the  presbutoroi 
and  the  episcopi  there  was  one,  who,  because  he 
habitually  took  the  principal  seat,  became  preshuteros, 
or  episcopos  par  excellence.  The  form  of  worship 
contributed  very  powerfully  towards  this.  Only 
one  priest  could  be  celebrant  of  the  eucharist  at  the 
same  time,  and  he  obtained  an  extreme  importance  ; 
and  that  episcopos  became,  with  surprising  rapidity, 
the  chief  amongst  the  presbyterate  and  those  of 
the  whole  church.  His  seat,  placed  apart  from  the 
others,  assumed  the  shape  of  an  arm-chair,  and 
became  the  seat  of  honour — the  sign  of  the  Primacy, 
and  from  that  time  such  church  had  only  one  chief 
presbyter,  who  called  himself  episcopos,  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  all  the  rest.  By  his  side  were  to  be 
seen  a  number  of  deacons,  widows,  a  council  of 
presbutoroi,  but  the  great  step  had  been  taken  ;  the 
bishop  had  become  the  sole  successor  of  the  apostles, 
the  professor  of  the  true  religion  was  altogether 
thrust  aside.  The  apostolic  authority,  which  was 
supposed  to  be  transmitted  by  the  imposition  of 
hands,  had  altogether  destroyed  the  authority  of 
the  community,  and  then,  the  bishops  of  the 
different  churches  coming  to  an  understanding 
amongst  themselves,  will,  as  we  shall  see,  constitute 
the  universal  church  into  a  sort  of  oligarchy,  which 
will  hold  synods,  censure  its  own  members,  de- 
cide questions  of  faith,  and,  in  herself,  constitute  a 
real  sovereign  power. 

Within  a  hundred  years  the  change  was  almost 
accomplished.  When  Hegesippus,  during  the 
second  half  of  the  second  century,  travelled  through- 
out the  whole  of  Christendom,  he  remarked  nothing 
but  the  bishops  ;  everytliing  for  him  resolves  itself 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  49 

into  a  question  of  canonical  succession,  and  the 
living  sentiment  of  the  churches  exists  no  longer. 
We  shall  show  that  that  revolution  was  not  accom- 
plished without  protest,  and  that  the  author  of  the 
Pastor,  for  example,  still  tried,  in  opposition  to 
the  growing  influence  of  the  bishops  to  maintain 
the  equal  authority  of  the  preshutoroi.  But  aristo- 
cratic tendency  carried  the  day  ;  on  the  one  side 
were  the  shepherds,  on  the  other,  the  flocks.  The 
primitive  equality  existed  no  longer,  and,  henceforth 
the  Church  was  to  be  nothing  but  an  instrument 
in  the  hands  of  those  who  directed  her  ;  and  they 
held  their  authority,  not  from  the  community  in 
general,  but  from  a  spiritual  heredity  from  a  pre- 
tended transmission  which  went  back  in  a  continuous 
line  to  the  apostles  themselves.  It  will  be  seen 
at  once  that  the  representative  system  could  not 
even  in  the  slightest  degree  become  the  system  of 
the  Christian   Church. 

In  one  sense  it  may  be  said  that  this  was  a  falling 
ofi;  a  diminution  of  that  spontaneity  which  had 
hitherto  been  such  a  creative  power.  It  was 
evident  that  ecclesiastical  forms  were  about  to 
absorb  and  to  destroy  the  work  of  Jesus,  and  that 
all  free  manifestations  of  Christian  Hfe  would  soon 
be  stopped.  Under  episcopal  censorship,  the  glosso- 
lalia,  prophecy,  the  creation  of  legends,  and  the 
production  of  new  sacred  books,  would  be  withered- 
up  faculties,  and  the  Christian  graces  would  be 
reduced  to  official  sacraments.  In  another  sense, 
however,  such  a  transformation  was  an  essential 
condition  of  the  strength  of  Christianity.  In  the 
first  place,  the  concentration  of  their  forces  became 
necessary,  as  soon  as  the  churches  became  at  all 
numerous,  for  relations  between  these  smafl  religious 
societies  would  have  been  quite  impossible,  unless 
they  had  an  accredited  representative  who  was 
entitled  to  act  for  them.     It  is,  moreover,  an  incon- 


50  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

testable  fact  that,  without  episcopacy,  the  churches 
which  were  momentarily  drawn  together  by  the 
recollections  of  Jesus  would  have  been  dispersed 
again.  The  divergencies  of  doctrine,  the  different 
turns  of  thought,  and,  above  all,  rivalries  and  un- 
satisfied self-love,  would  have  had  a  vast  influence 
on  disunion  and  dismemberment,  and,  at  the  end 
of  three  or  four  centuries,  Christianity  would  have 
come  to  an  end  like  the  worship  of  Nithras,  or, 
like  so  many  sects,  have  ended,  being  unable  to 
withstand  the  force  of  time.  Democracy  is  at 
times  eminently  creative,  but  only  on  the  conditions 
that  conservative  and  aristocratic  institutions  spring 
from  it,  which  prevent  the  revolutionary  fever  to 
be  prolonged  indefinitely. 

That  is  the  real  miracle  of  infant  Christianity.  It 
produced  order,  a  hierarchy,  authority,  obedience  from 
the  ready  subjection  of  men's  wits  ;  it  organised  the 
crowd  and  disciphned  anarchy,  and  it  was  the  spirit  of 
Jesus  with  which  his  disciples  were  so  deeply  imbued, 
that  spirit  of  meekness,  of  self-denial,  of  forgetfulness 
of  the  present,  the  pursuit  of  spiritual  joys  which  de- 
stroys ambition,  that  preference  for  a  childlike  mind, 
these  words  of  Jesus,  "  Let  him  who  would  be  first 
among  you  become  as  he  that  serveth,"  that  worked 
this  miracle.  The  impression  which  the  apostles  left 
behind  them  also  did  its  share.  They  and  their  im- 
mediate vicars  had  an  uncontested  power  over  all 
the  churches,  and  as  episcopacy  was  supposed  to 
have  inherited  apostolic  powers,  the  apostles  governed 
even  after  their  death.  The  idea  that  the  chief  oflicer 
of  the  Church  holds  his  mandate  from  the  members 

I  of  that  Church  who  have  appointed  him,  does  not 
appear  once  in  the  literature  of  that  time,  and  thus 
the  Church  escaped,  by  the  supernatural  origin  of  her 
power,  from  anything  that  is  defective  in  delegated 
authority.  Legislative  and  executive  authority  can 
come  from  the  majority,  but  the  sacraments  and  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  51 

dispensations  of  divine  grace  have  nothing  to  do  with 
universal  suffrage,  for  such  privileges  come  only  from 
heaven,  or,  according  to  the  Christian  formularies, 
from  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  himself  the  source  of  all 
grace  and  of  all  good. 

Properly  speaking,  the  bishops  had  never  been 
nominated  by  the  whole  community.  It  was  quite 
sufficient  for  the  spontaneous  enthusiasm  of  the  first 
churches  that  he  should  be  designated  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  that  is  to  say,  that  electoral  means  should  be 
employed  which  extreme  simplicity  alone  could  ex- 
cuse. After  the  apostolic  age,  and  when  it  became 
necessary  that  that  sort  of  divine  right  with  which 
the  apostles  and  their  immediate  disciples  were  sup- 
posed to  be  invested,  should  be  supplemented  by  some 
ecclesiastical  decision,  the  elders  chose  their  president 
from  among  themselves,  and  submitted  his  name  to 
popular  approval.  As  this  choice  was  never  made  with- 
out the  people's  opinion  having  been  consulted  in  the 
first  instance,  this  approval,  or  rather  the  vote  by  raising 
the  hand,  was  nothing  more  than  a  mere  formality, 
but  it  was  enough  to  preserve  the  recollection  of  the 
gospel  ideal,  according  to  which  the  spirit  of  Jesus 
essentially  dwelt  in  the  community,  The  election  of 
deacons  was  also  of  a  double  nature,  for  they  were 
nominated  by  the  bishop,  but  they  had  to  be  approved 
by  the  community  before  the  choice  could  be  vahd.  It 
is  a  general  law  of  the  Church  that  the  inferior  never 
nominates  his  superior,  and  this  is  one  of  the  reasons 
which  still  gives  to  the  Church,  in  spite  of  the  totally 
different  tendency  of  modern  democracy,  such  a  great 
power  of  reaction. 

In  the  churches  of  St  Paul  this  movement  towards 
a  hierarchy  and  an  episcopate  was  particularly  felt. 
The  Jewish  Christian  churches,  which  had  less  life  in 
them,  remained  synagogues,  and  did  not  land  so  im- 
mediately in  clericalism,  and  thus,  by  writings  attri- 
buted to  St  Paul,  arguments  for  the  doctrine  which 


52  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

it  was  sought  to  inculcate  were  created.  There  was 
no  controverting  an  epistle  of  St  Paul,  and  several  pas- 
sages of  the  authentic  epistles  of  that  apostle  already 
taught  the  doctrine  of  a  hierarchy  and  of  the  authority 
of  the  elders.  For  the  sake  of  even  more  decisive 
arguments,  three  short  epistles  were  forged,  which 
were  supposed  to  have  been  written  by  Paul  to  his 
disciples  Timothy  and  Titus.  The  author  of  these 
apocryphal  epistles  had  not  got  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  and  he  only  knew  the  apostolical  journeys 
of  St  Paul  vaguely  and  not  in  detail.  As  very  few 
people  had  any  more  precise  notions  about  them,  he 
was  not  gravely  compromised,  and,  besides,  at  that 
period,  there  was  such  a  lack  of  critical  feeling,  that  it 
did  not  strike  any  one  that  texts  must  necessarily 
agree.  Some  passages  in  those  three  epistles  are  also 
so  beautiful,  that  the  question  might  be  asked,  whether 
the  forger  had  not  some  authentic  letters  of  St  Paul 
in  his  possession  which  he  embodied  in  his  apocryphal 
compositions? 

These  three  short  works,  evidently  the  production 
of  the  same  pen,  and  written  most  likely  at  Rome, 
are  a  sort  of  treatise  on  ecclesiastical  duties,  a  first 
attempt  at  false  decretals,  a  code  for  the  use  of 
churchmen.  Episcopacy  is  a  grand  thing,  and  the 
bishop  is  a  sort  of  model  of  perfection,  set  up  before 
his  subordinates.  He  must,  therefore,  be  irreprehen- 
sible  in  the  eyes  of  the  faithful  and  of  others ;  he 
must  be  sober,  chaste,  amiable,  kind,  just,  not  proud, 
given  to  hospitality,  moderate,  inoffensive,  free  from 
avarice,  and  earning  his  livelihood  honestly.  He  may 
drink  a  little  wine  for  his  health's  sake,  but  he  must 
not  marry  more  than  once.  His  family  must  be  grave 
like  himself,  and  his  sons  submissive,  respectful  and 
free  from  any  suspicion  of  dissolute  morals.  If  any- 
one cannot  rule  his  own  house,  how  can  he  take  care 
of  the  Church  of  God  1  Orthodox  above  everything ; 
attached  to  the  true  faith,  the  sworn  enemy  of  error. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  53 

and  he  is  to  preach  and  to  teach.  For  such  functions 
neither  a  novice  must  be  taken,  lest  such  a  rapid 
elevation  should  make  him  be  lifted  up  with  pride, 
nor  a  man  capable  of  a  sudden  attack  of  rage,  nor 
anyone  exercising  a  calling  that  is  looked  down  upon, 
for  even  unbelievers  ought  to  respect  a  bishop,  and 
not  have  anything  to  say  against  him. 

The  deacons  must  be  as  perfect  as  the  bishops; 
serious,  not  double-tongued,  drinking  Httle  wine,  not 
given  to  filthy  lucre,  holding  the  mystery  of  the  faith 
in  a  pure  conscience.  So  must  their  wives  be  grave, 
not  slanderers,  sober,  faithful  in  all  things.  They 
must  be  husbands  of  one  wife,  ruling  their  children 
and  their  own  houses  well,  and  as  a  trial  is  necessary 
for  such  difficult  functions,  no  one  is  to  be  raised  to 
them  till  after  a  kind  of  noviciate. 

Widows  were  an  order  in  the  Church,  and  their 
first  duty  was  to  perform  their  household  duties,  if 
they  had  any  to  fulfil.  They  who  were  widows 
indeed,  and  desolate,  ought  to  trust  in  God,  and 
continue  in  supplications  and  prayers  night  and  day, 
but  such  as  live  in  pleasure  are  dead  whilst  they 
live.  These  interesting  but  feeble  persons  Avere 
subject  to  a  certain  rule;  they  had  a  female  superior, 
and  every  Church  had  side  by  side  with  its  deacon 
also  its  widow,  whose  duty  it  was  to  watch  over  the 
younger  widows,  and  to  exercise  a  sort  of  female 
diaconate.  The  author  of  the  false  epistles  to  Timothy 
and  Titus  wishes  that  the  widow  thus  chosen  should 
not  be  less  than  sixty  years  of  age,  having  been  the 
wife  of  one  man,  well  re2Jortecl  of  for  good  works,  if  she 
have  brought  up  children,  if  she  have  lodged  strangers,  if 
she  have  washed  the  saints  feet.  But  he  instructs 
Timothy  to  refuse  the  younger  widows,  for  they  icill 
wax  loanton  against  Christ  and  marry,  and  ivithal  theij 
learn  to  be  idle,  ivandering  about  from  house  to  house,  and 
not  only  idle,  but  tattlers  also,  and  busybodies,  speaking 
things  that  they  ought  not,     "  1  will  therefore  that  the 


54  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

younger  widows  marry,  bear  children,  guide  the 
house,  give  none  occasion  to  the  adversary  to  speak 
reproachfully.  For  some  are  already  turned  aside 
from  Satan."  (1  Tim.  v.  passim.)  Widows  who  are 
without  means,  are  to  be  relieved  by  the  Church, 
whereas  those  who  have  relations  are  to  be  kept  at 
their  expense. 

From  all  this  may  be  seen  what  a  complete  society 
the  church  already  was.  Every  class  had  its  own  parti- 
cular functions  in  it,  and  represented  a  member  of  the 
social  body  ;  all  had  their  duties,  were  it  only  slaves, 
the  power  of  the  precepts  of  Jesus  was  to  be  admired 
by  their  virtuous  life.  As  examples  of  this,  slaves 
were  particularly  relied  upon,  and  they  are  reminded 
that  none  can  honour  the  new  doctrine  more  than 
they.  If  their  master  were  a  heathen,  they  were  to 
be  counted  worthy  of  all  honour,  that  the  name  of 
God  and  His  doctrine  might  not  be  blasphemed  ;  and 
if  they  had  believing  masters,  they  were  not  to  be 
despised  because  they  were  brethren,  but  they  were 
to  be  served  because  they  were  faithful  and  beloved^ 
partakers  of  the  benefit.  Of  course  there  was  no 
word  of  emancipation.  The  aged  men  were  to  be 
sober,  grave,  temperate,  sound  in  faith ;  the  aged 
women,  in  behaviour  such  as  becometh  holiness,  not 
false  accusers,  not  given  to  much  wine,  teachers  of 
good  things,  for  they  should  be  like  catechists  and 
teach  the  young  women  to  be  sober  and  love  their 
husbands  and  their  children  ;  to  be  discreet,  chaste, 
keepers  at  home,  good,  obedient  to  their  own 
husbands,  that  the  word  of  God  might  not  be 
blasphemed.  The  young  men  were  to  be  exhorted 
to  be  sober  minded. 

The  married  women's  part  is  humble  indeed,  but 
still  a  beautiful  one. 

In  like  manner  also,  that  women  adorn  themselves  in  modest 
apparel,  with  shame-faceduess  and  sobriety,  not  with  plaited  hair, 
or  gold  or  peails  or  costly  array  ;   hut  (vvhich  becometh  women 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  55 

professing  godliness)  with  good  works.  Let  the  woman  learn  in 
silence  with  all  subjection.  But  I  suffer  not  a  woman  to  teach 
nor  to  usurp  authority  over  the  man,  but  to  be  in  silence.  For 
Adam  was  first  formed,  then  Eve,  and  Adam  was  not  deceived, 
but  the  woman  being  deceived  was  in  the  transgression.  Never- 
theless she  shall  be  saved  in  childbearing,  if  she  continue  in  faith 
and  charity  and  holiness  with  sobriety."     (1  Tim.  ii.  9-15.) 

All  should  be  submissive,  as  subjects,  obedient, 
gentle,  inoffensive,  enemies  to  revolution,  interested 
in  the  preservation  of  public  peace,  which  alone 
vi^ould  allov^  them  to  lead  their  usual  holy  life. 
They  need  not  be  surprised  if  they  were  persecuted, 
that  was  the  natural  lot  of  Christians.  They  ought 
to  be  the  very  opposite  to  the  heathen.  A  man  who 
only  follows  the  dictates  of  nature  is  the  slave  of  his 
desires,  carried  away  by  sensuality,  wicked,  envious, 
hating  and  hateful.  The  transformation  which 
makes  the  natural  man  one  of  the  elect  is  not  the 
fruit  of  his  own  merits,  but  of  the  compassion  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  of  the  efficacy  of  his  sacraments. 

This  short  Epistle,  which  is  already  quite  Catholic, 
is  a  true  type  of  the  ecclesiastical  spirit,  and  for 
seventeen  centuries  has  been  the  manual  of  the 
clergy,  the  gospel  of  seminaries,  the  rule  of  that 
spiritual  policy  as  it  is  carried  out  by  the  Church. 
Piety,  which  is  the  soul  of  the  priest,  the  secret  of  his 
resignation  and  of  his  authority,  is  the  foundation 
of  this  spirit.  But  the  pious  priest  has  his  rights  ; 
those  of  reprimanding  and  correcting — respectfully, 
indeed,  in  the  case  of  old  people,  but  always  with 
firmness.  "Preach  the  word,  be  instant  in  season 
and  out  of  season,  reprove,  rebuke,  exhort  with  all 
long-suffering  and  doctrine  "  (2  Tim.  iv.  2).  Simple 
in  his  life,  asking  only  for  food  and  raiment,  the  "Man 
of  God,"  as  our  author  calls  him,  was  sure  to  be  an 
austere  man,  often  an  imperious  ruler.  "  Rebuke  not 
an  elder,  but  intreat  him  as  a  father,  and  the 
younger  men  as  brethren ;  the  elder  women  as 
mothers,    the    younger    as    sisters,    in    all    purity." 


5Q  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

After  that  one  feels  that  the  Christian  society  cannot 
be  a  free  one,  for  every  individual  member  of  it  will 
be  watched  and  censured,  and  will  not  have  the 
right  to  say  to  his  fellow  citizen,  "  What  business 
is  my  belief  or  my  conduct  to  you  ?  I  am  doing 
you  no  wrong."  The  believer  will  say  that  in  be- 
lieving differently  to  what  he  does,  he  is  being 
wronged,  and  that  he  has  the  right  of  protesting. 
Against  such  an  idea,  so  totally  opposed  to  hberty, 
princes  and  laymen  must  rightly  soon  revolt.  "  A 
man  that  is  an  heretic  after  a  first  and  second 
admonition  reject."  (Titus  iii.  10.)  Nothing  could  be 
less  in  keeping  with  the  maxims  of  a  man  of 
liberal  education.  The  heretic  has  his  opinions  as 
well  as  you,  and  he  may  be  right,  and  politeness 
certainly  requires  you  to  pretend  to  believe  so  in  his 
presence.  The  world  is  no  monastery,  and  the 
advantages,  which,  as  is  alleged,  are  obtained  by 
censure  and  accusation,  bring  more  evils  in  their 
train  than  they  hoped  to  avoid. 

In  the  Epistles  to  Timothy  and  Titus  orthodoxy 
has  made  as  much  progress  as  episcopacy.  Already 
there  is  a  rule  of  faith,  a  Catholic  centre  in  existence, 
which  excludes  everything  that  does  not  receive  its 
life  from  the  parent  stem  as  dead  branches.  The 
heretic  is  a  guilty  man,  a  dangerous  being,  who  must 
be  avoided.  He  has  every  vice,  is  capable  of  every 
crime,  and  acts  which  are  even  laudable  in  the 
Christian  priest,  such  as  a  wish  to  direct  women  on 
certain  matters  of  internal  goverment,  are  acts  of 
usurpation  on  his  part.  The  heretics  of  whom  the 
author  is  thinking  seem  to  be  the  Essenes,  the 
Elkasaites,  Jewish  Christian  sectaries,  who  occupied 
their  minds  with  genealogies  of  eeons,  who  insisted 
on  certain  acts  of  abstinence  and  on  a  rigorous 
distinction  between  things  pure  and  impure,  who 
condemned  marriage,  and  who  yet  were  great 
seducers  of  women,  whom  they  overcame  by  holding 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  57 

OTit  to  them  the  bait  of  an  easy  way  of  expiating 
their  sins,  whilst  at  the  same  time  they  might  pro- 
cm-e  sensual  pleasure  for  themselves.  One  feels  that 
this  is  approaching  very  near  to  Gnosticism  and 
Montanism,  and  the  proposition,  that  the  resurrec- 
tion was  already  an  accomphshed  fact  reminds  us  of 
Marcion.  The  expressions  concerning  Christ's  Divin- 
ity gain  in  vigour,  though  still  surrounded  by  some 
difficulties.  A  wonderful  amount  of  good  practical 
sense  rules  everything,  however.  The  ardent  pietist 
who  composed  these  Epistles,  does  not  for  a  moment 
lose  himself  in  the  dangerous  paths  of  quietism.  He 
repeats  almost  ad  nauseam  that  the  woman  has  no 
right  to  devote  herself  to  the  spiritual  life,  except 
when  she  has  no  family  duties  to  fulfil ;  that  her 
principal  duty  is  to  bear  and  bring  up  children,  and 
that  it  is  a  mistake  to  pretend  to  serve  the  Church  if 
everything  is  not  well  ordered  at  home.  Besides 
that,  the  piety  which  our  author  preaches  is  one  of 
an  altogether  spiritual  kind,  and  is  one  of  feeling  in 
which  bodily  exercise  (1  Tim.  iv.  8)  and  abstinence 
profit  little.  St  Paul's  influence  is  felt,  a  sort  of  mystic 
sobriety,  and,  amidst  the  strangest  aberrations  of  faith 
in  a  supernatural  direction,  these  writings  contain  a 
large  amount  of  what  is  upright  and  sincere. 

The  composition  of  the  Epistles  to  Timothy  and 
Titus  most  likely  coincided  with  what  may  be  called 
the  publication  of  St  Paul's  Epistles.  Up  till  that 
time  those  letters  had  been  scattered,  and  each  church 
had  kept  those  Avhich  had  been  addressed  to  them, 
whilst  several  had  been  lost.  At  about  the  period 
of  which  we  are  now  speaking  they  were  collected, 
and  the  three  short  epistles,  which  were  looked  upon 
as  a  necessary  complement  of  St  Paul's  writings, 
were  embodied  with  them.  They  were  most  likely 
published  at  Rome,  and  the  order  which  the  first 
editor  adopted  has  always  been  preserved.  They 
were     divided    into    two     categories,    Epistles    to 


58  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

churches  and  to  individuals,  and  in  each  of  these 
categories  the  epistles  were  arranged  according  to 
stichometry,  that  is,  according  to  the  number  of  lines 
in  the  manuscript.  Certain  copies  soon  contained 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  and  its  very  place  at  the 
end  of  the  volume,  out  of  all  order  as  regards  its 
length,  ought  to  suffice  to  prove  that  it  was  incor- 
porated into  St  Paul's  Epistles  at  some  later  period. 


OHAPTERVII. 

FORGED  APOSTOLICAL  WRITINGS. — THE  CHRISTIAN  BIBLE. 

Meanwhile,  however,  the  world  would  persist  in  not 
coming  to  an  end,  and  it  required  all  that  inex- 
haustible measure  of  patience,  self-denial  and  gentle- 
ness which  formed  the  basis  of  the  character  of  every 
Christian,  when  they  saw  how  slowly  the  prophecies 
of  Jesus  were  being  accomplished.  The  years  went 
by,  and  the  vast  Northern  glorious  hght  in  the  centre 
of  which,  it  was  believed,  the  Son  of  Man  would 
appear  did  not  yet  begin  to  dawn  in  the  clouds. 
Men  grew  weary  of  seeking  for  the  cause  of  this 
delay,  and  whilst  some  grew  discouraged,  others 
murmured.  St  Luke,  in  his  Gospel,  announced  that 
he  would  avenge  his  Elect  speedily,  that  the  long- 
suffering  of  God  would  come  to  an  end,  and  that,  by 
praying  day  and  night  under  their  persecution,  the 
elect  would  obtain  justice  hke  the  importunate  widow 
did  over  the  unjust  judge.  Nevertheless,  they  began 
to  be  tired  of  waiting.  That  generation  which  was 
not  to  have  passed  away  before  the  appearance  of 
Christ  in  His  Glory  must  all  have  been  dead.  More 
than  fifty  years  had  passed  since  those  events  had 
taken  place,  which  were  only  to  precede  the  accom- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  59 

plishment  of  the  prophecies  of  Jesus  by  a  very  little. 
All  the  towns  in  Judea  had  heard  Christian  preachers, 
and  malicious  men  began  to  make  this  the  occasion 
of  mocking.  The  reply  of  the  faithful  was  that  the 
jSrst  rule  of  the  true  believer  was  not  to  calculate 
dates.  "  He  will  come  like  a  thief  in  the  night,"  said 
the  wise  ;  "  The  appearing  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
which  in  his  own  times  he  shall  show,"  says  the 
author  of  the  Epistle  to  Timothy ;  and,  meanwhile, 
that  good  and  practical  pastor  laid  down  rules  which, 
admitting  the  approaching  end  of  the  world,  did  not 
contain  much  sense,  and  men  aspired  to  escape  from 
that  provisional  state  in  which  those  who  believed  in 
the  hourly  appearance  of  the  Messiah  would  always 
have  remained  enthralled. 

Then  it  was  that  a  pious  writer,  in  order  to  make 
these  doubts  cease,  had  the  idea  of  disseminating 
amongst  the  faithful  an  epistle  that  was  attributed 
to  Peter.  The  Churches  of  St  Paul  had  just  col- 
lected their  master's  works,  and  made  important 
additions  to  them.  It  appears  that  a  Christian  of 
Rome,  who  belonged  to  that  group  which  wished  to 
reconcile  St  Peter  and  St  Paul  at  any  price,  wished 
to  enlarge  the  very  slight  literary  legacy  which  the 
Galilean  apostle  had  left  behind  him.  Already  there 
was  one  epistle  which  bore  the  name  of  the  chief  of 
the  apostles,  and  by  taking  it  for  a  foundation,  and 
embodying  in  it  phrases  borrowed  from  all  sides, 
there  resulted  a  "  Second  Epistle  of  Peter  "  which, 
it  was  hoped,  would  circulate  on  the  same  footing 
as  the  former. 

Nothing  was  neglected  in  the  composition  of  the 
second  epistle  to  make  it  coextensive  in  authority 
with  the  first.  Whilst  composing  this  little  work, 
the  author  certainly  had  before  him  the  short  letter  of 
the  Apostle  Jude,  and,  no  doubt,  supposing  that  it  was 
very  Httle  known,  he  did  not  scruple  to  incorporate 
it  almost  wholly  into  his  own  writing,     lie  was  pene- 


60  THE  CHRTSTIAN  CHURCH. 

trated  by  the  spirit  of  St  Paul's  Epistles,  of  which 
he  possessed  the  complete  edition  ;  and  he  also  made 
use  of  the  Apocalypse  of  Esdras  or  of  Baruch.  He 
even  attributed  to  Peter  expressions  and  direct 
allusions  to  gospel  facts,  and  to  an  allegation  in  St 
Paul's  Epistles,  which  certainly  never  found  place 
in  anything  that  Cyphus  dictated.  The  pious 
forger's  object  was  to  reassure  the  faithful  about  the 
long  delay  of  Messiah's  second  coming,  to  shoAv  that 
Peter  and  Paul  were  agreed  on  this  fundamental 
mystery  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  to  combat  the 
errors  of  Gnosticism.  In  several  churches  his  Epistle 
was  favourably  received,  but  protests  were  also 
raised  against  it,  which  the  orthodox  canon  of  Scrip- 
ture did  not  put  an  end  to  for  a  long  time. 

The  teaching  of  the  Epistle,  however,  is  quite 
worthy  of  the  apostolic  age,  by  its  purity  and  loftiness 
of  thought.  The  Elect  become  participators  of  the 
divine  nature  because  they  renounce  the  corruptions 
of  the  world.  Patience,  sobriety,  piety,  paternal 
love,  horror  of  heresy,  to  wait,  to  be  always  waiting 
and  expecting,  is  the  whole  Christian  life  (2  Peter 
iii.  1,  et  seq.). 

With  the  Second  Epistle  of  Peter  ended,  about 
a  hundred  years  after  the  death  of  Jesus,  the  cycle  of 
writings,  which  were  called,  later  on,  the  New 
Testament,  in  contradiction  to  the  Old.  This  second 
Bible,  which  was  inspired  by  Jesus,  although  there 
is  not  a  single  line  of  his  in  it,  was  far  from  ad- 
mitting any  settled  canon  ;  many  small  works,  all 
more  or  less  pseudo-epigraphs,  were  admitted  by 
some  and  discarded  by  others.  The  new  writings 
were,  as  yet,  very  little  circulated,  and  very  un- 
equally read,  and  the  hst  was  not  looked  upon  as 
final ;  and  we  shall  see  that  other  works,  such 
as  the  Pastor  of  Hermas,  take  their  place  by  the 
side  of  writings  which  were  already  sacred,  almost 
on  a  footing  of  equality."    Yet  the  idea  of  a  new  reve 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  6 1 

lation  was  already  fully  accepted.  In  the  so-called 
"Second  Epistle  of  St  Peter,"  St  Paul's  Epistles 
are  ranked  amongst  the  Scriptures,  and  this  was  not 
the  first  time  that  such  an  expression  had  been 
used.  Christianity  had  thus  its  sacred  book,  an 
admirable  collection,  which  would  be  sure  to  make 
its  fortune  in  those  far  ages  when  the  immediate 
recollection  of  its  origin  was  lost,  and  no  religious 
were  worth  anything  except  by  their  written  texts. 

Of  course  the  Jewish  Bible  maintained  all  its 
authority,  and  continued  to  be  looked  upon  as  the 
direct  revelation  of  God.  That  ancient  Canon  and 
the  apocryphal  writings  that  had  been  appended 
to  it  (such  as  the  Book  of  Enoch,  the  Assump- 
tion of  Moses,  etc.,  etc.)  were  looked  upon,  above 
all,  as  the  immediate  revelation  of  God.  It  was 
not  touched ;  whereas,  with  regard  to  the  new 
Scriptures,  neither  additions  nor  suppressions,  nor 
arbitrary  manipulations  were  forbidden.  Nobody 
had  any  scruple  in  attributing  to  the  Apostles  and 
Christ  himself  such  words  and  writings  as  they 
thought  good,  useful,  and  worthy  of  such  a  divine 
origin.  If  they  had  not  said  all  those  beautiful 
things,  they  could  have  said  them,  and  that  was 
enough.  An  ecclesiastical  usage,  that  of  reading 
aloud  in  churches,  was  an  incentive  to  these  sort 
of  frauds,  and  made  them  almost  necessary.  In 
their  meetings,  the  reading  of  the  prophetical  and 
apostohcal  writings  was  to  take  up  all  the  time 
that  was  not  occupied  by  the  mysteries  and  the 
sacraments.  The  prophetical  and  the  genuine 
apostolical  writings  were  soon  exhausted,  and  _  so 
something  fresh  was  required:  and  to  provide 
for  the  constantly  occurring  requirements  of  these 
readings,  any  edifying  work  was  eagerly  welcomed, 
as  long  as  it  had  the  slightest  appearance  of 
apostolicity,  or  bore  the  most  distant  resemblance  to 
the  writings  of  the  ancient  prophets. 


62  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Thus  Christianity  had  accomplished  the  first  duty 
of  a  rehgion,  which  is  to  introduce  a  new  sacred  book 
to  the  world.  Another  Bible  had  been  added  to  the 
old  one,  which  was  much  inferior  to  it  in  classic 
beauty,  but  was  very  efficacious  for  the  conversion  of 
the  world.  The  old  Hebrew  language,  that  venerable 
aristocratic  instrument  of  poetry,  of  the  feelings  of 
the  soul  and  of  passion,  had  been  dead  for  centuries. 
The  Semetic-Aramean  patois  of  Palestine,  and  that 
popular  Greek,  which  the  Macedonian  conquest  had 
introduced  into  the  East,  and  which  the  Alexandrian 
translators  of  the  Bible  raised  to  the  height  of  a 
sacred  language,  could  not  act  as  the  organs  for 
those  literary  master-pieces  ;  but  although  it  lacked 
genius,  it  possessed  goodness  ;  and  though  it  had 
no  great  writers,  it  had  men  who  were  filled  with 
Jesus,  and  who  have  given  us  the  reflex  of  his  spirit. 
The  New  Testament  introduced  a  new  idea  into  the 
world,  that  of  popular  beauty,  and  in  any  case  there 
is  no  book  which  has  dried  so  many  tears  and  soothed 
so  many  hearts  as  it  has. 

We  cannot  speak  in  a  general  manner  of  the  style 
of  the  New  Testament,  because  its  writings  are 
divided  into  four  or  five  different  styles.  All  these 
various  parts,  however,  have  something  in  common, 
audit  is  just  that  something  which  imparts  their  power 
and  success  to  them.  Though  written  in  Greek,  their 
conception  is  Semetic.  Such  phrases,  without  any 
circumlocution,  that  language  whose  everything  is 
black  or  white,  sunshine  or  darkness,  as,  "  Jacob 
have  I  loved  ;  but  Esau  have  I  hated,"  to  express  "  I 
preferred  Jacob  to  Esau,"  have  carried  away  the 
world  by  their  rugged  grandeur.  Our  races  were 
not  used  to  Oriental  fulness,  to  such  energetic  par- 
tiality, to  this  manner  of  procedure,  all  at  once 
used,  as  it  were,  by  bounds  ;  and  so  they  were 
overcome  and  crushed,  and  even  at  this  present 
time    that    style    constitutes    the    great    power    of 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  63 

Christianity  which  fascinates  souls  and  wins  them 
over  to  Jesus. 

The  canon  of  Old  Testament  Scripture,  which  the 
Christians  admitted,  was,  as  far  as  regarded  the 
essential  works,  the  same  as  that  of  the  Jews. 
Christians  who  were  ignorant  of  Hebrew  read  these 
ancient  writings  in  the  Alexandrine  version,  which  is 
called  the  Septuagint,  and  which  they  reverenced 
as  equal  to  the  Hebrew  text,  and  where  the  Greek 
version  adds  expansions  to  the  original,  as  is  the  case 
in  Esther  and  Daniel,  these  additions  were  accepted. 
Less  severely  guarded  than  the  Jewish  canon,  the 
Christian  admitted  besides  such  books  as  Judith, 
Tobias,  Baruch,  the  Fourth  Book  of  Esdras,  the  as- 
sumption of  Moses,  Enoch,  and  the  Wisdom  of 
Solomon,  which  the  Jewish  rabbis  excluded  from  the 
sacred  volume  and  even  systematically  destroyed  ; 
whilst  such  books  as  Job,  the  Song  of  Solomon, 
Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  were  very  little  read  by 
people  who  looked,  above  all  things,  for  edification, 
on  account  of  their  bold  or  altogether  profane 
character.  The  books  of  the  Maccabees  were  pre- 
served rather  as  instructive  or  pious  books,  than  as 
sources  of  inspiration. 

The  Old  Testament,  which  has  been  mauled  in 
different  ways,  and  been  interpreted  with  all  the 
latitude  that  a  text  without  vowels  allows  of,  was 
the  storehouse  for  the  arguments  of  Christian  apolo- 
gists and  Jewish  polemics.  Most  frequently  these  dis- 
putes took  place  in  Greek,  and  though  the  Alex- 
andrine versions  were  used,  they  daily  became  more 
and  more  insufficient.  The  advantages  which  the 
Christians  gained  from  them  made  the  Jews  sus- 
picious of  them,  and  a  saying  was  disseminated, 
which  was  reputed  to  be  prophetic,  in  which  some 
wise  men  of  old  had  announced  all  the  evil  that 
should  some  day  spring  from  those  accursed  versions. 
The  day  on  which  the  Septuagint  version  was  made 


64  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

was  compared  to  that  on  wliicli  the  golden  calf  was 
cast,  and  it  was  even  asserted  that  that  day  was  fol- 
lowed by  three  days  of  darkness.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  Christians  admitted  the  legends  which  represented 
this  version  as  having  been  miraculously  revealed. 
Rabbi  Aquiba  and  his  school  had  invented  the  absurd 
principle,  that  nothing  in  the  whole  Bible  is  insigni- 
ficant, that  every  letter  was  written  with  some 
particular  purpose,  and  has  some  influence  on  the 
sense.  From  thenceforward  the  Alexandrine  trans- 
lators who  had  done  their  work  by  human  means, 
like  philologists  and  not  like  cabalists,  did  not  seem 
as  if  they  could  be  of  any  use  in  the  controversies 
of  the  time  ;  unreasonable  objections  to  grammatical 
peculiarities  were  brought  forward,  and  they 
wished  for  translations  of  the  Bible,  in  which  every 
Hebrew  word,  or  rather  root,  should  be  rendered 
by  a  Greek  word,  even  if  the  translation  had  no 
sense  in  consequence. 

Aquila  was  the  most  celebrated  of  those  who  were 
devoted  to  a  senseless  literal  translation.  His  work 
dates  from  the  twelfth  year  of  Hadrian's  reign. 
Although  he  was  a  mere  proselyte,  he  had  very 
Hkely  been  educated  by  Aquiba,  and,  in  fact,  his 
exegesis  is  an  exact  pendant  to  the  rabbi's  casuistry. 
A  Greek  word  corresponds  exactly  to  every  Hebrew 
word,  even  when  nothing  but  nonsense  is  the  result. 

The  Christians  soon  got  to  know  Aquila's  trans- 
lation, and  they  were  much  vexed  at  it,  for,  as  they 
were  accustomed  to  depend  on  the  Septuagint  for 
their  texts,  they  saw  that  this  new  translation  would 
overthrow  all  their  methods  and  their  apologetic 
system.  One  passage  especially  troubled  them  very 
much.  The  churches  wished  at  any  price  to  see 
the  prophetic  announcement  of  the  birth  of  Jesus 
from  a  virgin  from  Isaiah  7,  xiv.,  which  indeed 
means  something  quite  different,  but  where  the 
word  'Trapd'svog,    employed  for  the   Hebrew    almcis  and 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  65 

applied  to  the  mother  of  the  symbolical  Emmanuel, 
God  with  us,  is  rather  peculiar.  Aquila  overthrew 
this  little  scaffolding  by  translating  alma  by  vzavig. 
They  declared  that  it  was  pure  wickedness  on  his 
part,  and  a  system  of  pious  calumnies  was  invented 
to  explain  how,  having  been  a  Christian,  he  learned 
Hebrew  and  devoted  himself  to  that  tremendous 
work  merely  for  the  sake  of  contradicting  the 
Septuagint,  and  to  do  away  with  the  passages  that 
proved  that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah. 

The  Jews,  on  the  other  hand,  delighted  at  the 
apparent  exactness  of  the  new  version,  openly 
proclaimed  their  preference  for  it  over  the  Septua- 
gint. The  Ebionites  or  Nazarenes  also  frequently 
used  it,  for  the  manner  in  which  Aquila  had  rendered 
the  passage  of  Isaiah  enabled  them  to  prove  that 
Jesus  was  merely  the  son  of  Joseph. 

However,  Aquila  was  not  the  only  one  who  trans- 
lated Hebrew  after  Rabbi  Aquiba's  method.  The 
Greek  version  of  Ecclesiastes,  which  forms  part  of 
the  Greek  Vulgate,  presents  the  very  same  peculiari- 
ties which  Rabbi  Aquiba  caused  the  translators  of 
his  school  to  adopt,  and  yet  that  version  is  not  by 
Aquiba. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

MILLENARIA  NISM — PAPIAS. 

The  most  different  tendencies  were  apparent  in  the 
Church  of  Jesus,  which  demonstrated  the  wonderful 
fecundity  of  the  newly-awakened  conscience  in  the 
bosom  of  humanity  ;  but  which  at  the  same  time 
created  an  immense  danger  for  that  newly-born 
institution.  Thousands  of  hands,  so  to  say,  were 
tearing  the  new  religion  to  pieces,  some  wishing  to 

E 


G6  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

keep  it  within  the  Jewish  pale,  whilst  others  wished 
to  sever  every  bond  between  it  and  that  Judaism 
from  which  it  had  sprung.  The  second  coming  of 
Jesus,  and  the  idea  of  his  rule  for  a  thousand  years, 
were  the  two  questions  which  brought  these  two 
contrary  feelings  most  prominently  forward.  The 
Gnostics,  and,  up  to  a  certain  point,  the  author  of  the 
Epistle  of  St  John,  no  longer  paid  any  regard  to  the 
fundamental  doctrines  of  the  first  century.  They 
did  not  any  longer  trouble  themselves  much  about 
the  end  of  the  world :  it  was  relegated  to  the  back- 
ground, where  it  had  scarcely  any  meaning,  and 
these  lofty  dreams  ought  now  to  be  forgotten  by 
every  one.  In  Asia  Minor  the  greater  number  of 
Christians  lived  upon  that  idea,  and  refused  to  go  any 
further  in  search  of  the  truth  as  to  the  meaning  of 
Jesus;  and  in  close  approximation  to  that  school 
where,  it  would  seem,  the  Johannistic  writings  were 
being  thought  out,  a  man  who  might  have  some 
intercourse  with  the  authors  of  these  writings  was 
working  on  a  totally  different,  or  rather  I  should  say 
on  a  totally  opposite,  line  of  thought. 

But  we  must  speak  of  Papias,  Bishop  of  Hiera- 
polis,  the  most  striking  personality  at  a  period  when 
two  Christians  could  still  differ  from  each  other  to  an 
extent  which  we  cannot  picture  to  ourselves  now. 
It  has  often  been  thought  that  Papias  was  one  of  St 
John's  disciples,  but  this  must  certainly  be  a  mistake. 
He  never  saw  any  of  the  Apostles,  as  he  belongs  to 
the  third  generation  of  Christians,  but  no  doubt  he 
consulted  those  who  had  seen  them.  He  was  a  very 
careful  man,  a  searcher  after  truth  in  his  own  fashion, 
and  one  who  knew  the  Scriptures  thoroughly.  He 
made  it  his  occupation  zealously  to  collect  the  words 
of  Jesus,  to  comment  on  those  words  in  their  most 
literal  sense,  to  classify  them  according  to  their 
matter,  and,  in  a  word,  to  gather  together  all  the 
traditions   of  the  apostolic   age  which  had  already 


THE  OHRTSTIAN  CHURCH.  67 

disappeared.  He  therefore  -undertook  an  investiga- 
tion of  vast  extent,  which  he  carried  on  according  to 
rules  snch  as  a  sound  judgment  would  prescribe. 
Dissatisfied  with  the  small  books  which  were  said  to 
be  an  exact  picture  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  he  thought 
he  could  do  better,  and  laid  claim  to  giving  the  true 
interpretation  of  Jesus'  doctrine.  He  only  believed 
in  original  teaching,  and  so  he  spent  his  life  in  ques- 
tioning those  who  might  know  something  about 
primitive  tradition. 

"  I  am  not,"  he  says,  in  his  preface,  "  like  most  of 
those  who  allow  themselves  to  be  captivated  by  a 
flow  of  words  ;  all  I  cared  for  were  those  which  teach 
the  truth.  Full  of  mistrust  for  the  extraordinary 
precepts  which  have  got  about,  I  only  wish  to 
know  those  that  the  Saviour  had  entrusted  to  his 
disciples,  and  which  spring  from  truth  itself.  If,  for 
example,  I  were  to  meet  any  one  who  had  been  a 
follower  of  the  elders,  I  should  ask  him,  What  did 
Andrew  say?  What  did  Peter  say?  What  did 
Philip,  Thomas,  James,  John,  or  any  other  of  the 
disciples  of  our  Lord  say?  What  do  Aristion  and 
Preshuteros  Johannes,  disciples  of  the  Saviour,  say? 
For  I  did  not  think  that  all  the  books  could  bring 
me  so  much  profit  as  data  collected  from  living  and 
permanent  tradition." 

No  Apostle  had  been  alive  for  some  time  when 
Papias  conceived  this  project,  but  there  were  still 
persons  living  who  had  known  some  of  the  members 
of  that  first  upper  chamber.  The  daughters  of 
Philip,  who  had  reached  an  extreme  old  age,  and 
who  were  not  quite  in  their  right  mind,  filled 
Hierapolis  with  their  wonderful  stories,  and  Papias 
had  seen  them.  At  Ephesus  and  at  Smyrna  Pres- 
huteros Johannes  and  Aristion  both  asserted  that  they 
were  the  depositants  of  precious  traditions  which  it 
seems  they  said  they  had  received  from  the  Apostle 
John.    Papias  did  not  belong  to  that  school  which  was 


68  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

attached  to  John,  and  from  which  it  is  said  the  fourth 
Gospel  proceeded,  though  it  is  probable  that  he  knew 
Aristion  and  Presbuteros.  His  was  composed,  in  a 
great  part,  of  quotations  borrowed  from  conversa- 
tions of  these  two  persons  who  in  his  eyes  were  evi- 
dently the  best  representatives  of  the  apostolic  chain 
and  of  the  authentic  doctrine  of  Jesus.  It  is  needless 
to  say  that  the  Jewish  Christian  Papias  does  not 
mention  the  Apostle  St  Paul,  either  directly  or  in- 
directly. 

This  attempt  to  reconstruct  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
by  mere  oral  tradition  a  hundred  years  after  his  death 
would  have  been  a  paradox  if  Papias  had  refused  to 
make  use  of  the  written  texts,  and  in  this  respect  his 
method  was  not  so  exclusive  as  he  seems  to  imply 
in  his  preface.  Whilst  preferring  oral  tradition,  and 
whilst,  perhaps,  not  assigning  any  absolute  value  to 
any  of  the  texts  which  were  in  circulation,  he  read 
the  Gospels  of  which  copies  came  into  his  possession. 
It  is  certainly  vexing  that  we  cannot  judge  for  our- 
selves how  much  he  knew  in  this  respect.  But  here 
Eusebius  appears  to  have  been  very  far-sighted. 
According  to  his  usual  custom,  he  read  the  works  of 
Papias  pen  in  hand,  to  note  his  quotations  from  the 
canonical  writings,  and  he  only  found  two  of  our 
Gospels — that  of  St  Mark  and  of  St  Matthew — men- 
tioned. Papias  noticed  a  curious  opinion  of  P^^es- 
buteros  on  Mark's  Gospel,  and  the  citations  by  which 
this  latter  traditionalist  excused,  as  he  imagined, 
the  disorder  and  the  fragmentary  character  of  the 
compilation  of  the  said  Evangehst.  As  to  the  Gospel 
attributed  to  St  Matthew,  Papias  looked  upon  it  as  a 
free  and  tolerably  ftiitbful  translation  of  the  Hebrew 
work  written  by  the  Apostle  of  that  name,  and  he 
valued  it  especially  on  account  of  the  authentic 
words  of  Jesus  which  were  to  be  found  in  it.  Besides 
this,  he  met  with  an  anecdote  in  Papias,  which  formed 
part  of  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews,  but  he 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  69 

is  not  sure  that  the  Bishop  of  Hierapolis  took  them 
from  that  Gospel. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  this  learned  man  who 
was  so  well  acquainted  with  the  Scriptures,  who  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  associating,  so  it  was  said,  with 
the  disciples  of  John,  and  had  learnt  from  them  the 
words  of  Jesus,  did  not  yet  know  St  John's  Gospel,  a 
work  which  appears  to  have  been  produced  only  a  few 
miles  from  the  town  in  which  he  was  living.  Cer- 
tainly if  Eusebfus  had  found  any  traces  of  it  in  the 
writings  of  the  Bishop  of  Hierapolis,  he  would  have 
mentioned  it,  just  as  he  tells  us  that  he  found  quota- 
tions from  the  first  Epistle  of  John.  It  is  a  singular 
fact  that  Papias,  who  does  not  know  St  John's 
Gospel,  knows  the  Epistle  attributed  to  him,  and 
which  is,  in  a  manner,  intended  to  prepare  the  way 
for  the  Gospel.  Perhaps  the  forgers  communicated 
this  Epistle  to  him,  but  not  the  Gospel,  as  they  feared 
his  stringent  criticism,  or  perhaps  some  time  elapsed 
between  the  Epistle  and  the  Gospel.  One  can  never 
touch  on  this  question  of  the  writings  said  to  be 
John's  without  meeting  with  contradictions  and 
anomalies. 

From  this  mass  of  conscientious  research  Papias 
composed  five  books  which  he  called  Exegeses  or 
"  Expositions  of  the  Words  of  the  Saviour,"  and 
which  he  certainly  looked  upon  as  a  correct  repre- 
sentation of  the  teachings  of  Jesus.  The  disappear- 
ance of  this  work  is  the  most  regrettable  loss  which 
the  field  of  primitive  Christian  literature  has  ever 
sustained.  If  we  had  Papias'  book,  no  doubt  a  large 
number  of  difficulties  which  confront  us  in  that 
obscure  history  would  be  removed,  and  most  likely 
that  is  the  very  reason  why  we  do  not  possess  it. 
His  work  was  written  from  so  personal  a  point  of 
view  that  it  became  a  scandal  for  orthodoxy.  The 
four  Gospels  had  an  authority  which  excluded  every 
other,  and  in  fifty  years  we  shall  find  mystical  reasons 


70  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

why  there  should  be  four  and  why  there  could  not 
be  more  than  four.  No  author  who  declared  that  he 
did  not  think  much  of  those  holy  texts  could  possibly 
be  looked  upon  with  favour. 

Besides  this,  Papias,  although  he  seems  to  be  a 
very  severe  critic,  was  really  extremely  credulous. 
He  added  things  to  the  Gospels  which,  not  being  pro- 
tected by  the  authority  of  inspiration,  seemed  shock- 
ing and  absurd.  St  Mark,  with  his  ponderous  thauma- 
turgy,  appears  reasonable  beside  the  extravagant 
wonders  which  he  alleges.  The  teaching  and  the 
parables  which  he  attributes  to  Jesus  are,  to  say  the 
least  of  it,  extraordinary  and  absurd,  and  the  whole 
had  thatfabulous  character  which  the  Gospel  accounts, 
or  at  least  those  of  the  first  three,  avoided  so  carefully. 
The  miracles  that  he  attributed  to  Philip,  on  the 
authority  of  his  old,  half-crazy  daughters,  exceeded 
everything,  and  those  which  he  alleged  Justus 
Barsabbas  worked,  went  beyond  tradition,  whilst  his 
account  of  the  death  of  St  John,  and  especially  that 
of  Judas,  was  such  as  nobody  had  ever  heard  before. 
He  even  seemed  to  be  versed  in  the  dreams  of  Gnosti- 
cism when  he  asserts  that  God  gave  the  government 
of  the  world  to  angels,  who  acquitted  themselves 
badly  of  their  duty. 

But  his  wild  millenarianism  damaged  Papias  more 
than  anything  else  in  the  mind  of  all  the  orthodox. 
His  mistake  was  that  he  accepted  the  apocalypse  of 
the  year  68  in  the  sense  that  its  author  meant. 
With  the  Seer  of  Patmos  he  admitted  that  after 
the  first  resurrection  of  the  dead  Christ  would 
reign  personally  on  earth  for  a  thousand  years.  This 
is  what  he  makes  Jesus  say,  according  to  a  tradition 
that  had  been  handed  down  by  the  preshuteroi : — 

A  day  will  come  in  which,  vines  shall  grow,  each  of  which 
shall  contain  ten  thousand  stems  ;  and  each  stem  shall  have  ten 
thousand  branches  ;  and  each  branch,  ten  thousand  shoots  ;  and 
on  each  shoot  there  shall  be  ten   thousand  grapes  ;    and  each 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  71 

grape,  when  pressed,  shall  produce  twenty -five  thousand  hogsheads 
of  wine.  And  when  one  of  the  saints  shall  seize  one  of  the 
bunches  of  grapes,  another  bunch  will  cry  out,  "Take  me  for  I 
am  better  ;  and  bless  God  for  me."  And  each  grain  of  wheat 
shall  produce  ten  thousand  ears  ;  and  each  ear  shall  produce  ten 
thousand  grains  ;  and  each  grain,  ten  thousand  pounds  of  flour. 
And  it  shall  be  the  same  with  the  fruit  trees  as  with  all  cereals,  with 
herbs,  according  to  their  different  properties.  And  all  animals 
that  live  on  the  simple  fruits  of  the  earth  shall  be  peaceful  and 
kind    towards  each    other,    obedient    and    respectful    towards 


It  was  added  that  Judas  refused  to  believe  all  these 
fine  things,  and  from  the  day  that  he  heard  his 
Master  speak  thus  he  became  a  semi-unbeliever. 

Besides  this,  Papias  did  not  make  use  of  any  great 
amount  of  discernment  in  his  choice  of  the  words 
of  Jesus  when  he  attributed  to  him  such  which 
appear  to  have  been  scattered  about  in  the  Jewish 
apocalypses,  and  which  may  be  seen  more  particularly 
in  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch.  His  book  was  directly 
opposed  to  the  proposition  which  the  other  held 
so  dear,  and  proved  how  valuable  the  written 
Gospels  were,  by  checking  the  manner  in  which  the 
traditional  words  of  Jesus  were  degraded.  Already 
Montanist  ideas,  with  their  simple  materialism,  were 
making  themselves  felt,  and,  like  certain  Gnostics, 
Papias  could  not  understand  any  perfect  innocence 
of  life  without  a  total  abstention  from  animal  food. 
The  relative  good  sense  of  the  Galilean  dreams  had 
disappeared  to  make  way  for  the  extravagancies 
of  the  far  East,  and  so  the  impossible  was  sought 
after,  and  a  sort  of  subversive  gentleness  of  humanity, 
such  as  India  alone,  as  the  price  of  her  political 
annihilation,  has  been  able  to  realise  in  life. 

The  orthodox  Church  perceived  the  danger  of 
these  chimeras  very  quickly,  and  the  millenium, 
above  all,  became  an  object  of  repugnance  for  every 
Christian  of  common  sense.  Minds  who,  like 
Origen,  Dionysius   of  Alexandria,  Eusebius^  and  the 


72  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Hellenistic  Fathers,  saw  nothing  but  a  revealed 
philosophy  in  Jesus,  made  it  their  chief  business  not 
to  attribute  to  him  or  to  the  apostles  an  opinion 
which  daily  became  more  self-evidently  absurd,  and 
to  remove  from  the  very  threshold  of  Christianity 
that  fatal  objection  that  the  dominant  idea  of  its 
founders  was  a  manifest  dream.  Every  possible  means 
were  sought  for  to  get  rid  of  the  apocalypse,  and  the 
fidelity  of  Papias,  who  was  most  strongly  imbued  of  all 
the  ecclesiastical  writers  with  the  primitive  ideas 
to  tradition,  was  fatal  to  him.  Men  strove  to  forget 
him,  his  works  were  not  copied,  and  only  curious 
readers  cared  for  his  writings  :  and  Eusebius,  whilst 
respecting  him,  says  clearly  that  he  was  a  man  of 
small  mind,  without  any  judgment. 

Papias'  mistake  was  that  of  being  too  conservative, 
and  by  being  the  friend  of  tradition  he  seemed  to  be 
behind  everybody  else.  The  progress  of  Christianity 
would  naturally  make  of  him  an  inconvenient  man, 
and  a  witness  to  be  suppressed,  whilst  in  his  own 
time  he  certainlyresponded  to  the  state  of  manymen's 
minds.  The  millennists  looked  upon  him  as  their 
principal  authority  ;  Iren^eus  esteems  him  openly, 
and  places  him  immediately  after  the  Apostles,  on  the 
same  footing  as  Poly  carp,  and  calls  him  by  a  name 
which  is  very  appropriate  to  his  character :  "  A 
Father  of  the  Church."*  The  Bishop  of  Lyon  thought 
that  his  discourses  on  the  vines  of  the  kingdom 
of  David  were  beautiful  and  authentic.  Irenseus 
allows  these  dreams  of  a  concrete  idealism,  coarse  as 
they  may  be,  whilst  Justin  has  heard  of  them, 
and  TertuUian  and  Commodian  exceed  the  material- 
ism of  Papias  himself.  St  Hippolytus,  Methodius, 
Nepos,  Bishop  of  Arsinoe  in  Egypt,  Victorinus 
Pettavius,  Lanctantius,  the  ApoUinarists,  St  Ambrose, 
Sulpicius-Severus— or   St   Martin — beheve   the    old 

*  'A/)xa?os  dvT^p  [vide  Liddell  and  Scott  in  verb  : ) — Translator, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHaRCH.  73 

tradition  in  this  respect.  Up  to  the  fifth  centnry 
the  faithful  who  were  most  oxthodox  Christians 
maintained  that  after  the  coming  of  Antichrist,  and 
the  destruction  of  all  the  nations,  there  would  be  a 
resurrection  of  the  just  only  ;  that  those  who  were 
then  on  the  earth,  good  and  bad,  would  be  preserved 
alive ;  the  good  to  obey  the  just  who  had  been  raised 
as  their  princes,  and  the  bad  to  be  altogether  subject 
to  them.  A  Jerusalem,  consisting  altogether  of  gold, 
cypress,  and  cedar,  rebuilt  by  the  nations,  who  should 
come,  led  by  their  kings,  to  work  at  the  re-erection  of 
its  walls, — a  restored  Temple,  which  should  become 
the  centre  of  the  world, — crowds  of  victims  around 
the  altar, — the  gates  of  the  city  open  day  and  night 
in  order  to  receive  the  tribute  of  the  people, — 
pilgrims  coming  in  their  due  order  according  as  they 
were  allowed  to  come  every  week,  every  month,  or 
every  year, — the  saints,  the  patriarchs,  and  the 
prophets  passing  a  thousand  years  in  one  perpetual 
Sabbath  in  perfect  agreement  with  the  Messiah,  who 
would  give  them  a  hundred  fold  all  that  they  have 

fiven  up  for  him — this  was  the  essentially  Jewish 
aradise  of  which  many  dreamed,  even  in  the  times 
of  St  Jerome  and  St  Augustine.  Orthodoxy  fought 
against  tliese  ideas ;  but  as  they  were  openly 
expressed  in  many  passages  of  the  Fathers,  they 
were  never  strictly  qualified  as  heresies.  St  Epi- 
phanius,  who  was  a  man  of  most  strict  research,  who 
tried  to  enlarge  his  catalogue  of  heresies  by  makiog 
two  or  three  sects  out  of  one,  has  not  devoted 
a  special  chapter  to  the  millenarians — and  to  be  con- 
sistent he  must  first  of  all  have  got  rid  of  the 
Apocalypse  of  the  received  Canon  of  Scripture  ;  and 
so,  in  spite  of  the  most  ingenious  attempts  of  the 
Greek  Fathers,  every  attempt  to  do  so  was  un- 
successful. 

Besides  this  there  were  degrees  in  the  materialism 
of  those  simple  behevers.     Some,  like  Irenasus,  saw 


74  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

in  the  first  resurrection  nothing  but  a  begin ning  of 
incorruption,  a  means  of  becoming  accustomed  to  the 
sight  of  God,  a  period  during  which  the  saints  would 
enjoy  the  conversation  and  the  companionship  of  the 
angels,  and  would  treat  about  spiritual  matters  with 
them.  Others  only  dreamt  of  a  gross  paradise 
of  eating  and  drinking.  They  asserted  that  the 
saints  would  spend  all  that  time  in  feasts  of  carnal 
pleasure,  and  that  children  would  be  born  during 
Messiah's  reign ;  that  the  lords  of  that  new  world 
would  wallow  in  gold  and  precious  stones,  and  that 
every  creature  would  immediately  obey  their  slight- 
est desire. 

The  ideas  of  the  infinite,  of  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  were  so  far  absent  from  these  Jewish  dreams  that 
a  thousand  years  seemed  enough  for  the  most  exact- 
ing minds.  A  man  must  have  been  very  greedy  of  life 
if  at  the  end  of  that  time  he  had  not  been  surfeited 
with  it.  In  our  eyes,  a  paradise  of  a  thousand  years 
seems  only  a  small  thing,  as  every  year  would  bring 
us  nearer  to  the  time  when  everything  would  vanish. 
The  last  years  which  preceded  annihilation  would 
seem  to  us  to  be  a  hell,  and  the  thought  of  the  year 
999,  would  be  quite  enough  to  poison  the  happiness 
of  the  foregoing  years.  But  it  is  no  good  to  ask  for 
logic  to  try  and  solve  the  intolerable  destiny  which 
falls  to  the  lot  of  man.  Carried  away  irresistibly  to 
believe  in  what  is  right,  and  cast  into  a  world  that  is 
injustice  itself,  requiring  an  eternity  to  make  good 
his  claims,  and  stopped  short  by  the  grave,  what  can 
he  do?  He  clings  to  the  cofiin  and  yields  his  flesh 
to  his  fleshless  bones,  his  life  to  the  brain  full  of 
rottenness,  light  to  the  closed  eye,  and  pictures  to 
himself  chimeras  that  he  would  laugh  at  in  a  child, 
so  that  he  may  not  have  to  avow  that  God  has  been 
able  to  mock  his  own  creatures  to  the  extent  of  lay- 
ing upon  them  the  burden  of  duty  without  any 
future  recompense. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  75 

CHAPTER   IX. 

THE   COMMENCEMENT   OF  GNOSTICISM. 

At  this  period  Christianity  was  a  newborn  child,  and 
when  it  emerged  from  its  swaddHng-clothes,  a  most 
dangerous  sort  of  croup  threatened  to  choke  it.  The 
root  of  this  illness  was  partly  internal,  partly  external, 
and  in  some  respects  the  child  had  been  born  with 
the  germs  of  it.  In  a  great  measure,  however,  the 
illness  came  from  without,  and  the  unhealthy  locality 
in  which  the  young  Church  dwelt  caused  it  a  sort  of 
poisoning  to  which  it  very  nearly  succumbed. 

As  the  Church  grew  more  numerous  and  began  to 
develop  a  hierarchy,  the  docility  and  self-denial  of 
the  faithful  began  to  have  its  merit.  It  seemed  to 
be  irksome  to  walk  like  a  lost  sheep  amongst  the 
close  ranks  of  the  whole  herd,  and  so  men  wished  to 
leave  the  crowd  and  have  rules  for  themselves :  the 
universal  law  seemed  to  be  a  very  commonplace 
matter.  In  all  directions  small  aristocracies  were 
formed  in  the  Church  which  threatened  to  rend  the 
seamless  robe  of  Christ,  and  two  of  them  were  marked 
by  rare  originality.  One  was  the  aristocracy  of  piety, 
Montanism  ;  the  other,  the  aristocracy  of  science,  was 
Gnosticism. 

This  latter  was  the  first  to  develop  itself.  To 
minds  that  were  initiated  into  the  philosophical 
subtleties  of  the  times,  the  ideas  and  the  government  of 
the  Church  must  have  appeared  very  humble,  for  the 
via  media  of  relative  good  sense  to  which  orthodoxy 
adhered  did  not  suit  all  men's  minds,  and  refined 
intellects  asserted  that  they  had  loftier  ideas  about 
the  dogmas  and  the  life  of  Jesus  than  the  vulgar 
herd  who  took  matters  literally,  and  gave  themselves 
up  without  reasoning  to  the  direction  of  their 
pastors;  and  sublimity  of  doctrine  was  sought,  where- 


7G  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

as  it  ought  to  have  been  received  with  the  cheerful- 
ness of  a  pure  heart,  and  embraced  with  a  simple 
faith. 

Jesus  and  his  immediate  disciples  had  altogether  ne- 
glected that  part  of  the  human  intellect  which  desires 
to  know;  with  knowledge  they  had  nothing  to  do, 
and  they  only  addressed  themselves  to  the  heart  and 
the  imagination.  Cosmology,  psychology,  and  even 
lofty  theological  speculations,  were  a  blank  page  for 
them,  and  very  likely  they  were  right.  It  was  not 
the  part  of  Christianity  to  satisfy  any  vain  curiosity  ; 
it  came  to  console  those  who  suffer,  to  touch  the 
fibres  of  moral  sense,  and  to  bring  man  into  rela- 
tion not  with  some  one  or  abstract  logos,  but  with  a 
heavenly  Father  full  of  kindness,  who  is  the  author 
of  all  the  harmonies  and  of  all  the  joys  of  the 
universe.  Especially  towards  the  end  of  his  life 
St  Paul  felt  the  want  of  a  speculative  theology,  and 
his  ideas  became  assimilated  to  those  of  Philo,  who 
a  century  before  had  striven  to  impart  a  rationalistic 
turn  of  mind  to  Judaism.  About  the  same  time  the 
Churches  of  Asia  Minor  launched  forth  into  a  sort 
of  cabala  which  connected  the  part  of  Jesus  with 
a  chimerical  ontology  and  an  indefinite  series  of 
avatars.  The  school  from  which  the  fourth  Gospel 
sprung  felt  the  same  need  of  explaining  the  miracles 
of  Galilee  by  theology,  and  so  Jesus  became  the 
Divine  logos  made  flesh,  and  the  altogether  Jewish 
idea  of  the  future  appearing  of  the  Messiah  was 
replaced  by  the  theory  of  the  Paraclete.  Cerinthus 
obeyed  an  analogous  tendency.  At  Alexandria  this 
thirst  for  metaphysics  was  even  more  pronounced, 
and  produced  strange  results,  which  it  is  time  for 
us  to  study  now. 

In  that  city  a  crude  and  unwholesome  mass  of 
all  theologies  and  all  cosmogonies  had  been  formed, 
which,  however,  was  often  traversed  by  rays  of 
genius,   and  which  was  a  doctrine  that  set  up  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  77 

pretension  of  having  discovered  the  formula  of  the 
absolute,  and  gave  himself  the  ambiguous  title  of 
Gnosis — "  perfect  science."  The  man  who  was 
initiated  into  the  chimerical  doctrine  was  called  Gnos- 
ticos — the  man  of  perfect  knowledge.  At  that  time, 
Alexandria  was,  after  Home,  the  spot  where  men's 
minds  were  in  the  most  unsettled  state.  Frivolity 
and  superficial  eclecticism  produced  altogether 
unforeseen  effects,  and  everything  got  mixed  up 
together  in  those  wild  and  fantastic  brains.  Thanks 
to  an  often  unconscious  charlatanism,  the  weightiest 
problems  of  life  w^ere  turned  into  mere  cases  of 
filching,  and  every  question  about  God  and  the 
world  v^ere  solved  by  juggling  with  words  and 
hollow  formulas,  and  real  science  was  dispensed  with 
by  tricks  of  legerdemain.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  the  great  scientific  institutions  founded  by  the 
Ptolomies  had  disappeared  or  fallen  into  complete 
decay,  and  the  only  guide  which  can  prevent  man- 
kind from  talking  nonsense — that  is,  exact  science — 
existed  no  longer. 

Philosophy  did  exist  still,  and  was  trying  to  raise 
its  head  again,  but  great  minds  were  scarce.  Platonism 
had  gained  the  upper  hand  over  all  the  other  Greek 
systems  in  Egypt,  and  in  Syria,  which  was  a  great 
misfortune,  for  Platonism  is  always  dangerous,  un- 
less corrected  by  a  scientific  education.  There  were 
no  more  any  men  of  taste  refined  enough  to  ap- 
preciate the  wonderful  art  in  Plato's  Dialogues,  for 
most  received  those  charming  philosophical  fancies 
in  a  clumsy  spirit ;  but  instruction  such  as  they 
conveyed,  which  rather  satisfied  the  imagination 
than  the  reason,  would  please  Eastern  ideas.  The 
germ  of  mysticism  which  they  contained  made  its 
impress  on  those  races  who  could  not  receive 
pure  and  simple  rationalism.  Christianity  followed 
the  general  fashion,  and  already  Philo  had  sought 
to  make  Platonism  the  philosophy  of  Judaism,  and 


78  .     THE  CHRISTIAN  CHTTRCH. 

those  Fathers  of  the  Church  who  had  any  weight 
were  Platonists. 

To  accommodate  itself  to  this  •unnatural  fusion, 
Greek  genius,  healthy  and  intelligible  as  it  was,  had 
to  make  many  sacrifices.  Philosophers  were  to  be- 
lieve in  ecstasies,  in  miracles,  in  supernatural  relations 
between  God  and  man,  Plato  becomes  a  theosophist 
and  a  mystagogue,  and  the  invocation  of  good  spirits 
is  taken  as  a  serious  matter,  and  whilst  the  scientific 
spirit  disappears  altogether,  that  habit  of  mind  which 
was  fortified  by  mysteries  begins  to  gain  the  upper 
hand.  In  those  small  religious  assemblies  of  Eleusius 
and  Thrace,  where  men  were  in  the  habit  of  throwing 
dust  into  their  own  eyes  so  as  to  imagine  that  they 
knew  the  unknowable,  it  was  already  asserted  that 
the  body  was  the  prison  of  the  soul,  that  the  actual 
world  was  a  decadence  from  the  divine  world ;  teach- 
ing was  divided  into  esoteric  and  exoteric,  and  men 
into  spiritual,  animal,  and  material  beings.  The  habit 
of  clothing  doctrine  in  a  mythical  form  after  the 
manner  of  Plato,  and  of  explaining  ancient  texts  alle- 
gorically  after  the  manner  of  Philo,  became  general. 
The  highest  bliss  was  to  be  initiated  into  pretended 
secrets,  into  a  superior  gnosis.  These  ideas  of  a  chi- 
merical intellectual  aristocracy  daily  gained  ground, 
and  the  truth  was  looked  upon  as  a  privilege  reserved 
for  a  small  number  of  the  initiated,  and  thus  every 
master  became  a  charlatan  who  sought  to  increase 
the  number  of  his  customers  by  selling  them  the  secret 
of  the  absolute. 

The  fields  of  the  propaganda  of  the  gliosis  and  of 
Christianity  in  Alexandria  were  very  closely  allied. 
Gnostics  and  Christians  resembled  each  other  in  their 
ardent  wish  to  penetrate  into  religious  mysteries 
without  any  positive  science,  of  which  they  were  both 
equally  ignorant,  and  this  brought  about  their  sublime 
amalgamation.  On  the  one  hand,  the  Gnostics,  who 
alleged  that  they  embraced  every  belief,  and  accus- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  79 

tomed  as  they  were  to  look  upon  the  gods  of  the 
nations  as  divine  geons  much  inferior  to  the  supreme 
God,  wished  to  understand  Christianity,  and  received 
Jesus  enthusiastically  as  an  incaroate  aeon  to  be  placed 
side  by  side  with  so  many  others,  giving  him  a  chief 
place  in  their  formulas  of  the  philosophies  of  history. 
On  the  other  hand,  Christians  who  had  any  intellec- 
tual requirements,  and  who  wished  to  attach  the 
Gospel  to  some  system  of  philosophy,  found  what 
they  required  in  the  obscure  metaphysics  of  the 
Gnostics.  Then  there  happened  something  quite 
analogous  to  what  happened  about  fifty  years  ago, 
when  a  certain  philosophical  system,  whose  pro- 
gramme, like  that  of  Gnosticism,  was  to  explain 
everything,  and  to  understand  everything,  adopted 
Christianity,  and  proclaimed  itself  to  be  Christian  in  a 
superior  sense,  and  Catholic  and  Protestant  theo- 
logians might  be  seen  at  the  same  time  adopting  a 
number  of  philosophical  ideas  which  they  thought 
were  compatible  with  their  theology,  because  they  did 
not  wish  to  appear  strange  to  their  century. 

The  Fathers  of  the  Church  insist  upon  it  that  all 
this  rank  and  poisonous  growth  had  its  origin  in  the 
Samaritan  sects  which  sprang  from  Simon  of  Gitto 
(Simon  Magus),  and  he  certainly  seems  already  to 
have  presented  most  of  the  features  which  charac- 
terise Gnosticism.  The  Great  Announce^nent^  which 
he  certainly  did  not  write  himself,  but  which  most 
likely  represents  his  doctrines,  is  an  altogether  Gnostic 
work.  His  followers  Menander,  Cleobius,  and  Dosis- 
theus  seem  to  have  had  the  same  views,  and  all 
Catholic  writers  make  Menander  to  be  the  father  of 
all  the  great  Gnostics  of  Hadrian's  time.  If  we  are 
to  beheve  Plotinus  on  the  other  hand,  a  travestied 
and  disfigured  Platonic  philosophy  was  the  only 
origin  of  Gnosticism.  Such  explanations  appear  to 
be  altogether  insufficient  to  account  for  such  a  com- 
plicated fact.     There  were  Christian,  Jewish,  Samari, 


80  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

tan  Gnostics,  but  there  were  also  non-Christian 
Gnostics.  Plotinus,  who  wrote  a  whole  book  against 
them,  never  imagined  that  he  had  anything  to  do 
with  a  Christian  sect.  The  systems  of  the  Samaritan 
Gnostics,  those  of  Basilides,  of  Valentinus,  of  Satur- 
ninus,  present  such  shrinking  similarities  that  one 
must  suppose  that  they  have  a  common  origin, 
though  they  do  not  seem  to  have  borrowed  from 
each  other.  They  must  therefore  have  dipped  into 
an  earlier  source,  to  which  Philo,  Apollos,  and  St  Paul, 
when  he  wrote  his  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  con- 
tributed, and  from  which  the  Jewish  cabala  also  seems 
to  have  proceeded. 

It  is  an  impossible  task  to  unravel  all  that  con- 
tributed to  the  formation  of  that  strange  religious 
philosophy,  Neo-platonism,  a  tissue  of  poetical  dreams, 
the  ideas  that  men  had  in  consequence  of  apocryphal 
traditions  about  Pythagorism,  already  supplied  models 
for  a  mythical  philosophy  bordering  on  religion. 
About  the  very  time  when  Basilides,  Valentinus,  and 
Saturninus  were  developing  their  dreams,  one  of 
Hadrian's  pensioned  orators,  Philo  of  Byblos,  gave  to 
the  world  the  old  Phoenician  theogonies,  mixed  up  as 
it  seems  with  the  Jewish  cabala,  under  a  form  of 
divine  genealogies  which  were  very  analogous  to 
those  of  the  first  Gnostics.  The  Egyptian  religion, 
which  was  still  in  a  very  flourishing  state,  with  its 
mysterious  ceremonies  and  its  striking  symbols, 
Greek  mysteries  and  classical  polytheism  interpreted 
in  an  allegorical  sense.  Orphism,  with  its  empty  for- 
mulas ;  Brahminism,  which  had  become  a  theory  of  end- 
less emanations  ;  Buddhism,  oppressed  by  the  dream  of 
an  expiatory  existence,  and  by  its  myriads  of  Buddhas; 
ancient  Persian  Dualism,  which  was  so  contagious,  and 
to  which  perhaps  the  ideas  of  the  Messiah  and  of  the 
millenium  owed  their  first  existence,  all  these  in  turn 
appeared  as  profound  and  seductive  dogmas  to  the 
imaginations    of  men  who    were  beside   themselves 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  81 

between  hopes  and  fears.  India,  and,  above  all, 
Buddhism,  were  known  in  Alexandria,  and  from  them 
the  Egyptians  borrowed  the  doctrine  of  metampsy- 
chosis,  learning  to  look  on  life  as  the  imprisonment 
of  the  soul  in  the  body,  and  the  theory  of  successive 
deliverances.  Gnosticos  has  the  same  meaning  as 
Buddha — "he  who  knows."  Following  the  Persian 
view,  they  took  the  dogma  of  two  principles  indepen- 
dent one  of  the  other, — the  identification  of  matter 
with  evil,  the  belief  that  the  passions  which  corrupt 
the  soul  are  emanations  from  the  body,  the  division  of 
the  world  into  ministeries  or  adminstratious  which 
have  been  entrusted  to  genii.  Judaism  and  Chris- 
tianity were  mixed  up  together  in  this  farrago  of 
nonsense,  and  more  than  one  believer  in  Jesus 
thought  that  he  could  graft  the  Gospels  on  to  a 
ludicrous  system  of  theology  which  seemed  to  say 
something  without  explaining  anything  in  reality, 
whilst  more  than  one  Israelite  was  already  playing 
a  prelude  to  the  follies  of  the  cabala,  which  is,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  nothing  but  Jewish  Gnosticism. 

