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LIBRARY    OF 

T.  V.  MOORE. 


No.  In.  Vol. 


INSTITUTES 

or 

ECCLESIASTICAL    HISTORY, 

ANCIENT    AND    MODERN, 

IN   FOUR  BOOKS, 


MUCH  CORRECTED,  ENLARGED,  AND  IMPROVED  FROM  THE 
'  PRIMARY  AUTHORITIES. 


BY  JOHN  LAWRENCE  VON  MOSHEIM,  D.D., 

CHANCELLOR    OF    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    GOTTINGEN. 


A  NEW  AND  LITERAL  TRANSLATION,  FROM  THE  ORIGINAL  LATIN,  WITH 
COPIOUS  ADDITIONAL  NOTES,  ORIGINAL  AND  SELECTED. 


BY  JAMES   MURDOCH.  D. D. 

IN     THREE    VOLUMES. 

VOL.  I. 

SECOND    EDITION,    REVISED    AND   ENLARGED. 


NEW-YORK: 

HARPER   &   BROTHERS,   82   CLIFF-STREET. 
1839. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1839,  by  JAMES  MURDOCH, 
in  the  Clerk's  office  of  the  District  Court  of  Connecticut  District. 


IMS 


TRANSLATOR'S    PREFACE. 


To  produce  a  general  history  of  the  Christian  church,  adapted  es- 
pecially to  the  wants  of  the  younger  clergy,  but  suitable  for  intelligent 
readers  of  all  classes,  a  history  so  comprehensive  as  to  touch  on  all 
the  more  important  facts,  briefly  indeed,  but  distinctly,  with  suitable 
enlargement  on  the  points  of  peculiar  interest,  and  a  constant  reference 
to  authorities  and  to  the  writers  who  give  more  full  information,  so 
that  the  work,  while  itself  affording  a  good  general  knowledge  of  the 
whole  subject,  might  serve  as  a  guide  to  more  thorough  investigations  ; 
—such  was  the  design  of  Dr.  Mosheim  in  the  following  work,  and 
such  has  been  the  aim  of  the  present  translator. 

The  great  need  of  such  a  work  at  the  present  day,  when  every  other 
branch  of  theology  is  much  cultivated,  is  so  generally  felt,  that  it  is 
unnecessary  to  say  anything  to  evince  its  importance  or  to  excite  an 
interest  on  the  subject.  The  only  things,  therefore,  which  here  claim 
attention,  are  the  character  and  history  of  Dr.  Mosheim,  the  reasons 
for  giving  a  new  translation  of  his  work,  and  the  additions  made  to  it 
by  way  of  notes. 

John  Lawrence  von  Mosheim  was  nobly  born  at  Lubec,  October  9, 
1694.  His  education  was  completed  at  the  university  of  Kiel,  where, 
at  an  early  age,  he  became  professor  of  philosophy.  In  his  youth  he 
cultivated  a  taste  for  poetry ;  and  he  actually  published  criticisms  on 
that  subject.  But  pulpit  eloquence,  biblical  and  historical  theology, 
and  practical  religion,  were  his  favourite  pursuits.  He  published  seven 
volumes  of  sermons,  and  left  a  valuable  treatise  on  preaching,  which 
was  printed  after  his  death.  The  English  and  French  preachers,  par- 
ticularly Tillotson  and  Watts,  Saurin,  Massillon,  and  Flechier,  were  his 
models.  The  Germans  admit  that  he  contributed  much  to  improve  the 
style  and  manner  of  preaching  in  their  country.  While  a  professor 
at  Kiel,  he  gained  such  reputation  that  the  King  of  Denmark  invited 
him  to  a  professorship  at  Copenhagen.  But  the  Duke  of  Brunswick 
soon  after,  in  the  year  1725,  called  him  to  the  divinity  chair  at  Helm- 
stadt,  which  he  filled  with  great  applause  for  twenty-two  years.  In 
1747,  when  George  II.  king  of  England,  the  founder  of  the  university 
of  Gottingen,  wished  to  place  over  that  institution  men  of  the  highest 
rank  in  the  literary  world,  Dr.  Mosheim  was  deemed  worthy  to  be  its 
chancellor,  and  the  head  of  the  department  of  theology.  In  this  hon- 
ourable station  he  remained  eight  years,  or  till  his  death,  September 
9,  1755.  His  works  were  very  numerous  ;  consisting  of  translations 
into  Latin  or  German  of  various  foreign  works,  Italian,  French,  Eng- 


iv  TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE. 

lish,  and  Greek,  with  learned  notes ;  an  immense  number  of  disqui- 
sitions relating  to  historical,  dogmatic,  and  moral  subjects ;  besides 
orations,  sermons,  letters,  &c.  On  church  history,  in  which  he  most 
distinguished  himself,  he  published,  among  other  works,  two  volumes 
of  essays  on  detached  subjects  ;  and  a  compendious  church  history,  in 
two  volumes,  12mo  ;  a  full  church  history  of  the  first  century,  4to  ; 
Commentary  on  the  affairs  of  Christians  till  the  times  of  Constantine, 
4to  ;  and  he  had  just  published  the  revision  and  enlargement  of  his 
compendious  church  history,  under  the  new  title  of  Institutes  of  Ec- 
clesiastical History,  ancient  and  modern,  in  one  volume,  4to,  when  he 
was  removed  by  death,  at  the  age  of  61. 

The  character  of  Dr.  Mosheim  is  thus  given  by  his  disciple  and 
translator,  /.  R.  Schlegel.  "  We  may  have  had,  perhaps,  biblical  in- 
terpreters, who,  like  Ernesti  and  Michaelis,  expounded  the  Scriptures 
with  more  philosophical  and  critical  learning  ;  perhaps,  also,  theolo- 
gians and  moralists  who  have  treated  dogmatic  and  practical  theology 
with  more  metaphysical  precision ;  we  may  likewise  have  had,  arid 
perhaps  still  have,  pulpit  orators,  who,  among  the  many  unsuccessful 
imitators  of  Mosheim's  method,  have  even  rivalled  him,  and  perhaps 
come  nearer  to  that  ideal  perfection  which  he  wished  to  see  realized. 
But  in  ecclesiastical  history,  the  merits  of  Mosheim  are  so  decisive 
and  peculiar,  that  I  will  not  venture  to  compare  him  with  any  who 
preceded  or  followed  him  in  this  department  of  learning.  He  is,  as 
Schroeckh  says,  our  first  real  historian  in  church  history."*  Dr. 
Maclaine  informs  us  that,  after  he  had  commenced  his  translation,  he 
received  a  letter  from  Bishop  Warburton,  saying,  "  Mosheim's  com- 
pendium is  excellent,  the  method  admirable ;  in  short,  the  only  one 
deserving  the  name  of  an  ecclesiastical  history.  It  deserves  and 
needs  frequent  notes" 

Mosheim's  Institutes,  as  well  as  most  of  his  other  historical  works, 
being  written  in  Latin,  were  accessible  to  learned  foreigners.  And 
Dr.  Archibald  Maclaine,  the  son  of  a  dissenting  minister  in  the  north 
of  Ireland,  and  himself  an  assistant  minister  to  an  English  congrega- 
tion at  the  Hague,  published  an  English  translation  of  these  Institutes 
so  early  as  the  year  1764,  only  nine  years  after  the  appearance  of 
the  original.  Dutch  and  French  translations  were  also  made ;  but  I 
know  not  by  whom  or  at  what  time.  In  1769,  J.  A.  C.  von  Einem, 
a  pious  but  not  profound  German  minister,,  commenced  his  German 
translation  of  the  Institutes.  His  design  was  to  bring  down  the 
work  to  the  capacities  of  the  unlearned,  and  to  render  it  an  edifying 
book  for  common  Christians.  Accordingly,  he  omitted  nearly  all  the 
marginal  references  and  discussions,  and  introduced  much  religious 
biography  and  historical  detail.  His  translation  fills  six  vols.  8vo, 
and  the  continuation  of  the  history  three  additional  volumes.  In  the 
year  1770,  John  R.  Schlegel,  rector  of  the  gymnasium  of  Heilbronn, 
a  learned  and  judicious  man,  commenced  another  German  translation, 
which  is  very  literal  and  close,  free  from  all  interpolations,  and  ac- 
*  Schlcgel'3  Mosheim,  vol.  i.,  Preface. 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE.  v 

companied  with  learned  notes.  This  translation,  in  four  large  volumes 
8vo,  was  completed  in  1780;  and  a  continuation  of  the  history,  in 
two  volumes,  appeared  in  1784  and  1788. 

The  lectures  and  the  printed  works  of  Mosheim  on  ecclesiastical 
history  kindled  up  such  ardour  for  this  science  in  Germany,  that,  in 
the  course  of  fifty  years,  Baumgarten,  Sender,  Schroeckh,  Henke,  and 
Schmidt,  severally,  produced  large  and  valuable  church  histories.  Of 
these,  the  most  full  and  complete  is  that  of  Schroeckh,  a  pupil  of  Mo- 
sheim, continued  by  Tzschirner,  in  forty-five  vols.  8vo.  And  next, 
that  of  Henke,  continued  by  Vater,  in  nine  vols.  8vo.  Nor  has  the 
ardour  for  this  branch  of  theology  yet  subsided  in  Germany ;  for  Pro- 
fessor Neander,  of  Berlin,  is  now  publishing  a  profound  and  philosoph- 
ical church  history,  which,  if  completed  on  the  plan  commenced,  will 
probably  fill  twenty-five  or  thirty  volumes  8vo.  The  limits  assigned 
to  this  preface  will  not  allow  a  discussion  of  the  merits  of  these  sev- 
eral successors  of  Mosheim.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  a  careful  exami- 
nation of  them  all  has  resulted  in  the  decided  conviction  that  Mo- 
sheim's  history,  in  a  form  similar  to  that  given  to  it  by  Schlegel,  is 
the  best  adapted  to  the  wants  of  this  country,  and  the  most  likely  to 
meet  general  approbation  among  the  American  clergy. 

The  necessity  for  a  new  English  version  of  the  Institutes  arises 
principally  from  the  unauthorized  liberties  taken  by  the  former  trans- 
lator, under  the  mistaken  idea  of  improving  the  work  and  rendering 
it  more  acceptable  to  the  public.  He  says  in  his  preface :  "  The 
style  of  the  original  is  by  no  means  a  model  to  imitate  in  a  work  de- 
signed for  general  use.  Dr.  Mosheim  affected  brevity,  and  laboured 
to  crowd  many  things  into  few  words :  thus  his  diction,  though 
pure  and  correct,  became  sententious  and  harsh,  without  that  harmony 
which  pleases  the  ear,  and  those  transitions  which  make  a  narration 
flow  with  ease.  This  being  the  case,  I  have  sometimes  taken  con- 
siderable liberties  with  my  author,  and  followed  the  spirit  of  his  nar- 
rative without  adhering  strictly  to  the  letter :  and  have  often  added 
a  few  sentences  to  render  an  observation  more  striking,  a  fact  more 
clear,  a  portrait  more  finished."  Thus  Dr.  Maclaine  frankly  owns, 
that  his  chief  design  was  to  render  the  work  interesting  to  those 
superficial  readers  who  delight  in  that  harmony  which  pleases  the  ear, 
and  in  those  transitions  which  make  a  narration  flow  with  ease ;  and 
that  he  often  added  a  few  sentences  of  his  own,  to  give  more  vivacity 
and  point  to  the  sentiments  of  his  author,  or  more  splendour  to  their 
dress.  And  whoever  will  be  at  the  pains  of  comparing  his  translation 
with  the  original,  may  see  that  he  has  essentially  changed  the  style, 
and  greatly  coloured  and  altered  in  many  places  the  sentiments  of 
his  author ;  in  short,  that  he  has  paraphrased  rather  than  translated 
a  large  part  of  the  work.  The  book  is  thus  rendered  heavy  and  te- 
dious to  the  reader  by  its  superfluity  of  words,  and  likewise  obscure 
and  indefinite,  and  sometimes  self-contradictory,  by  the  looseness  of 
its  unguarded  statements.  Its  credibility  also  as  a  history  of  facts  is 
impaired,  and  it  fails  of  carrying  full  conviction  to  the  mind,  because 


vi  TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE. 

it  is  stripped  of  its  native  simplicity,  precision,  and  candour.  For  no 
wise  man  will  confide  in  a  writer  who  appears  intent  on  fabricating 
sonorous  and  flowing  periods,  who  multiplies  splendid  epithets,  and 
habitually  deals  in  loose  and  unqualified  assertions.  Nor  is  this  all, 
for  the  old  translation  has  actually  exposed  Dr.  Mosheim  to  severe  and 
unmerited  censure  from  different  quarters :  and  Dr.  Maclaine  has 
long  stood  accused  before  the  public  as  a  translator  "  who  has  inter- 
woven his  own  sentiments  in  such  a  manner  with  those  of  the  original 
author,  both  in  the  notes  and  in  the  text,  that  it  is  impossible  for  a 
mere  English  reader  to  distinguish  them ;  and  in  diverse  instances 
he  has  entirely  contradicted  him.  This  (add  the  accusers)  will  be 
evident  to  all,  if  a  literal  translation  of  Mosheim  shall  ever  be  pub- 
lished."* It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  so  large  a  portion  of  the 
community  have  been  dissatisfied  with  Dr.  Maclaine's  Mosheim,  and 
have  desired  a  more  faithful  and  literal  version  of  this  valuable  author. 

If  the  translation  here  offered  to  the  public,  is  what  it  was  intended 
to  be,  it  is  a  close,  literal  version,  containing  neither  more  nor  less 
than  the  original,  and  presenting  the  exact  thoughts  of  the  author  in 
the  same  direct,  artless,  and  lucid  manner,  with  as  much  similarity  in 
the  phraseology  and  modes  of  expression  as  the  idioms  of  the  two 
languages  would  admit.  That  all  the  elegances  of  the  Latin  style 
and  diction  of  the  author  have  been  retained,  is  not  pretended.  The 
translator  can  only  say  he  has  aimed  to  give  Mosheim,  as  far  as  he 
was  able,  the  same  port  and  mien  in  English  as  he  has  in  Latin. 

But  writing  out  an  entirely  new  and  independent  translation  of  the 
Institutes  has  not  been  half  the  labour  bestowed  on  the  work.  Every- 
where the  statements  of  Mosheim  have  been  compared  with  the 
sources  from  which  they  were  drawn,  and  with  the  representations  of 
other  standard  writers  of  different  communities,  so  far  as  the  means 
of  doing  this  were  at  hand.  The  reasonings  also  of  Mosheim  have 
been  weighed  with  care.  And  nothing  has  been  suffered  to  go  before 
the  public,  without  first  passing  an  examination  by  the  best  criteria 
within  the  reach  of  the  translator.  Often  days  and  weeks  have  been 
consumed  in  such  examinations,  when  the  results  were,  that  Mosheim's 
statements  needed  no  correction,  or  at  least  that  no  palpable  errors  were 
discovered  in  them,  and  it  was  therefore  thought  advisable  to  allow  him 
to  express  his  own  views  without  note  or  comment.  But,  in  many 
instances,  the  translator  supposed  that  he  discovered  such  mistakes 
or  defects  in  his  author  as  called  for  animadversion.  In  these  cases 
he  has  given,  in  the  form  of  notes,  such  statements  and  criticisms  as 
he  deemed  necessary.  Numerous  other  instances  occurred  in  which 
Mosheim  was  found  to  differ  from  other  standard  writers,  or  to  have 
simply  omitted  what  the  translator  or  others  deemed  worth  inserting; 
and  in  such  cases  the  opinions  or  statements  of  other  writers  have 
been  given,  that  the  reader  might  be  able  to  compare  them,  and  the 
omitted  matter  has  been  supplied.  In  the  history  of  the  primitive 
church,  for  two  or  three  centuries,  the  translator  deemed  almost  every- 
*  See  the  New- York  edition  of  Maclaine's  Mosheim,  in  1824,  vol.  iv.,  p.  284. 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE.  vii 

thing  interesting  which  can  be  learned  with  any  degree  of  certainty. 
Accordingly,  his  notes  and  animadversions  here  are  more  frequent 
and  minute  than  in  the  subsequent  parts  of  the  work. — In  regard  to 
what  are  called  the  fathers,  especially  those  of  the  four  first  centuries, 
and  likewise  the  leading  men  in  the  church  in  all  ages,  he  has  deemed 
it  proper  greatly  to  enlarge  the  account  given  by  Mosheim ;  not  so 
much  by  minutely  tracing  the  history  of  their  private  lives,  as  by  more 
fully  stating  their  public  characters  and  acts,  and  mentioning  such 
of  their  works  as  have  come  down  to  us.  In  no  one  respect  has 
the  history  been  more  enlarged  than  in  this.  Through  all  the  ages 
down  to  the  reformation,  the  eminent  men,  whom  Mosheim  thought 
proper  to  name  particularly,  have  each  a  distinct  note  assigned  them, 
containing  all  of  much  importance  which  can  be  said  of  them  ;  and 
in  each  century,  at  the  close  of  Mosheim's  list  of  eminent  men,  nearly 
a  complete  catalogue  of  all  those  omitted  by  him  is  subjoined,  with 
brief  notices  of  the  most  material  things  known  concerning  them. 
— On  the  controversies  and  disputes  among  Christians,  especially  such 
as  related  to  religious  doctrines,  much  and  critical  attention  has  been 
bestowed.  So  also  the  reputed  heresies,  and  the  different  sects  of 
professed  Christians,  which  Mosheim  had  treated  with  great  fulness 
and  ability,  have  been  carefully  re-examined  and  subjected  to  critical 
remarks.  Here  great  use  has  been  made  of  the  writers  who  suc- 
ceeded Mosheim,  and  particularly  of  the  younger  Walch. — The  prop- 
agation of  Christianity,  especially  among  the  nations  of  Europe  in 
the  middle  ages,  and  among  the  Asiatics  by  the  Nestorians,  has  been 
the  subject  of  frequent  and  sometimes  long  notes. — The  origin  and 
history  of  the  reformation,  particularly  in  countries  not  of  the  Augs- 
burg confession;  also  the  contests  between  the  Lutherans  and  the 
Reformed,  and  the  history  of  the  English  and  Scotch  churches,  and 
of  the  English  dissenters,  have  received  particular  attention  ;  and  the 
occasional  mistakes  of  Mosheim  have  been  carefully  pointed  out.  Yet 
the  enlargements  of  the  history  since  the  times  of  Luther,  and  partic- 
ularly during  the  seventeenth  century,  have  been  the  less  considerable, 
because  there  was  danger  of  swelling  the  third  volume  to  a  dispro- 
portionate size,  and  because  another  opportunity  is  anticipated  for 
supplying  these  omissions. 

These  remarks  may  give  some  idea  of  the  extensive  additions  to 
the  original  by  way  of  notes.  All  additions  to  the  work  are  carefully 
distinguished  from  the  original  by  being  enclosed  in  brackets.  They 
are  also  accompanied  by  a  notice  of  the  persons  responsible  for  their 
truth  and  correctness.  What  the  translator  gives  as  his  own,  he  sub- 
scribes with  a  Tr.  When  he  borrows  from  others,  which  he  has  done 
very  largely,  he  either  explicitly  states  what  is  borrowed,  and  from 
whom,  or  subjoins  the  name  of  the  author.  Thus  several  notes  are  bor- 
rowed directly  from  Maclaine;  and  these  are  not  only  marked  as  quo- 
tations, but  they  have  the  signature  Mad.  annexed.  A  few  others  are 
translated  from  Von  Sinew's  Mosheim  ;  and  these  have  the  signature 
Von  Ein.  affixed.  But  the  learned  and  judicious  Schlegel  has  been 


viii  TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE. 

taxed  for  the  greatest  amount  of  contributions.  Throughout  the  work 
his  notes  occur,  translated  from  the  German,  and  with  the  signature 
Schl.  annexed. 

The  work  is  now  divided,  perhaps  for  the  first  time,  into  three 
volumes  of  nearly  equal  size,  each  embracing  a  grand  and  distinct 
period  of  church  history,  strongly  marked  with  its  own  peculiar  char- 
acteristics ;  and,  being  furnished  with  a  separate  index,  each  volume 
is  a  complete  and  independent  work  of  itself. 

A  continuation  of  the  history  to  the  present  time  is  deemed  so  .im- 
portant, that  the  translator  intends,  if  his  life  and  health  are  spared,  to 
attempt  a  compilation  of  this  sort  as  soon  as  the  printing  of  these 
volumes  shall  be  completed. 

New-Haven,  February  22,  1832. 


ADVERTISEMENT 

TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION. 


THE  first  edition  of  this  work,  consisting  of  fifteen  hundred  copies, 
was  published i)y  A.  H.  Maltby,  a  worthy  bookseller  of  New-Haven, 
towards  the  close  of  the  year  1832.  At  the  same  time,  two  stereotype 
editions  of  Dr.  Maclaine's  Mosheim  were  thrown  before  the  public, 
at  very  reduced  prices  ;  and  no  pains  were  spared  by  the  interested 
booksellers  to  give  them  currency.  But  notwithstanding  this  stren- 
uous competition,  and  the  supervening  commercial  embarrassments 
of  the  country,  with  no  special  efforts  to  give  it  circulation,  and  no 
patronage  but  what  was  voluntarily  afforded  by  the  friends  of  theo- 
logical science  and  by  a  discerning  and  candid  public,  the  new  Mo- 
sheim had  a  regular  and  constant  sale,  at  its  original  price,  till  the 
whole  edition  was  exhausted;  and  the  work  is  now  received  with  fa- 
vour in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  is  adopted  as  a  text-book  in  near- 
ly every  Protestant  theological  seminary  on  this  side  the  Atlantic. 

For  this  very  kind  reception  of  his  work,  the  author  feels  himself 
under  great  obligations  to  the  enlightened  public  who  have  passed  so 
favourable  a  judgment  upon  it :  and  he  would  now  offer  them  the  best 
return  he  can  make,  a  new  edition  of  the  work,  carefully  revised,  and 
somewhat  enlarged,  and,  as  he  hopes,  more  worthy  of  approbation, 
and  better  suited  to  the  wants  of  students  in  this  branch  of  theology. 

The  translation  has  been  again  compared  with  the  original,  through- 
out, sentence  by  sentence,  and  subjected  to  a  rigid  criticism.  In  a 
very  few  instances,  it  was  discovered,  that  a  word  or  clause  of  the 
original  had  been  overlooked  in  the  translation  ;  and  that  in  several 
instances,  the  import  of  the  original  had  been  inadequately  or  ob- 
scurely expressed.  Yet  no  very  important  departure  from  the  sense 
of  the  original  author,  has  been  discovered.  Nearly  all  the  numerous 
alterations  and  changes,  therefore,  relate  to  the  phraseology,  or  to  the 
choice  of  words  and  the  structure  of  the  sentences.  The  difficulty 
of  combining  a  neat  and  perspicuous  anglicism  with  a  close  adhe- 
rence to  the  sense  and  to  the  very  form  of  thought  in  the  original, 
throughout  so  large  a  work,  must  be  obvious  to  all  who  have  had  ex- 
perience in  the  business  of  translating;  and  they  will  not  need  to  be 
told,  that  numberless  corrections  and  improvements  will  always  occur 
to  a  translator,  who  revises  his  work  after  a  lapse  of  several  years. 
In  this  manner,  the  diction  and  the  style  of  this  edition,  it  is  believed, 
have  been  considerably  improved,  without  any  sacrifice  of  fidelity  in 

VOL.  I.— B 


X  ADVERTISEMENT. 

the  translation.     If  it  be  nob  so,  more  than  half  a  year's  labour  has 
been  expended  unsuccessfully. 

The  references,  to  a  considerable  extent,  and  where  the  means 
were  at  hand,  have  been  verified  ;  and  a  considerable  number  of  er- 
rors, some  occasioned  by  the  transcription,  but  more  by  the  mistakes 
of  the  printers,  have  been  corrected.  Many  new  references  to  au- 
thorities and  to  modern  authors,  have  also  been  added,  in  various 
parts  of  the  work  ;  and  these,  it  is  hoped,  will  add  considerably  to 
the  value  of  the  present  edition. 

Several  topics  have  likewise  been  subjected  to  further  investiga- 
tion :  and  some  new  notes,  of  no  inconsiderable  length,  have  been 
added,  especially  in  the  first  vol.  of  the  work.  See,  for  example  the 
notes  on  the  Meletian  controversy,  p.  269,  &c.  ; — on  the  origin  o:  the 
Christian  festivals,  and  particularly  that  of  Christmas,  p.  279,  &c. ; 
— on  the  life  and  labours  of  St.  Patrick,  the  apostle  of  Ireland,  p. 
316,  &c. ; — and  on  the  character  and  life  of  Mohammed,  the  progress 
of  his  religion,  and  the  sects  among  his  followers ;  both  in  ths  text 
and  in  the  notes,  p.  427-434. 

The  new  matter  in  this  edition  amounts,  probably,  to  fifteen  or 
twenty  pages  in  the  three  volumes.  At  the  same  time,  by  enlarging 
the  pages  a  little,  by  greater  economy  in  regard  to  blank  spaces,  and 
by  giving  the  text  in  a  type  a  trifle  smaller,  the  number  of  pages  in 
each  of  the  volumes  is  less  than  in  the  former  edition.  The  notes 
are  also  printed  in  double  columns,  which  is  not  only  favourable  to 
economy  in  the  printing,  but  will  render  the  perusal  of  the  longer 
notes  less  laborious  to  the  eye. 

Lastly,  the  exclusive  publication  of  the  work  during  ten  years, 
having  been  assigned  to  one  of  the  most  distinguished  publishing 
houses  in  America,  and  that  house  having  undertaken  to  stereotype 
the  work ;  great  pains  have  been  taken,  both  by  the  publishers  and 
the  author,  to  secure  more  accuracy  in  the  printing  of  this  edition, 
than  was  attained  in  the  former  edition^ 
New-Haven,  1839. 


THE 


AUTHOR'S    PREFACE. 


MY  Institutes  of  Christian  History (\)  having  been  long  out  of 
print,  the  worthy  person  at  whose  expense  they  were  published  has 
often  requested  me  to  give  a  new  edition  of  them,  somewhat  improved 
and  enlarged.  This  request  I  for  many  years  resisted  ;  for  I  was  re- 
luctant to  suspend  other  works  then  on  my  hands,  which  were  deemed 
more  important;  besides,  I  must  acknowledge  that  I  shrunk  from 
the  irksome  task  of  correcting  and  enlarging  a  book  which  needed  so 
much  amendment.  The  importunities  of  the  publisher,  however,  and 
of  other  friends  who  joined  with  him,  at  length  overcame  my  tardi- 
ness ;  and  now,  after  the  leisure  hours  of  two  years  have  been  spent 
on  the  work,  it  is  brought  to  a  close  ;  and  these  Institutes  of  Eccle- 
siastical History  now  make  their  appearance,  not  only  in  a  new  form 
and  dress,  but  so  materially  changed  as  to  be  almost  entirely  a  new 
work. 

The  distribution  of  the  materials  under  certain  heads,  which  I  once 
deemed  the  best  form  for  the  learner,  is  still  retained ;  for,  notwith- 
standing weighty  reasons  have  occurred  to  my  mind  for  preferring  a 
continuous  and  unbroken  narration,  I  have  chosen  to  follow  the  judg- 
ment of  those  excellent  men  whom  experience  has  led  to  prefer  the 
former  method.  And,  indeed,  a  little  reflection  must  convince  us, 
that  whoever  would  embrace  in  a  single  book  all  the  facts  and  obser- 
vations necessary  to  a  full  acquaintance  with  the  state  of  the  church 
in  every  age  of  it,  must,  of  course,  adopt  some  classification  and  dis- 
tribution of  those  facts  ;  and  as  such  was  the  design  of  the  following 
work,  I  have  left  its  primitive  form  unchanged,  and  have  directed  my 
attention  solely  to  the  correction,  improvement,  and  enlargement  of  the 
work,  so  as  to  render  it  a  more  useful  book. 

My  principal  care  has  been  to  impart  fidelity  and  authority  to  the 
narration.  For  this  purpose  I  have  gone  to  the  primary  sources  of 
information,  such  as  the  best  writers  of  all  ages  who  lived  in  or  near 
the  times  they  describe  ;  and  I  have  consulted  them  with  attention, 
and  have  transcribed  from  them,  whenever  they  were  sufficiently  con- 
cise, and,  at  the  same  time,  clear  and  nervous.  It  is  often  the  case, 
that  those  who  write  summaries  of  history  only  abridge  the  more 
voluminous  historians ;  and  this  method  I  myself  before  pursued  to 
a  considerable  degree.  But  such  a  procedure,  though  sometimes 

(1)  [A  work  in  2  vols.  12mo,  rirst  pub-     by  J.  P.  Miller,  in  1  vol.  12mo.     Hamb., 
lished  in  1737-41  ;  and  afterward  abridged     1752.— Tr.} 


xii  THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 

justifiable  and  not  to  be  wholly  condemned,  is  attended  with  this  evil, 
that  it  perpetuates  the  mistakes  which  are  apt  to  abound  in  very  large 
and  voluminous  works,  by  causing  them  to  pass  from  a  single  book 
into  numerous  others.  I  had  long  been  apprized  of  this  danger;  but 
I  felt  it,  with  no  little  mortification,  when  I  brought  the  testimony  of 
the  best  authorities  to  pour  their  light  on  the  pages  of  my  own  work. 
I  now  perceived,  that  writers  pre-eminent  for  their  diligence  arid  fidel- 
ity are  not  always  to  be  trusted  ;  and  I  found,  that  I  had  abundant  oc- 
casion for  adding,  expunging,  changing,  and  correcting  in  every  part  of 
my  book.  In  performing  this  task,  I  know  that  I  have  riot  been  want- 
ing in  patience  and  industry,  or  in  watchfulness  and  care  ;  but  whether 
these  have  secured  me  against  all  mistakes,  which  is  confessedly  of 
no  easy  accomplishment,  I  leave  them  to  judge  who  are  best  informed 
in  ecclesiastical  affairs.  To  aid  persons  disposed  to  institute  such 
inquiries,  I  have,  in  general,  made  distinct  reference  to  my  authori- 
ties ;  and  if  I  have  perverted  their  testimony,  either  by  misstatement 
or  misapplication,  I  confess  myself  to  be  less  excusable  than  other 
transgressors  in  this  way,  because  I  had  before  me  all  the  authors 
whom  I  quote,  and  I  turned  them  over,  and  read,  and  compared  them 
with  each  other,  being  resolved  to  follow  solely  their  guidance. 

This  effort  to  render  my  history  faithful  and  true,  that  is,  exactly 
coincident  with  the  statements  of  the  most  credible  witnesses,  has 
caused  many  and  various  changes  and  additions  throughout  the  work; 
but  in  no  part  of  it  are  the  alterations  greater  or  more  noticeable  than 
in  the  Third  Book,  which  contains  the  history  of  the  church,  and 
especially  of  the  Latin  or  Western  Church,  from  the  time  of  Charle- 
magne to  the  reformation  by  Luther.  This  period  of  ecclesiastical 
history,  though  it  embraces  great  events,  and  is  very  important  on 
account  of  the  light  it  casts  on  the  origin  and  causes  of  the  present 
civil  and  religious  state  of  Europe,  thereby  enabling  us  correctly  to 
estimate  and  judge  of  many  things  that  occur  in  our  own  times,  has 
not  hitherto  been  treated  with  the  same  clearness,  solidity,  and  ele- 
gance, as  the  other  parts  of  church  history.  Here  the  number  of 
original  writers  is  great ;  yet  few  of  them  are  in  common  Vise,  or  of 
easy  acquisition,  and  they  all  frighten  us  either  with  their  bulk,  the 
barbarity  of  their  style,  or  their  excessive  price ;  not  a  few  of  them, 
too,  either  knowingly  or  ignorantly,  corrupt  the  truth,  or  at  least  ob- 
scure it  by  their  ignorance  and  unskilfulness  ;  and  some  of  them  have 
not  yet  been  published.  It  is  not  strange,  therefore,  that  many  things 
in  this  part  of  ecclesiastical  history  should  have  been  either  silently 
passed  over  or  less  happily  stated  and  explained,  even  by  the  most 
laborious  and  learned  authors.  Among  these,  the  ecclesiastical  annal- 
ists and  the  historians  of  the  monastic  sects,  so  famous  in  the  Roman 
church,  as  Baronius,  Raynald,  Bzovius,  Manriquez,  Wadding,  and 
others,  though  richly  supplied  with  ancient  manuscripts  and  records, 
have  often  committed  more  faults  and  fallen  into  greater  mistakes, 
than  writers  far  inferior  to  them  in  learning,  reputation,  and  means  of 
information.  Having  therefore  bestowed  much  attention  during  many 


THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE.  xiii 

years  on  the  history  of  the  church  from  the  eighth  century  onward, 
and  believing  that  I  had  obtained,  from  works  published  or  still  in 
manuscript,  a  better  and  more  correct  knowledge  of  many  events 
than  is  given  in  the  common  accounts  of  those  times,  I  conceived  that 
I  might  do  service  to  the  cause  of  ecclesiastical  history  by  exhibiting 
to  the  world  some  of  the  results  of  my  investigations ;  and  that,  by 
throwing  some  light  on  the  obscure  period  of  the  Middle  Ages,  I 
might  excite  men  of  talents  and  industry  to  pursue  the  same  object, 
and  thus  to  perfect  the  history  of  the  Latin  Church.  I  persuade  my- 
self that  I  have  brought  forward  some  things  which  are  new,  or  before 
little  known  ;  that  other  things,  which  had  been  stated  incorrectly  or 
obscurely,  I  have  here  exhibited  with  clearness,  and  traced  back  to  the 
proper  authorities ;  and,  claiming  the  indulgence  allowed  an  old  man 
to  boast  a  little,  that  some  things,  which  were  accredited  fables,  I  have 
now  exploded.  Whether  I  deceive  myself  in  all  this,  or  not,  the  dis- 
cerning reader  may  ascertain  by  examining,  and  comparing  with  the 
common  accounts,  what  I  have  here  said  respecting  Constantino's  do- 
nation, the  Cathari  and  Albigenses,  the  Beghards  and  Beguines,  the 
Brethren  and  Sisters  of  the  Free  Spirit  (that  pest  to  many  parts  of 
Europe  during  four  centuries),  and  of  the  Fratricelli  [or  Little  Breth- 
ren], the  controversies  between  the  Franciscans  and  the  Roman  pon- 
tiffs, the  history  of  Berengarius  and  of  the  Lollards,  and  several  other 
subjects. 

If,  in  these  enlargements  of  ecclesiastical  history,  and  while  giving 
•views  either  partially  or  wholly  new,  I  had  used  the  same  brevity  as 
on  the  subjects  well  stated  and  explained  by  many  before  me,  I 
should  neither  have  satisfied  the  inquisitive  reader  nor  have  done 
justice  to  myself.  For  I  should  have  appeared  to  many,  as  a  writer 
of  fables ;  and  their  apprehensions  on  these  subjects  would  have  been 
indistinct,  useless,  and  fallacious.  Therefore,  when  I  have  departed 
widely  from  the  common  statements,  or  advanced  apparent  novelties, 
I  have  not  only  aimed  to  be  very  explicit,  but,  in  order  to  give  credi- 
bility to  my  narration,  have  gone  into  more  ample  disquisitions  and 
citations  of  authorities,  because  full  statements  and  demonstrations, 
though  out  of  place  in  an  epitome  of  history,  were  here  indispensable. 

In  addition  to  these  causes  for  changing-  materially  the  character, 
and  swelling  the  size,  of  my  book,  another  occurred  soon  after  I  com- 
menced its  revision.  I  had  before  designed  my  work  especially  for 
lecturers  on  church  history,  who  need  a  compendious  text  for  the  basis 
of  their  instructions ;  and  had  therefore  only  touched  upon  many  things 
which  I  supposed  would  be  dilated  and  explained  more  fully  by  the 
lecturer.  But  when  I  began  to  revise  and  correct  the  work  for  a 
new  edition,  it  occurred  to  me  that  it  would  be  more  satisfactory  to 
many,  and  better  subserve  the  cause  of  sacred  learning,  if  the  book 
were  adapted  not  merely  to  the  convenience  of  lecturers,  but  also  to 
the  wants  of  those  who  attempt  without  a  teacher  to  gain  a  general 
knowledge  of  ecclesiastical  history.  As  soon  as  this  thought  occurred, 
my  views  were  changed  ;  and  I  began  at  once  to  supply  omissions, 


xiv  THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 

to  explain  more  fully  what  was  obscure,  and  to  give  greater  precision 
and  distinctness  to  the  whole  narration.  And  hence  it  is  that,  in  de- 
scribing the  calamities  in  which  the  Christians  of  the  first  ages  were 
involved,  more  pains  are  taken  than  is  commonly  done  to  state  pre- 
cisely the  truth ;  and  in  tracing  the  origin  and  progress  of  the  sects 
which  disturbed  the  church,  greater  accuracy  is  attempted ;  so,  like- 
wise, the  new  forms  of  religion,  devised  by  those  who  love  new 
things,  are  calmly  and  candidly  described,  and  with  all  possible  fideli- 
ty ;  and  religious  contests  and  disputes  are  more  clearly  stated,  and 
their  importance  more  carefully  determined ;  and  the  history  of  the 
Roman  pontiffs  after  the  times  of  Charlemagne,  their  conflicts  and  their 
enterprises,  have  received  more  careful  attention.  I  mention  these 
as  specimens  only  of  what  has  been  attempted,  for  the  advantage  of 
those  who  cannot  pursue  a  regular  course  of  church  history  from  their 
want  of  books  or  leisure,  and  who  yet  wish  to  obtain  a  clear  and  cor- 
rect view  of  the  principal  facts  and  transactions.  The  book,  for  the 
most  part,  may  be  safely  trusted  by  such  readers ;  and  it  will  afford 
them  as  much  knowledge  as  will  satisfy  one  that  reads  only  for  prac- 
tical purposes ;  and,  besides,  it  will  direct  to  the  authors  from  whom 
more  full  information  may  be  obtained. 

It  would  be  folly,  and  would  betray  ignorance  of  human  imperfec- 
tion, if  I  should  suppose  that  no  errors  could  be  detected,  and  that 
nothing  needed  correction  in  all  the  details  of  so  large  a  history  ;  yet, 
conscious  of  my  own  integrity  and  good  faith,  and  of  the  pains  I  have 
taken  to  avoid  mistakes,  I  cannot  but  hope,  that  I  have  rarely  so  failed 
that  serious  evils  will  result  from  my  errors. 

I  could  add  some  other  prefatory  remarks,  which  would,  perhaps, 
not  be  useless ;  but  nothing  more  need  be  added  to  enable  those  to 
judge  correctly  of  the  present  work,  who  will  be  candid  and  ingenu- 
ous, and  who  are  competent  judges  in  such  matters.  I  therefore 
conclude  by  offering  the  just  tribute  of  my  gratitude  to  Almighty  God, 
who  has  given  me  strength,  amid  the  infirmities  of  age  and  the  pres- 
sure of  other  labours  and  cares,  to  surmount  the  difficulties  and  bear 
the  fatigue  of  completing  the  work  now  given  to  the  public. 

Gottingen,  March  23,  1755. 


I  N  T  R  O  D  U  C  T.I  O  N. 


<j  1.  Ecclesiastical  History  defined. — §  2.  Its  Divisions. — §  3.  The  External  History  of 
the  Church, — §  4.  which  treats  of  the  prosperous  —  §  5.  and  the  adverse  Events. — 
$  6.  The  Internal  History, — f)  7.  which  treats  of  (I.)  Ministers. — §  8, 9.  (II.)  Doctrines. 
— §  10.  (III.)  Worship.— §  11.  (IV.)  Heresies. — §  12.  Events  must  be  traced  to  their 
Causes. — §  13.  Means  of  discovering  these  Causes,  general — §  14.  and  particular;  in 
the  external — §  15.  and  internal  History. — §  16.  The  Sources  of  Ecclesiastical  History. 
— ()  17.  Qualities  of  the  Historian. — $  18.  He  must  be  free  from  all  Prejudices. — §  19. 
Faults  of  Historians. — <)  20.  Uses  of  Ecclesiastical  History,  general — §  21.  and  special. 
— §  22,  23.  Method  in  Ecclesiastical  History.  Division  into  Periods — <)  24.  Distribution 
under  Heads. 

§  1.  The  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the  New  Dispensation  is  a  clear  and 
faithful  narrative  of  the  external  condition,  and  of  the  internal  state  and 
transactions,  of  that  body  of  men  who  have  borne  the  name  of  Christians ; 
and  in  which  events  are  so  traced  to  their  causes,  that  the  providence  of 
God  may  be  seen  in  the  establishment  and  preservation  of  the  church,  and 
the  reader's  piety,  no  less  than  his  intelligence,  be  advanced  by  the  perusal. 

§  2.  The  best  form  of  such  a  history  seems  to  be  that,  which  considers 
the  whole  body  of  Christians  as  constituting  a  society  or  community,  sub- 
jected to  lawful  authority,  and  governed  by  certain  laws  and  institutions. 
To  such  a  community  many  external  events  must  happen,  which  will  be 
favourable  to  its  interests  or  adverse  to  them :  and,  since  nothing  human 
is  stable  and  uniform,  many  things  will  occur  in  the  bosom  of  such  com- 
munity tending  to  change  its  character.  Hence  its  history  may  very  suit- 
ably be  divided  into  its  external  and  its  internal  history.  In  this  manner 
the  history  of  the  Christian  community,  in  order  to  its  embracing  all  the 
details  and  promoting  the  greatest  usefulness,  should  be  divided. 

§  3.  The  external  history  of  Christians,  or  of  the  Christian  community, 
is  properly  called  a  history  of  the  church :  and  it  embraces  all  the  occur- 
rences and  changes  which  have  visibly  befallen  this  sacred  society.  And 
as  all  communities  are  sometimes  prosperous  and  sometimes  meet  with 
adversity,  such  also  has  been  the  lot  of  Christians.  Hence  this  part  of 
ecclesiastical  history  is  fitly  divided  into  an  account  of  the  prosperous  and 
of  the  calamitous  events  which  Christians  have  experienced. 

§  4.  The  prosperous  events,  or  those  tending  to  the  advancement  and 
progress  of  the  Christian  interest,  proceeded  either  from  the  heads  and 
leaders,  or  from  the  subordinate  members  of  this  community.  Its  heads 
and  leaders  were  either  public  characters,  such  as  kings,  magistrates,  and 
sovereign  pontiffs  ;  or  private  individuals,  the  doctors,  the  learned  and  in- 
fluential men.  Both  classes  have  contributed  much,  in  all  ages,  to  the  in- 
crease of  the  church.  Men  in  power,  by  their  authority,  laws,  benefi- 
cence, and  even  by  their  arms,  have  contributed  to  establish  and  enlarge 
the  church.  And  the  doctors,  and  men  of  learning,  of  genius,  and  emi- 
nent piety,  by  their  vigorous  and  noble  efforts,  their  travels,  their  writings, 
and  their  munificence,  have  successfully  recommended  the  religion  of 


xvi  INTRODUCTION. 

Christ  to  those  ignorant  of  it.  And  common  Christians,  by  their  faith, 
their  constancy,  their  piety,  their  love  to  God  and  men,  have  induced  many 
to  become  Christians. 

§  5.  The  calamitous  events  which  have  befallen  the  church,  arose  either 
from  the  fault  of  Christians,  or  from  the  malice  and  stratagems  of  their  ad- 
versaries. There  is  abundant  evidence  that  Christians  themselves,  and 
especially  those  who  presided  in  the  church,  have  brought  much  evil  upon 
the  body  by  their  negligence,  their  unholy  lives,  and  their  strifes  and  con- 
tentions. The  enemies  of  Christ's  kingdom  were  also  either  public  or 
private  men.  Public  enemies,  namely,  kings  and  magistrates,  by  their 
laws  and  penalties,  obstructed  the  progress  of  Christianity.  Private  men, 
the  philosophers,  the  idol-worshippers,  and  the  despisers  of  all  religion, 
assailed  the  church  with  false  accusations,  stratagems,  and  hostile  writings. 

§  6.  The  internal  history  of  the  Christian  church,  treats  of  the  changes 
to  which  the  church  in  every  age  has  been  exposed,  in  regard  to  its  dis- 
tinguishing characteristics  as  a  religious  society.  It  may  not  unsuitably 
be  called  the  history  of  the  Christian  religion.  The  causes  of  these  inter- 
nal changes  are  found,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  rulers  of  the  church. 
These  often  explained  the  principles  and  precepts  of  Christianity  to  suit 
their  own  fancy  or  convenience.  And  as  some  acquiesced  and  were  sub- 
missive, while  others  frequently  resisted,  divisions  and  contentions  were 
the  consequence.  To  all  these  subjects  the  intelligent  ecclesiastical  his- 
torian must  direct  his  attention. 

§  7.  The  first  subject  in  the  internal  history  of  the  church,  is  the  history 
of  its  rulers  and  of  its  government.  Originally,  the  teachers  and  the  peo- 
ple conjointly  administered  the  affairs  of  the  church.  But,  in  process  of 
time,  these  teachers  assumed  a  loftier  spirit,  and,  trampling  on  the  rights 
of  the  people,  they  claimed  sovereign  power,  both  in  sacred  and  secular 
affairs.  At  last,  things  gradually  came  to  this,  that  one  person  held  su- 
preme power  over  the  whole  church,  or,  at  least,  affected  to  hold  it. 
Among  these  prefects  and  guides  of  the  church,  some  obtained  by  their 
writings  pre-eminent  fame  and  influence  ;  and  as  they  were  by  after  ages 
regarded  as  oracles,  and  blindly  followed,  they  ought  to  rank  among  the 
governors  of  the  church,  whether  they  held  offices  in  it  or  not. 

§  8.  The  history  of  the  laws  by  which  this  religious  society  was  gov- 
erned, naturally  follows  the  history  of  its  ministers.  The  laws  peculiar 
to  the  Christian  community  are  of  two  kinds.  Some  are  divine,  proceed- 
ing from  God  himself ;  and  these  are  found  written  in  those  books  which 
Christians  very  properly  believe  to  be  divinely  inspired.  Others  are  hu- 
man, or  are  enactments  of  the  rulers  of  the  community.  The  former  are 
usually  called  doctrines,  and  are  divided  into  two  species,  namely,  doc- 
trines of  faith,  which  are  addressed  to  the  understanding,  and  moral  doc- 
trines, which  address  the  heart  or  will. 

§  9.  In  the  history  of  these  laws  or  doctrines,  it  should  be  our  first  in- 
quiry, In  what  estimation  was  the  sacred  volume  held  from  age  to  age,  and 
how  was  it  interpreted  1  For  in  every  period,  the  state  of  religion  among 
Christians  has  depended  on  the  reverence  paid  to  the  sacred  volume,  and 
on  the  manner  of  expounding  it.  We  should  next  inquire  how  these  di- 
vine instructions  and  laws  were  treated ;  in  what  manner  they  were  incul- 
cated and  explained,  defended  against  gainsayers,  or  debased  and  corrupted. 
The  last  inquiry  is,  how  far  Christians  were  obedient  to  these  divine  laws, 


INTRODUCTION.  xvii 

or  how  they  lived,  and  what  measures  were  taken  by  the  rulers  of  the 
church  to  restrain  the  licentiousness  of  transgressors. 

§  10.  The  human  laws  of  which  we  speak,  are  prescriptions  relating  to 
the  external  worship  of  God,  or  religious  rites,  whether  derived  from  cus- 
tom or  from  positive  enactment.  Rites  either  directly  appertain  to  religion, 
or  indirectly  refer  to  it.  The  former  embrace  the  whole  exterior  of  re- 
ligious worship,  both  public  and  private.  The  latter  include  everything, 
except  direct  worship,  that  is  accounted  religious  and  proper.  This  part 
of  religious  history  is  very  extensive,  on  account  of  the  variety  and  the  fre- 
quent changes  in  ceremonies.  A  concise  history,  therefore,  can  only 
touch  upon  the  subject,  without  descending  into  details. 

§  11.  As  in  civil  republics  wars  and  insurrections  sometimes  break  out, 
so,  in  the  Christian  republic,  serious  commotions  have  often  arisen  on  ac- 
count of  both  doctrines  and  rites.  The  leaders  and  authors  of  these  sedi- 
tions are  called  heretics ;  and  the  opinions  for  which  they  separated  from 
other  Christians  are  called  heresies.  The  history  of  these  commotions  or 
heresies  should  be  written  with  much  care.  The  labour,  if  expended 
wisely  and  with  impartiality,  will  well  repay  the  toil :  but  it  is  arduous 
and  difficult.  For  the  leaders  of  these  parties  have  been  treated  with  much 
injustice,  and  their  doctrines  are  misrepresented ;  nor  is  it  easy  to  come 
at  the  truth  in  the  midst  of  so  much  darkness,  since  most  of  the  writings 
of  those  called  heretics  are  now  lost.  Those,  therefore,  who  approach  this 
part  of  church  history,  should  exclude  everything  invidious  from  the  name 
of  heretic,  and  should  consider  it  as  used  in  its  more  general  sense,  to  de- 
note those  who  were  the  occasion,  whether  by  their  own  or  others'  fault, 
of  divisions  and  contests  among  Christians. 

§  12.  In  treating  of  both  the  external  and  the  internal  history  of  the 
church,  the  writer  who  would  be  useful,  must  trace  events  to  their  causes ; 
that  is,  he  must  tell  us  not  only  what  happened,  but  likewise  how  and  why. 
He  who  narrates  the  naked  facts,  only  enriches  our  memory  and  amuses 
us ;  but  he  who  at  the  same  time  states  the  operative  causes  of  events, 
profits  us,  for  he  both  strengthens  our  judgment  and  increases  our  wisdom. 
Yet  it  must  be  confessed  that  caution  is  here  necessary,  lest  we  should  fabri- 
cate causes,  and  palm  our  own  waking  dreams  upon  the  men  long  since  dead. 

§  13.  In  exploring  the  causes  of  events,  besides  access  to  ancient  tes- 
timony and  the  history  of  the  times,  a  good  knowledge  of  human  nature  is 
requisite.  The  historian  who  understands  the  human  character,  the  pro- 
pensities and  powers,  the  passions  and  weaknesses  of  man,  will  readily 
discover  the  causes  of  many  things  attempted  or  done  in  former  times. 
No  less  important  is  it,  to  be  acquainted  with  the  education  and  the  opinions 
of  the  persons  we  treat  of;  for  men  commonly  regard  as  praiseworthy  and 
correct,  whatever  accords  with  the  views  and  practices  of  their  ancestors 
and  their  own  sect. 

§  14.  To  explore  causes  in  the  external  history,  a  historian  should  con- 
sider the  civil  state  of  the  countries  in  which  the  Christian  religion  was 
either  approved  or  rejected  ;  and  also  their  religious  state,  that  is,  the  opin- 
ions of  the  mass  of  the  people  concerning  the  Deity  and  divine  worship. 
For,  it  will  not  be  difficult  to  determine  why  the  church  was  now  prosper- 
ous  and  now  in  trouble,  if  we  know  what  was  the  form  of  government, 
what  the  character  of  the  rulers,  and  what  the  prevailing  religion  at  the  time. 

§   15.  To  dispel  obscurities  in  the  internal  history,  nothing  is  more  con- 

VOL.  I.— C 


xviii  INTRODUCTION. 

ducive  than  a  knowledge  of  the  history  of  learning,  and  especially  of  phi- 
losophy. For,  most  unfortunately,  human  learning  or  philosophy  has  in 
every  age  been  allowed  more  influence  in  regard  to  revealed  religion  than 
was  fit  and  proper,  considering  the  nature  of  the  two  things.  Moreover, 
a  good  knowledge  of  the  civil  government  and  of  the  ancient  superstitions 
of  different  countries,  is  useful  to  the  same  end.  For  through  the  prudence, 
or,  rather,  the  indiscretion  of  the  presiding  authorities,  many  parts  of  the 
discipline  and  worship  of  the  church  have  been  shaped  after  the  pattern 
of  the  ancient  religions,  and  no  little  deference  has  been  paid  to  the  pleas- 
ure of  sovereigns  and  to  human  laws  in  regulating  the  church  of  God. 

§  16.  From  what  sources  all  this  knowledge  must  be  drawn,  is  quite 
obvious  ;  namely,  from  the  writers  of  every  age  who  have  treated  of  Chris- 
tian affairs,  and  especially  from  those  contemporary  with  the  events ;  for 
testimony  or  authority  is  the  basis  of  all  true  history.  Yet  we  ought  not 
to  disregard  those  who,  from  these  sources,  have  compiled  histories  and 
annals.  For  to  refuse  proffered  assistance,  and  despise  the  labours  of 
those  who  before  us  have  attempted  to  throw  light  on  obscure  subjects,  is 
mere  folly.(l) 

§  17.  From  all  this,  it  will  be  easy  to  determine  the  essential  qualifica- 
tions of  a  good  ecclesiastical  historian.  He  must  have  no  moderate  ac- 
quaintance with  human  affairs  in  general ;  his  learning  must  be  extensive, 
his  mind  sagacious  and  accustomed  to  reason,  his  memory  faithful,  and  his 
judgment  sound  and  matured  by  long  exercise.  In  his  disposition  and 
temperament,  he  must  be  patient  of  labour,  persevering,  inflexible  in  his 
love  of  truth  and  justice,  and  free  from  every  prejudice. 

$  18.  Persons  who  attempt  this  species  of  writing  are  liable  to  preju- 
dice, especially  from  three  sources  ;  namely,  times,  persons,  and  opinions. 
First,  the  times  in  which  we  live  often  have  such  ascendency  over  us,  that 
we  measure  past  ages  by  our  own  ;  we  conclude  that  what  does  occur,  or 
can  not  occur,  in  our  day,  in  like  manner  did  occur,  or  could  not  occur,  in  for- 
mer ages.  Secondly,  the  persons  with  whose  testimony  we  are  concerned, 
especially  if  for  ages  they  have  been  highly  revered  for  their  holiness 
and  their  virtues,  acquire  such  an  authority  with  us,  as  to  lead  us  blindfold. 
And,  thirdly,  our  attachment  to  the  opinions  and  doctrines  we  espouse,  often 
so  paralyzes  our  judgment  that,  unconsciously,  we  misapprehend  facts. 
]\ow  from  this  triple  bondage  the  mind  must,  as  far  as  possible,  be  set  free. 

§  19.  But  from  this  rule,  and  from  others  equally  obvious  and  important, 
how  widely  ecclesiastical  historians  of  all  ages  have  departed,  is  too  well 
known.  For,  not  to  mention  the  many  who  think  themselves  great  historians 
if  they  have  a  good  memory,  and  to  pass  by  those  who  are  governed  more 
by  their  private  interests  than  by  the  love  of  truth,  few  are  the  writers, 
•whom  neither  the  sect  to  which  they  belong,  nor  the  venerated  names 

(t)  To  acquaint  us  with  all  the  writers  on  (in  German),  vol.  ii.,  and  by  J.  A.  Nosselt 

ecclesiastical  history  was  the  professed  ob-  and  C.  F.  L.  Simon,  Guide  to  a  knowledge 

ject  of  Sen.  Walth.  Sluterus,  in  his  Propy-  of  the  best  works  in  every  branch  of  theolo- 

laeum   Historic    Christians,  Luneb.,  1696,  gy,  (in  German),  2  vols.  8vo,  2d  ed.,  Leipz., 

4to ;   and  of  Gasp.    Sagittarius,   Introduc-  1800-13.     Valuable  notices  of  the  principal 

tio  ad  Historiam  Eccles.,  singulasque  ejus  writers  are  to  be  found  in  J.  G.  Watch,,  Bib- 

Sartes  ;    especially    vol.  i.      [2   vols.    4to,  liotheca  theol.  selecta,  tomo  3tio,  and  in  his 

ena,  1694,  1718. — A  good  account  of  the*  Historia  Eccles.  Novi  Test.  ;    also  in  the 

most  important  writers  is  given  by  G.  J.  (German)  Church  History  of  J.  M.  Schrockh, 

Planck,  Introduction  to  theological  science,  vol.  i.,  Introd.  pt.  iii. — TV.] 


INTRODUCTION.  xix 

of  some  ancient  authors,  nor  the  influence  of  the  age  in  which  they  live, 
can  disarm  and  divert  from  the  truth.  In  the  present  age  especially,  the 
spirit  of  the  times  and  the  prejudice  of  opinions,  have  incredible  influence 
with  many.  Hence  the  following  arguments  so  often  occurring  in  the 
writings  of  learned  men  :  These  are  true  sentiments ;  therefore  we  must 
suppose  the  ancient  Christians  embraced  them.  This  is  correct  practice  ac- 
cording to  Christ's  precepts ;  therefore,  doubtless,  the  earlier  Christians  so 
lived.  This  does  not  now  take  place ;  therefore  it  did  not  in  ancient  times. 

§  20.  Ecclesiastical  history,  if  written  by  persons  free  from  these  and 
other  faults,  cannot  fail  to  be  greatly  beneficial  to  mankind  at  large,  but  es- 
pecially to  the  teachers  and  guides  of  the  church.  Whoever  shall  con- 
sider attentively  the  numerous,  the  varied,  and  threatening  dangers  which 
the  Christian  religion  has  happily  surmounted,  will  doubtless  find  himself 
more  established  in  the  belief  of  this  religion,  and  better  prepared  to  with- 
stand the  assaults,  the  cavils,  and  insidious  attacks  of  the  irreligious  and 
profane.  The  many  illustrious  examples  of  virtue  with  which  this  history 
abounds,  are  admirably  suited  to  awaken  pious  emotions,  and  to  instil  the 
love  of  God  into  lukewarm  minds.  Those  wonderful  revolutions  and 
changes  which  have  occurred  in  every  age  of  the  church,  originating  often 
from  small  beginnings,  proclaim  aloud  the  providence  of  God,  and  the  in- 
stability and  vanity  of  all  human  things.  Nor  is  it  of  small  advantage,  to 
know  the  origin  of  the  numerous  and  absurd  opinions,  superstitions,  and 
errors,  which  still  prevail  in  many  parts  of  the  Christian  world.  For  such 
knowledge  will  enable  us  to  discover  the  truth  more  clearly,  to  prize  it 
more,  and  to  defend  it  better.  Of  the  entertainment  afforded  by  this  and 
other  parts  of  church  history,  I  shall  say  nothing. 

§  21.  But  public  teachers  especially,  and  the  ministers  of  religion,  may 
from  this  study  derive  great  assistance,  in  acquiring  that  practical  wisdom 
which  they  so  much  need.  Here,  the  numerous  mistakes  of  even  great 
men,  warn  them  what  to  shun  if  they  would  not  embroil  the  Christian 
church ;  there,  many  illustrious  examples  of  noble  and  successful  effort, 
are  patterns  for  their  imitation.  And  for  combating  errors,  both  those  in- 
veterate by  age  and  those  of  more  recent  growth,  nothing,  except  the  holy 
Scriptures  and  sound  reason,  can  be  compared  with  this  kind  of  history.  I 
pass  over  other  advantages  which  will  be  found  by  experience  to  result 
from  this  study ;  nor  will  I  mention  its  subserviency  to  other  branches  of 
knowledge,  particularly  to  that  of  jurisprudence. 

§  22.  The  two  parts  of  church  history,  the  external  and  the  internal, 
require  a  method  or  arrangement  of  the  work  suited  to  both.  The  external 
history,  being  a  long  and  continued  narrative,  extending  through  many  cen- 
turies, requires  a  distribution  into  certain  intervals  of  time,  for  the  benefit 
of  the  understanding  and  memory  of  the  reader,  and  for  the  preservation 
of  order.  Various  divisions  of  time  may  be  adopted.  I  have  preferred 
the  customary  one  into  centuries,  because  it  is  the  most  approved,  though 
it  is  not  free  from  objections. 

§  23.  No  small  part  of  these  objections,  however,  will  be  removed  if 
•we  superadd  a  more  general  division  of  time,  or  one  into  longer  periods, 
bounded  by  certain  great  revolutions  and  changes  in  the  state  of  the  church. 
Accordingly,  the  whole  of  the  following  history  is  divided  into  four  books. 
The  first  contains  the  history  of  the  church  of  Christ  from  its  commence- 
ment to  the  time  of  Constantine  the  Great.  The  second  extends  it  from 


XX  INTRODUCTION. 

Constantine  to  Charlemagne.  The  third  continues  it  to  the  time  when 
Luther  began  the  reformation  in  Germany.  The  fourth  and  last  brings  it 
down  to  our  own  times  [or,  rather,  to  the  year  1700  ;  with  a  sketch  merely 
of  the  first  part  of  the  18th  century. — TV.]. 

§  24.  Moreover,  ecclesiastical  history  treats,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
of  various  distinct  but  kindred  subjects ;  which  may  properly  be  arranged 
under  separate  heads.  Historians  have  adopted  different  classifications, 
such  as  their  fancies  or  their  designs  in  writing  pointed  out.  The  distri- 
bution which  we  prefer  has  been  already  indicated  [in  §  4-11,  of  this  In- 
troduction], and  need  not  be  here  repeated. 


INSTITUTES 


ECCLESIASTICAL    HISTORY, 

UNDER   THE 

NEW    TESTAMENT. 
BOOK    I. 

CONTAINING 

THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH 

FROM    THE 
BIRTH  OF  CHRIST  TO  CONSTANTINE  THE  GREAT. 


CENTURY    FIRST. 
PART  I. 

THE  EXTERNAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

CHAPTER  I. 
i 

THE    CIVIL    AND    RELIGIOUS    STATE    OP    THE    WORLD   AT    THE    BIRTH   OF 
OUR    SAVIOUR. 

$  1.  State  of  the  Roman  Empire.— §  2.  Its  Evils.— $  3.  Its  Advantages. — $4.  Then  in 
Peace. — §  5.  Other  Nations. — §  6.  All  were  Idolaters. — $  7.  They  worshipped  different 
Gods. — §  8.  They  were  Tolerant. — §  9.  Most  of  their  Gods  were  deceased  Heroes. — 
$  10.  Pagan  Worship. — $  11.  It  was  confined  to  Times  and  Places. —  §  12.  The  Mys- 
teries— <)  13.  Paganism  not  the  Parent  of  Virtue. — <J  14.  Its  Votaries  sunk  in  Vice. — 
(f  15.  How  supported  by  the  Priests. — $  16.  The  Roman  and  Grecian  Religions. — $  17. 
The  mixed  Religions  of  the  Provinces. — §  18.  Religions  beyond  the  Roman  Empire 
classed. — §  19.  Philosophers  unable  to  Reform  the  World. — $  20.  The  Oriental  and  the 
Grecian  Philosophy. — $  21.  Some  Philosophers  subverted  all  Religion.— $  22.  Others 
debased  it;  e.g.,  Aristotelians. — §  23.  Stoics. — §  24.  Platonics.— '$  25.  The  Eclectics. 
— $  26.  Use  of  this  Chapter. 

§  1.  AT  the  time  when  God  became  incarnate,  a  great  part  of  the  world 
was  subject  to  the  Romans.  Their  remoter  provinces  they  either  ruled  by 
means  of  temporary  governors  and  presidents  sent  from  Rome,  or  suffered 
to  live  under  their  own  kings  and  laws,  subject  to  the  sovereign  control  of 
the  Roman  republic.  The  Senate  and  people  of  Rome,  though  they  hud 
not  lost  all  appearance  of  liberty,  were  really  under  the  authority  of  one  man, 
Augustus  ;  who  was  clothed  with  the  titles  of  emperor,  sovereign  pontiff, 
censor,  tribune  of  the  people,  proconsul ;  in  a  word,  with  every  office  which 
conferred  general  power  and  pre-eminence  in  the  common wealth.(l) 

§  2.  The  Roman  government,  if  we  regard  only  its  form  and  laws,  was 
•sufficiently  mild  and  equitable. (2)  But  the  injustice  and  avarice  of  the 
nobles  and  provincial  governors,  the  Roman  lust  of  conquest  and  dominion, 
and  the  rapacity  of  the  publicans  who  farmed  the  revenues  of  the  state, (3) 
brought  incalculable  evils  on  the  people.  The  magistrates  and  publicans, 
on  the  one  hand,  fleeced  the  people  of  their  property  ;  and,  on  the  other, 
this  lust  of  dominion  required  numerous  armies  to  be  raised  in  the  provin- 

(1)  See  Aug.  Campianus  de  officio  et  po-  posth.   works,    vol.    i.,    p.    1-48.      Lend., 
testate  magistratuum  Romanor.  et  jurisdic-  1726,  8vo. — Scip.  Maffei  Verona  illustrata, 
tione,  lib.  i.,  cap.  1,  $  2,  p.  3,  &c.     Gene-  lib.  ii,  p  65.     [Pelro  Giannone,  Istoria  civ- 
va,  1725,  4to.     [Memoirs  of  the  court  of  ile  del   regno  di  Napoli,  lib.  i.,  princip. — 
Augustus,  by    Thn.    Blackwcll,  vol.  i,   ii.,  TV.] 

4to.     Edinb",  1753 .—Schl.~\  (3)  [See  P.   Burmann,  de  Vectigalibus 

(2)  See  Sir  W.  Moyle's  Essay  on  the  con-     populi  Romani,  cap.  ix.,  p.  123,  &c. — .ScA/.] 
stitution  of  the  Rom.  government,  in  his 


24        BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  I— CHAP.  I. 

ces,  which  was  oppressive  to  them,  and  was  the  occasion  of  almost  per- 
petual wars  and  insurrections. 

§  3.  Still,  this  widely-extended  dominion  of  one  people,  or,  rather,  of  one 
man,  was  attended  with  several  advantages.  First,  it  brought  into  union 
a  multitude  of  nations  differing  in  customs  and  language.  Secondly,  it  gave 
freer  access  to  the  remotest  nations. (4)  Thirdly,  it  gradually  civilized 
the  barbarous  nations,  by  introducing  among  them  the  Roman  laws  and 
customs.  Fourthly,  it  spread  literature,  the  arts,  and  philosophy  in  coun- 
tries where  they  were  not  before  cultivated.  All  these  greatly  aided  the 
ambassadors  of  our  Lord  in  fulfilling  their  sacred  commission. (5) 

§  4.  At  the  birth  of  Christ  the  Roman  empire  was  much  freer  from  com- 
motions than  it  had  been  for  many  years.  For  though  I  cannot  agree  with 
them  who  think,  with  Orosius,  that  the  temple  of  Janus  was  then  shut,  and 
the  whole  world  in  profound  peace,(6)  yet  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
period  when  our  Saviour  descended  on  earth,  if  compared  with  the  prece- 
ding times,  was  peculiarly  peaceful.  And,  according  to  St.  Paul, (7)  this 
peace  was  very  necessary  for  those  whom  Christ  commissioned  to  preach 
the  Gospel. 

§  5.  Of  the  state  of  those  nations  which  lay  without  the  Roman  empire, 
historic  records  will  not  allow  us  to  give  so  full  an  account.  Nor  is  it 
very  necessary  to  our  purpose.  It  is  sufficient  to  know,  that  the  Oriental 
nations  were  pressed  down  by  a  stern  despotism,  which  their  effeminacy 
of  mind  and  body,  and  even  their  religion,  led  them  to  bear  with  patience ; 
while  the  northern  nations  enjoyed  much  greater  liberty,  which  was  pro- 
tected by  the  rigour  of  their  climate  and  the  consequent  energy  of  their 
constitutions,  aided  by  their  mode  of  life  and  their  religion. (8) 

§  6.  All  these  nations  were  plunged  in  the  grossest  superstition.  For 
though  the  idea  of  one  supreme  God  was  not  wholly  extinct, (9)  yet  most 
nations,  or,  rather,  all  except  the  Jews,  supposed  that  each  country  and 
province  was  subjected  to  a  set  of  very  powerful  beings,  whom  they  called 
gods,  and  whom  the  people,  in  order  to  live  happily,  must  propitiate  with 
various  rites  and  ceremonies.  These  deities  were  supposed  to  differ  ma- 
terially from  each  other  in  sex,  power,  nature,  and  offices.  Some  nations, 
indeed,  went  beyond  others  in  impiety  and  absurdity  of  worship,  but  all 
stood  chargeable  with  irrationality  and  gross  stupidity  in  matters  of  religion. 

§  7.  Thus  every  nation  had  a  class  of  deities  peculiar  to  itself,  among 
which  one  was  supposed  to  be  pre-eminent  over  the  rest,  and  was  their 
king,  though  subject  himself  to  the  laws  of  fate  or  to  an  eternal  destiny. 

(4)  See  Nic.  Bergier,  Histoire  des  grands  que  imperia  penes  eos  fuere   populos,  qui 
ehemins  de  1'empire  Remain,  2d  ed.,  Brus-  mitiore  ccelo  utuntur:  in  frigora  septentri- 
eels,  1728, 4to>  and  Everard  Otto,  de  Tutela  onemque  vergentibus,  immansueta  ingenia 
viarum  publicarum,  pt.  ii.,  p.  314.  sunt,  ut  ait  pceta,  suoqne  simillima  ccelo. 

(5)  Origen,  among  others,  acknowledges         (9)  [See    Christopher  Meiners1   Historia 
this :  lib.  ii.,  adv.  Celsum,  p.  79,  ed.  Can-  doctrinae  de  vero  Deo,  omnium  rerum  auo 
tabr.     [See  also   Heilmann,  Comment,  de  tore  atque  rectore,  2  parts,  Lemgo.,  1780, 
florente  litterarum  statu  et  habitu  ad  relig.  p.  548,  12mo,  where,  from  a  critical  inves- 
Christi  initia. — Schl.]  tigation,  proof  is  adduced  that  the  ancient 

(6)  See   Joh.    Massoni   Templum  Jani,  pagan  nations  were  universally  ignorant  of 
Christo  nascente,  reseratum.    Roter.,  1706,  the  Creator  and  Governor  of  the  world,  till 
8vo.  Aitaxagoras,  about  450  years  before  Christ, 

(7)  See  1  Tim.  ii.,  2,  &c.  and  afterward  other  philosophers,  conceived 

(8)  Seneca,  de  Ira,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  16.    Opp.  that  the  world  must  have  had  an  intelligent 
torn,    i.,   p.   36,  ed.   Gronovii :   Fere  ita-  architect. — TV.] 


STATE  OF  THE  WORLD.  25 

For  the  Oriental  nations  had  not  the  same  gods  as  the  Gauls,  the  Germans, 
and  the  other  northern  nations  ;  and  the  Grecian  deities  were  essentially 
different  from  those  of  the  Egyptians,  who  worshipped  brute  animals, 
plants,  and  various  productions  of  nature  and  art.(10)  Each  nation  like- 
wise had  its  own  method  of  worshipping  and  propitiating  its  gods,  differing 
widely  from  the  rites  of  other  nations.  But,  from  their  ignorance  or  from 
other  causes,  the  Greeks  and  Romans  maintained  that  their  gods  were  uni- 
versally worshipped  ;  and  they  therefore  gave  the  names  of  their  own  gods 
to  the  foreign  deities,  which  has  caused  immense  confusion  and  obscurity 
in  the  history  of  the  ancient  religions,  and  produced  numberless  errors  in 
the  works  of  very  learned  men.(ll) 

§  8.  But  this  variety  of  gods  and  religions  in  the  pagan  nations,  pro- 
duced no  wars  or  feuds  among  them,  unless,  perhaps,  the  Egyptians  are 
an  exception. (12)  Yet  the  Egyptian  wars,  waged  to  avenge  their  gods, 
cannot  properly  be  called  religious  wars,  [not  being  undertaken  either  to 
propagate  or  to  suppress  any  one  form  of  religion].  Each  nation,  without 
concern,  allowed  its  neighbours  to  enjoy  their  own  views  of  religion,  and 
to  worship  their  own  gods  in  their  own  way.  Nor  need  this  tolerance 
greatly  surprise  us. (13)  For  they  who  regard  the  world  as  being  divided, 
like  a  great  country,  into  numerous  provinces,  each  subject  to  a  distinct 
order  of  deities,  cannot  despise  the  gods  of  other  nations,  nor  think  of 
compelling  all  others  to  pay  worship  to  their  national  gods.  The  Romans 
in  particular,  though  they  would  not  allow  the  public  religions  to  b?  changed 
or  multiplied,  yet  gave  the  citizens  full  liberty  to  observe  foreign  religions 
in  private,  and  to  hold  meetings  and  feasts,  and  to  erect  temples  and  groves 
to  those  foreign  deities  in  whose  worship  there  was  nothing  inconsistent 
with  the  public  safety  and  the  existing  laws.(14) 

§  9.  The  greater  part  of  the  gods  of  all  nations  were  ancient  heroes, 
famous  for  their  achievements  and  their  worthy  deeds ;  such  as  kings, 
generals,  and  founders  of  cities ;  and  likewise  females  who  were  highly 
distinguished  for  their  deeds  and  discoveries,  whom  a  grateful  posterity 
had  deified.  To  these  some  added  the  more  splendid  and  useful  objects 

(10)  This  was  long  since   remarked  by  Roman  deities  and  Brahma,  Vishnoo,  Siva, 
Athanasius,  Oratio  contra  gentes,  Opp.,  torn,  and  the  other  gods  of  Hindostan.     And  as 
i.,  p.  25.     [See  Le  Clerc,  Ars  critica,  pt.  the  classic  writers  give  very  imperfect  de- 
ii.,  sect,  i.,  c.   13,  $11,  and  Bibliotheque  scriptions  of  foreign  deities,  and  leave  us  to 
Choisie,  torn  vii.,  p.  84.     W.  Warbur(on's  infer  most  of  their  characteristics  from  the 
Divine    legation    of   Moses    demonstrated,  names  assigned  them,  it  is  evident  that  Dr. 
torn,  ii.,  p.  233,  &c.     And,  respecting  the  Mosheim's  remark  is  perfectly  just. — TV.] 
Egyptian  gods,  see  P.  E.  Jablonsky,  Pan-         (12)  See  what  Laur.  Pignorius  has  col- 
theon  ^Egyptiorum,  Francf.  ad  Viadr.,  1750,  lected  on  this  subject,  in  his  Expositio  men- 
8vo.     F.  S.  von  Schmidt,  Opuscula,  quibus  s»  Isiaeae,  p.  41,  &c. 

res  antiquae,  prsecipue  JCgyptiaca  explanan-  (13)    [Though    extolled    by    Shaftsbury 

tur.      1765,  8vo. — Schl.}  among   others,  Characteristics,   vol.    ii.,   p. 

(11)  [Dr.  Madaine  here  subjoins  a  long  166,  and  vol.  iii.,  p.  60,  86,  87,  154,  &c. 
note,  asserting  that  the  gods  worshipped  in  — Schl.] 

different  pagan  countries  were  so  similar,  that  (14)  See  Corn,  a  Bynckershoeckh,  Dis- 
they  might  properly  be  called  by  the  name  sert.  de  cultu  peregrins  religionis  apud  Re- 
names. He  therefore  thinks,  that  Dr.  Mo-  inanos,  in  his  Opuscula,  L.  Bat.,  1719,  4to. 
sheim  has  overrated  the  mischief  done  to  the  [  Warburton's  Divine  legation  of  Moses,  vol. 
history  of  idolatry  by  the  Greek  and  Roman  i.,  p.  307.  Compare  Livy,  Hist.  Rom.,  lib. 
writers.  But  there  was  certainly  little  resem-  xxv.,  1,  and  xxxix.,  18,  and  Valer.  Max.,  i., 
blance  between  Woden  and  Mercury,  Thor  3. — Schl.  See  also  N.  Lardner,  Credib.  of 
and  Jupiter,  Friga  and  Venus;  or  between  the  Gospel  Hist.,  pt.  i.,  b.  i.,  c.  8,  $  3-6. — Tr.] 


26        BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  I.— CHAP.  I. 

in  the  natural  world,  among  which  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  being  pre- 
eminent, received  worship  from  nearly  all ;  and  some  were  not  ashamed 
to  pay  divine  honours  to  mountains,  rivers,  trees,  the  earth,  the  ocean,  the 
winds,  and  even  to  diseases,  to  virtues  and  vices,  and  to  almost  every  con- 
ceivable object,  or,  at  least,  to  the  deities  supposed  to  preside  over  these 
objects. (15) 

§  10.  The  worship  of  these  deities  consisted  in  numerous  ceremonies, 
with  sacrifices,  offerings,  and  prayers.  The  ceremonies  were,  for  the 
most  part,  absurd  and  ridiculous,  and  throughout  debasing,  obscene,  and 
cruel.  The  sacrifices  and  offerings  varied,  according  to  the  nature  and 
offices  of  the  different  gods. (16)  Most  nations  sacrificed  animals,  and, 
shocking  to  relate,  not  a  few  of  them  likewise  immolated  human  victims. (17) 
Their  prayers  were  quite  insipid,  and  void  of  piety,  both  in  their  form  and 
matter. (18)  Presiding  over  this  whole  worship,  were  pontiffs,  priests,  and 
servants  of  the  gods,  divided  into  many  classes,  whose  business  it  was  to 
see  that  the  rites  were  duly  performed.  These  persons  were  supposed  to 
enjoy  the  friendship  and  familiar  converse  of  the  gods,  and  they  basely 
abused  their  authority  to  impose  on  the  people. 

§  11.  The  religious  worship  of  most  nations  was  confined  to  certain 
places  or  temples,(19)  and  to  certain  times  or  stated  days.  In  the  temples 
[and  groves]  the  statues  and  images  of  their  gods  were  located,  and  these 
images  were  supposed  to  be  animated  in  an  inexplicable  manner  by  the 
gods  themselves.  For,  senseless  as  the  worshippers  of  imaginary  gods 
truly  were,  they  did  not  wish  to  be  accounted  worshippers  of  lifeless  sub- 
stances, brass,  stone,  and  wood,  but  of  a  deity  which  they  maintained  to 
be  present  in  the  image,  provided  it  was  consecrated  in  due  form. (20) 

§  12.  Besides  this  common  worship  to  which  all  had  free  access,  there 
were,  among  both  Orientals  and  Greeks,  certain  recondite  and  concealed 
rites  called  mysteries,  to  which  very  few  were  admitted.  Candidates  for 
initiation  had  first  to  give  satisfactory  proof  to  the  hierophants  of  their 
good  faith  and  patience,  by  various  most  troublesome  ceremonies.  When 
initiated  they  could  not  divulge  any  thing  they  had  seen,  without  exposing 
their  lives  to  imminent  danger.(21)  Hence  the  interior  of  these  hidden 
rites,  is  at  this  day  little  known.  Yet  we  know  that,  in  some  of  the  myste- 
ries, many  things  were  done  which  were  repugnant  to  modesty  and  decen- 
cy, and  in  all  of  them,  the  discerning  might  see  that  the  deities  there  wor- 
shipped were  more  distinguished  for  their  vices  than  for  their  virtues.(22) 

(15)  See  the  learned  work  of  G.  J.  Vos-    1711,   8vo.    [and  Sauberlus,  ubi  supra,  p. 
sius,  de  Idololatria,  lib.  i.-iii.  [and  La  my-    343,  &c. — Schl.] 

thologie  et  les  fables  expliquees  par  1'histoire,  (19)  ["Some  nations  were  without  tern- 
par  1'Abbe  Banter,  Paris,  1738-40,  8  vols.  pies,  such  as  the  Persians,  Gauls,  Germans, 
12mo,  and  Fr.  Creulztrs1  Symbolik  u.  My-  and  Britons,  who  performed  their  religious 
thologie  der  alten  Vb'lker,  besonders  der  worship  in  the  open  air,  or  in  the  shady  re- 
Griechen.  Leipz.  u.  Darmst.,  1810-12,  4  treats  of  consecrated  groves." — Mad.] 
vols.  8vo. —  Tr.]  (20)  Arnobius,  adv.  Gentes,  lib.  vi.,  p. 

(16)  See  J.  Saubertus,  de  Sacrifices  vete-  254,  ed.  Heraldi      Augustine,  de  Civitate 
rum;  republished  by  T.  Crenius,  L.  Bat.,  Dei,  lib.  vii.,  c.  33,  Opp.,  torn,  vii.,  p.  161, 
1699,  8vo.  ed.  Benedict.     Julian,  Misopogon.,  p.  361, 

(17)  See  H.  Columna,  ad  Fragmenta  En-  ed.  Spanheim. 

nii,  p.  29,  and  J.  Saubertus,  de  Sacrifices  (21)  See  Jo.  Meursius,  de  Mysteriis 
Vet.,  cap.  xxi.,  p.  455.  Elensyniis  ;  and  David  Clarkson,  Discourse 

(18)  See  Matt.  Browerius  a  Niedeck,  de    on  Liturgies,  §  iv. 

Adoratkmibus  veterum  populorum.     Traj.,        (22)  Cicero,   Disput.  Tusculan.,   lib.  i., 


STATE  OF  THE  WORLD. 


27 


§  13.  The  whole  pagan  system  had  not  the  least  efficacy  to  excite  and 
cherish  virtuous  emotions  in  the  soul.  For,  in  ihejtrst  place,  the  gods  and 
goddesses  to  whom  the  public  homage  was  paid,  instead  of  being  pat- 
terns of  virtue,  were  patterns  rather  of  enormous  vices  and  crimes. (23) 
They  were  considered,  indeed,  as  superior  to  mortals  in  power,  and  as 
exempt  from  death,  but  in  all  things  else  as  on  a  level  with  us.  In  the 
next,  place,  the  ministers  of  this  religion,  neither  by  precept  nor  by  ex- 
ample, exhorted  the  people  to  lead  honest  and  virtuous  lives,  but  gave  them 
to  understand,  that  all  the  homage  required  of  them  by  the  gods  was  com- 
prised in  the  observance  of  the  traditional  rites  and  ceremonies.(24)  And, 
lastly,  the  doctrines  inculcated  respecting  the  rewards  of  the  righteous  and 
the  punishments  of  the  wicked  in  the  future  world,  were  some  of  them  du- 
bious and  uncertain,  and  others  more  adapted  to  promote  vice  than  vir- 
tue.(25)  Hence  the  wiser  pagans  themselves,  about  the  time  of  the  Sav- 
iour's birth,  contemned  and  ridiculed  the  whole  system. 


cap.  13  ;  [and  de  Leg.,  cap.  24.  Varro, 
cited  by  Augustine,  de  Civitate  Dei,  lib. 
iv.,  cap.  31.  Eusebius,  Praepar.  Evangel., 
lib.  ii.,  c.  3. — Schl.  See  also  Warlurtori's 
Divine  legal.,  vol.  i.,  lib.  ii.,  sec.  4  ;  who 
is  confronted  by  J.  Leland,  Advantages 
and  necessity  of  the  Christian  Rev.,  vol.  i., 
ch.  8,  9,  p.  151-190.  C.  Meiners,  iiber  die 
Mysterien  der  Alien ;  in  his  Miscel.  phil- 
os.  works,  vol.  iii.,  Leipz.,  1776.  The 
Baron  de  Sainte  Croix,  Memoires  pour  ser- 
vir  a  1'histoire  de  la  religion  secrete  des  an- 
ciens  peuples,  &c.,  Paris,  1784,  8vo  ;  and 
(P.  J.  Vogel's)  Briefe  uber  die  Myslerien, 
which  are  ihe  2d  collodion  of  Lellers  on 
Freemasonry,  Nuremb.,  1784,  12mo.  Il 
has  been  maintained,  lhal  ihe  design  of  at 
leasl  some  of  these  mysleries  was  to  incul- 
cate the  grand  principles  of  natural  religion, 
such  as  the  unity  of  God,  the  immortality  of 
the  soul,  the  importance  of  virtue,  &c.,  and 
to  explain  the  vulgar  polytheism  as  symbol- 
ical of  these  greal  truths.  Bui  ihis  certainly 
needs  better  proof.  It  is  more  probable  lhal 
the  later  pagan  philosophers,  who  lived  after 
the  light  of  Christianity  had  exposed  Ihe 
abominations  of  polytheism,  were  ihe  princi- 
pal aulhors  of  Ibis  moral  inlerprelation  of 
the  vulgar  religion,  which  they  falsely  pre- 
tended was  laughl  in  the  mysteries,  while, 
in  reality,  Ihose  mysleries  were  probably 
mere  supplemenls  lo  Ihe  vulgar  mylhology 
and  worship,  and  of  the  same  general  char- 
acter and  spirit.  See  an  elaborale  essay  in 
the  Quarterly  Chrislian  Speclalor,  vol.  ix., 
No.  III.,  for  Sept,  1837,  p.  478-520,  where 
one  of  the  most  profound  Greek  schol- 
ars of  our  country  ably  mainlains  ihe  fol- 
lowing proposilion  :  "  thai,  so  far  as  any- 
thing can  be  known  of  them,  ihey  [the  mys- 
teries] were  nol  essenlially  different  from 
the  public  worship  of  heathenism  ;  that  their 
importance  did  nol  consist  in  teaching  exalted 


doctrines  concerning  God  and  the  soul ;  that, 
in  truth,  no  secret  doctrines  properly  per- 
tained to  ihem ;  and  that,  whatever  high 
truths  may  have  been  suggested  to  any  of 
the  initiated,  those  truths  were  of  '  private 
inlerprelalion,'  or  were  sewed  on  lo  the 
mysteries  after  ihe  rise  of  philosophy." — 
2>.] 

(23)  Ovid,  de  Tiistibus,  lib.  iL,  v.  287, 
&c. 

Quis  locus  esl  lemplis  auguslior  1  haec  quo- 
que  vitet, 

In  culpam  si  qua  esl  ingeniosa  suam. 
Cum  steterit  Jovis  aede  :  Jovis  succurret  in 
aede, 

Quam  multas  matres  feceril  ille  Deus. 
Proxima  adoranli  Junonia  lempla  subibit, 

Pellicibus  mullis  hanc  doluisse  Deam. 
Pallade  conspecta,  nalum  de  crimine  virgo 

Sustuleril  quare,  quaerel.  Erichlhonium. 

[Compare  Plato,  de  Leg.,  lib.  i.,  p.  776, 
and  de  Republ.,  lib.  ii.,  p.  430,  &c.,  ed. 
Ficini ;  Isocrates,  Encom.  Busiridis,  Oratl., 
p.  462  ;  and  Seneca,  de  Vila  beala,  cap.  26. 
— Sc«.] 

(24)  See  J.   Barbeyrac,  Preface  to  his 
French  translation  of  Puffendorf's  Law  of 
nature  and  nalions,  §  vi.     [Yet  Ihere  were 
some  inielligenl  pagans  who  had  belter  views, 
such  as  Socrates  and  ihe  younger  Pliny.  The 
laller,  in  his  Panegyric  on  Trajan,  cap.  3,  n. 
5,  says  :   Anima<lverto, — etiam  Deos  ipsos, 
non  tarn  accuratis  adoranlium  precibus,  quam 
innocenlia  el  sanclitate  Ixtari  ;  gratioremque 
cxistimari,  qui  delubris  eorum  puram  cas- 
tamque  mentem,  quam  qui  medilalum  car- 
men intulerit. — Schl.] 

(25)  [Whal  Ihe  Greeks  and  Romans  said 
of  ihe  Elysian  Fields,  was  nol  only  fabulous 
in  its  very  aspect,  but  it  held  out  the  pros- 
pect of  voluptuous  pleasures,  opposed  to 
true  virtue.     The  more   northern  nations 


28  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  I.— CHAP.  I. 

§  14.  And  hence  a  universal  corruption  of  morals  prevailed;  and  crimes, 
which  at  this  day  cannot  be  named  with  decency,  were  then  practised 
with  entire  impunity. (26)  Those  who  would  see  proof  of  this,  may  read  Ju- 
venal and  Perseus  among  the  Latins,  and  Lucian  among  the  Greeks  ;  or,  if 
this  seems  too  painful,  let  them  reflect  on  the  gladiatorial  shows,  the  sodomy 
and  unnatural  lusts,  the  facility  of  divorce,  both  among  Greeks  and  Romans, 
the  custom  of  exposing  infants  and  procuring  abortions,  and  the  stews  con- 
secrated to  the  gods  ;  against  all  which  the  laws  raised  no  obstructions. (27) 

§  15.  Men  of  but  common  discernment,  could  see  the  deformity  of  these 
religions ;  but  they  were  met  by  the  crafty  priests  with  two  spurious  argu- 
ments. First,  the  miracles  and  prodigies  which  were  affirmed  to  have 
taken  place,  and  still  to  be  daily  witnessed,  in  the  temples  and  before  the 
shrines  of  the  gods ;  and,  secondly,  the  divination  and  oracles,  by  which 
these  gods  were  said  to  have  foretold  future  events.  In  regard  to  both, 
the  common  people  were  miserably  imposed  upon  by  the  artifices  of  the 
priests,  and  the  discerning  saw  it. (28)  But  the  latter  had  to  laugh  with 
caution  in  order  to  be  safe.  For  the  priests  stood  ready  to  accuse  of  trea- 
son against  the  gods,  before  a  raging  and  superstitious  multitude,  all  such 
as  exposed  their  religious  frauds. 

§  16.  At  the  time  chosen  by  the  Son  of  God  for  his  birth  among  men, 
the  Roman  religion,  as  well  as  arms,  pervaded  a  large  part  of  the  world. 
To  be  acquainted  with  this  religion,  is  nearly  the  same  as  to  be  acquainted 
•with  the  Grecian  superstition. (29)  Yet  there  is  some  difference  between 
them ;  for,  besides  the  institutions  of  Numa  and  others,  invented  for  polit- 
ical ends,  the  Romans  superadded  to  the  Grecian  fables  some  Italic  and 
Tuscan  fictions,  and  also  gave  the  Egyptian  gods  a  place  among  their 
deities.(30) 

promised  a  happy  immortality,  only  to  those  work,  The  advantage  and  necessity  of  the 

who  distinguished  themselves  by  a  martial  Christian  Revelation,  shown  from  the  state 

spirit  and  the  slaughter  of  numerous  foes  ;  of  religion  in  the  ancient  heathen  world  ;  by 

that  is,  to  the  enemies  of  mankind.     And  J.  Leland,  D.D.,  2d  ed.     Dublin,  1765,  2 

the   eternal   bliss  which   they  promised  to  vols.  8vo. — Tr  ] 

these  warriors,  was  only  a  continued  indul-  (28)  [Schlegel  here  introduces  a  long  note, 
gence  in  vile  lusts.  How  could  such  hopes  showing  that  Dr.  Mosheim,  till  towards  the 
excite  to  virtue  1  Moreover,  the  doctrine  close  of  his  life,  did  not  utterly  reject  that 
of  even  these  rewards  and  punishments,  was  common  opinion  of  the  ancients,  that  evil 
not  an  article  of  faith  among  the  Greeks  and  spirits  sometimes  aided  the  pagan  priests, 
Romans,  but  every  one  believed  what  he  particularly  in  regard  to  their  oracles.  But 
pleased  concerning  it ;  and,  at  the  time  of  Dr.  Mosheim  did,  we  are  told  by  his  pu- 
Christ's  birth,  the  followers  of  Epicurus  pil,  come  at  last  into  the  opinion  now  gen- 
were  numerous  ;  and  while  many  denied,  erally  admitted,  namely,  that  the  pagan  ora- 
most  others  doubted,  the  reality  of  future  cles  were  all  mere  cheats,  proceeding  from 
retributions.  Polybius,  Hist.,  lib.  vi.,  c.  the  craft  of  the  priests.  See  Van  Dale,  de 
54.  Sallust,  Bell.  Catil. — Schl.]  Oraculis  ethnicorum  ;  among  his  Diss.  Am- 

(26)  Cyprian,  Epiet.  i.,  p.  2,  ed.  Baluz.,  stel.,  1696,  4to  ;  and  Bern.  Fontendle,  His- 
describes  at  large  the  debased  morals  of  the  toire  des  oracles,  1687  ;  with  the  Jesuit,  J. 
pagans.     See  also  Cornelii  Adami  Exercit.  F.  Baltus,  Reponse  a  1'histoire  des  oracles, 
de   malis  Romanorum  ante  prsedicationem  &c.,  Strasb.,    1707,  8vo ;  and  Suite  de  la 
Evangelii  moribus,  in  his  Exercitt.  Exeget.  Reponse,  &c.,  1708,  8vo. — Tr.] 
Exercit.   V.    Grb'ning.,     1712,    4to  ;    [and,  (29)  See   Dumys.  Halicar.,  Antiquitatt. 
what  is  still  better  authority,  St.  Paul  to  the  Romanor.,  lib.  vii.,  cap.  72,  torn,  i.,  p.  460, 
Romans,  chap,  i.,  passim. — Tr.]  ed.  Hudson. 

(27)  [On  the  subject  of  this  and  several  (30)  See  Sam.  Petitus,  ad  Leges  Atticas, 
preceding  sections,  the  reader  may  find  sat-  lib.  i.,  tit.  i.,  p.  71.     [Lactantius,  Divin*- 
iifactory  proof  in  that  elaborate  and  candid  rum  lustitutt.,  lib.  i.,  cap.  20. — Schl.'] 


STATE  OF  THE  WORLD.  29 

§  17.  In  the  Roman  provinces,  new  forms  of  paganism  were  gradually 
produced,  compounded  of  the  ancient  religions  of  the  inhabitants  and  that 
of  their  Roman  conquerors.  For  these  nations,  who,  before  their  subjuga- 
tion, had  their  peculiar  gods  and  religious  rites,  were  persuaded  by  de- 
grees to  adopt  many  of  the  Roman  usages.  This  was  good  policy  in  the 
Romans,  whose  interests  were  promoted  by  the  extinction  of  the  inhuman 
rites  of  the  barbarous  nations ;  at  the  same  time,  the  levity  of  those  na- 
tions, and  their  desire  to  please  their  masters,  favoured  the  object.(31) 

§  18.  The  most  prominent  religions  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  Roman, 
empire,  may  be  divided  into  two  classes,  the  civil  and  the  military.  To 
the  first  class  belong  the  religions  of  most  of  the  Oriental  nations,  espe- 
cially of  the  Persians,  the  Egyptians,  and  the  Indians.  For  whoever  care- 
fully inspects  their  religions,  will  see  that  they  are  adapted  merely  to  an- 
swer political  objects  ;  to  protect  the  dignity  and  authority  of  kings,  to 
preserve  the  public  tranquillity,  and  to  promote  the  civil  virtues.  To  the 
second  class  must  be  referred  the  religions  of  the  northern  nations.  For 
all  that  was  inculcated  among  the  Germans,  Britains,  Celts,  Goths,  &c., 
respecting  the  gods  and  the  worship  due  to  them,  was  evidently  suited  to 
awaken  and  to  cherish  the  military  virtues,  fortitude,  bravery,  and  contempt 
of  death.  A  careful  examination  of  these  religions  will  evince  the  truth 
of  these  statements. 

§  19.  No  nation  was  so  rude  and  barbarous,  as  not  to  contain  some  per- 
sons capable  of  discerning  the  absurdity  of  the  popular  religions.  But 
among  these  men  some  lacked  the  power  and  authority,  others  the  dispo- 
sition, and  all  the  wisdom,  necessary  to  produce  a  reformation.  This 
could  not  well  be  better  exemplified,  than  it  actually  is,  by  the  attempts  of 
the  Greek  and  Roman  philosophers  to  reform  the  vulgar  superstitions. 
They  advanced  many  tolerably  correct  ideas  respecting  the  divine  nature 
and  moral  duties,  and  they  exposed,  with  some  success,  the  errors  of  the 
prevailing  religion ;  but  all  was  so  intermixed  with  wild  and  baseless 
speculations,  as  clearly  to  show  that  it  belongs  to  God  only,  and  not  to  men, 
to  teach  the  truth  undebased  and  free  from  errors. 

§  20.  Among  the  more  civilized  nations  at  the  time  the  Son  of  God  ap- 
peared, two  species  of  philosophy  prevailed  ;  namely,  the  Grecian,  which 
was  also  adopted  by  the  Romans,  and  the  Oriental,  which  had  many  fol- 
lowers in  Persia,  Syria,  Chaldea,  Egypt,  and  among  the  Jews.  The  for- 
mer was  appropriately  called  philosophy;  the  latter,  by  such  as  spoke 
Greek,  was  called  •yvwcr^,  that  is,  knowledge  (ss.  0e«)  of  God  ;  because  its 
followers  pretended  to  restore  the  lost  knowledge  of  the  supreme  God.  (32) 
The  advocates  of  both  kinds  of  philosophy,  were  split  into  numerous  con- 
tending sects ;  yet  with  this  difference,  that  all  the  sects  of  Oriental  phi- 
losophy set  out  with  one  and  the  same  fundamental  principle,  and  there- 
fore, were  agreed  in  regard  to  many  points  of  doctrine ;  but  the  Greeks 
were  not  agreed  about  the  first  principles  of  human  wisdom.  Of  the  Ori- 
ental philosophy  we  shall  give  account  hereafter ;  of  the  Grecian  philoso- 
phy and  its  sects  notice  will  be  taken  here. 

(31)  [Strabo,  Geograph.,  lib.  iv.,  p.  189,  in  regard  to  the  existence  and  prevalence  of 
&c. —  Schl.]  an  Oriental  philosophy,  going  under  the  name 

(32)  St.  Paul  mentions  and  disapproves  of  yvucrif,  so  early  as  the  days  of  Christ  and 
both  kinds  of  philosophy  ;  namely,  the  Gre-  his  apostles.     On  this  subject  more  will  be 
cian,    Colos.    ii.,  8,   and   the    Oriental,   or  said  hereafter.     See  cent,  i.,  pt.  ii.,  ch.  i., 
yvuatf,  1  Tim.  vi.,  20.     [Dr.  Mosheim  has  n.  7. — TV.] 

been  censured  for  his  confident  assertions 


30 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  I.— CHAP.  I. 


§  21.  Some  of  the  Grecian  sects  declared  open  war  against  all  religion ; 
others  admitted,  indeed,  the  existence  of  God  and  of  religion,  but  they  ob- 
scured the  truth  rather  than  threw  light  upon  it.  Of  the  former  class  were 
the  Epicureans  and  the  Academics.  The  Epicureans  maintained,  that  the 
world  arose  from  chance ;  that  the  gods  (whose  existence  they  did  not 
dare  to  deny)  neither  did  nor  could  extend  their  providential  care  to  hu- 
man affairs  ;  that  the  soul  was  mortal ;  that  pleasure(33)  was  to  be  sought 
as  man's  ultimate  end ;  and  that  virtue  was  to  be  prized  only  for  its  sub- 
serviency to  this  end.  The  Academics  denied  the  possibility  of  arriving 
at  truth  and  certainty,  and  therefore  held  it  uncertain  whether  the  gods  ex- 
isted or  not ;  whether  the  soul  is  mortal  or  survives  the  body ;  whether 
virtue  is  preferable  to  vice,  or  the  contrary.(34)  At  the  birth  of  Jesus 
Christ,  these  two  sects  were  very  numerous  and  influential,  being  favoured 
by  the  men  of  rank  and  by  nearly  all  the  opulent. (35) 


(33)  ["  The  ambiguity  of  the  word  pleas- 
ure has  produced  many  disputes  in  the  ex- 
plication of  the  Epicurean  system.     If  by 
pleasure  be  understood  only  sensual  gratifi- 
cations, the  tenet  here  advanced  is  indispu- 
tably monstrous.     But  if  it  be  taken  in  a 
larger  sense,  and  be  extended  to  intellectual 
and  moral  objects,  in  what  does  the  scheme 
of  Epicurus,  with  respect  to  virtue,  differ 
from  the  opinions  of  those  Christian  philoso- 
phers who  maintain  that  self-love  is  the  only 
spring  of  all  human  affections  and  actions  1" 
— Macl.     Epicurus   distinguished   between 
corporeal  pleasure  and  mental.     But  he  ac- 
counted both  sensitive,  because  he  held  the 
soul  to  be  material.     His   conceptions  of 
pleasure  did  not  extend  beyond  natural  pleas- 
ures ;  the  chief  of  which  he  supposed  to  be 
a  calm  and  tranquil   state  of  mind,  undis- 
turbed by  any  fear  of  God  or  by  any  solici- 
tude about  the  future,  and  attended  with 
freedom   from    bodily   pain.     His    system, 
therefore,  denied  the  very  idea  of  moral  or 
religious  pleasures,  and  it  required  atheism 
as  its  foundation.     See  Staudliri's  Geschich. 
d.  Moralphilos.,  p.  236,  &c.     Hanov.,  1822, 
8vo.— TV.] 

(34)  [The  Academics   or  Platonists  be- 
came indeed  skeptical,  especially  those   of 
the  Middle  Academy.     Some  real  Pyrrhon- 
ists  likewise  assumed  the  name  of  Academ- 
ics.    Still  it  is  probable  the  great  body  of 
Academics,  like    Cicero,  who  is  accounted 
one  of  them,  merely  held  that  all  human 
knowledge  is  imperfect,  that  is,  falls  short 
of  certainty  ;  that,  of  course,  we  are  obliged 
in   all    cases   to  act  upon   probabilities,   of 
which  there  are  different  degrees. — 7V.] 

(35)  The  Epicureans  were  the  most  nu- 
merous of  the  two.     See  Cicero,  de  Finibus 
honor,  et  malor.,  lib.  i.,  cap.  7,  lib.  ii.,  cap. 
14,  and  Disput.  Tuscul.,  lib.  v.,  cap.  10. 
Hence  Juvenal,  Satyr,  xiii.,  v.  86,  &c.,  thus 
complains  of  the  many  atheists  at  Rome  : 
Sunt  in  fortunae  qui  casibus  omuia  ponant, 


Et  nullo  credant  mundum  rectore  moveri, 
Natura  volvente  vices  et  lucis  et  anni : 
Atque  ideo  intrepidi  quaecunque  altaria  tan- 

gunt. 

[Dr.  Mosheim,  in  these  sections,  is  giving 
the  dark  side  of  pagan  philosophy.  Like 
his  other  translators,  therefore,  I  would  aim 
so  to  soften  his  pictures,  that  the  less  in- 
formed reader  may  not  be  misled.  This,  I 
am  persuaded,  Dr.  Mosheim  would  himself 
approve,  as  may  be  inferred  from  the  follow- 
ing long  note,  inserted  apparently  for  such 
a  purpose  in  the  parallel  passage  of  his 
Comment,  de  Reb.  Christ,  ante  Constant., 
p.  17,  18.  "I  cannot  agree  with  those  who 
maintain,  that  every  one  of  the  philosophers 
of  those  times,  even  such  as  discoursed  well 
on  religious  subjects,  was  hostile  to  all  re- 
ligion. I  think  those  learned  moderns  have 
gone  too  far,  who  have  endeavoured  to  prove 
that  every  sect  of  the  philosophers,  either 
openly  or  covertly,  aimed  to  rip  up  the  foun- 
dations of  all  religion.  Are  we  to  believe 
that  not  one  of  the  many  great  and  worthy 
men  of  those  times,  however  free  from  ill 
intentions,  was  so  fortunate  as  to  make  a 
proper  use  of  his  reason  1  Must  all  those 
who  professed  theism,  and  spoke  sublimely 
of  the  divine  perfections,  be  regarded  as 
impostors,  who  said  one  thing  and  meant 
another  1  Yet  the  celebrated  and  acute  W. 
Warburton,  to  mention  no  others,  lately  ex- 
pended much  ingenuity  and  learning  to  bring' 
us  to  such  conclusions.  See  his  very  elab- 
orate and  noted  work,  entitled  The  divine 
Legation,  &c.,  vol.  i.,  p.  332,  &c.,  and  p. 
419,  &c.  He  would  have  us  think,  that  all 
the  philosophers  who  taught  the  immortality 
of  the  soul,  secretly  denied  it ;  that  they 
held  Nature  to  be  the  only  Deity,  and  human 
souls  to  be  particles  severed  from  the  soul 
of  the  world,  to  which  they  return  at  the 
death  of  the  body.  But  not  to  mention  that 
he  cites  only  Grecian  philosophers,  while 
other  nations  had  their  philosophers  also  dif- 


STATE  OF  THE  WORLD.  31 

§  22.  To  the  second  class  belong  the  Aristotelians,  the  Stoics,  and  the  Pla- 
tonics: none  of  whom  spoke  of  God,  religion,  and  moral  duties,  in  a  man- 
ner to  be  of  much  service  to  mankind.  The  god  of  Aristotle,  is  like  the 
principle  of  motion  in  a  machine.  He  is  a  being  regardless  of  human  af- 
fairs, and  happy  in  his  own  contemplations.  Such  a  god,  differing  but  lit- 
tle from  the  god  of  Epicurus,  we  have  no  reason  either  to  love  or  to  fear. 
Whether  this  philosopher  held  the  soul  to  be  mortal  or  immortal,  is  at  least 
doubtful. (36)  Now  what  solid  and  sound  precepts  of  virtue  and  piety  can 
that  man  give,  who  denies  the  providence  of  God,  and  not  obscurely  inti- 
mates that  the  soul  is  mortal  ? 

§  23.  The  god  of  the  Stoics  has  a  little  more  of  majesty ;  nor  does  he 
sit  musing  supinely,  above  the  heavens  and  the  stars.  Yet  he  is  described 
as  a  corporeal  being,  united  to  matter  by  a  necessary  connexion  ;  and, 
moreover,  as  subject  to  fate  :  so  that  he  can  bestow  neither  rewards  nor 
punishments.  (37)  That  this  sect  held  to  the  extinction  of  the  soul,  at 
death,  is  allowed  by  all  the  learned.  Now  such  doctrines  take  away  the 
strongest  motives  to  virtue.  And  accordingly,  the  moral  system  of  the 
Stoics  is  a  body  that  is  fair  and  beautiful,  but  without  sinews  and  active 
limbs. (38) 

§  24.  Plato  seems  to  have  exceeded  all  the  other  philosophers  in  wisdom. 
For  he  held  the  world  to  be  governed  by  an  independent,  powerful,  and  in- 
telligent God  ;  and  he  taught  men,  what  to  fear  and  what  to  hope  for,  after 
death.  Yet  his  doctrines  not  only  rest  on  very  slender  foundations,  and 
are  exceedingly  obscure,  but  they  represent  the  supreme  Creator  as  des- 
titute of  several  perfections,(39)  and  as  limited  to  a  certain  place.  His 

fering  widely  from  the  Grecian,  the  renowned  plan  all  wise  and  perfect,  and  from  which,  of 

author  depends  not  on  plain  and  explicit  tes-  consequence,    the  supreme    Being,  morally 

timony,  which  seems  necessary  to  justify  so  speaking,  can  never  depart.     So  that  when 

heavy  a  charge,  but  merely  on  conjectures,  Jupiter  is  said  by  the  Stoics  to  be  subject 

on  single  examples,  and  on  inferences  from  to  immutable  fate,  this  means  no  more  than 

the  doctrines  held  by  certain  philosophers,  that  he  is  subject  to  the  wisdom  of  hia  own 

If  this  kind  of  proof  be  allowed,  if  single  in-  counsels,  and  acts  ever  in  conformity  with 

stances  and  inferences  are  sufficient  to  con-  his  supreme  perfections.     The  following  re- 

vict  men  of  duplicity  when  no  shadow  of  markable  passage  of  Seneca,  drawn  from  the 

suspicion   appears    in    their   language,  who  fifth  chapter  of  his  book  de  Providentia,  is 

will   be   found   innocent  1     Though   but  an  sufficient  to  confirm  the  explication  we  have 

ordinary  man,  and  far  inferior  to  Warburton,  here  given  of  the   Stoical  fate.     Ille   ipse 

yet  I  could  prove  that  all  the  theologians  in  omnium  conditor  et  rector,  scripsit  quidem 

Christendom  disbelieve    utterly  what    they  fata,  sed  sequitur.     Semper  paret,    semel 

teach  in  public  ;  and  that  they  covertly  aim  jussit." — Mad.     This  fine  apology  will  not 

to  instil  the  poison  of  impiety  into  men's  bear  a  strict  scrutiny.     The  Stoics  them- 

minds  ;  if  I  might  be  allowed  to  assail  them  selves  differed  in  opinion,  and  they  generally 

in  the  manner  this  learned  writer  assails  the  had  indistinct  notions.     But  most  of  them 

philosophers." — TV.]  held  fate  to  be  rather  a  physical  than  a  moral 

(36)  See  the  notes  on  my  Latin  transla-  necessity ;  though  some  of  them,  at  times, 
tion  of  R.  CvdicorlK's  Intellectual  System,  confounded  it  with  Jove,  nature,  or  a  pan- 
torn   i.,  p.  66,  500  ;  torn,  ii.,  p.   1171  ;  and  theistic  god,  as  Seneca  does  in  the  passage 
Mich.  Mourgues,  Plan  theologiquc  du  Fyth-  quoted. — 7V.] 

agorismc,  torn,  i.,  p.  75,  &c.  (38)  These  remarks  receive  some  illus- 

(37)  ["  Thus  is  the  Stoical  doctrine  of     tration  from  my  note  on  Cudworth's  Intel. 
fate  generally  represented,  but  not  more  gen-     Syst.,  torn,  i.,  p.  517. 

erally  than  unjustly.     Their  fatum,    when  (39)  [He  ascribed  to  God  neither  omnip- 

carefully  and  attentively  examined,  seems  to  otence,  nor  omnipresence,  nor  omniscience, 

have  signified  no  more,  in  the  intention  of  the  — Schl.     But  Dr.  Maclaine  here  enters  his 

wisest  of  that  sect,  than  the  plan  of  govern-  dissent.     He  says,  "  All  the  divine  pt-rfrc- 

ment  formed  originally  in  the  divine  mind,  a  tions  are  frequently  acknowledged  In    that 


32 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  I.— CHAP.  I. 


doctrine  concerning  demons  and  the  human  soul,  is  singularly  adapted  to 
produce  and  encourage  superstition. (40)  Nor  will  his  system  of  morals 
command  very  high  estimation,  if  we  examine  it  in  all  its  parts,  and  in- 
quire into  its  first  principles. (41) 

§  25.  As  all  these  sects  held  many  things  inconsistent  with  sound  rea- 
son, and  were  addicted  to  never-ending  contentions  and  debates,  some 
moderate  and  well-disposed  men  concluded  to  follow  none  of  them  impli- 
citly, but  to  glean  from  all  whatever  was  good  and  consonant  to  reason,  and 
reject  the  rest.  Hence  originated  in  Egypt,  and  particularly  at  Alexandria, 
a  new  mode  of  philosophizing  called  the  eclectic.  One  Potamon,  of  Alex- 
andria, has  been  represented  as  its  author;  but  the  subject  has  its  difficul- 
ties.(42)  That  this  sect  flourished  at  Alexandria  in  the  age  of  our  Saviour, 
is  manifest  from  the  Jewish  Philo,  who  philosophized  according  to  its  prin- 
ciples.(43)  These  Eclectics  held  Plato  in  the  highest  estimation ;  but 
they  unscrupulously  modified  his  doctrines  by  incorporating  what  they 
pleased  from  the  other  philosophers. (44) 

§  26.  It  will  be  easy  to  see,  what  inference  should  be  drawn  from  this 
account  of  the  lamentable  state  of  the  world  at  the  time  of  Christ's  birth. 
It  may  serve  to  teach  us,  that  the  human  race  was  then  wholly  corrupt, 
and  that  a  divine  teacher  was  needed  to  instruct  mankind  in  the  true  prin- 
ciples of  religion  and  morality,  and  to  recall  the  wanderers  into  the  paths 


philosopher."  I  wish  he  had  given  proof  of 
this  assertion,  if  he  was  able  to  make  it  good. 
—TV.] 

(40)  [He  believed,  that  God  employs  good 
and  evil  demons  in  the  government  of  the 
world,  and  that  men  can  have  commerce 
with  these  demons.    A  person  believing  this, 
may  easily  be  led  to  regard  idolatry  as  not 
very  irrational. — Schl.] 

(41)  The  defects  of  the  Platonic  philoso- 
phy are  copiously,  but  not  very  accurately, 
depicted  by  Fran.  Baltus,  in  a  French  work, 
Defense  des  peres  accuses  de  Platonisme  ; 
Paris,  1711,   4to.     [Plato  has,   moreover, 
been   accused   of  Spinozism.     For   Bayle 
(Continuation  des  pensees  diverses  sur  la 
Comete,  &c.,  cap.   25)  and   Gundling  (in 
Otiis,  fasc.  2,  and  in  Gundlingianis,  th.  43 
and  44)  tax  him  with  confounding  God  with 
matter.     But  Zimrnermann  (Opusc.,  torn,  i., 
p.  762,  &c.)  and  the  elder  Schelhorn  ( Amoe- 
nitatt.  literar.,  torn,  ix.,  xii.,  and  xiii.)  have 
defended  the  character  of  Plato. — ScA/.] 

(42)  [J.  Brucker,  Historia  crit.  philos., 
torn,  ii.,  p.  193,  has  shown,  that  in  regard  to 
the  controversies  maintained  by  Heumann, 
Hasaeus  and  others,  respecting  this  nearly 
unknown  Potamon,  the  probability  is,  that  he 
lived  about  the  close  of  the  second  century  ; 
that  his  speculations  had  little  effect ;    and 
that  Ammonius  is  to  be  regarded  as   the 
founder  of  the  Eclectic  sect.     Yet  this  will 
not  forbid  our  believing,  what  Brucker  him- 
self admits,  that  there  were  some  Grecian 
philosophers  as  early  as  the  times  of  Christ, 
who  speculated  very  much  as  the  Eclectics 


afterward  did,  though  the  few  followers  they 
had  did  not  merit  the  title  of  a  sect. — Schl.~] 

(43)  [For  he  philosophized  in  the  manner 
of  Clemens  Alex.,   Ongen,  and   the  other 
Christian  doctors,  who  were  certainly  Eclec- 
tics.    For 'the  most  part  he  follows  Plato, 
and  hence  many  account  him  a  pure  Platon- 
ist.     But  he  often  commends    the   Stoics, 
Pythagoreans,  and  others,  and  adopts  their 
opinions. — ScA/.] 

(44)  See  Godfr.  Olearius,  de  Philosophia 
Eclectica,  James  Brucker,  and  others.     [On 
the  philosophy,  as  well  as  the  vulgar  poly- 
theism of  the  ancient  pagans,  the  best  work 
for  the  mere  English  reader,  seems  to  be 
that  already  mentioned,  J.  Ldand's  Advan- 
tage and  necessity  of  the  Christian  revela- 
tion, shown  from  the  state  of  religion  in  the 
ancient  heathen  world,  second  ed  ,  1765,  2 
vols.  8vo.     The  history  of  philosophy  among 
the  ancients  has  not  been  critically  and  ably 
written    in    English,    nor   by    Englishmen. 
Stanley's  lives,  &c.,  1655,  4to,    is  full  of 
mistakes ;    and    Enficld's    abridgment    of 
Brucker,  is  quite  superficial.     The  best  gen- 
eral works  are  J.  Brvcker's  Historia  critica 
philosophise,  Lips.,  1741-67,  6  vols.  4to,  and 
the  more  recent  German  works  by  Tiede- 
mann  (6   vols.    8vo,     1791-97),   Buhle  (7 
vols.    8vo,     1796-1804),    Tennemann   (12 
vols.  8vo,    1798-1820),  and  Rimier,  3  vols. 
8vo,   1822.     The  history  of  moral  philoso- 
phy or  ethics,  is  well  treated  by  Cp.  Meinen 
(krit.  Geschichte,  2  vols.  8vo,    1800-1)  and 
C.  F.  Staudlin,  Gesch.  der  Moralphiloso- 
phie,  1822,  p.  1055,  8vo.— Tr.] 


STATE  OF  THE  JEWS.  33 

of  virtue  and  piety.  And  it  may  teach  those  who  before  were  ignorant  of 
it,  how  great  advantages  and  supports,  in  all  the  circumstances  of  life,  the 
human  family  have  derived  from  the  advent  of  Christ,  and  from  the  religion 
which  he  taught.  Many  despise  and  ridicule  the  Christian  religion,  not 
knowing  that  to  it  they  are  indebted  for  all  the  blessings  they  enjoy. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    CIVIL   AND   RELIGIOUS    STATE    OF   THE    JEWS   AT    THE    BIRTH   OF 

CHRIST. 

$  I.  Herod  the  Great  then  reigned. — §  2.  State  of  the  Jews  after  his  Death. — §  3.  Their 
Troubles  and  Calamities, — §  4.  which  were  increased  by  their  leading  Men. — §  5.  Their 
Religion  greatly  corrupted,  both  among  the  Common  People — §  6.  and  among  their 
Teachers,  who  were  divided  into  three  Sects. — 6  7.  Their  Dissensions. — §  8.  Their 
Toleration  of  each  other. — §  9.  The  Essenes. — §  10.  The  Therapeutae. — §  11.  Moral 
Doctrines  of  these  Sects. — §  12.  Low  State  of  Religion  among  the  People. — $  13.  The 
Kabbala,  a  Source  of  Error. — 1}  14.  Their  Form  of  Worship,  debased  by  Pagan  Rites. — 
9  15.  Causes  of  the  Corruption  of  the  Nation. — §  16.  Yet  Religion  not  wholly  ex- 
tinct.— §  17.  The  Samaritans. — §  18.  State  of  the  Jews  out  of  Palestine. 

§  1.  THE  state  of  the  Jewish  people,  among  whom  the  Saviour  chose 
to  be  born,  was  little  better  than  that  of  other  nations.  Herod,  whose 
crimes  procured  him  the  title  of  the  Great,  then  governed,  or,  rather,  op- 
pressed the  nation,  being  a  tributary  king  under  the  Romans.  He  drew  on 
himself  universal  hatred  by  his  cruelties,  jealousies,  and  wars  ;  and  he  ex- 
hausted the  wealth  of  the  unhappy  nation  by  his  mad  luxury,  his  excessive 
magnificence,  and  his  immoderate  largesses.  Under  his  administration 
Roman  luxury  and  great  licentiousness  spread  over  Palestine.(l)  In  re- 
ligion he  was  professedly  a  Jew,  but  he  copied  the  manners  of  those  who 
despise  all  religion. 

§  2.  On  the  death  of  this  tyrant,  the  Romans  allowed  Archelaus,  his  son, 
with  the  title  of  Exarch,  to  reign  over  half  of  Palestine  [viz.,  Judea,  Samaria, 
and  Idumea]  ;  the  other  half  was  divided  between  two  other  sons  of  Herod, 
Antipas  and  Philip.  Archelaus  copied  after  the  vices  of  his  father ;  and 
therefore,  in  the  tenth  year  of  his  reign,  he  was  publicly  accused  before 
Augustus  and  deprived  of  his  crown. (2)  The  countries  he  had  governed 
were  now  reduced  to  the  form  of  a  Roman  province,  and  were  annexed  to 
Syria.  This  change  in  the  form  of  government,  brought  heavy  troubles 
and  calamities  upon  the  Jews,  and  at  last  destroyed  the  nation. 

§  3.  The  Romans  did  not,  indeed,  wholly  prohibit  the  Jews  from  retain- 
ing their  national  laws,  and  the  religion  established  by  Moses.  Their  re- 
ligious affairs  were  still  conducted  by  a  high  priest,  with  priests  and  Le- 

(1)  See  Christ.  Noldii,  Historia  Idumaea,  larius,  Historia  Herodum,  inhisDiss.  Acad., 

in  Havercamp's  edit,  of  Josephus,  torn,  ii.,  p.  part,  i.,  and  especially  the  Jewish  histori- 

333,  &c.     Ja.  Basnage,  Histoire  des  Juifs,  an,  Flavins  Josephus,  in  his  Wars  of  the 

torn,  i.,  part  i.,  p.  27,  &c.     H.  Noris,  Cosn-  Jews. 

otaph.  Pisan.,  ii.,  6.     H.  Prideaux,  Con-  (2)  [Josephus,  Antiq.  Jud.,  lib.  rvii.,  cap. 

nexions,  &c.,  part,  ii.,  lib.  viii.     Chr.  Cel-  13,  and  de  Bello  Jud.,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  6. — Schl.] 

VOL.  I.— E 


34  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  L— CHAP.  II. 

vites  under  him,  and  by  their  national  senate  or  Sanhedrim.  The  exte- 
rior of  their  worship,  with  a  few  exceptions,  remained  unaltered.  But  the 
amount  of  evil  brought  upon  this  miserable  people,  by  the  presence  of  the 
Romans  among  them,  whom  they  viewed  as  polluted  and  detestable,  by 
the  cruelty  and  avarice  of  the  governors,  and  by  the  frauds  and  rapacity 
of  the  publicans,  is  almost  incalculable.  Unquestionably,  those  Jews  lived 
more  comfortably  who  were  subject  to  the  other  two  sons  of  Herod. 

§  4.  But  the  measure  of  liberty  and  comfort  allowed  to  the  Jews  by 
the  Romans,  was  wholly  dissipated  by  the  profligacy  and  crimes  of  those 
who  pretended  to  be  patriots  and  guardians  of  the  nation.  Their  principal 
men,  their  high  priests,  as  we  learn  from  Josephus,  were  abandoned 
wretches,  who  had  purchased  their  places  by  bribes  or  by  deeds  of  in- 
iquity, and  who  maintained  their  ill-acquired  authority  by  every  species  of 
flagitious  acts.  The  other  priests,  and  all  who  held  any  considerable  of- 
fice, were  not  much  better.  The^  multitude,  excited  by  such  examples, 
ran  headlong  into  every  sort  of  iniquity,  and  by  their  unceasing  robberies 
and  seditions  they  armed  against  themselves  both  the  justice  of  God  and 
the  vengeance  of  men. (3) 

§  5.  Two  religions  then  flourished  in  Palestine,  viz.,  the  Jewish  and 
the  Samaritan;  between  the  followers  of  which  a  deadly  hatred  pre- 
vailed. The  nature  of  the  former  is  set  forth  in  the  Old  Testament.  But 
in  the  age  of  the  Saviour,  it  had  lost  much  of  its  primitive  form  and  char- 
acter. The  people  universally  were  infected  with  certain  prevalent  and 
pernicious  errors,  and  the  more  learned  were  at  variance  on  points  of  the 
greatest  moment.  All  looked  for  a  deliverer  ;  not,  however,  such  a  one  as 
God  had  promised,  but  a  powerful  warrior  and  a  vindicator  of  their  national 
liberties. (4)  All  placed  the  sum  of  religion  in  an  observance  of  the  Mo- 
saic ritual,  and  in  certain  external  duties  towards  their  own  countrymen. 
All  excluded  the  rest  of  mankind  from  the  hope  of  salvation,  and,  of  course, 
whenever  they  dared,  treated  them  with  hatred  and  inhumanity.  (5)  To 
these  fruitful  sources  of  vice,  must  be  added  various  absurd  and  supersti- 
tious opinions  concerning  the  Divine  nature,  genii,  magic,  &c.,  which  they 
had  partly  brought  with  them  from  the  Babylonian  captivity,  and  partly 
imbibed  from  the  neighbouring  Egyptians,  Syrians,  and  Arabians. (6) 

§  6.  The  learned,  who  pretended  to  a  superior  knowledge  of  the  law 
and  of  theology,  were  divided  into  various  sects  and  parties,(7)  among 

(3)  [See  Josephus,  de  Bello  Jud.,  lib.  v.,  (6)  [See  Th.  Gale,  Observv.  ad  Jambli- 
cap.   13,   §  6,  and  Basnage,   Histoire  des  chum,  de  Myster.  Aegypt.,  p.  206,  and    G. 
Juifs,  torn,  i.,  cap.  16. — Schl.']  Sale,  Preface  to  his  Eng.  transl.  of  the  Ko- 

(4)  [This  is  proved  by  J.  Basnage,  Hist,  ran,  p.  72.     Even  Josephus,  Antiq.  Jud., 
drs.luifs,  torn,  v.,  cap.  10.    That  not  only  the  lib.  iii.,  c.  7,  §  2,  admits  that   the  Jewish 
Pharisees,  but  all  Jews  of  whatever  sect,  religion  was  corrupted  among  the  Babyloni- 
both  in  and  out  of  Palestine,  were  expecting  ans. — Schl.} 

a  Messiah,  is  shown  by  Dr.  Mosheim,  in  his  (7)  Besides  these  three  more  noted  sects, 

Commentt.  de    Reb.   Christ.,   &c.,   p.    40,  there  were,  undoubtedly,  others  among  the 

from  the  following  texts,  John  i.,  20-25  ;  x.,  Jews  in  the  time  of  Christ.     The  Herodians 

24,  &c. ;  xii.,  34.     Matt,  ii.,  4-6  ;  xxi.,  9  ;  are  mentioned  in  the   sacred  volume,  the 

xxvi.,  63,  &c. — Schl.~\  G'aulonites  by  Josephus,  and  other  sects  by 

(5)  [Hence  other  nations,  not  without  rea-  Epiphanius,  and  by  Hegesippus  in  Eusebi- 
son,  regarded  the  Jews  as  enemies  of  man-  us  ;  all  of  which  cannot  be  supposed  to  be 
kind.     See   the   examples   collected  by  J.  mere   fictions.     [Dr.  Mosheim's   additional 
Eisner,  Observatt.  Sacr.  in  N.  T.,  torn,  ii.,  remarks  on  this  subject,  in  his  Commentt. 
p.  274.— Schl.]  de  Reb.  Chr.  ante  C.  M.,  p.  43-45,  well  de- 


STATE  OF  THE  JEWS. 


35 


which  three  were  most  numerous  and  influential  ;  namely,  the  Pharisees, 
the  Sadducees,  and  the  Essenes.  The  two  first  are  often  mentioned  in  the 
Scriptures  :  but  for  a  knowledge  of  the  Essenes  we  are  indebted  to  Josephus, 


serve  insertion  here.  They  are  as  follows. 
"  To  vindicate  my  assertion,  that  Epiphani- 
«»'  account  of  the  Jewish  sects,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  his  book  de  Haresibus,  is  not,  prob- 
ably, altogether  untrue,  I  will  offer  a  con- 
jecture, which,  the  more  I  consider  it,  the 
more  important  it  appears.  I  propose  it  for 
the  consideration  of  the  learned.  It  may, 
perhaps,  serve  to  remove  some  obscurities 
from  ancient  ecclesiastical  history.  Epipha- 
nius  states,  that  there  was  among  the  Jews  a 
sect  of  Hemerobaptists,  who  had  this  pecu- 
liarity, that  they  washed  themselves  daily. 
The  same  sect  is  mentioned  by  an  ancient 
writer,  Hegesippus,  quoted  by  Eusebius, 
Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  iv.,  cap.  22,  and  by  Jus- 
tin Martyr,  Dial,  cum  Tryph.,  p.  245,  ed. 
Jebb.,  though  the  latter  abridges  the  name, 
calling  them  Baptists.  Nor  is  this  sect 
omitted  in  the  Index  of  Heresies  falsely  as- 
cribed to  Jerome.  The  author  of  the  Clem- 
entina, homil.  ii.,  c.  23,  says,  the  founder  of 
the  sect  was  named  John,  and  had  twelve 
apostles  and  thirty  chief  men  to  aid  him. 
The  same  account  occurs  in  the  Epitome 
gestorum  Petri,  §  26,  which  is  subjoined  to 
the  Clementina.  Either  no  credit  is  due  to 
any  ancient  history,  or  these  numerous  and 
very  ancient  witnesses,  who  cannot  be  sus- 
pected of  fraud  or  ignorance,  must  be  be- 
lieved when  they  assert  that  there  was  a 
sect  among  the  Jews  called  Hemerobaptists. 
Epiphamus'  whole  story,  therefore,  is  not  to 
be  accounted  fabulous. 

"  The  descendants  of  these  Hemerobap- 
tists, I  suspect,  are  still  existing.  The  learn- 
ed well  know,  that  there  is  in  Persia  and  In- 
dia, a  numerous  and  widespread  community, 
who  call  themselves  Mendai  Ijahi,  Disci- 
ples of  John.  The  Europeans  call  them 
Christians  of  St.  John,  because  they  have 
some  slight  knowledge  of  Christ.  By  the 
Oriental  writers  they  are  called  Sabbi  or 
Sabbiin.  Concerning  them,  Ignatius  a  Jesu, 
a  Carmelite  monk  who  lived  long  among 
them,  has  written  a  book,  entitled  Narratio 
originis,  rituum  et  errorum  Christianorum 
S.  Johannis,  &c.  Rome,  1652,  8vo.  It  is 
no  contemptible  performance,  and  contains 
many  things  deserving  attention,  though  it 
is  ill  digested  and  unpolished  in  its  style. 
Besides  this  Ignatius,  Bart.  Herbdot  (in 
Biblioth.  Orient,  voce  Sabi),  Asseman  (Bib- 
lioth.  Orient.  Clement.  Vat.),  Thcvenot  and 
Tavernier  (in  their  Travels),  Engelb.  Kaemp- 
fer  (Amcenitatt.  e.xot.,  fasc.  ii.,  cap.  11),  and 
very  recently,  Fourmont  (Hist,  of  Paris. 
Acad.  of  Inscriptions),  aud  others,  havo 


written  largely  concerning  this  people.  Tk. 
Sig.  Bayer  proposed  writing  a  book  respect- 
ing them,  which,  perhaps,  was  unfinished  at 
his  death.  The  origin  and  true  character  of 
this  sect  are  still  unsettled.  That  they  can- 
not be  classed  among  Christians,  is  now 
clear.  For  what  they  know  of  Christ  they 
have  learned  from  the  Chaldean  Christians, 
among  whom  many  of  them  live ;  nor  do 
they  worship  or  honour  Christ.  Most  of 
the  moderns  incline  to  regard  them  as  de- 
scended from  those  Sabians,  who  are  so 
often  mentioned  in  the  Koran  of  Mohammed, 
and  by  Maimonides.  But  their  customs  and 
their  doctrines  are  wholly  different  from  those 
attributed  to  the  Sabians ;  and  from  their 
being  called  Sabians  by  the  Mohammedans, 
nothing  can  be  inferred,  because  it  is  well 
known  that  the  Arabians  apply  this  name  to 
all  who 'reject  their  religion. 

"  I  am  inclined  to  look  upon  these  Chris- 
tians of  St.  John,  as  descendants  of  those 
Hemerobaptists  who  were  a  Jewish  sect 
about  the  time  of  Christ.  For  this  opinion 
I  offer  the  following  arguments  :  First,  they 
profess  to  be  Jews  ;  and  say,  their  ancestors 
lived  on  the  banks  of  the  Jordan,  whence 
they  were  driven  by  the  Mohammedans. 
This  argument  I  consider  as  overthrowing 
the  hypothesis  which  makes  them  to  be  Sa- 
bians. Secondly,  they  place  their  depend- 
ance  for  pardon  and  salvation  on  their  fre- 
quent bodily  ablutions  ;  which  was  also  the 
distinguishing  error  of  the  Hemerobaptists. 
At  this  day  the  Disciples  of  John,  as  they 
call  themselves,  are  solemnly  baptized  by 
their  priests  but  once  a  year ;  whereas  the 
Hemerobaptists  daily  purified  themselves 
with  water.  But  it  is  a  fixed  principle  with 
them  all  to  this  day,  that,  the  oftener  they 
baptize,  the  holier  and  more  happy  they  are  ; 
and  they  therefore  would  all  receive  baptism 
every  month,  nay,  every  day,  if  they  could. 
The  avarice  of  their  priests,  who  will  not 
baptize  them  without  a  fee,  has  rendered  the 
repetition  of  the  nte  less  frequent.  Thirdly, 
the  founder  of  this  sect,  like  that  of  the  He- 
mcrobaplists,  was  named  John  ;  and  he  has 
left  a  book,  which  is  preserved  with  rever- 
ence as  being  divine.  It  is  commonly  sup- 
posed, that  this  John  was  John  the  Baptist, 
Christ's  forerunner  mentioned  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. Hence  many  conclude,  that  the  Sa- 
bians are  descended  from  the  disciples  of 
John  the  Baptist.  So  thought  Ignatius  a 
Jesu  ;  Narratio  de  Chr.  St.  Johan,  &c.,  cap. 
ii.,  p.  13,  &c.  But  what  this  sect  relate  of 
their  John,  as  stated  by  Ignatius  himself, 


36       BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  I.— CHAP.  II. 

Philo,  and  others.  These  principal  sects  agreed,  indeed,  respecting  the 
fundamental  principles  of  the  Jewish  religion  ;  and  yet,  respecting  ques- 
tions of  the  highest  importance,  and  such  as  relate  to  the  salvation  of  the 
soul,  they  were  engaged  in  endless  contentions.  The  pernicious  effects 
of  these  dissensions  of  the  learned  on  the  common  people  may  be  easily 
conceived. 

§  7.  They  disagreed,  first  respecting  the  law  itself,  or  the  rule  which 
God  had  given  them.  The  Pharisees  superadded  to  the  written  law  an 
oral  or  unwritten  law,  handed  down  by  tradition,  which  both  the  Sadducees 
and  the  Essenes  rejected,  adhering  only  to  the  written  law.  They  differed 
also  respecting  the  import  of  the  law.  For  the  Pharisees  held  to  a  double 
sense  of  the  Scriptures,  the  one  obvious  and  literal,  the  other  recondite  and 
figurative,  while  the  Sadducees  held  only  to  the  literal  sense  of  the  Bible. 
Many  of  the  Essenes,  dissenting  from  both,  maintained  that  the  words  of 
the  law  are  of  no  authority,  but  that  the  things  expressed  by  them  are  im- 
agery, indicative  of  sacred  and  divine  things.  To  these  contests  concern- 
ing the  law,  were  added  others  on  subjects  of  the  highest  moment,  and  par- 
ticularly respecting  the  punishments  and  rewards  announced  in  the  law. 
The  Pharisees  supposed  them  to  affect  both  the  body  and  the  soul,  and  to 
extend  beyond  the  present  life,  while  the  Sadducees  held  to  no  future  ret- 
ributions. The  Essenes  took  a  middle  course,  admitting  future  rewards 
and  punishments,  but  confining  them  to  the  soul.  The  body  they  held  to 
be  a  malignant  substance,  and  the  temporary  prison  of  the  soul. (8) 

§  8.  Notwithstanding  these  sects  contended  about  points  of  such  vast 
moment,  it  does  not  appear  that  they  resorted  to  religious  persecution  of 
each  other.  Yet  this  forbearance  and  moderation,  no  one  acquainted  with 

clearly  show  him  to  be  diverse  from  the  Bap-  ciet.  reg.  scient,  Getting.,  1780.  The  most 
list.  For  they  deny,  that  their  John  suffered  probable  conclusion  is,  that  these  people  are 
death  under  Herod ;  they  say,  he  died  a  nat-  not  to  be  classed  among  either  Jews,  Chris- 
ural  death  in  a  town  of  Persia,  called  Scius-  tians,  or  Mohammedans  ;  but  are  of  uncer- 
ter,  and  was  buried  in  the  adjacent  fields  of  tain  origin,  and  have  a  religion  of  their  own, 
that  town.  They  state  also,  that  he  had  a  compounded  of  Judaism,  Christianity,  Par- 
wife  and  four  children.  Only  a  few  of  the  sism,  and  Islamism.  For  a  list  of  the  wri- 
things  they  relate  of  their  John,  accord  with  ters  who  treat  of  them,  see  Nossell's  An- 
what  our  Scriptures  relate  of  John  the  Bap-  weisung,  &c.,  §  474,  and  Stdudlin's  kirchl. 
tist ;  and  these  few  things,  like  what  they  Geographie,  vol.  ii..  p.  705.  See  also  A. 
also  say  of  Christ,  they  doubtless  learned  Neander,  Kirchengesch.,  b.  i.,  abt.  ii.,  §  646, 
from  those  Christians  with  whom  they  asso-  note  2 ;  and  Gieseler's  Text-book  of  Eccl. 
ciated  to  avoid  the  oppressions  of  the  Mo-  Hist.,  translated  by  Cunningham,  Boston, 
hammedans;  and  finding  these  things  not  1836,  vol.  i.,  p.  40,  note  4;  and  the  Art. 
inconsistent  with  their  faith,  and  being  un-  Safer,  in  the  Conversations-Lexicon. — Tr.} 
able,  from  their  extreme  ignorance,  to  refute  (8)  [For  an  account  of  the  three  Jewish 
them,  they  embraced  and  still  retain  them,  sects,  see  Ja.  Tngland,  Syntagma  Trium 
"What  degree  of  weight  this  supposition  of  Scriptorum  illustrium  (viz.,  Jo.  Scahgcr, 
mine  deserves,  will  better  appear  when  the  Joh.  Drusius,  and  Nicol.  Serarius),  de  Ju- 
sacred  books  of  this  people,  and  especially  the  deorum  Sectis.  Delft,  1702,  2  vols.  4to. 
book  said  to  be  written  by  their  founder  John,  After  these,  Ja.  Basnage  and  Hum.  Pri' 
shall  be  published.  These  were,  a  few  years  dcdux  (in  their  Jewish  histories),  the  authors 
since,  introduced  into  the  king's  library  at  of  Introductions  to  the  books  of  the  N.  Test. 
Paris  ;  so  that  we  may  hope  the  learned  will  (and  of  works  on  Jewish  Antiquities),  and 
sooner  or  later  have  access  to  them."  These  many  others,  have  described  these  sects, 
sacred  books  of  the  Sabians  of  Hedshar  in  some  more  and  some  less  successfully.  Mo- 
Persia,  have  been  examined  with  consider-  shcim,  de  Reb.  Christianor.  ante  C.  M.,  p. 
able  care ;  see,  among  others,  M.  Norberg,  46. — See  also  Jost's  Algem.  Gesch.  p.  Is- 
de  religione  et  ling.  Sabaeorum,  in  Com.  So-  rael.  Volkes,  vol.  i.,  p.  517,  &c; — Tr.} 


STATE  OF  THE  JEWS.  37 

the  history  of  those  times  will  ascribe  to  noble  and  generous  principles. 
The  Sadducees  were  supported  by  the  leading  men  of  the  nation,  and  the 
Pharisees  by  the  common  people,  and,  of  course,  neither  sect  could  rise 
up  in  hostility  against  the  other  without  the  most  imminent  hazard.  Be- 
sides, on  the  least  appearance  of  tumult  or  sedition,  the  Romans  would 
doubtless  have  punished  the  ringleaders  with  severity.  We  may  add  that 
the  Sadducees  were  of  accommodating,  gentlemanly  manners,  and,  from 
the  principles  of  their  sect,  were  averse  from  all  broils  and  altercations.(9) 

§  9.  The  Essenes  could  more  easily  avoid  contention  with  the  other 
sects,  because  they  lived,  for  the  most  part,  in  retired  places,  and  remote 
from  intercourse  with  mankind.  They  were  scattered  over  Syria,  Egypt, 
and  the  neighbouring  countries  ;  and,  holding  religion  to  consist  in  silence 
and  meditation,  they  endeavoured,  by  a  strict  mode  of  life,  and  by  various 
observances,  borrowed  probably  from  the  Egyptians, (10)  to  raise  themselves 
to  higher  degrees  of  virtue.  They  were  not  all,  however,  of  the  same  sen- 
timents. Some  lived  in  celibacy,  and  made  it  their  care  to  instruct  and 
educate  the  children  of  others.  Others  married  wives  ;  not  to  gratify  their 
natural  propensities,  but  solely  to  propagate  the  human  race.(ll)  Those 
living  in  Syria  held  that  God  may  be  propitiated  by  sacrifices,  yet  they 
believed  that  they  must  be  offered  in  a  manner  very  different  from  the 
common  mode  among  the  Jews  :  hence  it  appears  that  they  did  not  reject 
the  literal  sense  of  the  Mosaic  law.  But  those  who  inhabited  the  deserts 
of  Egypt  maintained  that  no  sacrifice  should  be  presented  to  God,  except 
that  of  a  composed  mind,  absorbed  in  the  contemplation  of  divine  things  ; 
which  shows  that  they  put  an  allegorical  sense  upon  the  whole  Jewish 
law.  (12) 

§  10.  The  Therapeutas,  of  whom  Philo  wrote  a  whole  book, (13)  are 
commonly  reckoned  a  branch  of  the  Essene  family  ;  whence  the  well- 
known  distinction  of  practical  and  theoretical  Essenes.  But  whether  this 
classification  is  correct,  may  be  doubted.  For  nothing  is  discoverable 
in  the  customs  or  institutions  of  the  Therapeutae  which  evinces  abso- 
lutely that  they  were  a  branch  of  the  Essenes ;  nor  has  Philo  so  repre- 
sented them.  Who  can  deny,  that  other  fanatical  Jews  besides  Essenes 
may  have  united  together  and  formed  a  society  ?  But  I  agree  entirely 
with  those  who  regard  the  Therapeutae  as  being  Jews  who  claimed  to  be 
true  disciples  of  Moses,  and  as  being  neither  Christians  nor  Egyptians. 
In  reality,  they  were  wild  and  melancholy  enthusiasts,  who  led  a  life  in- 
congruous alike  with  the  law  of  Moses  and  with  sober  reason.  (14) 

(9)  [See  Commentt.  de  Reb.  Chr.  ante  C.  Essay,  de  Vera  notione  coenae  Domini,  p.  4, 
M.,  p.  48,  where  Dr.  M.  proves  from  Jose-  subjoined  to  his  Intellectual  System.] 
phus  (Antiq.  Jud.,  1.  xviii.,  c.  1,  and  1.  xiii.,         (13)  Philo,  de  Vita  contemplativa,  in  his 
c.  10)  that  the  Sadducees  were  all  men  of  works,  p.  889. 

wealth  ;  and  (from  his  Bell.  Jud..  1.  ii.,  c.  8)  (14)  The  principal  writers  concerning  the 

that  they  had  little  sympathy  for  others.    Dr.  Therapeutae  are  mentioned  by  J.  A.  Fabri- 

M.  thinks  he  finds  the  picture  of  a  Sadducee  cius,   Lux    Salutar.  Evang.  toti  orbi  esor, 

in  the  rich  man  described  in  Luke  xvi.,  19.  cap.  iv.,  p.  55.     [The  more  ample  account  of 

— ScAJ.]  the  Therapeutae,  given  by  Dr.  Mosheim  in 

(10)  See  Lu.  Holstenius,  Notes  on  For-  his  Commentt.  deKeb.  Chr.,  &c.,  p.  55,  &c., 
phyry,  de  Vita  Pythagoras,  p.  1 1,  ed.  Kuster.  is  thus  abridged  by  Schlegel.     "  The  Thera- 

(11)  [See  Josephus,  de  Bello  Jud.,  lib.  ii.,  peutas  wished  to  pass  for  disciples  of  Moses, 
c.  8,  $  13. — Schl.]  notwithstanding  their  wide  departure  from 

(12)  [See  Mosheim's  note  on  CudwortK's  him.     They  gave  up  all  their  property,  and 


38 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  I.— CHAP.  II. 


§  11.  It  was  not  possible  that  any  one  of  these  sects  should  inculcate 
and  diffuse  the  true  principles  of  virtue  and  piety.  The  Pharisees,  as  our 
Saviour  often  laid  to  their  charge,  disregarded  internal  purity ;  and  by  a 
vain  ostentation  and  an  austere  life,  sought  for  popular  applause  ;  and 
also  ascribed  more  authority  to  their  vain  traditions,  than  to  the  holy  com- 
mandments of  God,  Matt,  xxiii.,  13,  &c.  The  Sadducees  gave  a  stimu- 
lus to  iniquity,  and  to  every  lust,  by  discarding  all  future  rewards  and 
punishments.  The  Essenes,  a  fanatic  and  superstitious  tribe,  made  piety 
to  consist  in  a  holy  indolence  and  a  dislike  of  mankind ;  and  thus  they 
sundered  the  ties  of  society. 

§  12.  When  those  who  assumed  the  name  and  the  prerogatives  of  the  wise 
were  involved  in  such  darkness  and  such  altercations,  who  can  doubt  that 
the  religion  and  piety  of  the  common  people  were  in  a  low  and  debased 
state  ?  They  were  sunk  in  deplorable  ignorance  of  divine  things,  and 
they  supposed  that  they  rendered  themselves  acceptable  to  God  by  their 
attention  to  sacrifices,  ablutions,  and  the  other  ceremonies  prescribed  by 
Moses.  From  this  twofold  source  [the  ignorance  of  the  people  and  the 
blindness  of  their  leaders]  flowed  those  polluted  morals  and  that  profligate 
life  which  characterized  the  greater  part  of  the  Jews  while  Christ  was 
among  them. (15)  Hence  our  Saviour  compared  the  people  to  wandering 
sheep,  who  had  no  shepherd,  Matt,  x.,  6 ;  xv.,  24 ;  and  their  teachers  to 
blind  men,  who  attempt  to  show  others  the  way  when  they  cannot  see  it 
themselves,  Matt,  xv.,  14  ;  John  ix.,  39. 


betook  themselves  to  retired  situations, 
where  they  lived  in  solitary  huts,  without 
sacrifices,  without  any  external  worship,  and 
without  labour  ;  mortifying  l&eir  bodies  by 
fasting  and  their  souls  by  unceasing  contem- 
plation, in  order  to  bring  their  heaven-born 
spirits,  now  imprisoned  in  bodies,  into  light 
and  liberty,  and  fit  them  better  for  the  celes- 
tial mansions  after  death.  They  assembled 
together  every  seventh  day  of  the  week, 
when,  after  hearing  a  discourse  and  offering 
prayers,  they  ate  together,  feeding  on  salt, 
and  bread,  and  water.  This  meal  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  sacred  dance,  which  they  pro- 
tracted through  the  night  and  till  the  dawn 
of  day.  At  first  the  men  and  women  danced 
apart ;  afterward,  guided  by  inspiration,  they 
danced  together,  and  laboured  by  violent 
movements,  outcries,  songs,  and  voices,  to 
express  the  love  of  God  then  working  in  their 
souls.  Into  such  follies  can  human  reason 
fall  when  it  has  mistaken  notions  of  God 
and  of  human  nature.  It  is  still  debated 
whether  these  Therapeutae  were  Christians, 
or  Jews,  or  heathen  philosophers.  Eusebius 
(Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  ii.,  c.  17)  regarded  them  as 
Christian  monks,  established  in  Egypt  by  St. 
Mark ;  and  many  R.omish  writers,  to  support 
the  high  antiquity  of  monkery,  zealously  de- 
fend this  opinion.  The  whole  of  this  con- 
troversy may  be  seen  in  the  Lettres  pour  et 
centre  la  fameuse  question,  si  les  solitaires 
appelles  Therapeutes,  dont  a  parle  Philon  le 
Juif,  etoient  Chretiens.  Paris,  1712,  12mo. 


The  chief  advocates  of  this  opinion  are  B. 
de  Montfaucon,  in  the  Notes  to  his  Fr.  trans- 
lation of  Philo,  and  M.  le  Quien,  Christianus 
Oriens,  torn,  ii.,  p.  332.  On  the  other  hand, 
Scaligcr,  Ckamier,  Lightfoot,  Daille,  the 
two  Basnages,  Prideaux,  Ittig,  Buddeus, 
Mosheim,  Baumgarten,  and  recently  J.  A. 
Orsi  (His.  Eccles.,  vol.  i.,  p.  77)  and  Mangey 
(Preface  to  Philo's  Works)  have  maintained 
that  they  were  Jews,  and  of  the  sect  of  Es- 
senes. J.  J.  Lange,  in  a  Dissert.,  published 
in  1721,  maintained,  upon  very  slender 
grounds,  that  they  were  Oriental  philoso- 
phers, of  melancholy  temperament,  who  had 
imbibed  some  Jewish  notions.  And  Ja- 
blonsky,  in  an  Essay  on  the  subject,  makes 
them  to  be  Egyptian  priests,  addicted  to  as- 
trology and  other  sacred  sciences  of  the 
Egyptians."  Dr.  Mosheim  pertinently  ob- 
serves (Com.  de  Reb.,  &c.,  p.  50),  "  The 
Christian  monks,  who  evidently  originated 
in  Egypt,  borrowed  their  peculiarities  from 
the  practical  Essenes ;  for  nothing  can  be 
more  similar  than  the  rules  and  regulations 
of  the  ancient  monks  and  those  of  the  Es- 
senes, as  described  by  Joscphus.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Christian  solitaries,  called 
Eremites,  copied  after  the  theoretical  Es- 
senes, or  Thcrapeuta." — TV.] 

(15)  [A  striking  passage  relative  to  the 
vicious  lives  of  the  Jews,  in  our  Saviour's 
time,  occurs  in  Josephus,  Bell.  Jud.,  lib.  v., 
c.  13,  $  6.— Schl.] 


STATE  OF  THE  JEWS.  39 

§  13.  To  all  these  stains  on  the  character  of  the  Jews  in  the  time  of  Christ's 
advent,  must  be  added  the  attachment  of  many  to  the  Oriental  philosophy, 
in  regard  to  the  origin  of  the  world,  and  to  the  indubitable  offspring  of  that 
philosophy,  the  Kabbala.  That  many  Jews  were  infected  with  this  sys- 
tem is  placed  beyond  all  doubt,  both  by  the  sacred  books  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament and  by  the  early  history  of  the  Christian  church.(16)  It  is  certain 
that  the  founders  of  several  of  the  Gnostic  sects  were  Jews.  And  the 
followers  of  such  systems  of  philosophy  must  have  differed  widely  from 
the  other  Jews,  in  their  views  of  the  God  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  in  their 
views  of  Moses,  of  the  creation,  and  of  the  Messiah.  For  they  held  the 
world's  creator  to  be  a  different  being  from  the  supreme  God,  and  that  his 
domination  over  the  human  race  was  to  be  destroyed  by  the  Messiah. 
From  such  opinions  would  originate  a  monstrous  system,  widely  different 
from  the  genuine  religion  of  the  Jews. 

§  14.  The  outward  forms  of  worship  established  by  Moses  were  less 
corrupted  than  the  other  parts  of  religion.  Yet  men  of  the  greatest  learn- 
ing have  observed  that  various  rites  were  introduced  into  the  temple  itself, 
which  we  search  for  in  vain  in  the  divine  ritual.  It  appears  that  the  Jews, 
on  becoming  acquainted  with  the  sacred  rites  of  the  neighbouring  nations, 
and  with  those  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  were  so  captivated  with  a 
number  of  the  ceremonies  practised  in  idol  worship,  that  they  did  not  hes- 
itate to  adopt  them,  and  to  superadd  them  as  ornamental  to  the  rites  of 
God's  appointment.(17.) 

§  15.  For  this  great  corruption  of  a  nation,  which  God  had  selected  for 
his  peculiar  people,  various  causes  may  be  assigned.  In  the  first  place, 
their  fathers  had  brought  back  with  them  from  Chaldea  and  the  adjacent 
countries,  and  had  introduced  into  Palestine,  many  foolish  and  vain  opin- 
ions wholly  unknown  to  the  founders  of  the  nation. (18)  And  from  the 
time  of  the  conquest  of  Asia  by  Alexander  the  Great  the  customs  and 
dogmas  of  the  Greeks  were  disseminated  among  the  Persians,  the  Syrians, 
the  Arabians,  and  likewise  among  the  Jews,  who  before  were  rude  in  let- 
ters and  philosophy. (19)  The  excursions,  also,  which  many  Jews  were 
accustomed  to  make  into  the  neighbouring  countries,  especially  into  Egypt 
and  Phoenicia,  in  pursuit  of  wealth,  caused  various  errors  and  fancies  of  the 
pagan  nations  to  spread  among  the  Hebrews.  And  lastly,  Herod  the  Great 
and  his  sons,  and  likewise  the  Roman  procurators  and  soldiers,  undoubt- 
edly planted  in  the  country  many  foreign  institutions  and  pollutions.  Oth- 
er causes  will  readily  occur  to  those  acquainted  with  the  Jewish  history 
after  the  times  of  the  Maccabees. 

§  16.  But,  notwithstanding  their  numerous  faults,  the  people  generally 
manifested  the  strongest  attachment  to  the  law  of  Moses,  and  were  very 
careful  of  its  honour  and  authority.  Hence  they  erected  throughout  the 
country  houses  of  worship,  with  the  Greek  appellation  of  Synagogues ;  in 
which  the  people  assembled  for  prayer,  and  to  listen  to  the  public  ex- 
pounders of  the  law.  Schools  also  were  established  in  the  principal 

(16)  See  J.  C.  Wolf,  Biblioth.  Ebraica,  (18)  See   Tho.   Gale,  on  Jambhchits  de 
vol.  ii.,  1.  vii.,  c.  i.,  §  9,  p.  206.  mysteriis  Aegyptiorum,  p.  206.     Nor  docs 

(17)  See  John  Spencer,  de  Legibus  ritual.  Josephus  conceal  this  fact,  Antiq.  Jud..  1. 
veter.  Ebrfflorum,  torn,  ii.,  lib.    iv.,  where  iii.,  c.  7,  §  2. 

he  treats   particularly  of  Jewish  rites  bor-         (19)  [Le  Clerc,  Epist.  crit.  ix.,  p.  250. 
rowed  from  the  Gentiles  and  not  to  be  found    — Schl.] 
in  the  law  of  God. 


40       BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  I.— CHAP.  II. 

towns,  where  literary  men  instructed  the  youth  in  both  divine  and  human 
knowledge. (20)  That  these  institutions  had  considerable  influence  to 
preserve  the  law  inviolate,  and  to  check  in  some  degree  the  progress  of 
wickedness,  no  one  can  hesitate  to  believe. 

§  17.  The  Samaritans,  who  worshipped  on  Mount  Gerizim,  and  who 
lived  in  virulent  hostility  with  their  neighbours  the  Jews,  were  equally  op- 
pressed, and  were,  in  an  equal  degree,  the  authors  of  their  own  calamities. 
It  appears,  from  the  history  of  those  times,  that  the  Samaritans  suffered  as 
much  as  the  Jews  from  the  machinations  of  factious  and  unprincipled  men  ; 
although  they  had,  perhaps,  not  so  many  religious  sects.  That  their  re- 
ligion was  less  pure  than  the  Jewish,  Christ  himself  has  testified,  John  iv., 
22.  And  yet  they  seem  to  have  had  more  correct  views  of  the  offices  of  the 
Messiah  than  the  mass  of  the  Jews  had,  John  iv.,  25.  Though  we  are  not 
to  believe  all  that  the  Jews  have  said  respecting  their  opinions,  yet  it  is 
undeniable,  that  the  Samaritans  adulterated  the  pure  doctrines  of  the  Old 
Testament  with  profane  mixtures  of  pagan  errors. (21) 

§  18.  The  narrow  limits  of  Palestine  could  not  contain  the  very  numer- 
ous nation  of  the  Jews.  Hence,  when  our  Saviour  was  born,  there  was 
almost  no  considerable  province  which  did  not  contain  a  large  number  of 
Jews,  who  employed  themselves  in  traffic  and  the  mechanic  arts.  These 
Jews,  in  the  countries  beyond  Palestine,  were  protected  against  the  vio- 
lence and  abuse  of  the  inhabitants  by  the  public  laws,  and  by  the  injunctions 
of  the  magistrates. (22)  Yet  they  were  in  most  places  exceedingly  odious 
to  the  mass  of  people,  on  account  of  their  singularity  as  to  religion  and 
customs.  The  special  providence  of  God  is  undoubtedly  to  be  recognised 
in  the  dispersion  of  this  people  (who  were  the  depositaries  of  the  true  re- 
ligion, that  which  inculcates  the  worship  of  the  one  God)  over  nearly  the 
whole  world,  so  that  their  example  might  put  superstition  to  shame,  and 
in  some  measure  prepare  the  way  for  the  Christian  religion. 

(20)  See  Camp.  Vitringa,  de  Synagoga     ten,  Geschichte  der  Religionspart.,  p.  274, 
Vetere,  1.  iii.,  c.  v.,  and  1.   i.,  c.  v.,  vii.     &c. — Schl.'] 

[Prideaux,  Connexions,  &c.,  pt.  i.,  b.  vi.,         (22)  See  Ja.  Gronovius,  Decreta  Romana 

anno  445. — TV.]  et  Asiatica  pro  Judasis,  ad  cultum  divinum 

(21)  The  principal  writers  concerning  the  perAsiae  Minoris  urbes  secure  obeundum. 
Samaritans  are  enumerated  by  J.  G.  Carp-  Lugd.  Bat.,  1712,  8vo.     [For  a  candid  and 
zov,  Critica  Sacra  Vet.  Test.,  pt.  ii.,  cap.  vi.,  faithful  account  of  the  state  of  the  Jews,  both 
p.  595.     [The  most  valuable  are  Chr.  Cel-  in  Palestine  and  out  of  it,  the  English  reader 
larius,   Hist,  gentis  Samarit.,  in  his  Diss.  is  referred  to  Lardner's  Credibility  of  the 
Acad.,  p.  109,  &c.     John  Morin,  Antiq.  ec-  Gospel  History,  pt.  i.,  vol.  i.,  ch.  ii.-vi.     See 
cles.  orient.     Ja.  Basnage,  Histoire  des  Ju-  also  J.  M.  JosCs  Algem.  Gesch.  des  Isra- 
ifs,  torn,  ii.,  lib.  ii.,  c.  1-13.     H.  Reland,  elit.  Volke.,  b.  viii.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  1,  &c.,  Ber- 
de  Samaritanis,  in  his  Diss.  Miscell.,  pt.  ii.,  lin,  1832. — TV.] 

(H.  Prideaux,  Connexions),  and  Baumgar- 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 


41 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE    LIFE    OF    JESUS    CHRIST. 

$  1.  The  Birth  of  Christ.— $  2.  His  Childhood  and  Youth.— $  3.  His  Precursor,  John  B.— 
$  4.  His  subsequent  Life. — §  5.  He  appoints  twelve  Apostles,  and  seventy  Disciples. — 
§  6.  Reason  of  this  Number. — §  7.  Fame  of  Christ  out  of  Judea. — §  8.  Success  of  his 
Ministry. — $  9.  His  Death. — t)  10.  His  Resurrection  and  Ascension  to  Heaven. 

§  1.  So  many  and  so  virulent  diseases  of  the  human  race  demanded  the 
aid  of  a  divine  physician.  Therefore  the  Son  of  God  himself  descended 
from  heaven  upon  Palestine,  in  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Herod  the  Great ; 
and  joining  himself  to  human  nature,  he  showed  himself  to  mortals,  a  teacher 
that  cannot  err,  and  at  once  their  sponsor  at  the  court  of  Heaven  and  their 
king.  In  what  year  this  salutary  light  rose  upon  the  world,  the  most  per- 
severing efforts  of  the  learned  have  not  been  able  fully  to  ascertain.  Nor 
will  this  surprise  us,  if  we  consider  that  the  earliest  Christians  knew  not  the 
day  of  their  Saviour's  birth,  and  judged  differently  on  the  subject.(l)  But 
of  what  consequence  is  it  that  we  know  not  the  year  or  day  when  this  light 


(1)  Most  of  the  opinions  of  the  learned, 
concerning  the  year  of  Christ's  birth,  are 
collected  by  J.  A.  Fabricius,  Bibliographia 
Antiquar.,  cap.  vii.,  §  ix.,  p.  187. 

[Respecting  the  year  of  Christ's  birth,  the 
inquisitive  reader  is  remitted  to  the  elaborate 
chronologists,    Scaliger,    Petavius,    Usher, 
&c.,  and  to  the  more  voluminous  eccles. 
historians,   Natalis   Alexander,  Pagi,   &c. 
But,  not  to  leave  the  common  reader  wholly 
uninformed  on   the  subject,  a  few  general 
observations  will  here  be  made.     The  birth 
of  Christ  was  first  made  an  era,  from  which 
to  reckon   dates,   by   Dionysius   Exiguus, 
about  A.D.  532.     He  supposed  Christ   to 
have  been  born  on  the  25th  December,  in 
the  year  of  Rome  753,  Lentulus  and  Piso 
consuls.     And    this  computation  has  been 
followed,  in  practice,  to  this  day  ;  notwith- 
standing the  learned  are  well  agreed  that  it 
must  be  incorrect.     To  ascertain  the  true 
time  of  Christ's  birth,  there  are  two  principal 
data  afforded  by  the  evangelists.     I.  It  is 
clear,  from  Matth.  ii.,  1,  &c.,  that  Christ 
was  born  before  the  death  of  Herod  the  Great, 
who  died  about  Easter,  in  the  year  of  Rome 
749  or  750.     (Lar drier,  Credibil.,  pt.  i.,  vol. 
ii.,  appendix.)     Now,  if  Christ  was  born  in 
the  December  next  before  Herod's  death,  it 
must  have  been  in  the  year  of  Rome  748  or 
749  ;  and,  of  course,  four,  if  not  five,  years 
anterior  to  the  Dionysian  or  vulgar  era.     II. 
It  is  probable,  from  Lu.  iii.,  1,  2,  23,  that 
Jesus  was  about  thirty  years  of  age  in  the 
VOL.  I.— F 


fifteenth  year  of  the  reign  of  Tiberius  Casar. 
Now  the  reign  of  Tiberius  may  be  consid- 
ered as  commencing  at  the  time  he  became 
sole  emperor,  in  August  of  the  year  of  Rome 
767  ;  or  (as  there  is  some  reason  to  suppose 
that  Augustus  made  him  partner  in  the  gov- 
ernment two  years  before  he  died)  we  may 
begin  his  reign  in  the  year  of  Rome  765. 
The  15th  year  of  Tiberius  will  therefore  be 
either  the  year  of  Rome  781  or  779.  From 
which  deduct  30,  and  we  have  the  year  of 
Rome  751  or  749  for  the  year  of  Christ's 
birth ;  the  former  two,  and  the  latter  four 
years  earlier  than  the  Dionysian  computa- 
tion. Comparing  these  results  with  those 
obtained  from  the  death  of  Herod,  it  is  gen- 
erally supposed  the  true  time  of  Christ's 
birth  was  the  year  of  Rome  749,  or  four 
years  before  the  vulgar  era.  But  the  con- 
clusion is  not  certain,  because  there  is  un- 
certainty in  the  data.  (1)  It  is  not  certain 
that  we  ought  to  reckon  Tiberius's  reign  as 
beginning  two  years  before  the  death  of  Au- 
gustus. (2)  Luke  says  "  about  thirty  years 
of  age."  This  is  indefinite,  and  may  be  un- 
derstood of  twenty-nine,  thirty,  or  thirty-one 
years.  (3)  It  is  not  certain  in  which  of  the 
two  years  mentioned  Herod  died  ;  nor  how 
long  before  that  event  the  Saviour  was  born. 
— Respecting  the  month  and  day  of  Christ's 
birth,  we  are  left  almost  wholly  to  conjecture. 
The  disagreement  of  the  early  fathers,  is  evi- 
dence that  the  day  was  not  celebrated  as  a 
festival  in  the  apostolic  times. — TV.] 


42      BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  I.— CHAP.  III. 

first  shone,  since  we  fully  know  that  it  has  appeared,  and  that  there  is  no 
obstacle  to  our  enjoying  its  splendour  and  its  warmth  ? 

§  2.  An  account  of  the  birth,  lineage,  family,  and  parents  of  Christ,  is 
left  us  by  the  four  inspired  writers  who  give  the  history  of  his  life.  But 
they  say  very  little  respecting  his  childhood  and  youth.  When  a  young 
child  he  was  rescued  from  the  cruelty  of  Herod  by  the  flight  of  the  family 
into  Egypt,  Matthew  ii.,  13.  When  twelve  years  of  age  he  disputed  pub- 
licly in  the  temple  with  the  most  learned  Jewish  doctors  upon  religious 
subjects.  Afterward,  till  he  was  thirty  years  of  age,  he  lived  with  his  pa- 
rents as  a  dutiful  and  affectionate  son,  Luke  ii.,  51,  52.  Divine  wisdom 
has  not  seen  fit  to  give  us  more  particulars  ;  nor  is  it  certain,  though  many 
think  it  so,  that  Christ  worked  at  the  trade  of  his  foster-father,  Joseph,  who 
was  a  carpenter.  Yet  there  were  certain  vain  and  deceitful  persons  in  for- 
mer times,  who  ventured  to  fill  up  this  obscure  part  of  our  Saviour's  life  with 
extravagant  and  ridiculous  fables. (2) 

§  3.  In  the  thirtieth  year  of  his  age  he  entered  on  the  offices  for  which 
he  came  into  the  world.  To  render  his  ministry  more  useful  to  the  Jews, 
John,  the  son  of  a  Jewish  priest,  a  man  grave  and  venerable  in  his  whole 
manner  of  life,  was  commissioned  of  God  to  proclaim  the  advent  of  the 
Messiah  who  had  been  promised  to  the  fathers.  He  called  himself  the 
precursor  of  the  Messiah ;  and  being  full  of  holy  zeal,  he  exhorted  the  Jews 
to  amend  their  lives  and  purify  their  hearts,  and  thus  prepare  themselves 
for  the  coming,  or,  rather,  for  the  actual  presence  of  the  Son  of  God  ;  and 
those  who  professed  repentance  and  reformation,  he  initiated  in  the  ap- 
proaching kingdom  of  the  Saviour,  by  immersion  in  the  Jordan,  Matthew 
iii.,  2,  &c. ;  John  i.,  22,  &c.  Jesus  himself,  before  commencing  his  pub- 
lic ministry,  chose  to  receive  a  solemn  lustration  in  the  waters  of  Jordan 
at  the  hands  of  John ;  in  order,  as  he  tells  us,  that  he  might  not  appear  to 
neglect  any  part  of  the  Jewish  law  and  religion.  (3) 

§  4.  It  is  not  necessary  to  enter  here  into  a  particular  detail  of  the  life 
and  actions  of  Jesus  Christ.  All  Christians  know  that  for  more  than  three 
years,  amid  great  trials  and  afflictions,  and  surrounded  by  snares  and  perils, 
he  instructed  the  Jewish  people  in  the  counsels  and  purposes  of  the  Most 
High ;  that  he  omitted  nothing  that  could  allure  both  the  ignorant  multi- 
tude and  the  well  informed  ;  that  he  led  a  life  so  spotless  and  holy,  that  no 
suspicion  whatever  could  attach  to  him  ;  and  that,  by  stupendous  miracles 
of  a  salutary  and  beneficial  character,  and  such  as  accorded  with  the  na- 
ture of  his  mission,  he  placed  the  truth  of  the  religion  he  taught  beyond  all 
controversy. 

§  5.  As  this  religion  was  to  be  propagated  throughout  the  world,  it  was 
necessary  for  him  to  select  some  persons  to  be  his  constant  companions  and 
intimates  ;  who  should  be  able  to  state  and  testify  to  posterity  and  to  the  re- 

(2)  See  a  collection  of  these  fables  by  J.  A.         (3)  [See,  concerning  John  the  Baptist, 

Fabricius,  Cod.  Apoc.  N.  T.,  torn.  i.     [The  Ckr.  Cellaring,  two  Diss.  de  Vita,  carcere 

works  here  referred  to,  are  the  Gospel  of  the  et  supplicio  Jo.  Bapt.  in  his  Diss.  Acad.,  pt. 

nativity  of  Mary  ;  the  Previous  Gospel,  ascri-  i.,  p.  169,  and  pt.  ii.,  p.  373.     Tho.  Ittig, 

bed  to  James  ike  Just ;  the  Gospel  of  the  in-  Historiae  eccles.  Imi.  Saeculi  Selects  Capita, 

fancy  of  Christ,  ascribed  to  Thomas;  theGos-  cap.  8,  sect.  4,  and  Witsius,  Miscell.  Sacra, 

pel  of  the  Infancy,  &c.,  translated  from  the  torn,  ii.,  p.  464,  &c. — Schl.     Also  G.  B. 

Arabic  ;  all  of  which  are  stuffed  with  marvel-  Winer,  Biblisches  Realworterbuch,  Article 

bus  tales  of  miracles  and  prodigies,  fit  only  to  Johannes. — 2Y.  J 
amuse  the  ignorant  and  superstitious. — TV.] 


LIFE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST.  43 

molest  nations,  with  the  greatest  assurance  and  authority,  the  events  of  his 
life,  his  miracles,  and  his  whole  system  of  doctrine.  Therefore,  from  the 
Jews  about  him,  he  chose  twelve  messengers  whom  he  distinguished  from 
others  by  the  title  of  Apostles.  They  were  plebeians,  poor,  and  illiterate  ; 
for  he  would  not  employ  the  rich,  the  eloquent,  and  the  learned,  lest  the 
success  of  their  mission  should  be  ascribed  to  natural  causes  and  to  hu- 
man means,  1  Corinthians  i.,  21.  These  he  once  sent  forth  among  the 
Jews  during  his  lifetime,  Matthew  x.,  7  ;  but  afterward  he  retained  them 
constantly  near  him,  that  they  might  witness  all  that  he  said  or  did. (4) 
But,  that  the  people  might  not  lack  religious  instruction,  he  commissioned 
seventy  other  disciples  to  travel  at  large  through  Judea,  Luke  x.,  1. 

§  6.  The  learned  have  inquired,  why  the  Saviour  appointed  just  twelve, 
neither  more  nor  less,  to  be  apostles,  and  just  seventy  to  be  disciples ;  and 
various  conjectures  are  offered  on  the  subject.  But  it  being  manifest  from 
the  words  of  Christ  himself,  Matthew  xix.,  28;  Luke  xxii.,  30,  that  the 
number  of  the  apostles  had  reference  to  the  number  of  the  tribes  of  Israel, 
there  can  scarcely  be  a  doubt  that  he  wished  to  indicate  to  the  Jews  that 
he  was  the  supreme  Lord  and  Pontiff  over  the  whole  Hebrew  race,  which 
was  divided  into  twelve  tribes.  The  seventy  disciples  were  just  equal  in 
number  to  the  senators  composing  the  Sanhedrim  or  the  grand  council  of 
the  nation ;  and  this  justifies  the  conjecture  that  Christ  intended  by  the 
choice  of  the  seventy,  to  admonish  the  Jews  that  the  authority  of  their 
Sanhedrim  was  now  at  an  end,  and  that  all  power  in  religious  matters  was 
vested  in  him  alone.(5) 

§  7.  Jesus  himself  gave  instruction  to  none  but  Jews  ;  nor  did  he  allow 
his  disciples  to  travel  among  other  nations  as  teachers  while  he  continued 
on  earth,  Matthew  x.,  5,  6 ;  xv.,  24.  Yet  the  extraordinary  deeds  he  per- 
formed leave  us  no  room  to  doubt,  that  his  fame  very  early  extended  to 
other  nations.  There  are  respectable  writers  who  state  that  Abgarus, 
king  of  Edessa,  being  dangerously  sick,  sent  a  letter  to  Christ  imploring 

(4)  [Dr.  Mosheim  has  a  long  note  in  the  an.  ad  Haeres.,  xxx.     P.  Wesseling,  de  Ar- 

parallel  passage  of  his  Comment,  de  Rebus  chontibus  Jud.,  p.  91.      Walch  (of  Gottin- 

Chr.  ante  C.  M.,  p.   49,  the  substance  of  gen),  Hist.  Patriarch.  Jud.,  and  Suicer,  The- 

which  is  this:    The  title  Apostles  was  giv-  saur.  Eccles.,  torn,  i.,  p.  477. — TV.] 

en  to  those  principal  men  whom  the  high  (5)  [There  are  two  factitious  lists  of  the 

priests   retained   as   their   private    counsel-  seventy    disciples    now   extant,   which    are 

lors,   and  whom   they  occasionally  sent  as  falsely  ascribed  to  Hippolytus  and  to  Dorithe- 

their  legates  to  the  foreign  Jews,  either  to  us.    They  may  be  seen  in  various  works  ;  e. 

collect  the  yearly  tax  for  the  temple  or  to  ex-  g.,  J.  A.  Fabricius,  Lux.  Evang.,  &c.,  p. 

ccute  other  commissions.     We  have  not,  in-  115-118,  and  annexed  to  the  books  de  Vita 

deed,  a  .direct  testimony  at  hand,  proving  et  morte  Mosis,  ed.  Fabricius ;    and  in  T. 

that  the  title  of  apostles  was  given  to  such  Ittig,  Hist,  eccles.  Imi  Saecul.,  p.  472.  That 

legates  of  the  high  priests  in  the  days  of  no  sort  of  credit  is  due  to  them,  is  shown  by 

Christ.     Yet  there  is  intimation  of  this  in  Jtliff,  ubi  supra  ;  by  D.  Blondell,  de  Episcopis 

Gal.  i.,   1,  and   Jerome   so  understood  the  et  Presbyt.,  p.  93,  and  by  others.    Eusebius, 

passage.     See  his  Comment!.,  &c.,  Opp.,  Hist.  Eccles.,  i.,  12,  expressly  declares  that 

torn,   ix.,  p.   124.     And  that  after  the  de-  no  catalogue  of  the  seventy  disciples  was  to 

struction  of  Jerusalem,  the  legates  of  the  be  found  any  where  in  his  day.    The  two  lists 

Jewish  patriarchs  (who  stood  in  the  place  nearly  agree  ;   and  they  are  evidently  made 

of  high  priests)  were  called  apostles,  is  fully  up  by  collecting  together,  without  the  least 

proved.     See  Jerome,  ubi  supra,  and  Euse-  judgment,  nearly  all  the  names  of  Chris- 

bius  on  Isa.,  ch.  xviii.,  2.     See  also  Ja.  tians  mentioned  in  the  N.  Testament,  and 

Gothofred  on  Cod.  Theodos.,   torn,  vi.,  p.  particularly  those  in  the  salutations  of  Paul. 

251,  ed.  Kitter.     Dion.  Pctavius,  on Epiph-  — TV.] 


44      BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  I.— CHAP.  III. 

his  assistance,  and  that  Christ  not  only  wrote  an  answer  to  the  king,  but  also 
sent  him  his  picture. (6)  It  is  the  prevailing  opinion  that  not  only  the  let- 
ters of  Christ  and  Abgarus,  but  likewise  the  whole  story,  are  a  fabrica- 
tion^?) And  I  would  by  no  means  take  upon  me  to  support  the  credit  of 
the  letters  ;  yet  I  see  no  very  weighty  reason  for  rejecting  altogether  the 
whole  story. 

§  8.  The  numerous  proofs  of  the  divine  authority  of  Christ,  induced 
very  many  of  the  Jews  to  revere  him  as  the  Son  of  God  :  but  the  leading 
men,  especially  the  Pharisees  and  the  chief  priests,  whose  vices  and  crimes 
he  freely  reproved,  plotted  against  his  life  ;  because  they  were  fearful  of 
losing  their  honours  and  privileges,  if  Christ  should  continue  publicly  to 
teach.  For  a  long  time  the  machinations  of  these  ungodly  men  were  in- 
effectual. But  at  last,  his  ungrateful  disciple,  Judas,  disclosing  the  place 
of  his  master's  nocturnal  retirement,  he  was  seized  by  soldiers  at  the  com- 
mand of  the  Sanhedrim,  and  ordered  to  be  tried  for  his  life. 

§  9.  He  was  first  arraigned  before  the  Jewish  high  priest  and  senate, 
where  he  was  accused  of  having  violated  the  law,  and  blasphemed  the 
majesty  of  God.  Thence  he  was  dragged  to  the  tribunal  of  Pilate,  the 
Roman  procurator ;  and  there  accused  of  sedition,  and  of  treason  against 
Caesar.  Neither  of  these  accusations  could  have  satisfied  fair  and  upright 
judges.  But  the  clamours  of  the  people,  which  were  instigated  by  the  ir- 
religious priests,  compelled  Pilate,  though  reluctantly,  to  pass  sentence  of 
death  upon  him.  As  he  had  come  into  our  world  to  make  expiation  for 
the  sins  of  men,  and  as  he  knew  that  all  the  objects  of  his  abode  among 
men  were  accomplished,  he  voluntarily  submitted  to  be  nailed  to  a  cross, 
on  which  he  yielded  up  his  spotless  soul  to  God. 

§  10.  On  the  third  day  after  his  burial  he  reassumed  that  life  which  he 
had  voluntarily  laid  down  ;  and  by  showing  himself  alive,  he  made  it  man- 
ifest that  man  is  no  longer  insolvent  to  divine  justice.  He  now  continued 
forty  days  with  his  disciples,  employing  the  time  very  much  in  giving  them 
instruction.  To  his  enemies  he  would  not  show  himself  visibly ;  among 
other  reasons,  because  he  knew  that  those  unprincipled  men,  who  had  be- 
fore accused  him  of  sorcery,  would  impudently  affirm  that  it  was  only  a 
spectre  that  appeared,  bearing  his  likeness,  and  produced  by  the  power  of 
the  devil.  At  length  he  ascended  up  to  heaven  in  the  full  view  of  his 
disciples,  after  commissioning  them  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  all  nations. 

(6)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  i.,  c.   13.  Historia  Edessena  et  Osroena,  1.  Hi.,  p.  104. 
[Here  is  the  earliest  notice  of  these  Letters.  J.  S.  Asseman,  Biblioth.  orient.  Clem.  Vat., 
For  the  earliest  history  of  the  picture,  see  torn  i.,  p.  554.     ["As  to  the  picture,  which 
Evaffrius,  Hist.  Eccles,  1.  iv.,  c.  27.     See  is  still  preserved,  and  shown  at  Rome,  Is. 
the  Letters  themselves,  with  notes,  in]  J.  Beausobre  has  fully  exposed  the  fable,  in  his 
A.  Fabricius,  Codex  Apocryphus  N.  Test.,  Dis.  des  Images   de  main  divine  ;  in  the 
torn,  i.,  p.  317.  Biblioth.  Germanique,  torn,  xviii.,  p.   10," 

(7)  See  Ja.  Basnage,  Histoire  des  Juifs,  &c.     Mosheim,  de  Rebus  Christ.,  &c.,  p. 
torn,  i.,  c.  18,  p.  500.     Theoph.  Sigf.  Bayer,  73.] 


PROSPEROUS  EVENTS.  45 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    PROSPEROUS   EVENTS    OF   THE    CHURCH. 

§  1 .  Effusion  of  the  H.  Spirit  on  the  Apostles. — §  2.  They  preach  to  Jews  and  Samari- 
tans.— $  3.  Election  of  a  new  Apostle. — $  4.  Paul's  Conversion. — §  5.  Attention  to 
the  Poor,  and  a  Community  of  Goods,  in  the  Church. — $  6.  Many  Churches  planted 
by  the  Apostles. — §  7.  Respect  for  Christ  among  the  Pagans. — $  8.  Causes  of  the 
rapid  Progress  of  Christianity. — $  9.  Extraordinary  Gifts  of  the  early  Christians. — 
§  10.  Fictitious  Causes  assigned  for  the  Progress  of  Christianity. 

§  1.  WHEN  Jesus  was  seated  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Eternal  Father, 
the  first  proof  he  gave  of  his  majesty  and  power  was  on  the  fiftieth  day(l) 
after  his  death,  by  the  effusion  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  his  disciples  and 
friends  on  earth,  Acts  ii.,  1,  &c.  On  receiving  this  celestial  gift  and 
teacher,  they  were  freed  from  all  their  former  ignorance  and  blindness  of 
mind,  and  endued  with  astonishing  alacrity  and  power  to  fulfil  the  duties 
of  their  office.  With  these  mental  endowments  was  joined  the  knowledge 
of  various  foreign  languages,  which  was  indispensable  to  them  in  giving 
instruction  to  different  nations ;  and  also  a  firm  reliance  on  the  promise  of 
Christ,  that  God  would  aid  them  as  often  as  should  be  necessary  by  mira- 
cles.^) 

§  2.  Relying  on  these  divine  aids,  the  disciples,  in  accordance  with  the 
Saviour's  injunctions  (Luke  xxiv.,  47  ;  Acts  i.,  8  ;  xiii.,  46),  first  laboured  to 
bring  the  Jews  to  subject  themselves  to  Christ.  Nor  was  this  labour  with- 
out effect,  for  many  thousands  of  them  soon  became  Christians,  Acts  ii., 
41 ;  iv.,  4.  Next  they  proceeded  to  the  Samaritans,  which  also  accorded 
with  their  instructions,  Acts  i.,  8.  And  here,  too,  they  gathered  a  Christian 
church,  Acts  viii.,  14.  Lastly,  after  spending  many  years  at  Jerusalem, 
and  regulating  and  confirming  the  churches  of  Christ  in  Palestine  and  the 
neighbouring  regions,  they  travelled  abroad  among  various  nations,  and 
their  labours  were  everywhere  attended  with  the  greatest  success. (3) 

§  3.  The  first  care  of  the  apostles  after  the  Saviour's  ascension,  was  to 
complete  the  number  of  twelve  apostles  established  by  Christ,  by  electing 

(1)  [From  the  terms  here  used  by  Dr.         (3)  [It  appears  from  the  book  of  Acts, 
Mosheim,  it  would  seem  that  he  supposed  that  the  apostles,  or,  at  least,  most  of  them, 
the  effusion  of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  the  day  of  remained  in  and  near  Jerusalem  for  several 
Pentecost,  took  place  on  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  years  after  the  ascension  ;  but  how  long  they 
or  Saturday,  and  not  on  Sunday,  as  many  continued  together  is  uncertain.     There  was 
have  supposed. — Tr.]  anciently  a  tradition,  which  Eusebius  states 

(2)  [In  his  Comment,  de  Rebus   Christ.1  (Hist.  Eccles.,  v.  18)  on  the  authority  of 
ante  C.  M.,  p.  76,  Dr.  Mosheim  states,  that  Apollonius,  a  writer  of  the  second  century, 
he  does  not  account  the  power  of  working  as  does  Clemens  Alex,   (Strom,  vi.,  c.  5) 
miracles  among  the  supernatural  gifts,  be-  from  a  spurious  work,  Prcedtcatio  Pelri,  that 
cause  such  power  neither  was,  nor  could  be,  the  Saviour  enjoined  upon  his  apostles  not  to 
conferred  on  men,  Omnipotence  alone  being  leave  Jerusalem  till  twelve  years  after  his  as- 
able  to  work  miracles  ;  so  that /at/A  to  pray  cension.     About  so  long  they  probably  con- 
for  them,  and  to  expect  them,  at  the  hands  tinued  there  ;  and  their  being  divinely  guided 
of  God,  was  all  that  the  H.  Ghost  actually  in  most  of  their  movements  might  give  rise 
imparted  to  the  Apostles. — Tr.]  to  the  tradition. — Tr.] 


46       BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  I.— CHAP.  IV. 

a  more  worthy  person  to  the  place  of  Judas,  who  had  laid  violent  hands  on 
himself.  Therefore,  the  little  company  of  Christ's  servants  at  Jerusalem 
being  assembled,  two  men,  the  most  noted  for  their  piety  and  faith  in 
Christ,  Barsabas  and  Matthias,  were  proposed  as  the  most  worthy  of  that 
office.  One  of  these,  Matthias,  being  designated  by  lot — as  it  is  commonly 
supposed,  or  elected  by  the  major  vote  of  all  the  persons  present,  was  con- 
stituted the  twelfth  apostle,  Acts  i.,  15,  &c.(4) 

§  4.  As  these  twelve  ambassadors  of  Christ  were  all  of  them  plain,  il- 
literate men,  and  as  the  Christian  community,  now  in  its  infancy,  needed 
a  man  who  could  attack  and  vanquish  the  Jewish  doctors  and  the  pagan 
philosophers  with  their  own  weapons,  Jesus  Christ  himself,  by  a  voice 
from  heaven,  soon  after  appointed  a  thirteenth  apostle  ;  namely,  Saul,  who 
afterward  assumed  the  name  of  Paul,  a  man  who  had  been  a  most  virulent 
enemy  of  the  Christians,  but  who  was  well  skilled  in  the  Jewish  learning, 
and  not  ignorant  of  the  Grecian,  Acts  ix.,  1,  &c.  To  this  truly  admirable 
man,  whether  we  consider  his  courage,  his  force  of  mind,  or  his  patience 
and  perseverance  in  trials  and  labours — how  much  the  Christian  world  is 
indebted,  is  manifest  from  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  from  his  own 
Epistles. 

§  5.  The  first  of  all  the  Christian  churches  founded  by  the  apostles, 
was  that  of  Jerusalem  ;  and  after  the  form  and  model  of  this,  all  the  others 
of  that  age  were  constituted.  That  church,  however,  was  governed  im- 
mediately by  the  apostles ;  to  whom  the  presbyters  and  the  deacons  or 
overseers  of  the  poor  were  subject.  Though  the  people  had  not  with- 
drawn themselves  from  the  Jewish  worship,  yet  they  held  their  own  sep- 
arate meetings ;  in  which  they  were  instructed  by  the  apostles  and  pres- 
byters, offered  up  their  united  prayers,  celebrated  in  the  sacred  supper  the 
memorial  of  Jesus  Christ,  of  his  death,  and  the  salvation  he  procured,  and 
afterward  manifested  their  mutual  love,  partly  by  their  liberality  to  the 
poor,  and  partly  by  those  temperate  repasts,  which  from  their  design  were 
called  love-feasts,  Acts  ii.,  42.(5)  Among  the  virtues  for  which  this 
primitive  church  of  Christ  was  distinguished,  the  care  of  the  poor  and 
needy  is  most  conspicuous.  For  the  rich  liberally  supplied  the  wants  of 
all  the  brotherhood,  and  with  such  promptitude  and  tenderness  that,  Luke 
says,  they  had  all  things  common,  Acts  ii.,  44  ;  iv.,  32.  But  it  is  manifest 
from  the  expressions  used  by  Peter  in  Acts  v.,  4,  as  well  as  from  other 
considerations,  that  the  declaration  of  Luke  should  not  be  understood,  as  it 
generally  has  been,  of  their  possessing  in  common,  but  only  of  their  using 
in  common.(6) 

(4)  [Dr.  Mosheim  has  a  long  note  in  the  C.  Mag.,  113-116.     If  Mosheim's  interpre- 
parallel  place  in  his  Comment,   de  Rebus  tation  of  that  text  is  erroneous,  as  most  in- 
Christ.,  &c.,  p.  78-80,  in  which  he  aims  to  terpreters  think  it  is,  this   account  of  the 
prove  that  ISuKav  K?^povg  avruv,  in  Acts  i.,  mode  of  worship  in  the  apostolic   church 
26,  signifies  they  gave  their  voles ;  and  not,  rests  on  a  slender  basis. — 7V.] 

as  it  is  commonly  understood,  they  cast  their  (6)  ["It  is  an  ancient  opinion,  though 

lots.     But  his  interpretation  is  very  general-  not  older  than  the  fourth  century,  that  in  the 

ly  rejected. — TV.]  church  of  Jerusalem  there  was  such  a  com- 

(5)  [Dr.   Mosheim  understood  Acts  ii.,  munity  of  goods,  as  existed  among  the  an- 
42,  as  descriptive  of  the  several  parts  of  cient   Essenes,  and   afterward    among  the 
the  ordinary  public  worship  of  these  primi-  monks.     But  this  opinion  is  destitute  of  any 
tive  Christians,  rather  than  of  their  Chris-  solid  foundation,  resting  solely  on  the  decla- 
tian  character  and  conduct  in  general.     See  ration  of  Luke,  that  they  had  all  things  com- 
his  Comment,  de  Rebus  Christianorum  ante  mon.     See  my  Diss.  de  Vera  natura  com- 


PROSPEROUS  EVENTS. 


47 


§  6.  The  ambassadors  of  Christ  on  leaving  Jerusalem  travelled  over  a 
great  part  of  the  world,  and  in  a  short  time  collected  numerous  religious 
societies  in  various  countries.  Of  the  churches  they  founded,  not  a  small 
number  is  mentioned  in  the  sacred  books,  especially  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apos- 
tles^?) Besides  these,  there  can  be  no  doubt  they  collected  many  others, 
both  by  their  own  efforts  and  by  the  efforts  of  their  followers.  But  how  far 
they  travelled,  what  nations  they  visited,  or  when  and  where  they  died,  is 
exceedingly  dubious  and  uncertain.(8)  The  stories  often  told  respecting 
their  travels  among  the  Gauls,  the  Britons,  the  Spaniards,  the  Germans,  the 
Americans,  the  Chinese,  the  Indians,  and  the  Russians,  are  too  recent  and 
fantastic  to  be  received  by  an  inquisitive  lover  of  the  truth. (9)  A  great 


munionis  bonorum  in  Ecclesia  Hierosolym., 
which  is  the  first  in  the  second  volume  of 
rny  Dissertt.  ad  Historiam  Eccl.  pertinen- 
tes." — Mosheim,  de  Reb.  Christ.,  &c.,  p. 
118.] 

(7)  [The  names  of  these  churches  are  col- 
lected by  P.  J,  Harlmann,  de  Rebus  gestis 
Christianor.  sub  Apostolis,  cap.  vii.,  p.107; 
and  by  J.  A.  Fabricius,  Lux  Evangelii  toti 
orbi  exoriens,  cap.  v.,  p.  83,  &c.] 

(8)  ["  It  is  a  very  ancient  and  current  re- 
port, confirmed  by  many  witnesses,  that  all 
the  apostles  suffered  public  martyrdom  ;  with 
the  exception  of  St.  John,  who  died  a  nat- 
ural death  at  Ephesus.     And  this  opinion  is 
so   firmly   believed,    by    many   who   would 
not  be  thought  credulous,  that  to  call  it  in 
question,  is   to  run  some  hazard  of  being 
charged  with  slandering   those   holy  men. 
Such  as  please,  may  believe  the  account ; 
but  let  them  not  be  offended  if  I   declare 
the  martyrdom  of  most  of  the  apostles  to  be 
less  certain  than  they  suppose.     That  Peter, 
Paul,  and  James  died  violent  deaths,  I  be- 
lieve, on  the  testimony  of  the  numerous  an- 
cient authors  ;  but  that  the  other  apostles 
did  so,  I   cannot  feel   so  certain.     As  my 
first  ground  of  doubt,  a  very  ancient  wri- 
ter of  the  second  century,  Heracleon,  a  Val- 
entinian  indeed,  but  no  contemptible  man, 
cited  by  Clemens.  Alex.,  Strom.,  1.  iv.,  c.  9, 
denies  that  Matthew,  Philip,  Thomas,  Levi, 
and  others  confessed  Christ  before  magis- 
trates, and  were  put  to  death  for  so  doing. 
He  is  urging  that  the  public  confession  of 
himself  required   by  the  Saviour,  Matt,  x., 
32,  may  be  made  by  a  holy  and   Christian 
life,  as  well  as  by  a  public  avowal  before  a  per- 
secuting magistrate  ;  and  he  states  as  proof, 
'Ot>  yap  TTuvrtf  61  ou^o/ievai 

TTJV  OLU  T;;C  (jiuvTJf  ufio^oyiav,  KOL 
'E£  uv  Mardutoc,  *t/.tff7rof,  Acvtf,  /cat 
U.7.7MI  •noJ./.vt.,  for  not  all  that  were  saved, 
made  that  confession  in  words  (before  ma- 
gistrates) and  so  died.  Of  this  number  was 
Matthew,  Philip,  Thomas,  Levi,  and  many 
others.  Clement,  though  he  disapproves 
several  things  in  the  passage  he  quotes, 


leaves  this  statement  to  stand  as  it  is  ;  which 
is  proof  that  he  had  nothing  to  allege  against 
it.  Philip  is  expressly  declared  not  to  have 
suffered  martyrdom,  but  to  have  died  and 
been  buried  at  Hierapolis ;  so  says  Poly- 
crates,  in  his  Epistle  to  Victor,  in  Eusebius, 
Hist.  Eccl.,  v.  24.  Baronius  indeed,  (An- 
nals, A.D.  35,  §  141),  and  after  him  many 
others  maintain,  that  this  was  not  Philip  the 
apostle,  but  Philip  one  of  the  seven  deacons 
of  Jerusalem.  But  Poly  crates  says  express- 
ly, that  he  was  one  of  the  twelve  apostles.  A 
still  stronger  argument  is,  that  all  the  wri- 
ters of  the  three  first  centuries,  and  among 
them,  such  as  contended  for  the  high  digni- 
ty of  the  martyrs  in  opposition  to  the  Valen- 
tinians,  viz.,  Tertullian,  Clemens  Alex.,  and 
Origen,  never  mention  but  three  of  the  apos- 
tles as  being  martyrs ;  namely,  Peter,  Paul, 
and  James  the  elder.  See  Tertullian,  Scor- 
piace,  cap.  xv.  I  am  therefore  led  to  be- 
lieve, that  the  common  reports  respecting 
the  sufferings  of  Christ's  ambassadors  were 
fabricated  after  the  days  of  Constantine. 
And  two  causes  might  lead  to  such  reports. 

(1)  The  extravagant   estimation   in  which 
martyrdom  was  held,  made  it  seem  neces- 
sary to  rank  the  apostles  among  the  martyrs. 

(2)  The   ambiguity  of  the   word  /wiprvp, 
martyr,  which  properly  signifies  a  witness,  in 
which  sense  Christ  himself  called  his  apos- 
tles [tuprvpts  (Acts  i.,  8,  see  also  Acts  ii., 
32),  might  lead  the  more  ignorant  to  believe 
and  to  amplify  these  fables."     Mosheim,  de 
Rebus  Christ,  ante  C.  M.,p.  81-84,  abridg- 
ed considerably. — TV.] 

(9)  ["There  is  not  one  of  the  European 
nations  that  does  not  glory,  in  either  an  apos- 
tle or  some  one  of  the  seventy  disciples,  or 
at  least  in  some  early  saint  commissioned 
by  an  apostle,  as  having  come  among  them 
and  collected  a  Christian  church.  The  Span- 
iards say,  that  the  apostles  Paul  and  James 
the  elder,  with  many  of  the  seventy  disciples 
and  other  assistants  of  the  apostles,  intro- 
duced the  light  of  the  gospel  into  their  coun- 
try. And  a  Spaniard  would  bring  himself 
into  trouble,  if  he  should  confront  this  opin- 


48 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  I.— CHAP.  IV. 


part  of  these  fabulous  stories  were  got  up  after  the  days  of  Charlemagne ; 
when  most  of  the  Christian  churches  contended  as  vehemently  about  the 
antiquity  of  their  origin,  as  ever  did  the  Arcadians,  the  Egyptians,  or  the 
Greeks. 


ion.  The  French  contend  that  Crescens,  a 
disciple  and  companion  of  Paul,  Dionysius 
the  Athenian  Areopagite,  Lazarus,  Mary 
Magdalene,  &c.,  first  brought  their  country- 
men to  profess  Christ.  Among  the  Italians 
there  is  scarcely  a  city  which  does  not  pro- 
fess to  have  received  the  gospel  and  their 
first  minister  from  Paul  or  Peter.  See 
P.  Giannone,  Histoire  civile  du  royaume 
de  Naples,  torn,  i.,  p.  74,  75.  And  at  this 
day,  a  man  could  not  escape  the  charge  of 
heresy,  who  should  raise  a  question  on  this 
subject.  See  J.  Lamy,  Deliciae  eruditorum, 
torn,  viii.,  Pref,  and  torn,  xi.,  Preface.  The 
Germans  assert  that  Maternus,  Valerianus, 
and  many  others  were  sent  among  them  by 
the  apostles  ;  and  that  these  legates  of  St. 
Peter  and  of  the  other  apostles  baptized  a 
large  number  of  persons.  The  British 
think  that  St.  Paul  (as  they  infer  from 
Clemens  Rom.  first  Epistle  to  the  Corinthi- 
ans), Simon  Zelotes,  Aristobulus,  and  espe- 
cially Joseph  of  Arimathea,  were  the  found- 
ers of  their  church.  The  Russians,  Poles, 
and  Prussians,  honour  St.  Andrew  as  the 
founder  of  their  churches.  All  this  and 
much  more  passed  for  sober  truth,  so  long 
as  sacred  and  human  learning  lay  buried  in 
shades  and  darkness.  But  at  this  day  the 
most  learned  and  wise  admit,  that  most  of 
these  stories  were  fabricated  after  the  age 
of  Charlemagne,  by  men  who  were  ignorant 
or  crafty,  and  eager  to  secure  distinction  to 
their  churches.  See  Aug.  Calmefs  His- 
toire de  Lorraine,  torn,  i.,  p.  xxvi.  Le  Beuf, 
Diss.  sur  1'histoire  de  France,  torn,  i.,  p.  192, 
<fec.  Jo.  Launoi,  Diss.  qua  locus  Sulpitii 
Sever!  de  primis  Galliae  martyribus  defendi- 
tur,  Opp.,  torn,  ii.,  pt.  i.,  p.  184.  I  commend 
these  writers,  yet  cannot  agree  with  them 
in  dating  the  commencement  of  this  foolish 
zeal  for  the  antiquity  of  their  churches,  after 
the  days  of  Charlemagne.  It  began  much 
earlier.  See  Gregory  Turon.  de  Gloria 
martyrum,  cap.  xii.,  p.  735."  Mosheim,  de 
Reb.  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  84-86. — It  must  not 
be  inferred,  from  what  Dr.  Mosheim  says  of 
the  foolish  pretensions  of  the  modern  Euro- 
pean nations  to  a  high  Christian  antiquity, 
that  we  are  to  reject  all  that  the  ancient  fa- 
thers relate  concerning  the  labours  of  the 
apostles  after  Christ's  ascension.  Dr.  Mo- 
theim  was  too  judicious  to  do  this.  He  says, 
ubi  supra,  p.  80,  81  :  "As  to  what  we  are 
told  respecting  the  transactions  of  the  apos- 
tles, their  travels,  miracles,  and  deaths,  if 
we  except  what  is  gathered  from  the  New 


Test,  and  a  few  other  ancient  monuments, 
a  large  part  is  dubious  and  uncertain.  Some 
things,  however,  have  more  credibility  and 
verisimilitude  than  others.  I  would  not  re- 
ject all  that  is  clearly  attested  by  Origen, 
Eusebius,  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Paulinus, 
Jerome,  Socrates,  and  some  other  ancient 
writers  quoted  by  Eusebius  ;  but  what  is  at- 
tested only  by  authors  subsequent  to  these,  or 
unknown,  I  would  not  readily  believe,  unless 
facts  offer  themselves  to  corroborate  the  testi- 
mony." Following  these  judicious  rules  of 
Mosheim,  we  may  believe  that  Peter,  after 
preaching  long  in  Judea,  and  other  parts  of 
Syria,  probably  visited  Babylon,  Asia  Minor, 
and  finally  Rome,  where  he  was  crucified. 
PauVs  history  is  given  in  the  Acts  to  about 
A.D.  64.  He  was  probably  released  from 
captivity,  visited  Judea,  Asia  Minor,  and 
Greece,  and  returning  to  Rome,  was  there 
beheaded  about  A.D.  67  or  68.  John  re- 
mained many  years  in  Judea,  and  afterward 
removed  to  Ephesus,  where  he  lived  to  la 
very  advanced  age,  dying  about  A.D.  100. 
He  was  banished  to  Patmos  about  A.D.  95, 
and  was  greatly  revered.  James  the  elder, 
(brother  of  John)  was  put  to  death  by  Herod 
Agrippa,  about  A.D.  44,  (Acts  xii.,  1). 
James  the  younger,  the  son  of  Alphaeus, 
spent  his  life  in  Judea,  long  presided  over 
the  church  of  Jerusalem,  and  there  suffered 
martyrdom,  a  little  before  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem.  Andrew  probably  laboured  on 
the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  near  the  mod- 
ern Constantinople,  and  perhaps  in  Greece. 
Philip,  either  the  apostle  or  the  evangelist,  is 
reported  to  have  ended  his  days  at  Hierapolis, 
in  Phrygia.  Thomas  seems  to  have  travelled 
eastward,  to  Parthia,  Media,  Persia,  and  In- 
dia. Bartholomew  took  perhaps  a  more 
southern  course,  and  preached  in  Arabia. 
Matthew  is  also  reported  to  have  travelled 
east,  in  the  modern  Persia.  Of  Simon  the 
Canaanite,  nothing  to  be  relied  on  can  be 
said.  Thaddeus,  Lebbeus,  or  Jude  the 
brother  of  James,  the  author  of  an  epistle, 
is  reported  to  have  preached  at  Edessa,  in 
the  north  of  Syria.  Of  the  companions  of 
the  apostles,  Timothy,  after  accompanying 
Paul  many  years,  is  said  to  have  been  sta- 
tioned at  Ephesus,  where  he  suffered  mar- 
tyrdom under  Domitian  or  Nerva.  Titus, 
another  companion  of  Paul,  is  reported  to 
have  been  stationed  in  Crete,  where  he  died. 
Mark,  or  John  surnamed  Mark,  attended 
Paul,  and  afterward  Peter,  and  probably 
preached  the  gospel  in  Egypt.  Of  Luke, 


PROSPEROUS  EVENTS. 


49 


§  7.  That  many  persons  who  were  unwilling  to  adopt  entirely  the  reli- 
gion of  Christ,  were  yet  induced,  by  the  fame  of  his  deeds  and  the  sublime 
purity  of  his  doctrines,  to  rank  him  among  men  of  the  highest  excellence, 
and  even  among  the  gods,  is  evinced  by  numerous  documents.  With 
great  veneration  many  preserved  pictures  of  Christ  in  their  houses,  and 
also  the  pictures  of  his  apostles. (10)  It  is  said  that  even  a  Roman  em- 
peror, viz.,  Tiberius,  proposed  to  have  Christ  enrolled  among  the  gods  of 
the  empire ;  but  that  the  Senate  rejected  the  proposal.  Though  many  at 
the  present  day  think  this  to  be  quite  improbable,  yet  there  are  distin- 
guished men  who  are  led  by  weighty  reasons  to  a  different  opinion.(ll) 

§  8.  The  causes  must  have  been  divine  which  could  enable  men  des- 
titute of  all  human  aid,  poor  and  friendless,  neither  eloquent  nor  learned, 
fishermen  and  publicans,  and  they  too  Jews,  that  is,  persons  odious  to  all 
other  nations,  in  so  short  a  time  to  persuade  a  great  part  of  mankind  to 
abandon  the  religions  of  their  fathers,  and  to  embrace  a  new  religion  which 
is  opposed  to  the  natural  dispositions  of  men.  In  the  words  they  uttered 
there  must  have  been  an  amazing  and  a  divine  power  controlling  the  minds 
of  men.  To  which  may  be  added,  miracles,  prophecies,  the  detection  of 
men's  secret  designs,  magnanimity  in  the  midst  of  perils,  contempt  for  all 


little  can  be  said,  except  that  he  accompanied 
Paul,  and  wrote  his  history,  viz.,  the  book 
of  Acts,  and  a  Gospel.  Of  Barnabas,  no- 
thing can  be  said  worth  relating,  except 
what  is  learned  from  the  N.  Testament. 
See  J.  A.  Fabricius,  Lux  Evangelii,  &c., 
ch.  v.,  p.  95-1 15.  From  this  account,  im- 
perfect as  it  is,  we  may  conclude  that  the 
apostles  and  their  companions  scarcely  ex- 
tended their  labours  beyond  the  boundaries 
of  the  present  Turkish  empire. — Tr.~\ 

(10)  Eusebius,  Historia  eccles.,  1.  vii.,  c. 
18.     Ireruzus,  Haeres.,  lib.  i.,  c.  25,  p.  105, 
edit.  Massuet. 

(11)  ["  Of  the  favourable  disposition  of  the 
Roman  emperors  towards  Christianity,  there 
is  a  noticeable  testimony  in  the  apology  of 
Melito  Sardicensis,  addressed  to  Marcus  An- 
toninus, which  is  preserved  by  Eusebius, 
Hist.  Eccl.,  iv.,  26.     Melito  here  informs  the 
emperor  that  his  predecessors  not  only  tolera- 
ted Christianity  among  the  other  religions, 
but  also  honoured  it :    r)v  KOI  ki  irpbyovol 
crnv  irpdf  raif  aJifaiif  tipr/aKciaif  tripr/aav, 
which  sect  if  your  progenitors  honoured  icith 
the  other  religions.     He  adds,   that  Nero 
and  Domitian  were  the  only  emperors  who 
allowed  the  counsels  of  certain  adversaries, 
to  influence  them  to  make  Christianity  a 
criminal  thing.     If  what  Melito  here  says  of 
Nero  be  true,  namely,  that  he  was  influenced 
by  the  counsels   of  malevolent  persons  to 
persecute  the  Christians,  then  there  may  be 
some  foundation  for  what  John  of  Antioch 
says,  in  Excerptis  Valesianis,  p.  808,  &c., 
that  Nero  was  favourable  to  the  Christians 
and  to  Christ,  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign. 
— Tertullian,  Apologet.,  cap.  v.,  p.  57,  ed. 

VOL.  I.— G 


Havercamp,  speaks  of  Tiberius'  desire  to 
have  Christ  enrolled  among  the  gods  as  of 
a  thing  universally  known.  Eusebius  (Hist. 
Eccles.,  ii.,  2),  Orosius  (Chron.  Pascal.,  vii., 
4),  and  others  afterwards,  repeat  the  story,  re- 
lying chiefly  on  the  authority  of  Tertullian. 
See  Fr.  Baldwin,  Comment,  ad.  edicta  Ve- 
terum  Principum  Romanorum  de  Christia- 
nis,  p.  22,  23,  and  J.  A.  Fabricius,  Lux 
Evangelii,  &c.,  p.  221.  But  very  learned 
men  in  this  age  have  deemed  this  wholly  in- 
credible, and  not  at  all  compatible  with  the 
character  of  Tiberius  and  with  the  state  of  the 
empire  at  that  time.  In  what  manner  men 
equally  learned  and  ingenuous  have  repelled 
their  arguments,  may  be  seen  in  the  Essay 
of  Theod.  Hasaus,  de  decreto  Tiberii,  quo 
Christum  referre  voluit  in  numerum  deorurn, 
Erfurt,  1715,  4to,  and  in  the  French  letter 
of  J.  C.  Iselius  on  this  subject,  in  the  Bib- 
liotheque  Germanique,  torn,  xxxii.,  p.  147, 
and  torn,  xxxiii.,  p.  12."  Mosheim,  de  Reb. 
Christ.,  &c.,  p.  91,  &c. — See  also  Allmann, 
Disquisitio  historico-critica,  de  Epistola  Pi- 
lati  ad  Tiberium,  &c.,  Bern,  1755, 8vo.  In 
this  essay  Professor  Altmann  maintains,  (1) 
That  Pilate  was  actually  informed  of  the 
resurrection  of  Christ  by  the  guard.  (2) 
That  he  did  really  send  to  Tiberius  an  ac- 
count of  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus, 
though  not  such  an  account  as  the  one  now 
extant.  (3)  That  Tiberius  actually  proposed 
in  the  senate  that  Jesus  should  be  honoured 
as  a  god.  This  subject  is  also  examined 
by  Dr.  Lardner,  Collection  of  Jewish  and 
Heathen  testimonies,  vol.  iii.,  p.  599,  etc., 
ed  Lond.,1815,  4to.— Tr.] 


50       BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  I.— CHAP.  IV. 

the  objects  of  ordinary  ambition,  a  patient  and  cheerful  endurance  of  suf- 
ferings worse  than  death,  as  well  as  of  death  itself,  and,  finally,  lives  of  the 
purest  and  most  unblemished  character.  That  the  ambassadors  of  Jesus 
Christ  were  in  fact  thus  furnished  for  their  work,  is  a  truth  perfectly  clear 
and  obvious.  And  if  we  suppose  them  not  to  have  been  so  furnished,  no 
probable  reason  can  be  assigned  for  so  rapid  a  propagation  of  Christianity 
by  this  small  and  feeble  band. 

§  9.  To  these  their  personal  endowments,  must  be  added  the  ability  pos- 
sessed by  these  divine  ambassadors  of  transferring  the  power  of  working 
miracles  to  their  disciples.  Many  persons,  as  soon  as  they  were  baptized 
according  to  Christ's  directions,  and  consecrated  to  God  by  prayer  and  the 
imposition  of  hands,  were  able  forthwith  to  express  their  thoughts  in  for- 
eign languages  which  they  had  never  learned,  to  foretel  future  events,  to 
heal  the  sick  by  pronouncing  the  name  of  Jesus,  to  call  the  dead  to  life, 
and  to  perform  other  deeds  above  the  power  of  man. (12)  What  must 
have  been  thought  of  the  men  who  had  ability  to  confer  such  wonderful 
powers  on  others  ! 

§  10.  Those  who  fabricate  other  causes  for  this  surprising  revolution 
in  the  religious  state  of  the  world,  offer  to  us  mere  dreams,  which  can  never 
satisfy  an  attentive  observer  of  human  affairs.  Some  tell  us  that  the  kind- 
ness of  Christians  towards  the  poor,  induced  a  multitude  of  idle  and  vicious 
persons  to  embrace  Christianity.  They  do  not  consider  that  those  who  em- 
braced Christianity  put  their  lives  in  jeopardy  ;  nor  do  they  recollect  that 
idle,  profligate,  lazy  persons  were  not  tolerated  among  the  early  Chris- 
tians [2  Thess.  iii.,  6-12].  Equally  groundless  is  the  representation  of 
others,  that  the  flagitious  and  profligate  lives  of  the  pagan  priests  caused 
many  to  turn  Christians.  But  the  vile  character  of  these  priests,  though 
it  might  bring  the  ancient  systems  of  religion  into  contempt,  could  not  pro- 
duce attachment  to  Christianity,  which  exposed  its  votaries  to  the  loss  of 
character,  property,  and  life.  The  man  must  be  beside  himself  who  could 
reason  thus  :  "  The  priests  of  the  religion  in  which  I  was  educated  lead 
profligate  lives  ;  I  will  therefore  connect  myself  with  persons  contemptible 
and  condemned  by  the  public  laws,  and  will  thus  put  my  life  and  fortune  to 
the  most  imminent  hazard."(13) 

(12)  See,  among  others,   Tab.   Pfanner,  quires  men  to  forsake  the  institutions  and 
de  Charismatis  sive  donis  miraculosis  anti-  sentiments  of  their  ancestors,  and  to  abandon 
quse  ecclesiaa,  Francf.,  1683,  12mo.  their  chosen  enjoyments.     This  is  confirmed 

(13)  ["Others  have    supposed    that   the  by  the  example  of  those 'very  apostles  who 
virtues  of  the  apostles  and  their  early  follow-  are  said  to  have  converted  the  world  by  tho 
ers,  their  sobriety,  their  contempt  of  wealth,  purity  of  their  characters  ;  nay,  by  the  ex- 
their  fortitude,  their  patience,  &c.,  induced  ample  of  the  Lord  of  those  apostles,  who 
multitudes  to  put  themselves  under  their  re-  was  the  most  perfect  pattern  of  virtue.     I 
ligious  guidance.     Integrity  and  virtue  cer-  can  believe,  that  the  blameless  lives  of  the 
tainly  have  influence  on  the  mind  of  the  be-  apostles  induced  individuals  among  all  na- 
holder  ;  nor  would  I  deny  that  the  holy  lives  lions  not  to  lay  violent  hands  on  them,  nor 
of  the  apostles  produced  some  effect.     But  to  show  them  any  abuse  ;  but  to  believe,  that 
we  know,  if  we  are  acquainted  with  our-  merely  by  their  strict  morals  and  their  disre- 
selves  and  with  human  nature,  that  purity  gard  for  the  common  objects  of  human  attach- 
of  morals  and  integrity  of  life,  though  they  ment,  they  induced  many  thousands  to  recog- 
create  respect  and  reverence,  rarely  produce  nise  as  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  a  person 
imitation,  and  never  do,  if  manifest  disgrace  whom  the  Jews  had  caused  to  be  crucified, 
and  danger  will  follow  that  imitation.     We  and  persuaded  them  to  follow  their  example, 
know  that  virtue,  and  even  the  most  perfect  and  to  suffer  death  rather  than  renounce  these 
virtue,  awakens  entire  disgust,  when  it  re-  principles ;  this,  I  say,  no  one  can  persuade 


ADVERSE  EVENTS. 


51 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE  ADVERSE  EVENTS  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

$  I.  Persecutions  of  Christians  by  the  Jews  in  Palestine. — $  2.  By  Jews  out  of  Palestine. 
— §  3.  Divine  Judgments  on  the  Jews. — §  4.  Ten  Persecutions  by  the  Pagans. — §  5. 
Laws  against  the  Christians. — t)  6.  Causes  of  Hostility  to  them.  Charged  with  Hatred 
to  Mankind. — §  7.  Other  Causes  of  Persecution. — $  8.  Slanders  against  Christians. — 
<)  9.  Modes  of  Trial  and  Punishment. — $  10.  The  Martyrs  and  Confessors. — §  11.  Num- 
ber of  them. — §  12.  Acts  of  the  Martyrs. — §  13.  Persecution  by  Nero. — §  14.  Its  Ex- 
tent.— §  15.  Persecution  under  Domitian. 

§  1.  THOUGH  the  disciples  of  Christ  were  distinguished  for  the  excel- 
lence of  their  doctrines  arid  the  purity  of  their  lives,  yet  the  Jewish  priests 
and  rulers  not  only  treated  them  with  extreme  contumely  and  abuse,  but 
put  to  death  as  many  of  them  as  they  could.  This  appears  from  the  mar- 
tyrdom of  Stephen,  Acts  vii.,  55,  of  James  the  son  of  Zebedee,  Acts  xii.,  1, 
2,  and  of  James  the  Just,  who  presided  over  the  church  at  Jerusalem.  Jo- 
sephus,  Antiq.  Jud.,  1.  xx.,  c.  8,  and  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  ii.,  c.  23. 
The  true  cause  of  this  hostility  of  the  Jewish  priests  and  doctors,  undoubt- 
edly, was  their  envy,  and  their  fear  of  losing  their  personal  advantages 
and  their  consequence,  if  Christianity  prevailed. 


me  to  believe.  And,  not  to  protract  these 
remarks,  whence,  and  by  what  means,  did 
the  apostles  themselves  acquire  that  admira- 
ble virtue  and  sanctity,  which  alone  was  able 
to  produce  in  others  an  invincible  determi- 
nation to  fly  to  Christ,  and  to  cleave  to  him 
as  the  only  anchor  of  their  salvation  1" — 
"  Others,  following  the  example  of  Celsus, 
Julian,  Porphyry,  and  other  ancient  ene- 
mies of  Christianity,  bid  us  consider,  that 
the  churches  gathered  by  the  apostles  were 
composed  of  plebeian  characters,  servants, 
labourers  in  the  fields  and  workshops,  and 
women  ;  that  is,  of  persons  deficient  in  in- 
telligence, rank,  and  wealth,  who  might  easi- 
ly be  persuaded  to  believe  almost  any  thing 
by  persons  of  but  moderate  talents.  But 
this,  which  is  here  so  confidently  asserted, 
was,  in  the  first  place,  not  altogether  true. 
For  the  Scriptures  inform  us,  that  among 
those  converted  to  Christianity  by  the  apos- 
tles, many  were  affluent,  well-informed,  and 
of  respectable  rank.  That  there  were  per- 
sons of  wealth,  see  1  Tim.  ii.,  9,  and  1  Pe- 
ter iii.,  3.  That  there  were  men  of  teaming 
and  knowledge  of  philosophy,  see  1  Tim. 
vi.,  20 ;  Col.  ii.,  8.  And  that  there  were 
some,  though  not  many,  noble,  see  1  Cor. 
i.,  26.  The  names  of  illustrious  persons  who 
embraced  Christ  in  the  earliest  ages  of  the 
church,  are  collected  by  D.  Blondell,  de 


Episcopis  et  presbyteris,  p.  235,  and  by  J. 
R.  Wetstein,  Praefatio  ad  Originis  Dial,  con- 
tra Marcion.,  p.  13.  Secondly,  those  who 
are  not  ignorant  of  the  world,  know  that  per- 
sons in  the  lower  walks  of  life  not  only  value 
themselves,  their  lives,  and  their  enjoyments, 
as  much  as  others  do,  but  they  much  more 
ardently  embrace  and  cling  to  the  customs, 
opinions,  and  religion  of  their  ancestors,  than 
men  of  genius  and  influence,  the  opulent, 
and  persons  of  rank.  Ignorance  and  timid- 
ity produce  and  nourish  superstition.  Hence 
the  more  ignorant  and  timid  a  person  is,  a 
stronger  hold  has  superstition  of  his  mind. 
So  that  it  is  an  easier  thing  to  eradicate  su- 
perstition from  the  minds  of  ten  men,  than 
of  one  woman,  from  a  hundred  well-informed 
and  ingenuous  minds,  than  from  ten  igno- 
rant, stupid  ones.  Villany  nowhere  reigns 
more  than  in  servants  and  persons  of  abject 
condition.  It  would  be  easier,  therefore,  to 
purge  from  iniquity  a  multitude  of  the  in- 
genuous and  well-born,  than  even  a  small 
number  of  slaves.  Hence,  those  who  make 
the  churches  gathered  by  the  apostles  of 
Christ  to  have  been  composed  of  persons  of 
no  respectability  or  rank,  of  slaves,  women, 
and  the  illiterate,  in  my  judgment,  increase, 
rather  than  diminish,  the  glory  achieved  by 
those  inspired  men." — Mosheim,  de  Reb. 
Christ.,  p.  90-92.] 


52       BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  I.— CHAP.  V. 

§  2.  No  less  cruelty  was  shown  to  the  innocent  disciples  of  Christ,  by 
those  Jews  who  lived  out  of  Palestine,  in  the  Roman  provinces.  It  appears 
from  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  from  other  credible  records,  that  they 
spared  no  pains  to  instigate  the  magistrates  and  the  populace  to  destroy 
the  Christians.  To  this  madness  they  were  excited  by  the  high  priest 
and  the  elders  of  the  Jews  living  in  Palestine  ;  who,  as  we  are  informed, 
sent  messengers  to  the  foreign  Jews,  exhorting  them  to  avoid  all  connexion 
with  the  Christians,  and  to  persecute  them  as  far  as  was  in  their  power.(l) 
To  give  their  base  designs  a  specious  exterior,  they  gave  out  that  the 
Christians  had  treasonable  designs  against  the  Roman  government ;  as  ap- 
peared by  their  acknowledging  as  their  king  one  Jesus,  a  malefactor, 
whom  Pilate  had  most  justly  punished  with  death.  This  rage  against  the 
Christians  was  propagated  from  father  to  son,  through  successive  genera- 
tions ;  so  that  the  church  in  after  ages  had  no  more  bitter  enemies  than 
the  Jews. (2) 

§  3.  But  God  himself  visited  this  perfidious  nation  with  the  sorest 
judgments,  on  account  of  their  cruelties  to  the  Saviour  and  his  friends. 
For  he  suffered  Jerusalem,  the  capital  of  Palestine,  together  with  the  tem- 
ple, to  be  razed  to  their  foundations  by  the  Roman  emperor  Vespasian  and 
his  son  Titus,  about  forty  years  after  Christ's  ascension,  and  an  innumer- 
able multitude  of  the  people  to  perish  by  the  sword,  and  most  of  the  survi- 
vers  to  be  sold  into  slavery.  A  more  distressing  scene  than  this — which 
is  described  at  large  by  Josephus,(3)  himself  a  Jew — is  perhaps  nowhere 
to  be  found  in  the  records  of  history.  And  from  this  time  onward,  the 
Jews  have  been  everywhere,  even  more  than  before,  objects  of  hatred  and 
abhorrence  to  all  nations. 

§  4.  The  gentiles,  who  were  polytheists,  brought  upon  the  Christian 
church  far  greater  calamities  than  the  Jews,  whose  power  was  not  equal 
to  their  malice.  The  persecutions  of  the  Christians  by  the  Romans,  have 
for  many  ages  been  accounted  ten  in  number.(4)  But  the  ancient  history 
of  the  church  does  not  support  precisely  this  number :  for  if  we  reckon 
only  the  general  and  more  severe  persecutions,  they  were  fewer  than  ten ; 
but  if  we  include  the  provincial  and  more  limited  persecutions,  the  num- 
ber will  be  much  greater  than  ten.  Some  Christians  of  the  fifth  century 
were  led  by  certain  passages  of  the  Scripture,  especially  by  one  in  the 
Apocalypse,  ch.  xvii.,  12-14,  to  believe  that  it  was  decreed,  the  Christian 
church  must  pass  through  ten  grievous  persecutions  ;  and  to  this  opinion, 
they  afterward  endeavoured  to  accommodate  in  different  ways  the  dissent- 
ing language  of  history.(5) 

(1)  See  Justin  Martyr,  Dial,  cum  Try-  (5)  See  Sulpitius  Severus,  Historia  sacra, 
phone,  p.  51-53,  109,  138,  318,  ed.  Jebbs.  lib.  ii.,  c.  33,  p.  387,  ed.  Horn.     Augusti- 

(2)  [Passages  from  early  Christian  writers,  nus,  de  Civit.  Dei,  1.  xviii.,  c.  52.     [In  the 
•who  complain  of  the  Jewish  persecutions,  fourth  century  the  number  of  the  persecu- 
are  collected  by  J.  A.  Fabricius,  Lux.  Evang.  tions  had  not  been  denned.     Lactantius,  de 
toli  orbi  exoriens,  ch.  vi.,  $  1,  p.  121.     See  Mortibus  persecutorum,  reckons  up  only  six. 
also  the  Epist.  of  the  church  of  Smyrna,  de  Eusebius,  Hist.  Er.dcs.,  does  not  state  their 
Martyrio  Polycarpi,  §  xii.,  xiii. — Schl.]  number;  yet  we  might  make  out  nine  from 

(3)  [In  his  history  of  the  Jewish  War.  this  writer.     This  is  the  number  given  by 
See  also  Basnage,  Histoire  des  Juifs,  torn,  i.,  Sulpitius  Severus,  in  the  fifth  century.     But 
cap.  17. — Schl.]  in  his  times  originated  the  opinion  of  just  ten 

(4)  The  writers  on  these  persecutions  are  persecutions ;   and  Sulpittus,  to  make  out 
enumerated  by  J.  A.  Fabricius.  Lux.  Evang.  that  number,  includes  the  persecution  of  An- 
toti  orbi  exoriens,  cap.  vii.,  p.  133,  &c.  tichrist  in  the  end  of  the  world.     See  Mo- 


ADVERSE  EVENTS.  53 

§  5.  Nero  first  enacted  laws  for  the  extermination  of  Christians.  Do- 
mitian  next  did  the  same  ;  and  afterward  Marcus  Antoninus,  the  philoso- 
pher, then  Severus,  and  the  other  emperors  who  were  hostile  to  the  Chris- 
tians. Yet  these  decrees  were  not  all  equally  severe,  nor  all  founded  on 
the  same  causes.  A  celebrated  lawyer  of  the  name  of  Domitius,  anciently 
collected  all  the  imperial  laws  against  the  Christians,  in  his  treatise  de 
Ojficio  Proconsulis  ;(6)  which,  if  it  were  now  extant,  would  doubtless 
throw  much  light  on  the  history  of  the  church  under  the  pagan  emperors. 
Now  very  much  is  left  wholly  to  conjecture. 

§  6.  As  the  Romans  were  not  accustomed  to  trouble  any  people  on  ac- 
count of  their  religion,  and  as  they  suffered  the  Jews  in  particular  to  live 
according  to  their  own  laws,  it  is  not  improperly  asked,  what  could  have 
induced  them  to  heap  so  many  evils  on  the  heads  of  Christians,  whose  re- 
ligion was  so  holy  and  so  friendly  both  to  public  and  private  happiness ! 
The  first  cause  of  this  cruelty  I  conceive  to  be,  that  the  Christians  con- 
temned and  abhorred  the  public  religion  of  the  state,  which  was  so  closely 
connected  with  the  form  and  administration  of  the  government.  For  the 
Romans,  though  they  tolerated  all  the  religions  from  which  the  common- 
wealth had  nothing  to  fear,  yet  would  not  suffer  the  ancient  religion  of 
their  nation,  as  established  by  the  laws,  to  be  derided,  and  the  people  to 
be  withdrawn  from  it.  Yet  both  these  the  Christians  dared  to  do.  Nor 
did  they  assail  the  Roman  religion  only,  but  likewise  the  religions  of  all 
other  nations.  Hence  the  Romans  concluded,  that  the  Christian  sect  was 
not  only  arrogant  beyond  all  measure,  but  likewise  unfriendly  to  the  public 
peace  and  tranquillity,  and  calculated  to  excite  civil  wars.  This,  if  I  do 
not  mistake,  is  that  odium  generis  humani,  with  which  Tacitus  taxes  the 
Christians  ;  and  is  the  true  ground  of  his  denominating  Christianity  a  de- 
structive superstition,  as  well  as  of  the  epithet  malignant  (malefica),  ap- 
plied to  it  by  Suetonius. C!} 

§  7.  Another  cause  of  the  Roman  hostility  to  Christianity,  was,  that  the 
Christian  worship  had  none  of  the  things  that  were  common  to  all  other 
religions.  For  the  Christians  offered  no  sacrifices,  and  had  no  temples, 
no  statues,  no  oracles,  no  order  of  priesthood ;  and  the  inconsiderate  mul- 
titude deemed  those  who  were  without  these,  to  be  destitute  of  all  religion, 
or  to  be  atheists :  and  by  the  Roman  laws,  atheists  were  regarded  as  the 
pests  of  human  society.  Besides,  the  worship  of  so  many  pagan  deities 
afforded  support  to  a  countless  throng  of  priests,  augurs,  soothsayers,  mer- 
chants, and  artists ;  all  of  whom  were  in  danger  of  coming  to  want,  if 
Christianity  should  prevail ;  and  therefore,  with  united  strength,  they  rose 
up  against  it,  and  wished  to  exterminate  its  followers. (8) 

sheim,  de  Rebus  Christ,  ante  Con.  Mag.,  p.  ligion  of  the  Romans,  nor  those  of  all  the 

98,  &c. — Schl.]  world,  seemed  to  be  the  foes  of  mankind, 

(6)  Sec  Lactantius,  Instil.  Divinar.,  lib.  and  to  indulge  hatred  towards  all  nations, 
v.,  c.  11.     What  remain  of  these  laws,  are  (8)  See  the  account  of  Demetrius  the  sil- 
illustrated  by  Fran.  Baldwin,  Comment,  ad  versmith,  Acts  xix.,  24.     Pliny,  Epistt.,  lib. 
edicta  veter.  princip.  Romanor.  de  Chris-  x.,  ep.  97.     "  The  temples,  which  were  al- 
tianis  ;  republished   by  N.    H.    Gundling,  most  deserted,  begin  to  be  frequented  again  ; 
with  Baldwin's  Constant.  Magnus,   Halle,  and  the  sacred  rites,  which  had  been  long 
1727*  8vo.  neglected,  are  again  performed. — The  vic- 

(7)  See  Tacitus,  Annals,  lib.  xv.,  c.  34.  tims  which  hitherto   had  found  almost  no 
Suetonius,  Nero,  cap.  16.     Because  such  as  purchasers,  begin  to  come  again  to  the  mar- 
could  not  endure  the  sacred  rites  and  the  re-  ket,"  &c. 


54       BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  I.— CHAP.  V. 

§  8.  Those  who  were  interested  to  arrest  the  progress  of  Christianity, 
in  order  to  effect  their  object  the  sooner,  disseminated  among  the  vulgar 
the  basest  calumnies  against  the  Christians  and  their  religion.  These 
slanderous  stories  were  too  easily  credited  by  the  people,  who  were  fickle 
and  credulous.  What  the  stories  were,  may  be  learned  from  the  writers 
of  apologies  for  Christianity  in  the  early  ages. (9)  The  same  persons  cun- 
ningly persuaded  the  multitude,  that  all  the  calamities,  wars,  tempests,  and 
diseases  that  afflicted  mankind,  were  sent  upon  them  by  the  angry  gods, 
because  the  Christians,  who  contemned  their  authority,  were  everywhere 
tolerated. (10)  Other  and  less  weighty  causes  are  here  omitted. 

§  9.  The  various  kinds  of  punishment,  both  capital  and  corrective, 
•which  were  inflicted  on  those  that  venerated  Christ,  are  described  by 
learned  men  in  works  professedly  on  that  subject.(ll)  The  manner  of 
proceeding  before  the  tribunals,  may  be  seen  in  the  Acts  of  the  Martyrs, 
in  the  letters  which  passed  between  Pliny  and  Trajan,  and  in  other  an- 
cient documents. (12)  But  it  is  clear,  that  the  mode  of  proceeding  in  the 
courts,  was  not  always  the  same.  For  the  laws  and  the  rescripts  of  the 
emperors,  by  which  the  magistrates  were  to  be  guided,  were  different  at 
different  periods.  Thus,  at  one  period,  the  Christians  were  carefully  sought 
after ;  at  another,  the  judges  waited  till  some  one  came  forward  to  accuse 
them.  Sometimes  the  confessing  or  convicted  Christian  was  hurried  forth- 
with to  execution,  if  he  did  not  renounce  his  religion ;  at  other  times  the 
magistrates  laboured,  by  various  species  of  torture  and  cruelty,  to  induce 
them  to  apostatize. 

§  10.  Those  who  fell  in  these  perilous  days  of  the  church,  being  put 
to  death  in  different  ways,  were  called  Martyrs ;  a  term  borrowed  from 
the  sacred  writings,  and  denoting  that  they  were  witnesses  for  Christ. 
Those  who  were  bold  to  profess  Christ  before  the  magistrates,  and  for  his 
sake  incurred  the  loss  of  health,  or  goods,  or  honours,  were  denominated 
confessors.  Both  obtained  immense  veneration  and  influence  among  the 
Christians ;  and  they  enjoyed  prerogatives  and  honours  which  were  alto- 
gether peculiar  and  extraordinary,  and  such  as  would  furnish  matter  for  a 
volume  that  would  be  useful  in  various  respects.  These  prerogatives  were 
undoubtedly  conferred  on  the  martyrs  and  confessors,  to  induce  others 
more  readily  to  encounter  all  evils  for  Christ's  sake. (13)  But  as  honours 
and  prerogatives  among  men,  from  the  defects  of  human  nature,  often  be- 

(9)  This  subject  is  nearly  exhausted  by     Protest.,  torn,  iv.,  lib.  v.,  Decretal.,  tit.  i., 
Chr.  Kortholt,  Paganus  Obtrectator,  seu  de     §  32. 

Calumniis  gentilium  in  Christianos,  in  three  (13)  [This  seems  quite  too  philosophical 

books,  Kilon.,  1698,  4to.     To  which  add  J.  an  account  of  this  matter.     The  early  Ghris- 

J.   Huldrich,   de    Calumniis   gentilium   in  tians  did  not  thus  coldly  calculate  distant 

Christianos,  Tiguri,  1744,  8vo.  consequences  and  effects,  in  order  to  de- 

(10)  See    Arnobius,    adversus    Gentes.  termine  what  place  in  their  affections,  and 
[and  Tertullian,  Apologet.,  c.  40. — ScA/.]  what  rank  in  the  church,  they  should  give  to 

(11)  Anton.  Gallonius,  and  Casp.  Sagit-  their  brethren  and  pastors  who  suffered  death 
tarius,  de  Cruciatibus  Martyrum  ;  the  latter  for  their  religion.     Nature,  religion,  and  all 
printed  at  Jena,  1673,  4to  ;  the  best  edition  the  ties  which  united  them  to  Christ,  to  the 
of  the  former  is,  Antw  ,  1668,  12mo.     [Both  church,  and  to  one  another,  combined  to  ren- 
contain  mixtures  of  the  doubtful  with  the  der  these  holy  men  and  consistent  Christians 
true :  for  the  Acta  Martyrum,  now  extant,  venerable  and  lovely  in  their  eyes ;  and  of 
cannot  be  relied  on. — Mosheim,  de   Reb.  course  to  procure  them  a  rank  and  privileges 
Chr.,  &c.]  in  the  church  altogether  peculiar.     Who- 

(12)  See  J.   H.  Bcehmer,  Jus.  Eccles.  ever  reads  the  most  authentic  accounts  of 


ADVERSE  EVENTS.  55 

come  sources  of  evil,  so  also  these  were  frequently  misapplied,  and  af- 
forded encouragement  to  superstition  and  to  other  evils. 

§11.  That  a  great  number  of  persons,  of  both  sexes  and  of  every  class 
and  rank,  suffered  death  for  the  cause  of  Christ  during  the  first  three  or 
four  centuries,  no  impartial  person  who  is  acquainted  with  the  history  of 
those  times  can  hesitate  to  believe.  But  since  H.  DodweWs  attempt  to 
invalidate  this  ancient  opinion, (14)  many  have  agreed  with  him;  and  have 
maintained  that  only  a  few  actually  suffered  death  on  account  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  They  have,  however,  met  with  strenuous  opposers,  who  re- 
gard this  opinion  as  derogatory  to  the  divine  power  which  sustained  the 
martyrs  in  their  conflicts.  Those  who  take  the  middle  path  between  the 
two,extremes,  will  probably  come  nearest  to  the  truth.  The  martyrs  were 
not  so  numerous  as  they  were  anciently  supposed  to  be,  and  as  some  still 
account  them  ;  but  they  were  more  numerous  than  Dodwell  and  his  friends 
suppose  them.  And  I  apprehend,  those  persons  will  readily  come  into 
this  opinion,  who  shall  learn  from  the  ancient  writers  that  even  in  the  most 
calamitous  times  of  the  church,  not  all  Christians  everywhere  were  perse- 
cuted and  arraigned  for  trial.  Persons  in  the  humbler  conditions  of  life 
were  generally  more  safe  ;  while  greater  danger  impended  over  the  rich 
(whose  wealth  had  charms  for  the  judges),  and  over  the  learned,  the  doc- 
tors and  heads  of  churches,  and  over  the  eloquent  and  influential. (15) 

§  12.  The  words  and  actions  of  the  martyrs,  from  the  time  of  their  ar- 
rest till  their  last  moments,  were  carefully  committed  to  writing,  in  order 
to  be  read  over  on  certain  days  for  the  edification  of  their  successors  in 
the  church.  But  a  few  only  of  these  Act  a  Martyrum  have  reached  us  ;(16) 
much  the  greater  part  of  them  having  been  committed  to  the  flames,  during 
the  ten  years'  war  of  Diocletian  against  the  Christians ;  for,  at  that  time, 
the  emperor  required  all  the  books  and  papers  of  Christians  to  be  collect- 
ed and  burned.  From  the  eighth  century  onward,  both  the  Greeks  and 
the  Latins  took  great  pains  to  compile  lives  of  the  ancient  martyrs  ;  but  the 
more  discerning,  even  in  the  Romish  church,  now  admit,  that  the  greater 
part  of  these  accounts  are  mere  fables  dressed  up  in  a  style  of  affected 
oratory.  Nor  is  more  credit  due  to  those  catalogues  of  saints,  called  Mar- 
tyrologies,  which  were  either  compiled  by  ignorant  and  incompetent  men, 
or  have  since  been  much  falsified.  Hence,  this  part  of  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory enjoys  very  little  light.* 

§  13.  Nero  was  the  first  emperor  that  persecuted  the  Christians;  and 
his  cruelty  was  extreme.  He  accused  those  innocent  people  of  a  crime 
which  he  himself  had  committed,  namely,  that  of  setting  fire  to  the  city 
of  Rome.  And  to  make  the  punishment  correspond  with  the  crime,  he 
caused  the  streets  of  the  city  to  be  illuminated,  through  the  night,  by  the 

the  ancient  martyrs,  of  Polycarp  for  instance,  xiv.,  p.  10  and  23,  ed.  Benedict.,  and  many 

will  see  abundant  evidence  of  the  operation  others. — Mosheim,  de  Reb.  Christ,   ante  C. 

of  these  causes ;  but  nothing  of  that  calcu-  M.,  p.  106.] 

lating  policy,  of  which  Dr.  Mosheim  speaks.  (16)  Such  of  them  as  were  not  wholly 

— TV.]  unworthy  of  credit,  were  collected  in  a  mod- 

(14)  In  his  noted  Dissertation,  de  Pauci-  erate  sized  folio,  by  Theod.  Ruinart,  Selects 
tate  martyrum,  which  is  the  eleventh  among  et  sincera  Martyrum  Acta,  Amstelod.,  1713. 
his  Dissent.  Cyprianicae.  *    [See    Adrian    Baillet,    Discours    sur 

(15)  [See    Martyrium   Polycarpi,   §   12.  1'histoire  de  la  vie  des  saints;  prefixed  to 
Acta  Fructuosi,  in  RuinarPs  Acta  Martyr,  his  Vies  des  Saints,  Paris,  1704,  4  tomes, 
sincera,  p.  219.     Cyprian,  Epiett.  v.  and  fol. — TV.] 


56 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  I.— CHAP.  V. 


burning  bodies  of  many  of  them,  [whom  he  had  sewed  up  alive  in  garments 
covered  with  pitch.]  Others  were  put  to  death  in  a  different  manner. 
This  persecution  began  in  the  middle  of  November,  A.D.  64.(17)  In  the 
course  of  it,  the  ancients  tell  us,  Paul  and  Peter  suffered  death  at  Rome : 
but  many  cannot  believe  the  fact,  because  of  its  repugnance  to  chronolo- 
gy.(18)  This  persecution  terminated  at  the  death  of  Nero;  who  is  well 
known  to  have  been  his  own  executioner,  A.D.  68.  During  about  four 
years,  therefore,  the  Christians  suffered  every  species  of  cruelty  at  his 
hands. 

§  14.  Ho w/ar  the  persecution  under  Nero  extended,  is  not  agreed  among 
the  learned.  For  while  the  greater  number  suppose  it  spread  over  the  whole 
Roman  empire,  there  are  those  who  think  it  was  confined  to  the  city  of  Rome. 
The  former  opinion,  which  is  the  more  ancient,(19)  appears  to  us  the  best 


(17)  See  the  two  French  dissertations  of 
Alph.   de  Vignoles,  on  the  Cause  and  the 
Commencement  of  Nero's  persecution ;  in 
Phil.  Masson's  Histoire  critique  de  la  Re- 
publique  des  Letters,  torn,  viii.,  p.  74-117, 
and  torn,  ix.,  p.  172-186.     See  also  Toinard 
on  Lactantius  de  mortibus  persecutorum,  p. 
398. 

(18)  Sebast.  Tillemont,  Histoire  des  Em- 
pereurs,  torn,  i.,  p.  564,  &c.,  and  Baratier,  de 
Successione  Romanor.  Pontiff,  cap.  v.,p.  60. 
— [All  agree  that  both  these  apostles,  Paul 
and  Peter,  were  put  to  death  in  the  reign  of 
Nero:   but  in  respect  to  the  year  and  the 
place,  there  is  controversy.     Many  question 
whether  both   suffered   at  the   same  time. 
They  believe,  according  to  the  testimony  of 
Prudentius,  (Peristephan.  de  passione  bea- 
tor.  Apostolor.  Petri  et  Pauli,  v.  5,  6)  that 
Peter  suffered  one  year  earlier  than  Paul; 
but  on  the  same  day.     As  to  the  day  on 
which  Paul  suffered,  some  make  it  the  29th 
of  June ;  and  others,  the  23d  of  February. 
The  year  is,  by  some,  determined  to  A.D. 
64  ;  so  von  Henschen,  Acta  Sanctor.  April., 
torn.  i.   D.  Papebroch,  Propylaeum  ad  Acta 
S.  May  ;  by  others,  A.D.  65 ;  so  Anton.  Pa- 
gi,  Critica.  in  Annal.  Baron.,  torn,  i.,  p.  51, 
52  ;  and  again  by  others  A.D.  67  ;  so  Baum- 
garien ;  and  lastly  by  others  A.D.  68  ;  so 
John  Pearson,  Annales  Paulini,  p.  25,  which 
is  the  most  probable  opinion.    The  day,  when 
both  apostles  suffered,  was  probably  the  22d 
of  February.     That  Paul  was  beheaded  du- 
ring Nero's  persecution,  is  supported  by  the 
testimony  of  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccl.,  1.  ii.,  c. 
25,  and  of  Lactantius,  de  Morte  Persecuto- 
rum, cap.  ii.,  p.  1375,  ed.  Biinemann.     As 
to  the  place,  an  obscure  writer,  Ulr.  Velenus, 
in  a  book,  Quo  Petrus  Romam  non  venisse 
demonstratur,  1660,  4to,  p.  40,  denies  that 
either  apostle  suffered   at  Rome ;   and   en- 
deavours to  prove  that  their  martyrdom  waa 
at  Jerusalem :  which  also  Bale  maintains  in 
regard  to  Peter,  Centur.  Scriptor.  Britan.,  p. 


16.  This  opinion  is  confuted  by  various 
writers,  who  are  mentioned  in  Watch's  Bib- 
lioth.  theol.  Selecta,  torn,  iii.,  p.  458.  On 
this  whole  subject,  consult  W.  Cave,  Life 
of  Paul,  c.  vii.,  $  9,  p.  424  of  his  Antiq. 
Apostol.  Tillemont,  Mem.  pour  servir  a 
Thistoire  de  1'Eglise,  torn,  i.,  pt.  ii.,  note  42, 
p.  768,  and  Fabricius,  Codex  Apocryph.  N. 
T.,  pt.  i.,  p.  450.  On  the  fabulous  circum- 
stances related  of  Paul's  martyrdom,  see  J. 
G.  Watch's  Hist.  Eccles.  N.  T.,  p.  277.— 
Schl.  On  the  chronology  of  Paul's  life  and 
labours,  see  Witsii  Meletemata  Leidensia, 
1703,  4to.  Pearson,  Annales  Paul.,  the  In- 
troductions to  the  N.  T.  by  Eichhorn,  Ber- 
tholt,  Horne,  &c.,  and  other  works  referred  to 
in  Winer's  Biblischesrealw,  art.  Paul. — Tr.] 
(19)  The  first  who  rejected  the  common, 
opinion,  so  far  as  I  know,  was  Fran.  Bald- 
win, [an  eminent  civilian  of  Paris,  who  died 
A.D.  1573,]  in  his  Comment,  ad  edicta  Im- 
perator.  in  Christianos,  p.  27,  28.  After 
him,  Jo.  Launoi,  in  Diss.  qua  Sulpitii  Severi 
locus  de  prima  martyrum  Gallise  epocha  vin- 
dicatur,  $  1,  p.  139, 140,  torn,  ii.,  pt.  i.  of  his 
works.  Still  more  learned,  and  on  the  same 
side,  was  Henry  Dodwell,  Diss.  xi.,  in  his 
Dissertt.  Cyprianicae,  $  xiii.,  p.  59,  whom 
many  others  have  followed ;  [among  whom 
are  Jo.  le  Clerc,  Histor.  Eccles.  N.  Test., 
century  i.,  p.  428.  Joach.  Lange,  Hist. 
Eccles.,  p.  360.  Nicol.  Gurtler,  Syst.  the- 
ol. prophet.,  p.  491.  Baumgarlen,  Auszug 
der  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  i.,  p.  376  (who  sup- 
poses the  persecution  extended  only  so  far 
as  the  jurisdiction  of  the  praetorian  prefect) ; 
D.  Sender,  Sel.  Capita.  Hist.  Eccles.,  torn, 
i.,  p.  24.  (Also  J.  E.  C.  Schmidt,  Hand- 
buch  der  christl.  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  i.,  p. 
120;  and  A.  Neander,  Algem.  Gesch.  d. 
christl.  Kirche,  vol.  i.,  pt.  i.,  p.  137. — Tr.) 
The  arguments  for  both  opinions  are  stated 
in  /.  G.  Walch,  Hist.  Eccles.,  p.  548,  who 
thinks  the  question  to  be  altogether  doubtful. 
Jablontky  was  of  the  same  sentiment,  Insti- 


ADVERSE  EVENTS. 


57 


supported.  We  do  not  hesitate  to  join  with  those  who  think,  that  public  laws 
were  then  enacted  against  the  whole  body  of  Christians,  and  were  sent 
abroad  into  the  provinces.  To  this  opinion  we  are  led,  among  other  rea- 
sons, by  the  authority  of  Tertullian,  who  clearly  intimates  that  Nero,  as 
well  as  Domitian,  enacted  laws  against  the  Christians,  which  laws  Trajan 
in  part  repealed  or  annulled. (20)  The  noted  Spanish  or  Portuguese  in- 
scription, in  which  Nero  is  commended  for  having  purged  the  province  of 
the  new  superstition,  is  suspected  by  the  Spaniards  themselves  ;  and  I  place 
no  reliance  on  it. (21)  The  Christians  moreover  were  condemned,  not  so 
much  for  their  religion,  as  on  the  charge  of  having  set  fire  to  Rome.(22) 
But  who  can  suppose  that  a  religious  sect,  which  the  emperor  himself 
charged  with  so  great  a  crime,  would  be  quietly  tolerated  by  him  beyond 
the  limits  of  Rome  ?(23) 


tutt.  Historite  Christ,  antiq.,  p.  40. — Schl. 
But  see  note  (23)  below. — TV.] 

(20)  Tertullian,  Apologet.,  cap.  iv.,  p. 
46,  edit.  Havercamp. 

(21)  This  inscription  may  be  seen  in  J. 
Gruterus,  Inscriptionum,  torn,  i.,  p.  238,  n. 
9.    [It  is  this  :  "  Neroni,  ob  provinciam  la- 
tronibus  et  his,  qui  novam  generi  humano  su- 
perslitionem  inculcabant,  purgatam." — TV.] 
But  the  best  Spanish  writers  do  not  venture 
to  defend  the  authority  of  this  inscription  ; 
because  it  has  not  been  seen  by  any  one ;  and 
Cyriac  of  Ancona,  who  first  produced  it,  is 
acknowledged  by  all  to  be  unworthy  of  credit. 
I  will  subjoin  the  decision  of  that  excellent 
and  judicious  historian  of  Spain,  Jo.  de  Fer- 
reras,  Histoire  generale  d'Espagne,  torn,  i., 
p.  192.     "  I  cannot  refrain  from  remarking 
that    Cyriac  of  Ancona  was  the  first  that 
published  this  inscription,  and  that  from  him 
all  others  have  derived  it.     But  as  the  cred- 
ibility of  this  writer  is  suspected,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  all  the  learned,  and  as  not  a  vestige 
nor  any  recollection  of  this  inscription  re- 
mains, in  the  places  where  it  is  said  to  have 
been  found,  and  no  one  knows  now  where  to 
find  it ;   every  one  may  form  such  opinion 
of  it  as  he  pleases." 

(22)  See  Theod.  Ruinart,  Praef.  ad  Acta 
Martyrum  sincera  et  selecta,  p.  31,  &c. 

(23)  [Nearly  all  the  facts  relating  to  this 
persecution,  except  the  martyrdom  of  Peter 
and  Paul,  we  owe  to  Tacitus,  the  Roman 
historian.     Annals,  lib.  xv.,  c.  44.     After 
describing  the  conflagration,  which  utterly 
consumed  three  of  the  fourteen  wards,  and 
spread  ruin  in  seven  others ;   and  likewise 
the  efforts  of  Nero  to  sooth  the  indignant 
and  miserable  citizens ;  he  says,  "  But  no 
human  aid,  no  munificence  of  the  prince,  nor 
expiations  of  the  gods,  removed  from  him 
the  infamy  of  having  ordered  the  conflagra- 
tion.    Therefore,  to  stop  the  clamour,  Nero 
falsely  accused  and  subjected  to  the  most 
exquisite  punishments  a  people  hated  for 

VOL.  1.— H 


their  crimes,  called  Christians.  The  found- 
er of  the  sect,  Christ,  was  executed  in  the 
reign  of  Tiberius,  by  the  procurator  Pontius 
Pilate.  The  pernicious  superstition,  re- 
pressed for  a  time,  burst  forth  again ;  not 
only  through  Judea,  the  birthplace  of  the 
evil,  but  at  Rome  also,  where  every  thing 
atrocious  and  base  centres  and  is  in  repute. 
Those  first  seized,  confessed ;  then  a  vast 
multitude,  detected  by  their  means,  were  con- 
victed, not  so  much  of  the  crime  of  burning 
the  city,  as  of  hatred  to  mankind.  And  in- 
sult was  added  to  their  torments  ;  for  being 
clad  in  skins  of  wild  beasts,  they  were  torn  to 
pieces  by  dogs ;  or  affixed  to  crosses  to  be 
burned,  were  used  as  lights,  to  dispel  the 
darkness  of  night,  when  the  day  was  gone. 
Nero  devoted  his  gardens  to  the  show,  and 
held  Circensian  games,  mixing  with  the  rab- 
ble, or  mounting  a  chariot,  clad  like  a  coach- 
man. Hence,  though  the  guilty  and  those 
meriting  the  severest  punishment,  suffered  ; 
yet  compassion  was  excited,  because  they 
were  destroyed,  not  for  the  public  good,  but 
to  satisfy  the  cruelty  of  an  individual." — It 
appears  from  this  account,  that  a  rasl  multi- 
tude (multitude  ingens)  suffered  at  Rome, — 
and  suffered  in  a  most  inhuman  manner; — 
that  they  were  falsely  accused,  and  by  Nero's 
instigation ;  not  because  he  had  any  thing 
against  them,  but  because  they  were  a  de- 
spised people,  and  he  hoped  to  avert  the  pub- 
lic odium  from  himself.  But  the  case  was 
too  plain  ;  their  innocence  was  known,  and 
Nero's  fiendlike  merriment  only  raised  com- 
passion towards  them,  and  increased  the 
odium  against  him.  It  is  clear,  from  this 
account,  that  the  Christians,  in  the  opinion 
of  Tacitus,  deserved  to  be  exterminated  for 
their  religion ;  yet  that  Nero  did  not  proceed 
on  this  ground,  but  on  the  false  charge  of 
their  having  kindled  the  fires  of  Rome.  Lac- 
tantius,  then,  (de  Morte  persecutorum,  cap. 
ii.)  erred  in  attributing  other  designs  to  Nero, 
namely,  the  extermination  of  the  Christian 


58 


BOOK  L— CENTURY  I.— PART  I.— CHAP.  V. 


§  15.  Nero  being  dead,  the  fury  of  this  first  war  against  the  Christians 
ceased.  But  in  the  year  93  or  94, (24)  a  new  assault  was  made  upon, 
them  by  Domitian,  an  emperor  little  inferior  to  Nero  in  baseness  of  char- 
acter and  conduct.(25)  The  cause  of  the  persecution,  if  we  give  credit  to 
Hegesippus,  was  the  fear  of  losing  his  empire  ;  for  the  emperor  had  learned 
in  some  way  that  a  person  would  arise  from  among  the  relatives  of  Christ, 
who  would  attempt  a  revolution,  and  would  produce  commotion  in  the  em- 
pire.(26)  This  persecution  undoubtedly  was  severe :  but  it  was  of  short 
continuance,  as  the  emperor  was  soon  after  murdered.(27)  The  principal 

religion.     The  commencement  of  this  perse-     supposes  it  began  A.D.  93.     Toinard,  (ubi 
cution  is  determined,  by  the  time  of  the  con- 


flagration, which  Tacitus  says,  (Annals  xv., 
33,  41),  began  the  18th  of  July,  A.D.  65, 
(orxiv.  Kalend.  Sextiles,  C.  Lecanio,  and  M. 
Licinio  Coss.),  and  lasted  six  days.  Some 
time  after,  but  in  the  same  year,  the  perse- 
cution broke  out.  But  how  long  it  contin- 
ued is  uncertain.  If  Paul  and  Peter  suffer- 
ed in  the  very  last  year  of  Nero's  reign,  as 
the  fathers  state,  (Eusebius,  Chronicon  ;  and 
Jerome,  de  Viris  illustr.,  c.  i.  and  v.),  the  per- 
secution doubtless  ceased,  only  on  Nero's 
death.  But  if  they  suffered  earlier,  then  we 
have  no  proof  of  the  continuance  of  the  per- 
secution so  long. — As  to  the  extent  of  the 
persecution,  it  is  wholly  in  the  dark.  If  we 
consider  simply  the  description  of  it,  or  the 
causes  from  which  it  originated,  and  the  feel- 
ings of  Nero  towards  the  Christians,  we  have , 
no  reason  to  suppose  it  extended  beyond  the 
city  of  Rome  and  its  neighbourhood.  Yet 
the  general  impression  in  former  ages,  and 
the  belief  of  many  in  this  age,  make  the  per- 
secution a  general  one.  The  only  argument 
of  much  plausibility  for  this  opinion,  is  de- 
rived from  a  passage  in  Tertullian,  (Apolo- 
get.,  cap.  iv.,  p.  46,  ed.  Havercamp.)  where 
he  speaks  of  the  persecuting  laws  of  the  em- 
pire, as  being  enacted  by  the  very  vilest  and 
most  odious  among  the  emperors,  and  men- 
tions Nero  as  the  first  that "  drew  the  sword" 
against  the  Christians  ;  and  Domitian  as  the 
second  who  did  so.  Whence  it  is  inferred, 
that  Nero,  as  well  as  Domitian,  must  have 
enacted  public  laws  against  the  Christians  ; 
and,  of  course,  that  the  persecution  in  Nero's 
reign  must  have  been  general,  or  throughout 
the  empire.  But  considering  the  fervid, 
rhetorical  style  of  Tertullian,  this  seems  to 
be  a  slender  foundation,  on  which  to  ground 
a  conclusion  that  has  no  support  from  well 
attested  facts. — TV.] 

(24)  [The  precise  year  in  which  the  per- 
secution by  Domitian  began,  is  not  certain. 
Toinard  has  discussed  the  point,  in  his  holes 
on  Lactantius,  de  Morte  Persecutorum,  chap, 
iii.  That  it  raged  in  the  year  95,  is  stated 
by  Eusebuis,  Hist.  Eccles.,  iii.,  18,  but  how 
long  before  this  it  commenced,  is  not  clear. — 
Pagi  (Grit,  annal.  Baron.,  torn,  i.,  p.  85,  87), 


supra),  A.D.  94 ;  and  Dodwell,  (Diss.  Cy- 
prian, xi.,  p.  71),  A.D.  95.  Mosheim,  (de 
Reb.  Christ,  ante  C.  M.),  says,  A.D.  94  or 
95.— Tr.] 

(25)  See  Theod.  Ruinart,  Praef.  ad  Acta 
Martyrum,  p.   32.     [Thorn.   Itlig,  Selecta 
Hist.  Eccles.  capita,  saecul.  i.,  cap.  6,  §  11, 
p.  531.— Schl.] 

(26)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  iii.,  c.  19, 
20.    [In  this  simple,  unvarnished  story,  there 
is   nothing  difficult   to  be  believed.     It  is 
therefore  credible,  that  some  enemy  of  both 
Jews  and  Christians,  suggested  to  the  em- 
peror that  the  Jews  were  expecting  a  king 
of  David's  line,  who  would  give  laws  to  the 
world  ;  and  that  the  Christians  likewise  be- 
lieved that  Christ  would  reappear  and  set  up 
a  splendid  kingdom ;  that  from  both  these 
classes  of  people,  insurrections  and  trouble 
were  to  be  feared  ;  and  that  the  tyrant,  en- 
raged by  the  suggestions  of  the  insidious  foe, 
ordered  all  the   posterity  of  David   to   be 
sought  out  and  to  be  put  to  death ;  and  to 
prevent  the  Christians  from  making  disturb- 
ance, he  commanded  them  to  be  put  under 
restraints,  or  to  be  punished  with  severity. 
— Mosheim,  de  Reb.  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  111.] 

(27)  [The  termination  of  this  persecution 
is  stated  differently  by  the  ancients.     Some 
say  that  Domittan  himself  put  an  end  to  it  be- 
fore his  death.     Hegesippus,  (in  Eusebius, 
Ecc.  Hist.,  1.  iii.,  c.  20),  states  that  Domitian 
having  learned  that  there  were  Christians  of 
the  lineage  of  David,  and  kinsmen  of  Christ, 
still  living  in  Palestine,  had  them  brought  to 
Rome,  and  interrogated  them   closely  re- 
specting their  pedigree,  their  wealth,  and  the 
future  kingdom  of  Christ.     And  from  their 
answers   and  their  whole   appearance,   he 
concluded  he  had  nothing  to  fear  from  them, 
and  dismissed  them  ;  and  thereupon  he  pub- 
lished a  decree,  terminating  the  persecution. 
So  likewise  Tertullian,  (Apologet,  cap.  v., 
p.    60),   says  of  Domitian :    "  He  receded 
from  his  attempt,  and  recalled  those  he  had 
banished."     But  Lactantius,  (de  Morte  per- 
secutorum,  cap.  3),  represents  his  acts  and 
edicts  as  repealed,  after  his  death,  and  that 
then  it  was  the  church  recovered  its  former 
state.    And  Xiphilin,  on  Nerva,  (Dion  Cas- 


LEARNING  AND  PHILOSOPHY.  59 

martyrs  named,  are  Flavins  Clemens,  a  consul,  and  his  niece  or  wife,  Fla- 
via  Domitilla.(28)  In  the  midst  of  this  persecution,  John  the  apostle,  was 
banished  to  the  isle  of  Patmos  ;  but  whether  he  was  first  cast  into  a  cal- 
dron of  boiling  oil  by  order  of  the  emperor,  and  came  out  alive  and  unhurt, 
though  asserted  by  Tertullian  and  others,  has  appeared  to  many  to  be  un- 
certain.^) 


PART   II. 

THE  INTERNAL  HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    STATE    OF  LEARNING    AJfD    PHILOSOPHY. 

1)  1.  The  State  of  Philosophy  in  the  East,  little  known.— §  2.  Philosophy  of  the  Persians, 
Chaldeans,  and  Arabians. — <J  3.  Jewish  and  Egyptian  Wisdom. — §  4.  The  proper  Orien- 
tal Philosophy. — §  5.  Its  first  Principles. — §  6.  Its  Patrons  not  agreed  in  their  Opinions. 
— §  7.  Its  Precepts  concerning  God. — §  8.  Concerning  the  Origin  of  the  "World. — 
$9.  Concerning  Human  Souls. — $  10.  The  Jewish  Philosophy. — 5  11.  Grecian  Learn- 
ing.— §  12.  Roman  Learning  and  Philosophy. — <J  13.  Attention  to  Science  in  other 
Nations. 

§  1.  IF  it  were  known  what  opinions  were  advanced  and  maintained  by 
the  men  of  most  intelligence  among  the  Oriental  nations,  at  the  time  when 
the  Christian  religion  began  to  enlighten  mankind,  many  things  in  the  early 
history  of  the  church  might  be  more  fully  and  more  accurately  explained. 
But,  only  a  few  fragments  of  Oriental  philosophy,  as  all  know,  have  come 
down  to  us ;  and  those  which  have  reached  us,  still  need  the  labours  of  a 
learned  man  to  collect  them  all  together,  to  arrange  them  properly  and  ex- 
pound them  wisely.(l) 

§  2.  The  prevailing  system  in  Persia,  as  is  well  known,  was  that  of  the 
Magi,  who  held  to  two  principles  or  deities,  governing  the  universe,  the 

sius,  1.  Ixviii.,  c.  1,  abridged  by  Xiphilin),  the  Rev.  Mr.  Heumann  and  myself,  in  my 

says,  that  "  Nerva  recalled  those  banished  Syntagma  Diss.  ad  Historiam  eccles.  perti- 

for  impiety,"  i.  e.,  the  Christians.     Perhaps  nentium,  torn,  i.,  p.  497-546.     [The  whole 

Domitian  published  an  edict  favourable  to  controversy  seems  to  rest  on  a  passage  in 

the  Christians  a  little  before  his  death,  the  Tertullian,  de  Prescript,  adv.  haeret.,  c.  36, 

benefits  of  which  they  began  to  enjoy,  first,  as  the  only  original  authority  for  the  story, 

after  his  decease. — »S'cA/.]  which  is  in  itself  improbable.     All  the  more 

(28)  [See  Euscbius,  Hist.  Eccl.,  1.  iii.,  c.  discerning,  of  late,  either  doubt  or  deny  the 
18,  and  Chronicon,  ann.  95.   Some  have  sup-  truth  of  the  story. — TV.] 

posed,  that  the  wife  and  the  niece  of  Clem-  (1)  There  is  extant  an  English  work  of 

ens  both  had  the  same  name ;  and  that  the  Thomas  Stanley,  on  the  history  of  Oriental 

first  was  banished  to  the  island  Pandataria,  philosophy,  which  J.  le  Clerc  translated  into 

near  Italy  ;  and  the  second,  to  another  island  Latin.     But  that  learned  man  has  left  the 

called  Pontia.     Si-c   Tillemont,  Mem.  pour  field  of  Oriental  philosophy  not  to  be  gleaned 

servir  al'histoire  dc  Peglise,  torn,  ii.,  p.  124,  or.ly,  but  to  be  reaped   by  others.     He  is 

&c.,  and  Flcury,  History  of  the  church,  lib.  much  inferior  both  in  genius  and  erudition 

ii.,  §  52. — SchL]  to  Ja.  Brucker ;  whose  history  of  philosophy 

(29)  See  the  amicable  discussion  between  should  by  all  means  be  consulted. 


60 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.— CHAP  I. 


one  good,  the  other  evil.  The  followers  of  this  system  however  were  not 
agreed,  in  respect  to  the  precise  nature  of  these  first  principles.(2)  Nev- 
ertheless this  doctrine  spread  over  no  small  portion  of  Asia  and  Africa,  and 
particularly  over  Chaldea,  Assyria,  Syria,  and  Egypt,  though  under  differ- 
ent modifications ;  nor  did  it  leave  the  Jews  untinctured  with  its  princi- 
ples.(3)  The  Arabians  of  that  and  the  subsequent  ages,  were  more  remarka- 
ble for  strength  and  courage  than  for  intellectual  culture  ;  for  they  attained 
to  no  celebrity  for  learning,  before  the  times  of  Mohammed,  This  their  own 
writers  do  not  deny. (4) 

§  3.  The  Indians,  from  the  earliest  times,  were  much  famed  for  their 
love  of  profound  knowledge.  Of  their  philosophical  tenets,  we  could  per- 
haps form  an  opinion  at  the  present  day,  if  their  very  ancient  sacred  book 
which  they  denominate  Veda  or  the  law,  were  brought  to  light,  and  trans- 
lated into  some  language  better  known.  The  accounts  given  by  travellers 
among  the  Indians  concerning  this  book,  are  so  contradictory  and  fluctua- 
ting, that  we  must  wait  for  further  information. (5)  The  Egyptians  were 

(2)  See    Tho.  Hyde,  Historia  religionis 
veterum   Persarum,    Oxon.,    1700,  4to, — a 
very  learned  work,  but   ill  digested,   and 
full  of  improbable  conjectures. 

(3)  See  Jo.  Christoph.  Wolf,  Manichzis- 
mus  ante  Manichaeos,  Hamb.,  1707,  8vo, — 
also  Mosheim,  Notes  on  CudwortKs  Intel- 
lectual System,  p.  328,  423,  &c. 

(4)  See  Abulpharajus,  de  Moribus  Ara- 
bum,  p.  6,  published  by  Pocock. 

(5)  I  have  recently  learned,  that  this  most 
desirable  book  has  been  obtained  by  some 
French  Jesuits  residing  in  India ;  and  that 
it  has  been,  or  will  be,  deposited  in  the  king 
of  France's  library.     See  Lettre  du  P.  Cal- 
mette  a  M.  de  Cartigny,  dans  les  Lettres 
edifiantes  et  Curieuses  des  Miss.  Etrangeres, 
xxi.,  Recueil,  p.  455,  &c.,  and  xxiii.,  Rec., 
p.  161. — [The  Hindoo  literature  and  theol- 
ogy were  little  known,  when  Dr.  Mosheim 
wrote.      Since    that    time,   and    especially 
since  the  establishment  of  the  Asiatic  Soci- 
ety at  Calcutta,  by  Sir  Wm.  Jones,  in  1793, 
this  field  of  knowledge  has  been  explored 
with  equal  industry  and  success.     See  the 
Asiatic  Researches,  13  vols.  4to  ;  Sir  Wm. 
Jones's   Works,  6   vols.   4to ;    Rev.    Wm. 
Ward's  View  of  the  Hist.,  &c.,  of  the  Hin- 
doos,   3    vols.    8vo,    and   numerous    other 
works. — But  it  is  not  true,  that  the  Vedas 
have  been  brought  to  Europe,  as  Dr.  Mo- 
sheim had  been  informed.     On  the  contrary, 
Mr.  Holbrooke,  in  the  8th  vol.  of  the  Asiatic 
Res.,  describes  them  as  not  worth  transla- 
ting.    He  says  :  "  They  are  too  voluminous 
for  a  complete  translation  of  the  whole  ;  and 
what  they  contain  would  hardly  reward  the 
labour  of  the  reader,  much  less  that  of  the 
translator."     The  Vedas  are  four  in  number, 
called  Rig  Veda,  Yajush  Veda,  Saman  Veda, 
and  Alharvan  Veda.     The  first  consists  of  5 
sections,  in  10,000  verses  ;  the  second  is  di- 


vided into  80  sections,  in  9000  verses  ;  the 
third  consists  of  1000  sections,  and  3000 
verses ;  the  fourth,  of  nine  sections,  with 
subdivisions,  and  6000  verses.  Besides  the 
four  Vedas,  the  Hindoos  have  14  other  sa- 
cred books  of  later  date  and  inferior  author- 
ity ;  viz.,  four  Upavedas,  six  Angas,  and 
four  Upangas.  All  these  were  supposed  to 
be  the  productions  of  divine  persons,  and  to 
contain  all  true  knowledge,  secular  as  well 
as  sacred.  The  commentaries  on  these 
books,  the  compilations  from  them,  and  di- 
gests of  their  principles,  are  almost  innu- 
merable, and  constitute  the  whole  encyclo- 
paedia of  the  Hindoos.  Several  of  these 
have  been  translated  into  European  lan- 
guages ;  namely,  L'Ezour-  Vcdam,  or  ancien 
commentaire  du  Vedam,  &c.,  a  Yverdon, 
1778,  2  vols.  12mo.— The  Shaguat-Geeta, 
or  Dialogues  of  Kreeshna  and  Arjoon,  in 
eighteen  lectures,  with  notes  by  Cha.  Wil- 
kins,  Lond.,  1785,  4to. — Bagavadam,  ou 
doctrine  divine,  ouvrage  Indien  canonique 
sur  PEtre  supreme,  les  dieux,  les  geans,  les 
hommes,  les  diverses  parties  de  1'univers, 
(by  Foucher  d'  Obsonville),  a  Paris,  1788, 
8vo. — Oupnekhut,  h.  e.  Decretum  legen- 
dum,  opus  ipsa  in  India  rarissimum,  conti- 
nens  antiquam  et  arcanam,  seu  theolog.  et 
philosoph  doctrinam,  e  quatuor  sacris  In- 
dorum  libris — excerptam — e  Persico  idio- 
mate — in  Latinum  versum — studio  et  opera, 
Anquetil  du  Perron,  1801-2,  2  vols.  4to. — 
Institutes  of  Hindoo  Law,  or  the  ordinances 
of  Menu,  translated  by  Sir  Wm.  Jones, 
Lond.,  1796,  8vo.  The  last  is  supposed  to 
follow  next  after  the  Vedas  in  age.  Sir 
Wm.  Jones  thinks  it  was,  most  probably, 
compiled  about  880  years  before  Christ,  and 
the  Vedas  about  300  years  earlier.  The 
other  sacred  books  of  the  Hindoos  are  much 
later ;  yet  all  are  now  ancient.  From  the 


LEARNING  AND  PHILOSOPHY. 


61 


unquestionably  divided  into  various  sects,  disagreeing  in  opinion  ;(6)  so 
that  it  is  a  vain  attempt  which  some  have  made,  to  reduce  the  philosophy 
of  this  people  to  one  system. 

$  4.  But  of  all  the  different  systems  of  philosophy  that  were  received  in 
Asia  and  in  a  part  of  Africa  in  the  age  of  our  Saviour,  none  was  so  detri- 
mental to  the  Christian  church,  as  that  which  was  styled  yvtiois  or  science ; 
i.  e.,  the  way  to  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God ;  and  which  we  have  above 
called  the  Oriental  philosophy,  in  order  to  distinguish  it  from  the  Grecian. 
For  from  this  school  issued  the  leaders  and  founders  of  those  sects,  which 
during  the  three  first  centuries  disturbed  and  troubled  the  Christian  church. 
They  endeavoured  to  accommodate  the  simple  and  pure  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity to  the  tenets  of  their  philosophy ;  and  in  doing  so,  they  produced 
various  fantastic  and  strange  notions,  and  obtruded  upon  their  followers 
systems  of  doctrine  which  were  in  part  ludicrous,  and  in  part  marvellously 
obscure  and  intricate.  The  ancient  Greek  and  Latin  fathers,  who  contend- 
ed against  these  sects,  supposed  indeed  that  their  sentiments  were  derived 
from  P~latto ;  but  those  good  men,  being  acquainted  with  no  philosophy  but 
the  Grecian,  and  ignorant  of  everything  oriental,  were  deceived  by  the 
resemblance  between  some  of  the  doctrines  of  Plato  and  those  embraced 
by  these  sects.  Whoever  compares  the  Platonic  philosophy  carefully  with 
the  Gnostic,  will  readily  see  that  they  are  widely  different.(7) 

(6)  [See  Dr.  Mosheim's  notes  on    Cud- 
worth's  Intellectual  System,  torn.  i.,p.  415.] 

(7)  [Dr.  Mosheim  in  this  and  the  four  fol- 
lowing sections  describes  an  Oriental  philos- 
ophy, the  supposed   parent  of  the  Gnostic 
systems,  as  if  its  existence  was  universally 
admitted,  and  its  character  well  understood. 
Yet  the  system  here  described  is  of  his  own 
formation  ;  being  such   a  system  as   must 
have   existed,  according   to  his  judgment, 
in  order  to  account  for  the  Gnosticism  of 
the  early  ages.     In  his  Comment,  de  Rebus 
Christ.,  &c.,  p.  19-21,  and  in  his  Diss.  de 
Causis  suppositorum  librorum  inter  Chris- 
tianos  Saeculi  pritni  et  secundi,  $  3-6,  (inter 
Dissertt.  ad  Hist.  Eccles.  pertinentes,  vol. 
i.,  p.  223-232),  he  confesses,  that  he  has  lit- 
tle evidence,   except   the  necessity  of  the 
supposition,  for  the  existence  of  this  philos- 
ophy.   He  also  admits,  that  the  fathers  knew 
nothing  of  it ;  and  he  might  have  added,  that 
they  testify  that   Gnosticism  had  no  exist- 
ence till  the  days  of  Adrian,  in  the  second 
century.     Since  Dr.  Mosheim  wrote,  some 
have    believed  with  him  ;  others  have   re- 
jected his  hypothesis  altogether ;  and   oth- 
ers   again   have    taken    a   middle    course, 
which  is  probably  the  nearest  to  the  truth. 
These  last  suppose,  that  the  Jews  and  the 
Greeks  of  Asia  and  Egypt,  imbibed  some- 
thing of  the  spirit  common  to  most,  of  the 
Asiatic  wise  men,  and  which  shows  itself  in 
the  Braminic,  the  Zoroastrian,  and  the  Sufi 
or  Persian  speculations  ;  namely,  a  disposi- 
tion to  indulge  the  imagination,  and  to  de- 
pend on  contemplation  rather  than  ratiocina- 


similarity  of  views  between  the  Hindoo 
philosophers  and  those  of  Greece,  it  has 
been  thought,  that  they  must  have  had  some 
intercourse,  or  that  one  borrowed  from  the 
other.  The  ideas  of  the  fathers  in  the 
Christian  church,  and  of  some  moderns, 
would  make  the  Greeks  indebted  to  the 
Orientals — but  Christoph.  Meiners,  (Histo- 
ria  doctrinae  de  uno  Deo),  and  others,  would 
reverse  the  stream  of  philosophic  knowledge, 
by  supposing  it  followed  the  march  of  Alex- 
ander's army  from  Greece  to  India.  This 
intercourse  between  the  Indians  and  the 
Greeks  seems  not  to  have  been  of  long  con- 
tinuance. If  it  commenced  with  Alexan- 
der's Indian  expedition,  it  can  scarcely  have 
lasted  80  years  ;  for  the  conquest  of  Media, 
Persia,  and  Babylonia,  by  the  Parthians 
about  250  years  before  Christ,  and  the  es- 
tablishment of  their  empire  in  those  coun- 
tries, formed  a  strong  barrier  to  all  further 
intercourse  ;  and  the  subversion  of  the  king- 
dom of  the  Seleucidae  by  the  Romans,  B.C. 
65,  must  be  suppdsed  to  be  the  utmost  lim- 
its to  which  it  could  extend.  If  we  consider 
the  nourishing  state  of  the  Grecian  philoso- 
phy before  the  Asiatic  conquests  of  Alexan- 
der, and  the  silence  of  the  western  philoso- 
phers respecting  their  intercourse  with  India 
during  the  period  supposed,  it  would  seem 
more  probable,  that  the  Indian  philosophy 
was  derived  from  the  Grecian,  than  the  latter 
from  the  former.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  this  sub- 
ject will  receive  more  light  from  the  investi- 
gations which  are  going  forward  with  such 
success  in  the  present  age. — Tr.] 


62 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.— CHAP.  I. 


§  5.  The  first  principles  of  this  philosophy  seem  to  have  been  dictated 
by  reason  itself.  For  its  author  undoubtedly  thus  reasoned:  There  is 
much  evil  in  the  world ;  and  men  are  hurried  on  as  by  the  instinct  of  na- 
ture, to  what  reason  condemns.  Yet  that  eternal  Mind,  from  whom  all 
other  spirits  emanated,  is  doubtless  perfectly  free  from  evil,  or  is  infinitely 
good  and  beneficent.  Hence  the  source  of  the  evils  with  which  the  world 
abounds,  must  be  something  external  to  the  Deity.  But  there  is  nothing 
external  to  him,  except  what  is  material :  and  therefore  matter  is  to  be  re- 
garded as  the  source  and  origin  of  all  evil  and  all  vice.  From  these  prin- 
ciples the  conclusion  was,  that  matter  existed  eternally,  and  independently 
of  God  ;  and  that  it  received  its  present  form  and  organization,  not  from 
the  will  or  fiat  of  God,  but  from  the  operations  of  some  being  of  a  nature 
inferior  to  God ;  in  other  words,  that  the  world  and  the  human  race  came 
from  the  forming  hand,  not  of  the  Supreme  Deity,  but  of  one  of  inferior  ca- 
pacity and  perfections.  For  who  can  believe  that  the  supreme  God,  who 
is  infinitely  removed  from  all  evil,  would  mould  and  fashion  matter  which 
is  in  its  nature  evil  and  corrupt,  and  would  impart  to  it  any  portion  of  his 
rich  gifts  ?  But  attempting  to  go  farther,  and  to  explain  how,  or  by  what  ac- 
cident or  operator,  that  rude  and  malignant  substance,  called  matter,  be- 
came so  skilfully  arranged  and  organized ;  and  especially,  how  souls  of 
celestial  origin  became  joined  with  bodies  composed  of  it,  both  reason  and 
common  sense  forsook  them.  They  therefore  resorted  to  their  imagina- 
tive faculty,  or  to  mere  fables,  in  order  to  explain  the  origin  of  the  world 
and  of  mankind. 

§  6.  But  as  those,  who  undertake  to  explain  what  is  obscure  and  diffi- 
cult of  solution  by  means  of  mere  conjecture,  can  very  seldom  agree ;  so 
those  who  attempted  to  solve  this  difficulty,  split  into  various  sects.  Some 
conceived  there  must  be  two  eternal  first  principles,  the  one  presiding  over 


tion,  as  the  means  of  arriving  at  truth. 
Something  of  this  spirit  appears  also  in  the 
Platonic  philosophy,  especially  in  the  later 
or  Eclectic  Platonism.  Besides,  the  Asiat- 
ics in  all  ages,  like  the  early  Grecian  philos- 
ophers, were  much  inclined  to  limit  their 
philosophical  speculations  to  cosmogony ; 
and  likewise  to  adopt,  as  the  supposed  first 
or  grand  operative  cause,  a  physical  rather 
than  an  intelligent  principle ;  or,  in  other 
words,  to  attribute  the  origin  of  all  things 
to  generation,  vegetation,  emanation,  attrac- 
tion, or  some  such  natural  operation,  rather 
than  to  the  contrivance  and  the  fiat  of  an 
almighty  and  intelligent  Spirit.  Hence  the 
Jews  and  some  early  Christian  sects,  with- 
out embracing  the  peculiar  tenets  of  the 
Magi  or  of  any  other  philosophers,  oriental 
or  occidental,  yet  imbibing  the  Asiatic  spir- 
it of  searching  after  wisdom  by  means  of 
contemplation  rather  than  ratiocination,  and 
at  the  same  time  leaning  towards  the  su- 
premacy of  physical  causes,  were  led  to 
frame  systems  of  philosophical  divinity  alto- 
gether peculiar.  Such  was,  probably,  the  or- 
igin of  the  Jewish  Kabbalistic  system  ;  and 
also  of  those  multifarious  systems  which 


bore  the  common  name  of  Gnosticism. 
Elaborate  attempts  have  been  made  to  trace 
these  systems  back  to  some  species  of  pa- 
gan philosophy  as  their  legitimate  source ; 
but  with  very  little  success.  They  seem  to 
have  originated  in  the  speculations  of  Jews 
and  Christians,  who  indulged  their  own  fan- 
cies, and  explained  the  principles  of  revealed 
religion  in  a  manner  peculiar  to  themselves. 
That  Gnosticism,  as  such,  had  no  existence 
in  the  first  century,  and  that  it  is  in  vain 
sought  for  in  the  N.  Testament,  appears  to 
be  satisfactorily  proved  by  C.  C.  Tittmann, 
Tractatus  de  vestigiis  Gnosticorum  in  N.  T. 
frustra  quaesitis,  Lips.,  1773,  p.  253,  12mo. 
That,  notwithstanding  many  points  of  re- 
semblance can  be  traced,  it  is  materially  dif- 
ferent from  any  system  of  either  Grecian  or 
Oriental  philosophy,  it  is  the  object  of  F. 
Ant.  Lewald  to  show,  Comment,  ad  histo- 
riam,  &c.,  de  doctrina  Gnostica,  Heidelb., 
1818,  p.  157,  12mo.  For  very  ingenious 
and  profound  speculations  on  the  subject 
generally,  see  Aug.  Neandcr,  Allgem. 
Gesch.  der  christl.  Religion  und  Kirche,  vol. 
i.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  627-670.— TV.] 


LEARNING  AND  PHILOSOPHY.  63 

light,  the  other  over  matter ;  and  by  the  contests  between  these  principles, 
they  accounted  for  the  mixture  of  good  and  evil  in  our  world.  Others  as- 
signed to  matter,  not  an  eternal  lord,  but  an  architect  merely ;  and  they 
supposed,  that  some  one  of  those  immortal  beings  whom  God  produced 
from  himself,  was  induced  by  some  casual  event  to  attempt  the  reduction 
of  matter,  which  lay  remote  from  the  residence  of  God,  into  some  kind  of 
order,  and  moreover  to  fabricate  men.  Others  again,  imagined  a  sort  of 
Triumvirate ;  for  they  distinguished  the  Supreme  Deity  from  the  prince  of 
matter  and  the  author  of  all  evil  on  the  one  hand,  and  from  the  architect 
and  builder  of  the  world  on  the  other.  When  these  three  systems  came 
to  be  dilated  and  explained,  new  controversies  unavoidably  arose,  and 
numerous  divisions  followed  ;  as  might  be  expected  from  the  nature  of  the 
case,  and  as  the  history  of  those  Christian  sects  which  followed  this  phi- 
losophy, expressly  declares. 

ty  7.  Yet,  as  all  these  sects  set  out  upon  one  and  the  same  first  prin- 
ciple, their  disagreements  did  not  prevent  their  holding  certain  doctrines  and 
opinions  in  common,  respecting  God,  the  world,  mankind,  and  some  other 
points.  They  all,  therefore,  maintained  the  existence  from  eternity  of  a 
Being,  full  of  goodness,  wisdom,  and  the  other  virtues,  of  whom  no  mortal 
can  form  a  complete  idea;  a  Being,  who  is  the  purest  light,  and  is  diffused 
through  that  boundless  space  to  which  they  gave  the  Greek  appellation  of 
Plerbma ;  that  this  eternal  and  most  perfect  Being,  after  existing  alone  and 
in  absolute  repose  during  an  infinite  period,  produced  out  of  himself  two 
spirits,  of  different  sexes,  and  both  perfect  resemblances  of  their  parent ; 
that  from  the  marriage  of  these  two  spirits,  others  of  a  similar  nature  ori- 
ginated ;  that  successive  generations  ensued  ;  and  thus,  in  process  of  time,  a 
celestial  family  was  formed  in  the  Plerdma.  This  divine  progeny,  being  im- 
mortal and  unchangeable  in  their  nature,  these  philosophers  were  disposed 
to  call  'Aitiveg ,  Aeons ;  a  term  which  signifies  eternal,  or  beyond  the  in- 
fluence of  time  and  its  vicissitudes. (8)  But  how  numerous  these  Aeons 
were,  was  a  subject  of  controversy  among  them. 

$  8.  Beyond  the  region  of  light  where  God  and  his  family  dwell, 
exists  a  rude  and  unformed  mass  of  matter,  heaving  itself  continually  in 
wild  commotion.  This  mass,  one  of  the  celestial  family,  either  acci- 
dentally wandering  beyond  the  Pleroma  at  a  certain  time,  or  sent  out  by 
the  Deity,  first  reduced  to  order  and  beauty,  and  then  peopled  it  with 
human  beings  and  with  animals  of  different  species,  and  finally  endowed 

(8)  The  word  aiuv  properly  signifies  an  of  the  day;  like  an  hour  I  must  exist,  and 

infinite,  or  at  least  indefinite  duration,  and  then  pass   away. — It  was  therefore   not  a 

is  opposed  to  a  finite  or  a  temporary  duration,  novel  application  of  the  term  aiuv  by  the 

But  by  metonomy,  it  was  used  to  designate  Gnostics,  to  use  it  as  the  designation  of  a 

immutable  beings  who   exist  for  ever.     It  celestial  and  immortal  being.     And  even  the 

was  so  used,  even  by  the  Greek  philosophers,  fathers  of  the  ancient  church  apply  the  term 

about  the  commencement  of  the  Christian  to  angels,  both  good  and  bad.     That  all  who 

era ;  as  appears  from  a  passage  in  Arrian,  were  addicted  to  the  Oriental  philosophy, 

Diss.   Epictet.,  lib.  ii.,  §  5,  where  aiuv  is  whether  Greeks  or  not,  used  the  term  in  this 

opposed  to  uvdpuirof  or  to  a  frail,  changea-  sense,  appears  from  a  passage  in  Manes,  the 

ble  being.     'On  yap  hfu  aiuv  dW  wv&pu-  Persian,  who,  as  Avgustine  testifies,  called 

TTOf,  ftepof  ruv  TTUVTUV,  uf  upa  tyucpflf,  kv-  the  celestial  beings  uiuvef,  or,  as  Augustine 

arf/vai  fie  iel  of  TTJV  upav,  KCU  Trapeh-d-elv  translates  it,  scecula.     Some  have  supposed 

cif  upav.     I  am  not  an  Aeon,  (an  eternal  it  so  used  even  in  the  New  Test.,  e.  g., 

and  unchangeable  being),  but  a  man;  and  Ephes.  ii.,  2,  and  Heb.  i.,  2. — Moshcim,  de 

a  part  of  the  universe,  as  an  hour  is  a  part  Reb.  Christ,  ante  C.  M.,  p.  30.] 


64       BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.— CHAP.  I. 

and  enriched  it  with  some  portions  of  the  celestial  light  or  substance. 
This  builder  of  the  world,  who  was  distinct  from  the  supreme  God,  they 
called  the  Demiurge,  He  is  a  being,  who,  though  possessed  of  many 
shining  qualities,  is  arrogant  in  his  nature,  and  much  inclined  to  domina- 
tion. He  therefore  claims  absolute  authority  over  -the  new  world  he  has 
built,  as  being  properly  his  right,  to  the  exclusion  altogether  of  the  supreme 
God ;  and  he  requires  of  mankind,  to  pay  divine  honours  exclusively  to 
him,  and  to  his  associates. 

§  9.  Man  is  composed  of  a  terrestrial,  and  therefore  a  vicious  body ; 
and  of  a  celestial  soul,  which  is  in  some  sense  a  particle  of  the  Deity 
himself.  The  nobler  part,  the  soul,  is  miserably  oppressed  by  the  body, 
which  is  the  seat  of  base  lusts  ;  for  it  is  not  only  drawn  away  by  it  from 
the  knowledge  and  worship  of  the  true  God,  and  induced  to  give  homage 
and  reverence  to  the  Demiurge  and  his  associates,  but  it  is  likewise  filled 
and  polluted  with  the  love  of  terrestrial  objects  and  of  sensual  pleasures. 
From  this  wretched  bondage,  God  labours  to  rescue  his  offspring,  in  vari- 
ous ways  ;  and  especially  by  the  messengers  whom  he  often  sends  to  them. 
But  the  Demiurge  and  his  associates,  eager  to  retain  their  power,  resist 
in  all  possible  ways  the  divine  purpose  of  recalling  souls  back  to  himself, 
and  labour  with  great  pains  to  obscure  and  efface  all  knowledge  of  the 
supreme  Deity.  In  this  state  of  conflict,  such  souls  as  renounce  the 
framers  and  rulers  of  the*  world,  and,  aspiring  after  God  their  parent,  sup- 
press the  emotions  excited  by  depraved  matter,  will  when  freed  from  the 
body  ascend  immediately  to  the  Pleroma :  while  those  which  continue  in 
the  bondage  of  superstition  and  of  corrupt  matter,  must  pass  into  other 
bodies,  till  they  shall  awake  from  this  sinful  lethargy.  Yet  God  will  ulti- 
mately prevail ;  and  having  restored  to  liberty  most  of  the  souls  now  im- 
prisoned in  bodies,  he  will  dissolve  the  fabric  of  the  world ;  and  then  the 
primitive  tranquillity  will  return,  and  God  will  reign  with  the  happy  spirits 
in  undisturbed  felicity  to  all  eternity. 

§  10.  The  state  of  learning  and  especially  of  philosophy  among  the 
Jews,  is  manifest  from  what  ha,s  already  been  said  respecting  the  condition 
of  that  nation.  It  appears  from  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  that  the 
recondite  science  which  they  called  Kabbala,  was  even  then  taught  and 
inculcated  by  not  a  few  among  them.  This  science  was  in  many  respects, 
very  similar  to  that  philosophy  which  we  have  called  Oriental;  or  rather, 
it  is  this  philosophy  itself,  accommodated  to  the  Jewish  religion,  and  tem- 
pered with  some  mixture  of  truth.  Nor  were  the  Jews,  at  that  time, 
wholly  ignorant  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Grecian  sages  ;  for  from  the  days 
of  Alexander  the  Great,  they  had  incorporated  some  of  them  into  their  re- 
ligion. Of  the  opinions  which  they  had  adopted  from  the  Chaldeans,  the 
Egyptians,  and  the  Syrians,  I  shall  say  nothing. (9) 

$  11.  The  Greeks  are  regarded  by  most  writers,  as  continuing  to  hold 
the  first  rank  in  learning  and  philosophy.  There  were  among  them  at 
that  time,  and  especially  at  Athens,  acute  and  eloquent  men,  who  taught 
the  precepts  of  philosophy,  as  held  by  the  ancient  sects  founded  by  Plato, 
Aristotle,  Zeno,  and  Epicurus ;  and  who  also  instructed  youth  in  the  prin- 

(9)  See  J.  F.  Buddeus,  Introductio  in  ca,  torn,  iii.,  [but  especially,  Brucker's  Hist, 
historian*  philos.  Hebraeorum  ;  and  the  wri-  crit.  philos.,  torn,  ii.,  period  ii.,  pt.  i.,  1.  ii., 
ters  named  by  Wolfius,  Bibliotheca  Hebrai-  c.  i.,  p.  652. — Schl.] 


LEARNING  AND  PHILOSOPHY.  65 

ciples  of  eloquence,  and  in  the  liberal  arts.  Hence  those  who  were  eager 
for  learning,  resorted  to  Greece  from  all  quarters.  At  Alexandria  in  Egypt, 
likewise,  Grecian  philosophers  and  rhetoricians  were  no  less  numerous  ; 
so  that  thither  also,  there  was  a  general  resort  of  scholars,  as  to  a  literary 
market. 

^12.  Among  the  Romans  of  this  age,  every  branch  of  learning  and 
science  was  cultivated.  The  children  of  good  families  were,  from  their 
earliest  years,  instructed  carefully  in  Grecian  literature  and  eloquence; 
they  next  applied  themselves  to  philosophy  and  the  civil  law ;  and  at  last 
repaired  to  Greece,  to  complete  their  education. (10)  Among  the  sects  of 
philosophers,  none  were  more  acceptable  to  the  Romans  than  the  Epicu- 
reans and  Academics,  whom  the  leading  men  followed  in  great  numbers, 
in  order  to  indulge  themselves  in  a  life  of  pleasure  without  fear  or  remorse. 
So  long  as  Augustus  reigned,  the  cultivation  of  the  fine  arts  was  held  in 
high  honour.  But  after  his  death,  the  succeeding  emperors  being  more 
intent  on  the  arts  of  war  than  those  of  peace,  these  studies  gradually  sunk 
into  neglect. 

$  13.  The  other  nations,  as  the  Germans,  Celtes,  and  Britains,  were 
certainly  not  destitute  of  men  distinguished  for  their  genius  and  acumen. 
In  Gaul,  the  inhabitants  of  Marseilles  had  long  been  much  famed  for  their 
attention  to  learning  :( 1 1)  and  they  had,  doubtless,  diffused  some  knowledge 
among  the  neighbouring  tribes.  Among  the  Celtes,  the  Druids  who  were 
priests,  philosophers,  and  legislators,  were  renowned  for  their  wisdom ; 
but  the  accounts  of  them  now  extant,  are  not  sufficient  to  acquaint  us  with 
the  nature  of  their  philosophy. (12)  The  Romans  moreover  introduced 
literature  and  philosophy  into  all  the  countries  which  they  brought  under 
their  subjection,  for  the  purpose  of  softening  their  savage  tempers,  and 
promoting  their  civilization.(13) 

(10)  See  Paganini  Gaudentii,  liber  de  Germains — par  Sim.  Pelloutier,  augmente 
Philosophiae  apud  Romanes  initio  et  pro-  par   M.   de   Chiniac,  Paris,  1771,   8  vols. 
gressu,  in  the  3d  vol.  of  the  Nova  variorum  12ino,  and  2  vols.  4to  ;  also  Freret,  Obss.  sur 
scriptorum  collectio,  Halle,  1747,  8vo,  2d  la  nature  et  les  dogmes — de  la  relig.  Gau- 
edition.  loise ;  in  the  Histoire  de  1'Acad.  des  In- 

(11)  See    the    Histoire    litteraire   de   la  scrip.,  tome  xviii. ;  and  his  Obss.  sur  la  relig. 
France,  par  des  Religieux  Benedictins,  Diss.  des  Gaulois,  &c.,  in  the  Memoires  de  Litte- 
prelim.,  p.  42,  &c.  rature,  tires  des  registres  de  1'Acad.  des  In- 

(12)  Ja.  Martini,  Rolipion  des  Gaulois,  script.,  tome  xxiv.,  Paris,  1756.     Also  the 
liv.  i.,  cap.  21,  p.  175,  and  various  others,  Introductory  part  of  Alsatia  lilustrata — au- 
who  have  written  concerning  the  Druids,  tore  J.   Dan.   Schocpflino,   torn,   i.,   $  96, 
[This  work  of  Martin  is  said  to  be  far  info-  Colmar,  1751,  fol. — TV.] 

rior  to  the   following;    viz.,   Histoire   des         (13)  Juvenal,  Satyra  xv.,  110-113. 
Celtes  et  particulierement  des  Gaulois  et  des 
VOL.  I.— I 


GO  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


CHAPTER  II. 

HISTORY    OF   THE   TEACHERS,  AND   OF   THE    GOVERNMENT  OF   THE    CHURCH, 

$  1.  Necessity  of  Teachers  in  the  Church. — §2.  Extraordinary  Teachers. — $3.  Author- 
ity of  the  Apostles. — §  4.  The  seventy  Disciples. — §  5.  Christ  nowhere  determined  the 
Form  of  his  Church.  Constitution  of  the  Church  of  Jerusalem. — §  6.  Rights  of  the 
People.  Contributions  for  the  Public  Expense. — §  7.  Equality  of  the  Members.  Rites 
of  Initiation.  Catechumens  and  the  Faithful. — §  8.  Order  of  Rulers.  Presbyters. — 
$  9.  Prophets. — §  10.  Deacons  of  the  Church  at  Jerusalem.  Deaconesses.— §  11, 
Bishops. — §  12.  Character  of  Episcopacy  in  this  Century. — $  13.  Origin  of  Dioceses,, 
and  rural  Bishops. — §  14.  Whether  there  were  Councils  and  Metropolitans  in  the  first 
Century. — §  15.  The  principal  Writers  ;  the  Apostles. — §  16.  Time  of  Completion  of 
the  Canon. — 1)  17.  Apocryphal  Writings  and  Pseudepigrapha. — <J  18.  Clemens  Roma- 
mis. — §  19.  Writings  falsely  ascribed  to  him. — §  20.  Ignatius  of  Antioch. — §  21.  Pol- 
ycarp,  Barnabas,  Hernias. — §  22.  Character  of  the  Apostolic  Fathers. 

§  1.  As  it  was  the  design  of  our  Saviour,  to  gather  a  church  from  among 
all  nations,  and  one  which  should  continue  through  all  ages,  the  nature  of 
the  case  required  him  first  to  appoint  extraordinary  teachers,  who  should 
be  his  ambassadors  to  mankind,  and  everywhere  collect  societies  of  Chris- 
tians ;  and  then,  that  he  should  cause  to  be  placed  in  these  societies  ordi- 
nary teachers,  and  interpreters  of  his  will,  who  should  repeat  and  enforce 
the  doctrines  taught  by  the  extraordinary  teachers,  and  keep  the  people 
steadfast  in  their  faith  and  practice.  For  any  religion  will  gradually  be 
corrupted,  and  become  extinct,  unless  there  are  persons  continually  at 
hand,  who  shall  explain  and  inculcate  it. 

§  2.  The  extraordinary  teachers,  whom  Christ  employed  in  setting  up 
his  kingdom,  were  those  intimate  friends  of  his  whom  the  Scriptures  de- 
nominate apostles ;  and  those  seventy  disciples  of  whom  mention  was  made 
above.  To  these,  I  apprehend,  must  be  added  those  who  are  called  evan- 
gelists ;  that  is,  as  I  suppose,  those  who  were  either  sent  forth  to  instruct 
the  people  by  the  apostles,  or  who  of  their  own  accord,  forsaking  other 
employments,  assumed  the  office  of  promulgating  the  truths  which  Christ 
taught. (1)  And  to  these,  we  must  further  add  those,  to  whom  in  the  in- 
fancy of  the  church,  God  imparted  ability  to  speak  in  foreign  languages 
•which  they  had  never  learned.  For  he  on  whom  the  divine  goodness  con- 
ferred the  gift  of  tongues,  ought  in  my  judgment,  to  infer  from  this  gift, 
that  God  designed  to  employ  his  ministry  in  propagating  the  Christian  re- 
ligion.^) 

§  3.  Many  have  undertaken  to  write  the  history  of  the  apostles, — a  his- 
tory full  of  fables,  doubts,  and  difficulties,  if  we  pursue  it  farther  than  the 
books  of  the  N.  Test.,  and  the  most  ancient  ecclesiastical  writers  are  our 
guide. (3)  An  apostle  was  a  man  who  was  divinely  instructed;  and  who 

(1)  Ephes.  iv.,  11.     See  Eusebius,  Hist,  troductio  ad  Historiam  eccles.,  cap.  i.,  p.  2, 
eccles.,  lib.  iii.,  c.  37.  and  by  J.  Fr.  Buddeus,  de  Ecclesia  Apos- 

(2)  1  Corinth,  xiv.,  22,  &c.  tolica,  p.  673,  &c.     [Some  notices  of  their 

(3)  Writers  of  the  lives  of  the  apostles,  lives  are  given  above,  in  notes  (8)  and  (9), 
are  enumerated  by  Casp.  Sagittarius,  In-  p.  47. — TV.] 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


67 


was  invested  with  the  power  of  making  laws,  of  punishing  the  guilty  and 
wicked  when  there  was  occasion,  and  of  working  miracles  when  they  were 
necessary  ;  and  who  was  sent  by  Christ  himself,  to  make  known  to  man- 
kind the  divine  pleasure  and  the  way  of  salvation,  to  separate  those  who 
obeyed  the  divine  commands  from  all  others,  and  to  unite  them  in  the  bonds 
of  a  religious  society. (4) 

§  4.  Our  knowledge  of  the  seventy  disciples  of  Christ,  is  still  more  im- 
perfect than  that  of  the  apostles ;  for  they  are  but  once  mentioned  in  the 
N.  Test.,  Luke  x.,  1.  Catalogues  of  them,  indeed,  are  extant ;  but  these 
being  fabricated  by  the  Greeks  in  the  middle  ages,  have  little  or  no  au- 
thority or  credibility.  Their  mission  was,  as  appears  from  the  words  used 
by  Luke,  solely  to  the  Jewish  nation.  Yet  it  is  very  probable,  that  after 
the  Saviour's  ascension  to  heaven,  they  performed  the  duties  of  evangelists  ; 
and  that  they  taught  in  various  countries,  the  way  of  salvation  which  they 
had  learned  from  Christ. (5) 

§  5.  As  to  the  external  form  of  the  church,  and  the  mode  of  governing 
it,  neither  Christ  himself  nor  his  apostles  gave  any  express  precepts.  We 
are  therefore  to  understand,  that  this  matter  is  left  chiefly  to  be  regulated 
as  circumstances  from  time  to  time  may  require,  and  as  the  discretion  of 
civil  and  ecclesiastical  rulers  shall  judge  expedient. (6)  If  however — what 


(4)  See  Fred.  Spanhcim,  de  Apostolis  et 
Apostolatu,  torn,  ii.,  Opp.,  p.  289,  &c.     In 
ascribiii  r  powers  to  the  apostles, 
I  have  proceeded  considerately,  and    as  I 
think,  on  good  grounds.     I  am  aware  that 
eminent  men  at  this  day,  deny  them  this 
power ;   but  perhaps  they  differ  from  me, 
more  in  words  than  in  reality.     [Dr.  Mo- 
shcim  founded  his  opinion  on  Matt,  x.,  20 ; 
John  xiii.,  20  ;  Luke  x.,  16  ;   1  Tim.  iii.,  1  ; 
1  Cor.  xi.,  34;  xiv.,  34;  and  Titus  i.,  5. 
See  his  Instil,  hist.  Christ,  majores,  p.  158, 
&c.— Schl.] 

(5)  Catalogues  of  the   seventy  disciples 
are  extant,  subjoined  to  the  libri  iii.  de  vita 
et  morte  Mosis,  elucidated  by  Gilbert  Gaul- 
min;  and  again  published  by  J.  A.  Fabri- 
cius,  Bibliotheca  Grseca,  p.  474.     [See  an 
account  of  these'catalogues  in  note  (5),  p. 
43,  above.— Tr.] 

(6)  ["  Those  who   imagine  that   Christ 
himself,  or  the  apostles  by  his  direction  and 
authority,  appointed  a  certain  fixed  form  of 
church  government,  are  not  agreed  what  that 
form  was.     The  principal  opinions  that  have 
been  adopted  upon  this  head,  may  be  reduced 
to  the  four  following.     The  first  is,  that  of 
the   Roman   Catholics,  who  maintain  that 
Christ's  intention  and  appointment  was,  that 
his  followers  should  be  collected  into  one 
sacral  empire,  subjected  to  the  government 
of  St.  Peter  and  his  successors,  and  divided, 
like  the  kingdoms  of  this  world,  into  several 
provinces ;    that,    in    consequence    thereof, 
Peter  fixed  the  seat  of  ecclesiastical  domin- 
ion at  Route,  but  afterward,  to  alleviate  the 
burden  of  his  office,  divided  the  church  into 


three  greater  provinces,  according  to  the  di- 
vision of  the  world  at  that  time,  and  ap- 
pointed a  person  to  preside  in  each,  who  was 
dignified  with  the  title  of  patriarch;  that  the 
European  patriarch  resided  at  Rome,  the 
Asiatic  at  Antioch,  and  the  African  at  Alex- 
andria ;  that  the  bishops  of  each  province, 
among  whom  there  were  various  ranks,  were 
to  reverence  the  authority  of  their  respect- 
ive patriarchs,  and  that  both  bishops  and  pa- 
triarchs were  to  be  passively  subject  to  the 
supreme  dominion  of  the  Roman  pontiff. 
See  Leo  Allatius,  de  perpetua  consensu 
Eccles.  Orient,  et  Occidentalis,  lib.  i.,  cap. 
ii.,  and  Morin,  Exercitat.  ecclesiast.,  lib.  i., 
exerc.  i.  This  romantic  account  scarcely 
deserves  a  serious  refutation.  The  second 
opinion  concerning  the  government  of  the 
church,  makes  no  mention  of  a  supreme 
head,  or  of  patriarchs  constituted  by  divine 
authority ;  but  it  supposes  that  the  apostles 
divided  the  Roman  empire  into  as  many  ec- 
clesiastical provinces  as  there  were  secular 
or  civil  ones  ;  that  the  metropolitan  bishop, 
i.  e.,  the  prelate  who  resided  in  the  capital 
city  of  each  province,  presided  over  the 
clergy  of  that  province,  and  that  the  other 
bishops  were  subject  to  his  authority.  This 
opinion  has  been  adopted  by  some  of  the 
most  learned  of  the  Romish  church  ;  (Petrus 
de  Marca,  De  concord,  sacerd.  et  imperil, 
lib.  vi.,  cap.  i.  Morm,  Exerc.  Eccles.,  lib. 
i.,  exerc.  xviii.,  and  Pagi,  Cntica  in  Annal 
Baronii,  ad.  ann.  37,  torn,  i.,  p.  29),  and  ha* 
also  been  favoured  by  some  of  the  most  em- 
inent British  divines ;  (Hammond,  Diss.  de 
Episcop.  Beverege,  Cod.  Canon,  vet.  EC- 


68       BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 

no  Christian  can  doubt,  the  apostles  of  Jesus  Christ  acted  by  a  divine  com- 
mand and  guidance,  then  that  form  of  the  primitive  churches  which  they 
derived  from  the  church  of  Jerusalem,  erected  and  organized  by  the  apos- 
tles themselves,  must  be  accounted  divine:  but  still  it  will  not  follow  that 
this  form  of  the  church  was  to  be  perpetual,  and  unalterable.  In  those 
primitive  times,  each  Christian  church  was  composed  of  the  people,  the  pre- 
siding officers,  and  the  assistants  or  deacons.(7)  These  must  be  the  com- 
ponent parts  of  every  society.  The  principal  voice  was  that  of  the  people, 
or  of  the  whole  body  of  Christians  ;  for  even  the  apostles  themselves  incul- 
cated by  their  example,  that  nothing  of  any  moment  was  to  be  done  or  de- 
termined on,  but  with  the  knowledge  and  consent  of  the  brotherhood,  Acts 
i.,  15  ;  vi.,  3  ;  xv.,  4  ;  xxi.,  22.  And  this  mode  of  proceeding,  both  prudence 
and  necessity  required,  in  those  early  times. 

§  6.  The  assembled  people,  therefore,  elected  their  own  rulers  and 
teachers,  or  by  their  free  consent  received  such  as  were  nominated  to  them. 
They  also  by  their  suffrages  rejected  or  confirmed  the  laws,  that  were 
proposed  by  their  rulers,  in  their  assemblies  ;  they  excluded  profligate  and 
lapsed  brethren,  and  restored  them ;  they  decided  the  controversies  and 
disputes  that  arose ;  they  heard  and  determined  the  causes  of  presbyters 
and  deacons  ;  in  a  word,  the  people  did  everything  that  is  proper  for  those 
in  whom  the  supreme  power  of  the  community  is  vested.  In  return  for  all 
these  rights,  the  people  supplied  the  funds  necessary  for  the  support  of  the 
teachers,  the  deacons  and  the  poor,  for  the  public  exigencies  and  for  un- 
foreseen emergencies.  These  funds  consisted  of  voluntary  contributions 
in  every  species  of  goods,  made  by  individuals  according  to  their  ability, 
at  their  public  meetings  ;  and  hence  they  were  called  oblations. 

§  7.  Among  all  members  of  the  church  of  whatever  class  or  condition, 
there  was  the  most  perfect  equality ;  which  they  manifested  by  their  love- 

eles  vindic.,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  v.,  torn.  ii.     Patr.  all  enjoy  the  same  rank  and  authority,  with- 

Apostol.,  and  Usher,  de  origine  Episcop.  et  out  any  sort  of  pre-eminence  or  subordina- 

Metropol.,  p.  20).     Some  Protestant  writers  tion,  or  distinction  of  rights  and  privileges, 

of  note  have  endeavoured  to  prove,  that  it  is  The  reader  will  find   an  ample  account  of 

not  supported  by  sufficient  evidence  ;  (Bos-  these  four  different  opinions  with  respect  to 

nage,  Hist,  de  PEglise,  torn,  i.,  livr.  i.,  cap.  church  government,  in  Dr.  Mosheim's  larger 

8.     Boehmer,  Annot.  ad  Petrum  de  Marca  history  of  the  first  century." 
de  concordia  sacerd.   et  imperii,  p.  143). —         "  The  truth  of  the  matter  is,  that  Christ, 

The  third  opinion  is  that  of  those  who  ac-  by  leaving  this  matter  undetermined,  has,  of 

knowledge,  that  when  the  Christians  began  consequence,  left  Christian  societies  a  dis- 

to  multiply  exceedingly,  metropolitans,  pa-  cretionary  power  of  modelling  the  govern- 

triarchs,  and  archbishops  were  indeed  crea-  ment  of  the  church  in  such  a  manner  as  the 

ted,  but  only  by  human  appointment  and  au-  circumstantial  reasons  of  times,  places,  &c. 

thority  ;  though  they  confess,  at  the  same  may  require  ;  and,  therefore,  the  wisest  gov- 

time,  that  it  is  consonant  to  the  orders  and  ernment  of  the  church  is  the  best  and  the 

intentions  of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  that  most  divine ;   and  every  Christian  society 

there  should  be,  in  every  Christian  church,  has  a  right  to  make  laws  for  itself ;  provided 

one  person  invested  with  the  highest  authori-  that  these  laws  are  consistent  with  charity 

ty,  and  clothed  with  certain  rights  and  privile-  and  peace,  and  with  the  fundamental  doc- 

ges,  above  the  other  doctors  of  that  assembly,  trines    and   principles    of   Christianity." — 

This  opinion  has  been  embraced  by  many  Macl.] 

English  divines  of  the  first  rank  in  the  learn-         (7)  [Eusebius,  (Demonstratio  Evang.,  1. 

ed  world ;  and  also  by  many  in  other  coun-  vii.,  c.  2),  omits  the  deacons,  unless  he  in- 

tries  and  communions.  —  The  f mirth  and  eludes  them  among  the  rulers  ;  for  he  di- 

last  opinion,  is  that  of  the  Presbyterians,  vides  a  church  into  ijyafj.Eva^,  TUOTOVC,  and 

who  affirm  that  Christ's  intention  was,  that  Ka.Tt}xov/j.fvovc,  the  rulers,  the  faithful,  and 

the  Christian  doctors  and  ministers  should  catechumens. — Schl.] 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT.  69 

feasts,  by  their  use  of  the  appellatives  brethren  and  sisters,  and  in  other 
ways.  Nor  in  this  first  age  of  the  church,  was  there  any  distinction  be- 
tween the  initiated  and  the  candidates  for  initiation.  For  whoever  pro- 
fessed to  regard  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  and  to  depend 
on  him  alone  for  salvation,  was  immediately  baptized  and  admitted  into 
the  church.  But  in  process  of  time,  as  the  churches  became  enlarged,  it 
was  deemed  advisable  and  necessary,  to  distribute  the  people  into  two 
classes,  the  faithful  and  the  catechumens.  The  former  were,  such  as  had 
been  solemnly  admitted  into  the  church  by  baptism ;  and  who  might  be 
present  at  all  the  parts  of  religious  worship,  and  enjoy  the  right  of  voting 
in  the  meetings  of  the  church.  The  latter,  not  having  yet  received  bap- 
tism, were  not  admitted  to  the  common  prayers,  nor  to  the  sacred  supper, 
nor  to  the  meetings  of  the  church. 

§  8.  The  rulers  of  the  church  were  denominated,  sometimes  presbyters 
or  elders, — a  designation  borrowed  from  the  Jews,  and  indicative  rather  of 
the  wisdom  than  the  age  of  the  persons  ;  and  sometimes,  also,  bishops ;  for 
it  is  most  manifest,  that  both  terms  are  promiscuously  used  in  the  N.  Tes- 
tament of  one  and  the  same  class  of  persons,  Acts  xx.,  17,  28;  Phil,  i., 
1  ;  Tit.  i.,  5,  7;  1  Tim.  iii.,  1.  These  were  men  of  gravity,  and  distin- 
guished for  their  reputation,  influence,  and  sanctity,  1  Tim.  iii.,  1,  &c.  ; 
Tit.  i.,  5,  &c.  From  the  words  of  St.  Paul,  1  Tim.  v.,  17,  it  has  been  in- 
ferred, that  some  elders  instructed  the  people,  while  others  served  the  church 
in  other  ways.  But  this  distinction  between  teaching  and  ruling  elders,  if 
it  ever  existed,  (which  I  will  neither  affirm  nor  deny),  was  certainly  not  of 
long  continuance ;  for  St.  Paul  makes  it  a  requisite  qualification  of  all 
presbyters  or  bishops,  that  they  be  able  to  teach  and  instruct  others,  1  Tim. 
iii.,  2,  &c.(8) 

§  9.  As  there  were  but  few  among  the  first  professors  of  Christianity,  who 
were  learned  men  and  competent  to  instruct  the  rude  and  uninformed  in 
divine  things,  it  became  necessary  that  God  should  raise  up  in  various 
churches  extraordinary  teachers,  who  could  discourse  to  the  people  on  re- 
ligious subjects  in  their  public  assemblies,  and  address  them  in  the  name 
of  God.  Such  were  the  persons,  who  in  the  New  Testament  are  called 
prophets,  Rom.  xii.,  6  ;  1  Cor.  xii.,  28  ;  xiv.,  3,  29  ;  Ephes.  iv.,  11.  The 
functions  of  these  men  are  limited  too  much,  by  those  who  make  it  to 
have  been  their  sole  business  to  expound  the  Old  Testament  scriptures, 
and  especially  the  prophetic  books. (9)  Whoever  professed  to  be  such  a 
herald  of  God,  was  allowed  publicly  to  address  the  people  ;  but  there  were 
present  among  the  hearers  divinely  constituted  judges,  who  could  by  in- 
fallible criteria,  discriminate  between  true  and  false  prophets.  The  order 
of  prophets  ceased,  when  the  necessity  for  them  was  past. 

$  10.  That  the  church  had  its  public  servants  or  deacons,  from  its  first 
foundation,  there  can  be  no  doubt;  since  no  association  can  exist  without 

(8)  See  concerning  the  word  presbyter,         (9)  [See  Moshcim's   Diss.   de   illis,    qui 

Camp.  Vttringa,  de  S\  na£ro<ra  vetere,  lib.  iii.,  prophetae  vocantur  in  N.  T.,  in  the  2d  vol. 

p.  i.,  cap.  i.,  p.  609,  and  J.  'Bcncd.  C/irpzov,  of  his  Diss.  ad   Hist.   Eccl.  pertinentes,  p. 

Exercit.  in  cpist.  ad  Hebraeos  ex  Philone,  125,   &c. ;   also    Wilsius,    Miscell.   Sacra, 

p.  499.     On  the  thing  itself,  or  rather  the  torn.  i.  ;  Koppe,  Excurs.  iii.  in  Epistolam  ad 

persont  designated  by  this  title,  see  J.  Fr.  Ephes. ;    Schleusner,  Lexicon  in  N.  Test., 

Buddcus,  Ecclesia  Apostol.,  cap.  vi.,  p.  719,  art.  Trpo^r^f,  no.  10,  and  Neandcr's  Gesch. 

and    Chnstoph.  Matt.  Pfaf,  de  Onginibus  der  PHantzung,  tier  christl.  Kirche  durch  die 

Juris  eccles.,  p.  49.  Apostol.,  p.  32,  116.— 2V. J 


70 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


its  servants  ;  and  least  of  all,  can  such  associations  as  the  first  Christian 
churches,  be  without  them.  Those  young  men,  who  carried  out  the  corpses 
of  Ananias  and  his  wife,  were  undoubtedly  the  deacons  of  the  church  at 
Jerusalem,  who  were  attending  on  the  apostles  and  executing  their  com- 
mands, Acts  v.,  6.  lO.(ll)  These  first  deacons  of  that  church  were  cho- 
sen from  among  the  Jewish  Christians  born  in  Palestine  ;  and  as  they  ap- 
peared to  act  with  partiality  in  the  distribution  of  alms  among  the  native 
and  foreign  Jewish  Christians,  seven  other  deacons  were  chosen  by  order 
of  the  apostles,  out  of  that  part  of  the  church  at  Jerusalem  which  was 
composed  of  strangers,  or  Jews  of  foreign  birth,  Acts  vi.,  1,  &c.  Six  of 
these  new  deacons  were  foreign  Jews,  as  appears  from  their  names ;  the 
other  one  was  from  among  the  proselytes ;  for  there  was  a  number  of  pros- 
elytes among  the  first  Christians  of  Jerusalem,  and  it  was  suitable  that  they 
should  be  attended  to  as  well  as  the  foreign  Jews.  The  example  of  the 
church  of  Jerusalem,  was  followed  by  all  the  other  churches,  in  obedience 
to  the  injunctions  of  the  apostles ;  and  of  course,  they  likewise  appointed 
deacons,  1  Tim.  iii.,  8,  9.  There  were  also,  in  many  churches,  and  es- 
pecially in  those  of  Asia,  female  public  servants,  or  deaconesses ;  who  were 
respectable  matrons  or  widows,  appointed  to  take  care  of  the  poor,  and  to 
perform  several  other  offices. (12) 


(11)  Those  who  may  be  surprised,  that.  T 
should  consider  the  young  men  who  interred 
the  bodies  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira,  to  be 
the  deacons  of  the  church  at  Jerusalem,  are 
desired  to  consider,  that  the  words  veurepoi 
and  veavianoi,  young  men,  are  not  always 
indicative  of  age ;  but  often,  both  among 
the  Greeks  and  Latins,  indicate  a  function 
or  office.  For  the  same  change  is  made  in 
these  words  as  in  the  word  presbyter ;  which 
every  one  knows  is  sometimes  indicative  of 
age,  and  sometimes  merely  of  office.  As, 
therefore,  the  word  presbyter  often  denotes 
the  rulers  or  head  men  of  a  society  or  associa- 
tion, without  any  regard  to  their  age  ;  so  also 
the  terms  young  men  and  the  younger,  not 
unfrequently  denote  the  servants  or  those 
that  stand  in  waiting;  because  ordinarily 
men  in  the  vigour  of  life  perform  this  office. 
Nor  is  this  use  of  the  word  foreign  from  the 
N.  Testament.  The  Saviour  himself  seems 
to  use  the  word  vsurepoc.  in  this  sense,  Luke 
xxii.,  26,  6  fj.ei£uv  kv  V/J.LV,  yevea'&a  uc,  6  veu- 
repof.  The  word  [teifav,  he  himself  explains 
by  qyov/nevoc.,  so  that  it  is  equivalent  to  ruler 
or  presbyter :  and  instead  of  veurepoc,  he  in 
the  next  clause  uses  6  diaKOvuv,  which  places 
our  interpretation  beyond  all  controversy. 
So  that  fiei^uv  and  veurepof  are  not,  here,  in- 
dicative of  certain  ages,  but  of  certain  offi- 
ces ;  and  the  precept  of  Christ  amounts  to 
this  :  "  Let  not  him  that  performs  the  office 
of  a  presbyter  or  elder  among  you,  think 
himself  superior  to  the  public  servants  or 
deacons."  Still  more  evident  is  the  pas- 
sage, 1  Peter  v.,  5,  upoiuc.  veurepoi  viroTa- 
irpeopvTEpoif.  It  is  manifest  from 


what  goes  before,  that  presbyter  here  is  in- 
dicative of  rank  or  office,  denoting  teacher 
or  ruler  in  the  church ;  therefore  its  coun- 
terpart, veurspoc,  has  the  same  import ;  and 
does  not  denote  persons  young  in  years,  but 
the  servants  or  deacons  of  the  church.  Pe- 
ter, after  solemnly  exhorting  the  presbyters 
not  to  abuse  the  power  committed  to  them, 
turns  to  the  deacons,  and  says  :  "  And  like- 
wise ye  younger,  i.  e.,  ye  deacons,  despise 
not  the  orders  of  the  presbyters,  but  perform 
cheerfully  whatever  they  require  of  you."  In 
this  same  sense  the  term  is  used  by  Luke, 
Acts  v.,  6,  10,  where  veurepoi  or  veaviaKOi 
are  the  deacons  of  the  church  at  Jerusalem, 
the  very  persons  whom,  a  little  after,  the 
Hellenists  accused  before  the  apostles  of  not 
distributing  properly  the  contributions  for 
the  poor.  I  might  confirm  this  sense  of  the 
term  young  men,  by  numerous  citations  from 
Greek  and  Latin  writers,  both  sacred  and 
profane  ;  but  this  is  not  the  place  for  such 
demonstrations. 

(12)  For  an  account  of  the  deacons  and 
deaconesses  of  the  ancient  churches,  see 
Casp.  Ziegler,  de  diaconis  et  diacoriissis, 
Wittemb.,  1678,  4to.  Sam,.  Basnage,  An- 
nales  polit.  eccles.  ad  ann.  35,  torn,  i.,  p.  450. 
Jo*.  Bingham,  Origincs  Ecclesiast.,  book 
ii.,  ch.  20,  [and  Mosheim,  de  Rebus  Christ, 
ante  Constan.  M.,  p.  118,  &c.,  where  he 
defends,  at  great  length,  his  somewhat  pe- 
culiar views  respecting  the  seven  deacons  of 
the  church  at  Jerusalem.  See,  concerning 
deacons  and  deaconesses,  Neander's  Gesch. 
der  Pflantzung,  p.  26,  27,  29,  &c.,  131.— 
TV.] 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT.  71 

$  11.  In  this  manner,  Christians  managed  ecclesiastical  affairs  so  long 
as  their  congregations  were  small,  or  not  very  numerous.  Three  or  four 
presbyters,  men  of  gravity  and  holiness,  placed  over  those  little  societies, 
could  easily  proceed  with  harmony,  and  needed  no  head  or  president.  But 
when  the  churches  became  larger,  and  the  number  of  presbyters  and  dea- 
cons, as  well  as  the  amount  of  duties  to  be  performed,  was  increased,  it 
became  necessary,  that  the  council  of  presbyters  should  have  a  president, 
a  man  of  distinguished  gravity  and  prudence,  who  should  distribute  among 
his  colleagues  their  several  tasks,  and  be  as  it  were  the  central  point  of  the 
whole  society.  He  was,  at  first,  denominated  the  angel ;  (Apocal.  ii.  arid 
iii.)  (13)  but  afterward  the  bishop ;  a  title  of  Grecian  derivation,  and  indic- 
ative of  his  principal  business.  It  would  seem  that  the  church  of  Jerusa- 
lem, when  grown  very  numerous,  after  the  dispersion  of  the  apostles  among 
foreign  nations,  was  the  first  to  elect  such  a  president ;  and  that  other 
churches,  in  process  of  time,  followed  the  example. (14) 

§  12.  But  whoever  supposes  that  the  bishops  of  this  first  and  golden  age 
of  the  church,  corresponded  with  the  bishops  of  the  following  centuries, 
must  blend  and  confound  characters  that  are  very  different.  For  in  this 
century  and  the  next,  a  bishop  had  charge  of  a  single  church,  which  might 
ordinarily  be  contained  in  a  private  house  ;  nor  was  he  its  lord,  but  was  in 
reality  its  minister  or  servant ;  he  instructed  the  people,  conducted  all  parts 
of  public  worship,  and  attended  on  the  sick  and  necessitous,  in  person  ;  and 
what  he  was  unable  thus  to  perform,  he  committed  to  the  care  of  the  pres- 
byters ;  but  without  power  to  ordain  or  determine  any  thing,  except  with  the 
concurrence  of  the  presbyters  and  the  brotherhood. (15)  The  emoluments 
of  this  singularly  laborious  and  perilous  office,  were  very  small.  For  the 
churches  had  no  revenues,  except  the  voluntary  contributions  of  the  peo- 
ple, or  the  oblations ;  which,  moderate  as  they  doubtless  were,  were  divi- 
ded among  the  bishop,  the  presbyters,  the  deacons,  and  the  poor  of  the 
church. 

$  13.  It  was  not  long,  however,  before  the  extent  of  episcopal  jurisdic- 
tion and  power  was  enlarged.  For  the  bishops  who  lived  in  the  cities, 
either  by  their  own  labours  or  by  those  of  their  presbyters,  gathered  new 
churches  in  the  neighbouring  villages  and  hamlets  ;  and  these  churches 
continuing  under  the  protection  and  care  of  the  bishops  by  whose  ministry 
or  procurement  they  had  received  Christianity,  ecclesiastical  provinces 
were  gradually  formed,  which  the  Greeks  afterward  denominated  dioceses. 
The  persons  to  whom  the  city  bishops  committed  the  government  and  in- 
struction of  these  village  and  rural  churches,  were  called  rural  bishops,  or 
chorepiscopi,  [TT/C  #wpac  STTIGKOTTOI,  episcopi  rurales,se\i  villani],  i.  e.,bish- 

(13)  [The  title  of  angel  occurs  only  in  the  Jerusalem  than  in  any  other  church  during 
Apocalypse,  a  highly  poetic  book.     It  was  the  first  ages,  that  the  church  of  Jerusalem 
not,  probably,  the  common  title  of  the  pre-  must  be  supposed  to  have  had  bishops  car- 
siding  presbyter ;  and,  certainly,  was  not  an  Her  than  any  other.     Such  reasoning  is  by 
dldi-r  title  than  that  of  bishop,  which  is  so  no  means  conclusive. — 7V.] 

often  used  by  St.  Paul  in  his  epistles,  which         (15)  [All   that   is   here    stated,   may  be 

were  written  long   before    the  Apocalypse,  clearly  proved  from  the  records  of  the  first 

See  Schickel' H  note  here. —  7V.]  centuries;    and   has    been   proved  by    Jos. 

(14)  [Dr.  Mtmhfim,  de  Reb.  Christ,  ante  Jiin-Juun,  Ontrines  Ecclesiast.      H 

C.  M.,  p.  134,  has  a  long  note  in  which  he  regc,  Codex  Canon,  primit.  ecclcsiae,  and 
argues  from  the  traditional  accounts  of  a  others. — Mutt/tcim,  de  Reb.  Chr.,  &c.,  p. 
longer  catalogue  of  bishops  in  the  church  of  136. — TV.] 


72      BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 

ops  of  the  suburbs  and  fields.  They  were  an  intermediate  class,  between 
the  bishops  and  the  presbyters  ;  being  inferior  to  the  former,  [because  sub- 
ject to  them],  and  superior  to  the  latter,  [because  intrusted  with  discretion- 
ary and  permanent  power,  and  performing  nearly  all  the  functions  of  bish- 
ops].(16) 

§  14.  All  the  churches,  in  those  primitive  times,  were  independent  bod- 
ies ;  or  none  of  them  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  any  other.  For  though 
the  churches  which  were  founded  by  the  apostles  themselves,  frequently 
had  the  honour  shown  them  to  be  consulted  in  difficult  and  doubtful  cases  ; 
yet  they  had  no  judicial  authority,  no  control,  no  power  of  giving  laws.  On 
the  contrary,  it  is  clear  as  the  noonday,  that  all  Christian  churches  had 
equal  rights,  and  were  in  all  respects  on  a  footing  of  equality.  Nor  does 
there  appear  in  this  first  century,  any  vestige  of  that  consociation  of  the 
churches  of  the  same  province,  which  gave  rise  to  ecclesiastical  councils, 
and  to  metropolitans.  But  rather,  as  is  manifest,  it  was  not  till  the  second 
century,  that  the  custom  of  holding  ecclesiastical  councils  first  began  in 
Greece,  and  thence  extended  into  other  provinces.(17) 

§  15.  Among  the  Christian  doctors  and  ecclesiastical  writers,  the  first 
rank  is  most  clearly  due  to  the  apostles  themselves,  and  to  certain  disciples 
of  the  apostles,  whom  God  moved  to  write  histories  of  the  transactions  of 
Christ  and  his  apostles.  The  writings  of  these  men  are  collected  into 
one  volume,  and  are  in  the  hands  of  all  who  profess  to  be  Christians.  In 
regard  to  the  history  of  these  sacred  books,(18)  and  the  arguments  by 
which  their  divine  authority  and  their  genuineness  are  evinced,(19)  those 
authors  are  to  be  consulted  who  have  written  professedly  on  these  subjects. 

§  16.  As  to  the  time  when  and  the  persons  by  whom  the  books  of  the 
New  Testament  were  collected  into  one  body  or  volume,  there  are  various 
opinions  or  rather  conjectures  of  the  learned  :  for  the  subject  is  attended 
with  great  and  almost  inexplicable  difficulties,  to  us  of  these  latter  times. (20) 
It  must  suffice  us  to  know,  that  before  the  middle  of  the  second  century 

(16)  [Learned  men,   who  have  written     tive   times.     An  ecclesiastical  council  is  a 
largely  on  the  subject,  have  debated  whether    meeting  of  delegates  from  a  number  of  con- 
the  chorepiscopi  ranked  with  bishops  or  with     federate  churches. 

presbyters.     See  J.  Morin,  de  Sacris   ec-  (18)  See,  on  this  subject,  J.  A.  Fabricius, 

cles.  ordinatt.,  pt.  i.,  exerc.  iv.     D.  Blondcl,  Bibliotheca  Graeca,  1.  iv.,  c.  v.,  p.  122-227, 

de  Episc.  et  Presbyt.,   sec.  iii.      W.  Beve-  [and  Jer.  Jones,  Method  of  settling  the  ca- 

rege,  Pandect.  Canon.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  176.      C.  nonical  authority  of  the  N.  T.,  3  vols.  8vo  ; 

Zicglcr,  de  Episcopis,  1.  i.,  c.  13,  p.  105,  &c.  and  the  modern  Introductions  to  the  books 

Peter  de  Marca,  de  Concordia  sacerd.  et  im-  of  the  N.  T.,  in  English,  by  G.  Home,  and 

perii,  1.  ii.,  cap.  13,  14.     Bahmcr,  Adnott.  J.  D.  Michaels,  ed.  Marsh;   and  in  Ger- 

ad  Petrum  de  Marca,  p.  62,  63.     L.  Tho-  man,  by  Hacnlin,  Krug,  Bertholdt,  Eich- 

massin,  Disciplina  eccles.  vet.  et  nova,pt.  i.,  horn,  &c. — TV.] 

