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OUTLINES OF CHURCH HISTORY

FOR THE USE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS
IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN PRINCETON.

JAMES C. MOFFAT,

HELENA PROFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY.

From the birth of Christ to A, D. W48.

A NEW EDITION'.

<Lbc jprintcton press :
C. S. Robinson & Co., Princeton, N. J.

1885.

491032

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by

James C. Moffat,

in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington,

OUTLINES OF CHURCH HISTORY.

RELIGIOUS STATE OF THE WORLD AT THE APPEARANCE OF

CHRIST.

Jesus, who is called the Christ, was born in Judea,
shortly before the death of Herod I., which took place
between March 13th and April 4th, in the year 750 U. C.
The birth of Jesus could not have been later than two or
three months before that event ; it may have been earlier
by one, or even two years. Our common era assumes it
to have occurred in 754 U. C, at least four years too late.
The day of his birth is not determined.

At that epoch, the state of religion in the west of
Asia and Europe was one of great depression. Rational-
ism had separated between faith and intelligence ; east of
the Indus it had constructed two great philosophical reli-
gions ; west of the Tigris it had set up philosophy as a
substitute for religion, and carried the convictions of the
greater number of the educated. Confucianism and Buddh-
ism, as religions, were accepted by vast multitudes; Greek
philosophy did not profess to be religion, and scorned the
ignorant populace. Between the Indus and the Tigris
ruled the semi-barbarous Parthian, maintaining a degener-
ate Magism. Avestan monotheism was almost buried out
of sight under that dominion. The pure faith of the
Hebrews was confined to few.

Everywhere the religious condition of the multitudes,
to whom philosophy or philosophical religion was inac-
cessible, was exceedingly degraded.

All the countries lying around the Mediterranean were
under one ruler. Rome had within the preceding half
century united the ruder west of Europe to the decaying

civilizations on the eastern coasts. Parthian barbarism lay-
as a barrier between that new empire and the culture of
the further east.

Civilization in China and India was bound up in their
great philosophical religions ; in the west it reposed upon
philosophy ; while good order and security were main-
tained by Roman legislation and arms.

Great facilities for the spread of knowledge were fur-
nished by Roman dominion ; by the protection it afforded,
the freedom of inter-communication which it promoted, by
one common language of business, and one of polite liter-
ature. With a knowledge of Latin and Greek the apos-
tles could travel over the empire and find an intelligent
audience in every city. The wisdom and culture of the
east were easily, through the common heart of Rome, ex-
tended to the strong but rugged nations of the west. And
the government of that vast territory was, at the time of
the Saviour's birth, in the hands of one man, whose policy
was peace.

But there was little hope or enterprise among the
nations. Their spirit had been crushed. Upon the wisest
heathen a weight of despondency rested, a sense of want,
which no earthly possession could fill.

Practical morals were at that time among the heathen
exceedingly base, and basest in the highest places of society ;
not because men did not know the difference between
right and wrong, but because they were without sufficient
persuasives to righteousness, The example of their gods
could be adduced to justify or palliate any vice or crime.
Their great want was the want of a Saviour.

The Jews were still in possession of their own land,
but subjects of the Roman Empire, to which they had
recently been annexed. Jews of pure descent occupied
chiefly the southern part of the country ; Samaritans the
middle, and Galileans the north, both being of mixed des-
cent; and the eastern side of Jordan, divided into Iturea,
Trachonites, and Perea, was also held by a heterogeneous
population.

Pure Jews were of three religious sects : Pharisees,
who were ritualists ; Sadducees, rationalists ; and Essenes,
who were Ascetics. Moreover, Jews were then resident in

almost every nation ; and in their Synagogues the scrip-
tures of promise were read. Among both 'Jews and gen-
tiles there prevailed an expectancy of some great person-
age about to appear with blessing to mankirid:

CHRIST. '

The Saviour was of pure Hebrew genealogy, but made
his residence chiefly among the half gentiles of Galilee.
His public ministry commenced with his baptism, when he
was about thirty years of age, and extended to about three
years and six months.

The social condition in which he was born was lowly,
and yet, as both his mother and foster father were descended
of the ancient Kings of Judea, he was a son of David
according to the flesh.

Historically, Christ appeared as a teacher, in the crown-
ing period of ancient learning and culture. Some things
in his teachings were peculiar to himself.

i. He did not present what he taught as conclusions
which he had arrived at ; neither as things discovered, nor
as certified by thinking in reference to them, but purely as
revelation.

2. He did not reveal as having learned from some
higher intelligence, but as speaking of his own original
knowledge.

3. His method was of great breadth, calling in the
exercise of all faculties of the human mind, and never seek-
ing to simplify by sinking one faculty in another.

4. His instructions have eminently the mark of holiness.
II. As to their substance, they contained intelligence

from the councils of God ; touching the nature of God's
existence, his designs for man, and some of his dealings
with higher beings.

2. They laid open the whole plan of redemption ; and
the love of God to the world.

3. They taught the purest, most summary and most
effectual principles of morals ; and the way whereby man
is to be accepted as holy with God : and of Jesus himself
that he was the sacrifice for sin, the mediator of a new
covenant, and the eternal Son ot God.

III. Jesus addressed the understanding of men, but
demanded of his followers first of all an act of the heart ;
namely, that they should trust in him, and love him and one
another. His doctrines have been accompanied with a power
to carry them directly to the heart and change the state of
its affections. Thereby, notwithstanding their depth and
height, they are adapted to all grades of capacity.

IV. The operation and effect of his teaching are found
in practice to be what he said they would be.

V. His miracles were essential to his instructions
touching himself as the Son of God, and his death and
resurrection, the supreme triumph which he came to effect,
and all, taken together, make a consistent whole, which is
the Gospel.

His last commission to his disciples was to teach all
nations. The progress of that teaching among men is the
history of the church.

VI. Christ presented himself as the subject of his
Gospel, and the teacher of its doctrines ; but assigned to
his disciples, under the Holy Spirit, the task of organizing
their own society — which is the church. Of that the be-
ginning was the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of
the first Pentecost after the ascension.

CHURCH HISTORY.

The History of the Christian Church since that date
is divided, in view of its own progress, into four great
periods. The first is that of the apostolic history, in the
end of which the church ceased to enjoy the presence and
counsels of inspired men who had seen the Lord. Second
is that which ended in conferring upon Christians external
supremacy in the Roman empire, extending from about
the beginning of the second century until the year 324 A.
D. The third is that of union with the state, and bondage
to the rule of iegalism within the pale of the church, and
extends until the first successful efforts for liberation, in
and about 15 17 A. D.

This long period contains others of great importance,
as that which was marked by the Nestorian schism in 431
A. D. ; that which determined the separation of the great

group of Monophysite churches, in 553 A. D. ; the terrible
loss to the churches of the east and south in the first
Mohammedan invasions, which began in 632 A. D., and
the separation of the church into the eastern and western
in the year 1054.

The fourth great period is that of the general conflict
for and against the free publication of the Gospel, and its
sole authority in the church ; which is still going on.

Upon more minute inspection, we shall find it neces-
sary to divide each of our periods into several subordinate
sections, on the same principle, but drawn more closely
from operations of the inner life of christians.

FIRST PERIOD.
FROM PENTECOST, A. D. 20. TO A. D. IOO.

Apostolic History consists of five sections, marked by
their respective steps of progress in the publication of the
Gospel ; namely, organization of the church in Jerusalem;
preaching the Gospel to the Samaritans and elsewhere in
Palestine ; first mission to the gentiles ; the overthrow of
Jewish nationality, and the completing of the sacred canon,
and death of the last inspired teacher.

The first began with the day of Pentecost and closed
with the death of Stephen. In it were witnessed the des-
cent of the Holy Spirit, and the transforming effect upon
the character of the apostles, the sermon of Peter, with
the addition of three thousand to the number of the be-
lievers in that one day. They all resided in Jerusalem,
formed one society, and had all things in common. At
first their social affairs, both spiritual and temporal, were
conducted by the apostles. In the separation of those two
classes of duties, and the appointment of deacons to super-
intend the latter, the primitive form of the church in Jeru-
salem was completed. All the members of that church
were Jews, or Jewish proselytes, and thought that the Gos-
pel belonged to only the children of Abraham, and those

adopted into their number. The apostles were endowed
with supernatural gifts lor the planting of the church in
its worship, government and instruction.

For a meeting of the whole, they used the court of the
temple, but they also met in separate companies as occa-
sion required, in synagogues, and in private houses ; and
the synagogue, not the temple, furnished the basis of their
worship and government. In the sense of a common or-
ganization, they were one church ; in the sense of congre-
gations, they were sometimes several. Provision for the
poor among them was accepted as a duty, and those who
had property contributed freely to the wants of the rest.

Enemies arrayed themselves against the church from
the first; Saducees because they preached the resurrection,
and Pharisees on the ground of disorder. The caution and
tolerance recommended by Gamaliel prevailed for a time in
the council. But persecution broke out again with great
severity upon the death of Stephen, and the members of
the church were scattered abroad.

The dispersion was at first through the regions of
Judea and Samaria, but very soon it extended also to the
Gentiles. The apostles lingered longer in Jerusalem, mak-
ing that city the centre of operations. Philip, the evan-
gelist, was the first to carry the Gospel to Samaritans.
From Jerusalem two apostles, Peter and John, were sent
to inquire into that work, and being satisfied with the re-
ality of the conversions, rejoiced together with their fellow
apostles, in such a way as shows that the fact was more
than they had expected. Peter's experience in the case of
Cornelius prepared them for preaching the Gospel to the
Gentiles. The Roman Centurion and all assembled in his
house were received into the church by profession of faith
and baptism, Acts x. 44-48 ; xv. 6-1 1. A new apostle was
miraculously called for the express purpose of preaching
to the Gentiles. Paul's conversion occurred in or about
the year 37. After having preached in Damascus, he spent
some time in Arabia, visited Jerusalem, and returned to
his native city Tarsus.

Meanwhile some of the dispersed came to Antioch
and preached to the Greeks, and a great number believed.
Hearing of that, the apostles at Jerusalem sent Barnabas
to visit Antioch, who, when he had come and had seen the
grace of God, was greatly rejoiced ; and going to Tarsus
he found Paul, and brought him to Antioch, where they
both labored for a whole year. In that great city, where
strict Jews with their Hellenistic brethren, and Heathen,
with proselytes to Judaism, lived in close neighborhood,
the views of the disciples were further enlightened touch-
ing the liberality of the Gospel. Consequently Antioch
was the place where the disciples were first regarded as
other than a Hebrew sect, and first received the name
Christian.

The church, which in the first of these two brief peri-
ods was but one community, was in the second dispersed
and formed into many. Jewish exclusiveness in the minds
of the disciples was overcome so far as to admit preaching
of the Gospel to Samaritans and Gentiles. But all were
still expected to submit to Jewish rites.

The rapid increase of the number of believers was a
fact which most deeply impressed the writer of their early
history. He recurs to it in different connections.

The creed of the church was contained in the simple
apostolic injunction, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved.

It was in the latter years of the Emperor Tiberius
that the church was formed in Jerusalem. The beginning
of its dispersion took place perhaps in the 22nd year of
that reign. The second period lasted through the reign of
Caligula and to the fourth year of Claudius. In 41 A. D.
Herod Agrippa was elevated by Claudius to be king of all
Palestine. He died in 44. The country was again treated
as a province, and governed from Rome.

In the history of the apostolic church the third sec-
tion extends from the first regularly appointed mission to
the Gentiles, about the year 45, until the arrival of Paul at
Rome, in 61.

After the Jews, the first opponents whom Christianity
met in argument were the Greeks, keen and logical, and it
became of importance for its preachers to be versed in that
learning from which those opponents drew their arguments.
Jews alone were yet systematically arrayed against the
Gospel. Antioch furnished a refuge for the disciples where
they were safe from that persecution, and a favorable cen-
ter of operations among the heathen. A short time sub-
sequent to the year 44, most likely 45, a number of
pious men, prophets and teachers residing at Antioch, as
they ministered to the Lord and fasted, were directed by
the Holy Spirit to set apart Barnabas and Saul to the work
of missions among the Gentiles. So when they had fasted
and prayed and laid their hands upon the missionaries, they
sent them away. The gospel was preached in every direc-
tion from Jerusalem ; but this, the most important of apos-
tolic missions, was addressed to the heart of the highest
civilization.

The missionaries were well qualified for their task.
Both of pure Hebrew blood, they were both natives of
Greek countries, and had enjoyed both Greek and Hebrew
culture. From Antioch they proceeded to Seleucia, took
ship to Cyprus, visited the cities Salamis and Paphos. in
the latter of which the Roman Proconsul, Sergius Paulus,
was converted, and the name of the apostle ceases to be
Saul, and becomes Paul. Thence they sailed to the coast
of Asia Minor. Here John Mark who had attended them
from Antioch forsook them and returned. Landing at
Perga they proceeded through Pamphylia to Antioch in
Pisidia. Thence eastward to Iconium, then to Lystra and
to Derbe. At Lystra they with difficulty restrained the
people from offering them worship, until the Jews stirred
up opposition to them. From Derbe they retraced their
steps to Lystra, Iconium, Antioch, Perga, and Atalia, and
thence to Antioch in Syria. There they reported to the
church what God had wrought by them ; and abode a long
time with the disciples.

Then arose a controversy about what was to be done
with heathen converts, whether it was, or was not neces-
sary for them to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses.
As some persons from Judaea disturbed the church in An-

tioch by arguing the affirmative of that question, it was
resolved that Paul and Barnabas and certain others should
go to Jerusalem and consult the apostles and elders. In
Jerusalem also the controversy was warm. Certain Phari-
sees who had become christian were very earnest for re-
taining the law. In the meeting which took place there
was difference of opinion ; but after Paul, Barnabas and
Peter had spoken, recounting what God had done for Gen-
tiles through them, James proposed a resolution which was
agreed to, that Gentile converts should abstain from meats
offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled and from
fornication, and that beyond this no other burden should be
imposed upon them. Silas and Judas Barsabas were ap-
pointed to accompany Paul and Barnabas to Antioch, and
communicate the message which they also carried in writ-
ing.