As  we  have  said,  the  Church  of  Alexandria  was 
soon  tinged  with  these  chimeras.  Philo  and  Plato 
already  had  many  readers  amongst  the  faithful  who 
had  any  education.  Many  joined  the  Church,  already 
imbued  with  philosophy,  and  found  Christian  teaching 
poor  and  meagre,  whilst  the  Jewish  Bible  seemed  to 
them  to  be  still  more  feeble,  and,  in  imitation  of  Philo, 
they  saw  in  it  nothing  but  an  allegory.  They 
applied  the  same  method  to  the  Gospel,  and  in  some 
fashion  remodelled  it,  to  which  it  lent  itself  easily,  on 
account  of  its  plastic  character.  All  the  peculiarities 
of  the  life  of  Jesus  regained  something  sublime, 
according  to  these  new  evangelists  ;  all  his  miracles 
became  symbolical,  and  the  follies  of  the  Jewish 
ghemetria  were  heightened  and  aggravated.  Like 
Cerinthus,  these  new  doctors  treated  the  Old  Testa- 
ment as  a  secondary  revelation,  and  could  not  under- 

F 


82  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

stand  why  Christianity  should  maintain  any  bond  of 
union  with  that  particular  God,  Jehovah,  who  is  no 
absolute  being.  Could  there  be  any  stronger  proof 
of  his  weakness  than  the  state  of  ruin  and  desolation 
in  which  he  had  left  his  own  city,  Jerusulem? 
Certainly,  they  said,  Jesus  could  see  further  and 
higher  than  the  founders  of  Judaism,  but  his  apostles 
did  not  comprehend  him,  and  the  texts  which  were 
supposed  to  represent  his  doctrine  had  been  falsi- 
fied. The  gliosis  alone,  thanks  to  secret  tradition, 
was  in  possession  of  the  truth,  and  a  vast  system  oiP 
successive  emanations  contains  the  whole  secret  of 
philosophy  and  history.  Christianity,  which  was  the 
last  act  of  the  tragedy  that  the  universe  is  constantly 
playing,  was  the  work  of  the  seon  Christos,  who,  by 
his  intimate  union  with  the  man  Jesus,  saved  every- 
thing that  could  be  saved  in  humanity. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  Christianity  of  those 
sectaries  was  that  of  Cerinthus  and  the  Ebionites. 
Their  Gospel  conformed  to  the  Hebrew  Gospel,  and 
they  described  the  scene  of  the  baptism  of  Jesus  as 
it  was  related  in  that  Gospel,  and  believed,  with  the 
Docetse,  that  Jesus  had  nothing  human  but  his 
appearance.  The  Galilean  accounts  appeared  to 
them  nothing  but  childish  nonsense,  altogether 
unworthy  of  the  Deity,  and  which  must  be  ex- 
plained allegorically.  For  them  the  man  Jesus  was 
nothing,  the  seon  Christos  was  everything  ;  and  his 
earthly  life,  far  from  being  the  basis  of  doctrine, 
was  nothing  but  a  difficulty  to  be  got  rid  of  at 
any  price. 

The  ideas  of  the  first  Christians  about  the  appear- 
ance of  the  Messiah  in  the  heavens,  about  the 
Resurrection,  and  the  Last  Judgment,  were  looked 
upon  as  antiquated.  The  moment  of  the  Resur- 
rection for  every  individual  was  that  at  which  he 
became  a  gnosticos.  A  certain  relaxation  of  morals 
was  the  consequence  of  these  false  aristocratic  ideas  ; 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  83 

mysticism  has  always  been  a  moral  danger,  for  it 
too  easily  gives  rise  to  the  idea  that  by  initiation 
man  is  dispensed  from  the  obligation  of  ordinary 
duties.  "  Gold,"  said  these  false  Christians,  *'  can 
be  dragged  through  the  mire  without  becoming 
soiled."  They  smiled  when  scruples  about  meats 
offered  to  idols  were  mentioned  to  them  ;  they  were 
present  at  plays  and  at  gladiatorial  games ;  and  they 
were  accused  of  speaking  lightly  of  offences  against 
chastity,  and  of  saying, — "  What  is  of  the  flesh  is 
flesh,  and  what  is  of  the  spirit  is  spirit  ;"  and  they 
expressed  their  antipathy  for  martyrdom  in  terms 
that  must  have  hurt  the  feeliugs  of  real  Christians 
most  profoundly.  As  Christ  had  not  suffered,  why 
should  they  suffer  for  him  '^  "  The  real  testimony 
which  they  ought  to  render  to  God,"  they  said, 
*'  was  to  know  him  as  he  is,  it  is  an  act  of  suicide 
for  a  man  to  confess  God  by  his  death."  According 
to  them,  the  martyrs  were  nearly  always  wrong, 
and  the  pains  that  they  suffered  were  the  just 
chastisement  for  crimes  that  would  have  merited 
death,  and  which  remained  hidden.  Far  from 
complaining,  they  ought  to  be  thankful  to  the  law 
which  transformed  their  just  punishment  into  an  act 
of  heroism,  and  if  there  were  a  few  rare  cases  of 
innocent  martyrs,  they  were  analogous  to  the  suffer- 
ings of  childhood,  and  fate  only  was  to  be  blamed 
for  it. 

The  sources  of  piety,  however,  were  not  yet  cor- 
rupted by  a  proud  rationalism,  which  generally  frees 
itself  from  material  practices.  A  liturgy,  veiled  in 
secrecy,  offered  abundant  sacramental  consolation 
to  the  faithful  of  those  singular  Churches,  and  life 
became  a  mystery,  each  one  of  whose  acts  was 
sacred.  Baptism  was  a  solemn  ceremony,  and  re- 
called the  worship  of  Mithra.  The  formula  which 
the  officiating  minister  pronounced  was  in  Hebrew, 
and  immersion  there  followed  the  anointing,  which 


84  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

the  Church  adopted  later.  Extrerae  unction  for  the 
dying  was  also  administered  in  a  manner  which 
would  naturally  create  a  great  effect,  and  which  the 
Catholic  Church  has  imitated.  Amongst  the  sec- 
taries, worship,  like  dogma,  was  further  removed  from 
Jewish  simplicity  than  in  the  churches  of  Peter  and 
Paul,  and  the  Gnostics  admitted  several  Pagan 
rites,  chants,  hymns,  and  painted  or  sculptured 
representations  of  Christ. 

In  this  respect  their  influence  on  the  history  of 
Christianity  was  of  the  highest  order,  and  they 
formed  the  bridge  by  which  a  number  of  Pagan 
practices  were  introduced  into  the  Church.  In  the 
Christian  propaganda  they  played  a  principal  part, 
for,  by  means  of  Gnosticism,  Christianity  first  of 
all  proclaimed  itself  as  a  new  religion  which  was 
destined  to  endure,  and  which  possessed  a  form  of 
worship  and  sacraments,  and  which  could  produce 
an  art  of  its  own.  By  means  of  Gnosticism,  the 
Church  effected  a  juncture  with  the  ancient  mysteries, 
and  appropriated  to  herself  all  that  they  possessed 
that  satisfied  popular  requirements.  Thanks  to  it, 
in  the  fourth  century,  the  world  could  pass  from 
Paganism  to  Christianity  without  noticing  it,  and, 
above  all,  without  guessing  that  it  was  becoming 
Jewish.  The  eclecticism  and  the  ingratitude  of  the 
Catholic  Church  are  here  shown  in  a  wonderful 
manner.  Whilst  repudiating  and  anathematising 
the  chimeras  of  the  Gnostics,  orthodoxy  received 
a  number  of  happy  popular  devotional  inspirations 
from  them,  and  from  the  theurgical  the  Church 
advanced  to  the  sacramental  view.  Her  feasts,  her 
sacraments,  her  art  were  in  a  great  measure  taken 
from  those  sects  which  she  condemned.  Christianity, 
pure  and  simple,  has  not  left  any  material  object,  for 
primitive  Christian  archeology  is  Gnostic.  In  those 
small,  free,  and  inventive  sects  hfe  was  without 
rule  but  full  of  vitahty.      Their  very  metaphysics 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHTmCH.  85 

already  made  themselves  felt,  and  faith  was  obliged 
to  reason.  By  the  side  of  the  Church  there  was 
henceforth  to  be  found  the  school ;  by  the  side  of 
the  elder,  the  teacher. 

Moreover,  some  men  of  rare  talent,  making  them- 
selves the  organs  of  those  doctrines  which  had 
hitherto  been  without  authority,  withdrew  them  from 
that  state  of  individual  speculation  in  which  they 
might  have  remained  indefinitely,  and  raised  them 
to  the  height  of  a  real  event  in  the  history  of 
humanity. 


CHAPTER   X. 

BASLIDIES,  VALENTINUS,  SATURNINUS,  CARPOCRATES. 

Basilides,  who  seems  to  have  come  from  Syria 
to  live  at  Alexandria,  in  Lower  Egypt,  and  in  the 
adjacent  departments,  was  the  first  of  those  foreign 
dogmatisers  to  whom  one  hesitates  at  times  to  give 
the  name  of  Christian.  He  is  said  to  have  been  a 
disciple  of  Menander,  and  seems  to  have  had  two 
courses  of  instruction  :  the  one,  which  was  intended 
for  the  initiated,  was  restricted  to  religions  of 
abstract  metaphysics  which  were  more  in  keeping 
with  those  of  Aristotle  than  those  of  Christ,  and 
the  other  was  a  sort  of  mythology,  founded,  like  the 
Jewish  cabala,  on  abstractions,  which  men  took  for 
realities.  The  metaphysics  of  Basilides  remind  us  of 
those  of  Hegel,  because  of  their  unhealthy  grandeur. 
His  system  owed  much  to  the  Stoic  cosmogony. 
Universal  life  is  a  development  of  a  ^avcrrg^/xa. 
Just  as  the  seed  contains  the  trunk,  the  roots,  the 
flowers,  and  the  fruits  of  the  future  plant,  so  the 
future  of  the  universe  is  only  an  evolution.  Filia- 
tion is  the  secret  of  everything  ;  the  species  is  the 
child  of  the  genius,  and  is  only  an  expansion  of  it. 


86  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

The  aspiration  of  creatures  is  towards  the  good.  Pro- 
gress is  made  by  that  mind  which  stops  between  two 
boundaries  {Msdopiov  vvsvfia), — which,  having,  as  it  were, 
one  foot  in  the  ideal  and  the  other  in  the  material 
world,  makes  the  ideal  circulate  amongst  the  ma- 
terial, and  continually  raises  it.  A  sort  of  universal 
groaning  of  nature,  a  melancholy  feeling  of  the 
universe,  calls  us  to  final  repose,  which  will  consist 
in  the  general  unconsciousness  of  individuals  in  the 
bosom  of  God,  and  in  the  absolute  extinction  of 
every  desire.  "  The  good  tidings  "  of  progress  were 
brought  into  the  world  by  Jesus,  the  son  of  Mary. 
Already,  before  him,  chosen  heathens  and  Jews 
had  caused  the  spiritual  element  to  triumph  over 
the  material ;  but  Jesus  completely  separated  these 
two  elements,  so  that  only  the  spiritual  element  re- 
mained. Thus  death  could  take  nothing  from  him.  All 
men  ought  to  imitate  him,  to  attain  the  same  end. 
They  will  do  so  by  receiving  the  "  glad  tidings,"  that 
is  to  say,  the  transcendent  gnosis,  eagerly. 

In  order  to  make  these  ideas  more  accessible,  Basil- 
ides  gave  them  a  cosmogonic  form  analogous  to 
those  which  were  common  in  the  religions  of  Phoe- 
nicia, Persia,  and  Assyria.  It  was  a  sort  of  divine 
epopaeia,  having  for  its  heroes  divine  attributes  per- 
sonified, and  whose  diverse  episodes  represented  the 
strife  between  good  and  evil.  The  good  is  the 
supreme  god,  ineffable  and  lost  in  himself  His  name 
is  Abraxas.  That  eternal  being  develops  himself  in 
seven  perfections,  which  form  with  the  Being  himself 
the  divine  ogdoade.  The  seven  perfections,  Nous, 
Logos,  Sophia,  etc.,  by  pairing  together,  have  produced 
the  orders  of  inferior  angels  (asons,  worlds),  to  the 
number  of  three  hundred  and  sixty-five.  That  num- 
ber is  made  up  by  the  letters  of  the  word  Abraxas 
added  together  according  to  their  numerical  value. 

The  angels  of  the  last  heaven,  whose  prince  is 
Jehovah,  created  the  earth,  wliich  is  the  most  medi- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  87 

ocre  of  the  worlds,  the  most  sullied  by  matter,  on  the 
model  furnished  by  Sophia,  but  under  the  empire  of 
necessities,  which  made  a  mixture  of  good  and  evil 
out  of  it.  Jehovah  and  the  demiurges  divided  the 
government  of  this  world  between  them,  and  distri- 
buted the  provinces  and  the  nations  amongst  them- 
selves. Those  are  the  local  gods  of  the  different 
countries.  Jehovah  chose  the  Jews :  he  is  an  invad- 
ing and  a  conquering  God.  The  Law,  his  work,  is  a 
mixture  of  material  and  spiritual  views.  The  other 
local  gods  were  obliged  to  coalesce  against  this 
aggressive  neighbour,  who,  in  spite  of  the  division 
that  had  been  agreed  upon,  wished  to  subjugate  all 
nations  to  his  own. 

To  put  an  end  to  this  war  of  the  gods,  the  supreme 
God  sent  the  prince  of  the  seons,  the  Nous,  his  first 
son,  with  the  mission  to  deliver  men  from  the  power 
of  the  demiurge  angels.  The  Nous  did  not  exactly 
become  incarnate.  At  the  moment  of  baptism  the 
Nous  attached  to  itself  the  person  of  the  man  Jesus, 
and  did  not  leave  it  till  the  moment  of  the  Passion. 
According  to  some  disciples  of  Basilides,  a  substitu- 
tion took  place  at  that  moment,  and  Simon  of 
Gyrene  was  crucified  in  Jesus'  stead.  The  persecu- 
tions to  which  Jesus  and  the  apostles  were  subjected 
by  the  Jews  arose  from  the  anger  of  Jehovah, 
who,  seeing  that  his  rule  was  threatened,  made  a 
last  effort  to  avert  the  dangers  of  the  future. 

The  place  which  Basilides  attributed  to  Jesus  in 
the  economy  of  the  world's  history  does  not  differ 
essentially  from  that  which  is  attributed  to  him 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians  and  in  the  pseudo- 
Johannine  Gospel.  Basihdes  knew  some  words  of 
Hebrew,  and  had  certainly  taken  his  Christianity 
from  the  Ebionites.  He  gave  a  so-called  Glaucias, 
St  Peter's  interpreter,  as  his  master.  He  made  use 
of  the  New  Testament  very  nearly  as  it  had  been 
formed  by  general  consent,  excluding  certain  books, 


88  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

particularly  the  epistles  to  the  Hebrews,  to  Titus 
and  to  Timothy,  admitting  St  John's  Gospel.  He 
wrote  twenty-four  books  of  allegorical  Expositions 
of  the  Gospel,  without  our  being  able  to  tell  exactly 
what  texts  he  made  use  of.  After  the  example  of 
all  the  sects  that  surrounded  the  Church,  and,  in  a 
measure,  sucked  her,  Basilides  composed  apocryphal 
books, — esoteric  traditions  attributed  to  Matthias; 
revelations  borrowed  from  chimerical  people,  Bar- 
cabban  and  Barcoph ;  prophecies  of  Cham.  Like 
Valentinus,  he  seems  to  have  composed  sacred  psalms 
or  canticles.  Lastly,  besides  the  commentary  on 
the  received  Gospels  that  he  had  edited,  there  was 
a  gospel  analogous  to  that  of  the  Hebrews,  of  the 
Egyptians,  and  of  the  Ebionites,  which  differed 
little  from  that  of  Matthew,  which  bore  the  name 
of  Basilides.  His  son,  Isidore,  carried  on  his  teach- 
ing, wrote  commentaries  on  the  apocryphal  prophets, 
and  developed  his  myths.  Weak  Christians  easily 
allowed  themselves  to  be  seduced  by  these  dreams. 
A  learned  and  esteemed  Christian  writer,  Agrippa 
Castor,  constituted  himself  its  ardent  adversary  as 
soon  as  it  appeared. 

Theurgy  is  generally  the  ordinary  companion  of 
religious  intemperance.  The  disciples  of  Basilides 
did  not  invent,  but  they  adopted,  the  magic  virtues 
of  the  word  Abraxas.  They  were  also  reproached 
with  a  very  lax  state  of  morals.  It  is  certain  that 
when  so  much  importance  is  attached  to  meta- 
physical formulas,  simple  and  good  morality  seems  to 
be  a  humble  and  almost  indifferent  matter.  A  man 
who  has  become  perfect  by  gnosis  can  allow  himself 
anything.  It  seems  that  Basilides  did  not  say  that, 
but  he  was  made  to  say  it,  and  that  was  to  a  certain 
point  the  consequence  of  his  theosophy.  The  saying 
which  was  attributed  to  him, — "  We  are  men,  the 
others  are  only  swine  and  dogs,"  was,  after  all,  only 
the  brutal  translation  of  the  more  acceptable  saying, — 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  89 

"I  am  speaking  for  one  in  a  thousand."  The  taste 
for  mystery  Avhich  that  sect  had,  its  habit  of  avoiding 
the  light  and  hiding  itself  from  the  eyes  of  the 
multitude,  the  silence  that  was  exacted  from  the 
initiated,  gave  rise  to  those  rumours.  Many  calum- 
nies were  mixed  up  with  all  that.  Thus  Basilides 
was  accused  of  having  maintained,  like  all  the  Gnos- 
tics, that  it  was  no  crime  to  renounce  apparently  the 
beliefs  for  which  one  was  persecuted  ;  to  lend  oneself 
to  acts  indifferent  in  themselves,  which  the  civil  law 
exacted ;  even  to  go  so  far  as  to  curse  Christ,  so  long 
as  in  one's  mind  one  distinguished  between  the  aeon 
Nous  and  the  man  Jesus.  Now  we  have  the  original 
text  of  Basilides,  and  we  find  in  it  a  much  more 
moderate  criticism  of  martyrdom  than  that  which  his 
opponents  attribute  to  him.  It  is  true  that,  attribut- 
ing no  importance  whatever  to  the  real  Jesus,  the 
Gnostics  had  no  reason  to  die  for  him.  On  the 
whole  they  were  only  semi-Christians.  Perhaps  the 
superstitions  which  sprang  from  the  sect  were  not 
the  faults  of  Basilides.  Some  of  his  maxims  were 
very  beautiful,  but  his  style,  from  the  fragments 
which  we  possess,  appears  to  have  been  obscure  and 
pretentious. 

Valentinus  was  certainly  superior  to  him.  Some- 
thing sorrowful,  a  gloomy  and  icy  resignation  makes 
a  sort  of  bad  dream  out  of  the  system  of  Basilides. 
Valentinus  penetrates  everything  with  love  and  pity. 
The  redemption  of  Christ  has  for  him  a  feeling  of 
joy  ;  his  doctrine  was  a  consolation  for  many,  and 
real  Christians  adopted,  or  at  least  admired  him. 

That  celebrated,  enhghtened  man,  born,  as  it  seems, 
in  Lower  Egypt,  was  educated  in  the  schools  of 
Alexandria,  and  first  taught  there.  He  would  also 
appear  to  have  dogmatised  in  Cyprus.  Even  his 
enemies  allow  that  he  had  genius,  a  vast  amount  of 
knowledge,  and  rare  eloquence.  Gained  over  by  the 
great  seductions  of  Christianity,  and  attached  to  the 


90  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Church,  but  nourished  on  Plato,  and  full  of  the  recol- 
lections of  profane  learning,  he  was  not  satisfied  with 
the  spiritual  nourishment  which  the  pastors  gave  to 
the  simple :  he  wanting  something  higher.  He  con- 
ceived a  sort  of  Christian  rationalism,  a  general 
system  of  the  world,  in  which  Christianity  would 
have  a  place  in  the  first  rank,  but  would  not  be 
everything.  Enlightened  and  tolerant,  he  admitted 
a  heathen  as  well  as  a  Jewish  revelation.  A  number 
of  things  in  the  Church's  teaching  appeared  to  him 
coarse  and  inadmissible  by  a  cultivated  mind.  He 
called  the  orthodox  "  Galileans,"  not  without  a  shade 
of  irony.  With  nearly  all  the  Gnostics,  he  denied 
the  resurrection  of  the  body,  or  rather  maintained 
that,  as  far  as  regards  those  who  are  perfect,  the 
resurrection  is  accomplished  already, — that  it  consists 
in  the  knowledge  of  the  truth, — that  the  soul  alono 
can  be  saved. 

If  Valentinus  had  limited  himself  to  cherishing 
these  thoughts  internally,  to  speaking  about  them  to 
his  friends,  and  to  not  frequenting  the  Church  except 
in  so  far  as  it  answered  to  his  feelings,  his  position 
would  have  been  altogether  correct.  But  he  wanted 
more  :  with  his  ideas,  he  wished  to  have  a  place  of 
importance  in  the  Church ;  and  he  was  wrong,  for  the 
order  of  speculation  in  which  he  delighted  was  not 
one  which  the  Church  could  encourage.  The  Church's 
object  was  the  amelioration  of  morals  and  the  diminu- 
tion of  the  people's  sufi'erings,  not  science  or  philo- 
sophy. Valentinus  ought  to  have  been  satisfied  with 
being  a  philosopher.  Far  from  that,  he  tried  to  make 
disciples,  like  the  ecclesiastics.  When  he  had  insinu- 
ated himself  into  any  one's  confidence,  he  proposed 
different  questions  to  him,  in  order  to  prove  the 
absurdity  of  orthodoxy.  At  the  same  time,  he  tried 
to  persuade  him  that  there  was  something  better 
than  that :  he  expounded  that  superior  wisdom  with 
mystery.     If  objections  were  made  to  him,  he  would 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  91 

let  the  discussion  drop  with  an  air  that  seemed  to 
say,  "  You  will  never  be  anything  but  a  simple 
believer."  His  disciples  showed  themselves  equally 
unconceivable.  When  they  were  asked  questions, 
they  wrinkled  their  brows,  contracted  their  faces,  and 
sHpped  away,  saying,  ''  0  depth  !  "  If  they  were 
pressed,  they  affirmed  the  common  faith  amidst  a 
thousand  ambiguities,  then  returned  to  their  avowal, 
baffled  their  opponent,  and  escaped,  saying,  "  You  do 
not  understand  anything  about  the  matter." 

Already  it  was  the  essence  of  Catholicism  not  to 
suffer  any  aristocracy, — that  of  elevated  philosophy 
no  more  than  that  of  pretentious  piety.  Valentinus's 
position  was  a  very  false  one.  In  order  to  make 
himself  acceptable  to  the  people,  he  conformed  his 
discourses  to  those  of  the  Church  ;  but  the  bishops 
were  on  their  guard,  and  excluded  him.  The  simple 
believers  allowed  themselves  to  be  caught ;  they  even 
murmured  because  the  bishops  drove  such  good  Catho- 
lics out  of  their  communion.  Useless  sympathy  I  for 
already  the  Episcopate  had  restricted  the  Church  on 
all  sides.  Valentinus  thus  remained  in  the  state  of 
an  unfortunate  candidate  for  the  pastoral  ministry. 
He  wrote  letters,  homilies,  and  hymns  of  a  lofty 
moral  tone.  The  fragments  by  him  that  have  been 
preserved  have  vigour  and  brilliancy,  but  their 
phraseology  is  eccentric.  It  resembles  the  mania 
which  the  Saint  Simonians  had  of  building  up  great 
theories  in  abstract  language  to  express  realities 
which  were  almost  paltry.  His  general  system  had 
not  that  appearance  of  good  sense  that  succeeds 
with  the  masses.  The  pretended  Gospel  of  St  John, 
with  its  far  simpler  combinations  of  the  Logos  and 
the  Paraclete,  had  far  greater  success. 

Valentinus  starts,  like  all  the  Gnostics,  from  a 
system  of  metaphysics  whose  fundamental  principle 
is  that  God  manifests  himself  by  successive  emana- 
tions, of  which  the  world  is  the  most  humble.     The 


92  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

world  is  a  work  which  is  too  imperfect  for  an  infinite 
workman :  it  is  the  miserable  copy  of  a  divine  model 
at  the.  beginning.  The  Abyss  (Bythos),  inaccessible, 
unfathomable,  which  is  also  called  Proarche,  Propator^ 
Silence  {Sige)  is  its  eteroal  companion.  After  cen- 
turies of  solitude  and  of  dumb  contemplation  of  its 
being,  the  Abyss  wishes  at  length  to  appear  in  the 
outer  world,  and  with  his  companion  begets  a  syzygia^ 
Nous  or  Monogenes  and  A  lethia  (Truth)  ;  they  beget 
Logos  and  Zoe,  who  in  their  turn  beget  Anthropos  and 
Ecclesia.  Together  with  the  primordial  couple  those 
three  syzygias  form  the  ogdoade,  and  with  other 
syzygias  emanated  from  Logos  and  Zoe^ivoxn.  Anthropos 
and  Ecclesia  the  divine  Pleroma,  the  plenitude  of  the 
divinity  which  for  the  future  is  conscious  of  its  own 
existence.  These  couples  fall  from  perfection  in 
measure  as  they  get  further  and  further  from  the 
first  source ;  at  the  same  time,  the  love  of  perfection, 
the  regret,  the  desire  to  return  to  their  first  principle, 
are  awakened  in  them.  Sophia  especially  makes  a 
bold  attempt  to  embrace  the  invisible  Bythos,  who 
only  reveals  himself  by  his  Monogenes  (only  son). 
She  continually  wears  herself  out,  extends  herself  to 
embrace  the  invisible  ;  drawn  away  by  the  sweetness 
of  her  love,  she  is  on  the  point  of  being  absorbed  by 
Bythos,  of  being  annihilated.  The  whole  Pleroma  is 
in  confusion.  In  order  to  re-establish  harmony,  Nous 
or  Monogenes  engender  Christos  and  Pnenma,  who 
pacify  the  83ons,  and  make  equality  reign  amongst 
them.  Then,  out  of  gratitude  for  Bythos,  who  has 
pacified  them,  the  seons  bring  together  all  their  per- 
fections, and  form  the  seon  Jesus,  the  firstborn  of 
creation,  as  Monogenes  had  been  the  firstborn  of  the 
emanation.  Thus  Jesus  becomes  in  the  inferior  world 
what  Christos  had  been  in  the  divine  Pleroma. 

In  consequence  of  the  ardour  of  her  insensate 
passion,  Sophia  had  produced  by  herself  a  sort 
of    hermaphrodite    abortion   without    consciousness, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  93 

Hakamoth,  also  called  Sophia  Prunicos,  or  Prunice, 
who,  driven  from  the  Pleroma,  moved  about  in 
the  void  and  the  night.  Moved  by  compassion  for 
this  unfortunate  being,  Christos,  leaning  on  Stauros 
(the  cross),  comes  to  her  aid,  gives  the  erring  aeon 
a  determinate  form  and  consciousness ;  but  he  does 
not  give  her  knowledge,  and  Hakamoth^  again  re- 
jected from  the  Pleroma,  is  cast  into  space.  Given 
up  to  all  the  violence  of  her  desires,  she  brings 
forth,  on  the  one  hand,  the  soul  of  the  world,  and  all 
psychic  substances  ;  and  on  the  other,  matter.  In 
her,  anguish  alternates  with  hope.  At  one  time 
she  feared  her  annihilation ;  at  other  times  the 
recollection  of  her  lost  past  filled  her  with  joy. 
Her  tears  formed  the  moist  element ;  her  smile  was 
the  light ;  her  sadness,  opaque  matter.  At  last  the 
aeon  Jesus  came  to  save  her,  and,  in  her  delight, 
the  poor  delivered  creature  gave  birth  to  the  spiri- 
tual element, — the  third  of  the  elements  that  constitute 
the  world.  Hakamoth,  or  Prunice,  nevertheless  does 
not  rest ;  agitation  is  her  essence  ;  there  is  a  work 
of  God  going  on  in  her ;  she  endures  a  continual 
flow  of  blood.  The  bad  part  of  her  activity  is 
concentrated  on  the  demons ;  the  other  part,  re- 
united to  matter,  implants  in  it  the  germ  of  a  fire 
which  shall  devour  it  some  day. 

With  the  psychic  element  Hakamoth  creates  the 
demiurge,  which  serves  her  as  an  instrument  for 
organising  the  remaining  beings.  The  demiurge 
creates  the  seven  worlds,  and  man  in  the  last  of 
these  worlds.  But  the  surprising  thing  is  that  a 
superior  and  altogether  divine  principle  is  revealed 
in  man,  and  that  is  the  spiritual  element,  which 
Hakamoth  had  imparted  to  her  work  from  oversight. 
The  creator  is  jealous  of  his  own  creature  ;  he  lays  a 
snare  for  him  (the  prohibition  to  eat  the  fruit  of 
Paradise) ;  man  falls  into  it.  He  would  have  been 
eternally  lost  except  for  the  love  which  his  mother 


94  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Hakamotli  bore  him.  The  redemption  of  each 
world  has  been  accomphshed  by  a  special  saviour. 
The  saviour  of  men  was  the  son  Jesus,  clothed 
by  Hakamoth  with  the  spiritual  principle  ;  with  the 
psychic  principle  by  the  demiurge  ;  with  the  ma- 
terial principle  by  Mary;  identified  lastly  with  Christos, 
who,  on  the  day  of  his  baptism,  descended  on  to 
him  in  the  form  of  a  dove,  and  did  not  leave  him 
again  till  after  his  condemnation  by  Pilate.  The 
spiritual  principle  will  persevere  in  Jesus  till  the 
agony  on  the  cross.  The  psychic  and  the  material 
principles  alone  will  suffer,  and  will  rise  to 
heaven  through  the  ascension.  There  were  Gnos- 
tics before  Jesus,  but  he  came  to  reunite  them  and 
to  form  them  into  a  Church  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 
The  Church  is  made  up  neither  of  bodies  nor  of 
souls,  but  of  spirits :  the  Gnostics  alone  form  her 
component  parts.  At  th^  end  of  the  world  matter 
will  be  devoured  by  the  internal  fire  w^hich  she 
hides  within  herself;  Christ  will  reign  instead  of 
the  demiurge,  and  Hakamoth  will  definitely  enter 
into  the  Pleroma,  which  will,  thenceforward,  be 
pacified. 

Men  by  their  very  nature,  and  independently  of 
their  efforts,  are  divided  into  three  categories,  ac- 
cording as  the  material  element,  the  psychic  or 
animal  element,  and  the  spiritual  element  predomin- 
ate in  them.  The  heathen  are  the  material  men 
who  are  irrevocably  devoted  to  the  works  of  the 
flesh.  The  simple  faithful,  the  generality  of  Christians, 
are  the  psychic  men  ;  in  virtue  of  their  intermediate 
essence,  they  can  rise  or  fall,  lose  themselves  in 
matter,  or  be  absorbed  into  the  spirit.  The  Gnostics 
are  the  spiritual  men,  whether  they  be  Christians, 
wliether  they  be  Jews,  like  the  prophets,  or  heathens, 
like  the  sages  of  Greece.  The  spiritual  men  will 
some  day  be  joined  to  the  Pleroma.  The  material 
men  will  die  altogether  ;  the  psychic  men  will  be 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  95 

damned  or  saved  according  to  their  works.  External 
worship  is  only  a  symbol,  which,  though  it  is  good 
for  the  psychic  mind,  is  altogether  useless  for  men 
who  give  themselves  up  to  pure  contemplation.  It  is 
an  eternal  error  of  the  mystic  sects  who  put  into 
their  chimeras  the  initiation  above  good  works,  which 
they  leave  to  the  simple.  That  is  the  reason  why 
every  gnosis^  whatever  it  may  do,  arrives  at  indiffer- 
ence to  works  and  contempt  for  practical  virtue, 
that  is  to  say,  at  immorality. 

There  is  certainly  something  grand  in  these 
strange  myths.  When  it  is  a  question  of  the  infinite, 
of  things  which  can  only  be  known  partially  and 
secretly,  which  cannot  be  expressed  without  being 
strained,  pathos  itself  has  its  charms ;  one  takes 
pleasure  in  it,  like  in  those  somewhat  unhealthy 
poems  w^hose  taste  one  blames,  though  one  cannot 
help  liking  them.  The  history  of  the  world,  con- 
ceived like  an  embryo  which  is  seeking  for  life, 
which  painfully  attains  consciousness,  which  troubles 
everything  by  its  movements,  whilst  those  move- 
ments themselves  become  the  cause  of  progress  and 
end  in  the  full  realisation  of  the  vague  instincts  of 
the  ideal,  such  are  the  ideas  which  are  not  very  far 
removed  from  those  which  we  choose  at  times  to 
express  our  views  about  the  development  of  the 
infinite.  But  all  that  could  not  be  reconciled  to 
Christianity.  Those  metaphysics  of  dreamers,  that 
system  of  morality  thought  out  by  recluses,  that 
brahminical  pride  which  would  have  brought  back 
the  rule  of  castes  had  it  been  allowed  its  own  way, 
would  have  killed  the  Church,  if  the  Church  had  not 
taken  the  initiative.  It  was  not  without  reason 
that  orthodoxy  kept  a  middle  position  between  the 
Nazarenes,  who  only  saw  the  human  side  of  Jesus, 
and  the  Gnostics,  who  saw  nothing  but  his  divine 
nature.  Yalentinus  made  fun  of  the  simple  eclecti- 
cism which  induced  the  Church  to  wish  to  join  two 


96  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

contrary  elements  together.  The  Church  was  right. 
There  is  no  medium  between  regulated  faith  and 
free  thought.  Whoever  does  not  admit  authority 
puts  himself  outside  the  pale  of  the  Church,  and  ought 
to  turn  philosopher.  "  They  speak  like  the  Church," 
Irenseus  said,  "but  they  think  differently."  It  was 
a  sad  game  to  play.  Valentinus  was  led  to  hypocrisy 
and  fraud  by  the  same  reasons  as  Basilides  was. 
To  free  himself  from  apostolic  chains,  he  claimed 
to  attach  himself  to  secret  traditions  and  to  an 
esoteric  teaching  which  Jesus  was  said  not  to  have 
imparted  to  any  except  the  most  spiritually-minded 
of  his  disciples.  Valentinus  said  that  he  had  re- 
ceived that  hidden  doctrine  from  a  pretended  Theo- 
dades  or  Theodas,  a  disciple  of  St  Paul.  He  appears 
to  have  called  this  the  Gospel  of  Truth.  Valentinus' 
Gospel,  at  any  rate,  approximated  very  closely  to 
that  of  the  Ebionites.  In  it  the  duration  of  the 
appearances  of  the  risen  Jesus  was  extended  over 
eighteen  months. 

These  despairing  efforts  to  reconcile  God  and  man 
in  Jesus,  resulted  from  difficulties  that  were  inherent 
in  the  nature  of  Christianity.  In  fact,  the  travail 
which  was  agitating  the  Christian  conscience  in 
Egypt  manifested  itself  also  in  Syria.  Gnosticism 
appeared  in  Antioch  almost  at  the  same  time  as  it 
did  in  Alexandria.  Saturninus,  or  Satorniles,  who 
was  said  to  have  been  a  pupil  of  Menander,  like 
Basilides  was,  put  forth  views  which  were  analogous 
to  those  of  the  latter,  though  they  bore  an  even 
stronger  impress  of  Persian  duahsm.  The  Pleroma 
and  matter — Bythos  and  Satan — are  the  two  poles 
of  the  universe.  The  kingdoms  of  good  and  evil 
are  the  two  confines  on  which  they  meet.  Near 
those  confines  the  world  came  into  existence,  and 
it  was  the  work  of  the  seven  last  ^ons  or  demiurges 
who  were  wandering  in  the  realms  of  Satan.  Those 
seons  (Jehovah  is   one  of  them)  divide  the  govern- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  97 

ment  of  their  work  between  them,  and  each 
appropriates  a  planet.  They  do  not  know  the 
inaccessible  Bythos  ;  but  Bythos  is  favourable  to 
them,  reveals  himself  to  them  by  a  ray  of  his 
beauty,  and  then  hides  himself  from  their  admiration. 
The  divine  image  ceaselessly  haunts  them,  and 
they  create   man  in  the  likeness  of  that  image. 

Man,  as  he  left  the  hand  of  the  demiurges,  was 
pure  matter.  He  crawled  on  the  earth  like  a  worm, 
and  had  no  intelligence.  A  spark  from  the  Pleroma 
gives  him  true  life.  He  thinks,  and  rises  to  his 
feet.  Then  Satan  is  filled  with  rage,  and  dreams 
of  nothing  but  of  opposing  this  regenerate  man, 
the  mixed  work  of  the  demiurges  and  of  God,  a 
man  who  shall  spring  entirely  from  himself  Side 
by  side  with  divine  humanity  there  is  for  the  future 
the  Satanic  humanity.  To  crown  the  evil,  the  de- 
miurges revolt  against  God,  and  separate  creation 
from  that  superior  principle  from  which  it  ought 
to  draw  its  life.  The  divine  spark  no  longer  circu- 
lates between  the  Pleroma  and  humanity — between 
humanity  and  the  Pleroma.  Man  is  devoted  to  evil 
and  to  error.  Christ  saves  him  by  suppressing  the 
action  of  the  God  of  the  Jews,  but  the  strife 
between  the  good  and  evil  men  continues.  The 
former  are  the  Gnostics ;  the  soul  is  entirely  in 
them,  and  consequently  they  live  eternally.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  body  cannot  rise  again  :  it  is  con- 
demned to  perish.  Whatever  propagates  the  body 
propagates  the  empire  of  Satan,  and,  consequently, 
marriage  is  an  evil.  It  weakens  the  divine  principle 
in  man,  by  subdividing  that  principle  to  infinity. 

It  will  be  seen  that  all  those  sects  were  equally 
incapable  of  giving  a  serious  basis  to  morality. 
They  even  had  difficulty  in  avoiding  the  breakers 
of  secret  debauches  and  accusations  of  infamy. 
Alexandria  could  not  stop  on  that  slippery  ground. 
That  extraordinary  city  was  destined  to  see,  at  its 

G 


98  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

most  brilliant  period,  all  the  evils  of  the  age  burst  forth 
within  it  in  all  their  energy.  Carpocrates  drew  from 
it  the  deductions  of  an  unwholesome  philosophy, 
which  carried  the  exaggerations  of  an  intemperate 
supernaturalism  amongst  all  orders,  and  tossed  men 
to  and  fro  between  asceticism  and  immorality, 
rarely  leaving  him  in  the  golden  mean  of  reason. 
Carpocrates  and  his  son  Epiphanes  did  not  recoil 
before  any  of  the  excesses  of  sensual  mysticism,  as 
they  proclaimed  the  indifference  of  actions,  the 
community  of  women,  the  holiness  of  all  perversions, 
as  means  of  delivering  the  spirit  from  the  flesh. 
That  deliverance  of  the  spiritual  man  which  w^rests 
souls  from  the  wicked  demiurges  to  reunite  them  to 
the  supreme  God,  was  the  work  of  the  sages  Pytha- 
goras, Plato,  Aristotle,  Jesus,  etc.  The  statues  of 
those  sages  were  adored,  —  they  were  crowned, — 
incense  and  even  sacrifices  were  offered  to  them. 
According  to  Carpocrates,  Jesus,  the  son  of  Joseph, 
had  been  the  justest  man  of  his  time.  After  hav- 
ing practised  Judaism,  he  recognised  its  vanity,  and 
by  that  act  of  disdain  he  merited  deliverance.  No- 
where is  it  forbidden  to  aspire  to  equal  and  even 
to  surpass  him  in  holiness.  His  resurrection  is  an 
impossibility;  his  soul  alone  has  been  received  into 
heaven  ;  his  body  remained  on  earth.  The  apostles — 
Peter,  Paul,  and  the  others — were  not  inferior  to 
Jesus,  but  if  any  one  could  arrive  at  a  more  perfect 
contempt  for  the  Avorld  of  the  demiurges,  that  is 
to  say,  for  reality,  he  would  surpass  him.  The 
Carpocratians  claimed  to  exercise  that  power  by 
magical  operations,  by  philtres,  by  witchcraft.  It 
is  clear  that  they  were  not  true  members  of  the 
Church  of  Jesus.  Nevertheless,  the  sectaries  took 
the  name  of  Christians,  and  the  orthodox  were  in 
despair  at  it.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  their  con- 
venticles, abominations,  such  as  the  calumniators 
of  the  Christians  reproached  the  faithful  with,  took 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  99 

place,  and  this  usurpation  of  the  name  caused  deplor- 
able prf^judices  to  take  deep  root  amongst  the 
multitude. 

Far  from  exhibiting  the  slightest  complaisance 
towards  the  culpable  mysteries,  the  Church  only  held 
them  in  abhorrence  and  visited  them  with  the  most 
violent  anathemas  which  she  could  find  in  her  sacred 
texts.  What  was  said  of  the  Nicolaitanes  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Apocalypse  was  brought  to  mind. 
By  the  name  Nicolaitanes,  the  Seer  of  Patmos  most 
likely  intends  to  designate  St  Paul's  partisans  :  at 
any  rate  such  a  designation  has  nothing  at  all  to 
do  with  the  Deacon  Nicholas,  who  was  one  of  the 
Seven  in  the  Primitive  Church  of  Jerusalem.  But 
that  false  identification  was  soon  accredited.  Scan- 
dalous stories  were  told  against  the  alleged  heresiarch 
which  very  much  resembled  those  which  were  told 
about  the  Carpocratians.  Many  aberrations  took 
place  on  all  sides,  and  no  paradox  was  without 
its  defender.  People  were  found  who  took  the 
part  of  Cain,  of  Esau,  of  Korah,  of  the  Sodomites, 
of  Judas  himself  Jehovah  was  the  evil, — a  tyrant 
filled  with  hatred,  and  it  had  been  right  to  iDrave 
his  laws.  These  were  kinds  of  literary  paradoxes  ; 
just  as  thirty  or  forty  years  ago  it  was  the  fashion 
to  set  up  criminals  as  heroes,  because  they  were 
supposed  to  be  in  revolt  against  bad  social  order. 
There  was  a  Gospel  of  Judas.  In  excuse  for  this 
latter,  it  was  said  that  he  had  betrayed  Jesus 
with  a  good  intention,  because  he  had  found  out 
that  his  master  wished  to  ruin  the  truth.  The 
traitor's  conduct  was  also  explained  by  a  motive 
of  interest  for  humanity.  The  powers  of  the  world 
(that  is  to  say,  Satan  and  his  agents)  wished  to 
stop  the  work  of  salvation,  by  preventing  Jesus 
from  dying.  Judas,  who  knew  that  the  death  ot 
Jesus  on  the  cross  was  beneficial,  broke  the  charm, 
by  giving  him  up   to  his   enemies.      Thus  he  was 


100  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

the  purest  of  spiritual  men.  These  singular  Chris- 
tians were  called  Cainites.  Like  Carpocrates,  they 
taught  that,  in  order  to  be  saved,  it  was  necessary 
to  have  done  all  sorts  of  actions,  and,  in  some 
manner,  to  have  exhausted  all  the  experiences  of 
life  :  it  is  said  that  they  placed  the  perfection  of 
enlightenment  in  the  commission  of  the  darkest 
deeds.  Every  act  has  an  angel  who  presides  over 
it,  and  they  invoked  that  angel  whilst  they  were 
doing  the  act.  Their  books  were  worthy  of  their 
morals.  They  had  the  Gospel  of  Judas,  and  some 
other  writings  which  were  made  to  exhort  men  to 
destroy  the  work  of  the  Creator ;  one  book  in  par- 
ticular, called  The  Ascension  of  St  Paul,  into  which 
they  seem  to  have  introduced  horrible  abominations. 
These  were  aberrations  without  any  real  object, 
and  which  certainly  the  serious-minded  Gnostics  re- 
jected just  as  much  as  the  orthodox  Christians.  The 
really  grave  part  about  it  was  the  destruction  of 
Christianity,  which  was  at  the  bottom  of  all  these 
speculations.  In  reality  the  living  Jesus  was  sup- 
pressed, and  only  a  phantom  Jesus,  without  any 
efficacy  for  the  conversion  of  the  heart,  was  left. 
Moral  effort  was  replaced  by  so-called  science  ;  dreams 
took  the  place  of  Christian  realities,  and  every  man 
arrogated  to  himself  the  right  to  carve  out  as  he 
chose  a  Christianity  according  to  his  fancy,  from  the 
dogmas  and  earlier  books.  This  was  no  longer  Chris- 
tianity, it  was  a  strange  parasite  which  Avas  trying  to 
pass  for  a  branch  of  the  tree  of  life.  Jesus  was  no 
longer  a  fact  without  analogy  ;  he  was  one  of  the 
apparitions  of  the  divine  spirit.  Docetism,  which 
reduced  all  the  human  life  of  Jesus  to  a  mere  ap- 
pearance, was  the  basis  of  all  these  errors.  Still, 
moderate  with  BasiHdes  and  Yalentinus,  it  becomes 
absolute  with  Saturninus,  and  with  Marcion  we  shall 
see  that  the  whole  of  the  Saviour's  earthly  career  is 
reduced  to  a  pure  appearance. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  101 

Orthodoxy  will  be  able  to  resist  these  dangerous 
ideas,  whilst  at  times  allowing  itself  to  be  drawn 
away  by  their  seductive  qualities.  Gospels,  deeply 
tinged  with  new  ideas,  were  spread  abroad.  The 
"Gospel  of  Peter"  was  the  expression  of  pure 
Docetism.  The  "  Gospel  according  to  the  Egyp- 
tians "  was  a  remodelling,  after  the  Alexandrine  ideas, 
of  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews.  The  union 
of  the  sexes  was  forbidden  in  it.  The  Saviour,  on 
being  questioned  by  Salome  when  his  kingdom  would 
come,  answered,  "  When  you  tread  under  foot  the 
garment  of  shame ;  when  two  shall  make  one ;  when 
that  which  is  outside  shall  be  like  that  which  is  in- 
side, and  the  male  joined  to  a  female  shall  be  neither 
male  nor  female."  Interpreted  according  to  the 
rules  of  the  vocabulary  of  Philo,  these  strange  words 
signify  that  when  humanity  is  no  more,  the  body 
will  be  spiritualised  and  enter  into  the  soul,  so  that 
man  will  be  nothing  but  a  pure  spirit.  The  "  coats  of 
skins  "  with  which  God  covered  Adam  will  then  be 
useless  ;  primitive  innocence  will  reign  again. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

THE  LAST  REVOLT  OF   THE  JEWS. 

After  staying  in  Jerusalem  for  two  years,  Hadrian 
got  tired  of  doing  nothing,  and  again  began  to  think 
of  his  travels.  First  of  all  he  paid  a  visit  to  Mauri- 
tania, and  then  directed  his  course  for  the  second 
time  to  Greece  and  the  East.  He  stayed  at  Athens 
tor  nearly  a  year,  and  consecrated  the  edifices  that 
he  had  ordered  to  be  erected  during  his  first  journey  ; 
and  Greece  had  one  long  festival,  and  seemed  but  to 


102  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

live  in  him.  In  every  direction  classic  recollections 
revived,  and  Hadrian  made  them  durable  by  monu- 
ments and  columns,  and  founded  temples,  libraries, 
and  professorial  chairs.  The  ancient  world  before 
dying  made  its  pilgrimage  to  the  places  from  which 
it  had  sprung,  and  seemed  as  if  it  were  uttering  its 
last  eulogy.  The  Emperor  presided  like  a  pontiff 
at  these  innocent  solemnities,  which  hardly  amused 
anybody  now  but  those  who  were  empty-headed 
and  idle. 

The  august  traveller  then  continued  his  journey 
through  the  East,  and  visited  Armenia,  Asia  Minor, 
Syria,  and  Judea.  As  far  as  outward  appearances 
went,  he  was  everywhere  received  as  a  guardian 
spirit,  and  medals  which  were  struck  for  the  occa- 
sion bade  him  welcome  in  every  province.  That  of 
Judea  is  still  in  existence.  Alas  !  what  a  falsehood. 
Below  the  inscription  ADVENT VI  AVG.  IVDAEAE  is  to 
be  seen  the  Emperor  in  a  noble  and  worthy  attitude 
receiving  Judea  with  kindness,  and  she  is  presenting 
her  sons  to  him.  Already  the  Emperor  has  the 
handsome  and  gentle  look  of  the  Antonines,  and 
seems  to  be  the  impersonification  of  calm  civilisation 
educating  fanaticism.  Children  go  before  him  bear- 
ing palms,  whilst  in  the  middle  a  Pagan  altar  and  a 
bull  symbolise  religious  reconciliation  ;  and  Judea,  a 
patera  in  her  hand,  seems  to  share  in  the  sacrifice  that 
is  being  prepared.  This  is  how  official  optimism  in- 
structs sovereigns.  The  opposition  between  the  East 
and  the  West  was  actually  getting  more  and  more 
accentuated,  and  the  signs  of  this  were  so  certain 
that  the  Emperor  could  not  doubt  them — his  bene- 
volent eclecticism  was,  however,  at  times  singularly 
unsettled. 

From  Syria  Hadrian  went  to  Egypt  by  way  ot 
Petra.  His  discontent  and  his  ill  temper  with  the 
peoples  of  the  East  increased  daily.  A  short  time 
before  Egypt  had  been  in  a  state  of  great  agitation. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  103 

The  ancient  worships,  which  were  springing  into  Hfe 
again,  caused  a  certain  amount  of  fermentation,  for 
it  was  so  long  since  an  Apis  had  been  seen  that  these 
ancient  chimeras  were  beginning  to  be  forgotten,  when 
suddenly  a  clamour  arose  ;  that  miraculous  animal  had 
been  found,  and  as  everybody  wished  to  possess  it, 
all  tried  to  get  it  from  the  others.  The  hold  of 
Christianity  over  Egypt  was  not  so  strong  as  it  was 
elsewhere,  for  many  heathen  superstitions  were  mixed 
up  with  it.  All  these  follies  only  served  to  amuse 
Hadrian,  and  a  letter  which  be  wrote  about  that  time 
to  his  brother-in-law  Servian,  has  been  preserved 
to  us  : — 

I  have  found  that  Egypt,  my  dear  Servian,  which  you  praised 
to  me,  to  be  a  very  flif^hty  country,  hanging  by  a  thread,  turning 
round  with  every  breath  of  fashion.  There,  those  who  adore  Serapis 
are  Christians  at  the  same  time,  and  men  who  call  themselves 
bishops  of  Christ  are  devoted  to  Serapis.  There  is  not  a  president 
of  a  synagogue,  not  a  Samaritan,  not  a  Christian  priest,  who  does 
not  supplement  his  functions  by  those  of  the  astrologer,  of  the 
diviner,  and  the  charlatan.  The  patriarch  himself,  when  he  comes 
to  Egypt,  is  forced  by  some  to  adore  Serapis,  and  by  the  others  to 
adore  Christ.  It  is  a  seditious,  futile,  and  irrelevant  education,  and 
a  rich  and  productive  city,  where  nobody  lives  in  idleness.  Some 
are  glassblowers,  others  papermakers,  others  again  dyers,  and  all 
understand  and  practise  some  trade.  The  gouty  can  find  some- 
thing to  do,  the  shortsighted  can  obtain  employment,  the  blind 
are  not  without  occupation,  and  even  the  one-armed  are  not  idle. 
Money  is  their  only  god,  the  divinity  which  Christians,  Jews, 
people  of  all  sorts,  adore.  One  regrets  to  find  such  a  low  state  of 
morals  in  a  city  which  by  its  manufactures  and  its  grandeur  is 
v^rorthy  of  being  the  capital  of  Egypt.  I  have  granted  it  every- 
thing ;  1  have  restored  its  ancient  privileges,  and  given  it  new 
ones,  and  I  forced  tliem  to  thank  me  whilst  I  was  there  ;  but  I  had 
scarcely  left  when  they  began  to  talk  about  my  son  Verus,  and 
to  say,  what  no  doubt  you  know,  about  Antinous.  The  only  re- 
venge that  I  wish  to  have  i(?  that  they  may  always  be  forced  to  eat 
their  own  fowls,  fecundated  in  a  manner  that  I  do  not  like  to 
mention.  I  have  sent  you  some  glasses  of  prismatic  colours, 
which  the  pritsts  of  the  temple  offered  me  :  they  are  specially 
dedicated  to  you  and  to  my  sister.  Have  them  used  on  festive 
occasions,  only  take  care  that  our  Africanus  does  not  make  too 
good  use  of  them. 


104  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH, 

From  Egypt  Hadrian  returned  to  Syria,  and  there 
he  found  the  people  very  badly  disposed.  They 
were  getting  bolder.  Antioch  gave  him  an  unfavour- 
able reception,  and  so  he  went  to  Athens,  where 
he  was  worshipped.  There  he  heard  of  some  very 
serious  events,  for  the  Jews  were  having  recourse 
to  arms  for  the  third  time.  Their  attack  of  furious 
madness  of  the  year  117  seemed  as  if  it  were  about 
to  recommence,  and  Israel  disliked  the  Roman 
government  more  than  ever.  Every  malefactor  who 
revolted  against  the  State  was  a  saint,  and  every 
brigand  became  a  patriot.  It  was  looked  upon  as 
an  act  of  treason  to  arrest  a  robber.  "  Vinegar,  off- 
spring of  wine,"  said  a  rabbi  to  a  Jew,  whose 
business  it  was  to  arrest  evil-doers,  "  why  do  you 
denounce  God's  people?"  Elijah  also  met  this 
worthy  public  officer  and  exhorted  him  to  give  up  his 
odious  trade. 

It  seems  that  the  Roman  authority  also  committed 
more  than  one  mistake.  Hadrian's  administration 
became  more  and  more  intolerant  towards  the 
Eastern  sects,  whom  the  Emperor  made  fun  of. 
Several  lawyers  thought  that  circumcision,  like 
castration,  was  punishable  ill-usage,  and  so  it  was 
forbidden.  The  cases  in  which  those  who  had 
practised  epispasm,  and  had  been  forced  by  fanatics 
to  be  circumcised  over  again,  would  more  especially 
give  rise  to  these  prosecutions  ;  and  we  do  not  know 
how  far  imperial  justice  advanced  along  this  diffi- 
cult road  which  was  so  opposed  to  liberty  of 
conscience.  Hadrian  was  certainly  not  a  man  given 
to  excessive  measures,  and  in  Jewish  tradition 
all  the  odium  of  these  measures  rests  on  Tineius 
Rufus,  who  was  the  Legate  Propraetor  of  the  Pro- 
vince of  Judea,  and  whose  name  the  malcontents 
changed  into  Tyr annus  Rufus. 

These  annoyances,  which  were  so  easily  avoided 
in    the    only    cases    which  were   of  any   importance 


THE  CflRISTIAN  CHURCH.  105 

to  pious  families,  namely,  the  cases  relative  to  the 
circumcision  of  infants,  were  not  the  chief  cause  of 
the  war.  What  really  raised  the  Israelites  to  revolt, 
was  the  horror  that  they  felt  at  seeing  the  transforma- 
tion of  Jerusalem,  or,  in  other  words,  the  progress 
that  the  construction  of  ^ha  Capitolina  was  making. 
The  sight  of  a  Pagan  city  rising  on  the  ruins  of  the 
holy  city,  the  rebuilding  of  the  profaned  temple, 
those  heathen  sacrifices,  those  theatres  raised  with 
the  very  stones  of  that  venerated  buildiug,  those 
foreigners  dwelling  in  the  city  which  God  had  loved, 
all  this  appeared  to  them  to  be  the  very  height  of 
sacrilege  and  of  defiance. 

Far  from  wishing  to  return  to  this  profaned 
Jerusalem,  they  fled  from  it  like  an  abomination, 
whilst  the  south  of  Judea  was  more  than  ever  a 
Jewish  country.  A  number  of  large  places  had 
sprung  up  there  which  could  defend  themselves, 
thanks  to  the  position  of  their  houses,  which  were 
massed  together  on  the  summit  of  low  hills.  For 
the  Jews  of  that  district,  Bether  had  become  another 
holy  city,  and  equivalent  to  Zion.  The  fanatics 
procured  arms  by  a  singular  stratagem.  They  were 
bound  to  furnish  the  Romans  with  a  certain  number 
of  implements  of  war,  and  so  the}^  manufactured 
them  badly,  on  purpose  that  the  rejected  weapons 
might  come  to  them.  Instead  of  visible  fortifica- 
tions, they  constructed  immense  tunnels  ;  and  the 
fortifications  of  Bether  were  completed  by  advanced 
works  of  broken  stone,  and  all  the  Jews  who  re- 
mained in  Egypt  and  Libya  hastened  to  swell  the 
number  of  the  rebels. 

We  must  do  that  justice  to  the  clear-sighted 
portion  of  the  nation  that  they  took  no  part  in 
a  movement  that  presupposed  enormous  ignorance 
of  the  world,  and  complete  bhndness  as  to  what 
they  were  doing.  As  a  general  rule,  the  Pharisees 
were  defiant  and  reserved,  and  many  of  the  doctors 


106  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

of  the  law  fled  into  Galilee,  and  into  Greece,  to  avoid 
the  coming  storm.  Several  did  not  conceal  the  fact 
that  they  v^ere  faithful  to  the  Empire,  and  even 
attributed  a  certain  legitimacy  to  it.  Rabbi  Joshua 
Ben  Hanania  seems  to  have  acted  in  a  conciliatory 
spirit  up  to  his  extreme  old  age  ;  and  after  him, 
the  Talmudists  say,  all  prudent  counsels  were  lost. 
Under  these  circumstances  was  seen  again  what 
had  been  continually  seen  for  the  last  hundred 
years :  a  nation,  which  was  easily  duped  at  the 
slightest  breath  of  Messianic  hope,  would  go  on  in 
spite  of  the  doctors  ;  they  only  thought  of  their 
casuistry  ;  and  if  they  died,  they  did  not  die  fight- 
ing, but  in  defending  themselves  from  breaking  the 
law. 

The  Christians  resisted  the  temptation  even  better. 
Although  revolt  might  gratify  the  hatred  of  some  of 
them  for  the  Roman  Empire,  a  distinct  distrust  for 
all  that  proceeded  from  fanatical  Israel  stopped  them 
on  the  dangerous  descent.  They  had  already  chosen 
their  part,  and  the  form  of  their  resistance  to  the 
Empire  was  not  revolt  but  martyrdom.  They  were 
tolerably  numerous  in  Judea,  and,  contrary  to  the 
orthodox  Jews,  they  might  even  live  in  ^lia.  Of 
course  the  Jews  tried  to  gain  over  their  quasi-com- 
patriots,  but  the  disciples  of  Jesus  were  already  very 
far  from  all  earthly  politics,  for  he  had  buried  for 
ever  the  hopes  of  a  material  patriotism  and  Messiah. 
Hadrian's  reign  was  far  from  being  unfavourable  to 
the  Churches,  and  so  they  did  not  move  ;  and  some 
voices  were  even  raised  to  foretell  to  the  Jews  the 
consequences  of  their  obstinacy,  and  the  extermina- 
tion that  awaited  them. 

Every  Jewish  revolt  had,  more  or  less,  to  do  with 
Messianic  hopes,  but  never  before  had  any  one  given 
himself  out  for  the  Messiah ;  but  this  took  place  now. 
No  doubt  under  the  influence  of  Christian  ideas,  and 
in  imitation  of  Jesus,  a  man  gave  himself  out  for  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  l07 

long-expected  heavenly  messenger,  and  succeeded  in 
seducing  the  people.  We  have  no  clear  history  of 
that  strange  episode,  for  the  Jews,  who  alone  could 
have  informed  us  what  were  the  secret  thoughts  and 
the  motive  secret  of  these  agitators,  have  left  us 
nothing  but  confused  pictures  of  them,  like  those  of 
a  man  who  has  been  mad.  There  was  no  Josephus 
then,  and  Barcochebas,  as  the  Christians  called 
him,  remains  an  insoluable  problem,  and  one  on 
which  even  imagination  cannot  hope  to  exercise 
itself  with  any  hope  of  reading  the  truth. 

The  name  of  his  father,  or  of  the  place  where  he 
was  born,  was  Coziba,  and  he  was  always  called  "  the 
son  of  Coziba"  (Bar  or  Ben-Coziba),  but  his  real 
name  is  unknown.  Perhaps  his  partisans  were  in- 
duced to  conceal  his  name,  and  that  of  his  family, 
purposely  in  the  interests  of  his  part  as  Messiah. 
He  seems  to  have  been  a  nephew  of  Rabbi  Eleazar 
of  Modin,  an  Agadist  of  the  highest  renown,  who 
had  lived  very  much  with  Rabbi  Gamaliel  II.  and 
his  companions.  One  asks  oneself  whether  the  recol- 
lection of  the  Maccabees,  who  were  still  living  at 
Modin,  did  not  excite  Bar-Coziba's  patriotic  en- 
thusiasm. There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  his  courage, 
but  the  scantiness  of  historical  information  prevents 
us  from  saying  more  than  that.  Was  he  serious? 
Was  he  a  religious  enthusiast  or  a  fanatic  ?  Was  he 
one  of  those  sincere  believers  in  the  Messiah  who 
came  on  to  the  scene  too  late  ?  Or  are  we  only  to 
see  in  this  equivocal  person  a  charlatan,  an  imitator 
of  Jesus,  with  a  totally  different  object,  a  common 
impostor,  even  a  criminal,  as  Eusebius  and  St  Jerome 
assert?  We  cannot  tell,  for  the  only  circumstance 
in  his  favour  is  that  the  principal  Jewish  Doctor  of 
the  Law  at  that  period  was  in  his  favour,  a  man 
who,  from  his  habit  of  thought,  would  be  far  removed 
from  the  dreams  of  an  impostor,  and  that  was  the 
Rabbi  Aquiba. 


108  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHUECH. 

For  many  years  be  had  been  the  chief  authority 
amongst  the  Jews,  and  he  was  compared  to  Esdras 
and  even  to  Moses.  As  a  general  rule,  the  doctors 
were  not  at  all  favourable  to  popular  agitators. 
Taken  up  with  their  own  discussions,  they  thought 
that  the  destinies  of  Israel,  dependent  on  the  observ- 
ance of  the  Law  and  Messianic  dreams,  were  limited 
for  them  to  the  Mosaic  ideal  which  those  who  were 
scrupulously  devout  realised.  How  could  Aquiba 
incite  the  people,  whose  confidence  he  enjoyed,  to 
commit  a  veritable  act  of  folly?  Perhaps  the  fact 
of  his  having  sprung  from  the  people,  and  his  demo- 
cratic tendency  to  contradict  the  traditions  of  the 
Sadducees,  may  have  helped  to  lead  him  astray,  and 
perhaps  also  the  absurdity  of  his  exegesis  deprived 
him  of  all  practical  rectitude.  One  can  never  with 
impunity  play  with  common  sense,  or  put  such 
pressure  on  the  springs  of  the  intellect  as  may 
threaten  to  snap  them.  At  any  rate  the  fact  appears 
certain,  though  it  is  difficalt  to  believe  it,  that 
Aquiba  recognised  Bar-Coziba's  Messianic  character. 
After  a  fashion  he  invested  him  with  it  before  the 
people  when  he  gave  him  the  commander's  baton  and 
held  his  stirrup  for  him  when  he  mounted  his  war- 
horse  to  inaugurate  his  reign  as  Messiah.  His  name 
of  Bar-Coziba  was  an  unhappy  one,  and  lent  itself  to 
all  kinds  of  unfortunate  allusions.  Looking  on  the 
bearer  of  it  as  the  predestined  Saviour  of  Israel,  it  is 
said  that  Aquiba  applied  the  verse  from  Numbers 
xxiv.  17 :  "A  star  shall  arise  out  of  Jacob,"  a 
verse  which  was  supposed  to  have  a  Messianic  sense 
to  him,  and  so  his  name  of  Bar-Coziba  was  changed 
into  Bar-Kokaba,  *'  the  son  of  the  star." 

Bar-Coziba  being  thus  recognised  as  the  man  who, 
without  any  official  title,  it  is  true,  but  in  virtue  of 
a  sort  of  universal  acceptance,  passed  as  the  reli- 
gious guide  of  the  people  of  Israel,  became  the  chief 
of  the  revolution,  and  war  was  decided  on.     At  first 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  109 

the  Romans  neglected  the  foohsh  popular  agitations. 
Bether,  in  its  isolated  position,  far  from  the  great 
highroads,  did  not  attract  their  attention ;  but 
when  the  movement  had  invaded  the  whole  of 
Judea,  and  the  Jews  began  to  form  threatening 
bands  in  all  directions,  they  were  obhged  to  open 
their  eyes.  They  began  to  attack  the  Roman  forces, 
and  to  lie  in  ambush  for  them  in  a  murderous  fashion. 
Besides  this,  the  movement,  as  happened  in  6S  and 
in  117,  had  a  tendency  to  spread  over  the  rest  of 
the  East.  Arab  brigands  who  lived  near  the  Jordan 
and  the  Dead  Sea,  who  were  in  a  state  of  anarchy 
through  the  destruction  of  the  Nabateean  kingdom 
of  Petra,  thought  they  saw  a  chance  of  pillage  in 
Syria  and  Egypt.  The  confusion  was  general.  Those 
who  had  practised  epispasm  to  escape  the  capitation 
tax,  submitted  anew  to  a  painful  operation,  so  that 
they  might  not  be  excluded  from  the  hopes  of  Israel ; 
and  some  thought  so  surely  that  the  time  of  Messiah 
had  arrived,  that  they  thought  themselves  authorised 
to  pronounce  the  name  of  Jehovah  as  it  is  written. 

As  long  as  Hadrian  was  in  Egypt  and  Syria,  the 
conspirators  did  not  let  their  plans  be  seen,  but  as 
soon  as  he  had  gone  to  Athens  the  revolt  broke  out. 
It  appears  that  the  report  was  spread  that  the  Em- 
peror was  ill  and  attacked  by  leprosy,  ^lia,  with 
its  Roman  colony,  was  strongly  guarded.  The  Legio 
Decima  Fratensis  was  still  in  garrison  there,  and  no 
doubt  the  road  between  ^Ha  and  CsBsarea,  the  city 
which  was  the  centre  of  the  Roman  authority,  also 
remained  open,  and  thus  ^lia  was  never  surrounded 
by  the  insurrection.  It  was  easy  to  keep  communi- 
cations open,  thanks  to  a  circle  of  colonies  which 
were  established  in  the  east  and  north  of  the  city, 
and  especially  owing  to  such  places  as  Nicopolis  and 
Lydda,  which  were  assured  to  the  Romans. 

It  is  therefore  probable  that  the  revolt  in  its 
northward  progress  did  not  go  beyond  Bother,  and 


110  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

did  not  reach  Jerusalem,  but  all  the  smaller  towns 
of  Judea  which  had  no  garrisons  proclaimed  the  in- 
dependence of  Israel.  Bether,  in  particular,  became 
a  sort  of  small  capital,  a  prospective  second  Jeru- 
salem side  by  side  with  the  great  Jerusalem  which 
they  hoped  to  conquer  soon.  Its  situation  was  very 
strong,  as  it  commanded  all  the  valleys  of  the  re- 
volted country,  and  was  made  almost  impregnable 
by  means  of  tremendous  outworks,  the  remains  of 
which  may  be  seen  even  to  this  day. 

The  first  case  of  the  insurgents  was  the  monetary 
question.  One  of  the  greatest  punishments  of  the 
faithful  Jews  was  to  be  obliged  to  handle  money 
bearing  the  effigy  of  the  Empferor,  and  idolatrous 
figures.  For  religious  purposes,  above  all,  they 
either  sought  for  coins  of  the  Asmonean  princes, 
which  were  still  current  in  the  country,  or  else  those 
of  the  first  rebellion,  when  the  Asmonean  coinage 
had  been  imitated.  The  new  insurrection  was  too 
poor  and  too  badly  provided  with  machinery  to  issue 
coins  of  a  new  mould.  They  were  satisfied  with 
withdrawing  the  coins  bearing  the  stamp  of  Flavins 
and  Trajan,  and  impressing  them  anew  with  an 
orthodox  stamp  which  the  people  knew,  and  which 
had  a  national  meaning  for  them  ;  and  perhaps  some 
ancient  coins  had  been  found  which  facilitated  the 
operation.  For  this  imitation,  the  handsome  coins  of 
Simon  Maccabseus,  the  first  Jewish  prince  who  coined 
money,  were  especially  selected.  From  their  date, 
which  was  that  of  the  liberty  of  Israel  or  of  Jerusalem, 
those  coins  seemed  to  have  been  struck  for  the  very 
purpose,  and  those  on  which  was  to  be  seen  a  temple 
surmounted  by  a  star,  and  those  which  bore  only  the 
impress  of  the  two  trumpets  which  were  destined, 
according  to  the  Law,  to  summon  Israel  to  the  Holy 
War,  were  more  appropriate  still.  The  stamp  upon 
stamp  was  done  very  roughly,  and  on  a  great  number 
of  coins  the  first  Roman  impress  is  still  visible.     This 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  Ill 

coinage  was  called  the  money  of  Coziba,  or  the  money 
of  the  revolt^  and  as  it  was  partly  fictitious  it  lost 
much  of  its  value  later  on. 

It  was  a  long  and  terrible  war,  and  lasted  for  over 
two  years,  whilst  the  best  generals  seem  to  have  worn 
themselves  out  in  it.  Tineius  Rufus,  seeing  that  he 
was  outnumbered,  asked  for  assistance,  and  though 
his  colleague  Publicius  Marcellus,  Legate  of  Syria, 
hastened  to  bring  it  him,  both  failed.  In  order  to 
crush  the  revolt,  it  was  necessary  to  summon  the  first 
captain  of  his  period,  Sextus  Julius  Severus,  from 
Britain.  He  received  the  title  of  Legate  of  the  Pro- 
vince of  Judea,  in  the  place  of  Tineius  Rufus,  and 
Quintus  Lollias  Urbicus  was  his  second  in  command 
as  Hadrian's  legate. 

The  rebels  never  showed  themselves  in  the  open 
country,  but  they  were  masters  of  the  heights,  on 
which  they  built  fortifications,  and  between  their 
embattled  towns  they  dug  out  covered  ways,  subter- 
ranean communications,  which  were  lighted  from 
above  by  air-holes,  which  gave  air  as  well  as  light. 
The  secret  passages  were  places  of  refuge  for  them 
when  they  were  driven  back,  and  enabled  them  to  go 
and  defend  another  point.  Unhappy  race  !  Driven 
from  its  own  soil,  it  seemed  as  if  it  preferred  to  bury 
itself  in  its  bowels  rather  than  leave  it,  or  allow  it  to 
be  profaned.  This  war  of  moles  was  extremely 
murderous,  and  fanaticism  reached  the  same  height 
as  in  70.  Nowhere  did  Julius  Severus  venture  to 
come  to  an  engagement  with  his  adversaries,  for, 
seeing  their  number  and  despair,  he  feared  to  expose 
the  heavy  masses  of  the  Romans  to  the  danger  of  a 
war  of  barricades  and  of  fortified  hill  tops.  He  at- 
tacked the  rebels  separately,  and,  thanks  to  the  num- 
ber of  his  soldiers,  and  to  the  skill  of  his  lieutenants, 
he  nearly  always  succeeded  in  starving  them  out,  by 
surrounding  them  in  their  trenches. 

Bar-Coziba,  driven  into  a  corner  by  impossibilities, 


112  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHUKCH. 

became  more  violent  every  day,  and  his  rule  was  that 
of  a  king.  He  ravaged  the  surrounding  country,  and 
did  not  recoil  before  the  grossest  imposture  in  order 
to  sustain  his  part  as  Messiah.  The  refusal  of  the 
Christians  to  receive  him  as  such,  and  to  make  com- 
mon cause  with  him,  irritated  him  greatly,  and  so  he 
resorted  to  the  most  cruel  persecutions  against  them. 
The  Messianic  character  of  Jesus  was  the  denial  of 
his  own  and  the  principal  obstacle  to  his  plans. 
Those  who  refused  to  deny  or  to  blaspheme  the 
name  of  Jesus  were  put  to  death,  scourged,  tortured. 
Jude,  who  seems  to  have  been  Bishop  of  Jerusalem 
at  that  time,  may  have  been  one  of  the  victims. 
Enthusiasts  looked  upon  the  political  indifference  of 
the  Christians,  and  their  loyal  fidelity  to  the  Empire, 
as  a  want  of  patriotism  ;  but  it  seems  that  the  more 
sensible  among  the  Jews  openly  gave  vent  to  their 
displeasure.  One  day  when  Aquiba,  seeing  Bar- 
Coziba,  cried  out,  "  Here  is  the  Messiah  I "  the  Rabbi 
Joharaan  ben  Torta  replied,  "  Aquiba,  the  grass  will 
be  growing  between  your  jaws  before  the  son  of 
David  comes." 

As  usual,  Rome  prevailed  in  the  end,  and  in  turn 
each  centre  of  resistance  fell.  Fifty  improvised  for- 
tresses, which  the  rebels  had  built,  and  nine  hundred 
and  fifty-five  market  towns  were  taken,  and  turned 
into  ruins.  Beth-Rimmon,  on  the  Idum^an  frontier, 
v/as  the  scene  of  a  terrible  slaughter  of  fugitives. 
The  siege  of  Bether  was  particularly  long  and  diffi- 
cult ;  the  besieged  endured  the  last  extremities  of 
Inmger  and  thirst,  and  Bar-Coziba  was  killed  there, 
though  nothing  is  known  of  the  circumstances  of  his 
death. 

The  massacre  was  terrible.  A  hundred  and  eighty 
thousand  Jews  were  killed  in  the  various  engage- 
ments, whilst  the  number  of  those  who  perished  from 
hunger,  by  burning,  and  from  sickness,  is  incalculable. 
Women  and  children  were  murdered  in  cold  blood. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  113 

Judea  literally  became  a  desert,  and  howling  wolves 
and  hyenas  entered  into  the  houses.  Many  towns 
of  Darom  were  ruined  for  ever,  and  the  desolate  look 
which  the  country  wears  even  now  is  still  a  living 
sign  of  the  catastrophe  that  happened  seventeen 
and  a  half  centuries  ago. 