1.  ii.,  c.  1,  p.  215. — But  they  did  not  belong  (19)  The  [early]  writers  in  defence  of  the 

entirely  to  either  of  those  orders. — Mosheim,  divine  authority  of  the  N.  T.  are  enumerated 

de  Reb.  Christ,   ante  Const.  M.,  p.  137.]  by  J.  A.  Fabricius,  Delectus  argumentorum 

(17)  It  is  commonly  said,  that  the  meeting  et  Syllabus  Scriptor.  pro  verit.  relig.  Chris- 
of  the  church  in  Jerusalem,  which  is  described  tianae,  cap.  26,  p.  502.     [On  the  subject  it- 
Acts  xv.,  was  the  first  Christian  council,  self,  the  modern  writers  are  numerous,  and 
But  this  is  a  perversion  of  the  import  of  the  generally  known.     Lardncr  and  Palcy  still 
term  council.     For  that  meeting  was  a  con-  hold  the  first  rank  among  the  English. — Tr.] 
ference  of  only  a  single  church,  called  to-  (20)  See  Jo.  Ens,  Biblioth.    Sacra,  seu 
gether  for  deliberation  ;  and,  if  such  meet-  diatriba  de  Libror.  N.  T.  canone,  Amstel., 
ings  may  be  called  ecclesiastical  councils,  a.  1710,   8vo ;   and  Jo.  Mills,  Prolegom.  ad 
multitude  of  them  were  held  in  those  primi-  N.  T.,  sec.  i.,  p.  23,  &c. 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


73 


had  passed,  most  of  the  books  composing  the  New  Testament  were  in 
every  Christian  church  throughout  the  known  world ;  and  they  were  read, 
and  were  regarded  as  the  divine  rule  of  faith  and  practice.  And  hence  it 
may  be  concluded,  that  it  was  while  some  of  the  apostles  were  still  living, 
and  certainly  while  their  disciples  and  immediate  successors  were  every- 
where to  be  met  with,  that  these  books  were  separated  and  distinguished 
from  all  human  compositions. (21)  That  the  four  Gospels  were  combined, 
during  the  lifetime  of  the  apostle  John,  and  that  the  three  first  Gospels 
received  the  approbation  of  this  inspired  man,  we  learn  expressly  from  the 
testimony  of  Eusebius.('22)  And  why  may  we  not  suppose,  that  the  other 
books  of  the  New  Testament  were  collected  into  one  body  at  the  same  time  ? 
§  17.  There  certainly  were  various  causes,  requiring  this  to  be  done  at 
an  early  period  ;  and  particularly  this,  that  not  long  after  the  Saviour's  ascen- 
sion, various  histories  of  his  life  and  doctrines,  full  of  impositions  and  fables, 
were  composed,  by  persons  of  no  bad  intentions  perhaps,  but  who  were 
superstitious,  simple,  and  piously  fraudulent ;  and  afterwards,  various 
other  spurious  writings  were  palmed  upon  the  world,  falsely  inscribed 
with  the  names  of  the  holy  apostles. (23)  These  worthless  productions 


(21)  See  Jo.  Frick,  de  Cura  veteris  ec- 
clesiw  circa  canon.,  cap.  iii.,  p.  86,  &c. 

(22)  Eitseb.,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  iii.,  cap. 
24. 

(23)  Such  as  remain  of  these  spurious 
works,  have  been  carefully  collected  by  J. 
A.  Fabricius,  Codex  Apocryphus  N.  Test., 
2   vols.    12mo,    p.    2006,   Hamb.,  2d  ed., 
1719.     Many  learned  remarks  on  them  oc- 
cur in  Is.   de  Bcausobrc,  Histoire  critique 
des  dogines  de  Manichee,  liv.  ii.,  p.  337, 
&c.     [For  the   information   of  those  who 
have  not  access  to  these  spurious  books,  the 
following  remarks  are  introduced.     No  one 
of  all  the  books  contained  in  the  Codex 
Apocryphus    N.   T.    of   Fabricius,    speaks 
disrespectfully  of  Christ,  of  his  religion,  his 
apostles  and  followers,  or  of  the   canonical 
books  of  the  N.  T.     They  were  evidently 
composed  with  a   design  to   subserve    the 
cause  of  Christianity.     They  aim  to  supply 
deficiencies  in  the  true  Gospels  and  Acts,  or 
to  extend  the  history  by  means  of  oral  tradi- 
tions and  supplementary  accounts,  profess- 
edly composed  by  apostles  or  by  apostolic 
men.     At  least,  this  is  true  of  those  books 
which  bear  the  title  of  Gospels,  Acts,  and 
Epistles.     These  were  all  designed,  either, 
first,   to   gratify  the    laudable  curiosity  of 
Christians,  and  to  subserve   the  cause  of 
piety ;  or,  secondly,  to   put  to  silence  the 
enemies  of    Christianity,  whether  Jews  or 
pagans,  by  demonstrating  from  alleged  facts 
and  testimony,  that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah, 
his  doctrines  divine,  his  apostles  inspired, 
&c.  ;  or,  lastly,  to  display  the  ingenuity  of 
the  writer,  and  to   gratify  the   fancy  by  a 
harmless  fiction.     The  only  parts  of  this  col- 
lection which  do  not  seem  to  me  to  fall  un- 

VOL.  I.— K 


der  one  or  other  of  these  classes,  are  such 
as  by  mistake,  have  been  ascribed  to  the 
apostles  and  evangelists  ;  such  are  the  Lit- 
urgies, the  Creed,  and  the  Canons,  which 
go  under  their  names.  Of  those  which  are 
lost,  no  judgment  can  be  formed  but  by  tes- 
timony. Perhaps  some  of  them  were  com- 
posed with  hostile  views  towards  the  ca- 
nonical scriptures. — The  following  account 
of  the  contents  of  the  Codex  Apocryphus 
N.  T.  may  not  be  unacceptable  or  useless 
to  many.  On  opening  the  first  volume,  we 
meet  with  (1)  "The  Gospel  of  the  Nativity 
of  Mary,"  Latin,  in  10  sections,  p.  19-38. 
— (2)  "  The  Previous  Gospel,  (Protevange- 
lium),  ascribed  to  James  the  Just,  the  broth- 
er of  our  Lord,"  Gr.  and  Lat.,  in  25  sect., 
p.  66-125. — (3)  "The  Gospel  of  the  Infan- 
cy of  Christ,  ascribed  to  Thomas  the  apos- 
tle," Gr.  and  Lat.,  in  7  sect.,  p.  156-167. 
— (4)  "  The  Gospel  of  the  Infancy,  transla- 
ted from  the  Arabic,  by  Henry  Sikes," 
Latin,  in  55  sect.,  p.  168-211.  It  is  the 
aim  of  all  these  to  supply  deficiencies  in  the 
beginning  of  the  true  Gospels,  by  acquaint- 
ing us  more  fully  with  the  history  of  the 
Virgin  Mary,  Joseph,  Eltzabc/h,  &c.,  and 
with  the  birth,  infancy,  and  childhood  of 
Christ.— Next  follow  (5)  "  The  Gospel  of 
1  ;  IKS,"  or,  as  it  is  sometimes  called, 
"  The  Acts  of  Pilate,"  relating  to  the  cruci- 
fixion and  resurrection  of  Christ,  Latin,  in 
27  sect.,  p.  238-298.— (6)  Three  "  Epistles 
of  Pilate  to  Tiberius  the  emperor,"  giving 
account  of  the  condemnation,  death,  and 
resurrection  of  Christ,  Latin,  about  2  pages. 
— (7)  "  The  Epistle  of  Lcntutus  to  the  Ro- 
man senate,"  describing  the  person  and 
manners  of  Christ,  Latin,  one  page. — The 


74 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


would  have  worked  great  confusion,  and  would  have  rendered  both  the 
history  and  the  religion  of  Christ  uncertain,  had  not  the  rulers  of  churches 
seasonably  interposed,  and  caused  the  books  which  were  truly  divine  and 
which  came  from  apostolic  hands,  to  be  speedily  separated  from  that  mass 
of  trash,  and  collected  into  a  volume  by  themselves. 

$  18.  Next  after  the  apostles,  Clement,  the  bishop  of  Rome,  obtained 
very  high  reputation  as  one  of  the  writers  of  this  century.  The  accounts 
we  have  at  this  day  of  his  life,  actions,  and  death,  are,  for  the  most  part, 
uncertain.(24)  There  are  still  extant,  two  epistles  to  the  Corinthians 


three  last,  (No.  5,  6,  7),  were  intended  to 
be  valuable  appendages  to  the  true  Gospels, 
and  to  contain  irrefragable  proofs,  that  Jesus 
was  the  Messiah,  and  clothed  with  divine 
authority. — Then  follow,  the  writings  as- 
cribed to  Christ  himself;  viz.,  his  corre- 
spondence with  Abgarus,  king  of  Edessa  ; 
which  is  to  be  found  in  Eusebius,  Hist.  Ec- 
cles.,  1.  i.,  c.  13,  and  in  various  modern 
works.  These  letters  seem  to  have  higher 
claims  to  authenticity,  than  any  other  pieces 
in  this  collection  ;  and  yet  few,  if  any,  of  the 
judicious,  will  now  admit  them  to  be  genu- 
ine.— Fabricius  next  gives  a  catalogue  of 
about  forty  apocryphal  Gospels,  or  of  all  the 
spurious  Gospels,  of  which  the  slightest  no- 
tice can  be  found  in  antiquity.  These  are 
all,  of  course,  now  lost,  or  buried  in  the  rub- 
bish of  old  libraries,  except  the  few  which 
are  contained  in  the  previous  list. — Vol.  i., 
pt.  ii.,  begins  with  "  The  apocryphal  Acts 
of  the  Apostles,  or  the  history  cf  their  con- 
flicts ;  ascribed  to  Abdias,  the  first  bishop 
of  Babylonia,"  libri  x,  Latin,  p.  402-742. 
This  history  summarily  recounts  what  the 
canonical  books  relate  of  each  of  the  12  apos- 
tles, and  then  follows  them  severally  through 
their  various  travels  and  labours,  till  their 
death  or  martyrdom.  It  was  probably  com- 
piled in  the  middle  ages,  (it  is  first  men- 
tioned by  James,  a  bishop  of  Geneva,  in  the 
13th  century),  and  by  a  monk,  who  was  well 
acquainted  with  the  ancient  legendary  tales, 
and  who  had  good  intentions ;  but  who  never- 
theless was  incompetent  to  distinguish  what 
was  true  from  what  was  false. — Then  fol- 
lows a  catalogue  of  all  the  ancient  biogra- 
phies of  individual  apostles  and  apostolic 
men,  which  Fabricius  could  hear  of;  in  all, 
36  in  number.  Many  of  these  were  profess- 
edly compiled  several  centuries  after  the 
apostles  were  dead,  and  all  of  them  that  still 
remain  are  mere  legends,  of  little  or  no  value. 
Most  of  those  that  have  been  published,  are 
to  be  met  with  in  the  Martyrologies  and  in 
the  Acta  Sanctorum. — Fabricius  next  gives 
us  apocryphal  Epistles,  ascribed  to  the  Vir- 
gin Mary,  to  Paul,  and  to  Peter. — Mary's 
letters  are  but  three,  and  those  very  short. 
One  is  addressed  to  St.  Ignatius,  in  9  lines  ; 


another,  to  the  people  of  Marseilles,  in  11 
lines  ;  and  the  third,  to  the  people  of  Flor- 
ence, in  4  lines.  To  St.  Paul  is  attributed 
a  short  Epistle  to  the  Laodiceans,  Gr.  and 
Lat.  It  is  a  tolerable  compilation  from  his 
genuine  epistles.  Then  follows  a  gentle- 
manly but  vapid  correspondence,  in  Latin ; 
said  to  have  passed  between  St.  Paul  and 
Seneca,  the  Roman  philosopher.  It  com- 
prises 14  short  letters,  full  of  compliments 
and  of  very  little  else. — Paul's  third  Epistle 
to  the  Corinthians  has  not  had  the  honour 
to  be  published. — There  is  one  epistle  of  the 
apostle  Peter,  addressed  to  the  apostle 
James,  still  extant  in  the  Clementina,  or 
spurious  works  of  Clemens  Romanus. — Of 
spurious  Revelations,  Fabricius  enumerates 
twelve ;  most  of  which  are  either  lost,  or 
have  not  been  judged  worth  publishing. 
The  Shepherd  of  Hennas  and  the  ivth  book 
of  Esdras,  are  the  two  best  known,  and  the 
most  valuable. — The  2d  vol.  of  the  Codex 
opens  with  the  ancient  Liturgies,  going  un- 
der the  names  of  the  apostles  and  evangelists. 
They  are  six;  viz.,  those  which  bear  the 
names  of  St.  James,  St.  Peter,  St.  John, 
St.  Matthew,  and  St.  Luke ;  together  with 
a  short  prayer,  ascribed  to  St.  John.  These 
Liturgies,  doubtless,  are  quite  ancient.  We 
may  believe  them  to  have  been  actually  used 
by  different  churches,  which  supposed  they 
were  in  accordance  with  the  instructions  of 
their  favourite  apostles. — To  these  Liturgies 
are  subjoined  nine  Canons  or  ecclesiastical 
laws,  said  to  have  been  adopted  in  a  council 
of  the  apostles,  held  at  Antioch  ;  and  finally, 
the  Apostles'  Creed,  which  many  of  the  an- 
cients supposed,  was  formed  by  the  apostles 
themselves. — The  Appendix  to  the  Codex 
gleans  up  some  fragments  and  additional  no- 
tices of  the  pieces  before  mentioned,  and 
then  closes  with  the  Shepherd  of  Hernias, 
accompanied  with  notes. — TV.] 

(24)  Subsequent  to  Tillcmont,  [Memoires 
pour  servir  a  1'histoire  de  1'Eglise.  torn,  ii., 
pt.  i.,  p.  279],  Cotelier,  [Patres  Apostol.j, 
and  Grabe,  [Spicileg.  patrum,  saec.  i.,p.  264. 
&c.],  Philip  Hiiniliniitns  has  collected  all 
that  is  known  of  this  great  man,  in  the  first 
of  his  two  books,  de  S.  Clemente,  papa  et 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


75 


bearing  his  name,  written  in  Greek  ;  of  these,  it  is  generally  supposed  that 
the  first  is  genuine,  and  that  the  second  is  falsely  palmed  upon  the  holy 
man  by  some  deceiver. (25)  Yet  even  the  first  epistle  seems  to  have  been 
corrupted  by  some  indiscreet  person,  who  was  sorry  to  see  no  more  marks 
of  erudition  and  genius  in  a  production  of  so  great  a  man. (26) 

§.19  The  other  works  which  bear  the  name  of  Clement,  namely,  the 
apostolic  Canons,  the  apostolic  Constitutions,  the  Recognitions  of  Clement, 
and  the  Clementina ;  were  fraudulently  ascribed  to  this  eminent  father,  by 
some  deceiver,  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  them  greater  authority.  This, 
all  now  concede. (27)  The  apostolic  Canons  are  LXXXV  ecclesiastical 
Laws ;  and  they  exhibit  the  principles  of  discipline  received  in  the  Greek 
and  Oriental  churches,  in  the  second  and  third  centuries.  The  VIII 
Books  of  apostolical  Constitutions,  are  the  work  of  some  austere  and 
melancholy  author,  who  designed  to  reform  the  worship  and  discipline  of 
the  church,  which  he  thought  were  fallen  from  their  original  purity  and 
sanctity,  and  who  ventured  to  prefix  the  names  of  the  apostles  to  his  pre- 
cepts and  regulations,  in  order  to  give  them  currency. (28)  The  Recog- 

martyre,  ejusque   Basilica  in    urbe  Roma,     Lond.,  1753,  and  Herm.  Venema  followed, 

in  three  printed  letters,  1754.  Wetstein  re- 
plied to  the  former ;  but  dying  in  March, 
1754,  he  left  the  controversy  with  the  latter 
to  Andrew  Galand.  who  prosecuted  it  in  his 
Bibliotheca  vet.  Patrum,  dissert,  ii.,  cap.  ii.  j 
also  in  Sprenger's  Thesaurus  rei  Patrist., 
torn,  i.,  p.  60,  &c.  These  epistles  are  not 
mentioned  by  any  writer  till  near  the  end 
of  the  fourth  century.  They  were  probably 
composed  in  the  Oriental  church,  at  the 
close  of  the  second  century,  or  in  the  third  ; 
and  for  the  double  purpose  of  recommending 
celibacy,  and  reprehending  the  abuses  of  such 


Rome,  1706, 4to.  [See  also  .Sewers' Lives 
of  the  Popes,  vol.  i.,  p.  14-20,  ed.  2d. 
Clemens  was,  perhaps,  the  person  mention- 
ed by  Paul,  Philip,  iv.,  3.  He  was  one  of 
the  most  distinguished  Roman  Christians, 
became  bishop  of  Rome  towards  the  close 
of  the  century,  and  is  said  to  have  lived  till 
the  third  year  of  Trajan's  reign,  or  about 
A.D.  100.— 7V.] 

(25)  The  editions  of  ClemenCs  epistles  to 
the  Corinthians  are  mentioned  by  J.  A.  Fa- 
bricius,  Biblioth.  Graeca,  lib.  iv.,  c.  5,  p.  175, 
&c.,  to  which  must  be  added  the  edition  of 
Hen.  Wotton,  Cantab.,  1718.  8vo,  which  is 
preferable  to  the  preceding  editions,  in  many 
respects.      [The   English  reader  may  find 
them  both,  together  with  some  account  of 
this  author,  in  Abp.  Wake's  genuine  epistles 
of  the  Apostolical  Fathers,  translated,  &c. 
An  ample  account  of  them  is  given  by  N. 
Lardner,  Credibility  of  the  Gospel  History, 
pt.  ii.,  vol.  i.,  p.  283,  ed.  Lond.,  1815.— TV.] 

(26)  See  J.  B.  Cotclicr,  Patres  Apostolici, 
torn,  i.,  p.   133,  134,  and  Edw.  Bcrnhard, 
Adnotatiunculae  ad  Clementem,  in  the  last 
edition  of  the  Patres  Apostol.,  by  J.  le  Clerc. 
These  annotations  H.   Wotton  has  in  vain 
attempted  to  confute   in  his  notes  on  the 
epistle  of  Clement. — [Besides  the  two  epis- 


a  life.    See  A.  Nca.nder's  Kirchengeschichte, 
vol.  i.,  pt.  iii.,  p.  1103,  &c.— TV.] 

(27)  For  the  history  and  various  editions 
of  these  works,  see  Thorn.  Ittig,  Diss.  de 
Patribus  Apostol.,  prefixed  to  his  Bibliothe- 
ca Patrum  Apostol.,  and  his  Diss.  de  Pseud- 
epigraphis  Apostol.,  annexed  to  his  Appendix 
ad  Librum  de  Haeresiarchis  aevi  Apostol.  ; 
also  J.  A.  Fabricius,  Biblioth.  Graeca,  1.  v., 
cap.  i.,  p.  31,  &c. ;  and  1.  vi.,cap.  i.,p.  4,  &c. 
[The  best  edition  is  that  of  Cotelicr,  repub- 
lished  by  Le  Clerc,  2  vols.  fol.,  Amstel., 
1724.—  Tr.\ 

(28)  The  various  opinions  of  the  learned 
respecting  the  apostolic  canons  and  constitu- 
tions, are  collected  by  J.  F.  Buddcus,  Isag- 


tlcs  to  the  Corinthians,  there  are  extant,  in     oge  in  Theologiam,  pt.  ii.,  cap.  v.,  p   746. 


Syriac,  two  other  epistles  ascribed  to  Clem- 
ent, entitled  de  Virginitate,  seu  ad  Virgines. 
They  were  first  brought  to  Europe  by  Sir 
James  Porter,  British  ambassador  at  Con- 
stantinople ;  and  were  published,  with  a  Lat- 
in translation  accompanying  the  Syriac  text, 
by  J.  J.  Wetstein,  at  the  end  of  the  2d  vol. 
of  his  very  learned  Gr.  N.  Testament,  Lugd. 
Bat.,  1752.  Dr.  N.  Lardner  assailed  their 
genuineness  iu  a  Diss.  of  60  pages,  8vd, 


[Sir  Up.  Beoeregc,  Notes  on  these  Canons, 
and  his  Codex  Canonum  eccles.  prim,  vin- 
dic.  et  illustratus,  Lond.,  1678,  4to. — The 
canons  themselves  make  a  part  of  the  Cor- 
pus Juris  Canonici,  and  are  also  inserted  in 
Binnis'  and  other  large  histories  of  the  coun- 
cils. They  are  valuable  documents  respect- 
ing the  order  and  discipline  of  the  church, 
about  the  third  century.  The  apostolic  con- 
stitutions seem  to  have  undergone  changes 


76 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.—CHAP.  II. 


nitions  of  Clement,  which  differ  but  little  from  the  Clementina,  are  ingeni- 
ous and  pretty  fables  ;  composed  by  some  Alexandrine  Jewish  Christian 
and  philosopher,  of  the  third  century,  to  meet  the  attacks  of  the  Jews, 
Gnostics,  and  philosophers  upon  the  Christian  religion,  in  a  new  manner. 
A  careful  perusal  of  them,  will  assist  a  person  much,  in  gaining  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  state  of  the  ancient  Christian  church. (29) 

$  20.  The  Apostolic  Fathers  as  they  are  called,  are  those  Christian 
writers  who  were  conversant  either  with  the  apostles  themselves,  or  with 
their  immediate  disciples.  Among  these,  the  next  after  Clement  was 
Ignatius,  bishop  of  Antioch,  a  disciple  and  companion  of  the  apostles. 
He  suffered  martyrdom  under  Trajan ;  being  exposed  to  wild  beasts,  in 
the  theatre  at  Rome. (30)  There  are  extant  several  epistles  bearing  his 
name  ;  and  concerning  which  the  learned  have  had  long  and  sharp  con- 
tests. The  seven,  written  while  he  was  on  his  way  to  Rome,  as  published 
A.D.  1646,  by  J.  Vossius,  from  a  Florentine  MS.,  are  by  most  writers 
accounted  genuine ;  but  the  others  are  generally  rejected  as  forgeries. 
To  this  opinion  I  cheerfully  accede ;  and  yet  I  must  acknowledge,  that 
the  genuineness  of  the  epistle  to  Polycarp,  on  account  of  its  difference  in 
style,  appears  to  me  very  dubious  ;  and  indeed  the  whole  subject  of  the  Ig- 
natian  epistles  in  general,  is  involved  in  much  obscurity  and  perplexity. (31) 


since  their  first  formation,  and  probably  by 
Arian  hands  in  the  fourth  century.  They 
are  voluminous  and  minute  regulations,  re- 
specting ecclesiastical  discipline  and  wor- 
ship. They  are  of  considerable  use  in  de- 
termining various  points  of  practice  in  the 
church,  during  the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth 
centuries. — Tr.] 

(29)  See  Mosheim's  Diss.  de  turbata  per 
recentiores  Platonicos  ecclesia,  in  the  first 
vol.  of  his  Dissertt.  ad  Historiam  Eccl. 
pertinentes,  §  34,  p.  174,  &c.  [The  Apos- 
tolic Canons  and  Constitutions  were  ascribed 
to  Clement  as  the  collector  and  publisher 
only.  The  Recognitions,  Clementina,  &c., 
are  ascribed  to  him  as  the  author. — The 
writings  belonging  to  this  latter  class,  are 
three  different  works  on  the  same  subject, 
and  written  after  the  same  general  plan. 
They  all,  doubtless,  had  one  and  the  same 
author,  who  rewrote  his  own  work,  for  the 
sake  of  giving  it  a  better  form.  The  sub- 
stance of  them  all,  is,  Clement's  history  of 
his  own  dissatisfaction  with  paganism ;  his 
first  and  slight  knowledge  of  Christianity, 
which  induced  him  to  journey  from  Rome 
to  Palestine ;  there  he  met  with  Peter,  and 
for  some  time  resided  and  travelled  with 
him,  heard  his  public  discourses,  and  wit- 
nessed his  combats,  particularly  with  Simon 
Magus;  and  in  private  conversations  with 
the  apostles,  everything  pertaining  not  only 
to  Christianity,  but  to  cosmogony,  physics, 
pneumatology,  &c.,  was  fully  explained  to 
him.  The  three  works  often  relate  precisely 
the  same  things,  and  in  the  same  words ; 
but  they  not  unfrequently  differ  in  the  fulness 


of  the  details,  and  in  many  of  the  minor  points 
both  of  doctrine  and  of  fact.  The  first  is  en- 
titled Sti  dementis  Romani  Recognitiones. 
The  original  is  lost ;  so  that  we  have  only 
the  Latin  translation  of  Rufinus.  It  is  di- 
vided into  10  books,  and  fills  111  large  folio 
pages.  The  second  is  the  Clementina,  (ra 
Khr/pevTiva),  first  published  Gr.  and  Lat.  by 
Cotclier,  in  146  folio  pages.  It  commences 
with  an  epistle  of  Peter,  and  another  of 
Clement,  addressed  to  the  apostle  James. 
The  body  of  the  work,  instead  of  being  di- 
vided into  books  and  chapters  like  the  Rec- 
ognitions, is  thrown  into  19  discourses  or 
homilies,  (6fj.Mai),  as  delivered  by  Peter, 
but  committed  to  writing  by  Clement.  The 
third  is  the  Clementine  Epitome,  or  abridged 
account  of  the  acts,  travels,  and  discourses 
of  Peter,  together  with  the  epistle  of  Clement 
to  James,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  52  p.  fol.  This  is, 
as  its  title  implies,  a  mere  abridgment  of  the 
two  preceding  works. — Tr.] 

(30)  See   Seb.  de   Tillemont,   Memoires 
pour  servir  a  1'histoire  de  1'Eglise,  torn,  ii., 
pt.  ii.,  p.  42-80. 

(31)  In  regard  to  these  epistles,  consult 
J.  A.  Fabricius,  Biblioth.  Graeca,  lib.    v, 
cap.  i.,  p.  38-47.     [Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccl., 
iii.,  36,  makes  very  honourable  mention  of 
Ignatius  and  his  epistles  ;  and  describes  his 
conduct  while  on  his  way  to  Rome  the  place 
of  his  martyrdom.     The  account  of  his  mar- 
tyrdom, which  is  printed  along  with  his  epis- 
tles, gives  a  still  fuller  account  of  this  emi- 
nent  father.     It  is  clear  that  he  suffered 
death  in  the  reign  of  Trajan  ;  but  whether 
A.D.  107  or  116  is  uncertain.     Rome  was 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


77 


§  21.  Polycarp,  bishop  of  Smyrna,  suffered  martyrdom  at  an  extreme 
age,  in  the  middle  of  the  second  century.  The  epistle  addressed  to  the 
Philippians,  which  is  ascribed  to  him,  is  by  some  accounted  genuine,  and 
by  others  spurious :  which  of  these  are  in  the  right,  it  is  difficult  to  deter- 
mine.(32)  The  Epistle  of  Barnabas  as  it  is  called,  was,  in  my  judgment, 
the  production  of  some  Jewish  Christian  who  lived  in  this  century,  [or  the 
next],  who  had  no  bad  intentions,  but  possessed  little  genius  and  was  in- 
fected with  the  fabulous  opinions  of  the  Jews.  He  was  clearly  a  dif- 
ferent person  from  Barnabas,  the  companion  of  St.  Paw/.  (33)  The  book 
entitled  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas,  (so  called,  because  an  angel,  in  the  form 
and  habit  of  a  shepherd,  is  the  leading  character  in  the  drama),  was  com- 
posed in  the  second  century  by  Hermas,  the  brother  of  Pius  the  Roman 
bishop. (34)  The  writer,  if  he  was  indeed  sane,  deemed  it  proper  to  forge 
the  place  of  his  martyrdom,  and  wild  beasts  minibus  circumferuntur,  Genevae,  1666, 4to. 


his  executioners.  On  his  way  from  Antioch, 
he  was  enraptured  with  his  prospect  of  dying 
a  martyr,  and  wrote,  probably,  all  his  epistles. 
Eusebius  says  :  "  He  confirmed  the  churches 
in  every  city  through  which  he  passed,  by 
discourses  and  exhortations  ;  warning  them 
most  especially,  to  take  heed  of  the  heresies, 
which  then  first  sprung  up  and  increased." 
— From  Smyrna,  (according  to  Eusebius), 
he  wrote  four  of  his  epistles ;  viz.,  to  the 
churches  of  Ephesus,  Magnesia,  Trallis,  and 
Rome.  The  last  of  these  was,  to  entreat  the 
Roman  Christians  not  to  interpose  and  pre- 
vent his  martyrdom.  From  Troas  he  wrote 
three  other  epistles;  viz.,  to  the  churches 
of  Philadelphia  and  of  Smyrna,  and  to  his 
friend  Polycarp.  Of  these  seven  epistles, 
there  are  duplicate  copies  still  extant ;  that 
is,  copies  of  a  larger  and  of  a  smaller  size. 
The  latter  are  those  which  many  suppose  to 
be  genuine.  Besides  these,  there  are  extant 
five  other  Greek  epistles,  and  as  many  more 
in  Latin ;  which  are  now  universally  re- 
jected :  viz.,  ad  Mariam  Cassibolitam,  ad 
Tar  senses,  ad  Antiochenos,  ad  Hcroncm 
Antiochenum  Diaconem,  ad  Phillipcnses ; 
also,  in  Latin,  one  from  the  Virgin  Mary  to 


But  each  of  these  is  supported  by  a  host  of 
able  polemics.  The  truth  is,  that  the  exter- 
nal evidence,  or  that  from  ancient  testimony, 
makes  much  for  the  genuineness  of  these 
epistles,  though  equally  for  the  larger  as  for 
the  smaller.  The  internal  evidence  is  di- 
vided ;  and,  of  course,  affords  ground  for 
arguments  on  both  sides.  Moderate  men 
of  various  sects,  and  especially  Lutherans, 
are  disposed  to  admit  the  genuineness  of  the 
epistles  in  their  shorter  form  ;  but  to  regard 
them  as  interpolated  and  altered.  An  Eng- 
lish translation  of  them  and  of  the  martyr- 
dom of  Ignatius,  may  be  seen  in  Archbishop 
Wake's  genuine  Epistles  of  the  Apostolic 
Fathers.— TV.] 

(32)  Concerning  Polycarp  and  his  epistle, 
see  Tillemont,  Memoires  pour  servir  a  1'His- 
toire  de  1'Eglise,  torn,  ii.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  287,  and 
J.  A.  Fabricius,  Biblioth.  Gr.,  lib.  v.,  cap.  i., 
p.  47.  [Also  W.  Cave,  Life  of  Polycarp, 
in  his  Apostolici,  or,  Lives  of  the  Primitive 
Fathers,  Lond.,  1677,  fol.  The  epistle  of 
Polycarp,  (the  genuineness  of  which,  if  not 
certain,  is  highly  probable),  and  the  epistle 
of  the  church  of  Smyrna,  concerning-  the 
martyrdom  of  Polycarp,  (which  few  if  any 


Ignatius,  and  his  reply  ;  two  from  Ignatius  now  call  in  question),  are  given  in  English, 

to  St.  John  ;  and  one  of  Maria  Cassibolita  in  Arch.  Wake's  Genuine  epistles,  &c.     See 

to  Ignatius. — It  is  the  singular  fortune  of  J.  E.  C.  Schmidt,  Handbuch  der  Kircheng. 

the  seven  first  epistles  of  Ignatius  to  have  Giessen,  1824,  vol.  i.,  p.  128,  424. —  TV.] 
become  the  subject  of  sectarian  controversy        (33)  Concerning  Barnabas,  see  Tillemont, 

among  Protestants.     In  these  epistles,  the  Memoires,  <kc.,  tome  i.,  pt.  iii.,  p.   1043. 

dignity  and  authority  of  bishops  are  exalted  Thorn.  Ittig,  Selecta  historiae  eccles.  capita, 

higher  than  in  any  other  writings  of  this  age.  sec.  i.,  cap.  i.,  <J  14,  p.  20,  and  J.  A.  Fabri- 

Hence,  the  strenuous  advocates  for  the  apos-  ciu-s,  Biblioth.  Gr.,  lib.  iv.,  cap.  v.,  $  14,  p. 

tolic  origjn  of  episcopacy,  prize  and  defend  173,  and  lib.  v.,jcap.  i.,  $  4,  p.  3,  and  va- 
these   epistles  with   no   ordinary   interest ; 
while  the  reformed  divines,  and  especially 
those  of  Holland,  France,  and  Switzerland, 
assail  them  with  equal  ardour.     The  most 


prominent  champions  are  Bishop  Pearson,  in 
his  Vindicia  epistolarum   Ignatii,  Cantabr, 


rious  others.  [This  ancient  monument  of 
the  Christian  church,  is  likewise  translated 
by  Archbishop  Wake,  Genuine  Epistles.  &c. 
Its  possible  genuineness  is  maintained  by  J. 
E.  C.  Schmidt,  ubi  sup.,  vol.  i.,  p.  416,  &c. 
— but  is  confuted  by  A.  Ncnnder,  Kirehen- 


1672,  4to,  and  John  Dailli,  de  Scriptis  quae    gesch.,  vol.  i.,  pt.  iii.,  p.  1100,  &c. —  TV.] 
sub  Dionysii  Areop.  et  Ignatii  Antioch.  no-         (34)  This  is  now  manifest  from  the  very 


78      BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 

dialogues  held  with  God  and  angels,  in  order  to  insinuate  what  he  re- 
garded as  salutary  truths,  more  effectually  into  the  minds  of  his  readers. 
But  his  celestial  spirits  talk  more  insipidly,  than  our  scavengers  and  por- 
ters.(35) 

§  22.  All  these  writers  of  this  first  and  infantile  age  of  the  church,  pos- 
sessed little  learning,  genius,  or  eloquence ;  but  in  their  simple  and  un- 
polished manner  they  express  elevated  piety. (36)  And  this  is  honourable 
rather  than  reproachful  to  the  Christian  cause.  For,  that  a  large  part  of 
the  human  race  should  have  been  converted  to  Christ  by  illiterate  and  im- 
becile men,  shows  that  the  propagation  of  Christianity  must  be  ascribed, 
not  to  human  abilities  and  eloquence,  but  to  a  divine  power. 


CHAPTER  III. 

"HISTORY    OF    THE    CHRISTIAN   DOCTRINES    AND   RELIGION. 

$  1.  The  Nature  and  the  Standard  of  the  Christian  Religion. — $  2.  Interpretation  of  the 
Scriptures. —  §  3.  Mode  of  teaching  Christianity. — $  4.  The  Apostles'  Creed. — $  5. 
Distinction  between  Catechumens  and  the  Faithful. — §  6.  Mode  of  instructing  Cate- 
chumens.—-§  7.  Instruction  of  Children ;  Schools  and  Academies. — t)  8.  Secret  Doc- 
trine.— f)  9.  Lives  and  Characters  of  Christians. — t)  10.  Excommunication. — t)  11. 
Controversies  among  Christians. — §  12.  Contest  about  the  Terms  of  Salvation. — <j  13. 
Judaizing  Christians. 

§  1.  THE  whole  of  the  Christian  religion  is  comprehended  in  two  parts  ; 
the  one  of  which  teaches  what  we  are  to  believe,  in  regard  to  religious  sub- 
jects ;  and  the  other,  how  we  ought  to  live.  The  former  is,  by  the  apos- 
tles, denominated  the  mystery  (juv^r/piov),  or  the  truth  (akrf&eia) ;  and  the 

ancient  Fragment  of  a  Treatise  on  the  Can-  (36)  The  writers  above  named  are  denom- 
on  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  published  a  few  inated  the  Apostolic  Fathers ;  and  they  are 
years  ago  by  Lud.  Antony  Muratori,  (from  often  published  together.  The  best  editions 
an  ancient  MS.  found  at  Milan),  in  his  an-  are  by  J.  Bapt.  Cotelicr,  Paris,  1672,  re- 
tiq.  Italicar.  medii.  aevi,  torn.  iii.,Diss  xliii.,  edited  by  J.  le  Clerc,  Antw.,  1698,  and 
p.  853,  &c.  [But  the  genuineness  and  au-  again  at  Amsterd.,  1724,  2  vols.  fol.,  with 
thority  of  this  treatise  itself,  are  now  very  numerous  notes  by  both  the  editors  and  by 
much  questioned  by  the  learned  ;  so  that  the  others.  [This  last  and  best  edition,  Gr.  and 
true  author  of  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas  is  Lat.,  contahis  all  that  has  been  ascribed  to 
still  \mknown. — IV.]  the  Apostolic  Fathers,  whether  truly  or  false- 
(35)  For  the  best  edition  of  Hermas  we  ly.  The  portions  which  Archbishop  Wake 
are  indebted  to  /.  A.  Fabricius,  who  sub-  regarded  as  genuine,  he  translated  and  pub- 
joined  it  to  the  third  vol.  of  his  Codex  Apoc-  lished  with  a  preliminary  discourse  of  136 
ryph.  N.  T.  He  also  treats  of  this  writer  in  pages,  2d  ed.  Lond.,  1710,  8vo  — The  value 
his  Biblioth.  Graeca,  1.  v.,  cap.  ix.,  $  9,  p.  of  the  genuine  works  of  these  fathers,  is  to 
7.  See  also  Tho.  Ittig,  de  Patribus  Apos-  learned  theology  very  small ;  but  as  affording 
tolicis,  ()  55,  p.  184,  &c.  [and  in  his  Selecta  us  acquaintance  with  the  true  spirit  and  sen- 
historiae  eccles.  capita,  $  1,  p.  65,  and  155-  timents  and  reasonings  of  Christians  in  the 
179.  The  Shepherd  of  Hermas  is  translated  very  first  ages  after  the  apostles,  they  are  of 
by  Archbish.  Wake,  Genuine  Epistles,  &c.,  inestimable  value. — If  any  one  wishes  to 
and  though  wild  and  fanciful,  yet,  from  the  know  what  was  the  simplicity  and  godly 
pious  spirit  which  it  breathes,  and  the  insight  sincerity  of  that  first  and  infantile  age  of  the 
it  gives  us  into  the  speculations  of  the  early  church,  let  him  read  the  Apostolic  Fathers. 
Christians,  it  is  not  a  useless  book. — TV.]  — Tr.] 


THEOLOGY  AND  RELIGION.  79 

latter  godliness  or  piety  (evoe6eta);  1  Timothy  iii.,  9;  vi.,  3;  Titus  i.,  1. 
The  rule  and  standard  of  both,  are  those  books  which  God  dictated  to  cer- 
tain individuals,  either  before  or  after  the  birth  of  Christ.  These  books  it 
has  long  been  the  custom  to  denominate  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments. 

§  2.  Provision  therefore  was  early  made,  both  by  the  apostles  and  their 
disciples,  that  these  books  should  be  in  the  hands  of  all  Christians  ;  that 
they  should  be  publicly  read  in  their  assemblies  ;  and  be  applied  both  to 
enlighten  their  minds  with  truth,  and  to  advance  them  in  piety.  Those 
who  expounded  the  Scriptures,  studied  simplicity  and  plainness.  Yet  it  is 
not  to  be  denied,  that  even  in  this  century  the  perverse  Jewish  custom  of 
obscuring  the  plain  language  of  Scripture  by  forced  and  frigid  allegories, 
and  of  diverting  words  from  their  natural  and  proper  meaning  in  order  to 
extort  from  them  some  recondite  sense,  found  some  admirers  and  imitators 
among  Christians.  Besides  others,  Barnabas,  whose  epistle  is  still  extant, 
is  proof  of  this. 

§  3.  The  manner  of  teaching  religious  truths  was  perfectly  simple,  and 
remote  from  all  the  rules  of  the  philosophers,  and  all  the  precepts  of  human 
art.  This  is  manifest,  not  only  from  the  epistles  of  the  apostles,  but  from 
all  the  monuments  of  this  century  which  have  come  down  to  us.  Nor  did 
any  apostle  or  any  one  of  their  immediate  disciples,  collect  and  arrange 
the  principal  doctrines  of  Christianity  in  a  scientific  or  regular  system. 
The  circumstances  of  the  times  did  not  require  this  ;  and  the  followers  of 
Christ  were  more  solicitous  to  exhibit  the  religion  they  had  embraced,  by 
their  tempers  and  their  conduct,  than  to  explain  its  principles  scientifically, 
and  arrange  them  according  to  the  precepts  of  art. 

§  4.  There  is  indeed  extant,  a  brief  summary  of  Christian  doctrines, 
which  is  called  the  Apostles1  Creed;  and  which,  from  the  fourth  century 
onward,  was  attributed  to  Christ's  ambassadors  themselves.  But  at  this 
day,  all  who  have  any  knowledge  of  antiquity,  confess  unanimously  that 
this  opinion  is  a  mistake,  and  has  no  foundation.(l)  Those  judge  far  more 
wisely  and  rationally,  who  think  that  this  creed  arose  from  small  begin- 
nings, and  was  gradually  enlarged  as  occasions  required  in  order  to  ex- 
clude new  errors  from  the  church.(2) 

(1)  See  J.  Fr.  Bitddcus,  Isagoge  ad  The-     rial  change  ;  as  appears  from  comparing  the 
ologiam,  1.  ii.,  c.  ii.,  §  2,  p.  441,  and  J.  G.     formulas  of  faith  given  by  Irentens,  A.D. 

.  Introduct.  in  libros  symbolicos,  1.  i.,  175,  (adv.   Ha?r.  i.,  10,  and  iii.,  4),  and  by 

cap.  ii.,  p.  87,  &c.  Terlullian,  A.D.   192,  (de  Virgin,  veland., 

(2)  This  is  shown,  with  no  less  learning  cap.  i. — contra   Praxeam,   cap.    ii. — Pres- 
than  ingenuity,  by  Peter  King,  History  of  criptt.  adv.  Haeret., cap.  xiii.),  with  the  forms 
the    Apostles'  Creed  ;  which    G.  Olearius  of  the  Creed  in  all  subsequent  writers  down 
translated  into  Latin,  and  published,  Lips.,  to  the  present  time.     See  these  forms  col- 
1704,  8vo.     But  those  who  read  this  book  lectedby  C.  G.  F.  Walch,  in  his  Bibliotheca 
should  be  apprized,  that  the   noble  author  symbolica  vetus,  Lemgo,  1770,  8vo.     Yet 
often  gives  us  conjectures  instead  of  argu-  there  were  some  variations  in  its  form,  as 
ments  ;  and  that  his  conjectures  do  not  al-  used  by  different  churches ;   and  additions 
ways  deserve  to  be  implicitly  received. — [A I-  were  made  to  it  from  time  to  time. — Besides 
though  the  Apostles'  Creed  was  not  compo-  serving  as  the  general  test  of  Christian  ortho- 
sed  in  a  council  of  apostles,  as  was  supposed  doxy,  the  principal  use  of  this  creed,  in  the 
in  the  days  of  Rufamx  (Ruf.  de  Symbola;  third  and  following  centuries,  was  to  guide 
subjoined  to  Cypriani  Opera),  yet  it  appears  catechists  in  training  and    instructing  the 
to  have  been  the  general  Creed  of  the  Chris~  catechumens  in  the  principles  of  Christian- 
a/arc Chuirh,  from,  at  least,  the  close  of  the  ity.     See  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  (Catechesis, 
second  century  down  to    the  reformation,  passim),  Ri< fonts,  (de  Symbola),  and. lupus- 
Nor  did  it  undergo  any  very  great  or  mate-  tine,  (Sermo  i.,  ad  Catechum.,  Opp.,  torn. 


80 


BOOK  L— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 


§  5.  At  the  first  promulgation  of  the  gospel,  all  who  professed  firmly  to 
believe  that  Jesus  was  the  only  redeemer  of  mankind,  and  who  promised 
to  lead  a  holy  life  conformable  to  the  religion  he  taught,  were  received 
immediately  among  the  disciples  of  Christ :  nor  did  a  more  full  instruction 
in  the  principles  of  Christianity  precede  their  baptism,  but  followed  after  it. 
But  afterwards,  when  churches  were  everywhere  established  and  organized, 
for  very  just  reasons  this  custom  was  changed ;  and  none  were  admitted 
to  the  sacred  font  unless  previously  well  instructed  in  the  primary  truths 
of  religion,  and  affording  indubitable  evidence  of  a  sincere  and  holy  char- 
acter. And  hence  arose  the  distinction  between  catechumens,  or  such  as 
were  in  a  course  of  instruction  and  discipline  under  the  care  of  certain 
persons,  and  the  faithful,  who  were  admitted  to  all  the  mysteries,  having 
been  initiated  and  consecrated  by  baptism. (3) 

§  6.  The  instruction  given  to  the  catechumens  was  different,  according 
to  their  genius  and  capacity.  For  those  of  feeble  minds  were  instructed 
only  in  the  more  general  and  fundamental  principles  of  religion ;  while 
those  who  appeared  capable  of  grasping  and  comprehending  all  Christian 
knowledge,  were  instructed  in  every  thing  that  could  render  a  Christian  sta- 
ble and  perfect  according  to  the  views  of  that  age.  The  business  of  in- 


vi.,  p.  399-405,  ed.  Benedict). — It  is  a  most 
valuable  monument  of  the  church  ;  because 
it  shows  what  in  the  early  ages  were  consid- 
ered as  the  great,  the  peculiar,  and  the  es- 
sential doctrines  of  the  gospel  ;  viz.,  those 
all  important  facts  which  are  summarily  re- 
counted in  this  creed.  The  common  form 
of  it  in  the  fourth  century,  as  used  in  most 
churches  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  ex- 
cept some  slight  verbal  discrepances,  was 
the  following. 

In  Greek.  Tit^evu  etf  deov  (iraTcpa) 
ffavTOKpaTOpa.  nai  e.iq  %pi?ov  lijattv,  viov 
avra  TOV  [iovoyevq  (fj.ovo-ysvvr]TOv),  TOV  KV- 
piov  7/uuv,  rov  yevvrj&evTa  EK  Trvciy/arof 
dyia  K.O.I  Moptaf  TTI$  irapdevts,  TOV  e?u  liov- 
rta  HihaTit  faupotfevra,  (nai)  ra^cvra, 
(/cat)  ri)  rpiry  rjfiepa  ava^avra  EK.  (TUV)  VEK- 
puv,  avaGavra  eif  TUf  upavtic.,  (/cat)  na&ri/uE- 
vov  ev  Se^ty.  TU  irarpof,  6$ev  spheral  Kpcvat 
(Kpiveiv)  Cwvraf  /cat  vt/cpsc.  /cat  etf  (TO)  dy- 
tov  TTVEV/J.U,  dyiav  EKKhr/aiav,  a<j>eaiv  dfiap- 
TIUV,  aapKO?  ava?aaiv. 

In  Latin.  Credo  in  Deum  Patrem  om- 
nipotentem.  Et  in  Christum  Jesum,  uni- 
cum  filium  ejus,  Dominum  nostrum :  qui 
natus  est  de  Spiritu  Sancto  ex  Maria  vir- 
gine  ;  crucifixus  sub  Pontio  Pilato,  et  sepul- 
tus.  Tertia  die  resurrexit  a  mortuis  ;  as- 
cendit  in  ccelos,  sedet  ad  dextram  Patris ; 
inde  venturus  est  judicare  vivos  et  mortuos. 
Et  in  Spiritum  Sanctum  :  sanctam  ecclesi- 
am ;  remissionem  peccatorum,  carnis  resur- 
rectionem. 

In  English.  I  believe  in  God,  the  Fa- 
ther, almighty  ;  and  in  Jesus  Christ,  his 
only  begotten  son,  our  Lord,  who  was  born 
of  the  Virgin  Mary  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  was 


crucified  vmder  Pontius  Pilate,  buried,  arose 
from  the  dead  on  the  third  day,  ascended 
to  the  heavens,  and  sits  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  Father ;  whence  he  will  come,  to  judge 
the  living  and  the  dead ;  and  in  the  Holy 
Spirit ;  the  holy  church  ;  the  remission  of 
sins  ;  and  the  resurrection  of  the  body. 

A  few  centuries  later,  it  attained  in  the 
Romish  church  its  ampler  form,  in  which  it 
has  since  been  adopted  by  most  Protestant 
churches  :  as  follows.  "  I  believe  in  God, 
the  Father,  almighty,  maker  of  heaven  and 
earth  :  and  in  Jesus  Christ,  his  only  son,  our 
Lord ;  who  was  conceived  by  the  Holy- 
Ghost,  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  suffered 
under  Pontius  Pilate,  was  crucified,  dead, 
and  buried,  he  descended  into  hell,  the  third 
day  he  arose  again  from  the  dead,  ascended 
into  heaven,  and  sitteth  on  the  right  hand  of 
God,  the  Father,  almighty  ;  from  thence  he 
shall  come  to  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead. 
I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  holy  cath- 
olic church,  the  communion  of  saints,  the 
forgiveness  of  sins,  the  resurrection  of  the 
body,  and  the  life  everlasting.  Amen." 

Besides  those  mentioned  by  Mosheim,  the 
principal  writers  on  this  Creed,  are  Cyril, 
Rufinus,  and  Augustine,  as  above  ;  and  G. 
J.  Vossius,  (de  Tribus  Symbolis,  Opp., 
torn,  vi.,  p.  507,  &c.)  Archbishop  Usher ; 
(de  Rom.  Eccles.  aliisque  Fidei  Symbolis) ; 
Bishop  Pearson,  (on  the  Creed) ;  C.  Sui- 
cer,  (Thesaur.  Eccles.  voce  Sv/ifio/lov),  and 
J.  Bingham,  Antiq.  Eccl.,  lib.  x. — TV.] 

(3)  [See  /.  Bingham,  Orig.  Eccles.,  lib. 
iii.,  cap.  iv..  and  Tab.  P fanner,  de  Catc- 
chumiuis  veterum,  Viuariae,  1688,  12mo. — 
2V.] 


THEOLOGY  AND  RELIGION.  81 

structing  those  of  superior  capacity  and  genius,  was  committed  to  men  of 
gravity  and  erudition  in  the  larger  churches.  Hence  the  ancient  doctors 
generally  divide  their  flocks  into  two  classes  of  persons,  the  one  compri- 
sing such  as  received  solid  and  thorough  instruction,  the  other  embracing 
the  more  ignorant.  Nor  do  they  conceal  the  fact,  that  different  modes  of 
teaching  were  adopted  in  reference  to  these  two  classes. (4) 

§  7.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  but  that  the  children  of  Christians  were 
carefully  trained  up  from  their  infancy,  and  were  early  put  to  reading  the 
sacred  books  and  learning  the  principles  of  religion.  For  this  purpose, 
schools  were  erected  everywhere  from  the  beginning.  From  these  schools 
for  children,  we  must  distinguish  those  seminaries  of  the  early  Christians, 
erected  extensively  in  the  larger  cities,  at  which  adults  and  especially  such 
as  aspired  to  be  public  teachers,  were  instructed  and  educated  in  all  branch- 
es of  learning  both  human  and  divine.  Such  seminaries,  in  which  young 
men  devoted  to  the  sacred  office  were  taught  whatever  was  necessary  to 
qualify  them  properly  for  it,  the  apostles  of  Christ  undoubtedly  both  set 
up  themselves  and  directed  others  to  set  up ;  2  Timothy  ii.,  2.  St.  John. 
at  Ephesus,  and  Polycarp  at  Smyrna,  established  such  schools.(5)  Among 
these  seminaries,  in  subsequent  times,  none  was  more  celebrated  than, 
that  at  Alexandria  ;  which  is  commonly  called  a  catechetic  school,  and  was 
said  to  be  erected  by  St.  Mark.(6) 

§  8.  What  many  tell  us,  that  the  ancient  Christians  had  their  popular 
and  their  secret  doctrines,  and  did  not  communicate  to  all  classes  the  same 
instructions ;  may  be  admitted  as  true  if  it  be  rightly  explained.  For, 
those  whom  they  would  induce  to  embrace  Christ,  were  not  introduced  at 
once  to  the  high  mysteries  of  religion  which  exceed  the  grasp  of  the  hu- 

(4)  [See  Origen,  adv.  Celsum,  lib.  iii.,  p.  of  any  sort,   in  the  early  church, — Justin 
143.    The  apostles  themselves  seem  to  have  Martyr,  a  converted  philosopher  in  the  mid- 
been  the  authors  of  this  practice,  of  which  die  of  the  second  century,  being  the  first 
we  have  vestiges,  1  Cor.  iii.,  2  ;  Heb.  v.,  learned  writer  after  the  apostles  ; — it  seems 
12. — Schl.]  most  probable,  that  till  past  the  middle  of 

(5)  Irentzus,  adv.    Hser.,  1.  ii.,  c.  22,  p.  the  second  century,  the  means  of  education 
148,  ed.  Massuet.    Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  among    Christians  were  very  slender;  and 
lib.  v.,  c.  20. — [The  proofs  referred  to  here  by  no  means  so  general  and  so  ample  as  Dr. 

.nd   in    the   text,  are  quite    insufficient    to  Mosheim  supposes. — Tr.] 
ivince,  that  in  theirs/ century,  or  even  in  the         (6)  See  J.  A.  Schmidt,  Diss.  de  schola 

former  part  of  the  second,  Christians  estab-  catechet.  Alexandr.,  prefixed  to^the  tract  of 

lished  regular  schools  for  their  children,  and  A.  Hyperius,  de  Catechesi ;  also  Dom.  Au- 

academics  for  their  young  men.     Paul's  di-  lisius,  delle  Scuole  sacre,  lib.  ii.,  c.  i.,  ii.,  p. 

rection  to  Timothy,  (2  Epis.,  ii.,  2),  "The  5-17,  and  c.  xxi.,  p.  92,  &c.     Concerning 

things  thou  hast  heard  of  me, — the  same  the  larger  schools  of  Christians  in  the  East, 

commit  thou  to  faithful  men,  who  shall  be  at  Edessa,  Nisibis,  Seleucia,  and  concerning 

able  to  teach  others  also  ;"  seems  to  have  the    ancient    Christian   schools  in   general, 

no   distinct  reference  to  a   regular  public  see  J.  S.  Asseman,  Biblioth.  orient.  Clem. 

school,  either  for  boys  or  young  men.     And  Vat.,  torn,  iii.,  p.  ii.,  p.  914—919. — [The  an- 

the  passages  in  Irentzus  and  Eusebius  re-  cient    tradition,  preserved   by  Jerome,  (de 

ferred  to,  speak  only  of  the  general  instruc-  Scriptor.  Illustr.,  cap.    36),  that    St.  Mark 

(ion  and  advantages,  which  the  neighbouring  was  the   founder  of  the  catechetic  school  at 

clergy  and  others  derived  from  the  apostle  Alexandria,  deserves  but  little  credit ;  since 

John;  and  of  the  interesting  conversations  all  antiquity  is  silent  respecting  a  Christian 

of  Polycarp.    If  we  consider  the  poverty  and  school  there,  or  any  teacher,  or  student,  in 

embarrassments  of  the  first  Christians,  we  it,  till  the  days  of  Pantaenus  and  his  pupil 

can  hardly  suppose,  they  could  have  erected  Clemens  Alex.,  near  the  close  of  the  second 

such  schools  and  academies.     And  from  the  century.      See    Schroeckh,   Kirchengesch., 

great  penury  of  writers,  and  of  learned  men  vol.  iii.,  p.  188,  &c. — Tr.] 
VOL.  I.— L 


82       BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 

man  mind,  but  were  first  instructed  in  the  doctrines  which  reason  can  com- 
prehend, till  they  were  able  to  bear  the  more  sublime  and  difficult  truths. 
And  afterward,  those  who  ranked  among  believers,  were  not  all  instructed 
in  the  same  manner ;  but  one  was  directed  to  study  and  treasure  up  in  his 
mind  more  or  fewer  things  than  another.  Whoever  would  understand 
more  than  this  by  the  secret  doctrine  of  the  first  century,  should  beware 
lest  he  confound  the  faults  of  subsequent  ages  with  the  excellences  of 
this.(7) 

§  9.  Most  authors  represent  the  lives  and  morals  of  Christians  in  this 
age,  as  patterns  of  purity  and  holiness,  worthy  of  the  imitation  of  all  sub- 
sequent ages.  This  representation,  if  it  be  understood  of  the  greater  part 
of  the  professed  Christians,  and  not  of  all,  is  undoubtedly  true.  But  who- 
ever supposes  the  primitive  churches  were  perfectly  free  from  all  vices 
and  sins,  and  estimates  the  lives  of  all  the  Christians  by  the  conduct  of 
some  of  them,  and  by  the  precepts  and  exhortations  of  their  teachers,  as 
most  of  those  writers  have  done  whose  books  and  tracts  concerning  the 
innocence  and  holiness  of  the  early  Christians  are  extant;  may  be  con- 
futed by  the  clearest  evidence  of  both  testimony  and  facts. (8) 

§  10.  The  visible  purity  of  the  churches  was  much  promoted,  by  that 
law  which  deprived  of  ordinances  and  excluded  from  the  community  per- 
sons of  vile  character,  or  who  were  known  to  be  vicious ;  provided  they 
would  not  reform  on  being  admonished.  Such  a  law,  we  know  was  es- 
tablished by  the  apostles,  soon  after  churches  began  to  be  formed. (0)  In 
the  application  and  enforcement  of  this  law,  the  teachers  and  rulers  gen- 
erally pointed  out  the  persons  who  seemed  to  merit  exclusion  from  the 
church,  and  the  people  sanctioned  or  rejected  the  proposal  at  their  discre- 
tion. Excluded  sinners,  although  they  had  committed  the  highest  offences, 
if  they  gave  satisfactory  evidence  of  penitence  for  their  faults,  and  of  their 
leading  better  lives  in  future,  were  allowed  to  return  to  the  church,  at  least 
in  most  places  ;  yet  but  once  only.  For  those  who  were  restored,  if  they 
returned  to  their  former  bad  practices,  and  were  again  excluded  from  the 
brotherhood,  had  no  more  a  prospect  of  forgiveness. (10) 

(7)  Concerning  this  secret  doctrine,  much     of  religion  in  the  seven  churches  of  Asia 

is  collected  by  Chr.  Matt.  Pfaff,  Diss.  pos-  about  A.D.  96.     Judging  from  these  repre*^ 

terior  de  Praejudiciis  Theolog.,  §  13,  p.  149,  sentations,  it  would  seem  that  the  characters^ 

&c.,  in  his  Primitia  Tubingensia.  of  the  Christians  of  that  age,  presented  a  sin- 

(8)  [For  a  knowledge  of  the  state  of  piety  gular  combination  of  excellences   and   de- 
and  morals  among  the  Christians  of  the  first,  fects  ;  that,  in  some  respects,  they  were  iiv 
century,  we  are  dependant  nearly  altogether  deed  patterns  for  all  after  ages  ;  but,  in  other 
on  the  Holy  Scriptures  :  for  all  the  apostolic  respects,  and  especially  certain  churches,  a* 
fathers,  except  Clement,  lived  and  wrote  in  Corinth,  Galatia,  Sardis,  and  Laodicea,  by 
the  second  century.     Besides,  their  writings  no  means  deserved  imitation. — TV.] 

state  very  few  facts,  and  acquaint  us  with  (9)  [See  1  Cor.  v.)     For  the  discussions 

almost  nothing,  except  what  relates  to  the  that  have  taken  place  respecting  this  law, 

views  and  feelings  of  the  writers  themselves,  see  Chr.  Matt.  Pfaff,  de  Originibus  Juris 

Clement  wrote  upon  occasion  of  a  broil  in  Ecclesias,t.,  p.  10,  13,  71,  98. 

the  church  of  Corinth;  and  he  aims  to  set  (10)    See   Jo.    Morin,    Commentar.    de 

home  Paul's  exhortations  to  them  on  former  disciplina   poenitentiae,    lib.  ix.,  cap.   19,  p. 

occasions.     From  the  N.  T.,  and  especially  670,  and  others.     [Natal.  Alexander,  Hist, 

from  Paul's  epistles,  we  learn  many  things  Eccles.  N.  T.,  saec.  iii.,  diss.  vii. ;  and  J. 

respecting  the   state   of  morals  and  piety  Aug.  Orsi,  Dis.  qua  ostenditur,  cathol.  ec- 

ainong  Christians,  from  the  first  planting  of  clesiam  tribus  prior,  saeculis  capital,  crim. 

the  churches  till  about  A.D.  68.     And  from  reis  pacem  et  absolut.  neutiquam  denegasse, 

the  Apocalyptical  epistles,  we  learn  the  state  Milan,  1730,  4to.     But  all  these   writers 


THEOLOGY  AND  RELIGION.  .  83 

§  11.  As  the  Christian  churches  were  composed  of  both  Jews  and  Gen- 
tiles, between  whom  there  had  been  an  inveterate  aversion,  and  as  those  re- 
cent Christians  retained  many  erroneous  impressions,  received  and  cher- 
ished from  their  infancy,  it  could  not  be  but  that  various  disagreements  and 
contests  would  early  arise  among  them.  The  first  of  these  contests  re- 
lated to  the  necessity  of  observing  the  law  of  Moses.  It  broke  out  in  the 
church  of  Antioch ;  and  its  issue  is  stated  by  Luke,  Acts  xv.  This  con- 
troversy was  followed  by  many  others  ;  partly  with  Jewish  Christians,  too 
much  attached  to  their  national  religion  ;  partly  with  persons  captivated 
with  a  species  of  fanatical  philosophy  ;  and  partly  with  some  who  abused 
the  Christian  doctrines,  which  they  ill  understood,  to  the  gratification  of 
their  appetites  and  lusts.(ll)  St.  Paul  and  the  other  apostles,  o^pn  men- 
tion these  controversies  ;  but  so  cursorily  and  concisely,  that  we  can  hardly 
ascertain  the  exact  points  controverted. 

§  12.  Of  all  these  contests,  the  greatest  and  most  important  seems  to 
have  been,  that  relating  to  the  way  of  attaining  to  justification  and  salva- 
tion, which  Jewish  teachers  excited  at  Rome  and  in  other  Christian  church- 
es. For  while  the  apostles  everywhere  inculcated,  that  all  hopes  of  jus- 
tification and  salvation  should  be  placed  solely  on  Jesus  Christ  and  his 
merits,  these  Jewish  teachers  ascribed  to  the  law  and  to  the  works  which 
Christ  enjoined,  the  chief  influence  in  procuring  everlasting  happiness. 
This  error  not  only  led  on  to  many  others,  which  were  prejudicial  to  the 
religion  of  Christ,  but  was  connected  with  the  highest  dishonour  to  the 
Saviour.  For  they  who  maintained  that  a  life  regulated  according  to  the 
law,  would  give  a  title  to  eternal  rewards,  could  not  hold  Christ  to  be  the 
Son  of  God,  and  the  Saviour  of  mankind ;  but  merely  a  prophet,  or  a  di- 
vine messenger  among  men.  It  cannot  therefore  appear  at  all  strange, 
that  St.  Paul,  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans  and  elsewhere,  took  so  much 
pains  to  extirpate  this  capital  error. 

§  13.  The  controversy  respecting  the  necessity  of  the  Mosaic  rites  in 
order  to  salvation,  was  wisely  decided  by  the  apostles,  Acts  xv.  But 
great  as  the  apostolic  influence  was,  that  deep-rooted  love  of  the  Mosaic 
law  which  was  handed  down  from  their  fathers,  could  not  be  wholly  erad- 
icated from  the  minds  of  the  Jewish  Christians,  and  especially  of  those 
living  in  Palestine.  It  diminished  a  little,  after  the  destruction  of  Jerusa- 
lem and  the  prostration  of  the  temple  by  the  Romans  ;  yet  it  did  not  wholly 
subside.  Hence  it  was,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  that  a  part  of  the  Jew- 
ish Christians  separated  from  the  other  brethren,  and  formed  a  distinct 
sect  attached  to  the  law  of  Moses. 

describe  rather  the  practice  of  the  second  and  xi.(   p.    952.      [J.    F.   Buddcus,   Ecclcsia 

third  centuries,  than  that  of  the  first.—  TV.]  Apostolica  ;  and,   still  better,    Ch.   W.   Fr. 

(11)  Conducive  to  the  illustration  of  these  Walch,  Volstandige  Historic  der  Ketzcreien, 

controversies,  are  the  investigations  of  Herm.  Spaltungen,  u.  s.  f.,vol.  i,,  p.  68,  &c. ;  and 

Witmus,  Miscellanea  Sacra,  torn.  ii.,  exerc.  A.  Ncandcr,  Geschichte  dcr  Pflantzung  nnd 

xx.,  xxi.,  xxii.,   p.  668,  &c.     Camp.   Vi-  Leitung  dcr  christl.  Kirche  durch  die  Apos- 

tringa,  Observatt.  sacra.,  lib.  iv.,  c.  ix.,  x.,  tel,  Hamb.,  1832.—  Tr.] 


84       BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.— CHAP.  IV. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

HISTORY    OF   RITES   AND    CEREMONIES. 

1.  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper  appointed  by  Christ.  —  $  2.  Rites  instituted  by  the 
Apostles.  —  §  3.  The  Jewish  Rites  retained.  —  §  4.  Public  Assemblies  of  Christians,  and 
Times  for  Meeting.  —  §  5.  Places  of  Meeting.  —  §  6.  Mode  of  Worship.  —  $  7.  Lord's 
Supper  and  Agapae.  —  §  8.  Baptism.—  §  9.  Anointing  the  Sick.—  $  10.  Fasting 


1.  AL 


LTHOUGH  the  Christian  religion  has  the  greatest  simplicity,  and 
requires  nothing  but  faith  and  love  ;  yet  it  could  not  wholly  dispense  with 
external  rites  and  institutions.  Jesus  himself  established  but  two  rites, 
which  it  is  not  lawful  either  to  change  or  to  abrogate  ;  viz.,  baptism  and  the 
Lord's  supper.  Yet  these  are  not  to  be  considered  as  mere  ceremonies, 
or  as  having  only  a  symbolical  import  ;  but  as  having  also  a  sanctifying 
influence  on  the  mind.  That  he  chose  to  establish  no  more  rites,  ought  to 
convince  us,  that  ceremonies  are  not  essential  to  the  religion  of  Christ  ; 
and  that  the  whole  business  of  them,  is  left  by  him  to  the  discretion  and 
free  choice  of  Christians. 

§  2.  Many  considerations  leave  us  no  reason  to  doubt,  that  the  friends 
and  apostles  of  the  Saviour,  sanctioned  in  various  places  the  use  of  other 
rites  ;  which  they  either  tolerated  from  necessity,  or  recommended  for 
good  and  solid  reasons.  Yet  we  are  not  to  suppose  that  they  have  any- 
where inculcated  and  established  any  permanent  system  of  clerical  rights 
and  prerogatives  ;  nor  that  they  prescribed  the  same  rites  and  forms  in  all 
churches.  On  the  contrary,  various  things  go  to  show,  that  Christian 
worship  was  from  the  beginning  regulated  and  conducted  differently,  in 
different  places  ;  and  this,  no  doubt,  with  the  approbation  of  the  apostles 
and  their  coadjutors  and  disciples  ;  and  that  in  this  whole  matter,  much 
regard  was  shown  to  the  former  opinions,  customs  and  laws  of  different 
nations.  (1) 

(1)  [It  appears  that  even  so  late  as  the  very  probable  that  John,  for  certain  reasons, 

third  and  fourth  centuries,  there  was  consid-  did  ordain  in  Asia,  that  the  feast  of  Easter 

erable  difference  in  the  mode  of  conducting  should  be  kept  at  the  time  the  Jews  kept  it  ; 

religious  worship  among   Christians.      See  and  that  Peter  and  Pawl  ordered  otherwise 

Iren&us,  quoted  by  Eascbius,  Hist.  Eccles  ,  at  Rome.     Further,  the  Greek  and  Latin 

1.  v.,  cap.  24.     Sozomen,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  churches  had   a  contest   on  the  question, 

vii.,  cap.  19.     Socrates,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  v.,  whether  leavened  or  unleavened  bread  should 

cap.  22.     Augustine,  Epist.  54,  Opp.,  torn,  be  used  in  the  sacred   supper.     And  both 

ii.,  p.  93.     A  part  of  this  difference  in  rites  churches   claimed   to    have    their   customs 

and  ceremonies,  appears  to  have  come  down  handed  down   to  them  from  the  apostles  ; 

from  the  apostolic  times.     For  when  a  con-  and,  for  the  reasons  before  mentioned,  both 

test  arose  in  the  second  century,  between  were  probably  in  the  right.  —  Even  the  Cath- 

the  Oriental  and  the  Occidental  Christians,  olics  often  admit  this  diversity  of  ceremonies 

respecting  the  day  on  which  Easter  should  be  in  the  apostolic  church;  e.  g,  Jo.  Bana, 

observed  ;   we  are  informed  by  Euscbius,  Rerum  Liturg.,  1.  i.,  c.  7,  §  2,  Opp.,  p.  208, 

(Hist.  Eccl.,  1.  v.,  cap.  23,  24),  that   the  and  the  Jesuit  Jo.  Harduin,  makes  no  scru- 

former  maintained,  that  John  was  the  author  pie   to  assert   that  Paul   enjoined   on  the 

of  their  custom  ;  and  the  latter,  that  Peter  Greeks    one   form   for  the  consecration   of 

and  Paul  were  the  authors  of  theirs.     Both  priests  ;  and  Peter  on  the  Romans  another. 

churches  were  probably  correct  ;   for  it  is  His  book  is  entitled  :  La  Dissertation  du  P. 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  85 

§  3.  I  am  therefore  induced  to  dissent  from  those,  who  think  that  the 
Jewish  rites  and  forms  were  everywhere  transferred  by  the  apostles  and 
their  disciples  to  the  Christian  assemblies.  In  those  churches,  indeed, 
which  were  composed  either  wholly  or  principally  of  Jews,  I  can  easily 
believe,  the  Jewish  rites  were  so  far  retained  as  the  different  characters 
of  the  two  religions  would  permit.  And  this  may  be  evinced  by  a  good 
many  examples.  But  that  the  same  took  place  in  other  churches,  in  which 
either  no  Jews  or  only  a  few  were  found,  is  not  merely  uncertain,  but  in- 
credible. Because  it  was  proper  that  the  rituals  of  those  early  times  should 
be  variously  modelled,  according  to  the  peculiarities  of  genius  and  charac- 
ter in  different  nations. 

§  4.  As  there  was  diversity  in  the  practice  of  Christians,  it  will  be  very 
difficult  to  make  statements  relative  to  their  mode  of  worship  and  other 
customs  and  regulations,  which  will  be  equally  applicable  to  all  the  coun- 
tries in  which  Christianity  flourished.  Yet  there  are  a  few  regulations 
which  may  be  considered  as  common  to  all  Christians ;  and  of  these,  we 
shall  give  a  brief  account. — The  Christians  of  this  century,  assembled  for 
the  worship  "of  God  and  for  their  advancement  in  piety,  on  the  first  day  of 
ike  week,  the  day  on  which  Christ  reassumed  his  life  ;  for  that  this  day  was 
set  apart  for  religious  worship  by  the  apostles  themselves,  and  that,  after; 
the  example  of  the  church  of  Jerusalem,  it  was  generally  observed,  we 
have  unexceptionable  testimony  .(2)  Moreover,  those  congregations  which 
either  lived  intermingled  with  Jews,  or  wore  composed  in  great  measure 
of  Jews,  were  accustomed  also  to  observe  the  seventh  day  of  the  week,  as 
a  sacred  day  :£3)  for  doing  which  the  other  Christians  taxed  them  with 
no  wrong. —  As  to  annual  religious  days,  they  appear  to  have  observed  two ; 
the  one,  in  memory  of  Christ's  resurrection ;  the  other,  in  commemoration 
of  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  the  apostles. (4)  To  these  may  be 
added,  those  days  on  which  holy  men  met  death  for  Christ's  sake  ;  which, 
it  is  most  probable,  were  sacred  and  solemn  days,  from  the  very  commence- 
ment of  the  Christian  church.(5) 

le  Couraycr  sur  la  succession  des  Evesques  devoted  but  one  slated  day  to  their  public 

Anglois  et  sur  la  validite  de  leur  ordination,  worship  ;  and,  beyond  all  controversy,  that 

refutee,  torn,   ii.,  p.   13,   Paris,   1725,  8vo,  was  what  we  call  the  Lord's  day,  or  the  first 

[add  A.  Krazer,  de  Apostolicis,  nee   non  day  of  the  week. 

antiquis   eccl.  Occident.  Liturgiis,    sect,  i.,         (4)  Although  some  have  doubted  whether 

cap.  i  ,  §  2,  p.  3,  ed.  Augusts  Vind.,  1786.]  the  day  called  Pentecost  (Whitsunday)  was 

See  Moshcim's  Institut.  majores  hist.  Christ,  a  sacred  day  so  early  as  the  first  century, 

p.  375. — Schl.]  (see  J.  Bingham,  Origines  Eccles.,  lib.  xx., 

(2)  Ph.  J.  Hartmann,  de  Rebus   gestis  cap.  6) — yet  I  am  induced,  by  very  weighty 
Christianor.  sub  Apostolis,  cap.  xv.,  p.  387.  reasons,  to  believe  that,  from  the  beginning, 
J.  //'  //.  Bokmer,  Diss.  i.,  Juris  eccles.  anti-  it  was  held  equally  sacred  with  the  Passover 
qui   de  stato   die    Christianor.,  p.  20,  &c.  (or  Easter  day).     Perhaps,  also,  ( Good  Fn- 
[See,  also,  Acts  xx.,  7  ;   ii.,  1  ;   1  Cor.  xvi.,  day),  the  Friday  on  which  our  Saviour  died, 
1,  2;  Apoc.  i.,  10.     Pliny,  Epist.,  lib.  x.,  was,  from  the  earliest  times,  regarded  with 
ep.  97,  n.  7. — Schl  ]  more  respect  than  other  days  of  the  week. 

(3)  Stcph.   Curcellaeus,  Diatriba  de  esu  See   J.    (intlmfrcil,   in    Codicem   Theodos., 
sanguinis ;    Opp.    Theol.,   p.    958.     Gabr.  torn,  i.,  p.  138.     Asscman,  Biblioth.  orient. 
Albaspmaeus,    Observatt.    Eccles.,   lib.    i.,  Vatican.,    torn,  i.,  p.  217,  237.     Martene, 
obs.  xiii.,p.  53.     In  vain  some  learned  men  Thesaur.  Anecdotor.,  torn,  v.,  p.  66. 
labour  to  persuade  us,  that  in  all  the  early         (5)  [These  were  called  nnlalitia  marly- 
churches   both    days,   or    the  first   and   last  rum  (the  martyrs'  birthdays).      See   Casp. 
days  of  the  week,  were  held  sacred.     The  Sagittarius,  de  Natalitiis  martyrnm,  repub- 
churches  of  Bithynia,  mentioned  by  Pliny,  lished  by  Crcnius,  syntagma  i.,  djss.  philol., 


86       BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.— CHAP.  IV. 

§  5.  The  places  of  assembling  were,  undoubtedly,  the  private  dwelling- 
houses  of  Christians.  But  as  necessity  required  that  when  a  congregation 
was  formed  and  duly  regulated,  some  fixed  uniform  place  for  its  meetings 
should  be  designated  ;  and  as  some  furniture  was  requisite  for  their  accom- 
modation, such  as  books,  tables,  and  benches,  which  could  not  conveniently 
be  transported  from  place  to  place,  especially  in  those  perilous  times ;  it 
was  undoubtedly  the  case,  that  the  place  of  their  assemblies  soon  became, 
instead  of  a  private  room,  a  sort  of  public  one.  (6)  These  few  remarks,  I 
conceive,  are  sufficient  to  determine  that  long  controversy,  whether  the  ear- 
ly Christians  had  temples  or  not  ?(7)  If  the  word  temple  may  denote  a 
dwelling-house,  or  even  a  part  of  one,  which  is  devoted  to  the  public  exer- 
cises of  religion,  yet  without  any  idea  of  holiness  attached  to  it,  and  which 
is  not  separated  from  all  profane  or  secular  uses  ;  then  I  can  readily  admit, 
that  the  earliest  Christians  had  temples. 

§  6.  In  these  public  assemblies  of  Christians,  the  holy  scriptures  were 
read  ;  which,  for  that  purpose,  were  divided  into  portions  or  lessons.  Then 
followed  an  exhortation  to  the  people,  neither  eloquent  nor  long,  but  full  of 
warmth  and  love.  If  any  signified  that  they  were  moved  by  a  divine  af- 
flatus, they  were  allowed  successively  to  state  what  the  Lord  commanded  ; 
the  other  prophets  who  were  present  judging  how  much  authority  was  due 
to  them,  1  Cor.  xiv.,  16.  Afterwards,  the  prayers  which  constituted  no 
inconsiderable  part  of  public  worship,  were  recited  after  the  bishop.(S)  To 
these  succeeded  hymns ;  which  were  sung,  not  by  the  whole  assembly, 
but  by  certain  persons,  during  the  celebration  of  the  sacred  supper  and  the 
feasts  of  charity.  The  precise  order  and  manner  of  performing  all  these 
parts  of  religious  worship,  in  the  various  Christian  churches,  cannot  be 
fully  ascertained ;  yet  it  is  most  probable,  that  no  one  of  these  exercises 
was  wholly  omitted  in  any  church. (9) 

§  7.  The  prayers  of  Christians  were  followed  by  oblations  of  bread,  wine, 
and  other  things,  for  the  support  of  the  ministers  of  the  church  and  the  poor. 
For  every  Christian  who  had  any  thing  to  spare,  brought  his  gift  and  of- 
fered it  in  a  sense  to  the  Lord. (10)  From  these  gifts,  so  much  bread  and 
wine  as  were  requisite  for  the  Lord's  supper,  were  set  apart,  and  conse- 
crated by  prayers  offered  solely  by  the  bishop,  to  which  the  people  respond- 
ed amen.(ll)  The  distributers  of  the  sacred  supper  were  the  deacons. 

1699.     In  the  second  century  these  natalitia  39.     Jos.  Bingliam,  Origines  Eccles.,  lib. 

were    everywhere  observed  ;    and  they  are  viii.,  ch.  i.,  and  others. 

often  mentioned  by  Tertullian  and  Cypri-         (8)  See  Justin  Martyr,  Apologia  secun- 

an.     And  in  the  epistle  of  the  church  of  da,  p.  98,  &c. 

Smyrna  to  Philomelius,  in  Eusebius,  Hist.         (9)  This  must  be  understood  of  the  church- 

Eccles.,  lib.  iv.,  c.  15,  the  observance  of  the  es  that  were  fully  established  and  regulated. 

day  of  Polycarp's  martyrdom  is  mentioned.  For  in  the  nascent  churches,  which  had  not 

— Schl.]  become  duly  regulated,  I  can  believe  one  or 

(6)  See  Camp.    Vitringa,  de  Synagoga  other  of  these  exercises  might  be  omitted, 
vetere,  1.  i.,  pt.  iii.,  cap.  i.,"  p.  432.     [It  may         (10)  See   Christ.  Matt.  Pfaff,  Dissertt. 
be  inferred  from  Acts  xix.,  8  ;  1  Cor.  xi.,  de  oblatione  et  consecratione  Eucharistica ; 
22 ;  xiv.,  35,  and  Ja.  ii.,  2,  that  Christians  in  his  Syntagma  Dissertt.  Theolog.,  Stut- 
then  had  certain  determinate  places  for  hold-  gard,  1720,  8vo. 

ing  public  worship. — Schl.~\  (11)  Jusiyn  Martyr,  Apologia.  Secunda, 

(7)  See  Dav.  Blondell,  de  Episcopis  et  p.  98,  &c.     The  writers  on  the  ceremonies 
Presbyt.,  sect,  iii.,  p.  216,243,  246.     Just,  of  the  sacred  supper,  are  mentioned  by  Jo. 
Hen.  Bohmer,  Diss.  ii.,  Juris  eccles.  antiq.  de  Alb.  Fabricius,  Bibliograph.  antiquaria,  cap. 
Antelucanis  Christianorum  coetibus,  §  iv.,  p.  xi.,  p.  395,  &c. 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  87 

This  most  holy  ordinance  was  followed  by  sober  repasts,  which,  from  their 
design,  were  denominated  agapae,  feasts  of  charity. (12)  The  various  dif- 
ficulties which  occur  in  the  accounts  respecting  these  feasts,  will,  undoubt- 
edly, be  solved  with  ease,  by  admitting  that  the  earliest  Christians  were 
governed  by  different  rules,  and  did  not  everywhere  celebrate  either  this  or 
other  institutions  in  the  same  manner. 

§  8.  In  this  century  baptism  was  administered  in  convenient  places, 
without  the  public  assemblies  ;  and  by  immersing  the  candidates  wholly  in 
water. (13)  At  first,  all  who  were  engaged  in  propagating  Christianity,  ad- 
ministered this  rite:  nor  can  it  be  called  in  question,  that  whoever  per- 
suaded any  person  to  embrace  Christianity,  could  baptize  his  own  disciple. 
But  when  the  churches  became  more  regulated,  and  were  provided  with 
rules  of  order,  the  bishop  alone  exercised  the  right  of  baptizing  all  the  new 
converts  to  Christianity  ;  though  in  process  of  time,  as  the  limits  of  his 
church  were  enlarged,  he  imparted  this  right  to  the  presbyters  and  chor- 
episcopi ;  reserving  however  the  confirmation  of  those  baptisms  which  were 
administered  by  presbyters. ( 14)  As  to  the  ceremonies,  which  in  this  early 
period  were  superadded  to  baptism  for  the  sake  of  order  and  decency,  we 
are  not  able  to  say  any  thing  with  certainty  ;  nor  do  we  think  it  safe  to  es- 
timate the  rules  of  that  age,  by  the  customs  of  subsequent  times. 

$  9.  The  Grecian  Christians,  when  dangerously  sick,  sent  for  the  elders 
of  the  church,  agreeably  to  Ja.  v.,  14  ;  and  after  the  sick  man  had  confess- 
ed his  sins,  the  elders  commended  him  to  God  in  devout  supplication,  and 
anointed  him  with  oil.  Many  things  in  regard  to  this  rite,  may  be,  and 
have  actually  been,  subjects  of  controversy.  But  the  silence  of  the  ancient 
writers,  prevents  our  coming  to  any  certain  conclusions.  For  though  there 
is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  this  rite  prevailed  extensively  among  Christians, 
yet  it  is  rarely  mentioned  in  the  writings  of  the  ancients. (15) 

§  10.  No  law  was  enacted  by  Christ  and  his  apostles  concerning  fasts ; 
but  the  custom  obtained,  that  most  Christians  occasionally  and  privately 
joined  abstinence  from  their  food  with  their  prayers  ;  and  especially  when 
engaged  in  undertakings  of  great  importance,  1  Cor.  vii.,  5.  How  much 
time  a  man  should  spend  in  this  exercise,  was  left  to  the  private  judgment 
of  each  individual ;  nor  did  a  person  expose  his  character  at  all,  if  he  thought 
it  sufficient  for  him  to  observe  only  the  rules  of  strict  temperance. (16)  Of 

(12)  The  writers  concerning  the  agapac,  ccrning  this  custom,  are  collected  by  Jo. 
arc  mentioned  by  Tho.  Ittig,  Selecta  Histor.  Launoi,  de  Sacramento  unctionis  infirmo- 
Eccles.  capita,  saecul.  ii.,  cap    iii.,  p.  180,  rum,  cap.  i.,  p.  444,  Opp.,  torn.  i.     Among 
&c.,  and  Christ.  Matt.  Pfaff,  de  Originibus  these  passages,  very  few  are  to  be  found  in 
Juris  Eccles.,  p.  68.  the  writers  of  the  first  centuries  ;  yet  there 

(13)  See  Gcr.  Jo.  Vossius,  de  Baptismo,  is  here  and  there  one,  which  has  escaped 
disp.  i.,  thcs.  vi.,  p.  31,  &c.,  and  the  authors  the  notice  of  this  very  learned  man.     [The 
recommended  by  J.  A.  Fabricius,  Bibliogr.  principal  writers  on  this  subject,  are  men- 
Antiquar.,  cap.  xi.,  <J  xxv.,  p.  389,  &c.  tioned  by  J.  C.  Wolf,  Curae  Philol.  et  Crit., 

(14)  These   remarks,  I   conceive,  go  to  torn,  iv.,  on  Ja.  v.,  14. — Tr.] 

elucidate  and   determine  the  questions    so  (16)  Shepherd  of  Hernias,  lib.  iii.,  Simi- 

strenuously  debated  among  the  learned,  con-  lit.  v.,  p.  931,  935.  ed.  Fabricii,  at  the  close 

cerning  the  right  of  administering  Imp/ism.  of  vol.  iii.  of  his  Codex  Apocryph.  N.  T. 

See   Just.    H<  n.    tfodbMT,  Diss.   xi..  Juris  [The  best  writer  on   this   subject,  is  John 

cedes,  antiqui,  p.  500,  &c.     Jo.  Ic  Clerc,  Daille,  de  Jejuniis  et  Quadragesimo,    Da- 

Biblioth.  uruverselle  et  historique,  tome  iv.,  vent.,   1654,  8vo,  against  whom,  however, 

p.  93,  &c.  Ben  rt'jr  brings  some  objections,  in  Codex 

(15)  Most  of  the  ancient  testimonies  con-  Canon,  vind. — SchL] 


. 
88       BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

any  solemn  public  fasts,  except  only  on  the  anniversary  day  of  the  cruci- 
fixion of  Christ,  there  is  no  mention  in  the  most  ancient  times.  Gradually, 
however,  days  of  fasting  were  introduced  ;  first  by  custom,  and  afterwards 
by  legal  sanction.  Whether  any  thing  of  this  nature  occurred  in  the  first 
century,  and  what  days  were  devoted  to  fasting,  we  have  not  the  means  of 
deciding.  And  yet  I  would  not  deny,  that  very  specious  arguments  are 
adduced  by  those  who  think,  that  while  the  apostles  were  still  living, 
or  soon  after  their  decease,  the  Christians  in  most  places  abstained  from 
food,  either  wholly  or  partially,  on  the  fourth  and  on  the  sixth  days  of  the 
week.(17) 


CHAPTER  V. 

HISTORY   OF   RELIGIOUS    SEPARATIONS    OR    HERESIES. 

$  1.  Sects  sprung  up  in  the  very  Times  of  the  Apostles. — §  2.  They  gradually  increased. 
— $  3.  Sect  of  the  Gnostics. — §  4.  It  originated  from  the  Oriental  Philosophy. — $  5. 
They  occasioned  various  Errors  in  regard  to  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  other  Subjects. — 
$  6.  Gnostic  Opinions  concerning  Christ. — $  7.  Their  Moral  Doctrines. — $  8.  How  they 
supported  their  Doctrines. — §  9.  Causes  of  Disagreement  among  themselves. — §  10. 
Dositheus. — $  11.  Simon  Magus  was  not  a  Heretic. — §  12.  His  History. — §  13.  His 
Doctrines. — §  14.  Menander. — §  15.  Whether  there  was  a  Sect  of  Nicolaitans.— §  16. 
Cerinthus,  and  the  Cerinthians. — §  17.  Nazareans  and  Ebionites,  properly  belong  to 
the  Second  Century. 

§  1.  CHRISTIAN  churches  had  scarcely  been  gathered  and  organized, 
when  here  and  there  men  rose  up,  who,  not  being  contented  with  the 
simplicity  and  purity  of  that  religion  which  the  apostles  taught,  sought 
out  new  inventions,  and  fashioned  religion  according  to  their  own  liking. 
This  appears,  from  various  passages  in  the  epistles  left  us  by  the  apostles, 
and  particularly  from  Paul's  epistles.  For  in  these,  there  is  frequent 
mention  of  persons,  who  either  endeavoured  to  mould  the  Christian  doc- 
trines into  conformity  with  that  philosophy  or  yv£)Gig,(l)  to  which  they 
were  addicted  ;  or  who  were  disposed  to  combine  with  Christianity  Jewish 
opinions,  customs,  and  institutions.  Several  of  these  corrupters  of  religion 
are  likewise  expressly  named ;  as  Hymenaeus  and  Alexander,  Philetus, 
Hermogenes,  Phygellus,  Demas,  and  Diotrephes.(2)  If,  however,  from  this 
list,  Alexander,  Hymenaeus,  and  Philetus  be  excepted,  the  others  appear 
to  be,  rather  apostates  from  the  practice  of  religion,  than  corrupters  of  its 
principles.  (3) 

(17)  See  Wil.  Beverege,  Codex  Canon,  viii.,  p.  84.  J.  Fr.  Buddcus,  de  Ecclesia 

vindic.,  torn,  ii.,  Pair.  Apostol.,  p.  166.  Apostolica,  cap.  v.,  p.  292,  &c. — [As  to 

(1)1  Tim.  vi.,  20,  and  ch.  i.,  3, 4 ;  Tit.  iii.,  Hymenaeus  and  Philetus,  we  are  informed 

9  ;  Coloss.  ii.,  8.  by  St.  Paul,  2  Tim.  ii.,  17,  18,  comp.,  1 

(2)  [Concerning  Diotrephes,  there   is   a  Tim.  i.,  19,  20,  not  only  in  general,  that 
particular  tract  by  Stemler,  1758. — Schl.~\  they  had  swerved  from  sound  doctrine;  but 

(3)  2  Tim.  ii.,  18,  and  elsewhere.     See  their  particular  error  is  pointed  out.     They 
also   the   elaborate   discussions   concerning  taught  that  a  resurrection  of  the  dead  was  no 
these  men,  by  Camp.  Vitringa,  Observ.  Sa-  longer  to   be   anticipated,  it  being  already 
crae,  lib.  iv.,  cap.  ix.,p.  952.     Thomas  Ittig,  passed;   and  they  laboured  to  make  prose- 
de  Haeresiarchis  aevi  Apostol.,  sect,  i.,  cap.  lytes  to  this  opinion.     See  J.   G.   Watch, 


SCHISMS  AND  HERESIES.  89 

§  2.  So  long  as  the  greater  part  of  the  apostles  were  alive,  to  watch 
over  the  churches,  these  innovators  were  not  very  successful,  and  seem 
to  have  had  no  great  number  of  followers.  But  gradually,  they  acquired 
more  influence ;  and  before  the  decease  of  all  those  whom  Christ  had 
himself  instructed,  they  laid  the  foundations  of  those  sects,  which  after- 
wards exceedingly  disturbed  the  Christian  community  and  gave  rise  to  so 
many  contests.  The  history  of  these  sects  is  very  obscure  ;  indeed,  the 
most  obscure  part  of  ecclesiastical  history.  This  obscurity  arises,  partly 
from  the  deficiency  of  ancient  records  ;  partly,  from  the  tenets  of  these 
sects,  which  for  the  most  part  were  singularly  caliginous  and  remote  from 
common  apprehension;  and  partly,  from  the  ignorance  and  hostility  of 
those  who  have  written  concerning  them.  This  however  is  perfectly 
clear,  that  no  one  who  loves  the  truths  which  the  Bible  inculcates,  can 
find  any  thing  to  commend  in  the  peculiarities  of  these  sects. (4) 

§  3.  At  the  head  of  all  the  sects  which  disturbed  the  peace  of  the 
church,  stand  the  Gnostics  ;  who  claimed  ability  to  restore  to  mankind 
the  lost  knowledge  (yv&oif;)  of  the  true  and  supreme  God  ;  and  who  an- 
nounced the  overthrow  of  that  empire,  which  the  creator  of  the  world  and 
his  associates  had  set  up.  It  is,  indeed,  the  common  opinion,  and  sup- 
ported by  the  testimony  of  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  (Stromat.,  1.  vii.,  c.  17., 
p.  898,  899,)  that  the  Gnostic  sects  first  arose  after  the  decease  of  the  apos- 
tles, in  the  reign  of  Adrian  ;  and  that  previously,  no  discords  had  produced 
separations  from  the  church.  But  the  sacred  scriptures  themselves — to 
say  nothing  of  other  ancient  documents — put  it  beyond  controversy,  that 
even  in  the  first  century,  in  various  places,  men  infected  with  the  Gnostic 
leprosy  began  to  erect  societies  distinct  from  the  other  Christians  ;  1  John 

Exercitat.  de  Hymenaeo  et  Phileto  ;  in  his  written ;  by  Thorn.  Ittig,  de  Haeresiarchis 
Misccll.  Sacra.,  lib.  i.,  p.  81,  &c. — As  to  aevi  Apostolici  et  Apostolico  proximi,  Lips., 
Alexander,  it  is  still  contested  whether  the  1690,  4to,  and  an  Appendix,  Lips.,  1696, 
Alexander  in  1  Tim.  i.,  20,  and  2  Tim.  iv.,  4to  ;  by  Rcnatus  Massuetus,  Dissertt.  Ire- 
14,  and  in  Acts  ix.,  33,  be  one  and  the  same  naeo  praemissae ;  and  by  Sebast.  le  Xain  de 
person.  The  greater  part  believe  the  affirm-  Tillemont,  Me'moires  pour  servir  a  1'histoire 
ative.  But  Neumann,  (Expos,  of  the  New  de  1'Eglise.  But  all  these,  and  others  whom 
Test.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  363),  and  Dr.  Moshcim,  1  pass  over,  have  rather  collected  materials 
(Comment,  de  Rebus  Christ,  ante  C.  M.,  p.  for  a  history  of  these  sects,  than  written  the 
178),  support  the  negative  ;  being  inclined  history  itself.  Among  the  Lutherans  Abr. 
to  believe  that  there  were  two  persons  of  this  Hinckclmann,  Ja.  Thomasius,  Jo.  Hen.  Hor- 
name.  The  younger  Walch,  (Entwurf  der  Uus,  and  among  the  Reformed  Ja.  Bas- 
Ketzereyen,  p.  127),  prefers  abiding  by  the  nage  and  Henry  Dodwell  have  either  prom- 
common  opinion. — Hermogcnes  and  Phygcl-  ised  the  world  such  a  history  or  attempted 
lus  are  accused  by  Paul,  2  Tim.  i.,  15,  of  to  write  it ;  but  have  done  no  more.  We 
only  having  forsaken  him  when  he  was  im-  must  therefore  still  wait  for  some  person  of 
prisoned  at  Rome,  which  was  inconstancy,  adequate  sagacity,  fairness,  and  skill  in  an- 
but  not  heresy. — As  to  Demos,  Paul  tells  cient  philosophy  and  literature  to  accom- 
us,  2  Tim.  iv.,  10,  that,  from  love  to  the  plish  this  difficult  undertaking.  [This  has 
world,  he  had  forsaken  him.  But  this  gives  been  since  attempted  by  C.  W.  F.  Walch, 
no  ground  for  charging  him  with  being  a  her-  Entwurf  einer  vollstandigen  Historic  der 
etic. — Diotrephcs,  mentioned  in  the  3d  Ep.  Ketzereyen,  &c.,  11  vols.  8vo,  1762-85. 
of  John,  is  accused  of  a  twofold  fault ;  viz.,  JV.  Lardner,  Hist,  of  the  Heretics,  Lond., 
refusing  to  receive  those  whom  the  apostle  1780,  4to.  F.  A.  Lcwald,  de  Doctrina 
recommended  to  his  kind  offices  ;  and  set-  Gnostica,  Heidelb.,  1818,  8vo.  A.  Ncan- 
ting  himself  in  opposition  to  the  apostle,  der,  Genetische  Entwickelung  d.  vornehm- 
But  neither  of  these  offences  is  sufficient  to  sten  gnost.  Systeme,  Berlin,  1818,  8vo,  and 
constitute  him  a  heretic. — Schl.]  still  better,  in  his  Algem.  Gesch.  der  Chr. 
(4)  Professed  histories  of  the  sects  which  Relig.  u  Kirche,  vol.  i.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  602— 859. 
arose  in  this  and  the  next  century  have  been  — TV.] 

VOL.  I.— M 


90  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

ii.,  18;  1  Tim.  vi.,  20;  Col.  ii.,  8. (5)  Yet  these  stray  flocks  did  not 
become  distinguished  for  their  numbers,  or  for  their  fame  and  notoriety, 
till  the  times  of  Adrian.  Under  the  appellation  of  Gnostics,  are  included 
all  those  in  the  first  ages  of  the  church,  who  modified  the  religion  of 
Christ,  by  joining  with  it  the  Oriental  philosophy,  in  regard  to  the  source 
of  evil,  and  the  origin  of  this  material  universe.  The  leading  principles 
of  this  philosophy,  have  already  been  stated. 

§  4.  All  those  eastern  philosophers,  believing  that  rational  souls  be- 
came connected  with  matter  and  the  inhabitants  of  bodies,  contrary  to  the 
will  and  pleasure  of  the  supreme  God,  where  in  expectation  of  a  mighty 
legate  from  the  Deity,  possessed  of  consummate  wisdom  and  power  ;  who 
would  imbue,  with  a  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  the  spirits  now  oppressed 
with  the  load  of  their  bodies,  and  rescue  them  from  their  bondage  to  the 
lords  of  this  material  world.  When  therefore  some  of  them  perceived, 
that  Jesus  and  his  friends  wrought  miracles  of  a  salutary  character,  they 
were  ready  to  believe  that  Jesus  was  that  mighty  legate  of  God,  come  to 
deliver  men  from  the  power  of  the  Genii  who  governed  this  lower  world, 
and  to  rescue  souls  from  their  unhappy  connexion  with  material  bodies. 
This  supposition  being  admitted  into  minds  polluted  with  gross  errors, 
they  interpreted  or  rather  perverted  whatever  Christ  and  his  disciples 
taught,  so  as  to  make  it  harmonize  with  their  other  opinions. 

§  5.  Hence  there  necessarily  arose  among  them  a  multitude  of  opin- 
ions, which  were  extremely  foreign  from  the  precepts  of  Christ.  Their 
belief,  that  the  world  was  not  created  by  the  supreme  God  in  whom  is  all 
perfection,  but  by  one  or  more  inferior  deities  of  a  bad  or  at  least  of  an 
imperfect  character,  would  not  allow  them  to  admit  the  divine  authority 
of  the  O.  T.  scriptures  ;  and  it  led  some  of  them  to  venerate  and  extol  the 
serpent,  the  prime  author  of  sin  among  men,  and  likewise  several  of  the 
vilest  persons  mentioned  in  the  Jewish  scriptures.  The  same  belief  in- 
duced them  to  contemn  Moses,  and  the  religion  he  taught ;  and  to  represent 
him  as  instigated  to  impose  such  hard  and  unsuitable  laws  on  the  Jews, 
by  the  world's  Creator,  who  had  no  regard  for  human  happiness,  but  only 
for  his  own  glory  and  authority.'  Their  belief  that  matter  is  eternal  and 
the  source  of  all  evil,  prevented  them  from  putting  a  due  estimate  upon  the 
human  body  ;  and  from  favouring  marriage,  whereby  bodies  are  produced  ; 
and  also  from  admitting  the  doctrine  of  the  future  resurrection  of  the  body. 
Their  belief,  that  malevolent  genii  ruled  over  the  world,  and  that  from 
them  originated  all  the  diseases,  wars,  and  calamities  of  men,  led  them, 
almost  universally,  to  addict  themselves  to  magic,  or  the  art  of  weakening 
and  paralyzing  the  power  of  those  genii.  I  omit  many  other  points,  as  not 
compatible  with  so  summary  a  history  as  this. 

§  6.  Their  principles  required,  that  while  they  admitted  Christ  to  be 
the  Son  of  the  supreme  God,  and  a  messenger  sent  from  the  Plerdma  or 
upper  world  where  God  and  his  family  dwell,  for  the  benefit  of  miserable 
souls,  they  should  yet  hold  most  unworthy  sentiments  concerning  his  per- 

(5)  [The  reader  will  recollect  that  Dr.  who  laboured  to  pervert  the  truth,  and  not 
Mosheim's  opinions  concerning  a  matured  of  any  associations  of  professed  Christians 
Oriental  philosophy  existing  so  early  as  the  which  they  had  already  organized  into  church- 
Apostolic  age,  have  been  much  questioned,  es  upon  their  principles,  and  which  consti- 
(See  note  (7),  p.  61.)  Moreover,  the  texts  tuted  regular  heretical  bodies. — 7Y.J 
he  quotes,  speak  only  of  certain  false  teachers 


SCHISMS  AND  HERESIES.  91 

son  and  offices.  They  could  not  admit  him  to  be  truly  God,  nor  truly  man. 
Not  truly  God,  because  they  held  him,  though  begotten  of  God,  to  be  yet 
much  inferior  to  the  Father :  nor  truly  man,  because  everything  concrete 
and  corporeal,  they  believed  to  be  intrinsically  and  essentially  evil.  So 
that  most  of  them  divested  Christ  of  a  material  body,  and  denied  him  to 
have  suffered  for  our  sakes,  what  he  is  recorded  to  have  endured.  The 
cause  of  Christ's  coming  among  men,  they  said,  was  simply  to  strip  the 
tyrants  of  this  world,  those  impotent  genii,  of  their  power  over  the  virtu- 
ous and  heaven-born  souls  of  men ;  and  to  teach  men,  how  to  withdraw 
their  divine  minds  from  these  impure  bodies,  and  fit  them  for  a  union  with 
God. 

§  7.  Their  systems  of  morals,  we  are  informed,  were  widely  different. 
For  most  of  them  recommended  abstinence  and  austerity,  and  prescribed  the 
most  severe  bodily  mortifications ;  in  order  that  the  soul,  whose  ill  fate  it 
was  to  be  associated  with  a  body,  might  enjoy  greater  liberty,  and  be  able 
the  better  to  contemplate  heavenly  things.  For,  the  more  this  depraved 
and  grovelling  habitation  of  the  soul  is  weakened  and  attenuated,  the  less 
will  it  be  able  to  withdraw  the  mind  from  the  contemplation  of  divine  ob- 
jects. But  some  of  them  maintained,  on  the  contrary,  that  we  may  safely 
indulge  all  our  libidinous  desires ;  and  that  there  is  no  moral  difference  in 
human  actions. (6)  This  contrariety  of  opinions  need  not  surprise  us  :  be- 
cause one  and  the  same  principle  naturally  produced  both  systems.  For 
persons  who  believed  that  their  bodies  were  the  very  essence  of  evil,  and 
calculated  only  to  hold  their  souls  in  bondage,  might,  according  as  they 
were  of  a  voluptuous  or  of  a  morose  and  austere  disposition,  either  fall  into 
the  conclusion,  that  the  acts  of  the  body  have  no  connexion  with  the*  soul 
when  it  has  once  attained  to  communion  with  God ;  or,  on  the  contrary, 
believe  that  the  body  must  be  strenuously  resisted  and  opposed,  as  being 
the  enemy  of  the  soul. 

§  8.  As  these  extraordinary  opinions  required  proof,  which  it  was  not 
easy  to  find  in  the  writings  of  the  apostles,  recourse  was  had  to  falsehoods 
and  impositions.  Therefore  when  asked,  where  they  had  learned  what 
they  so  confidently  taught ;  some  produced  fictitious  books,  under  the  names 
of  Abraham,  Zoroaster,  and  Christ,  or  his  apostles  ;  some  pretended  to 
have  derived  their  principles  from  a  concealed  and  secret  doctrine  taught 
by  Christ ;  some  affirmed  that  they  had  arrived  at  this  high  degree  of  wis- 
dom, by  an  innate  energy  which  existed  in  their  own  minds ;  and  some 
pretended  that  one  Theudas,  a  disciple  of  St.  Paul,  or  Matthias,  one  of 
Christ's  disciples,  had  been  their  teacher.  Those  of  them,  who  did  not 
wholly  reject  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  either  interpreted  them 
very  absurdly,  neglecting  the  true  import  of  words,  or  corrupted  them  most 
basely,  by  retrenching  what  they  disliked  and  adding  what  they  pleased. 

§  9.  It  is  easy  to  see,  how  these  persons,  after  assuming  the  name  of 
Christians,  became  divided  into  numerous  sects.  In  the  first  place,  it  ap- 
pears from  what  has  been  already  stated,  that  they  held  very  different 
opinions  before  they  attended  to  Christianity.  Hence,  as  each  one  en- 
deavoured to  accommodate  his  own  philosophical  opinions  to  the  Christian 
religion,  it  was  the  necessary  consequence,  that  various  systems  of  reli- 
gion were  produced.  Moreover,  some  of  them  were  born  Jews,  as  Cerin- 

(6)  See  Clemens  Alex.,  Stromat.,lib.  iii.,  cap.  v.,  p.  529,  ed.  Potter. 


92       BOOK  L— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

thus  and  others,  and  did  not  wish  to  appear  contemners  of  Moses ;  while 
others  were  wholly  estranged  from  the  Jewish  religion,  and  could  indulge 
themselves  in  liberties,  which  the  former  could  not.  And  lastly,  this  whole 
system  of  philosophy  and  religion  was  destitute  of  any  fixed  and  solid  ba- 
sis, being  the  creature  of  their  own  fancy ;  and  who  does  not  know,  that 
systems  and  projects  which  are  the  productions  of  the  imagination,  never 
have  uniformity. 

$  10.  The  heads  and  leaders  of  the  philosophical  sects  which  troubled 
the  church  in  the  first  century,  next  come  to  be  considered.  The  first 
place  among  them  is,  by  many,  given  to  Dositheus,  a  Samaritan.  And  it 
is  sufficiently  proved,  that  there  was  a  man  of  this  name  among  the  Sa- 
maritans, about  the  times  of  our  Saviour ;  and  that  he  left  a  sect  behind 
him.  But  all  the  accounts  we  have  of  him,  clearly  show  that,  he  is  to  be 
ranked,  not  among  those  called  heretics,  but  among  the  enemies  of  the 
Christian  name  ;  or,  if  it  be  thought  more  correct,  among  the  delirious  and 
insane.  For  he  wished  to  be  thought  to  be  himself  the  Messiah,  or  that 
Prophet  whom  God  had  promised  to  the  Jews  ;  and  he  therefore  could  not 
have  held  Jesus  Christ  to  be  a  divine  ambassador,  or  have  merely  cor- 
rupted his  doctrines.  (7) 

§  11.  What  I  have  said  of  Dositheus,  I  would  likewise  say  of  Simon 
Magus.  This  impious  man  is  not  to  be  ranked  among  those  who  corrupted 
Christianity  by  an  intermixture  of  errors,  or  among  the  heretics ;  but  is  to 
be  classed  among  those  who  declared  open  war  against  Christianity ;  and 
this  notwithstanding  nearly  all  the  ancient  and  modern  writers  make  him 
to  ha.ve  been  the  head,  the  father,  and  the  ringleader  of  the  whole  heret- 
ical camp.  For  it  is  manifest  from  all  the  records  we  have  of  him,  that 
after  his  defection  from  the  Christians,  he  ascribed  to  Christ  no  honour  at 
all;  but  set  himself  in  opposition  to  Christ,  and  claimed  to  be  himself  the 
supreme  power  of  God. (8) 

§  12.  What  the  ancients  relate  of  the  life  and  opinions  of  Simon,  are  so 
different  and  inconsistent,  that  some  very  learned  men  have  concluded  they 
could  not  all  relate  to  one  person  ;  and  thus  they  would  make  out  two  Si- 
mons ;  the  one  Simon  Magus,  who  abandoned  the  Christian  religion ;  and 
the  other  a  Gnostic  philosopher.  On  this  point  men  will  judge  as  they 

(7)  Ja.  Basnage,  Histoire  des  Juifs,  1.  ii.,  cient  accounts  simply  mention  him  among 

cap.  xiii.,  p.  307.     Rich.  Simon,  Critique  de  the   founders   of  sects  ;  as  Hegesippus,  in 

la  Bibliotheque  des  Auteurs  Eccles.,  par  M.  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccl.,  1.  iv.,  c.  22. — It  is 

du  Pin,  torn,  iii.,  cap.  xiii.,  p.  304.     [Mo-  said,  his  followers  accounted  him  the  Mes- 

skeim,  Inst.  hist.  Chr.  major.,  p.  376.     C.  siah  ;  (Photius,  Biblioth.  cxxx.),  and  that  he, 

W.  F.    Walch,  Ketzerhistorie,  i.,  p.   182.  at  first,  claimed  to  be  so  ;  but  afterwards 

All   the  accounts  make  Dositheus  to  have  retracted,  in    presence  of  his  pupil  Simon 

lived  among  the  Samaritans  ;  one  writer  rep-  Magus;  (Clemens,  Recogn.,  1.  ii.,  8,  &c.) 

resents  him,  as  an  apostate  Jew.     Accord-  — Eulogius,  bp.  of  Alexandria  in  the  sev- 

ing  to  Origen,  (Philocal.  i.),  he  was  a  rigor-  enth  century,  wrote  against  the  Dositheans, 

ous  observer  of  the  law  of  Moses  ;  and  par-  (according  to  Photius,  Biblioth.  cxxx.),  and 

ticularly,  allowed  no  one  to  move  from  the  besides  his  pretended  messiaship,  he  attrib- 

spot  where  the  Sabbath  overtook  him.    Ac-  utes    to    Dositheus  various    errors ;    all   of 

cording  to  Epiphanius,  (Haeres.,  lib.  i.,  pt.  i.,  which  coincided  with  either  Sadducean  or 

hser.  13,  previous  to  the  Christian  heresies),  Samaritan  opinions.    See  J.  E.  C.  Schmidt, 

he  was  an  apostate  Jew,  whose  ambition  be-  Handb.  d.  christl.  Kirchengeschichte,  vol.  i., 

ing  disappointed,  he  retired  among  the  Sa-  §  50,  p.  214,  &c. — TV.] 

maritans,  lived  in  a  cave,  and  fasted  so  rig-  (8)  See  Origen,  adv.  Celsum,  lib.  v.,  p. 

orou.sly  as  to  occasion  his  death.     Other  an-  272,  ed.  Spencer. 


SCHISMS  AND  HERESIES.  93 

please  ;  bxit  to  us  it  appears  neither  safe  nor  necessary  to  reject  the  testi- 
mony of  the  ancients  that  there  was  only  one  Simon. (9)  He  was  by  birth 
either  a  Samaritan  or  a  Jew ;  and  after  studying  philosophy  at  Alexan- 
dria^ 10)  he  professed  to  be  a  magician,  as  was  common  in  that  age  ;  and 
by  his  fictitious  miracles,  persuaded  the  Samaritans  among  others  that  ho 
had  received  from  God  the  power  of  controlling  those  evil  spirits  which 
afflict  mankind;  Acts  viii.,  9,  10.  On  seeing  the  miracles  which  Philip 
performed  by  divine  power,  Simon  joined  himself  to  Philip,  professed  to 
be  a  Christian,  and  hoped  to  learn  from  the  Christians  the  art  of  working 
miracles.  When  cut  off  from  this  hope  by  the  pointed  reproof  of  Peter, 
Acts  viii.,  9,  10,  he  not  only  returned  to  his  old  course  of  sorcery,  but 
wherever  he  went,  he  laboured  to  obstruct  the  progress  of  Christianity. 
The  accounts  of  his  tragical  death,  and  of  a  statue  decreed  him  at  Rome, 
are  rejected  with  great  unanimity  by  the  learned  at  the  present  day.  They 
are  at  least  uncertain  and  improbable. (11) 

§  13.  Simon  undoubtedly  belonged  to  that  class  of  philosophers  who 
admitted  as  co-existent  with  the  supreme  and  all-perfect  God,  not  only 
eternal  matter,  but  an  evil  deity  who  presides  over  it..  And  if  I  mistake 
not,  he  was  one  of  those  in  this  class  who  believed  matter  to  have  been 
eternally  animated,  and  at  a  certain  period  to  have  brought  forth,  by  its  in- 
herent energies,  that  depraved  being  who  now  rules  over  it,  surrounded  by 
numerous  attendants.  From  this  opinion  of  Simon,  the  other  gross  errors 
ascribed  to  him  by  the  ancients  concerning  fate,  the  indifference  of  human 
actions,  the  impurity  of  the  human  body,  the  power  of  magic,  &c.,  would  very 
naturally  follow.(12)  The  most  shocking  of  all  his  abominations  was,  his 

(9)  See  the  Dissertation  by  G.  C.  Voel-  gratiate  himself  with  Nero,  he  attempted  to 
ger,    revised   and   published   by    Moshcim,  fly,  being  assisted  by  evil  spirits  ;  but  that 
Diss.  ad  Histor.  Eccles.  Pertinentes,  vol.  by  the  prayers  of  St.  Peter,  the  evil  spirit* 
ii.,  p.  55,  dec.,  de  uno  Simone  Mago.    [The  were  compelled  to  let  him  fall,  which  either 
idea  of  two  Simons,  the  one  a  Samaritan  killed  him  outright,  or  broke  his  bones  and 
mentioned  in  Acts  viii.,  the  other  a  Jewish  so  mortified  him,  that  he  killed  himself;  is 
philosopher  in  the  reign  of  Domitian  and  the  too  improbable,  and  has  too  much  the  as- 
father  of  all  the  Gnostic  sects;  was   first  pect  of  fiction,  to  gain  credit  in  this  enlight- 
thrown  out  as  a  conjecture,  by  Camp.  Vi-  ened  age. — And  the  mistake  of  Justin  Mar- 
tringa,  Observ.  sacrar.,  1.  v.,  c.  12,  §  9,  p.  tyr,  Apol.  i.,  c.  34,  who  says  he  saw  a  pub- 
159,  and  afterwards  defended  by  C.  A.  Heu-  lie  statue,  inscribed  to  Simon,  on  an  island 
mann,  Acta  erudit.,  Lips.,  for  April,  A.D.  in  the  Tiber  at  Rome  ;  has  been  satisfacto- 
1717,  p.  179,  and  J.  de  Beausobre,  Diss.  rily  accounted  for,  since  the  discover)' in  the 
sur  les  Adamites,  pt.  ii.,  subjoined  to  UEn-  year  1574,  of  a  stone  in  the  Tiber  at  Rome, 
/ant's  Histoire  de  la  guerre  des  Hussites,  bearing  this  inscription :  Semoni  Sanco,  Deo 
$  1,  p.   350,  &c. — But  this  hypothesis  is  Fidio.     For  this  inscription,  which  Justin, 
now  generally  given  up. — TV.]  being  an  Asiatic,   might  easily   misunder- 

(10)  Clementina,    homil.    ii.,    in    Patr.     stand,  was  undoubtedly  intended  for  an  an- 
Apostol.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  533.  cient  pagan  god. —  TV.] 

(11)  See  /*.  de  Beausobre,  Histoire    de  (12)  The  dissertation  of  Jo.  Hen.  Horbius, 
Manichee,  p.  203,  395.     Anth.  van  Dale,  de  Simone  Mago,  though  a  juvenile  produc- 
Diss.  de  Statua  Simonis ;   annexed    to  his  tion  and  needing  correction  in  style,  I  pre- 
book  de  Oraculis,  p.  579.     Sal.  Deyling,  fer  to  all  others  on  this  subject.     It  will  be 
Observatt.  sacrar.,  1.   i.,  observ.  xxxvi.,  p.  found  republished  by  Jo.   Voiglius,  in  the 
140.     Scb.  Tillcnumt,  Memoires  pour  servir  Biblioth   Haeresiologica,  torn,  i.,  pt.  iii.,  p. 
a  1'histoire  de  1'Eglisc,  torn,  i.,  p.  340,  and  511.     Horbius  treads  closely  in  the  steps  of 
numerous   others. —  [What   Arnobms,  adv.  his  preceptor,   Ja.    Thomas  lit  s  ;  who  very 
Gentes,  1.  ii.,  p.  64,  ed.  Herald,  and  after  clearly  saw  the  source  of  those  numerous  er- 
hiin  many  others  relate,  with  some  variety,  rors'by  which  the  Gnostics,  and  especially  Si- 
concerning  Simon's  death  ;  viz.,  that  while  mon,  were  infected.    The  other  writers  who 
practising  magic  at  Rome,  in  order  to  in-  have  treated  of  Sunon,  are  enumerated  by 


94       BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

pretence  that  the  greatest  and  most  powerful  of  the  divine  Aeons  of  the 
male  sex,  resided  in  himself;  and  likewise,  that  another  Aeon  of  the  fe- 
male sex,  the  mother  of  all  human  souls,  resided  in  his  mistress  Helena ; 
and  his  proclaiming  that  the  supreme  God  had  despatched  him  down  to 
this  world,  to  break  up  the  empire  of  the  world's  creator,  and  to  deliver 
Helena  out  of  that  tyrant's  hands.(13) 

§  14.  From  Simon  Magus  it  is  said,  Menander,  who  was  also  a  Samar- 
itan, learned  his  doctrine  ;  which  is  no  more  true  than  what  the  ancients 
relate,  that  all  the  heretical  sects  derived  their  origin  from  this  Simon. 
Menander  is  to  be  stricken  from  the  list  of  proper  heretics,  and  to  be  classed 
among  the  lunatics  and  madmen,  who  foolishly  arrogated  to  themselves  the 
character  of  saviours  of  mankind.  For  it  appears  from  the  testimony  of 
Iren&us,  Justin  Martyr,  and  Tertullian, (\4c)  that  he  wished  to  be  thought 
one  of  the  Aeons  sent  from  the  upper  world,  or  the  Pleroma,  to  succour 
the  souls  that  were  here  suffering  miserably  in  material  bodies  ;  and  to  af- 
ford them  aid  against  the  machinations  and  the  violence  of  the  demons  who 
govern  our  world.  As  he  erected  his  religious  system  on  nearly  the  same 
fundamental  principles  as  Simon  did  his,  the  ancients  supposed  that  he 
must  have  been  a  disciple  of  Simon. 

§  15.  If  those  now  mentioned  are  excluded  from  the  number  of  the  her- 
etics of  the  first  century,  the  first  place  among  the  Christian  sects,  and  also 
among  those  denominated  Gnostics,  seems  to  belong  to  the  Nicolaitans ; 
of  whom  Jesus  Christ  himself  expressed  his  detestation,  Apoc.  ii.,  6,  14, 
15.  It  is  true  the  Saviour  does  not  tax  them  with  errors  in  matters  of  faith, 
but  only  with  licentious  conduct,  and  a  disregard  of  the  injunction  of  the 
apostles  to  abstain  from  meats  offered  to  idols,  and  from  fornication,  Acts 
xv.,  29.  But  the  writers  of  the  second  and  the  following  centuries,  Ire- 
nasus,  Tertullian,  Clemens  Alex., (15)  and  others,  declare  that  they  taught 
the  same  doctrines  with  the  Gnostics,  concerning  tuio  principles  of  all 
things,  and  concerning  the  Aeons,  and  the  origin  of  the  present  world. 
Whether  this  testimony  is  to  be  admitted,  or  whether  we  are  to  suppose 
that  .the  ancients  confounded  two  different  sects  which  bore  the  same  name  ; 
the  one  the  Apocalyptical  Nicolaitans,  and  the  other  a  Gnostic  sect  of  the 
second  century,  founded  by  a  man  named  Nicolaus ;  is  a  question  which  ad- 
mits of  doubt.(16) 

Voigtius,  ubi  supra,  p.  567.    [See  C.  W.  F.  (16)  [See  Demonstratio  Sectae  Nicolaita- 

Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzer.,  vol.  i.,  p.  152,  rum,  adv.  doctiss.  ejus  oppugnatores,  cum 

&c.     The  English  reader  will  find  a  full,  Supplemento,  in  Mosheim's  Diss.  ad   His- 

but  not  very  accurate  account  of  Simon  in  tor.  Eccles.  pertinent.,  vol.  i.,  p.  389-495. 

Calmet's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible. — Tr.~\  Also  Mosheim's  Institut.  Hist.  Christ,  ma- 

(13)  Some  very  learned  men,  I  am  aware,  jor,  p.  46  ;  and  Comment,  de  Reb.  Christ. 
have  supposed  that  the  ancient  accounts  of  ante  Constant.  M.,  p.   195  ;  and  especially 
Simon's  Helena  should  be  interpreted  alle-  C.  W.  F.  WaJch,  Entwf  d.  Gesch.  d.  Ket- 
gorically  ;  and  that  Simon  intended,  by  the  zereyen,  vol.  i.,  p.   167.     All  the  ancients, 
name  of  Helena,  to  indicate  matter,  or  the  except  John  Cassianus,  (Collatio  xviii.,  c. 
soul,  or  something,  I  know  not  what.     But  16),  supposed  that  Nicolaus  of  Antioch,  the 
for  such  an  allegorical  interpretation,  it  would  deacon,  (Acts  vi.,  5),  was  either  the  founder 
be  easy  to  show,  there  is  little  foundation.  or  the  accidental  cause  of  this  sect.     Irenezus 

(14)  [Ireruzus,lib.  i.,c.  23.     Justin  Mar-  makes  him  to  have  been  the  founder  of  it. 
tyr,  Apol.  ii.,  p.  69.     Tertullian,  de  Anima,  But  Clemens  Alex,  states  that  an  incautious 
cap.  50,  and  de  Resurrect.,  c.  5. — Tr.]  speech  or  act  of  his  gave  occasion  only  to 

(15)  [Irerueut,  lib.  iii.,  c.  2,  and  1.  ii.,  c.  this  sect.     For  he  being  one  day  accused 
37.     Tertull.,  de  Prescript.,  c.  46.     Clem,  of  too  much  attention  to  his  wife,  when  he 
Alex.,  Strom.,  1.  iii.,  c.  4. — Tr.}  came  to  defend  himself  he  publicly  divorced 


SCHISMS  AND  HERESIES. 


95 


§  16.  With  greater  propriety  we  may  reckon  among  the  Gnostics,  Ce- 
rinthus,  a  Jew  by  birth,  (1 7)  but  educated  and  taught  philosophy  at  Alexan- 
dria.(18)  Though  some  of  the  learned  have  chosen  to  assign  him  rather 
to  the  second  century  than  to  the  first, (19)  yet  it  appears  that  it  was  while 
St.  John  was  still  living,  that  he  endeavoured  to  form  a  new  sect  and  to 
inculcate  a  singular  system  of  religion,  compounded  of  the  doctrines  and 
principles  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  those  of  the  Gnostics  and  Jews.  From  the 
Gnostics  he  borrowed  the  notions  of  a  Plerdma,  Aeons,  a  Demiurge,  <fcc., 
but  these  he  so  modified  that  they  appeared  not  wholly  inconsistent  with 
the  opinions  of  the  Jews.  Therefore,  to  the  creator  of  this  world,  whom 
also  he  acknowledged  to  be  the  sovereign  and  the  lawgiver  of  the  Jewish 
nation,  he  ascribed  a  nature  possessed  of  the  highest  virtues  and  derived 
from  the  true  God  ;  but  which,  he  affirmed,  had  gradually  receded  from 
its  primitive  excellence  and  deteriorated.  Hence  God  had  determined  to 
subvert  his  power,  by  means  of  one  of  the  blessed  Aeons  whose  name  was 
Christ.  This  Christ  had  entered  into  a  certain  Jew  named  Jesus,  (a  very 
righteous  and  holy  man,  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Mary  by  ordinary  genera- 
tion), by  descending  upon  him  in  the  form  of  a  dove,  at  the  time  when  he 
was  baptized  by  John  in  the  river  Jordan.  After  his  union  with  Christ, 
this  Jesus  vigorously  assailed  the  God  of  the  Jews,  the  world's  creator  ; 
and  by  his  instigation  Jesus  was  seized  by  the  rulers  of  the  Jewish  nation 


forms  of  worship,  than  is  common  for  the 
Gnostic  heretics.  Watch's  Entw.  der  His- 
torie  der  Ketz.,  vol.  i.,  p.  250. — Schl.'] 

(18)  Thcodorct,  Fabul.    Haeret.,   lib.   ii., 
cap.  3,  Opp.,  torn,  iii.,  p.  219. 

(19)  See   Sam.   Basnage,   Annal.  polit. 
eccles.,    torn,    ii.,    p.    6.      Peter    Faydit, 
Eclaircisements    sur    1'histoire    eccles.    de 
deux  premiers  siecles,  cap.  v.,  p.  64 ;  and 
others. — With  these,  Jo.  Fr.  Buddeus  con- 
tends, de  Ecclesia  Apostol.,  cap.  v.,  p.  412  ; 
[and  Tillemont,  Me"moires  pour  servira  1'his- 
toire  de  I'Eglisc,  tome  ii.,  p.  436  :  and  Mo- 
sheim, Institut.  Hist,  eccles.  major.,  sec.  i., 
p.  439,  &c.     They  who  place  Cerinthus  in 
the  second  century,  rely  chiefly  on  two  argu- 
ments.    The  first  is,  that  the  ancient  writers 
who  treat  of  the  heretics,  set  down  Cerinthus 
after  Marcion,  [rather  after  Carpocrates. — 
Tr.]     The  other  rests  on  a  spurious  letter  of 
Pius,  bishop  of  Rome,  [in  the  middle  of  the 
second  century. — Tr.],  to  Justus,  bishop  of 
Vienne  ;  in  which  Pius  laments  that  Cerin- 
thus was  at  that  time  making  many  prose- 
lytes.    The  epistle  may  be  found  in  Con- 
stant. Epistol.  Pontific.,  Append.,  torn,  i.,  p. 
19,  [and  in  Binius,  Concil.  Gen.,  torn,  i.,  p. 
124. — Tr.]     But  the  first  argument  proves 
nothing,  because  the  historians  of  the  here- 
sies pay  no  regard  to  chronological  order ; 
and  the  second  falls,  because  the  epistle  is 
not  genuine. — Schl.] — But,  see  on  this  sub- 
ject, Fr.  Ad.  Lampe,  Commentar.  in  Johan. 
Proleg.,  lib.  ii.,  c.  3,  $  13,  &c.,  p.  181,  &c. 
-Tr.] 


her,  using  the  expression,  on 
•&ai  TT)  aapul  Ah,  it  is  proper  to  abuse  the 
flesh ;  i.  e.,  to  subdue  its  corrupt  propensi- 
ties. This  speech  was  afterward  perversely 
applied  by  a  Gnostic  association  to  justify 
their  abominations.  To  this  account,  agree 
Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccl.,  1.  iii.,c.  29.  Ttieod- 
oret,  Hceret.  Fab.,  1.  iii.,  c.  1,  torn,  iv.,  Opp., 
p.  226  ;  and  Augustine,  de  Hares.,  cap.  5. 
Now  the  question  arises,  whether  there  ac- 
tually was  in  the  time  of  St.  John,  a  hereti- 
cal party  holding  different  fundamental  prin- 
ciples from  the  orthodox,  and  distinguish- 
ed by  the  name  of  Nicolaitans.  Some  say 
there  was ;  others  say  there  was  not.  Dr. 
Mosheim  takes  the  affirmative,  on  account 
of  the  historical  credibility  of  the  fathers, 
and  the  literal  import  of  the  words  used 
in  the  Apocalypse.  The  next  question  is, 
Who  was  the  founder  of  this  sect  1  Here, 
some  follow  Irenarus ;  others  follow  Cle- 
mens Alex. ;  and  some,  among  whom  is  Dr. 
Mushcim,  think  it  probable  there  were  two 
persons  of  the  name  of  Nicolaus.  If  this 
supposition  be  admitted,  it  will  be  easy  to 
account  for  the  fact,  that  the  Nicolaitans  of 
the  fathers  are  accused  of  Gnosticism,  while 
there  is  no  mention  of  it  in  the  Apocalypse. 
— Baumgartcn's  Auszug  der  Kirchenges- 
chichte,  th.  i.,  p.  458.— Schl.] 

(1.7)  [For  Efriphanius  states,  Hares. 
xxviii.,  t)  3,  that  he  was  circumcised;  and 
Johannes  Dainasccnus,  de  Hares.,  cap.  8, 
that  his  followers  were  Jews.  His  doctrines, 
also,  show  a  higher  respect  for  the  Jewish 


96       BOOK  I.— CENTURY  I.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

and  nailed  to  the  cross.  But  when  Jesus  was  apprehended,  Christ  flew 
away  to  heaven  ;  so  that  only  the  man  Jesus  was  put  to  death.  Cerinthus 
required  his  followers  to  worship  the  supreme  God,  the  father  of  Christ, 
together  with  Christ  himself;  but  to  abandon  the  Jewish  Lawgiver,  whom 
he  accounted  the  creator  of  this  world  ;  and  while  they  retained  some  parts 
of  the  Mosaic  law,  to  regulate  their  lives  chiefly  by  the  precepts  of  Christ. 
He  promised  them  a  resurrection  of  their  bodies  ;  which  would  be  suc- 
ceeded by  exquisite  delights  in  the  millenary  reign  of  Christ ;  and  then 
would  follow  a  happy  and  never-ending  life  in  the  celestial  world.  For 
Cerinthus  supposed  that  Christ  would  hereafter  return,  and  would  unite 
himself  again  with  the  man  Jesus,  in  whom  he  had  before  dwelt,  and 
would  reign  with  his  followers  during  a  thousand  years  in  Palestine. (20) 
§  17.  Those  who  maintained  the  necessity  of  the  Mosaic  law  and  cer- 
emonies in  order  to  eternal  salvation,  had  not  proceeded  so  far  in  this 
century,  as  to  have  no  communion  with  those  who  thought  differently. 
They  were  of  course  accounted  brethren,  though  weaker  ones.  But  after 
the  second  destruction  of  Jerusalem  in  the  reign  of  Adrian,  when  they 
withdrew  from  the  other  Christians  and  set  up  separate  congregations, 
they  were  regarded  as  sectarians,  who  had  deviated  from  the  true  doctrines 
of  Christ.  Hence  arose  the  names,  Nazareans(2l)  and  Ebionites ;(22)  by 
which  those  Christians,  whose  errors  originated  from  an  attachment  to  the 
Mosaic  law,  were  discriminated  from  the  other  Christians,  who  held  that 
the  Mosaic  ceremonial  law  was  abrogated  by  Christ.  These  Nazareans 
or  Ebionites,  though  commonly  set  down  among  the  sects  of  the  apostolic 
age,  in  reality  belong  to  the  second  century,  in  which  they  first  became  a 
distinct  sect. 

(20)  [The    doctrines   of  Cerinthus   are  gion  of  Christ.     Of  these  Nazareans,  Mo- 
stated  in  full,  by  C.  W.  F.  Walch,  Entwurf  shcim  treats  largely,  Institut.  Hist.   Christ. 
der  Gesch.  d.  Ketzereyen,  vol.    i.,  p.   260,  major.,  p.   465,  and   Comment,   de   Rebus 
&c.,  and  by  Mosheim,  Institut.  Hist.  Christ.  Christ,  ante  Const.  M.,  p.  328  ;  as  also  C. 
major.,    p.   445,   and    Comment,   de   Reb.  W.  F.   Walch.  Entw.  d.  Gesch.  d.  Ketzer- 
Christianor.  ante  Constant.  M.,  p.  196 — It  eyen,  vol.  i.,  p.  101,  &c. — SchL] 

may  be  remarked,  that  Ircnaus,  adv.  Hae-  (22)  [The  origin  of  this  name  is  still  a 

res.,  1.  iii.,  c.  3,  says  he  had  heard  from  va-  subject  of  controversy.     Some  derive  it  from 

rious  persons,  that  Polycarp  told  them  that  a  founder  of  this  sect,  who  was  called  Ebion. 

the  apostle  John  once  met  Cerinthus  in  a  Others  think  the  name  Ebionites,  to  be  equiv- 

public  bath  at   Ephesus,  and  instantly  fled  alent  to  the  Hebrew  word  Q^JV^X  poor 
out,  saving  he  was  afraid  the  bath  would  fall 

on  that  enemy  of  the  truth  and  kill   him.  Pe°Pk  :  but.  ^  a™  not  a?r*ed  «%  thls 

This  story   may  be  true;    notwithstandmg  name  was  given  to  the  sect.     Others  again, 

Irenaus  had  it  from  third  hand  testimony  [e8ard  lhfe  whole  subJcct  af  a  historical  prob- 

But  the  addition  to  it,  that   Cenntlms  was  lem'  that  carn  never  be  f  lvfed  wlth  absolu'e 

actually  k.lled  by  the  fall  of  the   building,  "rta'nt-^  /'  "  *****  ,°f  W*  ^ G' 

as  soon  as  John  was  gone  out,  was  first  an-  W-  F   Wdc^.  Entw^  der ,Gf  ch,/,Ket' 

ncxed  in  modern  times  by  the  Dominican  fre.yen>  ™}~  '".  P-  J,1,0;  and  by  Moshcim 

Bernhard  of  Luxemburg,  in  his  Catalogus  Ins,tltu''.  "istonae  Christ,    major.,   p.  477, 

Haereticorum  ;    and  it  deserves  no  credit,  and  mhisDiss.  qua  ostenditur,  certohod.eet 

See  Walch,  ubi  supra,  p.  255.— Schl.]  explorate  constitui  non  posse,  utrum  Ehon 

(21)  [This  name  the  Jews  first  gave  by  q™lam   novae  Sectae  auc  tor  ex  Went  ohm 
way  of  reproach,  to  the  disciples  of  Christ;  mter  Christianos,  nee  ne  ?  in  his  Dissertt.  ad 
because  he  was  a  citizen  of  Nazareth.     Acts  J18t-  ,Ecc'eLs  P??"1!?*''  V°L '"  P  547>  &c' 
xxiv.,  5.     Afterwards  the  name  was  applied  ?ee  also  Chr'  Alb'  Doederlcm,  Commentar. 
especially  to  a  Christian  sect,  which  endeav-  de  Eblonaeis  e  n"!!!lroQhostlu^  ^,hnnstl 
oured  to  unite  the  Mosaic  law  with  the  reli-  mendls>  Buzow>  1770>  8vo— 


CENTURY    SECOND. 
PART  I. 

THE   EXTERNAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE    PROSPEROUS   EVENTS    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

$  1.  Character  of  the  Roman  Emperors. — §  2.  Propagation  of  Christianity  in  the  Roman 
Empire. — §  3.  Countries  enlightened  by  Christianity. — (/  4.  Conversion  of  the  Germans. 
— 6  5.  The  Gauls  converted. — §  6.  Translation  of  the  N.  T. — §  7.  Apologies  and  other 
Writings  of  Christians. — §  8.  Miracles  and  Extraordinary  Gifts. — $  9.  Miracle  of  the 
Thundering  Legion. — §  10.  It  is  uncertain. — §  11.  Sedition  and  Slaughter  of  the  Jews. 
— $  12.  Philosophers  become  Christians. 

§  1.  MOST  of  the  Roman  emperors  of  this  century  were  of  a  mild  and 
equitable  character.  Trajan,  [A.D.  98-1 17 j,  though  too  eager  for  glory, 
and  not  always  sufficiently  considerate  and  provident,  was  humane  and 
equitable.  Adrian  [A.D.  117-138]  was  more  severe,  yet  not  absolutely 
bad  and  tyrannical  ;  his  character  was  a  compound  of  virtues  and  vices. 
The  Antonines  [Pius  A.D.  138-161,  Marcus  Aurelius  the  P/iilos.  A.D 
161-180,  with  Verus  A.D.  161-169,  and  Commodus  A.D.  169-192]  were 
models  of  excellence  and  benignity.  Even  Severus,  [A.D.  193-211], 
who  afterwards  assumed  another  character,  was  at  first  oppressive  to  no 
one,  and  to  the  Christians  mild  and  equitable. 

§  2.  Through  this  lenity  of  the  emperors,  Christians  living  in  the  Ro- 
man empire  suffered  far  less,  than  they  would  have  done  if  they  had  been 
under  severer  lords.  The  laws  enacted  against  them  were  indeed  suffi- 
ciently hard  ;  and  the  magistrates,  excited  by  the  priests  and  the  populace, 
often  made  considerable  havoc  among  them,  and  frequently  went  much  be- 
yond what  the  laws  required.  Yet  for  these  evils  some  relief  was  commonly 
attainable.  Trajan  would  not  have  the  Christians  to  be  sought  after  ;  and 
he  forbid  any  complaints  being  received  against  them,  without  the  names  of 
the  accusers  tuuuxed.ll.)  And  Antoninus  Pius  even  decreed,  that  their  ac- 
cusers should  be  punished.(2)  Some  in  one  way,  and  others  in  another, 

(1)  See  Pliny'1  s  Epistles,  lib.  x.,  ep.  98.  itself.     For  we  know  from  history,  that  the 

(2)  Etiscbiits,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  iv.,  cap.  earthquakes  mentioned  in  the  edict,  happen- 
13,  [where  the  law  of  Antoninus  is  given  at  ed  under  Pius.     Sec   Cap'lnlums,  Life  of 
length,  from  the  Apology  of  Mclito.     Some  Antoninus  Pius,  cap.  9.    Besides,  if  Afore** 
indeed,  have  supposed  that  it.  was  Marcus  himself  had  published  this  edict,  Mclito  could 
Antoninus,  and  not  Antoninus  Pius,  who.  have  had  no  occasion,  by  this  Apology,  to  im- 
issued  this  decree.     (So  Valesius  in  loc.)  plore  the  grace  of  this  emperor  in  favour  of 
But  this  is  contrary  to  the  express  testimony  the   Christians.     See  Moshcun,  de   Rebus* 
of  Eimcliiiis,  and  to  the  contents  of  the  edict  Christ,  ante  Constant.  M.,  p.  210. — Schl.) 

VOL.  I.— N 


98 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  I.— CHAP.  I. 


protected  them  against  the  evil  designs  of  the  populace  and  the  priests. 
Hence  the  Christian  community  increased,  and  became  vastly  numerous 
in  this  century.  Of  this  fact  we  have  the  clearest  testimony  of  the  ancients, 
which  some  have  in  vain  attempted  to  call  in  question. (3) 

$  3.  On  what  particular  countries,  both  within  the  Roman  empire  and 
beyond  it,  the  light  of  heavenly  truth  first  shone  in  this  century,  the  defects 
in  the  ancient  records  will  not  allow  us  to  state  with  precision.  There  are 
unexceptionable  witnesses  who  declare,  that  in  nearly  all  the  East,  and 
among  the  Germans,  the  Spaniards,  the  Celts,  the  Britons,  and  other  na- 
tions, Christ  was  now  worshipped  as  God.(4)  But  if  any  inquire,  which 
of  these  nations  received  Christianity  in  this  century,  and  which  in  the 
preceding,  it  is  not  in  my  power  to  answer. — Pantacnus,  master  of  the 
school  at  Alexandria,  is  said  to  have  instructed  the  Indians  in  Christian- 
ity.(5)  But  these  Indians  appear  to  have  been  certain  Jews,  living  in 


(3)  See  Walt.  Moyle,  de  Legione  fulmi- 
natrice  ;  a  Latin  translation  of  which,  with 
notes,  I  have  annexed  to  my  Syntagma  Diss. 
ad  sanctiores  disciplinas  pertinent.,  p.  652— 
661.     See  also  an  additional  passage  in  Jus- 
tin Martyr,  Dial,  cum  Tryphone,  p.  341. 

(4)  Irenaus,  adv.  Hceres.,  1.  i.,  c.  10.    Ter- 
tullian,  adv.  Judseos,  cap.  7.     [The  testi- 
mony of  the  former  is  this :   "  Neither  do 
those  churches,  which  are  established  among 
the  Germans,  believe  or  teach  otherwise ; 
nor  do  those  among  the  Hiberii,  or  among 
the  Celts ;  nor  those  in  the  East ;  nor  those 
in  Egypt ;  nor  those  in  Libya ;  nor  those 
established  in  the  central  parts  of  the  world." 
— The  language  of  Tertullian  is  rhetorical ; 
and  the  statement,  undoubtedly,  somewhat 
too  strong.     He  says :  "  In  whom,  but  the 
Christ  now  come,  have  all  nations  believed  1 
For,  in  whom  do  all  other  nations  (but  yours, 
the  Jews)  confide ;  Parthians,  Medes.  Elam- 
ites,  and  the  dwellers  in  Mesopotamia,  Ar- 
menia, Phrygia,  Cappadocia,  and  inhabitants 
of   Pontus  and  Asia,  and  Pamphylia  ;  the 
dwellers  in  Egypt,  and  inhabitants  of  the  re- 
gion beyond   Gyrene  1    Romans  and  stran- 
gers ;  and  in  Jerusalem  both  Jews  and  pros- 
elytes ;  so  that  the  various  tribes  of  the  Ge- 
tuli,  and  the  numerous  hordes  of  the  Mauri  ; 
all  the  Spanish  clans,  and  the  different  na- 
tions of  Gauls,  and  the  regions  of  the  Brit- 
ons inaccessible  to  the  Romans  but  subject 
to  Christ,  and  of  the  Sarmatians  and  Daci- 
ans,  and  Germans,  and  Scythians,  and  many 
unexplored  nations,  and  countries,  and  isl- 
ands unknown  to  us,  and  which  we  cannot 
enumerate : — in  all  which  places,  the  name 
of  the  Christ  who  has  already  come,  now 
reigns." — Tr.] 

(5)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  v.,  c.  10. 
Jerome,  de  Scriptoribus  Illustr.,  c.  36.     [Ac- 
cording to  Euselnus,  the  zeal  of  Pantanus 
prompted  him  to  undertake  a  voluntary  mis- 
sion among  the  Indians.     But  according  to 


Jerome,  (de  Scriptor.  illustr.,  c.  36,  and 
Epist.  83,  Opp.,  torn,  iv.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  656,  ed. 
Bened.),  he  was  sent  out  by  Demetrius,  bp. 
of  Alexandria,  in  consequence  of  a  request 
made  by  the  Indians  for  a  Christian  teacher. 
Perhaps  Pantanus  first  spontaneously  trav- 
elled among  the  nearer  Arabians  ;  and,  upon 
the  request  of  the  people  here  called  Indians 
for  a  teacher,  Demetrius  directed  him  to 
visit  that  people. — As  it  is  well  known,  that 
the  Greek  and  Latin  writers  give  the  name 
of  Indians  to  the  Persians,  Parthians,  Medes, 
Arabians,  Ethiopians,  Libyans,  and  many 
other  nations,  to  them  little  known  ;  the 
learned  have  inquired,  who  were  the  Indians 
visited  by  Pantcmus  1  Many  think,  they 
were  those  we  call  the  East  Indians,  inhab- 
iting the  country  about  the  river  Indus. 
Jerome  so  thought ;  for  he  represents  him 
as  sent  to  instruct  the  Brachmans.  Hen. 
Valesius  and  Lu.  Holstenius  and  others 
suppose,  they  were  the  Abyssinians  or  Ethi- 
opians ;  who  are  often  called  Indians,  who 
were  near  and  always  had  intercourse  with 
the  Egyptians.  See  S.  Basnage,  Annal.  po- 
lit.  eccles.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  207.  Valesius,  Ad- 
notat.  ad  Socratis  Hist.  Eccles.,  p.  13.  Oth- 
ers incline  to  believe  them  Jews,  resident  in 
Yemen  or  Arabia  Felix,  a  country  often  called 
India.  That  they  were  not  strangers  to  Chris- 
tianity, is  evident  from  their  having  Mat- 
thew's Gospel  among  them,  and  from  their 
desiring  some  one  to  expound  it  to  them. 
Their  applying  to  the  bp.  of  Alexandria, 
shows  that  Egypt  was  to  them  the  most  ac- 
cessible Christian  country  ;  and  their  having 
the  Gospel  written  in  Hebrew,  as  Jerome 
testifies,  is  good  proof  that  they  were  Jews ; 
because  no  other  people  understood  that  lan- 
guage. Besides,  Bartholomew  had  formerly 
been  among  them ;  the  field  of  whose  la- 
bours has  been  supposed  to  be  Arabia  Felix. 
See  Tillcmonfs  life  of  Bartholomew,  in  his 
Memoires  pour  servir  a  1'histoire  de  1'Eglise, 


PROSPEROUS  EVENTS. 


99 


Arabia  Felix  ;  among  whom  the  apostle  Bartholomew  had  previously  intro- 
duced the  Christian  religion.  For  Pantaenus  found  among  them,  according 
to  the  testimony  of  Jerome,  the  Gospel  of  St.  Matthew,  which  they  had  re- 
ceived from  their  first  teacher  Bartholomew. 

§  4.  From  Gaul,  it  would  seem,  the  Christian  religion  must  have  spread 
into  Germany  on  the  left  of  the  Rhine,  which  was  subject  to  the  Romans, 
and  also  into  Britain  over  against  Gaul. (6)  Yet  certain  churches  in  Ger- 
many have  been  accustomed  to  deduce  their  origin  from  the  companions 
and  disciples  of  St.  Peter  and  other  apostles  ;(7)  and  the  Britons,  follow- 
ing the  account  given  by  Beda,  would  fain  believe,  that  their  king  Lucius 
sought  and  obtained  Christian  teachers  from  Eleutherus  the  Roman  pontiff, 
in  this  second  century,  and  during  the  reign  of  Marcus  Antoninus.  (8)  But 


torn,  i.,  p.   1160,  1161.— See  Mosheim,  de 
Reb.  Christ,  ante  C.  M.,  p.  206, 207.— Tr.] 

(6)  On  the  origin  of  the  German  church- 
es, mentioned  by  Tertullian  and  Irenaus  as 
existing  in  this  century,  Jo.  Hen.  Ursinus, 
Bcbclius,  and  others  have  written  ;  and  still 
better,  Gabriel  Liron,  Singularitez  histori- 
ques  et  littcraires,  torn,  iv.,  Paris,  1740,  8vo. 
— The  common  and  popular  accounts  of  the 
first  preachers  of  the  Gospel  in  Germany, 
are   learnedly  impugned  by   Aug.    Calmet, 
Histoire  de  Lorraine,  torn.  i.     Diss.  sur  les 
Eveques  de  Treves,  p.  3,  4.     Holland,  Acta 
sanctorum,  January,  torn,  ii.,  p.  922.     Jo. 
Nic.  de  Hontheim,  Diss.  de  aera  episcopal. 
Trevirensis  ;  in  Histories  Trevirensis  torn.  i. 

(7)  [It  is  said,  St.  Peter  sent  Eucherius, 
Valerius,  and  Maternus  into  Belgic  Gaul ; 
and  that  they  planted  the  churches  of  Co- 
logne, Treves,  Tongres,  Liege,  and  some 
others,  and  presided  over  them  till  their 
death.     See  C/iristo.  Browcr,  Annales  Tre- 
virenses,  1.  ii.,  p.  143,  &c.,  and  Acta  Sane- 
tor.  Antwerpiensia,  29th  of  January,  p.  918. 
— But  Calmet,  Bolland,  and  Hontheim,  (ubi 
supra),  have  proved  satisfactorily,  that  these 
pretended  founders  of  the  German  churches, 
did  not  live  earlier  than  the  third  or  fourth 
century ;    and  that   they    were    first   repre- 
sented as  being  legates  of  the  apostles,  in 
the  middle  ages. — See  Mosheim,   de  Reb. 
Christ.,  &c.,  p.  212.— Tr.] 

(8)  See  Ja.    Usher,  Antiquitates  Eccle- 
siar.    Bntannicar.,   cap.    i.,  p.   7.      Francis 
(inilirin,  de  Conversione  Britann.,  cap.  i.,  p. 
7.     Rapm  de  Thoyras,  History  of  England, 
vol.  i.     [  Wil.  Burton,  Adnotat.  ad  Clem- 
entix  Rum.  Epist.  ad  Corinth.,  in  Patribus 
Apostol.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  470.     Edw.   Stilliiiir. 
fieet,   de    Antiquitate    Ecclesiar.    Britann., 
cap.   i.     Fred.   Spanhcim,  Historia  Eccles. 
major,  saecul  ii.,  p.   603,  604. — The  first 
publication  of  the  Gospel  in  Britain,  has  been 
attributed    to   James   the  ton  of  Zebedec, 
whom  Herod  put  to  death,  (Acts  xii.,  1),  to 
Simon  Zclctes,  another  apostle,  to  Aristo- 
bulus,  (mentioned  Rom.  xvi.,  10),  to  St. 


Peter,  &c.,  by  some  few  legendary  writers, 
who  are  cited  by  Usher,  Ecclesiar.  Britann. 
Primordia,  cap.  i. — But  rejecting  these  ac- 
counts, William  of  Malmcsbury,  and  after 
him,  many  other  monks  maintained  that 
Joseph  of  Arimathea  with  twelve  others, 
were  sent  from  Gaul,  by  St.  Philip,  into 
Britain  A.D.  63  ;  that  they  were  successful 
in  planting  Christianity  ;  spent  their  lives  in 
England  ;  had  twelve  hides  of  land  assigned 
them  by  the  king  at  Glastonbury,  where  they 
first  built  a  church  of  hurdles,  and  afterward 
established  a  monastery.  By  maintaining 
the  truth  of  this  story,  the  English  clergy 
obtained  the  precedence  of  some  others,  in 
several  councils  of  the  15th  century,  and 
particularly  that  of  Basil  A.D.  1434,  (Ush- 
er''s  Primordia,  ch.  ii.,  p.  12-30).  Since 
the  reformation,  this  story  has  been  given 
up  by  most  of  the  English  clergy.  But,  as 
Eusc/iius,  (Demonstrat.  Evang.,  1.  iii.,  c.  5), 
and  Theodorct,  (Graecar.  Curatio  Affectio- 
num.  1  ix.),  name  the  Britons  among  others, 
to  whom  the  Apostles  themselves  preached 
the  Gospel,  some  have  maintained,  that  St. 
Paul  must  have  visited  that  country  ;  and 
they  urge  that  Clemens.  Rom  says,  that  this 
apostle  travelled  eiri  TO  rippa  rf/f  dvatut;  to 
the  utmost  bounds  of  the  west.  They  also 
urge,  that  among  the  many  thousand  Romans 
who  passed  over  into  Britain  in  the  reign  of 
Claudius  and  his  successors,  there  were 
doubtless  some  Christians,  who  would  spread 
the  knowledge  of  Christ  there.  But  the 
principal  reliance  has  been  on  the  reported 
application  of  king  Lucius  to  pope  Eleuthe- 
rus for  Christian  teachers,  about  A.D.  150, 
or  rather  176.  (Usher,  Primordia,  ch.  iv., 
p.  44,  &c.). — On  all  these  traditions  Dr. 
Mtixh>'hn  passes  the  following  judgment. 
"Whether  any  apostle,  or  any  comg^nion  of 
an  apostle,  ever  visited  Britain,  cannot  be 
determined  ;  yet  the  balance  of  probability 
rather  inclines  towards  the  affirmative.  The 
story -of  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  might  arise 
from  the  arrival  of  some  Christian  teacher 
from  Gaul,  in  the  second  century,  whose 


too 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  I.— CHAP.  I. 


these  ancient  accounts  are  exposed  to  much  doubt,  and  are  rejected  by  the 
best  informed  persons. 

§  §.  Transalpine  Gaul,  which  is  now  called  France,  perhaps  received 
some  knowledge  of  the  Gospel  before  this  century,  either  from  the  apos- 
tles or  from  their  friends  and  disciples.  But  unequivocal  proofs  of  the  ex- 
istence of  churches  in  this  part  of  Europe,  first  occur  in  the  present  cen- 
tury. For  in  it  Pothinus,  a  man  of  distinguished  piety  and  devotedness  to 
Christ,  in  company  with  Irenteus  and  other  holy  men,  proceeded  from  Asia 
to  Gaul,  and  there  instructed  the  people  with  such  success,  that  he  gath- 
ered churches  of  Christians  at  Lyons  and  Vienne,  of  which  Pothinus  him- 
self was  the  first  bishop. (9) 


name  was  Joseph.  As  the  Gauls,  from  Di- 
onysius,  bp.  of  Paris  in  the  second  century, 
made  Dionysius  the  Areopagite  to  be  their 
apostle  ;  and  as  the  Germans  made  Mater- 
nus,  Eucherius,  and  Valerius,  who  lived  in 
the  third  and  fourth  centuries,  to  be  preach- 
ers of  the  first  century,  and  attendants  on 
St.  Peter ;  so  the  British  monks,  I  have  no 
doubt,  made  a  certain  Joseph,  from  Gaul,  in 
the  second  century,  to  be  Joseph  of  Arima- 
thea. — As  to  Lucius,  I  agree  with  the  best 
British  writers,  in  supposing  him  to  be  the 
restorer  and  second  father  of  the  English 
churches,  and  not  their  original  founder. 
That  he  was  a  king,  is  not  probable ;  be- 
cause Britain  was  then  a  Roman  province. 
He  might  be  a  nobleman,  and  governor  of  a 
district.  His  name  is  Roman.  His  appli- 
cation, I  can  never  believe  was  made  to  the 
bp.  of  Rome.  It  is  much  more  probable, 
that  he  sent  to  Gau)  for  Christian  teachers. 
The  independence  of  the  ancient  British 
churches  on  the  see  of  Rome,  and  their  ob- 
serving the  same  rights  with  the  Gallic 
churches,  which  were  planted  by  Asiatics, 
and  particularly  in  regard  to  the  time  of  East- 
er ;  show  that  they  received  the  Gospel  from 
Gaul,  and  not  from  Rome. — See  Mosheim, 
de  Reb.  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  213,  &c.— Tr.] 

(9)  Peter  de  Marco,,  Epistola  de  Evan- 
gelii  in  Gallia  initiis ;  published  among  his 
Dissertations,  and  also  by  Valesius,  subjoin- 
ed to  Eusebii  Historia  Eccles.  Jo.  Launoi, 
Opuscula,  in  his  Opp.,  torn.  ii. — Histoire 
Litteraire  de  la  France,  torn,  i.,  p.  223. 
Gabr.  Liron,  Singularitez  historiques  et  lit- 
teraires ;  the  whole  fourth  volume,  Paris, 
1740,  8vo,  and  others. — [The  most  eminent 
French  writers  have  disputed  about  the  ori- 
gin of  their  churches.  Three  different  opin- 
ions have  been  advanced.  The  first  is  that 
of  Jo.  JSbunoi,  (ubi  supra),  whom  many 
writers  of  eminence  at  this  day  follow.  It  is, 
that,  if  we  except  the  Asiatic  colonists  of 
Lyons  and  Viennc,  among  whom  there  were 
Christian  churches  formed  about  A. D.  150  ; 
the  first  propagation  of  Christianity  among 
the  Transalpine  Gauls  was  by  missionaries 


from  Rome,  about  A.D.  250.  This  hypothe- 
sis is  founded  chiefly  on  the  testimony  of 
three  ancient  writers  ;  viz.,  Sulpicius  Seve- 
rus,  Historia  Sacra,  lib.  ii.,  c.  32,  where, 
speaking  of  the  persecution  at  Lyons  and 
Vienne,  under  Marcus  Antoninus,  (A.D. 
177),  he  says;  Ac  tune  primum  inter  Gal- 
lias  martyria  visa  ;  serins  trans  Alpes  Dei 
religione  suscepta  :  these  were  the  first  mar- 
tyrs among  the  Gauls ;  for  the  divine  reli- 
gion was  not  received  till  late  beyond  the 
Alps.  The  next  testimony  is  that  of  the 
author  of  the  Acts  of  Saturninus,  bishop  of 
Toulouse,  who  suffered  under  Decius.  The 
author  is  supposed  to  have  written  in  the 
beginning  of  the  fourth  century.  He  says  : 
Raras  tertio  saeculo  in  aliquibus  Galliap  civita- 
tibus  ecclesias  paucorum  Christianorum  de- 
votione  consurrexisse  :  scattering  churches 
of  a  few  Christians  arose  in  some  cities  of 
Gaul  in  the  third  century.  See  T.  Ruinart, 
Acta  Martyr,  sincera.  p.  130.  The  third 
testimony  is  that  of  Gregory  of  Tours,  the 
father  of  French  history,  (in  the  Historia 
Francor.,  lib.  i.,  cap.  27,  and  de  Gloria  Con- 
fessorum,  cap.  30,  ed.  Ruinart,  p.  399.)  He 
says :  sub  Decio  septem  viros  ad  prasdican- 
dum  Roma  in  Galliam  missos  esse  :  under 
Decius,  (A.D.  248-251),  seven  missionaries 
were  sent  from  Rome  to  preach  in  Gaul. 
Now  these  seven  missionaries  are  the  very 
persons,  who  are  said  to  have  been  sent  thith- 
er by  St.  Paul,  and  St.  Peter;  viz.,  Tro- 
phimus  bishop  of  Aries,  Stremonius  bishop 
of  Clermont,  Martial  bishop  of  Limoges, 
Paul  bi.shopof  Narbonne,  Saturninus  bishop 
of  Toulouse,  Gratian  bishop  of  Tours,  and 
Dionysius  bishop  of  Paris. — The  second 
opinion  is,  that  of  the  strenuous  advocates  for 
the  apostolic  origin  of  the  Gallic  churches, 
Peter  de  Marca,  (ubi  supra),  Natalis  Alexan- 
der, (Histor.  Eccles.,  saecul.  i.,  diss.  16,  17, 
vol.  iii.,  p.  356-420,  ed.  Paris,  1741,  4to), 
and  others.  They  consider  St.  Paul  and 
St.  Peter  as  the  fathers  of  their  church. 
Paul,  they  think,  travelled  over  nearly  all 
France,  in  his  supposed  journey  to  Spain ; 
and  also  sent  St.  Luke  and  Crescens  into 


PROSPEROUS  EVENTS. 


101 


§  6.  This  rapid  propagation  of  Christianity,  is  ascribed  by  the  writers  of 
the  second  century  almost  exclusively  to  the  efficient  will  of  God,  to  the  ener- 
gy of  divine  truth,  and  to  the  miracles  wrought  by  Christians.  Yet  human 
counsels  and  pious  efforts  ought  not  to  be  wholly  overlooked.  Much  was 
undoubtedly  effected  by  the  activity  of  pious  men,  who  recommended  and 
communicated  to  the  people  around  them  the  writings  of  Christ's  ambassa- 
dors ;  which  were  already  collected  into  one  volume.  All  people,  indeed, 
were  not  acquainted  with  the  language  in  which  these  divine  books  were 
composed  ;  but  this  obstacle  was  early  removed  by  the  labours  of  translators. 
As  the  language  of  the  Romans  was  extensively  used,  many  Latin  transla- 
tions were  made  at  an  early  period,  as  we  are  informed  by  Augustine. (10) 


that  country.  For  the  last  they  allege,  2  Tim. 
iv.,  10,  "  Crescens  to  Galatia,"  or  rather  to 
Gaul,  according  to  Epiphanius  and  others, 
who,  for  Tahariav,  would  read  Fa/U-tav. 
St.  Peter,  they  suppose,  sent  Trophimus  his 
disciple  into  Gaul.  St.  Philip,  also,  they 
suppose,  laboured  in  Gaul.  And  the  seven 
bishops  above  mentioned,  they  say,  were 
sent  by  the  apostles  from  Rome. — Very  few 
at  this  day  embrace  this  opinion  entire.  It 
rests  principally  on  very  suspicious  testimony, 
or  on  conjectures  and  vulgar  traditions. — 
The  third  opinion  takes  a  middle  course  be- 
tween the  first  and  the  second,  and  is  that 
which  is  maintained  by  Gabr.  Liron,  Diss. 
sur  1'etablissement  de  la  religion  Chretienne 
dans  les  Gauls,  in  the  fourth  volume  of  his 
Singularitez  historique,  &c.,  Paris,  1740, 
8vo.  It  admits  what  Launoi,  Sirmond,  and 
Tillemont  have  fully  proved,  that  Dionysius 
the  first  bishop  of  Paris,  was  not  Dionysius 
the  Areopagite,  mentioned  A  cts  xvii. ,  34,  but 
a  man  who  lived  in  the  third  century.  It 
also  gives  up  the  story  of  St.  Philip,  and  of 
most  of  the  pretended  apostolic  missionaries 
to  Gaul.  But  it  maintains  the  probability 
of  Paul's  travelling  over  Gaul  on  his  way  to 
Spain ;  and  of  his  sending  Luke  and  Cres- 
cens  to  that  country  ;  and  affirms  that  in  the 
second,  century,  there  were  many  flourishing 
churches  in  Gaul,  besides  those  of  Lyons 
and  Vienne. 

Dr.  Mosheim,  (De  Rebus  Christ,  ante 
C.  M.,  p.  208,  &.c.),  thinks  neither  of  these 
opinions  is  fully  confirmed  in  all  its  parts. 
The  second,  he  gives  up  wholly.  The  third-, 
be  conceives,  lacks  evidence.  Particularly, 
Paul's  journey  to  Spain,  is  itself  questiona- 
ble ;  and,  if  admitted,  there  is  no  proof  that 
he  passed  through  Gaul.  For  St.  Luke's 
mission  to  Gaul,  there  is  no  evidence  but  the 
declaration  of  Epiphanius,  (Haeres.,  1.  i.,  t) 
11),  who,  to  say  the  least,  is  not  the  best  au- 
thority ;  and,  besides,  might  possibly  mean 
Cisalpine  Gaul,  lying  between  Dalmatia  and 
Italy.  The  mission  of  Crescens  to  Gaul, 
mentioned  by  Epiphanius  in  the  same  con- 
nexion, depends  entirely  on  the  contested 


reading  of  TaWiav  for T afar iav,  2  Tim.  iv., 
10,  and  which,  if  admitted,  might  be  under- 
stood of  Cisalpine  Gaul.  If  there  were  many 
flourishing  churches  in  Gaul,  before  Pothinus 
went  there,  (which  perhaps  was  the  case), 
this  will  not  prove  them  to  have  been  planted 
by  the  apostles  and  their  companions,  which 
is  the  point  contended  for. — As  to  the  first 
opinion,  namely,  that  Pothinus  and  his  com- 
panions first  preached  the  Gospel  in  Gaul, 
it  is  not  fully  substantiated.  Sulpicius  Sev- 
erus  only  affirms  that  it  was  late,  before  the 
Gospel  was  preached  there ;  and  not,  that  it 
never  was  preached  there  till  the  times  of  Po- 
thinus. The  testimony  of  the  Acts  of  Sa- 
turninus  only  shows,  that  the  progress  of  the 
Gospel  in  Gaul  was  so  slow,  that  there  were 
but  few  churches  there  in  the  third  centu- 
ry ;  which  might  be  true,  even  if  the  apostles 
had  there  erected  one  or  two  churches.  The 
testimony  of  Gregory  Turonensis,  fully  dis- 
proves the  apostolic  age  of  the  seven  Gallic 
missionaries  ;  and  shows  that  the  Christians 
in  Gaul  were  few  in  number,  before  the  reign 
of  Deems :  but  it  does  not  show  when  the 
Gospel  was  first  preached  in  that  country. 
On  the  whole,  Dr.  Mosheim  thinks  it  prob- 
able, the  Gospel  was  preached  in  Gaul  before 
the  second  century,  and  possibly  by  Luke  or 
Crescens,  or  even  by  some  apostle.  But  he 
thinks  Christianity,  for  a  long  time,  made 
very  little  progress  in  that  country,  and  that 
probably  the  churches  there  had  become  al- 
most extinct  when  Pothinus  and  his  com- 
panions from  Asia  planted  themselves  at 
Lyons  and  Vienne,  about  A.D.  150.  Nearly 
the  same  opinion  was  embraced  by  Tillemont, 
Memoires  pour  servira  1'histoire  de  1'Eglise, 
tome  iv.,  p.  983.— Tr.J 

(10)  Augustine,  de  Doctrina  Christiana, 
lib.  ii.,  cap.  11,  and  cap.  15.  [Qui  Scrip- 
turas  ex  Hebraea  lingua  in  Graecam  verterunt, 
numerari  possunt,  Latini  autem  interpretea 
nullo  modo.  Ut  enim  cuique,  primis  fidei 
temporibus,  in  manus  venit  codex  Graecus, 
et  aliquantulum  facultatis  sibi  utriusque  lin- 
guae habere  videbatur,  ausus  est  interpretari. 
— In  ipsis  autem  interpretatiombus,  Itala 


102      BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  I.— CHAP.  I. 

Of  these,  that  which  is  called  the  Italic  Version,(ll)  was  preferred  to  all 
others.  The  Latin  version  was  followed  by  a  Syriac,  an  Egyptian,  an 
Ethiopic,  and  some  others.  But  the  precise  dates  of  these  several  trans- 
lations cannot  be  ascertained.(12) 

§  7.  Those  who  wrote  apologies  for  the  Christians,  and  thus  met  the 
calumnies  and  slanders  by  which  they  were  unjustly  assailed,  removed 
some  obstacles  to  the  progress  of  Christ's  religion,  and  in  this  way  contrib- 
uted not  a  little  to  the  enlargement  of  the  church.  For  very  many  were 
prevented  from  embracing  Christianity,  solely  by  those  detestable  calum- 
nies with  which  ungodly  men  aspersed  it.(13)  Another  support  to  the 
Christian  cause,  was  furnished  by  the  writers  against  the  heretics.  For 
the  doctrines  of  these  sects  were  so  absurd,  or  so  abominable,  and  the 
morals  of  some  of  them  so  disgraceful  and  impious,  as  to  induce  many  to 
stand  aloof  from  Christianity.  But  when  they  learned  from  the  books 
against  the  heretics,  that  the  true  followers  of  Christ  held  these  perverse 
men  in  abhorrence,  their  feelings  towards  them  were  changed. 

§  8.  It  is  easier  to  conceive  than  to  express,  how  much  the  miraculous 
powers  and  the  extraordinary  divine  gifts  which  the  Christians  exercised 
on  various  occasions,  contributed  to  extend  the  limits  of  the  church.  The 
gift  of  foreign  tongues  appears  to  have  gradually  ceased,  as  soon  as  many 
nations  became  enlightened  with  the  truth,  and  numerous  churches  of  Chris- 
tians were  everywhere  established ;  for  it  became  less  necessary  than  it 
was  at  first.  But  the  other  gifts  with  which  God  favoured  the  rising  church 
of  Christ,  were,  as  we  learn  from  numerous  testimonies  of  the  ancients, 
still  conferred  on  particular  persons  here  and  there.(14) 

caeteris  prseferatur ;  nam  est  verborum  tena-  [The  principal  testimonies  of  the  second  and 

cior  cum  perspicuitate  sententiae.]  third   centuries,  are   Justin  Martyr,  Apol. 

(11)  See  J.  G.  Carpzov,  Critica  Sacra  V.  ii.,  c.  6,  Dial.  cum.  Tryph.,  c.  39  and  82. 
T.,  p.  663,  [and  the  Introductions  to  the  Irenaus,  \.  ii.,c.  31,  and  1.  v.,  c.  6;  and  in 
N.  Test,  by  Michaelis,  Home,  and  others.  Euseb.  H.  E.,  1.  v.,  c.  7.     Tertull.,  Apol- 
—  TV.]  og.,c.  23,27,  32,  37;  ad  Scap.,  c.  2.     Or- 

(12)  See  Ja.  Basnage,  Hist,  de  1'Eglise,  igen  contra  Gels.,  1.  i.,  p.  7,  and  1.  vii.,  p. 
liv.  ix.,  cap.  1,  tome  i.,  p.  450.  334,  ed.  Spencer.    Dionys.  Alex.,  in  Euseb. 

(13)  ["Nothing  more  injurious  can  be  H.  E.,  lib.  vi.,  c.  40.     Minucius  Felix,  Oc- 
conceived  than  the  terms  of  contempt,  indig-  tav.,  p.  361,  ed.  Paris,  1605.     Cyprian,  de 
nation,  and  reproach,  which  the  heathens  em-  Idol,  vanit.,  p.  14,  ad  Demetrian.,  p.  191, 
ployed  in  expressing  their  hatred  against  the  ed.  Brem. — That  what  are  called  the  mirac- 
Christians,  who  were  called  by  them  atheists,  ulous  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  were  liberally 
because  they  derided  the  heathen  polythe-  conferred,  not   only  in  this  but  also  in  the 
ism  •,  magicians,  because  they  wrought  mir-  following  century,  especially  on   those  en- 
acles  ;  self-murderers,  because  they  suffered  gaged  in  propagating  the  Gospel ;  all  who 
martyrdom  cheerfully  for  the  truth  ;  haters  are  called  Christians,  believe,  on  the  unani- 
of  the  light,  because,  to  avoid  the  fury  of  mous  and  concordant  testimony  of  the  an- 
the  persecutions  raised  against  them,  they  cient  writers.     Nor  do  we,  in  my  opinion, 
were  forced  at  first  to  hold  their  religious  hereby  incur  any  just  charge  of  departing 
assemblies  in  the  night ;  with  a  multitude  of  from  sound  reason.     For,  as  these  witness- 
other  ignominious  epithets  employed  against  es  are  all  grave  men,  fair  and  honest,  some 
them  by   Tacitus,  Suetonius,   Celsus,  dec.  of  them  philosophers,  men  who  lived  in  dif- 
See  Bingham,  Antiquities  of  the  Christian  ferent  countries,  and  relate  not  what  they 
church,  book  i.,  ch.  ii.,p.  5." — Mad.  ]  heard,  but  what  they  saw,  call  God  to  wit- 

( 14)  Collections  of  these  testimonies  have  ness  the  truth  of  their  declarations,  (see  Or- 
been  made,  by  Tab.  Pfanntr,  de  donis  mi-  igen  contra   Celsum,  1.  i.,  p.  35,  ed.  Spen- 
raculosis  ;  and  by   W.   Spencer,  Notes  on  cer),  and  do  not  claim  for  themselves,  but  at- 
Origen  against  Celsus,  p.  5,  6  ;  but  the  most  tribute  to  others,  these  miraculous  powers  ; 
copious  is  by  Mammachius,  Origines  et  An-  what  reason  can  there  be,  for  refusing  to  be- 
tiquitates  Christianas,  torn,  i.,  p.  363,  &c.  lieve  them]     Yet  a  few  years  since,  there 


PROSPEROUS  EVENTS. 


103 


§  9.  I  wish  we  were  fully  authorized  to  place  among  the  miracles,  what 
many  ancient  writers  have  recorded  concerning  a  certain  legion  of  Chris- 
tian soldiers  in  the  army  of  Marcus  Antoninus,  in  his  war  against  the  Mar- 


appeared  among  the  Britons,  a  man  of  no 
ordinary  genius  and  learning,  Conyers  Mid- 
dleton,  who  published  a  considerable  volume, 
accusing  the  whole  Christian  world  of  cre- 
dulity, in  this  matter ;  and  boldly  pronoun- 
cing all  that  was  said  or  written  by  the  nu- 
merous ancients,  concerning  these  extraor- 
dinary gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  be  false. 
See  A  free  Inquiry  into  the  miraculous 
powers,  &.C.,  London,  1749,  4to.  The  his- 
tory of  this  famous  book,  and  of  the  sharp 
contests  it  produced  in  England,  may  be 
learned  from  the  British,  French,  and  Ger- 
man Literary  Journals,  and  from  the  Ger- 
man translation  and  refutation  of  the  work, 
which  has  been  recently  published.  I  shall 
here  offer  only  a  few  observations  on  this,  in 
many  respects  most  important  subject.  The 
apostolic  age,  the  learned  Middlcton  himself 
acknowledges,  to  have  been  fruitful  in  mir- 
acles and  extraordinary  gifts.  But  he  de- 
nies their  continuance  after  the  decease  of 
the  apostles ;  and  concludes  that  whatever 
accounts  exist  of  miracles  in  the  second  and 
third  centuries,  are  the  invention  of  crafty 
impostors,  or  the  dreams  of  weak  and  delu- 
ded men.  And  he  attributes  great  import- 
ance to  this  opinion  ;  because  the  pretended 
miracles  of  the  Romish  saints,  rest  on  the 
same  supports  and  arguments,  as  these  mir- 
acles of  the  early  ages  ;  so  that  the  former 
can  never  be  disproved,  if  the  latter  be  ad- 
mitted. This  looks  honest  and  worthy  of  a 
sound  Christian  man ;  for  the  divine  origin 
of  the  Christian  religion  does  not  depend  on 
the  truth  of  the  miracles  reported  to  have 
been  wrought  in  the  second  and  third  centu- 
ries, but  is  sufficiently  proved,  if  it  can  be 
made  evident  that  Christ  and  his  apostles 
had  power  to  suspend  the  laws  of  nature. 
But  the  discerning  reader  of  the  book  will 
perceive,  that  the  author  has  assailed  the 
miracles  of  Christ  and  the  apostles,  by  his 
attack  on  those  of  subsequent  date ;  and 
that  he  intended  to  weaken  our  confidence 
in  all  events,  which  exceed  the  powers  of 
nature.  For,  the  objections  he  raises 
against  the  miracles  of  the  second  and  third 
centuries,  are  of  such  a  nature  as  to  be  read- 
ily applied  to  those  of  the  first. — The  sub- 
stance of  his  eloquent  and  learned  argu- 
mentation, is  this.  All  the  writers  of  the 
three  first  centuries,  whose  works  are  ex- 
tant, were  ignorant  of  criticism,  and  not  suf- 
ficiently guarded  and  cautious,  but  some- 
times too  credulous.  Therefore  all  that  they 
state,  concerning  the  miracles  of  their  ovtn 
times,  and  even  of  miracles  which  they  saw 


with  their  own  eyes,  ought  to  be  regarded 
as  a  fable.     As  if  it  were  a  conceded  point, 
that  no  man,  unless  he  is  a  good  critic,  can 
distinguish  a  true  miracle  from  a  false  one  ; 
and,  that  he  must  always  mistake  and  err, 
who  sometimes  yields  his  assent  sooner  than 
he  ought.     If  this  great  man  had  only  said, 
that  some  of  the  supernatural  events  which 
are  reported  to  have  happened  in  the  early 
ages,  are    very  questionable,  the    position 
might  be  admitted  :  but  to  aim,  by  one  such 
general  argument,  which  is  liable  to  innu- 
merable exceptions,  and  destitute  of  a  ne- 
cessary and  evident  conclusiveness,  to  over- 
throw the  united  testimony  of  so  many  pious 
men,  and  men  sufficiently  cautious  in  other 
things  ;  indicates,  if  I  do  not  greatly  mis- 
take, a  mind  of  high  daring,  and  covertly 
plotting  against  religion  itself.     It  is  fortu- 
nate that  this  distinguished  man,  a  little  be- 
fore   his  death,  (for   he  died  the  last  year 
[A.D.  1750,])  appears  to  have  learned,  from 
the  arguments  of  his  opposers,  the  weakness 
of  his  opinions.     For  in  his  last  reply,  pub- 
lished after  his  death,  namely,  A  Vindica* 
tion  of  the  free  Inquiry,  &c.,  Lond.,  1751, 
4to,  though  he  is  here  more  contentious  and 
contumelious  than  was  proper,  he  plainly 
acknowledges  himself  vanquished,  and  sur- 
renders the  palm  to  his  antagonists.     For 
he  says,  he  did  not  mean  to  affirm,  that  no 
miracles  were  wrought  in  the  ancient  Chris- 
tian church,  after  the  death  of  the  apostles  ; 
on  the  contrary,  he  concedes,  he  says,  that 
God  did  confirm  the  truth  of  Christianity,  as 
occasion   required,  by  repeated    manifesta- 
tions of  his  infinite  power  :  all  that  he  aimed 
to  show,  was,  that  the  power  of  working 
miracles  constantly  and  perpetually  was  not 
exercised  in  the  church,  after  the  apostolic 
age ;  and  therefore,  that  credit  is  not  to  be 
given  to  the  statements  of  those  ancient  de- 
fenders of  Christianity,  who  arrogate  such 
a  perpetual    power  ;    that  is,  if  I    can  un- 
derstand him, — among  the  doctors  of  the 
second  and  third  centuries,  there  was  not 
one  that  could  work  miracles,  whenever  he 
pleased.     But  this  is  wholly  changing  the 
question.     The  learned  author  might  have 
spared  himself  the  labour  of  writing  and  de- 
fending his  book,  if  this  was  all  he  intended 
when  he  commenced  writing.     For,  so  far 
as  I  know,  it  never  came  into  the  head  of 
any  Christian,  to  maintain  that  there  were 
men  among  the  Christians  of  the  second, 
third,  and  fourth   centuries,  to  whom  God 
gave  power  to  work  miracles,  as  often  as 
they  pleased,  and  of  what  kind  they  pleased, 


104      BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  I.— CHAP.  I. 

comanni,  [A.D.  174],  which  by  its  supplications  procured  a  shower  of 
rain  when  the  Roman  troops  were  ready  to  perish  with  thirst.  But  the  re- 
ality of  this  miracle  is  a  subject  of  controversy  among  the  learned ;  and 
those  who  think  that  the  Christian  soldiers  misjudged,  in  regarding  that 
sudden  and  unexpected  shower  by  which  the  Roman  army  was  saved,  as  a 
miraculous,  divine  interposition,  are  supported  not  only  by  very  respectable 
authorities,  but  by  arguments  of  no  little  weight.(lo) 

§  10.  It  is  certain,  that  the  Roman  army  when  reduced  to  the  greatest 
straits  was  relieved  by  a  sudden  shower ;  and  that  this  shower  was  regard- 
ed both  by  the  pagans  and  the  Christians  as  extraordinary  and  miraculous ; 
the  latter  ascribed  the  unexpected  favour  to  Christ's  being  moved  by  the 
prayers  of  his  friends,  while  the  former  attributed  it  to  Jupiter,  or  Mercury, 
or  to  the  power  of  magic.  It  is  equally  certain,  I  think,  that  many  Chris- 
tians were  then  serving  in  the  Roman  army.  And  who  can  doubt  that  these, 
on  such  an  occasion,  implored  the  compassion  of  their  God  and  Saviour  ? 
Further,  as  the  Christians  of  those  times  looked  upon  all  extraordinary 
events  as  miracles,  and  ascribed  every  unusual  and  peculiar  advantage  en- 
joyed by  the  Romans  to  the  prayers  of  Christians,  it  is  not  strange,  that  the 
salvation  of  the  Roman  emperor  and  his  army,  should  be  placed  among  the 
miracles  which  God  wrought  in  answer  to  the  prayers  of  Christians.  But, 
as  all  wise  men  are  now  agreed  that  no  event  is  to  be  accounted  a  miracle 
if  it  can  be  adequately  accounted  for  on  natural  principles,  or  in  the  com- 
mon and  ordinary  course  of  divine  providence  ;  and  as  this  rain  may  be 
easily  thus  accounted  for ;  it  is  obvious  what  judgment  ought  to  be  formed 
respecting  it. 

§  11.  The  Jews,  first  under  Trajan,  [A.D.  116],  and  afterwards  under 
Adrian,  [A.D.  132],  led  on  by  Bar  Chochebas  who  pretended  to  be  the  Mes- 
siah, made  insurrection  against  the  Romans ;  and  again  suffered  the  great- 
est calamities.  A  vast  number  of  them  were  put  to  death ;  and  a  new  city, 
called  Aelia  Capitolina,  was  erected  on  the  site  of  Jerusalem,  which  not 
an  individual  of  the  miserable  race  was  allowed  to  enter.(16)  This  over- 
throw of  the  Jews  confirmed  in  some  measure,  the  external  tranquillity  of 

at  all  times,  and  in  all  places.     Bella  geri  tium.     See  also  P.  E.  Jablonski,  Spicile- 

placuit,    nulla    hahitura    triumphos. — Thus  gium  de  legione  fulminatrice ;  in  the  Mis- 

Mosheim,  de  Reb.  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  221,  &c.  cellan.  Lipsiens.,  torn,  viii.,  p.  417,  where 

• — Very  candid  remarks  on  this  subject,  may  in  particular,  the  reasons  are  investigated, 

also  be  found  in  Schrocckh,  Kirchengesch.,  which  led  the  Christians  improperly  to  class 

vol.  iv.,  p.  380,  &c. ;  and  in  Jortin's  Re-  this  rain  among  the  miracles. — [See  also 

marks  on  Eccl.  Hist.,  vol.  i.,  passim. — Jr.]  Mosheim,  de  Reb.  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  249,  &c. 

(15)  The  arguments  on  the  two  sides  of  — The  most  important  among  the  ancient 

the  question  may  be  seen  in  Herm.  Witsius,  accounts  of  this  matter  are,  on  the  side  of 

Diss.  de  Legione  fulminatrice,  subjoined  to  the  pagans,  Dion  Cassius,  Historia  Roma- 

bis  Aegyptiaca;   he  defends  the  reality  of  na,  lib.  Ixxi.,  c.  8.     Julius  Capitolinus,  Life 

the  miracle :  and  Dan.  Laroque,  Diss.  de  of  Marcus  Antonin.,  cap.  24.     Aclius  Lam- 

Legione  fulminat.,  subjoined  to  the  Adver-  prid.,  Life  of  Heliogabalus,  cap.  9.     Clau- 

saria  Sacra,  of  his  father  Matth.  Laroque ;  diem,  Consulat.  vi.,  Honorii  v. — and  on  the 

who  opposes  the  idea  of  a  miracle: — but  side  of  the  Christians,  Tertullian,  Apologet., 

best  of  all  in  the  controversy  concerning  the  cap.   5,  ad   Scapulam,  cap.  4.     Eusebius, 

miracle  of  the  thundering  legion,  between  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  v.,  cap.  5,  and  Chronicon, 

Peter  King  [rather  the  Rev.  Richard  King,  p.  82,  215.     Xiphilinus,  on  Dion  Cassius, 

of  Topsham—  TV.]    and    Walter   Moyle  •  lib.  Ixxi.,  cap.  9,  10. — Tr.] 
which  I  have  translated  into  Latin,  and  pub-         (16)  Justin  Martyr,  Dial,  cum  Tryph.,  p. 

lished,  with  notes,  in  my  Syntagma  Disser-  49, 278.     [Dion  Cassius,  Hist.  Rom.,  1.  69, 

tationum  ad  disciplinas  sanctiores  pertinen-  cap.  12-14. — Tr.} 


ADVERSE  EVENTS.  105 

the  Christian  community.  For  that  turbulent  nation  had  previously  been 
everywhere  the  accusers  of  the  Christians  before  the  Roman  judges ;  and 
in  Palestine  and  the  neighbouring  regions,  they  had  themselves  inflicted 
great  injuries  upon  them,  because  they  refused  to  aid  them  in  their  opposi- 
tion to  the  Romans. (17)  But  this  new  calamity  rendered  it  not  so  easy 
for  the  Jews,  as  formerly,  to  do  either  of  these  things. 

$  12.  The  philosophers  and  learned  men,  who  came  over  to  the  Chris- 
tians in  this  century,  were  no  inconsiderable  protection  and  ornament  to 
this  holy  religion  by  their  discussions,  their  writings,  and  their  talents. 
But  if  any  are  disposed  to  question  whether  the  Christian  cause  received 
more  benefit  than  injury  from  these  men,  I  must  confess  myself  unable  to 
decide  the  point.  For  the  noble  simplicity  and  the  majestic  dignity  of  the 
Christian  religion  were  lost,  or,  at  least,  impaired  when  these  philosophers 
presumed  to  associate  their  dogmas  with  it,  and  to  bring  faith  and  piety 
under  the  dominion  of  human  reason. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  ADVERSE  EVENTS  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

$  1,  2.  The  Persecution  of  Trajan. — §  3.  That  of  Adrian. — §  4.  That  of  Antoninus  Pius. 
— $  5.  That  of  Antoninus  Philosophus. — §  6.  Its  Calamities. — §  7.  The  Reigns  of 
Commodus  and  Severus. — $  8.  Calumnies  against  Christians. 

$  1.  IN  the  beginning  of  this  century  there  were  no  laws  in  force  against 
the  Christians  ;  for  those  of  Nero  had  been  repealed  by  the  senate,  and 
those  of  Domitian  by  his  successor  Nerva.  But  it  had  become  a  common 
custom  to  persecute  the  Christians,  and  even  to  put  them  to  death,  as  often 
as  the  pagan  priests,  or  the  populace  tinder  the  instigation  of  the  priests, 
demanded  their  destruction.  Hence,  under  the  reign  of  Trajan,  otherwise 
a  good  prince,  popular  tumults  were  frequently  raised  in  the  cities  against 
the  Christians,  which  were  fatal  to  many  of  them.(l)  When  therefore  such 
tumults  were  made  in  Bithynia,  under  the  propraetor  Pliny  the  younger, 
he  thought  proper  to  apply  to  the  emperor  for  instructions  how  to  treat  the 
Christians.  The  emperor  wrote  back  that  the  Christians  were  not  to  be 
sought  after,  but  if  they  were  regularly  accused  and  convicted,  and  yet  re- 
fused to  return  to  the  religion  of  their  fathers,  they  were  to  be  put  to  death 
as  being  bad  citizens. (2) 

§  2.  This  edict  of  Trajan,  being  registered  among  the  public  laws  of  the 
Roman  empire,  set  bounds  indeed  to  the  fury  of  the  enemies  of  the  Chris- 
tians, but  still  it  caused  the  destruction  of  many  of  them,  even  under  the 
best  of  the  emperors.  For  whenever  any  one  had  courage  to  assume  the 
odious  office  of  an  accuser,  and  the  accused  did  not  deny  the  charge  [of 

(17)  [Justin  Martyr,  Apolog.  i.,  p.  72.     which  epistles  many  learned  men  have  illus- 

— Schl.]  tratcd  by  their   comments,    and  especially 

(1)  Eutebius,  Historia  Eccles.,  lib.  iii.f     Vossius,  Bochmer,  Baldwin,  and  Hevmann. 
cap.  32.  [See  Mitncr's  Hist,  of  the  church  of  Christ, 

(2)  Pliny,  Epistol.  lib.  x.,  epist.  97,  98 ;     century  ii.,  ch.  i. — 7V.] 
VOL.  I.— O 


106  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  L— CHAP.  II. 

being  a  Christian],  he  might  be  delivered  over  to  the  executioner,  unless 
he  apostatized  from  Christianity.  Thus  by  Trajan's  law,  perseverance  in 
the  Christian  religion  was  a  capital  ofTence.  Under  this  law,  Simeon  the 
son  of  Cleophas  and  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  a  venerable  old  man,  being  ac- 
cused by  the  Jews,  suffered  crucifixion. (3)  According  to  the  same  law, 
Trajan  himself  ordered  the  great  Ignatius,  bishop  of  Antioch,  to  be  thrown 
to  wild  beasts. (4)  For  the  kind  of  death  was  left  by  the  law  to  the  pleas- 
ure of  the  judge. 

$  3.  Yet  this  law  of  Trajan  was  a  great  restraint  to  the  priests,  who 
wished  to  oppress  the  Christians ;  because  few  persons  were  willing  to 
assume  the  dangerous  office  of  accusers.  Under  the  reign  of  Adrian,  there- 
fore, who  succeeded  Trajan  A.D.  117,  they  evaded  it  by  an  artifice.  For 
they  excited  the  populace,  at  the  seasons  of  the  public  shows  and  games, 
to  demand  with  united  voice  of  the  presidents  and  magistrates,  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Christians  ;  and  these  public  clamours  could  not  be  disregarded, 
without  danger  of  an  insurrection.(5)  But  Serenus  Granianus  the  proconsul 
of  Asia,  made  representation  to  the  emperor,  that  it  was  inhuman  and  un- 
just to  immolate  men  convicted  of  no  crime,  at  the  pleasure  of  a  furious 
mob.  Adrian  therefore  addressed  an  edict  to  the  presidents  of  the  prov- 
inces, forbidding  the  Christians  to  be  put  to  death,  unless  accused  in  due 
form,  and  convicted  of  offence  against  the  laws  ;  i.  e.,  as  I  apprehend,  he  re- 
instated the  law  of  Trajan.(Q]  Perhaps  also  the  Apologies  for  the  Chris- 
tians, presented  by  Quadratus  and  Aristides,  had  an  influence  on  the  mind 
of  the  emperor.(7) — In  this  reign,  Bar  Chochebas  a  pretended  king  of  the 
Jews,  before  he  was  vanquished  by  Adrian,  committed  great  outrages  on 
the  Christians,  because  they  would  not  join  his  standard. (8) 

§  4.  In  the  reign  of  Antoninus  Pius,  the  enemies  of  the  Christians  as- 
sailed them  in  a  new  manner ;  for  as  the  Christians,  by  the  laws  of  Adrian, 
were  to  be  convicted  of  some  crime,  and  some  of  the  presidents  would  not 
admit  their  religion  to  be  a  crime,  they  were  accused  of  impiety  or  atheism. 
This  calumny  was  met  by  Justin  Martyr,  in  an  Apology  presented  to  the 

(3)  Eusclius,  Hist.  Eccl.,  lib.  iii.,  cap.  32.  munity  ;  as  we  are  expressly  taught  by  Eu- 

(4)  See  the  Acta  martyrii  Ignatiani ;  pub-  sebius,  Hist.  Eccl.,  1.  iv.,  cap.  7. — See  Mo- 
lished  by  Ruinart,  and  in  the  Patres  Apos-  sheim,  de  Rebus  Christ., &c.,  p.  236. — Tr.] 
tolici,  and  elsewhere.     [See  above,  p.  92,         (6)  See  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccl.,  1.  iv.,  c.  9, 
note  (31),  and  Milner's  Hist,  of  the  Chh.,  and  Fr.  Baldwin,  ad  Edicta  Principum  in 
cent,  ii.,  ch.  i.,  p.  138. — TV.]  Christianos,  p.  73,  &c.     [This  edict  is  also 

(5)  [It  was  an  ancient  custom  or  law  of  given  by  Justin  Martyr,  Apolog.  i.,  §  68, 
the  Romans,  of  which  many  examples  occur  69.     It  was  addressed,  not  only  to  Minutius 
in  their  history,  that  the  people  when  assem-  Fundanus  the  successor  of  Serenus,  but  to 
bled  at  the  public  games,  whether  at  Rome  the  other  governors  of  provinces  ;    as  we 
or  in  the  provinces,  might  demand  what  they  learn  from  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccl.,  1.  iv.,  c. 
pleased  of  the  emperor  or  magistrates ;  which  26. — Schl.~\ 

demands  could  not  be  rejected.  This  right,  (7)  [These  Apologies  are  mentioned  by 
indeed,  properly  belonged  only  to  Roman  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  iv.,  c.  3,  and  Je- 
citizens.  but  it  was  gradually  assumed  and  rome,  Epist.  ad  Magnum,  Opp.,  torn,  iv.,  p. 
exercised  by  others,  especially  in  the  larger  656,  ed.  Benedict,  and  de  Viris  Illustr.,  c. 
cities.  Hence,  when  assembled  at  the  pub-  19,  20. — From  this  indulgence  of  the  em- 
lie  games,  the  populace  could  demand  the  peror  towards  the  Christians,  arose  the  sus- 
destruction  of  all  Christians,  or  of  any  indi-  picion  that  he  himself  inclined  to  their  reli- 
viduals  of  them  whom  they  pleased  ;  and  gion.  Lampridius,  Vita  Alexandri  Severi, 
the  magistrates  dared  not  utterly  refuse  these  cap.  43. — Schl.] 

demands. — Moreover,  the  abominable  lives  (8)  Justin  Martyr,  Apolog.,  ii.,  p.  72,  ed. 

and  doctrines  of  certain  heretics  of  this  age,  Colon.     [Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  cap.  21. 

brought  odium  on  the  whole  Christian  com-  — TV.] 


ADVERSE  EVENTS.  107 

emperor.  And  the  emperor  afterwards  decreed  that  the  Christians  should 
be  treated  according  to  the  law  of  Adrian. (9)  A  little  after,  Asia  Minor 
was  visited  with  earthquakes  ;  and  the  people  regarding  the  Christians  as 
the  cause  of  their  calamities,  rushed  upon  them  with  every  species  of  vio- 
lence and  outrage.  When  informed  of  this,  the  emperor  addressed  an  edict 
to  the  Common  Council  of  Asia,  denouncing  capital  punishment  against  ac- 
cusers of  the  Christians,  if  they  could  not  convict  them  of  some  crime.(lO) 

§  5.  Marcus  Antoninus  the  philosopher,  whom  most  writers  extol  immod- 
erately for  his  wisdom  and  virtue,  did  not  indeed  repeal  this  decree  of  his 
father,  or  the  other  laws  of  the  preceding  emperors ;  but  he  listened  too 
much  to  the  enemies  of  the  Christians,  and  especially  to  the  philosophers, 
who  accused  them  of  the  most  horrid  crimes,  and  particularly  of  impiety, 
of  feasting  on  the  flesh  of  murdered  children,  (Thyestearum  epularum),  and 
of  incest,  (Oedipodei  incestus).  Hence  no  emperor,  after  the  reign  of  Nero, 
caused  greater  evils  and  calamities  to  light  on  Christians  than  this  emi- 
nently wise  Marcus  Antoninus ;  nor  was  there  any  emperor,  under  whom 
more  Apologies  for  the  Christians  were  drawn  up,  of  which  those  by  Justin 
Martyr,  Athenagoras  and  Tatian,  are  still  extant. (11) 

§  6.  In  the  first  place,  this  emperor  issued  unjust  edicts  against  the  Chris- 
tians, whom  he  regarded  as  vain,  obstinate,  deficient  in  understanding,  and 
strangers  to  virtue  ;(12)  yet  the  precise  import  of  these  edicts  is  not  now 
known.  In  the  next  place,  he  allowed  the  judges,  when  Christians  were 
accused  of  the  crimes  already  specified,  by  servants  and  by  the  vilest  of 
persons,  to  put  their  prisoners  to  torture ;  and  notwithstanding  their  most 
constant  denial  of  the  charges  alleged  against  them,  to  inflict  on  them  cap- 
ital punishments.  For,  as  the  laws  would  not  allow  the  Christians  to  be 
executed  without  a  crime,  the  judges  who  wished  to  condemn  them,  had 
to  resort  to  some  method  of  making  them  appear  to  be  guilty.  Hence  un- 
der this  emperor,  not  only  were  several  very  excellent  men  most  unjustly 
put  to  death,  (among  whom  were  Polycarp,  the  pious  bishop  of  Smyrna, 
and  the  celebrated  philosopher  Justin,  surnamed  Martyr),(\3)  but  also  sev- 

(9)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  iv.,  c.  26,  p.  151,  &c.,  and  J.   C.  I.  Gieseler's  Text- 
{where  Mdito  tells  Marcus  Aurelius,  that  Book    of   Eccles.    Hist,    by    Cunningham, 
his  father  (Anton.  Pius)  wrote  to  the  Laris-  Philad.,  1836,  vol.  i.,  p.  79,  note  4. — TV.] 
scans,    the   Thessalonians,    the    Athenians,         (11)    [Dr.  Mosheim,  de  Rebus   Christ., 
and   to   all   the   Greeks,  not   to  molest  the  &c.,  p.  244,  characterizes  Marcus  Antoni- 
Christians. —  Schl.]  nus   as   a  well-disposed,  but   superstitious 

(10)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  iv.,  c.  13,  man  ;  a  great  scholar,  but  an  indifferent  em- 
f where  the  edict  is  given  at  length.     It  may  peror.     His  persecutions  of  the  Christians 
also  be  seen  in  Milner,  Hist  of  the  Chh.,  arose  from  his  negligence  of  business,  his 
cent,  ii.,  ch.  ii,  vol.  i.,  p    158,  &c.,  ed.  ignorance  of  the  character  of  Christians  and 
Boston,  1822,  where  several  pious  reflec-  of  Christianity,  and  from  his  easy  credulity 
tions  are  subjoined. — It  has  been  questioned  and  acquiescence  in  the  wishes  of  others. — 
whether  this  edict  was  issued  by  Marcus  His  character  is  also  given  by  Milner,  Hist. 
Anri-liiis,  or  by  his  father,  Antonnnix  Pins,  of  the   Church,  cent,   ii.,  ch.  4,  and  very 
Y<ili:iins  (on  Euseb.,  H.  Eccl.,  1  iv.,  c.  13),  elaborately,  by  A.  Neander,  Kirchengesch., 
decides  for  the  former;    and  Mosheim  (de  vol.  i.,  pt.  i.,  p.  154,  &c. — TV.] 

Reb.  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  240,  &c.)  is  as  deci-         (12)  See  Mdito,  as  quoted  by  Eusebius, 

sive  for  the  latter.     Others  have  little  doubt,  Hist.  Eccl.,  1.  iv.,  c.  26. 
that  the  whole  edict  is  a  forgery  of  some         (13)  The  Acta  Martyrii  of  both  Polycarp 

early  Christian.     For  this  opinion  they  urge,  and  Justin  Martyr  are  published  by  Kuin- 

that  its  language  is  not  such  as  the  pagan  art,  in  his  Acta  martyr,  sincera.     [The  for- 

emperors  uniformly  use,  but  is  plainly  that  mer  also,  in  the  Patres  Apostol.     The  life 

of  an  eulogist  of  the  Christians.     See  A.  and  martyrdom  of  Polycarp,  are  the  subject 

Ncandcrs  Kirchengeschichte,  vol.  i.,  pt.  i.,  of  the  5th  chapter  of  Milnefs  Hist,  of  the 


108      BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  I.— CHAP.  II. 

eral  Christian  churches,  and  especially  those  of  Lyons  and  Vienne  in 
France,  A.D.  177,  were  by  his  order  nearly  destroyed  and  obliterated,  by 
various  species  of  executions. (14) 

§  7.  Under  the  reign  of  Commodus,  his  son,  [A.D.  180-192],  if  we  ex- 
cept a  few  instances  of  suffering  for  the  renunciation  of  paganism,  no  great 
calamity  befel  the  Christians  (15)  But  when  Severus  was  placed  on  the 
throne,  near  the  close  of  the  century,  much  Christian  blood  was  shed  in 
Africa,  Egypt,  and  other  provinces.  This  is  certain  from  the  testimonies 
of  Tertullian,(l6)  Clemens  Alexandrinus,(l7)  and  others;  and  those  must 
mistake  the  fact,  who  say  that  the  Christians  enjoyed  peace  under  Severus, 
up  to  the  time  when  he  enacted  laws  that  exposed  them  to  the  loss  of  life 
and  property,  which  was  in  the  beginning  of  the  next  century.  For,  as 
the  laws  of  the  [former]  emperors  were  not  abrogated,  and  among  these, 
the  edicts  of  Trajan  and  Marcus  Antoninus  were  very  unjust;  it  was  in 
the  power  of  the  presidents  to  persecute  the  Christians  with  impunity 
whenever  they  pleased.  These  calamities  of  the  Christians  near  the  end 
of  this  century,  were  what  induced  Tertullian  [A.D.  198]  to  compose  his 
Apologeticum,  and  some  other  works. (18) 

§  8.  It  will  appear  less  unaccountable,  that  so  holy  a  people  as  the 
Christians  should  suffer  so  much  persecution,  if  it  be  considered  that  the 
patrons  of  the  ancient  superstition  continually  assailed  them  with  their  rail- 
ings, calumnies,  and  libels.  Their  reproaches  and  calumnies,  of  which  we 
have  before  spoken,  are  recounted  by  the, writers  of  the  Apologies.  The 
Christians  were  attacked,  in  a  book  written  expressly  against  them  by  Cel- 
sus ;  the  philosopher  whom  Origen,  in  his  confutation  of  him,  represents 
as  an  Epicurean,  but  whom  we  for  substantial  reasons  believe  to  be  a  Pla- 
tonist  of  the  sect  of  Ammonius.(lQ)  This  miserable  sophist  deals  in  slan- 
der, as  Origeri's  answer  to  him  shows ;  nor  does  he  so  much  attack  the 
Christians,  as  play  off  his  wit ;  which  is  not  distinguished  for  elegance  and 
refinement.  Fronto,  the  rhetorician,  also  made  some  attempts  against  the 
Christians  ;  but  these  have  perished,  with  the  exception  of  a  bare  mention 

Chh.,  century  ii.,  vol.  L,  p.  176,  &c.,  ed.  martyrs  of  Scillita  in  Africa,  A.D.  200,  in 

Boston,  1822,  as  those  of  Justin  Martyr,  Ruinarfs  Acta  Martyr.     Baronius   Ann., 

are  of  ch.  iii.  of  the  same  vol.,  p.  161,  &c.  A.D.  200,  and  Milner,  Hist,  of  the  Chh., 

—Tr.]  vol.  i.,  p.  236.— 7V.] 

(14)  See  the  Letter  of  the  Christians  at         (18)  I  have  expressly  treated  of  this  sub- 
Lyons  giving  account  of  this  persecution,  ject  in  my  diss.  de  vera  aetate  Apologetici 
in  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  v.,  cap.  2,  Tertulliani  et  initio  persecutionis   Severi ; 
[also  in  Fox,  Book  of  Martyrs,  and  in  Mil-  which  is   the  first  essay  in  my   Syntagma 
ner's  History  of  the  Church,  cent,  ii.,  ch.  Diss.  ad  hist,  eccles.  pertinentium. 

vi.,  vol.  i.,  p.  185,  &c.,  ed.  Boston,  1822. —        (19)  [See  Mosheim's  preface  to  the  Ger- 

Tr.~\  man    translation    of   Origen's    work. — Tr. 

(15)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  v.,  cap.  "  The  learned  Dr.  Lardner  does  not  think 
24,  and  16,  18,  19.  it  possible,  that  Cclsus  could  have  been  of 

(16)  [Tertullian,  ad   Scapulam,  cap.  4,  the  sect  of  Ammonius ;   since   the  former 
and  Apologet.,  cap  5.,  which  show  that  See-  lived  and  wrote  in  the  second  century,  where- 
erus  himself  was,  at  first,  favourable  to  the  as  the  latter  did  not  flourish  before  the  third. 
Christians.     But   the   same   Apologeticum,  And  indeed,  we  have  from  Origen  himself, 
cap.  35,  49,  and  7,  12,  30,  37,  shows  that  that  he  knew  of  two  only  of  the  name  of  Cel- 
Christians  suffered  before  the  enactment  of  sus,  one  who  lived  in  the  time  of  Nero,  and 
the  laws. — SchL]  the  other  in  the  reign  of  Adrian,  and  after- 

(17)  [Clemens   Alex.,  Stromat,  1.  ii.,  p.  wards.     The  latter  was  the  philosopher,  who 
4-94. — ScM.     See  also  the  account  of  the  wrote  against  Christianity." — Macl.~\ 


LEARNING  AND  PHILOSOPHY.  109 

of  them  by  Minutius  Felix.(2Q)  To  these  may  be  added  Crescens,  a 
Cynic  philosopher,  who,  though  he  seems  to  have  written  nothing  against 
the  Christians,  yet  was  very  eager  to  do  them  harm,  and  in  particular  did 
not  cease  to  persecute  Justin  Martyr,  till  he  compassed  his  death.  (21) 


PART   II. 

THE   INTERNAL   HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    STATE    OF    LEARNING    AND    PHILOSOPHY. 

§  1.  State  of  Learning  in  general. — (j  2,  3.  Learned  Men. — §  4.  Rise  of  the  New  Pla- 
tonics.— §  5.  Eclectics  at  Alexandria. — §  6.  Approved  by  the  Christians. — ()  7.  Ammo- 
nins  Saccas. — §  8.  His  fundamental  Principles. — $  9.  His  principal  Doctrines. — §  10. 
His  austere  System  of  Moral  Discipline. — §  11.  His  Opinions  concerning  God  and 
Christ. — §  12.  Ill  Effects  of  this  Philosophy  on  Christianity. — §  13.  The  State  of  Learn- 
ing among  Christians. 

§  1.  ALTHOUGH  literature  seemed  in  some  measure  to  recover  its  for- 
mer dignity  and  lustre,  during  the  reign  of  Trajan,(l)  yet  it  could  not  long 
retain  its  influence  under  the  subsequent  emperors,  who  were  indisposed  to 
patronise  it.  The  most  learned  among  these  Roman  sovereigns,  Marcus 
Antoninus,  showed  favour  only  to  the  philosophers,  and  especially  to  the 
Stoics  ;  the  other  arts  and  sciences,  he,  like  the  Stoics,  held  in  contempt. (2) 

(20)  Minutius  Felix,  Octavius,  p.  266,  cd.  addicted  to  it;  the  pagan  philosophers  per- 

Herald. — [Minutius    mentions  this  calum-  ceiving  their  reputations  and  their  interests 

niator  in  two  passages,  -namely,  chap.  10,  p.  to  be  at  stake,  now  joined  the  populace  and 

99,  and  chap.  31,  p.  322;  in  the  former  of  the  priests  in  persecuting  the  Christians  in 

which,  he  calls  him  Cirtensis  noster ;  im-  general  ;    and    they  especially  assailed   the 

plying,  that  he  was  of  Cirta,  in  Africa ;  in  Christian  philosophers  with  their  calumnies 

the  latter  passage,  he  speaks  of  him  as  an  and  accusations.     Their  chief  motive  was, 

orator,  indicating  what  profession  he  follow-  not  the  love  of  truth,  but  their  own  reputa- 

ed.     It  has  been  supposed  by  the  learned,  tion,  influence,  glory,  worldly  interest,  and 

and  not  without  reason,  that  this  Pronto  was  advantage  ;  just  the  same  causes  as  had  be- 

Cornclius  Pronto  the  rhetorician,  who  in-  fore  moved  the  pagan  priests.     This  war  of 

structed   Marcus  Antoninus  in  eloquence,  the  philosophers  commenced  in  the  reign  of 

(and  whose  works  were  first  published  A.D.  Marcus  Antoninus,  who  was  himself  addict- 

1816,  by  Aug.  Maius,  Frankf.  on  Mayn,  in  ed  to  philosophy.     And  it  is  easy  to  See, 

2  parts).     So.  long  as  the  Christian  commu-  what  induced  him  to  listen  to  his  brother 

nity  was  made  up  of  unlearned  persons,  the  philosophers,  and  at  their  instigation  to  al- 

philosophers  despised  them.     But  when,  in  low  the  Christians  to  be  persecuted.     See 

the  second  century,  some  eminent  philoso-  Mosheim,  de  Reb.  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  256,  &c. 

phers  became  Christians,  as  Justin,  Athe-  — Tr.J 

naporas,  Pantacnus,  and  others,  who  retain-         (21)  Justin  Martyr,  Apologia  ii.,  p.  21, 

ed  the  name,  garb,  and  mode  of  living  of  phi-  ed.  Oxon.     Tatian,  Oral,  contra  Graecos, 

losophers,  and  who  became  teachers  of  youth,  p.  72,  ed.  Worthii. 

and  while  they  gave  a  philosophical  aspect  to         (1)  Pliny,  Epistles,  lib.  iii.,  ep.  18,  p.  134, 

Christianity,  exposed  the  vanity  of  the  pagan  135,  ed.  Cortii  et  Longolii. 
philosophy,  and  the  shameless  lives  of  those         (2)  Marcus  Antoninus,  Meditations,  or, 


110      BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  I. 

Hence  the  literary  productions  of  this  age  among  the  Romans,  are  far  infe- 
rior to  those  of  the  preceding  century,  in  elegance,  brilliance,  and  good  taste. 

^  2.  Yet  there  were  men  of  excellent  genius,  among  both  Greeks  and 
Romans,  who  wrote  well  on  almost  every  branch  of  learning  then  cultiva- 
ted. Among  the  Greeks,  Plutarch  was  particularly  eminent.  He  was  a 
man  of  various,  but  ill-digested  learning  ;  and  besides  was  tainted  with  the 
principles  of  the  academics.  Rhetoricians,  sophists,  and  grammarians  had 
schools  in  all  the  more  considerable  towns  of  the  Roman  empire  ;  in  which 
they  pretended  to  train  up  youth  for  public  life,  by  various  exercises  and  dec- 
lamations. But  those  educated  in  these  schools,  were  vain,  loquacious, 
and  formed  for  display  ;  rather  than  truly  eloquent,  wise,  and  competent  to 
transact  business.  Hence  the  sober  and  considerate  looked  with  contempt, 
on  the  education  acquired  in  the  schools  of  these  teachers.  There  were 
two  public  academies,  one  at  Rome  founded  by  Adrian,  in  which  all  the 
sciences  were  taught,  but  especially  jurisprudence  ;  the  other  at  Berytus  in 
Phenicia,  in  which  jurists  were  principally  educated. (3) 

§  3.  Many  philosophers  of  all  the  different  sects,  flourished  at  this  time  ; 
but  to  enumerate  them  belongs  rather  to  other  works  than  tothis.(4)  The 
Stoic  sect  had  the  honour  of  embracing  two  great  men,  Marcus  Antoninus, 
the  emperor,  and  Epictetus.(5)  But  each  of  them  had  more  admirers  than, 
disciples  and  followers  ;  nor  were  the  Stoics,  according  to  history,  held  in 
the  highest  estimation  in  this  age.  There  were  larger  numbers  in  the 
schools  of  the  Platonists ;  among  other  reasons,  because  they  were  less 
austere,  and  because  their  doctrines  were  more  in  accordance  with  the 
common  notions  respecting  the  gods.  But  no  sect  appears  to  have  numbered 
more  adherents  than  the  Epicureans ;  whose  precepts  led  to  an  indulgent, 
secure  and  voluptuous  life. (6) 

§  4.  Near  the  close  of  this  century,  a  new  philosophical  sect  suddenly 
started  up,  which  in  a  short  time  prevailed  over  a  large  part  of  the  Roman 
empire,  and  not  only  nearly  swallowed  up  the  other  sects,  but  likewise  did 
immense  injury  to  Christianity. (7)  Egypt  was  its  birthplace,  and  partic- 
ularly Alexandria,  which  for  a  long  time  had  been  the  seat  of  literature  and 
every  science.  Its  followers  chose  to  be  called  Platonics.  Yet  they  did 
not  follow  Plato  implicitly,  but  collected  from  all  systems  whatever  seemed 
to  coincide  with  their  own  views.  And  the  ground  of  their  preference  for 
the  name  of  Platonics,  was,  that  they  conceived  Plato  had  explained  more 
correctly  than  all  others,  that  most  important  branch  of  philosophy  which 
treats  of  God  and  supersensible  things. 

§  5.  That  controversial  spirit  in  philosophy,  which  obliges  every  one  to 

ad  se  ipsum,  lib.  i.,  §  7,  p.  3,  4,  $  17,  p.  17,  &c.,  treats  of  M.  Antoninus ;  and  ibid.,  p, 

ed.  Lips.  260,  &c.,  of  Epictetus.—  TV.] 

(3)  M.  Antoninus,  Meditations,  or,  ad  se         (6)  Lucian,  Pseudomantis  ;  Opp.,  torn,  i., 
ipsum,  lib.  i.,  $  7,  10,  17,  p.  4,  7,  16,  ed.  p.  763. 

Lips.     [See  Giannone,  Istoria  Civile  di  Na-         (7)  [See  Dr.  Mosheim's  Cornmentat.  de 

poli,  lib.  i.,  c.  10. — TV.]  turbata  per  recentiores  Platonicos  ecclesia, 

(4)  Justin  Martyr,   Dial,  cum  Trypho.,  in  his  syntagma  Diss.  ad  Hist.  Eccles.  per- 
Opp.,  p.  218,  &c.     Many  of  the  philoso-  tinent.,  vol.  i.,  p.  85,  &c. ;  and  Brucker's 
phers  of  this  age  are  mentioned  by  M.  An-  Hist.  cnt.  Philos.,  torn,  ii.,  p.   162,  &c. — 
toninus,  Meditat.,  or,  ad  se  ipsum,  lib.  i.  Schl.     And,  on  the  contrary,  C.  A.  T.  Keil, 

(5)  [Concerning  Marcus  Antoninus,  see  Exercitatt.  xviii.  de  Doctoribus  veteris  ec- 
Brucker's  Hist.  crit.  Philos.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  578,  cles.  culpa  corrupts  per  Platonicas  senten- 
and   for  Epictetus,    ibid.,    p.    568.— Schl.  tias  theologiae,  liberandis,  Lips.,  1793-1807, 
Staeudlin,  Gesch.  der  Moralphilos.,  p.  265,  4to. — TV.] 


LEARNING  AND  PHILOSOPHY.  Ill 

swear  allegiance  to  the  dogmas  of  his  master,  was  disapproved  by  the  more 
wise.  Hence  among  the  lovers  of  truth,  and  the  men  of  moderation,  a  new 
class  of  philosophers  had  grown  up  in  Egypt,  who  avoided  altercation  and  a 
sectarian  spirit,  and  who  professed  simply  to  follow  truth,  gathering  up  what- 
ever was  accordant  with  it  in  all  the  philosophic  schools.  They  assumed 
therefore  the  name  of  Eclectics.  But  notwithstanding  these  philosophers 
were  really  the  partisans  of  no  sect,  yet  it  appears  from  a  variety  of  testi- 
monies, that  they  much  preferred  Plato,  and  embraced  most  of  his  dogmas 
concerning  God,  the  human  soul,  and  the  universe. (8) 

§  6.  This  philosophy  was  adopted  by  such  of  the  learned  at  Alexandria, 
as  wished  to  be  accounted  Christians,  and  yet  to  retain  the  name,  the  garb, 
and  the  rank  of  philosophers.  In  particular,  all  those  who  in  this  century 
presided  in  the  schools  of  the  Christians  at  Alexandria,  (Athenagoras,  Pan- 
taenus,  and  Clemens  Alexandrinus,)  are  said  to  have  approved  of  it. (9) 
These  men  were  persuaded  that  true  philosophy,  the  great  and  most  salu- 
tary gift  of  God,  lay  in  scattered  fragments  among  all  the  sects  of  philoso- 
phers ;  and  therefore  that  it  was  the  duty  of  every  wise  man,  and  especial- 
ly of  a  Christian  teacher,  to  collect,  those  fragments  from  all  quarters,  and 
to  use  them  for  the  defence  of  religion  and  the  confutation  of  impiety.  Yet 
this  selection  of  opinions  did  not  prevent  their  regarding  Plato  as  wiser 
than  all  others,  and  as  having  advanced  sentiments  concerning  God,  the 
soul,  and  supersensible  things,  more  accordant  with  the  principles  of  Chris- 
tianity than  any  other.(lO) 

§  7.  This  [eclectic]  mode  of  philosophizing  was  changed  near  the  close 
of  the  century,  when  Ammonius  Saccas  with  great  applause,  opened  a 
school  at  Alexandria,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  that  sect  which  is  called 
the  New  Platonic.  This  man  was  born  and  educated  a  Christian,  and  per- 
haps made  pretensions  to  Christianity  all  his  life.(ll)  Being  possessed 

(8)  [See  Brucker's   Hist.    crit.    Philos.,  who  were  attached   to  the   ancient  simple 
torn,  ii.,  p.  189,  &c. — Schl.]  faith,  as  taught  by  Christ  and  his  apostles; 

(9)  The  title  and  dignity  of  philosopher  so  for  they  feared  what  afterward  actually  hap- 
much  delighted  those  good  men,  that,  when  pened,  that  the  purity  and  excellence  of  di- 
made  presbyters,  they  would  not  abandon  the  vine  truth  would  suffer  by  it.     Hence  the 
philosopher's  cloak  and  dress.     See  Origan's  Christians  were  divided  into  two  parties,  the 
letter  to  Euscbius,  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  p.  2,  ed.  •  friends  of  philosophy  and  human  learning, 
de  la  Rue.     [Justin  Martyr,  Dial,  cum  Try-  and  the  opposers  of  them.     The  issue  of  the 
pho.    initium.     For    proof    that    Pantanus  long  contest   between  them,  was,  that  the 
studied  philosophy,  see  Origen,  in  Euscbius,  advocates  of  philosophy  prevailed. — Traces 
Hist.   Eccles.,  1.    vi.,   c.    19.     Jerome,  de  of  this  controversy  may  be  seen  in  Eusebius, 
Scriptoribus  Illustr.,  cap.   20.     The  prori-  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  v.,  c.  28 ;  and  in  Clemens 
ciency  of  Athcnagoras  in    philosophy,  ap-  Alex.,  Stromat.,  lib.  i.,  cap.  1-5. — See  Mo- 
pears  from  his  Apology,  and  his  Essay  on  shcim,  de  Rebus  Christ,  ante  Constant.  M., 
the  Resurrection.     That  Clemens  Alex,  was  p.  276,  &c. —  TV.] 

much  addicted  to  philosophy,  is  very  evi-  (11)  [The  history  of  the  philosopher  Am- 
dent ;  see  his  Stromata,  passim. — Concern-  moitius  is  involved  in  great  obscurity.  All 
ing  the  Alexandrian  Christian  school,  see  that  could  be  gathered  from  antiquity  re- 
Hcrm,  Conrmgiut,  Antiquitates  Academi-  specting  him,  is  given  by  Bruckcr,  Historia 
cae,  p.  29.  J.  A.  Schmidt,  Diss.  prefixed  crit.  philos.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  205.  See  also  J. 
to  A.  Hyperii  Libellum  de  Catechesi.  Do-  A.  Fabricius,  Biblioth.  Graeca,  lib.  iv.,  c. 
min.  Aulisius,  delle  Scuole  sacre,  libr.  ii.,  26.  "Whether  Ammonius  continued  a  pro- 
cap.  1,  2,  21.  Geo.  Langemacfc,  Historia  fessed  Christian,  or  apostatized,  has  been 
Catechiemorum,  pt.  i.,  p.  86. — See  Moshctm,  much  debated.  Porphyry,  who  studied  un- 
de  Reb.  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  273,  &c. — Tr.]  der  Plotinus,  a  disciple  of  Ammonius,  (as 

(10)  [This    cultivation  of  philosophy  by  quoted  by  Eusefnus,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  vi.,  c. 
Christian  teachers,  greatly  displeased  those  19),  says,  he  was  born  of  Christian  parents, 


112       BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  I. 

of  great  fecundity  of  genius  as  well  as  eloquence,  he  undertook  to  bring  all 
systems  of  philosophy  and  religion  into  harmony ;  or,  in  other  words,  to  teach 
a  philosophy,  by  which  all  philosophers,  and  the  men  of  all  religions,  the 
Christian  not  excepted,  might  unite  together  and  have  fellowship.  And 
here  especially,  lies  the  difference  between  this  new  sect,  and  the  eclectic 
philosophy  which  had  before  flourished  in  Egypt.  For  the  Eclectics  held 
that  there  was  a  mixture  of  good  and  bad,  true  and  false,  in  all  the  systems  ; 
and  therefore  they  selected  out  of  all,  what  appeared  to  them  consonant 
with  reason,  and  rejected  the  rest.  But  Ammonius  held  that  all  sects  pro- 
fessed one  and  the  same  system  of  truth,  with  only  some  difference  in  the 
mode  of  stating  it,  and  some  minute  difference  in  their  conceptions  ;  so  that 
by  means  of  suitable  explanations,  they  might  with  little  difficulty  be  brought 
into  one  body. (12)  He  moreover  held  this  new  and  singular  principle, 
that  the  popular  religions,  and  likewise  the  Christian,  must  be  understood 
and  explained  according  to  this  common  philosophy  of  all  the  sects  ;  and 
that  the  fables  of  the  vulgar  pagans  and  their  priests,  and  so  too  the  inter- 
pretations of  the  disciples  of  Christ,  ought  to  be  separated  from  their  re- 
spective religions. 

§  8.  The  grand  object  of  Ammonius,  to  bring  all  sects  and  religions  into 
harmony,  required  him  to  do  much  violence  to  the  sentiments  and  opinions 
of  all  parties,  philosophers,  priests,  and  Christians ;  and  particularly,  by 
means  of  allegorical  interpretations,  to  remove  very  many  impediments  out 
of  his  way.  The  manner  in  which  he  prosecuted  his  object,  appears  in 
the  writings  of  his  disciples  and  adherents  ;  which  have  come  down  to  us 
in  great  abundance.  To  make  the  arduous  work  more  easy,  he  assumed 
that  philosophy  was  first  produced  and  nurtured  among  the  people  of  the 
East ;  that  it  was  inculcated  among  the  Egyptians  by  Hermes,(13)  and 

but  when  he  came  to  mature  years,  embraced  openly  renounce  Christianity,  but  endeavour- 

the  religion  of  the  laws,  i.  e.,  the  pagan  re-  ed  to  accommodate  himself  to  the  feelings  of 

ligion.     Eusebius  taxes  Porphyry  with  false-  all  parties  ;  and  therefore  he  was  claimed  by 

hood  in  this  ;  and  says,  that  Ammonius  con-  both  pagans  and  Christians.     Hence,  if  he 

tinued  a  Christian  till  his  death,  as  appears  was  a  Christian,  he  was  a  very  inconsistent 

from  his  books,  one  of  which  was  on  the  ac-  one,  and  did  much  injury  to  its  cause. — See 

cordance  of  Moses  with  Jesus  Christ.     Je-  Mosheim,  de  Rebus  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  281. — 

rome,  de  Scriptoribus  Illustr.,  cap.  55,  says  Tr.] 

nearly   the    same.     Valesius,  Bayle,  Bus-  (12)  [The  views  of  this  sect  are  very 

nage,  and  Dr.  Mosheim,  (when  he  wrote  his  clearly    expressed  by    Julian,  who    was  a 

essay  de  ecclesia  turbata  per  recentiores  Pla-  great  devotee  of  this  philosophy,  Oral,  vi., 

tonicos),  agreed  with  Eusebius  and  Jerome,  contra  Cynicos,  Opp.,  p.  184. — Schl.     In 

But  when  he  wrote  his  Commentarii  de  Reb.  accordance  with  the  prevalent  views  of  the 

Christ.,  Dr.  Mosheim  fell  in  with  the  opin-  oriental  Platonists,  "  these  philosophers,  like 

ion  of  Fabricius,  Brucker,  and  others,  (and  the  Christian  Gnostics,  supposed  all  essen- 

which  is  now  the  general  opinion),  that  Eu-  tial  truth  to  be  derived,  not  from  a  process 

sebius   and  Jerome  confounded  Ammonius  of  thought,  but  from  direct  inward  percep- 

the  philosopher,  with  another  Ammonius,  the  tion. "    Gieseler's  Text-book,  translated  by 

reputed  author  of  a  harmony  of  the  Gospels,  Cunningham,   vol.    i. ,    p.    112.     See    also 

and  other  works ;  because  it  can  hardly  be  Tennemanri's    Grundriss    der   Gesch.    der 

supposed,  that  this  enthusiastic  admirer  of  Philos.,  ed.  Leipz.,  1829,  §  200-202. — TV.] 

philosophy,  would  have  found  time  or  incli-  (13)  [This  appears  from  the  writings  of 

nation  for  composing  such  books.     Besides,  all  his  followers,  Plotinus,  Proclus,  Porphy- 

it  is  said,  Ammonius  the  philosopher  pub-  ry,    Damascius,    Simplicius,    and    others, 

lished  no  books.     Still  the  question  remains,  And  the  learned,  not  without  reason,  con- 

what  were  the  religious  character  and  creed  jecture  that  all  the  works  of  Hermes  and 

of  this  philosopher,  in  his  maturer  years  T  Zoroaster,  which  we  now  have,  originated  in 

Dr.  Mosheim  thinks  it  probable,  he  did  not  the  schools  of  these  New  Platonics. — Schl.} 


LEARNING  AND  PHILOSOPHY.  113 

thence  passed  to  the  Greeks ;  that  it  was  a  little  obscured  and  deformed 
by  the  disputatious  Greeks  ;  but  still  by  Plato,  the  best  interpreter  of  the 
principles  of  Hermes  and  of  the  ancient  oriental  sages,  it  was  preserved 
for  the  most  part  entire  and  unsullied  ;(14)  that  the  religions  received  by 
the  various  nations  of  the  world  were  not  inconsistent  with  this  most  ancient 
philosophy  ;  yet  that  it  had  most  unfortunately  happened,  that  what  the  an- 
cients taught  by  symbols  and  fictitious  stories  in  the  manner  of  the  Orien- 
tals, had  been  understood  literally  by  the  people  and  the  priests  ;  and  thus, 
the  ministers  of  divine  providence,  (those  demons  whom  the  supreme  Lord 
of  all  had  placed  over  the  various  parts  of  our  world),  had  erroneously  been 
converted  into  gods,  and  had  been  worshipped  with  many  vain  ceremonies  ; 
that  therefore  the  public  religions  of  all  nations  should  be  corrected  by  this 
ancient  philosophy  :  and  that  it  was  the  sole  object  of  Christ  to  set  bounds 
to  the  reigning  superstition,  and  correct  the  errors  which  had  crept  into 
religion,  but  not  to  abolish  altogether  the  ancient  religions. 

§  9.  To  these  assumptions  he  added  the  common  doctrines  of  the  Egyp- 
tians, (among  whom  he  was  born  and  educated),  concerning  the  universe 
and  the  deity,  as  constituting  one  great  whole,  [Pantheism  ;](15)  concern- 
ing the  eternity  of  the  world,  the  nature  of  the  soul,  providence,  the  gov- 
ernment of  this  world  by  demons,  and  other  received  doctrines,  all  of  which 
he  considered  as  true  and  not  to  be  called  in  question.  For  it  is  most  ev- 
ident that  the  ancient  philosophy  of  the  Egyptians,  which  they  pretended 
to  have  learned  from  Hermes,  was  the  basis  of  the  New  Platonic  or  Am- 
monian  ;  and  the  book  of  Jamblichus,  de  Mysteriis  Aegyptiorum,  is  sufficient 
evidence  of  the  fact.  In  the  next  place,  with  these  Egyptian  notions  he 
united  the  philosophy  of  Plato ;  which  he  accomplished  with  little  diffi- 
culty, by  distorting  some  of  the  principles  of  Plato,  and  by  putting  a  false 
construction  on  his  language. (16)  Finally,  the  dogmas  of  the  other  sects 
he  construed,  as  far  as  was  possible,  by  means  of  art,  ingenuity,  and  the 
aid  of  allegories,  into  apparent  coincidence  with  these  Egyptian  and  Pla- 
tonic principles. 

§  10.  To  this  Egyptiaco-Platonic  philosophy,  the  ingenious  and  fanati- 
cal man  joined  a  system  of  moral  discipline  apparently  of  high  sanctity 
and  austerity.  He  permitted  the  common  people,  indeed,  to  live  accord- 
ing to  the  laws  of  their  country  and  the  dictates  of  nature  ;  but  he  directed 
the  wise  to  elevate,  by  contemplation,  their  souls,  which  were  the  off- 
spring of  God,  above  all  earthly  things  ;  and  to  weaken  and  emaciate  their 
bodies,  which  were  hostile  to  the  liberty  of  their  souls,  by  means  of  hun- 
ger, thirst,  labour,  and  other  austerities  ;(17)  so  that  they  might  in  the  pres- 

(14)  [Jamblichus,  de  Mysteriis  Aegyptio-  Pror.lus,  Simplicius,  Jamblichus,  and  all  the 
rum,  1.  i.,  c.  1,  2. — Sclil.]  New  Platonics.   See,  for  example,  Porphyry, 

(15)  [On  this  principle  the  whole  philos-  in  his  life  of  Plotinus,  cap  ii.,  p.  94. — SchL] 
ophy  of  the  ancient  Egyptians  was  founded  ;  (16)  [The  principle  of  the  Ammonian  and 
and   on  it  Ammonius   erected  his    system.  Egyptian    philosophy,    that    God    and    the 
The  book  which  goes  under  the  title  of  Her-  world  constitute   one    indivisible   whole,    it 
metis  TrisiHCgisli  Sermo  de  Natura  Deo-  cost  him  much  labour  to  reduce  to  harmony 
rum,  ad  Asclepium,  which  is  extant  in  Latin  with  the  system  of  Plato  ;  who,  as  we  learn 
among  the  works  of  Apulcius,  the  supposed  from  his  Timanis,  taught  the  eternal  exist- 
translator,  is  evidence  of  this  fact.     See  also  ence  of  matter,  as  a  substance  distinct  from 
Euscfiins,  Pracparatio  evangel.,  lib.  iii.,  c.  9,  God.     SceProclus  on  the  Tmiacus  of  Plato, 
and  the  note  on  Cudworth's  Intell.  System,  — Schl.] 

torn,  i.,  p.  404,  &.c.     And  the  same  funda-        (17)  [See  Porphyry,  de  Abstinentia,  lib. 
mental  principle  is  assumed  by  Plottmts,    i.,  c.  27,  &c.,  p.  22-34. — SM-] 
VOL.  I.— P 


114 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  I. 


ent  life,  attain  to  communion  with  the  Supreme  Being,  and  might  ascend 
after  death,  active  and  unencumbered,  to  the  universal  parent,  and  be  for 
ever  united  with  him.  And,  being  born  and  educated  among  Christians, 
Ammonius  was  accustomed  to  give  elegance  and  dignity  to  these  precepts 
by  using  forms  of  expression  borrowed  from  the  sacred  scriptures  ;  and 
hence  these  forms  of  expression  occur  abundantly  in  the  writings  of  his 
followers.(18)  To  this  austere  discipline,  he  superadded  the  art  of  so  pur- 
ging and  improving  the  imaginative  faculty,  as  to  make  it  capable  of  seeing 
the  demons,  and  of  performing  many  wonderful  things  by  their  assistance. 
His  followers  called  this  art  Theurgy. (19)  Yet  it  was  not  cultivated  by  all 
the  philosophers  of  Ammonius'  school,  but  only  by  the  more  eminent.(20) 
§  11.  That  the  prevailing  religions,  and  particularly  the  Christian,  might 
not  appear  irreconcilable  with  his  system,  Ammonius  first  turned  the  whole 
history  of  the  pagan  gods  into  allegory,(21)  and  maintained  that  those  whom 
the  vulgar  and  the  priests  honoured  with  the  title  of  Gods,  were  only  the 
ministers  of  God,  to  whom  some  homage  might  and  should  be  paid,  yet 
such  as  would  not  derogate  from  the  superior  homage  due  to  the  Supreme 
God  ;(22)  and  in  the  next  place  he  admitted  that  Christ  was  an  extraordi- 
nary man,  the  friend  of  God,  and  an  admirable  Theurge.(23)  He  denied 
that  Christ  aimed  wholly  to  suppress  the  worship  of  the  demons,  those 
ministers  of  divine  providence  ;  that,  on  the  contrary,  he  only  sought  to  wipe 
away  the  stains,  contracted  by  the  ancient  religions  ;(24)  and  that  his  dis- 
ciples had  corrupted  and  vitiated  the  system  of  their  master.(25) 


(18)  [See  examples  in  Hicrocles,  on  the 
golden  verses  of  Pythagoras  ;  and  in  Sim- 
plicius  and  Jamblichus.    See  also  Mosheim's 
Diss.    de    studio    Ethnicorum    Christianos 
imitandi,  in  vol.  i.  of  his  Diss.  ad  Hist.  Ec- 
cles.  pertinent,  p.  321. — Schl.] 

(19)  (This  worthless  science  is  very  sim- 
ilar to  what  has  been  called  allowable  magic, 
and  which  is  distinguished  from  necromancy, 
or  unlawful  magic.     It  was  undoubtedly  of 
Egyptian  origin.     As  the   Egyptians  ima- 
gined the  whole  world  to  be  full  of  good  and 
evil  spirits,  they  might  easily  be  led  to  sup- 
pose there  must  be  some  way  to  secure  the 
favour  of  these  demons.     See  Augustine, 
de  Civil.  Dei,  1.  x.,  c.  9,  Opp.,  torn,  vii.,  p. 
187. — Schl.     "  Theurgy  is  the  science  con- 
cerning the  gods  and  the  various  classes  of 
superior  spirits,  their  appearing  to  men  and 
their  operations ;   and  the  art,  by  means  of 
certain  acts,  habits,  words,  and  symbols,  of 
moving  the  gods  to  impart  to  men  secrets 
which  surpass  the  powers  of  reason,  to  lay 
open  to  them  the  future,  and  to  become  vis- 
ible to  them.     This   theurgy,  which  goes 
farther  and  rises  higher  than  philosophy,  was 
first  imparted  and  revealed  to  men  in  ancient 
times,  by  the  gods  themselves,   and   was 
afterwards  preserved  among  the  priests.     So 
it  is  described  in  the  book  which  bears  the 
name  of  Jamblichus,  de  Mysteriis  Aegyptio- 
rum,   lib.  i.,  c.   26-29."     Staeudlin,  Ges- 
chicbte  der  Moralphilosophie,  p.  462. — TV.] 


(20)  [See  concerning   the  moral  system 
of  the  new  Platonics,  in  all  its  material  parts, 
Staeudlin,  Geschichte  der  Moralphilosophie, 
p.  435,  &c.—Tr.] 

(21)  [See,    for   example,    Porphyry,   de 
Antro  Nymphar.  apud  Homerum  de  styge, 
&c.— Schl.] 

(22)  [Paul  Orosius,  Historia,  lib.  vi.,  cap. 
1,  p.  364,  365.—  Schl.} 

(23)  [It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  sect  of 
Ammonius  embraced  some,  who  were  ene- 
mies of  Christ  and  of  the  Christians.     The 
emperor  Julian,  and  some  others,  are  proof 
of  this.     But  Ammonius  himself  honoured 
Christ.     And  Augustine  contended  against 
some  philosophers  of  his  time,  who,  as  fol- 
lowers of  Ammonius,  honoured  Christ,  yet 
maintained  that  the  Christians  had  corrupted 
his  doctrine  ;  de  Consensu  Evangelistarum, 
Opp.,  torn,  iii.,  pt.  ii.,  lib.  1,  c.  6,  §  11,  p. 
5,  and  c.  8,  $   14,  p.  6,  and  c.  15,  p.  8. — 
Schl.] 

(24)  [Augustine,  de  Consensu  Evangel., 
lib.  i.,  c.  16,  p.  8,  and  c.  24,  p.  18.     Yet 
they    admitted    that    Christ   abolished   the 
worship  of  certain   demons  of  an  inferior 
order,  and  enjoined  upon  men  to  pray  to 
the  celestial  gods,  and  especially  to  the  Su- 
preme God.     This  is  evident  from  a  passage 
of  Porphyry,  quoted  by  Augustine,  de  Civ- 
itate  Dei,  lib.  xix.,  c.  23,  §  4,  Opp.,  torn. 
vii.,  p.  430.— Schl.] 

(25)  What  we  have  stated  in  these  sec- 


LEARNING  AND  PHILOSOPHY.  115 

t  12.  This  new  species  of  philosophy,  imprudently  adopted  by  Origen 
ana  other  Christians,  did  immense  harm  to  Christianity.  For  it  led  the 
teashers  of  it  to  involve  in  philosophic  obscurity  many  parts  of  our  religion, 
wuch  were  in  themselves  plain  and  easy  to  be  understood ;  and  to  add 
t<  the  precepts  of  the  Saviour  not  a  few  things,  of  which  not  a  word  can  be 
f)und  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  It  also  produced  that  gloomy  set  of  men, 
tailed  mystics ;  whose  system,  if  divested  of  its  Platonic  notions  respect- 
iig  the  origin  and  nature  of  the  soul,  will  be  a  lifeless  and  senseless  corpse. 
It  laid  a  foundation,  too,  for  that  indolent  mode  of  life,  which  was  after- 
vards  adopted  by  many,  and  particularly  by  numerous  tribes  of  monks; 
.nd  it  recommended  to  Christians  various  foolish  and  useless  rites,  suited 
mly  to  nourish  superstition,  no  small  part  of  which  we  see  religiously  ob- 
served by  many  even  to  the  present  day.  And  finally,  it  alienated  the  minds 
*f  many  in  the  following  centuries,  from  Christianity  itself,  and  produced 
a  heterogeneous  species  of  religion,  consisting  of  Christian  and  Platonic 
priiciples  combined.  And  who  is  able  to  enumerate  all  the  evils  and  inju- 
rious effects,  which  arose  from  this  new  philosophy ;  or,  if  you  please, 
iron  [this  Syncretismus]  this  attempt  to  reconcile  true  and  false  religions 
with  each  other  ? 

§  '  3.  The  number  of  learned  men  among  the  Christians,  which  was 
small  ;n  the  preceding  century,  was  larger  in  this.  And  yet  we  scarcely 
find  anong  them,  rhetoricians,  sophists,  and  orators.  Most  of  those  who 
obtained  some  reputation  among  them  by  their  learning,  were  philosophers  : 
and  they  as  before  stated,  followed  the  principles  of  the  Eclectics,  and 
gave  Plcf.o  preference  before  others.  But  all  Christians  were  not  agreed 
as  to  the  Jtility  of  learning  and  philosophy.  Those  who  were  themselves 
initiated  ii  the  mysteries  of  philosophy,  wished  that  many,  and  especially 
such  as  aspired  to  the  office  of  pastors  and  teachers,  might  apply  them- 
selves to  U.e  study  of  human  wisdom,  so  that  they  might  confute  the  ene- 
mies of  truth  with  more  effect,  and  teach  and  instruct  others  with  more 
success.  Biit  a  great  majority  thought  otherwise  ;  they  wished  to  banish 
all  reasoning  ind  philosophy  out  of  the  confines  of  the  church ;  for  they 
feared  that  suchlearning  would  injure  piety.  At  this  time,  therefore,  broke 
out  the  war  between  faith  and  reason,  religion  and  philosophy,  piety  and  in- 
telligence ;  which  \ias  been  protracted,  through  all  succeeding  centuries, 
down  to  our  own  tines,  and  which  we  by  all  our  efforts  cannot  easily  bring 
to  an  end.  By  degrees,  those  obtained  the  ascendency,  who  thought  that 
philosophy  and  erudi;ion  were  profitable,  rather  than  hurtful  to  religion  and 
piety ;  and  rules  were  at  length  established,  that  no  person  entirely  illiter- 
ate or  unlearned,  should  be  admitted  to  the  office  of  teacher  in  the  church. 
Yet  the  vices  of  the  philosophers  and  learned  men,  among  other  causes, 

tions  respecting  the  doctrines  of  Ammonius,  New   Platonics  constantly   affirm   to  have 

we  have  collected  from  the  books  and  dis-  been  the  author  of  their  philosophy. — [Dr. 

cussions   of  his   followers,  who  are  called  Mos)ic.im,    in   his    Commentarii   de    Rebus 

New  Platonics.     Ammonius  himself  left  no  Christ,    ante   Constantin.    M.,  §  27-32,  p. 

writings;  and  he  forbid  his  followers  ever  280-298,  has  given  a  more  full  account  of 

publishing  his  doctrines,  but  they  did  not  Ammonius  and  his  doctrines,  and  has  cited, 

obey  him.     See  Pwjihi/ry,  Vita  Plotim,  cap.  particularly,  his  chi^f  authorities  ;    but    the 

3,    p.   97,   ed.    Fnf>ricii,   lib.    iv  .    Uihlijt.h.  substance  of  his  statements  is  contained  in 

Graeca.     Yet  there  can  be  no  doubt,  that  the  preceding  sections,  and  his  most  impor- 

all  we  have  stated  was  invented  by  Ammo-  tant  authorities  are  referred  to  in  the  notes  of 

tints  himself,  whom  the  whole  family  of  the  Scklcgel,  which  are  all  here  preserved. — 7V.J 


116      BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 

prevented  the  opposite  party  from  ever  being  destitute  of  patrons  and  ^d- 
vocates.  Ample  proof  of  this  will  be  found  in  the  history  of  the  following 
centuries.  ? 


CHAPTER  II.  £ 

HISTORY  OF  THE  TEACHERS  AND  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  CHURCft-, 

^ 

4  1.  The  form  of  Church  Government. — §  2.  Union  of  Churches  in  a  Province.     Origin, 
of  Councils. — §  3.  Their  too  great  Authority  gave  rise  to  Metropolitans  and  Patriarchs. 
— §  4.  Parallel  between  the  Jewish  and  Christian  Priesthood. — §  5.  The  principal^ 
Writers.  ft 

*t 
§  1.  THE  form  of  church  government  which  began  to  exist  in  the  p*te- 

ceding  century,  was  in  this  century  more  industriously  established  and  cf-in- 
firmed,  in  all  its  parts.  One  president,  or  bishop,  presided  over  each  church. 
He  was  created  by  the  common  suffrage  of  the  whole  people.  With  Uie 
presbyters  for  his  council,  whose  number  was  not  fixed,  it  was  his  business 
to  watch  over  the  interests  of  the  whole  church,  and  to  assign  to  each  pres- 
byter his  station.  Subject  to  the  bishop  and  also  to  the  presbyters.1,  were 
the  servants  or  deacons,  who  were  divided  into  certain  classes,  bec'ause  all 
the  duties  which  the  interests  of  the  church  required,  could  not  Veil  be  at- 
tended to  by  them  all.  S, 

§  2.  During  a  great  part  of  this  century,  all  the  churches  continued  to 
be,  as  at  first,  independent  of  each  other,  or  were  connected  by  n/o  consoci- 
ations or  confederations^  1 )  Each  church  was  a  kind  of  small  in  dependent 
republic,  governing  itself  by  its  own  laws,  enacted  or  at  least  /sanctioned 
by  the  people.  But  in  process  of  time,  it  became  customary,  for  all  the 
Christian  churches  within  the  same  province,  to  unite  and  fo  cm  a  sort  of 
larger  society  or  commonwealth  ;  and  in  the  manner  of  confederated  repub- 
lics, to  hold  their  conventions  at  stated  times,  and  there  deliberate  for  the 
common  advantage  of  the  whole  confederation.  This  cv.stom  first  arose 
among  the  Greeks,  with  whom  a  [political]  confederation  of  cities,  and  the 
consequent  conventions  of  their  several  delegates,  had  been  long  known ; 
but  afterwards  the  utility  of  the  thing  being  seen,  the  custom  extended 
through  all  countries  where  there  were  Christian  churches. (2)  Such 

(1)  [Yet  by  ancient  custom,  peculiar  re-  Christiani   magna    veneratione    celebratur. 
spect  was  paid  to  the  churches  founded  and  From  this  passage  of  Tertullian,  which  was 
governed  by  the  apostles  themselves  j  and  written  near  the  beginning  of  the  third  cen- 
such  churches  were  appealed  to  in  contro-  tury,  Dr.  Mo.<!icim(A&  Rebus  Christ.,  &c., 
versies  on  points  of  doctrine,  as  most  likely  p.  266,  &c-),  infers,  1,  that  provincial  coun- 
to  know  what  the  apostles  had  taught.     See  cils  had  not  then  been  held  in  Africa,  nor 
IreruEit-s,  adv.  Haeres.,  lib.  iii.,  c.  3,  and  anywhere  except  among  the  Greeks :  2,  that 
Tertullian,  de  Praescript.  adv.  Haeres.,  c.  councils  v/ere  considered  as  human  institu- 
36.    Thus  Moshcim,  de  Reb.  Christ.,  &c.,  tions,  and  as  acting  only  by  human  authority; 
p.  258. — TV.]  3,  that  \he  provincial  councils  were  held  al- 

(2)  Terlidlian,  de  Jejuniis,  cap.  13,  p.  711,  ways  in   the  same  places — ccrtis  in  locis  ; 
[where  we  have  this  very  important  state-  4,  that  they  did  not  interfere  with  the  private 
ment :  Aguntur  praete.rea  per  Graecias,  ilia  concerns  of  individual  churches,  which  were 
certis  in  locis  Concilia  ex  universis  ecclesiis,  left  to  their  own  management ;  but  conferred 
per  quae  et  altiora  quaeque  in  commune  trac-  only  on  greater  matters,  or  such  as  were 
tantur,  et  ipsa  repreeentatio  totius  nominis  of  common  interest — altiora — tractantur ;  5, 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT.  117 

conventions  of  delegates  from  several  churches  assembled  for  deliberation, 
were  called  by  .the  Greeks  Synods,  and  by  the  Latins  Councils ;  and  the 
laws  agreed  upon  in  them,  were  called  canons,  that  is,  rules. 

§  3.  These  councils, — of  which  no  vestige  appears  before  the  middle 
of  this  century,  changed  nearly  the  whole  form  of  the  church.  For  by 
them,  in  the  first  place,  the  ancient  rights  and  privileges  of  the  people 
were  very  much  abridged ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  influence  and  au- 
thority of  the  bishops  were  not  a  little  augmented.  At  first,  the  bishops 
did  not  deny,  that  they  were  merely  the  representatives  of  their  churches, 
and  that  they  acted  in  the  name  of  the  people  ;  but  by  little  and  little,  they 
made  higher  pretensions,  and  maintained  that  power  was  given  them  by 
Christ  himself,  to  dictate  rules  of  faith  and  conduct  to  the  people.  In  the 
next  place,  the  perfect  equality  and  parity  of  all  bishops,  which  existed 
in  the  early  times,  these  councils  gradually  subverted.  For  it  was  neces- 
sary that  one  of  the  confederated  bishops  of  a  province  should  in  those 
conventions  be  intrusted  with  some  authority  and  power  over  the  others; 
and  hence  originated  the  prerogatives  of  Metropolitans.  And  lastly,  when 
the  custom  of  holding  these  councils  had  extended  over  the  Christian  world, 
and  the  universal  church  had  acquired  the  form  of  a  vast  republic  com- 
posed of  many  lesser  ones,  certain  head  men  were  to  be  placed  over  it  in 
different  parts  of  the  world,  as  central  points  in  their  respective  countries. 
Hence  came  the  Patriarchs ;  and  ultimately  a  Prince  of  Patriarchs,  the 
Roman  pontiff. 

§  4.  To  the  whole  order  of  men  who  conducted  the  affairs  of  the 
church,  no  small  honour  and  profit  accrued,  from  the  time  they  succeeded 
in  persuading  the  people  to  regard  them  as  successors  of  the  Jewish  priests. 
This  took  place  not  long  after  the  reign  of  Adrian,  when,  upon  the  second 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  the  Jews  lost  all  hope  of  seeing  their  common- 
wealth restored.  The  bishops  now  wished  to  be  thought  to  correspond 
with  the  high  priests  of  the  Jews  ;  the  presbyters  were  said  to  come  in 
place  of  the  priests  ;  and  the  deacons  were  made  parallel  with  the  Levites. 
Those  who  first  drew  this  parallel  between  offices  so  totally  different,  proba- 
bly made  the  misrepresentation,  not  so  much  from  design  as  from  ignorance. 

that  the  attending  bishops  acted  as  represent-  called,  as  occasion  required.  Originally 
atives  of  their  churches,  and  not  as  men  these  councils  had  no  jurisdiction  ;  but  were 
-clothed  with  authority  from  heaven,  by  vir-  mere  conventions  of  delegates,  met  to  con- 
tue  of  their  office  —rcprcsenlatio  totius  no-  sider  and  agree  upon  matters  of  common 
minis  Chrisliani.  From  Greece,  the  cus-  concernment.  But  they  soon  began  to  claim 
torn  of  meeting  in  councils  extended  into  power ;  to  enact  and  enforce  laws,  and  to 
Syria  and  Palestine.  Euscb.,  Hist.  Eccl.,  1.  hear  and  decide  controversies.  And  the 
v.,  c.  23.  We  have  no  certain  accounts  of  lishopn,  instead  of  appearing  as  the  represent- 
any  councils  till  after  the  middle  of  the  sec-  atives  of  their  churches,  claimed  authority 
mul  century.  The  earliest  of  which  we  from  Christ,  to  bind  and  control  the  church- 
have  authentic  notice,  were  those  which  de-  es.  See  W.  C.  Zeigler,  on  the  Origin  of 
liberated  concerning  the  Montanists,  about  Synods,  in  Menken's  Neuen  Magazin,  band 
A.D.  170  or  173,  (Euscb.,  H.  E.,  v.  16),  i.,  st.  i.  G.  J.  Planck's  Geschichte  der 
and  the  next  were  those  assembled  to  con-  christl.  kirchl.  Gesellschafts-Verfassung,  pe- 
sider  the  proper  time  for  Easter. — (Euscb.,  riod  ii.,  chap,  v.,  vol.  i.,  p.  90,  &c.  C.  W. 
H.  E.,v.  23.)  All  these  councils  are  placed  F.  Walch,  Historic  der  Kirchenversamml., 
by  Euscbius,  under  the  reign  of  Commodus,  Introd.,  §  3,  4,  and  b.  i.,  ch.  i.,  sect,  ii.,  p. 
or  A.D.  180-192.  In  the  third  century,  82,  &c.,  ch.  ii.,  p.  118,  &c. — Jos.  Bmgham, 
councils  became  frequent.  Provincial  coun-  Origines  Eccles.,  vol.  vii.,  p.  45,  &c.,  and 
cils  were  now  held,  perhaps  throughout  the  Sir  P.  King,  Constitution,  &c.,  of  the  Prim. 
Christian  world  ;  and  special  councils  were  Church,  ch.  8. — TV.] 


118 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


But  this  idea  being  once  introduced  and  approved,  drew  after  it  other  er- 
rors, among  which  I  will  mention  only  this,  that  it  established  a  wider  dif- 
ference between  teachers  and  learners  than  accords  with  the  nature  of  the 
Christian  religion,(3) 

§  5.  Among  the  doctors  of  this  century,  whose  writings  rendered  them 
particularly  famous  in  after  ages,  was  Justin  Martyr ;  a  converted  phi- 
losopher, who  had  dipped  into  nearly  every  sect  in  philosophy.  He  was 
pious,  and  possessed  considerable  learning,  but  he  was  sometimes  an  in- 
cautious disputant,  and  was  ignorant  of  ancient  history.  We  have  among 
other  works  of  his,  two  Apologies  for  the  Christians,  which  are  justly  held 
in  great  estimation.(4)  Irenaeus,  bishop  of  Lyons  in  France,  whose  only 


(3)  [This  comparison  of  Christian  teach- 
ers with  the  Jewish  priesthood,  among  other 
consequences,  led  the  former  to  lay  claim  to 
tithes  and  first  fruits ;   of  which  we  find 
mention,  before  the  times  of  Constantine. 
Perhaps  a  desire  to  increase  their  revenues, 
which  were  both  small  and  precarious,  led 
some  of  the  bishops  to  apply  Jewish  law  to 
the  Christian  church.      That  they  claimed 
first  fruits,  as  of  divine  right,  in  this  centu- 
ry, is  clear  from  Ireneeus,  contra  Haeres.,  1. 
iv.,  c.  17  and  34.     That  tithes  were  not  yet 
claimed,  at  least  in  the  Latin  church,  appears 
from  the  latter  of  these  passages  in  Ireneau. 
Yet  in  the  Greek  and   Oriental  churches, 
tithes  began  to  be  claimed  earlier  than  among 
the  Latins  ;  and  probably  in  this  second  cen- 
tury, for  the  Greek  writers  of  the  third  cen- 
tury, and  the  apostolic  constitutions,  (which 
seem  to  contain  the  ecclesiastical   laws  of 
the  Greek  church),  mention  tithes  as  a  thing 
then  well  known. — See  Moshcim,  de  Rebus 
Christianor.,  &c.,  p.  271.— Tr.] 

(4)  [Justin  Martyr,  was  the  son  of  Pris- 
cus  and  grandson  of  Bacchius,  pagan  Gre- 
cians, settled  at  Flavia  Neapolis,  (Naplous), 
the  ancient  Sichem  in  Samaria.     See  Apol- 
og.  L,  c.  i.     He  had  successive  masters  in 
philosophy,  Stoic,  Peripatetic,  Pythagorean, 
and  lastly  Platonic.     He  travelled  much,  and 
was  very  eager  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge, 
and  especially  respecting  the  Divine  Being. 
When  about  23  years  old,  as  is  conjectured, 
and  about  A.D.    137,  he  was  converted  to 
Christianity,  in  consequence  of  being  direct- 
ed by  an  aged  Christian,  to  go  to  the  Bible, 
as  the  source  of  true  philosophy.     He  after- 
wards spent   most  of  his  time  at   Rome  ; 
where  he  lived  as  a  Christian  philosopher,  and 
devoted  all  his  talents  to  the  furtherance  of  the 
gospel.    At  last,  about  A.D.  168,  he  suffered 
jnartyrdom,  one  Cresccns,  a  pagan  philoso- 
pher, being  his  accuser,  and  on  the  simple 
charge  of  his  being  a  Christian.     His  wri- 
tings are  numerous,  erudite,  all  of  them  theo- 
logical, and  all  of  a  polemic  character.     His 
style  is  harsh  and  inelegant,  his  temper  is  ar- 
dent and  decisive,  and  his  arguments  and 


opinions  not  always  satisfactory.  Yet  being 
the  first  of  the  learned  divines,  and  a  very  zeal- 
ous and  active  Christian,  he  merits  our  par- 
ticular attention.  His  life  and  writings  are 
described  by  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  iv.,  c. 
11, 12, 16-18.  Jerome,  de  Scriptor.  Illustr., 
c.  23.  Photius,  Biblioth.,  ccxxxii.,  and  oth- 
ers among  the  ancients  ;  and  by  Cave,  Du 
Pin,  Longerue,  Maran,  Milncr,  (Hist,  of  the 
Chh.,  vol.  i.,p.  161,  &c.,ed.  Boston,  1822.) 
J.  Kaye,  (account  of  the  writings  and  opin- 
ions of  Justin  Martyr,  Lond.,  1829,  8vo),  a 
writer  in  the  Christian  Examiner,  for  Nov., 
Cambridge,  1829  ;  and  others  among  the 
moderns. — About  A.D.  140,  or  as  some 
think,  much  later  in  life,  he  composed  two 
learned  treatises  against  the  pagans,  as  we 
learn  from  Eusebius,  (Hist.  Eccl.,  iv.,  18), 
and  Jerome,  (ubi  sup.),  which  are  generally 
supposed  to  be  the  Cohortatio  ad  Graecos, 
and  Oratio  ad  Graecos,  still  found  in  his 
printed  works.  The  substance  of  the  for- 
mer, which  is  the  largest,  is  this  :  "  The 
Greeks  have  no  sources  of  certain  and  sat- 
isfactory knowledge  of  religion.  What  their 
poets  state  concerning  the  gods  is  ridiculous 
and  absurd.  Jupiter,  for  example,  accord- 
ing to  Homer,  would  have  been  incarcerated 
by  the  other  gods,  if  they  had  not  feared 
Briareus.  And  Jupiter  himself  betrayed 
his  weakness  by  his  amours.  Mars  and  Ve- 
nus were  wounded  by  Diomede,  &c.  Tha- 
Ics  derived  all  things  from  water ;  Anaxi- 
menes,  from  air ;  Heraclitus,  from  fire,  &c. 
But  it  is  not  possible  for  the  human  mind  to 
search  out  divine  things  ;  it  needs  aid  from 
above  ;  it  must  be  moved  by  the  divine  Spir- 
it, as  the  lyre  must  by  the  plectrum.  This 
was  the  fact  with  the  Hebrew  prophets ; 
who  besides,  were  much  older  than  the 
Grecian  poets,  lawgivers,  and  philosophers. 
Even  the  heathen  writers  admit  the  high  anti- 
quity of  the  Jewish  legislation,  e.  g.,  Polemon, 
Appion,  Ptolemy  Mendesius,  Hellanicus, 
&c.,  and  Philo,  Josephus,  and  Diodorus  Sic- 
ulus  confirms  it.  An  Egyptian  king,  Ptolemy 
(Philadelphus),  therefore,  caused  the  ancient 
Hebrew  books  to  be  translated  into  Greek, 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


119 


remaining  writings  are  his  five  Books  against  the  Heretics  ;  which,  though 
preserved  only  in  a  Latin  translation  from  the  original  Greek,  are  a  splen- 

the  sick  in  a  wonderful  manner ;  Christians 
assert  the  same  of  Christ,  &c.  The  ground 
of  this  correspondence  lies  in  this,  that  the 
demons,  who  are  the  authors  of  the  pagan 
religions,  and  to  whom  the  pagan  worship'is 
paid,  copied  beforehand  the  history  of  Christ, 
in  order  to  prejudice  the  truth.  Yet  they 
omitted  to  copy  the  cross,  which  is  the  ap- 
propriate sign  of  the  power  of  Christ ;  (and 
therefore  it  is  found  indispensable  in  nature, 
e.  g.,  in  the  yards  of  a  ship.)  Also,  by  the 
ascent  of  Simon  Magus  to  heaven,  they 
sought  to  imitate  the  ascension  of  Christ ; 
and  since  the  Romans  themselves  have  erect- 
ed a  statue  to  this  Simon  as  a  god ;  they 
should  more  readily  do  the  same  to  Christ. 
Christianity  is  true.  This  is  demonstrable 
from  the  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament. 
(Here  again,  the  antiquity  of  the  Old  Tffsta- 
ment  is  asserted ;  and  the  principle  main- 
tained, that  the  Greeks  borrowed  from  the 
Hebrews.)  Also,  the  prophecies  of  Christ, 
concerning  his  ascension  to  heaven,  and  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  which  have  been 
fulfilled,  prove  the  truth  of  Christianity. 
Christ  is  the  Logos,  (the  reason  or  intel- 
ligence) of  which  all  men  participate  ;  so 
that  every  one  who  has  ever  lived  according 
to  Logos,  (reason),  was  a  Christian.  The  de- 
mons, whose  worship  is  prostrated  by  Chris- 
tianity, are  the  authors  of  the  persecutions 
against  Christians." — Some  points  in  this 
Apology  are  here  omitted,  because  contain- 
ed in  the  other  summaries. 

The  shorter  Apology  commences  with  an 
account  of  some  persecutions  ;  which  are 
ascribed  to  the  malice  of  the  demons.  It 
then  gives  reasons  why  Christians  do  not 
shun  martyrdom ;  and  also,  why  God  per- 
mits persecution.  "  God  intrusted  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  world  to  angels :  these  af- 
terwards apostatized  from  God,  and  taking 
human  wives,  begat  the  demons ;  and  by 
them  and  their  offspring,  the  human  race  is 
now  oppressed  and  ruined.  God  would  be- 
fore this  have  destroyed  the  world,  had  he 
not  spared  it  for  the  sake  of  the  Christians. 
Yet  it  is  to  be  destroyed  hereafter,  and  by 
fire.  Jesus  Christ  is  superior  to  Socrates  ; 
for  no  one  ever  died  for  the  doctrine  of  the 
latter.  The  constancy  of  Christians  under 
persecution  is  evidence  of  their  innocence." 
— These  summaries  of  Justin's  Apologies 
are  specimens  of  the  ground  taken  by  all  the 
ancient  Apologists,  whose  works  have  come 
down  to  us. — Besides  the  four  works  now 
mentioned,  Justin  wrote  a  book,  de  Monar- 
chia  Dei,  proving  the  divine  unity  in  oppo- 
sition to  polytheism,  by  testimonies  from  the 


by  70  men,  who  were  enclosed  in  as  many 
separate  cells  ;  when  they  had  finished  their 
translations,  they  were  found  perfectly  agree- 
ing, not  only  in  the  sense  but  in  the  words. 
Justin  himself  had  seen  the  vestiges  of 
these  cells.  The  Greeks  derived  their  best 
thoughts  from  the  Hebrews.  Thus  Orpheus, 
Homer,  Solon,  Pythagoras,  and  Plato,  are 
known  to  have  acquired  their  best  knowl- 
edge in  Egypt.  Hence,  Orpheus,  the  Sib- 
yls, Homer,  Sophocles,  &c.,  were  enabled 
to  write  about  the  unity  of  God,  the  judg- 
ment after  death,  &c.  When  Plato,  for  in- 
stance, says  :  Virtue  must  be  given  to  men 
by  the  Deity  ;  he  borrowed  the  idea  from 
the  prophets  ;  and  to  conceal  the  fact,  he 
substituted  virtue  in  place  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
When  he  says  :  Time  began  with  heaven  ; 
it  is  clear  that  he  borrowed  from  Moses'  wri- 
tings, &c.  Since  therefore,  the  Grecian 
philosophers  themselves  confess  their  igno- 
rance, and  the  Sibyls  direct  to  the  coming  of 
Christ,  men  should  go  to  the  prophets,  as  to 
the  source  of  all  truth." — The  shorter  work, 
entitled  Oratio  ad  Graecos,  is  similar  in  its 
contents.  Indeed,  this  may  serve  as  a  fair 
specimen  of  the  ground  taken  by  the  Chris- 
tian fathers  generally,  in  their  controversies 
with  learned  pagans.  About  A.D.  150,  or 
as  some  think,  10  or  12  years  earlier,  Justin 
presented  his  earliest  or  long  Apology  for 
the  Christians  to  the  emperor  Antoninus  Pi- 
us :  and  a  little  before  his  death,  or  after 
A.D.  160,  his  other  Apology,  an  imperfect 
copy  of  which  is  improperly  called  his  first 
Apology.  The  substance  of  the  larger  Apol- 
ogy, which  is  written  with  little  method, 
is  this  :  "  Why  are  Christians  condemned 
merely  for  their  name,  without  inquiry  wheth- 
er they  are  malefactors  1  Let  this  be  inves- 
tigated ;  then  punish  the  guilty,  and  let  the 
innocent  go  free.  The  Christians  are  ac- 
cused of  atheism;  but  unjustly.  They  wor- 
ship God  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  pro- 
phetic or  divine  Spirit.  They  offer  indeed 
no  sacrifices  ;  but  they  believe  God  requires 
none.  Christians  are  ridiculed  for  expect- 
ing a  kingdom  of  Christ ;  but  unjustly.  The 
kingdom  which  they  expect,  is  not  an  earthly 
kingdom ;  if  it  were,  how  could  they  so 
cheerfully  meet  death  1  Christianity  is  not 
so  totally  unlike  everything  believed  by  the 
pagans.  The  pagans  expect  a  judgment  af- 
ter death ;  so  do  the  Christians.  The  for- 
mer make  Rhadamanthus  the  judge  ;  the  lat- 
ter, Jesus  Christ.  The  pagans  believe,  that 
many  men  were  sons  of  Jupiter ;  Christians 
believe,  that  Jesus  was  the  Son  of  God. 
The  pagans  assert,  that  jEsculapius  healed 


120 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


did  monument  of  antiquity. (5)  Athenagoras  was  no  contemptible  phi- 
losopher ;  and  his  Apology  for  the  Christians,  and  his  treatise  on  the  resur- 
rection of  the  body,  display  both  learning  and  genius.  (6)  Theophylus, 


Old  Testament  and  likewise  from  pagan 
writers,  (Eusebius,  H.  E.,  iv.  18).  The 
latter  part  of  the  book  probably  is  preserved. 
— Against  the  Jews  he  composed,  in  the 
latter  part  of  his  life,  his  Dialogus  cum  Try- 
phone  JudEEo.  He  defends  Christianity 
against  the  Jews,  chiefly  by  arguments  from 
the  ancient  prophecies  and  types  of  Christ 
in  the  Old  Testament.  He  also  wrote  a 
book  against  Marcion,  and  another  against 
all  the  heresies  ;  both  of  which  are  unfortu- 
nately lost.  So  are  his  book  concerning  the 
soul,  (in  which  he  collected  the  opinions  of 
the  philosophers  on  that  subject),  and  his 
book  entitled,  Psaltes.  There  are  several 
other  works  now  extant  under  his  name, 
which  are  either  doubted  or  denied  to  be 
his  :  namely,  an  Epistle  to  Diognetus  ;  and 
another  to  Zenas  and  Serenus  ;  146  Ques- 
tions and  their  solutions,  to  the  Orthodox  ; 
Exposition  of  the  true  Faith  (on  the  Trin- 
ity) ;  Metaphysical  Questions  (Questiones 
Graecanicae)  and  answers  ;  Questions  to  the 
Greeks,  and  their  answers  refuted  ;  a  con- 
futation of  some  Aristotelian  doctrines,  &c. 
Justin's  works  make  a  considerable  folio 
volume.  They  were  well  edited,  Paris, 
1636,  reprinted  Cologne,  1636  :  but  still 
better  in  the  Benedictine  ed.,  by  Prudent. 
Maran,  Paris,  1742.  Thirl  by*  s  ed.  of  the 
dialogue,  Lond.,  1722,  fol.,  is  good.  The 
two  Apologies,  with  those  of  Tertullian 
and  Minutius  Felix,  are  given  in  English 
by  W.  Reeve,  Lond.,  1707,  2  vols.  8vo.— 
TV.] 

(5)  [Irenmis,  who  was  active  during  the 
last  half  of  this  century,  was  bom  and  edu- 
cated in  Asia  Minor,  under  Poly  carp  and 
Papias.  About  A.D.  150,  Pothinus  and 
others  went  from  Asia  Minor  to  Lyons  and 
Vienne  in  France  ;  and  Iren&us,  then  a 
young  man,  is  supposed  to  have  been  one 
of  those  missionaries.  He  remained  a  pres- 
byter till  the  death  of  Pothinus,  A.D.  177, 
when  he  succeeded  him  in  the  episcopal 
chair  at  Lyons,  which  he  filled  till  about 
A.D.  202,  the  time  of  his  martyrdom. 
While  a  presbyter  he  was  sent  to  Rome  by 
his  church,  concerning  the  affair  of  Monta- 
nus.  He  is  supposed  to  have  composed 
the  letter  written  in  the  name  of  the  church- 
es of  Lyons  and  Vienne,  giving  the  graphic 
account  of  their  persecution  in  A.D.  177. 
He  likewise  took  an  active  part  in  the  con- 
troversy respecting  Easter,  A.D.  196  ;  and 
wrote  to  Victor,  bishop  of  Rome,  on  the 
'  subject ;  and  also  to  the  presbyter  Blastus, 
who  was  deposed  at  Rome  during  that  con- 


test. Eusebius  has  also  preserved  part  of 
a  letter  of  his  to  Florinus,  an  apostate  to 
Gnosticism,  with  whom  Ircnceus  had  been 
intimate  in  his  youth.  Some  other  small 
works  of  his  are  mentioned  by  the  ancients. 
See  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  v.,  c.  15, 
20,  24,  26.  Jerome,  de  Scriptor.  illustr., 
cap.  35. — But  the  great  work  of  Iren&us 
is  his  Examination  and  Confutation  of  the 
misnamed  (yvtiaif )  knowledge,  in  v.  Books, 
commonly  called  Libri  contra  Hsereses. 
The  work  is  altogether  polemic  ;  and  is  di- 
rected particularly  against  Valcntinus  ;  yet 
so  as  to  be  a  confutation  of  all  the  Gnostics, 
and  a  defence  of  the  catholic  faith  against 
most  of  the  heretics  of  that  age.  The  book 
contains  much  information,  respecting  the 
early  heretics,  their  origin,  sentiments,  and 
characters  ;  also  respecting  the  state  of  the- 
ological science  in  that  age,  the  doctrines 
generally  received  and  taught,  and  the  man- 
ner of  stating  and  defending  them.  But  un- 
fortunately, the  original  Greek  is  lost,  ex- 
cept the  extracts  preserved  by  Eusebius, 
Epiphanius,  and  others ;  and  the  Latin 
translation,  which  is  very  ancient,  is  ex- 
tremely barbarous,  and  sometimes  scarcely 
intelligible. — Irenaus  was  an  ardent  and 
sincere  Christian,  and  a  discreet  and  amiable 
man.  He  possessed  considerable  learning 
and  influence ;  but  his  mind  does  not  ap- 
pear to  have  been  one  of  the  highest  order. 
As  an  interpreter  of  Scripture,  like  all  the 
early  fathers,  he  was  too  fond  of  tracing  al- 
legories ;  and  as  a  theologian,  few  of  the 
moderns  will  account  him  entirely  correct  in 
principle,  or  perfectly  conclusive  in  his  rea- 
sonings.— See,  concerning  his  life  and  wri- 
tings, Cave,  Du  Pin,  Massuet,  (works  of 
Irenaeus),  the  Acta  Sanctor.,  torn.  v..  June, 
p.  335.  Histoire  litteraire  de  la  France, 
torn,  ii.,  p.  51  ;  and  Milner,  Hist,  of  the 
Chh.,  century  iii.,  ch.  i.,  vol.  i.,  p.  215,  ed. 
Boston,  1822. — The  best  editions  of  his 
works,  are,  by  Grabc,  Lond.,  1702,  fol. ; 
and  the  Benedictine,  by  Massuet,  Paris, 
1710,  and  Venice,  1734,  2  tomi,  fol.— TV.] 
(6)  [Athenagoras,  one  of  the  most  elegant 
and  able  writers  the  church  has  produced, 
is  scarcely  mentioned  by  any  of  the  fathers. 
Methodius,  about  A.D.  285,  quoted  from 
him ;  (See  Epiph.  Haeres.,  65),  Philip  Si- 
detes,  about  A.D.  400,  gives  some  account 
of  him  ;  (in  DodwcWs  Diss.  on  Irenaeus,  p. 
408),  and  Photius,  (Bibliotheca),  in  the  ninth 
century,  speaks  of  him.  This  is  all  the  fa- 
thers tell  us.  It  appears  from  the  title  of  his 
apology,  that  he  was  a  Christian  philosopher 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


121 


bishop  of  Antioch,  has  left  us  three  Books,  addressed  to  one  Autolycus,  in 
defence  of  Christianity,  which  are  erudite  but  not  well  digested. (7)  Clem- 
ens Alexandrinus,  a  presbyter  and  head  of  the  catechetic  school  at  Alex- 
andria, was  a  man  of  extensive  reading,  and  especially  in  the  works  of 
ancient  authors.  This  is  manifest  from  the  works  of  his  that  remain, 
namely,  his  Stromata,  his  Paedagogus,  and  ad  Graecos  Exhortatio.  But 
he  was  infected  with  very  great  errors,  into  which  he  was  betrayed  by  his 
excessive  love  of  philosophy  :  nor  are  his  works  to  be  recommended,  as 
exhibiting  good  arrangement  and  perspicuity  of  style. (8)  In  the  Latin 


of  Athens ;  and  that  he  wrote  his  Apology 
in  the  reign  of  the  emperors  Marcus  and 
Commodus. — Philip  Sidctes,  who  is  a  wri- 
ter of  little  credit,  says,  he  presided  in  the 
school  at  Alexandria,  before  Pantaenus ; 
which  is  contradicted  by  Euxcliiits  ;  and  that 
he  was  converted  to  Christianity,  by  reading 
the  Scriptures  with  a  design  to  confute  them  ; 
which  may  be  true.  Dr.  Moshcim,  in  his 
Diss.  de  vera  aetate  Apologetici  Athenag. 
(Dissertt.  ad  Hist.  Eccles.,  vol.  i.,  p.  269, 
&c.),  has  proved,  that  the  Apology  was 
written  A.D.  177,  the  very  year  of  the  per- 
secutions at  Lyons  and  Vicnne.  Athcnag- 
oras  descants  on  the  same  topics  as  Justin 
Martyr,  and  employs  the  same  arguments  ; 
but  his  composition  is  immensely  superior 
as  to  style  and  method. — His  other  work,  de 
Resurrectione,  is  written  with  equal  ele- 
gance, and  contains  the  arguments  used  in 
that  age,  to  support  the  doctrine  of  the  res- 
urrection of  the  body  against  the  objections 
of  philosophers. — His  works,  besides  being 
printed  separately  by  Edw.  Dcchair,  Oxford, 
1706,  8vo,  are  commonly  subjoined  to  those 
of  Justin  Martyr  ;  and  the  best  editions  are 
those  of  Grabe,  Lond.,  1802,  and  Massuct, 
Paris,  1710.— Tr.] 

(7)  [Theophylus  was  made  bishop  of  Anti- 
och in  Syria,  A.D.  168,  and  died  about  A.D. 
182  or  183.  The  best  accounts  of  him  by  the 
ancients,  are  those  of  Eusebius,  Hist.  Ec- 
cles, 1.  iv.,  c.  20,  23,  and  Jerome,  de  Scriptor. 
Illustr,  c.  25. —  He  appears  to  have  been  a 
converted  pagan,  a  man  of  reading,  a  decided 
and  active  Christian  pastor,  sound  in  faith, 
and  zealous  for  the  truth.  He  is  not  meta- 
physical, but  still  is  rather  a  dry  and  argu- 
mentative writer.  He  composed  a  book 
against  Hermorreiirs ;  and  another  against 
Marcion ;  and  a  Commentary  on  the  four 
Gospels  ;  all  of  which  are  lost.  His  great 
work,  and  the  only  one  which  has  reached 
us,  is  his  three  Books,  addressed  to  his  pagan 
friend  Aittoh/nm,  in  vindication  of  Christian- 
ity. Here  he  takes  much  the  same  ground 
with  Justin  Martyr  and  the  other  Apolo- 
gists ;  but  he  descends  more  into  detail,  in  his 
proofs  from  Scripture  and  from  history.  He 
is  fond  of  allegorical  and  fanciful  interpreta- 

VOL.  I.— Q 


tions,  and  on  them  rests  a  large  part  of  his 
arguments.  For  example  :  about  the  middle 
of  the  second  book,  he  makes  (kv  upxy)  in 
the  beginning,  Gen.  i.,  1,  to  mean,  by  Christ. 
The  constitution  by  which  vegetables  spring 
up  from  seeds  and  roots,  was  designed  to 
teach  the  resurrection  of  our  bodies.  The 
dry  lands  surrounded  by  seas,  denote  the 
church  surrounded  by  enemies.  The  sun 
is  a  type  of  God ;  as  the  moon  is  of  man, 
that  frail,  changeable  creature.  The  three 
days  preceding  the  creation  of  the  sun  and 
moon,  (rviroi  elaiv  rpiudof  ra  6e£),  are 
typical  of  the  Trinity  of  God  and  his  Word 
and  his  Wisdom.  (This  is  said  to  be  the 
earliest  occurrence  of  the  word  Trinity,  in 
the  writings  of  the  fathers. )  The  fixed  stars, 
among  which  the  sun  moves,  indicate  righ- 
teous and  holy  men  who  serve  God  ;  and  the 
planets  denote  heretics  and  apostates,  &c., 
&c. — Yet  the  work  is  not  all  of  this  charac- 
ter. It  contains  much  that  is  instructive 
and  solid  ;  and  is  written  in  a  plain,  familiar 
style.— Tr.] 

(8)  [Titus  Flavins  Clemens,  whether  bom 
at  Athens  or  Alexandria,  was  a  pagan  in  early 
life,  and  devoted  himself  to  philosophy.  He 
travelled  in  Greece,  in  south  Italy,  in  Coelo- 
Syria,  in  Palestine,  and  lastly  in  Egypt, 
where  he  was  a  pupil  of  Pantaenus  the  mas- 
ter of  the  Christian  school  at  Alexandria. 
Becoming  a  Christian,  he  was  made  a  pres- 
byter of  the  Alexandrian  church,  and  suc- 
ceeded his  preceptor  Pantaenus,  as  master 
of  the  catechetic  or  divinity  school.  He 
taught  with  great  applause  during  the  reign 
of  Sevcrus,  (A.D.  193-21 1 ),  and  had  Ongen 
and  other  eminent  men  of  the  third  century, 
for  pupils.  About  A.D.  202,  he  retired  into 
Palestine  and  Syria,  for  a  short  time,  to 
avoid  persecution.  He  is  supposed  to  have 
died  about  A.D.  220.—  Clement  had  vast 
learning,  a  lively  imagination,  great  fluency, 
considerable  discrimination,  and  was  a  bold 
and  independent  speculator.  That  he  had 
true  piety,  and  held  the  essential  truths  of 
the  Gospel,  is  admitted  by  all ;  but  no  one 
of  the  fathers,  except  Origen,  has  been  more 
censured  in  modern  times,  for  an  excessive 
attachment  to  philosophy  or  metaphysical 


122 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


language,  scarcely  any  writer  of  this  century  elucidated  or  defended  the 
.  Christian  religion,  except  Tertullian.  He  was  at  first  a  jurisconsult,  then 
a  presbyter  at  Carthage,  and  at  last  a  follower  of  Montanus.  We  have  va- 
rious short  works  of  his,  which  aim  either  to  explain  and  defend  the  truth, 
or  to  excite  piety.  Which  were  the  greatest,  his  excellences  or  his  de- 
fects, it  is  difficult  to  say.  He  possessed  great  genius  ;  but  it  was  wild 
and  unchastened.  His  piety  was  active  and  fervent ;  but  likewise  gloomy 
and  austere.  He  had  much  learning  and  knowledge  ;  but  lacked  discre- 
tion and  judgment :  he  was  more  acute  than  solid. (9) 


theology.  He  was  a  true  Eclectic,  which  he 
also  professed  to  be  ;  that  is,  he  followed  no 
master  implicitly,  but  examined  and  judged 
for  himself.  Yet  his  education  and  the  at- 
mosphere in  which  he  lived,  led  him  to  lean 
towards  Platonism  and  Stoicism.  His  great 
error  was,  that  he  overrated  the  value  of  phi- 
losophy or  human  reason,  as  a  guide  in  mat- 
ters of  religion.  He  also  indulged  his  ima- 
gination, as  all  the  learned  of  his  age  did,  to 
excess  ;  and  construed  the  Bible  allegori- 
cally,  and  fancifully. — His  three  principal 
works,  which  have  reached  us,  constitute 
one  whole.  His  Exhortatio  ad  Graces  was 
intended  to  convince  and  convert  pagans. 
It  exposes  the  nakedness  of  polytheism,  and 
demonstrates  the  truth  and  excellence  of 
Christianity.  His  Paedagogus,  in  iii.  Books, 
was  intended  to  instruct  a  young  convert  in 
the  practice  of  Christianity.  It  is  an  indif- 
ferent performance,  dwells  much  on  trivial 
rules  of  conduct,  and  does  not  go  to  the 
bottom  even  of  external  morality.  His 
Stromata,  in  viii.  Books,  (the  last  of  which 
is  not  the  genuine  8th  Book),  are  written 
without  method,  or  in  a  most  discursive 
manner.  In  them  Clement  attempts  to  give 
the  world  his  most  profound  thoughts  and 
speculations  on  theology,  and  on  the  kindred 
sciences. — He  has  also  left  us  a  practical 
treatise,  entitled  Quis  dives  ille  sit,  qui  sal- 
vetur ;  in  which  his  object  is  to  show  to 
what  temptations  and  dangers  the  rich  are 
exposed.  There  are  ascribed  to  him,  and 
printed  with  his  works,  Extracts  from  the 
writings  of  Theodotus  and  the  Oriental  philos- 
ophy, (the  contents  of  some  one's  note-book, 
respecting  the  Gnostics) ;  and  Selections 
from  the  Prophets,  (of  no  great  value),  which 
may  have  been  taken  from  the  loose  papers 
of  Clement,  yet  are  dubious. — Eusebius  and 
Jerome  mention  works  of  his,  which  are  now 
lost.  Of  these  the  principal,  are  libri  viii. 
Hypotyposeon,  a  compendious  exposition  of 
the  0.  and  N.  Testament.  The  others  were 
tracts  ;  de  Paschate,  de  Jejunio,  de  Obtrec- 
tatione,  Exhortatio  ad  Patientiam,  and  Can- 
on Ecclesiasticus,  or  de  Canonibus  Eccle- 
$iasticis. — The  character  and  writings  of 
Clement,  have  been  elaborately  investigated 


by  various  persons,  among  whom  are  -ZV.  le 
Nourry  (Apparat.  ad  Biblioth.  Pair) ;  J.  G. 
Walch  (Miscellanea  Sacra)  ;  J.  Brucker, 
(Hist.  crit.  philos.) ;  and  A.  Neander,  Kir- 
chengesch.,  vol.  i. — The  best  edition  of  his 
works,  is  that  of  Potter,  Oxon.,  1715,  fol. 
-TV.] 

(9)  Those  who  wish  further  information 
concerning  these  writers,  their  defects,  and 
their  works,  are  directed, — and  the  direction 
is  given  once  for  all, — to  consult  those  au- 
thors, who  treat  professedly  of  the  Ecclesi- 
astical Writers  ;  namely,  J.  A.  Fabricius, 
Bibliotheca  Graeca,  and  Biblioth.  Latina. 
W.  Cave,  Historia  Litteraria  Scriptor.  Ec- 
cles.  L.  Ellies  du  Pin  and  Remigius  Cel- 
lier,  in  their  Bibliothecas  of  Eccles.  Writers 
in  French  ;  and  others. 

[  Quintus  Septimius  Florens  Tertullianus 
was  the  son  of  a  pagan  centurion  of  procon- 
sular rank,  and  born  at  Carthage  about  A.  D. 
160.  He  was  bred  to  the  law  ;  but  becom- 
ing a  Christian,  was  made  a  presbyter  in  the 
church  of  Carthage,  where  he  appears  to 
have  spent  his  whole  life.  About  A.D.  200, 
he  embraced  the  sentiments  of  the  Montan- 
ists  ;  which  he  afterwards  defended  with  his 
usual  ardour.  He  is  said  to  have  lived  to  a 

§reat  age  ;  and  yet  he  is  supposed  to  have 
ied  about  A.D.  220. — Jerome,  de  Scriptor. 
Illustr.,  c.  53.  Eiisebius,  Chronicon.  ann. 
16  Severi,  and  others,  give  him  a  high  char- 
acter. Jerome  tells  us,  that  Cyprian,  bp.  of 
Carthage,  was,  accustomed  to  read  some  por- 
tions of  his  works  daily  ;  and  in  calling  for 
this  author,  used  to  say  :  Da  magistrum, 
bring  my  master.  He  wrote  with  great 
force,  and  displayed  much  both  of  erudition 
and  acuteness ;  but  his  style  is  concise, 
harsh,  and  extremely  difficult  for  modern 
readers.  His  diction  and  his  spirit  too,  it  has 
been  supposed,  were  extensively  propagated 
in  the  Latin  church. — His  works  consist  of 
about  30  short  treatises,  and  are  nearly  all 
of  a  polemic  cast,  argumentative,  vitupera- 
tive, and  severe.  They  may  be  divided  into 
three  classes  ;  namely,  apologetic,  or  in  con- 
troversy with  pagans  and  Jews  ; — doctrinal, 
or  confutations  of  heretics ; — and  moral,  in 
defence  or  confutation  of  certain  practices 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


123 


or  rules  of  conduct. — Of  the  first  class  are 
his  Apologcticum,  and  ad  Nationes  Lihri  ii. 
These  are  only  different  editions  of  the 
same  work  ;  and  were  composed  about  A.D. 
198  : — de  Tcstimonio  animce. ;  the  testimony 
of  conscience  or  common  sense  to  the  truths 
maintained  by  Christians  : — ad  Scapulam, 
a  pagan  magistrate  ;  an  expostulation  with 
him,  (A.D.  211)  : — adversus  Judaeos  ;  pro- 
ving from  the  O.  T.  that  Jesus  was  the 
Messiah,  and  Christianity  true. — In  all  these, 
he  takes  the  same  ground  with  Justin  Mar- 
tyr and  the  other  apologists  of  that  age. — 
Of  the  second  or  doctrinal  class,  are  :  de 
Baptismo ;  against  one  Qumtilla,  who  re- 
jected baptism  altogether  :  de  Prascription- 
ibvs  hcercticorum ;  a  confutation  of  all  her- 
esies collectively,  on  general  principles  : 
Ltbri  v.  adv.  Marcionem,  (A.D.  207),  and 
single  books  against  the  Valcntinians,  Prax- 
eas  and  Hermogencs  : — Scorpiace,  or  Scor- 
piacum,  adv.  Gnoslicos,  or  de  bono  martyrii ; 
that  is,  an  Antidote  against  the  Scorpions, 
i.  e.,  the  Gnostics,  who  have  no  martyrs 
among  them  :  de  Came  Chnsti ;  that  Christ 
truly  died  on  the  cross  ;  maintained  against 
the  Docetae  :  de  Resurrectione  ;  of  the  same 
tenour  with  the  last :  de  Anima ;  against 
the  philosophers ;  their  notions  of  the  soul 
confuted.  —  In  attacking  the  heretics,  he 
takes  much  the  same  ground  with  Ircnams. 
— Most  of  his  works  of  the  third  class,  were 
written  after  he  became  a  Montanist,  and  are 
in  defence  of  the  rigid  principles  of  that 
sect,  or  in  opposition  to  the  opinions  and 
practice  of  Christians  in  general.  The  two 
first,  however,  were  written  in  his  early  life, 
and  are  of  a  different  character  :  viz.,  de 
Oratwne ;  on  prayer  in  general,  and  the 
Lord's  prayer  in  particular  :  Liber  ad  Mar- 
tyres  ;  designed  to  comfort  and  animate 
them  in  their  dying  moments  :  de  Spectacu- 
lis,  and  de  Idololatria ;  warnings  to  Chris- 
tians against  attending  theatres,  and  other 
idolatrous  rites  :  Libn  ii.  ad  uxorem ;  warn- 
ing her  against  a  second  marriage,  if  she 
should  become  a  widow ;  and  especially 
against  marrying  a  pagan  : — de  Pvenitentia ; 
on  penance  and  humiliation  for  sin :  de  Pa- 
tientia. — All  the  preceding  of  this  class, 
were  probably  written  before  he  became  an 
avowed  Montanist  : — de  corona  militis  ;  jus- 
tifying and  commending  a  soldier  who  re- 
fused a  military  crown,  and  was  punished 
for  it : — de  velandis  virginibus  ;  against  the 
custom  of  the  young  ladies  appearing  abroad 
unveiled  : — de  habitu  muliebri ;  reprehension 
of  the  ladies  for  their  attention  to  dress  : 
de  Cultu  faminarum  ;  much  the  same  ; 
on  their  adorning  their  persons : — de  Fiiga  in 
persecutione ;  that  no  one  should  retire  for 
•afety  in  time  of  persecution  :  Eihortatio 


Castitatis,  and  de  Monogamia;  two  tracts 
on  the  same  subject ;  namely,  the  criminality 
of  second  marriages  :  de  Jejuniis  adv.  Psy- 
chicos ;  against  the  orthodox,  in  defence  of 
the  Montanist  principles  about  fasting  :  de 
Pudicitia  ;  that  offenders,  especially  by  un- 
chastity,  should  never  be  restored  to  com- 
munion in  the  church  :  de  Pallio  ;  against 
wearing  the  Roman  toga,  and  recommend- 
ing in  place  of  it,  the  Grecian  pallium  or 
cloak. — These  are  all  the  works  of  Tertul- 
lian,  which  have  reached  us.  Among  his 
lost  works,  were  seven  Books  in  defence  of 
the  Montanists  ;  one  on  the  Believer's  hope  ; 
one  on  Paradise,  and  one  on  Aaron's  gar- 
ments. The  best  editions  of  his  works,  are, 
by  Rigaltius,  Paris,  1634,  and  1641,  fol.  ; 
and  by  Semler,  Halle,  1769-73,  5  vols.  8vo, 
with  a  6th  vol.  by  Windorf,  containing  in- 
dices and  a  glossary,  1776. 

Besides  the  writers  above  mentioned, 
whose  works  have  been  preserved,  there 
were  many  others  in  this  century,  of  whose 
works  we  have  only  extracts  preserved  by 
the  fathers.  Of  these,  a  catalogue  embra- 
cing such  as  are  mentioned  by  Eusebius  in 
his  Eccles.  History,  and  by  Jerome,  de  Scrip- 
toribus  Illustribus,  is  here  subjoined. 

Papias,  bp.  of  Hierapolis  in  Phrygia,  con- 
temporary with  Ignatius,  in  the  beginning  of 
the  century.  He  wrote  five  Books,  contain- 
ing traditional  accounts  of  Christ,  his  apos- 
tles, and  others  of  the  primitive  times.  He 
is  said  to  have  advocated  the  doctrine  of  the 
Millennium.  Euseb.,  iii.  39.  Jerome,  c.  18. 

Quadratus,  bp.  of  Athens.  He  wrote  an 
Apology  for  the  Christians,  presented  to  the 
Emperor  Adrian,  A.D.  123  or  131.  Euseb., 
iv.,  3.  Jerome,  c.  19. 

Aristides,  an  eloquent  Christian  philoso- 
pher of  Athens,  at  the  same  time  presented 
an  Apology.  Euseb.,  iv.,  3.  Jerome,  c.  20. 

Agrippa  Castor,  contemporary  with  the 
two  last.  He  was  "  a  very  learned  man  ;" 
and  wrote  a  confutation  of  the  24  Books  of 
Basilidcs  the  heretic.  Euseb.,  iv.,  7.  Je- 
rome, c.  21. 

Hegesippus,  a  converted  Jew,  who  resided 
at  Corinth  and  at  Rome.  He  wrote  about 
A.D.  160,  five  Books  of  Eccles.  Memoires, 
from  the  crucifixion  of  Christ  to  his  own 
times.  Euseb.,  iv.,  8,  22,  and  iii.,  19,  20, 
32.  Jerome,  c.  22. 

Melito,  bp.  of  Sardis.  He  wrote  an  Apol- 
ogy, besides  various  short  works  ;  namely, 
de  Pascha  (the  time  of  Easter) ;  de  Vita 
Prophetarum  ;  de  Ecclesia  ;  de  Die  Domin- 
ica ;  de  Sensibus  ;  de  Fide  ;  de  Plasmate  ; 
de  Anima  et  Corpore ;  de  Baptismate  ;  de 
Veritate  ;  de  Generatione  Christi ;  de  Pro- 
phetia ;  de  Philoxenia  ;  a  book  entitled  Cla- 
vis  ;  de  Diabolo,  de  Apocalypse  Joannis,  da 


124 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


Corporali  Deo.  Euseb.,  iv.,  26.  Jerome, 
c.  24. 

Apollinaris,  bp.  of  Hierapolis  in  Phrygia, 
A.D.  170.  He  wrote  an  Apology  ;  five 
books  against  the  pagans  ;  de  Veritate,  libri 
ii.  ;  adv.  Cataphrygas  ;  adv.  Judaeos,  libri 
ii.  Euseb.,  iv.,  27.  Jerome,  c.  16. 

Dionysius,  bp.  of  Corinth,  from  about 
A.D.  170.  He  was  an  active  and  influen- 
tial man,  and  wrote  valuable  epistles  to  sev- 
eral churches  and  their  bishops  ;  namely,  to 
the  churches  of  Sparta,  Athens,  Nicomedia, 
Gortyna  and  others  in  Crete,  Amastris  and 
others  in  Pontus  ;  and  to  Pinitus,  a  Cretan 
bp.,  and  Victor,  bp.  of  Rome.  Euseb.,  iv., 
23.  Jerome,  c.  27. 

Talian,  a  rhetorician,  and  disciple  of  Jus- 
tin Martyr.  After  the  death  of  Justin,  he 
swerved  from  the  common  path,  and-became 
founder  of  a  rigorous  sect  called  Encratites. 
He  flourished  about  A.D.  170,  and  wrote  an 
Apology,  under  the  title  of  Oratio  contra 
Graecos,  which  is  still  extant  and  usually 
printed  with  the  works  of  Justin  Martyr. 
He  is  said  to  have  composed  many  other 
works  ;  among  which  a  Diatessaron,  or  Har- 
mony of  the  four  Gospels,  and  a  treatise  on 
Perfection  after  the  pattern  of  Christ,  are 
particularly  mentioned.  Eusebius,  iv.,  29. 
Jerome,  c.  29.  Clem.  Alex.,  Strom,  iii.,  12. 

Musanus,  of  the  same  age,  wrote  against 
the  Encratites.  Jerome,  c.  31.  Eusebius, 
iv.,  23. 

Modestus,  of  the  same  age,  wrote  a  book 
against  Marcion,  which  Eusebius  says  ex- 
ceeded all  other  confutations  of  that  heretic. 
Eusebius,  iv.,  25.  Jerome,  c.  32. 

Bardesanes,  a  Syrian  of  Edessa,  of  the 
same  age,  an  eloquent  and  acute  reasoner. 
He  was  first  a  Valentinian  ;  but  afterwards, 
wrote  against  that  and  other  sects.  His 
works  were  numerous,  which  his  admirers 
translated  from  Syriac  into  Greek.  His 
dialogues  against  Marcion,  and  his  treatise 
on  Fate,  are  particularly  commended. — Eu- 
sebius, iv.,  30.  Jerome,  c.  33. 

Victor,  bp.  of  Rome,  A.D.  194-203.  His 
zeal  respecting  the  right  day  for  Easter,  led 
him  to  write  several  epistles  on  that  subject. 
Eusebius,  v.,  24.  Jerome,  c.  34.  Nothing 
of  his  remains  ;  though  two  spurious  epistles 
with  his  name,  are  still  extant. 


Panta;nus,  a  Christian  philosopher  of  Al- 
exandria, and  head  of  the  Catechetic  school 
there,  before  Clement.  He  was  a  learned 
and  active  Christian  ;  and  wrote  much,  par- 
ticularly in  explanation  of  the  Scriptures ; 
but  none  of  his  works  remain.  He  visited 
India,  or  Arabia  Felix,  as  a  missionary,  and 
had  vast  influence  in  the  church.  Euseb., 
v.,  10.  Jerome,  c.  36. 

Rhodon,  an  Asiatic  Greek,  but  educated 
at  Rome  under  Tatian.  He  wrote  much ; 
and  in  particular,  on  the  Hexaemeron,  (the 
six  days  of  creation) ;  a  treatise  against  Mar- 
cion ;  and  another  against  the  Phrygians  or 
Cataphrygians,  the  disciples  of  Montanus. 
Euseb.,  v.,  13.  Jerome,  c.  37. 

Miltiadcs,  who  flourished  in  the  reign  of 
Commodus,  A.D.  180-192.  He  wrote  an 
Apology  ;  a  work  against  the  Cataphrygians ; 
two  books  against  the  pagans  ;  and  two  oth- 
ers against  the  Jews.  Euseb.,  v.,  17.  Je- 
rome, c.  39. 

Apollonius,  an  eloquent  Greek  writer,  au- 
thor of  a  long  and  much  valued  confutation 
of  the  Cataphrygians.  Euseb.,  v.,  18.  Je- 
rome, c.  40. 

Serapion,  ordained  bp.  of  Antioch  A.D. 
191.  He  wrote  an  epistle  concerning  the 
Montanists  or  Cataphrygians  ;  another  to 
Domninus,  an  apostate  to  Judaism  ;  and  a 
tract  concerning  the  spurious  Gospel  ascri- 
bed to  Peter.  Eusebius,  vi.,  12.  Jerome, 
c.  41. 

Apollonius,  a  Roman  senator  and  martyr 
under  Commodus.  His  eloquent  defence  at 
his  trial,  was  committed  to  writing.  Euse- 
bius, v.,  21.  Jerome,  c.  42. 

Under  the  reigns  of  Commodus  and  Seve- 
rus,  or  A.D.  180-211,  lived  several  writers, 
mentioned  summarily  by  Eusebius,  v.,  27, 
and  by  Jerome,  c.  46-51  :  namely,  Heracli- 
tus,  author  of  a  Commentary  on  Paul's  Epis- 
tles ;  Maximus,  who  wrote  on  the  Origin  of 
Evil  and  the  Creation  of  Matter ;  Candidus 
and  Appion,  who  wrote  on  the  Hexae'meron, 
(Gen.,  ch.  i.) ;  Scxtus  wrote  on  the  resur- 
rection ;  and  Arabianus  composed  some 
docrinal  tracts. 

All  the  preceding  wrote  in  Greek,  except 
Bardesanes,  who  composed  in  Syriac,  and 
Victor  and  Apollonius  the  martyr,  who 
wrote  in  Latin. — TV.] 


THEOLOGY  AND  RELIGION.  125 


CHAPTER  III. 

HISTORY   OF    RELIGION    AND  THEOLOGY. 

§  1.  Religion  yet  Simple. — §  2.  Was  gradually  Changed. — §  3.  This  proved  by  an  Exam- 
ple.— §  4.  Attention  to  the  Scriptures. — §.  5  Faults  of  Interpreters. — §  6.  State  of  Dog- 
matic Theology. — $  7.  Polemics  of  this  Age. — §  8.  Excellences  and  Defects  of  the  Con- 
troversialists.— t)  9.  Writers  on  Practical  Religion. — t)  10.  Merits  of  the  Fathers  in  re- 
gard to  Practical  Religion. — §  11.  Twofold  System  of  Practical  Religion. — §  12.  Hence 
the  Ascetics. — §  13.  Causes  of  their  Rise. — §  14.  Their  Progress. — §  15.  Origin  of 
pious  Frauds. — §  16.  Lives  of  Christians,  and  the  Discipline  of  Offenders. — §  17.  Pub- 
lic Penitence  modelled  according  to  the  Rules  of  the  Pagan  Mysteries. 

§  1.  THE  whole  Christian  system  was  still  comprised  in  a  few  precepts 
and  propositions  ;  nor  did  the  teachers  publicly  advance  any  doctrines  be- 
sides those  contained  in  what  is  called  the  Apostles'  creed.  In  their  man- 
ner of  handling  these  doctrines,  there  was  nothing  subtile,  profound,  or  dis- 
tant from  common  apprehension.  This  will  not  appear  strange,  if  we  re- 
flect that  no  controversy  had  yet  been  moved,  respecting  those  important 
points  of  religion  about  which  contests  afterwards  arose,  and  that  the  bish- 
ops were  generally  plain,  unlearned  men,  more  distinguished  for  their  piety 
than  for  their  genius  and  eloquence. 

§  2.  Yet  from  this  venerable  simplicity,  insensibly,  there  was  a  consid- 
erable departure  ;  many  points  were  more  critically  investigated,  and  more 
artificially  stated ;  many  principles  also  were  imprudently  adopted,  which 
were  derived  from  philosophy,  and  that  too  not  of  the  most  solid  character. 
This  change  arose  from  two  principal  causes.  The  first  lay  in  the  dispo- 
sition of  certain  teachers,  who  wished  to  make  Christianity  appear  in  har- 
mony with  the  decisions  of  philosophy,  and  who  thought  it  elegant  to  state 
Christian  precepts  in  the  language  of  philosophers,  jurists,  and  rabbis. 
The  other  cause  is  found  in  the  discussions  with  the  opposers  and  corrupt- 
ers  of  the  truth.  To  meet  these,  the  Christian  doctors  were  sometimes 
under  a  necessity  to  state  with  precision  what  was  before  undefined,  and 
to  exhibit  their  views  with  more  discrimination. 

§  3.  Whoever  wishes  for  an  example,  need  only  consider  what  began 
to  be  taught  in  this  age  respecting  the  state  of  souls  when  separated  from 
the  body.  Jesus  and  his  apostles  simply  taught,  that  the  spirits  of  holy 
men  on  leaving  the  body  were  received  to  heaven ;  and  that  those  of  the 
wicked  went  to  hell.  And  this  satisfied  the  first  disciples  of  Christ,  in 
whom  there  was  more  piety  than  curiosity.  But  this  plain  doctrine  was 
materially  injured,  when  Christians  were  induced  to  agree  with  the  Platon- 
ics and  others,  that  only  the  souls  of  heroes  and  men  of  distinguished 
abilities  were  raised  to  heaven  ;  while  those  of  others,  being  weighed  down 
by  their  sensual  propensities,  sunk  to  the  infernal  regions,  and  could  never 
attain  to  the  world  of  light  till  cleansed  from  their  pollutions.(l)  From 
the  time  that  this  opinion  began  to  prevail,  the  martyrs  only  were  repre- 

(1)1  have  treated  largely  of  these  senti-  Platonics,  in  my  notes  on  R.  Cud-worth' t 
jnents  of  the  ancients,  and  especially  of  the  Intellectual  System,  torn,  ii.,  p.  1036. 


126  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 

sented  and  believed  to  be  happy  immediately  after  death ;  and  others  were 
assigned  to  some  obscure  region,  in  which  they  were  detained  till  the 
second  coming  of  Christ,  or  at  least,  till  their  impurities  which  disqualified 
them  for  heaven  should  be  removed  from  them.  From  this  source,  how 
numerous  and  how  vast  the  errors  ? — what  vain  ceremonies  ? — what  mon- 
strous superstitions  took  their  rise  ? 

§  4.  But  they  all  revered  the  holy  scriptures,  as  the  rule  of  faith  and 
the  standard  of  truth  ;  and  therefore  they  wished  them  to  be  in  the  hands 
of  all.  Of  the  translations  of  the  scriptures  into  other  languages,  we  have 
already  spoken.  We  shall  here  speak  only  of  the  expositors.  The  first 
Christian  who  composed  explanations  of  the  sacred  volume,  if  I  mistake 
not,  was  Pantanus,  the  master  of  the  Alexandrine  school.  But  divine 
providence  has  so  ordered,  that  none  of  his  writings  have  reached  us. 
The  Hypotyposes  also,  of  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  in  which  he  is  said  to 
have  expounded  detached  passages  from  all  the  sacred  books,  have  been 
lost ;  and  likewise  his  Commentaries  on  the  canonical  Epistles.  Tatian 
composed  a  Harmony  of  the  Gospels,  which  has  [not]  escaped  the  ravages 
of  time. (2)  Justin  Martyr  explained  the  Apocalypse ;  Theophilos  of  An- 
tioch  elucidated  the  four  Gospels ;  and  [several]  others  expounded  the 
Mosaic  account  of  the  creation.  All  these  works  are  now  lost. 

§  5.  But  this  loss  is  the  less  to  be  regretted,  since  it  is  certain  that  no 
one  of  these  expositors  could  be  pronounced  a  good  interpreter.  They 
all  believed  the  language  of  scripture  to  contain  two  meanings,  the  one  ob- 
vious and  corresponding  with  the  direct  import  of  the  words,  the  other  re- 
condite and  concealed  under  the  words,  like  a  nut  by  the  shell ;  and  neg- 
lecting the  former,  as  being  of  little  value,  they  bestowed  their  chief  at- 
tention on  the  latter  ;  that  is,  they  were  more  intent  on  throwing  obscurity 
over  the  sacred  writings  by  the  fictions  of  their  own  imaginations,  than  on 
searching  out  their  true  meaning.  Some  also,  and  this  is  stated  especial- 
ly of  Clement,  attempted  to  make  the  divine  oracles  teach  and  support  the 
precepts  of  philosophy.  The  excessive  and  almost  divine  authority  ascri- 
bed to  the  Alexandrine  version  of  the  Old  Testament,  called  the  Septua- 
gint,  was  a  great  obstacle  to  any  valuable  and  suitable  interpretation  of  that 
part  of  the  Bible. 

§  6.  A  system  of  Christian  theology,  so  far  as  we  can  learn,  was  com- 
posed by  no  one  in  this  age.  The  tracts  of  Arabianus,  (de  dogmate 
Christiano),  having  been  all  lost,  we  cannot  tell  what  they  were.  The 
five  Books  of  Papias,  (de  Dictis  Christi  et  Apostolorum,  or,  Explanatio 
oraculorum  dominicorum),  so  far  as  can  be  learned  from  Eusebius,(3) 
must  be  regarded  rather  as  a  historical  than  a  doctrinal  work.  Melito  of 
Sardis  is  said  to  have  written,  de  Fide,  de  Creatione,  de  Ecclesia,  and  de 
Veritate  :  but  it  does  not  appear  from  these  titles,  whether  they  were  po- 
lemic or  doctrinal  treatises.  Some  points  in  theology  were  stated  and  de- 
fended, by  those  who  engaged  in  religious  controversies.  But  the  doc- 

(2)  [I  cannot  but  think  there  must  be  a  cap.  xii.,  §  5,  6,  prefixed  to  his  edition  of 

great  typographical  error  in  the  original  of  Justin   Martyr,  &c.,   and   republished   by 

this  sentence.     For  it  is  not  easy  to  believe,  Sprenger,  Thesaurus  Rei  Patristicae,  torn, 

that  Dr.  Mosheim  held  to  the  long  exploded  ii. — TV.] 

notion,  that  either  of  those  Harmonies  of  the        (3)  [Euscbius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  iii.,  c. 

four  Gospels,  which  we  have  in  the  Biblio-  29.     See  also  Irenaus,  adv.  Haeres.,  1.  v., 

theca  Patrum,  could  be  the  genuine  work  of  c.  33.     Jerome,  de  Scriptoribus  Illustr.,  cap. 

Tatian.    See  Prudentius  Maran,  Diss.  xiii.,  18. — Tr.] 


THEOLOGY  AND  RELIGION.  127 

trines  which  were  not  brought  into  controversy,  were  for  the  most  part  not 
so  distinctly  treated  by  the  writers  of  that  age,  as  to  enable  us  fully  to  un- 
derstand what  their  views  were.  It  is  therefore  not  strange,  that  all  sects 
of  Christians  can  find  in  what  are  called  the  Fathers,  something  to  favour 
their  own  opinions  and  systems. 

§  7.  The  controversial  writers  who  distinguished  themselves  in  this 
century,  encountered  either  the  Jews,  or  the  worshippers  of  idol  gods,  or  the 
corrupters  of  the  Christian  doctrine  and  the  founders  of  new  sects,  that  is, 
the  heretics.  With  the  Jews,  contended  in  particular  Justin  Martyr,  in  his 
dialogue  with  Trypho ;  and  likewise  Tertullian  ;  but  neither  of  them,  in 
the  best  manner ;  because  they  were  not  acquainted  with  the  language  and 
history  of  the  Hebrews,  and  did  not  duly  consider  the  subject.  The^a- 
gans  were  assailed  by  those  especially,  who  wrote  Apologies  for  the 
Christians ;  as  Athenagoras,  Melito,  Quadratus,  Miltiades,  Aristides,  Ta- 
tian,  and  Justin  Martyr ;  or  who  composed  Addresses  to  the  pagans  ;  as 
Justin,  Tertullian,  Clement,  and  Theophilus  of  Antioch.  All  these  vanquish- 
ed paganism,  and  answered  the  calumnies  cast  upon  the  Christians,  solid- 
ly and  dexterously ;  but  they  were  less  able  and  successful  in  explain- 
ing the  nature  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  in  demonstrating  its  truth  and 
divine  origin.  At  least,  we  perceive  that  much  is  wanting  in  the  explana- 
tions they  give  of  Christian  doctrines,  and  in  the  arguments  they  use  in» 
confirmation  of  religious  truth.  Those  who  chastised  the  heretics,  make 
a  numerous  body ;  but  we  have  few  of  their  writings  left.  The  whole 
host  of  heretics  were  attacked  by  Iren&us  in  a  work  expressly  against 
them  ;  by  Clement  in  his  Stromata  ;  and  by  Tertullian,  de  Praescriptionibus 
adversus  htereticos ;  not  to  mention  Justin  Martyr,  whose  confutation  of 
them  has  been  lost.  Those  who  wrote  against  particular  sects  of  heretics, 
it  would  be  tedious  to  enumerate ;  besides,  the  works  of  most  of  them  are 
not  preserved. 

$  8.  In  these  disputants  there  was  something  more  of  ingenuousness  and 
good  faith,  than  in  those  who  undertook  the  support  of  truth  in  the  follow- 
ing centuries.  For  the  convenient  wiles  of  sophistry  and  the  dishonourable 
artifices  of  debate,  had  not  yet  gained  admittance  among  Christians.  Yet 
a  man  of  sound  judgment  who  has  due  regard  for  truth,  cannot  extol  them 
highly.  Most  of  them  lacked  discernment,  knowledge,  application,  good 
arrangement,  and  force.  They  often  advance  very  flimsy  arguments,  and 
such  as  are  suited  rather  to  embarrass  the  mind  than  to  convince  the  un- 
derstanding. One,  laying  aside  the  divine  scriptures,  from  which  all  the 
weapons  of  religious  controversy  should  be  drawn,  bids  us  consult  the 
bishops  of  those  churches  which  were  founded  by  apostles.  Another,  as 
if  contending  about  the  title  or  the  boundaries  of  lands  in  a  court  of  law, 
with  an  ill  grace  pleads  prescription  against  his  adversaries.  A  third  imi- 
tates the  silly  disputants  among  the  Jews,  who  offered  as  arguments  the 
mystic  powers  of  numbers  and  words.  (4)  Nor  are  those  wholly  in  error, 
who  think  that  the  vicious  mode  of  disputing  which  afterwards  obtained 
the  name  of  economical,  was  sometimes  used  even  in  this  century. (5) 

(4)  Examples  may  be  seen  in  Ja.  Bus-  21.     [To  do,  or  to  say  anything,  /car*  OIKO- 
nagc,  Histoire  des  Juifs,  tome  Hi.,  p,  660,  vofiiav,  or  ouovoftucuf,  is  to  use  deception 
694.  or  good  policy,  rather  than  fair  honest  deal- 

(5)  R.  Simon,  Histoire  critique  des  prin-  ing ;  yet  with  good  intentions,  or  for  a  good 
cipaux  Commentateurs  dn  N.  T.,  cap.  ii.,p.  end.    See  Suicer,  Thesaur.  Ecclesiast.,tom. 


12S     BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 

§  9.  The  principal  parts  of  practical  religion  or  morality,  are  treated  of 
by  Justin  Martyr,  or  whoever  it  was  that  composed  the  Epistle  to  Zenas 
and  Serenus,  found  among  the  works  of  Justin.  Others  took  up  particular 
duties  in  set  treatises.  Thus  Clemens  Alexandrinus  composed  tracts  on 
Calumny,  Patience,  Continence,  and  other  virtues  ;  which  have  not  escaped 
the  ravages  of  time.  But  the  tracts  of  Tertullian  on  practical  duties, 
namely,  on  Chastity,  on  Flight  from  Persecution,  on  Fasting,  on  Theatri- 
cal Exhibitions,  on  the  Dress  of  Females,  on  Prayer,  &c.,  have  come  safely 
to  our  hands  ;  and  would  be  perused  with  greater  profit,  were  it  not  for 
the  gloomy  and  morose  spirit  which  they  everywhere  breathe,  and  the 
excessively  artificial  and  difficult  style  in  which  they  are  written. 

§  10.  In  what  estimation  these  and  other  ancient  writers  on  Christian 
morals  ought  to  be  held,  the  learned  are  not  agreed.  Some  hold  them  to 
be  the  very  best  guides  to  true  piety  and  a  holy  life ;  others,  on  the  con- 
trary, think  their  precepts  were  the  worst  possible,  and  that  the  cause  of 
practical  religion  could  not  be  committed  to  worse  hands. (6)  Competent 
judges  will  decide  the  question  for  themselves.  To  us  it  appears  that 
their  writings  contain  many  things  excellent,  well  considered,  and  well 
calculated  to  enkindle  pious  emotions ;  but  also  many  things  unduly  rigor- 
ous, and  derived  from  the  Stoic  and  Academic  philosophy ;  many  things 
vague  and  indeterminate ;  and  many  things  positively  false,  and  inconsis- 
tent with  the  precepts  of  Christ.  If  one  deserves  the  title  of  a  bad  master 
in  morals,  who  has  no  just  ideas  of  the  proper  boundaries  and  limitations  of 
Christian  duties,  nor  clear  and  distinct  conceptions  of  the  different  virtues 
and  vices,  nor  a  perception  of  those  general  principles  to  which  recur- 
rence should  be  had  in  all  discussions  respecting  Christian  virtue,  and 
therefore  very  often  talks  at  random,  and  blunders  in  expounding  the  di- 
vine laws  ;  though  he  may  say  many  excellent  things,  and  excite  in  us 
considerable  emotion  ;  then  I  can  readily  admit  that  in  strict  truth,  this 
title  belongs  to  many  of  the  Fathers. 

§  11.  In  this  century  there  was  admitted,  with  good  intentions  no  doubt, 
yet  most  inconsiderately,  a  great  error  in  regard  to  morals,  and  pernicious 
to  Christianity  ;  an  error,  which  through  all  succeeding  ages  to  our  times, 
has  produced  an  infinity  of  mistakes  and  evils  of  various  kinds.  Jesus  our 
Saviour,  prescribed  one  and  the  same  rule  of  life  or  duty  to  all  his  disci- 

ii.,  p.  459.  See  also  note  11,  cent,  iii.,  pt.  Librum  Jo.  Barbeyraci,  Libnrni,  1767,  4to. 
ii.,  ch.  iii. — TV.]  Fassonius  excuses  the  fathers  for  the  fol- 
(6)  On  this  subject  in  our  day,  the  learned  lowing  opinions,  charged  upon  them  as  er- 
and  ingenious  Jo.  Barbeyrac  held  a  con-  rors  by  Barbeyrac ;  namely,  that  they  con- 
troversy with  Remigius  Cellier,  a  Benedic-  demned  taking  interest  for  money  loaned ; 
tine  monk.  A  history  of  the  controversy,  placed  too  high  a  value  on  virginity,  and  ac- 
with  his  own  opinion  of  it,  is  given  by  J.  F.  counted  celibacy  a  more  holy  state  than  mat- 
Buddeus,  Isagoge  ad  Theologian,  lib.  ii.,  rimony ;  forbid  husbands  sleeping  with  their 
cap.  iv.,  $  iv.,  p.  553,  &c.  Afterwards  wives  while  pregnant ;  deemed  it  unsuitable 
Barbeyrac  published  a  more  full  defence  of  for  clergymen  to  marry,  and  excluded  from 
the  severe  judgment  he  had  passed  upon  the  the  ministry  such  as  married  a  second  time  ; 
fathers,  under  the  title  of  Traitfi  de  la  Morale  — commended  a  monastic  life;  made  two 
des  Pe'res,  Amsterdam,  1723,  4to,  which  is  systems  of  duty,  one  for  the  more  perfect, 
well  worth  reading  by  those  who  wish  to  in-  and  another  for  common  Christians  ; — and 
vestigate  the  subject ;  yet  T  think,  he  charges  held  it  lawful  to  persecute  heretics  with  fire 
the  fathers  with  some  faults,  which  may  easily  and  sword  Most  of  the  other  faults  charged 
be  excused.  [Liberatus  Fassonius,  a  Cath-  on  the  fathers  by  Barbeyrac,  Fassonius 
olic,  published  an  answer  to  Barbeyrac,  in  a  maintains,  should  be  charged  solely  on  the 
Latin  work,  de  inorali  Patrum  doctrina,  adv.  heretics. — Tr.] 


THEOLOGY  AND  RELIGION.  129 

pies.  But  the  Christian  doctors,  either  by  too  great  a  desire  of  imitating 
the  nations  among  whom  they  lived,  or  from  a  natural  propensity  to  aus- 
terity and  gloom,  (a  disease  that  many  labour  under  in  Syria,  Egypt,  and 
other  provinces  of  the  East),  were  induced  to  maintain  that  Christ  had 
prescribed  a  twofold  rule  of  holiness  and  virtue ;  the  one  ordinary,  the  other 
extraordinary  ;  the  one  lower,  the  other  higher  ;  the  one  for  men  of  busi- 
ness, the  other  for  persons  of  leisure,  and  such  as  desired  higher  glory  in 
the  future  world.  They  therefore  early  divided  all  that  had  been  taught 
them  either  in  books  or  by  tradition,  respecting  a  Christian  life  and  morals, 
into  Precepts  and  Counsels.  They  gave  the  name  of  Precepts  to  those 
laws  which  were  universally  obligatory,  or  were  enacted  for  all  men  of  all 
descriptions  ;  but  the  Counsels  pertained  solely  to  those  who  aspire  after 
superior  holiness  and  a  closer  union  with  God. 

§  12.  There  soon  arose  therefore  a  class  of  persons,  who  professed  to 
strive  after  that  extraordinary  and  more  eminent  holiness,  and  who  of 
course  resolved  to  obey  the  Counsels  of  Christ,  that  they  might  have  in- 
timate communion  with  God  in  this  life,  and  might,  on  leaving  the  body, 
rise  without  impediment  or  difficulty  to  the  celestial  world.  They  sup- 
posed many  things  were  forbidden  to  them,  which  were  allowed  to  oth- 
er Christians  ;  such  as  wine,  flesh,  matrimony,  and  worldly  business.(7) 
They  thought  they  must  emaciate  their  bodies  with  watching,  fasting,  toil, 
and  hunger.  They  considered  it  a  blessed  thing  to  retire  to  desert  places, 
and  by  severe  meditation  to  abstract  their  minds  from  all  external  objects 
and  whatever  delights  the  senses.  Both  men  and  women  imposed  these 
severe  restraints  on  themselves,  with  good  intentions,  I  suppose,  but  set- 
ting a  bad  example,  and  greatly  to  the  injury  of  the  cause  of  Christianity. 
They  were  of  course  denominated  Ascetics,  ^.-nsdaloc,  rE/cAfKTOi,  and  also 
philosophers ;  and  they  were  distinguished  from  other  Christians,  not  only 
by  a  different  appellation,  but  by  peculiarities  of  dress  and  demeanour.(S) 
Those  who  in  this  century  embraced  this  austere  mode  of  life,  lived  in- 
deed only  for  themselves,  but  they  did  not  withdraw  themselves  altogether 
from  the  society  and  converse  of  men.  But  in  process  of  time,  persons 
of  this  description  at  first  retired  into  deserts,  and  afterwards  formed  them- 
selves into  associations,  after  the  manner  of  the  Essenes  and  Therapeutae. 

§  13.  The  causes  of  this  institution  are  at  hand.  First,  the  Christians 
did  not  like  to  appear  inferior  to  the  Greeks,  the  Romans,  and  the  other 
people  ;  among  whom  there  were  many  philosophers  and  sages,  who  were 
distinguished  from  the  vulgar  by  their  dress  and  their  whole  mode  of  life, 
and  who  were  held  in  high  honour.  Now  among  these  philosophers,  (as 
is  well  known),  none  better  pleased  the  Christians  than  the  Platonists  and 
Pythagoreans ;  who  are  known  to  have  recommended  two  modes  of  living, 
the  one  for  philosophers  who  wished  to  excel  others  in  virtue,  and  the 
other  for  people  engaged  in  the  common  affairs  of  life. (9)  The  Plato- 
nists prescribed  the  following  rule  for  philosophers :  The  mind  of  a  wise 

(7)  A/hrnfifforas,  Apologia  pro  Christian-  (9)  They  made  a  distinction  between  liv- 
is,  cap.  28,  p.   129,  ed.  Oxon.,  and  others.  ing  according  to  nature,  C#v  Kara  <j>voiv,  and 

(8)  See  C.  Siilnumiiis,  Comment,  in  Ter-  living  above  nature,  Criv  inrep  <j>vaiv.     See 
tullian.  de  Pallio,  p.  7,  8,     [S  f!a:aru.f.  in  Theophrasto,  p.  29,  ed. 
Exercit.  de  Ascetis  Vet.  in  Observ.  Sacr.,  Barthii.     The  former  was  the  rule  for  all 
1.  iii.,  and  Jos.  Bingham,  Antiq.  Eccles.,  men;  the  latter,  only  for  philosophers  who 
vol.  iii.,  p.  3,  &c. — Schi]  aimed  at  perfect  virtue. 

VOL.  I.— R 


130  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  IL— CHAP.  III. 

man  must  be  withdrawn,  as  far  as  possible,  from  the  contagious  influ- 
ence of  the  body.  And  as  the  oppressive  load  of  the  body  and  social  in- 
tercourse are  most  adverse  to  this  design,  therefore  all  sensual  gratifica- 
tions are  to  be  avoided ;  the  body  is  to  be  sustained,  or  rather  mortified, 
with  coarse  and  slender  fare  ;  solitude  is  to  be  sought  for ;  and  the  mind 
is  to  be  self-collected,  and  absorbed  in  contemplation,  so  as  to  be  detach- 
ed as  much  as  possible  from  the  body. (10)  Whoever  lives  in  this  manner, 
shall  in  the  present  life  have  converse  with  God  ;  and,  when  freed  from 
the  load  of  the  body,  shall  ascend  without  delay  to  the  celestial  mansions, 
and  shall  not  need,  like  the  souls  of  other  men*  to  undergo  a  purgation. 
The  grounds  of  this  system  lay  in  the  peculiar  sentiments  entertained  by 
this  sect  of  philosophers  and  by  their  friends,  respecting  the  soul,  demons, 
matter,  and  the  universe.  And  as  these  sentiments  were  embraced  by  the 
Christian  philosophers,  the  necessary  consequences  of  them  were  of  course 
to  be  adopted  also. 

§  14.  What  is  here  stated  will  excite  less  surprise,  if  it  be  remember- 
ed, that  Egypt  was  the  land  where  this  mode  of  life  had  its  origin.  For 
that  country,  from  some  law  of  nature,  has  always  produced  a  greater 
number  of  gloomy  and  hypochondriac  or  melancholy  persons  than  any 
other  ;(11)  and  it  still  does  so.  Here  it  was  that  long  before  the  Saviour's 
birth,  not  only  the  Esscnes  and  Therapeutae, — those  Jewish  sects,  com- 
posed of  persons  affected  with  a  morbid  melancholy,  or  rather  partially 
deranged, — had  their  chief  residence  ;  but  many  others  also,  that  they 
might  better  please  the  gods,  withdrew  themselves  as  by  the  instinct  of 
nature  from  commerce  with  men  and  from  all  the  pleasures  of  life. (12) 
From  Egypt,  this  mode  of  life  passed  into  Syria  and  the  neighbouring  coun- 
tries, which  in  like  manner  always  abounded  with  unsociable  and  austere 
individuals :( 13)  and  from  the  East  it  was  at  last  introduced  among  the 
nations  of  Europe.  Hence  the  numerous  maladies  which  still  deform  the 
Christian  world  ;  hence  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy ;  hence  the  numerous 
herds  of  monks  ;  hence  the  two  species  of  life,  the  theoretical  and  mystical; 
hence  the  many  other  things  of  a  like  nature,  which  we  shall  have  occa- 
sion to  mention  in  the  progress  of  our  work. 

§  15.  To  this  great  error  of  the  Christians  may  be  added  another,  not 
indeed  of  equal  extent,  but  a  pernicious  one  and  productive  of  many  evils. 
The  Platonists  and  Pythagoreans  deemed  it  not  only  lawful  but  commend- 
able to  deceive  and  to  lie,  for  the  sake  of  truth  and  piety.(14)  The  Jews 
living  in  Egypt,  learned  from  them  this  sentiment  before  the  Christian  era, 
as  appears  from  many  proofs.  And  from  both,  this  vice  early  spread  among 
the  Christians.  Of  this  no  one  will  doubt,  who  calls  to  mind  the  numerous 
forgeries  of  books  under  the  names  of  eminent  men,  the  Sibylline  verses, ( 15) 

(10)  Consult  here,  by  all  means,  that  most  Exhortatione  castitatis,  cap.  13.     Athanasi- 
distinguished  Platonist,  Porphyry,  irepl  ano-  us,  Vita  Antonii,  Opp.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  453. 
Xijf,  or,  on  Abstinence  from  flesh,  lib.  i.,  $         (13)  Jo.    Chardin,    Voyages    in    Perse, 
27  and  41,  p.  22,  34,  where  he  formally  lays  tome  iv.,  p.  197,  ed.  Amsterd.,  1735,  4to. 
down  rules  for  these  duties  of  a  philosopher.         (14)  [Moshcim,   on   this   subject,  in  his 

(11)  See  Bcned.  Maillet,  Description  de  Comment,  de  Reb.  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  231,  re- 
1'Egypte,  tome  ii.,  p.  57,  &c.,  Paris,  1735,  fers  us  to  his  Diss.  de  turbata  per  recentiores 
4to.  Platonicas  ecclesia,  $  41,  &c. — Tr.~\ 

(12)  Herodotus,  Historiar.,  1.  ii.,  p.  104,         (15)  [Concerning   the    Sibylline   verses, 
ed.  Gronov.     Epiphanins,  Expos,  fidei,  $  which  were  composed  about  "A.D.   138,  /. 
13,  Opp.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  1092.     Tertullian,  de  A.  Fabricius  has  treated  largely,  Biblioth. 


THEOLOGY  AND  RELIGION.  131 

and  other  similar  trash,(16)  a  large  mass  of  which  appeared  in  this  and 
the  following  centuries.  I  would  not  say  that  the  orthodox  Christians 
forged  all  the  books  of  this  character ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  probable  that 
the  greater  part  of  them  originated  from  the  founders  of  the  Gnostic  sects. 
Yet  that  the  Christians  who  were  free  from  heterodox  views  were  not 
wholly  free  from  this  fault,  is  too  clear  to  be  denied. 

§  16.  The  more  the  boundaries  of  the  church  were  enlarged,  the  great- 
er the  number  of  vicious  and  bad  men  who  thrust  themselves  into  it ;  as 
may  be  proved  by  the  many  complaints  and  censures  of  the  writers  of  this 
age.  The  well-known  custom  of  excluding  transgressors  from  the  commu- 
nion, was  a  barrier  against  the  more  flagrant  and  notorious  crimes.  Of  all 
sins,  those  accounted  the  most  heinous  and  the  greatest,  were  these  three, 
murder,  idolatry,  and  adultery  ;  which  terms,  however,  must  here  be  under- 
stood in  the  broadest  sense.  Those  guilty  of  these  crimes,  were  in  many 
churches  cut  off  for  ever  from  communion  ;  in  other  churches,  they  were 
received  back  after  a  long,  severe,  and  painful  probation. (17) 

§  17.  It  is  worthy  of  particular  notice,  that  this  custom  of  excluding  bad 
characters  from  the  society  of  Christians,  and  of  not  receiving  them  back 
except  upon  full  proof  of  reformation,  was  at  first  a  simple  process,  or  at- 
tended with  very  little  formality ;  but  by  degrees,  the  regulations  for  it 
.were  greatly  amplified  and  deformed  by  many  rites  borrowed  especially 
from  the  discipline  of  the  pagan  mysteries. (18)  That  it  was  proper  for 
the  Christian  bishops  to  increase  the  restraints  upon  the  licentiousness  of 
transgression,  will  be  readily  granted  by  all  who  consider  the  circumstances 
of  those  times.  But  whether  it  was  for  the  advantage  of  Christianity,  to 
borrow  rules  for  this  salutary  ordinance  from  the  enemies  of  the  truth,  and 
thus  to  consecrate,  as  it  were,  a  part  of  the  pagan  superstition,  many  per- 

Graeca;  torn.  i.  The  latest  editor  of  the  Hist.  Eccles.  See  Mosheim,  do  Rebus 
verses,  is  Servat.  Gallaeus,  who  has  cor-  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  230.  See  also  the  refer- 
rected  the  text,  and  added  copious  notes,  ences  in  Gicsder's  Text-book,  by  Cunning- 
Amsterd.,  1689, 4to.  He  has  subjoined  the  ham,  vol.  i.,  p.  99,  note  4. —  TV.] 
Magic  Oracles  ascribed  to  Zoroaster  and  (16)  [That  the  books  now  circulated  under 
others  ;  in  which  are  many  things  of  Chris-  the  name  of  Hermes,  and  particularly  the 
tian  origin.  That  the  Sibylline  verses  were  one  called  Pcemander,  were  a  Christian  for- 
fabrioated  by  some  Christian,  in  order  to  gery,  was  first  shown  by  7*.  Casaubon,  Ex- 
bring  idolaters  to  believe  in  the  truth  of  ercit.  1,  in  Baronium.  §  18,  p.  54,  and  after- 
Christianity,  has  been  well  shown  by  Dav.  wards  by  H.  Conringius,  Beautobre,  Cud- 
Blondell,  among  others  ;  and  with  a  very  worth,  Warburton,  and  many  others.  Some 
few  exceptions,  there  is  no  learned  man  at  however,  suppose  the  books  were  originally 
the  present  day,  who  thinks  otherwise,  composed  by  Platonists ;  and  afterwards  in- 
BlondelVs  work  which  is  in  French,  was  terpolated  and  corrupted  by  some  Christian. 
first  published  under  the  title  :  Des  Sibylles  See  Mosheim,  de  Reb.  Christ.,  p.  230. — TV.] 
celebrees  tant  par  1'Antiquite  payenne,  que  (17)  In  this  manner  I  think,  we  may  rcc- 
par  les  saints  Peres,  Charenton,  1649,  4to.  oncile  the  different  opinions  of  learned  men 
Two  years  after,  the  title  was  changed  ;  on  this  subject.  See  Jo.  Morin,  de  Disci- 
doubtless  to  allure  purchasers  ;  Traite,  dela  plina  pcenitentiae,  lib.  ix.,  cap  19,  p.  670, 
Creance  des  Peres  touchant  1'Etat  des  ames  &c.  Ja.  Sirmond,  Historia  poenitentiae  pub- 
apres  cette  vie,  &c.,  a  1'occasion  de  1'Ecrit  licse,  cap.  i.,  Opp.,  torn,  iv.,  p.  323,  and  the 
attribue  aux  Sibelles,  Charenton,  1651,  4to.  recent  Dissertation  of  Jo.  Aug.  Orsi,  de 
— That  the  pagans  were  indignant  at  this  Criminum  capitalium  per  tria  priora  saecula 
forgery,  which  they  attributed  to  the  Chris-  absolutione,  Mediolani,  1730,  4to. 
tians,  appears  from  Origen,  contra  Celsum,  (18)  See  Jo.  Alb.  Fabricius,  Bibliogra- 
lib.  v.,  p.  272,  ed  Spencer ;  Lactantius,  In-  phias  Antiquariae,  p.  397.  Jo.  Monn,  de 
stit.  Divinor.,  1.  iv.,  c.  14  ;  and  Constantinc  Poenitentia,  lib.  i.,  cap.  15,  16,  &c. 
the  Great,  Oratio  ad  Sanctos,  in  Euscb., 


132  BOOK  L— CENTURY  II— PART  IL— CHAP.  IV. 

sons  very  justly  call  in  question.  The  more  candid  will  appreciate  the 
good  intention  of  those  who  introduced  this  sort  of  rules  and  ceremonies ; 
all  beyond  this  they  will  ascribe  to  human  weakness.  x 


CHAPTER  IV. 