Still this was not complete emancipation from legal-
ism. The whole ministry of Paul was needed to effect
that, by demonstrating that salvation is by faith in Christ
alone, and that the believer is no longer under the law, but
under grace. The meeting, or council at Jerusalem occur-
red in the year 50 or 51, most probably the former.

Soon afterward Paul and Barnabas undertook another
missionary tour, but did not go together. Barnabas took
Mark as his companion and went to Cyprus ; Paul took
Silas and went through Northern Syria, round the gulf of
Issus into Cilicia, confirming the churches. Thence to
Derbe, Lystra and Iconium, stations on his former tour;
then through Phrygia and Galatia to Mysia. At Troas he
had the vision of a man of Macedonia, saying, " come over
into Macedonia, and help us.'' Accordingly he and his
companions sailed over to Neapolis, and thence proceeded
to Philippi. In that city after being imprisoned, miracul-
ously delivered, the conversion of the jailor, and vindica-
tion of their own character as Roman citizens, the mis-
sionaries planted a church, and proceeding westward vis-
ited Thessalonica and Beraea. There meeting with oppo-
sition from Jews, Paul went to Athens, then to Corinth,
where his companions, left at Beraea, came to him. After
laboring about eighteen months at Corinth he sailed to
Ephesus, then to Caesarea in Palestine, then to Jerusalem

to observe the Pentecost, and returned to Antioch in course
of the summer.

Paul's third missionary tour was entered on in Autumn
of same year in which he returned from the second. It
pursued nearly the same course, but more time was spent
in Phrygia and Galatia, and its direction was through Pro-
consular Asia to Ephesus. In that city Paul remained
nearly three years, so that all the inhabitants of the pro-
vince heard the word of the Lord Jesus. In the year 57
he proceeded by the way of Troas, to Macedonia and in
the Winter visited Corinth, spent three months there and
in the vicinity. Next Spring he set forth on his return by
way of Macedonia ; thence across the ALgean sea to Troas ;
then from point to point down the Asiatic coast to Miletus
where he had his last interview with the presbyters of Ephe-
sus ; then, by way of Rhodes and Patara, to Tyre, to Pto-
lemais and Caesarea, and finally to Jerusalem.

At Jerusalem a violent Jewish party charged him
with teaching even Jews abroad to disregard the laws of
Moses, and stirred up a mob, from which Paul was rescued
by the Roman officer in command of the garrison in the
city. This led to his trial before Felix, Festus and Agrippa
and his appeal to Caesar. At Caesarea he was kept a pris-
oner during the whole of the year 59, and the greater part
of the next. Late in the Autumn of 60, he was sent
to Rome, but was delayed until the Winter set in. In
crossing the Ionian sea he suffered shipwreck, was con-
strained to spend three months on the island of Malta, and
did not reach Rome until the Spring of 61.

The officer who had charge of Paul and the other
prisoners treated him with great courtesy and indulgence.

At Rome, he was received with similar consideration,
and was suffered to dwell two years in a house hired by
himself, freely preaching the gospel to all who visited him.

Paul's efforts had been addressed chiefly to the great
seats of government and moral influence. Antioch was
his starting point, and the scenes of his most prolonged
labors elsewhere were Philippi, Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome.

The companions of Paul in his missionary labor were
in his first journey, Barnabas all the way, and Mark as far
as Perga ; on his second, Silas, and from Lystra, Timothy

1-3

and at least part of the way, Luke ; on his third, Luke,
Titus and Timothy. Aquila and Priscilla, Apollos and
others were also associated with him briefly at different
times and places.

His epistles were written chiefly between A. D., 52
and 63, at Corinth, at Ephesus, in Macedonia and at Rome.

A tradition represents the Apostle to the Gentiles as
liberated on his first trial, as making extensive missionary
tours, revisiting Ephesus, Macedonia and Miletus, and ex-
tending his labors to Nicopolis, to Crete and to Spain. In
the year preceding the death of Nero, it is said he was
again in Rome, having been arrested a second time, and
suffered death by beheading in that year. Those who
believe in a second imprisonment of Paul refer to it and to
the preceding interval of freedom, the pastoral epistles.

The next section of Apostolic history extends from
the beginning of Paul's imprisonment in Rome to the
destruction of Jerusalem : — from A. D. 6r to 70.

After the meeting at Jerusalem, the history of the
other apostles is involved in obscurity. We subsequently
read of Peter ;.t Antioch, and in his own epistle, at Babylon
where his countrymen were very numerous. Although
the door was opened to the gentiles through the agency of
Peter, his special vocation was not to them. As Paul was
the chief apostle to the uncircumcision, so was Peter to the
circumcision (Gal. 2: 7, 8, 9.) In that capacity he probably
visited the Jews at Rome, and suffered martyrdom the same
year. The testimonies adduced to sustain the assertion
that he was Bishop of Rome, are feeble and contradictory
in themselves, and utterly inconsistent with all the scripture
that touches the subject.

Of the other apostles our knowledge is still more
scanty, and chiefly apocryphal. They are said to have
preached the gospel in Arabia, in Ethiopia, in Egypt, in
Parthia, in Persia, in India and in Scythia. The great fact,
which there is no reason to question, is that churches were
planted in all the leading countries adjoining on the Medi-
terranean sea, and in the direction in which their civiliza-
tion was advancing.

The church accepted its generic form within the time
of Paul. To that end the chief actors were Peter, Paul
and John. The apostles had their place exterior to the
working system of the church, and were not included un-
der it. They were appointed by Christ and miraculously
qualified for the special and temporary service which they
performed.

The form of the christian church partook of elements
contained in the Jewish synagogue, both as respects govern-
ment and worship. The presbyters, who were the rulers, the
reader and speaker and minister or attendant were the
office bearers of the synagogue. And the exercises con-
sisted of prayer, reading of the Word, exposition and ex-
hortation, with chanting of Psalms, and concluded with
the pronunciation of a blessing. All the churches were
constituted on the same model and were of co-ordinate
authority. None assumed supremacy over the rest, though
Jerusalem first, and then Antioch, was the most influential.
Before the death of Paul, the Christian Church consisted
of a great number of such communities all professing the
same faith and loving the same Redeemer and one another.

The publication of the gospel was first made by oral
address. But a literature was ordained also and grew up
by degrees. The canonical books except those of John,
were probably all written before the close of this section
of time.

When Paul finished his labors, the freedom of the
gospel had been fully vindicated ; but there was a party in
the church which still advocated compliance with some
parts of the ceremonial law. The great controversy of the
apostolic period was over this question. Paul was on one
side, and Peter was claimed by the moderate advocates of
the other. On either side the extremes ran out into
heresy.

The animosity of unconverted Jews and of the Jewish
authorities towards christians of all parties was unrelent-
ing. But their power was drawing near its end. A heath-
en enemy had already begun his career.

The events now mentioned took place under the em-
perors Claudius, and Nero. The last came to the throne
in A. D. 54. In the tenth year of his reign, a large part

of Rome was burned, by design or accident is not known.
But the blame was laid on the emperor ; and he to avert
the obloquy from himself, charged it on the christians.
We have no reason to believe that he concerned himself
about their faith ; but they were a class of people against
whom he could direct popular rage with impunity.

Two years later an insurrection in Judea led to the
removal thither of a large body of Roman troops. An
obstinate resistance changed the movement into a war. On
the part of the Romans it was conducted by Vespasian and
his son Titus. Meanwhile Nero, last of the Caesars, came
to his miserable and merited end, (June I ;, A. D. 68.)

The imperial throne was now an object of ambition
open to all the heads of the military force. The Pretorian
Guards at'Rome, the army of the west in Spain, that of the
northwest, in Gaul and on the Rhine, claimed, each for
themselves, the right of putting their respective generals
into the place of honor. And Galba, Otho and Vitellius
were successively elevated to the throne and dragged from
it, in the space of a year and a half. Soon after the last of
the three was elevated to the now dangerous office, Ves-
pasian also put in his claim. The army in Judea he left
under command of Titus; that of Illyricum was sufficient
for his own purpose. It was already near the scene of
strife, took up his cause, and won his victories before his
arrival. The empire was waiting his acceptance. And
thus the Flavian family (Dec. 20th, 69,) became the suc-
cessor of the Julian.

With Vespasian a new style of government opened.
For the good of the state his days were filled with business.
His industry and economy were even more than the Ro-
mans of that age could rightly estimate. During that reign
from 70 to 79 A. D., Christians, like all other orderly sub-
jects, enjoyed the protection of a government which inter-
fered not with their religious opinions.

Titus, in command of the army in Judea, after over-
coming a resistance of unsurpassed obstinacy, took Jeru-
salem by storm (Sept. 2, 70 A. D.) Its walls and houses,
and, much to the regret of Titus, its beautiful temple, were
levelled with the ground. The Jews as a nation were com-
pletely reduced. A portion of them remained in the land

between sixty and seventy years longer, after which in an-
other rebellion, they were finally broken and their frag-
ments scattered to the ends of the earth.

Their national centre was now lost, and their power to
injure the christians greatly reduced, but dispersed as they
were in far separate societies their hostility never abated
until it became dangerous to themselves to indulge it. And
ere that time they had accumulated for their posterity an
inheritance of vengeance, which is not all exhausted to the
present day.

The Mosaic economy, virtually abolished by its fulfil-
ment in Christ, was now practically terminated, and the
sacrifice and oblation ceased.

From the destruction of Jerusalem in A. D. 70, to the
death of the apostle John, the church passed through an-
other stage of progress, apostolic chiefly, and towards the
last, solely by the presence of the beloved disciple.

A new generation was growing up in the church, and
ere the end of this period the mass of believers consisted of
those who had been born within christian families. But the
history of the church is very scanty, almost a blank through
more than thirty years.

The clemency of Vespasian's reign was continued in
that of Titus, and the churches enjoyed freedom, in as far
as the government was concerned. But when in A. D. 81,
Domitian, a younger son of Vespasian came to the throne,
the work of persecution received imperial sanction. Among
others Flavius Clemens and his wife Domitilla, kindred of
the emperor, suffered. Through Jewish misrepresentation
Domitian was made to believe that the aim of the christians
was to put the successors of Jesus on the throne. He re-
laxed his severity upon discovering that the surviving
kinsmen of Jesus were poor peasants without political ambi-
tion or desires. Persecution of christians however con-
tinued on the ground of Atheism, that is rejection of all the
gods of heathen worship. Nerva, ascending the throne in
A. D. 96, repealed the persecuting edicts of Domitian ; but
took no steps to legalize Christianity, and give it a right to

government protection. At the end of two years he was
succeeded by Trajan, a wise ruler, but severe, by whom al-
though persecution was limited, it was within those limits
sanctioned.

After the Jewish wars began, the apostle John removed
to Proconsular Asia, took up his residence at Ephesus,
and preached in several cities in that province. He
addresses its seven churches with the authority of a special
commission. Under Domitian, he was banished for a time
to the isle of Patmos, where he wrote the book of Revela-
tion. His gospel was written after the other three, and
while he resided at Ephesus. His epistles have the color
of the same period, adapted rather to fan the love of those
brought up as christians than to instruct converts from
heathenism or Judaism ; and the faults he reproves are not
of a nature incident to new churches.

Disturbers of the peace of the church, and of the faith
of believers had already formed themselves into sects of
greater or smaller numbers. Some taught that the end of
the world was near, and looked for an early appearance of
the Lord. The Docetae held that Christ had no real body,
others that he was only a man ; at Ephesus under the very
presence of the apostle, Cerinthus the Gnostic taught his
wild opinions ; and the Nicolaitans had such footing at
Pergamus that the Holy Spirit, through John, administered
a reproof for that cause.

John lived to an advanced age, and died in the reign
of Trajan, about the close of the first century, and at
Ephesus, to which he had returned after the death of
Domitian. His teaching did notturn upon legal conformity
or the doctrine of faith, but upon christian love, and spiritual
union with Christ. It was needful that the gospel should
be presented in all three views, as obedience, faith and love.
Balanced, as they are in Scripture, they properly sustain
one another. But the last comprehends the other two.
Exposition of the more comprehensive principle was the
final work of revelation.

Christianity was first planted in cities. And as all the
converts of one city made only one church, the largest
churches were those of the large cities. Most eminent at
the end of the first century were those assembled in An-

tioch, Ephesus, Corinth and Rome. That eminence was
greatly due to the importance of the cities. But in no case
was authority over the other churches recognized as resid-
ing in them, or in any one of them.

The episcopal succession in Antioch begins with
Evodius, and the second bishop was Ignatius ; in Rome, it
is uncertain, but the common list begins with Linus, fol-
lowed successively by Anacletus, and Clement. Most of
the churches in those days claimed to have been planted by
an apostle, but for none of them do we find it said in earliest
tradition that an apostle was the bishop.

Notwithstanding the rise of heresies, the faith of the
Church in general was still of a uniform standard, and
means were in use for the propagation and maintenance of
christian knowledge. The canonical books of the New
Testament leceived by the Church without question were
the four gospels, the acts of the apostles by Luke, the
epistles bearing the name of Paul, to the number of thir-
teen, with the first epistle of Peter and first of John. But,
for a time, there were some churches which doubted con-
cerning the epistle of James, the second of Peter, the second
and third of John and that of Jude. The Apocalypse was
accepted from its first appearance. Subsequently its authen-
ticity was questioned by some parties in the chiliast con-
troversy. Respecting the epistle to the Hebrews, there
was question only of its authorship. These apostolic writ-
ings were publicly read in the meetings of Christians, and
placed together with Old Testament Scripture.