The  Roman  army  had  been  sorely  tried.  Hadrian, 
writing  to  the  senate  from  Athens,  does  not  make 
use  of  the  ordinary  preamble  which  emperors  were  in 
the  habit  of  using :  Si  vos  liherique  vestri  valetis,  bene 
est;  ego  quidem  et  exercitus  valemus.  Severus  was  re- 
warded as  he  deserved  for  this  well-conducted 
campaign,  for,  at  Hadrian's  suggestion,  the  senate 
decreed  him  triumphal  ornaments,  and  he  was  raised 
to  the  dignity  of  Legate  of  Syria.  The  army  of 
Judea  was  overwhelmed  with  rewards,  and  Hadrian 
was  hailed  as  Emperor  for  the  second  time. 

Whatever  was  not  killed  was  sold  at  the  same  price 
as  the  horses,  at  the  annual  fair  of  the  Terebinthe, 
near  Hebron.  That  was  the  spot  where  Abraham  was 
supposed  to  have  pitched  his  tent  when  he  received 
the  visit  of  the  three  Divine  Beings.  The  field  in 
which  the  fair  was  held,  carefully  marked  out  by  a 
rectangular  enclosure,  exists  still.  From  that  time 
forward  a  terrible  memento  was  attached  to  that 
place,  which,  up  till  then,  had  been  so  sacred  in  their 
eyes,  and  they  never  mentioned  the  fair  of  the  Tere- 
binthe without  horror.  Those  who  were  not  sold 
there  were  taken  to  Gaza  and  there  put  up  for  sale 
at  another  fair  that  Hadrian  had  established  there. 
Those  unfortunate  wretches  who  could  not  be  got 
rid  of  in  Palestine  were  taken  to  Egypt,  and  many 
suffered  shipwreck,  whilst  others  died  of  hunger  ; 
others,  again,  were  killed  by  the  Egyptians,  who  had 
not  forgotten  the  atrocities  which  the  Jews  committed 
in  the  same  parts  eighteen  years  previously.  Two 
brothers  who  still  kept  up  the  resistance  at  Kafar- 
Karouba  were  killed,  with  all  their  followers. 

H 


1 14  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

The  subterranean  works  of  Judea,  however,  still 
contained  a  crowd  of  unfortunate  beings,  who  did 
not  dare  to  leave  them  for  fear  of  being  killed. 
Their  life  was  terrible  ;'  every  sound  seemed  to  herald 
the  approach  of  the  enemy,  and  in  their  mad  terror 
they  rushed  at  and  crushed  each  other.  The  only 
means  they  had  of  assuaging  their  hunger  was 
by  eating  the  bodies  of  their  neighbours  who 
had  died.  It  seems  that,  in  certain  cases,  the 
Roman  authorities  forbade  the  burial  of  corpses,  so 
as  to  make  the  impression  of  their  chastisement  even 
greater.  Judea  was  like  a  vast  charnel-house, 
and  those  wretches  who  succeeded  in  reaching  the 
desert  looked  upon  themselves  as  favoured  bv 
God. 

All  certainly  had  not  deserved  such  severe  punish- 
ment, and  in  this  instance,  as  happens  so  often, 
wise  men  paid  for  fools.  A  nation  is  a  solidarity, 
and  the  individual  who  has  contributed  nothing 
towards  the  faults  of  his  compatriots,  who  has  even 
groaned  under  them,  is  punished  no  less  than  the 
others.  The  first  duty  of  a  community  is  to  check 
its  absurd  elements  ;  and  the  idea  of  withdrawing 
from  the  great  Mediterranean  confederation  that 
Rome  had  created,  was  absurdity  itself.  Just  as 
history  ought  to  sympathise  with  those  gentle  and 
pacific  Jews  who  only  desired  freedom  to  meditate 
on  the  Law,  so  also  our  principles  oblige  us  to  be 
severe  towards  a  Bar-Coziba  who  plunged  his  country 
into  a  abyss  of  ills,  and  towards  an  Aquiba  who 
upheld  popular  follies  by  his  authority.  Every  one 
who  sheds  his  blood  for  the  cause  which  he  con- 
siders righteous,  is  deserving  of  our  respect ;  but 
we  owe  him  no  approval  for  that.  The  Jewish 
fanatics  were  not  fighting  for  their  liberty,  but  for 
a  theocracy,  for  liberty  to  harass  the  Pagans,  and  to 
exterminate  everything  that  appeared  to  them  to 
be  bad.     The  ideal  which  they  sought  after  would 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  115 

have  been  an  imsiipportable  state  of  affairs.  Ana- 
logous, as  far  as  intolerance  went,  to  the  miserable 
Asmonean  period,  it  would  have  been  the  reign 
of  zealots,  radicals  of  the  very  worse  sort  :  it  would 
have  been  the  massacre  of  unbelievers,  a  Reign  of 
Terror.  All  the  liberals  of  the  second  century 
looked  upon  it  like  that.  A  very  intelligent  man, 
who,  Hke  the  Jews,  belonged  to  a  noble  and  con- 
quered race,  Pausanias,  the  antiquary,  expresses 
himself  thus  : — ''  In  my  time  there  reigned  that 
Hadrian  who  showed  such  respect  for  all  the  gods, 
and  who  had  the  happiness  of  his  subjects  so  much 
at  heart.  He  undertook  no  war  without  being 
forced  to  it ;  and  as  for  the  Hebrews  who  border 
on  Syria,  he  subjugated  them  because  they  had 
revolted  against  him." 


CHAPTER    XI I. 

DISAPPEARANCE  OF  THE  JEWISH  NATION. 

The  immediate  consequence  of  this  mad  act  of 
rebellion  was  a  real  persecution  of  Judaism.  The 
Jews  were  weighed  down  by  a  tribute  that  was 
heavier  still  than  the  fiscus  judaicus  imposed  by 
Vespasian.  The  exercise  of  the  most  essential 
practices  of  the  Mosaic  religion — circumcision,  the 
observance  of  the  Sabbath  and  of  feasts,  apparently 
insignificant  simple  usages  were  forbidden,  under 
pain  of  death  ;  and  even  those  who  taught  the 
Law  were  prosecuted.  Renegade  Jews,  who  had 
turned  spies,  tracked  the  faithful  who  met  in  the 
most  secret  places  to  study  the  sacred  code,  and 
the  Jews  were  reduced  to  reading  it  on  the  roofs 


116  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

of  the  houses.  The  doctors  of  the  Law  were  cruelly 
persecuted,  and  rabbinical  ordination  entailed  the 
death  penalty  both  on  the  ordainer  and  on  the 
ordinee.  There  were  many  martyrs  in  Judea 
and  Galilee,  and  throughout  the  whole  of  Syria  it 
was  a  crime  to  be  a  Jew.  It  was  now,  it  appears, 
that  the  two  brothers,  Julianus  and  Pappus,  who 
are  celebrated  in  Jewish  tradition  for  having  pre- 
ferred death  to  an  apparent  violation  of  the  Law 
committed  in  public,  were  executed,  and  though 
water  in  a  coloured  glass  was  offered  them  so 
that  they  might  pretend  to  think  that  they  had 
drunk  Pagan  wine,  they  refused  to  take  it. 

About  that  period  the  schools  of  the  Casuists  were 
chiefly  taken  up  with  the  question  of  those  precepts 
which  might  be  broken  in  order  to  avoid  death,  and 
those  for  which  martyrdom  ought  to  be  suffered.  The 
doctors  generally  admit  that  in  times  of  persecution 
all  observances  may  be  renounced  as  long  as  three 
prohibited  things,  idolatry,  fornication  (i.e.,  uulawful 
•unions),  and  murder  are  abstained  from.  This  sensible 
principle  was  put  forward  :  «'  It  is  suicide  to  resist  the 
Emperor's  orders."  It  was  admitted  that  religious 
worship  might  be  kept  secret,  and  that  the  circum- 
cision of  children  might  be  announced  by  the  sound  of 
hand-mills  instead  of  with  the  usual  noisy  demonstra- 
tions. It  was  also  pointed  out  that,  according  to 
Leviticus  xviii.  5,  the  observance  of  the  Law  gives 
life,  and  so  that  consequently  any  one  who  dies  for 
the  Law  is  responsible  for  his  own  death,  so  that 
when  a  man  found  himself  between  the  two  precepts 
to  observe  the  Law  and  to  preserve  his  own  life,  he 
ought  to  obey  the  second,  which  is  the  more  com- 
manding, at  any  rate  when  death  is  certain,  just  as, 
in  the  case  of  a  serious  illness,  it  is  lawful  to  take 
remedies  which  may  contain  some  impure  substance. 
There  was  another  point  on  which  all  were  agreed, 
and  this  was  that  it  was  better  to  suffer  death  than 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  117 

to  violate  the  slightest  commandment  publicly  ;  and 
lastly,  they  agreed  in  placing  the  duty  of  teaching 
above  all  other  obhgations.  At  Lydda  especially 
these  questions  were  agitated,  and  that  city  had  its 
celebrated  martyrs,  who  were  called  the  murdered  of 
Lydda. 

The  great  doubt  about  Providence  that  takes  pos- 
session of  the  Jew  as  soon  as  he  is  no  longer  prosper- 
ous and  triumphant,  made  the  position  of  those 
martyrs  a  particularly  cruel  one.  The  Christian, 
depending  as  he  does  altogether  on  the  future  Hfe,  is 
never  firmer  in  his  faith  than  when  he  is  being  perse- 
cuted ;  but  the  Jewish  martyr  has  not  the  same  hght. 
"Where  is  now  your  God?"  is  the  ironical  question 
which  he  constantly  fancies  that  he  hears  from  Pagan 
lips.  To  the  very  last  Rabbi  Ishmael  ben  Elischa 
never  ceased  to  fight  against  the  ideas  that  sprang  up 
in  his  mind,  and  in  the  minds  of  his  companions, 
against  divine  justice.  "  Do  you  still  trust  in  your 
God?  "  he  was  asked,  and  his  answer  was,  ''  Though 
he  slay  me  yet  will  I  trust  in  him,"  using  the  words 
of  Job  that  have  been  badly  translated. 

Aquiba,  who  had  been  a  prisoner  for  a  long  time, 
nevertheless  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  his  dis- 
ciples. "  Prepare  for  death,  terrible  days  are  coming," 
was  the  sentence  always  on  his  lips.  He  was  put  to 
death  because  he  was  betrayed  to  the  Romans  for 
imparting  profound  doctrine.  He  is  said  to  have  been 
flayed  alive  with  red-hot  iron  hooks.  Whilst  he  Avas 
being  torn  to  pieces  he  cried  incessantly,  "  Jehovah 
is  our  God  I  Jehovah  is  our  only  God  !  "  and  he  laid 
a  stress  on  the  word  "  only  "  (chad),  till  he  expired, 
when  a  heavenly  voice  was  heard  saying,  "  Happy 
Aquiba,  as  you  died  whilst  uttering  that  word  '  only.'  " 

It  was  not  till  late,  and  by  means  of  successive  ex- 
periences, that  Israel  arrived  at  the  idea  of  immor- 
tality. Martyrdom  made  this  belief  almost  a  neces- 
sity.     Nobody  could  pretend  that  those  scrupulous 


lis  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

observers  of  the  Law  who  died  for  it  had  their  reward 
here  below.  The  answer  that  sufficed  for  cases  like 
those  of  Job  and  Tobias  did  not  suffice  here.  How 
could  any  one  talk  of  a  long  and  happy  life  for  heroes 
who  were  expiring  under  a  terrible  death?  Either 
God  was  unjust,  or  the  saints  who  were  thus  tor- 
mented were  great  culprits.  In  the  middle  ages 
there  were  martyrs  who  accepted  this  latter  doctrine 
with  a  kind  of  despair,  and  when  they  were  being 
led  to  execution,  they  would  maintain  that  they  had 
deserved  it,  for  they  had  been  guilty  of  all  sorts  of 
crimes.  But  such  a  paradox  must  necessarily  be 
very  rare.  The  reign  of  a  thousand  years  which 
was  reserved  for  the  martyrs,  was  the  first  solution 
of  that  difficult  problem  which  was  attempted.  Then 
it  came  to  be  a  received  opinion  that  ascensions  to 
heaven  in  heart  and  mind,  that  revelations,  the  con- 
templation of  the  divine  secrets  of  the  cabala,  were 
the  martyr's  reward.  As  the  apocalyptic  spirit  was 
lost,  the  tiJiva,  that  is,  the  invincible  confidence  of  man 
in  the  justice  of  God,  assumed  forms  that  were  an- 
alogous to  the  enduring  paradise  of  Christians.  But 
that  article  of  faith  was  never  an  absolute  dogma 
amongst  the  Jews ;  no  trace  of  it  is  found  in  the 
Thora  ;  and  how  could  it  be  supposed  that  God  had 
expressly  deprived  the  saints  of  old  of  such  a  funda- 
mental dogma? 

From  thenceforward  all  hopes  of  seeing  the  Temple 
raised  up  again  were  lost,  and  the  Jews  had  even  to 
give  up  the  consolation  of  living  near  the  holy  places. 
The  species  of  worship  that  the  Jewish  people  vowed 
to  the  soil  which  they  thought  God  had  given 
them,  was  the  evil  that  the  Roman  authorities  wished 
to  cure  at  any  price,  so  that  for  the  future  they 
might  cut  off  the  root  of  Jewish  wars.  An  edict 
drove  the  Jews  from  Jerusalem  and  its  neighbour- 
hood under  pain  of  death,  and  the  very  sight  of 
Jerusalem  Avas  refused  them.     Only  once  a  year,  on 


'     THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  119 

the  anniversary  of  the  taking  of  the  city,  did  they 
obtain  authorisation  to  come  and  weep  over  the  ruins 
of  the  Temple,  and  to  anoint  a  hollow  stone,  which 
they  thought  marked  the  site  of  the  Holy  of  Holies, 
with  oil ;  and  even  that  permission  was  dearly  bought. 
"On  that  day,"  says  St  Jerome,  "you  might  see  a 
mournful  crowd,  a  miserable  people,  who  received  no 
pity,  assemble  and  draw  near.  Decrepit  women,  old 
men  in  rags,  all  are  weeping,  and  whilst  their  cheeks 
are  covered  with  tears,  and  they  raise  their  livid 
arms,  and  tear  their  thin  hair,  a  soldier  comes  up 
and  calls  on  them  for  payment,  so  that  they  may 
have  the  right  to  weep  a  little  longer."  The  rest  of 
Judea  was  also  prohibited  ground  to  the  Jews,  but 
not  so  strictly,  for  certain  localities,  such  as  Lydda, 
always  preserved  their  Jewish  quarters. 

The  Samaritans,  who  had  taken  no  part  in  the 
revolt,  hardly  suiFered  less  than  the  Jews.  Mount 
Gerizim,  like  Mount  Moriah,  had  its  temple  of  Jupiter ; 
the  prohibition  of  circumcision  attacked  them  in  the 
free  exercise  of  their  rehgion ;  and  the  memory  of 
Bar-Coziba  seems  to  have  been  execrated  by  them. 

The  construction  of  ^ha  Capitolina  went  on  more 
actively  than  ever,  and  everything  was  done  to 
efface  the  recollection  of  the  past,  which  had  been  so 
threatening.  The  old  name  of  Jerusalem  was  almost 
forgotten, and  ^liatookits  place  throughout  the  whole 
of  the  East,  so  that  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  later 
Jerusalem  had  become  a  name  in  ancient  geography 
which  nobody  knew  any  more.  The  city  was  full  of 
profane  edifices,forums,  baths, theatres,  tetranymphea, 
etc.  Statues  were  erected  in  all  directions,  and  the 
subtle  Jewish  mind  tried  to  discover  mocking  allu- . 
sions  in  them,  Avhich  Hadrian's  engineers  certainly 
never  intended.  Thus  over  the  gate  leading  to 
Bethlehem  there  was  a  piece  of  sculpture  in  marble 
which  they  thought  resembled  a  pig,  and  in  that 
they  saw  a  most  insulting  piece  of  irony  towards  the 


120  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

vanquished  people,  whilst  they  forgot  that  the  wild 
boar  was  a  Roman  emblem,  and  figured  on  the  stand- 
ards of  the  legions.  The  circumference  of  the  city 
was  slightly  altered  towards  the  south,  and  became 
about  what  it  is  now.  Mount  Zion  remained  outside 
the  enclosure,  and  was  covered  with  kitchen  gardens. 
Those  parts  of  the  city  which  were  not  rebuilt 
afforded  a  mass  of  loose  stones  which  served  as  a 
stone  quarry  for  the  new  buildings.  The  founda- 
tions of  Herod's  temple  (the  present  harden)  excited 
wonder  by  their  strength,  and  soon  the  Christians 
declared  that  these  tremendous  layers  of  stones 
would  only  be  dislodged  at  the  coming  of  Antichrist. 

On  the  site  of  the  Temple,  as  has  been  said,  was 
raised  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus.  Bacchus, 
Serapis,  Astarte,  the  Dioscuri  were  associated  there 
with  the  principal  god.  As  usual,  statues  of  the 
Emperor  were  scattered  broadcast,  and  one  of  them 
at  least  was  equestrian;  whilst  the  statues  of  Jupiter 
and  Venus  were  also  set  up  near  Golgotha.  When, 
in  later  years,  the  Christians  settled  their  sacred 
topography,  they  were  scandalised  at  this  proximity, 
and  looked  upon  it  as  an  outrage ;  and  in  the  same 
way  they  thought  that  the  Emperor  had  intended  to 
profane  Bethlehem  by  setting  up  the  worship  of 
Adonis  there. 

Antoninus,  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  Yerus  occupied 
themselves  in  beautifying  the  city,  and  improving 
the  highroads  that  led  to  it,  and  these  public  works 
irritated  the  real  Jews.  "  In  spite  of  all,  the  works 
of  this  nation  are  admirable,"  said  Rabbi  Juda  bar 
Ila'i  one  day  to  two  of  his  friends  who  were  seated 
with  him.  "  They  build  forums,  construct  bridges, 
and  establish  baths."  "  That  is  much  to  their  merit !  " 
replied  Simeon  ben  Jochai ;  "  they  do  it  all  for  their 
own  benefit:  they  put  brothels  into  the  forums;  they 
have  the  baths  for  their  own  amusement,  and  they  con- 
struct the  bridges  so  that  they  may  receive  the  tolls. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  121 

The  hatred  of  Greek  life,  which  was  always  so 
active  amongst  the  Jews,  was  redoubled  at  the  sight 
of  a  material  renovation  which  seemed  to  be  its 
striking  triumph.  Thus  finished  the  final  attempt  of 
the  Jewish  people  to  remain  a  nation  Avhich  pos- 
sessed a  name  and  a  defined  territory.  In  the 
Talmud,  the  war  of  Bar-Coziba  is  very  rightly  called 
"  the  war  of  extermination."  Dangerous  movements, 
which  seemed  to  be  the  rekindling  of  the  flame, 
appeared  again  during  the  first  years  of  Antoninus  : 
they  were  easily  repressed.  From  that  moment 
Israel  had  no  longer  a  fatherland,  and  then  it  began 
its  wandering  life,  which  for  centuries  has  marked 
it  as  the  wonder  of  the  world.  Under  the  Roman 
sway  the  civil  situation  of  the  Jew  was  lost  without 
recovery.  If  Palestine  had  wished  it,  it  would  have 
become  a  province  like  Syria,  and  its  lot  would  have 
been  neither  worse  nor  better  than  that  of  the  other 
provinces.  In  the  first  century,  several  Jews  played 
most  extraordinarily  important  parts.  Afterwards 
that  will  never  be  seen,  and  it  seems  as  if  the  Jews 
had  disappeared  underground :  they  are  only  men- 
tioned as  beggars  who  have  taken  refuge  in  the 
suburbs  of  Rome,  sitting  at  the  gates  of  Aricia, 
besieging  carriages,  and  clinging  to  the  wheels,  so  as 
to  obtain  something  from  the  pity  of  travellers. 
They  are  a  body  of  ra'ias,  having,  it  is  true,  their 
statutes,  and  their  personal  magistrates,  but  who 
are  outside  the  pale  of  common  law,  forming  no 
part  of  the  State,  in  some  measure  analogous  to  the 
Zingari  in  Europe.  There  was  no  longer  a  single 
rich  notable  Jew  of  any  consideration  associating 
with  men  of  the  world.  The  great  Jewish  fortunes 
did  not  re-appear  again  till  the  sixth  century,  and 
then  it  was  chiefly  amongst  the  Visigoths  of  Spain, 
in  consequence  of  the  false  ideas  witli  regard  to 
usury  and  commerce  which  were  spread  abroad  by 
Christianity.     Then  the  Jew  became,  and  continued 


122  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

to  be  during  the  greater  part  of  the  Middle  Ages,  a 
necessary  personage  without  whom  the  world  could 
not  accomplish  the  simplest  transactions.  Modern 
Liberalism  alone  could  put  an  end  to  this  exceptional 
situation.  A  decree  of  the  Constituent  Assembly  in 
the  year  1791  made  them  again  citizens  and  mem- 
bers of  a  nation. 

In  that  world  which  was  burnt  up  by  a  sort  of 
internal  volcanic  fire,  there  were  some  oases.  Some 
survivors  of  Sadduceeism,  who  were  treated  as  apos- 
tates by  their  co-religionists,  preserved  amidst  these 
mystical  dreams  the  healthy  philosophy  of  Ecclesi- 
asticus.  The  provincial  Jews,  who  were  subject  to 
the  Arsaeides,  lived  tolerably  happily,  and  observed 
the  Law  without  being  interfered  with.  The  com- 
position of  a  charming  book,  the  date  of  which  is 
uncertain,  and  which  was  not  translated  into  Greek 
till  towards  the  end  of  the  second  century,  may  be 
attributed  to  these  provinces.  It  is  a  little  romance, 
full  of  freshness,  such  as  the  Jews  excelled  in,  the 
idyl  par  excellence  of  Jewish  piety  and  domestic 
pleasures. 

A  certain  Tobit,  son  of  Tobiel,  who  sprung  from 
Cades  of  Naphtali,  was  taken  captive  to  Nineveh  by 
Shalmaneser.  From  his  childhood  he  had  been  a 
model  of  goodness,  and,  far  from  participating  in  the 
idolatry  of  the  Northern  tribes,  he  regularly  went  to 
Jerusalem,  the  only  spot  that  God  had  chosen  as  a 
place  of  worship,  and  offered  his  tithe  to  the  priests, 
the  descendants  of  Aaron,  according  to  the  rules  ot 
the  Teruma  and  of  the  Maaser  scheni.  He  was  charit- 
able, benevolent,  and  amiable  towards  all ;  he  ab- 
stained from  eating  the  bread  of  the  heathen,  and 
in  return  God  obtained  Shalmaneser's  favour  for  him, 
who  made  him  his  purveyor,  After  Shalm.aneser's 
death,  Sennacherib,  who  had  returned  furious  from 
his  expedition  to  Jerusalem,  began  to  act  very 
severely  towards  the  Jews  ;  their  bodies  were  lying 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CBURCH.  123 

about  unbnried  in  all  directions,  and  were  to  be  seen 
in  heaps  outside  the  walls  of  Nineveh,  and  Tobit 
went  and  buried  them  by  stealth.  The  king,  sur- 
prised at  the  disappearance  of  the  bodies,  asked 
what  had  become  of  them.  Tobit  was  persecuted, 
hid  himself,  and  lost  his  property,  and  only  the 
murder  of  Sennacherib  saved  him.  He  then  con- 
tinued his  pious  work  of  burying  the  Israelites  whom 
he  found  dead,  though  his  neighbours  made  fun  of 
him,  and  asked  him  what  his  reward  would  be.  One 
evening  he  came  back  overcome  by  fatigue ;  he  could 
not  go  into  his  own  house,  as  he  was  unclean  from 
having  touched  the  dead  bodies,  so  he  threw  himself 
at  the  foot  of  a  wall  in  the  court  of  his  house  and 
went  to  sleep  :  an  accident  deprived  him  of  his  eye- 
sight. Here  we  have  the  same  problem  laid  down 
as  in  the  book  of  Job,  and  with  the  same  vigour  :  a 
just  man  not  only  badly  rewarded  for  his  goodness, 
but  struck  in  consequence  of  his  virtue  itself:  an  act 
of  virtue  followed  by  misfortune  resulting  from  it. 
How  can  one  allege  after  that  that  the  servant  of 
Jehovah  always  receives  the  reward  of  his  fidelity  ? 
His  wife  asks  him  where  his  alms  and  bis  good 
actions  are,  and  what  profit  he  has  gained  from  them. 

Tobit  persists  in  the  affirmation  of  a  true  Israelite 
that  God  is  just  and  good,  and  he  even  carries  his 
heroism  so  far  as  to  vilify  himself  so  as  to  justify 
God ;  he  declares  that  he  has  deserved  his  lot, 
firstly  on  account  of  the  sins  and  omissions  that  he 
has  been  guilty  of  through  ignorance,  then  because 
of  the  sins  of  his  fathers.  Because  the  ancestors  of 
the  then  existing  generation  were  guilty,  therefore 
that  generation  is  dispersed  and  dishonoured.  Tobit 
only  begs  for  one  favour,  which  is  to  die  at  once,  so 
that  he  may  return  to  the  earth  and  go  to  the 
eternal  place. 

Now  on  that  same  day,  at  Ecbataua,  another 
afflicted   creature   had   also   asked   God   for    death. 


124  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

That  was  Sara,  the  daughter  of  Raguel,  who  had 
been  married  seven  times,  and,  though  she  was 
absolutely  pure,  had  seen  her  seven  husbands 
strangled  on  their  wedding-night  by  the  wicked 
demon  Aeschmadaeva,  who  was  jealous  of  her,  and 
killed  all  those  who  wished  to  touch  her.  Those 
two  prayers  were  presented  at  the  same  time  at  the 
throne  of  God  by  the  Archangel  Raphael,  who  is  one 
of  the  seven  angels  that  are  allowed  to  penetrate 
into  the  sanctuary  of  the  divine  glory  to  carry  the 
prayers  of  the  saints  thither.  God  hears  the  suppli- 
cation of  these  two  just  and  sorely  tried  persons,  and 
bids  Raphael  make  good  the  evil. 

Everybody  knows  the  charming  idyl  that  follows. 
It  has  rightly  found  a  place  amongst  these  sacred 
fables  which,  reproduced  under  many  different  shapes, 
never  weary  us.  Gentle  morality,  family  feeling, 
filial  piety,  the  love  and  the  eternal  union  of  the 
husband  and  wife,  charity  towards  the  poor  man, 
devotion  to  Israel,  have  never  been  expressed  in  a 
more  charming  fashion.  Good  will  to  all,  strict 
honesty,  temperance,  great  care  not  to  do  to  others 
what  one  would  not  wish  to  have  done  to  oneself, 
care  in  the  choice  of  one's  company  and  to  be  inti- 
mate only  with  good  people,  the  spirit  of  order, 
regularity  in  one's  affairs,  judicious  family  arrange- 
ments, that  is  that  excellent  Jewish  morality  which, 
though  it  is  not  exactly  that  of  a  nobleman,  or  of  a 
man  of  the  world,  has  become  the  code  of  the  Chris- 
tian middle  classes  in  its  best  sense.  Nothing  is 
further  removed  from  avarice.  That  same  Tobit,  who 
lives  on  intimate  terms  with  the  persecutors  of  his 
co-religionists  because  it  is  an  advantageous  place, 
lays  it  down  as  a  principle  that  happiness  consists  in 
a  moderate  fortune  joined  to  justice  ;  he  can  put  up 
with  poverty  with  a  light  heart,  and  declares  that 
real  pleasure  consists  hi  giving,  and  not  in  laying  up 
treasure, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  l25 

Above  all,  the  ideas  of  matrimony  as  developed 
here  are  particularly  chaste,  sensible,  and  refined. 
The  Jew,  with  his  recollections  always  fixed  on  his 
ancestors  the  prophets  and  patriarchs,  and  persuaded 
that  his  race  will  possess  the  earth,  marries  only  a 
Jewess  of  good  family,  whose  relatives  are  honour- 
able and  known  to  be  so.  Beauty  is  far  from  being 
a  matter  of  indifference  ;  but,  before  everything  else, 
laws  and  usages  and  family  convenience  must  be 
consulted,  so  that  the  fortune  may  not  change  hands. 
The  man  and  woman  are  reserved  for  one  another 
throughout  all  eternity.  Marriages  founded  on 
sensual  love  turn  out  badly,  but  on  the  other  hand, 
a  union  founded  on  real  sentiment  is  the  agglutina- 
tion of  two  souls  :  it  is  blessed  by  God  when  it  is 
sanctified  by  the  prayers  of  the  two  lovers,  and  then 
becomes  friendship  full  of  charm,  especially  when  the 
man  maintains  that  moral  superiority  over  his  com- 
panion that  belongs  to  him  by  right.  To  grow  old 
together,  to  be  buried  in  the  same  tomb,  to  leave 
their  children  well  married,  to  see  their  grand- 
children, and  perhaps  the  children  of  the  latter, 
what  more  can  be  requisite  for  happiness  ? 

The  author,  separated  from  the  book  of  Job  by 
nearly  a  thousand  years,  has  in  reality  not  an  idea 
beyond  that  of  the  old  Hebrew  book.  All  ends  for 
eth  best,  as  Tobit  dies  at  a  hundred  and  sixty-eight 
years  of  age,  having  had  nothing  but  happiness  since 
his  trials,  and  being  honourably  buried  by  the  side 
of  his  wife.  His  son  dies  at  a  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven  years  of  age,  in  possession  of  his  own  and  of 
his  father-in-law's  property.  Before  dying,  he  hears 
that  Nineveh  is  taken,  and  rejoices  at  that  good  news, 
for  what  can  be  sweeter  than  to  see  the  chastise- 
ment of  the  enemies  of  Israel  ? 

Thus  God  appears  like  a  father  who  chastises  a 
son  Avhom  he  loves  and  then  takes  pity  on  him. 
When  the  just  man  suffers,  it  is  as  a  punishment  for 


126  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

his  own  faults  and  those  of  his  fathers.  But  if  he 
humbles  himself  and  prays,  God  pardons  him  and 
restores  him  to  prosperity.  Thus  to  sin  is  to  be 
one's  own  enemy:  charity  preserves  from  death, 
almsgiving  saves. 

What  happened  to  Tobit  will  happen  to  Israel. 
After  having  chastised  it,  God  will  repair  its  disas- 
ters. The  Temple  will  be  rebuilt,  but  not  as  it  was 
before,  and  then  all  those  who  were  dispersed  shall  be 
restored  to  their  own  country.  Israel,  thus  reunited, 
will  rebuild  Jerusalem  and  the  Temple  with  all  the 
magnificence  which  was  foretold  by  the  prophets, 
and  this  time  for  eternity.  It  will  be  a  city  of 
sapphires  and  emeralds ;  its  walls  and  towers  shall 
be  of  pure  gold ;  its  squares  shall  be  like  mosaics  of 
beryl  and  carbuncle,  and  its  streets  shall  say  Alleluia. 
All  people  shall  be  converted  to  the  true  God,  and 
shall  bury  their  idols.  Happy  shall  they  be  then  who 
have  loved  Jerusalem  and  pitied  her  sufferings. 

As  soon  as  it  was  translated,  that  httle  book  came 
into  great  favour  with  the  Christians.  Some  of  its 
features  were  of  a  nature  to  shock  the  delicacy  of 
a  few ;  it  was,  in  some  respects,  too  Jewish  ;  some 
places  in  it  might  be  touched  up  in  a  still  more 
edifying  manner.  Hence  arose  a  series  of  altera- 
tions, whence  sprang  a  variety  of  Greek  and  Latin 
texts.  The  last  alteration,  that  of  St  Jerome,  which 
was  made  with  remarkable  literary  feeling,  gave 
that  form  to  the  book  which  it  has  in  the  Latin  text 
of  the  Vulgate.  The  awkwardness  and  the  clumsi- 
ness of  the  original  have  disappeared,  and  the  result 
of  those  corrections  is  a  small  masterpiece  which  all 
succeeding  centuries  have  read  and  admired. 

The  Jewish  people  are  without  an  equal  when  it  is 
a  question  of  accentuating  and  imparting  a  charm  to 
an  ideal  of  justice  and  domestic  virtues.  The  Tliora 
is  the  first  book  in  the  world,  regarded  as  a  book  of 
devotion,  but  it  is  an  impracticable  code.     No  society 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  127 

could  have  lived  under  it,  and  the  Jews  of  the  time 
of  Bar-Gioras  and  Bar-Coziba  were  defending  a 
Utopia  when  they  defended  a  nationahty  founded 
on  such  principles.  History  has  that  sympathy  for 
them  which  it  owes  to  all  those  who  have  been 
conquered  ;  but  how  much  more  Avas  the  peaceable 
Christian  and  the  author  of  the  Book  of  Tobit,  who 
thought  it  quite  natural  not  to  revolt  against  iSlial- 
maneser,  imbued  with  the  traditions  of  Israel. 


CHAPTER    Xril. 

THE     TALMUD. 

The  Law,  wdth  that  calmness  of  mind  that  it  pro- 
duced, acted  like  a  sedative  which  quickly  restored 
serenity  to  the  troubled  spirit  of  Israel.  The  Jewish 
quarters  of  the  West  do  not  appear  to  have  suffered 
much  from  the  follies  of  their  co-religionists  of  the 
East.  Even  in  the  East  peaceable  Israelites  had 
not  participated  in  the  strife,  and  soon  became  re- 
conciled to  the  conquerors.  Some  ventured  to 
believe  that  heaven  was  favourable  to  the  Romans, 
and  that,  after  all,  the  Law,  when  it  was  strictly 
observed  in  families,  always  gave  the  Jews  a  modus 
Vivendi.  Thus  order  was  re-established  in  Syria 
sooner  than  one  might  have  thought.  The  fugi- 
tives from  Jerusalem  went  either  to  the  East  to 
Palmyra,  or  else  into  the  South  towards  Yemen, 
or  else  to  Galilee.  That  latter  country  above  all 
received  a  new  impulse  from  the  emigration,  and 
for  centuries  afterwards  remained  an  almost  exclu- 
sively Jewish  country. 

After  the  extermination  of  the  year  67,  Galilee  had 
been  lost  to  Judaism  for  some  time.  Perhaps  the 
revolt  of  117  was  the  reason  that  the  betli-diii  was 


128  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

transported  thither.  After  the  defeat  of  Bar-Coziba, 
the  inhabitauts  Avho  had  been  driven  from  the  South 
took  refuge  there  in  a  body  and  repopulated  the 
villages,  and  then  the  beth-din  became  definitely 
Galilean.  That  tribunal  had  its  seat  first  of  all  at 
Ouscha,  then  in  the  villages  near  Sephoris,  at  Sche- 
faram,  at  Beth-Shearim,  and  at  Sephoris  itself;  then 
it  was  established  at  Tiberias,  and  was  not  moved 
till  the  Mussulman  conquest.  Whilst  Darom  was 
almost  forgotten  and  its  schools  were  declining, 
whilst  even  Lydda  was  falling  with  wretchedness 
and  ignorance,  and  was  losing  the  right  of  fixing 
the  embolismic  calculations,  Galilee  became  the 
centre  of  Judaism.  Meiron,  Safat,  Gischala,  Alma, 
Casioun,  Kafr-Baram,  Kafr-Nabarta,  Ammouka,  were 
the  chief  localities  of  this  new  development,  and  were 
filled  with  Jewish  monuments,  and  these,  nearly  all 
of  them  reverenced  in  the  Middle  Ages  as  tombs  of 
the  prophets,  can  still  be  seen  in  the  midst  of  a 
country  which  for  the  third  and  fourth  time  has 
become  desert  and  desolate.  Tiberias  was,  in  a 
measure,  the  capital  of  that  kingdom  of  disputation 
and  subtlety  where  the  last  remains  of  original 
Jewish  activity  were  exhausted. 

In  fact,  in  that  tranquil  country,  restored  to  its 
favourite  retired  and  studious  life,  the  family  hfe  and 
that  of  the  synagogue,  Israel  definitely  renounced  its 
earthly  visions,  and  sought  the  kingdom  of  God,  not 
like  Jesus  in  the  ideal,  but  in  the  rigorous  observance 
of  the  Law.  From  that  time  forward  proselytism  dis- 
appears by  degrees  from  amongst  that  people  who  had 
been  its  most  ardent  followers.  A  law  of  Antoninus 
put  a  stop  to  the  restrictive  measures  of  Hadrian,  and 
allowed  the  Jews  to  circumcise  their  children  ;  but 
Modestinus  the  lawyer  draws  attention  to  the  fact 
that  such  permission  applied  only  to  their  own 
children,  and  exposed  those  who  should  perform  that 
operation  on  any  one  who  was  not  a  Jew  to  capital 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  129 

punishment.  Only  some  madmen,  the  Siccani,  con- 
tinued their  religious  ambush,  aud  forced  the  unhappy 
wretches  whom  they  could  surprise  in  their  houses 
to  choose  between  circumcision  and  the  dagger. 
The  majority  knew  nothing  of  these  aberrations.  It 
renounced  heroism,  and  made  martyrdom  useless  by 
those  clever  distinctions  between  the  precepts  which 
may  be  transgressed  in  order  to  save  one's  life  and 
those  for  which  one  must  suifer  death.  And  from 
this  sprung  a  singular  spectacle :  Judaism,  which 
had  given  the  first  martyr  to  the  world,  now  left 
the  monopoly  of  it  to  Christians,  so  much  so  that 
in  certain  persecutions  Christians  might  be  seen 
figuring  as  Jews,  so  that  they  might  enjoy  the  im- 
munities of  Judaism.  The  latter  only  had  martyrs 
whilst  it  was  revolutionary  ;  as  soon  as  it  renounced 
politics  it  settled  down  altogether,  and  was  satisfied 
with  that  tolerance,  so  closely  bordering  on  inde- 
pendence, that  was  accorded  to  it.  On  the  other 
hand,  Christianity,  which  never  had  anything  to  do 
with  politics,  reckoned  martyrs  amongst  its  ranks, 
till  it  in  turn  became  triumphant  and  persecuting. 

It  was  the  Talmud  that  created  the  Jewish  people 
during  that  long  period  of  repose.  The  doctors  of  old 
had  taught  the  Law  without  any  logical  order,  solely 
according  to  the  cases  that  were  brought  before 
them.  Then  in  their  teaching  they  had  followed 
the  order  of  the  books  of  the  Pentateuch.  With 
Rabbi  Ben  Aquiba  a  fresh  distribution  was  introduced, 
a  kind  of  classification  according  to  matter,  necessi- 
tating divisions  and  subdivisions,  like  a  Corpus  juris. 
Thus  a  second  code,  the  Mischna,  was  formed  side  by 
side  with  the  Thora.  The  Scriptures  were  no  longer 
taken  as  the  foundation,  and,  to  speak  truly,  with  that 
taste  for  arbitrary  interpretation  that  had  been  intro- 
duced, the  Scriptures  had  become  almost  useless.  It 
was  no  longer  a  question  of  understanding  the  will 
of  the  legislator  clearly,  it  was  a  question  of  finding 

I 


130  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

at  any  price,  in  the  Bible,  arguments  in  favour  of 
traditional  decisions,  and  verses  to  which  received 
precepts  could  be  attached.  It  is  the  destiny  of 
religions  that  the  sacred  books  should  always  be 
thus  destroyed  by  commentaries.  Sacred  books  alone 
do  not  form  religions ;  it  is  the  force  of  circumstances, 
involving  a  thousand  wants  of  which  the  first  origin- 
ator could  not  have  dreamt.  Thus  the  coincidence 
between  the  sacred  books  and  the  religious  state  of 
any  period  is  never  perfect ;  the  coat  does  not  fit 
well  enough,  and  then  the  commentator  and  the 
traditionalist  come  and  settle  matters.  Thus  it 
happens  that,  instead  of  studying  the  sacred  book 
by  itself,  it. was  thought  better,  after  a  certain  time, 
to  read  it  in  the  codes  which  have  been  extracted 
from  it,  or  rather  which  have  been  adapted  to  it. 

The  attempt  to  codify  the  oral  Jewish  law  was 
made  in  different  directit)ns  at  the  same  time.  We 
have  no  longer  the  Mischoa  of  Rabbi  Aquiba,  nor 
many  others  that  existed.  The  Mischna  of  Juda  the 
Holy,  written  sixty  years  later,  has  thrown  those 
that  preceded  it  into  oblivion,  but  he  neither  in- 
vented all  the  divisions  nor  all  the  titles.  Many  of 
the  treatises  in  his  compilation  had  been  completely 
drawn  up  before  his  time.  Besides  that,  after  Aquiba, 
the  original  schools  disappeared,  and  the  doctors, 
full  of  respect  for  their  predecessors,  who  seemed  to 
them  to  be  surrounded  by  the  halo  of  martyrdom, 
tried  no  new  methods — they  were  mere  compilers. 

Thus  the  Jews  made  a  new  Bible  for  themselves, 
which  rather  threw  the  first  one  into  the  shade,  at 
the  same  time  that  the  Christians  did.  The  Mischna 
was  their  Gospel,  their  New  Testament.  The  dis- 
tance between  the  Christian  and  the  Jewish  book  is 
enormous.  The  simultaneous  appearance  of  the  Tal- 
mud and  the  Gospel  from  the  same  race  of  people, 
— of  a  slight  masterpiece  of  elegance,  lightness,  and 
moral   subtlety,  and   of  a  ponderous  monument   of 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  131 

pedantry,  of  miserable  casuistry,  and  religious  for- 
malism, is  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  phenomenons 
of  history.  These  twins  are  certainly  the  most  dis- 
similar creatures  that  ever  issued  from  the  womb  of 
the  same  mother.  There  is  something  barbarous 
and  unintelligible,  a  disheartening  contempt  for 
language  and  form,  an  absolute  lack  of  distinction 
and  of  talent,  that  make  the  Talmud  one  of  the 
most  repulsive  books  that  exist.  The  disastrous 
consequences  of  one  of  the  greatest  faults  that  the 
Jewish  people  ever  committed,  which  was  to  turu 
their  back  on  Greek  discipline,  which  was  the  source 
of  all  classical  culture,  are  clearly  felt  in  it.  That 
rupture  with  reason  itself  placed  Israel  in  a  state 
of  deplorable  isolation.  It  was  a  crime  to  read  a 
foreign  book.  Greek  literature  seemed  to  be  a  toy, 
a  female  ornament,  an  amusement  beneath  the  notice 
of  a  man  who  was  preoccupied  with  the  study  of  the 
Law,  a  childish  science  which  a  man  ought  to  teach 
his  son  "  at  an  hour  which  is  neither  day  nor  night." 
As  the  Thora  says,  "  You  shall  study  the  law  day 
and  night."  Thus  the  Thora  came  to  be  regarded 
as  the  embodiment  of  all  philosophy  and  all  science, 
and  dispensing  with  any  other  study.  Christianity 
was  less  exclusive,  and  took  a  large  portion  of 
Hellenic  tradition  into  its  bosom.  Separated  from 
that  great  source  of  life,  Israel  fell  into  a  state  of 
poverty,  or  rather  of  intellectual  aberration,  from 
which  it  did  not  emerge  till  it  came  under  the  influ- 
ence of  the  so-called  Arabian  system  of  philosophy, 
that  is  to  say,  under  the  influence  of  a  singularly  re- 
fracted ray  of  Greek  light. 

There  certainly  are  in  this  confused  medley  of  the 
Talmud  some  excellent  maxims,  more  than  one  pre- 
cious pearl  of  the  kind  as  those  which  Jesus  adopted 
and  idealised,  and  which  the  Evangelistts  made  divine 
in  writing  them.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the  pre- 
servation of  the  individuality  of  the  Jewish  people, 


132  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Talmudism  was  an  heroic  party,  and  such  as  could 
scarcely  be  found  in  the  history  of  a  race.  The 
Jewish  nation,  dispersed  from  one  end  of  the  world 
to  the  other,  had  no  other  nationality  than  the  Thora  ; 
to  maintain  this  scattered  whole,  without  clerg}^, 
bishops,  pope,  or  holy  city,  without  any  central 
theological  college,  an  iron  chain  was  required,  and 
nothing  binds  men  together  so  firmly  as  common 
duties.  The  Jew,  carrying  all  his  religion  with  him, 
requiring  neither  temples  nor  clergy  for  his  worship, 
enjoyed  incomparable  freedom  in  his  emigrations 
to  the  end  of  the  world.  His  absolute  idealism 
made  him  indifferent  to  material  things  ;  faithfulness 
to  the  recollections  of  his  race — the  confession  of 
faith  (the  schema)  and  the  practice  of  the  Law, 
sufficed  him.  When  one  is  present  at  any  ceremony 
in  a  synagogue,  at  first  sight  everything  seems 
modern,  borrowed,  common-place.  In  the  construc- 
tion of  their  places  of  worship  the  Jews  have  never 
sought  a  style  of  architecture  which  would  be 
peculiar  to  them.  The  ministers  of  religion,  with 
their  bands,  their  three-cornered  hat,  and  their 
stole,  look  like  parish  priests ;  the  sermon  is  formed 
on  the  model  of  the  Catholic  pulpit  ;  the  lamps,  the 
seats,  all  the  furniture,  has  been  bought  in  the  same 
shop  that  supplies  the  neighbouring  parish.  No- 
thing in  the  singing  or  the  music  goes  further  back 
than  the  fifteenth  century.  Some  portions  of  the 
worship  even  are  imitations  of  the  Catholic  form. 
The  originality  and  the  antiquity  suddenly  burst 
forth  in  the  profession  of  faith:  *Hear,  0  Israel, 
Adonai,  our  God,  is  One,  holy  is  His  name  I "  This 
headstrong  proclamation,  this  persistent  cry,  which 
in  the  end  has  carried  away  and  converted  the  world, 
constitutes  the  whole  of  Judaism.  That  people  has 
made  God,  and  yet  there  never  was  a  people  less 
given  to  disputing  about  God. 

One  very  sensible   feature,  in   fact,  was  to    have 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  133 

chosen  practice,  and  not  dogma  as  the  basis  for  re- 
ligions commnnion.  The  Christian  is  united  to  the 
Christian  by  the  same  belief;  the  Jew  is  united  to 
the  Jew  by  the  same  observances.  By  making  the 
union  of  souls  bear  on  truths  of  the  metaphysical 
order,  Christianity  prepared  the  way  for  schisms 
without  number  ;  by  reducing  the  profession  of  faith 
to  the  schema,  that  is  to  say,  to  the  affirmation  of  the 
Divine  Unity  and  to  the  outward  bond  of  ritual, 
Judaism  got  rid  of  the  logical  disputes  from  its 
midst.  The  season  for  excommunication  amongst 
the  Jews  was  generally  acts,  not  opinions.  The 
Cabala  always  remained  a  matter  for  free  speculation, 
and  never  became  a  compulsory  article  of  faith  ;  the 
immortality  of  the  soul  was  regarded  as  a  consoling 
hope,  and  it  was  allowed  without  difficulty  that  re- 
ligious practices  would  be  abolished  when  Messiah 
came,  when  Jewish  principles  would  be  universally 
adopted.  Even  the  belief  concerning  Messiah  had 
a  doubt  cast  upon  it  by  a  learned  doctor,  and  the 
Talmud  gives  his  opinion  without  blaming  it.  That 
was  very  judicious.  It  is  perfect  nonsense  to  be 
compelled  to  believe  any  particular  doctrine,  whilst 
the  greatest  external  strictness  may  be  allied  to  en- 
tire liberty  of  thought.  That  is  the  reason  of  that 
philosophical  independence  which  ruled  in  Judaism 
during  the  Middle  Ages  down  to  our  days.  Eminent 
doctors,  the  oracles  of  the  synagogue,  such  as 
Maimonides  and  Mendelsohn,  were  pure  rationalists. 
A  book  like  the  Iccarim  (Fundamental  Principles)  of 
Joseph  Albo,  which  proclaimed  that  religion  and  pro- 
phecy are  only  a  form  of  symbolism  which  is  destined  to 
ameliorate  man's  moral  condition,  that  all  divine  laws 
can  be  modified,  that  individual  punishments  and  re- 
wards in  the  future  life  are  nothing  but  figures  of 
speech,  thatsuch  abook,Isay,should  become  celebrated 
and  not  incur  any  anathema,  is  a  fact  that  is  without 
example  in  any  other  religion.     And  piety  did  not 


134  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

suffer  for  it.  Those  men  who  had  no  hope  in  a  future 
Hfe  endured  martyrdom  with  admirable  courage,  and 
died  accusing  themselves  of  imaginary  crimes,  so 
that  their  death  might  not  be  too  strong  an  objection 
against  the  justice  of  God. 

Great  disadvantages  counterbalanced  the  advan- 
tages of  that  severe  discipline  to  which  Israel  sub- 
mitted in  order  to  retain  the  unity  of  its  race.  Their 
ritual  united  co-religionists  amongst  themselves,  but 
separated  them  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  and 
condemned  them  to  an  isolated  life.  The  chains  of 
the  Talmud  forged  those  of  the  Ghetto.  The  Jewish 
people,  which  up  till  then  had  been  so  devoid  of 
superstition,  became  its  most  thorough  type,  and  the 
mocking  allusions  that  Jesus  made  to  the  Pharisees 
were  justified.  For  centuries  their  literature  turned 
chiefly  on  the  sacred  furniture  and  vestments,  and  on 
slaughter  houses.  That  other  Bible  became  a  prison 
in  which  the  new  Judaism  carried  on  its  unhappy 
life  of  reclusion  up  to  our  days.  Enclosed  in  that 
unwholesome  encyclopedia,  the  Jewish  intellect  got 
so  sharp  that  it  went  wrong.  For  the  Israelites  the 
Talmud  became  a  sort  of  Organon,  in  every  respect 
inferior  to  that  of  the  Greeks.  The  Jewish  doctors 
put  forward  the  same  claims  as  the  jurists  who  in 
the  sixteenth  century  declared  that  they  could  find 
a  whole  system  of  intellectual  culture  in  Roman 
Law.  In  our  time,  this  vast  collection,  which  still 
serves  as  the  basis  for  Jewish  education  in  Hungary 
and  in  Poland,  may  be  considered  as  the  principal 
source  of  the  defects  which  may  be  remarked  occa- 
sionally amongst  the  Jews  of  those  countries.  The 
belief  that  Talmudic  studies  supply  the  place  of  all 
others,  and  make  those  who  devote  themselves  to 
them  fitted  for  everything,  is  the  great  cause  of  that 
presumption,  that  subtlety,  that  want  of  general 
culture,  which  so  often  destroy  really  fine  qualities 
in  the  Israelite. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  135 

The  Jewish  mind  is  endowed  with  extreme  vigour. 
For  centuries  it  was  forced  to  rave  because  it  was 
restricted  to  a  narrow  and  barren  circle  of  ideas- 
The  activity  which  it  displayed  was  the  same  as  if  it 
had  been  working  in  a  wide  and  fertile  soil,  and  thus 
the  result  of  headstrong  work,  applied  to  a  thankless 
dry  matter,  was  mere  subtlety.  To  wish  to  find 
everything  in  texts  was  to  obhge  themselves  to 
childish  feats  of  strength.  When  their  natural  sense 
is  exhausted,  a  mystical  sense  is  sought  for,  and  then 
men  set  to  work  to  count  letters,  and  to  compute 
them  as  if  they  were  numbers.  The  chimeras  of 
the  Cabala  and  of  the  Notarikon  were  the  last  results 
of  that  extreme  spirit  of  exactitude  and  of  servile 
adherence.  In  such  an  accumulation  of  disputes  as 
to  the  best  means  of  fulfilling  the  Law,  there  was 
the  proof  of  a  very  ardent  religious  spirit ;  but  we 
may  be  allowed  to  add  that  there  was  in  it  some- 
thing of  a  witticism  and  of  amusement.  Ingenious 
and  active  men,  who  were  condemned  to  a  sedentary 
life,  driven  from  public  places  and  from  the  general 
society  of  the  time,  sought  means  to  get  rid  of  their 
weariness  by  combining  dialectics  with  the  texts  of 
the  Law.  Even  in  our  time,  in  those  countries  where 
Jews  live  exclusively  among  themselves,  the  Tal- 
mud is,  if  we  may  say  so,  their  chief  diversion.  The 
meetings  which  they  have  to  explain  its  diffi- 
culties, and  to  discuss  obscure  or  imaginary  cases, 
seem  to  them  to  be  pleasure  parties,  and  those 
subtleties  which  we  look  upon  as  irksome,  have 
seemed,  and  still  seem,  to  thousands  of  men  to  be  the 
most  attractive  matter  to  which  human  genius  can 
be  applied. 

From  that  moment  the  Jews  acquired  all  the  faults 
of  isolated  men  :  they  became  morose  and  malevolent. 
Till  that  time  the  spirit  of  Hillel  had  not  altogether 
disappeared,  and  at  least  some  gates  of  the  syna- 
gogue were  open  to  converts  ;  but  now  they  would 


136  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

have  no  more  proselytes.  They  asserted  that  they  had 
the  true,  the  only  Law,  and  at  the  same  time  asserted 
that  that  Law  belonged  to  them  only.  Any  one 
who  tried  to  join  God's  people  was  repelled  with  in- 
sults. Certainly  it  was  only  right  to  be  discreet,  and 
to  inform  the  neophyte  of  the  dangers  and  unpleasant- 
nesses that  awaited  him.  But  they  did  not  stop 
there :  every  proselyte  was  soon  looked  upon  as 
a  traitor ;  as  a  deserter  who  would  make  use  of 
Judaism  as  a  short  cut  to  Christianity.  It  was 
openly  declared  that  proselytes  were  Israel's  leprosy, 
and  that  these  intruders  ought  to  be  mistrusted  to 
the  twenty-fourth  generation.  The  wise  distinctions 
that  the  Jews  of  the  first  century,  and  the  Haggad- 
ists,  who  took  their  inspiration  from  Isaiah  and 
Jeremiah,  made  with  regard  to  ceremonial,  that 
grand  concession  that  the  precept  of  circumcision 
only  applied  to  the  descendants  of  Abraham,  were 
all  forgotten.  From  that  time  forward  proselytism 
was  forbidden,  and  the  law  of  Antoninus,  which  per- 
mitted Jewish  children  alone  to  be  circumcised, 
became  superfluous  ;  for  it  was  evident  that  neither 
the  Greek  nor  Roman  world  would  resign  itself  to 
an  ancient  African  practice  which  had  its  origin  in  a 
matter  of  health,  but  which  was  not  at  all  fitted 
for  our  climate,  and  which  had  become  oppressive 
and  senseless  for  the  Jews  themselves. 

Morals  suffered  somewhat  from  so  many  attacks 
on  nature.  Without  containing  any  bad  advice,  and, 
even  strangely  enough,  whilst  insisting  on  bashful 
modesty,  the  Talmud  often  mentions  lascivious 
subjects,  and  takes  a  tolerably  excited  imagination 
on  the  part  of  its  writers  for  granted.  In  the  third 
and  fourth  centuries,  Jewish  morals,  especially  those 
of  the  patriarchs  and  doctors,  are  said  to  have  been 
very  lax,  but,  above  all  things,  in  this  decrepit 
Israel,  reason  seems  to  have  been  weakened. 
The  supernatural  is  scattered  about  lavishly  in  an 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  187 

insane  flxshion.  Miracles  appeared  so  simple  that  a 
hallel,  a  special  prayer,  is  devoted  to  them  as  to  one 
of  the  most  ordinarj^  events  of  life.  There  never 
was  any  nation  which,  after  a  period  of  extraordinary 
activity,  underwent  such  a  terrible  abasement. 

A  small  sect,  hedged  in  by  numerous  rules  which 
prevent  it  from  living  the  general  life,  is  unsociable 
by  nature,  and  is  necessarily  hated  and  easily  gets 
to  hate  others  in  turn.  In  a  large  society  which  is 
imbued  with  great  liberal  principles,  as  our  modern 
civilisation  is,  and  as  in  some  respects  Arabian 
civihsation,  and  that  of  the  first  half  of  the  Middle 
Ages  were,  that  causes  no  great  inconvenience. 
But  in  a  society  like  that  of  the  Christian  Middle 
Ages,  and  like  in  the  East  in  our  time,  it  is  the 
cause  of  accumulated  antipathies  and  contempt. 
The  Jewish  Talmudist,  who,  wherever  he  went,  was 
a  stranger  without  a  fatherland,  often  proved  himself 
a  scourge  for  the  country  to  which  chance  had 
taken  him.  We  must  remember  the  Jews  of  the  East 
and  of  the  coast  of  Barbary,  who  are  filled  with  hatred 
when  they  are  persecuted,  and  are  arrogant  and 
insolent  as  soon  as  they  feel  that  they  are  protected. 
The  noble  eff'orts  of  the  Jews  of  Europe  to  improve 
the  moral  condition  of  their  Eastern  brethren  are 
themselves  the  best  proof  of  the  inferiority  of  these 
latter.  No  doubt  the  detestable  social  organisation 
of  the  East  is  the  primary  cause  of  the  evil,  but  the 
exclusive  spirit  of  Judaism  has  also  much  to  do  with 
it.  The  regulations  of  the  Ghetto  are  always  dis- 
astrous, and,  I  repeat  it,  that  Pharisaism  and 
Talmudism  made  that  rule  of  reclusion  the  natural 
state  of  the  Jewish  people.  For  the  Jew,  the  Ghetto 
was  not  so  much  a  restraint  coming  from  outside 
as  a  consequence  of  the  Talmudic  spirit.  Any  race 
would  have  perished  under  it,  and  the  manner  in 
which  the  Jewish  people  resisted  this  deleterious 
mode  of  life,  speaks  highly  for  its  moral  constitution. 


138  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

No  one  who  has  any  lofty  mind  can  help  feeling 
a  profound  sympathy  for  a  people  which  has  played 
so  extraordinary  a  part  in  this  world,  that  one 
cannot  imagine  what  would  have  been  the  history  of 
the  human  race  if  chance  had  checked  the  destinies 
of  that  small  tribe.  In  judging  of  that  terrible  crisis 
which  the  Jewish  people  went  through  about  the 
beginning  of  our  era,  which  caused,  on  the  one  hand, 
the  foundation  of  Christianity,  and,  on  the  other, 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  and  the  introduction 
of  Talmudism,  there  are  several  acts  of  injustice  that 
have  to  be  repaired.  The  colours  in  which  the 
Pharisees  are  represented  in  the  Gospels  have  been 
rather  heightened ;  the  Evangelists  seem  to  have 
written  under  the  influence  of  the  violent  ruptures 
which  took  place  between  the  Christians  and  the 
Jews  about  the  time  of  the  siege  of  Titus.  In  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  in  all  that  we  know  about  the 
Church  of  Jerusalem,  and  of  James,  the  Saviour's 
brother,  the  Pharisees  have  a  very  different  part 
to  that  which  they  play  in  the  discourses  which 
the  Synoptists  attribute  to  Jesus.  Nevertheless, 
one  cannot  prevent  one's  self  from  being  decidedly 
with  Hillel,  with  Jesus,  with  St  Paul  against  Schamai, 
or  with  the  Haggadists  against  the  Halaehists.  It 
was  the  Haggada  (popular  preaching)  and  not  the 
Halacha  (the  study  of  the  Law)  which  conquered 
the  world.  Certainly  Judaism,  serried,  resisting, 
enclosed  between  the  double  hedge  of  the  Law  and 
the  Talmud  which  survived  the  destruction  of  the 
Temple,  is  still  grand  and  imposing.  It  has  done  the 
greatest  service  to  the  human  intellect  ;  it  saved  the 
Hebrew  Bible,  which  the  Christians  would  probably 
have  allowed  to  be  lost,  from  destruction.  Judaism, 
since  it  has  been  dispersed,  has  given  great  men 
to  the  world,  and  some  of  the  highest  moral  and 
philosophical  characters  ;  and  on  several  occasions 
it  has  been  a  valuable  auxiliary  to  civilisation  ;  but  it 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  139 

is  no  longer  that  grand,  fertile  Judaism,  carrying 
in  its  loins  tlie  salvation  of  the  world,  which  the 
period  of  Jesus  and  of  the  Apostles  presents  to  our 
view  ;  it  is  the  respectable  old  age  of  a  man  who 
once  upon  a  time  held  the  destinies  of  humanity  in 
his  hand,  and  who  afterwards  lives  in  obscurity  for 
many  years,  still  worthy  of  esteem,  but  for  the 
future  without  any  providential  part  to  play. 

St  Paul,  Philo,  the  author  of  the  Sibylline  verses, 
and  of  those  attributed  to  Phocylides,  were  right 
then  when  they  rejected  the  practices  of  Judaism, 
whilst  they  maintained  its  basis.  These  practices 
would  have  made  all  conversions  impossible,  for, 
scrupulously  observed  by  the  majority  of  the  nation, 
they  were,  and  are  still,  a  real  misfortune  for  it  and  for 
those  countries  which  they  inhabit  in  large  numbers. 
The  prophets,  with  their  lofty  aspirations,  and  not 
the  Law,  with  its  strict  observances,  contained  the 
future  of  the  Hebrew  people.  Jesus  is  the  outcome 
of  the  prophets,  and  not  of  the  Law,  whereas  the 
Talmud  is  the  worship  of  the  Law  carried  to  super- 
stition. After  having  waged  relentless  war  on  all 
idolatries,  Israel  substituted  a  fetichism  for  them, 
the  fetichism  of  the  Thora. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

THE   MUTUAL   HATRED   OF  JEWS  AND   CHRISTIANS. 

The  Jewish  catastrophe  of  the  year  134  was  almost 
as  advantageous  for  the  Christians  as  that  of  the 
year  70  had  been.  In  their  eyes,  everything  that 
savoured  of  the  law  of  Moses  must  have  appeared  to 
be  abrogated  without  a  chance  of  return ;  faith  alone. 


140  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

and  the  merits  of  the  death  of  Jesus,  were  all  that 
remained.  Hadrian  did  a  signal  service  to  Christi- 
anity when  he  prevented  a  Jewish  restoration  of 
Jerusalem,  ^lia,  peopled,  like  all  the  colonies  were, 
by  veterans  and  common  people  from  different  parts, 
was  no  fanatical  city,  but,  on  the  contrary,  a  centre 
disposed  to  receive  Christianity.  As  a  rule,  the 
colonies  were  inclined  to  adopt  the  religious  ideas 
of  the  countries  to  which  they  were  transported. 
They  would  not  have  thought  of  embracing  Judaism, 
but  Christianity,  on  the  other  hand,  received  every- 
body. During  the  whole  course  of  its  three  thousand 
years  of  history,  it  was  only  for  those  two  hundred 
years,  from  Hadrian  to  Constantine,  that  human  life 
had  unfolded  freely  within  its  bosom  idolatrous 
forms  of  worship,  established  on  the  ruins  of  the 
Jewish  religon,  complacently  adopted  more  than 
one  Jewish  practice.  The  Pool  of  Bethesda  con- 
tinued to  be  a  place  of  healing,  even  for  the  heathen, 
and  to  work  its  miracles  as  in  the  times  of  Jesus 
and  of  the  apostles,  in  the  name  of  the  great  im- 
[)ersonal  God.  For  their  part,  the  Christians  con- 
tinued, without  exciting  any  feeling  except  one  of 
pious  admiration  in  the  breasts  of  the  worthy  veter- 
ans who  formed  the  colony,  to  perform  their  cures 
by  means  of  oil  and  sacred  washings.  The  traditions 
of  that  Church  of  Jtrusalem  were  distinguished  by 
a  special  character  of  superstition,  and,  of  course, 
thaumaturgy.  The  holy  places,  especially  the  cave 
and  the  manger  at  Bethlehem,  were  shown,  even 
to  the  heathen.  Journeys  to  those  places  sanctified 
by  Jesus  and  the  apostles,  began  within  the  first 
years  of  the  third  century,  and  replaced  the  former 
pilgrimages  to  the  temple  of  Jehovah.  When  St 
Paul  took  a  deputation  of  his  churches  to  Jerusalem, 
he  took  them  to  the  Temple,  and  surely  he  was 
thinking  neither  of  Golgotha  nor  of  Bethlehem.  Now 
on  the  other  hand,  men   strove  to   retrace  the  life 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  141 

of  Jesus,  and  a  topography  of  the  Gospel  was  formed. 
The  site  of  the  Temple  was  known,  and,  close  to  it, 
the  stela  of  James,  the  Martyr,  brother  of  the  Saviour, 
was  venerated. 

Thus  the  Christians  reaped  the  fruits  of  their  pru- 
dent conduct  during  the  insurrection  of  Bar-Coziba. 
They  had  suffered  for  Rome  that  had  persecuted 
them  ;  and  in  Syria,  at  least,  they  found  the  prize 
of  their  meritorious  fidelity.  Whilst  the  Jews  were 
punished  for  their  ignorance  and  their  blindness, 
the  Church  of  Jesus,  faithful  to  the  Spirit  of  her 
Master,  and,  like  Him,  indifferent  to  politics,  was 
peaceably  developing  in  Judea  and  the  neighbouring 
countries.  The  expulsion  of  the  Jews  was  also 
the  lot  of  those  Christians  who  were  circumcised  and 
kept  the  Law,  but  not  of  those  uncircumcised 
Christians  who  only  practised  the  precepts  of  Noah. 
That  latter  circumstance  made  such  a  difi'erence 
for  their  whole  life  that  men  were  classified  by  it,  and 
not  by  faith  or  disbelief  in  Jesus.  The  Hellenistic 
Christians  formed  a  group  in  ^Elia,  under  the  presi- 
dency of  a  certain  Mark.  Till  then,  what  was  called 
the  Church  of  Jerusalem  had  had  no  priest  who 
was  not  circumcised,  and,  more  than  that,  out  of 
regard  for  the  old  Jewish  nucleus,  nearly  all  the 
faithful  of  that  Church  united  the  observation  of  the 
Law  with  belief  in  Jesus.  From  that  time  the 
Church  in  Jerusalem  was  wholly  Hellenistic,  and 
her  bishops  were  all  Greeks,  as  they  were  called. 
But  this  second  Church  did  not  inherit  the  import- 
ance of  the  former  one.  Hierarchically  subordinate 
to  CsGsarea,  she  only  occupied  a  relatively  humble 
position  in  the  universal  Church  of  Jesus,  and  nothing 
more  was  heard  of  the  Church  of  Jerusalem  till  two 
hundred  years  later. 

In  those  countries  the  controversy  with  the  Jews 
became  an  object  of  paramount  importance.  The 
Christians    thought    them    much   more    difficult   to 


142  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

convert  than  the  heathen,  and  they  were  accused 
of  subtlety  and  of  bad  faith  in  the  discussions.  It 
was  alleged  that  as  beforehand  they  had  made  up 
their  minds  to  baffle  their  antagonists,  they  only 
looked  at  minutice,  at  slight  inexactitudes,  in  which 
they  easily  got  the  better.  What  was  said  to  them 
about  the  life  of  Jesus  irritated  them,  and  no  doubt 
the  antipathy  that  they  felt  for  the  accounts  of  the 
virginal  birth  of  the  pretended  Messiah,  inspired  them 
with  the  fable  of  the  soldier  and  of  the  prostitute 
who,  according  to  them,  were  the  real  authors  of 
that  birth,  which  was  allowed  to  be  irregular.  Argu- 
ments taken  from  the  Scriptures  did  not  aiFect  them 
any  more,  and  they  lost  their  patience  when  certain 
passages  were  brought  up  against  them  in  which  it 
appeared  as  if  God  were  mentioned  in  the  plural. 
The  passage  in  Genesis  :  *'Let  US  make  man  in  our 
own  image,"  particularly  irritated  them.  A  pretty 
Haggada  was  invented  to  guard  against  that 
objection  :  "  When  God  was  dictating  the  Penta- 
teuch to  Moses,  and  He  got  to  the  word  naase,  'let 
us  make,'  Moses  was  very  much  astonished,  and 
refused  to  write  it  down,  and  vehemently  rebuked 
the  Eternal  for  thus  striking  a  mortal  blow  at 
Monotheism.  The  Eternal,  however,  maintained  his 
wording,  and  said,  '  Let  him  who  wishes  to  be 
deceived,  deceive  himself!"  The  Jews  generally 
admitted  that  wherever  in  the  Bible  there  was  a 
passage  that  was  favourable  to  the  plurality  of  the 
Divine  persons,  God,  by  special  providence,  has  so 
disposed  matters  that  the  refutation  is  found  side 
by  side  with  it. 

The  essential  matter  for  the  Christians  was  to 
prove  that  Jesus  had  accomplished  all  the  texts  of 
the  prophets  and  the  psalms  which  were  thought 
to  apply  to  the  Messiah.  Nothing  can  equal  the 
arbitrariness  with  which  the  Messianic  application 
was  carried  out.      The  Christian  exegesis  was  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  143 

same  as  that  of  the  Talmimd  and  of  the  Midrascliim : 
it  was  the  very  denial  of  the  historical  meaning. 
The  texts  were  cut  up  like  so  much  dead  matter, 
and  every  phrase,  separated  from  its  context,  was 
applied  without  scruple  to  the  prominent  prejudice 
of  the  moment.  Already  the  Evangelists  who  wrote 
at  second  hand,  especially  pseudo-Matthew,  had 
sought  for  prophetic  reasons  for  all  the  facts  of  the 
life  of  Jesus.  Men  went  much  further  than  that. 
Not  only  did  Christian  exegetes  torture  the  Septua- 
gint  version  so  as  to  obtain  from  it  anything  that 
might  fit  into  their  thesis  and  abuse  the  new 
translators  who  weakened  the  arguments  which 
they  drew  from  it,  but  they  forged  some  passages. 
The  wood  of  the  cross  was  introduced  into  Psalm 
xcvi.  10,  where  it  had  never  figured ;  the  descent 
into  hell,  into  Jeremiah  ;  and  when  the  Jews  cried 
out,  protesting  that  nothing  like  it  was  found  in 
the  text,  they  were  told  that  they  had  mutilated 
the  text  out  of  pure  spite  and  bad  faith,  and  that, 
for  example,  they  had  cut  the  account  of  the  prophet 
being  sawn  in  two  by  a  wood  saw  out  of  the  book 
of  Isaiah,  because  that  passage  brought  to  mind  the 
crime  which  they  had  committed  against  Jesus,  too 
well.  A  convinced  and  ardent  apologist  finds  no 
difficulty  in  anything.  They  referred  to  the  ofiicial 
registers  of  the  returns  of  Quirinius,  which  never 
existed,  and  to  a  pretended  report  of  Pilate  to 
Tiberius,  that  had  been  forged. 

Dialogue  seemed  to  be  a  convenient  form  by  which 
to  attain  to  the  wished-for  object  in  these  contro- 
versies. A  certain  Ariston  of  Pella,  doubtlessly  the 
same  from  whom  Eusebius  has  borrowed  the  account 
of  the  Jewish  war  under  Hadrian,  wrote  a  discus- 
sion that  was  supposed  to  have  taken  place  between 
Jason,  a  Jew  who  had  been  converted  to  Christianity 
and  Papiscus,  a  Jew  of  Alexandria,  who  obstinately 
adhered  to  his  ancient  faith.     As  usual,  the  war  was 


144  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

waged  by  means  of  Biblical  texts  ;  Jason  proved 
that  all  the  Messianic  passages  were  accomplished 
in  Jesus.  The  admirers  of  the  book  asserted  that 
Jason's  Hebraic  arguments  were  so  strong,  and  his 
eloquence  so  gentle,  that  there  was  no  resisting  it. 
Papiscus,  in  fact,  at  the  end  of  the  dialogue,  his 
heart  enlightened  by  the  infusion  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
recognised  the  truth  of  Christianity,  and  asked  Jason 
to  baptise  him.  However,  the  book  was  not  received 
with  unanimous  approval.  The  author  appeared 
almost  too  simple-minded,  and  it  was  thought  what 
he  wrote  about  the  Scripture  bordered  on  the 
ridiculous.  Celsus  eagerly  seized  the  opportunity 
of  making  fun  of  it,  and  Origen  only  defended  it  in 
an  embarrassed  manner,  allowing  that  it  was  one 
of  the  least  valuable  books  that  had  ever  been 
written  in  the  defence  of  religion,  and  recognising 
it  as  more  fit  to  instruct  the  simple  than  to  satisfy 
the  learned.  Eusebius  and  St  Jerome  gave  it  up 
altogether ;  it  was  not  copied,  and  so  it  was  lost. 

Another  very  inferior  book  that  appeared  in 
Judea  has  preserved  for  us  the  echo  of  these  in- 
testine broils.  The  author  made  use  of  the  wills 
or  rather  of  the  recommendations  that  he  put  into 
the  mouths  of  the  patriarchs,  Jacob's  sons,  as  the 
basis  of  his  writing.  The  language  of  the  original 
is  that  Greek  interspersed  with  Hebraisms  which 
is  the  language  of  the  greater  part  of  the  New 
Testament  writings.  The  quotations  are  taken 
from  the  Septuagint.  The  author  was  a  born  Jew, 
but  he  belonged  to  Paul's  party,  for  he  speaks  of  the 
great  apostle  in  a  tone  of  enthusiasm,  and  he  shows 
himself  most  severe  towards  his  former  co-religionists, 
whom  he  accuses  of  felony  and  treason.  In  the 
work,  traces  of  nearly  all  the  writings  in  the  New 
Testament  are  to  be  found,  and  the  two  Bibles  are 
comprehended  under  the  common  term  of  "  The 
Holy  Books,"  and  the  book  of  Enoch  is  quite  con- 


Tim  CHEISTIAN  CHURCH.  l45 

fidently  quoted  as  being  inspired.  Never  was  the 
divinity  of  Jesus  spoken  of  in  grander  terras.  It 
was  because  they  had  slain  Jesus  and  denied  his 
resurrection  that  the  Jews  were  captives,  dispersed 
over  the  whole  world,  given  up  to  the  influence  of 
Satan  and  of  demons.  Since  their  apostacy,  the 
spirit  of  God  has  gone  over  to  the  heathen.  Israel 
will  again  be  gathered  together  from  the  dispersion, 
but  it  will  have  the  disgrace  of  not  associating  itself 
till  late  with  the  converted  Gentiles. 

A  striking  vision  expresses  the  sentiments  of  the 
author  with  regard  to  his  ancient  race.  Nepthali 
relates  that  one  day  in  a  dream  he  saw  himself 
sitting  witli  his  brothers  and  his  father  on  the  shore 
of  the  lake  Jabneh  where  they  saw  a  vessel  sailing 
at  random.  It  was  laden  with  mummies,  and  had 
neither  crew  nor  captain,  and  its  name  was  The  Ship 
of  Jacob.  The  patriarchal  family  embarked  on  it,  but 
soon  a  terrible  tempest  arose,  and  the  father,  who  was 
holding  the  rudder,  disappeared  like  a  phantom ; 
Joseph  saved  himself  on  the  mast,  the  others  escaped 
on  ten  planks,  Levi  and  Juda  on  the  same  one.  The 
shipwrecked  men  were  dispersed  in  all  directions ; 
but  Levi,  clothed  in  sackcloth,  prayed  to  the  Lord, 
when  the  tempest  was  stilled,  the  vessel  reached  the 
land  in  the  midst  of  a  profound  calm,  the  ship- 
wrecked men  found  their  father  Jacob  again,  and  joy 
became  universal. 