HISTORY    OF    CEREMONIES. 

$  1.  Ceremonies  much  Increased. — $2.  Reasons;  I.  Desire  to  enlarge  the  Church. — 
§  3.  II.  Hope  that  they  would  silence  Calumnies. — f)  4.  III.  Abuse  of  Jewish  Terms. 
— 5.  IV.  Imitation  of  the  Pagan  Mysteries. — §  6.  V.  Mode  of  Instructing  by  Symbols. 
— §  7.  VI.  Habits  of  the  Converts. — $  8.  The  Assemblies  for  Worship. — $  9.  Con- 
tests about  the  Time  for  Easter. — §  10.  Their  Importance. — 11.  The  Asiatics  and  the 
Romans,  the  principal  Parties. — §  12.  Celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper. — $  13.  Baptism. 

§  1.  IT  is  certain  that  to  religious  worship,  both  public  and  private,  many 
rites  were  added,  without  necessity  and  to  the  great  offence  of  sober  and 
good  men.(l)  The  principal  cause  of  this,  I  readily  look  for  in  the  per- 
versenes.s  of  mankind,  who  are  more  delighted  with  the  pomp  and  splen- 
dour of  external  forms  and  pageantry,  than  with  the  true  devotion  of  the 
heart,  and  who  despise  whatever  does  not  gratify  their  eyes  and  ears. (2) 
But  other  and  additional  causes  may  be  mentioned,  which,  though  they 
suppose  no  bad  design,  yet  clearly  betray  indiscretion. 

§  2.  First,  there  is  good  reason  to  suppose  that  the  Christian  bishops 
purposely  multiplied  sacred  rites  for  the  sake  of  rendering  the  Jews  and 
the  pagans  more  friendly  to  them.  For  both  these  classes  had  been  ac- 
customed to  numerous  and  splendid  ceremonies  from  their  infancy,  and  had 
made  no  question  of  their  constituting  an  essential  part  of  religion.  And 
hence,  when  they  saw  the  new  religion  to  be  destitute  of  such  ceremonies, 
they  thought  it  too  simple,  and  therefore  despised  it.  To  obviate  this  ob- 
jection, the  rulers  of  the  Christian  churches  deemed  it  proper  for  them  to 
be  more  formal  and  splendid  in  their  public  worship.(3) 

(1)  Tertullian,  Liber  de  creatione,  -Opp.,  ritum  vulgus  in  simulacrorum  cultus  errors 
p.  792,  &c.  permaneret — permisit  eis,  ut  in  memoriam 

(2)  [To  illustrate  the  influence  of  splendid  ac  recordationem  sanctorum  martyrum  sese 
ceremonies  on  mankind,  Dr.  Maclaine  here  oblectarent  et  in  letitiam  effunderentur,  quod 
states  ;  that,  "  The  late  Lord  Bolingbroke,  successu  temporis  aliquando  futurum  esset, 
being  present  at  the  elevation  of  the  host  in  ut  sua  sponte  ad  honestiorem  et  accuratio- 
the  Cathedral  at  Paris,  expressed  to  a  noble-  rem  vitae  rationem  transirent. — When  Greg- 
man  who  stood  near  him,  his  surprise  that  ory  perceived,  that  the  ignorant  and  simple 
the  king  of  France  should  commit  the  pur-  multitude  persisted  in  their  idolatry,  on  ac- 
formance  of  such  an  august  and  striking  cer-  count  of  the  sensitive  pleasures  and  delights 
emony  to  any  subject." — 7V.]  it  afforded — he  allowed  them  in  celebrating 

(3)  It  will  not  be  unsuitable  to  transcribe  the  memory  of  the  holy  martyrs,  to  indulge 
here,  a  very  apposite  passage,  which  I  acci-  themselves,  and  give  a  loose  to  pleasure,  (i. 
dentally  met  with,  in  Gregory  NysserCs  life  e.,  as  the  thing  itself,  and  both  what  pre- 
of  Gregory  Thaumaturgus,  in  the  Works  of  cedes  and  what   follows,  place  beyond   all 
Thaumaturgus,  as  published  by  Vossius,  p.  controversy,  he  allowed  them  at  the  sepul- 
312,  who  gives  the  Latin  only:  Cum  ani-  chres  of  the  martyrs  on  their  feast  days,  to 
madvertisset, (Greporius), quod  ob  corporeas  dance,  to  use  sports,  to  indulge  conviviality, 
delectationes  et  voluptates  simplex  et  impe-  and  to  do  all  things  that  the  worshippers  of 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  133 

§  3.  Secondly,  the  simplicity  of  the  worship  which  Christians  offered  to 
the  Deity,  had  given  occasion  to  certain  calumnies,  maintained  both  by 
the  Jews  and  the  pagan  priests.  The  Christians  were  pronounced  Athe- 
ists, because  they  were  destitute  of  temples,  altars,  victims,  priests,  and 
all  that  pomp,  in  which  the  vulgar  suppose  the  essence  of  religion  to  con- 
sist. For  unenlightened  persons  are  prone  to  estimate  religion  by  what 
meets  their  eyes.  To  silence  this  accusation,  the  Christian  doctors  thought 
they  must  introduce  some  external  rites,  which  would  strike  the  senses  of 
people ;  so  that  they  could  maintain  that  they  really  had  all  those  things 
of  which  Christians  were  charged  with  being  destitute,  though  under  dif- 
ferent forms. 

§  4.  Thirdly,  it  is  well  known,  that  in  the  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, various  parts  of  the  Christian  religion  are  expressed  in  terms  bor- 
rowed from  the  Jewish  laws,  or  are  represented  as  in  some  measure  par- 
allel with  the  Mosaic  rites.  This  language,  the  Christian  doctors  and  wri- 
ters not  only  imitated,  but  extended  still  farther  ;  and  in  this  there  was  lit- 
tle to  censure.  But  in  process  of  time,  either  from  inconsideration  or  from 
ignorance,  or  from  motives  of  policy,  the  majority  decided  that  such  phra- 
seology was  not  figurative,  but  accordant  with  the  nature  of  the  things,  and 
to  be  understood  in  its  proper  sense.  The  bishops  were  at  tirst  innocent- 
ly called  high  priests,  and  the  presbyters,  priests,  and  the  deacons,  Levites. 
But  in  a  little  time,  those  to  whom  these  titles  were  given  abused  them ; 
and  maintained  that  they  had  the  same  rank  and  dignity,  and  possessed  the 
same  rights  and  privileges  with  those  who  bore  these  titles  under  the  Mo- 
saic dispensation.  Hence  the  origin  of  Jirst  fruits,  and  next  of  tithes; 
hence  the  splendid  garments,  and  many  other  things.  In  like  manner,  the 
comparison  of  the  Christian  oblations  with  the  Jewish  victims  and  sacri- 
fices, produced  many  unnecessary  rites  ;  and  in  time  corrupted  essentially 
the  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  supper,  which,  ere  they  were  aware  of  it,  was 
converted  into  a  sacrifice. 

§  5.  Fourthly,  among  the  Greeks  and  the  people  of  the  East  nothing  was 
held  more  sacred  than  what  were  called  the  Mysteries.  This  circumstance 
led  the  Christians,  in  order  to  impart  dignity  to  their  religion,  to  say,  that 
they  also  had  similar  mysteries,  or  certain  holy  rites  concealed  from  the 
vulgar  ;  and  they  not  only  applied  the  terms  used  in  the  pagan  mysteries  to 
the  Christian  institutions,  particularly  baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper ;  but 
they  gradually  introduced  also  the  rites  which  were  designated  by  those 
terms. (4)  This  practice  originated  in  the  eastern  provinces  ;  and  thence, 
after  the  times  of  Adrian,  (who  first  introduced  the  Grecian  mysteries 
among  the  Latins), (5)  it  spread  among  the  Christians  of  the  West.  A 

idols  were  accustomed  to  do  in  their  temples,  ed.  Obrechti.     [  Spartian  speaks  only  of  the 

on  their  festival  days),  hoping,  that  in  pro-  £/«m'mare  Mysteries,  into  which  Adrian  was 

cess   of   time,   they  would    spontaneously  initiated  at  Athens.     These,  it  may  be,  that 

come  over  to  a  more  becoming  and  more  Adrian  first  introduced  among  the  Latins  ; 

correct  manner  of  life.  yet  he  was  not  the  first  Roman  initiated  in 

(4)  Examples  are  given  by  Is.  Casaubon,  them. — That  some  Mysteries  had  before  this 
Exercit.  xvi.,  in  Annales   Baronii,  p.  388.  time,  been  introduced  into  the  Roman  wor- 
Ja.  Tollius,  Insignibus  itineris  Italici,  notes  ship,  appears  from  the  Epislles  of  Cicero  to 
p.  151,  163.     Ez.  Spanheim,  Notes  to  his  Atticus,  1.  v.,  21,  end;  lib.  vi.,  1,  end;  1. 
French   translation  of  Julian's  Caesars,  p.  xv.,    25.       Gronovius    indeed    understands 
133,   134.      Dav.   Clarkson,  Discourse  on  these  (mysteria  Romana)  to  be  the  worship 
Liturgies,  p.  36,  42,  43,  and  others.  of  the  goddess  Bona  Dea.     See  his  (Jbsei  v  , 

(5)  Spartianus,  Hadrian,  c.  13,  p.   15,    1.  iv.,  c.  9.    But  on  this  worship,  no  male 


134  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  IV. 

large  part  therefore  of  the  Christian  observances  and  institutions,  even  in 
this  century,  had  the  aspect  of  the  pagan  mysteries. 

§  6.  Fifthly,  many  ceremonies  took  their  rise  from  the  custom  of  the 
Egyptians  and  of  almost  all  the  eastern  nations,  of  conveying  instruction 
by  images,  actions,  and  sensible  signs  and  emblems.  The  Christian  doc- 
tors, therefore,  thought  it  would  be  advantageous  to  the  cause  of  Christian- 
ity to  place  the  truths  which  are  necessary  to  be  known  in  order  to  salva- 
tion, as  it  were  before  the  eyes  of  the  unreflecting  multitude,  who  with  dif- 
ficulty contemplate  abstract  truths.  The  new  converts  were  to  be  taught, 
that  those  are  born  again,  who  are  initiated  by  baptism  into  the  Christian 
worship,  and  that  they  ought  to  exhibit  in  their  conduct  the  innocence  of 
little  infants ;  and  therefore  milk  and  honey,  the  common  food  of  infants, 
was  administered  to  them.  Those  who  obtained  admission  to  the  king- 
dom of  Christ,  from  being  the  servants  of  the  devil,  became  the  Lord's 
freed  men ;  and,  like  newly  enlisted  soldiers,  swore  to  obey  their  com- 
mander. And  to  signify  this,  certain  rites  were  borrowed  from  military 
usages,  and  from  the  forms  of  manumission. (6) 

§  7.  Lastly,  not  to  be  tedious ;  whoever  considers  that  the  Christians 
were  collected  from  among  the  Jews  and  from  the  pagan  nations  who 
were  accustomed  from  their  earliest  years  to  various  ceremonies  and  su- 
perstitious rites,  and  that  the  habits  of  early  life  are  very  hard  to  be  laid 
aside ;  will  perceive,  that  it  would  have  been  little  short  of  a  miracle,  if 
nothing  corrupt  and  debasing  had  found  its  way  into  the  Christian  church. 
For  example ;  nearly  all  the  people  of  the  East,  before  the  Christian  era, 
were  accustomed  to  worship  with  their  faces  directed  towards  the  sun 
rising.  For  they  all  believed  that  God — whom  they  supposed  to  resem- 
ble light,  or  rather  to  be  light,  and  whom  they  limited  as  to  place, — had 
his  residence  in  that  part  of  the  heavens  where  the  sun  rises.  When  they 
became  Christians  they  rejected  indeed  the  erroneous  belief;  but  the  cus- 
tom that  originated  from  it,  and  which  was  very  ancient  and  universally 
prevalent,  they  retained.  Nor  to  this  hour,  has  it  been  wholly  laid  aside. 
From  the  same  cause  originated  many  Jewish  rites,  which  are  still  reli- 
giously maintained  by  many  Christians,  and  especially  by  those  who  live 
in  eastern  countries.(7) 

§  8.  The  rites  themselves,  I  shall  state  only  summarily  ;  for  this  ex- 
tensive subject  deserves  to  be  considered  by  itself,  and  can  not  be  fully 
discussed  in  the  narrow  limits  of  our  work.  The  Christians  assembled 
for  the  worship  of  God  in  private  dwelling-houses,  in  caves,  and  in  the  places 
where  the  dead  were  buried.  They  met  on  the  first  day  of  the  week ; 
and  here  and  there,  also  on  the  seventh  day,  which  was  the  Jewish  Sab- 
bath. Most  of  them  likewise  held  sacred  the  fourth  and  sixth,  the  former 
being  the  day  on  which  our  Saviour  was  betrayed,  and  the  latter  that  on 
which  he  was  crucified.  The  hours  of  the  day  allotted  to  these  meetings, 

person  might  attend ;  and  I  see  not  why  Ci-  ad  S.  Baptismum  translatis,  Altdorf,  1738, 

cero    should    inquire   so   particularly  of  his  and  J.  G.  Zentgrav's  Diss.  at  Jena,  under 

friend,  (as  he  does),  about  the  time  of  these  Dr.  Wa!ch,  1749,  de  Ritibus  Baptismalibus 

mysteries,  if  they  were  nothing  but  the  wor-  saeculi  secundi. — Schl.] 

ship  of  a  deity,  in  which  none  but  females  (7)  See  Jo.  Spencer,  de  Legibus  ritualibus 

ever  bore  any  part. — Sf.hl.]  Ebraeor.  Prolegom.,  p.  9,  ed.  Cantab.,  and 

(6)  See  Edm.  Merill,  Observations,  lib.  all  those  who  have  explained  the  rites  and 

iii.,  cap.  iii.     [C.  G.  Schwartz,  Diss.  de  rit-  usages  of  the  Oriental  Christians, 
ibus  quibusdam  formulisque  a  manumissione 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 


135 


varied  according  to  times  and  circumstances  ;  very  many  of  them  could 
assemble  only  in  the  evening,  or  in  the  morning  before  the  dawn  of  day. 
When  the  Christians  were  assembled,  prayers  were  recited ;  (the  purport 
of  which,  Tertullian  gives  us)  ;(8)  the  holy  scriptures  were  read  ;(9)  short 
discourses  on  Christian  duties  were  addressed  to  the  people ;  hymns  were 
sung ;  and  at  last,  the  Lord's  supper  and  the  love-feasts  were  celebrated, 
the  oblations  of  the  people  affording  them  the  materials. (10) 

§  9.  The  Christians  of  this  century  consecrated  anniversary  festivals, 
in  memory  of  the  Saviour's  death  and  resurrection,  and  of  the  descent  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  apostles.  The  day  in  remembrance  of  Christ's 
dying  and  expiating  the  sins  of  men,  was  called  the  Passover  or  Easter, 
(Pascha),  because  they  supposed  that  Christ  was  crucified  on  the  same 
day  in  which  the  Jews  kept  their  Passover.  But  in  observing  this  festi- 
val, the  Christians  of  Asia  Minor  differed  from  other  Christians,  and  espe- 
cially from  those  of  Rome.  Both  fasted  on  what  was  called  the  great 
week,  that  on  which  Christ  died  ;*  and  in  remembrance  of  the  last  supper 
of  our  Saviour,  they  held  a  sacred  feast  or  ate  the  paschal  lamb,  just  as  the 
Jews  did  ;  which  feast,  as  well  as  the  time  of  Christ's  death,  they  denom- 
inated the  Passover  or  Easter.  Now  the  Asiatic  Christians  held  their  pas- 
chal feasts  on  the  fourteenth  day,  or  full  moon,  of  the  first  Jewish  month, 
which  was  the  very  time  on  which  the  Jews  ate  their  Passover ;  and  on 
the  third  day  after  this  supper  they  kept  the  memorial  of  Christ's  triumph 


(8)  Tertullian,  Apologeticum,  cap.  39. 

(9)  [That  other  religious  books,  besides 
the  canonical  scriptures,  were  read  in  several 
churches,  appears  from  Eusebius,  Hist.  Ec- 
cles.,  lib.  iv.,  23,  and  iii.,  3,  who  informs  us, 
that  the  first  Epistle  of  Clement,  and  that  of 
Soter,  bishops  of  Rome,  were  publicly  read  in 
the  church  of  Corinth  ;  as  was  the  Shepherd 
of  Hermas,  in  very  many  churches. —  TV.] 

(10)  [Pliny,  (Epistolar.,  1.   x.,    ep.    97), 
gives  some  account  of  the  public  worship  of 
the  Christians,  in  the  beginning  of  this  cen- 
tury :  and  Justin  Martyr,  near  the  close  of 
that  Apology  which  he  presented  to  Antoni- 
nus Pius,  A.D.  150,  gives  the  following  more 
full  and  authentic  account :   "  On   the  day 
which  is  called  Sunday,  all,  whether  dwelling 
in  the  towns  or  in  the  villages,  hold  meet- 
ings ;  and  the  Memoires  (cnrouvvfiOveiiuaTa) 
of  the   apostles,    and   the  writings   of  the 
prophets,  are  read,  as  much  as  the  time  will 
permit ;  then,  the  reader  closing,  the  Presi- 
dent in  a  speech,  exhorts  and  excites  to  an 
imitation  of  those  excellent  examples  ;  then 
we  all  rise,  and  pour  forth  united  prayers  ; 
and  when  we  close  our  prayer,  as  was  before 
said,  bread  is  brought  forward,  and  wine,  and 
water  ;  and  the  President  utters  prayers  and 
thanksgivings,  according  to  his  ability,  (OCTT; 
tvvu.fj.if  dvrw),  and  the  people  respond,  by 
saying  amen  ;  and  a  distribution  and   parti- 
cipation of  the  things  blessed,  takes  place  to 
each  one  present,  and  to  those  absent,  it  is 
sent  by  the  Deacons.     And  those  who  are 


prosperous  and  willing,  give  what  they 
choose,  each  according  to  his  own  pleasure  ; 
and  what  is  collected,  is  deposited  with  the 
President ;  and  he  carefully  relieves  the  or- 
phans and  widows,  and  those  who  from  sick- 
ness or  other  causes  are  needy,  and  also  those 
in  _prison,  and  the  strangers  that  are  residing 
with  us,  and  in  short,  all  that  have  need  of 
help.  We  all  commonly  hold  our  assemblies 
on  Sunday,  because  it  is  the  first  day  on 
which  God  converted  the  darkness  and  mat- 
ter, and  framed  the  world  ;  and  Jesus  Christ 
our  Saviour,  on  the  same  day,  arose  from  the 
dead." — Justin  makes  no  mention  here  of 
sin»hi!T,  as  a  part  of  the  public  worship  of 
Christians.  But  Pliny  in  his  Epistle  assures 
us ;  "  Quod  essent  soliti  stato  die  ante  lucem 
convenire  ;  carmcnyue  Christo,  quasi  Deo, 
dicere  sccum  invicem:''  and  both  the  N. 
Testament,  and  all  antiquity,  recognise  sing- 
ing as  a  part  of  Christian  worship. — TV.] 

*  [Dr.  Mosheim  seems  to  say,  that  all 
Christians  agreed  in  observing  the  entire 
week  preceding  Easter  Sunday  as  a  fast. 
But  there  was  in  fact  great  diversity  among 
them.  For  Ircnteus,  in  his  Epistle  to  Victor, 
bp.  of  Rome,  (quoted  by  Eusebius,  H.  E., 
v.  24),  says  expressly  :  "  There  is  dispute 
not  only  respecting  the  day,  but  also  respect- 
ing the  form  (£t<5«c)  of  the  feast.  For  some 
think  they  ought  to  fast  one  day,  others  tiro 
days,  others  still  more,  and  some  limit  their 
fast  to  twenty-four  hours  diurnal  and  noctur- 
nal." See  Valetius,  notes  in  locum. — TV.] 


136  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  IV. 

over  death,  or  of  his  resurrection.  This  custom,  they  said  they  had  re- 
ceived from  the  apostles  John  and  Philip ;  and  they  moreover  supported 
it  by  the  example  of  Christ  himself,  who  celebrated  his  paschal  feast,  at 
the  same  time  with  the  Jews.  But  the  other  Christians  put  off  their 
Passover,  that  is,  their  paschal  feast,  until  the  evening  preceding  the  festal 
day  sacred  to  Christ's  resurrection,  [or  Saturday  evening],  and  thus  con- 
nected the  memorial  of  Christ's  death,  with  that,  of  his  resurrection.  And 
they  cited  Peter  and  Paul  as  authors  of  their  custom. 

§  10.  The  Asiatic  custom  of  celebrating  Easter,  had  two  great  incon- 
veniences, which  appeared  intolerable  to  the  other  Christians,  and  espe- 
cially to  the  Romans.  First,  by  holding  their  sacred  feasts  on  the  very 
day,  on  which  they  supposed  Christ  ate  the  paschal  lamb  with  his  disci- 
ples, they  interrupted  the  fast  of  the  great  week ;  which  appeared  to  the 
other  Christians  to  fall  little  short  of  a  crime.  Again,  as  they  always 
kept  the  memorial  of  Christ's  rising  from  the  dead,  on  the  third  day  after 
their  paschal  supper,  it  unavoidably  happened,  that  they  more  commonly 
kept,  on  some  other  day  of  the  week  than  the  first  or  Sunday,  called  the 
Lord's  day,  the  festival  of  Christ's  resurrection,  which  in  after  times  was 
called  and  is  now  called  the  Passover  or  Easter.  Now  the  greater  part  of 
the  Christians  deemed  it  wrong  to  consecrate  any  other  day  than  the 
Lord's  day,  in  remembrance  of  Christ's  resurrection.  Hence  great  con- 
tention frequently  arose  from  this  difference  between  the  Asiatic  and  the 
other  Christians.  In  the  reign  of  Antoninus  Pius,  about  the  middle  of 
this  century,  A.nicetus  bishop  of  Rome,  and  Polycarp  bishop  of  Smyrna, 
investigated  this  subject  with  great  care  at  Rome.  But  the  Asiatics 
could  not  be  induced  by  any  considerations,  to  give  up  their  custom,  which 
they  believed  to  be  handed  down  to  them  from  St.  John.(ll) 

§  11.  Near  the  close  of  the  century,  Victor  bishop  of  Rome,  was  of 
opinion  that  the  Asiatic  Christians  ought  to  be  compelled  by  laws  and  de- 
crees, to  follow  the  rule  adopted  by  the  greater  part  of  the  Christian  world. 
Accordingly,  after  ascertaining  the  opinions  of  foreign  bishops,  he  sent  an 
imperious  letter  to  the  Asiatic  bishops  admonishing  them  to  follow  the 
example  of  other  Christians  in  observing  Easter.  They  replied  with 
spirit,  by  Polycrates  bishop  of  Ephesus,  that  they  would  not  depart  from 
the  holy  institution  of  their  ancestors.  Irritated  by  this  decision,  Victor 
excluded  them  from  his  communion,  and  from  that  of  his  church,  (not 
from  that  of  the  universal  church,  which  he  had  not  power  to  do),  that  is, 
he  pronounced  them  unworthy  to  be  called  his  brethren.  The  progress 
of  this  schism  was  checked  by  IrencBus  bishop  of  Lyons,  in  letters  wisely 
composed,  which  he  directed  to  Victor  and  others,  and  by  the  Asiatic  bish- 
ops, who  wrote  a  long  letter  in  their  own  justification.  And  thus  both  par- 
ties retained  their  respective  customs,  until  the  council  of  Nice,  in  the 
fourth  century,  abrogated  the  Asiatic  usages. (12) 

(11)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  iv.,  c.  he  treats  of  the  controversy  indeed,  but  he 
14,  and  1.  v.,  c.  24.  misunderstood  the  precise  subject  of  it. — • 

(12)  What  is  here  stated  briefly,  is  more  The  venerable  Heumann's  tract  on  this  con- 
fully  explained  in  my  Comment,  de  Rebus  troversy,  is  republished  in  the  Sylloge  of  his 

'  Christianor.  ante  Constantinum  M.,  p.  435,  minor  works. — [Dr.  Moshcim  thinks  the  true 

&.c.     I  there  said,  p.  439,  that  Peter  Faydit  statement  of  this  controversy  is  that  which 

saw  the  mistake  in  the  common  accounts  of  he  has  given ;  and  that  many  writers  have 

this  controversy.     But   my  memory  failed  mistaken  the  points  at  issue,  from  not  dis- 

me.     On  consulting  the  book,  I  find,  that  tinguishing  between   the   ancient  and  the 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 


137 


§  12.  When  the  Christians  celebrated  the  Lord's  supper,  which  they 
were  accustomed  to  do  chiefly  on  Sundays,  they  consecrated  a  part  of  the 
bread  and  wine  of  the  oblations,  by  certain  prayers  pronounced  by  the 
president,  the  bishop  of  the  congregation.  The  wine  was  mixed  with 
water,  and  the  bread  was  divided  into  small  pieces.  Portions  of  the  con- 
secrated bread  and  wine  were  commonly  sent  to  the  absent  and  the  sick, 
in  testimony  of  fraternal  affection  towards  them. (13)  There  is  much  evi- 
dence that  this  most  holy  rite  was  regarded  as  very  necessary  to  the  attain- 
ment of  salvation  :  and  1  therefore  dare  not  accuse  of  error,  those  who  be- 
lieve that  the  sacred  supper  was,  in  this  century,  given  to  infants. (14) 
Of  the  love-feasts,  the  notice  before  given,  may  be  sufficient. 

§  13.  Twice  a  year,  namely,  at  Easter  and  Whtteuntide,(l5)  (Pascha- 
tis  et  Pentecostis  diebus),  baptism  was  publicly  administered  by  the  bishop, 
or  by  the  presbyters  acting  by  his  command  and  authority.  The  candidates 
for  it  were  immersed  wholly  in  water,  with  invocation  of  the  sacred  Trin- 
ity, according  to  the  Saviour's  precept,  after  they  had  repeated  what  they 
called  the  Creed,  (Symboluni},  and  had  renounced  all  their  sins  and  trans- 
gressions, and  especially  the  devil  and  his  pomp.  The  baptized  were 
signed  with  the  cross,  anointed,  commended  to  God  by  prayer  and  impo- 
sition of  hands,  and  finally  directed  to  taste  some  milk  and  honey. (1 6) 
The  reasons  for  these  ceremonies,  must  be  sought  in  what  has  already 
been  said  respecting  the  causes  of  the  ceremonies.  Adults  were  to  pre- 
pare their  minds  expressly,  by  prayers,  fasting,  and  other  devotional  exer- 
cises. Sponsors  or  godfathers  were,  as  I  apprehend,  first  employed  for 
adults,  and  afterwards  for  children  likewise.(17) 


more  modem  application  of  the  term  Pass- 
over or  Easter. — See  Eusclnus,  H.  E.,  v., 
c.  23,  24.  Socrates,  H.  E.,  v.,  c.  22.  A. 
Neander.  Kirchengesch.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  517,  &c. 
H.  Pridcaux,  Connexions,  pt.  ii.,  b.  v.,  ann. 
162.  Adr.  Baillet,  Histoire  des  Festes,  p. 
9,  &.c.— Tr.-\ 

( 13)  See  Henry  Rixner,  de  Ritibus  vete- 
rum  Christianor.  circa  Eucharistiam,  p.  155, 
&c.,  [and  the  quotation  from  Justin  Martyr, 
in  note  10  of  this  chapter. —  Jr.] 

(14)  See  Jo.  Fr.  Mayer,  Diss.  de  eucha- 
ristia  infantum  ;  and  Peter  Zornius,  Histo- 
ria  eucharistise  infantum,  Berol.,  1736,  8vo. 

(15)  See    W.    Wall,   History   of  infant 
Baptism,  vol.,  i.,  p.  277,  279,  of  the  Latin 
edition  by  Schlosscr:  Jos.  Vicecomes,  de  Riti- 
bus baptism!,  Paris,  1618,  8vo. 

(16)  See  especially,  Tertnliian,  de  Bap- 
tismo,  [and  respecting  the  honey  and  milk, 
Tertullian,  de  Corona,  c.  3 ;  and   Clemens 
Alex.,  Paedaa.,  1.  i.,  c.  6.— Schl.] 

(17)  See  Ger.  van  Mustncht,  de  Suscep- 
toribus    infantium    ex    baptismo,    edit.    2d, 
Frankf.,  1727,  4to.    He  thinks  sponsors  were 
used  for  children,  and  not  for  adults  ;  p.  15. 
See  also  W.  H'«//,  Hist,  of  infant  Baptism, 
vol.  i.,  p.  69,  474,  &c. — [The    manner  of 
receiving  new  converts  into  the  churches, 
about  the  year  150,    is  thus  minutely    de- 
Bcribed  by  Justin  Martyr,  in  his  (so  called) 

VOL.  L— S 


second  Apology,  towards  the  conclusion. 
"  In  what  manner  we  dedicate  ourselves  to 
God,  after  being  renewed  by  Christ,  we  will 
now  explain  ;  lest  by  omitting  this,  we  should 
seem  to  dissemble  in  our  statement.  Those 
who  believe  and  are  persuaded,  that  the  things 
we  teach  and  inculcate  are  true,  and  who 
profess  ability  thus  to  live,  are  directed  to 
pray,  with  fasting,  and  to  ask  of  God  the 
forgiveness  of  their  former  sins ;  we  also 
fasting  and  praying  with  them.  Then  we 
conduct  them  to  a  place  where  there  is 
water ;  and  they  are  regenerated  [baptized], 
in  the  manner  in  which  we  have  been  re- 
generated [baptized] ;  for  they  receive  a 
washing  with  water,  in  the  name  of  the 
Father  of  all,  the  Lord  God,  and  of  our 
Saviour,  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  For  Christ  said  ;  Except  ye  be  re- 
generated, ye  shall  not  enter  into  the  king- 
dom of  heaven." — "  This  washing  is  likewise 
called  illumination ;  because  the  minds  of 
those  who  have  learned  these  things,  are  en- 
lightened. And  whoever  is  enlightened,  is 
washed  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  who 
was  crucified  under  Pontius  Pilate ;  and  in 
the  name  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  by  the 
prophets  foretold  all  that  relates  to  Christ." 
— "  And  after  thus  washing  the  convinced 
and  consenting  person,  we  conduct  him  to 
where  the  brethren  as  we  call  them  are  as- 


138  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


CHAPTER  V. 

HISTORY    OF    RELIGIOUS    SEPARATIONS    OR    HERESIES. 

$  1.  Discord  among  the  Jewish  Christians. — $  2.  Hence  the  Nazareans  and  Ebionites. — 
§  3.  Their  Impiety. — §  4.  The  Sects  originating  from  the  Oriental  Philosophy. — ()  5. 
Elxai  and  Elcesaites. — $  6.  Saturninus  ;  his  Extravagances. — §  7.  Cerdo  and  Marcion. 
— $  8.  Bardesanes. — §  9.  Tatian  and  the  Encratites. — <J  10.  Peculiar  Sentiments  of  the 
Egyptian  Gnostics. — §  11.  Basilides. — <J  12.  His  Enormities. — ()  13.  His  Moral  Princi- 
ples.— $  14.  Carpocrates. — §  15.  Valentinus. — §  16.  His  Extravagances. — §  17.  Vari- 
ous Sects  of  Valentinians. — ()  18.  The  minor  Sects  of  Valentinians. — f)  19.  The  Ophites. 
— §  20.  Monarchians  and  Patripassians. — §  21.  Theodotus,  Artemon. — I)  22.  Hermoge- 
nes. — §  23.  The  illiterate  Sects.  Montanus. — §  24.  The  Success  of  Montanus,  and 
his  Doctrine. 

§  1.  AMONG  the  Christian  sects  that  arose  in  this  century,  the  first  place 
is  due  to  those  Jewish  Christians,  whose  zeal  for  the  Mosaic  law  severed 
them  from  the  other  believers  in  Christ. (I)  The  rise  of  this  sect  took 
place  in  the  reign  of  Adrian.  For,  when  this  emperor  had  wholly  destroyed 
Jerusalem  a  second  time,  and  had  enacted  severe  laws  against  the  Jews,  the 
greater  part  of  the  Christians  living  in  Palestine,  that  they  might  not  be 
confounded  with  Jews  as  they  had  been,  laid  aside  the  Mosaic  ceremonies, 
and  chose  one  Mark,  who  was  a  foreigner  and  not  a  Jew,  for  their  bishop. 
This  procedure  was  very  offensive  to  those  among  them,  whose  attach- 
ment to  the  Mosaic  rites  was  too  strong  to  be  eradicated.  They  therefore 
separated  from  their  brethren,  and  formed  a  distinct  society  in  Peraea,  a 
part  of  Palestine,  and  in  the  neighbouring  regions  ;  and  among  them,  the 
Mosaic  law  retained  all  its  dignity  unimpaired. (2) 

sembled  ;  and  there  offer  our  united  suppli-  partake  of  the  bread  and  the  wine  and  water, 

cations,  with  earnestness,  both  for  ourselves  over  which  thanks  were  given  :  and  to  those 

and  for  the  enlightened  person,  and  for  all  not  present,  the  Deacons  carry  it.     And  this 

others  every  where  ;  that  we  may  conduct  food  is  called  by  us  the  Eucharist ;  which  it 

ourselves  as  becomes  those  who   have   re-  is  unlawful  for  any  one  to  partake  of,  unless 

ceived  the  truth,  and  by  our  deeds  prove  '  he  believes  the  things  taught  by  us  to  be 

ourselves   good  citizens,   and   observers  of  true,  and  has  been  washed  with  the  washing 

what  is  commanded  us  ;   so  that  we  may  be  for  the  remission  of  sins  in  regeneration,  and 

saved   with  an  eternal  salvation.     And  on  lives  according  to  what  Christ  has  taught." 

ending  our  prayers,  we  salute   each  other  — TV.] 

with  a  kiss.     Then,  there  is  placed  before  (1)  [The  origin,  names,  and  diversity  of 

the  President  of  the  brethren,  bread,  and  a  opinion,  of  this  class  of  sects,  are  well  stated 

cup  of  water  and  wine  ;   which  he  taking,  by  A.  Neartder,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  i.,  part 

offers  praise  and  glory  to  the  Father  of  all,  ii.,  p.  603-626. — TV.] 

through  the  name  of  the  Son  and  of  the  (2)  See  Sulpitius  Scverus,  Historia  sacra, 

Holy  Spirit,  and  gives  thanks  at  great  length,  1.  ii ,  c.  31,  p.  245,  &c.,  [p.  381,  ed.  Hornii, 

that  such  blessings  are  vouchsafed  us  ;   and  1647.     He  says  :   "  Adrian  stationed  a  re- 

when  he  ends  the  prayers  and  the  thanks-  giment  of  soldiers  as  a  constant  guard,  to 

giving,  all  the  people  present  respond,  amen,  prevent  all  Jews  from  entering  Jerusalem  ; 

Now  the  word  amen,  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  which  was   advantageous  to  the  Christian 

signifies  so  be  it.     And  after  the  President  faith ;  because,  at  that  time,  nearly  all  [the 

has  given  thanks,  and  all  the  people  have  ut-  Jewish    Christians]  believed  in    Christ  as 

tered  the   response,   those  whom  we   call  God,  yet  with  an  observance  of  the  Law." — 

Deacons,  distribute  to  every  one  present,  to  Tr.  ] 


SCHISMS  AND  HERESIES.  139 

§  2.  This  body  of  people  who  would  unite  Moses  and  Christ,  was  again 
divided  into  two  classes,  differing  widely  in  their  opinions  and  customs,  the 
Nazareans  and  the  Ebionites.  The  former  are  not  reckoned,  by  the  an- 
cient Christians,  among  heretics  ;(3)  but  the  latter  are  placed  among  those 
sects  which  subverted  the  foundations  of  religion.  Both  sects  used  a  his- 
tory of  Christ  or  a  Gospel,  which  was  different  from  our  Gospels.(4)  The 
word  Nazarean  was  not  the  name  of  a  sect,  but  was  equivalent  to  the  word 
Christian.  For  those  who  bore  the  title  of  Christians  among  the  Greeks, 
were  among  the  Jews  called  Nazareans ;  and  they  did  not  esteem  it  a 
name  of  disgrace.  Those  who  after  their  separation  from  their  brethren, 
retained  this  original  name  imposed  on  the  disciples  of  Christ  by  the 
Jews,  believed  Christ  to  be  born  of  a  virgin,  and  to  be  in  some  way  united 
with  the  divine  nature.  And  although  they  would  not  discard  the  ceremo- 
nies prescribed  by  Moses,  yet  they  would  not  obtrude  them  upon  the  Gen- 
tile Christians.  They  moreover  rejected  the  additions  to  the  Mosaic 
ritual,  made  by  the  doctors  of  the  law  and  by  the  Pharisees. (5)  It  is 
therefore  easy  to  see,  why  the  other  Christians  in  general  judged  more 
favourably  of  them. 

§  3.  Whether  the  Ebionites  derived  their  name  from  a  man  [called 
Ebiori\,  or  were  so  denominated  on  account  of  their  poverty  either  in  re- 
gard to  property  or  sentiment,  is  uncertain. (6)  But  they  were  much  worse 
than  the  Nazareans.  For  though  they  supposed  Christ  to  be  an  ambas- 
sador of  God  and  endowed  with  divine  power,  yet  they  conceived  him  to 
be  a  man,  born  in  the  ordinary  course  of  nature,  the  son  of  Joseph  and 
Mary.  They  maintained  that  the  ceremonial  law  of  Mows  must  be  ob- 
served, not  by  the  Jews  only,  but  by  all  who  wished  to  obtain  salvation ; 
and  therefore,  St.  Paul,  that  strenuous  opposer  of  the  law,  they  viewed 
with  abhorrence.  Nor  were  they  satisfied  with  the  mere  rites  which 
Moses  appointed,  but  observed  with  equal  veneration  the  superstitious 
rites  of  their  ancestors,  and  the  customs  of  the  Pharisees  which  were  ad- 
ded to  the  law. (7) 

(3)  The  first  that  ranked  the  Nazareans         (6)  See  Falricius,  ad  Philastr.  de  haeresi- 
among    the    heretics,    was    Epiphanius,    a  bus,  p.  81.      Thorn.  Ittig,  de  hseresibus  aevi 
writer   of  the  fourth  century,  of  no   great  Apostolici,  [also  note  (22)  on  cent,  i.,  part 
fidelity,  or  accuracy  of  judgment.     [.4.  Ne-  ii.,  ch.  v.,  p.  96,  and  A.  Ncandcr,  Kirchen- 
ander,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  i.,  part  ii.,  p.  619,  gesch.,  vol.  i.,  part  ii.,  p.  612,  &c. — Tr.] 
620,  thinks   the  Nazareans,   described   by         (7)  Irenaus,  contra  Haereses,  lib.  i.,  cap. 
Epiphanius,  were  descendants  of  the  Ebi-  26.     Epiphanius  treats  largely  of  the  Ebi- 
onites,  who  had  now  imbibed  some  Gnostic  onites,  in  his  Panarium,  haeres.  xxx.     But 
principles.     The  names  Ebionites  and  A'a:-  he  is  worthy  of  no  credit  ;  for  he  acknowl- 
areans   are  often  confounded,  both  by  an-  edges,  ($  3,  p.  127,  and  §  14,  p.  141),  that 
cients  and  moderns. — Tr.]  he  has  joined  the  Sampsacans  and  the  El- 

(4)  See  J.  A.  Falririus,  Codex  Apoc-  ccsaites  with  the  Ebionites,  and  thai  the  first 
ryph.  N.  T.,  torn,  i.,  p.  355,  &c.,  and  Mo-  Ebionites  did  not  hold  the  errors  which  he 
sheim,  Vindicine,  contra  Tolandi  Nazarenurn,  attributes  to  the  sects. — [The  correctness  of 
p.  112,  &c.     [Jones,  on  the  Canon  of  the  Epiphanius,  as  a  historian,  is  often  called  in 
New  Test.,  vol.  i.,  and  the  authors  of  Intro-  question  ;    and  perhaps  justly.     But  if  the 
ductions  to  the  New  Test. — 2V.]  term  Elrionites  designated  a  variety  of  minor 

(5)  See  Mich,  le  Quien,  Adnotatt.  ad  Da-  sects,  all  of  them  Jewish  Christians  ;  and  if 
mascenum,  torn,  i.,  p.  82,  83,  and  his  Diss.  some  of  these  sects  had,  in  the  4th  century, 
de  Nazarenis  et  eorum  fide  ;  which  is  the  imbibed  Gnostic  sentiments,  unknown  to  the 
7th  of  his  dissertations  subjoined  to  his  edi-  original    Ebionites  ;    then  Epiphanius  may 
tion  of  the  Works  of  Damascenus.     [  C.  W.  here  be  entirely  correct ;  which  others  sup- 
F.  Walch,  Historie  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  i.,  pose  to  be  the  fact.     See  Ncander,  as  cited 
p.  101,  &c.— ScU.1  above,  note  (3).— TV.] 


140     BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

§  4.  These  little  and  obscure  sects  were  not  very  detrimental  "to  the 
Christian  cause.  Much  greater  disturbance  was  produced  by  those,  whose 
founders  explained  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  agreeably  to  the  precepts 
of  the  Oriental  philosophy  in  regard  to  the  origin  of  evil.  These  lat- 
ter sects,  concealed  and  unnoticed  previously  to  this  century,  came  forth 
from  their  obscurity  during  the  reign  of  Adrian, (8)  and  gathered  churches 
of  considerable  magnitude  in  various  countries.  A  long  catalogue  of  these 
semi-Christian  sects,  might  be  gathered  out  of  the  writings  of  the  ancients  : 
but  of  the  greater  part  of  them,  we  know  no  more  than  their  names  ;  and 
perhaps  some  of  them  differed  only  in  name,  from  each  oiher.  Those 
which  acquired  notoriety  beyond  others,  may  be  divided  into  two  classes. 
The  first  class  originated  in  Asia,  and  maintained  the  philosophy  of  the 
East  in  regard  to  the  origin  of  the  universe,  (if  I  may  so  say),  pure  and 
uncorrupt;  the  other  class,  founded  among  the  Egyptians,  and  by  Egyp- 
tians, mingled  with  that  philosophy  many  monstrous  opinions  and  princi- 
ples current  in  Egypt.  The  systems  of  the  former  were  more  simple 
and  intelligible  ;  those  of  the  latter  were  much  more  complicated,  and  more 
difficult  of  explication. 

§  5.  In  the  Asiatic  class,  the  first  place  seems  to  belong  to  Elxai,  a  Jew, 
who  is  said  to  have  founded  the  sect  of  the  Elcesaites  in  the  reign  of  Tra- 
jan. Though  he  was  a  Jew,  and  both  worshipped  one  God  and  revered 
Moses ;  yet  he  corrupted  the  religion  of  his  fathers  by  many  false  notions 
derived  from  the  philosophy  and  superstition  of  the  Orientals,  and,  after 
the  example  of  the  Essenes,  expounded  the  Mosaic  law  according  to  rea- 
son, or  in  other  words,  made  it  an  allegory.  But  Epiphanius,  who  had 
read  one  of  Elxafs  books,  acknowledges  himself  in  doubt  whether  the  El- 
cesaites should  be  reckoned  among  the  Christian  sects,  or  among  the  Jew- 
ish. Elxai  mentions  Christ  in  his  book,  and  speaks  honourably  of  him  ; 
but  he  does  not  add  enough  to  make  it  manifest,  whether  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth was  the  Christ  of  whom  he  speaks.  (9) 

§  6.  If  Elxai  be  not  reckoned,  Saturninus  of  Antioch  will  justly  stand 
at  the  head  of  this  class  ;  at  least  he  lived  earlier  than  all  the  other  Gnos- 
tic heresiarchs,  [having  taught  his  doctrine  in  the  reign  of  Adrian. — TV.] 
He  supposed  two  first  causes  of  all  things,  the  good  God,  and  matter ;  the 
latter,  evil  in  its  nature,  and  subject  to  a  Lord.  The  world  and  the  first 
men  were  created  by  seven  angels — that  is,  by  the  rulers  of  the  seven  plan- 
ets, without  the  knowledge  of  God,  and  against  the  will  of  the  lord  of  mat- 
ter. But  God  approved  of  the  work  when  it  was  completed,  imparted  ra- 
tional souls  to  the  men  who  before  had  only  animal  life,  and  divided  the 
entire  world  into  seven  parts,  which  he  subjected  to  the  seven  creators,  of 
whom  the  God  of  the  Jews  was  one,  reserving  however  the  supreme  pow- 
er to  himself.  To  these  good  men — that  is,  men  possessed  of  wise  and  good 
souls,  the  Lord  of  matter  opposed  another  sort  of  men,  to  whom  he  imparted 
a  malignant  soul.  And  hence  the  great  difference  between  good  and  bad 
men.  After  the  creators  of  the  world  had  revolted  from  the  supreme  God, 

(8)  Clemens  Alex.,  Stromat,  1.   vii.,  c.  [Of  these  Elcesaites,  who  were  also  called 
17,  p.  898.      Cyprian,  epist.  Ixxv.,  p.  144,  Sampsaeans,  every  thing  afforded  by  antiqui- 
and  others.  ty,  that  is  important,  has  been  collected  by 

(9)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  vi.,  c.  38.  C.  W.  F.  Watch,  Historie  der  Ketzereyen, 
Epiphanius,  Haeres.  xix.,  §  3,  p.  41.     The-  vol.    i.,   p.  587,  dec.     He  justly  accounts 
odoret,  Fabul.  haeret.,  lib.  ii.,  c.  7,  p.  221.  them  enthusiasts. — Schl.] 


SCHISMS  AND  HERESIES.  141 

he  sent  down  Christ  from  heaven,  clothed,  not  with  a  real  body,  but  with 
the  shadow  of  one,  that  in  our  world  he  might  destroy  the  kingdom  of  the 
Lord  of  matter,  and  point  out  to  the  good  souls  the  way  of  returning  back  to 
God.  But  this  way  is  a  hard  and  difficult  one.  For  the  souls  that  would 
ascend  to  God  after  the  dissolution  of  the  body,  must  abstain  from  flesh, 
wine,  marriage,  and  from  all  things  which  either  exhilarate  the  body  or  de- 
light the  senses. — Saturninus  taught  in  Syria,  which  was  his  native  coun- 
try, and  especially  at  Antioch  ;  and  he  drew  many  after  him,  by  his  great 
show  of  virtue.(lO) 

fy  7.  In  the  same  class  of  Asiatic  Gnostics,  must  be  placed  Cerdo,  a 
Syrian,  and  Marcion,  the  son  of  a  bishop  of  Pontus.  The  history  of  these 
men  is  obscure  and  uncertain.  It  appears,  however,  that  they  first  began  to 
found  their  sect  at  Rome ;  that  Cerdo  taught  his  principles  there  before 
the  arrival  of  Marcion ;  that  Marcion,  failing  to  obtain  some  office  in  the 
church  at  Rome  in  consequence  of  some  misconduct,  went  over  to  the 
party  of  Cerdo,  and  with  great  success  they  propagated  their  tenets  over 
the  world.  In  the  manner  of  the  Orientals,  Marcion  taught  that  there  are 
two  first  causes  of  all  things,  the  one  perfectly  good,  the  other  perfectly  evil. 
Intermediate  between  these  two  deities,  ranks  the  Architect  of  this  lower 
world,  whom  men  worship,  and  who  was  the  God  and  the  Lawgiver  of  the 
Jews :  for  he  is  neither  perfectly  good  nor  perfectly  evil,  but  of  a  mixed 
nature,  or,  as  Marcion  expressed  it,  he  is  just ;  and  therefore  he  can  dis- 
pense punishments,  as  well  as  rewards.  The  evil  Deity  and  the  Creator 
of  the  world  are  perpetually  at  war.  Each  wishes  to  be  worshipped  as 
God,  end  to  subject  the  inhabitants  of  the  whole  world  to  himself.  The 
Jews  are  the  subjects  of  the  Creator  of  the  world,  who  is  a  very  powerful 
spirit  or  demon  ;  the  other  nations,  which  worship  many  gods,  are  subjects 
of  the  evil  deity.  Each  is  an  oppressor  of  rational  souls,  and  holds  them 
in  bondage.  In  order  therefore  to  put  an  end  to  this  war,  and  to  give  free- 
dom to  human  souls  which  are  of  divine  origin,  the  Supreme  God  sent 
among  the  Jews  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  very  similar  to  himself  in  nature,  or 
his  Son,  clothed  with  the  appearance  or  shadow  of  a  body,  which  would 
render  him  visible ;  with  commission  to  destroy  both  the  kingdom  of  the 
world's  Creator  and  that  of  the  evil  deity,  and  to  invite  souls  back  to  God. 
He  was  assailed  both  by  the  prince  of  darkness  [the  evil  deity],  and  by 
the  God  of  the  Jews,  or  the  world's  Creator  ;  but  they  were  unable  to  hurt 
him,  because  he  had  only  the  appearance  of  a  body.  Whoever  will  ab- 
stract their  minds  from  all  sensible  objects,  according  to  his  prescriptions, 
and,  renouncing  as  well  the  laws  of  the  God  of  the  Jews  as  those  of  the 
prince  of  darkness,  will  turn  wholly  to  the  supreme  God,  and  at  the  same 
time  subdue  and  mortify  their  bodies  by  fasting  and  other  means,  shall,  after 
death,  ascend  to  the  celestial  mansions.  The  moral  discipline  which  Mar- 
don  prescribed  to  his  followers  was,  as  the  nature  of  the  system  required, 
very  austere  and  rigorous.  For  he  condemned  marriages,  wine,  flesh,  and 
whatever  is  grateful  and  pleasant  to  the  body. — Marcion  had  numerous  fol- 

(10)  Ircnaus,  1.  i.,  c.  24.     Euscb.,  Hist.  Historie  der  Ketzereyen,vol.  i.,  p.  274,  &c. 

Eccl.,  1.  iv.,  c.  7.     Epiphan.,  Haeres.  xxiii.  lit  iff,    de    Haeresiarch.    saecul.    ii.,   c.    1. 

Theodoret,  Fabul.  haeret.,  1.  i.,  c.  2,  and  the  Tillcmont,  Memoires  pour  servir  a  I'histoire 

other  writers  on  the  heresies.     [Among  the  de  1'Eglise,  torn,  ii.,  p.  215,  and  A.  Nran- 

modern   writers,    see    Mosheim,    de    Reb.  dcr,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  i.,pt.  ii.,  p.  759,  <kc. 

Christ.,  &c.,  p.  336,  &c.     C.  W.  F.  Walch,  —Tr.} 


142      BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

lowers  ;  among  whom  Lucan,  or  Lucian,  Severus,  Blastes,  and  others,  but 
especially  Appelles,  are  said  to  have  deviated  in  some  respects  from  the 
opinions  of  iheir  master,  and  to  have  established  new  sects.(ll) 

§  8.  Bardesanes  and  Tatian  are  commonly  supposed  to  have  been  of 
the  school  of  Valentinus  the  Egyptian,  but  erroneously ;  for  their  sys- 
tems differ  in  many  respects  from  that  of  the  Valentinians,  and  come 
nearer  to  the  Oriental  principle  of  two  first  causes  of  all  things.  Barde- 
sanes was  a  Syrian  of  Edessa,  a  man  of  great  acumen,  and  distinguished 
for  his  many  learned  productions.  Seduced  by  his  attachment  to  the  Ori- 
ental philosophy,  he  placed  in  opposition  to  the  supreme  God  who  is  ab- 
solute goodness,  a  prince  of  darkness  who  is  the  author  of  all  evil.  The 
supreme  God  created  the  world  free  from  all  evil,  and  formed  men  possess- 
ed of  celestial  souls  and  of  subtile,  ethereal  bodies.  But  when  the  prince 
of  darkness  had  induced  those  first  men  to  sin,  God  permitted  the  author 
of  all  evil  to  invest  men  with  gross  bodies  formed  out  of  sinful  matter,  and 
also  to  corrupt  the  world,  in  order  that  men  might  suffer  for  the  iniquity 
they  had  committed.  Hence  the  struggle  between  reason  and  concupis- 
cence in  man.  Jesus  therefore  descended  from  the  celestial  regions, 
clothed  not  with  a  real  but  with  a  celestial  and  ethereal  body,  and  taught 
men  to  subdue  their  depraved  bodies,  and  to  free  themselves  from  the 
bondage  of  vicious  matter,  by  means  of  abstinence,  meditation,  and  fast- 
ing ;  and  whoever  will  do  so,  shall  on  the  dissolution  of  the  body  ascend 
to  the  mansions  of  the  blessed,  clothed  in  their  ethereal  vehicles  or  their 
celestial  bodies.  Bardesanes  himself  afterwards  returned  to  sounder  sen- 
timents ;  but  his  sect  long  survived  in  Syria. (12) 

§  9.  Tatian,  by  birth  an  Assyrian,  a  distinguished  and  learned  man, 
and  disciple  of  Justin  Martyr,  was  more  noted  among  the  ancients  for  his 
austere  moral  principles,  which  were  rigid  beyond  measure,  than  for 
the  speculative  errors  or  dogmas  which  he  proposed  as  articles  of  faith  to 
his  followers.  Yet  it  appears  from  credible  witnesses,  that  he  held  mat' 
ter  to  be  the  source  of  all  evil,  and  therefore  recommended  the  abhorrence 
and  the  mortification  of  the  body  ;  that  he  supposed  the  Creator  of  the 
world  and  the  true  God  were  not  one  and  the  same  being ;  that  he  denied 
to  our  Saviour  a  real  body ;  and  corrupted  Christianity  with  other  doc- 
trines of  the  Oriental  philosophers.  His  followers,  who  were  numerous, 
were  sometimes  called  from  him,  Tatiani  or  Tatianists ;  but.  more  fre- 
quently they  were  designated  by  names  indicative  of  their  austere  morals. 
For,  as  they  discarded  all  the  external  comforts  and  conveniences  of  life, 
and  held  wine  in  such  abhorrence  as  to  use  mere  water  in  the  Lord's  sup- 
per, fasted  rigorously,  and  lived  in  celibacy ;  they  were  denominated 

(11)  Besides  the  common  writers  on  the  ander,  Kirchengeschichte,  vol.  i.,  pt.  ii.,  p. 

heresies,  as  Irerueus,  Epiphanius,  Theodo-  779-807. — Tr.J 

ret,  &c.,  see  Tertulliari's  five  Books  against        (12)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  iv.,  c.  30, 

Marcion  ;  and  the  Poem   against  Marcion,  and  the  writers  on  the  ancient  heresies.     Or- 

also  in   five  Books,   which  is   ascribed  to  igen,  Dial,  contra  Marcionitas,  1)  3,  p.  70,  ed. 

Tertullian;    and  the  Dialogue  against  the  Wetstein.     Fred.  Strunzius,  Historia  Bar- 

Marcionites,  which   is  ascribed  to  Origen.  desanis  et  Bardesanistar.     Wittemb.,  1722, 

Among  the  modern  writers,  see  Massuet,  the  4to.    Beausobre,  Hist,  du  Manicheisme,  vol. 

editor  of  Irenaeus  ;  Tillemont ;  Is.  de  Beau-  ii.,  p.  128,  dec.     [Moshcim,  de  Reb.  Christ., 

sobre,  Histoire  du  Manicheisme,  torn,  ii.,  p.  &c.,  p.  394,  &c.     C.  W.  F.   WaJch,  His- 

69,  &c.     [C.  W.  F.   Walch,  Historie  der  torie  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  i.,  p.  407-424.    A. 

Ketzereyen,  vol.  i.,  p.  484-537.     Mosheim,  Neander,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  i.,  pt.  ii.,  p. 

de  Reb.  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  401-410.     A.  Ne-  743,  &c.— TV.] 


SCHISMS  AND  HERESIES.  143 

Encratitae  or  abstainers,  Hydroparastatae  or  Water-drinkers,  and  Apotac- 
titae  or  Renouncers.(l3) 

§  10.  The  Gnostics  of  the  Egyptian  class,  differed  from  those  of  the 
Asiatic,  by  combining  the  Oriental  with  Egyptian  philosophy,  and  more 
especially  in  the  following  particulars.  (I.)  Although  they  supposed  mat- 
ter to  be  eternal,  and  also  animated  ;  yet  they  did  not  recognise  an  eter- 
nal prince  of  darkness  and  of  matter,  or  the  malignant  deity  of  the  Per- 
sians. (II.)  They  generally  considered  Christ,  our  Saviour,  as  consisting 
of  two  persons,  the  man  Jesus,  and  the  Son  of  God,  or  Christ :  and  the 
latter,  the  divine  person,  they  supposed  entered  into  Jesus  the  man,  when 
he  was  baptized  in  Jordan  by  John,  and  parted  from  him,  when  he  was 
made  a  prisoner  by  the  Jews.  (III.)  They  attributed  to  Christ  a  real,  and 
not  an  imaginary  body ;  though  they  were  not  all  of  one  sentiment  on  this 
point.  (IV.)  They  prescribed  to  their  followers  a  much  milder  system  of 
moral  discipline ;  nay,  seemed  to  give  precepts  which  favoured  the  cor- 
rupt propensities  of  men. 

§  11.  Among  the  Egyptian  Gnostics,  the  first  place  is  commonly  as- 
signed to  Basilides  of  Alexandria.  He  maintained,  that  the  supreme  and 
all  perfect  God  produced,  from  himself,  seven  most  excellent  beings  or 
Aeons.  Two  of  these  Aeons,  namely  Dynamis  and  Sophia,  (Power  and 
Wisdom),  procreated  the  angels  of  the  highest  order.  Those  angels  built 
for  themselves  a  residence  or  heaven,  and  produced  other  angels  of  a  na- 
ture a  little  inferior.  Other  generations  of  angels  succeeded,  and  other 
heavens  were  built,  until  there  were  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  heavens, 
and  as  many  orders  of  angels  ;  that  is,  just  as  many  as  there  are  days  in 
a  year.  Over  all  these  heavens  and  angelic  orders,  there  is  a  Prince  or 
Lord,  whom  Basilides  called  Abraxas ;  a  word  which  was  doubtless  in  use 
among  the  Egyptians  before  Basilides,  and  which,  when  written  in  Greek, 
contains  letters  that  together  make  up  the  number  365,  i.  e.,  the  number 
of  the  heavens.  (14)  The  inhabitants  of  the  lowest  heaven,  contiguous  to 

(13)  The  only  work  of  Tatian  that  has  Graecse,  1.  ii.,  c.  8,  p.  177,  &c.,  and  others, 
reached  us,  is  his  Oratio  ad  Graecos.     His  Learned  men  almost  universally,  think  those 
opinions  are   spoken  of  by  Clemens  Alex.,  gems  originated  from  Basilides;  and  hence 
Strom.,  1.  iii.,  p.  460.    Epiphanius,  Haeres.,  they  are  called  gemms   Basilidianae.     But 
xlvi.,  c.  1,  p.  391.      Origen,  de  Oratione,  c.  very  many  of  them  exhibit  marks  of  the  most 
13,  p.  77,  ed.  Oxon.,  and  by  others  of  the  degrading  superstition,  such  as  cannot  be  at- 
ancients  :  but  no  one  of  them  has  attempted  tributed  even  to  a  semi-Christian  ;  and  like- 
to  delineate  his  system.     [Of  the  moderns,  wise  very  manifest  insignia  of  the  Egyptian 
see  C.  W.  F.  Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzer-  religion.     They  cannot  all  therefore  be  at- 
eyen,  vol.  i.,  p.  445-447,  and  A.  Neander,  tributed  to  Basilidcs,  who,  though  he  held 
Kirchengesch.,  vol.  i.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  762-766. —  many  errors,  yet  worshipped  Christ.     Those 
It  should  be   remembered,  that  the  names  only  must  refer  to  him,  which  bear  some 
Encratites,  Apotactites,  (E'y/cpar?rai,  'ATTO-  marks  of  Christianity.     The  word  Abraxas, 
TOKTOI),    were   applied   to   all    the   austere  was    unquestionably  used    by    the    ancient 
sects ;  so  that,  though  all  Tatianists  were  Egyptians,  and  appropriated  to  the  Lord  of 
Encratites,  yet  all  Encratites  were  not  To.-  the  heavens  ;   so  that  Basilides  retained    it 
tiantsts. — Tr.]  from  the  philosophy  and  religion  of  his  coun- 

(14)  A  great  number  of  gems  still  exist,  try.    See  Is.  de  Bcausobre,  Histoire  duMan- 
and  quantities  of  them  are  daily  brought  to  icheisme,  vol.  ii.,  p.  51.     Jo.  Bapt.  Passeri, 
us  from  Egypt,  on  which,  besides  other  fig-  Diss.  de  Gemmis  Basilidianis  ;  in  his  splen- 
ures  of  Egyptian  device,  the  word  Abraxas  did  work  de  Gemmis  stelliferis,  torn,  ii.,  p. 
is  engraved.     See  Jo.  Macarius,  Abraxas  221,  &c  ,  ed.  Florent.,  1750,  /bl.     P.  E. 
seu  de  gemmis  Basilidianis  disquisitio ;  en-  Jabhnski,  de  Nominis   Abraxas   significa- 
larged  by  Jo.   Chiftet,  ed.  Antwerp.  1657,  tione  ;    in   the    Miscellan.    Lipsiens.  novis, 
4to.     Bern,   de   Mantfaucon,   Palaeograph.  torn.  vii.     Passeri  contends  that  none  of 


144  BOOK  I.-CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

eternal  matter  which  is  an  animated  and  malignant  substance,  formed  a 
design  of  constructing  a  world  out  of  that  disorderly  mass,  and  of  fabri- 
cating men.  God  approved  the  work  when  it  was  finished  ;  and  imparted 
rational  souls  to  the  men  whom  the  angels  had  formed,  whereas,  before 
they  had  only  sensitive  souls :  he  also  gave  to  the  angels,  dominion  over 
men.  The  Prince  of  these  angels  chose  the  Jewish  nation  for  his  sub- 
jects ;  and  he  gave  them  a  law  by  Moses.  The  other  angels  presided 
over  other  nations. 

§  12.  The  angels  who  created  and  governed  the  world,  gradually  be- 
came corrupt ;  and  they  not  only  laboured  to  obliterate  the  knowledge  of 
the  supreme  God,  in  order  that  they  might  themselves  be  worshipped  as 
gods,  but  they  waged  war  with  each  other,  for  the  enlargement  of  their 
respective  territories.  The  most  arrogant  and  restless  of  them  all,  was 
he  who  governed  the  Jewish  nation.  Therefore  the  supreme  God,  in 
compassion  to  the  souls  endowed  with  reason,  sent  down  from  heaven  his 
Son,  or  the  prince  of  the  Aeons,  whose  name  is  Nus,  \yovq,  mind],  and 
Christ;  that  he,  joining  himself  to  the  man  Jesus,  might  restore  the  lost 
knowledge  of  his  Father,  and  overturn  the  empire  of  the  angels  who  gov- 
erned the  world,  and  especially  of  the  insolent  Lord  of  the  Jews.  The 
God  of  the  Jews  perceiving  this,  ordered  his  subjects  to  seize  the  man 
Jesus,  and  put  him  to  death:  but  against  Christ,  he  had  no  power.(15) 
The  souls  that  obey  the  precepts  of  the  Son  of  God,  will  ascend  to  God 
•when  their  bodies  die :  the  rest  will  pass  into  other  bodies.  All  bodies 
return  back  to  vicious  matter,  whence  they  originated. 

§  13.  The  moral  system  of  Basilides,  if  we  believe  most  of  the  an- 
cients, favoured  concupiscence,  and  allowed  every  species  of  iniquity. 
But  from  much  surer  testimony  it  appears,  that  he  recommended  purity  of 
life  and  the  practice  of  piety,  and  condemned  even  an  inclination  to  sin. 
Still  there  were  some  things  in  his  moral  precepts  which  greatly  offended 
other  Christians.  For  he  held  it  lawful  to  conceal  our  religion,  to  deny 
Christ  when  our  life  is  in  danger,  to  participate  in  the  pagan  feasts  which 
followed  their  sacrifices  ;  and  he  detracted  much  from  the  estimation  and 
honour  in  which  the  martyrs  were  held,  and  maintained  that  they  were 
greater  sinners  than  other  men,  and  were  visited  by  divine  justice  for  their 
iniquities.  For  it  was  a  principle  with  him,  that  none  but  sinners  suffer 
any  evil  in  this  life.  And  hence  arose  the  suspicions  entertained  respect- 
ing his  system  of  morals,  suspicions  which  seemed  to  be  confirmed  by 
the  flagitious  lives  of  some  of  his  disciples. (16) 

these  gems  have  reference  to  Basilides :  he  our  Saviour  had  not  a  real  body  ;  and  that 

makes  them  all  refer  to  the  magicians,  or  Simon  the  Cyrenian  was  crucified  in  place 

the   soothsayers,   sorcerers,   conjurers,  and  of  him.     But  that  this  is  erroneous,  and  that 

fortune-tellers.     But  this  learned  man,  it  ap-  Basilides    supposed    the    man   Jesus    and 

pears  to  me,  goes  too  far  ;  for  he  himself  Christ,  united,  to  constitute  the  Saviour,  is 

acknowledges,  (p.  225),  that  he  sometimes  demonstrated   in  the  Comment,  de  Rebus 

found  on  them  some  vestiges  of  the  Basi-  Christianor.,  &c.,  p.  354,  &c.     It  may  be, 

lidian  errors.     These  celebrated  gems  still  that  here  and  there  a  follower  of  Basilides 

need  an  erudite,  but  cautious  and  judicious  held  otherwise. 

interpreter.     [See  the  references  in  Giese-         (16)  Besides  the  ancient  writers  on  the 

ler's  Text-book,  by  Cunningham,  vol.  i.,  p.  heresies,  Basilides  is  particularly  treated  of, 

84,  note  1. — TV.]  by  Ben.  Massuet,  Dissert,  in  Irenaeum  ;  and 

(15)  Many  of  the  ancients  tell  us,  on  the  /*.  de  Beausobre,  Histoire  du  Manicheisme, 

authority  of  Irenceus,  [adv.  Hsereses,  i.,  c.  vol.  ii.,  p.  8,  &c.     [C.  W.  F.  Walch,  His- 

23],  that,  according  to  Basilides'  opinion,  torie  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  i.,  p.  281-309; 


SCHISMS  AND  HERESIES.  145 

§  14.  But  much  viler  than  he,  and  said  to  be  the  worst  of  all  the  Gnos- 
tics, was  Carpocrates,  also  of  Alexandria,  [who  lived  in  the  reign  of  Adrian]. 
His  philosophy  did  not  differ  in  its  general  principles,  from  that  of  the  oth- 
er Egyptian  Gnostics.  For  he  held  to  one  supreme  God,  Aeons  the  off- 
spring of  God,  eternal  and  malignant  matter,  the  creation  of  the  world  from 
evil  matter  by  angels,  divine  souls  unfortunately  enclosed  in  bodies,  and 
the  like.  But  he  maintained  that  Jesus  was  born  of  Joseph  and  Mary  in 
the  ordinary  course  of  nature,  and  that  he  was  superior  to  other  men  in  no- 
thing but  fortitude  and  greatness  of  soul.  He  also  not  only  gave  his  disci- 
ples license  to  sin,  but  imposed  on  them  the  necessity  of  sinning,  by  teach- 
ing that  the  way  to  eternal  salvation  was  open  to  those  souls  only,  which 
committed  all  kinds  of  enormity  and  wickedness. — But  it  exceeds  all  cred- 
ibility, that  any  man  who  believes  there  is  a  God,  that  Christ  is  the  Saviour 
of  mankind,  and  who  inculcates  any  sort  of  religion,  should  hold  such  sen- 
timents. Besides,  there  are  grounds  to  believe  that  Carpocrates,  like  the 
other  Gnostics,  held  the  Saviour  to  be  composed  of  the  man  Jesus  and  a 
certain  Aeon  called  Christ ;  and  that  he  imposed  some  laws  of  conduct  on 
his  disciples.  Yet  undoubtedly,  there  was  something  in  his  opinions  and 
precepts  that  rendered  his  piety  very  suspicious.  For  he  held  that  concu- 
piscence was  implanted  in  the  soul  by  the  Deity,  and  is  therefore  perfectly 
innocent ;  that  all  actions  are  in  themselves  indifferent,  and  become  good 
or  evil  only  according  to  the  opinions  and  laws  of  men  ;  that  in  the  purpose 
of  God,  all  things  are  common  property,  even  the  women,  but  that  such 
as  will  use  their  rights  are  by  human  laws  accounted  thieves  and  adulter- 
ers. Now  if  he  did  not  add  some  corrective  to  the  enormity  of  these  prin- 
ciples, it  must  be  acknowledged,  that  he  wholly  swept  away  the  foundations 
of  all  virtue,  and  gave  full  license  to  all  iniquity. (17) 

§  15.  Valentinus,  also  an  Egyptian,  exceeded  all  his  fellow-heresiarchs 
both  in  fame  and  in  the  multitude  of  his  followers.  His  sect  had  its  birth 
at  Rome,  grew  to  maturity  in  the  island  of  Cyprus,  and  with  wonderful 
celerity  traversed  Asia,  Africa,  and  Europe.  Valentinus  held  the  general 
principles  common  with  his  brother  Gnostics,  and  he  assumed  the  title  of 
a  (inostic  ;  yet  he  held  several  principles  peculiar  to  himself.  In  the 
Pleroma,  (which  is  the  Gnostic  name  for  the  habitation  of  God),  he  sup- 
posed thirty  Aeons,  fifteen  males,  and  as  many  females.  Besides  these, 
there  were  four  unmarried  ;  namely,  Horus,  \opoq],  the  guardian  of  the  con- 
fines of  the  Pleroma,  Christ,  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  Jes*s.  The  youngest 
of  the  Aeons,  Sophia,  (Wisdom],  fired  with  vast  desire  of  comprehending 
the  nature  of  the  supreme  Deity,  in  her  agitation,  brought  forth  a  daughter 

Moshrim,  dc  Rebus  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  342-  wrote  a  book,  from  which  the  world  have 

361  ;  and  A.  Ncandcr,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  had  to  learn  what  they  could  of  the  tenets 

i.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  679-704.     Sec  also  Gieselers  ot  Carporrdtes.     It  is  doubtful  whether  he. 

Text-book,  by  Cunningham,  vol.  i.,  p.  84,  ought  to  be  called  a  Christian.     He  was  an 

&c. —  7V.]  Egyptian  philosopher,  who  had  perhaps  bor- 

(17)  See  Ircnteus,  contra  Haores.,  1.  i  ,  rowed    some   notions    from  the   Christians, 

c.  25.     Clemens  Alex.,  Stromat.,  1.  iii.,  p-  but  still  his  philosophy  was   his  cynosure. 

511,  and  the  others.     [Moshcim,  de  Rebus  Two  inscriptions,  in  the  true  spirit  of  this 

Christ.,  &c.,  p.  361-371.     C.  W.  F.  Watch,  philosopher,  recently  discovered  in  Cyrene 

Historic   dcr    Krt?rr.,  vol.  i.,  p.  309-327.  in  Africa,  have  given  rise  to  a  conjecture', 

nder,  Kirchent'csch  ,  vol   i.,  part  ii.,  that  his  sect  continued  till  the  sixth  century. 

p.  767-773. —  Carpoerates  left  a  young  son,  See  the  inscriptions,  with  comments,  in  the 

Eprpkanes,  to  propagate  his  system ;    and  Christmas  Prograrnm  of  Dr.  W.  Gcscnius, 

this  son,  though  he  died  at  the  age  of  17,  A.D.  1825.— TV.] 

VOL.  I.— T 


146  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

called  Achamoth  [niDJn,  the  sciences  or  philosophy],  who  being  excluded 

from  the  Pleroma,  descended  to  the  rude  and  shapeless  mass  of  matter, 
reduced  it  to  some  degree  of  order,  and  by  the  aid  of  Jesus  brought  forth 
Demiurgus,  [A^juwpyo^,  Artificer],  the  builder  and  lord  of  all  things.  This 
Demiurgus  separated  the  more  subtile  or  animal  matter,  from  the  grosser 
or  material ;  and  out  of  the  former  he  framed  the  world  above  us,  or  the 
visible  heavens,  and  out  of  the  latter,  the  lower  world,  or  this  earth.  Men  he 
compounded  of  both  kinds  of  matter  ;  and  his  mother,  Achamoth,  added  to 
them  a  third  substance  which  was  celestial  and  spiritual.  This  is  a  brief 
outline  of  the  complicated  and  tedious  fable  of  Valentinus.  It  appears 
that  he  explained  the  origin  of  the  world,  and  of  the  human  race,  in  a  more 
subtle  manner  than  the  other  Gnostics ;  yet  that  he  did  not  differ  from 
them  in  reality.  And  the  same  is  true  of  the  other  parts  of  his  system. 

§  16.  The  Architect  of  the  world,  gradually  became  so  inflated,  that  he 
either  thought  himself  to  be,  or  at  least  wished  men  to  regard  him  as  the 
only  God  ;  and  by  his  prophets  whom  he  sent  among  the  Jews,  he  arroga- 
ted to  himself  the  honours  of  the  supreme  God.  And  herein  the  other  an- 
gels, who  presided  over  parts  of  the  created  universe,  imitated  his  exam- 
ple. To  repress  this  insolence  of  Demiurgus,  and  to  imbue  souls  with  a 
knowledge  of  the  true  God,  Christ  descended,  being  composed  of  an  animal 
and  spiritual  substance,  and  moreover  clothed  with  an  ethereal  body.  He 
passed  through  the  body  of  Mary,  just  as  water  through  a  canal ;  and 
to  him  Jesus,  one  of  the  highest  Aeons,  joined  himself,  when  he  was 
baptized  in  Jordan  by  John.  The  Architect  of  the  world,  who  perceived 
that  his  dominion  would  be  shaken  by  this  divine  man,  caused  him  to  be 
seized  and  crucified.  But  before  Christ  came  to  execution,  not  only  Jesus 
the  Son  of  God,  but  also  the  rational  soul  of  Christ,  forsook  him ;  so  that 
only  his  sentient  soul  and  his  ethereal  body  were  suspended  on  the  cross. 
Those  who  renounce,  as  Christ  directs,  not  only  the  worship  of  the  pagan 
deities,  but  also  that  of  the  Jewish  God,  and  surrender  their  sentient  and 
concupiscent  soul  to  reason,  to  be  chastened  and  reformed,  shall  with  both 
their  souls,  the  rational  and  the  sentient,  be  admitted  to  the  mansions  of  the 
blessed  near  the  Pleroma.  And  when  all  particles  of  the  divine  nature,  or 
all  souls,  shall  be  separated  from  matter  and  purified,  then  a  raging  fire 
shall  spread  through  this  material  universe,  and  destroy  the  whole  fabric 
of  nature.  For  the  whole  Oriental  philosophy  and  the  system  of  the  Gnos- 
tics, may  be  reduced  to  this  epitome :  This  world  is  composed  of  both 
good  and  evil.  Whatever  of  good  there  is  in  it,  was  derived  from  the 
supreme  God,  the  parent  of  light,  and  will  return  to  him  again  ;  and  when 
this  takes  place,  this  world  will  be  destroyed.(18) 

(18)  Of  the  Valentinian  system,  we  have  cate  and  absurd  system  of  Valentinus.     See 

a  full  account  in  Irenaus,  contra  Haeres.,  Souvcrain,  Platonisme  devoile,  cap.  viii.,  p. 

lib.  i.,    c.    1-7.      Tcrtullian,   Liber   contra  63.      Camp.    Vilrmga,    Observatt.    Sacrae, 

Valentinianos ;  Clemens  Alex.,  passim ;  and  lib.  i.,  c.  ii.,  p.  131.     Beausobre,  Histoire 

in  all  the  ancient  writers  on  the  heresies,  du  Manicheisme,  p.  548,  &c.     Ja.  Basnage, 

Among  the  moderns,  see  Jo.  Fr.  Buddeus,  Hist,  des  Juifs,  tome  iii.,  p.  729,  &c.     Peter 

Diss.   de    Haeresi  Valentiniana  ;  subjoined  Fayd.it,  Eclairciss.  sur  1'Hist.  Eccles.  des  ii. 

to  his  Introductio  in   Historiam  philosoph.  premiers  siecles,  p.  12,  who  also  contempla- 

Ebraeorum  ;    which   Diss.    has   occasioned  ted  writing  an  Apology  for  Valentinus.     I 

much  discussion  respecting  the  origin  of  this  pass  by  Godfrey  Arnold,  the  patron  of  all 

heresy.     Some  of  the  moderns  have  attempt-  the  heretics.     B  ut  how  vain  all  such  attempts 

ed  to  give  a  rational  explanation  of  the  intri-  must  be,  is  proved  by  this,  that  Valentinus 


SCHISMS  AND  HERESIES. 


147 


§  17.  The  ancients  represent  the  school  of  Valentinus  as  divided  into 
many  branches.  Among  these  were  the  Ptolomaitic  sect,  whose  author 
Ptolomy  differed  from  his  master  respecting  the  number  and  nature  of  the 
Aeons  ;  the  Sccundian  sect,  established  by  Secundus,  one  of  the  principal 
followers  of  Valentinus,  who  seems  to  have  kept  more  closely  to  the  Orien- 
tal philosophy,  and  to  have  held  to  two  first  causes  of  all  things,  light  and 
darkness,  or  a  prince  of  good,  and  a  prince  of  evil ;  the  sect  of  Heracleon, 
from  whose  books  Clement  and  Origen  quote  much ;  the  sect  of  Marcus 
and  Calarbasus,  called  Marcosians,  who,  according  to  Irenasus,  added  much 
that  was  senseless  and  absurd,  to  the  fictions  of  Valentinus,  though  it  is 
certain,  that  they  did  not  maintain  all  that  is  attributed  to  them.  1  pass  by 
other  sects,  which  appear  to  have  originated  from  the  Valentinian  system. 
But  whether  all  the  sects  which  are  called  Valentinian,  actually  originated 
from  disciples  and  followers  of  Valentinus,  appears  very  doubtful,  to  such 
as  consider  how  great  mistakes  the  ancients  have  made  in  stating  the  or- 
igin of  the  heretics. (19) 

§  18.  Of  the  smaller  and  more  obscure  Gnostic  sects,  of  which  the  an- 
cients tell  us  little  more  than  the  names  and  perhaps  one  or  two  detached 
sentiments,  it  is  unnecessary  to  say  anything.  Such  were  the  Adamites, 
who  are  said  to  have  wished  to  imitate  the  state  of  innocence  :(20)  the 
Cainites,  who  are  represented  as  paying  respect  to  the  memory  of  Cain, 
Corah,  Dathan,  the  inhabitants  of  Sodom,  and  Judas  the  traitor  :(21) 
the  Abelites,  whom  the  ancients  represent  as  marrying  wives,  but  rais- 
ing up  no  children  :(22)  the  Sethitcs,  who  regarded  Seth  as  the  Messi- 


himself  professed  that  his  religion  differed 
fundamentally  from  that  of  the  other  Chris- 
tians. [Besides  the  authors  above  referred 
to,  see  Mosheim,  de  Rebus  Christ.,  &c.,  p. 
371-389  ;  C.  W.  F.  Walch,  Hist,  der  Ket- 
zereyen,  vol.  i.,  p.  335-386  ;  and  Aug. 
Ncander,  Kircheng.,  vol.  i.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  704- 
731  ;  also  Gieseler's  Text-book,  by  Cun- 
ningham, vol.  i.,  p.  85,  &c. — Tr.] 

(19)  Besides  Irenaus,  and  the  other  an- 
cient writers  ;  see,  concerning  these  sects, 
Jo.  Ern.  Grabe,  Spicilegium  Patrum  et  hae- 
reticorum,  saecul.  ii.,  p.  69,  82,  &c.     On 
the  Marcosians,  Ireneeus  is  copious,  lib.  i., 
cap.  14.    That  Marcus  was  out  of  his  senses, 
is  unquestionable ;  for  he  must  have  been 
deranged,  if  he  could  hold  even  the  greater 
part  of  the  strange  fancies,  which  are  said  to 
belong  to  his  system.     [Among  the  moderns 
who  have  treated  of  these  sects,  see  C.  W. 
F.  .Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  i., 
p.  387-401  ;  and  A.  Neandcr,  Kirchenges- 
chichte.  vol.  i.  pt.  ii.,  p.  731-746.— TV.] 

(20)  [See,  for  an  account  of  them,  Clemens 
Alex.,  Stromat,  lib.  i.,  p.  357,  lib.  iii.,  p.  525, 
lib.  vii.,  p.  854  :  Tertullian,  Scorpiacum,  in 
Opp.,   p.    633,  and  contra  Prax.,   cap.   3: 
Epiphanhis,  Macros.  Iii  ,  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  p. 
459  :  Thcodoret,  Haeret.  Fabul.,  lib.  i.,  c.  6  : 
Augustine,  de  Haeres.,  c.  31  :  John  Dam- 
ascfn,  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  p.  88  ;  and  among  the 
moderns,  C.  W.  F.  Walch,  Hist,  der  Ket- 


zereyen, vol.  i.,  p.  327-335.  P.  Bayle,  Dic- 
tionnaire  historique,  art.  Adamites  and  Pro- 
dicus  .-  Tillemont,  Memoires,  &c.,  torn,  ii., 
p.  256  :  Bcausobre,  Diss.  sur  les  Adamites  ; 
subjoined  to  Lenfanfs  Histoire  des  Hus- 
sites.— The  accounts  of  the  ancients  are  con- 
tradictory ;  and  several  of  the  moderns  doubt, 
whether  there  ever  was  a  sect  who  perform- 
ed their  worship  in  a  state  of  nudity. — 7V.] 

(21)  [All  the  ancient  writers  mentioned 
in  the  preceding  note,  except  John  Damas- 
ccn,  speak  of  the  Cainites ;  but  what  they 
state  is  very  brief,  and  contradictory.     The 
correctness  of  their  accounts,  is  justly  doubt- 
ed by  Bayle,  (Dictionnaire  Historique,  art. 
Cainites),  and  by  others.      Origen,  (contra 
Celsum,  lib.  iii.,  p.  1 19),  did  not  regard  them 
as  Christians.     Yet  they  might  be  a  sect  of 
Gnostics,  who  holding  the  God  of  the  Jews 
for  a  revolter  from  the  true  God,  regarded 
Cain,  Dathan,  Corah,  and  others  who  resist- 
ed him,  as  being  very  praiseworthy. —  Tr.] 

(22)  [The  Abeltles  are  mentioned  only  by 
Augustine,  de  Haeres.,  cap.  87  ;  and  by  the 
author  of  the  book,  Praedestinatus,  cap.  87. 
It  is  represented,  that  every  man  married  a 
female  child,  and  every  woman  a  little  boy, 
with  whom  they  lived,  and  whom  they  made 
their  heirs  ;  hoping  in  this  way  to  fulfil  liter- 
ally, what  Paul  says,  1  Cor.  vii.,  29,  that 
"  They  that  have  wives,  be  as  though  they 
had  none." — The  sect  is  treated  of  by  C. 


148 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


ah  :(23)  the  Florinians,  who  originated  at  Rome,  under  Florinus  and  Blast- 
us  ;(24)  and  many  others.  Perhaps  the  ancient  Christian  doctors  divided 
one  sect  into  several,  deceived  by  the  fact  of  its  having  several  names ; 
they  may  also  have  had  incorrect  information  respecting  some  of  them. 

§  19.  Among  the  Gnostics  of  the  Egyptian  class,  no  inconsiderable 
place  must  be  assigned  to  the  Ophites  or  Serpentians ;  a  senseless  sect,  ot 
which  one  Euphrates  is  said  to  be  the  father.  The  sect  originated  among 
the  Jews,  and  before  the  Christian  era.  A  part  of  them  became  professed 
Christians  ;  the  rest  retained  their  former  superstition.  Hence  there  were 
two  sects  of  Ophites,  a  Christian  sect,  and  an  anti-Christian.  The  Chris- 
tian Ophites  held  nearly  the  same  notions,  with  the  other  Egyptian  Gnos- 
tics, concerning  Aeons,  the  eternity  of  matter,  the  creation  of  the  world 
without  the  knowledge  or  consent  of  the  Deity,  the  rulers  of  the  seven 
planets  who  presided  over  the  world,  the  tyranny  of  Demiurgus,  the  de- 
scent of  Christ  joined  to  the  man  Jesus  into  our  world  to  overthrow  the 
kingdom  of  Demiurgus,  &c.  But  they  held  this  peculiarity,  that  they 
supposed  the  serpent  which  deceived  our  first  parents,  was  either  Christ 
himself,  or  Sophia,  concealed  under  the  form  of  a  serpent :  and  this  opin- 
ion, is  said  to  have  induced  them  to  keep  some  sacred  serpents,  and  to  pay 
them  a  species  of  honour.  Into  such  absurdities  men  might  easily  fall,  if 
they  believed  the  Creator  of  the  world  to  be  a  different  being  from  the  su- 
preme God,  and  regarded  as  divine  whatever  was  opposed  to  the  pleasure 
of  Demiurgus.  (25) 


W.  F.  Watch,  Hist,  der  Ketzer.,  vol.  i.,  p. 
607 ;  who  doubts  whether  it  were  not  alto- 
gether an  imaginary  sect. — TV.] 

(23)  [The  Sethites  are  mentioned  by  the 
author  of  Praedestinatus,  cap.  19,  and  Phi- 
lastrius,de  Haeres.,  cap.  3.     But  Rhenferd, 
(Diss.  de  Sethianis,  in  his  Opp.  philolog.,  p. 
165);  and  Zorn,  (Opuscul.  sacra,  torn,  i., 
p.  614),  consider  this  to  be  an  imaginary 
sect.    See  C.  W.  F.  Walch,  loc.  cit.,  p.  609, 
&c.,  and  A.  Ncander,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  i., 
pt.  ii.,  p.  758,  &c.-—  TV.] 

(24)  [Florinus  and  Blastus  were  by  the 
ancients,  reckoned  among  the  Valentinians. 
Both  were  presbyters  of  Rome,  intimate 
friends,  and  excommunicated  by  the  Roman 
bishop  Eleutherius.    (Euseb.,  H.  E.,  v.  15.) 
As  Florinus  in  early  life  enjoyed  the  instruc- 
tion of  Polycarp  at  Smyrna,  and  as  Irenceus 
wrote  a  letter  to  Blastus,  concerning  the 
schism  at  Rome  about  Easter  day  ;   C.  W. 
F.  Walch,  (loc.  cit.,  p.  404),  supposes  they 
both,  and  particularly  Blastus,  were  opposed 
to  the  views  of  the  Romish  church  respecting 
Easter.     He  also  considers  it  most  probable, 
that  Florinus  was   inclined  towards  Gnos- 
ticism ;   for  Ircnaus  wrote  a  book  against 
him,  concerning  the  eight  Aeons  ;  and  he 
actually  had  some  followers. — Schl.     That 
Florinus  was  a  Gnostic,  is  clear  from  Euse- 
bius,   Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  v.,  c.  20.     That 
Blastus  was  so,  is  not  so  certain. — TV.] 

(25)  The  "history  and  doctrines  of  this 


sect,  so  far  as  they  are  known,  I  have  stated 
in  a  German  work,  printed  at  Helmstadt, 
1746,  4to,  [bearing  the  title  :  Erster  Versucb 
einer  unpartheyischen  und  griindlichen  Ket- 
zergeschichte.  Afterwards,  J.  H.  Schuma- 
cher published  an  Explanation  of  the  obscure 
and  difficult  Doctrinal  Table  of  the  ancient 
Ophites  ;  Wolfenbiittel,  1756,  4to. — Schu- 
macher maintained,  that  the  doctrine  of  the 
Ophites  embraced  neither  metaphysics  nor 
theology,  but  merely  the  history  of  the  Jew- 
ish nation  couched  in  hieroglyphics. —  C.  W. 
F.  Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  i., 
p.  447-481,  has  epitomized  both  works; 
and  we  here  give  his  leading  thoughts,  in 
further  illustration  of  this  sect. — These  peo- 
ple, called  in  Gr.  Ophites,  in  Latin  Serpent- 
ians, were  by  the  Asiatics  called  Nahassians 
or  Naasians.  Iren&us,  (1.  ii.,  c.  34)  ;  the 
author  of  the  supplement  to  Tertullian's 
book,  de  Praescript.  haeret.,  (c.  47)  ;  Epi- 
phanius,  (Haer.  xxxvii.) ;  Theodoret,  (Hae- 
rct.  Fabul.,  1.  i.,  c.  14) ;  and  Augustine,  (do 
Haeres.,  c.  17) ;  account  them  Christian 
heretics.  But  Origen,  (contra  Celsum,  1. 
vii.,  $  28),  holds  them  to  be  not  Christians. 
Yet  he  speaks  of  them  as  pretended  Chris- 
tians, in  his  Comment,  on  Matth  ,  torn,  iii.,  p. 
851,  &c. — Philastrius  makes  them  more  an- 
cient than  Christianity.  It  is  most  probable, 
they  were  Jewish  Gnostics,  and  that  some  of 
them  embraced  Christianity  ;  so  that  the  sect 
became  divided  into  Jewish  and  Christian 


SCHISMS  AND  HERESIES. 


149 


§  20.  The  numerous  evils  and  discords,  which  arose  from  combining 
the  Oriental  and  Egyptian  philosophy  with  the  Christian  religion,  began  to 
be  increased  about  the  middle  of  this  century,  by  those  who  brought  the 
Grecian  philosophy  with  them  into  the  Christian  church.  As  the  doctrines 
held  by  the  Christians  respecting  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,  and 
respecting  the  twofold  nature  of  the  Saviour,  were  least  of  all  at  agree- 
ment with  the  precepts  of  this  philosophy,  they  first  endeavoured  so  to  ex- 
plain these  doctrines,  that  they  could  be  comprehended  by  reason.  This 
was  attempted  by  one  Praxeas,  a  very  distinguished  man  and  a  confessor, 
at  Rome.  Discarding  all  real  distinction  between  the  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Spirit,  he  taught  that  the  whole  Father  of  all  things  joined  himself 
to  the  human  nature  of  Christ.  Hence  the  followers  were  called  Monar- 
chians  and  Patripassians.  Nor  was  the  latter  an  unsuitable  name  for 
them,  if  Tertullian  correctly  understood  their  sentiments.  For  they  de- 
nominated the  man  Christ,  the  Son  of  God ;  and  held  that  to  this  Son,  the 
Father  of  the  universe  or  God  so  joined  himself,  as  to  be  crucified  and 
endure  pangs  along  with  the  Son.  Yet  Praxeas  does  not  appear  to  have 
erected  a  distinct  church.(26) 

§  21.  Nearly  allied  to  this  opinion,  was  that  which  was  advanced  about 
the  same  time  at  Rome,  by  Theodotus,  a  tanner,  yet  a  man  of  learning 

Ophites.  There  are  two  sources  of  inform- 
ation on  this  part  of  ecclesiastical  history. 
The  first  is,  the  accounts  of  Irenceus,  Epi- 
phanius,  and  others.  The  second  is,  what 
Ongen  tells  us  (contra  Celsum,  lib.  vi.,  § 
33,  &c.)  concerning  the  Diagram  of  the 
Ophites.  This  Diagram  was  a  tablet,  on 
which  the  Ophites  depicted  their  doctrines, 
in  all  sorts  of  figures  with  words  annexed. 
It  probably  contained  the  doctrines  of  the 
Jewish  Ophites  ;  and  is  dark  and  unintelli- 
gible, unless  we  may  suppose  this  symboli- 
cal representation  contained  that  system,  the 
principal  doctrines  of  which  are  stated  by  the 
ancients.  The  theological  system  both  of 
the  Jewish  and  the  Christian  Ophites,  cannot 
be  epitomized,  and  must  be  sought  for  in 
Walch,  p.  461. — Their  serpent-worship  con- 
sisted in  this  ;  they  kept  a  living  serpent, 
which  they  let  out  upon  the  dish,  when  cel- 
ebrating the  Lord's  supper,  to  crawl  around 
and  over  the  bread.  The  priest  to  whom  the 
serpent  belonged,  now  came  near,  brake  the 
bread,  and  distributed  it  to  those  present. 
When  each  had  eaten  his  morsel,  he  kissed 
the  serpent,  which  was  afterwards  confined. 
When  this  solemn  act,  which  the  Ophites 
called  their  perfect  sacrifice,  was  ended,  the 
meeting  closed  with  a  hymn  of  praise  to  the 
supreme  God,  whom  the  serpent  in  para- 
dise had  made  known  to  men.  But  all  the 
Ophites  did  not  observe  these  rites,  which 
were  peculiar  to  the  Christian  Ophites,  and 
confined  to  a  small  number  among  them. 
This  worship  must  have  been  symbolic. 
The  Ophites  had  also  Talismans. — Schl. 
See  a  lucid  account  of  the  Ophites,  in  A. 


Neandcr's  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  i.,  pt.  ii.,  p. 
746-756.—  TV.] 

(20)  See  Tertullian,  Liber  contra  Prax- 
eam  ;  and  compare  Peter  Wesseling,  Proba- 
bilia,  cap.  26,  p.  223,  &c.  ["  Tertullian  (to 
whom  we  are  indebted  for  all  certain  knowl- 
edge of  the  views  of  Praxeas),  was  not  only 
an  obscure  writer,  but  also  a  prejudiced  one 
in  regard  to  Praxeas.  He  not  only  rejected 
his  doctrine,  but  hated  him  ;  because  Prax- 
eas had  alienated  the  Roman  bishop  Victor 
from  Montanus,  whose  partisan  Tertullian 
was.  Hence  Tertullian,  in  his  censures  on 
Praxeas,  is  often  extravagant  and  insulting. 
The  opposition  of  Praxeas  to  Montanus, 
doubtless  led  the  former  into  his  error. 
Montanus  had  treated  of  the  doctrine  of 
three  persons  in  the  divine  essence,  and  had 
insisted  on  a  real  distinction  between  the 
Father,  Son,  and  Hdly  Spirit.  (Tertullian 
contra  Praxeam,  c.  13,  p.  644.)  Praxeas, 
who  was  hostile  to  Montanus,  published  his 
own  doctrine  in  opposition  to  Montanus. 
From  Tertullian,  moreover,  it  appears  clear- 
ly, that  Praxeas  discarded  the  distinction  of 
persons  in  the  divine  essence  ;  and,  as  Ter- 
tulhan  expresses  it,  contended  for  the  mon- 
archy of  God.  But  how  he  explained  what 
the  Scriptures  teach,  concerning  the  Son  and 
the  Holy  Spirit,  is  not  so  clear.  Of  the  va- 
rious conceptions  we  might  gather  from  Tcr- 
tullidii,  Moshcim  gives  a  full  investigation, 
in  his  Comment,  de  Rebus  Christ.,  &c.,  p. 
426.  See  also  C.  W.  F.  Walch,  Hist,  der 
Ketzereyen,  vol.  i.,  p.  537-546." — Schl. 
See  also  A.  Neandcr,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  i., 
pt.  iii.,  p.  994,  &c.— TV.] 


150 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


and  a  philosopher  ;  and  by  one  Artemas  or  Artemon,  from  whom  originated 
the  Artemonites.  For,  so  far  as  can  be  gathered  from  not  very  distinct 
accounts  of  these  men  left  us  by  the  ancients,  they  supposed,  that  when 
the  man  Christ  was  born,  a  certain  divine  energy  or  some  portion  of  the 
divine  nature  (and  net  the  person  of  the  Father,  as  Praxeas  imagined) 
united  itself  to  him.  Which  of  these  men  preceded  the  other  in  time  ;  and 
whether  they  both  taught  the  same  doctrine,  or  differed  from  each  other ; 
cannot  at  this  day  be  decided,  so  few  and  obscure  are  the  ancient  accounts 
we  have  of  them.  But  this  is  unquestionable,  the  disciples  of  both  applied 
philosophy  and  geometry  to  the  explication  of  the  Christian  doctrine. (27) 
§  22.  The  same  attachment  to  philosophy  induced  Hermogenes,  a  painter, 
to  depart  from  the  sentiments  of  Christians,  respecting  the  origin  of  the 
world  and  the  nature  of  the  soul,  and  to  cause  disturbance  in  a  part  of  the 
Christian  community.  Regarding  matter  as  the  source  of  all  evil,  he  could 
not  believe,  that  God  had  brought  it  into  existence  by  his  omnipotent  voli- 
tion. He  therefore  held,  that  the  world  and  whatever  is  in  the  world,  and 
also  souls  and  spirits,  were  formed  by  the  Deity  out  of  eternal  and  vicious 
matter.  There  is  much  in  this  doctrine  very  difficult  to  be  explained,  and 
not  in  accordance  with  the  common  opinions  of  Christians.  But  neither 
Tertullian  who  wrote  against  him,  nor  others  of  the  ancients,  inform  us 
how  he  explained  those  Christian  doctrines  which  are  repugnant  to  his 
opinions.(23) 


(27)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  v.,  c. 
28.  Epiphanius,  Haeres.  liv.,  p.  464.  P. 
Wesseling,  Probabilia,  c.  21,  p.  172,  &c. 
[Several  persons  occur  in  the  history  of  the 
heretics,  bearing  the  name  of  Theodotus. 
( 1 )  Theodotus  of  Byzantium,  a  tanner ;  of 
whom  above.  (2)  Theodotus  the  younger, 
disciple  of  the  former,  and  founder  of  the 
sect  of  Melchizedekians.  This  sect  derived 
its  name  from  its  holding,  agreeably  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  elder  Theodotus,  that  Mel- 
chizedek  was  the  power  of  God,  and  supe- 
rior to  Christ ;  and  that  he  sustained  the  of- 
fice of  an  Intercessor  for  the  angels  in  heav- 
en, as  Christ  did  for  us  men  on  earth.  (3) 
Theodotus,  the  Valentinian.  (4)  Theodotus, 
the  Montanist. — Our  Theodotus  had  saved 
his  life,  during  a  persecution  at  Byzantium, 
by  a'denial  of  Christ;  and  thus  had  incur- 
red general  contempt.  To  escape  from  dis- 
grace, he  went  to  Rome.  But  there  his  of- 
fence became  known.  To  extenuate  his 
fault,  he  gave  out  that  he  regarded  Jesus 
Christ  as  a  mere  man,  and  that  it  could  be 
no  great  crime  to  deny  a  mere  man.  He 
was  therefore  excluded  from  the  church,  by 
Victor  the  bishop.  Thus  Theodotus  came 
near  to  the  system  of  the  Sociuians,  and  held 
Christ  fora  mere  man,  though  a  virtuous  and 
upright  one.  Whether  he  held  the  birth  of 
Christ  to  have  been  natural  or  supernatural, 
the  ancient  accounts  are  not  agreed.  He 
rejected  the  Gospel  of  John ;  and  held  his 
own  doctrine  to  be  apostolical,  and  that  of 


the  eternal  divinity  of  Christ  to  be  a  novel 
doctrine.  See  C.  W.  F.  Watch,  loc.  cit., 
p.  546-557. — Artemon  has,  in  modern  times, 
become  more  famous  than  Theodotus ;  since 
Samuel  Crell  assumed  the  name  of  an  Ar- 
temonite,  in  order  to  distinguish  himself  from 
the  odious  Socinians,  whose  doctrines  he  did 
not  fully  approve.  (See  his  book,  with  the 
title  :  L.  M.  Artemonii  Initium  Evangelii  Jo- 
hannis  ex  antiquitate  restitutum ;  and  his 
other  writings. )  The  history  of  this  Artemon 
is  very  obscure.  The  time  when  he  lived 
cannot  be  definitely  ascertained ;  and  the 
history  of  his  doctrine  is  not  without  diffi- 
culties. It  is  not  doubted  that  he  denied 
the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  held  by  or- 
thodox Christians.  But  whether  he  swerved 
towards  the  system  of  the  modern  Socinians, 
or  to  that  of  Praxeas,  is  another  question. 
Dr.  Mosheim  believed  the  latter  ;  de  Rebus 
Christ.,  &c.,  491.  But,  as  this  rests  on  the 
too  recent  testimony  of  Gennadius  of  Mar- 
seilles, (de  Dogm.  Eccles.,  c.  3),  Dr.  Walch 
(p.  564)  calls  it  in  question.  See  also  Jo. 
Erh.  Happen,  Diss.  de  hist.  Artemonis  et 
Artemonitarum,  Lips.,  1737. — Schl.  See 
also  A.  Neander,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  i.,  part 
iii.,  p.  996-1000.— TV.] 

(28)  There  is  extant  a  tract  of  Tertullian, 
Liber  contra  Hermogenem,  in  which  he  as- 
sails the  doctrine  of  Hermogenes  concerning 
matter  and  the  origin  of  the  world.  But  an- 
other tract  of  his,  de  Censu  animae,  in  which 
he  confuted  the  opinion  of  Hermogenes  con- 


SCHISMS  AND  HERESIES.  151 

&  23.  In  addition  to  these  sects  which  may  be  called  the  daughters  of 
philosophy,  there  arose  in  the  reign  of  Marcus  Antoninus,  an  illiterate 
sect,  opposed  to  all  learning  and  philosophy.  An  obscure  man  of  weak 
judgment,  named  Montanus,  who  lived  in  a  poor  village  of  Phrygia  called 
Pepuza,  had  the  folly  to  suppose  himself  the  Comforter  promised  by  Christ 
to  his  disciples,  and  to  pretend  to  utter  prophecies  under  divine  inspira- 
tion.(29)  He  indeed  attempted  no  change  in  the  doctrines  of  religion ; 
but  he  professed  to  be  divinely  commissioned  to  perfect  and  give  efficiency 
to  the  moral  discipline  taught  by  Christ  and  his  apostles :  for  he  supposed 
that  Christ  and  his  apostles  had  yielded  uptaany  points  to  the  weakness 
of  the  people  of  their  age,  and  thus  had  given  only  an  incomplete  and  im- 
perfect rule  of  life.  He  therefore  would  have  fasts  multiplied  and  extend- 
ed, forbid  second  marriages  as  illicit,  did  not  allow  churches  to  grant  ab- 
solution to  such  as  had  fallen  into  the  greater  sins,  condemned  all  decora- 
tion of  the  body  and  all  female  ornaments,  required  polite  learning  and 
philosophy  to  be  banished  from  the  church,  ordered  virgins  to  be  veiled, 
and  maintained  that  Christians  sin  most  grievously,  by  rescuing  their  lives 
by  flight  or  redeeming  them  with  money  in  time  of  persecution.  I  pass 
by  some  other  of  his  austere  and  rigid  precepts. 

§  24.  A  man  who  professed  to  be  a  holier  moralist  than  Christ  himself, 
and  who  would  obtrude  his  severe  precepts  upon  Christians  for  divine  com- 
mands and  oracles,  could  not  be  endured  in  the  Christian  church.  Be- 
sides, his  dismal  predictions  of  the  speedy  downfall  of  the  Roman  repub- 
lic, &c.,  might  bring  the  Christian  community  into  imminent  danger.  He 
was  therefore,  first  by  the  decisions  of  some  councils  and  afterwards  by 
that  of  the  whole  church,  excluded  from  all  connexion  with  that  body. 
But  the  severity  of  his  discipline  itself  led  many  persons  of  no  mean  con- 
dition, to  put  confidence  in  him.  Pre-eminent  among  these,  were  two 

cerning  the  soul,  is  lost.     [Tertullian  is  ex-  them  ;  and  held,  that  under  the  name  of  the 

ceedingly    severe    upon   Hcrmogenes,    who  Paraclete,  Christ  indicated  a  divine  teacher, 

was  probably  his  contemporary,  and  fellow  who  would  supply  certain  parts  of  the,reli- 

African.     Yet  he  allows  that  he  was  an  in-  gious  system  which  were  omitted  by  the  Sav- 

genious  and  eloquent  man,  and  sound  in  the  iour,  and  explain  more  clearly  certain  other 

principal  doctrines  of  Christianity.    Itseems,  parts  which  for  wise  reasons  had  been  less 

the  morals  of  Hermogenes  gave  most  offence  perfectly  taught.     Nor  was  Montanus  alone 

to  Tertullian.     He  had  married  repeatedly,  in  making  this  distinction.     For  other  Chris- 

and  he  painted  for  all  customers  what  they  tian  doctors  supposed  the  Paraclete,  whose 

wished.     To  a  Montanist  these  things  were  coming  Christ  had  promised,  was  a  divine 

exceedingly  criminal.     There  is  no  evidence  messenger  to  men,  and  different  from  the  Ho- 

that  Hermogenes  founded  a  sect. — See  Mo-  ly  Spirit  given  to  the  apostles.     In  the  third 

sheim,  de  Rebus  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  432,  &c.  century,  Manes  interpreted  the  promise  of 

C.  W.  F.  Walch,  Hist,  der  Ketzer.,  vol.  i.,  Christ  concerning  the  Paraclete  in  the  same 

p.  476,  &c.,  and  ^4.  Neander,  Kirchengesch.,  manner;   and  boasted  that  he  himself  was 

vol.  i.,  part  iii.,  p.  976,  &c. — Tr.]  that  Paraclete.     And  who  does  not  know, 

(29)  They  doubtless  err,  who  tell  us  that  that  Mohammed  had  the  same  views,  and 

Montanus  claimed  to  be  the  Holy  Spirit,  applied  the  words  of  Christ  respecting  the 

He  was  not  so  foolish.     Nor  do  those  cor-  Paraclete  to  himself!     Montanus,  therefore, 

rectly  understand  his  views,  whom  I  have  washed  to  be  regarded  as  the  Paraclete  of 

heretofore  followed,  and  who  represent  him  Christ,  and  not  as  the  Holy  Spirit.     The 

as  asserting,  that  there  was  divinely  impart-  more  carefully  and  attentively  we  read  Ter- 

ed  to  him,  that  very  Holy  Spirit  or  Comfort-  tullian,  the  greatest  of  all  Montanus'  disci- 

er,    who  once    inspired   and    animated    the  pies,  and  the  best  acquainted  with  his  sys- 

apostles.     Montanus  distinguished  the  Par-  tern,  the  more  clearly  will  it  appear  that  such 

achtt  promised  by  Christ  to  the  apostles,  were  his  views, 
from  the  Holy  Spirit  that  was  poured  upon 


152 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  II.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


opulent  ladies,  Priscilla  and  Maximilla  ;  who  themselves,  with  others,  ut- 
tered prophecies,  after  the  example  of  their  master,  whom  they  denomi- 
nated the  Paraclete,  or  Comforter.  Hence  it  was  easy  for  Montanus  to 
found  a  new  church,  which  was  first  established  at  Pepuza,  a  little  town 
of  Phrygia,  but  which  spread  in  process  of  time  through  Asia,  Africa,  and 
a  part  of  Europe.  Of  all  his  followers,  the  most. learned  and  distinguish- 
ed was  Tertullian,  a  man  of  genius,  but  austere  and  gloomy  by  nature ; 
who  defended  the  cause  of  his  preceptor,  by  many  energetic  and  severe 
publications. (30) 

(30)  See  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  v., 
cap.  16,  and  especially  Tertullian,  in  his 
numerous  books  ;  and  then  all  the  writers, 
both  ancient  and  modern,  who  have  treated 
professedly  of  the  sects  of  the  early  ages. 
Quite  recently,  and  with  attention  and  great 
erudition,  the  history  of  the  Montanists  has 
been  illustrated  by  Theoph.  Wernsdorf,  in 
has  Commentatio  de  Montanislis  saeculi  se- 
cundi  vulgo  creditis  haereticis,  Dantzik, 
1751,  4to. —  [The  Montanists  were  also 
called  Phrygians,  or  Cataphrygians,  from 
the  country  where  they  resided  and  origi- 
nated ;  also  Pepuzians,  from  the  town 
where  Montanus  had  his  habitation,  and 
which  he  pretended  was  the  New  Jerusa- 
lem spoken  of  in  the  Revelation  of  St.  John. 
It  appears  likewise,  that,  from  Priscilla  they 
were  called  Priscillianists ;  though  this 
name,  on  account  of  its  ambiguity,  has  in 
modern  times  been  disused.  Tertullian  de- 
nominated those  of  his  faith,  the  Spiritual, 
(Spirituales) ;  and  its  opposers,  the  Carnal, 
(Psychikoi);  because  the  former  admitted 
Montanus''  inspirations  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
which  the  latter  rejected. — The  time  when 
Montanus  began  to  disturb  the  church,  is 
much  debated.  Those  who  follow  Eusebi- 
us, who  is  most  to  be  relied  upon,  place 
this  movement  in  the  year  171,  or  172. 
Wernsdorf's  conjecture,  that  Montanus  was 


the  Bishop  of  Pepuza,  is  not  improbable. 
He  and  Priscilla  and  Maximilla  pretended 
to  have  divine  revelations,  which  the  Com- 
forter imparted  to  them,  in  order  to  supply 
by  them  what  further  instruction  the  Chris- 
tian church  needed.  The  instruction,  said 
they,  which  the  Holy  Spirit  gives  to  men,  is 
progressive.  In  the  Old  Testament,  instruc- 
tion was  in  its  infancy.  Christ  and  his 
apostles  advanced  it  to  its  youthful  stature. 
By  Montanus  and  his  coadjutors,  it  is 
brought  to  its  perfect  manhood.  In  the  Old 
Testament  God  conceded  much  to  the  hard- 
ness of  the  people's  hearts,  and  Christ  was 
indulgent  to  the  weakness  of  the  flesh,  but 
the  Comforter  is  unsparing  to  both,  and 
presents  the  virtues  of  Christians  in  their 
full  splendour. — Their  revelations  related  to 
no  new  doctrines  of  faith,  but  only  to  rules 
of  practice.  Some  of  them  also  were  his- 
torical. But  all  these  revelations  seem  to 
have  been  the  effect  of  their  melancholy 
temperament,  and  of  an  excessively  active 
imagination. — See,  concerning  Tertullian, 
Hamberger's  account  of  the  principal  wri- 
ters, vol.  ii.,  p.  492,  and  J.  G.  Walch,  Hist. 
Eccles.  N.  Test.,  p.  648,  &c.,  and  concern- 
ing the  Montanists,  C.  W.  F.  Walch,  His- 
toric der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  i.,  p.  611,  &c. — 
Schl.  Also  A.  Neander,  Kirchengesch., 
vol.  i.,  pt.  iii.,  p.  870-893.— TV.] 


CENTURY    THIRD. 
PART  I. 

THE    EXTERNAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    PROSPEROUS    EVENTS    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

§  1.  Rights  and  Immunities  of  Christians  enlarged. —  $  2.  Under  various  Emperors.  Good- 
will of  Alexander  towards  Christ. — §3.  Other  Emperors  favourable  to  the  Christians. 
The  Religion  of  the  Emperor  Philip. — §  4.  The  Number  of  Christians  augmented :  from 
Causes,  partly  Divine, — §  5.  and,  partly  human. — §  6.  Countries  added  to  the  Kingdom 
of  Christ. — $  7.  State  of  the  Church  in  France,  Germany. 

§  1.  THAT  Christians  suffered  very  great  evils  in  this  century,  and  were 
in  perfect  security  during  no  part  of  it,  admits  of  no  controversy.  For, 
not  to  mention  the  popular  tumults  raised  against  them  by  the  pagan  priests, 
the  governors  and  magistrates  could  persecute  them,  without  violating  the 
existing  imperial  laws,  as  often  as  either  superstition  or  avarice  or  cruelty 
prompted.  Yet  it  is  no  less  certain,  that  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the 
Christians  were  increased,  more  than  many  have  supposed.  In  the  army, 
in  the  court,  and  among  all  ranks,  there  were  many  Christians  whom  no 
one  molested  at  all ;  and  under  most  of  the  Roman  emperors  who  reigned 
in  this  century,  Christianity  presented  no  obstacle  to  the  attainment  of  pub- 
lic stations  and  honours.  In  many  places  also,  with  the  full  knowledge  of 
the  emperors  and  magistrates,  they  had  certain  houses  in  which  they  regu- 
larly assembled  for  the  worship  of  God.  Yet  it  is  probable,  or  rather  is 
more  than  probable,  that  the  Christians  commonly  purchased  this  security 
and  these  liberties  with  money  ;  notwithstanding  some  of  the  emperors 
had  very  kind  feelings  towards  them,  and  were  not  greatly  opposed  to  their 
religion. 

§  2.  Antoninus,  surnamed  Caracalla,  the  son  of  Severus,  came  to  the 
throne  in  the  year  211 ;  and  during  the  six  years  of  his  reign,  he  neither 
oppressed  the  Christians  himself,  nor  suffered  others  to  oppress  them.(l) 
Antoninus  Heliogabalus,  [A.D.  218-222],  though  of  a  most  abandoned 
moral  character,  had  no  hostility  towards  the  Christians. (2)  His  succes- 

(1)  [From  a  passage  in  Tertullian,  (ad  that  he  was  half  a  Christian,  and  on  thatac- 

Scapul.,  cap.  4),  asserting  that  Caracalla  had  count  was   indulgent   to    the    followers  of 

a  Christian  nurse :  lacte  Christiano  educatum  Christ.     But  it  is  much  more  probable,  that 

fuisse  ;  and  from  one  in  Spartinns,  (life  of  they   purchased  his   indulgence  with  their 

Caracalla,  in  Scriptor.  Histor.  Aug.,  vol.  L,  gold.    See  Mosheim,de  Rebus  Christ.,  &c., 

p.  707,  cap.  1),  asserting  that  he  was  much  p.  460. — TV.] 

attached   to  a  Jewish  playfellow,  when  he         (2)  Lampndius,  vita  Heliogabali,  cap.  3, 

was  seven  years  old  ;  it  baa  been  inferred  p.  796.     [Dicebat  praeterea  (Imperator)  Ju- 
VOL.  I.— U 


154      BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  I.— CHAP.  I. 

sor,  Alexander  Severus,  [A.D.  222-235],  an  excellent  prince,  did  not  in- 
deed repeal  the  laws  which  had  been  enacted  against  the  Christians,  so 
that  instances  occur  of  Christians'  suffering  death  in  his  reign  ;  yet  from 
the  influence  of  his  mother,  Julia  Mammaea,  to  whom  he  was  greatly  at- 
tached, he  showed  kind  feelings  towards  them  in  various  ways,  whenever 
occasion  was  offered,  and  even  paid  some  worship  and  honour  to  our  Sa- 
viour. (3)  For  Julia  entertained  the  most  favourable  sentiments  of  the 
Christian  religion  ;  and  at  one  time  invited  to  the  court,  Origen,  the  cele- 
brated Christian  doctor,  that  she  might  hear  him  discourse.  But  those 
who  conclude  that  Julia  and  Alexander  actually  embraced  Christianity, 
have  not  testimony  to  adduce,  which  is  unexceptionable.  Yet  it  is  cer- 
tain, that  Alexander  thought  the  Christian  religion  deserved  toleration,  be- 
yond others ;  and  regarded  its  author  as  worthy  to  be  ranked  among  the 
extraordinary  men  who  were  divinely  moved. (4) 

§  3.  Under  Gordian  [A.D.  238-244],  the  Christians  lived  unmolested 
and  tranquil.  His  successors,  the  Philips,  father  and  son,  [A.D.  244-249], 
showed  themselves  so  friendly  to  the  Christians,  that  by  many,  they  were 
supposed  to  be  Christians.  And  there  are  some  arguments  which  might 
render  it  probable,  that  these  emperors  did,  though  secretly  and  covertly, 
embrace  Christianity.  But  as  these  arguments  are  balanced  by  others 
equally  strong  and  imposing,  the  question  respecting  the  religion  of  Philip 
the  Arabian,  and  his  son,  which  has  exercised  the  sagacity  of  so  many 
learned  men,  must  be  left  undecided.  (5)  At  least,  neither  party  has  ad- 
duced any  evidence,  either  from  testimony  or  from  facts,  which  was  too 
strong  to  be  invalidated.  Among  the  subsequent  emperors  of  this  century, 
Gallienus,  [A.D.  260-268],  and  some  others  likewise,  if  they  did  not  di- 
rectly favour  the  Christian  cause,  they  at  least  did  not  retard  it. 

§  4.  This  friendship  of  great  men,  and  especially  of  emperors,  was  un- 
doubtedly not  the  least  among  the  human  causes,  which  contributed  to  en- 
large the  boundaries  of  the  church.  But  other  causes,  and  some  of  them 

daeorum  et  Samaritanorum  religiones  et  to  hear  him  discourse  on  religion.  But  nei- 
Christianam  devotionem  illuc(Romam) trans-  ther  of  them  intimates,  that  she  obeyed  his 
ferandam,  ut  omnium  cultarum  secretum  precepts  and  adopted  the  Christian  faith. 
Heliogabali  sacerdotium  teneret :  which  Dr.  And  in  the  life  of  Julia,  there  are  clear  in- 
Mosheim,  (deReb.  Christ ,  &c.,  p.  460),  un-  dications  of  superstition,  and  of  reverence 
derstands  to  mean,  that  Heliogabalus  wished  for  the  pagan  gods. — Scld.  from  Mosheim, 
the  Jewish,  Samaritan,  and  Christian  reli-  deReb.  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  46].] 
gions  to  be  freely  tolerated  at  Rome,  so  that  (4)  See  Fred.  Spanheim,  Diss.  de  Lucii 
the  priests  of  his  order  might  understand  all  Britonum  regis,  Juliae  Mammaeae,  et  Philip- 
the  arcana  of  them,  having  them  daily  before  porom  conversionibus,  Opp.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  400. 
their  eyes. — Tr.]  P.  E.  Jablonski,  Diss.  de  Alexandro  Severo 
(3)  See  Lampridius,  de  Vita  Severi,  c.  sacris  Christianis  per  Gnosticos  initiato,  in 
29,  p.  930,  and  Car.  Hen.  Zeibich,  Diss.  de  Miscellan.  Lips,  nov.,  torn,  iv.,  p.  56,  &c. 
Christo  ab  Alexandro  in  larario  culto  ;  which  (5)  See  Spanheim,  de  Christianismo  Phil- 
is  found  in  the  Miscell.  Lips,  novae,  torn,  iii.,  ipporum,  Opp.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  400.  (P.  de  la 
p.  42,  &c.  [Most  of  the  modern  writers  Faye),  Entretiens  historiques  sur  la  Chris- 
make  Julia  Mammaea  to  have  been  a  Chris-  tianisme  de  1'Empereur  Philippe,  Utrecht, 
tian.  See  J.  R.  Wetstein's  preface  to  Ori-  1692,  12mo.  Mammachius,  Origines  et  An- 
gen's  Dial,  contra  Marcionitas.  But  the  an-  tiq.  Christianae,  torn,  ii.,  p.  252,  &c.  See 
cient  writers,  Eusebius,  (H.  E.,  vi.,  21),  and  J.  A.  Fabriaus,  Lux  Evangelii  toti  orbi  ex- 
Jerome,  (de  Scriptor.  Illustr.,  c.  54),  express  oriens,  p.  252,  &c.,  [and  Masheim,  de  Re- 
themselves  dubiously.  The  former  calls  her  bus  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  471. — The  most  impor- 
•&£Off£/3£aTUTrjv,  and  the  latter  rdigiosam,  tant  ancient  testimonies,  are  Euseb.,  H.  E., 
(devout) ;  and  both  state  that  she  invited  Or-  vi.,  34,  and  Chronicon,  ann.  246.  Jerome, 
igen  to  her  court,  then  at  Antioch,  in  order  de  Script.  Illust.,  c.  54. — Tr.] 


PROSPEROUS  EVENTS.  155 

divine,  must  be  added.  Among  the  divine  causes,  besides  the  inherent  en- 
ergy of  heavenly  truth  and  the  piety  and  constancy  of  the  Christian  teach- 
ers, conspicuous  is  that  extraordinary  providence  of  God,  which,  as  we  are 
informed,  by  means  of  dreams  and  visions,  excited  many  persons  who  be- 
fore were  either  thoughtless  or  alienated  from  Christianity,  to  come  out  at 
once  and  enrol  their  names  among  the  followers  of  Christ. (6)  To  this 
must  be  added,  the  curing  of  diseases  and  other  miracles  which  very  many 
Christians  still  performed,  by  invoking  the  name  of  the  Saviour.(7)  Yet  the 
number  of  miracles  was  less  in  this  age  than  in  the  preceding  ;  which  may 
be  ascribed  not  only  to  the  wisdom  of  God,  but  also  to  his  justice,  which 
would  not  suffer  men  to  make  gain  by  the  powers  divinely  given  them. (8) 

§  5.  Among  the  human  causes  which  aided  the  progress  of  Christianity, 
may  doubtless  be  reckoned  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  various 
languages,  the  labours  of  Origen  in  disseminating  copies  of  them,  and  the 
various  books  composed  by  wise  men.  No  less  efficacy  is  to  be  ascribed 
to  the  beneficence  of  Christians,  even  towards  those  whose  religion  they 
abhorred.  The  idolaters  must  have  had  hearts  of  stone,  not  to  have  been 
softened  and  brought  to  have  more  friendly  feelings  towards  the  people, 
whose  great  sympathy  for  the  poor,  kindness  to  enemies,  care  of  the  sick, 
readiness  to  redeem  captives,  and  numerous  other  kind  offices,  proved  them 
to  be  deserving  of  the  love  and  gratitude  of  mankind.  If,  what  I  would 
not  pertinaciously  deny,  pious  frauds  and  impositions  deserve  a  place 
among  the  causes  of  the  extension  of  Christianity,  they  doubtless  hold  the 
lowest  place,  and  were  employed  only  by  a  few. 

§  6.  That  the  boundaries  of  the  church  were  extended,  in  this  century, 
no  one  calls  in  question ;  but  in  what  manner,  by  whom,  and  in  what 
countries,  is  not  equally  manifest.  Origen  taught  the  religion  he  professed 
to  a  tribe  of  Arabs :  I  suppose,  they  were  some  of  the  wandering  Arabs, 
who  live  in  tents. (9)  The  Goths,  a  ferocious  and  warlike  people,  that  in- 
habited Moesia  and  Thrace,  and  made  perpetual  incursions  into  the  neigh- 
bouring provinces  ;  received  a  knowledge  of  Christ  from  certain  Christian 
priests  whom  they  carried  away  from  Asia.  As  those  priests,  by  the  sanc- 
tity of  their  lives,  and  their  miracles,  acquired  respectability  and  great  in- 
fluence among  these  marauders,  who  were  entirely  illiterate ;  such  a 
change  was  produced  among  them,  that  a  great  part  of  the  nation  professed 
Christianity,  and  in  some  measure  laid  aside  their  savage  manners. (10) 

(6)  See  Origen,  adv.  Celsum,  lib.  i.,  p.  (10)  Sosomen,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  ii.,  c.  6. 
35.     Homil.  in  Lucae  vii.  Opp.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  Paul  Diaconus,  Hist.  Miscellan.,  1.  ii.,  c.  14. 
216,  ed.  Basil.      Tcrtullian,  de  Anima,  cap.  Philostorgius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  ii.,  c.  5. 
14,  p.  348,  ed.  Rigaltii.     Eusebius,  Hist.  [Ptiloftorgnu  says,  that   Ulphilas,  who  in 
Eccles.,  lib.  vi.,  c.  5,  and  others.    [See  also,  the  fourth  century  translated  the  Christian 
note  (14)  on  cent,  ii.,  pt.  i.,  ch.  i.,  p.  102,  Scriptures  into  the  Gothic  language,  was  a 
&c.,  of  this  work. — TV.]  descendant  of  the  captives  carried  off  by  the 

(7)  Ongen,  adv.  Celsum,   1.   i.,   p.  5,  7.  Goths  from  Cappadocia,  in  the  reign  of  Gal- 
Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccl.,  1.  v.,  c.  7.     Cyprian,  lienus  ;  which  is  not  improbable.     By  the 
Ep.  i.  ad  Donatum,  p.  3,  and  the  note  of  S.  influence   of  their   Christian  captives,  the 
Rahizc,  there,  p.  376.  Goths  were  induced  to  invite  Christian  teach- 

(8)  W.   Spencer,  Notes  on  Origen  adv.     ers  among  them  ;   and  numerous  churches 
Celsum,  p.  6,  7.  were  collected.     A  Gothic   bishop,  named 

(9)  Eusebins,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  vi.,  cap.  Thcophtlus,  subscribed  the  Acts  of  the  coun- 
19.      [But  Sender,  Hist.  Eccl.  selecta  cap.,  cilof  Nice,  (Socrates,  Hist.  Eccl  ,  ii..  c.41). 
vol.  i. ,  p  59,  supposes  they  were  not  wander-  Yet  there  is  indubitable  evidence,  that  a  large 
ing  Arabs. — TV.]  part  of  the  nation  remained  pagans,  long  after 


156  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  I.— CHAP.  II. 

§  7.  To  the  few  and  small  Christian  churches  in  France,  erected  by 
certain  Asiatic  teachers  in  the  second  centjury,  more  and  larger  ones  were 
added  in  this  century,  from  the  times  of  Decius,  [A.D.  249].  For  it  was  in 
the  reign  of  this  emperor,  those  seven  devout  men,  Dionysius,  Gratian, 
Trophimus,  Paul,  Saturninus,  Martial,  and  Stremonius,  migrated  to  this 
country ;  and  amid  various  perils  founded  the  churches  of  Paris,  Tours, 
Aries,  [Narbonne,  Toulouse,  Limoges,  Clermont],  and  other  places.  And 
their  disciples  gradually  spread  the  Christian  doctrine  throughout  Gaul.(l  1) 
To  this  age,  likewise,  must  be  referred  the  origin  of  the  German  churches, 
of  Cologne,  Treves,  Metz,  [Tongres,  Liege],  and  others;  the  fathers  of 
which  were  Eucharius,  Valerius,  Maternus,  Clement,  and  others. (12) 
The  Scotch  also  say,  that  their  country  was  enlightened  with  the  light 
of  Christianity  in  this  century ;  which  does  not  appear  improbable  in  it- 
self, but  cannot  be  put  beyond  controversy  by  any  certain  testimony. (13) 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  ADVERSE  EVENTS  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

$  1.  The  Persecution  of  Severus. — $  2.  Of  Maximinus,  the  Thracian. — §  3.  The  Cruelty 
of  Decius  led  many  Christians  to  deny  Christ. — f)  4.  Controversies  in  the  Church  on 
this  Subject,  Libelli  Pacis. — 5.  Persecutions  of  Gallus  and  Volusian. — f)  6.  Of  Valerian. 
— t)  7.  State  of  the  Church  under  Gallienus,  Claudius,  and  Aurelian. — §  8.  Attempts 
of  the  Philosophers  against  the  Christians. — §  9.  Comparisons  of  some  Philosophers  with 
Christ. — §  10.  Injury  thence  arising. — §  11.  Attempts  of  the  Jews  against  the  Chris- 
tians. 

§  1.  IN  the  commencement  of  this  century,  the  Christians  were  variously 
afflicted  in  many  of  the  Roman  provinces ;  but  their  calamity  was  in- 
creased in  the  year  203,  when  the  emperor  Severus,  who  was  otherwise 
not  hostile  to  them,  enacted  a  law  that  no  person  should  abandon  the  re- 
ligion of  his  fathers,  for  that  of  the  Christians,  or  even  for  that  of  the 
Jews.(l)  Although  this  law  did  not  condemn  the  [existing]  Christians, 
but  merely  restrained  the  propagation  of  their  religion,  yet  it  afforded  to 
rapacious  and  unjust  governors  and  judges  great  opportunity  for  troubling 
the  Christians,  and  for  putting  many  of  the  poor  to  death,  in  order  to  in- 
duce the  rich  to  avert  their  danger  by  donations.  Hence,  after  the  pass- 
ing of  this  law,  very  many  Christians  in  Egypt,  and  in  other  parts  of  both 
Asia  and  Africa,  were  cruelly  slain  ;  and  among  them  were  Leonidas,  the 
father  of  Origen ;  the  two  celebrated  African  ladies,  Perpetua  and  Felici- 

this  period.    See  Mosheim,  de  Rebus  Christ.,  tome  i.,  Diss.  i.,  p.  7,  &c.     Jo.  Nicol.  de 

&c.,  p.  449. — TV.]  Hontheim,  Historia  Trevirensis.     [See  also 

(11)  Gregory  Turonens.,  Historia  Fran-  notes  (6)  and  (7)  on  cent,  ii.,  part  i.,  ch.  i., 
cor.,  lib.  i.,  c,  28,  p.  23.     Theod.  Ruinart,  p.  99  of  this  work. — TV.] 

Acta  Martyrum  sincera,  p.  109,  &c.     [See  (13)  See  Usher  and  Stillingflcet,  on  the 

note  (9),  on  cent,  ii.,  part  i.,  ch.  i.,  p.  100  Origin  and  Antiquities  of  the  British  church- 

of  this  work ;  where  the  origin  of  the  Gallic  es  ;    and  Geo.  Mackenzie,  de  Regali  Sco- 

or  French  churches,  is  considered,  at  some  torum  prosapia,  cap.  viii.,  p;  119,  &c. 

length. — Tr.]  (1)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  vi.,  c.  i. 

(12)  Aug.  Calmet,  Histoire  de  Lorraine,  Spartianus,  Vita  Severi,  cap.  16,  17. 


ADVERSE  EVENTS.  157 

tas,  whose  Acts  [martyrdom]  have  come  down  to  us  ;(2)  also  Polamiena, 
a  virgin ;  Marcella,  and  others  of  both  sexes,  whose  names  were  held  in 
high  honour  in  the  subsequent  ages. 

§  2.  From  the  death  of'  [Septimus]  Severus,  till  the  reign  of  Maximin, 
called  Thrax,  from  the  country  which  gave  him  birth,  [or,  from  A.D.  211 
to  A.D.  235],  the  condition  of  Christians  was  everywhere  tolerable,  and 
in  some  places  prosperous.  But  Maximin,  who  had  slain  Alexander  Sev- 
erus, an  emperor  peculiarly  friendly  to  the  Christians,  fearing  lest  the 
Christians  should  avenge  the  death  of  their  patron,  ordered  their  bishops, 
and  particularly  those  that  he  knew  had  been  the  friends  and  intimates  of 
Alexander,  to  be  seized  and  put  to  death.(3)  During  his  reign,  therefore, 
many  and  atrocious  injuries  were  brought  upon  the  Christians.  For  al- 
though the  edict  of  the  tyrant  related  only  to  the  bishops  and  the  ministers 
of  religion,  yet  its  influence  reached  farther,  and  incited  the  pagan  priests, 
the  populace,  and  the  magistrates  to  assail  Christians  of  all  orders. (4) 

§  3.  This  storm  was  followed  by  many  years  of  peace  and  tranquillity. 
[From  A.D.  237-249.]  But  when  Decius  Trajan  came  to  the  imperial 
throne,  A.D.  249,  war  in  all  its  horrors,  again  burst  upon  the  Christians. 
For  this  emperor,  excited  either  by  fear  of  the  Christians,  or  by  attach- 
ment to  the  ancient  superstition,  published  terrible  edicts,  by  which  the 
governors  were  commanded,  on  pain  of  forfeiting  their  own  lives,  either 
to  exterminate  all  Christians  utterly,  or  bring  them  back  by  pains  and  tor- 
tures to  the  religion  of  their  fathers.  During  the  two  succeeding  years,  a 
great  multitude  of  Christians,  in  all  the  Roman  provinces,  were  cut  oif  by 
various  species  of  punishment  and  suffering. (5)  This  persecution  was 
more  cruel  and  terrific  than  any  that  preceded  it ;  and  immense  numbers, 
dismayed,  not  so  much  by  the  fear  of  death,  as  by  the  dread  of  the  long- 
continued  tortures  by  which  the  magistrates  endeavoured  to  overcome  the 
constancy  of  Christians,  professed  to  renounce  Christ;  and  procured  for 
themselves  safety,  either  by  sacrificing,  i.  e.,  offering  incense  before  the 
idols,  or  by  certificates  purchased  with  money.  And  hence  arose  the  op- 
probrious names  of  Sacrifaers,  Licensers,  and  the  Certificated,  (Sacrifica- 
tores,  Thurijicatores,  and  Libellatici),  names  by  which  the  lapsed  were 
designated.(G) 

(2)  Thcod.  Ruinart,  Ada  martyrum  sin-  might  have  prompted  him. — The  persecuting 
cera,  p.  90,  &c.     [See  an  affecting  account  Edict  is  not  now  extant ;  that  which  was 
of  the  sufferings  of  these  and  other  martyrs,  published  by  Mcdon,  Toulouse,   1664,  4to, 
in  the  reign  of  Severus,  in  Mil-tier's  Hist,  of  is  probably  unauthentic.     See  Moshcim,  de 
the  Church,  cent,  iii.,  ch.  v.,  p.  231,  &c.,  Reb.  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  476,  &c.— TV.] 

ed.  Boston,  1822. — Tr.]  (6)  See  Prudentms  Maran,  Life  of  Cy- 

(3)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  vi.,  c.  prian,  prefixed  to  Cypriani  Opp.,  $  vi.,  p. 
28.     Orosms,  Histor.  lib.  vii.,c.  19,  p.  509.  54,  &c.     [For  an  interesting  account  of  the 

(4)  Origen,  torn,  xxviii.  in  Matth.,  Opp.,  sufferings  of  Christians  in  this  persecution, 
torn,  i.,  p.  137.     Firmilian,  in  Opp.  Cypri-  the  English  reader  is  referred  to  Milncr's 
ani,  ep.  75,  p.  140,  &c.  Hist,  of  the  Church,  cent.  iii.,ch.  8,  p.  257, 

(5)  Eusctrius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  vi.,  c.  and  ch.  11,  p.  293,  ed.  Boston,  1822,  vol.  i. 
39-41.     Gregory  Nyssen,   Vita  Thauma-  — This  persecution  was  more  terrible  than 
turgi,  Opp  ,  torn,  iii.,  p.  568,  &c.     Cyprian,  any   preceding   one,   because   it    extended 
de  Lapsis,  in  Opp.,  p.  182,  &c.     [Euscbms  over  the  whole  empire,  and  because  its  ob- 
attributes  the  persecution  by  Dccuts,  to  his  ject  was  to  worry  the  Christians  into  apos- 
hatred  of  Philip,  his  predecessor,  whom  he  tacy  by  extreme  and  persevering  torture. — 
had  murdered,  and  who  was  friendly  to  the  The  Certificated,  or  Libellatici,  are  supposed 
Christians.     Gregory   attributes   it   to   the  to  be,  such  as  purchased  certificates  from  the 
emperor's  zeal   for  idolatry.     Both  causes  corrupt  magistrates,  in  which  it  was  declared, 


158     BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  L— CHAP.  II. 

§  4.  From  the  multitude  of  Christians  chargeable  with  defection  in  the 
reign  of  Decius,  great  commotions  and  sharp  contests  arose  in  different 
parts  of  the  church.  For  the  lapsed  wished  to  be  restored  to  Christian 
fellowship,  without  submitting  to  that  severe  penitence  which  the  laws  of 
the  church  prescribed ;  and  some  of  the  bishops  favoured  their  wishes, 
while  others  opposed  them. (7)  In  Egypt  and  Africa,  many  persons,  to 
obtain  more  ready  pardon  of  their  offences,  resorted  to  the  intercession  of 
the  martyrs,  and  obtained  from  them  letters  of  recommendation,  (libellos 
pacts),  that  is,  papers  in  which  the  dying  martyrs  declared,  that  they  con- 
sidered the  persons  worthy  of  their  communion,  and  wished  them  to  be 
received  and  treated  as  brethren.  Some  bishops  and  presbyters  were  too 
ready  to  admit  offenders,  who  produced  such  letters.  But  Cyprian,  bishop 
of  Carthage,  a  decided  and  strenuous  man,  though  he  was  not  disposed  to 
derogate  at  all  from  the  honour  of  the  martyrs,  was  nevertheless  opposed 
to  this  excessive  lenity,  and  wished  to  limit  the  effects  of  these  letters  of 
recommendation.  Hence  there  arose  a  sharp  contest  between  him  and  the 
martyrs,  confessors,  presbyters,  the  lapsed,  and  the  people,  which  ended  in 
his  gaining  the  victory.(S) 

§  5.  The  successors  of  Decius,  namely,  Gallus  and  his  son  Volusian, 
[A.D.  251-253],  renewed  the  persecution  against  the  Christians,  which 
seemed  to  be  subsiding  :(9)  and,  as  their  edicts  were  accompanied  by 
public  calamities,  particularly  by  a  pestilential  disease  which  spread 
through  many  provinces,  the  Christians  had  again  to  undergo  much  suf- 
fering in  divers  countries. (10)  For  the  pagan  priests  persuaded  the  pop- 
ulace, that  the  gods  visited  the  people  with  so  many  calamities,  on  account 

that  they  were  pagans,  and  had  complied  with  such  letters  was  unquestioned,  and  their  in- 

the  demands  of  the  law,  when  neither  of  these  fluence  very  great.     Yet  the  abuses  of  them 

was  fact.     To  purchase  such  a  certificate  were  felt  by  the  more  discerning.     Dr.  Mo- 

was  not  only  to  be  partaker  in  the  fraudulent  sheim,  (de  Rebus  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  490-497), 

transaction,  but  it  was  to  prevaricate  before  has  collected  the  following  facts,  respecting 

the  public  in  regard  to  Christianity,  and  was  their  misuse.     (1)  They  were  given,  with 

inconsistent  with  that    open   confession   of  little  or  no  discrimination,  to  all  applicants. 

Christ  before  men,  which  he  himself  requires.  Cyprian,  ep.  14,  p.  24;  ep.  10,  p.  20. — (2) 

On  the  purport  of  these  letters,  see  Mosheim,  They  often  did  not   express  definitely  the 

de  Rebus  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  482-489. — Tr.J  names  of  the   persons  recommended,   but 

(7)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  vi.,  c.  said :  "  Receive  A.  B.  (cum  suis)  and  his 
44.     Cyprian,  Epistolae,  passim.  friends."     Ibid.,  ep.    10,  p.   20,   21. — (3) 

(8)  Gab.  AlbaspincBUS,  Observat.  Eccles.,  Sometimes  a  martyr,  before  his  death,  corn- 
lib,  i.,  obs.  xx.,  p.  94.     Jo.  Dallaus,  de  po-  missioned  some  friend,  to  give  letters  in  his 
enis  et  satisfactionibus  humanis,  1.  vii.,  c.  name,  to  all  applicants.     Ibid.,  ep.  21,  p. 
16,  p.  706.     The  whole  history  of  this  con-  30  ;   ep.   22,  p.   31. — (4)  Some  presbyters 
troversy  must  be  gathered  from  the  Epistles  obeyed  these  letters,  without  consulting  the 
of  Cyprian.     [  Tertullian,  de  Pudicitia,  cap.  bishop,    and    thus    subverted    ecclesiastical 
22,  and,  ad  Martyres,  cap.  1,  makes  the  ear-  order.     Ibid.,  ep.  27,  p.  38  ;  ep.  10,  p.  20 ; 
liest  mention  of  these  letters  :  whence  it  is  ep.  40,  p.  52  ;  ep.  22,  p.  31,  32.     It  is  easy 
conjectured,  that  they  first  began  to  be  used  to  see  what  effects  would  follow,  when  the 
about  the  middle  of  the  second  century. —  almost  deified  martyrs,  of  every  age  and  sex 
By  martyrs  here,  must  be  understood,  per-  and  condition,   felt    themselves   to  possess 
sons  already  under  sentence  of  death  for  authority  almost  divine,  and  were  besieged 
their  religion,  or  at  least,  such  as  had  en-  by  a  host  of  persons  writhing  under  the  rig- 
dured  some  suffering,  and  were  still  in  prison  ours  of  the  ancient  discipline. — Tr.] 

and  uncertain  what  would  befall  them.     In  (9)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  vii.,  c. 

that  age,  when  martyrs  were  almost  idolized,  1.     Cyprian,  ep.  Ivii.,  Iviii. 

and  the  doctrines   of  repentance  towards  (10)  See  Cyprian,  Liber  ad  Demetrianum. 

God,  and  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  [Milner's  Hist.. of  the  Church,  cent,  iii.,  ch. 

imperfectly  understood;    the  propriety  of  12,  p.  308. — TV.] 


ADVERSE  EVENTS.  159 

of  the  Christians.  The  next  emperor,  Valerian,  stilled  the  commotion, 
A.D.  254,  and  restored  tranquillity  to  the  church. 

§  6.  Till  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign,  Valerian  was  very  kind  to  the  Chris- 
tians ;  but  suddenly,  in  the  year  257,  by  the  persuasion  of  Macrianus,  a 
most  bigoted  pagan  who  was  his  prime  minister,  he  prohibited  the  Chris, 
tians  from  holding  meetings,  and  ordered  the  bishops  and  other  teachers 
into  exile.  The  next  year  he  published  a  far  more  severe  edict ;  so  that 
no  small  number  of  Christians,  in  all  the  provinces  of  the  Roman  empire, 
were  put  to  death,  and  often  exposed  to  punishments  worse  than  death. 
Eminent  among  the  martyrs  in  this  tempest,  were  Cyprian,  bishop  of  Car- 
thage, Stilus,  bishop  of  Rome,  Laurentius,  a  deacon  at  Rome,  who  was 
roasted  before  a  slow  fire,  and  others.  But  Valerian  being  taken  captive 
iu  a  war  against  the  Persians,  his  son  Gallienus,  in  the  year  260,  restored 
peace  to  the  church. (11) 

§  7.  Under  Gallienus,  .therefore,  who  reigned  with  his  brother  eight 
years,  [A.D.  260-268],  and  under  his  successor  Claudius,  who  reigned 
two  years,  [A.D.  268-270],  the  condition  of  the  Christians  was  tolerable, 
yet  not  altogether  tranquil  and  happy.  Nor  did  Aurelian,  who  came  to 
the  throne  A.D.  270,  undertake  to  disquiet  them,  during  four  years.  But 
in  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign,  prompted  either  by  his  own  superstition  or 
by  that  of  others,  he  prepared  for  war  against  them.  But  before  his  edicts 
had  been  published  over  the  whole  empire,  he  was  assassinated  in  Thrace, 
A.D.  275. (12)  Hence,  few  Christians  were  cut  off  under  him.  The  re- 
mainder of  this  century,  if  we  except  some  few  instances  of  injustice,  ava- 
rice, or  superstition  in  the  governors,(13)  passed  away,  without  any  great 
troubles  or  injuries  done  to  Christians  living  among  Romans. 

§  8.  While  the  emperors  and  provincial  governors  were  assailing  Chris- 
tians with  the  sword  and  with  edicts,  the  Platonic  philosophers,  before  de- 
scribed, fought  them  with  disputations,  books,  and  stratagems.  And  the 
more  was  to  be  feared  from  them,  because  they  approved  and  adopted 
many  doctrines  and  institutions  of  the  Christians,  and,  following  the  exam- 
ple of  Ammonius  their  master,  attempted  to  amalgamate  the  old  religion 
and  the  new.  At  the  head  of  them  in  this  century,  was  Porphyry,  a  Syr- 
ian, or  Tyrian ;  who  composed  a  long  work  against  the  Christians,  which 
was  afterwards  destroyed,  in  obedience  to  the  imperial  laws. (14)  He  was 
undoubtedly  an  acute,  ingenious,  and  learned  man,  as  his  works  which  are 
extant  evince  ;  but  he  was  not  a  formidable  enemy  to  the  Christians.  For 
he  had  more  imagination  and  superstition,  than  sound  argument  and  judg- 

(11)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Ecclcs.,  1.  vii.,  cap.  (14)  See  Lu.  Holstcin,  de  Vita  Porphyrii, 
10,  11.     Ada  Cypriani,  in  Hainan's  Acta  cap.  11.     J.  A.  Fabricius,  Lux.  Evang.  toti 
martyrum  sincera,  p.  216.      Cyprian,  epist.  orbi  exoriens,  p.  154.     J.  F.  Buddaus,  Isa- 
Ixxvii.,  p.   17S  ;   epist.  Ixxxii.,  p.   165,  ed.  goge  in  Theologiam,  lib.  ii.,  p.  877,   &c., 
Baluz.     [Milncr's  Hist,  of  the  Chh.,  cent,  [and  Ja.  Brucker's  Hist.  crit.  Philos.,  torn, 
iii.,  ch.  xvi,  vol.  i.,  p.  347. — TV.]  ii.,  p.  236,  <fcc.     His  fifteen  books  against 

(12)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  vii.,  c.  the  Christians  were  condemned  to  be  burned, 
30.     Lactantius,  de  Mortibus  persequutor.  by  Theodosius   II.   and   Valentinian    HI., 
cap.  6.  A.D.  449,  (see  the  Codex  Justin,  de  Sum- 

(13)  One  example  is,  the  iniquity  of  the  ma  Tnnitate,  1.  i.,  tit.  i.,  cap.  3.)     The  work 
Caesar,  Galerius  Maximian,  near  the    end  was    answered    by    Methodius,    Eusebius, 
of  the  century,  who  persecuted  the  soldiers  Apollinaris,    and    Philostvrgius  ;   but    the 
and  servants  of  his  palace  that    professed  answers  are  lost.    Of  the  work  of  Porphyry, 
Christianity.     See  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  extracts  are  preserved  by  Eusebius,  Jerome, 
lib.  viii.,  cap.  1  and  4.  and  others. — Tr.] 


160  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  I.— CHAP.  II. 

ment ;  as  his  books  that  remain  and  the  history  of  his  life  will  show, 
without  recurrence  to  the  fragments  of  his  work  against  the  Christians, 
which  are  preserved  and  which  are  unworthy  of  a  wise  and  upright  man. 

§  9.  Among  the  wiles  and  stratagems,  by  which  this  sect  endeavoured 
to  subvert  the  authority  of  the  Christian  religion,  this  deserves  to  be  par- 
ticularly mentioned,  that  they  drew  comparisons  between  the  life,  mira- 
cles, and  transactions  of  our  Saviour,  and  the  history  of  the  ancient  phi- 
losophers ;  and  endeavoured  to  persuade  the  unlearned  and  women,  that 
these  philosophers  were  in  no  respect  inferior  to  Christ.  With  such 
views,  Archytas  of  Tarentum,  Pytliagoras,  and  ApoUonius  Tyanaeus,  a 
Pythagorean  philosopher,  were  brought  again  upon  the  stage,  and  exhib- 
ited to  the  public  dressed  very  much  like  Christ  himself.  The  life  of 
Pythagoras  was  written  by  Porphyry.(15)  The  life  of  ApoUonius,  whose 
travels  and  prodigies  were  talked  of  by  the  vulgar,  and  who  was  a  crafty 
mountebank,  and  the  ape  of  Pythagoras,  was  composed  by  Philostratus, 
the  first  rhetorician  of  the  age,  in  a  style  which  is  not  inelegant.  The 
reader  of  the  work  will  readily  perceive,  that  the  philosopher  is  compared 
with  our  Saviour ;  and  yet  he  will  wonder,  that  any  man  of  sound  sense 
could  have  been  deceived  by  the  base  falsehoods  and  fictions  of  the  wri- 
ter.(16) 

10.  But  as  nothing  is  so  irrational  as  not  to  find  some  patrons  among 
the  weak  and  ignorant  who  regard  words  more  than  arguments,  there 
were  not  a  few  who  were  ensnared  by  these  silly  attempts  of  the  philoso- 
phers.  Some  were  induced  by  these  stratagems  to  abandon  the  Christian 
religion,  which  they  had  before  embraced.  Others,  being  told  that  there 
was  little  difference  between  the  ancient  religion,  rightly  explained  and 
restored  to  its  purity,  and  the  religion  which  Christ  really  taught,  not  that 
corrupted  form  of  it  which  his  disciples  professed ;  concluded  it  was  best 
to  remain  among  those  who  worshipped  the  [old]  gods.  Some  were  led 
by  those  comparisons  of  Christ  with  the  ancient  heroes  and  philosophers, 
to  frame  for  themselves  a  kind  of  mixed  or  compound  religion.  Witness, 
among  others,  [the  emperor]  Alexander  Severus ;  who  esteemed  Christ, 
and  Orpheus,  ApoUonius,  and  the  like,  to  be  all  worthy  of  equal  honours. 

§  11.  The  Jews  were  reduced  so  low,  that  they  could  not,  as  formerly, 
excite  in  the  magistrates  any  great  hatred  against  the  Christians.  Yet 
they  were  not  wholly  inactive,  as  appears  from  the  books  written  by  Ter- 
tullian  and  Cyprian  against  them.  There  occur  also  in  the  Christian  fa- 
thers several  complaints  of  the  hatred  and  the  machinations  of  the  Jews.  (17) 
During  the  persecutions  of  Severus,  one  Domninus  abandoned  Christianity 
for  Judaism ;  undoubtedly,  to  avoid  the  punishments  that  were  decreed 
against  the  Christians.  Serapion  endeavoured  to  recall  him  to  his  duty, 

(15)  [And  in  the  next  century,  by  Jam-  42,  &c.     N.  Lardncr^s  Works,  vol.  viii.,  p. 
blichus.      That  both  biographers   had   the  256-292. — ApoUonius  was  born  about  the 
same  object,  is  shown  by  Lud.  Kuster,  Ad-  beginning,  and  died  near  the  close  of  the  first 
not.  ad  Jamblich.,  cap.  2,  p.  7,  and  cap.  19,  century.     He  travelled  over  all  the  countries 
p.  78. — Schl.]  from  Spain  to  India  ;  and  drew  much  atten- 

(16)  See   Godfr.    Olearius,   Praefat.   ad  tion  by  his  sagacious  remarks,  and  by  his 
Philostrati  vitam  Apollonii ;  and  Mosheim,  pretensions  to  superhuman  knowledge  and 
Notes  on   CudworMs  Intellectual  System,  powers.     He  was  a  man  of  genius,  but  vain- 
p.  304,  309,  311,  834,  [also  J.  Brucker's  glorious  and  a  great  impostor. — Tr.} 
Historia  crit.  philos.,  torn,  ii.,  98,  &c.,  and  (17)  Hippolytus,   Sermo   in   Susann.  et 
EnfieWs  Abridgment  of  Brucker,  vol.  ii.,  p.  Daniel.,  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  p.  274,  276. 


STATE  OF  LEARNING.  161 

by  some  epistles.(lS)  This  example  shows,  that  while  the  Christians 
were  in  trouble,  the  Jews  were  in  safety :  and  therefore,  though  greatly 
depressed,  they  had  not  lost  all  power  of  doing  injury  to  the  Christians. 


PART   II. 

THE   INTERNAL  HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  I. 

STATE   OF   LEARNING   AND   SCIENCE. 

$  1.  Decay  of  Learning. — $  2.  State  of  Philosophy,  especially  the  Platonic.  Plotinus. — 
$  3.  This  Philosophy  prevails  everywhere. — $  4.  Different  Sects  of  it. — $  5.  State  of 
Learning  among  Christians. 

§  1.  LITERATURE,  which  had  suffered  much  in  the  preceding  century, 
lost  in  this  nearly  all  its  glory.  Among  the  Greeks,  with  the  exception 
of  Dionysius  Longinus,  an  excellent  rhetorician,  Dion  Cassius,  a  fine  his- 
torian, and  a  few  others,  scarcely  any  writers  appeared  who  can  be  recom- 
mended for  their  genius  or  their  erudition.  In  the  western  provinces,  still 
smaller  was  the  number  of  men  truly  learned  and  eloquent,  notwithstand- 
ing schools  continued  here  and  there  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  genius. 
For  very  few  of  the  emperors  favoured  learning ;  civil  wars  kept  the  em- 
pire almost  constantly  in  commotion ;  and  the  perpetual  incursions  of  the 
barbarous  nations  into  the  most  cultivated  provinces,  extinguished  with 
the  public  tranquillity  even  the  thirst  for  knowledge. (1) 

§  2.  As  for  the  philosophers,  about  every  sect  of  Grecian  philosophy 
had  some  adherents  that  were  not  contemptible,  and  who  are  in  part  men- 
tioned by  Longinus.(2)  But  the  school  of  Ammonius,  the  origin  and  dog- 
mas of  which  have  been  already  stated,  gradually  cast  ^a\\  others  into  the 
back  ground.  From  Egypt  it  spread  in  a  short  time  over  nearly  the 
whole  Roman  empire  ;  and  drew  after  it  almost  all  persons  inclined  to  at- 
tend to  metaphysical  studies.  This  prosperity  of  the  sect  was  owing  espe- 
cially to  Plotinus,  the  most  distinguished  disciple  of  Ammonius,  a  man  of 
intellectual  acumen,  and  formed  by  nature  for  abstruse  investigation.  For 
lie  i;mght,  first  in  Persia  and  afterwards  at  Rome  and  in  Campania,  to  vast 
concourses  of  youth ;  and  imbodied  his  precepts  in  various  books,  the 
greater  part  of  which  have  come  down  to  us. (3) 

§  3.  It  is  almost  incredible,  what  a  number  of  pupils  in  a  short  time 
issued  from  the  school  of  this  man.  But  among  them,  no  one  is  more  cel- 

(19)  Euscbius,  Historia  Eccles.,  lib.  vi.,         (3)  See  Porphyrii  VitaPlotini,  republish- 

cap.  12.  ed  by  J.  A.  Fabricius,  in  Biblioth.  Graeca, 

(1)  See  Histoire  Littcraire  de  la  France,  vol.  iv.,  p.  91.     Peter  Bayle,  Dictionnaire, 
par  les  Moines  Benedictins,  torn,  i.,  part  ii.,  torn,  iii.,  art.  Plotin,  p.  757  ;  and  the  learn- 
p.  317,  &c.  ed  Ja.  Brucker,  Historia  crit.  philos.,  torn. 

(2)  In  Porphyry's  life  of  Plotinus,  cap.  ii.,  p.  217,  &c. 
20,  p.  128,  ed.  Fabricii. 

VOL.  I.— X 


162  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  L 

ebrated  than  Porphyry,  a  Syrian ;  who  spread  over  Sicily  and  many  other 
countries,  the  system  of  his  master,  enlarged  with  new  discoveries  and 
sedulously  polished.  (4)  At  Alexandria,  almost  no  other  philosophy  was 
publicly  taught,  from  the  times  of  Ammcnius  down  to  the  sixth  century. 
It  was  introduced  into  Greece  by  one  Plutarch,  who  was  educated  at  Al- 
exandria, and  who  re-established  the  Academy  at  Athens,  which  subse- 
quently embraced  many  very  renowned  philosophers  who  will  hereafter 
be  mentioned.  (5) 

§  4.  The  character  of  this  philosophy  has  already  been  explained,  as 
far  as  was  compatible  with  the  brevity  of  this  work.  It  is  here  proper  to 
add,  that  all  who  were  addicted  to  it,  did  not  hold  the  same  opinions,  but 
differed  from  each  other  on  several  points.  This  diversity  naturally  arose 
from  that  principle,  which  the  whole  sect  kept  in  sight ;  namely,  that  truth 
was  to  be  pursued  without  restraint,  and  to  be  gleaned  out  of  all  systems. 
Hence  the  Alexandrian  philosophers  would  sometimes  receive,  what  those 
of  Athens  would  reject.  Yet  there  were  certain  leading  doctrines,  which 
were  fundamental  to  the  system,  and  which  no  one  that  claimed  the  name 
of  a  Platonist,  dared  to  call  in  question.  Such  were  the  doctrines  of  one 
God,  the  source  of  all  things,  of  the  eternity  of  the  world,  of  the  depend- 
ence of  matter  on  God,  of  the  nature  of  the  soul,  of  the  plurality  of  Gods, 
of  the  method  of  explaining  the  popular  superstitions,  and  some  others. 

§  5.  The  estimation  in  which  human  learning  should  be  held,  was  a 
question  on  which  the  Christians  were  about  equally  divided.  For  while 
jnany  thought  that  the  literature  and  writings  of  the  Greeks  ought  to  re- 
ceive attention ;  there  were  others  who  contended,  that  true  piety  and  re- 
ligion were  endangered  by  such  studies.  But  gradually  the  friends  of 
philosophy  and  literature  acquired  the  ascendency.  To  this  issue  Origen 
contributed  very  much ;  for  having  early  imbibed  the  principles  of  the 
new  Platonism,  he  inauspiciously  applied  them  to  theology,  and  earnestly 
recommended  them  to  the  numerous  youth  who  attended  on  his  instruc- 
tions. And  the  greater  the  influence  of  this  man,  which  quickly  spread 
over  the  whole  Christian  world,  the  more  readily  was  his  method  of  ex- 
plaining the  sacred  doctrines  propagated.  Some  also  of  the  disciples  of 
Plotinus,  connected  themselves  with  the  Christians,  yet  retained  the  leading 
sentiments  of  their  master  :(6)  and  these  undoubtedly  laboured  to  dissem- 
inate their  principles  around  them,  and  to  instil  them  into  the  minds  of  the 
uninformed. 

(4)  Lu.  Holstenius,  Vita  Porphyrii,  repub-  of  this  philosopher,  that  he  attached  himself 

lished by  Fabricius,  in  Biblioth.  Gr. — ["For-  entirely  to  him.     See   Plotin.,  Vit.,  p.  3. 

phyry  was  first  the  disciple  of  Longinus,  au-  Eunap.,  c.  2,  p.  17." — Mad.] 

thor  of  the  justly  celebrated  Treatise  on  the  (5)  Marinus,  Vita  Procli,  cap.  11,  12,  p. 

Sublime.     But  having  passed  from  Greece  25,  dee. 

to  Rome,  where  he  heard  Plotinus,  he  was  (6)  Augustine,  Epistola  Ivi.,  adDioscor., 

so  charmed  with  the  genius  and  penetration  Opp.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  260. 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT.  163 


CHAPTER  II. 

HISTORY   OF   THE   TEACHEES   AND   THE   GOVERNMENT  OF   THE   CHUBCH* 

§  1.  Form  of  Church  Government. — §  2.  What  Rank  the  Bishop  of  Rome  held  in  this 
Century. — $  3.  Gradual  Progress  towards  a  Hierarchy. — §  4.  The  Vices  of  the  Clergy. 
— $  5.  Hence  the  Inferior  Orders  of  the  Clergy. — §  6.  Marriage  of  the  Clergy.  Their 
Concubines.— $  7.  The  principal  Writers ;  Grecian  and  Oriental. — §  8.  Latin  Writers. 

§  1.  THE  form  of  the  ecclesiastical  constitution  and  government  which 
had  been  introduced,  was  more  and  more  confirmed  and  strengthened, 
both  as  it  related  to  individual  churches  and  in  regard  to  the  whole  reli- 
gious community.  He  must  be  ignorant  of  the  history  and  the  monuments 
of  this  age,  who  can  deny  that  a  person  bearing  the  title  of  bishop  presided 
over  each  church  in  the  larger  cities,  and  that  he  managed  its  public  con- 
cerns with  some  degree  of  authority ;  yet  having  the  presbyters  for  his 
council,  and  taking  the  voice  of  the  whole  people  on  subjects  of  consider- 
able moment.(l)  It  is  equally  certain,  that  one  bishop  in  each  province 
was  pre-eminent  over  the  rest  in  rank  and  in  certain  prerogatives.  This 
was  necessary  for  maintaining  that  consociation  of  churches,  which  had 
been  introduced  in  the  preceding  century,  and  for  the  more  convenient 
celebration  of  the  councils.  Yet  it  must  be  added,  that  the  prerogatives 
of  these  principal  bishops  were  not  everywhere  accurately  ascertained ; 
nor  did  the  bishop  of  the  chief  city  in  a  province,  always  hold  the  rank  of 
first  bishop.  This  also  is  beyond  controversy,  that  the  bishops  of  Rome, 
Antioch,  and  Alexandria,  as  presiding  over  the  primitive  and  apostolic 
churches  in  the  greater  divisions  of  the  empire,  had  precedence  of  all  oth- 
ers, and  were  not  only  often  consulted  on  weighty  affairs,  but  likewise  en- 
joyed certain  prerogatives  peculiar  to  themselves. 

§  2.  As  to  the  bishop  of  Rome  in  particular,  he  was  regarded  by  Cfyp- 
rian,(2)  and  doubtless  by  others  likewise,  as  holding  something  of  primacy 
in  the  church.  But  the  fathers  who  with  Cyprian  ascribed  this  primacy 
to  the  Roman  bishop,  strenuously  contended  for  the  equality  of  all  bishops, 
in  respect  to  dignity  and  authority ;  and  disregarding  the  judgment  of  the 

(1)  Authorities  are  cited  by  David  Elan-  ep.  v.,  p.  11  ;  ep.  xiii.,  p.  23;  ep.  xxviii., 

dell,  Apologia  pro   sententia  Hieronimi  de  p.  39  ;  ep.  xxiv.,  p.  33 ;  ep.  xxvii.,  p.  37, 

episcopis  et  presbyteris,  p.  136,  &c. — [and  38. — To   the  objection,  that    Cyprian  did 

still  more  amply,  by  James  Boileau,  under  himself  ordain  some  presbyters  and  lectors, 

the  fictitious  name  of  Claudius  Fonteius,  in  without  the  consent  of  his  council  and  the 

his  book  de  antique  jure  presbyterorum  in  laity,  it  is  answered,  that  the  persons  so  ad- 

regimine  ecclesiastico,  Turin,  1676,  12mo.  vanced  were  confessors,  who,  according  to 

The  most  valuable  of  these  testimonies,  are  usage,   were  entitled  to  ordination  without 

from  the  epistles  of  Cyprian,  bishop  of  Car-  any  previous  election.     Cyprian,  ep.  xxxiv., 

thage,  who  was  a  warm  advocate  for  episco-  p.  46,  47  ;  ep.  xxxv.,  p.  48,  49.      Tcrtullian, 

pal  pre-eminence,  yet  did  not  presume  to  de-  de  Anima,  c.  55,  p.  353.  &c. — See  Moskeim, 

termine  any  question  of  moment  by  his  own  Commentt.  de  Reb.  Christ.,  &c.,  p.  575- 

authority,  or  without  the  advice  and  consent  579. — 7V.J 

of  his  presbyters,  and  was  accustomed  to         (2)  Cyprian,  ep.  Ixxiii.,  p.  131  ;  ep.  lv., 

take  the  sense  of  the  whole  church  on  sub-  p.  86 ;  de  Unitatc  ecclesise,  p.  195,  ed.  Ba- 

jects  of  peculiar  interest.      See   Cyprian,  luze. 


164     BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 

bishop  of  Rome,  whenever  it  appeared  to  them  incorrect,  had  no  hesitation 
in  following  their  own  judgment.  Of  this  Cyprian  himself  gave  a  striking 
example,  in  his  famous  controversy  with  Stephen,  bishop  of  Rome,  con- 
cerning the  baptism  of  heretics.  Whoever  duly  considers  and  compares 
all  their  declarations,  will  readily  perceive  that  this  primacy  was  not  a  pri- 
macy of  power  and  authority,  but  only  of  precedence  among  associated 
brethren.  That  is,  the  primacy  of  the  Romish  bishop  in  regard  to  the 
whole  church,  was  the  same  as  that  of  Cyprian  in  the  African  church, 
which  did  not  impair  at  all  the  equality  of  the  African  bishops,  or  curtail 
their  liberties  and  rights,  but  merely  conferred  the  right  of  convoking 
councils,  of  presiding  in  them,  and  admonishing  his  brethren  fraternally, 
and  the  like. (3) 

§  3.  Yet  while  the  ancient  mode  of  church  government  seemed  in  gen- 
eral to  remain  unaltered,  there  was  a  gradual  deflection  from  its  rules,  and 
an  approximation  towards  the  form  of  a  monarchy.  For  the  bishops 
claimed  much  higher  authority  and  power  than  before,  and  encroached 
more  and  more  upon  the  rights  not  only  of  the  brotherhood,  but  also  of  the 
presbyters.  And  to  give  plausibility  to  these  usurpations,  they  advanced 
new  doctrines  concerning  the  church  and  the  episcopal  office  ;  which  how- 
ever  were  so  obscure  for  the  most  part,  that  it  would  seem  they  did  not 
themselves  understand  them.  The  principal  author  of  these  innovations 
was  Cyprian,  the  most  bold  and  strenuous  defender  of  episcopal  power  that 
had  then  arisen  in  the  church.  Yet  he  was  not  uniform  and  consistent, 
for  in  times  of  difficulty,  when  urged  by  necessity,  he  could  give  up  his 
pretensions,  and  submit  everything  to  the  judgment  and  authority  of  the 
church.  (4) 

(3)  See  Stephen  Baluze,  Annott.  ad  Cyp-  bernatione,  et  de  actu  nostro  judicandi. — 

riani  Epistt.,  p.  387,  389,  400,  &c.     And  The  passages  referred  to  in  the  preceding 

especially  Cyprian  himself,  who  contends  note,  in  which  Cyprian  not  very  intelligibly 

strenuously  for  the  perfect  equality  of  all  speaks  of  a  unity  in  the  church  and  of  a  cer- 

bishops. — Ep.  lxxi.,p.  127.     [Nam  nee  Pe-  tain  primacy  of  the  Roman  pontiff,  must  be 

trus — vindicavit  sibi  aliquid  insolenter,  aut  so  understood  as  not  to  contradict  these  very 

arroganter  assumpsit  se  primatum  tenere,  et  explicit  assertions  of  the  absolute  equality  of 

obtemporari  a  novellis  et  posteris  sibi  opor-  all  bishops. — See  Mosheim,  de  Reb.  Christ., 

tere.] — Ep.  Ixxiii.,  p.  137.     [Unusquisque  &c.,  p.  579-587. — Tr.] 
Episcoporum  quod  putat  facial,  habens  ar-         (4)  [No  man  can  speak  in  higher  terms 

bitrii  sui  liberam  potestatem.] — Ep.  lv.,  ad  of  the  power  of  bishops,  than  the  arrogant 

Cornelium  Rom.,  p.  86.     [Cum  statutum —  Cyprian — that  very  Cyprian,  who,  when  not 

et  equum  sit  pariter  ac  justum,  ut  uniuscu-  fired  by  any  passion,  is  so  condescending  to- 

jusque  causa  illic  audiatur,  ubi  est  crimen  wards  presbyters,  deacons,  and  the  common 

admissum,  et  singulis  pastoribus  portio  gre-  people.     He   inculcates,  on   all  occasions, 

gis  sit  adscripta,  quam  regat  unusquisque  et  that  bishops  derive  their  office,  not  so  much 

gubernet,  rationem  sui  actus  Domino  reditu-  from  their  election  by  the  clergy  and  people, 

rus. — Cyprian's  address  at  the  opening  of  as  from  the  attestation  and  decree  of  God. 

the  council  of  Carthage,  A.D.  255,  in  his  See  ep.  lii.,  p.  68,  69  ;  ep.  xlv.,  p.  59  ;  ep. 

Works,  p.  329,  ed.  Baluze.     Neque  enim  lv.,p.  82;  ep.  lxv.,p.  113  ;  ep.  Ixix  ,p.  121. 

quisquam  nostrum  Episcopum  se  esse  Epis-  He  regards  bishops  as  the  successors  of  the 

coporum  constituit,  aut  tyrannico  terrore  ad  apostles,  ep.  xlii.,  p.  57.     So  that  bishops 

obsequendi  necessitatem  collegas  suos  adigit,  are  amenable  to  none,  but  to  God  only  ; 

quando  habeat  omnis  Episcopus  pro  licentia  while  presbyters  are  amenable  to  the  reli- 

libertatis  et  potestatis  suae  arbitrium  pro-  gious  society,  ep.  xi.,  p.  19. — Deacons  were 

prium,  tamque  judicari  ab  alio  non  possit,  created  by  the  bishop ;  and  therefore  they 

quam  nee  ipse  potest  alterum  judicare.     Sed  can  be  punished  by  him  alone,  without  the 

expectemus  universi  judicium  Domini  nostri  voice  of  the  society,  ep  Ixv.,  p.  114. — Bish- 

Jesu  Christi,  qui  unus  et  solus  habet  potesta-  ops  have  the  same  rights  with  apostles,  whose 

tern  et  praeponendi  nos  in  ecclesiae  suae  gu-  successors  they  are.    And  hence,  none  but 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT.  165 

§  4.  This  change  in  the  form  of  ecclesiastical  government  was  followed 
by  a  corrupt  state  of  the  clergy.  For  although  examples  of  primitive 
piety  and  virtue  were  not  wanting,  yet  many  were  addicted  to  dissipation, 
arrogance,  voluptuousness,  contention,  and  other  vices.  This  appears  dis- 
tinctly from  the  frequent  lamentations  of  the  most  credible  persons  of  those 
times. (5)  Many  bishops  now  affected  the  state  of  princes,  and  especially 
those  who  had  charge  of  the  more  populous  and  wealthy  congregations ; 
for  they  sat  on  thrones,  surrounded  by  their  ministers,  and  other  ensigns 
of  their  ghostly  power,  and  perhaps  also  dazzled  the  eyes  and  the  minds 
of  the  populace  with  their  splendid  attire.  The  presbyters  imitated  the 
example  of  their  superiors,  and  neglecting  the  duties  of  their  office,  lived 
in  indolence  and  pleasure.  And  this  imboldened  the  deacons  to  make  en- 
croachments upon  the  office  and  the  prerogatives  of  the  presbyters. 

§  5.  And  hence,  in  my  opinion,  originated  those  minor  orders  of  the 
clergy,  which  in  this  century  were  everywhere  added  to  the  bishops,  pres- 
byters, and  deacons.  The  words  suhdeacons,  acofythi,  ostiarii,  lectors,  ex- 
orcists, and  copiatae,  designate  officers,  which  I  think  the  church  would 
have  never  had,  if  the  rulers  of  it  had  possessed  more  piety  or  true  reli- 
gion. But  when  the  honours  and  prerogatives  of  the  bishops  and  pres- 
byters were  augmented,  the  deacons  also  became  more  inflated,  and  refused 
to  perform  those  meaner  offices  to  which  they  once  cheerfully  submitted. 
The  offices  designated  by  these  new  titles,  are  in  great  measure  explained 
by  the  words  themselves.  The  exorcists  owed  their  origin  to  the  doctrine 
of  the  new  Platonists,  adopted  by  the  Christians,  that  evil  spirits  have  a 
strong  desire  after  the  human  body,  and  that  vicious  men  are  not  so  much 
impelled  to  sin  by  their  natural  depravity  and  by  the  influence  of  bad  ex- 
amples, as  by  the  suggestions  of  some  evil  spirit  lodging  within  them.  (6) 
The  copiatae  were  employed  in  the  burial  of  the  dead. 

God  can  take  cognizance  of  their  actions,  apostles.    But  some  of  the  most  learned  wri- 

op.   Ixix.,  p.   121. — The  whole   church   is  ters  of  the  Romish  communion,  and  the  Prot- 

fonndod  on  the  bishop  ;  and  no  one  is  a  true  estants   generally,  maintain  that  they  were 

member  of  the  church,  who  is  not  submissive  first  instituted    in  the  third  century.     See 

to  his  bishop,  ep.  Ixix.,  p.  123. — Bishops  rep-  Cardinal  Bona,  Rerum  Liturgicar.,  1.  i.,  c. 

resent  Christ  himself,  and  govern  and  judge  25,  §  16,  17.     Morin,  de  Ordinatione,  pt.  hi., 

in  his  name,  ep.  lv.,  ad  Cornel.,  p.  81,  82. —  Exerc.   14,  c.  1,  and  Bingham's  Orig.  Ec- 

Hence   all   bishops,  in  the  following  ages,  cles.,  vol.   i.     G.  J.   Plane!;,   Gesch.  der 

styled  themselves  Vicars  of  Christ.     See  /.  christl.  kirchl.  Gesellschafts-Verfanung.,  vol. 

Binpharri's  Orig.  Eccles.,  vol.  i.,  p.  81,  &c.  i.,  p.  143-149.     Not  one  of  these  orders  is 

In  the  ninth  century,  a  bishop  of  Paris  is  so  even  named  by  any  writer  who  lived  before 

styled  in  a   letter  of  Servaius  Luput,  ep.  Terticllian ;  nor  are  all  of  them  named  by 

xcix  ,  p.  149,  ed.  Baluze.     After  the  ninth  him.     Cyprian,  in  the  middle  of  the  third 

century,  the  bishops  of  Rome  assumed  the  century,  mentions  hypodiaconi,  acolythi,  and 

exclusive  right  to  this  as  well  as  other  hon-  lectores.     See  his  Epp.,  14,  24,  36,  42,  49, 

orary  episcopal  titks. —  Schl.  from  Moshetm,  79,  ed.  Baluz.    And  Cornelius,  bp.  of  Rome, 

de  Rebus  Christianor.,  p.  588,  &c.]  contemporary  with   Cyprian,  in   an   epistle 

(5)  Ongen,  Comment,  in  Matthoeum,  pt.  which  is  preserved  by  Eusebius,  H.  E.,  vi., 
i.,  Opp.,  p.  420,  441,  442.     Eusebius,  His-  c.  43,  represents  his  church  as  embracing 
toria  Eccles.,  lib.  viii.,  cap.  1,  p.  291.  and  46   presbyters,    (^peodvrip^)  •    7   deacons, 
others.     [Cyprian,  in  many  of  his  epistles.  (<5«zK<*rttf);  7subdeacons.  (t'To&a/coi'Sf) ;  42 
— Tr."\  acolythi,  («KoA«$fcf) ;  and  exorcists,  (ffop**- 

(6)  See  J.  Godofredus,  ad  Codicem  The-  fQf ),  readers,  (uvayvofOf),  with  doorkeepers, 
odosianum,  torn,  vi.,  p.  48.     [Several  of  the  (irv/iupolf),    together    52  — The    particular 
Catholic  writers,  as  u.  p.,  Baroniits,  Bcllar-  functions  of  these  inferior  orders  are  but  im- 
min,  and  Schelstrate,  believed  these  minor  perfectly  defined  by  the  writers  of  the  third 
orders  of  the  clergy  were  instituted  by  the  century.    From  the  epistles  of  Cyprian  above 


166 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


§  6.  Marriage  was  allowed  to  all  the  clergy,  from  the  highest  rank  to 
the  lowest.  Yet  those  were  accounted  more  holy  and  excellent,  who  lived 
in  celibacy.  For  it  was  the  general  persuasion,  that  those  who  lived  in 
wedlock  were  much  more  exposed  to  the  assaults  of  evil  spirits  than  oth- 
ers :(7)  and  it  was  of  immense  importance  to  the  Christian  cause  that  no 
impure  or  malignant  spirit  should  assail  the  mind  or  the  body  of  one  who 
was  to  instruct  and  govern  others.  Such  persons  therefore  wished,  if  pos- 
sible, to  have  nothing  to  do  with  conjugal  life.  And  this  many  of  the 
clergy,  especially  in  Africa,  endeavoured  to  accomplish  with  the  least  vio- 
lence to  their  inclinations ;  for  they  received  into  their  house,  and  even  to 
their  beds,  some  one  of  those  holy  females  who  had  vowed  perpetual  chas- 
tity, affirming  however,  most  religiously,  that  they  had  no  disgraceful  in- 
tercourse with  these  holy  sisters. (8)  These  concubines  were  by  the 
Greeks  called  ovveiadiCTOi,  and  by  the  Latins  mulieres  subintroduciae. 
Many  of  the  bishops  indeed  sternly  opposed  this  shameful  practice  ;  but  it 
was  a  long  time  before  it  was  wholly  abolished. 

§  7.  Of  the  writers  of  this  century  the  most  distinguished  for  the  celeb- 
rity of  his  name  and  for  the  extent  of  his  writings,  was  Origen,  a  presbyter 
and  catechist  of  Alexandria,  a  man  truly  great,  and  a  luminary  to  the 
Christian  world.  Had  his  discernment  and  the  soundness  of  his  judgment 
been  equal  to  his  genius,  his  piety,  his  industry,  his  erudition,  and  his  other 
accomplishments,  he  would  deserve  almost  unbounded  commendation.  As 
he  is,  all  should  revere  his  virtues  and  his  merits. (9) — The  second  was 


cited,  it  appears  that  subdeacons  and  acoly- 
thi,  singly  or  together,  were  frequently  the 
bearers  of  public  letters  to  and  from  bishops  ; 
and  that  readers  were  employed  to  read  the 
scriptural  lessons  in  time  of  public  worship. 
The  writers  and  councils  of  the  fourth  centu- 
ry describe  more  fully  the  duties  of  all  these 
petty  officers. — TV.] 

(7)  Porphyrius,  mpt  UTTO;^,  lib.  iv.,  p. 
417. 

(8)  See  H.  Dodwell,  Diss.  tertia  Cyprian- 
ica ;  and  Lud.  Ant.  Muratorius,  Diss.  de 
Synisactis  et  Agapetis,  in  his  Anecdota  Grae- 
ca,   p.   218 ;    Steph.   Baluze,   ad   Cypriarii 
Epistol.,  p.  5,  12,  and  others. — [This  shame- 
ful practice  commenced  anterior  to  this  cen- 
tury.    Slight  allusions  to  it  are  found  in  the 
Shepherd  of  Hcrmas  and  in  Tertullian ;  but 
the  first  distinct  mention  of  it  is  in  Cyprian, 
who  inveighs  severely  against  it  in  some  of 
his  epistles. — It  is  to  be  remembered,  that 
none  but  virgin  sisters  in  the  church,  and 
they  under  a  vow  of  perpetual  chastity,  be- 
came avveiauKTOi.     With  these  some  of  the 
single  clergy  attempted  to  live,  in  the  manner 
in  which  certain  married  people  then  lived, — 
dwelling   and  even  sleeping   together,  but 
with  a  mutual  agreement  to  have  no  conjugal 
intercourse.     Such  connexions  they  consid- 
ered as  a  marriage  of  souls,  without  the  mar- 
riage of  bodies.     See  Mosheim,  de  Rebus 
Christianor.,  &c.,  p.  599,  &c.— Tr.] 

(9)  See  P.  D,  Huet,  Origeniana,  a  learn- 


ed and  valuable  work ;  Lud.  Doucin,  Histoire 
d'Origene  et  des  movemens  arrivees  dans 
1'egliseau  sujet  de  sa  doctrine,  Paris,  1700, 
8vo  ;  and  Boyle,  Dictionnaire,  torn,  iii.,  art. 
Origene  ;  and  many  others. — [Origen,  sur- 
named  Adamcmtius,  was  an  Alexandrian 
Greek,  born  of  Christian  parents  A.D.  185. 
His  father  Lconidas  was  a  man  of  letters,  a 
devout  Christian,  and  took  great  pains  with 
the  education  of  his  son,  especially  in  the 
holy  scriptures,  some  portion  of  which  he 
required  him  daily  to  commit  to  memory. 
His  education,  begun  under  his  father,  was 
completed  under  Clemens  Alexandrinus,  and 
the  philosopher  Ammonius  Saccas.  Ori- 
gen was  distinguished  for  precocity  of  ge- 
nius, early  piety,  and  indefatigable  industry. 
When  his  father  suffered  martyrdom  A.D. 
202,  Origen,  then  17  years  old,  was  eager  to 
suffer  with  him,  but  was  prevented  by  his 
mother.  He  wrote  to  his  father  in  prison, 
exhorting  him  to  steadfastness  in  the  faith, 
and  to  be  unsolicitous  about  his  family.  The 
whole  property  of  the  family  was  confiscated, 
and  Origen,  with  his  widowed  mother  and 
six  younger  sons,  were  left  in  poverty.  But 
the  persecution  having  exterminated  or  driv- 
en away  all  the  Christian  schoolmasters,  Or- 
igen found  no  difficulty  in  procuring  a  school, 
for  which  his  talents  so  well  qualified  him. 
The  next  year,  A.D.  203,  Demetrius,  bp.  of 
Alexandria,  advanced  him  to  the  mastership 
of  the  catechetic  school,  though  he  was  then 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


167 


Julius  Africanus,  a  very  learned  man,  most  of  whose  labours  and  works 

but  18  years  old.     His  talents  as  an  instruct-  Demetrius  assembled  two  councils  against 

er,  his  eminent  piety,  and  his  assiduous  at-  him,  the  first  of  which  banished  Origen  from 

tention  to  those  who  suffered  in  the  persecu-  _Alexandria,  and  the  second  deprived  him  of 

tion,  procured  him  high  reputation  and  nu-  his  clerical   office.     Demetrius  also  wrote 

inerous  friends  among  the  Christians  ;  but  letters  to  Rome  and  elsewhere,  to  excite  odi- 

his   great  success   in   making  converts  to  um  against  this  unoffending  man.     Heraclas 

Christianity  and  forming  his  pupils  to  be  in-  now  succeeded  him  in  the  school  at  Alexan- 


telligent  and  devoted  Christians,  rendered 
him  odious  to  the  pagans,  who  watched  about 
his  house  and  hunted  him  through  the  city, 
in  order  to  assassinate  him.  The  austerity 
of  his  life  was  great.  He  fed  on  the  coars- 
est fare,  went  barefoot,  and  slept  on  the 
ground.  He  spent  the  whole  day  in  teaching 
and  in  active  duties,  and  devoted  most  of  the 
night  to  his  private  studies  and  to  devotion, 


dria,  and  Origen  retired,  A.D.  231,  to  Caes- 
area  in  Palestine.  Here  he  resumed  his 
office  of  instructor,  and  continued  to  write 
expositions  of  the  Bible.  But  in  the  year 
235,  a  persecution  in  Palestine  obliged  him 
to  flee  to  Caesarea  in  Cappadocia,  where  he 
lived  concealed  for  two  years.  After  his 
return  to  Palestine,  he  visited  Athens  ;  and 
about  the  year  244,  was  called  to  attend  a 


About  this  time  he  sold  his  large  and  valua-     council  at  Bostra  in  Arabia,  against  Beryllus 
ble  collection  of  pagan  authors,  for  a  perpet-     bp.  of  that  place,  who  was  heretical  in  re- 
spect to  the  personal  existence  of  Christ 
previous  to  his  incarnation.     Origen  con- 


ual  income  of  four  oboli  (about  seven  cents) 
per  diem,  which  he  regarded  as  a  competent 
support.  Construing  the  passage  in  Matth. 


verted  him  to  the  orthodox  faith.     Dcmetri- 


xix.,  12,  literally,  he  emasculated  himself,  in  us  his  persecutor  died  A.D.  232,  and  was 
order  to  avoid  temptation  in  his  intercourse  succeeded  by  Heraclas,  a  disciple  of  Origen, 
with  his  female  pupils.  About  the  year  212,  after  whom  Dionysius  the  Great  filled  the 
he  made  a  short  visit  to  Rome.  On  his  re-  see  of  Alexandria  from  A.D.  248  to  265. 
turn  he  took  his  former  pupil  Heraclas  to  be  The  persecution  of  Origen  died  with  his  per- 
his  assistant  in  the  school,  so  that  he  might  sonal  enemy  Demetrius ;  and  he  was  greatly 
devote  more  time  to  theology  and  the  expo-  beloved  and  honoured  by  all  around  hum  till 
sition  of  the  Scriptures.  Many  learned  per-  the  day  of  his  death.  His  residence  was  now 
sons,  pagans  and  heretics,  were  converted  by  fixed  at  Csesarea  in  Palestine ;  but  he  occa- 
him  ;  and  among  them,  Ambrose,  a  Valenti-  sionally  visited  other  places.  His  time  was 
nian  and  a  man  of  wealth,  who  became  a  occupied  in  an  extensive  correspondence,  in 
liberal  patron  of  Origen,  and  at  last  died  a  preaching,  and  in  composing  books  explana- 
martyr.  In  the  year  215,  the  persecution  tory  of  the  Bible,  and  in  defence  of  Christi- 
under  Caracalla  obliged  Origen  to  flee  from  anity.  Against  the  more  learned  pagans 
Alexandria.  He  retired  to  Caesarea  in  Pal-  and  the  heretics  of  those  times,  he  was  a 
estine,  where  he  was  received  with  high  re-  champion  that  had  no  equal ;  he  was  also 
spect ;  and  though  not  even  a  deacon  at  that  considered  as  a  devout  and  exemplary  Chris- 
time,  the  bishops  of  Caesarea  and  Jerusalem  tian,  and  was,  beyond  question,  the  first  bib- 


allowed  him  to  expound  the  Scriptures  pub- 
licly in  their  presence.  The  next  year,  De- 
nfiriu-s  called  him  back  to  Alexandria  and 
to  his  mastership  of  the  catechetic  school. 
About  this  time  an  Arabian  prince  invi- 
ted him  to  his  court,  to  impart  to  him  Chris- 
tian instruction.  Afterwards,  Mammaea  the 


lical  scholar  of  the  age.  He  was  master  of 
the  literature  and  the  science  of  that  age, 
which  he  valued  only  as  subservient  to  the 
cause  of  Christ ;  but  he  was  more  skilful  in 
employing  them  against  pagans  and  here- 
tics, than  in  the  explanation  and  confirma- 
tion of  the  truths  of  revelation.  In  the  latter 


mother  of  the  emperor  Alexander  Severns,     part  of  his  life,  during  the  Decian  persecu- 
sent  for  him  to  Antioch,  in  order  to  hear  him     tion  A.D.  250,  he  was  imprisoned  for  a  con- 
siderable time,  and  came  near  to  martyrdom, 
which  he  showed  himself  willing  to  meet. 
He  was  however  released,  but  his  sufferings 


preach.  In  the  year  228,  he  was  publicly 
called  to  Achaia,  to  withstand  the  heretics 
who  disturbed  the  churches  there.  On  his 


return  through  Palestine,  Thcoctistus  bp.  of    in  prison,  added  to  his  intense  literary  la- 


Caesarca,  and  Alexander  bp.  of  Jerusalem, 
who  had  before  treated  him  with  marked  at- 


bours,  had  broken  down   his   constitution, 
and  he  died  A.D.  254,  at  Tyre,  in  the  69th 


tention,  ordained  him  a  presbyter,  to  the  great  year  of  his  age. — His  winning  eloquence, 

offence  of  Demetrius,  who  was  envious  of  his  great  learning,  his  amiable  temper,  and 

the  growing  reputation  of  his  catechist.     De-  his  reputation  for  sincere  and  ardent  piety, 

metrins  had  little  to  object  against  Origen,  gave    him    immense    influence,    especially 

except  that  he  was  a  eunuch,  and  that  foreign  among   the  well-informed   and   the   higher 

bishops  had  no  right  to  ordain  his  layman,  classes  in  society.     No  man,  since  the  apos- 

Controversy  ensued,  and  in  the  year  230,  ties,  had  been  more  indefatigable,  and  no 


168 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


The  name  of  Hippolytus  ranks  very  high  among  both  the 

intended  especially  for  the  learned.  A  col- 
lection of  Origen's  Scholia,  and  scattered 
remarks  on  Scripture,  compiled  by  Basil  the 
Great  and  Gregory  Nazianzen,  is  extant, 
bearing  the  title  of  ^fn/lo/ca/Ua.  A  large  part 
of  his  Homilies  and  Commentaries  are  whol- 
ly lost,  and  some  of  the  others  have  come  to 
us  only  in  the  Latin  translation  of  Rufinus. 


are  lost. (10) 

one  had  done  more  to  diffuse  knowledge  and 
make  the  Christian  community  intelligent, 
united,  and  respectable  in  the  view  of  man- 
kind. He  was  in  general  orthodox,  accord- 
ing to  the  standard  of  that  age  ;  but,  unfet- 
tered in  his  speculations  and  unguarded  in 
his  communications,  he  threw  out  some 
crude  opinions,  which  the  next  age  gathered 


up  and  blazoned  abroad,  and  for  which  he     — The  earlier  editions  of  Origen's  works  are 


was  accounted  by  some  a  heretic,.  The 
principal  errors  ascribed  to  him,  are  derived 
from  his  four  Books  nepl  apx&v,  (de  princip- 
iis,  on  the  first  principles  of  human  knowl- 
edge), and  are  ( I)  the  pre-existence  of  hu- 
man souls,  and  their  incarceration  in  mate- 
rial bodies,  for  offences  committed  in  a  for- 
mer state  of  being  :  (2)  the  pre-existence  of 
Christ's  human  soul,  and  its  union  with  the 


chiefly  in  Latin,  and  of  little  value.  P.  D. 
Huet,  a  Benedictine  monk,  first  published, 
A.D.  1668,  in  2  vols.  fol.,  the  expository 
works  of  Origen,  Greek  and  Latin,  with 
notes,  and  a  valuable  introduction  entitled 
Origeniana.  Bern,  de  Montfaucon,  another 
Benedictine,  collected  and  published  what 
remains  of  his  Hexapla  and  Tetrapla,  Paris, 
1714,  2  vols.  fol.  But  the  best  edition  of 


divine  nature  anterior  to  the  incarnation  of  all  his  works,  except  the  Hexapla,  is  that  of 

Christ :  (3)  the  transformation  of  our  ma-  the  Benedictines  Charles  and  Charles  Vin- 

terial  bodies  into  ethereal  ones,  at  the  res-  cent,  de  la  Rue,  Paris,  1733-59,  4  vols.  fol. 

urrection  :  (4)  the  final  recovery  of  all  men  — The  text  of  this  edition,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  with- 

and  even  devils,  through  the  mediation  of  out  the  notes  and  dissertations,  was  repub- 

Christ. — Origen  could  number  among  his  lished  by  OierMiir,  Wiirtzburg,  1780-93,  15 

pupils  many  eminent  martyrs  and  divines,  vols.   8vo. — The  principal    modern  writers 

among  whom  Firmilianus  of   Cappadocia,  concerning  Origen,  besides  Huet  and  the  de 

Gregory  Thaumaturgus,  and  Dionysius  the  la  Rues,  are  Tillemont,  Mem.  a  1'Hist.  de 

Great,  bp.  of  Alexandria,  are  best  known  1'Eglise,  torn,  iii.,  p.  216-264.    Bayle,  Diet., 

at  the  present   day. — His  life  and    history  art.  Origene  ;    Cave,  Hist.   Lit.,  vol.  i.,  p. 


are  best  related  by  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccl., 
lib.  vi.,  passim ;  and  by  Jerome,  de  Viris 
Illustr.,  cap.  55,  and  ep.  41  or  65.  The 
united  work  of  Pamphilus  and  Eusebius 
in  defence  of  Origen,  in  six  Books,  is  un- 


112,  &c.  Lardncr,  Credibility,  pt.  ii.,  vol. 
ii.,  p.  161,  &c.  Haloix,  Defence  of  Origen  ; 
Doucin,  Histoire  d'Origene,  Paris,  1700, 
8vo.  Mosheim,  de  Reb.  Christ.,  p.  605- 
680  ;  Schroeckh,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  iv.,  p. 


fortunately  lost,  except  the   first  book,  of    29-145.     Neander,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  i., 


which  we  have  a  translation  by  Rufinus. 
Epiphanius,  Haeres.  64,  gives  a  philippic 
upon  Origen  and  his  followers.  Photius, 
Biblioth.  cxviii.,  affords  us  some  knowledge 
of  his  lost  works. — Origen  was  a  most  volu- 
minous writer.  Eusebius  says  he  collected 
100  Epistles  of  Origen  ;  and  that  when  60 
years  old,  Origen  permitted  stenographers  to 
write  down  his  extempore  discourses. — Be- 
sides these  he  composed  eight  Books  against 
Celsus,  in  defence  of  Christianity,  which  are 
still  extant ;  four  Books  Trepl  apjuv,  extant 
in  a  Latin  translation  by  Rufinus ;  ten  Books 
entitled  Stromata,  which  are  lost :  his  Hex- 
apla and  Tetrapla,  of  which  little  remains  ; 
and  tracts  on  prayer,  martyrdom,  and  the 
resurrection.  But  his  principal  works  are  ex- 
positions of  the  scriptures.  It  is  said  he 
wrote  on  every  book  in  the  Bible,  except  the 
Apocalypse.  His  allegorical  mode  of  inter- 


part  iii.,  p.  1172-1214.  Milner's  account  of 
Origen,  Eccl.  Hist.,  cent,  iii.,  ch.  5,  6,  15,  is 
not  impartial. — Tr.] 

(10)  [Julius  Afncanus,  for  erudition,  and 
as  an  interpreter  of  scripture,  is  ranked  with 
Clemens  Alex,  and  Origen;  by  Socrates, 
Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  ii.,  c.  35.  The  best  ac- 
count of  this  distinguished  man,  is  derived 
from  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  vi.,  c.  31, 
and  Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  63.  He  was 
probably  of  Nicopolis,  once  called  Emmaus, 
in  Judea,  and  is  supposed  to  have  died,  when 
a  man  in  years,  about  A.D.  232. — Of  his 
life  little  is  known,  except  that  he  once  vis- 
ited Alexandria,  to  confer  with  Heraclas, 
head  of  the  catechetic  school  after  Origen  ; 
and  that,  the  city  of  Nicopolis  having  been 
burned  about  A.D.  221,  Africanus  was 
sent  as  envoy  to  the  emperor,  with  a  peti- 
tion that  it  might  be  rebuilt. — His  principal 


preting  scripture  is  described  by  Mosheim,     work  was  Annals  of  the  world,  from  the  cre» 
in  the  next  chapter.     Origen's  expositions     ation  down  to  A.D.   221,  in  five   Books, 
are  of  three  kinds  ;  (1)  Homilies,  or  popu- 
lar lectures  ;  (2)  Commentaries,  divided  into 
Books,  which  are  full,  elaborate,  and  learn- 
ed expositions ;  (3)  Scholia,  or  short  notes, 


This  work,  of  which  only  fragments  now 
remain,  was  highly  esteemed  by  the  ancients, 
and  was  the  basis  of  many  similar  works, 
namely,  the  Chronicons  of  Eusebius,  Syn- 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


169 


writers  and  the  martyrs ;  but  his  history  is  involved  in  much  obscuri. 
ty.(ll)  The  writings  now  extant  bearing  the  name  of  this  great  man, 
are  not  without  reason  regarded  by  many  as  being  either  spurious  or  at 
least  corrupted.  Gregory,  bishop  of  New  Caesarea  [in  Pontus],  was  sur- 
named  Thaumaturgus,  on  account  of  the  numerous  and  distinguished  mir- 
acles which  he  is  said  to  have  wrought.  But  few  of.his  writings  are  now 
extant;  his  miracles  are  questioned  by  many  at  the  present  day.(12)  I 

haps  he  spent  part  of  his  life  in  the  East,  and 
part  in  the  West.  That  he  was  a  martyr, 
is  generally  conceded  :  though  the  poem  of 
Prit/lentius  on  the  martyrdom  of  Hippo/ytus, 
refers  to  another  person,  who  was  a  Roman 
presbyter. — Eusebius,  1.  c.,  gives  this  ac- 
count of  his  writings  :  "  Besides  many  other 
works,  he  wrote  a  treatise  concerning  Eas- 
ter, in  which  he  describes  the  succession  of 
events,  and  proposes  a  paschal  cycle  of  16 
years  ;  the  work  terminates  with  the  first 
year  of  the  emperor  Alexander,"  (Severus, 
A.D.  222).  "  His  other  writings  which 
have  reached  me,  are  these  :  on  the  Hexae- 
meron"  (Gen.,  ch.  i.) ;  "on  what  follows 
the  Hexaemeron  ;  against  Marcwn;  on  the 
Canticles;  on  parts  of  Ezekiel  ;  concerning 
Easter  ;  against  all  the  heresies."  Besides 
these,  Jcrume  mentions  his  Commentaries  on 
Exodus,  Zechariah,  the  Psalms,  Isaiah,  Dan- 
iel, the  Apocalypse,  Proverbs,  and  Ecclesi- 
astes  ;  and  tracts  concerning  Saul  and  the 
witch,  Antichrist,  the  resurrection  ;  and  his 
discourse  in  praise  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour. 
Some  other  works  of  Hippoly/us  are  enu- 
merated in  an  inscription  on  the  base  of  his 
statue,  dug  up  near  Rome  in  the  year  1551  ; 
also  by  Photius,  Biblioth.,  No.  121  and  122  ; 
and  Ebedjesus,  in  Assemani,  Biblioth.  Ori- 
ent., torn,  iii.,  pt.  i.  His  Paschal  Cycle  is 
his  only  work  that  has  come  down  to  us  en- 
tire. The  dialogue  concerning  Christ  and 
Antichrist,  still  extant,  if  really  his,  does 
him  little  credit  as  a  theologian.  The  con- 
cluding part  of  his  work  against  all  the  her- 
esies, still  remains,  and  gives  us  the  best  ac- 
count we  have,  though  a  lame  one,  of  the 
heresy  of  Noitus. — All  that  remains  of  him, 
genuine  and  adulterated,  and  all  that  is  as- 
cribed to  him,  are  well  edited  by  Fubricius, 
in  two  thin  volumes  fol.,  Hamb.,  1716-18. 
— For  a  more  full  account  of  him  and  his 
writings,  besides  the  Histoire  Litt.  de  la 
France,  and  Fabriaus,  ad  Hippol.  Opera, 
see  Tillemont,  Memoires  a  1'Hist.  Eccles., 
torn,  in.,  p.  104  and  309,  &c.  Care,  Hist. 
Lit.,  vol.  i.,  p.  102,  &c.  Lardner,  Crcdib., 
pt.  ii.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  69,  &c.  Schroeckh,  Kir- 
chengesch.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  154,  &c.  Neander, 
Kircheng.,  vol.  i.,  pt.  iii.,  p.  11-17,  &c. —  TV.) 
(12)  See  Anton,  van  Dale,  Preface  to  his 
book  de  Oraculis,  p.  6.  [Schroeckh,  Kir- 
chengesch.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  351,  &c.,  and  p.  330 


cellits,  Malala,  Theopkanes,  Cedrenus,  and 
others.  He  was  author  of  a  letter  to  Aris- 
tides,  reconciling  the  two  genealogies  of  our 
Saviour.  Of  this  work  we  have  a  long  ex- 
tract in  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccl.,  i.,  7,  and  a 
fragment  in  Routes  Reliquiae  Sacrae,  vol. 
ii.,  p.  115.  Africanus  supposed  Matthew 
to  give  the  true  descent  of  Joseph  from  Da- 
vid by  Solomon,  and  Luke  to  give  his  legal 
descent  from  the  same  by  Nathan,  accord- 
ing to  the  law  for  raising  up  seed  to  a  de- 
ceased brother.  Jacob  and  Heli,  the  two 
reputed  fathers  of  Joseph,  he  supposed,  were 
half -brothers,  having  the  same  mother,  but 
different  fathers  ;  and  Heli  dying  childless, 
Jacob  married  his  widow  and  begat  Joseph, 
whom  the  law  accounted  as  the  son  of  the 
deceased  Heli. — Another  letter  of  Africa- 
mis,  addressed  to  Ongen,  is  still  extant  in 
the  works  of  Origen,  vol.  i.,  p.  10-12,  ed. 
de  la  Rue.  The  object  of  this  letter  is,  to 
prove  the  history  of  Susannah  spurious,  and 
the  work  of  some  person  much  younger  than 
Daniel.  His  chief  argument  is,  that  the 
writer  makes  Daniel  play  upon  the  Greek 
words  axlvof  and  Trpii'Of,  in  verses  54,  55, 
68,  59,  while  examining  the  witnesses 
against  Susannah. — Eusebius  and  others  as- 
cribe to  Africanus  another  and  larger  work, 
entitled  Kearoi.  It  is  a  miscellany,  and  un- 
worthy of  a  Christian  divine.  Valcsius 
thinks  Eusebius  mistook,  attributing  the 
work  of  some  pagan  bearing  the  same  name, 
to  this  Christian  father.  Others  suppose  it 
might  have  been  written  by  Africanus,  in 
his  youth,  or  before  his  conversion.  Many 
fragments  of  it  have  been  collected  by  The- 
venot,  and  published  in  his  Collection  of  the 
writings  of  the  ancient  Greek  mathemati- 
cians, Paris,  1693,  fol.— TV.] 

(11)  The  Benedictine  monks  have,  with 
great  labour  and  erudition,  endeavoured  to 
dispel  this  darkness.  See  Histoire  Litter. 
de  la  France,  torn,  i.,  p.  361,  &c.,  Paris, 
1733,  4to.— [Both  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles., 
vi.,  c.  20,  22.  and  Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr., 
c.  61,  make  him  to  have  flourished  in  the 
reign  of  Sererus,  A.D.  222,  &c.,  and  to  have 
been  a  bishop,  but  of  what  city  they  could 
not  learn.  Subsequent  writers  \\  <  re  divided, 
some  representing  him  as  an  Arabian  bishop, 
and  others  as  bishop  of  Ostia  near  Rome, 
whence  he  is  snruamcd  Poriue?isis.  Per- 

VOL.  I.— Y 


170 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


could  wish  that  many  writings  of  Dionysius,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  were 
now  extant ;  for  the  few  fragments  which  have  reached  us,  show  that  he 
was  a  man  of  distinguished  wisdom  and  mildness  of  disposition,  and  prove 
that  the  ancients  used  no  flattery  when  they  styled  him  Dionysius  the 
Great.(13)  Methodius  was  a  man  of  piety,  and  had  some  weight  of  char- 

—392,  and  Lardner,  Credibility,  pt.  ii.,  vol.  moderns  who  give  us  his  history,  and  enu- 

ii.,  p.  450,  <fec. — Gregory  of  New  Caesarea  merate  his  works,  see  Tillemont,  Memoires 

in  Pontus,  whose  original  name  was  Theo-  — a  1'Hist.  Eccl ,  torn,  iv.,  p.  131,  &c.,  and 

dorus,  was  born  of  heathen  parents  at  New  Notes  sur  St.  Greg.  Thaum.,  p.  47.     Du 
Caesarea  near  the  beginning  of  this  century. 
His    family  was  wealthy    and   respectable. 


family 

After  the  death  of  his  father,  which  was 
when  he  was  fourteen  years  old,  his  mother 
and  the  children  became  nominally  Chris- 
tians. But  Gregory  was  a  stranger  to  the 
Bible,  and  ambitious  to  make  a  figure  in  the 
world.  About  the  year  231,  he  left  Pontus, 
intending  to  study  law  in  the  famous  law 
school  at  Berytus,  but  meeting  with  Origen 
at  Caesarea,  he  was  induced  to  change  his 
purpose.  He  applied  himself  to  the  study 
of  the'  Bible,  was  baptized,  assumed  the 
name  of  Gregory,  and  continued  under  the 
instruction  of  Origen  eight  years,  except  that 
he  fled  to  Alexandria  for  a  short  time  to 
avoid  persecution.  He  was  now  a  devoted 
Christian,  and  a  man  of  great  promise.  On 
leaving  Origen,  he  composed  and  read  in  a 
public  assembly  an  eulogy  on  his  instructor, 
in  which  he  gives  account  of  his  own  past 
life  and  of  the  manner  in  which  Origen  had  al- 
lured him  to  the  study  of  the  scriptures,  and 
changed  all  his  views.  Taking  an  affection- 
ate leave  of  his  master,  he  returned  to  Pon- 
tus, and  became  bishop  of  his  native  city, 
New  Caesarea,  where  he  spent  the  remain- 
der of  his  life.  He  was  a  laborious  and 
successful  pastor,  and  highly  respected  for 
his  talents  and  piety,  as  well  as  for  numer- 
ous miracles  which  he  is  said  to  have  wrought. 
When  created  bishop,  he  found  but  seven- 
teen Christians  in  his  very  populous  diocese. 
When  he  died,  there  was  only  about  the 
same  number  of  pagans  in  it.  He  and  his 
flock  endured  persecution  in  the  year  250. 
He  attended  the  first  council  of  Antioch, 
against  Paul  of  Samosata  in  the  year  264 
or  265,  and  died  soon  after. — Some  account 
of  him  is  given  by  Euscbius,  Hist.  Eccles., 
vi.,  30,  and  vii.,  14,  28.  Jerome,  de  Viris 
Illustr.,  c.  65,  and  Ep.  ad  Magnum.  But 
his  great  eulogists  among  the  ancients,  were 
the  two  brothers  Basil  the  Great,  and  Greg- 
ory Nyssen,  whose  grandmother  sat  under 
the  ministry  of  Greg.  Thaum.,  and  furnished 
her  grandchildren  with  an  account  of  him. 
Basil  speaks  of  him  in  his  book  on  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  in  his  Epistles,  No.  28,  110,  204, 
207,  or  62,  64,  75,  63  ;  and  Nyssen,  in  his 
life  of  Gregory  Thaum.,  inter  Opp.  Greg. 
Nys.,  torn,  iii.,  p.  536,  &c.  Among  the 


Pin,  Nov.  Biblioth.  des  Aut.  Eccles.,  torn, 
i.,  p.  184,  &c.  Fabricius,  Biblioth.  Gr., 
vol.  v.,  p.  247,  &c.  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.,  vol.  i. 
A.  Neandcr,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  i.,  p.  1224, 
&c.  Schroeckh,  ubi  supra,  Lard.,  ubi  su- 
pra, and  Milner,  Eccles.  Hist.,  cent,  iii.,  ch. 
18. — The  only  genuine  works  of  Gregory, 
that  are  extant,  are  his  Eulogy  on  Origen, 
which  has  been  mentioned ;  a  Paraphrase 
on  Ecclesiastes  ;  a  short  Confession  of  faith, 
(the  last  part  of  which  some  have  ques- 
tioned) ;  and  a  Letter,  containing  counsel 
for  the  treatment  of  the  lapsed. — The  spuri- 
ous works  attributed  to  him,  are,  Capita  xii. 
de  Fide,  with  anathemas  ; — in  Annuntia- 
tionem  Sanctissimae  —  Mariae  Sermones 
tres  ;  in  Sancta  Theophania,  sive  de  appari- 
tione  Dei,  et  Christi  Baptismo,  Sermo  ;  de 
Anima  disputatio  ad  Tatianum ;  Expositio 
Fidei,  (fj  Kara  fiipo^  mfif),  relating  only  to 
the  Trinity. — All  these  were  collected  and 
published,  with  learned  notes,  by  Gerard 
Vossius,  Mayence,  1604,  4to,  and  Paris, 
1622,  fol.,  with  the  works  of  Macarius,  Ba- 
sil of  Seleucia,  and  a  tract  of  Zonaras,  sub- 
joined.— TV.] 

(13)  The  history  of  Dionysius  is  carefully 
written  by  Ja.  Basnage,  Histoire  de  1'Eglise, 
tome  i.,  livr.  ii.,  cap.  5,  p.  68. — [He  was 
probably  born  of  heathen  parents,  but  early 
converted  to  the  Christian  faith  by  Origen, 
under  whom  he  had  his  education  at  Alex- 
andria. He  became  a  presbyter  there  ;  and 
succeeded  Hcradas,  as  head  of  the  cate- 
chetic  school,  about  the  year  232,  and  on 
the  death  of  Heraclas,  A.D.  248,  he  again 
succeeded  him  in  the  episcopal  chair,  which 
he  filled  till  his  death  in  the  year  265.  We 
know  little  of  his  history  while  a  catechist, 
except  that  he  then  read  carefully  all  the 
works  of  heretics  and  pagans,  and  made  him- 
self master  of  the  controversies  of  the  day. 
(Euseb.,H.  E.,lib.  vii.,c.  7).  As  a  bishop  he 
was  uncommonly  laborious  and  faithful.  He 
lived  in  stormy  times,  was  called  to  almost 
continual  contests  with  errorists,  and  had 
little  rest  from  persecution,  in  which  he  and 
his  flock  suffered  exceedingly.  These  suf- 
ferings are  described  in  the  copious  extracts 
from  his  writings,  preserved  by  Euscbius,  in 
his  Eccles.  History,  book  vi.  and  vii.  In 
the  year  249,  the  pagans  of  Alexandria  made 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


171 


acter ;    but  the  few  works  of  his  yet  remaining,  prove  him  not  to  have 
been  a  man  of  an  accurate  and  discriminating  mind. (14) 

insurrection  against  the  Christians,  murdered     personality  to  his  divine  nature.     Dionysius 
several,  assaulted,  and  plundered,  and  drove     distinguished  two  persons,  as  well  as  two 


into   hiding-places  most  of  the  rest.     The 
next    year   the   general    persecution   under 


natures  in  Christ ;  and  affirmed  that  the  ac- 
tions   and  sufferings  of  the  human  nature 


Decius   commenced,    and    Dionysius    was     could  not  be  predicated  of  the  divine  nature. 


under  arrest,  and  suffered  much,  with  his 
flock,  for  a  year  and  a  half.  Soon  after  his 
release,  the  pestilence  began  to'  lay  waste 


— Natalis  Alexander  has  a  dissertation  (Hist. 
Eccles.,  saecul.  iii.,  Diss  xix.),  in  vindication 
of  the  orthodoxy,  though  not  of  all  the  phra- 


the  church  and  the  city,  and  did  not  entirely     seology  of  Dionysius. — For  a  knowledge  of 


cease  till  the  end  of  twelve  years.  About 
the  same  time,  Nepos  an  Egyptian  bishop, 
embraced  and  disseminated  millenarian  prin- 
ciples; but  was  at  length  reclaimed  by  Dio- 
nysius. The  warm  contest  respecting  the 
rebaptism  of  converted  heretics,  about  the 
year  256,  was  submitted  by  both  parties  to 
him,  and  drew  forth  several  able  productions 
from  his  pen.  Not  long  after,  he  had  to 
withstand  the  Sabellians,  in  a  long  and  ar- 
duous controversy.  In  the  year  257,  the 
persecution  under  Valerian  commenced ; 
and  for  about  two  years,  Dionysius  was  in 
banishment,  transported  from  place  to  place, 


the  life  and  writings  of  Dionysius,  the  chief 
original  sources  are  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles., 
1.  vi.,  c.  29,  35,  40-42,  44-46  ;  1.  vii.,  c.  1, 
4-11,  20-28.  Praepar.  Evang.,  1.  xiv.,  c. 
23-27.  Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  69,  and 
Prefatio  ad  Lib.  18,  Comment,  in  Esaiam ; 
Athanasius,  de  Sententia  Dionysii ;  and  de 
Synodi  Nicasnse  Decretis  ;  Basil,  de  Spiritu 
Sancto,  c.  29.  Epist.  ad  Amphiloeh.,  and 
Epist.  ad  Maximum. — Of  his  works,  only 
two  short  compositions  have  come  to  us  en- 
tire ;  namely,  his  very  sensible  letter  to  No- 
vatian,  (apud  Eusebii  Hist.  Eccles.,  vi., 
45),  and  his  Epistola  Canonica  ad  Basili- 


and  subjected  to  great  sufferings.     After  his     dem,  in  which  he  gives  his  opinion  respecting 


return,  in  the  year  260,  there  was  insurrec- 
tion among  the  pagans,  and  civil  war  and 
famine  raged  at  Alexandria.  Scarcely  was 
quiet  restored,  when  this  aged  and  faithful 
servant  of  God  was  solicited  to  aid  in  the 
controversy  against  Paul  of  Samosata.  His 
infirmities  prevented  his  attending  the  coun- 


the  proper  hour  for  terminating  the  fast  be- 
fore Easter,  and  the  obligation  of  Christians 
to  observe  certain  Jewish  laws  respecting 
personal  uncleannesses.  But  we  have  val- 
uable extracts  from  many  of  his  letters  and 
books.  Euselnus  gives  portions  of  the  fol- 
lowing ;  namely,  his  epistle  to  Gcrmanus, 


cil  of  Antioch  in  265,  where  Paul  was  con-     giving  account  of  his  flight  and  sufferings 


demned  ;  but  he  wrote  his  judgment  of  the 
controversy,  sent  it  to  the  council,  and  died 
soon  after,  in  the  close  of  that  year. — In  his 
controversy  with  the  Sabellians,  he  was — to 
say  the  least — unfortunate.  For  in  his  zeal 
to  maintain  a  -personal  tiistinetion  between 
the  Father  and  the  Son,  he  let  drop  expres- 
sions which  seemed  to  imply,  that  the  latter 
was  of  another  and  an  inferior  nature  to  the 


in  the  Decian  persecution.  (H.  E.,  vi.,  40, 
and  vii.,  11.) — Ep.  to  Fabius  bishop  of  An- 
tioch, describing  the  sufferings  of  his  flock 
in  the  same  persecution.  (H.  E.,  vi.,  40- 
42,  44.) — Ep.  to  Hermammon,  on  the  char- 
acters of  the  emperors  Decius  and  Valerian. 
(H.  E.,  vii.,  1,  10,  23.)— Ep.  to  Stephen 
bishop  of  Rome,  on  the  peace  after  the  per- 
secution of  Callus.  (H.  E.,  vii.,  4,  5.) — Ep. 


former.     This  led  the  Sahellians  to  accuse  to  Domitius  and  Didymus,  describing  the 

him"  of  heresy  ;  and  a  council  assembled  at  Decian  persecution  at  Alexandria,  (H.  E., 

Rome,  called  on  him  to  explain  his  views,  vii  ,  11.) — Ep.  to  Hicrax,  describing  the  se- 

He  replied  in  several  books  or  letters,  ad-  dition  at  Alexandria,  (H.  E.,  vii.,  21.) — Ep. 

dressed  to  Dionysius  bishop  of  Rome,  which  to  Sixtits  bishop  of  Rome,  on  rebaptism  of 
pretty    well    satisfied    his    contemporaries. 
Afterwards,  when  the  Arians  claimed  him, 
Athanasius  came  forth  in  vindication  of  his 
orthodoxy.     Dr.  Mosheim,  (de  Rebus  Chris- 


tianor.,  p.  696,   &c.),   supposes  that   Dio- 


heretics,.  and  on  the  Sabellians,  (H.  E.,  vii., 
5,  6.) — Another  ep.  to  the  same,  on  rebap- 
tism, &c.,  (H.  E.,  vii.,  9.)— Ep.  to  Phile- 
mon, a  Roman  presbyter,  on  the  same  sub- 
ject, (H.  E.,  vii.,  7.) — Ep.  to  Dtonysius, 


nysius  differed  from  the  orthodox  on  the  one  then  a  presbyter  at  Rome,  on  the  same  sub- 
hand,  and  from  Sabelliuson  the  other,  in  the  ject,  and  concerning  Novatian,  (H.  E.,  vii., 
following  manner.  They  all  agreed,  that  in  7,  8.) — Two  Books  against  Nepos  and  the 
Jesus  Christ,  two  natures,  the  human  and  Millenarians,  on  the  promises  to  the  saints 
the  divine,  were  united.  The  orthodox  in  the  Apocalypse,  the  nature  of  that  book, 
maintained,  that  both  natures  constituted  and  its  author,  (H.  E.,  vii.,  24,  25  )—Ep.  to 
but  one  perxcm,  and  denied  personality  to  his  own  flock,  after  the  plague,  consolatory, 
the  human  nature.  Sabcllius  admitted  the  (H.  E.,  vii.,  22.) — Libri  iv.  de  Nature, 
.union  of  two  natures  in  Christ,  but  denied  against  Epicurean  doctrines,  dedicated  to 


172 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


§  8.  Of  the  Latin  writers  of  this  century,  Cyprian  bishop  of  Carthage, 
deservedly  stands  first.  The  epistles  and  tracts  of  this  distinguished  and 
eloquent  man,  breathe  such  a  spirit  of  ardent  piety,  that  almost  no  one 
can  read  them  without  feeling  his  soul  stirred  within  him.  Yet  Cyprian 
would  doubtless  have  been  a  better  writer,  if  he  had  been  less  studious  of 
rhetorical  ornaments,  and  a  better  bishop,  if  he  had  been  more  capable  of 
controlling  his  temper  and  of  discriminating  between  truth  and  error. (15) 


his  son,  (Euseb.,  Praep.  Evang.,  xiv.,  23- 
27.) — Athanasius  also  gives  extracts  from 
various  of  his  works. — Eusebius  mentions 
seyeral  works  of  Dionysius,  from  which  he 
gives  no  extracts,  (H.  E.,  vi.,  46,  and  vii., 
26) ;  namely,  Epistles  to  the  brethren  in 
Egypt,  de  Pcenitentia — to  Cornelius  bishop 
of  Rome,  de  Pcenitentia — to  his  own  church, 
a  monitory  epistle — to  Origen,  on  Martyr- 
dom— to  the  brethren  of  Laodicea — to  the 
brethren  in  Armenia — to  Cornelius  bishop 
of  Rome,  concerning  Novatian — to  the 
brethren  at  Rome,  three  epistles  concerning 
the  office  of  a  deacon,  concerning  peace,  and 
de  Pcenitentia — to  the  confessors  at  Rome, 
who  favoured  Novatian — to  the  same,  after 
they  returned  to  the  church,  two  letters — to 
Sixtus  and  the  church  at  Rome,  on  rebaptism, 
&c. — to  Dionysius  of  Rome,  concerning  Lu- 
cian — and  various  Paschal  Epistles,  (a  spe- 
cies of  pastoral  letters),  addressed  to  Fla- 
vins— to  Domitius  and  Didymus — to  his  own 
presbyters — to  his  flock,  after  the  persecution 
of  Valerian — to  the  brethren  in  Egypt,  &c.] 
(14)  [Methodius,  Patarensis,  Eubulius, 
was  bp.  of  Olympus,  or  of  Patara,  in  Lycia, 
and  afterwards  of  Tyre.  He  lived  during 
the  last  half  of  the  third  century  ;  and  died  a 
martyr,  at  Chalcis  in  Greece,  probably  A.D. 
311,  during  the  Diocletian  persecution.  Je- 
rome, (de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  83),  ranks  him 
among  the  popular  writers,  and  commends 
him  especially  for  the  neatness  of  his  style  ; 
but  Socrates,  (in  his  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  vi.,  c. 
13),  represents  him  as  one  of  those  low  and 
contemptible  scribblers,  who  endeavour  to 
bring  themselves  into  notice  by  assailing  the 
characters  of  their  superiors.  His  works,  as 
enumerated  by  Jerome,  are  (1)  Two  Books 
against  Porphyry,  (a  large  work,  now  lost) 
— (2)  Feast  of  the  Ten  Virgins,  (a  dialogue 
of  pious  females,  in  praise  of  celibacy.  It  is 
still  extant,  though  perhaps  corrupted  ;  but 
it  does  its  author  little  credit) — (3)  On  the 
resurrection  of  the  body,  against  Origen, 
opus  egregium.  (It  is  but  an  indifferent 
work  ;  much  of  it  is  preserved  by  Epipha- 
nius,  Haeres.  Ixiv.  Phofius,  Bibl.  ccxxxiv., 
&c.) — (4)  On  the  Witch  of  Endor,  against 
Origen  ;  (not  extant) — (5)  On  free  will  (and 
the  origin  of  evil ;  not  from  matter,  but  from 
abuse  of  human  liberty.  Extracts  from  it 
remain) — (6)  Commentaries  on  Genesis  and 


Canticles,  (almost  wholly  lost) — (7)  Many 
other  popular  works,  (not  described  by  Je- 
rome).— The  works  of  Methodius,  so  far  as 
they  remain,  were  edited  with  those  of  Am- 
•philochius  and  Andreas  Cretcnsis,  by  Fran- 
cis Cambefis,  Paris,  1644,  fol.  But  the 
Feast  of  Virgins  first  appeared  in  the  original 
Greek,  in  Combejis,  Auctar.  noviss.  Biblioth. 
Pair.  Grsec.,  part  i. — Several  discourses  of 
the  younger  Methodius,  patriarch  of  Constan- 
tinople in  the  9th  century,  have  been  ascribed 
to  the  senior  Methodius. — 7Y.J 

(15)  [Thascius  Cacilius  Cyprianus  was 
born  of  heathen  parents,  and  probably  about 
the  year  200,  at  Carthage  in  Africa.  He 
was  rather  dissipated,  but  was  a  man  of  ge- 
nius, and  a  teacher  of  rhetoric.  In  the  year 
244  or  245  he  was  converted  to  Christianity, 
by  Ccecilius  a  presbyter  of  Carthage,  whose 
name  he  assumed.  An  account  of  his  con- 
version, we  have  in  his  tract,  de  Gratia  Dei, 
ad  Donatum.  As  soon  as  he  became  a 
Christian,  he  distributed  all  his  property  in 
charity  to  the  poor,  devoted  himself  much  to 
the  study  of  the  Bible  and  of  his  favourite 
author  Tcrtullian,  and  showed  a  zeal  and 
earnestness  in  religion  seldom  equalled.  He 
was  made  a  presbyter  a  few  months  after  his 
conversion,  and  was  advanced  to  the  episco- 
pal chair  in  the  year  248.  As  a  bishop  he 
was  indefatigable  and  efficient.  Few  men 
ever  accomplished  so  much  in  a  long  life,  as 
Cyprian  did  in  the  ten  years  of  his  episco- 
pacy. In  the  year  250  the  Decian  persecu- 
tion obliged  him  to  leave  Carthage,  and  live 
in  concealment  for  more  than  a  year.  Du- 
ring his  exile  he  wrote  39  epistles,  which 
are  extant,  addressed  to  his  church,  to  its 
officers  collectively  or  individually,  to  other 
bishops,  and  to  various  individuals.  On  his 
return  to  Carthage  A.D.  251,  he  had  much 
to  do  to  collect  and  regulate  his  flock :  a 
controversy  arose  respecting  the  reception  of 
the  lapsed  to  Christian  fellowship  ;  and  Cy- 
prian had  personal  contests  with  some  of  his 
presbyters,  who  were  opposed  to  hirn.  He 
was  also  drawn  into  the  Novatian  contro- 
versy. The  persecution  was  soon  after  re- 
newed by  the  emperor  Callus ;  and  pesti- 
lence and  famine  spread  wide  ;  and  incur- 
sions of  barbarians  from  the  desert  laid  waste 
the  back  country.  Cyprian  wrote  and 
preached  incessantly  ;  and  in  the  year  253, 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


173 


The  Dialogue  of  Minucius  Felix,  which  he  entitled  Octavius,  answers  the 
arguments  by  which  the  Christians  were  commonly  attacked  by  their  ad- 
versarics,  in  a  manner  so  spirited  and  so  handsome,  that  it  cannot  be  dis. 
regarded  except  by  those  who  are  willing  to  be  ignorant  of  the  state  of 
the  church  in  this  century.(16)  The  seven  Books  of  Arnobius,  the  Afri. 
can,  against  the  Gentiles,  are  more  full  and  copious,  and  though  obscure 
in  several  places,  will  not  be  read  without  both  pleasure  and  profit.  Yet 
this  rhetorician,  who  was  superficial  in  his  knowledge  of  Christian  doc- 


called  a  council  and  roused  up  the  African 
churches  to  great  efforts  for  redeeming 
Christian  captives.  For  several  years  he 
was  most  laboriously  employed  in  preach- 
ing, composing  tracts,  and  directing  the  ec- 
clesiastical affairs,  not  only  of  Carthage  and 
Africa,  but  of  other  countries.  In  the  year 
257,  the  persecution  under  Valerian  broke 
out,  and  Cyprian  was  banished  to  Curubis. 
The  persecution  was  severe  in  Africa  :  many 
were  imprisoned,  condemned  to  the  mines,  or 
put  to  death.  Cyprian  gave  what  aid  he 
could  to  his  suffering  brethren.  The  next 
year,  A.D.  258,  he  was  recalled  from  ban- 
ishment, summoned  before  the  ne'.v  gov- 
ernor, Maximum,  and  condemned  to  be  be- 
headed.— Cyprian  lived  but  12  years  after 
he  embraced  Christianity,  and  during  10  of 
these  he  was  incessantly  engaged  in  active 
duties.  It  was  impossible  therefore,  that  he 
should  become  a  very  learned  theologian. 
Though  a  man  of  genius,  he  was  not  a  meta- 
physician or  philosopher,  and  seems  not 
formed  for  abstruse  speculations.  He  was 
an  orator  and  a  man  of  business,  rather  than 
a  profound  scholar.  The  practical  part  of 
Christianity,  and  the  order  and  discipline  of 
the  church,  most  engaged  his  attention.  Nat- 
urally ardent,  and  poring  daily  over  the  wri- 
tings of  Tcrtullian,  he  imbibed  very  much 
the  spirit  and  the  principles  of  that  gloomy 
Montanist :  and  having  high  ideas  of  episco- 
pal power,  and  great  intrepidity  of  character, 
he  was  an  energetic  prelate,  and  a  severe 
disciplinarian. — The  best  original  sources  for 
the  history  of  this  distinguished  man,  are  his 
own  numerous  letters  and  tracts,  and  the 
Passio  S.  Cypriani,  or  account  of  his  mar- 
tyrdom, written  by  Pontius,  one  of  his  dea- 
cons. He  is  very  honourably  mentioned  by 
many  of  the  fathers ;  and  Gregory  Naz.  wrote 
a  professed  eulogy  of  him.  The  moderns 
also,  especially  the  Catholics  and  the  English 
Episcopalians,  have  written  elaborately  con- 
cerning his  history,  his  works,  and  his  opin- 
ions. See  bp.  Pearson's  Annales  Cyprian- 
ici,  and  H.  DodweWs  Dissertationes  Cypri- 
anicae,  in  the  Oxford  edition  of  Cyprian's 
works,  1682;  Tillcmont,Memoiies— a  1'His- 
toire  Eccles.,  torn,  iv.,  p.  19,  &c  ,  and  Notes 
BUT  St.  Cyprien,  p.  10,  &c.  ;  Prud.  Maran, 
Vita  S.  Cypriani,  prefixed  to  Opp.  Cypr.,  ed. 


Paris,  1726,  p.  38-134;  and  J.  Milner's 
Church  Hist.,  cent,  iii.,  ch.  7-15. — His 
works  consist  of  81  Epistles,  and  14  Trea- 
tises, which  are  accounted  genuine.  They 
are  nearly  all  practical, — hortatory,  contro- 
versial, and  official  or  friendly  letters. — His 
style  is  neither  perspicuous  nor  chaste,  but 
ardent  and  animated.  He  and  Laclantius, 
it  has  been  said,  were  the  fathers  of  eccle- 
siastical Latinity. — The  earlier  editions  of 
his  works  by  Erasmus  and  others,  arranged 
his  letters  in  Books,  without  regard  to  their 
dates  or  subjects.  Tlie  edition  of  Pamclius, 
1556,  rcpublished  by  Rigaltius,  1664,  at- 
tempted to  arrange  them  in  chronological 
order.  The  Oxford  edition  by  bp.  Fell,  1682, 
fol.,  perfected  this  arrangement.  The  edi- 
tion prepared  by  Bc.luze,  and  published  by 
Prudentius  Maran,  Paris,  1726,  fol.,  retains 
the  order  of  Pamelius.  The  two  last  are 
the  best  editions. —  Tr.] 

(16)  [Minucius  Felix  was  a  respectable 
Christian  barrister  at  Rome,  and  is  supposed 
to  have  been  contemporary  with  Tertullian, 
and  to  have  flourished  about  the  year  220. 
He  is  mentioned  by  Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr., 
c.  58,  and  by  Lactantius,  Institut.  Divinar., 
1.  i.,  c.  11,  and  1.  v.,  c.  1.  Little  is  known 
of  his  history.  His  elegant  Dialogue,  be- 
tween Ctecilius  a  pagan  and  Octanus  a 
Christian,  recounts  the  principal  arguments 
urged  for  and  against  Christianity  at  that 
time,  in  a  clear,  concise,  and  forcible  man- 
ner. The  Latinity  is  pure  and  elegant.  Je- 
rome informs  us  that  another  tract,  de  Fato 
vel  contra  Mathematicos,  was  ascribed  to 
him  ;  but  from  its  style,  it  was  probably  not 
his.  This  tract  is  now  lost.  In  the  middle 
ages,  the  Octavius  of  Minucius  was  mistaken, 
for  the  8th  Book  (Liber  Octavus)  of  Arnobi- 
us ;  and  it  was  so  published  in  the  earlier 
editions.  It  has  been  often  republished.  The 
best  editions,  cum  notis  variorum,  arc  those 
of  Gronovius,  Ley  den,  1709,  8vo ;  and  of 
Davis,  Cambridge,  1707  and  1711,  8vo. 
The  Germans  are  fond  of  the  edition  of  Cel- 
lar ins,  1698,  8vo,  republished  by  Lindcr, 
1760,  and  by  Ernest:,  1773,  8vo.— It  has 
been  translated  into  French,  Dutch,  and 
English ;  the  last,  by  Reeves,  among  his 
Apologies  in  defence  of  the  Christian  reli- 
gion, vol.  h'.,  Lond.,  1709,  8vo. — Tr.] 


174 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


trines,  has  intermixed  great  errors  and  great  truths,  and  has  set  forth  a, 
strange  philosophical  kind  of  religion,  very  different  from  that  ordinarily 
received.  (17)  The  writers  of  less  eminence,  I  leave  to  be  learned  from 
those  who  have  professedly  enumerated  the  learned  men  among  Chris- 
»tians.(18) 

(17)  [Arnobius,  senior,  was  a  teacher  of 
rhetoric  at  Sicca  in  Africa,  during  the  reign 
of  Diocletian.     See  Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr., 
c.  79.     He  was  at  first  an  open  adversary  of 
the  Christian  religion,  but  at  length  being 
fully  convinced  of  its  truth,  he  undertook  to 
defend  it  in  a  learned  and  elaborate  work. 
But,  either  his  knowledge  of  Christianity  was 
then   very  limited,  or  he  had   studied  the 
Scriptures  only  in  private,  and  without  seek- 
ing instruction  from  the  Christian  teachers, 
for  he  entertained  many  singular  opinions. 
Jerome  reports,  (Chron.  ad.  ann.  xx.  Con- 
stantini),  that  when  Arnobius  applied  to  the 
bishop  for  baptism,  the  latter  refused  him, 
from  doubts  of  the  sincerity  of  his  conver- 
sion ;  and  that  Arnobius  wrote  his  book  to 
satisfy  the  mind  of  the  bishop.     This  account 
is  called  in  question  by  some.     See  Lardner, 
Credibility,  &c  ,  pt.  ii.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  7,  and 
Neandcr,  Kirchengesch.,   vol.  i.,  p.   1161, 
&c.     He  probably  wrote  in  the  beginning 
of  the  4th  century,  and  died  perhaps  about 
A.D.  326.— The  best  early  editions  of  his 
work,  are  those  printed  at  Ley  den,  1651  and 
1657,  4to.     The   latest  edition  is   that  of 
Ore//,  Lips.,  1816,  8vo,  in  2  parts,  with  an 
Appendix,  1817,  8vo.— TV.] 

(18)  [The  following  notices  of  other  lead- 
ing men  in  this  century,  may  be  interesting 
to  the  literary  reader. 

Caius,  a  learned  ecclesiastic  of  Rome,  in 
the  beginning  of  this  century,  is  mentioned 
by  Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  59,  and  is 
quoted  repeatedly  by  Eusebius.  In  his  work 
against  Proculus  the  Montanist,  he  assailed 
the  Chiliasts,  and  ascribed  but  13  epistles  to 
St.  Paul.  Euseb,,  H.  E.,  ii.,  25,  iii.,  28, 
and  vi.,  20.  He  has  been  supposed  by  some 
to  be  the  author  of  the  book  against  Artemon, 
quoted  by  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  v.,  28. 

Just  before  A.D.  200,  Theophilus  bp.  of 
Antioch,  Bacchylus  bp.  of  Ccesarea  in  Pal- 
estine, and  Polycrales  bp.  of  Ephesus,  called 
councils  on  the  controversy  respecting  East- 
er day,  and  composed  synodic  epistles.  See 
Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  43-45,  and  Eu- 
seb., H.  E.,  v.,  23  and  25.  From  the  epistle 
of  Folycratcs,  valuable  extracts  are  made  by 
Jerome,  I.  c.,  and  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  iii.,  31, 
and  v.,  24. 

At  the  commencement  of  this  century, 
lived  Hcraclitus,  Maximus,  Candidus,  Ap- 
pion,  Sextus,  and  Arabianus,  who  were  dis- 
tinguished as  writers,  according  to  Jerome, 
de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  46-51,  and  Euscb.,  H.  E., 


v.,  27. — Hcraclitus  commented  on  Paul's 
Epistles ;  Maximus  wrote  concerning  the 
origin  of  evil,  (irepl  TTJS  v^t/f,  from  which  we 
have  a  considerable  extract,  in  Euseb. ,  Prae- 
par.  Evang.,  vi.,  22)  ;  Candidus  and  Appion 
explained  the  Hexaemeron,  or  six  days' 
work,  Gen.,  ch.  i.  ;  Sextus  wrote  on  the  res- 
urrection ;  and  Arabianus  composed  some 
doctrinal  tracts. 

Judas,  of  the  same  age,  undertook  a  com- 
putation of  the  70  weeks  of  Daniel ;  and 
brought  down  his  history  of  events  to  A.D. 
203.  See  Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  52, 
and  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  vi.,  7. 

Ammonius  was  probably  an  Egyptian 
Christian,  nearly  contemporary  with  Origen ; 
and  not  the  apostate  philosopher  Ammonius 
Saccas  under  whom  Origen  studied,  though 
confounded  with  him  by  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  vi., 
19,  and  by  Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  55. 
See  Fabricius,  Biblioth.  Gr.,  iv.,  p.  161  and 
172,  and  Mosheim,  de  Reb.  Christianor.,  p. 
281,  &c.  He  wrote  a  book  on  the  agree- 
ment of  Moses  with  Jesus,  which  is  lost,  and 
a  Harmony  of  the  four  Gospels,  which  is 
supposed  to  be  one  of  those  still  extant  in 
the  Biblioth.  Max.  Patrum.  But  whether 
the  larger  Harmony,  in  torn,  ii.,  pt.  ii.,  or  the 
smaller,  in  torn,  iii.,  is  the  genuine  work,  has 
been  doubted.  See  Lardner,  Credibility, 
&c.,  pt.  h  ,  vol.  ii.,  p.  106,  &c. 

Tryphon,  a  disciple  of  Origen,  is  said 
by  Jerome  (de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  57)  to  have 
been  very  learned  in  the  scriptures,  and  to 
have  written  many  epistles  and  tracts,  and 
particularly  a  treatise  concerning  the  red 
heifer,  in  the  book  of  Num.,  ch.  xix.  ;  and 
another,  on  the  dividing  of  the  birds,  in  Abra- 
ham's sacrifice,  Gen.  xv.,  10.  Nothing  of 
his  is  extant. 

Symmachus,  originally  a  Samaritan,  then 
a  Jew,  and  at  last  an  Ebionite  Christian, 
gave  a  free  translation  of  the  0.  T.  into 
Greek  ;  and  also  defended  the  principles  of 
the  Ebionites,  in  a  Commentary  on  Mat- 
thew's Gospel.  See  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  vi.,  17. 

Narcissus  was  made  bp.  of  Jerusalem 
A.D.  196.  After  four  years  of  faithful  ser- 
vice, he  was  falsely  accused  of  immoral  con- 
duct ;  and,  though  generally  accounted  in- 
nocent, he  voluntarily  abdicated  his  office, 
and  lived  in  retirement  till  A.D.  216,  when 
he  resumed  his  office  and  continued  in  it  till 
his  martyrdom,  A.D.  237.  It  is  stated,  that 
he  was  then  116  years  old.  See  Euseb.,  H. 
E.,  vi.,  c.  9,  10,  11. 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


175 


Alexander  succeeded  Narcissus,  A.D. 
237,  and  held  the  chair  14  years.  This  em- 
inent man  was  bishop  of  a  church  in  Cappa- 
docia,  when  called  to  the  see  of  Jerusalem. 
He  was  a  great  patron  of  Origen ;  and 
wrote  several  epistles,  from  which  extracts 
are  preserved.  After  important  services  to 
the  church,  he  died  a  martyr,  A.D.  251. 
See  Jerome,  do  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  62,  and 
Euseb.,  H.  E.,  vi.,  11,  14,  19,  26,  39,  and 
46. 

Firmilian,  bp.  of  Caesarea  in  Cappado- 
cia,  was  a  disciple  and  a  great  admirer  of 
Origcn.  He  was  a  man  of  high  eminence 
in  the  church,  and  died  at  Tarsus,  on  his 
way  to  the  second  council  of  Antioch  against 
Paul  of  Samosata,  about  A.D.  266.  A  long 
and  able  epistle  of  his  to  Cyprian,  on  the 
rebaptism  of  Heretics,  is  preserved  in  a 
Latin  translation,  among  the  works  of  Cyp- 
rian, Ep.  75.  See  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  vi.,  26, 
27,  46,  and  vii.,  5,  29. 

Pontius,  a  deacon  of  Carthage,  attended 
Cyprian  at  his  death,  and  wrote  an  account 
of  his  martyrdom,  which  has  reached  us, 
though  perhaps  interpolated.  It  is  prefixed 
to  Cyprian's  works,  and  is  found  in  Ruinart, 
Acta  Selecta  Martyrum.  See  Jerome,  de 
Viris  Illustr.,  c.  68. — Pontius  himself,  it  is 
said,  suffered  martyrdom  shortly  after ;  of 
which  an  account  is  extant,  professedly  writ- 
ten by  his  fellow- deacon  Valerius ;  apud  Ba- 
luzii  Miscell.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  124. 

Cornelius,  bp.  of  Rome,  was  elected  June 
2,  A.D.  251,  in  opposition  to  Novatian  ;  and 
after  15  months,  died  in  banishment  at  Cen- 
tumcellae,  (Civita-Vecchia),  Sept.  14,  A.D. 
252.  In  the  works  of  Cyprian,  there  are 
extant  two  epistles  of  Cornelius  to  Cyprian, 
and  ten  ep.  of  Cyprian  to  Cornelius.  Cyp- 
rian describes  him  (Ep.  52,  ed.  Baluz.)  as 
an  unimpeachable  character,  a  pious,  sensi- 
ble, modest  man,  well  qualified  to  be  a  bish- 
op. Jerome,  (de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.'66),  men- 
tions four  epistles  of  Cornelius  to  Fabius  bp. 
of  Antioch;  and  Euseb.  gives  us  a  long  and 
valuable  extract  from  one  of  them,  H.  E., 
vi.,  43. — See  Bower's  Lives  of  the  Popes, 
vol.  i. 

Novatian,  first  a  presbyter,  and  then  the 
schismatical  bp.  of  Rome,  wrote,  (according 
to  Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  70),  de  Pas- 
cha  ;  de  Sabbatho  ;  de  Circumcisione  ;  de 
Sacerdote  ;  de  Oratione  ;  de  Cibis  Judaicis, 
(extant,  inter  Opp.  TertuSuma) ;  de  Instan- 
tia  ;  de  Attalo  ;  de  Trinitate,  (a  large  book, 
being  an  abridgment  of  a  work  of  Ten 
extant,  inter  Opp.  Tertul. ),  and  many  other 
works.  An  epistle  written  by  him  to  Cyp- 
rian, in  the  name  of  the  Roman  clergy,  A.D. 
250,  is  likewise  extant,  (inter  Opp.  Cypri- 
ani,  ep.  31,  ed.  Baluz.),  and  shows  that  he 


was  a  man  of  talents,  and  a  good  writer. 
His  rival,  Cornelius,  describes  him  as  a  very 
bad  man ;  see  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  vii.,  43. 

Stephen,  bp.  of  Rome,  A.D.  253-257,  is 
chiefly  famous  for  his  presumptuous  attempt 
to  excommunicate  Cyprian  and  many  other 
bishops  of  Africa  and  the  East,  for  rebapti- 
zing  converted  heretics.  See  Euseb.,  Hist. 
Eccl.,  vii.,  2-5,  7.  Cyprian,  Ep.  70-75. 
Bower's  Lives  of  the  Popes,  vol.  i. 

Sixtus  II.,  bp.  of  Rome  A.D.  257,  258, 
and  a  martyr,  was  more  conciliatory  than  his 
predecessor.  Euseb.,  vii.,  5,  9 ;  Bower's 
Lives  of  the  Popes,  vol.  i. — Various  suppos- 
ititious writings  are  extant  under  his  name. 
The  most  noted  is  a  series  of  460  moral  Ap- 
othegms, translated  by  Rufinus.  Jerome,  (on 
Ezek.,  c.  18,  and  elsewhere),  and  Augustine, 
(Retract.,  1.  ii.,  c.  42),  pronounce  them  the 
work  of  Sixtus,  a  pagan  philosopher ;  which 
they  probably  are,  notwithstanding  U.  G. 
Sieber,  their  editor,  (Lips.,  1725,  4to),  has 
laboured  hard  to  fix  them  on  this  Roman 
bishop. 

Dionysius,  bp.  of  Rome  A.D.  259-269, 
was  a  learned  man,  and  a  good  bishop.  See 
Basil,  ep.  220,  and  de  Sp.  Sancto,  c.  29. 
Euseb.,  H.  E.,  vii.,  7.  He  wrote  an  ep. 
against  the  Sabellians,  of  which  Athanasius 
(de  Synodi  Nicaenae  Decretis)  has  preserved 
an  extract ;  also  an  ep.  to  Dionysius  of  Alex- 
andria, acquainting  him  with  the  dissatisfac- 
tion of  a  council  of  bishops  at  Rome,  with 
some  expressions  concerning  the  Trinity 
used  by  that  patriarch,  and  requesting  of  him 
an  explanation  ;  which  was  given  in  four 
Letters  or  Books.  Athanasius,  pro  senten- 
tia  Dionys.  Alex.,  and  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  vii., 
26. — See  Bower's  Lives  of  the  Popes,  vol.  i. 

Malchion,  a  presbyter  and  a  teacher  of  phi- 
losophy at  Antioch.  He  greatly  distinguish- 
ed himself  in  the  third  council  against  Paul 
of  Samosata,  A.D.  269.  Two  previous 
councils  had  been  unable  to  convict  the 
crafty  heretic  ;  but  in  this,  Malchion  en- 
countered him  in  presence  of  the  council, 
while  stenographers  took  down  their  dia- 
logue. Paul  was  now  convicted ;  and  the 
Dialogue  was  published.  Eusebius,  H.  E., 
vii.,  29.  Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  71. 

Commodianus,  a  Christian  poet,  was  prob- 
ably an  African  and  contemporary,  or  nearly 
so,  with  Cyprian.  See  Dodwell's  Diss.  de 
aetate  Commodiani.  He  had  a  smattering 
of  Greek  and  Latin  learning ;  but  was  a 
weak,  though  well-meaning  man.  His  book 
comprises  eighty  paragraphs,  called  Instruc- 
tions. It  is  written  acrostically,  and  in  a 
loose  kind  of  hexameter.  The  style  is  rude, 
and  the  matter  trite.  The  first  half  of  the 
book  is  directed  against  the  pagans  ;  next  h* 
assails  the  unbelieving  Jews  ;  and  then  at, 


176 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


tempts  to  instruct  all  classes  of  Christians, 
and  all  ranks  of  ecclesiastical  functionaries. 
It  was  first  published  by  Rigaltius,  subjoin- 
ed to  Cyprian's  works,  AD.  1650;  and 
again  in  1666.  The  editions  with  notes,  by 
Schurtzflcisch,  1710,  and  of  Dam's,  subjoined 
to  his  Minutius  Felix,  Cambr.,  1711,  8vo, 
are  the  best. 

Anatolius,  a  very  scientific  ecclesiastic  of 
Alexandria,  who,  by  his  address,  once  deliv- 
ered his  townsmen  from  a  siege.  He  was 
made  bishop  of  Laodicea  in  Syria,  about 
A.D.  270,  and  published  canons  for  ascer- 
taining Easter,  from  which  Eusebius,  (H. 
E.,  vii.,  32),  has  preserved  an  extract ;  and 
Institutes  of  Arithmetic,  in  ten  books,  of 
which  some  fragments  still  remain. — Euse- 
lius  (1.  c.)  gives  a  long  account  of  him. 
See  also  Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  73. — • 
What  remains  of  his  works,  has  been  pub- 
lished, Gr.  and  Lat.,  by  Bucherius,  in  his 
Doctrina  Temporum,  Antw.,  1634,  fol. 

Archelaus,  bishop  of  Carrha  in  Mesopo- 
tamia, flourished  about  A.D.  278.  He  wrote 
in  Syriac  his  disputation  with  Manes  the 
heretic ;  which  was  early  translated  into 
Greek,  and  thence  into  Latin.  See  Jerome, 
de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  72.  A  large  part  of  the 
Latin  copy,  was  first  published  by  Valcsius, 
subjoined  to  Socrates,  Historia  Eccles.,  af- 
terwards, together  with  what  remains  of  the 
Greek,  by  Zaccagnius,  in  his  Collection  of 
rare  works  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  church, 
Rome,  1698,  4to,  p.  1-102:  and  lastly,  by 
Fabricius,  ad  finem  Opp.  S.  Hippolyti,  2 
Tols.  fol. 

Pierius,  a  presbyter,  and  perhaps,  cate- 
chist  of  Alexandria.  He  was  of  Origcn's 
school,  very  learned  in  the  Scriptures,  and 
wrote  many  discourses  and  expositions  in  a 
neat  and  simple  style.  He  was  called  Origen 
Junior.  His  long  discourse  on  the  prophet 
Hosea,  is  particularly  noticed  by  Jerome, 
Pholms  (Biblioth.  cxix.)  mentions  twelve 
books  of  his  expositions.  He  was  of  an  as- 
cetic turn,  lived  considerably  into  the  fourth 
century,  and  spent  his  latter  years  at  Rome. 
Nothing  of  his  remains.  See  Jerome,  de 
Viris  Illustr.,  c.  76,  and  Eusebius,  H.  E., 
vii.,  32. 

Thcognostus,  of  Alexandria,  a  friend  of 
Origen,  and  perhaps  successor  to  Pierius 
in  the  catechetic  school.  He  wrote  seven 
books  of  Hypotyposes ;  of  which  Photius 
(Biblioth.  cvi.)  has  preserved  an  abstract. 
Photius  deemed  him  heretical,  in  regard  to 
the  Trinity  :  but  Alhanasius  makes  quota- 
tions from  him,  in  confutation  of  the  Arians. 
See  Fabricius,  Biblioth.  Gr.,  vol.  ix.,  p.  408. 

Lucian,  a  learned  presbyter  of  Antioch. 
He  adhered  for  some  time  to  Paul  of  Samos- 
ata.  To  him  most  of  the  churches  from 


Syria  to  Constantinople,  were  indebted  for 
corrected  copies  of  the  Septuagint.  Jerome 
mentions  him  as  the  author  of  several  theo- 
logical tracts  and  letters  ;  and  a  confession 
rff  faith,  drawn  up  by  him,  is  still  extant,  in 
Socrates,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  ii.,  c.  10,  and  in 
Walch's  Biblioth.  Simbol.  Vetus,  p.  29,  &c. 
He  was  a  very  pious  man,  and  suffered  mar- 
tyrdom at  Nicomedia,  A.D.  311. — See  Eu- 
sebius, H.  E.,  viii.,  13,  and  ix.,  6,  and  Je- 
rome, de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  77. 

Hesychius,  an  Egyptian  bishop  and  mar- 
tyr, was  famous  at  the  same  period  for  set- 
ting forth  correct  copies  of  the  Septuagint  in 
Egypt.  Whether  he  was  that  Hesychius, 
who  compiled  a  useful  Greek  Lexicon,  still 
extant,  is  uncertain.  He  died  a  martyr, 
A.D.  311.  SeeEuseb.,H.  E.,  viii.,  13,  and 
Fabricius,  Biblioth.  Gr.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  554,  &c. 

Pamphylus  the  martyr,  was  a  native  of 
Berytus,  but  a  presbyter  of  Cassarea  in  Pal- 
estine, where  he  established  a  school,  and 
collected  a  theological  library,  which  has 
been  of  immense  service  to  the  Christian 
world.  This  library  afforded  to  Eusebius, 
Jerome,  and  many  others,  the  means  of  be- 
coming learned  divines,  and  of  benefiting 
the  world  by  their  writings.  To  this  estab- 
lishment, ecclesiastical  history  and  biblical 
learning,  are  peculiarly  indebted. — Pamphy- 
lus was  a  pupil  of  Pierius,  an  admirer  of 
Origen,  and  the  great  friend  and  patron  of 
Eusebius.  He  transcribed  most  of  the  works 
of  Origen,  with  his  own  hand  ;  and  he  com- 
posed a  biography  and  vindication  of  Origen, 
in  "five  books,  to  which  Eusebius  added  a 
sixth  book.  Only  the  first  book  is  now  ex- 
tant ;  and  that  in  a  Latin  translation  of  Ru- 
finus,  printed  inter  Opp.  Originis. — Pam- 
phylus took  great  pains  to  multiply  and  spread 
abroad  correct  copies  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
— His  life  was  written  by  Eusebius,  in  three 
books,  which  are  lost.  He  suffered  martyr- 
dom, A.D.  309,  at  Cssarea  in  Palestine. 
See  Euscbms,  de  martyribus  Palasstinae,  c. 
10  and  7,  and  H.  E.,  vi.,  32,  vii.,  32,  and 
viii.,  13.  Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  75. 

Victorinus,  bishop  of  Petavio  in  Upper 
Pannonia,  (Petau  in  Steyermark,)  wrote 
Commentaries  on  Gen.,  Exod.,  Levit.,  Isa., 
Ezek.,  Habak.,  Eccles.,  Can  tic.,  and  the 
Apocalypse  ;  also  a  book  against  all  the  Her- 
esies. He  died  a  martyr,  A.D.  303.  Je- 
rome says,  he  understood  Greek  better  than 
Latin  ;  and  therefore  his  thoughts  are  good, 
but  his  style  bad. — Dr.  Cave  (Histor.  Lit., 
vol.  i.)  published  a  fragment  of  his  Com- 
mentary on  Genesis.  Whether  the  Com- 
mentary on  the  Apocalypse,  now  extant  un- 
der his  name,  be  his,  has  been  much  doubt- 
ed ;  because  this  comment  is  opposed  to 
Chiliasm,  whereas  Jerome  (de  Viris  Illustr., 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY. 


1/7 


CHAPTER  III. 


HISTORY    OF   THEOLOGY. 

§  1.  State  of  Christian  Theology. — §  2.  Sources  of  the  Mystical  Theology. — §  3.  Thence 
the  Monks  and  Eremites. — §  4.  Attention  to  the  Holy  Scriptures. — t)  5.  Origen's  Prin- 
ciples of  Interpretation. — §  6.  Other  Interpreters. — §  7.  State  of  Dogmatic  Theology. 
— $  8.  Moral  or  Practical  Theology. — §  9.  Polemic  Divines. — §  10.  Faults  of  the  Dis- 
putants.— §  11.  Spurious  Books. — §  12.  The  Chiliastic  Controversy. — §  13.  Contro- 
versy respecting  the  Baptism  of  Reclaimed  Heretics. — §  14.  Disputes  concerning  Origen, 

§  1.  To  the  common  people,  the  principal  truths  of  Christianity  were 
explained  in  their  purity  and  simplicity,  and  all  subtilties  were  avoided ; 
nor  were  weak  and  tender  minds  overloaded  with  a  multitude  of  precepts. (1) 
But  in  their  schools,  and  in  their  books,  the  doctors  who  cultivated  litera- 
ture and  philosophy  and  especially  those  of  Egypt,  deemed  it  elegant  and 
exquisite,  to  subject  divine  wisdom  to  the  scrutiny  of  reason,  or  rather  to 
bring  under  the  precepts  of  their  philosophy,  and  to  examine  metaphysi- 
cally, the  nature  of  the  doctrines  taught  by  Christ.  At  the  head  of  this 
class  of  divines  was  Origen,  who  being  fascinated  with  the  Platonic  phi- 
losophy, ventured  to  apply  its  laws  to  every  part  of  religion,  and  persuaded 
himself  that  the  philosophy  which  he  admired,  could  assign  the  causes  and 
grounds  of  every  doctrine,  and  determine  its  precise  form  and  nature. (2) 


c.  18)  says,  that  Victorinus  favoured  the  sen- 
timents of  Ncpos  and  the  Chiliasts. — See 
Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  74. — TV.] 

(1)  See  Origen,  in  Proef.  libror.  de  Prin- 
cipiis,  torn,  i.,  Opp.,  p.  49,  and  lib.  i.,  de 
Princip.,  cap.  vii.,  p.  69,  ed  de  la  Rue  ;  also 
(Irr.rron/  Neocjesar.  Expositio  Fidei,  p.  11, 
Opp.,  ed.  G.  Vossii. 

(2)  In  his  Stromata,  which  are  lost,  and 
in  his  work  d<~  I'      fipiit,  which  is  pn 

in  the  Latin  tranM.ition  of  Rn_finus  — [See  a 
long  note  of  Dr.  Mosneim,  on  the  philosophy 
and  the  theology  of  Ongcn,  in  his  Comment. 
de  Rebus  Christianor.,  p.  604,  &c. — It  does 
not  appear  that  Oriyrn  rp^arded  reason  or 
philosophy  as  of  higher  authority  than  reve- 
lation. He  believed  indeed  that  there  is  a 
true  philosophy  as  well  as  a  false,  and  that 
the  die'  farmer  are  to  be  received 

and  confided  in.  But  he  also  believed  that 
the  scriptures  contain  a  divine  revelation, 
which  is  to  be  received  and  followed  with 
implicit  confidence  ;  and  that  no  philosophy 
is  true  which  contradicts  the  plain  declara- 
tions of  the  scriptures.  At  the  same  time 
he  believed,  that  the  scriptures  for  the  most 
part  only  state  the  simple  truths  and  facts  of 
religion,  without  explaining  the  grounds  and 
reasons  of  them  ;  and  that  they  state  these 
truths  and  facts  in  a  plain  and  popular  man- 

VOL.  I.— Z 


ner,  without  acquainting  us  with  the  meta- 
physical nature  of  the  subjects.  In  his  opin- 
ion, it  was  the  proper  business  of  reason  or 
philosophy  to  investigate  more  fully  the 
causes  and  grounds  of  these  religious  truths 
and  facts,  and  to  examine  and  determine 
their  metaphysical  nature. — Such,  it  ap- 
pears, were  Origen's  fundamental  principles. 
And  how  few  are  they,  who  in  this  or  in  any 
age,  have  adopted  more  consistent  views  ? 
Yet  he  erred  ;  and  erred,  just  as  theologians 
have  ever  been  prone  to  do,  by  relying  too 
confidently  on  the  correctness  and  certainty 
of  what  he  regarded  as  the  conclusions  of 
true  philosophy.  For  an  illustration  of  the 
nature  and  extent  of  Origen's  errors,  let  it 
be  observed,  that  in  the  beginning  of  his 
book  de  Principiis,  f)  3,  p.  47,  he  gives  the 
following  list  of  fundamental  truths,  which 
he  considers  as  plainly  taught  in  the  scrip- 
tures, and  of  course  as  never  to  be  called  in 
question;  viz.  (1)  There  is  one  God,  the 
creator  and  father  of  all.  (2)  He,  in  these 
last  days,  sent  Christ  to  call  first  the  Jews 
and  then  also  other  people.  (3)  Jesus 
Christ  was  begotten  of  the  Father  before  all 
creatures,  and  he  aided  (was  the  instrument 
of)  the  Father  in  the  whole  work  of  creation. 
(4)  The  same  Christ  becoming  man,  was 
incarnate,  though  he  was  God ;  and  having 


173  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 

He  must  be  acknowledged,  indeed,  to  have  proceeded  in  this  matter,  for  the 
most  part,  with  timidity  and  modesty ;  but  his  example  sanctioned  this 
faulty  mode  of  treating  theology,  and  led  his  disciples  to  burst  the  barriers 
he  established,  and  to  become  very  licentious  in  explaining  divine  truths 
according  to  the  dictates  of  philosophy.  To  these  divines  as  the  parents, 
that  species  of  theology  which  is  called  philosophic  or  scholastic,  owes  its 
birth ;  but  it  afterwards  assumed  various  forms',  according  to  the  capacity 
and  erudition  of  the  men  who  delighted  in  it. 

§  2.  It  is  a  singular  circumstance,  that  another  species  of  theology  which 
has  been  denominated  mystic,  and  which  has  a  natural  tendency  to  destroy 
the  former,  originated  from  the  same  sources,  and  nearly  at  the  same  time. 
Its  authors  are  unknown ;  but  its  causes  and  the  process  of  its  formation 
are  manifest.  Its  originators  assumed  that  well-known  doctrine  of  the 
Platonic  school,  which  was  approved  also  by  Origen  and  his  followers,  that 
a  portion  of  the  divine  nature  was  diffused  through  all  human  souls ;  or  to 
express  the  same  thing  in  other  words,  that  reason  in  us  is  an  emanation 
from  God  himself,  and  comprehends  the  elements  or  first  principles  of  all 
truths  human  and  divine.  Yet  they  denied  that  men,  by  their  own  efforts 
and  care,  can  excite  this  divine  spark  within  them  ;  and  therefore  they  disap- 
proved of  the  endeavours  of  men  to  gain  clear  perceptions  of  latent  truths 
by  means  of  definitions,  discrimination,  and  reflection.  On  the  contrary 
they  maintained,  that  silence,  inaction,  solitude,  repose,  the  avoidance  of 
all  active  scenes,  and  the  mortification  and  subjugation  of  the  body,  tended 
to  excite  this  internal  word  [Aoyof  or  reason]  to  put  forth  its  hidden  ener- 
gies, and  thus  to  instruct  men  in  divine  things.  For  the  men  who  neglect 
all  human  affairs,  and  withdraw  their  senses  and  their  eyes  from  the  con- 
tagious influence  of  material  objects,  do  spiritually,  or  with  the  mind,  re- 
turn back  to  God  ;  and  being  united  with  God,  they  not  only  enjoy  vast 
pleasure,  but  they  see  in  its  native  purity  and  undisguised  that  truth,  which 
appears  to  others  only  in  a  vitiated  and  deformed  state.  (3) 

become  man,  he  remained  God,  as  he  was  tion  for  a  moment.  Yet,  as  before  obser- 
before ;  he  assumed  a  body  like  to  ours,  and  ved,  their  metaphysical  nature  and  the 
differing  only  in  this,  that  it  was  born  of  the  grounds  and  reasons  of  them,  he  supposed 
virgin  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  he  really  and  it  the  proper  business  of  reason  or  philosophy 
truly  suffered,  died,  and  rose  again.  (5)  to  investigate.  And  his  errors  were  nearly 
The  Holy  Spirit,  in  honour  and  dignity,  is  all  in  relation  to  religious  philosophy,  or  on- 
joined  with  the  Father  and  the  Son.  (6)  All  tology  and  metaphysics.  He  reasoned,  and 
rational  minds  possess  entire  freedom  of  believed,  according  to  the  reigning  philoso- 
choice  and  volition,  and  when  separated  from  phy  of  the  age  and  country  in  which  he  lived, 
the  body  will  be  punished  or  rewarded  ac-  He  therefore  believed  in  the  pre-existence 
cording  to  their  merits.  (7)  Our  bodies  will  of  human  souls,  and  their  incarceration  in 
be  raised  in  a  far  more  perfect  state.  (8)  bodies,  for  offences  previously  committed  ; 
The  devil  and  his  angels  are  realities,  and  that  the  senses  are  polluting  to  the  soul,  arid 
they  seek  to  involve  men  in  sin.  (9)  This  must  be  all  mortified ;  that  all  rational  be- 
world  will  be  dissolved.  (10)  The  scrip-  ings  are  left  of  God  to  follow  their  own 
tures  were  dictated  by  the  Spirit  of  God ;  choice,  and  are  restrained  only  by  motives, 
and  they  contain  a  double  sense,  the  one  the  most  powerful  of  which  is  punishment ; 
manifest,  the  other  latent.  (11)  There  are  and  that  ultimately  God  will  thus  bring  all 
holy  angels  and  powers,  who  minister  to  the  his  creatures  to  be  wise  and  holy  and  happy, 
salvation  of  men.  These  Origen  gives  as  — TV.] 

specimens  only  ;  for  he  says  :  Hae  sunt  spe-        (3)  [In  hi?  Comment,  de  Rebus  Christia- 

cies  (sorts  or  specimen*)  eorum,  quae  per  nor.,  p.  658-667,  Dr.  Mosheim  endeavours 

praedicationem  Apostolicam  manifeste  tra-  to  show,  that  Origen,  by  his  religious  phi- 

duntur.     Now  euch  general  truths  as  these,  losophy,  laid  the  foundations  of  mystic  the- 

Origen  did  not  permit  to  be  called  in  que*-  ology  in  the  Christian  church.     But  the  e»i- 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY.  l?d 

§  3.  By  such  reasoning  many  in  this  age  were  induced  to  retire  into 
deserts,  and  to  emaciate  their  bodies  by  fasting  and  hardships.  And  by 
such  motives,  rather  than  by  fear  of  the  Decian  persecution,  I  suppose 
Paul  the  hermit  was  led  to  roam  in  the  deserts  of  Thebais,  and  to  lead  a 
life  more  proper  for  an  irrational  animal  than  for  a  human  being.(4)  This 
Paul  is  said  to  be  the  author  of  the  institution  of  Eremites.  But  this  mode 
of  life  prevailed  among  Christians  long  before  Paul  the  hermit ;  in  fact  it 
was  practised  long  before  the  Christian  era,  in  Egypt,  Syria,  India,  and  Mes- 
opotamia, and  it  still  exists  among  the  Mohammedans,  no  less  than  among 
the  Christians,  in  those  arid  and  burning  climates. (5)  For  the  heated  at- 
mosphere which  overspreads  those  countries  naturally  disposes  the  inhab- 
itants to  repose  and  indolence,  and  to  court  solitude  and  melancholy. 

§  4.  Among  those  who  laudably  employed  themselves  on  the  sacred 
volume,  the  first  place  is  due  to  those  who  took  earnest  care,  that  copies 
of  the  Bible  might  everywhere  be  found  accurately  written  and  at  a  mod- 
erate price  ;  that  it  might  be  translated  into  other  languages,  and  that 
amended  and  faultless  editions  might  become  common.  Many  opulent 
Christians  of  those  times  are  known  to  have  expended  no  small  portion  of 
their  estates  in  furtherance  of  these  objects.  In  correcting  the  copies 
of  the  Septuagint  version,  Pierius  and  Hesychias  in  Egypt,  and  Lucian  at 
Antioch,  employed  themselves  with  laudable  industry.  Nor  should  the 
nearly  similar  efforts  of  Pamphylus  the  martyr,  be  passed  without  notice. 
But  Origen  surpassed  all  others  in  diligence  and  patient  labour  in  this  way. 
His  Hexapla,  though  [nearly]  destroyed  by  the  ravages  of  time,  will  re- 
main an  eternal  monument  of  the  incredible  application,  with  which  that 
great  man  laboured  to  subserve  the  interests  of  the  church. (6) 

dence  he  adduces  is  by  no  means  conclusive.         (6)  The  fragments  of  this  Herculean  work 

— TV.]  which  are   preserved,  have   been   collected 

(4)  His  life  was  written  by  Jerome.     [See  and  published  by  that  ornament  of  the  once 
also  the  Acta  Sanctorum,  Antwerp,  torn,  i.,  learned  Benedictines,  Bernh.  de  Montfau- 
January  10,  p.  602. — Schl.]  con,  Paris,   1713,  2  vols.  fol.     See  also  J. 

(5)  See  the  Travels  of  Paul  Lucas,  A.D.  F.  Buddcus,  Isagoge  in  Theologiam,  torn. 
1714,  vol.  ii.,  p.  363.     [The  reader  will  rec-  ii.,  p.  1376,  &c.,  and  J.  G.  Carpzov,  Crittca 
olloct  the  Drrvises  and  Fakirs,  who  roam  Sacra  Vet.   Test.,  p.   574. — [Origen   pub- 
over  the  whole  country  from  the  shores  of  lished  both  a  Tctrapla  and  a  Hcxapla,  that 
the  Mediterranean  to  the  Ganges. — Jerome  is,  a  fourfold  and   a   sixfold   Bible.     The 
reports,  in  the  preface  to  his  life  of  Paul  of  former   contained,   in   parallel  columns  (1) 
Thebais,  on   the  questionable    authority  of  Aquila's  Gr.  version ;   (2)  that  of  Symma- 
Amalhas  and  Miu-tirins,  two  disciples  of  St.  chus ;  (3)  the  Septuagint  version;  (4)  the 
Anthony,  that  Paul  the  hermit  of  Thebais,  Gr.  version  of  Theodolion.     The  Hcxapla. 
was  the  first  who  practised  this  mode  of  life,  contained,  throughout,  six  columns,  gener- 
But  high  ideas  of  the  sanctity  of  renouncing  ally  eight,  and  occasionally  nine;  thus  ar- 
social  and  civilized  life  and  dwelling  in  des-  ranged,  (1)  The  Hebrew  text  in  the  Hebrew 
erts  among  beasts,  were  prevalent,  before  character ;    (2)  the  Hebrew  text   in  Greek 
the  middle  of  this  century,  when  Paul  turned  characters  ;    (3)  Aquild's  version  ;  (4)  that 
hermit.     Thus  Narcissus,  bishop  of  Jerusa-  of  Symmachus  ;  (5)  the  Septiiagint ;  (6)  that 
lem,  obtained  great  reputation  in  the  close  of  Theodotion ;  (7)  and  (8)  two  other  Greek 
of  the  second  century,  by  secreting  himself  versions,  whose  authors  were  unknown  ;  (9) 
many  years  in  the  desert.     Eusebius,  H.  E.,  another  Greek  version.     The  three  last,  be- 
lib.  vi.,  c.  9,   10.     The  origin  of  religious  ing  anonymous  versions,  are  denominated 
eremitism  may  perhaps  be  traced  back  to  the   Fifth,  Sixth,  and   Seventh  Greek  ver- 
the  i-arly  pagan  philosophers  ;  for  Porphyry  sions. — The  most  useful  parts  of  Montfau- 
(irtpl  (nrc\fic,  <J  35)  assures  us,  that  the  an-  con's  Hexapla,  with  additions,  corrections, 
cicnt  Pythagoreans  were  distinguished  for  and  notes,  have  been  published  in  two  vols. 
their  attachment  to   this   mode   of  life. —  8vo,  by  C.  F.  Bahrdt,  Lips.,  1769-70. 
TV.]  TV.] 


180  BOOK  I.-CENTURY  III.-PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 

&  5.  The  same  Origen,  unquestionably,  stands  at  the  head  of  the  inter, 
preters  of  the  Bible  in  this  century.  But  with  pain  it  must  be  added,  he 
was  first  among  those  who  have  found  in  the  scriptures  a  secure  retreat 
for  all  errors  and  idle  fancies.  As  this  most  ingenious  man  could  see  no 
feasible  method  of  vindicating  all  that  is  said  in  the  Scriptures,  against  the 
cavils  of  the  heretics  and  the  enemies  of  Christianity,  provided  he  inter- 
preted  the  language  of  the  Bible  literally,  he  concluded  that  he  must  ex- 
pound  the  sacred  volume  in  the  way  in  which  the  Platonists  were  accus- 
tomed to  explain  the  history  of  their  gods.  He  therefore  taught,  that  the 
words,  in  many  parts  of  the  Bible,  convey  no  meaning  at  all ;  and  in  some 
places,  where  he  acknowledged  there  was  some  meaning  in  the  words,  he 
maintained  that  under  the  things  there  expressed,  there  was  contained  a 
hidden  and  concealed  sense,  which  was  much  to  be  preferred  to  the  literal 
meaning  of  the  words.  (7)  And  this  hidden  sense  it  is,  that  he  searches 


(7)  Here  may  be  consulted  the  Preface  of 
Charles  de  la  Rue  to  the  second  volume  of 
Origen' s  works,  ed.  Paris,  1733,  fol.  With 
greater  fulness  and  precision  I  have  stated 
and  explained  Origen's  system  of  biblical 
interpretation,  in  my  Comment,  de  Rebus 
Christianor.,  &c.,  p.  629,  &c.,  where  also 
his  philosophy,  his  theology,  and  his  contest 
with  Bishop  Demetrius,  are  formally  taken 
Tip  and  discussed. — [With  this  may  be  com- 
pared the  observations  of  that  distinguished 
philologist,  Professor  Ernesti,  in  his  Disser- 
tatio  de  Origene,  interpretationis  librorum 
S.  S.  grammaticae  auctore,  written  A.D. 
1756.  Ernesti  shows  that  the  merits  of  this 
Christian  father,  in  regard  to  the  criticism 
and  exposition  of  the  O.  and  N.  Testaments, 
were  by  no  means  small. — The  leading 
thoughts  of  Dr.  Mosheim,  as  stated  in  his 
Commentaries  de  Rebus,  &c.,  are  the  fol- 
lowing. Origen  was  not  the  inventor  of  the 
allegorical  mode  of  expounding  the  Scrip- 
tures. It  was  in  use  among  the  Jews,  before 
the  Christian  era.  (Ernesti  goes  farther, 
and  seeks  its  origin  in  the  schools  of  the 
prophets).  Philo  was  a  great  allegorist,  and 
Pantaenus  and  Clemens  Alex,  were  the  first 
Christian  allegorists.  Origen  took  greater 
liberties  in  this  mode  of  interpretation  ;  and 
it  was  not  simply  his  resorting  to  allegories, 
but  his  excesses  in  them,  that  drew  upon 
him  enemies.  Before  his  day,  all  interpret- 
ers explained  the  narrations  and  the  laws 
contained  in  the  Bible,  according  to  their  lit- 
eral meaning.  But  Origen  perversely  turned 
a  large  part  of  biblical  history  into  moral  fa- 
bles, and  many  of  the  laws  into  allegories. 
Probably  he  learned  this  in  the  school  of  Am- 
monius,  which  expounded  Hesiod,  Homer, 
and  the  whole  fabulous  history  of  the  Greeks 
allegorically.  The  predecessors  of  Origen, 
who  searched  after  a  mystical  sense  of  scrip- 
ture, still  set  a  high  value  on  the  grammati- 
cal or  literal  sense ;  but  he  often  expresses 


himself,  as  if  he  attached  no  value  to  it. 
Before  him,  allegories  were  resorted  to,  only 
to  discover  predictions  of  future  events,  and 
rules  for  moral  conduct :  but  he  betook  him- 
self to  allegories,  in  order  to  establish  the 
principles  of  his  philosophy  on  a  scriptural 
basis.  All  this  must  have  been  offensive  to 
many  Christians.  His  propensity  to  allego- 
ries must  be  ascribed  to  the  fertility  of  his 
invention,  the  prevailing  custom  of  the  Egyp- 
tians, his  education,  the  instructions  he  re- 
ceived from  his  teachers,  and  the  example 
both  of  the  philosophers,  of  whom  he  was  an 
admirer,  and  of  the  Jews,  especially  Philo, 
To  these  may  be  added  other  causes.  He 
hoped,  by  means  of  his  allegories,  more  easily 
to  convince  the  Jews,  to  confute  the  Gnos- 
tics, and  to  silence  the  objections  of  both. 
This  he  himself  tells  us,  de  Principiis,  1.  viii., 
c.  8,  p.  164,  &c.  But  we  must  not  forget 
his  attachment  to  that  system  of  philosophy 
which  he  embraced.  This  philosophy  could 
not  be  reconciled  with  the  Scriptures,  except 
by  a  resort  to  allegories ;  and  therefore  the 
Scriptures  must  be  interpreted  allegorically, 
that  they  might  not  contradict  his  philoso- 
phy. The  Platonic  idea  of  a  twofold  world, 
a  visible  and  an  invisible,  the  one  emble- 
matic of  the  other,  led  him  to  search  for  a 
figurative  description  of  the  invisible  world, 
in  the  biblical  history  of  the  nations  of  the 
earth.  He  also  believed  that  it  was  doing 
honour  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  to  consider 
them  as  diverse  from  all  human  compositions, 
and  as  containing  hidden  mysteries.  See 
his  Homil.  xv.,  on  Genesis,  Opp.,  torn,  ii., 
p.  99,  and  Homil.  on  Exod.,  Opp.,  torn,  ii., 
p.  129.  And  finally,  he  thought  many  of 
the  objections  of  the  enemies  of  religion, 
could  not  be  fully  answered,  without  recur- 
rence to  allegories. — His  general  principles 
for  the  interpretation  cf  the  sacred  volume, 
resolve  themselves  into  the  following  posi* 
tions.  (1)  The  Scriptures  resemble  man. 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY. 


181 


after  in  his  commentaries,  ingeniously  indeed,  but  perversely,  and  generally 
to  the  entire  neglect  and  contempt  of  the  literal  meaning. (8)  This  remote 
sense  he  moreover  divides  into  the  moral,  and  the  mystical  or  spiritual ;  the 
former  containing  instruction  relative  to  the  internal  state  of  the  soul  and 


As  a  man  consists  of  three  parts,  a  rational 
mind,  a  sensitive  soul,  and  a  visible  body ; 
so  the  Scriptures  have  a  threefold  sense,  a 
literal  sense,  corresponding  with  the  body,  a 
moral  sense,  analogous  to  the  soul,  and  a 
mystical  or  spiritual  sense,  analogous  to  the 
rational  mind.  Homil.  v.,  on  Levit,  $  5, 
Opp.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  209. — (2)  As  the  body  is 
the  baser  part  of  man,  so  the  literal  is  the 
K\s*  worthy  sense  of  Scripture.  And  as  the 
body  often  betrays  good  men  into  sin,  so  the 
literal  sense  often  leads  us  into  error.  Stro- 
mata,  1.  x.,  quoted  by  Jerome,  b.  iii.  Com- 
ment, on  Galat.,  ch.  iii.,  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  p.  41. 
(3)  Yet  the  literal  sense  is  not  wholly  use- 
less. De  Principiis,  1.  iv.,  §  12,  p.  169,  and 
§  14,  p.  173. — (4)  They  who  would  see 
farther  into  the  Scriptures  than  the  common 
people,  mcst  search  out  the  moral  sense. 
(5)  And  the  perfect,  or  those  who  have  at- 
tained to  the  highest  degree  of  blessedness, 
must  also  investigate  the  spiritual  sense. 
De  Principiis,  1.  ir.,  $  2,  p.  168.— (6)  The 
moral  sense  of  Scripture  instructs  us  relative 
to  the  changes  in  the  mind  of  man,  and  gives 
rules  for  regulating  the  heart  and  life.  (7) 
The  spiritual  sense  acquaints  us  with  the 
nature  and  state  and  history  of  the  spiritual 
world.  For,  besides  this  material  world, 
there  is  a  spiritual  world,  composed  of  two 
parts,  the  heavenly  and  the  earthly.  The 
earthly  mystical  or  spiritual  world,  is  the 
Christian  church  on  earth.  The  heavenly 
mystical  world  is  above,  and  corresponds 
in  all  its  parts  with  the  lower  world,  which 
was  formed  after  its  model.  (8)  As  the 
Scripture  contains  the  history  of  this  twofold 
mystic  world,  so  there  is  a  twofold  mystic 
sense  of  Scripture,  an  allegorical  and  an  an- 
agogical.  (9)  The  mystic  sense  is  diffused 
throughout  the  Holy  Scriptures.  (10)  Yet 
we  do  not  always  meet  with  loth  the  alle- 
gorical sense  and  the  anagogical,  in  every 
passage.  (11)  The  moral  sense  likewise 
pervades  the  whole  Bible.  (12)  But  the 
literal  sense  docs  not  occur  everywhere  :  for 
many  passages  have  no  literal  meaning. 

(13)  Some  passages  have  only  two  senses, 
namely,  a  moral  and  a  mystical,  [the  mys- 
tical being  either  allegorical  or  anna 
rarely  both],  other  passages  have  three  senses, 
[the  moral,  the  mystical,  and   the  literal.} 

(14)  The    literal    sense    is    perceived    by 
every  attentive  reader.     The  moral  sense  is 
somewhat  more  difficult  to  be  discovered. 

(15)  But  the  mystic  sense  none  can  discover, 
with  certainty,  unless  they  are  wise  men,  and 


also  taught  of  God.  (16)  Neithercan  even 
such  men  hope  to  fathom  all  the  mysteries 
of  the  sacred  volume.  (17)  In  searching 
for  the  anagogical  sense,  especially,  a  person 
must  proceed  with  peculiar  care  and  caution. 
— Schl.  Dr.  Mosheim  states  the  following 
as  Origen's  general  rule  for  determining 
when  a  passage  of  scripture  may  be  taken 
literally,  and  when  not ;  viz.,  Whenever  the 
words,  if  understood  literally,  will  afford  a 
valuable  meaning,  one  that  is  worthy  of  God, 
useful  to  men,  and  accordant  with  truth  and 
correct  reason,  then  the  literal  meaning  is  to 
be  retained  :  but  whenever  the  words,  if  un- 
derstood literally,  will  express  what  is  absurd, 
or  false,  or  contrary  to  correct  reason,  or  use- 
less, or  unworthy  of  God,  then  the  literal 
sense  is  to  be  discarded,  and  the  moral  and 
mystical  alone  to  be  regarded. — This  rule 
he  applies  to  every  part  both  of  the  Old  Test. 
and  the  New.  And  he  assigns  two  reasons 
why  fables  and  literal  absurdities  are  admit- 
ted into  the  sacred  volume.  The  first  is, 
that  if  the  literal  meaning  were  always  ra- 
tional and  good,  the  reader  would  be  apt  to 
rest  in  it,  and  not  look  after  the  moral  and 
mystical  sense.  The  second  is,  that  fabu- 
lous and  incongruous  representations  often 
afford  moral  and  mystical  instruction,  which 
could  not  so  well  be  conveyed  by  sober  facts 
and  representations.  De  Principiis,  1.  iv., 
$  15,  16  ;  torn,  x.,  Comment,  in  Job. —  TV.] 
(8)  Origcn,  in  his  Stromata,  1.  x.,  cited 
by  Ch.  de  la  Rue,  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  p. 41,  says: 
Multorum  malorum  occasio  est,  si  quis  in 
came  Scripture  maneat.  Qute  qui  fecerint, 
regnum  Dei  non  consequentur.  Quamobrem 
spiritum  ScriptursB/rwc/M-syKc  qusramus,  qui 
non  dicuntur  manifesti.  He  had  said  a  little 
before :  Non  valde  cos  juvat  Scripture,  qui 
earn  intelligunt,  ut  scriptum  est.  Who 
would  suppose  such  declarations  could  fall 
from  the  lips  of  a  wise  and  considerate 
person  1  But  this  excellent  man  suffered 
himself  to  be  misled  by  the  causes  mention- 
ed, and  by  his  love  of  philosophy.  He  could 
not  discover  in  the  sacred  books  all  that  he 
considered  true,  so  long  as  he  adhered  to  the 
literal  sense ;  but  allow  him  to  abandon  the 
literal  sense,  and  to  search  for  recondite 
meanings,  and  those  books  would  contain 
Plti/n.  Aristotle,  Zcno,  and  the  whole  tribe 
of  philosophers.  And  thus,  nearly  all  those 
who  would  model  Christianity  according  to 
their  own  fancy  or  their  favourite  system  of 
philosophy,  have  run  into  this  mode  of  inter- 
preting Scripture. 


182  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 

our  external  actions,  and  the  latter  acquainting  us  with  the  nature,  the 
history,  and  laws  of  the  spiritual  or  mystical  world.  He  fancied  that  this 
mystical  world  was  also  twofold,  partly  superior  or  celestial,  and -partly  in- 
ferior and  terrestrial,  that  is,  the  church  ;  and  hence  he  divided  the  mysti- 
cal sense  of  scripture  into  the  terrene  or  allegorical,  and  the  celestial  or 
anagogical.  This  mode  of  interpreting  scripture,  which  was  sanctioned 
by  Jewish  practice,  was  current  among  Christians  before  the  times  of  Ori- 
gen.  But  as  he  gave  determinate  rules  for  it,  and  brought  it  into  a  sys- 
tematic form,  be  is  commonly  regarded  as  its  originator. 

§  6.  Innumerable  expositors  in  this  and  the  following  centuries,  pur- 
sued  the  method  of  Origen,  though  with  some  diversity  ;  nor  could  the 
few  who  pursued  a  better  method,  make  much  head  against  them.  The 
commentaries  of  Hippolytus,  which  have  reached  us,  show  that  this  holy 
man  went  wholly  into  Origen's  method.  And  no  better,  probably,  were 
the  expositions  of  some  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  composed  by 
Victorinus,  but  which  are  now  lost.  But  the  Paraphrase  on  the  book  of 
Ecclesiastes,  by  Gregory  Thaumaturgus,  which  is  still  extant,  is  not  liable 
to  the  same  objection,  although  its  author  was  a  great  admirer  of  Origen. 
Methodius  explained  the  book  of  Genesis,  and  the  Canticles ;  but  his  labours 
have  not  reached  us.  Ammonius  composed  a  Harmony  of  the  gospels. 

§  7.  Origen,  in  his  lost  work  entitled  Stromata,  and  in  his  four 
Books  de  Principiis,  explained  most  of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  or,  to 
speak  more  correctly,  deformed  them  with  philosophical  speculations. 
And  these  his  Books  de  Principiis  were  the  first  compendium  of  scholastic 
— or,  if  you  please — philosophic  theology.  Something  similar  was  at- 
tempted by  Theognostus,  in  his  seven  Books  of  Hypotyposes ;  for  a  knowl- 
edge of  which  we  are  indebted  to  Photius,(9)  who  says,  they  were  the 
work  of  a  man  infected  with  the  opinions  of  Origen.  Gregory  Thauma- 
turgus, in  his  Expositio  Fidei,  gave  a  brief  summary  of  Christian  doc- 
trines. Certain  points  of  the  Christian  faith  were  taken  up  by  various  in- 
dividuals, in  reply  to  the  enemies  or  the  corrupters'of  Christianity.  Tracts 
on  the  Deity,  the  resurrection,  antichrist,  and  the  end  of  the  world,  were 
composed  by  Hippolytus.  Methodius  wrote  on  free  will ;  and  Lucian  on 
the  creed.  But  as  most  of  these  treatises  are  no  longer  extant,  their  char- 
acter is  little  known. 

§  8.  Among  the  writers  on  moral  subjects,  (or  practical  theology), 
passing  by  Tertullian,  who  was  mentioned  under  the  preceding  century, 
the  first  place  belongs  perhaps  to  Cyprian.  From  the  pen  of  this  extra- 
ordinary man,  we  have  treatises  on  the  advantages  of  patience,  on  mor- 
tality, on  alms  and  good  works,  and  an  exhortation  to  martyrdom.  In  these 
works  there  are  many  excellent  thoughts,  but  they  are  not  arranged  neatly 
and  happily,  nor  sustained  by  solid  arguments. (10)  Origen  wrote,  among 
other  works  of  a  practical  nature,  an  exhortation  to  martyrdom ;  a  topic 
discussed  by  many  in  that  age,  with  different  degrees  of  eloquence  and  per- 
spicacity. Methodius  treated  of  chastity,  but  in  a  confused  manner,  in  his 

(9)  [Photius,  Biblioth.,  cod.  cvi.,  p.  279.  him,  Fabricius,  Biblioth.  Gr.,  1.  v.,  c.  1,  vol. 

Photius  represents  him  as  erring,  with  On-  v.,  p.  276,  and  1.  v.,  c.  38,  vol.  ix.,  p.  408. 

gen,  in  regard  to  the  character  of  the  Son  — Schl.] 

of  God.     But  G.  Bull  defends  him  against         (10)  See  J.  Barlcyrac,  de  la  Morale  des 

this  charge,  in  his  Defensio  Fidei  Nicaenae,  Peres,  c.  viii.,  p.  104,  &c, 
sec.  2,  c.  10,  §  7,  p,  135.— See  concerning 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY.  18S 

Feast  of  Virgins.     Dionysius  of  Alexandria  wrote  on  penance  and  on  temp, 
iatvms.     To  mention  other  writers  in  this  department  would  be  needless. 

§  9.  Of  polemic  writers,  a  host  might  be  mentioned.  The  idolaters 
were  assailed  by  Minucius  Felix,  in  his  dialogue  entitled  Octavius ;  by 
Origen,  in  his  eight  Books  against  Celsus ;  by  Arnobius,  in  his  seven  Books 
against  the  Gentiles ;  and  by  Cyprian,  in  his  tract  on  the  Vanity  of  Idols. 
The  Chronicon  of  Hippolytus,  written  against  the  Gentiles,  and  the  work  of 
Methodius  in  opposition  to  Porphyry,  who  attacked  Christianity,  are  lost. 
We  may  also  place  among  polemic  writers,  both  those  who  wrote  against 
the  philosophers,  as  Hipjidytus,  who  wrote  against  Plato ;  and  those  who 
treated  of  fate,  of  free  will,  and  of  the  Origin  of  Evil,  as  Hippolytus,  Me- 
thodius,  and  others.  Against  the  Jews,  Hippo/ytus  attempted  something, 
which  has  not  reached  us  ;  but  the  Testimonies  [from  scripture]  against  the 
Jews  by  Cyprian,  are  still  extant.  Against  all  the  sectarians  and  here- 
tics, assaults  were  made  by  Origen,  Victorinus,  and  Hippolytus ;  but  no- 
thing of  these  works  has  come  down  to  us.  It  would  be  superfluous  here 
to  enumerate  those  who  wrote  against  individual  heretics. 

§  10.  But  it  must  by  no  means  pass  unnoticed,  that  the  discussions  in- 
stituted against  the  opposers  of  Christianity  in  this  age,  departed  far  from 
the  primitive  simplicity,  and  the  correct  method  of  controversy.  For  the 
Christian  doctors,  who  were  in  part  educated  in  the  schools  of  rhetori- 
cians and  sophists,  inconsiderately  transferred  the  arts  of  these  teachers 
to  the  cause  of  Christianity  ;  and  therefore  considered  it  of  no  importance, 
whether  an  antagonist  were  confounded  by  base  artifices,  or  by  solid  ar- 
guments. Thus  that  mode  of  disputing,  which  the  ancients  called  econom- 
ical,(ll)  and  which  had  victory  rather  than  truth  for  its  object,  was  almost 
universally  approved.  And  the  Platonists  contributed  to  the  currency  of 
the  practice,  by  asserting  that  it  was  no  sin  for  a  person  to  employ  false- 
hood and  fallacies  for  the  support  of  truth,  when  it  was  in  danger  of  being 
borne  down.  A  person  ignorant  of  these  facts  will  be  but  a  poor  judge 
of  the  arguments  of  Origen,  in  his  book  against  Celsus,  and  of  the  others 
who  wrote  against  the  worshippers  of  idols.  Terlullian's  method  of  con- 
futing heretics,  namely,  by  prescription,  was  not  perhaps  altogether  un- 
suitable in  that  age.  But  they  who  think  it  always  proper  to  reason  in 
this  manner,  must  have  little  knowledge  of  the  difference  which  time  and 
change  of  circumstances  produce. (12) 

(11)  Souvcrain,    Platonisme  devoile,  p.  heretics,    or    Presumptions   against    them. 
244.     J.  Daille,  de  vero  usu  Patrum,  1.  i.,  The  author  attempts  to  confute  alt  the  her- 
p.  160.    J.  C.  Wolfo,  Casauboniana,  p.  100.  etics  at  once,  and  by  means  of  an  historical 
On  the  phrase,  to  do  a  thing  /car'  otKOvopiav,  argument.     He  maintains  that  the  orthodox 
Tho.    Gataker   has  treated    largely,  in  his  churches  were  founded  by  the  apostles  and 
Notes  on  M.  Antoninus,  1.  xi.,  p.  330,  &c.  their  approved  assistants,  who  ordained  the 
[It  signifies  to  do  a  thing  artfully  and  dex-  first  pastors  of  these  churches,  and  establish- 
terously,  or  with  cunning  and  sagacity,  as  a  ed  in  them  all,  one  and  the  same  faith,  which 
shrewd  manager  of  a  household  (biKovo/jtof)  must  of  course  be  genuine  Christianity ;  and 
controls  those  under  him.     See  note  4,  p.  that  this  faith,  having  been   handed  down 
126. — Tr.~\  pure  and  uncorrupted,  is  now  contained  in 

(12)  See  Fred.  Spanheim,  Diss.  de  Prae-  the  creeds  and  inculcated  in  the  assemblies 
scriptione  in  rebus  Fidei ;  Opp.,  torn,  iii.,  p.  of  these  churches.     But  that  not  one  of  these 
1079. — [Tertullian's  book  was  entitled  de  things  can  be  said  of  the  heretical  churches, 
Praescriptione  haereticorum,  or  Praescripti-  which  had  not  such  an  origin,  and  embrace 
onibus  adversus  haereticos  ;  which  might  be  various  differing  creeds,  and  creeds  derived 
translated,  on  the  Presumption  in  regard  to  from  other  sources.     Being  bred  an  advo- 


184  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 

§  11.  This  vicious  inclination  to  circumvent  and  confound  an  adversa- 
ry, rather  than  confute  him  with  sound  argument,  produced  also  a  multi- 
tude of  books  falsely  bearing  on  their  front  the  names  of  certain  distin- 
guished men.  For  the  greater  part  of  mankind,  being  influenced  more  by 
the  authority  of  names,  than  by  arguments  and  scripture  testimony,  the 
writers  conceived  they  must  prefix  names  of  the  greatest  weight  to  their 
books,  in  order  to  oppose  successfully  their  adversaries.  Hence  those  canons 
which  were  falsely  ascribed  to  the  apostles  :(13)  hence  those  Apostolic  Consti- 
tutions, which  Clemens  Romanuswas  reputed  to  have  collected  :(14)  hence 
too,  the  Recognitions  of  Clement,(15)  as  they  are  called,  and  the  Clem- 
entina,(l6)  and  other  works  of  the  like  character,  which  a  too  credulous 
world  long  held  in  high  estimation.  By  the  same  artifice,  the  Mystics,  as 
they  are  called,  sought  to  advance  their  cause.  Having  no  answer  to 
give  to  those  who  demanded,  who  was  the  first  author  of  this  new  sort  of 
wisdom,  they  alleged  that  they  received  it  from  Dionysius,  the  Areopagite 
of  Athens,  a  contemporary  with  the  apostles  ;  and  to  give  plausibility  to 
the  falsehood,  they  palmed  upon  this  great  man,  books  void  of  sense  and 
rationality. (17)  Thus  they  who  wished  to  surpass  all  others  in  piety, 
deemed  it  a  pious  act  to  employ  deception  and  fraud  in  support  of  piety. 


cate,  and  familiar  with  the  proceedings  of 
courts,  he  gives  a  forensic  form  to  his  argu- 
ment, not  only  by  using  the  law  term  Prae- 
scriptio,  but  by  maintaining  that  the  orthodox 
were,  and  had  always  been,  in  right  and  law- 
ful possession  of  that  invaluable  treasure, 
true  Christianity ;  and  that  of  course,  the 
heretics,  who  were  never  in  possession  of  it, 
in  vain  attempt  now  to  oust  them  of  what  they 
thus  hold  by  legal  prescription. — Tr.] 

(13)  [The  Apostolic  Co/nans  are  eighty- 
five  ecclesiastical  laws  or  rules,  professedly 
enacted  by  the  apostles,  and  collected  and 
preserved  by  Clemens  Romanus.     The  mat- 
ter of  them  is  ancient ;  for  they  describe  the 
customs  and  institutions  of  Christians,  par- 
ticularly of  the  Greek  and  Oriental  churches, 
in  the  second,  and  third,  centuries.     But  the 
phraseology  indicates  a  compiler  living  in  the 
third  century.     See   W.  Beveridge's  notes 
on  these  canons,  and  his  Codex  canonum 
eccles.   primitivae    vindicatus    et   illustrat., 
London,  1678,  4to.— Schl.] 

(14)  [The    Apostolic    Constitutions   fill 
eight  books.     They  prescribe  the  constitu- 
tion, organization,  discipline,  and  worship  of 
the   church,  with   great  particularity  ;    and 
avowedly  are  the  work  of  the  apostles  them- 
selves.    But  they  are  supposed  to  have  been 
compiled  in  the  eastern  or  Greek  church,  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  third  or  beginning  of 
the  fourth  century.     Some  place  them  in 
the  fourth  or  fifth  century.     They  bear  marks 
of  an  Arian  hand.     As  describing  the  form, 
discipline,  and   ceremonies   of  the   church 
about  the  year  300,  they  are  of  considerable 
value.     These  constitutions  may  be  seen  in 
Cotelerii  Patres  Apostohci,  torn,  ii.,  and  ia 


Wm.  Whiston's  Primitive  Christianity  Re- 
vived, Lond.,  1711,  4  vols.  8vo,  where  much 
learned  labour  is  wasted  in  the  vain  attempt 
to  prove  them  to  be  "  the  most  sacred  of  the 
canonical  books  of  the  New  Test." — Tr.] 

(15)  [The  Recognitions,  of  which  we  have 
only  the  Latin  translation  of  Rufinus,  com- 
pose ten  books,  and  describe  the  travels  of 
the  apostle  Peter,  and  his  contests  with  Si- 
mon Magus.     The  work  is  a  pleasant  one 
to  read,  and  helps  us  to  understand  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Gnostics.     Dr.  Mosheim,  (Diss. 
de  turbata  per  recentiores  Platonicos  eccle- 
sia.,  §  34),  conjectures,  with  much  probabil- 
ity, that  it  was  composed  by  an  Alexandrian 
Jew,  who  was  opposed  to  the  Gnostics,  but 
himself  full  of  errors,  under  the  forged  name 
of  Clemens  Romanus. — Schl.] 

(16)  [The  Clementina  are  nineteen  Hom- 
ilies, first  published,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  by  Cote- 
Her,  in  his  Patres  Apostol.,  torn,  i.,  p.  603, 
&c.     They  are  supposed  to  have  been  the 
work  of  some  Ebionite. — Schl.     The  Clem- 
entina and  the  Recognitions  are  works  of  a 
similar  character.     Both  profess  to  give  us 
the  history  of  St.  Peter's  contests  with  Si- 
mon Magus,  and  his  private  instructions  to 
his  particular  friend.s,  respecting  the  myste- 
ries of  nature  and  the  deep  things  of  theolo- 
gy.    They  are  downright  romance  ;  yet  not 
uninteresting,  as  specimens  of  the  specula- 
tions   of  semi-Christians    of   a  philosophic 
turn,  who  lived  about  A.D.  200. — Tr.] 

(17)  [The    spurious  works    ascribed    to 
Dionysius   the   Areopagite,    (who  is   men- 
tioned Acts  xvii.,  34),  are  the  following  :  de 
Coelesti  Hierarchia,  lib.  i.  ;  de  Ecclesiastica 
Hierarchia,  1.  i. ;  de  Divinis  Nominibus,  1.  i. ; 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY. 


185 


§  12.  Among  the  controversies  which  divided  Christians  in  this  cen- 
tury, the  most  considerable  were,  concerning  the  millennium,  the  baptism 
of  heretics,  and  concerning  Origen.  That  the  Saviour  is  to  reign  a  thou- 
sand  years  among  men,  before  the  end  of  the  world,  had  been  believed  by 
many  in  the  preceding  century,  without  offence  to  any :  all,  however,  had 
not  explained  the  doctrine  in  the  same  manner,  nor  indulged  hopes  of  the 
same  kind  of  pleasures  during  that  reign. (18)  In  this  century  the  mil- 
lenarian  doctrine  fell  into  disrepute,  through  the  influence  especially  of 
Origen,  who  strenuously  opposed  it,  because  it  contravened  some  of  his 
opiuions.(19)  But  Nepos,  an  Egyptian  bishop,  attempted  to  revive  its  au- 


de  Mystica  Theologia,  1.  i.,  together  with 
four  epistles  to  Cams,  one  to  Dorothcus, 
one  to  Sosipatcr,  one  to  Polycarp,  one  to 
Demophylus,  one  to  Titus,  one  to  Apolloph- 
anes,  and  two  to  St.  John  the  apostle.  They 
all  relate  to  mystic  theology,  and  breathe 
a  devout  spirit,  but  are  exceedingly  obscure 
and  difficult  of  comprehension.  It  is  suppo- 
sed they  were  written  in  the  fouth  or  fit'lh 
century,  as  they  bear  marks  of  that  period, 
and  are  not  mentioned  by  any  writer  prior  to 
the  sixth  century.  During  the  middle  ages 
they  were  held  in  high  estimation,  and  their 
genuineness  scarcely  if  at  all  questioned. 
The  more  devout  Catholics  and  most  of  the 
early  Protestants,  received  them  and  relied 
upon  them  as  genuine.  In  the  17th  century, 
their  spuriousness  was  abundantly  demon- 
strated, and  they  are  now  universally  re- 
garded as  supposititious.  The  best  edition 
of  these  works,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  with  copious 
notes,  is  that  of  Balthazar  Cordcrius,  Ant- 
werp, 1634,  2  vols.  fol.,  embracing  the  Gr. 
echolia  of  St.  Maximus  the  martyr,  (A.D. 
659),  and  the  paraphrase  of  George  Pachym- 
eras,  (A.D.  1280.)  The  MS.  copies  of  these 
works  are  found  in  most  of  the  great  libraries 
of  Europe.— TV.] 

(18)  ["  vSee  the  learned  Treatise  concern- 
ing the  true  millennium,  which  Dr.  \Vlii tin/ 
has  subjoined  to  the  second  volume  of  his 
Commentary  upon  the  New  Testament.    See 
also,  for  an  account  of  the  doctrine  of  the  an- 
cient Millenanans,  the  fourth,  fifth,  seventh, 
and  ninth  volumes  of  Lardncr's  Credibility, 
&c.'' — Mad.     Also  H.   Corodi's  kritische 
Geschichte  des  Chiliasmus,  2d  ed.,  1794,  3 
vols.    8vo. — Tr.] 

(19)  See  Origen,  de  Principiis,  lib.  ii.,c. 
11,  Opp.,tom  i.,p.  104,  [and  Prolog.  Com- 
ment, in  Cantic.  Canticor.,  torn,  iii.,  p.  28. 
— The    Cerinthians,    Marciunites,    Monta- 
nists,  and  Meletians,  among  the  heretical 
sects,  and  among  the  orthodox  fathers  Pa- 
pias,  Justin  Martyr,  and  Ircna-u.t,  held  to  a 
.millennial  reign  of  Christ,  and  Irr.ti, 
derstood  it  in  a  very  gross  sense.     Dr.  Mo- 
sheim,  in  his  Comment,  de  Rebus  Christia- 
nor.,&c.,  p.  721,  believed  the  doctrine  had 

VOL.  I.— A  A 


a  Jewish  origin ;  and  he  supposed  the 
Christian  doctors  received,  or  at  least  tol- 
erated it,  because  they  hoped  by  it  to  make 
the  Jews  more  willing  to  embrace  Christian- 
ity. But  Dr.  Walch,  in  his  Entwurf  einer 
vollstandigen  Hist,  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  ii., 
p.  143,  is  more  discriminating,  and  main- 
tains that  the  question,  whether  a  millennial 
reign  of  Christ  is  to  be  expected,  had  a  bib- 
lical origin,  the  earlier  Chiliasts  relying  on 
the  testimony  of  the  Apocalypse :  but  the 
explanation  of  the  doctrine,  he  admits,  was 
derived  from  the  Jewish  opinions.  There 
were  two  kinds  of  Chiliasts,  the  gross  and 
the  refined.  The  latter  placed  the  chief  dif- 
ference between  the  millennial  reign  of 
Christ  and  his  present  reign,  in  the  higher 
enjoyment  of  spiritual  advantages  and  pleas- 
ures, yet  without  wholly  excluding  the  pleas- 
ures of  sense.  But  the  former  expected,  in 
the  millennium,  all  kinds  of  sensual  delights, 
and  the  free  indulgence  of  all,  even  the  most 
exorbitant  lusts.  And  these  gross  Chiliasts 
are  to  be  found  not  merely  among  the  here- 
tics ;  they  may  be  found  also  among  the  or- 
thodox, as  the  example  of  Irenceus  proves. 
According  to  the  account  of  Gennadms  of 
Marseilles,  de  Dogmatt  ecclesiast.,  c.  55,  p. 
3ii.  the  Chiliasts  may  be  divided  into  /our 
classes.  The  first  class  were  the  most  mod- 
erate. They  are  called  Meletians ;  and  they 
expected  a  fulfilment  of  the  divine  promises 
here  on  the  earth,  without  attempting  to  de- 
fine the  nature  of  the  bliss  to  be  enjoyed 
during  the  millennium.  The  second  class 
expected  not  only  to  enjoy  the  indispensable 
gratifications  of  the  senses,  but  also  marriage 
pleasures,  and  every  species  of  sensual  in- 
dulgence. The  third  class  promised  them- 
selves indeed  sensitive  delights,  and  these 
too  as  rewards  for  foregoing  them  now,  and 
as  a  compensation  for  the  outward  sufferings 
of  saints  ;  but  they  excluded  from  them  the 
carnal  pleasure  of  sexual  intercourse.  The 
fourth  was  composed  of  Nepos  and  his  fol- 
lowers. The  millennial  doctrine  did  not  pre- 
vail everywhere,  and  uncontradicted.  Yet 
the  believers  and  the  rejecters  of  the  doctrine 
treated  each  other  with  affection,  and  a  per- 


186  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 

thority,  in  a  work  written  against  the  allegorists,  as  he  contemptuously 
styled  the  opposers  of  the  millennium.  The  book  and  its  arguments  were 
approved  by  many  in  the  province  of  Arsinoe,  and  particularly  by  Co- 
radon,  a  presbyter  of  some  respectability  and  influence.  But  Dionysius 
of  Alexandria,  a  disciple  of  Origen,  allayed  the  rising  storm,  by  his  oral 
discussions  and  his  two  Books  on  the  divine  promises. (20) 

§  13.  As  no  law  had  determined  in  what  manner  those,  who  came  over 
from  heretical  churches  to  the  Catholic  Christians,  were  to  be  received,  dif- 
ferent customs  prevailed  in  different  churches.  Many  of  the  Oriental  and 
African  Christians  classed  reclaimed  heretics  among  the  catechumens,  and 
admitted  them  to  the  Christian  ordinances  by  baptism.  But  most  of  the 
European  Christians  regarded  the  baptism  administered  by  errorists  as 
valid ;  and  therefore  received  reclaimed  heretics,  simply  with  imposition 
of  hands  and  prayer.  This  diversity  long  prevailed,  without  giving  rise 
to  contention.  But  in  this  century  the  Asiatic  Christians  determined  in 
several  councils,  what  before  had  been  left  at  discretion,  that  all  heretics 
coming  over  to  the  true  church,  must  be  rebaptized.(21)  This  com- 
ing  to  the  knowledge  of  Stephen,  bishop  of  Rome,  he  with  little  humanity 
or  prudence,  excluded  those  Asiatics  from  his  fellowship  and  from  that 
of  his  church.  Notwithstanding  this  rashness  of  Stephen,  Cyprian  with 
other  Africans,  in  a  council  called  on  the  subject,  embraced  the  opinion  of 
the  Asiatics,  and  gave  notice  of  it  to  Stephen.  Upon  this,  Stephen  was 
very  indignant ;  but  Cyprian  replied  with  energy,  and  in  a  new  council 
held  at  Carthage,  again  pronounced  the  baptism  administered  by  heretics 
to  be  wholly  invalid.  The  rage  of  Stephen  now  waxed  hotter,  and  he 
most  unjustly  excluded  the  Africans  from  the  rights  of  brotherhood.  But 
the  discord  was  healed,  partly  by  the  moderation  with  which  the  Africans 
conducted  themselves,  and  partly  by  the  death  of  Stephen.  (22) 

son  might  believe  or  discard  it,  without  bring-  Christ,  must  be  understood  literally,  and  as 

ing  his  orthodoxy  under  suspicion.     The  first  promising  corporeal  and  sensitive  pleasures. 

open  opposer  of  Chiliasm,  that  we  meet  with,  But   he   does    not  appear  to   have  defined 

was  Cains,  a  teacher  in  the  church  of  Rome,  clearly  what  these   pleasures  were    to   be, 

towards    the    end   of    the   second    century,  though    he   excluded  eating,  and  drinking, 

On  this  ground,  he  denied  that  the  Apoca-  and  marriage,  as  Dr.  Mosheim  supposes,  1. 

lypse  was  written   by  John,  and   ascribed  c.,  p.  726.     The  very  obscure  and  defective 

it   rather   to  Cerinthus.     But   he   effected  history  of  Ncpos,  and  the  controversy  with 

very  little.     Origen  was  a  more   powerful  him,  is  explained,  as  far  as  it  can  be.  by  Dr. 

opposer  of  the  doctrine.     He  did  not,  like  Wcdch,  \.  c.,  p.  152-167. — Schl.     See  also 

Caius,  deny  the  canonical  authority  of  the  W.  Muenscher's  Handbuch  der  Dogmeng., 

Apocalypse,  but  explained  the  passages  in  it  vol.  ii.,  p.  408-434,  and  A.  Neander's  Kirch- 

which  describe  the  millennial  reign  of  Christ,  eng.,  vol.  i.,  pt.  iii.,  p.  1088-1096. — TV.] 

allciforically,  as  referring  to  spiritual  delights,  (21)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles  ,  vii.,  c.  5 

suited  to  the  nature  of  spirits  raised  to  per-  and  7.     Firmilian,  Epist.   ad    Cyprianum, 

fection,  and  these  to  be  enjoyed,  not  on  the  inter    Epp.  Cypriani,    75. — [The    councils 

earth,  but  in  the  world  to  come.     See  Mo-  which  decided  this  point,  before  Stephen's 

sheim.  Comment,  de  Rebus  Christianor.,  p.  rash  procedure,  were  (1)  the  council  of  Car- 

720,  &c.,  and  Dr.  WaLch,  Historic  der  Ket-  thage,  about  A.D.  215.     See  Epp.  Cypr. 

zereyen,  vol.  ii..  p.  136-151. — Schl.]  71  and  73 — (2)  that  of  Iconium  in  Phrygia, 

(20)  See   Eusebius,    Hist.   Eccles.  vii.,  A.D.  235,  Epp.  Cypr.  75.     Eusebius,  H. 

24,  and  Gennadius   Massiliensis,  de  Dog-  E.,  vii.,  4 — (3)   that  of  Synada,  and  (4) 

matibus  ecclesiasticis,  cap.  55,  p.  32,  ed.  some  others,  which  are  barely  mentioned  in 

Elmenhorst. — [Ncpos  held  the  Apocalypse  Epp.   Cypr.   75,   and  Eusebius,  uhi  supra, 

to  be  an  inspired  book ;  and  he  maintained,  See  Wnlch,  Historic  der  Kirchenversamml., 

in  opposition  to  the  allegorists,  that  the  pas-  >p.  91,  94,  and  96. — Tr.J 

sages  which  speak  of  a  millennial  reign  of  '     (22)  Cyprian,  Epp.  70  and  73,  and  sev- 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY.  187 

§  14.  The  contests  concerning  Origen  were  moved  by  Demetrius  bishop 
of  Alexandria  ;  who  is  reported  by  the  friends  of  Origen,  to  have  been  in- 
fluenced  by  envy  and  hatred  ;  which  however  is  very  doubtful.  In  the  pro- 
ceedings  of  Demetrius  against  Origen,  one  may  discover  marks  of  a  mind 
exasperated,  impassioned,  arrogant,  and  unreasonable,  but  none  scarcely  of 
envy. (2.3)  In  the  year  228,  Origen  took  a  journey  to  Achaia,  and  on  his 
way  suffered  himself  to  be  ordained  a  presbyter  by  the  bishops  of  Csesarea 
and  Jerusalem.  At  this,  Demetrius  was  greatly  offended ;  because  he 
deemed  Origen  unfit  for  such  an  office,  on  account  of  his  having  emascu- 
lated himself;  and  because,  being  master  of  a  school  under  him,  he  had 
been  ordained  without  his  knowledge  and  consent.  The  matter  however 
was  compromised,  and  Origen  returned  to  Alexandria.  But  not  long 
after,  from  some  unknown  cause,  new  dissension,  arose  between  him  and 
Demetrius,  which  became  so  great,  that  Origen  left  Alexandria  and  the 
school  in  the  year  231,  and  removed  to  Csesarea  [in  Palestine].  Deme- 
trius accused  him  in  his  absence,  before  an  assembled  council,  and  de- 
prived him  of  his  office  without  a  hearing ;  and  afterwards,  in  a  second 
council,  divested  him  of  his  ministerial  character.  It  is  probable  that  De- 
metrius accused  Origen  before  the  council,  particularly  the  last  one,  of 
erroneous  sentiments  in  matters  of  religion ;  which  it  was  easy  for  him  to 
do,  as  Origen's  book  de  Principiis,  which  was  full  of  dangerous  sentiments, 
had  been  published  not  long  before.  The  decision  of  the  council  at  Al- 
exandria was  approved  by  the  majority  of  the  Christian  bishops,  though 
rejected  by  those  of  Achaia,  Palestine,  Phenicia,  and  Arabia.(24) 

eral  others,  ed.  Baluze.  Augustine,  de  Bap-  ginal  sources,  especially  from  EuseUus,  H. 
tismo  contra  Donatistas,  1.  vi.  and  vii.,  Opp.,  Eccles.,  vi.,  23.  P/iolius,  Bibliolh.,  cod. 
torn,  ix.,  where  he  gives  the  Acts  of  the  cxviii.  Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  and  Ori- 
council  of  Carthage,  A.D.  256.  Prudent,  gen  himself.  It  differs  in  some  respects 
Maran,  vita  Cypriani,  p.  107,  and  all  the  from  that  given  by  the  common  writers,  Dow- 
writers  of  the  life  of  Cyprian.  [The  whole  cm,  Huet,  and  others. — [That  Demetrius  ac- 
history  of  this  controversy  is  discussed  at  cused  Origen  of  erroneous  sentiments,  is  a 
large  by  Dr.  Mosheim,  Comment,  de  Rebus,  conjecture  of  Dr.  Mosheim.  and  others,  which 
&c.,  p.  540-547,  and  still  more  fully  by  Dr.  however  is  expressly  denied  by  Jerome,  (Ep. 
Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  ii.,  p.  29,  ad  Paulam,  Opp.,  vol.  iv.,  t.  ii.,  p.  68 
328-384.— Schl.]  and  480,  ed  Martianay),  Damnatur  a  Deme- 

(23)  [Dr.  Moaheim  is  singular  in  this  opin-  trio  episcopo  ;  exceptis  Palx>stinse  et  Arabia 
ion  ;  which  he  defends  at  great  length,  in  et  Phosnices  atque  Achaiae  sacerdotibus,  in 
his  Comment,  de  Rebus,  &c.,  p.  671,  &c.,  damnationem   ejus   (leg.   orbis)  consentit : 
in   opposition  to    the  express  testimony  of  urbs  Roma  ipsa  contra  hunc  cogit  senatum, 
Eusebins,  H.  E.,  vi.,  8,  and  Jerome,  Epist.  non  propter  dogmafum  novitatem,  non  prop- 
29,  Opp.,  torn,  iv.,  part  ii.,  p.  68.     If  Dcmc-  tcr  hctresiit,  ut  nunc  rabidi  canes  simulant, 
trius  was  not  envious  of  the  growing  repu-  sed  quia  gloriam  eloquentia?  ejus  et  scientise 
tation  of  Origen,  or  otherwise  affected  by  ferre  nonpoterant,  et  illo  dicente  omnes  muti 
personal  antipathy,  it  seems  impossible  to  putabantur. — Neither  is  it  certain,  that  De- 
account   for  the  rancour  he   manifested. —  metrius  assembled  two  councils  in  the  case 
Tr.]  of  Origen.     See  C.  W.  F.  Walch,  Historie 

(24)  This  account  is  derived  from  the  ori-  der  Kirchenversamml.,  p.  92,  &c. — Tr.] 


188  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  IV. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

HISTOKY    OF    RELIGIOUS   RITES. 

$  1.  Rites  multiplied. — §  2.  Public  Worship. — §  3.  Administration  of  the  Sacred  Sup- 
per.— §  4.  Baptism. — §  5.  Various  other  Rites. 

§  1.  ALL  the  monuments  of  this  century  which  have  come  down  to  us, 
show  that  there  was  a  great  increase  of  ceremonies.  To  the  causes  here- 
tofore mentioned,  may  be  added  the  passion  for  Platonic  philosophy,  or 
rather,  the  popular  superstition  of  the  Oriental  nations  respecting  demons, 
which  was  adopted  by  the  Platonists,  and  received  from  them  by  the  Chris- 
tian  doctors.  For  from  these  opinions  concerning  the  nature  and  the  pro- 
pensities  of  evil  spirits,  many  of  these  rites  evidently  took  their  rise. 
Hence  arose  the  public  exorcisms,  the  multiplication  of  fasts,  and  the  aver- 
sion  to  matrimony.  Hence  the  caution  not  to  have  intercourse  with  those 
who  were  either  not  yet  baptized,  or  had  been  excluded  from  the  commu. 
nion  of  the  church,  because  such  were  considered  as  under  the  power  of 
some  evil  spirit.  And  to  pass  over  other  things,  hence  the  painful  auster- 
ities and  penances  which  were  enjoined  upon  oifenders.(l) 

§  2.  That  the  Christians  now  had  in  most  provinces  certain  edifices  in 
which  they  assembled  for  religious  worship,  will  be  denied  by  no  candid 
and  impartial  person.  Nor  would  I  contend  strenuously,  against  those 
who  think  these  edifices  were  frequently  adorned  with  images  and  other 
ornaments.(2)  As  to  the  forms  of  public  worship,  and  the  times(3)  set 
apart  for  it,  it  is  unnecessary  here  to  be  particular,  as  little  alteration  was 
made  in  this  century.  Yet  two  things  deserve  notice.  First,  the  public 
discourses  to  the  people  underwent  a  change.  For  not  to  mention  Origen, 
who  was  the  first  so  far  as  we  know  that  made  long  discourses  in  public, 
and  in  his  discourses  expounded  the  sacred  volume,  there  were  certain 
bishops,  who  being  educated  in  the  schools  of  the  rhetoricians,  framed 
their  addresses  and  exhortations  according  to  the  rules  of  Grecian  elo- 
quence, and  their  example  met  the  most  ready  approbation.  Secondly  ; 
the  use  of  incense  was  now  introduced,  at  least  into  many  churches.  Very 
learned  men  have  denied  this  fact ;  but  they  do  it  in  the  face  of  testimony 
which  is  altogether  unexceptionable. (4) 

§  3.  To  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  supper,  those  who  conducted  re- 

(1)  Whoever  desires  to  look  farther  into         (4)   Wm.  Beveridge,  ad  Canon,  iii.  Apos- 
this  subject,  may  consult  Porphyry,  on  Ab-  tol.,  p.  461,  and  his  Codex  Canon,  vindica- 
stinence  from  flesh,  and  various  passages  in  tus,  p.  78.     [The  Christians  originally  ab- 
Eusebius,  Prseparat.  Evang.,  and  Theodoret ;  horred  the  use  of  incense  in  public  worship, 
and  compare  them  with  the  Christian  insti-  as  being  a  part  of  the  worship  of  idols.     See 
tutions.  Tcrtullian,  Apolog.,  c.  42,  and  de  Corona 

(2)  [Yet  there  is  most  ground  for  the  neg-  militis,  c.  10.     Yet  they  permitted  its  use 
ative. —  Von  Ein.]  at  funerals,  against  offensive  smells.     After- 

(3)  [The  regular  seasons  for  public  wor-  wards  it  was  used  at  the  induction  of  magis- 
ship  were  all  Sundays,  Good  Friday,  Easter,  trates  and  bishops,  and  also  in  public  worship, 
and  Whitsunday.    See  Origr.n,ag.  Celsus.b.  to  temper  the  bad  air  of  crowded  assemblies 
viii.,  p.  833.     The  anniversaries  of  the  local  in  hot  countries,  and  at  last  it  degenerated 
martyrdoms  were  also  observed. —  Von  Bin.]  into  a  superstitious  rite. — SchL] 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  189 

ligious  worship  annexed  longer  prayers  and  more  of  ceremony ;  and  this, 
I  suppose,  with  no  bad  intentions.  Neither  those  doing  penance,  nor  those 
not  yet  baptized,  were  allowed  to  be  present  at  the  celebration  of  this  or- 
dinance ;  which  practice,  it  is  well  known,  was  derived  from  the  pagan 
mysteries. (5)  That  golden  and  silver  vessels  were  used  in  the  ordinance, 
is  testified  among  others  by  Prudentius  ;(6)  and  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt 
the  fact  in  respect  to  the  more  opulent  Christian  churches.  The  time  of 
its  administration  was  different,  according  to  the  state  and  circumstances 
of  the  churches.  Some  deemed  the  morning,  some  the  afternoon,  and 
some  the  evening,  to  be  the  most  suitable  time  for  its  celebration. (7) 
Neither  were  all  agreed,  how  often  this  most  sacred  ordinance  should  be 
repeated. (8)  But  all  believed  it  absolutely  necessary  to  the  attainment  of 
salvation ;  and  therefore  they  universally  wished  infants  to  partake  of 
it. (9)  In  some  places  the  sacred  feasts  preceded,  and  in  others  followed 
the  Lord's  supper. (10) 

§  4.  Baptism  was  publicly  administered  twice  a  year,  to  such  candi- 
dates as  had  gone  through  a  long  preparation  and  trial  ;(11)  and  none 
were  present  as  spectators,  but  such  as  had  been  themselves  baptized. 
The  effect  of  baptism  was  supposed  to  be  the  remission  of  sins  :  and  it  was 
believed  that  the  bishop,  by  the  imposition  of  hands  and  by  prayer,  confer, 
red  those  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit  which  were  necessary  for  living  a  holy 
life. (12)  Of  the  principal  ceremonies  attending  baptism,  we  have  before 
spoken  ;  [Century  II.,  Part  II.,  Ch.  IV.,  §  13,  p.  137].  A  few  things  how. 
ever  must  here  be  added.  None  were  admitted  to  the  sacred  font,  until 
the  exorcist,  by  a  solemn  menacing  formula,  had  declared  them  free  from 
bondage  to  the  prince  of  darkness  and  now  servants  of  God.  For  when 
the  opinion  had  become  prevalent  among  Christians,  ihat  rational  souls 
originated  from  God  himself,  and  were  therefore  in  themselves  holy,  pure, 
and  possessed  of  free  will,  either  the  evil  propensities  in  man  must  b^  con- 
sidered as  arising  from  the  body  and  from  matter,  or  some  evil  spirit 
must  be  supposed  to  possess  the  souls  of  men,  and  impel  them  to  sin.  The 

(5)  [See  Christ.  Matth.  Pfaff,  Diss.  2  de     Antiquitates  Eccles.,  b.  xv.,  ch.  4,  $  7. — 
praejudic.  theolog.,  §  13,  p.  149,  &c.,  and     Schl.] 

Jos.  Btngham,  Antiquitates  Eccles.,  1.  x.,  (10)  [Ckrysostom,    Homil.    22,    oportet 

c.  5. — Schl.]  haereses  esse,  Opp.,  torn,  v.—  Schl.] 

(6)  Tlcpl  fetiav.      Hymn,  ii.,  p.  60,  ed.  (11)  [In  the  Apostolic  Constitutions,  b. 
Hei.isii,  [and  Optatu-*  Mi'evit.  de  schismate  viii.,  ch.  32,  a  three  years'  preparation  was 
Doridti-t.,  c.  12,  p.  17. — Sr.hl.]  enjoined;  yet  with  allowance  of  some  ex- 

(7)  [See  Cyp~ian,ep.  63,  p.  104.— Schl.]  ceptions.— SchL] 

(8)  [It  was  commonly  administered  every  (12)  This  may  be  placed  beyond  all  con- 
Sunday,  as  well  as  on  other  festival  days ;  troversy  by  many  passages  from  the  fathers 
and  in  times  of  persecution,  daily.     See  Cyp-  of  this  century.     And   as  it   will  conduce 
rian,  de  Oralione  Domin.,  p.  209  ;  ep.  56,  much  to  an  unders;and;ng  of  the  thcolog-/ of 
p.  90  ;  cp.  54,  p.  78  ;  ed.  Baluze. — Schl.]  the  ancieiits,  which  diffeied  in  many  respect* 

(9)  [They  believed   that  this  ordinance  from  ours,  I  will  adduce  a  single  passage 
rendered  persons  immortal ;  and  that  dueh  from  Cyprian.     It  is  in  his  Epist.  73,  p. 
as  never  partook  of  it,  had  no  hopes  of  a  res-  131       Manifestum    est   autem,   ubi    et    per 
urrection.     Hence  Dionysius  Alex.,  (cited  quos  rcmissa  peccatorum  dari  poss:t,  quae  in 
by  Euxcb.,  H.  E.,  vii.,  11),  calls  it  aiatiijrriv  baptismo  scilicet  datur. — Qui  vero  praepos- 
fitTu.  r»  Kvpi*  <rn>^yvyf;v.     That  children  itis  ecclesiae  orTeruntur,  per  noslram  oratio- 
a!so  pa-took  of  it,  is  testified  by  Cyprian,  de  ncm  et  rnar.us  impositionem  Spiritnm  Snnc- 
Lapsis,  p.   184  and  189    ed.  Baluze      See  turn  ccmsequuntur.     See  also  a  passage  from 
1'.  Ztrrfs  Historia  Eucharist,  infartum,  c.  Dionyfiu*  Alex.  iaEusebius,  Hist.  Lccles., 
4,  $  1,  &.c.,  and  c.  6,  $  3 ;  also  J.  Bingham,  1.  vii.,  c.  8. 


190  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  IV. 

Gnostics  all  embraced  the  first  supposition ;  but  the  Catholics  could  in  no 
wise  embrace  it,  because  they  held  that  matter  was  created  by  God  and 
was  not  eternal.  They  had  therefore  to  embrace  the  second  supposition, 
and  to  imagine  some  evil  demon,  the  author  of  sin  and  of  all  evil,  to  be 
resident  in  all  vicious  persons. (13)  The  persons  baptized  returned  home, 
decorated  with  a  crown  and  a  white  robe ;  the  first  being  indicative  of 
their  victory  over  the  world  and  their  lusts,  the  latter  of  their  acquired  in- 
nocence.(14) 

§  5.  To  fasting  greater  sanctity  and  necessity  were  now  attributed, 
than  heretofore ;  because  it  was  the  general  belief  that  demons  laid  fewer 
snares  for  the  abstemious  and  those  who  fared  hard,  than  for  the  full  fed 
or  such  as  lived  generously. (15)  The  Latins  were  singular  in  keeping 
every  seventh  day  of  the  week  as  a  fast  ;(16)  and  as  the  Greek  and  Ori- 
ental Christians  would  not  imitate  them  in  this,  it  afforded  abundant  matter 
for  altercation  between  them. — Ordinarily  Christians  prayed  three  times  a 
day,  at  the  third,  sixth,  and  ninth  hours,  [9  A.M.,  12  Noon,  and  3  P.M.] 
as  was  the  custom  of  the  Jews.  Besides  these  regular  hours  of  prayer, 
they  prayed  much  and  often ;  for  they  considered  it  the  highest  duty  of  a 
religious  man  to  hold  converse  with  God. (17)  On  joyful  and  festive  oc- 
casions, while  giving  thanks  to  God,  they  thought  it  suitable  to  pray  stand- 
ing,  thus  expressing  their  joy  and  confidence  by  the  posture  of  their  bod- 
ies. But  on  sorrowful  occasions  and  seasons  of  fasting  and  humiliation, 
they  were  accustomed  to  make  their  supplications  on  their  bended  knees 
or  prostrate,  to  indicate  self-abasement.  (18)  That  certain  forms  of  prayer 
were  everywhere  used,  both  in  public  and  in  private,  I  have  no  doubt  ;(19) 
but  I  am  likewise  confident,  that  many  persons  poured  out  the  feelings  of 
their  hearts  before  God  in  free  and  unpremeditated  effusions.  In  the  sign 
of  the  cross,  they  supposed  there  was  great  efficacy  against  all  sorts  of 

(13)  That  exorcism  was  not  annexed  to         (19)  [In  the  earliest  times,  exclusive  of 
baptism,  till  some  time  in  the  third  century,  the  short  introductory  salutation  :  Pax  vo- 
and  after  the  admission  of  the  Platonic  phi-  biscum,  &c.,  no  established  forms  of  prayer 
losophy  into   the  church,   may   almost   be  were  used  in  public  worship,  but  the  bishop 
demonstrated.     The    ceremonies    used    at  or  presbyter  poured  forth  extempore  prayers, 
baptism  in  the  second  century,  are  described  See  Justin  Martyr,  Apology  ii.    The  Lord's 
by  Jus/in  Martyr,  in  his  second  apology,  and  prayer  was  used,  not  only  as  a  pattern,  but 
by  Tertullian,  in  his  book  de  Corona  militis.  also  as  a  formula  of  prayer.     Yet  only  the 
But  neither  makes  any  mention  of  exorcism,  baptized,  and  not  the  catechumens,  might 
T'.is  is  a  cogent  argument,  to  prove  that  it  utter  it.      Tertullian,  de  Oratione,  c.  1,  9. 
was  admitted  by  Christians,  after  the  times  Cyprian,  de   Oratione    Domin.   Constilutt. 
of  these  fathers,  and  of  course  in  the  third  Apostol.,  1.  vii.,  c.  44.     Afterwards  various 
century.     Egypt  perhaps  first  received  it.  forms  were  gradually  introduced,  and  partic- 

(14)  [Perhaps  also  of  their  freedom. — See  ularly  short  prayers,  derived  from  passages 
C.  G.  Sckwarz,  Diss.  de  ceremoniis  et  for-  of  scripture.     When  greater  uniformity  in 
mulis  a  veterum  manumissione  ad  Baptis-  the  churcb.es  as  to  ceremonies  was   intro- 
mum  translatis.    Cyprian  refers  to  the  white  duced,  the  smaller  churches  had  to  regulate 
garments  ;  de  I.apsis,  p.  181. — SchL]  their  forms  of  prayer  conform  ib!y  to  those 

(15)  Clementina,  Homil.  ix.,  $  9,  p  f>88,  of  the  larger  churches,  and  of  course  to  adopt 
&c.     Porphyry,  de  Abstine.itia,  lib.  iv.,  p.  the  formulas  of  the  metropolitan  churches. 
417,  &c.,  and  others.  Origen,  contra  Celsnin,  1.  vi.,  and  Homilia 

(16)  [See  Concilium  Eliberitanum,  Can-  xi.  in  Jerem.     EuseUus,  de  Vita  Constan- 
on  26.— Schl.]  tini  Mag.,  1.  iv.,  c.  19,  20,  17.     Hist.  EC- 

(17)  [See  Cyprian,  de  Oratione,  p.  214.  cles.,  !.  ii.,  c.   17.     Lauantius.  de   Morte 
• — Schl.]  persecutor.,  c.  46,  47.     See  Baumgarteri's 

(19)  [See  Cyprian,  de  Oratione,  p   214,     Erliiuterung  der  christlichen  Alterthiimer,  p. 
and  Constitute  Apostol.,  1.  ii.,  c.  59.— ScU.]     432. — Schl.] 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS.  101 

evils,  and  particularly  against  the  machinations  of  evil  spirits ;  and  there- 
fore  no  one  undertook  anything  of  much  moment,  without  first  crossing 
himself. (20) — Other  ceremonies  I  pass  without  notice. 


CHAPTER  V. 

HISTORY   OF   DIVISIONS   OR   HERESIES   IN   THE   CHURCH. 