The scrupulousness of the early christians which gave
rise to those doubts, was due to the existence of certain
other books, in some respects good and well meaning, but
of no apostolic authority.

The day on which the Lord arose was a solemn and
memorable day to the disciples. On that day week they
were again assembled, when the Lord appeared among
them. Subsequently mention is made of the first day of
the week, as that on which the disciples " met together to
break bread," (Act xx. 7,) and by the Apostle John men-
tion is made of the Lord's day, Rev. i. 10. Jewish Chris-
tians observed also the annual festival of Pentecost. And
in some places exercises of public as well as private worship
were observed daily.

Worship consisted of prayer, reading of Scripture,
preaching, and singing of Psalms and Hymns and spiritual
songs. The music was entirely vocal.

It does not appear that the apostles and presbyters wore
any peculiar vestments when conducting divine service.

The places used for social worship were, in the first
instance, synagogues, but also, and perhaps most com-
monly, private houses.

Of Sacraments the early christians had only two,
Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

The ordinary ministers in sacred office were Presbyters,
also called bishops, in the first instance ordained by the
apostles, or evangelists, (Acts xiv. 23. Titus i. 5,) with
the concurrence of the church over which they were set
(Clement, I Epistle to Cor. 44), and evidence that they
were called by the Holy Spirit, (Acts 20 : 28.) The form
of ordination was laying on of hands with prayer by the
Apostle (2 Tim. 1 : 6.) or by the Presbytery, (1 Tim. 4: 14.)
or both. And the Presbytery was the company of Pres-
byters ministering in any one church.

From the corrupt morals of the age, to which the first
christian converts had been more or less accustomed, the
exercise of church discipline was necessarily strict, yet it
was ordered by the apostles to be laid on with the tender-
ness of brethren, (2 Thes. 3 : 14, 15. Titus 3 : 10. 2 Cor.
2 : 7.) The christian was to be holy, as becoming him in
whom dwells the Spirit of God. 1 Cor. 3 : 16, 17.

SECOND PERIOD.

From 100 to 325.

1. — Apostolic Fathers.

At the death of the Apostle John, about the year 100,
we come to the dividing line between revelation and the
work of preserving what has been revealed. So far the
church has been instructed by inspired teachers, now she
is to rely upon ordinary means. Still, for a few years, the
personal influence of the apostles lingered in the lives of
persons who had enjoyed their society. The next most in-
teresting group in the history of the church is that of the
Apostolic Fathers, gifted men who had been disciples of

some of the apostles, among whom were Clement of Rome,
Barnabas, Hermas, Ignatius, Papias and Polycarp. Of their
writings we have a general epistle by Barnabas, an epistle
to the Corinthians by Clement, a book by Hermas called
the Shepherd, several epistles ascribed to Ignatius, an
epistle of Polycarp to the church at Philippi, and the re-
centlv recovered anonymous work called the Teaching of
the Apostles. Other writings are ascribed to some of them,
but deemed spurious. The epistle of Barnabas may have
been written within the last years of the first century or
the first quarter of the second. The author is unknown.
Neither is anything certainly known about Hermas, except
that he was a contemporary of Clement.

According to tradition, Clement died in A. D. 102,
Ignatius suffered martyrdom in the amphitheatre at Rome
sometime between 107 and 1 15, Papias suffered at Pergamus,
and Polycarp at Smyrna the death of martyrs in 155.

The doctrines upon which those teachers insisted
most, were the deity of Jesus, his equality with the Father,
his vicarious suffering, the remission of sins through his
blood, the depravity of man, justification by faith in Christ
and obedience to his instructions. Some in their doctrine,
as Clement, Hermas and Barnabas follow the example of
Paul, and others, as Ignatius and Polycarp that of John.
Quite a number of books also are extant, as if from the
first and second centuries, which are grouped under the
general name Apocryphal. To none of these, the genuine
works of the Apostolic Fathers, any more than the apocry-
phal, did the early church attach a value equal to the writ-
ings of the apostles.

Among the sources of christian history for the second
century, there are fifteen epistles under the name of Ignatius.
They were all published for genuine until the middle of the
16th century. But three of them, written in Latin, were
soon discovered to be spurious; subsequent criticism, in a
few years clearly exposed the false pretensions of five more.
Bishop Pearson, an English divine of the 17th century, in
a learned treatise, defended the genuineness of the remaining
seven. These exist in two forms, a longer and a shorter.
It was the shorter which from about the beginning of the
1 8th century came to be generally accepted as genuine.

But in 1843 certain ancient manuscripts of three Igna-
tian epistles in the Syriac language were brought from a
monastery in EgyptTlmcrcTeposited in the British Museum,
which re-opened the controversy. So far as a conclusion
was reached, it was to throw doubt on the whole seven.
Some critics considered the three in Syriac as the only
genuine epistles of Ignatius ; others could see no sufficient
reason for excepting the three from the sweeping condemna-
tion of forgery passed upon the rest. Further criticism has
moderated those opinions, and brought controversy back
to the question of the genuine or interpolated condition of
the short seven.

Although beyond doubt some genuine letters of Igna-
tius constituted the foundation of the structure, it has been
utterly ruined for direct use in history. Only indirectly
can its evidence be of any value.

The spirit of the seven epistles is that of inordinate
hierarchical pretension, within a congregational episcopacy,
such as that the " Deacons are to be reverenced as Jesus
Christ, the Bishop, as God the Father, and the Presbyters
as the Sanhedrim of God, and college of the apostles."
The language argues the existence of a controversy for
and against the exaltation of the clergy.

The great theological question was the person of
Christ. On that, the extreme doctrines were those of the
Docetae, who denied the reality of his manhood, and of the
Ebionites, who argued that he was only a holy man, while
Gnostics wove it according to their fancies, into the specu-
lations of their philosophy.

The recognized ministry consisted of Presbyter-
Bishops and deacons, whose offices already began to be
subdivided in the larger churches.

Extraordinary offices in the church had now ceased.
Each church, with its session of Presbyter-Bishops, admin-
istered its own government without subordination to any
ecclesiastical superior. A Presbyter was so called from the
custom of the synagogue, the name being only the Greek
word for |j2J ; but by the Greeks he was also called an
overseer, ikeaxo7to<;, from which Bishop is an English deriv-
ative, the former being a title of rank, and the latter a
designation of office.

Deacons, originally appointed to distribute alms and
relieve the apostles of secular duties, took care of the poor
and sick, and discharged other duties standing between the
church and the world.

These were the only ordinary officers of the primitive
church. Knowledge of this fact was retained among
christians long after its simplicity had been practically
abandoned. It was defended as historical by Hilary of
Rome in the 4th century, by Jerome in the 5th, by Isi-
dore of Seville, in the 7th, by Anselm in the nth, and
by Pope Urban II., and the council of Beneventum in
1091, in the following words : " We hold the Deaconate
and Presbyterate to be holy orders. Because the primitive
church is said to have had these alone, and concerning
these alone have we the precept of an apostle." The same
statement was repeated by Peter Lombard in his celebrated
theological text book, published in the middle of the 12th
century, and by Gratianus in his book, the Decretum, which
constitutes an essential part of the Canon Law. In the
14th century the same fact was recognized by the author of
the book " Defensor Pacis," also by Nicholas Tudeschus,
bishop of Palermo, a member of the council of Basil, and
by the Papal canonist Paul Launcelot, whose treatise on
canon law was published in 1563. It was accepted by
the Reformers, who were most of them ordained presbyters
of the Catholic church, and, with exception of the Anglican,
retained no higher rank.

At first all the presbyters of a church were bishops;
but on any occasion of business or of public worship, one
of them necessarily presided. For each to have taken his
turn would have best preserved their equality. But from
that method they early departed, yielding the duty of pre-
siding" to one of their number, who thereby became their
permanent president and chief overseer, or bishop of the con-
gregation. In course of time it was thought expedient to
determine the rule that there should be only one bishop in one
church. This change took place, of course, gradually, and
in some churches sooner than in others. It manifests itself
in the course of the second century, beginning not improba-
bly in Antioch. A controversy on the distinction between
Presbyter and Bishop is indicated in the Ignatian Epistles.

Church extension proceeded in apostolic times by the
method of planting each new congregation as a separate
church, competent to its own government, after the model
constituted everywhere by the apostles. But when the
churches of the great cities began to expand, and new con-
gregations to proceed from them, another method, that of
branch churches, was gradually generated.

In the beginning of this period the emperor Trajan
was on the throne, and reigned until 117. He was suc-
ceeded by Hadrian, from 1 17-138. Neither of those em-
perors exhibited any animosity against christians, and yet
within their time christians suffered much at the hands of
local rulers and the people of certain provinces. Priests
and other ministers of heathenism were exceedingly bitter
against them, and stirred up the people to maltreat them,
or prosecuted them before the magistrates, on various false
charges. Information touching these matters did not al-
ways reach the Emperor.

An important contemporaneous testimony from the
heathen side is the letter of the younger Pliny from Bithynia
to Trajan. Pliny was governor of Bithynia, where Chris-
tianity had made great progress, while neither legally al-
lowed nor forbidden, and found himself called upon, in re-
gard to those charged with professing its faith, to act where
he had no law. He had recourse to the Emperor, stating
distinctly the case and what he had been able to learn
about the christians. In the rescript of Trajan, written
probably in 104, we have the first Roman law intelligently
addressed to the subject. It instructed Pliny not to disturb
the christians, not to take action in regard to them, unless
brought before him on a definite charge; but if so accused
and convicted they were to be punished unless they denied
Christ, and were willing to adore the Roman gods. (Pliny's
Letters, Book X. letters 97, 98.) Designed, as that rescript
was, to put a check upon unjust prosecutions, there is no
doubt that in the provinces many christians suffered under
its sanction.

From the letter of Pliny it appears that christian worship,
at the beginning of the second century was still extremely
simple, conducted in Bithynia with a degree of secrecy.
Their meetings were held very early in the morning.
Christ was the object of their adoration. They observed

the Lord's Supper, or the Love Feasts frequently: and held
themselves under oath to do no wrong. They were dis-
posed to submit to the government in all things, not incon-
sistent with their duty to God. But could not be induced
by even torture and the terrors of death to deny Christ.
And their influence was vastly greater than their numbers.
Throughout Bithynia the observances of heathen worship
had almost ceased; the temples were nearly deserted, and
victims for sacrifice could scarcely find a purchaser.

In the reign of Hadrian the heathen populace pro-
ceeded to such a degree of animosity as to clamor for the
execution of christians in the arena, as part of the enter-
tainment at the public festivals. Hadrian issued a rescript
interdicting such inhuman proceedings.

Within this period the Jews provoked their final
reduction. In Cyrene, (A. D. 115) they excited an insur-
rection, which extended to Egypt and Cyprus. Another
was raised by them in Mesopotamia. Another in 132, un-
der their leader Bar Cochab, attempted to expel the Romans
from Palestine. In the war whereby that insurrection was
put down, Palestine was, in 135, reduced almost to a des-
ert. Jews were forbidden to visit the ruins of Jerusalem
on pain of death. Only once a year, on the anniversary
of its destruction, were they permitted to view the place
from a distance. A new town subsequently arose there,
and in it a church of gentiles, or Jews, accepting a gentile
bishop and recognition.

2. — Primitive Apologists.

The next division of this period may be most charac-
teristically designated as that of the Primitive Apologists,
in whom, during the middle and latter part of the second
century, the church had her ablest defenders. The pro-
ductions called apologies were defences of christians,
written for the purpose of being presented to the Emperor,
or the Roman Senate. When Hadrian upon his imperial
tour visited Athens in 126, the learned christian Quadratus
took occasion to present to him a defence of his fellow
christians. Another was presented about the same time
by Aristides. A third was written by Agrippa Castor,
about 135, against the heresies of Basilides. All three are

lost. The earliest extant work of the kind is that of Jus-
tin Martyr, addressed to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, about
139. Another was prepared by the same author between
161 and 166, to be presented to Marcus Aurelius and Lucius
Verus, colleagues on the throne. He also wrote a work
called a dialogue with Trypho the Jew, in which he en-
counters the objections from the side of Judaism.

Justin was a native of Samaria, born of Gentile par-
ents. He suffered martyrdom at Rome in or about the
year 166.

Tatian, a friend and disciple of Justin, wrote an ad-
dress to the heathen among the Greeks, urging the folly
and grossness of heathenism, and the purity and wisdom of
Scripture.

The apology of Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, was
inscribed to a friend, one Autolycus, who was a heathen,
but a lover of truth, and presents evidences for christian
truth, drawn from both Scripture and history.

Athenagoras of Athens also prepared for the emperor
Marcus Aurelius an argument in defence of the christians.

Irenaeus about 170 wrote his treatise against heresies,
chiefly the heresies of the Gnostics. Such writings in-
creased in number towards the end of the century, but
most of them are no longer extant. Of those which re-
main the most valuable is the longer apology of Justin. Its
topics may be classified under the following heads:

1. " Appeals to the justice of the ruling powers, and
expostulations with them on the unfairness of the proceed-
ings against the christians."

2. " Refutations of the charges of Atheism, immo-
rality and of disaffection towards the Emperor."

3. " Direct arguments in proof of the truth of Christ-
ianity drawn from miracles and prophecy."

4. Exposure of the baseness and absurdity of poly-
theism and idolatry, and on the other hand the beneficial
effects of christian doctrine upon the life of men.