The  intention  of  the  author  of  the  testaments  of 
the  twelve  patriarchs  had  been  to  enrich  the  list  of 
the  writings  contained  in  the  sacred  canon ;  his  book 
is  of  the  same  order  as  the  pseudo- Daniel,  the 
pseudo-Esdras,  the  pseudo -Baruch,  the  pseudo - 
Enoch.  Its  success,  however,  was  not  the  same. 
By  its  declamatory  tone  and  its  emphatic  common- 
placeness,  by  an  exaggerated  severity  towards  the 
pleasures  of  love  and  the  luxury  of  women,  by 
its  severe  tirades  against  the  Jews,  the  book  was 

K 


146  THE  CHRISTIAN  OHURGH. 

calculated  to  edify  the  pious  faithful ;  but  the  time 
for  great  successes  with  regard  to  frauds  in  the 
Canon  of  Scripture  was  passed  ;  already  a  tolerably 
strong  hedge  surrounded  the  sacred  volume  and  pre- 
vented fresh  compositions  being  furtively  inserted, 
so  the  book  was  only  received  in  very  restricted 
fractions  of  the  Church.  However,  as  it  was  alto- 
gether Christian  and  an ti- Jewish,  it  did  not  share  in 
the  reprobation  with  which  the  Greek  Church  visited 
apocryphal  Jewish  and  Judeo- Christian  literature. 
Copies  of  it  were  multiplied,  and  the  original  Greek 
was  preserved  in  a  good  number  of  manuscripts. 

The  philosopher  Justin  of  Neapolis,  in  Samaria, 
was  a  much  more  valuable  defender  whom  the 
Church  acquired  at  about  that  period.  His  father, 
Prisons,  or  his  grandfather,  Bacchius,  doubtlessly  be- 
longed to  the  colony  which  Vespasian  established  at 
Sychem,  and  which  procured  for  that  town  the  name 
of  Flavia  Neapolis.  His  family  was  heathen,  and 
gave  him  a  careful  HellcDistic  education.  Justin 
had  more  heart  and  religious  requirements  than 
rational  faculties.  He  read  Plato,  tried  the  different 
philosophical  schools  of  his  time,  and  as  happens  to 
ardent  but  not  very  judicious  minds,  he  found  satis- 
faction in  none  of  them.  He  required  the  impossible 
from  those  schools.  He  wanted  a  complete  solution 
of  all  the  problems  which  the  universe  and  the 
human  conscience  raise.  The  sincere  avowal  of 
powerlessness  which  his  different  masters  made  to 
him  attracted  him  towards  the  disciples  of  Jesus.  He 
was  the  first  man  who  became  a  Christian  through 
scepticism,  the  first  who  embraced  the  supernatural, 
that  is  to  say,  the  negation  of  reason,  because  he  was 
out  of  temper  with  reason. 

He  has  related  to  us,  with  too  much  art  for  his 
account  to  be  looked  upon  as  an  exact  autobiography, 
how  he  went  through  all  the  sects,  his  errors,  the 
charm  which  the  Jewish  revelation  exercised  on  him 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  147 

when  he  knew  it,  and  the  manner  in  which  the 
prophets  led  him  to  Christ.  What  struck  him  above 
all  was  the  sight  of  the  morality  of  the  Christians 
and  the  spectacle  of  their  indomitable  firmness.  The 
other  forms  of  Judaism,  by  which  he  was  surrounded, 
especially  the  sect  of  Simon  Magus,  only  filled  him 
with  disgust.  The  philosophical  turn  which  Chris- 
tianity was  already  assuming  had  great  attractions 
for  him.  He  adhered  to  the  dress  of  the  philosophers, 
that  pallium  which  was  nothing  but  an  index  of  an 
austere  life  devoted  to  asceticism,  and  which  many 
Christians  were  fond  of  wearing.  In  his  eyes  his 
conversion  was  no  rupture  with  philosophy.  He  was 
fond  of  repeating  that  he  had  only  begun  to  be  a 
real  philosopher  from  that  day  ;  that  he  had  only 
abandoned  the  writings  of  Plato  for  those  of  the 
prophets,  and  profane  philosophy  for  a  new  philo- 
sophy— the  only  sure  system,  the  only  one  which 
gives  repose  and  peace  to  those  who  profess  it. 

The  attraction  which  Kome  possessed  over  all  the 
sectaries  made  itself  felt  by  Justin.  Shortly  after 
his  conversion  he  set  out  for  the  capital  of  the  world, 
and  there  it  was  that  he  composed  those  Apologies, 
which,  by  the  side  of  Quadratus  and  Aristides,  were 
the  first  manifestation  of  Christianity  to  the  eyes  of  a 
public  initiated  to  philosophy.  His  antipathy  for  the 
Jews,  which  was  inflamed  by  the  recollection  of  the 
recent  acts  of  violence  of  Bar-Coziba,  inspired  him 
with  another  work,  whose  exegesis  was  as  singular 
as  that  of  Ariston  of  Pella,  and  in  which  error  and 
injustice  have  perhaps  been  pushed  even  further. 

In  fact,  the  parts  were  changed.  The  heathen 
entered  the  Church  in  crowds,  and  became  its  most 
numerous  members.  The  two  great  bonds  that  at- 
tached the  new  worship  to  Judaism — the  Passover 
and  the  Sabbath — were  getting  looser  day  by  day. 
Whilst  in  St  Paul's  day  the  Christian  who  did  not 
observe  the  law  of  Moses  was  hardly  tolerated,  and 


148  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

was  constrained  to  make  all  kinds  of  humiliating 
concessions,  it  was  now  the  Judaisiug  Christian 
whom  it  was  not  wished  to  exclude  from  the  Church. 
If  he  was  irreproachable  in  his  faith  in  Jesus  Christ 
and  in  his  obedience  to  the  commandments,  if  he 
was  persuaded  of  the  inefficacy  of  the  Law,  if  he 
only  wished  to  observe  a  part  of  it  by  way  of  a  pious 
remembrance,  if  he  would  not  in  any  way  trouble 
those  Gentiles  whom  Jesus  Christ  had  truly  circum- 
cised and  brought  out  of  error,  if  he  was  not  guilty 
of  any  propaganda  to  persuade  those  latter  to  submit 
to  the  same  practices  as  he  did  himself,  if  he  did  not 
hold  up  these  practices  as  obligatory  and  necessary 
for  salvation,  he  might  be  saved.  This,  at  any  rate, 
was  what  men  of  large  mind  admitted.  But  there 
were  others  who  neither  dared  to  have  intercourse  nor 
to  live  with  those  who  observed  the  Law  in  any  shape. 
*'  As  for  me,"  Justin  says,  "  I  believe  that  when  a 
person,  from  weakness  of  understanding,  wishes  to 
observe  as  much  as  he  can  of  that  Law  which  was 
imposed  upon  the  Jews  because  of  the  hardness  of 
their  heart,  when,  at  the  same  time,  that  person  hopes 
in  Jesus  Christ,  and  is  determined  to  satisfy  all  the 
eternal  and  natural  duties  of  justice  and  of  piety, 
that  he  makes  no  difficulty  in  living  with  other 
Christians  without  wishing  to  induce  them  to  be 
circumcised  or  keep  the  Sabbath,  I  believe,  I  repeat, 
that  such  a  person  ought  to  be  received  to  friendly 
intercourse  in  every  way.  But  any  Jews  who  pre- 
tend to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  and  wish  to  force  the 
faithful  Gentiles  to  observe  the  Law,  I  reject  abso- 
lutely. .  .  .  Those  who,  after  having  known  and 
confessed  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  abandon  their 
faith  because  they  are  persuaded  by  these  obstinate- 
minded  men  in  order  to  go  over  to  the  Law  of  Moses, 
whatever  may  be  their  reason  for  doing  so,  wnll  find 
no  salvation  unless  they  acknowledge  their  fault 
before  their  death." 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  149 

Origen  looks  at  matters  in  a  similar  fashion.  Jews 
who  have  become  Christians,  according  to  him,  have 
abandoned  the  Law.  Jews  who  observe  the  Law  as 
Christians  are  Ebionites  and  sectaries,  because  they 
value  circumcision  and  practices  that  Jesus  has  abol- 
ished. Logic  accomplished  itself.  It  was  inevitable 
that  a  duality  which  prevented  Christians  from 
eating  together  even  at  Easter,  must  end  in  a  com- 
plete schism. 

From  the  middle  of  the  second  century,  in  fact, 
the  hatred  between  the  two  religions  was  sealed. 
The  quiet  disciples  of  Jesus,  and  the  Jews  who  were 
exiled  for  their  territorial  fanaticism,  became  daily 
more  mutually  furious.  According  to  the  Christians, 
a  new  people  had  been  substituted  for  the  ancient. 
The  Jews  accused  the  Christians  of  apostacy,  and 
subjected  them  to  real  persecution. 

"  They  treat  us  like  enemies,  as  if  they  were  at 
war  with  us,  killing  us  and  torturing  us  when  they  can, 
just  as  you  do  yourselves,"  Justin  said  to  the  Romans. 

Women  who  wished  to  become  converts  were 
scourged  in  the  synagogues  and  stoned.  The  Jews 
reproached  the  Christians  for  no  longer  sharing  the 
anger  and  the  griefs  of  Israel.  The  Christians  began 
to  inflict  a  reproach  on  the  whole  Jewish  nation  which 
certainly  neither  Peter,  nor  James,  nor  the  author  of 
the  Apocalypse  would  have  addressed  to  them,  that 
of  having  crucified  Jesus.  Up  till  then  his  death  had 
been  looked  upon  as  Pilate's  crime,  as  that  of  the 
High  Priests  and  of  certain  Pharisees,  but  not  of  the 
whole  of  Israel.  Now  the  Jews  were  made  to  appear 
as  a  decided  nation,  one  that  assassinated  God's  en- 
voys and  rebelled  against  the  clearest  prophecies. 
The  Christians  made  a  sort  of  dogma  out  of  the  non- 
reconstruction  of  the  Temple,  and  looked  upon  those 
as  their  most  mortal  enemies  who  put  ibrward  any 
pretensions  to  giving  the  lie  to  their  prophecies  on 
this  matter.    As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Temple  was  not 


150  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

restored  till  the  time  of  Omar,  that  is  to  say,  at  the 
period  when  Christianity  in  its  turn  was  conquered 
at  Jerusalem.  When  Omar  wished  to  be  shown  the 
holy  site,  he  found  that  the  Christians  had  converted 
it  into  a  place  for  depositing  filth,  out  of  hatred  for 
the  Jews. 

The  Ebionites  or  Nazarenes,  who  had  for  the  most 
part  retired  to  the  other  side  of  the  Jordan,  natur- 
ally did  not  share  these  sentiments.  They  were  a 
numerous  body,  and  by  decrees  gained  possession  of 
Paneas,  all  the  country  of  the  Nabateans,  Hauran, 
and  Moab.  They  kept  up  their  relations  with  the 
Jews  and  Aquiba,  and  the  most  celebrated  doctors 
were  known  to  them  ;  Aquila  was  their  favourite 
translator,  but  the  mistakes  that  they  made  with 
regard  to  the  period  at  which  those  two  teachers 
flourished,  proves  that  they  had  only  received  a 
vague  echo  of  their  celebrity.  Besides  this,  the 
writers  of  the  Catholic  Church  speak  about  two  sorts 
of  Ebionites,  one  of  which  retained  all  the  Jewish 
ideas,  and  only  attributed  an  ordinary  birth  to 
Jesus,  whereas  the  other  agreed  with  St  Paul  in 
admitting  that  observances  were  necessary  only  for 
Israelites  by  blood,  and  admitted  that  Jesus  had  a 
supernatural  birth,  such  as  is  recounted  in  the  first 
chapter  of  Matthew.  The  dogmas  of  the  Ebionite 
school  followed  the  same  line  of  development  as 
those  of  the  Catholic  Church  ;  by  degrees,  even  in 
that  direction,  there  was  a  tendency  to  elevate  Jesus 
above  humanity. 

Although  they  were  excluded  from  Jerusalem  as 
being  circumcised,  the  Ebionites  of  the  East  were 
always  supposed  to  dwell  in  the  Holy  City.  The 
Ebionites  of  the  rest  of  the  world  still  looked  upon 
the  Church  of  Jerusalem  as  it  had  been  in  the  time 
of  Peter  and  James,  as  the  peaceful  capital  of 
Christendom.  Jerusalem  is  the  universal  kihla  of 
Judeo-Christianity ;    the   Elkasaites,   who    observed 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  151 

tlicit  hihla  to  the  letter,  only  symbolised  the  general 
feeling.  But  such  a  resistance  to  evidence  could  not 
last  long.  Soon  Judeo-Christianity  had  no  longer  a 
mother,  and  Nazarene  or  Ebionite  traditions  existed  no 
longer  except  amongst  the  scattered  sectaries  of  Syria. 
Hated  by  the  Jews,  almost  strangers  to  the 
Churches  of  St  Paul,  the  Judeo-Christians  decreased 
daily.  It  was  not  with  them  as  it  was  with  other 
Churches,  which  were  all  situated  in  large  cities,  and 
participated  in  the  general  civilisation,  for  they  were 
scattered  about  in  unknown  villages,  to  which  no 
rumours  from  the  outside  world  had  access.  Epi- 
scopacy was  the  product  of  great  cities  :  they  had  no 
Episcopacy.  Thus  having  no  organised  hierarchy, 
deprived  of  the  ballast  of  Catholic  orthodoxy,  tossed 
about  by  every  wind,  they  were  more  or  less  lost  in 
Essenism  and  Elkaism.  With  them  the  Messianic 
belief  resulted  in  an  endless  theory  about  angels. 
The  theosophy  and  the  asceticism  of  the  Essenes 
caused  the  merits  of  Jesus  to  be  forgotten  ;  abstinence 
from  flesh,  and  the  ancient  precepts  of  the  Nazarites, 
assumed  an  exaggerated  importance.  The  literature 
of  the  Ebionites,  which  was  all  in  Hebrew,  appears  to 
have  been  weak.  Only  their  old  Hebrew  gospel, 
which  resembled  that  of  Matthew,  preserved  its 
value.  The  converted  Jews  who  knew  no  Greek 
were  fond  of  it,  and  still  made  it  their  gospel  in  the 
fourth  century.  Their  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  more  or  less  sophisticated.  The 
journeys  of  Peter,  which  are  scarcely  mentioned  in 
the  canonical  Acts,  received  a  large  development 
through  their  imagination.  They  added  on  to  them 
some  wretched  apocryphas,  which  were  attributed 
to  some  of  the  prophets  and  apostles,  and  in  which 
James  seems  to  have  played  a  principal  part. 
Hatred  for  St  Paul  breathes  out  of  all  those 
writings,  the  like  of  which  we  shall  find  written  in 
Greek  at  Rome, 


152  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Such  a  false  position  was  sure  to  condemn  Ebionism 
to  death.  "  Wishing  to  maintain  an  intermediary 
position,"  Epiphanius  wittily  remarks,  "Ebion  was 
nothing,  and  in  him  this  saying  was  accomplished: 
'I  came  near  suffering  every  misfortune,  party  wall 
as  I  am  between  the  Church  and  the  synagogue.' " 
St  Jerome  also  says  that  because  they  wished  to  be 
Jews  and  Christians  at  the  same  time,  they  did  not 
succeed  in  being  either  Jews  or  Christians.  Thus  at 
the  very  birth  of  Christianity  occurred  what  has  hap- 
pened in  nearly  all  religious  movements.  The  first 
century  of  the  Hegira  witnessed  the  extermination 
of  the  companions,  relations,  and  friends  of  Mahomet, 
of  all  those,  in  a  word,  who  wished  to  enjoy  the 
monopoly  of  that  revolution  of  which  they  were  the 
authors.  In  the  Franciscan  movement,  the  real 
disciples  of  St  Francis  d'Assisi  found,  at  the  end  of 
a  generation,  that  they  were  dangerous  heretics  who 
were  given  up  to  the  flames  by  hundreds. 

The  fact  is  that  in  those  first  days  of  a  creative 
activity  ideas  progress  with  giant  strides  :  the  imi- 
tator soon  becomes  retrograde,  and  a  heretic  amongst 
his  own  sect,  an  obstacle  to  its  views,  which  wish 
to  progress  iu  spite  of  him,  and  thus  often  insult 
and  kill  him.  He  does  not  advance  any  more,  and 
everything  is  advancing  around  him.  The  Ebionim, 
for  whom  the  first  Beatitude  had  been  pronounced 
(Blessed  are  the  Ebionim  !),  were  now  a  scandal  for  the 
Church,  and  their  pure  doctrine  was  looked  on  as  blas- 
phemy. Certainly  the  jokes  of  Origen,  and  the  insults 
of  Epiphanius  towardsthe  real  founders  of  Christianity, 
have  something  oflfensive  about  them.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  certain  that  the  Ebionim  of  Kokaba 
would  not  have  transformed  the  world  if  Christianity 
had  remained  a  Jewish  sect;  a  small  Talmud  would 
have  been  the  result,  and  the  Thora  would  never 
have  been  abandoned.  In  time  the  relations  of 
Jesus  would   have   become   a   religious   aristocracy, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  153 

which  would  have  been  intolerable  and  destruc- 
tive to  the  work  of  Jesus.  Like  nearly  all  the 
descendants  of  great  men,  they  would  have  laid 
claim  to  the  inheritance  of  his  genius,  or  of  his 
sanctity,  and  would  have  treated  those  with  disdain 
whom  Jesus  would,  with  much  more  reason,  have 
taken  as  his  spiritual  family.  Like  the  heirs  of  some 
celebrated  writer,  they  would  have  wished  to  keep 
what  he  had  thought  and  felt  for  the  benefit  of  all 
to  themselves.  The  lowly  Jesus  would  have  become 
a  principle  of  vanity  for  some  foolish  people  ;  the 
desposyni  would  have  been  persuaded  that  their 
great-great  uncle  had  preached  and  had  been 
crucified  to  obtain  religious  titles  and  honours  in 
the  synagogue  for  them.  Jesus  seems  to  have  feared 
this  serious  mistake  ;  one  day,  stretching  out  his 
hand  to  his  disciples,  he  said  with  perfect  truth, — 

Behold,  my  mother  and  my  brethren.  Whoever  does  the 
will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven,  the  same  is  my  brother,  and 
sister,  and  mother. 

Ebionism  and  Nazaraism  continued  till  the  fifth 
or  sixth  centuries  in  the  more  remote  parts  of  Syria, 
especially  in  the  countries  beyond  Jordan,  which  was 
the  refuge  of  all  the  sects,  as  well  as  in  the  region 
of  Alep,  and  in  the  island  of  Cyprus.  Persecuted 
by  the  orthodox  emperors,  it  disappeared  in  the 
whirlwind  of  Islam.  In  one  sense  it  might  be  said 
that  it  was  continued  by  Islam.  Yes,  Islamism  is, 
in  many  respects,  the  prolongation  or  rather  the 
revenge  of  Nazaraism.  Christianity,  such  as  the 
Greek  polytheists  and  metaphysicians  had  made  it, 
could  not  suit  the  Syrians  or  Arabs,  who  held 
strongly  to  the  view  of  separating  God  from  man,  and 
who  required  the  greatest  religious  simplicity.  The 
heresies  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  having 
their  centre  in  Syria,  are  a  sort  of  permanent  pro- 
testation against  the  exaggerated  doctrines  of  the 
Trinity  and  the  Incarnation,  which  the  Greek  fiithers 


154  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

brought  so  prominently  forward.  Theodoret  asked 
himself  lioic  he^  wJio  is  the  author  of  life,  could  become 
mortal.  He,  who  has  suffered,  is  a  man  whom  God  took 
from  our  inidst.  Sufferings  belong  to  man,  who  is 
passible.  It  was  the  form  of  the  servant  tvhich  suffered. 
Ibas,  of  Edessa,  said  : — 

I  do  not  envy  Christ,  who  has  become  God,  for  I  may 
become  what  he  has  become. 

And  on  Easter  Day  he  ventured  to  express  him- 
self thus : — 

To-day,  Jesus  has  become  immortal. 

That  is  the  pure  Ebionite  or  Nazarene  doctrine. 
Islamism  says  nothing  more.  Mahomet  knew  Chris- 
tianity from  those  communities  established  beyond  the 
Jordan  which  were  opposed  to  the  Council  of  Nicaea 
and  to  the  councils  which  it  developed.  For  him, 
Christians  are  Nazarenes.  Mussulman  Docetism  has 
its  roots  in  the  same  sects.  If  Islamism  substitutes 
the  Kibla  of  Mecca  for  that  of  Jerusalem,  on  the 
other  hand  it  renders  the  greatest  honour  to  the  site 
of  the  Temple:  the  mosque  of  Omar  rises  from  that 
ground  which  was  defiled  by  the  Christians.  Omar 
himself  worked  to  clear  away  the  filth,  and  pure 
monotheism  rebuilt  its  fortress  on  Mount  Moriah.  It 
is  often  said  that  Mahomet  was  an  Arian  :  that  is  not 
exact.  Mahomet  was  a  Nazarene,  a  Judeo-Christian. 
Under  him  Semitic  monotheism  regained  its  rights, 
and  avenged  itself  for  those  mythological  and  poly- 
theistic complications  which  Greek  genius  had  intro- 
duced into  the  theology  of  the  first  disciples  of 
Jesus. 

There  ^vas  one  direction  in  which  the  Hebrew 
Ebionites  were  important  in  the  literary  work  of  the 
Universal  Church.  The  study  of  Biblical  Hebrew, 
which  was  so  neglected  in  Paul's  Churches,  con- 
tinued to  flourish  amongst  them.  From  their  midst, 
or  from  the  midst  of  neighbouring  sects,  tliere  sprang 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHUKCH.  155 

the  celebrated  translators  Symmaclms  and  Theo- 
dosion.  Tliey  are  represented  now  as  Ebionites 
now  as  Samaritans,  always  as  proselytes,  deserters, 
Judaising  heretics.  The  controversies  with  regard 
to  the  Messianic  prophecies,  especially  with  regard 
to  the  Alma,  the  alleged  virgin  mother  of  Isaiah, 
brought  men  back  to  the  study  of  the  text.  The 
Hebrew  Gospel  and  its  sHghtly  altered  brother  the 
Gospel  of  St  Matthew,  with  its  legends  and  genea- 
logies at  the  beginning,  were  another  object  of 
polemics.  Symmachus,  above  all,  seems  to  have 
been  a  universally  respected  doctor  in  those  distant 
Churches. 

It  was  under  conditions  which  differed  but  little 
from  those  that  have  been  described  that,  apparently, 
the  Syriac  version  of  the  Old  Testament,  called 
Peschito,  was  made.  According  to  some,  Greeks 
were  its  authors ;  according  to  others,  Judeo-Chris- 
tians ;  it  is,  however,  certain  that  Jews  collaborated 
in  it,  as  it  is  produced  directly  from  the  Hebrew,  and 
as  it  has  some  passages  which  are  remarkably  parallel 
with  the  Targums.  According  to  all  appearances, 
this  version  was  produced  at  Edessa.  Later,  when 
Christianity  dominated  in  those  countries,  the  New 
Testament  writings  were  translated  into  a  dialect 
which  is  altogether  analagous  to  that  of  the  ancient 
Peschito, 

That  school  of  Hebraising  Christians  did  not 
outlive  the  second  century.  The  orthodoxy  of 
the  Hellenistic  Churches  was  always  suspicious  of 
Hebraic  truth;  piety  did  not  inspire  men  with  any 
wish  ta  consult  it,  and  the  study  of  Hebrew  offered 
almost  insurmountable  obstacles  to  any  one  who  was 
not  a  Jew.  Origen,  Dorotheus  of  Antioch,  and  St 
Jerome  were  exceptions.  Even  Jews  who  were  living 
in  Greek  or  Latin  countries  greatly  neglected  the 
ancient  text.  Rabbi  Meir,  obliged  to  go  to  Asia, 
could  not  find  a  Hebrew  copy  of  tlie  book  of  Esther 


156  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

amongst  the  inhabitants ;  he  wrote  it  for  them  from 
memory,  so  that  he  might  be  able  to  read  it  in  the 
synagogue  on  the  day  of  Purim.  It  is  certain  that, 
but  for  the  Jews  of  the  East,  the  Hebrew  text  of  the 
Bible  would  have  been  lost.  By  preserving  that 
invaluable  document  of  the  old  Semitic  world  for  us, 
the  Jews  have  rendered  a  service  to  the  human  race 
which  is  equal  to  that  w4iich  the  Brahmins  have 
rendered  it  by  preserving  the  Vedas. 


CHAPTER     XV. 

ANTONINUS    PIUS. 

Hadrian  returned  to  Rome,  which  he  did  not  leave 
again,  in  135.  Roman  civilisation  had  just  exter- 
minated one  of  its  most  dangerous  enemies,  Judaism. 
On  all  sides  there  was  peace,  the  respect  of  peoples, 
the  barbarians  apparently  submissive,  and  the  mildest 
maxims  of  government  introduced  and  carried  out. 

Trajan  had  been  perfectly  right  in  believing  that 
men  can  be  governed  whilst  they  are  treated  with 
civility.  The  idea  that  the  State  was  not  only 
tutelary  but  also  benevolent  was  taking  deep  root. 
Hadrian's  private  conduct  gave  rise  to  grave  re- 
proach ;  his  character  got  worse  as  his  health  became 
worse,  but  the  people  did  not  notice  it.  Unexampled 
splendour  and  well-being  which  enveloped  everything 
like  a  brilliant  halo,  hid  the  defective  sides  of  the 
social  organisation.  To  speak  the  truth,  these 
defective  sides  were  capable  of  being  corrected.  The 
door  was  open  to  any  progress.  Stoic  philosophy 
was  penetrating  the  legislature,  and  introducing  into 
it  the  idea  of  the  rights  of  man,  of  civil  equality,  and 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  157 

of  the  uniformity  of  provincial  administration.  The 
privileges  of  the  Roman  aristocracy  were  daily 
disappearing,  and  the  chiefs  of  society  believed  in 
and  were  workiDg  for  progress.  They  were  philo- 
sophers who,  without  looking  for  Utopia,  yet  desired 
the  greatest  possible  application  of  reason  to  human 
affairs.  That  was  worth  a  great  deal  more  than  the 
fanatical  and  inapplicable  Thora,  which  at  best  was 
only  good  for  a  very  small  nation.  Men  had  reason 
to  be  satisfied  with  life,  and  behind  that  fine  genera- 
tion of  statesmen  one  could  perceive  another  wiser, 
more  serious,  more  upright  still. 

Hadrian  was  amusing  himself,  and  he  had  the  right 
to  do  so.  His  curious  and  active  mind  dreamt  of  all 
sorts  of  chimeras  at  one  and  the  same  time,  but  his 
judgment  was  not  sure  enough  to  preserve  him  from 
faults  of  taste.  At  the  foot  of  the  hills  of  Tibur  he 
had  a  villa  built  which  Avas,  as  it  were,  the  album  of 
his  journeys  and  the  pandemonium  of  celebrity.  It 
might  have  been  called  tho  noisy  and  somewhat 
bold  fair  of  a  dying  world.  Everything  was  there: 
false  Egyptian, false  Greek,  the  Lyceum,  the  Academy 
the  Prytaneum,  the  Canopus,  the  Alpheus,  the  vale 
of  Tempe,  the  Elysian  Fields,  Tartarus  ;  temples, 
libraries,  theatres,  a  hippodrome,  a  naumachia,  baths. 
It  was  a  strange  place,  and  yet  attractive!  For  it 
was  the  last  place  in  which  men  amused  themselves, 
where  men  of  intellect  went  to  sleep  to  the  empty 
noise  of  "  greedy  Acheron."  At  Rome  the  chief  care 
of  the  fantastic  emperor  was  that  senseless  tomb, 
that  vast  mausoleum,  where  Babylon  was  outdone, 
and  which,  stripped  of  its  ornaments,  has  been  the 
citadel  of  Papal  Rome.  His  buildings  covered  the 
world  ;  the  atheneums  that  he  founded,  the  en- 
couragement that  he  gave  to  letters  and  fine  arts, 
and  the  immunities  that  he  granted  to  professors, 
rejoiced  the  hearts  of  all  men  of  learning.  Unhappily 
superstition,  eccentricity,  and  cruelty  more  and  more 


158  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

gained  the  upper  baud  over  him  as  his  physical  torces 
left  him.  He  had  built  himself  an  elysium,  in  order 
not  to  believe  in  it,  and  a  hell,  to  laugh  at  it ;  a  hall 
of  philosophers,  to  make  fun  of  them  ;  a  canopus,  to 
point  out  the  impostures  of  priests,  and  to  recall  to 
his  mind  the  foolish  festivals  of  Egypt,  that  had  made 
him  laugh  so  much.  Now,  everything  seemed  to  him 
hollow  and  empty  :  nothing  more  supported  him. 

Perhaps  some  martyrdoms  which  took  place  during 
his  reign,  and  for  which  there  seems  to  have  been  no 
motive,  are  to  be  attributed  to  the  caprices  and  dis- 
orders of  his  last  months.  Telesphorus  was  then 
the  head  of  the  Church  at  Rome  ;  he  died  confessing 
Christ,  and  passed  to  the  number  of  the  glories  of 
the  faith. 

The  death  of  this  amateur  Caesar  was  sad  and 
without  dignity,  for  no  really  lofty  moral  sentiment 
animated  him.  Nevertheless,  in  him  the  world  lost  a 
powerful  support.  The  Jews  alone  triumphed  over 
the  agonies  of  his  last  moments.  It  was  customary 
amongst  them  not  to  mention  him  except  saying 
after  his  name,  "  May  God  smash  his  leg."  He  was 
sincerely  attached  to  civilisation,  and  understood 
well  what  it  would  come  to  in  time.  With  him 
ancient  literature  and  art  came  to  an  end.  He  was 
the  last  emperor  who  believed  in  glory,  just  as  ^lius 
Verus  was  the  last  man  who  knew  how  to  enjoy 
delicate  pleasures.  Human  affairs  are  so  frivolous 
that  brilliancy  and  splendour  must  take  their  share 
in  them.  A  world  will  not  hold  together  without 
that ;  Louis  XIV.  knew  it,  and  men  lived  and  live 
still  in  his  sun  of  gilded  copper.  In  his  own  fashion, 
Hadrian  marked  a  summit,  after  which  a  rapid  de- 
scent commenced.  Certainly  Antoninus  and  Marcus 
Aurelius  were  vastly  his  superiors  in  virtue,  but 
under  them  tlie  world  was  getting  sad  and  losing  its 
gaiety,  was  beginning  to  wear  the  monk's  cowl  and 
become  Christian  ;  superstition  was  on  the  increase. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  150 

Hadrian's  art,  although  it  also  had  its  gnawiug  worm, 
still  holds  to  principles  :  it  is  a  clever  and  wise  art  ; 
afterwards  the  decadence  set  in  with  irresistible 
force.  Ancient  society  perceives  that  all  is  in  vain  ; 
now,  the  day  w^hen  one  makes  that  discovery,  one  is 
near  death.  The  two  accomplished  sages  who  are 
going  to  reign  are  two  ascetics,  after  their  own 
fashion,  Lucius  Verus  and  Faustina  will  be  the 
unclassed  survivors  of  the  ancient  elegance.  Tt  really 
was  from  that  time  that  the  world  bade  farewell  to 
joy,  treated  the  muses  as  seductresses,  will  no  longer 
listen  to  anything  but  what  keeps  up  its  melancholy, 
and  becomes  changed  into  a  vast  hospital. 

Antoninus  was  a  St  Louis  as  far  as  heart  and 
rectitude  went,  with  much  more  judgment,  and  a 
wider  range  of  intellect.  He  was  the  most  perfect 
sovereign  that  ever  reigned.  He  w\^s  even  superior 
to  Marcus  Aurelius,  as  the  reproaches  of  weakness 
which  may  be  addressed  to  the  latter  cannot  be 
applied  to  him.  To  enumerate  his  virtues  would 
be  to  enumerate  all  the  qualities  of  which  a  perfect 
man  can  command.  In  him  all  the  world  saluted 
an  incarnation  of  the  mythical  Numa  Pompilius. 
He  was  the  most  constitntional  of  sovereigns,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  simple,  economical,  quite  taken  up 
with  good  deeds  and  public  works,  far  from  any 
excess,  free  from  rhetoric  and  any  affectation  of 
mind.  By  his  means  philosophy  really  became  a 
power ;  everywhere  philosophers  were  richly  pen- 
sioned ;  already  he  was  surrounded  by  ascetics,  and 
the  general  direction  of  the  education  of  Marcus 
Aurelius  w^as  his  work. 

Thus  the  world's  ideal  seemed  to  have  been  attained, 
wisdom  reigned,  and  for  twenty-three  years  the  world 
was  governed  by  a  flither.  Affectation,  false  taste  in 
literature,  fell  to  the  ground ;  people  became  simple  ; 
pubhc  instruction  became  an  object  of  lively  solici- 
tude.    The  condition  of  the  whole  world  was  amelio- 


160  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCll. 

rated  ;  excellent  laws,  especially  iu  favour  of  slaves, 
were  carried ;  the  relief  of  those  who  suffered  became 
the  object  of  universal  care.  The  preachers  of  moral 
philosophy  even  surpassed  the  successes  of  Dion  Chry- 
sostom  ;  the  seeking  for  frivolous  applause  was  the 
rock  which  they  had  to  avoid.  A  provincial  aristo 
cracy  of  upright  people  who  wished  to  do  right,  had 
succeeded  the  cruel  aristocracy  of  Rome.  The  force 
and  the  loftiness  of  the  ancient  world  were  being 
lost,  and  men  were  becoming  good,  gentle,  patient, 
humane.  As  always  happens,  socialistic  ideas  profited 
by  that  largeness  of  views  and  made  their  appearance, 
but  general  good  sense  and  the  force  of  established 
order  prevented  them  from  becoming  a  public  evil. 

The  similarity  between  these  aspirations  and  those 
of  Christianity  was  striking,  but  a  profound  difference 
separated  the  two  schools,  and  was  bound  to  make 
them  hostile  to  each  other.  By  its  hope  in  the 
approaching  end  of  the  world,  by  its  badly-concealed 
wishes  for  the  ruin  of  ancient  society,  Christianity  in 
the  midst  of  the  beneficent  empire  of  the  Antonines 
became  a  subvert er  that  it  was  necessary  to  combat. 
Always  pessimistic,  inexhaustible  in  mournful  pro- 
phecies, the  Christian,  far  from  being  of  service  to 
national  progress,  showed  that  he  disdained  it. 
Nearly  all  the  Catholic  doctors  looked  upon  war 
between  the  empire  and  the  Church  as  necessary,  as 
the  last  act  in  the  strife  between  God  and  Satan  ; 
they  boldly  affirmed  that  persecution  would  last  till 
the  end  of  time.  The  idea  of  a  Christian  empire, 
though  it  sometimes  presented  itself  to  their  mind, 
seemed  to  them  a  contradiction  and  an  impossibility. 

Whilst  the  world  again  began  to  live,  the  Jews 
and  Christians  wished  more  obstinately  than  ever 
that  it  should  be  approaching  its  last  hour.  We 
have  seen  the  false  Baruch  exhaust  himself  in  vague 
announcements.  The  Judeo-Christian  Sibyl  never 
ceased  thundering   the  whole  time.      The   ever-in- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  161 

creasing  splendour  of  Rome  was  a  terrible  insult  to 
divine  truth,  to  the  prophets,  to  the  saints,  and  so 
they  boldly  denied  the  happiness  of  the  century. 
All  the  natural  scourges,  which  continued  to  be 
tolerably  numerous,  were  represented  as  signs  of 
implacable  anger.  The  past  and  present  earth- 
quakes in  Asia  were  made  the  most  of  as  signs  of 
fearful  terrors.  According  to  the  fanatics,  the  only 
cause  of  these  calamities  was  the  destruction  of  the 
Temple  of  Jerusalem.  Rome,  the  harlot,  had  given 
herself  up  to  a  thousand  lovers,  who  have  intoxicated 
her ;  in  her  turn  she  shall  be  a  slave.  Italy,  covered 
with  blood  from  civil  wars,  had  become  the  haunt  of 
wild  beasts.  The  new  prophets,  to  express  the  ruin 
of  Rome,  employed  nearly  the  same  images  which 
had  served  the  Seer  of  69  to  depict  his  sombre  rage. 

It  was  difficult  for  a  society  to  put  up  with  such 
attacks,  without  replying.  The  Sibylline  books  which 
contained  those  which  were  attributed  to  the  pre- 
tended Hystaspes,  and  which  announced  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  empire,  were  condemned  by  the  Roman 
authorities,  and  those  who  possessed  them  or  read 
them  were  condemned  to  death.  The  uneasy  search 
into  the  future  was  a  crime  under  the  empire  ;  in 
fact,  such  vain  curiosity  almost  always  served  as  a 
cloak  or  a  wish  for  revolutions  and  incitements  to 
murder. 

It  would  certainly  have  been  worthy  of  the  wise 
emperor,  so  many  humane  reforms,  if  he  had  de- 
spised the  intemperate  imagination  without  a  real 
object,  and  if  he  had  abrogated  the  severe  laws 
which,  under  Roman  despotism,  weighed  on  the 
liberty  of  worship  and  of  meeting;  but  evidently 
no  one  about  thought  of  it,  any  more  than  any  one 
did  who  was  about  Marcus  Aurelius.  The  unfettered 
thinker  alone  can  be  quite  tolerant ;  now  Antoninus 
observed  and  scrupulously  maintained  the  cere- 
monies of  the  Roman   worship.     The  policy  of  his 

L 


162  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

predecessors  had  been  unvarying  in  that  respect. 
They  saw  in  Christianity  a  secret  anti-social  sect 
which  dreamt  of  the  overthrow  of  the  empire  ;  hke 
all  the  men  who  were  attached  to  the  old  Roman 
principles,  they  believed  it  necessary  to  repress 
it.  There  was  no  necessity  for  special  edicts :  the 
laws  against  coetus  illiciti  and  illicita  collegia  were 
numerous.  The  Christians  came  in  a  quite  regular 
manner  under  the  power  of  those  laws.  It  must 
be  observed,  first  of  all,  that  the  true  spirit  of  liberty, 
as  we  understand  it,  was  not  imderstood  by  any 
one  at  that  time  ;  and  that  Christianity,  when  it 
became  the  master,  did  not  practise  it  any  more 
than  the  heathen  emperors ;  in  the  second  place, 
that  the  abrogation  of  the  law  of  illicit  societies 
would  most  likely  in  fact  have  been  the  ruin  of  the 
empire,  founded  essentially  on  this  principle  that  the 
State  cannot  admit  any  society  which  differs  from 
it  into  its  midst.  The  idea  was  wrong,  according 
to  our  ideas  ;  however,  it  is  quite  certain  that  it  was 
the  corner-stone  of  the  Roman  constitution.  The 
foundations  of  the  empire  would  have  been  thought 
to  be  overthrown  if  those  repressive  laws  which 
were  looked  upon  as  essential  conditions  to  the 
stability  of  the  State  had  been  relaxed. 

The  Christians  seemed  to  understand  this.  Far 
from  finding  fault  with  Antoninus  personally,  they 
rather  looked  upon  him  as  having  ameliorated 
their  lot.  A  fact  which  does  this  sovereign  infinite 
honour,  is  that  the  principal  advocate  of  Christianity 
ventured  to  address  him  with  full  confidence,  in 
order  to  obtain  redress  from  a  legal  situation  which 
he  reasonably  found  unjust  and  unbecoming  in  such 
a  fortunate  reign.  They  went  further,  and  there 
is  no  doubt  that  during  the  first  years  of  Marcus 
Aurelius  different  rescripts  were  forged  in  the  name 
of  Antoninus,  which,  supposed  to  be  addressed  to  the 
Lariseans,  the  Thessalonians,  the  Athenians,  to  all 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  163 

the  Greeks,  to  the  Asiatic  States,  were  so  favour- 
able to  the  Church  that  if  Antoninus  had  really 
countersigned  them  he  would  have  been  very  in- 
consistent in  not  turning  Christian.  These  docu- 
ments only  prove  one  thing, — the  opinion  which  the 
Christians  retained  of  the  excellent  emperor.  He 
did  not  show  himself  less  benevolent  towards  the 
Jews,  who  no  longer  menaced  the  empire.  The 
laws  forbidding  circumcision,  which  had  been  the 
consequence  of  Bar-Coziba's  revolt,  were  abrogated, 
as  far  as  they  were  vexatious.  The  Jew  was  at 
perfect  liberty  to  sacrifice  his  son,  but  the  penalty 
for  practising  the  operation  on  a  non-Jew  was 
castration,  that  is,  death.  Civil  jurisdiction  within 
the  community  does  not  appear  to  have  been  restored 
to  the  Jews  till  later. 

Such  was  the  rigour  of  the  established  legal  order, 
such  was  the  popular  effervescence  against  the 
Christians,  that  even  during  this  reign  one  is  sorry 
to  find  many  martyrs.  Polycarp  and  Justin  are 
the  most  illustrious  amongst  them,  but  they  were 
not  the  only  ones.  Asia  Minor  was  stained  with  the 
blood  of  very  many  judicial  murders,  which  were 
all  provoked  by  riots  ;  we  shall  see  Montanism  rise  up 
like  a  hallucination  of  that  intoxication  for  martyr- 
dom. In  Rome,  the  book  of  the  false  Hermas  will 
appear  to  us  as  if  it  came  out  of  a  bath  of  blood. 
Prejudice  for  martyrdom,  questions  relating  to 
renegades,  or  to  those  who  had  shown  some  weak- 
ness, fill  up  the  whole  book.  Justin  has  described 
to  us  on  every  page  Christians  as  victims  who 
expect  nothing*^ but  death;  their  very  name,  like  in 
the  time  of  Pliny,  was  a  crime. 

Jews  and  heathens  persecute  us  on  all  sides  ;  they  rob  us  of 
our  possessions,  and  only  leave  us  our  life  when  they  cannot  de- 
prive us  of  it.  They  cut  off  our  heads,  nail  us  to  the  cross, 
expose  us  to  wild  beasts,  torture  us  with  chains,  with  fire,  with  the 
most  horrible  torments^     But  the  more  ills  we  have  to  endure, 


164  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

the  more  the  number  of  the  faithful  increases.  The  vine-grower 
prunes  his  vines  to  make  them  shoot  out  anew  ;  he  cuts  off  the 
branches  that  have  borne  fruit,  to  make  it  throw  out  others  more 
vigorous  and  fruitful  ;  the  same  thing  happens  to  God's  people, 
which  is  like  a  fertile  vine,  planted  by  its  hand  and  that  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE  CHRISTIANS  AND  PUBLIC  OPINION. 

In  order  to  be  just,  one  must  picture  to  oneself  the 
prejudices  amongst  which  the  pubhc  then  hved. 
Christianity  was  very  little  known.  The  lower 
classes  do  not  like  distinctions,  or  for  some  to  live 
apart  by  themselves,  for  others  to  be  more  Puritan 
than  they  are.  and  to  abstain  from  feasts  and  their 
usages.  When  one  hides  oneself,  they  always  sup- 
pose that  there  is  something  to  hide.  In  all  time 
secret  religious  rites  have  provoked  certain  calumnies, 
which  are  always  the  same.  The  mysteries  by  which 
they  are  surrounded  cause  others  to  believe  in  un- 
natural debaucheries,  in  infanticide,  incest,  even  in 
anthropophagy.  They  are  tempted  to  believe  that 
it  is  a  secret  camorra,  organised  in  opposition  to  the 
laws.  Besides  this,  informing  had  in  ancient  law,  in 
spite  of  the  efforts  of  good  emperors,  an  importance 
which  fortunately  it  no  longer  possesses,  and  thence 
sprang  a  type  of  libel,  drawn  up,  so  to  say,  in 
advance,  from  which  no  Christian  could  escape. 

Everything  was  certainly  false  in  those  popular 
rumours,  but  some  badly-understood  fact  seemed  to 
give  some  substance  to  them.  Certain  inquiries  had 
turned  out  to  the  detriment  of  those  who  were  incul- 
pated. The  apologists  do  not  deny  it :  respect  for 
the  matter  which  had  been  judged  stops  them,  but 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  165 

they  charge  the  sectaries  with  the  evil,  and  ask  that 
the  faults  of  some  may  not  be  laid  to  all.  The 
nocturnal  gatherings,  the  signs  of  recognition,  certain 
eccentric  symbols,  everything  that  had  anything 
to  do  with  the  mystery  in  the  Eucharist,  the  sacra- 
mental phrases  with  regard  to  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ,  excited  suspicion.  That  bread  which  the 
Christian  woman  ate  in  secret  before  every  meal 
must  have  appeared  to  be  a  philtre.  A  number  of 
pratices  seemed  tokens  of  the  crime  of  magic,  which 
was  punished  with  death.  The  custom  of  the 
faithful  to  call  each  other  brother  and  sister,  and 
above  all  the  holy  kiss,  the  kiss  of  peace,  which  was 
given  without  distinction  of  sex  at  the  most  solemn 
moment  of  the  assemblage,  would  be  sure  to  provoke 
the  most  unfavourable  interpretations  in  the  mind  of 
a  public  that  was  incapable  of  understanding  this 
golden  age  of  purity.  The  idea  of  meetings  where 
all  familiarities  and  promiscuities  were  allowed, 
naturally  arose  from  such  facts,  which  were  distorted 
by  malice  and  sarcasm. 

The  accusation  of  atheism  was  even  more  redoubt- 
able. It  entailed  the  punishment  of  death  as  a  parri- 
cide, and  worked  up  all  superstitions  at  once.  The 
undissembled  aversion  of  the  Christians  for  the 
temples,  statues,  and  altars  was  constantly  pro- 
ductive of  some  incident.  There  was  no  scourge,  no 
earthquake,  for  which  they  were  not  held  responsible. 
Every  act  of  sacrilege,  every  fire  in  a  temple,  was 
attributed  to  them.  Christians  and  Epicureans  were 
confounded  in  this  respect,  and  their  secret  presence 
in  any  town  caused  consternation,  which  was  worked 
upon  to  raise  the  mob.  The  lower  classes  were  thus 
the  centre  of  hatred  for  the  Christians.  What  the 
authentic  acts  of  the  martyrs  treat  with  the  greatest 
contempt,  and  as  the  worst  enemies  of  the  saints,  are 
the  ruffians  of  the  large  towns.  The  faithful  never 
looked  upon  themselves  as  belonging  to  the  people  ; 


166  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

they  seemed  in  the  towns  to  form   the  respectable 
middle  class,  very  respectful  towards  the  authorities, 
and  very  much  disposed  to  come  to  an  understand- 
ing with  them.      To  defend  themselves  before  the 
people  seemed  to  the  bishops  to  be  a  disgrace :  they 
would  only  argue  with  the  authorities.     How  plain 
it  is  that  the  very  day  the  government  would  relax 
its  rigour,  Christianity  and  it  would  soon  come  to  an 
understanding!      How  clear  it  is  that  Christianity 
would  be  delighted  to  be  the  rehgion  of  the  govern- 
ment.     A  singular  thing  is  that  the  only  portion  of 
heathen  society  with  which  the  Christians  had  any 
analogy   of  opinion  was  the    group   of  Epicureans. 
The  name  of  Atheists  was  equally  assigned  to  the 
disciples  of  Jesus  and  those  of  Epicurus.     They  had, 
in  fact,  this  feature  in   common,  that  they  denied, 
though   certainly   from    very   different   reasons,  the 
puerilely  supernatural  and  the  ridiculous  wonders  in 
which  the  people  beheved.     In  them  the  Epicureans 
saw  the  impostures  of  the  priests,  the  Christians  the 
impostures  of  the  devil.     What  aggravated  the  case 
of  the  Christians  was  that  by  their  exorcisms  they  were 
supposed  to  be  able  to  stop  local  wonders,  and  to 
impose  silence  on  the  oracles  which  made  the  fortune 
of  a  city  or  of  a  country.    When  Alexander  of  Abono- 
tica  saw  that  his  frauds  were  discovered,  he  said, — 
"  There  is  nothing  surprising  in  that ;  Pontus  is  full 
of  Atheists  and  Christians!"     That  fi'ightened  the 
people,  and  restored  to  the  impostor  a  momentary 
popularity.      He  burnt  the  books  of  Epicurus,  and 
ordered  the  partisans    of  both  sects  to  be  stoned. 
Amastris,  a  Christian  and  Epicurean  town,  was  parti- 
cularly hateful  to   him.      At   the   beginning  of  his 
mysteries  there  was  a  cry :  "  If  there  is  any  Atheist, 
Christian,  or  Epicurean  here,  let  him  go  out ! "     He 
himself  said:    "Put  the    Christians    outl"    and  the 
mob  replied:  "Put  the  Epicureans  out!"     In  that 
superstitious  country  the  name  Epicurean  was  synouy- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  167 

mous  with  accursed.  Like  that  of  Christian,  any  one 
who  bore  it  ran  the  risk  of  his  life,  or  at  least  was 
put  under  the  ban  of  society. 

The  Christians  made  use  of  the  arguments  of  free- 
thinkers and  of  the  incredulous  to  turn  the  popular 
beliefs  into  ridicule,  and  to  fight  against  fatalism. 
The  oracles  were  an  object  of  mockery  to  all  men  of 
intellect  and  common  sense ;  the  Christians  applauded 
this  quizzing.  One  curious  fact  is  that  of  OEnomaiis 
of  Gadara,  a  Cynic  philosopher,  who  having  been 
deceived  by  a  false  oracle,  lost  his  temper,  and  took 
his  revenge  in  a  book  called  TJie  Deceits  Unveiled,  in 
which  he  wittily  ridiculed  as  an  imposture  the  super- 
stition of  which  he  had  for  a  moment  been  the  dupe. 
This  book  was  eagerly  received  by  Jews  and  Chris- 
tians. Eusebius  has  inserted  it  entire  in  his  Evangelical 
Preparations,  and  the  Jews  appear  to  have  put  the 
author  on  a  footing  with  Balaam,  in  the  class  of 
involuntary  apologists  of  Israel,  and  of  the  apostles 
amongst  the  heathen. 

The  Christians  and  Stoics,  between  whom  there 
was  really  more  resemblance  than  between  the  Chris- 
tians and  the  Epicureans,  never  blended.  The  Stoics 
did  not  make  a  parade  of  contempt  for  public  worship. 
The  courage  of  the  Christian  martyrs  seemed  to  them 
foolish  obstinacy,  an  affectation  of  tragical  heroism, 
a  determination  to  die,  which  merited  nothing  but 
blame.  These  crowds  of  infatuated  individuals  of 
Asia  irritated  them.  They  confounded  them  with 
vain  and  proud  Cynics  who  sought  for  theatrical 
deaths,  and  burnt  themselves  alive,  in  order  that  they 
might  be  spoken  about. 

There  was  certainlj^  more  than  one  point  of  resem- 
blance between  the  Christian  philosopher  and  the 
Cynic;  austere  dress,  constant  declamation  against 
the  century,  an  isolated  life,  open  resistance  to  the 
authorities.  The  Cynics,  besides  a  dress  which  was 
analogous  to  that  of  the  begging  friars  in  the  ^liddle 


168  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Ages,  had  a  certain  organisation,  novices,  superiors. 
They  were  the  pubHc  professors  of  virtue,  censors, 
bishops,  "  angels  of  the  gods,"  in  their  own  manner ; 
a  pastoral  vocation  was  attributed  to  them,  a  mission 
from  Heaven  to  preach  and  give  advice,  a  mission 
that  required  celibacy  and  perfect  renunciation. 
Christians  and  Cynics  excited  the  same  antipathy  in 
moderate  men,  because  of  their  common  contempt 
for  death.  Celsus  reproaches  Jesus,  like  Lucian 
reproaches  Peregrinus,  with  having  spread  abroad 
that  fatal  error.  "  What  will  become  of  society,"  men 
asked  themselves,  "  if  this  spirit  gets  the  upper  hand, 
if  criminals  no  longerfear  death?  "  But  the  immorality, 
the  coarse  impudence  of  the  Cynics,  would  not  allow 
such  a  confusion,  unless  to  very  superficial  observers. 
Nothing  that  is  known  of  the  Cynics  authorises  the 
behef  that  they  were  anything  but  attitudinarians 
and  villainous  fellows. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  in  many  cases  the  provoca- 
tion came  from  the  martyrs.  But  civil  society  is 
wrong  to  allow  itself  to  be  drawn  into  acts  of  rigour, 
even  towards  those  who  seem  to  ask  for  them.  The 
atrocious  cruelty  of  the  Koman  penal  code  creates  a 
martyrology  which  is  itself  the  source  of  a  vast  legend- 
ary literature,  full  of  unlikelihoods  and  exaggeration. 
Criticism,  in  exposing  what  is  untenable  in  the  accounts 
of  the  acts  of  the  martyrs,  has  sometimes  gone  to  the 
opposite  extreme.  The  documents  which  were  at 
first  represented  as  reports  of  the  trials  of  the 
martyrs,  have  been  mostly  found  to  be  apocryphal. 
As  the  texts  of  historians,  properly  so  called,  relating 
to  persecutions  are  rare  and  short ;  as  the  collections 
of  Roman  laws  contain  next  to  nothing  about  the 
matter,  it  was  natural  that  the  greatest  reserve 
should  be  imposed  on  it.  One  might  be  tempted  to 
believe  that  the  persecutions  really  were  only  a 
slight  matter,  that  the  number  of  martyrs  was  incon- 
siderable, and  that  the  whole  ecclesiastical  system 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  169 

on  this  point  is  nothing  but  an  artificial  structure. 
By  degrees  light  was  thrown  on  the  subject.  Even 
freed  from  legendary  exaggeration,  the  persecutions 
remain  one  of  the  darkest  pages  of  history,  and  a 
disgrace  to  ancient  civilisation. 

Certainly  if  we  were  reduced  to  the  acts  of  the 
martyrs  to  know  about  the  persecutions,  scepticism 
could  have  a  free  course.  The  composition  of  the 
acts  of  the  martyrs  became  at  a  certain  period  a 
species  of  religious  literature  for  which  the  imagina- 
tion, and  a  certain  pious  enthusiasm,  were  much  more 
consulted  than  authentic  documents.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  the  letter  relative  to  Poly  carp's  death,  that 
which  contains  the  account  of  the  sufferings  of  the 
heroes  of  Lyons,  the  acts  of  the  martyrs  of  Africa, 
and  some  other  accounts  which  bear  the  stamp  of 
being  written  in  the  most  serious  manner,  one  must 
allow  that  the  documents  of  this  character,  which 
have  been  too  easily  accepted  as  sincere,  are  nothing 
but  pious  romances.  We  know  also  that  the 
historians  of  the  empire  were  singularly  poor  in 
detail  on  what  refers  to  the  Christians  as  well  as  on 
other  matters.  The  true  documents  concerning  the 
persecutions  which  the  Church  had  to  suffer,  are  the 
works  that  compose  the  primitive  Christian  literature. 
These  works  need  not  be  by  the  authors  to  whom 
they  are  attributed,  to  have  authority  on  such  a 
question.  There  was  such  a  widespread  taste  at 
that  date  for  attributing  documents,  that  a  great 
number  of  those  books  which  have  been  left  to  us  by 
the  first  two  centuries  are  by  uncertain  authors  ;  but 
that  does  not  prevent  these  books  from  being  exact 
mirrors  of  the  time  at  which  they  were  written.  The 
first  Epistle  attributed  to  St  Peter,  the  Revelation  of 
St  John,  the  fragment  that  is  called  the  Epistle  of 
Barnabas,  the  Epistle  of  Clement  Romanus,  even 
though  it  be  not  by  him,  the  totally  or  partially 
apocryphal  Epistles  of  St  Ignatius  and  Polycarp,  the 


170  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Sibylline  poems  that  belong  to  the  first  or  second 
century,  all  the  original  documents  that  Eusebius  has 
preserved  for  us  on  the  origin  of  Montanism,  the 
controversies  between  the  Gnostics  and  the  Mon- 
tanists  about  martyrdom,  the  Pastor  of  Hermas,  the 
Apologies  of  Aristides  and  of  Quadratus,  of  St  Justin, 
Tatian,  Athenagoras,  show  at  each  page  a  state  of 
violence  that  weighs  on  the  thoughts  of  the  writer, 
besets  him  in  a  measure,  and  leaves  him  with  no 
just  appreciation  of  the  situation. 

From  Nero  to  Commodus,  except  at  short  intervals, 
one  might  say  that  the  Christian  lived  continually 
with  the  prospect  of  being  put  to  death  before  his 
eyes.  Martyrdom  is  the  basis  of  Christian  apolog3^ 
To  listen  to  the  controversialists  of  the  period,  it  is 
the  sign  of  the  truth  of  Christianity.  The  orthodox 
Church  alone  has  martyrs ;  the  dissenting  sects,  the 
Montanists,  for  example,  made  ardent  efforts  to  prove 
that  they  were  not  deprived  of  that  supreme 
criterion  of  truth.  The  Gnostics  are  put  under  the 
ban  by  all  the  Churches,  above  all  because  they 
declared  martyrdom  to  be  useless.  In  fact  then,  as 
TertulHan  wishes,  persecution  was  the  natural  state 
of  the  Christian.  The  details  of  the  acts  of  the 
martyrs  may  be  mostly  wrong,  but  the  terrible 
picture  that  they  lay  before  us,  was  nevertheless  a 
reality.  One  has  often  drawn  a  wrong  picture  to 
oneself  of  that  terrible  strife  which  has  surrounded 
the  origins  of  Christianity  with  a  brilliant  halo  and 
impressed  on  the  most  beautiful  centuries  of  the 
empire  a  hideous  blot  of  blood  :  one  has  not  ex- 
aggerated its  gravity.  The  persecutions  were  an 
element  of  the  first  order  in  the  formation  of  that 
great  association  of  men  which  was  the  first  to  make 
its  rights  triumph  over  the  tyrannical  pretensions  of 
the  State. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  men  die  for  their  opinions, 
not  for  certainties — for  what  they  believe,  and  not 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  171 

for  what  they  know.  A  scholar  who  has  discovered 
a  theorem  has  no  need  to  die  in  order  to  attest  the 
truth  of  that  theorem ;  he  proves  his  demonstration, 
and  that  is  enough.  On  the  other  hand,  as  soon  as 
it  is  a  question  of  beHefs,  the  great  sign  and  the 
most  efficacious  demonstration  is  to  die  for  them. 
That  is  the  explanation  of  the  extraordinary  success 
which  some  of  the  religious  attempts  of  the  East 
have  obtained. 

"  You  Europeans  will  never  understand  anything 
about  religions,"  said  to  me  the  most  intelligent  of 
Asiatics,  "for  you  have  never  had  the  opportunity  of 
seeing  them  formed  amongst  yourselves  ;  whereas 
we,  on  the  contrary,  see  them  formed  every  day.  I 
was  there  whilst  people  who  were  cut  to  pieces  and 
burnt,  suifered  the  most  horrible  tortures  for  days, 
danced  and  jumped  for  joy  because  they  were  dying 
for  a  man  whom  they  had  never  known  (the  Bab), 
and  they  were  the  greatest  men  of  Persia.  I,  who 
am  now  speaking  to  you,  was  obliged  to  stop  my 
legend,  which  in  a  manner  preceded  me,  to  prevent 
the  people  from  getting  killed  for  me." 

Martyrdom  does  not  at  all  prove  the  truth  of  a 
doctrine,  but  it  proves  the  impression  that  it  has 
made  on  men's  minds,  and  that  is  all  that  is  needed 
for  success.  The  finest  victories  of  Christianity,  the 
conversion  of  a  Justin,  of  a  Tertullian,  were  brought 
about  by  the  spectacle  of  the  courage  of  the  martyrs, 
of  their  joy  under  torments,  and  of  the  sort  of 
infernal  rage  which  urged  the  world  on  to  persecute 
them. 


172  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

THE  SECTS  AT  ROME — THE  CERYGMAS — THE  ROMAN 
CHRISTIAN — DEFINITIVE  RECONCILIATION  OF  PETER 
AND  PAUL. 

Rome  was  at  the  highest  period  of  her  grandeur  : 
her  sway  over  the  world  seemed  nncontested;  no 
cloud  was  visible  on  the  horizon.  Far  from  growing 
weaker,  the  movement  that  led  the  provincials,  above 
all  those  of  the  East,  to  come  there  in  crowds, 
increased  in  intensity.  The  Greek  speaking  popu- 
lation was  more  considerable  than  ever.  The  in- 
sinuating Gi'ceculus,  who  was  good  for  every  trade, 
was  driving  the  Italian  from  the  domesticity  of  great 
houses;  Latin  literature  was  daily  losing  ground, 
whilst  Greek  was  becoming  the  literary,  philoso- 
phical, and  religious  language  of  the  enlightened 
classes,  just  as  it  was  the  language  of  the  lower 
classes.  The  importance  of  the  Church  of  Rome 
was  measuring  itself  with  that  of  the  city  itself 
That  Church,  which  was  still  quite  Greek,  had  an 
uncontested  superiority  over  the  others.  Hyginus, 
her  chief,  obtained  the  respect  of  the  whole  Christian 
world.  Rome  was  then  for  the  provinces  what 
Paris  is  in  its  brilliant  days,  the  city  of  all  contacts, 
all  fecundations.  Whoever  wished  to  find  a  place 
of  mark  aspired  to  go  thither ;  nothing  was  con- 
secrated but  what  had  received  its  stamp  at  that 
universal  exhibition  of  the  productions  of  the  entire 
universe. 

Gnosticism,  with  its  ambition  of  setting  the  fashion 
in  Christian  preaching,  especially  yielded  to  that  tend- 
ency. None  of  the  Gnostic  schools  sprang  from  Rome, 
but  nearly  all  came  to  an  end  there.  Valentinus  was 
the  first  to  try  it.     That  daring  sectary  may  even 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  173 

have  had  the  idea  of  seating  himself  on  the  episcopal 
throne  of  the  unrivalled  city.  He  showed  every  ap- 
pearance of  Catholicism,  and  preached  in  the  absurd 
style  that  he  had  invented.  Its  success  was  mediocre; 
that  pretentious  philosophy,  that  unquiet  curiosity, 
scandalised  the  faithful.  Hyginus  drove  the  inno- 
vator from  the  Christian  pulpit.  From  that  time 
forward  the  Roman  Church  indicated  the  purely 
practical  tendency  which  was  always  to  distinguish 
her,  and  showed  herself  ready  quickly  to  sacrifice 
science  and  talent  to  edification. 

Another  heterodox  doctor,  Cordon,  appeared  at 
Rome  about  that  time.  He  was  a  native  of  Syria, 
and  introduced  doctrines  which  difiered  but  little 
from  those  of  the  Gnostics  of  that  country.  His 
manner  of  distinguishing  God  from  the  Creator ;  of 
placing  another  unknown  god  above  God,  the  father 
of  Jesus  ;  of  representing  one  of  the  gods  as  just,  the 
other  as  good,  sounds  contrary  to  right.  Cerdou 
found  that  this  world  was  as  imperfect  a  work  as 
that  Jehovah  Himself  to  Whom  it  was  attributed, 
and  who  was  represented  as  subject  to  human  pas- 
sions. He  rejected  all  the  Jewish  books  in  a  mass,  as 
well  as  all  the  passages  in  Christian  writings,  from 
which  it  might  result  that  Christos  had  been  able  to 
take  real  flesh.  It  was  quite  simple  :  matter  seemed 
to  him  to  be  a  deterioration,  an  evil.  The  Resurrec- 
tion was  repugnant  to  him  for  the  same  reason.  The 
Church  censured  him  ;  he  submitted,  and  retracted 
his  opinions,  then  began  to  dogmatise  afresh,  either 
in  public  or  private.  Thence  arose  a  most  equivocal 
position.  His  life  was  spent  in  leaving  the  Church 
and  joining  it  again,  in  doing  penance  for  his  errors, 
and  in  maintaining  them  afresh.  The  unity  of  the 
Church  was  too  strong  in  Rome  for  Cerdon  to  be 
able  to  dream  of  forming  a  separate  congregation 
there  as  he  would  certainly  have  done  in  Syria.  He 
exercised   his   influence    over   a   few   isolated   indi- 


174  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

viduals,  whom  the  apparent  depth  of  his  language 
and  of  doctrines  which  were  then  quite  novel 
seduced.  A  certain  Lucain  or  Lucian  is  particu- 
larly quoted  amongst  his  disciples,  without  mention- 
ing the  celebrated  Marcion,  who,  as  we  shall  see, 
sprang  from  him. 

The  abstract  Gnosticism  of  Alexandria  and  An- 
tioch,  appearing  under  the  form  of  a  bold  philosophy, 
found  little  favour  in  the  capital  of  the  world.  It 
was  the  Ebionites,  the  Nazarenes,  the  Elkasaites,  the 
Essenes,  which  were  all  Gnostic  heresies  in  a  way, 
but  of  a  moderate  and  Judeo-Christian  Gnosticism 
in  their  affinities,  it  was  those  heresies,  I  say,  that 
swarmed  at  Rome,  which  made  the  legend  of  Peter, 
and  created  the  future  of  that  great  Church.  The 
mysterious  formulas  of  Elkasaism  were  usual  in  their 
midst,  especially  for  the  baptismal  ceremony.  The 
neophyte,  presented  on  the  edge  of  a  river  or  a  foun- 
tain of  flowing  water,  took  heaven  and  earth,  air  and 
water,  to  witness  that  it  was  his  firm  resolve  to  sin 
no  more.  For  these  sectaries,  who  sprang  from 
Juda,  Peter  and  James  were  the  two  corners  of  the 
Church  of  Jesus.  We  have  often  remarked  that 
Rome  was  always  the  principal  home  of  Judeo- 
Christianity.  The  new  spirit,  represented  by  the 
school  of  Paul,  was  checked  there  by  a  highly  con- 
servative one.  In  spite  of  the  efforts  of  concilia- 
tory men,  the  apostle  of  the  Gentiles  had  here  also 
obstinate  adversaries.  Peter  and  Paul  fought  their 
last  battle  before  becoming  definitely  reconciled  in 
the  bosom  of  the  Universal  Church  for  eternity. 

The  life  of  the  two  apostles  was  beginning  to  be 
much  forgotten.  They  had  been  dead  about  seventy- 
seven  years ;  all  who  had  seen  them  had  disap- 
peared, the  greater  portion  without  leaving  any 
writings  behind  them.  One  was  at  perfect  hberty 
to  embroider  on  that  still  virgin  canvas.  A  vast 
Ebionite  legend  had  been  formed  in  Rome  and  was 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  175 

settled  at  about  the  time  at  which  we  have  arrived. 
St  Peter's  journeys  and  sermons  were  its  principal 
object.  In  it  the  missionary  journeys  of  the  chief  of 
the  apostles,  especially  along  the  coasts  of  Phoenicia  ; 
the  conversions  which  he  had  effected;  his  strifes, 
especially  with  the  great  Antichrist  who  at  that  time 
was  the  spectre  of  the  Christian  conscience,  Simon 
Magus,  were  related.  But  often  in  hidden  words, 
under  that  abhorred  name  was  hidden  another  per- 
sonage, the  false  Apostle  Paul,  the  enemy  of  the 
Law,  the  destroyer  of  the  true  Church.  The  true 
Church  was  that  of  Jerusalem,  over  which  James,  the 
Lord's  brother  presided.  No  apostolate  was  valid 
which  could  not  produce  letters  emanating  from 
that  central  college.  Paul  had  none,  he  was  there- 
fore an  intruder.  He  was  the  "  enemy  "  who  came 
behind  the  real  sower  to  sow  the  bad  seed.  With 
what  force,  too,  Peter  exposed  his  impostures,  his 
false  allegations  of  personal  revelations,  his  ascension 
into  the  third  heaven,  his  pretensions  of  knowing 
things  about  Jesus  which  those  who  had  heard  the 
Gospel  had  not  heard,  his  disciples'  exaggerated  con- 
ceptions of  the  divinity  of  Jesus  I  At  Antioch  espe- 
cially Peter's  triumph  was  complete.  Simon  had 
succeeded  in  turning  the  people  of  that  city  away 
from  the  truth.  By  a  series  of  clever  manoeuvres 
Peter  brought  one  of  the  victims  of  Simon's  sorceries, 
to  whom  the  magician  had  imparted  his  own  form,  to 
sho\^  himself  to  the  people  of  Antioch.  What  Avas 
their  astonishment  on  hearing  him  whom  they  took 
for  the  Samaritan  magician,  retract  in  these  terms  : — 

I  have  lied  about  Peter  :  he  is  the  true  apostle  of  the  prophet 
who  was  sent  by  God  for  the  salvation  of  the  world.  The  angels 
beat  me  last  night  for  having  calumniated  him.  Do  not  listen  to 
me  if  I  speak  against  him  in  the  future  ! 

Naturally  all  Antioch  returned  to  Peter  and  cursed 
his  rival. 


176  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Thus  the  real  apostle  continued  his  journeys, 
following  the  traces  of  the  Samaritan  impostor,  and 
arrived  at  the  capital  of  the  empire  immediately 
after  him.  The  impostor  redoubled  his  artifices, 
invented  a  thousand  spells,  and  gained  Nero's  mind. 
He  even  succeeded  in  passing  off  as  God,  and  in  being 
adored.  His  admirers  raised  altars  to  him,  and, 
according  to  the  author,  these  altars  were  still  shown 
in  his  time.  On  the  island  of  the  Tiber,  in  fact,  a 
college  of  the  Sabine  god  Semo  Sancus  was  estab- 
lished. There  there  were  a  number  of  votive  columns, 
SEMONI  DEO  SANCO,  on  which  it  was  easy  to  read,  with 
a  little  goodwill,  SIMONI  DEO  SANCTO. 

The  decisive  struggle  was  to  take  place  in  the 
emperor's  presence.  Simon's  programme  was  that 
he  would  raise  himself  into  the  air,  and  would  hover 
there  like  a  god.  He  did  raise  himself  in  fact,  but  on 
a  sign  from  Peter  the  skin  of  his  magic  was  burst, 
and  he  fell  ignominiously,  and  was  shattered  to 
pieces.  A  similar  accident  had  happened  in  the 
amphitheatre  of  the  Campus  Martins  under  Nero. 
An  individual  who  had  claimed  to  be  able  to  raise 
himself  into  the  air  like  Icarus,  fell  on  to  the  angle  of 
the  emperor's  box,  and  he  was  covered  with  blood. 
Perhaps  some  real  facts  in  the  life  of  the  Samaritan 
charlatan  served  as  a  foundation  for  these  stories. 
At  any  rate  the  discomfiture  of  the  impostor  was 
represented  as  Peter's  greatest  glory,  and  by  it  he 
really  took  possession  of  the  eternal  city.  According 
to  the  legend  his  death  followed  very  soon  on  his 
victory ;  Nero,  irritated  at  the  misadventure  that  had 
happened  to  his  favourite  juggler,  put  the  apostle  to 
death. 

Such  is  the  legend  which,  started  about  the  year 
125  by  the  passions  and  rancour  of  the  Jewish  party 
in  the  Church  at  Rome,  was  by  degrees  softened 
down,  and  produced,  towards  the  end  of  Hadrian's 
rei^n,  the  work,  in  ten  books,  called  "  The  Preaching 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  177 

of  Peter,"  or  '*The  Journeys  of  Peter."  The  legend 
had  been  cut  into  three  parts  for  the  purposes  of 
pubhcation.  "  The  Preaching  "  contained  the  account 
of  Peter's  apostolate  in  Judea  ;  the  Periodi  comprised 
Peter's  journeys  and  his  controversies  with  Simon  in 
Syria  and  Phoenicia.  His  sojourn  at  Rome  and  his 
struggles  before  the  Emperor  were  the  subject  of  the 
"  Acts  of  Peter,"  another  composition  which  formed, 
in  some  sort,  the  sequel  of  the  Cerygma  and  of  the 
Periodi.  Those  accounts  of  his  apostolical  journeys, 
full  of  charm  for  the  Christian  imagination,  gave 
rise  to  numerous  compositions,  which  soon  became 
romances.  The  narrative  was  interspersed  with 
pious  sermons ;  Peter  was  made  the  preacher  of  all 
good  doctrines ;  the  picture  of  chaste  love  vivified 
and  imparted  warmth  to  the  painting ;  Christian 
romance  was  created,  and  no  'essential  machinery  has 
been  added  to  it  since. 

All  that  first  literature  of  the  Ccrygmas  and  of  the 
Periodi  was  the  work  of  Ebionite,  Essenian,  and 
Elkasaite  sectaries.  Peter,  represented  as  the  real 
apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  was  always  its  hero  ;  James 
appeared  in  it  as  the  invisible  president  of  a 
ccenaculum  filled  with  the  divine  spirit,  having  its  seat 
at  Jerusalem.  Animosity  against  Paul  was  evident 
Like  the  Essenes  and  the  Elkasaites  of  the  East, 
those  of  Eome  attached  great  importance  to  the 
possession  of  a  secret  literature  which  was  reserved 
for  the  initiated,  and  the  commonest  frauds  were 
employed  to  give  to  those  later  productions  of  Chris- 
tian inspiration  an  authority  which  they  did  not 
merit. 

The  most  ancient  edition  of  the  Cerygmas  of  Peter 
is  lost,  and  we  only  possess  two  fragments  which 
form  a  sort  of  introduction  to  the  work.  The  first  is 
a  letter  in  which  Peter  addresses  the  book  of  bis 
Cerygmas  to  James,  "  master  and  bishop  of  the  Holy 
Church,"  and  begs  him  not  to  communicate  it  to  any 

M 


178  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

heathen,  nor  even  to  any  Jew  with  a  preliminary 
test.  Peter  says  that  the  admirable  poHcy  of  the 
Jews  ought  to  be  imitated,  who,  in  spite  of  the 
diversities  of  the  interpretation  to  which  the  Scrip- 
ture gives  rise,  have  succeeded  in  keeping  the  unity 
of  the  faith  and  of  hope.  If  the  book  of  the  Cerygmas 
were  to  be  circulated  indiscreetly,  it  would  give  rise 
to  schisms.     Peter  adds, — 

I  do  not  know  that  as  a  prophet,  but  because  I  already  see  the 
beginning  of  the  evil.  Some  of  those  who  are  of  heathen  origin 
have  rejected  my  preaching,  which  is  conformable  to  the  Law,  and 
have  attached  themselves  to  the  frivolous  teaching  of  the  enemy, 
which  is  contrary  to  the  Law,  During  my  life  people  have  tried, 
by  different  interpretations,  to  pervert  my  words,  in  the  sense  of 
destroying  the  Law.  According  to  them,  that  is  my  idea,  but  I 
am  not  bold  enough  to  declare  it.  God  forbid  !  that  would  be  to 
blaspheme  the  Law  of  God  which  Moses  proclaimed,  and  whose 
eternal  duration  our  Saviour  attested  when  He  said  :  "  Heaven  and 
earth  shall  pass  away,  but  not  one  jot  or  tittle  of  the  Law  shall 
pass  away."  This  is  the  truth,  but  there  are  some  people  who  think 
themselves  authorised,  1  do  not  know  how,  to  expound  my 
thoughts,  and  who  claim  to  interpret  the  discourses  that  they  have 
heard  from  me  more  pertinently  than  I  do  myself.  They  put 
before  their  catechumens  as  my  true  opinion  matters  of  which  I 
have  never  dreamt.  If  such  lies  are  produced  during  my  life,  what 
will  they  not  dare  to  do  after  my  death  ? 