$  1.  Remains  of  the  Ancient  Sects. — $  2.  Manes  and  the  Manichaeans. — $  3.  His  Prin- 
ciples.— §  4.  His  Doctrine  concerning\Man. — $  5.  Concerning  the  Nature  of  Christ  and 
of  the  Holy  Spirit. — $  6.  Concerning  the  Offices  of  Christ  and  the  Comforter. — $  7. 
Concerning  the  Purification  and  Future  Condition  of  Souls. — $  8.  Concerning  the  State 
of  Souls  not  Purified. — $  9.  His  Opinion  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments — 10.  The 
Seventy  of  his  Moral  Principles,  and  the  Classification  of  his  Followers. — $  1 1 .  The 
Sect  of  the  Hieracites.—  <J  12.  The  Noetian  Controversy. — §  13.  gabellius. — $  14.  Be- 
ryllus. — §  15.  Paul  of  Samosata. — §  16.  Disturbances  in  Arabia. — $  17.  Novatian  Con- 
troversy.— §  18.  Severities  of  the  Novatians  towards  the  Lapsed. 

§  1.  MOST  of  the  sects  which  disquieted  the  church  in  the  preceding 
centuries,  caused  it  various  troubles  also  in  this.  For  the  energies  of  the 
Montanists,  Valentinians,  Marcionites,  and  other  Gnostics,  were  not  wholly 
subdued  by  the  numerous  discussions  of  their  tenets.  Adelphius  and  Aqui- 
linus  of  the  Gnostic  tribe,  but  very  little  known,  endeavoured  to  insinuate 
themselves  and  their  doctrines  into  the  esteem  of  the  public  at  Rome  and 
in  Italy.(l)  But  these  and  others  of  the  same  clan,  were  resisted  by  Plo- 
linus  himself,  the  coryphaeus  of  the  Platonists  of  this  age,  and  by  his  disci- 
pies,  with  no  less  boldness  and  energy  than  the  orthodox  Christians  w^re 
accustomed  to  manifest.  For  the  philosophical  opinions  of  this  faction,  con- 
cerning God,  the  origin  of  the  world,  the  nature  of  evil,  and  other  subjects, 
could  not  possibly  meet  the  approbation  of  the  Platonists.  These  united 
forces  of  the  Christians  and  the  philosophers,  were  doubtless  competent  to 
bring  the  Gnostics,  gradually,  to  lose  all  credit  and  influence  among  the 
well  informed.(2) 

(20)  [The  Christians  at  first  used  the  sign  and  Lactantiiis,  Institut.,  1.  iv.,  c.  27,  28. 

of  the  cross,  to  bring  to  remembrance  the  — Schl.] 

atoning  death  of  Christ    on  all  occasions.         (1)  Porphyry,  Vita  Plotini,  c.  16,  p.  118, 

Hence  Tcrtullian,  de  Corona  militis,  c.  3,  &c. 

p.  121,  says:  ad  omnem  progressum  atque         (2)  The  book  of  Plotinus  against  the  Gnos- 

promotum,  ad  omnem  aditum  et  exitum,  ad  tics,  is  still  extant  among  his  works.     En- 

vestit'jrn,  ad  calciatum.  ad  lavacra,  ad  men-  nead  ii.,  lib.  ix.,  p   213,  &c.      [Dr.  Semler, 

s"s,  ad  lumina,  ad  cubilia,  ad  scdilia,  quae-  in  his  Historiae  Eccies.  Selecta  Capita,  vol. 

cunque  nos  conversatio  exercct,  fro-.item  cru-  i.,  p.  81,  conjectures,  and  not  without  reason, 

cis  sigraculo    terimus.     Compare   alsq   his  that  the  Gnostics,  and  all  the  assailants  of 

work,  ad  Uxorem,  lib.  ii.     So  Icte  as  the  t!<e  Gu'  Tes'a.i.cnt,  lost  their  power,  after 

second  ccnt-iry.  the  Ohristiars  attached  no  Ori^en  introduced  the  allegorical  and  tropo- 

partinidr  virtue  to  the  sign  of  the  n.roas,  and  logica.  m^dc  or  PT-  oundiug  Scripture,  and 

they  paid  it.  no  adoration.     See  Tertuiliar,  extended  it  in  soiiie  measure  to  the  history 

Apologet.,  c.   16,  and  ad  Naticnes,  c.   12.  of  Chri.-t.     And  as  he  further  supposes,  the 

But  afterwards,  powerful  ffficacy  began  to  labours  of  Dionysius  Alex,  and  other  !eam- 

be  ascribed  to  it.     See  Cyprian,  Testimo-  ed  fathers,  e.  g.  Dorothcus,  a  presbyter  of 

nia  adv.  Judaeos,  1.  ii.,  c.  21,  22,  p.  294,  Aniioch.  (who  understood  the  Hebrew ;  z?tf 


192 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


§  2.  While  the  Christians  were  struggling  with  these  corrupters  of  the 
truth,  and  were  on  the  point  of  gaining  the  victory,  [a  little  past  the  mid- 
dle of  the  century],  a  new  enemy,  more  fierce  and  dangerous  than  those, 
suddenly  appeared  in  the  field.  .Manes,(3)  whom  his  disciples  also  called 
Manictuzus,(ty  a  Persian,(5)  educated  among  the  Magi,  and  himself  one 
of  the  Magi  before  he  became  a  Christian,  was  instructed  in  all  the  sci- 
ences and  arts  that  were  in  repute  among  the  Persians  and  the  adjacent 
nations,  and  was  an  astronomer,  (though  a  rude  one),  a  physician,  a  paint- 
er, and  a  philosopher ;  but  he  had  an  exuberant  imagination,  and,  as  ap- 
pears very  probable,  was  delirious  and  fanatical.  This  man  adventured 
to  combine  the  principles  of  the  Magi  with  Christianity,  or  rather  to  ex- 
plain the  latter  by  the  former.  To  facilitate  the  accomplishment  of  this 
object,  he  gave  out  that  Christ  had  left  the  way  of  salvation  imperfectly 
explained,  and  that  he  himself  was  the  Paraclete  whom  the  Saviour  prom- 
ised to  send  to  his  disciples  when  he  left  the  world.  Many  were  seduced 
by  his  eloquence,  his  grave  aspect,  and  the  simplicity  and  innocence  of  his 
life  ;  and  in  a  short  time  he  established  a  sect.  But  at  last,  he  was  put  to 
death  by  Varanes  I.,  king  of  the  Persians.  The  cause,  time,  and  manner 
of  his  execution  are  variously  stated  by  the  ancients.  (6) 


sebius,  H.  E.,  vii.,  32),  may  have  contributed 
much  to  diminish  the  Gnostic  party,  as  they 
carried  investigation  farther,  and  more  lucid- 
ly confuted  the  Jesvish  notions,  and  at  the 
same  time  approximated  a  little  towards  the 
Gnostic  doctrines  concerning  the  Son  of 
God.  Hence  it  is,  we  hear  no  more  about 
the  Gnostics  in  this  century  ;  and  the  few 
who  still  remained,  united  themselves  with 
the  Manichaeans. — Schl.] 

(3)  [The  Oriental  writers  call  him  Mani ; 
(Hyde,  de  Relig.  vet.  Persarum,  c.  21,  and 
de  Herbelot,  Bibliotheque  Oriertale,  art.  Ma- 
ni) ;  but  the  Greeks  and  Latins  call  him  Ma- 
vris,  Mavftf,  and  Manes.     See  Dr.  Walch, 
Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  i.,  p.  691. — 
SM.] 

(4)  [See   the   Acta  Archelai,   c.  5,  49. 
Augustine,  de  Haeresib.,  c.  46,  and  contra 
Faustum,  lib.  xix.,  c.  22. — SchL] 

(5)  [Notwithstanding  the  Greek  and  Ori- 
ental writers  represent  Manes  as  being  a 
Persian,  Dr.   Walch,  (Historic  der  Ketzer- 
eyen, vol.  i  ,p.  71)8),  and  Beausobre,  (Histoire 
critique  de  Maniche°,  tome  i.,  p  66),  think 
it  more  probable  that  he  was  a  Chaldean ; 
because  Ephraim  Syrus  expressly  so  states, 
Opp.  Syro- Latin-,  torn,  ii.,  p   468,  and  be- 
cause Arr.hdaus,  in  his  Acta  cum  Manete, 
c.  36,  charges  Manes  with  understanding  no 
language  but  that  of  the  Chaldees. — Schl.] 

(6)  All  that  is  extant  concerning  the  life, 
the  deeds,  and   the  doctrines  of  this  very 
singular  genius,  has  been  carefully  collect- 
ed, and  reviewed  ingeni  'jsly — though  often 
with  more  ingenuity  and  copiousness  than 
weie  necessary — by  James  dc  Beausobre,  in 
his  Histoire  critique  de  Maoichee  et  du  Ma- 


nicheisme,  published  at  Amsterdam,  1734- 
39,  2  vols.  4to. — [Whoever  would  gain  the 
best  acquaintance  with  the  history  of  Manes 
and  the  Manic fueans,  may  consult,  besides 
Beausobre,  ubi  supra,  the  long  essay  of 
Dr.  Mosheim,  in  his  Comment,  de  Rebus, 
&c.,  p.  728-903  ;  Jo.  Christ.  Wolf,  Maui- 
chaeismus  ante  Manichaeos,  &c.,  Hamb., 
1707,  8vo  ;  Nath.  Lardner's  Credibility  of 
the  Gospel  History,  part  ii.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  364— 
753;  and  Dr.  C.'W.  F.  WalcWs  Entwurf 
einer  vollstandigen  Historic  der  Ketzereyen, 
vol.  i.,  p.  685-814.  These  principal  writers 
being  consulted,  all  the  rest  may  be  neglect- 
ed. The  last  of  these  works  has  the  great 
advantage,  that  it  concentrates,  arranges 
properly,  criticises  acutely  and  solidly,  and 
expresses  in  a  lucid  and  agreenbli  stj  le,  all 
that  has  been  said  on  the  subject  by  the 
useful  Wolf,  the  agreeable  and  learned  but 
prolix  Beausobre,  the  acute  Mosheim,  and 
the  solid  and  critical  Lardner. —  Von  Ein. 
More  recent  writers  may  be  consulted,  viz., 
A.Neander,  Kirchengesc!).,  bd.  i.,  abth.  ii., 
s.  813-856,  and  K.  A.  Frcih.  v.  Keichlinn 
Meldcgg,  die  Theclogie  des  Magiers  Manes 
und  ihr  Ursprung,  Frankfort  a.  M.,  1825, 
8vo  —  Tr. 

The  original  sources  for  the  history  of 
Manes  and  his  sect  according  to  Mosheim, 
Comment,  de  Rebus,  &c.,p.  729,  &c.,  are, 
besides  the  ancient  historical  writers,  Epi- 
phanius,  Augustine,  Euscbius,  Theodoret, 
Darnascenus,  and  Philastrius,  (I.)  what  re- 
mains of  the  writings  of  Manes  himself  and 
his  followers ;  viz..  (a)  Manctis  Epistola 
Fundamenti,  in  Augustine,  contra  Ep.  Fun- 
damenti ;  (b)  a  fragment  of  his  Sermo  de 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


103 


§  3.  The  religious  system  of  Manes  is  a  compound  of  Christianity  and 


Fide,  in  Epiphanius,  Hacrcs.  Ixvi.,  14  ;  (c) 
his  Epistola  ad  Marcellum,  in  the  Acta  Ar- 
chclai  cum  Manete,  p.  6,  ed.  Zaccag.  ;  (d) 
some  fragments  of  his  Epistola,  ad  Menoch. 
in  Augustine,  adv.  Julianum  Pelagian.  ;  (e) 
several  extracts  from  his  Epistles,  in  J.  A. 
Fabricius,  Biblioth.  Gr.,  vol.  v.,  p.  284 ;  (f ) 
Acta  disputationis  Archclai,  Eptsc.  Mcso- 
pot.  cum  Manete,  inter  Collectanea  monu- 
mentor.  veteris  Eccles.  Graecae  et  Latinae, 
published  by  L.A.  Zaccagnius,  Rome,  1698, 
4to ;  also,  inter  Opp.  Hippolyti,  vol.  ii ,  ed. 
Fabricii.  (The  genuineness  of  these  Acta  is 
questioned  by  Beausobre  ;  but  without  good 
reason);  (g)  many  quotations  from  Faus- 
tus  the  Manichaean,  in  Augustine's  thirty- 
three  Books  contra  Faustum  Manichaeum  ; 
(h)  various  statements  of  his  antagonists, 
contained  in  Augustine's  two  Books,  de  Ac- 
tis  cum  Felice  Manichaeo  ;  and  in  his  book 
contra  Fortunatum  Manichaeum. — (II.)  the 
writings  of  the  fathers,  who  attempted  to 
confute  Manes  and  his  followers ;  viz.  (a) 


divine  impulse.  The  king  of  Persia  threw 
him  into  prison  ;  but  for  what  cause  is  un- 
known. The  Greek  writers,  (especially  Ar- 
chclaus,  in  his  Acta  cum  Manete,  who  fur- 
nished the  other  Greek  and  Latin  writers 
with  nearly  all  the  historical  facts  they  state), 
represent  that  he  was  imprisoned,  because, 
having  promised  to  cure  the  king's  son,  he 
failed,  and  caused  the  death  of  the  young 
prince.  A  different  account  is  given  by  the 
Oriental  writers,  (Persian,  Syrian,  and  Ara- 
bian, cited  by  De  Herbelot,  Bibliotheque  Ori- 
ent., art.  Mani ;  Tho.  Hyde,  Historia  relig. 
veter.  Persarum,  c.  21.  Euscb.  Rcnaudot, 
Historia  Patriarch.  Alexandrinor.,  p.  42. 
Edw.  Pocock,  Specimen  Hist.  Arabum,  p. 
149,  &c.)  They  state  that  Manes,  coming 
to  the  court  of  King  Sapor,  was  received 
kindly  ;  and  that  his  doctrines  were  em- 
braced by  the  monarch.  Hereupon  Manes 
became  so  bold  as  publicly  to  attack  the  Per- 
sian religion.  This  drew  on  him  persecu- 
tion, and  so  endangered  his  life  that  he  was 


^.vuauiiv    .i'*U'/ti*o     otiu    ma    twHwwyAV  ,     *J£>.    V     /        nv/u,   ai*u   o^   ^iiuaii±'(»iv\j    1110    u*v   t-uafc  lie,    n  09 

Augustine,  de  Haeresibus,  and  in  the  works     obliged  to  flee  into  Turkistan.     Here  he  col- 


above  mentioned,  (I.  a,  g,  and  h.) — (b)  Tilus 
of  Dostra,  libri  iii.,  contra  Manichaeos,  Gr. 
and  Lat.,  inter  Lectiones  Antiquas,  ed.  Ca- 
nisii;  et  denuo.  J.  Basnagii,  torn,  i.,  p.  156, 
&c. ;  (c)  Didymus  Alexandrinus,  Liber  con- 
tra Manichaeos,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  in  the  same 
Lectiones  Antiq.,  torn,  i.,  p.  197  ;  (d)  Al- 
exander Lycopolitanus,  the  philosopher,  Li- 
ber contra  Mamchaei  opiniones,  Gr.  and  Lat., 
in  the  Auctarium  noviss.  Biblioth.  Patr.,  ed. 
Combejis,  torn,  ii.,  p.  260.—  Tr. 

In  regard  to  the  history  of  Manes,  there  is 
much  disagreement  between  the  Oriental  and 
Grecian  writers.  Yet  in  the  particulars  sta- 
ted in  the  text,  there  is  no  disagreement. 
We  will  extract  from  Moshciin's  Comment- 
aries, p.  734,  &c.,  so  much  as  is  necessary 
to  give  a  full  history  of  this  extraordinary 
man. — Manes,  on  meeting  with  the  books  of 
the  Christians,  found  that  the  religion  they 
contained,  coincided  with  his  philosophy  in 
some  respects,  and  contradicted  it  in  others. 
He  determined  to  unite  the  two  together,  to 
enlarge  and  improve  the  one  by  the  other, 
and  thus  to  give  the  world  a  new  religion. 
He  began  by  giving  out  that  he  was  the 
Paraclete,  (6  irapu.K?.i]Toc,  John  xvi ,  7,  13, 
&c.),  and  perhaps  he  really  supposed  he 
was  so.  But  he  was  not  so  deranged  and 
carried  away  by  his  imagination,  as  to  be 
unable  to  frame  a  consistent  system,  and  to 
discover  what  would  tend  to  confirm  it,  and 
what  to  weaken  it.  He  therefore  rejected  or 
altered  snch  books  of  the  Christians  as  con- 
travened his  opinions,  and  substituted  others 
in  their  place,  particularly  those  which  he 
pretended  were  written  by  himself  under  a 
VOL.  I.— B  B 


lected  many  followers,  and  spent  a  whole 
year  in  a  cave,  where  he  composed  his  book 
entitled  Erteng  or  Arzeug,  i.  e.,  the  Gospel, 
and  which  is  adorned  with  splendid  paintings. 
This  book  he  represented  to  be  a  gift  of  God. 
In  the  mean  time  Sapor  died,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son  Hormisdas ;  who  was  so 
favourable  to  Manes,  as  to  embrace  his  reli- 
gion, and  to  allow  him  to  build  a  castle  in 
which  he  might  be  safe  from  all  plots.  Per- 
haps Hormisdas  was  a  favourer  of  Manes, 
in  the  lifetime  of  his  father.  And  Dr.  Mo- 
sheim  conjectures.  (Comment.,  &c.,  p.  739), 
that  the  Grecian  story  of  his  fatal  attempt  to 
cure  the  king's  son,  was  an  Oriental  allego- 
ry, which  the  Greeks  construed  literally  ; 
that  the  disease  was  ignorance,  the  medicine 
instruction,  the  physician  the  teacher,  and 
the  death  of  the  patient  his  apostacy  from  the 
religion  of  his  progenitors  :  [all  of  which  is 
very  improbable,  and  indeed  inconsistent ; 
for  the  king,  having  himself  embraced  the 
doctrine  of  Manes,  would  not  have  impris- 
oned him,  for  converting  his  son  to  the  same 
religion.] — After  the  death  of  Hormisdas, 
Veranes  I.  succeeded  to  the  throne.  He 
was  at  first  well  disposed  towards  Manes, 
but  soon  turned  against  him  and  determined 
on  his  destruction.  For  this  purpose  he  al- 
lured him  from  his  safe  retreat,  under  pre- 
tence of  a  disputation  with  the  Magi,  and 
caused  him  to  be  put  to  death  as  a  perverter 
of  the  true  religion.  This  took  place  in  the 
year  278 ;  or,  according  to  Dr.  Walch, 
(Hist,  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  i.  p.  724),  in  the 
year  277. — The  shocking  fate  of  Manes, 
rather  animated  than  terrified  his  follower*. 


1&4  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  HI.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

the  ancient  philosophy  of  the  Persians,  which  he  had  imbibed  in  early  life. 
What  the  Persians  relate  concerning  their  Mithras,  Manes  applied  to  Christ. 
According  to  his  views  and  those  of  the  Persians,  there  are  two  first  princi- 
ples of  all  things,  a  subtile  and  very  pure  substance  or  light,  and  a  gross 
and  corrupt  substance  or  darkness.  Over  each  of  these  a  Lord  has  reigned 
from  all  eternity.  The  Lord  of  light,  is  denominated  God ;  the  regent  of 
the  world  of  darkness,  is  called  Hyle  [yXr],  matter},  or  dcemon  [the  devil.] 
These  two  lords  are  of  opposite  natures  and  dispositions.  The  Lord  of 
light,  as  he  is  himself  happy,  so  he  is  beneficent ;  the  Lord  of  darkness, 
being  himself  miserable,  is  malignant,  and  wishes  others  also  to  be  miser- 
able. Each  has  produced  a  numerous  progeny  of  his  own  peculiar  char- 
acter, and  distributed  them  over  his  empire. 

§  4.  For  a  long  period  of  time,  the  Prince  of  darkness  was  ignorant 
of  the  existence  of  light,  and  of  the  world  of  light.  But  on  occasion  of  a 
war  that  arose  in  his  kingdom,  he  gained  some  knowledge  of  the  light ;  and 
on  discovering  it,  he  was  eager  to  get  possession  of  it.  The  Lord  of  light 
opposed  him  with  an  army ;  but  the  general  of  the  celestial  army,  whose 
name  was  The  first  Man,  was  rather  unsuccessful ;  and  the  troops  of  dark- 
ness succeeded  in  getting  possession  of  a  considerable  portion  of  the  ce- 
lestial elements,  and  of  light  itself,  which  is  an  animate  substance ;  and 
these  they  mixed  with  depraved  matter.  The  next  general  on  the  side  of 
the  world  of  light,  called  The  living  Spirit,  conducted  the  war  more  suc- 
cessfully ;  yet  he  was  unable  to  liberate  the  celestial  substance  that  was  now 
in  combination  with  the  vicious  elements.  The  vanquished  Prince  of  dark- 
ness produced  the  parents  of  the  human  race.  The  men  who  are  born  of 
this  stock,  consist  of  a  body  formed  from  the  depraved  matter  of  the  world 
of  darkness,  and  of  two  souls,  the  one  sensitive  and  concupiscent  which 
they  derived  from  the  Prince  of  darkness,  the  other  rational  and  immortal, 
it  being  a  particle  of  that  divine  light  which  was  plundered  by  the  army 
of  darkness  and  immersed  in  matter. 

§  5.  Men  being  thus  formed  by  the  Prince  of  darkness,  and  minds, 
which  were  the  daughters  of  eternal  light,  being  enclosed  in  their  bodies, 
God  now,  by  the  living  Spirit  who  had  before  vanquished  the  Prince  of 
darkness,  formed  this  our  earth  out  of  vicious  matter,  that  it  might  be- 
come the  residence  of  the  human  race,  and  might  afford  God  advantages 
for  gradually  delivering  souls  from  their  bodies,  and  separating  the  good 
matter  from  the  bad.  Afterwards  God  produced  from  himself  two  majestic 
beings,  who  should  afford  succour  to  the  souls  immured  in  bodies  ;  name- 
ly, Christ  and  the  Holy  Spirit.  Christ  is  the  being,  whom  the  Persians 
call  Mithras :  he  is  a  most  splendid  substance,  consisting  of  the  purest  light 
of  God,  self-existant,  animate,  excelling  in  wisdom,  and  having  his  resi- 
dence in  the  sun.  The  Holy  Spirit  likewise  is  an  animate  and  lucid  sub- 
stance, which  is  diffused  through  the  whole  atmosphere  that  encompasses 
our  earth,  warms  and  enlightens  the  souls  of  men,  fecundates  the  earth,  eli- 
cits gradually  from  it  the  latent  particles  of  divine  fire,  and  wafts  them  up- 
ward, that  they  may  return  to  their  native  world. 

The  most  able  and  eloquent  of  them  roamed  lytes.     And  notwithstanding  all  the  persecu- 
through   Syria,  Persia,  Egypt,  Africa,  and  tions  that  have  befallen  them,  their  descend- 
over  most  parts  of  the  world  ;  and  by  the  ants  exist  to  this  day,  in  the  mountains  be- 
severity  of  their  morals  and  the  simplicity  of  tween  Persia  and  India. — Schl.] 
their  religion,  they  everywhere  made  prose- 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS.  195 

§  6.  After  God  had,  for  a  long  time,  admonished  the  captive  souls  im- 
mured in  bodies,  by  the  ministry  of  angels  and  by  men  instructed  by  him- 
self;  he  at  length,  in  order  to  accelerate  their  return  to  the  heavenly  coun- 
try, directed  Christ  his  son  to  descend  from  the  sun  to  this  our  world.  He 
being  clad  in  the  form  and  shadow  of  a  human  body,  but  not  joined  to  a 
real  body,  appeared  among  the  Jews,  pointed  out  the  way  in  which  souls  may 
extricate  themselves  from  the  body,  and  proved  his  divinity(7)  by  his  mir- 
acles. But  the  Prince  of  darkness  instigated  the  Jews  to  crucify  him. 
This  punishment  however  he  did  not  actually  endure,  because  he  had  not 
a  body  ;  but  the  people  supposed  he  was  crucified.  Having  accomplished 
his  embassy,  Christ  returned  to  the  sun,  his  former  residence ;  and  left  in 
charge  to  his  apostles  to  propagate  the  religion  he  had  taught  them,  through- 
out the  world.  Moreover,  when  about  to  depart,  he  promised  to  send,  at 
some  time,  a  greater  and  more  perfect  apostle  whom  he  called  the  Para- 
clete, who  should  add  many  things  to  the  precepts  he  had  delivered,  and 
dispel  all  errors  in  regard  to  religious  subjects.  This  Paraclete  promised 
by  Christ,  was  Manes  the  Persian,  who  by  command  of  God  explained  the 
whole  doctrine  of  salvation,  perfectly,  and  without  any  ambiguity  or  con- 
cealment. 

§  7.  The  souls  which  believe  Jesus  Christ  to  be  the  Son  of  God,  cease 
from  worshipping  the  God  of  the  Jews,  (who  is  no  other  than  the  Prince 
of  darkness),  obey  the  laws  which  were  given  by  Christ  and  enlarged  and 
explained  by  Manes  the  Paraclete,  and  perseveringly  resist  the  lusts  of  the 
evil  soul,  these  shall  gradually  become  purified  from  the  contaminations 
of  base  matter.  Yet  the  entire  purgation  of  the  soul  cannot  be  effected 
in  the  present  life.  Therefore  souls,  when  freed  from  the  body,  must  un- 
dergo a  twofold  purification  after  death,  before  they  are  admitted  into  the 
world  of  light ;  the  first  purification  is  by  sacred  water,  and  the  second  by 
sacred  fire.  They  first  go  to  the  moon,  which  consists  of  sacred  water, 
and  are  there  purified  during  fifteen  days  ;  thence  they  proceed  to  the  sun, 
whose  \\o\yjire  entirely  removes  all  their  remaining  pollution.  The  bod- 
ies which  they  left  behind,  being  formed  of  base  matter,  revert  back  to 
their  original  mass. 

§  8.  But  the  souls  which  have  neglected  the  means  for  their  purgation, 
will,  after  death,  pass  into  other  bodies,  either  of  animals  or  of  other  be- 
ings, until  they  become  cleansed.  Some  also  being  peculiarly  depraved, 
will  be  delivered  over  to  the  evil  demons  inhabiting  our  atmosphere,  to  be 
tormented  for  a  season.  When  the  greater  part  of  the  souls  shall  be  lib- 
erated and  be  restored  to  the  world  of  light,  then,  at  the  command  of  God, 
infernal  fire  will  burst  from  the  caverns  in  which  it  is  contained,  and 
will  burn  up  and  destroy  the  fabric  of  this  world.  After  these  events,  the 
Prince  and  powers  of  darkness  will  be  compelled  to  retire  to  their  wretch- 
ed country,  where  they  must  remain  for  ever.  For  to  prevent  their  again 
waging  war  against  the  world  of  light,  God  will  encompass  the  world  of 
darkness  with  an  invincible  guard.  That  is  to  say,  the  souls  whose  sal- 

(7)  [Not  his  Divinity :  for  this,  in  the  true  p.  69.     They  believed  that  the  light  of  the 

and  proper  sense  of  the  word,  the  Manichae-  Son  might  be  obscured  by  intervening  mat- 

ans  could  not  predicate  of  Christ,  nor  of  the  ter,  but  that  the  light  of  the  Father  could 

Holy  Ghost.     They  held  neither  of  them  to  not.     See  Moshcim,  Comment,  de  Rebus, 

be  more  ancient  than  the  world.     See  For-  <tc,,  p.  775,  &c. — SchL] 
tunatus,  in  his  dispute  with  Augustine  I., 


196  BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

vation  has  become  desperate,  will  keep  watch  like  soldiers  about  the  world 
of  darkness,  so  that  its  miserable  inhabitants  can  no  more  go  out. 

§  9.  To  give  some  plausibility  to  these  monstrous  opinions,  Manes  re- 
jected nearly  all  the  sacred  books,  in  which  the  Christians  believed  their 
religion  was  contained.  The  Old  Testament  especially,  he  pronounced  to 
be  the  work,  not  of  God,  but  of  the  Prince  of  darkness,  whom  he  represent- 
ed the  Jews  as  worshipping  in  place  of  the  true  God.  The  four  histories 
of  Christ  which  we  call  Gospels,  he  either  denied  to  have  been  composed 
by  the  apostles,  or  he  maintained  that  if  they  were  so,  they  had  been  cor- 
rupted, interpolated,  and  stuffed  with  Jewish  fables  by  crafty  and  deceitful 
men.  In  place  of  them  he  substituted  another  Gospel,  which  he  denom- 
inated Erteng,  and  which  he  affirmed  had  been  dictated  to  him  by  God  him- 
self. The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  he  wholly  rejected.  The  Epistles  which 
are  ascribed  to  St.  Paul,  he  admitted  to  have  been  written  by  him,  but 
maintained  that  they  were  adulterated.  What  he  thought  of  the  other  books 
of  the  New  Testament,  we  are  not  informed. 

§  10.  The  rules  of  life  which  Manes  prescribed  for  his  followers,  were 
peculiarly  rigorous  and  severe.  For  he  directed  them  to  mortify  and  ma- 
cerate the  body,  which  he  regarded  as  the  very  essence  of  evil,  and  the 
work  of  the  Prince  of  darkness ;  to  deprive  it  of  every  convenience  and 
gratification,  to  extirpate  every  sensual  appetite,  and  to  divest  themselves 
of  all  the  propensities  and  instincts  of  nature.  But  as  he  foresaw  that  he 
could  expect  few  to  embrace  his  system,  if  he  imposed  upon  all  without 
discrimination  such  severe  rules  of  life,  he  divided  his  followers  into  two 
classes,  the  elect  and  the  hearers,  that  is,  the  perfect  Christians  and  the  imper- 
fect.(8)  The  former,  or  the  elect,  were  to  abstain  from  flesh,  eggs,  milk, 
fish,  wine,  and  every  inebriating  drink,  from  marriage,  and  from  every  indul- 
gence of  sexual  passions,  to  live  in  the  most  abject  poverty,  to  sustain  their 
emaciated  bodies  with  bread,  herbs,  pulse  and  melons,  to  abstain  from  all 
active  life,  and  to  be  devoid  both  of  love  and  hatred.  A  milder  rule  was  pre- 
scribed for  the  hearers.  They  might  possess  houses,  lands,  and  goods,  eat 
flesh,  though  sparingly,  and  marry  wives  :  yet  even  these  indulgences  had 
their  limitations.  The  whole  body  of  Manichaeans  were  subjected  to  one 
president,  who  represented  Jesus  Christ ;  with  him  were  connected  twelve 
masters,  or  rulers,  who  represented  the  twelve  apostles  ;  next  to  these,  there 
were  seventy-two  bishops,  corresponding  with  the  seventy-two  disciples  of 
Christ ;  and  under  each  bishop,  there  were  presbyters  and  deacons.  All 
these  officers  were  from  the  class  of  the  elect.(9) 

(8)  [The  elect  were  also  called  t\&  faithful,  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  i.,  p.  685-814.     From 
or  believers;  and  the  hearers  were  called  cat-  both,  we  extract  the  following  notices,  re- 
echumens.    The  former  were  either  baptized,  specting  the  worship  of  this  sect.    They  rev- 
or  unbaptized.     If  baptized,  they  could  not  erenced  the  sun  and  the  moon,  though  they 
change  their  condition  ;  if  unbaptized,  they  did  not  account  them  deities.     Their  worship 
might  return  to  the  class  of  hearers,  if  they  was  so  simple,  that  they  claimed  to  be  farther 
found  themselves  unable  to  endure  the  rig-  removed  from  paganism,  than  all  other  Chris- 
orous  discipline  of  the  perfect.     See  Mo-  tians.     They  had  no  temples,  no  altars,  no- 
sheim,   Comment,  de   Rebus   Christianor.,  images,  no  oblations,  and  no  burning  of  in- 
&c.,  p.  896,  &c. — Schl.]  cense.     They  observed  Sundays,  which  they 

(9)  All  these  particulars  are  more  fully  kept  as  fasts.     But  they  observed  none  of 
stated,  and  supported  by  citations  from  anti-  the  Christian  festivals,  which  relate  to  the 
quity,  in  my  Comment,  de  Rebus  Christia-  incarnation  and  baptism  of  Christ.     They 
nor.,  &c.,   [pa.  728-903— with  which,  the  celebrated  the  memorial  of  Christ's  death, 
reader  should  compare  Dr.  Walch's  Historie  but  with  little  of  devotion.     Whether  they 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS.  197 

§11.  The  sect  of  the  Hieracites  was  formed  in  Egypt,  near  the  close 
of  this  century,  by  Hierax  of  Leontopolis,  who  was  a  bookmaker  by 
trade,  a  man  of  learning  and  venerable  for  the  visible  sanctity  of  his  de- 
portment. Many  have  supposed  that  this  sect  was  a  branch  of  the  Man- 
ichaean  family,  but  erroneously ;  for  though  Hierax  held  some  notions  in 
common  with  Manes,  yet  he  differed  from  him  in  many  respects.  He  be- 
lieved  it  was  the  great  business  of  Christ  to  promulge  a  new  law,  more 
perfect  and  more  strict  than  that  of  Moses.  And  hence  he  concluded  that 
Christ  had  prohibited  to  his  followers,  marriage,  flesh,  wine,  and  whatever 
was  grateful  to  the  senses  or  the  body :  which  things  had  been  allowed  of 
by  Moses,  but  were  abrogated  by  Christ.  Yet  if  we  duly  consider  all  ac- 
counts, we  shall  conclude  that  Hierax,  as  well  as  Manes,  did  not  suppose 
these  severe  injunctions  were  imposed  by  Christ  on  all  his  followers,  but 
only  on  those  who  aspired  after  the  highest  attainments  in  virtue.  To 
this  radical  error,  he  added  others  either  growing  out  of  it,  or  originating 
from  other  sources.  For  example,  he  excluded  infants,  who  died  before 
they  came  to  the  use  of  reason,  from  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  because  di- 
vine  rewards  could  be  due  to  none  but  such  as  had  actually  passed  through 
regular  conflicts  with  the  body  and  its  lusts.  He  also  maintained,  that 
Melchisedek,  the  king  of  Salem  who  blessed  Abraham,  was  the  Holy  Spirit. 
The  resurrection  of  the  body,  he  denied ;  and  the  whole  sacred  volume, 
especially  its  historical  parts,  he  obscured  with  allegorical  interpreta- 
tions.^) 

§  12.  The  controversies  respecting  the  divine  Trinity,  which  commenced 
in  the  preceding  century,  from  the  time  when  Grecian  philosophy  got  into 
the  church,  had  a  wider  spread  in  this  century,  and  produced  various  meth. 
ods  of  explaining  that  doctrine.  First,  [in  the  early  part  of  the  century], 
Noetus,  a  man  of  whom  little  is  known,  a  native  of  Smyrna,  maintained 
that  God  himself,  whom  he  denominated  the  Father,  and  held  to  be  abso- 
lutely one  and  indivisible ;  united  himself  with  the  man  Christ,  whom  he 
called  the  Son ;  and,  in  him,  was  born  and  suffered.  From  this  dogma  of 
Noetus,  his  adherents  were  called  Patripassians  ;  i.  e.,  persons  who  held 
that  the  great  Parent  of  the  universe  himself,  and  not  merely  some  one  per- 
son of  the  Godhead,  had  made  expiation  for  the  sins  of  men.  Nor  were 
they  unfitly  denominated  so,  if  the  ancients  correctly  understood  their 
views.(ll) 

observed  Easter,  is  uncertain.     But  they  ob-  exception,  all  they  state.     [See  Moshcim,  de 

served  the   anniversary   of  Manes'   death,  Rebus  Christianor.,  &c.,  p.  903-910.     Dr. 

which  they  called  Bama,  (/3^a),  with  great  Walck,  Historie  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  i.,  p. 

devotion.     Fasting  was  one  of  their  most  815-823.      Tillemont,  Mem.  pour  servir  a 

important  religious  exercises.     They  kept  1'Hist.  Eccles.,  torn,  iv.,  p.  411,  and  Lardr- 

sacred  Sundays  and  Mondays.     They  made  ner^s  Credibility  of  the  Gospel  Hist.,  pt.  ii., 

use  of  baptism;  but  did  not  baptize  either  vol.  vi ,  p.  76,  &c. — Schl.     Also  A.  Nean- 

children,  or  grown  persons  who  were  only  der,  Kirchengesch.,  b.  i.,  abth.  iii.,  s.  1218- 

hearers  ;  and  even  to  the  elect,  it  was  left  1223.  —  Tr.] 

optional,  whether  they  would  be  baptized         (11)  See  Hippolytus,  Sermo  contra  Hae- 

or  not.     The  elect  observed  likewise  the  resin  Noeti,  in  his  Opp.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  5,  ed. 

Lord's  Supper ;  though  it  is  not  known  what  Fabricii;  Epiphanius,  Haeres.  Ivii.,  Opp., 

they  used  in  place  of  wine,  which  was  with  torn,  i.,  p.  479;   Theodoret,  haeret.  Fabul., 

them  altogether  prohibited. — ScW.]  1.  iii.,  c.  3,  Opp.,  torn,  iv.,  p.  227. — [Noe- 

(10)  Eptphanius,  Haeres  Ixvii.,  [and  An-  tus  so  held  the  unity  of  God,  as  to  discard 

gvstine,  de  Haeresib.,  c.  47],  from  whom  the  orthodox  opinion  of  a  plurality  of  persons 

nearly  all  others  have  borrowed,  with  little  in  the  Godhead.     In  fact  he  acknowledged 


198 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


§  13.  After  the  middle  of  the  century  appeared  Sabellius,  an  African 
presbyter  or  bishop,  at  Ptolemais,  the  principal  city  in  Pentapolis,  a  province 
of  Libya  Cyrenaica.  He  explained  what  the  scriptures  teach  concerning 
the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,  in  a  manner  somewhat  different  from 
Noetus ;  and  notwithstanding  he  was  confuted  by  Dionysius  of  Alexandria, 
he  gathered  a  number  of  followers.  Noetus  had  supposed  that  God  the 
Father,  personally,  assumed  the  human  nature  of  Christ ;  but  Sabellius  held 
that  only  a  certain  energy,  put  forth  by  the  supreme  Parent,  or  a  certain 
portion  of  the  divine  nature,  being  separated  from  it,  became  united  with 
the  Son  or  the  man  Christ.  And  the  Holy  Spirit  he  considered  as  being 
a  similar  portion  or  part  of  the  eternal  Father. (12)  Hence  it  appears, 


but  one  person;  who  is  designated  in  the 
Scriptures  by  the  title  of  the  Father.  Noe- 
tus therefore  was  a  Unitarian,  as  respects 
the  doctrine  of  three  persons ;  but  in  regard 
to  the  character  of  Christ,  he  held  better 
views  than  the  Socinians.  So  far  as  relates 
to  two  natures  united  in  one  person,  in  Christ, 
he  agreed  with  the  orthodox ;  but  the  divine 
person,  which  was  united  with  the  human 
nature,  according  to  Noetus''  views,  was  no 
other  than  the  person  of  the  Father,  because 
there  was  no  other  person  in  the  Godhead. 
See  Mosheim,  de  Rebus  Christianor.,  p. 
681-687  ;  and  Dr.  Walch,  Historic  der  Ket- 
zereyen,  vol.  ii.,  p.  1-13. — Schl.] 

(12)  Most  of  the  ancients  who  wrote 
against  the  heretics,  speak  of  Sabellius ;  [es- 
pecially Epiphanius,  Haeres.  Ixii.,  and  The- 
odorct,  haer.  Fabul.,  1.  ii.,  c.  9.— Tr.]  To 
these,  add  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccl ,  1.  vi.,  c.  6. 
Athanasius,  de  sententia  Dionysii ;  [and 
Basil  the  Great,  Ep.  210  and  235.— Tr.] 
Nearly  all  that  is  written  by  the  ancients, 
has  been  collected  by  Christopher  Wormius, 
in  his  HistoriaSabelliana,  Francf.  and  Lips., 
1696,  8vo,  a  learned  work,  only  a  small  part 
of  which  relates  to  Sabellius. — [See  Mo- 
tkeim,  Comment,  de  Rebus  Christianor., 
<kc..  p.  688-699.  (J.  Beausobre,  Histoire 
de  Manichee,  &c.,  tome  i.,  p.  533,  &c.  N. 
Lardner,  Credibility  of  the  Gosp.  Hist.,  pt. 
ii.,  vol.  ,  p.  553,  «fec.),  and  Dr.  Walch,  His- 
torie  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  ii.,  p.  14—49. — 
The  last  of  these  differs  some  from  Dr. 
Mosheim,  in  his  description  of  the  Sabellian 
doctrine.  We  would  place  the  two  accounts 
side  by  side,  without  attempting  to  decide 
so  difficult  a  question. — The  most  common 
opinion  respecting  the  Sabellian  doctrine, 
was  this  :  Sabellius  admitted  but  one  person 
in  the  divine  essence  ;  or  he  denied  that  the 
Father  was  one  person,  the  Son  another  per- 
son, and  the  Holy  Spirit  a  third  ;  of  course 
he  discarded  the  inherent  distinction  of  three 
persons.  He  admitted  a  difference  only  of 
names,  and  of  some  external  relations  to 
creatures,  in  regard  to  the  government  of 
the  world  aud  of  the  church ;  and  he  ascribed 


to  the  Son,  those  works  which  we  regard  aa 
the  personal  acts  of  the  Father;  and  on  the 
other  hand,  he  ascribed  to  the  Father,  the 
acts  and  the  sufferings  of  the  Son.  Now 
Dr.  Mosheim  concedes,  that  Sabellius  taught 
there  was  but  one  divine  person ;  but  he 
maintains  also,  that  Sabellius  admitted  a 
Trinity,  and  a  real  difference  between  the 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost ;  though  this 
difference  was  neither  an  essential,  nor  a  per- 
sonal one ;  the  divine  three  were  not  three 
distinct  persons,  but  three  portions  of  the  di- 
vine nature,  all  depending  on  God,  and  at 
the  same  lime  differing  from  God,  and  from 
each  other.  That  portion,  by  which  God 
made  the  world,  is  the  Father ;  and  is  also 
the  father  of  Christ,  inasmuch  as  it  formed 
him  in  the  womb  of  Mary.  That  portion, 
which  united  itself  with  the  man  Christ,  in 
order  to  redeem  men,  is  the  Son  ;  inasmuch 
as  it  dwelt  m  the  Son  of  God,  (a  designa- 
tion, which  refers  to  his  miraculous  concep- 
tion), and  by  him  gave  instruction,  wrought 
miracles,  and,  in  a  sense,  made  one  person 
with  him.  The  third  portion  of  the  divine 
nature,  which  imparts  life  to  all  living  beings, 
enlightens  men,  regenerates  them,  and 
prompts  them  to  what  is  good,  is  the  Holy 
Ghost.  These  three  are,  in  one  view,  sep- 
arate from  God ;  but  in  another,  they  are 
united  with  him. — After  a  critical  examina- 
tion of  the  correctness  of  this  scheme,  Dr. 
Walch  cannot  fully  accord  with  the  views 
of  chancellor  Mosheim.  He  therefore  states 
the  doctrine  of  Sabellius  thus  :  the  ancients, 
one  and  all,  say  that  the  Sabellian  system 
marred  the  true  doctrine  concerning  God, 
and  concerning  all  the  three  persons.  And 
so  it  appears  to  be  proved,  by  the  ancients, 
that  Sabellianism  was  one  of  two  directly 
opposite  errors,  of  which  Arianism  was  the 
other  ;  and  that  the  true  doctrine  occupied 
the  middle  ground  between  them :  indeed 
Arius,  by  pushing  his  opposition  to  Sabel- 
lius too  far,  was  led  into  his  error.  It  hence 
follows,  that  Subellius,  who  did  not  deny 
the  existence  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost,  made  too  little  distinction  between 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


199 


that  the  Salettians  must  have  been  denominated  Patripasgfuns  by  the 
ancients,  in  a  different  sense  of  the  word  from  that  in  which  the  Noetians 
\\cn-  so  called.  Yet  the  appellation  was  not  wholly  improper. 

§  14.  Nearly  at  the  same  time,  [about  A.D.  244],  Beryllus,  bishop  of 
Bo.stra  in  Arabia,  a  pious  and  learned  man,  taught  that  Christ,  before  his 
birth  of  the  Virgin,  had  no  distinct  divinity,  but  only  had  the  divinity  of  the 
Father.  This  proposition,  if  we  duly  consider  what  is  reported  concern, 
ing  him  by  the  ancients,  contained  the  following  sentiment ;  that  Christ 
had  no  existence  before  he  was  born  of  Mary  ;  that  at  his  birth,  a  soul 
originating  from  God  himself,  and  of  course  superior  to  all  human  souls, 
being  a  particle  of  the  divine  nature,  entered  into  and  was  united  with  the 


them;  while  Arius  made  the  distinction  too 
wide.  It  is  clear,  that  Sabctlius  acknowl- 
edged but  one  person,  and  considered  the 
Son  of  God  as  not  being  a  distinct  person  : 
so  that  he  could  not  have  taught  a  personal 
distinction  m  the  Trinity.  By  the  Word 
(Aoyof),  Sabellius  understood  an  energy, 
by  which  the  man  Christ  performed  his 
works.  So  long  as  Christ  remained  on 
earth,  this  divine  energy  was  in  him  ;  but 
afterwards  it  ceased.  It  was  therefore  like 
a  sunbeam,  which  operates  on  bodies  and 
produces  the  effects  of  the  sun,  without  be- 
ing itself  a  person.  So  also  is  it  with  the 
Holy  Ghost,  by  which  we  are  to  understand 
the  operations  of  God  in  men,  tending  to 
further  their  knowledge  of  the  truth  and 
their  advancement  in  virtue.  The  manner 
of  God's  putting  forth  his  energy,  by  which 
the  Son  was  produced,  and  by  which  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  still  produced  and  continued, 
the  ancients  expressed  by  the  words,  to 
spread  out,  or  extend  (^Mruvca^ai,  proten- 
dere,  extendere),  to  send  forth  (TTf/iTreen^at), 
and  to  transform,  or  change  one's  form  and 
appearance  (ueTa.uopQetT&ai,  /j.ETaa^rj/j.aTi- 
&iv).  From  what  has  now  been  stated,  it 
may  be  perceived,  how  Sabellms  could  have 
taught  the  existence  of  three  forms  or  as- 
pects (rpia  TrpoauTTa)  in  the  divine  essence, 
without  admitting  the  reality  of  three  differ- 
ent persons ;  and  how  his  opposers  could 
infer,  that  he  admitted  but  one  distinction 
under  three  different  names.  The  greatest 
difficulty  is  in  this,  that  according  to  some 
representations,  Sabellius  taught  there  was 
a  difference  or  separation  (diaipsaiv)  between 
the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost ;  but  ac- 
cording to  other  accounts,  he  maintained 
such  a  unity,  as  was  inconsistent  with  it. 
This  difficulty  is  the  most  easily  surmount- 
ed, by  supposing  the  former  to  refer  to  an 
imagined  or  conceived  distinction,  and  not 
any  real  one. — Such  are  Dr.  Watch's  views 
•  of  the  Sabellian  system  ;  [and  very  similar 
are  those  of  Dr.  Neander,  Kirchengesch., 
vol.  i..  pt.  in  ,  p.  1018-1025.— TV.]  Dr. 
Walch  thinks,  that  Salellius  ought  not  to  be 


called  a  Patripassian  :  for  these  held  Christ 
to  be  one  person,  in  whom  two  natures  were 
personally  united  ;  and  believed  that,  not  the 
divine  nature  of  the  Son,  as  a  person,  but 
the  divine  nature  of  the  Father  who  was  the 
only  person,  was  united  with  the  human  na- 
ture in  Christ.  Now  as  Sabellius  held  the 
Son  to  be  no  real  part  of  the  Father,  and 
held  still  less  to  a  personal  union  of  two  na- 
tures in  Christ ;  he  cannot  truly  be  called  a 
Patripassian.  According  to  Sabellius1  opin- 
ion, Christ  was  a  mere  man,  in  whom  re- 
sided a  divine  power,  that  produced  those 
effects  which  we  regard  as  the  acts  of  the 
divine  nature  united  to  the  human. — Among 
the  opposers  of  Sabellius,  Dionysius  of  Al- 
exandria attracted  the  most  notice.  Yet  the 
opposition  made  by  this  bishop,  was  not  sat- 
isfactory to  all.  Offensive  passages  were 
found  in  his  epistles  against  the  Sabellians. 
As  he  there  brought  forward  the  doctrine  of 
Christ's  incarnation,  and  from  that  deduced 
his  proof  of  the  real  distinction  between  the 
Father  and  the  Son  ;  he  was  understood  as 
holding,  that  the  Son,  in  so  far  as  he  was  a 
divine  being,  was  a  created  one,  or  as  deny- 
ing, that  the  Father  and  the  Son  were  of  the 
same  essence.  Dionysius  defended  him- 
self, and  showed  that  he  had  been  misunder- 
stood. Notwithstanding  this,  the  Anans, 
after  his  death,  claimed  him  as  on  their  side  ; 
which  obliged  Athanasius  to  vindicate  the 
reputation  of  Dionysius  against  them.  Still 
there  continued  to  be  some,  to  whom  this 
defence  appeared  insufficient ;  Basil  the 
Great  is  an  example.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  Dionysius  thought  with  Athana- 
sius, in  regard  to  the  Trinity,  but  he  used 
the  language  of  Arius.  In  regard  to  the 
person  of  Christ,  he  expressed  himself  in 
the  manner  of  Nettorius  ;  for  he  carried  the 
distinction  between  the  divine  and  the  hu- 
man natures  of  Christ,  so  far,  as  wholly  to 
exclude  the  former  from  a  participation  in 
those  changes  in  the  latter  which  were  the 
result  of  the  personal  union  of  the  two  na- 
Dr.  Walch,  Historic  der  Ket- 
zcrcyi-n,  vol.  li .,  p.  50-63.— Schl.] 


200 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


man.  Beryllus  was  so  lucidly  and  energetically  confuted  by  Origen,  in  a 
council  assembled  at  Bostra,  [A.D.  244],  that  he  gave  up  the  cause,  and 
returned  into  the  bosom  of  the  church.(13) 

&  15.  Very  different  from  him  both  in  morals  and  in  sentiment  was 
Paul  of  Samosata,  a  bishop  of  Antioch  [in  Syria],  and  at  the  same  time 
clothed  with  the  civil  office  of  a  ducenarius.(\£)  He  was  an  ostentatious 
man,  opulent  and  arrogant  ;(15)  and  he  greatly  disquieted  the  eastern 
church,  soon  after  the  middle  of  this  century,  by  his  novel  explanations  of 
the  doctrine  concerning  the  divine  nature  and  concerning  Christ.  The 
sect  which  embraced  his  opinions,  were  called  Paulians  or  Paulianists. 
So  far  as  can  be  judged  from  the  accounts  that  have  reached  us,  he  sup. 
posed  the  Son  and  the  Holy  Spirit  to  exist  in  God,  just  as  reason  and  ac- 
tive power  do  in  a  man ;  that  Christ  was  born  a  mere  man,  but  that  the 
wisdom  or  reason  (A,<5yoc)  of  the  Father  descended  into  him,  and  enabled 
him  to  teach  and  to  work  miracles ;  that  on  account  of  this  union  of  the 
divine  Word  (Adyoo)  with  the  man  Christ,  we  might  say  Christ  was  God, 
though  not  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word.  He  so  concealed  his  real  sen- 
timents under  ambiguous  forms  of  speech,  that  repeated  ecclesiastical  coun- 
cils were  wholly  unable  to  convict  him ;  but  at  last,  in  the  council  assem- 


(13)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  vi.,  c. 
20   and    33.     Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  c. 
60.      Socrates,   Hist.    Eccles.,  lib.  iii.,   c. 
7.     Among  the  moderns,  see  Jo.  le  Clerc, 
Ars  Critica,  vol.  i.,  pt.  ii.,  sec.  i.,  c.  14. 
Chaufepied,  Nouveau  Dictionnaire  histoire 
crit.,  tome  i.,  p.  268,  &c.     [See  Mosheim, 
Comment,  de  Rebus  Christianor.,  &c.,  p. 
699,  &c.,  and  Dr.  Walch,  Historic  der  Ket- 
zereyen,  vol.  ii.,  p.    126-136.— Dr.  Walch 
indeed  does  not  place  Beryllus  among  the 
heretics,  because  he  is  not  chargeable  with 
obstinacy  in  his  errors,  nor  with  establishing 
a  sect  or  party  ;  both  of  which  are  necessary 
to  constitute  a  heretic.     Concerning  his  sen- 
timents, little  is  known,  except  that  he  main- 
tained that   Christ,  before   his  incarnation, 
did  not  exist  as  a  divine  person  ;  but  that 
after  his  incarnation,  he  was  a  man  in  whom 
God,  namely  the  Father,  dwelt. — Dr.  Mo- 
sheim's  assertion,  that  Beryllus  represented 
Christ  as  possessing  a  soul  derived  from  the 
divine  essence,  is  a  mere  conjecture  that  can 
not  be  supported  by  proof. — Schl.     Dr.  Ne- 
ander,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  i.,  pt.  iii.,  p.  1014, 
&.C.,  places  Beryllus   among  that  class  of 
Patripassians,  who  considered  the  person- 
ality of  the  Son  of  God  as  originating  from 
a  radiation  or  emanation,  from  the  essence 
of  God,  into  a  human  body.     He  therefore 
places  Beryllus  and  Sabellius  in  the  same 
class.— Tr.] 

(14)  [The  duccnarii  were   a   species  of 
procurators  for  the  etnperor  in  the  provinces, 
whose    salary  was    two  hundred    sestertia, 
[dur.ena  sestertia,  equal  to  $7193,60],  from 
which  sum,  these  officers  derived  their  title. 
See  Dion   Cassius,   lib.   53.      Suetonius, 


Claudian,  c.  24,  and  Salmasius,  Notes  on 
Capitolinus,  Pertinax,  p.  125.  From  Sel- 
ler's Antiquities  of  Palmyra,  Lond.,  1696, 
8vo,  p.  166,  &c.,  it  appears,  that  this  office 
was  much  used  in  the  province  of  Syria : 
and  Dr.  Mosheim  conjectures,  (Comment,  de 
Rebus,  &c.,  p.  705),  that  Paul  obtained  it 
by  means  of  Zenobia,  who  had  a  high  es- 
teem of  him. — Schl.} 

(15)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  vii.,  c.  30. 
[Eusebius  here  gives  copious  extracts  from 
the  circular  letter  of  the  council,  which  con- 
demned Paul  and  ordained  Domnus,  his 
successor.  The  council  characterize  Paul, 
as  having  risen  from  poverty  to  opulence  by 
extortion  and  bribery  ;  as  proud,  and  inso- 
lent, and  ostentatious ;  as  choosing  to  be 
addressed  by  his  civil  title,  and  appearing  in 
public  attended  by  guards  and  all  the  splen- 
dour of  worldly  rank  ;  as  affecting  splendour 
and  power,  and  abusing  authority  as  an  offi- 
cer in  the  church  ;  as  intolerably  vain,  and 
coveting  the  adulations  of  the  multitude  ;  as 
decrying  the  fathers  of  the  church,  exalting 
himself,  and  abolishing  the  hymns  in  com- 
mon use,  and  appointing  women  to  sing 
psalms  in  praise  of  himself;  as  sending  out 
bishops  and  presbyters  to  sound  his  praise, 
and  to  extol  him  as  an  angel  from  heaven  ; 
as  keeping  several  young  and  handsome 
women  near  his  person,  whom  he  enriched 
with  presents,  and  as  living  in  luxury  with 
them. — How  much  of  colouring  there  may 
be  in  this  picture,  we  have  not  the  means  of 
determining.  But  there  can  be  little  doubt, 
that  the  character  of  Paul  was  such  as  did 
not  become  a  bishop. — Tr.] 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


201 


bled  A.D.  269,  Makhion,  a  rhetorician,  drew  him  from  his  concealment; 
and  he  was  convicted  and  divested  of  his  episcopal  office. (16) 

§  16.  In  a  very  different  way  some  little  philosophers  in  Arabia,  the 
disciples  of  a  man  unknown,  marred  a  part  of  the  Christian  system.  They 
denied  the  soul  to  be  immortal ;  maintaining  that  it  died  with  the  body,  and 
that  it  would  be  resuscitated  with  it  by  the  power  of  God.(17)  The  be- 
lievers in  this  doctrine  were  called  Arabians,  from  the  country  in  which 
they  lived.  Origen  being  sent  from  Egypt,  disputed  against  them  with 
such  success  in  a  full  council,  that  they  renounced  their  error. 

§  17.  Among  the  sects  which  arose  in  this  century,  that  of  the  Nova, 
tians  is  placed  last.  They  did  not  indeed  corrupt  the  doctrines  of  Christi- 
anity ;  but  by  the  severity  of  the  discipline  to  which  they  adhered,  they  pro- 
duced a  lamentable  schism.  Novatian,(l8)  a  presbyter  in  the  church  of 
Rome,  a  man  of  learning  and  eloquence,  but  of  a  stern  and  austere  char- 
acter, maintained,  that  such  as  had  fallen  into  the  more  heinous  sins,  and 
especially  such  as  had  denied  Christ  during  the  Decian  persecution,  ought 
never  to  be  admitted  again  to  the  church.  Most  of  the  other  presbyters, 
as  well  as  Cornelius,  whose  influence  was  very  great,  were  of  a  different 
opinion.  Hence,  in  the  year  250,  when  a  new  bishop  was  to  be  chosen 


(16)  See  Epistolam  Concilii  Antiocheni 
ad  Paulum,  in  the  Bibliotheca  Patrum,  torn, 
xi.,  p.  302,  ed.  Paris,  1644,  fol.,  and  Dio- 
nysii  Alexandrini  Ep.  ad  Paulum,  ibid.,  p. 
273,  and  Decem  Pauli  Samosateni  Quaes- 
tiones,  ibid.,  p.  278. — [See  also  Dr.  Mo- 
sheim, Comment,  de  Rebus  Christianor., 
etc.,  p.  701-718,  and  Dr.  Watch,  Historic 
der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  ii.,  p.  64-125.  From 
the  hst  writer,  we  extract  the  following,  to 
give  a  more  full  and  correct  view  of  the 
Samosatenian  doctrines.  1.  Paul  of  Sa- 
mosata  taught,  that  there  is  but  one  God, 
who  in  the  Scriptures  is  denominated  the 
Father.  2.  He  did  not  deny,  that  the 
Scriptures  speak  of  the  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost.  3.  What  he  understood  by 
the  Holy  Ghost,  we  do  not  know  ;  and 
Dr.  Mosheim  has  attempted  to  supply  this 
defect,  by  a  mere  conjecture.  4.  Concern- 
ing the  Word  and  the  Wisdom  of  God,  he 
has  spoken  largely  :  but  whether  he  distin- 
guished between  the  Word  in  God,  (Aoyof 
evdiu&erof),  and  the  Word  produced  from 
God,  (Aoyof  wpo0op£«6f),  is  doubtful.  5. 
This  Word  or  Wisdom  in  God,  is  not  a  sub- 
stance or  a  person.  6.  But  it  is  in  the  di- 
vine mind,  as  reason  is  in  men.  7.  Christ 
was  a  mere  man.  8.  He  first  began  to  ex- 
ist, when  he  was  born  of  Mary.  9.  Yet  in 
this  man,  dwelt  the  divine  Word  or  Wit- 
dom ;  and  it  was  operative  in  him.  10.  The 
union  commenced,  when  Christ  was  con- 
ceived in  the  womb  of  Mary.  11.  By 
means  of  this  Wisdom  of  God  in  him,  Christ 
gradually  acquired  his  knowledge  and  his 
practical  virtues.  By  it,  he  became  at  once 
God  and  the  Son  of  God ;  yet  both,  in  an 

VOL.  I.— C  c 


improper  sense  of  the  terms.  12.  This  di- 
vine wisdom  withdrew  from  him  when  he 
suffered. — From  this  account  it  appears, 
that  Photian,  in  the  next  age,  came  very 
near  to  Paul  of  Samosata,  not  indeed  in  his 
statements  and  expressions,  but  rather  in 
his  grand  error,  namely,  that  Christ  was  a 
mere  man,  and  superior  to  other  men  only 
on  account  of  his  pre-eminent  gifts. — Schl. 
See  also  A.  Neandcr,  Kirchengesch.,  bd.  i., 
abth.  iii.,  p.  1007-1014  — Tr.] 

(17)  Eiisebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  vi.,  c.  37. 
[See  Mosheim,  Comment,  de  Rebus  Chris- 
tianor., &c.,  p.  718,  and  Dr.  Walch,  Histo- 
ric der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  ii.,  p.  167-171. — 
As  Euscbius,  who  is  the  only  witness  we 
have  in  regard  to  this  sect,  gives  a  very  brief 
account   of  them,  the    learned    in  modern 
times   have  entertained  two  opinions  con- 
cerning their  system.     Some  suppose  they 
held  that  the  soul,  though  immaterial,  sleep* 
while  the  body  is  m  the  grave  :  which  how- 
ever, the  words  of  Eusebius  seem  to  contra- 
dict, for  they  describe  the  soul  as  dying,  and 
being  dissolved  with  the  body,  avvairo'&v^a- 
neiv    rotf   ouuaai    KOI    ovvdia(f>-&cipEodai. 
Others   suppose    more  correctly,  that  they 
were  Christian  materialists,  who   regarded 
the  soul  as  being  a  part  of  the  body.     And 
Dr.  Mosheim  conjectures,  that  their  error 
originated    from  their  combining  the  Epi- 
curean    philosophy    with     Christianity.  — 
Schl.] 

(18)  [The  Greeks  always  write  his  name 
Novatus  or  Navatus ;  but  the  Latins  gener- 
ally write  it  Novafianus,  perhaps  to  distin- 
guish him  from  Novatus  of  Carthage,  the 
names  being  really  the  same. —  Tr.] 


202 


BOOK  I.— CENTURY  III.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


at  Rome  in  place  of  Fabian,  Novatian  strenuously  opposed  the  election  of 
Cornelius.  Yet  Cornelius  was  chosen,  and  Novatian  withdrew  from  com- 
muuion  with  him.  On  the  other  hand,  Cornelius,  in  a  council  held  at  Rome 
A.D.  251,  excommunicated  Novatian  and  his  adherents.  Novatian  there- 
fore  founded  a  new  sect,  in  which  he  was  the  first  bishop.  This  sect  had 
many  adherents  who  were  pleased  with  the  severity  of  its  discipline ;  and  it 
continued  to  flourish  in  many  parts  of  Christendom,  until  thejifth  century. 
The  principal  coadjutor  of  Novatian  in  this  schism,  was  Novatus,  a  pres- 
byter of  Carthage,  who  fled  to  Rome  during  the  hsat  of  this  controversy, 
in  order  to  escape  the  wrath  and  the  condemnation  of  Cyprian  his  bishop, 
with  whom  he  was  in  a  violent  quarrel. (19) 


(19)  [Dr.  Walch,  Historie  der  Ketzerey- 
en,  vol.  ii.,  p.  220,  &c.,  after  surveying  the 
original  accounts,  gives  the  following  con- 
nected view  of  these  events.  A  great  num- 
ber of  those  who  in  the  Decian  persecution 
had  fallen  from  their  steadfastness,  having 
afterwards  repented  of  their  fall,  arid  sought 
to  be  admitted  again  to  the  communion 
of  the  church,  gave  rise  to  the  question  of 
conscience,  how  they  ought  to  be  treated. 
The  episcopal  chair  at  Rome  was  at  that 
time  vacant,  in  consequence  of  the  death  of 
Fabian ;  and  the  clergy  were  divided  in  re- 
gard to  this  question,  some  advocating  mild, 
and  others  more  rigorous  measures.  Among 
the  latter  was  Novatian,  among  the  former 
Cornelius,  both  of  them  elders  in  the  church 
of  Rome.  On  the  side  of  Novatian  were 
several  confessors  ;  that  is,  persons  who  had 
endured  various  corporeal  punishments  du- 
ring the  persecution,  without  denying  the 
faith  ;  and  these  were  haughty  and  overbear- 
ing towards  their  fallen  brethren.  While 
this  subject  was  in  agitation  at  Rome,  news 
came  from  Carthage,  that  the  lapsed  there 
would  be  received  again,  but  only  after  en- 
during a  long  penance  ;  though,  if  in  immi- 
nent danger  of  death,  and  they  desired  it, 
they  might  be  restored  without  delay  And 
these  principles  were  approved  at  Rome,  in 
an  epistle  composed  by  Novatian,  (inter 
Epistolas  Cypr.,  ep.  31).  Now  came  on  the 
election  of  a  bishop  of  Rome  ;  and  here  the 
two  parties  were  divided.  Novatian  sol- 
emnly declared,  that  he  did  not  desire  the 
office  ;  and  Cornelius  was  chosen  by  a  ma- 
jority of  the  votes.  But  as  Cornelius  was 
one  of  the  milder  party,  not  only  Novatian  but 
also  the  confessors  and  several  of  the  elders, 
were  dissatisfied  with  his  election ;  and,  it 
would  seem,  separated  themselves  from  him. 
About  this  time  Novatus  arrived  from  Car- 
thage. He  had  fallen  out  with  Cyprian,  his 
bishop ;  and  perhaps  knew,  that  Cyprian 
was  a  friend  of  Cornelius ;  but  the  former 
did  not  commit  himself.  Cornelius  ac- 
quainted Cyprian  with  his  election.  Infor- 
mation had  already  reached  Carthage,  that 


Cornelius  was  not  approved  by  all  at  Rome ; 
and  Cyprian  did  not  venture  at  once  to  de- 
clare in  his  favour,  but  sent  two  African  bish- 
ops, Caldonius  and  Fortunatus,  to  Rome, 
with  a  letter  addressed  not  to  Cornelius  as 
bishop,  but  to  the  clergy  there,  and  to  the 
neighbouring  bishops  who  were  present  at 
the  election.  The  Cornelian  party  again 
stated,  that  his  election  was  regular;  and 
the  African  envoys,  with  two  envoys  from 
Rome  who  accompanied  them  home,  affirmed 
the  same  thing.  Hereupon  Cornelius  was 
recognised  at  Carthage,  as  being  the  bishop 
of  Rome.  But  at  Rome  the  business  was 
not  so  easily  settled.  The  dissatisfied  party 
urged  on  a  new  election ;  and  Novatus  and 
Evaristus  were  the  most  suitable  persons  to 
persuade  Novatian  to  consent  to  receive  or- 
dination. As  at  least  three  bishops  must 
impose  hands  on  a  bishop- elect,  three  such 
clergymen  were  drawn  from  some  small 
towns  in  Italy,  and  by  deception  induced  to 
perform  this  act.  The  ordination  was  also 
performed  at  an  unusual  hour.  Novatian 
appears  to  have  reluctantly  consented  to  it ; 
but  he  afterwards  endeavoured  to  support 
himself  in  office.  He  sent  letters  every- 
where, and  twice  despatched  envoys  to  Af- 
rica. These  could  get  no  hearing  from  Cyp- 
rian and  his  adherents  ;  yet  their  mission 
was  not  without  effect.  In  other  countries 
likewise,  he  found  persons,  who  considered 
his  dissatisfaction  with  Cornelius  and  with 
his  conduct  towards  the  lapsed,  as  being 
well  founded.  In  the  mean  time  Cornelius 
held  a  council  at  Rome,  which  approved  of 
the  milder  principles  of  discipline.  Novatian 
was  present,  and  resisted  those  principles 
before  the  council ;  but  he  was  excommuni- 
cated by  it,  together  with  his  adherents. 
This  caused  his  party  to  diminish,  many  of 
his  friends  choosing  rather  to  be  on  the 
strongest  side  :  and  hence  he  may  have  been 
induced,  when  administering  the  sacrament 
of  the  supper  to  his  follower.",  to  make  them 
promise  not  to  forsake  him. — Schl.  As  the 
dissensions  at  Carthage  about  the  same  time, 
had  some  connexion  with  those  at  Rome, 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


203 


§  18.  Respecting  the  fundamental  articles  of  the  Christian  faith,  there 
was  no  disagreement  between  the  Novatians  and  other  Christians.  Their 
peculiarity  was,  that  they  would  not  receive  into  the  church  persons,  who 
after  being  baptized  fell  into  the  greater  sins.  They  did  not  however  exclude 
them  from  all  hopes  of  eternal  salvation.  They  considered  the  Christian 
church,  therefore,  as  a  society  of  innocent  persons,  who  from  their  entrance 
into  it  had  defiled  themselves  with  no  sin  of  any  considerable  magnitude ; 
and  hence  it  followed,  that  all  associations  of  Christians,  which  opened  the 
door  for  the  return  of  gross  offenders,  were  in  their  view  unworthy  of  the 
name  of  true  churches  of  Christ.  And  hence  they  assumed  the  appellation 
of  Catliari,  that  is,  the  pure ;  and  what  was  still  more,  they  rebaptized  such 
as  came  over  to  them  from  the  Catholics.  For  such  influence  had  the  error 
they  embraced  upon  their  own  minds,  that  they  believed  the  baptism  of 
those  churches  which  readmitted  the  lapsed,  could  not  impart  to  the  sub- 
jects  of  it  remission  of  sins. (20) 


and  also  tend  to  show  the  state  of  the  church 
in  the  middle  of  this  century  ;  the  following 
account  of  them  is  extracted  from  Mosheim's 
Comment,  de  Rebus,  &c.,  §  xiii ,  p.  497, 
&c.,  and  §  xiv.,  p.  50:),  &c.  Novatus,  a 
presbyter  at  Carthage,  even  before  the  De- 
cian  persecution,  had  disagreed  with  Cyp- 
rian his  bishop,  and  formed  a  party  who  were 
dissatisfied  with  him,  and  who  would  not 
yield  to  all  his  wishes.  According  to  the 
representations  of  his  adversaries,  Novatus 
was  not  only  arrogant,  factious,  vain,  and 
rash,  but  chargeable  with  many  offences  and 
crimes.  Cyprian  therefore  resolved  to  bring 
him  to  a  trial,  and  to  excommunicate  him. 
The  day  for  trial  was  appointed ;  but  the 
imperial  edict  [for  the  persecution]  unexpect- 
edly intervened  ;  and  as  Cyprian  was  obli- 
ged to  retire  into  concealment,  Novatus  con- 
tinued safe  in  his  office.  This  was  the  first 
act  in  the  long  tragedy.  While  Cyprian 
was  in  retirement,  and  the  African  magis- 
trates fiercely  persecuting  the  Christians, 
these  contests  were  suspended.  .  But  when 
the  violence  of  the  storm  from  without  was 
past,  and  Cyprian  was  preparing  to  return 
to  his  church,  Novatus  fearing,  r.o  doubt, 
that  the  bishop  would  renew  the  prosecution 
against  him,  which  was  commenced  before 
his  retirement,  deemed  it  necessary  to  raise 
a  party  against  the  bishop,  which  should  pre- 
vent his  reluming  to  his  church,  and  thus  de- 
prive him  of  the  power  of  doing  him  harm. 
fey  means  of  Fdicissimus,  therefore,  whom 
he  had  made  his  deacon,  contrary  to  the  will 
of  the  bishop,  Nmatus  alienated  a  part  of 
the  church  from  Cyprian.  Fdicissimus, 
aided  by  one  Augcndus,  prevented  the  exe- 


cution of  the  plans  of  the  bishop  in  regard  to 
the  poor.  Many  of  the  people  came  over  to 
his  party  ;  and  also  five  presbyters,  who  had 
long  been  at  variance  with  Cyprian.  This 
turbulent  party  were  able  to  retard  a  little, 
but  not  to  prevent  the  return  of  Cyprian. 
After  some  delay,  which  prudence  dictated, 
the  bishop  returned  to  Carthage  ;  and  having 
assembled  a  council  on  the  subject  especially 
of  the  lapsed,  he  punished  the  temerity  of 
his  adversaries,  and  excommunicated  Feli- 
cissimus,  the  author  of  the  revolt,  together 
with  the  five  presbyters  his  associates.  No- 
Tatus  was  not  of  the  number,  as  he  was  ab- 
sent, having  fled  to  Rome  as  soon  as  he 
found  Cyprian  would  come  to  Carthage. 
The  excommunicated  persons,  despising  the 
censure  passed  on  them,  instituted  a  new 
church  at  Carthage,  in  opposition  to  that  of 
Cyprian,  and  established  as  the  bishop  of  it, 
Fortunatus,  one  of  the  presbyters  whom 
Cyprian  had  condemned.  But  the  party 
had  more  resolution  than  ability,  and  the 
schism  was  probably  extinguished  not  long 
after  its  birth  ;  for  no  mention  is  made  of  its 
progress  by  any  of  the  fathers. — TV.] 

(20)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  vi.,  c.  43. 
Cyprian,  in  various  of  his  Epistles,  as  Ep. 
49,  52,  &c.  Gabr.  Albaspinaeus,  Observat. 
Eccles.,  lib.  ii.,  c.  20,  21.  Jo*.  Aug.  Orsi, 
de  criminum  capital,  inter  veteres  Christ. 
Absolutione,  p.  254,  &c.  Steph.  Kenckel, 
de  haeresi  Novatiana,  Argentor.,  1651,  4to ; 
[also,  Moshcim,  Comment,  de  Rebus  Chris- 
tianor.,  &c  ,  p.  512-537,  and  Dr.  Walck, 
Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  ii ,  p.  185— 
288.— Schl.  And  A.  Neatidrr,  Kirchen- 
gesch.,  bd.  i.,  abth.  i.,  s.  387-407.— TV.] 


INSTITUTES 


ECCLESIASTICAL    HISTORY, 


UNDER    THE 


NEW    TESTAMENT. 


BOOK    II. 

EMBRACING 

EVENTS  FROM  CONSTANTINE  THE  GREAT 
TO  CHARLEMAGNE. 


CENTURY    FOURTH. 


PART  I. 

THE   EXTERNAL    HISTORY   OF   THE  CHTTRCH  :    EXHIBITING    BOTH    THE    PROSPER- 
OUS  AND    THE    ADVERSE    EVENTS    OF    IT. 

$  1.  Peaceful  State  of  Christians  at  the  beginning  of  the  Century. — §  2.  Persecution  of 
Diocletian. — $  3.  The  Causes  and  the  Severity  of  it. — ()  4.  The  Christian  Cause  re- 
duced to  great  Extremities. — §  5.  Tranquillity  restored  on  the  Accession  of  Constan- 
tino to  Supreme  Power. — §  6.  Defeat  of  Maxentius — §  7,  8.  Different  Opinions  con- 
cerning the  Faith  of  Constantine. — §  9.  The  Cross  seen  by  him  in  the  Heavens. — 
§  10.  Persecution  of  Licinius. — <J  11.  State  of  the  Church  under  the  Sons  of  Con- 
stantine the  Great. — §  12.  Julian  persecutes  the  Christians. — §  13.  His  Character. — 
<)  14.  The  Jews  attempt  to  rebuild  their  Temple  in  vain. — $  15.  State  of  the  Church  after 
the  Death  of  Julian. — §  16.  Remains  of  the  Pagans. — $  17.  Efforts  of  the  Philosophers 
against  Christianity. — §  18.  Injuries  it  received  from  them. — §  19.  Propagation  of 
Christianity  among  the  Armenians. — §  20.  The  Abyssinians  and  Georgians. — §  21.  The 
Goths.— $  22.  The  Gauls.— §  23.  The  Causes  of  so  many  Revolutions.— §  24.  Slight 
Persecutions  in  Persia. 

§  1.  THAT  I  might  not  separate  too  much  those  facts  which  are  inti- 
mately connected  with  each  other,  I  have  determined  here  to  exhibit  the 
prosperous  and  the  adverse  events,  not  as  heretofore  in  distinct  chapters, 
but  combined  in  one  series,  following  as  much  as  possible  the  order  of 
time. — In  the  beginning  of  this  century,  the  Roman  empire  had  four  sover- 
eigns ;  of  whom  two  were  superior  to  the  others,  and  bore  the  title  of 
Augustus,  namely,  [  Valerius]  Diocletian,  and  [Marcus  Aurelius  Valerius] 
Maximianus  Herculius  :  the  two  inferior  sovereigns,  who  bore  the  title  of 
Caesars,  were  Constantius  Chlorus,  and  Galerius  Maximianus  [Armentarius]. 
Under  these  four  [associated]  emperors,  the  state  of  the  church  was  peace- 
ful and  happy.(l)  Diocletian,  though  superstitious,  indulged  no  hatred  to- 
wards the  Christians. (2)  Constantius  Chlorus,  following  only  the  dictates 
of  reason  in  matters  of  religion,  was  averse  from  the  popular  idolatry, 
and  friendly  to  the  Christians. (3)  The  pagan  priests  therefore,  from  well- 

(1)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  viii.,  c.  1.  sembled  without  fear  :  and  they  had  nothing 

[Eusebius  here   describes   th?    prosperous  to  wish  for,  unless  it  were  that  one  or  more 

state  of  the  Christians,  and  their  consequent  of  the  emperors  might  embrace  their  reli- 

security  and  vices.     The  imperial   palaces  gion. — Schl.~\ 

were  full  of  Christians,  and  no  one  hindered         (2)  [He  had  Christians  in  his  court,  who 

them   from   openly  professing  Christianity,  understood  how  to  lead  him,  and  who  would 

From  among  them,  men  were  chosen  to  the  probably  have  brought  him  to  renounce  idola- 

offices   of  imperial   counsellors,  provincial  try,  had  not  the  suggestions  of  their  enemies 

governors,  magistrates  and  generals.     The  prevailed  with  him.     His  wife  Prisca  was, 

bishops  and  other  clergy  were  held  in  honour,  in  reality,  a  concealed  Christian  ;  and  also 

even  by  those  who  adhered  to  the  old  religion  his  daughter  Valeria,  the  wife  of  Galcnus 

of  the  state.     And  the  number  of  Christians  Murimianus.     See  Lactantius^  de  Mortibus 

was  seen  to  be  increasing  daily.     Hence  in  Persequutorum,  c.  15. — Schl.~\ 
all  the  cities,  spacious  buildings  were  erected        (3)  [Some  go  still  farther,  and  make  him 

for  public  worship,  in  which  the  people  as-  to  have  been  actually  a  Christian.     But  from 


208 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  I. 


grounded  fears  lest  Christianity  to  their  great  and  lasting  injury  should 
spread  far  and  wide  its  triumphs,  endeavoured  to  excite  Diocletian,  whom 
they  knew  to  be  both  timid  and  credulous,  by  means  of  feigned  oracles 
and  other  impositions  to  engage  in  persecuting  the  Christians.  (4) 

§  2.  These  artifices  not  succeeding  very  well,  they  made  use  of  the 
other  emperor,  Galerius  Maximianus,  who  was  son-in-law  to  Diocle- 
tian, in  order  to  effect  their  purpose.  This  emperor,  who  was  of  a  fe- 
rocious character  and  ill-informed  in  everything  except  the  military  art, 
continued  to  work  upon  his  father-in-law,  being  urged  on  partly  by  his 
own  inclination,  partly  by  the  instigation  of  his  mother,  a  most  super- 
stitious woman,  and  partly  by  that  of  the  pagan  priests,  till  at  last,  when 
Diocletian  was  at  Nicomedia  in  the  year  303,  he  obtained  from  him  an 
edict,  by  which  the  temples  of  the  Christians  were  to  be  demolished, 
their  sacred  books  committed  to  the  flames,  and  themselves  deprived 
of  all  their  civil  rights  and  honours.  (5)  This  first  edict  spared  the 
lives  of  the  Christians  ;  for  Diocletian  was  averse  from  slaughter  and 
bloodshed.  Yet  it  caused  many  Christians  to  be  put  to  death,  particu- 
larly those  who  refused  to  deliver,  up  their  sacred  books  to  the  magis- 

the  representations  of  Eusebius,  Hist.  Ec- 
cles.,  lib.  viii.,  c.  13,  no  more  can  be  inferred 
than  that  he  was  disposed  to  look  favourably 
upon  the  Christian  religion.  —  Sold.] 

(4)  Eusebius,  de  Vita  Constantini,  lib.  ii., 
c.  50.     Lactantius,  Institut.    Divinar.,  lib. 


iv.,  c.  27,  and  de  Mortibus  Persequulor.,  c. 
10.  [According  to  Eusebius,  \.  c.,  it  was 
reported  to  the  emperor,  that  the  oracle  of 
Apollo  had  declared,  that  he  was  prevented 
from  giving  true  responses  by  the  righteous 
men  on  the  earth  ;  and  this  the  pagan  priests 
interpreted  when  questioned  by  the  emperor, 


the  Platonic  philosophers  had  some  influence 
in  exciting  the  emperor's  hostility  ;  for  they 
represented  the  many  sects  among  the 
Christians  in  a  most  odious  light,  and  taxed 
them  with  having  apostatized  from  the  reli- 
gion of  the  early  Christians.  Eusebius, 
Hist.  Eccles.,  viii.,  c.  17.  But  political 
considerations  may  likewise  have  influenced 
him.  Galerius  contemplated  getting  rid  of 
his  colleagues,  and  making  himself  sole  em- 
peror. The  Christians,  who  were  attached  to 
Constantius  Chlorus  and  his  son,  seemed  to 
him  to  stand  in  the  way  of  his  designs  ;  and 


with  reference  to  the  Christians.    According    he  wished  to  weaken  their  power,  or  rather 


to  Lactantius,  ubi  supra,  while  Diocletian 
was  at  Antioch,  in  the  year  302,  the  priests 
who  inspected  the  entrails  of  the  consecrated 
victims,  declared  that  they  were  interrupted 
in  their  prognostications  by  the  sign  of  the 
cross  made  by  several  of  the  emperor's  ser- 
vants. —  SchL] 

(5)  Lactantius,  de  Mortib.  Persequutor., 
c.  1  1  .  Eusebius,  Hist  Eccles.,  1.  viii.,  c.  2. 
[This  persecution  should,  properly,  be  named 


to  annihilate  it  as  far  as  practicable.  But 
Diocletian  was  not  disposed  to  further  his 
cruel  project.  He  was  willing  to  exclude 
Christians  from  the  palace  and  the  army, 
and  to  compel  all  who  served  him  at  court 
or  in  the  armies,  to  offer  sacrifices  to  the 
gods  ;  but  not  to  suspend  over  them  penal 
laws  and  executions.  Galerius  would  have 
them  all  brought  to  the  stake.  A  council 
was  called,  composed  of  learned  civilians 


that  of  Galerius  Maximianus,  and  not  that  of  and   officers   in  the  army,  which   declared 

Diocletian.     For  Diocletian  had  much  the  against  the  Christians.     To  this  decision, 

least  hand  in  it,  and  he  resigned  his  authority  Hierocles,  the  governor  of  Bithynia,  the  man 

before  the  persecution  had  continued  quite  who  afterwards  wrote  against  the  Christians, 
moreover  Maximianus,  in  his 


two  years ; 
edict  for  putting  an  end  to  the  persecution, 
a  little  before  his  death,  acknowledges  that 
he  himself  was  the  author  of  it.  See  Euse- 
bius, Hist.  Eccles.,  viii.,  17,  and  Lactantius, 
de  Mortib.  Persequutor.,  c.  34.  Romufia, 
the  mother  of  Galerius,  who  was  a  very  su- 
perstitious and  haughty  woman,  and  who 
was  offended  that  the  Christians  would  not 
allow  her  to  be  present  when  they  celebrated 
the  Lord's  supper,  contributed  to  inflame  the 


contributed  not  a  little.  But  Diocletian 
would  not  yet  give  up  entirely.  He  would 
consult  the  oracle  of  Apollo  at  Miletus  ; 
which  likewise  directed  to  the  extirpation  of 
the  Christians.  But  even  Apollo  could  not 
move  the  superstitious  emperor  to  the  ex- 
treme of  cruelty.  He  decreed  indeed  a  per- 
secution ;  but  it  was  to  cost  no  blood.  It 
commenced  with  the  demolition  of  the 
Christian  temple  at  Nicomedia,  and  the  burn- 
ing of  the  books  found  in  it.  See  Mo.ihcim, 


rage  of  her  son  against  them.     Perhaps ^also     Com.  de  Reb.,  &c.,  p.  916-922. — SchL] 


PROSPEROUS  AND  ADVERSE  EVENTS. 


209 


trates.(6)  Seeing  this  operation  of  the  law,  many  Christians,  and  several 
even  of  the  bishops  and  clergy,  in  order  to  save  their  lives,  voluntarily 
surrendered  the  sacred  books  in  their  possession.  But  they  were  re- 
garded  by  their  more  resolute  brethren  as  guilty  of  sacrilege,  and  were 
branded  with  the  name  of  Traditors.(l) 

§  3.  Not  long  after  the  publication  of  this  first  edict,  there  were  two 
conflagrations  in  the  palace  of  Nicomedia  ;  and  the  enemies  of  the  Chris- 
tians  persuaded  Diocletian  to  believe,  that  Christian  hands  had  kindled 
them.  He  therefore  ordered  many  Christians  of  Nicomedia  to  be  put  to 
the  torture,  and  to  undergo  the  penalties  due  to  incendiaries.(8)  Nearly 
at,  the  same  time,  there  were  insurrections  in  Armenia  and  in  Syria ;  and 
as  their  enemies  charged  the  blame  of  these  also  upon  the  Christians,  the 
emperor  by  a  new  edict  ordered  all  bishops  and  ministers  of  Christ  to  be 
thrown  into  prison ;  and  by  a  third  edict,  soon  after,  he  ordered  that  all 
these  prisoners  should  be  compelled  by  tortures  and  punishments  to  offer 
sacrifice  to  the  gods  :(9)  for  he  hoped,  if  the  bishops  and  teachers  were 
once  brought  to  submission,  the  Christian  churches  would  follow  their  ex- 
ample.  A  great  multitude  therefore,  of  excellent  men,  in  every  part  of 
the  Roman  empire,  Gaul  only  excepted,  which  was  subject  to  Constantius 
Chlorus,(W)  were  either  punished  capitally,  or  condemned  to  the  mines. 

§  4.  In  the  second  year  of  the  persecution,  A.D.  304,  Diocletian  pub- 
lished a.  fourth  edict,  at  the  instigation  of  his  son-in-law  and  the  other  ene- 
mies of  the  Christians.  By  this  edict  the  magistrates  were  directed,  to 
compel  all  Christians  to  offer  sacrifices  to  the  gods,  and  to  use  tortures 
for  that  purpose. (11)  And  as  the  governors  yielded  strict  obedience  to 


(6)  Augustine,  Breviculum  collat.  cum 
Donatistis,  c.  15,  17,  in  his  Opp.,  torn,  ix., 
p.  387,  390,  and  Baluse,  Miscellan.,  torn. 
ii.,  p.  77,  92. 

(7)  Optatus  Milevit.  de  Schismate  Dona- 
tist.,  1.  i.,  §  13,  p.  13,  ed.  Du  Pin. 

(8)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  viii.,  c.  6. 
Lactantius,  de  Mortib.  Persequutor.,  c.  14. 
Constantine  the  Gr.  Oratio  ad  Sanctorum 
coetum,  c.  25. —  [After  the  second  confla- 
gration, Gcderius  left  Nicomedia,  pretending 
to  be  afraid  of  being  burned  up  by  the  Chris- 
tians.    Diocletian  also  compelled  his  wife 
and  daughter  to  sacrifice  to  the  gods,  in  proof 
that  they  were  not  Christians ;  and  caused 
many  Christians  of  his  household  and  court 
to  be  cut  off,  and  Lonthimus  the  bishop  of 
Nicomedia,  with  many  of  the   clergy  and 
common  Christians,  to  undergo  cruel  deaths, 
because  they  refused  to  offer  sacrifices  to 
the  gods. — Schl.] 

(9)  Ensebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  viii.,  c.  6, 
and  de  Marty nbus  Palaestinae,   [Introduc- 
tion.]— [Some  degree  of  probability  could 
be  attached  to  the  charge  against  the  Chris- 
tians of  causing  the  insurrections,  from  the 
fact  that  their  inconsiderate  zeal  sometimes 
led  them  to  deeds  which  had  an  aspect  of 
rebellion.     At   the  commencement  of  this 
persecution,  for  example,  a  very  respectable 
Christian  tore  down  the  imperial  edict  against 

VOL.  I.— D  D 


the  Christians,  which  was  set  up  in  a  public 
place.  See  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  viii., 
c.  5  —Schl.] 

(10)  Lactantius,  de  Mortib.  Persequuto- 
rum,  c.  15.     Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  viii., 
c.  13,  IS. — [Constantius  Chlorus  presided 
over  Spain  and  Britain,  as  well  as  Gaul.     In 
Spain  there  were  some   martyrs,   because 
Constantius  not  being  present  there  in  per- 
son, he  could  not  prevent  the  rigorous  exe- 
cution of  the  decree  of  the  senior  emperor. 
But  in  Gaul,  where  he  was  personally  pres- 
ent, he  favoured  the  Christians  as  much  as 
sound   policy  would   permit.     He  suffered 
some  of  the  churches  to  be  demolished,  and 
most  of  them  to  be  shut  up.     And  when  the 
last  edict  of  Gcderius  against  the  Christians 
was  promulgated,  he  enjoined  upon  all  his 
Christian  servants,  to  relinquish  either  their 
mode  of  worship  or  their  offices  ;  and  when 
they  had  made  their  election,  he  deprived  all 
those  of  their  offices  who  resolved  to  adhere 
to  Christian  worship,  and  retained  the  others 
in  his  service. — Schl.] 

(11)  Eusebius,  de  Martyr.  Palaestinae,  c. 
3. — [Diocletian   was    not   yet   willing   the 
Christians  should  be  put  to  death  outright ; 
his  orders  to  the  governors  were  couched  in 
general  terms,  that  they  should  compel  the 
Christians,  by  all  kinds  of  corporeal  suffer- 
ings, to  give  honour  to  the  heathen  gods. 


210 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  I. 


these  orders,  the  Christian  church  was  reduced  to  the  last  extremity.  (12) 
Galerius  Maximianus  therefore  no  longer  hesitated  to  disclose  the  secret 
designs  he  had  long  entertained.  [A.D.  305.]  He  required  his  father. 
in-la\v,  [Diocletian],  together  with  his  colleague,  [Valerius]  Maximianus 
Herculius,  to  divest  themselves  of  their  power,  and  constituted  himself 
emperor  of  the  East ;  leaving  the  West  to  Constantius  Chlorus,  whose 
health  he  knew  to  be  very  infirm.  He  also  associated  with  him  in  the 
government,  two  assistants,  of  his  own  choosing;  namely,  [C.  Galerius] 
Maximinus,  his  sister's  son,  and  [Flavins']  Severus ;  excluding  altogether 
Constantine,  afterwards  styled  the  Great,  the  son  of  Constantius  Chlorus. (13) 
This  revolution  in  the  Roman  government  restored  peace  to  Christians  in 
the  western  provinces,  which  were  under  Constantius  :(14)  but  in  the  east- 
ern provinces,  the  persecution  raged  with  greater  severity  than  before. (15) 

See  Eusebius,  de  Vita  Constantini,  1.  ii.,  c.  consisted  of  weak,  poor,  and  timorous  per- 
51 ;  compare  Lactantius,  Instit.  Divinar.,  1. 
v.,  c.  11.  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  ix.,  c. 
9,  and  1.  viii ,  c.  12.  Hence,  according  with 
the  disposition  of  the  several  governors,  was 
their  execution  of  the  imperial  edict.  Some 
only  sent  the  Christians  into  banishment, 
when  the  attempt  to  make  them  offer  sacri- 
fices failed.  Others  deprived  them  of  an 
eye,  or  lamed  one  of  their  feet  by  burning 
it :  and  others  exposed  them  to  wild  beasts  ; 
or  lacerated  their  bodies  with  iron  hooks  or 
with  the  scourge  ;  and  afterwards  sprinkled 
vinegar  and  salt  on  the  wounds,  or  dropped 
melted  lead  into  them.  In  Phrygia,  a  whole 
city  with  all  its  inhabitants  was  burned  to 
ashes,  because  not  an  individual  in  it  would 
offer  sacrifice.  Lactantius,  Instit.  Divinar., 
lib.  v.,  c.  11.  Some  Christians  also  brought 
death  upon  themselves,  by  holding  religious 
meetings  contrary  to  the  emperor's  prohibi- 
tion, or  by  voluntarily  presenting  themselves 
before  the  governors  and  requesting  to  be 
martyred.  Sulpitius  Severus,  Hist.  Sacra, 
lib.  ii.,  c.  32,  and  Eusebius,  de  Martyr.  Pal- 
aestinae,  c.  3. —  Schl.] 

(12)  Lactantius,  Instit.  Divinar.,  lib.  v.,  c. 
11. — [With  the  exception  of  Gaul,  streams 
of  Christian  blood  flowed  in  all  the  provinces 
of  the  Roman  empire.  Everywhere  the 
Christian  temples  lay  in  ruins,  and  all  as- 
semblies for  worship  were  suspended.  The 
major  part  had  forsaken  the  provinces,  and 
taken  refuge  among  the  barbarians.  Such 
as  were  unable  or  unwilling  to  do  this,  kept 
themselves  concealed,  and  were  afraid  for 
their  lives  if  they  appeared  in  public.  The 
ministers  of  Christ  were  either  slain,  or  mu- 
tilated and  sent  to  the  mines,  or  banished 
the  country.  The  avaricious  magistrates 
and  judges  had  seized  upon  nearly  all  their 
church  property  and  their  private  possessions. 


Many,  through  dread  of  undergoing  torture, 
had  made  away  with  their  own  lives,  and 
many  had  apostatized  from  the  faith  ;  and 
what  remained  of  the  Christian  community, 


sons. — Schl.] 

(13)  Lactantius,  de  Mortib.  Persequutor., 
c.   18,  20. — [Galerius  Maximianus  was  in 
more  fear  of  the  young  prince  Constantine, 
than  of  his  father   Constantius ;   the  latter 
being    a  mild   and    sickly  sovereign,  while 
Constantine  was  of  an  ardent  temperament, 
and  at  the  same  time  greatly  beloved  by  the 
people  and  the  soldiers.     Yet  Galerius  had 
this  prince  in  his   power ;  for  he  detained 
him  at  his  court  in  Nicomedia,  and  if  he 
found  occasion,  might  have  put  him  out  of 
his   way   by    assassination    or    some    other 
means.     Indeed  Galerius  attempted  this,  es- 
pecially in   the  year  306.     Lactantius,  de 
Mortib.  Persequutor.,  c.  24.     But  Constan- 
tine saved  himself  by  flight,  and  repaired  to 
his  father  in  Britain.     This  sagacity  of  the 
prince  overset  the  whole  plan  of  the  empe- 
ror, and  was   the  means   of  rescuing  the 
Christian  religion  from  its   jeopardy.     See 
Mosheim,  Comment,  de  Reb.,  &c.,  p.  942, 
&c.— Schl.} 

(14)  Eusebius,  de  Martyr.  Palaestinae,  c. 
13. —  [Eusebius   says   expressly  that  Italy, 
Sicily,  Gaul,  Spain,  Mauritania  and  Africa, 
enjoyed  peace,  after  the  two  first  years  of 
the  persecution.     Nor  was  this  strange  ;  for 
Constantivs  Chlorus,  who  governed  Britain, 
Spain,  and  Gaul,  was  a  friend  to  the  Chris- 
tians ;   and  Scrterus,  who  in  the  character  of 
a  Caesar,  held  the  other  western  provinces, 
was  obliged  to  show  deference  to  Constan- 
tino as  the  emperor  of  the  West.     Neither 
was  the  debauched  Severus,  of  himself,  in- 
clined to  cruelty.     Yet  the  Christians  en- 
joyed less  freedom  under  him,  than  under 
Constantius.     See  Optatus  Milevilanus,  de 
Schismate  Donatist.,  1.  i.,  c.  14,  comp.  c. 
16.— Schl.] 

(15)  Lactantius,  de  Mortib.  Persequutor., 
c.  21. — [Lactanlius  here  states,  that  Gait- 
nun    Maximianus   gave  orders,  that  such 
Christians  as  could  not  by  tortures  be  in- 
duced to  sacrifice,  should  be  roasted  over  a 


PROSPEROUS  AND  ADVERSE  EVENTS. 


211 


§  5.  But  divine  providence  frustrated  the  whole  plan  of  Galerius  Max. 
imianus.  For  Constantius  Chlorus  dying  in  Britain  the  year  306,  the  sol- 
diery  by  acclamation  made  his  son  Constantine,  who  afterwards  by  his 
achievements  obtained  the  title  of  the  Great,  Augustus  or  emperor :  and 
the  tyrant  Galerius  was  obliged  to  submit,  and  even  to  approve  this  ad- 
verse  event.  Soon  after,  a  civil  war  broke  out.  For,  Maxentius  [the  son 
of  the  ex-emperor,  Valerius  Maximianus  Herculius,  and]  the  son-in-law 
of  Galerius  Maximianus,  being  indignant  that  Galerius  should  prefer  Sev- 
erus  before  him,  and  invest  him  with  imperial  power,  himself  assumed 
the  purple  ;  and  took  his  father,  Valer.  Maxim.  Herculius  for  his  colleague 
'in  the  empire.  In  the  midst  of  these  commotions,  Constantine,  beyond 
all  expectation,  made  his  way  to  the  imperial  throne.  The  western  Chris- 
tians, those  of  Italy  and  Africa  excepted,  enjoyed  a  good  degree  of  tran- 
quillity and  liberty,  during  these  civil  wars. (16)  But  the  Oriental  church- 
es experienced  various  fortune,  adverse,  or  tolerable,  according  to  the  po- 
litical changes  from  year  to  year.  (17)  At  length  Galerius  Maximianus, 
who  had  been  the  author  of  their  heaviest  calamities,  being  brought  low 
by  a  terrific  and  protracted  disease,  and  finding  himself  ready  to  die,  in 
the  year  311  issued  a  decree  which  restored  peace  to  them,  after  they 
had  endured  almost  unbounded  sufferings. (18) 


slow  fire.  Maximin,  who  governed  Syria 
and  Egypt,  at  first  showed  himself  quite 
mild  towards  the  Christians.  Eusebius, 
Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  ix.,  c.  9.  But  afterwards, 
he  seemed  to  wish  to  surpass  all  other  en- 
emies of  the  Christians,  in  cruelty  towards 
them.  See  Mosheim,  Comment,  de  Reb., 
&c.,  p.  945,  &c.— Schl.~\ 

(16)  [Constantine,  as  soon  as  he  came 
into  power,  gave  the  Christians  full  liberty 
to    profess   and    to   practise   their  religion. 
Lactantius,  de  Mortib.  Persequutor.,  c.  24, 
and  Institut.  Divinar.,  1.  i.,  c.  1.     This  he 
did,  not  from  a  sense  of  justice  or  from  mag- 
nanimity, and  still  less  from  any  attachment 
to  the  Christian  religion,  but  from  principles 
of  worldly  prudence.     He  wished  to  attach 
the  Christians  to  his  party,  that  they  might 
protect  him  against  the  power  and  the  mach- 
inations of  Galerius  Maximian.     His  broth- 
er-in-law, Maxentius,  imitated  his  example, 
and  with  similar  views  ;  and  therefore  the 
Christians  under  him  in  Africa  and  Italy,  en- 
joyed entire  religious  liberty.     See  Optatus 
Milevitanus,  de  Schismate  Donatist.,  1.  i., 
c.  16,  and  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  viii., 
c.  14.     See  Mosheim,  Comment,  de  Reb. 
Christianor.,  p.  952,  &c. — Schl.] 

(17)  [In  the  eastern  provinces,  which  were 
under  the  government  of  Galerius  Maximi- 
anus and   C.   Galerius  Maximinus,  Chris- 
tians were  the  most  cruelly  persecuted  ;  as 
is  manifest  from  various  passages  in  Euse- 
bius.    Yet  C.  G.  Maximin  did  not  at  all 
times  treat  them  with  equal  severity.     Ac- 
cording to  Eusfb.,  (de  Martyr.  Palaestinae, 
c.  9),  in  the  year  308,  the  persecution  seem- 


ed to  be  at  an  end  in  Syria  and  Palestine  : 
but  it  soon  after  recommenced,  with  in- 
creased severity.  The  cause  of  these  vicis- 
situdes is  to  be  sought  in  the  political  state 
of  things.  In  this  year,  C.  G.  Maximin 
assumed  the  title  of  Casar  in  Syria,  against 
the  will  of  Galerius  Maximianus ;  and  the 
latter  appeared  about  to  declare  war  against 
the  former ;  who  therefore  was  indulgent  to- 
wards the  Christians,  in  order  to  secure  their 
friendship.  But  as  Galerius  Maximianus 
was  appeased,  C.  G.  Maximin  became  more 
severe  against  the  Christians,  in  order  to  in- 
gratiate himself  more  effectually  with  the 
emperor.  After  a  while,  however,  he  abated 
his  severity  ;  and  towards  the  end  of  the 
year  309  and  in  the  beginning  of  310,  the 
Christians  enjoyed  great  freedom  :  (Euseb., 
de  Martyr.  Palaestinae,  c.  13),  for  Galerius 
Maximianus  was  now  in  declining  health, 
and  in  such  circumstances,  C.  G.  Maximin 
wished  not  to  alienate  the  Christians  from 
himself.  Yet  when  the  governor  of  the 
province  informed  him,  in  the  year  310,  that 
the  Christians  abused  their  freedom,  Maxi- 
min renewed  the  persecution.  But  soon 
after  Galenus  Maximianus  was  seized  with 
his  last  and  fatal  sickness,  and  C.  G.  Maxi- 
min being  apprehensive  that  the  imperial 
power  could  be  secured  only  by  a  success- 
ful appeal  to  arms,  policy  required  him  again 
to  desist  from  persecuting  the  Christians. 
Ettsebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  viii.,  c.  16.  See 
Mosheim,  Comment,  de  Reb.  Christianor., 
p.  955,  &c.— Schl.] 

(18)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  viii.,  c. 
16.     Lactantius,  de   Mortib.  Persequutor., 


212 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  I. 


§  6.  After  the  death  of  Galerius  Maximianus,  [A.D.  311],  C.  Gale- 
rius  Maximinus  and  C.  Vol.  Licinius,  [who  was  created  Augustus  by  Ga- 
lerius Maximianus,  after  the  death  of  Flavins  Severus,  A.D.  307],  divided 
between  themselves  the  provinces  which  had  been  governed  by  Galerius. 
At  the  same  time  Maxentius,  who  held  Africa  and  Italy,  determined  to 
make  war  upon  Constantine  who  governed  in  Spain  and  Gaul  ;  in  order 
to  bring  all  the  West  under  his  authority.  Constantine,  anticipating  his 
designs,  marched  his  army  into  Italy  in  the  year  312,  and  in  a  battle  fought 
at  the  Milvian  bridge  near  Rome,  routed  the  army  of  Maxentius.  In  the 
flight,  the  bridge  broke  down,  and  Maxentius  fell  into  the  Tiber,  and  was 
drowned.  After  this  victory,  Constantine  with  his  colleague  C.  Vol.  Li- 
cinius, immediately  gave  full  liberty  to  the  Christians  of  living  according 
to  their  own  institutions  and  laws  ;  and  this  liberty  was  more  clearly  de- 
fined the  following  year,  A.D.  313,  in  a  new  edict  drawn  up  at  Milan.  (19) 
C.  Gal.  Maximin  indeed,  who  reigned  in  the  East,  was  projecting  new  ca- 
lamities for  the  Christians,(20)  and  menacing  the  emperors  of  the  West 
with  war  ;  but  being  vanquished  by  Licinius,  he  put  an  end  to  his  own  life 
by  swallowing  poison,  at  Tarsus,  in  the  year  313. 

c.  33.  —  [The  decree  is  given  us,  in  Greek,  in  their  city  ;  and  then  granted  them  their 

by  Euseb.,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  viii.,  c.  17,  and  petition.     Other  cities  followed  this  exam- 

in  Latin,  by  Lactantius,  de  Mortib.  Perse-  pie,  and  thus  a  new  persecution  was  set  on 

quutor.,  c.  34.  —  Schl.]  foot.     Perhaps    Lactantius    and   Eusebius 


(19)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  x.,  c.  5. 
Lactantius,  de  Mortib.  Persequutor.,  c.  48. 
[It  is  the  second  edict,  or  that  of  Milan, 
which  is  found  in  the  passages  here  referred 
to  :  Eusebius  gives  it  in  Greek,  Lactantius 
in  Latin.  The  first  edict  is  wholly  lost  ;  yet 
from  the  second,  we  may  learn  what  was  ob- 
scure or  indefinite  in  the  first.  The  first 
edict  gave  religious  freedom,  not  only  to  the 
Christians,  but  to  all  other  sects  ;  yet  it  for- 
bid any  person's  abandoning  the  religion  in 
which  he  had  been  born  and  brought  up. 


erred,  in  representing  Maximin  as  the  origi- 
nal cause  of  these  applications  to  himself. 
Such  petitions  were  in  fact  presented  ;  and 
as  the  emperor  was  about  engaging  in  war 
with  Constantine,  he  used  every  means  to 
secure  the  fidelity  of  cities  in  the  East  to 
himself  ;  and  as  the  persecution  of  the  Chris- 
tians was  one  of  the  means  to  be  used, 
therefore  he  gratified  their  wishes.  Subse- 
quently, when  the  first  edict  of  Constantine 
and  Licinius  was  brought  to  him,  in  the 
year  312,  he  would  not  suffer  it  to  be  pub- 


This prohibition  operated  disadvantageous-     lishcd  in  his  provinces  ;  probably  from  pride, 


ly  to  the  Christian  cause ;  and  occasioned 
many,  who  had  recently  embraced  Christiani- 
ty, to  return  to  their  former  religion,  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  imperial  edict.  This  prohibition 
therefore,  with  all  other  restraints,  was  re- 
moved in  the  second  edict.  See  Mosheim, 
Comment,  de  Rebus  Christianor.,  p.  959. — 
Schl  ] 

(20)  [C.  Gal.  Maximin  did  not  at  first 
venture  to  contravene  the  edict  of  Gal.  Max- 
imianus, (giving  full  toleration  to  the  Chris- 
tians), yet  he  did  not  publish  it  in  his  prov- 
inces ;  but  afterwards,  by  underhanded  eva- 
sions he  violated  it.  For  if  we  may  believe 
Lactantius,  (de  Mortib.  Persequutor  ,  c.  36), 


he  deeming  it  unsuitable,  for  him  to  be  the 
publisher  of  edicts  given  out  by  persons 
whom  he  regarded  as  his  inferiors  in  rank. 
Yet,  according  to  Eusebius,  (Hist.  Eccles., 
1.  ix.,  c.  9),  he  sent  a  letter  to  his  governors 
of  provinces,  which  was  very  favourable  to 
the  Christians,  and  in  which  he  requested 
his  subjects  to  treat  them  kindly  and  tender- 
ly. The  Christians  however,  put  no  confi- 
dence in  this  letter,  and  were  still  afraid 
openly  to  profess  their  religion.  But.  after 
he  had  been  vanquished  by  Licinius,  in  the 
year  313,  he  published  a  new  edict  in  favour 
of  the  Chiistians  ;  (Euseb.,  Hist.  Eccles., 
1.  ix.,  c.  10),  in  which  he  laments  that  the 


he  slyly  so  managed,  that  what  some  cities     judges  and  magistrates  had  misinterpreted 


petitioned  for,  namely,  that  the  Christians 
might  be  prevented  from  erecting  temples 
within  their  walls,  was  effected.  Eusebius 
relates,  (Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  ix.,  c.  2),  that 
through  the  medium  of  one  Theotecnus,  he 
induced  the  Antiochians  to  petition  to  him, 


the  former  law ;  and  he  now  expressly  gives 
the  Christians  liberty  to  rebuild  their  tem- 
ples, and  commands  that  the  property  taken 
from  them  should  be  restored.  Soon  after 
this,  he  died  ;  and  the  ten  years'  persecution 
ended.  See  Mosheim,  Comment,  de  Rebus 


that  no  Christian  might  be  allowed  to  reside    Christianor.,  p.  961,  &c. — Schl.] 


PROSPEROUS  AND  ADVERSE  EVENTS. 


213 


§  7.  About  this  time  Constantine  the  Great,  who  was  previously  a  man 
of  no  religion,  is  said  to  have  embraced  Christianity,  being  induced  there- 
to, principally,  by  the  miracle  of  a  cross  appearing  to  him  in  the  heavens. 
But  this  story  is  liable  to  much  doubt.  For  his  first  edict  in  favour  of  the 
Christians,  and  many  other  things,  sufficiently  evince  indeed  that  he  was 
at  that  time  well  disposed  towards  the  Christians  and  their  worship,  but 
by  no  means  that  he  regarded  Christianity  as  the  only  true  and  saving  re- 
ligion ;  on  the  contrary,  it  appears  that  he  regarded  other  religions,  and 
among  them  the  old  Roman  religion,  as  likewise  true  and  useful  to  man- 
kind ;  and  he  therefore  wished  all  religions  to  be  freely  practised  through- 
out the  Roman  empire. (21)  But  as  he  advanced  in  life,  Constantine  made 
progress  in  religious  knowledge,  and  gradually  came  to  regard  Christianity 
as  the  only  true  and  saving  religion,  and  to  consider  all  others  as  false  and 
impious.  Having  learned  this,  he  now  began  to  exhort  his  subjects  to  em. 
brace  Christianity ;  and  at  length  he  proclaimed  war  against  the  ancient 
superstitions.  At  what  time  this  change  in  the  views  of  the  emperor  took 
place,  and  he  began  to  look  upon  all  religions  but  the  Christian  as  false, 
cannot  be  determined.  This  however  is  certain,  that  the  change  in  his 
views  was  first  made  manifest  by  his  laws  and  edicts,  in  the  year  324,  after 
the  death  of  Licinius,  when  Constantine  became  sole  emperor.(22)  His 
purpose  however,  of  abolishing  the  ancient  religion  of  the  Romans  and  of 
tolerating  only  the  Christian  religion,  he  did  not  disclose  till  a  little  be- 
fore his  death,  when  he  published  his  edicts  for  pulling  down  the  pagan 
temples  and  abolishing  the  sacrifices. (23) 


21)  [This  is  evident  from  Eusebius,  de 
Vita  Constantini,  1.  i.,  c.  27.  In  the  com- 
mencement of  the  war  with  Maxcntius,  he 
was  still  at  a  loss  to  what  God  he  should 
trust  himself  and  his  affairs.  He  at  length 
determined  to  honour  that  one  God  only, 
whom  his  father  had  worshipped,  and  to  show 
no  reverence  to  the  ancient  Roman  deities. 
The  grounds  on  which  he  came  to  this  deci- 
sion, were  feeble  ;  namely,  the  good  fortune 
of  his  father  who  adhered  to  this  worship  ; 
and  the  ill  fortune  and  lamentable  end  of 
Diocletian,  Galerins  Maximian,  and  other 
emperors,  who  had  worshipped  the  pagan 
deities.  And  according  to  Eusebius  (de 
Vita  Constantini,  1.  i.,  c.  28),  he  knew  so 
little  of  the  God  of  his  father,  that  he  prayed 
he  might  be  able  to  know  him.  He  was  a 
deist  of  the  lowest  class,  who  considered 
the  God  of  his  father  as  a  limited  being, 
though  more  benevolent  and  powerful  than 
any  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  deities.  This 
is  manifest  from  his  regulations  in  favour  of 
the  Christians,  and  from  his  laws  tolerating 
the  pagan  haruspices.  Codex  Theodos.,  1. 
is.,  tit.  16,  leg.  1,  2,  and  1.  xvi.,  tit.  10, 
leg.  i.  Compare  Zosimus,  lib.  ii.,  p.  10, 
ed.  Oxford,  1679,  8vo.  See  Mosheim, 
Comment,  de  Rebus  Christianor.,  p.  971, 
&c  —Schl.] 

(22)  Eusebius,  de  Vita  Constantini,  1.  ii., 
c.  20  and  44.     [In  this  year,  324,  all  those 


who  for  their  adherence  to  Christianity  du- 
ring the  preceding  persecution  had  become 
exiles,  or  been  sent  to  the  mines,  or  been 
robbed  of  their  property,  were  restored  to 
their  country,  their  liberty,  and  their  posses- 
sions ;  and  the  Christian  temples  were  or- 
dered to  be  rebuilt  and  enlarged. — Schl.] 

(23)  See  Ja.  Gothofrcd,  ad  Codicem  The- 
odos., torn,  vi.,  pt.  i.,  p.  290,  &c.  [The 
statement  of  Zosimus  (lib.  ii.,  p.  104)  is 
not  to  be  wholly  rejected.  He  says  that  af- 
ter the  death  of  Licinius,  a  certain  Egyp- 
tian came  to  Rome  from  Spain,  and  convin- 
ced the  emperor  of  the  truth  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  No  reason  can  be  assigned, 
why  Zosimus  should  have  fabricated  such  a 
story.  This  Egyptian  was  probably  Hos-ius, 
the  bishop  of  Corduba  ;  who  was  a  native 
Egyptian,  and  was  then  at  the  court  of  Con- 
stantine very  probably  soliciting  the  res- 
toration of  the  church  goods  which  had 
been  confiscated.  At  least,  it  is  expressly 
stated  that  the  money  destined  for  Africa, 
was  paid  in  consequence  of  his  efforts. 
This  conjecture  is  favoured  by  Baumgarten, 
Aus7.ug  der  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  691. 
The  later  Greeks  ascribe  the  emperor's  con- 
version to  a  courtier  named  Euphrates ; 
of  whom  however,  the  ancients  make  no 
mention.  Theodoret,  (Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  i., 
c.  17),  ascribes  it  to  the  influence  of  Helena 
hit  mother;  but  she  was  brought  to  em- 


214 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  I. 


&  8.  That  the  emperor  was  sincere  and  not  a  dissembler  in  regard  to 
his  conversion  to  Christianity,  no  person  can  doubt,  who  believes  that  men's 
actions  are  an  index  of  their  real  feelings.  It  is  indeed  true,  that  Constan- 
tine's  life  was  not  such  as  the  precepts  of  Christianity  required  ;(24)  and 
it  is  also  true  that  he  remained  a  catechumen  all  his  life,  and  was  received 
to  full  membership  in  the  church  by  baptism  at  Nicomedia  only  a  few  days 
before  his  death. (25)  But  neither  of  these  is  adequate  proof,  that  the  em- 
peror  had  not  a  general  conviction  of  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion, 
or  that  he  only  feigned  himself  a  Christian.  For  in  that  age  many  persons 
deferred  baptism  till  near  the  close  of  life,  that  they  might  pass  into  the 
other  world  altogether  pure  and  undefiled  with  sin  ;(26)  and  it  is  but  too 
notorious,  that  many  persons  who  look  upon  the  Christian  religion  as  in- 
dubitably true  and  of  divine  origin,  yet  do  not  conform  their  lives  to  all  its 
holy  precepts. — It  is  another  question,  whether  worldly  motives  might  not 
have  contributed  in  some  degree,  to  induce  Constantine  to  prefer  the  Chris- 
tian religion  to  the  ancient  Roman,  and  to  all  other  religions,  and  to  rec- 
ommend the  observance  of  it  to  his  subjects.  Indeed  it  is  no  improbable 

brace  Christianity  by  her  son,  according  Christianae.  torn,  ii.,  p.  232,  &c.  [Valesi- 
to  Eusebius,  de  Vita  Constantini,  1.  hi.,  c.  us,  in  his  notes  on  Eusebius,  de  Vita  Con- 
47.  —  Zosimus  relates  that  Constantine  stantini,  1.  iv.,  c.  61,  where  Eusebius  relates, 
asked  the  pagan  priests  to  absolve  him  from  that  Constantine  first  received  imposition  of 
the  euilt  of  destroying  Licinius,  Fausta,  hands,  previous  to  his  baptism,  a  little  before 

his  death  ;  infers,  that  the  emperor  then  first 
became  a  catechumen,  because  he  then  first 
received  imposition  of  hands.  But  the  bish- 
ops laid  hands  on  the  catechumens,  at  vari- 
ous times,  and  for  various  purposes  :  and  the 
connexion  here  shows,  that  Eusebius  refers 
to  that  imposition  of  hands,  which  immedi- 
ately preceded,  and  was  connected  with  bap- 
tism. See  Tertullian,  de  Baptismo,  c.  20. 
It  will  not  follow,  therefore,  that  Constan- 
tine had  never  before  received  imposition  of 
hands,  for  other  purposes.  But  suppose  he 
had  not,  still  we  do  not  know  that  the  only 
mode  of  constituting  a  catechumen,  in  that 
age,  was  by  imposition  of  hands :  and  if  it 


and  Crispus  ;  and  when  they  told  him  this 
•was  impossible,  the  Egyptian  before  men- 
tioned, undertook  to  show  that  the  Chris- 
tian religion  offered  the  means  of  cleansing 
away  his  guilt ;  and  this  it  was,  induced  the 
emperor  to  embrace  Christianity.  There 
is  perhaps  some  degree  of  truth  in  this 
story ;  perhaps  Constantine  did,  in  fact, 
after  the  death  of  Licinius  first  learn,  either 
from  this  Egyptian  or  from  some  others, 
that  the  blood  of  Christ  was  expiatory  for 
believers  therein.  It  is  at  least  certain,  that 
in  the  first  years  after  his  victory  over  Max- 
entius,  he  had  very  incorrect  ideas  of  Christ 
and  of  the  Christian  religion ;  as  is  manifest 
from  his  Rescript  to  Anulmus,  in  Eusebius, 
Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  x.,  c.  7.  See  Mosheim, 
Comment,  de  Rebus  Christianor.,  p.  976, 
&c.— Schl.] 

(24)  [He  put  to  death  his  own  son  Cm- 
pus,  and  his  wife  Fausta,  on  a  groundless 
suspicion  ;    and   cut  off  his  brother-in-law 
Licinius,  and  his  unoffending  son,  contrary 
to  his  plighted  word  ;  and  was  much  addict- 
ed to  pride  and  voluptuousness. — Schl.] 

(25)  Eusebius,  de  Vita  Constantini,  lib. 
iv.,  c.  61,  62. — -Those  who,  in  reliance  on 
more  recent  and  dubious  authorities,  main- 
tain that  Constantine  received  Christian  bap- 
tism at  Rome,  in  the  year  324,  and  from  the 
hands  of  Sylvester,  then  the  bishop  of  Rome, 
do  not  at  this  day  gain  the  assent  of  intelli- 
gent men,  even    in    the    Roman   Catholic 
church.     See  Henry  Noris,  Historia  Dona- 
tist.,  in  his  Opp.,  torn,  iv.,  p.  650.     Tho. 
Maria    Mamachius,    Origines    et    Antiqq. 


was,  so  great  an  emperor  might  be  excused 
from  the  ceremony,  which  could  plead  no 
divine  authority.  That  Constantine  long 
before  this  time,  declared  himself  a  Chris- 
tian, and  was  acknowledged  as  such  by  the 
churches,  is  certain.  It  is  also  true  that  he 
had  for  a  long  time  performed  the  religious 
acts  of  an  unbaptized  Christian,  that  is,  of  a 
catechumen ;  for  he  attended  public  worship, 
fasted,  prayed,  observed  the  Christian  Sab- 
bath and  the  anniversaries  of  the  martyrs, 
and  watched  on  the  vigils  of  Easter,  &c., 
&c.  Now  these  facts  show  that  he  had,  in 
fact,  long  been  a  catechumen  ;  and  that  he 
did  not  first  become  so,  at  the  time  hands 
were  laid  on  him  in  order  to  his  baptism. 
See  Mosheim,  Comment,  de  Rebus  Christi- 
anor., p.  965,  &c.— Tr.] 

(26)  [See  Ant.  Fred.  Busching's  Disput. 
de  Procrastinatione  Baptismi  apud  veteres, 
ejusque  Causis. — Schl.] 


PROSPEROUS  AND  ADVERSE  EVENTS. 


215 


conjecture,  that  the  emperor  had  discernment  to  see  that  Christianity  pos- 
sessed great  efficacy,  and  idolatry  none  at  all,  to  strengthen  public  author, 
ity  and  to  bind  citizens  to  their  duty.(27) 

§  9.  The  sign  of  the  cross,  which  Constantine  most  solemnly  affirmed 
he  saw  in  the  heavens  in  broad  daylight,  is  a  subject  involved  in  the  greatest 
obscurities  and  difficulties.  It  is  however  an  easy  thing  to  refute  those  who 
regard  this  prodigy  as  a  cunning  fiction  of  the  emperor,  or  who  rank  it 
among  fables  :(28)  and  also  those  who  refer  the  phenomenon  to  natural 
causes,  ingeniously  conjecturing  that  the  form  of  a  cross  appeared  in  a  so- 
lar  halo,  or  in  the  moon  :(29)  and  likewise  those  who  ascribe  the  transac- 


(27)  See  Eusebius,  de  Vita  Constantini, 
1.  i.,  c.  27.     [The  Romans  had   then  lost 
nearly  all  their  former  virtue,  fidelity,  good 
sense  and  valour ;  and  in  their  place,  tyran- 
ny, profligacy,  and  shameful  vices  and  crimes 
succeeded  and  became  prevalent,  especially, 
during  the  persecution  of  the   Christians. 
Among  the  more  intelligent,  very  little  of  the 
ancient  superstitious  spirit  remained  ;  so  ef- 
fectually had  the  Christian  and  pagan  phi- 
losophers exposed  the  turpitude  of  the  old  re- 
ligion.   But  among  the  Christians,  who  were 
spread  far  and  wide  in  the  Roman  empire, 
and  here  and  there  had  brought  over  some 
of  the  neighbouring  nations  to  their  religion, 
great  firmness  and   stability   of  mind   was 
manifest,  together  with  good  faith  and  hon- 
esty.    Hence  Constantine  the  Great  might 
readily  see,  that  the  Christian  religion  would 
contribute  much  more  to  the  tranquillity  of 
the  empire,  and  to  the  establishment  of  his 
dominion,  than  the  old  religion  could  do. — 
Schl.] 

(28)  Joh.  Hornbeck,  Comment,  ad  Bui- 
lam  Urbani  viii.,  de  Imaginum  cultu,  p.  182, 
&c.      Ja.   Oiselius,  Thesaurus  Numismat. 
antiquor.,  p.  463.     Ja.  Tollius,  Preface  to 
his  French  translation  of  Longinus  ;  and  in 
his  notes  on  Lactantius,  de  Mortib.  Perse- 
quutor.,  c.  44.     Christ.  Tkomasius,  Obser- 
vat.  Hallens.,  torn,  i.,  p.  380 ;  and  others. 
[There  is  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the 
time  when,  and  the  place  where  the  emperor 
saw  this  cross.     Some  follow  Eusebius,  (de 
Vita  Constantini.  1.  i.,  c.  28),  and  believe 
that  he  saw  it  while  in  Gaul,  and  when  ma- 
king preparations  for  the  war  with  Maxen- 
tius.     Others  rely  on  the  testimony  of  Lac- 
tantius, (de  Morlib.  Persequut.,  c.  44),  and 
believe  that  he  saw  the  cross  on  the  26th 
day  of  October,  A.D.  312,  [the  day  before 
the  battle,  in   which  Maxentius   was  van- 
quished near  Rome.]     So  thought  Stephen 
Bduze ;  (see  his  notes  on  this  passage  in 
Lactantius) ;    whom    Pagi,  Fabncius,  and 
.others  have  followed.     The  point  is  a  diffi- 
cult one  to  decide ;  and  the  brothers  Balle- 
rini,  (Observ.  ad  Norisii   Hist.  Donatist., 
Opp.,  torn,  iv.,  p.  662),  would  compromise 


it,  by  supposing  there  were  two  appearances 
of  the  cross,  both  in  dreams,  the  first  in  Gaul 
and  the  last  in  Italy :  which  is  a  miserable 
shift. — Among  those  who  regard  the  whole 
story  as  a  fabrication,  some  suppose  it  was 
a  pious  fraud,  and  others  that  it  was  a  trick 
of  state.  The  first  supposition  is  most  im- 
probable. For  at  the  time  the  cross  is  said 
to  have  appeared  to  him,  Constantine  thought 
nothing  about  spreading  the  Christian  re- 
ligion, but  only  about  vanquishing  Maxen- 
tius. Besides  he  was  not  then  a  Christian, 
and  did  not  use  the  event  for  the  advance- 
ment of  Christianity,  but  for  the  animation 
of  his  troops.  The  other  supposition  has 
more  probability  ;  indeed,  Licmius  once  re- 
sorted to  something  like  this,  according  to 
Lactantius,  de  Mortib.  Persequut.,  c.  46. — 
But  Constantine  solemnly  averred  the  real- 
ity of  this  prodigy ;  and  if  he  had  been  in- 
clined to  use  artifice  in  order  to  enkindle 
courage  in  his  soldiers,  he  would  far  more 
probably,  as  his  army  was  made  up  chiefly 
of  barbarians  and  such  as  were  not  Chris- 
tians, (see  Zosimus,  1.  ii.,  p.  86),  have  rep- 
resented Mars  or  some  other  of  the  vulgar 
deities  as  appearing  to  him.  See  Mosheim, 
Comment,  de  Rebus  Christianor.,  p.  978, 
&c.— Schl.] 

(29)  See  Joh.  Andr.  Schmidt,  Diss.  do 
Luna  in  Cruce  visa,  Jena,  1681,  4to,  and 
Joh.  Albert.  Fabncius,  Diss.  de  Cruce  a  Con- 
stantino visa,  in  his  Biblioth.  Gr.,  vol.  vi.f 
cap.  i.,p.  8,  &.c. — [This  opinion  also  has  its 
difficulties.  Fabricius  himself  admits,  that 
on  his  hypothesis  the  appearance  of  visible 
words  in  the  air  cannot  be  explained.  And 
he  resorts  to  a  new  exposition  of  the  lan- 
guage of  Eusebius  for  relief,  and  believes 
that  the  words  by  this  conqueror,  (£v  raru 
vim?.,  hoc  vince),  were  not  actually  seen, 
but  that  the  sense  of  them  was  emblemati- 
cally depicted,  in  a  crown  of  victory  that  ap- 
peared in  the  heavens.  But  (1)  if  the  em- 
peror intended  to  say  this,  he  expressed  him- 
self very  obscurely.  (2)  It  is  certain,  that 
Constantine  did  not  intend  to  be  so  under- 
stood ;  for  he  caused  the  very  words  men- 
tioned to  be  affixed  to  the  standards  (Labara) 


216 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  I. 


tion  to  the  power  of  God,  who  intended  by  a  miracle  to  confirm  the  wa. 
vering  faith  of  the  emperor.(30)     And  these  suppositions  being  rejected, 

of  the  legions,  and  to  the  medals  and  other 
monuments  of  the  event ;  which  he  would 
not  have  done,  had  he  not  designed  it  should 
be  understood  that  these  words  were  actually 
seen  in  the  heavens.  (3)  All  the  ancient 
writers  so  understood  the  account  given  by 
Eusebius.  (4)  Such  a  halo  about  the  sun, 
as  that  described  by  the  emperor,  has  never 
been  seen  by  man.  For  he  did  not  see  the 
sign  or  form  of  a  real  cross,  but  the  Greek 
letter  X.  intersected  perpendicularly  by  the 
letter  P;  thus,  ;§.  [Euseb.,  de  Vita  Con- 
stant., 1.  i.,  c.  31.  ]  See  Mosheim,  Comment. 
de  Rebus  Christ.,  p.  985.— Schl.~\ 

(30)  [Eusebius  alone,  (de  Vita  Constanti- 
ni,  1.  i.,  c.  28-31),  among  the  writers  of  that 
age,  gives  us  any  account  of  the  vision  of 
the  cross  ;  though  Lactantius,  (de  Mortib. 
Persequutor.,  c.  44),  and  others  speak  of  the 
"  dream,"  in  which  Constantine  was  direct- 
ed to  use  the  sign  of  the  cross.  Eusebius1 
account  is  as  follows  :  "  He  conceived  that 
he  ought  to  worship  only  the  God  of  his  fa- 
ther. He  therefore  called  upon  this  God  in 
prayer,  entreating  and  beseeching  him,  to 
manifest  to  him,  who  he  was,  and  to  extend 
his  right  arm  on  the  present  occasion. 
While  he  was  thus  praying  with  earnest 
entreaty,  a  most  singular  divine  manifesta- 
tion (tieoffrjuia  Ttf  Trapado^oruT^)  appeared  : 
which,  perhaps,  had  another  declared  it, 
would  not  easily  be  credited  ;  but  the  victo- 
rious emperor  himself  having  related  it  to  us 
who  write  this,  when  we  had  a  long  time  af- 
terwards the  privilege  of  knowing  and  con- 
versing with  him,  and  having  confirmed  it 
with  an  oath ;  who  can  hesitate  to  believe 
the  account  1  and  especially,  as  the  subse- 
quent time  [or  the  events  which  followed] 
affords  evidence  of  its  truth  1  He  said  that, 
about  the  middle  hours  of  the  day,  as  the 
sun  began  to  verge  towards  its  setting,  he 
saw  in  the  heavens,  with  his  own  eyes,  the 
sun  surmounted  with  the  trophy  of  the  cross, 
(inrepKeiuevov  rS  TjMufavpa  rponaiov),  which 
was  composed  of  light,  and  had  a  legend  (ypa- 
<j»)v)  annexed,  saying,  by  this  conquer.  And 
amazement  seized  him,  and  the  whole  army, 
at  the  sight,  (km  ru  deupari),  and  the  be- 
holders wondered  as  they  accompanied  him 
in  the  march.  And  he  said,  he  was  at  a 
loss  what  to  make  of  this  spectre,  (rt  Trore 
iiri  TO  (ftdafia),  and  as  he  pondered  and  re- 
flected upon  it  long,  night  came  upon  him 
by  surprise.  After  this,  as  he  slept,  (v-nvuvn 
&VT$),  the  Christ  of  God  appeared  to  him, 
together  with  the  sign  before  seen  in  the 
heavens,  and  bid  him  make  a  representation 
of  the  sign  that  appeared  in  the  heavens,  and 


to  use  that  as  a  protection  ( 
Xprjo&cii)  against  the  onsets  of  his  enemies. 
As  soon  as  it  was  day,  he  arose,  related  the 
wonder  (rb  aTroppr/Tov)  to  his  friends  ;  and 
then  assembling  the  workers  in  gold  and 
precious  stones,  he  seated  himself  in  the 
midst  of  them,  and  describing  the  appearance 
of  the  sign,  (r«  a^fieia),  he  bid  them  imitate 
it  in  gold  and  precious  stones.  This  we 
were  once  so  fortunate  as  to  set  our  eyes 
upon."  Eusebius  then  goes  into  a  long  de- 
scription of  this  sacred  standard,  which  was 
called  the  Labarum.  Its  shaft  was  a  very 
long  spear,  overlaid  with  gold.  On  its  top, 
was  a  crown  composed  of  gold  and  precious 
stones,  and  containing  the  sacred  symbol, 
namely,  the  Greek  letter  X,  intersected  with 
the  letter  P.  Just  under  this  crown,  was  a 
likeness  of  the  emperor,  in  gold ;  and  below 
that,  a  crosspiece  of  wood,  from  which  hung 
a  square  flag,  of  purple  cloth  embroidered 
and  covered  with  precious  stones. — Now  if 
this  narrative  is  all  true,  and  if  two  connect- 
ed miracles  were  actually  wrought,  as  here 
stated  ;  how  happens  it  that  no  writer  of  that 
age,  except  Eusebius,  says  one  word  about 
the  luminous  cross  in  the  heavens  1 — How 
came  it,  that  Eusebius  himself  said  nothing 
about  it  in  his  Eccles.  History,  which  was 
written  twelve  years  after  the  event,  and 
about  the  same  length  of  time  before  his  Life 
of  Constantine  1  Why  does  he  rely  solely 
on  the  testimony  of  the  emperor,  and  not 
even  intimate  that  he  ever  heard  of  it  from 
others ;  whereas,  if  true,  many  thousands 
must  have  been  eyewitnesses  of  the  fact  ? — 
What  mean  his  suggestions,  that  some  may 
question  the  truth  of  the  story  ;  and  his  cau- 
tion not  to  state  anything  as  a  matter  of 
public  notoriety,  but  to  confine  himself  sim- 
ply to  the  emperor's  private  representation 
to  himself! — Again,  if  the  miracle  of  the  lu- 
minous cross  was  a  reality,  has  not  God 
himself  sanctioned  the  use  of  the  cross  as 
the  appointed  symbol  of  our  religion !  so  that 
there  is  no  superstition  in  the  use  of  it,  but 
the  Catholics  are  correct  and  the  Protestants 
in  an  error  on  this  subject  1 — If  God  intend- 
ed to  enlighten  Constantine's  dark  mind  and 
show  him  the  truth  of  Christianity,  would  he 
probably  use  for  the  purpose  the  enigma  of  a 
luminous  cross,  in  preference  to  his  inspired 
word  or  a  direct  and  special  revelation  ] 
Was  there  no  tendency  to  encourage  a  su- 
perstitious veneration  for  the  sign  of  the 
cross,  in  such  a  miracle  1 — And  can  it  be 
believed,  that  Jesus  Christ  actually  appeared 
to  the  emperor  in  a  vision,  directing  him  to 
make  an  artificial  cross,  and  to  rely  upon  that 


PROSPEROUS  AND  ADVERSE  EVENTS. 


217 


the  only  conclusion  that  remains  is,  that  Constantine  saw,  in  a  dream  while 
asleep,  the  appearance  of  a  cross,  with  the  inscription,  by  this  conquer.(3l) 
Nor  is  this  opinion  unsupported  by  competent  authorities  of  good  credit.(32) 
§10.  The  happiness  anticipated  by  the  Christians  from  the  edicts  of 
Constantine  and  Licinius,  was  a  little  afterwards  interrupted  by  Licinius, 
who  waged  war  against  his  kinsman  Constantine.  Being  vanquished  in 
the  year  314,  he  was  quiet  for  about  nine  years.  But  in  the  year  324, 
this  restless  man  again  attacked  Constantine,  being  urged  on  both  by  his  own 
inclination  and  by  the  instigation  of  the  pagan  priests.  That  he  might  se- 
cure to  himself  a  victory,  he  attached  the  pagans  to  his  cause  by  severely 
oppressing  the  Christians,  and  by  putting  not  a  few  of  their  bishops  to 
death.(33)  But  all  his  plans  failed.  For  after  several  unsuccessful  bat- 
tles, he  was  obliged  to  throw  himself  upon  the  mercy  of  the  victor ;  who 
nevertheless  ordered  him  to  be  strangled  in  the  year  325.  After  his  vic- 
tory over  Licinius,  Constantine  reigned  sole  emperor  till  his  death ;  and 
by  his  plans,  his  enactments,  his  regulations,  and  his  munificence,  he  en- 
deavoured as  much  as  possible  to  obliterate  gradually  the  ancient  super- 
stitions, and  to  establish  Christian  worship  throughout  the  Roman  em- 
pire.(34)  He  had  undoubtedly  learned  from  the  wars  and  the  machina- 


as  his  defence  in  the  day  of  battle  1 — But 
how  came  the  whole  story  of  the  luminous 
cross  to  be  unknown  to  the  Christian  world, 
for  more  than  twenty-five  years,  and  then  to 
transpire  only  through  a  private  conversation 
between  Eusefnus  and  Conslantine  1 — Is  it 
not  supposable,  that  Eusebius  may  have  mis- 
understood the  account  the  emperor  gave 
him,  of  a  singular  halo  about  the  sun  which 
he  saw,  and  of  an  affecting  dream  which  he 
had  the  night  after,  and  which  induced  him  to 
make  the  Labarum,  and  use  it  as  his  stand- 
ard 1 — Such  are  the  arguments  against  this 
hypothesis. — 7V.] 

(3 1 )  [Lactantius  mentions  only  the  dream ; 
and  the  same  is  true  of  Sozomen,  lib.  i.,  c. 
3,  and  Rvfinus,  in  his  translation  of  the  Ec- 
cles.  History  of  Eusebius  ;  and  likewise,  of 
the  author  of  the  Chronicon  Orientale,  p.  57. 
Indeed  the  appeal  of  Eusebius  to  the  solemn 
attestation  of  the  emperor,  (de  Vita  Constan- 
tini,  1.  i ,  c   29),  and  the  statement  of  Gela- 
sius  Cyzicenits,  (Acta  Concilii  Nicaeni,  lib. 
i.,  c.  4,  in  Harduin's  Concilia,   torn,  i.,  p. 
351),  that  the  whole  story   was   accounted 
fabulous  by  the  pagans,  confirm  the  suppo- 
sition that  it  was  a  mere  dream.     For  the 
appeal  of  Eusebius  would  have  been  unne- 
cessary, and  the  denial  of  its  reality  by  the 
pagans  would  have  been  impossible,  if  the 
whole  army  of  Constantine  had  been  eyewit- 
nesses of  the  event. — Schl.] 

(32)  The  writers  who  treat  of  Conxtantine 
the  Great,  are  carefully  enumerated  by  Joh. 
Alb.  Fabncius,  Lux  salutaris  Evangelii  toti 
orbi  eroriens,  c.  12,  p.  260,  &c.     [The  la- 
test and  by  far  the  best,  (says  Hceren,  An- 
cient Hist.,  p.  475,  ed.  Bancroft,  1828),  is, 

VOL.  I.— E  E 


Leben  Constantin  des  Grossen,  von  J.  C. 
F.  Manso,  Bresl ,  1817.]  Fabricius  more- 
over, (ibid,  c.  13,  p.  273,  &c.),  describes 
the  laws  of  Constantine  relating  to  religious 
matters,  under  four  heads  The  same  laws 
are  treated  of  by  Jac.  Golhofred,  Adnot.  ad 
Codicem  Theodosianum ;  and  in  a  partic- 
ular treatise,  by  Francis  Baldwin,  in  his 
Constantinus  Magn.  seu  de  Legibus  Con- 
stantini  Ecclesiast.  et  civilibus,  librii  ii.,  ed. 
2d,  by  B.  Gundling,  Halle,  1727,  8vo. 

(33)  Eusebius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  x.,  c.  8, 
and  de  Vita  Constantini,  I.  i.,  c.  49.     Even 
Julian,  than  whtfm  no  one  was  more  preju- 
diced  against    Constantine,   could  not  but 
pronounce  Licinius  an  infamous  tyrant  who 
was  sunk  in  vices.and  crimes.     See  Julian's 
Caesares,  p.  222,  ed.  Spanheim. — I  would 
here    observe,  what   appears  to   have  been 
overlooked  hitherto,    that  Aurelius   Victor 
mentions  this  persecution  of  Licinius,  in  his 
Book  de  Caesaribus,  c.  41,  p.  435,  ed.  Arnt- 
zenii,  where  he  says  :  Licinio  ne  insontium 
quidem  ac  nobillium  philosophorum   servili 
more  cruciatus  adhibiti  modum  fecere.    The 
Philosophers,  whom  Licinius  is  here  said  to 
have  tortured,  were  doubtless  Christians ; 
whom  many,  from  their  slight  acquaintance 
with  our  religion,  have  mistaken  for  a  sect 
of  philosophers.     The  commentators  on  Au- 
rclius   have    left   this   passage   untouched ; 
which  is  apt  to  be  the  case  with  those,  who 
are  intent  only  on  the  enlargement  of  gram- 
matical  knowledge   derived    from    ancient 
writers. 

(34)  [Constantine    doubtless   committed 
errors,  which  in  their  consequences  were  in- 
jurious to  the   cause  of  Christianity.     He 


218  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  I. 

tions  of  Licinius,  that  neither  himself  nor  the  Roman  empire  could  remain 
secure  while  the  ancient  superstition  continued  prevalent,  and  therefore 
from  this  time  onward,  he  openly  opposed  the  pagan  deities  and  their  wor- 
ship, as  being  prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  the  state. 

§  11.  After  the  death  of  Constantine,  which  happened  in  the  year  337, 
his  three  surviving  sons,  Constantine  II.,  Constantius,  and  Constans,  agree- 
ably  to  his  pleasure,  assumed  the  empire,  and  were  all  proclaimed  Augusti 
and  emperors  by  the  Roman  senate.  There  were  still  living  two  brothers 
of  Constantine  the  Great,  namely,  Constantius  Dalmatius  and  Julius  Con- 
stans, and  they  had  several  sons.  But  nearly  all  these  were  slain  by  the 
soldiers  at  the  command  of  Constantine's  sons,  who  feared  lest  their  thirst 
for  power  might  lead  them  to  make  insurrections  and  disturb  the  common- 
wealth. (35)  Only  Gallus  and  Julian,  sons  of  Julius  Constans,  escaped 
the  massacre  ;(36)  and  the  latter  of  these  afterwards  became  emperor. 
Constantine  II.  held  Britain,  Gaul,  and  Spain ;  but  lost  his  life  A.D.  340, 
in  a  war  with  his  brother  Constantius.  Constans  at  first  governed  only 
Illyricum,  Italy,  and  Africa  ;  but  after  the  fall  of  his  brother  Constantine  II. 
he  annexed  his  provinces  to  his  empire,  and  thus  became  emperor  of  all 
the  West,  until  he  lost  his  life  A.D.  350,  in  the  war  with  Maxentius  a 
usurper.  After  the  death  of  Constans,  Maxentius  being  subdued,  the  third 
brother  Constantius,  who  had  before  governed  Asia,  Syria  and  Egypt,  in 
the  year  353  became  sole  emperor,  and  governed  the  whole  empire  till  the 
year  361,  when  he  died.  Neither  of  these  brothers  possessed  the  disposi- 
tion or  the  discernment  of  their  father  ;  yet  they  all  pursued  their  father's 
purpose,  of  abolishing  the  ancient  superstitions  of  the  Romans  and  other 
pagans,  and  of  propagating  the  Christian  religion  throughout  the  Roman 
empire.  The  thing  itself  was  commendable  and  excellent ;  but  in  the 
means  employed,  there  was  much  that  was  censurable. (37) 

§  12.  The  cause  of  Christianity  which  had  been  thus  flourishing  and 

gave  to  the  clergy  the  former  privileges  of  livelong;  and  Julian,  being  but  eight  years 
the  pagan  priests  ;  and  allowed  legacies  to  old,  created  no  fear.  Some  years  after,  they 
be  left  to  the  churches,  which  were  every-  were  sent  to  a  remote  place  in  Cappadocia, 
where  erected  and  enlarged.  He  was  grat-  where  they  were  instructed  in  languages,  the 
ified  with  seeing  the  bishops  assume  great  sciences,  and  gymnastics,  being  in  a  sense 
state  ;  for  he  thought,  the  more  respect  the  kept  prisoners  ;  and  were  at  last  designed 
bishops  commanded,  the  more  inclined  the  for  the  clerical  office,  having  been  made  lee- 
pagans  would  be  to  embrace  Christianity  :  tors  or  readers.  Am.mia.nus  MarcelL,  1. 
and  thus  he  introduced  the  love  of  pomp  and  xxii.,  c.  9. — ScW.] 
display  among  the  clergy. — SchL]  (37)  [Coercive  measures  were  adopted, 

(35)  ["  It  is  more  probable,  that  the  prin-  which  only  made    nominal  Christians.     A 
cipal  design  of  this  massacre  was  to  recover  law  was  enacted,  in  the  year  342,  that  all 
the    provinces   of   Thrace,   Macedon,    and  the  heathen  temples  should  be  shut  up,  and 
Achaia,  which  in  the  division  of  the  empire,  that  no  person  should  be  allowed  to  go  near 
Constantine  the  Great  had  given  to  young  them.     All   sacrifices,  and  all  consultations 
Dalmatius,  son  of  his  brother  of  the  same  of  the  oracles  and  the  soothsayers,  were  pro- 
name,  and  Pontus  and  Cappadocia,  which  he  hibited  on  pain  of  death  and  confiscation  of 
had  granted  to  Annibalianus,  the  brother  of  property  :    and   the    provincial    magistrates 
young  Dalmatius.     Be  that  as  it  will,  Dr.  were  threatened  with  the  same  penalties,  if 
Mosheim  has  attributed  this  massacre  equal-  they  were  dilatory  in  punishing  transgressors 
ly  to  the  three  sons  of  Constantine  ;  whereas  of  the  law.     This  was  to  compel  the  con- 
almost  all  authors  agree,  that  neither  young  science,  and  not  to  convince  it.     The  his- 
Constantine,  nor  Constans,  had  any  hand  in  tory  of  these  emperors  may  be  found  in  the 
it  at  all." — Mac!.]  Universal  History,  and  in  Le  Beau's  History 

(36)  [Because  they  were  despised:  Gallus  of  the  Eastern  Empire.— <ScA/.] 
being  sickly,  it  was  supposed  he  would  not 


PROSPEROUS  AND  ADVERSE  EVENTS.        219 

prosperous,  received  immense  injury  and  seemed  on  the  brink  of  ruin, 
when  Julian,  the  son  of  Julius  Constans,  brother  of  Constantine  the  Great, 
now  the  only  surviving  branch  of  the  Constantinian  family,(38)  after  a  sue- 
cessful  campaign  in  Gaul  A.D.  360,  was  hailed  emperor  by  his  soldiers, 
and  on  the  death  of  Constantius,  A.D.  361,  obtained  possession  of  the  whole 
empire.  For  Julian,  though  educated  in  the  Christian  religion,  yet  influ- 
enced partly  by  hatred  of  the  Constantinian  family,  which  had  murdered 
his  father,  brother,  and  all  his  relatives,  and  partly  by  the  artifices  of  the 
Platonic  philosophers,  who  deceived  this  credulous  and  vainglorious  prince 
with  fictitious  miracles  and  prophecies,  apostatized  from  Christianity  to 
paganism,  and  laboured  to  restore  idolatry  now  ready  to  become  extinct, 
to  its  former  splendour.  Julian  seemed  to  abhor  all  violent  measures,  and 
to  wish  to  give  full  liberty  to  the  citizens  of  choosing  their  religion,  and  of 
worshipping  God  in  the  manner  they  pleased  ;  but  at  the  same  time  he 
artfully  and  dexterously  cut  the  sinews  of  the  Christian  cause,  by  abroga- 
ting the  privileges  granted  to  this  religion  and  to  its  ministers,  by  shutting 
up  the  Christian  schools  in  which  philosophy  and  the  liberal  arts  were 
taught,  by  not  only  tolerating  but  even  encouraging  and  animating  all 
sectarians,  by  writing  books  against  the  Christians,  &c.  He  likewise  had 
many  projects  in  contemplation  ;  and  would,  doubtless,  have  done  immense 
harm  to  Christianity,  if  he  had  returned  victorious  from  the  Persian  war, 
which  he  undertook  directly  after  he  came  to  the  throne.  But  in  this  war, 
which  was  both  undertaken  and  carried  on  with  little  discretion,  he  fell  by 
a  wound  received  in  battle,  A.D.  363,  when  just  entered  the  thirty-second 
year  of  his  age,  and  after  reigning  sole  emperor  only  twenty  months  from 
the  death  of  Constantius. (39) 

§  13.  Those  who  rank  Julian  among  the  greatest  heroes  the  world  has 
produced,  nay,  place  him  the  first  of  all  who  ever  filled  a  throne — which 
many  at  this  day  do,  and  among  them  are  persons  of  learning  and  discern. 
incut — (40)  must  either  be  so  blinded  by  prejudice,  as  not  to  see  the  truth ;  or 

(38)  [For,  Gallus,  who  had  been  created  the  history  of  his  life.     He  was  born  A.D. 
Caesar,  was  previously  slain  by  order  of  Con-  331  ;  and  lost  his  mother  Basilina,  the  same 
stantius,  because  of  his  cruelty,  and  being  year  ;  and  his  father,  Julius  Constantius,  a 
charged  with  aspiring  after  the  supreme  pow-  few  years  after.     Mardonius,  a  eunuch,  and 
er.  Ammian.  MarcclL,  1.  xiv.,c.  11. — Schl.]  Eusebius,  bishop   of  Nicomedia,  were  his 

(39)  See,  besides  Tillcmont ;  [the  Uni-  first  instructers.     When  Gallus  was  made  a 
versal  History ;   Le  Beau,  Histoire  du  bas  Caesar,  Julian  obtained  permission  to  come 
Empire,  torn,  iii.,  livr.  xii-xiv.J ;  and  other  to  Constantinople,  where  he  attended    the 
common    writers  ;    the    accurately   written  public  schools ;  afterwards  he  went  to  Bi- 
work  of  Bletterie,  Vie    de    Julien,  Paris,  thynia,  and  everywhere  attached  himself  to 
1734,  and  Amsterd.,  1735,  8vo  ;    the  Life  the  most  noted  teachers.     He  read  and  imi- 
and  Character  of  Julian  the  Apostate,  il-  tated   the   orations   of  Libanius,  a   pagan 
lustrated  in  vii.  Dissertations,  by  Des  Voeux,  sophist,  whom  he  was  strictly  forbidden  to 
Dublin,  1746,  8vo;  Ez.  Spanhcim,  Preface  hear.     At  Pergamus  he  became  acquainted 
and   Notes  to  the  Works  of  Julian,  Lips.,  with  Acdc.iiits,  an  aged  Platonic  philosopher; 
1696,    fol.,  and   Joh.  Alb.  Fabricius,  Lux  and  heard  his  scholars,  Eusebius  and  Chry- 
salutaris  Evangelii  toti  orbi  exoriens,  cap.  santhes,  as  also  Maximus  of  Ephesus ;  which 
xiv.,    p.    294,  &c.     [Add  Aug.    Neander,  last  initiated  him  in  theurgia,  brought  him  to 
iiber  Kayser    Julianus  und   sein  Zietalter,  apostatize  from  Christianity,  and   presaged 
Hamb.,  1812,  8vo  —  TV.]  his  elevation  to  the  throne.     This  change  in 

(40)  Montesquieu,  Esprit  des  I^oix,  livr.  his  religion,  he  was  obliged  to  conceal  from 
xiiv.,  c.  10,  says:  II  n'y  a  point  eu  apres  Constantius  and  Gallus.     Julian  therefore 
lui  de  Prince  plus  digne  de  gotiverner  des  devoted  himself  to  a  monastic  life,  assumed 
hommes.     [To  form  a  correct  judgment  of  the  tonsure,  and  became  a  public  reader  in 
Julian,  it  is  necessary  cursorily  to  survey  the  church  at  Nicomedia.     In  the  year  354, 


220 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  I. 


they  must  have  never  read  attentively  Julian's  writings  which  still  remain  ; 

after  the  death  of  Gallus,  he  was  deprived 
of  his  liberty,  and  carried  to  Milan.  After 
being  in  custody  there  seven  months,  by  the 
intercession  of  the  empress  Eusebia,  he  ob- 
tained a  release,  and  liberty  to  travel  into 
Greece,  where  he  applied  himself  at  Athens 
to  the  sciences  and  to  eloquence,  and  be- 
came acquainted  with  Basil  and  Gregory 
of  Nazianzen.  In  the  year  355,  he  was 
proclaimed  Csesar,  and  had  Gaul,  Spain,  and 
Britain  intrusted  to  him.  But  Constantius 
greatly  limited  his  power,  and  nominated 

not  only  the  military  commanders  there,  but 

also  the  officers  of  Julian's  court,  who  were 

to  keep  strict  watch  over  him.     To  this  his 

elevation,  Eusebia  contributed  much,   she 

being  anxious  about  the  succession  to  the 

throne,  on  account  of  her  continued  barren- 
ness :  and  the  rebellion  of  Sylvanus,  which 

took  place  in  the  beginning  of  this  year,  as 

also  the  continual  incursions  of  the  bordering 

nations  which  required  a  general  in  Gaul, 

favoured  the   measure.     Julian  performed 

some  successful  campaigns  in  Gaul,  which 

procured  him  the  affections  not  only  of  the 

soldiery,  but  of  all  the  Gallic  subjects.     This 

awakened  the  jealousy  of  Constantius,  who, 

under  pretext  of  the  Persian  war,  recalled  a 

great  part  of  the  troops  from  Gaul.     In  the 

spring  of  360,  the  soldiers  proclaimed  Julian 

Augustus,  and   compelled  him   to   assume 

that  dignity.    A  reconciliation  was  attempted 

in  vain.     Constantius  insisted  upon  it,  that 

Julian  should   resign.     Julian   prosecuted 

the  German  war  successfully,  and  strength- 
ened and  fortified  the  frontiers  ;  and  after 

vanquishing  the  Germans,  whom  Constan- 
tius had  excited  against  him,  and  subduing 

Illyria  and  Italy,  he  marched  unencumbered 

against  Constantius ;  who  came  forward  to 

meet  him,  but  was  taken  sick  on  the  way, 

and  died  in  Cilicia.     Julian  now  took  quiet 

possession   of  the  whole    Roman    empire ; 

caused  Constantius  to  be  honourably  bu- 
ried ;  but  called  his  principal  officers  to  ac- 
count before  a  special  court,  as  the  authors 

of  numerous  acts  of  violence.     He  likewise 

attempted    great   reforms    in   the  court,  in 

which  prodigality  and  pomp  had  risen  to  a 

great  height.  He  also  dismissed  many  use- 
less officers :  and  filled  his  court  with  phi- 
losophers and  soothsayers,  to  whom  he 

showed  particular  respect.     During  the  II- 

lyrian  campaign,  in  the  year  36 1,  he  publicly 

sacrificed  to  the  gods  ;  and  after  the  death 

of  Constantius,  he  let  it  be  distinctly  known, 

that  it  was  his  purpose  to  reinstate  idolatrous 

worship.     But  as  he  was  aware  of  the  ill 

consequences  which  formerly  resulted  from 

direct  persecution,  and  wished  to  avoid  the 


repetition  of  them,  and  coveted  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  magnanimous  and  benevolent, 
and  as,  in  prospect  of  his  Persian  campaign, 
he  stood  in  fear  of  the  numerous  body  of 
Christians  ;  he  endeavoured  to  assail  and 
to  undermine  them,  by  artifice.  For  this 
purpose,  he  adopted  the  following  measures. 
First,  he  endeavoured  to  reform  the  pagan 
idolatry,  and  to  introduce  improvements  in 
it  derived  from  the  Christian  worship.  With 
this  view,  he  attended  to  his  official  duties 
as  Pontifex  Maximus,  with  more  earnestness 
than  any  of  his  predecessors,  and  even  treated 
them  as  of  more  consequence  than  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  empire.  He  offered  sacrifices 
daily,  in  his  palace  and  garden  ;  attended  the 
public  sacrifices  on  all  the  pagan  festivals, 
and  officiated  personally  in  them,  without 
the  least  regard  to  decorum,  even  as  to  the 
meanest  service.  He  re-established  the 
public  sacrifices  of  the  cities  and  provinces. 
Where  there  were  no  temples,  or  where  the 
destroyers  of  the  ancient  temples  could  not 
be  found  or  were  his  own  predecessors,  there 
he  erected  temples  at  his  own  cost,  and  gave 
to  the  idolatrous  priests  high  rank  and  large 
revenues.  As  he  had  been  converted  to 
paganism  by  philosophers,  who  were  of  the 
new  Platonic  School,  and  who  held  much  to 
theurgia,  magic,  divination,  and  apparitions, 
and  were  willing  to  borrow  from  Christian- 
ity ;  hence  originated  many  burdensome  pu- 
rifications, and  prolix  ceremonies  of  worship, 
together  with  a  considerable  aping  of  Chris- 
tian institutions.  He  was  strenuous  for  the 
virtuous  behaviour,  the  morality  and  benefi- 
cence of  the  priests ;  and  he  forbid  their 
going  to  theatres,  or  having  much  intercourse 
with  those  in  civil  authority.  He  wished 
to  place  the  reading  of  useful  books,  giving 
public  exhortations,  and  taking  care  of  the 
poor,  the  sick,  and  funerals,  on  the  same 
footing  as  they  were  among  the  Christians  ; 
and  he  required,  that  the  priests  in  many 
places  should  annually  be  supplied  with 
corn,  and  wine,  and  money,  which  they 
were  to  distribute  to  the  poor.  Secondly, 
he  supported  and  extended  wider  the  inter- 
nal divisions  among  the  Christians.  For  he 
restored  all  silenced  and  ejected  teachers, 
and  required  that  such  parties  as  had  been 
laid  under  ecclesiastical  censures,  should  be 
reinstated  in  their  privileges.  He  wrote  let- 
ters to  the  most  noted  and  most  restless  here- 
tics, and  encouraged  them  to  disseminate 
their  doctrines.  He  allowed  the  leading 
members  of  the  different  parties  to  come  to 
him,  and  under  colour  of  attempting  to  recon- 
cile their  differences,  he  inflamed  them  more 
against  each  other.  Thirdly,  he  deprived 


PROSPEROUS  AND  ADVERSE  EVENTS. 


221 


or  lastly,  they  do  not  know  what  constitutes  true  greatness  and  excellence. 
If  we  set  aside  genius — which  however,  as  his  writings  show,  in  him  was 
not  above  mediocrity — military  courage,  love  of  learning,  acquaintance 
with  that  fanatical  and  vain  philosophy  called  modern  Platonism,  and  lastly 
patience  of  labour ;  all  that  remains  in  Julian  was  certainly  little  and  un- 
worthy of  commendation.  His  excellences  were  counterbalanced  by  very 
great  defects  ;  first,  a  monstrous  and  almost  anile  superstition — the  surest 
indication  of  a  little  mind — then,  a  puerile  pursuit  of  applause  and  vulgar 
popularity,  extreme  credulity  and  instability,  a  disposition  to  use  dissimu- 
lation and  underhanded  means,  and  finally,  ignorance  of  solid  and  sound 
philosophy.  I  will  grant,  that  in  some  respects,  he  was  superior  to  the 
sons  of  Constantine  the  Great ;  but  in  many  respects,  he  was  inferior  to 
Constantine  himself,  whom  he  censures  so  immoderately. 

§  14.  As  Julian  affected  to  appear  unwilling  to  trouble  any  of  his  sub- 
jects on  account  of  their  religion,  and  opposed  to  no  sect  whatever,  he 
showed  so  much  indulgence  to  the  Jews,  as  to  give  them  liberty  to  rebuild 
the  temple  of  Jerusalem.  The  Jews  commenced  the  work,  but  were 
obliged  to  desist  before  even  the  foundations  were  laid.  For  balls  of  fire 
issued  from  the  ground,  accompanied  with  a  great  explosion  and  a  tremen- 
dous earthquake,  which  dispersed  both  the  materials  that  were  collected 
and  the  workmen.  The  fact  itself  is  abundantly  attested  ;(41)  though  the 

year  363,  and  in  part  during  his  Persian 
campaign,  is  lost.  Indeed  the  Marquis  dj 
Ar 'gen's,  in  the  Defense  du  paganisme,  par 
1'Empereur  Julien,  en  Grec  et  Fran9ois, 
avec  des  Dissertations  et  Notes,  Berlin, 
1764,  8vo,  has  endeavoured  to  recover  this 
work,  by  means  of  the  Confutation  of  it  by 
Cyril.  But  the  recovery  is  very  incomplete. 
Yet  these  remains  of  it  show,  that  the  book 
was  more  likely  to  injure  Christianity  by  the 
style  in  which  it  was  written,  and  by  the 
perversion  of  scripture,  than  by  either  the 
strength  or  the  originality  of  its  arguments 
and  objections.  Ninth,  and  lastly,  the  em- 
peror showed  much  partiality  to  the  Jews, 
and  allowed  them  to  rebuild  the  temple  of 
Jerusalem,  in  order  to  confute  by  facts  the 
prediction  of  Christ.  Immediately  after, 


the  clergy  of  the  franchises  and  permanent 
incomes,  which  they  had  enjoyed  under  the 
former  emperors  ;  especially,  of  their  ex- 
emption from  burdensome  civil  duties,  and 
of  the  distribution  of  corn  to  the  churches 
from  the  emperor's  storehouses ;  and  he 
compelled  the  monks  and  the  ministers 
of  religion  by  force,  to  perform  military 
duty.  Fourthly,  he  excluded  the  Christians 
from  all  promotions,  and  in  terms  of  bitter 
sarcasm,  forbid  their  access  to  the  public 
schools,  their  studying  the  Greek  authors 
and  sciences,  and  their  practising  physic. 
Fifthly,  he  commanded  the  idolatrous  tem- 
ples, images,  and  altars,  to  be  rebuilt,  at  the 
cost  of  those  who  had  pulled  them  down. 
Sixthly,  acts  of  violence  done  by  pagans  to 
Christians,  he  either  did  not  punish  at  all,  or 
punished  very  slightly,  only  requiring  them 
to  make  restitution.  On  the  contrary,  every 
tumult  among  Christians  was  punished  most 
severely  ;  and  commonly,  the  bishops  and 
the  churches  were  made  accountable  for 
them.  Seventhly,  he  connected  idolatry 
with  all  solemn  transactions,  and  with  the 
manifestations  of  respect  due  to  himself,  and 
made  a  participation  in  it  unavoidable.  The 
soldiers  for  instance,  when  extraordinary 
gratuities  were  presented  to  them,  must 
strew  incense  upon  an  altar ;  and  to  all  the 
publicly  exhibited  pictures  of  the  emperor, 
idolatrous  deities  were  attached.  Eighthly, 
he  ridiculed  the  Christians  and  their  wor- 
ship, scornfully  ;  and  wrote  books  in  confu- 
tation of  their  doctrines.  His  work  against 


there  were  banishments,  tortures,  and  execu- 
tions of  Christians,  under  pretence  that  they 
had  showed  themselves  refractory  against 
the  commands  of  the  emperor ;  and  there 
were  many,  especially  in  the  eastern  provin- 
ces, who  became  apostates.  Yet  there  were 
not  wanting  resolute  confessors  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  See  Baumgar ten's  Auszug 
der  Kirchengesch.,vol.  ii.,  p.  763,  780,  792, 
&c.— Sr.hL] 

(41)  See  Joh.  Alb.  Fabricius,  Lux  salu 
tar.  Evangelii  toti  orbi  exoriens,  p.  124, 
where  the  testimonies  are  collected.  See 
also  the  acute  English  knight,  Walter  Moyle, 
Posthumous  works,  p.  101,  &c.  [The  prin- 
cipal authorities  cited  by  Fabrieius  are, 
Chrysostom,  Homil.  v.  adv.  Judaeos,  et  ali- 


Christianity,  which  was  composed  in  the    bi,  saepius  ;  Ammianus  Marccll.,  lib.  uiu., 


222 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  I. 


Christians  as  often  happens  in  such  cases,  appear  to  have  inconsiderately 
amplified  it  with  some  additional  miracles.  As  to  the  causes  which  pro- 
duced the  event,  there  is  room  for  debate,  and  there  is  debate.  All  how. 
ever  who  weigh  the  subject  with  an  impartial  mind,  will  easily  perceive, 
that  they  must  join  with  those  who  ascribe  the  phenomenon  to  the  omnip- 
otent will  of  God  ;  and  that  they  who  choose  to  ascribe  it  to  natural  causes 
or  to  artifice  and  fraud,  offer  no  objections  which  are  insurmountable. (42) 
§  15.  The  soldiers  elected  Jovian  to  succeed  Julian.  He  died  in  the 
year  364,  after  reigning  seven  months ;  and  therefore  accomplished  but 
little. (43)  The  other  emperors  of  this  century,  who  reigned  after  Jovian, 
were  Flav.  Valentinian  I.  [in  the  West,  from  A.D.  364-375,  with]  Flav, 
Valens  [in  the  East,  from  A.D.  364-378],  then  Flav.  Gratian  [in  the 
West,  A.D.  375-383,  with]  Flav.  Valentinian  II.  [also  in  the  West,  A.D. 
375-392,  and  Theodosius  the  Great,  in  the  East,  A.D.  379-395],  Hono- 
rius,  [in  the  West,  A.D.  395-423,  with  Arcadius,  in  the  East,  A.D.  395 
—408].  All  these  were  Christians,  and  did  much  to  advance  the  religion 
they  professed.  They  all  endeavoured,  though  not  with  equal  zeal,  to  ex- 
tirpate wholly  the  pagan  religions.  In  this  particular,  Theodosius  the 
Great,  the  last  emperor  of  this  century  [in  the  East,  except  Arcadius],  ex- 


c.  i. ;  Gregory  Naz.,  orat.  iv. ;  Ambrose, 
Ep.  40,  (al.  29,  written  A.D.  388) ;  Socra- 
tes, H.  E.,  lib.  iii.,  c.  20  ;  Sozomen,  H.  E., 
lib.  v.,  c.  21 ;  Thcodoret,  H.  E.,  lib.  iii.,  c. 
20  ;  Riifinus,  H.  E.,  lib.  i.,  c.  37  ;  Philostor- 
gius,  H.  E.,  lib.  vii.,  c.  9,  14  ;  Hist.  Eccles. 
Tripartite,  1.  vi.,  c.  43  ;  Nicephorus,  1.  x.,  c. 
32  ;  Zonaras,  1.  xiii.,  c.  12  ;  Rabbi  David 
Gantz,  Zemach  David,  pt.  ii.,  p.  36;  Rab- 
bi Gedaliah,  Schalschelct  Hakkabala,  p. 
109. — Dr.  Lardncr,  (Collection  of  Jewish 
and  heathen  Testimonies,  vol.  iv.,  p.  57- 
71,  ed.  Lond.,  1767),  maintains  the  whole 
story  to  be  false.  His  chief  arguments  are 
that  Julian  only  purposed  to  rebuild  the 
temple,  after  his  Persian  expedition ;  that 
he  needed  all  his  resources  for  that  expedi- 
tion ;  the  silence  of  some  of  the  fathers, 
living  near  the  time  ;  and  the  decoration  of 
the  story  by  others  of  them.  But  these  ar- 
guments seem  wholly  insufficient,  against 
the  explicit  testimony  of  so  many  credible 
witnesses,  Christians  and  pagans,  and  several 
of  them  contemporary  with  the  event — TV.] 

(42)  Ja.   Basnage,  in  his  Histoire  des 
Juifs,  torn,  iv.,  p.  1257,  &c.,  contests  the 
reality  of  this  miracle.     Against  him  appear- 
ed Gisb.  Caperus,  in  his  Epistolae,  p.  400, 
edited  by  Bayer.    Recently,  Wm.  Warbur- 
ton  has  maintained  the  reality  of  the  mira- 
cle, sometimes  with  an  excess  of  ingenuity, 
in  an  appropriate  treatise,  entitled :  Julian, 
or  a  Discourse  concerning  the  earthquake  and 
fiery  eruption,  which  defeated  that  emperor's 
attempt  to  rebuild  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  ; 
London,  1750,  8vo. 

(43)  See  Blettcrie,  Vie  de  Jovien,  2  vols. 
8vo,  Paris,  1748,  in  which  work  he  com- 


pletes the  history  of  Julian,  and  gives  a 
French  translation  of  some  of  Julian's  wri- 
tings.— [The  following  notices  are  worth  in- 
serting. Both  during  the  lifetime  of  Julian, 
and  after  his  death  when  the  soldiers  made 
him  emperor,  Jovian  openly  declared  him- 
self on  the  side  of  Christianity.  For  when 
Julian  gave  orders  to  all  the  military  officers 
who  were  Christians,  to  either  quit  the  ar- 
my, or  renounce  their  religion  ;  Jovian  chose 
to  relinquish  his  office.  But  Julian  would 
not  release  him,  but  gave  him  promotion  du- 
ring the  Persian  war.  When  chosen  empe- 
ror, Jovian  would  not  accept  the  office, 
until  the  army  had  declared  themselves  in 
favour  of  Christianity.  When  he  arrived  at 
Antioch,  he  repealed  all  the  laws  of  Julian, 
adverse  to  Christianity :  (Rufinus,  lib.  xi., 
c.  1,  and  Sozomen,  1.  vi.,  c.  3),  and  wrote 
to  all  the  provincial  governors,  commanding 
them  to  take  diligent  care  that  the  Chris- 
tians should  not  be  disturbed  in  their  public 
assemblies.  He  restored  to  the  churches, 
to  the  clergy,  and  to  widows,  all  the  fran- 
chises and  privileges,  which  had  been  grant- 
ed them  by  Constantine  and  his  sons,  but 
which  Julian  had  taken  from  them.  He  like- 
wise restored  the  use  of  the  Labarum,  or  the 
standard  with  a  cross  :  and  he  compelled  one 
Magnus  to  rebuild  the  church  of  Bervtus,  at 
his  own  cost,  he  having  commanded  it  to  be 
demolished.  (Theodoret,  lib.  iv.,  c.  19.) 
In  regard  to  the  religious  controversies  of 
that  day,  he  joined  with  the  orthodox  against 
the  Arians  ;  and  he  treated  Athanasius  with 
peculiar  respect.  See  Baumgartcri1  s  Aus- 
zug  der  Kirchenhistorie,  vol.  ii.,  p.  805,  and 
the  Universal  History. — SchL] 


PROSPEROUS  AND  ADVERSE  EVENTS.  233 

ceeded  all  the  rest.  He  came  to  the  throne  A.D.  389 — and  died  A.D. 
395.  And  during  his  whole  life,  he  did  all  he  could  to  extirpate  idolatry 
through  all  the  provinces  of  the  empire,  and  enacted  severe  laws  against 
the  adherents  to  it.  The  same  design  was  prosecuted  by  his  sons  Arcadi- 
us  and  Honorius ;  so  that  in  the  close  of  this  century,  the  ancient  super- 
stitions were  ready  to  expire,  and  had  lost  all  their  respectability.(44) 

§  16.  Yet  this  severity  of  the  government  could  not  prevent  the  exist- 
ence of  some  pagan  fanes  and  ceremonies,  especially  in  the  remoter  prov- 
inces. Indeed,  these  rigorous  laws  against  the  worshippers  of  the  pagan 
deities,  seem  to  have  been  aimed  rather  against  the  common  people,  than 
against  persons  of  rank  and  distinction.  For  it  appears,  that  during  the 
reign  of  Theodosius,  as  well  as  after  his  death,  individuals  filled  the  highest 
offices,  and  continued  in  them  till  old  age,  who  are  known  to  have  been 
averse  from  Christianity  and  attached  to  paganism.  Of  this  Libanius  is 
an  example,  who  was  very  hostile  to  the  Christians,  and  yet  was  made 
prefect  of  the  praetorian  guards  by  Theodosius  himself.  Perhaps  greater 
indulgence  was  shown  to  philosophers,  rhetoricians,  and  military  com- 
manders, than  to  other  people,  on  account  of  their  supposed  usefulness  to 
the  commonwealth. 

§  17.  Yet  these  very  rhetoricians  and  philosophers,  whose  schools  were 
supposed  to  be  so  profitable  to  the  community,  exhausted  all  their  ingenu- 
ity, both  before  the  days  of  Constantine  the  Great,  and  afterwards,  to  ar- 
rest the  progress  of  Christianity.  In  the  beginning  of  this  century,  Hiero- 
cles,  the  great  ornament  of  the  Platonic  school,  composed  two  books  against 
the  Christians;  in  which  he  had  the  audacity  to  compare  our  Saviour  witli 
Apollonius  Tyanaeus,  and  for  which  he  was  chastised  by  Eusebius  [Csesa- 
riensis]  in  a  tract  written  expressly  against  him. (45)  Lactantius  speaks 

(44)  See  the  laws  of  these  emperors,  in  disciples,  as  disseminators  of  falsehood  ;  and 
favour  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  against  he  accuses  them  of  being  rude  and  illiterate 
the  professors  and  friends  of  the  ancient  re-  persons,  because  some  of  them  had  lived  by 
ligion,  in  the  Codex  Theodosianus,  torn,  vi.,  fishing." — "  He  affirms,  that  Christ  was  out- 
and  Peter  and  Jerome  Ballcrini,  Diss.  i.  in  lawed  by  the  Jews ;  and  that  he  afterwards 
Zenonem  Veronensem,  p.  45,  &c.,  Veronae,  collected  a  company  of  900    banditti,  and 
1739,  fol.  became  a  robber." — "  Also,  wishing  to  over- 

(45)  [Hicrocles,  who  flourished  about  A.D.  throw  his  miracles,  (which  he  does  not  pre- 
303,  was  governor  of  Bithynia,  and  after-  tend   to  deny),  he  attempts  to  show,  that 
wards  prsefect  of  Egypt.     He  was  a  zealous  Apollonius  had  performed  as  great,  and  even 
persecutor  of  the   Christians,  and  wielded  greater." — "  I  do  not  say,  (he  adds),  that  the 
both  the  sword  and  the  pen  against  them,  reason  why  Apollonius  was  never  account- 
His  character  and  his  two  Books  addressed  cd  a  God,  was,  that  he  chose  not  to  be  so 
to  the  Christians,  are  thus  described  by  Lac-  regarded  :  but  I  say,  that  we  are  wiser, — in 
tantius,    Institut.    Divinar.,   1.  v.,  c.  2,    3.  not  attaching  at  once  the  idea  of  divinity  to 
"  He  was  one  of  the  judges,  and  was  the  the  working  of  miracles, — than  you  are,  who 
principal  author  of  the  persecution  [under  believe  a  person  a  God,  merely  on  account 
Diocletian].     But    not   content    with    this  of  a  few  wonderful  acts." — "  Having  poured 
crime,  he  also  attacked  with  his  pen  the  peo-  out  such  crudities  of  his  ignorance,  and  hav- 
ple  he  persecuted :  for  he  composed   two  ing  laboured  utterly  to  extirpate  the  truth, 
Books, — not  against  the  Christians,  lest  he  he  has  the  temerity  to  entitle  his  nefarious 
should  seem  to  address  them  as  an  enemy,  Books,  which  are  hostile  to  God,  (fytiaXr)- 
— but  to  the  Christians,  that  he  might  appear  $«f),  devoted  to  the  truth." — Eusebius,  Li- 
friendly  to  them  and  anxious  for  their  good,  her  contra  Hieroclem,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  is  sub- 
In  these  books  he  endeavours  to  prove  the  joined  to  his  Demonstratio  Evangelica,  ed. 
falsehood  of  the  scriptures,  by  making  them  Paris,   1628. — See   Lardner's  Works,   vol. 
appear  full  of  contradictions." — "  He  partic-  viii.,   and    Bayle,   Dictionnaire    Histor.   et 
ularly  assailed  Fe/erand  Paul  and  the  other  Crit.,  art.  Hierocles  (2d). — TV.] 


224 


BOOK  IL— CENTURY  IV.— PART  I. 


of  another  philosopher  who  endeavoured  to  convince  the  Christians  they 
were  in  error ;  but  his  name  is  not  mentioned.  (46)  After  the  reign  of 
Constantine  the  Great,  Julian  wrote  a  large  volume  against  the  Christians, 
and  Himerius(<n)  and  Libanius(48)  in  their  public  declamations,  and  Eu- 
napius in  his  lives  of  the  philosophers,  zealously  decried  the  Christian  re- 
ligion. (49)  Yet  no  one  of  these  persons  was  punished  at  all,  for  the  li- 
centiousness of  his  tongue  or  of  his  pen. 

§18.  How  much  harm  these  sophists  or  philosophers,  who  were  full  of 
the  pride  of  imaginary  knowledge,  and  of  hatred  to  the  Christian  name, 
did  to  the  cause  of  Christianity  in  this  century,  appears  from  many  exam- 
ples, and  especially  from  the  apostacy  of  Julian,  who  was  seduced  by  men 
of  this  stamp.  Among  those  who  wished  to  appear  wise,  and  to  take  mod- 
erate ground,  many  were  induced  by  the  arguments  and  explanations  of 
these  men,  to  devise  a  kind  of  reconciling  religion,  intermediate  between 
the  old  superstition  and  Christianity ;  and  to  imagine  that  Christ  had  en- 
joined the  very  same  things,  which  had  long  been  represented  by  the  pagan 
priests  under  the  envelope  of  their  ceremonies  and  fables.  Of  these  views 
were  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  a  very  prudent  and  discreet  man,(50)  Chal- 


(46)  Lactantius,  Institut.  Divinar.,  lib.  v., 
c.  2. 

(47)  See  Photius,  Biblioth.  Cod.    clxv., 
p.  355.     [The  works  of  Himerius  are  lost. 
-TV] 

(48)  [Libanius,  the  sophist,  was  born  at 
Antioch  about  A.D.  314,  and  lived  proba- 
bly till  about  the  end  of  the  century.     He 
taught  rhetoric  and  declamation  at  Nice,  Ni- 
comedia,  Constantinople,  Athens,  and  An- 
tioch.    His  schools  were  large,  sometimes 
amounting  to  more  than  80  pupils  ;  and  rival 
sophists  envied  him.     The  emperor  Julian, 
when  young,  was  forbidden  to  attend  the 
school  of  Libanius  ;    but  he  obtained  and 
read  his  writings,  and  made  them  his  model 
as   to  style.     When  Julian  came  to   the 
throne  he  offered  Libanius  a  public  office, 
which  the  sophist  proudly  refused.     Yet  the 
emperor  and  he  were  very  good  friends. 
Libanius  was  an  inflated,  pedantic  man,  full 
of  himself,  yet  independent  in  his  feelings, 
and  free  in  the  expression  of  his  opinions. 
He  was  an  avowed  pagan,  yet  a  strenuous 
advocate  for  religious  toleration.     His  nu- 
merous writings  still  remain,  consisting  of  a 
prolix  Life  of  himself,  a  large  number  of  eu- 
logies and  declamations,  and  more  than  a 
thousand  letters.     They  seldom  contain  ei- 
ther profound  or  original  thought,  or  display 
research  ;  and  the  style  is  concise,  affected, 
and  pedantic.     Yet  they  are  of  some  use,  to 
throw  light  on  the  times  in  which  he  lived. 
They  were  published,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  vol.  i., 
Paris,   1606,  and  vol.  ii.,  by  Morell,  1627, 
fol.     The  most  complete  edition  of  his  epis- 
tles, is  by  Wolf,  Amsterdam,  1738,  fol.    A 
volume  containing  17  of  his  Declamations, 
was  published  at  Venice,   1755. — See  his 


Life,  written  by  himself,  in  his  Works,  vol. 
ii.,  p.  1-84.  Eunapius,  Vitae  Philos.  et 
Sophistarum,  p.  130,  &c.,  and  among  the 
moderns,  Tillemont,  Histoire  des  Empe- 
reurs,  torn,  iv.,  p.  571,  dec.  Fabricius, 
Biblioth.  Gr.,  torn,  vii.,  p.  376-414.  Lard- 
ner,  Heathen  Testimonies,  vol.  iv.,  p.  127— 
163,  and  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall  of  Rom. 
Emp.,  ch.  xxiv. — TV.] 

(49)  [See  Eunapius,  Lives  of  Aedesius, 
Maximus,    &c.     Eunapius   also  wrote   a 
chronicle,  to  which  he  frequently  refers  in 
his  Lives  of  the  Sophists ;  the  first  edition 
of  which  is  full  of  reproaches  against  the 
Christians  and  Constantine  the  Great ;  the 
second  edition  is  more  temperate.    Both  edi- 
tions were  extant  in  the  times  of  Photius : 
see  his  Biblioth.  Codex  Ixxvii. — Schl.] 

(50)  [Ammianus  Marcellinus,  a  celebrated 
Latin  historian  of  Grecian  extract,  was  a  sol- 
dier for  at  least  twenty  years,  from  A.D.  350 
onward,   and  served  in  the  honourable  corps 
called  Protectores  Domestici.     On  retiring 
from  military  life,  he  fixed  his  residence  at 
Rome,  where  he  lived  perhaps  till  the  end 
of  the  century.     There  it  was  he  composed 
his  faithful  and  valuable  history.     The  work 
originally  consisted  of  thirty-one  books,  and 
gave  the  Roman  history  from  the  accession 
of  Neroa,  (where  Suetonius  ends),  to  the 
death  of  Valens.     The  first  13  books,  which 
must  have  been  very  concise,  are  lost.     The 
last  18,  which  are  more  full,  include  the  pe- 
riod from  A.D.  353-378.    The  style  is  harsh 
and   unpolished,   and   sometimes  difficult ; 
but  the  fidelity  and  accuracy  of  the  narration 
render  the  work  highly  valuable.     Marcclli- 
nus  was  probably  a  real  pagan  ;  but  he  was 
not  a  bigot,  and  he  was  willing  to  give  every 


PROSPEROUS  AND  ADVERSE  EVENTS. 


225 


cidius,  a  philosopher,(51)  Themistius,  a  very  celebrated  orator,(52)  and 
others  who  conceived  that  both  religions  were  in  unison,  as  to  all  the  more 
important  points,  if  they  were  rightly  understood;  and  therefore  held,  that 
Christ  was  neither  to  be  contemned,  nor  to  be  honoured  to  the  exclusion 
of  the  pagan  deities. (53) 

§  19.  As  Constantine  the  Great,  and  his  sons  and  successors,  took  much 
pains  to  enlarge  the  Christian  church,  it  is  not  strange  that  many  nations, 
before  barbarous  and  uncivilized,  became  subject  to  Christ. (54)  Many 
circumstances  make  it  probable,  that  the  light  of  Christianity  cast  some  of 
its  rays  into  both  Armenias,  the  greater  and  the  less,  soon  after  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Christian  church. (55)  But  the  Armenian  church  first  re- 
ceived due  organization  and  firm  establishment,  in  this  century,  near  the 
beginning  of  which,  Gregory  the  son  of  Anax,  commonly  called  the  Illumi- 
nator, [</>&>c7/pa],  because  he  dispelled  the  mists  of  superstition  which  be- 
clouded the  minds  of  the  Armenians ;  first  persuaded  some  private  individ- 
uals, and  afterwards  Tiridates  the  king  of  the  Armenians,  as  well  as  his 
nobles,  to  embrace  and  observe  the  Christian  religion.  He  was  therefore  or- 
dained the  first  bishop  of  Armenia,  by  Leontius  bishop  of  Cappadocia  ;  and 
gradually  diffused  the  principles  of  Christianity  throughout  that  country. (56) 

§  20.  In  the  middle  of  this  century,  one  Frumenlius  proceeded  from 


one  his  due,  according  to  his  best  judgment. 
The  best  editions  of  his  work,  are,  that  of 
v.rcpublishcd  by  Granovius,  Leyden, 
1693,  fol.  and  4to,  and  that  of  Erncsti,  Lips., 
1775,  8vo.  See  Bayle,  Dictionnaire  histor. 
et  critique,  art.  Marcellin. — TV.] 

(51)  [Chalcidius,  a  philosopher  of  the  4th 
century,  was  author  of  a  Latin  translation  of 
the  Timaeus  of  Plato,  and  of  a  Commentary 
on  it,  which  were  published  by  J.  Mcnrxn/x, 
Ludg.  Bat.,  1617, 4to.    Dr.  Mnsheim's  opin- 
ion of  his  religious  faith  is  farther  developed 
in  his  Diss.  de  turbata  per  recentiores  Pla- 
tonicos  Ecclesia,  (f  31,  and  in  his  notes  on 

rtfi's  Intellectual  System,  vol.  i.,  p. 
732,  <Scc.  J.  A.  Fabricius,  (in  his  notes  on 
Chalcidius,  passim,  and  in  his  Biblioth.  Lat- 
ina,  1.  hi.,  c.  7,  p.  557,  &c.),  and  some  oth- 
ers, hold  that  Chalcidins  was  a  pagan. — 
Brucker  (Hist.  crit.  Philos.,  torn,  iii,,  p. 
472,  &c.)  makes  him  a  Christian,  though 
infected  with  the  new  Platonism  of  his  age. 

—3V.] 

(52)  [Themistius,  a  Greek  philosopher  of 
Paphlagonia,    called    Euphrades,   (the   fine 
speaker),  from  his  eloquent  and  command- 
ing delivery,  was  made  a  Roman  senator, 
and  enjoyed  the  favour  of  Constantius,  Ju- 
lian, and  the  succeeding  emperors,  down  to 
Theodosius  the  Great,  who  made  him  prae- 
fect  of  Constantinople,  and  appointed  him 
tutor  to  his  son  Arradivs.     He  wrote,  when 
young,    some    commentaries   on   Aristotle, 
fragments  of  which  are  still  extant,  and  33 
of  his  Orations.     His  works  arc  best  edited 
by  Harduin,  Paris,   1684,  fol.     He  was  a 
strenuous  advocate  for  the  free  toleration  of 

VOL.  I.— F  F 


all  religions,  as  being  all  good,  and  tending 
to  the  same  result  by  different  ways.  Con- 
cerning him  and  his  religious  views,  see 
Brucker's  Historia  crit.  philos.,  tome  ii.,  p. 
484,  &c.— Tr.] 

(53)  [This  favourite  opinion  of  Dr.  Mo- 
shcim,  he  defends  more  at  length  in  his  Dis. 
de  turbata  per  recenliores  Platonicos  eccle- 
sia,  ()  30,  31,  32  ;  among  his  Dissert,  ad  Hist. 
Eccles.  pertinentes,  vol.  i.,  p.  85-216,  Al- 
tonae,  1733. — But  it  seems  not  necessary  to 
adopt  this  hypothesis,  which  has  but  slender 
support  from  argument ;  because  the  Eclec- 
tic or  new  Platonic  philosophy,  might  easily 
lead  its  votaries  to  speak  in  terms  of  moder- 
ation, and    even  of  commendation,  of  the 
Christian  religion,  especially  in  an  age  when 
it  prevailed  almost  universally,  and  was  the 
religion  of  the  state  and  of  the  imperial  court. 
— 7V] 

(54)  Gaudenth/s,  Vita  Philastrii,   $  iii. 
Philastrius,  de   Haeres.,  Praef.,  p.  5,  ed. 
Fabricii.    Socrate.s,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  i.,c.  19. 
Gconrius  Ccdrenus,  Chronograph.,  p.  234, 
ed.  Paris  :  and  others. 

(55)  [For  Eusebius,  (Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  vi., 
c.  46),  informs  us  that  Dionysius  of  Alex- 
andria, about  the  year  260,  "  wrote  concern- 
ing penance,  to  the  Brethren  of  Armenia, 
over  whom  Mcruzanes  was  bishop:"  and, 
according  to  the  Acta  Martyrum,  some  Ar- 
menians suffered  martyrdom  in  the  persecu- 
tions under  Decius,  (A.D.  250),  and  Diocle- 
tian. (A.D.  304).—  Schl.] 

(56)  See  Narratio  de  Rebus  Armenise,  in 
Fr     Combcfis,    Auctarium    Biblioth.    Pair. 
Graecor.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  287,  &c.     Mich,  le 


•226  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  I. 

Eoypt  into  the  neighbouring  country  of  Abyssinia  or  Ethiopia,  the  inhab- 
itants of  which  were  called  Auxumita,  from  their  capital  city  Auxuma,  and 
baptized  both  the  king  of  the  country,  and  very  many  of  the  nobles.  Af- 
terwards returning  to  Egypt,  he  was  consecrated  by  St.  Athanasius,  first 
bishop  of  the  Auxumitae.  From  this  circumstance,  the  Ethiopic  church, 
even  to  this  day,  is  dependant  on  that  of  Alexandria,  and  receives  its 
bishop  from  it. (57) — In  Iberia,  a  province  of  Asia,  which  is  now  called 
Georgia,  a  Christian  woman  who  had  been  carried  captive  into  that  coun- 
try, partly  by  the  sanctity  of  her  life,  and  partly  by  miracles,  induced  the 
king  and  his  queen  to  renounce  idolatry  and  embrace  Christ,  and  also  to 
send  for  priests  from  Constantinople,  from  whom  they  and  their  people 
might  gain  a  more  accurate  and  full  knowledge  of  the  Christian  religion.  (58) 
§  21.  A  part  of  the  Goths  inhabiting  Thrace,  Mcesia,  and  Dacia,  [now 
the  northeast  part  of  Rumelia,  with  Bulgaria  and  Walachia,  on  the  Dan- 
ube], had  embraced  Christianity  before  the  commencement  of  this  centu- 
ry ;(59)  and  Theophilus  their  bishop  was  present  at  the  Nicene  council.(GO) 
Constantine  the  Great,  after  having  vanquished  them  and  the  Sarmatians, 
engaged  great  numbers  of  them  to  become  Christians. (61)  But  still  a 
large  part  of  the  nation  remained  estranged  from  Christ,  until  the  times  of 
the  emperor  Valens ;  who  permitted  them  to  pass  the  river  Ister,  [or  Dan- 
ube], and  to  inhabit  Dacia,  Mcesia,  and  Thrace,  on  condition  that  they 
would  be  subject  to  the  Roman  laws,  and  would  embrace  Christianity ;  to 
which  condition  their  king  Fritigern  consented.  (62)  The  bishop  of  the 
Goths  inhabiting  Moesia,  in  this  century,  was  the  much  celebrated  Ulphilas ; 
who,  among  other  laudable  deeds,  gave  his  countrymen  an  alphabet  of 
his  own  invention,  and  translated  the  Bible  for  them  into  the  Gothic  lan- 
guage.(63) 

Quien,  Oriens  Christianus,  torn,  i.,  p.  419  (61)  Socrates,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  i.,  c.  18. 

and  1356.     J.  J.  Schroderi,  Thesaur.  Lin-  (62)  Socrates,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  iv.,  c.  33. 

Siae  Armenicae,  p.  149,  &c.     [Sozomen,  Le  Quien,  Oriens  Christ.,  torn,  i.,  p.  1240. 

ist.  Eccles.,  ii.,  8.     Moses  Choronensis,  Eric  Benzel,  Praef.  ad  iv.  Evangelia  Gcth- 

Historia  Armenica,  lib.  iii.,  ed.   Whistoni,  ica,  (ascribed  to  Ulphilas),  c.  \.,  p.  zviii., 

Lond.,  1736,  4to,  p.  256,  &c.     Memoires  &c.,  ed.  Oxon.,  1750,  4to. 

hist,  et  geogr.  sur  1'Armenie,  par  M.  I.  St.  (63)  Joh.  Jac.  Mascovii,  Historia    Ger- 

Martin,  Paris,  1818,  8vo. — Tr.]  manor.,  torn,  i.,    p.  317,  torn,  ii.,  note,   p. 

(57)  Athanasius,  Apologia  ad  Constan-  49.     Acta  Sanctor.,  March,  vol.  iii.,  p.  619. 
tium,  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  315,  ed.  Bene-  Eric  Benzel,  loc.  cit,  cap.  viii.,  p.  xxx.     [J. 
diet.     Socrates,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  i.,  c.  19.  C.  Zahn,  Eirileitung    in   Ulfilas  Bibeliiber- 
Sozomen,  Hist.  Eccles. ,  lib.  ii.,c.  24.     The-  setzung,  p.  4,  &c.,  ed.  Weissenfels,   1805, 
odoret,  Hist.  Eccles.,  I  i.,  c.  23.     Job  Lu-  4to,  where  is   condensed,  all  that  is  stated 
dolf,  Comment,  ad  Histor.   Aethiopic.,    p.  of  Upkilas,  and  his  translation,  by  the  an- 
281.      Jerome  Lobo,  Voyage    d'Abissinie,  cients,  viz.,  Philostorgins,  H.  Eccl.,  1.  ii., 
tome  ii.,  p.   13,  &c.     Justus  Fontaninus,  c.  5.     Socrates,  H.  Eccl.,  1.  ii.,  c.  41,  and 
Historia  litterar.    Aquileiae,    p.    174.     [J.  1.  iv.,  c.  33.     Snzomen,  H.  Eccl.,  1.  iv.,  c. 
Bruce,  Travels  in  Abyssinia,  ed.  2d,  Edinb.,  24,  1.  vi.,   c.   37.     Theodoret,  H.  Eccl.,  I. 
1804,  vol.  v.,  p.  4,  &c.,  and  vol.  vii.,  p.  iv.,  c.  37,  and  others. — Ulphi/as,(or  UljUa, 
73,  &c. —  Tr.]  Urphilas,  Gilfulas,  &c.,  but  should,  accord- 

(58)  Rufinus,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  i.,  c.  10.  ing  to  JornaWes.be  written  Wuljtta,  i.e., 
Sozomen,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  ii.,    c.    7.     Le  Wolftein,  diminutive  of  Wulf  or    Wolf,  a 
Quien,  Oriens  Christianus,  toni.  i ,  p.  1333,  wolf),  is  said  by  Fkilosstorpius,  to  have  de- 
&c.     [Theodoret,  H.  E.,  i.,  c.  24.— Tr.]  scended  from  Christian  Greeks  of  Sadagol- 

(59)  [Philostorgius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  ii.,  tina  in  Cappadocia,  who  were  carried  into 
c.  5. — SchL]  captivity  by  the  Goths    in    the    year  266. 

(60)  f  Joh.  Harduin,  Conciliorum  tomus  Others  suppose,  from  his  name,  that  he  was 
i.,  p.  319. — Schl.]  of  Gothic  extract.    Philostorgius  also  makes 


PROSPEROUS  AND  ADVERSE  EVENTS. 


227 


§  22.  In  the  European  provinces  of  the  Roman  empire,  there  still  re- 
mained a  vast  number  of  idolaters  ;  and  though  the  Christian  bishops  en- 
deavoured  to  convert  them  to  Christ,  the  business  went  on  but  slowly.  In 
Gaul,  the  great  Martin,  bishop  of  Tours,  was  not  unsuccessful  in  this  work  ; 
for  travelling  through  the  provinces  of  Gaul,  he  by  his  discourses,  and  by 
his  miracles  (if  we  may  believe  Sulpitius  Severus),  everywhere  persuaded 
many  to  renounce  their  idols  and  embrace  Christ ;  and  he  destroyed  their 
temples,  and  threw  down  their  statues. (64)  He  therefore  merited  the  title 
of  the  Apostle  of  the  Gauls. 

§  23.  It  is  very  evident  that  the  victories  of  Constantine  the  Great,  and 
both  the  fear  of  punishment  and  the  desire  of  pleasing  the  Roman  emper- 
ors, were  cogent  reasons,  in  the  view  of  whole  nations  as  well  as  of  individ- 
uals, for  embracing  the  Christian  religion.  Yet  no  person  well  informed 
in  the  history  of  this  period,  will  ascribe  the  extension  of  Christianity  whol- 
ly to  these  causes.  For  it  is  manifest,  that  the  untiring  zeal  of  the  bish- 
ops and  other  holy  men,  the  pure  and  devout  lives  which  many  of  the  Chris- 
tians exhibited,  the  translations  of  the  sacred  volume,  and  the  excellence 
of  the  Christian  religion,  were  as  efficient  motives  with  many  persons,  as 
the  arguments  from  worldly  advantage  and  disadvantage  were  with  some 
others.  As  for  miracles,  I  cheerfully  unite  with  those  who  look  with  con- 
tempt on  the  wonders  ascribed  to  Paul,  Antony,  and  Martin.(65)  I  also 


him  first  bishop  of  the  Goths  ;  and  says,  he 
was  ordained  by  the  Arian,  Euscbius  of  Ni- 
comedia,    in    the   reign  of  Constantine  the 
Great.     Others  make  him  to  have  succeeded 
Theophilus,  and  to  have  flourished  from  the 
year  360  to  380.     He  was  a  man  of  talents 
and  learning,  an  Arian,  (at  least  in  the  lat- 
ter part  of  his  life),  and  possessed  vast  and 
salutary  influence,  among  the  Goths  in  Da- 
cia,  Moesia,  and  Thrace.     He  was  at    the 
Arian  Synod  of  Constantinople,  in  the  year 
359  ;  and  was  twice  sent  on  embassies  by 
the  nation  to  the  imperial  court.     His  last 
embassy  was   in  the  reign  of  Valens,  A.D. 
376,  to  obtain  permission  for  the  Goths  to 
pass  the  Danube  and  settle  in  Moesia.     He 
was    successful ;  and  200,000  Goths  were 
admitted  into  the  Roman  empire,  on  condi- 
tions of  obeying  the  Roman  laws  and  join- 
ing the  Arian  interest.     It  is   not   known 
when  he  died ;  but  some  time  in  the  reign 
of  Thcodosins  the  Great,  (A.D.  379-395), 
he  was  succeeded  in  his  episcopal  office  by 
Theotimus,  or,  as  some  report,  by    Selinns. 
He  was  author  of  a  translation  of  the  whole 
Bible,   except    the   books  of   Kings,   from 
Greek  into  the  language  of  the  Goths    of 
Mcesia.     The  books  of  Kings  were  omitted 
by  him,  lest  their  history  of  wars  and  bat- 
tles should  inflame    the  already   too    great 
thirst  of  the  Goths    for  war    and  carnage. 
The  alphabet  he  used,  was  of  his  own  de- 
vising, and  formed  chiefly  from  the  Greek 
and  Latin.     Nothing  remains  of  this  trans- 
lation, except  a  single  copy,  somewhat  mu- 
tilated, of  the  iv.  Gospels,  called  the  Codex 


Argenteus,  because  written  in  letters  of  sil- 
ver, now  at  Upsal  in  Sweden ;  and  a  few 
fragments  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  re- 
covered from  an  erasure  of  a  MS.  of  the 
eighth  or  ninth  century.  Ulphila's  Gospels 
were  first  published  by  Fr.  Junius,  Dort, 
1665,  2  vols.  4to  ;  afterwards  at  Stockholm, 
1671,  4to  ;  and  very  learnedly,  Oxford,  1750, 
fol.,  and  lastly,  in  a  very  convenient  Ger- 
man edition,  by  J.  C.  Zahn,  Weissenfels, 
1805,  4to,  with  a  complete  Apparatus  in  the 
German  language. — TV.] 

(64)  See  Sulpitius  Sevcrus,  Dial,  i.,  de 
Vita  Martini,  c.  13,  15,  17.  Dial,  ii.,  p. 
106,  &c.,  ed.  Hier.  a  Prato,  Verona,  1741, 
fol. — [This  Martin  was  born  in  Sabaria  in 
Pannonia,  and  brought  up  at  Pavia  in  Italy. 
He  embraced  Christianity,  contrary  to  the 
will  of  his  parents  ;  and  served  in  the  army, 
following  the  occupation  of  his  father.  He 
afterwards  left  the  military  life,  and  commit- 
ted himself  to  the  instruction  of  Hilary  of 
Poictiers.  From  the  Arians  he  suffered 
much  persecution ;  and  he  was  principally 
instrumental  in  the  introductven  of  monasti- 
cism  among  the  Gauls.  [He  was  ordained 
bishop  of  Tours,  A.D.  374,  and  died  in  the 
year  397,  aged  81.]  For  other  particulars 
of  his  life,  see  his  biographer,  Sulpitius  Sev- 
erus  ;  also  Tillemont,  Memoires  pour  ser- 
vir  a  1'Histoire  de  1'Eglise,  tome  x.  ;  and 
the  Histoire  Litteraire  de  la  France,  torn, 
i.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  413. — SM.  The  English  read- 
er may  consult  Miner's  church  history, 
cent,  iv.,  ch.  14. — TV.] 
.  (65)  Hieran.  a  Prato,  in  his  preface  to  Sul- 


229  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  I. 

grant,  that  many  events  were  inconsiderately  regarded  as  miracles,  which 
were  according  to  the  laws  of  nature  ;  not  to  mention  likewise  pious  frauds. 
Still  I  cannot  join  with  such  as  believe,  that  in  this  age,  God  did  never 
manifest  his  power  by  any  extraordinary  signs  among  Christians.(66) 

§  24.  Although  the  Christian  church  within  the  Roman  empire  was  in- 
volved  in  no  severe  calamities,  from  the  times  of  Constantine  the  Great  on- 
ward,  except  during  the  commotion  of  Licinius  and  the  short  reign  of  Ju- 
lian, yet  slight  tempests  sometimes  beat  upon  them  in  certain  places. 
Athanaric,  for  instance,  a  king  of  the  Goths,  fiercely  assailed  for  a  time 
that  portion  of  the  Gothic  nation  which  had  embraced  Christianity. (67) 
In  the  more  remote  provinces  also,  the  adherents  to  idolatry  often  defend, 
ed  their  hereditary  superstitions  with  the  sword,  and  murdered  the  Chris- 
tians,  who  in  propagating  their  religion  were  not  always  as  gentle  or  as 
prudent  as  they  ought  to  have  been. (68)  Beyond  the  limits  of  the  Roman 
empire,  Sapor  II.  surnamed  Longavus,  the  king  of  Persia,  waged  three 
bloody  wars  against  the  Christians  in  his  dominions.  The  first  was  in  the 
eighteenth  year  of  his  reign,  [A.D.  317]  ;  the  second  was  in  the  thirtieth 
year  ;  and  the  third,  which  was  the  most  cruel,  and  destroyed  an  immense 
number  of  Christians,  commenced  in  his  thirty-first  year,  A.D.  330,  and  last- 
ed forty  years,  or  till  A.D.  370.  Yet  religion  was  not  the  ostensible  cause 
of  this  dreadful  persecution,  but  a  suspicion  of  treasonable  practices  among 
the  Christians  :  for  the  Magi  and  the  Jews  persuaded  the  king  to  believe, 
that  all  Christians  were  in  the  interests  of  the  Roman  empire,  and  that 
Symeon,  the  archbishop  of  Seleucia  and  Ctesiphon,  sent  to  Constantinople 
intelligence  of  all  that  passed  in  Persia. (69) 

pitius  Scverus,  p.  xiii.,  &c.,  contends  zeal-  8vo,  and  Church's  Vindication  of  the  mirac- 

ously  for  the   miracles  of  Martin  and  the  ulous  powers,  in  answer  to  Middleton,  1750, 

others  in  this  century.     [An  account  of  the  8vo  ;  likewise  Dr.  J.  Jortin's  Remarks  on 

miracles   of  St.  Martin,  may  be  found  in  Eccles.  History,  vol.  i.,  ed.  Lond.,  1805. — 

Sidpit.  Sever.,  Vita  Martini ;  and  Epistles  TV.] 

I. — III.,  and  Dialogues  II.,  III.     The  mira-  (67)  See  Theod.  Ruinart,  Acta  Martyrum 

cles  of  some  contemporary  monks  of  Egypt  sincera ;  and  among  these,  the  Acta  St i.  Sa- 

and  the  East,  are  the  subject  of  Dialogue  I.  bae,  p.  598,  &c. 

For  the  history  of  Paul,  see  Jerome,  de  Vita  (68)  See  Ambrose,  de  Officiis,  lib.  i.,  c. 

Sti.  Pauli  Eremitae,  in  his  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  and  xlii.,  §  17  ;  where  is  a  noticeable  statement, 

for  that  of  Antony,  see  Athanasius,  de  Vita  (69)  See  Sozomen,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  ii., 

Sti.  Antonii  Eremitae,  in  his  Opp.,  torn,  ii.,  c.  1-13,  [where  is  a  full  account.]     These 

ed.  Paris,  1627. — TV.]  Persian  persecutions  are  expressly  treated 

(66)  See  Eusebius,  Liber  contra  Hiero-  of  in  the  Biblioth.  Oriental.  Clement.  Vati- 

clem,  c.  iv.,  p.    431,   ed.    Olearii ;   Henr.  can.,  torn,  i.,  p.  6,  16,  181,  and  torn,  iii., 

Doddwcll,  Diss.  ii.  in  Irenaeum,  §  Iv.,  p.  195,  p.  52,  &c.,  with  which  however,  should  be 

[also  Dr.  Conyers  Middleton's  Free  Inquiry  compared  Steph.  Euod.  Asseman,  Praef.  ad 

into  the  miraculous  Powers,  which  are  said  Acta   Martyrum    Oriental,    et  Occidental., 

to  have  subsisted  in  the  Christian  Church,  splendidly  edited,  Rome,  1748,  2  vols.  fol., 

&c  ,  Lond  ,  1747,  4to  :  and  in  defence  of  p.  Ixxi.,  &c.     He  has  published  the  Marty' 

miracles,  Dr.  Wm.  DoddweWs  Answer  to  rologium  Persicum,  in  Syriac,  with  a  Latin 

Dr.  Middleton's  Free  Inquiry,  &c.,  1751,  translation,  and  excellent  Notes. 


STATE  OF  LEARNING. 

i 

PART    II. 

THE   INTERNAL   HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  I. 

HISTORY   OF   LITERATURE   AND   SCIENCE. 

§  1.  State  of  Literature. — $  2.  Progress  of  the  Platonic  Philosophy. — §  3.  Its  Fate. — $  4. 
State  of  Learning  among  Christians. — $  5.  Many  illiterate  Christians. 

§  1 .  THE  Greeks  and  Romans  of  this  century,  who  wished  to  pass  for 
the  literati  of  the  age,  devoted  themselves  particularly  to  eloquence,  poetry, 
and  history,  among  the  fine  arts.  And  not  a  few  of  both  nations  might  be 
named,  who  acquired  some  reputation  in  these  arts.  Yet  they  all  fell  very 
far  short  of  the  highest  excellence.  The  best  of  these  poets,  as  Ausoni- 
«*,(!)  if  compared  with  those  of  the  Augustan  age,  are  harsh  and  inele- 
gant. The  rhetoricians,  abandoning  wholly  the  noble  simplicity  and  ma- 
jesty  of  the  ancients,  taught  the  youth  how  to  speak  ostentatiously  and  de- 
ceptively on  all  subjects.  And  most  of  the  historians  were  less  attentive 
to  method,  perspicuity,  and  fidelity,  than  to  empty  and  insipid  ornaments. 

§  2.  Nearly  all  who  attempted  philosophy  in  this  century,  were  of  the 
sect  called  Modern  Platonists.  It  is  not  strange  therefore,  that  some  Pla- 
tonic notions  are  to  be  met  with  in  the  works  of  the  Christians,  as  well  as 
others.  Yet  there  were  fewer  of  these  philosophers  in  the  West,  than  in 
the  East.  In  Syria,  Jamblichus  of  Chalcis  expounded  Plato,  or  rather 
palmed  his  own  conceptions  upon  that  philosopher. (2)  His  writings  show, 
that  he  was  superstitious,  cloudy,  credulous,  and  of  ordinary  intellectual 
powers.  He  was  succeeded  by  Aedesius,(3)  Maximus,(£)  and  others  ;  of 

(1)  [Decius  (or  Decimus)  Magnus  Auso-  by  Dr.  Mosheim.     He  was  a  pagan,  an  en- 
nius,  was  a  Latin  poet,  well  born  and  edu-  thusiast,  and  a  great  pretender  to  superior 
cated  at  Bourdeaux,  who  flourished  in  the  talents  and  learning.     Of  his  works,  there 
last  half  of  this  century.     He  was  probably  remain  a  Life  of  Pythagoras,  published  Gr. 
a  nominal  Christian,  was  a  man  of  poetic  and  Lat.,with  Notes,  by  Kuster,  Amstelod., 
genius,  and  much  caressed  and  advanced  to  1707,  4to  ; — Exhortation   to   the   study  of 
high   honours  by  those  in  authority.     His  Philosophy ;  Three  Books  on  mathematical 
poems  were  chiefly  short  pieces,  Eulogies,  learning ;  Commentary  on  Nicomachus  ;  In- 
Epigrams,  &c.,  and   not  devoid  of  merit,  stitutes  of  Arithmetic :   and  a  Treatise  on 
Yet  the  style  attests  the  declining  age  of  the  Mysteries  of  the  Egyptians  and  Chalde- 
Roman  literature.     Some  of  the  pieces  are  ans  of  Assyria;  published  Gr.  and  Lat.,  with 
also    very    obscene.      Edited    by    Tollitis,  Notes,  by  Tho.  Gait,  Oxon.,  1678,  fol.     See 
Lugd.  Bat.,   1671,  4to:    and  Lat.  and  Fr.  Bruckcr,  Hist.  crit.  Philos.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  260- 
by  Joubert,  Paris,   1769,  4  vols.   12mo. —  270.     Fabricius,  Biblioth.  Gr  ,  vol.  iv.,  p. 
TV.]  282,  &c.,  and  Lardner's  Works,  vol.  viii. 

(2)  [Jamblichus.    There  were  three  of  this  — TV.] 

name;   the  first  lived  early  in  the  second  (3)  [Aedesiusof  Cappadocia,  a  disciple  of 

century  ;  his  works  are  now  lost :  the  second  Jambhchus,  and  like  his  master,  a  devotee 

probably  died  about  the  year  333,  and  wrote  of  theurgia.     See  Bruckcr,  Hist.  crit.  Phi- 

largely ;    the  third  was  contemporary  with  los.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  270.  &c. —  TV.] 

Julian,  and  wrote  the  life  of  Alypius  the  (4)  [Maximus  of  Ephesus,  called  the  Cyn- 

musician.     The  second  is  the  one  intended  ic,  another  pretender  to  superhuman  knowl- 


230  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  I. 

whose  follies  Eunapius  gives  us  an  account.  In  Egypt,  Hypatia,(5)  a  dis- 
thifuished  lady,  Isidorus,(6)  Olympiodorus,(7)  Synesius  a  semi-Christian,(8) 
and  others  of  less  fame,  propagated  this  kind  of  wisdom,  or  rather,  folly. 

&  3.  As  the  emperor  Julian  was  a  passionate  admirer  of  this  philoso- 
phy, (as  his  writings  clearly  show),  very  many  were  induced  by  his  influ- 
ence to  vie  with  each  other  in  their  endeavours  to  set  it  forth  in  the  most 
alluring  dress. (9)  But  when  Julian  died,  a  dreadful  storm  burst  upon  the 
Platonists,  during  the  reign  of  Valentinian ;  and  several  of  them  were  ar- 
raigned and  tried  for  their  lives,  on  the  charge  of  practising  magic,  and 
other  crimes.  In  these  commotions,  Maximus  the  preceptor  of  Julian, 
among  others,  suffered  death. (10)  But  it  was  rather  the  intimacy  of  these 
men  with  Julian,  whose  counsellors  they  had  been,  than  the  philosophy 
they  embraced,  which  proved  their  ruin.  Hence  the  rest  of  the  sect,  which 
had  not  been  connected  with  the  court,  were  exposed  to  very  little  danger 
or  loss,  in  this  persecution  of  the  philosophers. 

§  4.  The  Christians,  from  the  times  of  Constantine  the  Great,  devoted 
much  more  attention  to  the  study  of  philosophy  and  the  liberal  arts,  than 
they  had  done  before.  And  the  emperors  omitted  no  means  which  might 
awaken  and  cherish  a  thirst  for  learning.  Schools  were  established  in 
many  of  the  towns  ;  libraries  were  formed,  and  literary  men  were  encour- 
aged by  stipends,  by  privileges,  and  by  honours.(ll)  All  this  was  requi- 
site to  the  accomplishment  of  their  object  of  gradually  abolishing  pagan 
idolatry ;  for  the  old  religion  of  the  pagans  derived  its  chief  support  from 
the  learning  of  its  advocates :  and  moreover,  if  the  Christian  youth  could 
find  no  instructers  of  their  own  religion,  there  was  danger  of  their  apply- 

edge.     He  is  said  to  have  persuaded  Julian  er,  Hist.  crit.  Philos.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  490. — 

to  apostatize  ;  and  he  certainly  had  great  in-  Tr.] 

fluence  over  that  emperor.     He  was  put  to  (8)  [Synesius,  of  Gyrene  in  Africa,  studied 

death,  for  practising  magic,  in  the  reign  of  under  Hypatia ;   resided  at  Constantinople 

Valens.     See  Brucker,  Hist.  crit.   Philos.,  from  A.D.  397-400,  as  deputy  from  his  na- 

tom.   ii.,   281,    &c.     Eunapius,    (de   Vitis  live  city;   was  made  bishop  of  Ptolemais, 

Sophistarum),  gives  account  of  Jamblichus,  A.D.  410.     He  wrote  well   for  that  age; 

Aedesius,  and  Maximus. —  Tr.]  though  he  was  too  much  infected  with  the 

(5)  [Hypatia  of  Alexandria,  a  lady  who  reigning  philosophy.     His  works,  as  edited 
was  thought  to  excel  all  the  philosophers  of  by  Petavius,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  Paris,  1612  and 
her  age,  and  who  publicly  taught  philosophy  1631,  fol.,  are  de  Regno,  ad  Arcadium  Im- 
with  great  applause,  flourished  in  the  close  peratorem ; — Dio,  vel  de  ipsius  vitae  insti- 
of  this  century,  and  the  first  part  of  the  next,  tuto  ; — Calvitii  encomium  ;   Aegyptius,  sive 
She  was  murdered  in  a  tumult,  A.D.  415.  de  Providentia ;    de    Insomniis  ;    Epistolae 
See   Socrates,  Hist.   Eccles.,  1.  vii.,  c.   15.  civ.;  and  several  Discourses  and  Hymns. — 
Suidas,   Art.    'Tirana,  torn,    iii.,    p.   533.  TV.] 

Tillemont,  Memoires,  &c.,  a  1'Histoire  EC-  (9)  See  Ez.  Spanheim,  Praefatio  ad  Opp. 

cles.,  torn,    xiv.,   p.   274.     Menage,    Hist.  Juliani,  et  ad  versionem  Gallicam  Ccesarum 

mulier.  philosoph.,  $  49,  &c.,  p.  494,  &c.,  Juliani,  p.  iii.,  et  Adnotat.,  p.  234.     Blet- 

and  Brucker,  Hist.  crit.  Philos.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  terie,  Vie  de  1'Empereur  Julien,  livr.  i.,  p. 

351.— Tr.]  26,  &c. 

(6)  [This  Isidoru*  was  surnamed  Gazae-  (10)  Ammianus  Marcellin.,  Histor.,  lib. 
us,  from   Gaza  in    Palestine   the  place   of  xxix.,c.  1,  p.  556,  ed,  Valesii ;  and  BirMerie, 
his   birth.     Concerning   him,  see  Brucker,  Vie  de  Julien,  p.  30,  &c.,  155,  159,  &c.  ; 
Hist.  crit.  Philos.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  341,  &c. —  and  Vie  de  Jovien,  tome  i.,  p.  194. 
Sett.]  (11)  See  Ja.   Gothofred,  on  the  Codex 

(7)  [Olympiodorus,  author  of  a  Commen-  Theodos.  Titles,  de  Professoribus  et  Arti- 
tary  upon  Plato,  still  preserved  in  MS.  at  bus  liberalibus  ;   Fran.  Balduin,  Constanti- 
Paris  ;  and  of  a  Life  of  Plato,  of  which  a  Lat-  nus  Magn.,  p.  122,  &c.     Herm.  Conringius, 
in  version  has  been  published.     There  were  Diss.  de  studiis  Romae  et  Constantinop., 
several  persons  of  this  name.     See  Bruck-  subjoined  to  his  Antiquitatt.  Academicae, 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT.  231 

ing  to  the  pagan  teachers  of  philosophy  and  rhetoric,  to  the  injury  of  the 
true  religion. 

§  5.  Yet  it  must  not  be  supposed,  that  the  Christian  church  was  full  of 
literary,  wise,  and  scientific  men.  For  there  was  no  law  as  yet,  to  pre- 
vent the  ignorant  and  illiterate  from  entering  the  sacred  office  ;  and  it  ap- 
pears from  explicit  testimony,  that  very  many  of  both  the  bishops  and  presby- 
ters were  entirely  destitute  of  all  science  and  learning.  Besides,  the  party 
was  both  numerous  and  powerful,  who  considered  all  learning,  and  especially 
philosophical  learning,  as  injurious  and  even  destructive  to  true  piety  and 
godliness.  All  the  ascetics,  monks,  and  eremites,  were  inclined  towards 
this  party ;  which  was  also  highly  favoured,  not  only  by  women,  but  by 
all  those  who  estimate  piety  by  the  sanctity  of  the  countenance,  the  sor- 
didness  of  the  dress,  and  the  love  of  solitude — that  is,  by  the  many. 


CHAPTER  II. 

HISTORY   OF   THE   GOVERNMENT    OF   THE    CHURCH,   AND    OF    ITS   TEACHERS. 

§  1,  2.  Form  of  the  Christian  Church. — §  3.  Conformed  to  the  Civil  Establishment. — 
$  4.  Administration,  Internal  and  External,  of  the  Church. — t)  5.  Rank  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rome. — $  6.  Limits  of  his  Jurisdiction. — §  7.  The  Bishop  of  Constantinople. — §  8. 
Vices  of  the  Clergy. — $  9.  Distinguished  Writers  in  the  Greek  Church. — f)  10.  Prin- 
cipal Writers  in  the  Latin  Church. 

§  1.  CONSTANTINE  the  Great  let  the  form  or  organization  of  the  church 
remain,  substantially,  as  it  had  been  ;  yet  he  attempted  in  some  respects  to 
improve  and  extend  it.  While  therefore,  he  suffered  the  church  to  continue 
to  be,  as  before,  a  sort  of  republic  within  yet  distinct  from  the  political  body, 
he  assumed  to  himself  the  supreme  power  over  this  sacred  republic,  and  the 
right  of  modelling  and  controlling  it  in  such  a  manner  as  would  best  sub- 
serve the  public  good.  Nor  did  any  bishop  call  in  question  this  power  of 
the  emperor.  The  people  therefore,  in  the  same  manner  as  before,  con- 
tinued to  elect  their  own  bishops  and  tcaclu-rs;  and  the  bishops  severally 
in  their  respective  districts  or  cities,  directed  and  regulated  all  eccl< 
tical  affairs,  using  their  presbyters  as  their  council,  and  calling  on  the  peo- 
ple for  their  assent.  The  bishops  also  met  together  in  conventions  or 
councils,  to  deliberate  on  the  subjects  in  which  the  churches  of  a  whole 
province  were  interested,  on  points  of  religious  controversy,  on  the  forms 
and  rites  of  worship,  and  others  of  like  import.  To  these  minor  councils 
of  one  or  more  provinces,  there  were  now  added,  by  authority  of  the  em- 
peror, assemblies  or  grand  councils  of  the  whole  church,  called  oecumeni- 
cal or  general  councils,  the  emperor  having  first  summoned  one  of  this 
character  at  Nice.  For  he  deemed  it  .suitable,  (very  probably  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  the  bishops),  that  causes  of  great  moment,  and  affecting  either 
the  church  universally,  or  the  general  principles  of  Christianity,  should  be 
examined  and  decided  in  conventions  of  the  whole  church.  There  were 
never,  indeed,  any  councils  held,  which  could  strictly  and  properly  be  called 
universal;  those  however,  whose  decrees  and  enactments  were  received 
and  approved  by  the  whole  church,  or  by  the  greatest  part  of  it,  have  been 
commonly  called  oecumenical  or  general  councils. 


232     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 

§  2.  Most  of  these  rights  and  privileges,  however,  were  gradually  di- 
minished very  much,  from  the  time  when  various  disturbances  and  quar- 
rels and  threatening  contests  arose  here  and  there,  respecting  ecclesiasti- 
cal affairs,  religious  doctrines,  or  the  elections  of  bishops.  For  as  the 
weaker  parties  generally  appealed  to  the  court,  this  afforded  to  the  emper- 
ors the  best  opportunity  of  restricting  the  power  of  the  bishops  and  the 
liberties  of  the  people,  and  of  variously  changing  the  ancient  customs  of 
the  church.  The  bishops  likewise,  whose  wealth  and  influence  were  not 
a  little  augmented  from  the  times  of  Constantine,  gradually  subverted  and 
changed  the  ancient  principles  of  church  government.  For  they  first  exclu- 
ded the  people  altogether  from  having  a  voice  in  ecclesiastical  affairs,  and 
then  deprived  the  presbyters  of  their  former  authority,  so  that  they  might  con- 
trol everything  at  their  discretion,  and  in  particular  appropriate  the  eccle- 
siastical property  to  themselves,  or  distribute  it  as  they  pleased.  Hence, 
at  the  close  of  this  century,  only  the  shadow  of  the  ancient  form  of  church 
government  remained ;  and  the  former  rights  of  the  presbyters  and  the 
people  were  engrossed  chiefly  by  the  bishops ;  while  those  of  the  whole 
church  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  emperors  or  their  provincial  govern- 
ors and  magistrates. 

§  3.  Constantine,  to  render  his  throne  secure  and  prevent  civil  wars, 
not  only  changed  the  system  of  Roman  jurisprudence,  but  likewise  altered 
in  many  respects  the  constitution  of  the  empire.(l)  And  as  he  wished, 
for  various  reasons,  to  adapt  the  ecclesiastical  administration  to  that  of  the 
commonwealth,  it  became  necessary  that  new  grades  of  honour  and  pre- 
eminence should  be  introduced  among  the  bishops.  The  princes  among 
the  bishops,  were  those  who  had  before  held  a  pre-eminent  rank,  namely, 
the  bishops  of  Rome,  Antioch,  and  Alexandria;  with  whom  the  bishop  of 
Constantinople  was  joined,  after  the  imperial  residence  was  transferred  to 
that  city.  These  four  prelates  answered  to  the  four  prcetorian  prefects 
created  by  Constantine,  and  perhaps  even  in  this  century  bore  the  Jewish 
title  of  Patriarchs.  Next  to  these  were  the  exarchs,  corresponding  with 
the  civil  exarchs,  and  presiding  each  over  several  provinces.  The  metro- 
politans  came  next,  who  governed  only  single  provinces.  After  them 
ranked*  the  archbishops,  who  had  the  inspection  only  of  certain  districts  of 
country.  The  bishops  brought  up  the  rear ;  whose  territories  were  not 
in  all  countries  of  the  same  extent,  being  in  some  countries  more  exten- 
sive, and  in  others  confined  to  narrower  limits.  To  these  several  orders 
of  bishops,  I  should  add  that  of  the  chorepiscopi  or  rural  bishops,  the  su- 
perintendents of  the  country  or  suburbial  churches,  were  it  not  that  the 
bishops,  in  order  to  extend  their  own  power,  had  caused  this  order  to  be 
suppressed  in  most  places. (2) 

(1)  See  Bos,  Hist,  de  la  Monarchic  Fran-  following  account  of  the  civil  distribution 
Soise,  torn,  i.,  p.  64.     Giannone,  Hist,  de  copied  from  an  ancient  Notitia  Imperii,  said 
Naples,  torn,  i.,  p.  94,  152.  to  have  been  written  before  the  reign  of  Ar- 

(2)  This  is  shown  by  Lutlm.  Thomassi-  cadius  and  Honorius,  or  before  A.D.  395. 
nus,  Disciplina  ecclesias.  vet.  et  nova  cir-  See   Pagi,  Critica  in  Barronii  Annal.   ad. 
ca  beneficia,  torn,    i.,  various   passages. —  Ann.  37,  torn,  i.,  p.  29,  &c. 

[Though  the  ecclesiastical  divisions  of  the  I.   Praefectus  Practorio  Orientis  :  et  sub 

Roman    empire,   did    not   coincide  exactly  eo  Dioeceses  quinque,  ss. 

with  the  civil  divisions,  yet  a  knowledge  of  1.  Dioecesis  orientis,  in  qua  Provinciae 

the  latter  will  help  us  to  form  a  better  idea  xv.  nempe,  Palaestina,  Phoenice,  Syria,  Ci- 

of  the  former.     Accordingly,  we  annex  the  licia,  Cyprus,  Arabia,  Isauria,  Palaestina  Sal- 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


233 


§  4.  The  administration  of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  was  divided  by  Con. 


utaris,  Palaestina  ii.,  Phoenice  Libani,  Eu- 
phratensis,  Syria  Salutaris,  Osrhoena,  Mes- 
opotamia, et  Cilicia  ii. 

2.  Dioecesis  Aegypti,  in  qua  Provinciae 
vi.    ncmpe,  Libya  superior,  Libya  inferior, 
Thebais,  Aegyptus,  Arcadia,  et  Augustan- 
ica. 

3.  Dioecesis  Asiae,  in  qua  Provinciae  x. 
nempe,  Pamphylia,  Hellespontus,  Lydia,  Pi- 
sidia,  Lycaonia,  Phrygia  Pacatiana,  Phrygia 
Salutaris,  Lycia,  Caria,  et  Insulae. 

4.  Dioecesis  Ponti,  in  qua  Provinciae  x. 
nempe,  Galatia,  Bithynia,  Honorias,  Cappa- 
docia  i.,  Paphlagonia,  Pontus  Polemoniacus, 
Helenopontus,  Armenia  i.,  Armenia  ii.,  et 
Galatia  Salutaris. 

5.  Dioecesis  Thraciae,  in  qua  Provinciae 
vi.  nempe,  Europa,  Thracia,  Hemiomontis, 
Rhodope,  Moesia  ii.,  et  Scythia. 

II.  Praefectus  Praetorio  Ely  rid  :  et  sub 
eo  Dioeceses  duae,  ss. 

1.  Dioecesis  Macedonia^  in  qua  Provin- 
ciae vi.  nempe,  Achaia,  Macedonia,  Greta, 
Thessalia,  Epirus  vetus,  et  Epirus  nova. 

2.  Dioecesis  Daciae.  in  qua  Provinciae  v. 
nempe,  Dacia  Mediterranea,  Dacia  Ripensis, 
Moesia    prima,    Dardania    Praevalitiana,   et 
Pars  Macedoniae  Salutaris. 

III.  Praefectus  Praetorio  Italiae :  et  sub 
eo  Dioeceses  tres,  ss. 

1.  Dioecesis   Italiae,  in  qua  Provinciae 
xvii.    nempe,  Venetiae,   Aemilia,    Liguria, 
Flaminia  et  Picenum  Annonarium,  Tuscia  et 
Umbria,  Picenum  Suburbicarium,  Campania, 
Sicilia,  Apulia  et  Calabria,  Lucania  et  Brutii, 
Alpes  Cottiarum,  Rhaetia  prima,  Rhaetia  se- 
cunda,  Samnium,  Valeria,  Sardinia,  et  Cor- 
sica. 

2.  Dioecesis   Ulijrici,  in  qua  Provinciae 
vi.  nempe,  Pannonia  secunda,  Savia,  Dalma- 
tia,  Pannonia  secunda,  Noricum  Mediterra- 
neum,  et  Noricum  Ripense. 

3.  Dioecesis  Africae,  in  qua  Provinciae 
vi.  nempe,  Byzacium,  Numidia,  Mauritania 
Sitifensis,  Mauritania  Caesariensis,  Tripolis, 
et  Africa  Proconsularis. 

IV.  Praefectus  Praetorio  Galliarum :  et 
sub  eo  Dioeceses  tres,  ss. 

1.  Dioecesis  Hi.ipaniae,  in  qua  Provin- 
ciae vii.  nempe,  Boetica,  Lusitania,  Gallae- 
cia,  Tarraconensis,  Carthaginensis,    Tingi- 
tania,  ct  Baleares. 

2.  Dioecesis  Galliarum,  in  qua  Provin- 
ciae  xvii.  nempe,  Viennensis,  Lugdunensis 
i.,  Germaniai.,  Germania  ii.,  Belgicai.,  Bel- 

S'ca  ii.,  Alpes  Maritimae,  Alpes  Penninaeet 
raiae,  Maxima  Seijuanorum,  Aquilania  i., 
Aquitania  ii.,  Novempopuli,  Narbonensis  i., 
Narbonensis  ii.,  Lugdunensis  ii.,  Lugdunen- 
sis iii.,  et  Lugdunensis  Senonia. 
VOL.  L— G  G 


3.  Dioecesis  Britanniarum,  in  qua  Pro- 
vinciae v.  nempe,  Maxima  Caesariensis,  Va- 
lentia,  Britannia  i.,  Britannia  ii.,  et  Flavia 
Caesariensis. 

Thus  the  civil  division  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire  was,  in    this  century,  into  iv.  prefec- 
tures  containing    13    dioceses,  which  em- 
braced lift  provinces.     The   ecclesiastical 
division  of  the  empire,  though  founded  upon 
the  civil  division,  was  by  no  means  so  com- 
plete and  so  regular.     The  civil  provinces 
were  generally  ecclesiastical  provinces,  and 
under  the  inspection  severally  of  the  metro- 
politans or  archbishops  of  those  provinces. 
Yet  there  were  many  bishops,  who  were  ex- 
empt from  the  inspection  or  jurisdiction  of 
the  metropolitans,  and  were  therefore  called 
avTOKE^a^OL  independent.     They  also  bore 
the  title  of  archbishops  and  of  metropolitans  ; 
although  they  had  no  suffragans  cr  bishops 
depending  on  them.     Above  the  rtnk  of  me- 
tropolitans, there  were  properly  none  other 
than   the  patriarchs.     For   the   exarchs  of 
Asia,  Cappadocia,  and  Pontus,  were  only  the 
first  metropolitans  of  those  civil  dioceses, 
while  they  belonged  to  no  patriarchate.    And 
the  primates  of  certain  countries,  in  after 
ages,  were  only  the  metropolitans  that  rank- 
ed first,  or  had  precedence,  among  the  me- 
tropolitans of  their  respective  countries. — 
Hence  there  were  not  properly  fiee  orders 
of  bishops,  above  the  rank  of  chorepiscopi, 
as  Dr.  Mosheim  represents  ;  but  only  three, 
namely,  patriarchs,  metropolitans  or  arch- 
bishops,   and  simple   bishops. — Before   the 
times   of  Constantnie,   provincial   councils 
were  common  ;  and  these  gave  rise  to  the 
order  of  metropolitans.     Among  the  metro- 
politans, those  of  Rome,  Antioch,  and  Alex- 
andria stood  pre-eminent  in  honour  and  influ- 
ence.    During  the  reign  of  Constantine  the 
Great,  the  powers  of  these  three  metropoli- 
tan* were  enlarged  ;  but  whether  they  bore 
the  title,  or  possessed  the  authority,  of  patri- 
archs, at  that  time,  is  not  certain.     They 
however  became  patriarchs,  both  in  name 
and  in  power,  before  a  century  had  elapsed. 
And  these  were  the  three  original  patriarchs. 
Towards  the  close  of  this  century,  the  bish- 
ops of  Constantinople  obtained  rank  next  to 
those  of  Rome,  and  extended  their  authority 
over  several  dioceses  not  subject  to  the  other 
patriarchs.     In  the  next  century,  the  bishops 
of  Jerusalem  became  independent  of  the  pa- 
triarchs of  Antioch  ;   and  thus  there  were 
five  patriarchates  formed.     Their  respective 
limits  were  as  follows.     The  patriarchal  au- 
thority of  the  bishops  of  Rome,  did  not  at 
first  extend  beyond  Italy,  perhaps  not  over 
the  whole  of  that.     For  the  bishops  of  Alii- 


234 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


stantine  into  the  external  and  the  internal. (3)  The  latter,  he  relinquished 
to  the  bishops  and  to  councils.  It  embraced  whatever  was  purely  reli- 
gious, religious  controversies,  forms  of  worship,  functions  of  the  priests, 
the  irregularities  of  their  lives,  &c.  The  external  administration  he  took 
upon  himself.  It  included  whatever  relates  to  the  external  condition  of 
the  church,  or  to  its  discipline,  and  also  all  contests  and  causes  of  the 
ministers  of  the  church,  both  of  the  higher  and  of  the  lower  orders,  which 
did  not  respect  religion  and  sacred  functions,  but  property,  worldly  hon- 
ours, and  privileges,  and  offences  against  the  laws,  and  the  like. (4)  Hs 
therefore  and  his  successors,  assembled  councils,  presided  in  them,  as- 
signed judges  for  religious  disputes,  decided  contests  between  bishops  and 
their  people,  determined  the  limits  of  the  episcopal  sees,  and  by  the  ordi- 
nary judges  heard  and.  adjudged  the  civil  causes  and  common  offences 
among  the  ministers  of  the  church  ;  but  the  ecclesiastical  causes  he  left  to 
the  cognizance  of  the  councils  and  bishops.  Yet  this  famous  partition  of 
the  ecclesiastical  government  into  the  external  and  the  internal  adminis- 
trations, was  never  clearly  explained  and  accurately  defined.  Hence,  both 

ca,  Spain.  Gaul,  Britain,  and  Illyricum,  ac- 
knowledged no  ecclesiastical  head  or  ruler, 
except  their  own  metropolitans.  But  after 
the  dissolution  of  the  western  empire,  the 
bishop  of  Rome  found  means  to  bring  all  the 
bishops  and  metropolitans  of  the  West  under 
his  authority.  This  he  justified,  partly  by 
claiming  to  be  patriarch  of  all  the  West,  and 
partly  by  virtue  of  his  assumed  supremacy 
over  the  whole  church.  The  patriarchs  of 
Constantinople  claimed  dominion  over  the 
civil  dioceses  of  Asia,  Pontus,  and  Thrace, 
which  belonged  to  the  prefecture  of  the  East, 
and  also  over  the  two  dioceses  composing 
the  prefecture  of  Illyricum.  No  one  of  these 
dioceses  had  before  belonged  to  any  patri- 
archate ;  the  three  former  having  been  gov- 
erned by  provincial  councils,  in  which  the 
metropolitans  of  Ephesus,  Csesarea  in  Cap- 
padocia,  and  Heraclea  i»  Thrace,  had  the 
precedence  of  all  other  metropolitans.  The 
two  other  dioceses,  those  of  Macedonia  and 
Dacia,  had  been  governed  in  a  similar  man- 
ner ;  and  being  afterwards  claimed  by  the 
bishops  of  Rome,  were  the  cause  of  long  and 
violent  contests  between  those  ambitious 


prelates.  But  the  patriarchs  of  Constanti- 
nople retained  them,  and  thereby  extended 
their  dominions  northward  over  the  Russian 
empire.  The  patriarchate  of  Anlioch  em- 
braced, originally,  the  whole  diocese  of  the 
East,  and  likewise  extended  over  the  church- 
es beyond  the  limits  of  the  Roman  empire  in 
Asia,  quite  to  India.  But  in  the  year  451, 
the  patriarchate  of  Jerusalem  was  created 
out  of  it,  embracing  the  whole  of  Palaestina 
i ,  ii.,  and  iii.,  or  Salutaris,  and  thence  to 
Mount  Sinai  and  the  borders  of  Egypt.  The 
patriarchate  of  Alexandria  embraced  the  civil 
diocese  of  Egypt ;  and  thence  extended  into 
Abyssinia. — Such  were  the  territorial  limits 


of  the  five  patriarchates,  from  the  5th  centu- 
ry onward  to  the  reformation.  In  the  llth 
century,  Nilus  Doxopatriiis,  of  Constantino- 
ple, gives  them  substantially  the  same  bound- 
aries. From  him  we  learn,  that  the  patriarch 
of  Constantinople  then  presided  over  52  me- 
tropolitans, who  had  under  them  649  suffra- 
gan bishops  ;  and  over  13  titular  metropoli- 
tans, i.  e.,  bishops  who  were  called  metro- 
politans and  uvTOKE<t>a2,oi,  but  had  no  suffra- 
gans ;  and  likewise  34  titular  archbishops. 
The  patriarch  of  Antioch  presided  over  13 
metropolitans,  with  139  suffragans,  besides 
8  titular  metropolitans,  and  13  titular  arch- 
bishops. The  patriarch  of  Jerusalem  presi- 
ded over  4  metropolitans  with  suffragans, 
and  25  titular  archbishops.  And  the  patri- 
arch of  Alexandria  presided  over  7  metro- 
politans with  suffragans,  and  5  titular  me- 
tropolitans and  archbishops.  The  number 
of  suffragans  in  the  two  last  patriarchates 
is  not  given.  The  civil  distribution  of  the 
empire  is  given  by  Pictro  Giannone,  Istoria 
civile  di  Napoli,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  i.,  and  the  ec- 
clesiastical distrib.,  ibid.,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  viii. 
See  also  Bingham's  Origines  Ecclesiast.,  I. 
ix.,  c.  i.,  $  5,  6.— Tr.] 

(3)  Eusebms,  de  Vita  Constantini  Magn., 
lib.  iv.,  c.  24. 

(4)  See  the  imperial  laws,  in  both  the  Jus- 
tinian and  Theodosian  Codices  ;  and,  among 
others,  Ja.  Gothofrcd,  ad  Codicem  Theodos., 
torn,  vi.,  p.  55,  58,  333,  &c.     [This  whole 
system  resulted,  in  part,  from  the  office  of 
Pontifex  Maxtmus,  which  was  retained  by 
Constantine  and  all  his  successors  till  into 
the  fifth  century  ;  and,  in  part  from  the  con- 
ception of  Constantine,  that  the  church  was 
a  society  existing  independently  of  the  state. 
See  Bos,  Diss.  de  Pontificatu  maximo  Ira- 
perator.  Christianor. — Schl.] 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT.  235 

in  this  and  in  the  following  centuries,  we  see  many  transactions  which  do 
not  accord  with  it,  but  contravene  it.  For  the  emperors,  not  unfrequent- 
ly,  determined  matters  relating  to  the  interior  of  the  church  ;  and  on  the 
other  hand,  councils  and  bishops  often  enacted  laws  respecting  things 
which  seem  to  belong  to  the  external  form  and  affairs  of  the  church. 

§  5.  The  first  among  the  bishops,  in  respect  to  rank  and  dignity,  was 
the  bishop  of  Rome.  And  this  pre-eminence  was  not  founded  solely  on 
popular  feeling  and  prejudice  of  long  standing,  to  which  various  causes 
had  given  rise,  but  also  on  those  grounds,  which  commonly  give  priority 
and  greatness  in  the  estimation  of  mortals.  For  he  exceeded  all  other 
bishops,  in  the  amplitude  and  splendour  of  the  church  over  which  he  pre- 
sided, in  the  magnitude  of  his  revenues  and  possessions,  in  the  number  of 
his  assistants  or  ministers  of  various  descriptions,  in  the  weight  of  his  in- 
fluence with  the  people  at  large,  and  in  the  sumptuousness  and  magnif- 
icence of  his  style  of  living.(5)  These  indications  of  power  and  worldly 
greatness  were  so  fascinating  to  the  minds  of  Christians,  even  in  this  age, 
that  often  most  obstinate  and  bloody  contests  took  place  at  Rome,  when  a 
new  pontiff  was  to  be  created,  by  the  suffrages  of  the  priests  and  people. 
A  shocking  example  of  this  is  afforded  by  the  disturbance  at  Rome  in  the 
year  366,  after  the  death  of  Liberius.  When  they  came  to  the  choice  of 
a  new  bishop,  one  party  was  for  placing  Damasus,  and  another  for  ap- 
pointing Ursicmus,  a  deacon,  over  the  widowed  church  :  and  the  conten- 
tion issued  in  a  bloody  warfare,  in  which  there  was  fighting,  burning  of 
buildings,  and  many  lost  their  lives.  Damasus  came  off  victorious  in  the 
contest ;  but  whether  his  claims  were  better,  or  his  cause  more  righteous, 
than  those  of  Ursicinus,  does  not  appear.  (6)  I  dare  not  pronounce  either 
of  them  a  good  man. 

§  G.  It  is  however  abundantly  attested,  that  the  bishops  of  Rome  did 
not,  in  this  age,  possess  supreme  power  and  jurisdiction  in  the  church. 
They  were  citizens  of  the  commonwealth  ;  and  though  higher  in  honour, 
they  obeyed  the  laws  and  the  mandates  of  the  emperors,  just  like  other  cit- 
izens. The  more  weighty  religious  causes  were  determined,  either  by 
judges  appointed  by  the  emperor,  or  in  ecclesiastical  councils ;  minor 
causes  were  decided  by  individual  bishops.  The  laws  relating  to  religion, 
were  enacted  either  by  the  emperors  or  by  councils.  No  one  of  the  bish- 
ops acknowledged,  that  his  authority  was  derived  from  the  plenary  power 
of  the  Roman  bishop,  or  that  he  was  constituted  a  bishop  by  the  favour  of 
the  apostolic  see.  On  the  contrary,  they  all  maintained,  that  they  were 
the  ambassadors  and  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  their  authority 
was  derived  from  above. (7)  Yet  it  is  undeniable,  that  even  in  this  age, 

(5)  Ammianus    Marcellinus,    Hist.,    1.  Peter  de  Marca,  de  Concordia  Sacerdotii  et 
xxvii.,  c.  3.  Imperil;  L.  E.  du  Pin,  de  antiqua  ecrlesiie 

(6)  See  the  writers  of  Lives  of  the  Popes,  Disciplina  ;   and  especially,  Dav.  Bloridell, 
among  whom  Arch.  Bower  has  stated  this  de  la  Primaute  dans  1'Eglise, — a  very  learned 
matter   ingenuously  and  impartially,  in  his  work :   [also  Fred.  Spanherm,  Diss.  de  Pri- 
Hist.  of  the  Popes,  vol.  i  ,  p.  180,  &c.,  ed.  matu  Paps,  et  Canone  vi.  Nicaeno. — Schl. 
2,  Lond.,   1749.      [Ammianus  Marccllin.,  The   sixth  canon   of  the  council  of  Nice, 
Hist.,  1.  xxvii.,  c.  3,  says,  that  137  corpses  A.D.  325,  gave  to  the  bishops  of  Alexan- 
of  the  slain,  were  found  in  one  day,  in  the  dria,  Rome,  and  Antioch,  severally,  the  same 
church  of  Sicminus. — Tr.]  pre-eminence  over  their  respective  surround- 

(7)  All  these  points  are  discussed  at  large,  ing  bishops.     Melctius  had  encroached  upon 
by  many  writers,  among  whom  I  will  name  the  prerogatives  of  his  metropolitan  of  Alex- 


236  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 

several  of  those  steps  were  laid,  by  which  the  Roman  pontiffs  afterwards 
mounted  to  the  summit  of  ecclesiastical  dominion  ;  and  this,  partly  by  the 
imprudence  of  the  emperors,  partly  by  the  sagacity  of  the  pontiffs  them- 
selves, and  partly  by  the  hasty  decisions  of  certain  bishops.  Among  these 
steps  however,  I  would  assign  either  no  place,  or  only  the  very  last,  to  the 
fourth  canon  of  the  council  of  Sardica,  in  the  year  347,  to  which  the  friends 
of  the  Roman  pontiff  assign  the  first  and  the  most  important  place.  For,  not 
to  mention  that  the  authority  and  regularity  of  this  council  are  very  du- 
bious, and  that  not  without  reason  the  enactments  of  this  council  are  re- 
garded by  some  as  coming  to  us  corrupted,  and  by  others  as  forged  ;(8)  it 
can  never  be  made  to  appear  from  that  canon,  that  the  bishops  assembled 
at  Sardica  decided,  that  in  all  cases  an  appeal  might  be  made  to  the  Ro- 
man pontiff,  as  the  supreme  and  final  judge.  But  suppose  they  had  so  de- 
cided— which  yet  can  never  be  proved — how  weak  must  that  right  be, 
which  is  founded  only  on  the  decision  of  a  single  obscure  council. (9) 

§  7.  Constantine  the  Great,  by  transferring  the  imperial  residence  to 
Byzantium  and  there  founding  the  new  city  of  Constantinople,  undesign- 
edly  raised  up  against  the  rising  power  of  the  Roman  pontiff  a  powerful 
competitor,  in  the  bishop  of  the  new  metropolis.  For  as  the  emperor 
wished  his  Constantinople  to  be  a  new  Rome,  and  had  endowed  it  with  all 
the  privileges  and  honours  and  elegances  of  old  Rome ;  the  bishop  of  so 
great  a  city,  which  was  the  imperial  residence,  also  wished  to  be  thought 
every  way  equal  to  the  bishop  of  old  Rome  in  rank,  and  to  have  precedence 
of  all  other  bishops.  Nor  did  the  emperors  disapprove  of  this  ambition, 
because  they  considered  their  own  dignity  as  involved  in  that  of  the  bish- 
op of  their  metropolis.  Therefore  in  the  council  of  Constantinople,  as- 

andrfa :   and   therefore  the  council  ordain,  were  not  confirmed  by  several  subsequent 

(according  to  the  translation  of  Dionysius  councils,  nor  received  by  the  whole  church. 

Exiguus),  Antiqua  consuetude  serveter  per  See  De  Marca,  de  Concordia  Sacerdotii, 

^Egyptum,  Libyam,  et   Pentapolim,  ita  ut  &c.,  lib.  vii.,  c.  4,  5,  11,  12,  15.     By  the 

Alexandrinus  Episcopus  horum  omnium  ha-  3d   canon  in  the  Greek  or  the  4th  in  the 

beat  potestatem ;  quia  et  Romse  Episcopo  Latin   translation   by  Isidorus,  it  was   or- 

parilis  mos  est.     Similiter  autem    et   apud  dered.  that  if  any  bishop  shall  think  himself 

Antiochiam,    caeterasque    provincias,    suis  unjustly  condemned,  and  wish   for  a  new 

privilegia  serventur  ecclesiis.     To   recon-  trial,  his  judges  shall  acquaint  the  bishop  of 

cile  this  canon  with  the  papal  claims  of  uni-  Rome  therewith,  who  may  either  confirm  the 

versal  empire,  the  Romanists  tell  us,  it  re-  first  judgment,  or  order  a  new  trial  before 

lates  merely  to  the  patriarchal  or  metropoliti-  such  of  the  neighbouring  bishops  as  he  may 

cal  power  of  the  bishop  of  Rome,  and  not  to  choose  to  name.     The  4th  canon,  according 

his   power   as  pope  : — a  distinction,  which  to  the  Greek,  adds  that  in  such  case  the  see 

does  not  appear  to  have  occurred  to  the  Ni-  of  the  deposed  bishop  shall  remain  vacant, 

cene  fathers.     See  Nat.alis  Alexander,  Hist,  till  the  determination  of  the  bishop  of  Rome 

Eccles..  cent,  iv.,  Dissert,  xx. — Tr.]  is  known.     By  the  5th  canon,  according  to 

(8)  See  Mich.  Geddes,  Diss.  de  Canoni-  the  Greek,  and  the  7th  of  Isidorus,  it  is  or- 
bus  Sardicensibus  ;  among  his  Miscellaneous  dered,  that  if  a  condemned  bishop  apply  to 
Tracts,  vol.  ii..  p.  415;  [and  Arch.  Bower,  Rome  for  relief,  the  bishop  of  Rome  may, 
Lives  of  the  Popes, — Pope  Julius,  vol.  i.,  if  he  see  fit,  not  only  order  a  new  trial,  but 
p.  120,  &c.,  ed.  2,  Lond.,  1749,  4to. — TV.]  if  the  aggrieved  bishop  desire  it,  he  may  send 

(9)  [This  council  was  got  up  by  Julius,  one  of  his  presbyters  to  sit  and  have  a  voice 
bishop  of  Rome  ;  and  was  designed  to  be  a  in  the  second  trial      See  De  Marca,  loc.  cit., 
general  council,  and  was  therefore  held  at  cap.  3 — Thus  these  canons  do  not  give  the 
Sardica  in  Illyricum,  as  accommodating  both  bishop  of  Rome  even  an  appellate  jurisdic- 
the  East  and  the  West ;  but  as  most  of  the  tion,  but  only  the  power  to  decide  whether  an 
eastern  bishops  withdrew   from  it,  it  was  injured  bishop  shall  have  a  new  trial.— 
rather  a  council  of  the  West.     Its  decrees  Tr.] 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT.  237 

sembled  in  the  year  381  by  authority  of  the  emperor  Theodosius  the 
Great,  the  bishop  of  Alexandria  not  being  present,  and  the  bishop  of  Rome 
being  opposed  to  it,  the  bishop  of  Constantinople,  by  the  third  canon,  was 
placed  in  the  first  rank  after  the  bishop  of  Rome  ;  the  bishops  of  Alexandria 
and  Antioch,  of  course,  to  take  rank  after  him.  The  bishop  who  had  this 
honour  conferred  on  him,  was  Nectarius.  His  successor,  John  Chrysostom, 
went  farther,  and  subjected  all  Thrace,  Asia,  [the  Diocese  of  the  western 
part  of  Asia  Minor],  and  Pontus  to  his  jurisdiction. (10)  The  subsequent 
bishops  of  Constantinople  gradually  advanced  their  claims  still  farther. 
But  this  revolution  in  the  ecclesiastical  government,  and  the  sudden  ele- 
vation of  the  Byzantine  bishop  to  high  rank,  to  the  injury  of  others,  in  the 
first  place  fired  the  Alexandrine  prelates  with  resentment  against  those  of 
Constantinople ;  and  in  the  next  place,  it  gave  rise  to  those  unhappy  con- 
tests  between  the  pontiffs  of  old  and  new  Rome,  which,  after  being  pro- 
tracted through  several  centuries  with  various  success,  finally  produced  a 
separation  between  the  Latin  and  the  Greek  churches. 

§  8.  The  vices  and  the  faults  of  the  clergy,  especially  of  those  who  of- 
ficiated in  large  and  opulent  cities,  were  augmented  in  proportion  to  the 
increase  of  their  wealth,  honours,  and  advantages,  derived  from  the  em- 
perors and  from  various  other  sources :  and  that  this  increase  was  very 
great,  after  the  times  of  Constantinej  is  acknowledged  by  all.  The  bish- 
ops had  shameful  quarrels  among  themselves,  respecting  the  boundaries 
of  their  sees  and  the  extent  of  their  jurisdiction  ;  and,  while  they  trampled 
on  the  rights  of  the  people  and  of  the  inferior  clergy,  they  vied  with  the 
civil  governors  of  provinces,  in  luxury,  arrogance,  and  voluptuousness. (11) 
The  presbyters,  in  many  places,  arrogated  to  themselves  a  dignity  and  au- 
thority equal  to  bishops.  Of  the  pride  and  effeminacy  of  the  deacons,  we 
often  meet  with  various  complaints.  Those  especially  who  ranked  first 
among  the  presbyters  and  deacons,  were  unwilling  to  be  considered  as  be- 
longing to  the  same  order  with  the  others ;  and  therefore,  they  not  only 
assumed  the  titles  of  archpresbyters  and  archdeacons,  but  they  thought 
themselves  authorized  to  assume  far  greater  liberties,  than  were  allowed 
to  the  others. 

§  9.  Among  the  eminent  writers  of  this  century  who  were  an  ornament 
to  the  eastern  provinces  and  to  Greece,  the  most  distinguished  were  those 
whose  names  here  follow.  Eusebius  Pamphili,  bishop  of  Cacsarea  in  Pal- 
estine, a  man  of  vast  reading  and  erudition,  and  one  who  has  acquired  im- 
mortal fame  by  his  labours  in  ecclesiastical  history,  and  in  other  branches 
of  theological  learning.  Yet  he  was  not  free  from  errors  and  defects ; 
and  he  leaned  towards  the  side  of  those  who  think  there  is  subordination 
among  the  three  persons  in  the  Godhead.  Some  rank  him  among  the 

(10)  See  Peter  de  Marca,  Diss.  de  Con-  post  Romanum  Episcopum,  proptcrca  quod 

stantin.  Patriarchatus  institutione  ;  annexed  ait  nova  Roma." — TV.] 
to  his  work,  de  Concordia  sacerdotii  et  im-         (11)  See  Sulpitius  Severus,  Historia  Sa- 

perii,  vol.  iv.,  p.  163,  &c.,  ed.  Bamb.,  1789.  era,  lib.  i.,  c.  23,  lib.  ii.,  c.  32,  51,  Dialog,  i., 

Mich.  Ic  Quien,  Oriens  Christianus,  torn,  i.,  c.  21.     Add  to  this  the  account  given  by 

p.  15,  &c.     Sam.  Porter,  An  account  of  the  Dao.  Clarkson,  in  his  Discourse  on  Litur- 

Government  of  the  Christian  Church  for  the  gies,  p.  228,  (of  the  French  edition),  of  the 

first  six  hundred  years,  p.  245,  Lond.,  1683,  extremely  corrupt  state  of  morals  among  the 

8vo.     [The  canon  of  the  council  was  thus  clergy  ;  and  in  particular  of  the  eagerness  of 

expressed:    "  Constant inopolitanae  civitatis  the  bishops  to  extend  the  boundaries  of  their 

Episcopum  habere  oportet  primatus  honorem  authority,  p.  150,  &c. 


238 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


Arians ;  but  they  certainly  err  in  so  doing,  if  they  intend  by  an  Arian, 
one  who  embraces  the  opinions  taught  by  Arius,  the  presbyter  of  Alex- 
andria.(12)  Peter,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  who  is  highly  extolled  by  Eu- 


(12)  No  one  has  with  more  zeal  and  learn- 
ing accused  Eusebius  of  Arianism,  than  Joh. 
le  Clerc,  in  his  Epistolae  Ecclesiast.  annexed 
to  his  Ars  Critica,  ep.  ii.,  p.  30,  &c.  To 
him,  add  Natalis  Alexander,  Hist.  Eccles. 
N.  Test.,  Saec.  iv.,  Diss.  xvii.  All  how- 
ever that  these  and  others  labour  to  prove  is, 
that  Eusebius  thought  there  was  some  dis- 
parity and  a  subordination  among  the  per- 
sons of  the  Godhead.  And  suppose  this  to 
have  been  his  opinion,  it  will  not  follow  that 
he  was  an  Arian,  unless  the  term  be  taken  in 
a  very  extensive  and  improper  sense.  It  is  to 
be  lamented  that  so  many  abuse  this  term, 
and  apply  it  to  persons  who,  though  in  error, 
are  very  far  from  holding  the  opinions  of 
Arius. —  [Eusebivs  Pamphili  (ss.  amicus, 
<J>itof)  was  born,  probably,  about  the  year 
270,  and  at  Caesarea,  where  he  spent  nearly 
all  his  life.  Till  about  forty  years  of  age,  he 
lived  in  great  intimacy  with  the  martyr  Pam- 
phylus,  a  learned  and  devout  man  of  Caesa- 
rea, and  founder  of  an  extensive  library  there, 
from  which  Eusebius  derived  his  vast  stores 
of  learning.  Pamphylus  was  two  years  in 

Erison,  during  which  Eusebius  was  constant- 
/  with  him.  After  the  martyrdom  of  his 
friend,  in  the  year  309,  Eusebius  fled  first 
to  Tyre,  and  thence  to  Egypt,  where  he 
lived  till  the  persecution  subsided.  After 
his  return  to  Caesarea,  about  the  year  314,  he 
was  made  bishop  of  his  own  city.  In  the 
year  325,  he  attended  the  council  of  Nice, 
was  appointed  todeliver  the  address  to  the  em- 
peror on  his  entering  the  council,  and  then  to 
be  seated  at  his  right  hand.  The  first  draught 
of  the  Nicene  creed  was  made  by  him  ;  to 
which  however,  the  term  ououaiov  and  the 
anathemas  were  added  by  the  council,  and 
not  without  some  scruples  on  the  part  of  Eu- 
sebius. Afterwards  Eusebius  appeared  to 
belong  to  a  moderate  party,  who  could  not 
go  all  lengths  with  either  side.  About  the 
year  330,  he  was  offered  the  patriarchal  chair 
of  Antioch;  which  he  refused,  because  the 
ancient  customs  forbid  the  removal  of  bish- 
ops from  one  see  to  another.  He  died  about 
the  year  340. — The  opinion  advanced  by 
Dr.  Mosheim,  respecting  the  Arianism  of 
Eusebius,  is  supported  at  length,  by  Socra- 
tes among  the  ancients,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  ii  , 
c.  21,  and  by  W.  Cave,  in  his  Diss.  de  Eu- 
sebii  Caesarien.  Arianismo,  adv.  Joh.  Cler- 
icum ;  and  in  his  Epistola  apologet.  ad  eun- 
dem  ;  both  are  annexed  to  his  Historia  lite- 
rar.  Scriptor.  Ecclesiast. — Of  the  numerous 
works  of  Eusebius,  the  following  have  been 
preserved. 


1.  Chronicon:   originally  in   two  parts; 
the  first,  a  brief  history  of  the  origin  and  rev- 
olutions of  all  nations  ;  and  the  second,  a  full 
chronological  table  of  the  same  events.     Lit- 
tle of  the  original  Greek  remains  ;   but  we 
have  the  Latin  translation  of  the  second  part, 
by  Jerome ;  which,  with  what  could  be  glean- 
ed of  the  Greek,  and  considerable  additions 
from  other  ancient  chroniclers,  was  published 
by  Jos.  Scaliger,  1606,  fol.,  and  a  2d  ed.  by 
Morus,   1658.     The   entire  Chronicon   has 
been  preserved  in  an  Armenian  translation ; 
and  was  published,  Armen.  and  Lat.,  with 
notes,  Venice,  1817,  2  torn.  fol. 

2.  Prceparatio  Evangelica,  in  15  books; 
intended  to  prepare  the  minds  of  pagans  to 
embrace  Christianity,  by  showing  that  the 
pagan  religions  are  absurd,  and  far  less  wor- 
thy to  be  received  than  the  Christian.     It  is  a 
learned  and  valuable  work ;  published,  Gr. 
and  Lat.,  by  F.  Vigerus,  Paris,  1628,  fol., 
and  again,  Cologne  (Leipsic),  1688. 

3.  Demonstratio  Evangelica,  in  20  books, 
of  which  the  last  10  are  lost.     This  is  an  at- 
tempt to  demonstrate  the  truth  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  by  arguments  drawn  from  the 
Old  Test.,  and  was  therefore  intended  espe- 
cially for  the  Jews.     It  is  far  less  valuable 
than  the  former :  ed.  Paris,  1628,  and  Co- 
logne, 16S8,  fol. 

4.  Contra  Hieroclem  Liber ;    in  defence 
of  Christianity,  against  the  attack  of  that 
pagan  philosopher.     See  the  article  Hie.ro- 
cles,  supra,  p.   223,  note  (45).     It  is  pub- 
lished Gr.  and  Lat.,  annexed  to  the  Demon- 
stratio Evang.,  and  by  Go/if.  Otcarius,  with 
the  works  of  the  two  Philostratus,  Lips., 
1709,  fol. 

5.  Historia  Ecclesiastica,  in    10  books, 
from  the  birth  of  Christ,  to  the  death  of  Li- 
cinius  in  324.     A  most  valuable  treasure  ; 
though  less  full  and  complete,  than  could  be 
wished.     Eusebius  was  an  impartial  histo- 
rian, and  had  access  to  the  best  helps  for 
composing  a  correct  history  which  his  age 
afforded.     See    Ch.    Aug.   Kestncr,   Com- 
mentatio  de  Eusebii  Historiae  Eccles.  con- 
ditoris  Auctoritate  et  Fide  diplomatica,  sive 
de  ejus  Fontibus  et  Ratione,  qua  eis  usus 
est ;  Gotting.,  1816,  4to. — This  work,  with 
the  three  following,  was  best  edited,  Gr.  and 
Lat.,  by  Valesius,  Paris,   1659  and   1671  ; 
Amsterd.,  1695,  and  with  improvements  by 
W.  Reading,  Cambridge,  1720,  3  vols.  fol. 
— including  the  other  Gr.  Ecclesiastical  his- 
torians ;  namely,  Socrates,  Sozomen,  The- 
odoret,    Evagrius,    Theodorus  Lector,   and 
Philostorgius.     Those  of  Euseb.,  Socrat., 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


239 


sebius.(l3)    Athanasius,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  famous,  among  other  writings 
and  acts,  for  his  very  strenuous  opposition  to  the  Arians.(14)     Basil,  sur- 


Sozom.,  and  Evag.,  with  the  three  following 
works,  were  translated  into  English,  Cambr, 
1683,  1  vol.  fol. 

6.  De  Martyribus  Palaestinae  Liber  :  usu- 
ally appended  to  the  eighth  Book  of  his  Hist. 
Eccles.     It  gives  account  of  the  sufferers  in 
the  East  and  in  Egypt,  during  the  persecu- 
tion of  Diocletian,  or  A.D.  303-313. 

7.  De  Vita  Constantini  Magni,  libri  iv.  ; 
a  panegyric,  rather  than  a  biography. 

8.  Oratio  de  Laudibus   Constantini ;  de- 
livered on  the  emperor's  vicennalia,  A.D. 
335. 

9.  Contra  Marcellum.  libri  ii.  ;  composed 
by  order  of  the  council  of  Constantinople, 
A.D.   336,    by   which   Marcellns  was   con- 
demned as  a  Sabellian  :  annexed,  Gr.  and 
Lat.,  to   the   Paris  edition  of  the    Praep. 
Evang.,  1628. 

10.  De  Ecdcsiastica  Theologia,  libri  iii. 
This   also  is    in  confutation  of  Marcellus' 
opinions  ;  and  is  printed  with  the    former, 
Gr.  and  Lat.,  subjoined  to  the  Praep.  Evang. 

11.  De  Lncis  Hehraicis  ;  a  kind  of  Bib- 
lical Gazetteer  of  Palestine  :  edited  with  the 
Latin  translation  of  Jerome,  by  Bonfrerius, 
Pans,  1631. 

12.  Expositio   in  Canlica    Canticorum  ; 
ed.  by  Meursivs,  Leyden,  1617,  4to. 

13.  Vitae  Prophetarum,  ascribed  to  Eu- 
seb.,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  Paris,  1580,  fol.,  with 
the  Comment  of  Procopius  in  Isaiam. 

14.  Canones  sacrorum  Evangeliorum  :  ta- 
bles showing  what  portions  of  the  Gospel 
History  are    narrated    by  one,   by  two,   by 
three,  or  by  four  Evangelists.     The   Latin 
translation  of  Jerome  was  published  in  the 
Orthodoxographia,  in  the  Works  of  Jerome, 
and  in  Biblioth.  Patrum. 

15.  Apologiae  pro  Origene  liber  primus  ; 
(the  other  live  Books  are  wholly  lost) ;  the 
Latin  translation  of  this,  by  Rufinus,  is  pub- 
lished among  the  works  of  Jerome. 

16.  Cvmmcntarii   in  Psalmos  cl.  (but  all 
beyond  ps.  119  is  lost),  published,  Gr.  and 
Lat.,  by  Montfaucon,  Collect.  Nov.  Gr.  Pa- 
trum, torn,  i.,  Paris,  1706,  fol. 

17.  Comment  arii  in  Isaiam  ;  ed.,  Gr.  and 
Lat.,  by  Montfaucon,  ubi  supra,  torn.  ii. 

18.  Fourteen  Latin  Essays  or  Discourses 
against  Sabellianism,  &c.,  were  published 
by  Sirmond,  Paris,  1643,  8vo,  under  the  du- 
bious title  of  Eusebii  Caesariensis  Opuscu- 
la,  xiv. 

19.  Eclogarum  propheticarum  de  Christo, 
libri  iv.,  (a  collection  and  explanation  of  the 
O.  T.  prophecies  concerning  Chrtsi),  is  said 
to  exist  in  MS.  in  the  Bibliotheca  Viennensis. 

20.  Epistola  ad  Cacsancnsct ;  a  letter  to 


his  own  church,  concerning  the  Nicene  creed; 
extant,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  in  Socrates,  Hist.  Ec- 
cles., 1.  i.,  c.  8.  Theodoret,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1. 
i.,  c.  12,  et  inter  Opera  Athanasii,  torn,  i.,  p. 
238,  ed.  Paris. 

Eusebivs  wrote  many  other  works  which 
have  not  reached  us  :  namely,  de  Praepara^- 
tione  Ecclesiastica  libri  aliquot ;  de  Demon- 
stratione  Ecclesiast. — contra  Porphyrium, 
libri  xxv.  ;  de  Evangeliorum  dissonantia  ; 
irepl  QfoQaveiac,  libri  v.  ;  Comment,  in  i. 
Epist.  ad  Corinth. — irepi  TOTTIKUV  OVO/J.UTUV, 
liber  primus,  (the  first  part  of  No.  11) ; — de 
vita  PamphUi,  libri  iii. ;  Confutationis  et 
Apologias,  libri  ii.,  (probably,  a  defence  of 
himself  against  the  charge  of  Arianism) ; — 
Antiquorum  Martyriorurn  Collectio,  (said  to 
be  in  eleven  Books) ;  Acta  Martyrii  Sti.  Lu- 
ciani ;  Descriptio  Basilicae  Hierosolym. — Do 
Festo  Paschale  Liber  ;  Epistola  ad  Constan- 
tiam  de  imagine  Christi ;  Epistola  ad  Alex- 
andrum  Ep.  Alex,  de  Ario  ;  Epistola  adEu- 
phrationem,  (extracts  from  these  3  Epistles 
are  found  in  the  Acta  Concilii  Niceui  ii. 
Actione  6ta). — Tr.J 

(13)  Eusebivs,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  ix.,  c. 
6. — [Peter  succeeded  Thomas  in  the  chair 
of  Alexandria,  in  the  year  300  ;  was  impris- 
oned in  the  year  303,  and  whether  released 
or  not,  before  his  martyrdom  in  311,  is  un- 
certain.    He  is  represented  as  a  very  learn- 
ed, pious,  and  active  bishop.     Of  his  wri- 
tings, nothing  remains  but  some  rules  re- 
specting penance,  and  other  points  of  eccle- 
siastical discipline,  to  be  found  in  the  col- 
lections of  the  ancient  canons  and  decrees 
of  councils. — TV.] 

(14)  The  accounts  given  of  Alhanasius 
by  the    oriental   writers,    are    collected    by 
Euseb.  Renaudot,  in  his  Historia  Patriarch. 
Alexandrinorum,  p.  83.     All  the  works  of 
Athanaxius  were    splendidly   published   in 
three    volumes    folio,   by    the    Benedictine 
monk,  Bernh.  de  Monifaucon. —  [Alhanasius 
was  born  at  Alexandria  about  the  year  298. 
He  had  a   good   education,  and   early  dis- 
played great  strength  of  mind,  and  uncom- 
mon sagacity  as  a  disputant  and  a  man  of  bu- 
siness.    He  was  ordained  a  deacon  in  319, 
and  became  the  confidant  and  chief  coun- 
sellor of  his  bishop  Alexander,  whom  he  ac- 
companied to  the  council  of  Nice  in  325. 
In  that  council  he  was  very  active,  and  ac- 
quired great  reputation.     In  the  year  326, 
Alexa.ni.tr  died  ;  and  from  his  recommenda- 
tion,  Alhanasius  succeeded  to  the  see  of 
Alexandria,  when  only  27  or  28  years  old. 
For  half  a  century,  he  was  the  head  of  the 
orthodox  party  in  the  Arian  controversy. 


240 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


named  the  Great,  bishop  of  Csesarea  [in  Cappadocia],  who  was  inferior  to  few 
of  this  century  in  felicity  of  genius,  skill  in  debate,  and  eloquence.(15)     Cy. 


This  rendered  him  extremely  odious  to  the 
Arians,  and  involved  him  in  controversy  and 
sufferings  nearly  all  his  life.  False  accusa- 
tions were  raised  against  him  ;  and  a  coun- 
cil was  held  at  Ca?sarea  A.D.  334,  before 
which  he  was  summoned,  but  would  not  ap- 
pear. The  next  year,  by  peremptory  com- 
mand of  the  emperor  Constantine,  he  ap- 
peared before  the  council  of  Tyre,  and  an- 
swered to  the  charges  of  murder,  unchastity, 
necromancy,  encouraging  sedition,  oppres- 
sive exactions  of  money,  and  misuse  of 
church  property.  Though  his  defence  was 
good,  he  could  not  obtain  justice  ;  and  he 
therefore  fled  to  Constantinople,  imploring 
the  protection  of  the  emperor.  Here  a  coun- 
cil was  assembled  in  336,  and  a  new  charge 
falsely  preferred  against  him,  namely,  that  he 
prevented  the  shipments  of  corn  from  Alex- 
andria to  Constantinople.  He  was  unjustly 
condemned,  and  banished  to  Treves  in  Bel- 
gium. Arius  died  that  year,  and  Constan- 
tine the  Great  the  year  following.  In  the 
year  338,  the  sons  of  Constantine  allowed 
Athanasius  to  return  to  Alexandria.  He 
immediately  began  to  displace  Arians,  and 
to  recall  the  churches  to  the  faith.  Dis- 
turbances ensued  ;  Athanasius  was  again  ac- 
cused ;  and  he  made  application  to  the  bp. 
of  Rome  for  aid.  In  341,  the  council  of 
Antioch  decreed,  that  no  bishop  who  had 
been  deposed  by  a  council,  ought  ever  to 
return  to  his  see ;  and  on  this  ground,  the 
see  of  Alexandria  was  declared  vacant,  and 
one  Gregory  of  Cappadocia  appointed  to  it. 
Gregory  took  forcible  possession  of  it,  and 
Athanasius  fled  to  Rome  for  protection. 
A  provincial  council  held  there,  acquitted 
him  on  all  the  charges  of  his  adversa- 
ries ;  and  three  years  after,  A.D.  344,  a 
much  larger  council  held  at  Sardica,  did  the 
same.  In  347,  after  an  exile  of  7  or  8 
years,  Athanasius  was  permitted  by  the 
Arian  emperor  Constant.ius,  to  return  to  his 
see.  But  in  350,  on  the  death  of  Constans, 
he  was  again  accused  and  persecuted.  Con- 
stantius  caused  him  to  be  condemned  in  a 
council  at  Aries  in  354,  and  at  the  council 
of  Milan  in  355.  Athanasius  concealed 
himself  at  Alexandria  two  years,  and  then 
retired  among  the  hermits  of  Egypt,  till  the 
death  of  Constantius  in  361.  In  this  retire- 
ment, he  wrote  most  of  his  best  works.  On 
the  accession  of  Julian,  in  361,  he  returned 
to  his  flock.  But  the  next  year,  the  pagans 
joining  the  Arians,  induced  Julian  to  banish 
him  again.  But  Julian  died  the  same  year, 
and  Athanasius  returned  immediately  to  his 
see.  In  the  year  367,  the  Arian  emperor 


Valens  made  some  attempts  to  remove  him, 
but  without  success.  He  died  A.D.  373, 
aged  about  75,  having  been  a  bishop  46  years. 
He  was  truly  a  great  man,  a  good  bishop,  and 
a  most  able,  persevering,  and  successful  de- 
fender of  the  orthodox  faith,  in  respect  to 
the  Trinity.  His  works  are  chiefly  contro- 
versial, and  in  relation  to  that  one  doctrine. 
They  consist  of  numerous  letters  and  tracts, 
together  with  some  brief  expositions  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  a  Life  of  St.  Anthony.  His 
four  Orations,  or  Discourses,  against  the 
Arians,  and  his  Discourse  against  the  pagans, 
which  are  his  largest  works,  were  translated 
into  English  by  Sam.  Parker,  and  printed  at 
Oxford,  1713,  2  vols.  8vo.  His  works,  Gr. 
and  Lai.,  two  volumes  in  3  parts,  were  best 
published  by  Montfaucon,  Paris,  1698  ;  and 
Padua,  1777,  fol.  But  a  great  number  of 
letters,  tracts,  comments,  and  narratives,  the 
production  of  subsequent  ages,  are  falsely 
ascribed  to  him,  and  printed  with  his  works. 
Among  these,  beyond  all  question,  is  the 
creed,  quicungue  vult,  falsely  called  the 
Athanasian  Creed.  See  Cave,  Historia  Lit- 
terar.,  i.,  p.  189.  Oudin,  de  Scriptor.  Ec- 
cles.,  torn,  i.,  p.  312.  Fabricius,  Biblioth. 
Gr.,  vol.  v.,  p.  297.  Montfaucon,  Praef.  ad 
Opp.  Athanasii  ;  and  Schroecfch,  Kirchen- 
gesch.,  vol.  xii.,  p.  93-252.  Also  Gibbon's 
Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Rom.  Empire,  ch. 
xxi.,  vol.  ii ,  p.  258-275,  ch.  xxiii.,  p.  355, 
&c.,  ch.  xxiv.,  p.  406,  &c.,  ed.  1826,  in  6 
vols.  8vo.— Tr.] 

(15)  His  works  are  published  by  the 
Benedictine  monk,  Julian  Gamier,  Paris, 
[1721-1730],  3  vols.  fol.  [Basil  \\as  born 
at  Cassarea  in  Cappadocia,  about  A.D.  329, 
and  died  archbishop  of  that  church,  A.D. 
379,  act.  50.  His  first  instruction  in  reli- 
gion was  from  his  grandmother  Maerina,  a 
hearer  and  admirer  of  Gregory  Thaumatur- 
gus.  His  father,  whose  name  was  Basil, 
instructed  him  in  the  liberal  arts.  Thence 
he  went  to  Constantinople  or  to  Caesarea  in 
Palestine,  and  studied  under  Libanius,  the 
philosopher  and  rhetorician.  Next  he  stu- 
died at  Athens,  under  Himerius  and  Proac- 
resius,  having  Gregory  Naz.  and  Julian  the 
apostate,  for  fellow-students  in  language,  el- 
oquence, poetry,  history,  and  philosophy. 
In  the  year  355,  he  returned  to  Cappadocia, 
taught  rhetoric  a  short  time,  and  then  re- 
tired for  13  years  to  a  monastery  in  Pontus. 
From  this  time  he  became  a  most  rigid  as- 
cetic, and  a  very  zealous  monk.  He  found- 
ed several  monasteries,  and  composed  rules 
and  regulations  for  monks.  In  363  he  was 
called  to  Caesarea,  and  ordained  a  presbyter ; 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


241 


rillus,  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  has  left  us  some  catechetical  discourses,  which  he 
delivered  at  Jerusalem  ;  but  many  suspect  him  of  intimacy  with  the  Semi- 
arians.(16)  John,  for  his  eloquence  surnamed  Chrysostom,  a  man  of  ge- 
nius, who  presided  over  the  church  of  Antioch  and  that  of  Constantinople, 
and  has  left  us  various  specimens  of  his  erudition,  among  which  his  pub- 
lie  discourses  which  he  delivered  with  vast  applause,  stand  conspicuous. (17) 


the  next  year,  falling  out  with  his  bishop, 
Euscbius,  he  retired  to  his  monastery,  but 
was  soon  recalled  by  the  bishop.  He  was 
now  a  very  popular  and  efficient  preacher. 
On  the  death  of  archbishop  Euscbius,  in  the 
year  370,  Basil  was  raised  to  the  archiepis- 
copal  chair.  He  still  dressed  and  lived  like 
a  monk,  but  was  a  most  active  and  effi- 
cient bishop.  He  reformed  the  morals  of  the 
clergy,  established  rigid  discipline  in  the 
churches,  promoted  orthodoxy  and  harmony 
in  that  jarring  age,  established  almshouses 
for  the  sick  and  indigent ;  and  died  triumph- 
antly, on  the  first  of  January,  379.  Eulogies 
of  him  were  composed  by  Gregory  Nai., 
Gregory  Nyssen,  (who  was  his  brother), 
Ephracm  Syrus,  and  Amphylochius.  He 
was  a  fine  belles  lettres  scholar,  an  elegant 
writer,  and  a  good  reasoner.  His  works 
that  remain  are  numerous,  consisting  of  near 
a  hundred  discourses,  sermons,  and  homilies, 
365  epistles,  various  ascetic  tracts,  contro- 
versial pieces,  a  liturgy,  &c.  One  of  his 
best  pieces  is,  his  treatise  on  the  person 
and  offices  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  is  un- 
equal in  his  performances,  and  comes  much 
short  of  Chrysostom  as  an  orator.  Yet  his 
enthusiasm,  his  flexibility  of  style,  and  his 
clear  and  cogent  reasoning,  notwithstanding 
the  gloomy  austerity  of  his  monastic  char- 
acter, entitle  him  to  that  high  rank  among 
the  ancient  clergy,  which  has  ever  been  as- 
signed him.  See  Godf.  Hcrmant,  Vie  de  S. 
Basile  le  Grand,  Archeveque  de  Cesaree  en 
Cappadoce,  et  celle  de  S.  Gregoire  de  Na- 
zianze,  Archev.  de  Constantinople,  Paris, 
1679,  2  vols.  4to.  Ftibricius.  Biblioth.  Gr., 
vol.  viii.,  p.  60,  &c.  Jul.  Gamier,  Vita  Sti. 
Basilii,  prefixed  to  the  3d  vol.  of  his  Opp. 
Basilii,  Paris,  1730 ;  and  Schrocckh,  Kir- 
chen.,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  1-214.  Milner's  Church 
History,  cent,  iv.,  ch.  23.  For  his  charac- 
ter as  a  pulpit  orator,  see  Bernh.  Eschen- 
berg,  Gesch.  der  Religionsvortrag,  p.  150 
-162,  Jena,  1785,  8vo.  and  J.  W.  Schmidt, 
Anleitung  zum  popularen  Kanzelvortrag,  pt. 
iii.,  p.  87-90,  ed.  2.  Jena,  1800,  8vo.— "TV.] 
(16)  The  later  editions  of  his  works,  are, 
in  England,  by  Tho.  Mtllcs,  [Oxford,  1703, 
fol.]  and  in  France,  by  the  Benedictine  Au- 
gust. Touttcc,  [Paris,  1720,  fol.—  Cyril  is 
supposed  to  have  been  born  at  Jerusalem 
about  the  year  315  He  was  made  dea- 
con in  the  church  of  Jerusalem  about  A.D. 

VOL.  I.— H  H 


335,  and  presbyter,  perhaps  3  years  after. 
On  the  death  of  Maximus  the  bishop,  Cyr- 
il was  raised  to  the  episcopal  chair.  But 
the  Arian  controversy,  and  his  contest  with 
Acacius  of  Caesarea  respecting  the  priori- 
ty of  their  episcopal  sees,  caused  him  to 
be  twice  deposed,  (A.D.  357  or  358,  and 
360),  and  to  be  expelled  from  his  see  by 
the  emperor  Valens  in  367.  But  he  re- 
turned after  short  intervals  to  his  charge ; 
and  from  378,  sat  peaceably  in  his  chair,  till 
his  death  A.D.  386. — He  appears  to  have 
been  truly  orthodox,  though  not  disposed  to 

fo  to  extremes.  (Thcodoret,  Hist.  Eccles., 
ii.,  c.  26,  and  1.  v.,  c.  9.)  Of  his  works, 
we  have  23  Lectures  to  Catechumens  ;  the 
first  18,  on  the  creed  of  his  church,  (which 
was  very  nearly  the  same  with  what  we  call 
the  Apostles'  Creed),  and  the  other  5,  to 
the  newly  baptized,  on  the  ordinances,  bap- 
tism, chrism  (or  confirmation),  and  the 
Lord's  Supper.  These  lectures,  though 
written  when  Cyril  was  a  young  man,  and 
only  a  presbyter,  about  the  year  348  or  349, 
are  an  invaluable  treasure  to  us  ;  as  they 
are  the  most  complete  system  of  theology, 
and  most  circumstantial  account  of  the  rites 
of  the  church,  which  have  reached  us  from 
so  early  an  age.  They  are  plain,  didactic 
treatises,  well  adapted  to  the  object  for 
which  they  were  written.  See  Tzschirncr, 
de  Claris  Vet.  Eccl.  Oratoribus,  Commenta- 
tio  vii.,  Lips.,  1821,  4(o.  Besides  these  lec- 
tures, a  letter  of  his  to  the  emperor  Con- 
stantius,  giving  account  of  a  marvellous  ap- 
pearance of  a  luminous  cross  in  the  heav- 
ens, A.D.  351  ;  and  a  discourse  he  deliver- 
ed at  Tyre ;  are  preserved.  See  Cave, 
Histor.  Litterar.  Tmtitcc,  preface  to  Cyr- 
r/'s  Works  ;  and  Sckroeckh,  Kirchengesch., 
vol.  xii.,  p.  343-444.— TV.] 

(17)  For  the  best  edition  of  the  entire 
works  of  this  most  elegant  and  gifted  man, 
in  11  [13]  large  folio  volumes,  we  are  in- 
debted to  the  industry  of  Bernh.  de  Mont- 
faucon,  [Paris,  1718-38. — John  Chrysostom 
was  the  son  of  a  respectable  military  gentle- 
man of  Antioch  in  Syria,  named  Secundui. 
He  was  born  in  the  year  354,  and  lost  his 
father  in  his  childhood.  Early  displaying 
marks  of  uncommon  genius,  his  mother  An- 
thusa,  a  pious  and  excellent  woman,  pro- 
cured for  him  the  best  instructers  in  all 
branches  of  learning.  After  spending  three 


242 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


Epiphanius,  bishop  of  Salamina  in  Cyprus,  has  described  the  various  sects 
of  Christians,  as  far  down  as  his  own  times,  in  a  large  volume ;  which 
however  contains  many  defects  and  misrepresentations,  arising  from  the 
credulity  and  ignorance  of  the  author. (18)  Gregory  of  Nazianzus,  and 

years  in  the  family,  and  under  the  religious  exile. — "  When  driven  from  the  city,  I  cared 
instruction  of  Meletius  the  bishop  of  Anti- 
och,  he  attended  the  schools  of  Libanius, 
in  rhetoric,  of  Andragathias,  in  philosophy, 
and  of  Carterius  and  Diodorus,  (afterwards 
bishop  of  Tyre),  in  sacred  literature,  who 
taught  him  to  construe  the  scriptures  literal- 
ly. Distinguished  as  a  scholar,  he  was  also 
early  pious  ;  and  about  the  age  of  twenty, 
embracing  a  monastic  life,  he  retired  to  the 
mountains  and  spent  four  years  in  the  soci- 
ety of  an  aged  hermit,  and  two  years  more 
in  a  solitary  cave.  Nearly  worn  out  by  his 
austerities,  he  was  obliged  to  return  to  An- 
tioch,  where  he  was  made  a  deacon  in  381, 
and  commenced  author  at  the  age  of  26. 
Five  years  after  he  was  ordained  a  presby- 
ter, and  began  to  preach.  During  twelve 
years  he  wrote  and  delivered  an  immense 
number  of  sermons,  orations,  and  homilies. 
In  A.D.  398,  he  was  made  patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople, and  in  that  station  laboured  and 
preached  incessantly.  But  his  life  was  too 
austere,  his  preaching  too  pungent,  and  his 
discipline  too  strict,  for  that  corrupt  metrop- 
olis. The  empress,  the  lax  clergy,  and 
many  courtiers  combined  against  him.  In 
the  year  403,  he  was  summoned  before  an 
irregular  council,  to  answer  to  46  frivolous 
or  false  charges  ;  and  refusing  to  appear,  he 
was  condemned,  deposed,  and  banished,  for 
contumacy.  But  his  people  were  so  tumul- 
tuous, that  his  enemies  were  compelled  to 
recall  him.  The  next  year,  however,  A.D. 
404,  he  was  forcibly  removed  to  Cucusus 
in  Armenia,  to  the  unspeakable  grief  of  all 
good  men.  Here  he  suffered  extremely, 
his  health  failed,  and  being  removed  to  Pi- 
tyus  in  Colchis,  he  died  on  the  road  thither, 
the  14th  of  September,  407,  aged  52  years 
and  8  months.  For  overpowering  popular 
eloquence,  Chrysostom  had  no  equal  among 
the  fathers.  His  discourses  show  an  inex- 
haustible richness  of  thought  and  illustration, 
of  vivid  conception,  and  striking  imagery. 
His  style  is  elevated,  yet  natural  and  clear. 
He  transfuses  his  own  glowing  thoughts  and 
emotions  into  all  his  hearers,  seemingly 
without  effort,  and  without  the  power  of  re- 
sistance. Yet  he  is  sometimes  too  florid, 
he  uses  some  false  ornaments,  he  accumu- 


lates metaphors  and  illustrations,  and  carries 
both  his  views  and  his  figures  too  far.  The 
spirit  of  the  man,  and  some  idea  of  his  style, 
may  be  learned  from  the  following  literal 
translation  of  a  paragraph  in  one  of  his  pri- 
vate letters  to  a  friend,  written  during  his 


nothing  for  it.  But  I  said  to  myself,  if  the 
empress  wishes  to  banish  me,  let  her  banish 
me  : — the  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and  the  ful- 
ness thereof.  If  she  would  saw  me  in  sun- 
der, let  her  saw  me  in  sunder  : — I  have  Isa- 
iah for  a  pattern.  If  she  would  plunge  me 
in  the  sea: — I. remember  Jonah.  If  she 
would  thrust  me  into  the  fiery  furnace  : — I 
see  the  three  children  enduring  that.  If  she 
would  cast  me  to  wild  beasts : — I  call  to 
mind  Daniel  in  the  den  of  lions.  If  she 
would  stone  me,  let  her  stone  me  : — I  have 
before  me,  Stephen  the  protomartyr.  If  she 
would  take  my  head  from  me,  let  her  take 
it : — I  have  John  the  Baptist.  If  she  would 
deprive  me  of  my  worldly  goods,  let  her  do 
it-: — naked  came  I  from  my  mother's  womb, 
and  naked  shall  I  return.  An  apostle  has 
told  me,  '  God  respecteth  not  man's  per- 
son ;'  and  '  if  I  yet  pleased  men,  I  should 
not  be  the  servant  of  Christ.'  And  David 
clothes  me  with  armour,  saying,  '  I  will  speak 
of  thy  testimonies  before  kings,  and  will  not 
be  ashamed.'  " — The  works  of  Chrysostom, 
(including  some  falsely  ascribed  to  him), 
consist  of  about  350  sermons  and  orations, 
on  a  great  variety  of  subjects  and  occasions  ; 
about  620  homilies,  or  exegetical  discourses, 
on  different  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Tes- 
taments ;  and  about  250  letters  ;  together 
with  several  tracts  on  monasticism,  and  a 
treatise  on  the  Priesthood,  in  six  Books. 
There  is  also  a  Liturgy  which  bears  his 
name,  being  that  used  at  Constantinople, 
and  which  perhaps  received  some  alterations 
from  his  hand. — For  an  account  of  his  life 
and  writings,  see  Cave,  Histor.  Litteraria  ; 
Tillemont,  Memoires — a  THist.  Eccles., 
torn,  xi.,  p.  1-405,  547-626.  Schrocckh, 
Kirchengesch.,  vol.  x.,  p.  245-490.  Mont- 
faucon,  Opp.  Chrysost,  torn,  xiii.,  p.  1-177. 
For  the  sentiments,  character  and  influence 
of  the  man,  see  A.  Neander's  Johannes 
Chrysostom.  und  die  Kirche  in  dessen  Zeit- 
alter,  Berlin,  1821-22,  2  vols.  8vo.—  Tr.~\ 

(18)  His  works,  with  a  Latin  translation 
and  notes,  were  published  by  the  Jesuit,  Di- 
onys.  Petavius,  [Paris,  1622,  2  vols.  fol., 
and  Cologne  (Lips.),  1682].  His  life  is 
given  in  a  good  sized  volume,  by  Ja.  Gerva- 
sius,  Paris,  1738,  4to.  [Epiphanius,  of 
Jewish  extract,  was  born  at  Bezanduca,  a 
village  near  Eleutheropolis,  some  twenty 
miles  from  Jerusalem,  about  the  year  310. 
He  became  a  monk  in  early  life,  visited 
Egypt,  fell  into  the  toils  of  the  Gnostics, 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


243 


Gregory  of  Nyssa,  obtained  much  renown  among  the  theologians  and  dis- 
putants of  that  age ;  and  their  works  show,  that  they  were  not  unworthy  to 
be  held  in  estimation. (19)  But  after  ages  would  have  prized  them  higher, 


escaped,   was   intimate   with    St.  Antony ; 
and  returning  to  Palestine  in  his  20th  year, 
about  330,  became  a  disciple  of  Hilanon, 
established  a  monastery  near  his  native  vil- 
lage, called  Ancient  Ad,  where  he  lived  more 
than  thirty  years.     He  read  much,  and  was 
ordained  a  presbyter  over  his  monastery.     In 
the  year  367,  he  was  made  archbishop  of 
Constantia  (formerly  Salamu)  in  Cyprus, 
but  still  lived  by  monastic  rules. — He  en- 
gaged in  all  the  controversies  of  the  times, 
was  an  active  and  popular  bishop,  for  36 
years,  and   regarded  as  a  great  saint,  and 
worker  of  miracles.     In  376,  he  was  at  An- 
tioch,  on  the  Apollinarian  heresy  ;   and  in 
382,  at  Rome,  on  the  Meletian  controversy. 
He  had  a  long  and  fierce  contest  with  John 
bishop  of  Jerusalem,  respecting  Origcmsm, 
which  he  regarded  with  strong  abhorrence. 
His  friend  Theophilus,  bishop  of  Alexandria, 
having  expelled  some  monks  from  Egypt,  on 
the  charge  of  Origenism,  in  the  year  401, 
Epiphamus  held  a  provincial  council  of  Cy- 
prus, against  that  error  ;  and  as  the  expelled 
monks  fled  to  Constantinople,  Epiphamus 
followed  them  in  402,  intending  to  coerce 
Chrysostom  into  a  condemnation  of  those 
monks  and  of  Origenism.     But  his  enter- 
prise wholly  failed,  and  he  died  on  his  way 
home,  A.D.  403,  aged  above  90  years.     He 
became  an  author  when  turned  of  60.     His 
first  work,  Anchoratus,  (The  Anchor),  was 
written  A.D.  374  ;   to  teach  the  world  gen- 
uine Christianity,  in  opposition  to  the  prevail- 
ing and  especially  the  Arian  heresies.     Soon 
after  he  composed  his  great  work  contra  oc- 
toaginta  Haereses,  in  3  Books,  divided  into 
7  parts  or  tomi.     He  also  made  an  Epitome 
of -this  work  ;  and  wrote  a  treatise  on  (scrip- 
ture) Weights  and  Measures ;  a  Letter  to 
John  bishop  of  Jerusalem  ;  another  to  Je- 
rome ;  and  some  other  works  of  little  value.  • 
It  is  said,  he  understood  five  languages,  He- 
brew, Syriac,  Egyptian,  Greek,  and  Latin. 
His  learning  was  great,  his  judgment  rash, 
and  his  credulity  and  mistakes  very  abun- 
dant.— See  Cave,  Histor.  Litterar.,  p.  231- 
234  ;  and  Schroeckh,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  x., 
p.  1-100.— Tr.] 

(19)  Tolerable  editions  of  the  writings  of 
both  these  men,  were  published  in  France, 
duriiiLr  the  17th  century;  but  better  editions 
are  anticipated  from  the  Benedictines.  [Af- 
ter long  delay,  the  first  vol.  of  the  e.\| 
Benedictine  edition  of  Gregory  Na:i<in:>n'x 
works  appeared  at  Paris  in  1778,  edited  by 
Clemencet,  large  fol.  Of  the  old  editions, 
the  best  is  that  of  Billius,  Gr.  and  Lat., 


Paris,   1609,   1630,   and    Cologne  (Lips.), 
1690,  2  vols.  fol.     His  works,  as  here  pub- 
lished, consist  of  about  50  Orations,  or  Ser- 
mons ;  near  250  Epistles  ;  and  about  140 
poems.     Besides  these,  Muratori  has  pub- 
lished 228  Epigrams  and  short  poems  of  his  ; 
in  his  AnecdotaGr.,p.  1-117,  Petav.,  1709, 
4to.     Some  of  the  orations  are  violent  at- 
tacks upon  Arians  and  others  ;  many  others 
are  eulogies  on  his  friends  and  on  monks ; 
and  a  few  are  discourses  on  practical  sub- 
jects.    Of  the  poems,  one  of  the  longest  is 
an  account  of  his  own  life.     Most  of  them 
were  written  after  he  retired   from  public 
life,  and  are  of  a  religious  character,  but  of 
no  great  merit  as  specimens  of  genius.     As 
an  orator  Gregory  Naz.  is  considered  supe- 
rior to  Basil,  for  strength  and  grandeur.    He 
also  possessed  a  fertile  imagination.     But  he 
has  little  method,  and  he  abounds  in  false 
ornament. — He  was  born  about  the  year  325. 
His  father,  who  was  also  named   Gregory, 
was  bishop  of  Nazianzus  in  Cappadocia  for 
about  45  years,  from  A.D.  329  to  374.     His 
mother  Nonna,  like  the  mother  of  Samuel, 
devoted  her  son  to  the  Lord  before  he  was 
born.     His  education  was  begun  at  Caesarea 
in  Cappadocia,  continued  at  Caesarea  in  Pal- 
estine and  at  Alexandria,  and  completed  at 
Athens,  at  the  age  of  30,  A.D.  355.     He 
was  at  Athens  about  five  years  ;  and  there 
commenced   that  intimacy  with  Basil  the 
Great,  which  lasted  through  life.     On  his 
return  to  Nazianzus,  m  356,  he  was  baptized, 
and  betook  himself  to  a  retired  and  studious 
life,  for  which  he  always  manifested  a  sirong 
predilection.     In  361,  his  father  compelled 
him  to  receive  ordination  as  a  presbyter ; 
and  the  next  year  he  preached  his  first  ser- 
mon.   On  the  death  of  Julian,  who  had  been 
his  fellow-student  at  Athens,  he  composed 
two    invectives   against    him.     His   friend, 
archbishop  Basil,  in  the  year  372,  offered 
him  the  bishopric  of  Sasima.  which  he  re- 
fused with  indignation,  on  account  of  his 
aversion  to  public  life.     Yet  he  afterwards 
consented  to  be  ordained  as  assistant  to  his 
aged  father,  on  condition  of  not  being  obliged 
to  succeed  him.     Soon  after  the  death  of  his 
father,  in  374,  he  retired  to  Seleucia,  and 
spent  three  years  in  obscurity.     In  379,  be- 
ing pressed  beyond  the  power  of  resistance, 
he  went  to  Constantinople  to  preach  to  the 
remnant  of  the  orthodox  there.     His  success 
in  converting  Arians  was  here  very  great : 
and  he  was  so  popular,  that  the  general  coun- 
cil of  Constantinople,  and  the  emperor  The- 
odosius,  constrained  him  to  accept  the  patri- 


244 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


if  they  had  been  less  attached  to  Origenism,  and  more  free  from  the  false 
eloquence  of  the  sophists.  Among  the  Syrians,  Ephraim  has  given  im- 
mortality to  his  name  by  the  sanctity  of  his  life,  and  by  a  great  number  of 
writings,  in  which  he  confutes  heretics,  explains  the  scriptures,  and  treats 
on  religious  duties.(20)  Among  those  of  whom  but  few  works  have  reach- 
ed  us,  are,  Pamphylus,  the  martyr  and  intimate  friend  of  Eusebius  ;(21) 

archal  chair  of  that  metropolis.  But  before 
the  council  rose,  it  being  objected  to  him, 
that  it  was  irregular  for  a  bishop  to  be  trans- 
ferred from  one  see  to  another,  he  gladly  re- 
signed. Returning  to  Nazianzus,  he  dis- 
charged the  episcopal  functions  there  for  a 
short  time.  But  in  383,  he  retired  altogeth- 
er from  public  life,  and  after  about  seven 
years  spent  chiefly  in  writing  religious  poetry, 
he  closed  life,  about  A.D.  390.  See  Cave, 
Histor.  Litteraria ;  and  Schroeckh,  Kirchen- 
gesch.,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  268-458. 

Gregory,  bishop  of  Nyssa  in  Cappadocia, 
and  younger  brother  of  Basil  the  Great,  was 
probably  born  about  331,  at  Caesarea  in  Cap- 
padocia. Of  his  early  education  little  is 
known.  He  was  no  monk,  and  at  first 
averse  from  the  ministry.  He  was  made 
bishop  of  Nyssa  in  Cappadocia,  about  the 
year  372.  But  soon  after  he  was  driven 
from  his  see,  by  the  persecution  of  the  Ari- 
ans,  and  for  several  years,  travelled  from 
place  to  place.  In  378  he  returned  to  his 
see.  Afterwards,  he  was  much  employed 
on  councils,  and  was  greatly  esteemed  by 
the  orthodox.  The  council  of  Antioch,  379, 
appointed  him  to  visit  the  churches  in  Ara- 
bia, and  restore  order  there.  On  his  way  he 
visited  Jerusalem,  and  was  disgusted  with 
the  profligate  morals  there.  In  the  year 
381,  he  wrote  his  great  work,  against  Euno- 
mius  the  Arian,  in  xiii.  Books,  which  pro- 
cured him  great  reputation.  At  the  gen- 
eral council  of  Antioch,  in  the  same  year, 
he  is  reported  to  have  made  the  new  draught 

of  the  Nicene  creed,  which  was  afterwards 
•universally  adopted  by  the,  orthodox.  He 

was  also  at  the  council  of  Constantinople  in 

394,  and  probably  died  not  long  after.     He 

was  a  man  of  considerable  acumen,  a  zeal- 
ous polemic,  and  an  extravagant  orator.  His 

works  consist  of  polemic   discourses  and 

treatises,  orations,  eulogies,  letters  and  hom- 
ilies ;  and  were  published,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  by 

Pronto  le  Due,  Paris,  1615,  2  vols.  fol.,  to 

which  Gretser  added  a  third  voi,  Paris,  1618. 

The  3  vols.  were  reprinted,  but  less  correctly, 

Paris,  1G38,  fol.     A  better  edition  has  long 

been  desired.     See  Cave,  Histor.   Litter., 

and  Schroeckh,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  xiv.,  p. 

3-147.— TV.] 

(20)  An  elaborate  account  is  given  of  him, 

by  Jos.  Simon  Asseman,  in  his  Biblioth. 

Oriental.  Vaticana,  torn,  i.,  p.  24,  &c.     The 


English  published  several  of  his  works,  in 
Greek,  at  Oxford  [by  Edw.Thwa.ites,  1709, 
fol.]  The  same  were  published  in  a  Latin 
translation  by  Gerh.  Vossius,  [Rome,  1589- 
97,  3  vols.  fol.]  His  works  were  published 
in  Syriac,  a  few  years  since,  at  Rome,  by 
Stcph.  Euod.  Asseman.  [Six  volumes  in 
all ;  vol.  i.,  ii.,  iii.,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  1732-43- 
46  ;  vol.  iv.,  v.,  vi.,  Syriac  and  Lat.,  1737- 
40-43,  fol. — Ephraim  Syrus,  a  monk  and 
deacon  of  the  church  at  Nisibis  in  northern 
Syria,  was  born  and  spent  his  whole  life  in 
and  near  that  city.  When  elected  bishop 
there,  he  feigned  himself  deranged  and  ab- 
sconded, to  avoid  promotion.  He  was  a 
most  ardent  devotee  of  monkery,  a  man  of 
genius,  and  a  prolific  writer.  His  works 
consist  of  essays  and  sermons,  chiefly  on  the 
monastic  and  moral  virtues,  commentaries* 
on  nearly  the  whole  Bible,  and  hymns  and 
prayers.  A  few  of  his  essays  are  polemic. 
All  his  works  were  written  in  Syriac,  and 
were  so  popular  in  Syria  as  to  be  read  in 
public  after  the  Scriptures,  and  being  early 
translated  into  Greek,  were  held  in  high  es- 
timation in  that  age.  It  is  said,  his  hymns 
and  prayers  are  still  used  in  the  Syriac 
churches.  He  died  A.D.  378.  See  Je- 
rome, de  Scriptor.  Illustr,  c.  115.  Sozo- 
men,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  iii.,  c.  16.  Theodo- 
ret,  Hist.  Eccles.,  ii.,  c.  30,  and  iv.,  29. 
Schroeckh,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  viii.,  255, 
&c.,  and  xv.,  527,  &c.  Milner's  Church 
History,  cent,  iv.,  ch.  21. — TV.] 

(21)  [Pamphylus,  a  presbyter  of  Csesarea 
in  Palestine,  was  born  at  Berytus,  studied 
under  Picrius  of  Alexandria,  and  spent  his 
life  at  Csesarea.  He  was  a  learned,  benevo- 
lent, and  devout  man,  and  a  great  promoter 
of  theological  learning.  He  procured  an  ex- 
tensive theological  library,  which  he  gave  to 
the  church  of  Caesarea.  Most  of  the  works 
of  Origen,  he  transcribed  with  his  own  hand, 
and  particularly  the  corrected  copy  of  the 
Septuagint  in  Origen's  Hexapla.  One  of 
these  transcripts,  P.  D.  Huet  states,  is  still 
in  possession  of  the  Jesuits  of  Clermont. 
He  wrote  a  vindication  and  biography  of 
Origen,  in  5  Books,  to  which  Eusebius  added 
a  sixth  Book.  The  whole  are  lost,  except 
a  Latin  translation  of  Book  first,  made  by 
Rufinus.  During  the  persecution  he  was 
imprisoned  two  years,  and  then  put  to  death. 
Eusebius,  his  great  admirer,  wrote  his  life 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


245 


Diodorus  of  Tarsus  ;(22)   Hosius  of  Corduba  ;(23)    Eustathius  of  Anti- 
och  ;(24)  Didymus  of  Alexandria  ;(25)  Amphilochius  of  Iconium  ;(26)  Pal- 

in  iii.  Books,  which  are  lost.  See  Jerome, 
de  Scriptor.  Illustr.,  c.  77.  Eusebius,  Hist. 
Eccles.,  1.  vi.,  c.  32.  Cave,  Historia  Litte- 
rar.— Tr.] 

(22)  [Diodorus,  or  Theodoras,  bishop  of 
Tarsus,  was  head  of  a  monastic  school  and 
a  presbyter  at  Antioch,  where  he  had  Chry- 
sostom  for  a  pupil.     He  became  bishop  of 
Tarsus  in  378,  sat  in  the  general  council  at 
Constantinople  381,  and  was  succeeded  at 
Tarsus  by  Phalcrius  A.D.  394.     He  was  a 
learned  man,  and  a  voluminous,  though  not 
an  elegant,  writer.     His  works  were  chief- 
ly scientific  and  controversial,  in  opposition 
to  errorists  and  unbelievers,  and  explanato- 
ry of  the  Scriptures,  which  he  construed  lit- 
erally.    None  of  his  works  remain  entire ; 
but   abstracts   and   numerous    extracts    are 
preserved  by  Photius  and  others.     See  Sui- 
das,  voce  AtoJu/joc.     Socrates,  H.  E.,  vi., 
3.     Sozomen,    H.    E.,  'viii.,   2.      Thcodo- 
ret,  H.  E.,  iv.,  25.     Jerome,  de   Scriptor. 
Illustr.,   c.    119.      Cave,    Histor.   Litterar. 
Fabricius.  Biblioth.   Gr ,  vol.  viii.,  p.  358, 
&c.     Tt/lemont,  Memoires — a  1'Hist.   Ec- 
clcs.,    tome   viii.,   p.    558,   &c.,    802,    &c. 
Schroeckh,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  x.,  p.  247- 
251.—  Tr.} 

(23)  [Hosius,  bishop  of  Corduba  in  Spain, 
was  born  about  the  middle  of  the  preceding 
century,  became  a  bishop  before  the  end  of 
it,  and  sat  in  the  council  of  Illiberis,  A.D. 
305.     He  was  chief  counsellor,  in  ecclesias- 
tical affairs,  to  Constantine  the  Great ;  who 
summoned  him  to  the  council  of  Aries  in 
314,  and  sent  him  to  Egypt,  to  settle  the 
religious  disputes  of  that  country  in    324. 
He  stood  at  the  head  of  the  council  of  Nice 
in  325  ;  and  presided  in  that  of  Sardica  in 
347.     By   the   Arian  Council  of  Sirmium 
356,  he  was  banished,  when  near  a  hundred 
years  old ;   and   unable   to   resist,  he  now 
signed  an  artfully-drawn  Arian  creed  ;  and 
died  A.D.  361,  having  lived  more  than  100 
years,  and  been  a  bishop  during  about  70. 
Nothing  written  by  him  remains,  except  an 
epistle  to  the  emperor  Constantius,  preserved 
by  Athana&ius,  in  his  Historia  Arianor.  ad 
Monachos.      See    Cave,    Histor.    Litterar. 
Tillcmont,    Memoires — a   I'Hist.    Eccles., 
tome  vii.,  p.  300-321,  and  Fabricius,  Bib- 
lioth. Gr..  vol.  viii.,  p.  399. — Tr.] 

(24)  [Eustathius,  a  native  of  Side  in  Pam- 
phylia,  was  bishop  of  Beaea  (now  Aleppo) 
in  Syria,  and  promoted  to   the  patriarchate 
of  Antioch  by  the  council  of  Nice,  A.D. 
325.     He  had  previously  distinguished  him- 
self as  an  opposer  of  Arianism ;  and  in  that 
council,  he  acted  a  conspicuous  part.     This, 


together  with  his  libri  viii.  contra  Arianos, 
rendered  him  extremely  obnoxious  to  the 
abettors  of  Arianism,  who  procured  his  con- 
demnation in  one  of  their  councils,  about 
the  year  330.  Eustathius  appealed  in  vain 
to  the  emperor,  Constantine  the  Great :  he 
was  banished  to  Trajanopolis  in  Thrace, 
where  he  died  about  the  year  360.  His 
only  entire  works  now  extant,  are  his  treatise 
on  the  Witch  of  Endor,  in  opposition  to  Ori- 
gen,  and  a  short  address  to  the  emperor,  de- 
livered at  the  council  of  Nice.  These,  to- 
gether with  a  treatise  on  the  Hexaemeron, 
which  is  ascribed  to  him,  were  published  by 
Leo.  Allatius,  Lyons,  1629,  4to.  What  re- 
mains of  his  viii.  Books  against  the  Arians, 
was  published  by  Fabricius,  Biblioth.  Gr., 
vol.  viii.,  p.  170,  &c.  He  was  highly  es- 
teemed by  the  orthodox  of  his  times.  See 
Jerome,  de  Siriptor.  Illustr.,  c.  85.  Chry- 
sostom,  Laudatio  Eustathii,  Opp.  Chrysost., 
torn,  ii.,  p.  603.  Athanasius,  Epist.  ad  Sol- 
itaries. Cave,  Histor.  Litterar.  Du  Pin, 
Biblioth.  des  Auteurs  Eccles.,  vol.  iii. 
Fabricius,  ubi  supra,  p.  166,  &c.,  and 
Schroeckh,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  v.,  p.  275, 
&c.— Tr.] 

(25)  [Didymus,  a  learned  monk  of  Alex- 
andria, and  head  of  the  catechetic  school 
there,  was  the  preceptor  of  Jerome  and  Ru- 
finus.     He  lost  his  eyesight  when  young, 
yet  became  very  conspicuous  as  a  scholar  and 
a  theologian.     He  was  born  before  the  year 
311,  and  was  alive  A.D.  392,  then  more 
than  83  years  old.     Of  his  numerous  works, 
only  three  have   reached  us ;    namely,  de 
Spiritu  Sancto  Liber,  preserved  in  a  Latin 
translation  of  Jerome,  (inter  Opp.  Hieronymi, 
torn,  iv.,  pt.  i.,  p.  493,  &c.),  Scholia  on  the 
canonical  Epistles,  also  in  a  Latin  translation. 
Both  these  are  given  in  the  Biblioth.  Patr., 
torn,  v.,  p.  320,  338.     Liber  adversus  Man- 
ichaeos  ;  Gr.  and  Lat.,  in  Combefis,  Aucta- 
rium  noviss.  Biblioth.  Patr.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  21, 
&c.     Besides  these,  he  wrote  commentaries 
on  the  greater  part  of  the  Bible  ;  and,  de 
Trinitate  lib.  iii.  ;  contra  Arianos  libri  ii.  ; 
and  a  comment  on  the  four  Books  of  Origen 
de  Principiis,  in  defence  of  Origen's  senti- 
ments.    See  Jerome,  de  Scriptor.  Illustr., 
c.  109;  and  Care,  Historia  Liueraria. — Tr.] 

(26)  [Amphilochius,   after   being  a  civil 
magistrate,  and  living  a  while  with  Basil 
and   Gregory  Naz.  in  their  monastery,  was 
made  bishop  of  Iconium  in   Lycaoma,  about 
the  year  370  or  375.     He  sat  in  the  second 
gen.  council  at  Constantinople,  A.D.  381  ; 
and  in  the  same  year,  was  appointed  by  the 
emperor  Theodosius,  inspector  of  the  clergy 


246 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


ladius,  author  of  the  Lausiac  History ; (27)  Macarius,  senior  and  junior  ;(28) 


in  the  diocese  of  Asia.  Two  years  after, 
wishing  to  persuade  the  emperor  to  enact 
severer  laws  against  the  Arians,  he  appeared 
in  his  presence,  without  showing  respect  to 
his  son,  the  young  Arcadius.  At  this  the 
emperor  was  indignant.  The  bishop  replied  : 
"  Sire,  are  you  offended  because  indignity  is 
offered  to  your  son  1  Then,  be  assured, 
God  must  abhor  those  who  treat  his  Son  with 
disrespect."  The  argument  was  irresistible  ; 
and  the  emperor  granted  his  request.  He 
probably  died  A.D.  395.  Ten  short  pieces, 
chiefly  orations,  and  various  fragments,  were 
published  as  his  works,  (though  most  of  them 
are  of  dubious  origin),  by  Combejis,  Gr.  and 
Lat.,  Paris,  1644,  fol.,  including  the  works 
of  Methodius  Patarens.  and  Andreas  Creten- 
sis.  A  few  other  tracts  are  extant  under  his 
name  ;  and  a  considerable  number  mentioned 
by  the  ancients,  cannot  now  be  found.  See 
Fabricivs,  Biblioth.  Gr.,  vol.  vii.,  p.  500- 
507.  Oudin,  Commentar.  de  Scriptor.  Ec- 
clesiast.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  216,  &c.  Cave,  His- 
tor.  Litterar.,  and  Schroeckh,  Kirchengesch., 
vol.  xii.,  p.  67-70.— TV.] 

(27)  [Palladius  of  Galatia,  born  A.D. 
368,  at  the  age  of  20  went  to  Egypt,  to  get 
a  practical  knowledge  of  monkery.  After 
residing  among  the  monks  of  Egypt  several 
years,  his  health  failed,  and  he  returned  to 
Palestine,  still  leading  a  monastic  life.  In 
the  year  400,  going  to.  Bithynia,  Chrysostom 
ordained  him  bp.  of  Hellenopolis,  which  he 
afterwards  exchanged  for  Aspona  in  Galatia. 
After  the  fall  of  Chrysostom  in  404,  Palladi- 
us was  banished,  and  died  in  exile  about  A.D. 
431.  His  great  work  was  composed  about 
the  year  420,  and  contains  the  history  of  the 
principal  monks  of  his  own  times,  with  many 
of  whom  he  was  personally  acquainted.  Be- 
ing written  at  the  request  of  Lausus,  the  em- 
peror's lord  of  the  bedchamber,  it  was  called 
Historia  Lausiaca.  It  is  the  honest  state- 
ment of  a  credulous  monk,  who  almost  adored 
the  heroes  of  his  story.  Several  Latin  edi- 
tions have  been  published.  In  Greek  it  ap- 
peared, Lugd.  Bat.,  1616,  4to  ;  and  Gr.  and 
Lat.  in  the  Auctar.  Biblioth.  Patr.,  Paris, 
1624,  torn,  ii.,  p.  893-1053,  fol.,  and  in  Bib- 
lioth. Patr.,  Paris,  1624,  torn,  xiii.— The  oth- 
er works  ascribed  to  him  are,  Dialogi  de 
Vita  S.  Joh.  Chrysostorrd,  inter  Palladium 
Ep.  Hellenopolitanum  et  Theodorum  eccle- 
Biae  Romanae  diaconum,  (extat  inter  Opp. 
Chrysost.),  and  de  gentibus  Indiae  et  Brach- 
manibus  Liber. — See  Fabricius,  Biblioth. 
Gr.,  vol.  ix.,  p.  2,  &c.  Du  Pin,  Biblioth. 
des  Auteurs,  &c.  Cave,  Historia  Litterar. 
Tilllemont,  M6moires — a  1'Hist.  Eccles., 
vol.  i.,  p.  500,  &c.— Tr.] 


(28)  [Macarius  senior,  or  the  Great,  called 
the  Egyptian  Macarius,  a  native  of  The- 
bais,  was  born  A.D.  302,  early  addicted  him- 
self to  a  monastic  life,  at  the  age  of  thirty 
retired  to  the  wilderness  of  Scetis  and  the 
mountains,  Nitria,  where  he  lived  a  hermit 
for  60  years.  He  became  a  presbyter  at  the 
age  of  40,  and  died  at  the  age  of  90,  A.D. 
391.  Much  is  related  of  his  austerities,  his 
virtues,  his  wisdom,  and  his  miracles.  To 
him  are  ascribed,  and  it  is  probable  correctly, 
seven  opuscula  and  fifty  homilies  or  dis- 
courses ;  all  upon  practical  and  experimen- 
tal religion  ;  edited,  last,  by  J.  G.  Pritius, 
Gr.  and  Lat.,  Lips.,  1714,  2  vols.  in  one, 
12mo,  p.  285  and  566. — Macarius  junior, 
called  the  Alexandrian  Macarius,  because 
he  was  born  and  spent  the  first  part  of  his 
life  at  Alexandria,  was  contemporary  with 
Macarius  senior,  with  whom  he  is  often  con- 
founded. He  was  born  about  A.D.  304, 
pursued  traffic  some  years,  became  a  monk, 
retired  to  the  wilderness  of  Scetis,  was  bap- 
tized at  40,  became  a  presbyter,  headed  a 
numerous  band  of  monks  in  the  mountains  of 
Nitria,  and  died  about  A.D.  404,  aged  100 
years.  He  was  no  less  distinguished  for  his 
virtues  and  his  miracles,  than  the  other  Ma- 
carius. Both  copied  after  St.  Antonius,  both 
were  hermits,  inhabited  the  same  region  of 
country,  and  lived  at  the  same  time.  But 
the  senior  Macarius  was  unsocial,  especially 
with  strangers ;  whereas  the  younger  was 
very  affable,  and  often  visited  the  city  Alex- 
andria ;  whence  he  was  called  TroAm/coo,  the 
citizen.  The  younger  wrote  nothing,  but  a 
single  letter  to  his  disciples.  The  code  of 
30  monastic  rules,  ascribed  to  him,  was 
probably  the  production  of  a  later  age.  Both 
are  mentioned  by  most  of  the  contemporary 
writers,  as  Jerome,  Rufinus,  Socrates,  So- 
zomcn,  and  especially  Palladius,  (Lausiac 
History,  c.  19,  20),  who  was  a  disciple  of  the 
younger  Ma.carius.  But  their  history  is  lit- 
tle more  than  an  account  of  their  rules  of  life, 
their  conversations,  their  miraculous  deeds, 
the  admiration  in  which  they  were  held,  and 
the  crowds  of  visitors  and  disciples  which 
attended  them.  See  Socrates,  Hist.  Eccl., 
1.  iv.,  c.  23.  Palladius,  Hist.  Lausiaca,  c. 
19,  20.  Rufinus,  Vitae  Patrum,  c.  28.  Cas- 
sianus  de  Coenobior.  Institut.,  1.  v.,  c.  41, 
and  Collat.,  v.,  c.  12,  xv.,  c.  3,  xxiv.,  c.  13. 
Sozomen,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  iii.,  c.  14,  1.  vi., 
c.  29.  Theodorct,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  iv.,  c. 
21.  Tillemont,  Memoires — a  1'Hist.  Ec- 
cles., torn,  viii.,  p.  243,  264,  357.  Fabri- 
cius, Biblioth.  Gr.,  vol.  vii.,  p.  491,  &c. 
Cane,  Histor.  Litterar. — Tr.] 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


247 


ApolHnaris,  senior  ;(29)  and  a  few  others,(30)  are  most  frequently  men- 
tioned on  account  of  their  learning  and  their  achievements. 


(29)  [ApolHnaris,  or  Apollinarius,  senior, 
was  born  at  Alexandria,  taught  grammar  at 
Berytus,  and  at  Laodicea  in  Syria,  where  he 
became   a   presbyter.     He  associated  with 
Epipkanius  the  sophist,  a  pagan,  and  attend- 
ed his  lectures  ;  for  which,  both  he  and  his 
son,  the  younger  ApolHnaris,  were  excom- 
municated.    But  repenting,  they  were  re- 
stored.    In  the  year  362,  when  the  emperor 
Julian  prohibited  the  Christians  from  read- 
ing the  classic  poets  and  orators,  ApolHnaris 
and  his  son  undertook  to  compose  some  sa- 
cred classics,  to  take  the  place  of  the  pagan. 
The  father  took  up  the  Old  Testament,  and 
transferred  the  Pentateuch  into  heroic  verse, 
in  imitation  of  Homer  ;  and  also,  according 
to  Sozomen,  he  formed  the  rest  of  the  Old 
T.  history  into  Comedies,  Tragedies,  Lyrics, 
&c.,  in  imitation  of  Mcnandcr,  Euripides, 
and  Pindar.     The  son  laboured  on  the  New 
Test.,  and  transferred  the  Gospels  and  the 
canonical  Epistles  into  Dialogues,  in  imita- 
tion of  those  of  Plato.     Nearly  all,  if  not 
the  whole,  of  these  sacred  classics,  are  lost. 
Yet  there  is  extant  a  poetic  Gr.  version  of 
the  Psalms,  bearing  the  name  of  ApolHnaris. 
The  Tragedy  of  Christ  suffering,  published 
among  the  works  of  Gregory  Naz.,  is  also 
by  some  ascribed  to  the  elder  ApolHnaris. — 
The    younger   Apollinaris,  wrote  likewise, 
adversus  Porphyrium  Libri  30  ;  de  Veritate, 
adv.  Julianutn  et  philosophos  ;  contra  Euno- 
mii  apologiam  Liber;   Commentarii  breves 
in  Isaiam  ;  Hymni  et  Cantica  sacra  ;  de  In- 
carnatione  Libellus  ;  de  Fide  Libellus  ;  and 
several  Epistles,  of  which  two  perhaps  are 
extant.     Of  all  the  rest  of  his  works,  only 
fragments  remain. — The  younger  Apollina- 
ris believed,  that  the  divine  nature  in  Christ 
did  the  office  of  a  rational  human  soul ;  so 
that  God  the  Word,  with  a  sensitive  soul 
(ij>vxr/)  and  a  body,  constituted  the  person 
of  the  Saviour.     For  this,  he  was  accounted 
a  heretic,  and  condemned  by  public  councils. 
He  died  between  A.D.  380  and  392.— Both 
were  learned  and  excellent  men,  and  strenu- 
ous opposers  of  the  Arian  creed.     Jerome, 
de   Viris  Illustr.,  c.    104.     Socrates,  Hist. 
Eccl.,  ii.,  46,  and  iii.,  16.     Sozomen,  H.  E., 
v.,  18,  and  vi.,  25.     Philost&rg.,  H.  E.,  viii., 
11-15.     Fabncius,  Biblioth.  Gr.,  vol.  vii., 
p.  659,  &c.,  viii.,  p.  332.      Tillemont,  Me- 
moires — a  1'Hist.  Eccles.,  vol.  vii.     Cave, 
Histor.  Litteraria.— Tr.] 

(30)  [Less  distinguished  than  the  forego- 
ing, were,  in  the  eastern  or  Greek  church, 
the    pseudo-.D0ro//iet«,  a  fabled    bishop  of 
Tyre,  who  was  a  confessor  in  the  Diocletian 
persecution,  and  a  martyr  under  Julian,  aged 


more  than  100  years.  To  him  is  attributed 
the  Epitome  of  the  Lives  of  the  Prophets, 
Apostles,  and  the  70  Disciples  of  Christ ;  ex- 
tant in  the  Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn,  iii.,  p.  421. 
See  Cave,  Historia  Litterar. 

Alexander,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  A.D. 
312-325,  famous  as  beginning  the  controver- 
sy with  Arius,  who  was  his  presbyter.  Of 
more  than  70  epistles,  written  by  him  on  the 
Arian  controversy,  only  two  are  extant ;  pre- 
served, one  by  Theodoret,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  i., 
c.  4,  and  the  other  by  Socrates,  Hist.  Eccles., 
1.  i.,  c  6. 

Constantine  the  Great,  emperor  A.D.  306 
-337.  He  wrote  many  epistles  and  some 
orations,  which  his  secretaries  translated  into 
Greek.  Of  these,  24  epistles  and  two  ora- 
tions are  preserved,  by  Eusebius  and  others, 
and  among  the  Acts  of  councils.  Many  of 
his  edicts  are  also  preserved  in  the  Codex 
Theodosianus. 

Eusebius,  bishop  of  Nicomcdia,  and  after- 
wards court  bishop  of  Constantinople,  and  the 
stanch  patron  of  Arius.  He  was  condemned 
in  the  council  of  Nice,  and  banished  by  the 
emperor ;  retracted  and  was  restored  ;  be- 
came the  great  supporter  of  Arianism  ;  and 
died  A.D.  342.  A  single  epistle  of  his,  has 
been  preserved  by  Theodoret,  Hist.  Eccles., 
1.  i.,  c.  6. 

James,  bishop  of  Nisibis  in  Syria ;  a  con- 
fessor in  the  Diocletian  persecution,  an  as- 
sessor in  the  Nicene  council,  and  died  in  the 
reign  of  Constantius.  He  probably  wrote 
wholly  in  Syriac  ;  but  his  works  were  first 
published,  Armenian  and  Latin,  by  N.  An- 
tonelli,  Rome,  1756,  fol.,  containing  19  es- 
says and  discourses,  chiefly  on  moral  and 
practical  subjects. 

St.  Antonius,  a  renowned  Egyptian  monk, 
who  flourished  about  A.D.  330.  His  life, 
written  by  Athanasius,  is  still  extant ;  like- 
wise, his  monastic  rules,  his  remarks  on  ca- 
ses of  conscience,  and  about  20  Discourses. 
These  opuscula  were  published,  in  a  Latin 
translation  from  Arabic,  Rome,  1646,  8vo. 

Asterius  of  Cappadocia.  a  fickle  and  am- 
bitious man,  in  the  period  next  following  the 
Nicene  council,  and  a  zealous  Arian.  He 
was  never  admitted  to  the  clerical  office, 
possessed  some  talent,  and  wrote  comments 
on  the  Scriptures,  and  tracts  in  favour  of 
Arianism  ;  of  which,  only  fragments  remain. 

Marcelhu,  bishop  of  Ancyra  in  Galatia. 
He  held  a  council  at  Ancyra  in  315,  and 
was  conspicuous  in  the  orthodox  ranks  at  the 
council  of  Nice.  Afterwards  his  zeal  against 
Arianism,  carried  him  into  Sabellianism.  He 
was  condemned  and  deposed  in  335,  acquit- 


248 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


§  10.  Among  the  Latin  writers,  the  following  are  most  worthy  of  no. 
tice.     Hilary,  bishop  of  Poictiers,  famous  for  his  twelve  Books  on  the 


ted  in  347,  but  still  regarded  with  suspicion. 
He  died  A.D.  370.  Many  wrote  against 
him ;  and  he  wrote  much,  but  nothing  but 
what  time  has  consumed. 

Theodorus,  bishop  of  Heraclea  in  Thrace 
A.D.  334-344,  a  Semiarian,  and  a  zealous 
opposer  of  Athanasius.  He  died  about  the 
year  358.  His  commentaries  on  various 
parts  of  the  Bible,  are  highly  commended  by 
Jerome  and  others,  for  their  style  and  erudi- 
tion. All  are  lost,  except  his  commentary 
on  the  Psalms,  which  is  prefixed  to  the  Ca- 
tenae Veterum  Patrum  in  Psalmos,  ed.  An- 
twerp, 1643,  3  vols.  fol. 

Acacius,  bishop  of  Casarea  in  Palestine 
A.D.  340-366,  successor  to  Eusebius,  whose 
secretary  he  had  been ;  a  man  of  learning 
and  eloquence,  but  unstable,  and  fluctuating 
between  Arianism  and  orthodoxy.  He  wrote 
much,  particularly  in  explanation  of  the  Scrip- 
tures ;  but  nothing  that  has  been  preserved. 

Triphilus  of  Ledris  in  Cyprus,  flourished 
A.D.  340.  He  was  bred  to  the  bar,  and  was 
considered  one  of  the  most  elegant  writers 
of  his  age.  He  wrote  on  the  Canticles,  and 
the  life  of  Spiridon,  his  bishop  ;  but  nothing 
of  his  remains. 

Eusebius,  bishop  of  Emessa  in  Phenicia, 
was  born  at  Edessa,  studied  there,  and  at 
Alexandria  in  Egypt,  and  Antioch  in  Syria. 
As  early  as  312,  he  was  distinguished  for 
scholarship  and  for  unassuming  modesty. 
He  refused  the  bishopric  of  Alexandria  in 
341 ;  but  soon  after  accepted  that  of  Emes- 
sa, and  died  about  A.D.  360.  He  leaned 
towards  Semiarianism  ;  wrote  much  and  el- 
egantly, on  the  scriptures,  and  against  the 
Jews.  What  has  been  published  as  his,  has 
been  much  questioned. 

George,  bishop  of  Laodicea,  a  stanch  Ari- 
an, and  active  in  all  their  measures,  from 
A.D.  335  to  360.  He  wrote  against  the 
Manichaeans  ;  the  life  of  Eusebius  Emesse- 
nus  ;  and  several  epistles,  one  of  which  is 
preserved  by  Soznmen,  H.  Eccl ,  1.  iv.,  c.  13. 

Pachomius,  (died  350),  Theodorus,  his 
successor,  and  Oresiesis.  were  distinguished 
contemporary  monks  of  Tabbennesis  in  The- 
bais,  Egypt.  They  flourished  from  A.D. 
340-350.  Monastic  rules,  some  epistles, 
and  several  discourses,  are  extant  under  the 
names  of  one  or  more  of  them. 

Serapion,  a  monk  of  Thebais,  distinguish- 
ed for  his  learning  and  eloquence,  was  the 
friend  of  Athanasiu.t,  who  made  him  bishop 
of  Thmuis.  He  died  about  A.D.  358.  Of 
his  once  popular  writings,  only  his  Liber 
contra  Manichaeos  is  extant ;  Latin,  in  the 
Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn,  iv.,  p.  160. 


Basil,  bishop  of  Ancyra,  from  336  to  360, 
was  a  Semiarian,  highly  esteemed  by  Con- 
s/antius,  and  very  active  against  the  ortho- 
dox. Contention  between  him  and  Aca- 
cius, preceded  his  deposition  and  banishment 
to  Illyricum  in  the  year  360.  He  wrote 
much,  and  in  particular,  against  Marcellus 
his  predecessor  ;  but  none  of  his  works  are 
extant. 

Leontius,  the  Arian  bishop  of  Antioch, 
A.D.  348-358,  a  crafty  and  deceptive  man, 
who  was  active  in  the  contentions  of  his 
times.  Of  his  writings,  only  a  fragment  of 
one  discourse  remains. 

Marcus,  an  Egyptian  bishop,  and  a  friend 
of  Athanasius,  banished  in  356  by  George 
bishop  of  Alexandria.  He  wrote  an  oration 
against  the  Arians,  which  is  published  with 
Origen's  tract  on  the  Lord's  prayer,  by 
Wetstein,  Amsterd.,  1695,  4to. 

Aetius  of  Syria,  a  goldsmith,  physician, 
deacon  at  Antioch,  bishop  somewhere,  and 
finally  a  heretic.  He  held  Christ  to  be  a 
mere  creature.  He  died  about  the  year  366. 
His  book  de  Fide,  in  47  chapters,  is  trans- 
cribed and  refuted,  in  Epiphamus,  Haer.  76. 

Eudoxius,  bishop  of  Germanicia  on  the 
Euphrates,  and  (356)  of  Antioch,  and  (360) 
of  Constantinople  ;  died  A.D.  370.  He  was 
successively  an  Arian,  a  Semiarian,  and  an 
Aetian  ;  a  learned,  but  a  verbose  and  obscure 
writer.  Large  fragments  of  his  discourse 
de  Incarnittione  Dei  Verbi,  are  extant. 

Eunomius,  the  secretary  and  disciple  of 
Aetius,  but  more  famous  than  his  master. 
He  was  made  bishop  of  Cyzicum  A.D.  360, 
banished  soon  after,  wandered  much,  and 
died  about  A.D.  394.  He  wrote  on  the 
epistle  to  the  Romans  ;  many  letters  ;  his 
own  creed,  and  an  Apology  for  it.  Only  the 
two  last  are  extant.  He  held  Christ  to  be 
a  created  being,  and  of  a  nature  unlike  to 
that  of  God. 

Meletius,  bishop  of  Sebaste  in  Armenia, 
and  (360)  of  Antioch.  He  was  banished 
A.D.  361,  returned  under  Julian  ;  was  ban- 
ished again  under  Valens,  and  restored  by 
Gratian,  and  died  while  attending  the  gen- 
eral council  of  Constantinople  A.D.  381,  at 
an  advanced  age.  There  is  extant,  (in  Epi- 
phanius,  Haeres.  73,  c.  29-34),  an  able 
discourse,  which  he  delivered  at  Antioch  in 
361,  when,  holding  up  three  fingers,  and 
then  closing  two  of  them,  he  said :  "  We 
conceive  there  are  three  persons,  but  we  ad- 
dress them  as  one." 