5. Description of the christian rites, customs and man-
ner of life.

Among the literary opponents, whom the apologists
had to encounter, were Celsus the Epicurean, Crescens the
Cynic, and the rhetorician M. C. Fronto, who all flour-
ished about the middle of the century. Bitterest was Cel-

sus. In a work called the True Account he collected all
the arguments against Christianity, which he could urge
with any degree of probability. It is now known only in
the refutation of it by Origen.

The arguments against Christianity were chiefly,
i. That Jesus was of low birth, and brought up among
the ignorant, the vulgar and vicious, and that he suffered
an ignominious death.

2. That Christianity was a novelty ; that it had not
the sanction of any national government; that it had com-
menced among barbarians, that its facts were incredible,
and its doctrines absurd, especially those of regeneration
and the resurrection ; that different portions of Scripture
contradicted each other, and that it demanded a blind and
unreasonable faith.

3. Christians were charged with atheism, with the wor-
ship of a crucified malefactor, and being poor and unculti-
vated, with the crime of creating division in religion and
society, and of being disloyal to their country and to the
emperor, with a superstitious spirit, fanatical and dismal.

4. Sometimes also mysteriously awful crimes were
imputed to them, as that of indiscriminate licentiousness,
of eating human flesh and blood, of devouring children in
their religious feasts, and other things equally wild, the fic-
tions of alarmed ignorance and heated imaginations.

Holding such belief the heathen populace certainly
thought that they had abundant cause for their deadly hat-
red to the followers of Christ.

In debate with Jews, the early defenders of the gos-
pel found common ground in the Old Testament Scrip-
tures ; and their aim was to show that the prophecies and
types of the Messiah, therein contained, were all fulfilled
in Jesus of Nazareth.

With heathen the controversy was partly religious and
moral, and partly political and social, and had to be de-
bated on the ground of admitted moral principle, good
sense, demonstrable truth and the common rights of Roman
subjects. It was the external morality of those early wit-
nesses for the gospel which weighed most in their favor,
and the change which passed upon wicked men when they
became christian.

Imperial persecution was fitful, and seldom continued
long ; local persecution by the heathen and Jewish popu-
lace was persistent, ignorant and malignant in every way,
from petty social annoyances to demands for " christians
to the lions " in the arena.

It was when the stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius
came to the throne, in 161, that persecution received im-
perial direction, and proceeded upon principle and by law.
The profligate Commodus took no interest in either philo-
sophy or religion, and proved a lenient ruler toward the
christians. At the end of the second century their number
had vastly increased within the empire, though under much
oppression, and in some places still constrained to observe
their ordinances in concealment from the multitude.

Concerning the doctrine and worship of the christians
in the second century we learn most from the apologists,
chiefly Justin and Irenaeus. For the works of their theo-
logian Arabianus, and of their historian Hegesippus, have
perished.

1. They worshipped Christ as God proceeding from
the Father, not as a holy man, but as the Word made flesh,
the divine nature incarnate.

2. They believed that the Holy Spirit was one of the
persons in Godhead, and in conjunction with the Father
and Son an object of worship.

3. Of man, they believed that he was created capable
of choosing right ; but capable also of transgression, and
that by sinning he fell in Adam.

4. Justification they assigned entirely to the merits of
Christ as its ground or cause, and faith they held to be the
means of acceptance.

5. They believed in such a degree of human freedom
that men were accountable for their actions.

6. They believed in the resurrection of the body, in
case of both righteous and wicked, the eternal blessedness
of the former, and eternal punishment of the latter.

But the principal point, discussed with all the philo-
sophical acumen of the time, was the person of Christ, and
his place in various theories of good and evil.

Of the forms of their worship and sacraments we
learn also some interesting particulars from the same
sources, especially from Justin.

1. Of Baptism he writes that it had taken the place of
circumcision, and was accordingly granted to infants.

2. It was administered by affusion, by immersion, or
by sprinkling, in the name of God the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. Only water was used. No other cere-
mony is mentioned as connected with it.

3. The day which is called Sunday Justin says was kept
sacred by them, because on that day of the week the Lord
Jesus Christ rose from the dead. On that day the people in
town and country met in their respective places of worship-.

(a.) In those meetings the memoirs of the apostles, or
writings of the prophets were read to such length as time
permitted.

(b.) Then he who presided delivered a discourse, in
which he instructed the people, and exhorted them to the
imitation of those excellent examples.

(c.) After that, they all rose together, and offered up
their prayer.

(d.) After prayer, bread was brought, and wine and
water. And again the brother who presided offered up
prayer and thanksgiving according to his ability, and the
people expressed their assent by saying " Amen."

Justin makes no mention of singing. But elsewhere
that element of worship appears with sufficient clearness.
It was one of the most striking features of christian meet-
ings as they were described to Pliny. Where Justin
worshipped, it seems that they celebrated the Lord's Sup-
per every Lord's day. He describes the administration of
that ordinance, more particularly.

1. After the prayer which closed the ordinary services,
the people saluted one another with a kiss.

2. Then to him who presided there was brought bread,
and a cup of wine mixed with water.

3. And he taking them offered up thanks and praise to
the Father of all, through the name of the Son and of the
Holy Ghost.

4. When he had finished the prayer, and offering of
thanks, all the people present assented by saying " Amen."

5. Then the Deacons gave to each of those who were
present to partake of the bread, and of the wine and water,
and to carry away some for those who were absent..

6. In that ordinance only those were allowed to par-
take, who professed their belief in those things which were
taught in the church, were baptized, and endeavored to live
as Christ commanded.

7. The bread Justin speaks of as what Christ had com-
manded to be offered in remembrance of his being made
flesh, and the cup as that which he commanded to be
offered in remembrance of his blood.

8. He does not mention the posture of the communi-
cants; but from that fact it may be inferred, as well as from
the statement that the Deacons distributed the elements,
that it was the same which they occupied when listening to
the preceding sermon and reading. For their change of
posture in prayer he does mention.

9. After the service a collection was taken up for the
poor.

Besides the Lord's Day, many christians still kept the
Jewish Sabbath, and the Jewish Christian practice of ob-
serving certain annual festivals was gradually gaining
ground among the Gentile churches. It was also com-
mon to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. The annual
commemoration of the Lord's suffering, death, and resur-
rection was also general in the churches both east and
west. But they differed in the way of observing it. By
the end of the century a serious controversy arose between
them on that subject.

That period which opened with the accession of Nerva
A. D. 96, and closed in the death of Marcus Aurelius (180,)
was the most prosperous and tranquil in the history of im-
perial Rome. The facilities for publication of the gospel,
notwithstanding local and occasional persecutions, were
unprecedented. The empire had reached its utmost extent,
was most of the time in peace, the fear or reverence of it
was upon all the world, delegates from Antoninus went even
as far as China, and the wants, natural and artificial, of so
many great cities made demands, which the most distant
barbarous nations found their profit in supplying

When from relying upon the counsel of an inspired
apostle the church came to employ the judgment of unin-
spired teachers, many difficulties beset her way. One of
these was philosophical speculation of that style which
bore the general name of Gnosis. It was not new, but

reached its maturity in the second century, within the time
of the Primitive Apologists.

Christian Gnosticism was a theory of good and evil,
how they arose, and how they co-exist, and how the per-
sons of Christ and of the Holy Spirit stand in relation to
them. Its fundamental elements were

1. A great and holy spirit, eternal, unchangeable and
infinite, the source of all life and good ; but inactive, — the
tranquil reservoir of holiness and power.

2. The world of matter, existing also from all eternity,
but inactive, and containing in itself the principles of evil.

3. The union of spirit and matter, which was tempo-
rary, and productive of the natural or imperfect.

4. The ruler of the natural world was the Demiurgus,
or master spirit, who created it by combining the contra-
dictory elements of spirit and matter.

5. Souls of men were rays of light which had come
from the eternal spirit. In their earthly condition they
are continually striving to obtain deliverance from fetters of
the Demiurgus and of matter, and thereby to return into
the region of the pure and spiritual.

6. Christ was one of the highest spirits of light, who
connected himself with the body of Jesus, to assist men
in effecting that end.

The various schools of Gnosticism differed from each
other chiefly in their way of representing the imperfect.
That of Alexandria effected it by emanations. But theories
of emanations differed among themselves.

1. Basilides taught that seven secondary powers ema-
nated from God. From these emanated other seven, and
from these again a third class, and so on, until there were
three hundred and sixty-five kingdoms of spirits, each of
which possessed a feebler degree of power in goodness
than the preceding, and the seven angels of the lowest
heaven came into contact with matter, and their chief be-
came the Creator of the world, the Demiurgus.

Men, at so great a distance as they were from God,
bound up with matter in creation, were inextricably in-
volved in darkness and evil. To deliver their -souls from
that bondage, the Nous, the first spirit of the highest order,
entered the man Jesus, at his baptism, and remained con-
nected with him until just before his death.

2. Valentinus, also an Egyptian, removed about 140 to
Rome. His pleroma was simpler than that of Basilides.
It consisted of fifteen male and as many female aeons who
all emanated from Bythos, the depths of Deity. From the
last of these proceeded a being called Achamoth, which
had no longer power enough to retain its place within the
Pleroma, and so came into contact with matter, and com-
municating the germ of life thereto, formed the Demiur-
gus or creator of the world.

Christ and the Holy Spirit were two new aeons, who
came to restore the disturbed harmony of the Pleroma.

3. A third branch of Alexandrian Gnosticism was
that of the Ophites. In their doctrine, the first man, the
second man, i. e. the son of man, and the Holy Spirit ema-
nate separately from Bythos. From the last, through
means of the former two, proceed the perfect masculine
light-nature, the Christ, and the defective female nature,
Sophia, or Wisdom. Sophia sought to defeat the oppres-
sive designs of the world creator through the serpent of
the first temptation. The office assigned to Christ was the
same as in the theory of Valentinus.

II. Among the Gnostics of Syria a simple dualism
prevailed. Their principal representative, Saturninus of Anti-
och, (between 125 and 150) taught that there was an origi-
nal evil Being, the everlasting antagonist of God, and that
in accordance with these two powers, both active, there are
two classes of men, one instigated by the evil Being, and
the other by the good.

III. The Gnosticism of Asia Minor is represented
chiefly by Marcion, a native of Sinope, who came to Rome,
and studied with the Gnostic Cerdo, between 140 and 150.
In Marcion's system there are three original principles, the
holy, the righteous, and the wicked, embodied in God, the
Demiurgus, and the Devil. As in other Gnostic systems,
matter is essentially evil. Men were under the merely
righteous Demiurgus ; and from him could expect only
justice. To free them from his severity, Christ took the
appearance of a body among them, and revealed to them
the holy God, and the way of obtaining his favor.

Such fanciful theories admitted of endless diversity of
treatment. The sect called Ophites lasted longest, and
were still in existence as late as 530. Gnosticism embraced

elements of both Ebionism and Docetism, but held nearest
to the latter.

About 170, a sect arose in Phrygia, under the teach-
ing of Montanus of Ardaban, afterwards of Pepuza, pro-
fessing to have a special inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and
a new dispensation to reveal. The Scriptures of the Saviour
were now to be completed by the Scriptures of the Para-
clete. Montanus and his associates, Maximilla and Pris-
cilla, were divinely inspired, and possessed the gift of pro-
phesying. They also practised numerous austerities, at-
tached great value to celibacy and martyrdom ; and pro-
claimed the end of the world, and a millenial reign of
Christ to be near at hand. The prophcies of Montanus
and his female associates were in most cases, if not in all,
committed to writing, and esteemed by their followers as
belonging to Holy Scripture, and completing the Christian
Revelation.

Montanists, driven from Asia Minor by persecution,
found refuge in Northern Africa, where, in the beginning
of the third century, they had an able advocate in Tertul-
lian.

In resisting Montanism another party rushed to an
opposite extreme, and not only denied the continuance of
the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, but also the doctrine of
the divine Logos, and rejected the gospel according to
John, in which it is principally taught, and the book of
Revelation, because of the Chiliasm, which was then de-
fended by it. The Alogi, as that party was sometimes
called, seem to have accepted Christ as a mere man or as
deified by the indwelling of God the Father.

Among heathen philosophies the most friendly to
Christianity was the Platonic ; and the firmest opposition
was exhibited by the Stoics. Some doctrines which Pla-
tonism argued, Christianity revealed ; but the pretension of
the Stoics to a faultless morality it rejected. That, how-
ever, was the strong point of Stoicism. There was abun-
dant reason in the natural heart for Stoic hostility to Christ-
ians. Accordingly, when Marcus Aurelius, an illustrious
member of that sect, came to the throne, persecution was
ordered against them with an intelligent animosity. It was
then that Justin suffered death at Rome, and the recently
formed churches in Lyons and Vienne in Gaul had their

faith severely tried. Spies and informers were encouraged
to bring christians to trial, and the agencies of persecution
in the local tribunals were sustained by the imperial autho-
rity.

From contemporaneous statements it appears that,

;. It was distinctly for their doctrine that christians
were then persecuted.

2. The purpose of the Emperor, though springing
from a different cause, coincided with the feelings of the
heathen public, to whose bitterness and savage nature the
style of the executions was due.

3? Local magistrates were sometimes forced beyond
all legal forms by the demands of the mob.

4. Jews retained their old malignity, though no longer
in condition to execute it of themselves.

5. The endurance of the martyrs at that time was due
to christian faith, not to mere physical energy or impassive
nerves, nor to the fanaticism for martyrdom.

6. It was the superior claims of the Christian's God,
and the doctrine of the resurrection and the life in Christ
which chiefly exasperated the wrath of the heathen.

The second century from the end of its first quarter
onward, was a period fertile in heresies. Without a sys-
tematic theology to sustain and restrain them, and with a
terminology general and undefined, men ran wild in specul-
ation. Early christians uninspired had no more certainty
of being always in the right than christians of later days ;
and from lack of experience were more likely to make mis-
takes.