James  decided  in  fact  that  the  book  of  the 
Cerygmas  should  only  be  communicated  to  circum- 
cised men  of  mature  age  who  aspired  to  the  title 
of  doctor,  and  who  had  been  tested  for  at  least  six 
years.  The  initiation  was  to  take  place  by  degrees, 
in  order  that  if  the  results  of  a  first  experience  were 
bad  it  might  be  stopped.  The  communication  was 
to  be  made  mysteriously,  on  the  very  spot  where 
baptism  was  administered,  and  with  the  formulas  of 
baptismal  promises  according  to  the  Essenean  or 
Elkasaite  rite.  The  person  who  was  initiated  was 
to  promise  to  submit  himself  to  him  who  gave  the 
Cerygmas,  not  to  pass  them  on  to  any  one  else,  not 
to  copy  them  or  allow  them  to  be  copied.     If  some 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  179 

day  the  books  which  were  given  to  him  as  Cerygmas 
should  not  appear  to  him  any  longer  to  be  true,  he 
was  to  give  them  back  to  him  from  whom  he  had 
received  them.  On  setting  out  on  a  journey  he  was 
to  give  them  up  "  to  his  bishop  professing  the  same 
faith  as  himself,  and  starting  from  the  same  prin- 
ciples." When  he  was  in  danger  of  death  he  was  to 
do  the  same  thing,  if  his  sons  were  not  yet  fit  to  be 
initiated.  When  they  had  become  worthy  of  it  the 
bishop  would  give  them  the  books  back,  as  a  paternal 
deposit.  The  most  singular  thing  is  that  the  sectary 
is  to  foresee  the  case  in  which  he  may  himself  change 
his  religion,  and  go  over  to  the  worship  of  some 
strange  god.  In  that  case,  he  must  swear  by  his 
final  god,  and  rob  himself  of  the  subterfuge  of  saying 
afterwards,  to  establish  the  nullity  of  his  oath,  that 
that  God  did  not  exist.  "  If  I  break  my  engage- 
ments," the  neophyte  was  obhged  to  add,  "  may  the 
universe  be  hostile  to  me,  as  well  as  the  ether  that 
penetrates  everything,  and  the  God  who  is  over  all, 
the  best,  the  greatest  of  beings.  And  if  I  come  to 
know  any  other  god,  I  swear  also  by  that  god  that 
I  will  keep  the  engagements  that  I  have  taken, 
whether  that  god  exists  or  does  not  exist."  Then, 
as  a  sign  of  secret  partnership,  the  initiator  and  the 
initiated  took  bread  and  salt  together. 

The  absurdities  of  the  sectaries  would  have  been 
without  any  consequence  anywhere  but  in  Rome, 
but  everything  that  referred  to  Peter  assumed  con- 
siderable proportions  in  the  capital  of  the  world.  In 
spite  of  its  heresies,  the  book  of  the  Cerygmas  was  of 
great  interest  for  the  orthodox.  The  primacy  of 
Peter  was  proclaimed  in  it ;  St  Paul  was  abused,  but 
a  few  after  touches  might  soften  down  anything 
offensive  in  such  attacks.  Thus  several  attempts 
were  made  to  lessen  the  singularities  of  the  new 
book  and  to  adapt  it  to  the  wants  of  tlie  CathoHcs 
This  fashion  of  altering  books  to  suit  the  sect  to 


180  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

which  one  belonged  was  quite  usual.  By  degrees 
the  force  of  circumstances  made  itself  felt :  all 
sensible  men  saw  that  there  was  no  safety  for  the 
work  of  Jesus  except  in  the  perfect  reconciliation 
of  the  two  chiefs  of  Christian  preaching.  For  a  long 
time  still  Paul  had  bitter  enemies  in  the  Nazarenes, 
and  he  had  also  exaggerated  disciples  like  Marcion. 
Outside  this  stubborn  right  and  left,  a  fusion  of  the 
moderate  parties  took  place,  who,  although  they  owed 
their  Christianity  to  one  of  the  schools  and  remained 
attached  to  it,  yet  fully  recognised  the  right  of  the 
others  to  call  themselves  Christians.  James,  who 
was  the  partisan  of  an  absolute  Judaism,  was  sacri- 
ficed ;  although  he  had  been  the  real  chief  of  the 
Christians  of  the  circumcision,  Peter  was  preferred 
to  him,  as  he  had  shown  more  regard  for  Paul's 
disciples,  and  James  only  retained  his  vehement 
partisans  amongst  the  Judeo-Christians. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  who  gained  most  by  that  re- 
conciliation. The  concessions  chiefly  came  from 
Paul's  side  :  all  his  disciples  admitted  Peter  without 
diflSculty,  whilst  most  of  the  Christians  of  Peter 
rejected  Paul.  But  concessions  often  come  from  the 
strongest.  In  reality,  every  day  gave  the  victory  to 
Paul,  and  every  Gentile  who  was  converted  made 
the  balance  incline  to  his  side.  Out  of  Syria,  the 
Judeo-Christians  were,  so  to  say,  drowned  by  the 
waves  of  the  newly  converted.  St  Paul's  churches 
prospered ;  they  had  sound  sense,  a  sobriety  of 
intellect,  and  pecuniary  resources  which  the  others  did 
not  possess.  The  Ebionite  churches,  on  the  other 
hand,  were  daily  getting  poorer.  The  mone}^  of 
Paul's  churches  was  used  for  the  support  of  poor 
saints  who  could  not  gain  their  own  livelihood,  but 
who  possessed  the  living  tradition  of  the  primitive 
spirit.  The  communities  of  Christians  of  heathen 
origin  admired,  imitated,  and  assimilated  to  them- 
selves the   others'   elevated  piety  and  strictness  of 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  181 

morals.  Soon  more  distinction  could  be  made  as 
regarded  the  most  eminent  persons  in  the  Church  of 
Rome.  The  mild  and  conciHatory  spirit  that  had 
already  been  represented  by  Clemens  Romanus  and 
St  Luke  prevailed,  and  the  contract  of  peace  was 
sealed.  It  was  agreed,  accordiug  to  the  system  of 
the  author  of  the  Acts,  that  Peter  had  converted  the 
first  fruits  of  the  Gentiles,  and  that  he  was  the  first 
to  deliver  them  from  the  yoke  of  the  Law.  It  was 
admitted  that  Peter  and  Paul  had  been  the  two 
chiefs,  the  two  founders  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  and 
thus  they  became  the  two  halves  of  an  inseparable 
couple,  two  luminaries  like  the  sun  and  the  moou. 
What  one  taught,  the  other  taught  also  ;  they  were 
always  agreed,  they  combated  the  same  enemies,  were 
both  victims  of  the  perfidies  of  Simon  Magus ;  at  Rome, 
they  lived  like  two  brothers,  the  Church  of  Rome 
was  their  common  work.  Thus  the  supremacy  of 
that  Church  was  founded  for  centuries. 

So  from  the  reconciliation  of  parties  and  the  set- 
tlement of  the  earlier  strifes  there  sprang  a  great 
unity,  the  Catholic  Church,  the  Church  at  the  same 
time  of  Peter  and  of  Paul,  a  strauger  to  the  rivalries 
which  had  marked  the  first  century  of  Christianity. 
Paul's  churches  had  shown  the  most  conciliatory 
spirit,  and  they  triumphed.  The  stubborn  Ebionites 
remained  Jewish,  and  shared  the  Jewish  immovable- 
ness.  Rome  was  the  point  where  this  great  transfor- 
mation took  place.  Already  the  high  Christian  des- 
tiny of  that  extraordinary  city  was  being  written 
in  luminous  characters.  The  transference  of  Easter 
to  the  day  of  the  resurrection,  which  was  in  some 
measure  the  proclamation  of  the  autonomy  of  Chris- 
tianity, was  accomphshed  there,  at  anyrate  in  the 
time  of  Hadrian. 

The  fusion  that  took  place  between  the  groups 
also  took  place  with  regard  to  their  writings.  Books 
were  exchanged  from  one  country  to  another.     The 


182  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

writings  passed  from  the  Judeo-Christian  school  to 
that  of  Paul,  with  slight  modifications.  That  Cerygma 
of  Peter,  which  was,  in  its  first  shape,  so  offensive  to 
Paul's  disciples,  became  the  Cerygma  of  Peter  and 
Paul.  They  were  supposed  to  have  travelled  to- 
gether, sailed  in  company,  preached  the  gospel 
everywhere  in  perfect  harmony.  The  Church  of 
Corinth,  especially,  claimed  to  have  been  founded  at 
the  same  time  by  Peter  and  Paul.  The  person  of 
Simon  Magus,  who  in  the  first  Ebionite  editions  of 
the  Cerygma  and  of  the  Periodi  of  Peter,  was  Paul 
himself  designated  by  an  offensive  epithet,  was 
rather  a  formidable  obstacle.  In  the  Cerygma  of 
Peter  and  Paul  the  name  of  Simon  was  preserved, 
and  restored  to  its  proper  sense.  As  the  symbolism 
of  the  Ebionite  pamphlet  was  not  evident,  Simon 
for  the  future  was  the  common  adversary  whom 
Peter  and  Paul  had  pursued  together  hand  in 
hand. 

The  fundamental  condition  of  the  success  of 
Christianity  was  now  settled.  Neither  Peter  nor 
Paul  could  succeed  separately.  Peter  was  preserva- 
tion, Paul  revolution :  both  were  necessary.  It  is 
told  in  Brittany  that  when  St  Peter  and  St  Paul 
went  to  preach  Christianity  in  America,  they  reached 
a  deep  and  narrow  arm  of  the  sea.  Although  they 
were  agreed  on  essential  points,  they  determined  to 
establish  themselves  one  on  one  side  and  one  on  the 
other,  so  that  they  might  both  teach  the  Gospel  in 
their  own  fashion  ;  for  it  seems  that,  in  spite  of  their 
intimate  fellowship,  they  could  not  live  together 
very  well.  Each  of  them,  according  to  the  custom 
of  the  saints  of  Brittany,  set  to  work  to  build  his 
chapel.  They  had  the  materials,  but  only  one 
hammer,  so  that  every  evening  the  saint  who  had 
worked  during  the  daytime  threw  the  hammer 
across  the  arm  of  the  sea  to  his  neighbour.  Thanks 
to  the  alternative  labour  resulting  from  this  arrange- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  183 

ment,  the  work  went  on  well,  and  the  two  chapels, 
which  are  yet  to  be  seen,  were  built. 

Above  all,  the  death  of  the  two  apostles  preoccu- 
pied the  different  parties,  and  gave  rise  to  the  most 
diverse  combinations.  A  legendary  tissue  was 
woven  with  regard  to  this  by  an  instinctive  work 
which  was  ahnost  as  imperious  as  that  which  had 
presided  over  the  formation  of  the  legend  of  Jesus. 
The  end  of  the  Hfe  of  Peter  and  Paul  was  ordered 
a  'priori.  It  was  maintained  that  Christ  had 
announced  Peter's  martyrdom  just  as  he  had  fore- 
told the  death  of  the  sons  of  Zebedee.  A  want  was 
felt  of  associating  two  persons  in  death  who  had 
been  forcibly  reconciled.  Men  wished  to  prove,  and 
perhaps  in  that  they  were  not  far  wrong,  that  they 
were  put  to  death  at  the  same  time,  or  at  least  in 
consequence  of  the  same  event.  The  spots  which 
were  looked  upon  as  having  been  sanctified  by  this 
sanguinary  drama  were  fixed  upon  at  an  early  date, 
and  consecrated  by  memorice.  In  such  a  case,  what 
the  people  wants  always  gains  the  day  in  the  end. 
There  is  no  popular  place  in  Italy  where  the  portraits 
of  Victor  Emmanuel  and  Pius  IX.  are  not  seen  side 
by  side,  and  general  belief  will  have  it  that  those 
two  men,  representing  principles  whose  reconcilia- 
tion is,  according  to  the  most  general  sentiment, 
necessary  to  Italy,  were  really  very  good  friends. 
If  such  ideas  obtruded  themselves  into  history  in  our 
time,  one  would  read  some  day,  in  documents  which 
are  looked  upon  as  serious,  that  Victor-Emmanuel, 
Pius  IX.  (most  probably  Garibaldi  would  be  joined 
in  with  them)  saw  each  other  secretly,  understood 
each  other,  and  liked  each  other.  The  association 
of  Voltaire  and  Rousseau  was  brought  about  by 
analogous  necessities.  The  Middle  Ages  also  tried 
several  times,  in  order  to  appease  the  hatred  between 
Dominicans  and  Franciscans,  to  prove  that  the 
founders  of  those  two  orders  had  been  two  brothers, 


184  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

living  on  the  most  affectionate  terms  together,  that 
at  first  their  rules  were  identical,  that  St  Dominic 
wore  the  cord  of  St  Francis,  etc. 

The  Cerygyna  of  Peter  and  Paul  was  all  the  more 
important  as  it  filled  up  the  unfortunate  gaps  which 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  showed.  In  this  latter  book 
Peter's  preaching  was  cut  very  short,  and  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  apostles'  deaths  were  passed  over 
in  silence.  The  success  of  a  book  that  represented 
Peter  and  Paul  going  everywhere  in  company  to 
convert  the  Gentiles, — going  to  Rome,  preaching 
there,  and  both  finding  the  crown  of  martyrdom 
there,  was  assured.  The  doctrine  which  they  taught, 
according  to  this  book,  was  equally  removed  from 
Judaism  and  Hellenism.  The  Jews  were  treated 
by  them  as  enemies  of  Jesus  and  of  the  apostles. 
At  Rome,  Peter  and  Paul  announced  the  destruction 
of  their  city,  and  their  perpetual  exile  from  Judea, 
because  they  had  leaped  with  joy  at  the  trials  of 
the  Son  of  God. 

It  seems  at  first  sight  as  if  such  an  important  work 
ought  to  find  a  place  in  the  canon  of  Scripture  im- 
mediately after  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  But  the 
wording  of  it  was  incoherent,  and  incapable  of 
satisfying  the  whole  Christian  community  in  a 
permanent  manner.  The  evangelical  knowledge  of 
the  author  was  too  incomplete.  He  admitted  the 
most  childish  statements  from  the  Gospel  to  the 
Hebrews.  Jesus  confessed  his  sins  ;  his  mother 
Mary  forced  him  to  be  baptised,  and  at  the  moment 
of  his  baptism  the  water  seemed  to  be  covered  with 
fire.  In  his  discourses  to  the  Gentiles,  Paul  cited 
the  apocryphal  Sibyl  of  the  Jews  of  Alexandria  and 
of  Hystaspes,  a  heathen  prophet  who  announced  the 
league  of  the  kings  against  Christ  and  the  Christians, 
the  patience  of  the  martyrs,  and  the  final  appearance 
of  Christ,  as  authorities  that  ought  to  convince  them. 
Then,    contrary  to   Paul's   formal   assertions  in  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  185 

Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  Peter  and  Paul  are  supposed 
to  have  met  for  the  first  time  in  Rome.  Other 
singular  opinions  soon  caused  that  old  compilation 
to  be  condemned  by  the  orthodox  doctors.  The 
Cerygma  of  Peter  and  Paul  had  only  a  very  uncertain 
place  amongst  the  canonical  writings.  The  romance 
of  Peter  had,  from  the  very  beginning,  contracted  a 
sort  of  sectarian  bust,  which  must  prevent  its  being 
admitted,  even  after  corrections,  into  the  lists  of  the 
imposed  dogmas. 

Thus  the  account  of  the  death  of  the  two  apostles, 
like  that  of  their  preaching  and  journeys,  was  a 
matter  of  caprice,  at  anyrate  as  far  as  regarded  form. 
Simplicity  of  style,  which  assures  the  eternal  fortune 
of  a  narrative  text,  something  decided  in  the  outline, 
which  makes  the  reader  believe  that  events  could 
not  have  happened  differently,  all  those  qualities 
which  constitute  the  beauty  of  the  Gospels  and  of 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  are  wanting  in  the  legend 
of  the  death  of  Peter  and  Paul.  Ancient  compila- 
tions about  it  existed  which  have  disappeared,  but 
which  were  not  very  different  from  those  which  have 
been  preserved,  and  which  have  fixed  the  tradition 
on  this  important  subject.  The  effect  of  the  legend 
was  abundant  and  rapid.  Rome  and  all  its  environs, 
above  all  the  Via  Ostia,  were,  so  to  say,  fihed  with 
pretended  recollections  of  the  last  days  of  tlie 
apostles.  A  number  of  touching  circumstances — 
Peter's  flight,  the  vision  of  Jesus  bearing  his  cross, 
the  iterum  crucijigi,  the  last  farewell  of  Peter  and 
Paul,  the  meeting  of  Peter  with  his  wife,  St  Paul  at 
the  fountain  of  Salvian,  Plautilla  sending  the  kerchief 
which  kept  up  her  hair  to  bandage  Paul's  eyes — all 
that  made  a  beautiful  whole  that  only  required  a 
clever  and  simple  compiler.  It  was  too  late  ;  the 
vein  of  the  first  Christian  literature  was  exhausted  ; 
the  serenity  of  the  historian  of  the  Acts  was  lost, 
and  the  tone  never  rose  above  the  level  of  story  or 


186  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

romance.  No  choice  could  be  made  amongst  a 
number  of  compilations  all  of  which  were  equally 
apocryphal;  in  vain  was  it  sought  to  cover  those 
feeble  accounts  with  the  most  venerated  names 
(pseudo-Linus,  pseudo-Marcellus);  the  Roman  legend 
of  Peter  and  Paul  always  remained  in  a  sporadic 
state,  and  was  more  frequently  related  by  pious 
guides  than  seriously  read.  It  was  an  altogether 
local  affair  ;  no  text  was  consecrated  to  be  read  in 
churches,  and  none  obtained  any  authority. 

The  creative  vein  with  regard  to  Gospel  literature 
also  grew  daily  weaker,  although  it  had  not  absolutely 
dried  up.  The  Gospel  of  the  Nazarenes,  or  of  the 
Hebrews,  or  of  the  Ebionites,  was  almost  as  different 
in  texts  as  it  was  in  manuscripts.  Egypt  extracted 
from  them  its  "  Gospel  of  the  Egyptians,"  in  which 
the  exaggeration  of  a  sickly  enthusiasm  bordered  so 
closely  on  immorality.  A  compilation  which  had  a 
very  great  success  for  a  long  time  was  the  Gospel  of 
Peter,  which  was  most  likely  composed  at  Rome. 
Justin  and  the  author  of  the  pseudo-Clementine 
romance  seem  to  have  made  use  of  it.  It  differed 
little  from  the  Ebionite  Gospel,  and  already  showed 
that  prepossession  in  favour  of  many  which  is  the 
feature  of  the  apocryphal  writings.  Men  reflected 
more  and  more  on  the  part  which  would  be  suitable 
to  the  mother  of  Jesus.  They  sought  to  connect  her 
with  David's  race  ;  round  her  cradle  miracles  were 
created  which  were  analogous  to  those  which  occurred 
at  John  Baptist's  birth.  A  book  that  was  later  filled 
with  absurdities  by  the  Gnostics,  but  which  perhaps, 
when  it  appeared,  did  not  go  beyond  the  main  note 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  the  Genua  Marias,  which 
differed  but  little  from  the  writing  that  is  called  the 
Protovangelium  of  James,  satisfied  those  wants  of  the 
imagination.  Legends  got  more  material  every  day. 
Men  occupied  themselves  with  the  evidence  of  the 
midwife  who  attended  Mary,  and  who  vouched  for 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  187 

her  virginity.  It  did  not  suffice  any  longer  that 
Jesus  was  born  in  a  stable ;  men  wished  him,  accord- 
ing to  certain  Jewish  ideas  which  are  to  be  found 
again  in  the  Haggadic  legend  of  Abraham,  to  be  born 
in  a  cave.  They  tried  to  turn  the  journey  to  Egypt 
to  some  account,  and  as  Egypt  was  the  country  in 
which  there  were  the  most  idols,  it  was  pretended 
that  the  mere  view  of  the  exiled  child  sufficed  to 
make  all  the  profane  statues  fall  with  their  faces  to 
the  ground.  It  was  known  exactly  what  trade  Jesus 
carried  on.  He  made  carts  and  other  vehicles.  They 
claimed  to  know  the  name  of  the  woman  who  had 
the  issue  of  blood  (Berenice  or  Veronica),  and  the 
statues  were  shown  which  she  had  raised  to  Jesus 
in  her  gratitude. 

The  desire  of  finding  arguments  which  the  heathen 
could  not  challenge  was  the  cause  of  some  pious 
frauds  whose  success  was  rapid  in  that  world,  Avhich 
was  not  hard  to  please,  and  which  it  was  intended  to 
impress.  The  monotheistic  Sibyl  of  Alexandria,  which 
for  centuries  had  not  ceased  to  anounce  the  ruin  of 
idolatry,  was  becoming  more  and  more  Christian. 
The  authority  that  was  accorded  to  it  was  of  the 
first  order.  The  ancient  SibylHne  collections  were 
continually  increasing,  by  additions  in  which  no 
trouble  was  taken  to  keep  up  an  appearance  of 
probability.  The  heathen  were  enraged  at  what 
they  looked  upon  as  interpolations  into  venerable 
books.  The  Christians  answered  them  with  more 
humour  than  justice  :  "  Show  us  any  old  copies  in 
which  those  passages  are  not  to  be  found."  Men  of 
intellect  made  fun  equally  of  the  heathen  and 
Christian  Sibyls,  and  parodied  them  cleverly,  so 
much  so  that  Origen,  for  instance,  never  makes  use 
of  these  depreciated  arguments. 

To  these  oracles  were  added  those  of  a  certain 
Hystaspes,  under  whose  name  some  pretended  books 
on  the  mysteries  of  Chaldea  were  current  amongst 


188  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

the  heathen.  He  was  made  to  announce  the  coming 
of  Christ,  the  Apocalyptic  catastrophes,  the  end  of 
the  world  by  fire,  with  an  amount  of  assurance  that 
argued  extreme  credulity  in  those  to  whom  they 
were  addressed. 

About  the  same  time,  the  documents  which  were 
supposed  to  be  official,  of  Pilate's  administration 
relating  to  Jesus,  may  have  been  forged.  In  a 
controversy  with  the  heathen  and  the  Jews  it  was  a 
great  power  to  be  able  to  appeal  to  pretended 
reports  contained  in  the  State  archives.  Such  was 
the  origin  of  those  Acts  of  Pilate  which  St  Justin, 
the  Quartodecimans,  and  TertuUian  had  quoted,  and 
which  possessed  sufiicent  importance  for  the  Emperor 
Maximian  IL,  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century, 
to  look  upon  it  as  an  act  of  fair  warfare  to  counter- 
feit them,  in  order  to  cast  ridicule  and  contempt  on 
the  Christians.  From  the  moment  that  it  was 
admitted  that  Tiberius  was  officially  informed  of  the 
death  of  Jesus,  it  was  natural  to  suppose  that  this 
notification  had  some  efi'ect,  and  from  that  fact 
sprang  the  opinion  that  Tiberius  had  proposed  to  the 
Senate  to  place  Jesus  in  the  ranks  of  the  gods. 

Rome,  as  has  been  seen,  continued  to  be  the  centre 
of  an  extraordinary  movement.  Heretics  of  all 
sorts  met  there,  and  were  anathematised  there. 
The  centre  of  a  future  orthodoxy  was  evidently 
there.  Pius  had  succeeded  Hyginus,  and  was  as 
firm  as  his  predecessor  had  been  in  defending  the 
purity  of  the  faith.  Pius  is  already  a  bishop  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  word.  Valentinus  and  Cerdon, 
although  condemmed  by  Hyginus,  were  always  at 
Rome,  trying  to  regain  their  lost  ground,  retracting 
at  times,  received  as  penitents,  then  returning  to 
their  dreams  and  continuing  to  have  partisans.  At 
length  they  were  finally  excommunicated.  Valen- 
tinus would  seem  to  have  withdrawn  to  Cyprus  ;  it  is 
not   known   what   became    of    Cerdon.     His    name 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  189 

would  have  remained  -unknown  if  he  had  not  left  a 
disciple  behind  him  who  surpassed  him  in  strength 
of  intellect  and  in  activity,  and  who  became  the 
greatest  embarrassment  for  the  Church  that  she  had 
encountered  hitherto,  towards  the  middle  of  the 
second  century. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

EXAGGERATION  OP  ST  PAUL'S  IDEAS — MARCION. 

The  great  peculiarity  of  Christianity,  the  fact  of  a 
new  religion  springing  from  another  religion,  and  be- 
coming by  degrees  the  negation  of  the  one  that  had 
preceded  it,  naturally  gave  rise  to  the  most  opposite 
phenomena,  till  the  two  forms  of  worship  were  com- 
pletely separated.  The  reaction  would  be  of  two 
kinds  amongst  those  who  did  not  exactly  keep  their 
balance  on  the  narrow  edge  of  orthodoxy.  Some, 
going  beyond  Paul's  principles,  fancied  that  the 
religion  of  Jesus  had  no  coanection  with  the  religion 
of  Moses.  Others,  Judeo-Christians,  looked  upon 
Christianity  as  a  mere  continuation  of  the  Jewish 
religion.  In  general,  it  was  the  Gnostics  who  in- 
clined to  the  former  idea,  but  those  dreamers  seemed 
to  be  attacked  by  a  sort  of  practical  incapacity.  An 
ardent,  intelHgent  man  was  found  to  give  the  neces- 
sary cohesion  to  the  divergent  elements,  and  to  form 
a  lasting  Church,  side  by  side  with  that  which  already 
called  itself — 

The  Universal  Church,  the  great  Church  of  Jesus. 
Marcion  was  a  native  of   Sinope,   a   city  full   ot 


;190  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

activity,  which  had  already  given  the  two  Aquilas, 
and  would  later  give  Theodation,  as  participators  in 
the  rehgious  disputes  of  the  time.  He  was  the  son 
of  the  bishop  of  that  city,  and  appears  to  have  been 
a  sailor.  Although  born  a  Christian,  he  had  seriously 
examined  his  faith,  and  had  devoted  himself  to  the 
study  of  Greek  philosophy,  especially  of  Stoicism. 
To  that  he  joined  an  ascetic  appearance  and  great 
austerity.  His  father,  as  is  alleged,  was  obliged  to 
drive  him  from  his  Church,  as  he  was  dangerous  to 
the  orthodoxy  of  his  faithful  hearers. 

We  have  already  remarked  several  times  on  the 
sort  of  attraction  which  brought  to  Rome,  under  the 
pontificate  of  Hyginus  and  in  the  first  years  of  Pius, 
all  those  whom  the  phosphorescent  lights  of  growing 
Gnosticism  seduced.  Marcion  arrived  in  the  eternal 
city  at  the  moment  when  Cerdon  unsettled  the  most 
sincere  believers  by  his  brilliant  metaphysics.  Mar- 
cion, like  all  the  sectaries,  first  of  all  showed  himself 
a  zealous  Catholic.  The  Church  of  Rome  possessed 
such  great  importance  that  all  those  who  felt  any 
ecclesiastical  ambition  aspired  to  govern  her.  The 
rich  Sinopean  apparently  made  the  community  a 
present  of  a  large  sum  of  money,  but  his  hopes  were 
disappointed.  He  had  not  that  spirit  which  the 
Church  of  Rome  has  always  required  in  her  clergy. 
Intellectual  superiority  was  but  little  valued  there. 
His  ardent  curiosity,  his  vivacity  of  thought,  and  his 
learning,  all  appeared  dangerous.  It  could  easily  be 
seen  that  they  would  not  allow  him  to  remain  quietly 
within  the  narrow  limits  of  orthodoxy.  Cerdon,  like 
he  did,  expiated  his  pretensions  to  dogmatic  origin- 
ality in  isolation.  Marcion  became  his  disciple. 
The  transcendent  theories  of  Gnosticism,  taught  by 
that  master,  must  have  appeared  to  be  the  highest 
form  of  Christianity  to  a  mind  imbued  with  philo- 
sophical doctrines.  Moreover,  Christian  dogma  was 
so  little  settled  as   yet   that    every  one   of  strong 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  191 

individuality  aspired  to  impress  it  with  his  own  seal. 
That  is  enough  to  explain  the  intricate  roads  in 
which  this  great  man  lost  himself,  without  it  being 
necessary  to  put  any  faith  in  the  everyday  calumnies 
by  which  ecclesiastical  writers  strive  to  show  that 
the  leader  of  every  sect,  when  he  separates  himself 
from  the  majority  of  the  faithful,  obeys  the  lowest 
motives. 

Marcion's  theology  only  differed  from  that  of  the 
Gnostics  of  Syria  and  Egypt  by  its  simplicity.  The 
distinction  between  the  good  God  and  the  just  God, 
between  the  invisible  God  and  the  demiurge,  between 
the  God  of  the  Jews  and  the  God  of  the  Christians, 
formed  the  basis  of  his  system.  Matter  was  the 
eternal  evil.  The  ancient  Law,  Jehovah's  work, 
which  was  essentially  material,  interested,  severe, 
cruel  and  loveless,  had  only  one  object:  to  subject 
the  other  peoples,  Egyptians,  Canaanites,  etc.,  to 
Jehovah's  people,  and  it  did  not  even  succeed  in  pro- 
curing their  happiness,  as  Jehovah  was  continually 
obHged  to  console  them  by  the  promise  of  sending 
them  his  Son.  It  would  have  been  vain  to  have 
expected  that  salvation  from  Jehovah  if  the  Supreme 
God,  who  was  good  and  invisible  and  unknown  to 
the  world  till  then,  had  not  sent  his  Son  Jesus,  that 
is  to  say  meekness  itself  under  the  apparent  form  of 
a  man,  to  combat  the  influence  of  the  demiurge  and 
to  introduce  the  law  of  love.  The  Jews  will  have 
their  Messiah,  son  of  their  God,  that  is  to  say,  of  the 
demiurge.  Jesus  is  by  no  means  that  Messiah ;  his 
mission,  on  the  contrary,  was  to  abolish  the  Law,  the 
prophets,  and  the  works  of  that  demiurge  generally  ; 
but  his  disciples  understood  him  wrongly:  Paul 
was  the  only  true  apostle.  Marcion  imposed  the 
task  upon  himself  of  finding  the  ideas  of  Jesus  again 
which  had  been  obliterated  and  maladroitly  brought 
back  to  Judaism  by  those  who  succeeded  him. 

That  was  already  Manich^ism,  with  its  dangerous 


192  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

antithesis,  making  its  appearance  in  the  field  of 
Christian  beliefs.  Marcion  supposes  that  there  are 
two  Gods,  one  of  whom  is  good  and  gentle,  the 
other  who  is  severe  and  cruel.  The  absolute  con- 
demnation of  the  flesh  led  him  to  look  upon  the 
continuation  of  the  human  race  as  only  serving  to 
prolong  the  reign  of  the  evil  demiurge  ;  he  objected 
to  marriage,  and  would  not  admit  married  people  to 
baptism.  No  sect  sought  for  martyrdom  more,  nor 
reckoned,  proportionately,  more  confessors  of  the 
faith.  According  to  the  Marcionites,  martyrdom  was 
the  highest  Christian  liberation,  the  most  beautiful 
form  of  deliverance  from  this  world,  which  is  an  evil. 
Bodies  do  not  rise,  only  the  souls  of  true  Christians 
are  brought  back  to  existence.  Besides,  all  souls  are 
not  equal,  and  only  arrive  at  perfection  by  a  series  of 
transmigrations. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Epistles  to 
the  Colossians  and  Ephesians,  and  that  of  the  fourth 
Gospel,  was  far  exceeded.  Everything  Jewish  in  the 
Church  became  mere  dross  which  must  be  eliminated. 
Marcion  looked  upon  Christianity  as  an  entirely  new 
religion,  and  one  without  precedent.  In  that  he  was 
a  disciple  of  Paul  who  had  lost  his  way.  Paul  be- 
Heved  that  Jesus  had  abolished  Judaism,  but  he  did 
not  mistake  the  divine  character  of  the  ancient  Law. 
Marcion,  on  the  contrary,  declared  that  there  was  no 
appearance  of  God  in  history  till  Jesus.  The  Law 
of  Moses  was  the  work  of  a  particular  demiurge 
(Jehovah)  whom  the  Jews  adored,  and  who,  to  keep 
them  in  the  fetters  of  theocracy,  gave  them  priests, 
and  sought  to  retain  them  by  promises  and  threats. 
Such  a  Law,  without  any  superior  character,  was 
powerless  against  evil.  It  represented  justice  but 
not  kindness.  The  appearance  of  Christ  was  the 
manifestation  of  a  complete  God  who  was  kind  and 
just  at  the  same  time.  The  Old  Testament  was  not 
only  different  from  Christianity,  it  was  contrary  to 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  193 

it.  Marcion  wrote  a  work  called  A  ntithesis,  iu  which 
the  two  Testaments  were  put  in  flagrant  contradic- 
tion. Apelles,  his  disciple,  wrote  a  book  to  show 
that  Moses  had  written  nothing  concerning  God  but 
what  was  false  and  unbecoming. 

A  chief  objection  to  that  theory  arose  from  the 
different  Gospels  which  were  then  in  circulation,  and 
which  more  or  less  agreed  with  what  we  call  the 
synoptic  type.     The  fourth   Gospel  had  as  yet  but 
very  little  circulation,  and  Marcion  did  not  know  it, 
otherwise  he  would  have  preferred  it  to  the  others. 
In  the  generally  admitted  accounts  about  Jesus,  the 
Jewish  impress  can  be  seen  on  every  page  ;   Jesus 
speaks  as  a  Jew  and  acts  as  a  Jew.     Marcion  im- 
posed the  difficult  task  upon  himself  of  changing  all 
that.     He  composed  a  Gospel  in  which  Jesus  was  no 
longer  a  Jew,  or  rather,  was  no  longer  a  man  ;  he 
wanted  a  life   of  Jesus  which  should  be   tliat  of  a 
pure  83on.     Taking  St  Luke's  Gospel   as  his  basis, 
which  may  be  called  Paul's  Gospel  up  to  a  certain 
point,  he  remodelled  it  according  to  his  own  ideas, 
and   was  not  satisfied  till   Jesus  had  no  more   an- 
cestors, parents,  forerunners,  or  masters.      If  Jesus 
had  only  been  known  to  us  from  texts  of  that  nature, 
one  might  doubt  whether  he  had  really  existed,  or 
whether  he  were  not  an  a  priori  fiction,  detached 
from  any  tie  with  reality.     In  such  a  system,  Christ 
was  not  born  (for  Marcion,  birth  was  a  stain),  did  not 
suffer,  did  not  die.     All  the  Gospel  passages  in  which 
Jesus   recognised   the   Creator   as   his   father,  were 
suppressed.     After  his  descent  into  hell  he  took  to 
heaven  with  him  those  persons  who  were  cursed  in 
the  Old  Testament — Cain,  the  Sodomites,  etc.    These 
poor  wanderers,  interesting,  like  all  those  who  have 
revolted   under   an   ancient  fallen   regime,   came   to 
meet   him    and  were   saved.      On   the   other   hand, 
Jesus  left  Abel,  Noah,  Abraham,  who  were  servants 
of  the  demiurge,  that  is  to  say,  of  the  God  of  the  Old 

N 


194  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Testament,  in  the  dark  places  of  oblivion,  as  their 
only  merit  consisted  in  having  obeyed  a  tyrant's 
laws.  It  was  that  God  of  the  Old  Testament  who 
caused  Jesus  to  be  put  to  death,  and  thus  worthily 
crowned  an  era  which  had  been  the  reign  of  evil. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  take  up  a  position  more 
utterly  opposed  to  the  ideas  of  Peter,  James,  and 
Mark.  The  last  conclusions  had  been  drawn  from  St 
Paul's  principles.  Marcion  put  no  author's  name  to 
his  Gospel,  but  he  certainly  looked  upon  it  as  "  the 
Gospel  according  to  Paul."  Jesus  is  no  more  a  man 
at  all,  he  is  the  first  ideal  appearance  of  a  good  God, 
nearly  like  Schleiermacher  understood  it  sixteen 
centuries  later.  A  very  fine  system  of  morality, 
summed  up  in  a  striving  after  good,  resulted  from 
this  spiritualistic  and  rationalistic  philosophy.  Mar- 
cion was  the  most  original  of  the  Christian  masters 
of  the  second  century  after  the  author  of  the  pseudo- 
Johannistic  writings.  But  the  belief  in  two  gods, 
which  was  the  foundation  of  his  system,  and  the 
colossal  historical  error  Avhich  it  contained  in  repre- 
senting a  rehgion  which  sprang  from  Judaism  as 
contrary  to  Judaism,  were  profound  blemishes  which 
must  prevent  such  a  doctrine  from  becoming  those 
of  the  Catholicity. 

Its  success  was  extraordinary  at  first :  Marcion's 
doctrines  spread  very  quickly  over  the  whole 
Christian  world,  but  they  met  with  strenuous  op- 
position. Justin,  who  was  then  in  Rome,  combated 
the  innovator  in  writings  which  we  have  not  got 
any  longer.  Polycarpus  received  the  new  ideas  with 
the  most  lively  indignation.  It  appears  that  Melitou 
wrote  against  them.  Several  anonymous  priests 
attacked  them,  and  furnished  Irenseus  with  the 
weapons  that  he  was  to  use  later.  Marcion's  position 
in  the  Church  was  a  very  false  one.  Like  Valentinus 
and  Cerdon,  he  wished  to  be  part  of  the  Church,  and 
doubtless  to  preach  in  it ;  now  the  Church  of  Rome 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  195 

mncli  preferred  docility  and  mediocrity  to  originality 
and  vigorous  logic.  Like  Valentiniis,  Marcion  made 
semi-retractations,  and  retreated  ;  all  was  useless  :  the 
incompatibility  was  too  strong.  After  being  con- 
demned twice,  a  definite  excommunication  drove 
him  from  the  Church.  The  sum  of  money  which  he 
had  given  in  the  first  warmth  of  his  faith  was 
refunded  to  him,  and  he  returned  to  Asia  Minor, 
where  he  continued  to  display  immense  activity  in 
the  propagation  of  error.  It  seems  that  in  his  latter 
years  he  instituted  fresh  negotiations  to  attach  him- 
self to  the  Church  again,  but  death  prevented  their 
success.  Often  a  certain  timidity  of  character  is 
associated  with  great  speculative  boldness,  and 
Marcion  seems  often  to  have  contradicted  himself. 
On  the  other  hand,  such  an  end  answered  so  perfectly 
to  the  wants  of  orthodox  polemics  that  one  must 
suspect  it  of  having  been  invented.  Apelles  restored 
the  Marcionite  school  to  an  almost  orthodox  deism. 

In  any  case,  Marcion  remains  the  boldest  innovator 
whom  Christianity  has  known,  not  even  excepting 
St  Paul.  He  never  denied  the  connection  between 
the  two  Testaments  ;  Marcion  opposed  them  to  each 
other  as  two  antitheses.  He  even  went  so  far  as 
to  claim  the  right  of  re-making  the  life  of  Jesus 
according  to  his  own  fashion,  and  of  systematically 
altering  the  Gospels.  Even  St  Paul's  Epistles, 
which  he  adopted,  were  arranged  and  mutilated 
by  him  in  order  to  efiace  the  quotations  from  the  Old 
Testament,  and  Abraham's  name,  which  he  hated. 

This  was  the  third  attempt  to  make  the  life  of 
Jesus  the  life  of  an  abstract  being  instead  of  a 
Galilean  reality.  The  results  of  diflferent  tendencies, 
which  were  all  equally  necessary, — of  the  wish  to 
idealise  a  life  which  became  that  of  a  God, — of  the 
desire  of  denying  that  that  God  had  a  family  lineage 
or  country  upon  earth, — of  the  impossibility  for  the 
Greek  Christian  to  admit  that  Christianity  had  any. 


196  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

thing  in  common  with  Judaism,  which  he  despised, 
these  three  attempts  had  very  different  successes. 
The  author  of  the  pseudo-Johannistic  writings  set 
to  work  in  an  inconsistent  and  incoherent  manner, 
but  which  possessed  the  advantage  of  letting  au 
historical  biography  of  Jesus  subsist  side  by  side 
with  the  theology  of  the  Logos.  His  attempt  was 
the  only  one  that  succeeded,  for,  whilst  looking  upon 
modern  Judaism  as  an  evil,  and  imagining  that 
Truth  had  descended  from  heaven  with  the  Logos, 
he  admits  that  the  true  Israel  has  had  its  mission, 
and  that  the  world,  far  from  being  the  work  of  a 
demiurge  who  was  hostile  to  God,  was  created  by 
the  Logos.  The  Gnostics  drowned  the  Gospel  in 
metaphysics,  eliminated  every  Jewish  element,  dis- 
satisfied even  the  Deists,  and  so  destroyed  their 
future.  Marcion's  speculations  were  of  a  more  sober 
kind  ;  but  Christianity  was  already  too  much  formed, 
its  texts  were  too  settled,  its  Gospels  too  much 
valued,  for  Catholic  opinion  to  be  shaken.  Marcion 
then  was  nothing  but  the  mere  head  of  a  sect, 
though  it  is  true  it  was  by  far  the  most  numerous 
before  that  of  Arius.  The  rage  with  which  orthodoxy 
pursued  him  is  the  best  proof  of  the  profound 
impression  that  he  made  on  the  minds  of  his  con- 
temporaries. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

THE  CATHOLIC  APOLOGY — ST  JUSTIN. 

A  PRINCIPAL  fact  which  may  clearly  be  seen  develop- 
ing from  this  time  forward,  is  that  in  the  midst  of 
these  agitated  waves  there  is  a  sort  of  immovable 
rock,  a  doctrine  between  the  two  extremes,  which 
resists   the   most  diverse  attacks,    Judeo  -  Christian 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  197 

and  Gnostic  exaggerations,  and  constitutes  a  central 
orthodoxy  which  is  destined  to  triumph  over  all 
sects.  That  universal  doctrine  which  laid  claim  to 
priority  over  all  particular  doctrines,  and  to  go  as 
far  back  as  the  apostles,  constitutes  the  Catholic 
Church  in  opposition  to  heresies.  Gnosticism, 
especially  an  invincible  obstacle  in  that  sort  of  eccle- 
siastical tribunal,  this  was  a  question  of  life  or 
death  for  the  Christian  religion.  The  extravagant 
tendencies  of  the  innovators  would  have  been  the 
annihilation  of  all  unity.  Now,  as  nearly  always 
happens,  anarchy  created  authority,  and  thus  it  may 
be  said  that  in  the  formation  of  the  Catholic  Church 
Gnosticism  and  Marcionism  played  the  principal 
part  by  antithesis. 

A  man  who  is  very  highly  esteemed  for  his  profane 
studies,  and  his  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures — Justin 
of  Neapolis,  in  Samaria,  who  had  been  residing  in 
Rome  for  several  years — taught  Christian  philosophy 
and  fought  energetically  for  the  orthodox  majority. 
He  was  used  to  and  fond  of  polemics.  Valentinians, 
Marcionites,  Samaritan  Jews,  heathen  philosophers, 
were  in  turn  the  object  of  his  attacks.  Justin  was 
not  a  man  of  great  intellect ;  he  did  not  know  much 
of  philosophy  and  criticism,  and,  above  all,  his  exegesis 
would  be  looked  upon  as  very  defective  in  our  time  ; 
but  he  gives  proof  of  general  good  sense  ;  he  had 
that  sort  of  mediocre  credulity  which  allows  a  man 
to  reason  sensibly  from  puerile  premisses,  and  to  stop 
in  time  so  as  only  to  be  half  ridiculous.  His  general 
treatise  against  heresies,  his  particular  writings 
against  the  Valentinians  and  Marcionites,  have  been 
lost,  but  his  works  for  the  general  defence  of 
Christianity  had  an  extraordinary  success  amongst 
the  faithful,  and  they  were  copied  and  imitated  ;  thus, 
Justin  was,  in  a  manner,  the  first  Christian  doctor, 
in  the  classic  sense  of  the  word,  whose  works  have 
been  preserved  to  us  in  a  relatively  complete  state. 


198  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Justin,  as  we  have  said,  had  not  a  strong  intellect, 
but  he  had  a  noble  and  good  heart.  His  great  demon- 
stration of  Christianity  was  the  persecution  of  which 
that  doctrine,  which  was  so  beneficial  in  his  eyes,  was 
the  ceaseless  object.  The  fact  that  the  other  sects, 
the  Jews  especially,  were  not  persecuted,  the  joy  that 
the  Christians  evinced  under  torture,  the  calumnies 
that  were  spread  abroad  Avith  regard  to  the  faithful, 
the  number  of  informers,  the  peculiar  hatred  which 
the  princes  of  this  world  showed  towards  the  religion 
of  Jesus,  a  hatred  that  Justin  could  only  explain  to 
himself  by  the  hatred  of  evil  spirits,  all  that  seemed 
to  him  to  be  a  glorious  sign  of  divine  truth  in  favour 
of  the  Church.  This  idea  inspired  him  to  take  a  bold 
step,  to  do  which  he  must  have  been  encouraged  by 
the  earlier  example  of  Quadratus  and  Aristides.  This 
was  to  address  himself  to  the  Emperor  Antoninus 
and  his  two  associates,  Marcus  Aurelius  and  Lucius 
Verus,  in  order  to  obtain  redress  for  a  position  which 
he  rightly  looked  upon  as  unjust  and  in  contradiction 
to  the  liberal  principles  of  the  government.  The 
Emperor's  great  wisdom,  the  philosophical  tastes  of 
one  at  least  of  his  associates,  Marcus  Aurelius,  who 
was  then  twenty-nine  years  old,  inspired  him  with 
the  hope  that  such  a  great  injustice  would  be  made 
good.  Such  was  the  occasion  of  that  eloquent  petition 
which  begins  thus  : — 

To  the  Emperor  Titus  JElius  Hadrianus  Antoninus  Pius 
Augustus  Caesar  ;  and  to  his  son  Verissimus,  a  philosopher  ;  and  to 
Lucius,  a  philosopher,  son  of  Caesar  according  to  nature,  and  of 
Pius  by  adoption,  the  friend  of  knowledge  ;  and  to  the  sacred 
senate ;  and  to  the  whole  Roman  people,  for  a  group  of  men  of 
every  race  who  are  hated  and  persecuted  unjustly,  I,  one  of  them, 
Justin,  son  of  Prixus,  grandson  of  Bacchins,  citizens  of  Flavia 
Neapolis  of  Cyria,  Palestine,  1  have  made  this  pleading  and  this 
request. 

The  two  titles  of  Pius  and  Philosophus  obliged 
those  who  bear  them  only  to  love  what  is  true,  and 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  199 

to  renouDce  ancient  opinions  if  they  find  them  bad. 
The  Christians  are  victims  of  inveterate  prejudice,  of 
calumnies  that  have  been  circulated  by  a  united 
league  of  all  superstitions.  They  must  be  punished 
if  they  are  found  guilty  of  ordinary  crimes,  but  no 
attention  ought  to  be  paid  to  malevolent  rumours. 
A  name  in  itself  is  no  crime,  it  only  becomes  so  by 
the  acts  that  are  attached  to  it.  Now  the  Christians 
are  punished  on  account  of  the  name  they  bear,  a 
name  that  only  indicates  upright  ideas.  He  who 
declares  that  he  is  not  a  Christian  when  he  is  perse- 
cuted, is  acquitted  without  inquiry ;  he  who  declares 
that  he  is  one,  is  put  to  death.  What  is  more 
unreasonable  ?  The  life  of  the  confessor  and  of  the 
renegade  ought  to  be  inquired  into,  to  see  what  good 
or  evil  they  have  done. 

The  reason  for  this  hatred  of  the  Christians  is  quite 
simple :  it  comes  from  demons.  Polytheism  was 
nothing  more  than  the  reign  of  demons.  Socrates 
was  the  first  who  wished  to  overthrow  their  worship  ; 
the  demons  succeeded  in  having  him  condemned  as 
an  atheist  and  an  impious  man.  What  Socrates  did 
amongst  the  Greeks  in  the  name  of  reason.  Reason 
itself,  clothed  in  a  form  become  man  and  called  Jesus 
Christ,  did  amongst  the  barbarians.  This  is  why  the 
Christians  are  called  Atheists.  They  are,  if  by 
Atheism  is  understood  the  denial  of  the  false  gods  in 
which  men  believe,  but  they  are  not  so  in  a  true 
sense,  since  their  rehgion  is  the  pure  religion  of  the 
Creator,  admitting,  in  the  second  rank,  the  worship 
of  Jesus,  the  Son  of  God,  and  in  the  third  rank  the 
worship  of  the  Prophetic  Spirit.  They  do  not  expect 
an  earthly  kingdom,  but  a  divine  one.  How  is  it 
that  the  authorities  do  not  see  that  such  a  faith  is  a 
great  aid  to  them  in  maintaining  order  in  the  world  ? 
What  stronger  barrier  can  there  be  against  crime 
than  the  Christian  doctrine? 

Here  Justin  draws  a  picture  of  the  morality  incul- 


200  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

cated  by  Christ  according  to  the  texts  of  Matthew, 
Mark,  and  Luke,  and  especially  according  to  Matthew. 
He  shows  how  harmless  it  is,  and  how  useful  to  the 
State.  There  was  no  school  of  philosophy  which 
had  not  taught  one  or  other  of  the  Christian  dogmas, 
and  yet  those  schools  had  not  been  persecuted  on 
that  account.  The  title  of  Son  of  God  was  not  so 
unusual  as  it  appears.  A  crucified  God,  born  of  a 
virgin,  was  not  unheard  of  before.  Greek  mytho- 
logies, the  thousand  religions  of  the  world,  have  said 
much  stronger  things.  Was  there  not  a  personage 
called  Simon,  of  the  little  town  of  Gitton  in  Samaria, 
known  to  have  passed  for  God  at  Rome,  in  the  reign 
of  Claudius,  on  account  of  his  miracles,  which  he  per- 
formed by  the  power  of  demons  ?  Was  not  a  statue 
erected  to  him  on  the  island  of  the  Tiber,  between 
the  two  bridges,  with  this  Latin  inscription :  SIMONI 
DEO  SANCTO  ?  Nearly  all  the  Samaritans  and  some 
other  nations  adore  him  as  the  chief  God,  and  look 
upon  a  certain  Helen,  who  was  a  prostitute  in  her 
time,  and  who  followed  him  everywhere,  as  his  chief 
Ennoia.  Menander,  one  of  his  disciples,  seduced 
many  in  an  extraordinary  manner  at  Antioch  by 
demons'  arts.  Marcion,  a  native  of  Pontus,  who  is 
alive  still,  another  agent  of  demons,  teaches  a  large 
number  of  disciples  to  rob  the  Father  of  the  title  of 
Creator  and  to  transfer  it  to  another  pretended  God. 
All  those  people  call  themselves  Christians,  as 
persons  who  profess  different  doctrines  are  called 
philosphers.  Do  they  practise  the  monstrous  deeds 
with  which  Christians  are  reproached,  overturned 
lamps,  nocturnal  embraces,  promiscuous  intercourse, 
feasts  of  human  flesh?  We  do  not  know,  is  Justin's 
answer ;  in  any  case,  they  are  not  persecuted  for  the 
mere  fact  of  their  opinions. 

The  purity  of  Christian  morals  contrasts  admirably 
with  the  general  corruption  of  the  century.  The 
faithful  who  prohibit  marriage  live  in  perfect  chastity. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  201 

A  striking  example  of  this  was  seen  at  Alexandria. 
A  young  Christian,  as  he  wished  to  give  a  decisive 
denial  to  the  calumnies  that  were  spread  abroad 
about  the  alleged  obscene  mysteries  of  their  nocturnal 
reunions,  requested  Felix,  Prefect  of  Egypt,  that  a 
physician,  whom  he  should  nominate,  might  be  al- 
lowed to  castrate  him.  Felix  refused  ;  the  young 
man  persisted  in  his  virginity,  satisfied  with  the 
testimony  of  his  own  conscience  and  the  esteem  of 
his  brethren.  What  a  contrast  to  the  good  Antoninus  ! 
The  picture  of  the  Christian  reunions  is  chaste 
and  beautiful.  First  the  introduction  of  those  who 
have  just  received  baptism,  that  is  to  say,  the 
"ilhiminated,"  to  their  place  amongst  the  brethren 
takes  place.  Then  long  prayers  are  offered  up  for 
the  whole  human  race. 

When  prayers  are  over  we  mutually  kiss  each  other.  Then 
the  bread,  a  cup  of  water,  and  some  wme,  is  brought  to  the  presi- 
dent. He,  taking  them  into  his  hands,  gives  praise  and  glory  to 
the  Father  of  all  things,  in  the  name  of  his  Son  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  then  he  thanks  God  at  some  length  for  those  gifts  which 
he  has  bestowed  on  us.  The  people  show  their  assent  by  saying 
Amen.  Then  those  who  are  called  deacons  amongst  us  give  the 
bread,  the  wine,  and  water  over  which  the  prayers  liave  been  pro- 
nounced, to  all  those  who  are  present,  and  take  them  to  those  who 
are  absent. 

"This  food  we  call  the  Eucharist.  Only  those  who  believe  in 
the  truth  of  our  doctrines,  and  who  have  been  washed  in  the  laver 
of  regeneration  for  the  remission  of  sins,  and  who  live  according  to 
Christ's  precey)ts,  are  allowed  to  participate  in  it.  For  we  do  not 
take  this  food  as  ordinary  bread  and  wine  ;  but  as  Jesus  Christ, 
our  incarnate  Saviour,  assumed  flesh  and  blood  for  our  salvation 
by  the  word  of  God,  so  we  are  taught  that  the  nourishment  over 
which  the  prayer  composed  from  the  words  of  Jesus  has  been 
pronounced  with  thanksgiving,— we  are  taught,  I  say,  that  this 
nourishment,  by  which  our  blood  and  our  flesh  are  nourished  by 
assimilation,  are  the  flesh  and  blood  of  Christ  Incarnate.  For  the 
Apostles,  in  the  memoirs  which  they  have  written,  and  which  are 
called  Gospels,  tell  us  that  Jesus  bade  them  do  this.  Taking  the 
bread,  he  gave  thanks,  and  said  :  "  Do  this  in  remembrance  of  me  ; 
This  is  my  body ; "  likewise  taking  the  cup  he  gave  thanks,  and 
said  :  "  This  is  my  blood  ;  "  and  he  reserved  that  dogma  for  them 


202  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

alone.  If  the  same  thing  takes  place  in  the  mysteries  of  Mithra, 
it  is  because  evil  demons,  imitating  Christ's  institution,  nave 
taught  how  it  is  to  be  done ;  for  you  know,  or  can  know,  that  the 
bread  and  the  cup  full  of  water,  with  certain  words  pronounced 
over  it,  form  a  part  of  the  ceremonies  of  initiation. 

During  the  days  that  follow  the  meetings,  we  continually 
remind  each  other  of  what  has  taken  place,  and  those  who  are  able 
supply  the  wants  of  the  poor,  and  we  habitually  live  together. 
In  our  oblations  we  bless  the  Creator  of  all  things  through  his  Son 
Jesus  Christ  and  the  Holy  Spirit.  And  on  the  day  which  is  called 
the  Day  of  the  Sun  all  those  who  live  in  towns  or  in  the  country 
assemble  in  the  same  place,  and  the  memorials  of  the  apostles  and 
the  writings  of  the  prophets  are  read,  as  far  as  time  allows.  When 
the  reader  has  finished,  the  president  addresses  words  of  exhortation 
and  admonition  to  those  who  are  present,  to  induce  them  to  conform 
to  such  beautiful  teaching.  Then  we  all  rise  together,  and  send  up 
our  prayers  to  heaven,  and,  as  we  have  already  said,  when  the 
prayer  is  ended  the  bread  and  the  wine  and  water  is  distributed, 
and  he  who  presides  prays  and  gives  thanks  with  all  his  might,  and 
the  people  show  their  assent  by  saying  "  Amen."  Then  the  offerings 
over  which  thanksgivings  have  been  pronounced  are  distributed  ; 
each  one  receives  his  share,  and  that  of  the  absent  is  sent  to  them 
by  the  deacons.  Those  who  are  well  off  and  who  wish  to  give,  give 
what  they  please,  each  one  as  he  is  disposed.  The  amount  of  the 
collection  is  handed  over  to  the  president ;  he  succours  the  widows 
and  orphans  and  those  who  are  in  distress  through  sickness  or  any 
other  reason,  those  who  are  in  prison,  and  strangers  who  may  come ; 
in  short,  he  takes  care  of  all  those  who  are  in  want.  We  have  this 
general  meeting  on  the  day  of  the  Sun,  in  the  first  place,  because  it 
is  the  first  day,  the  day  on  which  God,  having  metamorphosed  dark- 
ness and  matter,  made  the  world  ;  in  the  second  place,  because  our 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ  rose  from  the  dead  on  that  day.  They  crucified 
him,  in  fact,  on  the  day  which  precedes  that  of  Saturn,  and,  the 
day  that  follows  that  of  Saturn— that  is  to  say,  the  day  of  the  Sun 
— having  appeared  to  his  apostles  and  disciples,  he  taught  them 
those  things  which  we  have  just  submitted  to  your  judgment. 

Justin  finished  his  pleading  by  quoting  a  letter  of 
Hadrian  to  Minicius  Fundanus.  Believer  as  he  was, 
he  was  naturally  astonished  that  men  would  not  yield 
to  such  clear  arguments,  and  his  manner  proves*  that 
he  thought  he  should  have  converted  the  Cgesars. 
Certainly  the  frivolous  Lucius  Verus  did  not  touch 
this  solemn  writing  with  the  tip  of  his  fingers.  Per- 
haps Antoninus  and  Marcus  Aurelius  read  it;  but  were 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  203 

they  as  culpable  as  Justin  believed  in  not  being  con- 
verted? We  cannot  pretend  to  say.  Justin  had 
fair  game  with  the  immoral  fables  of  Paganism ;  he 
demonstrated  without  difficulty  that  the  Greek  and 
Roman  religions  were  scarcely  aught  but  a  tissue 
of  shameful  superstitions.  But  was  the  unbridled 
demonology  which  formed  the  foundation  of  all  these 
systems  much  more  reasonable  ?  His  confidence  in  the 
argument  drawn  from  the  prophecies  is  very  artless. 
Antoninus  and  Marcus  Aurelius  did  not  know  the 
Hebrew  literature  ;  if  they  had  known  it,  they  would 
certainly  have  found  good  Justin's  exegesis  very 
trifling.  They  would  have  observed,  for  example, 
that  the  22d  Psalm  (21)  only  includes  the  nails  of 
the  Passion  by  taking  the  puerile  interpretation,  con- 
trary to  reason,  of  the  Septuagint.  The  assertion 
that  the  Greeks  have  borrow^ed  all  their  philosophy 
from  the  Jews  would  have  been  incredible  to  them. 
They  would,  at  best,  have  found  that  passage  strange, 
where  the  pious  writer,  wishing  to  prove  that  the 
cross  is  the  key  to  everything,  finds  this  mysterious 
form  in  the  masts  of  ships,  in  the  plough  and  mattock 
of  the  labourer,  in  the  workman's  tool,  in  the  human 
body  when  the  arms  are  stretched  out,  in  the  ensigns 
and  trophies  of  the  Romans,  in  the  attitude  of  the 
dead  emperors  consecrated  by  apotheosis.  The  direc- 
tion in  which  Herod  and  Ptolemy  Philadelphus  are 
thought  to  have  been  contemporaries  would  also, 
doubtless,  have  inspired  in  them  some  doubts  as  to 
the  precision  of  the  statement  relating  to  the  Septua- 
gint version,  the  version  which  serves  as  the  base  for 
all  the  Messianic  reasonings  of  Justin.  If  they  had 
been  asked  to  search  in  the  archives  of  the  Empire 
for  the  registers  of  Zuirinius,  the  acts  of  Pilate  relat- 
ing to  Jesus,  they  would  have  had  difficulty  in  finding 
them.  Indeed,  the  writings  of  the  Sibyl  and  Hystaspes 
would  have  seemed  to  them  of  weak  authority.  They 
would  have  been  amazed  to  learn  that  demons,  afraid 


204  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

of  the  annoyance  which  these  books  were  going  to 
cause  them,  had  pronounced  the  penalty  of  death  on 
those  who  would  read  them. 

It  appears  that  Justin  joined  to  his  pleading  some 
illustrations  from  these  apocryphal  apologies,  and 
imagined  that  they  would  exercise  a  decisive  influ- 
ence on  the  minds  of  the  Caesars.  His  hopes  went 
beyond  that:  he  demanded  that  his  request  should 
be  communicated  to  the  Senate  and  the  Roman 
people,  especially  that  the  falsity  of  the  divinity  of 
Simon  the  magician  should  be  acknowledged,  and 
that  the  statue  he  had  at  Rome  (a  certain  half  column 
of  Semo  Sancus)  should  be  oJBficially  cast  down. 

Justin's  ardent  convictions  would  allow  him  no 
rest.  He  imagined  himself  responsible  for  all  the 
errors  he  did  not  combat.  The  Jews  who  persisted 
in  not  becoming  Christians,  were  the  perpetual  object 
of  his  pre-occupations.  He  wrote  against  them  in 
dialogue  form,  perhaps  in  imitation  of  Aristo  of 
Pella,  a  polemical  work  which  may  be  reckoned 
among  the  most  curious  literary  monuments  of  bud- 
ding Christianity. 

Justin  supposes  that,  in  his  journey  from  Syria  to 
Rome,  about  the  time  of  the  war  of  Bar-Coziba,  kept 
back  by  an  accident  in  navigation  at  Ephesus,  he 
walked  into  the  alleys  of  the  Xystus,  when  an  un- 
known person,  surrounded  by  a  group  of  disciples, 
was  struck  by  the  dress  he  wore,  and,  approaching 
him,  said,  "  Hail,  philosopher !  "  He  told  him,  at  the 
same  time,  that  a  Socratic  sage,  whose  lessons  he 
had  learned  at  Argos,  had  instructed  him  always  to 
respect  the  philosopher's  mantle,  and  to  seek  to  have 
himself  instructed  by  those  who  wore  it.  The  con- 
versation took  a  very  literary  turn,  and  he  found 
that  the  unknown  was  no  other  than  the  Rabbi 
Tryphon  or  Tarphon,  who  had  fled  from  Judea  to 
escape  the  fury  of  Bar-Coziba's  war,  had  taken  refuge 
in  Greece,  and  lived  oftenest  at  Corinth.    They  spoke 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  205 

of  God,  of  Providence,  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 
Justin  records  how,  after  having  tried  all  the  schools 
and  systems,  he  has  found  nothing  better  than  to 
adhere  to  Christ.  The  controversy  then  becomes 
lively.  Justin  accumulates  against  the  Jews  the 
most  disdainful  reproaches.  Not  content  with  having 
killed  Jesus,  they  would  not  cease  to  persecute  the 
Christians.  If  they  did  not  kill  them,  it  was  because 
power  prevented  them ;  but  they  overwhelmed  them 
with  curses,  chasing  them  from  the  synagogues,  and, 
as  often  as  they  could,  maltreating,  assassinating,  and 
punishing  them.  The  prejudices  which  the  Pagans 
had  against  Christianity  were  inspired  by  the  Jews  : 
they  were  more  guilty  of  persecutions  than  even  the 
Pagans  who  ordered  them.  They  had  sent  from 
Jerusalem  certain  men  chosen  to  spread  abroad  over 
the  whole  world  the  calumnies  with  which  they 
sought  to  crush  the  Christians.  They  did  worse  than 
that ;  they  mutilated  the  Bible  by  cutting  out  the 
passages  which  proved  the  Messiahship  and  divinity 
of  Jesus.  They  repelled  the  LXX.  translation,  only 
because  that  contained  the  proofs  of  that  very 
divinity.  In  controversies  they  threw  out  loud  cries 
against  the  cavils,  and  the  little  details  they  did  not 
comprehend,  and  refused  to  see  the  force  of  the 
whole. 

Impartiality  compels  us  to  say  that  if  Justin  was 
in  those  oral  disputes  such  as  we  see  him  to  be  in  his 
book  (and  unfortunately  what  we  know  of  his  con- 
troversies with  Cresceus  leads  us  to  believe  so),  the 
Jews  had  thoroughly  good  reason  to  complain  of  his 
inexactness.  There  never  had  been  a  weaker  inter- 
preter of  the  Old  Testament.  Not  only  did  Justin 
not  know  Hebrew,  but  he  had  no  critical  talent ;  he 
admitted  the  most  manifest  interpretations.  His 
Messianic  applications  of  the  texts  of  the  Bible  are 
of  the  most  arbitrary  description,  and  are  founded  on 
the  errors  of  the    Septuagint.     His   book  certainly 


206  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

did  not  convert  a  single  Jew,  but  in  the  bosom  of 
Catholicism  he  founded  the  apologetic  exegesis. 
Almost  all  the  arguments  of  this  order  have  been 
invented  by  St  Justin,  scarcely  any  have  been  added 
since  his  time. 

It  is  useless  to  say  that  the  gulf  between  Judaism 
and  Christianity  appears  as  absolute  in  this  book. 
Judaism  and  Christianity  are  two  enemies  occupied 
in  doing  each  other  all  the  evil  possible.  The  Law 
is  abrogated — it  has  always  been  powerless  to  produce 
justification.  Circumcision  and  the  Sabbath  not  only 
are  abolished  things,  they  were  never  good  things. 
Circumcision  had  been  imposed  by  God  on  the  Jews, 
in  foresight  of  their  crimes  against  Christ  and  the 
Christians.  "  This  sign  has  been  given  you  that  you 
may  be  separated  from  other  nations  and  ourselves, 
and  that  you  should  suffer  alone  that  which  you  now 
justly  suffer,  that  your  country  may  be  rendered 
desert,  your  towns  delivered  to  the  flames,  that 
strangers  may  eat  your  fruits  before  your  eyes,  and 
that  no  one  among  you  may  be  able  to  go  up  to 
Jerusalem."  This  pretended  mark  of  honour  is  thus 
become  for  the  Jews  a  punishment,  a  visible  sign 
which  marks  them  out  for  punishment.  The  law  of 
the  Mosaic  precepts  has  only  been  instituted  because 
of  the  iniquities  and  the  hardness  of  the  heart  of  the 
people.  The  Sabbath  and  the  sacrifices  have  had  no 
other  cause.  The  impossibility  which  there  was  for 
a  Jew  holding  to  his  old  Scriptures,  to  admit  that 
God  had  been  born  and  become  man,  is  not  even 
comprehended  by  Justin.  Tarphon  would  truly  have 
been  a  most  tractable  man,  if  after  such  controversy 
he  had  left  his  adversary  confessing,  as  Justin  pre- 
tends, that  he  had  profited  much  by  the  discussion. 

Conversions,  moreover,  became  more  and  more 
rare.  Sides  were  taken.  The  moment  when  dispute 
is  organised  is  usually  that  in  which  already  each  is 
hardened  in   his    own    view.     Transfers  have  been 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  207 

numerous,  so  that  Christianity  had  been  a  badly 
defined  colony,  scarcely  separate  from  Judaism. 
When  it  is  a  complete  place,  guarded  by  its  fortifica- 
tions, in  face  of  its  metropolis,  one  can  no  longer 
pass  from  one  side  to  another.  The  Jew,  like  the 
Mussulman,  will  be  the  most  unconvertible  of  human 
beings,  the  most  Anti-Christian. 

Justin  still  Hved  for  some  years  disputing  always 
against  the  Jews,  the  heretics,  and  the  Pagans, 
writing  polemical  works  without  end.  An  act  of 
juridic  severity  on  the  part  of  Q.  Lollius  Urbicus, 
prefect  of  Rome,  will  place  again  the  advocate's  pen 
in  his  hand  in  the  last  years  of  Antoninus'  reign. 
Like  nearly  all  the  apologists,  he  was  not  a  member 
of  the  hierarchy.  This  position  without  responsi- 
bility suits  the  volunteers  of  the  faith  better,  and  at 
a  pinch  allows  the  Church  to  disavow  them.  Justin 
was  always  dear  to  the  Cathohcs.  His  distance  from 
fche  sects  preserved  him  from  the  aberrations  which 
Tatian  and  TertulHan  could  not  escape.  His  theology 
Is  far  from  being  the  orthodox  theology  of  the  follow- 
ing ages,  but  the  sincerity  of  the  author  made  that 
to  be  easily  shown  on  his  behalf  The  Trinity, 
according  to  St  Justin,  was  in  a  state  of  badly  formed 
embryo ;  his  angels  and  his  demons  were  conceived 
in  a  prodigiously  materialistic  and  infantine  fashion  ; 
his  millenarianism  is  naive  as  that  of  Papias;  he 
systematically  ^ioyerh  St  Paul.  He  believed  that 
Jesus  was  born  in  a  supernatural  fashion,  but  he 
knew  some  Christians  who  did  not  admit  it.  His 
Gospel  differed  considerably  from  some  texts  held 
sacred  to-day ;  he  made  no  use  of  the  Gospel  called 
that  of  John;  and  the  writing  that  he  quotes 
although  approaching  most  frequently  Matthew, 
sometimes  Luke,  is  not  precisely  any  of  the  three 
synoptists.  It  was  probably  the  Gospel  of  the 
Hebrews,  called  "  the  Gospel  of  the  Twelve  Apostles," 
or  of  Peter,  not  without  analogy  with  the   (jjt^a 


208  THE  CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

Marias,  or  Protevangel  of  James,  and  perhaps 
identical  with  the  Gospel  of  the  Ebionites.  Fables, 
in  any  case,  abounded  in  these :  they  were  only  a 
few  steps  from  the  puerilities  which  filled  the 
apocryphal  Gospels.  But  a  certain  correct  sense 
made  Justin  avoid  these  extreme  errors.  His  pagan 
erudition,  all  adulterated  as  it  was,  struck  under- 
educated  people.  In  fact,  he  was  a  splendid  pleader. 
All  the  apologists  who  followed  him  were  inspired 
by  him. 

His  admiration  for  the  Greek  philosophy  could  not 
be  to  the  taste  of  everyone,  but  it  appeared  to  be 
good  policy.  The  time  had  not  yet  arrived  when 
insults  were  hurled  against  the  sages  of  antiquity: 
people  took  the  good  where  they  found  it ;  they  saw 
in  Socrates  a  forerunner  of  Jesus,  and  in  Platonic 
idealism  or  sort  of  pre-Christianity.  Justin  was  as 
much  a  disciple  of  Plato  and  Philo  as  he  was  of 
Moses  and  Christ ;  Moses  was  older  than  the  Greek 
sages,  and  they  had  borrowed  from  him  their  dogmas 
of  natural  religion,  hence  its  whole  superiority.  No 
theologian  had  ever  opened  so  widely  as  Justin  the 
portals  of  salvation.  Revelation,  according  to  him,  is 
a  permanent  fact  in  humanity  ;  it  is  the  eternal  fruit 
of  the  Logos  spermaticos,  who  enlightens  naturally  the 
human  understanding.  All  that  philosophers  and 
legislators — the  Stoics,  for  instance — ever  discovered 
of  good,  they  owed  to  the  contemplation  of  the  Logos, 
The  Logos  is  nothing  else  than  reason  universally 
diffused ;  all  who,  in  whatever  country  or  time  they 
may  be,  have  loved  and  cultivated  reason,  have  been 
Christians.  Socrates  shines  in  the  first  rank  in  this 
phalanx  of  the  Christians  before  Jesus.  He  kuew 
Christ  partly.  He  did  not  perceive  the  whole  truth, 
but  what  he  saw  was  a  fraction  of  Christianity ;  he 
combated  polytheism,  as  the  Christians  do,  and  he 
had  the  honour,  like  them.,  to  give  up  his  life  in  the 
conflict.     The  Logos  descended  and  resided  absolutely 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  209 

in  Jesus.  He  is  disseminated  among  the  human 
souls  who  have  loved  the  truth  and  practised  good  ; 
in  Jesus,  the  Logos  is  absolutely  concentrated. 

With  such  an  idea  of  reason,  it  was  natural  to 
admit  philosophy  as  an  element  in  the  composition 
of  the  Christian  dogmas.  The  traces  of  Greek  philo- 
sophy are  still  weak  in  St  Paul  and  in  the  pseudo- 
Johaunic  writings.  In  the  gnosis,  on  the  contrary, 
according  to  Marcion,  according  to  the  author  of  the 
psuedo-Clementine  romance,  according  to  Justin,  the 
Greek  philosophy  runs  with  full  stream.  It  was 
found  quite  natural  to  mingle  in  the  Jewish  theory 
of  the  Logos  ideas  of  the  same  kind  as  were  believed 
to  be  met  in  Stoicism.  Far  from  renouncing  reason, 
they  pretended  to  give  it  its  share.  They  held 
sound  philosophy  to  be  the  surest  ally  for  Christianity  ; 
the  great  men  of  the  past  were  considered  as  the 
anticipative  disciples  of  Christ,  who  had  come  not  to 
overthrow  but  to  purify,  complete,  and  accomplish 
their  work.  They  admired  Socrates  and  Plato  ;  they 
were  proud  of  the  courage  of  their  great  contempo- 
raries, such  as  Musonius.  They  said,  with  a  just  and 
large  sentiment  of  truth :  "  What  has  been  thought 
or  felt  before  among  the  Greeks  and  barbarians, 
belongs  to  us." 

A  sort  of  eclecticism,  founded  on  a  mystical 
rationalism,  was  the  character  of  this  first  Christian 
philosophy.  The  apologist  applied  himself  to  show 
that  the  fundamental  points  of  Christianity  had  not 
been  strange  to  Pagan  antiquity, — that  the  dogmas 
on  the  divine  essence,  on  the  Logos,  the  divine  spirit, 
special  providence,  prayer,  angels,  demons,  the  future 
life,  and  the  end  of  the  world,  might  be  established 
by  certain  profane  texts.  Even  the  teaching,  most 
specially  Christian,  on  the  birth,  the  life,  death,  and 
resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  had  analogues  in  the 
religions  of  antiquity.  It  was  maintained  that  Plato 
had  expressed  in  the  Timwus  the  doctrine  of  the  Son 

0 


210  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

of  God.  It  was  remarked  that,  in  all  religions,  the 
ceremonies  resembled  each  other — that  the  morale  is 
the  same  throughout  all.  Far  from  finding  in  that 
an  objection,  they  concluded  from  this  universality 
the  existence  of  a  permanent  revelation,  of  which 
Christianity  had  been  the  most  brilliant  act. 


CHAPTER    XX. 

ABUSES  AND  PENITENCE— NEW  PROPHECIES. 

The  Church  was  like  the  pious  Israel  at  the  time 
when  it  built  its  new  temple ;  with  the  one  hand 
they  fought,  with  the  other  they  built.  The  philo- 
sophic prepossessions  were  the  act  of  a  very  small 
number.  The  great  Christian  work  was  moral  and 
popular.  The  Church  of  Rome  especially  showed 
itself  more  and  more  indifi*erent  to  these  extrava- 
gant speculations  which  delighted  minds  full  of  the 
intellectual  activity  of  the  Greeks,  but  corrupted 
by  the  reveries  of  the  East.  The  disciplinary  organ- 
isation was  the  principal  work  at  Rome  ;  that  extra- 
ordinary city  applied  to  that  its  thorouglily  practical 
genius  and  its  strong  energy. 