Titus,  bishop  of  Bostra  in  Arabia,  xvas 
driven  from  his  see,  under  Julian,  A.D.  362  ; 
returned  under  Valentmian;  and  died  about 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


249 


Trinity,  and  for  other  writings.  He  possessed  a  considerable  degree  of 
perspicacity  and  ingenuity ;  but  he  was  often  disposed  to  borrow  from 
Tertullian  and  Origen,  whom  he  greatly  admired,  rather  than  to  tax  his 
own  genius. (31)  Lactantius,  the  most  eloquent  of  the  Latin  Christians  in 

the  year  371.  He  wrote  contra  Manichaeos  ilies.  The  homilies  are  printed  among  the 
libn  iii.,  which  are  extant  in  a  Latin  transla- 


tion, in  Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn.  iv.  A  discourse 
likewise,  on  the  branches  of  palm,  Gr.  and 
Lat.,  and  a  commentary  on  Luke,  in  Latin, 
have  been  published  under  his  name,  but  are 
questioned. 

Paphnutius,  a  celebrated  Egyptian  monk, 
who  flourished  A.D.  370.  He  wrote  the 
life  of  St.  Onyphnus,  and  of  several  other 
monks ;  still  extant. 

Caesarius,  younger  brother  of  Gregory 
Nazianzenus,  was  a  learned  physician  of 
Constantinople,  and  was  elevated  to  civil 
office.  He  is  said  to  have  written  several 
works,  and  particularly  a  treatise  against  the 
pagans.  There  are  extant  under  his  name, 
iv.  Dialogues,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  on  195  ques- 
tions in  theology ;  in  Pronto  le  Due's  Auc- 
tanum  Biblioth.  Pair.,  1624,  torn.  i.  But 
they  are  supposed  not  to  be  his,  as  they  show 
the  hand  of  a  well-read  theologian. 

Evagnus,  archdeacon  of  Constantinople 
in  381,  and  after  385,  an  Egyptian  monk. 
He  was  a  pious  and  learned  man,  and  a  con- 
siderable writer.  Several  of  his  devotional 
and  practical  works  are  extant,  in  the  differ- 
ent collections  of  the  works  of  the  fathers. 

Nemcsius,  bishop  of  Emessu,  after  being 
a  Christian  philosopher.  He  flourished  A.D. 
380,  and  with  Origen,  held  to  the  pre  exist- 
ence of  human  souls  ;  as  appears  from  his 
book,  de  Na/vra  Hoimnis,  extant  in  the  Auc- 
tarium  Biblioth.  Pair.,  1624,  torn,  ii.,  also 
printed  Gr.  and  Lat.,  Oxford,  1671,  8vo. 

N'C/nnus,  bishop  of  Constantinople  A.D. 
381-398,  orthodox  and  pious.  One  of  his 
discousses  is  extant,  inter  Opp.  Chrysostomi, 
who  was  his  successor. 

Flavianus,  a  monk,  and  bishop  of  Antioch 
A.D.  381-403.  He  first  divided  the  choir, 
and  taught  them  to  sing  the  Psalms  of  Uuvid 
responsively.  He  was  strenuous  against  the 
Arians  ;  but  fragments  only  of  his  discourses 
and  letters  remain. 

Theop/nlus,  bishop  of  Alexandria  A.D. 
385-412,  was  famous  for  his  contention  with 
the  Nitric  monks,  and  for  his  opposition  to 
Origenism.  Of  his  works  only  a  few  epis- 
tles, and  considerable  extracts  from  his  other 
writings,  are  extant. 

John,  bishop  of  Jerusalem  A.D.  386-416, 
famous  for  his  contests  with  Ejjijiharnus 
and  svith  Jerome,  respecting  Origen  s  char- 
acter. Numerous  works,  perhaps  without 
foundation,  are  published  as  his.  They  con- 


works  of  Chrysostom :  and  the  whole  are 
published  as  his  works,  Brussels,  1643,  2 
vols.  fol. 

Hieronymus  of  Dalmatia,  a  presbyter,  and 
monk,  who  flourished  A.D.  386.  He  is  au- 
thor of  Lives  of  the  Egyptian  monks  ;  the 
original  Greek,  though  preserved,  has  not 
been  published  ;  because  the  Lausiac  His- 
tory of  1'alladius  is  nearly  a  literal  translation 
of  it. 

Sophronius,  the  friend  of  Jerome,  and 
translator  into  Greek  of  some  of  his  works, 
particularly  of  his  book,  de  Viris  Illuslnbus. 
He  flourished  about  A.D.  390  ;  and  was,  as 
Jerome  says,  apprime  eruditus ;  yet  he  is 
little  noticed  bv  oilier  contemporary  writers. 
-2V.] 

(31)  Concerning  Hilary,  the  Benedictine 
monks  have  given  an  accurate  account,  in 
their  Histoire  Litteraire  de  la  France,  tome 
ii.,  [lome  i.,  partie  ii.J  p.  139-193,  [a  Paris, 
1733,  4to.]  The  best  edition  of  his  works, 
is  that  of  the  French  Benedictines,  [by  Cou- 
tant,  Paris,  1693,  fol.,  revised  and  improved 
by  Sap.  Ma/ei,  Verona,  1730,  2  vols.  fol. 
— Hilary  of  Pmcticrs  in  France,  was  a  na- 
tive of  Gaul,  of  respectable  parentage,  and 
well  educated.  He  was  a  pagan,  till  he  had 
attained  to  manhood.  His  consecration  to 
the  episcopal  office,  was  about  the  year  350. 
For  20  years  he  stood  pre-eminent  among 
the  Gallic  bishops,  and  did  much  to  arrest 
the  progress  of  Arianism  in  the  West.  In 
the  council  of  Bessieres,  A.D.  356,  he  han- 
dled the  Arian  bishops,  (Saturninus,  Ursa- 
cms,  Valens,  and  others),  so  roughly,  that 
they  applied  to  the  emperor  Constantius, 
and  had  him  banished  to  Phrygia.  During 
the  four  years  he  was  an  exile  in  Asia,  he 
wrote  most  of  his  works,  and  was  so  active 
in  opposing  Arianism  there,  that  the  hereti- 
cal clergy,  to  get  rid  of  him,  procured  his 
release  from  banishment.  He  returned  to 
his  church,  a  more  able  and  more  successful 
antagonist  to  the  Gallic  Arians  than  he  was 
before.  He  was  the  principal  means  of  roll- 
ing back  the  Arian  current,  which  was 
sweeping  over  the  West. — His  great  work 
is  his  de  Tnmtale  Libri  xii.  He  also  wrote 
three  different  tracts  addressed  to  the  emper- 
or ;  an  account  of  the  synods  held  in  the 
;,iinst  the  Arians  ;  concerning  the 
councils  of  Arimini  and  Selciicia,  and  the 
events  that  followed  to  the  year  366  ;  Com- 
mentaries on  Matthew,  and  on  the  Psalms. 


sist  of  commentaries  on  scripture  and  horn-    Besides  these,  he  wrote  several  works  which 
VOL.  I.-Ii 


250 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


this  century,  assailed  the  superstition  of  the  pagans,  in  his  pure  and  ele- 
gantly written  Divine  Institutions ;  and  likewise  wrote  on  other  subjects. 
But  he  is  more  successful  in  confuting  the  errors  of  others,  than  in  correct- 
ing his  own. (32)  Ambrose,  first  a  governor,  and  then  bishop  of  Milan,  is  not 
rude  in  diction  or  conception,  nor  is  he  destitute  of  valuable  thoughts  ;  yet 
he  is  chargeable  with  the  faults  of  the  age,  a  deficiency  in  solidity,  accu- 
racy, and  good  arrangement.(33)  Hieronymus,  a  monk  of  Palestine,  has 

formance,  extant  as  the  work  of  a  fabled 
Symposium.  The  Carmen  de  Phoenice,  is 
perhaps  his.  His  lost  works  are,  Grammat- 
icus  ;  odoiiropmbv,  a  poetic  account  of  his 
voyage  to  Nicomedia ;  ad  Asclepiadem  libri 
ii.  ;  ad  Probum  Epistolarum  libri  iv.  ;  ad 
Severum  Epistolarum  libri  ii.  ;  ad  Demetria- 
num  Epistolarum  libri  ii. — See  Jerome,  de 
Viris  Illustr.,  c.  80.  Cave,  Historia  Lit- 
terar.  Lardner,  Credibility,  &c.,  vol.  vii. 
Schroeckh,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  v.,  p.  220- 
262.— Tr.] 

(33)  The  Benedictine  monks  of  France, 
published  his  works  in  2  large  folio  volumes, 
[1686-1690.—  Ambrose  was  the  son  of  a 
praetorian  prefect  of  the  same  name,  who 
was  governor  general  of  Gaul,  Britain,  and 
Spain.  After  a  good  education  for  civil  life, 
he  became  an  advocate,  counsellor  to  Prolrus 
his  father's  successor,  and  at  last  governor 
of  Liguria  and  Aemylia,  resident  at  Milan. 
In  the  year  374,  Auxentius,  bp.  of  Milan, 
died  ;  and  the  Arians  and  orthodox  became 
tumultuous  in  the  church,  when  met  to  elect 
a  successor.  Ambrose  entered  the  church 
to  quell  the  riot,  and  a  little  child  happening 
to  say  "Ambrose,  bishop,"  the  mob  presently 
cried  out,  "  let  him  be  the  bishop." — He  was 
constrained  to  submit ;  gave  up  all  his  prop- 
erty, and  his  wordly  honours,  was  baptized, 
and  became  a  laborious  and  self-denying 
bishop.  An  irruption  of  barbarians  in  377, 
obliged  him  to  flee  ;  and  he  went  to  Illyri- 
cum,  and  thence  to  Rome.  In  the  year  381, 
he  presided  in  the  council  of  Aquileia.  In 
383,  the  emperor  Valentinian  sent  him  as 
ambassador  to  Maximus  the  usurper  in  Gaul. 
Next  came  his  contest  with  Symmachus, 
prefect  of  Rome,  respecting  the  rebuilding 
the  pagan  altar  of  Victory  in  that  city.  In 
386,  he  had  much  contention  with  the  Arians 
of  Milan.  Afterwards  he  was  sent  on  a 
second  embassy  to  Maximus.  Three  years 
after,  he  debarred  the  emperor  Theodosius 
the  Great  from  Christian  ordinances,  and 
required  him  to  do  penance,  for  the  slaughter 
of  the  citizens  of  Thessalonica  by  his  order. 
In  392,  civil  war  obliged  him  to  leave  Milan 
for  a  time.  He  soon  returned,  but  died  A.D. 
397,  aged  64  years.  He  was  devout,  ener- 
getic, orthodox,  and  a  very  useful  bishop. 
His  knowledge  of  theology  was  not  great ; 
but  he  was  able  to  read  the  Greek  fathers,  and 


are  lost,  such  as  commentaries,  hymns,  epis- 
tles, &c. — See  Jerome,  de  Viris  Illuslr.,  c. 
100.  Fortunatus,  de  Vita  Hilarii,  Libri  ii. 
(prefixed  to  the  Opp.  Hilarii  ed.  Bened.) 
Coutant,  Life  of  Hilary,  prefixed  to  the  Ben- 
edictine edition  of  his  works.  Tillemont, 
Memoires — a  1'Hist.  Eccles.,  tome  vii.,  p. 
442,  &c.,  745,  &c.,  and  Schroeckh,  Kirch- 
engesch., vol.  xii.,  p.  253-342. — Hilary  was 
learned,  but  his  style  is  exceedingly  swollen 
and  obscure. — 7V.] 

(32)  Of  Lactantius  also  the  Benedictines 
have  given  an  account,  in  their  Histoire  Lit- 
teraire  de  la  France,  torn,  ii.,  p.  65,  &c. 
His  works  have  been  through  numerous  edi- 
tions ;  the  latest  and  best  are  by  the  cele- 
brated Bunemann,  [Lips.,  1739,  8vo],  the 
venerable  Neumann,  [Getting.,  1736,  8vo], 
and  Lenglet  du  Frenoy,  [Paris,  1748,  2  vols. 
4to,  and  Zweyb.,  1786, 2  vols.  8vo. — Lucius 
Cczcilius  Lactantius  Firmilianus  was  prob- 
ably a  native  of  Italy  ;  studied  under  Arno- 
bius  in  Africa ;  removed  to  Nicomedia  in  the 
reign  of  Diocletian,  and  opened  a  school  for 
rhetoric,  in  which  he  had  but  few  pupils. 
He  was  made  private  tutor  or  governor  to 
Crispus,  the  oldest  son  of  Constantine  the 
Great,  when  an  old  man ;  and  probably  died 
a  little  before  A.D.  330.  He  was  learned, 
though  not  a  profound  theologian,  and  the 
most  elegant  of  all  the  Latin  fathers.  Some 
think  him  the  best  writer  of  Latin,  after  the 
days  of  Cicero. — His  works  still  extant,  are, 
Divinarum  Institutionum  libri  vii.,  written 
about  the  year  320.  This  is  his  great  work. 
It  may  be  called  a  Guide  to  true  Religion ; 
being  designed  to  enlighten  the  pagans,  and 
convert  them  to  Christianity.  Institutionum 
Epitome ;  or  an  abridgment  of  the  prece- 
ding. It  is  imperfect,  extending  over  the 
three  last  books  only.  De  Ira  Dei  ;  and  de 
Opificio  Dei,  or  on  the  works  of  creation, 
particularly  on  the  physical  structure  and 
powers  of  man.  These  two  works  are, 
properly,  a  continuation  of  the  first ;  being 
written  in  furtherance  of  the  same  designs. 
De  Mortibus  Persecutorum  ;  an  account  of 
persecutors  and  persecutions,  from  Nero  to 
Maxentius,  A.D.  312.  Some  have  ques- 
tioned its  genuineness.  An  English  trans- 
lation of  this  valuable  treatise,  with  a  long 
preface,  was  published  by  Gilb.  Burnet, 
1637,  18mo.  Symposium;  a  juvenile  per- 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


251 


undoubtedly  merited  the  esteem  of  the  Christian  world,  by  various  of  his 
productions ;  but  at  the  same  time,  his  bitterness  towards  those  who  dif- 
fered from  him,  his  eagerness  after  fame,  his  choleric  and  ungovernable 
temper,  his  unjust  aspersions  on  good  and  innocent  persons,  his  extrava- 
gant commendation  of  superstition  and  false  piety,  and  other  defects  of 
character,  have  disgraced  him  not  a  little,  in  the  view  of  those  who  are 
neither  uncandid  nor  incompetent  judges.  Among  his  various  writings, 
those  which  interpret  the  holy  scriptures,  and  his  epistles,  are  the  most 
valuable. (34)  Augustine,  bishop  of  Hippo  in  Africa,  is  one  whose  fame 

he  knew  the  world.     His  writings  were  nu-     Rufinus.     In  373  he  left  Aquileia,  and  em- 
On  the  Scriptures  he  wrote  much,     barked  for  Syria,  in  company  with  several 

friends,  and  carrying  his  own  large  collection 
of  books.  Landing  in  Thrace,  he  passed 
the  Bosphorus,  and  travelled  over  land  to 
Antioch.  Here  his  friend  Innoccntius  died, 
and  he  himself  was  dangerously  sick.  After 
recovering,  he  was  induced  by  a  dream  to 
renounce  for  ever  the  reading  of  the  pagan 
classics.  From  Apollinans  the  younger,  he 
obtained  farther  instruction  in  biblical  inter- 
pretation. In  374,  he  retired  into  the  wil- 
derness eastward  of  Antioch  ;  and  supported 
by  his  friends,  he  there  spent  about  four 
years  in  the  character  of  a  learned  hermit 
and  author,  yet  held  correspondence  with  the 
world,  and  took  part  in  the  passing  religious 
controversies.  In  378  or  379,  he  returned 
to  Antinch,  and  was  ordained  a  presbyter. 
The  next  year  he  visited  Constantinople,  to 
enjoy  the  instructions  of  Gregory  Nazianzen. 
Here  he  continued  two  or  three  years,  formed 
a  better  acquaintance  with  the  Greek  fathers, 
and  translated  some  of  their  works,  in  par- 
ticular, Eusclius'  Chronicon,  which  he  con- 
tinued down  to  A.D.  378,  and  Origen's 
Homilies  on  Jeremiah.  In  382,  he  accom- 
panied Paulinus  and  Epiphanius  to  Rome, 
respecting  the  contests  in  the  church  of  An- 
tioch. Damasus,  bishop  of  Rome,  was  much 
pleased  with  him,  employed  him  occasionally 
as  a  private  secretary,  and  prompted  him  to 
write  on  several  biblical  ,  subjects,  and  at 
length,  to  undertake  a  correction  of  the  vul- 
gar Latin  Bible.  Jerome  likewise  did  much 
to  promote  monkery  in  Italy.  But  the  ar- 
dour he  kindled  up,  on  this  subject,  among 
the  Roman  ladies,  created  him  enemies 
among  the  other  sex.  He  also  gave  offence 
to  the  clergy  of  Rome,  and  thought  it  best 
to  leave  Italy  in  385,  and  return  to  the  East, 
with  Paula  and  Eustocknu*  her  daughter, 
wealthy  Roman  ladies,  whom  he  had  ren- 
dered enthusiastic  in  regard  to  monastic  in- 
stitutions. He  first  went  to  Antioch,  and 
thence  \.o  Jerusalem,  where  he  and  his  ladies 
performed  a  winter's  pilgrimage.  In  the 
spring  of  386,  they  went  to  Alexandria,  and 
thence  to  visit  the  Nitric  monks.  Return- 
ing the  same  year  to  Palestine,  they  took 
up  their  permanent  residence  at  Bethlehem. 


merous. 

but  nothing  that  is  valuable.  He  wrote  sev- 
eral treatises  and  discourses  on  monkery  ; 
de  Officiis,  libri  iii.  ;  de  Mysteriis  Liber; 
de  Sacramentis,  libri  v.,  which  are  greatly 
corrupted,  if  not  altogether  supposititious; 
de  Pcenitentia,  libri  ii.,  also  de  Fide,  or  de 
Trinitate,  libri  v.  ;  and  de  Spiritu  Sancto, 
libri  iii. ;  the  two  last  were  in  great  meas- 
ure compilations  from  Greek  fathers,  and 
were  addressed  to  the  emperor  Gratian. 
Several  discourses  and  eulogies,  and  about 
90  epistles  of  his  production  are  extant ;  be- 
sides a  great  number  of  short  sermons,  scholia 
on  the  canonical  epistles,  and  tracts  of  dif- 
ferent kinds,  which  are  falsely  ascribed  to 
him. — His  life,  written  by  Paulinus  his 
private  secretary,  is  stuffed  with  accounts 
of  miracles  and  wonders,  performed  by  him. 
See  Opp.  Ambrosii,  torn,  ii.,  Appendix,  ed. 
Benedict.  Cave,  Historia  Litterar.  Tille- 
mont,  Memoires — a  1'Hist  Eccles.,  torn,  x., 
p.  78-306,  729.  &c.  G.  Hcrmant,  Vie  de 
S.  Ambroise,  a  Paris,  1678, 4to.  Schroeckh, 
Kirchengesch.,  vol.  xiv.,  p.  148-332,  and 
Jos.  Milner,  Church  History,  cent,  iv.,  ch. 
12-16,  18.— Tr.] 

(34)  The  defects  of  Jerome,  are  learnedly 
exposed  by  Jo.  le  Clerc,  in  his  Quaestiones 
Hieronymianz,  Amstelod.,  1700,  12mo.  His 
works  have  been  published  by  the  Benedic- 
tines, ed.  Martianay,  [Paris,  1693-1706],  in 
five  volumes  folio.  This  edition  was  repub- 
lished,  with  considerable  additions  [and  im- 
provements in  the  arrangement,  the  prefaces, 
and  the  explanatory  notes],  by  Vallarsius, 
Verona,  [1734-43,  xi.  vols.  fol. — Hierony- 
mns  Stridonensis,  or  Jerome  of  Stridon  in 
Dalmatia,  was  born  of  Christian  parents, 
about  the  year  331.  His  father,  Eusebius, 
gave  him  the  best  advantages  for  education. 
He  was  early  sent  to  Rome,  where  he  studied 
many  years,  and  under  the  best  masters. 
About  the  year  363,  he  was  baptized,  and 
left  Rome  to  travel  for  improvement  in  knowl- 
edge. He  journeyed  through  Gaul,  and  re- 
sided a  few  years  at  Trcrcs,  where  he  be- 
came a  monk,  and  devoured  many  books. 
On  his  return  he  spent  some  time  at  Aqmlcia, 
where  he  formed  a  close  friendship  with 


252 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


is  spread  throughout  the  Christian  world.  And  he  certainly  possessed 
many  and  great  excellences,  a  superior  genius,  a  constant  love  and  pur- 
suit of  truth,  admirable  patience  of  labour,  unquestionable  piety,  and  acute- 
ness  and  discrimination  by  no  means  contemptible.  But  his  power  of  judg- 
ing was  not  equally  great ;  and  often  the  natural  ardour  of  his  mind  car- 
ried this  excellent  man  farther,  than  his  reason  and  distinct  comprehen- 
sion could  go.  He  has  therefore  afforded  to  many,  much  ground  for  con- 
troversy respecting  his  real  sentiments,  and  to  others,  occasion  to  tax  him 
with  inconsistency,  and  with  hastily  throwing  upon  paper  thoughts,  which 
he  had  not  himself  duly  considered.  (35)  Optatus  of  Milevi,  an  African,  has 


Here  Paula  erected  four  monasteries,  three 
for  nuns,  and  one  for  monks.  In  this  last, 
Jerome  passed  the  remainder  of  his  days,  in 
reading,  composing  books,  and  contending 
with  all  who  presumed  to  differ  from  him,  on 
any  subject  in  which  he  took  interest.  He 
is  said  to  have  died  on  the  30th  of  Septem- 
ber, A.  D.  420,  aged  90  years. — Jerome  was 
the  best  informed  of  all  the  Latin  fathers,  in 
sacred  literature.  The  Latin,  Greek,  and 
Hebrew  languages,  were  all  familiar  to  him  ; 
and  he  had  a  very  extensive  acquaintance 
with  the  best  writers  of  both  the  Latin  and 
the  Greek  churches.  He  likewise  possessed 
genius,  industry,  and  literary  enterprise,  in 
no  ordinary  degree.  He  was  also  acute  and 
discriminating ;  but  his  vivid  imagination, 
and  his  choleric  temper  which  scorned  all 
restraint,  rendered  him  one  of  the  most 
caustic  and  abusive  controversial  writers 
that  ever  pretended  to  be  a  Christian.  When 
he  has  no  antagonist,  and  sees  no  enemy,  he 
is  a  charming  writer ;  yet  enthusiastic,  and 
often  hasty  and  injudicious.  The  greater 
part  of  his  works,  and  particularly  his  trans- 
lations and  commentaries  on  the  Bible,  were 
written  while  he  resided  at  Bethlehem.  As 
given  to  us  in  the  Benedictine  edition,  in 
five  volumes ;  vol.  i.  contains  his  transla- 
tions of  the  whole  Bible  ;  namely,  the  ca- 
nonical books  of  the  0.  T.  from  the  He- 
brew ;  also,  Job,  Psalms,  Tobit,  and  Esther, 
translated  from  the  Greek ;  and  the  whole 
N.  T.,  with  copious  notes,  from  the  Greek. 
Vol.  ii.  contains  some  glossaries,  and  nu- 
merous tracts  arid  letters  on  a  variety  of 
subjects  in  sacred  literature.  Vol.  iii.  con- 
tains his  commentaries  on  all  the  prophets. 
Vol.  iv.  contains  his  commentary  on  Mat- 
thew, and  on  the  Epp.  to  the  Gal.,  Ephes., 
Titus  and  Philemon  ;  and  about  120  letters 
and  essays,  narrative,  polemic,  apologetic, 
&c.  The  vth.  vol.  contains  only  works 
falsely  ascribed  to  Jerome.  See  Cave.  Histo- 
ria  Litterar.  Tillemont,  ^femoires — al'Hist. 
Eccles.,  torn,  xii.,  p.  1-356.  Martianay,  Vie 
de  St.  Jerome,  Paris,  1 706, 4to.  J.  Stilling, 
Acta  Sanctor.  Septembris,  torn,  viii.,  p.  418- 
688,  Antw.,  1762,  fol.  Schroeckh,  Kirchen- 


gesch.,  vol.  xi.,  p.  3-239.   J.  Milner,  Church 
Hist.,  cent,  iv.,  ch.  10. — Tr.~\ 

(35)  After  the  edition  by  the  theologians 
of  Louvaine,  [Antwerp,  1577,  x.  vols.  fol.], 
the  Benedictine  monks  gave  a  neat  and  ac- 
curate edition  of  Augustine's  work  ;  [Paris, 
1679-1700,  xi.  vols.  fol.]  This  was  reprint- 
ed with  enlargements,  in  Holland,  or,  as  the 
title  says,  at  Antwerp,  under  the  eye  of  Jo. 
le  Clerc,  with  the  assumed  name  of  Jo.  Phc- 
reponus,  [1700-1703,  xii.  vols.  fol.,  printed 
at  Amsterdam.  It  was  also  reprinted  at 
Venice,  1729-1735.]  But  the  Jesuits  cen- 
sure many  things  in  the  Benedictine  edition. 
[They  think  the  editors  leaned  too  much  to- 
wards the  Jansenists,  between  whom  and 
the  Jesuits  there  was  a  long  and  violent  con- 
troversy respecting  the  sentiments  of  Au- 
gustine.— Aurelius  Augustinus  was  born 
Nov.  13,  A.D.  354,  at  Tagaste,  an  obscure 
village  in  Numidia.  His  father  Patricius, 
was  a  pagan  till  near  the  close  of  life.  His 
mother,  Mania,  was  eminently  pious.  He 
had  a  good  school  education  in  grammar  and 
rhetoric  ;  but  he  would  not  study  Greek. 
At  15,  he  came  home,  and  lived  idle  and  vi- 
cious. At  17,  he  was  sent  to  Carthage, 
where  he  shone  as  the  first  scholar  in  the 
rhetorical  school.  But  he  was  dissipated, 
and  became  a  Manichaean.  He  kept  a  mis- 
tress, who  bore  him  a  son  when  he  was  but 
18.  This  son,  named  Adeodatus,  was  well 
educated,  became  pious,  was  baptized  at  the 
same  time  with  his  father,  at  the  age  of  15, 
and  died  soon  after.  While  a  student  at 
Carthage,  Augustine  lost  his  father.  By 
reading  Cicero's  Hortensius,  he  became  en- 
amoured with  philosophy  ;  and  began  to  read 
the  Bible,  in  search  of  it ;  but  he  could  not 
there  find  that  sublime  system  of  which  Ci- 
cero had  given  him  an  ideal,  and  he  threw 
aside  the  sacred  volume.  At  the  age  of  20 
he  had  read  and  mastered  nearly  all  the  lib- 
eral sciences,  as  they  were  then  taught.  He 
now  returned  to  Tagaste,  and  there  opened 
a  school  for  rhetoric.  About  the  year  380, 
he  again  settled  at  Carthage,  where  he 
taught  rhetoric  about  three  years.  During 
this  period,  his  attachment  to  Manichaeism 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


253 


obtained  considerable  reputation,  by  his  handsomely  written  work  on  the 
Schism  of  the  Donatists. (36)  Paulinus  of  Nola,  has  left  us  some  epistles  and 
poems,  which  are  neither  very  bad  nor  very  good  (37)  Rufmus,  a  presbyter 


diminished.  He  was  restless,  debauched, 
and  unprincipled ;  yet  was  a  fine  scholar,  and 
quite  popular.  In  383  he  went  to  Rome,  and 
the  next  year  to  Milan,  in  the  character  of  a 
teacher  of  rhetoric.  The  eloquence  of  Am- 
brose drew  him  to  attend  public  worship  ; 
and  under  the  discourses  of  that  able  and 
faithful  preacher,  Augua tint's  rnind  was 
gradually  enlightened,  and  his  conscience 
awakened.  He  had  sharp  and  painful  con- 
victions, arid  became  altogether  a  new  man. 
He  was  baptized  A.D.  337,  set  out  for  Af- 
rica the  same  year,  buried  his  mother,  stop- 
ped at  Rome,  and  did  not  reach  Africa  till 
A.D.  388.  He  sold  his  estate,  and  devoted 
the  avails  to  charitable  purposes ;  and  for 
three  years,  lived  as  a  recluse,  with  a  few 
devout  young  men  ;  and  spent  much  time  on 
scientific  and  metaphysical  subjects.  In  the 
year  391,  he  went  to  Hippo  rcgius,  (now 
Bono,  in  Algiers),  where  he  was  made  a 
presbyter,  and  preached  and  laboured  with 
great  success.  Four  years  after,  Valerius 
his  aged  bishop,  who  was  a  native  Greek, 
and  who  felt  the  need  of  such  an  assistant 
as  the  now  renowned  presbyter  of  Hippo, 
caused  him  to  be  ordained  his  colleague  bish- 
op. From  A.D.  395  to  A.D.  430,  Augus- 
tine, as  bishop  of  Hippo,  was  indefatigable 
in  preaching,  writing,  combating  error  and 
vice,  and  infusing  h'fe  and  spirituality  into 
the  churches  and  clergy  far  and  near.  He 
died  on  the  28th  of  August,  A.D.  430,  aged 
76  years.  See  Cave,  Histor.  Litterar.  Til- 
lemont,  Memoires — a  THist.  Eccles.,  vol. 
xiii.,  ed.  Paris,  (it  is  omitted  in  the  Brus- 
sels ed.)  J.  Stilling,  Acta  Sanctor.  Augus- 
ti,  torn,  vi.,  p.  213-460.  Scfiroeckh,  Kirch- 
enges,vol.  xv.,  p.  219-530.  Jos.  Mil  tier's 
Church  Hist.,  century  v.,  ch.  2-9  ;  and  es- 
pecially, Aiifrustini  Confessionum  libri  xiii.  ; 
written  about  A.D.  400,  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  ed. 
Benedict. — The  works  of  Augustine  are  so 
numerous,  that  even  their  titles  cannot  be 
here  enumerated.  Volume  first,  of  the  Ben- 
edictine edition,  contains  his  Retractions, 
or  corrections  of  his  own  works,  in  2  books, 
written  A.D.  426 ;  his  Confessions,  in  13 
books  ;  and  13  works  composed  before  he 
was  a  presbyter,  on  scientific,  moral,  and 
polemic  subjects.  Vol.  second  contains  270 
epistles.  Vol.  third  contains  16  treatises 
on  biblical  questions  and  subjects.  Vol. 
fourth  contains  his  exposition  of  the  Psalms. 
Vol.  fifth  contains  394  of  his  popular  ser- 
mons ;  and  317  falsely  ascribed  to  him. 
Vol.  sixth  contains  31  tracts  on  moral,  mo- 
nastic, and  practical  subjects.  Vol.  seventh 


is  occupied  by  his  22  books  de  Civitate  Dei, 
or  history  of  the  visible  kingdom  of  God, 
from  the  creation,  to  the  author's  own  times  ; 
— a  most  learned  work.  Vols.  eighth,  ninth, 
and  tenth,  contain  his  polemic  works  ;  viz. 
vol.  8th,  against  the  Manichees,  theArians, 
the  Antitrinitarians,  the  Origenists,  and  the 
Jeu'S  ;  vol.  9th,  against  the  Donatists  ;  and 
vol.  10th,  against  the  Pelagians.  The  elev- 
enth vol.  contains  his  life,  indices,  6tc. — 
2V.] 

(36)  After  the  edition  of  Gab.  Albaspini- 
us,  [Paris,  1631  and  1679,  fol.],  Lud.  Ell. 
du  Pin,  doctor  of  the  Sorbonne,  published 
the  works  of  Optatus,  with  judicious  illus- 
trations,   [Paris,    1700,    fol. — Of    Optatus, 
about  all  that  is  known,  is  stated  by  Jerome, 
de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  110,  namely  ;  "that  he 
was  an  African  and  bishop  of  Milcvi,  who 
was  on  the  side  of  the  Catholics  ;  and  that  he 
wrote,  during  the  reign  of  Valentinian  and 
Valens,  (A.D.  364-375),  six  books  against 
the  slander  of  the  Donatists  ;  in  which  he 
maintains  that  the  wrong  doing  of  the  Dona- 
tists is  erroneously  charged  on  us." — His 
work  is  entitled,  Contra  Parmcnianum  sec- 
tae  Donatisticae  apud  Carthaginem  episco- 
pum,  de  Schismate  Donatistarum,  libri  vii. 
It  is  a  polemic  work,  in  answer  to  a  book 
published  by  Parmenianus ;    and  contains 
much  of  the  history  of  that  schism,  as  well 
as  of  the   arguments  by  which  each  party 
maintained  its  own  principles,  and  defended 
its  own  conduct. —  Tr.] 

(37)  The  best  edition  of  Paulinus,  is  that 
published  by  Jo.  Bapt.  le  Brun,  Paris,  1685, 
4to,  [in  2  volumes  :  which  L.  A.  Muratori 
republished,  with   some  additions,  Verona, 
1736,  fol. — Meropius  Pontius  Anicius  Pau- 
linus, a  Roman  of  patrician  rank,  was  bom 
at  Bourdeaux  in  France,   A.D.  353.     He 
first  studied  under  the  poet  Decius  Ausvni- 
us  ;  then  went  to  Rome,  became  a  popular 
advocate,  and  was  made  consul  about  the 
year  375.     About  379,  he  commenced  his 
travels  or  wanderings   in   Italy,   Gaul,  and 
Spain,  accompanied  by  his  pious  wife  The- 
resia.     During   this   period  he   formed   ac- 
quaintance with  St.  Ambrose,  St.  Martin, 
and  many  other  eminent  saints.     He  was 
baptized  at  Bourdeaux  A.D  391  ;  and  grad- 
ually parting  with  most  of  his  large,  estate, 
which  he  bestowed  in  charity,  he  retired  to 
Barcelona  in  Spain,  where  he  lived   some 
years  as  a  recluse  or  monk.     In  393  he  was 
ordained   a   presbyter  at   Barcelona.     The 
next  year  he  removed  to  Nola  in  Campania, 
where  he  had  a  small  estate,  near  to  the 


254 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


of  Aquileia,  acquired  fame  by  translating,  into  Latin  various  works  of  the 
Greeks,  particularly  of  Origen  ;  by  his  bitter  contests  with  Jerome ;  and  by 
some  expositions  of  the  holy  scriptures.  He  would  have  held  no  contempt- 
ible rank  among  the  Latin  writers  of  this  century,  had  it  not  been  his  mis- 
fortune to  have  the  powerful  and  foul-mouthed  Jerome  for  his  adversary.(38) 


grave  and  the  church  of  St.  Felix ;  at  which 
numerous  miracles  were  supposed  to  take 
place,  and  which  of  course  was  a  great  re- 
sort of  the  admirers  of  sacred  relics  and  won- 
ders. Here  Paulinus  in  the  year  402,  erect- 
ed an  additional  church,  which  he  adorned 
with  emblems  of  the  Trinity  and  other  reli- 
gious devices.  In  409  he  became  bishop  of 
]NTola,  and  remained  in  that  office  till  his 
death  in  431.  He  was  esteemed  one  of  the 
greatest  saints  ;  and  was  undoubtedly  very 
religious,  though  his  piety  was  of  a  super- 
stitious cast.  His  writings  consist  of  about 
50  letters  to  his  friends,  written  with  a  pleas- 
ing simplicity  of  style,  and  exhibiting  a  true 
picture  of  his  devout  mind,  yet  containing 
little  that  is  of  much  importance  ;  also  32 
poetic  effusions,  of  a  similar  character  with 
his  letters,  15  of  which  are  in  praise  of  St. 
Felix.  He  was  highly  esteemed  by  his  con- 
temporaries, and  by  the  pious  in  after  ages. 
For  an  account  of  him  and  his  works,  see 
Gennadius,  de  Viris  Illustribus,  c.  48,  with 
the  Notes  of  Fahricius  in  his  Biblioth.  Pa- 
tristica  ;  Le  Brun,  Vita  Paulini,  in  his  Opp. 
Paulini ;  Cave,  Hist.  Litterar.  ;  Schroeckh, 
Kirchengeschichte,  vol.  vii.,  p.  123-132  ; 
Jos.  Milner,  Church  Hist.,  century  v.,  ch. 
13.— Tr.] 

(38)  Richard  Simon,  Critique  de  la  Bib- 
liotheque  des  Auteurs  Ecclesiast.,  par  M.  du 
Pin,  tome  i.,  p.  124,  &c.  A  particular  and 
full  account  is  given  of  him,  and  his  reputa- 
tion is  defended,  by  Justus  Fontaninus,  His- 
toria  Litteraria  Aquileiensis,  lib.  v.,  p.  149. 
[See  also  P.  Th.  Cacciari,  Dissertatio  His- 
torica  de  Vita,  Fide,  &c.  Rufini,  subjoined 
to  his  edition  of  Rufinus'  Hist.  Eccl.  ;  and 
De  Rubeis,  Dissertt.  de  Tyrannic  Rufino 
Presbytero,  &c.,  Venice,  1754,  4to. — Gen- 
nadius, de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  17.  Schroeckh, 
Kirchengesch.,  vol.  x.,  p.  112-133.  Cave, 
Histor.  Litter.— Rujlnus  Toranus,  or  Ty- 
rannius,  was  probably  born  at  Concordia, 
near  Aquileia,  about  A.D.  330.  After  liv- 
ing several  years  in  a  monastery  at  Aquileia, 
and  forming  acquaintance  with  Jerome,  he 
was  baptized  there  in  371.  Soon  after,  the 
fame  of  the  Oriental  monks  led  him  to  visit 
them.  Landing  at  Alexandria,  he  became 
acquainted  with  a  rich  Roman  lady,  named 
Melania,  who  was  as  great  an  admirer  of 
monkery  as  himself.  She  became  his  pa- 
Iron,  supported  him,  and  travelled  with  him, 
through  the  remainder  of  his  life.  During 


his  six  years'  residence  in  Egypt,  he  spent 
some  time  among  the  monks  in  the  Nitric 
wilderness,  and  also  heard  lectures  from 
the  famous  Didymus  of  Alexandria.  About 
the  year  378,  he  and  Melania  removed  to 
Jerusalem,  where  they  spent  many  years. 
Melania  occupied  a  nunnery,  in  which  she 
supported  a  considerable  number  of  devout 
sisters.  Rufinus  resided  with  other  monks, 
in  cells  about  the  Mount  of  Olives  ;  was 
much  respected,  often  visited  by  pilgrims, 
and  lived  in  the  greatest  intimacy  with  Je- 
rome, who  then  resided  at  Bethlehem.  About 
the  year  390,  he  was  ordained  a  presbyter, 
by  John  bishop  of  Jerusalem  ;  and  soon  after, 
the  quarrel  between  him  and  Jerome,  re- 
specting Origen's  orthodoxy,  commenced. 
In  the  year  397,  that  controversy  seemed  to 
subside  ;  and  shortly  after,  Rufinus  and  Me- 
lania removed  to  Rome.  Here  his  publica- 
tions concerning  Origen,  rekindled  the  quar- 
rel with  Jerome  ;  and  both  Origen  and  Ru- 
finus were  pronounced  in  the  wrong  by  Anas- 
tasius  the  Roman  pontiff.  In  the  year  399, 
Rufinus  removed  to  Aquileia;  where  he 
spent  several  years  in  translating  works  of 
Origen,  and  writing  apologies  for  him  and 
for  himself.  At  length,  after  Alaric  and  his 
Goths  began  to  lay  waste  all  Italy,  Rufinus 
and  Melania  set  out  for  Palestine,  and  got 
as  far  as  Sicily,  where  Rufinus  closed  his 
life  A.D.  410. — Rufinus  was  a  man  of  re- 
spectable talents,  of  considerable  learning,  a 
handsome  writer,  and  a  very  diligent  scholar. 
His  orthodoxy  and  his  piety  ought  never  to 
have  been  called  in  question.  The  abusive 
treatment  he  received  from  Jerome,  will  ac- 
count for  the  irritation  of  his  feelings  at 
times,  without  supposing  him  destitute  of 
grace. — His  work  which  is  most  frequently 
quoted  in  modern  times,  is  his  ecclesiastical 
history.  The  first  nine  Books  are  a  free 
translation  of  the  ten  Books  of  Euscbius, 
with  considerable  omissions  in  the  latter  part, 
and  some  additions  in  the  first  seven  Books. 
The  two  last  Books,  (the  10th  and  llth), 
are  a  continuation  by  Rufinus.  This  work 
has  been  very  severely  censured  ;  but  of  late, 
it  is  held  to  be  of  some  value.  The  first 
good  edition  of  it  was,  by  P.  Th.  Cacciari, 
Rome,  1740,  2  vols.  4to. — Besides  this,  Ru- 
finus wrote  Vitae  Patrum,  or  a  history  of 
the  eastern  monks  ;  often  published,  and  of 
about  the  same  value  as  the  other  works  of 
the  kind  ;  also  an  exposition  of  the  Creed ; 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


255 


For  an  account  of  Philastrius,(39)  Damasus,(W)  Juvencus,(^l]  and 
other  writers  of  less  note,  the  reader  is  referred  to  those  who  professedly 
treat  of  all  the  Christian  writers.  I  will,  however,  just  mention  Sulpitius 
Severus,  a  Gaul,  the  best  historian  of  that  age  ;(42)  and  Prudentitis,  a 
Spaniard,  and  a  poet  of  considerable  merit. (43) 


the  best  that  has  reached  us,  from  so  early  an 
age  : —  two  Apologies  for  Origen,  and  a 
translation  of  Pamphylus1  Apology  for  him  : 
— two  defences  of  himself  against  Jerome  ; 
one  of  which  is  lost : — Commentaries  on  75 
of  the  Psalms,  and  on  Hosea,  Joel,  and 
Amos,  if  they  are  genuine. — He  translated 
the  works  of  Josephus  ;  the  Recognitions  of 
Clement ;  various  Commentaries  of  Origen, 
and  his  iv.  Books  de  Principiis ;  several 
works  of  Basil  the  Great,  of  Gregory  Nazi- 
anzen,  Anatolius  and  Evagrius. — An  im- 
perfect collection  of  his  works  was  published 
by  DC  la  Barre,  Paris,  1580,  fol.  A  much 
better  edition  in  2  vols.  fol.,  was  commenced 
at  Verona,  by  Domin.  Vallarsi,  of  which  the 
first  vol.  appeared  in  1745. — TV.] 

(39)  [Pkilas  trius,  or  Philastcr,  bishop  of 
Brescia  in  the  north  of  Italy,  A.D.  379-387. 
While  a  presbyter,  he  is  said  to  have  trav- 
elled  nearly   all   over   the   Roman   empire, 
combating  and  endeavouring  to  convert  er- 
rorists  of  every  sort,  and  especially  Arians. 
At  Milan  he  was  severely  handled  by  Aux- 
entius  the  Arian  bishop.     Ambrose,  the  suc- 
cessor of  Auxentius,  showed  him  kindness, 
and  ordained  him  bishop  of  Brescia.     His 
praises  are  told  by  Gaudcjitius,  his  immedi- 
ate successor  in  the  see  of  Brescia.     His 
only  work  is,  de  Haercsibus  Liber,  in   150 
chapters.     It  enumerates  more  heresies  than 
any  of  the  other  ancient  works  ;  but  no  one 
considers   it    an   accurate    and   able   work. 
Philastrius   was  doubtless   a  pious  and  a 
well-meaning  man  ;  but  he  was  incompetent 
to  the  task  he  undertook.     See  Cave,  His- 
toria    Litterar.,    and    Schroeckh,    Kirchen- 
gesch.,  vol.  ix.,  p.  362-384.     The  work  is 
extant  in  the  Biblioth.  Pair.,  torn,  iv.,  p.  701, 
and  ed.  Helmstadt,  1611,  4to,  and  by  J.  A. 

•us,  Harnb.,  1721,  8vo,  and  among 
the  collected  Works  of  the  early  bishops  of 
Brescia.  Brixiae,  1738,  fol.—  TV.] 

(40)  [Damasus,  bishop  of  Rome   A.D. 
366-384,  is  said  to  have  been  of  Spanish 
extract,  but  his  father  was  a  presbyter  of 
Rome,  and  he  was  probably  born  there  about 
the  year  305.     On  the  death  of  Felix,  A.D. 
366,   there   was  great  competition   for  the 
episcopal  chair ;  and  two  bishops  were  cho- 
sen  and  ordained,   namely,    Damasiir   and 
Ursinus  or  Ursirinus.     Much  confusion  and 
even  bloodshed  followed.     But  the  party  of 
Damasus  finally  triumphed.     Damasus  was 
active  in   putting  down   Arianism  in  the 


West ;  and  being  requested,  he  aided  the 
eastern  churches  in  healing  their  divisions. 
For  these  purposes  he  held  several  councils, 
and  wrote  several  letters,  some  of  which  are 
extant.  Two  synodic  epistles  and  a  con- 
fession of  faith  are  preserved  by  Theodoret, 
Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  ii.,  c.  22,  and  1.  v.,  c.  10, 
11.  An  epistle  to  Paulinus  bishop  of  An- 
tioch,  and  about  40  epitaphs,  inscriptions, 
epigrams,  &c.,  are  also  extant.  His  book 
de  Virginitate  is  lost.  Several  spurious 
epistles,  as  well  as  the  Liber  Pontificalis,  or 
Brief  History  of  the  Popes,  are  falsely  as- 
cribed to  him.  The  best  edition  of  his 
works  is  that  by  A.  M.  Merenda,  Rome, 
1754,  fol.  See  Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  c. 
103.  Cave,  Histor.  Litterar.  Bower,  Lives 
of  the  Popes,  vol.  i.,  p.  179-233,  ed.  2d, 
Lond.,  1749.  Merenda,  in  his  ed.  of  the 
works  of  Damasus,  and  Schroeckh,  Kirchen- 
gesch  ,  vol.  viii.,  p.  107-122.— TV.] 

(41)  [Cams  Vettius  Aquilinus  Juvencus. 
Nearly  all  that  is  known  of  the  man,  is  told 
by  Jerome,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  84.     He  says  : 
"  Juvencus,  of  noble  extract,  a  Spaniard,  and 
a  presbyter,  composed  four  books,  in  which 
the   four   Gospels  are  put  into  hexameter 
verse,  almost  verbatim  ;  also  some  poems  in 
the  same  measure,  relating  to  the  order  of 
the    sacraments.     He  flourished  under  the 
emperor  Constantine."     The  four  books  of 
Evangelical  History  are  of  the  nature  of  an 
imperfect  Harmony  of  the  Gospels,  on  the 
basis  of  Matthew.     Juvcncus  possessed  con- 
siderable poetic  genius,  and  understood  ver- 
sification very  well.     His  lines  are  flowing 
and  easy ;    but  he  was    more  solicitous  to 
give  the  history,  truly,  and  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible in  the  language  of  the  Bible,  than  to 
decorate  the  narrative  by  flights  of  fancy  and 
poetic  imagery.     The  best  edition  is  that  of 
Erh.  Rcusch,  Francf.  and  Leips.,  1710,  8vo. 
The  other  poems  mentioned  by  Jerome,  are 
lost.     But  in  the  Nova  Collectio  vett.  Mon- 
umentorum,  torn,  ix.,  p.  15,  &c.,  by  Edw. 
Martcnf,  Paris,  1724-33,  there  is  a  poetic 
version  of  the  book  of  Genesis,  which  bears 
the  name  of  Juvcncus.     See  Cave,  Historia 
Litterar.,  and  Schroeckh,  Kirchengesch.,  vol. 
v.,  p.  262-265.— TV.] 

(42)  [Siil pi  tins  Severus  was  born  in  Aqui- 
tain  Gaul,  of  noble  extract,  and  brought  up 
under  Phabadius  bishop  of  Agen  in  Guienne. 
In  his  youth  he  studied  eloquence,  and  after- 
wards became  an  advocate,  and  married  a 


256 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


lady  of  consular  rank.  Subsequently  he  be- 
came a  monk  under  St.  Martin,  and  a  pres- 
byter at  Primulum,  a  village  between  Nar- 
bbnne  and  Toulouse.  He  was  intimate  with 
St.  Martin  of  Tours,  Paulinus  of  Nola,  and 
Jerome.  In  his  old  age,  Gennadius  tells  us, 
he  was  entangled  by  the  metaphysics  of  the 
Pelagians ;  but  recovering  himself,  he  ever 
after  kept  silence.  He  is  supposed  to  have 
died  about  A.D.  420,  far  advanced  in  life. 
His  style  is  chaste  and  neat,  much  beyond 
the  age  in  which  he  lived :  whence  he  has 
been  called  tlie  Christian  Sallust.  His  best 
work  is  a  Church  History,  (Historia  Sacra), 
in  two  books,  from  the  creation  to  A.D.  400. 
It  is  a  condensed  narrative,  in  a  very  classic 
style,  and  composed  with  some  ability  and 
fidelity.  Besides  this,  he  wrote  the  Life  of 
St.  Martin ;  three  epistles  concerning  him ; 
and  three  dialogues  on  the  miracles  of  the 
Oriental  monks,  and  on  those  of  St.  Martin. 
Several  epistles  of  his  are  lost.  To  him 
Paulinus  of  Nola  addressed  14  epistles, 
which  are  still  extant.  His  works  have  been 
often  printed.  The  last  edition,  perhaps,  is 
that  of  G.  Hornius,  Lugd.  Bat.,  1647,  4to  ; 
often  reprinted,  8vo.  See  Gennadius,  de 
Viris  Illustr.,  c.  19.  Cave,  Historia  Litte- 
raria.— Tr.] 

(43)  [Aurelius  Prudcntius  Clemens,  of 
Spain,  was  born  A.D.  348  ;  but  whether  at 
Tarragona,  Callahorra,  or  Saragossa,  is  not 
settled.  In  his  youth  he  studied  eloquence, 
and  afterwards  managed  causes  and  filled 
civil  offices,  as  an  unprincipled  man.  He 
was  openly  vicious,  and  he  served  some  time 
in  the  army.  At  length,  when  turned  of  50, 
he  became  thoughtful,  his  whole  character 
was  changed,  and  he  devoted  himself  to  wri- 
ting moral  and  religious  poetry.  In  the  year 
405,  he  wrote  Katiripepivuv,  or  12  Latin 
hymns,  adapted  to  our  daily  devotions.  His 
other  poems  are,  "ttfljo/HJ^ta,  or  the  conflict 
between  virtuous  and  vicious  passions  ;  Tepi 
f£(f>tlvuv,  or  fourteen  elegies  on  various  mar- 
tyrs ;  axodeuaif,  or  on  the  divine  nature,  in 
opposition  to  pagans  and  heretics  ;  dfiapriye- 
veia,  or  the  origin  of  sin ;  two  Books  against 
Symmachus,  and  the  worship  of  idols  ;  and, 
(if  it  be  genuine).  oVrro^atov,  or  a  dessert, 
taken  from  the  Old  and  New  Testaments ; 
some  write  it  foVri^ov,  the  Diptyc  or  list  of 
saints  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 
His  commentary  on  the  Hexaemeron  is  lost. 
Prudentius  was  something  of  a  poet ;  but 
has  been  greatly  overrated  by  many.  His 
diction  is  not  pure,  nor  his  versification  cor- 
rect, and  his  thoughts  are  often  flat  prose, 
and  drag  along  to  excessive  length.  A  good 
critic  has  observed,  that  he  was  a  better 
Christian  than  poet.  Yet  he  has  many 
agreeable  passages,  and  some  that  are  really 


fine.  He  also  serves  to  illustrate  the  history 
and  the  religious  views  of  the  age  in  which 
he  lived.  His  collected  works  were  pub- 
lished, by  Weitzen,  Hanov.,  1613,  8vo ;  with 
notes  by  Heinsius,  Amstelod.,  1667,  12mo; 
and  in  usumDelphini,  Paris,  1687, 4to. — See 
Gennadius,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  13.  Cave, 
Hist.  Litterar.  Schroeckh,  Kirchengesch., 
vol.  vii.,  p.  100-123. 

The  Latin  writers  of  inferior  note,  omitted 
by  Dr.  Mosheim,  are  the  following. 

Anastasia,  a  noble  Roman  lady,  the  wife 
of  Publius,  and  a  martyr  in  the  Diocletian 
persecution  A.D.  303.  Two  letters  address- 
ed from  her  prison  to  Chrysogmus,  a  con- 
fessor, are  extant  under  her  name.  See  Sui- 
das,  in  voce  xpvaoyovos. 

Theonas,  a  bishop,  but  where  is  not  known. 
An  excellent  letter  of  his,  addressed  to  Lu- 
cian  the  emperor's  chamberlain,  is  extant  in 
Dacherii  Addit.  ad  Spicileg.,  torn,  xi.,  or  the 
new  ed.,  torn,  iii.,  p.  297.  It  is  supposed  to 
have  been  written  about  A.D.  305.  But 
whether  the  present  Latin  is  the  original,  or 
only  a  translation,  is  uncertain.  See  Cave, 
Histor.  Litterar.,  vol.  i.,  p.  172,  173. 

Rlieticius,  bishop  of  Autun  in  France. 
He  was  in  high  esteem  during  the  reign  of 
Constantine ;  and  wrote  a  commentary  on 
the  Canticles,  and  a  great  volume  against 
the  Novatians  ;  both  of  which  are  lost.  Je- 
rome,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  82. 

Donatus,  an  African  bishop,  from  whom 
the  Donatisf.  faction  took  its  name.  Accord- 
ing to  Jerome,  (de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  93),  he 
wrote  many  tracts  in  support  of  his  sect ; 
and  likewise  a  book  on  the  Holy  Spirit,  which 
accorded  with  Arian  views.  None  of  his 
works  are  extant.  He  was  expelled  from 
Carthage  A  D.  356. 

Julius,  bishop  of  Rome,  A.D.  337-352,  a 
strenuous  opposer  of  the  Arians,  and  a  pa- 
tron of  Athanasius.  Two  of  his  epistles  are 
extant,  one  addressed  to  the  Oriental  bishops, 
and  the  other  to  the  Alexandrians,  in  favour 
of  Athanasius.  Both  are  preserved  in  the 
works  of  Athanasius,  and  the  latter  also  by 
Socrates,  Hist.  Eccl.,  lib.  ii.,  c.  22.  See 
Cave,  Histor.  Litterar.,  and  Bcnccr,  Lives  of 
the  Popes. 

Julius  Firmicus  Maternus,  probably  was 
first  a  pagan,  and  then  a  Christian.  He 
wrote  a  book  on  the  falsehood  of  the  pagan 
religions,  addressed  to  the  emperors  Con- 
stantius  and  Constans,  which  has  been  often 
printed.  There  are  extant,  likewise,  eight 
books  on  astronomies  or  mathematics,  which 
bear  his  name. 

Fortunatianus,  born  in  Africa,  and  for 
many  years  bishop  of  Aquileia  in  Italy.  Af- 
ter contending  long  and  strenuously  against 
the  Arians,  he  joined  with  them  in  354,  and 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


257 


became  as  active  against  the  orthodox.  He 
wrote  commentaries  on  the  Gospels :  but 
nothing  of  his  remains. 

Vitellius,  an  African  Donatist,  who  flour- 
ished about  A.D.  344.  He  wrote  on  the 
world's  hatred  to  the  servants  of  God  ; 
against  the  pagans ;  against  the  Catholics 
as  traditors ;  and  some  other  tracts.  See 
Gennadius,  de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  4.  Nothing 
of  his  remains. 

Macrobius  of  Africa.  As  a  Catholic  pres- 
byter, he  wrote  a  book  addressed  to  confes- 
sors and  virgins  ;  afterwards,  as  a  Donatist 
bishop  resident  at  Rome,  he  composed  the 
martyrdom  of  Maximianus  and  Isaac,  two 
Donatists.  A  large  fragment  of  the  last,  is 
extant  in  Mabillon,  Analect.,  torn.  iv.  He 
flourished  A.D.  344. 

Liberius,  bishop  of  Rome,  A.D.  352-366. 
He  had  a  warm  discussion  with  the  emperor 
Constantino,  in  the  year  355,  at  Milan,  re- 
specting the  persecution  of  the  orthodox  by 
the  Anans  ;  for  his  opposition  to  whom,  he 
was  banished.  During  his  exile,  he  relapsed, 
signed  an  Arian  creed  ;  and  was  restored, 
A.D.  358.  His  dialogue  with  the  emperor 
at  Milan,  is  extant,  in  Theodoret,  Hist.  Eccl., 
1.  ii.,  c.  16  ;  and  16  of  his  epistles  are  collect- 
ed in  the  Acta  Concilior.,  torn,  ii.,  col.  743. 

Euscbtus  Vercellensis,  was  a  native  of 
Sardinia,  and  first  a  lector  at  Rome,  then 
bishop  of  Vercelli  in  the  north  of  Italy,  and 
flourished  A.D.  354.  For  his  vigorous  op- 
position to  the  Arian  cause,  he  was  banished 
in  355,  first  to  Scythopolis  in  Syria,  thence 
to  Cappadocia,  and  afterwards  to  Thebais 
in  Egypt.  Under  Julian  he  regained  his 
liberty,  travelled  extensively  in  the  eastern 
provinces,  was  at  several  councils,  and  re- 
turning to  Italy,  died  A.D.  371.  He  trans- 
lated the  commentary  on  the  Psalms  by  Eu- 
scbiux  Csesariensis,  into  Latin  ;  but  it  is  lost ; 
and  wrote  four  letters  which  are  still  extant. 
A  manuscript  of  the  four  evangelists,  accord- 
ing to  the  old  Italic  version,  written  with  his 
own  hand,  is  preserved  in  the  archives  of 
the  church  of  Vercelli,  and  was  published  by 
J.  A.  Inci,  Milan,  1748. 

Lucifer  Caralitanus,  a  bishop  in  Sardi- 
nia, contemporary  with  Eusebius  Vercellen- 
sis, and  his  companion  in  exile.  He  was 
founder  of  the  sect  called  Luciferians,  who 
held  no  communion  with  Arians,  or  even 
with  such  as  had  been  Arians.  Lucifer  was 
a  man  of  violent  passions,  and  bold  even  to 
rashness.  He  addressed  two  indecorously 
written  books  to  the  emperor  Constantius ; 
and  wrote  likewise,  On  apostate  Princes ; 
On  having  no  intercourse  tcith  heretics  ;  On 
showing  no  indulgence  to  offenders  against 
God ;  That  life  is  tn  be  sacrificed  for  the 
Son  of  God  ;  and  a  short  Epistle  to  Florcn- 
VOL.  I.— K  K 


this.  These  were  published,  Paris,  1568, 
8vo,  and  in  the  Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn,  iv.,  p. 
181  ;  but  the  best  ed.  is  by  Joh.  Dominic 
and  J*.  Coleti,  Venice,  1778,  fol. 

Hilarivs,  a  native  of  Sardinia,  deacon  at 
Rome,  and  associated  with  Eusebius  Ver- 
ccll.  and  Lucifer  Caralit.  in  an  embassy  to 
Constantius,  and  by  him  sent  with  them  into 
exile.  He  became  a  Luciferian.  To  him 
are  attributed — though  without  sufficient 
proof — the  Questions  on  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  printed  among  the  works  of 
Augustine,  vol.  iv.,  and  the  Commentaries 
on  the  Epistles  of  Paul,  published  among 
the  works  of  Ambrose. 

Phoebadius,  bishop  of  Agen  in  the  south 
of  France,  from  at  least  359-392.  He  was 
famous,  in  connexion  with  the  three  pre- 
ceding, in  the  Arian  contests  in  the  West. 
His  book  against  the  Arians,  is  still  extant 
in  the  Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn,  iv.,  p.  300,  ed. 
Paris,  1589  ;  and  by  Casp.  Barth,  Francf., 
1623,  8vo. 

Zeno,  bishop  of  Verona,  who  flourished 
about  A.D.  390.  To  him  are  ascribed  90 
sermons  on  various  texts  and  subjects,  which 
were  compiled  from  Basil,  Hilary,  and  oth- 
ers. They  are  in  the  Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn, 
iii.,  p.  359. 

Fabius  Marius  Victorinus,  of  African 
birth,  was  a  distinguished  pagan  rhetorician 
at  Rome,  who  became  a  convert  to  Christi- 
anity about  the  middle  of  this  century,  and 
died  about  A.D.  370.  While  a  pagan  he 
wrote  or  translated  several  treatises  on  phi- 
losophy, grammar,  and  rhetoric ;  most  of 
which  are  lost.  After  his  conversion,  he 
wrote,  on  the  holy  Trinity  ;  against  the  Ari- 
ans, iv.  books  ;  to  Justin  the  Manichaean  ; 
(against  the  Manichaean  principle  of  two  first 
causes) ;  on  the  commencement  of  the  day  ; 
(whether  it  be  at  evening,  or  in  the  mom- 
ing)  ;  on  the  generation  of  the  divine  Word  ; 
against  Candidus  the  Arian  ;  three  hymns ; 
(on  embracing  the  homoousian  faith) ;  a 
Poem  on  the  seven  Maccabees  ;  and  Com- 
mentaries on  some  of  Paul's  epistles  ;  which 
were  never  published.  His  style  is  intricate, 
obscure,  and  inelegant.  Most  of  what  he 
wrote  after  his  conversion,  is  extant  in  the 
Biblioth.  Patrum,  torn,  iv  ,  p.  293.  See  Je- 
rome, de  Viris  Illustr.,  c.  101,  with  the  Notes 
of  J.  A.  Fabricius. 

Candidus,  an  Arian,  who  flourished  about 
A.D.  364.  He  composed  a  book  on  the  di- 
vine generation,  addressed  to  F.  M.  Victo- 
rinus, which,  with  the  answer  of  Victorinus, 
was  published  by  Andr.  Rivinus,  Gothae, 
1656. 

Pacianus,  bishop  of  Barcelona  in  Spain, 
who  flourished  about  the  year  370,  and  died 
before  A.D.  390.  He  w'rote  a  book  called 


2S8 


II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II,— CHAR  II. 


9f  which  is  lost ;  also  three  epistles 
against  the  Novatians  ;  an  Exhortation  to 
penitence  ;  and  a  tract  on  Baptism,  address- 
ed to  catechumens  :  all  of  which  were  pub- 
lished, Paris,  1533,  4to,  Rome,  1564,  fol., 
Biblioth.  Patrum,  torn,  iv.,  and  still  better, 
in  Aguirrc,  Collectio  Max.  Concil.  Hispan., 
torn,  ii.,  p.  79,  &c. 

Anicia  Falconia  Proba,  a  noY»le  lady  of 
Home,  distinguished  for  her  rank,  hes  piety, 
and  her  beneficence.  She  flourished  about 
A. IX  370.  After  the  d-eath  of  her  husband, 
she  lost  most  of  her  property  by  the  incursion 
ef  the  Goths,  and  fell  into  the  hands  of  Ata~ 
ric,  who  carried  her  to  Africa,  where  she 
died  in  the  first  part  of  the  fifth  century. 
Her  Cento  Virgilianus  de  rebus  divinis,  is 
extant  in  the  Bib.  Pair.,  torn.  v.,p.  1218,  and 
Cologne,  1601,  8vo,  and  Halle,  1719,  8vo. 

Faustinas,  a  presbyter  among  the  Luci- 
fcrians  at  Rome,  flourished  A.D.  384.  He 
wrote  a  petition  to  the  emperors  Valentiniun, 
Tlieodosius,  and  Arcadius  ;  to  which  is  pre- 
fixed a  confession  of  faith ;  and  subjoined  is, 
»he  Rescript  of  Theodosius.  He  also  wrote 
a  book  on  the  Trinity,  against  the  Arians. 
His  works  are  in  the  Bib.  Patrum,  torn,  v., 
j>.  673,  and  were  printed,  Oxford,  1678,  8vo. 

Siricius,  bishop  of  Rome  A.D.  385-398, 
is  the  earliest  Roman  pontiff  whoss  Decretal 
Epistles  are  allowed  to  be  genuine-  Five  of 
his  Epistles  are  in  the  Acta  Concilior.,  torn. 
ii.,  but  the  4th,  which  is  addressed  to  the 
bishops  of  Africa,  is  dcmonstrably  spurious. 
See  Schroeckh,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  viii.,  p. 
122-129  ;  and  Bower,  Lives  of  the  Popes, 
vol.  i.,  p.  233-277. 

Idacius  Clarus  was  a  Spanish  bishop,  per- 
haps of  Merida,  and  flourished  A.D.  385. 
He  was  conspicuous  as  an  opposer  of  the 
Priscillianists ;  suffered  banishment ;  and 
wrote  an  Apologeticum,  which  is  lost ;  a 
book  against  Vinmundus,  an  Arian  deacon  ; 
Explanation  of  some  difficult  passages  of 
scripture  ;  and  other  tracts  against  heresies  : 
all  of  which  are  extant  in  the  Biblioth.  Pa- 
trum, torn,  v.,  p.  726. 


Gaudcnlius,  bishop  of  Brescia  in  northers 
Italy,  (a  different  person  from  Gaud.cnt.ius, 
a  contemporary  Donatist  bishop  of  Tamuga- 
da  in  Africa),  was  travelling  in  the  Asiatic 
provinces,  when  he  was  elected  successor  to 
Pfiilastnus  bishop  of  Brescia,  and  was  com- 
pelled to  return  and  accept  the  office.  He 
brought  with  him  from  the  East,  relics  of 
about  40  saints  ;  and  served  the  church  till 
A.D.  410,  or,  as  some  say,  till  427.  He 
wrote  15  discourses  o«  tracts  on  various  sub- 
jects- ;  also.  On  the  unjust  steward ;  On  the 
text,  My  Father  is  greater  than  I ;  and  the 
Life  »f  Philas&ius  :•  all  published,  Petav,, 
1720,  4to. 

AurelmSf  bishop  of  Carthage  A.D.  390- 
426,  was  a  ina>n  cf  much  influence,  and 
wrote,  A.D.  419,  a  circular  Epistle  on  the 
condemnation  of  Pclagius  and  Cocleslius  ; 
whielv  with  the  letter  of  the  emperor  Hoiio- 
rius  to-  him,  on  the  same  subject,  is  in  Ba- 
ronms,  Annals,  A.D.  419,  t.  v.,  p.  455,  and 
in  the  Concilior.  Collect.,  torn,  ii.,  col.  1609. 

Tichonius,  or  Tychonius,  flourished  A.D. 
390.  He  was  a  learned,  moderate  Dona- 
tist ;  and  wrote  vii.  Rules  for  interpreting 
scripture,  (extant  in  the  Biblioth.  Patrum^ 
torn,  vi.,  p.  49) ;  iii.  Books  on  intestine  war ; 
Explanation  of  divers  causes  ;  and  a  Com- 
mentary on  the  Apocalypse.  Some  have 
supposed,  the  18  Lectures  on  the  Apocas 
lypse,  printed  among  the  works  of  Angastine^ 
to  be  this  Commentary  of  Tuhonrtes..  See 
Gcnnadius,  de  Viris  IUustr.yc.  18'.  Augus- 
tine, de  Doctrina  Christiana,  }.  iii.,  c.  30  ; 
and  Schroeckh,  Kircheagesch.,  vol.  xi.,  p. 
374-382. 

Pelilianus,  a  leading  Donatist  bishop  in 
Numidia,  flourished  A.D.  399.  He  wrote, 
de  uno  Baptismo  ;  and  a  circular  Epistle  to 
his  party  :  to  both  which  Augustine  wrote 
formal  answers.  His  works  are  lost. 

Faustus,  a  Manichaean  bishop  in  Africa, 
flourished  A.D  400.  He  wrote  a  book 
against  the  orthodox  faith  ;  which  Augustins 
quotes  entire,  and  refutes  at  large,  in  33 
Books. — Tr.] 


OF  THKOLOUY. 


CHAPTER  III. 

HISTORY    OF    THEOLOGY. 

§  1 .  State  of  Theological  Learning. — §  2.  Increase  of  Superstition. — «i  3.  Hence  innft- 
nicrable  Pious  Frauds. — <J  4.  Interpreters  of  the  Sacred  Volume. — §  5.  Mode  of  ex- 
plaining the  Christian  Doctrines. — t)  6.  Doctrinal  Writers. — §  7.  State  of  Controver- 
sial Theology. — $  8.  Disingenuous  Methods  of  Disputing. —  $  9.  The  principal  Dispu- 
tants.— <J  10.  Practical  Theology. — $  11.  Faults  of  the  Moral  Writers. — ()  12.  The 
Number  of  Mystics  increased,  and  their  Doctrines  established. — $  13,  14.  Monkish  So- 
cieties.— <J  15.  Different  Orders  of  Monks. — $  16.  Two  pernicious  Moral  Doctrine6. 
— $  17.  Lives  and  Morals  of  Christians. — $  18.  Controversy  with  Meletians. — §  19. 
The  Eustathian  Troubles. — $  20.  The  Luciferians. — $  21.  The  A erian  Controversy. — 
§  22.  Jovinianus. — $  23.  Controversies  relating  to  Origen. — §  24.  Their  Extension 
"-'$  25.  Controversy  respecting  his  Writings. 

$  1.  THAT  the  elementary  principles  of  the  Christian  religion  were 
preserved  entire  and  inviolate,  in  most  churches,  is  certain :  but  it  is 
equally  certain,  that  they  were  very  often  unskilfully  and  confusedly  ex- 
plained  and  defended.  This  is  manifest  from  the  discussions  concerning 
the  three  persons  in  the  Godhead,  among  those  who  approved  the  decis- 
ions of  the  council  of  Nice.  There  is  so  little  clearness  and  discrimina- 
tion in  these  discussions,  that  they  seem  to  rend  the  one  God  into  three 
Gods.  Moreover  those  idle  fictions,  which  a  regard  for  the  Platonic  phi-- 
losophy  and  for  the  prevailing  opinions  of  the  day  had  induced  most  theo- 
logians to  -embrace  even  before  the  times  of  Constantine,  were  now  in  va* 
rious  ways  confirmed,  extended,  and  embellished.  Hence  it  is  that  we 
see,  on  every  side,  evident  traces  of  excessive  veneration  for  departed 
saints,  of  a  purifying  fire  for  souls  when  separated  from  the  body,  of  the 
celibacy  of  the  clergy,  of  the  worship  of  images  and  relics,  and  of  many 
other  opinions,  which  in  process  of  time  almost  banished  the  true  religion> 
or  at  least  very  much  obscured  and  corrupted  it. 

§  3.  Genuine  piety  was  supplanted  by  a  long  train  of  superstitious  ob« 
scrvances,  which  originated  partly  from  opinions  inconsiderately  em* 
braced,  partly  from  a  preposterous  disposition  to  adopt  profane  rites  and 
combine  them  with  Christian  worship,  and  partly  from  the  natural  predi* 
lection  of  mankind  in  general  for  a  splendid  and  ostentatious  religion.  At 
first,  frequent  pilgrimages  were  undertaken  to  Palestine,  and  to  the  tombs 
of  the  martyrs ;  as  if,  thence  men  could  bear  away  the  radical  principles 
of  holiness,  and  certain  hopes  of  salvation.(l)  Next,  from  Palestine  and 

(1)  See  Gregory  Nyssen,  Oratio  ad  cos  signal  for  these  religious  journeys.    Atleast, 

qui  Hierosolymam  adeunt,  Opp.,  torn,    iii.,  it  is  stated  by  Socrates,  Hist.  Eccl  ,  I.  i.,  c. 

p.  568.     Hiertmymug,  Ep.   xiii.,  ad  Pauli-  17,  and  by  Theodore/,  H>  E.,  lib.  i.,  c.  18, 

num,  de  institut.  Monachi,  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  p.  that  she  was  instructed  by  a  dream  to  go  to 

66.     Ja.  Gothofred,  ad  Codicem  Theodos.,  Jerusalem,  and  that  she  wished  to  find  the 

torn,  vi .,  p.  65,  &.c.     Peter  Wesseling,  Diss.  grave  of  Chrigt ;  that  she  actually  did  find 

decaussis  peregrinat.  Hierosolymit.,  prefixed  three  crosses,  with    a  superscription  ;   that 

to  the  Itincrarium  Burdigalense  ;  among  the  one  of  them  instantly  cured  a  dying  woman, 

Vetcra  Rornanor.  Itincraria,  p.  537. —  [Hel-  and  was  therefore  concluded  to  be  the  cross 

««a,  the  mother  of  Constantine  the  Great,  of  Christ.     She  gave  a  part  of  it  to  the  city 

Kcetna  to  have  been  the  tint  who  gave  the  of  Jerusalem  ;  and  scut  the  other  part  to  lh« 


260  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 

from  places  venerated  for  their  sanctity,  portions  of  dust  or  of  earth  were 
brought ;  as  if  they  were  the  most  powerful  protection  against  the  assaults 
of  evil  spirits ;  and  these  were  bought  and  sold  everywhere  at  great 
prices. (2)  Further,  the  public  supplications  by  which  the  pagans  were 
accustomed  to  appease  their  gods,  were  borrowed  from  them,  and  were 
celebrated  in  many  places  with  great  pomp.  To  the  temples,  to  water 
consecrated  in  due  form,  and  to  the  images  of  holy  men,  the  same  efficacy 
was  ascribed  and  the  same  privileges  assigned  as  had  been  attributed  to 
the  pagan  temples,  statues  and  lustrations  before  the  advent  of  Christ. 
Images  indeed  were  as  yet  but  rare,  and  statues  did  not  exist.  And 
shameful  as  it  may  appear,  it  is  beyond  all  doubt,  that  the  worship  of  the 
martyrs, — with  no  bad  intentions  indeed,  yet  to  the  great  injury  of  the 
Christian  cause, — was  modelled  by  degrees  into  conformity  with  the  wor- 
ship which  the  pagans  had  in  former  times  paid  to  their  gods. (3)  From 
these  specimens  the  intelligent  reader  will  be  able  to  conceive,  how  much 
injury  resulted  to  Christianity  from  the  peace  and  repose  procured  by 
Constantine  and  from  an  indiscreet  eagerness  to  allure  the  pagans  to  em- 
brace this  religion.  But  the  plan  of  this  work  will  not  admit  of  long  de- 
tails respecting  such  enormities. 

§  3.  This  unenlightened  piety  of  the  common  people  opened  a  wide 
door  to  the  endless  frauds  of  persons  who  were  base  enough  to  take  ad. 
vantage  of  the  ignorance  and  errors  of  others  disingenuously  to  advance 
their  own  interests.  Rumours  were  artfully  disseminated  of  prodigies 
and  wonders  to  be  seen  in  certain  edifices  and  places,  (a  trick  before  this 
time  practised  by  the  pagan  priests),  whereby  the  infatuated  populace 
were  drawn  together,  and  the  stupidity  and  ignorance  of  those  who  looked 
upon  everything  new  and  unusual  as  a  miracle,  were  often  wretchedly 
imposed  upon. (4)  Graves  of  saints  and  martyrs  were  supposed  to  be 
•where  they  were  not  ;(5)  the  list  of  saints  was  enriched  with  fictitious 
names  ;  and  even  robbers  were  converted  into  martyrs. (6)  Some  buried 
blood-stained  bones  in  retired  places,  and  then  gave  out  that  they  had  been 
informed  in  a  dream,  that  the  corpse  of  some  friend  of  God  was  there  in- 
terred.^) Many,  especially  of  the  monks,  travelled  through  the  different 
provinces,  and  not  only  shamelessly  carried  on  a  traffic  in  fictitious  relics, 
but  also  deceived  the  eyes  of  the  multitude  with  ludicrous  combats  with 
evil  spirits. (8)  It  would  require  a  volume  to  detail  the  various  imposi- 
tions which  were,  for  the  most  part  successfully,  practised  by  artful  knaves, 
after  genuine  piety  and  true  religion  were  compelled  to  resign  their  do- 
minion in  great  measure  to  superstition. 

emperor,  who  encased  it  in  his  own  statue,  naenm,  $  56,  p.  196,  &c.    Jo.  le  Clerc,  in 

and  regarded  it  as  the  Palladium  of  his  new  his  Append.  Augustiniana,  p.  492,  550,  575. 
city ;  and  that  the  people  used  to  assemble  (5)  Concilium  Carthagin.  v.  Canon  I4r 

around  this  statue  with  wax  candles.  See  torn.  i.  Conciliorum,  p.  988,  ed.  Harduin. 
J.  Andr.  Schmidt,  Problem,  de  crucis  Do-  (6)  Sulpitius  Sevcrus,de  Vita  S.  Martini, 

minicae  per  Helenam  Constantini  Imp.  ma-  cap.  8. 
trern  inventione,  Helmst.,  1724.— ScA/.]  (7)  Augustine,  SermoSIS,  $  1,  Opp.,tomv 

(2)  Augustine,  de  Civitate  Dei,  1.  ixii.,  v.,  p.  886,  ed.  Antwerp. 

c.  8,  $  6,  and  many  others.  (8)  See  Ja.  Gothofred,  ad  Codicem  The- 

(3)  This  is  shown  at  length,  by  It.  de  odos.,    torn,    iii.,   p.    172.     Augustine,   de 
Beausobre,  Histoire  du  Manicheisme,  torn,  opere  Monachorum,  cap.   28,  $  36,   Opp., 
ii.,  p.  642,  &c.  torn,  vi.,  p.  364.     Jerome,  Epistola  ad  Ru»- 

(4)  Henry  DodweWs  Dissertat.  ii.,  in  Ire-  ticum,  Opp.r  torn,  i.,  p.  45. 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY. 


261 


§  4.  Many  laboured  earnestly,  few  successfully,  on  the  sacred  volume. 
Jerome,  a  man  of  great  industry  and  not  unskilful  in  the  languages,  made 
a  new  Latin  translation  of  all  the  sacred  books ;  which  was  more  lucid, 
and  considerably  better  than  any  of  the  numerous  old  Latin  versions. (9) 
He  also  took  much  pains  to  set  forth  a  more  correct  edition  of  the  Greek 
version  by  the  Seventy  :  and  the  same  thing,  we  are  told,  was  undertaken 
by  Eusebius,  Aihanasius,  and  Eulhatius.(lti)  The  expositors  of  scrip- 
ture form  a  long  list ;  among  whom  the  most  distinguished  are  Jerome, 
Hilary,  Eusebius,  Diodorus  of  Tarsus,  Rujinus,  Ephraim  Syrus,  Theodo. 
rus  of  Heraclea,  Chrysostom,  Athanasius,  and  Didymus.  Yet  few  of  these 
have  correctly  discharged  the  duty  of  interpreters.  Rujinus,  indeed,  The- 
odorus  of  Heraclea,  Diodorus,  and  a  few  others,  followed  the  literal  sense 
of  scripture  :(11)  the  rest,  after  the  example  of  Origen  their  guide,  search 
for  recondite  meanings ;  and  accommodate,  or  rather  constrain  the  half- 
understood  language  of  the  Bible,  to  speak  of  sacred  mysteries  and  a  Chris- 
tian life. (12)  Augustine  and  Tychonius,  wished  to  establish  rules  for  in- 
terpretation ;  but  neither  of  them  had  ability  to  do  it. (13) 

§  5.  The  doctors,  who  were  distinguished  for  their  learning,  explained 
the  sacred  doctrines  after  the  manner  of  Origen,  (on  whom  they  all  fixed 
their  eye),  in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  that  philosophy  which 
they  learned  in  their  youth  at  school,  namely,  the  Platonic  philosophy  as 
corrected  by  Origen.  Those  who  wish  to  get  a  full  insight  into  this  sub- 
ject, may  examine  Gregory  Nazianzen  among  the  Greeks,  and  Augustine 


(9)  See  Jo..  Fran.  Buddcus,  Isagoge  ad 
Theologiam,  torn,  ii.,  p.  1332,  &c.— [That 
there  were  many  Latin  versions  extant  in  the 
fourth  century,  is  very  clearly  stated  by  Au- 
gustine, de  Doctrina  Christiana,  1.  ii.,  c.  11. 
Of  these,  (as  Augustine  tells  us,  loc.  cit.), 
one  was  called  (Itala)  the  Italic.     But  it  has 
become  usual  to  apply  this  designation  to 
every  ancient  Latin  version,  which  was  not 
amended  by  Jerome;  and  this  has  given  oc- 
casion to  many  mistakes.     See  Mosheim,  de 
Reb.  Christianor.  ante  Const.  M.,  p.  225- 
229.     Jerome  mentions  a  version,  which  he 
calls  (VuJgata)  the  vulgar,  and  which  coun- 
sellor Michaclis  takes  to   be  that    used   at 
Rome  in  the  days  of  Jerome.     These  trans- 
lations, in  respect  to  their  diction,  were  nei- 
ther classical  nor  tolerable  ;  yet  they  may  be 
of  use   to    those  who  wish  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  Latin  language  in  its  full- 
est extent.     They  contain  an  immense  num- 
ber of  Hebraisms,  or  rather  Syriasms  ;  which 
leads  to  the  conjecture,  that   their  authors 
were  in  great  measure  Jews.     These  ver- 
sions fell  into  great  disorder,  in  which  no 
two   copies  were   alike ;    because  different 
translations  were  in  fact  blended  together, 
the  expressions  of  one  evangelist  were  trans- 
ferred into  the  narrative  of  another,  and  many 
glosses  were  incorporated  into  the  text.   This 
induced  the  Roman  bishop  Damasus  to  com- 
mit the  improving  of  these  ancient  versions  to 
Jerome,  who  undertook  the  business  in  the 


year  384.  He  erased  the  false  and  incor- 
rect readings,  and  improved  the  translations, 
which  came  into  his  hands  very  faulty,  uni- 
formly guiding  himself  by  the  original  text 
This  improved  version  of  Jerome  is,  a  few 
alterations  excepted.  that  Vulgate  which  is 
held  in  so  high  estimation  by  the  Catholic 
church.  The  really  new  translation  of  the 
Bible  by  Jerome,  was  published  from  manu- 
scripts, by  the  Benedictine  monks  Jo.  Mar- 
tianay  and  Ant.  Pou<rct,  Paris,  1693,  under 
the  title:  Sancti  Eusebii  Hieronymi  divina 
Bibliotheca,  hac  tenus  inedita.  Their  Pro- 
legomena are  worth  reading.  See  Rich. 
Simon,  Histoire  critique  des  Versions  du 
nouveau  Test.,  cap.  7-12,  and  Michaelis, 
Introduction  to  the  N.  T. — Schl.] 

(10)  Jo.  Fric/c,  de  Canone  Novi  Testm- 
menti.  p.  180. 

(11)  Rich.  Simon,  Critique  de  la  Biblio- 
theque  des  Auteurs  Ecclesiast.,  par  M.  da 
Pin,  torn.  i..  p.  51,  90,  129,  and  torn,  iv.,  p. 
335,  &c.,  and  Histoire  critique  des  princi- 
paux  Commentateurs   du   N.  T.,  cap.  vi., 
&c.,  p.  88,  &c. 

(12)  See  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Carmen  dc 
se    ipso ;    in   Ja.   Tollii,    Insignib.    Itineris 
Italici,  p.  27, 57.     He  very  much  commends 
this  method. 

(13)  Augustine,  in  hisvi.  Books  de  Doc- 
trina Christiana  ;  Tychonius,  in  his  vii.  Rules 
of  Interpretation  ;   which  are  extant  in  the 
Biblioth.  Patrum  maxima,  torn,  vi.,  p.  48. 


269  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.-CHAP.  111. 

among  the  Latins  ;  who  were  regarded  in  the  subsequent  ages  as  the  only 
patterns  worthy  of  imitation,  and  may  be  fitly  styled,  next  to  Origen,  the 
parents  and  supporters  of  philosophic  or  scholastic  theology.  They  were 
both  admirers  of  Plato,  and  held  as  certain  all  his  decisions  which  were 
not  absolutely  repugnant  to  the  truths  of  Christianity ;  and  proceeding 
upon  these  as  their  first  principles,  they  drew  from  them  many  and  very 
subtile  conclusions.  Yet  there  was  another  class  of  theologians,  which 
daily  increased  in  number  ;  namely,  that  of  men  who  supposed  the  knowl- 
edge of  divine  things  was  to  be  acquired,  not  by  reasoning  about  them, 
but  by  contemplation,  and  by  recalling  the  mind  from  its  converse  with  ex- 
ternal objects  to  a  concentration  on  itself.  These  are  commonly  called 
mystics.  That  these  abounded,  appears  from  several  considerations,  and 
particularly  from  the  numerous  herds  of  monks  who  were  spread  nearly 
all  over  the  Christian  world ,  and  from  the  works  of  Diouysius,  (that  Co- 
ryphaeus of  the  mystics),  which  were  produced,  it  seems,  in  this  age,  and 
by  some  one  of  this  class. 

§  6.  Among  the  writings  of  this  age,  in  which  the  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity are  stated  and  explained,  the  first  place  is  justly  due  to  the  cate- 
chetical Discourses  of  Cyril,  bishop  of  Jerusalem.  For  those  who  would 
persuade  us,  that  these  Discourses  were  the  production  of  a  subsequent 
age,  are  so  blinded  by  zeal  for  a  party,  as,  not  to  discern  the  truth.  (14) 
Many  would  also  here  place  the  Divine  Institutions  of  Lactantius ;  but  im- 
properly, because  these  Institutes  were  designed  rather  to  confute  those 
who  still  adhered  to  polytheism,  than  to  unfold  the  truths  taught  by  inspi- 
ration. The  System  of  Doctrine  addressed  to  the  clergy  and  laity,  which 
is  ascribed  to  AtJMnazius,  appears  to  have  been  the  production  of  a  later 
age.  (15)  There  are  however,  in  the  works  of  Athanasius,  Chrysostom,  the 
Gregories,  and  others,  as  now  extant,  many  passages  from  which  we  may 
learn  how  the  best  informed  men  of  this  age  handled  the  leading  topics 
of  the  Christian  religion.  On  the  Trinity  in  particular,  we  have  the  twelve 
Books  of  Hilary  of  Poictiers.  The  Ancoratus  of  Epiphanius  explains  the 
doctrine  concerning  Christ  and  the  Holy  Spirit.  On  baptism,  we  have  the 
work  of  Pacianus,  addressed  to  catechumens ;  and  a  work  of  Chrysos. 
torn,  on  the  same  subject,  in  two  Books.  The  wyorks  of  Jerome,  Augus- 
tine, and  others,  which  were  designed  to  impart  correct  views  on  reli- 
gious subjects,  and  to  confute  the  opposers  of  the  truth,  are  here  omitted. 

§  7.  From  the  disputes  with  those  who  were  regarded  as  opposed  to, 
divine  truth,  the  ancient  simplicity  had  nearly  taken  its  flight :  and  in 
place  of  it,  dialectical  subtilties  and  quibbles,  invectives,  and  other  disin- 
genuous artifices  had  succeeded,  more  becoming  the  patrons,  than  the  op- 
posers  of  error.  Censures  of  this  habit,  by  men  of  eminence,  are  still  ex- 
tant^ 16)  I  pass  in  silence  those  rhetorical  figures  and  flourishes,  by 
which  many  endeavoured  to  parry  the  weapons  of  their  adversaries,  and 
to  involve  in  obscurity  the  question  under  discussion ;  likewise  the  incli- 
nation to  excite  odium  against  their  antagonists,  so  common  to  many ; 
and  the  disregard  of  proper  arrangement  and  of  perspicuity,  and  other 

(14)  See  Jo.  Fecht,  Comment,  de  originc  (16)  Methodius,    cited    by    Epiphanius, 
Missarum  in  honorem  Sanctorum,  p.  404,  <fec.  Ha?resis    64,    Opp.,    tome    i..    page   563  ; 

(15)  [It  is  not  so  much  a  treatise  on  dog-  Gregory  Nazianzen,  in  many  places:  aud, 
matics,  as  one  on  morals,  containing  rules  of  others, 

life,  especially  for  monks, — S<M.] 


5IISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY.  <X53 

"habits  which  wore  no  better  in  their  discussions.  Yet  so  far  were  some 
writers  of  this  century  from  disguising  these  faults,  that  they  rather  claimed 
praise  for  them.  It  must  be  owned,  however,  that  their  antagonists  made 
use  of  tin-  same  weapons. 

§  8.  With  the  ancient  form  of  discussion,  new  sources  of  argument 
were  in  this  age  combined.  For  the  truth  of  doctrines  was  proved  by  the 
number  of  martyrs  who  had  believed  so,  by  prodigies,  and  by  the  confes- 
sions of  devils,  that  is,  of  persons  in  whose  bodies  some  demon  was  sup. 
posed  to  reside.  The  discerning  cannot  but  see,  that  all  proofs  drawn 
from  such  .sources  are  very  fallacious,  and  very  conveniejit  for  dishoiicsJ 
men  who  would  practise  imposition.  And  I  greatly  fear,  that  most  of 
those  who  at  this  lime  resorted  to  such  proofs,  notwithstanding  they  were 
grave  and  eminent  men,  may  be  ju.-st.Jy  charged  with  the  dangerous  pro- 
pensity  to  use  deception.  Ambrose,  in -controversy  u'ith  the  Arians,  brings 
forward  persons  possessed  with  devils,  who,  when  the  relics  of  Gerxasius 
and  Protasius  arc  produced,  are  constrained  to  cry  out,  that  die  doctrine 
of  the  Nicene  council  concerning  three  persons  in  the  Godhead,  is  true 
and  divine,  and  the  doctrine  of  the  Arians  false  and  pernicious.  This 
testimony  of  the  prince  of  darkness,  Ambrose  regards  as  proof  altogether 
unexceptionable.  But  the  Arians  openly  ridiculed  the  prodigy  and  main- 
tained, that  Ambrose  had  bribed  these  infernals  to  bear  testimony  in  his 
favour.(17)  And  many,  I  am  aware,  will  be  more  inclined  to  believe  the 
Arians,  than  to  give  credit  to  Ambrose  •  notwithstanding  he  is  enrolled 
among  saints,  and  they  araong  heretics. (18) 

§  9.  Besides  Apollinaris,  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Cyril  of  Alexandria,  and 
others,  who  confuted  the  emperor  Julian ;  the  adherents  to  idolatry  were 
vigorously  and  successfully  encountered  by  Lactantius,  by  Atlianasius,  br 
Jii/iu>t  Firmiciis  j\lcitrrnns,  by  the  younger  Apollhiaris,  whose  books  a,gainst 
Porphyry  are  unhappily  lost,  by  Augustne,  in  his  twenty-two  Books  oil 
the  City  of  God,  and  in  bis  three  lost  Books  against  the  pagans,  and  above 
all,  by  Eusebhis  of  Ciesarea.  in  his  Evangelical  Preparation,  and  in  his 
book  against  Hierocks.  Attempts  to  convert  the  Jews  were  made  by  Eu- 
scliins  of  Em/.:ssa,  by  Dwdorus  of  Tarsus,  and  by  Chrysostom,  in  his  six 
Books  *'Ji!l  oxtant.  Against  all  the  heresies,  Ephraim  Syrus,(19)  James 
of  Nisihls,  Didymue,  and  And  en  Hits  took  up  the  pen.  So  did  EpiphafttUg, 
in  his  extensive  work  on  the  heresies,  which  he  denominated  Panarium: 
and  Gregory  Na-Kianzen,  more  -concisely,  in  his  Oration  on  the  Faith. 
The  short  works  of  Augustine  and  Philastrius,  rather  enumerate  the  here- 
>ies.  than  confute  them. 

§  10.  The  state  of  moral  or  practical  theology  would  have  been  very 
flourishing,  if  the  progress  of  any  branch  of  knowledge  could  be  meas- 
ured by  the  number  of  the  writers  on  it;  for  very  many  laboured  to  per- 
fect and  inculcate  practical  religion.  Among  the  Orientals,  the  eflorte  of 
James  of  jV/.y/'/i/.v,  or  as  some  say,  of  Sanigaj(W)  and  Ephritim  Syrus, 

(17)  Amfirosc,  Epist.  xiii.,  p.  878,  &c.  {19)  See  Jos.  -Sim.  Assema.n,  Biblioth. 
J'dnlimix,  tie  Vita  Ambrosii,  p.  81.  Orient.  Clement.  Vaticana,  torn,  i.,  p.  118, 

(18)  See  Jo.  If.  C'lrrc,  Ap|>cndix  Angus-  125.  &c.     From  his  extracts,  it  appears  that 
tiniana,  p.  375.     More  examples  of  this  kind  Ephraim,   though  a  pious  man,  was  not  a 
might  he  mentioned.     See -Gregory  Nysscn,  dexterous  polemic. 

<le  Vita  Grejjorii  Nro-Ca^aricnsis. Opp  .torn.  (20)  Jos.  Stm.  Assertion,  in  his  Biblioth. 
ii.,  p.  977,  978.  Sulpilius  Seccrus,  Histo-  Orient..  &c..  torn.  i..  p.  17,  thinks,  that  the 
cia  JSarra,  1.  iL,  <:-  38,  j>.  201.  waitings  ascribed  to  James  of  Xifihix,  sbouU 


264  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 

were  very  considerable  in  this  department.  What  we  meet  with  respect- 
ing the  life  and  duties  of  a  Christian,  in  the  writings  of  Basil  the  Great, 
Gregory  Nyssen,  Chrysostom,  Ambrose,  Augustine,  and  others,  can  neither 
be  altogether  approved,  nor  wholly  condemned.  Many  give  the  prefer- 
ence to  the  three  Books  of  Ambrose,  on  the  duties  of  ministers  of  the 
church,  which  are  written  after  the  manner  of  Cicero :  and  they  certainly 
deserve  commendation,  so  far  as  the  intentions  of  the  writer  and  the  ele- 
gance of  his  thoughts  are  concerned  ;  but  they  contain  many  things,  which 
may  be  justly  censured.  Perhaps,  before  all  others  who  wrote  on  practi- 
cal piety,  the  preference  is  due  to  Macarius,  the  Egyptian  monk  ;(21) 
from  whom,  after  deducting  some  superstitious  notions,  and  what  savours 
too  much  of  Origenism,  we  may  collect  a  beautiful  picture  of  real  piety. 

§  11.  About  all  the  writers  in  this  department,  are  defective  in  the  fol- 
lowing respects.  First,  they  pay  no  regard  to  method  and  a  just  arrange- 
ment of  their  thoughts  on  the  subject  they  attempt  to  explain.  They  rare- 
ly define,  and  never  divide  their  subject,  but  pour  out  promiscuously  what- 
ever comes  up  in  their  pious  but  not  very  clear  and  correct  minds.  In 
the  next  place,  they  either  neglect  to  trace  the  duties  of  men  back  to  their 
sources  and  to  their  first  principles,  or  they  derive  them  from  precepts 
and  doctrines  which  are  either  manifestly  false  or  not  well  ascertained. 
Lastly,  when  they  come  to  the  proof  of  their  positions,  most  of  them  do  not 
resort  to  the  law  of  God  for  arguments  to  enforce  duty  and  put  down  vice, 
but  to  airy  fancies,  to  frigid  allegories,  and  fine  spun  subtilties,  better 
suited  to  tickle  the  imagination  than  to  awaken  and  overpower  the  con- 
science. 

§  12.  But  still  their  works  are  far  more  tolerable,  than  that  combina- 
tion of  the  precepts  of  Christ  with  the  precepts  of  Plato,  (or  rather  with 
those  of  the  Alexandrine  philosophers  the  followers  of  Ammonius  Saccas), 
and  that  twofold  kind  of  piety,  the  one  more  perfect  and  complete,  and 
the  other  less  so,  which  almost  all  now  embraced.  How  very  much  these 
views  of  religion  had  gained  ground,  may  appear  from  the  fact,  that  those 
who  had  long  cried  up  a  sort  of  recondite  and  mysterious  knowledge  of 
divine  things,  wholly  different  from  the  common  knowledge  of  the  vulgar, 
ventured  in  this  century  to  carry  out  their  views  and  reduce  them  to  a 
regular  system.  For  it  is  most  probable,  that  it  was  among  the  Greeks  of 
this  century,  (though  some  think  it  was  earlier,  and  some  that  it  was  later), 
lived  that  fanatic,  who  assumed  the  name  and  the  character  of  Dionysius 
the  Areopagite,  the  disciple  of  St.  Paul ;  and  who  under  the  cover  of  this 
shield  gave  laws  and  instructions  to  those  that  wished  to  become  separated 
from  the  world  and  to  bring  back  the  soul — that  sundered  particle  of  the 
divine  nature — to  its  pristine  state  by  contemplation. (22)  As  soon  as  the 

rather  be  ascribed  to  a  person  of  Saruga.  Judicium  de  scriptis  Dionysii,  Opp.,  torn. 

But  in  his  addenda,  p.  558,  he  modifies  his  ii.,pt  i ,  p.  562.     Matur.  Veissdela  Croze, 

opinion  in  some  measure.  in  his  Histoire  du  Christianisme  d'Ethiopie, 

(21)  See  the  Acta  Sanctorum,  Januarii,  p.  10,  &c.,  endeavours  to  prove  that  Syne- 
torn,  i.,  p.   1005.     [See  the  brief  account  sius,  a  celebrated  philosopher  and  bishop  in 
of  him  and  his  writings,  in  note  (28),  p.  246,  Egypt,  of  the  fifth  century,  was  the  author  of 
supra.  —  Tr.]  the  Dionysian  writings ;  and  that  he  designed 

(22)  Those  who  have  written  concerning  by  them  to  support  the  doctrine  of  but  one 
this  deceiver,  are  enumerated  by  Jo.  Fran,  nature  in  Christ.     But  he  uses  feeble  argu- 
Buddeus,  Isagoge  ad  Theologian,  1.  ii.,  c.  ments.     Nor  are  those  more  substantial,  by 
iv.,  $  8,  p.  602,  &c.     See  also  Jo.  Launoi,  which  Jo.  Phil.  Baratier  (in  his  Diss.  sub- 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY.  265 

writings  of  this  man  spread  among  the  Greeks  and  Syrians,  and  especially 
among  the  solitaries  and  monks,  it  is  not  easy  to  describe,  how  much  dark- 
ness  came  over  the  minds  of  many,  and  what  an  accession  of  numbers  was 
made  to  those  who  maintained  that  converse  with  God  is  to  be  had  by  mor- 
tifying the  senses,  withdrawing  the  thoughts  from  all  external  objects,  sub- 
duing  the  body  with  hunger  and  hardships,  and  fixing  the  attention  on  God 
and  eternal  things,  in  a  kind  of  holy  indolence. 

§  13.  The  truth  of  these  remarks  is  evinced,  by  that  vast  multitude  of 
monks  and  sacred  virgins  who,  as  soon  as  peace  was  given  to  the  Chris- 
tians,  spread  themselves  with  astonishing  rapidity  over  the  whole  Chris- 
tian world.  Many  persons  of  this  description  had  long  been  known  among 
the  Christians,  living  as  solitaries,  in  the  deserts  of  Egypt.  But  Antony 
was  the  first  who,  in  the  year  305,  collected  them  into  an  associated  com- 
munity in  Egypt,  and  regulated  their  mode  of  living  by  fixed  rules. (23) 
His  disciple  Hilarion,  the  next  year,  undertook  the  same  thing  in  Pales- 
tine and  Syria.  About  the  same  time,  Aones  or  Eugenius,  with  his  asso- 
ciates Gaddana  and  Azyzo,  introduced  this  mode  of  life  into  Mesopotamia 
and  the  neighbouring  countries. (24)  These  were  imitated  by  many  others, 
with  so  much  success,  that  in  a  short  time  all  the  East  swarmed  with  per- 
sons who,  abandoning  the  occupations  and  conveniences  of  life  and  all  in- 
tercourse with  society,  pined  away  amid  various  hardships,  hunger  and 
sufferings,  in  order  to  attain  to  a  more  close  communion  with  God  and  the 
angels.  The  Christian  church  would  have  remained  free  from  these  nu- 
merous tortures  of  the  mind  and  body,  had  not  that  great  and  fascinating 
doctrine  of  the  ancient  philosophy  gained  credence  among  Christians,  that 
to  attain  to  happiness  and  communion  with  God,  the  soul  must  be  freed 
from  the  influence  of  the  body,  and  for  this  purpose,  the  body  must  be  sub- 
dued. 

§  14.  This  austere  discipline  passed  from  the  East  into  the  West,  and 
first  into  Italy  and  the  adjacent  islands,  though  it  is  uncertain  who  conveyed 
it  thither.(25)  Afterwards,  St.  Martin,  the  celebrated  bishop  of  Tours, 

joined  to  his  book  de  successione  Romanor.  eleven  epistles.  These,  with  the  comment- 
Episcop.,  p.  286),  endeavours  to  prove,  that  aries  of  some  of  the  later  Greek  theologians, 
Dicmysius  of  Alexandria  was  the  true  author  and  notes  by  the  moderns,  were  printed 
of  those  writings. — [The  real  author  of  these  Gr.  and  I,at.,  Antwerp,  1634,  and  Paris, 
works  is  wholly  unknown.  That  he  was  1644,  2  vols.  fol.  See  Cave,  Historia  Lit- 
not  Dionysius  the  Arcopagite,  mentioned  terar.  Daillf,  de  Scriptis  Dionysii  Areopa- 
Acts  xvii.,  34,  as  he  pretends  to  be,  and  was  gitae.  Genevae,  1666,  4to.  Bp  Pearson, 
generally  believed  to  be,  from  the  sixth  cen-  Vindiciae  Ignatianae,  p.  i.,  c.  10. — TV.  ] 
tury  on  to  the  fifteenth,  is  certain.  That  he  (23)  Antony  and  his  regulations  are  treat- 
was  a  Greek  who  lived  some  time  in  the  ed  of  in  the  Acta  Sanctor.  ad  diem  17,  Jan- 
fourth  century,  is  generally  admitted;  though  uarii,  torn.  ii..  p.  107. 

some  place  him  a  century  later.     That  he         (24)  See  Jos.   Sim.  Asseman,  Biblioth. 

was  Apollinaris  senior,  or  junior,  of  Laodi-  Orient.  Clement.  Vaticana,  torn,  iii.,  pt.  ii., 

cea,  several  have  laboured  to  evince;  but  p.  48,  &c. 

without  much  success.  He  was  orthodox,  (25)  The  majority  follow  Barmiivs,  main- 
pious,  and  certainly  not  destitute  of  talent,  taining  that  it  was  St.  Atftanasius  who,  about 
His  works  consist  of  single  Books,  on  the  the  year  340,  transplanted  the  monastic  in- 
Ccelestial  Hierarchy,  or  the  invisible  world,  stitution  from  Egypt  into  Italy,  and  erected 
the  church  above  ;  on  the  Ecclesiastical  Hi-  the  first  monastery  at  Rome.  See  Makillon, 
erarchy,  or  the  visible  church  of  God  on  the  Praefatio  ad  Acta  Sanctor.  Ord.  Benedict., 
earth,  its  order,  worship,  and  ordinances;  torn,  i.,  p.  ix.,  &c.  But  Lud.  An/.  Mnritian 
on  the  Divine  Names,  or  the  designations  opposes  this  opinion,  and  contends  that  the 
of  God  in  the  Scriptures  ;  on  Mystical  The-  'first  European  monastery  was  built  at  Milan. 
ology,  or  on  the  perfections  of  God ;  and  Antiq.  Italicar.  wedii  aevi,  torn,  v.,  p.  364. 

VOL.  I— L  L 


260 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  H.— CHAP.  III. 


erected  some  monasteries  in  Gaul ;  and  his  example  and  his  discourses  pro- 
duced such  eagerness  to  embrace  a  monastic  life,  that  two  thousand  monks 
are  said  to  have  assembled  together  at  his  funeral. (26)  From  thence  this 
mode  of  life  gradually  extended  over  the  other  countries  of  Europe.  Those 
studious  of  such  matters  however,  must  know,  that  there  has  always  been 
a  wide  difference  between  the  monks  of  the  West  and  those  of  the  East ; 
and  that  the  former  could  never  be  brought  to  bear  the  severe  rules,  to 
which  the  latter  voluntarily  submitted.  For  our  part  of  the  world  is  not 
so  filled  with  persons  who  are  by  nature  austere,  morose,  delirious,  and 
fanatical,  as  those  Oriental  regions  are ;  nor  will  our  bodies  endure  that 
abstemiousness  in  regard  to  nourishment,  which  those  will  which  were 
born  under  a  dry  and  burning  atmosphere.  It  was  therefore  rather  the 
name  and  the  shadow  of  that  solitary  life  which  Antony  and  others  institu- 
ted in  the  East,  than  the  thing  itself,  which  was  brought  into  the  countries 
of  Europe.(27) 

§  15.  These  monks(28)  were  not  all  of  the  same  kind  ;  for  first,  they 
were  divided  into  Coenobites  and  Eremites.  The  former  lived  and  ate  to- 
gether in  the  same  house,  and  were  associated  under  a  leader  and  head, 
whom  they  called  Father,  or  in  the  Egyptian  tongue,  Abbot.(29)  The  lat- 

Again,  Just.   Fontinanus,  in   his  Historia  edacity,  and  goes  on  to  say  :  "  I  perceive 

Litterar.  Aquileiens.,  p.  155,  &c.,  maintains  that  he  refers  rather  to  the  Oriental  monks, 

that  the  first  society  of  monks  was  collected  than  to  the  occidental ;  for  edacity  in  the 

at  Aquileia.     None  of  these  writers  adduces  Greeks  [and  Orientals]  is  gluttony;  in  the 

unexceptionable  proof.     The  first  convent  of  Gauls  it  is  nature."     Immediately,  there- 

nuns  was  erected  at  Verona,  near  the  close  fore,  on  the  introduction  of  the  monastic  in- 

of  this  century,  and  by  Ze.no  the  bishop  of  stitution  into  Europe,  the  occidental  monks 


Verona  ;  if  we  may  give  credit  to  the  broth- 
ers Ballcrini,  in  their  Diss.  ii.  ad  Zenonem 
Veronens.,  p.  115,  &c. 

(20)  See  Sulpilius  Severus,  de  Vita  Mar- 
tini, cap.  x.,  p.  17,  ed.  Veron.,  where  the 


differed  widely  from  the  Oriental  in  their 
customs  and  mode  of  living,  and  were  taxed 
by  them  with  voraciousness  and  gluttony. 

(28)  [The  word  monk,  (fiovaxoc,  from  /w- 
vufetv,  to  live  alone),  first  occurs  in  the  fourth 

mode   of  life  "adopted  by  these   Martinian     century;  and  has  some  similarity  with  as- 
monks  is  particularly  described.     See  also     crttc  [<WWFW,  from  UOKEU,  to  practise,  to  ex- 
ercise.]    At  least,  the  monks  were  also  call- 


the  Histoire  litteraire  de  la  France,  torn,  i., 
pt.  ii.,  p.  42,  and  others. 

(27)  This  difference  between  the  Oriental 
and  the  occidental  monks,  as  to  their  mode 
of  living,  and  the  cause  of  it,  are  pleasantly 
noticed  by  Sulpitt.us  Scverus,  Dial.  i.  de 
Vita  Martini,  c.  2,  p.  65,  ed.  Verona.  Sul- 
pitrus,  one  of  the  interlocutors,  having  de- 
scribed the  dry  and  sparing  diet  of  the  Egyp- 
tian monks,  turned  to  his  Gallic  friend,  and 
said  : 

herbs  and  half  a  loaf,  as  a  dinner  for  five 
men  7"  The  Gaul,  reddening  a  little  on  be- 
ing so  rallied,  replied :  "  You  are  at  your 


ed  ascetics ;  though  all  ascetics  were  not 
monks :  for  the  name  ascetic  denotes  a 
Christian  who  devotes  himself  to  severe  re- 
ligious exercises,  and  particularly  to  absti- 

ways  existed  among  Christians  ;  but  these 
were  not  always  monks.  The  word  ascetic 
is  a  generic  term  ;  the  word  monk  denotes 
a  species  under  that  genus.  This  is  con- 

,    ceded  by  the  Catholics,  Valesius  (notes  on 
How    would    vou    like  a  bunch  of    -&      ,     Jr,-  ,.   T?     ,         ,  ,4 

Luseb.,  Hist.  Jbccles.,  1.  XL,  c.  17,  and  de 

Martyr.  Palaest.,  c.  11),  and  by  Pa<?i,  Crit- 
ica  in  Annal.  Baronii,  ad  ami.  62,  $  4,  torn, 
p.    48  — The  males  among  the  monks 


.*f  •  0    i     ...  /•  i       .  i.,      it.     -*u  1  nc    UIOIGB    auiwu"     uic     mviiivn 

old  practice,  bulmtms,  lor  you  neglect  no  n    i  ;v       •       i  »u    r       i      »T 

.     V,    .*  6rr,  ,,.       were  called  A onm,  and  the  females  Nonnac. 

op[)ortunuy  that  occurs,  to  tax  us  [Gallic 

monks]  with  voracity.  But  it  is  cruel  in 
you,  to  require  us  Gauls  to  live  in  the  man- 
ner of  angels. — But  let  that  Cyrenian  [monk] 
content  himself  with  such  a  dinner,  since  it 
is  his  necessity  or  nature  to  go  hungry. — 
We,  as  I  have  often  told  you,  are  Gauls." 


See  Jerome,  Ep.  18,  ad  Eustoch.,  Opp.,  torn, 
iv.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  34,  ed.  Martianay.  Erasmus 
derives  the  term  nonnus  from  the  Egyptian 
language  :  Gcrh.  Jo.  Vossius  derives  it  from 
the  Hebrew  p^,  a  son;  de  Vitiis  Sermo- 

nis.  1.  i.,  c.  6,  p.  9,  1.  ii.,  c.   13,  de  Orig. 


In  the  same  diatomic,  cap.  4,  p.  69,  70,  he     Idolol.,  1.  i.,  c.  24. — SchL] 

taxes  Jerome  with  accusing  the  monks  of        (29)  [The  cocnoliles  derived  their  name 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY. 


267 


tcr,  the  Eremites,  led  a  cheerless,  solitary  life,  in  certain  parts  of  the  coun. 
try,  dwelling  in  hovels  among  the  wild  be;ists.(30)  Still  more  austere  than 
the  Eremites,  were  those  who  were  called  Anchorites.  These  lived  in 
desert  places,  with  no  kind  of  shelter ;  fed  on  roots  and  plants  ;  and  had 
no  fixed  residence,  but  lodged  wherever  night  overtook  them,  so  that  visit- 
ers  might  not  know  where  to  find  them. (31)  The  last  class  of  monks 
were  the  Vagrants,  called  by  the  Egyptians  Sarabaitae,  who  roamed  about 
the  provinces,  and  from  city  to  city,  and  got  their  living  without  labour,  by 
pretended  miracles,  by  trafficking  in  relics,  and  by  other  impositions. (32) 
Among  the  Coenobites,  many  were  vicious  and  profligate  ;  but  not  so  many 
as  among  the  Sarabailes,  most  of  whom  were  knaves  and  villains.  Of  the 
Eremites,  the  greater  part  were  delirious  fanatics,  who  were  not  in  their 
right  mind. (33)  All  these  monks  were  hitherto  laymen,  or  separate  from 
the  clerical  order,  and  under  the  care  and  protection  of  the  bishops.  But 
many  of  them  were  now  admitted  into  the  rank  of  clergymen,  even  by  the 
command  of  the  emperors  ;  and  so  great  was  their  reputation  for  sanctity, 
that  bishops  were  often  chosen  from  among  them.(34) 

§  16.  To  these  defects  in  the  moral  system  of  the  age,  must  be  added 
two  principal  errors  now  wcllnigh  publicly  adopted,  and  from  which  af- 
terwards immense  evils  resulted.  The  first  was,  that  to  deceive  and  lie, 
is  a  virtue,  when  religion  can  be  promoted  by  it.  The  other  was,  that  er- 
rors in  religion,  when  maintained  and  adhered  to  after  proper  admonition, 
ought  to  be  visited  with  penalties  and  punishments.  The  first  of  these 


from  [KoivoCiiov]  cocnobium,  (K0tv6f  ftiof),  a 

habitation  in  which  several  monks  lived  to- 
gether. The  ancients  discriminated  between 
a  cocnobium  and  a  monastery.  The  latter 
was  the  residence  of  proper  and  solitary 
monks  ;  the  former,  of  associated  monks, 
who  lived  together  in  a  society.  The  hab- 
itation of  a  single,  solitary  monk,  might  be 
called  a  monastery,  but  not  a  cocnobium. 
Sec  Cassianus,  Collat.  xviii.,  c.  10,  Opp., 
p.  525,  and  compare  Jerome,  Ep.  95,  ad 
Kusticum  monachum,  Opp.,  torn.,  iv.,  pt. 
ii.,  p.  775,  and  Gregory  Na?..,  Orat.  xxi., 
Opp.,  torn  i.,  p.  384.—  The  nuns  also  had 
their  presidents,  who  were  called  Mothers. 
See  Jerome.  Ep.  20.  Opp.,  torn,  iv.,  pt.  ii., 
p.  51.  See  also  Hin»hnm.  Origines  Eccle- 
siast..  vol.  iii.,  p  W.—Schl  ] 

(30)  [From  a  passage  in  the  beginning  of 
the  Historia  Lansiaca  of  Palladins,  it  may 
be  inferred,  that  in  the  most  ancient  times, 
the  eremites  and  the  anchorites  were  the 
same  ;  for  he  speaks  of  the  dvo^upi^ruv  TIJV 
IT  r/i  !'!»';/tt;>.  I3nt  subsequently,  a  distinc- 
tion was  made  between  them. —  Srlil.  The 
terms  monks,  ercmi/cs,  and  anchorites  or  an- 
achorilcs,  were  at  first,  all  used  as  synony- 
mous ;  and  were  applied  indiscriminately  to 
those  Egyptian  ascetics,  who  urax'-ipnaar  re- 
tired from  the  world,  and  lived  solitary  fio- 
vaxoi  (from  ftovof,  alone)  in  the  \ftldernttl 
tv  ry  fpfifiM,  for  the  sake  of  practising  (tia- 
Kttv)  their  religious  exercises  without  inter- 


ruption. The  words  ascetic  and  monk  con- 
tinued to  be  generic  ;  and  were  applied  to 
all,  who  devoted  themselves  to  a  religious 
life,  and  subjected  themselves  to  strict  rules 
of  living.  The  other  terms  acquired  more 
appropriate  significations,  when  the  monks 
became  distributed  into  various  classes  or 
sorts.—  TV.] 

(31)  See  Sulpi/ius  Srrr.rus,  Dial.   i.  de 
Vitn  Martini,  c.  ix  ,  p.  80,  &c.,  ed.  Verona. 
[When  several  anchorites  lived  in  the  same 
wilderness,  only  a  little  separated  from  each 
other,  they  were  collectively  called  a  J^aura. 
See  Eva/rrius,  Historia  Ecclcs..  1.  i.,  c.  21, 
and   Valerius,  note  on  the  passage.      See 
also  Walch's  Hist.  Eccles.  N.  T .,  p.  1670. 
— Sckl.] 

(32)  [Concerning  the  Sarabai/ca,  see  Jo. 
Ciissianus,  Collat.  xviii.,  c.  7,  Opp.,  p.  731, 
&c.,  and  the  notes  of  Gazaeits,  there. — TV.] 

(33)  On  the  vices  of  the  monks  of  this 
century,  sec   Snl/>ilins    Nrrcrtis,  Dial.  i.  de 
Vita  Martini,  cap    iv.,  p.  69,  70.  cap.  xiv., 
p.  £8.  where  he  chastises  in  particular,  the 
pride  of  those  who  coveted  the  honours  of 
clergymen.      Dial,  ii.,  c.  viii.,  p.  112;   Dial, 
iii.,  c.  xv.,  p.  144,  145  ;  also  the  Consultatio 
Apollonii    et    Zachaei,    published    by    Lu, 
Duchrry,  in  Spicileg.,  torn,  i.,  1.  iii.,  c.  3,  p. 
35,  &c. 

(34)  See  Ja.   Gotkofrcd,  on  the   Codex 
Tbcodos.,  torn,  vi.,  pt.  i.,  p.  76,  106,  ed. 
Hitter. 


268  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 

principles  had  been  approved  in  the  preceding  centuries ;  and  it  is  almost 
incredible,  what  a  mass  of  the  most  insipid  fables,  and  what  a  host  of  pious 
falsehoods  have,  through  all  the  centuries,  grown  out  of  it,  to  the  great 
detriment  of  true  religion.  If  some  inquisitive  person  were  to  examine  the 
conduct  and  the  writings  of  the  greatest  and  most  pious  teachers  of  this  cen- 
tury, I  fear,  he  would  find  about  all  of  them  infected  with  this  leprosy.  I 
cannot  except  Ambrose,  nor  Hilary,  nor  Augustine,  nor  Gregory  Naz.,  nor 
Jerome.  And  perhaps  it  was  this  same  fault  that  led  Sulpitius  Severus, 
who  was  in  other  respects  no  incompetent  historian,  to  ascribe  so  many 
miracles  to  St.  Martin.  The  other  principle,  from  the  very  time  when 
Constantine  gave  peace  and  security  to  the  Christians,  was  approved  by 
many ;  and  in  the  conflicts  with  the  Priscillianists  and  Donatists,  it  was 
corroborated  by  examples,  and  unequivocally  sanctioned  by  the  authority 
of  Augustine,  and  transmitted  down  to  succeeding  ages. 

§  17.  If  we  look  at  the  lives  and  morals  of  Christians,  we  shall  find, 
as  heretofore,  that  good  men  were  commingled  with  bad ;  yet  the  number 
of  the  bad  began  gradually  to  increase,  so  that  the  truly  pious  and  godly 
appeared  more  rare.  When  there  was  no  more  to  fear  from  enemies 
without,  when  the  character  of  most  bishops  was  tarnished  with  arro- 
gance, luxury,  effeminacy,  animosity,  resentments,  and  other  defects  ;  when 
the  lower  clergy  neglected  their  proper  duties,  and  were  more  attentive  to 
idle  controversies,  than  to  the  promotion  of  piety  and  the  instruction  of  the 
people  ;  when  vast  numbers  were  induced,  not  by  a  rational  conviction,  but 
by  the  fear  of  punishment  and  the  hope  of  worldly  advantage  to  enrol 
themselves  as  Christians ;  how  can  it  surprise  us,  that  on  all  sides. the  vi- 
cious appeared  a  host,  and  the  pious,  a  little  band  almost  overpowered  by 
them  ?  Against  the  flagitious  and  those  guilty  of  heinous  offences,  the 
same  rules  for  penance  were  prescribed,  as  before  the  reign  of  Constan- 
tine. But  as  the  times  continually  waxed  worse  and  worse,  the  more  hon- 
ourable and  powerful  could  sin  with  impunity,  and  only  the  poor  and  the 
unfortunate  felt  the  severity  of  the  laws. 

§  18.  This  century  was  fruitful  in  controversies  among  Christians  ;  for 
as  is  common  with  mankind,  external  peace  made  room  for  internal  dis- 
cords and  contentions.  We  shall  here  mention  the  more  considerable 
ones,  which  did  not  give  rise  to  obstinate  heresies.  In  Egypt,  soon  after 
the  century  began  or  about  the  year  306,  commenced  the  long-continued 
schism,  which  from  the  author  of  it  was  called  the  Meletian  controversy. 
Peter,  the  bishop  of  Alexandria,  deposed  Melctius  the  bishop  of  Lycopolis 
in  Thebais.  The  cause  is  involved  in  uncertainty.  The  friends  of  Peter 
represent  Meletius  as  one  who  had  sacrificed  to  the  gods,  and  had  com- 
mitted other  crimes. (35)  Others  say,  he  was  guilty  of  no  offence,  but  that 
of  excessive  severity  against  the  lapsed.(36)  Meletius  disregarded  the 
sentence  of  Peter,  and  not  only  continued  to  exercise  the  functions  of  his 
office,  but  assumed  to  himself  the  power  of  consecrating  presbyters ;  a 
right  which,  according  to  established  usage  in  Egypt,  belonged  exclusively 
to  the  bishop  of  Alexandria.  The  partisans  of  this  energetic  and  elo- 
quent man  were  numerous,  and  at  length  not  a  few  of  the  monks  espoused 

(35)  Athanasius,  Apologia  secunda,  Opp.,  note  on  Epiphan.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  274 ;  and  Sam. 
torn  i.,  p.  777,  &c.  Basnage,  Exercitatio  de  Rebus  sacris  contra 

(36)  Epiphanius,  Haeres.   Ixviii.,   Opp.,  Baronium,  p.  305,  &c. 
torn,  i.,  p.  716,  &c.     See  Dion.  Petavius, 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY. 


260 


his  cause.  The  Nicene  council  attempted  in  vain  to  heal  this  breach. 
The  Mcleiians  on  the  contrary,  whose  chief  aim  was  to  oppose  the  au- 
thority claimed  by  the  bishop  of  Alexandria,  afterwards  joined  themselves 
to  his  great  enemies,  namely  the  Arians.  Thus  a  contest  which  at  first 
related  only  to  the  limits  of  the  Alexandrine  bishop's  powers,  became, 
through  the  influence  of  heated  passions,  a  controversy  respecting  an  ar- 
ticle of  faith.  The  Meletian  party  was  still  existing  in  the  fifth  cen- 
tury.(37) 


(37)  [Two  widely  different  accounts  of  the 
origin  and  cause  of  the  Meletian  schism  have 
reached  us.  The  one  is  from  the  pen  of 
Aihanasius,  their  avowed  foe ;  the  other  is 
from  Epiphanius,  the  historian  of  the  early 
heresies.  The  Romish  writers  prefer  the 
statement  of  Athanasius  ;  but  the  most  learn- 
ed Protestant  writers  of  late,  generally  follow 
Epiphanius.  (See  Walch.  Historic  der  Ket- 
zereyen,  vol.  iv.,  p.  355-410.  Henke,  Kir- 
chengesch.,  vol.  i.,  p.  196,  &c.  Rchroeckh, 
KJrchengesch.,  vol.  v.,  p.  265-273.  Nean- 
der,  Kirchengesch.,vol.ii.,pt.  i.,p.  463-471, 
and  Gieseler'g  Text- book,  translated  by  Cun- 
ningham, vol.  i.,  p.  166.)  The  statement  of 
Athanasius,  (Apolog.  ad  Imperat.  Constanti- 
num,  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  p.  777,  ed.  Colon.,  1686), 
is  as  follows :  Peter,  a  bishop  among  us  before 
the  persecution,  and  an  acknmcledged  martyr 
in  it,  deposed  in  a  common  council  of  bish- 
ops an  Egyptian  bishop  called  Meletius,  who 
stood  convicted  of  many  crimes,  and  especially 
of  sacrificing  to  idols.  Meletius  did  not  ap- 
peal to  another  council,  nor  endeavour  to 
purge  himself  before  Peter's  successors,  but 
created  a  schism,  and  his  followers,  instead 
of  being  called  Christians,  are  called  Mcle- 
tians  to  this  day.  He  at  once  began  to  utter 
reproaches  against  the  bishops,  and  first  he 
calumniated  Peter,  then  his  successor  Achil- 
les, and  after  him  Alexander ;  and  he  did  this 
irith  craftiness  after  the  example  of  Absalom, 
that  by  calumniating  the  innocent  he  might 
hide  the  shame  of  his  own  deposition.  Such 
is  the  invective  of  their  avowed  adversary. 
On  the  contrary  Epiphanius,  who  spent  sev- 
eral years  in  Egypt,  some  of  them  probably 
in  the  lifetime  of  Meletius,  and  certainly  while 
the  schism  excited  great  attention,  and  who 
passed  the  rest  of  his  life  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Egypt,  and  had  constant  communica- 
tion with  it,  gives  us  a  full  and  apparently 
very  candid  history  of  the  schism,  which  is 
too  long  to  be  transcribed,  but  which  is  sub- 
stantially as  follows.  (Hser.  68,  Opp.,  torn, 
i.,  p.  716,  seq.,  ed.  Petav.  Colon.)  During 
the  persecution  under  Diocletian  and  Maxim- 
ian,  Peter  the  archbp.  of  Alexandria,  and  Me- 
letius an  eminent  bp.  in  Thcbais,  (who  rank- 
ed next  to  Peter  in  the  archiepiscopate,  and 
under  him  managed  ecclesiastical  affairs), 
and  many  others,  were  imprisoned  by  the  gov« 


ernors  of  the  country.  When  they  had  been 
long  in  custody,  and  several  had  suffered 
martyrdom,  while  others  had  yielded  to  their 
fears  and  saved  themselves  by  sacrificing  to 
idols,  these  principal  bishops  were  continued 
in  prison,  being  reserved  for  the  last  victims. 
The  lapsed,  some  of  whom  were  soldiers  and 
others  clergymen  of  different  orders,  became 
anxious  for  reconciliation  to  the  church  ;  and 
they  besought  the  confessors  who  were  still 
in  prison  to  interpose  their  authority.  Disa- 
greement and  warm  debate  arose  among 
these  confessors.  Meletius  and  others  held, 
that  the  lapsed  ought  to  be  excluded  from 
the  church  till  the  end  of  the  persecution, 
and  afterwards  if  they  appeared  worthy,  to 
be  admitted  to  penances  proportionate  to 
their  offences.  But  Peter  maintained  that 
it  was  not  advisable  to  wait  for  the  end  of 
the  persecution,  and  that  the  repentant  should 
at  once  be  admitted  to  suitable  penances  and 
so  be  restored.  Both  parties  showed  them- 
selves to  be  influenced  by  laudable  motives  ; 
the  one  by  love  of  the  truth  and  religious 
zeal,  the  other  by  compassion  and  sympathy. 
At  length,  Peter  finding  his  compassionate 
measures  balked  by  the  excessive  zeal  of 
Meletius  and  the  others,  hung  out  his  man- 
tle in  the  midst  of  the  prison  for  a  standard, 
and  made  proclamation,  that  such  as  agreed 
with  him  should  assemble  around  it,  and  that 
such  as  agreed  with  Meletius  should  repair 
to  him.  Hereupon  the  mass  of  the  bishops, 
monks,  and  presbyters  gathered  around  Me- 
letius, and  only  a  very  few  repaired  to  the 
standard  of  Peter.  From  this  time  the  two 
parties  worshipped  separately,  and  the  schism 
became  complete  in  the  prison.  (This  waa 
in  the  year  306,  according  to  Baronius,  A  fi- 
nales, ann.  306,  n.  44 ;  or  in  the  year  301, 
according  to  I'agi,  Critica  Baron.,  ann.  306, 
n.  29.)  Peter  afterwards  suffered  martyr- 
dom ;  but  Meletius  and  others  were  trans- 
ported from  place  to  place,  sometimes  shut 
up  in  the  mines,  and  sometimes  banished  to 
distant  regions ;  and  everywhere  Meletiu* 
spread  his  principles,  ordained  bishops,  pres- 
byters, and  deacons,  and  erected  separate 
churches,  his  followers  having  no  communion 
with  the  others.  Peter's  successors  retained 
the  ancient  churches,  which  were  called  the 
churches  of  the  Catholics,  while  the  new 


870 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  IL— CHAP.  III. 


§  1&.  Not  long  after  Melctius,  one  Eustathius  excited  great  commo- 
tions in  Armenia,  Pontus,  and  the  neighbouring  countries,  and  was  there- 


churches  erected  by  the  Meletians  bore  the 
title  of  the  martyrs'  churches. — According 
to  this  account  of  the  origin  of  the  schism, 
the  only  crime  of  Mclctius  was,  that  he 
erected  separate  churches,  and  ordained  bish- 
ops and  curates  over  them,  not  subject  to  the 
abp.  of  Alexandria  and  not  holding  commun- 
ion with  the  Catholics.  Nor  is  any  other 
crime  alleged  against  him  by  the  council  of 
Nice  which  censured  him,  nor  by  the  four 
bishops  and  martyrs  (Hesychius,  Pachomius, 
Theodoras,  and  Phileas),  who  remonstrated 
with  him  for  his  conduct.  (See  their  letter 
in  Maffei  Osservazioni  Letterarie,  torn,  iii., 
Verona,  1738;  comp.  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  lib, 
viii.,  c.  13.)  What  therefore  Athanasnis 
charges  upon  him  as  his  greatest  offence,  and 
that  for  which  especially  Peter  deposed  him, 
namely,  that  he  offered  sacrifices  to  idols,  is 
not  only  inconsistent  with  the  explicit  state- 
ment of  Epiphanius,  that  Meletius  was  a  con» 
fessor  in  bonds  at  the  time  the  schism  com* 
menced,  and  for  a  long  time  both  before  and 
after  ;  but  is  also  highly  improbable,  not  to 
say  impossible,  from  the  fact  that  the  Mele- 
tian  party  owed  its  existence  to  its  peculiar 
rigour  against  the  lapsed ;  for  such  a  party 
cannot  be  supposed  to  have  been  formed  and 
guided  from  its  commencement  by  the  most 
notorious  of  all  the  lapsed,  and  one  already 
deposed  for  this  very  crime.  While  they 
separated  from  the  Catholic  church  as  being 
impure,  because  it  tolerated  lapsed  Chris- 
tians, could  they  have  a  lapsed  bishop  for 
their  founder  and  leader,  and  so  admire  and 
honour  him  as  to  call  themselves  after  his 
name  1  or  would  such  a  bishop  wish  to  get 
up  a  sect  to  bear  testimony  against  his  own 
sin  and  shame  1  It  is  incredible.  And  as 
this  is  the  only  crime  which  Athanasius  spe- 
cifies, we  may  suppose  that  the  many  crimes 
besides  this,  which  he  does  not  specify,  were 
no  other  than  the  numerous  ordinations  and 
establishment  of  churches  above  stated.  That 
Melctius  was  entirely  sound  in  the  faith,  or 
was  never  at  any  time  chargeable  with  any 
heresy,  is  stated  repeatedly  and  explicitly  by 
Epiphanius. — As  this  schism  withdrew  a 
large  number  of  bishops  and  churches  from 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Egyptian  primate,  and 
greatly  curtailed  his  power,  Peter  and  his 
successors  regarded  it  as  a  sore  evil ;  and 
the  pious  generally  must  have  been  pained 
to  see  such  divisions  and  strife  among  Chris- 
tians. The  subject  was  therefore  brought 
before  the  council  of  Nice  in  325.  And  that 
assembly  decreed  that  the  abp.  of  Alexandria 
should  have  jurisdiction,  as  formerly,  over 
all  the  churches  and  clergy  in  Egypt,  Libya, 


and  Pentapolis  ;  that  Meletius  should  retain 
the  rank  and  honours  of  a  bishop,  but  with- 
out the  power  of  ordaining,  and  that  he 
should  perform  no  episcopal  functions  what- 
ever out  of  his  own  diocese  ;  and  that  those 
whom  he  had  ordained  should  take  rank  after 
such  as  had  been  ordained  by  the  archbishop, 
and  might  succeed  them  only  on  being  duly 
elected  and  confirmed  by  the  primate.  (See 
the  letter  of  the  council  to  the  African  clergy, 
in  Socrates,  H.  E.,  lib.  i.,  c.  9.) — On  the 
return  of  abp.  Alexander  from  the  council, 
he  demanded  of  Meletius  a  list  of  all  the 
bishops  he  had  ordained  anywhere,  and  also 
of  the  presbyters  and  deacons  whom  he  had 
ordained  in  Alexandria  and  its  suburbs.  The 
object  of  the  abp.  was,  to  be  able  to  detect 
any  future  ordinations  by  Meletius.  Such 
a  list  was  readily  given ;  and  it  embraced 
the  names  of  28  bishops  with  their  places  of 
residence,  and  4  presbyters  and  5  deacons  at 
Alexandria.  (Athanasius^  Apolog.  ad  Imp. 
Constantinum,  Opp.,  t.  i.,  p.  788-9.)  From 
this  we  may  form  some  idea  of  the  extent  of 
the  Meletian  schism ;  for  Athanasius  says, 
(ibid.,  p.  788),  that  there  were  in  Egypt, 
Libya,  and  Pentapolis,  nearly  100  bishops  in 
his  communion.  And  if  Meletius  and  23 
others  were  schismatics,  they  must  have  con- 
stituted almost  one  fourth  part  of  all  the 
bishops.  But  after  the  council  of  Nice,  sev- 
eral submitted  to  the  archbishop,  so  that  tho 
number  probably  diminished — Meletius  did 
not  long  survive  his  censure ;  and  after  his 
death,  Alexander  resorted  to  coercive  meas- 
ures in  order  to  bring  the  Meletians  to  sub- 
mission. This  induced  them  to  despatch 
Paphnutius,  a  celebrated  anchorite  and  saint, 
John,  their  chief  bishop,  a  very  venerable 
man,  Callmicus,  a  bishop  in  Pelusium,  with 
some  others  of  their  number,  as  venvoys  to 
the  emperor  Constantino  to  supplicate  the 
protection  of  the  government.  But  the  offi- 
cers of  the  palace,  who  knew  nothing  of  the 
Meletian  sect,  refused  the  envoys  all  access 
to  the  emperor.  After  waiting  some  time, 
they  applied  to  Eusebius  bp.  of  Nicomedia, 
who  promised  to  assist  them,  provided  they 
would  associate  freely  with  Anus,  who  had 
just  given  a  specious  statement  of  his  faith. 
They  consented ;  and  by  the  assistance  of 
Eusebius  they  obtained  from  the  emperor  the 
privileges  of  a  tolerated  sect  whom  none  were 
to  molest.  But  the  Meletians  were  thus 
brought  into  an  alliance  with  the  Arians,  and. 
of  course  became  involved  in  their  contests, 
and  shared  in  their  odium.  It  happened  to 
them,  says  Epiphanius,  according  to  the 
proverb  ;  In  flying  from  the  smoke,  they  fell 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY. 


271 


fare  Condemned  in  the  council  of  Gangra,  which  was  held  not  long  aftef 
the  Nicenc  council.  Whether  this  man  was  Ewtatkhu,  the  bishop  of  Se- 
baste  in  Armenia,  who  was  the  coryphuuus  of  the'Semiarians,  or  whether 
the  ancients  confounded  two  persons  of  the  same  name,  is  debated  with 
about  equal  weight  of  argument  on  both  sides. (38)  The  founder  of  the 
Eustathian  sect  is  charged,  not  so  much  with  unsoundness  in  the  faith,  as 
with  unreasonable  practical  notions.  For  he  is  said  to  have  prohibited  mar- 
riage,  the:  use  of  flesh  and  wine,  love-feasts,  &c.,  and  to  have  recommend- 
<:d  immediate  divorce  to  all  married  persons,  and  to  have  granted  to  chil- 
dren and  servants  the  liberty  of  violating  commands  of  their  parents  and 
masters,  under  pretext  of  religion. (39) 

§  20.  Lucifer,  bishop  of  Cagliari  in  Sardinia,  a  man  of  decision,  stern- 
ness, and  vigour,  who  was  driven  into  exile  by  the.  emperor  ConsUmline 
for  defending  the  Niccne  doctrine  of  three  persons  in  one  God,  first  sep- 
arated from  Eusebius  of  Vercelli,  in  the  year  363,  because  the  latter  was 
displeased  that  the  former  had  consecrated  Paulinus  bishop  of  the  church 
of  Antioch ;  and  he  afterwards  separated  himself  from  the  communion  of  the 
whole  church,  because  it  had  decreed  that  absolution  might  be  granted  to- 


into  the  fire.  And  from  that  time  onward, 
by  associating  with  the  Arians,  many  of  them 
embraced  the  sentiments  of  Arius.  (See 
Epiplianius,  Haeres.  68,  and  Sozomen,  H. 
E.,  lib.  ii.,  c.  21.)  On  the  death  of  abp 
Alexander,  (A.D.  326)  the  Meletians  elected 
One  Tkeonas  to  succeed  him.  But  Theonas 
died  three  months  after,  and  Athanasius  took 
quiet  possession  of  the  chair.  During  half 
a.  century  he  was  in  open  war  with  the  Ari- 
nns  and  Meletians,  who  combined  against 
him,  and  were  a  chief  cause  of  his  frequent 
and  long  banishments,  and  of  all  the  vexa- 
tions he  endured.  (Epiphanius,  Haeres.  68. 
Sozomen,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  ii.,  c.  22,  23.) 
-Tr.] 

(38)  See  Sam.  Basnage,  Annales  Politi- 
co-Ecclcsiast.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  840,  &c. 

(39)  Socrates,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  ii.,  c.  43. 
Sozomcn,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  iii ,  c.  14,  1.  iv., 
c.  24.     Epiphannts,  Haeres.  Ixvi.,  p.  910. 
Philottargnu,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  iii.,  c.  16. 
Wolfg.  Gundlinir,  Notae  ad  Concilium  Gan- 
grense,  p.  9,  &c. — [The  younger  Walch,  in 
his  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iii.,  p.  536- 
577,  has  treated  circumstantially  and  solidly 
concerning  the  Eustathians.     See  also  his 
Historic  der  Kirchenversammlungen,  p.  216, 
&c.     The  chief  sources  for  a  history  of  the 
Eustathians,  are  the  documents  of  the  coun- 
cil of  Gangra,  consisting  of  a  synodical  epis- 
tle and  20  canons.     From  these  sources  both 
Socrates  and  Sozomcn  derived  their  informa- 
tion.    The  author  of  the  Life  of  St.  Hasil, 
which  is  prefixed   to  the  third  vol.  of  the 
works  of  Basil,  maintains,  (ch.  5,  §  4,  &c.), 
that  the  founder  of  this  party  was  not  Eusta- 
thius,  but  rather  Acrius  ;  and  that  of  course 
the  persons  \vith  whom  the  council  of  Gan- 


gra  had  to  do,  should  not  be  called  Eusta- 
thians, but  Aerians.  But  his  arguments  are 
not  so  powerful  as  to  compel  a  reflecting 
reader  to  abandon  the  common  opinion. 
Whether  the  bishop  of  Scbaxtc  in  Armenia, 
who  is  so  famous  in  the  history  of  the  Ariaii 
heresy,  and  who  had  some  connexion  with 
Aerius,  or  another  Eustathius,  was  the  au- 
thor of  this  controversy,  cannot  be  deter- 
mined with  certainty.  Yet  the  argument?) 
for  the  first  supposition  seem  to  preponder- 
ate. This 'Euslatkiits  was  a  pupil  of  A  r.nus, 
and  a  lover  of  monkery.  Many  different 
councils  passed  their  judgment  on  him, 
some  putting  him  down,  and  others  regard- 
ing him  as  a  valuable  man.  He  has  been 
accused  of  instability  in  his  belief;  but  he 
seems  properly  to  have  been  a  Semiarian, 
His  character  is  described  to  us  by  some 
impartial  writers,  as  being  very  commenda- 
ble. The  synodical  epistle  of  the  council  of 
Gangra  is  addressed  to  the  bishops  of  Arme- 
nia, and  censures  various  faults,  which  for 
the  most  part  relate  to  monkish  usages  :  and 
the  canons  enjoin  the  opposite  of  the  new 
regulations.  The  Eustathians  so  abhorred 
matrimony  as  to  maintain  that  a  married  lady/ 
though  pious,  conld  not  be  saved  if  she  con- 
tinued to  cohabit  with  her  husband.  They 
forbid  eating  flesh,  or  receiving  the  holy 
supper  from  a  married  priest,  on  pain  of 
forfeiting  salvation.  They  contemned  tho 
buildings  erected  for  public  worship,  and 
held  their  meetings  in  private.  They  al- 
lowed a  woman  to  forsake  her  husband,  pa- 
rents their  children,  and  children  their  j»- 
rents,  on  pretence  of  devoting  themselves  to 
a  stricter  mode  of  life,  &c. — Sthl.} 


272 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 


those  bishops  who  under  Constantius  had  deserted  to  the  Arians.(40)     At 


(40)  Rufinus,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  i.,  c.  30. 
Socrates,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  iii.,  c.  9.  See 
also  Tillemont,  Memoires  pour  servira  1'His- 
toire  de  PEglise,  tome  vii.,  p.  521,  ed.  Paris  : 
— [and,  above  all  others.  Watch,  Historic 
der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iii.,  p.  338-377.  From 
him,  we  shall  enlarge  the  account  given  by 
Dr.  Mosheim.  When  the  orthodox  party, 
under  Co7istantius,  and  after  the  to  them 
adverse  result  of  the  council  of  Aries,  found 
themselves  in  great  danger,  and  were  de- 
liberating about  requesting  the  emperor  to 
summon  a  new  council,  Lucifer  proceeded 
to  Rome,  and  being  constituted  envoy  of  the 
Romish  bishop  Liberius,  he  thence  repaired 
to  the  imperial  court  in  Gaul,  and  obtained 
of  the  emperor  the  council  of  Milan ;  by 
which  however  the  emperor  intended  to 
further  his  own  purposes.  And  as  Lucifer 
was  one  of  those  who  in  that  council  zeal- 
ously espoused  the  cause  of  the  orthodox,  he 
fell  under  the  emperor's  displeasure,  and  was 
sent  among  others  into  banishment.  When 
the  death  of  the  emperor  left  him  at  liberty 
to  return  from  exile,  he  became  involved  in 
the  Meletian  controversy  at  Antioch,  and 
this  occasioned  his  falling  out  with  Eusebius 
bishop  of  Vercelli.  For  he  brought  forward 
and  consecrated  the  aged  Paulimis  as  bp. 
of  Antioch  ;  which  Euscbius  greatly  disap- 
proved, because,  according  to  the  decrees  of 
the  council  held  at  Alexandria  by  Athana- 
sius,  he  with  Lucifer  were  commissioned  to 
heal  the  divisions  at  Antioch,  which  were 
now  widened  still  farther  by  the  unwise  step 
of  Lucifer.  The  same  council  had  also  de- 
creed that  the  Arian  bishops,  and  still  more 
those  who  had  only  held  communion  with 
such  bishops,  might,  after  acceding  to  the 
Nicene  creed,  be  received  into  the  church 
and  remain  in  their  offices.  The  refusal  of 
Eusebius  to  approve  of  his  proceedings  at 
Antioch,  and  the  mild  regulations  of  the 
Alexandrian  council  respecting  those  whom 
Lucifer  accounted  apostate  bishops,  which  he 
could  by  no  means  approve,  induced  him  to 
break  off  all  church  communion  with  such 
as  approved  those  regulations ;  and  thence 
arose  the  schism  which  bears  his  name. 
After  this  separation  he  continued  to  exer- 
cise his  functions  at  Cagliari  for  nine  years, 
and  at  last  died  at  an  advanced  age. —  Schl. 
See,  for  account  of  his  writings,  note,  p.  257. 

The  following  more  full  account  of  the 
Meletiar.  controversy  at  Antioch,  is  given  by 
Schlegel  from  Dr.  Watch's  Hist,  der  Ketzer- 
eyen.— After  the  council  of  Nice,  Eusta- 
thius  bishop  of  Antioch  very  strenuously  op- 
posed the  progress  of  Arian  doctrines,  and 
was  therefore  deprived  of  his  office,  and 


another  was  elected  in  his  place  who  was 
more  favourable  to  the  Arians,  and  after  him 
succeeded  others,  all  holding  Arian  senti- 
ments. The  last  of  these  was  Eudoxius, 
who  was  removed  to  Constantinople  on  the 
deposition  of  Maccdonius  bp.  of  that  city, 
(A.D.  360).  Meletius  of  Syria,  was  now 
chosen  bishop  of  Antioch  by  a  council.  He 
had  before  been  bishop  of  Sebaste.  and  the 
heads  of  the  Arian  party  supposed  him  to 
hold  the  Arian  sentiments.  He  at  least  held 
communion  with  Arians,  and  had  by  his  vir- 
tuous life  obtained  a  high  reputation.  At 
first  Meletius  concealed  his  sentiments,  and 
in  his  public  discourses  treated  only  on 
practical  subjects.  But  as  one  part  of  his 
hearers  were  orthodox,  and  the  other  part 
Arians,  he  did  not  long  leave  them  in  uncer- 
tainty, but  acknowledged  to  them  his  con- 
viction of  the  correctness  of  the  Nicene  faith. 
This  acknowledgment  was  the  source  of 
much  suffering  to  Meletius.  The  Arians 
resented  it  very  highly,  that  he  should  disap- 
point their  expectations  ;  and  as  he  would 
not  retract,  they  deprived  him  of  his  office 
A.D.  362,  by  the  aid  of  the  emperor  Con- 
stantius,  and  banished  him  from  the  country. 
Meletius  now  left  Antioch  and  went  to  his 
native  city  Melitene.  In  his  place,  Euzoius 
one  of  the  oldest  friends  of  Arius,  was  ap- 
pointed. But  the  orthodox,  who  would  not 
acknowledge  him  as  a  bishop,  now  wholly 
ceased  to  worship  with  the  Arians,  which 
they  had  done  up  to  this  time.  Thus  there 
were  now  three  parties  at  Antioch.  The 
Arians  who  acknowledged  Euzoius  for  their 
bishop ;  the  Eustathians,  who,  ever  since  the 
deposition  of  Eustatluus  (A.D.  327),  whom 
they  regarded  as  the  legitimate  bishop  of 
Antioch,  had  ceased  to  worship  with  the 
Arians,  and  held  their  separate  meetings 
without  making  disturbance  ;  and  the  Mele- 
tians,  who  were  the  majority,  and  who  ac- 
knowledged Meletius  for  the  legitimate  bish- 
op. The  Meletians  were  willing  to  unite 
with  the  Eustathians,  on  condition  that  they 
would  look  upon  Meletius  as  themselves  did. 
But  the  Eustathians  refused  to  do  so,  and 
would  not  acknowledge  the  Meletians  for 
brethren,  because  they  considered  both  them 
and  their  bishop  as  not  pure  enough  from  the 
Arian  infection.  Athanasius,  Eusebius  of 
Vercelli,  and  Lucifer  attempted  to  reconcile 
these  divisions.  Lucifer  afterwards  (A.D. 
362)  consecrated  a  new  bishop  of  Antioch  ; 
whom  however  the  Eustathians  only  would 
receive.  Meletius  now  came  back  to  Anti- 
och ;  and  thus  there  were  two  orthodox  bish- 
ops of  Antioch,  Paulinus  (the  Eustathian 
bishop),  and  Meletius;  and  the  difficulties 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY. 


273 


least  this  is  certain,  that  the  little  company  of  his  followers,  or  the  Lucife* 
rians,  would  have  no  intercourse  with  the  bishops  who  joined  themselves 
to  the  Arian  sect,  nor  with  those  who  had  absolved  these  bishops  after  con. 
fessing  their  fault ;  and  thus  they  renounced  the  whole  church. (41)  They 
are  likewise  reported  to  have  held  erroneous  sentiments  respecting  the  hu- 
man soul,  viewing  it  as  generated  from  the  bodies  of  the  parents,  or  as 
transfused  by  the  parents  into  their  children. (42) 

§  21.  About  the  same  time,  or  not  much  after,  Aerius,  a  presbyter, 
monk,  and  Seniiarian,  rent  Armenia,  Pontus,  and  Cappadocia,  by  opinions 
wide  of  those  commonly  received,  and  thus  founded  a  sect.  First  he  main- 
tained that  (jure  divino),  by  divine  appointment,  there  was  no  difference 
between  bishops  and  presbyters.  Yet  it  is  not  very  clear,  how  far  he 
carried  this  sentiment,  though  it  is  certain  that  it  was  very  pleasing  to  many, 
who  were  disgusted  with  the  pride  and  arrogance  of  the  bishops  of  that 
age.  In  the  next  place,  Aerius  disapproved  of  prayers  for  the  dead,  the 
stated  fasts,  the  celebration  of  Easter,  and  other  things  which  most  persons 
regarded  as  the  very  soul  of  religion.(43)  He  seems  to  have  aimed  to  re- 
were  increased  rather  than  settled  by  the  stored.  Flavianus  was  acknowledged  by 
procedure  of  Lucifer.  The  foreign  bishops  the  foreign  bishops  as  the  bishop  of  Antioch. 
took  part  in  this  controversy.  Athanasius  Yet  there  remained  a  little  handful  of  Eu- 
looked  on  Paxlinu-s  as  the  most  orthodox,  ttathiatis,  who  did  not  unite  with  the  general 
and  therefore  he  and  the  greater  part  of  the  church  till  Flavianus  was  succeeded  by  other 
West,  with  the  Island  of  Cyprus,  took  the  .bishops.  See  Walch,  Ketzerhistorie,  vol. 
side  of  Paulinits.  The  eastern  bishops  were 
on  the  side  of  Meletius  ;  who  was  exiled  by 


iv.,  p.  410-502.—  Sc A/.] 

(41)  See  the  petition  addressed  lo  Theo- 
the  emperor  Valens,  but  returned  after  that     dosius  by  Marcdlinus  and  Faustinus,  two 


emperor's  death,  arid  suddenly  died,  (A.D.     Luciferians ;   in  the  Works  of  Is.  Sirmond, 


381).     The  Greek  and  the  Latin  churches 
enrolled   him   among   the   saints,    after  his 


torn,  ii.,  p.  229,  &c. 

(42)  See  Augustine,  de  Haeres.,  c.  81  ; 


death.  As  respects  the  Latin  church,  this  and  on  that  passage,  Lamb.  Danaeu-s,  p.  346. 
was  a  very  extraordinary  transaction.  Me-  [This  account  is  very  uncertain  ;  and  Au- 
letuis  died  entirely  out  of  communion  with  gustinc  himself  does  not  state  it  as  a  matter 
the  Romish  see;  and  yet  he  is  numbered  of  certainty.  See  Walch,  1.  c.,  p.  368. — 

Schl.] 


among  their  saints  !     Either  the  pope  then 
must  be  not  infallible,  or  the  Romish  church 


(43)  Epiphanius,  Haeres.  Ixxv.,  p.  905, 


worships  as  saints,  persons  who,  according  &c.     Augustine,   de   Haeres.,  c.    63,   and 

to  her  own  principles,  arc  unworthy  of  wor-  some  others.     [The  last  is  not  a  witness  of 

ship.     The  death  of  Mdctius  did  not  restore  much  weight.     He  had  no  acquaintance  with 

peace  at  Antioch.     The  Mclctians,  instead  the  Aerians,  but  took  one  part  of  his  state- 

of  acknowledging  Paulmus  for  a  legitimate  ment  from  Epiphanius,  (ubi  supra),  and  the 

bishop,  elected  Flavianus,  an  orthodox  and  other  from  Ptiilastrius,  de  Haeres.,  c.  72,  p. 

irreproachable  character,  for  a  successor  to  140.     Epiphanius  had  it  in  his  power  to  get, 

Mdfinm.     This   Flaviaitus  was  supported  and   did  get,  better  information  respecting 

by  the  bishops  of  Syria,  Palestine,  Phceni-  the  Oriental  controversies  than  Philastrius 

cia,  Cappadocia,  Galatia,  the  lesser  Asia,  could.     The  latter  speaks  of  Aerius,  as  of 

and  Thrace  ;  on  the  side  of  Paulinus  were  one  unknown  to  him  ;  the  former,  as  of  one 

the  bishops  of  Rome  and  Italy,  and  of  Egypt  whose  history  he  well  knew,  and  who  was 

and  Arabia,  who  wished  for  the  deposition  of  then  alive.     Epiphanius  knew  the  Encra- 

Flavianus.     Paulinas  died   (in   389) ;    but  tiles  very  well,  and  he  distinguishes  them 

instead  of  giving  peace  to  the  church,  in-  from  the  A erians  ;  but  Philastrius  confounds 

fluonced  probably  by  a  fanatical  obstinacy,  them.     A'irivs  was  a  native  of  Pontus,  or 

he  before  his  death  consecrated  over  his  lit-  of  the  lesser  Armenia,  an  eloquent  man,  and 

tie   party   one  Eragrius  as  his  successor,  a  friend  of  the  well-known  Seniiarian  Eutta- 

Soon  after,  (A.D.  393),  Eeagrius  died  :  but  thius,    afterwards   bishop  of  Sebaste,  with 

the  disunion  still  continued.    Finally,  through  whom   he  lived    at   the  same   time  among 

the    pru'.lence    and    the    pacific    temper    of  the  monks.     The  elevation  of  Eustalhiu*  to 

Chrysostom,  peace  and  ecclesiastical  com-  the  see  of  Sebaste,  first  awakened  envy  in 

munion  between  'he  two  parties  were  re-  Airiut,  he  having  himself  aspired  after  that 

VOL.  I.— M  M 


274 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 


duce  religion  to  its  primitive  simplicity,  a  design  which  in  itself  considered 
was  laudable,  though  in  the  motives  and  the  mode  of  proceeding  there  were 
perhaps  some  things  censurable. 

§  22.  There  were  various  persons  of  this  sort  in  the  fourth  century,  who 
were  disgusted  with  the  progress  of  superstition  and  of  errors  respect- 
ing the  true  nature  of  religion,  and  who  opposed  the  general  current ;  but 
the  only  fruit  of  their  labour,  was,  that  they  were  branded  with  infamy. 
Eminent  among  them  was  Jovinian,  an  Italian  monk,  who  taught  first  at 
Rome  and  then  at  Milan,  near  the  close  of  the  century,  and  persuaded 
many,  that  all  persons  whatsoever,  if  they  keep  the  vows  they  make  to 
Christ  in  baptism  and  live  godly  lives,  have  an  equal  title  to  the  rewards 
of  heaven  ;  and  consequently,  that  those  who  spend  their  lives  in  celibacy 
or  macerate  their  bodies  by  fasting,  are  no  more  acceptable  to  God,  than 
those  who  live  in  wedlock,  and  nourish  their  bodies  with  moderation  and 
sobriety.  These  sentiments  were  first  condemned  by  the  church  of  Rome, 
and  then  by  Ambrose  in  a  council  held  at  Milan  in  the  year  390. (44)  The 
emperor  Honorius  enacted  penal  laws  against  persons  holding  such  senti- 
ments, and  Jovinian  he  banished  to  the  island  Boa. (45)  Jovinian  pub- 


promotion.  To  allay  that  feeling,  Eustathi- 
us  made  his  friend  a  presbyter,  and  commit- 
ted to  his  care  the  superintendence  of  a 
house  for  the  reception  of  strangers.  But 
the  good  understanding  between  them  was 
of  short  continuance.  Aerius  could  be  re- 
strained by  nothing  from  his  restless  conduct 
towards  his  bishop,  whom  he  accused  of  av- 
arice and  misappropriation  of  the  funds  for 
the  poor.  At  last  they  came  to  a  breach. 
Aerius  abandoned  his  office  and  his  hospi- 
tal, and  acquired  many  adherents  ;  who  how- 
ever nowhere  found  indulgence,  as  the  dispo- 
sition to  persecute  was  then  almost  universal 
among  the  clergy.  Aerius  maintained,  that 
in  the  times  of  the  apostles,  there  was  no 
difference  between  a  bishop  and  a  presbyter  ; 
and  this  he  solidly  proved  from  passages  in 
Paul.  He  was  not  disposed  to  abolish  the 
human  rights  of  bishops,  but  only  to  rescue 
the  presbyters  from  episcopal  oppression  in 
the  exercise  of  their  legitimate  functions. 
He  held  the  prayers  and  the  alms  of  the  liv- 
ing for  the  dead,  to  be  useless  and  danger- 
ous ;  and  discarded  the  regular,  prescribed 
Christian  fasts  on  certain  days.  The  festival 
of  Easter  he  did  not  wholly  discard,  as  it  is 
commonly  supposed,  but  only  the  ceremony 
of  slaying  a  lamb  at  Easter,  which  according 
to  ancient  custom  was  practised  by  some 
Christians.  This  appears  from  the  argument 
by  which  he  supported  his  opinion.  For  he 
says  :  "  Christians  should  keep  no  Passover, 
because  Paul  declares  Christ,  slain  for  us, 
to  be  our  Paschal  Lamb."  This  reasoning 
would  be  insipid,  if  Aerius  proposed  by  it 


blameable.  See  the  younger  Walch,  His- 
torie  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iii.,  p.  321-338. 
— Schl.] 

(44)  Hieronymus,  in  Jovinianum,  Opp., 
torn.  ii.    Augustine,  de  Haeres.,  c.  82.    Am- 
brose, Ep.  vi.,  &c.    [Jovinian  lived  at  Rome, 
when  he  advanced  the  doctrines  which  were 
so  strenuously  opposed.    Yet  it  is  uncertain, 
whether  Rome  or  Milan  was  his  native  place. 
He  was  not  unlearned,  and  he  lived  a  single 
life.     To  the  preceding  doccrines  of  Jovin- 
ian,  the    following  may  be  added.     That 
Mary  ceased  to  be  a  virgin  by  bringing  forth 
Christ,  which  some  denied : — that  the  de- 
grees of  future  blessedness  do  not  depend  on 
the   meritoriousness  of  our  good  works  ; — 
and  that  a  truly  converted  Christian,  so  long 
as  he  is  such,  can  not  sin  wilfully,  but  will 
so  resist  the  temptations  of  the  devil  as  not 
to  be  overcome  by  him.    For  these  doctrines, 
Jovinian  was  accused  by  some  Christians  at 
Rome  before    Siricius  the   Roman  bishop. 
A  council  was  assembled    by  Siricius,  by 
which  Jovinian  was  condemned  and  excom- 
municated.   He  then  retired  with  his  friends 
to  Milan.     There  they  were  condemned  by 
a  council  which  Ami/rose  assembled.     By 
such  persecution,  the  party  was  soon  crush- 
ed.    See   Walck,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen, 
vol.  iii.,  p.  G35-682.— Schl.} 

(45)  Codex  Theodosianus,  torn,    iii.,  p. 
218,  torn,  vi.,  p.  193.— [This  law  is  dated 
in  the  year  412.     But  according  to  the  rep- 
resentation of  Jerome,  Jovinian  must,  in  the 
year  406,  have  been  dead  some  considerable 
time.     The  law  therefore  must  either  have 


to  put  down  altogether  the  whole  festival  of    been  aimed  against   altogether  a  different 


Easter.  Aerius  was  therefore  in  the  right, 
and  his  opposers  in  the  wrong.  Only  his 
obstinacy  in  pushing  matters  to  a  schism,  is 


person — and  there  appear  in  it  no  traces  of 
the  complaints  brought  against  Jovinian — or 
the  date  of  it  must  be  erroneous,  as  was  con- 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY.  875 

lished  his  opinions  in  a  book,  against  which  Jerome  in  the  following  cen- 
tury wrote  a  most  bitter  and  abusive  treatise,  which  is  still  extant. 

§  23.  Of  all  the  religious  controversies  [among  the  orthodox],  those 
concerning  Origen  made  the  greatest  noise  and  continued  the  longest. 
Though  Origen  had  long  been  accused  of  many  errors,  yet  hitherto  most 
Christians  had  regarded  his  name  with  veneration.  But  now  the  Arians, 
cunningly  looking  on  every  side  for  support,  maintained  that  this  great  man 
had  been  of  their  party.  Some  believed  them,  and  therefore  indulged  the 
same  hatred  towards  Origen,  as  towards  the  Arians.  Yet  some  of  the 
most  eminent  and  best  informed  men  resisted  the  charge,  and  strove  to 
vindicate  the  reputation  of  their  master  against  these  aspersions.  Among 
these  Eusebius,  bishop  of  Csesarea,  stood  pre-eminent,  in  consequence  of 
his  written  Apology  for  Origen.  And  I  believe,  this  storm  raised  against 
the  honour  of  a  man  to  whom  the  whole  Christian  world  paid  respect, 
would  have  soon  subsided,  if  new  commotions  had  not  arisen,  which  pro- 
ceeded from  another  source. 

§  24.  All  the  monks,  and  especially  those  of  Egypt,  were  enthusiastic 
admirers  of  Origen ;  and  they  spared  no  pains  to  disseminate  everywhere 
the  opinions  which  they  imbibed  from  him.  Yet  they  could  not  persuade 
all  to  believe  that  those  opinions  were  sound  and  correct.  Hence  first  ap- 
peared a  kind  of  smothered  disagreement  respecting  the  character  of  Ori- 
gen's  doctrines,  which  advanced  gradually  till  it  became  an  open  flame. 
Among  many  others,  John  the  bishop  of  Jerusalem  was  in  favour  of  Ori- 
gen ;  and  as  Epiplianius  and  Jerome  were  from  other  causes  hostile  to 
John,  they  endeavoured  to  excite  odium  against  him  on  this  ground.  He 
defended  himself  in  such  a  way,  as  to  protect  the  reputation  of  Origen,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  have  the  whole  swarm  of  monks  and  innumerable  oth- 
ers on  his  side.  From  this  beginning,  arose  those  vehement  contests  re- 
specting the  doctrines  of  Origen,  which  pervaded  both  the  East  and  the 
West.  In  the  West  they  were  fomented  especially  by  Rujinus,  a  presby- 
ter of  Aquileia,  who  translated  some  of  Origen's  books  into  Latin,  and  who 
showed  not  obscurely  that  he  was  pleased  with  the  sentiments  those  books 
contained. (46)  He  therefore  now  incurred  the  implacable  wrath  of  Je- 
rome. But  at  length,  Rujinus  being  dead,  and  men  of  high  reputation  in 
the  West  opposing  the  progress  of  Origenism  both  by  their  influence  and 
their  writings,  these  commotions  seemed  to  subside  in  the  West. 

§  25.  In  the  East,  far  greater  troubles  came  upon  the  church  on  ac- 
count of  Origenism.  Theophilus  bishop  of  Alexandria,  who  was  for  vari- 
ous  reasons  hostile  to  some  of  the  monks  of  Scetys  and  Nitria,  taxed  them 
with  their  Origenism,  and  ordered  them  to  throw  away  the  books  of  Ori- 
gen. The  monks  resisted  his  command,  alleging  sometimes  that  the  objec- 

jectured  by  Tillemont,  tome  x.,  p.  229,  753.  About  the  year  404,  Vigilantius,  a  presby- 

See  WaJch,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  ter  of  Barcelona,  appeared  a  still  more  fa- 

iii.,  p.  664,  &c. — Schl.     Jminian  was  con-  mous  reformer.    See  below,  cent,  v.,  pt.  ii., 

demned  at  Rome  and  Milan,  about  the  year  ch.  iii.,  §  14,  p.  348,  and  Gieselcr's  Text- 

388,  and  with  him  these  eight  persons,  Aux-  book,  tr.  by  Cunningham,  vol.  i.,  p.  310.— 

entnts,  Gcnmlis,  Gcrminator,    Fflix,  Proti-  Tr.] 

*-.«,  Mnrtiamis,  Januarius,  and  Jngcninxus.  (46)  See   especially,    Just.    Fontaninus, 

About  the  vear  396,  Sarmatio  and  Barbati-  Historia  litteraria  Aquilciens.,  lib.  iv.,  c.  3, 

anus,  two  monks  of  Milan,  advanced  similar  &c.,  p.  177,  &c.,  where  he  gives  an  elabo- 

doctrines  at  Vercellae,  (Ambrose,  Ep.  63,  rate  history  of  Rujinus. 
[al.  82,  al.  25],  ad  Vercellensem  ecclesiam). 


276     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  IV. 

tionable  passages  in  the  writings  of  that  holy  man  were  interpolations  of 
the  heretics,  and  sometimes  that  it  was  improper  to  condemn  the  whole 
together  on  account  of  a  few  censurable  passages.  Theophilus  therefore, 
after  condemning  the  Origenists  in  a  council  assembled  at  Alexandria,  in 
the  year  399,  employed  military  force  to  drive  the  monks  from  the  mount- 
ains  of  Nitria.  They  fled  first  to  Jerusalem,  and  thence  removed  to  Scy- 
thopolis  ;  but  finding  themselves  insecure  there  likewise,  they  set  sail  for 
Constantinople,  intending  to  lay  their  cause  before  the  imperial  court.(47) 
The  remainder  of  their  history  belongs  to  the  next  century.  But  it  is 
proper  to  remark,  that  those  who  are  denominated  Origenists  in  the  wri- 
tings of  this  age,  were  not  all  of  one  character.  For  this  ambiguous  term 
sometimes  denotes  merely  a  person  who  was  friendly  to  Origen,  one  who 
looked  upon  his  books  as  corrupted,  and  did  not  defend  the  errors  of  which 
he  was  accused ;  but  at  other  times  it  designates  persons,  who  admitted 
that  Origen  taught  all  that  he  was  charged  with  teaching,  and  who  reso- 
lutely defended  his  opinions.  Of  this  latter  class  were  many  of  the  monks. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

HISTORY    OF    CEREMONIES   AND    RITES. 

4  1,  2.  Ceremonies  multiplied. — $  3.  Form  of  Public  Worship. — $  4.  Some  Parts  of  it 
changed. — $  5.  Festal  Days. — §  6.  Fasts. — §  7.  Administration  of  Baptism, — §  8.  and 
of  the  Lord's  Supper. 

§  1.  WHILE  the  fostering  care  of  the  emperors  sought  to  advance  the 
Christian  religion,  the  indiscreet  piety  of  the  bishops  obscured  its  true  na- 
ture and  depressed  its  energies,  by  the  multiplication  of  rites  and  ceremo- 
nies. The  observation  of  Augustine  is  well  known,  That  the  yoke  once 
laid  upon  the  Jews  was  more  supportable,  than  that  laid  on  many  Christians- 
in  his  age.(l)  For  the  Christian  bishops  introduced,  with  but  slight  al- 
terations, into  the  Christian  worship,  those  rites  and  institutions  by  which 
formerly  the  Greeks,  Romans,  and  other  nations  had  manifested  their  piety 
and  reverence  towards  their  imaginary  deities  ;  supposing  that  the  people 
would  more  readily  embrace  Christianity,  if  they  saw  that  the  rites  handed 
down  to  them  from  their  fathers  still  existed  unchanged  among  the  Chris- 
tians, and  perceived  that  Christ  and  the  martyrs  were  worshipped  in  the 
same  manner,  as  formerly  their  gods  were.  There  was,  of  course,  little 
difference,  in  these  times,  between  the  public  worship  of  the  Christians 
and  that  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  In  both  alike  there  were  splendid 

(47)  See  Peter  Dan.  Huet,  Origeniana,  troversy  is  given  by  the  senior  Walch,  Hi*- 

lib.  ii.,  cap.  4,  p.  196,  &c.     Ludov.  Doucin,  toria  Eccles.  N  .T.,  p.   1042,  &c.—Schl. 

Histoire  de  1'Origenistne,  liv.    hi.,  p.   95,  The  history  itself,  but  without  naming  au- 

&.c.     Hieron.  a  Prato,  Diss.  vi.,  in  Sulpi-  thorities,  is  given  by  A.  Neander,  in  his 

tium    Severum   de   Monachis   ob   Originis  Chrysostomus  und  dessen  Zeitalter,   liter 

nomen  ex  Nitria  totaque  Aegypto  pulsis,  p.  Band,  s.  163,  &c. —  TV.] 
273,  Veron.,  1741,  fol.     These  writers  cite         (1)  Augustine,  Epist.  119,  ad  Januariunv 

the  ancient  authorities  ;  but  they  make  some  according  to  the  ancient  division, 
mistakes.     [The  literary  history  of  this  con- 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  277 

robes,  mitres,  tiaras,  wax  tapers.  crosiers,(2)  processions,  lustrations, 
images,  golden  and  silver  vases,  and  numberless  other  things. 

§  2.  No  sooner  had  Constantine  renounced  the  religion  of  his  ancestors, 
than  magnificent  temples  were  everywhere  erected,  which  were  adorned 
with  pictures  and  images,  and  which  both  in  their  external  and  their  in- 
ternal  form  were  very  similar  to  the  fanes  and  the  temples  of  the  gods. (3) 
These  temples  were  of  two  kinds.  Some  were  erected  at  the  graves  of 
the  martyrs,  and  were  called  Martyria  :  the  people  assembled  in  these  only 
at  stated  times.  Others  were  intended  for  the  ordinary  and  common 
meetings  for  religious  worship  ;  and  were  afterwards  called  by  the  Lat- 
ins Tit.uli.(4:)  Both  were  consecrated  with  great  pomp,  and  with  rites 
borrowed  in  great  measure  from  the  ancient  pontifical  code  of  the  Ro- 
mans. And  what  is  more  strange,  a  great  part  of  religion  was  supposed 
to  consist  in  the  multitude  of  churches  ;  and  the  right  of  patronage,  as  it 
is  called,  was  introduced  among  Christians,  for  no  other  reason  than  to  in- 
duce opulent  persons  to  build  churches. (5)  Thus,  in  this  particular  the  true 
religion  evidently  copied  after  superstition.  For  the  ancient  nations  sup- 
posed, that  a  country  or  province  would  be  the  more  prosperous  and  secure, 
the  more  temples,  fanes,  and  chapels  were  there  erected  to  the  gods  and 
heroes  ;  because  those  gods  would  be  ashamed  not  to  show  themselves  pa- 
trons and  defenders  of  the  people  who  worshipped  and  honoured  them 
with  so  much  zeal.  The  same  sentiment  prevailed  among  the  Christians. 
They  supposed,  the  more  temples  there  were  dedicated  to  Christ,  to  his 
servants  and  his  friends,  the  more  certain  they  might  be  of  assistance  from 
Christ  and  his  friends.  For  they  supposed  God,  Christ,  and  the  inhabi- 
tants of  heaven,  equally  with  us  wretched  mortals,  to  be  delighted  and  cap- 
tivated with  external  signs  and  expressions  of  respect. 

§  3.  The  Christian  worship  consisted  in  hymns,  prayers,  reading  the 
holy  scriptures,  a  discourse  to  the  people,  and  then  closed  with  the  cele- 
bration of  the  Lord's  Supper.  But  these  exercises  were  accompanied  with 
various  ceremonies,  which  were  better  calculated  to  please  the  eye  than 

(2)  [The  crosier  or  bishop's  staff,  was  ex-  the  division  into  the  holy  of  holies,  the  holy 

actly  of  the  form  of  the  lituus,  the  chief  en-  place,  and  the  court ;   from  which  came  the 

sign  of  the  ancient  augurs.     See  Cicero,  de  chancel,  the  nave,  and  the  porch.     (/J/y/ia, 

Divinatione,  1.  i.,  c.  17. — Tr.]  vadf,  and  vupdr/g.) — Schl.] 

(2)  See  Ezek.  Spanheim,  Preuves  sur  les  (4)  Joh.  Mabillon,  Museum  Italic.,  torn. 

Cesars    de    Julien.  p.  47;    but   especially,  ii.,  in  Comment,  ad  ordin.  Roman.,  p.  xvi., 

Peter  le  Brun,  Explication  litterale  et  histor.  &c.     [The  Tituli,  of  the  middle  ages,  were 

des  ceremonies  de  la  Messe,  tome  ii.,  p.  101,  properly  the  parish  churches,  under  the  care 

&c.     For  a  description  of  such  a  temple,  of  presbyters,  who  derived  their  titles  from 

see  Eusebius,  de  Vita  Constantini  Magni,  their  respective  churches.     See  Du  Gange, 

1.  iii.,  c.  35,  &c.     Plates  representing  their  Glossarium    mediae   et  infimae   Latinitatis, 

interior  form,  are  given  by  Wm.  Bcveridffe,  voce  Titulus. — TV.] 

Adnotatt.  ad  Pandectas  Canonum,  torn,  ii.,  (5)  Just.  Hcnn.   Boehmer,   Jus    Eccles. 

p.  70,  and   by  Fred.   Spanheim,    Institutt.  Protestant.,  torn,  iii.,  p.  466,  &c.     Biblio- 

Hist.  Eccles.,  in  his  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  p.  860.  theque  Italique,  tome  v.,  p.  166,  &c.    [Who- 

Some  parts  of  the  Christian  temples  were  ever  erected  to  any  god  either  a  larger  or  a 

after  the  pattern  of  the  Jewish  temple.     See  smaller  temple,  had  the  right  of  designating 

Camp.  Vitringa,  de  Synagoga  veteri,  lib,  iii.,  the  priests  and  attendants  on  the  altar  who 

p.  46G.     [Some  of  these  temples  were  new  should  officiate  there.     And  whoever  erected 

buildings  erected  by  the  emperors;  others  a  Christian  temple,  possessed  the  same  right 

were  pagan  temples  transmuted  to  Christian  in  regard  to  those  who  should  minister  there, 

churches.      See  Codex  Theodos.,  lib.  ix.,  This  induced  many  persons  to  build  churches, 

tit.    xvii.,  leg.    2,  and  Jerome,  Chronicon,  — Schl.] 
ann.  332.     From  the  Jews  was  borrowed, 


278  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.—PART  II.— CHAP.  IV. 

to  excite  true  devotion.  (6)  But  all  congregations  did  not,  by  any  means, 
follow  one  and  the  same  rule  or  form.  Each  individual  bishop  according  to 
his  own  views,  and  as  the  circumstances  of  times,  places,  and  persons 
suggested,  prescribed  to  his  own  flock  such  a  form  of  public  worship  as 
he  judged  best.  Hence  that  variety  of  liturgies,  which  were  in  use  be- 
fore  the  Roman  pontiff  arrogated  to  himself  supreme  power  in  religious 
matters,  and  persuaded  people  that  they  ought  to  copy  after  the  principal 
church,  the  common  mother  of  them  all,  as  well  in  doctrine  as  in  their 
modes  of  worship. 

§  4.  It  would  be  tedious  to  go  over  all  the  parts  of  public  worship ;  I 
will  therefore  content  myself  with  a  few  observations.  The  prayers  lost 
much  of  their  primitive  simplicity  and  dignity,  and  became  turgid  and 
bombastic.  Among  the  public  hymns,  the  Psalms  of  David  were  now  re- 
ceived.^) The  public  discourses,  among  the  Greeks  especially,  were 
formed  according  to  the  rules  for  civil  eloquence,  and  were  better  adapted 
to  call  forth  the  admiration  of  the  rude  multitude  who  love  display,  than  to 
amend  the  heart.  And  that  no  folly  and  no  senseless  custom  might  be  omit- 
ted  in  their  public  assemblies,  the  people  were  allowed  to  applaud  their  ora- 
tors, as  had  been  practised  in  the  forums  and  theatres  ;  nay  they  were  in- 
structed  both  to  applaud  and  to  clap  the  preachers.(S)  Who  would  suppose, 
that  men  professing  to  despise  vainglory,  and  who  were  appointed  to  show 
to  others  the  emptiness  of  all  human  things,  would  become  so  senseless  ? 

§  5.  The  first  day  of  the  week,  (on  which  Christians  were  accustomed 
to  meet  for  the  worship  of  God,)  Constantine  required  by  a  special  law,  to  be 
observed  more  sacredly  than  before. (9)  In  most  congregations  of  Chris- 
tians, five  annual  festivals  were  observed  ;  namely,  in  remembrance  of  the 
Saviour's  birth,  of  his  sufferings  and  death  for  the  sins  of  men,  of  his  resur- 
rection, of  his  ascension  to  heaven,  and  of  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
upon  his  ministers.  Of  these  festivals,  that  of  the  fourteen  days  sacred  to  the 
memory  of  Christ's  return  to  life,  was  observed  with  much  more  ceremony 

(6)  The  form  of  public  worship,  or  the  Theodos.,  torn,  i.,  p.  135.     [See  Eustlius, 
liturgy  of  this  age,  may  be  very  well  learned  de  Vita  Constantini,  lib.,  iv.,  c.  18,  19,  20, 
in  general  from  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  Catcche-  23.     Sozomen,  Hist.   Eccles.,   1.   i.,   c.  8. 
sis  xxii.  ;  and  from  the  Apostolic  Constitu-  The  principal  laws  of  Constantine  and  his 
tions,  which  are  falsely  ascribed  to  Clemens  successors,  in  regard  to  the  Lord's  day  and 
Roman.     These  writers  are  explained  and  the  other  festivals,  are  collected  in  the  Co- 
interpreted  by  Peter  le  Brun,  Explication  dex  Justinianus,  lib.  iii.,  tit.  xii.,  leg.  1-11. 
litterale  et  historique  de  la  Messe,  torn,  ii.,  The  Lord's  day  and  the  other  festivals  were 
p.  53,  &c.,  which  is  a  very  learned  work,  placed  on  the  same  level.     On  them  all,  the 
[See  also  Dr.  Ernesti's  Antimurator.,  p.  13,  courts  of  justice  and  the  public  offices  were 
&c. — Schl  ]  to  be  closed,  except  in  certain  urgent  cases. 

(7)  Beausobre,  Histoire  du  Manicheisme,  Constantine,  in  the  year  321,  required  the 
torn,  ii.,  p.  614,  &c.     [They  were  sung  in  inhabitants  of  cities   and  all   mechanics  to 
course,  or  in  their  order.     Joh.  Cassiamis,  suspend  their  business  on  the  Lord's  day  ; 
Institut.,  lib.  ii.,  c.  2,  4,  lib.  iii.,  c.  3.     Yet  but  he  allowed  such  as  resided  in  the  coun- 
for  the  public  worship  on  certain  occasions,  try,  full  liberty  to  pursue  their  agriculture, 
particular  Psalms  were  appointed  •,  (Aufrus-  because  it  was  supposed  necessary  for  them 
tine  on  Ps.  xxi.) ;  and  it  lay  with  the  bishop  to  sow  their  fields  and  prop  their  vines  when 
to  designate  what  Psalms  he  would  have  the  weather  and  the  season  best  suited.    The 
sung.     Athanasius,  Apolog.  ii.    Augustine  emperor    Leo,   however,  in   the  year  469, 
on  Ps.  cxxxviii. — Schi.]  thought  agriculture  required  no  exception  ; 

(8)  Fran.  Bernh.  Ferrarius,  de  veterum     and  therefore  he  included  farmers  under  the 
acclamationibus  et  plausu,  p.  66.  same  prohibition  with  mechanics.     See  Imp. 

(9)  Ja.  Gothofred,  Notes  to  the    Codex     Leonis  Novellae  Constitut.  54.— TV.] 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 


279 


than  the  rest. (10)  The  Oriental  Christians  kept  the  memorial  of  the  Sa- 
viour's birth  and  of  his  baptism,  on  one  and  the  same  day,  namely  the  sixth 
day  of  January;  and  this  day  they  called  Epiphany. (11)  But  the  occi- 
dental Christians  seem  always  to  have  consecrated  the  25th  of  December 
to  the  memory  of  the  Saviour's  birth.  For  what  is  reported  of  the  Ro- 
man pontiff  Julian  I.  that  he  transferred  the  memorial  of  Christ's  birth 
from  the  6th  of  January  to  the  25th  of  December,(12)  appears  to  me  very 


(10)  Gothofred,  Notes  on  the  Codex  The- 
odos.,  torn,  i.,  p.  143. 

(11)  See  Beausobre,  Histoire  du  Maniche- 
isme,  torn,  ii.,  p.  693,  &c. 

(12)  See  Jos.   Sim.   Asseman,  Biblioth. 
Orient.  Clement.  Vaticana,  torn,  ii.,  p.  164. 
Alph.  du  Vtgnoles,  Dissert,  in  the  Biblioth. 
German.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  29.     [Additional  re- 
marks on  the  origin  of  the  festivals. — The 
first  Christians,  being  chiefly  Jews  who  were 
accustomed  to  assemble  at  Jerusalem  on  the 
great  festivals,  found  it  advantageous  after 
their  conversion  to  continue  to  meet  in  that 
city  on  the  two  great  feasts  of  the  Passover 
and   Pentecost.     While  thus  assembled  at 
Jerusalem,  they  would   naturally  recognise 
with  thrilling  emotions  the  recurring  anni- 
versaries of  their  Lord's  crucifixion,  resur- 
rection from  the  dead,  ascension  to  heaven, 
and  sending  down  the  H.  Spirit  upon  them 
on  the  day  of  Pentecost.     All   these  days 
occurred  during   the  Jewish  feasts   of  the 
Passover  and  Pentecost,  or  in  the  interval 
between  them  ;  and  they  answer  to  the  fes- 
tivals of  Good  Friday,  Easter  Sunday,  As- 
cension Day,  and  Whitsuntide.     These  four 
days  having  been  observed  from  the  earliest 
times  with  peculiar  interest,  were  at  length 
considered  as  Christian  festivals  which  apos- 
tolic usage  had  introduced,  and  they  were 
accordingly  sanctioned  by  the  authority  of 
general  councils.     And  St.  Augustine  (Ep. 

54,  al.  118,  c.  i.)  mentions  them  as  the  only 
festivals  which  were  regarded,  in  his  times, 
as  having  such  an  origin  and  such  a  sanction. 
He  admits,  indeed,  that  the  Christians  of  his 
age  observed  also   Christmas  or  the  day  of 
Christ's  nativity  as  a  festival,  but  he  consid- 
ers it  as  of  later  origin,  and  less  sacred  than 
the  four  above  mentioned.     (Augustine,  Ep. 

55,  al.  119, c.  i.)     As  Augustine  represents 
Christmas  as  neither  derived  from  apostolic 
usage  nor  sanctioned  by  any  general  council, 
Adr.  Battlet  very  candidly  says,  (Vies  des 
Saints,  t.  iii.,  p.  298),  there  can  be  no  rea- 
sonable doubt,  that  it  had  its  rise  after  the 
council  i>f  Nice.     Such  a  conclusion  is  the 
more  probable  from  the  omission  of  the  An- 
tenicene  fathers  to  speak  of  any  such  festival 
in  the  church,  and  from  their  great  indiffer- 
ence about  ascertaining  the  day  of  the  Sa- 
viour's birth.     The  following  passage  from 
Clemens  Alex.,  (Stromata,  1.  i.,  p.  340,  al. 


249),  is  almost  the  only  genuine  passage  of 
an  Anteniccne  writer,  which  can  be  suppo- 
sed to  allude  at  all  to  such  a  festival ;  and 
as  it  states  the  different  conjectures  in  that 
age  respecting  the  day  of  Christ's  birth,  and 
manifests  the  indifference  with  which  even 
the  learned  treated  the  subject,  the  passage 
is  worth  repeating  entire.  Clement  had  just 
given  a  list  of  all  the  Roman  emperors  till 
the  death  of  Commodus,  A.D.  192,  and  had 
stated  in  what  years  of  certain  emperors  the 
Saviour  was  either  born,  or  baptized,  or  cru- 
cified. He  then  says  :  "  There  are  some 
who  over  curiously  (irepiepyorepov)  assign 
not  only  the  year,  but  also  the  day  of  our 
Saviour's  nativity,  which  they  say  was  in  the 
28th  year  of  Augustus,  on  the  (25th  of  Pa- 
chon)  20/A  of  May.  And  the  followers  of 
Basilides  observe  also  the  day  of  his  baptism 
as  a  festival,  spending  the  whole  previous 
night  in  reading  ;  and  they  say,  it  was  in  the 
15th  year  of  Tiberius  Cssar,  on  the  (15th  of 
Tybi)  I Oth  of  January  ;  but  some  say  it 
was  on  the  (llth)  6th  of  that  month.  Among 
those  who  nicely  calculate  the  time  of  his 
passion,  some  say  it  was  in  the  16th  year  of 
Tiberius  Caesar,  the  (25th  of  Phamenoth) 
22d  of  March;  others  say,  the  (25th  of 
Pharmuthi)  21st  of  April  ;  and  others,  that 
it  was  on  the  (19th  of  Pharmuthi)  15th  of 
April,  that  the  Saviour  suffered.  Nay,  some 
of  them  say  that  he  was  born  in  (Pharmuthi) 
April,  the  (24th  or  25th)  20/A  or  2lst  day." 
— -After  the  establishment  of  Christianity  by 
Constantine,  and  among  the  new  institutions 
which  were  intended  for  the  benefit  of  the 
church,  we  seem  authorized  to  place  the 
commemoration  of  Christ's  advent.  This  the 
Oriental  Christians  generally  assigned  to  the 
6th  of  January,  on  which  day  they  supposed 
both  the  birth  and  the  baptism  of  Christ  oc- 
curred,  and  in  reference  to  both  they  called 
it  Epiphany.  But  the  western  Christians 
observed  the  25th  of  December  as  their  festi- 
val of  the  nativity.  According  to  an  epistle 
of  John,  abp.  of  Nice,  (in  the  Auctar.  Bibl. 
Pair.,  ed.  Combefis,  t.  ii.,  p.  297),  and  an 
anonymous  writer  cited  by  Cotelerius,  (ad 
Constitut.  Apostol.,  v.,  13),  it  was  Julian  I. 
(bp.  of  Rome  A.D.  337-352)  who  first  as- 
certained this  to  be  the  right  day :  and 
though  this  authority  is  not  the  best,  yet  it 
is  generally  admitted  that  the  designation  of 


280 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  IV. 


questionable.  The  unlucky  success  of  the  age  in  finding  the  dead  bodies 
of  certain  holy  men.  increased  immensely  the  commemoration  of  martyrs. 
Devout  men  would  have  readily  consented  to  the  multiplication  of  festivals, 
if  the  time  that  Christians  consumed  in  them  had  been  employed  to  ad- 
vance them  in  true  holiness.  But  the  majority  spent  the  time  rather  in 
idleness,  and  dissipation,  and  other  vices,  than  in  the  worship  of  God.  It 
is  well  known,  among  other  things,  what  opportunities  of  sinning  were  of- 
fered to  the  licentious  by  the  Vigils,  as  they  were  called,  of  Easter  and 
Whitsuntide,  [or  the  nocturnal  meetings,  held  on  the  nights  preceding  the 
Paschal  and  Pentecostal  festivals.] 

§  6.  It  was  believed  that  nothing  scarcely  was  more  effectual,  to  repel 
the  assaults  of  evil  spirits  and  to  placate  the  Deity,  than  fasting.  Hence 
it  is  easy  to  discover,  why  the  rulers  of  the  church  ordained  fasts  by  ex- 
press laws,  and  commanded  as  a  necessary  duty,  what  was  before  leil  at 
discretion.  The  Quadragesimal  [or  Lent]  fast,  as  it  was  called,  was  con- 
sidered more  sacred  than  all  the  rest ;  though  it  was  not  as  yet  fixed  to  a 
determinate  number  of  days. (13)  But  it  should  be  remembered,  that  the 
the  25th  of  December  for  the  festival,  was  of  the  follies  and  censurable  practices  which 


first  made  about  the  middle  of  the  fourth 
century.  Afterwards  the  Oriental  churches 
gradually  came  into  the  Roman  custom,  and 
most  of  them  before  the  end  of  the  century. 
And  on  the  other  hand,  the  western  church- 
es adopted  the  Oriental  Epiphany,  on  the 
6th  of  January,  as  the  proper  festival  of 
Christ's  baptism.  The  motives  which  led 
the  western  churches  to  place  the  festival  of 
the  nativity  on  the  25th  of  December,  are 
not  clearly  ascertained.  Some  among  the 
Catholics,  (e.  g.,  John  Harduin),  and  many 
among  the  Protestants,  (e  g.,  Hospinian,  Ja- 
blonski,  Eisenschmid,  Gieseler,  &c.),  think 
that  day  was  chosen,  because  it  was  the  day 
on  which  the  Romans  celebrated  their  festi- 
val of  natalis  soils  invicti,  or  of  the  sun's 
passing  the  southern  solstice  and  beginning 
to  return  northward — a  fit  emblem  of  the  ap- 
proach of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  to  mor- 
tals ;  (see  the  orations  of  Augustine  and 
Chrysostom  on  the  nativity  of  Christ) :  and 
because  the  establishment  of  a  Christian  fes- 
tival of  several  days,  at  that  season  of  the 
year,  might  supplant  the  Saturnalia  and  oth- 
er corrupting  festivals  of  the  pagans.  But 
other  reasons  may  be  stated.  As  the  true 
day  of  the  nativity  was  then  unknown,  and 
as  divers  hypothetical  arguments  were  ad- 
vanced which  led  to  different  conclusions, 
there  were  doubtless  many  persons  in  that 
age,  as  there  are  in  this,  who  believed  that 
the  25th  of  December  was  the  most  probable 
day.  And  all  might  have  felt  it  desirable,  to 
have  a  Christian  festival  at  some  other  sea- 
son of  the  year,  than  the  50  or  60  days  next 
after  the  vernal  equinox,  into  which  all  the 
older  festivals  were  clustered. — From  the 
first  institution  of  this  festival,  the  western 
nations  seem  to  have  transferred  to  it  many 


prevailed  in  the  pagan  festivals  of  the  same 
season,  such  as  adorning  the  churches  fan- 
tastically, mingling  puppet-shows  and  dramas 
with  worship,  universal  feasting  and  merri- 
making,  Christmas  visits  and  salutations, 
Christmas  presents  and  jocularity,  and 
Christmas  revelry  and  drunkenness.  For 
from  the  days  of  Augustine  and  Chrysostom 
down  to  our  own  times,  we  find  many  de- 
vout persons  deprecating  the  heathenish 
manner  in  which  the  festival  was  kept,  and 
labouring  to  give  it  a  more  Christian  charac- 
ter. The  Christmas  holydays, — which  by  a 
law  of  Theodosius  the  Gr.,  (emperor  A.D. 
383-395),  were  to  comprise  14  days,  or  the 
seven  days  before  Christmas  and  the  seven 
days  after,  (Codex  Justinian.,  lib.  iii.,  tit.  xii., 
leg  2), — have  borne  so  close  a  resemblance, 
wherever  they  have  been  observed,  to  the 
Roman  Saturnalia,  Sigillaria,  &c.,  and  to 
the  Juel  feast  of  the  ancient  Goths,  as  to  af- 
ford strong  presumption  of  an  unhappy  alli- 
ance between  them  from  the  first. — (See 
Air.  Ba.il/et,  Vies  des  Saints,  Dec.  25,  torn, 
iii.,  p.  295,  &c.  G.  B.  Eisenschmid,  Ges- 
chichte  der  Sonn-und  Festage,  Lips.,  1793, 
p.  99,  &c.  R.  Hospinian,  de  Orig.  Festor. 
Christ.,  ed.  1684,  p.  168,  &c.  A.  Neander, 
Kirchengesch.,  vol.  i..  pt.  ii.,  p.  527,  &c.,  and 
his  Chrysostomus  und  dessen  Zeitalter,  vol. 
i.,  p.  236,  &c  ,  259,  &c.,  288,  &c.  M. 
Schroeckh,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  x.,  p.  349, 
&c.  J.  Bingham,  Origines  Ecclesiast., 
book  xx.,  ch.  iv.) — Tr.] 

(13)  Joh.  Daille,  de  Jejuniis  et  Quadra- 
gesima, lib.  iv.  [The  Quadragesimal  fast 
was  at  first  of  only  40  hours  ;  afterwards,  it 
was  extended  to  several  days,  and  even 
weeks  ;  and  at  last  settled  at  36  days.  In 
the  Oriental  churches,  Lent  commenced  with 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  281 

fasts  of  this  age  differed  much  from  those  observed  by  Christians  in 
preceding  ages.  Anciently,  those  who  undertook  to  observe  a  fast,  ab- 
stained altogether  from  food  and  drink ;  in  this  age,  many  deemed  it  suf- 
ficient merely  to  omit  the  use  of  flesh  and  wine  :(14)  and  this  sentiment 
afterwards  became  universal  among  the  Latins. 

§  7.  For  the  more  convenient  administration  of  baptism,  sacred  fonts 
or  baptisteria(l5)  were  erected  in  the  porches  of  the  temples.  This  sa- 
cred rite  was  always  administered,  except  in  cases  of  necessity  when  the 
rule  was  dispensed  with,  on  the  vigils  of  Easter  and  Whitsuntide,  accom- 
panied with  lighted  wax  candles,  and  by  the  bishop,  or  by  the  presbyters 
whom  the  bp.  commissioned  for  that  purpose.  In  some  places,  salt,  a 
symbol  of  purity  and  wisdom,  was  put  into  the  mouth  of  the  baptized ; 
and  everywhere,  a  double  anointing  was  used,  the  first  before  and  the  other 
after  the  baptism.  After  being  baptized,  the  persons  appeared  clad  in 
white  gowns  during  seven  days.  The  other  rites,  which  were  either  of 
temporary  duration,  or  confined  to  certain  countries,  are  here  omitted. 

§  8.  The  instruction  and  discipline  of  the  catechumens  were  the  same 
in  this  century  as  the  preceding.  That  the  Lord's  Supper  was  adminis- 
tered twice  or  three  times  a  week,  (though  in  some  places  only  on  Sunday), 
to  all  who  assembled  for  the  worship  of  God,  appears  from  innumerable 
testimonies.  It  was  also  administered  at  the  sepulchres  of  the  martyrs, 
and  at  funerals ;  whence  arose,  afterwards,  the  masses  in  honour  of  the 
saints,  and  for  the  dead.  The  bread  and  wine  were  now  everywhere  ele- 
vated, before  distribution,  so  that  they  might  be  seen  by  the  people,  and  be 
viewed  with  reverence ;  and  hence  arose,  not  long  after,  the  adoration  of 
the  symbols.  Neither  catechumens,  nor  penitents,  nor  those  who  were  sup- 
posed to  be  under  the  power  of  evil  spirits,  were  allowed  to  be  present  at 
this  sacred  ordinance ;  nor  did  the  sacred  orators,  in  their  public  discour- 
ses, venture  to  speak  openly  and  plainly  concerning  the  true  nature  of  it. 
The  origin  of  this  custom  was  not  very  honourable,  as  has  been  stated  be- 
fore ;  yet  many  offer  an  honourable  excuse  for  it,  by  saying,  that  this  con- 
cealment  might  awaken  eagerness  in  the  catechumens  to  penetrate  early 
into  these  mysteries 

the  seventh  week   before  Easter,  because  (14)  See  Joh.    Barbeyrac,  de  la  Morale 

two  days  in  each  week  they  suspended  the  des  Peres,  p.  250,  &c. 

fast;  but  in  the  western  churches,  it  com-  (15)    [The    Baptisteries    were    properly 

menced  with  the  sixth  week,  because  they  buildings  adjacent  to  the  churches,  in  which 

fasted  on  the  Sundays.     Finally,  Gregory  the  the  catechumens  were  instructed,  and  where 

Great,  in  the  sixth  century,  or  as  others  say,  were  a  sort  of  cisterns,  into  which  water  was 

Gregory  II.  in  the  eighth  century,  added  let  at  the  time  of  baptism,  and  in  which  the 

four  days  more  to  this  fast,  so  as  to  make  it  candidates  were  baptized  by  immersion.    See 

full  40  days.     In  the  fourth  century,  however,  Banmparten's  Erlauterung  der  christlichen 

the  Lent  fast  was  in  a  degree  optional ;  and  Alterthiimer,  p  388. — Schl.     See  also  Rob. 

the  people  were  exhorted  with  entreaties  to  Robertson's  History  of  Baptism,  ch.  12,  p. 

its  observance.     See  Rauntpartcn's  Erlaut.  67-73,  ed.  Benedict,  1817.— Tr.} 
der  christ.  Alterthiimer,  p.  329,  &c. — Schl.] 
VOL.  I.— N  N 


282     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


CHAPTER  V. 

HISTORY    OF    THE    HERESIES. 

$  1.  Remains  of  the  former  Sects. — §  2,  3.  Origin  of  the  Donatist  Controversy. — $  4. 
History  of  the  Donatists. — §  5,  6.  Origin  of  the  Circumcelliones. — §  7.  State  of  the 
Donatists  under  the  Emperors  Julian  and  Gratian. — §  8.  Their  principal  Crime. — §  9. 
The  Doctrine  of  this  Age  concerning  the  sacred  Trinity. — $  10.  The  Rise  of  Arianism. 
— $  11.  Its  Progress. — $  12.  The  Nicene  Council. — $  13.  History  of  Arianism  after 
that  Council, — $  14.  under  the  Sons  of  Constantine, — $  15.  under  Julian,  Jovian,  &c. 
— $  16.  Sects  among  the  Arians. — §  17.  Heresy  of  Apollinaris. — $  18.  Marcelius  of 
Ancyra. — $  19.  Heresy  of  Photinus. — $  20.  That  of  Macedonius.  The  Council  of  Con- 
stantinople.— $  21,  22.  The  Prise  ill  ianists. — §  23.  The  minor  Sects.  Audaeus. — 
§  24,  25.  Messalians,  or  Euchites. 

§  1.  THE  seeds  and  remains  of  those  sects  which  were  conspicuous  in 
the  preceding  centuries,  continued  in  this,  especially  in  the  East ;  nor  did 
they  cease  to  make  some  proselytes,  notwithstanding  the  absurdity  of  their 
opinions.  The  Manichaean  sect  beyond  others,  and  by  its  very  turpitude, 
ensnared  many  ;  and  often,  persons  of  good  talents  also,  as  appears  by  the 
example  of  Augustine.  This  wide-spreading  pestilence,  the  most  respect- 
able doctors  of  the  age,  and  among  them  Augustine  when  recovered  from 
his  infatuation,  made  efforts  to  arrest ;  some  indeed  with  more  learning 
and  discrimination,  and  others  with  less,  but  none  of  them  without  some 
success.  But  the  disease  could  not  be  wholly  extirpated,  either  by  books 
or  by  severe  laws,(l)  but  after  remaining  latent  for  a  time,  and  when  most 
people  supposed  it  extinct,  it  would  break  out  again  with  greater  violence. 
For  the  Manichaeans,  to  avoid  the  severity  of  the  laws,  assumed  successively 
various  names,  as  Encratitcs,  Apotactics,  Saccophori,  Hydroparastites,  Sol- 
iiaries,  &c.,  and  under  these  names,  they  often  lay  concealed  for  a  time  ; 
but  not  long,  for  the  vigilance  of  their  enemies  would  find  them  out. (2) 

§  2.  But  the  state  had  little  to  fear  from  these  people,  whose  energies 
were  gradually  impaired  and  oppressed  in  the  Roman  empire  by  penal 
laws  and  persecutions.  A  much  more  threatening  storm  arose  in  Africa, 
which  though  small  in  its  commencement,  kept  both  the  church  and  the 
state  in  commotion  for  more  than  a  century.  Mensurius  the  bishop  of 
Carthage  in  Africa  dying  in  the  year  311,  the  majority  of  the  people  and  of 
the  clergy  elected  Ccecilian  the  archdeacon  to  the  vacant  chair  ;  and  he  was 

(1)  See  in  the  Codex  Thcodosianus,  torn,  merated  by  Dr.  Walr.h,  in  his  Historie  der 

vi.,  pt.  i.,  ed.  Ritter,  various  and  peculiarly  Ketzereyen,  vol.  i.,  p.  808,  &c. — SrM.] 
severe  laws  of  the  emperors  against  the  Ma-        (2)  See  the  law  of  Theodosius,  in  the  Co- 

nichaeans.     In   the   year  372,    Valentinian  dex  Theodos.,  torn,  vi.,  p.  134,  136-138. — 

senior  forbid  their  holding  meetings,  and  laid  [The  popular  names  assumed  by  the  Mani- 

their  preachers  under  heavy  penalties,  p.  126.  chaeans,  were,  kyKparlTat,  Continents,  from 

In  the  year  381,  Theodosius  the  Great  pro-  their  condemning  marriage  ;  UTTOTUKTIKOI,  set 

nounced  them  infamous,  and  deprived  them  apart  or  consecrated  to  God ;   aaicKoQopoi, 

of  all  the  rights  of  citizens,   p.   133.     See  wearers  of  sackcloth  ;    v6poTrapa.fu.Tai,  pre- 

other  laws  even  more  severe  than  these,  p.  senters  of  water,  from  their  using  water  only 

137,  138,  170,  &c.     [The  writers  who  con-  in  the  eucharist ;  and  Solilarii,  Solitaries  or 

futed  the  Manichaeans,  are  very  fully  enu-  monks. — Tr.] 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS.  283 

consecrated  immediately,  without  waiting  for  the  bishops  of  Numidia,  by  the 
bishops  of  Africa  [Proper,  or  the  province  of  which  Carthage  was  the  capi- 
tal]. The  Numidian  bishops,  who  according  to  custom  should  have  been 
present  at  the  consecration,  were  highly  offended  at  being  excluded  from  the 
ceremony ;  and  therefore,  having  assembled  at  Carthage,  they  summoned 
Cacilian  to  appear  before  them.  The  feelings  of  these  excited  bishops  were 
still  more  inflamed,  by  the  efforts  of  certain  presbyters  of  Carthage,  especially 
of  Botrus  and  Celesius  the  competitors  of  Ccecilian  ;  and  by  an  opulent  lady 
named  Lucf/la,  who  was  unfriendly  to  Cacilian  (by  whom  she  had  been 
reproved  for  her  superstition)  and  who  distributed  large  sums  of  money 
among  those  Numidians  that  they  might  vigorously  oppose  the  new  bishop. 
When  therefore  Cacilum  refused  to  appear  before  the  tribunal  of  these 
bishops,  they,  seventy  in  number,  and  headed  by  Secundus  bishop  of  Tigi. 
sis,  with  the  approbation  of  a  considerable  part  of  the  clergy  and  people  of 
Carthage,  pronounced  Ca>ci.Uan  unworthy  of  his  office,  and  created  Majo- 
rinus  his  deacon  bishop  of  Carthage.  Hence  the  Carthaginian  church  was 
divided  into  two  factions,  headed  by  the  two  bishops  Ccecilian  and  Majo- 
rinus. 

§  3.  The  Numidians  stated  two  grounds  of  their  sentence  against  Cat. 
cilian.  (I.)  That  the  principal  bishop  concerned  in  his  consecration,  Fe- 
lix of  Aptunga,  was  a  traditor ;  that  is,  that  during  the  persecution  of  Di- 
ocletian he  had  delivered  up  the  sacred  books  to  the  magistrates  to  be 
burned,  and  therefore  that  he  was  an  apostate  from  Christ,  and  of  course 
could  not  impart  the  Holy  Ghost  to  the  new-made  bishop.  (II.)  That 
CcRciUan  himself  when  a  deacon  had  been  hard-hearted  and  cruel  to  the 
witnesses  for  Christ,  or  the  martyrs,  during  the  Diocletian  persecution,  and 
had  forbidden  food  to  be  carried  to  them  in  prison.  To  these  two  causes 
they  added  the  contumacy  of  Ccecilian,  who  being  summoned  to  a  trial  be- 
fore them  refused  to  appear.  Among  these  Numidian  bishops,  no  one  was 
more  ardent  and  violent  than  Donatus  the  bishop  of  Casae  Nigrae,  whence, 
as  most  writers  suppose,  the  whole  party  opposed  to  C&cilian  were  from 
him  called  Donatists ;  though  there  are  those  who  think  the  name  was  de- 
rived from  another  Donatus,  whom  the  Donatists  called  the  Great. (3)  In 
a  very  short  lime  this  controversy  was  diffused  over  the  whole  not  only  of 
Numidia  but  even  of  Africa,  and  most  of  the  cities  had  two  bishops,  one  ta- 
king sides  with  Caecilian  and  the  other  with  Majorinus. 

§  4.  The  Donatists  having  brought  this  controversy  before  Constantinc 
the  Great  in  the  year  313,  the  emperor  committed  the  examination  of  it  to 
Melchiades  the  Roman  bishop,  with  whom  as  assessors  he  joined  three 

(3)  In  the  Donatist  contests,  two  persons  ceived  several  names.  In  the  commence- 
of  the  name  of  Donatus  distinguished  them-  ment  of  the  schism,  they  were  called  (pars 
selves  ;  the  one  was  a  Numidian.  and  bishop  Majorini)  the  Party  of  Mojnrinus.  After- 
of  Casae  Niprae  ;  the  other  was  the  second  wards  they  were  called  Donattan»  and  Do- 
leader  of  the  Donatists,  succeeded  Majnrinut  natistt ;  though  they  would  not  allow  of  this 
as  bishop  of  Carthage,  and  on  account  of  his  name,  which  was  given  them  by  the  orthodox, 
learning  and  virtues  was  honoured  by  his  Finally  they  were  called  (Montenses)  Mount- 
partisans  with  the  title  of  the  (irftit.  The  aineert,  (a  name  which  they  bore  only  it 
learned  have  raised  the  question,  from  which  Rome,  and  either  because  they  held  their 
of  these  men  did  the  Donatists  derive  their  meetings  in  a  mountain  or  because  they  re- 
name 1  Arguments  of  about  equal  strength  sembled  the  Mrmtanistt),  also  Camjntae, 
may  be  adduced  on  both  side?  of  this  unim-  and  Rtipitac  [or  Kupilani,  because  they  »t- 
portant  question.  I  should  think  the  name  sembled  on  the  plaint  and  among  the  clefts 
was  derived  from  both.  [The  Donatists  re-  of  the  >oc**.]—  Schl.] 


284     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

bishops  from  Gaul.  In  this  court  Cacilian  was  acquitted  of  the  charges 
alleged  against  him  ;  but  the  allegations  against  Felix  of  Aptunga  who  had 
consecrated  him,  were  not  examined.  The  emperor  therefore,  in  the  year 
314,  committed  the  cause  of  Felix  to  the  separate  examination  of  Aelian 
his  proconsul  for  Africa,  by  whom  Felix  was  pronounced  innocent.  But 
the  Donatists  raised  many  exceptions  against  the  decisions  of  Melchiades 
and  Aelian,  and  especially  they  objected  to  the  small  number  of  bishops 
who  were  joined  with  Melchiades  as  judges.  They  said,  a  formal  decision 
of  seventy  venerable  bishops  of  Numidia,  ought  undoubtedly  to  have  far 
more  weight  than  a  decree  of  nineteen  bishops — the  number  present  at 
Rome(4) — and  they  but  partially  acquainted  with  African  affairs.  To 
quiet  these  murmurs  the  emperor,  in  the  year  314,  appointed  a  much  larger 
tribunal  to  meet  at  Aries,  composed  of  bishops  from  the  provinces  of 
Italy,  Gaul,  Germany,  and  Spain.  Here  again  the  Donatists  lost  their 
cause,  and  appealed  to  a  trial  before  the  emperor  himself.  He  did  not  re- 
ject the  appeal,  but  in  the  year  316  examined  the  cause  at  Milan,  the  par- 
ties being  present  before  him.  His  decision  also  was  against  the  Dona- 
tists ;(5)  and  this  contumacious  party  now  cast  reproaches  on  the  emperor 
himself;  and  complained  that  Hosius  the  bishop  of  Corduba,  who  was  the 
friend  both  of  the  emperor  and  of  Ccecilian,  had  corrupted  the  mind  of  the 
former  to  give  an  unrighteous  decision.  This  moved  the  emperor's  indig- 
nation ;  and  he  now  (in  the  year  316)  ordered  their  temples  to  be  taken 
from  them  in  Africa,  and  the  seditious  bishops  to  be  banished,  and  some  of 
them  also — perhaps  for  the  licentiousness  of  their  tongues  and  pens — to  be 
put  to  death.  Hence  arose  violent  commotions  and  tumults  in  Africa,  for 
the  Donatist  party  was  very  numerous  and  powerful ;  and  the  emperor  in 
vain  strove  to  allay  these  tumults  by  his  envoys. 

§  5.  It  was  unquestionably  amid  these  terrible  commotions,  that  those 
called  Circumcelliones(6)  first  originated  ;  a  furious,  headlong,  sanguinary 

(4)  ["  The  emperor,  in  his  letters  to  Mel-  peace  the  bishop  of  Rome  did  nothing,  and 
chiades,  named  no  more  than  three  prelates,  the  emperor  everything.     In  the  numerous 
yiz.,    Maternus,    Rketicius,    and    Marinus,  transactions  the  bishop  Melchiades  appears 
bishops  of  Cologne,  Autun,  and  Aries,  to  sit  only  once,  and  then  not  as  supreme  head  of 
with  him  as  judges  of  this  controversy  ;  but  the  church,  but  merely  as  the  emperor's  corn- 
afterwards  he  ordered  seven  more  to  be  added  missioner  charged  with  the  execution  of  his 
to  the  number,  and  as  many  as  could  soon  commands.     No  papal  ordinance,  no  appeal 
and   conveniently   assemble  ;    so    that   they  to  the  court  of  Rome,  no  dernier  decision  is 
were  at  last  nineteen  in  all." — Mncl.~\  conceivable  here.     Of  course  the  ecclesias- 

(5)  No  proofs  could  be  more  clear  than  tical  law  of  Africa  in  that  age  had  no  article 
those  afforded  by  this  whole  controversy,  of  respecting  the  authority  of  the  pope.     On 
the  emperor's  supreme  power  in  matters  of  the  contrary,  from  the  commencement  till 
religion.     Indeed,  no  person  in  those  times  the  final  subjugation  of  the  Donatists,  we 
thought  of  a  single  supreme  judge  over  the  everywhere  meet  with  the  emperor,  imperial 
whole  church  appointed  by  Chn.it  himself,  trials,  imperial  commissioners,  imperial  laws, 
The  conventions  at  Rome  and  Aries  arc  com-  imperial  punishments,  imperial  executive  of- 
monly  called  councils;  but  whoever  views  ficers,  all  in  full  operation  " — Schl.] 

them  impartially  will  perceive  that  they  were  (6)  [They  were  called  Cirr.umceltiones  (va- 

not  properly  councils,  but  rather  courts  held  grants),  or  by  contraction  Circellrones,  from 

by  special  judges  appointed  by  the  emperor,  the  (cel/ae)  cottages  of  the  peasants  around 

or  to  speak  in  the  language  of  modern  times,  which  they  hovered,  without  having  any  fixed 

High  Commissions.     [To  this  opinion  Dr.  residence.     They  styled  themselves  Agonis- 

Walch  subscribes,  in  his  Historic  der  Ket-  lid  (combatants),  pretending  that  they  were 

zereyen,  vol.  iv.,  p.  343,  &c.,  where  he  says  :  combating  and  vanquishing  the  devil.     Dr. 

"  The  whole  history  speaks  out  plainly,  that  Walch,  loc.  cit.,  p.  157,  thinks  it  cannot  be 

in  settling   this  controversy  and  restoring  proved  that  the  Circumcclliones  appeared  on 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS.  285 

set,  composed  of  the  peasantry  and  rustic  populace,  who  espousing  the 
cause  of  the  Donatists  defended  it  by  the  force  of  arms,  and  roaming 
through  the  province  of  Africa  filled  it  with  slaughter,  rapine  and  burn- 
ings,  and  committed  the  most  atrocious  crimes  against  the  adverse  party. 
This  mad  throng,  which  disregarded  death  and  every  evil,  nay,  faced  death 
when  there  was  occasion  with  the  greatest  alacrity,  brought  extreme  odium 
upon  the  Donatists  :  and  yet  it  does  not  appear  from  any  unexceptionable 
documents,  that  the  Donatist  bishops,  and  especially  those  possessed  of  any 
measure  of  good  sense  and  religion,  approved  or  instigated  their  pro- 
ceedings.  The  storm  continuing  to  increase  and  seeming  to  threaten  a 
civil  war,  Constantine  after  attempting  a  reconciliation  without  effect,  at 
the  suggestion  of  the  prefects  of  Africa,  repealed  the  laws  against  the 
Donatists,  [A.D.  321],  and  gave  the  African  people  full  liberty  to  follow 
either  of  the  contending  parties  at  their  own  option.  [The  Donatists 
soon  became  very  numerous  throughout  Africa.  In  sOme  places  they  out- 
numbered  the  Catholics.  In  the  year  330,  one  of  their  councils  consisted 
of  no  less  than  270  bishops.  See  Augustine,  Ep.  93.] 

§  6.  After  the  death  of  Constantine  the  Great,  his  son  Constans,  to 
whom  the  African  provinces  were  assigned,  in  the  year  348,  sent  into 
Africa  Macarius  and  Paulus  as  his  lieutenants,  to  heal  this  deplorable 
schism,  and  to  persuade  the  Donatists  to  a  reconciliation  with  the  orthodox. 
But  the  chief  Donatist  bishop  Donatus,  whom  his  sect  denominated  the 
Great,  strenuously  opposed  a  reconciliation  ;  and  the  other  bishops  fol- 
lowed his  example.  The  Circumcelliones  still  contended  furiously,  with 
slaughter  and  war,  in  support  of  the  party  whose  interest  they  espoused. 
After  Macarius  had  vanquished  these  in  battle  at  Bagnia  [or  Bagaja],  he 
no  longer  recommended,  but  commanded  peace  and  reconciliation.  A  few 
Donatists  obeyed ;  the  majority  either  fled  or  were  sent  into  banishment, 
and  among  them  Donatus  the  Great ;  but  many  suffered  the  severest  pun- 
ishments. In  this  persecution  of  the  Donatists,  which  lasted  thirteen  years, 
many  things  were  done,  as  the  Catholics  themselves  concede,(7)  which  no 
upright,  impartial,  and  humane  person  can  easily  say  were  righteous  and 
just.  And  hence  the  numerous  complaints  made  by  the  Donatists  of  the 
cruelty  of  their  adversaries. (8) 

§  7.  Julian  on  his  accession  to  the  government  of  the  empire  in  the 
year  362,  permitted  the  Donatists  to  return  to  their  country  and  to  enjoy 
their  former  liberty.  After  their  return,  they  in  a  short  time  drew  the 
greater  part  of  Africa  into  their  communion.  (9)  Grratian  enacted  indeed 

the  stage  before  the  time  of  Constans. —  all  of  it  cannot  by  any  means  be  approved 

Schl.]  or  justified. 

(7)  I  will  here  give  a  quotation  from  Op-  (8)  See  the  Collatio  Carthagin.  diei  ter- 

talus  of  Melevi,  whom  none  will  refuse  as  a  tiae,  $  2n8,  at  the  end  of  Optaius,  p.  315. 

witness  in  this  case,  (de  Schismate  Dona-  (9)  [When  the  Donatists  returned  by  the 

tistor.,  lib.  iii.,  ()  1,  p.  51,  ed.  Du  Pin),  permission  of  Julian,  they  demanded  of  the 

"  AbOpcrariisunitatis"  (the  imperial  legates  orthodox  the  restoration  of  their  churches. 

Macarius  and  Paulus)  "  multa  quidem  as-  And  as  the  latter  were  not  willing  to  giver 

pere  gesta  sunt. — Fugerur.t  omnes  Episcopi  them  up,  and  as  little  could  be  expected  from 

cum  clericis   suis,  ahqui   sunt  mortui  :   qui  the  civil  authorities,  the  Donatists  felt  justi- 

forfiorcs    fuerunt,    capti    et    longe    relegati  fied    n   relying  upon  their  own  resource*, 

sunt."     Through  this  whole  book,  Optatus  The    most    unhappy    proceedings    ensued, 

is  at  much  pains  to  apologize  for  this  severi-  which  have  brought  lasting  disgrace  upon  the 

ty,  the  blame  of  which  he  casts  upon  the  Donatists.     Bloodshed,  merciless  denial  of 

Donatists.     Yet  he  docs  not  dissemble,  that  the  necessaries  of  life,  violatiou  »f  females, 


286     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V, 

some  laws  against  them,  and  especially  in  377  commanded  all  their 
temples  to  be  taken  from  them,  and  all  their  assemblies  even  in  the  fields 
and  private  houses  to  be  broken  up. (10)  But  the  fury  of  the  Circumcel- 
liones  who  were  the  soldiery  of  the  Donatists,  and  the  fear  of  producing 
intestine  war,  undoubtedly  prevented  the  vigorous  execution  of  these  laws  : 
for  it  appears  that  in  the  conclusion  of  this  century  the  Donatist  commu- 
nity was  so  extensive  in  Africa  as  to  have  more  than  400  bishops.  As 
the  century  drew  to  a  close  however,  two  things  impaired  not  a  little  the 
energies  of  this  very  flourishing  community.  The  one  was  a  great  schism 
in  it,  occasioned  by  one  Maximinus  ;(11)  which  afforded  the  Catholics  great 
advantage  in  opposing  the  Donatists.  The  other  was  the  zeal  of  Augustine, 
who  was  first  a  presbyter  and  then  bishop  of  Hippo.  For  he  assailed  them 
most  vigorously  in  sermons,  in  conferences,  by  his  advice,  by  his  admoni- 
tions, and  his  activity  in  conventions ;  and  being  very  ardent  and  en- 
ergetic,  he  roused  against  them  not  only  Africa  but  all  Christendom,  as 
well  as  the  imperial  court. (12) 

§  8.  That  the  Donatists  were  sound  in  doctrine,  their  adversaries  ad- 
mit ;  nor  were  their  lives  censurable,  if  we  except  the  enormities  of  the 
Circumcelliones  which  were  detested  by  the  greatest  part  of  the  Donatists. 
Their  fault  was,  that  they  regarded  the  African  church  as  having  fallen 
from  the  rank  and  the  privileges  of  a  true  church,  and  as  being  destitute 
of  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  consequence  of  its  adherence  to  Ccecilian, 
notwithstanding  his  offences  and  those  of  his  consecrator,  Felix  of  Ap- 
tunga  ;  and  all  other  churches  also  which  united  and  communed  with  that 
of  Africa,  they  looked  upon  as  defiled  and  polluted ;  and  believed  that 
themselves  alone,  on  account  of  the  sanctity  of  their  bishops,  merited  the 
name  of  the  true,  pure,  and  holy  church ;  and  in  consequence  of  these 
opinions,  they  avoided  all  communion  with  other  churches  in  order  to 
escape  defilement.  This  error  led  them  to  maintain,  that  the  sacred  rites 
and  administrations  of  the  Christians  who  disagreed  with  them  were  des- 
titute of  all  efficacy,  and  not  only  to  rebaptize  those  who  came  over  to 
them  from  other  societies,  but  either  to  exclude  from  the  sacred  office  or 
to  reordain  those  ministers  of  religion  who  joined  their  community.  This 
schismatic  pestilence  scarcely  extended  beyond  Africa ;  for  the  few  small 

in  a  word,  the  worst  excesses  of  an  oppressed        (12)  [A  full  catalogue  of  the  writings  of 

party,  which  after  long-continued  sufferings  Augustine  against  the  Donatists,  is  given  by 

felt  itself  authorized  to  take  unsparing  re-  Dr.  Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iv., 

venge,  attended  the  restoration  of  the  Dona-  p.  254,  &c.,  and  of  his  other  efforts  against 

lists  ;  and  by  craft  and  violence  their  con-  them,  an  account  is  given,  ibid.,  p.  181,  &c. 

gregations    were   enlarged.     The  orthodox  We  will  make  here  the  single  remark,  that 

made  resistance,  and  would  not  tamely  suffer  it  was  during  these  contests  Augustine  first 

abuse.     And  hence  arose  those  tumultuous  exhibited  in  his  writings  that  horrid  princi- 

scenes,  which  the   magistrates  reported   to  pie,  that   heretics  are  to  be  punished  with 

the   court ;  and  very  probably,  had  Julian  temporal  punishments  and  death ; — a  prin- 

lived  a  little  longer,  persecuting  laws  would  ciple  wholly  inconsistent  with  Christianity, 

have  been  issued  by  the  government.     See  and  one  which  in  after  ages  served  as  an 

Dr.    Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  excuse  il>r  inhuman  cruelties.     Only  read 

iv.,  p.  175. — Schl.]  Augustine's  48th  Epistle,  ad  Vincent.,  and 

(10)  [Codex  Theodos.,  1.    ii.,  ne  sanct.  his  50th,  ad  Bonifac.,  and  several  others; 
Bapt.  iteretur. — Schl.]  and  you  will  there  meet  with  all  the  plausi- 

(11)  [On  this  schism  among  the  Dona-  ble  arguments,  which  the  spirit  of  persecu- 
tists,  and  others  of  less  magnitude,  see  Dr.  tion  in  after  ages  so  dressed  up — to  the  dis- 
Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iv.,  p.  grace  of  Christianity — as  to  blind  the  eyes 
258-267.— Schl.}  of  kings.— Schl.] 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS.  .  287 

congregations  which  they  formed  in  Spain  and  Italy  had  no  permanence, 
and  were  soon  broken  up.(13) 

§  9,  Not  long  after  the  commencement  of  the  Donatist  controversy,  or 
in  the  year  317,  another  storm  of  greater  consequence  and  more  perni- 
cious, arose  in  Egypt,  and  spread  its  ravages  over  the  whole  Christian 
world.  The  ground  of  this  contest  was,  the  doctrine  of  three  persons  in 
the  Godhead ;  a  doctrine  which,  during  the  three  preceding  centuries,  had 
not  been  in  all  respects  defined.  It  had  indeed  often  been  decided,  in  op- 
position to  the  Sabellians  and  others,  that  there  is  a  real  difference  between 
the  Father  and  the  Son,  and  also  between  them  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  or  as 
we  commonly  express  it,  that  there  are  three  distinct  persons  in  the  God- 
head. But  the  mutual  relations  of  these  persons,  and  the  nature  of  the 
difference  between  them,  had  not  been  a  subject  of  dispute,  and  therefore 
nothing  had  been  decreed  by  the  church  on  these  points.  Much  less  was 
there  any  prescribed  phraseology,  which  it  was  necessary  to  use  when 
speaking  on  this  mystery.  The  doctors  therefore  explained  this  subject  in 
different  ways,  or  gave  various  representations  of  the  difference  between 
the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,  without  offence  being  taken.  The  ma- 
jority in  Egypt  and  the  neighbouring  countries,  had  on  this  subject  as  well 
as  others,  followed  the  opinions  of  Origen,  who  taught  that  the  Son  is  in 
God,  what  reason  is  in  man,  and  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  nothing  else  but 
the  divine  energy  or  power  of  acting  and  working  ;  which  opinion,  if  it  be 
not  cautiously  stated,  may  lead  among  other  difficulties  to  the  subversion 
of  any  real  distinction  between  the  divine  persons,  or  in  other  words  to 
Sabellianism. 

§  10.  Alexander  the  bishop  of  Alexandria, — it  is  uncertain  on  what  oc- 
casion,— expressed  himself  very  freely  on  this  subject  in  a  meeting  of  his 
presbyters ;  and  maintained  among  other  things,  that  the  Son  possesses 
not  only  the  same  dignity  as  the  Father,  but  also  the  same  essence. (14) 
But  Arius,  one  of  the  presbyters,  a  man  of  acuteness  and  fluency,  influ- 
enced perhaps  and  actuated  by  ill-will  towards  his  bishop,  (15)  at  first  de- 

(13)  A  more  full  account  of  the  Donatists  (14)  See  Socrates,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  i., 
is  given  by  Hen.  Valesiu.i,  Diss.  de  schis-  c.  5.  Theodoret,  Hist.  Ecdes.,  1.  i.,  c.  2. 
mate  Donatistarum,  which  is  subjoined  to  (15)  [A  historian  should  be  cautious  of 
his  edition  of  Eusebius'  Historia  Ecclesias-  judging  of  the  motives  of  human  actions ; 
tica  : — by  Tho.  Ittig,  Historia  Donatismi,  in  for  there  are  cases,  in  which  a  man's  mo- 
an appendix  to  his  book  de  Hsresibus  aevi  tives  are  discernible  only  to  the  eye  of  Om- 
Apostolici,  p.  241, — by  Hr.rm.  Wttsins,  niscience.  The  present  is  such  a  case. 
Miscellaneor.  sacror.  torn,  i.,  lib.  iv.,  p.  742,  Here  we  can  express  only  a  dubious  ''per- 
— by  Hen.  Noris,  Historia  Donatiana,  a  haps,"  when  we  impartially  survey  the 
posthumous  work,  which  the  brothers  Bal-  sources  of  the  history  of  Arius  We  com- 
lerini  enlarged  and  published,  Opp.,  torn,  iv.,  monly  read,  it  is  true,  that  ambition  led 
p.  xlv.,  &c., — and  by  Tho  Long,  History  Arius  to  contradict  his  bishop,  having  been 
of  the  Donatists,  Lond.,  1677,  8vo.  The  his  rival  when  the  see  was  vacant.  But 
narrative  we  have  given  above,  is  derived  this  cannot  be  proved  by  credible  testimony  : 
from  the  original  sources  ;  and  if  our  life  is  and  his  opposers,  Alexander  and  Alhanagitu, 
spared,  it  will  in  due  time  be  corroborated  who  would  surely  have  used  this  fact  to  his 
by  a  statement  of  the  requisite  testimonies,  disadvantage  if  it  had  been  known  to  them, 
[What  chancellor  Mosheim  was  prevented  observe  a  profound  silence  on  the  subject. 
from  fulfilling  by  his  death,  his  successor  in  On  the  contrary,  Philostorgius  relates, 
the  professorial  chair  of  church  history,  Dr.  (Hist.  Eccles.,  \.  i ,  c.  3),  that  Ariujt, 
Walch,  has  now  accomplished,  to  the  satis-  when  the  votes  of  the  electors  were  very 
faction  of  all  the  friends  of  this  branch  of  favourable  to  himself,  modestly  directed  the 
knowledge,  in  the  fourth  volume  of  his  His-  choice  on  Alexander.  Philostorgms,  it  must 
tone  der  Ketzereyen,  p.  1-354. — Schl.]  be  owned,  was  an  Anan  in  sentiment,  and 


288 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


nied  the  truth  of  Alexander's  positions,  on  the  ground  that  they  were  al- 
lied to  the  Sabellian  errors  which  were  condemned  by  the  church,  and  then 
going  to  the  opposite  extreme,  he  maintained  that  the  Son  is  totally  and 
essentially  distinct  from  the  Father  ;  that  he  was  only  the  first  and  noblest 
of  those  created  beings  whom  God  the  Father  formed  out  of  nothing,  and 
the  instrument  which  the  Father  used  in  creating  this  material  universe, 
and  therefore,  that  he  was  inferior  to  the  Father  both  in  nature  and  in  dig- 
nity.(16)  What  were  his  views  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  not  equally  mani- 


his  testimony  is  of  no  great  weight.  But 
the  direct  contrary  to  what  he  states,  is  not 
capable  of  proof.  The  motives  therefore, 
which  actuated  Arius  in  opposing  his  bishop, 
must  be  regarded  as  dubious.  Probably 
something  of  human  infirmity  was  found  on 
both  sides.  The  conduct  of  Arius  in  the 
contest  itself,  betrays  pride,  a  conceit  of 
learning,  and  a  contentious  disposition.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Arians  complain  that 
Alexander  was  actuated  by  envy  and  per- 
sonal hatred  of  Arius,  because  the  great 
popularity  of  Arius  had  excited  his  jealousy. 
See  Dr.  Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen, 
vol.  ii.,  p.  395,  &c.— Schl.] 

(16)  [Both  Alexander  and  Arius  have  left 
•us  statements,  each  of  his  own  doctrinal 
views,  and  also  of  what  he  understood  to  be 
the  sentiments  of  his  antagonist.  The  state- 
ments are  in  their  private  letters,  written 
after  long  and  public  discussions  at  Alexan- 
dria, and  when  Arius  and  his  friend?  were 
castoutof  the  church.  The  letter  of  Alexan- 
der is  addressed  to  his  namesake,  Alexander 
of  Byzantium,  since  Constantinople  ;  and 
that  of  Arius  is  to  his  friend  Eusebius  of 
Nicomedia.  Both  are  preserved  by  Thcod- 
oret,  Hist.  Eccles.,  I.  i.,  c.  4,  5.  It  may 
gratify  the  reader  who  has  not  access  to  the 
original,  to  peruse  the  following  extracts, 
containing  the  grand  points  as  originally 
contested  in  the  great  Arian  controversy 
and  in  the  language  of  the  first  combatants. 
— Alexander  states  that  Arius  and  his  ad- 
herents, denying  the  divinity  of  cur  Sav- 
iour, pronounced  him  rolr  nuaiv  laov  etvai 
on  a  level  with  all  other  creatures.  He  says 
that  they  held,  there  was  a  time  when  the 
Son  of  God  was  not ;  and  he  who  once  hail 
no  existence,  afterwards  did  exist ;  and  from 
that  time  was,  what  every  man  naturally  is : 
for  (say  they)  God  made  all  things  of  no- 
thing, including  the  Son  of  God  in  this  cre- 
ation of  all  things  both  rational  and  irra- 
tional :  and  of  course,  pronouncing  him  to 
be  of  a  changeable  nature,  and  capable  of 
virtue  and  of  sin. — The  doctrine  just  risen 
up  in  opposition  to  the  piety  of  th-e  church, 
is  thai  of  Ebion  and  Arlcmas,  and  is  an  im- 
itation of  that  of  Paul  of  Samosata.  Alex- 
ander then  gives  his  own  views,  as  fellows  : 
We  believe,  as  t'te  Apostolic  church  docs,  in 


the  only  unbcgotten  Father,  who  derived  his 
existence  from  no  one,  and  is  immutable  and 
unalterable,  always  the  same  and  uniform, 
unsusceptible  of  increase  or  diminution  ;  the 
giver  of  the  law  and  the  prophets  and  the 
gospels  ;  Lord  of  the  patriarchs  and  apostles 
and  of  all  saints  :  and  in  one  Lord,  Jesus 
Christ,  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God,  not 
begotten  from  nothing,  but  from  the  living 
Father ;  and  not  after  the  manner  of  ma- 
terial bodies,  by  separations  and  effluxes  of 
parts,  as  Sabcllius  and  VaJ.entinian  suppo- 
sed ;  but  in  an  inexplicable  and  indescribable 
manner,  agreeably  to  the  declaration  before 
quoted  :  Who  shall  declare  his  generation  1 
For  his  existence  (imo^aaif)  is  inscrutable 
to  all  mortal  beings,  just  as  the  Father  is 
inscrutable;  because  created  intelligences 
are  incapable  of  understanding  this  divine 
generation  from  the  Father. — No  one  know- 
eth  what  the  Father  is,  but  the  Son  ;  and  no 
one  knowcth  what  the  Son  is,  but  the  Father. 
— He  is  unchangeable,  as  much  as  the  Fa- 
ther ;  lacks  nothing ;  is  the  perfect  Son,  and 
the  absolute  likeness  of  the  Father,  save  only 
that  he  is  not  unbcgotten. — Therefore  to  the 
unbcgotten  Father,  his  proper  dignity  (OIKSLOV 
u^iuua)  must  be  preserved.  And  to  the  Son 
also  suitable  honour  must  be  given,  by  as- 
cribing to  him  an  eternal  generation  (dvap%ov 
•ysvvnaiv)  from  the  Father.  Such  is  the 
statement  of Alexander. — The  letter  of  Arius 
is  as  follows :  To  his  very  dear  lord,  that 
man  of  God,  the  faithful,  orthodox  Eusebius  ; 
Arius,  who  is  unjustly  persecuted  by  the  bp. 
Alexander,  on  account  of  that  all-conquering 
truth  which  thou  also  dcfendcst,  greeting  in 
the  Lord.  As  my  father  Ammonius  is  going 
to  Nicomedia,  it  seemed  proper  for  me  to  ad- 
dress you  by  him,  and  to  acquaint  the  native 
love  and-  affection  which  you  exercise  towards 
the  brethren  for  God  and  his  Christ's  sake, 
that  the  bishop  greatly  oppresses  and  perse- 
cutes us,  putting  everything  -in  motion 
against  us ;  and  so  as  to  drive  us  out  of  the 
city,  as  if  we  were  atheists ;  because  we  do 
not  agree  with  him,  publicly  asserting  that 
God  always  was,  and  the  Son  always  was  ; 
that  he  was  always  the  Father,  always  the 
Son;  that  the  Son  was  OF  God  himself; 
and.  that  because  your  brother  Eusebius  of 
Casarca,  and  Thcodotus,  and  Paulinus,  and 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


289 


fest.  That  his  views  of  the  Son  of  God  were  combined  with  some  other 
opinions  differing  from  the  common  sentiments  of  Christians,  cannot  be 
doubted  :(17)  but  no  one  of  the  ancients  has  left  us  a  connected  and  sys- 
tematic  account  of  the  religion  professed  by  Arius  and  his  associates. (18) 
§  11.  The  opinions  of  Arius  were  no  sooner  divulged,  than  they  found 
very  many  abettors,  and  among  them  men  of  distinguished  talents  and  rank, 
both  in  Egypt  and  the  neighbouring  provinces.  Alexander  on  the  other 
hand  accused  Arius  of  blasphemy,  before  two  councils  assembled  at  Alex- 
andria,  and  cast  him  out  of  the  church. (19)  He  was  not  discouraged  by 
Atlianasius,  and  Gregory,  and  Aetius,  and  and  the  way  in  which  sinners  are  saved,  that 


all  they  of  the  East,  say  that  God  was  be- 
fore the  Son,  and  without  beginning,  they 
are  accursed ;  except  only  Phtlogonius,  and 
Hellanicus,  and  Macarius,  unlearned  and 
heretical  men,  who  say  of  the  Son,  one  of 
them,  that  he  is  an  eructation ;  another,  that 
he  is  an  emission;  and  another,  that  he  is 
equally  unbegotten ;  which  impieties  we  could 
not  even  hear,  though  the  heretics  should 
threaten  us  with  a  thousand  deaths.  As  to 
what  we  say  and  believe,  we  have  taught,  and 
still  teach,  that  the  Son  is  not  unbegotten, 
nor  a  portion  of  the  unbegotten,  in  any  man- 
ner :  nor  was  he  formed  out  of  any  subja- 
cent matter,  but  that  in  will  and  purpose,  he 
existed  before  all  times  and  before  all  worlds, 
perfect  God  (ir^prif  $eof )  the  only-begotten, 
unchangeable  ;  and  that  before  he  was  be- 
gotten, or  created,  or  purposed,  or  established, 
he  was  not ;  for  he  was  never  unbegotten. 
We  are  persecuted,  because  we  say,  the  Son 
had  a  beginning,  but  God  was  without  begin- 
ning. We  arc  also  persecuted,  because  we 
say,  that  he  is  from  nothing  (ef  ««  OVTUV 
t?iv) ;  and  this  we  say,  in  as  much  as  he  is 
not  a  portion  of  God,  nor  formed  from  any 
subjacent  matter.  Therefore  we  are  persecu- 
ted. The  rest  you  knmr.  I  bid  you  adieu  in 
the  Lord. — According  to  these  statements, 
both  the  Arians  and  the  orthodox  considered 
the  Son  of  God  and  Saviour  of  the  world,  as 
a  derived  existence,  and  as  generated  by  the 
Father.  But  they  differed  on  two  points. 
I.  The  orthodox  believed  his  generation  was 
from  eternity,  so  that  he  was  coeval  with 
the  Father.  But  the  Arians  believed,  there 
was  a  time  when  the  Son  was  not.  II.  The 
orthodox  believed  the  Son  to  be  derived  of 
and  from  the  Father ;  so  that  he  was  ououoioc. 
of  the  same  essence  with  the  father.  But 
the  Arians  believed,  that  he  was  formed  out 
of  nothing  r?  «/c  OVTUV  hvat,  by  the  creative 
power  of  God.  Both,  however,  agreed  in 
calling  him  God,  and  in  ascribing  to  him  di- 
vine perfections.  As  to  his  offices,  or  his 
being  the  Saviour  of  sinful  men,  it  does  not 
appear  that  they  differed  materially  in  their 
views.  (See  page  290,  note  21.)  Indeed 
so  imperfect  and  fluctuating  were  the  views 
of  that  age  respecting  the  offices  of  Christ 
VOL.  I.— O  o 


he  was,  for  aught  they  could  see,  an  equally 
competent  Saviour,  whether  he  were  a  finite 
creature,  or  the  infinite  and  all-perfect  God. 
Hence  both  the  Arians  and  the  orthodox  then 
embraced  the  same  system  of  theology  in 
substance ;  and  the  chief  importance,  in  a 
theological  view,  of  their  controversy  re- 
specting the  Sonship  of  Christ,  related  to 
the  assigning  him  that  rank  in  the  universe 
which  properly  belonged  to  him. — TV.] 

(17)  [This  conjecture  of  Dr.  Mosheim, 
(which  his  former  translator  has  swelled  into 
a  strong  affirmation),  appears  to  be  gratui- 
tous.    See  the  preceding  note. — Tr.] 

(18)  The  history  of  the  Arian  contests  is 
to  be  drawn  from  Eusebius,  de  Vita  Con- 
stantini  Magni ;  from  various  tracts  of  Atha- 
nasius,  Opp.,   torn.    i.  ;    from  the  Eccles. 
Histories  of  Socrates,  Sozomen,  and  Theod- 
orct ;  from  Epiphanius,  Hseres.  Ixix.  ;  and 
from  other  writers  of  this  and  the  following 
century.     But  among  all  these,  there  is  not 
one  whom  we  may  justly  pronounce  free 
from  partiality.     And  the  Arian  history  still 
needs  a  writer  of  integrity,  and  void  alike  of 
hatred  and  love.     There  were  faults  on  both 
sides  ;  but  those  who  hitherto  have  described 
this  controversy,  could  discover  the  faults 
of  only  one  of  the  parties.     [This  has  now 
ceased   to   be   absolutely   true  ;    since   Dr. 
Walch,  in  the  2d  vol.  of  his  Hist,  der  Ketzer- 
eyen,  p.  385-700,  has  so  treated  the  history 
of  Arius  and  his  followers,  that  a  man  must 
himself  be  in  the  highest  degree  partial,  if  he 
can  deny  the  honour  of  impartiality  to  Dr. 
Walch. — Schl.]     It  is  a  common  opinion, 
that  Arius  was  too  much  attached  to  the 
sentiments  of  Plato  and  Origen.     See  Dion. 
Petavius,  Dogmat.  Theol.,  torn,  ii.,  1.  i.,  c. 
8,  p.  38.     But  those  who  think  so,  are  cer- 
tainly in  an  error.     For  Origrn  and  Plato 
differ  widely  from  Arius ;  on  the  contrary,  it 
cannot  well  be  doubted,  that  Alexander,  the 
opposer  of  Arius,  in  his  explanation  of  the 
doctrine  of  three  persons  in  one  God,  close- 
ly followed  the  footsteps  of  Origen.     See 
Ralph  Cudworth's  Intellectual  System,  vol. 
i.,  p.  676,  &c. 

(19)  [Alexander   first    employed  milder 
measures ;  for  he  sent  a  letter,  which  was 


290 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


this  disgrace,  but  retiring  to  Palestine  he  wrote  various  letters  to  men 
of  distinction,  in  which  he  laboured  to  demonstrate  the  truth  of  his  doc- 
trines, and  with  so  much  success  that  he  drew  over  immense  numbers  to 
his  side,  and  in  particular  Eusebius  bishop  of  Nicomedia,  who  was  a  man 
of  vast  influence. (20)  The  emperor  Constantine,  who  considered  the  dis- 
cussion as  relating  to  a  matter  of  little  importance  and  remote  from  the 
fundamentals  of  religion,  at  first  addressed  the  disputants  by  letter,  admon- 
ishing them  to  desist  from  contention.(21)  But  when  he  found  that  no- 


subscribed  by  the  clergy  of  Alexandria,  to 
Arius  and  the  other  clergymen  united  with 
him,  warning  them  to  abandon  their  error. 
(Athanasius,  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  pt.  i..  p.  396.) 
When  this  measure  failed,  he  brought  the 
subject  before  the  bishops  of  his  party.  He 
first  held  a  council  at  Alexandria  (A. D.  321), 
composed  of  Egyptian  and  Libyan  bishops  ; 
and  then  another  assembly,  composed  only 
of  the  presbyters  and  deacons  of  the  city  of 
Alexandria  and  the  province  of  Mareotis. 
The  first  was  properly  a  council ;  the  other 
was  not.  And  hence  it  is,  that  some  histo- 
rians speak  of  but  one  council  of  Alexandria. 
See  Dr.  Walctis  Historic  der  Kirchenver- 
sammlungen,  p.  140,  and  his  Historic  der 
Ketzereyen,  vol.  ii.,  p.  424,  &c. — Schl.'] 

(20)  [These  bishops  held  a  council  in  Bi- 
thynia,  probably  at  Nicomedia.  in  which  250 
bishops  are  reported  to  have  been  present. 
Of  their  acts  and  decisions  we  know  nothing 
more,  than  that  they  sent  letters  to  all  the 
bishops  of  Christendom,  entreating  them  not 
to  exclude  the  friends  of  Arius  from  their 
communion,  and  requesting  them  to  inter- 
cede with  Alexander  that  he  would  not  do 
so. — "  This    first    Arian    council   is    either 
wholly  overlooked  by  modern  writers,  or  is 
confounded  with  that  of  Antioch  in  the  year 
330.     Sozomen  gives  account  of  it,  Hist. 
Eccles.,  1.  i.,  c.  15.     See  Nicetas,  in  Bibli- 
oth.    Max.    Pair.,   torn,  xxv.,  p.    151,   and 
Ceiller's  Histoire  des  Auteurs,  tome  in.,  p. 
566."     Thus  C.  W.  F.  Walch,  Historic  der 
Kirchenversamml.,  p.  142.     But  Dr.  Walch 
mistakes  in  saying  that  this  council  is  over- 
looked by  modern  writers.     It  is  mentioned 
by  Maimbourg,  Le  Clerc,  Du  Pin,  Fleury, 
Cave,  Whitby,  and  Tillemont.—  TV.] 

(2 1 )  [  Constantine  not  only  wrote  a  letter 
in  the  year  324,  but  he  sent  with  it  as  his 
envoy,  the  famous  Hosius  bishop  of  Cordu- 
ba.    What  part  the  envoy  acted,  is  unknown  ; 
but  the  letter  is  extant,  fully,  in  Eusebius,  de 
Vita  Constantini  M.,  lib.  ii.,  c.  64-72,  and 
with  some   curtailment,  in   Socrates,  Hist. 
Eccles.,  1.  i.,  c.  7.     The  most  important  part 
of  this  singular  document,  which  however 
shows  the  feelings  of  one  more  solicitous  for 
the  great  cause  of  our  common  Christianity, 
than  for  absolute  perfection  in  speculative 
theology,  is  as  follows. 


"  I  learn  then,  that  the  origin  of  the  pres- 
ent controversy  was  thus.  Whereas  you, 
Alexander,  inquired  of  the  presbyters,  what 
each  believed  on  one  of  the  subjects  con- 
tained in  the  law,  or  rather  on  a  point  of  a 
vain  controversy  ;  and  whereas  you,  Arius, 
inconsiderately  advanced  what  ought  not  to 
have  entered  your  mind,  or  if  it  did,  should 
have  been  smothered  in  silence  ;  hereupon 
dissension  arose  between  you,  communion 
has  heen  denied,  and  the  most  holy  people 
being  split  into  two  parties,  the  harmony  of 
the  whole  body  is  destroyed.  Wherefore, 
mutually  forgiving  one  another,  follow  ye  the 
counsel  here  fitly  offered  you  by  your  fellow- 
worshipper  [of  the  true  God.]  And  what  is 
it  1  It  is,  that  it  was  unsuitable,  at  first,  to  put 
a  question  on  such  subjects  ;  and  when  it  was 
put,  it  was  unsuitable  to  answer  it.  For  such 
questions,  being  required  by  no  law,  but 
prompted  by  the  contentiousness  of  unprofita- 
ble leisure, — though  they  may  be  proposed  for 
the  exercise  of  our  natural  powers, — ought 
to  be  kept  to  ourselves,  and  not  rashly  to 
be  brought  before  public  meetings,  nor  be 
inconsiderately  trusted  to  the  ears  of  the 
people.  For,  how  few  are  there  that  can 
accurately  comprehend  and  suitably  explain 
the  nature  of  so  great  and  so  exceedingly 
difficult  subjects  1  Yet  if  any  one  thinks 
he  could  easily  do  this,  how  large  a  part  of 
the  people  will  he  persuade  to  think  so  1  or 
who  can  urge  the  critical  examination  of 
such  questions,  without  hazarding  a  fall  1 
Wherefore  prating  on  such  subjects  is  to  be 
restrained  ;  lest,  either  from  the  imbecility 
of  our  natures  we  should  be  unable  to  explain 
the  subject  proposed,  or  from  the  dulness  of 
apprehension  in  our  hearers  they  should  not 
be  able  to  comprehend  exactly  what  is 
spoken  ;  and  lest,  from  one  or  the  other  of 
these  causes,  the  people  should  incur  the  dan- 
ger either  of  blasphemy  or  schism.  There- 
fore let  an  unwise  question  in  the  one,  and 
an  inconsiderate  answer  in  the  other  of  you, 
mutually  pardon  each  other.  For  the  con- 
troversy between  yon,  is  not  about  the  chief 
of  the  precepts  of  our  law  (the  holy  scrip- 
ture) ;  nor  have  you  introduced  any  new 
heresy  relating  to  practical  religion ;  but 
you  both  have  one  and  the  same  views,  so  that 
you  may  easily  come  together  in  the  bonds 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


291 


thing  was  effected  by  this  measure,  and  that  greater  commotion  was  daily 
rising  throughout  the  empire,  he  in  the  year  325  summoned  that  famous 
council  of  the  whole  church,  which  met  at  Nice  in  Bithynia,  to  put  an  end 
to  this  controversy.  In  this  council,  after  various  altercations  and  con- 
flicts of  the  bishops,  the  doctrine  of  Arius  was  condemned,  Christ  was  pro- 
nounced to  be  (6/zo«(T£oc)  of  the  same  essence  with  the  Father,  Arius  was 
sent  into  exile  in  Illyricum,  and  his  followers  were  compelled  to  assent  to 
a  creed  or  confession  of  faith,  composed  by  the  council. (22) 

of  fellowship.     While    you    thus    contend    consent  on  this  very  unwise  and  undefinable 

question.  For  the  high  privileges  of  com- 
munion may  be  preserved  to  you  unimpaired, 
and  the  same  fellowship  may  be  kept  up 
among  you  all,  though  there  may  be  among 
you  partial  disagreement  about  some  trivial 
point.  For  we  do  not  all  choose  alike,  nor  is 
there  one  and  the  same  disposition  and  judg- 
ment in  us  all.  Therefore  concerning  the  di- 
vine providence,  let  there  be  one  faiih,  one 
understanding,  and  one  covenant  with  God. 
But  as  for  those  trivial  questions,  which  ye 
so  elaborately  discuss,  though  you  should 
not  think  exactly  alike,  it  is  fit  that  the  fact 
remain  within  your  own  cogitations,  and  be 
kept  as  a  secret  in  your  own  breast.  Let 
the  privileges  of  mutual  friendship,  and  the 
belief  of  the  truth,  and  the  precious  worship 


you 

about  little  and  exceedingly  unimportant 
points  (inrep  fiinpuv  KUI  faav  fXajjfwv),  it 
is  not  suitable  for  so  numerous  a  body  of 
God's  people  to  be  under  your  guidance,  on 
account  of  your  dissension  ;  indeed,  it  is  not 
only  unsuitable,  but  it  is  believed  to  be  ab- 
solutely unlawful.  That  I  may  admonish 
your  sagacity,  by  a  smaller  instance,  I  will 
say  ;  all  those  philosophers  who  profess  one 
system  of  doctrine,  you  know,  very  often 
differ  on  some  part  of  their  positions.  But 
though  they  disagree  in  the  perfection  of 
their  knowledge,  yet  on  account  of  their 
union  as  to  the  system  of  their  doctrine,  they 
come  together  again  harmoniously.  Now  if 
they  do  so,  how  much  more  reasonable  is  it 
for  you,  the  appointed  ministers  of  the  great 


_________________  ,  ________  ,  ________  ______  r 

God,  to  be  of  one  heart  in  the  profession  of  of  God,  and  the  observance  of  his  law,  re- 
the  same  religion.  Let  us  look  more  atlen-  main  unimpaired  among  you.  Return  again 
lively  and  closely  into  what  is  now  advanced. 


7s  it  right,  on  account  of  the  little  vain  dis- 
putes about  words  among  you,  for  brethren 
to  array  themselves  against  brethren,  and 
the  precious  assembly  to  be  rent  asunder  by 
the  ungodly  strife  of  you  who  thus  contend 
about  trifles  of  no  consequence  1  (inrep  ju- 
Kpuv  KTU  /cat  [tr/da/ius  dvaynaiuv ; )  This 
is  vulgar  and  despicable  :  it  is  more  befitting 
the  folly  of  children,  than  the  discretion  of 
priests  and  wise  men.  Let  us  spontaneously 
depart  from  the  temptations  of  the  devil. 
Our  great  God,  the  common  preserver  of  us 
all,  hath  extended  to  all  the  common  light ; 
and  allow  me  his  servant,  under  his  provi- 
dence, to  bring  my  efforts  to  a  successful 
issue,  that  by  my  admonitions,  diligence,  and 
earnest  exhortations,  I  may  bring  his  people 
to  have  fellowship  in  their  meeting  togeth- 
er. For  since,  as  I  said,  ye  both  have  one 
faith  (jiia  rif  tfiv  Vfj.iv  irifif),  and  one  and 
the  same  understanding  of  our  religion  (/ecu 
filav  T7/f  nod"  T)HU$  uipeaeuf  avveaiv) ;  and 
since  the  requirement  of  the  law,  in  its  va- 
rious parts,  binds  all  to  one  consent  and  pur- 
pose of  mind  ;  and  as  this  thing,  which  has 
produced  a  little  strife  among  you,  does  not 
extend  to  the  power  and  efficacy  of  the  whole 
gospel,  (fii)  irpof  rrrv  r«  iravrof  dovapiv 
avt'jKci),  let  it  not  at  all  produce  separations 
and  commotions  among  you.  And  these 
things  I  say,  not  to  compel  you  to  a  perfect 


to  mutual  friendship  and  charity  ;  give  to  all 
the  people  their  proper  embraces ;  and, 
having  purified  as  it  were  your  ewn  minds, 
do  ye  again  recognise  each  other :  for  friend- 
ship, when  it  returns  to  a  reconciliation, 
after  ill-will  is  laid  aside,  often  becomes 
more  sweet  than  before.  And  restore  to  me 
also  serene  days,  and  nights  void  of  care ; 
so  that  there  may  be  in  reserve  for  me  the 
enjoyment  of  the  pure  light,  and  the  pleas- 
ures of  a  quiet  life.  If  this  fail,  I  must  un- 
avoidably sigh  and  be  bathed  in  tears,  and 
spend  the  residue  of  my  days  unquietly. 
For  while  the  people  of  God,  my  fellow-wor- 
shippers, are  so  rent  asunder  by  unreasonable 
and  hurtful  contentions,  how  can  my  mind  be 
at  ease  and  my  thoughts  at  rest!" — Tr.] 

(22)  This  creed  is  illustrated  from  ancient 
records,  in  a  learned  work  on  the  subject,  by 
Joh.  Christ.  Suicer,  Utrecht,  1718,  4to. 
[The  creed  used  in  the  Catholic,  Lutheran, 
and  English  churches,  and  called  the  Nicene 
creed,  is  in  reality  the  creed  set  forth  by  the 
council  of  Constantinople  in  the  year  381. 
It  is  considerably  more  full  than  the  original 
Nicene  creed ;  which  is  here  subjoined,  to- 
gether with  a  translation.  T\.i?i-voptv  kif 
Iva  •&EOV  irarepa  travTOKpdropa,  irdvruv 

6pUT(JV   T£    Kdl   aOpUTUV   TTOUJT^V.        Kttt    tlf 

h>a  iciipiov  '\na6v  Xpifbv,  rov  iitov  TU  deu, 
ra  irarpof  (lovoytvfi,  rttriftv, 
ifftof  T*  Trarpdf,  tisov  tit  dti,  fuf 


293 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


§  12.  No  part  of  church  history  perhaps,  has  acquired  more  celebrity, 
than  this  assembly  of  bishops  at  Nice  to  settle  the  affairs  of  the  church ; 
and  yet,  strange  as  it  may  appear,  scarcely  any  part  of  ecclesiastical  history 
has  been  investigated  and  explained  more  negligently.(23)  The  ancient 
writers  are  not  agreed  as  to  the  time  and  year,  nor  the  place,  nor  the  num. 
ber  of  the  judges,  nor  the  president  of  this  council,  nor  as  to  many  other 
particulars. (24)  No  written  journal  of  the  proceedings  of  this  venerable 

on  most  of  these  points.  There  is  scarcely 
a  dissenting  voice  as  to  the  year,  which  was 
A.D.  325 ;  though  there  is  a  disagreement 
as  to  the  month  when  the  council  first  met, 
namely,  whether  it  was  the  13th  of  the 
Kalends  of  June  or  July,  that  is,  the  20th 
of  May  or  the  19th  of  June.  All  agree  that 
the  council  closed  on  the  emperors  Vicen- 
nalia,  in  July  of  that  year.  As  to  the  place, 
there  is  overwhelming  proof  that  it  was  the 
central  hall  or  building  in  the  imperial  palace 
at  Nice  in  Bithynia ;  which  the  emperor 
caused  to  be  fitted  up  especially  for  the  pur- 
pose. Some  moderns  however  maintain, 
that  this  hall  must  have  been  a  church ;  be- 
cause they  cannot  believe,  so  holy  a  body 
would  assemble  any  where  except  in  a 
church  duly  consecrated.  As  to  the  num- 
ber of  members  of  which  the  council  was 
composed,  Eusebius  indeed,  (de  Vita  Con- 
stantini,  iii.,c.  8),  says  "they  exceeded  250 
bishops."  But  the  MS.  here  is  believed 
to  be  corrupted  ;  for  Socrates,  (Hist.  Ec- 
cles.,  i.,  c.  8),  expressly  quoting  this  pas- 
sage of  Eusebius,  says  "  they  exceeded 
three  hundred  bishops."  There  is  satisfac- 
tory proof  that  there  were  318  members  of 
the  council,  besides  a  vast  number  of  clergy- 
men and  others  who  attended  from  curiosity 
or  for  their  own  improvement  in  knowledge. 
The  ancient  writers  make  no  mention  what- 
ever of  any  president  or  scribe  of  the  coun- 
cil. They  represent  the  council  as  assem- 
bling, and  the  emperor  as  entering,  advan- 
cing to  the  upper  end  of  the  hall,  and  upon  a 
signal  from  the  bishops,  taking  his  seat, 
which  was  a  golden  chair  ;  after  which  the 
whole  council  was  seated,  several  of  the 
principal  bishops  on  the  right  and  left  of  the 
emperor,  and  the  main  body  of  them  arranged 
on  the  two  sides  of  the  hall.  Before  this 
formal  opening  of  the  council,  there  were 
several  rencounters  of  the  bishops  of  differ- 
ent parties,  and  also  of  members  of  the 
council  with  the  philosophers  and  others 
who  were  assembled  in  the  city.  Of  these 
private  contests,  pompous  accounts  are  left 
us  by  Gelasius  and  others.  But  when  the 
council  assembled  in  form,  they  did  no  busi- 
ness but  remained  silent,  till  the  emperor 
carne  in.  He  was  then  addressed  either  by 
Eustathius  of  Antioch,  or  by  Eusebius  of 
Csesarea,  or  by  both,  in  short  complimentary 


ivra  «  rroirj'&EVTa,  buo&oiov  TU  Trarpl, 
6i'  6  TU  Ttdvra  EJEVETO,  TU,  re  ev  TU  apavy 
Kai  ra  ev  r?/  yy,  rbv  dC  TJUU^  r«f  dvi?p(jTT8f 
teal  6ia  TTJV  j]jj,ET£pav  vuTTjpiav  /care/l$6vra 
Kai  oapKudevTa,  kvavdpuirrjaavTa,  ira&ovTa 
xal  avafdvTa  r-y  rpirri  tj/j.epa,  uveTi.'&ovTa  eif 
sf  Kai  £pxbfj.£vov  Kplvat  fuvraf  Kai 
Kai  «f  TO  ayiov  miEv/ia.  T»f  <3e 
c,  on  f/v  TTOTE  ore  ««  TJV,  Kai  irplv 
ai  «K  Jjv,  Kai  on  et;  «/c  OVTUV 
rj  e£  irspaf  VTro^dcnof  fj  saiac, 
^xiffKOVTEf  hvai,  rj  KTI^OV  TpenTov  tj  aAAoi- 
UTOV  rbv  vibv  TU  $es,  ava&EuaTi&i  ff 
KaduhiKri  EKK^naia.  See  Walch,  Biblioth. 
Symbol.  Vetus,  p.  75,  76.  Translation : 
We  believe  in  one  God,  the  Father,  al- 
mighty, the  maker  of  all  things  visible  and 
invisible :  and  in  one  Lord,  Jesus  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God,  begotten  of  the  Father, 
only-begotten,  (that  is),  of  the  substance  of 
the  Father ;  God  of  God,  Light  of  Light, 
very  God  of  very  God  ;  begotten  not  made  ; 
of  the  same  substance  with  the  Father ;  by 
whom  all  things  were  made,  that  are  in 
heaven  and  that  are  in  earth :  who  for  us 
men,  and  for  our  salvation,  descended,  and 
was  incarnate,  and  became  man  ;  suffered, 
and  rose  again  the  third  day,  ascended  into 
the  heavens  ;  and  will  come  to  judge  the 
living  and  the  dead  :  and  in  the  Holy  Spirit. 
But  those  who  say,  that  there  was  a  time 
when  he  was  not,  and  that  he  was  not,  be- 
fore he  was  begotten,  and  that  he  was  made 
out  of  nothing,  or  affirm  that  he  is  of  any 
other  substance  or  essence,  or  that  the  Son 
of  God  is  created,  and  mutable  or  changea- 
ble, the  Catholic  church  doth  pronounce  ac- 
cursed.— Tr.] 

(23)  See    Tho.   Ittig,   Historia   Concilii 
Niceni,  published  after  his  death,  [Lips., 
1712,  4to.]     Jo.  h  Clerc,  Bibliotheque  his- 
torique  et  universelle,  tome  x.,  p.  421,  and 
tome  xxii.,  p.  291.     Is.  de  Beausobre,  His- 
toire  de  Manichee  et  de  Manicheisme,  tome 
i.,  p.  520,  &c.     The   accounts  left  us  by 
the  Orientals  of  this  council,  are  contained 
in  Euscb.  Rcnaudot,  Historia  Patriarchar. 
Alexandrinor.,  p.  69,  &c.     [To  the  prece- 
ding  works,    may   be  added  Chr.  W.  Fr. 
WalMs  Historic  der  Kirchenversammlun- 
gen,  p.  144-158.— Sckl.] 

(24)  [Yet  there  is  not  great  disagreement 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


293 


tribunal  was  kept ;  at  least  none  has  reached  us. (25)  How  many  and 
what  canons  or  ecclesiastical  laws,  were  enacted,  is  not  agreed  on  by  the 
Oriental  and  the  occidental  Christians.  The  latter  tell  us  they  were  only 
twenty  in  number ;  but  the  Orientals  make  them  far  more  numerous. (26) 

speeches;  after  which,  he  himself  harangued  the  general  approbation  of  the  council,  was 
the  council ;  and  having  thrown  into  the  fire, 
unread,  all  the  private  petitions  and  com- 
plaints which  had  been  previously  handed 
him,  he  bid  them  proceed  to  business.  A  free 
discussion  now  ensued ;  but  it  would  seem, 
without  the  formalities  observed  in  modern 
deliberative  assemblies.  Individuals  of  dif- 
ferent sentiments  offered  their  opinions  ;  and 
the  emperor  heard,  remarked,  commended, 


or  disapproved,  and  so  influenced  the  whole 
proceedings  as  to  bring  about  a  good  degree 
of  unanimity.  Yet  he  did  not  act  the  dictator 
or  judge,  but  left  the  bishops  to  decide  all 


committed  to  writing,  and  confirmed  by  the 
subscription  of  each  member."  Whence 
Valesius  infers,  that  nothing  was  committed 
to  writing  by  the  council,  except  the  results 
to  which  they  came,  and  which  they  individ- 
ually subscribed,  namely,  the  creed,  the  can- 
ons, and  the  synodic  epistle,  which  was  ad- 
dressed to  the  church  of  Alexandria  and  the 
brethren  in  Egypt,  Libya,  and  Pentapolis. 
He  therefore  supposes,  the  council  kept  no 
Journal  or  had  no  written  Ada,  Concilii,  in 
the  technical  sense  of  the  phrase.  And  in- 
deed, we  have  no  intimation  that  they  kept 


the  questions  respecting  faith  and  discipline,     any  journal  of  their  proceedings,  or  had  any 
uncontrolled :  for  he  regarded  them  as  the     r\mnor  ^,-iVio  nf  /»•>,, >i/-;i      iX/v.of  oro  /><aii<Ji 


divinely  constituted  judges  of  such  matters. 
He  only  wished  them  to  come  to  some  agree- 
ment ;  which  as  soon  as  they  had  done,  he 
regarded  their  decision  as  final,  and  as  obli- 
gatory on  himself  as  well  as  all  others.     How 
many  sessions  were  held,  we  are  not  told. 
But  after  all  the  business  was  finished,  on 
the  24th  of  July,  when  the  emperor  entered 
on  the  20th  year  of  his  reign,  he  celebrated 
his  Vicennalia  with  the  council,  in  a  splendid 
banquet  in  his  own  palace.     On  that  occa- 
sion, Euscbius  of  Cassarea  delivered  an  ora- 
tion in  praise  of  Constantine,  which  is  lost. 
After  the  feast,  the  bishops  were  dismissed 
with  presents  and  exhortations  to  peace  and 
love.     They  returned,  as  they  came,  by  the 
public  conveyances,  having  been  supported 
by  the  emperor  from  the  time  they  left  their 
homes.     See  Eusebius,  de  Vita  Constantini, 
1.  iii.,  c.  6-22.     Socrates,  Hist.  Eccles.,  i., 
8-11.     Sozomcn,  H.  E.,  i.,   17-25.      The- 
odoret,  H.   E.,  i.,  7,  9,  10,  12.     Rufinus, 
H.  E.,  lib.  i.     Gelasius  Cyzicenus,  Com- 
ment, de  Synodo  Nicseno,  libri  iii.,  in  Har- 
duin's  Concilia,  torn   i.,  p.  345,  &c.     Acta 
Concilii    Nicaeni,  in    Combejis'   Auctarium 
Bibliolh.  Patr.,  torn,  ii  ,  p.  573.     Renaudot, 
Historia  Patriarch.  Alexandria,  p.  69,  &c.  ; 
various  Treatises  in  the  first  volume  of  the 
works  of  Athanasius,  especially  his  Epistola 
di-  N'icasnis  Decretis  ;  and  several  detached 
passages  in  Epiphanius,  contra  Hareses,  lib. 
iii.     These  are  the  only  authentic  sources 
for  the  history  of  this  council. — TV.] 

(25)  See  Henry  Valesius,  Note  on  Eu- 
aeb.,  de  Vita  Constantini  M.,  lib.  iii.,  c.  14. 
Maruthas,  a  Syrian,  wrote  a  history  of  this 
council  ;  but  it  is  lost.  See  Jos.  Sim.  As- 
teman,  Biblioth.  Oriental.  Clement.  Vatic., 
torn,  i.,  p.  195,  &c.  [Eusebius,  in  the  pas- 
sage just  referred  to,  says :  "  What  met 


proper  scribe  of  council.  What  are  called 
the  Acta  Concilii,  as  given  us  by  Gelasiut 
and  others,  are  an  account  of  various  discus- 
sions between  individual  members  of  the 
council  and  certain  philosophers  or  sophists, 
together  with  the  creed,  the  canons,  the  syn- 
odic letter,  several  epistles  of  the  emperor, 
one  of  Eusebius  to  his  church  of  Caesarea, 
and  various  extracts  from  ancient  authors. — 
7V.] 

(26)  Thorn.  Ittig,  Supplem.  Opp.  Cle- 
mentis  Alex.,  p.  191.  Jos.  Sim.  Asseman, 
Biblioth.  Orient.  Clement.  Vatic.,  torn,  i., 
p.  22,  195,  &.c.  Euseb.  Renaudot,  Histo- 
ria Patriarchar.  Alexandrinor,  p.  71,  and 
many  others.  [The  20  Nicene  canons,  and 
those  only,  were  received  by  the  ancient 
church.  Some  attempts  indeed  were  made 
by  the  bishops  of  Rome,  in  the  fifth  century, 
to  make  certain  canons  of  the  council  of  Sar- 
dica  pass  for  canons  of  the  council  of  Nice. 
On  that  occasion  the  African  bishops  resist- 
ed, and  sent  to  the  patriarchs  of  Alexandria, 
Antioch,  and  Constantinople,  for  complete 
copies  of  all  the  Nicene  canons  which  they 
knew  of.  The  returns  showed  that  these  20 
canons,  and  these  only,  were  then  recognised 
in  the  Greek  church.  See  the  acts  of  the 
6th  council  of  Carthage,  A.D.  419.  Theod- 
oret  also,  (H.  E.,  i.,  8),  and  Gelasius  Cyzic- 
enus, (lib.  ii.,  c.  31),  expressly  affirm,  that 
the  number  of  the  Nicene  canons  was  20. 
But  in  the  16th  century,  an  Arabic  copy  of 
80  canons,  including  these  20,  was  brought 
from  Alexandria  to  Rome,  and  soon  after- 
wards translated  and  published.  At  first 
there  was  some  doubt ;  but  in  a  short  time 
all  the  learned  were  fully  satisfied,  that  the 
additional  CO  canons  were  not  of  Nicene  ori- 
gin, though  now  regarded  as  such  by  most  of 
the  eastern  sects.  See  Natahs  Alexander, 
Hist.  Eccles.,  cent,  iv.,  dissert,  xvui.,  vol. 


294 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


From  the  canons  universally  received  and  from  the  other  monuments  of 
the  council,  it  appears,  not  only  that  Arius  was  condemned  by  this  coun- 
cil, but  that  other  things  were  decreed,  with  a  view  to  settle  the  affairs  of 
the  church.  In  particular,  the  controversy  respecting  the  time  of  celebra- 
ting Easter,  which  had  long  perplexed  Christians,  was  terminated ;  the 
Novatian  disturbance,  respecting  the  readmission  of  the  lapsed  to  commu- 
nion, was  composed ;  the  Meletian  schism,  with  its  causes,  was  censured ; 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  greater  bishops  was  defined  ;  and  several  other  mat- 
ters of  a  like  nature  determined.(27)  But  while  the  prelates  were  eager 


vii.,  p.  501-511,  ed.  Paris,  1742,  4to.— 
These  20  canons,  (or  22,  as  some  divide 
them),  are  extant  in  Beveridge's  Pandect. 
Canon.,  torn,  i.,  p.  58,  &c.,  and  in  all  the  lar- 
ger collections  of  councils. — The  substance 
of  them  is  as  follows :  The  1st  canon  for- 
bids the  admission  of  voluntary  or  self-made 
eunuchs  to  the  sacred  ministry.  The  2d  for- 
bids the  hasty  ordination  of  new  converts  to 
Christianity  ;  agreeably  to  1  Tim.  iii.,  6, 
Not  a  novice,  &c.  The  3d  forbids  clergy- 
men of  all  ranks,  from  having  subinduced 
females  or  housekeepers  ;  except  only  their 
nearest  blood  relations.  The  4//i  directs  that 
ordinations  be  generally  performed  by  all 
the  bishops  of  a  province  ;  and  never  by  less 
than  three  "bishops  ;  and  requires  the  con- 
firmation of  the  metropolitan,  in  all  cases. 
The  5th  requires  that  an  excommunication 
either  of  a  clergyman  or  a  layman  by  the 
sentence  of  a  single  bishop,  shall  be  valid 
every  where,  till  it  is  examined  and  judged 
of  by  a  provincial  council ;  and  requires  such 
a  council  to  be  held,  for  this  and  other  ob- 
jects of  general  interest,  twice  a  year,  once 
in  the  autumn  and  once  a  little  before  Eas- 
ter. The  6th  secures  to  the  patriarch  of  Al- 
exandria all  the  rights  which  he  claimed  by 
ancient  usage,  over  the  bishops  and  churches 
of  Egypt,  Libya,  and  Pentapolis  ;  also  to 
the  patriarchs  of  Rome  and  Antioch,  their 
prerogatives  ;  and  gives  to  metropolitans, 
generally,  a  negative  on  all  elections  to  the 
episcopal  office  within  their  respective  prov- 
inces. The  7th  gives  to  the  bishop  of  Aelia 
(or  Jerusalem)  the  rank  of  a  metropolitan  ; 
but  without  depriving  Caesarea,  the  ancient 
metropolis,  of  its  dignity.  The  Btk  permits 
Novatian  bishops  and  clergymen  to  return 
to  the  church  and  retain  their  rank  and  offi- 
ces, on  their  assenting  to  the  rules  of  the 
church  respecting  second  marriages  and 
communion  with  the  lapsed.  The  9th  and 
10th  require  that  presbyters,  who  before  their 
ordination  had  lapsed  or  had  committed  any 
other  offence  which  was  a  canonical  disqual- 
ification for  the  sacred  office,  be  deprived  of 
their  office  as  soon  as  the  disqualification  is 
ascertained.  The  11/A  requires  the  lapsed 
during  the  late  persecution  under  Licinius, 
first,  to  do  penance  three  years  without  the 


doors  of  the  church  ;  secondly,  six  years  in 
the  porch  among  the  catechumens ;  and 
thirdly,  to  be  allowed  to  witness  but  not 
join  in  the  celebration  of  the  eucharist  for 
two  years  more.  The  12th  requires  flagrant 
apostates  to  go  through  the  same  course  ; 
but  they  must  spend  ten  years  in  the  second 
stage.  Yet  the  bishops  are  to  exercise  dis- 
cretionary power  in  regard  to  the  length  of 
time.  The  13th  allows  the  sacrament  to  be 
given  to  any  penitent  who  seems  to  be  dying  ; 
but  if  he  recovers,  he  is  to  rank  only  with 
the  penitents  in  the  third  stage. — By  the 
14/A,  lapsed  catechumens  are  to  spend  three 
years  in  the  first  stage,  or  among  those  who 
worship  without  the  doors  of  the  church. 
By  the  15^ h,  the  translation  of  bishops,  pres- 
byters, and  deacons  from  one  church  to  an- 
other, is  forbidden.  By  the  16th,  presbyters 
or  deacons,  forsaking  their  own  church  and 
going  over  to  others,  are  to  be  denied  com- 
munion and  be  sent  back  :  bishops  also  are 
forbidden  to  ordain  the  subjects  of  other 
bishops,  without  their  consent.  The  17th 
requires  the  deposition  of  all  clergymen  who 
loan  money  or  goods  on  interest.  By  the 
18^,  deacons  are  forbidden  to  present  the 
bread  and  wine  to  the  presbyters  or  to  par- 
take themselves,  before  the  bishop  ;  or  to  sit 
among  the  presbyters.  By  the  19lh,  the  fol- 
lowers of  Paul  of  Samosata,  on  returning  to 
the  church  are  to  be  rebaptized  ;  and  to  be 
reordained  before  they  can  officiate  as  cler- 
gymen. The  20<A  disapproves  of  kneeling 
at  prayers  on  the  Lord's  day,  and  from  Eas- 
ter to  Pentecost. — Tr.] 

(27)  [The  synodic  epistle,  which  is  pre- 
served by  Socrates,  H.  E.,  i.,  9,  and  by  The- 
odoret,  H.  E.,  i.,  9,  acquaints  us  with  the 
principal  transactions  of  the  council  ;  and 
also  shows  the  spirit  of  that  venerable  body. 
It  is  as  follows :  "  To  the  great  and  holy, 
by  the  grace  of  God,  the  church  of  the 
Alexandrians,  and  to  the  beloved  brethren 
of  Egypt,  Libya,  and  Pentapolis,  the  bish- 
ops assembled  at  Nice,  and  composing  the 
great  and  holy  synod,  send  greeting  in  the 
Lord. 

"  Forasmuch  as,  by  the  grace  of  God,  the 
most  pious  emperor  Constantine  having  call- 
ed us  together  from  various  cities  and  prov- 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


295 


to  correct  the  faults  of  others,  they  narrowly  escaped  falling  into  a  great 
one  themselves.  For  they  were  on  the  point  of  imposing  celibacy  on 
the  clergy  by  an  express  law ;  but  they  were  prevented  by  Paphnutius, 
who  had  himself  lived  all  his  days  in  celibacy. (28) 


inces,  a  great  and  holy  synod  is  assembled 
at  Nice  ;  it  seemed  altogether  necessary  that 
an  epistle  be  sent  to  you,  in  the  name  of  the 
sacred  synod  ;  that  you  may  have  means  of 
knowing  what  things  have  been  moved,  and 
examined,  and  what  have  been  sanctioned. 
First  of  all  then,  an  inquiry  was  made  in  the 
presence  of  the  most  pious  emperor  Constan- 
tine,  into  the  impiety  and  iniquity  of  Arius 
and  his  associates ;  and  it  was  determined 
by  the  voice  of  all,  that  his  impious  doctrine 
is  to  be  anathematized,  as  also  the  blasphe- 
mous words  and  terms  he  used  ;  he  having 
blasphemously  said,  that  the  Son  of  God  was 
from  nothing,  and  that  there  was  a  time 
when  he  was  not,  and  saying  that  the  Son  of 
God,  by  the  arbitrament  of  his  will,  is  capa- 
ble of  either  virtue  or  vice ;  and  pronouncing 
him  a  creaJure  and  a  work :  all  which  the 
holy  synod  hath  anathematized,  not  enduring 
so  much  as  to  hear  this  impious  doctrine 
or  rather  madness,  and  these  blasphemous 
words.  What  was  the  issue  of  the  pro- 
ceedings against  him,  ye  have  heard  already, 
or  will  hear ;  lest  we  should  seem  to  insult 
over  a  man  who  has  received  the  deserved 
recompense  of  his  wickedness.  But  his  im- 
piety prevailed  so  far  as  to  involve  in  de- 
struction with  him  Theonas  of  Marmarica, 
and  Secundus  of  Ptolemais  ;  for  they  receiv- 
ed the  same  sentence.  After  the  grace  of 
God  had  delivered  us  from  that  evil  doctrine 
and  impiety  and  blasphemy,  and  from  the 
persons  who  dared  to  raise  discord  and  di- 
vision among  a  once  peaceable  people,  there 
yet  remained  the  rashness  of  Mcletius  and 
of  those  ordained  by  him.  And  what  the 
synod  decreed  on  this  subject,  beloved  breth- 
ren, we  now  inform  you.  It  was  determined 
that  Mcletius  (whom  the  synod  treated  with 
more  lenity,  for  according  to  the  strictness 
of  law  he  deserved  no  indulgence)  should 
remain  in  his  own  city  ;  but  should  have  no 
authority  either  to  ordain,  to  nominate  for 
office,  nor  be  seen  in  any  other  city  or  place 
on  such  business,  but  should  only  possess 
the  naked  title  of  honour.  As  for  those 
raised  to  office  by  him,  after  being  confirmed 
by  a  more  solemn  consecration,  fellowship 
is  to  be  given  them  ;  yet  on  the  condition, 
that  they  so  hold  their  office  and  ministry, 
as  always  to  take  rank  after  all  in  every  par- 
ish or  church  who  were  examined  and  or- 
dained previously  by  our  dearest  colleague 
Alexander ;  and  moreover  thet  they  have  no 
authority  to  elect  or  to  nominate  such  per- 
sons as  they  like,  or  indeed  to  do  any  thing, 


without  the  consent  of  some  bishop  of  the 
Catholic  church  who  is  Alexander's  suffra- 
gan. But  those  who,  by  the  grace  of  God 
and  by  your  prayers,  have  never  been  found 
in  any  schism  but  have  remained  blameless 
in  the  Catholic  church,  shall  have  power  to 
nominate  and  elect  such  as  are  worthy  of  the 
sacred  office,  and  in  general,  -to  do  every 
thing  that  accords  with  law  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal usage.  And  if  it  happen  that  any  of 
those  now  [bishops]  in  the  church  should  be 
removed  by  death,  then  let  those  lately  ad- 
mitted be  advanced  to  the  honours  of  the  de- 
ceased ;  provided  always,  that  they  appear 
deserving,  and  the  people  choose  them,  and 
that  the  bishop  of  Alexandria  concur  in  the 
election  and  confirm  it.  A  nd  this  privilege  is 
conceded  to  all  others  ;  but  not  so  in  regard 
to  Mcletius  personally,  to  whom,  on  account 
of  his  former  irregularity  and  his  headlong 
rashness  of  temper,  it  is  judged,  no  power  or 
authority  should  be  given,  he  being  capable 
of  again  exciting  the  same  disorders.  And 
these  are  the  things  which  relate  particularly 
and  especially  to  Egypt,  and  to  the  most 
holy  church  of  Alexandria.  But  if  any  other 
canon  or  decree  shall  be  made,  as  our  lord 
and  most  precious  fellow  minister  and  broth- 
er is  present  with  us,  when  he  shall  arrive 
he  will  give  you  a  more  exact  account,  for 
he  will  have  been  an  actor  and  co-operator 
in  the  things  done.  We  also  .announce  to 
you  the  harmony  there  is  in  regard  to  the 
most  holy  paschal  feast ;  that  this  matter  is 
happily  settled,  through  the  assistance  of  your 
prayers,  so  that  all  the  brethren  in  the  East, 
who  before  kept  the  festival  with  the  Jews, 
will  hereafter  keep  it  in  harmony  with  the 
Romans,  with  us,  and  with  all  those  who 
from  ancient  times  have  kept  it  with  us. 
Therefore,  rejoicing  in  the  happy  issue  of 
affairs  and  the  peaceful  harmony  that  exists, 
and  that  all  heresy  is  extirpated,  do  ye  re- 
ceive, with  greater  honour  and  more  ardent 
love,  our  fellow  minister  and  your  bishop, 
Alexander,  who  has  gladdened  us  with  his 
presence,  encountering  so  great  labour  in 
his  advanced  age,  that  peace  'might  be  re- 
stored among  you.  And  pray  for  us  all,  that 
whatever  has  been  well  determined  upon, 
may  remain  steadfast,  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  being  done,  as  we  trust,  according 
to  the  good  pleasure  of  God  the  Father,  in 
the  Holy  Spirit :  to  whom  be  glory  for  ever 
and  ever.  Amen." — TV.] 

(28)   Socrates,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.   i.,  c. 
1 1 .   Compare  Fran.  Baldwin's  Constantmua 


296 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


§  13.  But  the  passions  of  men  were  more  efficient,  than  either  the  de- 
crees of  the  Nicene  council,  or  the  authority  of  the  emperor.  For  there 
were  those  who,  though  they  did  not  fall  in  with  the  doctrine  of  Arius,  yet 
were  dissatisfied  with  some  things  in  the  decrees  and  the  creed  of  the  coun- 
cil ;(29)  and  the  Arians  left  no  means  untried,  to  free  themselves  from  the 
evils  inflicted  on  them  by  those  decrees.  And  the  issue  was  agreeable  to 
their  wishes.  For  in  a  few  years  after  the  Nicene  council,  an  Arian  pres- 
byter, whom  Constantia  the  emperor's  sister  at  her  death  had  recommend- 
ed to  the  care  of  her  brother,  succeeded  in  persuading  Constantine  the 
Great  that  Arius  had  been  unjustly  oppressed  by  his  enemies.  Accord- 
ingly, in  the  year  330,  the  emperor  recalled  Arius  from  exile,  rescind- 
ed the  decrees  passed  against  his  associates  and  friends,  and  permitted 
Eusebius  of  Nicomedia,  the  principal  supporter  of  Arius,  and  his  powerful 
faction  now  thirsting  for  revenge,  to  persecute  the  defenders  of  the  Nicene 
council.(30)  They  assailed  no  one  more  fiercely  than  Allianasius,  the 


Magnus,  p.  76,  and  Gear.  Calixtus,  de  con- 
jugio  Cleric.,  p.  170,  &c. 

(29)  [The  word  6//o«<nof  (of  the  same  es- 
sence) was  in  particular,  not  agreeable  to  all. 
At  first  seventeen  bishops  hesitated  to  sub- 
scribe the  creed  and  the  condemnation  of 
Arius,  because  they  wished  to  shun  the  ap- 
pearance of  favouring  the  Sabellian  error  ; 
and  they  objected,  that  the  word  o/zoscuof 
had  been  disapproved  of  in  the  time  of  Paul 
of  Samosata.  (Socrates,  H.  E.,  i.,  c.  8,  23, 
&c.  Basil,  Ep.  360.)  And  in  fact,  Paul 
of  Samosata  had  misused  the'  word  6/j.ouaioc., 
so  as  to  controvert  any  other  distinction  be- 
tween the  Son  or.  Word  and  the  Father,  ex- 
cept the  difference  of  names,  and  of  external 
relations  in  reference  to  the  divine  manifes- 
tation. And  though  it  is  not  fully  proved 
that  this  term,  in  the  Samosatian  sense  of  it, 
was  rejected  by  a  council  at  Antioch  in  the 
year  269,  (which  decision  at  Antioch  is  pro- 
nounced fabulous,  by  Dr.  Feuerlein,  in  his 
Dissert,  on  the  question  :  Dei  filium  patri 
esse  ofjuouaiov  antiqui  ecclesiae  doctores  in 
concilio  Antiocheno  utrum  negaverintl  Got- 
ting.,  1755)  —  yet  it  is  certain,  that  the  Arians 
had  before  alleged  this  Antiochian  decree, 
and  no  one  had  charged  them  with  mistake 
in  so  doing.  Nevertheless  those  who  were 
not  pleased  with  the  creed,  were  generally 
brought  to  acquiesce  in  it  ;  partly  by  the 
threats  of  the  emperor  to  banish  all  who 
would  not  subscribe,  and  partly  by  the  ad- 
vice of  the  princess  Constantia.  Only  Ari- 
us, with  the  bishops  Thconas  and  Secun- 
dus,  persevered  in  a  refusal.  Yet  some, 
[namely,  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia,  and  The- 
ognis,  bishop  of  Nice],  subscribed  only  the 
creed  itself,  and  not  also  the  anathema.  — 


(30)  [So  sudden  a  change  was  not  to  be  ex- 
pected. The  council  of  Nice  had  taken  ev- 
ery precaution  to  prevent  the  further  spread  of 


Arianism ;  and  its  decrees  had  been  approved 
by  other  councils  in  distant  provinces,  and  thus 
had  obtained  the  authority  of  decrees  of  the 
whole  church.  The  emperor  had  superad- 
ded  to  the  sentence  of  the  bishops  civil  pen- 
alties, appointing  exile  to  recusants ;  and  had 
condemned  the  writings  of  Arius  to  the 
flames,  and  commanded  them  to  be  delivered 
up  on  pain  of  death.  [See  the  emperor's 
letter  to  the  bishops  and  people,  in  Socrates, 
H.  E.,  i.,  9.]  Thus  the  Arian  party  seemed 
to  be  wholly  suppressed.  But  it  only  seem- 
ed to  be  so.  Four  years  after,  the  atmo- 
sphere about  the  court  of  Constantine  at  once 
became  clear  and  serene  to  the  Arians  ;  and 
the  causes  of  so  great  a  change  are  not  well 
known,  for  the  history  of  Constantine  here 
has  a  chasm  of  three  years.  The  princess 
Constantia  seems  actually  to  have  had  a 
band  in  this  great  revolution.  The  bishops 
who  were  favourably  disposed  towards  Ai- 
us,  had  recommended  themselves  to  her,  by 
yielding  in  the  Nicene  council,  and  subscri- 
bing the  creed,  very  much  in  compliance 
with  her  recommendation.  (Pfiilostorgius, 
H.  E.,  i.,  c.  9.)  This  attention  shown  her, 
would  naturally  open  a  way  for  them  to  the 
confidence  of  the  princess.  And  therefore 
the  statement  of  Socrates  (1.  i.,  c.  25),  and 
Sozomen  (1.  iii.,  c.  19)  is  not  improbable; 
namely,  that  it  was  by  her.  and  by  an  Arian 
priest  whom  she  at  her  death  recommended 
to  him,  that  Constantine  was  brought  to  en- 
tertain more  favourable  views  of  the  Arians. 
At  the  instigation  of  this  priest,  the  emperor 
despatched  a  gracious  letter  to  Arius,  bid- 
ding him  come  to  the  court.  Arms  hasten- 
ed to  Constantinople  with  his  friend  Euzoi- 
us,  and  was  graciously  heard  by  the  emperor, 
whom  he  satisfied  as  to  his  orthodoxy.  At 
the  requisition  of  the  emperor,  they  both 
presented  a  confession  of  their  faith,  which 
was  so  artfully  drawn  up  as  to  conceal  their 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


297 


bishop  of  Alexandria.  When  he  could  in  no  way  be  brought  to  restore 
Arius  to  his  former  honours  and  ecclesiastical  standing,  Athanasius  was 
first  deprived  of  his  office,  in  a  council  held  at  Tyre  A.D.  335,  and  then 
banished  to  Gaul ;  while  in  the  same  year,  by  a  numerous  council  held  at 
Jerusalem,  Arius  and  his  friends  were  solemnly  admitted  to  the  communion 
of  the  church.  But  by  none  of  these  proceedings  could  the  Alexandrians 
be  induced  to  receive  Arius  among  their  presbyters.  Accordingly  the 
emperor  called  him  to  Constantinople  in  the  year  336,  and  ordered  Alex- 
ander the  bishop  of  that  city,  to  open  the  doors  of  his  church  to  him.  But 
before  that  could  take  place,  Arius  died  at  Constantinople  in  a  tragical  man- 
ner.(31)  And  the  emperor  himself  closed  life  shortly  after. 


real  sentiments  under  orthodox  phraseology. 
In  this  way  Arius  obtained  permission  to 
return  to  Alexandria.  Antecedently  to  this, 
Eusebius  bishop  of  Nicomedia,  and  Tkeog- 
•MS  bishop  of  Nice,  had  obtained  complete 
reinstatement  in  their  offices ;  and  the  for- 
mer now  commenced  persecuting  the  ortho- 
dox party,  and  especially  Athanasivs.  The 
deposition  of  Athanasius  was  decreed  by  the 
council  of  Tyre  ;  but  his  banishment  was  by 
order  of  the  emperor,  before  whom  he  was 
accused  of  threatening  to  prevent  the  expor- 
tation of  grain  from  Egypt  to  Constantinople. 
As  Arms  met  with  more  opposition  at  Alex- 
andria than  he  expected,  and  as  his  presence 
there  caused  commotions  which  seemed  al- 
most to  amount  to  an  insurrection,  he  was 
called  back  to  Constantinople.  Here  he 
had  another  hearing  before  the  emperor,  and 
swore  to  a  formula  of  faith  presented  by  him- 
self, which  sounded  very  orthodox.  The 
emperor  was  so  well  satisfied  by  this  exhi- 
bition of  Anus,  that  he  sent  for  Alexander 
the  bishop  of  Constantinople,  and  earnestly 
enjoined  upon  him  to  admit  Arius  the  next 
Sunday  to  his  communion.  The  terrified 
bishop  retired  to  the  church  of  St.  Irene,  and 
there  prayed  that  the  calamity  might  be  avert- 
ed. On  the  day  appointed,  Anus,  accom- 
panied by  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia  and  others 
of  his  adherents,  proceeded  through  the  prin- 
cipal streets  of  the  city,  in  order  to  enter  the 
chuvh  in  triumph,  and  entertained  his  friends 
with  playful  discourse.  But  as  he  passed 
along,  the  calls  of  nature  obliged  him  to  step 
aside.  He  entered  one  of  the  public  offices 
erected  for  such  purposes,  and  left  his  ser- 
vants waiting  at  the  door  ;  and  here  he  died 
with  a  violent  colic.  See  Dr.  Walch's  His- 
torie  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  ii.,  p.  486,  &c. — 
Sehl.] 

(31)  Some  of  the  moderns  are  disposed 
to  call  in  question  this  account  of  Arttuf 
death  ;  but  without  good  reason,  since  it  is 
attested  by  such  unexceptionable  witnesses 
as  Socrates,  Sosomen,  Athanasius,  and  oth- 
ers. Yet  the  cause  of  his  sudden  and  ex- 
traordinary death — for  the  miserable  man  is 
VOL.  I.— P  P 


said  to  have  discharged  his  own  bowels — is 
a  subject  of  much  controversy.  The  an- 
cients, who  tell  us  that  God  being  moved 
by  the  prayers  of  holy  men  miraculously 
avenged  the  wickedness  of  the  man,  will 
hardly  find  credit  at  this  day  among  candid 
persons  well  acquainted  with  Arian  affairs. 
When  I  consider  all  the  circumstances  of 
the  case,  I  confess  that  to  me  it  appears 
most  probable,  the  unhappy  man  lost  his  life 
by  the  machinations  of  his  enemies,  being 
destroyed  by  poison.  An  indiscreet  and 
blind  zeal  in  religion  has,  in  every  age,  led 
on  to  many  crimes  worse  than  this.  [•'  The 
preceding  account  of  Arius'  death  and  of  the 
circumstances  attending  it,  is  given  by  Atha- 
nasius, (Ep.  ad  Serapion  de  morte  Arii,  p, 
522,  &c.,  Opp.,  torn,  ii.,  ed.  Commelin),  by 
Socrates,  (Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  i.,  c.  37,  38), 
Sosomen,  (Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  ii.,  c.  29,  30), 
by  The.odorct,  (Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  i.,  c.  15), 
and  by  several  other  writers  of  the  fourth 
century.  The  first  in  this  list,  and  with  him 
most  of  the  others,  draw  a  frightful  picture 
of  the  manner  of  Arius1  death,  making  him 
to  have  died  by  the  falling  out  of  all  his 
bowels.  Most  of  them  regard  it  as  a  mira- 
cle, by  which  God  punished  him  for  his  per- 
jury, or  hearkened  to  the  prayers  of  bishop 
Alexander,  who  with  others  returned  thanks 
to  God  for  this  deliverance.  It  is  not 
strange  that  some  moderns  have  moved  the 
question,  whether  this  whole  narration,  the 
chief  source  of  which  is  found  in  the  wri- 
tings of  the  most  strenuous  opposer  of  Arius, 
and  which  respects  a  man  then  very  much 
hated,  may  not  be  a  fabrication.  Yet  the 
story  is  told  with  such  uniformity  as  to  the 
principal  facts,  by  those  who  differ  in  the 
minor  circumstances  of  it,  and  the  spot  where 
he  died  was  so  generally  pointed  out  even 
in  the  fifth  century,  according  to  Socrates, 
that  we  are  not  authorized  to  doubt  the  truth 
of  the  general  statement.  Yet  it  can  by  no 
means  be  proved,  nor  indeed  be  made  to  ap- 
pear probable,  that  the  sudden  death  of  Ariu» 
was  miraculous,  or  a  punishment  inflicted 
by  God.  Sozomen  himself  tells  us,  that 


298 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


§  14.  After  the  death  of  Constantine  the  Great,  one  of  his  sons,  Constan- 
tius  the  emperor  of  the  East,  with  his  wife  and  his  court,  was  very  partial 
to  the  Arian  cause ;  but  Constantine  and  Constans,  in  the  western  parts 
where  they  governed,  supported  the  decisions  of  the  Nicene  council.  Hence 
there  were  no  bounds  and  no  end  to  the  broils,  the  tumults,  the  conspira- 
cies, and  the  wrongs  ;  and  councils  were  arrayed  against  councils  by  both 
the  contending  parties.  Constans  died  in  the  year  350 ;  and  two  years 
after,  a  great  part  of  the  West,  particularly  Italy  and  Rome,  came  under 
the  dominion  of  his  brother  Constantius;  and  this  change  was  most  disas- 
trous for  the  friends  of  the  Nicene  council.  For  this  emperor,  being  de- 
voted to  the  Arians,  involved  them  in  numerous  evils  and  calamities,  and 
by  threats  and  punishments,  compelled  many  of  them,  (and  among  others, 
as  is  well  attested,  the  Roman  pontiff  Liberius,  A.D.  357),  to  apostatize  to 
that  sect  to  which  he  was  himself  attached. (32)  The  Nicene  party  made 
no  hesitation  to  return  the  same  treatment,  as  soon  as  time,  place,  and  op- 
portunity were  afforded  them.  And  the  history  of  Christianity  under  Con- 
stantius, presents  the  picture  of  a  most  stormy  period,  and  of  a  war  among 
brethren,  which  was  carried  on  without  either  religion,  or  justice,  or  hu- 
manity.(33) 

§  15.  On  the  death  of  Constantius,  in  the  year  362,  the  prosperous  days 
of  the  Arians  were  at  an  end.  Julian  had  no  partiality  for  either,  and 

some  at  the  time  regarded  it  as  the  conse- 
quence of  a  disease,  which  directly  affected 
the  heart ;  others  believed,  that  his  sudden 
joy  at  finding  his  affairs  issuing  so  happily, 
brought  on  him  this  speedy  death.  Very 


and  others,  that  Liberius  boldly  resisted  the 
Arians,  and  was  therefore  banished  to  Be- 
roea  in  Thrace  ;  that,  at  the  end  of  two 
years,  his  eagerness  to  return  to  his  bishop- 
ric led  him  to  consent  to  the  condemnation 


much  is  requisite  to  justify  the  ascription  of    of  Athanasius,  and  to  subscribe  the  Arian 


an  event,  which  may  be  explained  by  natural 
causes,  to  a  supernatural  cause,  or  to  the 
hand  of  God  inflicting  a  divine  punishment. 
But  under  such  circumstances,  Christians 
have  in  all  ages  been  too  ready  to  make  up 


creed  set  forth  by  the  third  council  of  Sir- 
mium.  This  weakness  in  a  Roman  bishop 
has  furnished  the  Protestants  with  an  argu- 
ment against  the  Romish  doctrine  of  papal 
infallibility,  which  they  have  not  failed  to 


such  inconsiderate  judgments.     Besides,  the     urge  successfully,  and  to  the  great  annoy- 
death  of  Arms  is  painted  as  being  as  extra-     ance  of  the  Catholics.     See,  among  others, 


ordinary  as  possible  ;  and  it  is  not  obscurely 
compared,  by  Athanasius  in  particular,  with 
that  of  Judas  the  traitor ;  and  on  the  other 
hand,  the  strange  prayer  of  bishop  Alexander 
against  him,  is  not  only  passed  without  cen- 
sure, but  is  represented  as  being  a  holy 
prayer  which  Heaven  answered.  The  ad- 
herents of  Arius  maintained,  that  his  ene- 
mies compassed  his  death  by  magical  arts  ; 
and  in  very  recent  times,  discerning  writers 
have  conjectured  that  he  was  poisoned. 
This  however  is  merely  a  conjecture,  and 
one  which  is  often  made  on  occasion  of  the 
sudden  and  unexpected  death  of  persons  who 
had  many  or  powerful  enemies.  Nothing 
more,  therefore,  can  be  regarded  as  certain, 
than  that  Anus  died  a  sudden  death,  but 
the  cause  of  it  is  unknown."  Translated 
from  Schroeckh,  Kirchengeschichte,  vol.  v., 
p.  386,  387.— TV.] 


Bower's  Lives  of  the  Popes,  vol.  i.,  p.  136, 
&c.—  TV.] 

(33)  [The  orthodox  and  the  Arians  were 
constantly  in  the  field,  and  they  often  came 
to  bloodshed.  The  imperial  brothers  fre- 
quently patched  up  an  external  peace  with 
each  other ;  but  the  Christians,  who  from 
the  principles  of  their  holy  religion  shfluld 
have  been  united  in  the  closest  bonds  of 
brotherhood  and  in  unbroken  peace,  were 
engaged  in  unceasing  war,  during  the  reign 
of  these  emperors.  The  victorious  party 
bore  down  upon  the  vanquished  with  false 
accusations,  banishments,  deprivations  of 
office,  anathemas  of  councils,  artifice  and 
violence.  For  proof,  the  reader  is  referred 
to  Athanasius,  Apolog.  ad.  Constant.,  p. 
307,  &c.,  and  Historia  Arianor.  ad  Monach., 
p.  373,  &c.,  p.  393,  &c.  Sozomen,  H.  E., 
lib.  iv.,  c.  9,  19.  Socrates,  H.  E.,  lib.  ii., 


(32)  [It  appears  from  the  Letters  of  Li-  c.  37,  and  the  dark  picture  of  the  state  of  the 
berius,  which  are  still  extant,  and  from  the  church,  by  Vincentius  Lerinensis,  in  his 
testimony  of  Hilary  of  Poictiers,  Jerome,  Commonit.,  c.  6. — Schl.] 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


299 


therefore  patronised  neither  the  Arians  nor  the  orthodox. (34)  Jovian 
[A.D.  363-364]  espoused  the  orthodox  sentiments ;  and  therefore  all  the 
West,  with  no  small  part  of  the  East,  rejected  Arian  views,  and  reverted  to 
the  doctrines  of  the  Nicene  council. (35)  But  the  scene  was  changed  under 
the  two  brothers,  Valentinian  [in  the  West]  and  Valens  [in  the  East],  who 
were  advanced  to  the  government  of  the  empire  in  the  year  364.  Valen- 
tinian adhered  to  the  decisions  at  Nice  ;  and  therefore,  in  the  West,  the 
Arian  sect,  a  few  churches  exceptcd,  was  wholly  extirpated.  Valens  on 
the  contrary,  took  sides  with  the  Arians ;  and  hence,  in  the  eastern  prov- 
inces, many  calamities  befell  the  orthodox. (36)  But  when  this  emperor 
had  fallen  in  a  war  with  the  Goths,  A.D.  378,  Gratian  [who  succeeded  Val- 
entinian in  the  West  in  the  year  376,  and  became  master  of  the  whole  em- 
pire in  378],  restored  peace  to  the  orthodox.(37)  After  him  Theodosius 
the  Gr.,  [A.D.  383-395],  by  depriving  the  Arians  of  all  their  churches,  and 
enacting  severe  laws  against  them,(38)  caused  the  decisions  of  the  Nicene 
council  to  be  everywhere  triumphant ;  and  none  could  any  longer  publicly 
profess  Arian  doctrines,  except  among  the  barbarous  nations,  the  Goths,(39) 


(34)  [Julian,  who  wished  to  make  him- 
self popular,  and  to  ruin  the  Christian  church 
by  its  internal  contests,  not  only  gave  all 
sects  of  Christians  entire   liberty  of  con- 
science, but  recalled  all  the  banished.     And 
this  was  greatly  for  the  advantage  of  the  or- 
thodox, especially  in  the  West,  where  the 
churches  again  recovered  their  bishops,  and 
such  of  them  as  had  renounced  orthodoxy 
through  fear,  returned  again  to  the  profes- 
sion of  it. — SchL] 

(35)  [The  Arians  in  the  East,  took  great 
pains  to  draw  Jovian  over  to  their  side  ;  but 
as   these  attempts  proved  fruitless,  various 
individuals  of  them,  and  in  particular  Aca- 
cius,  were  induced  to  yield  assent  to  the  Ni- 
cene creed.     The  Arians  of  Alexandria  also, 
in  vain  laboured  to  bring  Atltanasius   into 
disgrace  ;  but  he  was  in  high  favour,  till  the 
emperor's  death. —  SchL] 

(36)  [The  persecution  of  Valens  extend- 
ed not  only  to  the  orthodox,  but  also  to  the 
Semiarians   and  other  minor  parties  ;  and 
the  Semiarians,  after  much  negotiation,  re- 
sorted to  the  unexpected  measure  of  sending 
messengers  to  Rome,  and  by  subscribing  to 
the  Nicene  creed,  attempted  to  form  a  coali- 
tion with  the   occidental    Christians.     But 
this  coalition  was  frustrated,  partly  by  the 
repugnance  of  some  of  the  Semiarians  to  the 
word  6fioaaiof.  and  partly  by  the  exertions 
of  the  powerful  Arians  at  court,  and  a  new 
persecution  ensued.    The  orthodox  ventured 
to  make  a  representation  to  the  emperor  Va- 
lens, and  for  this  purpose  sent  a  delegation 
composed  of  80  clergymen  to  the  court   at 
Nicornedia.     The  emperor  cruelly  ordered 
Mudesius  the  praetorian  prefect,  to  put  them 
all  to  death,  but  without  noise  ;  which  he 
accomplished  by  putting  them  on  board  a 


vessel,  and  when  at  sea,  causing  the  vessel 
and  all  the  unhappy  men  to  be  burnt.  Such 
cruelty,  perhaps,  is  without  a  parallel  among 
the  persecutions  by  the  pagans.  See  Soc- 
rates, H.  E.,  iv.,  c.  15.  Sozomen,  H.  E., 
vi.,  c.  13.  Theodorct,  H.  E.,  iv.,  c.  21,  and 
Dr.  Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  ii., 
p.  543,  &c.— SchL] 

(37)  [  Gratian  granted  religious  freedom 
to  all  his  subjects,  in  the  commencement  of 
his  reign,  and  excluded  only  the  Manichae- 
ans,  the  Photinians,  and  the  Eunomians  from 
the  liberty  of  holding  assemblies  for  worship. 
He  also  recalled  all  the  bishops  whom  Va- 
lens had  banished.     Some  of  the  Semiarians 
now  again  held  their  own    synods,  and  re- 
newed their  confession  of  faith,  that  the  Son 
is  of  Like  essence  [oftotuotoc]  w'ln  tne  Father, 
in  a  council  held  at  Antioch  in  Caria.     On 
the  other  hand,  the  orthodox  again  set  up 
public  worship  at  Constantinople,  and  ob- 
tained the  zealous  Gregory  Nazianzen  for 
their  bishop.     Gratian,  at  length,  forbid  the 
assemblies  of  the  heretics,  without  distinc- 
tion.    Codex  Theodos.,  1.  v.,  de  Haeret., 
and  the  Notes  of  Gothofred,  torn,  vi.,  p.  12S. 
Walch,  Hist,  der  Ketzer.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  547,  &c. 
— Schl.] 

(38)  See  Codex  Theodos.,  torn,  vi.,  p.  5, 
10, 130, 146,  and  Gothofred,  Notes  on  these 
laws.     [See  also  Dr.  Walch,  Historic  der 
Ketzereyen,  vol.  ii.,  p.  549,  &c. —  SchL] 

(39)  [The  Goths  were  entangled  in  the 
Arian    heresy    on    the   following   occasion. 
Being  driven  by  the  Huns  from  their  former 
residence  on  the  Tanais,  they  sent  an  em- 
bassy to  the  emperor  Valens,  and  obtained 
liberty  to  plant  themselves  on  the  banks  of 
the  Danube  ;  promising  not  only  to  serve 
the  Romans  in  their  wars,  but  to  embrace 


300 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


the  Vandals,(40)  and  the  Burgundians.(41)  That  there  were  great  faults 
on  both  sides,  in  this  long  and  violent  contest,  no  candid  person  can  deny ; 
but  which  party  was  guilty  of  the  greatest  wrong,  it  is  difficult  to  say. (42) 
§  16.  The  Arians  would  have  done  much  more  harm  to  the  church,  if 
they  had  not  become  divided  among  themselves  after  the  Nicene  council, 
and  split  into  sects  which  could  not  endure  each  other.  The  ancients 
enumerate  as  Arian  sects,  the  Semiarians,  the  Euselians,(k$)  the  Aetians, 

the  Christian  religion,  as  soon  as  teachers 
should  be  sent  among  them.  Ulphilas  was 
one  of  their  ambassadors,  who  was  himself 
an  Arian,  and  Valens  also  gave  him  only 
Arian  teachers  for  his  assistants.  It  was 
not  strange,  therefore,  that  the  Arian  doc- 
trine obtained  so  great  currency  among  this 
people.  The  subsequent  history  of  Arian- 
ism  among  them,  is  related  by  Dr.  Walch, 
Historie  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  ii.,  p.  553. — 
SchL] 

(40)  [Neither  the  time  nor  the  circum- 
stances, in  which  this  people  embraced  Chris- 
tianity, can  be  ascertained.    Only  thus  much 
is  certain,  that  they  were  in  great  measure 
believers  in  Christianity  before  they  came 
into  France  ;  (Salvianus,  de  Gubernatione 
Dei,  lib.  vii.,  p.  845  and  228).     And  from  a 
passage  in  Jornandes,  (de  Rebus  Geticis,  c. 
25),  it  is  probable,  that  they  got  their  first 
knowledge  of  Christianity  from  their  neigh- 
bours the  Goths,  and  according  to  the  Arian 
principles.     They  were  persecutors  of  the 
orthodox  ;   which   can   not  be  said  of  the 
Goths.     See  Walch,  Historie  der  Ketzere- 
yen, vol.  ii.,  p.  559,  &c. — Sr.hL] 

(41)  [These  first  settled  permanently  in 
Gaul,  during  the  next  century,  and  there  they 
first  embraced  the  Christian  religion,  and  ac- 
cording to  the  orthodox  system.     (Orosius, 
lib.  viii.,  c.  32.     Socrates,  H.  E.,  vii.,  30, 
and  the  history  of  the  fifth  century,  infra,  pt. 
i.,  chap,  i.,  §  4.)     But  their  intercourse  with 
the  neighbouring  Arians,  the  West  Goths, 
infected  them  with  the  leaven  of  Arianism. 
Yet  under  the  successors  of  their  king  Gun- 
debold,  the  orthodox  doctrine  again  got  the 
upper  hand  ;  and  under  the  domination  of 
the  Franks,  the  adherents  to  Arian  princi- 
ples were  wholly  rooted  out.     See  Walch, 
Historie  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  ii.,  p.  564,  &c. 


(42)  [The  judgment  pronounced  by  Dr. 
Walch,  in  the  2d  vol.  of  his  Historie  der 
Ketzereyen,  p.  698,  is  so  sound  and  im- 
partial, that  I  cannot  refrain  from  inserting 
it  here  without  alteration.  "  The  modern 
Arians  in  England  blacken  the  character  of 
Athanasius  too  much,  in  order  to  discredit 
bis  doctrine  :  other  writers,  too  much  pre- 
possessed with  the  idea  that  a  kalendar  saint 
must  be  an  angel,  represent  this  man  and 
his  adherents  as  absolutely  faultless.  If  we 


would  judge  impartially,  both  parties  were 
chargeable  with  the  dreadful  consequences 
of  this  contest.  There  was  a  total  want  of 
moderation  throughout ;  every  where  the 
mistaken  notion  reigned,  that  it  is  right  to 
exercise  control  over  the  consciences  of  oth- 
ers ;  every  where  private  matters  were  treat- 
ed as  public  affairs  of  the  church  ;  every 
where  the  authority  of  ecclesiastical  councils 
was  misused  ;  and  still  more,  that  of  civil 
magistrates ;  every  where  therefore,  a  per- 
secuting spirit  was  cherished  and  maintain- 
ed. In  particular,  we  believe  that  these 
faults  commenced  on  the  side  of  the  ortho- 
dox ;  that  other  bishops  too  hastily  became 
linked  in  with  [the  Constantinopolitan]  Al- 
exander ;  and  that  in  the  council  of  Sardica, 
too  little  respect  was  paid  to  the  wishes  of 
the  Oriental  bishops  in  respect  to  Athanasi- 
us, which  were  that  he  might  not  sit  and 
vote  in  the  council,  because  he  was  the  ac- 
cused person.  But  the  Arians  were  guilty 
of  still  greater  offences.  Arius  was  in  fault 
for  so  zealously  endeavouring  to  create  a 
party  ;  but  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia  was,  in 
our  opinion,  the  real  firebrand,  which  set 
the  whole  in  a  flame  ;  and  the  suspicion,  that 
pride  and  love  of  distinction  led  him  to  de- 
fend Arius,  and  produced  that  obstinacy  in 
supporting  the  side  he  took,  appears  to  us 
well  founded.  In  short — this  history  very 
forcibly  inculcates  the  necessity  of  uniting 
true  benevolence  towards  men,  with  our  zeal 
for  the  truth,  and  the  avoiding  of  all  person- 
al animosities,  by  presenting  to  us  so  many 
lamentable  occurrences  and  so  very  unhap- 
py consequences,  arising  from  the  neglect  of 
these  Christian  duties."  Walch,  ubi  supra. 
— Schl.J 

(43)  [These  derived  their  name  from  two 
bishops  named  Eusebius,  the  one  of  Caasa- 
rea,  and  the  father  of  church  history,  the 
other  of  Nicomedia,  and  afterwards  of  Con- 
stantinople, an  intimate  with  Constantine 
the  Great.  These  belonged  to  the  class  of 
Semiarians,  called  at  this  day  Subordination- 
ists,  because  they  maintained  a  subordina- 
tion among  the  persons  of  the  Godhead. 
Yet  this  name  was  applied  to  all  who  op- 
posed the  Nicene  doctrine,  and  who  disap- 
proved either  of  the  word  6fj.o6ai.of  only,  or 
also  the  idea  it  was  used  for. — Schl.} 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


301 


the  Eunomians,  the  Acacians,(44)  the  Psaihyrians,(±b)  and  others.  But 
they  may  all  be  reduced  to  three  classes.  The  first  class  embraces  the 
old  and  genuine  Arians ;  who,  rejecting  all  new  terms  and  modes  of  ex- 
pression, taught  explicitly,  that  the  Son  was  not  begotten  by  the  Father,  but 
was  created  or  formed  out  of  nothing. (46)  From  these,  on  the  one  side,  de- 
viated the  Semiarians ;  and  on  the  other,  the  Eunomians  or  Anomoeans,  that 
is,  the  disciples  of  the  acute  Eunomius,  and  of  A'etius.  The  former  class 
maintained,  that  the  Son  of  God  was  6/wisatov,  i.  e.,  of  like  essence  with 
the  Father ;  yet  not  by  nature,  but  only  by  grace.  The  leaders  of  this  par- 
ty were  George  of  Laodiceh,  and  Basil  of  Ancyra.(47)  The  latter,  who 
were  also  called  pure  Arians,  Aetians(4:8)  and  Exucontians,(4:9)  contended, 

(44)  [These  bore  the  name  of  Acacius,  a 
bishop  of  Caesarea  and  successor  of  Eusebius 
Pamptnli.     He  allowed  that  the  Son  was  like 
the  Father ;  but  only  in  respect  to  his  will. 
—Sc/it.] 

(45)  [This  word  imports  pastry-cooks ; 
because  a  person  of  this  occupation,  a  Syr- 
ian named  Thcoktistus,  was  particularly  zeal- 
ous in  defending  one  of  the  minor  parties  of 
Arians  in  Constantinople,  which  maintained 
that  God  the  Father  existed  before  the  Son 
had  a  being. — SM.] 

(46)  [Arms  maintained  that  there  were 
three  substances  in  God,   namely,  the   Fa- 
ther,   the   Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit.     The 
first  is  the  only  eternal  God.     There  is,  ab- 
solutely, none  like  him  ;  and  his  essence  is 
incomprehensible.     He  is  called  the  Father, 
in  a  sense  corresponding  with  that  in  which 
the  Son  is  called  the  Son  ;  and  as  the  latter 
was  not  always  the  Son,  so  the  former  was 
not  always    the  Father.     The  second  sub- 
stance is  the  person,  who  in  the  scriptures  is 
denominated  the  Son,  the  Word,  and  the 
Wisdom  of  God.     He  is  absolutely  a  crea- 
ture of  God  ;  and  one  whom  God  created, 
as  he  did  the  other  creatures,  immediately 
from  nothing.     This  creation  of  the  Son, 
the  scriptures  denominate  a  generation ;  and 
this  creature  is  called  the  Son  of  God,  in  a 
figurative  sense  of  the  word,  because  God 
has  adopted  him.     The   terms    Word   and 
Wisdom  of  God,  are  ambiguous ;  for  they 
sometimes  denote  certain  powers   or  attri- 
butes of  God,   and    sometimes   a  person, 
namely,  the  Son.     In  the  former  accepta- 
tion, they  are  inherent  in  God  naturally,  and 
necessarily,  but  not  so  in  the  latter  accepta- 
tion.    God,   of  his  voluntary  choice,  pro- 
duced this  person,  to  be  an  instrument  in 
his  hand  in  the  creation  of  the  world.     The 
Son  therefore  is,  in  his  essence,  totally  dif- 
ferent from  the  Father.     As  a  rational  crea- 
ture, he  possesses  free  will,  is  changeable, 
and  so  might  become  either  vicious  or  vir- 
tuous ;  though  by  his  diligence  and  his  long 
practice,  he  has  acquired  permanent  habits 
of  virtue.     And  God  has  chosen  for  his  Son, 


this  most  virtuous  of  all  the  created  spirits. 
Thus  the  Son,  according  to  Anus1  views,  is 
not  truly  God,  not  eternal,  not  omnisciqpt. 
Somethings  are  mysteries  to  his  understand- 
ing ;  and  he  does  not  comprehend  clearly 
the  essence  of  the  Father,  nor  his  own  na- 
ture. Yet  God  has  graciously  imparted  to 
him  pre-eminent  gifts.  Thereby  he  has  be- 
come the  Son  of  God  ;  nay,  obtained  for 
himself  the  name  of  God ;  though  not  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  word.  Such  is  Dr. 
Watch's  representation  of  the  doctrine  of 
Arius,  in  his  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol. 
ii.,  p.  589,  &c.—Schl.] 

(47)  See  Prud.  Maran,  Dissert,  sur  lea 
Semiarians ;    which  has  been  reprinted  by 
Joh.  Voigt,  in  Biblioth.  Haeresiolog.,  torn. 
ii.,  p.  119,  &c.     [The  Semiarians  were  also 
called  moderate  Arians ;   and  likewise  Eu- 
sebians,  because  the  Eusebiuscs,  especially 
the  one  of  Caesarea,  supported  this  party  ; 
and  Homoeousians,  from  the  word  6/j.oi8aiof, 
which  was,  as  it  were,  their  symbol. — George 
of  Laodicea,  was  a  native,  of  Alexandria,  and 
a  very  learned  man.     He  had  personal  diffi- 
culties with  bishop  Alexander,  and  obtained 
the  bishopric  of  Laodicea,  through  the  Eu- 
sebian  party,  to  which  he  devoted  himself. 
Basil,  bishop  of  Ancyra,  had  the  reputatio- 
of  an  upright  and  learned  man,  and  was  in 
great  favour  with  the  emperor  Constantius. 
He  can  be  taxed  with  no  other  fault,  than 
that  of  not  tolerating  the  word  opouaiof.    He 
drew  on  himself  much  persecution  by  his 
zealous  opposition  to  Photinus,  and  to  the 
genuine  Arians  ;   and  was  deprived  of  his 
office  by  the  Acacians. — Schl.] 

(48)  [They  had  this  name  from  their  chief 
person,  A'etius  of  Antioch.     This  man  ap- 
plied himself  to  the  sciences  at  Alexandria, 
and  acquainted  himself  with  the  medical  art, 
as  well  as  with  theology.     As  all  his  instruct 
ors  were  of  Arian  sentiments,  he  also  ap- 
plied his  talents  and  his  dexterity  in  debate  to 
the  vindication  of  the  Arian  doctrines.     He 
was  made  a  deacon  at  Antioch ;  but  as  the 
Semiarians  and  the  orthodox  hated  him,  he 
was  deposed  and  banished,  in  the  reign  of 


302 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


that  Christ  was  irepouotov  or  avopoiov,  i.  e.,  dissimilar,  both  in  essence  and 
in  other  respects,  to  the  Father.(50)  Under  each  of  these  classes,  there  were 
other  subordinate  sects,  whose  subtilties  and  refinements  have  been  but 
obscurely  developed  by  the  ancient  writers.  This  discord  among  the  Arians 
was  as  injurious  to  their  cause,  as  the  confutations  and  the  zeal  of  the  or- 
thodox. 

§  17.  Unhappily  the  Arian  contests,  as  was  very  natural,  produced  some 
new  sects.  Some  persons,  while  eager  to  avoid  and  to  confute  the  opin- 
ions of  Arius,  fell  into  opinions  equally  dangerous.  Others,  after  treading 
in  the  footsteps  of  Arius,  ventured  on  far  beyond  him,  and  became  still 
greater  errorists.  The  human  mind,  weak,  powerless,  and  subject  to  the 
control  of  the  senses  and  the  imagination,  seldom  exerts  all  its  energies  to 
comprehend  divine  subjects,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  be  duly  guarded  against 
extremes.  To  the  former  class,  I  would  reckon  Apollinaris  the  younger, 
bishop  of  Laodicea,  though  otherwise  a  man  of  great  merit,  and  one  who 
in  various  ways  rendered  important  service  to  the  church. (51)  He  man- 
fully asserted  the  divinity  of  Christ,  against  the  Arians ;  but  by  philoso- 
phizing too  freely  and  too  eagerly,  he  almost  set  aside  the  human  nature  of 
the  Saviour.  He  maintained,  that  Christ  assumed  only  a  human  body, 
endowed  with  a  sentient  soul,  but  not  possessed  of  intellect ;  and  that  the 
divine  nature  in  Christ  did  the  office  of  a  rational  soul  or  mind  ;(52)  whence 
it  seemed  to  follow,  that  the  divine  nature  became  mingled  with  the  hu- 
man,(53)  and  with  the  human  nature  suffered  pain  and  death.  This  great 


Constantius.  Julian  recalled  him,  and  gave 
him  a  bishopric.  He  had  the  surname  of  the 
Atheist.  Socrates,  H.  E.,  i.,  c.  35.  Sozo- 
men,  H  E.,  iii.,  c.  15,  &c.,  and  iv.,  c.  23. 
— Schl.] 

(49)  [This  name  is  derived  from  the  Greek 
words  ef  a/c   bvruv.     They  said,  that  the 
Son  of  God  might  indeed  be  called  God,  and 
the  Word  of  God ;  but  only  in  a  sense  con- 
sistent with  his  having  been  brought  forth 
ef  a/c  OVTUV  [from  nonexistences]  ;  that  is, 
that  he  was  one  of  those  things,  which  once 
had  no  existence ;  and  of  course,  that  he  was 
properly  a  creature,  and  was  once  a  nonent- 
ity.— SchL] 

(50)  See  Ja.  Basnage,  Diss.  de  Eunomio, 
in  Henr.  Cunisius,  Lectiones  Antiquae,  torn. 
i.,  p.  172,  &c.,  where  are  extant  the  creed 
and  an  apology  of  Eunomius.     See  also  Jo. 
Alb.  Fabricius,  Bibliotheca  Gr.,  vol.  viii., 
p.  100-148,  and  Codex  Theodos.,  torn,  vi., 
p.  147,  155,   157,  167,  200,  &c.     [Euno- 
mius, a  Cappadocian,  was  a  scholar  of  Aeti- 
us,  and  was  made  bishop  of  Cyzicurn  by  his 
partisans.     But  he  was  soon  displaced,  and 
his  whole  life  was  full  of  unpleasant  occur- 
rences.    He  was  peculiarly  lucid  in  his  style, 
and  his  writings  are,  on  that  account,  the 
most  valuable  documents  for  the  history  of 
Arianism. — Schl.     See  note,  p.  248. — TV.] 

(51 )  [See  a  sketch  of  his  life  and  writings, 
above,  p.  247,  note  (29).— Tr.J 

(52)  [Apollinaris  believed  that   Christ 


had  no  need  of  a  rational  soul,  because  the 
divine  nature  was  competent  to  all  the  ra- 
tional and  free  acts  which  the  Saviour  per- 
formed ;  and  he  could  see  no  good  reason 
why  Christ  must  have  had  two  intelligent 
natures  and  two  free  wills.  He  supposed 
further,  that  a  rational  human  soul,  as  being 
the  seat  of  sinful  acts,  must  be  liable  to  moral 
changes ;  and  therefore  that  Christ,  if  he 
had  possessed  a  rational  human  soul,  could 
not  have  had  an  unchangeable,  that  is,  a  sin- 
less human  nature.  And  he  supported  his 
opinion  by  the  many  passages  of  scripture 
which  speak  of  Christ's  becoming  man,  in 
which  only  the  word  cap!-  (flesh)  is  used 
for  the  human  nature  ;  e.  g.,  Joh.  i ,  14. 
These  arguments  needed  an  answer ;  but 
his  opposers  replied  to  them  very  imperfect- 
ly. They  showed  indeed,  from  the  Bible, 
that  Christ  had  a  rational  human  soul.  But 
their  proof  was  defective  in  this,  that  they 
did  not  show,  that  by  the  word  ^v^rf  in  the 
Scriptures  must  necessarily  be  understood 
a  rational  soul.  And  what  they  brought 
forward  besides  this,  were  either  the  bad 
consequences  that  would  follow,  or  occasions 
for  logomachy,  which  rather  retarded  than 
furthered  the  discovery  of  truth  See  Walch, 
Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iii.,  p.  186, 
&c.— Schl.] 

(53)  [This  consequence,  however,  Apolli- 
naris did  not  admit.  He  was  indeed  ac- 
cused of  denying  the  actual  distinction  of 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


303 


man  was  led  astray,  not  merely  by  the  ardour  of  debate,  but  likewise  by 
his  immoderate  attachment  to  the  Platonic  doctrine  concerning  a  twofold 
soul ;  from  which  if  the  divines  of  that  age  had  been  free,  they  would  have 
formed  more  wise  and  more  correct  judgments  on  many  points.  Some 
among  the  ancients  attribute  other  errors  besides  this,  to  Apollinaris ;  but 
how  much  credit  is  due  them  is  doubtful. (54)  The  doctrine  of  Apol- 
linaris met  the  approbation  of  many,  in  nearly  all  the  eastern  provinces ; 
and  being  explained  in  different  ways,  it  became  the  source  of  new  sects. 
But  as  it  was  assailed  by  the  laws  of  the  emperors,  the  decrees  of  coun- 
cils, and  the  writings  of  learned  men,  it  gradually  sunk  under  these  united 
assaults. 

§  18.  To  the  same  class  must  be  reckoned  Marcellus,  bishop  of  Ancy- 
ra  in  Galatia  ;(55)  if  confidence  may  be  placed  in  Eusebius  of  Cassarea, 
and  in  his  other  adversaries,  who  tell  us  that  he  so  explained  the  mystery 
of  the  holy  Trinity,  as  to  fall  into  the  Sabellian  and  Samosatenian  errors. 
Yet  there  are  many  who  think,  that  both  Eusebius  of  Nicodemia,  and  Eu- 
sebius of  Csesarea,  unfairly  represent  his  sentiments,  because  he  gave  of- 

the  two  natures,  and  of  holding  to  such  a  con-  tions  taken  by  the  Arians  in  their  councils  ; 

fusion  of  them,  as  Eulyches  afterwards  main-  and  this  drew  on  him  a  severe  persecution, 

tained.     But  he  rejected  the  term  mixture  ;  In  the  year  336,  the  Arian  bishops  assembled 

and  expressly  taught,  that  he  did  not  subvert  at  Constantinople  deposed  him,  as  one  con- 

the  doctrine  of  two  distinct  natures  in  Christ,  victed  of  the  Sabellian  or  Samosatenian  her- 

but  that  the  divinity  remained  divine,  and  esy,  and  elected  Basil  in  his  place.     After 

the  flesh  remained  flesh.     See  Dr.   Walch,  the  death  of  Constantius,  he  recovered  his 

Historie  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iii.,  p.  193,  &c.  see  ;  but  lost  it  again  almost  immediately, 


—  SM.] 


as  the  Eusebians  again  got  the  ascendancy. 


(54)  See  Ja.   Basnage,  Historia  haere-     He  now  fled  to  Rome,  and  exhibited  a  con- 
sis  Apollinaris ;  which  is  republished  with     fession  of  his  faith  to  the  bishop  Julius,  by 


learned  additions,  by  Jo.  Voigt,  Biblioth. 
Haeresiologica,  torn,  i.,  fascic.  i.,  p.  1-96. 
See  also  ibid.,  torn,  i.,  fascic.  iii.,  p.  607. 
The  laws  against  the  Apollinarians,  are  ex- 


whom, with  the  other  bishops  of  the  Atha- 
nasian  party  assembled  at  Rome,  he  was 
recognised  as  orthodox,  and  as  a  sufferer  for 
the  truth.  On  the  other  hand,  the  eastern 


tant  in   the   Codex  Theodos.,  torn.  vi. ,  p.     bishops  persevered  in  their  criminations  of 

him.  In  the  year  347,  the  western  bishops 
at  the  council  of  Sardica,  again  pronounced 
him  innocent.  But  when  Phottnus,  a  pupil 


144,  &c.  See  likewise  (Chanfepic),  Nou- 
veau  Dictionnaire  hist,  et  crit.,  torn,  i.,  p. 
304,  &c.  ["  See  an  account  of  Apollinaris, 

and  his  heresy,  in  the  English  edition  of  of  Marcellus,  commenced  his  disturbance, 
Bayle's  Dictionary,  at  the  article  Apollina-  Athanasius  now  first  threw  out  some  suspi- 
re."— Mad.  Concerning  this  sect,  Dr.  cions,  that  his  doctrine  was  not  pure  ;  but 
Walch  has  treated  most  solidly,  and  with  he  soon  dropped  them.  Basil  the  Great, 
the  application  of  impartial  criticism,  in  his  however,  was  more  decided  in  his  opposition 
Historie  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iii.,  p.  119-  to  Marcellus,  and  held  him  to  be  actually  a 


229.—  Schl.] 

(55)  [This  Marcellus  was  a  person  of 


heretic.     Yet  he  afterwards  acknowledged 
himself  in  the  wron.     Maraellus  and  his 


weight  in  the  Nicene  council ;  and  he  there  friends  took  pains  to  procure  testimony, 
opposed  the  Arians  with  a  zeal  and  energy  from  influential  men  and  from  whole  church- 
wriich  procured  him  praise  from  his  own  es,  to  their  orthodoxy ;  and  they  were  not 
party,  and  hatred  and  obloquy  from  the  oppo-  unsuccessful.  Marcellus  was  in  reality  not 
site  side.  (See  Epiphamus,  Haeres.  Ixxii.,  without  considerable  learning  ;  buthisjudg- 
c.  2.  Athanasius,  Apolog.  contra  Arian.,  ment  was  weak,  and  he  had  the  habit  of  talk- 
torn,  i.,  pt.  ii ,  p.  143,  150,  and  Constan-  ing  at  random,  and  was  at  the  same  time 
tine,  Epistt.  Pontiff.,  p.  379,  383.)  Asteri-  very  bitter  against  his  antagonists.  It  is 
us,  a  defender  of  the  Arian  doctrine,  at-  therefore,  not  only  possible,  but  also  very 
tacked  him  in  writing,  and  accused  him  of  probable,  that  he  often  let  drop  faulty  ex- 
Sabellianism.  Marcellus  in  reply  wrote  a  pressions,  which  in  the  view  of  his  enemies 
book  to  defend  the  true  doctrine  respecting  contained  dangerous  errors.  See  Walch, 
the  subordination  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  Fa-  Historie  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iii.,  p.  232, 
ther.  He  likewise  discarded  all  the  posi-  &c. — Schi] 


304 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


fence  by  the  severity  of  his  attacks  upon  the  Arians  and  upon  the  bishops 
who  favoured  them.  But  admitting  that  his  accusers  were  influenced  in 
some  respects  by  their  hatred  of  the  man,  yet  it  is  certain,  that  their  ac- 
cusations were  not  altogether  groundless.  For  it  appears  from  a  careful 
examination  of  the  whole  subject,  that  Marcellus  considered  the  Son  and 
the  Holy  Spirit  as  two  emanations  from  the  divine  nature,  which,  after  per- 
forming their  respective  offices,  were  to  return  back  into  the  substance  of 
the  Father  :  and  whoever  believed  so,  could  not,  without  self-contradiction, 
hold  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit  to  differ  from  each  other  in  the  man- 
ner of  distinct  persons.  (56)  Marcellus  increased  the  odium  and  suspicions 
against  him,  by  refusing,  in  the  last  years  of  his  life,  to  comdemn  Photinus 
his  disciple. (57) 

§  19.  At  the  head  of  those  whom  the  contests  with  Arius  led  into  still 
greater  errors,  may  undoubtedly  be  placed  Photinus,  bishop  of  Sirmium,(58) 
who  in  the  year  343,  advanced  opinions  concerning  God,  equally  remote 
from  those  of  the  orthodox  and  those  of  the  Arians.  On  well  considering 
what  the  ancients  have  stated  without  much  perspicuity  or  uniformity,  it 
appears,  that  he  supposed  Jesus  Christ  was  born  of  the  virgin  Mary,  by 
the  Holy  Spirit ;  that  with  this  extraordinary  man,  a  certain  divine  emana- 
tion which  he  called  the  Word  became  united ;  that,  on  account  of  this 
union  of  the  Word  with  the  man  Jesus,  he  was  called  the  Son  of  God,  and 
also  God,  and  that  the  Holy  Spirit  was  a  virtue  or  energy  proceeding  from 
God,  and  not  a  person.(59)  The  temerity  of  the  man  was  chastised  not 


(56)  [It  is  nevertheless  uncertain,  wheth- 
er Marcellus  really  denied  the  personal  dis- 
tinctions in  the  Trinity.     The  accusations 
of  his  opposers  are  not  credible  evidence  in 
this  case.     Marcellus  and  his  friends  con- 
stantly denied    that  they  were   Sabellians. 
He  denied    indeed,  that  there  were   three 
turofacreif,  affirming  that  there  was  but  one 
inrofaoic,.     But  this  word  had  then  so  inde- 
terminate  a  meaning,  that  nothing  certain 
can  be  inferred  from   it.      For  it  denoted, 
sometimes  what  we  should  call  substance, 
and  at  other  times  was  equivalent  to  person. 
Dr.   Walch  (ubi    supra,  p.   290)   thinks  it 
probable,  as  Marcellus   always  strenuously 
contended,  and  with  justice,  that  the  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Spirit  are   udiaipeTus  and 
u^wpi'f"?  (inseparably)  united,  he  must  have 
regarded  the  word  VTtofdaic,  as  equivalent 
to  the  phrase,  imofuaif  fiisftiaa,  a  different 
substance.     Yet  clearly  he  often  used  un- 
suitable  descriptions   and  comparisons,  re- 
specting the  eternal  generation  of  the  Son, 
and  the  procession  of  the  Holy  Spirit  from 
the  Father  and  the  Son  ;  and  such  as  seem 
to  show,  that  he  understood  by  these  persons 
only  certain  attributes  and  acts  of  God.     But 
perhaps  these  were  only  unfortunate  expres- 
sions, or  errors  of  the  moment,  from  which 
he  would  give  back  when  the  heat  of  contest 
subsided. — Schl.] 