Knowledge of the heresies of that time, especially of
Gnosticism, is best obtained from Irenaeus who came from
Smyrna into Gaul as a missionary, and after the death of
Pothinus in 177, became bishop of the church in Lyons,
where he continued to labor until his death. The best ex-
ponent of Montanism is Tertullian.

During this period the principal efforts of christian
writers were addressed to evidences of the truth of their
religion, and of its benign effects upon private life and the
order of society, and to counteract the progress of heresy.
The oldest, and still the best of the creeds, called the
Apostles', now makes its elementary appearance. It occurs
in various forms in Irenaeus, Tertullian and Origen. And

from the fact that it does appear under a variety of forms,
there is no reason to believe that it is apostolic in any other
sense than that of presenting a summary of the Apostles'
doctrine.

3. Though christians had their honored traditions, and
some books were in use among them which are no longer
extant, the books of Holy Scripture, as they have come
down to us, were the standard of their faith. Quotations
from them are frequent in the writings of the early fathers
and apologists.

The Greek originals of the New Testament were gen-
erally in use, both in the East and West, and the Septu-
agint, or Old Greek version of the Old Testament. But
translations, for instruction of the unlearned, were at an
early date made into Syriac for the east, and into Latin for
the west, as early as the second century. One of the oldest
of those versions was the Itala, which in course of time
came to be very highly esteemed and commonly used. An-
other Latin version it is thought existed in Gaul ; and a
third must have been made within the same period for the
use of the churches in Africa.

4. External uniformity was not enforced over the
churches by any central authority, nor by any all-compre-
hending general government. Coordinate churches held
more or less intercourse by letter, and by transfer of mem-
bers from one to another, and in cases of common danger,
churches of the same province, or even of more extensive
tracts of country, held councils or conferences together.
And all the churches treated each other as members of one
great commonwealth, and all adhered to fundamentally the
same system of polity, discipline and worship. And all
claimed the right of interfering with remonstrance and re-
proof where any one had departed from the common
standard.

3. — Christian Schools.

Another section of this period of church history is
marked by the rise to distinction of the great christian
schools, whereby the character of learning, or erudition is
for the first time attached to Christian literature. That may
be considered as the principal feature of church progress

until the rise of the controversy on episcopal rights and
prerogatives. The section begins with the persecution un-
der Septimius Severus in 202. and closes with the legaliz-
ing of Christianity by Gallienus in 261.

"The men whose lives and labors express the special
purpose of the period are its great scholars and theolog-
ians ; in Greek, Pantaenus, Julius Africanus, Hippolytus,
and others; and in the Latin, Tertullian, Minutius Felix/^^ ^£/W^£'f5?fc
and Cyprian. The quarters in which christian learning ap-
peared with greatest distinction were Egypt, Syria, Asia
Minor and North Africa : and chief of all, the great empor-
ium of Alexandria in Egypt.

From earliest date in the history of the church it was
customary to provide instruction for children and converts
from heathenism. The method employed was chiefly oral,
although books were also used. The term /.o.-y/kw,
or xarq%i£co, was employed in relation to it. The name
given to the work was /.ar////^::, and the persons so in-
structed were xarrj^oufAsvot, etc.

Besides these schools, a more advanced education was
provided for those who were to be ministers of the gospel.

Of all the church schools both for catechumens and
for ministers the most eminent were those of Antioch and
of Alexandria, and although not so much is said about the
schools in Carthage, that city was distinguished by its
gifted and learned men.

Athenagoras, one of the primitive apologists, is men-
tioned as a teacher in Alexandria in the second century.
But it was when Pataenus and his pupil Clement werej£vf£' J^Jo^

Ji^CUt

united in the management of its instructions, in the first s* /"£**"*>";&*,
years of the third century, that it began to take its place &j£~g> «*fv #0***^
the head of christian schools. T^ '

It was distinguished from the Monseion, that is, the
polytheistic university of the Ptolomies, by the name Didas-
caleion. There, christian theology was first subjected to
scientific treatment, in the exigencies of catechetical instruc-
tion and of apologetics, in defence against Jews, heretics,
and heathen. Alexandria was at once the chief seat of
Polytheistic and of Jewish learning, and from it issued the
most elaborate and ingeniously constructed Gnosticism.
The reputation of the christian school, built up by Pantae-
nus and Clement, was sustained by the uncommon intel-

usd .

lectual endowments of Oifgen, by far trie most laborious
man of his day. j <^*>,.^ •* £ 'W "Si~ce£/,

After the withdrawal pf Origen in 231, the Didascalcion
was conducted by his pupil Heraclas until 233, and until
248, by Dionysius, whose reputation in ancient times was
equal to that of Clemeni; and Origen. In those men did
the christian school of Alexandria see the highest point of
her erudition. Most of their writings have perished, except
the two last named. Qement is most valuable in the field
of paedagogic and antiquities, Origen, in that of Biblical
scholarship and theology. His views of doctrine guided
the thinking of a large number of the ministry for many
generations, and some of the most bitterly debated heresies
had their root in his teaching. <^'"~'1~^ «f.

Meanwhile the Syrian school, which had its seat at
Antioch, was rising towards that eminence, which it
matured a hundred years later. Xot a university, like the
Polytheistic and christian institutions of Alexandria, it was
a widely influential centre of Theological learning. In the
early part of the third century its greatest ornament was
Julius Africanus, a native of Emmaus in Palestine, where
most of his life was spent. His principal work was Annals
of the world from the creation, of which only parts are
extant. He died in 232.

2. After the death of Commodus, in 192, we enter upon
a new period of imperial history. From the death of.
Julius Caesar, regard for him had conferred the accumu-
lated honors upon his legal heir, and as long as adoption
continued the succession the empire was hereditary in his
family. With the death of Nero that came to an end ; and
the power of appointment to the highest office was grasped
by the army. Restrained early by the accession of the
Flavian family, that evil was successfully repelled for a
much longer time by the wise method of Nerva, which
secured a steady rule until the death of Commodus. Then,
all check upon election by the army being removed, the
decline of Imperial authority began. Pertinax was raised
to the throne, but retained it only three months. Didius
Julianus purchased it by a large bounty to the Pretorian
guard, but lost it together with his life in about two

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months. More reliable military support sustained other
candidates, among whom Septimius Severus with the army ^2")
of Illyricum proved successful. The Pretorian guards were
disbanded, and Severus organized in their stead a new
force, more numerous, and for himself more reliable. He
proved a stern, but successful ruler, both in peace and war.
After a campaign of great exposure in Britain, he died at
York, in 21 i, having reigned from 193.

In the first years of Severus, Christians suffered only
from the animosity of the heathen populace and some of
the provincial governors. But in 202 an imperial edict was
issued forbidding any who were heathen to become christ-
ian. Of course it bore heaviest upon those who conducted
christian worship and the schools of the church. It was
thus that Clemens and Pantaenus, were driven from their
work in Alexandria, that Leonidas, the father of Origen,
was brought to the block, and that Potamiaena, Perpetua, h~t*^.*r.ea
and Felicitas, and many others sealed their testimony with
their blood. Yet the edict was obeyed in only some pro-
vinces, and was not lon^ enforced.

In the reign of Caracalla, the son and successor of U" ~±/y )
Severus, the Roman empire began to experience the effects
of waning power. The emperor impoverished his subjects
to pamper the army, and purchased the privilege of peace
from his enemies. Having made himself odious at Rome,
he extended Roman citizenship to all the subjects of the
empire, and withdrew from the city. He was put to death
by Macrinus, Prefect of the Pretorian guard, I in 217.) The
assassin took his place, but was slain next year by the sol-
diers, who set up Heliogabalus, a boy of fourteen years of 6^-i.i^ .
age. At the cm\ of four years the boy-emperor, preco-
cious in profligacy, met the fate he had ordered for many
others. With such rulers religion was a matter of little
concern. And when, in 222, Alexander Severus succeeded f-** * •&*/
to the throne, one of his first acts was to revoke all edicts
against christians. His mother Julia Mammaea was so
friendly to them that many believed her one of their num-
ber. The liberality of Alexander was extended to the
great and good of every name. His domestic chapel con-
tained busts standing for Abraham, for Christ, Orpheus,
and Apollonius of Tyana ; and the golden rule of Christ
he had inscribed upon the walls of his palace.

In the fourth year of his reign, Persian nationality was
revived under Ardishir Babegan, who overthrew the Par-
thians, renewed the claims of the successors of Cyrus, and
prepared to drive the Romans from Asia. The Avestan
religion was restored, and Christians were driven back into
the empire, or subjected to severe oppression — the begin-
ning of long continued persecution in that quarter. Sas-
sanide princes recognized no such affinity between their
degenerate Avestanism and the gospel of Christ, as their
hero Cyrus had recognized between the Avestan faith of
his day and the religion of the Jews.

The first Persian invasion Alexander successfully re-
sisted ; and had turned his victorious arms against enemies
in the north, when he was murdered. He had reigned
thirteen years. Maximin, a Thracian, was elevated by
the army. He exhibited his hatred to the christians by
indulging the heathen populace in their cruelties to them,
and directing his own attacks upon their clergy. At the
end of about three years (238) he was slain by his own
soldiers.

In this instance the senate at Rome disputed the right
of the army in the north to appoint a master for the empire,
and favored the election of Gordian, proconsul of Africa ;
and when he was slain, transferred their preference to a
younger member of his family, a boy of twelve years. At
the end of six years the younger Gordian was murdered
by order of Philip the Arabian, who assumed the purple
in his stead.
/Uj/-.zvv) Under the jurisdiction of Gordian the churches were
x ^Y-^-^-ffiot molested ; and Phijip was even friendly. In 249 he
was defeated in battle with Deciusy/and slain. Decius
marked his reign by issuing, in 249, an order to all gov-
ernors of provinces to return to the ancient State religion,
and to enforce it with the severest penalties, thereby insti-
tuting one of the most sanguinary persecutions that the
church has ever been called to endure. It extended to the
whole empire. It was also occasion of much subsequent
controversy touching the discipline of those who had suc-
cumbed to suffering, or fear,

Decius, slain in battle with the Goths, in 251, was suc-
ceeded by Galltjs, who renewed the persecution after a brief

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relaxation. But, in 253, Gallus was slain by his soldiers.
His successor, xEmihanus, met the same fate in three
months. Valerian was raised to the throne, and held it
until 260, when he was defeated and taken prisoner by the
Persians.

Persecution, restrained in the first^ years of Valerian,
was revived in 257. By Gallienus, the son and successor
of Valerian, it was brought to an end, in 261, and Christ-
ianity recognized as a lawful religion, received for the first
time a title to governmental toleration. Gallienus issued
his edict immediately upon finding himself sole emperor,
but as Macrianus usurped authority in the east it did not
take effect over the whole empire until the usurper's defeat,
in 261. Thence forward, until the nineteenth year of Dio-
cletian, Christians suffered little molestation, from the
imperial hand.

3. They were still the minority of the population upon
the whole, but in some provinces more numerous than the
heathen, and their doctrines had now become generally
known. They could no longer be treated with contempt.
Nor could the charges of disloyalty, or of immoral con-
duct any longer be advanced against them ; but that of
atheism, as the heathen meant it, was fully established.
Their cause was distinctly apprehended to be death to the
worship of the gods, and to the very belief in their exist-
ence.

Christian influence had by the time of Gallienus been
operating so long that it had wrought an important change
upon the moral character of society in general. Vices once
so common as to be little blamed, were now branded with
disgrace ; and certain abominations once practised in
heathen temples, and esteemed essential parts of worship,
had ceased ; and were now regarded as corruptions, from
which Polytheism had purified itself in returning to its own
standards. That Christianity had some good in it was not
now denied ; but it was urged that Polytheism had more,
and that it maintained a reverence for the gods, and a ritual
worship indispensable to the completeness of the service
men owed them. It was argued that the virtues of Christ-
ians were disfigured by a low and tasteless manner of life,
a barbarous form of worship and rude fanatical spirit, and

that by their Atheism they were bringing down the wrath
of the gods upon the empire The attitude of the most in-
telligent heathen towards Christianity and their own religion
was not unlike that of the Bramo Somaj in India, at the
present time : and the Neo- Platonic philosophy was ac-
cepted as their guide.

Ammonius Saccas, the founder of that philosophy,
died in 243, at the age of more than eighty years. His
system was one of which some elements of Christianity
and of oriental speculation were engrafted upon the stock
of Platonism.

The heathen had also their wonder-working sage, in
the Pythagorean philosopher, Apollonius of Tyana, who
lived in the time of Christ's appearance and obtained some
distinction in letters. A work professing to give an ac-
count of him was written about the year 220, by Philostra-
tus, at the instance of Julia Domna, the wife of Septimius
Severus. It represents Apollonius as travelling in many
countries in the east, teaching and disputing about religion
under an assumed divine authority, and working miracles
like Christ, but also practising heathenish falsehood and
deception.

4. It was still around the question of the wonderful
person of Christ that the theological discussions of Christ-
ians arrayed themselves. But the principal point was no
longer whether his body was real or not ; it was now of
his Deity. And the bearing of the controversy was deter-
mined by the opinions of those who taught the sjngjejiess_
_of person in Godhead, called by the general name Mon-
archianism.

That style of doctrine presented itself in several forms,
one of which was but a variation upon Ebionism, teaching
that Christ was only a man conceived by miraculous
means, and endowed with the divine wisdom from his
birth. The power of God was conferred upon him in
greater degree than upon the prophets, or any other hu-
man being. The distinction of the party holding this
doctrine was due to Theodotus, a Byzantine, who came to
Rome in the latter part of the second century.

Similar was the teaching of Artemon about the same
time in Rome. Although rejected by christians generally

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and by some eminent writers, it continued to be defended
by a party through the first half of the third century.