Penitence  had  always  been  a  fundamental  institu- 
tion of  Christianity.  The  elect  of  the  future  city  of 
God  should  be  absolutely  pure.  To  avoid  sin  was 
impossible;  it  was  therefore  necessary  that  means 
should  be  found  for  recovering  lost  grace.  The 
Church  accordingly  at  an  early  period  erected  itself 
into  a  tribunal,  and  transformed  repentance  into 
public  penitence,  imposed  by  authority  and  accepted 
by  the  delinquent.  A  mass  of  questions  which  were 
to  trouble  the  Church  for  a  century  and  a  half  date 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  211 

from  that  time.  How  could  people,  after  having 
fallen  often,  become  penitent  again?  Do  those 
means  of  reconciliation  apply  to  all  time  ?  The 
hypothesis  of  murder  was  scarcely  thought  of;  the 
gentle  and  timid  manners  of  the  sect  forbade  the 
idea  of  a  Christian  assassin  ;  but  adultery  in  a  little 
congregation  of  brethren  and  sisters  was  common 
enough.  Apostacy,  indeed,  seeing  the  bitterness  of 
the  persecutions,  was  not  rare.  Some,  to  avoid 
punishment,  went  even  so  far  as  to  curse  Christ; 
some  became  the  denouncers  of  their  brethren ;  while 
others  contented  themselves  with  a  simple  denial,  "  I 
am  not  a  Christian."  They  were  ashamed  of  Christ 
without  exactly  blaspheming  him. 

It  was  this  last  category  of  persons  who  caused 
the  greatest  embarrassment.  The  Church  was  a 
source  of  such  gentleness,  that  the  day  after  their 
fall,  the  apostates,  the  denouncers  of  their  brethren, 
experienced  cruel  remorse.  They  would  have  desired 
to  re-enter  the  assembly  they  had  betrayed.  The 
situation  of  those  unfortunates  was  distressing. 
Despairing  of  their  salvation,  they  became  the  prey 
of  frightful  terrors.  They  could  be  seen  prowling 
around  the  Church  where  they  had  tasted  so  many 
spiritual  joys.  There  was  no  connection  between 
them  and  the  faithful.  With  a  severity  which  Jesus 
would  not  have  approved,  but  which  the  gravity  of 
the  circumstances  excused,  they  were  treated  as 
people  infected  by  the  itch,  and  were  called  by  a 
cruel  pleasantry  "  the  savages,  the  solitary  ones." 
Many  went  to  see  the  confessors  in  prison  and  found 
a  sort  of  austere  joy  in  the  hard  words  which  those 
addressed  to  them.  The  larger  portion  of  the  faith- 
ful considered  them  as  totally  dead  to  the  Church, 
and  would  not  admit  that  there  could  be  any  place 
of  penitence  for  them  there.  Some,  less  harsh,  dis- 
tinguished between  those  who  had  blasphemed  Christ 
or    denounced  their   brethren    and   those    who    had 


212  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

simply  denied  their  faith  ;  these  latter  could  be  ad- 
mitted to  repentance.  Others,  more  indulgent  still, 
accorded  penitence  to  those  who  had  denied  with  the 
mouth  and  not  with  the  heart.  There  was  a  danger 
of  pushing  rigour  too  far,  for  the  Jews  sought  to  gain 
to  the  synagogue  those  the  Church  had  thus  expelled. 
Besides  those  great  culprits,  there  were  the  weak, 
the  uncertain,  the  worldly — Christians  in  some  sense 
ashamed,  and  who  dissembled  as  to  their  faith,  and 
were  thus  led  unceasingly  into  semi-apostacies.  The 
Christian  profession  was  something  so  strict  that,  if 
the  Christian  did  not  live  in  the  society  of  his  brethren, 
he  was  exposed  to  continual  mockery.  As  he  existed 
only  with  the  end  of  the  world  before  his  mind,  the 
Christian  of  that  time  was  quite  sequestered  from 
public  life.  Those  who  were  obliged  to  mix  them- 
selves in  temporal  affairs  were  led  more  and  more 
to  forsake  the  society  of  the  saints,  and  soon  to 
disdain  them,  to  blush  for  them  as  brethren,  to  hear 
them  laughed  at  without  replying.  Half- dead  to 
the  spiritual  life,  they  fell  into  doubt.  They  became 
rich ;  they  made  a  separate  company,  in  virtue  of 
the  principle  that  man  is  led  almost  necessarily  to 
cultivate  the  society  of  persons  who  have  the  same 
fortune  as  himself.  They  shunned  meeting  with  the 
servants  of  God,  fearing  that  they  would  ask  for 
alms.  The  company  of  the  faithful  appeared  humble  ; 
those  quitted  it  in  order  to  lead  a  more  brilliant  life 
with  the  Gentiles.  These  worldHngs  did  not  abandon 
God,  but  they  deserted  the  Church  ;  they  kept  the 
faith,  but  ceased  to  practise  it.  Some  became  re- 
pentant, and  gave  themselves  up  to  works  of  charity ; 
others,  brought  into  the  society  of  the  Pagans,  be- 
came like  them,  and  abandoned  themselves  to  pleasure. 
This  equivocal  middle  course  did  not  dispose  them 
to  martyrdom.  At  the  least  sound  of  persecution 
they  made  an  appearance  of  returning  to  idols,  to 
escape  being  disturbed. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  213 

In  the  very  bosom  of  the  Church  what  imperfec- 
tion I  Such  were  constantly  associated  with  the 
congregation,  and  did  not  cease  to  be  slanderous, 
envious,  blundering,  bold,  and  presumptuous.  The 
administration  of  the  funds  of  the  Church  gave  place 
to  such  abuses  ;  certain  deacons  took  the  supplies  of 
the  widows  and  orphans  for  themselves.  Then  the 
teachers  of  strange  doctrines  abounded  and  seduced 
the  faithful.  Placed  as  judges  in  the  midst  of  all 
these  troubles,  the  saints  inclined  sometimes  to  in- 
dulgence and  sometimes  to  severity.  What  was 
serious  was  that  certain  sectarian  doctors  flattered 
those  who  had  sinned,  in  the  view  of  personal  interest. 
They  sold  them  indulgence,  after  a  fashion ;  and  in 
the  hope  of  being  recompensed  for  their  casuistry, 
they  told  them  that  they  had  no  need  of  penitence, 
and  that  the  pastors  were  people  of  an  exaggerated 
severity. 

The  fact  is  that,  in  such  an  assembly  of  saints, 
there  was  scarcely  room  for  lukewarmness.  An 
enthusiastic  piety  made  them  beheve  everything. 
Prophecy  and  revelations  flourished  as  in  the  palmiest 
days.  There  resulted  serious  abuses  from  this.  The 
individual  prophets  became  the  plague  of  the  Church. 
People  went  to  interrogate  them  as  to  the  future, 
even  as  to  temporal  affairs.  These  men  received 
money,  and  gave  the  replies  which  were  desired  of 
them.  The  orthodox  admitted  that  the  devils  some- 
times revealed  certain  things  to  impostors,  the  better 
to  try  the  righteous  ;  but  they  maintained  that  they 
could  always  distinguish  the  prophets  of  God  from 
frivolous  prophets.  Naturally  this  caused  serious 
embarrassment,  for  he  whom  one  called  frivolous  the 
other  beHeved  guided  by  "the  ange)  of  the  prophetic 
spirit." 

The  orthodox  scrupled  no  more  than  the  heterodox 
to  provide  as  food  for  the  pious  public  the  most 
audaciouslv  fabricated  revelations,  and  these  revela- 


214  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

tions  were  greedily  received.  Such  especially  wa?s  a 
prophecy  whose  title  alone  marked  sufficiently  its 
tendency  of  spirit.  It  is  related  in  the  book  of 
Numbers  that  Eldad  and  Modad,  clothed  with  a 
portion  of  the  prophetic  power  of  Moses,  prophesied 
out  of  the  ranks  and  in  their  entirely  individual 
capacity.  Joshua  wished  them  to  be  silenced. 
Moses  stopped  him.  *'Are  you  jealous  for  me^"  he 
asked.  "Would  to  God  that  all  the  people  of 
Jehovah  were  prophets,  and  that  Jehovah  sent  his 
spirit  upon  all  I  "  Eldad  and  Modad  were  thus  the 
representatives,  among  the  ancient  people,  of  the 
individual  prophet.  They  were  credited  with  a 
book  which  made  much  impression  on  many,  and 
was  quoted  as  inspired  Scripture. 

The  symbolism  of  these  new  prophets  appears 
sometimes  strange  and  in  bad  taste.  The  exhaustion 
of  their  species  was  visible.  All  these  used-up 
machines  produce  on  us  nothing  but  a  result  of 
fatigue  and  disgust.  But  for  the  simple  the  effect 
was  great;  such  prophecies  fortified  the  hesitating 
and  warmed  the  cool.  They  believed  they  heard 
admonitions  directly  from  God. 

An  apocalypse  attributed  to  Peter  was  a  very 
great  success  ;  it  was  admitted  into  the  canon, 
beside  that  of  John,  and  read  in  the  greater  number 
of  the  Churches.  Like  all  apocalypses,  it  told  the 
faithful  of  terrors  and  future  calamities  ;  like  the 
Shepherd,  of  which  we  shall  soon  speak,  it  insisted 
on  the  punishment  of  different  sins  ;  like  the  apoca- 
lypse of  Esdras,  it  treated,  it  would  seem,  of  the 
state  of  souls  after  death.  A  particular  idea  of  the 
author  is  that  abortions  are  entrusted  to  a  guardian 
angel,  who  charges  himself  with  their  education  and 
development.  They  suffer  the  share  of  sufferings 
they  would  have  endured  if  they  had  lived,  and  they 
are  saved.  The  milk  that  women  lose,  and  which 
coagulates,  is  changed  into  little  animal culte,  which 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  215 

devour  them  at  once.  From  the  beginning,  the 
bizarre  aspects  of  the  book  provoked  a  strong  oppo- 
sition, and  many  wished  it  not  to  be  read  in  pubHc. 
This  opposition  only  increased  with  time.  The 
gloomy  images  which  were  to  be  found  in  it,  how- 
ever, made  them  keep  it  for  the  readings  of  the  holy 
week.  Then  the  antipathy  of  the  Greek  orthodox 
Church  against  apocalypses — an  antipathy  which  was 
powerless  against  the  apocalypse  of  John — succeeded 
in  expelling  this,  and  even  in  destroying  it  altogether. 

The  habit  of  public  reading  of  the  apostolical  and 
prophetical  readings  in  the  Churches  consumed,  if 
one  may  so  express  it,  many  books  :  the  circle  of 
received  writings  was  quickly  run  through,  and  the 
readers  were  thrown  with  earnestness  on  the  new 
books  which  appeared,  even  when  their  titles  to 
theopneusty  were  not  very  correct.  There  resulted 
from  this  a  certain  style  of  habit  which  went  on  for 
ten  or  twenty  years.  Sometimes,  when  the  book 
was  out  of  vogue,  they  limited  its  reading  to  one 
fixed  day  yearly. 

This  may  be  seen  clearly  in  a  curious  little  writing 
of  that  time,  which  has  been  preserved  to  us.  It  is 
a  sort  of  homily,  evidently  for  the  use  of  the  Roman 
Church,  which  the  anagnost  read  after  the  large 
readings  drawn  from  the  sacred  pages.  This  homily 
is  itself  a  tissue  of  quotations  taken  from  the 
Gospels,  the  ancient  prophecies,  and  writings  which 
it  is  now  impossible  to  determine.  The  most  com- 
promising passages  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Egyptians 
are  there  quoted  side  by  side  with  Matthew  and 
Luke,  and  framed  in  a  style  of  language  destined  to 
excite  the  piety  of  the  "  brethren  and  sisters."  The 
writing  was  attached,  as  a  Roman  document,  to  the 
epistle  of  Clement,  and,  with  it,  was  copied  accord- 
ingly into  a  great  number  of  Bibles. 


216  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

CHAPTER    XXL 

ROMAN  PIETISM — THE  SHEPHERD  OF  HERMAS. 

One  book  had  in  this  fashion  a  durable  success,  and 
served  during  several  centuries  for  the  nourishment 
of  Christian  piety.  It  had  as  its  author  a  brother  ol 
Pius,  the  bishop  of  Rome.  This  personage,  who 
doubtless  occupied  a  considerable  place  in  the  Church, 
conceived  the  project  of  striking  a  great  blov^,  suffi- 
cient to  awaken  the  saints.  He  pretended  that,  fifty 
or  sixty  years  before,  in  the  time  of  the  persecution 
of  Domitian,  a  certain  Hermas,  an  elder  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  had  had  a  revelation.  Clement,  the  guarantee 
for  all  the  pious  frauds  of  Roman  Ebionism,  covered 
the  book  with  his  authority,  and  was  believed  to  have 
it  addressed  to  the  churches  of  the  whole  world. 

Hermas,  a  foundling  born  in  slavery,  had  been  sold, 
by  the  proprietor  of  slaves  who  had  brought  him  up, 
to  a  Roman  lady  named  Rhoda.  He  had  doubtless 
succeeded  in  buying  his  liberty,  and  setting  himself 
up  in  life ;  for  at  the  opening  of  the  work,  he  is 
under  the  blow  of  annoyances  which  his  wife,  his 
children,  and  his  affairs  have  caused  him,  as  these 
last,  in  consequence  of  the  disagreement  of  his  family, 
proceed  very  badly.  His  sons  had  even  committed 
the  greatest  crime  of  which  a  Christian  could  be 
culpable ;  they  had  blasphemed  Christ  to  escape  per- 
secution, and  had  denounced  their  parents.  In  the 
midst  of  these  sorrows,  poor  Hermas  found  out 
Rhoda,  whom  he  had  not  seen  for  many  years.  The 
small  consolation  he  had  in  her  household  rendered 
his  heart  sensitive,  it  would  appear ;  he  began  to 
love  his  old  mistress  like  a  sister.  One  day,  seeing 
her  bathe  in  the  Tiber,  he  presented  his  hand  to  her 
to  help  her  out  of  the  river,  and  said  to  her,  "  How 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  217 

happy  should  I  be  if  I  had  a  wife  as  beautiful  and 
accomplished  I  "  His  thought  did  not  go  further,  and 
such  a  reflection  was  all  the  more  excusable  that  his 
wife  was  bitter,  disagreeable,  and  full  of  defects. 
But  the  severity  of  Christian  morals  was  so  great 
that  the  quiet  Platonic  love  of  Hermas  was  remarked 
in  heaven  by  the  jealous  watcher  of  pure  souls  ;  and 
he  was  to  be  convicted  of  it  as  of  a  crime. 

Some  time  after — in  fact,  as  he  was  going  to  his 
country  house,  situated  at  Cuma,  ten  stadia  from  the 
Campanian  Way,  and  while  he  admired  the  beauty 
of  God's  works,  he  slept  when  travelling.  In  spirit 
he  traversed  rivers,  ravines,  mountain  crevasses,  and, 
returning  to  the  plain,  began  to  pray  to  the  Lord 
and  to  confess  his  sin. 

Now,  while  he  prayed,  the  heaven  was  opened,  and  he  saw  the 
woman  he  had  desired  saying  to  him,  "  Good  day,  Hermas." 
Having  looked  at  her,  "Mistress,  what  are  you  doing  here?" 
asked  he.  And  she  replied,  ''  I  have  been  brought  here  to  accuse 
you  of  your  sins  before  the  Lord."  "  "What !  are  you  ray  accuser  ?  " 
"  No  ;  but  listen  to  the  words  I  am  speaking  to  you.  God,  who 
dwells  in  heaven,  who  has  created  all  things  that  exist  out  of 
nothing,  and  has  made  them  great  for  the  holy  Church,  is  angry 
with  you,  because  you  have  sinned  in  regard  to  me."  "  I  have 
sinned  in  regard  to  you  !"  replied  Hermas  ;  "and  in  what  way? 
Have  I  ever  said  an  improper  word  to  you?  Have  I  not  always 
treated  you  as  my  mistress?  Have  I  not  always  respected  you 
as  my  sister?  Why  do  you  represent  me  falsely,  oh,  woman, 
for  wicked  and  impure  acts?"  And  then,  smiling,  she  said  to 
him,  "  For  a  righteous  man  like  you  desire  alone  is  a  great  sin  ; 
but  pray  to  God  and  he  will  pardon  your  sins  and  those  of  all 
your  household  and  those  of  all  the  saints."  After  she  had  said 
these  words,  the  heavens  were  closed,  and  Hermas  was  afraid* 
*  If  this  is  to  be  locked  on  as  sin,  how  is  it  possible  to  be  saved  ?  " 

As  he  was  plunged  in  these  reflections,  he  saw 
before  him  a  great  armchair  covered  with  white  cloth. 
An  aged  female,  richly  dressed,  having  a  book  in  her 
hand,  came  and  sat  down  in  it.  Having  saluted 
Hermas  by  name,  "  Why  are  you  sad,  Hermas— you 
who    are   usually    so    patient,    equable,   and   always 


218  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

smiling?"  "lam,"  said  Hermas,  "under  the  stroke 
of  reproaches  from  a  very  virtuous  woman,  who  has 
told  me  that  I  have  sinned  regarding  her."  "Ah, 
fie ! "  said  she  to  me,  "  that  this  evil  should  be  on  the 
part  of  one  of  God's  servants — a  man  respectable  and 
well  tried,  the  chaste,  simple,  and  innocent  Hermas ! 
Perhaps,  indeed,  there  has  some  sentiment  taken 
possession  of  your  heart  on  the  subject.  But  that  is 
not  the  reason  God  is  angry  with  you."  The  good 
Hermas  breathed  hard  while  the  old  woman  informed 
him  that  the  true  cause  of  God's  anger  w^as  his  weak- 
ness as  the  father  of  a  family.  He  did  not  restrain 
his  wife  and  children  with  sufficient  severity;  this 
was  the  cause  of  the  ruin  of  his  temporal  affairs. 
The  old  woman  then  read  out  of  her  book  some 
terrible  words  which  Hermas  did  not  remember, 
and  finished  by  some  good  words  which  he  recol- 
lected. 

The  following  year,  at  the  same  period,  as  he  went 
to  his  country  house  at  Cuma,  Hermas  saw  the  same 
old  woman  walking  and  reading  a  little  book.  She 
explained  to  him  the  object  of  the  book,  which  was 
to  exhort  all  men  to  repentance,  for  the  times  of 
persecution  were  drawing  very  near.  A  handsome 
young  man  appeared.  "  Who,  do  you  think,  is  that 
old  woman  from  whom  you  have  received  the  book  ?  " 
^*  The  sibyl  perhaps,"  answered  Hermas,  his  mind  pre- 
occupied by  the  neighbourhood  of  Cuma.  "No  ;  she 
is  the  Church."  "  Why  then  is  she  old  ?  "  "  Because 
she  has  been  first  created,  and  the  world  has  been 
made  for  her."  The  old  woman  enjoined  Hermas 
to  send  two  copies  of  the  book — the  one  to  Clement, 
the  other  to  the  Deaconess  Grapte.  "Clement," 
said  she,  "  will  address  the  book  to  the  cities  with- 
out, for  there  is  in  that  his  special  work.  Grapte  will 
send  it  to  the  widows  and  orphans,  and  you  will  read 
it  in  the  city  for  the  elders  who  preside  over  the 
Church.      This  little  book  is  naturally  the  work  of 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  219 

the  pretended  Hermas.     The  heavenly  origin  of  it  is 
thus  attested." 

The  third  vision  is  more  mysterious.  The  old 
v^^oman  appeared  again  to  Hermas,  after  some  fasts 
and  prayers.  They  arranged  to  meet  in  the  country. 
Hermas  arrived  first ;  to  his  great  astonishment  he 
found  himself  in  front  of  an  ivory  bench  ;  on  the 
bench  was  placed  a  linen  pillow,  covered  with  very 
fine  gauze.  He  began  to  pray  and  confess  his  sins. 
The  old  woman  arrived  with  six  young  people.  She 
made  Hermas  sit  at  her  left  (the  right  being  reserved 
for  those  who  have  suffered  for  God  the  lash,  the 
prison,  tortures,  the  cross,  the  wild  beasts).  Hermas 
then  saw  the  six  young  men  build  a  square  tower, 
emerging  from  the  bosom  of  the  water.  Some 
thousands  of  men  served  them,  and  brought  the 
stones  to  them.  Among  the  stones,  those  drawn 
from  the  channel  of  the  water  were  hewn.  Those 
were  the  most  perfect ;  they  joined  so  well  that  the 
tower  appeared  a  monolith.  Among  the  others,  the 
young  men  made  a  selection.  Around  the  tower  was 
a  pile  of  rubbishy  materials,  either  because  they  had 
defects,  or  because  they  were  not  cut  as  they  should 
have  been. 

"  The  tower,"  said  the  old  woman,  "  is  the  Church — that  is,  I, 
who  have  appeared  to  you,  and  who  shall  appear  to  you  again.  .  , 
The  six  young  men  are  the  angels  created  first,  to  whom  the  Lord 
has  entrusted'the  care  of  developing  and  governing  his  creation  ; 
those  who  carry  the  stones  are  the  inferior  angels.  The  beautiful 
white  stones,  which  are  dressed  so  finely,  are  the  apostles,  bishops, 
doctors,  deacons,  living  or  dead,  who  have  been  chaste,  and  who 
have  lived  on  a  good  understanding  with  the  faithful.  The  stones 
which  are  drawn  from  the  channel  of  the  water,  represent  those 
who  have  suflTered  death  for  the  name  of  the  Lord.  Those  which 
have  been  rejected,  and  remain  near  the  tower,  represent  those 
who  have  sinned,  and  who  wish  to  repent.  If  they  did  this  while 
the  building  was  going  on  they  might  be  employed  in  it ;  but  once 
the  building  is  completed,  they  are  of  no  more  use.  The  stones 
which  are  broken  and  rejected  are  the  wicked  :  there  is  no  more 
place  for  them.     Those  which  are  throAvn  to  a  distance  from  the 


220  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

tower,  which  roll  into  the  road,  and  from  thence  into  the  wilder- 
ness, are  the  unsteady,  who,  after  they  have  believed,  have  quitted 
the  true  path.  Those  which  fall  near  the  water  aid  cannot  enter 
it,  are  the  souls  who  desire  baptism,  but  recoil  before  the  holiness 
of  religion  and  the  necessity  of  renouncing  their  lusts.  As  to  the 
beautiful  white  but  round  stones,  and  which  cannot  in  consequence 
be  used  in  a  square  building,  these  are  the  rich  who  have  em- 
braced the  faith.  When  persecution  comes,  their  riches  and  busi- 
ness make  them  renounce  the  Lord.  They  will  be  useless  to  the 
building  except  when  their  riches  are  curtailed,  just  as  to  make  a 
round  stone  enter  into  a  square  construction,  it  would  be  necessary 
to  cut  off  a  large  portion.  Judge  this  by  yourself,  Hermas ;  when 
you  were  rich  you  were  useless,  now  that  you  are  ruined,  you  are 
useful  and  fit  to  live." 

Hermas  asks  his  informant  as  to  the  proximity  more 
or  less  of  the  consummation  of  the  times.  "  Fool," 
replies  the  old  woman,  "  do  you  not  see  that  the 
tower  is  yet  being  built  1  When  it  shall  be  finished, 
the  end  will  be  ;  now  it  advances  towards  com- 
pletion.    Ask  no  more  I " 

The  fourth  vision  is  again  on  the  Campanian  Way. 
The  Church,  which  has  appeared  up  till  now  throw- 
ing aside  all  the  signs  of  old  age,  and  with  all  the 
marks  of  rejuvenation,  now  appears  in  the  style  of 
a  girl  wonderfully  arrayed.  A  frightful  monster 
(perhaps  Nero)  would  have  devoured  her,  but  for 
the  help  of  the  angel  Thegri,  who  presides  over  the 
fierce  beasts.  This  monster  is  the  herald  of  a  fearful 
persecution  which  is  at  hand.  Some  tortures  shall 
be  passed  through  which  nothing  but  purity  of  heart 
can  enable  one  to  escape.  The  world  shall  perish  in 
fire  and  blood. 

There  is  here  only  the  mise  en  scene,  in  some  sense 
preliminary.  The  essential  part  of  the  book  commences 
with  the  appearance  of  a  venerable  personage  in 
shepherd  dress,  clothed  with  a  white  beast's  skin, 
with  a  scrip  hung  on  his  shoulders,  and  a  crook  in  his 
hand.  It  is  the  guardian  angel  of  Hermas,  clothed  as 
the  angel  of  penitence,  who  is  sent  by  the  venerable 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  221 

angel  to  be  his  companion  all  the  rest  of  his  life. 
This  shepherd,  who  now  takes  speech  till  the  end 
of  the  book,  recites  a  httle  treatise  on  Christian  morals, 
embellished  with  symbols  and  apologues.  Chastity 
is  the  favourite  virtue  of  the  author.  To  think  of 
another  woman  than  one's  own  wife  is  a  crime.  A 
man  ought  to  take  back  his  wife  after  her  first  act 
of  adultery,  expiated  by  repentance,  but  not  after  her 
second.  Second  marriages  are  permissible,  but  it  is 
better  not  to  involve  oneself  in  them.  The  good 
conscience  of  Hermas  shows  in  his  taste  for  gaiety. 
Gaiety  is  a  virtue,  sadness  distresses  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  chases  him  from  a  soul,  for  the  spirit  is  given 
joyfully  to  man.  The  continually  sad  prayer  of  a 
man  does  not  go  up  to  God.  Sadness  is  like  the 
drop  of  vinegar,  which  spoils  the  good  wine.  God 
is  good,  and  the  commandments  impossible  without 
him  are  easy  with  him.  The  devil  is  powerful,  but 
he  has  no  power  over  the  true  believer. 

An  affecting  asceticism  filled  up  the  entire  life 
of  the  Christian.  The  cares  of  business  hindered 
from  the  service  of  God  :  it  was  necessary  to  with- 
draw from  these.  Fasting  is  recommended:  now 
fasting  consists  in  withdrawing  every  morning  to 
one's  retreat ;  in  purifying  one's  thoughts  frooi  the 
remembrances  of  the  world  ;  in  not  eating  all  day 
anything  but  bread  and  water ;  in  saving  what  you 
might  have  spent,  and  giving  it  to  the  widows  and 
orphans,  who  will  pray  for  you.  Repentance  is 
necessary  even  to  the  righteous  for  their  venial 
sins.  Certain  severe  angels  are  charged  with  over- 
looking them,  and  with  punishing  not  only  their  sins 
but  even  those  of  their  family.  All  the  misfortunes 
of  life  were  held  to  be  chastisements  inflicted  by 
these  angels  on  "  penitenital  pastors."  The  penitent 
should  afflict  himself  voluntarily,  should  humble 
himself,  seek  adversities  and  sorrows,  or  at  least 
accept  those   which  come   upon  him,  as  expiations. 


222  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

It  would  seem,  according  to  this  view,  that  penitence 
imposes  on  God — forces  his  hand.  No,  penitence  is 
a  gift  of  God.  To  those  whom  God  foresees  to  be 
going  to  sin  still,  he  does  not  accord  the  favour. 

In  the  weighty  questions  relating  to  public  peni- 
tence, Hermas  avoids  exaggerated  severity  ;  he  has 
comparisons  which  shall  irritate  Tertullian,  and  give 
him,  on  the  part  of  that  fanatic,  the  name  of  "the 
friend  of  adulterers."  He  explains  the  delay  in  the 
appearing  of  Christ  by  a  decree  of  the  mercy  of 
God  which  allows  sinners  the  chance  of  a  last  and 
definitive  appeal.  He  who  has  blasphemed  Christ 
to  escape  punishment,  those  who  have  denounced 
their  brethren,  are  dead  for  ever:  they  resemble 
dry  branches  into  which  the  sap  can  no  longer  ascend ; 
but  yet  is  their  lot  irrevocable  ?  In  certain  cases, 
mercy  is  brought  into  the  author's  mind  ;  for  the 
sons  of  Hermas,  who  were  blasphemers  of  Christ  and 
traitors  to  the  Church,  were  admitted  to  pardon,  for 
their  father's  sake.  Those  who  have  simply  denied 
Jesus  can  repent.  "  As  to  him  who  has  denied 
from  the  heart,"  says  Hermas,  "  I  do  not  know  if 
he  can  live."  It  is  necessary  also  to  distinguish  the 
past  from  the  future.  To  those  who  henceforth 
would  deny  Christ,  there  is  no  pardon  ;  but  those 
who  had  this  misfortune  before  may  be  admitted  to 
penitence.  Sinners  who  have  not  blasphemed  God 
nor  betrayed  his  servants  may  return  to  penitence ; 
but  they  hasten  onwards ;  death  threatens ;  the  tower 
is  about  to  be  finished,  and  then  the  stones  which 
have  not  been  employed  would  be  irrevocably  rejected. 
For  great  crimes,  there  is  but  one  repentance;  for 
the  lesser  faults,  it  is  allowable  to  repent  more  than 
once  ;  but  he  who  is  constantly  falling  is  a  suspected 
penitent,  and  penitence  will  serve  him  in  no  wise. 

A  perfume  of  chastity,  somewhat  unhealthy,  is 
breathed  from  the  vision  of  the  mountain  of  Arcadia, 
and  the  twelve  virgins.      The  fetes  which  are  given 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  223 

in  the  dream,  one  would  say,  were  the  imagination  of 
a  poor  faster.  Twelve  beautiful  girls,  fine  and  strong 
as  caryatides,  stand  at  the  gate  of  the  future  temple, 
and  pass  the  stones  for  the  construction  with  their 
open  arms. 

"Thy  shepherd  will  not  come  to-night,"  they  said  :  "  if  he  does 
not  come  thou  wilt  remain  with  us."  "  No,"  said  I  to  them  ;  "  if 
he  does  not  come,  I  shall  return  home,  and  to-morrow  I  will 
come  back."  "  Thou  shouldst  confide  in  us,"  they  replied  ;  "  thou 
canst  not  leave  us  !  "  "  Where  would  you  have  me  remain  ?  " 
'  Thou  shalt  sleep  with  us  like  a  brother,  and  not  as  a  man,"  they 
answered  ;  "for  thou  art  our  brother  henceforth  ;  we  shall  remain 
with  you,  for  we  love  you  very  much."  I  blushed  to  remain  in 
their  company,  but,  lo  !  she  who  seemed  to  be  their  leader,  began 
to  embrace  me  ;  seeing  which,  the  others  imitated,  causing  me  to 
make  the  tour  of  the  building,  and  to  play  with  me.  And,  as  I 
was  young,  I  began  also  to  play  with  them.  Some  executed 
choruses,  some  danced,  and  others  sang.  As  for  me,  I  walked 
silently  with  them  round  the  building,  and  was  joyful  with  them. 
As  it  was  late,  I  wished  to  return  to  the  house,  but  they  would  not 
allow  me,  and  I  remained  with  them  over  night,  sleeping  by  the 
side  of  the  tower.  The  virgins  had  stretched  out  their  linen  tunics 
on  the  ground,  and  did  nothing  but  pray.  I  prayed  also  with 
them  incessantly,  and  the  virgins  rejoiced  to  see  me  pray  thus  : 
and  I  remained  there  till  next  morning  at  the  second  hour  with 
the  virgins.  Then  the  shepherd  arrived,  and  he  addressed  him- 
self to  them,  "  You  have  not  done  him  any  harm  ?  "  asked  he, 
looking  at  them.  "  My  lord,"  I  said  to  him,  "  I  have  only  had 
the  pleasure  of  abiding  with  them."  "  Of  what  have  you  eaten  ?  " 
said  he.  "  My  lord,"  said  I  to  him  ;  "  I  have  lived  all  the  night 
on  the  words  of  the  Lord."  "  Did  they  receive  you  well  ?  "  asked  he. 
"  Yes,  my  lord,"  said  I  to  him. 

Those  virgins  are  the  "  holy  spirits,"  the  gifts  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  the  spiritual  powers  of  the  Son  of  God, 
and  also  the  fundamental  virtues  of  the  Christian. 
A  man  cannot  be  saved  except  through  these.  The 
guardian  angel  of  Hennas  giving  good  testimony  to 
the  purity  of  his  house — the  twelve  virgins  who 
wish  to  have  extreme  propriety  around  them,  and 
are  repelled  by  the  slightest  defilement,  consent  to 
dwell  there.  Hermas  promises  that  they  shall  always 
have  with  him  a  residence  suited  to  their  tastes. 


224  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

The  author  of  Hermas  is  a  pure  Ebionite.  The 
only  good  use  of  a  fortune  is  to  redeem  slaves — cap- 
tives. The  Christian,  as  to  himself,  is  essentially  a 
poor  man  ;  to  practise  hospitality  towards  the  power, 
the  servants  of  God,  that  washes  out  even  great 
crimes.  "  One  does  not  imagine,"  says  he,  "  what 
torment  is  in  the  punishment;  it  is  worse  than 
prison  ;  so  that  we  even  see  people  committing 
suicide  to  escape  it.  When  such  a  misfortune  occurs, 
he  Avho,  knowing  the  unfortunate  one,  does  not 
save  him,  is  guilty  of  his  death."  The  antipathy  of 
Hermas  to  people  of  the  world  is  extreme.  He  is 
not  pleased  except  when  in  a  circle  of  simple  people, 
not  knowing  what  wickedness  is,  without  differences 
among  themselves,  and  looking  on  one  another's 
affairs,  and  mingling  with  each  other  ;  rejoicing  in 
each  other's  virtues,  always  ready  to  share  with  him 
who  has  nothing  the  result  of  their  labours.  God, 
seeing  the  simplicity  of  the  holy  child-likeness  of 
these  good  workers,  is  pleased  with  their  little 
charities.  Childlikeness  is  that  which,  to  Hermas 
as  to  Jesus,  takes  the  first  place  in  God's  sight. 

The  Christianity  of  the  author  of  Hermas  suggests 
Gnosticism.  He  never  names  Jesus  in  any  other  way 
than  as  Christ.  He  always  calls  him  the  Son  of  God, 
and  makes  him  a  being  before  the  creatures,  a 
counsellor  of  the  plans  on  which  God  made  his 
creation.  At  the  same  time  as  this  Divine  assessor 
has  created  all  things,  he  maintains  all  things.  His 
name  is  beyond  comparison  with  every  other  name. 
Sometimes,  in  the  style  of  the  Elkasaites,  Hermas 
would  conceive  Christ  as  a  giant.  Oftener  still  he 
identifies  him  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  source  of  all 
the  gifts.  Like  the  Gnostics,  Hermas  plays  with 
abstractions.  At  other  times,  the  Son  of  God  is  the 
law  preached  throughout  all  the  earth.  The  dead 
will  receive  the  seal  of  the  Son  of  God,  baptism, 
when  the  apostles  and  the  Christian  preachers,  after 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  225 

their    death,    descend    into    hell    and    baptise    the 
dead, 

A  parable  explains  this  singular  Christology,  and 
gives  it  much  analogy  with  that  which,  later  on, 
constituted  Arianism.  A  master  (God)  plants  in  a 
certain  corner  of  his  property  (the  world)  a  vine 
(the  circle  of  the  Elect).  Leaving  for  a  journey,  he 
has  entrusted  it  to  a  servant  (Jesus),  who  attends^ 
to  it  with  wonderful  care,  roots  out  the  weeds  (blots 
out  the  sin  of  believers),  and  endures  extreme  pain 
(an  allusion  to  the  sufferings  of  Jesus).  The  master 
filled  with  joy  at  his  return  (on  the  day  of  judgment), 
calls  his  only  Son  and  his  Mends  (the  Holy  Spirit 
and  the  angels)  and  communicates  to  them  the  idea  -., 
he  has  of  associating  this  servant  as  an  adopted  son 
in  the  privileges  of  the  only  Son  (the  Holy  Spirit). 
All  consent  to  this  by  acclamation.  Jesus  is  intro- 
duced by  the  resurrection  into  the  divine  circle ;  God 
sends  him  a  part  of  the  feast,  and  he,  remembering 
his  old  fellow-servants,  shares  with  them  his  heavenly 
gifts  (the  charisma).  The  divine  role  of  Jesus  is 
thus  conceived  as  a  sort  of  adoption  and  co-op- 
tation which  places  him  beside  a  former  Son  of  God. 
Moreover,  Hermas  sets  forth  a  theology  analogous 
to  that  which  we  have  found  among  the  Ebionites. 
The  Holy  Spirit  pre-existed  before  all,  and  has 
created  all.  God  chose  him  a  body  in  which  he 
could  dwell  in  all  purity,  and  realises  for  him  a  com- 
pleted humanity  :  it  is  the  life  of  Jesus.  God  takes 
counsel  of  his  Son  and  of  his  angels,  so  that  this 
flesh  which  has  served  the  Spirit  without  reproach 
should  have  a  place  of  rest,  that  this  body  without 
stain,  in  which  the  Holy  Spirit  dwells,  would  appear 
not  to  remain  without  reward. 

All  the  chimeras  of  the  times  came  into  colKsion 
with  each  other,  we  can  see,  without  succeeding  in 
coming  into  agreement  in  the  head  of  poor  Hermas. 
Some  grotesque  theories,  such  as  the  descent  of  the 

P 


226  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

apostles  into  hell,  are  peculiar  to  him.  He  was  an 
Ebionite  in  his  fashion  of  comprehending  the  king- 
dom of  God  and  the  position  of  Jesus.  He  was  a 
Gnostic  in  his  tendency  to  multiply  beings  and  to 
give  angels  even  to  one  who  has  never  existed. 
A  guardian  angel  is  not  enough  for  him ;  each  man 
has  two  angels — the  one  to  care  for  his  well-being, 
the  other  to  seek  his  hurt.  Indeed,  in  many  points 
of  view,  he  is  a  Montanist  in  advance.  He  has  no 
trace  of  episcopacy  about  him.  The  elders  of  the 
Church  are,  in  his  eyes,  all  equal ;  he  appears  to  have 
been  of  the  number  of  those  who  made  opposition  to 
the  growing  institution  which  reversed  the  equality 
of  the  preshyteri.  Hernias  is  an  experienced  pneu- 
matist ;  he  is  an  anchorite,  an  abstainer.  He  shows 
himself  severe  on  the  clergy.  He  complains  of  the 
general  laxity.  The  name  of  Christian,  according  to 
him,  is  not  enough  to  save  one;  a  man  is  saved 
above  all  by  the  spiritual  gifts.  The  Church  is  a 
body  of  saints,  and  it  must  be  disembarrassed  of  all 
impure  alliance.  Martyrdom  completes  the  Christian. 
Prophecy  is  a  personal  gift,  free,  and  not  subjected 
to  the  Church ;  those  who  receive  it,  communicate 
its  revelation  to  the  leaders  ;  but  they  do  not  re- 
quire their  permission.  Eldad  and  Modad  were  two 
prophets  without  mission,  and  beyond  the  authority 
of  superiors.  The  great  objection  which  the  orthodox 
have  to  the  Shepherd,  as  to  the  Montanist  revelations, 
is  that  it  comes  too  late, — "  that  the  number  of  the 
prophets  is  complete  already." 

The  intention  of  the  pseudo-Hermas  has  been,  in 
fact,  simply  and  well  to  introduce  a  new  book  into 
the  body  of  the  sacred  writings.  Perhaps  his  brother 
Pius  lent  himself  as  his  support  in  this.  The  attempt 
of  the  pseudo-Hermas  was  very  nearly  the  last  of 
this  kind ;  it  did  not  succeed,  for  the  author  was 
known;  the  origin  of  the  book  was  too  clear. 
The  writing  pleased  by  what  was   edifying  in  it; 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  227 

the  better  minds  advised  that  it  should  be  specially 
read,  but  not  permitted  to  be  read  in  the  Church, 
nor  as  an  apostolic  writing  (it  was  too  modern),  nor 
as  a  prophetic  writing  (the  number  of  these  scrip- 
tures was  closed).  Rome  especially  never  admitted 
it;  the  East  was  more  easy,  Alexandria  especially. 
Many  Churches  held  it  to  be  canonical,  and  did  it  the 
honour  of  having  it  read  from  the  pulpit.  Some 
eminent  men — Irenseus,  Clement  of  Alexandria — gave 
it  a  place  in  their  Bible,  after  the  apostolic  writings. 
The  more  reserved  conceded  to  it  an  angelic  revela- 
tion and  an  ecclesiastical  authority  of  the  first  order. 
There  had  always  been  some  doubts  and  protesta- 
tions ;  some  even  went  as  far  as  scorn.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  the  Shepherd  was 
no  longer  looked  on  but  as  a  book  for  edification, 
very  useful  for  elementary  instruction.  Piety  and 
art  made  considerable  borrowings  from  it.  The 
Roman  council  of  494,  under  Gelasus,  placed  it 
among  the  Apocrypha,  but  did  not  take  it  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  believers,  who  found  in  it  a  help 
for  their  piety. 

The  work  has  in  some  parts  a  charm ;  but  a 
certain  want  of  taste  and  talent  are  to  be  felt  in  it. 
The  symbolism  so  energetic  and  so  just  in  the  old 
apocalypses,  is  here  feeble,  ill-adjusted,  and  without 
precise  adaptation.  The  vein  of  Christian  prophecy 
is  altogether  weakened.  The  language,  simple,  and 
in  some  sense  flat,  is  nearly  that  of  modern  Greek  as 
to  the  syntax  ;  the  choice  of  expression,  on  the  con- 
trary, is  happy  enough.  It  is  the  eloquence  of  a 
country  cure,  simple  and  grumbling,  mingled  with 
the  cares  of  a  sacristan  concerned  as  to  gauzes, 
cushions,  and  everything  which  serves  to  ornament 
his  church.  Hermas,  in  spite  of  his  temptations  and 
his  pecadilloes,  is  certainly  chastity  itself,  although 
the  way  he  insists  on  this  point  makes  us  smile  a 
little.     To  the  terrible  images  of  the  old  apocalypses, 


228  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

to  the  gloomy  visions  of  John,  and  the  pseudo-Esdras, 
succeed  the  gentle  imaginations  of  a  little  pious 
romance,  at  once  affecting  and  simple,  and  whose 
childish  style  is  not  free  from  insipidity. 

The  prophetic  attempt  of  pseudo-Hermas  was  not, 
moreover,  an  isolated  fact ;  it  belonged  to  the 
general  state  of  the  Christian  conscience.  In  fifteen 
years  the  same  causes  will  produce  facts  of  the  same 
order  in  the  most  remote  districts  of  Asia  Minor, 
against  which  the  episcopacy  will  employ  much 
greater  severity. 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

ORTHODOX  ASIA — POLYCARPUS. 

Although  Asia  was  already  disturbed  by  the  sec- 
tarian spirit,  it  nevertheless  continued  to  be,  next  to 
Rome,  the  province  in  which  Christianity  flourished 
the  most.  It  was  the  most  pious  country  in  the 
world;  the  country  in  which  credulity  offered  to 
the  inventors  of  new  rehgions  the  most  fertile  field. 
To  become  a  god  was  a  very  easy  matter  ;  incarna- 
tions, the  terrestrial  alternations  of  the  immortals, 
were  looked  upon  as  ordinary  events  :  every  kind  of 
imposture  succeeded.  People  were  still  full  of  the 
recollection  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana  —  the  legend 
regarding  him  increased  day  by  day.  An  author, 
who  took  the  name  of  Moeragenes,  wrote  the  most 
marvellous  stories  about  him ;  then  a  certain  Maximus 
of  ^ges  composed  a  book  exclusively  devoted  to  the 
extraordinary  things  which  Apollonius  had  done  at 
uEges  in  Cilicia.  In  spite  of  the  railleries  of  Lucian, 
"the  tragedy,"  as  he  calls  it,  succeeded  astonishingly. 
Later,  about  the  year  200,  Philostratus  wrote  at  the 


THE  OHRTSTIAN  CHURCH.  229 

request  of  the  Syrian  lady,  Julia  Domna,  that  in- 
sipid romance  which  passed  for  an  exquisite  book,  and 
which,  according  to  a  very  serious  Pagan  writer, 
should  have  been  entitled,  "  Sojourn  of  a  God  among 
Men."  Its  success  was  immense.  Because  of  it, 
Apollonius  came  to  be  considered  as  the  first  of 
sages,  a  veritable  friend  of  the  gods,  as  a  god  him- 
self. His  image  was  to  be  seen  in  the  sanctuaries ; 
temples  were  even  dedicated  to  him.  His  miracles, 
his  beautiful  speeches,  afforded  edification  for  all 
classes.  He  was  a  sort  of  Christ  of  Paganism  ;  and 
undoubtedly  the  intention  of  opposing  an  ideal  of 
beneficent  holiness  to  that  of  the  Christians  was  not 
foreign  to  his  apotheosis.  In  the  last  days  of  the 
struggle  between  Christianity  and  Paganism  he  was 
compared  only  to  Jesus,  and  his  life,  as  revealed  in 
his  letters,  was  preferred  to  the  Gospels,  the  work  of 
grosser  minds.  A  Paphlagonian  charlatan,  Alex- 
ander of  Abonoticus,  attained  through  his  assurance 
a  success  no  less  prodigious.  He  was  a  very  hand- 
some man.  He  had  a  superb  presence,  a  most 
melodious  voice,  hair  of  enormous  length,  which  it 
was  pretended  he  had  inherited  from  Perseus,  and 
passed  as  one  who  predicted  the  future  with  the 
frantic  enthusiasm  of  the  ancient  soothsayers.  He 
enclosed  a  small  serpent  in  a  goose's  egg,  broke  the 
egg  before  the  multitude,  and  made  believe  that  it 
was  an  incarnation  of  Esculapius,  who  had  chosen  for 
his  abode  the  city  of  Abonoticus.  The  god  attained 
maturity  in  a  few  days.  The  people  of  Abonoticus 
were  astonished  soon  to  see  on  a  canopy  an  enormous 
serpent  with  a  human  head,  splendidly  clothed, 
opening  and  closing  its  mouth  and  brandishing  its 
sting.  It  was  Alexander  himself  who  was  thus 
decked  out,  he  having  coiled  round  his  chest  and 
about  his  neck  a  tame  serpent,  whose  tail  hung  down 
in  front.  He  had  made  himself  a  head  of  linen, 
which  he  had  besmeared  artistically  enough  ;  and  by 


230  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

means  of  horse  hair  he  made  the  jaws  and  the  sting 
move.  The  new  god  was  called  Glycon,  and  people 
came  from  every  part  of  the  empire  to  consult  it. 
Abonoticus  became  the  centre  of  unbridled  thau- 
maturgy.  The  result  was  an  abundant  manufac- 
ture oi  painted  images,  talismans,  idols  of  silver  and 
of  bronze,  which  had  an  extraordinary  popularity. 
Alexander  was  powerful  enough  to  raise  in  his 
district  a  genuine  persecution  against  the  Christians 
and  the  Epicureans  who  refused  to  believe  in  him. 
He  established  a  cult  which,  in  spite  of  its  wholly 
charlatanistic  and  even  obscene  character,  had  much 
vogue,  and  attracted  a  multitude  of  religious  people. 
But  the  most  singular  thing  of  all  was  that  Romans 
of  high  standing,  such  as  Severian,  legate  of  Cappa- 
docia,  and  Rutilianus,  a  man  of  consular  dignity,  one 
of  the  first  men  of  his  time,  were  his  dupes,  and  that 
the  impostor  succeeded  in  having  the  name  of 
Abonoticus  changed  to  lonopolis.  He  required  also 
that  the  coinage  of  that  city  should  bear  henceforth 
on  the  one  side  the  efiigy  of  Glycon,  on  the  other 
his  own,  with  the  arms  of  Perseus  and  of  Esculapius. 
Actually  the  coins  of  Abonoticus,  at  the  time  of 
Antonine  and  Marcus  Aurelius,  bore  the  figure  of  a 
serpent  with  the  head  of  a  man  with  long  hair  and 
beard,  and  on  the  obverse  the  word  tatkon.  The 
coins  of  the  same  city,  with  the  medal  of  Lucius  Verus, 
bore  the  serpent  and  the  name  mNOnOAElTXiN. 
Under  Marcus  Aurelius  we  shall  see  this  ridiculous 
religion  assume  an  incredible  importance.  It  lasted 
until  the  second  half  of  the  third  century, 

Nerullinus,  at  Troas,  succeeded  in  a  fraudulent 
enterprise  of  the  same  kind.  His  statue  uttered 
oracles,  cured  maladies  ;  sacrifices  were  offered  to  it, 
and  it  was  crowned  with  flowers.  It  was  especially 
the  absurd  ideas  about  medicine,  the  belief  in  medical 
dreams,  in  the  oracles  of  Esculapius,  etc.,  which  kept 
the  minds  of  people  in  that  state  of  superstition.     We 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  231 

are  diim founded  at  seeing  Galian  himself  addicted  to 
similar  follies.  More  incredible  still  is  the  career  of 
that  u3^1ius  Aristides,  religious  sophist,  devout  Pagan, 
a  sort  of  bishop  or  saint,  pressing  pious  materialism 
and  credulity  to  its  utmost  hmits ;  yet  this  did  not 
prevent  him  from  being  one  of  the  most  admired  and 
most  honoured  men  of  his  age.  The  Epicureans  alone 
repudiated  these  follies  unreservedly.  There  were 
still  some  men  of  intellect,  such  as  Celsus,  Lucian, 
Demonax,  who  could  laugh  at  it.  Soon,  however, 
there  shall  be  no  more  such,  and  credulity  will  reign 
mistress  over  a  debased  world.  The  name  of  Atheist 
was  dangerous,  for  it  put  him  to  whom  it  was  attri- 
buted without  the  pale  of  the  law,  and  exposed  him 
even  to  the  scaffold  ;  yet  one  was  an  Atheist  because 
he  denied  the  local  superstitions  and  stood  up  against 
charlatans.  We  can  conceive  how  such  devices  must 
have  been  favourable  to  the  propagation  of  Christi- 
anity. We  do  not  perhaps  exaggerate  much  when 
we  admit  that  nearly  the  half  of  the  population  had 
avowed  Christianity.  In  certain  cities,  such  as 
Hierapohs,  Christianity  was  publicly  professed. 
Some  inscriptions,  still  decipherable,  attest  beneficent 
foundations  which  were  to  be  distributed  at  Easter 
and  at  Pentecost.  Co-operative  associations  of  work- 
men, societies  for  mutual  succour,  were  there  skilfully 
organised.  These  manufacturing  cities,  which  con- 
tained for  a  long  time  colonies  of  Jews,  who  perhaps 
had  carried  with  them  thence  the  industries  of  the 
East,  were  ready  to  receive  every  social  idea  of  the 
age.  Works  of  charity  were  wonderfully  developed. 
Nursing  institutions  and  establishments  for  found- 
lings were  there.  The  labourer,  so  depised  in  ancient 
times,  attained,  through  associatiouj^  to  dignity  of 
existence  and  to  happiness.  That  interior  life,  all 
the  more  active  because  it  was  not  disturbed  by 
politics,  made  of  Asia  Minor  a  field  closed  to  all  the 
rehgious   strifes   of  the   times.      The    directions   in 


232  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

which  the  Church  was  divided  there  were  singularly 
visible ;  for  nowhere  else  was  the  Church  in  such  a 
state  of  fermentation,  or  showed  its  internal  labour 
more  distinctly.  Conservatives  and  Progressists, 
Judeo-Christians  and  enemies  of  Judaism,  Millen- 
arians  and  Spiritualists,  were  there  opposed  as  two 
armies,  who,  after  having  fought,  finished  by  breaking 
their  ranks  and  fraternising  together.  There  had 
lived,  or  was  still  living,  a  whole  Christian  world  which 
did  not  know  St  Paul.  Papias,  the  most  narrow- 
minded  of  the  Fathers  of  his  times ;  Melito,  almost  as 
materialistic  as  he;  the  ultra-conservative  Polycarpus  ; 
the presbi/ieri  who  taught  Irenseus  his  unpolished  Mil- 
lenarianism ;  the  chiefs  of  the  Montanist  movement, 
who  pretended  to  have  witnessed  again  the  scenes  of 
the  first  supper  at  Jerusalem.  There  too  were  to  be 
found,  or  had  come  thence,  the  men  who  had  mostboldly 
launched  themselves  into  innovations — the  author  of  the 
fourth  Gospel,  Cerdo,  Marcion,  Praxeas,  Noetus,  Apol- 
linarius  of  Hierapolis,  the  Aloges,  who,  full  of  aversion 
for  the  Apocalypse,  Millenarianism,  Montanism,  gave 
the  hand  to  Gnosticism  and  to  philosophy.  Spiritual 
exercises  which  had  disappeared  elsewhere,  continued 
to  flourish  in  Asia.  They  had  prophets  there — a  cer- 
tain Quadratus,  and  one  Ammia  of  Philadelphia. 

People  gloried  especially  over  the  considerable 
number  of  martyrs  and  confessors.  Asia  Minor 
witnessed  numerous  executions,  in  particular  cruci- 
fixions. The  different  Churches  made  a  boast  of 
this,  alleging  that  persecution  was  the  privilege  of 
truth  ;  a  matter  that  is  debateable,  seeing  that  all 
those  sects  had  martyrs ;  at  times,  the  Marcionites 
and  Montanists  had  more  than  the  orthodox.  No 
calumny  then  was  spared  by  the  latter  in  order 
to  depreciate  the  martyrs  of  their  rivals.  These 
enmities  endured  to  the  death.  We  see  the  con- 
fessors, while  expiring  for  the  same  Christ,  turning 
their  backs  on  one  another,  in  order  to  avoid  all  that 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  233 

might  resemble  a  mark  of  communion.  Two 
martyrs,  born  at  Eumenia,  namely,  Cains  and  Alex- 
ander, who  were  executed  at  Apamea  Kibotos,  went 
the  length  of  taking  the  most  minute  precautious 
in  order  that  it  might  not  be  thought  that  they  ad- 
hered to  the  inspirations  of  Montanus  and  of  his 
wives.  Such  conduct  shocks  us,  but  we  must  not 
forget  that,  according  to  the  opinions  of  the  times, 
the  last  words  and  the  last  acts  of  martyrs  pos- 
sessed a  high  importance.  Martyrs  were  consulted 
on  questions  of  orthodoxy;  from  the  depths  of  their 
dungeons  they  reconciled  dissentients,  and  gave  cer- 
tificates of  absolution.  They  were  regarded  as  being 
charged  by  the  Church  with  the  role  of  pacificators, 
and  with  a  sort  of  doctrinal  mission. 

Far  from  being  hurtful  to  propagandism,  these  divi- 
sions were  serviceable  to  it.  The  churches  were  rich 
and  numerous.  Nowhere  else  did  the  episcopate  con- 
tain so  many  capable,  moderate,  and  courageous  men. 
We  may  cite  Thraseas,  Bishop  of  Eumenia  ;  Sagaris, 
Bishop  of  Laodicea;  Papirius,  whose  birthplace  is 
not  known ;  Apollinaris  of  Hierapolis,  wlio  was 
destined  to  play  a  considerable  part  in  the  capital 
controversies  which  were  soon  to  divide  the  Churches 
of  Asia ;  Polycrates,  the  future  Bishop  of  Ephesus, 
the  descendant  of  a  family  seven  members  of  which 
before  him  had  been  bishops.  Sardis  possessed  a 
real  treasure,  the  learned  Bishop  Melito,  who 
already  had  prepared  himself  for  the  vast  labours 
which,  later  on,  rendered  his  name  celebrated.  Like 
Origen,  at  a  subsequent  date,  he  was  anxious  that 
his  chastity  should  be  distinctly  attested.  His  erudi- 
tion resembled  much  that  of  Justin  and  of  Tatian. 
His  theology  had  also  a  little  of  the  materialistic 
dulness  which  was  a  characteristic  of  these  two 
doctors ;  for  he  thought  that  God  had  a  body.  He 
appears  to  have  been  reproached  by  Papias  for  his 
apocalyptic   ideas.      Miltiades,    on  his   part,    was   a 


284  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

laborious  author,  a  zealous  polemic,  who  struggled 
against  the  heatheu,  the  Jews,  the  Montanists,  the 
ecstatic  prophets,  and  made  an  apology  for  Chris- 
tian philosophy,  which  he  addressed  to  the  Roman 
authorities. 

The  aged  Polycarpus,  in  particular,  enjoyed  high 
authority  at  Smyrna.  He  was  more  than  an  octo- 
genarian, and  it  would  seem  that  he  was  believed  to 
have  inherited  his  longevity  from  the  Apostle  John. 
He  was  accredited  with  the  gift  of  prophecy :  it  was 
alleged  that  each  word  that  he  uttered  would  come 
to  pass.  He  himself  lived  in  the  belief  that  the 
world  was  full  of  visions  and  of  presages.  Night 
and  day  he  prayed,  including  in  his  prayers  the 
wants  of  the  entire  world.  As  everybody  admitted 
that  he  had  lived  several  years  with  the  Apostle 
John,  people  believed  that  they  still  possessed  in 
him  the  last  witness  of  the  apostolic  age.  People 
surrounded  him  ;  everybody  sought  to  please  him ; 
a  mark  of  his  esteem  was  regarded  as  a  high  favour. 
His  pei'son  was  charming  in  the  extreme.  The 
docile  Christians  adored  him  ;  a  band  of  disciples  and 
of  admirers  pressed  around  him,  eager  to  render  him 
every  service.  But  he  was  not  popular  in  the  city. 
His  intolerance,  the  pride  of  orthodoxy,  which  he  did 
not  pretend  to  dissimulate,  and  which  he  communi- 
cated to  his  disciples,  wounded  deeply  both  the  Jews 
and  the  heathen ;  the  latter  knew  but  too  well  that 
the  disdainful  old  man  looked  upon  them  as  wretches. 

Polycarpus  had  all  the  peculiarities  of  an  old  man  ; 
he  had  a  certain  manner  of  acting  and  speaking 
which  made  a  vivid  impression  on  young  auditors. 
His  conversation  was  fluent,  and  when  he  went  to 
sit  down  on  the  place  which  he  affected — doubtless 
one  of  the  terraces  of  the  slopes  of  Mount  Pagus, 
whence  one  could  see  the  sparkling  gulf,  and  its 
beautiful  surrounding  of  mountains,  it  was  known 
beforehand  what  he  was  going  to  say.     *'  John  and 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  235 

others  who  have  seen  the  Lord  ;  "  this  was  the  way 
in  which  he  always  commenced.  He  would  tell 
about  the  intimacy  he  had  had  with  them,  what  he 
had  heard  them  say  about  Jesus,  and  about  his 
preaching.  An  echo  of  Galilee  was  thus  made  to 
resound,  at  a  distance  of  a  hundred  and  twenty 
years,  upon  the  shores  of  another  sea.  He  repeated 
constantly  that  those  men  had  been  ocular  wit- 
nesses, and  that  he  had  seen  them.  He  made  no 
more  difficulty  than  did  the  Evangelists  in  regard 
to  borrowing  from  the  preshyteri  the  maxims  best 
adapted  to  the  second  century,  at  the  epoch  in  which 
they  were  reputed  to  have  lived.  To  so  many 
other  obscure  traditions  in  regard  to  the  origins  of 
Christianity,  a  new  source,  more  troublesome  than 
the  others,  was  now  about  to  be  added. 

The  impression  which  Polycarpus  produced  was 
not  less  profound.  A  long  time  after,  his  dis- 
ciples would  remind  one  another  of  the  bench 
on  which  he  sat,  his  gait,  his  habits,  his  bodily 
peculiarities,  his  manner  of  speaking.  Every  one  of 
his  words  were  graven  on  their  hearts.  Now  in  the 
circle  which  surrounded  him  there  was  a  young 
Greek,  of  about  fifteen  years  of  age,  who  was  des- 
tined to  play  one  of  the  leading  parts  in  ecclesias- 
tical history.  His  name  was  Irenseus,  who  after- 
wards transmitted  to  us  the  image — doubtless  often 
false,  yet,  at  the  same  time,  in  many  respects  very 
vivid — of  the  last  days  of  the  apostolic  world, 
whose  setting  sun  he  had,  in  a  sort  of  way,  been  a 
witness  of.  Irenasus  was  born  a  Christian,  which 
did  not  prevent  him  from  frequenting  the  schools  of 
Asia,  where  he  acquired  an  extensive  knowledge  of 
the  poets,  and  of  the  profane  philosophers,  especially 
of  Homer  and  of  Plato.  He  had  for  a  young  friend 
and  co-disciple,  if  one  may  so  express  oneself,  near 
the  old  man,  a  certain  Florinus,  who  held  a  some- 
what  important   posit  on    at    court,  and   who,  sub- 


236  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

sequently,  embraced  at  Rome  the  Gnostic  ideas  oi 
Valentimis. 

Poly  carpus,  in  the  eyes  of  every  one,  was  regarded 
as  the  perfect  type  of  orthodoxy.  His  doctrine  was 
the  materialistic  Millenarianism  of  the  old  apostolic 
school.  Far  from  having  broken  with  Judaism,  he 
conformed  to  the  practices  of  the  moderate  Judeo- 
Christians.  He  resented  the  foolish  embellishments 
which  the  Gnostics  had  introduced  into  the  Christian 
teaching,  and  appears  to  have  ignored  the  Gospel 
which  in  his  time  already  circulated  under  the  name 
of  John.  He  held  to  the  simple  and  unctuous 
manner  of  the  apostlic  catechesis,  and  would  not 
have  anything  at  all  added  to  it.  Everything  that 
had  the  resemblance  of  a  new  idea  put  him  beside 
himself.  His  hatred  of  heretics  was  intense,  and 
some  of  the  anecdotes  which  he  delighted  to  tell 
about  John  were  destined  to  make  the  violent  in- 
tolerance which,  in  his  opinion,  formed  the  basis  of 
the  apostle's  character,  appear  in  a  strong  hght. 
When  any  one  dared  to  give  vent  in  his  presence  to 
some  doctrine  analogous  to  that  of  the  Gnostics, 
some  theory  calculated  to  introduce  a  little  of  ration- 
alism into  the  Christian  theology,  he  would  get  up, 
stop  his  ears,  and  take  to  flight,  exclaiming,  "  Oh, 
good  God,  to  what  times  hast  thou  reserved  nie, 
that  I  should  have  to  put  up  with  such  language ! " 
Irenseus  was  permeated  to  a  large  extent  with  the 
same  spirit,  but  the  sweetness  of  his  character  served 
to  correct  it  in  practice.  The  idea  of  holding  fast  to 
the  apostolic  teaching  became  the  basis  of  ortho- 
doxy, in  opposition  to  the  presumption  of  the 
Gnostics  and  Montanists,  who  pretended  to  have 
re-discovered  the  actual  doctrine  of  Jesus,  which,  in 
their  opinion,  had  been  corrupted  by  his  immediate 
disciples. 

Following  the  example  of  Paul,  Ignatius,  and  other 
celebrated  pastors,  Polycarpus  wrote  many  letters  to 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  23? 

the  neighbouriog  Churches  and  to  individuals,  in 
order  to  instruct  and  exhort  there.  Only  one  of 
these  letters  has  been  preserved  to  us.  It  is  ad- 
dressed to  the  faithful  at  PhiHppi,  as  touching  some 
confessors  who  were  destined  to  martyrdom,  who 
chanced  to  be  with  them  on  their  way  from  Asia  to 
Rome.  Like  all  the  apostolic  or  pseudo-apostolic 
writings,  it  is  a  short  treatise  addressed  to  each  of 
the  classes  of  the  faithful  which  composed  the  Church. 
Some  serious  doubts  might  be  raised  against  the 
authenticity  of  this  epistle  if  it  were  not  certain  that 
Irenseus  had  known  it,  and  held  it  to  be  a  work  of 
Poly  carpus.  Without  this  authority,  we  should  rank 
this  short  treatise  with  the  epistles  of  St  Ignatius,  in 
that  class  of  writings  of  the  end  of  the  second  century 
by  which  it  was  sought  to  cover,  by  the  most  revered 
names,  the  anti-Agnostic  doctrines,  and  those  which 
were  favourable  to  the  episcopate.  The  document, 
which  is  somewhat  commonplace,  possesses  nothing 
that  is  specially  befitting  the  character  of  Polycarpus. 
The  imitation  of  the  apostolic  writings,  particularly 
the  false  Epistles  to  Titus  and  Timothy,  the  first  of 
Peter,  and  the  Epistles  of  John,  makes  itself  fully 
felt  in  it.  The  author  makes  no  distinction  between 
the  authentic  writings  of  the  apostles  and  those 
Avhich  have  been  attributed  to  them.  He  evidently 
knew  the  Epistle  of  St  Clement  by  heart.  The  way 
in  which  he  reminds  the  Philippians  that  they  have 
an  epistle  from  Paul,  is  suspicious.  What  singular 
things  all  those  hypotheses  are  I  The  Gospel  at- 
tributed to  John  is  not  cited,  whilst  a  phrase  of  the 
pseudo-Johannine  epistle  is  brought  in.  Docility, 
submission  to  the  bishop,  enthusiasm  for  martyrdom, 
after  the  example  of  Ignatius,  horror  of  heresies, 
which,  like  Docetism,  overthrew  the  faith  in  the 
reality  of  Jesus ;  such  were  the  dominant  ideas  of 
the  author.  If  Polycarpus  is  not  the  author,  we  can 
at  least  say  that  if  he  had  been  resuscitated  a  few 


238  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

years  after  liis  death,  and  had  seen  the  compositions 
which  were  read  as  his,  he  would  not  have  protested, 
and  would  have  even  found  that  people  had  cor- 
rectly enough  interpreted  his  thoughts.  Irenseus  at 
Lyons  may  have  been  deceived  in  this  matter  like 
every  one  else.  If  it  was  an  error,  he  recognised  in 
this  fragment  the  perfect  character  of  the  faith  and 
the  teaching  of  his  master. 

Polycarpus,  in  those  years  of  extreme  old  age,  was 
regarded  as  the  President  of  the  Church  of  Asia. 
Some  grave  questions,  which  at  first  had  barely  been 
stated,  began  to  agitate  these  Churches.  With  his 
ideas  of  hierarchy  and  of  ecclesiastical  unity,  Poly- 
carpus naturally  thought  of  turning  towards  the 
Bishop  of  Rome,  to  whom  almost  the  whole  world 
about  that  time  acknowledged  a  certain  authority 
in  composing  the  divisions  in  Churches.  The  contro- 
versial points  were  numerous  ;  it  appears,  moreover, 
that  the  two  heads  of  the  Churches — Polycarpus  and 
Anicetus — had  some  petty  grievances  against  one 
another.  One  of  the  questions  in  controversy  was  in 
regard  to  the  celebration  of  Easter.  In  the  early 
days,  all  the  Christians  continued  to  make  Easter 
their  principal  feast.  They  celebrated  that  feast  on 
the  same  day  as  the  Jews,  the  14th  Nisan,  no  matter  on 
what  day  of  the  week  that  day  fell.  Persuaded,  accord- 
ing to  the  allegations  of  all  the  ancient  Gospels,  that 
Jesus,  on  the  eve  of  his  death,  had  eaten  the  Passover 
with  his  disciples,  they  regarded  such  a  solemnity 
rather  as  a  commemoration  of  the  supper  than  as  a 
memorial  of  the  resurrection.  When  Christianity 
became  separated  more  and  more  from  Judaism,  such 
a  manner  of  viewing  it  was  found  to  be  much  out 
of  place.  First,  a  new  tradition  was  circulated,  ac- 
cording to  which  Jesus  before  his  death  had  not 
eaten  the  Passover ;  but  died  on  the  same  day  as 
the  Jewish  Passover,  thus  substituting  himself  for 
the  Paschal  Lamb.     Besides  this,  that  purely  Jewish 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHUKCH.  239 

feast  wounded  the  Christian  conscience,  especially 
in  the  Churches  of  St  Paul.  The  great  feast  of 
the  Christians  was  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  which 
occurred,  in  any  case,  the  Sunday  after  the  Jewish 
Passover.  According  to  this  idea,  the  feast  was 
celebrated  on  the  Sunday  which  followed  the  Friday 
next  after  the  14th  of  Nisan. 

At  Rome  this  practice  prevailed,  at  least  from  the 
pontificates  of  Xystus  and  Telesphoros  (about  120). 
In  Asia,  people  were  much  divided.  Conservatives 
hke  Polycarpus,  Melito,  and  all  the  old  school,  held 
to  the  ancient  Jewish  practice,  in  conformity  with  the 
first  Gospels  and  with  the  usage  of  the  Apostles  John 
and  Philip.  It  hence  happened  that  people  did  not 
pray  or  fast  on  the  same  days.  It  was  not  till  about 
twenty  years  after  that  this  controversy  attained  in 
Asia  the  proportions  of  a  schism.  At  the  epoch  in 
which  we  now  are,  it  had  only  just  had  its  birth,  and 
was  no  doubt  one  of  the  least  important  among  the 
questions  about  which  Polycarpus  felt  himself  obliged 
to  go  to  Rome  to  have  an  interview  with  Pope 
Anicetus.  Perhaps  Irenjeus  and  Florinus  accom- 
panied the  old  man  on  that  journey,  which  being  un- 
dertaken during  the  summer,  according  to  the  customs 
of  navigation  of  the  age,  had  nothing  fatiguing  about 
it.  The  interview  between  Polycarpus  and  Anicetus 
was  very  cordial.  The  discussion  upon  certain  points 
appears  to  have  been  somewhat  lively ;  but  they  un- 
derstood one  another.  The  question  of  Easter  had 
not  yet  reached  maturity.  For  a  long  time  before 
this,  the  Church  of  Rome  had  acted  upon  the  prin- 
ciple of  exhibiting  in  this  matter  great  tolerance. 
Conservatives  of  the  Jewish  order,  when  they  came  to 
Rome,  practised  their  rites  without  anybody  finding 
fault  with  them,  or  without  causing  any  one  to  cease 
fraternising  with  them.  The  Bishops  of  Rome  sent 
the  Eucharist  to  some  of  the  bishops  who  followed 
in    this    particular   another   rule.      Polycarpus    and 


240  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Anicetiis  observed  between  them  the  same  rule. 
Polycarpus  could  not  persuade  Anicetus  to  renounce  a 
practice  which  the  Bishops  of  Rome  had  followed  be- 
fore him.  Anicetus,  on  his  part,  forebore  when  Poly- 
carpus said  to  him  that  he  held  by  the  rule  of  John 
and  the  other  apostles  with  whom  he  had  lived  upon 
a  footing  of  familiarity.  The  two  religious  chiefs  con- 
tinued in  full  communion  with  one  another,  and  Ani- 
cetus even  bestowed  on  Polycarpus  an  honour  almost 
unexampled.  He  was  willing,  in  fact,  that  Polycarpus 
should,  in  the  assembly  of  the  faithful  at  Rome, 
pronounce  instead  of  him,  and  in  his  presence,  the 
words  of  the  eucharistic  consecration.  These  ardent 
men  were  full  of  too  passionate  a  sentiment  to  rest 
the  unity  of  souls  upon  the  uniformity  of  rites  and 
exterior  observances.  Later,  Rome  will  display  the 
greatest  pertinacity  to  make  her  rites  prevail  To 
speak  the  truth,  the  point  at  issue,  in  this  matter 
of  Easter,  was  not  merely  a  simple  difference  of 
calendar.  The  Roman  rite,  in  choosing  for  its  base 
the  grand  Christian  festival  the  anniversaries  of  the 
death  and  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  created  the  holy 
week — that  is  to  say,  a  whole  cycle  of  consecrated 
days,  to  the  mysterious  commemorations  during  which 
fasting  was  continued.  In  the  Asiatic  rite,  on  the 
contrary,  the  fast  terminated  on  the  evening  of  the 
14th  Nisan  :  Good  Friday  was  no  longer  a  day  of 
sadness.  If  that  usage  had  prevailed,  the  scheme  of 
the  Christian  festivals  would  have  been  arrested  in 
its  development. 

The  orthodox  bishops  had  still  too  many  common 
enemies  for  them  to  pay  attention  to  pitiful  liturgic 
rivalries.  The  Gnostic  and  Marcionite  sects  inundated 
Rome,  and  threatened  to  put  the  orthodox  Church 
in  a  minority.  Polycarpus  was  the  declared  adver- 
sary of  such  ideas.  Like  Justin,  with  whom  he  was 
probably  in  accord,  he  inveighed  fiercely  against  the 
sectaries.     The  rare  privilege  which  he  possessed  of 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  241 

haviag  seen  the  immediate  disciples  of  Jesus,  gave 
him  an  immense  authority.  He  pleaded,  as  was  his 
custom,  the  teaching  of  the  apostles,  of  which  he 
alleged  he  was  the  only  living  auditor,  and  maintained 
as  a  simple  rule  of  faith  the  tradition  which  ascended 
by  an  unbroken  chain  to  Jesus  himself.  Nor  was  he 
free  from  rudeness.  One  day  he  encountered  in  a 
public  place  a  man  who,  for  a  thousand  reasons, 
should  have  commanded  his  respect — Marcion  him- 
self "  Do  you  not  recognise  me  ?  "  said  the  latter  to 
him.  "  Yes,"  responded  the  passionate  old  man ; 
"  I  recognise  the  first-born  of  Satan."  IrenaBus  can- 
not enough  admire  this  response,  which  shows  how 
very  narrow  the  Christian  mind  had  already  become. 
Jesus  had  much  more  wisely  remarked  :  "  He  who  is 
not  for  you  is  against  you."  Is  one  always  quite 
sure  of  not  being  oneself  the  first-born  of  Satan? 
How  much  more  wise  it  is,  instead  of  anathematising 
at  first  him  who  chooses  a  different  path  from 
oneself,  to  apply  oneself  to  discover  in  what  points 
one  may  be  right,  what  method  he  employs  in  looking 
at  things,  and  if  there  is  not  in  his  manner  of 
observing  some  grain  of  truth  that  one  ought  to 
assimilate. 

But  that  tone  of  assurance  exercises  a  great  effi- 
cacy upon  semi-cultured  men.  Many  Valentinians 
and  Marcionites  saw  Polycarpus  at  Rome,  and  re- 
turned to  the  orthodox  Church.  Polycarpus  hence 
left  in  the  capital  of  the  world  a  venerated  name. 
Irenaeus  and  Florinus  in  all  probability  remained  at 
Rome  after  the  departure  of  their  master  ;  these  two 
minds,  so  different  from  one  another,  were  destined 
to  pursue  paths  the  most  opposite. 

An  immense  result  was  accomplished.  The  rule 
of  prescription  was  laid  down.  The  true  doctrine 
will  henceforth  be  that  which  is  generall}'  professed 
by  the  apostolic  Churches,  which  it  has  always  been. 
Quod  semper  quod  vlnque.     Between  Polycarpus  and 

Q 


242  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

Valentin  the  matter  is  quite  clear.  Polycarpus  held 
to  the  apostolic  tradition;  Valentin,  whatever  he 
may  say  himself,  has  not  got  it.  Individual  Churches 
formed  by  their  union  the  Catholic  Church,  the  ab- 
solute depository  of  the  truth.  He  who  prefers  his 
own  ideas  to  those  of  this  universal  authority  is  a 
sectary,  a  heretic. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

MARTYRDOM  OF  POLYCARPUS. 