(57)  See  Bernh.  de  Montfaucon,  Diatribe 
de  caussa  Marcelli ;  in  the  Nova  Collectio 


Patrum  Grsscor.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  li.,  &c.  [re- 
published,  with  some  notes,  by  Voigt,  Bib- 
lioth.  Haeresiologica,  vol.  i.,  fascic.  ii.,  p. 
297.— SM.],  and  Ja.  Gcrvaise,  Vie  de  S. 
Epiphane,  p.  42,  &c.  [Add  also,  Walch, 
Hist,  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iii.,  p.  229-299, 
and  Chr.  Hen.  VogeVs  Disputation  at  Got- 
tingen,  1757,  de  Marcello  Ancyrae  Episco- 
po. — Schl.~\ 

(58)  [Yet  Photinus  was  not  a  native  of 
Sirmium,  as  some  have  supposed,  being  mis- 
led by  a  faulty  Latin  version  of  a  passage 
in  Epiphanius,  de  Hseres.  Ixxi.,  <J  1.     fie 
was  rather  a  Galatian,  (Jerome,  de  Viris  II- 
lustr.,  c.  107,  and  Socrates,  H.  E.,  ii.,  c.  18), 
and  most  probably  of  Ancyra.     He  was  an 
author ;  but  his  writings  are  lost.     And  he 
was  eloquent,  and  had  an  excellent  faculty 
of  securing  the  affections  and  making  prose- 
lytes among  his  hearers.     See  Dr.   Walch, 
Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iii.,  p.  9,  &c. 
—  Schl.] 

(59)  [To  give  a  more  distinct  view  of  the 
opinions   of  Photinus,   we  will   here   state 
them,  as  they  are  arranged  by  Dr.  Walch, 
loc.  cit.,  p.  34.     Photinus  had  (I.)  errone- 
ous views  of  the  Trinity.     On  this  subject, 
he  taught  thus :  The  Holy  Scriptures  speak 
indeed  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Spirit ;  but  we  are  to  understand  by  them, 
only  one  person,  who  in  Scripture  is  called 
the  Father.     What  the  Scriptures  call  the 
Word,  of  God,  is  by  no  means  a  substance 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


303 


only  by  the  orthodox,  in  their  councils  of  Antioch  A.D.  345,  of  Milan 
A.D.  347,  and  of  Sirmium,(60)  but  also  by  the  Arians,  in  a  council  held  at 
Sirmium  A.D.  351.  He  was  deprived  of  his  office,  and  died  in  exile  in  the 

372.(61) 

§  20.  After  him,  Macedonius  bishop  of  Constantinople,  a  distinguished 
Semiarian  teacher,  being  deprived  of  his  office  through  the  influence  of 
the  Eunomians,  by  the  council  of  Constantinople  in  the  year  360,(62)  in 


or  a  person.  Still  less  is  it  a  person  begot- 
ten by  the  Father,  and  therefore  called  the 
Son.  For  with  God  there  can  be  no  gener- 
ation ;  and  of  course  he  can  have  no  Son. 
Neither  is  the  Word  the  person  who  made 
the  world ;  but  the  Word  is  properly  the 
understanding  of  God  ;  which  comprehends 
the  designs  of  God,  in  all  his  external  opera- 
tions, and  is  therefore  called  God.  The 
Holy  Spirit  also  is  not  a  person,  but  an  at- 
tribute of  God.  Hence  followed  (II.)  erro- 
neous ideas  of  the  person  of  Christ.  He 
maintained,  that  Jesus  Christ  was  a  mere 
man ;  that  before  his  birth,  he  had  no  exist- 
ence, except  in  the  divine  foreknowledge ; 
and  that  he  began  to  be,  when  he  was  born 
of  Mary  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  Yet  he  receiv- 
ed the  special  influences  of  divine  power, 
whereby  he  wrought  miracles.  This  is  the 
indwelling  of  the  Word.  On  account  of 
these  excellent  gifts,  and  his  perfect  virtue, 
God  took  this  man  into  the  place  of  a  son ; 
and  therefore  he  is  called  the  Son  of  God, 
and  also  God.  Therefore  it  must  be  said, 
that  the  Son  of  God  had  a  beginning. — 
Schl.] 

(60)  [Concerning  the  time  and  succession 
of  these  councils,  there  has  been  much  de- 
bate between  Pctavius,  Sirmond,  La  Roque, 
and  others ;  of  which  an  account  is  given 
by  Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  hi., 
p.  5,  &c.     We  will  only  add,  in  correction 
of  Dr.  Moshcim's  statements,  1st,  that  the 
earliest  of  these  councils  was  held  in  the 
year  343  ;  as  appears  from  three  documents 
first  brought  to  light  by  Maffci ;  and  Zdly, 
that  it  was   held  by   the  Semiarians.     So 
that  the  first  orthodox  council  against  Photi- 
nus,  was  that  of  Milan.     In  that  of  Sirmi- 
um the  eastern  bishops  were  assembled  ; 
and  they  pronounced  Pfiotinus   a   heretic. 
Photinus,  when  adjudged  to  be  deprived  of 
his  office  and  sent  into  exile,  made  applica- 
tion to  the  emperor,  and  obtained  leave  pub- 
licly to  defend  his  doctrine.      Basil,  bishop 
of  Ancyra,  was  appointed  to  dispute  with 
him,  and    a  formal   discussion  took    place. 
Both  parties  became  angry.     But  the  vic- 
tory was  adjudged  to  Basil ;  and  the  former 
decision  was  affirmed.     See  Walch,  loc.  cit., 
p.  51,  &c.—  Schl.] 

(61)  Matth.  dc  la  Roque,  de  Photino  ejus- 
que  multiplici  damnatione,  Geneva,  1670, 

VOL.  I.— QQ 


8vo.  Tko.  Ittig,  Historia  Photini ;  in  his 
Hcptas  Dissertationum.  subjoined  to  his 
Diss.  de  Haeresiarchis  aevi  Apostolici.  [We 
may  add,  Petaxius,  Diss.  de  Photino  haeret- 
ico,  ejusque  damnatione ;  in  his  Rationari- 
um  Temporum,  3d  edit.,  and  among  the 
Opuscula  of  Peter  de  Marca,  [vol.  v.,  p. 
183,  &c.,  ed.  Bamberg,  1789 ;  where  it  is 
accompanied  with  the  two  Diatribae  of  Sir- 
mond,  respecting  the  councils  of  Sirmium] ; 
and  Dr.  Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen, 
vol.  iii.,  p.  1-70.— SchL] 

(62)  [There  were  several  persons  of  the 
name  of  Macedonius,  who  should  not  be 
confounded  with  this  man.  The  most  noted 
of  them  were,  Macedonius  of  Mopsueste,  a 
contemporary  with  our  Macedonius,  and  also 
involved  in  the  Arian  contests  :  (Socrates, 
Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  ii.,  c.  19) :  and  Macedonius, 
likewise  bishop  of  Constantinople  in  the 
reign  of  the  emperor  Anastasius,  [A.D.  491- 
518],  by  whom  he  was  banished  for  his  zeal 
against  the  Eutycheans.  The  election  of 
our  Mactdonius  was  attended  with  disorders 
which  merit  notice.  This  metropolis  had 
had  one  Paul  for  its  bishop,  who  was  de- 
posed by  the  emperor  Constantius,  and  Eu- 
sebius  of  Nicomedia  was  chosen  in  his  place. 
After  the  death  of  Eusebius,  the  orthodox 
replaced  Paul  in  his  office  ;  but  the  Euse- 
bian  bishops  appointed  Macedonius.  The 
emperor  Constantius  was  displeased  with 
the  movement  of  the  orthodox,  and  ordered 
his  general  Herm.oge.nes  to  drive  Paul  from 
the  city.  And  as  his  adherents  made  op- 
position, and  the  general  had  to  use  force, 
there  was  a  general  insurrection,  which  cost 
both  sides  much  blood.  The  orthodox  pop- 
ulace set  fire  to  the  general's  house,  and 
dragged  him  about  the  streets,  with  a  rope 
around  his  neck,  and  finally  killed  him.  The 
emperor  now  came  himself  to  Constantino- 
ple, drove  Paul  from  the  city,  and  punished 
the  people.  And  he  also  refused  to  estab- 
lish Macedonius  in  the  office,  because  he 
had  given  occasion  to  the  bloodshed  :  but  he 
allowed  him  to  remain  in  the  city,  and  to 
hold  worship  in  one  of  the  churches  which 
was  assigned  him.  (Socrates,  H.  E.,  ii.,  c. 
13,  and  Sozomen,  H.  E.,  iii.,  c.  8.)  Paul 
returned  again  to  Constantinople,  and  was 
again  chased  away  by  the  soldiery  ;  and  on 
the  other  hand,  Macedonius  was  in  the  year 


306 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


his  exile  founded  the  seel  of  the  Pneumatomachi.  For  he  now  openly  pro. 
fessed,  what  he  had  before  concealed,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  a  divine  ener- 
gy diffused  throughout  the  universe,  and  not  a  person  distinct  from  the 
Father  and  the  Son. (63)  This  doctrine  was  embraced  by  many  in  the 
Asiatic  provinces.  But  the  council  of  Constantinople,  assembled  by  The- 
odosius  the  Great  in  the  year  381,  and  which  is  commonly  considered  as 
the  second  oecumenical  council,  early  dissipated  by  its  authority  this  young 
and  immature  sect.  One  hundred  and  fifty  bishops  present  in  this  coun- 
cil, defined  fully  and  perfectly  the  doctrine  of  three  persons  in  one  God,  as 
it  is  still  professed  by  the  great  body  of  Christians,  which  the  Nicene  coun- 
cil had  only  in  part  performed.  They  also  anathematized  all  the  heresies 
then  known  ;  assigned  to  the  bishop  of  Constantinople,  on  account  of  the 
grandeur  of  the  city  over  which  he  presided,  a  rank  next  after  the  bishop 


342  reinstated  by  an  imperial  general ;  which 
occasioned  another  massacre,  in  which  more 
than  3000  persons  lost  their  lives.  But  as 
Constantius  was  compelled  by  his  brother 
Constans,  to  reinstate  the  orthodox  bishops, 
Paul  shared  in  this  good  fortune,  and  Ma.ce,- 
donius  with  his  adherents  had  to  content 
themselves  with  a  single  church  to  worship 
in.  After  the  death  of  Constans,  Paul  was 
again  displaced,  and  Macedonius  once  more 
seated  in  the  episcopal  chair.  Here,  confi- 
ding in  the  protection  of  the  emperor,  he 
stirred  up  a  general  persecution  against  the 
adherents  to  the  Nicene  creed,  which  ex- 
tended to  the  provinces  adjacent  to  Constan- 
tinople. (Socrates,  H.  E.,  ii.,  c.  26,  27,  38, 
and  Sozomen,  H.  E.,  iv.,  c.  20,  26.)  In 
the  year  356,  that  church  at  Constantinople 
in  which  was  placed  the  coffin  of  Constan- 
tine  the  Great,  seemed  ready  to  fall  down  ; 
and  Macedonius  therefore  would"  remove  the 
coffin.  Some,  among  whom  were  the  or- 
thodox, maintained  that  this  removal  was 
improper  and  irregular ;  being  influenced 
partly  by  respect  for  the  deceased  emperor, 
and  partly  by  hatred  against  Macedonius. 
But  as  Macedonius  notwithstanding  pro- 
ceeded to  the  removal,  and  had  brought  the 
coffin  into  another  church,  the  two  parties 
came  to  blows  in  the  latter  church,  and  such 
a  slaughter  was  there  made,  that  the  porch 
was  filled  with  dead  bodies.  This  unfortu- 
nate step  drew  upon  Macedonius  the  em- 
peror's displeasure.  (Socrates,  H.  E.,  ii., 
c.  38.  Sozomen,  H.  E.,  iv.,c.  21.)  About 
this  time,  the  disagreement  among  the  op- 
posers  of  the  Nicene  faith,  came  to  an  open 
rupture  ;  and  Basil  of  Ancyra,  the  leader  of 
the  Semiarians,  drew  Macedonius  over  to 
his  party.  (Philostorgitts,  Hist.  Eccles., 
iv.,  c.  9.)  From  this  time  onward,  Mace- 
donius held  a  high  rank  among  the  Semiari- 
ans, and  supported  their  cause  in  the  coun- 
cil of  Seleucia.  But  he  thus  drew  on  him- 


self such  hatred  from  the  whole  Arian  party, 
that  they,  in  the  year  360,  with  Acacius  and 
Eudoxius  at  their  head,  deprived  him  of  his 
office  at  Constantinople.  Macedonius  was 
very  restless  under  this,  and  laboured  to  es- 
tablish the  Semiarians  by  defending  their 
opinions  ;  and  this  gave  occasion  for  the 
Semiarians  to  be  sometimes  called  Mace- 
donians. He  died  soon  afterwards.  •  See 
Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iii.,p. 
74,  &c.— Schl.1 

(63)  Socrates,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  iv.,  c.  4. 
[For  a  more  full  exhibition  of  the  Macedo- 
nian doctrines,  we  will  subjoin  the  statement 
of  Dr.  Walch,  loc.  cit.,  p.  96.  As  to  their 
doctrine  concerning  the  Son  of  God,  some 
Macedonians  agreed  with  the  adherents  to 
the  Nicene  fathers  ;  but  others,  and  among 
them  Macedonius  himself,  coincided  with 
the  mildest  form  of  the  Semiarian  creed. 
In  regard  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  they  departed 
wholly  from  the  opinions  of  the  orthodox. 
Some  indeed  did  not  declare  themselves,  in 
regard  to  the  divinity  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
They  did  not  expressly  deny  that  he  was 
God  ;  and  yet  they  hesitated  to  affirm  it. 
And  this  was  no  unusual  thing.  Even  Ba- 
sil the  Great,  would  not  recommend  to  have 
the  name  of  God  used  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
public,  nor  condemn  those  who  refused  thus 
to  use  it.  Nor  would  Gregory  disapprove 
this.  See  Petavius,  Dogma.  Theolog.,  lib. 
i.,  de  Trinitate,  c.  10,  torn,  ii.,  p.  45,  64, 
and  Semlcr,  Einleitung  zum  3ten  Theil  der 
Baumgarteri's  Polemik,  p.  173,  183.  Others 
who  did  declare  themselves,  affirmed  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  was  not  a  person  in  the 
Godhead  ;  that  he  was  not,  what  the  Father 
and  the  Son  are  ;  and  therefore  no  divine 
honours  were  due  to  him.  Some  held  the 
Holy  Spirit  to  be  a  creature  ;  and  therefore 
did  not  deny  his  personality.  Others  denied 
his  personality,  and  regarded  him  as  a  mere 
attribute  of  God. — SchL] 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


307 


of  Rome  ;  and  made  such  other  regulations  as  the  general  interests  of  the 
church  seemed  to  require. (64) 

§  21.  The  phrensy  of  the  ancient  Gnostics,  which  had  been  so  often 
confuted,  revived  again  in  Spain.  In  the  beginning  of  this  century,  one 
Murk,  a  native  of  Memphis,  introduced  it  from  Egypt,  and  communicated 
it  first  to  a  few  individuals.  It  had  proceeded  considerable  lengths,  and 
had  infected  some  persons  in  reputation  for  their  learning  and  piety,  when 
Priscillian,  a  man  of  birth,  fortune,  and  eloquence,  and  afterwards  bishop 
of  Avila,  imbibed  it.  Being  accused  by  some  bishops  before  the  emperor 
Gratian,  Priscillian  and  his  followers  were  banished  from  Spain  :  but  he 
returned  soon  after.  Accused  again  in  the  year  384,  before  Maxanus, 
(the  usurper  in  Gaul,  after  the  assassination  of  Gralian),  he  was  condemned, 
with  several  of  his  associates,  and  executed  at  Treves  in  the  year  385. 
The  instigators  of  this  capital  execution  for  heresy  were,  however,  re- 
garded with  abhorrence  by  the  bishops  of  Gaul  and  Italy :  for  it  was  not 
yet  considered  among  Christians  as  a  pious  and  righteous  act,  to  deliver 
heretics  over  to  the  civil  power  to  be  punished. (65)  Priscillian  being 


(64)  Socrates,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  v.,  c.  8. 
Sozomen,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  vii.,  c.  7.  [The 
Macedonians  led  an  externally  good  and 
strict  life  ;  and  by  promoting  monkery,  they 
obtained  such  reputation  for  piety,  agreeably 
to  the  taste  of  that  age,  as  contributed  much 
to  their  popularity  in  Constantinople  and  its 
vicinity.  After  their  separation  from  the 
Arians,  and  after  their  attempt  to  unite  them- 
selves with  the  orthodox  had  failed,  they 
spread  themselves  considerably,  especially  in 
Thrace,  along  the  Hellespont,  and  in  Phry- 
gia.  In  the  western  provinces  they  were 
not  found.  At  Constantinople,  they  had 
their  own  churches  and  bishops.  Among  the 
attempts  to  reclaim  the  Macedonians  from 
their  errors,  the  most  noticeable  was  that  of 
the  second  general  council  at  Constantinople. 
The  emperor  Thcudoxius  hoped  they  might 
be  won  over  more  readily  than  the  Arians, 
because  they  differed  less  from  the  orthodox. 
He  therefore  called  Macedonian  bishops  to 
the  council.  There  were  36  of  them  pres- 
ent ;  and  much  pains  was  taken  to  persuade 
them  to  embrace  the  Nicene  decisions.  .But 
all  efforts  were  vain  ;  they  declared  that  they 
would  sooner  embrace  the  Arian  than  the 
Nicene  faith.  And  hence  their  doctrine  was 
opposed  in  this  synod,  by  an  addition  made 
to  the  Nicene  creed,  and  by  expressed  forms 
of  condemnation.  With  these  ecclesiastical 
weapons  against  the  Macedonians,  worldly 
ones  were  combined.  In  the  statutes  of  the 
elder  Theodosms,  (Codex  Thcodos.  de  Hae- 
reticis,  leg.  11,  12,  13),  they  are  mentioned 
by  name  ;  and  in  those  of  the  younger  The- 
adiisiitx,  which  are  inserted  in  the  Codex 
Theodosianus,  (leg.  59,  60,  65),  it  will  be 
seen,  that  they  still  existed,  but  could  hold 
worship  only  in  the  principal  cities.  These 
civil  regulations  gave  the  ill-disposed  bish- 


ops too  much  liberty  to  manifest  their  per- 
secuting spirit  towards  the  Macedonians,  and 
enabled  them  wholly  to  exterminate  them, 
it  would  seem,  under  these  emperors.  See 
Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iii.,  p. 
70-1 18  ;  and,  respecting  the  council  of  Con- 
stantinople, his  Historic  der  Kirchenver- 
sammlungen,  p.  224,  &c.  The  decrees  of 
this  council  are  given  in  Bfveridge's  Pan- 
decta  Canonum,  torn,  i.,  p.  85. — Sclil.  The 
first  decree  respects  the  creed,  and  anathe- 
mas ;  the  second,  confines  bishops  to  their 
provinces ;  the  third,  gives  the  bishop  of 
Constantinople  the  rank  of  second  patriarch. 
The  four  remaining  decrees  are  of  less  im- 
portance.— TV.] 

(65)  See  Sulpitius  Severus,  Hist.  Sacra, 
1.  ii.,  c.  46,  51,  and  Dialog,  iii.  de  Vita  Mar- 
tini, c.  15.  [Priscillian  had  ability  to  pre- 
sent his  doctrine  with  so  much  dexterity  and 
eloquence,  that  he  gained  many  friends  both 
among  the  high  and  the  low  ;  and  his  senti- 
ments were  soon  spread  through  all  Spain. 
Among  his  adherents  there  were  some  bish- 
ops, particularly  Insiantius  and  Salcianus, 
and  many  ladies  of  respectability.  Hyginus 
bishop  of  Corduba,  who  afterwards  went 
over  to  the  Pmcillianists,  was  the  first  to 
oppose  his  doctrine ;  and  for  this  purpose 
made  a  representation  of  it  to  Idacius  the 
bishop  of  Merida,  who  by  his  rash  violence 
against  bishop  Instantius.  blew  the  fire  of  the 
Pnscillianist  war  into  a  great  flame.  After 
many  and  long  contests,  a  council  was  held 
at  Sara^ossa  in  380,  at  which  the  Priscillian- 
ist  doctrine  was  condemned,  and  the  bishops 
In.itiintius  and  Salt-ui>ius,  with  the  i 
Elpiiiius  and  I'risnllinn,  were  excommuni- 
cated. This  measure  rendered  the  sect 
more  resolute  and  determined  ;  and  Prtt- 
ciilian,  that  he  might  be  more  safe,  was 


303 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


slain,  his  opinions  were  not  at  once  suppressed,  but  spread  far  and  wide  in 
Spain  and  Gaul :  and  even  in  the  sixth  century,  the  Priscillianists  caused 
much  trouble  to  the  bishops  of  those  provinces. 

§  22.  No  one  of  the  ancients  has  accurately  described  the  doctrines  of 
the  Priscillianists  ;  on  the  contrary,  some  of  them  have  perplexed  and  ob- 
scured the  subject.  It  appears  however  from  authentic  records,  that  the 
Priscillianists  came  very  near  in  their  views  to  the  Manichaeans.  For 
they  denied  the  reality  of  Christ's  birth  and  incarnation  ;  maintained  that 
the  visible  universe  was  not  the  production  of  God,  but  of  some  demon  or 
evil  principle  ;  preached  the  existence  of  Aeons  or  emanations  from  God ; 
declared  human  bodies  to  be  prisons  for  celestial  minds,  fabricated  by  the 
author  of  evil ;  condemned  marriages ;  denied  the  resurrection  of  the 
body,  &c.  Their  rules  of  life  were  very  severe  :  for  what  many  state  con- 
cerning their  flagitious  and  libidinous  practices,  rests  on  no  credible  testi- 
mony. That  the  Priscillianists  used  dissimulation,  and  eluded  their  ene- 
mies by  deceiving  them,  is  true  ;  but  that  they  regarded  all  kinds  of  lying 
and  perjury  as  lawful,  as  is  commonly  reported  of  them,  has  not  even  the 
appearance  of  truth. (66) 


raised  by  the  party  from  a  layman  to  a  bishop 
of  Avila. — The  civil  power  was  put  in  mo- 
tion against  the  sect  ;  and  Idacius  obtained 
from  the  emperor  Gratian  a  decree,  by 
which  this  sect,  as  well  as  others,  was  ban- 
ished the  country.  This  decree  dispersed 
them  for  a  time.  The  leaders  of  the  party 
took  their  course  towards  Rome  ;  and  while 
passing  through  France,  they  seduced  many, 
especially  in  Aquitain  Gaul.  Although  they 
got  no  hearing  at  Rome,  yet  they  found 
means  to  obtain  a  rescript  from  Gratian,  by 
which  the  former  decree  was  repealed,  and 
these  bishops  were  restored  again  to  their 
offices.  When  Maximus  had  seized  the 
government,  he  issued,  at  the  instigation  of 
Idacius,  a  command  to  the  Priscillianist 
teachers,  to  appear  before  the  ecclesiastical 
council  of  Bourdeaux.  Here  Instantius,  who 
readily  and  frankly  answered  the  interroga- 
tories of  the  council,  was  deposed :  but 
Priscillian  appealed  to  the  emperor.  Bish- 
op Martin  of  Tours,  saw  with  concern  a 
civil  judge  about  to  pass  sentence  in  an  ec- 
clesiastical affair,  and  made  representations 
on  the  subject  to  the  emperor,  who  assured 
him  that  no  blood  should  be  shed.  Yet  the 
emperor  was  finally  persuaded  by  some  bish- 
ops, to  commit  the  investigation  of  the  sub- 
ject to  his  minister  of  state  Evodius,  a  stern 
judge.  He  in  the  year  385,  at  Treves,  put 
Priscillian  to  the  rack,  and  extorted  from 
him  a  confession  that  he  had  uttered  impure 
principles,  and  held  nscturnal  meetings  with 
base  females,  and  prayed  naked  ;  and  after 
the  facts  had  been  reported  to  the  emperor, 
Priscillian  and  some  of  his  adherents  were 
put  to  death,  and  others  were  punished  with 
banishment.  This  is  the  first  instance  of  a 


criminal  prosecution  for  heresy.  The  Pris- 
cillianists regarded  these  executions  as  a 
martyrdom  ;  while  their  opposers  sought  in 
this  bloody  way  to  exterminate  them ;  and 
the  emperor  had  it  in  contemplation  to  send 
military  officers  into  Spain,  with  full  power 
to  search  out  the  heretics,  and  deprive  them 
of  life  and  property.  But  here  again  bishop 
Martin  showed  himself  in  an  amiable  light. 
He  repaired  to  Treves,  and  there  made  such 
representations  as  prevented  the  execution 
of  the  emperor's  designs.  Yet  the  people 
shed  the  blood  of  heretics  in  many  places ; 
and  some  bishops  had  such  unchristian  views 
as  to  approve  of  it.  Yet  others,  on  the  con- 
trary, disapproved  of  it,  and  had  great  dis- 
sension with  the  former  in  regard  to  it.  The 
Priscillianists,  however,  still  continued  to  be 
numerous  in  Spain,  especially  in  Gallicia ; 
and  in  the  fifth  century,  when  the  irruption 
of  the  barbarians  into  Spain  threw  the  ec- 
clesiastical affairs  into  great  disorder,  it  af- 
forded this  sect  opportunity  again  to  spread 
itself  very  much.  And  in  the  sixth  century, 
Aguirre  has  inserted  in  the  Concil.  Hispan., 
torn,  ii.,  p.  269,  &c.,  a  letter  of  Montanus 
bishop  of  Toledo  in  the  year  527,  from  which 
it  appears,  that  many  persons  of  this  sect 
then  lived  in  Valencia ;  and  in  the  year  561, 
a  council  was  held  against  them  at  Braga. 
From  this  time  onward,  no  more  is  heard 
of  them ;  and  they  must  either  have  gradu- 
ally wasted  away,  or  have  sunk  at  once  on 
the  irruption  of  the  Saracens.  See  Dr. 
Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iii.,  p. 
387-430.— ScA/.] 

(66)  See  Simon  de  Vries,  Diss.  critics  de 
Priscillianistis,  Trajecti,  1745,  4to,  in  which 
the  principal  fault  is,  that  he  follows  too 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


309 


§  23.  To  these  larger  sects,  certain  minor  ones  may  be  added.  One 
Audaeus,  an  honest  man,  and  ejected  from  the  church  in  Syria  for  too 
freely  reproving  the  corrupt  lives  of  the  clergy,  collected  a  congregation 
and  became  its  bishop.  Being  banished  by  the  emperor  into  Scythia,  he 
went  among  the  Goths  and  there  propagated  his  sect  with-  good  success. 
As  to  the  time  when  this  sect  arose,  the  ancients  are  not  agreed.  In 
some  of  their  practices  they  deviated  from  other  Christians,  among  which, 
this  is  especially  noticed  by  the  ancients,  that  contrary  to  the  decree  of 
the  Nicene  council,  they  celebrated  the  feast  of  Easter  on  the  same  day 
with  the  Jewish  Passover.  It  is  also  said,  that  they  attributed  to  the 
Deity  a  human  form ;  and  held  some  other  opinions  which  were  erro- 
neous.(67) 

the  stars.  They  denied  the  personal  dis- 
tinction of  the  three  persons  in  the  Godhead. 
It  is  very  probable,  that  they  controverted 
the  human  nature  of  Christ ;  and  it  is  still 
more  probable,  that  they  denied  him  a  real 
body,  than  that  they  denied  him  a  human 
soul.  From  these  principles  it  would  follow, 
that  they  did  not  believe  in  a  resurrection  of 
the  body.  The  same  principles  led  them  to 
disapprove  of  marriage,  and  of  the  procrea- 
tion of  children ;  and  to  forbid  the  eating  of 
flesh.  Their  moral  principles  were  in  gen- 
eral, strict,  and  tended  to  produce  an  ascetic 
life.  And  on  this  account,  the  accusation 
of  shameless  debauchery,  brought  against 
them  by  their  adversaries,  is  very  improba- 
ble. Whether  they  all  held  prevarication, 
lying,  and  perjury,  to  be  allowable,  even  in 
cases  where  one's  religion  is  to  be  avowed, 
is  uncertain.  Yet  it  is  very  certain  that 
some  of  them  held  this  dangerous  principle  ; 
as  for  instance,  Dictinnius,  from  whose  book 
Augustine  quotes  the  arguments  used  to  jus- 
tify lying,  which  he  also  confutes  in  his  book 
de  Mendacio  ad  Consent.  Yet  that  Pris- 
cillian  and  his  first  set  of  followers  did  not 
think  so,  appears  from  their  suffering  mar- 
tyrdom.— Schl.~\ 

(67)  Epiphanius,  Hacres.  Ixx.,  p.  811. 
Augtuttne,  de  Haeres.,  cap  1.  Thcodorct, 
Fabul.  Haeret.,  lib.  iv.,  c.  9,  [H.  E.,  iv.,  10]. 
Jo.  Joach.  Schroder,  Diss.  de  Audaeanis ; 
which  is  in  Joh.  Voigfs  Biblioth.  Hist.  Hae- 
resial.,  torn,  i.,  part  iii.,  p.  578,  [and  Dr. 
Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iii., 
p.  300-321.— The  founder  of  this  sect,  is 
called  both  Audius  and  Audaeus ;  and  his 
followers  are  likewise  called  both  Audiani 
and  Audacani ;  and  not  unfrcquently  An- 
thropomorphifcs,  because  they  were  taxed 
with  attributing  to  God  a  human  form. 
Audar.us  was  of  Mesopotamia,  and  stood  in 
high  estimation  among  the  Syrians,  on  ac- 
count of  his  holy  life,  and  his  great  zeal  for 
the  honour  of  God.  The  last  was  so  great 
that  he  publicly  punished  his  own  brother  ; 
and  he  would  not  flatter  the  avaricious  and 


closely  Beausobre's  History  of  the  M«ni- 
chees,  taking  every  thing  there  asserted  to 
be  true.  Fran.  Girvesii  Historia  Priscil- 
lianistarum  chronologica,  Romae,  1750,  8vo. 
In  Angeli  Calogerae  Opusculi  scientifici, 
torn,  xxvii.,  p.  61,  &c.,  occurs;  Bachiarrus 
illustratus,  seu  de  Priscilliana  haeresi  Diss., 
which  however  is  less  occupied  in  illustra- 
ting the  affairs  of  the  Priscillianists,  than 
[the  work  of]  Bachiarius,  [a  learned  Span- 
iard, who  composed  a  short  treatise  de  Fide, 
first  published  by  Muratori,  (Anecdota  Lat- 
inorum,  torn,  ii.),  and  which  some  consider 
as  a  polemic  tract  against  the  Priscillianists. 
To  these  must  be  added  Walch,  loc.  cit.,  p. 
378-481. — To  ascertain  the  real  doctrines 
of  the  Priscillianists,  is  very  difficult,  and 
perhaps  impossible.  The  quotation  from  an 
epistle  of  Priscillian,  which  Orosius  has 
preserved,  (in  his  Commonitorium,  inter 
Opp.  Augustim,  torn,  viii.,  p.  431),  is  so 
obscure,  that  it  would  be  very  natural  to 
suppose,  his  contemporaries  did  not  correctly 
understand  him.  Hence  we  cannot  rely  en- 
tirely on  the  testimony  of  the  ancients,  even 
if  they  appear  to  have  been  impartial  writers. 
Still  it  appears  unquestionable,  that  Priscil- 
lian embraced  Gno.tlic  and  Manichacan  er- 
rors ;  that  he  misconstrued  the  Scriptures, 
and  perverted  them  by  allegorical  interpre- 
tations ;  that  he  relied  on  apocryphal  books, 
as  of  divine  authority  ;  that  he  believed  in 
the  eternity  of  matter,  and  held  that  the  evil 
angels  were  not  creatures  of  God  ;  that  he 
also  believed  the  world  was  not  the  work  of 
God,  and  that  all  changes  in  the  material 
universe  originated  from  the  evil  spirits. 
Concerning  the  soul,  he  taught  that  it  is  a 
particle  of  the  divine  nature,  separated  from 
the  substance  of  God.  The  human  body,  as 
all  other  flesh,  according  to  the  Priscilliamstic 
doctrine,  came  from  the  devil.  And  even 
the  production  of  man,  by  the  union  of  a 
soul  with  a  body,  was  the  work  of  evil  spir- 
its. They  believed  in  an  unconditional  ne- 
cessity for  the  changes  a  man  undergoes, 
and  which  they  ascribed  to  the  influence  of 


310 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  IV.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


§  24.  To  this  century  also,  the  Greeks  and  Orientals  refer  the  origin 
of  the  sect  called  Messalians  and  Euchites ;  and  indeed  clear  traces  of 
them  first  appear  in  the  latter  part  of  this  century,  though  their  princi- 
ples were  much  more  ancient,  and  were  known  before  the  Christian  era,  in 
Syria,  Egypt,  and  other  countries  of  the  East.  These  persons,  who  lived 
secluded  from  intercourse  with  the  world  in  the  manner  of  monks,  derived 
their  name  from  their  praying.  For  they  believed,  that  an  evil  demon 
naturally  dwells  in  the  mind  of  every  man,  which  can  be  expelled  no  other- 
wise than  by  continual  praying  and  singing :  and  that  this  demon  being 
once  expelled,  the  soul  will  return  to  God  pure,  and  be  again  united  to  the 
divine  essence,  of  which  it  is  a  fraction.  To  this  leading  principle,  as 
may  readily  be  supposed,  they  added  many  other  strange  notions,  closely 
allied  to  the  sentiments  of  the  Minichaeans,  and  derived  from  the  same 
source  from  which  the  Manichaeans  derived  their  doctrines,  namely,  the 
Oriental  philosophy.  (68)  In  short,  the  Euchites  were  a  sort  of  mystics 


luxurious  bishops,  for  which  he  endured  per- 
secution, hatred,  and  reproach.  But  he  was 
undismayed,  and  bore  it  all  with  patience. 
Yet  when  at  last  the  hatred  of  his  enemies 
went  so  far  as  often  to  beat  him  and  his 
friends,  he  separated  himself  from  the  church, 
(though,  previously,  some  had  refused  him 
communion),  formed  a  party  and  got  himself 
ordained  its  bishop.  This  step  made  the 
separation  complete  ;  for  it  was  contrary  to 
all  ecclesiastical  law,  which  required  at  least 
three  bishops  to  solemnize  an  ordination,  and 
also  forbid  the  ordination  of  any  schismatical 
bishop.  The  orthodox  bishops  entered  a 
complaint  against  him  before  the  emperor, 
who  banished  him  at  an  advanced  age  into 
Scythia.  This  occasioned  his  going  among 
the  Goths,  and  converting  many  of  that  na- 
tion to  Christianity.  He  erected  monaster- 
ies among  them,  recommended  the  monas- 
tic life,  ordained  bishops ;  and  died  before 
the  general  persecution  by  Alhanarick.  Au- 
daeus  held  a  few  errors.  He  believed  that 
God  possessed,  not  a  perfect  human  body  but 
a  human  shape,  and  of  course  the  form  of  hu- 
man limbs  ;  and  that  the  fashion  of  the  human 
body  was  copied  from  the  divine  shape,  to 
which  the  Scriptural  term  image  of  God  is 
to  be  referred.  In  respect  to  worship  his 
followers  were  strict  separatists,  and  would 
not  worship  at  all  with  those  Christians  who 
were  of  an  irreligious  life,  or  who  held  church 
communion  with  the  irreligious.  Nay,  they 
discarded  the  name  of  Christians,  for  that 
of  Audaeans  ;  because  many  of  them  had 
abused  the  name  of  Christians,  jn  order  to 
secure  their  safety.  In  regard  to  the  feast 
of  Easter,  they  were  Quartodecimanians ; 
that  is,  they  kept  this  festival  at  the  time  the 
Jews  did ;  and  they  defended  the  practice,  by 
appealing  to  the  Apostolical  Constitutions. 
They  held  apocryphal  books,  and  had  their 
own  system  of  church  discipline.  In  gen- 


eral it  may  be  said,  they  were  rather  fanatics 
than  proper  heretics.  Their  errors  were 
proof  rather  of  a  weak  head  than  of  a  per- 
verse heart ;  and  their  defence  of  their  er- 
rors and  contempt  for  other  Christians  were 
the  effects  of  their  [religious  or]  fanatical 
pride. — Schl.] 

(68)  Epiphanius,  Haeres.  Ixxx.,  p.  1067. 
Theodoret,  Haeret.  Fabul.,  lib.  iv.,  c.  10, 
[and  H.  E.,  iv.,  11].  Trmothcus  Presbyter, 
de  Receptione  Haereticor.  in  Joh.  Bapt. 
Cotdier^s  Monumenta  Ecclcs.  Graecae,  torn, 
iii.,  p.  403,  &c.  Ja.  Tollius,  Insignia  Itin- 
eris  Italici,  p.  110,  &c.  Asseman,  Bibli- 
oth.  Oriental.  Vaticana,  torn,  i.,  p.  128,  torn, 
iii.,  part  ii.,  p.  172,  &c.,  and  others  :  [in 
particular,  Dr.  Walch,  Historic  der  Ket- 
zereyen,  vol.  iii.,  p.  481-536.  The  names 
Messalians  and  Euchites  signify  prayers  or 
praying  brethren.  The  first  is  Syriac  [or 
Aramaic,  from  the  root  iO2,  oravit,  whence 
the  participle  y?!?'?,  prccantes,  Ezra,  vi., 

10. —  TV.],  and  the  latter  is  Greek,  ['Ev%i~ 
rai  or  'Efj^TOt,  from  fvxq,  oratio.  See  Sui- 
cer,  Thesaur.  Eccles.,  torn,  i.,  p.  1285,  &c., 
and  Theodoret,  Hist.  Eccles.,  iv.,c.  ii. —  7V.] 
They  were  so  called,  because  they  believed 
the  essence  of  religion  to  consist  in  prayer ; 
that  is,  in  that  tranquil  state  of  mind,  in 
which  a  person  neither  thinks  nor  has  voli- 
tions. They  were  also  called  Enthusiasts, 
because  they  pretended  to  be  inspired  and  to 
hold  converse  with  the  Holy  Spirit ;  Cho- 
rcutae  (%op£VTui,  dancers),  from  the  motion 
of  their  bodies  which  they  commonly  used  ; 
the  spiritual  (nvevfiariKoi.),  which  was  the 
name  they  gave  to  themselves  ;  also  Lam- 
pctians,  Adclphians,  and  Marciaiusts,  from 
certain  of  their  leaders.  There  were  both 
pagan  and  Christian  Messalians.  The  for- 
mer acknowledged  indeed  a  plurality  of 
Gods,  yet  they  worshipped  but  one  whom 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


311 


who,  according  to  the  Oriental  notion,  imagined  that  two  souls  resided  in 
man,  the  one  good  and  the  other  evil ;  and  who  laboured  to  expedite  the 
return  of  the  former  to  God,  by  contemplation  and  prayer.  This  sect 
drew  over  many  to  its  ranks  by  its  outward  show  of  piety,  and  the  Greeks 
waged  war  with  it,  through  all  the  subsequent  centuries.  Yet  it  should 
be  remembered,  that  the  names  Messalians  and  Euchites  were  used  with 
great  latitude  among  the  Greeks  and  the  Orientals,  and  were  applied  to 
all  who  endeavoured  to  raise  the  soul  to  God  by  recalling  it  from  all  in- 
fluence  of  the  senses,  though  these  persons  often  differed  very  materially 
in  their  religious  opinions. 

§  25.  Towards  the  close  of  this  century,  Arabia  and  the  adjacent  coun- 
tries were  disturbed  by  two  opposite  sects,  the  Antidico-Marianites  and 
the  CoUyridians.  The  former  contended,  that  the  virgin  Mary  did  not 
remain  always  a  virgin ;  but  that  she  had  intercourse  with  her  husband 
Joseph,  after  the  birth  of  our  Saviour.  The  latter,  whom  the  ladies  es- 
pecially favoured,  went  to  the  opposite  extreme  :  they  worshipped  St.  Mary 
as  a  goddess,  and  thought  she  ought  to  be  honoured  and  appeased  with 
libations,  sacrifices,  and  offerings  of  cakes  [/coAAvp/def,  in  Latin  collyri- 
dae.](Q9)  The  more  obscure  and  unimportant  sects,  I  pass  without 
notice. 


they  called  6  iravroKparup  the  Almighty. 
These  were  more  ancient  than  the  Chris- 
tians, built  houses  for  worship  similar  to  the 
Christian  churches,  and  assembled  morning 
and  evening  with  many  torches  and  candles, 
and  employed  their  time  in  praising  God ; 
whence  they  were  called  Euphcmites.  The 
Christian  Messalians  were  so  named  from 
the  coincidence  of  their  practice  with  that 
of  the  pagans  :  they  seem  to  be  the  offspring 
of  monkish  enthusiasm,  and  to  have  first  ap- 
peared in  Mesopotamia,  and  thence  to  have 
spread  into  Syria ;  but  their  origin  cannot 
be  traced  with  more  particularity.  They 
seem  not  to  have  been  a  party  who  had  de- 
terminate, fixed  principles  of  faith  peculiar 
to  themselves.  Their  number  also  appears 
never  to  have  been  great.  They  were  all 
ascetics,  though  they  were  not  all  monks  in 
the  proper  sense  of  the  word.  Their  reli- 
gious theory  was  founded  on  an  impure  mys- 
tii'./xm,  like  to  what  is  common  to  nearly  all 
fanatical  persons  and  communities,  and  which 
originated,  like  the  system  of  Manes,  from 
the  principles  of  the  Oriental  philosophy. 
Yet  the  Messalians,  like  all  enthusiasts,  ap- 
pear to  have  relied  more  upon  spirits,  appa- 
ritions, and  revelations,  than  upon  the  Ori- 
ental system  of  metaphysics.  Their  princi- 
ples did  not  necessarily  lead  to  vicious  con- 
duct ;  yet  they  might  afford  occasion  for 
practising  vice.  And  in  fact  there  were 
•among  them  many  vicious  persons,  whom 
idleness  and  spiritual  pride  led  into  gross  of- 
fences. And  there  were  not  wanting  among 
them  real  villains,  who  abused  the  mystical 
stupidity  of  others,  to  subserve  their  own 


wicked  purposes.  Heretics  in  the  strict 
sense,  they  were  not ;  although  led  astray 
by  their  pernicious  mysticisms,  they  em- 
braced wrong  fundamental  principles  in  re- 
gard to  practical  and  experimental  religion  ; 
and  actuated  by  these,  they  at  least  in  part 
fell  into  heretical  opinions. — Schl.~\ 

(69)  See  Epiphanius,  Haeres.  Ixxviii., 
Ixxix.,  p.  1033  and  1057.  [Among  the 
moderns,  Dr.  Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzer- 
eyen,  vol.  iii.,  page  577,  &c.  Dr.  Walch 
makes  mention,  (loc.  cit.,  p.  598),  of  one 
Bonosus  ;  concerning  whom  he  also  publish- 
ed a  dissertation  at  Gottingen,  1754,  de  Bo- 
noso  haeretico.  This  Bonosus  was  proba- 
bly bp.  of  Sardica  in  Illyricum,  near  the  end 
of  this  century.  He  was  accused  of  main- 
taining, that  Mary  did  not  always  remain  a 
virgin,  but  bore  several  children.  And  this 
charge  seems  not  to  have  been  a  false  one. 
[See  Siricii,  Ep.  9,  ad  Anys.,  &c.,  inter 
Epist.  Ambrosii,  ep.  79,  (s.  5). — Tr.j  But 
whether  Bonosus  denied  also  the  divinity  of 
Christ,  and  taught  that  he  was  the  Son  of 
God  only  by  adoption,  is  very  dubious.  Yet 
so  much  is  certain,  that  in  the  fifth  and  sixth 
centuries,  there  were  opposers  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity  and  of  the  divinity  of 
Christ,  who  in  France  and  Spain  were  known 
by  the  name  of  Bonosians.  But  still,  it  is 
uncertain  whether  they  derived  the  name 
from  this  or  from  some  other  Bonosus.  The 
reader  may  consult  Ittig's  Supplementum 
operum  Clementis  Alexandrini;  where,  in 
the  annexed  Fascic.  Observat.  miscellan.  ad 
Hist.  Eccles.,  p.  242,  there  is  an  Essay,  de 
Haeresi  Bonosi. — The  Collyridianac  (for 


CENTURY    FIFTH. 
PART  I. 

THE   EXTERNAL  HISTORY  OF  THE    CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  PROSPEROUS  EVENTS  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

$  1.  State  of  the  Roman  Empire. — §  2.  Farther  Decline  of  Idolatry. — §  3.  Nations  con- 
verted to  Christianity. — §  4.  Conversion  of  the  German  Nations. — $  5.  The  Franks. 
— §  6.  The  Irish. — §  7.  Causes  of  these  Conversions. 

§  1.  To  understand  the  causes  which  affected  the  condition  of  Chris. 
tians  in  this  century,  it  is  necessary  to  keep  in  view  some  part  of  the 
civil  history  of  the  period.  We  shall  therefore  first  observe  concisely, 
that  the  Roman  empire  at  the  commencement  of  this  century  was  di- 
vided into  two  parts,  one  of  which  embraced  the  eastern,  and  the  other 
the  western  provinces.  Arcadius,  the  emperor  of  the  East,  resided  at 
Constantinople.  Honorius,  who  governed  the  West,  lived  at  Ravenna 
in  Italy.  The  latter,  distinguished  by  nothing  but  the  mildness  of  his 
disposition,  was  negligent  of  the  affairs  of  the  empire.  Hence  first  the 
Goths  repeatedly  laid  waste  Italy,  and  plundered  Rome  in  a  distressing 
manner.  And  this  first  defeat  of  the  Romans  was  followed  by  others 
still  more  grievous,  under  the  succeeding  emperors.  For  the  ferocious 
and  warlike  people  of  Germany  overran  those  fairest  provinces  of  Eu- 
rope, Italy,  Gaul,  and  Spain,  and  set  up  new  kingdoms  in  them.  At  last  the 
Heruli  in  the  year  476,  under  Odoacer  their  chief,  having  vanquished  Rom- 
ulus Augustus,  who  is  commonly  called  Augustulus,  overturned  the  empire 
of  the  West,  and  brought  Italy  under  their  subjection.  Sixteen  years  after, 
Theodoric  king  of  the  Ostrogoths  settled  in  Illyricum,  invaded  these  un- 

Epiphanius  makes  them  all  females)  were  from  paganism.  While  they  were  mere  pa- 
women,  who  carried  their  respect  for  the  gans,  they  were  accustomed  to  bake  and  pre- 
mother  of  Jesus  so  high,  that  they  were  just-  sent  to  the  goddess  Venus,  or  Astarte  (the 
ly  charged  by  the  orthodox  fathers  with  su-  Moon),  certain  cakes  which  were  called  col- 
perstition  and  idolatry.  They  came  from  lyrii.es.  And  when  they  became  Christians, 
Thrace  and  the  yet  more  distant  regions  of  they  thought  this  honour  might  now  be  best 
Scythia  into  Arabia.  It  was  their  practice  shown  to  Mary.  The  doctor  had  in  his  eye 
to  dress  out  a  car,  or  a  square  throne  (/cept-  perhaps,  a  passage  in  Jeremiah  (viii.,  18), 
Kot>),  spread  over  it  a  linen  cloth,  and  on  a  where  the  prophet  speaks  of  such  a  sort  of 
clear  day,  once  a  year,  place  on  it  during  the  worship  :  and  in  general,  it  is  well  known 
day  a  loaf  of  bread,  or  a  cake  («o/U,i>p{f),  that  the  offering  of  cakes  in  the  pagan  wor- 
which  they  offered  to  the  virgin  Mary.  Dr.  ship  was  a  customary  thing.  See  Dr. 
Moshcim  (in  his  Lectures)  considered  them  Walch,  loc.  cit ,  p.  625,  &c.,  and  Tillemont, 
as  a  set  of  simple  persons,  who  had  consid-  Memoires  pour  servir  a  1'Histoire  Eccles., 
erable  heathenism  about  them  ;  and  he  sup-  tome  xii.,  p.  83. — ScldJ 
posed  this  offering  of  a  cake  was  derived 


PROSPEROUS  EVENTS.  313 

welcome  intruders,  by  the  authority  of  the  Greek  emperor,  and  vanquished 
them  ;  in  consequence  of  which,  the  kingdom  of  the  Ostrogoths  was  es- 
tablished in  Italy,  in  the  year  493,  and  continued  with  various  fortune  till 
the  year  552.(1)  These  new  kings  of  the  West  professed  to  respect  the 
authority  of  the  emperors  resident  at  Constantinople,  whom  they  acknowl- 
edged as  sovereigns  over  them  ;  but  in  reality  they  were  quite  independ- 
ent, especially  Theodoric  in  Italy,  a  man  of  distinguished  abilities,  and  they 
left  nothing  to  the  emperors  but  the  shadow  of  supremacy. (2) 

§  2.  Amid  these  wars  and  the  dreadful  calamities  they  produced,  the 
cause  of  Christianity  suffered  much.  Yet  the  Christian  emperors,  espe- 
cially those  of  the  East,  continued  their  efforts  to  extirpate  what  remained 
of  the  ancient  idolatry.  In  particular,  Theodosius  the  younger  [A. D.  408 
—450]  has  left  us  striking  proofs  of  his  zeal  in  this  matter ;  for  we  have 
still  extant  various  laws  of  his,  requiring  the  idolatrous  temples  to  be  ut- 
terly destroyed,  or  to  be  dedicated  to  Christ  and  the  saints,  abrogating  the 
pagan  ceremonies  and  rites,  and  excluding  the  adherents  to  paganism  from 
all  public  offices. (3)  Yet  in  the  western  parts,  the  efforts  of  this  kind 
were  somewhat  less  ;  and  we  therefore  find  the  Saturnalia,  the  Lupercalia, 
the  gladiatorial  shows,  and  other  idolatrous  customs  observed  with  impu- 
nity both  at  Rome  and  in  the  provinces,  and  men  of  the  highest  rank  and 
authority  publicly  professing  the  religion  of  their  ancestors. (4)  But  by  de- 
grees this  liberty  was  confined  to  narrower  limits,  and  those  spectacles 
which  were  most  inconsistent  with  the  sanctity  of  the  Christian  religion 
Were  every  where  suppressed. (5) 

§  3.  The  limits  of  the  Christian  church  were  extended,  both  in  the  East 
and  in  the  West,  among  the  tribes  addicted  to  idolatry.  In  the  East,  the  in- 
habitants of  the  two  mountains  Libanus  and  Antilibanus,  being  extremely  an- 
noyed by  wild  beasts,  sought  aid  against  them  from  the  famous  Simeon  Styli- 
tes,  of  whom  we  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  hereafter.  Simeon  told  them, 
that  their  only  remedy  was  to  forsake  their  ancient  superstitions  and  em- 
brace Christianity.  These  mountaineers  obeyed  the  counsel  of  the  holy 

(1)  For  a  fuller  account,  see  the  Abbe  de  found  in  Latin,  in  the  Opp.   Chrysostomi, 
Bos,    Histoire    Critique    de    la    Monarchic  torn,  xi.,  and  in  French,  in  the  Memoires  de 
Francois,  torn,  i.,  p.  558,  &c.,  and  Jos.  Jo.  1'Acad  des  Inscript.  et  des  Belles  Lettres, 
Mascov's  History  of  the  Germans,  written  torn.  xx. ,  p.  197,  &c.     [The  pagans  traced 
in  German.     [Also  Edw.  Gibbon's  History  the  calamities  of  the  empire  to  the  prevalence 
of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Em-  of  Christianity.     Therefore  in  the  year  408, 
pire,  chap.  29-31,  33-36. — TV.]  at  the  instigation  of  the  Tuscan  soothsayers, 

(2)  Car.  du  Fresne,  Diss.  xxiii.  ad.  His-  idolatrous  sacrifices  were  again  established 
tor.  Ludovici  S.,  p.  260.     Muralori,  Antiq.  at  Rome,  in  order  to  procure  success  against 
Ital.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  578,  832,  and  Annal.  Ital-  Alaric  ;   and  the  existing  bishop,  Innocen- 
iae  :   Giannone,  Histoire  de  Naples,  torn,  i.,  tius,  who  was  apprized  of  the  measure,  al- 
p.    207.     Joh.    Cockiaci,    Vita   Theodorici  lowed  it  to  take  place,  if  we  may  believe 
Ostrogothorum  regis,  with  the  observations  Zosimus,  on   condition   that    the   sacrifices 
of  Joh.  Perini>skiold,  Stockholm,  1699,  4to.  should  be  offered  without  noise.     See  Zosi- 

(3)  See  Codex  Theodos.,  torn,  vi.,  p.  327,  mus,  lib.  v.,  cap.  41. — To  confute  this  ac- 
331,  &c.  cusation  of  the  populace  against  Christianity, 

(4)  See  Macrobius,  Saturnalia  ;    in  par-  was  the  design  of  Augustine's  twenty-two 
ticular,  lib.  ii.,  p.  190,  ed.  Gronovii :   Scipw  Books  de  Civitate  Dei,  addressed  to  Mar- 
Ma/ei,   delli    Anfiteatri,  lib.  i.,  p.  56,  57.  cellinus. — Schl.] 

Pierre  le  Brun,  Histoire  critique  des  pra-         (5)  Near  the  close  of  the  century,  Anat- 

tiques  siiperstitieuses,  torn,  i.,  p.  237,  and  tastus  in  the  East,  prohibited  the  combats 

others  ;  but  especially  Bernh.  de  Monlfau-  with  wild  beasts,  and  the  other  shows.     See 

con,  Diss.  de  monbus  tempore  Theodosii  Jo*.    Simon   Asseman,   Biblioth.   Oriental. 

M.  ct.  Arcadii  ex  Chrysostomo  ;   which  id  Clement.  Vaticana,  torn,  i.,  p.  268,  272. 

VOL.  I.— R  R 


314      BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  I.— CHAP.  I. 

man ;  and  having  become  Christians,  they  saw  the  wild  beasts  flee  from 
the  country — if  writers  tell  us  the  truth.  The  same  Simeon,  by  his  in- 
fluence, (for  I  doubt  the  existence  of  any  miracle),  caused  a  part  of  the 
Arabians  to  adopt  the  Christian  worship. (6)  In  the  island  of  Crete,  a  con- 
siderable  number  of  Jews,  finding  that  they  had  been  basely  imposed  upon 
by  one  Moses  of  Crete,  who  pretended  to  be  the  Messiah,  voluntarily  em- 
braced  Christianity.(7) 

§  4.  The  German  nations  who  rent  in  pieces  the  western  Roman  em- 
pire,  were  either  Christians  before  that  event,  as  the  Goths  and  others,  or 
they  embraced  Christianity  after  establishing  their  kingdoms,  in  order  to 
reign  more  securely  among  the  Christians.  But  at  what  time,  and  by 
whose  instrumentality,  the  Vandals,  the  Suevi,  the  Alans,  and  some  others 
became  Christians,  is  still  uncertain,  and  is  likely  to  remain  so.  As  to 
the  Burgundians,  who  dwelt  along  the  Rhine  and  thence  passed  into  Gaul, 
it  appears  from  Socrates,(S)  that  they  voluntarily  became  Christians,  near 
the  commencement  of  the  century.  Their  motive  to  this  step  was  the 
hope  that  Christ,  or  the  God  of  the  Romans,  who  they  were  informed  was 
immensely  powerful,  would  protect  them  from  the  incursions  and  the  rava- 
ges of  the  Huns.  They  afterwards  [about  A.D.  450]  joined  the  Arian  par- 
ty ;  to  which  also  the  Vandals,  Suevi,  and  Goths  were  addicted.  All  these 
warlike  nations  measured  the  excellence  of  a  religion  by  the  military  suc- 
cesses of  its  adherents,  and  esteemed  that  as  the  best  religion,  the  profess- 
ors of  which  were  most  victorious  over  their  enemies.  While  therefore 
they  saw  the  Romans  possessing  a  greater  empire  than  other  nations,  they 
viewed  Christ,  the  God  of  the  Romans,  as  the  most  worthy  of  their  homage. 

(6)  Jos.  Sim.  Asscman,  Biblioth.  Orient,  ed  by  Fleury,  Histoire  de  1'Eglise,  liv.  xxiv. 
Clement.  Vaticana,  torn,  i.,  p.  246,  &c.  Yet  it  is  certain,  that  the  Jews  even  in  that 

(7)  Socrat.es,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  vii.,  c.  38,  age  often  imposed  on  the  Christians,  by  pre- 
11  where  the  account  is,  in  brief,  that  in  the  tending  to  have  favourable  views  of  Christi- 
time  of  Theodosius  the  younger,  an  impostor  anity.     This  appears  from  the  Codex  Theo- 
arose,    called    Moses   Cretensis.     He    pre-  dos.,  lib.  xvi.,  tit.  8,  leg.  23.     And  Socrates, 
tended  to  be  a  second  Moses,  sent  to  deliv-  (Hist.   Eccles.,   1.  viii.,  c.   17),  mentions  a 
er  the  Jews  who  dwelt  in  Crete,  and  prom-  Jew,  who  received  baptism  with  a  consider- 
ised  to  divide  the  sea,  and  give  them  a  safe  able  sum  of  money,  successively,  from  the 
passage   through  it.     They   assembled   to-  orthodox,  from  the  Arians,  and  from    the 
gether,  with  their  wives  and  children,  and  Macedonians,   and    finally   applying  to    the 
followed  him  to  a  promontory.     He  there  Novatians  for  baptism,  was  detected  by  the 
commanded  them  to  cast  themselves  into  miracle  of  the  disappearance  of  the  water 
the  sea.     Many  of  them  obeyed  and  perished  from  the  font.     Although  this  miracle  may 
in    the   waters,   and   many   were   taken  up  be  doubted,  and  the  impostor  may  have  been 
and  saved  by  fishermen.     Upon  this,  the  de-  detected  by  an  artifice  of  the  Novatian  bish- 
luded  Jews  would  have  torn  the  impostor  op,  yet  it  appears  from  the  story,  that  what 
to  pieces ;  but  he  escaped  them,  and  was  is  practised  by  many  Jews  at  the  present 
seen  no  more.     Likewise  in  the  island  of  day  is  no  new  thing. — Schl.~\ 

Minorca,  many  persons  abandoned  Judaism.  (8)  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  vii.,  c.  30.     [They 

Yet  their  conversion  does  no  great  honour  sent  for  a  bishop  from  Gaul,  who  directed 

to  the  Christians  ;  for  it  was  in  consequence  them  to  fast  seven  days,  and  baptized  them 

of  great  violence  done  to  the  Jews,  of  level-  on  the  eighth      Dr.   Semler   (in  his  Hist, 

ling  their  synagogue  with  the  ground,  and  Eccles.    Selecta   Capita,    torn,    i.,   p.    203) 

taking  away  their  sacred  books.     See  the  supposes  this   event   took  place   about  the 

account  of  their  conversion,  by  the  bishop  of  year  415.     And  in  this  year  it  was,  accord- 

the  Balearean  Islands:    Snoerus,  Epist   en-  ing  to  the  Chronicon  of  Prosper,  that  the 

cycl.  de  Judaeorum  inhac  insulaconversione  Burgundians  took  possession  of  a  part  of 

et  demiraculis  ibidem  factis  ;  published  from  Gaul  on  the  Rhine,  with  the  consent  of  the 

a  MS.  in  the  Vatican  library,  by  Baronius,  Romans  and  their  confederates,  having  prom- 

in  his  Annales  Eccles.  A.D.  418,  and  abridg-  ised  to  embrace  Christianity. — Schl.] 


PROSPEROUS  EVENTS.  315 

§  5.  It  was  this  motive  which  produced  the  conversion  of  Clovis,  [Chlo- 
dovaeus,  Hludovicus,  Ludovicus],  or  Lewis,  king  of  the  Salii,  (a  tribe  of 
the  Franks),  who  conquered  a  large  part  of  Gaul,  and  there  founded  the 
kingdom  of  the  Franks,  which  he  endeavoured  to  extend  over  all  the  Gal- 
lie  provinces ;  a  valiant  prince,  but  cruel,  barbarous,  selfish,  and  proud. 
For  in  the  year  496,  in  a  battle  with  the  Allemanni  at  Tolbiacum,(9)  when 
his  situation  was  almost  desperate,  he  implored  the  aid  of  Christ,  whom  his 
wife  ClotiZdis,  a  Christian  and  daughter  of  the  king  of  the  Burgundians, 
had  long  recommended  to  him  in  vain  ;  and  he  made  a  vow,  that  he  would 
worship  Christ  as  his  God,  provided  he  obtained  the  victory.  Having  be- 
come  victorious,  he  stood  to  his  promise,  and  in  the  close  of  that  year  was 
baptized  at  Rheims.(lO)  Some  thousands  of  Franks  followed  tne  exam- 
ple of  their  king.  It  has  been  supposed  that,  besides  the  exhortations  of  his 
wife,  the  expectation  of  an  extension  of  his  dominions,  contributed  to  in- 
duce him  to  renounce  idolatry  for  Christianity ;  and  it  is  certain,  that  his 
professing  Christianity  was  very  subservient  to  the  establishment  and  en- 
largement  of  his  kingdom.  The  miracles  reported  on  this  occasion  are 
unworthy  of  credit ;  in  particular,  that  greatest  of  them,  the  descent  of  a 
dove  with  a  vial  full  of  oil,  at  the  baptism  of  Clovis,  is  either  a  fiction,  or, 
as  I  think  more  probable,  a  deception  craftily  contrived  for  the  occasion.(ll) 
For  such  pious  frauds  were  much  resorted  to  in  that  age,  both  in  Gaul  and 
Spain,  in  order  to  captivate  more  readily  the  minds  of  the  barbarous  na- 
tions. It  is  said,  that  the  conversion  of  Clovis  gave  rise  to  the  custom  of 
addressing  the  French  monarchs  with  the  titles  of  most  Christian  Majesty, 
and  Eldest  Son  of  the  Church  :(12)  for  the  kings  of  the  other  barbarous  na- 
tions which  occupied  the  Roman  provinces,  were  still  addicted  to  idolatry, 
or  involved  in  the  errors  of  Arianism. 

(9)  ["  Tolbiacum  is  thought  to  be   the     confirm  the  wavering  mind  of  the  barbarous 
present   Zulpick,  which  is  about    12  miles     and  savage  king,  artfully  contrived  to  have  a 
from  Cologne." — Mac/.]  dove  let  down  from  the  roof  of  the  church 

(10)  See    Gregory   of   Tours,    Historia  bearing  a  vial  of  oil,  at  the  time  of  the  king's 
Francor.,  1.  ii.,  c.  30,  31.     Henry  Count  de  baptism.      Similar    miracles    occur   in    the 
Bunau,  Historia  imperil  Romano-Germanici,  monuments  of  this  age. — [The  possibility  of 
torn.  i.,p.  588,  &c.     Alibi  de  Bos,  Histoire  the  event  is  made  conceivable  in  this  way. 
critique  de  la  monarchic  Franchise,  torn,  ii.,  Yet  there  still  remain  weighty  historical  ob- 
p.  340,  &c.,  [and  J.  G.  Watch.  Dissert,  de  jections  to  the  reality  of  the  fact.     The  story 
Clodovaeo  M.  ex  rationibus  politicis  Christi-  rests  solely  on  the  authority  of  Hincmar,  a 
ano,  Jena,  1751. — Schl.     Clovis,  once  hear-  writer  who  lived  300  years  after  the  time, 
ing  a  pathetic   discourse  on  the    sufferings  Avitvs,  Anastasius,  and  even   Gregory  of 
of  Christ,  exclaimed:  Si  ego  ibidem  cum  Tours,  and  Fredegativs  are  wholly  silent  on 
Francis  meis  fuissem,  injurias  ejus  vindicas-  the  subject.     Besides,  Hincmar's  narrative 
sem  :    Had  I  been  there  icilh  my  Franks,  contains  the  improbable  circumstance,  that 
/  would   have   avenged  his   wrongs.     See  the  clergy  who  should  have  brought  the  oil 

•arius,  Epitom.,c.  21.     Aimoin,\.  i.,  that  was  wanting,  could    not  get  near  the 

c.  16,  and  Chronicon  St.  Dionysii,  1.  i.,  c.  font,  on  account  of  the  pressure  of  the  crowd; 

20. — TV.]  but  as  anointing  with  oil  was  then  practised 

(11)  Against  this  miracle  of  the  vial,  Joh.  at  every  person's  baptism,  it  is  improbable 
Jac.  Chiflct  composed  his  book,  de  Ampulla  that  on  so  solemn  an  occasion  as  this,  due 
Rhemensi,  Antw.,  1651,  fol.     The  reality  of  preparation  for  this  part  of  the  service  would 
the  miracle  is  defended,  among  many  others,  have  been  neglected. —  Schl.] 

by  the  Abbf.  Verio/.  Memoires  de  I'Acadomie  (12)  See  Gabr.  Daniel's  and  the  Abbe  de 

des  Inscript.  et  des  Belles  Lettres,  torn,  iv.,  p.  Camp's  Diss.  de  titulo  Regis  Christianissi- 

350,  &.c.     After  considering  all  the  circum-  mi;  in  the  Journal  des  S^avans,  for  the  year 

stances,  I  dare  not  call  the  fact  in  question.  1720,  p.  243,  404—448,  536.     Memoires  de 

13ut  I  suppose,  St.  Kcmigius,  in  order  to  1'Acad.  des  Inscript.,  tome  ii.,  p.  466,  &c. 


316 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  I.— CHAP.  I. 


§  6.  Ccelestine  the  bishop  of  Rome,  first  sent  into  Ireland  to  spread  Chris, 
tianity  among  the  barbarians  of  that  island,  Palladius,  whose  labours  were 
not  crowned  with  much  success.  After  his  death,  in  the  year  432,  Cce- 
lestine sent  Succathus  a  Scotchman,  whose  name  he  changed  to  Patricius 
[Patrick],  a  man  of  vigour  and,  as  appears  from  the  event,  not  unfit  for 
such  an  undertaking.  He  was  far  more  successful  in  his  attacks  upon  idol- 
atry ;  and  having  converted  many  of  the  Irish  to  Christianity,  he  in  the 
year  472  established  at  Armagh  the  see  of  an  archbishop  of  Ireland.(13) 

(13)  See  the  Acta  Sanctorum,  torn.  ii.  erre,  he  was  appointed  to  succeed  Palladius 
Martii,  p.  517,  torn,  iii.,  Februar., 


p.  01Y,  torn.  111.,  rebruar.,  p.  131, 
179,  &c.  Joe.  Waracus,  Hibernia  Sacra, 
p.  1,  &c.,  Dublin,  1717,  folio.  The  same 
Ware  published  the  Opuscula  Sti.  Patricii, 
with  notes,  London,  1656,  8vo.  The  syn- 
ods held  by  St.  Patrick,  are  given  by  Dav. 
Wilkins,  Concilia  magnae  Brit,  et  Hiberniae, 
torn,  i.,  p.  2,  &c.,  [and  thence  republished 
in  Harduin's  Collection,  torn,  i.,  p.  1790, 
&c.]  Concerning  the  famous  cave,  called 
the  purgatory  of  St.  Patrick,  see  Peter  le 
Brun,  Histoire  critique  des  pratiques  super- 
stitieuses,  tome  iv.,  p.  34,  &c.  [A  minute 
account  of  St.  Patrick  and  his  labours  in 
Ireland,  is  given  by  archbishop  Usher,  Ec- 
clesiar.  Britannicar.  Primordia,  cap.  xvii., 
p.  815,  &c.,  and  a  more  neat  and  succinct 
account  by  Adr.  Baillet,  Vies  des  Saints, 
torn,  i.,  March  17,  p.  215,  &c.  According 
to  the  latter,  St.  Patrick  was  born  near  Dun- 
briton  in  Scotland,  about  A.D.  377.  At  the 
age  of  1 6  he  was  seized  by  some  Irish  ma- 
rauders and  sold  as  a  slave  in  Ireland.  After 
five  or  six  years'  captivity,  he  escaped  and 
returned  to  Scotland.  His  thoughts  were  at 
that  time  turned  towards  efforts  for  the  con- 
version of  the  pagan  Irish.  After  a  few 
months,  he  set  out  with  his  parents  for  Bre- 
tagne  in  France.  On  the  way,  his  father  and 
mother  both  perished  ;  and  he  himself  was 
twice  made  a  prisoner,  first  by  the  Picts,  and 
then  by  pirates  who  carried  him  to  Bour- 
deaux  and  sold  him.  Being  set  free,  he  re- 
paired to  the  monastery  of  Marmoutier,  be- 
came a  monk,  and  after  three  years'  study 
determined  to  return  to  Scotland  and  become 
a  missionary.  But  meeting  obstructions  on 
his  way,  he  returned  to  France,  and  from 
there  went  to  Italy,  where  he  spent  nearly 
seven  years  in  different  monasteries  and  holy 
places,  was  ordained  a  priest,  and  resided 
three  years  with  the  bp.  of  Pisa.  Still  thirst- 
ing for  the  conversion  of  the  Irish,  he  repair- 
ed to  Ireland  and  began  to  preach  to  those 
pagans.  But  meeting  with  no  success,  he 
was  led  to  question  his  call  to  such  a  work  ; 
and  he  returned  to  France  to  consult  his 
friends.  He  remained  at  Auxerre  six  years, 
and  then  passed  nine  years  in  the  monastery 
at  Lerins.  At  length  in  the  year  432,  by  the 
recommendation  of  St.  Germain  bp.  of  Aux- 


in the  Irish  mission,  ordained  by  Clement  I., 
and  sent  forth  by  Sixtus  III.,  with  a  com- 
petent number  of  assistants.  He  passed 
through  Auxerre,  and  after  making  some 
converts  in  Wales  and  Cornwall,  landed  on 
the  coast  of  Ireland  the  same  year.  He 
commenced  his  missionary  labours  in  Lage- 
nia,  a  province  in  the  north  of  Ireland  ;  and 
his  preaching  being  accompanied  by  appa- 
rent miracles,  his  success  was  very  great. 
In  434,  leaving  that  province  to  the  care  of 
his  assistants,  he  passed  into  the  province  of 
Ultonia,  where  he  was  equally  successful, 
founded  a  monastery  near  the  city  of  Down, 
built  many  churches,  and  ordained  many 
bishops  and  priests.  Wherever  he  went  new 
converts  flocked  to  him,  casting  away  their 
idols  and  demolishing  their  temples.  But  his 
old  master  Milcon  he  could  not  convert ; 
and  judgment  overtook  the  wretch  for  his 
hardness,  for  his  house  took  fire,  and  he  with 
his  whole  family  were  burned  up  in  it.  In 
436,  Patrick  left  Ultonia,  and  proceeded  to 
Media  (Meath)  and  Connacia  (Connaught); 
and  for  several  years  he  travelled  on  foot 
from  place  to  place,  slept  on  the  ground,  and 
toiled  incessantly  to  spread  the  gospel  in  all 
parts  of  the  island.  In  the  year  444,  he 
made  a  journey  to  Rome,  to  confer  with  the 
pope  and  obtain  more  assistants.  On  his 
return  the  next  year,  he  spent  some  time  in 
the  west  of  England,  and,  as  some  say,  es- 
tablished there  several  monasteries.  Re-en- 
tering Ireland  with  a  large  re-enforcement  of 
priests,  whom  he  distributed  in  the  provinces 
of  Lagenia,  Media,  and  Connacia,  he  took 
his  station  in  Ultonia,  and  there  erected  the 
church  of  Armagh  about  the  year  450.  To 
obtain  more  labourers,  he  passed  over  to 
Britain,  and  while  there  reclaimed  many 
Pelagians  and  Arians.  A  great  number  of 
priests  accompanied  his  return,  whom  he 
distributed  in  Ireland  and  the  adjacent  isl- 
ands. He  himself,  it  is  said,  spent  some 
years  in  the  province  of  Momonia,  in  which 
Cashel  was  a  chief  town.  In  455  he  again 
visited  Rome,  and  was  constituted  abp.  of 
Armagh  and  primate  of  all  Ireland.  In  456 
he  held  the  first  Irish  council,  at  which  Aux- 
ile  and  Wernin  appeared  prominent  among 
the  bishops.  From  this  time  onward,  being 


PROSPEROUS  EVENTS.  317 

Hence  St.  Patrick,  although  there  were  some  Christians  in  Ireland  before 
his  day,  has  been  justly  called  the  Apostle  of  Ireland  and  the  father  of  the 
Irish  church,  and  is  held  in  high  veneration  to  this  day. 

§  7.  The  causes  which  induced  all  these  pagan  nations  to  abandon  the 
religion  of  their  ancestors  and  profess  Christianity,  may  be  gathered  from 
what  has  been  already  said.  The  man  must  lack  discernment,  who  can 
deny  that  the  labours,  the  perils,  and  the  zeal  of  great  and  excellent  men, 
dispelled  the  clouds  of  darkness  from  the  minds  of  many  ;  and  on  the  other 
hand,  he  must  be  short-sighted  and  not  well  versed  in  the  history  of  this 
age,  who  is  unable  to  see,  that  the  fear  of  the  vengeance  of  man,  the  hope 
of  temporal  advantages  and  honours,  and  the  desire  of  obtaining  aid  from 
Christians  against  their  enemies,  were  prevalent  motives  with  many  to 
abandon  their  gods.  How  much  influence  miracles  may  have  had,  it  is 
difficult  to  say.  For  I  can  easily  believe,  that  God  was  sometimes  pres- 
ent with  those  pious  and  good  men,  who  endeavoured  to  instil  the  princi- 
ples of  true  religion  into  the  minds  of  barbarous  nations  :(14)  and  yet  it 
is  certain,  that  the  greatest  part  of  the  prodigies  of  this  age  are  very  sus- 
picious. The  greater  the  simplicity  and  credulity  of  the  multitude,  the 
more  audacious  would  be  the  crafty  in  playing  off  their  tricks  :(15)  nor 
could  the  more  discerning  expose  their  cunning  artifices,  with  safety  to 
their  own  lives  and  worldly  comfort. (16)  It  is  commonly  the  case,  that 
when  great  danger  attends  the  avowal  of  the  truth,  then  the  prudent  keep 
silence,  the  multitude  believe  without  reason,  and  the  architects  of  imposi- 
tion triumph. 

infirm  from  age  and  excessive  toil,  St.  Pat-  his  tomb.  Such  is  the  account  of  the  Ro- 
rick  led  a  more  stationary  life  at  Armagh  mish  writers. — See  Neander,  Kirchengesch., 
and  at  his  favourite  monastery  of  Sabhull  vol.  ii.,  pt.  i.,  p.  259-267. — Tr.] 
near  Down.  Yet  he  preached  daily,  supy-  (14)  There  is  a  remarkable  passage  con- 
intended  the  affairs  of  all  the  churches,  held  cerning  the  miracles  of  this  century,  in  the 
a  council  annually,  laboured  to  civilize  the  Tkeophratus,  seu  de  Immortalitate  animae, 
nation,  imparted  to  them  letters,  and  per-  of  the  acute  jEneas  Gazaeus,  p.  78,  ed. 
formed  every  duty  of  a  good  shepherd,  till,  Barthii.  Some  of  these  miracles,  he  tells 
worn  out  with  age  and  toil,  he  died  about  us,  he  himself  had  witnessed,  p.  80,  81. 
A.D.  460,  at  the  age  of  83.  Some  how-  (15)  The  Benedictine  monks  speak  out 
ever,  by  placing  his  birth  earlier  and  his  freely  on  this  subject,  in  the  Histoire  Litte- 
death  later,  make  his  mission  to  continue  60  raire  de  la  France,  torn,  ii.,  p.  33.  It  is  a 
years,  and  his  whole  life  120,  and  some  even  fine  saying  of  Livy,  Histor.,  lib.  xxiv.,  c.  10, 
132  years.  He  is  said  to  have  erected  365  $  6  :  Prodigia  multa  nuntiata  sunt,  quae 
churches,  consecrated  almost  as  many  bish-  quo  magis  credebant  simplices  ac  religiosi 
ops,  and  to  have  ordained  nearly  3000  priests,  homines,  eo  plura  nuntiabantur. 
He  was  buried  in  his  monastery  near  Down  ;  (16)  Sulpitius  Severus,  Dial,  i.,  p.  438, 
and  miracles  are  said  to  have  occurred  at  Ep.  i.,  p.  457.  Dial,  iii.,  cap.  ii.,  p.  487. 


318  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  I.— CHAP.  II. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  CALAMITIES  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

§  1.  The  Evils  suffered  by  the  Christians  in  the  Roman  Empire. — $  2.  Attempts  of  the 
Pagans  against  them. — $  3.  Their  Persecutions. — $  4.  In  Persia. — §  5.  Individual  En- 
emies of  Christianity. 

§  1.  IT  has  been  already  observed  that  the  Goths,  the  Heruli,  the  Franks, 
the  Huns,  the  Vandals,  and  other  fierce  and  warlike  nations,  who  were  for 
the  most  part  pagans,  had  invaded  and  miserably  rent  asunder  the  Roman 
empire.  During  these  commotions,  the  Christians  at  first  suffered  extreme- 
ly. These  nations  were,  it  is  true,  more  anxious  after  plunder  and  do- 
minion,  than  for  the  propagation  of  the  false  religions  of  their  ancestors, 
and  therefore  did  not  form  any  set  purpose  to  exterminate  Christianity ; 
yet  the  worshippers  of  idols,  who  still  existed  everywhere  scattered  over 
the  empire,  neglected  no  means  to  inflame  the  barbarians  with  hatred 
against  the  Christians,  hoping  by  their  means  to  regain  their  former  liber- 
ty. Their  expectations  were  disappointed,  for  the  greatest  part  of  the 
barbarians  soon  became  Christians  themselves  ;  yet  the  followers  of  Christ 
had  everywhere  first  to  undergo  great  calamities. 

§  2.  The  friends  of  the  old  religion,  in  order  to  excite  in  the  people  the 
more  hatred  against  the  Christians,  while  the  public  calamities  were  daily 
increasing,  renewed  the  obsolete  complaint  of  their  ancestors ;  that  all  things 
went  well  before  Christ  came,  but  since  he  had  been  everywhere  embraced, 
the  neglected  and  despised  gods  had  let  in  evils  of  every  kind  upon  the 
world.  This  weak  attack  was  repulsed  by  Augustine,  in  his  Books  on  the 
city  of  God ;  a  copious  work  and  full  of  erudition.  He  also  prompted  Oro- 
sius  to  write  his  Books  of  History,  in  order  to  show  that  the  same  and 
even  greater  calamities  and  plagues  afflicted  mankind  before  the  Christian 
religion  was  published  to  the  world.  In  Gaul  the  calamities  of  the  times 
drove  many  to  such  madness,  that  they  wholly  excluded  God  from  the 
government  of  the  world,  and  denied  his  providence  over  human  affairs. 
These  were  vigorously  assailed  by  Salman,  in  his  Books  on  the  government 
of  God. 

§  3.  But  the  persecutions  of  the  Christians  deserve  to  be  more  partic- 
ulaily  noticed.  In  Gaul  and  the  neighbouring  provinces,  the  Goths  and 
Vandals,  who  at  first  trampled  upon  all  rights  human  and  divine,  are  re- 
ported to  have  laid  violent  hands  on  innumerable  Christians.  In  Britain, 
after  the  fall  of  the  Roman  power  in  that  country,  the  inhabitants  were 
miserably  harassed  by  the  neighbouring  Picts  and  Scots  who  were  bar- 
barians. Having  therefore  suffered  various  calamities,  they  in  the  year 
445  chose  Vortigern  for  their  king  ;  and  he  finding  his  forces  inadequate 
to  repel  the  assaults  of  the  enemy,  in  the  year  449  called  the  Anglo-Sax- 
ons from  Germany  to  his  aid.  But  they  landing  with  their  troops  in  Brit- 
ain, produced  far  greater  evils  to  the  inhabitants  than  they  endured  before  ; 
for  these  Saxons  endeavoured  to  subdue  the  people  whom  they  came  to  as- 
sist, and  to  bring  the  whole  country  into  subjection  to  themselves.  This 


ADVERSE  EVENTS.  319 

produced  an  obstinate  and  bloody  war  between  the  Britons  and  the  Saxons, 
which  continued  with  various  fortune  during  130  years,  till  the  Britons 
were  compelled  to  yield  to  the  Anglo-Saxons,  and  take  refuge  in  Batavia 
and  Cambria  [the  modern  Holland  and  Wales],  During  these  conflicts, 
the  condition  of  the  British  church  was  deplorable ;  for  the  Anglo-Saxons, 
who  worshipped  exclusively  the  gods  of  their  ancestors,  almost  wholly 
prostrated  it,  and  put  a  multitude  of  Christians  to  a  cruel  death. (1) 

§  4.  In  Persia  the  Christians  suffered  grievously,  in  consequence  of  the 
rash  zeal  of  Abdas  bishop  of  Suza,  who  demolished  the  Pyraum,  a  temple 
dedicated  to  fire.  For  being  commanded  by  the  king  Isdegerdes  to  re- 
build it,  he  refused  to  comply  ;  for  which  he  was  put  to  death,  in  the  year 
414,  and  the  churches  of  the  Christians  were  levelled  to  the  ground.  Yet 
this  conflict  seems  to  have  been  of  short  duration.  Afterwards  Vararanes 
the  son  of  Isdegerdes,  attacked  the  Christians  with  greater  cruelty,  in  the 
year  421,  being  urged  to  it  partly  by  the  instigation  of  the  Magi,  and  part- 
ly  by  his  hatred  of  the  Romans,  with  whom  he  was  engaged  in  war.  For 
as  often  as  the  Persians  and  the  Romans  waged  war  with  each  other,  the 
Christians  resident  in  Persia  were  exposed  to  the  rage  of  their  monarchs  ; 
because  they  were  suspected,  and  perhaps  not  without  reason,  to  be  favour- 
ably disposed  towards  the  Romans,  and  to  betray  their  country  to  them. (2) 
A  vast  number  of  Christians  perished  under  various  exquisite  tortures  du- 
ring this  persecution. (3)  But  their  tranquillity  was  restored  when  peace 
returned  between  Vararanes  and  the  Romans,  in  the  year  427. (4)  The 
Jews  likewise,  who  were  opulent  and  in  good  credit  in  various  parts  of 
the  East,  harassed  and  oppressed  the  Christians  in  every  way  they  could. (5) 
None  of  them  was  more  troublesome  and  overbearing  than  Gamaliel  their 
patriarch,  who  possessed  vast  power  among  the  Jews ;  and  whom  there- 
fore Theodosius  junior  restrained  by  a  special  edict,  in  the  year  41 5. (6) 

§  5.  So  far  as  can  be  learned  at  this  day,  no  one  ventured  to  write  books 
against  Christianity  and  its  adherents  during  the  fifth  century  ;  unless  per- 
haps, the  Histories  of  Olympiodorus(l)  and  of  Zosimus,(8)  are  to  be  con- 

(1)  See  Beda  and  Gildas,  among  the  an-  (3)  Jos.    Sim.  Asseman,   Biblioth.    Ori- 
cients  ;  and  among  the  moderns,  Ja.  Usher,  ental.  Vaticana,  torn,  i.,  p.  182,  248.     [See 
Britannicarum  Ecclesiar.  Antiquitates,  cap.  also  Theodoret,  as  above.     The  most  distin- 
xii.,  p.  415,  &c.,  and  Rapin  Thoiras,  His-  guished  sufferers  in  this  persecution,  were 
tory  of  England,  vol.  i.,  b.  if.,  p.  — ,  &c.  Abdas  the  bishop   of  Suza ;   Hormisdas,  a 
[The  Saxons  were  not  directly  persecutors  Persian  nobleman  and  son  of  a  provincial 
of  the  Christians,  but  only  involved  them  in  governor  ;    Benjamin,    a    deacon  ;    James, 
the  common  calamities  of  their  slaughtered  who  apostatized,  but  repented  ;  and  Sevencs, 
and  oppressed  countrymen. — Tr.]  who  possessed  1000  slaves. — 2V.] 

(2)  Theodoret,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  v.,  c.  39,  (4)  Socrales,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  vii.,  c.  20. 
[where  is  a  full  account  of  the  conduct  of  (5),  Socrates,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  vii.,  c.  13 
Abdas,  and  of  the  sufferings  of  the  Christians  and  16;  and   Codex  Theodos.,  torn,  vi.,  p. 
during  the  persecution. — Tr.]     Bayle,  Die-  265,  &c. 

tionnaire  historique,  article  Abdas,  vol.  i.,  p.  (6)  In  the  Codex  Theodos.,  torn,  vi.,  p. 

10.     Barbeyrac,  de  ia  Morale  des  Peres,  p.  262,  &c. 

320.     [An  account  of  the  manner  in  which  (7)   Photius,  Biblioth.,  cod.  Ixxx.,  p.  178. 

Christianity  obtained  free  toleration  and  an  [Olympiodorus  was  a  native  of  Thebes  ia 

extensive  spread  in  Persia,  at  the  commence-  Egypt,  a  poet,  historian,  and   an   ambassa- 

ment  of  this  century,  through  the  influence  dor  to  the  king  of  the  Huns.     He  flourished 

of  Maruthas,  a  bishop  of  Mesopotamia  who  about  the  year  425  ;  and  wrote  Historinrum 

was  twice  an   ambassador  to  the  court  of  Ltbrix.su.,  addressed  to  Theodosius  junior, 

Persia,  is  given  by  Socrates,  Hist.  Eccles.,  and  containing  the  Roman  History,  particu- 

1.  vii.,  c.  8.— Tr.}  larly  of  the  West,  from  A.D.  407  to  425. 


320      BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  I. 

sidered  of  this  character,  the  latter  of  whom  is  frequently  sarcastic  and 
unjustly  severe  upon  the  Christians.  Yet  no  one  can  entertain  a  doubt 
that  the  philosophers  and  rhetoricians,  who  still  kept  up  their  schools  in 
Greece,  Syria,  and  Egypt,  secretly  endeavoured  to  corrupt  the  minds  of 
the  youth,  and  laboured  to  instil  into  them  at  least  some  of  the  principles 
of  the  proscribed  superstition.  (9)  The  history  of  those  times,  and  the 
writings  of  several  of  the  fathers,  exhibit  many  traces  of  such  clandestine 
machinations. 


PART    II. 

THE   INTERNAL   HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   HISTORY   OF   LITERATURE   AND   SCIENCE. 

§  1.  State  of  Learning  among  Christians. — §  2.  In  the  West. — §  3.  State  of  Philosophy 
in  the  West. — §  4.  In  the  East. — §  5.  The  Younger  Platonists. — §  6.  Aristotelian  Phi- 
losphy  revived. 

§  1.  ALTHOUGH  the  illiterate  had  access  to  every  office  both  civil  and 
ecclesiastical,  yet  most  of  the  persons  of  much  consideration  were  persua- 
ded that  the  liberal  arts  and  sciences  were  of  great  use  to  mankind.  Hence 
public  schools(l)  were  kept  up  in  the  larger  cities,  as  Constantinople,  Rome, 
Marseilles,  Edessa,  Nisibis,(2)  Carthage,  Lyons,  and  Treves  ;  and  masters 
competent  to  teach  youth  were  maintained  at  the  expense  of  the  emperors. 
Some  of  the  bishops  and  monks  also  of  this  century,  here  and  there  imparted 
to  young  men  what  learning  they  possessed. (3)  Yet  the  infelicity  of  the 
times,  the  incursions  of  barbarous  nations,  and  the  penury  of  great  ge- 
niuses, prevented  either  the  church  or  the  state  from  reaping  such  advan- 
tages from  the  efforts  to  promote  learning,  as  were  desired  by  those  en- 
gaged in  them. 

§  2.  In  the  western  provinces,  especially  in  Gaul,  there  were  some  men 
of  learning,  who  might  have  served  as  patterns  for  others  to  follow.  Such 
among  others  were  Macrobius,  Salman,  Vincentius  of  Lerins,  Ennodius,  Sz- 

The  work  is  lost,  except  the  copious  extracts  (1)  [The  history  and  progress  of  schools 

preserved  by  Photius,  ubi  supra. —  TV.]  among  Christians,  are  the  subject  of  an  ap- 

(8)  [Zosimus  was  a  public  officer  in  the  propriate  work,  by   George   Gottl.   Revfel, 
reign  of  Thr.odosius  junior,  and  wrote  His-  Helmst.,  1743,  8vo. — «ScW.] 

toriarum   Libri  vi.  in  a  neat  Greek  style.  (2)  [The  schools  at  Edessa  and  Nisilis, 

The  first  book  gives  a  concise  history  of  Ro-  are  noticed  by  Valesius,  on  Thcodori  Lr.c- 

man  affairs  from  Augustus  to  Diocletian;  toris  Hist.  Eccl.,  1.  ii.,  p.  164,  b. — Schl.] 

the  following  books  are  a  full  Roman  histo-  (3)  [On  the  episcopal  and  cloister  schools, 

ry,  down  to  A.D.  410.     The  best  editions  in  Africa,  Spain,  Italy,  and  Gaul,  remarks 

are  by  Cellaring,  Jena,  1728,  8vo,  and  by  are  made  by  Ludov.  Thomasinus,  de  Disci- 

Reitemier,  Lips.,  1784,  8vo. — TV.]  plina  Ecclesiae,  torn,  i.,  part  ii.,  lib.  ii.,  p. 

(9)  Zacharias  Mitylen.  de  Opificio  Dei,  27,  &c. — Schl.] 
p.  165,  200,  ed.  Barthii. 


LITERATURE  AND  SCIENCE.  321 

donius  Apollinaris,  Claudianus  Mamertus,  and  Draconlius ;  who  as  writers 
were  not  indeed  equal  to  the  ancient  Latin  authors,  yet  neither  altogether 
destitute  of  elegance,  and  who  devoted  themselves  to  the  study  of  antiqui- 
ties and  other  branches  of  learning.  But  the  barbarians  who  laid  waste 
or  took  possession  of  the  Roman  provinces,  choked  these  surviving  plants 
of  a  better  age.  For  all  these  nations  considered  arms  and  military  cour- 
age as  the  only  source  of  all  glory  and  virtue  ;  and  therefore  they  despised 
learning  and  the  arts.  Hence  wherever  they  planted  themselves,  there 
barbarism  insensibly  sprung  up  and  flourished,  and  the  pursuit  of  learning 
was  abandoned  exclusively  to  the  priests  and  monks.  And  these,  surround- 
ed by  bad  examples  and  living  in  the  midst  of  wars  and  perils,  gradually 
lost  all  relish  for  solid  learning  and  renown,  and  substituted  in  place  of  it 
a  sickly  spectre  and  an  empty  shadow  of  erudition.  In  their  schools,  the 
boys  and  youth  were  taught  the  seven  liberal  arts  ;(4)  which  being  com- 
prised in  a  few  precepts,  and  those  very  dry  and  jejune,  as  appears  from  the 
treatises  of  Augustine  upon  them,  were  rather  calculated  to  burden  the 
memory  than  to  strengthen  the  judgment  and  improve  the  intellectual  pow- 
ers. In  the  close  of  this  century  therefore,  learning  was  almost  extinct, 
and  only  a  faint  shadow  of  it  remained. 

§  3.  Those  who  thought  it  expedient  to  study  philosophy — and  there 
were  but  few  who  thought  so — did  not  in  this  age  commit  themselves  to 
the  guidance  of  Aristotle.  He  was  regarded  as  too  austere  a  master, 
and  one  who  carried  men  along  a  thorny  path.(5)  Perhaps  more  would 
have  relished  him,  had  they  been  able  to  read  and  understand  him.  But 
the  system  of  Plato  had  for  several  ages  been  better  known ;  and  it  was 
supposed,  not  only  to  be  less  difficult  of  comprehension,  but  to  accord  bet- 
ter with  the  principles  of  religion.  Besides,  the  principal  works  of  Plato 
were  then  extant  in  the  Latin  translations  of  Victorinus.(6)  Therefore 
such  among  the  Latins  as  had  a  taste  for  philosophical  inquiries,  contented 
themselves  with  the  decisions  of  Plato ;  as  will  appear  to  any  one  who 
shall  only  read  Sidonius  Apollinaris. (7) 

§  4.  The  state  of  learning  among  the  Greeks  and  the  people  of  the 
East,  both  as  respects  elegant  literature  and  the  severer  sciences,  was  a  lit- 
tle better  ;  so  that  among  them  may  be  found  a  larger  number  of  writers, 
who  exhibit  some  marks  of  genius  and  erudition.  Those  who  prosecuted  the 
science  of  jurisprudence,  resorted  much  to  Berytus  in  Phenicia,  where  was  a 
celebrated  law-school,(8)  and  to  Alexandria.(9)  The  students  of  medicine 
and  chymistry  resorted  also  to  Alexandria.  The  teachers  of  eloquence, 

(4)  [These  comprised,  I.,  the  Trivium,  (9)  Zacharins  Mitylen.  de  Opificio  Dei, 
namely,  Grammar,    Rhetoric,    and   Logic  ;  p.  179.     [Among  the  moderns  may  be  con- 
an-1  II.,  the  Quadrivium.  or  Arithmetic,  Mu-  suited  J.  Andr.  Schmidt's  Preface  to  Andr. 
sic,  Geometry,  and  Astronomy.     See  below,  Hypcrius  de  Schola  Alexandrina  catecheti- 
century  xi.,  part  ii.,  ch.  i.,  §  5. — TV.]  ca,  Helmst.,  1704,  8vo.     Hen.  Dodicdl,  ad 

(5)  Passages  from  ancient  writers  in  proof,  fragmentum  Philippi  Sidetae  ;  at  the  end  of 
ere  collected  by  Joh.  Launoi,  de  varia  Aris-  his  Dissertations  on  Irenaeus.     Lud.  Tho- 
totehs  fortuna  in  Academia  Parisiensi  masinus,  de  Discipl.  Eccles.,  torn,  i.,  part  i.. 

(6)  See  Augustine,  Confessionum  lib.  i.,  I.  ii.,  c    10,  p.  210,  &c.     Joh.  Geo.  Michtz- 
C.  2,  <)  1,  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  p.  105,  106.  Us,  Exercit.  de   Scholae   Alexandrinae  sic 

(7)  See  his  Epistles,  lib.  iv.,  Ep.  iii.,  xi.,  dictae   Catecheticae   origine.  progressu,  et 
and  lib.  ix.,  Ep.  ix.,  and  others.  praecipuis  doctoribus  ;  in  torn,  i.,  Symbolar. 

(8)  See  Ja.  Hcxaeus,  liber  de  Academia     litter.  Bremens.,  p.  195,  &c.,  zndJos.  Ring- 
Jureconsultorum  Berytensi ;  and  Zachanas     ham,  Antiq.   Eccles.,  lib.  iii.,  c.  10,  $  5. — > 
Mitylen.  de  Opificio  Dei,  p.  164.  Schl.} 

VOL.  I.— S  s 


322      BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  I. 

poetry,  philosophy,  and  the  other  arts,  opened  schools  almost  everywhere; 
and  yet  the  teachers  at  Alexandria,  Constantinople,  and  Edessa,  were  sup- 
posed  to  excel  the  others  in  learning  and  in  the  art  of  instructing. (10), 

§  5.  The  sect  of  the  younger  Platonists  sustained  itself  and  its  philoso- 
phy, at  Athens,  at  Alexandria,  and  in  Syria,  with  no  small  share  of  its  an- 
cient  dignity  and  reputation.  Olympiodorus,(ll)  Hero,(I2)  and  other  men 
of  high  reputation,  adorned  the  school  of  Alexandria.  At  Athens,  Plu- 
tarch,(13)  and  his  successor  Syrianus,(\£)  with  Theophrastus,  procured 
for  themselves  fame  and  distinction.  From  them  Proclus  received  in- 
struction,  became  the  prince  of  the  Platonists  of  this  century,  and  acquired 
for  himself  and  for  the  species  of  wisdom  which  he  professed  so  much  ce- 
lebrity among  the  Greeks,  that  he  seems  almost  the  second  father  of  the 
system. (15)  His  disciples,  Marinus  of  Neapolis,  Ammonius  the  son  of 
Hermias,  Isidorus,  Damascius,  and  others,  followed  eagerly  in  the  foot- 
steps of  their  instructor,  and  left  many  followers  who  copied  their  exam- 
ple. Yet  the  laws  of  the  emperors,  and  the  continual  advances  of  Chris- 
tianity,  gradually  diminished  very  much  the  fame  and  the  influence  of  these 
philosophers. (16)  And  as  th'ere  was  a  sufficient  number  now  among  the 
Christians,  who  cultivated  and  were  able  to  teach  this  species  of  wisdom 
so  much  confided  in  at  that  day,  it  naturally  followed  that  fewer  persons 
than  formerly  frequented  the  schools  of  these  heathen  sages. 

§  6.  But  though  the  philosophy  of  Plato  appeared  to  most  persons  more 
favourable  to  religion  and  better  founded  than  that  of  Aristotle,  yet  the  lat- 
ter gradually  emerged  from  its  obscurity,  and  found  its  way  into  the  hands 
of  Christians.  The  Platonists  themselves  expounded  some  of  the  books 
of  Aristotle  in  their  schools,  and  particularly  his  Dialectics,  which  they 
recommended  to  such  of  their  pupils  as  were  fond  of  disputation.  The 
Christians  did  the  same,  in  the  schools  in  which  they  taught  philosophy. 
This  was  the  first  step  made  by  the  Stagyrite  towards  that  universal  em- 
pire which  he  afterwards  obtained.  Another  and  a  more  active  cause 
was  found  in  the  Origenian,  Arian,  Eutychian,  Nestorian,  and  Pelagian 
contests,  which  produced  so  much  evil  in  the  church  during  this  century. 
Origen,  it  was  well  known,  was  a  Platonist.  When  therefore  he  fell  under 
public  censure,  many,  that  they  might  not  be  accounted  his  adherents,  ap- 
plied  themselves  to  the  study  of  Aristotle,  between  whom  and  Origen  there 
had  been  little  or  no  connexion.  In  the  Nestorian,  Arian,  and  Eutychian 
controversies,  both  sides  had  recourse  to  the  most  subtile  distinctions,  di- 

(10)  JEneas  Gazttus,  in  his  Theophras-     Marinus,  de  Vita  Procli,  c.   12,  p.  27,  and 
tus,  p.  6,  7,  16,  &c.,  passim.     Zacharias     Suidas,  article  Plutarch  Nestorii,  p.  133. — 
Mitylen.  loc.  cit.,  p.  164,  179,  217,  &c.,     Schl.~\ 

and  others.  (14)  [Concerning  Syrianus,  see  Brucker, 

(11)  [See  note  (7),  supra,  p.  319. — Tr.]       Historia  crit.  Philos.,  torn,   ii.,  p.   315. — 

(12)  Marinus,  de  Vita  Procli,  c.  9,  p.  19,     Schi.] 

ed.  Fabricii.     [Hero  was  a  preceptor  of  Pro-        (15)  His  life  was  written  by  Marinus,  and 

dus,  and  is  the  second  of  the  three  of  his  was   published  with  learned  notes,  by  Jo. 

name  mentioned  by  Brucker  in  his  Historia  Alb.  Fabricius,  Hamb.,   1700,   4to.     [See 

crit.  Philos.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  323. — Schi.]  also  Bruckcr,  Historia  crit.  Philos.,  torn,  ii., 

(13)  [This  Plutarch,  in  distinction  from  p.  318,  &c.— Schi] 

the  elder  Plutarch,  who  was  more  of  a  his-  (16)  See  JEneas  Gazaus,  in  his  Theo- 

torian  than  a  philosopher,  is  denominated  phrastus,  p.  6,  7, 8,  13,  ed.  Barthii.    [Among 

Plutarchus  Nestorii,  or  Plutarch  the  son  of  the  moderns,  Brucker  (Historia  crit.  Philos- 

Nestorius.     See  concerning  him  Brucker,  ophiae,  torn,  ii.,  p.  337)  has  treated  of  all 

Historia  crit.  Philos.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  312,  &c.  these  disciples  of  Proclus. — Schi] 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT.  323 

visions,  and  ratiocinations ;  and  with  these  they  were  supplied  by  the  philos- 
ophy  of  Aristotle,  and  not  at  all  by  that  -of  Plato,  who  never  trained  men  to 
disputation.  The  Pelagian  doctrines  had  great  affinity  with  the  opinions 
of  Plato  concerning  God  and  the  human  soul.  Many  therefore  ceased  to 
be  Platonists,  as  soon  as  they  perceived  this  fact,  and  they  suffered  their 
names  to  be  enrolled  among  the  Peripatetics. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   GOVERNMENT   OF   THE   CHURCH,  AND  ITS  TEACHERS. 

$  1,  2.  The  outward  Form  of  Church  Government  somewhat  Changed. — $  3.  The  Prerog- 
atives of  Patriarchs. — $  4.  Evils  arising  from  their  Authority. — $  5.  Contests  between 
them. — 1)  6.  The  Power  of  the  Roman  Pontiff. — $  7.  Vices  of  the  Clergy. — $  8. 
Causes  thereof.  The  Saints.— $  9.  Monks. — §  10.  Teachers  in  the  Greek  Church. — 
$11.  In  the  Latin  Church. 

$  1.  FROM  the  operation  of  several  causes,  the  outward  form  of  govern, 
ment  in  the  church  experienced  some  change.     The  power  of  the  bishops, 
particularly  of  the  higher  orders,  was  sometimes  augmented  and  some- 
times  diminished,  according  as  times  and  circumstances  altered ;  yet  the 
caprice  of  the  court  and  political  considerations  had  more  influence  in  this 
matter,  than  any  principles  of  ecclesiastical  law.     These  changes,  however, 
were  of  minor  importance.     Of  much  more  consequence  was  the  vast  in- 
crease  of  honour  and  power  acquired  by  the  bishops  of  New  Rome,  or  Con- 
stantinople, in  opposition  to  the  most  strenuous  efforts  of  the  bishop  of  an- 
cient    Rome.     In  the  preceding  century,  the  council  of  Constantinople 
[A.D.  381]  had  conferred  on  the  bishop  of  New  Rome  the  second  rank 
among  the  highest  bishops  of  the  world,  on  account  of  the  dignity  and  pre- 
rogatives of  the  city  where  he  presided.     The  Constantinopolitan  bishops 
(with  the  consent  no  doubt  of  the  court)  had  likewise  extended  their  juris- 
diction  over  the  provinces  of  [proconsular]  Asia,  Thrace,  and  Pontus.     In 
this  century,  with  the  consent  of  the  emperors,  they  not  only  acquired  the 
additional  province  of  eastern  Illyricum,  but  likewise  a  great  amplification 
of  their  honours  and  prerogatives.     For  in  the  year  451,  the  council  of 
Chalcedon,  by  their  twenty-eighth  canon,  decreed  that  the  bishop  of  New 
Rome  ought  to  enjoy  the  same  honours  and  prerogatives  with  the  pontiff 
of  ancient  Rome,  on  account  of  the  equal  dignity  and  rank  of  the  two  cit- 
ies ;(1)  and  by  a  formal  act  they  confirmed  his  jurisdiction  over  the  prov- 
inces which  he  claimed.     Leo  the  Great,  bishop  of  ancient  Rome,  and  some 
other  bishops,  strenuously  resisted  this  decree  ;  but  in  vain,  for  the  Greek 
emperors  supported  the  cause  of  their  bishops. (2)     After  the  period  of  this 

(1)  [Yet  it  appears,  from  the  words  of  the        (2)  Mich,  le  Quien,  Oriens  Christianus, 

canon,  that  the  bishop  of  Constantinople,  torn,  i.,  p.  30,  &c.     [See  also  C.  W.  F. 

though  made  equal  in  power  and  authority  Walck,  Historic  der  Kirchenversammlunprn, 

with  the  bishop  of  Rome,  was  to  yield  to  p.   310 ;  and  Historic  der  Papste,  p.  106. 

him  a  precedence  in  rank  ur  honour ;   be-  — Schl.  ;   and  Arch.   Bower,  Lives  of  the 

cause  New  Rome  took  rank  after  her  older  Popes,  vol.  ii.,  p.  64-84,  ed.  Lend.,  1750, 

aister,  dwrepav  /*er'  tueivijv  inrapxttv. —  4to. — TV.] 
2V.] 


324  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 

council,  the  Constantinopolitan  bishops  began  to  contend  fiercely  for  su- 
premacy with  the  Roman  bishops,  and  encroached  on  the  privileges  and 
dignity  of  the  bishops  of  Alexandria  and  Antioch.  In  particular,  A cacius 
of  Constantinople  is  said  to  have  exceeded  all  bounds  in  his  ambitious  pro- 
jects.^) 

§  2.  It  was  nearly  at  the  same  time,  that  Juvenal  bishop  of  Jerusalem, 
or  rather  of  Aelia,  attempted  to  withdraw  himself  and  his  church  from  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  bishop  of  Caesarea,  and  affected  to  rank  among  the  first 
prelates  of  the  Christian  world.  His  designs  were  rendered  practicable 
by  the  high  veneration  entertained  for  the  church  of  Jerusalem,  as  being 
not  only  founded  and  governed  by  apostles,  but  as  a  continuation  of  the 
primitive  church  of  Jerusalem,  and  in  a  sense  the  mother  of  all  other  Chris- 
tian churches.  Therefore  Juvenal,  the  emperor  Theodosius  junior  favour- 
ing his  designs,  not  only  assumed  the  rank  of  an  independent  bishop  over 
the  three  Palestines,  or  that  of  a  patriarch,  but  likewise  wrested  Phenicia 
and  Arabia  from  the  patriarchate  of  Antioch.  And  as  this  produced  a 
controversy  between  him  and  Maximus  bishop  of  Antioch,  the  council  of 
Chalcedon  settled  the  dispute,  by  restoring  Arabia  and  Phenicia  to  the  see 
of  Antioch,  and  leaving  Juvenal  in  possession  of  the  three  Palestines,(4) 
with  the  title  and  rank  which  he  had  assumed. (5)  In  this  manner  there 
were  five  principal  bishops  over  the  Christian  world,  created  in  this  cen- 
tury, and  distinguished  from  others  by  the  title  of  patriarchs. (6)  The 
Oriental  writers  mention  a  sixth,  namely,  the  bishop  of  Seleucia  and  Ctesi- 
phon;  to  whom,  they  say,  the  bishop  of  Antioch  voluntarily  ceded  a  part 
of  his  jurisdiction. (7)  But  they  can  bring  no  proof,  except  the  Arabic  de- 
crees of  the  Nicene  council,  which  are  well  known  to  have  no  authority. 

§  3.  Thene  patriarchs  had  great  prerogatives.  To  them  belonged  the 
consecration  of  the  bishops  of  their  respective  provinces.  They  annually 
convoked  councils  of  their  districts,  to  regulate  and  settle  ecclesiastical  af- 
fairs. If  any  great  or  difficult  controversy  arose,  it  was  carried  before  the 
patriarch.  The  bishops,  accused  of  any  offences,  were  obliged  to  abide  by 
his  decision.  And  finally,  to  provide  for  the  peace  and  good  order  of  the 
remoter  provinces  of  their  patriarchates,  they  were  allowed  to  place  over 
them  their  own  legates  or  vicars.(8)  Other  prerogatives  of  less  moment 
are  omitted.  It  was  the  fact,  however,  that  some  episcopal  sees  were  not 
subject  to  the  patriarchs ;  for  both  in  the  East  and  in  the  West,  certain 
bisliiQps  were  exempt  from  partriarchal  jurisdiction,  or  were  independent.  (9) 

(3)  Nouveau  Dictionnaire  hist,  crit.,  tome         (7)  Asseman,  Biblioth.  Oriental.  Vaticana, 
i.,  article  Acacius,  p.  75,  &c.     [Dr.  Mo-     torn,  i.,  p.  9,  13,  &c. 

sheim  here  speaks  cautiously  ;   for  in  fact  (8)  David  Blondell,  de  la  Primaute   de 

Acacius,  when  all  circumstances  are  consid-  1'Eglise,  cap.  xxv.,  p.   332,  &c.     Theod. 

ered,  was  to  be  justified.     See  below,  ch.  v.,  Ruinart,  de  pallio  Archi-Episcopali,  p.  445  ; 

$  21. — Schl.]  torn.  ii.  of  the  Opp.  posthuma  of  Joh.  Mabil- 

(4)  Concerning  the  three  Paleslines,  see  Ion. 

Carolus  a  S.  Paulo,  Geographia  sacra,  p.  (9)  Edw.  Brercwood.  de  veteris  ecclesiae 

307,  &c.  gubernatione  patriarchale,  a  tract  which  is 

(5)  Mich,  le  Quien,  Oriens  Christianus,  subjoined  to  Jn.  Usher's  Opuscula  de  Epis- 
tom.  iii.,  p.  110,  &c.  copor.  et  Metropolitanorum  origine,  Lond., 

(6)  See  the  writers  who  have  treated  of  1687,  and  Bremen,  1701,  8vo,  p.   56-85. 
the  patriarchs,  as  enumerated  by  Jo.  Alb.  [The  metropolitans  and  bishops  who  were 
Fabricius,  Bibliograph.  Antiquar.,  cap.  xiii.,  subject  to  no  patriarch,  were  by  the  Greeks 
p.  453,  &c.     [See  also  note  (2)  p.  233,  &c.  called    UVTOKK^O^OL     Of    this    description 
of  this  volume. — Tr.\  were  the  metropolitans  of  Bulgaria,   Cy- 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT.  325 

Moreover  the  emperors,  who  reserved  to  themselves  the  supreme  power 
over  the  church,  listened  readily  to  the  complaints  of  those  who  thought 
themselves  injured ;  and  the  councils  also,  in  which  the  majesty  and  the 
legislative  power  of  the  church  resided,  presented  various  obstacles  to  the 
arbitrary  exercise  of  patriarchal  power. 

§  4.  The  constitution  of  ecclesiastical  government  was  so  far  from  con- 
tributing  to  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  Christian  church,  that  it  was 
rather  the  source  of  very  great  evils,  and  produced  boundless  dissensions 
and  animosities.  In  the  first  place,  the  patriarchs,  who  had  power  either 
to  do  much  good  or  to  cause  much  evil,  encroached  without  reserve  upon 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  their  bishops,  and  thus  introduced  gradually  a 
kind  of  spiritual  bondage  ;  and  that  they  might  do  this  with  more  freedom, 
they  made  no  resistance  to  the  encroachments  of  the  bishops  on  the  an- 
cicnt  rights  of  the  people.  For  the  more  the  prerogatives  and  the  honours 
of  the  bishops  who  were  under  their  control  were  increased,  the  more  was 
their  own  power  enlarged.  In  the  next  place,  they  designedly  excited  dissen- 
sions and  fomented  controversies  of  bishops  with  one  another  and  with  oth- 
er ministers  of  religion,  and  also  of  the  people  with  the  clergy  ;  so  that  they 
might  have  frequent  occasions  to  exercise  their  authority,  be  much  appealed 
to,  and  have  a  multitude  of  clients  around  them.  Moreover,  that  the  bishops 
might  not  be  without  intestine  foes,  nor  themselves  destitute  of  strenuous  de- 
fenders of  their  authority,  they  drew  over  to  their  side  the  numerous  tribes  of 
monks,  who  were  gradually  acquiring  wealth,  and  attached  them  to  their 
interests  by  the  most  ample  concessions.  And  these  monks  contributed 
much — perhaps  more  than  any  other  cause — to  subvert  the  ancient  disci- 
pline of  the  church,  to  diminish  the  authority  of  the  bishops,  and  to  increase 
beyond  all  bounds  the  power  of  their  patrons. 

§  5.  To  these  evils  must  be  added  the  rivalship  and  ambition  of  the  pa- 
triarchs themselves  ;  which  gave  birth  to  abominable  crimes  and  the  most 
destructive  wars.  The  patriarch  of  Constantinople  in  particular,  elated 
with  the  favour  and  the  proximity  of  the  imperial  court,  on  the  one  hand 
subjected  the  patriarchs  of  Alexandria  and  Antioch  to  a  subordination  to 
himself,  as  if  they  were  prelates  of  a  secondary  rank,  and  on  the  other 

prus,  Iberia,  Armenia,  and  also  of  Britain  ly  to  him  ;  and  the  Romish  patriarch  had  in 

before  the  conversion  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  almost  all  his  countries,  (e.  g  ,  in  Germany, 

by  the  Romish  monk  Augustine.     For  the  at  Bamberg  and  Fulda),  bishops  who  were 

Britons  had  their  archbishop  of  Caerleon,  subject  to   no  archbishop   or  primate,  but 

(Episcopus  Caerlegionis  super  Osca),  who  dependant  immediately  on  himself.     There 

had  seven  bishops  under  him,  but  acknowl-  were  also  certain  bishops,  who  were  subject 

edged  no  superintendence  from  the  patriarch  neither  to  any  archbishop  nor  to  a  patriarch  ; 

of  Rome,  and  for  a  long  time  made  opposition  as  was  the  case  with  the  bishop  of  Toinis  in 

to  him  ;  and  in  Wales  as  well  as  in   Scot-  Scythia,  according  to  Snzomen,  Hist.  Eccl., 

land  and  Ireland,  this  independence  contin-  1.  vi.,  c.  21.     The  churches  in  countries  ly- 

ued  for  many  centuries.    The  church  of  Car-  ing  without  the  Roman  Empire,  at  first  had 

thane  also  was  properly  subject  to  no  other  no  bishops  dependant  on  the  bishops  within 

church;  as  appears  from  Lcydeckcr^s  His-  the  empire  ;  as  e.  g.,  the  churches  in  Persia, 

toria  Eccles.  Africanae,  and  from  the  wri-  Parthia,  and  among  the  Goths  ;  and  these 

tings  of  Capell  and  others,  de  appellationi-  did  not  come  under  the  power  of  Romish 

bus  ex  Africa  ad  sedem  Romanam.     Some  patriarchs,  until  they  fell  under  the  civil  pow- 

common  bishops  likewise,  were  subject  to  er  of  the  Romans.     Most  of  the  conversions 

no  metropolitan,  but  were  under  the  imme-  of  pagans  by  missionaries  from  Rome,  were 

diate  inspection  of  their  patriarch.    Thus  the  in  the  western  provinces  of  the  empire.    Sec 

patriarch  of  Constantinople  had  39  bishops  Buumparterfs  Erlautenmg  der  christl.  Al- 

m  his  diocese,  who  were  subject  immediate-  terlhums,  p.  158,  &c. — Schl.] 


326      BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 

hand  he  boldly  attacked  the  Roman  pontiff,  and  despoiled  him  of  some  of  his 
provinces.  The  two  former,  from  their  lack  of  power  and  from  other 
causes,  made  indeed  but  feeble  resistance,  though  they  sometimes  produced 
violent  tumults  and  commotions  ;  but  the  Roman  pontiff,  possessing  much 
greater  power  and  resources,  fought  with  more  obstinacy,  and  in  his  turn 
inflicted  deadly  wounds  on  the  Byzantine  prelate.  Those  who  shall  care- 
fully examine  the  history  of  events  among  Christians  from  this  period  on- 
ward, will  find  that,  from  these  quarrels  about  precedence  and  the  bounda- 
ries of  their  power,  among  those  who  pretended  to  be  the  fathers  and  guar- 
dians of  the  church,  chiefly  originated  those  direful  dissensions  which  first 
split  the  eastern  church  into  various  sects,  and  then  severed  it  altogether 
from  the  church  of  the  West. 

§  6.  No  one  of  these  ambitious  prelates  was  more  successful  than  the 
Romish  patriarch.  Notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  the  Constantino- 
politan  bishop,  various  causes  enabled  him  to  augment  his  power  in  no 
small  degree  ;  although  he  had  not  yet  laid  claim  to  the  dignity  of  supreme 
lawgiver  and  judge  of  the  whole  Christian  church.  In  the  East,  the  Al- 
exandrine and  Antiochian  patriarchs,  finding  themselves  unequal  to  con- 
tend with  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  often  applied  to  the  Roman 
pontiff  for  aid  against  him;(10)  and  the  same  measures  were  adopted  by 
the  ordinary  bishops,  whenever  they  found  the  patriarchs  of  Alexandria 
and  Antioch  invading  their  rights.  To  all  these  the  pontiff  so  extended 
his  protection,  as  thereby  to  advance  the  supremacy  of  the  Roman  see.  In 
the  West,  the  indolence  and  the  diminished  power  of  the  emperors,  left 
the  bishop  of  the  metropolis  at  full  liberty  to  attempt  whatever  he  pleased. 
And  the  conquests  of  the  barbarians  were  so  far  from  setting  bounds  to 
his  domination,  that  they  rather  advanced  it.  For  these  kings,  caring  for 
nothing  but  the  establishment  of  their  thrones,  when  they  saw  that  the  peo- 
ple obeyed  implicitly  the  bishops,  and  that  these  were  dependant  almost 
wholly  on  the  Roman  pontiff,  deemed  it  good  policy  to  secure  his  favour 
by  bestowing  on  him  privileges  and  honours.  Among  all  those  who  gov- 
erned the  see  of  Rome  in  this  century,  no  one  strove  more  vigorously  and 
successfully  to  advance  its  authority,  than  Leo  who  is  commonly  surnarned 
the  Great.  But  neither  he,  nor  the  others,  could  overcome  all  obstacles  to 
their  ambition.  This  is  evident,  among  other  examples,  from  that  of  the 
Africans,  whom  no  promises  or  threats  could  induce  to  allow  their  causes 
and  controversies  to  be  carried  by  appeal  before  the  Roman  tribunal.(ll) 

(10)  [This  is  illustrated,  among  other  ex-  vol.  iv.,  p.  558,  &c.,  as  cited  by  Von  Einem, 
amples,  by  the  case  of  John  Talaia,  patriarch  in  a  note  on  this  page  of  Mosheim.     They 
of  Alexandria,  who  being  deposed,  (A.D.  were  appointed  by  the  emperors  to  decide 
482),  applied  to  the  Roman  bishop  Simpli-  causes  in  the  western  churches  ;  they  en- 
cius  for  protection.     See  Liberatus  Diaco-  couraged   appeals  to  themselves ;    they  as- 
TIUS,  Breviarium,  c.  18 — Schl. ;  and  Bower,  sumed  the  care  of  all  the  churches,  as  if  it 
Lives  of  the  Popes,  vol.  ii.,  p.   189,  &c.,  were  a  part  of  their  official  duty  ;  they  ap- 
194,  ed.  Lond.,  1750. — TV.]  pointed  vicars  in  churches,  over  which  they 

(11)  Lud.  Ell.  du  Pin,  de  antiqua  Eccles.  had  no  claims  to  jurisdiction;  where  they 
Disciplina,  Diss.  ii.,  p.    166,  &c.     Mctch.  should  have  been  only  mediators,  they  as- 
Leydecker,  Historia  Eccles.  Africanae,  torn,  sumed  to  be  judges  ;  they  required  accounts 
ii..  diss.  ii.,  p.  505,  &c.     [A  concise  view  to   be  sent  them  of  the   affairs  of  foreign 
of  the  steps  by  which  the  bishops  of  Rome  churches  ;  they  endeavoured  to  impose  the 
mounted  to  the  summit  of  their  grandeur,  is  rites  and  usages  of  their  own  church  upon 
thus  given  by/.  Andr.  Cramer,  in  his  German  all  others,  as  being  of  apostolic  origin  ;  they 
translation  of  Bossuefj  Universal  History,  traced  their  own  elevation  from  the  pre-em- 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


327 


§  7.  Of  the  vices  of  the  whole  clerical  order,  their  luxury,  their  arro- 
gance, their  avarice,  their  voluptuous  lives,  we  have  as  many  witnesses, 
as  we  have  writers  of  integrity  and  gravity  in  this  age  whose  works  have 
come  down  to  us.  The  bishops,  especially  such  as  were  distinguished  for 
their  rank  and  honours,  employed  various  administrators  to  manage  their 
affairs,  and  formed  around  themselves  a  kind  of  sacred  court.  The  dig- 
nity  of  a  presbyter  was  supposed  to  be  so  great,  that  Martin  of  Tours  did 
not  hesitate  to  say  at  a  public  entertainment,  that  the  emperor  himself  was 
inferior  to  one  of  that  order.  (12)  The  deacons  were  taxed  with  their 
pride  and  their  vices,  in  many  decrees  of  the  councils. (13)  These  stains 
on  the  character  of  the  clergy,  would  have  been  deemed  insufferable,  had 
not  most  of  the  people  been  sunk  in  superstition  and  ignorance,  and  had 
not  all  estimated  the  rights  and  privileges  of  Christian  ministers,  by  those 
of  the  ancient  priests  both  among  the  Hebrews  and  among  the  Greeks  and 
Romans.  The  fierce  and  warlike  tribes  of  Germans,  who  vanquished  the 
Romans  and  divided  up  the  empire  of  the  West  among  themselves,  after 
they  had  embraced  Christianity  could  bear  with  the  dominion  and  the  vices 
of  the  bishops  and  the  clergy,  because  they  had  before  been  subject  to  the 
domination  of  priests ;  and  they  supposed  the  Christian  priests  and  minis- 
ters  of  religion  possessed  the  same  rights  with  their  former  idolatrous 
priests. (14) 

§  8.  This  corruption  among  an  order  of  men  whose  duty  it  was  to  incul- 
cate holiness  both  by  precept  and  example,  will  afford  us  less  surprise, 


inence  of  St.  Peter;  they  maintained  that 
their  fancied  prerogatives  belonged  to  (.hern 
by  a  divine  right ;  they  threatened  with  ex- 
communication from  the  church,  those  who 
would  not  submit  to  their  decrees ;  they  set 
up  and  deposed  metropolitans,  in  provinces 
over  which  they  never  legally  had  jurisdic- 
tion ;  and  each  successive  pope  was  careful, 
at  least  not  to  lose  anything  of  the  illegal 
usurpations  of  his  predecessors,  if  he  did  not 
add  to  them.  The  truth  of  this  representa- 
tion is  abundantly  confirmed  with  the  evi- 
dence of  historical  facts,  by  various  Protest- 
ant writers  ;  and,  among  others,  by  Arch. 
Bower,  in  his  Lives  of  the  Popes,  7  vols. 
4to,  London,  1749,  &c.— TV.] 

(12)  Sulpititis  Scverus,  de  vita  Martini, 
cap.  xx.,  p.  339,  and  dial,  ii.,  cap.  vi.,  p.  457. 

(13)  See  Dav.  Blondell,  Apologia  pro  sen- 
tentia  Hieronymi  de  Episcopis  et  Presbyte- 
ris,  p.  140. 

(14)  [That  these  pagan  nations  had  been 
accustomed  to  treat  their  idolatrous  priests 
with  extraordinary  reverence,  is  a  fact  well 
known.      When    they    became    Christians, 
they  supposed  they  must  show  the  same  re- 
spect to  the  Christian  priests.     Of  course 
they  honoured  their  bishops  and  clergy,  as 
they   had    before   honoured    their   Druids ; 
and  this  reverence  disposed  them  to  bear 
patiently   with   their   vices.     Every   Druid 
was  accounted  a  very  great  character,  and 
was  feared  by  every  one ;  but  the  Chief 


Druid  was  actually  worshipped.  When 
these  people  became  Christians,  they  sup- 
posed that  the  bishop  of  Rome  was  such  a 
Chief  Druid  ;  and  that  he  must  be  honoured 
accordingly.  And  this  was  one  cause,  why 
the  Roman  pontiff  obtained  in  process  of 
time,  such  an  ascendancy  in  the  western 
countries.  The  patriarch  of  Constantinople 
rose  indeed  to  a  great  elevation ;  but  he 
never  attained  the  high  rank  and  authority  of 
the  Roman  patriarch.  The  reason  was,  that 
the  people  of  the  East  had  not  the  same  ideas 
of  the  dignity  of  a  Chief  Priest  as  the  peo- 
ple of  the  West  had.  The  eastern  clergy 
also  practised  excommunication  as  a  punish- 
ment of  transgressors  ;  but  it  never  had 
such  an  influence  in  the  East  as  it  had  in 
the  West ;  and  for  this  reason,  that  the  ef- 
fects of  a  pagan  exclusion  from  religious 
privileges,  never  were  so  great  in  the  East 
as  in  the  West.  The  effects  in  the  latter 
are  described  by  Julius  Casar,  de  Bello 
Gallico,  1.  vi.,  c.  13,  n.  6,  dec.  Si  quis  aut 
pnvatus  aut  populus  eorum  decreto  non 
stetit,  sacrifices  interdicunt.  Haec  poena 
apud  eos  est  gravissima.  Quibus  ita  est  in- 
terdictum,  ii  nurnero  impiorum  ac  scelera- 
torum  habentur  ;  ab  iis  omnes  decedunt,  adi- 
tum  eorum  sermonemque  defugiunt,  ne  quid 
ex  contagione  incommodi  accipiant :  neque 
iis  pctentibus  jus  reddilur,  neque  honos  oliuj 
communicatur. — Schl.  ] 


328     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 

when  we  consider  that  a  great  multitude  of  persons  were  everywhere  ad- 
mitted,  indiscriminately--  and  without  examination,  among  the  clergy  ;  the 
greater  part  of  whom  had  no  other  object  than  to  live  in  idleness.  And 
among  these,  very  many  were  connected  with  no  particular  church  or 
place,  and  had  no  regular  employment,  but  roamed  about  at  large,  procu- 
ring a  subsistence  by  imposing  upon  the  credulity  of  others,  and  sometimes 
by  dishonourable  artifices.  Whence  then,  some  may  ask,  those  numerous 
saints  of  this  century,  who  are  reported  to  us  by  both  the  eastern  and  the 
western  writers  ?  1  answer,  they  were  canonized  by  the  ignorance  of  the 
age.  Whoever  possessed  some  excellence  of  talents  and  ingenuity,  if 
they  excelled  considerably  as  writers  or  speakers,  if  they  possessed  dex- 
terity in  managing  affairs  of  importance,  or  were  distinguished  for  their 
self-government  and  the  control  of  their  passions  ;  these  persons,  in  an  age 
of  ignorance,  appeared  to  those  around  them  to  be  not  men,  but  gods  ;  or 
to  speak  more  correctly,  were  considered  as  men  divinely  inspired  and 
full  of  the  Deity. 

§  9.  The  monks,  who  had  formerly  lived  only  for  themselves,  and  who 
had  not  sought  to  rank  among  the  clergy,  gradually  became  a  class  dis- 
tinct from  the  common  laity,  and  acquired  such  opulence  and  such  high 
privileges,  that  they  could  claim  an  honourable  rank  among  the  chief  sup- 
ports and  pillars  of  the  church. (15)  The  reputation  of  this  class  of  per- 
sons for  piety  and.  sanctity  was  so  great,  that  very  often  when  a  bishop 
or  a  presbyter  was  to  be  elected  he  was  chosen  from  among  them ;( 16) 
and  the  erection  of  edifices  in  which  monks  and  nuns  might  conveniently 
serve  God,  was  carried  beyond  all  bounds. (17)  They  did  not,  however, 
all  observe  one  and  the  same  system  of  rules  ;  but  some  followed  the  rules 
of  Augustine,  others  those  of  Basil,  and  others  those  of  Antony,  or  Atha- 
nasius,  or  Pachomius,  &c.(18)  Yet  it  must  have  been  the  fact  that  they 

(15)  Epiphanius,  Exposit.    Fidei,  Opp.,  Tabennesis    into    a    kind   of  society ;   and 
torn,  i.,  p.   1094.     Joh.  Mabillon,  Reponse  henceforth  most  monks  became  associated 
aux   Chanoines   reguliers,    Opp.  posthum.,  hermits,  having  separate  cells,  but  living  un- 
tom.  ii.,  p.  115.  der  chiefs  called  abbots.     Basil  the  Great 

(16)  Sulpitius  Severus,  de  vita  Martini,  improved  on  the  plan  of  Pachomius,  by  erect- 
c.  x.,  p.  320.     Add,  Dial,  i.,  c.  xxi.,  p.  426.  ing  houses  in  different  parts  of  the  country, 

(17)  Sulpitius  Severus,  Dial,  i.,  p.  419.  in  which   monks  might  live  together  in  a 
Henr.  Noris,  Historia  Pelagiana,  lib.  ii.,  c.  kind  of  family  state.    He  also  made  his  mon- 
3,  in  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  p.  273.     Histoire  litte-  asteries  schools  for  the  cultivation  of  sacred 
raire  de  la  France,  torn,  ii.,  p.  35.  learning.    Si.  A'hanasius,  according  to  some, 

(18)  [A  monk  was  one  who   professed  (see  note  26,  p  265,  above),  while  resident 
wholly  to  renounce  this  world,  with  all  its  in  Italy,  taught  the  people  of  that  country 
cares  and  pleasures,  and  to  make  religion  how  to  form  and  regulate  these  associations 
his  sole  business.     The  particular  manner  in  of  monks.     And  St.  Augustine  first  estab- 
which  he  proposed  to  employ  himself,  was  lished  a  kind  of  monastery  in    his   native 
called  his  rule.     The  early  monks,  of  the  town  in  Africa ;  and  afterwards,  when  bish- 
third  century,  were  called  Eremites  or  her-  op  of  Hippo,  he  and  some  of  his  clergy  formed 
mils  ;  that  is,  they  retired   from   all  human  an  association  for  religious  purposes,  which 
society,  and  lived   in  solitude  in   the  des-  gave  rise  to  the  regular  Canons,  a  species  of 
erts   and  mountains.      Such  in   particular  clergy  whose  private  life  was  that  of  monks. 
were  the  Egyptian  monks.     In  the  fourth  During  the  fifth  century,  the  passion  for  mo- 
century  they  became  so  numerous  in  Egypt,  nastic  life  was  very  great,  and  monks   and 
as  to  turn  their  favourite  desert  into  a  pop-  nuns  became    extremely   numerous   in    the 
ulous  country  ;  and  St.  Antony,  a  leading  West   as  well-  as   the  East.     Yet,  hitherto 
man  among  them,  induced  great  numbers  to  there  had  not  been  required  of  monks  any 
adopt  his  particular  rule.     St.   Pachomius  vows  of  perpetual,  celibacy,  poverty,  and  obe- 
about  the  same  time  organized  the  monks  of  dience,  nor  of  adherence  for  ever  to  any  one 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


329 


were  all  very  remiss  and  negligent  in  the  observance  of  their  rules,  since 
the  licentiousness  of  monks  had  even  in  this  century  become  proverbial  ;(19) 
and  these  armies  of  lazy  men,  we  are  told,  excited  in  various  places  dread, 
ful  seditions.  From  the  enactments  of  the  councils  of  this  century,  it 
clearly  appears,  that  all  monks  of  every  sort  were  under  the  protection  of 
the  bishops  in  whose  dioceses  they  lived ;  nor  did  the  patriarchs,  as  yet, 
arrogate  to  themselves  any  jurisdiction  over  them. (20) 

§  10.  Among  the  Greek  and  Oriental  writers  of  this  century,  the  most 
distinguished  was  Cyril,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  very  famous  for  his  differ- 
ent  controversies  and  writings.  No  impartial  person  will  divest  him  of 
all  praise  ;  yet  no  good  man  will  excuse  his  quarrelsome  temper,  his  rest. 
less  spirit,  and  his  very  great  transgressions. (21)  Next  to  him  must  be 

rule  of  life  ;  but  every  one  was  free  to  con-  (20)  See  Joh.  Launoi,  Inquisitio  in  char- 

tinue  a  monk  or  not,  and  to  pass  from  one  tarn  immunitatis  B.  Germani,  in  his  Opp., 

society  or  class  of  monks  to  another,  at  his  torn,  iii.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  3,  &c.,  38,  &c.     In  the 

option.  Different  monasteries  had  different  ancient  records  posterior  to  this  century,  the 
rules,  according  to  the  will  of  their  founders 


or  governors ;  but  in  all,  the  written  rules, 
if  they  had  any,  were  few  and  simple,  the  ab- 
bots possessing  despotic  power  over  their 
little  kingdoms.  The  diversity  which  then 
prevailed  among  the  monasteries  as  to  their 
rules,  is  thus  described  by  father  Mabillon, 
(Annales  Benedictini,  lib.  i.,  $  13,  torn,  i., 
p.  6,  &c.),  "  As  well  in  the  East  as  in  the 
West,  there  were  almost  as  many  different 
forms  and  rules,  as  there  were  different  cells 
and  monasteries,  says  Cassianus,  Institut., 
1.  ii.,  c.  1.  In  some,  the  pleasure  of  the  ab- 
bot was  the  only  rule  ;  in  others,  the  mode 
of  life  was  regulated  by  custom  and  former 
usage  ;  in  most  however,  there  were  written 
rules.  And,  because  all  monastic  rules, 
whether  written  or  not,  aimed  at  one  and  the 
same  object,  viz.,  to  withdraw  men  from  all 
worldly  concerns,  and  from  all  worldly 
thoughts,  so  that  they  might  be  wholly  de- 
voted to  God  and  religion  ;  the  monasteries 
were  not  in  general  so  confined  to  any  one 
rule  but  that  they  could  adopter  superinduce 
another,  at  the  discretion  of  the  abbot ;  and 
this,  without  changing  their  profession,  and 
without  harm.  Hence  in  the  same  monas- 
tery, diverse  written  rules  were  observed  at 
the  same  time,  with  such  modifications  as 
were  necessary  to  adapt  them  to  particular 
times  and  places.  And  yet,  amid  this  great 
diversity  of  rules,  there  was  the  greatest  har- 
mony among  all  the  monks,  who  constituted 
in  reality  but  one  society  and  one  body,  and 
were  distinguished  from  each  other  by  no  pe- 
culiarities of  dress.  Removal  also  from  one 
monastery  to  another,  and  mutual  abode  with 
each  other,  were  easy  and  free  ;  and  not  only 
where  both  monasteries  were  of  Latins,  but 
also  where  one  was  of  Latins  and  the  other 
of  Greeks."—  TV.] 

(19)  Sulpitius  Severus,  Dial,  i.,  cap.  viii., 
p.  399,  &c. 

VOL.  1.— T  T 


monks  are  often  called  (clenci)  clergymen. 
See  Joh.  Mabillon,  Praefatio  ad  Saecul.  ii. 
Actor.  Sanctor.  Ord.  Benedicti,  p.  xiv.  And 
this  is  evidence,  that  they  then  began  to  be 
ranked  among  the  clergy,  or  ministers  of  the 
church. 

(21)  The  works  of  Cyril  were  published 
by  Joh.  Aubertus,  at  Paris.  1638,  6.  vols., 
[in  vii.  parts],  folio. — [St.  Cynllus  was 
nephew  to  Theuphilus,  and  his  successor  in 
the  chair  of  Alexandria  from  A.D.  412  to 
444.  Soon  after  his  election,  he  persecuted 
the  Novatians  ;  assumed  the  direction  of  po- 
litical affairs ;  quarrelled  with  Orestes,  the 
governor  of  Egypt ;  and  is  said  to  have  oc- 
casioned several  insurrections  and  much 
bloodshed  at  Alexandria  ;  to  have  instigated 
the  murder  of  Hypatia,  an  eminent  female 
philosopher  ;  and  to  have  pulled  down  the 
Jews'  synagogue,  plundered  it,  and  chased 
the  Jews  from  the  city.  See  Socrates,  Hist. 
Eccles.,  1.  vii.,  c.  7,  13,  14,  15,  and  Dama- 
sius,  in  Suidas,  Lex.  voce  t>—<ma.  From 
the  year  429,  he  was  the  most  zealous  and 
efficient  opposer  of  Nestorius  and  his  doc- 
trines ;  wrote  against  him  ;  condemned  his 
doctrines  in  a  synod  at  Alexandria,  in  his 
noted  xii.  chapters ;  presided  in  the  council 
of  Ephesus,  where  Nestorius  was  condemn- 
ed and  deposed  A.D.  431.  His  zeal  against 
Nestorius  drew  on  himself  deposition,  by 
some  Oriental  bishops  ;  but  he  was  soon  re- 
stored. With  the  bishop  of  Rome,  he  wa» 
always  on  the  most  friendly  terms.  He  was 
certainly  a  man  of  talents,  and  his  volumi- 
nous writings  display  much  acuteness  and 
learning,  though  the  style  is  unpolished  and 
not  very  clear.  More  than  half  of  them  are 
expositions  of  the  scriptures;  viz.,  of  the 
Pentateuch,  Isaiah,  the  Minor  Prophets,  and 
the  Gospel  of  John.  The  others  are  po- 
lemic treatises,  against  Arians,  Nestorians, 
and  others,  who  erred  in  respect  to  the  Trin- 


330 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


placed  Theodoret,  bishop  of  Cyrus,  an  eloquent,  copious,  and  learned  wri- 
ter, whose  merits  in  every  branch  of  theological  learning  are  by  no  means 
contemptible,  notwithstanding  he  is  said  to  have  imbibed  some  part  of  the 
Nestorian  doctrine. (22)  Isidorus  Pelusiota  has  left  us  [numerous,  short] 
Epistles,  which  display  more  piety,  ingenuity,  erudition,  and  judgment,  than 
the  large  volumes  of  some  others. (23)  Theophilus,  bishop  of  Alexandria, 

ing  to  his  diocese,  he  devolved  most  of  his 
episcopal  duties  on  Hypatius,  and  devoted 
himself  to  writing  books,  till  the  year  457, 
when  he  died,  aged  about  71.  He  was 
frank,  open-hearted,  ingenuous,  had  elevated 
views  and  feelings,  was  resolute  and  unbend- 
ing, yet  generous,  sympathetic,  and  ardently 
pious.  His  learning  was  great,  his  genius 
good,  and  his  productions  among  the  best  of 
that  age.  The  first  and  second  volumes  of 
his  works  embrace  his  Commentaries  on  the 
greater  part  of  the  Old  Testament.  Volume 
third  contains  Comments  on  all  the  Epistles 
of  Paul ;  Hist.  Ecclesiastica,  in  five  books  ; 
(a  continuation  of  Eusebius,  from  A.D.  320 
to  A.D.  427,  written  in  a  style  elevated, 
clear,  and  well  adapted  to  history) ;  Philo- 
theus,  or  Historia  Religiosa;  (eulogies  of 
30  distinguished  monks) :  and  146  epistles. 
Volume  fourth  contains  four  books  or  dia- 
logues, entitled  Eranistes,  or  Polymorphus  ; 
(polemic,  on  the  person  of  Christ) ;  Hsereti- 
carum  Tabular,  lib.  v  (an  account  of  the 
ancient  Heresies) ;  de  Providentia  Orationes 
x.  adversus  Gentes,  or  Graecarum  affectio- 
num  curatio,  (an  apology  for  Christianity), 
in  12  books  ;  and  some  other  small  pieces. 
The  fifth  volume  contains  some  other  exposi- 
tory pieces,  several  sermons,  34  epistles,  and 
seven  dialogues  against  the  Arians,  Macedo- 
nians, and  Apollinarists. — All  his  works,  Gr. 
and  Lat.,  with  Notes,  were  republished  by  J. 
L.  Schulze,  Halle,  1768-74,  in  five  volumes, 
in  nine,  8vo.  See  his  life,  in  Schroeckh, 
Kirchengesch.,  vol.  xviii., p.  355—432. — Tr.] 
(23)  The  best  edition  of  these  letters,  is 
that  of  the  Jesuit,  Andr.  Schott,  Paris,  1638, 
fol. — [Isidorus  was  probably  a  native  of  Al- 
exandria, but  he  spent  his  life  in  a  monas- 
tery near  Pelimium,  now  Damietta,  on  one 
of  the  mouths  of  the  Nile  ;  and  hence  his 
surname  of  Pelusiota.  He  flourished  about 
A.D.  412  ;  but  was  active  and  conspicuous 
from  the  year  388  to  431.  As  a  monk  he 
was  very  austere  in  his  mode  of  living  ;  and 
retiring  from  the  noise  and  bustle  of  the 
world,  he  devoted  himself  to  reading  and  ex- 
pounding the  Scriptures,  and  to  the  practice 
and  the  promotion  of  piety  and  virtue.  He 
chose  the  epistolary  form  of  writing  ;  and 
has  left  us  2013  short  letters,  which  are  di- 
vided into  five  books.  In  most  of  them  a 
question  is  proposed,  and  answered  by  the  ex- 
position of  a  text  of  Scripture.  The  object 


ity  and  the  person  of  Christ. ;  10  Books 
against  Julian ;  about  50  Sermons  ;  and 
near  60  Letters.  See  his  life,  in  Schroeckh., 
Kirchengesch.,  vol.  xviii.,  p.  313-354. — 
2>.] 

(22)  For  a  fine  edition  of  the  whole  works 
of  Theodoret,  we  are  indebted  to  the  Jesuit 
Jac.  Sirmond,  who  edited  them  at  Paris, 
1642,  in  4  vols.,  folio.  The  Jesuit  Jo.  Gar- 
trier,  afterwards  added  a  fifth  volume,  Paris, 
1685,  folio.  [Thcodorel  or  Theodorit,  was 
born  at  Antioch  about  the  year  386,  of  weal- 
thy and  pious  parents.  He  was  their  only 
child,  and  like  Samuel,  the  son  of  their  vows  ; 
and  therefore  named  Theodoretus,  given  of 
God.  When  not  quite  seven  years  old,  he 
was  placed  in  a  neighbouring  monastery  for 
education,  where  he  had  for  associates  Nes- 
torius  and  John,  who  became  the  patriarchs 
of  Constantinople  and  Antioch  ;  and  for  in- 
structers,  Theodorus  bishop  of  Mopsuestia, 
and  Chrysoslom,  from  whom  he  learned  elo- 
quence and  sacred  literature.  He  became 
early  pious,  was  first  made  lector,  and  then 
deacon,  in  the  church  of  Antioch  ;  and  in 
the  year  420,  was  ordained  bishop  of  Cyrus, 
a  considerable  city  in  Syria,  near  the  Eu- 
phrates, where  he  is  said  to  have  had  the 
charge  of  800  churches.  The  country  was 
overrun  with  antitrinitarian  sectarians  and 
with  Marcionites,  of  whom  he  nearly  purged 
his  diocese,  having,  as  he  says,  baptized  no 
less  than  10,000  Marcionites.  In  the  year 
429,  his  early  friend  Nestorius  broached  his 
errors  respecting  the  person  of  Christ,  and 
was  condemned  by  Cyril  of  Alexandria. 
Theodoret  espoused  the  cause  of  his  friend  ; 
which  involved  him  in  a  quarrel  with  Cyril 
as  long  as  they  lived.  He  was  one  of  those, 
who  in  the  year  431  deposed  Cyril  at  Ephe- 
sus ;  for  which  he  was  sent  home  in  dis- 
grace by  the  emperor  Thcodosius  junior. 
Cyril  died  in  444  ;  and  Theodoret  expressed 
his  joy  at  the  event,  which  so  enraged  the 
emperor,  that  he  confined  him  to  his  house. 
In  449,  he  was  deposed  in  the  second  synod 
of  Ephesus,  and  applied  to  the  bishop  of 
Rome,  who  now  espoused  his  cause.  The- 
odosius  died  in  450,  and  his  successor  re- 
stored Theodoret  to  his  see  ;  and  afterwards 
summoned  him  to  be  a  member  of  the  coun- 
cil of  Chalcedon  in  451,  where  he  professed 
his  orthodoxy,  and  was  reluctantly  brought 
to  condemn  Nestorius.  After  this,  return- 


CHURCH OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


331 


has  left  us  very  little  in  writing ;  but  he  has  perpetuated  his  name,  by  his 
opposition  to  Origen  and  his  followers. (24)  Palladius,on  account  of  his 
Lausiac  History,  and  his  Life  of  Chrysostom,  deserves  a  place  among  the 
respectable  and  useful  writers. (25)  Notwithstanding  Theodoras  of  Mop- 
sucstia  was  accused  after  his  death  of  the  grossest  errors,  yet  every  one 
who  has  examined  the  extracts  from  his  writings  by  Photius,  will  regret 
that  his  works  are  either  entirely  lost,  or  exist  only  in  Syriac  among  the 
Nestorians.(26)  Nilus  composed  many  works  calculated  to  excite  reli. 


is  to  expound  the  Scriptures,  and  to  incul- 
cate the  doctrines  and  duties  of  religion. 
He  was  an  admirer  of  Chrysostom ;  and  of 
course  had  difficulty  with  Theophilus  and 
Cyril,  the  patriarchs  of  Alexandria.  But 
he  feared  no  man,  whenever  he  thought  duty 
called  him  to  defend  truth  or  to  censure  vice. 
-TV.] 

(24)  See  Euscb.  Renaudot,  Historia  Pa- 
triarchar.  Alexandrinor.,  p.  103.  [Theophi- 
lus, bishop  of  Alexandria  from  the  year  385 
to  the  year  412,  was  a  man  of  a  strong,  ac- 
tive, courageous  mind ;  but  crafty,  unscru- 
pulous, selfish,  and  ambitious.  He  proba- 


who  opposed  the  Anthropomorphites,  drove 
them  from  Egypt,  and  followed  them  with 
persecution,  and  also  all  who  befriended 
them,  and  in  particular  Chrysostom,  whom 
he  deposed  in  the  year  403.  See  Socrates, 
H.  E.,  vi.,  7-17.  So:omcn,\iii.,  11-19.— 
His  works  are  not  numerous,  and  have  never 
been  collected  and  published  by  themselves. 
They  consist  of  three  Paschal  Letters,  or 
Episcopal  Charges  ;  several  Letters  ;  and 


considerable  extracts  from  different  polemic 

treatises. — 7V.] 

(25)  [Palladium  was  born  in  Galatia,  in 

the  year  368.     In  his  20th  year,  he  went  to 

bly  spent  some  of  his  early  years  among  the     Egypt,  and  spent  several  years  among  differ- 
monks  of  Nitria.     Afterwards   he  became     ent   tribes  of  monks.      The  failure   of  his 


a  presbyter  of  Alexandria,  wrote  a  Paschal 
Cycle  in  380,  and  was  made  bishop  in  385. 
In  the  year  388,  when  Theodosius  senior 
waged  war  in  Italy  upon  Maximus  the  usurp- 
er, Theophilus  sent  his  legate  Itidonu  to 
Rome,  with  letters  and  presents  to  both  em- 
perors ;  but  with  instructions  to  await  the 
issue  of  the  battle,  and  then  to  present  only 
the  letter  and  presents  directed  to  the  victor. 
(Suzumcn,  Hist.  Eccl.,  1.  viii.,c.  2.)  In  the 


health  obliged  him  to  return  from  the  wil- 
derness to  Alexandria,  and  thence  to  Pales- 
tine. In  the  year  400,  Chrysostom  made 
him  bishop  of  Helenopolis  in  Bithynia ; 
which  he  exchanged  some  years  after,  for 
Aspona  in  Galatia.  The  time  of  his  death 
is  unknown  ;  but  it  is  supposed  to  have  been 
before  A.D.  431.  Palladium  was  a  man  of 
moderate  talents  and  erudition,  but  pious,  a 
devoted  monk,  and  a  perspicuous,  unassuming 
writer.  His  works  are,  (I.)  Historia  Lausi- 


year391,  he  solicited  and  obtained  of  the 

emperor  leave  to  persecute  the   pagans  of    aca,  sen  dc  SS.  Putnun  vilis,  ad  Luusum 

Alexandria,  and  proceeded  to  demolish  their     cubiculi  Prafcctum  ;    (Biography  of  30  of 

temples   and  seize  whatever  was   valuable 

in  them.     Insurrections  and  bloodshed,  and 

the  flight  of  the  philosophers  from  Egypt, 

were  the  consequence.    (Socrates,  Hist.  Ec- 

cles.,  1.  v.,  c.  16.)     The  major  part  of  the 


ignorant  monks  of  Nitria  had  such  gross 
ideas  of  the  Supreme  Being,  as  to  suppose 
he  literally  had  eyes  and  feet  and  hands,  and 
were  therefore  called  AnthropomorpkUct. 
But  the  better  informed  monks  held,  that 
these  expressions  were  to  be  taken  mela- 


the  most  famous  monks)  ;  written  about  the 
year  421  ;  edited,  Gr.  and  I>at.,  by  Fronto 
'le  Due,  in  his  Auctarium  Biblioth.  Patr., 
torn,  ii.,  p.  893-1053,  Paris,  1624,  fol. 
Some  editions  were  afterwards  published  by 
Cotelicr,  Monument.  Eccl.  Gr.,  torn.  iii. 
Several  Latin  translations  are  extant,  often 
published. — (II  )  Dialog-its  dc  Vita  S.  Jo- 
han.  Chrysostomi,  inter  Palladium  Ejii.tc. 
Hellcnopolitannm  et  Theodorum,  (Life  or 
Eulogy  of  John  Chri/sostom),  first  publish- 


phorically,  as  Ongen  had  always  interpret-     ed,   Gr.  and   Lat.,  by  Emer.   Bipot,  Paris, 


ed  them.  And  thus  this  controversy  resolv- 
ed itself  into  a  contest  respecting  O 
correctness  as  a  theologian.  At  first,  The- 
ophilus favoured  the  Origenists ;  but  the 
Anthropomorphites  came  upon  him  tumult- 
uously,  about  the  year  399,  and  compelled 
him  to  change  sides.  From  this  time,  he 
was  a  zealous  persecutor  of  all  Origenists. 
.(notwithstanding  he  continued  to  read  and 
admire  Ins  works),  and  he  actually  made 


1680,  and  again  1738,  4lo  ;  with  some  other 
works.  Whether  the  Palladius  who  wrote 
this,  was  the  same  as  the  author  of  the  Lau- 
siac  History,  has  been  questioned — (III.) 
'.tins  Indue,  ct  Rrachmannis  Liber,  is 
extant  under  his  name  :  but  it  is  not  sup- 
posed to  be  genuine. — TV.] 

(26)  See  Jo*.  Sim.  Asscman,  Biblioth. 
Oriental.  Clement.  Vaticana,  torn,  iii.,  pt. 
ii..  p.  227.  [and  ibid.,  pt.  i ,  p  3-362,  where 


bloody  crusade  against  those  Nitric  monks     we  have  Ehrd  Jisit's  catalogue  of  his  works. 


332 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


gious  emotions,  but  more  commendable  for  the  pious  intentions  of  the  wri- 
ter, than  for  his  accurate  and  laboured  thoughts. (27)  Our  designed  brev- 
ity obliges  us  to  pass  over  what  might  be  worthy  of  notice  in  Basil  of  Se- 
leucia,(28)  Theodotus  of  Ancyra,(29)  Gelasius  of  Cyzicum,(30)  and  oth- 
ers.(31) 


— Thcodorus  was  born  and  educated  at  An- 
tioch,  where  he  was  some  time  a  presbyter, 
and  where  he  and  Chrysostom  instructed 
youth  in  a  monastery,  and  had  for  pupils 
Theodorct,  the  famous  Ncstorius  patriarch 
of  Constantinople,  and  John  patriarch  of  An- 
tioch.  In  the  year  392,  he  was  made  bish- 
op of  Mopsuestia  in  Cilicia,  where  he  spent 
36  years,  with  great  reputation  as  a  preacher, 
a  bishop,  and  especially  as  an  author.  Af- 
ter his  death,  which  happened  in  the  year 
428,  he  was  accused  of  Nestorian  and  like- 
wise of  Pelagian  sentiments  ;  and  was  con- 
demned as  a  heretic,  in  the  fifth  general  coun- 
cil, at  Constantinople  A.D.  553.  His  wri- 
tings were  very  numerous,  embracing  literal 
expositions  of  nearly  the  whole  Bible,  elab- 
orate polemic  works,  against  the  Anans,  Eu- 
nomians,  Apollinarists,  &c.,  with  many  ser- 
mons and  epistles,  and  a  liturgy.  A  Latin 
translation  of  the  last,  is  in  Renaudot,  Lit- 
urgiar.  Oriental.  Collectio,  torn,  ii.,  p.  616- 
625.  His  Expositio  Fidei  entire,  and  co- 
pious extracts  from  many  of  his  other  works, 
are  extant  in  the  Acts  of  the  fifth  general 
council,  apud  Harduin,  torn,  in.,  in  the 
works  of  Marius  Mercator,  and  of  other  fa- 
thers, and  in  the  Catenae  Patrum,  especially 
the  Catena  in  Octateuchum,  Lips.,  1772,  2 
vols.  fol.,  and  in  Miinter's  Fragmenta  Patr. 
Gr.,  fascic.  i.,  p.  79,  &c.,  Copenhag.,  1788, 
8vo.  See  Schroeckh,  Kirchengesch.,  vol. 
xv.(  p.  176-218,  and  Lardner,  Credibility, 
&c.,  vol.  ix.,  p.  389,  &c.—  TV.] 

(27)  [Nilus  was  born  of  a  noble  family, 
at  Constantinople,  where  he  became  prefect 
of  the  city.     Under  the  preaching  of  Chry- 
sostom, he    became  pious,   renounced    the 
world,  separated  from  his  wife,  and,  taking 
one  of  his  two  sons  with  him,  retired  among 
the  monks  of  Egypt,  where  he  spent  the  re- 
mainder of  his  days.     By  robbers  he  lost  all 
his  property,  and  had  his  son  captured  ;  but 
he  recovered  his  eon.     He  was  made  a  pres- 
byter, and  probably  lived  till  near  the  middle 
of  this  century.    His  numerous  writings  have 
been  read  with  pleasure  by  the  lovers  of  mo- 
nastic piety.     His  355  epistles  were  publish- 
ed, Gr.  and  Lat.,  by  Leo  Allatius,  Rome, 
1668,  fol.  ;  and  his  Opuscula,  (21  treatises 
on  moral  and  ascetic  subjects),  Gr.  and  Lat., 
by  Jos.  Maria  Suares,  Rome,  1673,  folio. 
-TV.] 

(28)  [Basil  was  bishop  of  Seleucia  in 
Isauria  before  the  year  448,  and  continued 
so  till  after  the  year  458.     He  possessed 


some  talents  ;  but  he  was  an  unstable  man. 
In  the  council  of  Constantinople  A.D.  448, 
he  voted  with  the  orthodox,  and  condemned 
Eutyches.  The  next  year,  in  the  council  of 
Ephesus,  he  openly  sided  with  the  Eutychi- 
ans,  and  anathematized  the  orthodox.  And 
two  years  after,  in  the  council  of  Chalcedon, 
he  appeared  again  on  the  orthodox  side,  and 
said  he  had  been  compelled  to  act  with  the 
Eutychians  ;  but  he  had  much  difficulty  to 
persuade  the  orthodox  of  his  sincerity,  and 
to  allow  him  his  episcopal  office. — His 
works  were  published,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  sub- 
joined to  those  of  Gregory  Thaumaturgus 
and  Macarius  the  monk,  Paris,  1622,  fol. 
They  consist  of  43  orations ;  of  which  17 
are  on  the  Old  Testament,  and  26  on  the 
New ;  written  in  a  lofty  style,  and  tolerably 
perspicuous,  but  excessively  flowery.  The 
Demonstration  that  Christ  has  come,  against 
the  Jews,  founded  on  the  70  weeks  of  Dan- 
iel, and  the  two  books  on  the  Life  of  St. 
Thecla,  the  virgin  and  martyr,  though  print- 
ed among  his  works,  are  supposed  by  many 
to  be  not  genuine. — TV.] 

(29)  [Theodotus,  bishop  of  Ancyra  in  Ga- 
latia,  flourished  about  the  year  430.     Little 
is  known  of  him,  except  that  he  acted  a  con- 
spicuous  part   in  the   council  of  Ephesus, 
which  condemned  Ncstorius  in  the  year  431. 
Three  Orations,  which  he  then  delivered  at 
Ephesus,  (two  on  Christmas  day,  and  one 
against  Nestorius),  are  extant,  Gr.  and  Lat., 
among  the  Acts  of  that  council,  torn,  iii.,  p. 
988,  1008,  1024.     Another  of  his  orations 
was  published  with  the  works  of  Amphi/ochi- 
us,  Paris,  1644.     His  Exposition  of  the  Ni- 
cene  creed,  or  Confutation  of  Nestorius,  was 
published,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  by  Combejis,  Paris, 
1675,   12mo.      7'hcodotus,   in   the  close  of 
the  last-mentioned  work,  refers  to  his  three 
Books  on  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  are  lost ; 
as  are  his  seven  Books  against  Nestorius, 
addressed  to    Lausus.     He   has  been  ac- 
counted a  good  polemic  writer. — Tr.] 

(30)  [Gelasius  Cyzicenus  was  a  native  of 
Cyzicus,  an  island  in  the  Propontis,  where 
his  father  was  a  presbyter.     He  flourished 
about  A.D.  476.  and  was  bishop  of  Caesarea 
in  Palestine.     He  is  known  chiefly  by  his 
History  of  the  Nicene  Council,  or  as  the  Gr. 
MSS.  style  it,  his  Ecclesiastical  History,  in 
iii.  Books.     Theirs/  Book  contains  the  af- 
fairs of  Constantine,  till  the  death  of  Lici- 
7iius  in  324.    The  second  contains  subse- 
quent events,  the  calling  of  the  council,  and 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


333 


the  transactions  in  it  and  during  it,  especially 
the  disputes  of  the  philosophers  and  Arians 
with  the  Nicene  fathers.  The  third  Book, 
which  is  now  lost,  contained  the  subsequent 
life  and  deeds  of  Constantine.  As  for  the 
sources  from  which  he  drew  his  information, 
he  tells  us,  that  when  a  boy  at  Cyzicus  he 
met  with  an  old  MS.  history  of  the  Nicene 
council,  written  by  one  Dalmatius  a  former 
bishop  of  Cyzicus  ;  that  he  then  made  large 
extracts  from  it ;  and  many  years  after,  com- 
posed his  history  from  these  extracts,  and 
from  the  writings  of  Eusebivs,  Rufinus,  &c. 
This  work  of  Gelasius,  once  in  high  repute, 
is  now  little  esteemed  ;  in  particular,  the  ac- 
count of  the  disputes  of  the  philosophers  and 
Arians,  which  constitute  the  greater  part  of 
the  second  book,  are  considered  very  ques- 
tionable. The  two  surviving  books  were 
published,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  by  R.  Balf.  Scot, 
Paris,  1599,  8vo  ;  and  in  the  Collections  of 
Councils,  by  Hardmn,  torn,  i.,  p. — . — TV.] 

(31)  [The  Greek  and  Oriental  writers, 
passed  by  in  silence  by  Dr.  Mosheim,  are 
very  numerous.  As  some  knowledge  of 
them  is  useful,  and  indeed  necessary  for  a 
theologian,  a  tolerably  complete  catalogue 
of  them,  extracted  from  Cave's  Historia  Lit- 
teraria,  is  here  subjoined. 

Asterius,  bishop  of  Amasea  in  Pontus  ; 
flourished  about  A.D.  401  ;  an  eloquent  and 
popular  preacher.  More  than  twenty  of  his 
Homilies  are  published,  by  Combefis  and  Co- 
telier. 

Marcus,  a  monk  of  Nitria,  Egypt ;  flour- 
ished A.D.  4-01.  Seven  tracts  on  practical 
piety,  written  with  great  simplicity,  are  ex- 
tant in  Fronlo  Ducaeus,  Auctuar.  Biblioth. 
Pair.,  torn.  i. 

Victor  of  Antioch,  a  contemporary  of 
Chrysostom ;  wrote  a  Commentary  on 
Mark  s  Gospel ;  extant,  Lat.,  in  the  Biblioth. 
Patr.,  torn,  iv.,  p.  370. 

Severianus,  bishop  of  Gabala  in  Syria ; 
flourished  A.D.  401  ;  a  turgid  writer,  but  a 
popular  preacher.  Twelve  of  his  orations 
are  extant,  among  the  works  of  Chrysostom. 

Heraclides,  a  monk  of  Constantinople ; 
flourished  A.D.  402.  Rewrote  Paradisus, 
or  Lives  of  the  monks ;  much  of  which  is 
copied  into  the  Lausiac  History  of  Pallatli- 
us,  and  the  remainder  was  published  by  Co- 
telier,  Monument.  E™cl.  Gr.,  torn.  iii. 

Atticus,  bishop  of  Constantinople,  A.D. 
406-427 ;  an  enemy  of  Chrysostom,  but 
famed  for  learning,  address,  and  piety.  Two 
of  his  letters,  and  some  fragments,  are  extant. 

Polychronius,  bishop  of  Apamea  ;  flour- 
ished A.D.  410-427  ;  was  brother  to  Theo- 
dorus  of  Mopsuestia.  His  exposition  of  the 
Canticles,  and  fragments  of  his  Commentary 
on  Ezckiel  and  Daniel,  are  extant. 


Nonnus,  a  converted  pagan  poet,  of 
Egypt ;  flourished  A.D.  410.  His  Dionys- 
iaca,  in  48  Books,  written  before  his  con- 
version, have  been  often  published ;  e.  g., 
Hanover,  1605,  8vo.  His  poetic  version  of 
John's  Gospel,  was  published,  Gr.  and  Lat., 
by  Heinsius,  1627,  8vo,  and  his  Collectio  et 
Expticatio  Historiarum,  by  R.  Montague, 
Eton,  1610,  4to.  He  was  a  scholar,  but  a 
turgid  writer. 

Synesius,  a  philosopher,  statesman,  poet, 
and  after  A.D.  410,  bishop  of  Ptolemais,  in 
Gyrene,  Africa ;  a  man  of  fine  talents,  and 
a  devoted  bishop ;  but  more  of  a  philosopher 
than  theologian.  Besides  several  treatises, 
philosophical,  political,  and  historical,  he  has 
left  us  155  Epistles,  10  Hymns,  and  some 
sermons  ;  all  published,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  by  Pe- 
tavius,  Paris,  1612  and  1633,  fol. 

Philip  of  Side  in  Pamphylia,  a  friend  of 
Chrysostom,  and  candidate  for  the  see  of 
Constantinople  in  427.  He  wrote  a  reli- 
gious History,  from  the  creation  to  his  own 
times,  in  36  Books  ;  a  prolix  and  tedious 
work,  of  which  only  extracts  remain. 

Eudocia,  a  learned  Athenian  lady,  born 
A.D.  401,  converted  to  Christianity  at  20, 
and  soon  after  married  to  the  emperor  Thc- 
odosius  II.  ;  proclaimed  empress  in  432  ; 
divorced,  for  a  slight  cause,  in  445 ;  then 
retired  to  Jerusalem,  and  spent  her  life  in 
works  of  charity  and  beneficence ;  and  in 
composing  Centones  Homend,  poetic  para- 
phrases of  the  Bible,  and  other  religious 
poems.  She  died  A.D.  459,  aged  58. 

Philostorgius,  born  in  Cappadocia  A.D. 
368,  well  educated  at  Constantinople,  a 
Eunomian  or  Semiarian  in  principle.  He 
composed,  about  the  year  425,  an  Ecclesi- 
astical History  in  xii.  Books,  extending  from 
the  first  rise  of  Arianism,  to  A.D.  425.  The 
work  itself  is  lost ;  but  an  epitome  of  it  by 
Photius,  was  edited  by  Valesitts,  among  the 
Greek  Ecclesiastical  Historians.  His  work 
was  partial  to  the  Arians,  and  is  therefore 
censured  by  Photius  and  others. 

Sabvnus,  bishop  of  Heraclea  in  Thrace  -r 
flourished  A.D.  425.  He  was  of  the  sect  of 
Maccdonius ;  and  published  a  Collection  of 
the  acts  of  the  councils,  from  A.D.  325  to 
425.  The  work  is  lost,  except  some  ex- 
tracts, preserved  by  Socrates  and  others. 

John,  bishop  of  Antioch,  A.D.  427-441. 
He  at  first  supported  his  early  friend  Nestori- 
us ;  but  afterwards  abandoned  him  and  his 
sect.  Six  of  his  Epistles  are  extant,  Gr. 
and  Lat.,  in  Collect.  Concilior.,  torn,  iii.; 
and  fifteen  more,  Latin,  in  Lupus*  Collection 
of  Ephesine  Epistles. 

Nestorius,  presbyter  at  Antioch,  and  bish- 
op of  Constantinople,  A.D.  428-431.  A» 
a  bishop,  he  was  very  zealou*  to  suppress  ail 


334 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


the  prevailing  heresies ;  but  he  soon  incurred 
the  charge  of  heresy  himself,  by  maintaining 
that  in  the  person  of  Christ,  the  two  natures 
were  not  so  united  as  to  form  but  one  per- 
son ;  and  that  it  was  improper  to  call  Mary 
tfeoroKOf,  (he  mother  of  God;  though  she 
might  be  called  ^piforo/coc,  the  mother  of 
Christ.  For  this  opinion,  he  was  condemn- 
ed and  deposed,  in  a  council  at  Ephesus, 
A.D.  431.  Afterwards,  the  emperor  con- 
fined him  to  a  monastery  near  Antioch  ;  and 
then  banished  him  to  the  deserts  of  Egypt, 
where  he  wandered  several  years,  suffered 
much,  and  at  last  died.  He  was  a  popular 
preacher,  and  an  active  bishop,  but,  accord- 
ing to  Socrates,  (H.  E.,  viii.,  32),  not  a  very 
profound  man.  Besides  numerous  extracts 
from  various  of  his  works,  several  entire 
Epistles  and  some  Sermons  are  extant,  in 
the  Collections  of  councils,  in  Lupus'  Ephe- 
sine  Epistles,  and  in  the  works  of  Chrysos- 
tom,  Mcrcator,  &c. 

Mdetius,  bishop  of  Mopsuestia,  A.D.  428 
and  onward  ;  a  stanch  Nestorian,  deposed 
and  banished  for  this  heresy.  Eleven  of  his 
Epistles  are  in  the  Ephesine  Collection. 

Isaac,  a  converted  Jew,  flourished  A.D. 
430,  author  of  a  treatise  on  the  Trinity,  and 
the  incarnation  of  Christ,  in  bad  Greek ; 
extant  among  the  Opuscula  Veterum  dog- 
matica  ;  published  by  Sirmond,  Paris,  1630, 
8vo. 

Acacius,  a  monk,  and  bishop  of  Beraea, 
from  about  378  to  436.  He  was  a  man  in 
high  repute,  and  has  left  us  three  epistles. 

Acacius,  bishop  of  Melitene  in  Arme- 
nia ;  a  stanch  opposer  of  Nestorius  in  the 
council  of  Ephesus  A.D.  431.  A  homily 
he  delivered  there,  and  an  Epistle,  are  ex- 
tant ;  in  the  Concil.,  torn,  iii.,  and  in  Lupus' 
Collection  of  Ephesine  Epistles. 

Dorotheus,  bishop  of  Martianopolis  in 
Moesia ;  a  bold  defender  of  Nfstorius  at 
Ephesus  A.D.  431,  and  therefore  deposed, 
and  at  last  banished,  four  of  his  Epistles 
are  in  the  Ephesine  Collection. 

Alexander,  bishop  of  Hierapolis  in  Syria; 
a  defender  of  Nestorius  at  Ephesus  A. D.  43 1 , 
and  therefore  deposed  and  banished.  He  has 
23  Epistles  in  the  Ephesine  Collection. 

Maximinus,  bishop  of  Anazarbum  in  Ci- 
licia ;  a  defender  of  Nestorius  at  Ephesus 
A.D.  431  ;  but  afterwards  renounced  him. 
He  has  three  Epistles  in  the  Ephesine  Col- 
lection. 

Helladius,  for  sixty  years  abbot  of  a  mon- 
astery near  Antioch,  and  then  bishop  of 
Tarsus.  While  a  bishop,  he  defended  Nes- 
torius in  the  council  of  Ephesus,  and  for 
some  time  after;  I  Jt  at  length  renounced 
him.  Six  of  his  Epistles  are  in  the  Ephe- 
sine Collection. 


Euthcnus,  archbishop  of  Tyanea  ;•  de- 
fended Nestorius  in  the  council  of  Ephesus, 
though  not  a  Nestorian  in  sentiment.  He 
was  deposed  and  banished.  Five  of  hia 
Epistles  are  extant  in  the  Ephesine  Collec- 
tion ;  and  seventeen  of  his  Sermons,  against 
various  heresies,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  among  the 
works  of  Athanasius. 

Paul,  bishop  of  Emesa ;  a  defender  of  Nes- 
torius in  the  Ephesine  council ;  but  he  after- 
wards retracted.  He  has  left  us  a  confession 
of  his  faith,  two  Homilies,  and  an  Epistle. 

Andreas,  bishop  of  Samosata  ;  a  defendei 
of  Nestorius  from  the  year  429  to  436,  when 
he  renounced  him.  He  has  eight  Epistlea 
in  the  Ephesine  Collection. 

Proclus,  amanuensis  to  Chrysostom,  and 
to  Atticus  ;  and  the  bishop  of  Constantino- 
ple, A.D.  432-446.  He  was  a  very  pious 
man,  a  good  scholar,  and  a  popular  preacher. 
His  works,  consisting  of  twenty  Sermons, 
and  six  Epistles,  were  published,  Gr.  and 
Lat.,  by  Ricardi,  Rome,  1630,  4to. 

Ibas,  from  about  A.D.  436,  bishop  of 
Edessa.  He  was  accused  of  Nestorianism, 
and  acquitted  in  448 ;  but  was  accused 
again  and  condemned  in  449  ;  and  restored 
in  451.  The  greater  part  of  a  valuable  let- 
ter of  his,  containing  a  history  of  the  Nesto- 
rian contests,  is  extant,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  in  the 
Concilior.,  torn,  iv  ,  p.  661. 

Socrates,  Scholasticus,  a  barrister  at  Con- 
stantinople ;  flourished  A.D.  440.  He  com- 
posed a  faithful  Ecclesiastical  History,  from 
the  accession  of  Constantme  the  Great,  to 
A.D.  439,  in  vii.  Books  ;  which  is  edited  by 
Valesius,  among  the  Greek  Eccl.  Historians. 

Hernias  Sozomenus,  also  a  Constantino- 
politan  barrister,  and  an  author  of  an  Eccle- 
siastical History,  from  A.D.  324  to  A.D. 
439,  in  ix.  Books.  He  is  a  more  vivacious 
writer  than  Socrates,  but  is  deemed  less  ju- 
dicious. Yet  writing  after  Socrates,  he  has 
supplied  some  of  his  deficiencies.  The  work 
was  edited  by  Valesius,  among  the  Greek 
Ecclesiastical  Historians. 

Irenaeus,  Count  of  the  empire,  and  the 
emperor's  commissioner  at  the  council  of 
Ephesus  in  431.  He  favoured  the  Nesto- 
rians  in  that  council ;  and  defended  their 
cause  all  his  life ;  and  therefore,  was  ex- 
cluded the  court  in  435,  became  bishop  of 
Tyre  in  444,  was  deposed  by  the  emperor 
in  448  :  and  then  commenced  writing  a  co- 
pious Memoir  of  the  Ephebine  council,  and 
of  ecclesiastical  p.ft'airs  in  the  East  for  about 
twenty  years.  The  work  is  lost,  except  the 
old  Latin  translation  of  certain  parts  of  it, 
which  was  published  by  Christian  Lupus, 
Louvain,  1682,  4to,  under  the  title  of  Va- 
riorum Patrum  Epistolae  ad  Concilium 
Ephcsinum  pertinentes. 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


335 


§  11.  Among  'the  Latin  writers,  tlie  first  place  is  due  to  the  Roman 
pontiff  Leo  I.,  surnamed  the  Great  ;  a  man  of  eloquence  and  genius,  but 
immoderately  devoted  to  the  extension  of  the  limits  of  his  power.  (32) 


Flavianus,  bishop  of  Constantinople,  A.D. 
447-449.  He  has  left  us  two  Epistles,  and 
a  Creed ;  extant  in  Baluze,  Nov.  Collect. 
Concilior. 

Eutyckes,  the  heretic,  a  presbyter  of  Con- 
stantinople. He  so  opposed  Nestorianism, 
as  to  confound  the  two  natures,  as  well  as 
the  two  persons  of  Christ.  This  error  he 
broached  in  the  year  448.  He  was  con- 
demned the  same  year ;  appealed  to  a  gen- 
eral council,  and  was  again  condemned  in 
451.  A  Confession  of  his  faith,  with  a  few 
of  his  Letters,  is  extant. 

Euscbius,  first  a  civilian  at  Constantino- 
ple, and  then  bishop  of  Dorylaeum  in  Phry- 
gia.  He  was  the  public  accuser  of  Nesto- 
nus,  of  Euiychcs,  and  of  Dioscorus ;  from 
the  year  430  to  451.  His  Libels,  and  some 
other  of  his  documents,  are  extant. 

Diadochus,  bishop  of  Photice  in  Epirus  ; 
flourished  A.D.  450.  He  has  left  us  some 
treatises  on  practical  religion ;  ed.  Gr.,  at 
Florence,  1578  ;  and  Lat.,  in  Bilioth.  Pa- 
trum,  torn.  v. 

Eulhalius,  a  deacon  in  Egypt ;  flourished 
perhaps  A.D.  458.  He  wrote  an  analytical 
Introduction  to  the  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, published,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  by  Zacag- 
nius,  Rome,  1698,  4to. 

Acacius,  bishop  of  Constantinople,  A.D. 
471-488  ;  very  ambitious  and  active  for  the 
aggrandizement  of  his  see.  He  has  left  us 
only  two  Epistles. 

Nestorianus,  a  Greek  chronographer,  who 
flourished  about  the  year  474.  He  wrote 
Lives  of  the  Rontqn  emperors,  to  A.D.  474. 
The  work  was  highly  commended  by  John 
Malnla. ;  but  it  is  lost. 

Johannes  JEgeaies,  a  Nestorian ;  flour- 
ished A.D.  483,  or  later  ;  and  wrote  an  Ec- 
clesiastical History,  in  10  Books  ;  of  which, 
(says  Pholius),  thence  first  Books  reached 
from  A.D.  428  to  479.  Only  some  extracts 
of  it  remain. 

Sabas,  a  Syrian  monk  and  abbot,  born 
in  439,  died  531.  He  wrote  a  Typicum,  or 
the  order  of  prayer  for  the  whole  year  ;  which 
was  adopted  in  all  the  monasteries  about 
Jerusalem,  and  is  still  extant. 

Justin,  a  bishop  in  Sicily,  A.D  484 ;  au- 
thor of  some  epistles,  and,  (as  Dodwell  sup- 
poses), of  the  Qu&stiones  ad  Orthodozos, 
published  among  the  works  of  Justin  Mar- 
tyr. 

JEneas  Gazaeut,  a  sophist  and  a  Plato- 
nisl,  and  then  a  Christian  ;  flourished  about 
A.D.  488.  He  was  the  author  of  a  noted 
dialogue  entitled  Tficophrastus,  or  on  the 


immortality  of  souls  and  the  resurrection  of 
the  body  ;  ed.,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  by  Barth,  Lips., 
1658,  4to. 

Athanasius  junior,  or  Cclctes,  bishop  of 
Alexandria  A.D.  490-497;  a  fine  biblical 
scholar,  an  active  and  good  bishop,  and  a 
devout  man.  He  is  supposed  to  be  the  au- 
thor of  several  of  the  works  ascribed  to 
Athanasius  the  Great,  and  published  as 
such:  namely,  (1)  Sacrae  Scripturae  Sy- 
nopsis ;  (2)  Quaestiones  et  Responsiones  ad 
Antiochum  ;  (3)  the  two  tracts,  de  Incarna- 
tione  Verbi  Dei  ;  (4)  Syntagma  doctrinae, 
ad  Clericos  et  Laicos  ;  (5)  de  Virginitate, 
sive  Ascesi. 

Zacharias,  a  rhetorician,  flourished  A.D. 
491.  He  wrote  an  Ecclesiastical  History, 
from  A.D.  450-491,  which  is  often  quoted 
as  well  as  censured  for  partiality,  by  Eva~ 
grius,  in  his  Historia  Ecclesiastica. 

Eustathius,  of  Syria,  flourished  A.D.  496. 
He  wrote  Chronicorum  Compendium,  from 
^Eneas  to  Anastasius,  or  A.D.  496,  in  ix. 
books,  which  are  lost. 

Malchus,  a  Byzantine  sophist,  flourished 
A.D.  496.  He  composed  a  Roman  History, 
from  Constantine  the  Great  to  the  emperor 
Anastasius.  Two  large  extracts  only  are 
extant. 

Basil  of  Cilicia,  first  a  presbyter  at  Anti- 
och,  and  then  bishop  of  Irenopolis  in  Cilicia  ; 
flourished  A.D.  497.  He  wrote  an  Ecclesi- 
astical History  in  iii.  books,  extending  from 
A.D.  450  to  A.D.  527  ;  also,  contra  Johan- 
nem  Scythopolitanum,  Libri  xvi.,  accusing 
him  of  Mamchaeism.  Neither  work  is  ex- 
tant. 

Candidus,  a  scrivener  to  the  governors  of 
the  province  of  (sauna,  flourished  A.D.  496. 
He  wrote  Historiarum  Lihri  iii.,  extending 
from  A.D.  457  to  A.D.  491.  Some  extracts, 
by  Photius,  are  all  that  remain. 

Andreas,  bishop  of  Caesarea  in  Cappado- 
cia,  flourished  about  A.D  500.  He  wrote 
a  Commentary  on  the  Apocalypse,  which  is 
extant,  Gr.  and  Lat  ,  inter  Opp.  Chrysosto- 
m,,  toin.  viii.,  ed  Morcll;  a\so  Thcrapeutica 
Spiritualis,  of  which  only  some  fragments 
remain.  —  7Y.] 

(32)  The  entire  works  of  Lfo  I.,  [com- 
prising 100  sermons  and  141  epistles],  were 
'  dited  with  great  care  bv  the  celebrated  pres- 
byter of  the  Oratory,  Pasrh.  Qucsnctl,  Ly- 
ons, 1700,  2  vols.  fol  [This  edition  be- 
ing proscribed  by  the  pope,  because  the  edi- 
tor defended  the  cause  of  Hilary  of  Aries, 
and  the  liberties  of  the  Gallican  church 
against  Leo  ;  a  new  edition  was  published 


336 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


[Paul]  Orosius  acquired  fame  by  his  History,  written  with  a  view  to  con- 
fute the  cavils  of  the  pagans,  and  by  his  books  against  the  Pelagians  and 
Priscillianists.(33)  [John]  Cassianus,  an  unlearned  and  superstitious  man, 
by  his  oral  communications,  his  writings,  and  his  institutions,  acquainted 
the  Gauls  with  the  mode  of  living  pursued  by  the  monks  of  Syria  and 
Egypt ;  and  was  a  leading  teacher  among  those  denominated  Semipela- 
gians.(34)  The  Homilies  of  Maximus  of  Turin,  which  are  still  extant,  are 
short,  but  generally  neat  and  pious. (35)  Eucherius  of  Lyons,  ranks  not 

empire  under  the  reign  of  paganism,  as  un- 
der that  of  Christianity.     (2)  Apologeticus 


by   Cacciari   and   the    brothers    Ballerini. 
Leo  was  a  man  of  extraordinary  talents,  a 


good  writer,  an  indefatigable  bishop,  and  contra  Pelagianos  de  arbitrii  libertate.  These 
very  successful  in  promoting  the  glory  of  ' 
the  see  of  Rome.  It  has  been  said,  that  he 
possessed  every  virtue  that  was  compatible 
with  an  unbounded  ambition.  He  was  bish- 
op of  Rome  from  A.  D.  440  to  A.D.  461.  In 
the  beginning  of  his  reign,  he  persecuted  the 
sectarians  of  Africa,  who  took  refuge  in  Italy 
on  the  conquest  of  Africa  by  the  Vandals. 
In  445  commenced  his  controversy  with  Hi- 
lary archbishop  of  Aries,  whom  he  divested 
of  his  rights  as  a  metropolitan,  in  violation 
of  the  liberties  of  the  Gallican  church.  He 
also  obtained  from  Valentinian  III.  a  de- 
cree confirming  his  usurpations  over  the 
Gallic  church.  In  451  he  showed  the  vio- 
lence of  his  passions  and  the  excess  of  his 


two  works  are  in  the  edition  of  Haverr.amp. 
(3)  His  written  statement  to  Augustine,  in 
the  year  413,  which  is  published  among  the 
works  of  Augustine,  and  is  entitled,  Com- 
monitorium  sive  consultatio  ad  S.  Augusti- 
num,  de  errore  Priscillianistarum  et  Ongen- 
istarum. — Tr.] 

(34)  Histoire  litteraire  de  la  France,  tome 
ii.,  p.  215,  &c.  Rich.  Simon,  Critique  de 
la  Bibliotheque  Ecclesiast.,  par  M.  du  Pin, 
tome  i.,  p.  156.  The  works  of  Cassian, 
with  a  prolix  Commentary,  were  published 
by  Alar  A.  Gazacus,  latest  edition  Francf., 
1722,  fol. — [John  Cassianus,  of  Scythian 
extract,  was  born  at  Athens  A.D.  351.  He 
early  devoted  himself  to  a  monastic  life ; 


ambition,  by  his  opposition  to  that  decree  of    which  he  pursued,  first  at  Bethlehem,  then 


the  council  of  Chalcedon,  which  raised  the 
bishop  of  Constantinople  to  the  rank  of  a 
patriarch,  and  very  much  extended  his  juris- 
diction. In  the  year  455,  he  was  a  protec- 
tion to  the  city  of  Rome,  when  it  was 
pillaged  by  Genseric,  king  of  the  Vandals. 
See  M.  Schrocckh,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  xvii., 
p.  90-169;  and  A.  Bower,  Lives  of  the 
Popes,  vol.  ii.,  p.  7-140.— Tr.] 

(33)  Peter  Bayle,  Dictionnaire,  tome  iii., 
voce  Orose.  The  works  of  Orosius  have  at 
length  been  published,  with  some  medals, 
by  Sigb.  Havercamp,  Leyden,  1738,  4to. — 
[Paul  Orosius  was  a  presbyter  of  Tarragona 
in  Spain.  In  the  year  413,  he  was  sent  into 
Africa  to  consult  Augustine  respecting  the 
rising  sect  of  the  Pnscillianists.  Augustine 
then  put  him  upon  writing  his  history,  which 
he  completed  four  years  afterwards.  In  the 
year  415,  Augustine  sent  him  to  Palestine 
to  visit  Jerome  and  learn  his  opinion  respect- 
ing the  origin  of  souls.  He  was  present  at 
some  councils  in  Palestine,  and  there  op- 
posed the  errors  of  Pelagius.  On  his  return 
to  Africa,  he  brought  with  him  the  relics  of 
St.  Stephen,  which  were  highly  valued.  He 
afterwards  returned  to  Spain.  The  time  of 
his  death  is  unknown.  His  works,  written 
in  good  Latin,  comprise  (1)  Historiarum 
adversus  Paganos  Libri  vii. ;  in  which  he 
endeavours  to  show  from  the  Roman  history, 
that  as  great  calamities  had  happened  in  the 


at  Nitria  in  Egypt,  next  at  Constantinople, 
where  Chrysostom  made  him  deacon  of  a 
church.  On  the  banishment  of  Chrysostom 
A.D.  404,  the  clergy  of  Constantinople  sent 
Cassianus  to  Italy  to  solicit  aid  to  their 
cause  from  the  Roman  pontiff.  At  Rome, 
Cassianus  was  ordained  a  presbyter,  and 
there  he  remained  till  A.D.  410,  when,  on 
the  capture  of  Rome  by  the  Goths,  he  retired 
to  Marseilles  in  France.  Here  he  erected 
two  monasteries,  one  for  males  and  one  for 
females  ;  and  thenceforth  devoted  himself  to 
the  furtherance  of  monkery  in  Gaul.  He 
commenced  author  in  424,  and  died  A.D. 
448,  aged  97  years.  He  was  not  a  great 
man,  but  he  was  active,  pious,  and  sincere. 
He  was  a  leading  man  among  the  Semipela- 
gians,  and  held,  perhaps,  nearly  the  same 
sentiments  respecting  original  sin,  and  grace, 
and  human  ability,  with  the  Remonstrants 
or  Arminians  of  Holland  in  the  17th  century. 
His  works  are,  (1)  de  Institutis  Ccenobiorum 
Libri  xii.,  of  which  the  iv.  first  books  de- 
scribe the  form  and  regulations  of  a  monas- 
tery ;  aiid  the  viii.  following  treat  of  as  many 
principal  sins.  (2)  xxiv.  Collationes  Patrum  ; 
discourses  or  rather  Colloquies,  chiefly  on 
monastic  virtues  (3)  de  Christi  incarna- 
tione  adversus  Nestorium  Libri  vii. — Tr.] 

('35)  [Maximut  was  bishop  of  Turin  in 
Piedmont,  from  A.D.  422  to  A.D.  465. 
Little  is  known  of  his  life.  His  works  con- 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


337 


last  among  the  Latins  of  this  century  who  treated  moral  subjects  eloquent, 
lyand  well. (36)  Pontius  [Paulinus]  of  Nola,  highly  esteemed  by  the  an- 
cients for  his  piety,  has  recommended  himself  to  posterity  by  his  poems, 
and  by  some  other  things. (37)  Peter,  bishop  of  Ravenna,  acquired  the 
surname  of  Chrysologus  on  account  of  his  eloquence ;  and  his  discourses 
are  not  entirely  destitute  of  genius. (38)  Salvianus  was  an  eloquent  but  a 
gloomy  and  austere  writer,  who  in  the  vehemence  of  his  declamation 
against  the  vices  of  the  times,  unwarily  discloses  the  weaknesses  and  de- 
fects of  his  own  character. (39)  Prosper  of  Aquitain,(40)  and  Marius 


sist  of  85  short  homilies  or  sermons.  Of 
these  32  were  published  among  the  works  of 
Ambrose,  and  8  among  the  discourses  of 
Augustine.  Theoph.  Raynaud  collected 
and  published  73  of  them  under  the  name  of 
the  real  author,  in  a  volume  containing  the 
works  of  Leo  I.  and  of  Peter  Chrysologus  ; 
Lyons,  1652,  and  Paris,  1671,  fol.  After- 
wards, Mabillon  collected  12  more,  which 
he  published  in  his  Musaenm  Italicum,  torn, 
i.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  1,  &c.  And  Bruno  Bruni  pub- 
lished the  whole  together,  Rome,  1784,  fol. 
—2V.] 

(36)  Concerning  Euchcrius,  the  Benedic- 
tine monks  treat  largely,  in  Histoire  litteraire 
de  la  France,  tome  ii.,  p.  275.     [He  was  of 
an  honourable  family  in  Gaul,  fond  of  monk- 
ery in  his  youth,  and  resided  some  time  in  a 
monastery  in  the  island  of  Lerins.     But  he 
afterwards  married,  and  had  two  sons,  Salo- 
nius  and   Veranius,  who   became   bishops. 
He  was  bishop  of  Lyons  from  A.D.  434  to 
A.D.  454.     His  most  admired  work  is  his 
Epistle   to  Valerianus,  on  contempt  of  the 
world  and  secular  philosophy.    Besides  this, 
he  wrote  in  praise  of  monkery,  instructions 
for  his  sons,  and  several  homilies.     Several 
works   are    falsely  ascribed  to   him.     The 
whole  were   published,    Basil,    1531,   and 
Rome,  1564,  4to,  and  in  the  Biblioth.  Pair., 
torn.  vi. —  ZV.] 

(37)  See   the    Histoire    litteraire    de   la 
France,   tome  ii.,  p.  179.     The  works  of 
Paulinus  were  published  by  J.   Bapt.   le 
Brun,  Paris,  1685,  2  vols.  4to.     [See  note 
(37),  p.  253,  on  the  preceding  century,  where 
he  is  particularly  desciibed. — TV.] 

(38)  See  Agnelli,  Liber  Pontificalis  ec- 
clesiae  Ravennatensis,  torn,  i.,  p.  321,  ed. 
Bachinii. — [Peter  Chrysologus  was  an  Ital- 
ian, of  a  noble  family.     He  was  bom  at  Imo- 
la,  and  educated  under   the  bishop  of  that 
see.     In  the  year  433,  he  was  made  bishop 
of  Ravenna,  where  he  died  about  A.D.  450. 
He  has  left  us  147  short  Homilies  or  Ser- 
mons ;  and  one  Epistle,  addressed  to  Euty- 
ches  the  heretic,  in  the  year  449.     His  works 
have  been  often  published ;  the  latest  edi- 
tion is,  perhaps,  that  of  Venice,  1742,  fol. — 
TV.] 

VOL.  I.— U  u 


(39)  See  Histoire  litteraire  de  la  France, 
tome  ii.,  p.  517.     ["  The  authors  of  the  his- 
tory, here  referred  to,  give  a  different  ac- 
count  of  Salvian's  character.      They  ac- 
knowledge, that  his  declamation  against  the 
vices  of  the  age  in  his  Treatise  against  Av- 
arice, and  his  Discourse  concerning  Provi- 
dence, are  warm  and  vehement :  but   they 
represent  him  notwithstanding  as  one  of  the 
most  humane  and  benevolent  men   of  his 
time." — Macl.     Sahian  was   a  native  of 
Gaul,  probably  of  Cologne  ;  lived  long  at 
Treves,  and  married  a  pagan  lady,  who  how- 
ever became  a  Christian  after  marriage  ;  had 
one  child,  a  daughter.     At  length  he  remo- 
ved to  the  south  of  France,  and  became  a 
presbyter  at  Marseilles,  where  he  lived  to  a 
great  age.     He  flourished  as  early  as  440  ; 
but  was  alive,  though  an  old  man,  in  the 
year  495.     See  Gennadius,  (who  was  a  con- 
temporary presbyter  of  Marseilles),  de  Scrip- 
toribus  Ecclesiasticis,  cap.  67.     The  works 
of  Salman,  now  extant,  are,  ( 1 )  On  the  Prov- 
idence and   Government   of  God,  and  his 
righteous  temporal  judgments,  viii.    books. 
(2)  Nine  Epistles.    (3)  Against  Avarice,  es- 
pecially in  clergymen  and  bishops,  iv.  books. 
His  style  is  barbarous,  yet  vivid  and  ener- 
getic.    His  conceptions  are  clear,  his  rea- 
soning pungent,  and  his  sentiments  for  the 
most  part  correct.     Yet  his  descriptions  are 
coarse,  and  often  too  high  coloured,  and  his 
positions  sometimes  untenable.     The  works 
of  Salvian  have  been  often  published.    The 
best  edition  is  that  of  Steph.  Baluze,  Paris, 
1669,  8vo.— TV.] 

(40)  For  a  good  account  of  Prosper,  see 
the  Histoire  litteraire  de  la  France,  torn,  ii., 
p.    369. — [Tiro  Prosper,  a  layman,  but  a 
learned  theologian,  of  Aquitain  in  Gaul,  flour- 
ished A.D.  444.     He  was  a  great  admirer 
and  an  able  defender  of  the  doctrines  of  Au- 
gustine, respecting  original  sin,  predestina- 
tion, and  free  grace.     In  the  year  426,  he 
addressed  a  letter  to  Augustine,  acquainting 
him  with  the  incipient  progress  of  Pelagian 
errors  in  Gaul,  and  soliciting  him  to  write 
against  them.     In  431,  he  visited  Italy,  to 
procure  the  aid  of  the  Roman  pontiff  against 
these  errors  ;  and  retunied  strengthened  by 


338 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  IL— CHAP.  II. 


Mercator,(4:l)  are  names  familiar  to  every  one  who  has  paid  much  atteii- 
tion  to  the  Pelagian  and  other  controversies  of  this  century.  Vincentius 
of  Lerins  has  continued  his  name  to  posterity,  by  a  short  but  elegant  tract 
against  the  sects,  which  he  entitled  Commonitorium.(42)  I  designedly 
pass  over  Sidonius  Apollinaris,  a  tumid  writer,  though  not  destitute  of  el- 
oquence  ;(43)  Vigilius  of  Tapsus  ;(44)  Arnolius  junior,  who  commented 


a  doctrinal  letter  addressed  to  the  bishops  of 
Gaul.  In  433,  he  wrote  his  strictures  on 
the  13th  Collatio  of  John  Cassianus,  which 
is  an  able  performance.  In  443,  Leo  I. 
called  him  to  Rome,  and  made  him  his  pri- 
vate secretary,  and  employed  him  in  the  Pe- 
lagian contests  of  Italy.  He  was  alive  in 
455  ;  but  the  time  of  his  death  is  unknown. 
He  was  a  man  of  strong  reasoning  powers, 
soundly  orthodox,  and  a  good  model  in  con- 
troversial writing.  Most  of  his  works  are  in 
defence  of  the  doctrines  of  original  sin,  pre- 
destination, and  free  grace  ;  and  especially 
his  two  books,  (if  indeed  they  are  his),  de 
Vocatione  Gentium,  (on  the  offer  of  salvation 
to  all  men),  will  be  read  with  interest  by  the 
modem  theologian.  He  also  composed  a 
Chronicon,  continuing  that  of  Euscbius  down 
to  A.D.  455  ;  a  Commentary  on  the  last  50 
Psalms;  several  letters;  and  some  poems. 
His  works  were  published,  Paris,  1711,  fol., 
and  by  Salina,  Rome,  1732,  8vo.— Tr.] 

(41)  [Manus  Mercator  was  probably  an 
African,  yet  may  have  lived  some  time  in  It- 
aly.    He  was  undoubtedly  a  layman,  a  friend 
and  admirer  of  Augustine,  and  an  active  de- 
fender of  his  doctrines,  from  A.D.  418  to  the 
year  451.     His  works   are   almost   wholly 
translations  from  the  Greek  fathers,  particu- 
larly Nestorius,   Theodoras  of  Mopsuestia, 
Cyril  of  Alexandria,  Produs,    Theodoret, 
&c.,  accompanied  with  prefaces  and  notes 
or  strictures  by  the  translator.     They  are  all 
designed  to  confute  either  the  Nesforian  or 
the  Pelagian  errors  :  and  were  edited  with 
copious  notes,  by  Joh.  Gamier,  Paris,  1673, 
fol.,  and  still  better  by  Steph.  Baluze,  Paris, 
1684,  8vo.— TV.] 

(42)  A  good  account  of   Vincentius   of 
Lerins,  is  found  in  the  Histoire  litteraire  de 
la  France,  torn,  ii.,  p.  305.     [He  was  born 
of  a  noble  family,  at  Toul  in  the  French 
Netherlands  ;  became  a  soldier,  and  after- 
wards  a   monk  at   Lerins,  where   he  was 
made  a  presbyter.     He  flourished  A.D.  434, 
and   died    before  the   year   450.     He  was 
probably  a  Semipelagian  ;    as   may  be    in- 
ferred from  his  Objections  against  the  wri- 
tings and   doctrines    of  Augustine,  which 
(though  lost)   are  confuted  by   Prosper  of 
Aquitain.     His  only  surviving  work  is  his 
Commonitorium  adversus  Haereticos.    This 
he  re-wrote,  but  lost  the  copy,  and  therefore 
added  notes  to  the  first  draught.     It  is  an 


attempt  to  confute  all  heresies  at  once,  by 
showing  what  are  the  marks  of  the  true 
church,  as  distinguished  from  all  errorists. 
It  has  been  often  published  ;  e.  g ,  by  Ba- 
luze, subjoined  to  Salman's  works,  Paris, 
1669,  8vo,  and  Cambridge,  1687,  12mo.— 
TV.] 

(43)  [C.  Sollius  Apollinaris  Sidonius 
was  born  of  a  noble  family  at  Lyons  in 
France,  A.D.  431.  His  father  and  grand- 
father both  bore  the  name  of  Apollinans,  and 
both  were  praetorian  prefects  of  the  Gallias. 
After  an  expensive  education,  he  became  a 
soldier,  married  the  daughter  of  Avitus,  who 
was  afterwards  emperor,  had  three  children  ; 
was  captured  at  the  siege  of  Lyons,  A.D. 
457  ;  yet  was  advanced  to  honour  by  the 
new  emperor  Majorianus,  whom  he  eulo- 
gized in  458 ;  had  a  statue  erected  to  him, 
and  was  advanced  to  the  dignity  of  count. 
In  the  year  467,  he  went  to  Rome  as  legate 
from  the  city  of  Clermont ;  pronounced  a 
eulogy  on  the  emperor  Anthemius ;  was 
made  prefect  of  Rome,  and  performed  his 
duties  so  faithfully  that  he  had  another  statue 
decreed  him,  was  made  a  patrician  and  a 
senator  of  Rome.  In  the  year  472,  he  was 
almost  compelled  to  accept  the  office  of  bish- 
op of  Clermont  in  France.  He  now  laid 
aside  all  his  civil  honours,  gave  up  his  prop- 
erty to  his  son,  and  devoted  himself  to  sa- 
cred studies  and  to  his  episcopal  functions. 
His  influence  among  the  clergy  and  the 
churches  was  very  great.  When  the  Goths 
attacked  Clermont,  he  put  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  citizens,  as  their  military  com- 
mander ;  and  when  the  city  was  captured  in 
480,  he  retired  in  safety,  was  restored  to  his 
see,  and  died  in  the  year  482  He  has  left 
us  numerous  Epistles,  which  he  himself  di- 
gested into  nine  books  ;  in  which  form  they 
are  published,  with  one  Sermon  and  24  po- 
etic effusions  interspersed.  Several  of  his 
works  in  prose  and  verse,  are  lost.  His 
works  were  published  by  Jac.  Sirmond, 
Paris,  1614,  8vo,  and  with  additional  notes, 
Paris,  1652,  8vo.  His  Epistles  are  useful, 
as  throwing  light  on  the  history  of  his  times. 
-TV.] 

(44)  [  Vigilius  bishop  of  Tapsus  in  Africa, 
flourished  A.D.  484,  at  which  time  he  was 
summoned  to  appear  at  Carthage  before  Hun- 
neric,  the  Arian  king  of  the  Vandals,  and 
give  an  account  of  his  faith.  He  boldly  pro- 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


339 


on  the  Psalms  of  David  ;(45)  Draconlius  ;(46)  and  others  ;(47)  who  were 
of  a  secondary  rank. 


fessed  orthodoxy  ;  but  the  persecution  which 
followed,  obliged  him  to  quit  Africa,  and  he 
retired  to  Constantinople,  and  after  somo 
years  removed  to  Italy,  where  he  composed 
several,  perhaps  the  greater  part,  of  his 
works.  To  conceal  himself  from  his  perse- 
cuting enemies,  he  composed  much  under 
borrowed  names,  and  especially  that  of  Ath- 
anasius.  During  the  middle  ages,  he  was 
confounded  with  Vigilius  of  Trent,  who 
flourished  at  the  beginning  of  this  century. 
His  works  are,  five  Books  against  Nestorius 
and  Eutyches ;  two  Dialogues,  between 
Athanasuis  and  Anus,  supposed  to  have 
been  held  at  the  council  of  Nice  ;  three  Di- 
alogues between  the  same  ;  twelve  Books 
on  the  Trinity  ;  a  Dialogue  on  the  Trinity, 
between  Augustine  and  Felicianus,  an  Ari- 
an ;  on  the  Trinity,  against  Varimadus  ;  one 
Book  against  Palladium,  an  Arian  ;  Answers 
to  Arian  objections  ;  Dialogue  between  Au- 
gustine and  Pascentius,  an  Arian.  He  is 
likewise  supposed  to  be  the  author  of  that 
Confession  of  Faith,  which  is  commonly 
called  the  Athanasian  Creed.  His  works 
were  first  published  as  his  by  P.  F.  Chijjlet, 
Dijon,  1664,  4to.—  TV.] 

(45)  An  account  of  Arnobius  junior,  is 
given  in  the  Histoire  litteraire  de  la  France, 
torn,  ii.,  p.  342.     [He  is  called  junior,  to 
distinguish  him  from  the  African  Arnobius, 
who  lived  at  the  beginning  of  the  preceding 
century.     This  Arnobius  junior,  is  supposed 
to  have  lived  in  Gaul.     He  flourished  about 
A.D.  461,  and  wrote  a  Commentary  on  the 
Psalms  ;    Notes  on   some  passages  in  the 
Gospels ;    and  a  Dispute  with  Serapion  of 
Egypt,  respecting  the  Trinity,  the  person  of 
Christ,  and  the  consistency  of  grace  with 
free  will.     He  was   a  Semipelagian.     His 
works  are  in  the  Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn,  viii., 
p.  203,  &c.— TV.] 

(46)  [Dracontius  was  a  presbyter  and  a 
poet,  probably  of  Spain,  who  flourished  A.D. 
440,  and  was  alive  in  450.     He  has  left  us 
a  Heroic  Poem  on  the  Creation,  or  the  Hex- 
aemeron  ;  and  an  Elegy  on  Theodosius  II. : 
both  published  by  J.  Sirmand,  Paris,  1619, 
8vo  ;  and  in  the  Biblioth.  Pair.,  torn,  ix.,  p. 
724,  729.— Tr.] 

(47)  [Catalogue  of  Latin  writers  omitted 
by  Dr.  Mosheim,  extracted  chiefly  from  the 
Historia  Litteraria  of  Dr.  Cave. 

Chromatius  bishop  of  Aquileia,  a  friend 
of  Rufinus,  and  a  defender  of  Chrysostom  ; 
flourished  A.D.  401,  and  died  410.  He  has 
left  us  some  Homilies  on  the  beatitudes, 
Matt,  v.,  and  a  few  Epistles. 

Innocent  I.  bishop  of  Rome  A.D.  402- 


417,  a  firm  friend  of  Chrysostom,  and  stren- 
uous against  the  Ncstonans  and  Pelagians. 
Of  34  epistles  published  as  his,  the  genuine- 
ness of  nearly  all  is  questioned. 

Zosimus,  of  Greek  extract,  bishop  of 
Rome  A.D.  417-418;  famous  for  his  at- 
tempt to  subject  the  African  churches  to  his 
see.  He  has  left  us  13  epistles. 

Boniface  bishop  of  Rome  A.D.  418-423, 
prosecuted  the  attempt  of  Zosimus.  We 
have  three  of  his  epistles. 

•Severus  bishop  of  Minorca,  flourished 
A.D.  418.  His  epistle,  describing  the  con- 
version of  the  Jews  of  Minorca,  was  pub- 
lished by  Baronius,  Annals,  ad.  ann.  418. 

Julian,  an  Italian  bishop,  born  before  A.D. 
386,  and  died  about  the  year  440  or  450. 
He  studied  under  Pdagius  ;  became  a  dea- 
con, lector,  husband,  and  bishop  of  a  small 
town  among  the  Hirpini.  In  the  year  417, 
he  came  out  an  open  defender  of  Pelagian- 
ism  ;  in  420  he  was  condemned  ;  went-  to 
Constantinople,  and  thence  to  Cilicia,  where 
he  lived  long  with  Theodorus  of  Mopsuestia, 
and  devoted  himself  to  writing  in  defence 
of  his  sentiments.  In  423,  he  was  con- 
demned by  a  synod  of  Cilician  bishops  ;  re- 
turned to  Italy  in  424,  hoping  to  recover  his 
see  ;  failed,  and  went  again  to  Constantino- 
ple, to  beg  the  interference  of  the  emperor  ; 
but  here  Mcrcator^s  Commonitorium  to  The- 
odosius II.  met  him,  and  blasted  his  pros- 
pects. Being  driven  from  Constantinople, 
and  condemned  in  a  council  at  Rome  A.D. 
431,  he  pretended  to  renounce  his  errors, 
and  applied  to  the  Roman  pontiff  in  439  to 
restore  him  to  his  see ;  but  in  vain. — He 
was  a  man  of  superior  talents,  well  acquaint- 
ed with  the  Scriptures,  and  so  eloquent  that 
he  was  styled  the  Roman  Demosthenes.  He 
was  likewise  famed  for  his  piety  and  his  be- 
nevolence to  the  poor.  But  he  was  accused 
of  dissembling  as  to  his  sentiments,  and  of 
using  bitter  language  towards  his  adversa- 
ries. Large  extracts  are  preserved  from  his 
Epistles,  his  Commentary  on  the  Canticles, 
and  his  twelve  books  against  the  first  and 
second  books  of  Augustine  on  marriage. 

Priscus  Fastidius,  a  British  bishop,  flour- 
ished A.D.  420.  He  has  left  us  a  tract  on 
a  Christian  life  and  widowhood,  addressed  to 
a  pious  widow  ;  extant  among  the  works  of 
Augustine,  torn.  ix. 

Evodius,  bishop  of  Uzala  in  Africa,  an  in- 
timate friend  of  Augustine,  flourished  A.D. 
420.  Four  of  his  Epistles  to  Augustine, 
and  one  Book  de  Fide  contra  Manichaeos, 
are  extant,  among  the  works  of  Augustine. 

Isidorus,  bishop  of  Cordova   in  Spain, 


340 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


flourished  A.D.  420,  and  died  A.D.  430. 
He  was  probably  the  author  of  four  books  of 
allegories,  or  commentaries  on  all  the  Books 
of  Kings,  extant  among  the  works  of  Isido- 
rus  Hispalensis. 

Calestine,  bishop  of  Rome  A.D.  423-432, 
and  active  in  the  Nestorian  contests.  He 
has  left  us  14  epistles. 

Lupus,  bishop  of  Troyes  in  France,  flour- 
ished A.D.  427.  He  was  sent  by  the  Gal- 
lic bishops  to  Britain  in  429,  to  root  out  Pe- 
lagianism ;  was  successful,  and  returned  in 
430 ;  and  died  A.D.  479.  He  has  been 
pronounced  one  of  the  greatest  men  of  his 
age.  Two  of  his  epistles  are  extant. 

Pisidius  or  Possidonius,  bishop  of  Cala- 
ma,  near  Hippo  in  Africa  ;  flourished  A.D. 
430.  He  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Augus- 
tine ;  and  wrote  his  life,  and  a  catalogue  of 
his  works,  still  extant  among  the  works  of 
Augustine. 

Hilary,  bishop  of  Aries,  born  A.D.  401, 
became  a  monk  of  Lerins,  and  was  made 
bishop  in  430,  and  died  in  449.  As  metro- 
politan of  Aries,  he  deposed  Cdidonius  bish- 
op of  Vienne  ;  who  appealed  to  Rome,  and 
•was  supported  by  Leo.  I.  ;  which  involved 
Hilary  in  war  with  Leo  all  their  lives.  He 
wrote  the  Life  of  St.  Honoratus,  his  prede- 
cessor ;  Heroic  Poems  on  Genesis ;  one 
Epistle  to  Euchcrius  of  Lyons ;  two  others 
to  Augustine  ;  and  an  account  of  the  mira- 
cles of  St.  Genesius :  all  which  were  pub- 
lished by  the  Benedictines,  Paris,  1693,  fol., 
and  by  Joh.  Salina,  Rome,  1731,  8vo. 

Capreolus,  bishop  of  Carthage,  flourish- 
ed A.D.  431.  His  Epistle  to  the  council 
of  Ephesus,  and  another  to  the  Spanish  bish- 
ops, against  Nestorius,  are  extant  in  Baro- 
nius,  and  in  other  collections. 

Sixtus  III.,  bishop  of  Rome  A.D.  432- 
440,  has  left  us  several  epistles.  The  three 
books  on  riches,  chastity,  false  teachers,  cj-c., 
are  erroneously  ascribed  to  him. 

Adrian,  who  lived  perhaps  about  A.D. 
450,  wrote  an  Isagoge  (Introduction)  in  S. 
Scripturam,  which  is  extant  in  the  Critic! 
Londinenses,  torn.  viii. 

Maximus,  a  Gallic  monk,  abbot  of  Lerins 
in  426,  and  bishop  of  Riez  in  France  A.D. 
433,  lived  till  451  or  longer,  and  wrote  sev- 
eral Homilies,  which  are  extant  among  those 
of  Eusebius  of  Emesa,  and  Eucherius  of 
Lyons. 

Claudius  Marius  Victor,  or  Victorinus, 
a  rhetorician  and  poet  of  Marseilles  ;  flour- 
ished A.D.  434,  and  died  before  A.D.  450. 
He  wrote  a  poetic  commentary  on  Genesis, 
to  the  death  of  Abraham ;  a  poetic  epistle 
to  the  abbot  Solomon,  on  the  corrupt  morals 
of  the  age;  both  extant,  Paris,  1560,  8vo, 
and  in  the  Bibh'oth.  Patr.,  torn,  viii.,  p.  580. 


Ceslius  Sedulius,  a  Scotchman  and  poet, 
who  flourished  A.D.  434.  He  studied  in  It- 
aly, became  a  presbyter,  and  perhaps  a  bish- 
op. His  works  were  collected,  by  Tur.  Ruf. 
Asterius,  towards  the  close  of  the  century  ; 
comprising  Carmen  Paschale,  (on  the  mira- 
cles of  Christ),  in  five  books ;  Veteris  et 
Novi  Test.  Collatio,  an  Elegiac  poem  ;  P<z- 
an  Alphabeticus  de  Christo,  in  Iambic  meas- 
ure, (on  the  Life  of  Christ) ;  and  Paschalis 
Opcris  Libri  v.,  in  prose.  An  Exposition  of 
all  the  Ep.  of  Paul,  is  falsely  ascribed  to 
him.  The  works  of  Sedulius  have  been 
published  repeatedly,  and  are  to  be  found  in 
the  Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn.  vi. 

Valerianus,  a  bishop  in  the  Maritime  Alps ; 
flourished  A.D.  439,  and  was  alive  in  455. 
His  20  Homilies  and  an  Epistle,  were  pub- 
lished by  Ja.  Sirmond,  Paris,  1612,  8vo, 
also  in  the  Bibliotheca  Patrum,  torn.  viii. 

Eustathius,  flourished  A.D.  440,  the  neat 
Latin  translator  of  St.  Basil1  s  nine  Homilies 
on  the  Hexaemeron ;  extant  among  the 
works  of  Basil  the  Great. 

Philippus,  a  presbyter,  and  disciple  of  Je- 
rome ;  flourished  A.D.  440,  and  died  A.D. 
455.  He  wrote  a  Commentary  on  Job,  in 
three  books ;  published,  Basil,  1527,  4to 
and  fol.  It  has  been  ascribed  both  to  Beda 
and  to  Jerome. 

Idatius  or  Hydatius,  a  Spanish  bishop, 
who  flourished  A.D.  445,  and  died  A.D. 
468.  He  wrote  a  Chronicon,  from  A.D. 
379  to  A.D.  428,  and  afterwards  continued 
it  to  A.D.  467  ;  first  published  entire,  by 
Ja.  Sirmond,  Paris,  1619,  8vo  ;  and  since, 
in  the  works  of  Sirmond,  Paris,  1696,  and 
Venice,  1729.  It  is  barbarous  in  style,  and 
frequently  inaccurate  as  to  facts  ;  yet  affords 
valuable  aid  in  tracing  the  movements  of  the 
Goths  and  Suevi. 

Zachaeus,  the  reputed  author  of  iii.  Books 
of  discussion,  between  Zachaeus  a  Christian, 
and  Apollonius  a  pagan,  in  regard  to  Chris- 
tianity. The  book  was  probably  written 
about  A.D.  450,  and  is  published  in  L.  Da- 
cherii  Spicilegium,  torn.  x. 

Salonius,  son  of  Euchcrius  bishop  of 
Lyons,  and  himself  a  Gallic  bishop,  flour- 
ished A.D.  453.  He  wrote  an  Exposition 
of  the  Parables  of  Solomon ;  and  a  mystical 
Paraphrase  on  Ecclcsiastes ;  both  extant  in 
the  Orthodoxographia,  and  in  Biblioth.  Patr., 
torn.  viii. 

Victories  or  Victorinus,  a  Gallic  mathe- 
matician, flourished  A.D.  457  ;  author  of  a 
Paschal  Canon,  in  two  parts  ;  the  first  part 
exhibits  the  principles  and  the  method  of 
calculating  Easter  ;  the  second  is  a  table  of 
Easter  days,  from  A.D.  28  to  A.D.  457. 
This  Canon  was  recommended  by  the  coun- 
cil of  Orleans  A.D.  541,  and  was  first  pub- 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


341 


lished  by  Aegid.  Buchcrius,  Antwerp,  1634, 
folio. 

Hilary,  bishop  of  Rome  A.D.  461-467. 
He  was  the  bishop  of  Rome's  legate  to  the 
council  of  Ephesus  in  449.  Twelve  of  his 
Epistles  are  extant 

Paulinus  Petricordius,  or  Vesuntius,  (i.  e., 
of  Besan<jon),  a  Gallic  poet,  who  flourished 
A.D.  461,  and  is  often  confounded  with 
Paulinus  of  Nola.  He  wrote,  de  Vita  Sti. 
Martini  Libri  vi.,  an  uninteresting  poem ; 
extant  in  the  Biblioth.  Pair.,  torn,  vi.,  and 
published  by  Daunius,  with  notes,  Lips., 
1686,  8vo. 

Claudius  Mamertus,  a  Gallic  poet,  a  pres- 
byter, and  assistant  to  the  bishop  of  Vienne  ; 
flourished  A.D.  462.  He  wrote  de  Statu 
Animi  Libri  iii.  ;  two  Epistles  ;  a  Poem 
against  various  errors ;  and  a  Hymn  on  the 
Crucifixion ;  all  extant  in  the  Biblioth.  Patr., 
torn.  vii. 

Simplicius,  bishop  of  Rome  A.D.  467- 
483.  He  was  much  engaged  in  contests 
with  the  eastern  patriarchs,  and  has  left  us 
19  Epistles ;  extant  in  Concilior.,  torn.  iv. 

Ruricius  senior,  bishop  of  Limoges,  in 
France,  flourished  A.D.  470,  but  was  alive 
in  506.  He  has  left  us  ii.  Books  of  Epistles  ; 
published  by  H.  Canisius,  Antiq.  Lectiones, 
torn.  v.  (or  torn.  i.  of  new  ed.),  and  in  the 
Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn.  viii. 

Remigius,  bishop  of  Rheims  A.D.  471- 
533.  He  baptized  Clovis,  king  of  the 
Franks,  with  many  of  his  lords  ;  was  a  man 
of  note  ;  and  has  left  us  five  Epistles,  toge- 
ther with  his  will.  The  Exposition  of  Paul's 
Epistles,  attributed  to  him,  is  not  his. 

Faustus,  abbot  of  Lerins,  and  then  bishop 
of  Ries  in  France,  A.D.  472-480  or  485  ; 
a  Semipelagian.  His  works  are,  de  Gratia 
Dei  et  libero  Arbitrio,  Libri  ii.,  with  several 
Sermons,  Epistles,  and  Tracts  ;  collected  in 
Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn.  viii. 

Falix,  bishop  of  Rome  A.D.  483-492 ; 
was  much  in  controversy  with  the  eastern 
patriarchs.  Fifteen  of  his  Epistles  are  extant. 

Victor  Vitensis,  an  orthodox  African  bish- 
op, who  fled  to  Constantinople  A.D.  487 ; 
and  there  composed  a  History  of  the  perse- 


cutions in  Africa  under  Genseric  and  Hun- 
ncric,  kings  of  the  Vandals.  It  was  pub- 
lished, with  Optatus  Milevitanus,  Paris, 
1569,  8vo  ;  with  Vigilius  Tapscnsis,  Dijon, 
1664,  4to ;  and  in  the  Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn. 
viii. 

Alcimus  Ecdicius  Avitus,  bishop  of  Cler- 
mont  A.D.  490-523.  He  has  left  us  five 
poetic  Books,  on  the  creation  and  fall  of  man, 
the  flood,  and  the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea ; 
a  poem  in  praise  of  Virginity  ;  87  Epistles  ; 
and  some  Sermons ;  published  by  Ja.  Sir- 
mond,  Paris,  1643  ;  and  in  the  Biblioth.  Pa- 
trum,  torn.  ix. 

Gelasius,  bishop  of  Rome  A.D.  492-496. 
Sixteen  of  his  Epistles,  and  fragments  of  va- 
rious other  works,  are  extant.  The  famous 
decree  of  a  Roman  council,  A.D.  494,  de 
Libris  Canonicis,  Ecclesiasticis,  ct  Apocry- 
phis,  ascribed  to  Gelasius,  is  of  dubious 
authenticity. 

Genjiadius,  a  presbyter  of  Marseilles, 
flourished  A.D.  495,  and  wrote  de  Scriptor- 
ibus  ecclesiasticis,  or  a  catalogue  of  authors, 
continuing  Jerome's  Catalogue,  from  the 
year  393  to  A.D.  495.  His  book  de  Fide, 
and  his  Life  of  Jerome,  are  also  extant.  But 
his  eight  Books  against  all  the  heresies,  his 
six  Books  against  Nestorius,  his  three  Books 
against  Pelagius,  his  Tract  on  the  Millenni- 
um, and  his  translations  from  the  Greek  fa- 
thers, arc  lost. 

Rusticus  Elpidius,  physician  to  Thcodoric 
king  of  the  Goths,  flourished  about  A.D. 
498,  and  has  left  24  Epigrams  on  scriptural 
facts,  and  a  Poem  on  the  Benefits  of  Christ. 

Julianus  Pomerius,  of  Mauritania ;  a 
teacher  of  rhetoric  at  Aries,  and  a  presbyter 
there  ;  flourished  A.D.  498.  His  viii.  Books 
de  Anima,  and  several  smaller  works,  arc 
lost.  But  his  iii.  Books,  de  vita  Contem- 
plativa,  are  extant,  among  the  works  of 
Prosper  ;  to  whom  they  have  been  wrongly 
ascribed. 

Symmachus,  bishop  of  Rome  A.D.  498- 
514,  famous  for  his  excommunication  of  the 
emperor  Anastusius,  has  left  us  12  Epistles. 
-TV.] 


342     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 


CHAPTER  III. 

HISTORY   OF   THEOLOGY. 

$  1.  Many  Points  in  Theology  better  ascertained. — §  2.  Increase  of  Superstition. — §  3. 
Interpretation  of  the  Scriptures. — $  4.  Most  of  the  Interpreters  incompetent. — $  5.  Some 
were  more  able. — §  6.  State  of  Dogmatic  Theology. — §  7.  Theological  Disputants. — 
§  8.  Their  Faults. — $  9.  Hence,  supposititious  Books. — $  10.  Moral  Writers. — §  11. 
Mystics. — §  12.  Superstition  of  the  Stylites. — §  13.  Further  Defects  of  the  Moralists. 
— §  14.  Jerome's  Controversy  with  Vigilantius. — §  15.  Controversies  respecting  Origen. 

§  1.  IN  the  controversies  which  in  this  century  agitated  nearly  all  Chris, 
tendom,  many  points  of  theology  were  more  fully  explained  and  more  ac- 
curately stated  and  denned,  than  they  had  been  before.  Thus  it  was  with 
the  doctrine  concerning  Christ,  his  person  and  natures  ;  and  those  of  the 
innate  depravity  of  the  human  soul,  the  natural  ability  of  men  to  live  and 
act  as  the  law  of  God  requires,  the  necessity  of  divine  grace  in  order  to 
salvation,  human  liberty,  and  the  like.  For  that  devout  and  reverential 
simplicity  of  the  first  ages  of  the  church,  which  taught  men  to  believe  when 
God  speaks,  and  to  obey  when  God  commands,  appeared  to  most  of  the  doc- 
tors of  this  age  to  be  unphilosophical  and  becoming  only  in  the  vulgar. 
Many  of  those  however  who  attempted  to  explain  and  illustrate  these  doc- 
trines, opened  the  way  rather  for  disputation  than  for  a  rational  faith  and  a 
holy  life  ;  for  they  did  not  so  much  explain,  as  involve  in  greater  obscurity 
and  darken  with  ambiguous  terms  and  incomprehensible  distinctions,  the 
deep  mysteries  of  revealed  religion.  And  hence  arose  abundant  matter 
for  difficulties,  contentions,  and  animosities,  which  flowed  down  to  succeed, 
ing  ages,  and  which  can  scarcely  be  removed  by  the  efforts  of  human  pow- 
er. It  hardly  need  be  remarked,  that  some,  while  pressing  their  adversa- 
ries, incautiously  fell  into  errors  of  an  opposite  character  which  were  no 
less  dangerous. 

§  2.  The  superstitious  notions  and  human  devices,  by  which  religion 
was  before  much  clogged,  were  very  considerably  augmented.  The  aid 
of  departed  saints  was  implored  with  supplications  by  vast  multitudes,  and 
no  one  censured  this  absurd  devotion.  Nor  did  the  question  which  after- 
wards occasioned  much  debate,  namely,  in  what  way  the  prayers  of  mor- 
tals could  reach  the  ears  of  residents  in  heaven,  present  any  difficulties  to 
the  Christians  of  those  times.  For  they  did  not  suppose  the  souls  of  de- 
parted saints  to  be  so  confined  to  the  celestial  mansions,  as  not  to  have 
liberty  of  paying  visits  to  mortals,  and  of  travelling  over  various  regions  at 
their  pleasure.  These  unimbodied  spirits  were  supposed  very  frequently 
to  visit  and  to  be  much  attached  to  the  places  where  their  bodies  were  buried. 
And  this  opinion,  derived  to  Christians  from  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  drew 
a  great  conflux  of  supplicants  to  the  sepulchres  of  the  saints.(l)  The  im- 

(1)  Lactantius,  Divinar.  Instil.,  lib.  i.,  p.  512.     JEntas   Gazaeus.   Theophrastns,   p. 

164.     Hesiod,  Opp.  et  Dier.,  v.,  122.    With  65.     Macarius,  in  Jo..  ToUii  Insignia  itine- 

which  compare  Sulpitius  Severus,  Epist.  ii.,  ris  Italici,  p.  197,  and  other  writers  of  that 

p.  371,  Dial,  ii.,  c.  13,  p.  474,  Dial,  iii.,  p.  age. 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY.  343 

ages  of  those  who  were  in  reputation  for  sanctity  while  alive,  were  now 
honoured  with  extraordinary  devotion  in  several  places  ;  and  there  were 
those  who  believed,  what  the  pagan  priests  had  maintained  respecting  the 
statues  of  Jupiter  and  Mercury,(2)  namely,  that  those  inhabitants  of  heaven 
kindly  afforded  their  presence  in  these  their  images.  The  bones  of  mar- 
tyrs  and  the  sign  of  the  cross,  were  supposed  to  be  the  most  sovereign  rem- 
edy against  the  assaults  of  demons  and  all  other  calamities,  and  to  have 
power  not  only  to  heal  diseases  of  the  body  but  likewise  those  of  the 
mind. (3)  Of  the  public  processions,  the  holy  pilgrimages,(4)  the  super, 
stitious  services  paid  by  the  living  to  the  souls  of  the  dead,  the  multiplica- 
tion and  extravagant  veneration  of  temples,  chapels,  and  altars,  and  innu- 
merable other  proofs  of  degenerate  piety,  I  forbear  to  speak  particularly. 
As  no  one  in  those  times  objected  to  Christians'  retaining  the  opinions  of 
their  pagan  ancestors  respecting  the  soul,  heroes,  demons,  temples,  and  the 
like,  and  their  transferring  them  into  their  devotions ;  and  as  no  one  proposed 
utterly  to  abolish  the  ancient  pagan  institutions,  but  only  to  alter  them 
somewhat  and  purify  them  ;  it  was  unavoidable,  that  the  religion  and  the 
worship  of  Christians  should  in  this  way  become  corrupted.  This  also  I 
will  add,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  purification  of  souls  after  death  by  means 
of  some  sort  of  fire,  which  afterwards  became  so  great  a  source  of  wealth 
to  the  clergy,  acquired  in  this  age  more  development  and  a  more  imposing 
aspect.(5) 

§  3.  The  number  of  those  who  devoted  their  talents  to  the  explanation 
of  the  Scriptures,  was  not  so  great  as  in  the  preceding  century  when  there 
was  less  of  controversy  among  Christians  ;  and  yet  the  number  was  not 
small.  I  pass  over  those  who  expounded  but  one  or  only  a  few  books  of 
scripture  ;  Victor  of  Antioch,  Polychronius,  Philo  of  Carpathus,  Isidore  of 
Cordova,  Salonius,  and  Andreas  of  Ca2sarea.  The  two  most  distinguished 
interpreters  of  this  century,  who  explained  a  great  part  of  the  sacred  vol- 
ume and  not  altogether  without  success,  were  Theodoret  bishop  of  Cyrus, 
and  Thcodorus  of  Mopsuestia.  Both  possessed  genius  and  learning,  and 
neither  would  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  preceding  expositors  without  some 
reason.  The  expositions  of  the  former  are  before  the  public  ;(6)  those  of 
the  latter  lie  concealed  in  the  East  among  the  Nestorians,  and  for  various 
reasons  are  worthy  to  see  the  light.(7)  Cyril  of  Alexandria  deserves  a 

(2)  Clementina,  Homil.  x.  in  Pair.  Apos-         (5)  On  this  subject,  Augustine  deserves 
tol.,  torn,  i.,  p.  697.     Arnobius,  adv.  Gentes,  especially  to  be  consulted,  de  octo  quaestion- 
lib.  vi.,  p.  254,  &c.      Casp.   Barthius,  ad  ibus  ad  Dulcitium  Liber,  c.  xiii.,  Opp.,  torn. 
Rutilium  Numantian.,  p.  250.  vi.,  p.  128  ;  de  fide  et  operibus,  c.  xvi.,  p. 

(3)  Prudcntius,  Hymn.  xi.  de  Coronis,  182;  de  fide,  spe  et  caritate,  §  118,  p.  222. 
p.  150,  151.     Sulpitius  Severus,  Epist.  i.,  Exposition  of  Psalm  xxxv.,  <j  iii.,  &c. 

p.  364.     jEneas  Gazaeus,  Theophrastus,  p.         (6)  See  Rich.   Simon,  Histoire   critique 

173,  ed.  Earth.  des  principaux  Commentateurs  du  N.  Test., 

(4)  [These  pilgrimages  were  then  so  com-  cap.  xiii.,  p.  314,  and  Critique  de  la  Bib- 
mon.that  some  Christians  fell  into  absurdities  liotheque  Ecclesiast.,  par  M.  du  Pin,  tome 
truly  ridiculous.     They  journeyed  quite  to  i.,  p.  180,  [and  note  (22),  p.  330,  above. — 
Arabia,  in  order  to  see  the  dunghill  on  which  TV.] 

the  diseased  Job  sat,  and  to  kiss  the  ground         (7)  Jos.    Sim.  Asseman,   Biblioth.   Ori- 

which  had  absorbed  his  precious  blood  ;  as  ental.  Clement.  Vaticana,  torn,  iii.,  §  ii..  p. 

Chrysostom  informs   us,  (Homily  v.  to  the  227.     Rick.   Simon,  Critique  de   la   Bibli- 

Antiochians),  where  he  says,  in  his  rhetorical  oth.  Ecclesiast.,  par  M.  du  Pin,  tome  i.,  p. 

way,  that  the  dunghill  of  Job  was  more  ven-  108,   677.     [See   also  note   (26),  p.  331, 

erable  than  the  throne  of  a  king. — Schl.]  above. — TV.] 


344     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 

place  among  the  interpreters ;  but  a  far  more  honourable  one  is  due  to 
Isidore  of  Pelusium,  whose  Epistles  contain  much  that  tends  to  elucidate 
and  explain  the  Holy  Scriptures. (8) 

§  4.  Most  of  these  interpreters,  whether  Greeks  or  Latins,  every  where 
copy  after  Origen ;  and  despising  the  genuine  and  obvious  meaning  of  the 
scriptures,  search  after  abstruse  senses  or  what  the  Latins  of  that  age  called 
mysteries,  in  the  plainest  passages  and  sentences  of  the  Bible.  Some  of  the 
Greeks  indeed,  and  in  particular  Theodoret,  laboured  not  unsuccessfully  in 
explaining  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament :  which  we  may  ascribe  to 
their  skill  in  the  Greek  language,  with  which  they  had  been  familiar  from 
their  infancy.  But  upon  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  neither  the  Greeks  nor 
the  Latins  cast  much  light.  Nearly  all  who  attempted  to  explain  them, 
making  no  use  of  their  judgment,  applied  the  whole  either  to  Christ  and 
his  benefits,  or  to  Anti-Christ  and  his  wars  and  desolations,  and  to  the  kin- 
dred  subjects. 

§  5.  Here  and  there  one,  however,  more  wise  and  sagacious  than  the 
rest,  ventured  to  point  out  a  safer  path.  This  is  evident  from  the  Epistles 
of  Isidore  Pelusiota,  who  in  various  places,  censures  in  a  pertinent  man- 
ner  those  who  disregarding  the  historic  sense  referred  all  the  narrative  and 
prophetic  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  to  Christ :  and  yet  he  himself  was 
by  no  means  entirely  free  from  the  fault  of  his  age,  the  love  and  pursuit 
of  allegories.  No  one  went  farther  in  censuring  the  imitators  of  Origen, 
than  Theodorus  of  Mopsuestia.  He  not  only  wrote  a  book  concerning  Al- 
legory and  History,  against  Origen  ;(9)  but  also  in  his  own  Commentaries 
on  the  Prophets  of  the  Old  Testament,  ventured  to  explain  most  of  their 
predictions  with  reference  to  events  in  ancient  history. (10)  And  this  his 
method  of  explaining  the  Old  Testament,  raised  as  much  ill-will  against 
him,  perhaps,  as  those  other  sentiments  which  brought  on  him  the  charge 
of  heresy.  The  example  of  this  excellent  man  was  followed  especially 
by  the  Nestorians  ;(11)  nor  have  they  yet  ceased  to  follow  it,  for  to  this 
day  they  preserve  his  books  with  care,  and  venerate  the  man  as  a  saint  of 
the  highest  order. 

§  6.  It  is  very  evident,  that  the  doctrines  of  religion  were  not  propound- 
ed by  most  persons  with  due  simplicity  and  purity,  but  were  sometimes  ex- 
panded beyond  what  is  revealed,  were  anatomized  with  too  great  art  and 
subtilty,  and  were  supported  not  so  much  by  scriptural  evidence  as  by  the 
authority  and  reasonings  of  the  ancient  doctors.  I  know  of  no  one  who 
gave  a  complete  system  of  Christian  doctrines  in  a  single  work,  unless  Nicce- 
as  of  Romacia  did  so,  in  the  six  books  of  instruction  for  Neophytes  which  he  is 

(8)  Concerning  both,  see  Rich.  Simon,  tury,  who  is  known  to  have  been  a  Nestori- 
Histoire  des  principaux  Commentateurs  du  an.     For  he  says,  in  his  Topographia,  lib. 
N.  Test.,  c.  xxi.,  p.  300,  &c.     [For  some  v.,  (p.  224,  225,  of  the  Collectio  nova  Pa- 
account  of  Cyril,  see  note  (21),  p.  329,  and  trum  Graecor.  published  by  Bernh.  Montfau- 
concerning  Isidore,  note  (23),  p.  330,  above,  con) :   "  Among  all  the  Psalms  of  David, 
— TV.]  only  four  refer  to  Christ:'"  and  to  confirm 

(9)  Facundus   Hermianensis,   de  tribus  this  sentiment,  he  does  not  hesitate  to  de- 
capitulis,  lib.  iii.,  c.  6.     Liberates,  Brevia-  clare,  (p.  227),  "  That  the  writers  of  the  New 
rium,  c.  xxiv.  Testament,  when  they  apply  the  prophecies 

(10)  Acta  Concilii  Constantinop.  ii.,  seu  of  the  Old  Testament  to  Jesus  Christ,  follow 
Oecumenici  v.,  in  torn,  iii.,  p.  58.     Concil-  the  words  rather  than  the  sense."     [See  also 
ior.,  ed.  Harduin.  C.  W.  F.  Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen, 

(11)  One  witness,  among  others,  is  Cos-  vol.  v.,  p.  880. — TV.] 
mas  Indicopleustes,  a  writer  of  the  6th  cen- 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY.  345 

said  to  have  composed. (12)  But  it  has  been  already  observed,  that  vari- 
ous doctrines  of  religion  were  laboriously  explained,  especially  in  the  con. 
troversial  works  against  the  Nestorians,  Eutychians,  Pelagians,  and  Arians. 

§  7.  Of  controversial  writers,  a  great  number  can  be  mentioned :  and 
indeed  many  such  were  required,  by  the  great  number  of  controversies. 
The  worshippers  of  the  pagan  gods  and  images,  were  vigorously  assailed 
by  Thcodoret,  in  his  book  De  curandis  Gr&corum  ajfectionibus,  which  dis- 
plays much  genius  and  erudition ;  by  Orientius,  in  his  Commonitorium ;  and 
by  Evagrius,  in  his  Disputation  between  Zachaeus  and  Apollonius.(13) 
To  these  may  be  added  Philip  of  Side,  and  Philostorgius ;  of  whom  the 
former  wrote  against  Julian,  and  the  latter  against  Porphyry. (14)  The 
Jews  were  confuted  by  Basil,  of  Seleucia  ;(15)  by  Gregentius,  in  his  Dispu- 
tation with  Herbanus ;  and  by  Evagrius,  in  his  Dialogue  between  Theophi- 
lus  and  a  Jew.  Against  all  the  heretics,  something  was  attempted  by  Vo- 
conius,  an  African ;  by  Syagrius,  in  his  tract  de  Fide ;  by  Gennadius  of 
Marseilles  ;  and,  best  of  all,  by  Theodoret,(I6)  in  his  work  de  Fabulis  H<z~ 
reticorum.  Those  who  attacked  only  individual  sects  are  here  omitted. 

§  8.  Those  who  contended  against  the  Christian  sectaries,  followed  the 
rules  of  the  ancient  sophists,  and  strangely,  also  the  practice  of  the  Ro- 
man courts,  rather  than  the  examples  and  instructions  of  Christ  and  his 
apostles.  In  the  Roman  courts,  very  difficult  and  doubtful  points  were 
decided  according  to  the  opinions  of  certain  ancient  jurists.  If  these 
happened  to  disagree,  that  opinion  was  preferred  which  was  maintained 
by  the  greatest  number,  or  by  the  jurists  of  most  learning  and  reputa- 
tion.(17)  It  was  very  prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  truth,  that  this  usage 
of  the  Roman  courts  was  adopted  as  a  rule  in  the  controversies  of  Chris- 
tians on  subjects  of  religion,  and  followed  in  the  deliberations  of  the  coun- 
cils of  this  century.  For  by  it,  that  was  sanctioned  and  regarded  as  con- 
firmed, which  had  been  judged  true  and  certain  by  the  majority  or  by  the 
most  learned  and  distinguished  of  the  doctors  of  former  times.  This  ap- 
pears from  nearly  all  the  Acts  of  Councils  now  extant.  The  other  faults 
of  the  theological  disputants,  may  be  easily  inferred  from  what  has  now 
been  stated. 

§  9.  This  imitation  of  the  Roman  courts  in  religious  discussions,  stim- 
ulated very  much  the  base  audacity  of  those,  who  did  not  blush  to  palm 

(12)  Gennadius  Massiliens.  de  Scriptori-  and  a  disciple  of  St.  Martin.     His  Alter- 
bus  Ecclesiast.,  cap.  22,  p.  14,  ed.  Fabric,  catio  Simonis  Judaei  el  Theophili  Christi- 
f The  work  is  lost ;  but  from  the  account  of  am,  is  found  in  Martene's  Anecdota ;  and 
Gennadius,  it  was  no  System  of  Theology,  his  Consultaliones,  sen  Deliberationes  Za- 
— Tr.]  chad  Christiani  et  Apollonii  Philosophi,  is 

(13)  For  an   account  of  Orientius  and  in  the  Spicilegium  of  D' 'Archery,  torn.  x. — 
Evagrius,  see  the  Histoire  litteraire  de  la  Schl.] 

France,  torn,  ii.,  p.   121    and  252.     [Ori-  (14)  [Neither  of  the  works  here  mentioned 

entius,  called   also  Orontius  and  Oresius,  is  extant. — Tr.] 

was  bishop  of  Aux  in  France,  perhaps  also  (15)  [For  some  account  of  this  Basil,  and 

of  Tarragona,  in  Spain.     His  Commonitori-  of  his  writings,  see  note  (28),  p.  332,  above. 

um,  which  is  written  in  heroic  verse,  was  — Tr.] 

published,  Book  I.,  by  Martin  Delrio,  Ant-  (16)  [An  account  of  Thcodoret,  and  of  his 

werp,  1600,  and  Book  II.,  by  Edm.  Mar-  writings,  is  given  in  note  (22),  p.  330,  above. 

tene,  in  his  Nova  Collectio  operum  ecclesi-  — Tr.] 

ast.  Vet.,  Paris,  1700. — This  Evagrius  is  (17)  See  Codex  Theodosianus,  lib.  i.,  tit. 

not  the  noted   Evagrius   Scholasticus    of  iv.,  de  respousis  prudentum,  p.  32,  ed.  Rit- 

the  sixth  century,  but  was  a  French  priest,  tcr. 

VOL.  I.— Xx 


346     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 

their  own  spurious  productions  on  the  great  men  of  former  times,  and  even 
on  Christ  himself,  and  his  apostles ;  so  that  they  might  be  able,  in  the 
councils  and  in  their  books,  to  oppose  names  against  names  and  authori- 
ties against  authorities.  The  whole  Christian  church  in  this  century  wag 
overwhelmed  with  these  disgraceful  fictions.  And  this,  it  is  said,  occa- 
sioned the  Roman  pontiff  Gelasius,  to  assemble  at  Rome  a  convention  of 
bishops  from  the  whole  western  empire,  and  after  examining  the  books 
which  were  professedly  the  works  of  persons  of  the  highest  authority,  to 
draw  up  that  famous  decree,  by  which  so  many  apocryphal  books  are 
stripped  of  their  false  reputation.  That  something  of  this  kind  was  ac- 
tually done,  cannot  well  be  denied ;  but  men  of  superior  learning  main- 
tain, that  this  pretended  Decree  of  Gelasius  is  of  no  better  authority  than 
those  books  which  it  condemns ;  that  is,  they  believe  that  it  was  not  the 
production  of  Gelasius,  but  of  some  one  who  abused  his  name. (18) 

§  10.  Among  those  who  treated  on  the  subject  of  morals,  Eucherius, 
Salvian,  and  Nilus  stand  conspicuous.  The  epistle  of  Eucherius  espe- 
cially, on  Contempt  of  the  World  and  Secular  Philosophy,  will  recommend 
itself  to  every  good  man,  both  by  its  style  and  its  matter.  The  short 
pieces  of  Mark  the  hermit,  breathe  a  spirit  of  piety  ;  but  do  not  give  pleas- 
ure by  either  the  selectness  of  the  matter,  the  justness  of  the  arrangement, 
or  the  solidity  of  the  reasoning.  Fastidius  composed  various  tracts  con- 
cerning moral  duties  and  virtues,  which  are  all  lost,  [except  his  tract  on  a 
Christian  Life  and  Widowhood,  addressed  to  a  pious  widow  ;  which  is  pre- 
served among  the  works  of  Augustine,  torn.  ix. — Tr.]  The  productions 
of  Diadochus,  Prosper,  and  Severianus  in  this  department,  are  interesting, 
with  a  few  exceptions,  for  the  truth  and  terseness  of  the  thoughts ;  but 
they  will  afford  little  satisfaction  to  one  fond  of  solid  argumentation  and 
well-digested  composition.  Indeed,  it  was  a  fault  common  to  nearly  all 
the  moral  writers  of  those  times,  that  they  had  no  idea  of  a  regular  dis- 
tribution of  their  subject  into  parts,  nor  of  a  recurrence  to  first  principles. 

§  11.  But  the  candid  might  put  up  with  this  fault,  and  ascribe  it  to  the 
infelicity  of  the  times,  did  they  not  see  other  injuries  done  to  the  cause  of 
piety  by  inconsiderate  men.  In  the  first  place,  the  Mystics  as  they  are 
called,  who  pretended  to  be  more  perfect  than  other  Christians,  drew  many 
every  where  among  the  weak  and  thoughtless,  and  especially  in  the  east- 
ern provinces,  who  were  allured  by  the  appearance  of  their  extraordinary 
and  self-denying  piety,  to  become  of  their  party.  And  it  is  incredible, 
what  rigorous  and  severe  laws  they  imposed  on  themselves,  in  order  to 
appease  God  and  deliver  the  celestial  spirit  from  the  bondage  of  this  mortal 
body.  To  live  among  wild  beasts, — nay,  in  the  manner  of  these  beasts ; 
to  roam  about  like  madmen,  in  desert  places,  and  without  garments ;  to 
feed  their  emaciated  bodies  with  hay  and  grass  ;  to  shun  the  converse  and 
even  the  sight  of  men ;  to  stand  motionless  in  certain  places,  for  many 

(18)  Jo.  Pearson,  Vindiciae  Ignatianae,  some  books,  which  were  not  in  being,  in  the 

pt.  i.,  c.  iv.,  p.  189,  &c.      Wm.  Cave,  His-  age  of  Gelasius.     And  it  contains  some  sen- 

toria   Litter.   Scriptor.   Ecclesiast.,  p.   260.  timents  and  arguments  which  savour  of  a  la- 

Urb.  Godofr.  Siberus,  Praef.  ad  Enchiridion  ter  age. — It  may  be  found  in  perhaps  all  the 

Sexti,  p.  79,  and  others.     [This  decree  is  -larger  Collections  of  Councils ;  in  Binnius, 

ascribed,  by  most  of  the  MSS.  to  Gelasius  vol.  ii.,  in  Labbi,  vol.  iv.,  in  Harduin,  vol. 

I.,  but  by  some  to  Damasus,  and  by  others  ii.,  in  Mansi,  Supplem.,  vol.  i.,  also  in  the 

to   Hormisdas.      It  is  not   quoted   by  any  Corpus  Juris  Canonici,  Decret.  Gratian.  pt. 

writer  before  the  9th  century.     It  mentions  i.,  distinct,  xv.,  cap.  hi. — Tr.] 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY. 


347 


years,  exposed  to  the  weather ;  to  shut  themselves  up  in  confined  cabins, 
till  life  ended  ; — this  was  accounted  piety  ;  this,  the  true  method  of  elicit, 
ing  the  [spark  of]  Deity  from  the  secret  recesses  of  the  soul. (19)  The 
greater  part  of  these  people  were  influenced,  not  so  much  by  arguments 
and  assignable  reasons,  as  by  either  a  natural  propensity  to  melancholy 
and  austerity,  or  by  the  example  and  opinions  of  others.  For  there  are 
diseases  of  the  mind  as  well  as  of  the  body,  which  can  spread  like  a  pes- 
tilence. Yet  there  were  some  who  gave  systematic  precepts  for  this 
austere  mode  of  living ;  for  instance,  among  the  Latins,  Julianus  Pome- 
rius,  in  his  three  Books  de  vita  contemplative^ ;  and  among  the  Syrians, 
many ;  whose  names  it  would  be  needless  to  mention. 

§  12.  Among  these  examples  of  religious  fatuity,  none  acquired  greater 
veneration  and  applause,  than  those  who  were  called  Pillar-Saints  (Sancti 
Columnares),  or  in  Greek,  Stylitae  ;  persons  of  a  singular  spirit  and  genius 
who  stood  motionless  on  the  tops  of  lofty  columns  during  many  years, 
and  to  the  end  of  life,  to  the  great  astonishment  of  the  ignorant  multitude. 
The  author  of  this  institution  in  the  present  century,  was  Simeon  of  Sisan, 
a  Syrian  ;  who  was  first  a  shepherd,  and  then  a  monk  ;  and  who,  in  order 
to  be  nearer  heaven,  spent  thirty-seven  years  in  the  most  uncomfortable 
manner,  on  the  tops  of  five  different  pillars,  of  six,  twelve,  twenty-two, 
thirty-six,  and  forty  cubits  elevation  ;  and  in  this  way,  procured  for  him- 
self immense  fame  and  veneration. (20)  His  example  was  afterwards  fol- 


(19)  See    Moschus,    Pratum   spirituale ; 
Palladius,  Hist.   Lausiaca ;   Sulpilius  Sev- 
erus,  Dial,  i.,  and  others. 

(20)  See  the  Acta  Sanctor.  for  the  month 
of  January,  torn,  i.,  p.  261,  &c.,  where  (p. 
277)  the  very  reason  I  have  mentioned  for 
his  living  in  this  manner  is  expressly  stated. 
Thcodoret  also  indicates  the  same,  by  saying 
that   Simeon  desired   gradually  to  increase 
the  altitude  of  his  pillar,  that  he  might  get 
nearer   to   heaven.       Tillemont,    Memoires 
pour  servir  a  1'Histoirede  1'Eglise,  torn,  xv., 
p.  347,  ed.   Paris.     The  Acta  S.  Simr.onis 
Sti/h/ac,  are  most  fully  related,   in   Steph. 
Euod.  Assemari's  Acta  Martyrum  Oriental. 
et  Occidental.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  227,  Rome,  1748, 
fol. — [This  Simeon,  we  are  told,  was  born 
at  Sisan  in  Syria,  about  A.D.  390.     At  the 
age  of  13,  while  tending  his  father's  sheep, 
he  heard  a  public  exposition  of  Luke  vi.,  21, 
25,  ("  Blessed  are  ye  that  weep  now,   <fa. 
But  wo  unto   you  tliat  laugh  now,  <fc."), 
which  determined  him  to  become  a  monk. 
Having  therefore  passed  a  novitiate  of  two 
years,  ne  removed  to  a  monastery  near  An- 
tioch,  where  he   lived  10  years.     Here  his 
abstinence  and  his  voluntary  mortifications 
were  so  excessive,  as  to  draw  on  him  cen- 
sure from  the  other  monks.     He  once  swath- 
ed himself  from  his  loins  to  his  neck,  with  a 
rigid   well-rope   of  palm,   during    10  days  ; 
which  caused  his  whole  body  to  fester  and 
discharge  blood.     Being  expelled  the  mon- 
astery for  such  austerities,  he  retired  to  the 
adjacent  mountain,  and  let  himself  down  into 


a  dry  cave.  After  five  days,  the  repenting 
monks  sought  him  out,  drew  him  forth  from 
the  cavern,  and  restored  him  to  their  fellow- 
ship. But  not  long  after,  he  retired  to  a  lit- 
tle cell,  at  tl\p  foot  of  a  mountain  near  An- 
tioch,  and  there  immured  himself  three  years. 
During  this  period,  having  caused  his  den  to 
be  stopped  up  with  earth,  he  remained  buried 
for  40  days,  without  eating  or  drinking  ;  and 
when  disinterred  was  found  nearly  dead. 
So  pleased  was  he  with  this  experiment,  that 
he  afterwards  kept  such  a  fast  annually,  as 
long  as  he  lived.  He  next  removed  to  the 
top  of  the  mountain,  where  he  chained  him- 
self to  a  rock  for  several  years.  His  fame 
had  now  become  very  great ;  and  crowds  of 
admiring  visiters  of  all  ranks  and  characters 
thronged  around  him.  He  instructed  them, 
healed  their  diseases,  and  converted  heretics, 
pagans,  and  Jews,  in  great  numbers.  In- 
commoded by  the  pressure  of  the  crowd,  he 
erected  a  pillar  on  which  he  might  stand ; 
elevated,  at  first,  six  cubits ;  then,  12,  22, 
36,  and  at  last  40  cubits.  The  top  of  the 
pillar  was  three  feet  in  diameter,  and  sur- 
rounded with  a  balustrade.  Here  he  stood, 
day  and  night,  and  in  all  weathers.  Through 
the  night,  and  till  9  A.M.,  he  was  constantly 
in  prayer,  often  spreading  forth  his  hands, 
and  bowing  so  low  that  his  forehead  touched 
his  toes  A  by-stander  once  attempted  to 
count  the  number  of  these  successive  pros- 
trations ;  and  he  counted  till  they  amounted 
to  1244.  At  9  o'clock  A.M.  he  began  to 
address  the  admiring  crowd  below,  to  hear 


348     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 

lowed,  though  not  fully  equalled,  by  many  persons  in  Syria  and  Palestine, 
who  were  led  to  it  either  by  their  ignorance  of  true  religion  or  by  their 
love  of  fame  ;  and  this  stupid  form  of  religion  continued  in  the  East,  quite 
down  to  the  12th  century,  when  at  length  it  was  entirely  abolished. (21) 
The  Latins  had  wisdom  enough  not  to  copy  after  the  Syrians  and  Orient, 
als  in  this  matter.  And  when  one  Wulfilaicus  built  himself  such  a  pillar 
in  the  German  territory  of  Treves,  and  wished  to  live  upon  it  in  the  man- 
ner  of  Simeon,  the  neighbouring  bishops  pulled  down  the  pillar,  and  forbid 
the  man  from  pursuing  his  object. (22) 

§  13.  Those  who  undertook  to  give  religious  instruction  to  the  less 
advanced  Christians,  were  at  more  pains  to  inculcate  and  recommend  the 
external  signs  of  religion  and  exercises  of  the  body,  than  to  promote  that 
real  holiness  which  has  its  seat  in  the  soul.  And  in  this,  many  went  so 
far,  that  they  enjoined  an  extreme  of  austere  virtue  little  short  of  the 
senseless  piety  of  the  Mystics.  According  to  the  sentiments  of  Salman 
and  others,  no  one  can  become  truly  and  perfectly  holy,  unless  he  aban- 
dons altogether  his  property  and  honours,  contemns  matrimony,  banishes 
all  hilarity  from  his  mind,  and  subjects  his  body  to  a  variety  of  mortifica- 
tions and  painful  sensations.  As  there  were  few  who  could  bear  the  se- 
verity of  these  rules,  veneration  for  the  senseless  or  fanatical  persons,  the 
pious  fools,  to  whose  temperament  these  rules  were  adapted,  advanced  as- 
tonishingly, and  saints  sprung  up  like  mushrooms. 

§  14.  Some  few  dared  to  strike  at  the  root  of  the  growing  superstition, 
and  to  recall  men  from  vain  and  fictitious  piety  to  that  which  is  genuine. 
But  these  were  soon  bidden  to  hold  their  peace,  by  others  who  were  more 
numerous,  in  higher  reputation,  and  possessed  of  greater  influence. (23) 
An  example  we  have  in  Vigilantius,  a  presbyter  of  Gallic  extract  but 
resident  in  Spain,  a  learned  and  eloquent  man.  After  a  journey  to  Pales- 
tine and  Egypt,  returning  home  near  the  beginning  of  this  century,  he 
issued  several  tracts,  in  which  he  taught  and  inculcated  many  things  con- 
trary to  the  opinions  of  the  age.  Among  other  things,  he  denied  that  the 

and  answer  their  questions,  to  send  messa-  ally  enclosed  with  chapels  and  monasteries 

ges  and  write  letters,  &c.,  for  he  took  con-  for  some  ages.     Simeon  was  so  averse  from 

cern  in  the  welfare  of  all  the  churches,  and  women,  that  he  never  allowed  one  to  come 

corresponded  with  bishops  and  even  with  within  the   sacred  precincts    of  his  pillar, 

emperors.     Towards  evening  he  suspended  Even  his  own  mother  was  debarred  this  priv- 

his  intercourse  with  this  world,  and  betook  ilege  till  after  her  death,  when  her  corpse 

himself  again  to  converse  with  God,  till  the  was  brought  to  him  ;  and  he  now  restored 

following  day.     He  generally  ate  but  once  her  to  life,  for  a  short  time,  that  she  might 

a  week  ;  never  slept ;  wore  a  long  sheepskin  see  him  and  converse  with  him  a  little  be- 

robe,  and  a  cap  of  the  same.     His  beard  was  fore  she  ascended  to  heaven. — Such  is  the 

very  long  ;  and  his  frame  extremely  emaci-  story,  gravely  told  us  by  the  greatest  writers 

ated.    In  this  manner,  he  is  reported  to  have  of  that   age  ;  and   as  gravely  repeated,  in 

spent  37  years  ;  and  at  last,  in  his  69th  year,  modern  times,  by  the  Catholic  historians. — 

to  have  expired  unobserved,  in  a  praying  at-  TV.] 

titude,  in  which  no  one  ventured  to  disturb  (21)  See  Url.  Godofr.  Siber,  Diss.  de 
him  till  after  three  days  ;  when  Antony,  his  Sanctis  Columnaribus,  Lips.,  4to,  and  Car- 
disciple  and  biographer,  mounting  the  pillar,  ol.  Majell,  Diss.  de  Stylitis ;  in  Asseman's 
found  that  his  spirit  was  departed,  and  his  Acta  Martyr.  Orient,  et  Occident.,  torn,  ii., 
holy  body  was  emitting  a  delightful  odour,  p.  246,  where  there  is  a  copperplate  of  Sim- 
His  remains  were  borne,  in  great  pomp,  to  eon's  pillar. 

Antioch,  in  order  to  be  the  safeguard  of        (22)  Gregory  Turonensis,  Historia  Fran- 

that  unwalled  town  :  and  innumerable  mir-  cor.,  lib.  viii.,  c.  xv.,  p.  387,  &c. 
aclee  were  performed  at  his  shrine.     Hispil-        (23)  Augustine  himself  complains  of  this, 

lar  also  was  so  venerated,  that  it  was  liter-  in  his  noted  epistle  cxix.  ad  Januarium. 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY.  349 

tombs  and  the  bones  of  the  martyrs  were  worthy  of  any  religious  wor- 
ship, and  therefore  censured  pilgrimages  to  places  accounted  sacred :  he 
ridiculed  the  miracles  reported  as  occurring  in  the  temples  consecrated  to 
martyrs,  and  condemned  the  practice  of  keeping  vigils  in  these  temples : 
he  said,  that  the  custom  of  burning  wax  candles  in  the  daytime  at  the 
sepulchres  of  the  martyrs,  was  unwisely  borrowed  by  Christians  from  the 
ancient  superstition  of  the  pagans  :  he  maintained,  that  prayers  addressed 
to  departed  saints,  were  fruitless  :  he  treated  with  contempt  the  [prevail- 
ing] fasts,  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  and  the  monastic  life  :  and  he  main- 
tained, that  neither  those  who  distributed  all  their  goods  among  the  poor 
and  lived  in  voluntary  poverty,  nor  those  who  sent  portions  of  their  prop- 
erty to  Jerusalem,  performed  an  act  pleasing  and  acceptable  to  God.  To 
some  of  the  Gallic  and  Spanish  bishops  these  sentiments  were  not  offen- 
sive. But  Jerome,  the  most  renowned  monk  of  that  age,  attacked  this 
bold  religious  reformer  with  so  much  acrimony,  that  he  readily  saw  he 
must  be  silent,  if  he  would  have  his  life  and  safety.  This  effort  therefore 
to  check  the  reigning  superstition,  was  crushed  in  its  commencement. (24) 
The  good  man's  name  still  remains  in  the  catalogues  of  heretics,  admitted 
by  such  as  follow  the  decisions  of  antiquity  rather  than  their  own  judg- 
ment or  the  decisions  of  the  holy  scriptures. 

§  15.  The  contests,  moved  in  Egypt  near  the  close  of  the  preceding 
century  respecting  Origen,  were  in  this  century  prosecuted  at  the  court 
of  Constantinople  with  little  of  either  prudence  or  decency.  Some  monks 
of  Nitria,  being  banished  from  Egypt  on  account  of  Origen,  took  refuge 
at  Constantinople ;  and  were  treated  by  John  Chrysostom,  the  bishop  of 
that  city,  with  candour  and  kindness.  As  soon  as  this  was  known  by 
Theophilus  of  Alexandria,  he  began  to  plot  against  Chrysostom ;  and  send- 
ing the  renowned  Epiphanius  with  several  other  bishops  to  Constantino- 
ple, he  endeavoured  to  deprive  that  most  eloquent  prelate  of  his  office. 
The  time  was  a  favourable  one  for  his  purpose ;  for  Chrysostom,  by  the 
strictness  of  his  discipline  and  by  the  severity  with  which  he  lashed 
the  vices  of  the  times,  and  particularly  those  of  some  ladies  of  the  court, 
had  incurred  the  most  violent  resentment  of  many,  and  especially  of  Eu- 
doxia,  the  wife  of  Arcadius  the  emperor.  Eudoxia  therefore,  being  en- 
raged, invited  Theophilus  and  the  Egyptian  bishops  to  come  to  Constanti- 
nople, to  assemble  a  council,  and  inquire  into  the  religious  sentiments, 
the  morals,  and  the  official  conduct  of  Chrysostom.  This  council,  which 
was  held  in  the  suburbs  of  Chalcedon  in  the  year  403,  and  had  Theophilus 
for  its  president,  declared  Chrysostom  unworthy  of  the  episcopal  office, 
and  decreed  his  banishment,  assigning,  among  other  causes,  his  too  great 
partiality  for  Origen  and  the  followers  of  Origen.  The  people  of  Con- 
stantinople, who  were  exceedingly  attached  to  their  bishop,  became  tu- 
multuous, and  impeded  the  execution  of  this  unjust  sentence.  But  the 
tumult  subsiding,  the  same  judges  the  next  year,  A.D.  404,  in  order  to 

(24)  Peter  Baylc,  Dictionnairc  historique,  ought  to  be  erased  from  the  list  of  heretics, 
Article  Visrilantius.  Jean  Barbcyraf,  de  la  appears  highly  probable,  from  a  candid  ex- 
Morale  cles  Pores,  p.  252.  Gcrh.  Joh.Vos-  animation  of  the  whole  subject.  See  C.  W. 
sius,  Theses  Historico-Thcologicre,  p.  170.  F.  Wii/i-h,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iii., 
Histoire  littcraire  de  la  France,  tome  ii.,  p.  p.  673-704,  and  VogcVs  Disputation  before 
57,  &c.  [That  Vigilantms  was  an  honest  Dr.  Walch,  Gottingen,  1756,  de  Vigilantio 
and  correct  theologian,  and  that  his  name  haeretico  orthodoxo.— 7Y.J 


350  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  IV. 

gratify  their  own  enmity  and  that  of  Eudoxia,  renewed  their  sentence 
under  another  pretext ;  and  Clirysostom,  surrendering  himself  to  his  ene- 
mies, went  into  banishment  at  Cucusus,  a  city  of  Cilicia ;  where  he  died 
three  years  after. (25)  His  departure  was  followed  by  a  great  insurrec- 
tion of  the  Johannists,  (for  so  his  partisans  were  called),  which  the  edicts 
of  Honorius  with  difficulty  suppressed.(26)  That  the  proceedings  against 
Chrysostom  were  most  unjust,  no  one  doubts ;  yet  it  was  a  fault  in  him, 
that  he  determined  to  avail  himself  of  the  elevation  decreed  to  the  bishops 
of  his  see  by  the  council  of  Constantinople,  and  to  assume  the  preroga- 
tives of  a  judge  in  the  contest  between  Theophilus  and  the  monks ;  which 
greatly  exasperated  the  Alexandrine  prelate.  The  monks  of  Nitria,  hav- 
ing lost  their  patron,  sought  a  reconciliation  with  Theophilus :  but  the 
Origenist  party  still  continued  to  flourish  in  Egypt,  Syria,  and  the  neigh- 
bouring countries,  and  Jerusalem  became  the  centre  and  rendezvous  of 
the  sect.  (27) 


CHAPTER  IV. 

HISTORY    OF    CEREMONIES   AND    EITES. 

$  1.  Rites  greatly  augmented. — §  2.  General  Description  of  them. — $  3.  Love-feasts. 

Penitence. 

§  1.  To  recount  all  the  regulations  made  in  this  century  respecting  the 
mode  of  worship  and  religious  rites  and  institutions,  would  require  a  vol- 
ume of  considerable  size.  The  curious  in  these  matters  are  referred  to 
the  Acts  of  the  Councils,  and  to  the  works  of  the  principal  writers  of  those 
times.  There  were  some  however  among  these  writers,  who  were  not  so 
corrupted  by  the  bad  examples  of  their  age,  but  that  they  could  ingenuous- 
ly acknowledge  true  piety  to  be  oppressed  by  such  an  enormous  mass 
of  ceremonies.  This  evil  originated  in  part  from  the  degeneracy  and  in- 
dolence of  the  teachers,  in  part  from  the  calamities  of  the  times  which 
were  unfavourable  to  mental  cultivation,  and  in  part  from  the  innate  de- 
pravity of  man,  which  disposes  him  more  readily  to  offer  to  God  the  ser- 
vice of  his  limbs  and  his  eyes,  than  of  his  heart. 

§  2.  Public  worship  everywhere  assumed  a  form  more  calculated  for 
show  and  for  the  gratification  of  the  eye.  Various  ornaments  were  added 
to  the  sacerdotal  garments,  in  order  to  increase  the  veneration  of  the  peo- 
ple for  the  clerical  order.  The  new  forms  of  hymns,  prayers,  and  public 
fasts,  are  not  easily  enumerated.  In  Gaul  particularly,  were  instituted 

(25)  See  the  authors  mentioned  in  the  (26)  See  his  three  Laws,  with  the  notes 

preceding  century  ;  to  whom  add  the  writers  of  Gothofred,  in  the  Codex  Theodosianus, 

on  the  Life  of  Chrysostom,  viz.,  Tillemont,  torn,  v.,  p.  83,  113,  &c. 

Hermant,  and  others :  and    Nouveau   Die-  (27)  See  Cyrilli  Vita  Sabae,  in  Cotelier, 

tionnaire  historique  et  crit.,  tome  i.,  79,  80.  Monumenta  Eccles.  Gnecse,  torn.  ii.,p.  274. 

[See  also  note  (17),  p.  241,  above;   and  Jos.  Sim.  Asscman,  Biblioth.  Oriental.  Vat- 

Socrates,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  vi.,  c.  9-19.     So-  icana,  torn,  ii.,  p.  31,  &c. 
zomen,  H.  E.,  lib.  viii.,  c.  13-22.— Tr.] 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 


351 


the  Rogations,  or  public  fasts  and  supplications,  which  precede  the  festal 
day  of  Christ's  ascensional )  In  some  places  it  was  appointed,  that  the 
praises  of  God  should  be  sung  perpetually,  day  and  night,  the  singers  sue- 
ceeding  each  other  without  interruption  ;(2)  as  if  the  Supreme  Being  took 
pleasure  in  clamour  and  noise,  and  in  the  flatteries  of  men.  The  magnif- 
icence of  the  temples  had  no  bounds. (3)  Splendid  images  were  placed  in 
them ;  and  among  these,  after  the  Nestorian  contests,  the  image  of  the 
virgin  Mary  holding  her  infant  in  her  arms,  occupied  the  most  conspicu- 
ous place.  Altars  and  repositories  for  relics,  made  of  solid  silver  if  possi- 
ble, were  procured  in  various  places ;  from  which  may  easily  be  conjec- 
tured, what  must  have  been  the  splendour  and  the  expense  of  the  other 
sacred  utensils. 

§  3.  On  the  contrary,  the  Agapae  or  Love-feasts  were  abolished  ;  be- 
cause, as  piety  diminished  gradually  and  continually,  these  feasts  gave  to 
many  persons  occasions  for  sin.  (4)  Among  the  Latins,  grievous  offend- 
ers, who  before  had  to  confess  their  sins  in  public,  were  relieved  from  this 
unpleasant  duty ;  for  Leo  the  Great  gave  them  liberty  to  confess  their 
crimes  privately  to  a  priest  selected  for  that  purpose.  In  this  way  the 
ancient  discipline,  the  sole  barrier  against  shameful  and  indecent  conduct, 
was  removed ;  and  the  actions  of  men  were  subjected  to  the  scrutiny  of 
the  clergy,  which  was  greatly  for  their  interest. (5) 

(1)  See  Sidonius  Apollinaris,  Epist.,  lib. 
v.,  epist.  16,  and  lib.  vi.,  epist.  ].     Martene, 
Thesaurus  Anecdotor.,  torn,  v.,  p.  47.     [The 
three  days  immediately  preceding  Ascension 
Day,  that  is,  Monday,  Tuesday,  and  Wednes- 
day, it  is  said,  were  first  observed  as  days  of 
public  fasting,  with  solemn  processions  and 
supplications,  by  order  of  Claudius  Ma.mc.r- 
tus,  bp.  of  Viennu,  in  the  year  469,  upon 
occasion  of  a  succession  of  temporal  calam- 
ities befalling  that  city.     From  that  diocese, 
the  custom  of  keeping  annually  this  three 
days'  fast  spread  over  Gaul.     The  Spanish 
churches  adopted  it  in  the  following  century  ; 
but  they  selected  for  it  the  Thursday,  Friday, 
and  Saturday  next  after  Whitsunday.      In 
Italy,  it  was  not  adopted  till  the  close  of  the 
eighth  or  beginning  of  the  ninth  century, 
when  Leo  III.  ordained  its  universal  observ- 
ance, as  the  appropriate  means  for  securing 
the  blessing  of  heaven  on  sinful  men.     The 
three  days  are  called  Rogation  Days,  and 
the  week  Rogation  Week,  and  the  Sunday 
preceding  Rogation  Sunday,  from  the  Roga- 
tions or  Litanies  chanted  in  the  processions 
on  these  days.     See  Adr.  Baillet,  Vies  des 
Saints  et  PHistoire  des  Festes,  torn,  iv.,  p. 
92,  &c.—  Tr.] 

(2)  Gervais,  Histoire  de  Suger,  tome  i., 
p.  23.     [This  custom  probably  originated  in 
the  East.     There,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
fifth  century,  one  Alexander,  under  the  au- 
spices of  Gcnnadius,  the  patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople, established  the  Order  of  Acoe- 
metae  (aKoifi^rot)  or  the  Sleepless,  who  so 
regulated  their  worship  that  it  was  never  in- 


terrupted, by  day  or  by  night,  one  class  of 
the  brethren  succeeding  another  continually. 
This  order  obtained  afterwards  the  name  of 
Studites,  from  a  rich  Roman  counsellor  of 
the  name  of  Studius,  who  went  to  Constan- 
tinople, and  erected  a  cloister  appropriately 
for  this  order. — Schl.] 

(3)  See  an  example,  in  Zacharias  of  Mity- 
lene,  de  Opificio  Mundi,  p.  165,  166. 

(4)  [The  abolition  of  the  Love-feasts  was 
in  part  effected  in  the  fourth  century.     The 
council  of  Laodicea  (Canon  28),  first  ordain- 
ed, that  they  should  no  longer  be  held  in  the 
churches.     A  similar  decree  was  passed  in 
the  year  397,  by  the  third  council  of  Car- 
thage, Canon  20,  [30].     Yet  the  custom 
was  too  firmly  established,  to  be  at  once 
rooted  out.     Hence  we  find  that  in  the  times 
of  Augustine,  Love-feasts  were  still  kept 
in  the  churches.     (Augustine,  contra  Faus- 
tum,  1.  xx.,  c.  20,  21.     Confess.,  1.  vi.,  c.  2, 
and  Epist.  Ixiv.)     Yet  he  there  informs  us, 
that  all  kinds  of  feasting  had  been  excluded 
from  the  church  of  Ambrose.     In  the  Gallic 
churches,  Love-feasts  were  prohibited  by 
the  council  of  Orleans,  A.D.  541  ;  and,  as 
here  and  there  some  relics  of  them  appear  in 
the  7th  century,  the  council  tn  Trullo  [A.D. 
692,  Can.  74]  was  induced  to  confirm  the 
canon  of  the  Laodicean  council,  by  annexing 
the  penalty  of  excommunication. — Schl.] 

(5)  [That  the  strictness  of  the  ancient  dis- 
cipline was  greatly  relaxed,  admits  no  ques- 
tion.    But  that  all  public  testimony  against 
particular  offenders,  all  public  penances,  and 
public  censures,  were  commuted  for  private 


352 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


CHAPTER  V. 


HISTORY   OF   RELIGIOUS   SCHISMS   AND   HERESIES. 

$  1,  2,  3.  Old  Heresies  remaining.  The  Donatists. — §  4.  State  of  the  Arians. — $  5.  Ori- 
gin of  the  Nestorian  Sect. — §  6,  7.  The  Occasion  of  it. — §  8.  The  Council  of  Ephesus. 
— §  9.  Opinion  respecting  this  Controversy. — $  10.  Progress  of  Nestorianism  after  this 
Council. — $  11,  12.  Its  Propagator,  Barsumas. — §  13.  Eutychian  Sect. — §  14.  The 
Council  called  Conventus  Latronum. — §  15.  Council  of  Chalcedon. — §  16.  Subsequent 
Contests. — §  17.  In  Syria  and  Armenia. — §  18.  Troubles  occasioned  by  Peter  the  Fuller. 
Theopaschites. — §  19.  The  Henoticon  of  Zeno — §  20.  produces  new  Contests  among 
the  Eutychians, — <J  21.  and  among  the  Defenders  of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon. — §  22. 
The  Doctrines  of  Eutyches  and  the  Monophysites. — §  23.  The  Pelagian  Controversy. — 
§  24.  Its  Progress. — §  25.  The  Predestinarians. — §  26.  The  Semipelagians. — §  27. 
Various  Controversies  concerning  Grace. 

§  1.  SOME  of  the  earlier  sects,  acquiring  new  vigour,  dared  to  disquiet 
the  church.  I  will  pass  in  silence  those  inauspicious  names  of  former 
days,  the  Novatians,  the  Marcionites,  and  Manichaeans,  notwithstanding  a 
numerous  progeny  of  them  appeared  here  and  there  ;  and  will  confine  my 
remarks  to  those  two  pests  of  the  preceding  century,  the  Donatists  and 
the  Arians. 

The  Donatists  had  hitherto  been  prosperous.  But  near  the  commence- 
ment  of  this  century,  the  Catholic  bishops  of  Africa,  led  on  principally  by 
St.  Augustine  of  Hippo,  put  forth  all  their  energies  to  crush  and  destroy 


confession  before  priests,  and  for  private 
penances,  (as  Dr.  Mosheim  seems  to  inti- 
mate), is  contrary  to  the  voice  of  history. 
All  public  offenders,  and  all  such  as  were 
proved  guilty  of  gross  crimes,  were  still  lia- 
ble to  public  censures.  But  the  ancient 
practice  of  voluntary  confession  before  the 
church,  of  private  offences  and  secret  sins, 
had  for  some  time  gone  into  desuetude.  In- 
stead of  such  confessions  before  the  church, 
in  most  places  both  of  the  East  and  the 
West,  these  voluntary  confessions  were 
made  only  to  a  priest,  in  private ;  and  he 
directed  the  persons  to  such  a  course  as  he 
deemed  proper.  In  some  churches  however 
in  Campania  and  the  vicinity,  the  practice 
was,  for  the  priests  to  write  down  these  vol- 
untary disclosures,  and  if  the  persons  were 
directed  to  do  penance,  their  confessions 
were  also  read  in  public.  It  was  to  correct 
this  public  disclosure  of  voluntary  confes- 
sions, that  Leo  I.,  in  the  year  460,  wrote  the 
Epistle  to  the  bishops  of  Campania,  Pice- 
num,  and  Samnium,  to  which  Dr.  Mosheim 
refers.  See  his  works,  Epist.  130,  or  in 
some  editions,  Ep.  80.  It  is  cited  also  in 
Baronius,  Annales,  Ann.  459,  sub.  finem. 
The  following  is  a  literal  translation  :  "  We 
also  decide,  that  it  is  every  way  proper  to 


rescind  the  practice  so  contrary  to  the  apos- 
tolic rule,  which  I  learn  has  been  lately  fol- 
lowed by  some.  Let  not  written  statements 
concerning  the  nature  of  the  particular  sins, 
be  any  longer  rehearsed  in  public  ;  since  it 
is  sufficient  to  disclose  the  accusations  of 
the  conscience  to  the  priests,  by  a  private 
confession.  For  although  that  abundance 
of  faith  may  seem  commendable,  which,  from 
reverence  of  God,  does  not  hesitate  to  take 
shame  before  men ;  yet  as  the  sins  of  all 
are  not  of  such  a  nature  that  the  penitents 
have  no  fear  to  publish  them,  let  this  cen- 
surable practice  be  abolished  ;  lest  many 
should  be  kept  back  from  doing  penance, 
because  they  are  either  ashamed  or  afraid  to 
disclose  their  deeds  before  their  enemies,  by 
whom  they  may  be  troubled  with  processes 
of  law.  For  that  confession  is  sufficient, 
which  is  made  first  to  God,  and  then  also  to 
the  priest,  whose  business  it  is  to  pray  over 
the  sins  of  the  penitent.  For  then,  more 
persons  can  be  induced  to  do  penance,  if 
the  [private]  consciousness  of  the  confessing 
person  is  not  published  in  the  ears  of  the 
people." — See  also  Bower's  Lives  of  the 
Popes,  Leo  I.,  vol.  ii.,  p,  124,  &c.,  ed. 
Lond  ,  1750.— TV.  J 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS.  353 

this  sect ;  which  was  not  only  very  troublesome  to  the  church,  but  through 
the  Circujnccllion.es  who  were  its  soldiers,  pernicious  also  to  the  common, 
wealth.  Accordingly,  in  the  year  404,  the  council  of  Carthage  sent  dep- 
uties to  the  emperor  Honorius,  petitioning  that  the  imperial  laws  against 
heretics  might  be  extended  to  embrace  explicitly  the  Donatists,  who  de- 
nied that  they  were  heretics  ;  and  also  that  the  fury  of  the  Circumcelliones 
might  be  restrained.(l)  The  emperor  therefore,  first  imposed  a  fine  upon 
all  Donatists  who  should  refuse  to  return  to  the  church,  and  ordered  their 
bishops  and  teachers  to  be  banished. (2)  The  following  year,  additional 
and  more  severe  laws  were  enacted  against  the  Donatists ;  which  were 
usually  called  (edicta  unitatis)  Acts  of  Uniformity.^}  And  as  the  magis- 
trates were  perhaps  somewhat  remiss  in  executing  these  laws,  the  council 
of  Carthage  in  the  year  407  sent  a  new  deputation  to  the  emperor,  by 
which  they  requested  and  obtained  the  appointment  of  special  executors 
of  these  Acts  of  Uniformity. (4) 

§  2.  The  weakened  party  recovered  some  strength  and  courage  in  the 
year  408,  when  Stilicho  was  put  to  death  by  order  of  Honorius  ;(5)  and 
still  more  in  the  year  409,  when  Honorius  issued  a  law  that  no  one  should 
be  compelled  in  matters  of  religion.(G)  But  the  council  of  Carthage  in 
the  year  410  again  sent  a  deputation  to  the  emperor,  and  obtained  a  re- 
peal of  this  law,(7)  and  likewise  the  appointment  of  Marcellinus,  a  tribune 
and  notary  [or  imperial  secretary],  to  visit  Africa  in  the  year  411,  with 
full  power  to  bring  this  long  and  pernicious  controversy  to  a  conclusion. 
Accordingly  Marcellinus,  about  the  feast  of  Easter  A.D.  411,  in  that  sol- 
emn trial  which  is  called  a  conference,  formally  examined  the  cause,  and 
after  a  three  days'  hearing  of  the  parties,  gave  sentence  in  favour  of  the 
Catholics.(S)  Before  this  court,  two  hundred  and  eighty-six  Catholic  bish- 

(1)  [The  documents  of  this  transaction  and  Tillemont  suppose  the  before-mention- 
may  be  found  in  Mansi,  Collectio  Concilior.  ed  laws,   (1.  38,   de   haeret.,   and   1.    3,  ne 
ampliss.,  torn,  iii.,  p.  1157,  and  in  Harduirfs  Bapt.  iterand.),  were  included  among  them. 
Collection,  torn,  i.,  in  Cod.  eccles.  African.,  — Schl.] 

Can.  92,  &c.,  p.  915,  &.C.,  and  in  Du  Pin,         (4)  [The  documents  are  found  in  Du  Pin  ; 

Monument,  vet.  ad  Donatist.  histor.  perti-  and  the  laws  in  the  Codex  Theodos.,  1.  41 

nent.,  p.  216.      Compare    also  Augustine,  and  43,  de  haeret. — Schl.] 
Ep.  93,  arid  among  the  moderns,  Dr.  Walch,         (5)  [See  Augustine,  Ep.  97,  $  2,  <kc., 

Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iv.,  p.   192,  Ep.  100,  $2,  Ep.  105,  $  6.— Schl-] 
&c.—Schl.]  (6)  [This  law  is  in  the  Codex  Theodos., 

(2)  [Even  before  the  arrival  of  the  depu-  I.  50,  de  haeret.,  and  in  DM  Pin,  Monument., 
ties  from  the  council,  the  emperor  had  de-  p.  224. — Schl.] 

termined  vigorously  to  persecute  the  Dona-  (7)  [See  Noris,  Historia  Donatistor.,  p. 

lists,  and  to  compel  them  to  a  union  with  533. — Schl.] 

their  opposers  ;    and  had  issued  a  law,  by  (8)  See  Fran.  Baldwin,  (who  was  a  law- 

which    the    refractory   bishops    and    clergy  yer),  Historia  CollationisCarthag.,  subjoined 

were    to   be  banished,  and   the  laity  to  be  to  Optatus  Milcvitanus,  ed.  Du  Pin,  p.  337. 

fined.     The  character  of   this  law  may  be  This  meeting  called  by  Marccllinut,  is  im- 

learned  from  Augustine,  Epist.  185,  §  25,  properly  denominated  a  conference  or  a  free 

&c.,  and  Epist.  88,  6  7.     The  law  itself  is  discussion  ;  for  the  Donatists  and  Catholics 

probably  lost.     The  edict  which  was  issued  did  not  enter  intoa  discussion,  and  each  party 

after  the  petition  of  the  council,  is  in  the  endeavour  to  vanquish  the  other  by  argu- 

Codex  Theodos.  de  haeret.,  1.  38. — Schl.]  ments.     It  was  truly  and  properly  a  legal 

(3)  [These  Edicts  of  Uniformity  are  men-  trial;  in  which  Marcellinus,  as  the  judge  of 
tioned  in  the  Codex  Theodos.,  1.  2,  de  re-  this   ecclesiastical  cause   appointed  by  the 
ligione  ;  and  in  the  Decree  of  the  council  of  emperor,  after  a  three  days'  hearing  of  the 
Carthage  A.D.  407,  in  Cod.  eccles.  African.,  parties,  pronounced  sentence  authoritatively. 
Can.  99,  and  by  Du  Pin,  p.  220.    Gothofred  It  appears  therefore,  that  no  one  at  that  time 

VOL.  I.— Y  y 


354      BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

ops  and  two  hundred  and  seventy-nine  Donatist  bishops  were  assembled. 
The  vanquished  Donatists  appealed  indeed  to  the  emperor ;  but  it  was  in 
vain.  The  principal  actor  in  all  these  scenes  was  the  celebrated  Angus, 
tine ;  who  by  his  writings,  his  counsels,  and  his  admonitions,  controlled 
nearly  the  whole  African  church  and  the  leading  men  of  the  country. (9) 

§  3.  By  the  Conference  at  Carthage,  the  Donatist  party  lost  a  large 
part  of  its  strength  ;  nor  could  it  ever  recover  from  the  shock,  notwith- 
standing the  revolutions  in  the  country.  Through  fear  of  punishment, 
very  many  submitted  to  the  will  of  the  emperor,  and  returned  to  the  church. 
On  the  contumacious  the  severest  penalties  were  inflicted,  such  as  fines, 
banishment,  confiscation  of  goods,  and  even  death  upon  the  more  obstinate 
and  seditious. (10)  Some  escaped  these  penalties  by  flight,  others  by  con- 
cealing  themselves,  and  some  by  a  voluntary  death ;  for  the  Donatists 
were  much  inclined  to  practise  self-immolation.  The  Circumcelliones  es- 
caped by  violence  and  arms,  travelling  up  and  down  the  province,  and  every 
where  venting  their  rage.  To  the  Donatists  their  former  liberties  and  re- 
pose were  indeed  restored  by  the  Vandals,  who  under  Genseric  their  king 
invaded  Africa  in  the  year  427,  and  wrested  this  province  from  the  Ro- 
mans. But  the  edicts  of  the  emperors  had  inflicted  such  a  wound  on  the 
sect,  that  though  it  revived  and  grew  a  little  under  the  Vandals,  it  could 
never  recover  the  amplitude  and  strength  it  formerly  possessed.(ll) 

§  4.  The  Arians,  oppressed  and  persecuted  by  the  imperial  edicts,  took 
refuge  among  those  barbarous  nations  who  gradually  overturned  the  Ro- 
man empire  in  the  West,  and  found  among  the  Goths,  Heruli,  Suevi,  Van- 
dals, and  Burgundians,  a  fixed  residence  and  a  quiet  retreat.  Being  now 
safe,  they  treated  the  Catholics  with  the  same  violence,  which  the  Catho- 
lics had  employed  against  them  and  other  heretics,  and  had  no  hesitation 

once  thought  of  any  supreme  judge  in  the  the  side  of  those  who  would  pursue  mild 

church  appointed  by  Christ.     And  the  bish-  measures  ;  for  he  himself  made  representa- 

ops  of  Africa  in  this  case  made  their  appli-  tions  to  the  imperial  court  against  punishing 

cation  solely  to  the  emperor. — [For  an  ac-  the  Donatists  with  death.     Yet  these  repre- 

count  of  this  Conference,  the  reader   may  sentations  are  founded,  not  on  correct  views 

consult  with  advantage  Dr.   Walch's  Histo-  respecting   toleration,   but   on    the    current 

rie   der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iv.,  p.  198,  &c.  principle  that  it  is  unseemly  for  Christians 

As  to  the  sources  of  knowledge  concerning  to  bear  a  part  in  the  execution  of  criminals, 

it,  see  the  Gesta  Collationis  Carthagine  ha-  — Schl.] 

bitae,  published  in  Du  Pin's  Monument,  vet.  (10)  [By  virtue  of  the  law,  (Codex  Theo- 
ad  hist.  Donatist.,  p.  225,  &c.,  and  in  Har-  dos.  de  haereticis,  1.  52),  all  Donatists  with- 
duiri's  Collectio  Concil.,  torn,  i.,  p.  1043,  out  distinction,  and  even  their  wives,  if  they 
&c. ;  also  Augustine.  Brevicul.  Collationis  would  not  unite  with  the  orthodox,  were  to 
cum  Donatistis,  in  his  Opp.,  torn,  ix.,  p.  371,  be  fined,  according  to  the  wealth  of  each  in- 
&c. — Schl.]  dividual.  Such  as  would  not  be  reclaimed 
(9)  [His  writings  against  the  Donatists  fill  by  this  means,  were  to  forfeit  all  their  goods; 
the  whole  ninth  volume  of  his  works,  ac-  and  such  as  protected  them,  were  liable  to 
cording  to  the  Amsterdam  impression  of  the  the  same  penalties.  Servants  and  country 
Benedictine  edition.  His  recommendations  tenants  were  to  undergo  corporeal  punish- 
in  the  Donatist  contest  were  not  always  the  ments  by  their  masters  and  lords,  or  on  the 
best  In  his  Epistles  to  Vincentius  and  to  other  hand  suffer  the  same  pecuniary  mulcts. 
Boniface,  he  speaks  in  such  a  manner  about  The  bishops  and  all  the  clergy  were  to  be 
punishing  heretics,  that  he  must  be  regarded  banished  to  different  places,  yet  always  be- 
as  the  man  whose  writings  afforded  most  yond  the  province  of  Africa  ;  and  all  Dona- 
support  to  that  spirit  of  persecution,  which  list  churches  were  transferred  to  the  oppo- 
laid  waste  the  church  in  after  ages  more  than  site  party. — Schl.~] 

in  his  times.     In  the  contest  with  the  Do-         (11)  [See   Witsius,  Histor.  Donatist.,  c. 

natists,  he  seemed  often  to  show  himself  on  viii.,  $  9. — Schl.] 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


355 


about  persecuting  the  adherents  of  the  Nicene  doctrines  in  a  variety  of 
ways.  The  Vandals,  who  had  established  their  kingdom  in  Africa,  sur- 
passed all  the  rest  in  cruelty  and  injustice.  At  first  Genseric  their  king, 
and  then  Hunneric  his  son,  demolished  the  temples  of  such  Christians  as 
maintained  the  divinity  of  the  Saviour,  sent  their  bishops  into  exile,  muti- 
lated many  of  the  more  firm  and  decided,  and  tortured  them  in  various 
ways.(12)  And  they  expressly  stated,  that  they  were  authorized  to  do  so 
by  the  example  of  the  emperors,  who  had  enacted  similar  laws  against  the 
Donatists  in  Africa,  the  Arians,  and  others  who  dissented  from  them  in 
religion. (13)  During  this  African  persecution,  God  himself  is  said  to  have 
confuted  the  Arians  by  a  great  miracle,  causing  by  his  Almighty  power 
the  persons  whose  tongues  had  been  cut  out  by  order  of  the  tyrants,  to 
speak  distinctly  notwithstanding,  and  to  proclaim  the  glory  and  the  praises 
of  Christ.  The  fact  itself  no  one  can  well  deny,  for  it  rests  on  power- 
ful  testimony ;  but  whether  there  was  anything  supernatural  in  it,  may  be 
questioned.  (14) 


(12)  See  Victor  Vitensis,  de  Persecutions 
Vandalica,   libri  iii.  ;    published  by   Theod. 
Ruinart,  in  connexion  with  his-own  Historia 
Persecutionis   Vandal.,    Paris,    1694,    8vo, 
[and  reprinted,  Venice,  1732.] 

(13)  See  the  edict  of  King  Hunneric,  in 
Victor  Vitc?isis,  lib.  iv.,  c.  ii.,  p.  64,  where 
much  is  said  on  this  subject. 

(14)  See    Ruinart,    Historia    Persecut. 
Vandal.,  pt.  ii.,  c.  7,  p.  482,  &c. ,  and  the 
recent  and  acute  discussions  of  some  Eng- 
lishmen respecting  this   miracle.      Biblio- 
theque  Britannique,  tome  iii.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  339, 
&c.,  torn,  v.,  pt.  i.,  p.  171,  &c.     [Dr.  Mac- 
laine  has  here  a  long  note,  in  review  of  the 
discussions  respecting  this  alleged  miracle, 
by  Abbadie,  Berriman,  Chapman,  and  Dod- 
icell,  who  defend  the  miracle  ;   and  by  an 
anonymous  writer,  Middleton,  and  Toll,  who 
controvert  it.     The   discussion  turned  on 
four  points,  (1)  the  credibility  of  the  testi- 
mony ;   (2)  the  degree  in  which   the  men 
were  mutilated  ;  (3)  the  possibility  of  speak-  _ 
ing  with  imperfect,  and  even  with  no  tongues ; 
and  (4)  the  probability  that  God  would  work 
a  miracle  to  decide  such  a  theological  dispute. 
— Schlegefs   note   is   more   historical,  and 
though  long,  may  be  worth  inserting  entire. 
Hunnenc  (he  says)  in  the  beginning  of  his 
reign  was  very  indulgent  to  the  orthodox, 
and  at  the  request  of  the  emperor  Zcno,  al- 
lowed them  to  choose  a  bishop  of  Carthage, 
on  condition  that  the  Arian  churches  in  the 
Koman  empire  should  be  allowed  the  same 
privilege.    The  orthodox  did  actually  choose 
Eugemus  for  their  bishop.     (Victor  Viten- 
sis, de  Persecut.  Vandal.,  lib.  ii.,-  cap.  7.) 
But  by  the  instigation  of  the  Arian  bishops, 
Hunnenr.  afterwards  changed  his  course.   He 
forbid  any  person,  in  a  Vandal  dress,  attend- 
ing the  orthodox  worship;   and  disn 

euch  of  the  orthodox  as  were  in  his  service, 


and  condemned  them  to  labour  in  the  fields. 
In  the  year  483,  he  banished  to  the  deserts 
a  great  number  of  their,  teachers,  together 
with  their  adherents,  on  pretence  of  a  viola- 
tion of  the  royal  statutes.  In  the  year  484, 
in  February,  a  formal  conference  of  both 
parties  was  appointed ;  when  the  orthodox 
handed  in  a  long  confession  of  their  faith, 
but  without  gaining  a  hearing  from  the  Van- 
dal patriarch  Cyrila.  After  this,  Hunneric 
forbid  by  a  severe  law  all  public  worship 
among  the  orthodox  ;  ordered  their  books  to 
be  burned  ;  caused  the  466  bishops  who  had 
been  called  to  Carthage,  to  be  arrested  and 
banished  to  different  countries  ;  and  endeav- 
oured to  compel  all  his  subjects  to  become 
Arians.  Many  confessors  then  endured  the 
most  distressing  sufferings,  and  a  great  num- 
ber of  them  were  cruelly  put  to  death.  At 
Typasus  in  Mauritania,  most  of  the  inhabi- 
tants fled  to  Spain,  because  Cyiila  determin- 
ed to  force  upon  them  an  Arian  bishop.  Such 
as  stayed  behind  refused  to  accept  the  bish- 
op, and  kept  up  their  own  separate  worship. 
Hunneric  therefore  caused  their  tongues 
to  be  cut  out  by  the  roots,  and  their  right 
hands  to.  be  chopped  off.  They  were  able, 
notwithstanding,  to  speak  distinctly.  Victor 
expresses  himself  with  so  much  assurance 
on  this  subject,  that  he  says,  whoever  doubts 
the  fact,  need  only  go  to  Constantinople, 
where  he  will  now  meet  with  a  subdeacon 
named  Reparatus,  who,  although  his  tongue 
was  cut  out,  nevertheless  speaks  without 
any  effort,  clearly,  and  distinctly,  and  is  on 
that  account  in  high  esteem  in  the  court  of 
the  emperor  Zeno,  and  especially  with  the 
empress.  JEneas  of  Gaza,  a  Platonic  phi- 
losopher who  then  lived  at  Constantinople, 
and  was  an  eyewitness,  (in  his  Dialogue  on 
the  Resurrection,  entitled  Theophrastux,  p. 
81),  says  he  had  himself  seen  these  people, 


356  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

§  5.  A  new  sect,  which  was  the  source  of  lamentable  evils  to  the  church, 
was  produced  by  Nestorius,  a  Syrian  by  birth,  and  bishop  of  Constantino- 
ple. He  was  a  pupil  of  the  celebrated  Theodorus  of  Mopsuestia,  a  man  of 
eloquence,  and  not  without  learning,  but  arrogant  and  indiscreet.  That 
Christ  was  truly  God,  and  at  the  same  time  truly  man,  had  been  placed 
beyond  all  controversy  by  the  decrees  of  former  councils ;  but  as  to  the 
mode  and  the  effects  of  the  union  of  these  two  natures  in  Christ,  hitherto 
there  had  been  no  discussion  among  Christians,  and  nothing  had  been  de- 
cided by  the  councils.  The  Christian  doctors  were  therefore  accustomed 
to  express  themselves  differently  respecting  this  mystery.  Some  used  ex- 
pressions, which  seemed  to  separate  the  Son  of  God  from  the  Son  of  man 
too  much,  and  to  make  out  two  persons  in  Christ.  Others  seemed  to  con- 
found the  Son  of  God  with  the  Son  of  man,  and  to  make  both  natures  in 
Christ  coalesce  and  constitute  one  compound  nature.  The  Syrian  and 
Oriental  doctors  differed  from  those  of  Alexandria  and  Egypt,  from  the 
time  of  the  rise  of  the  sect  of  Apollinaris,  who  taught  that  the  man  Christ 
was  without  a  proper  human  soul,  and  that  the  divine  nature  in  Christ 
supplied  the  place  of  a  rational  soul ;  whence  it  followed  that  the  two  na- 
tures were  commixed.  The  Syrians  therefore,  in  order  to  oppose  the  fol- 
lowers of  Apollinaris,  carefully  distinguished  the  man  from  the  God  in 
Christ,  and  used  phraseology  which  might  lead  to  the  supposition,  that 
they  divided  the  person  of  Christ  into  two  persons.  On  the  contrary,  the 
Alexandrians  and  the  Egyptians  were  accustomed  to  adopt  modes  of  ex- 
pression, which  might  be  charged  with  favouring  Apollinarism,  and  which 
seemed  to  imply  a  confusion  of  the  two  natures.  Nestorius  being  bred  in 
the  Syrian  schools,  and  extremely  anxious  for  the  extermination  of  all  the 
sects  and  especially  that  of  the  Apollinarists,  discoursed  of  the  two^iatures 
in  Christ  after  the  manner  of  his  instructors,  and  directed  his  hearers  to 
make  a  distinction  between  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Son  of  man,  and  care- 
fully to  discriminate  the  actions  and  sensations  of  the  one  from  those  of 
the  other. (15) 

and  had  heard  them,  to  his  amazement,  de  officio  praefecti  praetorio  Africae),  says : 
speak  distinctly ;  that  he  would  not  trust  "  We  have  seen  venerable  men,  with  their 
his  ears,  but  ascertained  the  fact  by  ocular  tongues  cut  out  from  the  roots,  lamentably 
proof ;  that  he  made  them  open  their  mouths,  describing  their  sufferings."  One  must 
and  then  found  that  their  tongues  were  cut  therefore  carry  historical  skepticism  quite 
out  at  the  roots.  Prncopius  testifies,  that  too  far,  if  he  would  question  the  reality  of 
many  of  those  whose  tongues  had  been  cut  the  fact.  But  whether  it  be  not  possible, 
out,  were  living  at  Constantinople  in  his  that  a  man  should  speak  distinctly  without 
times,  and  that  they  spoke  very  distinctly,  a  tongue,  and  also  whether  that  which  took 
The  count  Marcel/inns,  who  was  chancellor  place  in  Africa  during  this  persecution  was 
to  Justinian,  and  compiled  his  Chronicle  a  real  miracle,  or  not,  are  more  properly 
from  the  records  of  the  judicial  courts,  says  :  physical  than  historical  questions. — 7V.] 
Se  vidisse  mutum  quondam,  ita  natum,  post  (15)  A  History  of  Nesforianism  was 
abscissam  linguam  statim  locutum,  refutasse  written  in  French,  by  the  Jesuit,  Lewis  Dou- 
Arianorum  haeresin  et  de  fide  Christiana  tin,  Paris,  1716,  4to.  But  it  is  such  a  one 
veras  voces  emisisse.  Isidorus,  in  his  as  might  be  expected  from  a  person  who 
Chronicle,  testifies  also  to  the  fact ;  as  does  was  obliged  to  rank  Cyril  among  the  saints, 
Evagrws,  in  his  Hist.  Eccles  ,  lib.  iv.,  c.  4.  and  Ncsiorius  among  the  heretics.  [A  bet- 
See  Valesius  on  these  passages ;  and  So.-  ter  account  is  given  by  C.  W.  F.  Watch, 
gitlarins,  de  Crucial.  Martyr.,  p.  296.  and  in  his  Historic  der  Ketzereyen.  vol.  v.,  p. 
Juh.  And.  Schmidt,  Diss.  de  elinguatis  mys-  289,  &c.,  to  the  end  of  the  volume.]  The 
terium  Trinitatis  praedicantibus  ;  in  his  De-  ancient  writers  on  both  sides  are  mentioned 
cas  Dissert,  hist,  theol.,  No.  7.  Even  Jus-  by  J.  F.  Buddeus,  Isagoge  in  Theologiam, 
tinian  himself,  (Codex  Justin.,  lib.  i.,  tit.  27,  torn,  ii.,  p.  1084,  &c.  In  what  manner  the 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS.  357 

§  6.  The  occasion  for  this  controversy  was  given  by  Anastasius,  a 
presbyter  and  th*  intimate  friend  of  Neslorius.  In  a  public  discourse  de- 
livered A.D.  428,  Anastasius  opposed  the  use  of  the  word  tfeord/eoc,  or 
mother  of  God,  which  was  now  more  frequently  applied  to  the  mother  of 
Christ  in  discussions  with  the  Arians  than  formerly,  and  to  which  the 
Apollinarists  were  exceedingly  attached ;  alleging  that  the  Holy  Virgin 
could  only  be  called  ^ptcoroKoc,  mother  of  Christ,  because  God  could  nei- 
ther be  born  nor  die,  so  that  only  the  Son  of  man  was  born  of  Mary. 
Nestorius  approved  this  discourse  of  his  friend,  and  in  several  addresses 
explained  and  defended  it. (16)  Some  monks  at  Constantinople  made  op. 
position,  maintaining  that  the  son  of  Mary  was  God  incarnate,  and  they 
excited  the  populace  against  Nestorius.  But  most  persons  were  pleased 
;vith  his  discourses ;  and  when  they  were  carried  to  the  monks  of  Egypt, 
these  were  so  moved  by  his  arguments  that  they  embraced  his  opinions 
and  ceased  to  denominate  Mary  the  mother  of  God.(ll) 

§  7.  Cyril,  a  man  of  a  most  restless  and  arrogant  spirit,  was  then 
bishop  of  Alexandria,  and  of  course  jealous  of  the  increasing  power  and 
authority  of  the  Constantinopolitan  prelate.  On  hearing  of  this  contro- 
versy, he  first  reprimanded  both  the  monks  and  Nestorius.  But  as  the 
ktter  would  not  retract,  after  advising  with  Ccelestine  the  bishop  of  Rome, 
Cyril  resolved  on  war ;  and  calling  a  council  at  Alexandria  A.D.  430,  he 
hurled  twelve  anathemas  at  the  head  of  Nestorius,  who  finding  himself 
accused  of  blasphemy  against  Christ,  returned  as  many  anathemas  against 
Cyril,  accusing  him  of  the  same  crime,  and  of  Apollinarianism,  and  of  con- 
founding the  two  natures  of  Christ. (18)  This  contest  between  two  bish- 

Oriental  writers  relate  the  matter,  is  stated  p.  5,  &c.,  accompanied  with  the  observations 
by  En.<scb.  Renaudot,  Historia  Patriaichar.  of  Joh.  Gamier.  [See  also  Socrates,  Hist. 
Alexandrinor.,  p.  108,  and  by  Jos.  Sim.  Eccles.,  1.  vii.,  c.  32. — Tr.] 
Asseman,  Bibliotheca  Oriental.  Vaticana,  (17)  [Cyril,  against  Nestorius,  lib.  i  ,  and 
torn,  iii.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  Ixvii.,  &c.  [For  the  in  his  Epistles  to  the  monks,  to  Nestorius, 
sources  of  knowledge,  and  a  list  of  the  wri-  and  to  Cadestine. — Schl.] 
ters  on  this  controversy,  see  Watch,  loc.  (18)  See  Joh.  Harduin,  Concilia,  torn.  i.t 
cit.,  p.  304,  &c.  See  also  Schroeckh,  Kir-  p.  2199.  Other  anathemas  against  Nestori- 
chengesch.,  vol.  xviii.,  p.  183,  &c.  Muns-  us,  different  from  the  published  ones,  are  set 
cher,  Dogmengesch.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  53-78.  forth  by  Jos.  Sim.  Asscnian,  Biblioth  Orient. 
Gieseler's  Text-book,  by  Cunningham,  vol.  Vatican.,  torn,  iii.,  part  ii.,  p.  199,  &c. — 
i.,  p.  228-237. — For  testimony  to  the  per-  [A  more  circumstantial  account  of  the  events 
securing  spirit  of  Neslonus,  see  Socrates,  touched  on  in  this  section,  drawn  from  Dr. 
Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  vii.,  c.  29,  &c.,  where  we  Walch,  is  contained  in  the  following  note  of 
are  told,  that  on  the  very  day  of  his  instal-  Von  Einem.  The  Epistle  of  Cyril  to  the 
lation,  he  thus  publicly  addressed  the  empe-  Egyptian  monks  was  brought  to  Constanti- 
ror :  "  Give  me  a  country  purged  of  heretics,  nople,  and  it  justly  gave  offence  to  Nestori- 
and  I  will  recompense  you  with  heaven  ;  aid  us  and  his  friends  ;  for  Cyril  might  at  least 
me  to  conquer  the  heretics,  and  I  will  aid  have  sought  a  friendly  correspondence  with 
you  to  conquer  the  Persians."  And  five  Nestorius.  The  epistle  was  refuted  by  Nes- 
days  after,  he  commenced  his  work,  by  de-  torius.  Cyril  then  wrote  to  Nestorius;  who 
molishing  the  Arian.  house  of  worship,  and  answered  him  shortly,  and  gave  him  to  un- 
proceeded  to  persecute  the  Novatians,  the  derstand,  that  he  had  as  little  inclination  for 
Quartodfdmani,  and  the  Macedonians.  He  a  controversy,  as  to  have  Cyril  for  a  judge 
was  undoubtedly  a  rash  zealot ;  yet  a  person  in  this  matter.  Dorothcut  bishop  of  Mar- 
of  some  talents,  sincere,  and  by  no  means  cianople,  was  so  indiscreet  as  to  anathema- 
inclined  to  be  a  heresiarch.  See  a  general  tize  publicly  in  the  church  the  doctrine  that 
account  of  him,  in  note  (31),  p.  333,  &c.,  Mary  was  the  mother  of  God;  and  this  in- 
above. — Tr.]  flamed  Cynl  the  more,  as  he  supposed  that 
(16)  See  these  discourses  of  Neslorivs,  the  opposite  party  meant  to  anathematize 
in  the  works  of  Marias  Mercator,  torn,  ii.,  him.  In  the  mean  time,  some  Alexandrians 


358 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


ops  of  the  highest  order,  and  originating  rather  from  the  depraved  pas- 
sions of  the  mind  than  from  a  sincere  love  of  truth,  w«s  the  parent  and 
the  cause  of  immense  evils. 

§  8.  The  feelings  of  the  parties  being  so  exasperated  by  their  recipro- 
cal excommunications  and  letters  that  there  was  no  prospect  of  an  amica- 
ble termination  of  the  controversy,  the  emperor  Theodosius  II.  assembled 
a  council  at  Ephesus  in  the  year  431,  which  is  accounted  the  third  general 
council.  Cyril,  the  adversary  of  Nestorius,  presided ;  and  he  wished  to 
,  have  the  cause  examined  and  decided,  before  John  the  bishop  of  Antioch 
and  the  other  bishops  of  the  East  should  arrive.  Nestorius  maintained, 
that  both  circumstances  were  contrary  to  equity ;  and  therefore,  when 
summoned  to  trial,  he  refused  to  appear.  But  Cyril,  pressing  the  business 
forward,  without  a  hearing  of  the  cause,  and  a  great  part  of  the  bishops 
being  absent,  Nestorius,  whom  the  council  compare  with  Judas  the  be- 
trayer of  the  Saviour,  was  condemned  as  guilty  of  blasphemy,  deprived  of 
his  office,  and  sent  into  banishment,  where  he  closed  his  days.  (19)  That 


at  Constantinople  accused  Cyril  of  various 
offences,  the  nature  and  grounds  of  which 
are  not  known.      Cyril  therefore  became 
suspicious  of  Nestorius ;  and  conducted  to- 
wards him  in  an  offensive  manner.     Both 
prelates  now  wrote  to  each  other,  using  se- 
vere language.      Cyril  also  sent  prolix  state- 
ments to  the  emperor,  and  to  the  princesses 
Pulchcria,    Arcadia,  and   Marinia:   which 
thing  however  was  not  relished  by  the  em- 
peror, who  supposed  Cyril  aimed  to  produce 
disagreement  in  the  emperor's  family.     The 
contest   now  reached   Ccdestine,  bishop  of 
Rome.     Nestorius  wrote  to  him  first,  and 
although  on  another  matter,  yet  he  gave  him 
incidentally  an  account  of  the  disturbances 
at  Constantinople,  but  without  even  men- 
tioning Cyril.     He  also  sent  his  discourses. 
But  as  Cadestine  did  not  understand  Greek, 
(a  poor  commendation  of  a  bishop  of  Rome ! ) 
the  discourses  were  laid  by  unread,  and  the 
letter  was  not  answered.     Nestorius  repeat- 
ed his  letters,  but  without  mentioning  Cyril, 
or  attempting  to  prejudice  Cozlestine  against 
him.      Cyril  however,  fearing  such  a  thing, 
sent  Possidonius  to  Romte,  with  the  writings 
of  Nestorius,  and  his  correspondence  with 
him  translated  into  Latin  ;  and  invited  Cce- 
lestine  to  join  him  against  Nestorius.     Ca- 
lestine  acknowledges,  that  his  first  acquaint- 
ance with  the  heresy  of  Nestorius  was  de- 
rived from  the  statement  of  Cyril.     He  held 
a  council  at  Rome,  and  made  a  decree  that 
Nestorius  should  be  deposed,  unless  he  re- 
canted within  ten  days  after  receiving  his 
letter.     Besides  the  letters  to  Nestorius  and 
Cyril,  (to  the  latter  of  whom  he  committed 
the  execution  of  his  decree),  he  sent  a  let- 
ter to  the  clergy  and  people  of  Constantino- 
ple, and  a  circular  letter  to  the  other  patri- 
archs and  bishops.     Cyril  forwarded  the  cir- 
cular, accompanying  it  with  additional  let- 


ters ;  but  the  letter  to  the  chief  men  of  Con- 
stantinople be  kept  back.     John  bishop  of 
Antioch,  sent  the   letter  he  received  from 
Cyril  to  Nestorius ;    and   accompanied    it 
with  such  observations  as  were  an  honour 
to  him,  and  which  made  such  an  impression 
on  Nestorius  that  he  explained  himself  well 
in  public  discourses,  merely  rejecting  the  er- 
roneous meaning  of  the  phrase,  mother  of 
God.     Whether  Cyril  was  made  acquainted 
with  this  change  in  the  circumstances  of  the 
case,  is  not  knowji.     He  now  called  a  coun- 
cil at  Alexandria,  in  which   a  letter   was 
drawn  up  addressed  to  Nestorius,  and  also 
twelve  condemnatory  propositions  for  him  to 
subscribe  as  the  formula  of  his  retractation. 
A  letter  was  also  directed  to  the  officers  and 
members  of  the  church  at  Constantinople, 
exhorting  them  to  rise  against  their  patriarch. 
A  third  letter  was  addressed  to  the  monks. 
Four  bishops  were  appointed  to  deliver  to 
Nestorius  the  letter  of  the  council,  and  also 
the  still  retained  letter  of  Ccelcstrne  to  him. 
Nestorius  did  not  speak  with  these  delega- 
ted bishops,  nor  comply  with  the  demands 
of  the  letters  ;  but  his  public  discourses  be- 
came more  imbittered.     The  retaliatory  an- 
athemas which  he  now  published,  were  un- 
doubtedly designed  to  bring  Cyril  under  sus- 
picion as  holding  erroneous  opinions  con- 
cerning the  person  of  Christ.     John  of  An- 
tioch, and  many  Oriental  bishops  with  him, 
actually  judged  the  propositions  of  Cyril  to 
be  erroneous.     Nestonus,  on  the  contrary, 
was  declared    by  John  to   have   explained 
himself  in  an  orthodox  manner.    In  the  mean 
time  Nestorius  was  proceeding  with  zeal, 
and   excommunicated   many  persons. — See 
Dr.  Walch's  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol. 
v.,  p.  700,  &c.—  Von  Em.] 

(19)  Concerning  this  council,  the  principal 
work  to  be  consulted  is  the  Variorum  Pa- 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


359 


base  artifices  and  dispositions  were  very  operative  in  this  council,  and  that 
Cyril  was  influenced  more  by  his  passions  than  by  justice  and  piety,  no 


trum  Epistols  ad  concilium  Ephesinum  per- 
tinentes,  which  Chr.  Lupus  published  from 
MSS.  at  Cassino  and  in  the  Vatican,  Lou- 
vain,  1682,  4to.  Ncstorius  was  first  trans- 
ported to  Pctra  in  Arabia,  then  to  Oasis,  a 
desert  place  in  Egypt,  where  he  probably 
died  in  the  year  435,  [or  rather,  after  A.D. 
439.]  The  accounts  of  his  lamentable 
death,  given  by  Evagrius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1. 
i.,  c.  7,  and  by  Thcodorus  Lector,  Hist.  Ec- 
cles., 1.  ii.,  p.  565,  are  undoubtedly  fables 
deserving  no  credit. — [On  the  council  of 
Ephegus,  see  Dr.  Walch,  Historic  der  Kir- 
chenversamml.,  p.  275,  &c.,  and  Historic 
der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  v.,  p.  452,  &c.  ;  from 
which  the  following  account  is  taken. — The 
emperor  called  the  council ;  Nestorius  was 
one  of  the  first  that  arrived.  With  him  came 
two  imperial  ministers  of  state,  one  of  whom 
was  accompanied  by  soldiers  to  protect  the 
council,  and  was  commanded  by  the  empe- 
ror to  remain  with  the  council.  Cynl  of 
Alexandria  appeared  also,  attended  by  a 
number  of  Egyptian  bishops,  who,  with  Mem- 
non bishop  of  Ephesus,  were  of  his  party. 
From  the  western  provinces  appeared  only 
three  deputies  from  the  see  of  Rome,  and 
one  deacon  deputed  by  the  bishop  of  Car- 
thage. Cyril  presided,  though  a  party. 
Nestorius  with  the  imperial  commissioners, 
made  the  reasonable  request  that  the  open- 
ing of  the  council  might  be  deferred  till  the 
arrival  of  John  of  Antioch  and  the  other 
eastern  bishops,  and  also  of  the  Italian  and 
Sicilian  members.  But  neither  prayers  nor 
tears,  nor  commands  in  the  name  of  the  em- 
peror, could  move  the  fiery  Cyril  to  delay  ; 
although  it  was  affirmed  that  John  and  the 
other  eastern  bishops  were  within  five  days' 
travel  of  Ephesus.  The  council  was  open- 
ed June  22.  The  imperial  commissioner 
gave  his  public  protest  against  the  proceed- 
ing, and  then  retired.  Ncstorius  was  cited 
three  times  to  appear  ;  but  he  refused  to 
stand  before  a  court  thus  illegally  sitting, 
and  from  which  he  had  so  little  reason  to  ex- 
pect justice.  He  was  therefore  on  the  same 
day,  pronounced  a  heretic  by  an  irregular 
outcry.  The  condemnation  was  not  found- 
ed on  the  Holy  Scriptures,  but  on  the  wri- 
tings of  the  fathers.  The  next  day,  the  de- 
cision was  communicated  to  Nestorius  ;  and 
an  account  of  it  was  sent  to  Constantinople, 
with  a  letter  recommending  the  immediate 
choice  of  a  new  bishop.  Candidianus  the 
imperial  commissioner,  and  Ncstorius  trans- 
mitted an  account  of  the  whole  procedure  to 
the  emperor ;  and  the  former  endeavoured, 
though  in  vain,  to  arrest  the  irregular  pro- 


ceedings at  Ephesus.  The  arrival  of  John 
and  the  eastern  bishops  on  the  27th  of  June, 
made  the  state  of  things 'worse  rather  than 
better.  They  were  offended  with  the  coun- 
cil for  not  waiting  for  their  arrival ;  and  they 
united  themselves  with  a  considerable  part 
of  the  council,  who  opposed  the  violent 
measures  against  Nestorius,  and  who  ac- 
cused Cyril  of  many  errors.  Whether  the 
two  parties  had  afterwards  any  communica- 
tion with  each  other  is  uncertain.  John  pre- 
sided over  the  dissenting  party,  who  met  in 
the  house  where  he  lodged,  and  who  in  their 
precipitancy  declared  Cynl  and  Mcmnon  to 
be  deposed,  and  to  be  banished.  From  this 
time  there  were  two  councils  sitting  at  Ephe- 
sus, the  one  under  Cyril  and  the  other  under 
John,  as  the  presidents.  The  latter  was 
supported  by  the  imperial  commissioner. 
But  both  committed  such  extravagances,  as 
show  that  the  spirit  of  meekness  did  not  rest 
upon  these  fathers.  These  intemperate  pro- 
ceedings threatened  to  kindle  a  flame  in  the 
church,  and  even  to  disturb  the  public  peace. 
The  emperor  therefore  thought  it  necessary 
to  bring  the  matter  before  his  court,  and  to 
proceed  rather  upon  principles  of  good  policy 
than  of  strict  justice.  He  confirmed  the 
decisions  of  both  parties  against  each  other, 
in  regard  to  Nestorius,  Cyril,  and  Memnon ; 
and  sent  another  of  his  ministers  to  Ephe- 
sus, to  expel  these  three  bishops  from  the 
city,  and  to  admonish  the  others  to  unite  and 
act  together.  In  the  mean  time  the  bishops 
of  CyriVs  party  had  held  no  less  than  six 
sessions  ;  in  the  three  first  of  which,  the  ar- 
rival and  formal  accession  of  the  delegates 
from  Rome  to  all  the  proceedings  of  Cyril 
against  Nestorius,  and  the  making  out  an 
account  of  these  proceedings  to  be  sent  to 
the  emperor,  were  the  principal  transactions. 
The  three  subsequent  sessions  tended  far- 
ther to  widen  the  breach,  as  the  eastern  bish- 
ops were  publicly  excommunicated  by  the 
party  of  Cyril,  and  a  new  confession  of  faith 
was  framed  by  them.  The  imperial  minis- 
ter now  arrived,  and  put  Cyril  and  Memnon 
under  arrest ;  but  he  laboured  in  vain  to 
unite  the  fiercely  contending  parties.  Both 
concluded  to  send  their  respective  deputies 
to  the  court,  which  was  then  at  Chalcedon. 
Historians  tell  us,  that  the  court  people  were 
friendly  to  Ncstorius.  If  so,  it  will  be  dif- 
ficult to  assign  the  cause  of  the  unexpected 
revocation  by  the  emperor  of  his  former  de- 
cree which  deprived  Cyril  and  Memnon  of 
their  offices,  while  he  still  condemned  Nes- 
torius to  banishment.  The  party  of  Cyril, 
indeed,  when  they  found  things  not  proceed- 


SCO 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


wise  and  good  man  will  readily  deny ;  but  the  doctrine  established  by  the 
council,  that  Christ  consists  of  one  divine  person,  yet  of  two  natures  most 
closely  united,  but  not  mixed  and  confounded,  has  been  approved  and  ac- 
knowledged by  the  great  body  of  Christians. 

§  9.  To  pass  by  the  minor  errors  which  were  attributed  to  Nestorius, 
he  is  said  to  have  divided  Christ  into  two  persons,  and  to  have  held  that 
the  divine  nature  joined  itself  to  the  full  formed  man,  and  only  aided  him 
during  his  life.  But  Nestorius  himself,  as  long  as  he  lived,  professed  him- 
self  utterly  opposed  to  such  sentiments.(20)  Nor  were  such  sentiments  ever 
directly  stated  by  him,  but  only  inferred  by  his  adversaries  from  his  rejection 
of  the  epithet  mother  of  God,  and  from  some  incautious  and  ambiguous 
terms  which  he  used.  Hence,  very  many  both  among  the  ancients  and 
the  moderns  think,  that  he  held  the  same  sentiments  that  the  Ephesine  fa- 
thers did,  though  he  expressed  himself  in  a  different  manner ;  and  they 
cast  the  whole  blame  of  this  most  destructive  contest  upon  the  restless 
spirit  of  Cyril,  and  his  malignant  disposition  towards  Nestorius. (21)  Al- 

ihg  according  to  their  wishes  at  Ephesus,  be  alleged  against  Ncsloriits,  is  carefully  col- 
made  every  effort  to  meet  the  investigation  lected  by  Jo*.  Sim.  Asseman,  Biblioth.  Ori- 


of  the  case  before  the  imperial  court.  And 
their  movements  were  not  unsuccessful. 
The  outcry  of  the  more  worthless  clergy  and 
the  monks  against  Nestorius,  may  have  made 


ental.  Clement.  Vatican.,  torn,  iii.,  pt.  ii.,  p. 
210,  &c.  [C.  W.  F.  Walch,  (Historie  der 
Ketzereyen,  vol.  v.,  p.  778,  &c.),  after  a 
careful  investigation,  states  the  sentiments 


considerable   impression,  producing  fear  of    of  Nestorius  in  the  following  propositions, 
an  insurrection  if  Cyril  were  punished.     Be-     ( 1 )  The  doctrine  of  three  persons  in  the  one 
sides,  Nestorius  fell  under  the  displeasure  of    divine    essence,   as    stated    in    the  Nicene 
Pvlcheria,  the  emperor's  sister,  who  had  vast 
influence  over  him.     And  Cyril  co-operated 
by  means, — always  very  efficacious  in  courts, 
—  the  bribery  of  the  ministers.     It  is  strange, 
that  the  subsequent  ages  should  have  regard- 


Creed,  is  true  and  certain.  (2)  In  particu- 
lar, the  second  Person  the  divine  Word,  is 
true  God,  eternally  begotten  of  the  Father, 
and  of  the  same  essence  with  him.  (3)  Yet 
Christ  is  not  only  true  God,  but  likewise  a 


ed  the  Ephesine  assembly  as  ranking  among  complete  man  ;  that  is,  he  had  a  body  and  a 

councils  of  the  highest  order  ;  since  in  re-  rational    soul,  just    as   we    have.     (4)    His 

gard  to  the  principal  points,  it  decided  nothing  body  he  derived  from  the  virgin  Mary,  and 

happily,  and  what  was  done  was  in  reality  in  her  womb.    (5)  Nothing  therefore  is  more 

done    by   the   emperor. — SchlegeVs  abridg-  certain  than,  that  Christ  possessed  two  na- 

ment  of  Walch,  corrected  by  the  original. —  tures,  a  divine  and  a  human.     (6)  Yet  there 

TV.]  are  not,  on  this  account,  two  persons,  two 

(20)  See    Marius  Mercalor,  Opp.,  torn.  Sons,  two  Christs,  two  Lords  ;  but  he  is  erne 

ii.,  p.  286,  ed.  Gamier :  and  Fragments  of  person,  one  Christ,  one  Son,  one  Lord.     (7) 

the  Epistles  of  Nestorius,  written  a  little  be-  There  was  therefore   a  union  between  the 


fore  his  death ;  in  Jos.  Sim.  Asseman,  Bib- 
lioth. Oriental.  Vatican.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  40,  41. 


perfect  God  the  Word,  and  the  perfect  man  ; 
and  this  union  may  be  expressed  by  various 


(21)  Among  the  moderns,  Luther  first  terms,  among  which  cwu<j>eia  [connexion] 
held  such  sentiments,  and  inveighed  bitterly 
against  Cyril :  de  Conciliis,  in  his  Opp.,  torn, 
vii.,  ed.  Altenb.,  p.  265,  266,  273,  &c.  He 
was  followed  by  innumerable  others  ;  as  Pe- 
ter Bayle,  Dictionnaire,  torn,  iii.,  [and  iv.,] 
artic.  Nestorius  and  Rodon  :  Christ.  Aug. 
Salig,  de  Entychianismo  ante  Eutychem,  p. 
200  :  Otto  Fred.  Sckutz,  de  Vita  Chytraei, 
lib.  ii.,  $  29,  p.  190,  191  :  Jo.  Voipt,  Bibli- 
oth.  Historiae  Haeresial.,  torn,  i.,  pt.  iii.,  p. 
457  :  Paul.  Fran.  Jablonshy,  Exercitat.  de 
Nestorianismo,  Berlin,  1720,  8vo:  Thesau- 
rus Epistolicus  Crozianus,  torn,  i.,  p.  184, 
&c.,  torn,  iii.,  p.  175  :  Jordan,  Vie  de  Mr.  la 
Croze,  p.  231,  and  many  others.  What  may 


is  the  best,  but  IVUGIS  [union]  is  not  to 
be  rejected.  (8)  To  the  question,  What 
was  united 1  Nestorius  answered,  God  and 
man,  the  divinity  and  humanity,  the  two  na- 
tures, or  two  substances  and  hypostasies ; 
but  not  two  persons.  (9)  This  union  did 
not  consist  in  this,  that  the  natures  ceased 
to  possess  their  peculiar  properties ;  for  the 
essential  difference  of  the  two  natures  re- 
mained, without  the  least  change  or  com- 
mixion.  (10)  Yet  the  union  was  insepara- 
ble, so  that  the  Word  was  never  afterwards 
without  the  assumed  man,  nor  the  man 
without  the  Word.  (11)  The  union  of  the 
two  natures  commenced  with  the  existence 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


361 


lowing  these  to  judge  correctly,  still  Neslorius  must  be  pronounced  guilty 
of  two  faults  :  first,  that  he  was  disposed  rashly,  and  with  offence  to  many, 

term  mother  of  God,  nor  indeed  the  other 
expressions,   utterly  and  perseveringly,  ex- 
cept under  the  limitation  of,  being  so  and  so 
understood ;  otherwise  he  acknowledged  and 
professed  the  correctness  and  harmlessness 
of  them.     (22)  The  next  expression  is,  the 
sufferings,  the  death,  and  burial  of  Christ. 
Ncstorius  did  not  deny  that  it  was  God,  or 
man  in  union  with  God,  i.  e.,  one  Christ, 
that  was  crucified,  suffered,  died,  and  was 
buried.     But  he  did  deny  that  Christ,  in  so 
far  as  he  was  God,  was  the  subject  of  these 
changes  ;  because  he  was,  in  his  divine  na- 
ture, unchangeable,  and  incapable  of  suffer- 
ing and  dying.     (23)  The  third  expression 
is   resurrection.     On  this,  his    views  were 
the  same  as  on  the  preceding.     As  he  had 
borrowed  the  word  temple  from  John  ii.,  19, 
&c.,  he  insisted  that  Christ  there  distinguish- 
es the  temple   from  him  who  raises  it  up.v 
Yet  this  distinction  he  would  understand  to 
imply,  not  a  division  of  persons,  but  only  a 
difference  of  natures.     (24)  To  the  second 
class  belong  such  as  relate  to  the  doctrine  of 
a  communication  of  the  properties  of  the  di- 
vine nature  to  the  human.     And  here  Nes- 
torius did  not  deny  that  the  man  Christ  pos- 
sessed divine  properties  ;  but  only  that  he 
possessed  them  of  himself,  or  not  by  virtue 
of  the  union.     (25)  He  conceded,  that  lo 
Christ  as  to  his  human  nature,  the  divine 
names  and  titles  were  pertinent ;  bnt  with 
the  limitation  again,  not  of  himself,  but  on 
account  of  the   union.     (26)  He  admitted, 
that  to  the  man  Chnxt  divine  worship  be- 
longed ;  but  again,  not  for  his  own  sake,  but 
on  account  of  the  union.     (27)  The  species 
of  communication  of  attributes,  which  our 
theologians  call   apotrles matte,   (attributing 
the  mediatorial  acts  of  the  Redeemer  in  his 
official  capacity,  cither  to  the  complex  person, 
or  to  either  of  his  natures  indiscriminately), 
Ncstorius  fully  recognised  :  and  it   is  not 
true,  that  he  regarded  the  work  of  redemp- 
tion as  the  work  solely  of  the  human  nature. 
(28)  Hence  it  follows,  that  Nestorius  un- 
derstood well,  and  expressed  distinctly,  the 
unity  of  the  person  of  Christ,  and  also  the 
diversity  and  union  of  the  two  natures,  with 
its  consequences ;  yet  that  he  was  always 
anxious  for  excluding  the  use  of  such  ex- 
pressions, as  obscured  and  rendered  undis- 
cernible  the  distinction  of  the  two  natures. 
Hence,  when  he  spoke  of  Christ,  he  prefer- 
red using  a  name  expressive  of  his  complex 
person.     Thus  he  would  rather  say  xPlfOTO~ 
KOf,  mother  of  Christ,  than   say  deoroKOf, 
mother  of  God ;  or  if  the  latter  could  not  be 
avoided,  he  would  add  something  to  qualify 


of  the  human  nature,  when  he  was  conceived 
in  the  womb  of  his  mother.  (12)  It  is  there- 
fore correctly  said,  the  Word  became  man 
and  was  made  flesh.  (13)  It  is  also  cor- 
icctly  said,  the  Son  of  God  took  upon  him 
Kan.  (14)  It  is  easy  to  state  what  kind  of 
union  Nestorius  did  not  admit ;  but  it  can- 
not be  proved,  that  he  distinctly  believed  as 
bishop  John  states.  (15)  To  explain  the 
connexion  of  the  two  natures  of  Christ  as 
suited  in  one  person,  Nestorius  said :  The 
Son  of  God  dwells  in  the  man  ;  and  the  flesh 
is  the  temple  of  God.  Yet  he  explained 
himself  by  saying,  that  he  did  not  under- 
stand such  an  indwelling;  as  the  indwelling 
of  God  in  the  faithful  and  in  the  prophets. 
(16)  Nestorius  called  the  human  nature  an 
mslrument,  by  which  the  Son  of  God  work- 
ed ;  and  a  garment,  with  which  he  was  clad  ; 
and  said,  God  carried  and  bare  the  man.  (17) 
He  also  admitted  a  communion  or  intercourse 
of  the  two  natures.  (18)  And  at  the  same 
time,  held  to  the  so  called  personal  proper- 
ties. (19)  In  respect  to  the  communication 
of  attributes,  Nestorius  held  that  in  the 
scriptures,  names  are  used  in  reference  to 
our  Saviour,  which  indicate  the  union  of  the 
two  natures,  but  not  one  nature  as  distinct 
from  the  other  ;  names,  with  which  we  must 
connect  the  idea  of  the  entire  Christ ;  e.  g., 
Jmmanud,  Christ,  Jesus,  Son,  Only  Begot- 
ten, Lord.  (20)  Nestorius  admitted  that 
the  scriptures  attribute  to  Christ  both  divine 
and  human  attributes  and  acts.  And  he 
states  this  rule  for  interpreting  them  :  Every 
attribute  and  act  which  the  scriptures  ascribe 
to  Chris/,  must  be  understood  indeed  of  the 
one  person,  yet  not  of  both  his  natures  ;  but 
the  sublime  and  God-befitting  must  be  re- 
ferred to  the  divine  nature,  and  the  inferior 
to  the  human  nature.  (21)  In  the  writings 
of  Nestorius,  noticeable  passages  occur  re- 
lating to  the  expressions  which  denote  the 
participation  or  communication  of  attributes, 
and  which  are  indicative  of  his  real  senti- 
ments on  the  subject.  They  may  be  divided 
into  two  classes.  To  the  first  class  belong 
the  expressions,  by  which  the  properties  and 
changes  of  the  human  nature  are  referred  to 
Christ  in  his  divine  nature,  or  (according  to  the 
customary  phraseology  of  those  times)  to  the 
Word  that  was  God.  The  first  expression 
is  that  of  being  born.  It  is  undeniable  that 
Nestorius  (though  not  likewise  his  friends, 
a  few  only  excepted)  rejected  the  use  of 
the  term  mother  of  God  ;  as  also  the  expres- 
sion. Mary  bore  the  Deity,  or  what  was  born 
of  Mary,  was  God.  Yet  it  is  equally  unde- 
niable, that  Nestonus  did  not  reject  the 

VOL.  I— Z  z 


363  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

to  abolish  the  use  of  a  harmless  term(22)  which  had  been  long  current ; 
and  secondly,  that  he  presumed  to  express  and  explain  by  unsuitable  phrases 
and  comparisons  a  mystery  which  exceeds  all  human  comprehension.  If 
to  these  faults  be  added  the  excessive  vanity  and  impetuosity  of  the  man, 
it  will  be  difficult  to  determine  which  was  the  principal  cause  of  this  great 
contest,  Cyril  or  Nestorius. 