A second variety of Monarchianism was that which
claimed all deity for Christ. The one God, who in other
respects is the Father, becomes in his appearance in human
nature, the Son. Jesus was divine by the indwelling of the
only person in Godhead.

This doctrine was first preached in Rome by Praxeas
who came from Asia Minor about the end of the reign of
Commodus (rg2.) By opposition to Montanus he drew
upon himself the censure of Tertullian, who charged his
doctrine with seeking to commend itself as teaching the
monarchy of God. The expression has given a general
name for that class of heresies.

For holding doctrines similar to those of Praxeas,
Noetus was excommunicated in Smyrna, in 230. Some-
times this class of Monarchians were called Patripassian,
according to a saying of Tertullian about Praxeas, that
" two works of the Devil he wrought in Rome, he drove
out prophecy and brought in heresy, put the Holy Spirit
to flight and crucified the Father."

Between the Patripassian and the orthodox apparently
was the doctrine preached by Beryllus of Bostra, that, be-
fore the incarnation, the Son of God existed in the Father,
but not as a separate personality. He become a separate
person when he assumed human nature. At a synod in
Bostra (244) Beryllus listened to his own refutation by
Origen, and recanted.

Another doctrine of kindred nature was that of Sabel-
lius, a presbyter in Ptolemais, between 250 and 260, who
taught that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were not, in
the common acceptation, different persons, but different
manifestations of the same person. Christ was divine, not
as an emanation from God, not by indwelling of the Father ;
but as that particular manifestation called the Son. ^ e
conceive of God in his self- existent, creative and all-sup-
porting power, as the Father ; in the illuminating power of
the Logos, as the Son, and in his enlivening power in the
hearts of believers, as the Holy Spirit; and thus have three
divine energies in one person.

■^■~~M;

Moreover Sabellius believed that the man Jesus was
not a common man, but specially prepared for that union
with Deity.

By the churches in general the doctrine of a trinity in
unity of the Godhead was held as firmly as at any other
time ; but discussion of the subject was working towards a
logical expression, not yet satisfactorily attained.

Controversy also arose out of the method of scriptural
interpretation adopted by the Alexandrian School, and
especially by Origen. That method recognized a three-
fold meaning in Scripture, namely the literal, or historical,
the moral, and the mystical. By urging the mystical
meaning of certain texts Origen was charged with some-
times denying the historical ; and the method, if it had
some advocates, also encountered strong opposition.

5. Origen in his theology also gave occasion to much
controversy. His views were expressed in commentaries
on Scripture, and in separate treatises, as well as in a sys-
tematic work on theology, called De Principiis. That work
was assailed from various quarters as containing heresy, it
was also defended by some of the ablest writers of that and
the succeeding century. It was both accused and defended
on the charge of Platonism. Although obviously designed
to controvert Gnostic speculations, it was colored to some
extent by them. The principal points of his system were:

(a) That God is everlastingly active, creating from and
to all eternity. \* > ?<u^ ~~ ^^h^-

{b) That all intellectual beings, are originally equal,
and clothed in bodies, God being the only disemtfbdied
spirit. The differences among men are due to their re-
maining holy or sinking in sin. But all are free to return
to righteousness, even the Devil is capable of amelioration
and pardon.

(c) The Logos, the Mediator of all divine agency, and
inferior to the supreme God, did not proceed from the
essence of the Father, as an emanation, but as a constant

^i ray of the divine glory, was generated by the will of God
from eternity.

(d) The Holy Spirit, and all other beings were created
by the Logos.

//V<r^ w^ ry^sf<. ^*c. tfs i_*v ^^~^/~

(e) In Jesus the Logos united himself to a real body
and a human soul, both specially prepared for him.

(/) That the Holy Spirit impresses divine truth upon
men to their salvation.

(g) That the world had a beginning, and will have an
end, but in the triumph of the work of Christ.

(/*) That Scripture, both old Testament and new, is
divinely inspired.

(z) To attain the highest virtue, a man must be free
from all restraints of sensuality, and of self-interest, having
for his aim to be like God.

(J) Alexandrian theologians held that the resurrec-
tion body will not be of earthly material, but spiritual and
incorruptible.

{k) They accordingly rejected the expectations of sen-
sual chiliasm.

Origen held that Christ is of "a nature midway be-
tween the uncreated and that of all creatures." All
creatures derive their being from the Father through the
Son. The Son proceeds from the will of the Father.

Dionysius, the pupil and successor of Origen in the
christian school, in his attempt to develop the idea of his
master more precisely, was led to designate the Divine
Logos as created of the Father from all eternity, a state-
ment which he afterwards withdrew, or explained away.

6. It was commonly believed that after the resurrec-
tion there would be an earthly kingdom of Christ, in which
the saints should, for a thousand years, enjoy much happi-
ness. That was to be the great Sabbath of the world's
history, and was to occur, as some thought, after the lapse
of six thousand years from the creation. A small party,
deriving its origin from Cerinthus, expected that millennium
as a period for enjoyment of sensual pleasures. A literal
acceptance of the millennium described in the book of
Revelation was insisted on by Nepos and Coracion,
Egyptian bishops. But their teaching on that point was
opposed by Dionysius of Alexandria so effectually that
before a synod held at Arsinoe in 255, Coracion professed
himself convinced of his error and renounced it. Sub-
sequently through the efforts of Dionysius and others that
style of chiliasm was abandoned in the eastern churches.

y. During this period we find more frequent mention
of edifices exclusively used for christian worship. In 202
it appears that there was a church building in Edessa.
Alexander Severus gave a piece of land in Rome for a
christian place of worship, and the edict of Gallienus orders
their places of worship to be restored to christians. Such
an edifice was called a place of prayer {Ttpoasoxrrjpcov), or the
Lord's house {br/.o^ xuptaxot;, or or/J.a xuptotxy, or later to
xupcaxov), or the house of meeting, or of the church (orxoz
h.ySkqaiac, or simply ixxXqaia). From early in the third
century, the idea of constructing such houses more or less
after the model of the temple at Jerusalem, took possession
of the minds of christians in some quarters. And where
that was carried out, worship began to be celebrated in a
more formal manner, and a greater distinction to be made
between the ministry and the congregation. Terms also
belonging to the temple and the temple service gradually
crept in.

Holy days, from the middle of the second century,
were gradually multiplied. The churches in some places
fasted and held meetings on Wednesdays and Fridays, the
days of the- Lord's betrayal and crucifixion. And the ob-
servation of the Lord's Passion and of Pentecost was fully
established, in the west, as well as in the east, before the
close of the second century. The manner of that observa-
tion gave rise to a controversy of some warmth. The
churches of Asia Minor observed the feast on the 14th of
the first Jewish month, Nisan, and on the third day after
that, the memorial of the resurrection, following closely
the historical order, although the day of the month did
not, of course, in most years correspond to the day of the
week, on which the Lord suffered. The church of Rome,
on the other hand, with those of Alexandria, Jerusalem,
Tyre and Caesarea of Palestine adhered strictly to the days
of the week though they might not correspond always to
the same days of the month. Touching this difference,
Polycarp, on a visit to Rome in 162, had conference with
the bishop of Rome, but neither of them persuaded the
other, nor thought it of such importance as to impair their
fraternal affection. But about 196, Victor, bishop of Rome,
assuming such pre-eminence as the imperial city exercised

in civil matters, and claiming superior place in the church
as successor of St. Peter, undertook to compel the churches
of Asia Minor into compliance with the western practice,
by the terrors of excommunication. He was quickly ad-
monished of his error by several bishops, in both east and
west, among the rest, by Polycrates of Ephesus, and
Irenaeus of Lyons. The case ended in leaving each church
to decide for itself, until the council of Nice, 129 years
later, acting for all the churches, declared in favor of the
western custom. The Easter observance assumed greater
proportions in the third century. The chief points being
the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the descent of the
Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the first was com-
memorated by fasting, the second and the third by festi-
vals, and the interval between them as the Sabbath of the
•christian year.

Long continued, or at least, frequently recurring per-
secution had constrained the christians, in many countries,
to keep their times and places of worship secret. Secrecy
began to be regarded as an essential element of some parts
•of their service, which were spoken of as mysteries. Dur-
ing the celebration of the Lord's Supper it was thought
proper that all heathen, and unbaptized spectators should
be excluded. At Rome, Naples, Syracuse, and some other
places, christians found refuge in caverns beneath the
ground, where they both conducted their worship and buried
their dead. Some of those catacumbae (catacombs) have
been opened within recent time.

Inordinate importance was now attached to martyr-
dom by the churches generally ; Origen went the length of
attributing to it a dignity and efficacy similar to the death
of Christ. In his estimation, persecution was a real good,
and its cessation contemplated as an evil. The baptism of
blood secured acquittal of all sin. The intercession of
martyrs was thought to be of avail on high.

Exorcism of persons to be baptized is now mentioned,
that is certain ceremonies and prayers were used for the
purpose of casting out the evil spirits who were supposed
to hold all unbaptized persons under their power. De-
mons, who acted the part of gods to the heathen, submit-
ted, at the name of Christ, to be recognized for what they

really were, and to depart from the human soul whom they
afflicted. A heathen idol was a nonentity. But a demon
would act the part imputed to it, and thereby lead its wor-
shiper captive at his will. The air was full of demons.
Christ had established dominion over them on behalf of
his people. At the mention of his name by a true believer
they were constrained to obey, and withdraw.

4. — Beginning of Christian Literature in the
Latin Language.

In the last years of the second century we first meet
with christian writings in Latin. They belong to the church
of Northern Africa, and are the earlier works of Tertullian.
The history of the North African church begins with that
eminent Latin father. Already it consisted of a great num-
ber of prosperous christian communities.

Tertullian appears first as an apologist about 190. He
was a native of Carthage, son of a proconsular centurion,
became a presbyter in the church of his native city, and
wrote a great number of works in the christian cause,
chiefly in the reigns of Severus and Caracalla, between 193
and 217. After he had passed middle life he embraced the
opinions of Montanus, with which his later writings are
imbued. About the same time Minutius Felix, a Roman
lawyer, wrote an apologetic work in defence of Christianity
in form of a dialogue, which he called Octavius: and Caius,
a presbyter at Rome, wrote a treatise against Montanism,
while Novatian, also a presbyter in the same church, de-
fended that faction, and introduced it into the west of
Europe.

After the death of Tertullian, the most eminent leader
of ecclesiastical opinion was Cyprian, also a native of Africa,
and born about the beginning of the third century. Until
middle life he was a heathen, but carefully educated. Pos-
sessed of considerable fortune, upon his conversion (246)
he sold all, and distributed the price to the poor. Next
year he was ordained presbyter in Carthage, and in 248,
elected bishop. In the persecution under Decius he was
marked out for a victim, but succeeded in eluding arrest.

Eight years later, in the persecution under Valerian, he was
singled out with such purpose that escape, if practicable,
was not within what he deemed the bounds of duty to his
people. He suffered death for the profession of his faith in
the year 258. Much of Cyprian's attention was constrained
to the subjects of church government and discipline, and to
them do the most important of his writings pertain.

2. In the terrible persecution under Decius, and con-
tinued by Gallus, many christians fell away, and denied
their faith in order to save their lives. They sacrificed to
heathen gods, offered incense, or procured certificates from
the magistrates that they were not christians, and were
designated accordingly as sacrificati, thurificati^ or libcllatici.
Many officers of persecution did not wish to destroy life,
but to suppress Christianity, and often made the acts of com-
pliance very light. But to a true christian they were all
alike horrible. For the slightest mark of respect to heathen
worship was to pay homage to a demon. When the per-
secution had passed over, many who had thus escaped
made application to be taken back into the church. It be-
came a matter of no little difficulty to settle the terms upon
which they were to be re-admitted or rejected.

In the church of northern Africa, a difference in the
presbytery upon the election of Cyprian to the bishopric of
Carthage, led to the separation of a minority. Five pres-
byters, at whose head was Novatus, refused to approve of
the election, and as Cyprian soon afterwards was driven
from his place by persecution, they proceeded to conduct
their affairs without him. They ordained as a deacon
Felicissimus, who subsequently became chief of the party.
The question of the lapsed widened the schism. Cyprian
was in favor of imposing a severe probation upon those who
wished to return to their place in the church ; Felicissimus
and his party would re-admit them upon the simple pre-
sentation of their petition. A synod of the African church,
which met in 251, resolved to re-admit the lapsed upon
condition of their repentance, and submission to such pro-
bationary exercises as the church might think proper in
each particular case.

In the church of Rome, about the same time, a similar ^,a
schism took place. On the election of Cornelius as Bishop,

in 251, a minority of the Presbytery dissented on account
of his leniency towards the lapsed, and chose Novatianusas
their bishop. The course adopted by them touching the
lapsed was that of refusing to admit them on any terms,
holding as a general principle that great sins committed
after baptism should exclude from the privileges of the
church. A considerable number of both clergy and laity
joined them, and formed that party, which either took or
accepted the name of Cathari, or Puritans.

A synod at Rome, in 251 took action against that
party, and in favor of such a moderate course towards the
lapsed as that adopted by the synod of Carthage in the
same year.

In the case of both the African and Roman schisms
the dissenters defended their organization on Presbyterian
ground in opposition to the high prelatical assumptions of
the bishops of Rome and Carthage. But it was then too
late to organize a successful resistance to prelacy on that
ground, directly or indirectly. The question of ministerial
equality had already to be debated on a different level.
Two Spanish bishops, Basilides of Leon and Martial of
Merida, were deposed by a Spanish Synod, as being libel-
latici. They applied to Stephen, bishop of Rome, for his in-
fluence in their favor. Stephen assumed to restore them,
and received them into communion with his church. The
Spanish church consulted that of Africa, which at a Synod
in Carthage censured the bishop of Rome for participation
in the disorderly conduct of the deposed bishops.