Polycarpus  returned  to  Symrna,  as  far  as  we  can 
make  out,  in  the  autumn  of  154.  A  death  worthy  of 
him  awaited  him  there.  Polycarpus  had  always  pro- 
fessed the  doctrine  that  one  ought  not  to  court 
martyrdom  ;  but  many  people  who  were  not  pos- 
sessed of  his  virtue  were  not  so  prudent  as  he.  To  be 
in  the  vicinage  of  the  sombre  enthusiasts  of  Phrygia 
was  dangerous.  A  Plnygian  named  Quintus,  a  Mon- 
tanist  formerly,  came  to  Smyrna  and  attracted  a 
few  enthusiasts,  who  followed  his  example  of  self- 
denunciation,  and  provoked  penal  condemnation. 
Sensible  men  blamed  them,  and  said,  with  good 
reason,  that  tlie  Gospel  did  not  demand  such  a  sacri- 
fice. Besides  these  fanatics,  several  Smyrniote  Chris- 
tians were  also  imprisoned.  Amongst  them  were 
found  some  Philadelphians,  whom  either  accident 
had  conducted  to  Smyrna  or  whom  the  authorities, 
after  arresting  them,  had  caused  to  be  transferred 
to  Smyrna — a  city  of  very  considerable  importance, 
in  which  were  celebrated  great  games.  The  number 
of  those  so  detained  was  about  a  dozen.  According 
to  the  hideous  usage  of  the  Romans,  it  was  in  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH,  ^  243 

stadium,  in  default  of  an  amphitheatre,  that  their 
execution  took  place. 

The  tortures  endured  by  these  unfortunates  were 
of  the  most  horribly  atrocious  character.  Some  were 
so  lacerated  by  whips  that  their  veins,  their  arteries, 
and  the  whole  of  their  intestines  were  exposed. 
Onlookers  wept  over  them,  but  they  could  not  extort 
from  them  either  a  murmur  or  a  plaint.  The  idea 
was  hence  spread  abroad  that  the  martyrs  of  Christ, 
during  the  torture,  were  separated  from  the  body, 
and  that  Christ  himself  assisted  them,  and  spoke 
with  them.  Fire  produced  on  them  the  effect  of  a 
delicious  coolness.  Exposed  to  wild  beasts,  dragged 
over  sand  full  of  jagged  shells,,  they  appeared  in- 
sensible to  pain. 

One  only  succumbed,  and  that  was  rightly  the  one 
who  had  compromised  the  others.  The  Phrygian 
was  punished  for  his  boasting.  In  sight  of  the  wild 
beasts  he  began  to  tremble.  The  men  of  the  pro- 
consul who  surrounded  him  urged  him  to  give  in  ; 
he  consented  to  take  the  oath  and  the  sacrifice. 
In  that  the  faithful  saw  a  sign  from  heaven,  and  the 
condemnation  of  those  who  of  their  own  accord 
sought  for  death.  Such  conduct,  arising  from  pride, 
was  considered  as  a  sort  of  defiance  of  God.  It  was 
admitted  that  the  courage  to  endure  martyrdom 
came  from  on  high,  and  that  God,  in  order  to  demon- 
strate that  he  was  the  source  of  all  strength,  was 
pleased  sometimes  to  show  the  greatest  examples  of 
heroism  in  those  who,  put  to  the  proof,  had  been, 
distrustful  of  themselves,  almost  cowards. 

People  admired  especially  a  young  man  named 
Germanicus.  He  gave  to  his  companions  in  agony 
an  example  of  superhuman  courage.  His  struggle 
with  the  wild  beasts  was  admirable.  The  pro-consul, 
Titus  Statins  Quadratus,  a  philosophic  and  moderate 
man,  a  friend  of  ^Ehus  Aristides,  exhorted  him  to 
take  pity  on  his  own  youth.     He  thereupon  set  him- 


244  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

self  to  excite  the  wild  beasts,  to  call  to  them,  to 
tease  them,  in  order  that  they  might  despatch  him 
more  quickly  from  a  perverse  world.  Such  heroism, 
far  from  touching-  the  multitude,  only  irritated  it. 
"  Death  to  Atheists  I  Let  Polycarpus  be  brought !  " 
was  the  general  cry. 

Polycarpus,  although  blaming  the  foolish  act  of 
Quintus,  had  not  at  first  any  desire  to  flee.  Yielding 
to  eager  solicitations,  he  consented,  however,  to  with- 
draw into  a  small  country  house,  situated  at  no  great 
distance  from  the  city,  where  he  passed  several  days. 
They  came  thither  to  arrest  him.  He  quitted  the 
house  precipitately  and  took  refuge  in  another  ;  but  a 
young  slave,  when  put  to  the  torture,  betrayed  him. 
A  detachment  of  mounted  police  came  to  take  him. 
It  was  a  Friday  evening,  the  22d  February,  at 
dinner-hour,  the  old  man  was  at  table  in  an  upper 
room  of  the  villa  ;  he  might  still  have  escaped,  but 
he  said,  "  Let  God's  will  be  done ! "  He  quietly 
came  downstairs,  spoke  with  the  police,  gave  them 
something  to  eat,  and  asked  only  an  hour  in  which  to 
pray  unmolested.  He  made  then  one  of  those  long 
prayers  to  which  he  was  accustomed,  in  which  he 
included  the  whole  Catholic  Church.  The  night  was 
passed  in  this  manner.  The  following  morning, 
Saturday,  23d  February,  he  was  placed  upon  an  ass, 
and  they  departed  with  him. 

Before  reaching  the  city,  Herod,  the  Irenach,  and 
his  father  Nicetas,  appeared  in  a  carriage.  They  had 
had  some  relations  with  the  Christians.  Alces,  sister 
of  Nicetas,  appears  to  have  been  afiihated  with  the 
Church.  They,  it  is  said,  placed  the  old  man  in  the 
carriage  between  them,  and  attempted  to  gain  him 
over.  *'  What  harm  can  it  be,"  said  they,  "  in  order 
to  save  one's  life,  to  say  Kyrios  Kcesar^  to  make  sacri- 
fice, and  the  rest?"  Polycarpus  was  inflexible.  It 
seems  that  the  two  magistrates  then  flew  into  a 
passion,  said   hard  words  to  him,  and  ejected  him 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  245 

SO  rndely  from  the  carriage  as  to  peel  the  skin  off  his 

He  was  taken  to  the  stadium,  which  was  situated 
about  midway  up  Mount  Pagus.  The  people  were 
already  assembled  there  ;  there  was  a  tumultuous 
noise.  At  the  moment  the  old  man  was  brought  in, 
the  noise  redoubled ;  the  Christians  alone  heard  a 
voice  from  heaven  saying:  "Be  strong,  be  manly, 
Polycarpus  !  "  The  bishop  was  led  to  the  pro-consul, 
who  employed  the  ordinary  phrases  in  such  circum- 
stances. 

"  From  the  respect  that  thou  owest  to  thy  age,  etc., 
sware  by  the  fortune  of  Csesar,  cry  as  every  one  does, 
'  Death  to  Atheists ! ' " 

Polycarpus  thereupon  cast  a  severe  look  upon 
the  multitude  which  covered  the  steps,  and  pointed 
to  them  with  his  hand. 

'     "  Yes,  certainly,"  said  he,  "  no  more  Atheists,"  and 
he  raised  his  eyes  to  heaven  with  a  deep  sigh. 

"  Insult  Christ,"  said  Statius  Quadratus. 

"  It  is  now  eighty-six  years  that  I  have  served  him, 
and  he  has  never  done  me  any  injury,"  said  Poly- 
carpus. "  I  am  a  Christian.  If  thou  wishest  to  know 
what  it  is  to  be  a  Christian,"  added  he,  "  grant  me  a 
day's  delay,  and  give  me  thy  attention." 

"Persuade,  then,  the  people  to  that,"  responded 
Quadratus. 

"With  thee  it  is  worth  one's  while  to  discuss," 
responded  Polycarpus.  "  We  hold  it  as  a  principle 
to  render  to  the  powers  and  to  the  established 
authorities,  through  God,  the  honours  which  are 
their  due,  provided  that  these  marks  of  respect  do 
no  injury  to  our  faith.  As  for  these  people  there,  I 
will  never  deign  to  condescend  to  make  my  apology 
to  them." 

The  pro-consul  threatened  him  in  vain  with 
wild  beasts  and  with  fire.  It  was  necessary  to 
announce  to  the  people  that  Polycarpus  held  pbstin- 


246  TilE  CHRISTIAX  CHURCH. 

ately  to  his  faith.  Jews  and  Pagans  cried  out  for 
his  blood. 

"Look  at  him,  the  doctor  of  Asia — the  father  of 
the  Christians,"  said  the  former. 

"Behold  him,  the  destroyer  of  our  gods,  he  who 
teaches  not  to  sacrifice,  not  to  adore,"  said  the  latter. 

At  the  same  time  they  demanded  of  Philippe  of 
Tralles,  asiarch  and  high  priest  of  Asia,  to  let  loose 
a  lion  upon  Polycarpus.  Philippe  drew  attention  of 
the  multitude  to  the  fact  that  the  games  with  the 
wild  beasts  were  at  an  end. 

"  To  the  fire,  then ! "  So  was  the  shout  which 
went  up  from  all  sides.  The  people  dispersed  them- 
selves amongst  the  shops  and  the  baths  to  search  for 
wood  and  fagots.  The  Jews,  who  were  numerous 
at  Smyrna,  and  always  strongly  incensed  against 
the  Christians,  exhibited  in  this  work,  as  usual,  a 
zeal  wholly  peculiar  to  them. 

While  the  funeral  pile  was  being  made  ready, 
Polycarpus  took  off  his  girdle,  divested  himself  of  all 
his  garments,  and  attempted  also  to  take  off  his  shoes. 
This  was  not  accomplished  without  some  difficulty ; 
for  in  ordinary  times  the  faithful  who  surrouaded 
him  were  in  the  habit  of  insisting  on  relieving  him 
from  that  trouble,  as  they  were  jealous  of  the  privi- 
lege of  touchiug  him.  He  was  placed  in  the  centre 
of  the  apparatus  which  was  used  for  fixing  the 
victim,  and  they  were  about  to  begin  to  nail  him 
to  it. 

"  Leave  me  thus,"  said  he  ;  "  He  who  gives  me  the 
fortitude  to  endure  the  fire  will  bestow  on  me  also 
the  strength  to  remain  immovable  on  the  pile,  with- 
out its  being  necessary  for  you  to  nail  me  to  it." 

They  did  not  nail  him,  they  simply  bound  him. 
So,  with  his  hands  tied  behind  his  back,  he  had  the 
look  of  a  victim ;  and  the  Christians  who  watched 
him  from  afar  saw  in  him  a  ram  chosen  from  amongst 
the  whole  flock  to  be  offered  up  to  God  as  a  burnt- 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  247 

offering.  During  this  time  he  prayed  and  thanked 
God  for  having  included  him  in  the  number  of  the 
martyrs. 

The  flames  then  began  to  rise.  The  exaltation  of 
the  faithful  witnesses  of  this  spectacle  was  at  its 
height.  As  they  were  some  distance  from  the  pile, 
they  might  indulge  in  the  most  singular  illusions. 
The  fire  seemed  to  them  to  round  itself  into  a  vault 
above  the  body  of  the  martyr,  and  to  present  the 
aspect  of  a  ship's  sail  filled  with  the  wind.  The  old 
man,  placed  amidst  that  chapelle  ardent,  appeared  to 
them  not  as  flesh  which  burned,  but  as  bread  being 
baked,  or  as  a  mass  of  gold  and  silver  in  the  furnace. 
They  imagined  that  they  felt  a  delicious  odour  like 
that  of  incense,  or  of  the  most  precious  perfumes 
(probably  the  vine  branches,  and  tLe  light  wood  of 
the  pile  had  something  to  do  with  this).  They  even 
declared  afterwards  that  Polycarpus  had  not  been 
burned,  that  the  confector  was  obliged  to  give  him  a 
thrust  with  a  poignard,  and  that  there  flowed  from 
the  wound  so  much  blood  that  the  fire  was  extin- 
guished by  it. 

The  Christians  naturally  attached  the  greatest 
value  to  their  possessing  the  body  of  the  martyr. 
But  the  authorities  hesitated  to  give  it  to  them, 
fearing  that  the  martyr  would  become  the  object  of 
a  new  worship.  "They  might  be  capable,"  said 
they,  laughing,  "  of  abandoning  the  Crucified  One  for 
him."  The  Jews  mounted  guard  near  to  the  funeral 
pile,  to  watch  what  they  were  going  to  do.  The 
centurion  on  duty  showed  himself  favourable  to  the 
Christians,  and  allowed  them  to  take  these  bones, 
*'more  precious  than  the  most  precious  stones,  and 
than  the  purest  gold."  They  were  calcined.  In 
order  to  reconcile  this  fact  with  the  marvellous 
recital,  they  pretended  that  it  was  the  centurion 
who  had  burned  the  body.  They  put  the  ashes  into 
a   consecrated   place,  where   people  resorted  every 


248  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCa 

year  to  celebrate  the  anniversary  of  the  martyr- 
dom, and  to  incite  one  another  to  walk  in  the  steps 
of  the  holy  old  man. 

The  fortitude  of  Polycarpns  made  a  deep  impres- 
sion on  the  Pagans  themselves.  The  authorities,  not 
wishing  a  renewal  of  similar  scenes,  put  an  end  to 
executions.  The  name  of  Polycarpus  continued  to 
be  celebrated  at  Smyrna,  Avhilst  people  soon  forgot 
the  eleven  or  twelve  Smyrniotes  or  Philadelphians 
who  had  suffered  before  him.  The  Churches  of  Asia 
and  of  Galatia,  at  the  news  of  the  death  of  their 
great  pastor,  asked  the  Smyrniotes  for  the  details  of 
what  had  taken  place.  Those  of  Philomelium,  in 
Phrigian  Parorea,  exhibited,  in  particular,  a  touch- 
ing zeal.  The  Church  of  Smyrna  caused  one  of  the 
elders  to  write  down  the  account  of  the  martyrdom, 
in  the  form  of  a  circular  epistle,  which  was  addressed 
to  the  different  Churches.  The  faithful  of  Philomel- 
ium, who  were  not  far  off,  were  charged  with  trans- 
mitting the  letter  to  the  brethren  at  a  distance. 

The  copy  of  the  Philomelians,  copied  by  a  certain 
Evarestur,  and  carried  by  one  named  Marcion,  served 
subsequently  as  the  basis  of  the  original  edition. 
As  happens  frequently  in  the  publication  of  circular 
letters,  the  finales  of  the  different  copies  were  made 
to  dovetail  the  one  into  the  other.  This  rare  frag- 
ment constitutes  the  most  ancient  example  known  of 
the  Acts  of  Martyrdom.  It  was  the  model  which 
people  imitated,  and  which  furnished  the  form  and 
the  essential  parts  of  those  kinds  of  compositions. 
Only  the  imitations  had  not  the  naturalness  and 
simplicity  of  the  original.  It  seems  that  the  author 
of  the  false  Ignatian  letters  had  read  the  Smyrniote 
epistle.  There  is  the  closest  connection  between 
these  writings,  and  a  great  similarity  of  thought. 
After  Ignatius,  Polycarpus  was  the  person  who 
copied  the  most  of  the  thoughts  of  the  false  letters 
and  it  is  in  the  true  or  supposed  epistle  of  Polycarpus 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  249 

that  he  seeks  his  point  d'appui.  The  idea  that  mar- 
tyrdom is  the  supreme  favour  that  one  ought  to 
seek  after,  and  to  request  of  Heaven,  found  in  the 
Smyrniote  encycHcal  its  first  and  perfect  expression. 
But  the  enthusiasm  for  martyrdom  is  there  kept 
within  the  Hmits  of  moderation.  The  author  of  this 
remarkable  writing  loses  no  occasion  to  show  that 
true  martyrdom,  the  martyrdom  conformable  with 
the  Gospel,  is  that  which  one  does  not  seek  after, 
but  which  one  expects.  The  provocation  appeared 
to  him  so  blameable,  that  he  experiences  a  certain 
satisfaction  in  showing  that  the  Phrygian  fanatic 
yielded  to  the  entreaties  of  the  pro-consul,  and  became 
an  apostate. 

Frivolous,  light-headed,  prone  to  whimsicalities, 
Asia  turned  these  tragedies  into  stories,  and  made  a 
caricature  of  martyrdom.  About  that  time  there 
lived  a  certain  Peregrinus,  a  cynic  philosopher  of 
Parium,  upon  the  Hellespont,  who  called  himself 
Froteus,  and  in  regard  to  whom  people  boasted  of 
the  facility  with  which  he  could  assume  any  char- 
acter, and  undertake  any  adventure.  Among  these 
adventures  was  that  of  posing  as  a  bishop  and 
a  martyr.  Having  begun  hfe  by  committing  the 
most  frightful  crimes,  parricide  even,  he  became 
a  Christian,  then  a  priest,  a  scribe,  a  prophet,  a 
thiasarch,  and  chief  of  the  synagogue.  He  inter- 
preted the  sacred  books,  as  composed  by  himself ; 
he  passed  for  an  oracle,  for  a  supreme  authority,  in 
fact,  on  ecclesiastical  rules.  He  was  arrested  for 
that  offence,  and  put  in  chains.  This  was  the  com- 
mencement of  his  apotheosis.  From  that  hour  he 
was  adored  ;  people  raised  heaven  and  earth  to  affect 
his  escape,  and  manifested  the  greatest  anxiety  in 
regard  to  him.  In  the  mornings,  at  the  prison  gate, 
the  widows  and  orphans  gathered  to  see  him.  The 
notables  obtained,  by  means  of  money,  the  privilege 
of  passing  the  night  in  his  society.      It  was  a  con- 


250  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

stant  succession  of  dinners  and  of  sacred  feasts  ; 
people  celebrated  the  Mysteries  in  close  proximity  to 
him  ;  he  was  called  only  "  the  excellent  Peregrinus," 
and  was  looked  upon  as  a  new  Socrates. 

All  this  took  place  in  Syria.  These  public  scandals 
delighted  the  Christians  ;  they  spared  no  effort  in 
such  a  case  to  render  the  manifestation  a  brilliant 
affair.  Envoys  arrived  from  every  town  in  Asia  for 
the  purpose  of  rendering  service  to  the  confessor, 
and  of  condoling  with  him.  Money  flowed  in  upon 
him.  But  it  was  found  that  the  governor  of  Syria 
was  a  philosopher ;  he  penetrated  the  secret  of  our 
subject,  saw  that  he  had  but  one  idea,  that  of  dying 
in  order  to  render  his  name  celebrated,  and  he  set 
him  free  without  punishment.  Everywhere  in  his 
travels  Peregrinus  revelled  in  abundance,  the  Chris- 
tians surrounded  him,  and  gave  him  an  escort  of 
honour. 

''  These  imbeciles,"  adds  Lucian,  "  were  persuaded 
that  they  were  absolutely  immortal,  that  they  would 
live  eternally,  which  was  the  reason  that  they  held 
death  in  contempt,  and  that  many  amongst  them 
offered  themselves  up  as  sacrifices.  Their  first  legis- 
lator had  persuaded  them  that  they  were  all  brothers, 
from  the  moment  that,  denying  the  Hellenistic  gods, 
they  adored  the  Crucified  One,  their  sophist,  and  lived 
according  to  his  laws.  They  had,  then,  nothing  but 
disdain  for  things  terrestrial,  and  they  held  the  latter 
as  belonging  to  all  in  common  But  it  were  useless 
to  say  that  they  had  not  a  serious  reason  for  believ- 
ing all  this.  If,  then,  some  impostor,  some  crafty 
man,  capable  of  making  use  of  the  situation,  came  to 
them,  they  immediately  laid  their  riches  at  his  feet, 
while  he  laughed  in  his  sleeve  at  the  silly  fools." 

Peregrinus  having  exhausted  his  resources,  sought, 
by  means  of  a  theatrical  death  at  the  Olympian 
Games,  to  satisfy  the  insatiable  desire  that  he  had,  to 
wit:  to  make  people  speak  of  him.     Pompous  and 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  251 

voluntary  suicide  was,  it  is  well  known,  the  great 
reproach  which  the  sage  philosophers  brought  against 
the  Christians. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

CHRISTIANITY    AMONGST    THE    GAUTS — THE    CHURCH 
OF  LYONS. 

For  a  short  time  it  was  believed  that  the  death  of 
Polycarpus  had  put  an  end  to  persecution,  and  it 
would  seem  that  there  was  in  fact  an  interval  of 
calm.  The  zeal  of  the  Smyrniotes  was  but  redoubled  ; 
and  it  is  about  this  time  that  must  be  placed  the 
departure  of  a  Christian  colony,  which,  setting  out 
probably  from  Smyrna,  carried  the  Gospel  with 
a  bound  into  distant  countries,  where  the  name  of 
Jesus  had  not  yet  penetrated.  Pothiniis,  an  old  man 
of  seventy,  probably  a  Smyrniote  and  a  disciple  of 
Polycarpus,  was,  it  seems,  the  chief  of  this  new 
departure. 

For  a  long  time  a  course  of  reciprocal  communica- 
tion had  been  established  between  the  ports  of  Asia 
Minor  and  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  of  Gaul 
The  ancient  traces  of  the  Phocians  were  not  jet 
wholly  effaced.  These  populations  of  Asia  and 
Syria,  for  whom  emigration  to  the  East  possessed  a 
great  attraction,  were  fond  of  ascending  the  Rhone 
and  the  Saone,  carrying  with  them  a  portable  bazaar 
of  divers  merchandise,  or  else  stopping  on  the  banks  of 
these  great  rivers,  at  spots  which  held  out  to  them 
the  hope  of  making  a  living.  Vienne  and  Lyons,  the 
two  principal  towns  of  the  country,  were  mostly  the 
points  aimed  at  by  the  emigrants,  who  went  into 
Gaul  as  merchants,  servants,  workmen,  and  even  as 


252  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

physicians,  whom  the  peasants  amongst  the  Allo- 
broges  and  Segusiavii  did  not  possess  to  the  same 
extent.  The  laborious  and  industrial  population  of 
the  great  towns  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhone  was  in  a 
great  part  composed  of  those  Orientals,  who  are  more 
gentle,  more  intelligent,  less  superstitious  than  the 
indigenous  population,  and,  by  reason  of  their  insinu- 
ating and  amiable  manners,  capable  of  exercising 
upon  the  former  a  profound  influence.  The  Roman 
Empire  had  broken  down  the  barriers  of  national 
sentiment,  which  prevented  different  peoples  from 
coming  into  contact.  Certain  propaganda  which  the 
ancient  Gaulish  institutions,  for  example,  had  laid 
down  from  the  beginning,  had  become  possible. 
Rome  persecuted,  but  did  not  use  preventive  means, 
so  that,  far  from  being  hurtful  to  the  development 
of  an  opinion  aspiring  to  be  universal,  she  aided  it. 
These  Syrians  and  Asiatics  arrived  in  the  East 
not  knowing  any  tongue  except  the  Greek.  Among 
themselves  they  did  not  cast  aside  that  language  ; 
they  made  use  of  it  in  their  writings,  and  in  all 
their  personal  relations;  but  they  quickly  acquired 
Latin,  and  even  Celtic.  Greek,  moreover,  which 
continued  to  be  spoken  in  the  region  of  the  lower 
Rhone,  was  known  to  a  great  extent  in  Vienne  and 
in  Lyons. 

These  Christians  of  Lyons  and  Vienne,  in  setting 
out  from  a  very  limited  region,  Asia  and  Phrygia, 
being  almost  all  compatriots,  and  having  been  in- 
structed by  the  same  books  and  by  the  same  teach- 
ings, afford  an  instance  of  rare  unity.  Their  inter- 
course with  the  Churches  of  Asia  and  Phrygia  was 
frequent :  in  grave  circumstances  it  was  to  these 
Churches  that  they  wrote.  Like  Phrygians  gener- 
ally, they  were  ardent  pietists  ;  but  they  had  not 
that  sectarian  tinge  which  soon  made  the  Montanists 
a  danger,  almost  a  plague,  in  the  Church.  Pothinus, 
who  was   at   first   recoo:nised   as   the  head   of  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  253 

Church  of  Lyons,  was  a  respectable  old  man,  and 
moderate  even  in  his  enthusiasm. 

Attains  of  Pergamos,  who  like  him  was  a  very  old 
man,  appears  to  have  been,  after  the  former,  the  pillar 
of  the  Church  and  the  principal  authority.  He  was 
a  Roman  citizen  and  a  rather  important  personage  : 
he  knew  Latin,  and  was  recognised  in  every  city  as 
the  principal  representative  of  the  little  community. 
A  Phrygian  named  Alexander,  practising  the  medical 
profession,  was  loved  ..nd  known  by  all.  Initiated 
into  the  pious  secrets  of  the  saints  of  Phrygia,  he 
possessed  some  of  the  graces,  that  is  to  say,  the 
supernatural  gifts,  of  the  apostolic  age,  which  had 
been  revived  in  his  native  land.  Like  Polycarpus,  he 
had  reached  the  highest  state  of  the  internal  spiritual 
communion.  It  was,  as  we  see,  a  corner  of  Phrygia 
which  chance  had  transported  bodily  into  Gaul.  The 
continual  accessions  coming  from  Asia  maintained 
that  first  hold  and  conserved  there  the  spirit  of 
mysticism  which  had  been  its  primitive  character. 
As  soon  as  he  was  able,  Irenasus,  wearied  out  perhaps 
by  his  struggles  with  Florimus  and  Blastus,  quitted 
Rome  for  this  Church,  composed  entirely  of  the 
countrymen,  disciples,  and  the  friends  of  Polycarpus. 

Communication  between  Lyons  and  Vienne  waa 
constant :  the  two  Churches,  in  reality,  were  but  one, 
and  in  both  the  Greek  dominated  ;  but  in  both  like- 
wise there  existed  between  the  emigrants  of  Asia 
and  the  indigenous  population,  who  spoke  Latin  or 
Celtic,  the  closest  relations.  The  effect  of  this 
familar  preaching  in  the  house  and  in  the  workshop 
was  rapid  and  profound.  The  women  especially  felt 
themselves  vehemently  carried  away  by  it.  The 
Gaulish  nature,  naturally  sympathetic  and  religious, 
promptly  embraced  the  new  ideas  brought  by  the 
strangers.  Their  religion,  at  once  most  idealistic  and 
most  materialistic,  their  belief  in  perpetual  visions, 
their  habit  of  transforming  lively  and  delicate  sensa- 


254  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

tions  into  supernatural  intuitions,  suited  those  races 
very  well  which  were  carried  away  by  religious  dreams, 
and  which  the  insufficient  worships  of  Gaul  and  Rome 
could  not  satisfy.  The  evangelic  ministry  was  some- 
times exercised  in  the  Celtic  tongue.  It  is  remark- 
able that  amongst  the  new  converts  a  great  number 
were  Roman  citizens. 

One  of  the  most  important  conquests  was  that 
of  a  certain  Vettius  Epagathus,  a  young  noble 
Lyonese,  who,  when  he  had  hardly  been  affiliated 
to  the  Church,  excelled  everybody  in  piety  and  in 
charity,  and  became  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
amongst  them.  He  led  so  chaste  and  so  austere  a 
life  that  he  was,  in  spite  of  his  youth,  compared  to 
the  aged  Zacharias,  an  ascetic  who  was  constantly 
visited  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  Devoted  to  works  of 
mercy,  he  became  the  servant  .of  all,  and  employed 
his  life  to  the  succour  of  his  neighbours  with  ad- 
mirable zeal  and  fervour.  It  was  believed  that  the 
Paraclete  dwelt  in  him,  and  that  he  acted  in  all  cir- 
cumstances under  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
The  recollection  left  by  the  virtues  of  Vettius 
became  a  popular  tradition,  which  pretended  to 
ascribe  to  his  family  the  evangelisation  of  the  neigh- 
bouring countries.  He  was  in  truth  the  first-fruits 
of  Christ  in  Gaul.  Sanctus,  the  deacon  of  Vienne, 
and  especially  the  maid-servant  Blandina,  who  was 
much  inferior  to  him  in  social  dignity,  equalled  him 
in  earnestness.  Blandina,  above  all,  worked  miracles. 
She  was  so  slender  of  body  that  it  was  feared  she 
had  not  the  physical  strength  sufficient  to  confess 
Christ.  She  displayed,  on  the  contrary,  the  day 
when  the  struggle  came,  an  unexampled  nervous 
force  ;  she  wearied  out  the  torturers  for  a  whole 
day ;  and  it  might  be  said  that  at  each  torment  she 
experienced  a  recrudescence  of  faith  and  of  life. 

Such  was  this  Church,  which  in  a  bound  attained 
to  the  highest  privileges  of  the  Christian  Churches 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  255 

of  Asia,  and  stood  out  in  the  centre  of  a  still  semi- 
barbarous  country,  like  a  shining  beacon.  The 
Christians  of  Lyons  and  Yienne,  entrusted  with  the 
Gospel  of  John  and  of  the  Apocalypse,  without 
having  need  of  the  stammering  schools  through 
wdiich  Christianity  had  passed,  were  carried  at  the 
very  first  to  the  summit  of  perfection.  Nowhere 
was  life  more  austere,  enthusiasm  more  serious, 
the  desire  to  create  the  kingdom  of  God  more 
intense.  Chilasmus,  which  had  its  home  in  Asia 
Minor,  was  not  less  loudly  proclaimed  in  Lyons. 
Gaul  hence  entered  the  Church  of  Jesus  through 
a  triumph  hitherto  unequalled.  Lyons  was  desig- 
nated as  the  religious  capital  of  that  country. 
Fourvieres  and  Ainai  are  the  two  sacred  points  of 
our  Christian  origins.  Fourvieres,  at  the  time  of  the 
ecclesiastical  annals  of  which  we  now  speak,  was 
still  a  city  wholly  Pagan;  as  for  Ainai  (x\thanacum) 
it  is  allowable  to  suppose  that  the  Christian  souvenirs 
have  some  reason  for  attaching  themselves  to  it. 
This  suburb,  situated  on  the  islands  at  the  confluence 
of  the  rivers,  down  the  river  from  the  Gaulish  and 
Koman  city,  came  to  be  the  lower  part  of  the  town, 
the  place  where  the  Orientals  disembarked,  and  where 
probably  they  made  some  sojourn  before  settling 
down.  But  this  was  undoubtedly  the  first  Christian 
quarter,  and  the  very  ancient  church  which  is  to  be 
seen  there,  is  perhaps  of  all  the  edifices  in  France 
the  one  which  those  who  love  antique  souvenirs 
ought  to  visit  wdth  the  most  respect.  The  Lyonese 
character  from  this  time  forth  was  sketched  with  all 
the  features  which  distinguish  it — need  of  the  super- 
natural, fervour  of  soul,  a  taste  for  the  irrational, 
perversity  of  judgment,  ardent  imagination,  and  a 
profound  and  sensual  mysticism.  With  this  pas- 
sionate race,  high  moral  instincts  do  not  spring  from 
reason,  but  from  the  heart  and  the  bowels.  The 
origin  of  the  Lyonese  school  in  art  and  hterature 


256  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

was  already  fully  traced  in  that  admirable  letter 
upon  the  frightful  drama  of  177.  It  is  beautiful,  odd 
touching,  sickly.  There  is  mixed  up  in  it  a  slight 
aberration  of  the  senses,  a  something  resembling  the 
nervous  quivering  of  the  saints  of  Pepuza. 

The  relations  of  Epagathus  with  the  Paraclete 
savoured  already  of  the  city  of  spiritualism,  the  city 
in  which,  towards  the  end  of  the  last  century, 
Cagliostro  had  a  temple.  The  anasstheses  of 
Blandiua,  her  familiar  conversations  with  Christ, 
whilst  the  bull  is  tossing  her  into  the  air  ;  the  hallu- 
cination of  the  martyrs,  believing  that  they  saw 
Jesus  in  their  sister,  at  the  end  of  the  arena  bound 
naked  to  a  stake — the  whole  of  this  legend  which  on 
the  one  hand  transports  you  away  from  stoicism  and 
where  on  the  other  one  approaches  the  catalep- 
tic state,  and  to  the  experiences  of  Salpetriere,  seems  a 
subject  invented  for  those  poets,  painters,  thinkers, 
wholly  original  and  idealistic,  who  imagine  themselves 
to  paint  only  the  soul,  but  in  reality  only  dupes  of 
the  body.  Epictetus  deports  himself  better;  he 
has  shown  in  the  battle  of  life  as  much  heroism  as 
Attains  and  as  Sanctus,  but  there  is  no  legend  con- 
cerning him.  The  hegemonikon  alone  says  nothing 
to  humanity.  Man  is  a  very  complex  being.  Odc 
can  never  charm  or  arouse  the  multitude  with  pure 
truth  :  one  has  never  made  a  great  man  out  of  a 
eunuch,  nor  a  great  romance  without  love. 

We  shall  soon  witness  the  most  dangerous  chimeras 
of  Gnosticism  finding  at  Lyons  a  prompt  reception, 
and  almost  by  the  side  of  Blandina  the  victims  of  the 
seductions  of  Marcus  flee  from  the  Church,  or  com^ 
there  to  confess  their  sin,  in  habits  of  mourning.  The 
charm  of  the  Lyonese,  living  in  a  sort  of  tender 
decency  and  of  voluptuous  chastity ;  her  seductive 
reserve,  implying  the  secret  idea  that  beauty  is  a 
holy  thing  ;  her  strange  facility  for  letting  herself  be 
captivated  by  the  appearances  of  mysticism  and  ol 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  257 

pity,  produced  under  Marcus  Aurelius  scenes  which 
might  lead  one  to  think  they  had  taken  place  in  our 
own  times.  Marseilles,  Aries,  and  the  immediate 
environs  received  alike  under  Antonius  a  first  Chris- 
tian preaching ;  Nimes,  on  the  contrary,  appeared 
to  have  resisted  as  long  as  possible  the  cult  which 
came  from  the  East. 

It  was  about  the  same  time  that  Africa  witnessed 
the  formation  of  stable  Churches  which  were  soon 
to  constitute  one  of  the  most  original  parties  of  the 
new  religion.  Amongst  the  first  founders  of  African 
Christianity,  the  mystic  tinge  which  in  a  few  years 
was  denominated  Montanist  was  no  less  strong  than 
amongst  the  Christians  of  Lyons.  It  is  probable, 
nevertheless,  that  the  teaching  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
was  in  this  case  brought  from  Rome  and  not  from 
Asia.  The  Acts  of  St  Perpetua,  and  in  general  the 
Acts  of  the  Martyrs  of  Africa — Tertullian,  and  the 
other  types  of  African  Christianity — have  an  air  of 
fraternity  with  Pastor  Hermas.  Assuredly  the  first 
bearers  of  the  good  news  spoke  Greek  at  Carthage, 
as  they  did  everywhere  else.  Greek  was  almost  as 
widespread  in  that  city  as  Latin  ;  the  Christian  com- 
munity at  first  made  use  of  both  languages  ;  soon, 
however,  the  language  of  Rome  predominated.  Africa 
thus  gave  the  first  example  of  a  Latin  Church.  In  a 
few  years  a  brilliant  Christian  literature  was  produced 
in  that  eccentric  idiom  which  the  rude  Punic  genius 
had  drawn,  b}^  the  twofold  hifluence  of  barbarism  and 
rhetoric,  from  the  language  of  Cicero  and  of  Tacitus. 
A  translation  of  the  works  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments in  that  energetic  dialect  responded  to  the  re- 
quirements of  the  new  converts,  and  was  for  a  long 
time  the  Bible  of  the  AVest. 


258  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 


CHAPTER   XXV. 

THE   STRIFE   AT   ROME — MARTYRDOM   OF   ST 
JUSTIN — FRONTON. 

Distressing  scenes,  the  consequence  of  a  vicious 
legislation,  under  the  reign  of  one  of  the  best  of 
sovereigns,  were  taking  place  everywhere.  Sentences 
of  death  and  the  denial  of  justice  multiplied.  The 
Christians  were  often  in  the  wrong.  Severity,  and 
the  ardent  love  of  the  good,  by  which  they  were 
animated,  carried  them  sometimes  beyond  the  bounds 
of  moderation,  and  rendered  them  odious  to  those 
whom  they  censured.  The  father,  the  son,  the 
husband,  the  wife,  the  neighbour,  irritated  by  these 
prying  spies,  revenged  themselves  by  denouncing 
them.  Atrocious  calumnies  were  the  consequence  of 
these  accumulated  hatreds.  It  was  about  this  time 
that  rumours,  which  up  till  then  had  no  particular 
force,  assumed  a  definite  form,  and  became  a  rooted 
opinion.  The  mystery  attaching  to  the  Christian 
reunions,  the  mutual  affection  which  reigned  in  the 
Church,  gave  birth  to  the  most  fooHsh  notions.  They 
were  supposed  to  form  a  secret  society,  to  have 
secrets  known  only  to  the  initiated,  to  be  guilty  of 
shameful  promiscuity,  and  of  loves  contrary  to  nature. 
Some  spoke  of  the  adoration  of  a  god  with  the  head 
of  an  ass,  others  of  the  ignoble  homage  rendered  to 
the  priest.  One  story  which  received  general  currency 
was  this:  They  presented  to  the  person  who  was 
being  initiated  an  infant  covered  over  with  paste, 
in  order  to  train  his  hand  by  degrees  to  murder. 
The  novice  struck,  the  blood  poured  forth,  all  drank 
eagerly,  they  divided  the  trembling  limbs,  and 
cemented  thus  their  alliance  through  complicity,  and 
bound  themselves  to  absolute  silence.  Then  they 
became  drunk,  lights  were  extinguished,  and  in  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  259 

darkness  they  all  gave  themselves  up  to  the  most 
hideous  embracements.  Eome  was  a  city  much  given 
to  slander :  a  multitude  of  newsmongers  and  gossips 
were  on  the  watch  for  bizarre  tales.  Those  silly  tales 
were  repeated,  passed  off  as  being  of  public  notoriety, 
were  transformed  into  outrages  and  into  caricatures. 
The  serious  part  about  it  was  this,  that  in  the  legal  pro- 
cesses to  which  those  accusations  gave  rise  they  put 
to  the  question  slaves  belonging  to  Christian  houses 
— women,  young  boys — who,  overcome  by  the  tor- 
tures, said  all  that  was  wished  of  them,  and  afforded 
a  judicial  basis  for  many  odious  inventions. 

The  calumnies,  moreover,  were  reciprocal,  the 
Christians  retorting  on  their  adversaries  the  lies 
invented  against  themselves.  These  sanguinary 
feasts,  these  orgies,  were  practised  only  by  the 
Pagans.  Had  not  their  god  set  them  the  example 
in  every  kind  of  vice  ?  In  some  of  the  most  solemn 
rites  of  the  Roman  worship,  in  the  sacrifices  to 
Jupiter  Latiaris,  did  they  not  indulge  in  the  shed- 
ding of  human  blood?  The  accusation  was  in- 
accurate, but,  for  all  that,  it  became  one  of  the  bases 
of  apologetic  Christianity.  The  immorality  of  the 
gods  of  ancient  Olympus  afforded  the  controver- 
sialists an  easy  triumph.  When  Jupiter  himself  was 
only  the  pure  blue  sky,  he  was  immoral  like  nature 
herself,  and  this  immorality  had  no  results.  But 
morals  had  now  become  the  essence  of  religion ; 
people  required  of  the  gods  examples  of  citizen-like 
integrity  ;  examples  like  those  of  which  mythology 
is  full  yielded  only  scandalous  and  irrefutable  ob- 
jections. 

Above  all  things  it  was  the  public  discussions 
between  the  philosophers  and  the  apologist  which 
embittered  the  minds  of  people,  and  led  to  the 
gravest  disturbances.  In  those  discussions  people 
insulted  one  another,  and,  unhappily,  the  parties 
were  not  equal.     The   philosophers  had   a   sort   of 


260  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

official  position  and  state  function  ;  they  received 
emoluments  for  making  profession  of  a  wisdom 
which  they  did  not  always  teach  by  their  example. 
They  ran  no  risks,  and  they  were  wrong  in  making 
their  adversaries  feel  that  by  saying  a  word  they 
could  extinguish  them.  The  Christians,  on  their 
side,  jeered  at  the  philosophers  for  accepting  emolu- 
ments. Those  w^ere  insipid  pleasantries,  analogous 
to  those  which  we  have  seen  exhibited  in  our  times 
against  salaried  philosophers.  "Could  they  not," 
said  people  to  one  another,  "wear  their  beards 
gratis !  "  People  affected  to  believe  that  they  rolled 
in  gold,  treated  them  as  sordid  wretches,  as  para- 
sites ;  people  objected  to  their  doctrine,  on  the 
ground  that  they  knew  how  to  do  without  men  of 
their  manner  of  life — a  life  which  appeared  as  one 
of  opulence  to  some  people  even  poorer  than  them- 
selves were. 

The  ardent  Justin  w^as  at  the  head  of  these  noisy 
altercations,  where  we  see  him,  towards  the  end  of 
his  life,  seconded  by  a  disciple  more  violent  yet 
than  himself,  we  mean  the  Assyrian  Latianus,  a 
man  of  a  gloomy  disposition,  and  filled  with  hatred 
against  Hellenism.  Born  a  Pagan,  he  studied  litera- 
ture extensively,  and  kept  a  public  school  of  philo- 
sophy, not  without  obtaining  a  certain  reputation 
as  a  teacher.  Endowed  with  a  melancholy  imagi- 
nation, Latianus  was  anxious  to  possess  clear  ideas 
upon  things  which  human  destiny  interdicted  him 
from  acquiring.  He  had  traversed,  like  his  master 
Justin,  the  whole  circle  of  existing  religions  and 
philosophies,  had  travelled,  wished  to  be  initiated 
into  all  the  pretended  religious  secrets,  and  at- 
tended the  different  schools.  Hellenism  offended 
him  by  its  apparent  levity  of  morals.  Destitute  of 
all  literary  sentiment,  he  was  incapable  of  appreci- 
ating their  divine  beauty.  The  Scriptures  of  the 
Hebrews  had  alone  the  privilege  of  satisfying  him. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  261 

They  pleased  him  by  their  severe  morality,  their 
simple  style  and  assurance,  by  their  monotheistic 
character,  and  by  the  peremptory  manner  in  which 
they  put  to  one  side,  by  means  of  the  creation  dogma, 
the  restless  cm'iosities  of  physics  and  metaphysics. 
His  contracted  and  dull  mind  had  found  in  them 
that  which  it  wanted.  He  became  a  Christian,  and 
met  in  St  Justin  the  doctor  best  fitted  to  com- 
prehend his  passionate  philosophy  ;  he  attached  him 
closely  to  him,  and  was  in  a  manner  his  second  in 
the  contests  which  he  sustained  against  the  sophists 
and  the  rhetoricians. 

Their  usual  antagonist  was  a  cynic  philosopher 
named  Crescentius,  a  personage,  it  seems,  contemp- 
tible enough,  who  had  made  a  position  at  Rome  by 
his  ascetic  appearance  and  by  his  long  beard.  His 
declamations  against  the  fear  of  death  did  not  im- 
pede him  from  often  menacing  Justin  and  Tatian, 
and  of  denouncing  them  :  "  Ah,  you  own,  then,  that 
death  is  an  evil ! "  said  they  to  him  in  turn,  wittily 
enough.  Certainly  Crescentius  was  wrong  in  abus- 
ing thus  the  protection  of  the  State  to  his  adversaries. 
But  it  must  be  confessed  that  Justin  did  not  in  that 
case  show  him  all  the  consideration  he  deserved. 
He  treated  his  adversaries  as  gourmands  and  im- 
postors ;  he  was  right,  nevertheless,  in  reproaching 
them  with  the  emoluments  they  accepted.  One  can 
be  a  pensioner  without  being,  for  all  that,  a  niggardly 
and  covetous  person.  A  circumstance  w^hich  occurred 
about  that  time  in  Rome,  showed  how  dangerous 
it  is  to  oppose  persecution  to  fanaticism,  even  where 
fanaticism  is  aggressive  and  tantalising. 

There  was  in  Rome  a  very  wicked  household,  in 
which  the  husband  and  the  wife  seemed  to  be  rivals  in 
infamy.  The  wife  was  converted  to  Christianity  by 
one  Ptolemy,  abandoned  her  evils  ways,  made  every 
effort  to  convert  her  husband,  and  not  succeeding 
in  this,  thought  of  a   divorce.     She  was  afraid  at 


262  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

being  accomplice  in  the  impieties  of  him  with 
whom  she  lived  united  by  society,  sitting  at  the 
same  table,  and  sharing  the  same  conch.  In  spite 
of  the  counsels  of  her  family,  she  sent  to  him  the 
notifications  required  by  law,  and  quitted  the  con- 
jugal abode.  The  husband  protested,  entered  an 
action,  pleading  that  his  wife  was  a  Christian.  The 
wife  obtained  several  delays.  The  husband,  irri- 
tated, directed,  as  was  natural,  all  his  anger  against 
Ptolemy. 

He  succeeded  through  a  centurion,  a  friend  of  his, 
in  having  Ptolemy  arrested,  and  whom  he  persuaded 
to  ask  simply  of  Ptolemy  whether  he  were  a 
Christian.  Ptolemy  confessed  that  he  was,  and  was 
put  in  prison.  After  a  very  cruel  detention  he  was 
taken  before  Quintus  Lollius  Urbicus,  prefect  of 
Rome.  He  was  questioned  afresh,  and  made  fresh 
avowals.  Ptolemy  was  condemned  to  death.  A 
Christian,  named  Lucius,  present  at  the  hearing,  in- 
terpellated Urbicus.  "  How  can  you  condemn  a 
man  who  is  neither  adulterer,  thief,  nor  murderer, 
who  is  guilty  of  no  other  crime  than  of  avowing 
himself  a  Christian  ?  Your  judgment  is  indeed  little 
in  accord  with  the  piety  of  our  Emperor,  and  with 
the  sentiments  of  the  philosopher  son  of  Caesar" 
(Marcus  Aurelius).  Lucius  having  avowed  himself 
a  Christian,  Urbicus  condemned  him  likewise  to 
death.  "  Thank  you,"  responded  Lucius ;  "  I  am 
obliged  to  you ;  I  am  about  to  exchange  wicked 
masters  for  a  father  who  is  king  of  heaven."  A 
third  auditor  was  seized  with  the  same  contagious 
fury  for  martyrdom.  He  proclaimed  himself  a 
Christian,  and  was  ordered  to  be  executed  with  the 
two  others.  Justin  was  moved  extremely  by  this 
sanguinary  drama.  As  long  as  Lollius  Urbicus  was 
perfect  of  Rome,  he  could  not  protest ;  but  as  soon 
as  that  function  passed  to  another,  Justin  addressed 
to  the  senate  a  fresh   apology.     His    own  position 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  263 

became  precarious.  He  felt  the  danger  of  having 
for  an  enemy  a  man  like  Crescentius,  who  by  a 
word  could  put  him  out  of  the  way.  It  was  with 
the  presentiment  of  a  near  death  that  he  committed 
to  writing  that  eloquent  defence  against  the  ex- 
ceptional situation  to  which  the  Christians  were 
reduced. 

There  is  something  bold  in  the  attitude  which  an 
obscure  philosopher  takes  before  the  powerful  body 
which  the  provincials  never  designated  otherwise 
than  hiera  syncletos,  "  the  holy  assembly."  Justin 
brings  back  these  arrogant  people  to  a  sentiment  of 
justice  and  of  truth.  The  Sclat  of  their  pretended 
dignity  may  create  an  illusion  in  them  ;  but  whether 
they  like  it  or  like  it  not  they  are  the  brothers  and  the 
fellow-creatures  of  those  whom  they  prosecute.  This 
persecution  is  the  proof  of  the  truth  of  Christianity. 
The  best  among  the  Pagans  have  in  like  manner  been 
persecuted — Musonius,  for  example—but  what  a  dif- 
ference I  Whilst  Socrates  has  not  had  a  single 
disciple  who  has  been  put  to  death  for  him,  Jesus 
has  a  multitude  of  witnesses  —  artisans,  common 
people,  as  well  as  philosophers,  men  of  letters — who 
have  offered  up  their  lives  for  him. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  some  of  the  enlightened 
men  of  which  the  senate  was  then  composed  did 
not  study  these  beautiful  pages.  Perhaps  they  were 
turned  from  them  by  other  passages  less  philosophic,in 
particular  by  the  absurd  demonomania  which  bristled 
in  each  page.  Justin  challenges  his  readers  to  prove  a 
notorious  fact,  which  was,  that  people  brought  to  the 
Christians  the  possessed  whom  the  Pagan  exorcists 
were  unable  to  heal.  He  held  that  to  be  a  decisive 
proof  of  the  eternal  fires  in  which  demons  shall  one 
day  be  punished  along  with  the  men  who  have 
adored  them.  One  page  which  ought  to  shock 
wholly  those  whom  Justin  wished  to  convert,  is  the 
one  in  which,  after  having  established  that  the  violent 


264  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

measures  of  Roman  legislation  against  Christianity 
were  the  work  of  demons,  he  announces  that  God 
will  soon  avenge  the  blood  of  his  servants,  in  annihi- 
lating the  power  of  the  genii  of  evil,  and  in  consuming 
all  the  world  by  fire  (an  idea  that  the  worst  wretches 
made  use  of  for  the  purpose  of  disorder  and  pillage). 
If  God  differs,  said  he,  it  is  only  to  wait  until  the 
number  of  the  elect  be  complete.  Till  then,  he  will 
allow  demons  and  wicked  men  to  do  all  the  evil  that 
they  wish. 

That  which  shows  indeed  what  an  amount  of  sim- 
plicity of  mind  Justin  combined  with  his  rare  sincerity, 
is  the  petition  by  which  he  finishes  his  apology. 
He  requests  that  there  should  be  given  to  his  writ- 
ing an  official  approbation,  in  order  to  correct  the 
opinion  as  to  what  concerns  the  Christians.  "At 
least,"  says  he,  "  such  a  publicity  would  be  less 
objectionable  than  that  which  is  given  every  day  to 
foolish  farces,  obscene  writings,  ballets.  Epicurean 
books,  and  other  compositions  of  the  same  sort, 
which  are  represented  or  are  read  with  entire  free- 
dom. We  see  already  how  much  Christianity  shows 
itself  favourable  to  the  most  immoderate  exercise 
of  authority,  when  this  authority  shall  have  been 
acquired  by  it," 

Justin  touches  us  more,  when  he  regards  death 
Avith  impassability : — 

I  fully  expect,  says  he,  to  see  myself  denoanced  some  day, 
and  put  into  the  stocks  by  the  people  whom  I  have  mentioned,  at 
least  by  this  Crescentius,  more  worthy  of  being  called  the  friend  of 
noise  and  of  vain  show  than  the  friend  of  wisdom,  who  goos  about 
every  day  affirming  of  us  things  of  which  he  knows  nothing, 
accusing  us  in  public  of  atheism  and  of  impiety,  in  order  to  gain 
the  favour  of  an  abused  multitude.  He  must  have  a  very  wicked 
soul  to  decry  us  thus,  since  even  the  man  of  ordinary  morality 
makes  a  point  of  not  passing  judgment  upon  things  of  which 
he  is  ignorant.  If  he  pretends  that  he  is  perfectly  instructed  in 
our  doctrine,  it  must  be  that  the  baseness  of  his  mind  has  pre- 
vented him  from  comprehending  its  majesty.  If  he  understood  it 
thoroughly,  there  is  nothing  which  obliges  him  to  decry  it,  if  it 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHUROH.  265 

be  not  tbe  fear  of  being  himsi  If  regarded  as  a  Christian.  .  .  . 
Understand,  in  fact,  that  I,  having  proposed  some  questions  to  him 
on  the  subject,  have  clearly  perceived,  and  I  have  even  convinced 
him  that  he  knows  nothing  about  them.  And  to  demonstrate  to 
the  whole  world  that  what  I  say  is  the  truth,  I  declare  that  if  you 
are  still  ignorant  of  this  dispute  I  am  ready  to  renew  it  in  your 
presence.  The  latter  would  indeed  be  a  truly  royal  work.  For, 
if  you  were  to  see  the  questions  which  I  proposed  to  hira  and  the 
responses  he  made  to  them,  you  could  not  doubt  his  ignorance, 
nor  his  little  love  for  the  truth. 

The  forecasts  of  St  Justin  were  but  too  well 
justified.  Crescentius  denounced  him  when  he  ought 
to  have  contented  himself  by  refuting  him,  and  the 
courageous  doctor  was  put  to  death.  Tatian  escaped 
the  snares  of  the  Cynic.  We  cannot  enough  regret, 
for  the  sake  of  the  memory  of  Antonine  (or,  if  it  is 
wished,  of  Marcus  Aurelias),  that  the  courageous 
advocate  of  a  cause  which  was  then  that  of  liberty 
of  conscience  should  have  suffered  martrydom  imder 
his  reign.  If  Justin  called  his  rival  "  impostor,"  or 
"  shark,"  as  Tatian  informs  us,  he  deserved  the  full 
penalty  which  attached  to  the  crime  of  proffering  in- 
sults in  public.  But  Crescentius  may  have  been  no 
less  offensive,  and  he  escaped  punishment.  Justin 
was  therefore  punished  for  being  a  Christian.  The 
law  was  formal,  and  the  conservators  of  the  Roman 
common  weal  hesitated  to  abrogate  it.  How  many 
precursors  of  the  future  suffered  similarly  under  the 
reign  of  the  just  and  pious  St  Louis  I 

The  attacks  of  Crescentius  were  but  an  isolated 
circumstance.  In  the  first  century,  some  of  the 
most  enlightened  men  were  wholly  ignorant  of 
Christianity  ;  but  this  is  no  longer  possible.  Every- 
body has  an  opinion  on  the  subject.  The  first 
rhetorician  of  the  times,  L.  Cornelius  Fronton, 
certainly  wrote  an  invective  against  the  Christians. 
That  discourse  is  lost ;  we  do  not  know  in  what 
circumstances  it  was  composed,  but  we  can  form 
some  idea  of  it  from  that  which  Municius  Felix  puts 


266  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

into  the  mouth  of  his  Cascilius.  The  work  was  not 
like  that  of  Celsus,  consecrated  to  exegetical  dis- 
cussion ;  it  was  nothing  more  than  a  philosophical 
treatise.  It  consisted  of  several  considerations  on 
the  man  of  the  world,  and  on  politics.  Fronton 
accepted  without  examination  the  most  calumnious 
rumours  against  the  Christians.  He  believed  or 
affected  to  believe  what  was  told  of  their  nocturnal 
mysteries  and  of  their  sanguinary  repasts.  A  very 
honest  man,  but  an  official  man,  he  had  a  horror  of 
a  sect  of  men  of  no  social  standing.  Satisfied  with 
a  sort  of  vague  belief  in  Providence,  which  he 
capriciously  associated  with  a  polytheistic  devotion, 
he  held  to  the  established  religion,  not  because  he 
alleged  it  was  true,  but  because  it  was  the  ancient 
religion,  and  formed  part  of  the  prejudices  of  a  true 
Roman.  There  is  no  doubt  that  in  his  declamation 
he  only  took  up  a  patriotic  point  of  view,  so  as  to 
preach  the  respect  that  was  due  to  national  in- 
stitutions, and  that  he  only  stood  up  in  his  con- 
servative zeal  against  the  foolish  pretension  of 
illiterate  people  of  mean  condition  aspiring  to 
reform  beliefs.  Perhaps  he  wound  up  ironically  in 
regard  to  the  impotence  of  that  unique  God  who, 
too  much  occupied  to  be  able  to  govern  everything 
well,  abandoned  his  worshippers  to  death,  and  with 
a  few  railleries  upon  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh. 

The  discourse  of  Fronton  appealed  only  to  the 
lettered.  Fronton  rendered  a  very  bad  service  to 
Christianity  in  inculcating  his  ideas  on  the  illustrious 
pupil  whom  he  educated  with  so  much  care,  and 
who  came  to  be  called  Marcus  Aurelius. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  267 

CHAPTER    XXVI. 

THE  APOCRYPHAL   GOSPELS. 

If  we  accept  the  apologists,  such  as  Aristides, 
Quadratus,  and  Justin,  who  addressed  themselves 
to  the  Pagans,  and  the  pure  traditionists,  such  as 
Papias  and  Hegesippus,  who  regarded  the  new  re- 
velation as  essentially  consisting  in  the  words  of 
Jesus,  almost  all  the  Christian  writers  of  the  age 
we  have  just  left  had  the  idea  of  augmenting  the 
list  of  sacred  writings  suscepl^ible  of  being  read  in 
the  Church.  Despairing  of  succeeding  in  this 
through  their  private  authority,  they  assumed  the 
name  of  some  apostle  or  of  some  apostolic  personage, 
and  made  no  scruple  in  attributing  to  themselves 
the  inspiration  which  was  indiscriminately  enjoyed 
by  the  immediate  disciples  of  Jesus.  This  vein  of 
apocryphal  literature  was  now  exhausted.  Pseudo- 
Hermas  only  half  succeeded.  We  shall  see  the 
Reconnaissances  of  pseudo-Clementine  and  the  pre- 
tended Constitutions  of  the  twelve  apostles  equally 
stamped  with  suspicion  in  respect  of  canonicity. 
The  numerous  Acts  of  Apostles  which  were  produced 
everywhere  had  only  a  partial  success.  No  Apoca- 
lypse appeared  again  to  disturb  seriously  the  masses. 
The  success  of  public  readings  had,  up  to  this  point, 
been  the  criterions  of  canonicity.  A  Church  admitted 
such  a  writing  imputed  to  an  apostle  or  to  an  apos- 
tolic personage  to  the  public  reading.  The  faithful 
were  edified.  The  rumour  was  spread  in  the  neigh- 
bouring Churches  that  a  very  beautiful  communica- 
tion had  been  made  in  such  a  community,  on  such  a 
day ;  people  wished  to  see  the  new  writing,  and 
thus,  little  by  little,  this  writing  came  to  be  accepted, 
provided  that  it  did  not  contain  some  stumbling- 
block.     But  as  time  went  on  people  became  critical, 


268  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

and  successes  such  as  those  which  ♦the  Epistles  to 
Titus  and  to  Timothy,  the  Second  Epistle  to  Peter, 
obtained,  were  no  longer  renewed. 

The  fertility  of  evangelical  invention  was  in  reality 
exhausted ;  the  age  of  great  legendary  creation  was 
past ;  people  no  longer  invented  anj^thing  of  import- 
ance ;  the  success  of  psuedo-John  was  the  last.  But 
the  liberty  of  remodelling  was  sufficiently  extensive, 
at  least  outside  the  Churches  of  St  Paul.  Although 
the  four  texts  which  became  subsequently  canonical, 
had  already  a  certain  vogue,  they  were  far  from  ex- 
cluding similar  texts.  The  Gospel  of  the  Hebrews  re- 
tained all  its  authority.  Justin  and  Tatian  probably 
made  use  of  it.  The  author  of  the  Epistles  of  St 
Ignatius  (second  half  of  the  second  century)  cites 
it  as  a  canonical  and  accepted  text.  No  text,  in  fact, 
destroyed  the  tradition  or  suppressed  its  rivals. 
Books  were  rare,  and  badly  preserved.  Dionysius  of. 
Corinth,  at  the  end  of  the  second  century,  speaks  of  the 
falsifiers  of  the  "  Scriptures  of  the  Lord,"  which 
induces  the  belief  that  the  retouching  continued  for 
more  than  a  hundred  years  after  the  compilation  of 
our  Mathew.  Hence  the  indecisive  form  in  the 
sayings  of  Jesus  which  is  to  be  remarked  in  the 
apostolic  fathers.  The  source  is  always  vaguely  in- 
dicated ;  great  variations  are  produced  in  the  cita- 
tions up  to  the  time  of  St  Ireneeus.  Sometimes  the 
words  of  Isaiah  and  Enoch  are  put  forth  for  the 
words  of  Jesus.  There  is  no  longer  any  distinction 
between  the  Bible  and  the  Gospel,  and  some  words 
of  Luke  are  cited  with  this  heading,  "  God  says." 

The  Gospels  thus  were  until  about  the  year  160 
and  even  beyond  that,  private  writings  designed 
for  small  circles.  Each  of  the  latter  had  its  own, 
and  for  a  long  time  individuals  did  not  scruple  to 
complete  and  to  continue  already  accepted  texts. 
The  compilation  had  not  taken  a  definite  form.  The 
texts  were  added  to,  they  were  abridged ;  such  and 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  269 

such  a  passage  was  discussed,  and  the  Gospels  in 
circulation  were  amalgamated,  so  as  to  form  a  single 
and  more  portable  work.  The  oral  transmission,  on 
the  other  hand,  continued  to  play  a  part.  A  multi- 
tude of  sayings  were  not  written  down  :  it  would  have 
been  necessary  to  determine  the  whole  tradition. 
Many  of  the  evangelical  elements  were  yet  sporadic. 
It  was  thus  that  the  beautiful  anecdote  of  the  woman 
taken  in  adultery  circulated.  It  was  made  use  of  as 
best  it  might  in  the  fourth  Gospel.  The  phrase,  "  Be 
good  money  changers,"  which  is  cited  as  being  "  in 
the  Gospel,"  and  as  "scripture,"  did  not  find  a  corner 
anywhere  in  it. 

Certain  abridgements  which  were  threatened  to  be 
made  were  much  more  serious.  Every  detail  which 
represented  Christ  as  a  man,  appeared  scandalous. 
The  fine  verse  of  Luke,  where  Jesus  weeps  over 
Jerusalem,  was  condemned  by  the  uncultured  sectaries 
who  pretended  that  weeping  was  a  token  of  weak- 
ness. The  consoling  angel  and  the  bloody  sweat  on 
the  Mount  of  Olives  provoked  objections  and  analog- 
ous mutilations.  But  orthodoxy,  already  dominant, 
prevented  these  individual  conceits  from  seriously 
compromising  the  integrity  of  the  texts  already 
sacred. 

In  truth,  amidst  all  this  chaos,  order  was  established. 
In  like  manner,  between  opposing  doctrines  an  ortho- 
doxy was  designed,  just  as  from  amongst  a  multi- 
tude of  Gospels  four  texts  tended  to  become  more 
and  more  canonical,  to  the  exclusion  of  others.  Mark, 
pseudo-Matthew,  Luke,  and  pseudo-John,  tended 
towards  an  official  consecration.  The  Gospels  of  the 
Hebrews,  which  at  first  equalled  them  in  value,  but 
of  which  the  Nazarenes  and  the  Ebionites  made  a 
dangerous  use,  began  to  be  discarded.  The  Gospels 
of  Peter  and  the  twelve  apostles  appeared  to  have 
various  defects,  and  were  suppressed  by  the  bishops. 
How  was  it  that  people  did  not  go  still  further,  and 


270  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

were  not  tempted  to  reduce  the  four  Gospels  to  one 
only,  either  by  suppressing  three,  or  in  making  a 
unity  of  the  four,  after  the  manner  of  the  Diatesseron 
of  Tatian,  or  in  constructing  a  sort  of  Gospel  a  priori, 
like  Marcion?  The  honesty  of  the  Church  never 
appears  to  greater  advantage  than  in  this  circum- 
stance. With  a  light  heart  she  placed  herself  in  the 
most  embarrassing  situation.  It  was  impossible  that 
some  of  these  contradictions  of  the  Gospels  should 
have  escaped  observation.  Celsus  was  already  keenly 
alive  to  them.  People  preferred  for  the  future  to  be 
exposed  to  the  most  terrible  objections,  than  that  the 
writings  regarded  by  so  many  persons  as  inspired 
should  be  condemned.  Each  of  the  four  great 
Gospels  had  its  clientele,  if  one  may  thus  express 
oneself.  To  wrench  them  out  of  the  hands  of  those 
who  admired  them  would  have  been  an  impossibility. 
Besides,  it  might  have  resulted  in  condemning  to 
oblivion  a  multitude  of  beautiful  details  in  which  we 
recognise  Jesus,  although  the  order  of  the  narration 
was  different.  The  tetractys  gained  the  day,  except 
in  imposing  upon  ecclesiastical  criticism  the  strangest 
of  tortures — that  of  making  a  text  accord  with  four 
texts  discordant. 

In  any  case,  the  Catholic  Church  no  longer  now 
accords  to  any  person  the  right  to  revise  from  top 
to  bottom  the  anterior  texts,  like  as  has  been  done 
by  Luke  and  pseudo-John.  We  have  passed  from 
the  age  of  living  tradition  to  the  age  of  moribund 
tradition.  The  book,  which  until  now  had  been 
nothing,  became  everything  for  the  people,  who  were 
already  removed  from  the  ocular  witnesses  by  two 
or  three  generations.  Towards  the  year  180,  the 
revolution  will  be  complete.  The  Catholic  Church 
will  declare  the  last  of  the  Gospels  rigorously 
closed.  There  are  four  Gospels.  Irenseus  tells  us 
it  is  necessary  to  have  four,  and  it  is  impossible 
there   can  be  more  than  four ;  for   there   are   four 


THE  OHKISTIAN  CHURCH.  271 

climates,  four  winds,  four  corners  of  the  world, 
calling  each  for  a  defender ;  four  revelations,  that 
of  Adam,  of  Noah,  of  Moses,  and  of  Jesus;  four 
animals  in  the  cherub,  and  four  mystic  beasts  in  the 
Apocalypse.  Each  of  these  monsters  who  for  the 
prophet  of  the  year  69  were  simple  animated  orna- 
ments of  the  throne  of  God,  became  the  emblem  of 
one  of  the  four  accepted  texts.  It  was  admitted 
that  the  Gospel  was  like  the  cherub,  tetramorphous. 
To  put  the  four  texts  in  accord,  to  harmonise  the 
one  with  the  other,  was  the  difficult  task  which 
shall  henceforth  be  pursued  by  those  who  attempt 
to  form  to  themselves  a  conception,  be  it  ever  so 
little  reasonable,  of  the  life  of  Jesus. 

The  most  original  endeavour  to  get  out  of  this 
confusion  was  certainly  that  of  Tatian,  the  disciple 
of  Justin.  His  Diatesseron  was  the  first  essay  at 
harmonising  the  Gospels.  The  Synoptics,  together 
with  the  Gospel  of  the  Hebrews  and  the  Gospels  of 
Peter,  were  the  basis  of  his  labour.  The  text  which 
resulted  from  it  resembled  closely  enough  the  Gospel 
of  the  Hebrews ;  the  genealogies,  as  well  as  every- 
thing which  connected  Jesus  with  the  race  of  David, 
were  wanting  in  it.  The  success  of  the  book  of 
Tatian  was  at  first  very  considerable ;  many  of 
the  Churches  adopted  it  as  a  convenient  rhumS  of 
evangelical  history,  but  the  heresies  of  the  author 
rendered  the  orthodoxy  suspicious  ;  in  the  end,  the 
book  was  withdrawn  from  circulation,  and  the  diver- 
sity of  texts  finally  gained  the  day  in  the  Church 
Catholic. 

It  was  not  thus  with  the  numerous  sects  which 
sprang  up  everywhere.  It  did  not  please  the  latter 
that  evangelical  productions  had  in  a  manner  be- 
come crystalised,  and  that  there  was  no  longer  any 
reason  for  writing  new  lives  of  Jesus,  The  Gnostic 
sects  desired  to  renew  continually  the  texts,  in  order 
to  satisfy  their  ardent  fantasy.    Almost  all  the  heads 


272  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

of  sects  had  Gospels  bearing  their  names,  after  the 
example  set  by  Basilides,  or  after  the  manner  of 
Marcion,  according  to  their  good  pleasure.  That 
of  Apelles  was  drawn,  like  so  many  others,  from 
the  Gospel  of  the  Hebrews.  Markos  drew  from 
every  source  the  authentic  and  the  apocryphal. 
Valentinus,  as  we  have  seen,  pretended  to  ascend 
to  the  apostles  through  personal  traditions  given  to 
him.  People  quoted  a  Gospel  according  to  Philip, 
which  was  greatly  prized  by  certain  sects,  and  an- 
other that  they  called  "  The  Gospel  of  Perfection." 
The  names  of  the  apostles  furnished  a  sufficient 
guarantee  for  all  these  frauds.  There  was  hardly 
one  of  the  twelve  who  had  not  a  Gospel  imputed 
to  him.  No  more  Gospels  were  invented,  it  is  true, 
but  people  wanted  to  know  the  details  which  had 
been  omitted  in  the  four  inspired  ones.  The  infancy 
of  Christ,  in  particular,  excited  the  liveliest  curiosity. 
People  would  not  admit  that  he,  whose  life  had  been 
a  prodigy,  had  lived  for  some  years  as  an  obscure 
Nazarene. 

Such  was  the  origin  of  that  which  is  called  "  Apo- 
cryphal Gospels,"  a  long  series  of  feeble  productions, 
the  commencement  of  which  may  be  safely  placed 
about  the  middle  ot  the  second  century.  It  would 
be  doing  an  injury  to  Christian  literature  to  place 
those  insipid  compositions  on  the  same  footing  with 
the  masterpieces  of  Mark,  Luke,  and  Matthew.  The 
apocryphal  Gospels  are  the  Pourajias  of  Christianity ; 
they  have  for  their  basis  the  canonical  Gospels.  The 
author  takes  these  Gospels  as  a  theme  from  which 
he  never  deviates ;  he  seeks  simply  to  elucidate  and 
perfect  by  the  ordinary  processes  of  the  Hebraic 
legend.  Luke  already  had  followed  the  same  course. 
In  his  deductions  in  regard  to  the  infancy  of  Jesus, 
and  the  birth  of  John  the  Baptist,  he  uses  processes 
of  amplification  ;  his  pious  mechanism  of  mise  en  scene 
is  the  prelude  to  the  apocryphal  Gospels.   The  authors 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  273 

of  the  latter  make  the  utmost  use  of  the  sacred  rhe- 
toric, which,  however,  was  employed  by  Luke  with 
discretion.  Their  innovations  were  few,  imitated, 
and  exaggerated.  They  did  for  the  canonical  Gospels 
what  the  authors  of  the  Post-Homerica  have  done 
for  Homer,  what  the  comparatively  modern  authors 
of  Dionysiacso  or  Argonautics  have  done  for  the 
Greek  epopee.  They  dealt  with  those  parts  which 
the  canonists, for  good  reasons,  neglected;  they  added 
that  which  might  have  happened,  that  which  ap- 
peared probable  ;  they  developed  the  situations  by 
means  of  artificial  reconciliations  borrowed  from  the 
sacred  texts.  Finally,  they  sometimes  proceeded 
by  monographs,  and  sought  to  construct  legend  out 
of  all  the  evangelical  personages  in  the  scattered 
details  which  had  reference  to  them.  They  thus 
limited  themselves  in  everything  to  embroidering 
on  a  given  canvas.  This  was  so  different  from  the 
assurance  of  the  old  evangelists,  who  spoke  as  if  in- 
spired from  on  high,  and  pushed  boldly  forward,  each 
in  his  way,  the  details  of  their  narratives,  without 
troubling  themselves  whether  they  contradicted  one 
another.  The  fabricators  of  the  apocryphal  Gospels 
were  timid.  They  cited  their  authorities  ;  they  were 
restricted  by  the  canonists.  The  faculty  for  creat- 
ing the  myth  was  altogether  wanting  ;  they  could  no 
longer  even  invent  a  miracle.  As  for  details,  it  is 
impossible  to  conceive  anything  more  contemptible, 
more  pitiful.  It  is  the  tiresome  verbiage  of  an  old 
gossip,  the  vulgar  and  famihar  style  of  a  literature  of 
wet  nurses  and  nursery  maids.  Like  the  degenerate 
Catholicism  of  modern  times,  the  authors  of  the  apo- 
cryphal Gospels  on  their  part  descended  to  the  puerile 
side  of  Christianity — the  infant  Jesus,  the  Virgin 
Mary,  Saint  Joseph.  The  veritable  Jesus,  the  Jesus 
of  public  life,  Avas  beyond  them,  and  frightened  them. 
The  real  cause  of  this  sad  debasement  was  a  total 
change  in  the  manner  ot  comprehending  the  super- 

S 


274  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

natural.  The  canonical  Gospels  maintained  them- 
selves with  a  rare  dexterity  on  the  verge  of  a  false 
situation,  which,  however,  was  full  of  charm.  Their 
Jesus  is  not  God,  since  his  whole  life  is  that  of  a 
man.  He  weeps,  and  allows  himself  to  be  moved  by 
pity :  he  is  filled  with  deity  :  his  attitude  is  compat- 
ible with  art,  with  imagination,  and  with  moral 
sense.  His  thauraaturgy,  in  particular,  is  that  which 
is  becoming  to  a  divine  envoy.  In  the  apocryphal 
Gospels,  on  the  contrary,  Jesus  is  a  supernatural 
spectre,  without  bodily  corporeity.  In  him  humanity 
is  a  lie.  In  his  cradle  you  would  take  him  for  an 
infant :  but  Avait  a  little :  miracles  start  up  round 
about  him  ;  this  infant  calls  out  to  you,  "I  am  the 
Logos."  The  thaumaturgy  of  this  new  Christ  is 
material,  mechanical,  immoral ;  it  is  the  juggleries 
of  a  magician.  Wherever  he  passes,  he  acts  as  a 
magnetic  force.  Nature  is  unhinged,  and  beside 
itself  by  the  eifect  of  his  vicinage.  Each  word  of  his 
is  followed  by  miraculous  effects,  "  for  good  as  well 
as  for  evil."  Doubtless  the  canonical  Gospels  were 
sometimes  not  free  from  this  defect  ;  the  episodes  of 
the  swine  of  the  Gergesenes,  of  the  fig-tree  that  was 
cursed,  could  have  only  inspired  in  contemporaries  a 
rather  barren  moral  refl.ection :  "  The  author  of  such 
acts  must  indeed  be  powerful."  But  these  cases  are 
rare,  whilst  in  the  apocryphas  the  true  notion  of 
Jesus,  at  once  human  and  divine,  is  perfectly  obKter- 
ated.  In  becoming  a  pure  deva,  Jesus  lost  all  which 
had  rendered  him  amiable  and  affecting.  People 
were  constrained,  logically  enough,  to  deny  his  per- 
sonal identity,  to  make  of  him  an  intermittent  spectre, 
which  showed  itself  to  his  disciples  now  young,  now 
old,  now  an  infant,  now  an  old  man,  now  tall,  now 
short,  and  sometimes  so  tall  that  its  head  touched 
the  sky. 

The  oldest  and  the  least  objectionable  of  these 
insipid  rhapsodies  is  the  narrative  of  the  birth  of 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  275 

Mary,  of  her  marriage,  of  the  birth  of  Jesus,  reputed 
to  be  written  by  a  certain  James,  a  narrative  to  which 
has  been  given  the  erroneous  title  of  Protevangel  of 
James.  A  Gnostic  book,  the  Genua  Marias,  which 
appears  to  have  been  known  to  St  Justin,  ma}^ 
have  served  as  the  first  foundation  of  it.  No  book 
has  had  so  much  importance  as  the  latter  as  regards 
the  history  of  the  Christian  festivals  and  Christian 
art.  The  parents  of  the  Virgin,  Anne  and  Joachim ; 
the  Presentation  of  the  Virgin  in  the  Temple,  and 
the  idea  that  she  had  been  brought  up  as  if  in  a 
convent ;  the  marriage  of  the  Virgin  ;  the  meeting  of 
the  widowers,  the  circumstance  of  the  miraculous 
wands,  the  picture  of  which,  in  certain  parts,  has 
been  sketched  so  admirably.  The  whole  of  this 
comes  from  this  curious  writing.  The  Greek  Church 
regarded  it  as  semi-inspired,  and  admitted  it  in  the 
public  readings  in  the  churches,  at  the  feasts  of  St 
Joachim,  of  St  Anne,  of  the  Conception,  of  the 
Nativity,  of  the  Presentation  of  the  Virgin.  Its 
Hebrew  colouring  is  still  sufficiently  distinct.  Some 
pictures  of  the  manners  of  the  Jews  recall  at  times 
the  Book  of  Tobias.  There  are  distinct  traces  of 
Ebionite  Judeo-Christianity  and  of  Docetism ;  in  it 
marriage  is  almost  reprobated. 