§  10.  The  council  of  Ephesus  was  so  far  from  putting  an  end  to  these  con- 
tentions, that  it  rather  extinguished  all  hope  of  the  restoration  of  harmony. 
John  bishop  of  Antioch,  and  the  other  eastern  prelates,  whose  arrival  Cyril 
would  not  wait  for,  assembled  at  Ephesus ;  and  they  issued  as  severe  a 
sentence  against  Cyril,  and  his  friend  Memnon  bishop  of  Ephesus,  as  they 
had  issued  against  Nestorius.  Hence  a  violent  and  troublesome  contro- 
versy  arose  between  Cyril  and  the  Oriental  bishops  who  had  John  of  An- 
tioch for  their  leader.  It  was  indeed  partially  adjusted  in  the  year  433,, 
when  Cyril  acceded  to  a  formula  of  faith  prescribed  by  John,  and  rejected 
the  use  of  certain  suspicious  phrases.  Yet  the  commotions  it  produced 
continued  long  in  the  East. (23)  And  no  means  could  prevent  the  friends 
and  disciples  of  Nestorius  from  spreading  his  doctrines  through  various 
provinces  of  the  East,  and  every  where  gathering  churches  which  rejected 
the  Ephesine  decrees. (24)  The  Persians  in  particular  were  averse  from 
any  reconciliation  with  Cyril,  and  persevered  in  maintaining,  that  Nestorius 
was  rashly  condemned  at  Ephesus,  and  that  Cyril  subverted  the  distinction 
between  the  two  natures  of  Christ.  The  propagation  of  the  Nestorian 
doctrines  was  still  more  successful,  after  the  introduction  of  those  doctrines 
into  the  celebrated  Persian  school  which  had  for  some  time  flourished  at 
Edessa.  For  the  teachers  in  this  school  not  only  taught  Nestorian  prin- 
ciples to  their  pupils,  but  likewise  translated  from  Greek  into  Syriac  the 
writings  of  Nestorius  and  his  master  Theodoras  of  Mopsuestia,  as  well  as 
of  Diodorus  of  Tarsus,  and  spread  them  throughout  Assyria  and  Persia. (25) 

§  11.  To  no  one  of  all  its  patrons  is  the  Nestorian  doctrine  more  in. 
debted  than  to  Barsumas.  Ejected  from  the  school  of  Edessa  with  his  as- 
sociates, and  in  the  year  435  created  bishop  of  Nisibis,  he  laboured  from 
the  year  440  to  the  year  485  with  incredible  assiduity  and  dexterity,  to 
procure  for  Nestorianism  a  permanent  establishment  in  Persia.  Maanes, 
bishop  of  Ardaschir,  was  his  principal  coadjutor.  His  measures  were  so 

it,  as  mother  of  the  God-Man. — Dr.  Walch        (23)  See  Christ.  Aug.  Salig,  de  Euty- 

ia*one  who  thinks  the  whole  controversy  be-  chianismo  ante  Eutychen,  p.  243,  &c.,  [and 

tween  Nestorius  and   his   accusers  was  a  Dr.  Watch's  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol. 

mere  dispute  about  words  and  phrases.     But  v.,  p.  619,  &c. — SchL] 
Dr.  Hofmann,  in  a  dispute  at  Wittemberg,         (24)    [The   Roman  provinces,   in  which 

A.D.  1725,  maintained,  that  the  Nestorian  Nestorianism  most  prevailed,  were  the  two 

controversy  was  not  a  mere  logomachy. —  Syrias,  the  two  Cilicias,  Bithynia,  Moesia, 

Schl  ]  Thessaly,  Isauria,  and  the  second  Cappado- 

(22)  ["  The  title  mother  of  God,  applied  cia.— TV.] 

to  the  virgin  Mary,  is  not  perhaps  so  inno-         (25)  See  Jos.  Sim.  Asseman,  Biblioth. 

cent  as  Dr.  Mosheim  takes  it  to  be.     To  the  Oriental.  Clement.  Vatican.,  torn,  i.,  p.  351, 

judicious  and  learned  it  can  present  no  idea  &c..  torn,  iii.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  69.     From  which, 

at  all,  and  to  the  ignorant  and  unwary  it  may  with  other  passages,  we  should  correct  the 

present  the  most  absurd  and  monstrous  no-  account  of  the  early  history  of  Nestorianism, 

tions.     The  invention  and  use  of  such  mys-  given  by  Eus.  Renaudot,  (Liturgiarum  Ori- 

terious  terms  as  have  no  place  in  scripture,  ental.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  99,  &c.),  and  by  others. 

are  undoubtedly  pernicious  to  true  religion."  See  also  Theodorus  Lector,  Hist.  Eccles., 

— Mad.]  lib.  ii.,  p.  558. 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


363 


successful,  that  all  the  Nestorians  in  Chaldea,  Persia,  Assyria,  and  the 
neighbouring  countries,  deservedly  venerate  him  only  to  this  day  as  their 
parent  and  founder.  He  persuaded  the  Persian  monarch  Pherozes,  to 
expel  the  Christians  who  adhered  to  the  opinions  of  the  Greek  fathers,  and 
not  only  to  admit  Nestorians  in  their  place,  but  to  allow  them  to  make 
the  first  cities  in  Persia,  Seleucia  and  Ctesiphon,  their  primary  seat ;  which 
their  patriarch  or  Catholic  has  occupied  quite  to  our  times.  He  also 
erected  the  famous  school  at  Nisibis,  from  which  issued  those  who  in  this 
and  the  following  century  carried  the  Nestorian  doctrines  into  Egypt,  Syria, 
Arabia,  India,  Tartary,  and  even  to  China. (26) 

§  12.  Before  this  sect  became  fully  formed  and  established,  there  was 
some  difference  of  opinion  in  it.  Some  said,  that  the  manner  in  which 
the  two  natures  in  Christ  were  combined,  was  wholly  unknown  ;  and  some 
denied  any  other  connexion  than  that  of  will,  operation,  and  dignity.  (27) 
But  this  disagreement  wholly  disappeared,  from  the  time  that  the  Nestorian 


(26)  All  these  transactions  are  well  illus- 
trated, by  the  before-mentioned  Jos.  Sim. 
Asseman,  Biblioth.  Orient.  Clement.  Vati- 
can., torn,  iii.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  77,  &c.  [The  Nes- 
torwns  are  not  called  by  this  name  in  the 
East,  for  they  regard  their  doctrines  as  apos- 
tolic, and  they  never  had  any  connexion  with 
the  person  of  Nestorius  ;  but  are  generally 
called  Chaldaic  Christians,  because  their 
principal  or  head  church  is  in  the  ancient 
Chaldea ;  and  in  some  part  of  the  East  In- 
dies, St.  Thomas  Christians,  because  they 
suppose  they  received  Christianity  from  the 
apostle  Thomas. — They  constitute  a  large 
Christian  community,  which  has  no  con- 
nexion with  others  ;  have  their  own  forms 
of  worship,  their  own  bishops,  and  their 
own  ecclesiastical  councils.  Their  church 
extends  through  all  Asia,  and  exists  partly 
in  the  Persian,  partly  in  the  Turkish,  and 
partly  in  the  Mogul  empires.  The  patri- 
arch resides  in  a  monastery  not  far  from 
Mosul,  and  has  a  great  many  bishops  under 
him.  The  enmity  of  the  Persians,  and  af- 
terwards of  the  Mohammedans  and  Sara- 
cens against  the  Romans,  contributed  much 
to  further  the  spread  of  this  sect ;  for  they 
received  all  refugees  from  the  Roman  em- 
pire, and  extended  full  protection  to  such 
Christians  as  were  not  tolerated  in  the  Ro- 
man provinces,  and  whom  of  course  they 
could  not  suspect  of  any  understanding  with 
the  Romans  Jbas  bishop  of  Edessa,  was 
one  of  the  greatest  defenders  of  Nestorius 
among  the  Orientals ;  and  on  that  account, 
his  epistle  to  Marin  the  Persian  bishop  of 
Ardaschir,  was  rejected  by  some  councils. 
But  the  chief  persons  among  them  were 
Barsumas  and  his  assistant  Maartcs.  After 
the-  death  of  Barsumas,  the  archbishop  of 
Seleucia,  Babacus,  became  the  head  of  the 
party ;  and  from  this  time  onward,  the  pa- 
triarchs (catholici  or  Jacchck)  resided  at  Se- 


leucia, until,  under  the  califs,  Bagdat  and 
Mosul  were  selected  for  that  purpose.  This 
Babacus  held  a  council  in  the  year  499,  in 
which  not  only  the  whole  Persian  church 
professed  itself  to  belong  to  the  Nestorian 
community,  but  regulations  were  also  made 
that  all  bishops  and  priests  must  be  married, 
and  second  marriages  of  the  clergy  were  not 
merely  permitted  but  declared  to  be  neces- 
sary. (See  Asseman,  Biblioth.  Orient.,  torn, 
iii.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  177.)  The  Nestorians  differ 
from  other  Christians  in  the  following  par- 
ticulars :  that  they  will  not  call  Mary  the 
mother  of  God ;  and  wholly  reject  the  ex- 
pressions, God  was  crucified  and  died ;  that 
they  admit  no  natural  and  personal,  but  only 
a  friendly  union  of  the  Word  that  was  God 
(for  so  they  speak)  with  the  man  Jesus; 
that  they  teach,  there  are  in  Christ  two  na- 
tures and  two  substances,  each  of  which  has 
its  own  personality :  that  they  reject  the 
council  of  Ephesus  ;  execrate  Cyril,  as  be- 
ing a  wicked  wretch  ;  and  venerate  Nesto- 
rius and  Theodorus  of  Mopsuestia,  as  being 
saints :  that  they  worship  no  images ;  and 
perform  their  worship,  which  is  very  simple, 
in  the  Syriac  language.  Together  with  bap- 
tism, which  they  generally  administer  on  the 
40th  day  after  the  birth,  and  the  Lord's  sup- 
per, in  which  they  use  leavened  bread,  they 
make  the  consecration  of  priests  to  be  a  sac- 
rament. They  also  practise  anointing  with 
oil,  as  a  ceremony  of  worship,  and  likewise 
in  slight  diseases,  and  even  in  commencing 
journeys,  as  a  sort  of  consecration.  See 
Baumgartcn's  Geschichte  der  Religionspar- 
theyen,  p.  586. — Sr.hl.] 

(27)  Leontius  Byzanlinus,  adv.  Nestoria- 
nos  et  Eutychianos ;  in  Hni  Cinnsii  Lec- 
tiones  Antiquar,  torn,  i.,  537,  and  Jo.  Bas- 
nage,  Prolegom.  ad  Canisium,  lorn,  i.,  cap. 
ii.,  p.  19,  &c. 


364     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

community  became  duly  consolidated.  For  it  was  decreed  by  synods  as- 
sembled  at  Seleucia,  that  there  were  in  the  Saviour  of  mankind  two  per- 
sons or  vTiOgdoeig,  namely  a  divine  that  of  the  Word,  and  a  human  that  of 
Jesus ;  yet  that  both  persons  constituted  but  one  Aspect,  or  as  they  (fol- 
lowing Nestorius)  expressed  it,  one  Barsopa,  that  is,  -npoounov  :  that  this 
union  of  the  Son  of  God  with  the  Son  of  man,  took  place  at  the  moment 
of  conception,  and  would  never  end  :  but  that  it  was  not  a  union  of  natures 
or  persons,  but  only  of  will  and  affection  ;  Christ  therefore,  must  be  care- 
fully distinguished  from  God,  who  (in  the  language  of  Nestorius)  dwelt  in 
Christ  as  in  his  temple  ;  and  that  Mary  should  never  be  called  the  mother 
of  God,  but  only  the  mother  of  Christ.  They  reverence  Nestorius  as  a 
holy  man,  and  worthy  of  everlasting  remembrance  ;  but  they  maintain  that 
his  doctrine  was  much  more  ancient  than  he,  being  derived  from  the  ear- 
liest ages  of  the  church ;  and  therefore  they  wish  not  to  be  called  Nesto- 
rians.  And  it  appears  in  fact,  that  Barsumas  and  his  associates  did  not 
inculcate  on  their  followers  precisely  the  doctrines  taught  by  Nestorius  ; 
but  they  in  some  measure  polished  his  imperfect  system,  enlarged  it,  and 
connected  with  it  other  doctrines  which  Nestorius  never  embraced. 

§  13.  While  avoiding  the  fault  of  Nestorius,  many  ran  into  the  opposite 
extreme.  The  most  noted  of  these  was  Eutyches,  abbot  of  a  certain  con- 
vent of  monks  at  Constantinople ;  from  whom  originated  another  sect,  di- 
rectly opposite  to  that  of  Nestorius,  but  equally  troublesome  and  mischiev- 
ous to  the  interests  of  Christianity,  and  which  like  that  spread  with  great 
rapidity  throughout  the  East,  and  acquired  such  strength  in  its  progress 
that  it  gave  immense  trouble  both  to  the  Nestorians  and  to  the  Greeks, 
and  became  a  great  and  powerful  community.  In  the  year  448,  Eutyches, 
now  far  advanced  in  years,  in  order  more  effectually  to  put  down  Nesto- 
rius to  whom  he  was  a  violent  foe,  explained  the  doctrine  concerning  the 
person  of  Christ  in  the  phraseology  of  the  Egyptians,  maintaining  that 
there  was  only  one  nature  in  Christ,  namely,  that  of  the  Word  who  became 
incarnate. (28)  Hence  he  was  supposed  to  deny  the  humanity  of  Jesus 

(28)  That  Cyril  had  so  expressed  himself,  Sckroeckh  has  treated  the  subject  well  in  his 
and  had  appealed  to  the  authority  of  Atha-  Kirchengeschichte,  vol.  xviii.,  p.  433-636, 
nasius  to  justify  the  phraseology,  is  beyond  Lips.,  1793,  8 vo.  See  also  Muenscher,  Dog- 
controversy.  But  whether  Athanasius  ac-  mengesch.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  79-122;  Gicseler's 
tually  used  such  language,  is  doubtful;  for  Text-book,  by  Cunningham,  vol.  i  ,  p.  237, 
many  think  the  book  in  which  it  occurs  was  &c.,  315,  &c.  The  points  in  controversy 
not  a  production  of  Athanasius.  See  Mich,  between  Eutyches  and  his  friends  on  the 
le  Quien,  Diss.  ii.  in  Damascenum,  p.  31,  one  part,  and  their  antagonists  on  the  other, 
&c.,  and  Christ.  Aug.  Salig,  de  Eutychi-  during  the  first  period  of  the  contest  or  till 
anismo  ante  Eutychem,  p.  112,  &c.  That  the  council  of  Chalcedon  in  451,  according 
the  Syrians  used  the  same  phraseology,  be-  to  Dr.  Walch,  (loc.  cit.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  611- 
fore  Eutyches'  times,  and  without  offence,  619),  were  in  amount,  as  follows.  Both 
is  shown  by  Jos.  Sim.  Asseman,  Biblioth.  held  alike,  (1)  the  perfect  correctness  of  the 
Orient.  Vatican.,  torn,  i.,  p.  219. — We  are  Nicene  Creed.  And  of  course,  (2)  both 
yet  in  want  of  a  solid  and  accurate  history  held  the  doctrine  of  a  trinity  of  persons  in 
of  the  Eutychian  troubles ;  which  howev-  the  Godhead  ;  (3)  that  God  the  Word  was 
er,  Christ.  Aug.  Salig  left  in  manuscript,  made  flesh  ;  (4)  that  Christ  was  truly  God 
[This  has  not  yet  been  published ;  but  Dr.  and  truly  man  united  ;  and  (5)  that,  after 
Ch  W.  Fr.  Walch  has  given  a  very  elabo-  the  union  of  the  two  natures  he  was  one 
rate  and  full  history  of  the  Eutychian  and  person.  .But  Eutyches  maintained,  (6)  that 
Monophysite  sects,  filling  the  whole  6th,  7th,  the  two  natures  of  Christ  after  the  union, 
and  8th  volumes  of  his  Historic  der  Ket-  did  not  remain  two  distinct  natures,  but  con- 
zereyen,  Lips.,  1773,  76-78,  8vo,  and  AT.  stituted  one  nature  ;  and  therefore,  (7)  that 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


365 


Christ ;  and  was  accused  by  Eusebius  of  Doryleum,  before  a  council  called 
by  Flavianus,  perhaps  in  this  very  year,  at  Constantinople.  And  as  £u- 
tyches  refused  to  give  up  his  opinions  at  the  bidding  of  this  council,  he  was 
cast  out  of  the  church  and  deprived  of  his  office  ;  and  he  not  acquiescing 
in  this  decree,  appealed  to  a  general  council  of  the  whole  church.(29) 

§  14.  The  emperor  Theodosius  therefore,  in  the  year  449,  convoked  at 
Ephesus  such  a  council  as  Eutyches  had  requested,  and  placed  at  the  head 
of  it  Dioscorus  bishop  of  Alexandria,  a  man  as  ambitious  and  restless  as 
Cyril,  and  as  hostile  to  the  bishop  of  Constantinople.  In  this  council  the 
business  was  conducted  with  the  same  kind  of  fairness  and  justness,  as  by 
Cyril  in  the  council  of  Ephesus  against  Nestorius.  For  Dioscorus,  in 
whose  church  nearly  the  same  things  were  taught  as  Eutyches  had  ad- 
vanced,  so  artfully  managed  and  controlled  the  whole  of  the  proceedings, 
that  the  doctrine  of  one  nature  incarnate  was  triumphant,  and  Eutyches  was 
acquitted  of  all  error.  On  the  contrary,  Flavianus  was  severely  scourged, 
and  banished  to  Epipa,  a  city  of  Lydia,  where  he  soon  after  died. (30) 
The  Greeks  call  this  Ephesine  council,  avvodov  ^T]gpiKf]v,  an  Assembly  of 
Robbers,  to  signify  that  everything  was  carried  in  it  by  fraud  and  violence. 
Yet  this  name  would  be  equally  applicable  to  many  councils  of  this  and 
the  subsequent  times. 

§  15.  But  the  scene  changed  soon  after.  Flavianus  and  his  adherents 
engaged  Leo  the  Great,  the  Roman  pontiff,  on  their  side, — a  course  which 
was  commonly  taken  in  that  age,  by  those  who  were  foiled  by  their  ene- 


it  was  correct  to  say,  Christ  was  constitu- 
ted of  or  from  two  natures ;  but  not  that  he 
existed  in  two  natures.  For  (8)  the  union 
of  the  two  natures  was  such  that,  although 
neither  of  them  was  lost  or  was  essentially 
changed,  yet  together  they  constituted  one 
nature  ;  of  which  compound  nature,  and  not 
of  either  of  the  original  natures  alone,  must 
thenceforth  be  predicated  each  and  every 
property  of  both  natures.  He  accordingly 
denied,  (9)  that  it  is  correct  to  say  of  Christ, 
that  as  to  his  human  nature  he  was  6//o«<rtof 
(of  the  same  nature)  with  us.  It  is  to  be 
remembered,  that  Eutyches  was  solicitous 
chiefly  to  confute  Nestorius,  (who  kept  the 
two  natures  almost  entirely  distinct,  and 
seemed  to  deny  any  other  union  than  that 
of  purpose  and  co-operation,  and  who  in  par- 
ticular disliked  all  phrases  which  predicated 
the  acts  and  sufferings  of  the  human  nature, 
of  the  divine  nature) ;  and  to  enable  him  to 
overturn  this  error,  Eutyches  so  blended  the 
two  natures,  that  they  could  not  afterwards 
be  distinguished. — TV.] 

(29)  [This  was  an  occasional  council,  as- 
sembled for  other  purposes,  before  which 
Eusclnus  appeared  and  accused  Eutyches. 
The  council  peremptorily  required  him  to 
give  up  his  opinions ;  and  on  his  refusal, 
proceeded  at  once  to  excommunicate  him. 
See  the  Acts  of  this  council,  in  Hur/hnn's 
Coll.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  70,  &c.  See  also  Wakh, 
Hist,  der  Ketz.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  108-158.— TV.] 


(30)  See  Jo.  Harduin,  Concilia,  torn,  i., 
p.  82,  &c.  Liberatus,  Breviarium,  c.  xii., 
p.  76.  Leo  Magnus,  Epist.  xciii.,  p.  625. 
Niccphorus,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  xiv.,  c.  47, 
p.  550,  &c.  [  Walch,  Historic  der  Kirchcn- 
versammlungen,  p.  301,  &c.,  and  Historic 
der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  vi.,  p.  175-264.  Bow- 
er's Lives  of  the  Popes,  (Leo),  vol.  ii.,  p.  42- 
48,  ed.  Lond.,  1750,  4to.  The  aged  em- 
peror  Theodosius  II.  was  managed  by  the 
Eutychians  ;  and  therefore  he  called  such  a 
council  as  would  accomplish  their  wishes. 
In  the  council,  Eutyr.hes  offered  a  confession 
of  faith,  which  did  not  touch  the  point  in 
debate  ;  and  this  was  accepted,  without  al- 
lowing his  accusers  to  be  heard.  By  ac- 
clamation the  doctrine  of  two  natures  in  the 
incarnate  Word  was  condemned.  Diosco- 
rus then  proposed  to  condemn  Flavianus 
and  Eusebius.  Here  opposition  was  made  : 
and  Dioscorus  called  on  the  imperial  com- 
missioners, who  threw  open  the  doors  of  the 
church  ;  a  band  of  soldiers  and  an  armed 
mob  rushed  in.  The  terrified  bishops  no 
longer  resisted.  Every  member  (in  all  149) 
sigiu-d  the  decrees.  Flavianus  was  deposed 
and  banished.  Eusrkius  of  Doryleum.  The- 
odoret  of  Cyprus,  Dvmnu*  of  Antioch,  and 
several  others,  were  also  deposed.  The  de- 
cisions of  this  council  were  ratified  by  the 
emperor,  and  ordered  to  be  everywhere  en- 
forced.—Tr.] 


366  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

mies, — and  also  represented  to  the  emperor,  that  an  affair  of  such  magni- 
tude demanded  a  general  council  to  settle  it.  Theodosius  however,  could 
not  be  persuaded  to  grant  the  request  of  Leo,  and  call  such  a  council. 
But  on  his  death,  Martian  his  successor,  summoned  a  new  council  at  Chal- 
cedon  in  the  year  451,  which  is  called  the  fourth  general  council.  In  this 
very  numerous  assembly,  the  legates  of  Leo  the  Great,  (who  had  already 
publicly  condemned  the  doctrine  of  Eutyches,  in  his  famous  Epistle  to  Fla- 
vianus),  were  exceedingly  -active  and  influential.  Dioscorus  therefore  was 
condemned,  deposed,  and  banished  to  Paphlagonia,  the  Acts  of  the  Ephe- 
sine  council  were  rescinded,  the  Epistle  of  Leo  was  received  as  a  rule  of 
faith,  Eutyches,  who  had  already  been  divested  of  his  clerical  dignity  and 
exiled  by  the  emperor,  was  condemned  though  absent,  and,  not  to  mention 
the  other  decrees  of  the  council,  all  Christians  were  required  to  believe, 
what  most  to  this  day  do  believe,  that  in  Jesus  Christ  there  is  but  one  per- 
son, yet  two  distinct  natures  no  way  confounded  or  mixed. (31) 

§  16.  This  remedy,  which  was  intended  to  heal  the  wounds  of  the 
church,  was  worse  than  the  disease.  For  a  great  part  of  the  Oriental 
and  Egyptian  doctors,  though  holding  various  sentiments  in  other  re- 
spects,  agreed  in  a  vigorous  opposition  to  this  council  of  Chalcedon,  and 
to  the  Epistle  of  Leo  the  Great  which  the  council  had  adopted,  and  con- 
tended  earnestly  for  one  nature  in  Christ.  Hence  arose  most  deplorable 
discords,  and  a  violence  of  parties  almost  exceeding  credibility.  In  Egypt, 
the  excited  populace,  after  the  death  of  the  emperor  Marcian,  [A.D.  457], 
murdered  Proterius  the  successor  of  Dioscorus;  and  appointed  in  his 
place  Timotheus  Aelurus,  a  defender  of  the  doctrine  of  one  incarnate  na- 
ture. And  although  Aelurus  was  expelled  from  his  office  by  the  em- 
peror Leo,  yet  under  the  [second  succeeding]  emperor  Basihscus,  he  re- 
covered it.  After  his  death,  [A.D.  476],  the  friends  of  the  council  of 
Chalcedon  elected  Timotheus  surnamed  Salopliaciolus ;  and  the  advocates 
for  one  nature,  chose  Peter  Moggus.  But  in  the  year  482,  Salophaciolus 
being  dead,  Moggus,  by  order  of  the  emperor  Zeno  and  by  the  influence 

(31)  [See  the  entire  Acts  of  this  council  rational  soul  and  a  body;   of  like  essence 

in  all  the  Collections  of  Councils;  e.  g.,  (6/«>8<7to?)  with  the  Father,  as  to  his  God- 

Binnius  and  Harduin,  torn,  ii.,  p.  1,  &c.  head ;  and  of  like  essence  (6fiosatof)  with 

See  also  Evagrius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  ii.,  c.  us,  as  to  his  manhood  ;  in  all  things  like  us, 

2,  4.     Cave,  Historia  Litteraria,  vol.  i.,  p.  sin  excepted  ;  begotten  (yevvijtieif)  of  the 

482-487.      Walch,  Historic  der  Kirchenver-  Father  from  all  eternity,  as  to  his  Godhead  ; 

sammlungen,  p.  307-314,  and  Historic  der  and  of  Mary,  the  mother  of  God  (i?eoroK«) 

Ketzereyen,  vol.  vi.,  p.  293-489.     Bower,  in  these  last  days,  for  us  and  for  our  salva- 

Lives  of  the  Popes,  (Leo  I.),  vol.  ii.,  p  56—  tion,  as  to  his  manhood  ;  recognised  as  one 

100,   ed.   Lond.,   1750,   4to.      Muenscher,  Christ, Son,  Lord, Only-begotten;  in  two na- 

Dogmengesch.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  96,  &c.     Giese-  tures,  unconfounded,  unchanged,  undivided, 

ler's  Text-book,  by  Cunningham,  vol.  i.,  p.  inseparable  (aavyxvrus,  arpeTrruf,  udtai.p£- 

240. — The  exposition  of  faith  in  the  5th  ac-  ruf,  &roptfti() ;  the  distinction  of  natures  not 

tion  of  this  council,  was  designed  to  guard  at  all  done  away  by  the  union  ;  but  rather,  the 

against  both  Eutychian  and  Nestorian  errors,  peculiarity  (idiorr/f)  of  each  nature  preserv- 

After  recognising  the  Nicene  and  Constan-  ed,  and  combining  (ovvTpcx&w'jf)  into  one 

tinopolitan  creeds,  with  Leo's  Letter  to  Fla-  substance  (vrrofaaiv) ;  not  separated  or  di- 

vianus,  &c.,  they  say:  "Following  there-  vided  into  two  persons  (TrpoauTra) ;  but  one 

fore  these  holy  fathers,  we  unitedly  declare,  Son,    Only-begotten,   God   the   Word,  the 

that  one  and  the  same  Son,  our  Lord  Jesus  Lord  Jesus  Christ :  as  the  prophets  before 

Christ,  is  to  be  acknowledged  as  being  per-  [taught]  concerning  him  ;  so  he,  the  Lord 

feet  in  his  godhead,  and  perfect  in  his  hu-  Jesus  Christ,  hath  taught  us,  and  the  creed 

inanity;  truly  God,  and  truly  man,  with  a  of  the  fathers  halh  transmitted  to  us." — Tr.] 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS.  367 

of  Acacius  bishop  of  Constantinople,  obtained  full  possession  of  the  see  of 
Alexandria ;  and  John  Talaia,  whom  the  Chalcedonians  had  elected,  was 
removed.  (32) 

§  17.  In  Syria,  the  abbot  Barsumas,  (a  different  person  from  Barsu~ 
mas  of  Nisibis  who  established  the  Ncstorian  sect),  having  been  con- 
demned  by  the  council  of  Chalcedon,  went  about  propagating  the  doctrine 
of  Estyches :  and  by  means  of  his  disciple  Samuel,  he  spread  this  doctrine 
among  the  neighbouring  Armenians,  about  the  year  460.  Yet  the  Syri- 
ans are  commonly  represented  as  afterward  giving  up  this  harsher  form  of 
the  Eutychian  doctrine,  under  the  guidance  of  Xenaias  or  Philoxenus,  the 
bishop  of  Mabug  [or  Hierapolis],  and  the  famous  Peter  [the  Fuller],  Gna- 
pheus  in  Greek  and  Fullo  in  Latin.  For  these  men  denied,  what  Eutyches 
is  said  to  have  taught,  that  the  human  nature  of  Christ  was  absorbed  in  the 
divine  ;  and  simply  inculcated,  that  Christ  possessed  one  nature,  which  yet 
was  a  twofold  or  compound.  Still,  as  this  doctrine  was  equally  incon- 
sistent with  the  decrees  of  the  council  of  Chalcedon,  the  believers  in  it 
most  steadfastly  rejected  that  council. (33) 

§  18.  Peter,  who  was  surnamed  the  Fuller  because  while  a  monk  he 
pursued  the  trade  of  a  fuller,  got  possession  of  the  see  of  Antioch ;  and 
although  he  was  often  ejected  and  condemned  on  account  of  his  opposi- 
tion to  the  council  of  Chalcedon,  yet  in  the  year  482  he  obtained  a  full 
establishment  in  it,  by  authority  of  the  emperor  Zeno,  through  the  influ- 
ence of  Acacius  bishop  of  Constantinople.(34)  This  man,  who  was 
formed  to  promote  discord  and  controversy,  occasioned  new  contests,  and 
\\.is  thought  to  aim  at  establishing  a  new  sect  called  the  Theopaschites ; 
because  he  recommended  to  the  eastern  churches  an  addition  to  the  hymn 
called  Trisagium,  by  inserting  after  the  words  O  Holy  God,  O  Holy  Al- 
mighty,  0  Holy  Eternal,  the  clause  who  wast  crucified  for  us.  He  un- 
doubtedly made  this  addition  with  sectarian  views,  intending  to  establish 
men  more  firmly  in  his  beloved  doctrine,  that  of  but  one  nature  in  Christ. 
But  his  adversaries,  especially  Felix  of  Rome,  and  others,  perverted  his 
meaning  ;  and  maintained  that  he  intended  to  teach,  that  all  the  three  per- 
sons in  the  Godhead  were  crucified ;  and  therefore  snch  as  approved  this 
form  of  the  hymn  were  called  Theopaschites.  The  consequence  of  this 
dispute  was,  that  the  western  Christians  rejected  this  form  of  the  hymn, 
which  they  understood  to  refer  to  the  whole  Trinity,  but  the  Oriental 
Christians  continued  to  use  it  constantly,  even  down  to  modern  times, 
without  offence,  because  they  refer  the  hymn  to  Christ  only,  or  to  but 
one  person  in  the  Trinity.(35) 

(32)  See  Liberates,  Breviarium,  cap.  16,     Ketzereyen,  vol.  vi.,  p.  796,  &c.,  825-832, 
17,   18.     Evagnus,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  ii.,     —  TV.] 

c.  8,  lib.  iii.,  c.  3.     Mirti.  le  Quicn,  Oricns  (34)  Hen.  Valesius,  Diss.  de  Pctro  Ful- 

Christianus,  torn,  ii.,  p.  410,  &c.  lone  et  de  Synodis  adversus  eum  collectis ; 

(33)  Jos.  Sim.  Asseman,  Biblioth.  Orient,  annexed   to  his  Scriptores  Histor.  Eccles., 
Vatican.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  1-10,  and  his  Diss.  de  torn,  iii.,  p.  173,  &c. 

Manophysitis,  prefixed  to  this  tome,  p.  ii.,         (35)  See  Hen.  Noris,  de  uno  ex  Trinitate 

&c.     [According  to  Dr.  Walch,  the  parties  came  passo  liber,  in  his  Opp.,  torn,  iii.,  Diss. 

were  continually  coming  nearer  together  in  i.,  c.  3,  p.  782.     Jos.  Sim.  Asseman,  Bibli- 

doctrine,  so  that  the  theological  dispute  was  oth.  Orient.  Vatican.,  torn,  i  .  p.  518,  &c., 

sinking  fast  into  a  mere  logomachy.     But  torn,  ii.,  p.  36,  180,  &c.,  [Walch,  Historic 

several  questions  of  fact,  or  acts  of  the  par-  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  vii.,  p.  237,  &c.,  329, 

ties,  became  the  subjects  of  lasting  dispute  &c.,  339,  &c.,  and  Suicer,  Thesaurus  Ec- 

and  contention.     See  WaicHt  Historie  der  cles.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  1310,  <Scc. — TV-] 


308 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


§  19.  To  settle  these  manifold  dissensions,  which  exceedingly  dis- 
quieted both  the  church  and  the  state,  the  emperor  Zeno  in  the  year  482, 
by  advice  of  Acacius  the  bishop  of  Constantinople,  offered  to  the  con- 
tending  parties  thai  formula  of  concord  which  is  commonly  called  his  He- 
noticon.  This  formula  repeated  and  confirmed  all  that  had  been  decreed 
in  the  councils  of  Nice,  Constantinople,  Ephesus,  and  Chalcedon,  against 
the  Arians,  Nestorians,  and  Eutychians ;  but  it  made  no  mention  of  the 
council  of  Chalcedon.  (36)  For  Zeno  had  been  led  by  Acacius,  to  be- 
lieve that  the  opposition  of  the  disaffected  was,  not  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
council  of  Chalcedon,  but  to  the  council  itself.  This  formula  of  concord 
was  subscribed  by  the  leaders  of  the  Monopliysite  party,  Peter  Moggus 
bishop  of  Alexandria,  and  Peter  Fullo  bishop  of  Antioch.  It  was  like- 
wise approved  by  Acacius  of  Constantinople,  and  by  all  the  more  moderate 
of  both  parties.  But  the  violent,  on  both  sides,  resisted  it ;  and  complained 
that  this  Henoticon  did  injustice  to  the  council  of  Chalcedon. (37)  Hence 
arose  new  controversies,  as  troublesome  as  those  which  preceded. 

§  20.  A  considerable  part  of  the  Monophysites  or  Eutychians  considered 
Peter  Moggus  as  having  committed  a  great  crime,  by  acceding  to  the  He- 
noticon ;  and  therefore  they  united  in  a  new  party,  which  was  called  that 
of  the  AcephaH,  because  they  were  deprived  of  their  head  or  leader. (38) 
Afterwards  this  sect  became  divided  into  three  parties,  the  Anthropomor- 


(36)  Evagrius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  iii.,  c. 
14.  Liberatus,  Breviarium  Histor.,  c.  18, 
[in  both  of  which  the  Henoticon  is  given. 
Dr.  Mosheim's  description  of  this  famous 
decree  is  very  imperfect.  In  it  the  empe- 
ror explicitly  recognises  the  creed  of  the  Ni- 
cene  and  Constantinopolitan  councils,  as  the 
only  established  and  allowed  creed  of  the 
church  ;  and  declares  every  person  an  alien 
from  the  true  church,  who  would  introduce 
any  other.  This  creed,  he  says,  was  re- 
ceived by  that  council  of  Ephesus  which 
condemned  Nestorius  ;  whom,  with  Euly- 
chcs,  the  emperor  pronounces  to  be  heretics. 
He  also  acknowledges  the  12  chapters  of 
Cyril  of  Alexandria,  to  be  sound  and  ortho- 
dox ;  and  declares  Mary  to  be  the  mother  of 
God,  and  Jesus  Christ  to  possess  two  na- 
tures, in  one  of  which  he  was  ououcrioc.  of 
like  substance  with  the  Father,  and  in  the 
other  OjUosertof  with  us.  Thus  he  fully  rec- 
ognised the  doctrines  of  the  council  of  Chal- 
cedon, without  alluding  at  all  to  that  body  ; 
and  affirming  that  these  doctrines  were  em- 
braced by  all  members  of  the  true  church, 
he  calls  upon  all  Christians  to  unite  on  this 
sole  basis,  and  "  anathematizes  every  per- 
eon  who  has  thought  or  thinks  otherwise, 
either  now  or  at  any  other  time,  whether  at 
Chalcedon  or  in  any  other  synod  whatever  ; 
but  more  especially  the  aforesaid  persons, 
Nestorius  and  Eutyches,  and  such  as  em- 
brace their  sentiments  :"  and  concludes  with 
renewed  exhortations  to  a  union  on  this  ba- 
sis.— This  formula  of  union  was  happily  cal- 
culated to  unite  the  more  considerate  of  both 


parties.  It  required  indeed  some  sacrifice 
of  principle  on  the  part  of  the  Monophysites, 
or  at  least  of  their  favourite  phraseology; 
but  it  also  required  the  dominant  party  to 
give  up  the  advantage  over  their  foes  which 
they  had  obtained  by  the  general  council  of 
Chalcedon.  In  Egypt,  the  Hcnoticon  was 
extensively  embraced  ;  but  the  bishops  of 
Rome  were  opposed  to  it,  and  were  able  to 
render  it  generally  inefficient. — TV.] 

(37)  See   Facundus   Hermianensis,  De- 
fcnsio  trinm  Capitulorum,  1.  xii.,  c.  4. 

(38)  Evagnus,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  iii.,c.  13. 
Lcontius  Byzant.  de  Sectis,  torn,  i.,  Lec- 
tion. Antiquar.  Hen.  Canisii,  p.  537.      Ti- 
motheus  Presbyter,  in  Joh.  Bapt.  Cotelerius, 
Monument.  Ecclesiae  Graecae,  torn,  iii.,  p. 
409.     [From   the  time  of  the  council   of 
Chalcedon,  the  Eutychians  gradually  rece- 
ded from  the  peculiar  views  of  Eutyches, 
and  therefore  discarded  the  name  of  Euly- 
chians,  and  assumed  the  more  appropriate 
one  of  Monophysites,  which  indicated  their 
distinguishing  tenet,  that  the  two  natures  of 
Christ  were  so  united  as  to  constitute  but 
one  nature.      The  whole  party   therefore, 
having  long  renounced  Eutyches  as  their 
leader,  when  some  of  them  also  renounced 
Peter  Moggus,  they  were  indeed  Acephali, 
without  a  head.     Yet  all  the  branches  of  this 
sect  continued  to  bear  the  name  of  Monoph- 
ysites, till  late  in  the  sixth  century,  when 
Jacobus  Baradaeus  raised  them  up  from  ex- 
treme depression  through  persecution,  and 
they  assumed  the  name  of  Jacobites,  a  name 
which  they  bear  to  this  day. — Tr.] 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS.  369 

phites,  the  Barsanupliites,  and  the  Esaianists.  And  these  sects  were  sue- 
ceeded,  in  the  next  age,  by  others  of  which  the  ancients  make  frequent  men- 
tion.(39)  Yet  the  inquirer  into  the  subject  must  be  informed,  that  some 
of  these  Eutychian  sects  are  altogether  imaginary ;  that  others  differed, 
not  in  reality,  but  only  in  terms ;  and  that  some  were  distinguished,  not 
by  their  sentiments,  but  by  some  external  rites  and  other  outward  circum- 
stances. And  they  were  all  likewise  of  temporary  duration  ;  for  in  the  next 
century  they  all  became  extinct,  through  the  influence  especially  of  Jaco- 
bus Baradaeus.(<lQ) 

§21.  The  Roman  pontiff  Felix  III.  with  his  friends,  attacked  Acacius 
the  bishop  of  Constantinople,  who  had  favoured  the  Henolicon,  as  a  betrayer 
of  the  truth,  and  excluded  him  from  church  communion.  To  justify  this 
hostility,  Felix  and  his  successors  taxed  Acacius  with  favouring  the  Mo- 
nophysites  and  their  leaders,  Peter  Moggus  and  Peter  Fullo ;  with  contempt 
for  the  council  of  Chalcedon  ;  and  with  some  other  things.  But  in  reality, 
as  many  facts  demonstrate,  Acacius  became  thus  odious  to  the  Roman  pon- 
tiffs, because  he  denied  by  his  actions  the  supremacy  of  the  Roman  see, 
and  was  extremely  eager  to  extend  the  jurisdiction  and  advance  the  honour 
of  the  see  of  Constantinople.  The  Greeks  defended  the  character  and 
memory  of  their  bishop,  against  the  aspersions  of  the  Romans.  This  con- 
tost  was  protracted  till  the  following  century,  when  the  pertinacity  of  the 
Romans  triumphed,  and  caused  the  names  of  Acacius  and  Peter  Fullo  to 
be  stricken  from  the  sacred  registers,  and  consigned  as  it  were  to  perpet- 
ual infamy.(41) 

§  22.  The  cause  of  this  so  great  a  series  of  evils,  appears  to  be  a  very 
small  thing.  It  is  said  that  Eutyches  believed,  that  the  divine  nature  of 
Christ  absorbed  his  human  nature  ;  so  that  Christ  consisted  of  but  one  na- 
ture, and  that  the  divine.  Yet  whether  this  was  the  fact  or  not,  is  not  suf- 
ficiently clear.  This  sentiment,  however,  together  with  Eutyches,  was 
abandoned  and  rejected  by  the  opposers  of  the  council  of  Chalcedon,  who 
were  guided  by  Xenaias  and  Peter  Fullo ;  and  therefore,  they  are  more 
properly  called  Monophysites  than  Eutychians.  For  all  who  are  des- 
ignated by  this  name,  hold  that  the  divine  and  human  natures  of  Christ 
were  so  united  as  to  constitute  but  one  nature,  yet  without  any  conversion, 
confusion,  or  commixture  :  and  that  this  doctrine  may  not  be  understood 
differently  from  their  real  meaning,  they  often  say,  there  is  but  one  nature 
in  Christ,  yet  it  is  twofold  and  co/npownrf.(42)  With  Eutyches  they  dis- 
claim all  connexion;  but  they  venerate  Dioscorus,  Barsumas,  Xenaias, 
and  Peter  Fullo,  as  pillars  of  their  sect ;  and  reject  the  decrees  of  the 

(39)  These  sects  are  enumerated  by  Ja.  Histoire  de  1'Eglise,  torn,  i.,  p.  301,  380, 
BasnaffC,  Prolegom.  ad  Hen.  Canisii  Lee-  381,  &c.    Nouveau  Dictionnaire  Hist.  Grit., 
tiones  Antiquas,  cap.  iii.,  and  Jos.  Sim.  As-  torn,  i.,  Article  Acacius,  p.  75,  &c.      Don. 
scman,  Diss.  de  Monophysitis,  p.  7,  &c.  Blondcll  de  la  Primaute  dans   1'Eglise,   p. 

(40)  [For  an  account  of  Jacobus  Bara-  279,  &c.     Acta  Sanctorum,  torn,  iii.,  Feb- 
daens,  and  his  labours  in  resuscitating  the  niarii,  p.  502,  &c.     [Bcncer's  Lives  of  the 
fallen  sect  of  the  Monophysites,  see  below,  Popes,  (Felix  III.),  vol.  ii.,  p.  198,  &c.,  ed. 
cent,  vi  ,  part  ii.,  chap,  v.,  $  6,  p.  417,  &c.,  Lond.,  1750,  4to.—  TV.] 

and    Walcli,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.         (42)  See  the  quotations  from  works  of 

viii.,  p.  481-491. — TV.]  the  Monophysites,  by  that  excellent,  and  at 

(41)  Hen.  Valcsiu.t,  Diss.  de  SynodisRo-  times    sufficiently    ingenuous    writer,    Jos. 
manis,   in  quibus    damnatus    est   Acacius ;  Sim.  Asscman,  iBiblioth.   Orient.   Vatican., 
subjoined  to  the  third  vol.  of  his  Scriptores  torn,  ii.,  p.  25,  26,  29,  34,  117,  133,  135, 
Histor.  Eccles.,  p.  179,  &c.     Ja.  Basnage,  277,  297,  &c. 

VOL.  I. — A  A  A 


370 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


council  of  Chalcedon,  together  with  the  epistle  of  Leo  the  Great.  The 
doctrine  of  the  Monophysites,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  language  they  use, 
appears  to  differ  from  the  doctrine  established  by  the  council  of  Chalce- 
don, only  in  the  mode  of  stating  it,  and  not  in  reality. (43)  Yet  if  we  at- 
tend carefully  to  the  metaphysical  arguments  and  subtilties  by  which  they 
support  their  views, (44)  perhaps  we  shall  conclude,  that  their  controversy 
with  the  Chalcedonians  was  not  wholly  a  strife  about  words. 

§  23.  Other  troubles  from  the  West,  invaded  the  church  in  this  century, 
and  continued  down  through  subsequent  ages  Pelagius(4:5)  and  Ccules- 
Zms,(46)  the  former  a  Briton,  and  the  latter  an  Irishman,  both  monks  living 
at  Rome,  and  in  high  reputation  for  their  virtues  and  piety,  conceived  that 
the  doctrines  of  Christians  concerning  the  innate  depravity  of  man  and  the 
necessity  of  internal  divine  grace  in  order  to  the  illumination  and  rcnova- 


(43)  Many   learned   men   consider   this 
controversy  as  a  mere  strife  about  words. 
Among  the  Monophysites  themselves,  Greg- 
ory Abulpharajus,  the  most  learned  of  the 
sect,  was  of  this  opinion.     Asscman,  Bibli- 
oth.  Orient.  Vatican,  torn,  ii.,  p.  291.     Add 
the   Biblioth.    Italique,  torn,    xvii.,  p.  285. 
Matur.  Veis.  la  Croze,  Histoire  du  Chris- 
tianisme   des   Indes,  p.  23,  and    Hist,   du 
Christ.  d'Ethiopie,  p.  14,  &c.     Even  Asse- 
man,  (loc.   cit.,  p.  297),  though  living  at 
Home,  came  near  to  avowing  this  opinion. 
[See  above,  note  (28),  p.  364,  &c.,  and  note 
(33),  p.  367.— Tr.] 

(44)  See  the  subtile  disputation  of  Abul- 
pharajus, in  Asseman,  torn,  ii.,  p.  288. 

(45)  [Pelagius,  the  heresiarch,  was  prob- 
ably a  Welchman,  whose  real  name  it  is 
said  was  Morgan  or  Marigena,  which  was 
translated  Tre/ltiytof,  Pelagius.     He  was  a 
British  monk,  went  to  Rome  about  the  year 
400,  imbibed  the  opinions  of  Origen,  and  be- 
gan to  publish  his  heretical  sentiments  con- 
cerning original  sin  and  free  grace,  about  A  .D. 
405.     In  the  year  408,  when  the  Goths  were 
laying  waste  Italy,  he  and  Ccclestius  retired 
to  Sicily  ;  and  in  41 1,  to  Africa.     Calestius 
remained  there,  but  Pelagius  proceeded  on 
to  Egypt,  to  visit  the  monks  of  that  country. 
In  415  he  removed  to  Palestine,  where  he 
enjoyed  the  protection  of  John,  bishop  of 
Jerusalem.    Orosius  (being  then  in  the  East) 
impeached  him ;  but  he  so  far  purged  him- 
self before  the  council  of  Diospolis  in  417, 
as  to  be  acquitted.     But  the  next  year  he 
was  condemned  by  the  councils  of  Carthage 
and  Milevi,  as  well  as  by  the  popes  Innocent 
and  Zosimus :  and  the  emperor  Honor ius 
ordered  him  and  his  adherents  to  be  expelled 
from  Rome.     Thcodotus  of  Antioch  now 
held  a  council,  which  condemned  him.     His 
subsequent  history  is  unknown. — He  was  a 
man  of  distinguished  genius,  learning,  and 
sanctity.     Yet  he  was  accused  of  dissem- 
bling as  to  his  real  sentiments. — He  wrote 


fourteen  Books  of  Commentaries  on  Paul's 
Epistles  ; — (perhaps  the  very  books  pub- 
lished among  the  works  of  Jerome,  and  as- 
cribed to  that  father) ;  also  an  Epistle  to  De- 
metrias,  de  Virginitatc,  A.D.  413  ;  (falsely 
ascribed  both  to  Jerome  and  to  Augustine, 
and  published  as  theirs) ;  a  Confession  of  his 
faith,  addressed  to  Innocent  bishop  of  Rome, 
A.D.  417. — His  last  works  are,  de  Fide 
Trinitatis,  libri  iii. — Liber  kvhoyiuv  sive 
Tcstimoniorum ;  (Collections  from  Scrip- 
ture, in  support  of  some  doctrines) ; — de  li- 
ber o  Arbitrio,  libri  iv. — de  Natura  Liber; 
and  several  Epistles. — See  Cave's  Historia 
Litteraria,  torn,  i.,  p.  381,  &c. —  Tr.] 

(46)  [Calestius,  of  honourable  birth,  was 
a  student  at  Rome  when  Pelagius  arrived 
there.  Embracing  the  views  of  his  fellow- 
islander,  he  accompanied  him  to  Sicily  in 
408,  and  to  Africa  in  411,  where  he  re- 
mained some  years.  In  412  he  was  accused 
before  the  bishop  of  Carthage  for  heresy, 
and  condemned  by  a  council  there.  He  ap- 
pealed to  the  bishop  of  Rome  ;  but  went  to 
Ephesus,  where  he  became  a  presbyter.  He 
afterwards  disseminated  his  errors  widely  in 
Asia  and  the  islands.  In  416  he  went  to 
Constantinople,  and  the  next  year  to  Rome, 
when  he  so  far  satisfied  Zosimus,  as  to  ob- 
tain from  him  a  recommendation  to  the  bish- 
ops of  Africa  to  restore  him.  But  in  418  he 
was  condemned  by  a  synod  at  Rome,  and 
was  banished  from  the  empire  by  the  empe- 
ror. He  now  concealed  himself  in  the  East. 
In  429  the  emperor  forbid  his  coming  to 
Constantinople.  In  430,  a  synod  at  Rome 
condemned  him ;  and  also  the  council  of 
Ephesus  in  431.  From  that  time  we  hear 
no  more  of  him.  He  wrote  a  confession  of 
his  faith,  several  Epistles,  and  some  short 
pieces  :  but  none  of  his  works  have  reached 
us  entire,  except  his  confession  of  faith,  and 
perhaps  some  Epistles  among  those  of  Je- 
rome. See  Cave,  Historia  Litteraria,  torn, 
i.,  p.  384,  &c.—  Tr.-} 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


371 


tion  of  the  soul,  tended  to  discourage  human  efforts,  and  were  a  great  im- 
pediment to  the  progress  of  holiness,  and  of  course  ought  to  be  rooted  out  of 
the  church.  They  therefore  taught,  that  what  was  commonly  inculcated 
and  believed,  respecting  a  corruption  of  human  nature  derived  to  us  from 
our  first  parents,  was  not  true  ;  that  the  parents  of  the  human  race  sinned 
only  for  themselves,  and  not  for  their  posterity;  that  men  are  now  born  as 
pure  and  innocent,  as  Adam  was  when  God  created  him  ;  that  men  there- 
fore can,  by  their  natural  power,  renovate  themselves,  and  reach  the  high, 
est  degree  of  holiness  ;  that  external  grace  is  indeed  needful,  to  excite  men 
to  efforts  ;  but  that  they  have  no  need  of  any  internal  divine  grace. (47) 


(47)  [According  to  Dr.  Walch,  (Historie 
der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iv.,  p.  735,  &c.),  as 
abridged  by  Schickel,  the  system  of  Pelagi- 
us  was  as  follows.  ( 1 )  Men  as  they  now 
come  into  the  world,  are,  in  respect  to  their 
powers  and  abilities,  in  the  same  state  in 
which  Adam  was  created.  (2)  Adam  sin- 
ned ;  but  his  sin  harmed  no  one  but  himself. 
(3)  Human  nature  therefore,  is  not  changed 
by  the  fall  ;  and  death  is  not  a  punishment 
for  sin  ;  but  Adam  would  have  died,  had  he 
not  apostatized.  For  death  is  inseparable 
from  our  nature  ;  and  the  same  is  true  of  the 
pains  of  childbirth,  diseases,  and  outward 
evils,  particularly  in  children.  (4)  Much  less 
is  the  guilt  of  Adam's  sin  imputed  to  his 
offspring ;  for  God  would  be  unjust,  if  he 
imputed  to  us  the  actions  of  others.  (5) 
Such  imputation  cannot  be  proved  by  the 
fact  that  Christ  has  redeemed  infants  ;  for 
this  redemption  is  to  be  understood  of  their 
hcirship  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  from 
which,  an  heirship  to  another's  guilt,  will  not 
follow.  (6)  Neither  does  the  baptism  of  in- 
fants prove  such  an  imputation ;  for  they 
thereby  obtain  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  which 
( '/tnst  has  promised  only  to  baptized  persons. 
(7)  "When  children  die  without  baptism,  they 
are  not  therefore  damned.  They  are  indeed 
excluded  from  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but 
not  from  eternal  blessedness.  For  the  Pe- 
lagians held  to  a  threefold  state  after  death  : 
damnation,  for  sinners  ;  the  kingdom  of  heav- 
en, for  baptized  Christians  who  live  a  holy 
life,  and  for  baptized  children ;  and  eternal 
life,  for  unbaptized  children,  and  for  uubap- 
tized  adults  who  live  virtuous  lives.  (8) 
Much  less  is  human  nature  depraved,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  fall  of  Adam.  There  is 
therefore  no  hereditary  sin.  (9)  For,  though 
it  may  be  granted,  that  Adam  is  so  far  the 
author  of  sin,  as  he  was  the  first  that  sinned, 
and  by  his  example  has  seduced  others  ;  yet 
this  is  not  to  be  understood  of  a  pro/*- 
of  sin  by  generation.  (10)  This  supposed 
propagation  of  sin  is  the  less  admissible,  be- 
cause it  would  imply  a  propagation  of  souls, 
which  is  not  true.  (11)  Neither  can  such 
a  propagation  be  maintained,  without  im- 


peaching the  justice  of  God,  introducing  un- 
conditional necessity,  and  destroying  our 
freedom.  (12)  It  is  true,  there  are  in  men 
sinful  propensities  ;  in  particular,  the  pro- 
pensity for  sexual  intercourse  ;  but  these  are 
not  sins.  (13)  If  sin  was  propagated  by 
natural  generation,  and  every  motion  of  the 
sinful  propensities  and  every  desire  therefor 
were  sinful,  then  the  marriage  state  would 
be  sinful.  (14)  As  man  has  ability  to  sin, 
so  has  he  also,  not  only  ability  to  discern 
what  is  good,  but  likewise  power  to  desire 
it  and  to  perform  it.  And  this  is  the  free- 
dom of  the  will,  which  is  so  essential  to  man, 
that  he  cannot  lose  it.  (15)  The  grace, 
which  the  Scriptures  represent  as  the  source 
of  morally  good  actions  in  man,  Pelagius 
understood  to  denote  various  things.  For 
he  understood  the  word  (a)  of  the  whole  con- 
stitution of  our  nature,  and  especially  of  the 
endowment  of  free  will :  (b)  of  the  promul- 
gation of  the  divine  law  :  (c)  of  the  forgive- 
ness of  past  sins,  without  any  influence  on 
the  future  conduct:  (d)  of  the  example  of 
Christ's  holy  life,  which  he  called  the  grace 
of  Christ :  (e)  of  the  internal  change  in  the 
understanding,  whereby  the  truth  is  recog- 
nised ;  which  he  called  grace,  and  also  the 
assistance  of  the  Holy  Spirit :  (f)  and  some- 
times grace,  with  him,  was  equivalent  to 
baptism  and  blessedness.  (16)  Man  is  as 
capable  of  securing  salvation,  by  the  proper 
use  of  his  powers,  as  of  drawing  on  himself 
damnation  by  the  misuse  of  them.  (17) 
And  therefore  God  has  given  men  a  law ;  and 
this  law  prescribes  nothing  impossible.  (18) 
God  requires  from  men  a  perfect  personal 
obedience  to  his  law.  (19)  Actions  origina- 
ting from  ignorance  or  forgetfulness,  are  not 
sinful.  (20)  So  also  natural  propensities  or 
the  craving  of  things  sinful,  is  not  of  itself 
sinful.  (21)  Therefore  perfect  personal  obe- 
dience to  the  law,  on  the  part  of  men,  is 
practicable,  through  the  uncorruptness  of  the 
powers  of  nature.  (22)  And  by  grace,  (con- 
sisting in  external  divine  aids,  the  right  use 
of  which  depends  on  men's  free  will),  good 
works  are  performed.  They  did  not  deny  all 
internal  change  in  men  by  grace  ;  but  they 


372 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


These  doctrines  and  those  connected  with  them,  the  above-mentioned 
monks  secretly  disseminated  at  Rome.  But  in  the  year  410,  on  account 
of  the  invasion  of  the  Goths,  they  retired  from  Rome,  and  going  first  to 
Sicily  and  thence  to  Africa,  they  more  openly  advanced  their  opinions. 
From  Africa,  Pelagius  went  to  Egypt ;  but  Ccekstius  continued  at  Car- 
thage,  and  solicited  a  place  among  the  presbyters  of  that  city.  But  his 
novel  opinions  being  detected,  he  was  condemned  in  a  council  at  Carthage 
A.D.  412 ;  and  leaving  the  country,  he  went  to  Asia.  From  this  time, 
Augustine  the  famous  bishop  of  Hippo,  began  to  assail  with  his  pen  the 
doctrines  of  Pelagius  and  Ccelestius ;  and  to  him  chiefly  belongs  the  praise 
of  suppressing  this  sect  at  its  very  birth. (48) 


confined  it  solely  to  the  understanding,  and 
controverted  all  internal  change  of  the  will. 
They  also  limited  the  necessity  of  this  grace, 
by  maintaining  that  it  was  not  indispensable 
to  all  men  ;  and  that  it  only  facilitated  the 
keeping  of  God's  commandments.  (23) 
This  possibility  of  performing  good  works 
by  the  free  use  of  our  natural  powers,  they 
endeavoured  to  prove,  by  the  existence  of 
virtuous  persons  among  the  pagans :  and 
likewise  (24)  from  the  saints  mentioned  in 
the  Old  Testament ;  whom  they  divided  into 
two  classes,  the  first  from  Adam  to  Moses, 
who  like  the  pagans  had  only  natural  grace  ; 
the  second  from  Moses  to  Christ,  who  had 
the  grace  of  the  law.  Some  of  the  saints 
who  had  the  law,  were  all  their  lifetime  with- 
out sin ;  others  sinned  indeed,  but  being  con- 
verted, they  ceased  to  sin,  and  yielded  a  per- 
fect obedience  to  the  law.  (25)  The  grace 
whereby  perfect  obedience  becomes  possible, 
is  a  consequence  of  precedent  good  works  ; 
(26)  and  such  obedience  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  salvation.  (27)  Sins  originating  from 
a  misuse  of  human  freedom,  and  continued 
by  imitation  and  by  custom,  were  forgiven, 
under  the  Old  Testament,  solely  on  account 
of  good  works  ;  and  under  the  New  Testa- 
ment, through  the  grace  of  Christ.  (28) 
Their  idea  of  the  way  of  salvation,  then,  was 
this.  A  man  who  has  sinned,  converts  him- 
self; that  is,  he  leaves  off  sinning,  and  this 
by  his  own  powers.  He  believes  on  Christ ; 
that  is,  he  embraces  his  doctrines.  He  is 
now  baptized  ;  and  on  account  of  this  bap- 
tism, all  his  previous  sins  are  forgiven  him, 
and  he  is  without  sin.  He  has  the  instruc- 
tions and  the  example  of  Christ,  whereby 
he  is  placed  in  a  condition  to  render  perfect 
obedience  to  the  divine  law.  This  he  can 
do,  if  he  will ;  and  he  can  either  withstand 
all  temptations,  or  fall  from  grace.  (29) 
Moreover  they  admitted  conditional  decrees  ; 
the  condition  of  which  was,  either  foreseen 
good  works,  or  foreseen  sin. — Tr.~\ 

(48)  The  history  of  the  Pelagians  has  been 
written  by  many  persons  :  as  by  Ja.  Usher, 
in  his  Antiquitat.  ecclesiae  Britan.  Joh.  a 


Laet,  a  Netherlander ;  Ger.  Joh.  Vossius  ; 
Hen.  Noris ;  Jo.  Gamier,  in  his  Supple- 
ment to  the  works  of  Thcodoret ;  Cornel. 
Jansen,  in  his  Augustinus ;  and  others. 
The  French  Jesuit,  Jac.  de  Longuer.al  left 
a  MS.  Historia  Pelagiana.  See  his  Preface 
to  the  9th  vol.  of  his  History  of  the  Galli- 
can  church,  p.  iv.  But  among  so  many 
writers,  no  one  yet  has  exhausted  the  whole 
subject,  or  shown  himself  free  from  undue 
partiality.  [This  partiality  is  to  be  attribu- 
ted to  the  renewal  of  these  controversies. 
In  all  ages  there  have  been  some  in  the 
Christian  church,  who  coincided,  either  whol- 
ly or  partially,  with  Pelagius,  and  who  op- 
posed the  doctrine  of  Augustine.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  scholastics  adopted  the  great- 
est part  of  Augustine's  sentiments.  And 
these  two  parties  have  never  been  at  rest. 
The  affair  with  Gotteschalcus,  and  the  con- 
tests between  the  Thomists  and  the  Scotists, 
kept  up  these  disquietudes  ;  and  in  the  times 
of  the  reformation,  the  commotions  were  in- 
creased, when  Luther  and  Erasmus  came 
upon  the  arena,  and  the  council  of  Trent 
made  a  considerable  part  of  the  Pelagian 
system  to  be  articles  of  faith.  From  that 
period  onward,  the  Protestants  have  main- 
tained, that  the  Catholic  church  holds,  not 
•wh&tAugustine  taught,  but  what  Pelagius,  or 
at  least  the  Semipelagians  inculcated ;  and 
the  Catholic  doctors  endeavour  to  maintain 
the  contrary.  The  Dominicans  and  the  Jes- 
uits, and  also  the  Jansenists  and  Jesuits,  have 
moved  controversies  within  their  own  church 
respecting  Pelagianism  and  the  opinions  of 
Augustine  ;  and  among  the  Protestants,  the 
charge  of  Pelagianism  has  been  brought 
against  the  Arminians,  and  likewise  against 
various  individual  doctors.  No  wonder 
therefore,  if  all  these  learned  writers  of  the 
Pelagian  history  are  often  betrayed  into 
errors  by  the  prejudices  of  their  party. — 
Schl.  Dr.  Watch's  account  is  full  and  can- 
did, Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  iv.,p.  519 
-846,  and  for  the  Semipelagians,  vol.  v  ,  p. 
3-228.  Mimscher's  statement  of  the  opin- 
ions of  the  different  parties  is  lucid  and 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS.  373 

§  24.  Pelagius  was  more  fortunate  in  the  East.  For  under  the  patron, 
age  of  John  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  who  considered  the  doctrines  of  Pelagius 
as  according  with  the  opinions  of  Origen,  to  which  John  was  attached, 
Pelagius  freely  professed  his  sentiments,  and  gathered  disciples.  And  al- 
though he  was  impeached  in  the  year  415,  by  Orosius  a  Spanish  presbyter, 
whom  Augustine  had  sent  into  Palestine,  yet  a  convention  of  bishops  at 
Jerusalem  dismissed  him  without  censure ;  and  a  little  after,  in  a  council 
held  at  Diospolis  in  Palestine,  he  was  entirely  acquitted  of  crime  and  er- 
ror.(49)  The  controversy  being  removed  to  Rome,  Zosimus,  (who  was 
made  pontiff  in  the  year  417),  misled  partly  by  the  ambiguous  and  appa- 
rently sound  confession  of  faith  which  Cceleslius  then  residing  at  Rome 
offered,  and  partly  by  the  flattering  and  insidious  letters  and  protestations 
of  Pelagius,  pronounced  sentence  in  favour  of  these  monks,  and  decided 
that  wrong  had  been  done  to  men  of  correct  sentiments  by  their  adversa- 
ries.(50)  But  the  Africans,  led  by  Augustine,  continued  perseveringly  to 
assail  them  with  councils,  books,  and  letters.  Zosimus  therefore  being 
better  informed,  changed  his  opinion,  and  severely  condemned  those  whom 
he  had  before  extolled.  Afterwards,  that  Ephesine  council  which  hurled 
its  thunders  against  Nestorius,  also  condemned  them  ;  and  now  the  Gauls, 
the  Britons,  and  the  Palestinians,  by  their  councils,  and  the  emperors  by 
their  laws  and  penalties,  crushed  the  sect  in  its  commencement. (51) 

§  25.  These  unhappy  contests  produced,  as  is  often  the  case,  other  dis- 
sensions equally  hurtful.  As  Augustine  did  not  at  first  state  with  suffi- 
cient uniformity  and  clearness,  his  opinions  respecting  the  divine  grace 
necessary  to  salvation,  and  the  decrees  of  God  in  regard  to  the  future 
condition  of  individual  men,  he  gave  occasion  to  certain  monks  of  Adru- 
metum  and  to  some  persons  in  Gaul,  to  believe  that  God  has  predestinated 

well  vouched  ;  Dogmengeschichte,  vol.  iv.,  but  neither  of  them  present.     They  sent  in  a 

p.  122-262. — TV.]  long  list  of  errors,  which  they  said  Pelagius 

(49)  See  Gabr.  Daniel,  Histoire  du  Con-  and  his  followers  had  taught.     Pelagius  re- 

cile  de  Diospolis,  among  the  shorter  works  plied,  that  these  were  not  his  opinions,  that 

of  this  eloquent  and  learned  Jesuit,  published,  he  anathematized  them,  and  that  he  believed 

Paris,  1724,  3  vols.  4to,  in  torn,  i.,  p.  635  what  the  Catholic  church  had  always  held. 

-671.      [Our  whole  information  respecting  With  this  the  council  were  satisfied.     But 

these  councils  is  derived  from  the  opposers  the  sentence  of  the  Africans  still  remained 

of  Pelagius,  Orosius,  Augu-stinc,  &c.     The  in  force  ;  and  therefore  Pelagius  and  Cacles- 

first  was  held  at  Jerusalem,  in  the  month  tius  both  sought  the  interference  of  the  bish- 

of  July,  415.     It  was  merely  an  assemblage  op  of  Rome. — 7V.] 

of  presbyters,  with  bishop  John  for  president.  (50)  See  Jo.  Frick,  Zosimus  in  Clements 
us  and  the  council  spoke  Greek  ;  but  xi.  redivimiis,  Ulm,  1719,  4to,  [and  Bower, 
Ornmus  the  accuser,  Latin  only.  This  gave  Lives  of  the  Popes,  (Zosimus),  vol.  i.,  p.  334, 
great  advantage  to  Pelagnu.  Orosius  sta-  &c.,  ed.  Loud.,  174'J,  4to. —  TV.] 
ted  what  had  been  done  in  Africa  :  Pelagius  (51)  See  Ger.  Jo.  Vossius,  Historia  Pe- 
said,he  had  no  concern  with  those  councils,  lagiana,  1.  i.,  c.  55,  p.  130.  There  are  also 
•A'  was  called  upon  to  make  his  charges  some  learned  remarks  on  this  controversy 
specific  against  Pelagnis.  He  then  stated,  in  the  Bibliotheque  Italique,  torn,  v.,  p.  74, 
that  he  had  heard  .iflirm,  that  a  &c.  The  writers  on  both  sides  are  enu- 
tnan  may  become  sinless  if  he  will ;  and  that  merated  by  Jo.  Fr.  Buddcus,  Isacjoge  ad 
it  is  an  easy  thing  to  obey  the  law  of  God  per-  Theol.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  1071.  IV.  Wau  has 
fectly.  Pelagius  explained,  that  he  meant  it  likewise  given  a  neat  and  learned,  though 
should  be  understood,  with  the  aids  of  dinne  imperfect  history  of  the  Pelagian  contest,  in 
grace.  The  council  were  satisfied  with  this  his  History  of  Infant  Baptism,  vol.  i.,  ch. 
explanation.  The  second  council,  which  sat  13,  [p.  192-282,  ed.  Lond.,  1705],  which 
fct  Diospolis  or  Lydda,  in  December,  415,  his  learned  translator  [into  Latin,  J.  L. 
was  composed  of  14  bishops.  The  accusers  Schlosscr]  has  enriched  with  excellent  re- 
were  two  Gallic  bishops,  Hcros  and  Lazarus,  marks. 


374 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


the  wicked,  not  only  to  suffer  eternal  punishment,  but  aho  to  commit  sin  and, 
incur  the  guilt  which  will  merit  that  punishment ;  and  of  course  to  believe, 
that  both  the  good  and  the  sinful  actions  of  men  were,  from  all  eternity,  di- 
vinely predetermined  and  fixed  by  an  inevitable  necessity.  These  persons 
were  called  Predestinarians.  Yet  this  doctrine  did  not  spread  far ;  for 
Augustine  more  clearly  explained  his  views,  and  the  councils  of  Aries  and 
Lyons  publicly  rejected  it. (52)  There  are  however  very  learned  men, 
who  deny  that  such  a  sect  of  Predestinarians  ever  had  existence ;  and 
who  maintain,  that  the  followers  of  Augustine  inculcated  his  doctrines 
truly  and  correctly,  and  were  slanderously  reproached  by  the  Semipela- 
gians  with  these  so  great  errors. (53) 


(52)  See  Ja.  Sirmond,  Historia  Praedes- 
tinatiana,  torn.  iv.  of  his  Opp.,  p.  271,  &c. 
Ja.  Basnage,  Histoire  de  1'Eglise,  torn,  ii., 
liv.  xii.,  cap.  ii.,  p.  698.  Dion.  Petavius, 
Dogmat.  Theol.,  torn,  vi.,  p.  168,  174,  &c. 
[According  to  W.  Miinscher,  (Dogmenges- 
chichte,  vol.  iv.,  p.  164,  &c.,  215,  &c.),  all 
the  fathers,  before  Augustine,  held  to  a  con- 
ditional election,  that  is,  an  election  founded 
on  the  foreseen  good  works  of  men.  So 
Basil  the  Great,  Gregory  Nyssen,  Chrysos- 
tnm,  Hilary  of  Poictiers,  Ambrose,  Jerome. 
They  likewise  held,  that  Christ  died  for  all 
men ;  and  were  strangers  to  the  idea  of  an 
atonement  made  only  for  the  elect.  So 
Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  Athanasius,  Basil  the 
Great,  Gregory  Nyssen,  Chrysostom,  Am- 
brose, and  Jerome.  They  also  held  that  the 
saints  may,  and  do,  fall  from  grace  and  per- 
ish. So  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  Athanasius, 
and  Hilary.  Even  Augustine  himself,  in 
the  earlier  part  of  his  ministry,  held  election 
to  be  conditional.  But  as  early  as  the  year 
397,  he  discovered  that  such  an  election  was 
inconsistent  with  man's  entire  dependance 
on  grace  for  ability  to  perform  good  works ; 
a  doctrine  which  he  held  most  firmly.  He 
therefore  advanced  the  new  theory,  that 
God's  electing  some  to  everlasting  life  de- 
pended upon  his  mere  good  pleasure,  in  view 
of  reasons  known  only  to  himself;  that  God 
from  eternity  predestinated  some  to  repent- 
ance, faith,  good  works,  and  ultimately  to 
salvation  ;  while  others  he  left  to  go  on  in 
sin,  and  perish  everlastingly ;  that  the  num- 
ber of  the  elect  is  fixed  unalterably  and  for 
ever  ;  that  this  election  of  some  to  salvation 
through  grace,  while  others  are  left  without 
grace,  and  perish  in  their  sins,  is  no  injus- 
tice on  the  part  of  God ;  because  all  men 
deserve  to  be  left  in  their  sins.  He  denied, 
that  God  really  wills  the  salvation  of  all 
men  ;  and  he  justified  preaching  the  Gos- 
pel to  all,  on  the  ground  that  we  know  not 
who  are  elected  and  who  are  not. — When 
this  theory  was  advanced  by  Augustine,  it 
met  with  opposition;  and  it  was  not,  by  those 
who  embraced  it,  always  stated  as  guarded- 


ly as  it  was  by  its  author.  Hence,  those  op- 
posed to  it,  drew  the  frightful  picture  of  it 
which  has  been  called  Prcdestinarianism. 
This  system,  as  stated  by  Dr.  Miinscher, 
(ibid.,  p.  257),  embraced  the  following  posi- 
tions ;  namely,  that  the  wicked  are  predes- 
tinated, not  only  to  punishment,  but  also  to 
commit  sin  ;  that  baptism  does  not  remove 
all  sin  ;  that  the  godliness  of  the  righteous 
does  not  profit  them ;  nor  will  the  wicked 
be  damned  on  account  of  their  sins  ;  that 
in  general,  God  will  not  judge  men  accord- 
ing to  their  deeds  ;  that  it  is  useless  to  ad- 
dress exhortations  either  to  saints  or  sin- 
ners. Dr.  Miinscher  subjoins :  All  these 
were  consequences  drawn  from  the  doctrine 
of  unconditional  decrees  taught  by  Augus- 
tine ;  but  they  were  consequences  which  he 
expressly  rejected. — Tr.J 

(53)  See  Gilb.  Maugv.in,  Fabula  prae- 
destinatiana  confutata  ;  which  he  subjoined 
to  a  Collection  of  various  authors  who  wrote 
in  the  ninth  century  concerning  predestina- 
tion and  grace,  vol.  ii.,  p.  447,  &c.,  Paris, 
1650,  4to.  [Mauguin  was  a  French  states- 
man, who  with  much  theological  and  histor- 
ical learning  maintained  with  the  Jansenists 
against  the  Jesuits,  that  there  never  were 
any  Predestinarians. — Schl.~\  Fred.  Span- 
heim,  Introduct.  ad  Historian!  Eccles.  in  his 
Opp.,  torn,  i.,  p.  993.  Ja.  Basnage,  Adnot. 
ad  Pros-peri  Chronicon,  and  Praefat.  ad 
Faustum  Regiensem,  in  Hen.  Canisii  Lec- 
tion. Antiquar.,  torn,  i.,  p.  315,  348.  The 
author  of  the  Life  of  Jo.  Launoi,  in  his 
Works,  torn,  iv.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  343,  namely 
Granet.  informs  us,  that  Sirmond  encour- 
aged Launoi  to  undertake  a  refutation  of 
Mauguin;  but  that  Launoi,  having  exam- 
ined the  subject,  fell  in  with  the  opinions  of 
Mauguin.  [Father  Sirmond  was  a  champi- 
on among  the  Jesuits,  who  were  charged  by 
the  Jansenists  with  departing  from  the  opin- 
ions of  Augustine  ;  and  he  hoped  to  confute 
this  charge,  if  he  could  only  demonstrate  in- 
controvertibly  that  there  really  was  a  sect 
of  Predestinarians  existing  in  the  times  of 
Augustine.  Sirmond  had  published  an  an- 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


375 


§  26.  On  the  other  hand,  John  Cassianus,  (a  monk  who  came  to  Mar. 
seilles  in  France  from  the  East,  and  established  a  monastery  there),  and 
certain  others,  about  the  year  430,  endeavoured  to  modify  in  some  measure 
the  system  of  Augustine.(54:)  Many  persons  falling  in  with  their  views, 


cient  book,  at  Paris,  1643.  bearing  the  title  : 
Praedestinatus,  sive  Praedestinatorum  haer- 
esis,  et  libri  S.  Augustino  tetnere  adscript! 
refutatio.  The  work  consists  of  three  Books. 
The  first  contains  a  list  of  heresies,  of  which 
that  of  the  Predestinarians  is  the  ninetieth. 
The  second  Book  bears  the  superscription  : 
Liber  secundus,  sub  nomine  Augustini  con- 
fictus,  nonagesimam  haeresin  continens, 
quae  asserit,  Dei  praedestinatione  peccata 
committi.  The  third  Book  contains  a  refu- 
tation of  the  pretended  tract  of  Augustine. 
This  work  is  certainly  ancient,  and  most 
probably  to  be  ascribed  to  the  younger  Arno- 
bius.  But  the  credibility  of  its  statements 
is  much  impaired,  by  the  fact  that  its  author 
was  a  Semipelagian,  and  wrote  more  as  a 
polemic  than  as  a  historian. — Schl.] — This 
petty  dispute,  whether  there  was  in  ancient 
times  a  sect  of  Predestinarians,  when  thor- 
oughly examined,  will  perhaps  turn  out  to  be 
a  contest  about  terms.  [To  the  question, 
whether  there  existed  in  the  fifih  and  sixth 
centuries  a  sect  of  Predestinarians,  some 
of  the  learned  have  answered,  yes ;  and  oth- 
ers, no.  Those  who  answer  in  the  latter 
manner,  believe  the  sect  of  Predestinarians 
was  a  fiction  of  the  Semipelagians,  who  used 
this  artifice  in  order  to  bring  odium  on  Au- 
gustine and  his  followers.  This  opinion 
was  embraced  by  the  Jansenists,  the  Re- 
formed, and  among  the  Lutherans  by  Dr. 
Semler  in  his  History  of  religious  doctrines, 
prefixed  to  the  3d  vol.  of  Baumgarten's  Po- 
lemic Theology.  Those  who  answer  the 
question  affirmatively,  are  divisible  into  two 
classes.  They  admit  directly,  that  there 
were  Predestinarians  who  were  condemned 
by  the  orthodox  church  ;  yet  they  deny  that 
Augustine  taught,  what  they  admit  to  have 
been  the  errors  of  this  sect.  Of  this  opinion 
were  the  Jesuits  and  the  early  Lutheran  di- 
vines. Others,  while  they  admit  all  this, 
add  that  the  opposers  of  the  sect  were 
principally  Semipelagians,  who  aimed  to 
bring  contempt  on  the  Augustinian  doctrine. 
They  hold  that  only  a  few  individual  per- 
sons (as  a  few  monks  of  Adrumetum  and 
Lucidus)  fell  into  these  errors  ;  and  there- 
fore they  never  constituted  a  distinct  sect 
or  heretical  community.  This  opinion  has 
been  defended  by  Noris  and  Graveson 
among  the  Catholics,  by  the  two  Basnages 
among  the  Reformed,  and  in  the  Lutheran 
'  church  by  Pfaff,  Buddcus,  the  elder  Wakh, 
and  by  Dr.  Bernhold  in  a  disputation  at  Alt- 


dorf,  1737 ;  and  it  is  admitted  by  the  young- 
er Walch,  in  his  Historie  der  Ketzereyen, 
vol.  v.,  280,  &c.  Among  those  who  regard 
the  whole  question,  respecting  the  existence 
of  a  Predestinarian  sect,  as  a  contest  about 
words,  besides  Dr.  Moslieim,  may  be  reck- 
oned Weismann,  in  his  Memorabil.  Hist. 
Eccl.,  torn,  i.,  p.  410,  &c.  And  in  fact, 
there  is  something  like  a  contest  about 
words,  in  the  dispute  whether  there  was 
really  a  Predestinarian  sect.  For  very  much 
depends  on  the  definition  of  the  word  sect 
or  heresy.  If  the  term  is  used  to  denote  a 
society  of  persons  who  have  a  particular 
mode  of  worship,  then  a  Predestinarian 
sect  never  had  existence.  But  if  the  term 
denote  a  set  of  religious  opinions,  embraced 
and  defended  by  individual  persons  here  and 
there,  but  who  never  separated  from  the 
general  church,  then  it  may  be  said  there 
was  a  sect  of  Predestinarians.  When  we 
view  the  controversy  in  all  its  extent,  we 
can  by  no  means  regard  it  as  a  controversy 
about  words.  See  Walch,  Hist,  der  Ket- 
zer.,  vol.  v.,  p.  218-283.— Schl.] 

(54)  [The  views  of  John  Cassianus  are 
exhibited  in  his  Collatio  xiii.  Patrum,  Opp., 
p.  491,  &c.,  and  are  well  abridged  by  Dr. 
Muenscher  (Dogmengesch.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  246, 
&c.)  as  follows.  As  John  Cassianus  is  the 
only  writer  of  those  times  who  has  exhibit- 
ed a  connected  view  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
so  called  Massilians,  from  his  works  alone 
can  the  deviations  of  these  teachers  from  the 
opinions  of  Augustine  be  derived.  His  pri- 
mary object  was,  to  exhibit  the  true  worth 
and  the  necessity  of  divine  grace,  but  with- 
out overthrowing  the  freedom  of  the  human 
will.  Man,  said  he,  needs  at  all  times  di- 
vine aid ;  and  he  can  do  nothing  to  secure 
his  salvation,  without  it.  But  he  must  not  be 
inactive  on  his  part.  All  men  have  indeed 
original  sin,  and  are  subject  to  death  ;  but  a 
knowledge  of  God,  and  their  free  will,  they 
have  not  lost.  It  can  neither  be  maintained 
that  the  commencement  of  what  is  good  in 
us  always  originates  from  God,  nor  that  it 
always  originates  from  ourselves.  Some- 
times it  is  of  God,  who  first  excites  good 
thoughts  and  purposes  in  us.  But  somc- 
i  is  the  man,  who  takes  the  first  step, 
and  whom  God  then  meets  with  his  assist- 
ance. In  either  case,  it  is  God  who,  when 
he  sees  the  spark  of  goodness  glimmering  in 
the  soul,  or  has  himself  li«hti-d  it  up  by  his 
own  working,  cherishes  and  sustains  this 


376 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


a  sect  arose  which  its  adversaries  have  called  that  of  the  Semipelagians. 
The  sentiments  of  the  Semipelagians  are  represented  differently  by  those 
that  oppose  them.  The  greater  part  however,  represent  them  as  holding, 
that  men  do  not  need  internal  preventing  grace ;  but  that  every  man  can, 
by  his  natural  powers,  commence  the  renovation  of  his  soul ;  and  can 
have  and  exercise  faith  in  Christ,  and  a  purpose  of  living  a  holy  life  :  yet 
that  no  man  can  persevere  in  the  begun  course,  unless  he  is  constantly 
supported  by  divine  assistance  and  grace.  The  disciples  of  S.  Augustine 
in  Gaul,  contended  warmly  with  this  class  of  men ;.  but  they  could  not 
vanquish  them. (55)  For  as  their  'doctrines  coincided  with  the  modes  of 


spark.  God's  unchangeable  will  is,  that  all 
men  may  be  saved  ;  and  when  any  one  is 
lost,  it  is  contrary  to  his  designs.  At  all 
times  therefore  the  grace  of  God  is  co-oper- 
ating with  our  will,  and  strengthens  and  de- 
fends it ;  yet  so,  that  he  sometimes  waits 
for  or  requires  from  us  some  efforts  to  choose 
what  is  good,  that  he  may  not  seem  to  con- 
fer his  gifts  on  the  indolent  and  inactive. 
The  grace  of  God  however  is  always  un- 
merited, as  it  bestows  on  the  weak  and 
worthless  efforts  of  men  such  valuable  fa- 
vours and  such  unfading  glory.  The  ways 
in  which  God  brings  men  to  possess  good- 
ness, are  manifold  and  incomprehensible ; 
but  he  always  treats  each  individual,  accord- 
ing to  his  character  and  desert.  Yet  this 
is  not  to  be  understood,  as  if  grace  was  im- 
parted to  each  one  according  to  his  merits. 
On  the  contrary,  the  grace  of  God  far  trans- 
cends all  human  desert,  and  sometimes 
transcends  the  unbelief  of  men,  (i.  e.,  brings 
the  unbelieving  to  have  faith). — From  these 
propositions,  (which  are  arranged  differently 
from  what  they  are  by  the  author,  but  are 
expressed  in  almost  his  own  words),  it  ap- 
pears, that  Cassian  rejected  unconditional 
election,  the  inability  of  man  to  do  good,  ir- 
resistible grace,  and  the  Augustinian  idea 
of  the  saints'  perseverance.  Dr.  Muenscher 
adds,  that  the  principal  point  in  which  the 
Massilians  departed  from  the  adherents  to 
Augustine,  lay  in  this,  that  man  has,  in  his 
freedom  of  will,  some  power  to  do  good  ;  by 
exerting  which  he  does  not  indeed  merit  the 
grace  of  God,  yet  he  makes  himself  fit  to 
receive  it ;  and  that  God,  in  view  of  these 
human  efforts,  has  determined  to  bestow  his 
grace  and  eternal  bliss. — The  evidence  by 
which  the  Massilians  supported  their  opin- 
ions, was  various.  Their  chief  argument 
was  this,  that  in  the  scriptures  faith  and  vir- 
tue are  sometimes  required  of  men,  and 
sometimes  represented  as  the  gift  of  God  ; 
and  these  different  passages  cannot  be  recon- 
ciled, unless  it  be  allowed  that  faith  and  vir- 
tue come  principally  from  God,  and  yet  that 
free  will  has  some  part  in  them.  This  doc- 
trine moreover,  they  said,  coincided  with  the 


standing  belief  of  the  church  ;  while  the  op- 
posite doctrine  was  new,  and  also  objection- 
able, because  it  annihilated  human  freedom, 
introduced  an  unavoidable  necessity  in  hu- 
man actions,  and  by  holding  up  the  idea  that 
a  man's  own  efforts  were  of  no  avail,  en- 
couraged men  to  remain  inactive. —  Tr.] 

(55)  Jas  Basnage,  Histoire  de  1'Eglise, 
tome  ii.,  liv.  xii.,  cap.  i.  Histoire  litteraire 
de  la  France,  tome  ii.,  Pref,  p.  ix,  &c. 
Vossius,  Historia  Pelagiana,  lib.  vi.,  p.  538, 
&c.  Ircnaeus  Veronensis,  i.  e.,  Scipio 
Maffei,  de  Haeresi  Setnipelagiana,  in  the 
Opuscula  scientifica  of  Angela  Calogera, 
torn,  xxix.,  p.  399,  &c.  [As  soon  as  Au- 
gustine was  informed  by  Prosper  and  Hil- 
ary, of  the  existence  of  these  opposers  of 
his  system  at  Marseilles,  he  wrote  his  two 
pieces  designed  to  confute  them,  de  Prae- 
destinatione  Sanctorum  Liber,  and  de  Do- 
no  perseverantiae  Liber,  both  addressed  to 
Prosper  and  Hilary.  Soon  afterwards,  A.D. 
430,  Augustine  died  ;  and  Prosper  and  Hil- 
ary carried  on  the  controversy.  In  431, 
they  visited  Rome,  and  obtained  the  patron- 
age of  Coelestine  the  pontiff:  but  not  suc- 
ceeding by  means  of  councils  and  popes, 
Prosper  applied  himself  to  writing  against 
the  errorists.  His  strictures  on  Cassian's 
13th  Collation  is  a  valuable  performance. 
The  Libri  ii.  de  vocatione  Gentium  ,  (i.  e., 
on  the  universality  of  the  call  to  embrace 
the  Gospel  salvation),  seems  not  to  be  his  : 
for  it  does  not  come  up  fully  to  his  views, 
as  expressed  in  his  reply  to  Cassian. 
Though  it  concedes  more  to  the  Semipela- 
gians than  Augustine  and  Prosper  did,  still 
it  was  on  the  same  side.  The  majority  in 
France,  as  well  as  nearly  all  the  Greeks, 
were  in  sentiment  with  the  Semipelagians. 
About  the  year  472,  one  Lucidus  a  presby- 
ter, having  avowed  pure  Augustinianisrn, 
Faustus  the  bishop  of  Reiz  in  Gaul,  wrote 
him  a  letter,  and  afterwards  accused  him 
before  the  council  of  Aries,  A.D.  475.  The 
council  disapproved  the  sentiments  of  Luci- 
dus, who  retracted  ;  and  they  encouraged 
Faustus  to  write  his  ii.  Books  de  libero  Ar-  . 
bitro,  in  opposition  to  Augustine's  views. 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


377 


thinking  of  the  majority  of  people,  and  particularly  of  the  monks,  and  were 
approved  by  the  most  respectable  authors,  especially  among  the  Greeks, 
and  as  Augustine  himself  and  his  friends  did  not  venture  utterly  to  reject 
and  condemn  them,  as  pernicious  and  impious,  no  efforts  could  prevent 
them  from  spreading  far  and  wide. 

§  27.  From  this  time  therefore,  began  those  knotty  controversies  con- 
earning  the  nature  and  the  mode  of  that  divine  agency  or  grace  which 
men  need  in  order  to  salvation,  which  have  unhappily  divided  Chris, 
tians  in  every  subsequent  age,  and  which  are  still  protracted,  to  the  grief 
of  all  pious  and  good  men.  Many  in  all  ages  have  followed  the  system 
of  Augustine,  who  ascribed  everything  to  the  grace  of  God,  and  nothing 
to  human  sufficiency ;  yet  they  differed  in  the  manner  in  which  they  ex- 
plained  this  system.  But  a  still  greater  number  have  agreed  with  Cos- 
sian;  whose  system,  though  differently  explained,  has  spread  from  the 
schools  of  the  Gallic  monks  over  all  the  nations  of  Europe.  The  Greeks 


A  few  months  after,  a  synod  at  Lyons  also  de- 
cided in  favour  of  Semipelagian  sentiments. 
But  early  in  the  following  century,  Casari- 
us  of  Aries,  came  out  a  zealous  Augustinian  ; 
and  with  the  aid  of  some  Scythian  monks  and 
some  others,  he  caused  that  doctrine  to  spread 
and  to  gain  the  ascendency.  The  synods  of 
Orange  and  Valence,  A.D.  529,  declared  in 
favour  of  it.  The  opposers  of  Augustinian- 
ism  were  in  that  age  denominated  Pelagi- 
ans ;  from  their  leaning  towards  the  senti- 
ments of  Pelagius ;  also  Massilians,  from 
the  residence  of  their  principal  writers  at 
(Miisxilia)  Marseilles.  It  was  the  school- 
men of  after  ages  who  denominated  them 
Semipelagiaiu. — According  to  Dr.  Walch, 
they  admitted  original  sin ;  but  probably 
confined  its  effects  to  our  liability  to  tempo- 
ral death.  They  supposed  all  the  posterity 
of  Adam  have  ability  to  discern  what  is  right, 
and  freedom  of  will  to  choose  it :  yet  that 
none  can  be  saved,  but  by  grace,  through 
Christ,  or  by  means  of  his  blood  and  a  Chris- 
tian baptism  ;  that  Christ  died  for  all  men  ; 
that  God  wills  the  salvation  of  all ;  and  there- 
fore proffers  his  grace  to  all  ;  so  that  all  men 
may  be  saved,  if  they  will.  The  way  of 
salvation,  they  supposed,  is,  to  believe,  to 
practise  virtue,  and  to  persevere  in  it  to  the 
end.  Faith  i.s,  believing  that  God  has  de- 
termined to  save  all  that  obey  the  Gospel. 
This  faith  originates  altogether  from  our  free 
will.  From  the  same  source,  and  from  the 
use  of  our  natural  powers,  originate  the  be- 
ginnings of  a  right  temper,  the  desiring, 
.  and  knocking.  Yet  neither  this 
faith,  nor  these  beginnings  of  a  right  temper, 
are  good  works  ;  that  is,  they  have  no  prop- 
er efficacy  to  merit  the  assistance  of  God, 
or  that  uracc  which  is  necessary  to  the  per- 
formance of  good  works  ;  and  yet  they  may 
induce  God  to  impart  his  grace.  Thus  it  is 
God  who  gives  the  grace,  by  which  faith  is 

VOL.  J.—  BUB 


strengthened  and  good  works  performed ; 
yet  its  due  influence  must  be  allowed  to  free 
will,  and  not  everything  be  ascribed  to  grace. 
The  connexion  and  co-operation  of  both  are 
very  necessary  ;  for  grace  only  helps  or  as- 
fn.\/x.  True  faith  may  be  lost ;  its  retention 
depends  solely  on  man's  free  will ;  and  it  is 
not  true,  that  divine  grace  imparts  to  man  a 
special  gift  of  perseverance  in  goodness. 
God  has  a  twofold  decree,  respecting  man's 
salvation  ;  first,  his  general  desire  that  all 
may  be  saved  ;  and  secondly,  his  design  ac- 
tually to  save  those  who  shall  persevere  in 
holiness  to  the  end.  Augustine's  doctrine 
of  predestination  is  very  objectionable ;  it 
wholly  subverts  man's  freedom,  makes  God* 
the  author  of  sin,  and  renders  it  vain  to  ex- 
hort sinners  to  repent  or  saints  to  persevere 
in  religion.  Election  to  salvation  is  condi- 
tional, depending  on  the  foreseen  conduct 
of  men  in  regard  to  obedience  to  the  divine 
commands.  To  the  puzzling  question  of 
their  opposers,  what  becomes  of  so  many 
baptized  children  who  die  before  they  are 
competent  to  exert  their  free  will,  and  of  so 
many  adults  who  never  were  favoured  with 
a  knowledge  of  the  Gospel ;  they  replied, 
first,  that  baptized  children  dying  in  infancy, 
are  saved  on  the  ground  that  God  foresaw 
they  would  persevere  in  religion  if  their  lives 
had  been  prolonged  ;  and  secondly,  that  so 
many  children  as  die  without  baptism,  are 
deprived  of  that  ordinance,  and  so  many 
adults  as  are  deprived  of  a  knowledge  of 
the  Gospel,  (both  being  doomed  to  damna- 
tion), suffer  these  privations,  because  God 
foresaw  that  the  former  would  not  live  vir- 
tuously, and  that  the  latter  would  not  em- 
brace the  Gospel,  if  they  had  an  opportunity. 
See  Dr.  Walch's  ample  account  of  this  re- 
ligious party,  in  his  Historic  der  Ketzereyen, 
vol.  v.,  p.  3-218.—  TV.] 


378     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  V.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

and  the  other  Orientals  held  the  same  views,  before  Cassian ;  nor  have  they 
departed  from  them  to  this  day.  The  opinions  of  Pelagius  appeared  to 
most  persons  too  bold  and  loose,  and  therefore  were  never  openly  avow, 
ed  by  large  numbers.  Yet  in  every  age  some  may  be  found,  who  ascribed 
to  man,  as  it  is  said  Pelagius  did,  full  power  by  his  own  strength  to  keep 
the  whole  law  of  God. 


CENTURY    SIXTH. 
PART    I. 

THE    EXTERNAL   HISTORY   OF   THE    CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  PROSPEROUS  EVENTS  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

§  1.  Progress  of  Christianity  in  the  East, — $  2.  and  in  the  West. — §  3.  Jews  converted 
in  several  Places. — §  4.  The  Miracles  of  this  Century. 

§  1.  IT  is  evident  from  the  historical  records  of  the  Greek  empire,  that 
several  barbarous  tribes,  particularly  some  residing  near  the  Black  Sea, 
were  converted  to  Christianity  by  the  efforts  of  the  Greek  emperors  and 
the  bishops  of  Constantinople.  Among  these  were  the  Abasgi,  a  barba- 
rous nation  inhabiting  the  shores  of  the  Euxine  and  as  far  as  Mount  Cau- 
casus, who  embraced  Christianity  under  the  emperor  Justinian. (1)  The 
Heruli,  who  dwelt  along  the  other  side  of  the  Istcr  [or  Danube],  became 
Christians  under  the  same  reign  :(2)  also  the  Alani,  the  Lazi,  and  the 
Zani,  and  some  other  tribes,  whose  residence  is  not  definitely  known  at  the 
present  day. (3)  But  there  is  abundant  evidence,  that  nothing  was  re- 
quired  of  these  nations  except  externally  to  profess  Christ,  cease  from  of- 
frriiig  victims  to  their  gods,  and  learn  certain  forms  to  be  repeated:  the 
imbuing  their  minds  with  true  religion  and  piety,  was  not  even  thought  of. 
It  is  certain,  that  after  their  conversion  they  retained  their  rude  and  sav- 
age manners,  and  were  famous  for  rapines,  murders,  and  every  species  of 
iniquity.  In  most  provinces  of  the  Greek  empire,  and  even  in  the  city  of 
Constantinople,  many  idolaters  were  still  lurking  in  concealment.  A 
great  multitude  of  these  were  baptized,  during  the  reign  of  Justin,  by  John 
bishop  of  Asia.(4) 

§  2.  In  the  West,  Remigius  bishop  of  Rheims,  who  has  been  called 
the  Apostle  of  the  Gauls,  laboured  with  great  zeal  to  convert  idolaters  to 
Christ ;  and  not  without  success,  especially  after  Clovis  the  king  of  the 
Franks  had  embraced  Christianity. (5)  In  Britain,  Ethelbert  king  of  Kent, 

(1)  Procopius,  de  Bello  Gothico,  lib.  iv.,  ubi   sup.     Neander,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  ii., 

c.  3.     Le  Quicn,  Oriens  Christianus,  torn,  i.,  part  i.,  p.  247. —  7V.] 
p.  1351,  &c.     [Their  adoration  (like  that  of        (2)  Procopius,  de  Bello  Goth.,  1.  ii.,  c.  14. 
the  ancient  Germans)  had  been  previously         (3)  [See  Evagrius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  iv., 

given  to  forests  and  lofty  trees.     The  em-  c.  20,  22,  2:5.     All  these  conversions  took 

peror  Juxtmian   sent   priests  among  them,  place  near  the  commencement  of  the  reign 

and  erected  a  church  for  them  dedicated  to  of  Justinian,  about  A.D.  530. —  TV.] 
the  Virgin  Mary  ;  and  he  rendered  the  peo-         (4)  Jos.  Sim.  Assouan,  Biblioth.  Orient, 

pie  more  inclined  to  become  Christians,  by  Vatican.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  85. 
prohibiting  their  king  from   carrying  on  a         (5)  Histoire  litteraire  de  la  France,  tome 

shameful  traffic  in  eunuchs.     See  Procoptut,  iii.,  p.  155,  &c. 


380 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  I.— CHAP.  I. 


the  most  distinguished  of  the  seven  Anglo-Saxon  kings  among  whom  the 
island  was  then  divided,  married  near  the  close  of  this  century  a  Christian 
wife  named  Bertha,  the  daughter  of  Cherebert  king  of  Paris ;  and  she, 
partly  by  her  own  influence,  and  partly  by  that  of  the  ministers  of  religion 
whom  she  brought  with  her,  impressed  her  husband  favourably  towards 
Christianity.  The  king  being  thus  prepared  for  it,  Gregory  the  Great,  at 
the  suggestion  undoubtedly  of  the  queen,  sent  forty  Benedictine  monks, 
with  one  Augustine  at  the  head  of  them,  into  Britain,  in  the  year  596,  to 
complete  the  work  which  the  queen  had  begun.  This  Augustine,  with 
the  queen's  assistance,  converted  the  king  and  the  greatest  part  of  the  in- 
habitants of  Kent  to  Christian  worship,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  the  mod- 
ern British  church. (6)  Among  the  Picts  and  Scots,  Columbas  an  Irish 

(6)  Beda,  Histor.  Eccles.  gentis  Anglor., 
lib.  i.,  c.  23,  p.  55,  &c.,  ed.  Chiflet.  Rapin 
Thoyras,  Hist.  d'Angleterre,  torn,  i.,  p.  222, 
&c.  Acta  Sanctor,  torn,  iii.,  Februar.,  p. 
470,  where  is  an  account  of  Etkclbcrt,  king 
of  Kent.  [The  marriage  of  Bertha,  is  said 
to  have  been  consummated  A.D.  579.  It 
had  been  stipulated,  that  she  should  enjoy 
her  own  religion  and  worship.  She  therefore 
had  her  private  chaplain,  and  a  small  church. 
Gregory  the  Great,  before  he  was  made  pope, 
was  so  captivated  with  the  beauty  of  some 
English  youth  offered  for  sale  at  Rome  as 
slaves,  that  he  wished  to  go  himself  as  a 
missionary  to  England  ;  but  the  Roman  peo- 
ple restrained  him.  He  was  created  pontiff 
in  590  ;  and  in  596  he  persuaded  Augustine, 
abbot  of  St.  Andrew's  at  Rome,  to  undertake 
the  conversion  of  the  English  nation.  Au- 
gustine, with  a  small  retinue  of  monks,  set 
forward  ;  but  he  scarcely  reached  France, 
before  the  courage  of  the  whole  party  failed, 
and  Augustine  returned  to  obtain  leave  to 
abandon  the  enterprise.  Gregory  however 
would  not  give  it  up  ;  he  exhorted  Augustine 
to  proceed,  assigned  him  more  assistants, 
gave  him  letters  of  introduction  to  bishops 
and  princes  on  the  way,  and  dismissed  him. 
Augustine  now  proceeded  through  France, 
crossed  the  channel,  and  landed  with  his  40 
monks  on  the  isle  of  Thanet  in  Kent.  There 
king  Ethclbcrt  met  him,  learned  his  object, 
gave  him  access  to  the  country,  promised 
him  protection  and  sustenance,  but  refused 
to  embrace  the  new  religion  till  after  further 
examination.  Augustine  and  retinue  then 
marched  to  Canterbury  the  capitol,  with  a 
waving  banner  and  a  silver  crucifix,  chant- 
ing :  0  Lord,  we  beseech  thee,  in  thy  great 
mercy,  to  remove  thy  fury  and  thy  wrath 
from,  this  city,  and  from  thine  house,  for  we 
have  sinned :  hallelujah.  For  a  considera- 
ble time,  Augustine  and  his  monks  worship- 
ped in  the  queen's  chapel ;  and  fasted,  and 
prayed,  and  chanted  hymns  almost  constant- 
ly. The  next  year,  A.D.  597,  the  king  had 
his  mind  made  up,  was  baptized,  and  allowed, 


but  did  not  compel,  any  of  his  subjects  to 
follow  his  example.  In  a  short  time  howev- 
er, all  Kent  was  nominally  Christian.  Hav- 
ing been  so  successful,  Avgustine  this  year 
went  to  Gaul,  and  was  ordained  archbishop 
of  Canterbury  and  primate  of  all  England  ; 
and  returned  with  a  fresh  accession  of  monks. 
In  the  year  598,  he  sent  two  monks,  Lauren- 
tius  and  Peter,  to  Rome  to  inform  Gregory 
of  the  prosperous  state  of  the  mission.  Greg- 
ory exulted  in  its  success,  and  sent  back  the 
messengers,  with  additional  labourers,  the 
pall  for  the  new  archbishop,  numerous  pres- 
ents for  the  cathedral,  including  holy  relics, 
letters  to  the  king  and  queen,  &c.  He  con- 
firmed Augustine's  jurisdiction  over  all  Eng- 
land, exhorted  him  to  proceed  with  his  work, 
advised  him  not  to  demolish  the  pagan  tem- 
ples, but  to  convert  them  into  churches,  pu- 
rifying them  with  holy  water  ;  for  the  pagans 
would  love  to  worship  in  the  places  long  held 
.  sacred ;  yet  the  idols  must  be  destroyed. 
He  also  advised,  that  the  people  be  allowed 
on  festal  days  to  assemble  around  the  church- 
es, erect  booths,  and  there  feast  themselves, 
much  as  during  their  pagan  state,  yet  without 
sacrificing  to  their  idols.  Gregory  likewise 
answered  several  questions  of  Augustine, 
advising  him  and  his  associates  to  continue 
to  live  in  monasteries,  to  use  such  a  liturgy 
as  should  seem  best  suited  to  the  country  ; 
and  instructing  him  how  thieves  should  be 
treated,  how  many  bishops  must  concur  in 
the  ordination  of  a  bishop,  how  he  must  de- 
mean himself  among  the  Gallic  bishops,  and 
what  was  to  be  thought  of  some  ceremonial 
impurities.  In  602,  Augustine  built  his  ca- 
thedral at  Canterbury  ;  and  he  erected  a  mon- 
astery in  which  to  train  men  for  the  ministry. 
In  the  year  604,  he  attempted  to  bring  under 
his  jurisdiction  and  to  a  conformity  with  his 
churches,  all  the  clergy  and  churches  of  the 
ancient  Britons  whom  the  Saxons  had  con- 
quered and  driven  chiefly  into  Wales.  A 
council  was  held  for  the  purpose.  But  as 
Augustine  was  quite  bigoted  and  somewhat 
overbearing,  nothing  was  effected.  In  the 


PROSPEROUS  EVENTS. 


381 


monk,  began  the  work  of  administering  Christian  baptism. (7)  In  Ger- 
many, the  Bohemians,  the  Thuringians,  and  Bavarians  are  said  to  have 
received  Christianity  ;(8)  which  to  many,  however,  appears  extremely 
doubtful.  Of  these  sacred  enterprises  among  the  heathen,  no  one  will 
form  a  high  opinion,  after  learning  from  the  writers  of  this  and  the  fol- 
lowing ages  that  these  nations  still  retained  a  great  part  of  their  former 
paganism,  and  that  they  so  worshipped  Christ  as  to  reject  his  instructions, 
by  their  lives,  their  deeds,  and  their  allowed  practices. (9) 

§  3.  That  a  great  many  Jews  in  various  places,  made  a  profession  of 
Christianity,  is  certain.  In  the  East,  Justinian  persuaded  those  resident 
at  Borium  a  city  of  Libya,  to  acknowledge  Christ.(W)  In  the  West, 
many  Jews  yielded  to  the  zeal  and  efforts  of  the  kings  of  Gaul  and  Spain, 
and  to  those  of  Gregory  the  Great  and  Avitus  [bishop  of  Clcrmont].  But 
it  should  be  added,  that  far  more  were  induced  to  make  profession  of 
Christianity,  by  the  rewards  offered  by  the  princes  and  by  the  fear  of 
punishment,  than  by  the  force  of  arguments.  In  Gaul  during  the  reign 
of  Childeric,  the  Jews  were  compelled  to  receive  baptism :  and  the  same 
thing  was  done  in  Spain.(ll)  But  Gregory  the  Great  wished  this  prac- 
tice to  be  discontinued. (12) 


mean  time,  the  conversion  of  other  Saxons 
beyond  the  kingdom  of  Kent,  proceeded  suc- 
cessfully ;  and  several  bishops  were  ordained, 
particularly  a  bishop  for  London,  and  another 
for  Rochester.  St.  Paul's  church  in  London 
was  now  founded  ;  and  the  next  year  the 
West  monastery  ( Westminster)  adjoining 
London.  In  the  year  607,  Augustine  died, 
and  was  succeeded  in  the  see  of  Canterbury 
by  Laurejitius.  See  Beda,  Hist.  Eccl.  Brit., 
lib.  i.,  c.  23,  &c.,  and  lib.  ii.,  c.  2,  3.  Ma- 
billon,  Annal.  Benedict.,  torn,  i.,  ann.  596- 
607.  The  legendary  history  of  Augustine, 
both  in  a  larger  and  a  smaller  form-,  by  Gos- 
celin  a  monk  of  the  llth  century,  may  be 
found  in  Mabillon,  Acta  Sanctor.  Ord.  Ben- 
edict., torn,  i.,  p.  485-543.— 7V.] 

(7)  Beda,,  Histor.  Eccies.,  lib.  iii.,  c.  4, 
p.  134. — [Some  rays  of  light  had  penetrated 
the  southernmost  counties  of  Scotland  at  an 
earlier  period.  Ninia  or  Nirtian,  was  bish- 
op of  Whit-hern  on  the  borders  of  Scotland, 
in  the  year  400  ;  and  his  successors  some- 
times extended  their  labours  as  far  north  as 
Glasgow.  Indeed  Kentigcrn  is  said  to  have 
actually  removed  his  chair  from  Whit-hern 
to  Glasgow,  before  the  arrival  of  Columbas, 
and  to  have  invited  this  Irish  missionary  to 
visit  him  there.  It  was  in  the  year  563 
that  Columbas,  with  twelve  other  monks, 
removed  from  the  north  of  Ireland  to  lona, 
Hii,  I,  or  I-calm-kill,  an  islet  on  the  outer 
shore  of  Mull,  one  of  the  larger  of  the  Heb- 
rides or  Western  isles.  The  Scottish  king 
of  Argyle,  Brude  or  Bride,  favoured  his  en- 
terprise ;  and  Aida.n,  a  successor  of  Brude, 
paid  him  the  highest  reverence.  Columba* 
Lad  the  sole  jurisdiction  of  his  little  island, 


which  became  covered  with  cloisters  and 
churches,  and  was  the  residence  of  a  nu- 
merous and  learned  body  of  monks.  For 
several  centuries  lona  was  the  centre  of  the 
Scottish  church,  and  the  place  where  most 
of  her  clergy  were  educated.  There  also 
the  Scottish  kings,  for  many  generations, 
were  interred.  Columbas  died  in  the  year 
597.  His  memorable  acts  were  recorded  by 
Cummencus  Albus,  (abbot  of  lona.  from  657 
to  669),  and  may  be  seen  in  Mabillon,  Acta 
Sanctor.  Ord.  Benedict.,  torn,  i ,  p.  342, 
&c.,  and  his  life  at  large,  in  iii.  Books,  was 
written  by  Adamnanus,  who  presided  at 
lona  from  679  to  704.  See  Usher,  Britan- 
icar.  Ecclesiar.  Antiq.,  cap.  xv.,  p.  687- 
709.—  TV.] 

(8)  Henry  Canisius,  Lectiones  Antiquae, 
torn,  iii.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  208.     Avinlinus,  Annal. 
Boiorum ;  and  others. 

(9)  As  to  the   Franks,  the  Benedictine 
monks    express    themselves    ingenuously ; 
Histoire  litteraire  de  la  France,  tome  iii., 
Introd.,  p.   8,   11,   13.     As   to  the   Anglo- 
Saxons,  see  what  Grrpnry  the  Great  him- 
self allowed  of,  Epistolar.  lib.  xi.,  ep.  76, 
Opp.,   torn,  ii.,   p.   1176,  ed.    Benedictine. 
Among  other  things,  he  permitted  the  peo- 
ple on  festival  days,  to  offer   to  the  saints 
such  victims  as  they  had  before  offered  to 
their  gods.     Dar>.  Wilkins,  Concilia  Mag- 
nae  Britan.,  torn,  i.,  p.  18,  dec. 

(10)  Procopius,  de  Aedificiis  Justiniani, 
lib.  vi.,  cap.  2. 

(11)  Gregory  of  Tours,  Historia  Fran- 
corum,  lib.  vi.,  c.  17.     Jo.  Launoi,  de  ve- 
teri  more  baptizandi  Judaeos  et  infideles, 
cap.  i.,  in  his  Opp.,  torn,  ii.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  700, 


382     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  L— CHAP.  II. 

§  4.  If  credit  were  to  be  given  to  the  writers  of  this  age,  these  con- 
versions of  barbarous  nations  to  Christianity  must  be  ascribed  principally 
to  the  prodigies  and  miracles  that  were  wrought.  But  an  inspection  of  the 
converted  nations  themselves,  will  forbid  our  believing  so ;  for  had  these 
nations  seen  so  many  wonderful  deeds  with  their  own  eyes,  they  would 
have  had  a  stronger  faith  in  Christianity,  and  would  have  more  religiously 
obeyed  its  precepts.  With  the  major  part,  the  example  and  influence  of 
their  kings  presented  the  chief  argument  for  changing  their  religion. 
Nor  were  more  solid  reasons  much  needed ;  for  the  first  preachers  of 
Christianity  among  them,  required  of  them  nothing  very  difficult  or  cross- 
ing  to  their  inclinations  ;  they  were  only  to  worship  the  images  of  Christ 
and  of  holy  men,  instead  of  those  of  their  gods,  and  for  the  most  part 
with  the  same  ceremonies ;  and  to  commit  to  memory  certain  Christian 
formulas.  Some  preachers  moreover,  as  might  easily  be  proved,  deemed 
it  lawful  and  right  to  delude  the  senses  of  the  ignorant  people,  and  to 
palm  on  them  natural  events  for  Divine  interpositions. 


CHAPTER  II. 

ADVERSE   EVENTS   AND    OCCURRENCES. 

§  1.  Pagans  still  remaining  among  the  Christians. — §  2.  Writers  opposed  to  Christianity. 
— <)  3.  Persecutions  and  Vexations. 

§  1.  ALTHOUGH  the  imperial  laws  ordained,  that  no  public  office  should 
be  held  by  any  one  who  would  not  abjure  paganism,  yet  there  were  many 
learned  and  respectable  men,  who  in  the  midst  of  the  Christians  followed 
the  old  religion.  The  illustrious  compiler  of  |he  civil  law,  Tribonianus, (1) 

704.  [All  these  Jewish  conversions  were  a  such  converts  seldom  persevered,  and  there- 
victory,  which  did  the  Christians  little  hon-  fore  exposed  themselves  to  a  heavier  pun- 
our.  Avi/us,  for  instance,  the  bishop  of  ishment  in  the  other  world  than  if  they  had 
Clermont,  baptized  500  Jews.  But  the  cir-  never  been  baptized,  charity  to  them  requi- 
cumstances  were  these  ;  a  Jew,  having  vol-  red  that  they  should  not  be  compelled  to  re- 
untarily  received  baptism,  was  proceeding  ceive  baptism. — Tr.] 
home  in  the  customary  white  robe,  when,  (1)  [Tribonianus  was  a  native  of  Side  in 
meeting  with  other  Jews,  one  of  them  poured  Pamphylia,  flourished  about  A.D.  530,  and 
some  fetid  oil  on  his  white  robe.  The  peo-  died  about  A.D.  546.  Richly  furnished 
pie  soon  kindled  into  a  rage,  and  pulled  with  Greek  and  Roman  literature,  he  applied 
down  the  synagogue  ;  and  the  bishop  sent  himself  especially  to  the  study  of  law.  He 
word  to  the  Jews,  that  they  must  all  submit  was  advanced  to  various  civil  offices,  and 
to  be  baptized,  or  must  quit  the  place.  In  was  in  favour  with  Justinian,  on  account  of 
this  dilemma,  500  preferred  receiving  bap-  his  eminent  talents  and  his  obsequiousness, 
tism ;  and  the  rest  removed  to  Marseilles.  The  Codex  Justinianus  was  the  joint  work 
See  Gregory  of  Tours,  Hist.  Francor.,1.  v.,  of  Tribonianus  and  others  ;  but  the  compi- 
c.  11. — Schl.~\  lation  of  the  Pandects  and  Institutes  was 
(12)  See  his  Epistles,  lib.  i.,  ep.  47,  in  committed  to  him  as  chief,  with  others  to 
his  Opp.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  541,  ed.  Benedict.,  [or  assist  him.  Tribonianus  was  avaricious  and 
the  extract  from  it  in  Baronius,  Annal.  ad  irreligious.  He  has  been  accused  of  atheism 
ann.  591,  torn,  viii.,  p.  26,  27,  ed.  Antw.,  and  paganism.  The  truth  probably  was,  that 
1600.  Gregory  commends  the  intentions  he  had  no  fixed  religious  principles.  See  .7. 
of  the  Gallic  bishops,  but  thinks,  that  as  H.  Hermann,  Historia  Juris  Romani  et  Jus- 


ADVERSE  EVENTS. 


383 


is  thought  by  some,  to  have  been  averse  from  the  Christian  religion.  Of 
Procopius,(2)  the  celebrated  and  intelligent  historian,  the  same  suspicion 
is  entertained  by  not  a  few.  And  it  is  still  more  certain  that  Agathias(3) 
of  Smyrna,  an  advocate  at  the  bar,  and  also  a  historian,  was  an  idolater. 
Indeed,  as  is  commonly  the  case  every  where,  the  rigour  of  the  laws  fell 
only  on  those  who  had  neither  birth,  nor  wealth,  nor  the  favour  of  the 
great  to  protect  them. 

§  2.  It  is  still  more  strange,  that  the  Platonists  who  were  universally 
known  to  be  hostile  to  Christianity,  should  have  been  allowed  publicly  to 
instil  their  principles  which  were  totally  inconsistent  with  our  religion, 
into  the  minds  of  the  youth  both  in  Greece  and  in  Egypt.  This  class  of 
men  affected  indeed  a  high  degree  of  modesty,  and  for  the  most  part,  so 
qualified  their  language  as  to  make  the  pagan  idolatry  appear  not  very  re- 
mote  from  Christianity.  This  is  evident  from  the  examples  of  Chalcidius(£) 
and  Alexander  of  Lycopolis.(5)  Yet  there  were  some  among  them  who 
did  not  hesitate  openly  to  attack  the  Christian  religion.  Damascius,  in 
his  life  of  his  master  Isidore,  and  elsewhere,  casts  many  reproaches  on 
the  Christians. (6)  Simplicius,  in  his  Expositions  of  Aristotle,  not  obscurely 

tiniani,  lib.  ii.,  c.  i.,  §  27,  &c.,  and  Gibbon,     Systema   Intellectuale  Universi,  torn,  i.,  p. 
Decline  and  Fall,  ch.  xliv.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  260, 
&c.,  ed.  N.  York,  1826.—  Tr.] 

(2)  [Procopius  of  Caesarea,  (different  from 
Procopius  of  Gaza),  was  a  rhetorician,  sena- 
tor, and  historian.  He  was  secretary  to  the 
famous  general  Belisarius,  from  533  to  542, 
during  his  campaigns  in  Asia,  Africa,  and 
Italy  ;  and  afterwards,  being  made  a  Roman 
senator,  resided  at  Constantinople,  and  de- 
voted himself  to  writing  the  civil  history  of 
his  own  times  ;  viz.,  de  Bello  Persico,  1.  ii., 
de  Bello  Vandalico,  1.  ii.,  and  de  Bello  Goth- 
ico,  1.  iv.  His  narration  is  elaborate  and 
exact,  and  the  style  not  unacceptable.  He 


also  wrote  de  Edificiis  Justiniani,  1.  vi.,  in 
which  he  displays  the  munificence  and  great- 
ness of  that  emperor :  likewise  Anecdota, 
sive  Historia  arcana,  in  which  he  describes 
the  vices  and  crimes  of  Justinian  and  his 
Empress  Theodora.  Procopius  was  alive  in 
the  year  562.  Some  accuse  him  of  leaning 
towards  paganism.  He  was  probably  a  man 
of  no  religion  ;  but  externally,  a  conformist 
to  Christianity.  His  works  were  published, 
Gr.  and  Lat.,  by  C.  Maltrd,  Paris,  KiG2,  2 
vols.  fol.  See  Cave,  Historia  Litteraria, 
torn,  i.,  p.  510  —Tr.} 

(3)  [Agathias,  an   advocate  at   Smyrna, 
continued  the  history  of  Procopius,  from  the 
year  553  to  A.D.  559,  in  five  Books,  written 
in  an  easy  but  florid  style.     He  also  wrote 
80   epigrams.     His  works  were  published, 
Gr.  and  Lat.,  Paris,  1660.  fol.     His  history 
and  that  of  Procopius  are  both  in  the  Corpus 
Historiae  Byzantinae  Scriptorum,  torn,  ii., 
iii      See  Lardner,  Works,  vol.  ix  ,  p.  85. — 

2>.] 

(4)  Concerning  the  religion  of  Ckalcidius, 
I  have  spoken  in  my  notes  on  R.  Cudwortfi's 


732.  [Chalcidius  flourished  about  A.D. 
330,  and  wrote  his  Lat.  translation  of  Plato's 
Timaeus,  with  a  Commentary,  at  the  sug- 
gestion (as  is  reported)  of  Hosius  of  Cordu- 
ba.  Some  make  him  to  have  been  archdea- 
con of  Carthage.  See  above,  cent,  iv.,  pt. 
i.,  §  18,  with  note  (51),  p  225;  and  Cave, 
Hist.  Lit,  torn,  i.,  p.  199. — Tr.] 

(5)  The  treatise  of  this  philosopher,  contra 
Manichueos,  in   Greek,  was   published   by 
Fran.  Combe/is,  Auctarium   Noviss.   Bibli- 
oth.  Patrum,  torn.  ii.     Concerning  his  reli- 
gion, Is.  de  Beausobre  has  given  a  critical 
dissertation,  Histoire  de  Manichee  et  Mani- 
cheisme,  pt.  ii.,  Discours  prelim.,  $  13,  p. 
236,  &c.     [Alexander  of  Lycopolis  in  The- 
bais,  Egypt,  flourished  probably  about  A.D. 
350.     Fabricius   supposes,   (Biblioth.    Gr.j 
torn,  v.,  p.  290),  that  he  was  first  a  pagan 
and  a  Manichee,  and  afterwards  a  Catholic 
Christian.     Cave   is  of  the   same  opinion 
(Hist.  Lit.,  torn,  ii.,  de   Scriptor.  incertae 
aetatis).     Beausobre  (ubi  supra)  thinks  he 
was  a  mere  pagan.     Lardner  (Works,  vol. 
iii.,  p.  384,  vol.  viii.,  p.  349,  &c.)  thinks  he 
was  a  gentile,  but  well  acquainted  with  the 
Manichees  and  other  Christians  ;  and  that  he 
had  some  knowledge  of  the  O.  and  N.  Tes- 
taments, to  which   he  occasionally   refers. 
He  speaks  with  respect  of  Christ,  and  the 
Christian  philosophy  ;  and  appears  to  have 
been  a  learned  and  candid  man. — Tr.] 

(6)  Photius,  Bibliotheca,  cod    ccxlii.,  p. 
1027.     [Diimascius  was  a  native  of  Damas- 
cus, but  studied  and  taught  philosophy  both 
at  Athens  and  Alexandria.     From  the  latter 
he  fled  to  Persia,  during  the  persecution  of 
the  pagan  philosophers  by  the  emperor  Jus- 
tinian, about  the  year  530.     Hia  subsequent 


384      BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  I.— CHAP.  II. 

carps  at  the  Christian  faith. (7)  The  Epicheiremata  xviii.  contra  Christi- 
anos,  written  by  Produs,(S)  were  in  everybody's  hands ;  and  therefore 
received  a  confutation  from  John  Philoponus.(9)  So  much  license  would 
not  have  been  allowed  to  these  men,  had  there  not  been  among  the  magis- 
trates many  who  were  Christians  in  name  and  outward  appearance  rather 
than  in  reality. 

§  3.  The  Christians  in  several  places  had  occasion,  even  in  this  centu- 
ry, to  complain  of  the  barbarity  and  cruelty  of  their  enemies.  During  the 
greater  part  of  it,  the  Anglo-Saxons  who  had  seized  upon  Britain,  brought 
every  kind  of  calamity  and  suffering  upon  the  former  inhabitants  of  that 
country,  who  were  Christians. (10)  The  Huns  having  made  an  irruption 
into  Thrace,  Greece,  and  other  provinces,  during  the  reign  of  Justinian, 
treated  the  Christians  with  cruelty  ;(11)  yet  they  appear  to  have  been  in- 
fluenced, not  so  mi>ch  by  a  hatred  of  Christianity,  as  by  hostility  to  the 
Greek  empire.  A  great  change  in  the  state  of  Italy,  took  place  about  the 
middle  of  this  century,  under  Justinian  I.  For  this  emperor,  by  Narses 
his  general,  overturned  the  kingdom  of  the  Ostrogoths  in  that  country, 
after  it  had  stood  ninety  years,  and  annexed  Italy  to  his  empire.  But  un- 
der the  emperor  Justin,  the  Lombards,  a  very  warlike  German  tribe  under 
their  king  Alboin,  accompanied  by  some  other  German  nations,  broke  into 
Italy  from  Pannonia  in  the  year  568  ;  and  having  possessed  themselves 
of  the  whole  country,  except  Rome  and  Ravenna,  founded  a  new  kingdom  at 
Pavia.  Under  these  new  lords,  who  were  not  only  barbarians  but  averse 
from  Christianity,  the  Italian  Christians  for  a  time  endured  immense  evils 
and  calamities.  But  the  first  rage  of  the  conquerors  gradually  subsided, 
and  the  Lombards  became  more  civilized.  Autharis,  their  third  king, 
made  a  profession  of  Christianity  in  the  year  587  ;  but  he  embraced  the 

history  is  unknown.     He  wrote  the  lives  of  published  in  Greek,  Venice,  1535,  fol.,  and 

Isidorus  and  others,  Commentaries  on  Pla-  in  Latin,  Lyons,  1557,  fol. — TV.] 
to,  and  four  books  on  extraordinary  events  :         (9)  See  J.  A.  Fabricius,   Biblioth.    Gr., 

all  of  which  are   lost.     Phntius  calls  him  vol.  iii.,  p.  522,  &c.,  [and  Brucker,  Historia 

ki£  uKpov  Svcraedr/t;,  superlatively  irreligious,  crit.  philos.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  491,  with  Hamber- 

(Codex  clxxxi.),  and  gives  an  epitome  of  ger's  zuverlassigenNachrichten,  torn,  iii.,  p. 

his  life  of  Isidore,  Cod.  ccxlii.— TV.]  391.— Schl.] 

(7)  [Simplicius,  a  native  of  Cilicia,  adis-         (10)  Jo..  Usher,  Index  Chronolog.  Antiq. 
ciple  of  Damascius,  and  an  eclectic  philoso-  Eccles.  Britan.,  ad  ann.  508,  p.  1123,  [and 
pher,  was  one  of  those  who  fled  into  Persia,  still  more  to  the  purpose,  ad  ann.  511,  p. 
about   the   year   530.     He  returned  a  few  1125,  and  ad  ann.  597,  p.  1151,  &c.     At 
years   after,    and    wrote    Commentaries    on  the  beginning  of  this  century,  the  Saxons 
some  of  the  philosophical  and  physical  works  held  only  Kent  and  Sussex,  embracing  about 
of  Aris/olle  ;    also  a    Commentary  on   the  three  counties  in  the  southeast  part  of  Eng- 
Encheiridion  of  Epictctus  ;  both  edited,  Gr.  land  ;  all  the  rest  of  the  country  was  inhab- 
and  Lat.,  by  H.  Wolf,  Leyden,  1640,  4to. —  ited  by  Christian  Britons.     But  during  this 
TV.]  century,  the  Saxons  gradually  extended  their 

(8)  [Proclus  was  born  at  Constantinople  conquests  ;  and  before  the  century  closed, 
A.D.  410,    studied    at    Alexandria   and  at  the  Britons  were  shut  up  among  the  mount- 
Athens,  and  became  head  of  the  philosophi-  ains  of  Wales  and  Cornwall,  except  a  few 
cal  school  in  the  latter  place,  in  the  year  450.  in  Cumberland  on  the  borders  of  Scotland, 
He  died  A.D.  435.     He  was  a  man  of  much  or  were  driven  to  take  refuge  beyond  seas, 
philosophical  reading,  a  great  enthusiast,  a  Over  all  the  rest  of  England  paganism  reign- 
bold  and  whimsical  speculator,  and  a  most  ed  :  the  churches  were  demolished  or  con- 
voluminous  writer.    His  eighteen  Arguments  verted  into  idolatrous  temples,  and  the  public 
against  the  Christians,  are  so  many  proofs  worship  of  the  true  God  had  ceased. — TV.] 
that  the  world  was  eternal.    This  work,  with         (11)  Procopius,  de  Bello  Persico,  lib.  ii., 
the  confutation  of  John  Philoponus,  was  c.  4. 


LITERATURE  AND  SCIENCE.  385 

Arian  creed.  His  successor  however,  Agilulph,  was  induced  by  his  queen 
Theodelinda,  to  abandon  the  Arian  sect,  and  join  the  Catholics  of  the  Ni- 
cene  creed. (12)  But  Chosroes  the  king  of  Persia,  exceeded  all  others  in 
barbarity ;  for  he  publicly  declared  that  he  would  make  war,  not  upon 
Justinian,  but  upon  the  God  of  the  Christians  ;  and  he  cut  off  an  immense 
number  of  Christians  by  various  modes  of  execution. (13) 


PART   II. 

THE   INTERNAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  I. 

HISTORY   OF    LITERATURE    AND    SCIENCE. 

§  1.  The  State  of  Learning  in  the  West. — $  2.  The  Sciences  badly  taught. — $  3.  The 
Study  of  Philosophy. — $  4.  State  of  Learning  among  the  Greeks, — $  5.  and  in  the 
East. 

§  1.  EVERY  one  knows,  that  the  irruption  of  the  fierce  and  barbarous 
nations  into  most  of  the  provinces  of  the  West,  was  extremely  prejudicial 
to  literature  and  to  every  species  of  learning.  All  the  liberal  arts  and 
sciences  would  have  become  extinct,  had  they  not  found  some  feeble  pro- 
tection among  the  bishops  and  monks.  To  most  of  those  churches  which 
are  called  cathedrals,  schools  were  annexed,  in  which  either  the  bishop 
himself  or  some  one  appointed  by  him,  instructed  the  youth  in  the  seven 
liberal  arts  as  a  preparation  for  the  study  of  the  sacred  books.(l)  The 
monks  and  nuns  were  nearly  all  required  by  the  founders  of  their  houses,  to 
devote  some  portion  of  every  day  to  the  reading  of  the  works  of  the  ancient 
fathers  of  the  church,  who  were  supposed  to  have  exhausted  the  fountains 
of  sacred  knowledge. (2)  It  was  therefore  necessary  that  libraries  should 
be  formed  in  the  monasteries,  and  that  books  should  be  multiplied  by  being 
transcribed.  This  labour  of  transcribing  books  was  generally  assigned  to 
the  more  feeble-bodied  monks,  who  were  unable  to  encounter  severe  labour. 
To  these  establishments  we  owe  the  preservation  of  all  the  ancient  authors 
that  have  come  down  to  us,  both  sacred  and  profane.  Moreover,  in  most 
of  the  monasteries  schools  were  opened,  in  which  the  abbot  or  some  one 

(12)  Paulus  Diaconus,  de  gestis  Longo-  Hist.  Eccles.,  diss.  iii.,  $  21,  p.  205,  &c. 
bardorum.l.  ii.,c.  2,  and  c.  27,  p.  219,  231,  — Tr.]     Histoire    litteraire  de  la  France, 
ed.  Lindenbrog.     Muratori,  Antiq.  Italiae,  tome  iii.,  Introd.,  §  xxxii.,  p.  12,  &c.    Herm. 
torn,  i.,  p.    14,  torn,  ii.,  p.  297,  &c.,  and  Connngius,  Antiquit.  Academicae,  p.  66- 
Annales  Italici.     Giannone,  Histoire  de  Na-,  167,   ed.    Heumann.     [Gregory  of  Tours, 
pies,  [lib.  iv.,  cap.  3],  torn,  i.,  p.  302,  &c.  lib.  vi.,  c.  36. — Schl.] 

(13)  Procopius,  de  Bello  Persico,  1.  ii.,  (2)  Benedict  of  Anian,  Concordia  Regu- 
c.  26.  larum,  lib.  ii.,  p.  55,  64,  75.  77,  80,  100, 

(1)  Claude  Fleury,  Discours  sur  1'His-  lib.  iii.,  p.  16-41,  &c.,  ed.  Hug.  Menard. 

toire  ecclesiastique  depuis  1'an.  600,  &c.,  Jo.  Mabiilon,  Praef.  ad  Saecul.   i.,  Actor. 

$  xxi.,  &c.,  in  his  Histoire  Eccles.,  tome  Sanctor.  Ord.  Benedict.,  p.  xliv.,  <$tc. 
xiii.,  p.  56,  [and  among  his  Dissert,  viii.,  in 

VOL.  I.— C  c  c 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  II.— CHAP.  I. 


of  the  monks  instructed  the  children  and  youth  that  were  devoted  to  a 
monastic  life. (3) 

§  2.  But,  not  to  mention  that  many  of  the  bishops  and  others  who  had 
control  over  the  monks,  were  inattentive  to  their  duty,  and  that  others  had 
prejudices  against  learning  and  science,  which  they  apprehended  to  be  haz- 
ardous to  piety, — a  fault  commonly  attributed  to  Gregory  the  Great,  bishop 
of  Rome,  who,  it  is  said,  wished  to  have  many  of  the  ancient  authors  com- 
mitted  to  the  flames  ;(4) — not  to  mention  also,  that  some  of  the  bishops  of 
set  purpose,  cultivated  ignorance  and  barbarism,  which  they  confounded 
with  Christian  simplicity  ;(5)  to  pass  over  these  considerations,  it  remains 
to  be  stated,  that  the  branches  of  learning  taught  in  these  schools  were 
confined  within  very  narrow  limits  ;(6)  and  that  the  teachers  were  igno- 
rant and  incompetent.  Greek  literature  was  almost  every  where  neglected : 
and  those  who  professed  to  cultivate  Latin,  consumed  their  time  on  gram- 
matical subtilties  and  niceties  ;  as  is  manifest  from  the  examples  of  Isido- 
rus  and  Cassiodorus.  Eloquence  had  degenerated  into  rhetorical  blustering, 
with  motley  and  frigid  figures,  and  barbarous  phraseology  ;  as  is  shown  by 
those  who  composed  with  most  elegance,  such  as  Bofthius,  Cassiodorus, 
Ennodius,  and  others.  The  other  liberal  arts,  as  they  called  them,  con- 
tained nothing  elevated  and  liberal ;  but  consisted  of  only  a  few  precepts, 
and  those  very  dry. 

§  3.  Philosophy  was  wholly  excluded  from  the  schools  which  were  under 
the  direction  of  the  clergy,  for  nearly  all  supposed  that  religious  persons 
could  do  very  well  without  it,  or  rather  ought  never  to  meddle  with  it. 


(3)  Benedict,  Concordia  Regular.,  lib.  ii., 
p.  232.    Joh.  Mabillon,  Acta  Sanctor.  Ord. 
Benedict.,  torn,  i.,  p.  314,  &c.     [And  yet 
it  is  certain,  that  these  monkish  schools  kept 
aloof  from  the  sources  of  real  learning,  I 
mean  the  ancient  classic  authors  ;  and  that 
the  best  interpreters  of  scripture  among  the 
fathers,  such  as  Origen  and  Theodorus  of 
Mopsues'tia,   were  left  to  moulder  in   the 
dust.     On  the  contrary,  the  young  monks 
were  occupied  with  reading  and  transcribing 
the  most  silly  fables  and  legends,  by  which 
their  understandings  and  their  imaginations 
were  injured  past  recovery.     In  the  Rule  of 
Isidore,  it  is  expressly  stated :  Libros  gen- 
tilium  et  haereticorum  legere  nefas. — Schl.] 

(4)  Gabr.  Liron,  Singularites  historiques 
et  litter.,  tome  i.,  p.  166,  &c.    [That  Greg- 
ory was  opposed  to  all  secular  learning,  ap- 
pears incontrovertibly,  from  his  conduct  to- 
wards Desiderius  bishop  of  Vienne.     This 
bishop  was  a  man  of  great  merit,  virtues, 
and  learning.     But  he  instructed  some  of 
his  friends  in  grammar  and  the  fine  arts,  and 
read  with  them  the  pagan  poets.     Gregory 
looked  upon  all  this  as  horrible  wickedness  ; 
and  therefore  hesitated  about  sending  him 
the  pall,  and  reproved  him  very  sharply  in 
an  epistle  which  is  still  extant.     (Gregory, 
Epist.,  lib.  ix.,  ep.  48.)     "  Because  (says 
the  honest  pope,  who  esteemed  it  no  wrong 
to  praise  extravagantly  the  greatest  villains 


and  the  cruellest  murderers),  the  praises  of 
Christ  and  those  of  Jupiter  cannot  have 
place  in  the  same  mouth.  And  consider, 
how  enormous  a  crime  it  is  for  a  bishop  to 
sing  !  which  would  be  unbecoming  even  in 
a  religious  layman.  The  more  horrible  this 
is  in  a  priest,  the  more  earnestly  and  faith- 
fully should  it  be  inquired  into. — If  it  should 
hereafter  appear  clearly,  that  the  reports 
which  have  reached  me  are  false,  and  that 
you  do  not  study  vanities  and  secular  litera- 
ture (nee  vos  nugis  et  secularibus  literis 
studere),  I  shall  praise  God,  who  has  not 
permitted  your  heart  to  be  defiled  with  the 
blasphemous  praises  of  abominable  deities." 
— But  whether  it  be  true,  as  John  of  Salis- 
bury states,  (de  Nugis  Curialium,  lib.  ii.,  c. 
26,  and  lib.  viii.,  c.  19),  that  he  caused  the 
Palatine  or  Capitoline  library  to  be  burned  ; 
or  as  Antoninus  of  Florence  tells  us,  (see 
Vossius  de  Historicis  Latinis,  p.  98),  that 
he  committed  to  the  flames  Livy's  History ; 
must  be  considered  uncertain,  as  the  wit- 
nesses are  so  modern.  Yet  it  would  not  be 
improbable,  in  a  man  of  such  flaming  zeal 
against  the  pagan  writers. — Schl.] 

(5)  Jo.  Mabillon,  Praef.  ad  Saecul.  i.  [Ac- 
tor. Sanctor.  ordinis]  Benedicti,  p.  xlvi. 

(6)  See  Marcus  Aurelius    Cassiodorus, 
de   septem  Disciplines   Liber ;   among  his 
Works. 


LITERATURE  AND  SCIENCE.  387 

The  most  eminent,  and  indeed  almost  the  only  Latin  philosopher  of  this 
age,  was  the  celebrated  Boethius,  privy  counsellor  to  Theodoric  king  of  the 
Ostrogoths  in  Italy.  He  embraced  the  Platonic  system  ;(7)  but  like  most 
of  the  younger  Platonists,  approved  also  the  precepts  of  Aristotle,  and  il- 
lustrated them  by  his  writings.  He  is  therefore  not  improperly  regarded 
as  the  man,  whose  labours  brought  the  Aristotelian  philosophy  into  higher 
repute  among  the  Latins  than  it  had  before  been. 

§  4.  Among  the  Greeks,  the  liberal  arts  were  cultivated  in  several 
places  with  more  zeal,  and  some  of  the  emperors  encouraged  all  branches 
of  learning  with  honours  and  liberal  rewards  ;(8)  yet  the  number  of  the 
men  of  genius  appears  much  smaller  than  in  the  preceding  century.  When 
this  century  commenced,  the  younger  Platonism  was  flourishing  in  full 
splendour.  The  schools  of  Alexandria  and  Athens  were  under  masters  of 
high  reputation,  Damascius,  Isidore,(9)  Simplicius,  Eulamius,  Hermias,  Pris- 
dan,  and  others.  But  when  the  emperor  Justinian  forbid  by  an  express 
law  the  teaching  of  philosophy  at  Athens,(10)  (which  is  undoubtedly  to 
be  understood  of  this  species  of  philosophy),  and  also  manifested  peculiar 
displeasure  against  those  who  would  not  renounce  idolatry,  all  these  phi- 
losophers removed  and  took  residence  among  the  Persians,  the  enemies  of 
the  Romans.(ll)  They  indeed  returned  afterwards,  on  the  restoration  of 
peace  between  the  Persians  and  the  Romans  in  the  year  533  ;(12)  but  they 
were  never  able  to  recover  their  former  credit,  and  they  gradually  ceased 
to  keep  up  their  schools.  Such  was  the  termination  of  this  sect,  which 
had  been  a  most  troublesome  one  to  the  church  for  many  centuries.  On 
the  contrary,  the  Aristotelian  philosophy  gradually  emerged  from  its  ob- 
scurity, and  received  elucidation  especially  from  the  commentaries  of  John 
Philoponus.  And  it  became  necessary  for  the  Greeks  to  acquaint  them. 
selves  with  it,  because  the  Monophysites  and  the  Nestorians  endeavoured 
to  confute  the  adherents  to  the  councils  of  Ephesus  and  Chalcedon,  by  ar- 
guments suggested  by  this  philosophy. 

§  5.  For  the  Nestorians  as  well  as  the  Monophysites,  living  in  the  East, 
kept  their  eye  upon  Aristotle,  and,  to  enable  their  adherents  to  be  good  dis- 
putants, translated  his  principal  works  out  of  Greek  into  their  vernacular 
tongues.  Into  the  Syriac  language,  Sergius  Rasainensis,  a  Monophysite 

(7)  This  will  be  evident  to  any  one  who,     inated  him  from  Isidore  Mercator,  Hispalen- 
with  some  knowledge  of  the  views  of  the     sis,  and  Peleusiota. — Schl.~\ 

younger  Platonists,  takes  up  his  Books  de  (10)  Johannes  Malala,  Historia  Chronica, 

Consolatione  philosophiae.     See  also  Renat.  pt.  ii.,  p.  187,  ed.  Oxon.     Another  testimony 

VaJJinus,  Notes,  p.  10,  50.     Luc.  Holsteni-  to  the  same  point,  derived  from  I  know  not 

us,  de  Vita  Porphyrii,  p.  7,  ed.  Cantabr.  ;  what  unpublished  Chronicon,  is  adduced  by 

likewise,  Jo.  Jos.  Mascov,  Historia  Germa-  Nicol.  Alemannus,  ad  Procopii  Historians  ar- 

norum.  torn,  ii.,  p.  102,  &c.     [Bruckcr,  His-  canam,  cap.  26,  p.  377,  ed.  Venetae.    [Also 

toria  crit.  Philos.,  torn,  iii.,  p.  524,  &c.,  and  Agathias,  cap.  2,  and  Suidas,  Article  irpea- 

Hamberger's  zuverlassige  Nachrichten,  vol.  (3vf,  torn,  iii.,  p.  171,  seem  to  refer  to  this 

iii.,  p.  317,  &c. — Schl.]  event,  by  saying:    Damascius,  Simplicius, 

(8)  See  the  Codex  Theodos.,  torn,  ii.,  lib.  Eulalius,   Priscianus,    Hermias,    Diogenes, 
vi.,  p.    113,   &c.     Herm.    Conringius,  de  and  Isidorus,  retired  to  Persia,  because  they 
Sludiis  urbis  Romae  et  Constantinop.,  an-  could  not  live  according  to  their  inclina- 
nexed  to  his  Diss.  de  Antiquit.  Academicis.  tions. — Sell.} 

(9)  [See  Brucker's  account  of  Isidore  in  (11)  Agathias,  de  Rebus  Justiniani,  1.  ii. 
his   Historia  crit.  Philos.,  torn,  ii.,  p.   341.  Corpus  Byzant.,  torn,  iii.,  p.  49,  ed.  Venetac. 
Isidore  was  called  Gazaeus,  from  his  native  (12)  Consult  the  excellent  Peter  Wessrl- 
place,  Gaza  in  Palestine  ;  and  this  discrim-  ingius,  Observat.  yaiiar.,  lib.  i.,  c.  18,  p.  117. 


388     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 

and  a  philosopher,  translated  the  writings  of  Aristotle.(13)  In  Persia,  one 
Uranius  a  Syrian,  propagated  his  doctrines  ;  and  even  instilled  them  into 
the  mind  of  Chosroes  the  king,  who  was  studious  of  such  matters. (14) 
Another'who  was  doubtless  of  the  Nestorian  sect,  (for  no  other  in  this  age 
prevailed  in  Persia,  the  Greeks  being  excluded),  presented  the  same  king 
with  a  Persian  translation  of  Aristotle. (15)  Yet  there  were  among  these 
Christians,  some  who  rejecting  both  Plato  and  Aristotle,  chose  to  philoso- 
phize or  speculate  according  as  their  own  genius  led  them.  Such  was  the 
Nestorian  Cosmas,  called  Indicopleustes ;  whose  opinions  were  quite  pecu- 
liar, and  more  consentaneous  with  those  of  the  Orientals,  than  with  those 
of  the  Greeks.(16)  Such  also  was  the  writer,  from  whose  Exposition  of 
the  Octateuch  Photius  has  preserved  some  extracts. (17) 


CHAPTER  II. 

HISTORY   OF   THE   TEACHERS   IN   THE   CHURCH. 

$  1.  Contests  between  the  Bishops  of  Constantinople  and  Rome. — $  2.  Endeavours  of 
the  latter  to  obtain  Supreme  Power. — §  3,  4.  Corrupt  Lives  of  the  Clergy. — §  5.  The 
Monks. — $  6.  Order  of  Benedict. — §  7.  Its  Propagation. — §  8.  Principal  Authors  among 
the  Greeks. — §  9.  Latin  Writers. 

§  1.  IN  the  constitution  of  the  Christian  church  there  was  no  impor- 
tant change.  But  the  two  prelates  who  considered  themselves  and  were 
regarded  by  others  as  standing  at  the  head  of  the  whole  church,  the  bish- 
ops of  Rome  and  Constantinople,  were  incessantly  contending  for  priority, 
and  about  the  extent  of  their  territories  and  jurisdiction.  The  bishop  of 
Constantinople  not  only  claimed  the  primacy  in  the  eastern  churches,  but 
maintained  that  his  see  was  in  no  respect  inferior  to  that  of  Rome.  But 

(13)  Georgius   Abulpharajus,    Historia     whence  he  got  the  name  of  Indicopleustes, 
Dynastiar.,  p.  94,  172,  ed.  of  Pocock.  an   India   Navigator.     After   many  years 

(14)  Agalhias,  de  Rebus  Justiniani,  lib.  spent  in  this  manner,  he  took  up  residence 
ii.,  p.  48.     That  this   Uranius  applied  the  in  a  monastery  in  Egypt,  and  devoted  him- 
precepts  of  Aristotle  to  the  Eutychian  con-  self  to  composing  books.     His  chief  work  is 
troversies,  appears  from  this,  that  Agathias  Topographia    Christiana,  sive    Christiano- 
represents  him  as  disputing  about  the  passi-  rum  opinio  de.  mundo,  in  xii.  Books.     It  is 
bility  and  immiscibility  of  God,  /cat  TO  irad-  his  great  aim  to  prove  the  earth  not  spherical, 
rjrbv  Kal  a^vyxvTOV.     [  Uranius  was  in  so  but  a  vast  oblong  plain  ;  the  length  east  and 
high  esteem  with  king  Chosroes,  that  he  had  west,  being  double  the  breadth.     He  argues 
him  constantly  at  his  table.    He  wished  to  be  from  scripture,  reason,  testimony,  and  the 
accounted  a  skeptic  ;  but  he  may  more  justly  authority  of  the  fathers.     But  while  pressing 
be  ranked  among  the  Nestorians,  than  among  his  main  point,  he  introduces  much  valuable 
the  proper  philosophers. — Schl.]  geographical  information,  which  he  had  col- 

(15)  Agathias,  de  Rebus  Justiniani,  lib.  lected  in  his  voyages.     He  flourished,  and 
ii.,  p.  48,  ed.  Venetae.  probably  wrote,  about  A.D.  535.     The  best 

(16)  Bern,  de  Montfaucon,  Praef.  ad  Cos-  edition  is  that  of  Mcmtfaucon,  Gr.  and  Lat.t 
mam,  p.  x.,  &c.,  in  his  Collectio  Nov.  Pair,  in  Collect.  Nov.  Patr.  Gr.,  torn,  ii.,  Paris, 
Graecorum,  torn.  ii.     [This  Cosmos  was  an  1706.     See  Cave's  Historia  Litteraria,  torn. 
Egyptian  monk.    In  early  life  he  was  a  mer-  i.,  p.  515,  &c. — TV.] 

chant,  and  drove  a  traffic  through  the  whole        (17)  Photius,  Biblioth.  Cod.,  rxxvi..  p. 
length  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  quite  to  India  :     22,  23. 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  TEACHERS. 


389 


the  pontiffs  of  Rome  were  exceedingly  disturbed  at  this,  and  contended 
that  their  see  held  a  rank  and  pre-eminence  above  that  of  Constantinople. 
In  particular,  the  Roman  pontiff  Gregory  the  Great,  did  so  in  the  year 
587 ;  when  John  of  Constantinople,  surnamed  the  Faster  on  account  of 
the  austerity  of  his  life,  had  by  his  own  authority  assembled  a  council  of 
eastern  bishops  at  Constantinople  to  decide  on  charges  brought  against 
Peter  [Gregory]  bishop  of  Antioch,  and  on  this  occasion  had  arrogated  to 
himself  the  title  of  oecumenical  or  universal  bishop.(l)  For  although  the 
bishops  of  Constantinople  had  long  used  this  title,  which  was  capable  of 
a  harmless  interpretation,  yet  Gregory  concluded  from  the  time  and  the 
occasion  on  which  it  was  now  used,  that  John  was  aiming  at  a  supremacy 
over  all  Christian  churches ;  and  he  therefore  wrote  letters  to  the  em- 
peror  and  to  others,  in  which  he  vehemently  inveighed  against  this  title. 
But  he  could  effect  nothing :  and  the  bishops  of  Constantinople  continued 
to  assume  it,  though  not  in  the  sense  which  -Gregory  supposed.  (2) 

§  2.  Persevering  in  his  opposition,  the  bishop  of  Rome  excited  com. 
motion  everywhere,  in  order  to  bring  the  Christian  world  under  his  own 
control.  And  he  was  in  some  degree  successful,  especially  in  the  West ; 
but  in  the  East,  scarcely  any  would  listen  to  him,  unless  actuated  by  hos- 
tility to  the  bishop  of  Constantinople ;  and  this  last  was  always  in  a  con- 
dition to  oppose  his  ambitious  designs  in  that  quarter.  How  greatly  the 
ideas  of  many  had  advanced  respecting  the  powers  of  the  bishop  of  Rome, 
cannot  better  be  shown  than  by  the  Example  of  Ennodius,  the  insane 
flatterer  of  Symmachiis ;  who,  among  other  extravagant  expressions,  said, 
the  pontiff  judges  in  the  place  of  God,  vice  Dei  judicare.(3)  But  on  the  other 
hand,  there  are  numerous  proofs,  that  the  emperors  as  well  as  some  whole 


(1  [Dr.  Mosheim  here  confounds  dates, 
names,  and  transactions.  Gregory  (not  Pe- 
ter) bishop  of  Antioch,  being  accused  of  in- 
cest and  other  crimes,  appealed  from  the  tri- 
bunal of  the  governor  of  the  East  to  the  em- 
peror Mauritius  :  and  the  emperor  (not  the 
patriarch  John)  called  a  council,  or  appoint- 
ed a  court  of  Commissioners  at  Constanti- 
nople in  587,  composed  of  patriarchs,  (or 
their  delegates),  Roman  senators,  and  metro- 
politans, to  hear  and  decide  the  case.  (See 
Evagrius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  1.  vi.,  c.  7.  Eva- 
grius  was  himself  Gregory's  counsellor  at 
the  trial,  and  has  given  us  nearly  all  the  in- 
formation which  has  reached  us  respecting 
this  council.)  On  this  occasion,  it  is  said, 
John  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  was 
honoured  with  the  title  of  universal  bishop, 
— a  title  which  had  for  some  time  been  used 
by  the  bishops  of  that  see.  The  decisions 
of  this  council  being  sent  to  Pelapius  II., 
(not  to  Gregory  the  Great),  bishop  of  Rome, 
Pelagius  confirmed  the  acquittal  of  Gregory 
of  Antioch,  but  remonstrated  strongly  against 
the  title  given  to  John.  His  letters  on  the 
occasion  are  lost,  but  they  are  mentioned  by 
his  successor.  In  the  year  590,  Pelagius 
died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Gregory  the 
Great ;  and  he,  finding  that  John  continued 


to  use  this  title,  took  up  the  business  in  ear- 
nest about  the  year  595,  and  for  some  years 
laboured  by  entreaties  and  threats,  and  con- 
tinued applications  to  the  emperors  and  to  the 
other  eastern  patriarchs,  to  divest  the  Con- 
stantinopolitan  patriarchs  of  a  title  which  he 
maintained  to  be  profane,  Antichrislian,  and 
infernal,  by  whomsoever  assumed.  See 
Gregory  the  Great,  Epistolar.  lib.  iv.,  ep. 
36.  38,  and  lib.  vii.,  ep.  69.  Bower's  Lives 
of  the  Popes,  (Pelagius  II.),  vol.  ii.,  p. 
459,  and  (Gregory)  vol.  ii.,  p.  505,  511, 
517,  ed.  Lond.,  1750.  Natalis  Alexander, 
Hist.  Eccles.,  Saecul.  vi.,  cap.  ii.,  art.  12, 
13.  torn,  x.,  p.  18,  25,  &c.,  ed.  Paris,  1743. 
-TV.] 

(2)  Gregory  the  Great,  Epistolar.  lib.  iv., 
v.,  vii.     All  the  passages  in  these  epistle*, 
relating  to  this  important  subject,  are  col- 
lected and  illustrated  by  Jo.  Launoi,  Assertio 
in  privilegium  S.  Medardi,  Opp.,  torn,  iii., 
pt.  ii.,  p.  266,  <kc.     See  Mich,  le  Quien, 
Oriens  Christianus,  torn,  i.,  p.  67,  dtc.     Chr. 
Matth.  Pfaf,  Diss.  de  titulo  Oecumenicm ; 
in  the  Tempe  Helvetica,  torn,  iv.,  p.  99,  and 
the  authors  there  mentioned. 

(3)  See  his  Apologeticum  pro  Synodo,  in 
the  Bibhoth.  mag.  Pair.,  torn,  xv.,  p.  248, 
ed.  Paris. 


390 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


nations,  would  not  patiently  bear  this  new  yoke. (4)  The  Gothic  kings  in 
Italy,  would  not  allow  the  bishop  of  Rome  to  domineer  excessively  there  ; 
nor  would  they  allow  any  one  to  be  considered  as  pontiff,  whom  they  had 
not  approved  ;  and  they  wished  to  have  his  election  controlled  by  their  de- 
cisions. (5)  These  kings  also  enacted  laws  relative  to  religious  matters,  ar- 
raigned the  clergy  before  their  tribunals,  and  summoned  ecclesiastical 
councils. (6)  And  the  pontiffs  themselves  paid  homage  to  these  sover- 
eigns, and  afterwards  to  the  emperors,  in  a  submissive  manner ;  for  they 
had  not  yet  become  so  lost  to  all  shame,  as  to  look  upon  temporal  sov- 
ereigns as  their  vassals.(7) 

§  3.  The  clergy  were  previously  in  possession  of  high  privileges,  and 
great  wealth  ;  and  the  superstition  of  this  century  added  considerably  to 
both.  For  it  was  supposed,  that  sins  might  be  expiated  by  munificence 
to  churches  and  to  monks  ;  and  that  the  prayers  of  departed  saints,  which 
were  most  efficacious  with  God,  might  be  purchased,  by  presents  offered 
to  them  and  by  temples  dedicated  to  their  names.(8)  This  increase  of 
wealth  and  privileges  was  accompanied  with  an  equal  increase  of  the 
vices  usually  attendant  on  affluence,  in  the  clergy  of  all  ranks  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest  ;(9)  as  is  manifest  even  from  the  laws  enacted  by 
councils  and  by  the  emperors  to  regulate  the  lives  and  morals  of  the 
clergy.(lO)  For  what  need  was  there  of  guarding  the  morals  of  these 
men  with  such  ramparts  of  laws,  if  they  exhibited  some  degree  of  love 

(4)  See,   particularly   respecting    Spain, 
Mich.    Geddes,   On   the    Papal   supremacy, 
chiefly  with  relation  to  the  ancient  Spanish 
church  ;  published  among  his  Miscellaneous 
Tracts,  vol.  ii.,  p.  1.  &c. 

(5)  See  Joh.  Ja.  Mascov,  Historia  Ger- 
manorum,  torn,  ii.,  note,  p.  113. 

(6)  Ja.  Basnage,  Histoire  des  Eglises  Re- 
formees,  torn,  i.,  p.  381,  &c.     [Thus,  e.  g., 
Theodoric  assembled  the  Italian  bishops  at 
Rome,  to  settle  the  contested  election  of 
Symmachus  to  the  papal  chair.     (Walch, 
Historic    der  Kirchenversamml.,    p.    347.) 
The  council  of  Orleans,  in  511,  was  held  by 
order  of  Clovis,  (ibid.,  p.  351.)     Another 
at  Orleans  in  533,  by  order  of  Childebert, 
(ibid.,  p.  367.)     And  in  the  year  549,  (ibid., 
p.    375.)     And   at   Clermont,  by  order  of 
Theudebert,  (ibid.,  p.  368.)— Schl.] 

(7)  See  the  collections  from  Gregory  the 
Great,  by  Jo.  Launoi,  de  Regia  potestate  in 
matrimon.,  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  691,  &c., 
and  Assertio   in   privilegium   S.  Medardi, 
Opp.,  torn,  iii.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  275.     Giannone, 
Histoire  de  Naples,  torn,  ii.,  p.  282,  &c. ; 
[and  lib.  iii.,  cap.  vi.,  §  6. — TV.] 

(8)  [Thus,  e.  g.,   Gregory  (in  cap.  xv. 
Jobi,  1.  xii.,  c.  23)  says :  "  Whenever,  af- 
ter committing  a  crime  we  give  alms,  we  do 
as  it  were  compensate  for  our  wicked  ac- 
tions."    So  also  in  his  Epistles  (lib.  ix.,  ep. 
38) :  "  The  intercessions  in  heaven  of  him, 
whose  body  you  have  covered  on  earth,  will 
protect  you  from  all  sins,"  &c. — Schl.] 

(9)  [Tkeophanes,  (on  the  second  year  of 


Justinian's  reign),  states  that  Esaias  bish- 
op of  Rhodes,  and  Alexander  bishop  of  Di- 
ospolis  in  Thrace,  were  for  the  crime  of  sod- 
omy deprived  of  their  offices  and  castrated 
by  order  of  the  emperor,  and  then  carried 
about  as  a  show,  with  a  herald  proclaiming  : 
"  All  ye  bishops,  beware  of  disgracing  your 
venerable  office."  So  in  the  epistles  of 
Gregory  the  Great,  many  proofs  occur  of 
impure  conduct  among  the  clergy :  e.  g.,  1. 
viii.,  ep.  1 1  ;  1.  iii,,  ep.  26  and  9  ;  1.  i.,  ep. 
18,  42.— Schl.] 

(10)  [Thus,  e.  g.,  in  the  council  of  Agde 
in  Gaul,  (can.  41),  it  was  enacted,  that  a 
clergyman  who  should  get  drunk,  should  be 
excluded  the  church  for  30  days,  or  under- 
go corporeal  punishment :  and  (can.  42)  the 
clergy  were  forbidden  to  exercise  the  art  of 
fortune-telling.  Harduin's  Concilia,  torn, 
ii.,  p.  1002.  Other  laws  forbid  simony,  con- 
cubinage, perjury,  usury,  and  gaudy  dress, 
in  the  clergy.  In  Harduin's  Concilia,  torn, 
iii.,  p.  529,  mention  is  made  of  many  nuns, 
at  the  head  of  whom  were  two  princesses, 
Chrotildis  and  Basine,  who  broke  from  the 
nunnery  at  Poictiers,  and  who  were  a  part 
of  them  found  pregnant,  and  also  committed 
the  most  shameful  acts  of  violence.  And 
in  page  531,  he  mentions  one  Aegidius  bish- 
op of  Rheims,  who  used  forged  documents 
before  the  council  of  Metz  ;  and  for  treason- 
able practices,  was  removed  from  office. 
See  Fieury,  Ecclesiast.  History  ;  the  Ger- 
man translation,  vol.  v.,  p.  413,  417,  lib. 
xxxv.,  $  5-8.— Schl.] 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  TEACHERS. 


391 


for  virtue  and  piety  ?  Yet  the  efficacy  of  these  laws  was  slight ;  for  so 
great  was  the  reverence  for  the  clergy,  that  their  most  atrocious  offences 
were  visited  with  the  gentlest  chastisements ;  and  this  imboldened  them 
to  perpetrate  any  iniquity. 

§  4.  What  sort  of  men  the  bishops  of  Rome  were,  who  wished  to  be 
thought  the  chiefs  and  fathers  of  the  whole  Christian  church,  and  also  the 
body  of  the  clergy  under  them  at  Rome,  best  appears  from  the  long  and 
violent  contest  between  Symmachus  and  Laurentius,  which  broke  out  in 
the  year  498,  and  was  at  length  settled  by  the  Gothic  king  Theodoric. 
Each  maintained,  that  himself  was  the  regularly-constituted  pontiff;  and 
each  accused  the  other  of  the  most  abominable  crimes,  and  not  without 
an  appearance  of  truth.  Three  councils  assembled  at  Rome,  were  not  able 
to  terminate  the  dreadful  quarrel ;  in  the  fourth,  soon  after  the  commence, 
ment  of  the  century,  Theodoric  having  taken  up  the  business,  Symmachus  was 
at  length  pronounced  innocent.  But  the  adverse  party  continued  to  deny 
that  justice  had  been  done  them  by  this  decision  ;  and  this  led  Ennodius  of 
Pavia  to  write  his  Apology  for  the  council  and  for  Symmachus.  (11)  From 
this  treatise,  which  abounds  in  rhetorical  colouring,  we  may  clearly  learn, 
that  the  foundations  of  that  exorbitant  power  which  the  pontiffs  afterwards 
obtained,  were  already  laid ;  but  not  that  Symmachus  had  been  inconsid. 
erately  and  unjustly  accused. 

§  5.  The  progress  of  monkery  was  very  great,  both  in  the  East  and 
in  the  West.  In  the  East,  whole  armies  of  monks  might  have  been  en- 


(11)  This  Apology  is  extant  in  the  Bibli- 
oth.  Magn.  Pair.,  torn,  xv.,  p.  248,  &c.,  [and 
in  most  of  the  Collections  of  Councils. — 
This  contest  may  be  worth  describing  more 
fully. — On  the  death  of  the  pontiff  Alkana- 
sius  in  the  year  498,  not  only  the  clergy,  but 
the  people  and  the  senate  of  Rome,  were 
divided  about  a  successor.  Symmachus  a 
deacon,  and  Laurentius  the  archpresbyter, 
were  both  chosen  on  the  same  day  by  their 
respective  partisans  ;  and  so  eager  were 
both  parties  to  carry  their  point,  that  the 
whole  city  was  in  an  uproar,  and  many  bat- 
tles and  much  bloodshed  took  place  in  the 
streets  and  in  the  public  places.  To  end 
the  dire  contest,  the  leading  men  on  both 
sides  agreed  to  refer  the  contested  point  to 
the  decision  of  Theodoric,  the  Arian  king 
resident  at  Ravenna.  He  decided,  that  the 
one  who  should  be  found  to  have  had  most 
votes,  and  to  have  been  elected  at  the  earli- 
est hour,  should  be  considered  the  legal  pon- 
tiff. This  secured  the  election  of  Symma- 
chus. The  king  likewise  ordered  the  bish- 
ops to  make  regulations  for  the  election  of 
future  popes,  which  should  prevent  the  re- 
currence of  similar  difficulties.  This  was 
done  in  the  year  499.  But  the  party  of  Lau- 
rentius were  not  yet  quiet.  In  the  year  500, 
they  accused  Symmachus  of  several  heinous 
crimes  before  the  king  ;  and  the  tumults  and 
civil  wars  of  Rome  were  renewed,  with  in- 
creased violence.  Some  senators  informed 


the  king  of  the  state  of  Rome,  and  request- 
ed him  to  send  a  Visiter  to  Rome,  with  full 
power  to  settle  all  the  difficulties.  Peter, 
bishop  of  Altino,  was  appointed.  He  re- 
paired to  Rome,  and  at  once  suspended 
Symmachus,  and  took  the  goods  of  the 
church  into  his  own  hands.  This  enraged 
the  partisans  of  Symmachns  to  madness, 
and  prostrated  all  order  and  subordination. 
Being  apprized  of  the  state  of  things,  tho 
king  now  repaired  to  Rome  in  person,  and 
spent  six  months  in  tranquillizing  that  dis- 
tracted city.  He  ordered  all  the  bishops  of 
Italy  to  meet  in  council,  and  decide  on  the 
charges  against  Symmachus.  The  council 
held  several  meetings  in  that  and  the  follow- 
ing years.  Symmachus,  when  sent  for,  set 
out  to  go  to  the  council,  attended  by  a  mob  ; 
a  battle  ensued  in  the  streets  ;  several  were 
killed  ;  Symmachus  himself  was  wounded, 
turned  back,  and  refused  to  appear  before 
the  council.  The  council,  after  some  delay, 
proceeded  in  his  absence ;  decreed  that  the 
witnesses  being  slaves,  were  incompetent  to 
prove  any  thing ;  and  therefore  dismissed 
the  complaint.  The  friends  of  Laurentius 
protested  against  the  decision.  The  coun- 
fil  met  again,  and  adopted  as  their  own  the 
apology  tor  them  drawn  up  by  Ennodius. 
See  Bower's  Lives  of  ihe  Popes,  (Symma- 
chus), vol.  ii.,p.  248-261,  ed.  Lond.,  1750. 
Hardntn,  Concilia,  torn,  ii.,  p.  961,  &c., 
975,  983,  989.— TV.] 


392 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


rolled,  without  a  sensible  diminution  of  the  number  any  where.  In  the 
West,  this  mode  of  life  found  patrons  and  followers  almost  without  num. 
ber,  in  all  the  provinces  :  as  may  appear  from  the  various  rules,  drawn 
up  by  different  individuals,  for  regulating  the  lives  of  monks  and  nuns. (12) 
In  Great  Britain,  one  Congal  is  said  to  have  persuaded  an  immense  num- 
ber to  abandon  active  life  and  spend  their  days  in  solitude,  according  to  a 
rule  which  he  prescribed. (13)  His  disciples  filled  Ireland,  Gaul,  Ger- 
many, Switzerland,  and  other  countries,  with  convents  of  monks.  The 
most  famous  of  them  was  Columbanus,  who  has  left  us  a  rule  of  his  own, 
distinguished  for  its  simplicity  and  brevity. (14)  The  whole  monastic  or- 
der abounded  with  fanatics  and  profligates.  But  in  the  Oriental  monas- 
teries, there  were  more  fanatics  than  knaves ;  while  in  the  occidental  the 
knaves  outnumbered  the  fanatics. 

§  6.  A  new  order  of  monks,  which  in  time  absorbed  all  the  others  in 
the  West,  was  established  at  Mount  Cassino  in  the  year  529,  by  Benedict 
of  Nursia,  a  devout  and  a  distinguished  man  according  to  the  standard  of 
that  age.  His  Rule  is  still  extant ;  and  it  shows  that  it  was  not  his  aim 
to  bring  all  monks  under  his  regulations,  but  rather  to  found  a  new 
society,  more  stable,  of  better  morals,  and  living  under  milder  rules 
than  the  other  monks,  the  members  of  which  should  lead  a  retired  and 
holy  life,  employed  in  prayers,  reading,  manual  labour,  and  the  instruc- 
tion of  youth. (15)  But  his  followers  departed  widely  from  the  princi- 


(12)  Most  of  these  Rules  are  extant,  in 
Lu.   Holsteiri's   Codex  Regularum,  pt.  ii., 
published  at   Rome,   1661,  in  3  vols.  4to. 
Add    Edm.  Martene   and    Ursin.  Durand, 
Thesaurus  novus  Anecdotorum,  torn,  i.,  p.  4. 

(13)  Ja.  Usher,  Antiq.  Eccles.  Britan.,  p. 
132,  441,  911.     [Comgallus  or  Congcllus, 
was  an   Irish  monk,  who   founded  several 
monasteries ;  the  most  important  of  which 
was  that  of  Banchor  or  Bangor,  (on  the  south 
shore  of  Carrickfergus  Bay,  in  the  northeast- 
erly part  of  Ireland),  erected  about  A.D. 
530.     Congal  is  said  to  have  ruled  over  3000 
monks,  living  in  different  monasteries  and 
cells.     See  Usher,  loc.  cit. — Tr.] 

(14)  Ja.  Usher,  Sylloge  antiquar.  Episto- 
lar.  Hibernicarum,  p.  5-15.     Lu.  Holstein, 
Codex  Regular.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  48,  &c.     Ma- 
billon,  Praef.  ad  Acta  Sanctor.  Ord.  Bened., 
Saecul.  ii.,  p.  iv.     [St.  Columbanus,  (a  dif- 
ferent person  from  Columbas  the  apostle  of 
Scotland,  mentioned  p.  381,  supra),  was  born 
in  Leinstcr,  Ireland,  about  the  year  559. 
After  a  good  education  in  the  literature  of 
that  age,  he  became  a  monk,  in  the  monas- 
tery of  Bangor,  under  Congal.     In  the  year 
589,  with  12  companions,  he  passed  through 
England  into  Gaul ;  and  settled  in  Burgun- 
dy, where  he  built  the  monastery  of  Luxucl, 
or   Luxovium;  and  there  spent  about  20» 
years,   with   great  reputation.     But  in  the 
year   610,   having   offended    Theodoric  the 
king,  by  reproving  his  vices,  he  was  banished 
that  territory ;    and   after  wandering  a  few 
years  in  different  parts  of  Gaul  and  Germany 


along  the  Rhine,  and  spending  three  years 
near  Bregentz  in  Helvetia,  he  went  into 
Italy  ;  was  received  kindly  by  Agilulph  the 
Lombard  king,  built  the  monastery  of  Bobio 
near  Pavia,  presided  over  it  one  year,  and 
then  died,  about  A.D.  615.  He  was  a  man 
of  superior  genius,  and  possessed  vast  influ- 
ence. His  works  yet  remaining,  are  his 
monastic  rule ;  his  monastic  discipline ;  some 
poems  and  epistles;  and  17  discourses  ;  all 
which  were  published  at  Louvain  in  1667, 
by  Patrick  Fleming,  an  Irish  monk.  His 
life,  written  by  Jonas,  an  abbot  of  Bobium, 
while  several  contemporaries  of  Columba- 
nus were  yet  living,  is  extant  in  Mabillon, 
Acta  Sanctor.  Ord.  Bened.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  2— 
26.— Tr.] 

(15)  See  Jo.  Mabillon,  Acta  Sanctor. 
Ord.  Bened.,  torn,  i.,  and  Annales  Ord.  Ben- 
edict., torn.  i.  Helyot  [Histoire  des  Ordres 
monastiques  religieux  et  rnilitaires,  &c.,  in 
8  vols.  4to,  Paris,  1714-19],  and  the  other 
historians  of  the  monastic  orders. — [Bene- 
dict was  born  of  reputable  parents,  at  Nur- 
sia in  Italy,  A.D.  480.  At  the  age  of  four- 
teen, he  was  sent  to  Rome  for  education ; 
but,  disgusted  with  the  dissipations  of  the 
city  and  the  school,  he  soon  ran  away,  and 
concealed  himself  three  years  in  a  cave,  at 
Sublacum  about  40  miles  from  Rome.  At 
length  he  was  discovered,  and  his  cell  be- 
came much  frequented.  He  was  now  chosen 
abbot  of  a  monastery  in  the  vicinity ;  but 
the  rigour  of  his  discipline  gave  offence,  and 
he  relinquished  the  office,  and  returned  to 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  TEACHERS. 


393 


pies  of  their  founder ;  for,  after  they  had  acquired  immense  riches  by  the 
liberality  of  princes  and  pious  individuals,  they  gave  themselves  up  to  lux- 


Sublacum,  where  he  continued  till  about  the 
year  529.     Many  monks  here  joined  him, 
and  he  had  12  cells,  each  containing    12 
monks,  under  his  jurisdiction.     Many  of  the 
first  Roman  families  placed  their  sons  under 
his  instruction  ;  and  his  reputation  for  piety 
and  for  miracles  procured  him  almost  un- 
bounded respect.     But  his  fame  excited  the 
envy  of  some  clergymen,  and  led  to  plots 
against  his  life.    After  25  years  spent  at  Sub- 
lacum, he  retired  to  Mount  Cdssino,  about 
50  miles  south  of  Sublacum  and  about  as 
far  from  Naples.     Here  he  converted  a  body 
of  pagan  mountaineers,  and  turned  their  tem- 
ple into  a  monastery,  in  which  he  spent  the 
remainder  of  his  days  in  quietude  and  honour. 
He  died  about  A.D.  543.     His  life  was  writ- 
ten by  Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  and  consti- 
tutes the  second  Book  of  his  Dialogue  :  it  is 
also  inserted   in  Mabillon's  Acta   Sanctor. 
Ord.  Ben.,  torn,  i.,  p.  1-25. — According  to 
the  Rule  of  Benedict,  the  monks  were  to  rise 
at  two  A.M.  in  winter,  (and  in  summer,  at 
such  hours  as  the  abbot  might  direct),  repair 
to  the  place  of  worship,  for  vigils ;  and  then 
spend  the  remainder  of  the  night  in  commit- 
ting psalms,  private  meditation,  and  reading. 
At  sunrise  they  assembled  for  matins  ;  then 
spent  four  hours  in  labour  ;  then  two  hours 
in  reading  ;  then  dined,  and  read  in  private 
till  half  past  two  P.M.,  when  they  met  again 
for  worship ;    and  afterwards   laboured  till 
their  vespers.     In  their  vigils  and  matins,  24 
Psalms  were  to  be  chanted  each  day  ;  so  as 
to  complete  the  Psalter  every  week.    Besides 
their  social  worship,  seven  hours  each  day 
were  devoted  to  labour,  two  at  least  to  pri- 
vate study,  one  to  private  meditation,  and 
the  rest  to  meals,  sleep,   and   refreshment. 
The  labour  was  agriculture,  gardening,  and 
various  mechanical   trades  ;    and   each  one 
was  put  to  such  labour  as  his  superior  saw 
fit ;  for  they  all  renounced  wholly  every  spe- 
cies of  personal  liberty.     They  ate  twice  a 
day,  at  a  common  table  ;  first,  about  noon, 
and  then  at  evening.     Both  the  quantity  and 
the  quality  of  their  food  were  limited.     To 
each  was  allowed   one  pound  of  bread  per 
day,  and  a  small  quantity  of  wine.     On  the 
public  table  no  meat  was  allowed,  but  al- 
ways two  kinds  of  porridge.     To  the  sick, 
flesh  was  allowed.     While  at  table,  all  con- 
versation was  prohibited  ;  and  some  one  read 
aloud  the  whole  time.     They  all  served  as 
cooks  and  waiters  by  turns,  of  a  week  each. 
Their  clothing  was  coarse  and  simple,  and 
regulated    at   the  discretion   of  the   abbot. 
Each  was  provided  with  two  suits,  a  knife, 
a  needle,  and  all  other  necessaries.     They 

VOL.  I.— DDD 


slept  in  common  dormitories  of  10  or  20,  in 
separate  beds,  without  undressing,  and  had 
a  light  burning,  and  an  inspector  sleeping  in 
each  dormitory.    They  were  allowed  no  con- 
versation after  they  retired,  nor  at  any  time 
were  they  permitted  to  jest,  or  to  talk  for 
mere  amusement.     No  one  could  receive  a 
present  of  any  kind,  not  even  from  a  parent ; 
nor  have  any  correspondence  with  persons 
without  the  monastery,  except  by  its  passing 
under  the  inspection  of  the  abbot.     A  porter 
always  sat  at  the  gate,  which  was  kept  locked 
day  and  night ;  and  no  stranger  was  admitted 
without  leave  from  the  abbot ;  and  no  monk 
could  go  out,  unless  he  had  permission  from 
the  same  source.     The  school  for  the  chil- 
dren of  the  neighbourhood  was  kept  without 
the  walls.     The  whole   establishment  was 
under  an  abbot,  whose  power  was  despotic. 
His  under  officers  were,  a  prior  or  deputy, 
a  steward,  a  superintendent  of  the  sick  and 
the  hospital,  an  attendant  on  visiters,  a  por- 
ter, dec.,  with  the  necessary  assistants,  and 
a  number  of  deans  or  inspectors  over  tens, 
who  attended  the  monks  at  all  times.     The 
abbot  was  elected  by  the  common  suffrage 
of  the  brotherhood  ;  and  when  inaugurated, 
he  appointed  and  removed  his  under  officers 
at  pleasure.    On  great  emergencies,  he  sum- 
moned the  whole  brotherhood  to  meet  in 
council ;  and  on  more  common  occasions, 
only  the  seniors ;  but  in  either  case,  after 
hearing  what  each  one  was  pleased  to  say, 
the  decision  rested  wholly  with  himself.    For 
admission  to  the  society,  a  probation  of  12 
months  was  required  ;  during  which  the  ap- 
plicant was  fed  and  clothed,  and  employed 
in  the  meaner  offices  of  the  monks,  and 
closely  watched.     At  the  end  of  his  proba- 
tion, if  approved,  he  took  solemn  and  irrev- 
ocable  vows  of  perfect  chastity,  absolute 
poverty,  and  implicit  obedience  to  bis  supe- 
riors in  every  thing.     If  he  had  property,  he 
must  give  it  all  away,  either  to  his  friends  or 
the  poor,  or  to  the  monastery ;   and  never 
after  must  possess  the  least  particle  of  private 
property,  nor  claim  any  personal  rights  or 
liberties.     For  lighter  offences,  a  reprimand 
was  to  be  administered  by  some  under  offi- 
cer.    For  greater  offences,  after  two  admo- 
nitions, a  person  was  debarred  his  privileges, 
not  allowed  to  read  in  his  turn,  or  to  sit  at 
table,  or  enjoy  his  modicum  of  comforts.     If 
.still  refractory,  he  was  expelled  the  monas- 
tery ;  yet  might  be  restored  on  repentance. 
See  the  Rule,  at  large,  in  Hospinian,  Opp., 
torn,  iv.,  (de  Monachis,  libri  vii.),  p.   202- 
222.  ed.  Genev.,  1669.  fol.,  and  as  abridged 
by  Flcury,  Histoire  Eccles.,  lib.  xxxii.,  $ 


394 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  IT.— CHAP.  II. 


ury,  idleness,  and  every  vice,  became  involved  in  civil  affairs  and  the  ca- 
bals of  courts,  were  intent  on  multiplying  vain  and  superstitious  rites,  and 
most  eager  to  advance  the  authority  and  power  of  the  Roman  pontiffs. 
None  of  these  things  were  enjoined  or  permitted  by  St.  Benedict ;  whose 
Rule,  though  still  highly  extolled,  has  for  many  ages  ceased  to  be  ob- 
served.(16)  Yet  the  institution  of  Benedict  changed  the  state  of  monkery 
in  the  West,  in  various  respects ;  not  the  least  important  of  which  was, 
that  the  application  and  profession  made  by  the  monks,  bound  them  for 
ever  to  observe  his  rules ;  whereas  previously,  the  monks  changed  the 
rule  and  regulations  of  their  founders  at  pleasure. (17) 

§  7.  Only  a  short  time  elapsed,  before  this  new  order  of  monks  was  in 
a  most  flourishing  state  in  all  the  western  countries.  In  Gaul,  it  was  prop- 
agated by  St.  Maurus ,  in  Sicily  and  Sardinia,  by  Placidus  and  others ; 
in  England,  by  Augustine  and  Mellitus ;  in  Italy  and  in  other  parts,  by 
Gregory  the  Great,  who  is  reported  to  have  lived  some  time  in  this  order.(18) 


14—19.  Yet  it  is  questionable  whether  the 
Rule  as  there  laid  down  was  precisely  what 
Benedict  prescribed. — TV  ] 

(16)  [The  modern  Benedictines  are  them- 
selves obliged  to   admit,  that   the  Rule  of 
their  founder  is  no  longer  fully  obeyed.    But 
they  resort  to  a  convenient  distinction.    The 
Rule,  say  they,  has  its  essential  and  its  acci- 
dental parts.    That  the  monks  should  labour, 
earn  their  own  bread,  and  live  frugally,  be- 
longs to  the  accidental  part.     The  essential 
parts  are  the  vofw.i ;  which  we  observe  reli- 
giously, a  few  faults  excepted.     We  admit 
freely,  that  the  order  is  richer  than  in  the 
days  of  its  founder.     Father  Benedict  would 
be  amazed,  should  he  rise  out  of  his  grave, 
and  instead  of  the  miserable  huts  which  he 
erected  on  Mount  Cassino,  find  there  a  pal- 
ace, in  which  kings  and  princes  might  re- 
side ;  and  see  the  abbot  transformed  into  a 
prince  of  the  empire,  with  a  multitude  of 
subjects,  and  an  income  of  five  or  six  hun- 
dred thousand  ducats. — Sckl.~] 

(17)  See  Mabillon,  Praef.  ad  Saecul.  iv., 
p.  i.,  [Actor.  Sanctor.  Ord.  Benedict.,  torn, 
v.],  p.  xviii.,  &c.     [Benedict  changed  the 
state  of  monkery  by  restraining  the  instabil- 
ity of  the  monks,  and  rendering  their  vows 
irrevocable.     It  was  not   strange    that  the 
order  spread  far  and  wide.     His  Rule  was 
better  calculated  than  any  other  for  Euro- 
peans, and  the  first  Benedictines  were  virtu- 
ous, upright,  and  useful  people.     Wherever 
they  came,  they   converted    the  wilderness 
into  a  cultivated  country  ;  they  pursued  the 
breeding  of  cattle  and  agriculture,  laboured 
with  their  own  hands,  drained  morasses,  and 
cleared  away  forests.    These  monks — taking 
the  word  Benedictines  in  its  largest  extent, 
as  embracing  the  ramifications  of  the  order, 
the  Carthusians,  Cistersians,  Praemonstra- 
tensians,    Camaldulensians,    &c. — were    of 
great  advantage  to  all  Europe,  and  particu- 


larly to  Germany.  By  them  Germany  was 
cultivated  and  rendered  a  fruitful  country. 
They  preserved  for  us  all  the  books  of  anti- 
quity, all  the  sciences  and  learning  of  the 
ancients.  For  they  were  obliged  to  have 
libraries  in  their  monasteries,  because  their 
rule  required  them  to  read  during  a  portion 
of  each  day.  Some  individuals  were  occu- 
pied in  transcribing  the  books  of  the  an- 
cients ;  and  hence  came  the  manuscripts, 
which  still  exist  here  and  there  in  the  libra- 
ries of  monasteries.  The  sciences  were 
cultivated  nowhere  but  in  their  cloisters. 
They  kept  up  schools  there  for  the  monks, 
and  for  such  as  were  destined  to  be  monks. 
And  without  their  cloisters  they  also  had 
schools,  in  which  the  people  of  the  world 
were  instructed.  From  these  monasteries 
proceeded  men  of  learning,  who  were  em- 
ployed in  courts  as  chancellors,  vice-chancel- 
lors, secretaries,  &c.,  and  these  again  pat- 
ronised the  monasteries.  Even  the  children 
of  sovereign  princes  were  brought  up  among 
the  Benedictines,  and  after  they  came  to 
their  thrones  retained  attachment  and  rev- 
erence for  the  order,  to  whom  they  were 
indebted  for  their  education.  The  Bene- 
dictines were  esteemed  saints,  and  their 
prayers  were  supposed  to  be  particularly 
efficacious.  All  this  rendered  the  order 
powerful  and  rich.  But  as  soon  as  they  be- 
came rich,  they  became  voluptuous  and  in- 
dolent, and  their  cloisters  were  haunts  of 
vice  and  wickedness.  In  the  seventeenth 
century,  this  order  began  to  revert  back  to 
its  original  design,  especially  in  France  ;  and 
it  performed  essential  sen-ice  to  the  republic 
of  learning,  in  particular  by  publishing  beau- 
tiful editions  of  the  Fathers. — ScA/.j 

( 18)  See  Jo.  Mabillon,  Diss.  de  vita  monas- 
tica  Gregorii  Magni ;  annexed  to  Hadr.  Va~ 
lesius,  Analect.  veter.,  torn,  ii.,  and  Mabil- 
lon's  Praef.  ad  Saecul.  i.,  [Actor.  Sanctor. 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  TEACHERS. 


395 


In  Germany,  Boniface  afterwards  caused  it  to  be  received. (19)  This  rap. 
id  progress  of  their  order,  the  Benedictines  ascribe  to  the  miracles  of  St. 
Benedict  and  his  disciples,  and  to  the  holiness  and  superiority  of  the  rules 
which  he  prescribed.  But  those  who  more  critically  examine  the  causes 
of  events,  have  very  nearly  all  united  in  the  opinion,  that  the  favour  shown 
them  by  the  Roman  pontiffs,  to  whose  glory  and  exaltation  this  whole  order 
was  especially  devoted,  contributed  more  than  all  other  causes  to  its  wide 
extension  and  grandeur.  Yet  it  was  not  till  the  ninth  century  that  all 
other  rules  and  societies  became  extinct,  and  the  Benedictines  alone 
reigned.(20) 

§  8.  Among  the  Greek  and  Oriental  Christians,  the  most  distinguished 
writers  of  this  century  were  the  following  :  Procopius  of  Gaza,  who  ex- 
pounded some  books  of  the  Bible  not  unhappily. (21)  John  Maxentius,  a 
monk  of  Antioch,  who,  besides  some  books  against  the  sects  of  his  times, 
wrote  Scholia  on  Dionysius  Areopagita.(22)  Agapetus  procured  himself  a 
place  among  the  wise  men  of  the  age,  by  his  Scheda  Regia,  addressed  to 
the  emperor  Juslinian.(23)  Eulogius,  a  presbyter  of  Antioch,  was  ardent 


Ord.]  Benedict.,  p.  xxix.,  &c.  Yet  some  de- 
ny this,  as  Anton.  Gallonius,  [deMonachatu 
Gregorii,  &c.],  on  whose  book,  see  Rich. 
Simon,  Lettres  choisies,  torn,  iii.,  p.  68. 
[Yet  the  monkery  of  Gregory  the  Great, 
after  the  investigations  of  Mabillon,  seems 
no  longer  liable  to  doubt.  He  established 
six  monasteries  in  Sicily,  and  assigned  them 
out  of  his  great  riches  as  much  landed  estate 
as  was  necessary  for  their  support.  A  sev- 
enth monastery  he  founded  at  Rome,  in  his 
own  house,  dedicated  to  S/.  Andrew ;  which 
still  exists,  and  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Ca- 
maldulensians.  See  Flevry,  Histoire  Ec- 
cles.,  liv.  xxxiv..  $  34. — Schl.] 

(19)  Anton.  Dandini  Al  tessera,  Origines 
rei  monasticae,  lib.  i.,  cap.  9,  p.  33.  On 
the  propagation  of  the  Benedictine  Rule  in 
the  various  countries  of  Europe,  Jo.  MuM- 
lon  has  a  particular  treatise,  Praef.  ad  Sae- 
cul.  i..  [Actor.  Sanctor.  Ord.]  Benedict.,  and 
Praef.  ad  Saecul.  iv.,  p.  i.,  [Actor.  Sanctor. 
Ord.  Benedict ,  torn,  v.],  p  Ixii.,  &c.  [St. 
Mnitrus,  whose  name  a  distinguished  con- 
gregation still  bears,  was  one  of  the  most 
famous  disciples  of  Benedict ;  though  some 
nave  questioned  his  existence,  Placidus 
was  a  historian  of  this  order.  Of  Augustine, 
notice  has  already  been  taken.  Mellitus 
preached  to  the  east  Saxons,  and  was  after- 
wards archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  very 
active  in  propagating  the  order. — The  great 
and  rapid  dissemination  of  this  order  was 
wonderful.  Many  particular  and  new  orders, 
distinguished  from  each  other  by  their  dress, 
their  caps,  and  forms  of  government,  origi- 
nated from  it.  The  Carthusians,  Cistersians, 
Ccelestines,  Grandimontensians,  Praemon- 
stratensians,  Cluniacensians,  Camaldulen- 
sians,  &c.,  were  only  branches  growing  out 


ble  and  renowned  men  were  trained  up  in 
it.  Volaterranus  enumerates  200  cardinals, 
1600  archbishops,  4000  bishops,  and  15.700 
abbots  and  men  of  learning,  who  belonged 
to  this  order. —  V.  Eincm.} 

(20)  Ja.  I' Enfant,  Histoire  du  Concilede 
Constance,  tome  ii.,  p.  32.  33. 

(21)  See  Rich.  Simon,  Critique  de  la  Bib- 
liotheque  Ecclesiast.  de  M.  du  Pin,  tome 
i.,  p.   197.     [Procopius,  a  teacher   of  elo- 
quence at  Gaza  in  the  reign  of  Jvstinian, 
A.D.  520,  &c.,  has  left  us  several   Com- 
mentaries on  the  scriptures,  which  are  chief- 
ly compilations    from  earlier  writers  :  viz., 
on  the  Octateuch,  (extant  only  in  Latin) ; 
on  the  books  of  Samuel,  Kings,  and  Chroni- 
cles, Gr.  and  Lat.,  Lugd.  Bat.,  1620,  4to  ; 
on  Isaiah,  Gr   and  Lat.,   Paris,   1580 ;    on 
Proverbs,  and  the  twelve  Minor  Prophets; 
never  published.     Also  many  neat  Epistles, 
published  by  Aldus.— Tr.] 

(22)  [John  Maxentius    was  a   Scythian 
monk,  a  presbyter  of  Antioch,  and  flourished 
about  the  year  520.     Several  of  his  epistles 
and  tracts,  defending  the  doctrine  that  one 
of  the  Trinity  was  crucified,  and  opposing 
the  Pelagian  errors,  are  extant  in  Latin,  in 
the  Bibliotheca  Patrum,  torn.  ix.     His  scho- 
lia on  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  are  publish- 
ed, Gr.  and  Lat.,  with  that  author. —  TV.] 

(23)  [Agapetus,  a  deacon   in   the  great 
church   at  Constantinople,  flourished  A.D. 
527,  in  which  year  he  composed  his  Instruc- 
tions for  a  prince,  addressed  to  the  emperor 
Justinian,  then  recently  invested  with  the 
purple.     The  book  contains  72  heads  of  ad- 
vice, displaying  good  common  sense,  but  not 
profound.     It  has  been  often  published  :  as, 
Venice,  1509,  8vo,  and  with  a  commenta- 
ry, Franeker,  1608, 8vo,  Francf.,  1659,  4to, 


of  this  principal  stock.     The  most  respecta-    Lips.,  1669,  8vo. — Tr.] 


396 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  IT.— CHAP.  II. 


and  energetic  in  opposing  the  heresies  of  the  times.(24)  John,  bishop  of 
Constantinople,  called  the  Faster  on  account  of  the  austerity  of  his  life, 
distinguished  himself  by  some  small  treatises,  and  particularly  by  his  Pan. 
itential.(25)  Leontius  of  Byzantium  has  left  us  a  book  against  the  heretics, 
and  some  other  writings. (26)  Evagrius  Scholasticus  has  furnished  us 
with  an  Ecclesiastical  History ;  but  it  is  disfigured  with  fabulous  tales. (27) 
Anastasius  Sinaita  is  generally  supposed  to  be  the  author  of  a  well-known 
yet  futile  book,  entitled  Hodegus  contra  Acephalos  (a  Guide  against  the 
Acephali).(28) 


(24)  [Eulogius   of  Antioch,  was   made 
bishop  of  Alexandria  in  the  year  581.     A 
homily  of  his   is  extant,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  in 
Combe/is,  Actuar.  Nov.,  torn,  i.,  and  large 
extracts  from  his  vi.  Books  against  Nmatus, 
his  ii.  Books  against  Timotheus  and  Sevcrus, 
his  Book  against  Theodosius  and  Severus, 
and  another  against  the  compromise  between 
the  Theodosians  and  the  Gainaites,  are  in 
Photius,   Biblioth.  Codex,  Nos.   182,  208, 
225-227.— Tr.] 

(25)  [John  the  Faster  was  a  native  of  Cap- 
padocia,  and  bishop  of  Constantinople  from 
585  to  596.     The  title  of  universal  bishop 
given  him  in  the  council  of  589,  involved 
him  in  trouble  with  Pelagius  II.  and  Grego- 
ry I.,  bishops  of  Rome.     Two  of  his  Homi- 
lies are  extant,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  among  those 
of   Ckrysostom ;    and    his  Pcenitential,  (or 
rules  for  treating  penitents),  and  a  discourse 
on  confessions  and  penitence,  are  published, 
Gr.   and   Lat.,  by  Morin,   de    Poenitentia, 
Appendix,  p.  77,  92.— Tr.] 

(26)  [Leontius  of  Byzantium,  was  first  an 
advocate,  and  then  a  monk  in  a  monastery  in 
Palestine,  and  flourished  A.D.  590  and  on- 
ward.     Cyril  (in  his  life  of  St.  Sabas,  cap. 
72)  says  he  was  accused  of  Origenism.     Vos- 
sius  (de  Hist.  Gr.,  1.  iv.,  c.  8)  thinks  he  was 
the  same  as  Leontius,  bishop  of  Cyprus.  He 
wrote  de  Sectis  Liber,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  in  Auc- 
tuar.  Biblioth.  Patr.,  Paris,  1624,  torn,  i.,  p. 
493  ;  likewise  adv.  Eutychianos  et  Nestoria- 
nos,  1.  iii.,  adv.  Fraudes  Apollinaristar.,  lib. 
ii.     Solutioties  Argumentorum  Severi :  Du- 
bitationes   et    Definitiones   contra  eos,  qui 
negant  in  Christo  duas  naturas  ;  extant  in 
Latin,  Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn.  ix.  ;  also  an  Ora- 
tion on  the  man  blind  from  his  birth,  Gr.  and 
Lat.,  in  Combefis,  Auctuar.  Nov.,  torn,  i.,  and 
some  other  tracts,  never  published. — Tr.] 

(27)  [Evagrius   Scholasticus   was    born 
at  Epiphania  in  Syria,  A.D.  536.     At  four 
years  of  age  he  was  sent  to  school  ;  after 
grammar,  he  studied  rhetoric,  and  became 
an  advocate  at  the  bar  in  Antioch.    He  was 
much  esteemed,  and  especially  by  Gregory 
bishop  of  Antioch,  whom  he  often  assisted 
in  difficult  cases.     The  emperor  Tiberius 
made  him  a  quaestor ;  and  Maurice,  an  hon- 
orary prefect.      His  only   work  that  has 


reached  us,  is  his  Ecclesiastical  History,  in 
vi.  Books.  It  is  a  continuation  of  the  histo- 
ries of  Socrates  and  Sozomen,  from  the 
council  of  Ephesus  in  431,  to  the  year  594. 
Its  chief  faults  are  those  of  the  age,  credulity, 
and  an  over  estimation  of  monkish  legends 
and  other  trash.  It  was  published,  Gr.  and 
Lat.,  by  Valesius,  among  the  other  Gr.  Ec- 
cles.  Historians  ;  and  has  been  translated 
into  English,  Cambridge,  1683,  fol.—  Tr.] 

(28)  See  Rich.  Simon,  Critique  de  la  Bib- 
liotheque  Eccles.  de  M.  du  Pin,  tome  i.,  p. 
232,  and  Barat,  Bibliotheque  choisie,  tome 
ii.,  p.  21,  &c.  [There  were  three  persons 
called  Anastasius  Sinaita.  The  first,  after 
being  a  monk  in  the  monastery  on  Mount 
Sinai,  was  made  patriarch  of  Antioch  A.D. 
561,  but  was  banished  in  the  year  570,  for 
opposing  the  edict  of  Justinian  respecting 
the  incorruptibility  of  Christ's  body.  He 
was  restored  in  592,  and  died  in  599.  He 
was  a  learned  and  orthodox  man,  and  a  con- 
siderable writer.  The  second  of  this  name, 
was  the  immediate  successor  of  the  first  in 
the  see  of  Antioch,  from  A.D.  599  to  A.D. 
609,  when  he  was  murdered  by  the  Jews. 
He  translated  the  work  of  Gregory  the  Great 
on  the  Pastoral  office,  from  Latin  into  Greek : 
but  the  translation  is  lost. — The  third  Anas- 
tasius flourished  about  A.D.  685.  He  was 
a  mere  monk  of  Mount  Sinai.  He  wrote  a 
compendious  account  of  heresies,  and  of  the 
councils  that  condemned  them,  from  the  ear- 
liest times  to  the  year  680  ;  which  still  ex- 
ists in  MS. — The'Qdriybf,  or  Guide  to  shun 
the  Acephali,  is  a  rhapsody  without  method 
and  without  merit.  It  has  been  ascribed  to 
the  third  Anastasius  ;  because  it  contains 
several  allusions  to  events  posterior  to  the 
times  of  the  two  first  of  this  name.  Yet  as 
it  relates  to  controversies  in  which  the  first 
Anastasius  is  known  to  have  been  much  en- 
gaged, some  have  supposed  it  was  originally 
composed  by  him  or  from  his  writings,  with 
subsequent  additions  or  interpolations.  It 
was  printed,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  by  Gretser,  In- 
golst.,  1604,  4to. — The  154  Questions  and 
Answers  respecting  biblical  subjects,  ascri- 
bed to  the  first  Anastasius,  and  published,  Gr. 
and  Lat.,  by  Gretser,  1617,  4to,  also  bear 
marks  of  a  later  age.  Cave  supposes  they 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  TEACHERS. 


397 


were  compiled  from  the  works  of  the  first 
Anastasius.  His  xi.  Books  of  Contempla- 
tions on  the  Hcxaemeron  were  published  in 
Latin,  Paris,  1609.  Dr.  Atix  published  the 
12th  Book,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  Lond.,  1682,  4to. 
His  five  doctrinal  Discourses,  (on  the  Trini- 
ty, incarnation,  &c.),  together  with  all  the 
works  just  enumerated,  are  extant  in  Latin, 
Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn.  ix.  Six  of  bis  Homilies 
are  extant,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  in  Combefis,  Auc- 
tuar.  Nov.,  1648,  torn.  i.  Another  tract  of 
his.  on  the  three  Quadragesimae,  is  extant, 
Gr.  and  Lat.,  in  Cotelier,  Monum.  Eccl.  Gr., 
torn.  iii.  Various  other  tracts  of  his  exist 
only  in  MS.,  and  a  considerable  number  of 
others  are  lost. 

The  following  is  a  catalogue  of  the  Greek 
and  Oriental  writers  of  this  century,  omitted 
by  Dr.  Mosheim. 

Olympiodorus,  a  deacon  at  Alexandria, 
who  probably  flourished  at  the  commence- 
ment of  this  century.  He  wrote  several 
commentaries  on  the  scriptures.  His  short 
Comment  on  Ecclesiastes  is  extant,  Gr.  and 
Lat.,  in  Pronto  Ducaeus,  Auctuar.,  torn.  ii. 
His  Comment  on  Lamentations,  Lat.,  Rome, 
1598,  4to,  and  his  Commentary  on  Job,  is 
preserved  almost  entire  in  the  Catena  on 
Job,  published,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  by  Pair.  Ju- 
mus,  Lond.,  1637,  fol. 

Julian,  bishop  of  Halicarnassus  in  Caria, 
a  Eutychian  who  flourished  under  Anasta- 
sius A.D.  510,  and  was  active  in  the  con- 
tests of  his  times.  On  the  accession  of  Jus- 
tin, A.D.  518,  he  fled  to  Alexandria  ;  where 
he  advanced  the  idea  that  Christ's  body  was 
always  incapable  of  corruption,  and  produ- 
ced a  division  and  a  party  among  the  Mo- 
nophysites.  He  wrote  a  Commentary  on 
Juti,  which  is  often  quoted  in  the  Catena  on 
Job,  published.  Lond.,  1637,  fol. 

Timotheus,  bishop  of  Constantinople  A.D. 
511-517,  distinguished  for  his  hatred  of  his 
predecessor  Macedonius.  He  wrote  a  book 
on  the  various  heresies,  which  is  extant,  Gr. 
and  Lat.,  in  Combejis,  Auctuar.  Nov.,  torn, 
ii.,  and  more  perfect  in  Cotelier,  Monum. 
Eccles.  Gr.,  torn,  iii.,  p.  377. 

Severug,  a  leading  man  among  the  Aceph- 
ali  or  Monophysites,  was  in  his  youth  a 
pagan,  and  studied  in  the  law  school  at  Be- 
rytus  ;  afterwards  he  became  a  monk  at 
Gaza,  and  embracing  and  propagating  Eu- 
tychian principles,  was  expelled  the  monas- 
tery. He  repaired  to  Constantinople,  and 
insinuated  himself  into  the  graces  of  the 
emperor  Anastasius,  who  favoured  the  Eu- 
tychians.  In  the  year  513,  on  the  expulsion 
of  the  orthodox  Flavian,  he  was  made  pa- 
triarch of  Antioch,  subscribed  the  Henoti- 
con  of  Zeno,  and  condemned  the  council  of 
Chalcedon.  Some  bishops  withdrew  from 


his  communion ;  but  aided  by  Jews  hn  vio- 
lently persecuted  the  orthodox,  and  especially 
the  monks  of  Palestine,  of  whom  he  slew 
350,  and  left  their  bodies  to  be  consumed 
by  beasts  of  prey.  On  the  death  of  Anasta- 
sius and  the  accession  of  Justin  to  the  em- 
pire in  518,  he  was  proscribed,  and  fled  to 
Egypt,  where  he  lived  many  years.  Here 
he  became  involved  with  Timothy  patriarch 
of  Alexandria,  and  Gainus  his  deacon,  by 
asserting  that  the  body  of  Christ,  previously 
to  its  resurrection,  was  corruptible.  He 
next  went  to  Constantinople,  and  persuaded 
Anthimus  the  patriarch  to  embrace  Euty- 
chian principles  ;  and  was  producing  great 
commotions,  when  two  councils  condemned 
both  him  and  Anthimus  A.D.  536.  His  sub- 
sequent history  is  little  known.  He  was  a 
man  of  talents,  ambitious,  restless,  little 
careful  to  maintain  consistency  in  conduct 
or  belief,  a  great  writer,  and  possessed  of 
vast  influence  among  the  Eutychians.  He 
wrote  an  immense  number  of  epistles,  many 
homilies  and  tracts,  and  extensive  Commen- 
taries on  scripture  ;  none  of  which  are  pub- 
lished entire,  his  works  having  been  pro- 
scribed and  ordered  to  be  all  burned  by 
authority  of  the  emperor.  Yet  numerous 
extracts  are  preserved,  and  some  whole  trea- 
tises are  supposed  to  exist  still  in  the  East. 
The  Ritual  for  baptism  and  public  worship 
in  the  Syrian  church,  which  is  extant,  Syr. 
and  Lat ,  Antw.,  1572,  4to,  has  been  attribu- 
ted to  him.  His  Commentaries  are  often 
quoted  in  the  Catena  Patrum.  See  Cave, 
Histor.  Litter.,  torn,  i.,  p.  499,  &c. 

John  of  Cappadocia,  patriarch  of  Con- 
stantinople A.D.  517-520.  He  condemned 
Severus  of  Antioch  in  518;  and  the  next 
year,  by  order  of  the  emperor  Justin,  be- 
came reconciled  with  the  Roman  pontiffs. 
Five  of  his  Epistles  are  extant  in  the  Con- 
cilia, torn.  iv.  and  v. 

Theodoras  Lector,  flourished  at  Constan- 
tinople A.D.  518.  He  compiled  an  eccles. 
history  from  Socrates,  Sozomen,  and  Theod- 
orct,  in  ii.  Books :  to  which  he  annexed  a 
Continuation,  in  ii.  additional  Books.  Large 
extracts  from  the  Continuation,  by  Nicepho- 
rus  Calistus,  are  preserved,  and  published, 
Gr.  and  Lat.,  among  the  Gr.  Eccl.  Histo- 
rians, by  Valcsnis. 

Timotheus  III ,  patriarch  of  Alexandria 
A.D.  519-535,  a  warm  Eutychian,  and  a  pro- 
tector of  Severus  and  Julian,  till  he  fell  out 
with  them  respecting  the  corruptibility  of 
Christ's  body.  He  wrote  numerous  ser- 
mons and  theological  tracts,  large  extracts 
from  which  are  preserved  by  Cosmos  Indi- 
copleustes. 

Epiphanius,  patriarch  of  Constantinople 
A.D.  520-535.  He  confirmed  the  recon- 


398 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


ciliation  between  the  sees  of  Rome  and  Con- 
stantinople, made  by  John  his  predecessor ; 
and  approved  the  council  of  Chalcedon.  Five 
of  his  Epistles  to  Hormisdas.  bishop  of  Rome, 
are  extant  in  the  Concilior.  Collect.,  torn.  iv. 

Ephraim,  patriarch  of  Antioch  A.D.  525- 
546.  He  was  a  native  of  Syria,  a  civil  ma- 
gistrate and  count  of  the  East,  when  made 
bishop.  He  wrote  pro  Ecclesiasticis  dog- 
rnatibus  et  Synodo  Chalcedonensj,  libri  iii. : 
which  are  lost,  except  copious  extracts  from 
the  two  first  Books,  in  Photius,  Biblioth. 
Cod.  228,  229. 

Simeon,  Stylites  junior.  In  his  childhood 
he  mounted  his  pillar,  near  Antioch,  which 
he  occupied  68  years,  A.D.  527-595.  He 
is  often  mentioned  by  Evagrius,  who  knew 
him  well.  His  fifth  Epistle  to  the  emperor 
Justinian  is  extant,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  in  the 
transactions  of  the  second  Nicene  council, 
Actio  v.  Concilior.  torn.  vii.  Some  other 
tracts  of  his  exist  in  MS.  in  the  Vatican 
library. 

Zacharias  Scholasticus,  archbp.  of  Myti- 
lene.  He  was  first  a  lawyer  at  Berytus,  then 
a  bishop,  and  flourished  A.D.  536.  While 
at  Berytus,  he  wrote  a  Dissertation  or  dia- 
logue against  the  philosophers  who  maintain 
that  the  world  is  eternal ;  extant,  Gr.  and 
Lat.,  Lips.,  1654,  4to,  and  in  FT.  Ducaeus1 
Auctuar.,  torn.  i.  He  also  wrote  a  dispu- 
tation against  the  two  first  principles  of  all 
things,  held  by  the  Manichaeans  ;  extant, 
Lat.,  in  Henr.  Cards.  Antiques  Lection.,  torn. 
v.,  and  both  works  in  Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn.  ix. 

Nonnosus,  Justinian's  ambassador  to  the 
Saracens,  the  Auxumitae,  and  the  Homer- 
ites,  about  A.D.  540.  He  wrote  a  history 
of  his  travels  ;  from  which  Photius  has  pre- 
served extracts,  Biblioth.  Cod.  3. 

Isaac,  bishop  of  Nineva,who  turned  monk, 
and  travelled  as  far  as  Italy.  He  flourished 
about  the  year  540,  and  wrote  87  ascetic 
discourses,  which  still  exist  in  MS.  A  bad 
Latin  translation  of  53  of  them,  much  gar- 
bled, was  published  in  the  Biblioth.  magn. 
Patr.,  torn.  xi. 

Arethas,  archbishop  of  Csesarea  in  Cappa- 
docia,  is  supposed  to  have  lived  about  A.D. 
540.  He  compiled  from  Andreas  Caesari- 
ensis  an  Exposition  of  the  Apocalypse ;  ex- 
tant, Gr.  and  Lat ,  annexed  to  Occumcnius, 
Paris,  1631. 

Gregentius,  archbp.  of  Taphar,  the  me- 
tropolis of  the  Homerites  in  Arabia  Felix, 
flourished  A.D  540,  and  died  552.  An  ac- 
count of  his  dispute  with  Htrbanus,  a  learn- 
ed Jew.  is  extant,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  Paris,  1586, 
8vo,  and  in  Fr.  Ducaens,  Auctuar.,  torn.  i. 
He  also  compiled  a  code  of  civil  laws  for 
the  Homerites,  by  order  of  Abram  their  king ; 
which  still  exists  in  MS. 


Barsanuphius,  an  anchorite  of  Gaza,  in 
the  middle  of  this  century,  composed  a  large 
amount  of  ascetic  writings,  which  still  exist ; 
but  are  not  thought  worth  publishing. 

Eutychius,  a  monk,  and  bishop  of  Con- 
stantinople A.D.  553-585.  In  the  year  564 
he  was  deprived  of  his  see  and  banished  by 
Justinian,  for  not  admitting  the  incorrupti- 
bility of  Christ's  body  while  he  was  on  earth  ; 
but  he  was  restored  in  the  year  578,  and 
died  in  585,  aged  73.  One  epistle  of  his 
to  pope  Vigilius,  is  extant  among  the  Acts 
of  the  fifth  general  council,  A.D.  553,  Con- 
cil.,  torn,  v.,  p.  425. 

Cyril,  a  monk  of  Palestine  who  flourished 
A.D.  557.  He  composed  the  lives  of  sev- 
eral monks,  as  of  St.  John  the  Silenliary, 
of  St.  Euthymius,  and  of  St.  Sabas ;  all  of 
which  are  still  extant. 

Paul  Cyrus  Florus,  a  poet  who  flourished 
about  A.D.  555.  His  poetic  description  of 
the  church  of  St.  Sophia  at  Constantinople, 
built  by  Justinian,  is  still  extant,  Gr.  and 
Lat.,  by  Carol,  du  Fresne,  Pans,  1670,  sub- 
joined to  the  history  of  Cinnamus. 

John,  surnamed  Climacus  from  his  book, 
and  Sinaita  from  his  residence,  and  also 
Scholasticus,  was  a  monk  of  Mount  Sinai, 
who  flourished  about  A.D.  564.  He  wrote 
Scala  Paradisi,  in  30  chapters,  each  marking 
a  grade  of  virtue  ;  also  Liber  ad  Pastorem  : 
both  published,  Gr  and  Lat.,  by  Matt.h.  Ra- 
der,  Paris,  1633,  fol. 

John  Scholasticus,  a  presbyter  at  Antioch, 
deputy  to  Constantinople,  and  bishop  there 
A.D.  564-578.  He  wrote  Collectw  Cano- 
num  in  50  Titles,  which  included  the  85 
Canons  of  the  Apostles  ;  also  Nomocanon, 
which,  besides  a  collection  of  Canons,  con- 
tained an  epitome  of  the  civil  laws  concern- 
ing ecclesiastical  affairs ;  likewise,  Capita. 
Ecclesiastica.  All  these  tracts  were  pub- 
lished, Gr.  and  Lat.,  in  JusteWs  Biblioth. 
Juris  Canon.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  499,  603,  660,  ed. 
Paris,  1662. 

Theodorus,  bishop  of  Tconium,  about  A.D. 
564,  wrote  the  martyrdom  of  Julitta  and  her 
son  Cirycus,  only  three  years  old,  in  the  per- 
secution of  Diocletian  ;  published,  Gr.  and 
Lat.,  by  Combejis,  Acta  Martyr,  antiq.,  Par- 
is, 1660,  8vo,  p.  231. 

Eustratius,  a  presbyter  of  the  great  church 
at  Constantinople,  under  Eutychius  the  pa- 
triarch, about  A.D.  578.  He  wrote  a  book 
in  confutation  of  those  who  say,  the  soul  is 
inactive  when  separated  from  the  body  ;  pub- 
lished, Gr.  and  Lat ,  by  Leo  Allat.  in  his 
historical  work  concerning  purgatory,  Rome, 
1655.  8vo,  p.  319-581.  He  also  wrote  the 
Life  of  Eutychius  the  patriarch  ,  published, 
Gr.  and  Lat.,  by  Surius  and  by  Papebroch. 
Theophanes  of  Byzantium,  flourished  A.D. 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  TEACHERS. 


399 


§  9.  Among  the  Latin  writers,  the  most  distinguished  were  the  follow, 
ing  :  Gregory  the  Great,  Roman  pontiff;  a  man  of  good  and  upright  inten- 
tions for  the  most  part,  but  greatly  lacking  in  judgment,  superstitious,  and 
opposed  to  all  learning,  as  his  Epistles  and  Dialogues  show. (29)  Ccesari- 

580,  and  wrote  a  History  of  the^vvars  of  the     monasteries  and  to  a  more  religious  life  ; 

and  attempted   to  eradicate  the  prevailing 


Romans  with  the  Persians,  A.D.  567-573, 
in  x.  Books  ;  and  some  other  parts  of  the 
history  of  his  own  times.  Only  extracts  re- 
main. 

John  Maro,  a  very  prominent  man  among 
the  Maronitcs,  who  nourished  about  A.D. 
580.  He  wrote  Commentaries  on  the  Lit- 
urgy of  St.  James,  which  are  still  extant  in 
Syriac,  and  have  been  much  quoted  by  Abr. 
Echellensis,  Morin,  Nairon,  and  others. 

Leontius,  bishop  of  Neapolis  or  Hagiopo- 
lis  in  Cyprus,  who  flourished  about  A.D.  600, 
and  died  about  A.D.  620  or  630.  He  wrote 
an  Apology  for  the  Christians  against  the 
Jews  ;  of  which  a  large  part  is  preserved  in 
the  fourth  Act  of  the  second  Nicene  council  ; 
Concilior.  torn,  vii.,  p.  236.  He  also  wrote 
some  homilies,  and  biographies  of  saints.  But 
it  is  not  easy  to  distinguish  his  writings  from 
those  of  Leontius  of  Byzantium.  —  TV.] 

(29)  His  works  were  published  by  the 
French  Benedictine,  Denys  de  St.  Marthe, 
in  four  splendid  volumes,  fol.,  Paris,  1705. 
For  an  account  of  him,  see  the  Acta  Sane- 
tor.,  tom.  ii.,  Martii,  p.  121,  &c.  [Gregory 
the  Great,  of  senatorial!  rank,  was  born  at 
Rome  about  A.D.  540.  After  a  good  edu- 
cation, being  a  youth  of  great  promise,  he 
was  early  admitted  to  the  senate,  and  made 
governor  of  the  city  before  he  was  thirty 
years  old.  The  death  of  his  father  put  him 
in  possession  of  a  vast  estate,  which  he  de- 
voted wholly  to  pious  and  charitable  uses. 
Renouncing  public  life,  he  became  a  monk, 
built  and  endowed  six  monasteries  in  Sicily, 


vices  of  the  clergy,  simony  and  debauchery. 
He  was  instrumental  in  converting  the  Ari- 
an  Lombards  to  the  orthodox  faith,  and  in 
restraining  the  ravages  of  that  warlike  peo- 
ple. He  interfered  in  the  discipline  of  for- 
eign churches  ;  remonstrated  against  an  im- 
perial law  forbidding  soldiers  to  become 
monks ;  laboured  to  effect  a  peace  between 
the  Lombards  and  the  emperors  ;  and  at- 
tended to  every  interest  of  the  church  and 
the  people  under  him.  Yet  he  claimed  no 
civil  authority  ;  but  always  treated  the  em- 
perors as  his  lords  and  masters.  In  595  he 
commenced  his  long  contest  with  the  pa- 
triarchs of  Constantinople,  who  had  assu- 
med the  honorary  title  of  universal  bishops. 
This  title  Gregory  maintained  to  be  blasphe- 
mous, antichristian,  and  diabolical,  by  whom- 
soever assumed.  But  he  could  not  induce 
any  of  the  Orientals  to  join  with  him.  In  596, 
he  sent  Augustine  and  other  monks  to  con- 
vert the  Anglo-Saxons  ;  which  they  accom- 
plished. In  601,  he  defended  the  use  of 
images  in  churches  ;  allowed  the  Saxons  to 
retain  some  of  their  pagan  customs ;  and 
endeavoured  to  extend  the  power  of  Augus- 
tine over  the  ancient  British  churches.  In 
the  same  year,  when  Phocas  the  usurper 
murdered  all  the  imperial  family,  and  cloth- 
ed himself  with  the  purple,  Gregory  obse- 
quiously fluttered  him,  and  submitted  to  his 
usurpation.  At  length,  worn  out  with  cares 
and  disease,  he  died  in  March,  A.D.  604, 
having  reigned  thirteen  years  and  a  half. 


and  a  seventh  at  Rome,  in  which  he  himself    Gregory  was  exceedingly  active,  self-deny- 


lived under  the  control  of  the  abbot.  In 
579,  he  was  drawn  from  his  monastery,  or- 
dained a  deacon,  and  sent  as  papal  legate  to 
the  court  of  Constantinople,  where  he  resi- 
ded five  years,  and  became  very  popular. 
Returning  in  584  with  a  rich  treasure  of  rel- 
ics, he  retired  to  his  monastery  and  to  his 
favourite  mode  of  life.  In  590  he  was  rais- 
ed to  the  papal  chair,  much  against  his  will  ; 
and  for  1  3  years  and  a  half  was  an  indefat- 
igable bishop,  a  zealous  reformer  of  the  cler- 
gy and  the  monasteries,  and  a  strenuous  de- 
fender of  the  prerogatives  of  his  see.  He 


ing,  submissive  to  his  superiors,  and  courte- 
ous, sympathetic,  and  benevolent  to  all ;  yet 
he  was  an  enthusiast  for  monkery,  and  for 
the  honour  of  his  see.  His  writings  are 
more  voluminous  than  those  of  any  other 
Roman  pontiff.  His  letters  amount  to  840  ; 
besides  which,  he  wrote  35  Books  on  Job, 
called  Gregory's  Morals ;  a  Pastoral,  or 
treatise  on  the  duties  of  a  pastor,  in  4  Books ; 
22  Homilies  on  Ezekiel ;  40  Homilies  on 
the  Gospels  ;  4  Books  of  Dialogues  To 
him  are  ascribed  also,  an  Exposition  of  the 
first  book  of  Samuel,  in  vi.  Books  ;  an  Ex- 


failed  in  his  attempt  to  coerce  the  Illyrian  position   of  the  seven  penitential  Psalms ; 

bishops  to  condemn  the  three  chapters ;  but  and  an  Exposition  of  the   Canticles.     His 

succeeded   in  disturbing  the   harmony   be-  best  works  are  his  Pastoral  and  his  Moral*. 

tween  the   orthodox  and   the  Donatists  in  His  Dialogue  is  stuffed  with  monkish  tales  ; 

Africa.     He  discouraged  all  coercive  meas-  and  the  Exposition  of  the  penitential  Psalms 

ures  for  the  conversion  of  the  Jews  ;  en-  breathes  the  spirit  of  later  times,  and   has 

deavoured  to  confine  the  monks  to  theii  been  ascribed  to  Gregory  VII.     The  beat 


400 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


us  of  Aries,  composed  some  tracts  on  moral  subjects,  and  a  Rule  for  Holy 
Virgins. (30)  Fulgentius  of  Ruspe,  contended  valiantly,  in  numerous  books, 
against  the  Pelagians  and  the  Arians  in  Africa ;  but  his  diction  is  harsh 
and  uncouth,  like  that  of  most  Africans.(31)  Ennodius  of  Pavia  was  not 
contemptible  among  the  writers  of  this  age,  either  for  prose  or  poetry  ; 
but  he  was  an  infatuated  adulator  of  the  Roman  pontiff,  whom  he  exalted 
to  supreme  power  on  earth,  maintaining  that  he  was  amenable  to  no  au- 
thority of  mortals. (32)  Benedict  of  Nursia,  whose  name  is  immortalized 
by  his  Rule  for  a  monastic  life,  and  the  numerous  families  of  monks  who 


edition  is  said  to  be  that  of  St.  Marthe ;  but 
that  of  De  Sousainvillc,  Paris,  1 675,  3  vols. 
fol.,  is  esteemed  :  the  latest  edition  is  that 
of  Joh.  Bapt.  Galltcciolli,  Venice,  1768-76, 
in  17  vols.  4to. — His  liTe  by  Paulus  Diaco- 
nus,  of  the  9th  century  ;  and  another  by 
John,  deacon  at  Rome,  about  880,  in  iv. 
Books,  are  in  Mabillon's  A  eta  Sanctor. 
Ord.  Bened.,  torn,  i.,  p.  378-484.  Among 
the  moderns,  besides  Du  Pin,  Boyle,  and 
Oudin,  we  have  Maimbourg's  Histoire  du 
Pontifical  de  S.  Gregoire  le  Grand,  Paris, 
1686,  4to  :  Denys  de  St.  Marthe,  Histoire 
de  S.  Greg,  le  Gr.,  Rouen,  1698,  4to,  and 
in  the  Opp.  Greg.  M.,  torn,  iv.,  p.  199-305. 
See  also  Bower,  Lives  of  the  Popes,  (Greg- 
ory I.),  vol.  ii.,  p.  463-543,  ed.  Lond.,  1750, 
and  Schroeckh,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  xvii.,  p. 
243-371.— Tr.] 

(30)  The  Benedictines  have  recently  giv- 
en a  learned  account  of  Casanus,  in  their 
Histoire  litteraire  de  la  France,  torn,  iii.,  p. 
190.  [His  life,  written  by  his  pupils,  Cypri- 
an, Messian,  and  Stephan,  in  two  Books,  is 
extant  in  Mabillan,  Acta  SS.  Ord.  Benedict., 
torn,  i.,  p.  636-654.  He  was  born  in  Gaul, 
A.D.  469.  While  a  boy,  he  ran  away,  and 
entered  the  monastery  of  Lerins  ;  where  he 
lived  many  years,  and  became  the  butler. 
His  health  failing,  he  retired  to  Aries  ;  of 
which  place  he  was  made  bishop  in  the  year 
502.  In  the  year  506,  he  was  falsely  ac- 
cused of  treason,  and  banished  by  Alaric 
king  of  the  Visigoths,  to  Bourdeaux  ;  but  he 
was  soon  recalled.  In  508,  Theodoric  king 
of  the  Goths,  summoned  him  to  Ravenna  to 
answer  a  similar  charge.  Being  acquitted, 
he  visited  Italy,  and  returned  to  Aries.  He 
presided  at  the  council  of  Aries  in  524  ;  and 
at  that  of  Valencia  in  529,  he  triumphantly 
maintained  the  principle,  that  a  man  cannot 
obtain  salvation  without  preventing  grace. 
He  died  A.D.  542,  aged  73.  He  was  zeal- 
ous for  monkery,  and  a  strenuous  advocate 
for  the  doctrines  of  Augustine  respecting 
free  grace  and  predestination.  He  has  left 
us  46  Homilies,  a  Rule  for  monks,  another 
for  nuns,  a  treatise  on  the  ten  virgins,  an  ex- 
hortation to  charity,  an  Epistle,  and  his  Will. 
He  also  wrote  two  Books  on  grace  and  free 


will,  against  Faustus,  which  are  lost.  His 
works  are  printed  in  the  Biblioth.  Pair.,  vol. 
viii.  and  vol.  xxvii.  See  Cave,  Hist.  Lit- 
ter., torn,  i.,  p.  492. — TV.] 

(31)  See,  concerning  Fulgentius,  the  Acta 
Sanctor.,  torn,  i.,  Januarii,  p.  32,  &c.     [He 
was  born  at  Carthage  about  A.D.  468.     His 
father  who  was  a  senator,  died  while  he  was 
young  ;  but  his  mother  gave  him  an  excel- 
lent education.     While   a  boy,  he  had  all 
Homer  by  rote,  and  could  talk  Greek  flu- 
ently.    He  was  early  made  procurator  of 
the  city.     But  soon  weary  of  public  life,  he 
retired  to  a  monastery,  became  a  monk  and 
an  abbot,  changed   his  monastery,  endured 
persecution  from  the  Arians,  went  to  Syra- 
cuse, and  thence  to  Rome  in  the  year  500 ; 
returned  to  Africa  again,  was  elected  bishop 
of  Ruspe  in  507,  was  banished  to  Sardinia 
by  Thrasimund  the  Arian  king  of  the  Van- 
dals, recalled  by  Hilderic   the   succeeding 
king,  and  ruled  his  church  till  his  death  in 
533.     He  was  one  of  the  most  learned,  pi- 
ous, and  influential  bishops  of  his  age.     He 
wrote  three  Books  ad  Monimum,  (on  pre- 
destination and  the  kindred  doctrines)  ;  one 
Book  against  the  Arians ;  three  Books  ad 
Thrasimundum  regem,  (on  the  person  and 
offices  of  Christ) ;  ten  Sermons  on  divers 
subjects ;  de  Fide  orthodoxa  Liber  ad  do- 
natum ;    de  Fide   Liber  ad  Petr.   Diacon. 
eleven  Epistles  ;    de  Trinitate  Liber ;    on 
Predestination  and  Grace,  three  Books  ;  and 
various  other  Tracts  and  Homilies ;  all  of 
which    were   published,    Paris,    1684,  4to. 
Among  his  lost  works  were  seven  Books  on 
grace  and  free  will,  addressed  to  Faustus  ; 
and  ten  Books  on  predestination  and  grace, 
against  Fabian.      See    Cave's   Hist.  Lit., 
torn,  i.,  p  493.— Tr.] 

(32)  See  the   Histoire  Litteraire  de  la 
France,  torn,  iii.,  p.  96,  &c.    [Ennodius  was 
born  A.D.  473,  of  a  proconsular  family.    He 
married  young ;  was  afterwards  deacon  at 
Pavia,   and    subsequently    at    Rome ;    was 
twice  papal  legate  to  the  emperor  at  Con- 
stantinople ;  was  made  bishop  of  Pavia  in 
511,  and  died  in  521.     He  wrote  nine  Books 
of  Epistles,  or  297  in  number,  which  are  un- 
published, and  of  little  use  to  the  history  of 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  TEACHERS. 


401 


have  followed  it.(33)  Dionysius,  surnamed  Exiguus  on  account  of  hia 
lowliness  of  mind,  has  deserved  well  of  his  own  age  and  of  posterity,  by 
his  collection  of  ancient  canons  and  his  chronological  researches. (34)  Ful- 
gentius  Fcrrandus,  an  African,  procured  himself  reputation  by  some  small 
treatises,  especially  by  his  Abridgment  of  the  canons;  but  his  diction  has 
no  charms. (35)  Facundus  of  Henniane  was  a  strenuous  defender  of  the 
three  chapters,  of  which  an  account  will  be  given  hereafter. (36)  Arator 
versified  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  in  Latin,  not  badly.(37)  Primasius  of 
Adrumetum  wrote  Commentaries  on  the  epistles  of  Paul,  and  a  book  on  her- 
esies;  which  are  yet  extant. (38)  Liberatus,  by  his  Breviarium  or  con- 
cise  history  of  the  Nestorian  and  Eutychian  controversies,  merits  a  re- 


his  times ;  also  a  Panegyric  on  Theodoric, 
king  of  the  Ostrogoths  ;  an  Apology  for 
the  Synod  of  Rome,  A.D.  503 ;  the  life  of 
Epiphanius,  his  predecessor  at  Pavia ;  life 
of  Antony,  a  monk  of  Lerins  ;  two  Books 
of  poems  or  epigrams  ;  and  various  other 
little  pieces  ;  all  of  which  were  published 
by  Ja.  Sirmond,  Paris,  1611,  8vo  ;  and  in 
the  Works  of  Sirmond,  vol.  i.,  Paris,  1696  ; 
also  in  the  Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn.  ix. — 7V.] 

(33)  [See  above,  p.  392,  $  6,  and  note 
(15).     He  has  left  us  nothing  in  writing,  ex- 
cept his  monastic  regulations,  two  Epistles, 
and  two  discourses  ;  which  are  in  the  Bib- 
lioth. Patr.,  torn,  ix.,  p.  640,  &c.— 7>.] 

(34)  [A  monk  of  Scythian  extract,  who 
flourished  at  Rome  A.D.  533,  and  died  before 
A.D.  556.     He  was  intimate  with  Cassiodo- 
rus,  who  gives  him  a  high  character  for  intelli- 
gence and  virtue.   Being  familiar  with  Greek, 
he  collected  and  translated  a  body  of  canons, 
including  the  first  50  Apostolic  Canons,  and 
those  of  the  councils  of  Nice,  Constantinople, 
Chalcedon,  Sardica,  and  some  in  Africa  ;  he 
also  made  a  collection  of  the  decrees  of  the 
Roman  pontiffs,  from  Siricius  to  Anastasius 
II. :  both  are  extant  in  Justcll's  Biblioth. 
Juris  Canonici,  torn.  i.     He  likewise  trans- 
lated a  synodic  epistle  of   Cyril  of  Alex.,  a 
paschal  epistle  of  Prctcnus,  the  life  of  St. 
Pachomius,  an  Oration  of  Proclus,  Gregory 
Nyssen  de  opificio  hominis,  and  a  history  of 
the  discovery  of  the  head  of  John  the  Bap- 
tist :  and  composed  a  Paschal  Cycle  of  97 
years,  commencing  A.D.  527,  of  which  only 
a  fragment  remains.     In  the  last  work,  he 
proposed  that  Christians  should  use  the  time 
of  Christ's  birth  as  their  era;  which  propo- 
sal was  soon  followed  universally.     Hence, 
the  Christian  era  is  called  the  Dionysian  era. 
But  Dionysius  miscalculated    the    time  of 
O/im/'*  birth,  placing  it  four  years  (as  most 
writers  suppose)  too  late. — 7Y.J 

(3o)  [Fulgcnlius  Fcrrandus  was  a  pupil 
of  Fitl^cntius  Ruspensis,  and  a  deacon  at 
Carthage.  He  flourished  A.D.  533  and  on- 
ward. His  Abridgment  of  the  canons  is 
a  short  digest  of  ecclesiastical  law,  reduced 

VOL.  I. — E  E  E 


to  232  heads  ;  it  is  in  JusleWs  Bibliotb.  Juris 
Canon.,  torn.  i.  He  also  wrote  the  life  of 
Fulgentius  of  Ruspe,  and  seven  doctrinal 
Epistles.  All  his  works  were  published  by 
Chifflct,  Dijon,  1049,  4to,  and  then  in  the 
Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn,  ix.— TV.] 

(36)  [Facundus  was  bishop  of  Henniane 
in  Africa,  but  spent  many  years  at  Constan- 
tinople, as  a  representative  of  the  African 
churches  at  the  imperial  court.     It  was  here, 
and  in  the  years  546  and  547,  that  he  com- 
posed his  twelve  Books  pro  defensione  trium 
Capitulorum,  which  he  presented  to  the  em- 
peror Justinian.     He  also  wrote   a  book 
against  Atutianus  Scholasticus,  who  had  in- 
veighed against  the  African  churches  for  re- 
fusing communion  with   Vigilius.     These, 
together  with  an  Epistle  in  defence  of  the 
three  chapters,  were  published  by  Ja.  Sir- 
mond, Paris,  1629,  8vo,  and  annexed  to  Op- 
tatus  of  Milevi,  Paris,  1675,  fol.,  and  thence 
in  the  Bibl.  Patr.,  torn,  x.,  p.  1,  109.— TV.] 

(37)  [Aralor  was  first  an  advocate,  then 
one  of  the  court  of  king  Athalaric,  and  finally 
a  subdeacon  at  Rome.     He  flourished  from 
A.D.  527  to  544;  in  which  latter  year  he 
presented  his  poetic  version  of  the  Acts  in 
two  Books,  to  Vigilius  the  Roman  pontiff. 
He  was  much  esteemed  and  honoured  both 
by  Athalaric  and  Vigilius.     The  poem  was 
first  published,  with  a  commentary,  at  Sala- 
manca in  1516  ;  and  afterwards  in  the  Bib- 
lioth. Patr.,  torn,  x.,  p.  125.— TV] 

(38)  [Primasius,  bishop  of  Adrumetum 
or  Justinianopolis  in  Africa,  was  a  delegate 
to  the  court  of  Constantinople,  A.D.  550 
and  553,  and  defended  the  three  chapters. 
His  Commentary  on  the  Epistles  of  Paul, 
was  compiled  from  Jerome,  Ambrose,  Au- 

.  and  others.  He  likewise  composed 
a  mystical  Exposition  of  the  Apocalypse,  in 
five  Books.  Both  are  in  the  Biblioth.  Patr., 
torn.  x.  He  moreover  wrote  de  Haertsibu*, 
libri  iii. ;  which  are  lost,  unless  they  are 
those  published  in  the  Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn. 
xxvn  ,  the  author  of  which  has  been  so  much 
disputed.  See  Cave,  Hist.  Litterar.,  torn, 
i.,  p  525,  &c  —  TV.] 


402 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


spectable  place  among  the  writers  of  these  times. (39)  Fortunattts  pos- 
sessed a  happy  vein  for  poetry,  which  he  employed  on  various  subjects, 
and  is  read  not  without  pleasure  at  the  present  day. (40)  Gregory  of  Tours, 
the  father  of  French  history,  would  have  been  in  higher  esteem  with  the 
moderns,  if  jjis  Annals  of  the  Franks  and  his  other  writings  did  not  exhibit 
so  many  marks  of  weakness  and  credulity. (41)  Gildas  of  Britain  is  not 
to  be  passed  over,  because  he  is  the  most  ancient  of  the  British  writers, 
and  because  his  little  book  on  the  destruction  of  Britain  contains  many 
things  worth  being  known. (42)  Columbanus  of  Ireland  acquired  celebrity 

(39)  [Liberatus  was  archdeacon  of  the 
church  of  Carthage.     He  was  sent  twice  as 
a  legate   to  Rome,  in  534  and  535.     His 
Breviarium  is  esteemed  very  authentic  and 
correct,  though  not  elegant.     It  contains  the 
history  of  that  controversy  for   125  years, 
or  to  about  A.D.  553 ;  and  was  the  result 
of  great  research  and  labour.     It  was  pub- 
lished by  Gamier,  Paris,  1 675,  8vo,  and  in 
most  of  the  Collections  of  Councils. — TV.] 

(40)  Histoire    Litteraire   de    la   France, 
torn,  iii.,  p.  464.     [Venantius  Honorarius 
Clementianus  Fortunatus  was  born  in  Italy, 
and  educated  at  Ravenna.     About  the  mid- 
dle of  the  century,  having  been    cured  of 
his  diseased  eyes  by  St.  Martin  of  Tours, 
he  determined  to  visit  the  tomb  of  that  saint. 
From  Tours  he  went  to  Poictiers,  where  he 
lived  to  the  end  of  the  century  ;  wrote  much, 
became  a  presbyter,  and  at  last  bishop  of 
Poictiers.     His  poetic  works  are,  two  Books 
of  short   poems,  dedicated  to    Gregory  of 
Tours ;  four  Books  on  the  life  of  St.  Mar- 
tin ;  and  several  other  short  poems.     They 
are  in  the  Biblioth.  Pair.,  torn,  x.,  and  were 
published  by  Brower,  Mogunt.,   1603   and 
1616,  4to.     His  prose  writings   are   short 
Explanations  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  of  the 
Apostles'  Creed ;  and  the  lives  of  eight  or 
ten  Gallic  saints;  viz.,  St.  Albinus,  bishop 
of  Angers  ;   St.  Gcrmanus,  bishop  of  Paris  ; 
St.  Radegund,  a  queen  ;   St.  Hilarius,  bish- 
op of  Poictiers ;  St.  Marcellus,  bishop  of 
Paris ;    St.  Amanlius,   bishop   of  Rodez ; 
St.  Remigius,  bishop  of  Rheims ;  and  St. 
Paternus,  bishop  of  Avranches.     The  two 
following  are  doubtful ;   St.  Mauritius,  bish- 
op of  Angers ;  and  St.  Medard,  bishop  of 
Noyon.     All  these  are  extant  either  in  Su- 
rra*' or  Mabillon's  collections. — TV.] 

(41)  A  particular  account  is  given  of  him, 
in  the  Histoire  Litteraire  de  la  France,  torn. 

p.  372.     For  an  account  of  his  faults, 


see  Fran.  Pagi,  Diss.  de  Dionysio  Paris. 
$  xxv.,  p.  16,  annexed  to  his  Breviar.  Pon- 
tif.  Romanor.,  torn.  iv.  But  many  of  his 
defects  are  extenuated  by  Jo.  Launoi,  Opp., 
torn,  i.,  pt.  ii.,  p.  131,  &c.  [Georgius 
Florentinus  Gregorius  was  born  of  noble 
parentage,  at  Auvergne,  A.D.  544.  After 
an  education  under  his  bishop,  he  went  to 


Tours  in  the  year"  556,  became  deacon  in 
569,  and  bishop  in  573,  and  died  in  595, 
aged  52.  He  was  much  engaged  in  coun- 
cils and  in  theological  disputes,  and  at  the 
same  time  a  great  writer.  Orthodox,  active, 
and  rather  indiscreet,  he  was  frequently  in- 
volved in  difficulties,  for  he  was  deficient  in 
judgment  and  acumen.  His  great  work,  An- 
nalcs  Francorum,  (sometimes  called  Chron- 
ica,  Gesta,  Historia,  and  Historia  Ecclesi- 
astica  Francoruni),  in  ten  Books,  gives  a 
summary  history  of  the  world,  from  the  cre- 
ation to  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of 
the  Franks  ;  and  afterwards  a  detailed  histo- 
ry, to  the  year  591.  He  also  wrote  Mirac- 
ulorum  libri  vii.  ;  containing  the  miracles 
of  St.  Martin,  in  four  Books ;  on  the  glory 
of  Martyrs,  two  Books  ;  and  on  the  glory  of 
Confessors,  one  Book.  Besides  these,  he 
wrote  de  vitis  Patrum  (monks)  Liber  unus ; 
de  vita  et  morte  vii.  dormientium ;  and  an 
Epitome  of  the  history  of  the  Franks,  com- 
posed before  he  wrote  his  Annales.  All  his 
works,  collectively,  were  best  edited  by 
Theod.  Ruinart,  Paris,  1699,  fol.  They  are 
also  in  the  Biblioth.  Pair.,  torn.  xi. — TV.] 

(42)  Concerning  Gildas  and  Columbanus, 
none  have  treated  more  accurately  than  the 
Benedictines,  in  the  Histoire  Litteraire  do 
la  France,  torn,  iii.,  p.  279  and  505.  [Gil- 
das was  surnamed  the  Wise,  and  also  Bado- 
nius,  from  the  battle  of  Badon  (Bath)  about 
the  time  of  his  birth,  which  was  A.D.  520. 
By  these  epithets  he  is  distinguished  from 
Gildas  Albanius,  who  lived  a  little  earlier. 
He  was  well  educated,  became  a  monk  of 
Bangor,  and  is  said  to  have  visited  and  la- 
boured some  time  in  Ireland.  On  his  return 
he  visited  the  monastery  of  Lhancarvan, 
lately  founded  by  a  nobleman  of  South 
Wales ;  whose  example  Gildas  urged  oth- 
ers to  imitate.  He  spent  some  time  in  the 
northern  part  of  Britain  ;  visited  France  and 
Italy  ;  and  returned  and  laboured  as  a  faith- 
ful preacher.  He  is  supposed  to  have  died 
at  Bangor,  A.D.  590 ;  though  some  place 
his  death  20  years  earlier.  His  only  entire 
work,  now  existing,  is  his  Epistola  de  excidio 
Britanniae,  et  castigatione  Ordinis  Ecclesi- 
astici ;  in  which  he  depicts  and  laments  over 
the  almost  total  ruin  of  his  country,  and  the 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  TEACHERS. 


403 


by  his  Rule  for  monks,  some  poems,  and  uncommon  zeal  for  the  erection 
of  monasteries. (43)  Isidorus  of  Seville,  (Hispalensis),  composed  various 
grammatical,  theological,  and  historical  works  ;  but  shows  himself  to  have 
lacked  a  sound  judgment. (44)  The  list  of  Latin  authors  in  this  century 
may  well  be  closed  by  two  very  learned  men,  the  illustrious  Boethius,  a 
philosopher,  orator,  poet,  and  theologian,  who  was  second  to  no  one  of  hia 
times  for  elegance  and  acutcness  of  genius  ;(45)  and  M.  Aurelius  Cassio- 
dorus  Senator,  who  was  indeed  inferior  in  many  respects  to  the  former, 
yet  no  contemptible  author.(46)  Both  have  left  us  various  productions  of 
their  pens. (47) 


profligacy  of  manners  then  prevailing.  It 
was  first  published  by  Polydore  Virgil,  in 
1525;  but  the  best  edition  is  that  of  Tho. 
Gale,  in  the  first  vol.  of  his  Historiae  Brit- 
annicae,  Saxonicae,  &c.,  Scriptores  quinde- 
cim,  Lond.,  1691,  fol.  He  also  wrote  sev- 
eral letters,  and  perhaps  some  other  pieces, 
of  which  only  extracts  remain.  See  Cave, 
Hist.  Litter.,  torn,  i.,  p.  538,  &c. — TV.] 

(43)  [For  a  notice  of  Columbanus,  see 
above,  p.  392,  note  (14). — Tr.] 

(44)  [Isidorus  Hispalensis,  or  junior,  was 
the  son  of  Severian,  prefect  of  Carthagena 
in  Spain,  and  brother  of  Fulgcniius  bishop 
of  Carthagena,  and  of  Leander,  whom  he 
succeeded  A.D.  595,  as  bishop  of  Seville. 
He  presided  in  the  council  of  Seville  in  619, 
and  in  that  of  Toledo  A.D.  633,  and  died 
A.D.  636.     He  was  a  voluminous  writer; 
and  has  left  us  a  Chronicon,  from  the  crea- 
tion to  A.D.  626  ;  Historia  Gothorum,  Van- 
dalorum,    et    Suevorum ;     Originum,    sive 
Etymologiarum,  Libri  xx.  ;  de  Scriptorilms 
ccclesiasticis,  (a  continuation  of  Jerome  and 
Gennadius,    embracing    twenty-three    wri- 
ters) ;  de  vita,  et  morte  Sanctorum  utriusque 
Testament!  Liber ;  de  dtvinis  sive  ecclesi- 
aslicis  Offifiis,  Libri  ii.  ;  de  differentiis  sive 
proprietate  verborum,  Libri  ii.  ;   Synonymo- 
ntm  sive  soliloquiorum,  Libri  ii.  ;  de  natura 
rerum  sive  de  mundo.  Liber  philosophicus  ; 
Liber  pracmiorum.  ad  libros  utriusque  Testa- 
ment! ;    Commentaria    in   libros    historicos 
Veteris  Test,  (a  compilation) ;  AU.cgvria.rum 
quarundam  S.  Scripturae  Liber ;  contra  ne- 
giiitiamJitdacarum,  Libri  ii. ;  Sententiarum, 
sive   de    summo  bono,   Libri   iii.  ;    Regula 
Monachorum ;  de  conflictu  Tittoriim  et  vir- 
tutum  Liber ;  Expositio  in  Cantica  Canti- 
corum  ;  several  Epistles  and  minor  treatises. 
To  him  is  falsely  ascribed  a  collection  of 
councils  and  decretals.    His  works  were  best 
published,  Paris,   1601,  fol.,  and    Cologne, 
1617,  fol.— Tr.] 

(45)  [Aniciws  Manlius  Torquatus  Scve- 
riflus  Boethivs,  born  of  an  illustrious  fam- 
ily at  Rome,  about  A.D.  470,  was  sent  in 
his  childhood  to  Athens  for  education,  where 
he  spent  eighteen  years  ;  and  then  returned 


to  Rome,  the  most  learned  man  of  the  age. 
He  was  consul  in  the  years  510  and  522. 
Soon  after  his  return  to  Rome,  he  was  made 
a  patrician,  and  admitted  to  the  senate. 
When  Theodoric  king  of  the  Goths  entered 
Rome,  A.D.  500,  Boethius  was  appointed 
by  the  senate  to  address  him.  The  king 
soon  after  made  him  one  of  his  council,  and 
master  of  his  palace.  After  faithfully  serv- 
ing the  king  and  his  country  for  more  than 
twenty  years,  he  was  in  523  falsely  accused 
of  a  treasonable  correspondence,  condemned 
on  suborned  testimony,  and  sent  to  Pavia, 
where  he  was  kept  in  close  confinement  a 
year  or  more,  and  then  privately  put  to  death 
by  order  of  the  king.  He  was  a  voluminous 
writer.  Besides  more  than  forty  Books  of 
translations  and  commentaries  on  Aristotle, 
Porphyry,  and  Cicero,  he  wrote  two  Books 
on  arithmetic,  five  Books  on  music,  two 
Books  on  geometry,  and  several  tracts 
against  the  Eutychians,  Nestorians,  and  oth- 
er errorists.  But  his  most  famous  work 
was  de  consolatione  philosophiae,  Libri  v., 
written  while  in  prison  at  Pavia.  This  was 
translated  into  Saxon,  by  Alfred  the  Great, 
(printed,  Oxford,  1698) ;  and  into  English 
by  Chaucer,  and  by  queen  Elisabeth.  It 
was  composed  partly  in  verse,  and  partly  in 
prose ;  and  has  the  form  of  a  dialogue  be- 
tween Boitlnus  himself,  and  Philosophy  per- 
sonified ;  who  endeavours  to  console  him 
with  considerations,  derived  not  from  Chris- 
tianity, but  from  the  doctrines  of  Plato, 
Zeno,  and  Aristotle.  The  works  of  Boithius 
were  published  with  notes,  Basil,  1570,  fol. 
See  Care,  Hist.  Litterar.,  torn,  i.,  p.  495, 
&c.,  and  Brufker,  Hist.  crit.  Philos.,  torn, 
iii.  Genaise,  Histoire  de  Boece,  Paris, 
1715,  2  vols.  8vo,  and  Schroeckh,  Kirchen- 
gesch.,  vol.  xvi.,  p.  99-121.— Tr.] 

(46)  See  Rich.  Simon,  Critique  de  la 
Bibliotheque  eccles.  de  M.  du  Pin,  tome  L, 
p.  211,  &c.  [Senator  was  part  of  the  name, 
and  not  the  title  of  Cassiodorus.  This  em- 
inent statesman  and  monk  was  bom  of 
honourable  parents,  at  Squillace  in  the  king- 
dom of  Naples,  probably  before  A.D.  470. 
Odoacer,  in  491,  made  him  Comes  rerum 


404 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


privatarum  et  sacrarum  largitionum.  '  Two 
years  after,  Thcodoric  became  master  of  It- 
aly, and  made  him  his  private  secretary  ; 
and  subsequently  governor  of  Calabria  ;  but 
soon  recalled  him  to  court,  and  made  him 
successively  quaestor  of  the  palace,  master 
of  the  offices,  consul,  and  praetorian  pre- 
fect. The  death  of  Theodoric  in  526,  did 
not  deprive  Cassiodorus  of  his  high  rank  ; 
but  in  539,  being  now  about  70  years  old, 
he  retired  to  a  monastery,  founded  by  him- 
self near  his  native  town  in  Calabria,  where 
he  lived  more  than  twenty  years  in  honour- 
able retirement,  devoted  to  literature  and  re- 
ligion. His  works  are  voluminous ;  viz., 
Epistolarum  Libri  xii.  (his  official  letters) ; 
Historiae  Eccles.  Tripartitae  Lib.  xii.,  (an 
abridgment  from  the  Latin  translations  of 
Socrates,  Sozomen,  and  Theodoret,  made  by 
Epiphanius  Scholasticus) ;  Chronicon,  ab 
Adamo  usque  ad  annum  519  ;  Computus 
Paschalis  ;  de  Rebus  Gestis  Gothorum,  Lib. 
xii.,  (which  we  have,  as  abridged  by  Jor- 
nandes ;  the  original  is  supposed  still  to  ex- 
ist in  MS.) ;  Expositio  in  Psalmos  Davidis  ; 
Institutionis  ad  divinas  lectiones  lib.  ii.  ; 
de  Orthographia  Liber;  de  vii.  Disciplinis 
Liber,  (on  the  seven  liberal  arts  ;  viz.,  the 
trivium,  or  grammar,  rhetoric,  and  logic  ; 
and  the  quadrimum,  or  arithmetic,  music, 
geometry,  and  astronomy) ;  de  Anima  Li- 
ber ;  de  Oratione,  et  viii  partibus  Orationis  ; 
short  Comments  on  the  Acts,  the  Epistles, 
and  Apocalypse,  (published  separately  by 
bishop  Chandler,  Lond.,  1722,  8vo).  Most 
of  the  other  works  are  in  the  Biblioth.  Pair., 
torn,  xi.,  and  all  of  them  were  well  edited 
by  the  Benedictines,  in  2  vols.  fol.,  Rouen, 
1679.  See  Cave,  Histor.  Litterar.,  torn,  i., 
p.  501,  and  Schroeckh,  Kirchengesch.,  vol. 
xvi.,  p.  128-154.— TV.] 

(47)  [The  following  are  the  Latin  writers 
omitted  by  Dr.  Mosheim. 

Paschasius,  deacon  of  the  church  of 
Rome,  who  took  sides  with  Laurentius  in 
his  contest  for  the  pontificate  in  498,  and 
died  in  512.  He  has  left  us  an  Epistle  to 
Eugyppius ;  and  ii.  Books  on  the  Holy 
Spirit,  against  Macedonius ;  which  are  in  the 
8th  vol.  of  the  Biblioth.  Patrum. 

Laurentius,  bishop  of  Novara  in  the  north 
of  Italy,  flourished  about  A.D.  507.  Two 
of  his  Homilies,  on  penitence  and  alms,  are 
in  the  Biblioth.  Pair  ,  torn.  ix. 

Epiphanius  Scholasticus,  an  Italian,  who 
flourished  about  A.D.  510.  He  translated 
the  Ecples.  Histories  of  Socrates,  Sozomen, 
and  Theodoret,  into  Latin  ;  that  Cassiodorus 
might  thence  make  out  his  Historia  Eccles. 
Tripartitia,  in  xii.  Books.  The  original 
translations  are  lost. 

Eugyppius,  abbot  of  a  monastery  near 


Naples  about  A.D.  511.  He  wrote  the  life 
of  St.  Severimis,  the  apostle  of  Noricum ; 
published  by  Surius. 

Hormisdas,  Roman  pontiff  A.D.  514— 
523  ;  who  made  peace,  after  a'  long  contest, 
between  the  Oriental  and  Western  churches. 
He  has  left  us  eighty  Epistles,  and  some 
Decretals,  in  the  Concilior.,  torn.  iv. 

Orentius,  or  Orientius,  bishop  of  Eliberis 
in  Spain  A.D.  516.  He  wrote  Commoni- 
torium  fidelibus,  metro  Heroico,  in  ii.  Books. 
The  first  Book  is  in  the  Bibhoth.  Patr.,  torn, 
vii.  ;  and  both,  with  other  short  poems,  in 
Edm.  Martene's  Thesaur.  Anecdot.,  torn,  v., 
Paris,  1717.. 

Peter,  a  deacon,  who  vigorously  aided  the 
deputation  of  Oriental  monks  at  Rome,  A.D. 
520,  and  wrote  de  Incarnatione  et  gratia  D. 
N.  Jesu  Christi,  Liber ;  extant  among  the 
works  of  Fulgentius,  and  in  Biblioth.  Patr., 
torn.  ix. 

Felix  IV.,  Roman  pontiff  A.D.  526-530. 
Three  Epistles,  in  the  Concilior.  torn,  iv., 
are  ascribed  to  him ;  but  the  two  first  are 
spurious. 

Justinianl.,  emperor  A.D.  527-565.  Be- 
sides the  Corpus  Juris  Civilis,  (viz.,  Insti- 
tutionum  lib.  iv.  Pandectar.  sive  Digesto- 
rum,  lib.  1.  Codicis  lib.  xii.,  A.D.  528-535  ; 
and  Novella,  after  A.D.  535),  he  issued  six 
Decrees  and  Epistles  relating  to  ecclesiasti- 
cal affairs,  which  are  in  the  Concilior.  torn.  v. 

Nicetius,  of  Gallic  extract,  a  monk,  abbot, 
and  archbishop  of  Treves  A.D.  527-568. 
He  was  distinguished  for  piety,  and  the  con- 
fidence reposed  in  him.  Two  of  his  tracts, 
de  Vigiliis  Servorum  Dei,  and  de  Bona  Psal- 
modia,  were  published  by  Dacherius,  Spi- 
cilegium,  torn,  iii.,  (ed.  nova,  torn.  i.,p.  221, 
223) ;  and  two  of  his  letters,  (to  the  empe- 
ror Justinian,  and  to  queen  Chlosuinda),  are 
in  the  Concilior.  torn.  v. 

Justus,  bishop  of  Urgel  in  Catalonia, 
Spain,  flourished  A.D.  529,  and  died  about 
A.D.  540.  His  Commentary  on  the  Can- 
ticles is  in  the  Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn.  ix.  Two 
epistles  of  his  are  also  extant. 

Boniface  II.,  Roman  pontiff  A.D.  530- 
532,  has  left  us  two  Epistles ;  in  the  Con- 
cilior. torn.  iv. 

Cogitosus,  an  Irish  monk,  grandson  of  St. 
Brigit,  and  supposed  to  have  lived  about 
A.D.  530.  He  wrote  Vita  Sanctae  Brigi- 
da ;  which  is  published  by  Canisius,  Su- 
rius, and  Bolland. 

Montanus,  archbishop  of  Toledo  in  Spain, 
during  nine  years,  about  A.D.  531.  He  has 
left  us  two  Epistles ;  extant  in  the  Concil- 
ior. torn.  iv. 

John  II.,  Roman  pontiff  A.D.  532-535- 
At  the  request  of  Justinian,  he  solemnly 
sanctioned  the  orthodoxy  of  the  expression  : 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  TEACHERS. 


405 


One  of  the  Trinity  suffered  crucifixion.  One 
spurious  and  five  genuine  Epistles  of  his, 
are  in  the  Concilior.  torn.  iv. 

Marcellinus,  Comes  of  Illyricum,  flour- 
ished A.D.  534.  His  Chronicon,  (from  the 
yc-ar  379,  where  Jerome's  closes,  to  the  year 
534),  has  been  often  published  ;  and  is  in 
the  Biblioth.  Pair.,  torn.  ix. 

Agapctus,  Roman  pontiff  A.D.  535.  536. 
Seven  of  his  Epistles  (one  of  them  spurious) 
are  in  the  Concilior.  torn,  iv.,  and  one  in 
torn.  v. 

\'ii.nlius,  Roman  pontiff  A.D.  537-555. 
He  obtained  his  see  by  intrigue  and  duplici- 
ty ;  conspired  against  his  predecessor  whom 
he  brought  to  the  grave  ;  and  when  confirm- 
ed in  his  see,  showed  himself  supremely  am- 
bitious, and  ready  to  sacrifice  consistency, 
conscience,  the  truth  itself,  to  promote  his 
own  selfish  designs.  He  issued  the  most 
solemn  declarations,  both  for  and  against  the 
three  chapters.  In  547  Justinian  called  him 
to  Constantinople,  where  he  detained  him 
seven  years,  and  compelled  him  to  condemn 
the  three  chapters,  and  himself  also,  for  hav- 
ing repeatedly  defended  them.  We  have  18 
Epistles,  and  several  of  his  contradictory 
Decretals,  in  the  Concilior.  torn.  v. 

Gordianus,  a  monk  of  Messina,  carried  off 
by  the  Saracens  in  the  year  539,  when  they 
burned  and  plundered  that  monastery.  Gor- 
dian  escaped  from  the  Saracens  and  returned 
to  Sicily,  where  he  wrote  the  life  ofPlacidus, 
the  Benedictine  abbot  of  Messina,  who,  with 
many  others,  was  slam  in  the  capture  of  that 
monastery.  It  is  extant  in  Sunus,  and  in 
Mabillon,  Acta  Sanctor.,  torn.  i. 

Victor,  bishop  of  Capua  about  A.D.  545. 
He  translated  into  Latin  Ammonius'  Har- 
mony of  the  iv.  Gospels,  falsely  ascribed  to 
Tatinn  ;  and  extant  in  the  Biblioth.  Patr., 
torn,  iii.,  p.  265. 

Cyprianus,  a  Gaul,  and  pupil  of  Casarius 
of  Aries.  He  flourished  A.D.  546,  and  wrote 
theirs/  book  of  the  life  and  achievements  of 
Casarius.  Both  books  are  in  Surius,  and 
in  Mabillon,  Acta  Sanctor.,  torn.  i. 

Mutianu-s  Scholasticus.  flourished  A.D. 
550.  At  the  suggestion  of  Cassiodorus,  he 
translated  34  Homilies  of  Chrysostom  on  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  into  Latin  ;  printed 
at  Cologne,  1530. 

Kusticjts,  a  deacon  at  Rome,  who  accom- 
panied pope  Vigilius  to  Constantinople  in 
547,  and  showed  more  firmness  than  his 
bishop.  His  Dialogus  sive  disputatio  ad- 
rersus  Acephalos,  (in  which  he  inveighs 
against  Vigilius),  is  extant  in  the  Biblioth. 
Patr.,  torn.  x. 

Junilius,  an  African  bishop,  who  lived 
about  A.D.  550,  has  left  us  de  Partibux  Di- 
vintt  Lcgts,  Libri  ii.,  in  the  Biblioth.  Patr., 
torn,  x.,  p.  339. 


Jornandes,  or  Jordanus,  of  Gothic  ex- 
tract, bishop  of  the  Goths  at  Ravenna.  His 
one  Book  de  Rebus  Geticis,  or  Historia. 
Gothorum,  from  the  earliest  times  to  A.D. 
540,  is  an  abridgment  of  the  12  books  of 
I <>r us  on  the  same  subject.  His  de 
Regnorum  et  Temporum  successions  Liber, 
is  transcribed  from  floras.  Both  works  are 
extant  in  Muratori,  Rerum  Italicar.  Scrip- 
tores,  torn,  i.,  1723. 

Eugyppius,  an  African  presbyter  and  ab- 
bot, who  flourished  about  A.D.  553.  He 
compiled  from  the  works  of  St.  Augustine 
a  collection  of  sentences  on  various  subjects, 
in  338  chapters  ;  printed,  Basil,  1542. 

Vtctur,  bishop  of  Tunis  in  Africa,  a  reso- 
lute defender  of  the  three  chapters,  was  in 
prisons  and  banishments  from  A.D.  555  to 
565.  He  wrote  a  Chronicon,  from  the  crea- 
tion to  A.D.  566  ;  but  the  last  122  years  of 
it  are  all  that  remain  ;  published  by  Scaliger, 
with  the  Chronicon  of  Eusebius. 

Germanus,  (St.  Germain),  born  at  Autun, 
France,  A.D.  496  ;  deacon,  533  ;  presbyter, 
536  ;  and  bishop  of  Paris,  A.D.  555-576. 
An  epistle  of  his  to  queen  Brunechild,  writ- 
ten A.D.  573,  is  in  the  Concilior.  torn.  v. 
His  life,  written  by  Venantius  Fortunatus, 
is  in  Mabillon,  Acta  Sanctor.  Ord.  Bened., 
torn,  i.,  p.  222,  &c. 

Pelagius  I.,  Roman  pontiff  A.D.  555- 
559.  He  was  papal  legate  at  Constantino- 
ple A.D.  535-545  ;  and  a  strenuous  oppo- 
ser  of  the  three  chapters.  Sixteen  of  his 
Epistles  are  in  the  Concilior.  torn.  v. 

Martin,  a  monk,  born  in  Pannonia.  He 
travelled  in  Palestine,  preached  and  became 
an  abbot  in  Spain,  and  finally  bishop  of  Bra- 
ga  in  Portugal,  A.D.  563-583.  He  has  left 
us  Colleclto  Canonum,  (extant,  in  Concil- 
ior. torn,  v.,  and  in  JusleWs  Biblioth.  Juris 
Canon.,  torn,  i.) ;  Sent  cntitz  pat  rum  JEgyp- 
tiorum,  (in  Kosiriyd,  de  vitis  Patr.)  ;  and 
Formula  honcstct  vita,  extant  in  the  Bibli- 
oth. Patr.,  torn,  x.,  p.  H 

Pclagius  II.,  Roman  pontiff  A.D.  579- 
590.  He  had  much  contention  with  the 
western  bishops,  who  defended  the  three 
chapters ;  and  after  A.D.  589,  with  John, 
bishop  of  Constantinople,  who  assumed  the 
title  of  universal  bishop.  Ten  of  his  Epis- 
tles, and  six  decrees,  are  extant  in  the  Con- 
cilior. torn.  v. 

•is,  bishop  of  Avenches  in  Switzer- 
land for  20  years,  flourished  A.D.  581.  H-^ 
has  left  us  a  Chronicon,  continuing  that  of 
Prosper,  from  455  to  581. 

Licinmnus,  bishop  of  Carthagena  in  Spain 
A.D.  584.  He  has  left  us  three  Epistles  ; 
in  de  Aguirre,  Collect,  max.  Concil.  His- 
pan.,  torn.  ii. 

John,  a  Spanish  Goth,  educated  at  Con- 
stantinople, returned  to  Spain  A.D.  584, 


40G  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 


CHAPTER  III. 

.  • 

HISTORY    OF    THEOLOGY. 

X 

§  1.  Continued  sinking  of  Theology. — §  2.  This  Exemplified. — §  3.  State  of  Exegetical 
Theology. — §  4.  Faults  of  the  Interpreters. — §  5.  Dogmatic  Theology. — $  6.  Practical 
Theology. — §  7.  Lives  of  Saints. — $  8.  Polemic  Theology. — §  9.  Contests  about  Ori- 
genism. — §  10.  About  the  Three  Chapters. — §  11.  The  fifth  general  Council. — §  12. 
Contests  about  one  of  the  Trinity  being  Crucified. 

§  1.  THE  barriers  of  the  ancient  simplicity  and  truth  being  once  viola- 
ted, the  state  of  theology  waxed  worse  and  worse  ;  and  the  amount  of  the 
impure  and  superstitious  additions  to  the  religion  of  Christ,  is  almost  inde- 
scribable. The  controversial  theologians  of  the  East  continued  to  darken 
the  great  doctrines  of  revelation  by  the  most  subtle  distinctions  and  I  know 
not  what  philosophical  jargon.  Those  who  instructed  the  people  at  large, 
made  it  their  sole  care  to  imbue  them  more  and  more  with  ignorance,  su- 
perstition, reverence  for  the  clergy,  and  admiration  of  empty  ceremonies  ; 
and  to  divest  them  of  all  sense  and  knowledge  of  true  piety.  Nor  was 
this  strange,  for  the  blind, — that  is,  persons  for  the  most  part  grossly  igno- 
rant and  thoughtless, — were  the  leaders  of  the  blind. 

§  2.  Whoever  wishes  to  gain  more  distinct  information  on  this  subject, 
need  only  read  what  occurs  in  the  epistles  and  other  writings  of  Gregory 
the  Great,  among  others,  respecting  the  worshipping  of  images  and  de- 
parted saints,  the  fire  which  purifies  souls  after  death,  the  efficacy  of  good 
works,  that  is,  of  human  prescriptions  and  devices  for  attaining  salvation, 
the  power  of  relics  to  remove  defects  both  of  soul  and  body,  and  other 
things  of  the  like  character.  A  man  of  sense  cannot  help  smiling  at  the 
generosity  of  the  good  Gregory  in  distributing  his  relics ;  but  at  the  same 
time  he  must  feel  pity  for  the  simple,  stupid  people,  who  could  be  persua- 
ded that  oil  taken  from  lamps  burning  at  the  sepulchres  of  the  martyrs,  pos- 
sessed uncommon  virtues  and  efficacy,  and  added  both  holiness  and  secu- 
rity to  its  possessors.(l) 

§  3.  To  give  directions  for  expounding  the  holy  scriptures,  was  the  ob- 
ject of  Junilius  in  his  two  Books  on  the  parts  of  the  divine  law. (2)  The 
treatise  consists  of  a  few  questions,  neither  scientifically  arranged  nor  ju- 

became  an  abbot,  was  persecuted  by  Lewi-  A.D.  593,  and  wrote  the  life  of  St.  Maximus, 

gild  the  Arian  king,  and  died  early  in  the  bishop  of  Reiz  ;  and  the  life  of  St.  Manus, 

seventh  century.     He  has  left  a  Chronicon  abbot  of  Bobi. 

from  A.D.  565  to  590.  Eutropius,  a  monk,  and  bishop  of  Valen- 

Leander,  archbishop  of  Seville  (Hispal-  cia  in  Spain,  flourished  A.D.  599.     One  of 

ensis)  in  Spain,   flourished  A.D.   583,  and  his  Epistles  is  preserved  by  Lu.  Holstenius, 

died  595.     He  was  a  monk,  an  ambassador  Codex  Regular.,  Paris,  1663. — TV.] 

to  Constantinople,  and  a  principal  means  of  (1)  See  the  List  of  sacred  oils  which  Greg- 

the  conversion  of  the  Arian  Goths  of  Spain  ory  the  Great  sent  to  queen  Theodtlinda ; 

to  the  Catholic  faith.     A  monastic  Rule  is  in  Theod.  Ruinart,  Acta  martyr,  sincera  et 

all  we  have  of  him  ;  unless  he  was  author  selecta,  p.  619,  [and  in  Muratori,  Anecdota 

of  the  Missa  Mozarabum.  Latina.  torn,  ii.,  p.  194. — Schl.~\ 

Dynamius,  collector  of  the  revenues  of  (2)  See  Rich.  Simon,  Critique  de  la  Bib- 

the  Romish  church  in  Gaul.     He  flourished  liotheque  de  M.  du  Pin,  torn,  i.,  p.  229. 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY.  497 

Viciously  considered ;  for  the  author  lacked  the  learning  necessary  for  his 
undertaking.  Cassiodorus  likewise  laid  down  some  rules  for  interpreta- 
tion, in  his  two  books  on  the  divine  laws.  Among  the  Syrians,  Philoxenua 
translated  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  and  the  Psalms  of  David  into 
Syriac.(3)  The  number  of  interpreters  was  considerable.  Among  the 
Greeks,  the  besf  were  Procopius  of  Gaza,  (rather  a  pleasing  expositor),(4) 
Severus  of  Antioch,  Julianus,  and  some  others.  Among  the  Latins,  the 
more  prominent  were  Gregory  the  Great,  Cassiodorus,  Primasius,(5)  Isi- 
dorus  of  Seville,(6)  Bellator,(7)  and  a  few  others. 

§  4.  All  these  expositors,  (a  few  only  excepted  and  particularly  the 
Nestorians  in  the  East,  who,  following  the  example  of  Theodorus  of  Mop- 
suestia,  searched  for  the  true  sense  and  meaning  of  the  words),  are  scarce- 
ly worthy  of  the  name  of  interpreters.  They  may  be  divided  into  two 
classes.  Some  merely  collected  the  opinions  and  interpretations  of  the 
earlier  doctors,  in  works  which  afterwards  obtained  the  name  of  Catenae 
(or  Chains)  among  the  Latins.(8)  Such  is  the  Catena  of  Olympiodorus 
on  Job,  that  of  Victor  of  Capua  on  the  four  Gospels,  and  the  Commentary 
of  Primasius  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  compiled  from  Augustine,  Je- 
rome, Ambrose,  and  others.  Nor  is  Procopius  of  Gaza  to  be  wholly  ex. 
eluded  from  this  class,  although  he -sometimes  followed  his  own  judgment. 
The  others  follow  the  footsteps  of  Origen,  and  neglecting  wholly  the  literal 
meaning,  run  after  allegories  and  moral  precepts,  deducing  whatever  they 
wish  or  desire  from  the  sacred  books  by  the  aid  of  a  roving  imagination. 
Of  this  class,  is  Anastasius  Sinaita,  whose  Analogical  contemplations  on  the 
Hexaemeron  expose  the  ignorance  and  credulity  of  the  author  ;  likewise 
Gregory  the  Great,  whose  Morals  on  Job  were  formerly  extolled  undeserv- 
edly ;  also  Isidorus  of  Seville,  in  his  Book  of  allegories  on  Scripture ;  and 
Primasius,  in  his  Mystic  exposition  of  the  Apocalypse ;  and  many  others. 

§  5.  An  accurate  knowledge  of  religious  doctrines  and  a  simple  and 
lucid  exposition  of  them,  no  one  will  expect  from  the  teachers  of  these 
times.  Most  of  them  reasoned,  as  blind  men  do  about  colours ;  and  thought 
they  acquitted  themselves  nobly,  when  they  had  thrown  out  some  crude  and 
indigested  thoughts,  and  overwhelmed  opposcrs  with  the  artillery  of  words. 
Yet  among  the  writers  of  this  age,  may  be  clearly  discovered  the  marks 
and  germinations  of  that  threefold  manner  of  treating  theology,  which  still 
prevails  both  among  the  Greeks  and  the  Latins.  For  some  collected  to- 
ircthcr  sentences  from  the  ancient  doctors  and  councils,  backed  by  cita- 
tions  from  the  Scriptures.  Such  was  Isidore  of  Seville,  among  the  Latins, 
whose  three  Books  of  sentences  are  still  extant ;  and  among  the  Greeks,  Le~ 
ontius  of  Cyprus,  whose  Loci  Communes,  or  Commonplace-book,  compiled 
from  the  works  of  the  ancients,  have  been  commended.  From  these  ori- 

(3)  Jos.  Sim.  Asseman,  Biblioth.  Orient.  Cassiodorus,  and  flourished  A. D.  550.     He 
Vatican.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  83.  wrote    numerous    Commentaries  ;    viz.,  vi. 

(4)  See  Rich.   Simon,  Lettres  choisies,  Books   on  Esther,  v.  Books  on  Tobit,  vii. 
torn,  iv.,  p.  120,  of  the  new  edition.  Books  on  Judith,  viii.  Books  on  the  Wisdom 

(5)  Rich.   Simon,  Histoire    critique   des  of  Solomon,  and  x.  Books  on  the  Maccabees  ; 
principaux  Oommentateurs  du  N.  T.,  cap.  all  of  which  are  now  lost. — TV.] 

ixiv.,  p.  337,  and  Critique  de  la  Biblioth.  de        (8)  See  Stcph.  le  Moyne,  Prolegom.  ad 

M.  du  Pin,  torn,  i.,  p.  226.  Varia  Sacra,  p.  53,  &c.,  and  Jo.  Alb.  Fabri- 

(6)  Rich.   Simon,  Critique  de  la  Biblio-  cius,  Biblioth.    Graca,  lib.  v.,  cap.  17,  or 
theque  de  M.  du  Pin,  tome  i.,  p.  259.  vol.  vii.,  p.  727,  &c. 

(7)  [Bellator  was  a  presbyter,  a  friend  of 


408     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 

ginated  that  species  of  theology,  which  the  Latins  afterwards  called  Pos- 
itive Theology.  Others  attempted  to  unfold  the  nature  of  religious  doc- 
trines, by  reasoning ;  which  was  the  method  generally  adopted  by  those  who 
disputed  against  the  Nestorians,  Eutychians,  and  Pelagians.  These  may 
be  fitly  called  Scholastics.  Others  again,  who  believed  that  all  divine  truth 
must  be  learned  by  internal  feeling  and  by  contemplation,  assumed  the 
name  of  Mystics.  This  threefold  method  of  treating  religious  subjects,  has 
continued  down  to  the  present  day.  A  proper  and  complete  system  of 
theology,  no  one  of  this  age  produced  ;  but  various  parts  of  theology  were 
occasionally  illustrated. 

§  6.  To  explain  and  inculcate  piety  and  Christian  duty,  some  gave  pre- 
cepts, while  others  employed  examples.  Those  who  gave  precepts  for  a 
pious  life,  endeavoured  to  shape  the  Christian  character  either  of  persons 
engaged  in  the  business  of  active  life,  or  that  of  the  more  perfect  who  re- 
tire from  the  contagious  influence  of  the  world.  A  Christian  life  in  the 
former  case,  they  represented  as  consisting  in  certain  external  virtues  and 
the  badges  of  piety ;  as  appears  from  the  homilies  and  exhortations  of  Cce- 
sarius,  the  Monitory  Chapters  of  Agapetus,  and  especially  from  the  Sum- 
mary of  a  virtuous  life,  by  Martin  of  Braga.(9)  In  the  latter  case  they 
aimed  to  withdraw  the  soul  by  contemplation  from  the  intercourse  and 
contagion  of  the  body ;  and  therefore  advised  to  macerate  the  body  by 
watching,  fasting,  constant  prayer,  and  singing  of  hymns  ;  as  is  manifest 
from  Fulgentius  on  fasting,  Nicetius  on  the  Vigils  of  the  servants  of  God, 
and  on  the  advantages  of  Psalmody.  The  Greeks,  for  the  most  part,  fol- 
lowed as  their  leader  in  these  matters  Dionysius,  denominated  the  Areop- 
agite ;  on  whom  John  of  Scythopolis,  during  this  age,  published  annota- 
tions. How  exceedingly  defective  all  these  views  were,  is  visible  to  every 
one  who  is  acquainted  with  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

§  7.  To  inculcate  piety  by  examples,  was  the  aim  of  all  those  who  wrote 
Lives  of  the  Saints.  The  number  of  these,  both  among  the  Greeks  and 
the  Latins,  was  very  considerable.  Ennodius,  Eugyppius,  Cyril  of  Scy- 
thopolis, Dionysius  Exiguus,  Cogitosus,  and  others,  are  well  known.  Nearly 
all  these  entertain  their  readers  with  marvellous  and  silly  fables  ;  and  they 
propose  for  imitation  none  but  delirious  persons  or  those  of  perverted 
minds,  who  did  violence  to  nature,  and  adopted  austere  and  fantastic  rules 
of  life.  To  endure  hunger  and  thirst  without  repining,  to  go  naked  about 
the  country  like  madmen,  to  immure  themselves  in  a  narrow  place,  to  ex- 
pect to  behold  with  their  eyes  closed  an  indescribable  divine  light ;  this 
was  accounted  holy  and  glorious.  The  less  any  one  resembled  a  man  of 
a  rational  and  sane  mind,  the  more  confidently  might  he  hope  to  obtain  an 
honoured  place  among  the  heroes  and  demigods  of  the  church. 

§  8.  In  efforts  to  settle  theological  controversies,  many  were  diligent, 
and  none  successful.  Scarcely  an  individual  can  be  named  who  contend- 
ed against  the  Eutychians,  the  Nestorians,  or  the  Pelagians,  Avith  fairness, 
sobriety,  and  decorum.  Primasius  and  Philoponus  treated  of  all  the  here- 
sies :  but  time  has  swept  away  their  works.  A  book  of  Leontius  on  the 
sects  is  extant ;  but  it  deserves  little  praise.  Against  the  Jews,  Isidore  of 
Seville,  and  Leontius  of  Neapolis,  engaged  in  controversy  :  but  with  what 
degree  of  skill,  may  easily  be  conjectured  by  those  who  reflect  on  the  cir- 

(9)  See  Acta  Sanctor.  Martii,  torn,  iii.,  p.  86,  &c.,  [and  Biblioth.  Patr.,  torn,  x.,  p.  382. 
-TV.] 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY. 


409 


cumstanccs  of  the  age.  It  will  be  better  therefore  to  proceed  to  a  brief 
account  of  the  controversies  themselves  which  disturbed  the  church  in  this 
century,  than  to  treat  in  detail  of  these  miserable  disputants. 

§  9.  Although  Origen  lay  under  condemnation  by  many  public  senten- 
ces and  decrees,  yet  the  attachment  of  many  to  him,  especially  among  the 
monks,  scorned  all  limitation.  In  the  West,  one  Bellator  translated  va- 
rious books  of  Origen  into  Latin. (10)  In  the  East,  particularly  in  Syria 
and  Palestine  which  were  the  principal  seats  of  Origenism,  the  monks 
were  exceedingly  zealous  :  and  they  had  the  approbation  of  certain  bishops, 
especially  of  Theodoras  of  Csesarea  in  Cappadocia,  in  defending  the  correct- 
ness and  the  authority  of  Origen's  sentiments.(ll)  The  subject  was 
brought  before  the  emperor  Justinian ;  and  he  issued  a  long  and  full  edict 
addressed  to  Mennas  the  bishop  of  Constantinople,  in  which  he  strongly  con- 
demned Origen  and  his  opinions  ;  and  forbid  his  opinions'  being  taught.(12) 
The  contest  about  the  three  Chapters  commencing  soon  after,  Origenism 
not  only  revived  in  Palestine,  but  it  spread  and  gathered  strength.  These 
commotions  were  brought  to  a  termination  by  the  fifth  [general]  council, 
at  Constantinople,  assembled  by  Justinian  in  the  year  553,  when  Origen 
and  his  adherents  were  again  condemned. (13) 


(10)  [This  is  founded  on  a  conjecture  of 
Huet,  (Origeniana,  p.  252),  who  ascribes  the 
Latin  translation  of    Origen's  Homilies  on 
Matthew,  in  particular,  to  this  Bellator. — 
Sckl.] 

(11)  See  Cyril  of  Scythopolis,  Vita  Sa- 
bae  ;    in   Jo.  Bapl.    Cotelier,    Monumenta 
Eccles.  Graecae,  p.  370,  &c.,  and  Hen.  No- 
ris,  Diss.  de  Synodo  quinta,  cap.  i.,  ii.,  in 
his  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  p.  554. 

(12)  This  decree  is  extant  in  Jo.  Harduin, 
Concihor.   torn,  iii.,  p.  243,  &c.     [It  was 
first   published  by  Baronius,  Annal.  Eccl. 
ad  ann.  538  ;  and  thence  passed  into  all  the 
collections  of  Councils. — 7Y.J 

(13)  See  the  decree  of  the  council  in  Jo. 
Harduin,  Concilior.   torn,    iii.,  p.  283,  &c. 
See  also  Evagnus,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  iv.,  c. 
38  ;  and  on  this  whole  subject,  see  Ja.  Bas- 
nage,  Histoire  de  1'Eglise,  lorn,  i.,  lib.  x.,  c. 
6,  p.  517,  &c.    Pet.  Dan.  Huet,  Origeniana, 
lib.  ii.,  p.  224.     Lud.  Doncm,  Diss.   sub- 
joined to  his  Historia   Origeniana,  p.  345, 
&c.     [Sckroeckh,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  xviii.. 
p.  40-58,  but  especially  C.   W.  F.  Walch, 
Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.   vii.,  p.   618 
-760. — This    contest    respecting    Origen 
commenced    among    the    Palestine   monks 
about  the  year  520.     One  Nonnus  and  three 
other  monks,  belonging  to  the  new  Laura 
(or  cluster  of  cells),  were  discovered  to  hold 
and  to  be  propagating  the  opinions  of  Origen. 
Sabas,  abbot  of  the  old  Laura,  and  supervi- 
sor of  all  the  Palestine  monks,  opposed  the 
schismatics.     They  were  rejected  from  the 
Laura,  but  were  restored  again  ;  and  in  spite 
of  opposition  and  persecution,  they  brought 
over  many  in  both  Lauras  to  their  views. 

VOL.  I.— F  F  F 


The  commotion  became  violent,  and  expul- 
sions, fighting,  and  bloodshed  ensued.  Still  it 
was  only  a  contest  among  a  few  monks,  liv- 
ing in  two  little  societies  or  neighbourhoods 
in  Palestine.  Justinian's  decree  addressed 
to  Mennas,  was  probably  issued  about  the 
year  540  ;  and  it  has  been  supposed,  that 
the  council  of  Constantinople  which  anathe- 
matized 15  errors  of  Origen,  was  an  acci- 
dental council  held  about  the  year  541,  and 
not  the  general  council  held  in  553.  How- 
ever that  may  be,  the  death  of  Nonnus  in  the 
year  546,  caused  the  Origenist  party  among 
the  monks  to  become  divided,  and  to  fall  into 
a  declining  state.  The  fullest  enumeration 
of  errors  held  by  these  Origenists,  which  has 
come  down  to  us,  is  that  of  the  15  anathe- 
mas by  the  council  of  Constantinople.  Yet 
Justinian's  decree  or  letter  to  Mennas  is 
nearly  as  full ;  and  it  is  more  precise  and 
lucid,  as  well  as  better  substantiated  by  ref- 
erences to  the  works  of  Origen.  In  this  de- 
cree, after  a  concise  introduction,  the  em- 
peror proceeds  like  a  theologian,  through  ten 
folio  pages,  to  enumerate  and  confute  the 
errors  of  Origen.  He  then  directs  the  patri- 
arch Mennas  to  assemble  what  bishops  and 
abbots  could  be  found  at  Constantinople,  and 
to  condemn  the  subjoined  list  of  Origenian 
errors  ;  their  doings  to  be  afterwards  trans- 
mitted to  all  bishops  and  abbots  for  their  con- 
firmation, so  that  after  this  general  consent 
shall  be  obtained,  no  bishop  or  abbot  may  be 
ordained  without  condemning  Origenism  a* 
well  as  the  other  heresies.  The  list  of  er- 
rors to  be  condemned  is  then  subjoined,  as 
follows. — (1)  "If  any  one  says  or  believes, 
that  human  souls  prc-cxuled,  i.e.,  were  once 


410 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 


§  10.  This  controversy  produced  another  which  was  much  more  lasting 
and  violent,  but  which,  as  to  the  subject  of  it.  was  far  less  important.  The 
emperor  Justinian  burned  with  zeal  to  extirpate  the  more  strenuous  Mo- 
nophysites,  who  were  called  Acephali.  On  this  subject  he  took  counsel 
with  Theodorus  of  Ccesarea,  who  was  a  friend  to  Origenism  and  also  a 
Monophysite  :  and  Theodorus,  in  order  to  procure  tranquillity  to  the  Ori- 
genists  by  stirring  up  a  new  controversy,  and  also  to  fix  some  stigma  upon 
the  council  of  Chalcedon  and  inflict  an  incurable  wound  on  the  Nestorians, 
persuaded  the  emperor  to  believe  that  the  Acephali  would  return  to  the 
church;  provided  the  Acts  of  the  council  of  Chalcedon  were  purged  of 
those  three  passages  or  three  Chapters,  in  which  Theodorus  of  Mopsues- 
tia,  Theodoret  bishop  of  Cyrus,  and  Ibas  of  Edessa,  were  acquitted  of  er- 
ror ;  and  provided  that  certain  writings  of  these  men,  favourable  to  the 
Nestorian  errors,  were  condemned.  The  emperor  believed  this  ;  and  in 
the  year  544,  ordered  those  three  chapters  to  be  expunged,  but  without 
prejudice  to  the  authority  of  the  council  of  Chalcedon.  (14)  But  this  edict 


mere  spirits,  and  holy  ;  that  having  become 
weary  of  divine  contemplation,  they  were 
brought  into  a  worse  condition  ;  and  that, 
because  they  inrotlivxEiaac,  i.  e.,  cooled  down 
as  to  the  love  of  God,  they  were  therefore 
called  in  Greek  i/Ji^uf,  that  is,  souls  ;  and 
were  sent  down  to  inhabit  bodies,  as  a  pun- 
ishment ;  let  him  be  anathema..  —  (2)  If  any 
one  says  or  believes,  that  the  soul  of  our 
Lord  pre-existed  ;  and  that  it  was  united  to 
God  the  Word  before  his  incarnation  and 
birth  of  the  virgin  ;  let  him  be  anathema.  — 
(3)  If  any  one  says  or  believes,  that  the  body 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  first  formed  in 
the  womb  of  the  blessed  virgin  as  those  of 
other  men  are  ;  and  that  afterwards  God  the 
Word  and  the  pre-  existent  soul  became  united 
with  it  ;  let  him  be  anathema.  —  (4)  If  any 
one  says  or  believes,  that  God  the  Word 
was  made  like  to  all  the  celestial  orders,  that 
to  the  Cherubim  he  was  made  a  Cherub,  and 
to  the  Seraphim  a  Seraph,  and  to  all  the 
celestial  Virtues  one  like  them  ;  let  him  be 
ana/.hema.  —  (5)  If  any  one  says  or  believes, 
that  in  the  resurrection,  the  bodies  of  men 
will  be  raised  orbicular,  and  does  not  confess 
that,  we  shall  be  resuscitated  erect  ;  let  htm 
be  anathema.  —  (6)  If  any  one  says  or  be- 
lieves, that  Heaven,  the  sun,  the  moon,  the 
stars,  and  the  waters  above  the  heavens,  are 
animated,  and  are  a  sort  of  material  Vir- 
tues ;  let  him  be  anathema.  —  (7)  If  any  one 
says  or  believes,  that  Christ  the  Lord  is  to 
be  crucified  in  the  future  world  for  the  dev- 
ils, as  he  was  in  this  for  men  ;  let  him  be 
anathema.  —  (8)  If  any  one  says  or  believes, 
that  the  power  of  God  is  limited,  and  that 
he  created  all  the  things  he  could  compre- 
hend ;  let  him  be  anathema.  —  (9)  If  any  one 
saye  or  believes,  that  the  punishment  of  dev- 
ils and  wicked  men  will  be  temporary,  and 
will  have  an  end,  or  that  there  will  be  a  re- 


covery and  restoration  of  devils  and  wicked 
men;  let  him  be  anathema. —  (10)  And 
Anathema  to  Origen,  who  is  called  Ada- 
mantius,  together  with  his  nefarious,  execra- 
ble, and  abominable  doctrine  ;  and  to  every 
one  who  believes  it,  or  in  any  manner  pre- 
sumes at  all  to  defend  it  at  any  time :  in 
Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,  to  whom  be  glory 
for  ever  and  evef.  Amen." — TV.] 

(14)  This  decree  is  extant  in  Jo.  Harduin, 
Concilior.  torn,  iii.,  p.  287,  &c.  Evagri- 
us,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  iv.,  c.  38.  [It  is  call- 
ed Justinian's  Creed ;  and  professes  to  de- 
fine the  Catholic  faith,  as  established  by  the 
four  first  general  councils,  (those  of  Nice, 
Constantinople,  Ephesus,  and  Chalcedon), 
and  to  condemn  the  opposite  errors. — Dr. 
Mosheim's  description  of  the  three  chapters 
would  lead  us  to  suppose  that  certain  chap- 
ters, sections,  or  paragraphs,  in  the  Acts  of 
the  council  of  Chalcedon,  were  the  three 
things  condemned  by  Justinian.  But  this 
was  not  the  fact.  His  decree  does  not  avow- 
edly condemn  anything  contained  in  the  Acts 
of  that  council ;  nor  does  it  use  the  phrase 
three  Chapters.  The  phrase  was  afterwards 
brought  into  use,  and  denoted  three  subjects, 
(capitula,  /ce^uAata),  which  were  condemned 
by  this  decree  of  Justinian;  viz.,  (1)  the 
person  and  writings  of  Theodorus  bishop  of 
Mopsuestia,  whom  the  decree  pronounced  a 
heretic  and  a  Neslorian;  (2)  the  writings 
of  Theodoret  bishop  of  Cyrus ;  not  univer- 
sally, but  only  so  far  as  they  favoured  Nes- 
torianism,  or  opposed  Cynl  of  Alexandria 
and  his  12  anathemas;  and  (3)  an  Epistle 
said  to  have  been  written  by  Ibas,  bishop  of 
Edessa,  to  one  Maris  a  Persian,  which  cen- 
sured Cyril  and  the  first  council  of  Ephesus, 
and  favoured  the  cause  of  Nestorius.  The 
council  of  Chalcedon  had  passed  no  decree 
respecting  Theodorus ;  and  it  had  left  all  the 


HISTORY  OF  THEOLOGY. 


411 


met  with  opposition  from  the  bishops  of  the  West  and  of  Africa,  and  es- 
pecially from  Vigilius  the  Roman  pontiff,  who  maintained  that  great  injury 
was  done  by  it  both  to  the  council  of  Chalcedon  and  to  deceased  worthies 
who  died  in  the  communion  of  the  church. (15)  Justinian  summoned  Vigil, 
ius  to  Constantinople,  and  compelled  him  to  condemn  the  three  Chapters. 
But  the  African  and  Illyrian  bishops,  on  the  other  hand,  compelled  Vigilius 
to  revoke  that  condemnation.  For  no  one  of  them  would  own  him  for  a 
bishop  and  a  brother,  until  he  had  approved  those  three  chapters.  Jus. 
tinian  again  condemned  the  three  chapters,  by  anew  edict  in  the  year  551. 
§  11.  After  various  contentions,  it  was  thought  best  to  refer  the  con- 
troversy  to  the  decision  of  a  general  council.  Justinian  therefore,  in  the 
year  553,  assembled  at  Constantinople  what  is  called  the  Jifth  general 
council.  In  this  council,  the  opinions  of  Origen,(W)  as  well  as  the  three 
Chalcedonian  Chapters,  according  to  the  wishes  of  the  emperor  were 
judged  to  be  pernicious  to  the  church;  yet  it  was  a  decision  of  the  east- 
ern bishops,  for  very  few  from  the  West  were  present.  Vigilius,  then 
at  Constantinople,  would  not  assent  to  the  decrees  of  this  council.  He 
was  therefore  treated  indignantly  by  the  emperor,  and  sent  into  banish- 
ment ;  nor  was  he  allowed  to  return  till  he  acceded  to  the  decrees  of 
this  fifth  council.(17)  Pelagius  his  successor,  and  the  subsequent  Roman 

three  bishops  in  good  standing,  though  the     long  and  severely :  and  at  length  this  pre- 
Epistle  of  Ibas  and  some  of  the  writings  of    cipitate  act  of  the  emperor,  being  sanction- 


Theodorel  received  censure.  Hence  Justin- 
ian's decree  did  not  openly  and  avowedly 
contravene  the  decisions  at  Chalcedon  ; 
though  virtually,  and  in  effect,  it  did  so. 
To  understand  the  contest  about  the  three 
Chapters,  it  should  be  remembered,  that  the 
Nestorians,  who  separated  the  two  natures 
of  Christ  too  much,  and  the  Eutychians  or 
Monophysites,  who  commingled  them  too 
much,  were  the  two  extremes  ;  between 
which  the  orthodox  took  their  stand,  con- 
demning both.  But  the  orthodox  themselves 
did  not  all  think  alike.  Some,  in  their  zeal 
against  the  Nestorians,  came  near  to  the 


ed  by  the  requisite  authority,  had  the  effect 
to  shape  the  creed  of  the  Catholic  church 
from  that  day  to  this.  See  Walch,  Histo- 
ric der  Kelzereyen,  vol.  viii.,  p.  3-468,  but 
especially  p.  437,  &c. — Tr.~\ 

(15)  Hen.  Noris,  de  Synodo  quinta,  cap. 
x.,  &c.  ;  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  p.  579.     Ja.  Bas- 
nage,  Histoire  de  PEglise,  torn,  i.,  1.  x.,  c. 
vi.,  p.  523,  dec.,  [also  Dr.  Walch,  ubi  supra.] 

(16)  [According  to  the  acts  of  this  coun- 
cil, as  they  have  come  down  to  us,  Origin 
was  no  otherwise  condemned  by  this  general 
council,  than  by  having  his  name  inserted  in 
the  list  of  heretics  collectively  anathematized 


Monophysite  ground  ;  and  these  of  course  felt     in  the  llth  anathema. — The  celebrated  15 

willing  to  condemn  the  three  Chapters.    Oth-     anathemas  of  as  many  Origenian  errors,  said 

ers,  zealous  only  against  the  Monophysites, 

were  not  far  from  being  Nestorians ;   and 

these  of  course  defended  the  three  Chapters  ; 

for  Theodoras,  Theodnret,  and  Ibas  had  been 

leading  men  of  this  very  character.     Hence 

the  interest  shown  by  the  Oriental  bishops 

in  this  controversy.     But  in  the  West,  where 

the  Nestorian  and  Eutychian  contests  had 

been  less  severe,  and  where  the  persons  and 

writings  of  Theodoras,  Ibas,  and  Thcodoret 

were  little  known,  the  three  Chapters  were 

felt  to  he  of  little  consequence  ;  except  as 

the  condemning  them  seemed  to  impair  the 

authority  of  the  decrees  of  Chalcedon,  and 

to  asperse  characters  once  held  venerable  in 

the  church. — It  was  doubtless  a  most  rash 

thing    in  Justinian  to  condemn  the  three 

Chapters.     But  having  done  it,  he  resolved 

to  persevere  in  it.     The  church  was  agitated 


to  have  been  decreed  by  this  council,  are 
found  in  no  copy  of  its  Acts,  nor  are  they 
mentioned  by  any  ancient  writer.  Peter 
Lambecius  first  discovered  them  in  the  im- 
perial library  at  Vienna,  in  an  old  MS.  of 
Photius'  Syntagma  Canonum,  bearing  the 
superscription,  "  Canons  of  the  165  holy 
Fathers  of  the  fifth  holy  council  at  Constan- 
tinople ;"  and  published  them  with  a  Latin 
translation  ;  whence  Balu.se  first  introduced 
them  into  the  Collections  of  Councils.  But 
Cave,  Walch,  Valesius,  and  others,  suppose 
they  were  framed  in  a  council  at  Constantino- 
ple, about  A.D.  541.  See  note  (13)  above, 
p.  409  ;  Cave,  Hist.  Litterar.,  torn,  i.,  p. 
558  ;  Walch.  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol. 
vii.,  p.  644,  761  ;  Valesius,  note  on  Evagri- 
us,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  iv.,  c.  38.— TV.] 
(17)  See  Peter  de  Marca,  Diss.  de  decre- 


412 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 


pontiffs,  in  like  manner,  received  those  decrees.  But  neither  their  au- 
thority, nor  that  of  the  emperors,  could  prevail  with  the  western  bishops 
to  follow  their  example.  For  many  of  them,  on  this  account,  seceded 
from  communion  with  the  Roman  pontiff;  nor  could  this  great  wound  be 
healed,  except  by  length  of  time. (18) 

§  12.  Another  considerable  controversy  broke  out  among  the  Greeks 
in  the  year  519  ;  namely,  whether  it  could  properly  be  said,  that  one  of  the 
Trinity  was  crucified.  Many  adopted  this  language,  in  order  to  press 
harder  upon  the  Nestorians,  who  separated  the  natures  of  Christ  too 
much.  Among  these  were  the  Scythian  monks  at  Constantinople,  who 
were  the  principal  movers  of  this  controversy.  But  others  regarded  this 
language  as  allied  to  the  error  of  the  Theopaschites  or  Eutychians ;  and 
therefore  rejected  it.  With  these,  Hormisdas  bishop  of  Rome,  when  con- 
sulted by  the  Scythian  monks,  coincided ;  and  great  and  pernicious  al- 
tercations ensued.  Afterwards,  the  fifth  council,  and  John  II.,  a  succes- 
sor of  Hormisdas,  by  approving  of  this  language,  restored  peace  to  the 
church. (19)  Connected  with  this  question  was  another;  whether  it  was 
proper  to  say,  Christ's  person  was  compounded :  which  the  Scythian  monks 
affirmed,  and  others  denied. 


to  Vigilii  pro  confirmatione  Synodi  quintae  ; 
among  the  Diss.  subjoined  to  his  work,  de 
Corcordia  sacerdotii  et  imperil,  p.  207,  &c., 
[and  Bower's  Lives  of  the  Popes,  ( Vigilius), 
Tol.  ii.,  p.  382-413,  ed.  Lond.,  1750.— Tr.  J- 

(18)  See,  in  preference  to  all  others,  Hen. 
Noris,  de  Synodo  quinta  Oecumenica  ;  yet 
Noris  is  not  free  from  all  partiality.     Also 
Christ.  Lupus,  Notes  on  the  5th  Council, 
among  his  Adnotat.  ad  Concilia. 

(19)  See  Hen.  Noris,  Historia  controver- 
sise  de  uno  ex  trinitate  passo  ;  Opp.,  torn, 
iii.,  p.  771.     The  ancient  writers  who  men- 
tion this  controversy,  call  the  monks  with 
whom  it  originated,  Scythians.     But  Matiir. 
Veiss.  la  Croze,  (Thesaur.  Epistolar.,  torn, 
iii.,  p.  189),  conjectures  that  they  were  Scetic 
monks    from   Egypt,   and    not    Scythians. 
This  conjecture,  has  some  probability.     [But 
Dr.  Walch,  Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol. 
vii.,  p.  296,  297,  says  of  this  conjecture  : 
"  it  is  not  only  improbable,  but  is  certainly 
false."     And  the  documents  relative  to  the 
controversy,  (of  which  he  had  there  just  closed 
the  recital),  do  appear,  as  Dr.  Walch  affirms, 
"  adequate  to  prove,  that  these  men  were 
really  from  Scythia."     Together  with  the 
two  modes  of  expression  relative  to  the  Trin- 


ity, which  they  advocated,  these  monks  were 
strenuous  opposers  of  Pelagianism.  Hav- 
ing had  disagreement  with  some  bishops  of 
their  province,  particularly  with  Paternus 
bishop  of  Tomis,  a  deputation  of  them  went 
to  Constantinople  with  their  complaint. 
Among  these  deputies,  John  Maxentius,  Le- 
ontius,  and  Achilles,  were  the  principal. 
The  emperor  rather  favoured  them  ;  but  the 
bishops  of  the  East  were  not  agreed.  The 
emperor  obliged  the  pope's  legates  at  the 
court  to  hear  the  cause.  But  they  were  not 
disposed  to  decide  it ;  at  least,  not  as  the 
monks  wished.  A  part  of  them  now  repair- 
ed to  Rome,  where  they  stayed  more  than  a 
year.  Hormisdas  disapproved  their  phrase- 
ology, but  was  not  very  ready  to  condemn 
it  outright.  While  at  Rome,  these  monks 
wrote  to  the  exiled  African  bishops  in  Sar- 
dinia, and  by  taking  part  in  their  controver- 
sy, obtained  their  friendship.  They  certain- 
ly had  many  friends  ;  but  the  ancient  histo- 
rians have  transmitted  to  us  only  some  slight 
notices  of  their  history.  See  Walch,  His- 
toric der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  vii.,  p.  262-313. 
Bower,  Lives  of  the  Popes,  (Hormisdas),  vol. 
ii.,  p.  306-309.— TV.] 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  413 

CHAPTER  IV. 

HISTORY    OF    RITES. 

$   1.   Rites  Multiplied. — $  2.  Explanation  of  the  Ceremonies. — $   3.  Public  Worship. 
The  Eucharist.     Baptism. — t)  4.  Temples.     Festivals. 

§  1.  IN  proportion  as  true  religion  and  piety  from  various  causes  de- 
clined in  this  century,  the  external  signs  of  religion  and  piety,  that  is,  rites 
and  ceremonies,  were  augmented.  In  the  East,  the  Nestorian  and  Eu- 
tychian  contests  occasioned  the  invention  of  various  rites  and  forms, 
which  might  serve  as  marks  to  distinguish  the  contending  sects.  In  the 
West,  Gregory  the  Great  was  wonderfully  dexterous  and  ingenious  in  de- 
vising and  recommending  new  ceremonies.  Nor  will  this  appear  strange 
to  those  who  are  aware,  that  Gregory  supposed  the  words  of  the  holy 
'  scriptures  to  be  images  of  recondite  things.  For  whoever  can  believe 
this,  can  easily  bring  himself  to  inculcate  all  the  doctrines  and  precepts 
of  religion  by  means  of  rites  and  signs.  Yet  in  one  respect  he  is  to  be 
commended ;  namely,  that  he  would  not  obtrude  his  ceremonies  upon 
others  :  perhaps  he  would  not,  because  he  could  not. 

^  2.  This  multitude  of  ceremonies  required  interpreters.  Hence  a 
new  kind  of  science  arose,  both  in  the  East  and  in  the  West,  the  object 
of  which  was  to  investigate  and  explain  the  grounds  and  reasons  of  the 
sacred  rites.  But  most  of  those  who  derive  these  rites  from  the  sugges- 
tions of  reason  and  religion,  betray  their  imbecility,  and  exhibit  rather -the 
fictions  of  their  own  brains  than  the  true  causes  of  things.  If  they  had 
been  acquainted  with  ancient  opinions  and  customs,  and  had  examined  the 
pontifical  laws  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  they  would  have  taught  us 
much  more  correctly  from  what  sources  many  of  the  rites  which  the 
Christians  regarded  as  sacred  were  derived. 

§  3.  The  public  worship  of  God  was  still  celebrated  in  the  vernacular 
language  of  each  nation ;  but  it  was  everywhere  amplified  with  various 
hymns  and  other  circumstantial  things.  The  new  mode  of  administering 
the  Lord's  supper,  magnificently,  and  with  a  splendid  apparatus,  or  the 
Canon  of  the  Mass,  as  it  is  called,  was  a  prescription  of  Gregory  the 
Great ;  or,  as  some  would  say,  he  enlarged  and  altered  the  old  Canon. 
But  many  ages  elapsed,  before  the  other  Latin  churches  could  be  prevailed 
on  to  adopt  this  Romish  form.(l)  Baptism,  except  in  cases  of  necessity, 

(1)  See  Theod.  Chr.  Lilienthal,  de  Canone  man  canon  was  introduced  partially  in  the 

Missae  Gregoriano,  Lugd.  Bat.,  1740,  8vo,  llth,  and  more  fully  in  the  13th  and  follow- 

and    the   writers   on    liturgies.       [Different  ing   centuries.      In    England,  the   ancient 

countries  had  different  missals.     Not  only  Britons  had  one  liturgy,  and  the  Anglo-Sax- 

the  East  differed  from  the  West,  but  in  both  ons  derived  another  from  their  apostle  Au- 

there  were  diversities.     In  Gaul,  the  old  lit-  gustine  and  his  companions,  and  this  not 

urgy  continued  till  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  precisely  the  Roman.     See  Krazcr,  de  Li- 

In  Milan,  the  Ambrosian  Liturgy  (so  named  turgiis,   sec.   ii.,  chap.   2-6.     Gregory   the 

from  St.  Ambrose  bishop  of  Milan)  is  not  Great  introduced  the  responsive  chant ;  and 

yet  wholly  abandoned.     In  Spain,  the  Mo-  he  established  a  school  for  church  music, 

sarabic  or  ancient  Spanish,  is  still  used  oc-  which  was  in  existence  at  Rome  as  late  as 

casionally  in  certain  places,  though  the  Rio-  the  9th  century. — TV.] 


414 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  II.— CHAP.  IV. 


was  conferred  only  on  the  feast  days,  and  those  too  of  the  highest  class, 
or  the  greatest  festivals.(2)  As  for  the  so  called  Litanies  to  the  Saints,(3) 
the  various  kinds  of  supplications,  the  stations  of  Gregory,(4)  the  formu- 
las of  consecration,  and  other  rites  invented  in  this  century  to  captivate 
the  senses  with  a  show  of  religion,  we  shall  pass  over  them,  to  avoid  pro- 
lixity. This  subject  requires  the  labours  and  investigations  of  a  special 
treatise. 

§  4.  The  temples  erected  in  memory  and  to  the  honour  of  the  saints, 
were  immensely  numerous,  both  in  the  East  and  the  West. (5)  There 
had  long  been  enough  houses  of  worship  to  accommodate  the  people  ;  but 
this  age  courted  the  saints,  by  offering  them  these  edifices  as  a  kind  of 
presents  ;  nor  did  they  doubt  at  all,  that  the  saints  took  under  their  imme- 
diate protection  and  care,  the  provinces,  cities,  towns,  and  villages,  in 
which  they  saw  such  residences  prepared  for  them. (6)  The  number  of 
feast-days  almost  equalled  that  of  the  churches.  In  particular,  the  list  of 
festivals  for  the  whole  Christian  church  was  swelled,  by  the  consecration 
of  the  day  of  the  purification  of  the  Holy  Virgin  Mary,  so  that,  the  people 
might  not  miss  their  Lupercalia,  which  they  were  accustomed  to  celebrate  < 
in  the  month  of  February,(7) — and  by  the  day  of  the  Saviour's  concep- 
tion,^) the  birthday  of  St.  John,(9)  and  some  others. 

(2)  [Especially    Christmas,    Epiphany, 
Easter,  Whitsuntide,  and  St.  John  the  Bap- 
tist ;    at  least  in  Gaul.      See    Gregory  of 
Tours,  de  Gloria  Confessor.,  c.  69,  76,  and 
Historia  Francor.,  lib.  viii.,  c.  9. — Schi] 

(3)  [The  Litanies,  of  which  there  were  the 
larger  and  the  smaller,  the  common  and  the 
special,  were  in  the  previous  centuries  ad- 
dressed only  to  God  ;  but  superstition  now 
led  men  to  address  them  to  Mary,  and  to  the 
other  saints. — Von  Ein.]         ^ 

(4)  [Stations  denoted  in  early  times  fasts; 
but  afterwards  the  churches,  the  chapels,  the 
cemeteries,  or  other  places,  where  the  people 
assembled   for  worship.     (See   du   Cange, 
Glossar.  Med.  et  Infim.  Latinitat.,  sub  hac 
voce.)     Gregory  discriminated  the  different 
times,  occasions,  and  places  of  public  wor- 
ship, and  framed  a  service  for  each.     This 
is  the  principal  cause  of  the  vast  multiplica- 
tion of  liturgical  formulas   in  the  Romish 
church.— Tr.] 

(5)  [See  Procopius,  de  Bello  Gothico, 
lib.  iv.  and  v.  ;  also  de  Aedificiis  Justiniani ; 
where  is  mention  of  many  churches  erected 
to  the  virgin  Mary. — Schl.] 

(6)  [Thus  the  Lombard  queen  Thcodelin- 
da  built  a  church  for  John  the  Baptist,  that 
he  might  pray  for  her  and  her  people.     (Paul 
Diacon.,  Hist.  Longobard.,  1.  iv.,  c.7.)     And 
the  French  king  Clothaire  built  a  splendid 
temple  to  St.  Vincent ;  because  he  believed 
that  saint  had  helped  him  to  vanquish  the 
Goths.     (Siegbert,  Chronic.)    For  the  same 
reason,  rich  presents  were  made  to  the  church- 
es.    Thus  Childebert,  after  conquering  Ala- 
ric,  gave  to  the  church  sixty  cups,  fifteen 


dishes,  and  twenty  cases  for  the  holy  Gos- 
pels ;  all  of  the  finest  gold,  and  set  with  cost- 
ly gems.  (Gregory  of  Tours,  Historia 
Francor.,  1.  iii.,  c.  10.)—  SchL] 

(7)  [This  was   instituted   by   Justinian, 
A.D.  542,  and  fixed  to  the  2d  day  of  Febru- 
ary.    The  Greeks  called  it  imavTi)  or  inra- 
iravrrj,  meeting;  because  then  Simeon  and 
Anna  met  the  Saviour  in  the  Temple.     The 
Latins  call  it  the  feast  of  Si.  Simeon,  the 
presentation  of  the  Lord,  and  Candlemass  ; 
because  many  candles  were  then  lighted  up  ; 
as  had  been  done  on  the  Lupercalia,  the  fes- 
tival of  the  ravishment  of  Proserpine,  whom 
her  mother  Ceres  seatehed  for  with  candles. 
See  Hospinian,  de  Festis   Christianor.,' p. 
52,  &c.,  and  Adr.  Baillet,  Vies  des  Saints, 
torn,  i.,  Febr.,  p.  22,  &c.— Tr.] 

(8)  [This  feast  is  generally  celebrated  the 
25th  of  March  ;  and  is  called  by  the  Greeks 
rj/jtpa  aaTraapS,  sive  evayyeluafiS,  the  day 
of  the  salutation,  or  of  the  annunciation ; 
because-on  this  day  the  angel  Gabriel  an- 
nounced to  Mary  that  she  should  bring  forth 
the   Saviour.     The  Latins  absurdly  call  it, 
the  annunciation  of  Mary.     To  avoid  inter- 
rupting the  Lent  fast,  the  Spaniards  cele- 
brated it  on  the  18th  of  December,  and  the 
Armenians  on  the  5th  of  January  ;  the  other 
churches  kept  it  on  the  25th  of  March.     It 
is  mentioned  in  the  52d  canon  of  the  council 
in  Trullo,  A.D.  691,  as  a  festival  then  fully 
established  and  known  ;  but  at  what  time  it 
was  first  introduced  is  uncertain.     See  Sui- 
cer,  Thesaur.  Eccles.,  torn,  i.,  p.  1234,  and 
Adr.  Baillet,  Vies  des  Saints,  torn,  i.,  March, 
p.  315,  &c.— Tr.] 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS.  415 


CHAPTER  V. 

HISTORY    OF   HERESIES    AND  SEPARATIONS    FROM   THE    CHURCH. 

§  1.  Remains  of  the  Ancient  Sects.  Manichaeans.  Pelagians. — §  2.  Donatists. — $  3. 
Arians. — §  4.  State  of  the  Nestorians. — $  5.  Eutychian  Contests.  Severus. — $  6. 
Jac.  Baradaeus,  the  Father  of  the  Monophysites. — $  7.  Their  State. — $  8.  Controver- 
sies among  them. — $  9.  The  Agnoetae. — §  10.  Tritheists. 

§  1.  THE  ancient  sects,  though  harassed  in  numberless  ways,  did  not 
cease  to  raise  dangerous  commotions  in  various  places.  Among  the  Per- 
sians, the  Manichaeans  are  said  to  have  become  so  powerful  as  to  seduce 
the  son  of  Cabades  the  monarch  ;  but  the  king  avenged  the  crime  by  a 
great  slaughter  among  them.  They  must  also  have  been  troublesome  in 
other  countries  ;  for  Heraclianus  of  Chalcedon  deemed  it  needful  to  write 
a  book  against  them.(l)  In  Gaul  and  Africa,  the  contests  Between  the 
Semipelagians  and  the  followers  of  Augustine  continued. 

§  2.  The  Donatists  were  comfortably  situated,  so  long  as  the  Vandals 
reigned  in  Africa.  But  when  this  kingdom  was  overturned,  in  the  year 
534,  their  condition  was  less  fortunate.  Yet  they  not  only  kept  up  their 
church,  but  near  the  close  of  the  century,  or  from  the  year  591,  ventured 
to  defend  and  propagate  their  principles  with  more  earnestness.  These 
efforts  of  theirs  were  vigorously  opposed  by  Gregory  the  Great,  who,  as  ap- 
pears from  his  Epistles,(2)  endeavoured  in  various  ways  to  depress  the 
sect  now  raising  its  head  again.  And  his  measures  doubtless  were  suc- 
cessful ;  for  the  Donatist  church  became  extinct  in  this  century,  at  least 
no  mention  is  made  of  it  after  this  time. 

§  3.  The  Arians,  at  the  commencement  of  this  century,  were  triumphant 
in  certain  parts  of  Asia,  Africa,  and  Europe.  Not  a  few  of  the  Asiatic 
bishops  favoured  them.  The  Vandals  in  Africa,  the  Goths  in  Italy,  many 

(9)  [I  know  not  what  induced  Dr.  Mosheim  8vo),  and  the  latter  used,  about  this  time, 
to  place  the  introduction  of  this  feast  in  this  [the  24th  of  June],  to  keep  the  feast  of 
century.  If  the  superscriptions  to  the  horn-  Vesta,  with  kindling  a  new  fire  amid  dances 
ilies  of  Maxtmus  of  Turin  (who  lived  A.D.  and  other  sports. —  Schl.  Adr.  Batllet,  (Viet 
420)  are  correct,  this  feast  must  have  been  des  Saints,  torn,  ii.,  June,  p.  296),  proves 
common  in  the  fifth  century  ;  for  three  of  from  the  sermons  of  St.  Augustine,  that  this 
these  homilies  are  superscribed,  as  being  festival  was  considered  as  of  long  standing 
composed  for  this  feast.  Perhaps  Dr.  Mo-  in  the  church  in  the  days  of  that  father.  Au- 
sheim  had  his  eye  on  the  21st  canon  of  the  gvstine  himself  has  left  us  seven  sermons, 
council  held  at  Agde,  A.D.  506,  (Harduin's  which  he  preached  on  the  festival. — TV.] 
Collection,  torn,  ii.,  p.  1000),  where  the  (1)  SeePhotius,  Bibl.  Cod.  cxiv.,p.  291. 
festival  of  St.  John  is  mentioned  among  the  (2)  See  his  Epistolar.  lib.  iv.,  ep.  34,  35, 
greater  feasts.  Yet  as  it  is  there  mentioned  p.  714.  715,  and  lib  vi.,  ep.  65.  p.  841,  ep. 
as  one  already  known,  it  must  have  been  in  37,  p.  821,  and  lib.  ix.,  ep.  53,  p  972,  and 
existence  some  years.  —  Heathenish  rites  lib.  ii.,  ep  48,  p.  611,  Opp.,  torn.  ii.  [The 
were  likewise  mixed  with  this  feast.  The  emperor  Mauritius  issued  penal  laws  against 
feast  of  St.  John  and  the  dancing  around  a  them,  in  the  year  595.  It  is  a  probable  con- 
tree  set  up,  were  usages  as  well  of  the  Ger-  jecture  of  Witsius,  (Historia  Donatist.,  cap. 
man  and  northern  nations  as  of  the  Romans,  viii..  $  9),  that  the  conquests  of  the  Saracens 
The  former  had  their  Noodfyr,  (on  which  in  Africa,  in  the  7th  century,  put  an  end  to 
Joh.  Reiske  published  a  book,  Francf.,  1696,  the  Donatist  contest. — Schl.] 


416      BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

of  the  Gauls,  the  Suevi,  the  Burgundians,  and  the  Spaniards,  openly  espoused 
their  interest.  The  Greeks  indeed,  who  approved  of  the  Nicene  council, 
oppressed  and  persecuted  them  wherever  they  were  able ;  but  the  Arians 
returned  the  like  treatment,  especially  in  Africa  and  Italy.(3)  Yet  this 
prosperity  of  the  Arians  wholly  ceased,  when,  under  the  auspices  of  Justin- 
ian, the  Vandals  were  driven  from  Africa  and  the  Goths  from  Italy.(4) 
For  the  other  Arian  kings,  Sigismund  king  of  the  Burgundians,  Theodimir 
king  of  the  Suevi  in  Lusitania,  and  Reccared  king  of  Spain,  without  vio- 
lence and  war  suffered  themselves  to  be  led  to  a  renunciation  of  the  Arian 
doctrine,  and  to  efforts  for  its  extirpation  among  their  subjects  by  means 
of  legal  enactments  and  councils.  Whether  reason  and  arguments,  or 
hope  and  fear,  had  the  greater  influence  in  the  conversion  of  these  kings, 
it  is  difficult  to  say. (5)  But  this  is  certain,  the  Arian  sect  was  from  this 
time  dispersed,  and  could  never  after  recover  any  strength. 

§  4.  The  Nestorians,  after  they  had  obtained  a  fixXed  residence  in  Per- 
sia, and  had  Jocated  the  head  of  their  sect  at  Seleucia,  were  as  successful 
as  they  were  industrious  in  disseminating  their  doctrines  in  the  countries 
lying  without  the  Roman  empire.  It  appears  from  unquestionable  docu- 
ments still  existing,  that  there  were  numerous  societies  in  all  parts  of  Per- 
sia, in  India,  in  Armenia,  in  Arabia,  in  Syria,  and  in  other  countries  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  patriarch  of  Seleucia,  during  this  century. (6)  The 
Persian  kings  were  not  indeed  all  equally  well  affected  towards  this  sect ; 
and  they  sometimes  severely  persecuted  all  Christians  resident  in  their  do- 
minions ;(7)  yet  generally  they  showed  a  marked  preference  for  the  Nes- 
torians, before  those  who  adhered  to  the  council  of  Ephesus  :  for  they  sus- 
pected the  latter  to  be  spies  sent  among  them  by  the  Greeks  with  whom 
they  agreed  as  to  religion. 

£  5.  The  sect  of  the  Monophysites  was  no  less  favourably  situated ;  and  it 
drew  over  to  its  side  a  great  part  of  the  East.  In  the  first  place,  the  em- 
peror Anastasius  [A.D.  491-518]  was  attached  to  the  sect  and  to  the 
dogmas  of  the  Acephali  or  the  more  rigid  Monophysites  ,-(8)  and  he  did 

(3)  Procopius,  de  Bello  Vandal.,  1.  i.,  c.     of  Hermengild  a  West  Gothic  prince,  by  his 
8,  and  de  Bello  Gothico,  lib.  i.,  c.  2.     Eva-    French  wife  Ingunda. — Schl.'] 

grius,  Historia  Eccles.,  1.  iv.,  cap.  15,  &c.  (6)  Cosmas  Indicopleustes,  Topographia 

(4)  See  Joh.  Ja.  Mascmii  Historia  Ger-  Christiana,   lib.  ii.,  p.  125  :    in  Bern,   de 
manor.,  torn,  ii.,  the  subversion  of  the  Van-  Montfaucori's  Collectio  nova  Patrum  Grae- 
dalic  kingdom,  p.  76,  a"nd  that  of  the  Goths,  cor.,  of  which  the  Preface,  p.  xi.,  &c.,  is 
p.  91.     On  the  accession  of  the  barbarians  worth  reading. 

to  the  Nicene  faith  respecting  God,  see  Ac-  (7)  Jos.  Sim,  Asseman,  Biblioth.  Orien- 

ta  Sanctor.,  torn,  ii.,  Martii,  p.  275,  and  torn.  tal.  Vatic.,  torn,  iii.,  pt.  i.,  p.  109,  407,  411, 

ii.,  Aprilis,  p.  134.  441,  449,  and  torn,  iii.,  pt.  ii.,  cap.  v.,  §  2, 

(5)  [The  latter  is  to  me  the  most  proba-  p.  Ixxxiii.,  &c. 

ble.  The  kings  of  these  nations  were  very  (8)  Evagrius,  Histor.  Eccles.,  lib  iii.,  c. 
ignorant ;  and  made  war  rather  than  science  30,  44,  &c.  Theodorus  Lector,  Historia 
their  trade.  Among  such  a  people,  convic-  Eccles.,  lib.  ii.,  p.  562.  A  catalogue  of  the 
tion  of  the  understanding  is  little  to  be  ex-  Works  of  Severus,  collected  from  MS.  cop- 
pected.  Arguments  of  expediency  would  ies,  is  in  Bernh.  de  Montfaucori's  Biblioth. 
have  more  effect.  They  were  surrounded  Coisliniana,  p.  53,  &c.  [According  to 
by  orthodox  Christians,  who  would  deprive  Evaprius,  loc.  cit.,  Anastasius  was  not  zeal- 
them  of  their  territories,  on  the  ground  that  ous  for  any  party,  but  was  a  great  lover  of 
they  were  heretics.  If  therefore  they  would  peace,  and  determined  neither  to  make  nor 
enjoy  peace  and  quietude,  they  must  make  to  suffer  any  change  in  the  ecclesiastical 
up  their  minds  to  embrace  the  Nicene  faiih.  constitution  ;  that  is,  he  adhered  to  the  He- 
Many  of  these  conversions  also  were  brought  noticon  of  Zcno  his  predecessor.  This  was 
about  by  ladies  ;  for  instance,  the  conversion  taking  the  middle  ground;  for  the  more 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


417 


not  hesitate,  on  the  removal  of  Flavianus  from  the  chair  of  Antioch  in  513, 
vate  to  that  sec  Severus,  a  learned  monk  of  Palestine,  who  was  devoted 
to  that  sect,  and  from  whom  the  Monophysites  had  the  name  of  Severians.(9) 
This  man  exerted  all  his  powers  to  destroy  the  credit  of  the  council  of 
Chalccdon  in  the  East,  and  to  strengthen  the  party  which  professed  but 
one  nature  in  Christ ;  and  his  zealous  efforts  produced  most  grievous  com- 
motions. (10)  But  the  emperor  Anastasius  dying  in  the  year  518,  Severus 
was  expelled  from  his  see  ;  and  the  sect  which  he  had  so  zealously  propa- 
gated, was  restrained  and  depressed  by  Justin  and  the  succeeding  emper- 
ors, to  such  a  degree  that  it  seemed  very  near  being  ruined ;  yet  it  elect- 
ed Sergius  for  its  patriarch,  in  place  of  Severus.(ll) 

§  6.  When  the  Monophysites  were  nearly  in  despair,  and  very  few  of 
their  bishops  remained,  some  of  them  being  dead  and  others  in  captivity ; 
an  obscure  man,  Jacobus  surnamed  Baradceus  or  Zanzalus,  to  distinguish 
him  from  others  of  the  name,  restored  their  fallen  state. (12)  This  indi- 
gent monk,  a  most  indefatigable  and  persevering  man,  being  ordained  bish- 
op by  a  few  bishops  who  were  confined  in  prison,  travelled  over  all  the 
East,  on  foot,  constituted  a  vast  number  of  bishops  and  presbyters,  revived 
every  where  the  depressed  spirits  of  the  Monophysites,  and  was  so  efficient, 
by  his  eloquence  and  his  astonishing  diligence,  that  when  he  died,  in  the  year 
578,  at  Edessa,  where  he  had  been  bishop,  he  left  his  sect  in  a  very  flour- 
ishing state  in  Syria,  in  Mesopotamia,  in  Armenia,  in  Egypt,  Nubia,  and 
Abyssinia,  and  in  other  countries. (13)  He  extinguished  nearly  all  the 


strenuous  Monophysites  rejected  the  Henot- 
icon,  and  insisted  on  an  explicit  condemna- 
tion of  the  council  of  Chalcedon  ;  while  the 
more  rigid  Catholics,  who  also  disliked  the 
Henoticon,  were  for  holding  fast  every  tittle 
of  the  decisions  of  Chalcedon.  See  Walch, 
Historic  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  vi.,  p.  930, 
946,  947,  948.—  TV.] 

(9)  See  Jos.  Sim.  Asseman,  Biblioth. 
Orient.  Vatican.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  47,  321,  &c. 
Euseb.  Rcnaudot,  Historia  Patriarchar.  Al- 
exandrinor..p.  127,  129,  130,  135,  138,  &c. 
[See  a  notice  of  Severus,  above,  ch.  ii., 
note  (28),  p.  397.— Tr.] 

(10;  Evagrius,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  hi.,  c. 
33.  Cynllus,  Vita  Sabae,  in  Joh.  Bapt. 
Catcher's  Monumenta  Ecclesiae  Graecae, 
torn,  iii.,  p.  312.  Nouveau  Dictionnaire  his- 
tor.  critique,  torn,  i.,  Article  Anastasius. 
[There  is  some  ambiguity  in  Dr.  Moshcim's 
statement.  Who  was  this  man,  that  exert- 
ed all  his  powers  against  the  council  of  Chal- 
cedon 1  Dr  Maclainc  understood  Moshcim 
to  refer  to  the  emperor  Anastasius.  But 
other  translators  preserve  the  ambiguity. 
Historical  facts  show,  that  it  was  Severus, 
rather  than  Anastasius,  who  persecuti'J  the 
Chalcedonians.  See  Evasrius,  as  referred 
to  above,  lib.  iii.,  c.  33 — 7V  J 

(11)  SecAbulpharnjits,  Series  Patriarch. 
Antiochen.,  in  Asseman,  Biblioth.  Orient. 
Vatican.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  323.  [For  a  full  and 
minute  examination  of  the  Monophysite  his- 

VOL.  I.— GGG 


tory,  see  WalcWs  Historic  der  Ketzereyen  ; 
namely,  during  the  reign  of  Anastasius,  vol. 
vi.,  p.  936-1054  ;  under  Justin,  vol.  vii.,  p. 
52-128  ;  and  under  Justinian,  ibid.,  p.  128- 
362.— Tr.  ] 

(12)  See  Jos.  Sim.  Asseman,  Biblioth. 
Oriental.  Vaticana,  torn,  ii.,  cap.  viii.,  p.  62, 
72,  326,  331,  414,  &c.     Euseb.  Rcnaudot, 
Historia   Patriarch.  Alexandrinor.,  p.   119, 
133,425,  &c.,  and  Liturgiae  Oriental.,  torn, 
ii.,  p.  333,  342.     Faustu*  Nairon,  Euoplia 
fidei  Catholicae  ex  Syrorum   monumentis, 
pt.  i.,  p.  40, 41.     [  Wtlch,  Historic  der  Ket- 
zereyen,  vol.    viii.,  p-  481-490.     Jacobus 
Baradaus  was  a  Syrian  monk,  and  a  pupil 
of  Severus  archbishop  of  Antioch.     His  or- 
dination is  placed  by  some  in  the  year  545, 
by  others  in  551.     His  death,  all  place  in 
the  year  578.     Some  call  him   bishop  of 
Edessa,  others  make  him  to  have  been  bish- 
op at  large.     The  number  of  bishops,  priests, 
and  deacons  ordained  by  him,  is  reported  to 
be  100,000.     That  he  put  an  end  to  the  di- 
visions and  contests  among  the  Monophy- 
sites, as  Dr.  Moshcim  asserts,  is  not  stated 
in  any  of  the  authorities  quoted  by  Walch. 
As  the  Monophysites  all  over  the  East  are 
to  this  day  called  Jacobites,  from  this  Jaco- 
bus Baradaus  ;  so  the  orthodox  Greeks  are 
called  Melchjtcs,  from  the  Synac  Mclcha,  a 
kinar ;  as  being  adherents  to  the  religion  of 
the  imperial  court. — Tr.] 

(13)  For  the  Nubians  and  Abywinians, 


418      BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

dissensions  among  the  Monophysites  ;  and  as  their  churches  were  so  widely 
dispersed  in  the  East,  that  the  bishop  of  Antioch  could  not  well  govern 
them  all,  he  associated  with  him  a  Maphrian  or  primate  of  the  East,  whose 
residence  was  at  Tagritum  on  the  borders  of  Armenia. (14)  His  efforts 
were  not  a  little  aided,  in  Egypt  and  the  neighbouring  regions,  by  Theodo- 
sius  of  Alexandria.  From  this  man  as  the  second  father  of  the  sect,  all 
the  Monophysites  in  the  East  are  called  Jacobites. 

§  7.  Thus  the  imprudence  of  the  Greeks  and  their  inconsiderate  zeal 
for  maintaining  the  truth,  caused  the  Monophysites  to  become  consolidated 
into  a  permanent  body.  From  this  period  their  whole  community  has 
been  under  the  government  of  two  bishops  or  patriarchs,  one  of  Alexandria 
and  the  other  of  Antioch,  who,  notwithstanding  the  Syrians  and  Egyptians 
disagree  in  some  particulars,  are  very  careful  to  maintain  communion  with 
each  other  by  letters  and  by  kind  offices.  Under  the  patriarch  of  Alex- 
andria, is  the  primate  or  Abbuna  of  the  Abyssinians  ;  and  under  the  patri- 
arch of  Antioch,  stands  the  Maphrian  or  primate  of  the  East,  whose  resi- 
dence is  at  Tagritum  in  Mesopotamia.  The  Armenians  have  their  own 
bishop,  and  are  distinguished  from  the  other  Monophysites  by  some  pecu- 
liar rites  and  opinions. 