3. Again, the validity of baptism by heretics had
been denied by the African churches, at a council held
at Carthage, about the beginning of the century, and by
those of Asia Minor, in a council at Iconium in 235.
In Rome, and some other places in the west, the opposite
view was taken, and acted on. Persons having received
heretical baptism were admitted into the communion of
the church by laying on of the hands of the bishop.
When Stephen became bishop in Rome, he undertook
to constrain all churches to conform to the custom of his
own, and threatened to excommunicate the churches in
Asia Minor, if they adhered to their discipline in that
.respect. Firmilian of Caesarea in Cappadocia wrote a long

epistle to Cyprian on the subject, in which he criticised
the conduct of Stephen, retorting upon him the charge of
schism and sharply reproving his assumption. Stephen was
also censured for that act by Dionysius of Alexandria. In
Africa the same view of the subject was taken by the
synod which met in Carthage in 254, and again by that of
255. That decision was communicated to the bishop of
Rome in a letter drawn up by Cyprian, who also defended
the equality of all bishops. Stephen's answer to the African
bishops was overbearing; and his threat was repeated that
the Roman church would separate from their communion.
In 256 another synod at Carthage affirmed the action of
its predecessors ; and Cyprian took occasion more fully to
state the views which he and the other members of the
synod held touching the equality of bishops.

From these statements it appears that a new epoch
has been reached in the history of the ministry. The dis-
tinction between presbyter and bishop is not only clearly
made, but the bishops of some great cities, especially of
Rome, are beginning to assume superiority over other
bishops. The opposition is mainly upon an episcopal basis.
Rome is now spoken of as the chair of St. Peter, not in
the sense that Peter was ever bishop there ; but that dur-
ing a visit he had directed the affairs of the church, as an
apostle. The pretension of the Roman bishop is not ad-
mitted by the bishops of Asia Minor, of Alexandria, of
North Africa and of Spain. But in opposing it on the
equality of bishops, episcopacy as a separate rank in the
ministry is more fully discussed and defined than ever be-
fore. By Cyprian the essentials of the church are held to
consist in a particular organization, and a connection with
bishops in the line of apostolic appointment. On this head
he coincided with the majority of ecclesiastics in his day ;
and in defending it constructed the foundation for the very
evil he was controverting. The bishop of Rome took his
stand upon the greatness of his church. And there, in
fact, lay the difficulty of maintaining episcopal equality.

The greater number of the bishops, whose equality
was defended by Cyprian, were only pastors of single
•congregations. But in the churches of great cities, the
method of extension developed a new feature of epis-

copacy. The principle that all the christians of one city
should form but one church, after the establishment of the
rule of but one bishop in one church, inevitably produced
prelacy. For when the church increased in numbers and
had to divide into several congregations the one bishop
was constrained to employ presbyter assistants to conduct
worship at the different places of meeting. And these
presbyters necessarily became the pastors of the respective
charges over which they were set. The bishop of such a
city church became the chief over a number of pastors,
who in rank were only presbyters serving under his appoint-
ment, while the bishops in small towns and country places
where there had been no such increase of numbers remained
bishops over only their single respective congregations.
It was natural that the bishop who presided over the pas-
tors of several congregations should assume superiority
over him who had pastoral charge of only one. Such is
the juncture at the middle of the third century, when even
the bishop of Rome, who claims a place of superiority
among bishops, has yet no episcopal jurisdiction over them,
nor, although ruling over a more important see than any
of the rest, does he yet hold a superior title of rank above
them. It was a state of things which could not continue.
No argument, however strong, for the equality of bishops,
in circumstances so different, could withstand the tendency
to further discrimination of ranks.

It is also within this period that regular provincial
councils come distinctly to notice. In the second century
mention is often made of councils in different provinces, as
those in relation to Montanism, held at Hierapolis in Phry-
gia, and at Anchialus in Thrace ; in relation to the Colar-
basians, held at Pergamus, in 152, on the Easter observ-
ance, held at Ephesus 196, and one at Rome in 197, also
at Jerusalem, at Caesarea, in Pontus.at Lyons, in Osrhoene,
and in Corinth. Tertullian speaks of councils as habitually
held in Greece, and Firmilian of Cappadocia mentions them
as being of regular recurrence in his country, but of very
few in the second century have the dates been recorded.
Of some in the third century the history is more definite.
There were councils in Carthage in 218 or 220, on baptism
of heretics ; 251, in relation to Felicissimus ; 252, on early

baptism; 253, on baptism of infants and by hereties ; 254,
in relation to the Spanish bishops, one in 255, and two in
256, relating to the controversy with Rome.

In the same period there were councils at Rome in
231, 251, 256, and 260. In Alexandria two are mentioned
in 231 and soon after, touching the disputes of Demetrius
with Origen. Others are mentioned elsewhere, as one in
Bostra in Arabia, in 244, one at Zambesa in Africa in or
about 240, at Iconium in 230 or 258, at Ephesus in 245,
in Achaia, in or about 250, in Narbonne Gaul in 255, or
260, and somewhere in Arabia in 247.

In the first instance Synods held in check the increas-
ing pretensions of the bishops of great cities; but latterly,
by defending ministerial equality on the basis of episco-
pacy, they actually constructed the most effective support
for that ecclesiastical aristocracy which soon after assumed
its position in the churches. For consistently with the .
municipal element of the ancient church, and which was
fundamental in the ancient idea of government, the presi-
dency of a council resided in the bishop of the chief" city
of the province in which it was held.

From heathen mysteries some christians borrowed the
idea of esoteric and exoteric doctrines. The written Word
contained the exoteric, or public instruction, although it
also beneath its obvious sense concealed a mystical mean-
ing, which only those enlightened by esoteric instruction
could descern. Certain things were also taught in secret
to the more advanced in christian attainment, which were
said to have been communicated by Christ to his disciples,
but never committed to writing. But if we enquire after
these mysterious meanings, we can find nothing but fanci-
ful speculation, allegorical treatment of Scripture, or pre-
tended facts of little value, were they true.

The sacrament of Baptism was now burdened with
ceremonies giving it much of the character of initiation to
mysteries. And in some churches none were permitted to
witness the administration who had not been themselves
baptized. In some churches, if not generally, the candi- £ \i .J&* / '-
date for baptism was first exorcised, to drive away evil
spirits from him. Then, after application of the water, the
kiss of peace was given him, and a mixture of milk and

honey was administered. He was then anointed and
marked on the forehead with the sign of the cross. After
which the minister laid his hands upon him, and bestowed
the benediction.

The baptism of children was the common order of
the church, although not universal. For some, as the Mon-
tanists and Cathari, holding that heinous sin after baptism
could not be pardoned, opposed infant baptism, and even
in the case of adults, encouraged the deferring of it until
late in life, or the threatened approach of death.

Sponsors were also introduced in some churches in
the time of Tertullian who opposed the practice, as an-
other objectionable consequence of infant baptism.

In the Lord's supper we read from Justin Martyr,
that wine mingled with water was used, it was the common
way of using wine at table ; but in the third century, super-
stition recognized a mystery in that mixture. The water
represented the people, the wine, the blood of Christ, and
their mingling, the union of Christ with the multitude of
the faithful. Still, the mixture of wine and water was in
itself only wine and water.

The notion of sacrificial efficacy in the elements had
begun to prevail, as early as the time of Tertullian. And
in some places the sacrament was observed daily, under
the belief that it was the spiritual food of the soul, to
which the fourth petition of the Lord's Prayer referred,
and which imparted to the material frame of the believer
the germ of immortality.

In earlier times the preparation of catechumens was
merely their instruction and that fraternal treatment which
elicited evidences of their piety ; but by and by, it began
to assume the color of austerities, after the manner of ini-
tiation to heathen mysteries. Then the re-admission of
those excommunicated for great sins was thought to require
a discipline still more severe. The numerous cases of the
lapsed, about the middle of the 3d century seemed to render
that course necessary to the purity of the church. Thus
was the practice of penance fully inaugurated before the
death of Cyprian; and even those who dissented from it
contributed to define it. The Novatians would re-admit
none who had been guilty of great sin after baptism ; they

had therefore to distinguish between sins deadly and sins
venial.

In the large chu/ches it was thought expedient to ap-
point a presbyter to examine penitents and hear from them
what they were willing to confess before the congregation,
and to announce to each the penance demanded of him by
the existing regulations, and the class of penitents among
whom he should appear. Such an officer was called the
Presbyter pcenitentiarius.

It is plain that there was during the first half of the
third century a great influx of error and of mistaken prac-
tice ; yet it was a momentous period to ecclesiasticism and
christian learning. And in the glimpses which we obtain
into the private character of christians, both men and wo-
men, we behold the most beautiful fruits of the life in Christ.
The leading minds in the christian literature of the time
were the great teachers in the school at Alexandria, Pan-
taenus, Clement, Origen, Heraclas, and Dionysius; secondly,
the African fathers, Tertullian and Cyprian; thirdly, those
of the Syrian School, of whom Julius Africanus was the
most illustrious, nor ought Beryllus of Bostra to be over-
looked in the history of doctrinal development ; fourthly
those of Asia Minor, represented by Firmilian and Gregory
Thaumaturgus, and some of the earliest Monarchians;
fifthly, those of Rome, Minutius Felix, and the bishops
Cornelius and Stephen, Hippolytus was an illustrious Chris-
tian author in connection with that Church, but he wrote
in the Greek language; and sixthly, some bishops of Spain
and of Gaul appear as leaders of opinion, of whose writings
little or nothing remains. By far the most valuable writ-
ings of the time are those left by the great christian scholars
of Alexandria and Carthage.

IV.— 261 TO 325 A.D.

Growth of the Hierarchy.

From the legalizing of Christianity in 261 a new stage
of church history began, and continued until 325, when
Constantine, carried to the throne of the empire by Chris-
tian arms, commenced the reconstruction of the whole, not

as a dominion of annexed provinces, but as one organic
whole, into which Christianity was interwoven as the state
religion, and called the first general council of the church,
i. It included the last period of persecution inflicted
by authority of the Roman government.

2. Secondly, its issue was the triumph of Christianity
as the stronger power in the empire.

3. It was the period of diocesan aristocracy, during
which bishops, claiming equality among themselves, held
in common superiority over the other clergy, while some
were gradually establishing their superiority among bishops.

4. Fourthly, it was the period of controversy with the
ablest leaders of the Neo-Platonic philosophy.

The time when the imperial office was entirely in the
gift of the army, and which began with the death of Corn-
modus, lasted until the accession of Diocletian in 284. Its
latter years exhibited the empire almost in a state of
anarchy. Division was as active in the state, as organiza-
tion in the church. Gallienus reigned from 260 until 268 ;
but so many were his rivals that they have in a general
way received the name of the thirty in reference to the
Thirty tyrants in Athens. Gallienus was himself murdered
by one of them, who was defeated in his expectation of the
throne by the fact that Gallienus had already designated
Claudius as his successor, and by the superiority of Claudius
on the battle field. Claudius died in 270. His successor
retained the honor only 17 days. Aurelian conquered the
rebel kingdom of Palmyra, and all his military rivals, re-
established the subordination of the empire, and repelled its
foreign foes ; but at the end of five years of extraordinary
activity he also fell by assassination, 275. The senate
elected M. C. Tacitus, a good man and able prince, but of
advanced age, who sank beneath the toils of office in about
seven months. Florian.and Probus were setup, the former
by the Senate, the latter by the army in Syria. Florian
was early put to death by his soldiers ; Probus, reaping the
fruits of Aurelian's victories, carried his arms successfully
against invasion from the north. But he also fell by the
hand of violence. Carus was immediately, in 282, set up
by the soldiers. He reign, though eminently successful,
ended in about a year. His successor Numerianus was

murdered in a few months. And in 284, Diocletian was
proclaimed by the army.

The accession of Diocletian constitutes an era in the
history of both church and state. In the former it long
continued to be used as such, under the name of Diocle-
tian, or of the martyrs. That illustrious ruler devised a
plan to regulate and control the imperial succession, and
to secure efficient government in every part of the empire.

1. First, in 286, he chose Maximian one of his generals
as a colleague, and assigned to him the government of the
west, the seat of which was at Rome. They were to be
equal in power, both to have the title Augustus, and to co-
operate in all affairs of the whole empire.

2. Soon afterwards, they both chose assistants, who
were to be emperors of a second rank under the name of
Caesar. Diocletian chose Maximin Galerius, to whom was
assigned Thrace and Illyricum ; all the rest of the East be-
ing under his own immediate rule. Maximian chose Con-
stantius Chlorus, and gave him authority over Spain, Gaul
andBritain, retaining the other parts of the West for himself.

3. The Caesars were to be as it were lieutenants of the
Augusti, and when an Augustus died or resigned, his
Caesar was to take his place, and select another Caesar.
Thus it was hoped the empire would always have rulers
present in all its four great quarters, always have men, in
its two highest places, in the ripeness of experience, wise
heads to guide or at least to counsel with the younger em-
perors while acquiring their experience, and there would
be a regular, lawful and reliable order of succession.

4. It seems to have been a part of the plan that, unless
death should work the change sooner, the Augusti after the
lapse of a certain time, or the attainment of a certain ages
should abdicate and leave the supreme authority to their
Caesars.

It was a beautiful scheme, but presumed upon disin-
terested virtue in ambitious men, — a fatal presumption ; and
yet it secured twenty years of orderly government, and per-
haps suggested to him who overthrew it the conception of
one which proved more durable.

It was no whim, nor mere weakness which at the end
of twenty-one years, led Dioletian, in 305, to abdicate and

go into retirement. His colleague Augustus, Maximian,
also retired. Their Caesars, accordingly became Augusti,
and new Caesars were appointed.