Many  passages  of  that  singular  book  are  not 
destitute  of  grace,  nor  even  of  a  certain  naivety. 
The  author  applies  to  the  birth  of  Mary,  and  to  all 
the  circumstances  of  the  infancy  of  Jesus,  the  methods 
of  narration  the  germ  of  which  was  already  to  be 
found  in  Luke  and  Matthew.  The  anecdotes  in 
regard  to  the  infancy  of  Jesus  in  Luke  and  in 
Matthew  are  ingenious  imitations  of  what  is  recounted 
in  the  ancient  books  and  in  the  modern  agadas  about 
the  birth  of  Samuel,  Sam.son,  Moses,  Abraham,  and 
Isaac.  In  this  class  of  writings  there  was  an  habi- 
tual introduction  giving  the  history  of  all  the  great 
men,  several  species   of  commonplaces,  always  the 


276  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

same,  and  topics  of  pious  invention.  The  infant 
destined  to  play  an  extraordinary  part  must  be  born 
of  aged  parents  for  long  sterile,  "  so  as  to  demon- 
strate that  the  child  was  a  favour  bestowed  by  God, 
and  not  the  fruit  of  an  unbridled  passion."  It  was 
held  that  the  Divine  power  shone  out  to  more  advan- 
tage when  human  agency  was  absent.  The  result 
of  long  expectation  and  of  assiduous  prayers,  the 
future  great  man  was  announced  by  an  angel,  at  some 
solemn  moment.  It  was  thus  in  the  case  of  Samson 
and  of  Samuel.  According  to  Luke,  the  birth  of 
John  the  Baptist  occurred  under  such  conditions. 
It  is  believed  that  it  was  the  same  in  the  case  of 
Mary.  Her  birth,  like  that  of  John  and  of  Jesus, 
was  preceded  by  an  annunciation,  accompanied  with 
prayers  and  with  canticles.  Anne  and  Joachim  are 
the  exact  counterparts  of  Elizabeth  and  Zacharias. 
Some  go  even  beyond  that,  and  embellish  the  in- 
fancy of  Anne.  This  retrospective  application  of  the 
methods  of  evangelical  legend  becomes  a  fruitful, 
source  of  fables  responding  to  the  requirements,  con- 
stantly springing  up,  of  Christian  piety.  People 
could  no  longer  consider  Mary,  Joseph,  and  their 
ancestors  as  ordinary  personages.  The  cult  of  the 
Virgin,  which  later  on  attained  so  enormous  propor- 
tions, had  already  made  invasions  in  every  quarter. 

A  multitude  of  details,  sometimes  puerile  yet 
always  conforming  to  the  sentiment  of  the  times,  or 
susceptible  of  removing  the  difficulties  which  the 
ancient  Gospels  presented,  were  disseminated  by 
means  of  these  compositions,  at  first  not  avowed,  or 
even  condemned,  but  which  finished  soon  in  being 
right.  The  case  of  the  nativity  was  completed ;  the 
ox  and  the  ass  take  definitely  their  places  in  it. 
Joseph  is  depicted  as  a  widower  four  score  years 
old,  the  simple  protector  of  Mary.  We  could  have 
wished  that  the  latter  had  remained  a  virgin  after 
as  well  as  before  the  birth  of  Jesus.     She  was  made 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  277 

to  be  of  a  royal  and  sacerdotal  race,  being  descended 
at  once  from  David  and  from  Levi.  People  cannot 
represent  to  themselves  that  she  died  like  a  simple 
woman.  They  already  speak  of  her  ascension  to 
heaven.  The  assumption  was  created,  like  so  many 
other  festivals,  by  the  cycle  of  apocryphas. 

An  accent  of  lively  piety  distinguishes  all  the 
compositions  of  which  we  have  just  been  speaking, 
whilst  one  cannot  read  without  being  disgusted  the 
Gospel  of  Thomas — an  insipid  work,  which  does  as 
little  honom-  as  possible  to  the  Christian  family,  very 
old  though  it  be,  which  produced  it.  It  is  the  point 
of  departure  of  these  flat  merveilles  in  regard  to  the 
infancy  of  Jesus  which,  by  reason  of  their  very  dull- 
ness had  a  success  so  disastrous  in  the  East.  In 
them  Jesus  figures  as  an  enfant  terrible,  wicked, 
rancorous,  the  dread  of  his  parents  and  of  every- 
body. He  kills  his  companions,  transforms  them 
into  he-goats,  blinds  their  parents,  confounds  his 
masters,  demonstrates  to  them  that  they  knoAv 
nothing  about  the  mysteries  of  the  alphabet,  and 
forces  them  to  ask  pardon  of  him.  People  flee  from 
him  as  from  a  pestilence.  Joseph  in  vain  beseeches 
him  to  remain  quiet.  This  grotesque  image  of  an 
omnipotent  and  omniscient  gamin  is  one  of  the 
greatest  caricatures  that  was  ever  invented,  and 
certainly  those  who  wrote  it  had  too  little  wit  for 
one  to  credit  them  with  the  intention  of  having 
meant  it  as  a  piece  of  irony.  It  was  not  without  a 
theological  design,  that,  contrary  to  the  perfect 
system  of  tact  of  the  old  evangeHsts  as  regards  the 
thirty  years  of  obscure  life,  it  was  desired  to  be 
shown  that  the  divine  nature  in  Jesus  was  never 
idle,  and  that  he  continually  performed  miracles. 
Everything  which  made  the  life  of  Jesus  a  human 
life  was  vexatious.  "  This  infant  was  not  a  terres- 
trial being,"  says  Zachaaus  of  him  ;  he  can  subdue 
fire;  perhaps  he  existed  before  the  creation   of  tlie 


278  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

world.  He  is  either  something  great,  or  a  god,  or 
an  angel,  or  one  I  don't  know  what.  This  deplorable 
Gospel  appears  to  be  the  work  of  the  Marcosians. 
The  Nessenes  and  the  Manicheans  appropriated  it  to 
themselves,  and  spread  it  over  the  whole  of  Asia. 
The  inept  Oriental  Gospel,  known  by  the  name  of 
the  Gospel  of  the  Infancy,  brought  into  vogue 
especially  by  the  Nestorians  of  Persia,  is  only,  in 
act,  an  amplification  of  the  Gospel  according  to 
Thomas.  It  passes  in  all  the  East  as  the  work  of 
Peter,  and  as  the  Gospel  par  excellence.  If  India 
knew  any  Gospel,  it  was  this  one.  If  Krechnaism 
embraced  any  Christian  element,  it  is  from  this 
source  that  it  came.  The  Jesus  of  whom  Mahomet 
heard  speak,  is  that  of  the  puerile  Gospels,  a  fantastic 
Jesus,  a  spectre  proving  his  superhuman  nature  by 
means  of  an  extravagant  thaumaturgy. 

The  passion  of  Jesus  owed  likewise  its  develop- 
ment to  a  cycle  of  legends.  The  pretended  Acts  of 
Pilate  were  the  framework  which  was  made  use  of 
in  which  to  group  this  order  of  ideas,  with  which  were 
readily  associated  the  better  polemics  against  the 
Jews.  It  is  only  in  the  fourth  century  that  the 
episodes,  of  an  almost  epic  character,  which  were 
supposed  to  have  taken  place  in  the  descent  of  Jesus 
to  Hades,  were  put  into  writing.  Later,  these 
legends  in  regard  to  the  subterranean  life  of  Jesus 
were  joined  to  the  false  Acts  of  Pilate,  and  formed 
the  celebrated  work  called  the  Gospel  of  Nicodemus. 

This  base  Christian  literature,  borrowed  from  a 
wholly  popular  state  of  mind,  was  in  general  the 
work  of  the  Judaising  and  Gnostic  sects.  The 
disciples  of  St  Paul  had  no  part  in  them.  It  was 
created,  to  all  appearances,  in  Syria.  The  apocry- 
phas  of  Egyptian  origin,  Tlie  History  of  Joseph  the 
Carpenter,  for  example,  are  more  recent.  Although  of 
humble  origin,  and  tainted  with  an  ignorance  truly 
sordid,  the  apocryphal  Gospels  assumed  very  early 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  279 

an  importance  of  the  first  order.  They  pleased  the 
multitude,  offered  rich  themes  for  preaching  on, 
enlarged  considerably  the  circle  of  the  evangelic 
personnel — St  Anne,  St  Joachim,  the  Veronica,  St 
Longinus — from  that  somewhat  tainted  source.  The 
most  beautiful  Christian  festivals — the  Assumption, 
the  Presentation  of  the  Virgin — have  no  basis  in 
the  canonical  Gospels  ;  but  they  have  in  the  apocry- 
phas.  The  rich  chasing  of  the  legends  which  have 
made  Christmas  the  jewel  of  the  Christian  year, 
is  drawn  for  the  most  part  from  the  apocryphas. 
The  same  literature  has  created  the  infant  Jesus. 
The  devotion  to  the  Virgin  finds  there  almost  all 
its  arguments.  The  importance  of  St  Joseph  pro- 
ceeds entirely  from  them.  Christian  art  finally  owes 
to  these  compositions— very  feeble,  from  a  literary 
point  of  view,  but  singularly  simple  and  plastic — 
some  of  its  finest  subjects.  Christian  iconography, 
whether  Byzantine  or  Latin,  has  all  its  roots  there. 
The  Peregrine  school  would  not  have  had  any  Spos- 
alizio;  the  Venetian  school  no  assumption,  no  presen- 
tation ;  the  Byzantine  school  no  descent  of  Jesus  into 
limbo,  without  the  apocryphas.  The  crib  of  Jesus 
without  them  would  have  lacked  its  most  beauti- 
ful details.  Their  recommendation  was  their  very 
inferiority.  The  canonical  Gospels  were  too  strong 
a  literature  for  the  people.  Some  vulgar  narratives, 
often  base,  were  nearer  the  level  of  the  multitude 
than  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  or  the  discourses  of 
the  fourth  Gospel. 

So  the  success  of  these  fraudulent  writings  was  im- 
mense. From  the  fourth  century  the  most  instructed 
Greek  fathers  —  Epiphanes,  Gregory  of  Nyssa  — 
adopted  them  without  reserve.  The  Latin  Church 
hesitated,  even  put  forth  eff'orts  to  take  them  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  faithful,  but  did  not  succeed.  The 
Golden  Legend  draws  largely  upon  it.  In  the  Middle 
Ages  the  apocryphal  Gospels  enjoyed  an  extraordin- 


280  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

ary  popularity  ;  they  have  even  an  advantage  over 
the  canonical  Gospels,  which  is  this  :  not  being  a 
sacred  Scripture,  they  can  be  translated  into  the 
vulgar  tongue.  Whilst  the  Bible  is  in  a  manner  put 
under  lock  and  key,  the  apocryphas  are  in  every- 
body's hands.  The  Miniaturists  were  ardently 
attached  to  them;  the  Rhymers  seized  upon  them ;  the 
Mystics  represented  them  dramatically  in  the  porches 
of  the  Churches.  The  first  modern  author  of  a  life 
of  Jesus — Ludolphe  le  Chartreux — made  them  his 
principal  document.  Without  theological  preten- 
sion these  popular  Gospels  have  succeeded  in 
suppressing,  in  a  certain  measure,  the  canonical 
Gospels;  Protestantism  also  has  declared  war  against 
them,  and  devotes  itself  to  proving  that  they  are  the 
work  of  the  devil. 


CHAPTER    XXVI 1. 

APOCRYPHAL  ACTS  AND  APOCALYPSES. 

The  literature  of  the  false  Acts  pursues  a  line  quite 
different  from  that  of  the  false  Gospels.  The  Acts  of 
the  Apostles,  the  individual  work  of  Luke,  were  not 
produced,  like  the  narrative  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  from 
the  diversities  of  parallel  compilations.  Whilst  the 
canonical  Gospels  served  as  a  basis  for  the  amplifi- 
cations of  the  apocryphal  Gospels,  the  apocryphal 
Acts  have  little  connection  with  the  Acts  of  Luke. 
The  narratives  of  the  preaching  and  of  the  death  of 
Peter  and  Paul  never  received  a  final  revision. 
Pseudo-Clement  has  used  them  as  a  literary  pre- 
text rather  than  a  direct  subject  of  narrative.  The 
apostolic  history  was  thus  the  roof  of  a  romantic 
tissue  which  never  assumed  a  definite  literary  form, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  281 

and  which  people  never  cease  revising.  A  sort  of 
resume  of  these  fables,  tainted  with  a  strong  Gnostic 
and  Manichean  colour,  appeared  under  the  name  of 
a  pretended  Leucius  or  Lucius,  a  disciple  of  the 
apostles.  The  Catholics,  who  regretted  that  they 
could  not  make  use  of  the  book,  sought  to  amend  it. 
The  final  result  of  that  successive  emendation  was 
the  compliation  made  in  the  fifth  or  sixth  centuries 
under  the  name  of  the  false  Abdias. 

Almost  all  those  who  compiled  this  sort  of  works 
were  heretics  ;  but  the  orthodox,  after  subjecting 
them  to  corrections,  soon  adopted  them.  These 
heretics  were  very  pious  people,  and  at  the  same 
time  highly  imaginative.  After  they  had  been 
anathematised,  their  books  were  found  to  be  edify- 
ing, and  the  Churches  did  their  very  best  to  have 
them  introduced  into  their  religious  readings.  It  is  in 
this  way  that  many  of  the  books,  many  of  the  saints, 
many  of  the  festivals  of  the  orthodox  Church  are  the 
productions  of  heretics.  The  fourth  Gospel  was  in  this 
respect  one  of  the  most  striking  examples.  This 
singular  book  made  its  way  amazingly.  It  was  read 
more  and  more,  and,  apart  from  the  Churches  of  Asia, 
which  were  too  well  acquainted  with  its  origin,  it  was 
accepted  on  all  hands  with  admiration,  and  as  being 
the  work  of  the  Apostle  John. 

The  false  Acts  of  the  Apostles  have  no  more  origin- 
ality than  the  apocryphal  Gospels.  In  this  order, 
similarly,  the  individual  fimcy  did  not  succeed  much 
better  in  making  itself  felt.  This  was  plainly  visible 
in  that  which  concerned  the  legend  of  Paul.  A  priest 
of  Asia,  a  grer.t  admirer  of  the  apostle,  thought  to 
satisfy  his  piety  by  constructing  a  short  charming  ro- 
mance in  which  Paul  converted  a  beautiful  young  girl 
of  Iconium,  named  Hecla,  who  was  drawn  to  him  by 
an  invincible  attraction,  and  made  of  her  a  martyr  of 
virginity.  The  priest  did  not  conceal  his  game  well ; 
he  was  questioned,  nonplussed,  and  finished  by  avow- 


282  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

ing  that  he  had  done  all  this  out  of  love  for  Paul. 
The  book  succeeded  none  the  less  for  this,  and  it 
was  only  banished  from  the  Canon  with  the  other 
apocryphal  writings  about  the  fifth  or  sixth  centuries. 
St  Thomas,  the  apostle  preferred  by  Gnostics, 
and  later,  by  the  Manicheans,  inspired  in  the  same 
way  acts  in  which  the  horror  of  certain  sects  for 
marriage  is  set  forth  with  the  utmost  energy.  Thomas 
arrived  in  India  while  the  nuptials  of  the  daughter 
of  the  king  were  in  preparation.  He  so  strongly 
persuaded  the  fiancSs  as  to  the  inexpediency  of 
marriage,  the  wicked  sentiments  which  result  from 
the  fact  of  having  begotten  children,  the  crimes 
which  are  the  consequence  of  esprit  de  famille,  and 
the  troubles  of  housekeeping,  that  they  passed  the 
night  seated  by  the  side  of  one  another.  On  the 
morrow  their  relations  were  astonished  at  finding 
them  in  this  position,  full  of  a  sweet  gaiety,  and  free 
from  any  of  the  ordinary  embarrassments  incident 
to  such  circumstances.  The  young  couple  explain 
to  them  that  bashfulness  has  no  longer  any  meaning 
for  them,  since  the  cause  of  it  has  disappeared.  They 
have  exchanged  the  transient  nuptials  for  the  joys  of 
a  never-ending  paradise.  The  strange  hullucinations 
to  which  these  moral  errors  gave  scope,  are  all 
vividly  depicted  throughout  the  entire  book.  The 
first  outline  of  a  Christian  hell,  with  its  categories  of 
«  torments,  is  found  traced  there.  This  singular  writ- 
^  ing,  which  constituted  a  part  of  certain  Bibles,  recalls 
the  theology  of  the  pseudo-Clementine  romance,  and 
that  of  the  Elkasaites.  In  it  the  Holy  Ghost  is,  like 
as  with  the  Nazarenes  a  feminine  principle,  'the 
mother  misericordice.'  Water  represents  the  purify- 
ing element  of  the  soul  and  of  the  body  ;  the  unction 
of  oil  is  then  the  seal  of  baptism,  like  as  with 
the  Gnostics.  The  sign  of  the  cross  already  pos- 
sesses all  its  supernatural  virtues,  as  well  as  a  sort 
of  magic. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  283 

The  Acts  of  St  Philip  have  also  a  theosophic 
colouring,  and  a  very  pronounced  Gnosticism. 
Those  of  Andrew  were  one  of  the  parts  of  the 
compilation  of  the  pretended  Leucius,  who  merits 
the  most  anathemas.  The  orthodox  Church  was  at 
first  a  stranger  to  these  fables ;  then  she  adopted 
them,  at  least  for  popular  use.  Iconography 
especially  found  in  them,  as  in  the  aprocryphal 
Gospels,  an  ample  repository  of  subjects  and  of 
symbols.  Almost  all  the  attributes  which  have  been 
made  use  of  by  imaginative  writers  to  distinguish 
the  apostles,  comes  from  the  apocryphal  Acts. 

The  apocalyptic  form  served  also  to  express  how 
much  there  existed  in  the  heterodox  Christian  sects 
of  insubordination,  of  unruliness,  and  of  dissatis- 
faction. An  ascension  or  anahaticon  of  Paul,  which 
set  forth  the  mysteries  that  Paul  was  reputed  to 
have  seen  in  his  ecstasy,  was  in  great  vogue.  An 
apocalypse  of  Elias  enjoyed  considerable  popularity. 
It  was  amongst  the  Gnostics  in  particular  that  the 
apocalypses,  under  the  name  of  apostles  and  prophets, 
germinated.  The  faithful  were  on  their  guard,  and 
the  moderate  Church  party,  who  at  once  feared  the 
Gnostic  excesses  and  the  excesses  of  the  pious,  ad- 
mitted only  two  apocalypses — that  of  John  and  of 
Peter.  Nevertheless,  writings  of  the  same  kind,  attri- 
buted to  Joseph,  Moses,  Abraham,  Habakkuk,  Zeph- 
aniah,  Ezekiel,  Daniel,  Zacharias,  and  the  father  of 
John,  were  in  circulation.  Two  zealous  Christians, 
preoccupied  with  the  substitution  of  a  new  world  for 
an  old  world,  excited  by  their  persecutions,  greedy, 
like  all  the  fabricators  of  apocalypses,  of  the  evil 
news  which  came  from  the  four  corners  of  the  earth, 
took  up  the  mantle  of  Esdras,  and  wrote  under  that 
revered  name  a  number  of  new  pages,  which  Avere 
joined  to  those  which  the  pseudo-Esdras  of  97  had 
already  accepted.  It  has  also  been  thought  that 
the  apocalyptic  books  attributed  to  Enoch  received 


284  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

in  the  second  century  some  Cliristian  additions.  But 
this  appears  to  us  little  probable  ;  those  books  of 
Enoch,  formerly  so  esteemed,  and  which  Jesus  had 
probably  read  with  enthusiasm,  had  fallen,  at  the 
time  of  which  we  now  speak,  into  universal  discredit. 

The  Gnostics,  in  like  manner,  could  show  psalms, 
pieces  of  apocryphal  prophets,  revelations  under  the 
name  of  Adam,  Seth,  Noria,  the  imaginary  wife  of 
Noah,  recitals  of  the  nativity  of  Mary,  full  of  impro- 
prieties, and  great  and  small  interrogations  of  Mary. 
Their  gospel  of  Eve  was  a  tissue  of  chimerical  equi- 
vocations. Their  Gospel  of  Philip  presented  a  dan- 
gerous quietism,  clothed  in  a  form  borrowed  from 
Egyptian  rituals.  The  ascension  or  anahaticon  of 
Isaiah  was  made  up  of  the  same  stuff,  in  the  third 
century,  and  was  a  true  source  of  heresies.  The 
Archonties,  the  Hieracities,  the  Messahans,  pro- 
ceeded from  that.  Like  the  author  of  the  Acts  of 
Thomas,  the  author  of  the  Ascension  of  Isaiah  is  one 
of  the  precursors  of  Dante,  by  the  complaisance  with 
which  he  expatiates  upon  the  description  of  heaven 
and  hell.  This  singular  work,  adopted  by  the  sects  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  was  the  cherished  book  of  the 
Hogomites  of  Thrace  and  of  the  Cathares  of  the 
West. 

Adam  had  likewise  his  apocryphal  revelations.  A 
testament  addressed  to  Seth,  a  mystic  apocalypse 
borrowed  from  Zoroastrian  ideas,  circulated  under 
his  name.  It  is  a  clever  enough  book,  which  recalls 
many  of  the  Jeschts,  Sadies,  and  Sirouze  of  the 
Persians,  and  also  at  times  the  books  of  the 
Mendaites.  Adam  therein  explains  to  Seth,  from 
his  recollections  of  Paradise  and  the  signs  of  the 
angel  Uriel,  the  mystic  liturgies  of  day  and  night 
which  all  creatures  celebrate  from  hour  to  hour  before 
the  Eternal.  The  first  hour  of  the  night  is  the  hour 
of  the  adoration  of  demons ;  during  that  hour  they 
cease  to  annoy  man.     The  second  hour  is  the  hour 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  285 

of  the  adoration  of  fish;  then  comes  the  adoration  of 
abysses ;  then  the  thrice  holy  of  the  seraphim  :  before 
the  Fall  men  heard  at  that  hour  the  measured  beating 
of  their  wings.  At  the  fifth  hour  of  the  night  the 
adoration  of  the  waters  takes  place.  Adam  at  that 
hour  heard  the  prayer  of  the  great  billows.  The 
middle  of  the  night  is  marked  by  an  accumalation  of 
storms,  and  by  a  great  religious  terror.  Then  all 
nature  reposes,  and  the  waters  sleep.  At  this  hour, 
if  one  takes  water,  and  if  the  priest  of  God  mixes  it 
with  holy  oil  and  anoints  with  this  oil  the  sick  who 
cannot  sleep,  the  latter  are  cured.  At  the  time  the 
dew  falls,  the  hymn  of  herbs  and  grain  is  sung.  At 
the  tenth  hour,  at  the  full  early  dawn,  comes  the 
turn  of  men,  the  gates  of  heaven  are  opened,  so  as 
to  let  enter  the  prayers  of  all  living  beings.  They 
enter,  prostrate  themselves  before  the  throne,  then 
depart.  Everything  that  one  asks  at  the  moment 
when  the  seraphim  are  beating  their  wings  and 
when  the  cock  crows,  one  is  sure  to  obtain.  Great 
joy  is  shed  over  the  world  when  the  sun  shines 
forth  from  the  paradise  of  God  upon  creation.  Then 
comes  an  hour  of  expectation  and  of  profound 
silence,  until  the  priests  have  oiFered  incense  to 
God. 

At  each  hour  of  the  day  the  angels,  the  birds, 
every  creature,  rises  up  in  like  manner  to  adore  the 
Supreme  Being.  At  the  seventh  hour  there  is  a 
repetition  of  the  ceremony  of  entering  and  retiring. 
The  prayers  (Prieres)  of  all  living  beings  enter,  pro- 
strate themselves,  and  walked  out  again.  At  the  tenth 
hour  the  inspection  of  the  waters  takes  place.  The 
Holy  Spirits  descends  over  the  waters  and  springs. 
Without  this,  in  drinking  the  water,  one  would  be 
subject  to  the  malignity  of  the  demons.  At  this  hour 
again  water  mixed  with  oil  cures  all  manner  of 
sickness.  This  naturalism,  which  recalls  that  of  the 
Elkasaites,  was  attenuated  by  the  Catholic  Church, 


286  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

but  the  principle  it  contained  was  not  entirely 
rejected.  The  exorcisms  of  water  and  of  the  different 
elements,  the  division  of  the  day  into  canonical  hours, 
the  employment  of  holy  oils,  conserved  by  the 
orthodox  Church,  had  their  origin  in  ideas  analogous 
to  those  which  the  Adamite  Apocalypse  has  complais- 
antly  developed. 

The  Christian  Sibyl  women  do  little  more  than 
repeat  without  comprehending  the  ancient  oracles. 
Those  of  the  Apocalypse,  in  particular,  she  never 
ceases  vatianating,  though,  and  announcing  the  near 
destruction  of  the  Roman  Empire.  The  favourite 
idea  at  that  epoch  was  that  the  world,  before  it  came 
to  an  end,  would  be  governed  by  a  woman.  The 
sympathy  of  the  old  sibyllists  for  Judaism  and 
Jerusalem  is  now  changed  to  hatred ;  but  the  horror 
for  the  Pagan  civilisation  is  no  less.  The  domination 
of  Italy  over  the  world  has  been  the  most  fatal  of  all 
dominations :  it  will  be  the  last.  The  end  is  near. 
Wickedness  springs  from  the  rich  and  the  great,  who 
plunder  the  poor.  Rome  is  to  be  burned;  wolves 
and  foxes  are  to  live  amongst  its  ruins  ;  it  will  be 
seen  whether  her  gods  of  brass  will  save  her. 
Hadrian,  when  the  Sibyllists  of  the  year  117  saluted 
with  so  much  expectation,  was  an  iniquitous  and 
avarcious  king,  a  despoiler  of  the  entire  world,  wholly 
occupied  with  frivolous  devices,  an  enemy  of  true 
religion,  the  sacreligious  instituter  of  an  infamous 
cult,  the  abettor  of  the  most  abominable  idolatry. 
Like  the  sibyllists  of  117,  he  of  whom  we  have  been 
speaking  asserts  that  Hadrian  could  have  but  three 
successors.  Their  names  (Antonine)  recall  that  of  the 
Most  High  (Adonai).  The  first  of  the  three  will  reign 
a  long  time,  and  this  evidently  refers  to  Antoninus 
Pius.  This  prince,  in  reality  so  admirable,  is  treated 
as  a  miserable  king,  who  out  of  pure  avarice  despoiled 
the  world  and  heaped  up  at  Rome  treasures  which 
the  terrible  exile,  the  assassin  of  his  mother  CNero, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  287 

the  Antichrist),  will  abandon  to  the  pillage  of  the 
peoples  of  Asia. 

Oh  !  how  thou  shalt  weep  then,  despoiled  of  thy  brilliant  gar- 
ments and  clad  in  habits  of  mourning,  0  proud  queen,  daughter  of 
old  Latinus  !  Thou  shalt  fall,  no  more  to  rise  again.  The  glory 
of  thy  legions,  with  their  proud  eagles,  will  disappear.  Where 
will  be  thy  strength  !  what  people  will  be  allied  to  thee,  of  those 
whom  thou  hast  overcome  by  thy  follies. 

Every  plague,  civil  war,  invasion,  and  famine  an- 
nounces the  revenge  that  God  prepares  on  behalf 
of  his  elect.  It  is  towards  Italy  especially  that  the 
judge  will  show  himself  severe.  Italy  will  be  reduced 
to  a  pile  of  black  volcanic  cinders,  mixed  with 
naphtha  and  asphalte.  Hades  will  be  its  portion. 
Then  finally  equality  will  exist  for  all ;  no  longer 
will  there  be  either  slaves  or  masters,  or  kings,  or 
chiefs,  or  advocates,  or  corrupt  judges.  Rome  will 
endure  the  ills  she  has  inflicted  on  others:  those 
whom  she  has  vanquished  will  triumph  in  their 
turn  over  her.  That  will  take  place  in  the  year  in 
which  the  figures  cast  up  will  correspond  to  the 
numerical  value  of  the  name  of  Rome,  that  is  to  say, 
in  the  year  of  Rome  948  (195  of  J.  C). 

The  author  calls  this  the  day  which  he  longs  for. 
He  employs  epic  accents  to  celebrate  Nero,  the  Anti- 
christ, preparing  in  the  shades  or  beyond  the  seas 
the  ruin  of  the  Roman  world.  The  contests  between 
the  Antichrist  and  the  Messiah  will  come  to  pass. 
Men,  far  from  becoming  better,  will  only  grow  more 
wicked.  The  Antichrist  is  to  be  finally  vanquished, 
and  shut  up  in  the  abyss.  The  resurrection  and  the 
eternal  happiness  of  the  just  will  crown  the  apoca- 
lyptic cycle.  Attached  to  the  initials  of  the  verses 
which  express  these  terrible  images,  the  eye  dis- 
tinguishes the  acrostic  IH20T2  XPI2T02  ©EOT  no 
nTHF  2TATA02  ;  the  initial  letters  of  the  first  five 
words  give  in  their  turn  IX0T2  "fish,"  a  designation 
under  which  the  initiated  were  early  accustomed  to 


288  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

recognise  Jesus.  As  people  were  persuaded  that  the 
acrostic  was  one  of  the  processes  which  the  old  sibyls 
had  employed  to  make  known  their  secret  meaning, 
people  were  struck  with  astonishment  to  see  so  clear 
a  revelation  of  Christianity  delineated  upon  the 
margins  of  a  writing  that  was  thought  to  have  been 
composed  in  the  sixth  generation  which  followed  the 
deluge.  There  was  an  old  translation  of  this  singular 
production  in  barbarous  Latin  verse,  which  gave  rise 
to  another  fable.  It  was  pretended  that  Cicero  had 
found  his  Erythrean  fragment  so  beautiful  that  he 
had  translated  it  into  Latin  verse  before  the  birth  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

Such  were  the  sombre  images  which,  under  the 
best  of  sovereigns,  assailed  the  sectarian  fanatics. 
We  must  not  blame  the  Roman  police  for  treating 
such  books  at  times  with  severity  ;  they  were  now 
puerile,  then  full  of  menaces  :  no  modern  state  would 
tolerate  their  like.  The  visionaries  dreamed  only  of 
conflagrations.  The  idea  of  a  deluge  of  fire,  in  con- 
tradistinction to  the  deluge  of  water,  and  distinct 
from  the  final  conflagration,  was  accepted  by  many 
amongst  them.  There  was  also  a  talk  about  a 
deluge  of  wind.  These  chimeras  troubled  more  than 
one  head,  even  outside  of  Christianity.  Under 
Marcus  Aurelius  an  impostor  attempted,  in  making 
use  of  the  same  species  of  terrors,  to  provoke  dis- 
orders which  might  have  led  to  the  pillage  of  the 
city.  It  is  not  wise  to  repeat  too  often  Judicare 
seculum  per  ignem.  People  are  subject  to  strange 
hallucinations.  When  the  tragic  scenes  which  he 
imagined  were  slow  in  coming,  he  sometimes  took 
upon  himself  to  realise  them.  At  Paris  the  people 
formed  the  Commune  because  the  fifth  act  of  the 
siege,  which  had  been  promised,  did  not  come  to  pass. 

The  Antichrist  continued  to  be  the  great  preoc- 
cupation of  the  makers  of  apocalypses.  Although 
it   was   evident   that   Nero  was    dead,   his   shadow 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  289 

haunted  the  Christian  imagination  —  people  con- 
tinued to  announce  his  return.  Often,  however,  it 
was  not  Nero  that  people  saw  behind  this  fantastic 
personage  ;  it  was  Simon  Magus. 

From  Sebaste  was  to  issue  Belial,  who  commands  the  high 
mountains,  the  sea,  the  blazing  sun,  the  brilliant  moon,  the  dead 
themselves,  and  who  was  to  perform  numerous  miracles  before 
men.  It  is  not  integrity,  Imt  error  which  will  be  in  him.  He 
will  lead  astray  many  mortals,  both  of  the  Hebrew  faithful  and 
of  the  elect,  and  others  belonging  to  the  lawless  race  who  have 
not  yet  heard  tell  of  God.  But  whilst  the  threats  of  the  great 
God  are  being  put  into  execution,  and  whilst  the  conflagration 
will  roll  over  the  earth  in  huge  floods,  fire  will  also  devour  Belial 
and  the  insolent  men  who  have  put  their  faith  in  him. 

We  have  been  struck,  in  the  Apocalypse,  with  this 
mysterious  personage  of  the  False  Prophet,  a  thau- 
maturgic  seducer  of  the  faithful  and  the  Pagans, 
allied  to  Nero,  who  follows  him  to  the  region  of  the 
Parthians,  who  must  reappear  and  perish  with  him 
in  the  lake  of  brimstone.  We  are  led  to  surmise  that 
this  symbolical  personage  designates  Simon  Magus. 
In  seeing  in  the  Sibylline  Apocalypse  "  Belial  of 
Sebaste"  playing  an  almost  identical  part,  we  are 
confirmed  in  that  hypothesis.  The  personal  rela- 
tions of  Nero  and  Simon  Magus  are  perhaps  not  so 
fabulous  as  they  appear.  In  any  case,  this  associa- 
tion of  the  two  worst  enemies  that  nascent  Chris- 
tianity had  encountered,  was  well  adapted  to  the 
spirit  of  the  times,  and  to  the  taste  for  apocalyptical 
poetry  in  general.  In  the  Ascension  of  Isaiah  Belial 
is  Satan,  and  Satan  assumes  in  some  sort  the  human 
form  of  a  king,  the  murderer  of  his  mother,  who  is 
to  reign  over  the  world,  in  order  to  establish  the 
empire  of  evil.  The  author  of  the  pseudo-Clemen 
tine  romance  believes  that  Simon  will  reappear  as 
Antichrist  at  the  end  of  time.  In  the  third  century 
a  still  greater  trouble  was  introduced  into  that  order 
of  fantastic  ideas.  People  distinguished  two  Anti- 
christs, the  one  for  the  East,  the  otlier  for  the  West 

T 


290  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

— Nero  and  Belial.  Later,  Nero  finished  by  becom- 
ing, in  the  eyes  of  the  Christians,  the  Christ  of  the 
Jews.  The  suppulations  of  the  works  of  Daniel 
came  to  complicate  these  chimeras.  St  Hippolytus, 
in  the  time  of  Severus,  is  wholly  engrossed  with 
them.  A  certain  Juda  proved  by  Daniel  that  the 
end  of  the  world  was  to  come  about  the  year  10  of 
Septimus  Severus  (of  J.  C.  202-203).  Every  perse- 
cution appeared  to  be  a  confirmation  of  the  dismal 
prophecies  which  had  accumulated.  From  all  these 
confused  data,  the  Middle  Ages  drew  the  grandiose 
myth  which  remains,  amidst  transformed  Chris- 
tianity, as  an  incomprehensible  relic  of  primitive 
Messianism. 


APPENDIX.  I. 


It  is  admitted  pretty  generally  that  the  Jewish  war  under  Hadrian 
entailed  a  siege  and  a  final  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  So  large  a 
number  of  texts  represent  this  view,  that  it  seems  at  the  first  glance 
rash  to  call  the  fact  in  question.  Nevertheless,  the  chief  critics 
who  have  considered  it — Scaliger,  Henry  de  Valois,  and  P.  Pazi— had 
perceived  the  difiiculties  of  such  an  assertion,  and  rejected  it. 

And  to  commence  with,  what  is  it  that  Hadrian  should  have  besieged 
and  destroyed  ?  The  demolition  of  Jerusalem  under  Titus  was  entire, 
even  exceeding  that  usual  to  military  operations. 

In  admitting  that  a  population  of  so  many  thousands  of  persons  was 
able  to  dwell  within  the  ruins  which  the  victor  of  70  left  behind,  it 
is  clear  in  such  a  case  that  this  heap  of  rui)is  was  incapable  of  support- 
ing a  siege.  Even  while  admitting  that  from  the  time  of  Titus  to 
Hadrian  some  timid  attempts  of  Jewish  restoration  might  have  been 
brought  about,  in  spite  of  the  "  Legio  Xa.  Eratensis  "  who  encamped  on 
the  ruins,  one  is  not  inclined  to  suppose  that  these  attempts  were 
of  such  a  nature  as  to  give  the  place  any  importance  whatever  in 
a  military  point  of  view. 

It  is  also  very  true  that  a  great  many  savants,  with  whose  opinions 
we  coincide,  think  that  the  restoration  of  Jerusalem,  under  the  name 
of  "  ^lia  Capitolina,"  began  in  the  year  122  or  thereabouts. 

It  is  of  no  use  to  the  adversaries  of  our  theme  to  lay  great  stress 
on  that  argument,  because  they  unhesitatingly  admit  that  ^lia 
Capitolina  was  not  commenced  to  be  built  till  after  the  last  destruction 
of  Jerusalem  by  Hadrian.  But  no  matter  !  If,  as  we  think,  -^lia 
Capitolina  had  been  in  existence  for  about  ten  years  at  the  time  that  the 
revolt  of  Bar-Coziba  broke  out,  about  133,  how  can  one  conceive  that 
the  Romans  would  have  had  occasion  to  take  it  !  JElia,  would  not 
again  have  possessed  walls  capable  of  sustaining  a  siege.  How,  more- 
over, suppose  that  the  "  Legio  Xa.  Fratensis  "  had  left  their  positions 
knowing  that  it  would  be  obliged  to  reconquer  them.  It  may  be  said 
that  the  same  thing  occurred  under  Nero,  when  Gessius  Florus  aban- 
doned Jerusalem,  but  the  situation  was  totally  different. 

Gessius  Florus  found  himself  in  the  midst  of  a  great  city  in  revolu- 
tion. The  "  Legio  Xa.  Fratensis  "  was  situated  in  the  midst  of  a  popula- 
tion of  veterans  and  squatters,  all  friendly  to  the  Roman  cause.  Their 
retreat  would  not  have  explained  itself  in  any  fashion,  and  the  siege 


292  APPENDIX. 

which  would  have  followed  would  have  been  a  siege  in  a  manner 
without  purpose. 

When  one  examines  the  texts,  very  scarce,  which  relate  to  the 
War  of  Hadrian,  it  is  necessary  to  make  a  large  distinction.  The 
texts  really  historical  not  only  do  not  speak  of  a  capture  and  a 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  but  by  the  style  in  which  they  are  couched, 
they  exclude  such  an  event. 

The  oratorial  and  apolegetic  texts,  on  the  contrary,  where  the  second 
revolt  of  the  Jews  is  cited,  '*  non  ad  narrandum,  sed  ad  probandum," 
for  the  purpose  of  serving  the  arguments  and  the  declamations  of 
the  preacher  or  of  the  polemic,  imply  that  all  the  events  that  hap- 
pened under  Hadrian  were  as  if  they  happened  under  Titus.  It  is 
clear  that  it  is  the  first  series  of  texts  that  deserves  the  preference. 
Criticism  has  for  a  long  time  refused  to  trust  to  the  precision  of 
documents  drawn  up  in  a  style  whose  essence  is  to  be  inaccurate. 

The  historical  texts  reduce  themselves  unhappily  into  two  in  the 
question  which  concerns  us,  but  both  are  excellent.  There  is,  to 
commence  with,  the  narrative  of  Dion  Cassius,  who  appeared  not  to 
have  been  here  abridged  by  Xiphilin  ;  there  is  in  the  second  place,  that 
of  Eusebius,  who  copied  Ariston  de  Pella,  a  contemporary  writer  of 
events,  and  living  close  at  hand  to  the  seat  of  the  war.  These  two 
narratives  are  in  accord  with  one  another.  They  do  not  speak  a  single 
word  of  a  siege,  nor  of  a  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  Eor  an  attentive 
reader  of  the  two  tales  cannot  admit  that  such  a  fact  would  have 
passed  unnoticed.  Dion  Cassius  is  very  particular  ;  he  knows  that 
it  was  the  construction  of  -5^1ia  Capitolina  which  occasioned  the  revolt ; 
he  gives  well  the  character  of  the  war,  which  happened  to  be  a  war  of 
little  cities,  of  fortified  markf^t  towns,  of  subterranean  works — or  rural 
war,  if  one  is  permitted  thus  to  express  oneself. 

He  insists  on  facts  so  secondary  as  that  of  the  ruin  of  the  pretended 
tomb  of  Solomon.  How  is  it  possible  that  he  could  have  neglected  to 
speak  of  the  catastrophe  of  the  principal  city  ? 

The  omission  of  all  notice  about  Jenisalem  is  still  less  understood  in  the 
narrative  of  Eusebius  or  rather  of  Ariston  de  Pella.  The  great  event 
of  the  war  for  Eusebius  is  the  siege  of  Bother,  "  the  neighbouring  town 
to  Jerusalem  ; "  of  Jerusalem  itself  not  a  word.  It  is  true  that  the 
chapter  of  the  "  Historic  Ecclesiastique  "  relative  to  that  event  has  for 
the  title  :  'H  KaTa  ' AvSpiavbv  vardTT]  'lovSaiojv  7roXiop%t'a,  as  the  chapter 
relative  to  the  war  of  Vespasian  ;  and  of  Titus  has  for  title  (I.  III.  C.V.) 
Ilepi  TTJs  [xera  top  Xpiarbv  vcrrdrrjs  'lovdaicou  ToXiopxl-as  ;  but  the  word 
adapts  itself  well  to  the  whole  of  the  campaign  of  Julius  Severus,  which 
consisted  in  sieges  of  little  cities.  In  section  3  of  the  chapter  relative 
to  the  war  of  Adrian,  the  word  iroXiopxi-a  is  used  to  designate  the 
operations  of  the  capture  of  Bother. 

In  his  "Chronique"  Eusebius  follows  the  same  plan.  In  his 
"Demonstration  Evang^lique,"  and  in  his  "Theophaive,"  on  the 
contrary,  he  points  to  that  fact,  and  when  he  is  no  longer  borne  out  by 
the  very  words  of  Ariston  de  Pella,  he  allows  himself  to  be  led  away  by 
the  resemblance  which  has  deranged  nearly  all  the  Jewish  and  Christian 
tradition.  He  pictures  the  events  of  the  year  135  on  the  model  of  the 
events  of  the  year  70,  and  he  speaks  of  Hadrian  as  having  contributed 


APPENDIX.  293 

with  Titus  to  the  accomplishment  of  the  pi'ophecies  on  the  annihilation 
of  Jerusalem.  This  double  destruction  doubly  serves  him  to  realise  a 
passage  of  Zacharias/  and  to  furnish  a  basis  for  the  theory  which  he 
advances  of  a  Church  of  Jerusalem  lasting  from  Titus  to  Hadrian.^ 
St  Jerome  presents  the  same  contradiction.  In  his  "  Chronique," 
mapped  out  on  that  of  Eusebius,  he  follows  Eusebius  as  an  historian. 
Then  he  forgets  that  solid  base,  and  speaks,  as  do  all  the  fathers  of  the 
orator  school,  of  the  siege  and  destruction  of  Jerusalem  under  Hadrian.' 
Tertullian  *  and  St  John  Chrysostom  ^  express  themselves  in  the  same 
way.  One  knows  how  dangerous  it  is  to  introduce  into  history  these 
vague  phrases,  well  known  to  preachers  and  to  apologists  of  all  times. 
Still  less  is  it  necessary  that  we  should  examine  the  passages  in  the 
Talmud  where  the  same  assertion  presents  itself,  mixed  up  with  those 
historical  monstrosities  which  destroy  the  value  of  the  mentioned 
passages.  In  the  Talmud  the  confusion  of  the  war  of  Titus  and  that 
which  took  place  under  Hadrian  is  constant.  The  description  of 
Bether  is  copied  from  that  of  Jerusalem — the  duration  of  the  siege 
is  the  same. 

Is  not  this  the  proof  that  he  had  not  separate  mementoes  of  a  new 
siege  of  Jerusalem,  for  the  good  reason  that  there  had  not  been  one. 
When  the  tale  was  started  of  a  siege  by  a  sort  of  argument  a  priori,  it  is 
possible  that  one  a  posteriori  should  be  started  also  to  give  it  in  history 
a  basis  which  it  had  not.  Naturally,  for  it  is  on  the  first  siege  on  which 
one  falls  back  for  that.  That  confusion  has  been  the  trap  where  the 
whole  popular  history  of  the  Jewish  mishaps  has  suffered  itself  to  be 
taken.  How  can  we  prefer  such  blunders  to  strong  arguments  which, 
drawn  from  solitary  historical  evidence,  we  now  have  in  the  question 
Dion  Cassibus  or  Ariston  de  Pella  ? 

Two  grave  objections  remain  for  me  to  solve  :  only  can  they  smooth 
away  the  doubts  on  the  theory  which  I  maintain.  The  first  is  derived 
from  a  passage  of  Appius.  This  historian,  enumerating  the  successive 
destructions  which  overthrew  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  puts  one  before 
the  other,  and  on  the  same  line  the  destruction  of  Titus  and  that  of 
Hadrian. 

The  passage  of  Appius  furnishes  in  every  case  a  strong  inaccuracy — 
he  supposes  that  Jerusalem  was  walled  under  Hadrian.  Appius  foolishly 
supposes  that  the  Jews,  after  Titus,  re-erected  their  town,  and  fortified 
it.  His  ignorance  on  that  point  shows  that  he  is  not  guided  by  the 
aforesaid  comparison,  but  by  the  coarser  similarity  which  has  deceived 
every  one.  The  difficulties  of  the  campaign,  the  numberless  TroXtopxiat 
of  which  it  is  full,  show  that  even  a  contemporary  who  had  not  proof 
of  the  facts  was  able  to  commit  a  like  error. 

Assuredly  more  grave  is  the  objection  derived  from  the  study  of  the 
old  coins.  It  is  certain  that  the  Jews  during  the  revolt  did  not  coin 
nor  stamp  money.     Such  an  operation  seems  at  the  first  glance  not  to 

1  Zach.  xiv.  1  et  seq. 

2  Euseb.  H.E.,iv.  5. 

3  In  Dan.  xiv.,  Joel  i.,  Habakkuk  ii.,  Jereni.  xxxi.,  Ezekiel  v. 24.,  Zach.  viiL  14. 

4  Contra,  J  ad.  13. 

5  In  Judeeos,  Homil.  v.  2.  0pp.  1,  pp.  64-5  (Montf.)  Cf.  Suedas  at  the  word 
^deXvyfia  ;  Chronique  d'Alex,  year  119. 


294  APPENDIX. 

have  been  possible  at  Jerusalem.  The  types  of  these  moneys  lead  to  that 
idea.  The  "legend"  is  most  often,  "For  the  liberation  of  Jerusalem;" 
on  some  others,  the  figure  of  a  temple  surmounted  by  a  star. 

Jewish  coin  study  is  full  of  uncertainties,  and  it  is  dangerous  to 
oppose  it  to  history;  it  is  history,  on  the  contrary,  which  serves  to 
throw  a  light  upon  it.  Besides,  the  objection  about  which  we  speak  has 
emboldened  certain  numismatic  students  of  our  days  to  deny  absolutely 
the  occupation  of  Jerusalem  by  the  followers  of  Bar-Coziba.  One  will 
admit  that  the  insurgents  were  able  to  coin  money  at  Bother  quite  as 
well  as  at  Jerusalem,  if  one  thinks  of  the  miserable  plight  in  which  in 
that  supposition  Jerusalem  was.  On  the  other  hand,  it  seems  that  the 
types  of  coins  of  the  second  revolt  had  been  imitated  or  taken  directly 
from  those  of  the  first  revolt,  and  on  those  of  the  Asmoneans.  There  is 
here  an  important  point  which  deserves  the  attention  of  numismatists  ; 
for  one  could  find  here  a  means  of  solving  the  difficulties  which  yet 
hover  over  the  entire  groups  of  the  autonomous  coinage  of  Israel. 

We  wish  to  speak  chiefly  of  the  coins  with  the  "  impression  "  of  Simeon 
Nasi  of  Israel.  We  faU  into  the  greatest  misrepresentation  when  we 
seek  to  find  this  Simeon  in  Bargioras,  in  Bar-Coziba,  in  Simeon,  son  of 
Gamaliel,  etc.  None  of  these  persons  could  coin  money.  They  were 
revolutionaries,  or  men  of  high  authority,  but  not  sovereigns.  If  one  or 
the  other  had  placed  his  name  on  the  money,  he  would  have  marred  the 
republican  spirit  and  jealousy  of  the  rebels,  and  so,  up  to  a  certain  point, 
their  religious  ideas.  ^ 

A  similar  matter  would  be  mentioned  by  Josephus  in  the  first  revolt, 
and  the  identity  of  that  Simeon  would  not  be  so  doubtful  as  this  is. 
It  is  never  asked  if  the  French  Revolution  had  any  coins  with  the  effigy 
of  Marat,  or  of  Hobespierre.  This  Simon,  I  believe,  is  no  other  than 
Simon  Maccabeus,  the  first  Jewish  sovereign  who  coined  money,  and 
whose  coins  ought  to  be  much  sought  after  by  orthodox  persons.  As 
the  aim  which  they  established  was  to  overcome  the  scruples  of  the  re- 
ligious, such  a  counterfeit  would  suffice  for  the  exigencies  of  the  time. 
It  had  also  the  advantage  of  not  putting  into  circulation  only  those 
types  acknowledged  by  all.  I  think  then,  that  neither  in  the  first  nor 
in  the  second  revolt,  that  they  had  money  struck  in  the  name  of  a  person 
then  alive.  The  "  Eleazer-Hac- Cohen  "  of  certain  coins  ought  pro- 
bably to  explain  this  in  an  analogous  manner,  which  the  numismatists 
will  hit  upon.  I  strongly  think  that  the  latter  revolt  had  not  a  proper 
stamp,  and  they  could  best  imitate  the  earlier  ones.  A  material  circum- 
stance confirms  that  hypothesis.  On  the  coins  in  question,  in  fact,  one 
never  sees  |1J?DK^ — one  frequently  sees  IjyDti^  or  ^flOtJ*.  These  two  forms 
are  so  frequent  that  one  can  see  a  simple  fault  as  to  the  position  of  the 
letters.  In  the  second,  in  a  great  many  cases,  we  cannot  help  think- 
ing that  the  last  two  letters  have  disa]Dpeared.  It  is  not  impossible  that 
the  alteration  of  the  name  of  Simeon  was  made  expressly  to  imply  a 
prayer, — "  Hear  me  "  or  "  Hear  us."  It  is,  at  all  events,  contrary  to  all 
probability  that  one  sees  in  the  name  of  Simeon  the  true  name  of  Bar- 
Coziba.  How  is  it  that  this  royal  name  of  the  false  Messiah,  written 
on  an  abundant  coinage,  would  remain  unknown  to  St  Justin,  to  Aristion 
de  Pella,  to  the  Talmudists,  who  clearly  speak  of  the  money  of  Bar- 


APPENDIX.  295 

Coziba.  Still  less  can  one  see  any  president  of  the  Sanhedrim  whose 
authority  would  have  been  recognised  by  Bar-Coziba. 

So  anyway,  one  is  led  to  think  that  the  coinage  of  Bar-Coziba  did 
not  consist  but  in  impressions  done  from  a  religions  motive,  and  that 
the  types  which  bear  these  impressions  were  of  the  ancient  Jewish 
types,  which  I  conclude  were  for  the  rebellion  of  the  time  of  Hadrian. 
By  this  are  raised  some  enormous  difficulties  which  the  Jewish  numis- 
matism  presents  : — Firstly.  That  these  persons  unknown  to  history  or 
these  rebels  should  have  coined  money  like  sovereigns.  Secondly,  The 
unlikelihood  that  there  is  that  these  miserable  insurgents  caused  issues 
of  money  so  handsome  and  so  considerable.  Thirdly.  The  employment 
of  the  archaic  Hebrew  character,  which  was  out  of  use  in  the  second 
century  of  our  era.  Supposing  that  it  had  been  attempted  to  bring  back 
the  national  character,  they  would  not  have  given  them  fashioned  so 
grand  and  handsome.  Fourthly,  The  form  of  the  temple  tetrastyle 
surmounted  by  a  star.  This  form  does  not  correspond  either  more  or 
less  to  that  of  the  temple  of  Herod.  For  one  knows  the  scrupulous 
nicety  that  the  ancient  masters  took  to  reproduce  the  features  of  the 
principal  temple  of  the  city  exactly,  by  slight  but  very  expressive 
touches. 

The  temple  of  the  Jewish  money,  on  the  contrary,  without  the 
triangular  pediment,  and  with  its  gate  of  a  singular  fashion,  represents 
the  secund  temple,  that  of  the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  which  appears  to 
have  been  tolerably  shabby.  If  we  reject  that  hypothesis,  and  which 
must  belong  to  the  second  revolt,  the  types  which  bear  the  figure  of  the 
temple,  and  the  era  of  "  the  liberation  of  Jerusalem,"  we  say  that  the  de- 
liverance of  Jerusalem,  and  the  reconstruction  of  the  temple,  were  the 
only  object  of  the  revolts.  It  is  not  impossible  that  they  portrayed 
these  two  events  upon  their  money  before  they  were  realised.  One 
takes  for  a  fact  that  which  one  aspires  to  with  such  efforts.  Bether, 
before  all,  was  a  sort  of  provisionary  Jerusalem,  a  sacred  asylum  of  Israel. 

The  numismatism  of  the  Crusades  presents,  besides,  identically  the 
same  phenomena.  After  the  loss  of  Jerusalem,  in  fact,  the  later 
authority,  transported  to  St  Jean  de  Acre,  continued  to  mint  money 
bearing  the  effigy  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  with  the  words  "  +  Sepulohri 
Domini,"  or  "  Rex  Ierlm."  The  moneys  of  John  of  Brienne,  who  never 
possessed  Jerusalem,  presents  also  the  image  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre. 
"This  markedly  characteristic  type,"  says  M.  de  Vogli^,  "seems  to  be 
on  the  part  of  deposed  kings  a  protestation  against  the  invasion,  and  a 
maintenance  of  their  rights  in  misfortune  and  exile."  There  are  also 
moneys  with  the  title  '  Tvrris  Davit,'  struck  a  long  time  after  the 
taking  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Mussulman.  It  must  be  admitted,  however, 
that  much  of  the  Jewish  money  of  the  second  revolt  was  struck  away 
from  Jerusalem.  Every  one,  in  fact,  agrees  that  if  the  revolted  were 
masters  of  Jerusalem,  they  were  quickly  driven  out.  One  finds  coins 
of  the  second  and  third  year  of  the  revolt.  M.  Caxdoni  explained 
by  this  difference  of  the  situation,  the  difference  of  the  legends  min? 
^K"IU^\  and  D^J^i^T  n"l"in?,  the  second  only  answering  to  the  epoch  when 
the  rebels  were  masters  oi  Jerusalem. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  the  possibility  of  a  coinage  struck  at  Bether  ia 
placed  beyond  doubt. 


296  APPENDIX. 

That  at  one  moment  of  the  revolt,  and  amidst  the  numberless 
incidents  of  a  war  which  occupied  two  or  three  years,  the  revolted 
occupied  ^lia,  and  were  speedily  driven  out ;  that  the  occupation  of 
Jerusalem,  in  a  word,  was  a  brief  episode  of  the  aforesaid  war,  is  strictly 
possible  ;  it  is  little  probable  nevertheless. 

The  "  Legio  Xa.  Fratensis  "  which  Titus  left  to  guard  the  ruins,  was 
there  in  the  second  and  in  the  third  century,  and  even  to  the  time  of 
the  Lower  Empire,  as  if  nothing  had  happened  in  the  interval.  If  the 
insurgents  had  been  for  a  day  masters  of  the  sacred  space,  they  would 
have  clung  to  it  with  fury,  they  would  have  come  running  there  from  all 
directions  ;  all  the  fighting  men  of  Judea  would  above  all  bend  their 
steps  there  ;  the  height  of  the  war  would  have  been  there  ;  the  temple 
would  have  been  restored  ;  the  religion  re-established  ;  there  would  have 
been  fought  the  last  battle  ;  and  as  in  70  the  fanatics  would  have 
caused  a  general  slaughter  on  the  ruins  of  the  temple,  or,  failing  them, 
on  its  site.  Now  it  is  nothing  of  the  sort.  The  grand  siege  operation 
took  place  at  Bether,  nigh  to  Jerusalem  ;  no  trace  of  the  scuffle  on  the 
site  of  the  temple  in  the  Jewish  tradition,  not  a  memento  of  a  fourth 
temple,  nor  of  a  return  to  the  religious  ceremonials. 

It  seems  certain,  then,  that  under  Hadrian  Jerusalem  did  not  suffer 
a  serious  siege,  did  not  undergo  a  fresh  destruction. 

How  could  it  be  destroyed,  I  again  repeat  ? 

On  the  supposition  that  ^lia  did  not  begin  to  exist  until  136,  after 
the  end  of  the  war,  how  could  one  destroy  a  heap  of  ruins  ? 

On  the  supposition  that  thee  was  an  Alia,  dated  either  122  or  a 
little  after,  one  would  destroy  the  beginnings  of  a  new  city  which  the 
Romans  would  siibstitute  for  the  old  one.  What  good  would  such  a 
destruction  effect,  seeing  that,  far  from  relinquishing  the  idea  of  a  new 
Jerusalem  as  irreverent,  the  Romans  resume  that  idea  from  that  time 
A'ith  more  vigour  than  ever  ?  What  has  been  carelessly  repeated  about 
the  plough  which  the  Romans  had  passed  over  the  soil  of  the  temple 
and  city,  has  no  other  foundations  than  the  false  Jewish  traditions, 
referred  to  by  the  Talmud  and  St  Jerome,  wherein  Terentius 
Rufus,  who  was  charged  by  Titus  to  demolish  Jerusalem,  has  been  con- 
founded by  Tinlius  Rufus,  the  imperial  legate  of  the  time  of  Hadrian. 
Here  again  the  error  has  arisen  from  the  historical  delusion  which  has 
transferred  to  the  war  of  Hadrian,  which  one  knows  is  a  trifle,  the 
circumstances  much  better  known  of  the  war  of  Titus.  It  has  often 
been  attempted  to  find  in  the  two  bulls  which  are  on  the  reverse  of  the 
medal  of  the  foundation  of  .-lElia  Capitolina,  a  representation  of  a 
"Templum  Aratum."  These  two  bulls  are  simply  a  colonial  emblem, 
and  they  represent  the  earnest  hopes  which  the  new  "  Coloni  "  enter- 
tained for  the  agriculture  of  Judea. 


APPENDIX.  297 


APPENDIX  11. 


The  epoch  when  the  book  of  Tobit  was  composed  is  very  difficult  to 
fix.  In  our  time,  the  distinguished  critics  M.  M.  Hitzig,  Volkmar 
Grsetz,  have  ascribed  that  writing  to  the  time  of  Ti-ajan  or  of  Hadrian. 
M.  Grsetz  connects  it  with  the  circumstances  which  followed  the  war  of 
Bar-Coziba,  and  in  particular  to  the  interdiction  which  according  to 
him  was  made  by  the  Romans  as  to  the  interment  of  the  corpses  of 
the  massacred  Jews.  But  besides  the  fact  of  a  similar  interdiction  is 
not  founded  except  upon  thac  of  passages  of  the  Talmud  stripped  of 
serious  historical  value,  the  characteristic  importance  attributed  in  our 
book  to  the  good  work  of  interring  the  dead,  explained  itself  in  a 
manner  much  more  profound,  as  we  are  just  now  going  to  show. 

Three  great  reasons,  in  our  opinion,  preclude  us  from  accepting  the 
Book  of  Tobit  as  being  at  a  date  so  early, — forbid  us  to  descend,  at  least 
for  the  composition  of  the  book,  beyond  the  year  70. 

Firstly,  The  prophecy  of  Tobit  (xiii.  9  et  seq.,  xiv.  4  ct  seq.),  which 
ought  naturally  to  be  taken  as  a  "  prophetia  post  eventum,"  clearly 
mentions  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Nabuchodnosor  (xiv.  4)  ;  the 
return  of  Zerubabel ;  the  construction  of  the  second  temple,  a  temple 
very  little  to  be  compared  to  the  first,  very  unworthy  of  the  divine 
majesty  (xiv.  5).  But  the  dispersion  of  Israel  would  have  its  end, 
and  again  the  temple  would  be  rebuilt,  with  all  the  magnificence 
described  by  the  prophets,  to  serve  as  a  centre  for  the  religion  of  the 
whole  world. 

For  the  old  prophet  there  was  no  destruction  of  the  second  temple  ; 
that  temple  would  be  the  advent  of  the  glory  of  Israel,  would  not  disap^ 
pear,  except  to  give  place  to  the  eternal  temple.  M.  Volkmar,  M. 
Hitzig  observe,  it  is  true,  that  in  the  Fourth  Book  of  Esdras,  in  Judith, 
and  in  much  of  the  apocryphal  book,  the  destruction  of  the  temple 
by  Nabuchodnosor  is  identified  with  the  destruction  of  the  temple  by 
Titus,  and  that  the  reflections  which  are  placed  in  the  mouth  of  the 
fictitious  prophet  are  those  which  happen  after  the  year  70. 

But  this  opinion,  besides  being  of  such  secondary  application,  is  not 
here  admissible.  Evidently  the  verse  5  xiv.  refers  to  the  second 
temple.  The  remark  that  the  new  temple  was  very  different  from  the 
first — for  it  was  anything  but  majestic — is  an  allusion  to  Esd.  iii.  12,  told 
in  the  style  of  Josephus,  Ant.  xi.  iv.  2.  Still  more  this  important 
passage  would  lead  one  to  think  that  at  the  time  when  the  Book  of 
Tobit  was  written,  Herod  had  not  as  yet  put  foith  his  hand  on  the 
second  temple  in  order  that  he  might  rebuild  it,  an  event  which  took 
place  the  19th  year  before  J.C. 

The  critics  whom  I  now  am  fighting  apply  here  the  system,  getting 
greatly  into  fashion,  which  seeks  to  base  upon  a  passage  of  the  pseudo 
Epistle  of  Barnabas,  and  according  to  whom  there  had  been  under  the 
reign  of  Hadrian,  a  commencement  of  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple  under- 
taken by  consent  with  the  Jews.  It  is  to  this  reconstruction  that  may 
apply  the  passage  of  Tobit  xiv.  5.  But  I  have  shown  elsewhere  that 
the  interpretation  of  the  false  passage  of  Barnabas  is  wrong. 


298  APPENDIX. 

Were  it  true,  it  would  be  singular  that  an  abortive  attempt,  which 
would  not  be  without  interruption,  should  become  thus  the  base  of  the 
whole  apocalyptic  system. 

Secondly,  the  verse  xiv.  10  furnishes  another  proof  of  the  com- 
position, relatively  old,  of  the  Book  of  Tobit.  "  My  Son,  see  what  Aman 
did  to  Ahkiakar,  who  had  nourished  him,  how  he  cast  him  from  the 
light  into  darkness,  and  how  he  repaid  him  ;  but  Ahkiakar  was  saved 
and  Aman  received  the  chastisement  that  he  deserved  ;  Manasse  likewise 
gave  him  alms,  and  was  saved  from  the  deadly  snare  which  Aman  had 
spread  for  him  ;  Aman  fell  into  the  snare  and  perished."  This  Ahkiakar 
was  a  nephew  of  Tobit's  father,  who  figures  in  the  book  as  the  steward 
and  maitre  d'hotel  of  Esarhaddow.  The  part  he  plays  is  incidental 
and  peculiar. 

The  fashion  in  which  he  is  spoken  of,  seems  to  show  that  he  was 
known  by  some  other  means. 

The  verse  we  are  quoting  does  not  explain  this,  unless  one  admits, 
parallelly  to  the  Book  of  Tobit,  another  book  where  an  infidel,  called 
Aman,  who  had  for  foster-father  a  good  Jew  named  Ahkiakar,  that 
he  repaid  him  with  ingratitude  and  thrust  him  into  prison,  but  Ahkiakar 
was  saved  and  Aman  was  punished. 

This  Aman  was  evidently,  in  the  Jewish  romances,  the  man  who 
played  the  part  of  offering  to  others  snares  into  which  he  himself  fell, 
seeing  that  in  the  tales  to  which  Tobit  made  allusion,  the  same  Aman 
suffered  the  fate  which  he  intended  a  certain  Manasses  to  undergo. 
Impossible,  in  my  opinion,  not  to  see  here  a  parallel  of  the  Haman  of 
the  Book  of  Esther  hung  from  the  gallows  where  he  hoped  to  hang 
Mordecai,  foster-father  of  Esther. 

In  a  book  composed  in  the  year  100  or  135  of  our  time,  aU  this  is 
inconceivable.  One  must  refer  it  to  a  time  and  to  a  Jewish  society 
where  the  Book  of  Esther  would  exist  under  an  entirely  different  form 
than  that  of  our  Bibles,  and  where  the  part  of  Mordecai  was  played  by 
a  certain  Ahkiakar,  also  a  servant  of  the  king. 

Now  the  Book  of  Esther  certainly  existed,  just  as  we  have  it,  in  the 
first  century  of  our  era,  since  Josephus  knows  of  its  being  interpolated. 

Thirdly,  an  objection  none  the  less  grave  against  the  method  of  M. 
Grsetz  is  that,  if  the  Book  of  Tobit  was  posterior  to  the  defeat  of  Bar- 
Coziba,  the  Christians  would  not  have  adopted  it.  In  the  interval 
between  Titus  and  Hadrian,  the  religious  brotherhood  of  the  Jews  and 
the  Christians  is  sufficient  to  account  for  the  fact  that  books  newly 
brought  to  light  in  the  Jewish  community,  such  as  that  of  Judith,  the 
apocalypse  of  Esdras,  and  that  of  Baruch,  would  pass  without  difficulty 
from  the  synagog-ue  to  the  Church.  After  the  intestine  broils  which 
accompanied  the  war  of  Bar-Coziba,  there  would  be  no  room  for  this. 
The  Jewish  and  Christian  faiths  are  henceforth  two  enemies  ;  nothing 
passed  from  one  side  to  the  other  of  the  gulf  which  divide  them. 
Besides,  the  synagogue  really  no  longer  created  such  books,  calm, 
idyllic,  without  bigotry,  without  hate. 

After  135,  Judaism  produces  the  Talmud,  a  piece  of  dry  and 
violent  casuistry.  The  religious  views  are  all  profane,  and  of  Persian 
origin,  as  that  of  the  healing  of  demoniacs  and  of  the  blind  bj  the 
viscera  of  fishes.     This  moderation  of  the  marvellous,  in  consequence  of 


APPENDIX.  299 

which  the  two  are  cured,  without  miracle,  by  the  prescriptions  whereof 
those  privileged  of  God  have  the  secret,  all  this  does  not  belong  to  the 
second  century  after  J.  C. 

The  condition  of  the  people  at  the  time  when  our  author  wrote,  was 
comparatively  happy  and  tranquil,  at  least  in  the  country  where  he 
composed  it.  The  Jews  appeared  wealthy,  they  were  in  domestic 
service  under  the  nobles,  acting  as  go-betweens  in  all  purchases,  and 
occupying  places  of  confidence,  being  employed  as  stewards,  major- 
domos,  butlers,  as  we  see  in  the  Books  of  Esther  and  of  Nehemiah.  In 
place  of  being  troubled  by  the  rain,  dreams,  and  passions  which  en- 
grossed every  Jew  at  the  end  of  the  first  century  of  our  era,  the  conscience 
of  the  author  is  serene  in  a  high  degree.  He  is  not  exactly  a  Messianist. 
He  believes  in  a  wonderful  future  for  Jerusalem,  but  without  any 
miracle  from  heaven,  or  Messiah  as  king.  The  book  then  is,  in  our  opinion, 
anterior  to  the  second  century  of  our  era.  By  the  pious  sentiment  which 
there  reigns,  it  is  far  behind  the  Book  of  Esther,  a  book  from  which  all 
religious  sentiment  is  totally  absent.  It  might  he  imagined  that  Egypt 
was  the  spot  where  such  a  romance  could  possibly  have  been  composed, 
if  the  certainty  that  the  original  text  was  written  in  Hebrew  had  not 
created  a  diflBculty.  The  Jews  of  Egypt  did  not  write  in  that  language. 
I  do  not  think,  however,  that  the  book  was  composed  at  Jerusalem  or  in 
Judea.  What  the  author  intends  is  to  cheer  up  the  provincial  Jew,  who 
has  a  horror  of  schism,  and  abides  in  communion  with  Jerusalem. 

The  Persian  ideas  which  fill  the  book,  the  intimate  acquaintance 
which  the  author  possesses  of  the  great  cities  of  the  East,  although  he 
makes  strange  mistakes  as  to  the  distances,  bring  one  to  imagine  that 
he  is  in  Mesopotamia,  particularly  at  Adiabene,  where  the  Jews  were 
in  a  very  flourishing  condition  in  the  middle  of  the  first  century  of  our 
era. 

In  supposing  that  the  book  was  thus  composed  about  the  year  50 
in  Upper  Syria,  one  can,  it  seems  to  me,  satisfy  the  exigencies  of  the  pro- 
blem. The  state  of  the  usages  and  of  the  ideas  of  the  Jews  ;  above  all, 
that  which  concerns  the  bread  of  the  Gentiles,  recalls  the  time  which 
preceded  the  revolt  under  Nero.  The  description  of  the  eternal 
Jerusalem  seems  based  upon  the  Apocalypse  (ch.  xxi.),  not  that 
one  of  the  authors  had  copied  from  the  other,  but  that  they  drew  from 
a  source  of  mutual  imaginations.  The  demonology,  especially  the  cir- 
cumstance of  the  devil  bound  in  the  deserts  of  Upper  Egypt,  recall  the 
Evangelist  Mark.  Lastly,  The  form  of  the  personal  memoirs,  which 
the  Greek  text  presents,  at  least  in  the  opening  pages,  makes  one  think 
of  the  Book  of  Nehemiah  :  that  form  was  no  longer  in  use  in  the 
apocryphas  posterior  to  the  year  70.  The  inductions  which  lead  one  to 
assign  the  date  of  the  composition  to  an  anterior  date,  inductions  which 
we  have  not  dissembled,  are  demolished  by  the  considerations  which 
prevent  us,  on  the  other  side,  attributing  to  the  book  a  great  antiquity. 
One  important  fact,  indeed,  is  that  one  does  not  find,  neither  amongst 
the  Jews  nor  the  Christians,  any  mention  of  the  Book  of  Tobit  before 
the  end  of  the  second  century.  Now  it  is  necessary  to  confess  that  if  the 
Christians  of  the  first  and  second  century  possessed  the  book,  they  would 
have  found  it  in  perfect  harmony  with  their  sentiments.  Let  it  be 
Clement  Remain,  for  example  ;  certainly  if  he  had  had  such  a  writing 


300  APPENDIX. 

at  hand,  he  would  have  quoted  it,  just  as  he  quotes  the  Book  of  Judith, 
If  the  book  had  been  anterior  to  Jesus  Christ,  one  cannot  comprehend 
that  it  would  have  remained  in  such  obscurity. 

On  the  contrary,  if  one  admits  that  it  was  composed  in  Oschoeue 
or  in  Adialene  a  few  years  before  the  grand  catastrophes  of  Judea,  one 
may  suppose  that  the  Jews  engaged  in  the  struggle  would  have  had 
knowledge  of  it.  The  book  was  not  yet  translated  into  Greek  :  the 
greater  part  of  the  Christians  could  not  read  it.  Lymmachus  or  Theo- 
dosius  would  have  been  found  in  possession  of  the  original,  and  they  would 
have  translated  it.  In  that  case,  the  fortunes  of  the  book  amongst  the 
Christians  would  be  commenced. 

One  leading  element  of  the  question,  which  has  not  been  used  here 
by  the  interpreters,  are  the  analogies  which  a  sagacious  criticism  has 
discovered  between  the  Jewish  narrative  and  that  collection  of  tales 
which  have  gone  round  the  world,  without  distinction  of  language  or 
race.  Studied  from  this  point  of  view,  the  Book  of  Tobit  seems  to  us 
like  the  Hebrew  and  godly  version  of  a  tale  which  is  related  in  Armenia, 
in  Russia,  amongst  the  Tartars,  and  the  Higanes,  and  which  is  probably 
of  Babylonian  origin.  A  traveller  finds  in  the  roadway  the  corpse  of 
a  man  which  had  been  refused  sepulture  because  he  had  not  paid  his 
debts.  He  stopped  to  bury  him.  Soon  afterwards,  a  companion,  clothed 
in  white,  offers  to  journey  with  him.  This  companion  gets  the  traveller 
out  of  a  bad  scrape,  procures  riches  for  him,  and  a  charming  wife,  who 
wrests  him  away  from  the  evil  spirits.  At  the  moment  of  parting,  the 
traveller  offers  him  the  half  of  all  that  which  he  had  gained,  thanks  to 
him,  save  and  except  his  wife,-  and  naturally  so.  The  companion  de- 
mands his  half  share  of  the  woman  :  great  perplexity  arises  !  At  the 
moment  when  he  is  about  to  proceed  to  make  that  strange  division,  the 
companion  reveals  himself — ^he  is  the  ghost  of  the  dead  man  whom  the 
traveller  had  buried. 

No  doubt  that  the  Book  of  Tobit  is  an  adaptation  according  to  Jewish 
ideas  of  that  old  narrative,  popular  throughout  the  whole  of  the  East. 
It  is  this  that  explains  the  fantastical  importance  assigned  to  the  burial 
of  the  dead,  which  constitutes  a  remarkable  feature  of  our  book.  No- 
where else  in  the  Jewish  literature  is  the  burial  of  the  dead  placed  on 
the  same  footing  as  that  of  the  observance  of  the  Law.  The  resemblance 
to  the  tales  of  the  East  confirms  thus  our  hypothesis  concerning  the 
Mesopotamian  origin  of  the  book.  The  Jews  of  Palestine  did  not  listen 
to  these  pagan  tales.  Those  of  Oschoene  would  be  more  open  to  the 
talk  of  those  outside  them.  We  must  add  that  the  Book  of  Esther 
could  not  have  existed  in  that  country  in  the  form  which  it  was  known 
in  Judea  :  this  will  explain  the  strange  passage  concerning  Aman  and 
Ahkiahkar. 

Our  hypothesis  then  is  that  Book  of  Tobit  was  composed  in  Hebrew 
in  the  north  of  Syria,  towards  the  year  40  or  50  after  J.C.  ;  that  it  was 
at  first  little  known  by  the  Jews  in  Palestine  ;  that  it  was  translated 
into  Greek  towards  the  year  160  by  the  Judeo-Christian  translators, 
and  that  it  was  immediately  adapted  by  the  Christians. 

THE  END. 


London  :  Printed  by  the  Temple  Puhlishivg  Companv. 


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DATE  DUE 

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CAYLORD 

PHINTEOINU.S.A.