§  8.  Before  the  sect  of  the  Monophysites  had  acquired  this  strength  and 
consistency,  various  disagreements  and  controversies  prevailed  among 
them  ;  and  particularly  at  Alexandria,  a  difficult  and  knotty  question  was 
moved  concerning  the  body  of  Christ.  Julian  of  Halicarnassus,(15)  in 
the  year  519,  maintained  that  the  divine  nature  had  so  insinuated  itself 
into  the  body  of  Christ,  from  the  very  moment  of  his  conception,  that  this 
body  changed  its  nature,  and  became  incorruptible.  With  him  agreed  Ca- 
janus  [or  Gaianus]  of  Alexandria ;  from  whom  the  believers  in  this  senti- 
ment were  called  Caianists.(l6)  The  advocates  of  this  doctrine  became 
subdivided  into  three  parties ;  two  of  which  disagreed  on  the  question, 
whether  Christ's  body  was  created  or  uncreated  ;  and  the  third  maintained, 
that  Christ's  body  was  indeed  corruptible,  but,  on  account  of  the  influence 
of  the  divine  nature,  never  became  in  fact  corrupted.  This  sect  was  vig- 
orously resisted  by  the  celebrated  Severus  of  Antioch,  and  by  Damianus;  both 
of  whom  maintained  that  the  body  of  Christ,  before  his  resurrection,  was  cor. 
ruptible,  that  is,  was  liable  to  all  the  changes  to  which  human  bodies  in 
general  are.  Those  who  agreed  with  Julian,  were  called  Aphthartodoce- 
tce,  Doceta,  Phantasiasta,  and  also  Manichaeans ;  because  from  their  opin- 
ion it  might  be  inferred,  that  Christ  did  not  really  suffer,  feel  hungry,  fall 
asleep,  and  experience  the  other  sensations  of  a  man ;  but  that  he  only 
appeared  to  suffer,  to  sleep,  to  be  hungry,  thirsty,  &c.  Those  who  agreed 

see  Asseman,   loc.    cit.,    torn,    ii.,  p.  330.  andria,  under  the  patriarch  Timotheus  III.  ; 

Hieron.  Lobo,  Voyage  d'Abyssinie,  torn,  ii.,  and  on  his  death  in  the  year  534,  was  elect- 

p.  36.     Job  Ludolph,  Comment,  ad  Histori-  ed   patriarch  of  Alexandria,  by  the  monks 

am  Aethiop.,p.  451,  461,  466.     Fortheoth-  and  the  populace,  in  opposition  to  Thcodo- 

er  countries,  see  the  writers  of  their  history,  sius  the  bishop  of  the  court  party.     Great 

(14)  Jo*.  Sim.  Asseman,  Biblioth.  Orient,  commotions   now   existed    in    Alexandria; 
Vatic.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  410,  414,  418,  likewise  and  Gaianus  was  soon  deposed.     He  fled 
his  Dissert,  de  Monophysitis,  prefixed  to  torn,  first  to  Carthage,  and  then  to  Sardinia  ;  and 
ii.  of  his  Bibliotheca.  we  hear  little  more  about  him.     It   is  not 

(15)  [Julian  is  noticed  among  the  writers  known  that  he  wrote  any  thing.     See  Libe- 
of  the  century,  above,  p.  397,  note  (28). —  ratus,  Breviar.,  cap.  20,  and  Leonlius,  de 
Tr.]  Sectis,  Art.  v.— Tr.] 

(16)  [Gaianus  was  archdeacon  of  Alex- 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS.  419 

with  Severus,  were  called  Phthurtolatra,  and  Ktistolatra  or  Creaticote. 
This  controversy  was  agitated  with  great  warmth,  in  the  reign  of  Justin, 
ian,  who  favoured  the  Aphthartodocetcz ;  but  it  afterwards  gradually  sub. 
sided. ( 17)  A  middle  path  between  the  two  parties,  was  taken  by  Xenaias, 
or  Philoxenus  of  Maubug  [or  Hierapolis]  ;  for  he  and  his  associates  held, 
that  Christ  really  suffered  the  ordinary  sensations  of  a  man ;  but  that  in 
him  this  was  not  the  effect  of  nature,  but  of  choice. (18) 

§  9.  Some  of  the  Corrupticolae,  as  they  were  called,  particularly  The- 
mistius  a  deacon  of  Alexandria,  and  Theodosius  bishop  of  that  city,  in  the 
ardour  of  disputation  fell  upon  another  sentiment  towards  the  close  of  this 
century,(19)  which  caused  new  commotions.  They  affirmed  that,  while 
all  things  were  known  by  the  divine  nature  of  Christ,  to  his  human  nature 
which  was  united  with  it  many  things  were  unknown.  As  they  held  to 
but  one  nature  in  Christ,  [or  were  Monophysites],  others  inferred  from  their 
doctrine,  that  they  made  the  divine  nature  to  participate  in  this  ignorance  : 
and  hence  they  were  called  AgnoeUe.(2Q)  But  this  new  sect  was  feeble; 
and  therefore  it  declined  and  became  extinct,  sooner  than  might  have  been 
anticipated  from  the  animated  eloquence  of  the  disputants. 

§  10.  From  the  controversies  with  the  Monophysites,  arose  the  sect  of 
the  Tritheists.  Its  author  was  one  John  Ascusnage,  a  Syrian  philosopher, 
and  a  Monophysite.(21)  This  man  supposed,  that  there  are  in  God  three 
numerically  distinct  natures  or  subsistences,  all  perfectly  alike  and  con- 
nected by  no  common  vinculum  of  essence  ;  from  which  dogma,  his  adver- 
saries deduced  Tritheism.  Among  the  patrons  of  this  opinion,  no  one  was 
more  celebrated  than  John  Pkiloponus,  a  grammarian  and  philosopher  of 
great  fame  at  Alexandria  ;  and  hence  he  has  by  many  been  accounted  the 
founder  of  the  sect,  and  the  members  of  it  have  been  called  Philoponists.(22) 

(17)  Timolheus,  de  Receptione  haereticor.,  torico-theol.,  lib.  iii.,cap.  19,  p.  119.     Pho- 
in  Jo.  Ba-pt.  Catcher's  Monumenta  Eccle-  tius,  Biblioth.,  Cod.  ccxxx.,  p.  882.    [Watch 
sioe  Gr.,  torn,  iii.,  p.  409.     Liberates,  Bre-  has  given  a  full  and  satisfactory  account  of 
viarium  Controv.,  cap.  20.     Jo.  Forbes,  In-  the  Agnoita.  or  Themistiam,  in  his  Historie 
structiones  historico-theologicae,  lib.  iii ,  c.  der  Ketzcreyen,  vol.  viii.,  p.  644-684.     It 
18,  p.  108,  &c.     Asseman,  Biblioth  Orien-  appears  that  the  Agnoctce  merely  denied  that 
tal.,  torn.  iii.,pt.  ii.,  p.  457.     [The  contests  the  human  nature  of  Christ  became  omnia- 
respectino1  the  corruptibility  of  Christ's  body,  dent,  by  being  united  with  the  divine  nature ; 
both  amonw  the  Monophysites  and  the  ortho-  — a  doctrine  which  few  at  this  day  will  con- 
dox,  are  fully  examined  in  Walch,  Historie  demn.    Nor  did  their  contemporaries  in  gen- 
der Ketzereyen,  vol.  viii.,  p.   550-644. —  eral  understand  them  to  go  farther.     But  the 
Tr.}  writers  of  the  middle  ages  represent  them 

(18)  Jos.  Sim.  Asseman,  Biblioth.  Orient,  as  denying  altogether  the  omniscience  of 
Vatic.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  22,  and  p.  168,  &c.  Christ ;  and  many  of  the  moderns,  till  quite 

(19)  [This  controversy  began  before  the     recently,  had  similar  views  of  this  sect.    See 
middle  of  the  century  ;  for  Themis  tins  was      Walch,  loc.  cit.,  p.  675-679. — Tr.] 

a  deacon  under  Timolheus  III.,  who  died  (21)  See  Gregory  Abulpkarajus,  in  Jos. 

in  the  year  535.     Theodosius  succeeded  in  Sim.  Assertion's  Biblioth.  Oriental.  Vatic., 

that  year;    but  was  removed  about  A.D.  torn,  i.,  p.  328,  &c.     [This  is  the  only  an- 

537.     The  heat  of  the  controversy  seems  to  cient  writer  that  mentions  this  John  Ascus- 

have  been  about  A.D.  550  or  560  ;  yet  it  nage ;  and  his  statement  is,  that  this  John 

was  rife  in  the  time  of  Gregory  the  Great,  was  a  disciple  of  Samuel  Peter,  a  Syrian 

and  the  sect  existed  till  some  time  in  the  philosopher  who  taught  philosophy  20  years 

seventh  century. — Tr.]  at  Constantinople  ;  that  John  succeeded  him 

(20)  Jo.  Bapt.  Cotelier,  in  the  Monumenta  in  the  school ;  but  having  advanced  his  new 
Ecclesiae  Gr.,  torn,  iii.,  p.  641.     Mich,  le  doctrine,  he  was  banished  by  the  emperor 
Quien,  on  Damascenus  de  Haeresibus,  torn.  Justinian. — Tr.] 

i.,  p.  107.     Jo.  Forbes,  Instructions  his-         (22)  See   Joh.  Alb.  Fabriaus,  Biblioth. 


420 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VI.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


As  the  sect  advanced,  it  became  divided  into  two  parties,  the  Philoponists 
and  the  Cononites ;  the  latter  so  named  from  its  leader,  Conon  bishop  of 
Tarsu£.("23)  These  parties  agreed  respecting  the  doctrine  of  three  per- 
sons in  the  godhead,  but  became  at  variance  on  the  exposition  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  resurrection  of  the  body.  For  Philoponus  maintained,  that 
both  the  matter  and  the  form  of  all  bodies  were  generated  and  corruptible, 
and  therefore,  that  both  would  be  resuscitated  at  the  resurrection ;  but 
Conon  held  that  the  matter  only,  and  not  the  form  of  bodies,  was  corruptible 
and  to  be  resuscitated. (24)  To  both  these  stood  opposed  the  Damianists  ; 
so  named  from  Damianus,  [the  Monophysite  patriarch]  of  Alexandria. 
These  discriminated  between  the  divine  essence,  and  the  three  persons  of 
the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit.  In  other  words,  they  denied  that  each 
person  considered  by  himself,  and  in  nature,  was  God  ;  but  maintained,  that 
the  three  persons  had  a  common  God  or  divinity,  by  an  undivided  participa- 
tion of  which,  each  one  was  God.  The  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,  they 
denominated  Hyposlases  [or  persons]  ;  and  what  was  common  to  them,  God, 
substance,  and  nature. (25) 


Gr.,  lib.  v.,  c.  37,  torn,  ix.,  p.  358.  Jo. 
Harduin,  Concilia,  torn,  iii.,  p.  1288.  Tim- 
otheus  de  Receptions  Hsreticor.,  in  Jo. 
Baft.  Catcher's  Monumenta  Ecclesiae  Gr., 
torn,  iii.,  p.  414.  John  Damasccnus,  de 
Hseresibus,  Opp.,  torn,  i.,  p.  103,  ed.  Le 
Quien.  [John  Philoponus  was  born,  and 
probably  spent  his  life,  at  Alexandria.  He 
was  a  literary  layman,  and  deeply  read  in 
the  Platonic  and  Aristotelian  philosophy. 
Yet  he  was  a  Christian,  and  a  Monophysite, 
as  most  of  the  Alexandrians  in  his  day  were. 
The  time  of  his  birth  and  death  is  unknown  ; 
but  it  appears,  that  he  was  a  writer  from 
about  A.D.  560,  till  several  years  into  the 
seventh  century.  Whether  his  own  reflec- 
tions, or  the  books  of  John  Ascusnage,  first 
led  him  to  his  Tritheism,  is  uncertain.  His 
works  now  extant  are,  a  Book  on  the  Hex- 
aimeron ;  another  on  Easter ;  one  against 
Proclus,  to  prove  the  world  not  eternal  ;  a 
Book  on  the  Gr.  dialects ;  and  Commenta- 
ries on  various  works  of  Aristotle.  His  lost 
works  were,  on  the  Resurrection ;  against 
the  council  of  Chalcedon ;  against  the  senti- 
ments of  John  archbishop  of  Constantino- 
ple, respecting  the  Trinity ;  against  Jam- 
blichus  de  Simulacris ;  against  Scverus  ; 
and  a  Book  on  Union,  entitled  AICLITTITTK 
sive  Arbiter,  a  valuable  extract  from  which 
is  preserved.  See  Cave,  Hist.  Litteraria, 
torn,  i.,  p.  267,  and  Walch,  Historie  der  Ket- 
zereyen,  voL  viii.,  p.  702,  &c. — Tr.] 


(23)  Photius,  Biblioth.  Codex  xxiv.    As- 
seman,  Biblioth.  Oriental.  Vatic.,  torn.  ii.r 
p.  329,  &c. 

(24)  [For  a  full  account  of  the  disagree- 
ment between  the  Cononites  and  the  other 
Phtloponists,  respecting  the  resurrection  of 
the  body,  see  Walch,  Historie  der  Ketzerey- 
en,  vol.  viii.,  p.  762-778.— Tr.] 

(25)  Jos.   Sim.  Asseman,  Biblioth.   Ori- 
ental. Vatic.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  78,  332,  &c.     [The 
controversies  respecting  the  Trinity  in  unity 
which  are  the  subject  of  this  section,  are 
minutely  investigated   by    Walch,  Historie 
der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  viii.,  p.  685—  762.     He 
concludes,  that  Philoponus  and  his  sect  were 
really,  though  perhaps  unconsciously,  Tri- 
theists  :  for  Philoponus  held   to   a   merely 
specific  unity  in  God,  and  not  to  a  numer- 
ical unity  ;  that  is,  he  taught  that  the  three 
persons  in  the  Trinity  had  a  common  nature, 
iu  the  same  sense  that  Paul  and  Peter  had 
a  common  nature,  and  as  all  the  angels  have 
a  common  nature.     (Walch,  \.  c.,  p.  728, 
&c.)     The  Damianists  on  the  contrary,  re- 
jecting the  idea  of  a  mere  specific  unity  in 
God,  held   the  three  divine  persons  to  be 
numerically  one,  except  as  distinguished  by 
certain  characteristic  marks  :  so  that  he  was 
really  on  Sabellian  ground.     (Walch,  loc. 
cit.,   p.    753-757.)     See  also  Miinschcr'a 
Dogmengeschichte,    vol.   iii.,   p.   512-516, 
ed.  Marp.,  1818.— Tr.] 


C  E  N  T  U  R  Y    SEVENTH. 
PART  I. 

THE    EXTERNAL  HISTORY   OF  THE    CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  PROSPERITY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

$  I.  Christianity  propagated  in  China. — §2.  The  English  converted. — ^  3-  Also  the  Gauls, 
Suevi,  Frieslanders,  Franks,  and  Helvetii. — $  4.  Judgment  concerning  these  Apostles. 
— §  5.  Jews  compelled  to  embrace  Christianity. 

§  1.  THE  Christian  religion  was  in  this  century  diffused  beyond  its  for- 
mer bounds,  both  in  the  eastern  and  western  countries.  In  the  East,  the 
Nestorians  witli  incredible  industry  and  perseverance  laboured  to  propa- 
gate it  from  Persia,  Syria,  and  India,  among  the  barbarous  and  savage  na- 
tions inhabiting  the  deserts  and  the  remotest  shores  of  Asia ;  and  that 
their  zeal  was  not  inefficient,  appears  from  numerous  proofs  still  existing. 
In  particular,  the  vast  empire  of  China  was  enlightened  by  this  zeal  and  in- 
dustry, with  the  light  of  Christianity.  Those  who  regard  as  genuine  and 
authentic  the  Chinese  monument  of  Sigan  which  was  discovered  in  the  sev- 
enteenth century,  believe  that  Christianity  was  introduced  into  China  in 
the  year  636,  when  J.esujabas  of  Gadala  presided  over  the  Nestorian  com- 
munity.(1)  And  those  who  look  upon  this  as  a  fabrication  of  the  Jesuits, 

(1)  This  celebrated  monument  has  been  of  the  inscription,  with  a  comment  and  some 
published  and  explained  by  several  persons,  notes,  is  given  in  the  Appendixto  Moshcim's 
in  particular  by  Athan.  Kircher,  China  il-  Historia  Eccles.  Tartarorum,  p.  2-28.  The 
lustrata,  p.  53.  Amir.  Miiller,  in  a  distinct  monument  is  said  to  be  a  marble  slab,  ten 
treatise,  Berlin,  1672,  4to.  Euseb.  Renau-  feet  long  and  five  broad  ;  dug  up  in  the 
dot.  Relations  anciennes  des  Indes  et  de  la  year  1625,  at  a  town  near  Si-ngan-fii,  capital 
Chine  de  deux  yoyageurs  Mahometans,  p.  of  the  province  Sficn-si.  The  top  of  the 
228-271,  Paris,  1718,  8vo.  Jos.  Sim.  As-  slab  is  a  pyramidal  cross.  The  caption  to 
.tfinan,  Biblioth.  Oriental.  Vaticana,  torn,  the  inscription  consists  of  nine  Chinese 
iii.,  pi.  ii.,  c.  iv.,  $  7,  p.  538,  &c.  A  more  words,  formed  into  a  square,  and  is  thus 
accurate  copy,  with  notes,  was  expected  from  translated  :  "  This  stone  was  erected  to  the 
the  very  learned  Theophtius  Stgefr.  Bayer,  honour  and  eternal  memory  of  the  Law  of 
much  distinguished  for  his  knowledge  of  Light  and  Truth  brought  from  Ta-cin,  [Ju- 
Chinese  literature.  But  his  premature  death  dea,  or  Syria],  and  promulgated  in  China.'* 
frustrated  the  expectation.  I  see  no  reason  The  principal  inscription  is  m  ('Linfse  char- 
why  I  should  not  regard  this  monument  as  acters,  and  consists  of  twenty-eight  columns, 
genuine  ;  nor  can  I  conceive  what  advan-  each  containing  sixty-two  words.  It  first 
tage  the  Jesuits  could  have  promised  them-  states  the  fundamental  principles  of  Christi- 
selves  from  a  fabrication  of  this  sort.  See  anity  ;  and  then  recounts  the  arrival  of  the 
Gabr.  Liron,  Singularites  historique  et  litte-  missionaries  in  636,  their  gracious  reception 
raires,  tome  ii.,  p.  500.  dec  [See  also  by  the  king,  their  labours  and  success,  and 
Tho.  Yrutes,  Indian  Church  History,  p.  85-  the  principal  events  of  the  mission  for  144 
96,  Lond.,  1818, 8vo.  Kirckcr's  translation  years,  or  till  A. D.  780.  There  were  two 


422 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  I.— CHAP.  I. 


may  be  fully  satisfied  by -other  and  unexceptionable  proofs  that  China,  es- 
pecially the  northern  part  of  it,  contained  in  this  century  or  perhaps  even 
earlier  numerous  Christians,  over  whom  presided  during  several  subsequent 
centuries  a  metropolitan  sent  out  by  the  patriarch  of  the  Chaldeans  or  Nes- 
torians.(2) 

§  2.  The  attention  of  the  Greeks  was  so  engrossed  with  their  intestine 
dissensions,  that  they  were  little  solicitous  about  the  propagation  of  Chris- 
tianity among  the  heathen. (3)  In  the  West,  among  the  Anglo-Saxons, 
Augustine,  till  his  death  in  605,  and  afterwards  other  monks  sent  from 
Rome,  laboured  to  extend  and  enlarge  the  church.  And  the  result  of  their 
labours  and  efforts  was,  that  the  other  six  Anglo-Saxon  kings,  who  had 
hitherto  continued  in  paganism,  gradually  came  over  to  the  side  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  all  Britain  became  professedly  Christian. (4)  Yet  we  need  not 
believe  that  this  change  was  wholly  owing  to  the  sermons  and  the  exhor- 
tations of  these  Roman  monks  and  teachers ;  a  great  part  of  it  is  rather 
to  be  ascribed  to  the  Christian  wives  of  the  kings  and  chiefs,  who  employed 
various  arts  to  convert  their  husbands ;  and  likewise  to  the  rigorous  laws 
enacted  against  the  worshippers  of  idols  ;(5)  not  to  mention  other  causes. 


persecutions,  in  the  years  699  and  713. 
Soon  after  the  second  persecution,  some 
new  missionaries  arrived.  Then  follows  the 
date  and  erection  of  the  monument,  in  A.D. 
782.  On  the  one  side  of  this  principal  in- 
scription there  is  a  column  of  Chinese  char- 
acters ;  on  the  other  side,  and  at  the  bottom, 
is  a  Syrian  inscription  in  the  Estrangelo  char- 
acter, containing  catalogues  of  priests,  dea- 
cons, and  others,  with  a  bishop,  arranged  in 
seven  different  classes. —  TV.] 

(2)  See  Renaudot,  loc.  cit.,   p.   51,  68, 
&c.,  et  passim.     Asseman,  loc.  cit.,  cap.  ix., 
p.  522,  &c.      Thcophilus  Sigefr.  Bayer  tells 
us,  (Praefat.  ad  Museum  Sinicum,  p.  84), 
that  he  possesses  some  testimonies,  which 
put  the  subject  beyond  controversy.     [It  is 
the  constant  tradition  of  the  Syrian  Chris- 
tians, that  St.  Thomas  the  apostle  made  an 
excursion  to  China ;  and  the  Christians  of 
Malabar  celebrate  this  event  in  their  ordi- 
nary worship  ;  and  their  primate  styled  him- 
self metropolitan  of  Hindoo  and  China,  when 
the  Portuguese  first  knew  them.     See  Tho. 
Yeates,  Indian  Church  Hist ,  p.  71-84.    See 
also  M.  de  Guignes,  Diss.  in  the  30th  vol. 
(p.  802,  &c.)  of  the  Memoires  de  Litterature, 
threes  des  Registres  de  1'Academie  Royale 
des  Inscriptions  et    Belles- Lettres  :    which 
contains  a  defence  of  the  genuineness  of  the 
Sigan  monument,  against  the  objections  of  La 
Croze  and  Bcausobre.    Likewise  Schroeckh, 
Kirchengeschichte,  vol.  xix.,  p.  291-298. — 
2V.] 

(3)  [Yet    Constantius    Porphyrogenitus 
states,  (de  Administrando  Imperio,  c.  31,  in 
Bandurius'  Imperium  Orientale,  p.  97,  ed. 
Paris),  that  the  Chrobatcs,  (the  Croatians), 
who  then  inhabited  Dalmatia,  from  which 


they  had  expelled  the  Avares  by  order  of 
Herachus,  made  application  to  that  emperor 
for  religious  instructers ;  and  that  he  pro- 
cured priests  for  them  from  Rome,  who  bap- 
tized them,  and  one  of  whom  became  their 
archbishop.  See  Sender's  Selecta  Cap.  Hist. 
Eccles.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  20.  Lucius  de  Regno 
Dalmatiae,  1.  i.,  c.  11.  Muratori,  History 
of  Italy,  torn,  iv.,  p.  78,  of  the  Germ,  trans., 
and  Jos.  Sim.  Asseman,  in  Calendar.  Ec- 
cles. universae,  torn,  i.,  p.  499,  &c. — Schl.] 

(4)  Beda,  Historia  Eccles.  gentis  Anglor., 
lib.  ii.,  cap.  iii.,  p.  91,  &c.,  cap.  xiv.,  p.  116, 
lib.  iii.,  cap.  xxi.,  p.  162,  ed.  Chiflet.     Rapin 
de  Thoyras,  Histoire  d'Angleterre,  torn,  i., 
p.  222,  &c. 

(5)  See  Dan.  Wilkins,  Concilia  magnae 
Britanniae,  torn,  i.,  p.  61.     [According  to 
Beda,  De  Thoyras,  and  the  other  writers  on 
English    church    History,    the   progress   of 
Christianity   among   the   Anglo-Saxons,  in 
this  century,  was  as  follows.     In  the  year 
601,  pope  Gregory  confirmed  Augustine  as 
the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  ;  and  advised 
him  to  appoint  twelve  suffragans  under  him- 
self, and  to  send  a  bishop  to   York,  who 
should  in  time  become  archbishop,  and  have 
also  twelve  suffragans.     Yet  Canterbury,  or 
rather  (on  the  death  of  Augustine)  London, 
was  to   hold   the  primacy  of  all   England. 
This  arrangement  was  prospective,  for  the 
conversion  of  but  a  small  part  of  the  Saxons 
was  as  yet  achieved.     In  604,  Augustine 
appointed  Justus  first  bishop  of  Rochester 
in  Kent,  and  Mcllitus  first  bishop  of  London 
among  the  East  Saxons,  and  named  Lau- 
rentius  to  succeed  himself  in  the  see  of  Can- 
terbury.    Augustine  died  the  next  year,  hav- 
ing been  in  England  but  eight  years,  and  hav- 


PROSPEROUS  EVENTS. 


423 


§  3.  In  this  century,  many  of  the  Britons,  Scotch,  and  Irish,  eager  to 
propagate  the  Christian  religion,  visited  the  Batavian,  Bclgie,  and  German 


ing  extended  Christianity  little  farther  than 
over  Kent,  and  part  of  the  present  counties 
of  Essex  and  Middlesex.  Laurentius  suc- 
ceeded him.  On  the  death  of  Eihel.bert  the 
first  Christian  king  of  Kent,  in  616,  his  son 
and  successor  Eadbald,  married  his  own 
mother-in-law,  and  renounced  Christianity. 
Most  of  his  subjects  followed  him  in  his 
apostacy.  Sebert  also,  the  Christian  king 
of  Essex,  was  succeeded  by  pagan  sons  ; 
who  expelled  Christianity  from  their  domin- 
ions, and  obliged  Mellitus  the  bishop  to 
take  refuge  in  Kent.  The  three  English 
prelates,  in  despair,  now  resolved  to  quit 
England  ;  and  two  of  them  actually  retired 
to  the  Continent.  Laurentius,  while  pre- 
paring to  remove,  pretended  to  receive,  one 
night,  a  flagellation  and  a  severe  reprimand 
from  St.  Peter,  for  thus  deserting  the  sheep 
of  Christ  and  leaving  them  among  wolves. 
The  next  morning  he  reported  the  matter  to 
king  Eadbald,  and  showed  him  his  fresh 
wounds.  The  king  was  so  moved,  that  he 
annulled  his  incestuous  marriage,  returned 
to  the  Christian  faith,  recalled  the  exiled 
bishops,  and  re-established  Christianity  in 
his  dominions.  Thus  Kent  became  perma- 
nently Christianized.  The  East  Saxons 
were  not  so  easily  reclaimed  ;  nor  were  they 
the  next  to  embrace  Christianity. — In  the 
year  625,  Edwin  king  of  Northumberland, 
including  all  the  north  of  England,  married 
Ethelburga,  sister  of  Eadbald  king  of  Kent 
and  daughter  of  queen  Bcrtka. 
tolerate  her  religion.  She  took  with  lu-r  I'au- 
linus,  who  was  ordained  bishop  for  that  pur- 
pose. The  consequence  was,  that  king  Ed- 
win, Coify  his  pagan  high-priest,  his  nobles, 
and  most  of  his  subjects,  embraced  Chris- 
tianity ;  and  I'auhnus,  in  the  year  627,  bap- 
tized 12,000  Nor'iiumhrians  in  one  iliv,  in 
the  river  Swale,  near  Richmond.  J' 
became  archbishop  of  York,  and  pro; 
Christianity  to  some  extent  in  East 
which  included  the  counties  of  SunV 
folk,  Cambridge,  and  the  isle  of  Ely.  But 
in  633,  king  Edwin  was  slain  in  battle,  and 
a  great  apostacy  ensued.  Paulinas,  in  de- 
spair, returned  to  Kent,  and  became  bis-hop 
of  Roches! er.  Soon  after,  Oswald  mount- 
ed the  throne  of  Northumberland,  after  a  long 
exile  among  the  monks  of  Scotland.  He 
being  a  Christian,  laboured  to  restore  Chris- 
tianity. The  Scottish  monks  sent  him  first 
Carman,  and  then  the  famous  Aiilan,  bish- 
op of  Lindisfarne  or  Holy  Island,  to  assist 
him.  Thus  Christianity  became  permanent- 
ly established  in  Northumberland. — The 
people  of  East  Anglia  also  returned  to  the 


Christian  faith  about  the  year  636,  their  ex- 
iled king  Sigebert,  having  brought  with  him 
from  France  Felix  a  Burgundian  priest,  who 
became  bishop  of  Dumnoe,  now  Dunwich. 
Oswald  and  Sigebert  are  said  to  have  patro- 
nised learning  and  set  up  schools  throughout 
their  dominions. — The  kingdom  of  Wessex, 
including  seven  counties  in  the  southwest  of 
England,  was  converted  about  A.D.  635,  by 
Bcnnus,  a  missionary  directly  from  Rome, 
who  became  bishop  of  Dorchester.— 
bert  II.,  king  of  the  East  Saxrms,  who  occu- 
pied the  counties  of  Essex,  Middlesex,  and 
part  of  Hertfordshire,  was  persuaded  by  his 
friend  Osory  king  ofx  Northumberland,  to 
embrace  Christianity  ;  and  he,  by  the  aid  of 
Chad  or  Cedda,  a  Northumbrian  prelate  who 
was  translated  to  London,  permanently  re- 
stored Christianity  among  the  East  > 
about  the  year  660. — Afercia,  including 
about  seventeen  of  the  midland  counties, 
gradually  became  Christian,  after  the  mid- 
dle of  the  century.  Peada  the  prince  be- 
came a  Christian,  in  the  lifetime  of  his  pagan 
father  king  Pcnda,  at  the  instigation  of  his 
wife  Alchflida,  daughter  of  Oswi  the  king 
of  Northumberland  ;  and  he  spread  Christi- 
anity in  the  provinces  over  which  he  ruled. 
When  made  king,  he  soon  brought  the 
whole  territory  to  embrace  Christianity. — 
The  last  Saxon  kingdom,  Sussex,  including 
the  counties  of  Surry  ami  .is  con- 

verted about  the  year  686,  by  Wilfrid  an  ex- 
iled bishop  of  Northumberland. — A  great 
dispute  arising  about  the  tonsure  of  priests, 
(whether  only  a  considerable  spot,  or  the 
whole  head  except  a  circular  margin,  should 
be  shaved),  and  also  about  the  time  of  East- 
er, those  north  of  the  Thames  following  the 
Irish  or  Gallic  ritual,  and  :i  of  it, 

nun  ;  a  conference  was  held  o: 
subjects  at  Whitby.  in  the  year  fiijl      Hero 

king  of  Northumberland,  learning 
from  the  Romish  party  that  St.  Peter  had 
the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  that 
the  other  party  rould  not  deny  that  fact,  de- 
clared he  would  not  offend  St.  Peter,  lest 
when  he  should  arrive  at  the  gates  of  heav- 
en he  should  find  the  doorkeeper  would  not 
open  to  him.  Td  :ght  decided 

the  question  with  the  majority.  Still,  how- 
ever, the  controversy  continued  ;  and  sev- 
r riil  bishops  retired  in  disgust,  or  were  re- 
moved from  their  > 

op  elect,  being  sent  to  Rome  for  ordination 
as  primate  of  England,  died  by  the  way  ;  and 
the  pope  ordained  and  sent  Theodarut,  a 
native  of  Tarsus,  and  a  man  of  talents. 
Theodoras  arrived  at  Canterbury  in  669,  and 


424 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  I.— CHAP.  I. 


tribes,  and  there  founded  new  churches.  And  this  it  was  that  led  the 
Germans  afterwards  to  erect  so  many  monasteries  for  Scots  and  Irishmen : 
some  of  which  are  still  in  being.(6)  Columlanus  an  Irishman,  with  a  few 
companions,  had  already,  in  the  preceding  century,  happily  extirpated  in 
Gaul  and  the  contiguous  regions,  the  ancient  idolatry,  the  roots  of  which  had 
previously  struck  deep  every  where ;  and  he  persevered  in  these  labours 
till  the  year  615,  in  which  his  death  is  placed,  and  with  the  aid  of  his  disci- 
ples, carried  the  name  of  the  Saviour  to  the  Swabians,  Bavarians,  Franks, 
and  other  nations  of  Germany.(7)  St.  Gall,  one  of  his  companions,  im- 
parted a  knowledge  of  Christianity  to  the  Helvetians  and  Swabians. (8) 
St.  Kilian,  a  Scotchman,  converted  a  great  many  to  Christ  among  the  [Fran- 


for  twenty-one  years  was  indefatigable  in  his 
efforts  to  regulate  the  ecclesiastical  affairs  of 
England.  For  the  furtherance  of  his  designs, 
he  held  a  council  or  synod  at  Hertford  in 
673,  when  annual  synods  were  agreed  upon, 
and  other  ecclesiastical  regulations  adopted. 
Another  synod  at  Hatfield,  in  680,  estab- 
lished the  faith  of  the  English  churches, 
on  the  basis  of  the  five  first  general  coun- 
cils.— Hitherto  there  had  been  but  one  bish- 
op in  each  kingdom  of  the  Heptarchy,  ex- 
cept Kent,  which  had  two  bishops  ;  but  now, 
the  ambition  of  ruling  induced  the  primate 
and  some  of  the  kings  to  divide  bishoprics, 
in  order  to  diminish  the  power  of  the  lordly 
prelates.  Hence,  about  the  end  of  the  cen- 
tury, the  Heptarchy  contained  sixteen  bish- 
oprics :  viz.,  Canterbury  and  Rochester,  in 
Kent ;  London,  in  Essex  ;  Dunwich  and 
Elmham,  in  East  Anglia ;  Winchester  and 
Sherburn,  in  Wessex  ;  Litchfield,  Leicester, 
Hertford,  Worcester,  and  Synacester,  in 
Mercia  ;  and  York,  Lindisfarne,  Hexam,  and 
Withern.  in  Northumberland. — The  Irish 
and  Scotch  churches  were  in  a  very  pros- 
perous state  during  this  century. —  TV.] 

(6)  See  Acta  Sanctor.,  torn,  ii.,  Februar., 
p.  362. 

(7)  Jo.  Mabillon,  Acta  Sanctor.  ord.  Ben- 
edict!, torn,  ii.,  p.  560,  &c.,  torn,  iii.,  p.  72, 
339,  500,  and  elsewhere.     Adamanni,  lib. 
iii.  de  S.  Columbano,  in  Hen.  Canisii  Lec- 
tiones  Antiquae,  torn,  i.,  p.   674. — [See   a 
brief  account  of  St.  Columbanus,  above,  p. 
392,  note  (14).— TV.] 

(8)  Walafrid  Strabo,  Vita  Sti.  Galli,  in 
Jo.  Mabillon,  Acta  Sanctor.  ord.  Benedicti, 
torn,  ii.,  p.  228,  [ed.  Venice,  p.  215,  &c.] 
Hen.  Canisii  Lectiones  Antiquae,  torn,  i., 
p.  783.     [St.  Gall,  or  St.  Gallus,  was  born 
in  Ireland,  of  religions  parents,  who  early 
committed  him  to  Columbanus  for  education. 
He  became  a  monk  of  Bangor,  under  Co- 
lumbanus,   and   was   one   of  the    12    Irish 
monks,  who  left  Ireland  with  Columbanus, 
about  the  year  589,  travelled  through  Eng- 
land to  the  Continent,  and  erected  the  mon- 


astery of  Luxeul  in  Burgundy.  When  Co- 
lumbanus, 20  years  after,  was  driven  from 
this  monastery,  St.  Gall  accompanied  him  in 
exile.  Ascending  the  Rhine,  they  penetra- 
ted the  heart  of  Switzerland,  about  the  year 
610,  and  took  residence  among  the  pagans 
at  Tuggen,  at  the  head  of  the  lake  of  Zu- 
rich. Attacking  idolatry,  St.  Gall  here  burn- 
ed the  pagan  temple,  and  cast  their  offerings 
into  the  lake.  This  enraged  the  people,  and 
the  monks  had  to  flee.  Travelling  through 
the  canton  of  St.  Gal!,  they  came  to  Arbon, 
on  the  shores  of  the  lake  of  Constance.  Here 
Willimar,  the  presbyter  of  the  place,  treated 
them  kindly,  and  aided  them  to  form  a  set- 
tlement at  Bregents,  at  the  eastern  extremi- 
ty of  the  lake.  Here  the  monks  attempted 
to  convert  the  surrounding  pagans,  and  were 
not  without  some  success.  But  at  the  end 
of  two  years,  the  unconverted  procured  an 
order  from  the  duke  for  the  monks  to  quit 
the  country.  Columbanus  and  the  rest  now 
retired  to  Bobbio,  in  Italy  ;  but  St.  Gall  was 
left  behind,  sick.  When  recovered,  he  re- 
tired into  the  wilderness  with  a  few  adhe- 
rents, and  erected  the  monastery  of  St.  Gall, 
in  the  province  of  the  same  name.  Here  he 
spent  the  remainder  of  his  days,  in  great  rep- 
utation and  honour.  He  refused  the  bish- 
opric of  Constance,  which  he  conferred  on 
his  pupil  John.  His  monastery  flourished 
much,  and  spread  light  over  the  surrounding 
country.  St.  Gall  died  at  Arbon,  but  was 
interred  in  his  monastery,  at  the  age  of  95, 
according  to  Mabillon.  His  sermon  at  the 
ordination  of  John  at  Constance,  and  some 
epistles,  are  published  by  Canisius,  loc.  cit. 
His  life  by  Walifrid  Strabo,  from  which  this 
notice  is  extracted,  though  full  of  legendary 
tales,  is  written  in  a  far  better  style  than  the 
ordinary  monkish  biographies. — It  appears, 
according  to  Strabo,  that  Switzerland  was 
almost  wholly  pagan  when  first  visited  by 
Columbanus  in  610,  but  that  Christianity 
had  then  made  considerable  progress  in  Ger- 
many, from  the  lake  of  Constance  all  along 
the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine. — TV.] 


PROSPEROUS  EVENTS. 


425 


conians  or]  Eastern  Franks.(9)  Near  the  close  of  the  century,  in  the  year 
690,  Willebrord,  by  birth  an  Anglo-Saxon,  accompanied  by  eleven  of  his 
countrymen,  viz.,  Suidbert,  Wigbert,  Acca,  Witibald,  Unibald,  Lebwin,  the 
two  Ewalds,  Wcrenfrid,  Mtircr///n,  and  Adalbert,  crossed  over  to  Batavia 
lying  opposite  to  Britain,  with  a  view  to  convert  the  Frieslanders  to  Chris- 
tianity.  From  thence,  in  the  year  692,  they  went  to  Fosteland,  which  most 
writers  suppose  to  be  the  island  of  Heligoland  :  being  driven  from  there  by 
Radbod  the  king  of  the  Frieslanders,  who  put  Wigbert  one  of  the  company 
to  death,  they  wandered  over  Cimbria  and  the  adjacent  parts  of  Denmark. 
Returning  to  Fricsland  in  the  year  693,  they  attacked  the  superstition  of 
the  country  with  better  success.  Willebrord  was  now  created  by  the  Ro- 
man pontiiF,  archbishop  of  Wilteburg,  [since  called  Utrecht],  and  died  at 
an  advanced  age  among  the  Batavians.  His  associates  spread  a  knowledge 
of  Christianity  among  the  Westphalians  and  the  neighbouring  nations. (10) 


(9)  Vita  S.  Kiliani,  in  Henr.  Canisii  Lec- 
tiones  Antiquae,  torn,  iii.,  p.  171,  &c.  J.  Pet. 
de  Ludcwig,  Scriptores   rerum  Wiirtsbur- 
gens.,  p.  966.     [See  also  the  Life  of  St.  Kil- 
ian,  in  Mabillon,  Acta  Sanctor.  ord.  Bene- 
dict., torn.  ii.,  p.  951-953,  ed.  Venice,  1733. 
According  to  these  authorities,  St.  Kiliu/i, 
Chilian,  Cylian,  Cilnin,  or  Kylloia,  was  an 
Irishman,  of  honourable  birth  and  good  edu- 
cation.    In  early  life  he  had  a  great  thirst 
for  knowledge  ;  and  being  very  pious,  and 
possessing  a  perfect  knowledge  of  missionary 
enterprises,    he   planned   one   of   his    own. 
Taking  with  him  Coloman,  Gallon,  and  Ar- 
neval,   presbyters,  Donatus  a   deacon,   and 
seven  others,  he  penetrated  into  Franconia, 
which  was  wholly  pagan,  and  took  residence 
at  Herliipolis  or  Wurtzburg.     Finding  their 
prospects  good,  Kilian,  Coloman,  and   Tot- 
nan  went  to  Italy  to  obtain  the  papal  sanc- 
tion to  their  enterprise  ;  which  having  readily 
obtained    from   Conon,  (who  was   pope   1 1 
months,  ending  Sept ,  686),  they  returned  to 
Wiirtzburg,  converted  and  baptized  Gosbert 
the  duke,  and  a  large  number  of  his  subjects. 
But  afterwards,  persuading  the  duke  that  it 
was  unlawful  for  him  to  have  his  brother's 
wife,  Geilan,  she  seized  an  occasional  ab- 
sence of  her  husband,  and  murdered  all  the 
missionaries.     This  cruel  act   is  placed  in 
the  year  696.     But  the   massacre  did   not 
prevent  the  progress  of  Christianity  ;  for  the 
duchess  became  deranged,  the  assassins  re- 
pented, and  ,S'/    Kilian  became  the  tutelar 
saint  of  Wiirlzburg. —  TV.] 

(10)  i  Willebrordi,  in  Jo.  Ma- 
bdlun,  Acta  Sanctor.  ord.  Bened.,  torn,  iii., 
p.  604.  &c.,  [559,  &c.,  ed.  Venice].     Jo. 
Molleri  Cimbria  Litterata,  torn,  ii.,  p.  980, 
&c.    [Bcda,  Histor.  Eccles.,  1.  v.,  c.  11.  12. 
This  famous  missionary  was  born   in  Nor- 
thumberland about  A.I)    (i.V.i,  of  pious  pa- 
rents.    Educated  in  the  monastery  of  Ripon 
(Hirpensis),  in  Northumberland,  at  the  age 

VOL.  I.— H  H  ir 


of  20  he  went  to  Ireland,  where  he  studied 
12  years.  At  the  age  of  33  he  commenced 
his  mission,  and  sailed  up  the  Rhine  to 
Utrecht,  in  the  dominions  of  Radbod  the  pa- 
gan king  of  the  Friesians.  Soon  after  he 
went  to  France,  and  by  advice  of  king  Pcpin, 
visited  Italy,  and  obtained  the  sanction  of 
pope  Scrgius  to  his  enterprise.  Returning 
to  Utrecht,  he  in  vain  attempted  the  conver- 
sion of  Radbod  and  his  subjects.  Therefore 
proceeding  northward,  he  landed  at  an  island 
called  Fositdand,  which  was  on  the  confines 
of  Denmark  and  Friesland,  and  so  sacred 
that  its  fruits,  its  animals,  and  even  its  wa- 
ters were  holy,  and  whoever  profaned  them 
was  to  be  punished  with  death.  Willibrod 
and  his  company  wholly  disregarded  the  sa- 
credness  of  the  place,  violated  the  laws,  were 
arraigned  before  Radbod,  who  cast  lots  on 
their  destiny,  by  which  one  was  doomed  to 
death,  and  the  others  dismissed.  They  now 
penetrated  into  Denmark.  On  their  return 
to  the  confines  of  France,  Pcpin,  who  in  693 
had  vanquished  Radbcd.  sent  \Villibroil  again 
to  Italy  to  be  consecrated  archbishop  of 
Utrecht.  Pope  Serg:us  now  gave  him  the 
name  of  Clemens.  Returning  clothed  with 
dignity,  his  friend  Pcpin  aided  him  in  his 
work  ;  and  for  about  50  years  from  h;- 
ing  England,  he  laboured,  and  with  much 
success,  as  the  apostle  of  the  Frii'slanders. 
He  died  about  the  year  740.  at  the  advanced 
age  of  81.  Thus  far  Alcttin's  narrative  goes. 
Of  his  followers,  it  is  said,  that  the  two 

v.  (the  one  called  the  white,  and  the 
other  the  black  Ewald),  were  put  to  death 
by  a  Saxon  king,  and  their  bodies  cast  into 
the  Rhine ;  that  Suidbfrt  preached  to  the 
Bructeri  near  Cologne,  and  at  last  ; 

>-th  on  the  Rhine,  where  he  died  A.D. 
713;  that  \VilHbald  became  bishop  of  Eich- 
sttiilt  in  Bavaria  ;  and  Marccllinus  bishop  of 
the  country  along  the  Issel. — TV.] 


426      BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  I.— CHAP.  II. 

§  4.  Of  these  and  other  expeditions  undertaken  for  the  extension  of 
Christianity,  an  impartial  man  who  adheres  to  truth  will  not  pass  an  in- 
discriminate judgment.  That  some  of  these  preachers  were  men  of  hon- 
est  simplicity  and  piety,  no  one  can  doubt.  But  most  of  them  show  man- 
ifest  proofs  of  various  sinful  passions,  of  arrogance,  avarice,  and  cruelty ; 
and  having  received  authority  from  the  Roman  pontiff  to  exercise  their  sa- 
cred functions  among  the  barbarians,  they  did  not  so  much  collect  holy 
congregations  of  devout  Christians,  as  procure  for  themselves  a  people  among 
whom  they  might  act  the  part  of  sovereigns  and  lords.  I  cannot  therefore 
strongly  censure  those,  who  suspect  that  some  of  these  monks,  being  de- 
sirous of  ruling,  concealed  for  a  time  their  vicious  propensities  under  the 
veil  of  religion,  and  imposed  upon  themselves  various  hardships,  that  they 
might  acquire  the  rank  and  honours  of  bishops  and  archbishops. 

§  5.  Of  the  Jews,  very  few,  if  any,  voluntarily  embraced  Christianity. 
But  the  Christians  compelled  many  of  them  in  different  places,  by  means 
of  penalties,  to  make  an  outward  profession  of  belief  in  Christ.  The  em- 
peror Heraclius  being  incensed  against  them,  as  is  reported,  by  the  influ- 
ence of  Christian  doctors,  made  havoc  of  the  miserable  nation,  and  ordered 
vast  numbers  of  them  to  be  dragged  reluctantly  to  baptism.(ll)  The  kings 
of  Spain  and  Gaul  had  no  hesitation  to  do  the  same,  notwithstanding  the 
Roman  pontiffs  were  opposed  to  it. (12)  Such  evils  resulted  from  ignorance 
of  the  true  principles  of  Christianity,  and  from  the  barbarism  of  the  age. 


CHAPTER  II. 

ADVERSITIES    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

()  1.  Persecutions  of  the  Christians. — §  2.  Mohammed. — §  3.  Judgment  concerning  him. 
— §  4.  Causes  of  the  Rapid  Progress  of  his  Religion. — $  5.  Disposition  of  the  Mohamme- 
dans towards  the  Christians. — §  6.  Sects  among  them. 

§  1.  THE  Christians  suffered  less  in  this  than  in  the  preceding  centuries. 
By  the  Persian  kings,  they  were  at  times  persecuted  ;  but  the  rage  against 
them  soon  subsided.  In  England  some  of  the  petty  kings  oppressed  the 
new  converts  to  Christianity  ;  but  soon  after,  these  kings  themselves  became 
professed  Christians.  In  the  East,  especially  in  Syria  and  Palestine,  the 
Jews  sometimes  rose  upon  the  Christians  with  great  violence  ;(1)  yet  so 
unsuccessfully  as  to  suffer  severely  for  their  temerity.  Those  living  among 
the  Christians  who  secretly  consulted  about  restoring  the  pagan  religions, 
were  too  weak  to  venture  on  any  positive  measures. 

§  2.  But  a  new  and  most  powerful  adversary  of  Christianity,  started  up 
in  Arabia,  A.D.  612,  in  the  reign  of  Heraclius.  MoJiammed  was  indeed 
an  illiterate  man  ;(2)  but  still  an  Arab  nobleman,  naturally  eloquent,  and 

(11)  Eutychius,  Annales  Ecclesiae  Alex-         (1)  Eutyrhius,  Annales,  torn,  ii.,  p.  236, 
andr.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  212,  &c.  &c.     Jo.  Henr.  Hot/inner,  Historia  Orien- 

(12)  [See  some  authorities  on  this  subject,     talis,  lib.  i.,  c.  iii.,  p.  129,  &c. 

quoted  by  Baronius,  Annales  Eccles.  ad  (2)  Mohammed  himself  professed  to  be 
ann.  614,  sub  fin.,  torn,  viii.,  p.  239,  &c.,  destitute  of  science  and  learning,  and  even 
ed.  Antw.,  1600. — Tr.]  to  be  unable  to  read  and  write  :  and  his  fol- 


ADVERSE  EVENTS. 


427 


possessing  great  acuteness  of  mind. (8)  He  proclaimed  that  he  was  sent 
of  God,  to  overthrow  all  polytheism ;  and  also  to  purge  and  reform,  first, 
the  religions  of  the  Arabs,  and  next,  those  of  the  Jews  and  the  Christians : 
and  having  framed  a  law  which  is  called  the  Koran,(£)  after  gaining  some 


lowers  have  deduced  from  this  his  ignorance, 
an  argument  for  the  divinity  of  the  religion 
which  he  taught.  But  it  is  hardly  credible, 
that  he  was  so  rude  and  ignorant  a  man. 
And  there  are  some  among  his  adherents, 
who  question  the  reality  of  the  fact.  See 
Jo.  Chardin,  Voyages  en  Perse,  torn,  iv., 
p.  33,  34.  Indeed,  when  I  consider  that 
Mohammed  for  a  long  time  pursued  a  gainful 
commerce  in  Arabia  and  the  adjacent  coun- 
tries, I  think  he  must  have  been  able  to  read 
and  write  and  cast  accounts,  for  merchants 
cannot  dispense  with  this  degree  of  knowl- 
edge. [Dr.  Mosheim  here  reasons  in  the 
very  manner  which  he  himself  condemns ; 
viz.,  such  a  thing  does  not  occur  at  this  day, 
and  therefore  it  did  not  in  ancient  times. 
(See  the  Introd.,  §  19,  p.  xix.,  supra).  Ac- 
cording to  the  Koran  and  all  the  Mohamme- 
dan writers,  the  times  preceding  Mohammed 
were  times  of  ignorance  among  the  Arabs. 
The  tribe  of  Hamyar  in  Yemen  had  indeed 
for  some  centuries  possessed  a  rude  alpha- 
bet ;  but  the  use  of  it  was  not  publicly  taught, 
nor  suffered  except  with  special  permission. 
The  Arab  Jews  and  Christians,  likewise,  un- 
doubtedly had  the  use  of  letters  ;  but  all  the 
pagan  Arabs  of  the  Ishmaelitish  stock,  in- 
cluding the  tribe  of  Koreish  as  well  as  others, 
were  without  letters,  previously  to  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Cufic  character  in  which  the 
Koran  was  first  written.  This  alphabet  was 
invented  at  Cufah  in  Irak,  a  little  before  the 
times  of  Mohammed,  and  was  first  taught  at 
Mecca,  as  it  is  said,  by  Bashar  the  Kendian, 
iust  before  the  institution  of  the  Mohamme- 
dan religion.  (See  Sale's  Koran,  Prelim. 
Diss.,  ()  i.,  p.  35.)  Hence  the  best  educa- 
ted men  in  his  tribe,  up  to  the  time  he  ap- 
peared, were  unable  to  read  and  write  ;  and 


was  about  12  years  before  he  assumed  the 
character  of  a  prophet.  Now  that  such  a 
man  should  be  among  the  very  first  in  Mecca 
to  loarn  the  use  of  letters,  is  not  to  be  ex- 
pected. Much  less  can  we  infer  from  his 
occupation,  that  he  must  have  been  able  to 
read  and  write.  That  he  employed  his  son- 
in-law  AH,  as  his  scribe  in  committing  the 
Koran  to  writing,  is  the  constant  testimony 
of  his  followers.  And  that  he  should  appeal 
in  that  book  to  his  own  ignorance  of  letters, 
as  proof  that  he  did  not  write  it  out  and  pol- 
ish it  in  his  closet,  seems  to  be  good  evi- 
dence of  such  ignorance.  For  his  intimate 
acquaintances  must  have  known  whether  that 
ignorance  was  real  or  not ;  and,  as  most  of 
them  were  slow  to  admit  his  pretensions  to  a 
divine  mission,  it  cannot  be  supposed  that 
he  would  jeopardize  his  reputation  as  a  man 
of  veracity  and  of  common  sense,  by  refer- 
ring them  to  what  they  knew  to  be  false,  as 
good  evidence  of  his  inspiration.  See  Sale's 
Koran,  ch.  i.,  vol.  i.,  p.  192,  and  ch.  xxix., 
vol.  ii.,  p.  256.  See  also  Gibbon's  Decl.  and 
Fall  of  Rom.  Emp  ,  ch.  1.,  not.  70,  vol.  v.,  p. 
147,  &c.  And  on  the  other  side,  White's 
Sermons,  p.  203,  204,  and  notes  p.  xxvi.- 
xxxviii.  ;  also  G.  Bush's  Life  of  Mohammed, 
p.  38,  39.—  TV.] 

(3)  The  writers  on  his  life  and  religion 
are  enumerated  by  Jo.  Alb.  Fabricius,  De- 
lectus et  Syllabus  Argumentor.  pro  veritate 
religionis  Christiana?,  cap.  1.,  p.  733,  dec.  To 
which  may  be  added  count  Boulainvilhers, 
Vie  de  Mahomet,  Lond.,  1730,  8vo,  which 
however  is  rather  a  romance  than  a  history. 
Jo.  Gagnicr,  Vie  de  Mahomet,  2  vols.  12mo, 
Amsterd.,  1732,  is  commendable  for  the  in- 
genuousness of  the  author,  yet  the  style  is 
dry.  George  Sale,  a  distinguished  and  very 


much  more  the  camel  drivers  and  the  men     judicious  author,  in  his  Preliminary  discourse 

prefixed  to  his  version  of  the  Koran,  sec.  ii., 
[p.  45,  &c.,ed.  Lond.,  1825.    II.  I' 
Life  of  Mahomet,  1697,  8vo.      Geo.  Bush, 
Life  of  Mohammed,  N.  York,  1834.  18mo. 
','ibbon,  Hist,  of  the  Decl.  and  Fall  of 
the  Rom.  Emp.,  ch.  1.,  vol.  v.,  p.  145,  &c., 
York,  1826.     P.  Bai/lr,  Dictionnaire 
Historique,  art.  Mahomet  .  Hopae- 

dia,  art.  Mahomet.     Andr.  Cnchtor,' 
tory  of  Arabia,  N.  Y.,  1834,  vol.  i.,  ch.  vi. 
Abulfcda,  Annales  Muslrm..   Ar.  and  Lat., 
2  vols.  4to,    Hafnis,    1790.     Abulfcda,  de 
Vita  et  Rebus  Gestis  Mohammed  is,  Arab, 
and  Lat.,  Oxon.,   1723      Schrocckh,  Kirch- 
engesch.,  vol.  xix.,  p.  327—405 — TV.] 
(4)  For  an  account  of  the  Koran,  see,  in 


active  life,  such  as  Mohammed  was. 
Though  of  noble  birth,  he  was  an  orphan 
child,  whose  whole  patrimony  was  five  cam- 
els and  a  female  slave  His  uncle,  Abu  Td- 
leb,  who  brought  him  up,  twice  sent  him  in  his 
caravan  to  Syria,  first  when  he  was  13  and 
then  when  about  20  years  old.  In  the  inter- 
val he  went  on  a  military  expedition  against 
a  neighbouring  tribe.  And  this  is  all  we 
know  of  him  till  the  age  of  25,  when  he  was 
recommended  to  a  rich  widow  of  Mivca 
named  Cadijah,  to  be  her  factor ;  and  she 
sent  him  in  that  capacity  to  Damascus  and 
the  adjacent  parts  of  Syria.  On  his  return 
she  gave  him  her  hand  and  her  fortune,  and 
he  became  an  opulent  citizen  of  Mecca.  This 


428 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  I.— CHAP.  II. 


victories  over  his  enemies,  he  compelled  an  immense  multitude  of  persons, 
first  in  Arabia,  and  then  in  the  neighbouring  countries,  to  assent  to  his  doc- 
trines.  Elated  with  this  unexpected  success,  he  now  began  to  think  of 
founding  an  empire ;  and  he  effected  his  object  with  no  less  felicity  than 
boldness,  so  that  at  his  death  he  saw  himself  the  sovereign  of  all  Arabia, 
and  of  several  of  the  neighbouring  countries.  [After  his  marriage  with  Ca- 
dijah,  Mohammed  resided  at  Mecca,  which  was  at  that  time  the  principal 
seat  of  Arabian  idolatry,  and  much  frequented  by  pilgrims  on  account  of 
its  famous  temple  called  Caaba.  Here  he  conceived  the  idea  of  reclaim- 
ing his  countrymen  from  idolatry,  and  of  restoring  the  primitive  and  only 
true  religion,  which  had  been  taught  by  Abraham  and  Ishmael,  by  Moses 
and  the  prophets,  and  by  Jesus  Christ  and  his  apostles.  Retiring  frequently 
to  a  cave  near  the  city  for  solitude  and  meditation,  he  at  length  persuaded 
himself,  or  at  least  professed  to  believe,  that  he  had  divine  revelations,  and 
was  a  prophet  whom  God  commissioned  to  reform  mankind.  He  first  sta- 
ted his  pretensions  to  his  wife,  who  readily  came  into  his  views.  She  com. 
municated  the  secret  to  her  cousin  Warakah,  who  being  a  Christian  and 
somewhat  acquainted  with  the  Scriptures,  yielded  to  her  arguments,  and 
assured  her  that  the  same  angel  who  in  ancient  times  appeared  to  Moses 
was  sent  to  converse  with  Mohammed.  His  next  convert  was  Zeid  his  ser- 
vant, whom  he  now  set  free.  AH  the  son  of  Abu  Taleb  next  believed,  and 


preference  to  all  others,  Geo.  Sale's  very 
learned  Preliminary  Discourse,  prefixed  to 
his  English  version  of  that  book.  Add  Vcr- 
tot,  Discours  sur  1'Alcoran ;  annexed  to  the 
third  volume  of  his  History  of  the  Knights 
of  Malta,  in  French  :  Jo.  Chardin,  Voyages 
en  Perse,  torn,  ii.,  p.  281,  new  ed.  The 
book  which  the  Mohammedans  call  the  Ko- 
ran, is  a  collection  of  papers  and  discourses 
discovered  and  published  after  the  death  of 
Mohammed  ;  and  is  not  that  Law,  which  he 
so  highly  extolled.  Perhaps  some  parts  of 
the  true  Koran  are  still  found  in  the  modern 
Koran  :  but  that  the  Koran  or  Law,  which 
Mohammed  prescribed  to  the  Arabians,  dif- 
fered from  the  present  Koran,  is  manifest 
from  the  fact,  that  Mohammed  in  our  Koran 
appeals  to  and  extols  that  other  the  true  Ko- 
ran. A  book  which  is  commended  and  ex- 
tolled in  any  writing,  must  certainly  be  dif- 
ferent from  that  in  which  it  is  commended. 
May  we  not  conjecture,  that  the  true  Koran 
was  an  Arabic  poem,  which  Mohammed  re- 
cited to  his  adherents,  and  wished  them  to 
commit  to  memory,  but  which  he  did  not 
\vrite  out?  Such,  it  is  well  known,  were 
the  laws  of  the  Gallic  Druids ;  and  such  is 
said  to  be  that  Indian  law,  which  the  Brah- 
mins learn  and  preserve  in  their  memories. 
[These  conjectures  of  Dr.  Mosheim  appear 
to  be  wholly  without  foundation.  There  is 
no  reason  to  believe,  that  there  ever  was  a 
Koran  essentially  different  from  that  we  now 
have  ,  or  that  Mohammed  declined  commit- 
ting his  pretended  revelations  to  writing. 
The  only  argument  adduced  by  Dr.  Mo- 


sheim is  of  no  force  at  all,  considering  the 
manner  in  which  the  Koran  came  into  exist- 
ence. The  book  itself  professes  to  have 
been  composed  by  God,  in  the  highest  heav- 
ens, and  thence  sent  down  to  the  lower  heav- 
ens by  the  angel  Gabriel,  who  communica- 
ted it  by  parcels  to  Mohammed,  during  the 
twenty-three  years  that  he  claimed  to  be  a 
prophet.  Moreover,  the  parcels  revealed 
last,  often  revoked  or  modified  what  had 
been  revealed  before,  and  likewise  replied 
to  the  objections  of  infidels  against  the  book. 
See  Sale's  Koran,  vol.  i.,  ed.  Lond.,  1825, 
ch.  vi.,  p.  159  ;  and  vol.  ii.,  ch.  x.,  p.  31 ;  ch. 
xvi.,  p.  107  ;  ch.  xxv.,  p.  213  ;  ch.  xcvii.,  p. 
497.  The  Mohammedan  doctors  say,  the 
Koran  existed,  together  with  the  decrees  of 
God,  from  all  eternity,  engraven  on  a  table 
of  stone  hard  by  the  throne  of  God,  and 
called  the  Preserved  fable  ;  that  God  sent 
the  angel  Gabriel,  with  a  transcript  of  the 
entire  Koran,  down  to  the  lowest  heavens, 
where,  during  23  years,  he  revealed  it  by 
parcels  to  Mohammed ;  that  Mohammed 
caused  these  parcels  to  be  written  down  by 
his  scribe,  as  they  were  received,  and  pub- 
lished them  at  once  to  his  followers,  some  of 
whom  took  copies,  while  the  greater  part  got 
them  by  heart ;  that  the  original  MSS.  of 
the  scribe,  when  returned,  were  thrown  pro- 
miscuously into  a  chest,  whence  they  were 
taken,  after  the  prophet's  death,  and  pub- 
lished collectively,  in  their  present  form  and 
order,  which  is  wholly  without  regard  to 
dates,  or  a  classification  of  subjects.  See 
Sale's  Prelim.  Disc.,  $  iii.,  p.  77-95.—  TV.] 


ADVERSE  EVENTS.  429 

afterwards  Abubeker,  Othman,  Abd'alrdhman,  Saad,  al  Zobeir,  and  Telha — 
all  his  relatives  and  principal  men  of  Mecca.  At  the  end  of  three  years, 
he  concluded  to  make  known  his  pretensions  to  all  his  family  connexions 
assembled  at  a  grand  entertainment.  But  they  turned  the  whole  into  rid. 
icule.  He.  was  not  discouraged,  but  proceeded  directly  to  proclaim  his  mis- 
sion  in  public  to  the  people".  They  resisted  him  at  once,  and  becoming  irrita- 
ted, began  to  plot  his  ruin.  Aba  Tdleb,  though  far  from  becoming  his  disciple, 
yet  protected  his  nephew  from  violence.  At  the  i  :M!  of  live  years,  his  lew 
adherents  met  with  so  much  abuse,  that  most  of  them  fled  the  country,  and 
are  said  to  have  retired  to  Ethiopia.  In  the  sixth  year,  lie  gained  some 
important  converts;  but  the  following  year  there  was  a  grand  conspiracy 
against  him,  and  his  own  tribe  became  divided  into  hostile  factions.  In  the 
tenth  year  of  his  mission,  his  powerful  protector  Abu  Tdleb  died,  and  also 
his  wife  Cadijah.  The  violence  of  his  enemies  was  now  so  great,  that  he 
deemed  it  advisable  to  retire  from  Mecca.  He  went  to  Tayef ;  but  being 
soon  driven  from  that  city  by  the  populace,  he  ventured  to  return  to  Mecca, 
where  he  pi  cached  so  successfully  to  the  assembled  pilgrims  that  he  gained 
a  number  of  converts,  and  among  them  six  inhabitants  of  Yathreb,  ;: 
wards  named  Medinat  al  Nabi,  (city  of  the  prophet),  or  simply  Medina, 
who  were  of  the  Jewish  tribe  Khazrai.  In  the  twelfth  year,  no  less  than 
twelve  men  of  Medina  came  to  Mecca,  and  by  a  solemn  oath  pledged  them- 
selves to  adhere  to  Mohammed.  On  their  return  to  Medina, accompanied 
by  the  preacher  Masdb,  the  new  religion  was  propagated  so  successfully 
at  .Medina,  that  a  large  part  of  the  people  became  Mohammedans.  The 
following  year,  which  was  the  thirteenth  of  his  mission,  seventy-three  con- 
verts of  Medina  came  to  Mecca,  and  entered  into  a  covenant  with  Mo. 
hammed  to  protect  and  defend  him  by  force  of  arms  against  all  assailants. 
This  was  the  first  step  towards  the  employment  of  the  sword  in  support  of 
his  doctrine.  He  however  dismissed  them,  and  remained  at  Mecca  with 
his  few  friends  there.  As  soon  as  they  were  gone,  all  the  tribes  of  Mec- 
cans  banded  together  to  assassinate  him  in  his  house.  But  he  found  means 
to  escape  out  of  the  city,  and  to  make  his  way  to  Medina.  This  was  the 
famous  flight  of  Mohammed,  sixty-eight  days  after  the  commencement  of 
the  Arabic  lunar  year  that  began  on  Friday,  July  16,  622,  and  .vhieh  the 
Mohammedans  called  the  year  of  the  ///•////  or  the  Hegira.  Hitherto  Moham- 
med had  appeared  only  in  the  character  of  a  prophet, — a  character  which 
he  had  sustained  by  a  life  of  self-denial,  purity,  and  devotion,  as  well  as  by 
ardent  zeal  to  enlighten  and  reform  his  fellow-men.  But  he  i;»u  assumed 
the  character  of  a  temporal  sovereign  as  well  as  a  prophet,  and  claimed  to 
have  absolute  power  in  civil  as  well  as  religious  matters.  Arguments  and 
entreaties  were  no  longer  the  only  means  he  used  in  making  converts,  but  he 
pretended  to  have  a  command  from  God  to  propagate  the  truth  and  to  sup." 
press  all  false  religions  by  the  power  of  the  sword.  He  accordingly  led 
his  followers  to  battle,  waged  offensive  as  well  as  defensive  wars  in  support 
of  his  religion,  and  gave  to  idolaters  no  alternative  but  death  or  the  pro- 
fession of  Islamism.  In  the  course  of  eleven  years  he  brought  all  Arabia 
under  his  dominion,  and  purged  it  of  idolatry.  He  also  gave  himself  up 
to  excessive  venery,  and  claimed  to  have  divine  permission  to  marry  as 
many  wives  as  he  pleased,  and  whom  he  pleased,  without  regard  to  the  laws 
which  are  binding  on  other  men.  Yet  he  continued  t6  exhibit  the  sn mi- 
religious  zeal  as  before,  and  seemed  not  at  all  sensible  of  any  incongruity 


430  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  I.— CHAP.  II. 

between  his  pretensions  and  his  conduct.  He  died  at  Medina  in  the  year 
632,  while  preparing  to  extend  his  conquests  into  foreign  countries ;  and 
died,  as  he  had  lived,  apparently  with  a  self-approving  conscience,  and  in  the 
full  persuasion  that  he  had  faithfully  discharged  the  duties  of  his  prophetic 
office,  and  was  going  to  receive  a  rich  reward. — See  the  writers  mentioned 
in  note  (3),  supra. —  Tr.] 

§  3.  No  one  can  at  this  day  form  a  perfect  judgment  of  the  entire  char- 
acter, views,  and  designs  of  Mohammed.  For  we  cannot  safely  rely  on 
the  Greek  writers,  who  made  no  hesitation  to  load  their  enemy  with  slan- 
ders and  falsehoods ;  nor  can  we  trust  to  the  Arabians,  who  are  the  very 
worst  historians,  who  conceal  all  his  vices  and  crimes,  and  depict  him  as 
altogether  a  divine  person.  Besides,  a  very  considerable  part  of  his  life, 
and  that  too  from  which  the  motives  and  secret  springs  of  his  conduct 
would  best  appear,  lies  concealed  from  us.  It  is  very  probable,  however, 
that  abhorrence  of  the  superstition  in  which  he  saw  his  countrymen  involved, 
so  wrought  upon  him  as  to  throw  him  into  a  disordered  state  of  mind  ;  and 
that  he  really  believed,  that  he  was  divinely  commissioned  to  reform  the 
religion  of  the  Arabs,  and  to  reinstate  among  them  the  worship  of  the  one 
true  God.  But  it  is  also  certain,  that  afterwards,  when  he  saw  his  attempts 
going  into  successful  operation,  he  deluded  the  fickle  and  credulous  multi- 
tude with  impious  tricks  and  impositions,  in  order  to  strengthen  his  cause ; 
and  even  feigned  divine  revelations,  whenever  occasion  seemed  to  require 
it  or  any  great  difficulty  occurred.  Nor  was  this  fraud  inconsistent  with 
his  being  a  fanatic  ;  for  most  fanatics  look  upon  the  deception  which  seems 
necessary  to  their  success,  to  be  holy  and  approved  of  God ;  and  they  of 
course  resort  to  deception,  when  they  can  do  it  safely.(5)  The  religion 
which  he  inculcated,  is  not  what  it  would  have  been  if  his  designs  had  not 
been  opposed.  The  pertinacity  with  which  the  Arabians  adhered  to  the 
opinions  and  customs  of  their  ancestors,  and  the  hope  of  gaining  over  the 
Jews  and  the  Christians  to  his  cause,  undoubtedly  led  him  to  approve  and 
to  tolerate  many  things  which  he  would  have  rejected  and  abrogated  if  he 
had  been  at  liberty  to  pursue  his  own  choice. 

§  4.  The  causes  of  the  rapid  propagation  of  this  new  religion  among  so 
many  nations,  are  not  difficult  to  be  discovered.  In  the  first  place,  the  ter- 
ror of  arms  which  Mohammed  and  his  successors  carried  with  great  suc- 
cess into  different  countries,  compelled  vast  multitudes  to  receive  his  law. 
In  the  next  place,  his  law  itself  was  admirably  adapted  to  the  natural  dis- 
positions of  men,  and  especially  to  the  manners,  the  opinions,  and  the  vices 
prevalent  among  the  people  of  the  East ;  for  it  was  extremely  simple,  pro- 
posing very  few  things  to  be  believed ;  nor  did  it  enjoin  many  and  difficult 
duties  to  be  performed,  or  such  as  laid  severe  restraints  on  the  propensi- 
ties of  men. (6)  Moreover,  the  consummate  ignorance,  which  characterized 

(5)  This,  in  my  judgment,  is  the  best  way  ran,  sec.  ii.,  [p.  53,  &c.,  ed.  Lond.,  1825. 

of  deciding  the  controversy,  which  has  been  Schrocckh,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  xix.,  p.  380, 

agitated  by  learned  men  of  our  age  ;  whether  &c. — Tr.] 

Mohammed  was  a  fanatic  or  an  impostor"!  (6)  See  Hadr.  Rcland,  de  rcligione  Ma- 
See  Peter  liayle,  Dictionnaire  Historique,  humedica,  Libri.ii.,  Utrecht,  1717,  12mo. 
torn,  iii.,  article  Mahomet,  note  K.  Sim.  Geo.  Sale,  Prelim.  Dissert,  to  the  Koran, 
Ockley,  Conquest  of  Syria,  Persia,  and  sec.  iv.,  v.,  vi.  [Han.  More,  Dictionary  of 
Egypt,  by  the  Saracens,  torn,  i.,  p.  68,  all  Religions,  art.  Mahometans,  ed.  1817. 
Lond.,  1708,  8vo.  George  Sale,  Prelitni-  H.  Hallam's  View  of  Europe  in  the  middle 
nary  Discourse  to  his  translation  of  the  Ko-  ages,  vol.  ii.,  p.  402,  &c.,  ed.  Philad.,  1821. 


ADVERSE  EVENTS. 


431 


for  the  most  part  the  Arabians,  the  Syrians,  the  Persians,  and  other  nations 
of  the  East,  gave  a  bold  and  eloquent  man  easy  control  over  the  minds  of 
immense  numbers.  We  may  add,  that  the  virulent  contests  among  the 
Christians — Greeks,  Nestorians,  Eutychians,  and  Monophysites,  which  fill. 
ved  a  large  part  of  the  East  with  carnage  and  horrible  crimes,  rendered 
their  religion  odious  in  the  eyes  of  many.  And  further  the  Monophysites 
and  Nestorians,  whom  the  Greeks  oppressed  most  grievously,  gave  assist- 
ance to  the  Arabians  and  facilitated  their  conquest  of  certain  provinces, 
and  thus  secured  the  preponderance  to  their  sects  in  those  regions. (7) 
Other  causes  will  readily  suggest  themselves,  to  such  as  consider  attentively 
the  state  of  the  world  and  the  character  of  the  Mohammedan  religion. 

§  5.  After  the  death  of  Mohammed  in  the  year  632,  his  followers  issu- 
ing forth  from  Arabia  with  their  native  fortitude  stimulated  by  a  furious 
fanaticism,  and  aided,  as  has  already  been  observed,  by  those  Christians 
who  were  persecuted  by  the  Greeks,  extended  their  conquests  over  Syria, 
Persia,  Egypt,  and  some  other  countries. (8)  Nor  could  the  Greeks,  har- 
assed with  intestine  commotions  and  various  wars,  put  forth  sufficient  en- 
ergy  to  check  their  rapid  career.  The  victors  at  first  used  their  prosper- 
ity with  moderation,  and  were  very  indulgent  towards  the  Christians,  es- 
pecially to  those  who  opposed  the  decrees  of  Ephesus  and  Chalcedon. 
But  as  is  common  with  those  enjoying  uninterrupted  success,  they  insensi- 
bly swerved  from  this  moderation  into  severity,  and  so  loaded  the  Chris- 
tians  with  taxes  and  other  burdens  and  injuries,  that  their  condition  more 
resembled  that  of  slaves  than  of  citizens. (8*) 


Schroeckh,  Kirchengesch.,  vol.  xix.,  p.  356, 
&c.— TV.] 

(7)  See  Euseb.  Renaudot,  Historia  Patri- 
arch. Alexandr.,  p.  163,  169,  [and  Gibbon, 
Decline  and  Fall,  &c.,  ch.  li.,  where  this  is 
shown  by  the  conduct  of  the  Copts,  or  Jacob- 
ites in  Egypt.  —  TV.] 

(8)  See  Simon  Ockley,  Conquest  of  Syria, 
Persia,  and  Egypt,  by  the  Saracens,  vol.  i., 
Lond  ,  1708,  and  vol.  ii.,  Lond.,  1717,  8vo  ; 
[also  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall,  &c.,  ch.  1., 
li.— TV.] 

(8*)  [Mohammed  framed  the  Koran  to  be 
the  basis  of  civil  government,  as  well  as  of 
religion,  among  his  followers ;  and  in  all 
ages  they  have  so  regarded  it  till  the  present 
time.  Church  and  state,  religion  and  civil 
policy,  are  so  united  and  blended  by  the  Ko- 
ran, that  they  cannot  be  separated,  but  must 
stand  or  fall  together.  And  hence  the  per- 
manence and  unchangeable  character  of  the 
Mohammedan  religion,  in  all  countries  where 
it  has  become  established.  For  to  attempt 
to  change  the  religion  of  a  Mohammedan 
country,  or  even  to  convert  any  of  its  citi- 
zens, is  to  plot  against  the  state, — it  is  high 
treason,  and  must  be  punished  as  such. — Mo- 
hammed united  in  his  own  person  the  two 
characters  of  an  absolute  monarch,  and  of  a 
sovereign  pontiff  or  high-priest ;  and  the 
Koran  made  no  provision  for  these  two  of- 
fices ever  to  be  separated.  At  the  same 


time  he  named  no  one  to  succeed  himself, 
nor  pointed  out  the  manner  in  which  this 
complex  office  should  descend  from  one  per- 
son to  another.  Hence  his  ghostly  empire 
was  in  imminent  danger  of  dissolution  at  his 
death.  But  the  religious  enthusiasm  of  his 
followers  preserved  and  perpetuated  it.  Abu- 
beker,  one  of  his  fathers-in-law,  was  made 
Kalif,  or  successor  to  the  prophet.  After 
his  death  in  634,  Omar  held  the  kalifate  till 
644 ;  then  Othman  till  655 ;  then  AH,  the 
son-in-law  of  Mohammed,  till  661.  These 
all  reigned  at  Medina.  In  the  year  661  AH 
was  assassinated,  and  soon  afterwards  his  son 
Hasan ;  and  Moarciyah  of  the  family  of  Om- 
miyah,  who  was  governor  of  Syria,  grasped 
the  kalifate.  He  made  Damascus  the  seat 
of  empire  ;  and  his  family  reigned  there  as 
kalifs  for  91  years,  or  till  A.D  752.  After- 
wards, the  family  of  Abbas  held  the  kalifate, 
and  reigned  at  or  near  Bagdad  till  A.D.  934  ; 
when  this  empire  of  the  Saracens,  which  had 
previously  been  dismembered,  sunk  alto- 
gether, and  the  Moslem  countries  fell  under 
the  dominion  of  various  Mohammedan  sover- 
eigns, each  absolute  in  his  own  dominions. 
It  was  under  the  kalifs  who  reigned  at  Me- 
dina and  Damascus,  or  during  the  first  cen- 
tury of  Islamism,  that  the  Saracens  made  the 
greater  part  of  their  foreign  conquests.  Du- 
ring his  lifetime  Mohammed  demanded  of 
the  Persians,  the  Greeks,  and  other  bordering 


432 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  I.— CHAP.  II. 


§  6.  The  civil  dissensions  among  the  Mohammedans,  which  aroso  soon 
after  the  death  of  their  prophet,  were  not  a  little  injurious  to  the  success 
of  their  enterprises.  Abubeker  the  father-in-law,  and  All  the  son-in-law 
of  Mohammed,  had  hard  contention  about  the  right  to  the  throne,  which 
each  claimed  to  himself;  and  this  controversy  being  handed  down  to  pos- 
terity, divided  the  whole  race  into  two  great  parties,  separated  not  only  by 
a  difference  in  opinions  and  practices,  but  also  by  deadly  hatred.  The  two 
sects  are  called,  the  one  Sonniles,  and  the  other  Shiites. (9)  The  former 
contend  that  Abubeker  was  the  true  Kalif ' ;  the  latter,  that  Ali  was  the  le- 
gitimate Kalif  or  successor  of  Mohammed.  Both  regard  the  Koran  as  of 
divine  origin,  and  as  the  authoritative  rule  in  religion ;  but  the  Sonniles 
unite  with  it  the  Sonna,  a  sort  of  oral  law,  derived  from  Moliammed,  and 
serving  to  explain  the  Koran ;  which  the  Shiites  wholly  discard.  The 
Turks,  Tartars,  Africans,  and  most  of  the  Indians,  are  Sonnites ;  the  Per- 
sians and  Mogores  are  Shiites ;  yet  the  Mogores  seem  to  belong  to  neither 
sect. (10)  Besides  these  two  grand  divisions,  there  are  among  the  Moham- 
medans four  principal  sects  and  a  great  many  subordinate  ones,  which  con- 
tend sharply  respecting  various  subjects  in  religion,  yet  practise  mutual 
toleration.(ll) 


nations,  to  receive  and  obey  his  religion.  He 
likewise  sent  an  army,  and  at  length  inarch- 
ed himself  with  10,000  troops,  to  make  con- 
quests on  the  confines  of  Palestine  ;  but  he 
failed  of  success.  His  successors  vigorously 
prosecuted  foreign  conquests,  by  sending  ar- 
mies of  enthusiastic  Arabs  under  the  com- 
mand of  able  generals,  who  became  the  gov- 
ernors of  the  provinces  they  subdued.  Syria 
and  Palestine  were  conquered  under  Abube- 
ker and  Omar,  by  Abu  Abcidah,  Calcd,  and 
others,  between  the  years  632  and  639. 
Egypt  was  subdued  by  the  valiant  Amrou,  in 
the  kalifateof  Omar,  A.D.  640  ;  and  Persia, 
Mesopotamia,  and  Armenia,  about  the  same 
time.  From  Egypt  the  Saracens  traversed  the 
whole  northern  shore  of  Africa,  but  were  half 
a  century  in  bringing  it  under  entire  subjec- 
tion. From  Africa  they  passed  into  Spain  in 
the  year  709,  under  Tank  and  Musa,  in  the 
kalifate  of  Walid,  and  completed  their  con- 
quests there  in  the  space  of  three  or  four 
years.  The  country  beyond  the  Oxus  in 
Asia,  was  conquered  under  the  same  kalif. — 
In  most  of  their  wars  the  Saracens  were  the 
assailants ;  and  they  offered  no  other  excuse 
for  declaring  war,  than  their  desire  to  propa- 
gate their  religion.  Hence,  before  they  at- 
tacked any  city  or  fortress,  they  proposed 
three  things  to  the  choice  of  the  persons  in 
it,  either  to  embrace  the  Mohammedan  reli- 
gion, or  to  submit  to  tribute,  or  to  be  con- 
quered and  enslaved.  The  second  proposi- 
tion was  not  made  to  any  pagans  or  idola- 
ters, but  only  to  Christians,  Jews,  Magians, 
and  Sabians,  or  such  as  had  books  of  real 
or  pretended  revelation.  For  the  pagans, 
the  only  alternative  was  conversion  or  sla- 


very and  death.  To  such  as  embraced  the 
first  proposal,  they  granted  at  once  all  the 
privileges  of  fellow-citizens  with  themselves ; 
and  to  those  who  preferred  the  second,  they 
were  generally  faithful  to  perform  their  en- 
gagements. Those  who  preferred  a  resort 
to  the  sword,  were  treated  with  great  cruelty 
when  conquered.  The  men  were  generally 
butchered  if  they  did  not  instantly  become 
Mussulmans,  and  the  women  and  children 
were  made  slaves.  See  the  references  in 
the  preceding  note. — TV.] 

(9)  See  Adr.  Rcland,  de  Religione  Tur- 
cica,  lib.  i.,  p.  36,  70,  74,  85      Joh.  Char- 
din,  Voyages  en  Perse,  torn,  ii.,  p.  236,  &c. 

(10)  The  principles  of  the  Sonnites  may 
be  learned  from  the  tract  published  by  Adr. 
Reland,  de  Relig.  Turcica,  lib.  i.     The  re- 
ligion and  opinions  of  the  Shiites  are  clearly 
stated  by  Joh.  Chardin,  Voyages  en  Perse, 
tome  iv.,  the  whole. 

(11)  On  the  Mohammedan  sects,  see  Jo. 
Hcnr.  Hottinffcr,  Historia  Orientalis.  lib.  ii., 
cap.  vi.,  p.  340.     Ricaut,  Etat  de  1'Empire 
Ottoman,  lib.  ii.,  p.  242.     Jo.  Chardin,  Voy- 
ages en  Perse,  torn,  ii.,  p.  236.      Ceo.  Sale, 
Preliminary  Discourse  to  the  Koran,    sec. 
viii.,  p.  207,  &c. — [The  following  account 
of  the  Moslem  sects  is  abridged  from  Sale, 
ubi  supra.     The  Sonnites,  or  believers  in  the 
traditions  of  Mohammed,  are  divided   into 
four  principal  sects,  which  are  accounted  or- 
thodox, and  have  their  several  oratories  in 
the  temple  of  Mecca.     They  derive  their 
names  from  the  celebrated  doctors,  whose 
dogmas  they  embrace  :  viz.,  I.  The  Han- 
cfites,  so  named  from  Abu  Hanifa  of  Bag- 
dad, who  was  born  A.D.  699,  and  died  in 


ADVERSE  EVENTS. 


433 


767.  These  are  distinguished  from  the  other 
sects  by  adhering  less  to  the  traditions,  and 
by  making  more  use  of  reason  in  their  dis- 
cussions. Formerly  they  resided  chiefly  in 
Irak,  but  now  they  abound  every  where 
among  the  Turks  and  the  Tartars. — II.  The 
Mcdchites  follow  Malec  Ebn  Ans  of  Medina, 
who  was  born  about  A.D.  710,  and  died 
about  794.  He  was  distinguished  for  the 
most  scrupulous  adherence  to  the  traditions, 
and  for  extreme  distrust  of  his  own  opinions. 
This  sect  abounds  in  Barbary  and  Africa. 
— III.  The  Shafeites  follow  Mohammed  Ebn 
Edns  al  Shafe:i,  who  was  born  in  Palestine 
A.D  767,  educated  at  Mecca,  and  died  in 
Egypt  A.D.  819.  He  was  a  well-educated 
man,  an  enemy  of  scholastic  divinity,  and 
the  first  who  systematized  the  Mohammedan 
jurisprudence.  His  followers  live  chiefly  in 
Arabia  and  Persia. — IV.  The  Hanoalites  fol- 
low Ahmed  Ebn  Hanbal  of  Bagdad,  who 
was  born  A.D.  780,  and  died  A.D.  855. 
He  was  distinguished  for  his  strictness  in 
adhering  to  the  letter  of  the  law.  About 
the  year  924  his  followers  were  very  nu- 
merous at  Bagdad,  and  so  zealous  against 
the  use  of  wine  and  all  joviality,  that  they 
would  break  into  houses  and  disperse  com- 
panies indulging  themselves  in  wine  and  mu- 
sic. But  edicts  were  published  to  restrain 
them,  and  they  have  dwindled  to  a  few  in- 
dividuals living  chiefly  in  Arabia. 

The  sects  which  the  Sonnites  account  he- 
retical, because  they  differ  from  themselves 
in  points  esteemed  fundamental,  are  said  to 
be  seventy-three  in  number.  Their  hereti- 
cal opinions  relate  principally  to  the  meta- 
physical nature  of  the  divine  attributes,  pre- 
destination, the  sins  of  believers,  and  the 
offices  of  prophets  and  leaders  of  the  faith- 
ful. According  to  their  belief  on  these  sub- 
jects, they  may  all  be  brought  under  the  four 
following  denominations,  each  embracing 
several  minor  sects  or  subdivisions. — I.  The 
Motazalites  or  separatists  originated  from 
Wasel  Ebn  Ata  of  Basra,  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  seventh  century.  Their  departure 
from  Islam  orthodoxy  related  chiefly  to  the 
following  articles.  (1)  In  regard  to  the  di- 
vine attributes,  the  Sonnites  held  that  God 
existed  from  eternity,  clothed  with  various 
essential  attributes,  omniscience,  omnipo- 
tence, &c. ;  but  the  Motazalites,  in  order  to 
defend  more  effectually  the  doctrine  of  the 
divine  unity,  denied  all  eternal  attributes, 
and  predicated  eternity  of  God's  essence 
only.  They  said,  God  knows  by  his  essence, 
and  not  by  his  knowledge  ;  wills  by  his  es- 
sence, and  not  by  his  will ;  and  so  of  his 
other  attributes.  They  were  charged  with 
divesting  God  of  his  attributes,  in  order  to 
maintain  his  unity.  (2)  In  regard  to  the 
VOL.  I— I  I  I 


Koran,  the  Sonnites  maintained  that  it  was 
eternal  and  uncreated  ;  but  the  Motazalites 
affirmed  the  contrary ;  and  some  of  them 
said,  if  it  were  eternal  it  would  be  God,  and 
then  there  would  be  a  plurality  of  Gods. — 
(3)  In  regard  to  decrees  and  free  agency, 
the  Sonnites  were  rigid  predestinarians ; 
maintained  the  necessity  of  human  actions, 
and  denied  free  will  to  man  ;  but  the  Mo- 
tazalites denied  absolute  decrees,  and  main- 
tained the  doctrine  of  free  will  and  of  the 
contingency  of  human  actions.  (4)  In  re- 
gard to  Moslem  believers,  the  Sonnites  held, 
that  none  of  them  would  be  condemned  to 
everlasting  punishment  for  their  sins ;  but 
the  Motazalites  held,  that  if  a  Moslem  were 
guilty  of  any  grievous  sin  and  died  without 
repentance  of  it,  he  would  be  punished  ever- 
lastingly, though  less  intensely  than  an  un- 
believer.— (5)  The  Motazalites  denied  all 
vision  of  God  in  paradise  by  the  corporeal 
eyes. — On  all  these  subjects  the  Motazalites 
held  the  general  positions  above  stated,  in 
opposition  to  the  Sonnites ;  but  they  dif- 
fered greatly  among  themselves  in  the  ex- 
position of  their  views,  and  thus  became  di- 
vided into  more  than  twenty  minor  sects, 
named  after  the  several  doctors  whom  they 
followed. — II.  The  Sefatians  or  attnbutists, 
at  first  agreed  entirely  with  the  Sonnites  as 
to  the  nature  of  the  divine  attributes,  but  af- 
terwards they  began  to  talk  of  a  new  class 
of  attributes  called  declarative,  because  they 
are  ascribed  to  God  in  narrations  and  decla- 
rations of  his  proceedings.  They  are  such 
as  hands,  face,  eyes,  feel,  &c.  At  first  the 
Sefatians  merely  said,  that  these  attributes 
were  given  to  God  in  the  Koran,  and  there- 
fore they  also  affirmed  them,  but  without 
explaining  them.  Afterwards,  they  adopted 
such  explanations  as  seemed  to  make  God 
a  material  and  corporeal  being.  In  regard 
to  most  of  the  other  points  in  which  the 
Motazalites  differed  from  the  orthodox,  the 
Sefatians  either  took  middle  ground,  or 
agreed  more  with  the  orthodox  than  with 
the  Motazalites.  Among  themselves  they 
were  divided  into  jive  subordinate  sects, 
some  of  which  approximated  to  the  views 
of  Christians,  and  some  advanced  very  gross 
and  vulgar  conceptions. — III.  The  Karejite* 
or  revolters,  were  the  oldest  of  all  the  Mo- 
hammedan sects.  In  the  37th  year  of  the 
Hegira,  A.D.  658,  when  the  Kalif  Ali  was 
contending  with  his  rival  Moawiyah,  and 
after  the  battle  of  Seffein  agreed  to  submit 
his  cause  to  arbitration,  12,000  of  his  fol- 
lowers revolted  from  him,  because  he  sub- 
mitted a  question  to  human  decision,  which 
should  have  been  left  to  God  alone  to  de- 
termine. Most  of  these  were  indeed  slain 
in  battle  in  the  following  year ;  but  they 


434 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  I.— CHAP.  II. 


afterwards  propagated  their  sentiments  in 
Persia,  Mesopotamia,  and  Arabia,  and  be- 
came considerably  numerous,  being  divided 
into  six  or  seven  subordinate  sects.  Though 
differing  in  various  other  points,  they  all 
agreed  in  excluding  both  Othman  and  Ali 
from  the  list  of  true  kalifs,  in  accounting 
every  person  who  commits  any  grievous  sin 
as  really  an  infidel  and  to  be  treated  as  such, 
and  in  regarding  it  as  an  imperious  religious 
duty  to  resist  forcibly  any  Imam  who  devi- 
ates from  the  law.  The  first  Karejites  main- 
tained, that  any  fit  man,  though  not  of  the 
Koreish  tribe,  might  be  constituted  Imam 
or  prince  of  the  faithful ;  that  for  malcon- 
duct,  an  Imam  might  be  deposed  and  even 
put  to  death ;  and  that  it  was  not  absolutely 
necessary  there  should  be  any  Imam.  As 
to  Ali,  they  not  only  accused  him  of  sin  in 
submitting  his  cause  to  arbitration,  but  even 
pronounced  him  an  infidel  and  accursed  for 
this  crime. — IV.  The  Shiites  are  the  antip- 
odes of  the  Karejites.  They  almost  deify 
the  true  and  legitimate  kalifs  ;  among  whom 
they  regard  Ali  as  the  first,  and  his  posterity 
the  only  lawful  successors.  Yet  they  differ 
exceedingly  on  other  points.  Some  are  Mo- 
tazalites  in  doctrine,  others  come  near  to 
the  Sonnites,  and  so  great  is  the  diversity 
of  their  sentiments  that  they  constitute  a 
very  great  number  of  sects.  Yet  they  all 
differ  from  the  Sonnites  in  the  following  par- 
ticulars. They  hold  Abubeker,  Omar,  and 
Othman,  or  the  three  first  kalifs,  to  have 
been  usurpers ;  they  make  All  equal  to  Mo- 
hammed himself  in  merits  and  authority  ; 
they  accuse  the  Sonnites  of  corrupting  and 
disobeying  the  Koran ;  and  they  wholly  re- 
ject the  Sonna  or  book  of  traditions,  as  hav- 
ing no  authority  whatever. 

Besides  these  numerous  sects,  heretical 
and  orthodox,  into  which  the  Moslem  com- 
munity is  divided,  its  repose  has  been  dis- 
turbed by  a  series  of  pretenders  to  inspira- 
tion, who,  like  Mohammed,  claimed  to  be 
prophets  sent  to  restore  religion  to  its  pris- 
tine purity.  Two  of  these  were  competitors 
with  Mohammed,  in  his  lifetime,  viz.,  Mo- 
seilama  and  Al  Ashwad.  The  former  was 
of  the  tribe  of  Honeifa  in  the  province  of 
Yamama.  In  the  year  629  he  headed  an 
embassy  from  his  tribe  to  Mohammed,  and 
professed  himself  a  Moslem.  But  on  his 
return  home,  he  concluded  to  set  up  for  a 


prophet  himself,  and  offered  Mohammed  to 
join  in  a  partnership  with  him.  His  propo- 
sal was  of  course  rejected  ;  and  Moseilama 
gathered  numerous  followers,  but  was  slain 
in  battle,  with  most  of  his  adherents,  by  the 
Mohammedans  under  the  intrepid  Caled, 
A.D.  632.  Al  Ashwad  was  also  an  apostate 
Mohammedan,  who  set  up  for  himself  in  Ye- 
men, but  was  slain  in  his  palace  in  the  same- 
year,  and  about  the  time  of  Mohammed's 
death.  Other  prophets  and  prophetesses 
started  up  about  the  same  time,  but  were 
put  down  by  the  power  of  the  kalifs.  Nor 
has  any  long  period  passed  from  that  time 
onward,  without  the  appearance  of  some  new 
prophet  among  the  Mohammedans.  The 
following  are  mentioned  by  Sale  as  the  most 
noted  in  the  earlier  centuries.  About  A.D. 
775  appeared  Hakem  Ebn  Hashem  of  Khora- 
san,  who  arrogated  to  himself  divine  honours. 
In  the  year  816  appeared  Babec  in  Aderbi- 
jan,  who  was  with  much  difficulty  subdued. 
About  A.D.  849,  one  Mahmud  Ebn  Faraj 
pretended,  to  be  Moses  returned  from  the 
other  world.  About  A.D.  89],  the  fanatical 
sect  of  Karmatians  spread  themselves  in 
Mesopotamia  and  about  Cufah,  following  one 
Karmata  as  their  guide  ;  who  seems  to  have 
verily  thought  that  he  had  divine  revelations 
and  was  a  prophet.  After  his  death,  other 
leaders  of  the  sect  pretended  to  have  revela- 
tions. Subsequently,  the  kindred  but  more 
ferocious  sect  of  Ismadians,  called  by  the 
crusaders  Assassins,  appeared  in  Asia,  under 
an  Imam  said  to  be  of  the  family  of  Ali ;  and 
about  the  year  1095  they  spread  themselves 
in  the  Persian  Irak,  where  they  were  com- 
manded by  Hasan  Sabah  and  his  posterity 
during  170  years.  The  celebrated  Arab 
poet  Abu'l  Teyyeb  Ahmed,  surnamed  Mota- 
nabbi,  who  died  A.D.  965,  for  some  time 
laid  claim  to  divine  inspiration,  and  attracted 
followers,  till  the  civil  arm  compelled  him  to 
renounce  his  pretensions  and  content  himself 
with  being  a  mere  poet.  In  the  year  1240, 
a  Turkman  named  Baba  set  up  for  a  prophet, 
at  Amasia  in  Natolia.  He  gathered  an  army 
of  6000  horse,  and  made  war  upon  all  who 
would  not  say,  There  is  no  god  but  God, 
and  Baba  is  the  prophet  of  God.  See  Sale's 
Prelim.  Diss.,  sect,  viii.,  p.  207-255  ;  and 
Sir  Paul  Rycaut,  Turkish  History,  vol.  ii., 
p.  61-66.— TV.] 


LITERATURE  AND  SCIENCE.  435 

PART    II. 

THE   INTERNAL   HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH. 


CHAPTER  I. 

HISTORY    OF   LITERATURE   AND   SCIENCE. 

$  1 .  State  of  Learning.     The  Monks  its  Patrons. — §  2.  Ignorance  of  the  Bishops. — $  3. 
History  and  other  Sciences,  corrupted. — 6  4.  State  of  Philosophy. 

§  1.  THE  profound  ignorance  and  barbarism  of  this  century,  will  hardly 
appear  credible  to  those  who  have  not  personally  examined  its  literary 
productions.  What  little  of  learning  and  knowledge  still  remained,  with 
a  few  exceptions,  was  confined  to  the  cloisters  of  the  monks,  especially  in 
the  western  or  Latin  church.  The  laws  forbid  any  one  to  be  made  an 
abbot,  unless  he  had  some  learning.  The  monks  were  required  to  devote 
certain  hours  to  reading ;  and  that  they  might  derive  greater  profit  from 
this  exercise,  they  were  required,  hi  most  monasteries,  to  converse  to- 
gether at  stated  times  on  what  they  had  read.(l)  It  was  their  business 
also  to  educate  young  men  destined  for  the  sacred  office.  But  all  the 
institutions  of  this  sort  were  of  little  service  to  the  cause  of  learning  and 
to  the  church  ;  because  very  few  had  any  just  conceptions  of  the  nature 
and  utility  of  the  liberal  arts  and  sciences ;  and  the  majority  were  more 
intent  on  the  perusal  of  worthless  writers  and  the  lives  of  saints,  than  on 
the  study  of  valuable  authors.  The  best  among  them  studied  the  works 
of  Augustine  and  Gregory  the  Great ;  and  scraps  gathered  from  these  fa- 
thers, constitute  the  best  productions  of  the  Latin  church  in  this  century. 

§  2.  Kings  and  noblemen  were  attentive  to  every  thing  rather  than  to 
the  cause  of  learning.  The  rude  and  unlearned  bishops  suffered  the 
schools,  which  had  been  committed  to  their  care,  to  languish  and  become 
t-xtinct. (2)  It  was  very  rare  to  find  among  them  persons  able  to  compose 
their  own  public  discourses.  Such  of  them  as  possessed  some  genius, 
garbled  from  Augustine  and  Gregory  a  parcel  of  jejune  addresses,  a  part 
of  which  they  kept  for  their  own  use,  and  the  rest  they  imparted  to  their 
more  dull  and  stupid  colleagues,  so  that  they  also  might  have  something  to 
say.  This  is  manifest  from  the  examples  of  Casarius  of  Aries,  and  of 
Eligius  of  Noyon.  There  is  likewise  extant  a  Summary  of  Theology, 
which  was  unskilfully  compiled  by  Tajo  of  Saragossa,  from  the  writings 
of  Augustine  and  Gregory;  and  this  insipid  performance  was  so  highly 
esteemed,  that  the  other  bishops  did  not  hesitate  to  pronounce  its  author 
the  true  salt  of  the  earth,  and  n  dirinf  luminary  in  the  church. (3)  Many 
such  proofs  of  the  ignorance  of  the  times  may  be  easily  collected,  by  any 

.  (1)  Jo.  Mabillon,  Acta  Sanctor.  Ord.  Ben-         (3)  Jo.  MabiUon,  Analecta  veteris  teri, 
edict.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  479,  513,  et  passim.  torn,  ii.,  p.  77. 

(2)  Hist.  litt.  de  la  France,  par  les  Moins 
Benedict.  Sept.  Siecle.tom  iii.,  p  428,  &c. 


436     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 

one  disposed  to  examine  the  writers  of  this  century.  England  however 
was  in  a  happier  state,  in  this  respect,  than  the  other  countries  of  Europe  : 
for  Theodorus,  a  Cilician  and  bishop  of  Canterbury,  of  whom  more  will  be 
said  hereafter,  introduced  into  that  country  some  attachment  to  letters  and 
learning.  (4) 

§  3.  The  Greeks  who  attempted  to  write  either  poetry  or  in  prose,  ob- 
scured very  plain  and  simple  subjects,  by  their  tumid  and  fustian  style. 
The  style  of  the  Latins,  with  a  few  exceptions,  was  so  base  and  corrupt 
that  it  was  not  even  capable  of  the  same  fault.  History  was  wretchedly 
degraded  and  perverted,  both  by  the  Greeks  and  the  Latins.  Among  the 
former  Moschus,  Sophronius  and  others,  and  among  the  latter  Braulio,  Jo- 
nas an  Hibernian,  AudoenusorDado,  and  Adamannus,  have  transmitted  to 
us  biographies  of  several  saints,  which  are  insipid  and  ridiculous,  and  des- 
titute alike  of  an  air  of  probability  and  of  elegance  of  composition.  The 
Greeks  led  the  way  in  committing  to  writing  the  floating  traditions  con- 
cerning the  more  ancient  times,  without  discrimination  ;  and  hence  origi- 
nated those  medleys  of  fables,  which  the  Latins  afterwards  so  greedily 
caught  up  and  retained. 

§  4.  Philosophy,  among  the  Latins,  was  at  an  end.  Those  who  were 
unwilling  to  neglect  it  altogether,  were  satisfied  with  committing  to  mem- 
ory a  few  words  and  sentences  taken  from  BoetMus  and  Cassiodorus.  For 
they  were  not  disposed  to  reason  on  the  subject,  and  they  were  unable  to 
consult  the  Greeks,  from  ignorance  of  their  language.  The  Greeks, 
abandoning  Plato  to  certain  of  the  monks,  betook  themselves  to  Aristotle  ; 
whose  precepts  were  nearly  indispensable  in  the  theological  contests  of 
the  age  with  the  Monophysites,  Nestorians,  and  Monothelites,  for  all  these 
resorted  to  the  Stagyrite  for  aid  whenever  they  were  called  to  the  combat. 
Hence  James  of  Edessa,  a  Monophysite  of  this  century,  translated  Aris- 
totle's Dialectics  into  Syriac.(5) 


CHAPTER  II. 

HISTORY   OF   THE   TEACHERS,  AND   OF   THE   CONSTITUTION   OF   THE   CHURCH, 

$  1.  Disputes  about  Pre-eminence  between  the  Bishops  of  Rome  and  Constantinople. — 
$  2.  The  former  opposed  by  many . — $  3.  Vices  of  the  Clergy. — $  4.  State  of  the  Monks. 
— $  5.  Greek  Writers. — $  6.  Latin  Writers. 

§  1.  THE  contest  for  pre-eminence  between  the  Roman  and  Constanti- 
nopolitan  prelates,  had  gained  such  a  height  in  this  century,  that  we  may 
clearly  discern  the  commencement  of  that  unhappy  schism  which  after- 
wards separated  the  Latins  from  the  Greeks.  It  is  commonly  asserted, 
and  by  men  of  the  greatest  learning  and  best  acquainted  with  ancient  his- 
tory, that  the  Roman  pontiff,  Boniface  III.,  prevailed  on  that  abominable 
tyrant  Phocas,  who,  after  murdering  the  emperor  Mauritius,  mounted  the 

(4)  Dav.  Wilkins,  Concilia  magnae  Bri-         (5)  See  Jos.  Sim.  Asseman,  Biblioth.  Ori- 
tanniae,  torn,  i.,  p.  42.     Herm.  Conringius,     ent.  Vatican.,  torn,  i.,  p.  498. 
Antiquitates  Academicae,  p.  277. 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT.  437 

imperial  throne,  to  divest  the  bishop  of  Constantinople  of  the  title  of  cecu. 
menical  bishop,  and  to  confer  it  on  the  Roman  pontiff.  But  this  is 
solely  on  the  authority  of  Baronius ;( 1 )  for  no  ancient  writer  has  given 
such  testimony.  Yet  Plwcas  did  something  analogous  to  this,  if  we  may 
believe  Anastasius  and  Paul  Diaconus.(2)  For  whereas  the  bishops  of 
Constantinople  had  maintained,  that  their  church  was  not  only  fully  equal 
to  that  of  Rome  but  had  precedence  of  all  other  churches,  Phocas  forbid 
this,  and  determined  that  the  priority  of  rank  and  dignity  should  be  given 
to  the  church  of  Rome. 

§  2.  The  Roman  pontiffs  used  indeed  every  means  to  retain  and  to  en- 
large  the  power  and  dignity  which  they  had  acquired  ;  yet  the  history  of 
this  period  affords  many  proofs,  not  only  that  emperors  and  kings  but  that 
nations  also,  resisted  those  attempts.  Various  proofs  of  the  superiority 
of  the  regal  power  in  religious  matters,  and  even  over  the  pope  himself, 
may  be  collected  from  the  Byzantine  history,  and  from  the  Formulas  6f 
Marculfus.  The  Roman  writers  indeed  tell  us,  that  Conslanline  Pogona- 
tus  formally  relinquished  the  right  of  confirming  the  election  of  a  Roman 
pontiff;  and  they  cite  Anastasius  as  a  witness,  who  states  that  Pogonatus 
ordered  that  a  Roman  pontiff  elect  should  be  ordained  forthwith  and  without 
delay.(3)  But  this  testimony  does  not  reach  the  point  to  be  proved.  It 
appears  however  to  have  been  the  fact,  that  this  emperor  in  the  time  of 
the  pontiff  Agatho,  remitted  the  customary  payment  to  the  court  of  a  sum 
of  money  for  the  confirmation  of  a  pontifical  election. (4)  The  ancient 
Britons  and  Scots  could  not  be  moved,  for  a  long  time,  either  by  the 
threats  or  the  promises  of  the  papal  legates,  to  subject  themselves  to  the 
Roman  decrees  and  laws ;  as  is  abundantly  testified  by  Beda.(5)  The 

(1)  [Baronius,  Annales,  ad  ann.  606,  No.     diet),  in  Muratori,  Scriptor.  rerum  Italic., 
2. — Schl.]  torn.  iii.,p.  146.     [The  words  of  Anastasiu* 

(2)  Anastasius,    de    Vitis    Ponlificum,  are  :  concessit,  ut  persona,  quae  electa  fue- 
(Bonifacius  III.).    Paulus  Diaconus,  de  Re-  rit  in  scdcm  Apostolicam,  e  vcstigio  absque 
bus  gestis  Longobardor.,  lib.  iv.,  cap.  37,  in  tarditate  Pontifex  ordinaretur.     That  is,  it 
Muratori,  Scriptores  rerum  Italicar,  torn,  should  not  be  necessary  to  write  to  Constan- 
i.,  part  i.,  p.  465.     [Anastasius  sa.ys,  that  tinople,  but  merely  to  obtain  liberty  from 
"  whereas  the  church  of  Constantinople  had  the  emperor's  vicegerent,  the  exarch  of  Ra- 
claimed  to  be  the  first  of  all  the  churches,  venna,  previously  to  the  ordination.     More- 
liniiiface  obtained  from  the  emperor  Phocas,  over  history  shows,  that  succeeding  emperors 
that  the  Romish  church,  the  apostolic  seat  did  not  respect  this  privilege. — Si  hi.] 

of  the  blessed  apostle  Peter,  (caput  esset  om-  (4)  Anastasius,  de  Vitis  Pontif.  (Aga- 

tiiuin  ecclf.siarum),  should  be  the  head  of  all  tho),   p.    144.     Compare  Jo.  Ja.   Mascov, 

the  churches."    Paul  Diaconus  says  :"  This  Historia  Germanor.,  torn,  ii.,  note,  p.  121, 

emperor  Phocas,  at  the  request  of  pope  Bon-  &.c.     [According  to  Anastasius,  the  emper- 

ifur.r,  decreed  that  the  see  of  the  Roman  or  did  not  wholly  remit,  but  only  diminish 

and  apostolic  church  should  be   the  first,  the  amount  of  the  payment ;   relevata  esi 

(primam  csse), whereas  the  Constantinopoli-  quantitas,  quae  solita  est  dari ;  and  this  too, 

tan  had  before  assumed  to  be  the  first  of  all."  with  the  express  injunction  that  the  ancient 

— By  being  the  first  and  the  head,  both  the  rule  should  be  observed,  and  that  no  ordina- 

bishops  of  Constantinople  and  the  usurper  tion  should  take  place,  till  the,  consent  of  the 

Phocas  seem  to  have  understood  merely  pri-  emperor  should  be  obtained  from  court.    Sea 

ority  of  rank,  and  not  that  supreme  authority  Bower's  Lives  of  the  Popes,  (Agatho),  vol. 

and  dominion  which*  the  Roman  pontiffs  af-  iii.,  p.  131,  «kc.,  ed.  Lond.,  1754. — TV.] 

terwards  claimed.     It  was   intended   as   a  (5)  [BcJa,  Hist.   Eccles.,  1.  ii.,  c.  2,  1. 

compliment;   but  it  was   construed   into   a  iii.,c.2o. — Schl.     The  case  of  Wilfrid  bish- 

grant  of  unlimited  power.      See   Bower's  op  of  York,  who  being  deposed  and  banished 

Lives  of  the  Popes,  (Boniface  III.),  vol.  ii.,  by  the  Saxon  king  in  678,  appealed  to  Rome, 

P.  546,  <fcc.,  ed   Lond.,  1750. — Tr.]  and  returned  acquitted,  but  was  imprisoned 

(3)  Anastasius,  de  Vitis  Pontif.  (Bene-  nine  months,  and  then  banished  the  king- 


438 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


Gauls  and  the  Spaniards,  as  no  one  can  deny,  attributed  only  so  much 
authority  to  the  pontiff,  as  they  supposed  would  be  for  their  own  advan- 
tage.^) Nor  in  Italy  itself,  could  he  make  the  bishop  of  Ravenna  and 
others  bow  obsequiously  to  his  will. (7)  And  of  private  individuals,  there 
were  many  who  expressed  openly  their  detestation  of  his  vices  and  his 
greediness  of  power.  Nor  are  those  destitute  of  arguments  who  assert, 
that  the  Waldenses  even  in  this  age  had  fixed  their  residence  in  the  val- 
leys of  Piedmont,  and  inveighed  freely  against  Roman  domination. (8) 

§  3.  That  the  bishops  of  inferior  rank  and  all  who  were  intrusted  with 
sacred  offices,  as  well  those  in  the  monasteries  as  those  without,  lived  in 
the  practice  of  many  enormities,  is  expressly  admitted  by  every  writer  of 
any  note  in  this  century.  Eveiy  where  simony,  avarice,  pious  frauds,  in- 
tolerable pride,  insolence  to  the  people  at  large,  and  even  vices  worse  than 
these,  might  be  seen  reigning  in  the  places  consecrated  to  holiness  and  vir- 
tue.(9)  Between  the  monks  and  the  bishops,  many  pertinacious  quarrels 
existed  in  different  places.  For  the  latter  laid  their  greedy  hands  on  the 
rich  possessions  of  the  monks,  that  they  might  support  their  own  luxury. 
And  the  monks  feeling  this  very  sensibly,  first  applied  to  the  emperors  and 
kings,  and  not  finding  their  protection  adequate,  resorted  to  the  Roman 
pontiff.(lO)  He  therefore  readily  took  them  under  his  care,  and  gradually 


dom,  is  a  strong  case  in  point.  See  Bow- 
er's Lives  of  the  Popes,  (Agatho),  vol.  iii., 
p.  98-105.— TV.] 

(6)  [It  is  well  known,  that  the  French 
kings  often  deposed  bishops,  whom  the  popes 
by  all  their  efforts  were  not  able  to  restore  ; 
and  that  in  Spain,  Julianus  the  bishop  of 
Toledo,  freely  censured  pope  Benedict  II. 
for  sending  into  Spain  his  disapprobation  of 
a  synodic  letter,  and  accused  his  holiness 
of  ignorance,  negligence,  and  jealousy.    Yet 
this  Julianus  is  a  canonized  saint.     See  the 
15th  council  of  Toledo,  in  Harduin,  Concil., 
torn,  iii.,  p.  1761,  &c.—  Schl.~\ 

(7)  Mich.  Geddes,  Miscellaneous  Tracts, 
vol.  ii.,  p.  6,  &c.,  [and  Muratori,  Hist,  of 
Italy,  vol.  iv.,  p.  157  ;  where  is  a  diploma 
of  the  emperor   Constan/ine  IV.,  in  which 
he  releases  Maurus  archbishop  of  Ravenna, 
from  obedience  to  the  pope.     At  his  death 
this  archbishop  warned  his  clergy  not  to  sub- 
ject themselves  to  the  Roman  pontiff,  but  to 
apply  to  the  emperor  for  a  pall  for  the  new 
archbishop.     And  to  the  present  time  the 
archbishops  claim  a  kind  of  independence  of 
the  Romish  see.     Even  the  abbot  St.  Co- 
lumbanus  defends  the  ancient  Irish  manner 
of  keeping  Easter,  against  the  popes,  with 
great  intrepidity,  and  likewise  the  subject  of 
the  three  Chapters,  and  this,  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  king  Agilulph.     He  maintains  that 
Vigilius  was  not  watchful  enough,  and  that 
the  pope  ought  to  purge  the  seat  of  St. 
Peter  from  all  errors,  from  which  it  was  not 
now  free.     See  his  five  Epistles,  in  the  Bib- 
lioth.  max.  Patr.  Lugd.,  torn,  xii.,  p.  1,  &c. 


(8)  Anton.  Leger,  Histoire  des  Eglises 
Vaudoises,  lib.  i.,  p.  15,  &c.,  [and  Spanheim, 
Introduct.  plen.,  tom.ii.,p.  598,  &c. — ScA/.] 

(9)  [Thus  we  read  of  Desiderius  a  noble- 
man, that  he  assumed  the  garb  of  a  beggar, 
and  conducted  Brunechild,  who  was  expelled 
the  court  of  Theodebert,  in  safety  to  the 
court  of  Burgundy.     At  her  solicitation,  her 
faithful  conductor  was  advanced  to  the  bish- 
opric   of    Auxerre ;    (Daniel,    History    of 
France,  vol.  i.,  p.  351  of  the  German  trans- 
lation);  a  worthy  candidate  for  the  episcopal 
office !     To  the  simony  of  the  clergy,  the 
national  synod  of  Toledo,  A.D.  653,  can.  3, 
bears  testimony  :  to  their  avarice,  the  pro- 
vincial synod  of  Merida  in  Spain,  (Harduin, 
torn,  iii.,  p.  997) ;  to  their  violence,  the  coun- 
cil of  Braga,  A. 13.  675,  where  they  were  for- 
bidden to  inflict  blows.     In  the  same  year, 
a  council  at  Toledo  commanded  the  clergy 
to  read  the  Bible,  on  pain  of  excommunica- 
tion, (Harduin,  torn,  iii.,  p.  1017),  and  re- 
quired every  new  bishop  to  make  oath,  that 
he  had  neither  paid  nor  promised  to  pay  mon- 
ey for  his  bishopric.     Even  the  papal  chair 
was  not  free  from  simony.     To  the  pious 
frauds  must  be  reckoned  the  multitude  of 
fables,   which   were    emulously    fabricated. 
Quite  a  collection  of  them  is  exhibited  by 
Dr.  Semler,  Historiae  Eccles.  selecta  Cap- 
ita, torn,  ii.,  p.  55,  &c.,  60,  &c. — Schl.] 

(10)  See  Jo.  Launoi,  Assertio  inquisitio- 
nis  in  Chartam  immunitatis   S.  Germani ; 
Opp.,  torn,  iii.,  part  i.,  p.  50,  &c.     Baluze, 
Miscellan.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  159,  torn,  iv.,  p.  108, 
Muratori,  Antiquit.  Italicamm  torn-  U-i  Pt 
944,  949,  &p. 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT.  439 

exempted  them  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  bishops.  The  monks,  in  return, 
defended  the  interest  of  the  pontiff  as  if  it  were  their  own ;  and  they  rec- 
ommended him  as  a  sort  of  God  to  the  ignorant  multitude,  over  whom 
their  reputed  sanctity  gave  them  great  influence.  That  these  exemption* 
of  the  monks  were  the  cause  of  many  of  their  vices  and  disorders,  is  ad- 
mitted by  several  of  the  best  writers.(ll) 

§  4.  In  the  mean  time  the  monks,  from  the  favour  of  the  pontiff  and 
their  display  of  fictitious  piety,  were  every  where  making  surprising  prog- 
ress, especially  among  the  Latins.  Parents  eagerly  consecrated  their 
children  to  God,  with  good  portions  of  their  property  made  over  to  the  mon- 
asteries ;  that  is,  they  devoted  them  to  what  was  esteemed  the  highest  bliss 
on  earth,  a  life  of  solitude. (12)  Those  who  had  spent  their  lives  in  guilty 
deeds,  hoped  to  expiate  their  crimes,  by  conferring  the  greater  part  of  their 
property  on  some  company  of  monks.  And  immense  numbers  impelled  by 
superstition,  robbed  their  heirs  of  their  richest  possessions  in  order  to  ren- 
der God  propitious  to  them  through  the  prayers  of  monks.  Rules  for  mo- 
nastic  life  were  drawn  up  by  Fructuosus,  Isidorus,  John  Gerundinensis,  Co- 
lumbanus,  and  others  among  the  Latins  ;(13)  for  the  Rule  prescribed  by 
St.  Benedict  was  not  as  yet  become  the  universal  and  the  only  rule. 

§  5.  Among  the  writers,  few  can  be  named  who  possessed  much  genius 
or  erudition.  The  best  among  the  Greeks  were  the  following  :  Maxi- 
mus, a  monk,  who  contended  fiercely  against  the  Monothelites,  and  wrote 
some  explanatory  works  on  the  scriptures,  was  by  no  means  destitute  of 
native  talent ;  but  he  wns  a  man  of  a  violent  spirit,  and  in  that  respect  un- 
happy.(14)  Isycliius  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  expounded  some  books  of  Scrip- 
ture, and  has  left  us  a  few  Homilies  and  other  minor  works. (15)  Dorothe- 

(11)  See  Jo.  Launoi,  Examen  privilegii  was  acquitted;  but  refusing  to  promise  si- 
S.  Germani ;  Opp.,  torn,  hi.,  part  i.,  p.  282.  lence  in  the  controversy  then  raging  with  the 
Dav.  Wilkins,  Concilia  magnae  Britanniae,  Monothelites,  he  was   banished   to  Thrace 
torn,  i.,  p.  43,  44,  49,  &c.  and  confined  in  different  places  till  the  year 

(12)  Gervais,  Histoire  de  1'Abbe  Suger,  662,  when  he  died  in  the  castle  of  Schemra, 
tome  i ,  p.  9-16.  on  the  confines  of  the  Alans.     His  collect- 

(13)  Lucas  Holstcnius,  Codex  Regular.,  ed  works,  published,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  by  Fran. 
torn,  ii.,  p.  225,  &c.  Combcfis,  Paris,  1675,  2  vols.  fol.,  consist 

(14)  [Ufazimus  was  born  of  noble  parent-  of  about  fifty  small  treatises,  answers  to  Bib- 
age  at  Constantinople,  about  A.D.  580.    The  lical  questions,  polemic  and  dogmatic  tradts, 
emperor  Heraclius   made  him  his  secreta-  moral  and  monastic  pieces,  and  letters.     Be- 
ry.  and  intended  he  should  write  the  civil  sides  these,  he  has  left  us  Commentaries  on 
history  of  his  times.     But  the  emperor  fall-  the  Canticles,  on  Dionysius  Areopagita,  and 
ing   into   the   heresy   of  the  Monothelites,  on  some  parts  of  Gregory  Nyssen.     He  is 
which  Maximus  abhorred,  either  disagree-  an  inelegant,  obscure,  metaphysical  and  my»- 
ment  between  them  or  the  propensity  of  Max-  tical  writer,  yet  learned  and  zealous. — Tr.] 
imus  to  a  monkish  life,  led  him  to  retire         (15)  Sec  Rich.  Simon,  Critique  de  la  Bib- 
from  court  and  take  residence  in  a  monastery  liotheque  Ecclesiast.  de  M.  du  Pin,  torn,  i., 
at  Chrysopolis  near  Constantinople.     Here  p.    261.     [Hesychius  or    Isyckius,  first  a 
Maximus  became  the   abbot.      Before   the  presbyter,  and   then  bishop  of  Jerusalem, 
year  640,  the   prevalence  of  Monothelitic  flourished  about  A.D.  601.     A  Commentary 
principles  or  the  political  disquietudes  of  the  on  Leviticus  in  vii.  books,  is  extant  in  a  Lat- 
country,  led   him  to  travel.     He  went  to  in  translation  ;  about  which  there  has  been 
Egypt,  where  he  had  warm  disputes  with  the  much  discussion,  whether  it  was  a  produc- 
prtncipal  Monothelites.     In  the  year  645  he  lion  of  this  Hcsychms  or  of  some  other, 
went  to  Rome,  and  enjoyed  the  intimacy  of  See  Labbf,  Dis.  Hisiorica,  in  Bellormm,  de 
pope  Martin  I.     In  653  the  emperor  Con-  Scriptor.  Ecclesiast.,  p.  227,  &c.,  ed.  Ven- 
etans  II.,  who  was  a  Monothelite,  caused  ice,  1727.     The  works  of  Hesychius,  which 
him  to  be  arrested  and  brought  to  Constanti-  are  extant  in  Greek,  are,  Arguments  to  the 
uop  e,  to  be  tried  for  seditious  conduct.     He  twelve  Minor  Prophets  and  Isaiah  ;   two 


440 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


us,  an  abbot  in  Palestine,  acquired  fame  by  the  Ascetic  Dissertations,  with 
which  he  would  instruct  monks  how  to  live. (16)  Antioclms,  a  monk  of 
St.  Sabas  in  Palestine,  composed  a  Pandect  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  that  is, 
Institutes  of  the  Christian  religion,  a  work  of  no  great  merit.(17)  So- 
phronius,  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  acquired  the  veneration  of  after  ages,  by 
his  conflicts  with  those  reputed  in  his  day  as  heretics,  especially  with  the 
Monothelites. (18)  He  was  evidently  the  cause  of  the  whole  Monothelite 
controversy.  Andreas  of  Crete  has  left  us  several  Homilies,  which  are  nei- 
ther truly  pious,  nor  eloquent,  and  which  some  therefore  suspect  were  false- 
ly ascribed  to  him.(19)  Gregory  Pisides,  a  Constantinopolitan  deacon,  be- 
sides a  History  of  Heraclius  and  of  the  Avares,  composed  a  few  poems  and 
other  short  pieces. (20)  Theodorus  of  Raithu  is  author  of  a  book  against 

the  free  exercise  of  their  religion,  and  hav- 
ing given  orders  for  erecting  the  mosque 
of  Omar  on  the  site  of  the  temple,  retired 
to  Arabia.  Sophronius  died  a  few  months 
after,  in  the  same  year.  His  works  are,  the 
Epistle  or  Dissertation  above  mentioned, 
four  Homilies,  an  account  of  the  labours 
and  travels  of  the  apostle  Paul,  the  Life  of 
Si.  Mary  an  Egyptian,  and  a  tract  on  the 
Incarnation.  The  best  account  of  him  and 
his  writings  is  said  to  be  that  of  J.  Alb.  Fa- 
bricius,  Biblioth.  Gr.,  vol.  viii.,  p.  199,  &c. 
See  Caw,  Hist.  Lit.,  torn.  i.,p.  519.— Tr.] 

(19)  [Andreas  was  a  native  of  Damas- 
cus, became  a  monk  at  Jerusalem,  a  deacon 
at  Constantinople,  and  at  last  archbishop  of 
Crete.     His  age  is  not  certain,  but  he  was 
contemporary  with  Sophronius  of  Jerusalem, 
A.D.  635,  and  lived  some  years  after.     Fr. 
Combefis   published,    as  his  works,   Paris, 
1644,  in  fol.,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  seventeen  Hom- 
ilies, nine  Triodia,  Canons  or  church  Hymns, 
and  several  shorter  Hymns  adapted  to  dif- 
ferent festivals.     He   afterwards  published 
three  more  Homilies,  and  some  poems,  in 
his  Auctuar.  Nov.,  torn.  i.  and  ii.     A  Com- 
putus  Paschalis,  ascribed  to  Andreas,  was 
published,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  by  Dionysius  Peta- 
tnus,  de  Doctrina  Temper.,  torn.  iii.     The 
genuineness  of  some  of  these  pieces  is  sus- 
pected.—  Tr.] 

(20)  [Gregory,  or  rather  George,  of  Pisi- 
da,  was  first  a  deacon  and  chartophylax  of 
the  great  church  of  Constantinople,  and  then 
archbishop    of  Nicomedia.     He    flourished 
about  A.D.  640  ;  and  has  left  us   Cosmo- 
poiea,  an  iambic  poem  on  the  Hexaemeron, 
now  in  1880  lines ;  and  another  poem  in  261 
iambic  lines,  on  the  vanity  of  life  ;  both  pub- 
lished by  Morel,  Paris,  1585, 4to.  Three  oth- 
ers of  his  poems,  (Eulogy  of  Heraclius,  on  his 
Persian  wars,  and  the  assault  of  the  Avares 
on  Constantinople),  were  promised  to  the 
public  by  Claud.  Maltret ;   but  they  were 
not  published.     Schroeckh,  Kircheng.,  vol. 
xix.,  p.  106,  &c.     Cave,  Hist.  Lit.,  i.,  p. 
583.— Tr.] 


hundred  Sentences  on  temperance  and  vir- 
tue ;  seven  Homilies ;  a  Life  of  St.  Longi- 
nus  ;  an  Introduction  to  the  book  of  Psalms  ; 
and  a  Comment.  onPs.  77-107,  and  118. 
He  also  wrote  an  Eccles.  History,  and  some 
other  Commentaries,  which  are  lost.  See 
Cave,  Hist.  Lit.,  torn,  i.,  p.  571,  &c. — Tr.] 

(16)  [Dorotheus    probably    lived    about 
A.D.  601.     He  wrote  twenty-four  ethical 
and  ascetic  dissertations,  (6i6aGKa?Jai  seu 
Doctrinae,  de  vita  recte  et  pie  instituenda), 
and  several  Epistles  ;  which  are  extant,  Gr. 
and  Lat.,  in  the  Orthodoxographia,  and  in 
Pronto  DUCCBUS,  Auctuarium,  torn.  i. — Tr.] 

(17)  [Antiochus  flourished  A.D.  614,  and 
was  alive  in   629.     His  Pandecte   divinae 
Scripturae,  or  Compendium  of  the  Christian 
religion  and  of  the  holy  scriptures,  compri- 
sed in  130  Homilies,  is  extant  in  Pronto  Du- 
ctzus,  Auctuarium,  torn.  i.     He  also  wrote 
de  vitiosis  Cogitationibus  liber,  and  de  Vila 
S.  Euphrosyni. — Tr.] 

(18)  See  the  Acta  Sanctor.,  torn,  ii.,  Mar- 
tii,  ad  diem  xi.,  p.  65.     [Sophronius  was  a 
native  of  Damascus,  and  for  some  time  a 
sophist  or  teacher  of  philosophy  and  elo- 
quence.    He  afterwards  became  a  monk  in 
Palestine ;  and  in  this  character  he  sat  in 
the  council  of  Alexandria  held  by  Cyrus  the 
patriarch  of  that  see,  in  the  year  633,  for  the 
purpose  of  uniting  the  Monothelites  and  the 
Catholics.     Here  Sophronius  zealously  op- 
posed the  7th  of  the  nine  propositions  which 
Cyrus  wished  to  establish.     From  Alexan- 
dria he  went  to  Constantinople,  to  confer 
with  Sergius  the  patriarch  of  that  see  on  the 
subject.     Soon  after,  he  was  made  patriarch 
of  Jerusalem,  and  wrote  his  long  Epistle  or 
Confutation  of  the  Monothelites,  addressed 
to  Honorius  the  Roman  pontiff  and  to  the 
other  patriarchs.     But  his  country  was  now 
laid  waste.     The  Saracens  having  conquer- 
ed all  the  northern  parts  of  Syria,  laid  siege 
to  Jerusalem  in  637.     The  city  capitulated 
to  the  Kalif   Omar,  who  entered  Jerusa- 
lem, treated  Sophronius  with  much  respect, 
promised  him  and  the  Christians  safety  and 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


441 


those  sects  which  were  considered  as  corrupting  Christianity  by  their  doc- 
trines  concerning  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ. ('21) 

§  6.  The  most  distinguished  Latin  writers  were  the  following  :  Ilde- 
fonsus  of  Toledo,  to  whom  the  Spaniards  falsely  ascribe  certain  treatises 
concerning  the  Virgin  Mary. (22)  Two  Books  of  Epistles  by  Desiderius 


(21)  [Theodorus,  a  presbyter  in  the  Laura 
Raithu,  in  Palestine,  flourished  A.D.  646, 
and  wrote  a  short  treatise  on  the  incarnation 
of  Christ,  in  opposition  to  the  heresies  of 
Manes,  Apollinaris,  Theodorus  Mopsuest., 
Nestorius,  Eutyches,  Julian  Halicar.,  Seve- 
rity, and  others.  It  is  extant,  Gr.  and  Lat., 
in  Fronto  Ducaus,  Auctuarium,  torn,  i.,  and 
in  Latin,  in  the  Biblioth.  max.  Patr.,  torn, 
viii.— TV.] 

[The  following  Greek  writers  of  this  cen- 
tury are  passed  over  by  Dr.  Moshcim,  viz.  : 

John  Malala,  a  native  of  Antioch  who 
probably  flourished  about  A.D.  601.  He 
wrote  Histona  chronica,  from  the  creation  to 
the  death  of  Justinian  I.,  AD.  565,  which 
was  published,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  by  Humphr. 
Hody,  Oxon.,  1691,  8vo.  See  Cave,  Hist. 
Litter.,  i.,  p.  568,  &c. 

About  the  same  time  lived  Eusebius  bish- 
op of  Thessalonica,  Conon  an  opposer  of 
John  Philoponus,  and  Theimslius  surnamed 
Calonymus  ;  all  polemic  writers  on  the  side 
of  the  Catholics.  But  only  fragments  of 
their  essays  and  epistles  have  reached  us,  in 
Photius  and  the  Acts  of  Councils. 

Serums,  patriarch  of  Constantinople  A.D. 
608-639,  was  a  favourer  of  the  Monothelite 
doctrine,  and  instigator  of  the  famous  Ec- 
thesis  of  Honorius.  He  has  left  us  three 
Epistles,  extant  in  the  Concilia,  torn.  vi. 

Cyrus,  bishop  of  Phasis  A.D.  620,  and 
patriarch  of  Alexandria  A.D.  630-640.  He 
held  a  synod  at  Alexandria  in  633,  in  which 
he  proposed  a  Libcllus  satisfactions  in  nine 
chapters,  designed  to  unite  the  Theodosians 
or  Severians  to  the  Catholics.  But  his  7th 
chapter  or  position,  containing  the  doctrine 
of  the  Monothelites,  was  opposed,  and  led 
to  fierce  contests.  He  also  wrote  three 
Epistles  to  his  friend  Sergius  of  Constanti- 
nople. All  these  are  extant  in  the  Concilia, 
torn.  vi. 

Thcophylactus  Simocatta,  an  Egyptian,  a 
sophist,  and  a  prefect,  who  flourished  A.D. 
61 1-629.  He  wrote  Historise  rerum  a  Mau- 
ritio  gestarum  libri  viii.,  from  the  year  582 
to  602,  edited,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  Ingolst.,  1603, 
4to,  and  Paris,  1648,  fol.  ;  also  85  short 
Epistles,  (inter  Epistolas  Graecanicas,  Au- 
rel.  Allobrog.,  1606,  fol  ),  and  Problema 
physica,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  Antw.,  1598,  8vo. 

Georgius,  an  abbot  in  Galatia  A.D.  614, 
wrote  the  life  of  his  predecessor  Theodorus ; 
in  Surius  and  other  collectors  of  pious  lives. 

VOL.  I.— KKK 


George,  patriarch  of  Alexandria  A.D.  620- 
630.  He  wrote  the  life  of  John  Chrysos- 
toni,  which  is  published  with  Chrysostom's 
works. 

About  the  year  630,  that  valuable  but 
anonymous  work,  called  the  Chronicon  Al- 
exandrinum,  Fastus  Sicult,  and  Chronicon 
Paschale*,  was  composed,  perhaps  by  George 
Pisides,  or  by  George  Patr.  of  Alexandria. 
It  extends  from  the  creation  to  A.D.  628. 
The  best  edition  is  that  of  Du  Fresne,  Paris, 
1689,  fol. 

John  Moschus,  Eviratus,  or  Eueratus,  a 
monk  of  Palestine  who  flourished  A.D.  630, 
after  travelling  extensively,  wrote  his  monk- 
ish history  entitled  Pratum  spirituale,  HOT-. 
tulus  novus,  Lim/marium,  and  Vtridanum, 
extant  in  FT.  Ducaus,  Auctuar.,  torn,  ii.,  and 
in  Cotelier,  Monum.  Eccl.  Gr.,  torn  ii. 

Thaltis silts,  abbot  of  a  monastery  in  Libya 
about  A.D.  640,  wrote  several  tracts,  name- 
ly, de  sincera  Charitate,  de  ViUe  continentia 
et  mentis  regimine,  sententiarum  Hecaton- 
tadas  iv.,  extant  in  Lat.  in  the  Biblioth.  max. 
Patr.,  torn,  xii.,  and  Gr.  and  Lat.  in  FT.  Du- 
cceus,  Auctuar.,  torn.  ii. 

Theodorus,  bishop  of  Pharan  in  Arabia, 
near  Egypt,  a  Eutychian  and  Monothelite 
controversial  writer,  from  whose  tracts  large 
extracts  are  given  in  the  Acts  of  the  Late- 
ran  and  6th  councils  ;  Concilia,  torn.  vi. 

John,  archbishop  of  Dara  in  Syria,  who  has 
been  placed  in  the  4th,  5th,  6th,  and  7th  cen- 
turies, and  perhaps  lived  about  A.D.  650, 
wrote  Commentaries  in  Syriac,  on  the  works 
of  Dionysius  Areopagita,  and  on  the  Apoca- 
lypse ;  extracts  from  which  have  been  pub- 
lished by  Abr.  Ecchcllens.,  Jno.  Monn,  and 
F.  Nanon. 

Basil,  bishop  of  Thessalonica,  say  some, 
of  Caesarca  in  Cappadocia,  say  others,  and 
who  flourished  perhaps  A.D.  675,  wrote 
Scholia  on  fifteen  Orations  of  Gregory  Na- 
zianzcn. 

Macarius  a  Monothelite,  patriarch  of  An- 
tioch about  A.D.  680,  whose  Confession  of 
Faith,  and  extracts  from  other  works,  are 
extant,  Concilia,  torn.  vi. 

John,  archbp.  of  Thessalonica  A.D.  680, 
has  left  us  one  Oration,  part  of  another,  a 
fragment  of  a  Hymn,  and  parta  of  a  Dialogue 
between  a  pagan  and  a  Christian. —  TV.] 

(22)  See  the  Acta  Sanctor.  Januarii,  torn. 
ii.,  p.  535.  [Edefonsus  was  nobly  born  at 
Toledo,  educated  at  Seville,  and  after  being 


442 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


of  Cahors,  were  edited  by  Hen.  Canisius.(23)  Eligius  of  Limoges,  has 
left  us  some  Homilies,  and  other  productions. (24)  The  two  books  of  Ec- 
clesiastical Formulas,  by  Marculphus  a  Gallic  monk,  help  us  much  to  dis- 
cover the  wretched  state  of  religion  and  learning  in  this  age. (25)  The 
Englishman  Aldhelm  composed  with  no  great  success,  various  poems  on 
subjects  relating  to  a  Christian  life. (26)  Julianus  Pomerius  confuted  the 
Jews,  and  has  left  us  some  other  specimens  of  his  genius,  which  are  neither 
to  be  highly  praised  nor  utterly  contemned. (27)  To  these  may  be  added 
Cresconius,(28)  whose  Abridgment  of  the  Canons  is  well  known,  Fredegari* 
us,(29)  and  a  few  others.(30) 


a  monk  and  abbot  at  Agli,  became  archbish- 
op of  Toledo  A.D.  657-667.  His  ten  spu- 
rious homilies  and  discourses,  and  one  spu- 
rious tract  concerning  the  virgin  Mary,  with 
one  genuine  tract  on  the  same  subject,  were 
published  by  Feuardentius,  Paris,  1576,  and 
afterwards  in  the  Biblioth.  max.  Patr.,  torn, 
xii.  We  have  from  his  pen  a  tract  on  the 
ecclesiastical  writers,  in  continuation  of  Je- 
rome, Gennadius,  &c.,  two  Epistles,  and  a 
tract  de  cognitione  Baptismi.  Several  other 
tracts  and  letters,  and  a  continuation  of  Isi- 
dore's Gothic  History,  are  lost. — Tr.] 

(23)  [Desiderius  was  treasurer  to  Clothair 
II.  A.D.  614,  and  bishop  of  Cahors  in  France 
A.D.  629-652.     His  First  Book  of  Epistles 
contains  those  which  Desiderius  wrote  to  his 
friends,  the  second  contains  those  addressed 
to  him.     They  are  extant  in  Canisius,  Lec- 
tion. Antique,  torn,  v.,  and  in  Biblioth.  max. 
Patr.,  torn.  viii. — Tr.] 

(24)  [Eligius  was  born  near  Limoges,  be- 
came a  goldsmith  there,  and  was  esteemed 
the  best  workman  in  all  France.     In  635, 
king  Dagobert  sent  him  as  ambassador  to 
Brittany.     While  a  layman,  he  erected  sev- 
eral  monasteries   and  churches.     He  was 
bishop  of  Noyon  A.D.  640-659,  and   still 
continued  to  found  monasteries  and  church- 
es, and  also  laboured  to  spread  Christianity 
among  the  Flemings,  the  Frieslanders,  and 
the  Swabians.     He  has  left  us  a  tract  de 
rectitudine  Catholicae  conversationis,  (which 
has  been  ascribed  to  Augv,stine),  and   an 
Epistle  to  Desiderius  of  Cahors.     Of  the 
sixteen  Homilies  ascribed  to  him,  and  extant 
in  the  Biblioth.  max.  Patr.,  torn,  xii.,  the 
greatest  part,  if  not  the  whole,  are  supposed 
to  be  spurious.     They  are  compilations  from 
the  fathers,  and  several  of  them  bear  marks 
of  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries. — Tr.] 

(25)  Histoire  Litteraire  de  la  France,  torn, 
iii.,  p.  565.     [About  the  year  660,  Marcul- 
phus, then  seventy  years  old,  at  the  request 
of  the  bishop  of  Paris  compiled  this  book  of 
formulas  of  different  instruments  and  writings 
used  in  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  elsewhere, 
in  the  transaction  of  ecclesiastical  affairs  and 
in  the  management  of  church  property.     It 


was  published,  Paris,  1665,  4to,  and  1667 
by  Baluze,  in  Capitull.  Regum  Francor., 
torn,  ii.,  p.  369. — Tr.] 

(26)  ["  This  prelate  certainly  deserved  a 
more  honourable  mention  than  is  here  made 
of  him  by  Dr.  Moshcim.     His  poetical  tal- 
ents were  by  no  means  the  most  distinguish- 
ing part  of  his  character.     He  was  profound- 
ly versed  in  the  Greek,  Latin,  and  Saxon 
languages.     He  appeared  also  with  dignity 
in  the  Paschal  controversy,  that  so  long  di- 
vided the  Saxon  and  British  churches.     See 
Collier's  Eccles.  Hist.,  vol.  i.,  p.  121." — 
Mad.     Aldhelm  was  grandson  to  Ina  king 
of  the  West  Goths.     When  young  he  trav- 
elled over  Gaul  and  Italy,  and  pursued  study 
with  such  ardour  that  he  became  one  of  the 
most  learned  men  of  the  age.     Returning  to 
England,  he  lived  first  as  a  monk,  and  then 
for  thirty-four  years  as  the  abbot  of  Malms- 
bury  ;    afterwards,  he  was  bishop  of  Sher- 
burne  A.D.  705-709.     Beda  (lib.  v.,  c.  19) 
says,  he  was  undecunque  doctissimus.  While 
abbot,  he  wrote  by  request  of  an  English 
synod,  a  book  in  confutation   of  the  senti- 
ments and  practice  of  the  ancient  Britons 
and  Scots  in  regard  to  Easter  ;  which  is  now 
lost.     He  also  wrote  a  tract  in  praise  of  vir- 
ginity, both  in  prose  and  in  verse  ;    likewise 
a  Book  on  the  eight  principal  virtues ;  and 
1000  verses  of  Enigmas.     These  and  some 
other  poems   were  published   at  Mayence, 
1601,  8vo,  and  in  the  Biblioth.  max.  Patr., 
torn.  xiii. — Tr.] 

(27)  [Julianus  Pomerius  was  bishop  of 
Toledo  A.D.   680-690.      He  wrote  com- 
mentaries on  Joshua  ;  a  demonstration  that 
Christ  has  come,  against  the  Jews,  in  three 
Books  ;  on  death,  the  place  of  departed  souls, 
the  resurrection  and  final  judgment,  three 
Books  ;    on  the  discrepances  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, two  Books  ;  a  history  of  king  Wam- 
ba's  expedition  against  Paul,  the  rebel  duke 
of  Narbonne  ;  and  an  Appendix  to  Ildcfon- 
sus  de  Scriptor.  Ecclesiast.     His  works  are 
in  the  twelfth  vol.  of  the  Biblioth.  max.  Patr. 
-Tr.] 

(28)  [  Cresconius  was  an  African  bishop, 
and  flourished  A.D.  690.     His  Breviarium 


CHURCH  OFFICERS  AND  GOVERNMENT. 


443 


Canonum,  is  a  methodical  Index  to  the  can- 
ons of  councils  and  decrees  of  the  Roman 
pontiffs,  digested  under  300  heads.  He  af- 
terwards wrote  Concordia  scu  Liber  Ca.no- 
num,  which  is  the  same  thing,  except  that 
the  canons  and  decrees  are  here  recited  at 
length.  Both  works  are  in  Voellus,  and  Jus- 
teWs  Biblioth.  Juris  Canon. — Tr.'] 

(29)  Histoire  Litteraire  de  la  France,  vol. 
iii.,  p.  506.     [Fredegarius  Scholasticus  was 
a  Gallic    monk,    who  flourished  A.D.  640. 
He  compiled  a  Chronicle,  from  the  creation 
to  the   year  of  Christ  641,  in  five'  Books. 
The  three  first  Books,  which  reach  to  A.D. 
561,  are  a  compilation  from  Julius  Africa- 
nus,  Euscbius  as  translated  by  Jerome,  and 
others.     The  fourth  Book,  comprising  A.D. 
561-584,  is  an  abridgment  of  Gregory  Tu- 
ronensis'  History  of  the  Franks.     The  fifth 
Book,  from  584  to  641,  was  composed  by 
Fredegarius.     The    Chronicon    was    after- 
wards  continued   by  other  hands  to  A.D. 
768.     The  fifth  Book  is  published  among 
the  Scriptores  rerum  Francicar.     The  other 
Books  are  partly  in  Canisius,  Lectiones  An- 
tiq.,  torn,  ii.,  and  partly  in  Gregory  Turon., 
Histor.  Francor. — Tr.] 

(30)  [The  following  catalogue  embraces 
the  Latin  writers  omitted  by  Dr.  Mosheim. 

Paterius,  pupil  of  Gregory  the  Great,  and 
bishop  of  Brescia  about  A.D.  601.  He 
wrote  a  Collection  of  Scripture  testimonies, 
in  three  Books  ;  two  from  the  Old.  Test, 
and  one  from  the  New  : — published  with  the 
works  of  Gregory  the  Great. 

Faustus,  a  monk  brought  up  by  St.  Ben- 
edict, and  sent  into  Gaul  with  St.  Maurus. 
He  wrote,  A.D.  606,  the  life  of  St.  Maurus  ; 
and  the  life  of  St.  Severinus.  Both  are  ex- 
tant in  Mabillon,  Acta  Sanctor.  ord.  Bened., 
torn.  i. 

Marcus,  a  disciple  and  companion  of  St. 
Benedict,  and  versifier  of  the  life  of  Bene- 
dict by  Gregory  the  Great :  fl.  A.D.  606. 

Boniface  IV.,  pope  A.D.  606-615,  has 
left  us  an  epistle  to  king  Ethelbcrt  of  Kent ; 
and  a  Synodic  Decree  :  in  the  Concilia, 
torn.  v. 

Bulgaranus,  a  Spanish  Goth  and  count, 
A.D.  610.  Six  of  his  Epistles  still  preserv- 
ed, have  been  often  consulted  but  never 
published. 

Sisebutus,  a  Gothic  king  in  Spain  A.D. 
612-621.  Several  of  his  Epistles  are  pre- 
served ;  and  likewise  his  life  and  martyrdom 
of  St.  Desidenus. 

Boniface  V.,  pope  A.D.  620-626.  His 
Epistle  to  Justus  bishop  of  Rochester,  an- 
other to  Edwin  king  of  Northumberland,  and 
a  third  to  Edilburg,  Edwin's  queen,  are  ex- 
tant in  Baronius,  Annales,  ad  ann.  618  and 
(525 ;  also  in  the  Concilia,  torn.  v. . 


Nennius,  a  British  monk  and  abbot  of 
Bangor,  about  A.D.  620,  and  often  con- 
founded with  the  Irish  Gildas.  He  wrote 
de  Gestis  Britonum  Liber,  sive  Breviarium, 
or  a  History  of  the  Britons  ;  the  MS.  of 
which  is  still  preserved  at  Westminster  and 
at  Cambridge.  See  Cave,  Hist.  Lit.,  torn. 
i.,  p.  620. 

Honorius,  pope  A.D.  626-638.  He  was 
a  Monothelite.  Eight  of  his  Epistles,  which 
fully  prove  the  fact,  are  extant  in  the  Con- 
cilia, torn.  v.  See  Joh.  Forbes,  Instruct. 
Hist.  Theolog.,  lib.  v.,  and  Schrocckh,  Kir- 
cheng.,  vol.  xx.,  p.  401,  442,  &c.,  446,  &c. 

Braulio,  bishop  of  Saragossa  A.D.  627- 
646.  He  wrote  the  life  of  St.  Aemilian  a 
monk,  which  is  in  Mabillon,  Acta  Sanctor. 
ord.  Bened.,  torn.  i.  ;  also  two  Epistles  to 
Isidore  Hispal.,  and  a  short  Eulogy  of  Isi- 
dore, which  are  published  with  the  works  of 
Isidore. 

Jonas,  an  Irish  monk,  and  abbot  of  Lux- 
ueil,  flourished  about  A.D.  630.  He  wrote 
the  Lives  of  St.  Columbanus  Bobiensis,  of 
Eustasius  abbot  of  Luxueil,  of  Attala  ab- 
bot of  Bobio,  of  Bcrtulph  abbot  of  Bobio,  of 
St.  John  the  founder  and  abbot  of  a  monas- 
tery, and  of  St.  Fara  or  Burgundofara  first 
abbess  of  York.  Most  of  these  lives  are 
in  Mabillon,  Acta  Sanctor.  ord.  Benedict., 
torn.  ii. 

Cummianus  or  Comminus,  surnamed 
Fata  or  Fada,  i.  e.,  tall,  son  of  Fiacna  the 
king  of  west  Momonia  in  Ireland  ;  born 
A.D.  592,  died  661.  He  was  a  monk,  abbot, 
and  some  add  bishop  in  Ireland :  and  wrote 
an  Epistle  to  Segienus,  abbot  of  Hy,  on  the 
paschal  controversy,  (in  Usher1*  Sylloge 
Epistolar.  Hibernicar.,  p.  24),  and  a  book  de 
ppenitentiarum  mcnsura,  which  is  in  the 
Biblioth.  max.  Patr.,  torn.  xii. 

John  IV.,  pope  A.D.  640-641.  He  wrote 
an  Epistle  to  the  Scotch  bishops,  concerning 
the  paschal  controversy  ;  another  to  the  em- 
peror Constantine  III.,  in  apology  for  pope 
Honorius ;  and  a  third  to  Isaac,  bishop  of 
Syracuse.  These  are  extant  in  the  Concil- 
ia, torn.  v. 

Audoenus  or  Dado,  archbishop  of  Rouen 
A.D.  640-683.  He  lived  to  the  age  of  90, 
and  wrote  the  life  of  St.  Eligius  of  Noyon, 
in  iii.  Books ;  published,  imperfect,  by  Su- 
rius ;  and  perfect,  by  L.  Dachier,  Spicileg., 
torn.  v. ;  also  an  Epistle. 

Theodorus  I.,  pope  A.D.  642-649.  He 
has  left  us  two  Epistles ;  in  the  Concilia, 
torn,  v.,  and  in  the  Biblioth.  max.  Pair., 
torn.  xii. 

Eugcnius,  archbishop  of  Toledo  A.D. 
646-657.  He  composed  some  tracU  in 
verse  and  prose,  which  are  extant  in  the  Bib- 
lioth. max.  Patr.,  torn.  xn. 


444 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  II.— CHAP.  II. 


Tajo  or  Tago,  bishop  of  Saragossa,  flour- 
ished A.D.  646.  He  was  a  great  admirer 
of  the  works  of  Gregory  the  Great ;  went 
to  Rome  to  obtain  copies  of  them ;  and 
compiled  five  Books  of  Sentences  from  them. 

Martin  I.,  pope  A.D.  649-655.  For  his 
opposition  to  a  decree  of  the  emperor  Con- 
stans,  called  his  Typus,  Martin  was  seized 
by  an  armed  force  in  653,  carried  prisoner 
to  Constantinople,  kept  in  jail  a  long  time, 
tried,  and  banished.  He  ended  his  days  at 
Cherson,  an  exile.  Seventeen  of  his  Epis- 
tles are  extant ;  11  of  them,  Gr.  and  Lat., 
are  in  the  Concilia,  torn.  vi. 

Anastasius,  deacon  and  apocrisiarius  of 
the  Romish  church.  He  adhered  to  St. 
Maximus,  and  shared  in  his  fortunes.  The 
year  before  his  death,  A.D.  665,  he  wrote  a 
long  letter,  giving  account  of  the  sufferings 
and  exile  of  himself,  Maximus,  and  Anasta- 
sius patriarch  of  Constantinople,  and  defend- 
ing their  tenets  in  opposition  to  the  Monoth- 
elites.  It  is  in  the  Biblioth.  max.  Patr., 
torn,  xii.,  and  also  prefixed  to  the  works  of 
St.  Maximus. 

Fructuosus,  of  royal  Gothic  blood,  bishop 
of  Braga  A.D.  656-675.  He  was  founder 
of  many  monasteries,  and  particularly  that 
of  Alcala,  and  drew  up  two  Rules  for  monks, 
one  in  twenty-three  chapters,  the  other  in 
twenty.  Both  are  published  by  IM.  Holste- 
nius,  Codex  Rugular. ,  pt.  ii. 

Vitalianus,  pope  A.D.  657-671.  In  the 
year  668,  he  and  Maurus  the  archbishop  of 
Ravenna,  mutually  excommunicated  each 
other.  Six  of  "his  Epistles  are  in  the  Con- 
cilia, torn.  vi. 

Syricius,  bishop  of  Barcelona  about  A.D. 
657.  He  wrote  two  Epistles,  which  are 
extant  in  Lu.  Dachier,  Spicileg.,  torn,  i.,  or 
new  ed.,  torn.  iii. 

Cummeneus,  surnamed  Albus ;  an  Irish 
monk,  and  abbot  of  Hy  A.D.  657-669.  He 
wrote  the  life  of  St.  Columba,  the  first  abbot 
of  Hy ;  which  may  be  seen  in  Mabillon, 
Acta  Sanctor.  ord.  Bened.,  torn.  i. 

Jonas,  a  disciple  of  St.  Columbanus,  and 
an  abbot  somewhere.  He  wrote  about  A.D. 
664,  the  life  and  miracles  of  St.  John,  abbot 
Reomaensis,  in  ii.  Books.  The  latter  Book 
is  in  Mabillon,  Acta,  &c.,  torn.  i. 

Theodorus,  a  native  of  Tarsus  in  Cilicia, 
whom  the  pope  made  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury A.D.  668.  He  was  a  man  of  learning, 
and  very  efficient  in  action.  Introducing  a 
fine  library  of  Greek  and  Latin  works  into 


England,  he  gave  an  impulse  to  learning 
among  the  Anglo-Saxon  clergy.  He  also 
did  much  to  bring  the  British  and  Scotch 
clergy  to  adopt  the  Roman  method  of  keep- 
ing Easter.  His  only  work,  except  an  epis- 
tle, is  his  Poenitentiale,  or  directory  for  deal- 
ing with  offenders  in  the  church. 

Agatho,  pope  A.D.  680-681,  has  left  us 
three  Epistles ;  which  are  in  the  Concilia, 
torn.  vi. 

Adamnanus  or  Adamannus,  a  Scotch- 
Irish  monk,  and  abbot  of  Hy  A.D.  679-704. 
He  was  very  active  in  bringing  the  Scotch  and 
Irish  to  adopt  the  Roman  practice  respecting 
Easter.  His  life  of  St.  Columbanus,  in  three 
Books,  is  given  by  Canisius  and  Surius ; 
and  his  topographical  description  of  Jerusa- 
lem and  other  sacred  places,  as  he  learned 
them  from  Arculphus  a  Gallic  bishop  and 
traveller,  in  three  Books,  was  published  by 
Mabillon,  Acta  Sanctor.  ord.  Bened.,  sa^cul. 
iii.,  pt.  ii.,  or  torn  iv.,  p.  456-472. 

Ceolfrid,  abbot  of  Weremuth  or  "VVire- 
muth,  in  England,  about  A.D.  680,  and  pre- 
ceptor to  Beda.  He  visited  Rome,  obtained 
of  pope  Sergius  privileges  for  his  monastery, 
and  brought  home  books  for  the  use  of  his 
monks.  A  long  Epistle  of  his  to  Naiton, 
king  of  the  Picts,  in  defence  of  the  Roman 
method  of  keeping  Easter,  is  extant  in  Bcda, 
1.  v.,  c.  22,  and  in  the  Concilia,  torn.  vi. 

Aphonius,  very  little  known,  but  supposed 
to  have  lived  about  A.D.  680,  wrote  a  Com- 
mentary on  the  Canticles,  in  vi.  Books ; 
which  is  extant  in  the  Biblioth.  max.  Patr., 
torn.  xiv. 

Valerius,  a  Spanish  monk  and  abbot  in 
Gallicia  about  A.D.  680.  His  life  of  St. 
Fructuosus,  is  extant  in  Mabillon,  Acta 
Sanctor.  ord.  Bened.,  torn.  ii.  Some  other 
lives  and  treatises  exist  in  MS. 

Leo  II.,  pope  A.D.  682-684.  Five  Epis- 
tles ascribed  to  him,  are  extant  in  the  Con- 
cilia, torn.  vi.  But  Baronius  and  others 
think  them  spurious,  because  they  represent 
pope  Honorius  to  have  been  a  Monothelite. 

Benedict  II.,  pope  A.D.  684-686.  He 
has  two  Epistles  in  the  Concilia,  torn.  vi. 

Bobolenus,  a.  monk  and  presbyter,  who 
probably  lived  about  A.D.  690.  He  wrote 
the  life  of  St.  Germanus,  first  abbot  Gran- 
divallensis  in  the  bishopric  of  Basle,  who 
was  slain  about  A.D.  666  ;  extant  in  Ma- 
billon, Acta  Sanctor.  ord.  Bened.,  torn.  ii. 
-3V.] 


RELIGION  AND  THEOLOGY. 


CHAPTER  III. 

HISTORY    OF    RELIGION   AND   THEOLOGY. 

$  1.  Miserable  state  of  Religion. — §  2.  Expositors  of  the  Scriptures. — $  3.  Dogmatic 
Theology. — §  4.  Practical  Theology. — §  5.  Renewal  of  Penitential  Discipline. — $  6. 
State  oi  Polemic  Theology. 

§  1.  DURING  this  century  true  religion  lay  buried  under  a  senseless  mass 
of  superstitions,  and  was  unable  to  raise  her  head.  The  earlier  Christians 
had  worshipped  only  God  and  his  Son ;  but  those  called  Christians  in  this 
age  worshipped  the  wood  of  a  cross,  the  images  of  holy  men,  and  bones  of 
dubious  origin. (1)  The  early  Christians  placed  heaven  and  hell  before  the 
view  of  men  ;  these  latter  talked  only  of  a  certain  fire  prepared  to  burn  off 
the  imperfections  of  the  soul.  The  former  taught  that  Christ  had  made 
expiation  for  the  sins  of  men,  by  his  death  and  his  blood ;  the  latter  seemed 
to  inculcate,  that  the  gates  of  heaven  would  be  closed  against  none  who 
should  enrich  the  clergy  or'the  church  with  their  donations.(2)  The  for- 
mer  were  studious  to  maintain  a  holy  simplicity,  and  to  follow  a  pure  and 
chaste  piety ;  the  latter  placed  the  substance  of  religion  in  external  rites 
and  bodily  exercises.  Did  any  one  hesitate  to  believe  ?  Two  irrefragable 
arguments  were  at  hand  ;  the  authority  of  the  church,  and  miracles,  for  the 
working  of  which  in  these  times  of  ignorance  but  a  moderate  share  of  dex- 
terity was  requisite. 

§  2.  Few  either  of  the  Greeks  or  Latins,  applied  themselves  to  the  in- 
terpretation of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  There  remain  some  commentaries 

(1)  I  will  here  quote  a  passage,  well  cal-  lemnities  return,  keeps  himself  for  some  days 
culated  to  illustrate  the  piety  of  this  age,  before  pure  even  from  his  own  wife,  so  that 
taken  from  the  Life  of  St.  Eligius  bishop  of  he  may  come  to  the  altar  of  God  with  a  safe 
Noyon,  in  Lu.  Dachier's  Spicilegium  veter.  conscience;   and  who  finally  has  committed 
Scriptor.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  92.     "  The  Lord  con-  to  memory  the  Creed,  or  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
f erred  upon  this  most  holy  man,  among  other  — Redeem   your   souls  from   punishment, 
miraculous  gifts,  that,  while  searching  and  while  ye  have  the  means  in  your  power — 
praying  after  them  with  the    most   ardent  present  oblations  and  tithes  to  the  churches, 
faith,  the  bodies  of  the  holy  martyrs  which  bring  candles  to  the  holy  places,  according 
had  lain  concealed  for  so  many  ages,  were  to  your  wealth — and  come  often  to  the  church, 
discovered."     This  most  successful  carcass-  and  beg  suppliantly  for  the  intercession  of  the 
hunter  of  saints,  therefore,  discovered   the  saints..  If  ye  do  these  things,  ye  may  come 
bodies  of  Qumtin,  Piato,  Crispin,  Crispin-  with  confidence  before  the  tribunal  of  the 
ian,  Lucian,  and  many  others ;  as  his  biog-  eternal  God,  in  the  day  of  judgment,  and 
rapher  minutely  narrates.     Such  ability  to  say:  Give,  Lord,  for  we  have  given."   ["We 
find  the  concealed  bones  of  saints  and  mar-  see  here  a  large  and  ample  description  of  the 
tvrs,  was  claimed  by  most  of  the  bishops  character  of  a  good  Christian,  in  which  there 
who  wished  to  be  esteemed  by  the  people  is  not  the  least  mention  of  the  love  of  God, 
and  to  amass  riches.  resignation  to  his  will,  obedience  to  his  laws, 

(2)  St.  Eligius,  a  great  man  of  this  age,  or  justice,  benevolence,  and  charity  towards 
says,  (in  Dachier,  Spicilegium,  torn,  ii.,  p.  men  ;  and  in  which  the  whole  of  religion  is 
96),  "  He  is  a  good  Christian  who  comet  made  to  consist  in  coming  often  tothrchun  h, 
often  to  church,  and  brings  his  offering  to  be  bringing  offerings  to  the  altar,  lighting  can- 
laid  on  the  altar  of  God ;  who  does  not  taste  dies  in  consecrated  places,  and  such  like 
of  his  produce  till  he  has  first  offered  some  vain  services."— Mad.] 

of  it  to  God ;  who,  at  often  at  the  holy  so- 


446     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  II.— CHAP.  III. 

of  Isychius  of  Jerusalem,  on  certain  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  on 
the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  Maximus  composed  sixty-five  questions  on  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  and  some  other  works  of  like  character.  Julianus  Pome- 
rius  showed  his  wish  and  his  inability  to  reconcile  passages  of  Scripture 
between  which  there  is  apparent  contradiction,  and  also  to  explain  the 
prophecy  of  Nahum.  Compared  with  these  writers,  the  worst  of  modern 
interpreters  are  manifestly  to  be  preferred.  The  Greeks,  especially  those 
who  would  be  thought  adepts  in  mystic  theology,  ran  after  fantastic  allego- 
ries ;  as  may  be  seen  by  the  Questions  of  Maximus  above  mentioned.  The 
Latins  had  too  little  self-confidence  even  to  venture  on  such  a  course,  and 
therefore  only  culled  flowers  from  the  works  of  Gregory  and  Augustine ;  as 
is  manifest,  among  other  works,  from  the  Explanations  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament  collected  by  Paterius  from  the  works  of  Gregory  the  Great.  (3) 
Thomas  of  Heraclea  gave  to  the  Syrians  a  new  translation  of  the  New 
Testament. (4) 

§  3.  As  among  the  Latins  philosophy  was  nearly  extinct,  and  among 
the  Greeks  only  certain  points  of  theology  were  brought  under  discussion, 
QO  one  thought  of  reducing  the  doctrines  of  religion  to  a  regular  system  and 
of  stating  them  philosophically.  Yet  one  Antiochus,  a  monk  of  Palestine, 
composed  a  short  summary  of  religious  doctrines,  which  he  called  the  Pan- 
dect  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  But  the  rank  and  influence  due  to  this  author, 
may  be  inferred  from  the  mournful  verses  subjoined  to  this  work,  in  which 
the  author  deplores  in  sorrowful  strains  the  loss  of  the  wood  of  the  [true] 
cross,  which  the  Persians  were  said  to  have  carried  away.  Of  the  Latin 
theology  of  this  age,  a  more  neat  and  judicious  summary  has  not  come 
down  to  us  than  that  in  Ildefonsus'  book  de  Cognitione  Baptismi,  lately 
brought  to  light  by  Baluze ; — a  work  indeed  which  we  do  not  need,  but  one 
that  contains  some  valuable  testimonies  for  truths  which  were  afterwards 
discarded. (5)  Tajo  or  Tago,  bishop  of  Saragossa,  compiled  jive  looks  of 
sentences,  which  are  a  dry  and  insipid  body  of  theoretical  and  practical  di- 
vinity taken  from  Gregory  the  Great,  though  Augustine  is  sometimes  taxed 
for  contributions ;  yet  that  age  esteemed  it  an  admirable  performance,  and 
deserving  immortality.(6)  On  certain  parts  of  Christianity,  a  few  individ- 
uals employed  their  pens ;  as  Maximus,  who  wrote  on  theology,  and  on  the 
manifestation  of  the  Son  in  thefesh,  and  likewise  on  the  two  natures  in  Christ ; 
and  Theodoras  of  Raithu,  who  wrote  on  the  incarnation  of  Christ.  But 
those  acquainted  with  the  character  of  that  age,  will  easily  conjecture  what 
sort  of  doctors  these  were. 

§  4.  The  lamentable  state  of  practical  theology,  is  manifest  from  every 
writer  on  the  subject  in  this  age.  The  best  of  them  were,  Dorotheus  in 

(3)  This  useless  performance  has  been  137,  p.  99) — that  the  sacred  volume  was 
usually  printed  with  the  works  of  Gregory  read  by  all  Christians,  (ch.  80,  p.  59) — and 
the  Great ;    and  therefore  the  Benedictine  other  facts  of  the  like  nature.     Ildefonsus 
monks  inserted  it  in  their  recent  and  splendid  carefully  excludes  philosophy  and  reason  as 
edition  of  Gregory's  works,  vol.  iv.,  pt.  ii.,  authorities  in  religion  ;  and  teaches  that  there 
but  with  no  advantage  to  the  public.  are  but  two  sources  of  theology,  namely,  the 

(4)  Jos.  Sim.  Asseman,  Biblioth.  Orient,  holy  scriptures  and  the  writings  of  the  an- 
Vatican.,  torn,  ii.,  p.  93,  94.  cient  doctors,  or  as  he  expresses  himself  (p. 

(5)  See  Baluze,  Miscellanea,  torn,  vi.,  p.  14,  22),  divinae  institutionis  auctoritatem,  et 
1,  &c.     From  this  book  it  clearly  appears,  sacrae  paternitatis  antiquitatem. 

among  other  things,  that    the   doctrine  of        (6)  See  Jo.  Mabillon,  Analecta  veteris 
transubstantiation  as  it  is  called,  was  un-     Aevi,  torn,  ii.,  p.  68,  &c. 
known  to  the  Latins  in  the  7th  century,  (ch. 


RELIGION  AND  THEOLOGY.  447 

his  Ascetic  Dissertations,  Maximus  and  Aldhelm  in  some  tracts,  Hesychius 
and  Tkalassius  in  their  Sentences,  and  a  few  others.  But  in  them  how 
many  and  how  great  the  defects !  how  numerous  the  marks  of  supersti- 
tion !  what  constant  indications  of  a  mind  vacillating  and  unable  to  grasp 
the  subject !  The  laity  as  they  were  called,  had  no  cause  to  tax  their 
teachers  with  excessive  severity ;  for  it  was  customary  to  confine  the  ob- 
ligations of  men  to  a  very  few  virtues,  as  is  manifest  from  Aldhelm's  tract 
on  the  eight  principal  vices.  And  those  who  disregarded  these  few  duties, 
were  to  incur  no  very  formidable  punishment  for  their  neglect.  A  life  of 
solitude  as  practised  by  the  monks,  though  adorned  by  no  marks  of  true 
piety,  was  esteemed  sufficient  of  itself  to  atone  for  all  kinds  of  guilt ;  and 
it  was  therefore  called  by  the  Latins  a  second  Baptism.(l)  This  one  fact 
is  sufficient  to  show  how  little  the  precepts  of  Christ  were  understood  in 
this  age.  Among  the  swarms  of  Greek  and  Oriental  monks,  very  many 
laboured  to  attain  perfection  by  means  of  contemplation  ;  and  these  en- 
deavoured to  transfuse  into  their  own  souls  the  spirit  of  Dionysius,  that 
father  of  the  Mystics. 

§  5.  Theodoras  the  Cilician  being  a  Grecian  monk,  restored  among  the 
Latins  the  discipline  of  penance  as  it  is  called,  which  had  fallen  into  neg- 
lect, and  enforced  it  by  strict  rules  borrowed  from  the  Grecian  ecclesias- 
tical jurisprudence.  This  man  being  unexpectedly  raised  to  the  see  of 
Canterbury  in  England,  A.D.  668,  among  many  other  laudable  deeds,  re- 
duced to  a  regular  system  that  part  of  ecclesiastical  law  which  is  called 
disciplina  paenitentiaria.  For  by  publishing  his  Penitential,  a  kind  of 
work  such  as  the  Latin  world  had  never  before  seen,  he  taught  the  priests 
to  discriminate  between  more  heinous  and  lighter  sins,  and  between  such 
as  are  secret  and  such  as  are  open,  and  likewise  to  measure  and  estimate 
them  according  to  the  circumstances  of  time,  place,  the  character  and 
disposition  of  the  sinner,  his  sorrow,  &c.,  and  pointed  out  the  punishment 
due  to  the  several  kinds  of  sins  and  faults,  the  proper  modes  of  consoling, 
admonishing,  and  absolving,  and  in  short,  marked  out  the  whole  duty  of 
those  who  hear  confessions. (8)  This  new  discipline  of  penance,  though 
it  was  of  Grecian  origin,  was  very  acceptable  to  the  Latins ;  and  in  a 
short  time  it  was  diffused  from  Britain  over  the  whole  Latin  world,  and 
enforced  by  other  Penitentials  drawn  up  after  the  pattern  of  the  original 
one  by  Theodorus.  Yet  it  gradually  declined  again  in  the  eighth  century, 
and  was  at  length  wholly  subverted  by  the  new  law  of  what  are  called  in- 
dulgences. 

§  6.  Those  who  wrote  against  the  religious  sects  which  departed  from 
the  common  faith,  are  scarcely  worthy  of  being  named ;  and  they  would 
not  be  worth  reading,  were  it  not  that  they  serve  to  elucidate  the  history 

(7)  [See  in  Harduin's  Concilia,  torn.  Hi.,  cording  to  the  decision  of  the  fathers,  and  all 

p.  1771;  the  Capitula  of  Theodore  of  Can-  sin*  are  forgiven,  as  in  baptism.— Schl.] 
terbury,  where  we  read  :  At  the  ordination        (8)  The  Penitential  of  Theodorus  is  still 

of  monks  the  abbot  ought  to  say  mass,  and  extant,  though  mutilated  ;  published  by  Ja. 

utter  three  prayers  over  his  head,  and  the  Petit,  Paris,  1679,  4to,  with  learned  Disser- 

monk  should  veil  his  head  with  a  cowl  seven  tations  and  notes.     We  have  also  the  one 

days  ;  and  on  the  7th  day  the  abbat  should  hundred   and  twenty  Capitula  ecclesiastica 

remove  the  veil  from  the  monk's  head.     As  of  the  same  Theodorus,  in  Docker,  Spicile- 

in  baptism  the  presbyter  removes  the  infant's  gium,  torn.  ix.     Harduin,  Concilia,  torn,  ui-, 

veil  on  the  7th  day,  so  bhould  the  abbot  do  p.  1771,  and  elsewhere, 
to  the  monk  ;  for  it  is  a  second  baptism,  ac- 


448     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  II.— CHAP.  IV. 

of  their  times.  Against  the  pagans,  Nicias  composed  two  Books  ;(9)  and 
Photius  mentions  a  person  unknown  to  us,  who  he  says  contended  against 
them  with  a  great  array  of  arguments  drawn  from  the  fathers.  (10) 
Against  the  Jews  contended  Julianus  Pomerius.  All  the  heresies  are 
described  and  assailed  in  the  little  work  of  Timotheus  on  the  Reception 
of  Heretics.  Of  the  theological  contests  among  the  orthodox  them- 
selves,  little  can  be  said.  In  this  age  were  scattered  the  seeds  of  those 
grievous  contests,  which  afterwards  severed  the  Greeks  from  the  Latins  ; 
nor  were  they  merely  scattered,  but  likewise  took  root  in  the  minds  of 
the  Greeks,  to  whom  the  Roman  domination  appeared  altogether  insuffer- 
able.  In  Britain,  the  ancient  Christians  of  the  country  contended  with 
the  new  or  Romish  Christians,  namely,  those  of  the  Saxon  race,  whom 
Augustine  converted  to  Christ.  They  contended  respecting  various  things, 
as  baptism,  and  the  tonsure,  but  especially  about  the  time  for  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  feast  of  Easter.(ll)  But  these  controversies  did  not  relate  to 
religion  itself;  and  they  were  settled  and  determined  in  the  eighth  cen- 
tury, by  the  Benedictine  monks,  and  in  accordance  with  the  views  of  the 
Romans.(12) 


CHAPTER  IV. 

HISTORY    OF    RITES    AND    CEREMONIES. 
$  1.  Rites  Multiplied. — $  2.  Some  Examples. 

§  1.  IN  the  council  which  is  called  Quinisextum,  the  Greeks  made  vari- 
ous enactments  respecting  religious  rites  and  forms  of  worship,  in  which 
there  were  several  deviations  from  the  Roman  usage.  These  canons  were 
publicly  received  in  all  the  churches  within  the  territories  of  the  Greek  em- 
perors, and  likewise  by  all  churches  which  accorded  in  doctrine  and  wor- 
ship with  the  Greeks,  though  situated  in  the  dominions  of  barbarian  kings.(l) 
Nearly  all  the  Roman  pontiffs  likewise,  added  something  new  to  the  ancient 
ceremonies ;  as  if  they  had  supposed  that  no  one  could  teach  Christianity 
with  success,  unless  he  could  delight  a  Christian  assembly  with  rare  shows 
and  mummery.  These  rights  and  usages  were  in  the  time  of  Charlemagne 

(9)  [Of  this  man,  nothing  more  is  known  (1)  [This  council  was  held  at  Constantino- 
than  that  he  was  a  monk,  and  that  he  wrote  pie  A.D.  692,  and  was  composed  chiefly  of 
a  book  against  the  seven  chapters  of  Phil-  Oriental  bishops,  of  whom  more  than  200 
oponus. — Schl."]  were  assembled.     The  place  of  the  sessions 

(10)  Photius,  Bibl.  Codex  clxx.,  p.  379.  was  a  hall   in   the   imperial  palace,  called 

(11)  Cummanus'  Epistle,  in  Ja.  Usher's  Trullus ;  whence  the  council  was  denomi- 
Sylloge   epistolar.    Hibernicar.,  p.  23,  &c.  nated  Concilium  Trallanum,  and  Concilium 
Beda,  Historia  Eccles.  gentis  Angler.,  lib.  in   Trullo.     It  was  properly   the    seventh 
iii.,  c.  25.     Dav.  Wilkins,  Concilia  magnae  general  council,  and   supplied  canons    for 
Britann.,  torn,  i.,  p.  37,  42.    Acta  Sanctor.  the  church,  which  the  fifth  and  sixth  had  neg- 
Februarii,  torn,  iii.,  p.  21,  84.     [See   also  lected  to  make.     Being  thus  a  kind  of  sup- 
Dr.    Warner's    Ecclesiastical    History    of  plement  to  the  fifth  and  sixth  general  coun- 
England,  book  ii.  and  iii. — Mad.]  cils,  it  was  called  Concilium  Quinisextum, 

(12)  Jo.  Mainllon,  Praef.  ad  Acta  Sane-  See  chap,  v.,  $  12,  below.— Tr.} 
tor.  ord.  Bened.,  torn,  iii.,  p.  ii.,  &c. 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 


419 


propagated  from  Rome  among  the  other  Latin  churches ;  for  the  arrogance 
of  the  Roman  pontiffs  would  not  suffer  any  of  the  western  churches  to  de- 
viate from  the  Roman  usage. 

§  2.  A  few  specimens  may  serve  for  examples.  The  number  of  festi- 
vals, which  was  already  oppressively  great,  was  increased  by  the  addition 
of  a  day  consecrated  to  the  wood  of  the  cross  on  which  the  Saviour  hung  ;(2) 
and  another  to  the  commemoration  of  his  ascent  to  heaven. (3)  Boniface  V. 
invested  the  churches  with  those  rights  of  asylum,  which  afforded  to  all  vil- 
lains a  license  to  commit  crimes  without  much  danger.(4)  The  art  of  or- 
namenting churches  magnificently,  Honorius  laboured  most  earnestly  to 
bring  to  perfection. (5)  For  as  neither  Christ  nor  his  apostles  had  enjoined 
any  thing  on  this  subject,  it  was  but  reasonable  that  their  vicar  should  con- 

Mary  and  all  the  martyrs,  as  it  had  before 
been  sacred  to  all  the  gods,  and  particularly 
to  Cybcle.  On  this  occasion  he  ordered  the 
feast  of  all  the  apostles  to  be  kept  on  the  1st 
of  May,  which  was  afterwards  assigned  only 
to  Philip  and  James,  and  the  feast  of  all  the 
martyrs  on  the  12th  of  May.  But  this  last 
feast  being  frequented  by  a  large  concourse 
of  people,  Gregory  IV.  in  the  year  834 
transferred  it  to  a  season  of  the  year  when 
provisions  were  more  easily  obtained,  that 
is,  to  the  first  day  of  November,  and  also 
consecrated  it  to  All  Saints.  See  Baum- 
garten's  christl.  Alterthuemer,  p.  313 — 
Schl.  ;  and  Gicseler's  Text-book,  by  Cun- 
ningham, vol.  ii.,  p.  60,  n.  11. — TV.] 

(4)  [Temples  were  anciently  among  the 
pagans,  places  of  safety  for  valuable  goods, 
and  for  men  in  times  of  war  or  oppression. 
Among  the  Christians,  at  first  only  the  altar 
and  the  choir  enjoyed  this  privilege.  After- 
wards the  nave  of  the  church,  and  finally  the 
whole  enclosure  participated  in  it.  All  per- 
sons under  prosecution,  whether  in  civil  or 
criminal  causes,  might  there  be  secure  till 
their  case  *as  investigated.  But  public 
debtors,  Jews,  runaway  slaves,  robbers,  mur- 
derers, banditti,  and  adulterers,  were  prohib- 
ited oy  law  from  this  right  of  sanctuary.  Yet 
ir  the  western  churches,  this  right  of  asylum 
degenerated  into  a  source  of  the  most  shock- 
ing disorders,  and  to  these  disorders  this  reg- 
ulation of  Boniface  especially  gave  occasion. 
Anastasius  Bibliothecarius  says  of  him  :  He 
ordained,  that  no  person  who  had  taken  ref- 
uge in  a  church,  should  be  delivered  up. — 
Schl.] 

(5)  [See  Anastaiius,  in  his  Life  of  this 
pontiff.  He  says  of  him  among  other  things, 
that  he  covered  the  Confessional  of  St.  Peter 
with  pure  silver,  ichich  weighed  187  •pounds. 
He  overlaid  the  great  doors  at  the  entrance 
of  the  church,  which  were  called  Mcdianuc, 
with  silrcr  weighing  975  pound*.  He  also 
M /»</<•  liro  largf  silrrr  candlesticks,  of  equal 
dnni  nxions,  weighing  each  62  pounds.  He 
likarise  made  for  the  church  of  St.  Andrew, 


(2)  [This  festival  was  instituted  by  the 
emperor  Hcraclius  in  the  year  631,  after  he 
had  vanquished  the  Persians  and  recovered 
from  them  the  real  cross,  which  Cosroes 
their  king  had  carried  off  fourteen  years  be- 
fore. The  festival  was  established  by  pope 
JHonorius,  and  was  introduced  into  the  West 
in  this  century.  For  the  Roman  pontiffs 
were  then  under  the  dominion  of  the  Greek 
emperors,  and  afterwards  began  gradually  to 
•withdraw  themselves  from  their  jurisdiction. 
The  earliest  mention  of  this  festival,  which 
the  Greeks  call  favpoijtuveia,  [and  the  Lathis 
cxaltatio  crucis,  kept  Sept.  14.  See  Ba.ro- 
nius,  Annales,  ad  ann.  628. — Tr.],  occurs  in 
the  Collatio  of  St.  Maximus  with  Theodo- 
sius,  bishop  of  Cffisarea  A.D.  650.  See 
Baumgarten's  Erlauterung  der  christl.  Al- 
terthiimer,  p.  310. — Schl.] 

(3)  [It  is  to  be  wished,  that  Dr.  Moshcim 
had  here  given  his  authority  for  placing  the 
origin  of  the  feast  of  Ascension  in  this  cen- 
tury.    Among  the  50  days  next  following 
Easter,  this  festival  had  been  observed  by 
the  Christians  with  peculiar  solemnity,  ever 
since  the  fourth  century  ;    as  may  be  infer- 
red from  Augustine,  Epist.  118,  ad  Januar. 
Chrysostom,  Homil.  62,  torn,  vii.,  and  Hom- 
il.  35,  torn.  v.     Constitutiones  Apostol.,  1. 
viii.,  c.  33,  1.  v.,  c.  19,  and  especially  from 
the  Concil.  Agathense,  A.D.  506,  where  the 
21st  Canon  says  :  Pascha,  Natale  Domini 
Epiphania,  Asccnsionem  Domini,  Pentec»s- 
ten  et  natalem  S.  Johannis  Baptistee,  vel  si 
qui  maximi  dies   in  festivitatibus  haientur, 
nonnisi  in  civitatibus  aut  in  parocAiis  tene- 
ant.     (Harduin,  torn,  ii.,  p.  1000.)     Instead 
of  this  festival,  we  might  mention  the  Feast 
of  All  Saints  as  originating  in  this  century, 
under  pope  Boniface.  In  the  eastern  churches 
it  had  indeed  been  observed  ever  since  the 
4th  century,  on  the  8th  day  after  Whitsun,- 
day,  and  was  called  the  Feast  of  all  the  Mar- 
tyrs.    But  in  the  western  churches  it  had  the 
following  origin  :    Boniface  in  the  year  610 
obtained  by  gift  the  Pantheon  at  Rome,  and 
consecrated  it  to  the  honour  of  the  virgin 

VOL.  I. — L  L  L 


450     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

fer  this  favour  on  mankind.  Of  the  sacerdotal  garments,  and  the  rest  of 
the  apparatus  which  was  deemed  necessary  in  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's 
supper,  and  for  giving  dignity  and  grandeur  to  the  assemblies  for  public 
worship,  I  shall  say  nothing. 


CHAPTER  V. 

HISTORY  OF   HERESIES. 

$  1,  2.  Remains  of  the  Earlier  Sects. — §  3.  Nestorians  and  Monophy sites. — $  4.  Monotfi- 
elites. — §  5.  Their  prosperous  Circumstances. — §  6.  Their  Adversities. — §  7.  Con- 
tests arising  out  of  the  e/c#e<7tf  and  the  rimof. — §  8.  The  Sixth  General  Council. — 
§  9.  Sum  of  the  Controversy. — 1)  10.  Different  Opinions  among  that  Sect. — §  11.  Their 
Condition  after  the  Council  of  Constantinople. — t)  12.  The  Council  called  Quinisextum. 

§  1.  THE  Greeks,  during  this  century  and  especially  in  the  reigns  of 
Constans,  Constantine  Pogonatus,  and  Justinian  II.,  were  engaged  in  fierce 
combat  with  the  Paulicians,  whom  they  considered  as  a  branch  of  the 
Manichaeans,  and  who  lived  in  Armenia  and  the  adjacent  countries.  The 
Greeks  assailed  them  not  so  much  with  arguments,  as  with  military  force 
and  with  legal  enactments  and  penalties.  It  was  during  the  reign  of  Con- 
stans  that  one  Constantine  resuscitated  this  sect,  then  exhausted  and  ready 
to  become  extinct,  and  propagated  its  doctrines  with  great  success.(l) 
But  the  history  of  the  sect,  which  is  said  to  have  originated  from  two 
brothers,  Paul  and  John,  will  be  stated  more  explicitly  under  the  ninth 
century,  at  which  time  its  conflicts  with  the  Greeks  came  to  an  open  and 
bloody  war. 

§  2.  In  Italy,  ti*>  Lombards  preferred  the  opinions  of  the  Arians  to  the 
doctrines  of  the  Niceue  council.  In  Gaul  and  in  England,  the  Pelagian 
and  Semipelagian  controversies  still  produced  some  disquietude.  In  the 
East  the  ancient  sects,  which  the  imperial  laws  had  repressed  but  had  by 
no  means  subdued  and  extinguished,  assumed  courage  in  several  places 
and  were  able  to  secure  adherents.  Fear  of  the  laws  and  of  punishment 
induced  these  sects  to  seek  a  temporary  concealment,  but  when  the  power 
of  their  foes  was  somewhat  abridged  they  again  resumed  courage. 

§  3.  The  condition  of  the  Nestotians  and  Monophysites,  under  those 
new  lords  of  the  East  the  Saracens,  was  far  happier  than  before  that  con- 
quest ;  indeed,  while  the  Greeks  were  oppressed  and  banished,  both  these 
sects  were  every  where  preferred  before  them.  Jesujabas  the  sovereign 
pontiff  of  the  Nestorians,  concluded  a  treaty  first  with  Mohammed  and 
afterwards  with  Omar,  by  which  he  obtained  "many  advantages  for  his 
Sect.(2)  There  is  likewise  extant  an  injunction,  or  Testament  as  it  is  com- 
monly called,  that  is,  a  diploma  of  Mohammed  himself,  in  which  he  prom- 
ises full  security  to  all  Christians  living  under  his  dominion :  and  though 

a  silver  table  before  the   Confessional,  as  p.  41,  &c.     George  Cedrenus,  Compend. 

aJ>ove,whichweighed73  pounds,  $c. — Schl.']  Histor.,  p.  431,  ed.  Venice. 

(1)  Photius,  contra  Manichaeos,  lib.  i.,  p.         (2)  Jos.  Sim.  Asseman,  Biblioth.  Orient. 

61.    Peter  Siculus,  Historia  Manichaeor.,  Vaticana,  torn,  iii.,  part  ii.,  p.  xciv,  &c. 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


;  .j 


some  learned  men  doubt  the  authenticity  of  this  instrument,  yet  the  Mo- 
hammedans do  not  call  it  in  question.(3)  The  successors  of  Mohammed 
in  Persia,  employed  the  Nestorians  in  the  most  important  affairs  and  bu- 
siness both  of  the  court  and  of  the  provinces ;  nor  would  they  sulfur  any 
patriarch,  except  the  one  who  governed  this  sect,  to  reside  in  the  kingdom 
of  Babylon.(4)  The  Monophysites  in  Egypt  and  Syria  were  equally  for- 
tunate.  In  Egypt,  Amrou  having  taken  Alexandria  in  the  year  644,  di- 
rected Benjamin  the  Monophysite  pontilF  to  occupy  the  see  of  Alexan- 
dria ;  and  from  that  time  for  nearly  a  century,  the  Melchites,  or  those  who 
followed  the  opinions  of  the  Greek  church,  had  no  prelate.(S) 

§  4.  Among  the  Greeks  who  were  otherwise  greatly  distracted,  there 
arose  a  new  sect  in  the  year  630,  during  the  reign  of  Heraclius,  which  soon 
produced  such  commotions  that  both  the  East  and  the  West  united  to  put 
it  down.  An  ill-timed  effort  at  peace  produced  war.  The  emperor  He- 
radius,  considering  the  immense  evils  resulting  to  the  Greek  empire  from 
the  revolt  of  the  Nestorians  to  the  Persians,  was  exceedingly  desirous  of 
reconciling  the  Monophysites  to  the  Greek  church,  lest  the  empire  should 
receive  a  new  wound  by  their  departure  from  it.  He  therefore,  during  his 
war  with  the  Persians,  first  had  a  conference  in  the  year  622  with  one  Paul 
a  principal  man  among  the  Armenian  Monophysites,  and  afterwards  in  the 
year  629,  at  Hicrapolis,  with  Anasiasius  the  Calholicus  or  patriarch  of  the 
Monophysites,  respecting  the  means  of  restoring  harmony.  Both  of  them 
suggested  to  the  emperor,  that  the  believers  in  one  nature  of  Christ  might 


(3)  This  famous  Testament  of  Mohammed 
was  brought  into  Europe  from  the  East,  in 
the  17th  century,  by  Pacifccus  Scaliger  a 
Capuchin  monk ;  and  was  first  published, 
Arabic  and  Latin,  by  Gabriel  Sionita,  Paris, 
1630  ;  and  afterwards  the  Lutherans,  John 
Fabricius  A.D.  1638,  and  Hinckelmann 
A.D.  1690,  published  it  in  Latin.  See  Jo. 
Henr.  Hottinger,  Histor.  Oriental.,  lib.  ii., 
c.  20,  p.  237.  Asscman,  Biblioth.  Orient. 
Vatican.,  torn,  iii.,  part  ii.,  p.  xcv.  Renau- 
dot,  Histor.  Patriarchar.  Alexandr.,  p.  168. 
Those  who  with  Grotius  reject  this  Testa- 
ment, suppose  it  was  fabricated  by  the  monks 
living  in  Syria  and  Arabia,  to  circumvent 
their  hard  masters  the  Mohammedans.  Nor 
is  the  supposition  incredible.  For  the  monks 
of  Mount  Sinai  formerly  showed  a  similar 
edict  of  Mohammed,  which  they  said  he  drew 
up  while  a  private  man  ;  an  edict  exceeding- 
ly favourable  to  them,  and  beyond  all  con- 
troversy fraudulently  drawn  up  by  them- 
selves. The  fraud  was  sufficiently  manifest ; 
yet  the  Mohammedans,  a  people  destitute 
of  all  erudition,  believed  it  was  a  genuine 
ordinance  of  their  prophet,  and  they  believe 
so  still.  This  imposition  is  treated  of  by 
Dcmetr.  Cantimir,  Histoire  de  1' Empire  Ot- 
toman, tome  ii.,  p  269,  &c.  The  argument 
therefore  which  RenauAot  and  others  draw 
in  favour  of  the  Testament  in  question,  from 
the  acknowledgment  of  its  authenticity  by 
the  Mohammedans,  is  of  little  weight ;  be- 


cause, in  things  of  this  nature  no  people 
could  be  more  easily  imposed  upon  than  tho 
rude  and  illiterate  Mohammedans.  Nor  is 
the  argument  of  more  force,  which  the  oppo- 
sers  of  the  Testament  draw  from  the  differ- 
ence of  its  style  from  that  of  the  Koran.  For 
it  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  Moham- 
med himself  composed  this  Testament ;  he 
might  have  employed  his  secretary.  But 
however  dubious  the  Testament  itself  may 
be,  the  subject  matter  of  it  is  not  doubtful. 
For  learned  men  have  proved,  by  powerful 
arguments,  that  Mohammed  originally  would 
allow  no  injury  to  be  offered  to  the  Chris- 
tians, and  especially  to  the  Nestorians. — 
[This  Testament  is  a  formal  compact  be- 
tween Mohammed  on  the  one  part,  and  the 
Nestorians  and  Monophysites  on  the  other. 
He  promises  to  them  his  protection ;  and 
they  promise  to  him  loyalty  and  obedience. 
He  promises  them  entire  religious  freedom ; 
and  they  promise  him  support  against  his 
enemies.  Mohammed  might  have  deemed 
it  sound  policy  to  conclude  such  a  treaty 
with  these  sectaries ;  that,  by  tfeir  aid,  he 
might  subdue  the  countries  of  Asia  subject 
to  the  Greek  emperors. — Schl.] 

(4)  Asscixan,  Biblioth.  Orient.  Vatican., 
torn,  iii.,  part  ii.,  p.  xcvii.,  &c.     Euscb.  Rc- 
naitdot,  Historia  Patriarch.  Alexandrinor.,  p. 
163,  169. 

(5)  Euscb.  Rcnaudot,  Historia  Patriarch. 
Alexandrinor.,  p.  168. 


452  BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

be  induced  to  receive  the  decrees  of  the  council  of  Chalcedon  and  be  rec. 
onciled  to  the  Greeks,  provided  the  Greeks  would  admit  and  profess,  that 
in  Jesus  Christ,  after  the  union  of  the  two  natures,  there  was  but  one  will 
and  one  voluntary  operation.  Heraclius  stated  what  he  had  learned  from 
these  men,  to  Sergius  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  who  was  a  native  of 
Syria  and  descended  from  parents  that  were  Monophysites.  This  prelate 
gave  it  as  his  opinion,  that  it  might  be  held  and  inculcated,  without  preju- 
dice  to  the  truth  or  to  the  authority  of  the  council  of  Chalcedon,  that,  after 
the  union  of  two  natures  in  Christ,  there  was  but  one  will  and  one  opera- 
tion of  will.  Heraclius  therefore,  in  order'  to  terminate  the  discord  both 
in  church  and  state,  issued  a  decree,  in  the  year  630,  that  this  faith  should 
be  received  and  taught.  (6) 

§  5.  At  first  the  affair  seemed  to  go  on  well.  For  although  some  re. 
fused  to  comply  with  the  imperial  edict,  yet  the  two  patriarchs  of  the  East, 
Cyrus  of  Alexandria  and  Atlianasius  of  Antioch,  did  not  hesitate  to  obey 
the  will  of  the  emperor ;  and  the  see  of  Jerusalem  was  then  vacant.(7) 
The  consent  of  the  Latin  patriarch  or  the  Roman  pontiff  was  perhaps  not 
deemed  necessary,  in  an  affair  which  related  so  exclusively  to  the  Oriental 
church.  Cyrus,  whom  the  emperor  had  promoted  from  the  see  of  Phasis 
to  that  of  Alexandria,  assembled  a  council,  by  the  seventh  decree  of  which 
the  doctrine  of  Monothelism,  which  the  emperor  wished  to  have  introduced, 
was  solemnly  confirmed. (8)  And  this  modification  of  the  decree  of  Chal- 
cedon was  so  influential  with  the  Monothelites  in  Egypt,  Armenia,  and 
other  provinces,  that  a  great  part  of  them  returned  to  the  church.  They 
seem  however  to  have  explained  the  doctrine  of  one  will  in  Christ, — which 
was  certainly  equivocal,  according  to  their  own  views,  and  not  according 
to  the  general  sentiments  of  their  sect. 

§  6.  But  this  fair  prospect  of  union  was  blasted,  and  a  formidable  con- 
test was  excited  by  a  single  monk  of  Palestine  named  Sophronius.  He 
being  present  at  the  council  of  Alexandria  held  by  Cyrus  in  the  year  633, 
strenuously  resisted  the  article  which  related  to  one  will  in  Christ.  And 
the  next  year,  (634),  being  made  patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  he  assembled  a 
council  in  which  he  condemned  the  Monothelites,  and  maintained  that  by 
their  doctrine,  the  Eutychian  error  respecting  the  amalgamation  and  con. 
fusion  of  natures  in  Christ,  was  revived  and  brought  into  the  church.  He 

(6)  The  writers  who  give  account  of  this         (8)  [The  documents  of  this  council  are  in 
sect,  are  enumerated  by  Jo.  Alb.  Fabricius,  Harduin's  Concilia,  torn,  iii.,  p.  1327,  &c. 
Biblioth.  Graeca,  vol.  x.,  p.  204.     The  ac-  The   intention  of  Cyrus  was   good.     He 
count  which  I  have  given  in  the  text  is  de-  wished  to  unite  the  Severians  and  the  The- 
rived  from  the  original  sources,  and  rests  on  odosians,  who  composed  a  large  part  of  the 
the  most  explkit  testimony.     [The  most  im-  Christians  of  Alexandria ;  and  he  considered 
portant  of  the  ancient  documents  are  found  the  doctrine  of  one  will  and  one  operation 
in  the  Acts  of  the  council  of  the  Lateran  as  the  best  means  for  this  end.     He  there- 
A.D.  649,  and  in  those  of  the  sixth  general  fore,  in  several  canons,  spoke  of  one  single 
council,  h^ld  at  Constantinople  A.D.  681,  theandric  operation  in  Christ,  (viav  kvepySv- 
682.     Among  the  modern  writers,  the  most  ra  rd  ^eoTvpewij  KOI  av&puiuva  flip  •&eav- 
full  and  candid  is  Dr.  Walch,  Historie  der  dpiufi  tvepyela),  yet  for  the  sake  of  peace,  he 
Ketzereyen,  vol.  ix.,  p.  3-667.     See   also  refrained  from  affirming  either  one  or  two 
Schroeckh,  Kircheng.,  vol.  xx.,  p.  386-453,  wills   and.  operations.      This  step,  though 
and  Bower's  Lives  of  the  Popes,  from  Ho-  taken  with  the  best  intentions,  gave  occa- 
norius  on  to  the  end  of  this  century. — TV.]  won  afterwards  to  the  most  violent  theologi- 

(7)  See  Le  Quien,  Oriens  Christianas,    cal  contests. — Sett.] 
torn,  iii.,  p  264. 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


453 


drew  over  many,  particularly  among  the  monks,  to  his  sentiments ;  and  he 
made  special  efforts  to  gain  over  Honorius  the  Roman  pontiff  to  his  side. (9) 
But  Scrgius  of  Constantinople  wrote  a  long  and  discreet  letter  to  Honorius, 
which  induced  him  to  decide,  that  those  held  sound  doctrine  who  taught 
that  there  was  one  will  and  one  operation  in  Christ. (10)  Hence  arose  se- 
vere contests,  which  divided  the  commonwealth  as  well  as  the  church  into 
two  parties. 

§  7.  To  quiet  these  great  commotions,  Heraclius  published  in  the  year 
639,  an  Ecthesis,  i.  e.,  a  formula  of  faith,  drawn  up  by  Sergius,  in  which, 
while  he  forbid  all  discussion  of  the  question  whether  there  were  only  one, 


(9)  [Sophronius  was  most  sincere  and 
decorous  in  his  opposition  to  the  doctrine  of 
Monothdism.     In  the  council  of  Alexandria 
he   fell  down   before  Cyrus,  and  entreated 
him  not  to  sanction  such  a  doctrine.     But 
he  was  alone  in  his  opposition.     Cyrus  treat- 
ed him  tenderly,  advised  him  to  confer  with 
Sergius  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople  on 
the  subject,  and  wrote  a  letter  to  Sergius  for 
Sophronius  to  carry.     When  arrived  at  Con- 
stantinople, Sergius  endeavoured  to  sooth 
him,  represented  the  point  as  unessential, 
agreed  to  write  to  Cyrus  not  to  allow  any 
controversy  on  the  subject,  but  to  leave  ev- 
ery one  at  full   liberty  to  speculate  as   he 
pleased  about  it.     Sophronius  now   agreed 
to  keep  silence.     But  when  made  patriarch 
of  Jerusalem,  his  conscience  would  not  let 
him  rest.     Whether  he  assembled  a  provin- 
cial synod,  as  Dr.  Moshcim  asserts,  is  ques- 
tionable.    But  his  circular  epistle  to  the  oth- 
er patriarchs  on  occasion  of  his  consecra- 
tion, contained  an  elaborate  discussion  of  the 
subject,  and  a  host  of  quotations   from  the 
fathers,   in   proof  that  the  doctrine  of  two 
wills  and  two  operations  was  the  only  true 
doctrine.     See  the  letter  in  Harduin's  Con- 
cilia, torn,  iii.,  p.  1257. — TV.] 

(10)  This  the  adherents  to  the  Roman 
pontiffs  have  taken  the  utmost  pains  to  dis- 
prove, lest  one  of  the  pontiffs  should  seem 
to  have  erred  in  a  matter  of  such  moment. 
See,  among  many  others,  Jo.  Harduin,  de 
Sacramento  altaris,  in  his  Opp.  sclecta,  p. 
255,  &c.     An  1  indeed,  it  is  not  difficult  ei- 
ther to  accuse  or  to  excuse  the  man.    For  he 
appears  not  to  have  known  what  to  think  on 
the  subject,  and  to  have  annexed   no  very 
definite  ideas  to  the  words  which  he  used. 
Yet  he  did  say  that  there  was  but  one  will 
and  one  operation  of  will  in  Christ.     And 
for  this  he  was  condemned  in  the  council  of 
Constantinople.     He  was  therefore  a  heretic, 
beyond  all  controversy,  if  it  be  true  that  uni- 
versal councils  cannot  err.     See  Ja.  Benig. 
Bossuet,  Defensio  declarations  quam  clerus 
Gallicanus,  Anno  1682,  de  potestate  Eccle- 
siastica  sanxit,  pt.  ii.,  lib.  xii.,  cap.  21,  &c., 
p.  182,  &c.     Add  Ja.  Basnagc,  Histoire  de 


1'Eglise,  torn,  i.,  p.  391,  &c.  [Honorius  was 
made  acquainted,  by  Scrgius  in  the  above 
mentioned  letter,  with  the  origin  and  whole 
progress  of  the  controversy  ;  and  such  was 
his  impression,  that,  in  his  answer  to  Ser- 
gius, (which  is  in  Harduin's  Concilia,  torn. 
iii.,  p.  1319,  &c.),  he  so  far  agreed  with  Ser- 
gius as  to  disapprove  the  affirmation  of  either 
one  or  two  operations  and  divine  wills  ;  yet 
he  did  very  clearly  maintain  but  one  will  in 
Christ,  expressed  his  disapprobation  of  So- 
phronius, and  declared  the  whole  controver- 
sy to  be  unimportant  and  mere  logomachy. 
There  is  extant  also,  (ibid.,  p.  1351),  an  ex- 
tract from  a  second  letter  of  Honorius  to 
Sergius,  in  which  he  still  farther  confirms 
his  opinion.  The  friends  of  the  Romish 
church  have  iaken  great  pains  to  justify  this 
mistake  of  Honorius.  The  Acts  of  the  sixth 
general  council,  say  they,  are  corrupted,  and 
the  name  of  Honorius  has  been  wickedly 
foisted  into  them.  Honorius  was  not  con- 
demned for  heresy,  but  for  his  forbearance. 
He  meant  to  deny  only  that  there  were  two 
opposite  wills  in  Christ.  He  wrote  only 
as  a  private  person,  and  not  as  a  bishop, 
and  also  when  ill-informed  by  Sergius  ;  and 
moreover  retracted  afterwards  his  opinion. 
But  even  Catholic  writers  have  confuted 
these  subterfuges  ;  e.  g.,  Richer,  Hist  Con- 
cil.  general,  p.  296,  &c.  Du  Pin,  Bibli- 
oth.,  torn,  vi.,  p.  67,  &c.  Honorius  was  con- 
demned not  only  in  the  sixth  general  coun- 
cil, but  also  in  the  seventh  and  eighth,  and 
in  that  in  Trullo,  and  likewise  by  his  own 
successors,  (Agatho,  Leoll.,  Hadrian,  &c.), 
and  is  named  in  several  Rituals,  and  partic- 
ularly in  the  Breviary  and  m  the  festival  of 
Leo  II.,  as  being,  together  with  Scrgius  and 
Cyrus,  a  person  damnattz  memori<jc.  This 
is  manifest  proof  that  no  one  then  even 
thought  of  an  infallibility  in  the  Romish 
jiojios.  notwithstanding  in  modern  times  the 
name  of  Honorius  has  been  erased  from  the 
Breviaries. — Schl.  See  Bower's  Lives  of 
the  Popes,  (Agatho),  vol.  iii.,  and  Gieseler't 
Text-book,  transl.  by  Cunningham,  vol.  i., 
p.  369,  note  17.— TV.] 


454 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


or  a  twofold  action  or  operation  in  Christ,  he  clearly  stated  that  there  was 
but  one  will  in  Christ.(ll)  This  new  law  was  approved  by  not  a  few  in 
the  East,  and  first  of  all  by  Pyrrhus  of  Constantinople,  who  on  the  death 
of  Sergius  succeeded  to  that  see  in  the  year  639.  (12)  But  the  Roman 
pontiff  John  IV.,  in  a  council  held  this  year  at  Rome,  rejected  the  Ecthe- 
sis,  and  condemned  the  Monothelites.(13)  As  the  controversy  still  con- 
tinued, the  emperor  Constans  in  the  year  648,  with  the  consent  of  Paul  of 
Constantinople,  published  a  new  edict,  called  the  Typus  ;  by  which  the  EC- 
thesis  was  annulled,  and  silence  enjoined  on  both  the  contending  parties, 
as  well  with  regard  to  one  will  as  with  regard  to  one  operation  "of  will  in 
Christ.  (14)  But  the  impassioned  monks  looked  upon  silence  as  a  crime  ; 
and  by  their  instigation,  Martin  the  bishop  of  Rome  in  a  council  of  105 
bishops  in  the  year  649,  anathematized  both  the  Ecthesis  and  the  Typus, 
(but  without  naming  the  emperors),  and  likewise  all  patrons  of  the  Monothe- 


§  8.  The  audacity  of  Martin  in  anathematizing  the  imperial  edicts, 
provoked  Constans  to  issue  orders  for  the  arrest  of  the  pontiff  by  the  ex- 
arch Calliopas,  and  for  his  transportation  in  the  year  650  to  the  island  of 
Naxia.  Maximus,  the  ringleader  of  the  seditious  monks,  he  banished  to 
Bizyca  ;  and  others,  not  less  factious,  were  punished  in  different  ways.  (16) 


(tl)  [This  Ecthesis  is  in  Harduin's  Con- 
cilia, torn,  iii.,  p.  791,  &c. — Schl.] 

(12)  [Previously  to  this,  Sergius  assem- 
bled the  clergy  at  Constantinople,  and  not 
only  established  the  new  Concordat,  but  or- 
dained that  all   clergymen  who  should   not 
adopt  it  should  be  liable  to  deposition,  and 
all  monks  and  laymen  be  liable  to  excom- 
munication.    Extracts  from  the  Acts  of  this 
council  are  given  in  the  Acts  of  the  Lateran 
council  [A.D.  649],  in  Harduin,  torn,  iii.,  p. 
795,  &c.    Pyrrhus  the  successor  of  Sergius, 
likewise  received  this  formula  in  an  assem- 
bly of  the  clergy  A.D.  640,  and  commanded 
all  bishops  whether  present  or  absent  to  sub- 
scribe to  it.     See  the  extracts  from  the  Acts 
of  this  council,  in  Harduin,  torn,  iii.,  p.  797. 
— SchL] 

(13)  \_Heraclius  transmitted  the  Ecthesis 
to  pope  Severinus  at  Rome,  by  the  exarch 
Isaacius.      (Harduin,   torn,    iii.,    p.    803.) 
Whether  Severinus  submitted  to  it,  is  un- 
certain.    But  that  his  envoys,  who    were 
sent  to  Constantinople  to  obtajn  the  confirm- 
ation of  his  election,  could  not  succeed  till 
they  had  engaged  he  should  receive  it,  is 
certain.     His   successor  John  IV.  rejected 
it  soon  after  his  elevation  to  office,  in  a  Ro- 
mish council  of  which  we  have  only  very 
dubious  accounts.    On  the  side  of  this  pope 
stood  the  island  of  Cyprus,  and  Numidia 
Byzicena,  the  Provincia  Proconsularis,  and 
Mauritania ;    from  all  of  which  provinces 
synodal   epistles  are  still   extant,  showing 
that  the  bishops   there  passed  resolutions 
against  the  Ecthesis.     They  are  in  Hardu- 
in's Concilia,  torn,  iii.,  p.  727,  &c. — Schl.] 


(14)  [This  Typus  is  in  Harduin's  Con- 
cilia, torn,  iii.,  p.  823,  &c. — Schl.] 

(15)  [This  council  was  held  in  the  church 
of  St.  John  of  the  Lateran,  and  was  thence 
called  the  Lateran  Council.     The  Acts  of 
it  are  in  Harduin's  Collection,  torn,  iii.,  p. 
626-946.     The  year  before,  pope  Theodore 
had  held  a  council  at  Rome,  in  which  he 
condemned  Pyrrhus  who  had  lost  the  patri- 
archate of  Constantinople  in  consequence  of 
his  taking  part  in  the  civil  commotions  of 
that  city  at  the  election  of  a  new  emperor, 
together  with  his  successor  Paul ;  and  had 
mingled  some  of  the  sacramental  wine  with 
the  ink  in  signing  their  condemnation.     See 
Watch's  Historic  der  Kirchenversamml.,  p. 
419.      The    emperor    Constans  hoped   by 
means  of  his  Typus,  to  put  an  end  to  all 
these  commotions  ;  and  he  would  undoubt- 
edly have  succeeded,  if  he  had  had  only  can- 
did and  reasonable  men  to  deal  with.     But 
at  Rome  a  determined  spirit  of  self-justi- 
fication prevailed ;   and  unfortunately  pope 
Martin  was  a  man  who  sought  to  gain  a  rep- 
utation for  learning  by  metaphysical  wran- 
gling.    He  in  this  council  condemned  the 
opinions  of  an  Arabian  bishop,  Thcodorus  of 
Pharan,  a   zealous  Monophysite  ;    but   he 
touched  so  lightly  on  the  doctrines  of  Hono- 
rius,  as  not  even  to  mention  his  name. — 
Schl.-] 

(16)  [To  give  the  proceeding  a  less  ex- 
ceptionable aspect,  pope  Martin  was  accu- 
sed of  various  crimes.    He  was  charged  with 
being  a  partisan  of  the  rebel  exarch  Olym- 
pius,  with  sending  supplies  of  money  to  the 
Saracens,  &c.     From  Naxia  he  was  brought 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


455 


The  succeeding  Roman  pontiffs,  Eugenius  and  Vitalianus,  were  more  dis- 
creet and  moderate  ;  especially  the  latter,  who  received  Constans,  upon 
his  arrival  at  Rome  in  the  year  663,  with  the  highest  honours,  and  adopt- 
ed  measures  to  prevent  the  controversy  from  being  rekindled.(lT)  It 
therefore  slept  in  silence  for  several  years.  But  as  it  was  only  a  con- 
cealed fire  that  burned  in  secret,  and  as  new  commotions  hazardous  to  the 
public  peace  were  constantly  to  be  feared,  Constaniine  Pogonatus  the  son 
of  Constans,  having  advised  with  the  Roman  pontiff  Agatlio,  summoned  a 
general  council  in  the  year  680,  which  is  called  the  sixtli  of  the  oecumeni- 
cal councils ;  and  here  he  permitted  the  Monothelites  and  the  Roman 
pontiff  Honorius  to  be  condemned,  in  the  presence  of  Agatha's  legates ; 
and  he  confirmed  the  decrees  of  the  council  with  the  sanction  of  penal 
laws.(18) 

§  9.  It  is  very  difficult  to  define  the  real  sentiments  of  the  Monothe- 
lites, or  to  tell  what  it  was  their  adversaries  condemned.  For  neither 
party  is  uniform  in  its  statements,  and  both  disclaim  the  errors  objected 
to  them.  I.  The  Monothelites  disclaimed  all  connexion  with  the  Eutychi- 

to  Constantinople,  and  there  subjected  to  a 
judicial  trial.  He  would  certainly  have  lost 
his  head,  as  a  traitor,  had  not  the  dying  pa- 
triarch Paul  moved  the  emperor  to  commute 
his  punishment  into  banishment  to  Cherson, 
where  he  soon  after  died  in  great  distress. 
See  his  14th  and  following  Epistles,  in  Lab- 
be,  Concilia,  torn,  vi.,  and  Concilia  regia, 
torn.  TV.  ;  also  Muratori,  History  of  Italy, 
vol.  iv.,  p.  125,  &c. — Schl.  Also  Bower's 
Lives  of  the  Popes,  vol.  iii. — TV.] 

(17)  [  Vitalianus,  as  soon  as  he  was  elect- 
ed, despatched  his  envoys  to  Constantino- 
ple, and  by  them  sent  the  customary  con- 
fession of  his  faith  to  the  patriarch.  The 
discreet  procedure  of  the  pope  and  the  polit- 
ical circumstances  of  the  times,  caused  his 
envoys  to  be  well  received,  and  to  be  sent 
back  to  Rome  by  Constantine  with  splendid 
presents.  The  patriarch  of  Constantinople 
also,  in  his  letter  of  reply,  expressed  warm 
desires  for  union  and  harmony.  When  the 
emperor  Constans  came  to  Rome  in  the  year 
663,  in  his  campaign  against  the  Lombards, 
the  pope  showed  him  more  honour  than  it 
became  his  papal  character  to  show  to  one 
who  had  murdered  his  own  brother  ;  for  the 
emperor,  a  few  years  before,  had  put  to  death 
his  own  brother,  the  deacon  Theodosius. 
The  pope,  with  all  his  clergy,  went  out  to 
meet  him  two  miles  from  Rome,  and  escort- 
ed him  into  the  city.  But  all  the  honours 
he  showed  to  the  emperor  did  not  prevent 
him  from  carrying  off  to  Constantinople  all 
the  brass  which  ornamented  the  city,  and 
even  the  plates  which  covered  the  roof  -»i 
the  Pantheon.  See  Anastasitts,  de  ^ita 
Vitaliani ;  and  Paulus  Diaconus,  Historia 
Longobardor.,  lib.  v.,  c.  6,  7. — S«A/.] 

(•18)  [This  council  was  summoned  by  the 
emperor,  who  presided  in  it  in  person.     The 


number  of  bishops  was  small  at  first,  but  in- 
creased to  near  200.     There  were  eighteen 
sessions,  from  the  7th  Nov.  680  to  the  16th 
Sept.  681.     No  one  of  the  ancient  councils 
was  conducted  with  more  decorum  and  fair- 
ness.   Yet  not  the  Bible,  but  the  decrees  of 
former  councils  and  the  writings  of  the  fa- 
thers, were  the  authority  relied  upon.     All 
the  great  patriarchs  were  present,  either  per- 
sonally or  by  their  representatives.     At  first 
the  two  parties  were  nearly  balanced.     But 
in  the  8th  session,  March  7th,  George  the 
patriarch  of  Constantinople  went  over  to  the 
side  of  the  orthodox,  and  was  followed  by 
all  the  clergy  of  his  diocese.     Macarius  the 
patriarch  of  Antioch,  who  stood  firm  at  the 
head  of  the  Monothelites,  was  new  outvoted, 
condemned,  and  deprived  of  hi*  office.     The 
Monothelites,  as  soon  as  the?  were  adjudged 
to  be  heretics,  lost  their  sests  ;  and  therefore 
the  decrees  of  the  council  were  finally  car- 
ried by  a  unanimous  vote.     Theodorus  of 
Pharan,  Cyrus  of  Alexandria,  Sergins,  Pyr- 
rhus,  and  Paul  of  Constantinople,  Honoriu* 
of  Rome,  MacarMS  of  Antioch,  and  some 
others,  were  condemned  as  heretics ;  and 
the  doctrine  of  two  wills,  a  human  and  di- 
vine, and  two  kinds  of  voluntary  acts  in 
Christ,  defined  and  established.     The  Acts 
of  this  council,  Gr.  and  Lat.,  are  in  Har- 
duin's  Concilia,  torn,  iii.,  p.  1043-1644,  and 
thej  are  not  falsified,  as  some  Catholics  for- 
nzerlv  asserted.     See  Combefis,  Diss.  apol- 

ogei.  pro  Actis  vi.  Synodi,  in  his  Auctuar. 

Biblioth.  Patr.  Nov.,  torn.  ii..  p.  65.     Jo. 

Forbes,  Instructio  hist.  Theol.,  1.  v.,  c.  10. 

Du  Pin,  Biblioth.  des  Auteurs  Eccles.,  torn. 

vi.,.p.  61.     Cave,  Hist.  Lit.,  torn,  i.,  p.  605. 

Rower,  Lives  of  the  Popes,  (Agatha),  vol. 

iii.— TV.] 


456     BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 

ans  and  the  Monophys-ites ;  and  confessed  that  there. were  in  Christ  the 
Saviour  two  natures,  so  united,  without  mixture  or  confusion,  as  to  consti- 
tute but  one  person.  II.  They  admitted  that  the  human  soul  of  Christ  was 
endowed  with  a  will,  or  the  faculty  of  willing  and  choosing  ;  and  that  it 
did  not  lose  this  power  of  willing  and  choosing  in  consequence  of  its  union 
with  the  divine  nature.  For  they  held  and  taught,  that  Christ  was  perfect 
man  as  well  as  perfect  God ;  and  of  course,  that  his  human  soul  had  the 
power  of  willing  and  choosing.  III.  They  denied  that  this  power  of 
willing  and  choosing  in  the  human  soul  of  Christ,  was  inactive  or  inoper- 
ative :  on  the  contrary,  they  conceded  that  it  operated  together  with  the 
divine  will.  IV.  They  therefore,  in  reality  admitted  two  wills  in  Christ, 
and  also  that  both  were  active  and  operative  wills. (19)  Yet,  V.  they 
maintained  that  in  a  certain  sense,  there  was  but  one  will  and  one  opera- 
tion of  will  in  Christ. 

§  10.  But  these  positions  were  not  explained  in  precisely  the  same  man- 
ner, by  all  who  were  called  Monothelites.  Some  of  them,  as  may  be  fully 
proved,  intended  no  more  than  that  the  two  wills  in  Christ,  the  human  and 
the  divine,  were  always  harmonious,  and  in  this  sense  one ;  or  that  the  hu- 
man will  always  accorded  with  the  divine  will,  and  was  therefore  always 
holy,  upright,  and  good.  And  in  this  opinion  there  is  nothing  censura- 
ble. (20)  But  others  approaching  nearer  to  the  Monophysites,  supposed  that 
the  two  wills  in  Christ,  that  is,  the  two  powers  of  willing,  in  consequence 
of  the  personal  union  (as  it  is  called)  of  the  two  natures,  were  amalgamated 
and  became  one  will:  yet  they  still  admitted  that  the  two  wills  could  be, 
and  should  be,  discriminated  in  our  conceptions.  The  greatest  part  of  the 
sect  and  those  possessing  the  greatest  acumen,  supposed  that  the  will  of 
Christ's  human  soul  was  the  instrument  of  his  divine  will :  yet  when  moved 
and  prompted  to  act,  it  operated  and  put  forth  volitions  in  connexion  with 
the  divine  will.(21)  From  this  supposition,  the  position  so  obstinately 
maintained  by  the  Monothelites  was  unavoidable,  that  in  Christ  there  was 
but  one  will  and  one  operation  of  will.  For  the  operation  of  an  instrument, 
and  of  him  \vho  uses  it,  is  not  twofold  but  one.  Setting  aside  therefore 
the  suspicion  of  Eutychianism,  and  other  tilings  connected  with  that  ques- 
tion, the  point  hi  controversy  was,  whether  the  human  will  of  Christ  some- 
times acted  from 'ds  own  impulse,  or  whether  it  was  always  moved  by  the  in- 
stigation of  the  divine  nature. — This  controversy  is  a  striking  illustration  of 
the  fallacious  and  hazardous  nature  of  every  religious  compromise,  which 
is  made  to  rest  on  ambiguous  phraseology.  The  friends  of  the  council  of 
Chalcedon  endeavoured  to  ensnare  the  Monophysites,  by  means  of  a  propo- 

'  (19)  [They  admitted  two  focuses  or  vol-  (21)  [According  to  Dr.  Walch,  Historie 
untary  powers,  a  human  and  a  divine  ;  but  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  ix.,  p.  594,  &c.,  the  sub- 
maintained,  that  when  brought  into  action,  ordination  of  the  human  will  to  the  divine  in 
they  operated  conjunctly  and  as  ii  they  were  Christ,  was  explained  by  some  to  be  alto- 
but  one.  By  the  expression  one  wiU  there-  gether  voluntary,  or  a  consequence  of  the 
fore,  they  seem  to  have  intended  one  vditiov.  pious  resignation  and  the  faith  of  the  man 
or  act  of  the  will,  and  by  one  operation,  ihey  Christ  Jesus  ;  but  others  supposed  that  it 
intended  one  mode  of  acting.  See  Walch,  resulted  from  the  nature  of  the  union,  by 
Historie  der  Ketzereyen,  vol.  ix.,  p.  584,  &c.  wV.ich  the  human  nature  became  the  instru- 
— Tr.]  mewl  with  which  the  divine  nature  worked  ; 
(20)  [See  Walch,  Historie  der  Ketzerey-  and  thty  illustrated  the  subject  by  the  sub- 
en,  vol.  ix.,  p.  592,  &c.,  where  he  names  (in  jection  of  man's  bodily  members  to  the  em- 
Anm.  1.  p.  593)  Sergius,  Honorius,  and  pire  of  his  mind  or  soul. — Tr.] 
the  Ecthesis,  as  giving  these  views. — Tr.] 


HERESIES  AND  SCHISMS. 


457 


sition  of  dubious  interpretation ;  and  they  thus  imprudently  involved  the 
church  and  the  state  in  long-protracted  controversies. 

§11.  The  doctrine  of  the  Monothelites  thus  condemned  and  exploded  by 
the  council  of  Constantinople,  found  a  place  of  refuge  among  the  Mardaiies, 
a  people  who  inhabited  the  mountains  of  Libanus  and  Ant'dibanus,  and  who 
about  the  conclusion  of  this  century  received  the  name  of  Maronites,  from 
Jo.  Maro  their  first  bishop,  a  name  which  they  still  retain.  No  one  of  the 
ancients  indeed  has  mentioned  this  man  as  being  the  person  who  brought 
the  Libaniots  to  embrace  Monothelism ;  but  there  are  strong  reasons  for 
believing,  that  it  was  this  John  whose  surname  of  Maro  passed  over  to  the 
people  of  whom  he  was  bishop. (22)  This  however  is  demonstrable,  from  the 
testimony  of  William  of  Tyre  and  of  other  unexceptionable  witnesses,(23) 
that  the  Maronites  were  for  a  long  time  Monothelites  in  sentiment ;  and 
that  it  was  not  till  the  twelfth  centuiy,  or  till  they  became  reconciled  with 
the  Romish  church  in  the  year  1182,  that  they  abandoned  the  error  of 
one  will  in  Christ.  The  most  learned  of  the  modern  Maronites  have  very 
studiously  endeavoured  to  wipe  off  this  reproach  from  their  nation,  and 
have  advanced  many  arguments  to  prove  that  their  ancestors  were  always 
obedient  to  the  see  of  Rome,  and  never  embraced  the  sentiments  either  of 
the  Monophysites  or  of  the  Monothelites.  But  they  cannot  persuade  the 
learned  to  believe  so,  for  these  maintain  that  their  testimonies  are  fictitious 
and  of  no  validity.  (24) 


(22)  The  surname  of  Maro  was  given  to 
this  monk,  because  he  had  lived  in  the  cele- 
brated monastery  of  St.  Maro  on  the  river 
Orontes,  before  he  took  residence  among 
the  Mard-aitcs  on  Mount  Lebanon.     A  par- 
ticular account  is  given  of  him,  by  Jo.  Sim. 
Asscman,  Biblioth.  Oriental.  Clement.  Vat- 
ican., torn,  i.,  p.  496.     [Gabriel  Sionita,  de 
Urbibus  et  moribus  Oriental,  cap.  8,  derives 
the  name  of  Maronites  from  an  abbot  Maron, 
whom  he  extols  for  his  holiness  and  his  vir- 
tues ;  but  he  will  acknowledge  no  heretical 
Maro. — Schl.     Gieselcr,  in  his  Text-book 
of  Eccl.  Hist.,  transl.  by  Cunningliam,  vol. 
i.,  p.  373,  note  5,  thinks  the  history  of  the 
Maronites  has  been  obscured,  by  identifying 
that  people  with  the  Mardaites  ;  and  refers 
us  to  Anquctil  Duperron,  Recherches  sur  les 
migrations  des   Mardes,  ancien   peuple  de 
Perse,  in  the  Memoires  de  1'Acad.  des  In- 
script.,  tome  50,  p.  1,  "showing  that  the 
Mardaites,  or  Mards,  a  warlike  nation  of  Ar- 
menia, were  placed  as  a  garrison  on  Mount 
Libanus  by   Constantine   Pogonatus  A.D. 
676,  (Thcophanes,  p.  295),  but  withdrawn 
A.D.    685   by  Justinian   II.,  (Theoph.,  p. 
302)."—  TV.] 

(23)  [The  passage  of  William  of  Tyre 
is  in  his  Historia  rerum  in  partibus  transma- 
rinis  gestar.,  lib.  xxxii.,  c.  8,  and   is  this: 
"  A  Syrian  nation  in  the  province  of  Pheni- 
cia,  inhabiting  the  cliffs  of  Lebanon  near 
the   city   Biblos,  while  enjoying  temporal 
peace,   experienced   a   great  change  in  its 
state.     For  having  followed  the  errors  of  one 

VOL.  I.— M  :i  M 


Maro  a  heresiarch  for  nearly  500  years,  and 
so  as  to  be  called  after  him  Maronites,  and 
to  be  separated  from  the  church  of  the  faith- 
ful and  maintain  a  separate  worship  ;  through 
divine  influence  returning  now  to  a  sound 
mind,  they  put  on  resolution  and  joined  them- 
selves to  Aimericus  the  patriarch  of  Anti- 
och." — The  Alexandrian  patriarch  Eutychi- 
us,  whose  Annals  Pocock  has  translated  from 
the  Arabic,  likewise  mentions  a  monk  Ma- 
run,  "who  asserted,  that  Christ  our  Lord 
had  two  natures  and  one  will,  one  operation 
and  person,  and  corrupted  the  faith  of  men ; 
and  whose  followers  holding  the  same  sen- 
timents with  him,  were  called  Maronites, 
deriving  their  name  from  his  name  Maro." 
—Schl.] 

(24)  The  cause  of  the  Maronites  has  been 
pleaded  by  Abrah.  Ecchellcnsis,  Gabriel  Sio- 
mta,  and  others  of  the  Maronite  nation  ;  but 
by  none  of  them  more  fully  than  by  Faustus 
Nairon,  both  in  his  Dissertt.  de  origine,  nom- 
ine et  religione  Maronitarum,  Rome,  1679, 
8vo,  and  in  his  Euoplia  fidei  Catholics  ex  Sy- 
rorum  et  Chaldasorum  monumentis,  Rome, 
1694,  8vo.  Yet  Nairon  induced  none  to  be- 
lieve his  positions,  except  Ant.  Pagi,  (in  his 
Critica  Baroniana,  ad  ann.  694),  and  P.  de  la 
I-ttiK/iir,  in  whose  Voyage  de  Syrie  et  de 
Montliban,  tome  ii.,  p.  28-128,  there  is  a 
long  Dissertation  concerning  the  origin  of 
the  Maronites.  Even  Asscman,  who  being 
a  Maronite,  spared  no  pains  to  vindicate  the 
character  of  his  nation,  (Biblioth.  Oriental. 
Vatican.,  torn,  i.,  p.  496),  yet  does  not  deny 


458 


BOOK  II.— CENTURY  VII.— PART  II.— CHAP.  V. 


§  12.  Neither  the  sixth  [general]  council  which  condemned  the  Monoih. 
elites,  nor  the  fifth  which  had  been  held  in  the  preceding  century,  enact- 
ed any  canons  concerning  discipline  and  rites.  Therefore  a  new  assem- 
bly of  bishops  was  held  by  order  of  Justinian  II.,  in  the  year  692  at  Con- 
stantinople, in  a  tower  of  the  palace  which  was  called  Trullus.  This 
council,  from  the  place  of  meeting,  was  called  Concilium  Trullanum ;  and 
from  another  circumstance,  Quinisextum,  because  the  Greeks  considered 
its  decrees  as  necessary  to  the  perfection  of  the  Acts  of  the  fifth  and  sixth 
councils.  We  have  one  hundred  and  two  canons  sanctioned  by  this  as- 
sembly, on  various  subjects  pertaining  to  the  external  part  of  worship,  the 
government  of  the  church,  and  the  conduct  of  Christians.  But  as  six  of 
these  canons  are  opposed  to  the  Romish  opinions  and  customs,  therefore 
the  Roman  pontiffs  have  refused  to  approve  the  council  as  a  whole,  or  to 
rank  it  among  the  general  councils,  although  they  have  deemed  the  great- 
est part  of  its  canons  to  be  excellent.  (25) 


that  much  of  what  has  been  written  by  Nai- 
ron  and  others,  in  behalf  of  the  Maronites, 
is  without  weight  or  authority.  See  Jo. 
Morin,  de  Ordinal,  sacris,  p.  380,  &c.  Rich. 
Simon,  Histoire  Critique  des  Chretiens  Ori- 
entaux,  cap.  xiii.,  p.  146.  Euseb.  Renaudot, 
Historia  Patriarchar.  Alexandrinor.,  p.  149, 
and  Praefat.  ad  Liturgias  Orientales.  Peter 
le  Brun,  Explication  de  la  Messe,  torn,  ii., 
p.  626,  &c.,  Paris,  1726,  8vo.  The  argu- 
ments on  both  sides  are  stated,  and  the  read- 
er is  left  to  form  his  own  judgment,  by  Mich, 
le  Quien,  Christianus  Oriens,  torn,  iii.,  p. 
10,  &c.  [See  also  Walch,  Historic  der 
Ketzereyen,  vol.  ix.,  p.  474-488.— Tr.] 

(25)  See  Franc.  Pagi,  Breviarium  Pon- 
tiff. Roman.,  torn,  i.,  p.  486.  Chr.  Lupus, 
Diss.  de  Concilio  Trullano ;  in  his  Notes 
and  Dissertations  on  Councils,  Opp.,  torn, 
iii.,  p.  168,  &c.  The  Romans  reject  the 
5th  canon,  which  approves  of  the  eighty-five 
Apostolic  Canons,  commonly  attributed  to 
Clement : — the  13th  canon,  which  allows 
priests  to  live  in  wedlock : — the  55th  canon, 
which  condemns  fasting  on  Saturdays,  a  cus- 
tom allowed  of  in  the  Latin  church  : — the 
67th  canon^which  strictly  enjoins  abstinence 
from  blood  and  from  things  strangled  : — the 
82d  canon,  which  prohibits  the  painting  of 
Christ  in  the  image  of  a  lamb  : — and  the 
8Qth  canon,  concerning  the  equality  of  the 


bishops  of  Rome  and  Constantinople.  [The 
eastern  patriarchs  of  Constantinople,  Jerusa- 
lem, Alexandria,  Antioch,  and  Justiniana, 
with  more  than  200  bishops,  attended  this 
council.  The  Roman  pontiff  had  no  proper 
legate  there.  Yet  his  ordinary  representa- 
tives at  the  imperial  court  sat  in  the  council 
and  subscribed  its  decisions  ;  and  Basil  the 
archbishop  of  Crete  says  in  his  subscription, 
that  he  represented  the  patriarch  of  Rome 
and  all  the  bishops  under  him.  The  emperor 
attended  the  council  in  person  and  subscri- 
bed its  decrees.  In  the  original  a  space  was 
left  for  the  subscription  of  the  Roman  pon- 
tiff; but  when  it  was  sent  to  Rome  by  the 
emperor,  and  pope  Sergius  was  called  on  to 
subscribe,  he  showed  such  a  refractory  spirit 
as  nearly  cost  him  his  liberty.  The  reason 
was,  he  found  the  above-mentioned  canons 
to  be  contrary  to  the  principles  and  usages 
of  his  church.  For  the  same  reason,  the 
admirers  of  the  Romish  bishop  to  this  day 
are  not  agreed  whether  the  whole  council, 
or  only  the  canons  which  have  the  misfortune 
to  displease  them,  should  be  rejected,  al- 
though at  an  early  period  pope  Adrian  ap- 
proved of  it.  On  the  other  hand,  this  coun- 
cil was  recognised  by  the  Greeks  as  a  valid 
one,  and  was  classed  among  the  general 
councils.  See  Dr.  Watch's  Historic  der 
Kirchenversammlungen,  p.  441. — Schl.] 


INDEX 


TO    THE    FIRST    VOLUME. 


A. 

Abasgi,  converted  in  sixth  century,  379. 
Abbots,  their  origin  and  office,  266, 328,  n.  (18). 
Abdas,  bp.  of  Suza,  5th  century,  319. 
Abelites,  sect,  in  2d  cent.,  147,  n.  (22-). 
Abgarusj  king  of  Edessa,  1st  cent.,  43,  &c. 
Abraxas,  a  term  used  by  Basilides,  143,  n.  (14). 
Abyssinians  or    Ethiopians,    converted,   4th 

cent.,  226. 
Acaciiis,  bp.  of  Caesarea,4th  cent.,  248,  n.,  301, 

n.  (44). 

,  bp.  of  Berea,  5th  cent.,  334. 

,  bp.  in  Armenia,  5th  cent.,  334. 

,  bp.  of  Constantinople,  5th  cent.,  324,  n. 

(3),  335,  n.,  367,  368,  369. 
Academics,  their  doctrines,  30,  n.  (34),  65. 
Academies  in  Roman  Empire,  2d  cent.,  1 10. 
Acephali,  sect,  in  5th  cent.,  368,  410,  416. 
Acolythi,  an  order  of  clergy,  165. 
Acoemeta,  aicoi/irJTai,  5th  cent.,  351,  n.  (2). 
Ada  Martyrum,  what,  55. 
Acts  of  Uniformity,  5th  cent.,  353. 
Adamites,  sect,  in  2d  cent.,  147. 
Adamnanus,  Irish  monk,  6th  cent.,  436,  444. 
Adrian,  emp.  in  2d  cent.,  97,  104,  106,  138. 

,  a  writer  in  5th  cent.,  340. 

jEdesius,  a  philosopher  in  4th  cent.,  229. 

jiElia  Capitolina,  Jerusalem,  104. 

JElian,  proconsul  of  Africa,  4th  cent.,  284. 

JRneas  Gazeus,  5th  cent.,  335,  n. 

./Eon,  'A.ti>v,  what,  among  Gnostics,  63,  n.  (8), 

94,  95,  143,  144,  145. 
Aerius,  a  Semiarian,  4th  cent.,  273,  &c.,  n. 

(43). 

Aetius,  Arian,  4th  cent.,  248,  n.,  301,  n.  (48). 
Agapetus,  do  aeon  at  Constantinople,  6th  cent., 

395,  n.  (23),  408. 

,  bp.  of  Rome,  6th  cent.,  405. 

Agathias,  historian,  Cth  cent.,  383,  n.  (3). 
Agatho,  bp.  of  Rome,  7th  cent.,  444,  455. 
Agnoeta,  sect,  in  6th  cent.,  419,  n.  (20). 
Agrippa  Castor,  writer  in  2d  cent.,  123. 
Aidan,  bp.  in  England,  7th  £ent.,  423,  n. 
Alans,  converted  in  6th  cent.,  379. 
Aldhrlm,  Eng.  bp.,  7th  cent.,  442,  n.  (26),  447. 
Alexander,  bp.  of  Jerusalem,  3d  cent.,  175. 

Severus,  emp.,  3d  cent,  154,  156,  160. 

,bp.  of  Alexandria,  4th  cent.,  247,  n.  (30), 

287,  &c. ;  his  epistle,  288,  n.  (16). 

,  bp.  of  Hierapolis,  5th  cent.,  334. 

• of  Ly copolis,  a  philosopher,  4th  cent.,  383, 

n.  (5). 

Alexandria,  patriarchate  of,  233,  &c.,  n.  (2). 
All  Saints,  feast  7th  cent.,  449,  n.  (3). 
Ambrose,  bp.  of  Milan,  4th  cent.,  250,  n.  (33), 

263,  264. 


Ammianus  Marcellinus,  4th  cent.,  224,  n.  (50). 
Ammonius    Saccas,  a  philosopher,  2d  cent., 

Ill,  &c.,n.  (11). 

,  a  Christian  writer,  3d  cent.,  174,  n.,  182. 

Amphilochius  of  Iconiurn,  4th  cent.,  245,  n. 

(26). 

Amrou,  Saracen  conqueror  of  Egypt,  451. 
Anastasia,  a  martyr  in  4th  cent.,  256. 
Anastasius,  a  presbyter  of  Constantinople,  5th 

cent.,  357. 
Sinaita ;  three  of  this  name,  396,  n.  (28), 

407. 

,  emperor,  6th  cent.,  416. 

Apocrisiarius,  7th  cent.,  444. 

,  Monophysite  patriarch  of  Antioch,  451. 

Anatolivs,  bp.  of  Laodicea,  3d  cent.,  176. 
Andreas,  bp.  of  Samosata,  5th  cent.,  334. 

,  bp.  in  Cappadocia,  5th  cent.,  335,  n. 

,  bp.  of  Crete,  7th  cent.,  440,  n.  (19). 

Andrew,  the  apostle,  48,  n. 

Anchorites  or  Anachorites,  267,  n.  (30),  (31). 

Anglo-Saxons,  converted,  6th  cent.,  380,  n.  (6), 

and  7th  cent,  422,  &c.,  n.  (5). 
Annunciation,  feast,  6th  cent.,  414,  n.  (8). 
Anomceans,  sect,  in  the  4th  cent.,  301. 
Antidico-Marianites,  sect,  4th  cent.,  311. 
Antioch,  patriarchate  of,  233,  &c.,  n.  (2). 
Antiochus,  monk  of  Saba,  7th  cent.,  440,  n. 

(17),  446. 

Antonines,  emperors,  their  character,  97. 
Antoninus,  Marcus,  emp.,  97,  107,  110. 
— -  Pius,  emp.,  2d  cent.,  97,  106. 
Antony,  monk,  Egypt,  4th  cent.,  247,  n.,  265. 
Aphonius,  writer  in  the  7th  cent.,  444. 
Apocrypha  of  the  N.  Test.,  73,  n.  (23). 
Apollinaris,  bp.  of  Hierapolis,  2d  cent.,  124. 
of  Antioch,  senior  and  junior,  4th  cent., 

247,  n.  (29),  263,  302,  n.  (52). 
Apollinarian  heresy,  4th  cent.,  302,  n.  (52). 
Apollonius  Tyaneus,  1st  cent.,  160,  n.  (16). 

,  a  Gr.  writer,  2d  cent.,  124. 

Apologies  of  Christians,  102,  106,  107,  127. 

of  Justin  Martyr,  118,  n.  (4). 

Apostles,  43,  n.  (4),  45-48,  66,  72. 

Apostles'  Creed,  79,  n.  (2),  125. 

Apostolic  Canons  and  Constitutions,  75,  184, 

n.(13),(14). 

Fathers.  76-79. 

Appion,  Gr.  writer,  2d  cent.,  124, 174,  n. 
Arabians,  converted,  in  2d  cent.,  98,  99 ;  in  3d 

cent.,  155,  201 ;  in  5th,  314. 
Arabianus,  writer  of  2d  cent.,  124,  126. 
Arator,  a  poet  of  6th  cent.,  401,  n.  (37). 
Archbishops,  117.  163,  232,  233,  &C.,  n.  (2). 
Archdeacons,  Archpresbyters,  origin  of,  237. 
Archelavs,  son  of  Herod,  33. 


460 


INDEX. 


Archelaus,  bp.  of  Carrha,  3d  cent.,  176, 193,  n. 

Arethas,  abp.  in  Cappadocia,  6th  cent,  398. 

Arians,  origin  of,  in  4th  cent.,  287,  &c.     Sects 

of,  300,  &c. — retire  among  the  Goths,  in  5th 

cent.,  299,  &c.,  354,  &c.     State  of,  in  6th 

cent.,  415,  &c.,  384,  &c. ;  in  7th  cent.,  450. 

Arius,  287,  &c.,  301,.  n.  (46);  his  letter,  288, 

n.  (16) ;  his  death,  297,  n.  (31). 
Aristides,  apologist,  2d  cent.,  106,  123. 
Aristotelian  philosophy,  31 ;  in  2d  cent.,  110; 
in  3d  cent.,  161 ;  in  4th,  229 ;  in  5th,  321, 
322  ;  in  6th,  387;  in  7th,  436,  450. 
Aristotle,  his  opinion  of  God  and  the  soul,  31. 
Armagh,  see  of,  erected  in  5th  cent.,  316. 
Armenians,  converted  in  4th  cent.,  225. 
Arnobius,  senior,  3d  cent.,  173,  &c.,  n.  (17). 
183. 

,  junior,  5th  cent.,  338,  n.  (45). 

Artemon,  heretic,  2d  cent.,  150,  n.  (27). 
Arts,  the  seven  Liberal,  what,  321,  n.  (4). 
Ascension,  feast,  when  instituted,  449,  n.  (3). 
Ascetics,  129,  265,  266,  n.  (28). 
Ascusnage,  John,  7th  cent.,  tritheist,  419,  n. 

(21). 
Asterius  of  Cappadocia,  4th  cent.,  247,  n. 

of  Pontus,  in  5th  cent.,  333. 

Asylum,  right  of,  in  churches,  7th  cent.,  449, 

n.  (4). 

Athanaric,  Gothic  k.,  4th  cent,  persecutor,  228. 
Athanasius,  bp.  of  Alexandria,  4th  cent.,  239, 
n.  (14),  262,  263,  265,  n.  (26),  296,  &c. 

,  junior,  or  Celetes,  5th  cent.,  335,  n. 

,  bp.  of  Antioch,  7th  cent.,  452. 

Athanasian  Creed,  spurious,  240,  n.  (14). 
Athenagoras,  apologist,  2d  cent.,  107,  111,  120, 

n.  (6). 

Atticus,  bp.  of  Constantinople,  5th  cent.,  333. 
Audceus,  4th  cent.,  reformer,  309,  n.  (67). 
Audentius,  writer  of  4th  cent,  263. 
Audcenus,  or  Dado,  abp.  of  Rouen,  7th  cent, 

436,  443. 

Augustine,  bp.  of  Hippo,  4th  cent,  252,  n.  (35), 
261,  263,  282,  286,  318,  352,  354,  n.  (9),  372, 
373,  374,  377. 

,  monk,  apostle  of  Britain,  5th  cent.,  380, 

n.  (6),  422,  n.  (5). 
Augvstulus,  emp.,  5th  cent,  312. 
Augustus,  emp.,  1st  cent,  23,  65. 
Avitus,  bp.  of  Clermont,  5th  cent,  341,  381,  n. 

(11). 

Aurelian,  emp.,  3d  cent,  159. 
Aurelius,  bp.  of  Carthage,  4th  cent,  258. 
Ausonius,  a  poet,  4th  cent,  229,  n.  (1). 
Autharis,  king  of  Lombards,  6th  cent,  384. 
'Auro«0oAos,  independent  bp.,  233,  n.,  324,  n. 

(9). 
Aujcumitae,  Ethiopians,  converted,  226. 

B. 

Babacus,  Nestorian  abp.  of  Seluecia,  5th  cent, 

363,  n.  (26). 
Baptism,  in  1st  cent,  84,  87 ;  in  2d,  134, 137, 

n.  (17)  ;  in  3d,  189 ;  in  4th,  281 ;  in  6th,  413, 

&c. 

Baptism  of  heretics,  186,  203,  286. 
Baptismal  fonts,  in  4th  cent,  281. 
Barad&us,  Jacobus,  6th  cent,  369,  417,  &c.,  n. 

(12). 
Bar-Cochebas,  Jewish  impostor,  2d  cent,  104, 

106. 
Bardesann,  heretic,  2d  cent.,  124,  142. 


Barnabas,  St.,  1st  cent.,  49,  n.  (9),  77. 
Barsabas,  1st  cent,  46. 
Barsanuphius,  of  Gaza,  6th  cent,  398. 
Barsumas,  bp.  Nisibis,  5th  cent,  362,  &c. 

,  Eutychian  monk,  5th  cent,  367. 

Bartholomew,  St.,  preached  in  Arabia,  48,  n.. 

99. 
Basil  the  Great  of  Cappadocia,  4th  cent,  240, 

n.  (15),  264. 

of  Ancyra,  4th  cent.,  248,  n.,  301,  n.  (47). 

of  Cilicia,  5th  cent,  335,  n. 

of  Seleucia,  5th  cent.,  332,  n.  (28),  345. 

of  Thessalonica,  7th  cent,  441,  n. 

Basilides,  2d  cent,  his  heresy,  143,  144. 
Believers  and  Catechumens,  69. 
Bellator, writer,  in  6th  cent,  407,  n.  (7),  409. 
Benedict,  St.,  of  Nursia,  6th  cent,  392,  n.  (15), 

400. 

,  bp.  of  Rome,  7th  cent,  444. 

Benedictine  monks,  392,  &c.   Their  rule,  393,  n. 
Berinus,  bp.  of  Dorchester,  Eng.,  7th  cent. 

423,  n. 

Bertha,,  patroness  of  Augustine,  7th  cent,  330. 
Beryllus  of  Bostra,  3d  cent,  199,  &c. 
Bishops,  origin  and  history  of,  in  1st  cent,  69, 

71,  &c. ;  in  2d  cent,  116,  &c.,  136;  in  3d, 

163-165 ;  in  4th,  231,  232,  &c.,  237 ;  in  5th, 

323,  327 ;  in  6th,  385,  386,  390  ;  in  7th,  435, 

438,  &c. 

in  Great  Britain,  324,  n.  (9),  424,  n.  (5). 

Bobio,  monastery,  established,  6th  cent,  392, 

n.  (14). 

Bobolenus,  monk  and  writer,  7th  cent,  444. 
Boethius,  a  Christian  philosopher,  6th  cent., 

387,  403,  n.  (45),  436. 
Boniface  I.,  bp.  of  Rome,  5th  cent,  339,  n. 

II., ,  6th  cent,  404. 

III., ,  7th  cent,  436,  &C., 

,  7th  cent.,  443. 

,  7th  cent,  443,  449. 

Bonosus,  heretic,  4th  cent,  311,  n.  (69). 
Braulio,  bp.  of  Saragossa,  7th  cent,  436, 443,  n. 
Britons,  state  of,  in  the  two  first  centuries,  65, 
99,  n.  (8) ;  in  3d  cent,  156 ;  in  5th,  318,  &c. ; 
in  6th,  380,  384 ;  in  7th,  422,  n.  (5),  437. 
Bulgaranus,  count,  7th  cent.,  443. 
Burgundians,  converted,  5th  cent.,  314. 

C. 

Cceciliav,  bp.  Carthage,  4th  cent.  282,  &c. 

Casarius  of  Constantinople,  4th  cent,  249,  n. 

of  Aries,  6th  cent,  377,  n.,  400,  n.  (30). 

Cajanus,  Gajanus,  or  Gainus,  bp.  of  Alexan- 
dria, in  6th  cent,  418,  n.  (16). 

Cainites,  sect.,  in  2d  cent,  147. 

Caius,  presbyter,  Rome,  3d  cent,  174,  n.  (18). 

Calumnies  against  the  Christians,  54, 102,  106, 
107,  108,  209. 

Candidus,  Gr.  writer,  2d  cent,  124,  174,  n. 

,  Arian  writer,  4th  cent.,  257. 

•,  historian,  5th  cent,  335,  n. 

Candlemas,  feast,  6th  cent,  414,  n.  (7). 

Canon  of  the  N.  Test,  when  settled,  72,  73. 

of  the  mass,  what,  4)3,  n.  (1). 

Canons  of  the  Apostles  ;  see  Apostolic  Canons. 

of  Nice,  236,  n.  (7),  293,  &c.,  n.  (26). 

of  Sardica,  236,  n.  (9). 
of  Chalcedon,  323. 

Capreolus,  bp.  of  Carthage,  5th  cent.,  340. 

Caracalla,  emperor,  3d  cent,  153. 


INDEX. 


461 


Carpocrates,  a  Gnostic,  2d  cent.,  145. 
Cassianus,  John,  5ih  cent.,  336,  n.  (34),  375,  n. 

(54). 
Cassiodorus  Senator,  6th  cent.,  386, 403,  n.  (46), 

436,  407. 

Castor,  Agrippa,  2d  cent.,  123. 
Catechumens,  69,  80,  281. 
Catena  Patrum,  what,  407. 
Cathari,  in  3d  cent.,  203. 
Celibacy  of  clergy,  in  3d  cent.,  166 ;  in  4th, 

259,  295. 
Celsus,  opposed  Christianity,  3d  cent,  108, 

183. 

Celts,  their  state  in  1st  cent.,  65. 
Cent.  I.,  external  Hist.,  23  ;  internal,  59. 


II., 
III., 
IV., 

•  V., 
VI., 
VII.. 


97; 
153; 
207; 
312; 
379; 
421; 


109. 

—  161. 

—  229. 

320. 

385. 

—  435. 


Ceolfrid,  English  monk,  7th  cent.,  444. 

Cerdo,  heretic,  2d  cent.,  141. 

Ceremonies  and  Rites,  history  of,  in  1st  cent., 

83,  84-88 ;  in  2d  cent.,  132-137 ;  in  3d,  188- 

190  ;  in  4th,  276-281 ;  in  5th,  350,  &c. ;  in 

6th,  413,  &c. ;  in  7th,  448,  &c. 
Cenrinthus,  heretic,  1st  cent.,  95,  96. 
Chains,  Catenae  Patrum,  407. 
Chalcedon,  councils  of,  5th  cent.,  349,  3f>fi. 
Chalddiws,  philosopher,  in  5th  cent.,  225,  n. 

(51),  383,  n.  (4). 

Chaldaic  Christians,  Nestorians,  363,  n.  (26). 
Chapters,  the  three,  what,  410,  &c.,  n.  (14). 
Chiliasts,  Millennarians,  185,  &c.,  n.  (19). 
China,  enlightened  by  Nestorians,  7th  cent., 

421. 

Chorepiscopi,  71,  72,  232. 
Chosroes,  king  of  Persia,  6th  cent.,  385,  388. 
Christ,  the   history  of,  41,  &c. ;    revered  by 

pagans,  43,   49 ;   compared   with   philoso- 
phers,  160,   223 ;  disputes   respecting    his 

body  in  6th  cent.,  418,  &c. 
Christian  Era,  41,  n.  (1).— Called  the  Diony- 

sian  era,  401,  n.  (34). 
Christianity,  its  nature,  78,  &c. — Causes  of 

its  rapid  progress  in  1st  cent.,  49,  50 ;  in  2d, 

101  ;  in  3d,  154,  &c. ;  in  4th,  217,  &c.,  225, 

227 ;  in  5th,  315,  317,  381,  382 ;  in  7th,  422, 

426. 
,  History  of  its  progress  in  1st  cent.,  45, 

47,  n.  (9);  in  2d,  98-100;  in  3d,  155,  156; 

in  4th,  225,  &c. ;  in  5th,  313,  &c. ;  in  6th, 

379,  &c. ;  in  7th,  421,  &c. 
Christians,  character  of,  in  1st  cent.,  46,  82,91 ; 

in  2d  cent.,  128,  &c. ;  in  3d,  179 ;  in  4th, 

259,  &c.,  268 ;  in  5th,  348,  &c. ;  in  6th,  407, 

&c. ;  in  7th,  445,  446,  &C. 
Christmas,  origin  of,  4th  cent.,  279,  &c.,  n.  (12). 
Chrobates  or  Creations  converted,  7th  cent., 

422,  n.  (2). 

Chromatius,  bp.  of  Aquileia,  5th  cent.,  339,  n. 
Chronicon  Alexandrinum,  441.  n. 
Chrysostom,  John,  of  Constantinople,  241,  n. 

(17),  263,  349,  &c. 
Church,  its  organization  and  government  in 

1st  cent.,  46,  67,  68.  n.  (6) ;  in  2d,  116,  &c. ; 

in  3d,  163,  164 ;  in  4th,  231,  &c. ;  in  5th, 

323,  &c. ;  in  6th,  388,  &c. ;  in  7th,  436,  &c. 
Churches  (buildings),  history  of,  86,  134,  188, 

277,  n.f3),  351,414  449. 


Cimbriatif,  heard  the  gospel  in  7th  cent.,  425. 
Circumcelliones,   sect  of,  4th  cent.,  284,  &c 

286,  353,  &c. 

Claudius,  emperor,  3d  cent.,  159. 
Clemens  Romanus,  1st  cent.,  74,  75. 
Alexandrinus,  2d  cent.,  Ill,  121,  n.  (8). 

126,  128. 

Clementina,  Spurious,  75,  76,  184,  n.  (16). 
Clergy,  character  and  state  of,  in  1st  cent.,  68, 

&c. ;  in  9d.  117, 118;  in  3d,  165, 166;  in  4th, 

231,  237  ;  in  5th,  327,  &c. ;  in  6th,  390,  n. 

(9),  (10);  in  7th,  438,  n.  (9). 
Clovis,  king  of  Salii,  converted,  5th  cent.,  315. 
Ccelestine,  bp.  of  Rome,  5lh  cent.,  316,  340, 

358,  n.  (18),  376,  n.  (55). 
Ccelestius,  the  Pelagian,  5th  cent.,  370,  &c.,  n. 

(46). 

Coenobites,  what,  266. 
Cogitosus,  an  Irish  monk.  6th  cent.,  404. 
Collyridians,  sect,  in  4th  cent,  311,  n.  (69). 
Columbas,  monk  of  Hii,  6th  cent,  381,  n.  (7). 
Columbanus,  an  Irish  monk  and  missionary  in 

6th  cent,  392,  n.  (14),  402,  424,  438,  n.  (7). 
Commentators,  the  principal  in  2d  cent,  126 ; 

in  3d  cent,  180,  &c. ;  in  4th,  261,  &c. ;  in 

5th,  343,  &c. ;  in  6th,  406,  <kc. ;  in  7th,  445, 

&c. 

Commodianus,  a  poet,  3d  cent,  175,  &c. 
Commodus,  emperor,  2d  cent,  97,  108. 
Community  of  goods,  in  prim,  church,  46,  70. 
Concubinage  of  the  clergy  in  3d  cent,  166,  n. 

(8). 
Confessions,  private  to  priests,  5th  cent,  351, 

n.  (5). 

Confessors,  who,  54. 
Confirmation,  rite  of,  87,  189. 
Congal,  Irish  monk,  6th  cent,  392,  n.  (13). 
Conon  of  Tarsus,  his  sect,  6th  cent,  420,441,  n. 
Consecration  of  churches,  4th  cent,  277. 
Consociation  of  churches,  72;  in  2d  cent.,  116 

n.  (2);  in  3d,  163. 

Constans  I.,  emperor,  4th  cent,  218,  298. 
II.,  emperor,  7th  cent,  454,  455. 


Constantine  I.  or  the  Great,  210  ;  gives  liberty 
to  Christians,  211,  n.  (16),  212,  (19);  his 
conversion,  213;  abolishes  Paganism,  213; 
sees  a  luminous  cross,  213, 215,  &C.,  n.  (29) ; 
his  regulations  for  the  church,  217,  n.  (34), 
231-234,  278,  283,  &c. ;  his  writings,  247, 
n  ;  his  letter  to  Arius  and  Alexander,  290, 
&c.,n.  (21). 

Constantine  II.,  emperor,  4th  cent,  218,  298. 

I V.,  Pogonatus,  7th  cent.,  437, 455. 

Constantinople,  patriarchate  of,  233,  n.,  236,  &c  : 
the  patriarchs'  contest  with  Roman  Pontiff 
in  4th  cent,  237 ;  in  5th  cent,  323,  325,  &c. ; 
in  6th,  388,  &c. ;  in  7th,  436,  &c. 

Constantinopolitan  councils,  general,  A.D.  381, 
p.  306;  A.D.  553,  p.  409,  411  ;  A.D.  680,  p. 
455  ;  A.D.  692  or  in  Trullo.  p.' 458. 

Constantaa,  Chlorus,  207,  209,  n.  (10),  210, 
211. 

I.,  emperor,  4th  cent,  218,  298. 

Constitutions  of  Apostles  :  see  Apostolic  Can- 
ons. 

Controversies  among  Christians  ;  in  1st  cent, 
83  ;  in  2d  cent,  127 ;  in  3d,  158,  185,  &c. ; 
in  4th,  268,  &c. ;  in  5th,  349,  &c. ;  in  6th, 
409  ;  in  7th,  448. 

Copiote,  what  their  office,  165. 

Corndiut,  bp.  of  Rome,  3d  cent,  175,  202,  n. 


462 


INDEX. 


Corrupticol<e,  sect,  in  6th  cent.,  419. 
Cosmos,  Indicopleustes,  6th  cent.,  388,  n.  (16). 
Councils,  none  in  1st.  cent.,  72,  n.  (17);  ori- 
ginated in  the  2d  cent.,  72, 116,  117 ;  at  first 

provincial,  116,  n.  (2). 

,  general  or  oecumenical,  231. 

,  the  first,  A.D.  325,  at  Nice,  291-295. 

,  the  second,  A.D.  381,  at  Constantinople, 

306,  &.c. 
,  the  third,  A.D.  431,  at  Ephesus,  358,  n. 

(19). 
,  the  fourth,  A.D.  451,  at  Chalcedon,  366, 

n.(31). 
,  the  fifth,  A.D.  553,  at  Constantinople, 

411. 
,  the  sixth,  A.D.  680,  at  Constantinople, 

455,  n.  (18). 
,  the  seventh,  A.D.  691,  in  Trullo,  448,  n. 

(1),  458,  n.  (25). 

Creaticolae,  a  sect,  in  6th  cent.,  419. 
Creed,  Apostles',  81,  &c.,  n.  (2). 

,  Nicene,  291,  &c.,  n.  (22). 

Crescens,  opposed  Christianity,  2d  cent.,  109. 
Cresconius,  bp.  in  Africa,  7th  cent.,  442,  n.  (28). 
Crosier,  the  lituus  of  augurs,  277,  n.  (2). 
Cross,  sign  of,  190,  &c.,  n.  (20),  259,  n.  (1). 
Cyclus  Paschalis  of  Dionysius  Exiguus,  401 , 

n.  (34). 

Cummianus,  Irish  monk,  7th  cent.,  443. 
Cummeneus  Albus,  Irish  monk,  7th  cent.,  444. 
Cypriam,  bp.  of  Carthage,  3d  cent.,  158,  159, 

163,  n.  (I),  164.  n.  (3),  (4),  172,  n.  (15),  182, 

183,  186,  202,  n. 

,  Gallic  monk,  6th  cent.,  405. 

Cyril,  bp.  of  Jerusalem,  4th  cent.,  241,  n.  (16). 

262. 
,  bp.  of  Alexandria,  5th  cent.,  329,  n.  (21). 

343,  357,  &c. 

,  monk  of  Palestine.  6th  cent.,  398,  408. 

Cyrus,  bp.  of  Alexandria,  7th  cent.,  441,  n., 

452. 

D. 

Dado  or  Audoenus  of  Rouen,  7th  cent.,  436, 

443. 

Damascius,  a  philosopher,  6th  cent.,  383,  n.  (6). 
Damasus,  I.  bp.  of  Rome,  4th  cent.,  235,  255, 

n.  (40). 

Damianus  and  Damianists,  6th  cent.,  420. 
Deaconesses,  their  office,  70. 
Deacons,  in  1st  cent.,  46,  68,  69,  70;  in  2d 

cent,  116, 117;  in  3d  cent.,  165;  in  4th  cent., 

237;  in  5th,  327. 
Dechis,  emperor,  3d  cent.,  persecutor,  157,  &c. 
Deities,  the  pagan,  24-27. 
Demos,  mentioned  by  Paul,  88,  n.  (3). 
Demetrius,  bp.  of  Alexandria,  3d  cent.,  187. 
Demiurge  of  oriental  philos.,  64,  95,  141,  146. 
Demoniaa:  in  the  4th  cent.,  263. 
Desiderius,  bp.  of  Vienne,  6th  cent.,  386,  n.  (4). 

,  bp.  of  Cahors,  7th  cent.,  442,  n.  (23). 

Diadochus,  bishop  in  Illyricum,  5th  cent.,  335, 

346. 
Didymus  of  Alexandria,  4th  cent.,  245,  n.  (25), 

263. 

Diocetes,  episcopal,  origin  of,  71 . 
Diocletian,  emperor,  4th  cent.,  persecutor,  207- 

209. 
Diodorus  or  Theodoras,  bp.  of  Tarsus,  4th  cent. 

245,  n.  (22),  261,  263. 
Dion  Cattius,  historian,  3d  cent.,  101. 


Dionysius,  bp.  of  Corinth,  2d  cent.,  124. 
Dionysius  or  Denys,  bp.  of  Paris,  3d  cent.,  156. 
—  the  Great,  bp.  of  Alexandria,  3d  cent., 
170,  n.  (13),  183,186,  199,  n. 
— ,  bp.  of  Rome,  3d  cent.,  175. 

Areopagita,  184,  n.  (17),  264,  n.  (22). 

Exiguus,  6th  cent.,  40),  n.  (34),  408. 

Dioscorus,  bp.  of  Alexandria,  5th  cent.,  365, 

366. 

Jiotrephes,  1st  cent.,  88,  n.  (3). 
disciples,  the  70,  of  Christ,  43,  n.  (5),  66,  67. 
"Divinity :  see  Theology. 
Jocelai,  Gnostic  sect,  described,  141,  t)  7. 

,  sect  in  6th  cent.,  418. 

Doctrine,  secret,  of  early  Christians,  81,  82. 

,  two-fold,  or  two-fold  rule  of  life,  128, 

&c.,  264,  &c.,  408. 
Domitian,  emperor,  1st  cent.,  persecutor,  53, 

58,  &c. 

Domitilla,  Flavia,  1st  cent.,  martyr,  59. 
Donatists,  sect  of,  its  history,  in  4th  cent. ,282- 

286 ;  in  5th,  352-354 ;  in  6th,  415. 
Donatus,  a  Donatist  bp.,  4th  cent.,  256,  283,  n. 

(3),  285. 
Dorotheus,  pseudo,  4th  cent.,  247,  n.  (30). 

,  bp.  of  Martianople,  5th  cent.,  334, 357,  n. 

(18). 

,  abbot,  7th  cent.,  440,  n.  (16),  446. 

Dositheus,  heretic,  1st  cent.,  92,  n.  (7). 
Dracontius,  poet,  5th  cent.,  339,  n.  (46). 
Druids,  65,  327,  n.  (14). 
Ducenarius,  what,  200,  n.  (14). 
Dynamius,  a  writer  of  6th.cent.,  406,  n. 

E. 

Eadbald,  king  of  Kent,  7th  cent.,  423,  n. 
East  Anglia  converted,  7th  cent.,  423,  n. 
East  Saxons  converted,  7th  cent.,  423,  n. 
Easter,  disputes  about  it,  in  2d  cent.,  135, 

&c.  ;  4th  cent.,  294 ;  7th  cent.,  423,  n.,  448. 
Ebionites,  sect,  2d  cent.,  96,  139. 
Eclectic  philosophy,  32,  110,  &c.,  224. 
Ecthesis  of  Heraclius,  7th  cent.,  453,  &c. 
Economical  method  of  disputing,  155,  n.  (5), 

183,  n.  (11). 
Edwin,  king  of  Northumberland,  7th  cent.,  423, 

n. 

Elcesaites,  sect.,  2d  cent.,  140. 
Eligius  or  Eloi,  bp.,  7th  cent,,  435,  442,  n.  (24), 

445,  n.  (2). 
Elpidius,  Rusticus,  of  5th  cent.,  341. 
Elxai,  heretic,  2d  cent.,  140. 
Empire,  Roman,  state  of,  at  Christ's  birth,  23, 

&c. ;    favourable    to    the    propagation    of 

Christianity,  24 ;  its  civil  and  ecclesiastical 

divisions  and  provinces  in  4th  cent.,  232,  n. 

(2). 

Encratites,  sect,  2d  cent.,  143  ;  4th  cent.,  282. 
England,  when  first  converted,  99,  &c.,n.  (8). 
Ennodius,  bp.  of  Pavia,  6th  cent.,  389,  391, 

400,  n.  (32),  408. 
Ephesine  general  council,  A.D.  431.  p.  358,  n. 

(19). 

council  of  robbers,  A.D.  449,  p.  365. 

Ephraim,  Syrus,  4th  cent.,  244,  n.  (20),  263. 

,  patriarch  of  Antioch,  6th  cent.,  398. 

Epictetus,  Stoic  philosopher,  2d  cent.,  110. 

Epicureans,  30,  n.  (33),  65,  110. 

Epiphanius,  bp.  in  Cyprus,  4th  cent.,  242,  n. 

(18),  262,  263,  275,  349. 
,  bp.  of  Constantinople,  6th  cent.,  397. 


INKEX. 


463 


s  Scholasticus,  eccl.  hist.,  6th  cent., 

404,  p.. 

Epiphany,  day  of,  fixed,  in  4th  cent.,  279. 
Episcopacy :  see  Bishops. 
Eremites  or  Hermits,  in  3d  cent.,  179 ;  in  4th, 

266,  &c.,  328,  n.  (18) ;  in  5th,  346. 
Extents,  Jewish  sect,  36,  37. 
Ethelbert,  king  of  Kent,  6th  cent.,  379,  &c. 
Ethiopians  converted,  4th  cent.,  226. 
Ei-agrius,  archdeacon  of  Constantinople,  4th 

cent.,  249,  n. 

,  a  Gallic  presbyter,  6th  cent.,  345,  n.  (13). 

Scholasticus,  eccL  historian,  6th  cent., 

396,  n.  (27). 

Evangelists,  who  so  called.  66,  67. 
Eucherius,  op.  of  Lyons,  5th  cent.,  333,  336,  n. 

(36),  346. 

Euchites  or  Messalians,  4th  cent.,  310,  &c. 
Eudocia,  empress  and  writer,  5th  cent.,  333. 
Eudoxia,  empress,  opposed  Chrysostom,  349. 
Eudoxius,  bp.  of  Constantinople,  4th  cent., 

248,  n. 

Eugenius,  abp.  of  Toledo,  7th  cent,  443. 
Eugyppius,  monk  of  Italy,  6th  cent.,  404,  408. 

,  monk  of  Africa,  6th  cent.,  405. 

Eulogius,  presbyter  of  Antioch,  6th  cent.,  395, 

&c.,  n.  (24). 

Eunapius,  pagan  philosopher.  4th  cent.,  224. 
Eunomius  and  Ewiomians,  4th  cent.,  248,  301, 

&c.,n.  (50). 

Evodius,  bp.  in  Africa,  5th  cent.,  339,  n. 
Eusebians,  a  party  in  4th  cent.,  300. 
Eusebius  Pamphili,  bp.  of  Caesarea,  4th  cent., 

237,  &c.,  n.  (12),'263,  275,  300,  n.  (43). 
,  bp.  of  Nicotnedia,  Arian,  4th  cent.,  247, 

n.,  290,  296,  300,  n.  (43). 

,  bp.  of  Emessa,  4th  cent.,  248,  n.,  263. 

of  Vercelli,  4th  cent.,  257, 271,  &c.,  n.(40). 

of  Doryleum,  5th  cent.,  335,  n.,  365. 

of  Thessalonica,  7th  cent.,  441,  n. 

Eustathians,  sect  in  4th  cent.,  270,  &c.,  n.  (39). 
Eustathius  of  Antioch,  4th  cent.,  245,  n.  (24). 

of  Armenia,  4th  cent.,  270,  &c.,  n.  (39). 

of  Sebaste,  4th  cent.,  271,  n.  (43). 

of  Syria,  5th  cent.,  335,  n. 

,  Latin  writer,  5th  cent.,  340. 

Eustratius  of  Constantinople,  6th  cent.,  398. 
Euthalius,  deacon  in  Egypt,  5th  cent.,  335,  n. 
Eutherius,  abp.  of  Tyanea,  5th  cent.,  334. 
Eutropius,  bp.  of  Valencia,  6th  cent.,  406,  n. 
Eutyches,  heretic,  5th  cent.,  335,  n.,  364,  &c. 
Eutychians,  sect,  5th  cent.,  364,  &c. 
Eiitychius,  bp.  of  Constantinople,  6th  cent.,  398. 
Euzoius,  Arian,  bp.  of  Antioch,  4th  cent.,  272,  n. 
Ewald,  two  English  missionaries,  7th  cent., 

425,  n.  (10). 

Exarchs,  ecclesiastical,  232. 
Excommunication,  in  1st  and  2d  cent.,  82,  131 ; 

in  3d,  158,  203  ;  in  4th,  291 ;  in  5th,  327,  n. 

(14). 
Exorcism  before  baptism,  3d  cent.,  189,  &c.,  n. 

(13). 

Exorcists,  in  3d  cent.,  165,  189,  &c.,  n.  (13). 
Exposition  of  Scriptures :  see  Theology,  exe- 

getic. 
Exucontians,  Arians,  4th  cent.,  301,  &c.,  n.  (49). 

F. 

Facundus,  African  bp.,  6th  cent.,  401,  n.  (36). 
Fastidius,  Priscus,  Bnton,  5th  cent.,  339,  n., 
346. 


Fasting,  in  1st  cent.,  87,  &c. ;  in  2d,  151 :  in 

3d,  190 ;  in  4th,  280 ;  in  5th,  351. 
Fathers,  Apostolic,  76-78. 
Faustinus,  a  Luciferian,  4th  cent.,  258. 
Faustus,  a  Manichaean,  4th  cent..  258. 

,  bp.  of  Riez,  5th  cent.,  341,  376,  n.  (55). 

,  disciple  of  St.  Benedict,  443. 

Felicitas,  a  martyr,  3d  cent.,  156,  157. 
Felix,  bp.  of  Aptunga,  4th  cent.,  283,  &c. 
I.,  bp.  of  Rome,  5th  cent.,  341. 

-  III.,  bp.  of  Rome,  5th  cent.,  367,  369. 

IV.,  bp.  of  Rome,  6th  cent.,  404. 

,  bp.  of  Dunwich,  England,  7th  cent.,  423, 

n. 
Festivals,  in  1st  cent.,  85  ;  in  2d,  135,  136;  in 

4th,  278,  &.C.,  n.  (12) ;  in  6th,  414  ;  in  7th, 

449. 

Firmillian  of  Cappadocia,  3d  cent.,  175. 
Flavia  Domitilla,  a  martyr,  1st  cent.,  59. 
Flavianus,  bp.  of  Antioch,  4th  cent.,  249,  n. 
,  bp.  of  Constantinople,  5th  cent.,  335,  n., 

365. 

Flavins  Clemens,  a  martyr,  1st  cent.,  59. 
Florinians,  sect,  2d  cent.,  148. 
Florus,  Paul  Cyrus,  a  poet,  6th  cent.,  398. 
Fortunatianus,  bp.  of  Aquileia,  4th  cent.,  256. 
Fortunatus,  bp.  of  Poictiers,  6th  cent.,  402,  n. 

(40). 

Fosteland,  island  of,  425,  n.  (10). 
Franks  in  Gaul,  converted,  5th  cent.,  315. 
Franconians  converted,  7th  cent.,  425,  n.  (9). 
Frauds,  pious,  in  1st  cent,  73,  74;  in  2d,  130, 

&c.,  155  ;  in  3d,  184  ;  in  4th,  260,  267,  &c. ; 

in  5th,  346. 
Fredrgarius,  a  French  historian,  7th  cent.,  442, 

&c.,  n.  (29). 

Frieslanders  converted,  7th  cent.,  425. 
Fronto assails  Christians,  2d  cent.,  108, n.  (20). 
Fructuosus,  abp.  of  Braga,  7th  cent.,  439,  444. 
Frumentius  converts  the  Abyssinians,  4th  cent., 

225,  &c. 
Fulgentius  of  Ruspe,  Africa,  6th  cent.,  400,  n. 

(31),  408. 

Ferrandus,  6th  cent,  401,  n.  (35). 

Ftdlo,  Peter,  5th  cent.,  367,  &c. 

G. 

Gajanus,  or  Gainus,  or  Cajanus,  bp.  of  Anti- 
och, in  6th  cent.,  418,  n.  (16). 

Gall,  St.,  7th  cent.,  his  life,  424,  n.  (8). 

Galerius  Maximin.  3d  cent.,  persecutes,  208, 
&c. 

Galliemts,  emperor,  3d  cent.,  154,  159. 

Gallus,  emperor,  3d  cent.,  persecutes,  158. 

Gamaliel,  Jewish  patriarch,  5th  cent.,  319. 

Gaudentius  of  Brescia,  4lh  cent.,  258. 

Gauls,  state  of,  in  1st  cent.,  65 ;  converted,  in 
2d  cent.,  99, 100,  n.  (9) ;  in  3d,  156 ;  in  4tb, 
227. 

Gdasius  I.,  bp.  of  Rome,  5th  cent.,  341,  346. 

of  Cyzicum,  5th  cent.,  332,  n.  (30V 

Gtnnadius  of  Marseilles,  5th  cent.,  341,  345. 

Genseric,  Vandal  king  in  Africa,  Arian,  perse- 
cutes, 355. 

George,  bp.  of  Laodicea,  4th  cent.,  248,  n. 

,  monk  of  Galatia,  7th  cent..  441,  n. 

,  bp.  of  Alexandria,  7th  cent.,  441,  n. 

Georgians  converted  in  4th  cent.,  226. 

Germanus,  (St.  Germain,)  of  Paris,  6th  cent  , 
405. 

Germany,  state  of,  in  1st  cent.,  65  ;  in  2d,  99 , 


464 


INDEX. 


in  3d,  156  ;  in  5th,  314  ;  in  6th,  381 ;  in  7th, 

423,  &c. 

Gifts,  extraordinary  :  see  Miracles. 
Gildas  the  Wise,  Briton  of  6th  cent.,  402,  n. 

(42). 
Gnostics,  in  1st  cent.,  73,  89,  &c. ;  in  2d,  140- 

148 ;  in  3d,  191 ;  in  4th,  307,  &c. 
rvu<ns,  what,  29,  61,  &c.,  88,  &c. 
Godfathers  or  sponsors,  2d  cent.,  137. 
Gordianus,  Bened.  monk,  6th  cent.,  405. 
Goths,  conversion  of,  155,  226,  299,  &c.,  n. 

(39H41). 
Grace,  contests  about,  in  5th  cent.,  370,  &c., 

375,  &c.,  377 ;  in  6th  cent.,  415 ;  in  7th,  450. 
Granianus,  proconsul,  Asia,  2d  cent.,  106. 
Gratian,  3d  cent.,  preached  in  Gaul,  156. 

• ,  emperor,  4th  cent.,  285,  &c.,  299  n.  (37). 

Greeks  and  Latins  at  variance,  7th  cent.,  436, 

&c. 

Gregentius,  ahp.  in  Arabia,  6th  cent.,  345,  398. 
Gregory  Thaumaturgus,  3d  cent.,  169,  n.  (12), 

182. 

Illuminator,  Armenia,  4th  cent.,  225. 

Nazianzen,  4th  cent.,  242,  &c.,  n.  (19), 

261,263. 

Nyssen,  4th  cent.,  243,  n.  (19). 

the  Great,  bp.  of  Rome,  6th  cent.,  380,  n. 

(6),  386,  n.  (4),  389,  n.  (1),  394,  395,  n.  (18), 

399,  n.  (29),  406,  407,  4)2. 

,  bp.  of  Tours,  6th  cent.,  402,  n.  (14), 

or  George,  Pisides,  7th  cent.,  420,  n.  (20). 

H. 

Hadrian :  see  Adrian. 

Heathen:  see  Pagan. 

Hegesippus,  eccles.  hist.,  2d  cent.,  123. 

Helena,  mother  of  Constantine,  4th  cent.,  259, 

n.  (1). 

Heliogabalus,  emperor,  3d  cent.,  186. 
HMadius,  bp.  of  Tarsus,  5th  cent.,  334. 
Helvetians  converted  in  7th  cent.,  424,  n.  (8). 
Hemerobaptists,  Jewish  sect,  34,  &C-,  n.  (7). 
Henoticon,  an  edict  of  Zeno,  5th  cent.,  368,  n. 

(36). 

Heraclian  of  Chalcedon,  6th  cent.,  415. 
Heradides,  monk  of  Constantinople,  5th  cent., 

333. 

Heraclitus,  Greek  writer,  2d  cent.,  124, 174,  n. 
Heraclius,  emperor,  7th  cent.,  451,  452,  453. 
Heresies,  what,  xvii.,  in  1st  cent.,  88-96  ;  in  2d, 

138-152  ;  in  3d,  191-203 ;  in  4th,  282,  &c. : 

in  5th,  352,  &c. ;  in  6th,  415,  &c. ;  in  7th, 

450,  &c. 

Hernias,  Shepherd  of,  77,  78. 
Hermes,  ancient  pagan  philosopher,  112, 131,  n. 

(15). 
Hermits  or  Eremites,  in  3d  cent.,  179 ;  in  4th, 

266,  &c. 

Hermogenes  of  2d  cent.,  150,  n.  (28). 
Hero,  Platon.  philos.,  5th  cent.,  322,  n.  (12). 
Herod  the  Great,  33,  39. 
Heruli  invade  Italy,  5th  cent.,  312. 

converted,  6th  cent.,  379. 

Hesychiiu  of  Egypt,  3d  cent.,  176,  179. 
Hesychius,  bp.  of  Jerusalem,  7th  cent.,  439,  n. 

(15),  446,  447. 

Hexapla  of  Origen,  179,  n.  (6). 
Hierarchy,  its  origin,  1 16-1 18.  See  more  under 

Church,  government  of. 
Hierax  and  Hieracites,  3d  cent.,  197. 
Hierocles,  philosopher,  4th  cent.,  223,  n.  (45). 


Hieronymus :  see  Jerome. 

Hilarion,  Syrian  monk,  4th  cent.,  265. 

Hdary,  bp.  of  Poictiers,  4th  cent.,  248,  &c.,  n. 

(31). 

,  bp.  of  Aries,  5th  cent.,  340,  376,  n.  (55). 

Hilary  of  Rome,  Luciferian,  4th  cent.,  257. 

,  bp.  of  Rome,  5th  cent.,  341. 

Hindoo  Literature,  60,  n.  (5). 

Hippolytus  of  3d  cent.,  168,  &c.,  n.  (11),  182, 

183. 
History,  ecclesiastical,  what,  xv. ;  external  and 

internal,  xvi.,  xvii. ;  how  to  be  treated,  xvii., 

&c. ;  dangers  to  be  avoided,  xviii. ;  its  uses, 

xix. 

Honorius,  emperor,  4th  cent.,  222,  312,  353. 
I.,  bp.  of  Rome,  7th  cent.,  443,449;  he 

was  not  infallible,  453,  n.  (10).  455. 
Hormisdas,  bp.  of  Rome,  6th  cent.,  404,  412. 
Hosius  of  Corduba,  4th  cent.,  245,  n.  (23),  213, 

n.  (23),  284. 
Huneric,  Arian  king  of  Vandals  in  Africa,  5th 

cent.,  persecutes,  355. 
Huns,  in  6th  cent.,  384. 
Hyle,  i'\rj,  of  the  Manichaeans,  194. 
Hypatia,  fern,  philos.,  4th  cent.,  230,  n.  (5). 

I  &  J. 

Jacobites  or  Monophysites,  417,  418. 
Jacobus,  Baradaeus,  restorer  of  the  Monoph- 
ysites, in  6th  cerit.,  417,  &c.,  n.  (12). 
Jamblichus,  Platonic  philosopher,  4th  cent., 

229,  n.  (2). 
James,  son  of  Zebedee,  martyr,  48,  n.  (9). 

the  Just,  or  the  less,  martyr,  48,  n.  (9). 

,  bp.  of  Nisibis,  4th  cent.,  247,  n.,  263. 

,  bp.  of  Edessa,  7th  cent.,  436. 

Ibas,  bp.  of  Edessa,  5th  cent.,  334,  363,  n.  (26), 

410,  n.  (14). 

Iberians,  converted,  4th  cent.,  226. 
Idacius,  Clarus,  a  Span,  bp.,  4th  cent.,  258. 
Idatius  or  Hydatius,  Span,  bp.,  5th  cent.,  340. 
Jerome  or  Hieronymus,  monk,  4th  cent.,  249,  n. 
,  monk,  presbyter,  and  learned  father,  251, 

n.  (34),  261,  275,  349. 
Jerusalem,  first  church  there,  46 ;  demolished 

by  the  Romans,  A.D.  70,  p.  52  ;  rebuilt,  and 

called  sElia  Capitolina,  in  2d  cent.,  104  ; 

captured  by  the  Saracens,  7th  cent.,  440,  n. 

(18) ;  patriarchate  of,  233,  n.  (2). 
Jesujabas,  a  Nestor,  patr.,  7th  cent.,  421,  450. 
Jews,  civil  and  religious  state,  at  Christ's  birth, 

33-40;  notices  of,  in  1st  cent.,  51,  52,  64  ; 

in  2d  cent.,  104, 106, 138 ;  in  3d,  160  ;  in  4th, 

221 ;  in  5th,  314,  n.  (7),  319 ;  in  6th,  381 ; 

in  7th,  426. 
Ignatius,  bp.  of  Antioch,  2d  cent.,  76,  n.  (31), 

106. 
Idlefonsus  of  Toledo,  7th  cent.,  441,  n.  (22), 

446,  n.  (5). 
Image-worship,  in  4th  cent.,  260,  270 ;  in  5th, 

343,  351 ;  in  6th,  406  ;  in  7th,  445. 
Incense,  in  worship,  3d  cent.,  188,  n.  (4). 
Independence  of  primitive  churches,  72,  116. 
Indians  (Arabs),  converted  by  Pantaenus,  98. 
Innocent  I.,  bp.  of  Rome,  5th  cent.,  339,  n. 
Interpreters  of  Scripture  :  see  Commentators. 
John  the  apostle,  martyr  under  Domitian,  48, 

n.  (9),  59. 
the  Baptist,  42;  his  festival  instituted, 

414,  n.  (9). 
,  bp.  of  Jerusalem,  4th  cent.,  249,  n.,  275, 

373. 


INDEX. 


465 


John  Chrysostom :  see  Chrysostom. 

— — ,  bishop  of  Antioch,  5th  cent.,  333,  358, 

&c.,  n.  (18),  (19),  362. 

JEgeates,  5th  cent.,  335,  n. 

the  Faster,  bishop  of  Constantinople,  6th 

cent.,  389,  n.  (1),  396,  n.  (25). 

,  bishop  of  Constantinople,  6th  cent.,  397. 

Climacus,  Sinaita,  6th  cent.,  398. 

Maro,  6th  cent.,  399,  n.  (28). 

Philoponus,  6th  cent.,  384,  387,  408,  419, 

n.  (22  . 
Scholasticus,  bishop  of  Constantinople, 

6th  cent.,  398. 

of  Scythopolis,  6th  cent.,  408. 

II.,  bishop  of  Rome,  6th  cent.,  404,  412. 

,  monk  of  Spain,  6th  cent.,  405. 

Ascusnage,  6th  cent.,  419,  n.  (21). 

Malala,  historian,  7th  cent.,  441,  n. 

Moschus,  monk  of  Palestine,  7th  cent., 

436,  441,  n. 
,  archbishop  of  Dara,  7th  cent.,  441,  n. 


,  archbishop  of  Thessalonica,  7th  cent., 

441,  n. 

IV..  bishop  of  Rome,  7th  cent.,  443,  454. 

lona,  Hii,  or  I-calm-kill.  6th  cent.,  381,  n.  (7). 
Jonas,  an  Irish  monk,  7th  cent.,  436,  443. 

,  disciple  of  Columbanus,  7th  cent.,  444. 

Jornandes  or  Jordanes,  historian,  6th  cent.,  405. 
Jovian,  emperor,  4th  cent.,  222,  n.  (43),  299. 
Jovinian,  Italian  monk  and  reformer,  4th  cent 

274,  n.  (44.) 

Irenaeus,  bishop  of  Lyons,  2d  cent.,  100,  118. 
&c.,  n.(5),  136. 

,  count,  and  bishop  of  Tyre,  5th  cent.,  334. 

Irish  nation,  converted  in  5th  cent.,  316. 
Isaac,  a  converted  Jew,  5th  cent.,  334. 

,  bishop  of  Ninive,  6th  cent.,  398. 

Isidorus  of  Pelusium,  5th  cent.,  330,  n.  (23), 
344. 

of  Corduba,  5th  cent.,  339,  n.,  343. 

of  Seville,  6th  cent.,  403,  n.  (44),  407, 408. 

of  Gaza,  a  philosopher,  230,  387,  n.  (8). 

Isychius  or  Hesychius,  bishop  of  Jerusalem, 

'7th  cent.,  439,  n.  (15),  4-16,  417. 
Judas,  a  writer  of  3d  cent.,  174,  n. 
Julia  Mammsa,  3d  cent.,  154,  n.  (3). 
Julian,  emperor,  4th  cent.,  218,  219,  &c.,  n. 
(40),  224,  285,  298. 

,  a  Pelagian  bishop  and  writer,  5th  cent., 

339.  n. 

,  bishop  of  Halicamassus,  6th  cent.,  397, 

407,418. 

,  archbp.  of  Toledo,  7th  cent.,  438,  n.  (6). 

Pomefius,  5th  cent.,  341,  347. 

,  7th  cent.,  442,  n.  (27),  446, 44a 

Julius  Africanus,  3d  cent.,  167,  168,  n.  (10). 

I.,  bishop  of  Rome,  4th  cent.,  256. 

Firrnicus  Maternus,  poet,  4th  cent.,  256, 

263. 

Junilius,  bishop  in  Africa,  6th  cent.,  405,  406. 
Justification,  contest  on,  1st  cent.,  83. 
Justin  Martyr,  2d  cent.,  107,  118,  n.  (4),  126, 
127,  128;  his  Apologies,  118,  &.C.,  n.  (4). 

,  bishop  in  Sicily,  5th  cent.,  335,  n. 

Justinian  I.,  emperor,  6th  cent.,  384,  387,  404, 

409,410,411. 
Justus,  a  Spanish  bishop,  6th  cent.,  404. 

,  bp.  of  Rochester,  7th  cent.,  422,  n.  (5). 

Juvenal,  bishop  of  yElia  (Jerusalem),  5th  cent., 

324. 
Jtcvncus,  Spanish  poet,  4th  cent.,  255,  n.  (41). 

VOL.  I. — NNN 


K. 

Kabbala,  Jewish,  39,  64. 

Kalifs,  Mohammed's  successors,  431,  n.  (8*); 

extend  their  empire,  ibid. 
Kent,  kingdom  of,  converted,  7th  cent.,  380, 

422,  &c.,  n.  (5). 

Kilian,  Irish  missionary,  7th  cent.,  424,  &c.,  n. 
Kneeling  in  prayer,  3d  cent.,  190. 
Koran,  its  origin  and  preservation,  427,  n.  (4). 

L. 

Labarum,  sacred  standard  of  Constantine,  216, 

n.  (30). 
Lactantius,  writer  of  4th  cent.,  249,  &c.,  n. 

(32),  262,  263. 
Lapsed  Christians,  157,  158,  n.  (8),  201,  &c., 

n.  (19),  294. 

Laura,  of  monks,  what,  409,  n.  (13). 
Laurentius,  a  martyr,  3d  cent.,  159. 

,  bishop  of  Rome,  6th  cent.,  391. 

,  bishop  of  Novara,  6th  cent.,  404. 


,  bishop  of  Canterbury,  7th  cent.,  422,  n. 

(5). 
Leander,  archbishop  of  Seville,  6lh  cent.,  406, 

note. 

Learning,  state  of,  in  1st  cent.,  59-65  ;  in  2d, 
109-116;  in  3d,  161-162;  in  4th,  229-231 ; 
in  5th,  320,  &c. ;  in  6th,  385,  dec. ;  in  7th, 
435,  &c. 

Lectors  or  readers,  1 65. 
Legion,  thundering,  in  2d  cent,  103,  104. 
Lent,  in  4th  cent.,  280,  n.  (13). 
Leo  LI  the  Great,  bishop  of  Rome,  5th  cent., 
323,  326,  335,  n.  (32),  351,  365,  &c. 

II.,  bishop  of  Rome,  7th  cent.,  444. 

Leonidas,  father  of  Origen,  3d  cent.,  156. 
Leontius,  Arian  bishop  of  Antioch,  4th  cent 
248,  n. 

of  Byzantium,  6th  cent.,  396,  n.  (26),  408. 

—  of  Neapolis,  Cyprus,  6th  cent.,  399,  n. 
(28),  407,  408. 

Libaniots,  converted,  5th  cent.,  313. 
Libanius,  sophist,  4th  cent.,  223,  224,  n.  (481 
Libellatici,  what,  157,  n.  (6). 
Liberatus  of  Carthage,  6th  cent.,  401,  &c.   n. 

(39). 

Liberius,  bishop  of  Rome,  4th  cent.,  257, 298. 
Licinianus,  bishop  in  Spain,  6th  cent.,  405. 
Licinius,  emperor,  4th  cent.,  217. 
Litanies  to  the  saints.  6th  cent.,  414,  n.  (3). 
Liturgies,  86,  190,  n.  (19),  278,  413.  n.  (1). 
Lombards,  occupy  Italy  A.D.  568,  and  become 

Christians  A.D.  587,  p.  384,  450. 
Lord's  prayer,  use  of,  190,  n.  (19). 
Lord's  supper,  in  1st  cent.,  46,  84,  86 ;  in  2d, 
137 ;  in  3d,  188,  &c.  ;  in  4th,  281  ;  in  6th, 
413. 
Love-feasts,  aycJjrai,  46,  68,  &.C.,  87,  137,  351,  n. 

(4)'. 

Lucian  of  Antioch,  3d  cent.,  176,  179,  J 82. 
Lucifer  of  Cagliari,  4th  cent.,  257, 271,  &c.,  n. 

(40). 

Lucifenaiu,  sect,  4th  cent.,  257,  271,  &c. 
Lucius,  king  of  England,  2d  cpnt.,  99,  n.  (8). 
Lupus,  bishop  of  Troyes,  5lh  cent.,  340. 
Lyons  and  Vienne,  persecution  in  2d  cent,  108. 

M. 

Macarna,  senior  and  junior,  monks  of  Egypt, 
4th  cent.,  246,  n.  (28),  264. 


466 


INDEX. 


,  Monothelite  patriarch,  7th  cent.,  441,  n., 

455,  n.  (18). 
Macedonius,  and  Macedonians,  4th  cent.,  305, 

&c.,  n.  (62),  (63). 

Madame,  his  translation  of  Mosheim,  p.  v.,  &c. 
Macrobius,  Donatist  bishop,  4th  cent.,  257. 
Magians  of  Persia,  59,  &c. 
Magus:  see  Simon  Magus. 
Mahomet :  see  Mohammed. 
Majorinus,  Donatist  bishop  of  Carthage,  4th 

cent.,  283. 

Malchion,  a  rhetorician,  3d  cent.,  175,  201. 
Malchus,  a  Byzantine  historian,  5th  cent.,  335, 

note. 
Mamertus,  Claudius,  poet,  5th  cent.,  341,  351, 

n.  (1). 
Manes  or  Manichaus,  heretic,  3d  cent.,  192, 

&c.,  n.  (6). 
Manichceans,  sect  of,  in  3d  cent.,  192-196 ;  in 

4th,  282,  352;  in  6th,  415;  in  7th,  450. 
Maphrian,  or  primate  of  the  Monophysites,  41 8. 
Marcella,  a  martyr,  3d  cent.,  157. 
Marcellinus,  Ammianus,  historian,  4th  cent., 

224,  n.  (50). 

,  governor  of  Africa,  5th  cent.,  353. 

,  count,  a  writer,  6th  cent.,  405. 

,  English  missionary,  7th  cent.,  425,  n. 

(10). 
Marcellus  of  Ancyra,  4th  cent.,  247,  n.,  303, 

&c.,  n.  (55),  (56). 
Marcion  and  Marcionites,  2d  cent.,  141,  &c., 

352. 

Marculfus,  Gallic  monk,  7th  cent.,  442,  n.  (25). 
Marcus,  a  Gnostic,  2d  cent.,  147. 

,  bishop  in  Egypt,  4th  cent.,  248,  n. 

,  a  Gnostic  in  Spain,  4th  cent.,  307. 

S  a  hermit,  5th  cent.,  333,  346. 

,  a  disciple  of  St.  Benedict,  7th  cent.,  443. 

Mardaites,  457.     See  Maronites. 
Marius  Mercator,  5th  cent.,  338,  n.  (41). 

,  bishop  in  Switzerland,  6th  cent.,  405. 

Maro,  John,  7th  cent.,  457,  n.  (22),  (23). 

Maronites,  457,  n.  (22),  (23),  (24). 

Martin,  bishop  of  Tours,  4th  cent.,  227,  n.  (64), 

265,  &c.,  308,  n.  (65). 

,  bishop  of  Braga,  6th  cent.,  405,  408. 

I.,  bishop  of  Rome,  7th  cent.,  444,  454, 

n.  (15),  (16). 

Martyrs,  47,  n.  (8) ;  their  number  and  esti- 
mation, 54,  55,  125,  &c.,  158,  280. 
Mary,  St.,  worshipped,  4th  cent.,  311 ;  her 

images,  in  churches,  5th  cent.,  351 ;  called 

the  Mother  of  God,  5th  cent.,  357. 
Musses  for  the  dead,  4th  cent.,  281. 
Massilians,  375,  &c.     See  Semipelagians. 
Matthew,  the  apostle,  48,  n. 
Matthias,  the  apostle,  46. 
Mourns,  St.,  a  Benedictine  monk,  6th  cent., 

394. 
,  archbishop  of  Ravenna.  7th  cent.,  438, 

n.  (7). 

Maxentius,  John,  6th  cent.,  395,  n.  (22). 
Maximian,  emperor,  3d  cent.,  persecutes,  208, 

&c. 

Maximitta,  a  Montanist,  2d  cent.,  152. 
Maximin,  emperor,  3d  cent.,  persecutes,  157, 

212. 

Maximin,  bishop  in  Cilicia,  5th  cent,  334. 
Maximvjt,  Greek  writer,  2d  cent,  124,  174,  n. 
Maxim-us,  a  pagan  philosopher,  4th  cent.,  229, 

&c.,  11.  (4). 


Maximus  of  Turin,  5th  cent,  336,  n.  (35). 

of  Riez,  5th  cent,  340. 

of  Constantinople,  7th  cent,  439,  n.  (14), 

446,  447. 

Melchiades,  bishop  of  Rome,  4th  cent.,  283. 

Melchisedcckians,  sect,  2d  cent,  150,  n.  (27). 

Melchites,  who  so  called,  417,  n.  (12),  451. 

Meletian  contest  in  Egypt,  4th  cent,  268,  &c., 
n.  (37),  294,  &c.,  n.  (27). 

Meletian  controversy  at  Antioch,  4th  cent, 
272,  n. 

Meletius,  bishop  of  Sebaste,  4th  cent,  248,  n., 
272,  n. 

of  Mopsuestia,  5th  cent,  334. 

Melito,  bishop  of  Sardis,  2d  cent,  123,  126. 

Mellitus,  first  bishop  of  London,  7th  cent,  422, 
n.  (5). 

Menander,  heretic,  1st  cent,  94. 

Mennas,  bishop  of  Constantinople,  6th  cent, 
409. 

Mercator,  Marius,  5th  cent,  338,  n.  (41). 

Mercia,  kingm.  of,  converted,  7th  cent,  423,  n. 

Messalians  or  Euchites,  4th  cent,  310,  &c. 

Methodius,  3d  cent,  170,  171,  n.  (14),  182,  183. 

Metropolitans,  origin  of,  71,  117,  163,  232. 

Millennial  controversy,  3d  cent,  185,  n.  (19). 

Miltiades,  2d  cent.,  124. 

Ministry,  public,  necessary,  66. 

Minucius,  Felix,  3d  cent,  173,  n.  (16),  183. 

Miracles,  in  1st  cent,  45,  n.  (2),  50;  in  2d, 
101,  102,  &c.,  n.  (14);  in  3d,  155;  in  4th, 
215,  &c.,  221,  &C..227;  in  5th,  315,  n.  (11), 
317,  355 ;  in  6th,  382 ;  in  7th,  445. 

Mithras  of  the  Persians,  194. 

Modestus,  Greek  writer,  2d  cent,  124. 

Mohammed,  his  early  life  and  education,  426, 
n.  (2) ;  writers  who  treat  of  him,  427,  n.  (3) ; 
professes  to  be  a  prophet  and  reformer,  428 ; 
his  first  converts,  428,  &c.  ;  meets  opposi- 
tion, 429;  his  flight,  429 ;  employs  force,  and 
subdues  Arabia,  429 ;  his  death  and  charac- 
ter, 430 ;  his  testament,  450,  &c.,  n.  (3). 

Mohammedan  religion,  its  character,  430  ;  caus- 
es of  its  progress,  430,  &c. ;  its  propagation, 
431,  n.  (8*). 

Mohammedan  sects,  the  Sonnites  and  Shiiles, 
432 ;  the  subordinate  sects,  432,  &c..n.  (11). 

Mohammedan  prophets,  434,  n. 

Monarchians,  sect  of,  2d  cent,,  149. 

Monkery,  in  1st  cent,  38,  n.  (J4)  ;  in  2d,  115, 
129,  &c.  ;  in '3d,  179;  in  4th,  265,  &c.;  in 
5th,  328,  &c.,  346,  &c. ;  in  6th,  385,  391, 
&c. ;  in  7th,  438,  439. 

Monophysites,  in  5th  cent,  367,  368,  &c.,  n. 
(38),  (43);  in  6th,  387,  410,  416,  &c. ;  in 
7th,  450,  &c. 

Monothelites,  rise  of,  in  7th  cent,  452 ;  their 
tenets,  455,  &c. ;  and  history,  456-458. 

Montanus,  a  schismatic,  2d  cent.,  151,  152. 

,  archbishop  of  Toledo,  6th  cent,  404. 

Moralists  and  morals  :  see  Theology,  practical. 

Morality  of  the  fathers,  ]28,  n.  (6). 

Moschus,  John,  a  monk,  7th  cent,  436,  441,  n. 

Moses,  a  Jewish  fanatic  of  Crete,  4th  cent, 
314,  n.  (7). 

Mosheim,  his  life  and  character,  p.  iii.,  &c. 

Musanus,  a  writer  of  2d  cent,  124. 

Mutiantis  Scholasticus,  6th  cent,  405. 

Mysteries,  the  pagan,  26  ;  copied  by  Christians, 
133. 

Mystics,  in  2d  cent,  115;  in  3d,  178,  &c.,  184  ; 


INDEX. 


461 


in  4th,  262,  264,  &c.;  in  5th,  34C;  in  6th, 
408  ;  in  7th,  447. 

N. 

Narcissus,  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  3d  cent.,  174,  n. 
Nations,  state  of,  at  Christ's  birth,  23-33. 
Nazareans,  sect  in  2d  cent.,  96,  139. 
Nectarius,  bishop  of  Constantinople,  4th  cent., 

249,  n. 

Nemesius,  bishop  of  Emessa,  4th  cent.,  249,  n. 
Nennius,  a  British  monk,  7th  cent.,  443. 
Nepos,  bishop  in  Egypt,  3d  cent.,  185, 186. 
Nero,  emperor,  1st  cent.,  persecutes,  49,  n.  ( 1 1 ), 

53,  55-58. 

Nestorianus,  a  chronographer,  5th  cent.,  335,  n. 
Nestorius,  heresiarch,  5th  cent.,  333,  &c.,  356, 

<kc. 
Nestorianism,  what,  360,  &c.,  n.  (21) ;  history 

of,  in  5th  cent.,  356,  &c. ;  in  6th,  387, 416 ;  in 

7tb,  450,  &c. 

NiccBas  of  Romacia,  5th  cent.,  344. 
Nice,  council  of,  A.D.  325,  p.  291-295,  notes. 
Nicetius,  archbishop  of  Treves,  6th  cent.,  404, 

408. 

Ninas,  a  writer  of  7lh  cent.,  448. 
Nicolaitans,  sect,  in  1st  cent.,  94,  n.  (16). 
Nih>s  of  Constantinople,  a  writer,  5th  cent., 

331,  n.  (27),  346. 

jVmt'an,  English  bishop  in  5th  cent.,  381,  n.  (7). 
Koetus,  and  Noetians,  3d  cent.,  197,  n.  (11). 
Nonnosus,  writer  of  6th  cent.,  398. 
Nonnus,  Egyptian  poet,  5th  cent.,  333. 

,  monk  of  Palestine,  6th  cent.,  409,  n.  (13). 

Northumberland,  converted  in  7th  cent.,  423,  n. 
Novation  or  Novatus,  3d  cent.,  175,  201 ;  his 

sect,  201-203,  294,  352. 
Novatus  of  Carthage,  3d  cent.,  202,  &c.,n.  (19). 

O. 

Oblations,  in  1st  cent.,  68,  71,  86;  in  2d  cent., 

135. 
Odoacer,  king  of  the  Heruli,  conquered  Italy, 

A.D.  476,  p.  312. 
(Economical  method  of  disputing,  155,  n.  (5), 

183,  n.  (11). 

(Ecumenical,  or  general  Councils :  see  Councils. 
(Ecumenical  or  universal  bishop,  389,  n.  (1), 

437. 
Olympiodorus,  a  Platonic  philosopher,  4th  cent., 

230. 

,  a  historian,  5th  cent.,  319,  n.  (7),  322. 

,  a  commentator,  6th  cent.,  397,  407. 

Omar,  kalif,  captured  Jerusalem,  7th  cent., 

440,  n.  (18),  450. 

*O/io(«<Noj,  of  like  essence,  301,  n.  (47). 
'O//o«<7iof,  of  the  same  essence,  291,  296,  n.  (29). 
Ophites,  sect  of,  2d  cent.,  148,  n.  (25). 
Optatus  of  Milevi,  4th  cent.,  253,  n.  (36). 
Oracles,  the  pagan,  28,  n.  (28). 
Oresiesis,  monk  of  Egypt,  4th  cent.,  248,  n. 
Orientius,  Orontius,   Oresius,   bishop   of  Aux, 

5th  cent.,  345,  n.  (13). 

,  bishop  of  Eliberis,  6th  cent.,  404,  n. 

Orieenof  Alexandria,  3d  cent.,  155,  162,206, 

n  (9),  177-183,  n.  (2)-(8),  187, 188,  200,201, 

261,  275,  287. 

Origenists,  275,  349,  409,  n.  (13). 
Orosius,  Paul,  historian,  5th  cent.,  318,  336, 

n.  (33),  373. 

Ostiarii,  their  office,  3d  cent.,  165. 
Ostrogoths,  A.D.  492  invade  Italy,  312. 


Oswald,  king  of  Northumberland,  7th  cent 

423,  n. 
Oswi,  king  of  Northumberland,  7th  cent.,  423, 

note. 

P. 

Pachomius,  Egyptian  monk,  4th  cent.,  248,  n  , 

328,  n.  (18). 
Pacianus,  bishop  of  Barcelona.  4th  cent.,  257. 

262. 
Paganism,  its  character,  24,  &c. ;  remains  o. 

it  in  4th  cent.,  217,  &c.,  223,  227;  in  5th 

cent.,  313,  318 ;  in  6th,  349,  382,  &c. ;  in 

7th,  426. 

Palestine,  provinces  of,  233,  n.,  324. 
Palladium,  monk,  4th  cent.,  246,  n.  (27),  331,  n. 

(25). 

,  missionary  to  Ireland,  5th  cent.,  316. 

Pamphylus,  the  martyr,  3d  cent.,  176, 179,  244, 

n.  (21). 
Pantamus  of  Egypt,  2d  cent.,  93,  n.  (5),  111, 

124,  126. 

Pantheism  of  Ammonius  Saccas,  113. 
Papal  power,  in  3d  cent.,  163,  164,  n. ;  in  4th, 

163,  &c.,  235,  &c.,  284,  n.  (5);  in  5th,  322, 

&c.,  326,  n.  (11),  (14);  in  6th,  389;  in  7th, 

437. 

Papias,  bishop  of  Hierapolis,  2d  cent.,  123, 126. 
Paphnutius,  monk  of  Egypt,  4th  cent.,  249,  n., 

295. 
Paraclete  of  Montanus,  &c.,  151,  n.  (29),  192, 

195. 

Paschasius  of  Rome,,  6th  cent.,  404. 
Paterius,  commentator,  7th  cent.,  443,446. 
Patriarchs,  origin  of,  117,  232,  &c.,  323,  &c. 
Patricius,  (St.  Patrick,  Succathus),  apostle  of 

Ireland,  5th  cent.,  316,  n.  (13). 
Patripassians,  sect,  in  2d  cent.,  149 ;  in  3d,  197, 

198,  &c. 
Patronage,  right  of,  its  origin,  4th  cent.,  277,  n. 

(5). 
Paul,  the  apostle,  46  ;  his  martyrdom,  47,  n. 

(8),  48,  n.,  56,  n.  (18). 

— ,  the  hermit  of  Egypt,  3d  cent.,  179. 
of  Samosata,  3d  cent.,  200,  n.  (15),  201, 

n.  (16). 

,  bishop  of  Emessa,  5th  cent.,  334. 

,  a  Monophysite,  7th  cent.,  451. 

Paulicians,  sect,  7th  cent.,  450. 

Paitlinus,  bishop  of  Antioch,  4th  cent.,  271,  &c., 

n.  (40). 

of  Nola,  253,  n.  (37),  337. 

Petricordius,  a  poet,  5th  cent.,  341. 

,  1st  bishop  of  York,  7th  cent.,  423,  n. 

Peada,  king  of  Mercia,  7th  cent.,  423,  n. 
Pelagius,  the  heretic,  5th  cent.,  370,  &c.,  n. 

(45). 

I.,  bishop  of  Rome,  6th  cent.,  405,  411. 

II.,  bishop  of  Rome,  6th  cent.,  405. 

Pelagians,  in  5th  cent.,  370,  &c. ;  in  6th,  415  ; 

in  7th.  450. 
Penance,  in  1st  cent.,  82;  in  2d,  131  ;  in  4th, 

268  ;  in  5th,  351,  n.  (5) ;  in  7th,  447. 
People,  rights  of,  in  primitive  church,  xv.,  68, 

69;  in  2d  cent.,  116,  117;  in  3d,  163,  &c. ; 

in  4th,  231,  232. 

Perpttua,  a  martyr,  3d  cent.,  156. 
Persecution*,  whether  just  ten,  62  ;  those  in  lit 

cent.,  51,  &c.,  97  ;  iti  2d,  105 ;  in  3d,  156- 
100  ;  in  4th,  20 -4-'.'  1 1 . 217. 819, 228,  284,  &c. 

n.  (12),  2196, 298,  dtc.,  307  ;  in  5th,  313,  318, 


468 


INDEX. 


&c.,  353,  354;  in  6th,  384,  415-417  ;  in  7th, 
426. 

Persia,  persecutions  there,  228,  319,  426. 
Peter,  the  apostle.     His  martyrdom,  47,  n.  (8), 
48,n.,56,  n.  (18). 

,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  4th  cent.,  239,  n. 

(13),  268,  &c. 

Chrysologus,  bishop  of  Ravenna,  5th 

cent.,  337.  n.  (38). 

Fullo,  bishop  of  Antioch,  5th  cent.,  367, 

&c. 

Moggus,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  5th  cent., 

366,  368. 

,  a  deacon  of  Rome,  6th  cent.,  404. 

Petilianus,  a  Donatist  writer,  4th  cent.,  258. 
Phantasiasta,  sect,  6th  cent.,  418. 
Pharisees,  Jewish  sect,  35,  36. 
Philastrius,  bishop  of  Brescia,  4th  cent.,  255, 

n.  (39),  263. 

Philetus,  mentioned  by  St.  Paul,  88,  n.  (3). 
Philip,  emperor,  3d  cent.,  whether  a  Christian, 
154. 

of  Side,  5th  cent.,  333,  345. 

,  a  friend  of  Jerome,  5th  cent.,  340. 

Philo,  the  Jew.  1st  cent.,  32,  37. 

of  Carpathus,  6th  cent.,  343. 

Philosophy,  state  of,  in  1  st  cent.,  29,  59-65 ;  in 
2d,  109,  &c. ;  in  3d,  161,  162;  in  4th,  223, 
229,  &c. ;  in  5th,  321,  &c. ;  in  6th,  386, 
&c. ;  in  7th,  446. 

,  Oriental,  29,  39,  61-64,  90,  &c. 

,  its  influence  on  theology,  61,  105,  111, 

115,  125,  129,  &c.,  149,  162, 188,  261. 
Philostorgius,  ecclesiastical  historian,  5th  cent., 

333,  345. 

Philostratus,  a  philosopher,  3d  cent.,  160. 
Pkiloxenus  or  Xenaias,  bishop  of  Hierapolis  or 

Mabug,  6th  cent.,  367,  407,  419. 
Phocas,  emperor,  7th  cent.,  436,  &c.,  n.  (2). 
Phmbadius,  bishop  in  France,  4th  cent.,  257. 
Photinus,  bishop  of  Sirmium,  4th  cent.,  304, 

&c.,  n.  (58),  (59). 

Picts,  converted,  in  4th  cent.,  380,  &c.,  n.  (7). 
Pierius  of  Alexandria,  3d  cent.,  176,  179. 
Pilgrimages,  in  4th  cent.,  259,  n.  (1) ;  in  5th 

cent.,  343. 
Pisides,  Gregory  or  George,  7th  cent.;  440,  n. 

(20). 

Placidus,  Benedictine  monk,  6th  cent.,  394. 
Plato,  and  Platonic  philosophy,  31,  &c. ;  in 
2d  cent.,  110,  &c.,  119,  &c. ;  in  3d,  159,  &c., 
161,  &c. ;  in  4th,  229,  &c. ;  in  5th,  321,  &c. ; 
in  6th,  383,  387  ;  in  7th,  436. 
Pliny  the  younger,  105. 
Pleroma  of  the  Gnostics,  63,  95,  145. 
Plolintis,  a  philosopher,  3d  cent.,  161,  162, 191. 
Plutarch  of  Chaeronea,  a  philosopher,  2d  cent., 
110. 

,  a  philosopher  of  3d  cent.,  162. 

Nestorii,  philosopher,  5th  cent.,  322. 

Pneumatomachi,  sect,  4th  cent.,  300. 

Polemic, :  see  Theology,  polemic. 

Polycarp,  bishop  of  Smyrna,  2d  cent.,  77,  107 

136. 
Polychronius,  bishop  of  Apamea,  5th   cent. 

333,  343. 
Polycrates,  bishop  of  Ephesus,  2d  cent.,  136 

174,  n.  (18). 
Pomerius,  Julianus,  5th  cent.,  341,  347,  446 

448. 
Pontius,  deacon  of  Carthage,  3d  cent.,  175. 


Pontius  or  Paulinus  of  Nola,  253,  n.  (37),  337. 
^opery :  see  Papal  power. 
Porphyry,  a  philosopher,  3d  cent.,  159,  162,  n. 

(I). 

°ossidonius  or  Pisidius,  5th  cent.,  340. 
°othinus,  missionary  to  Gaul,  2d  cent.,  100. 
°otamiena,  a  martyr,  3d  cent.,  157. 
9otamon,  a  philosopher,  2d  cent.,  32. 
Praxeas,  a  confessor  and  Monarchian,  2d  cent., 

149,  n.  (26). 

Prayers,  hours  of,  in  3d  cent.,  190. 
Preaching,  mode  of,  in  1st  cent.,  86 ;  in  3d,  188 ; 

in  4th,  278 ;  in  7th,  435. 
Predestinarian  controversy,  5th  cent.,  373,  &C., 

n.  (52),  (53). 
Presbyters,  46,  69,  71,  116,  117,  163,  165,  231, 

232,  237,  273,  n.  (43),  327. 
Prescription  against  errors,  in  2d  cent.,  127; 

in  3d  cent.,  183,  n.  (12). 
Priesthood,  Jewish,  imitated,  2dcent,  117,  118, 

133. 
Primasius  of  Adrumetum,  6th  cent.,  401,  n. 

(38),  407,  408. 
Prisdlla,  and  Priscillianists,  2d  cent.,  152,  n. 

(30). 
Priscillian,  and  Priscillianists,  4th  cent.,  307, 

&c.,  n.  (65),  (66). 
Proba,  Anicia  Franconia,  4th  cent.,  258. 
Proclus,  bishop  of  Constantinople,  5th  cent., 

334. 

,  a  philosopher,  5di  cent.,  322,  384,  n.  (8). 

Procopius  of  Gaza,  5th  cent.,  395,  n.  (21),  407. 
of  Caesarea,  historian,  6th  cent.,  383,  n. 

(2). 

Prophets  of  the  New  Testament,  69. 
Prosper  of  Aqmtain,  5th  cent.,  337,  n.  (40), 

346,  376,  n.  (55). 

Prudentius,  a  poet,  4th  cent.,  256,  n.  (43). 
Psalms  of  David,  used  in  4th  cent.,  278. 
Psathyrians,  party  in  4th  cent.,  301,  n.  (45). 
Ptolomceus,  Gnostic  heresiarch,  2d  cent.,  147. 
Purgatory,  in  2d  cent.,  126  ;  in  3d  cent.,  195; 

in  4th  cent.,  259  ;  in  5th,  343;  in  6th,  406; 

in  7th,  445. 
Pyrrhus,  bishop  of  Constantinople,  7th  cent., 

454. 

Q. 

Quadragesimal  or  Lent  fast,  4th  cent.,  280,  n. 

(13). 

Quadratus,  bishop  of  Athens,  2d  cent.,  106, 123. 
Quadriiiium,  what,  321,  n.  (4). 
Quinisextum  consilium,  7th  cent.,  448,  458. 

R. 

Radbod,  king  of  Friesland,  7th  cent.,  425,  n. 

(10). 
Recognitions  of  Clement,  75,  76,  n.  (29),  184, 

n.  (15). 
Relics,  venerated,  in  4th  cent.,  260;  in  5th, 

343  ;  in  6th,  406 ;  in  7th,  445. 
Religion,  state  of,  in  the  world,  24,  34,  &c. ; 

among  Christians,  in  1st  cent ,  78,  &c.,  82, 

n.  (8) ;  in  28,  125,  &c. ;  in  3d,  177,  &c. ;  in 

4th,  259,  268  ;  in  5th,  342,  &c. ;  in  6th,  406 ; 

in  7th,  445,  447. 
Remigius,  archbishop  of  Rheims,  5th  cent.,  341, 

379. 

Rheticius,  bishop  of  Autun,  4th  cent.,  256. 
Rhodon,  a  writer,  2d  cent.,  124. 
Rites :  see  Ceremonies. 


INDEX. 


469 


Rogation  Sunday,  &c.,  351.  n.  (1). 

Rufinus  of  Aquiieia,  4th  cent.,  254,  n.  (38),  261, 

215. 

Ruling  Elders,  1st  cent.,  69. 
Ruridus,  senior,  bishop  of  Limoges,  5th  cent., 

341. 
Rusticus,  deacon  at  Rome,  6th  cent.,  405. 

S. 

Sabas,  a  Syrian  monk,  5th  cent.,  335,  n. 
SabeUius  of  Africa,  3d  cent.,  198,  n.  (12). 
Sabians :  see  Hemerobaptists. 
Sabinus,  bishop  of  Heraclea,  5th  cent.,  333. 
Sacred  Classics  of  Apollinaris,  247,  n.  (29). 
Sadducees,  a  Jewish  sect,  35.  36. 
Saints,  worshipped,  in  5th  cent.,  342,  &c. ;  in 

6th,  390,  406,  414  ;  in  7th,  415. 
Saloniiis,  bishop  of  Lyons,  5th  cent.,  340. 
Salvianus,  5th  cent.,  318,  337,  n.  (39),  346,  348. 
Samaritans,  nation  of,  34,  40. 
Samosateans  :  see  Paul  of  Samosata. 
Sapor  II.,  king  of  Persia,  4th  cent.,  persecutes, 

228. 

Sarabaites,  vagrant  monks,  267. 
Saracens,  their  conquests,  7th  cent.,  431,  n. 

(8*). 

Sardica,  council,  its  4th  canon,  236,  n.  (9). 
Saturninus  of  Antioch,  heretic,  140,  141. 
Sckisms :  see  Heresies,  and  Controversies. 
Scholastic  theology,  its  origin,  178,  182,262; 

its  nature,  408. 

Schools,  Christian,  in  1st  cent.,  81,  n.  (5) ;  in 
2d,  111;  in  3d,  162,  177;  in  4th,  219,  230 ; 
in  5th,  320,  &c. ;  in  6th,  385,  387 ;  in  7th, 
435. 

Science:  see  Learning. 
Scotland,  state  of,  in  3d  cent.,  156;  in  6th, 

381,  n.  (7). 
Scriptures,  how  regarded,  in  1st  cent.,  79 ;  in 

2d,  126  ;  in  4th,  261. 
Sects :  see  Heresies. 
Secundians,  Gnostic  sect,  2d  cent,  147. 
Seduliits,  a  Scotch  poet,  5th  cent.,  340. 
Semiarians,  in  4th  cent.,  300,  &C. 
Semipelagians,  in  5th  cent.,  375,  &c. ;  in  6th, 

415;  in  7th,  450. 
Septuagint,  how  regarded,  in  2d  cent,  126 ;  in 

4th  cent,  261. 

Serapion,  bishop  of  Antioch,  2d  cent,  124. 
Serapion,  bishop  of  Thmuis,  4th  cent.,  248,  n. 
Sergius,  patriarch  of  Monophysites,  387,  &c., 
417. 

,  bishop  of  Constantinople,  7th  cent,  441, 

n..  452,  453,  n.  (9). 
Sethitfs,  a  sect,  in  2d  cent.,  147,  &c. 
Sextus,  Greek  writer,  2d  cent,  124,  174,  n. 
Sfi'erianus,  bishop  of  Gabala,  5th  cent,  333 

346. 
Secerns,  emperor,  in  2d  cent,  53,  97,  108. 

,  Alexander,  emperor,  3d  cent,  154,  156, 

160. 

,  Sulpicius,  ecclesiastical  historian,  4tb 

cent,  255,  n.  (42). 

,  bishop  of  Minorca,  5th  cent,  339,  n. 

,  bishop  of  Antioch,  6th  cent,  397,  407 

417,  418. 

Shiites,  a  Mohammedan  sect,  432,  431,  n. 
Sibylline  Oracles,  2d  cent,  130,  n.  (15). 
Sidonius,  Apollinaris,  5th  cent,  338,  n.  (43). 
Sigan,  monument  of,  China,  421,  n.  (1). 
Simeon,  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  2d  cent,  106. 


Simeon  Stylites,  senior,  5th  cent,  313,  347, 

n.  (20). 

Simeon  Stylites,  junior,  6th  cent.,  398. 
Simon  Magus,  92-94. 
Simplicius,  bishop  of  Rome,  5th  cent,  341. 

,  a  philosopher,  6th  cent,  383,  n.  (7). 

Siricius,  bishop  of  Rome,  4th  cent.,  258. 
Sisebutus,  Gothic  king  in  Spain,  7th  cent,  443. 
Sixtus  II.,  bishop  of  Rome,  3d  cent,  159,  175. 

III.,  bishop  of  Rome,  5th  cent,  340. 

Socrates,  ecclesiastical  historian,  5th  cent,  334. 
Sonnites,  Mohammedan  sect,  432,  n.  (10),  (11). 
Sophronnis,  monk  of  Palestine,  4th  cent,  249,  n. 
,  bishop  of  Jerusalem,  7th  cent,  436,  440, 

n.  (18),  452,  &.C.,  n.  \9). 
Sozomen,  ecclesiastical  historian,  5th  cent, 

334. 
Spurious  Gospels,  Acts,  Epistles,  73,  &c.,  n. 

(23). 

Stations,  among  Romanists,  what,  414,  n.  (4). 
Stephen  1.,  bishop  of  Rome,  3d  cent.,  175,  186. 
Stoic  philosophy,  31,  n.  (37),  110. 
Stylites,  or  pillar  saints,  5th  cent,  347,  &c. 
Sub-deacons,  their  office,  165. 
Sulpicius  Severus,  ecclesiastical  historian,  4th 

cent,  255,  n.  (42). 
Sunday,  observance  of,  85,  134,  135,  n.  (10), 

278. 
Superstition,  increase  of,  in  3d  cent,  188;  in 

4th  cent, 259,  &c.;  in  5th,  342;  in  6th,  406; 

in  7th,  439,  445. 

Supplications,  public,  4th  cent,  260. 
Sussex,  kingdom  of,  converted,  7th  cent,  423, 

note. 

Syagrius,  writer,  Slh  cent,  345. 
Symmachus,  translator  of  Old  Testament,  3d 

cent,  174,  n. 

,  bishop  of  Rome,  6th  cent,  341,  391. 

Synagogues,  Jewish,  39. 

Synesius,  bishop  in  Cyrene,  5th  cent,  230,  n. 

(8),  333. 

Synod:  see  Councils. 
Syrianus,  a  philosopher,  5th  cent,  322. 
Syricius,  bishop  of  Barcelona,  7th  cent,  444. 

T. 
Tajo  or  Tago,  bishop  of  Saragossa,  7th  cent, 

435,  444,  446. 
Tatian,  and  his  sect,  2d  cent,  107,  124,  142 ; 

his  harmony  of  the  Gospels,  126,  n.  (2). 
Talaia,  John,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  5th  cent., 

367. 
Tartars,  enlightened  by  Nestorians,  7th  cent, 

421,  &c. 

Temples,  dedicated  to  saints,  6lh  cent,  414. 
Tertullian,  2d  cent,  108,  122,  n.  (9),  127,  128, 

152,  183. 
Testament,  New,  translations  of,   101,  &c., 

155,  407,  446. 

Thalassius,  a  monk,  7th  cent,  441,  n.,  447. 
Themistius,  a  philosopher,  4th  cent,  225,  n. 

(52). 
Themistius  and  Themistians,  6th  cent,  419,  n. 

(20). 

Calonimus,  7th  cent.  441,  n. 

Theodoret,  or  Theodorit,  bishop  of  Cyprus,  5th 

cent,  330,  n.  (22),  343,  344,  345, 410,  n.  (14). 
Thfodoric,  king  of  Ostrogoths,  5th  cent.,  312, 

391. 
Theodoras  of  Mopsuestia,  4th  cent,  331,  n. 

(26),  343,  410,  n.  (14). 


470 


INDEX. 


Theodorus  Lector,  eccles.  hist.,  6th  cent.,  397. 

of  Iconium,  6th  cent.,  398. 

of  Pharan,  7th  cent..  441,  n. 

I.,  bishop  of  Rome,  7th  cent.,  443. 

of  Raithu,  7th  cent.,  420,  n.  (21),  446. 

—  of  Tarsus,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  7th 

cent.,  423,  n.,  436,  444,  447. 
Theodosius  the  Great,  emp.,  4th  cent,,  222,  299. 

II.,  emperor,  5th  cent.,  313,  319,  358,365. 

,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  6th  cent. ,418, 419. 

Theodotus  of  Rome,  2d  cent.,  149,  150,  n.  (27). 

of  Ancyra,  5th  cent.,  332,  n.  (29). 

Theognostus  of  Alexandria,  3d  cent.,  176,  182. 
Theology,  Positive,  Scholastic,  and  Mystic, 
407,  408. 

,  exege.tic,  in  1st  cent.,  79 ;  in  2d,  126 ; 

in  3d,  179,  &c. ;  in  4th,  261  ;  in  5th,  343, 
&c. ;  in  6th,  406,  &c. ;  in  7th,  445,  &c. 

,  didactic,  in  1st  cent.,  78,  &c. ;  in  2d, 

125,  126.;  in  3d,  177,  &c.,  182;  in  4th,  259, 
261,  &c. ;  in  5th,  342, 344 ;  in  6th,  407,  &c. ; 
in  7th,  446,  &c. 

,  practical,  in  1st  cent.,  78,  80 ;  in  2d,  128 ; 

in  3d,  182 ;  in  4th,  263,  &c. ;  in  5th,  346, 
348 ;  in  6th,  408 ;  in  7th,  446,  &c. 

,  polemic,  in  1st  cent.,  83  ;  in  2d,  127  ;  in 

3d,  183.  &c. ;  in  4th,  262,  &c. ;  in  5th,  345  ; 
in  6th,  408,  &c. ;  in  7th,  447,  &c. 
Theonas,  bishop  in  4th  cent.,  256. 
Theopaschites,  sect,  5th  cent.,  367,  412. 
Theophanes  of  Byzantium,  6th  cent.,  398,  &c. 
Theophilus,  bishop  of  Antioch,  2d  cent.,  120, 
121,  n.  (7),  126. 

,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  5th  cent.,  275,  &c., 

330,  n.  (24),  349. 

• ,  bishop  of  the  Goths,  4th  cent.,  226. 

Theophrastus,  a  philosopher,  5th  cent.,  322. 
Theophylact,  Simocatta,  7th  cent.,  441,  n. 
Therapeutee,  a  Jewish  sect.  37,  n.  (14). 
Theurgy,  what,  114,  n.  (19). 
Thomas,  the  apostle,  48,  n. ;  visited  India,  and 
some  say,  China,  422,  n.  (2). 

of  Heraclea,  7th  cent.,  446. 

Thundering  Legion,  2d  cent.,  103,  104. 
Thurificatores,  who,  157. 
Tiberius,  emperor,  1st  cent.,  49. 
Tichonius  of  Africa,  4th  cent.,  258,  261. 
Timothy,  companion  of  St.  Paul,  48,  n. 

111.,  bishop  of  Alexandria,  6th  cent.,  397 

— — ,  bishop  of  Constantinople,  6th  cent.,  397. 

,  a  writer  of  the  7th  cent.,  448. 

Tithes,  118,  n.  (3),  133. 
Tituli,  what,  277,  n.  (4). 
Titus,  companion  of  St.  Paul,  48,  n. 
—  of  Bostra,  in  4th  cent.,  248,  n. 
Toleration  among  pagans,  25,  53. 
Traditors,  who,  209,  283. 
Trajan,  emperor,  2d  cent.,  97,  105,  106. 
Tnbonianus,  a  jurist,  6th  cent.,  382,  n.  (1). 
Trinity,  disputes  on,  in  2d  cent.,  149,  150  ;  in 
3d,  197-200  ;  in  4th,  287,  &c. ;  in  5th,  356 
&c. ;  in  6th,  412,  419,  &c. 
Triphilus  of  Cyprus,  4th  cent.,  248. 
Tritheists,  in  6th  cent.,  419,  &c. 
Trivium,  what,  321,  n.  (4). 
Tryphon,  Greek  writer,  3d  cent.,  174,  n. 
Tychonius  or  Tichonius,  4th  cent.,  258,  261. 
Typua,  edict  of  emp.  Constans,  7th  cent.,  454 


V. 

Valena,  emperor,  4th  cent.,  226,  299. 

Valentinian,  emperor,  4th  cent.,  299. 

Valentinus,  and  his  sect,  2d  cent.,  145-147. 

Valerian,  emperor,  3d  cent.,  159. 
,  bishop  in  5th  cent.,  340. 

Valerius,  Spanish  monk,  7th  cent.,  444. 

Vandals,  when  converted,  300,  n.  (40) ;  per- 
secute in  Africa,  5th  cent.,  354,  &c. 

Vararanes,  king  of  Persia,  5th  cent.,  319. 

Veda  of  the  Indians,  60,  n.  (5). 

Vernacular  liturgies,  6th  cent.,  413. 

Victor  I.,  bishop  of  Rome,  2d  cent.,  121,  136. 

of  Antioch,  5th  cent.,  333,  343. 

or  Victorinus,  a  poet,  5th  cent.,  340. 

-  Vitensis,  5th  cent.,  341. 

-  of  Tununum,  6th  cent.,  405. 

of  Capua.  6th  cent.,  405,  407. 

Victorinus  of  Petau,  3d  cent.,  176,  182,  183. 
Fabius  Marcus,  4th  cent.,  257. 

Victorius  or  Victorinus  of  Gaul,  5th  cent.,  340. 
Vigilantius,  a  reformer,  5th  cent.,  348,  &c. 
Vigilius  of  Tapsus,  5th  cent.,  338,  n.  (44). 

,  bishop  of  Rome,  6th  cent.,  405,  411. 

Vincentius  of  Lerins,  5th  cent.,  338,  n.  (42). 
Vitalianus,  bishop  of  Rome,  7th  cent.,  444,  445. 
Vitellius,  a  Donatist  writer,  4th  cent. ,  257. 
Ulphilas  or  Ulfilas,  bishop  of  the  Goths,  4th 

cent.,  155,  n.  (10),  226,  n.  (63),  300,  n.  (39). 
Unction,  extreme,  2d  cent.,  87. 
Voconius  of  Africa,  5th  cent.,  345. 
Volusianus,  emperor,  3d  cent.,  158. 
Uranius,  Nestor,  philos.,  6th  cent.,  388,  n.  (14). 
Ursicinus,  bishop  of  Rome,  4>th.  cent.,  235. 
Vulgate  Bible,  what,  261,  n.  (9). 

W. 

Waldensianc,  perhaps  in  7th  cent.,  438. 
Wessex,  kingn.  of,  converted,  7th  cent.,  423,  n. 
Whitby,  council  of,  7th  cent.,  423,  n. 
Wilfrid,  bishop  of  York,  7th  cent.,  423,  n., 

437,  n.  (5). 

Willibrord,  Engl.  miss.,  7th  cent.,  425,  n.  (10). 
World,  state  of,  when  Christ  came,  23-33. 
Worship,  public,  of  Christians,  in  1st  cent., 

84,  &c. ;  in  2d,  134,  n.  (10),;  in  3d,  188; 

in  4th,  260,  n.  (25),  276,  277,  &c. ;  in  5th, 

350,  &c. ;  in  6th,  413,  &c. ;  in  7th,  448. 
Writers,  Greek  and  Oriental,  in  1st  cent.,  72, 

&c. ;  in  2d,  118,  &c. ;  in  3d,  166,  &c. ;  in 

4th,  237,  &c. ;  in  5th,  329,  &c. ;  in  6th,  395, 

&c.  ;  in  7th,  439,  &c. 
,  Latin,  in  1st  cent.,  none ;  in  2d,  122, 

&c. ;  in  3d,  172,  &c. ;  in  4th,  248,  &c. ;  in 

5th,  335,  &c. ;  in  6th,  399,  &c, ;  in  7th,  441, 

&c. 
Wulfilaicus,  eremite  of  Treves,  5th  cent.,  348. 

X. 

Xenaias :  see  Philoxenus. 
Z. 
Zacharias,  eccles.  histor.,  5th  cent. ,335.  n. 

,  archbishop  of  Mitylene,  6th  cent.,  398. 

Zachaeus,  fictitious  author,  5th  cent.,  340. 
Zeno,  bishop  of  Verona,  4th  cent.,  257. 

,  emp.,  5th  cent. ;  his  Henot.,  368,  n.  (36). 

Zosimvs,  pagan  historian,  5th  cent.,  319,  &c., 

n.  (8),  373. 
,  bishop  of  Rome,  5th  cent ,  339,  n.,  373., 


END   OF   VOL.    I.