Galerius was now Augustus of the East, and Con-
stantius of the West, while the Caesar of the East was Max-
imin Daza, and of the West, Severus.

Constantius died at York in 306. Thereupon the
soldiers arrogated to themselves the power so long kept
out of their hands. The army of Britain insisted upon mak-
ing Constantine, the son of Constantius, Augustus. And
the young prince accepted their nomination without regard
to Diocletian's scheme. Other pretenders arose elsewhere.
Galerius maintained the scheme in the East, and Maximian
returned to defend it in the West. But the case was de-
cided by the sword. Severus was defeated and slain, and
Constantine marched in victory from Britain to Rome. In
the neighborhood of the city he fought the decisive battle
of Saxa Rubra, between Rome and Veii, Oct. 27, 312. It
was in that campaign that he saw, as he thought, the
luminous cross in the heavens.

Galerius died in 311, and Maximin Daza succeeded
to the place of Augustus of the east, with Licinius as
Caesar, but honored with the title of Augustus, Constantine
being sole emperor of the west.

From the time of Gallienus, Christians had not suffered
persecution from imperial order, until the nineteenth year
of the reign of Diocletian, when persuaded, it is said, by
the urgency of his Caesar, the senior Augustus gave his
sanction to a new attempt to suppress their worship. He
soon after abdicated, but the persecution was continued by
his successor,, who, as Caesar had instigated it. Just before
.his death in '^firtjalerius revoked the edict. After his
death it was again^put in force; but could now take effect
only in the east. In the west, from its beginning under
Maximian, it was light and lasted not quite two years.

Almost before Constantine had secured himself in
command of the west he issued, in conjunction with
Licinius, whose jurisdiction covered the European east, an
edict proclaiming toleration to all religions within their
dominions, soon followed by another, issued from Milan
313, especially in favor of christians.

■^C^-t-^, u^ V , .-,», . 1^-rn.c* < ^ '

During the absence of Constantine in war with the
Franks, Maximin, Augustus of the east, from hatred to
Christianity, made war upon Licinius. The issue of that
conflict was his own defeat, followed by his death in the
same year, 313.

Licinius now, as master of all the eastern empire,
assumed the attitude of competitor with Constantine for
dominion of the whole. He was worsted in the war waged
in that cause, in 314, and constrained to cede the European
east to Constantine.

Eight years later, war broke out once between the
two emperors. Licinius put himself at the head of the
heathen interest. The conflict proved to be a trial of
military strength between the Heathen and Christian
parties in the empire. The two armies met near Adri-
anople, July 3, 323. Constantine displayed the banner
of the cross, Licinius raised the old idolatrous stand-
ards of Rome. The issue of that hard fought battle, one
of the most momentous in the world's history, was the
overthrow of Licinius, and of the cause which he had
adopted. Another, not a feeble but disastrous attempt,
completed his ruin, soon followed by his death. To
Heathenism the defeat was final. The empire in 324 came
under the rule of the Christian leader, and letters circular
were issued exhorting all people to accept the gospel. The
next step was to recognize the churches as in their organ-
ization holding relations to the new constitution of the
civil government.

Ecclesiastical tradition, reckoning from the first under
Nero, counts ten heathen persecutions, namely under Nero,
Domitian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus,
Maximin, Decius, Valerian, Aurelian and Diocletian. But
that number is arbitrary. With equal justice they may be
said to be more or fewer, according as attention is confined
to general persecutions, or extended to comprehend the
local ; to those which were ordered by an emperor, or in-
cluding those which he failed to repress. Imperial general
persecutions were few; local persecutions were of frequent
occurrence in one quarter or another.

Episcopal equality, defended by Cyprian in the middle
of the third century, was suffering infringement even then ;

in the succeeding generation a new and higher rank among
bishops, boldly claimed and received general recognition.
Under the method of church extension then pursued, it
was not easy to withhold an unequal weight of influence
from the bishops of the large cities. At first the most im-
portant cities were Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth,
and Rome. In course of time Jerusalem was overthrown,
Corinth and Ephesus became relatively of less importance,
while Alexandria and Carthage rose each to a proper dis-
tinction of its own. During the third century the largest
churches and most influential theologically were those of
Antioch, Alexandria, Rome and Carthage. Several causes
co-operated to confer a predominant influence upon the
churches in those chief cities ; the number of their con-
gregations, the extent of their suburban missions, the
talent developed by the great demands upon their bishops,
and their place in relation to the imperial government, and
commerce of the empire.

From the municipal principle of one church for one
city and only one bishop for one church proceeded several
effects at variance with ministerial parity. First, one bishop
as the presiding officer over several pastors of city con-
gregations, who could be only presbyters sent by him.
Secondly, a mission from a great city church to a neighbor-
ing town was at first a mere branch of the city church ; but
when it increased to more than one congregation, its pastor
became to its congregations what the bishop of the city
was to the city congregations ; but that he should be still
esteemed a dependant and inferior of the latter could not
be avoided ; and recognized as bishop, he was a bishop of
humbler rank. Thirdly, there was strength and support
expected by the churches in the smaller towns from such
connection with the larger : and in course of time many
small country churches and bishops, at first independent,
applied for, and were accepted into such filial relations to
some great city church.

Thus, before the end of the third century, the jurisdic-
tion of some of the great city bishops extended very far.
That of Rome included not only her proper missions, but
the greater part of central, and all the south of Italy, and
perhaps the adjoining islands Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica.

Carthage had also become head of the churches in North
Africa; Alexandria of most of those in Egypt, and Antioch,
now the oldest of the large churches, held a similar position
in Syria and the further east. A number of other cities not
so important as these, were yet large enough to work
similar effects in the history of the church.

Consequently, a new class was established among min-
isters, in those bishops over bishops in the jurisdiction of
the metropolitan cities. Still it was a system not formally
and legally established during the third century. The
superior bishops were styled simply bishops of the first seat,
Primae sedis episcopi, or, Primi, or Primates. Such an one
was considered as having the right to convoke a council of
the bishops of his province, and to preside in it; and, in the
interval, the right of judicature in matters affecting any
bishop of the province.

Obviously, in those days, provincial councils tended to
consolidate the metropolitan system in all its parts.

A marked distinction was now made between the
clergy {clerus) and the laity, {laid), the former being viewed
as a sort of spiritual aristocracy. They were sometimes
spoken of in terms of the Mosaic economy, as Priests and
Levites. Ministers of the gospel were, at the great centres
of population, about the beginning of the fourth century,
losing sight of their simple evangelical vocation, and taking
upon them the features of a sacerdotal order. A profession
of sanctity was demanded of them above other men ; and
many things which were not sinful in other men were held
to be sinful in them.

Among the opponents whom Christianity had to en-
counter in argument, the ablest were still the Neo-Platonist
philosophers, of whom by far the most learned and gifted
were Plotinus and Porphyry, especially the former, to whom
the so-called Neo-Platonist philosophy was indebted for its
utmost completeness. His own work was done chiefly in
the former period ; but his influence against Christianity was
stronger after his death, through some of his pupils.
Plotinus lectured in various places, from Persia to Rome,
and wrote many books, which were highly esteemed, and
some of which still survive. He died in or about the year
270. The Neo-Platonic sect had already spread over most

of the civilized world ; and its style of thinking as molded
by Plotinus was that which opposed itself with most effect
to the christian apologist, through the rest of the period.

Prophyry of Tyre, a pupil of Plotinus, flourished be-
tween 260 and 305. His argument against Christianity was
a large work, extending to fifteen books. It is no longer
extant as a whole ; but portions of it remain as quoted in
the writings of christians who encountered its attacks.

Of Hierocles, an eclectic philosopher, we learn chiefly
from the notice taken of his book against Christianity by
Lactantius, and the reply to it by Eusebius. It was com-
posed during the final persecution, and called " Words of a
truth-lover to the christians." Hierocles not only wrote
against Christianity, but also bears the blame of having in-
stigated that persecution which has branded the name of
Diocletian. He was governor of Bithynia under that em-
peror.

Iamblichus of Chalcis, in Coelo Syria, wrote a work
on the life and philosophy of Pythagoras, in which he in-
troduced arguments designed to resist the progress of
Christianity. Iamblichus enjoyed the highest philosophical
reputation in his time, which was the first thirty years of
the fourth century.

In the field of theological discussion the Alexandrian
school still exerted the widest influence. Theological
writers were divided for and against the doctrines of Ori-
gen, and later in the period, with more intensity, respecting
those of Arius. Latin writers were inferior, as compared
with the Greek, in analytical power, and subtlety of dis-
crimination. Their theology was more practical, but ruder
in its structure. Lack of speculation gave greater stability
to their doctrines and style, and their thoughts turned
more upon points of discipline and government. It was
from Greece that Roman philosophy was derived, and from
Greeks came also the first part of systematic theology.
The principal theological question of the time still related
to the Person of Christ ; but now chiefly as a person in
the Godhead, thereby involving discussion of the whole
subject of the divine Trinity ; and that now more closely
determined by the bearings of the Alexandrian theology.

til

The principal christian authors in Latin were Com-
modianus and Arnobius, both of North Africa, and Lac-
tantius who studied with Arnobius. Commodianus, the
earliest christian poet in Latin, was author of a poem on
the evidences of Christianity, written about 270. Arnobius,
about 305, published an apologetic work called a " Dis-
putation against the Gentiles." The writings of Lactantius
are of much more importance, and in more elegant Latin
than any of his predecessors had been able to command.
They are chiefly controversial, in defence of christian doc-
trine, against heathenism and heathen philosophy. Lac-
tantius died between 325 and 350.

Among errorists Paul of Samosato, bishop of Antioch,
was charged with preaching a variety of monarchianism,
similar to that of Sabellius, and with conduct otherwise
unbecoming a minister of the gospel. In a council at An-
tioch 268 he was tried and deposed, but protected by Zeno-
bia, Queen of Palmyra, he continued in office. When
Aurelian had defeated Zenobia 272, he constrained Paul to
give place to the bishop appointed by the council.

In Egypt, a schism took place during the Diocletian
persecution. Meletius, bishop of Lycopolis in the The-
baid, for some cause which is not satisfactorily explained,
broke off his connection with the bishop of Alexandria.
Several other Egyptian bishops joined him, and resisted all
attempts to bring them back to metropolitan allegiance.
It was one of several cases of resistance on the part of
parochial bishops to aggressions of the higher prelates.

In the Diocletian persecution, it was exacted of
christians to surrender their copies of the Scriptures to be
destroyed. Those who submitted were counted among the
lapsed, as Tt adit ores.

The most remarkable heresy of the last half of the
third century came from the side of Persia, and consisted
in a combination of some elements of Christianity with
some of later Avestanism and of Buddhism. Its author
was Mani, Manes, or Manichaeus, a Persian, who appeared
as a religious teacher about 270.

1. Mani taught the doctrine of two spiritual kingdoms
of good and evil, and also of one supreme power compre-

hending both. Good was identified with light, evil with
darkness.

2. The kingdom of light was internally harmonious ;
that of darkness in perpetual disorder, and internal war.

3. The evil spirits assaulted the kingdom of light.
The One Supreme God brought man into existence and
bound him in matter that he might resist the forces of
evil.

4. Man was originally joined to the five pure elements
of nature, — fire, light, air, earth and water. But in the
war with the demons and the impure elements, he was
worsted, and held in fetters of matter.

5. The Almighty sent the living spirit, an emanation
from himself, who raised man once more to the kingdom
of light.

6. Meanwhile the kingdom of evil had succeeded in
retaining a part of man's light-essence involved in matter,
an element which has to go through a process of purifica-
tion and development towards liberation.

7. To that end, the spirits of light still bound up with
matter are through the process of generation into human
nature, rendered conscious and intelligent, and by the
means of religious purification, eliminated from matter in
man, and restored to the realm of pure spirit, in the king-
dom of light.

8. This process is now going on. Meanwhile, the
liberated souls are placed in the sun and moon, from which
they exert an influence to draw upwards to themselves the
spirits still connected with matter, by the process of evolu-
tion in vegetable and animal life.

9. Matter, after being exsiccated of all the elements of
light and pure life, was to be reduced by fire to an inert
mass. And souls who still submitted themselves to sin
were to be banished forever to its inhospitable desolation.

10. Mani was regarded by his followers as the incar-
nation of the Paraclete. All his writings were in their
estimation, holy scripture. Only such parts of the New
Testament as suited their views were accepted by him and
his followers. They had also their exoteric and esoteric
instructions, for two different classes of their people, their
Auditors and their Saints, or Elect.

The Elect constituted their sacerdotal class, in the
highest stage of purification. The Auditors were their
common members, who were taught that their imperfect
righteousness could be raised to completeness by obtain-
ing an interest in the superabundant righteousness of the
Elect.

From the Elect were chosen the presiding officers of
the Manichsean church, the orders of which were first,
Mani (the embodied Paraclete), after his death represented
by a sacerdotal chief; second, twelve magistri ; and third,
the seventy-two bishops of the Manichaean churches.

After their founder's death, this sect found many ad-
herents, especially in the East, and in North Africa, although
they suffered much persecution from both Persian and
Roman authorities. Mani was himself put to death by
order of King Baharam I., of Persia, some time between
272 and 277.

By the beginning of the fourth century a large amount
of property had come into the hands of christians; and in
some places their church edifices were of great elegance.
No pictures or religious symbols were allowed in them,
although such were used on tombs, and on household
utensils. In the catacombs are found the monogram of
the name of Christ, the dove, the fish, the cross, and other
christian symbols. And in christian worship and observ-
ances certain symbolical numbers were of frequent occur-
rence.

THIRD PERIOD— 325 TO 15 17 A. D.

With the accession of Constantine to the undivided
throne begins the third of the grand periods into which
the history of the christian church divides itself. It covers
the time in which the church, first united with the Roman
empire as the state religion, in course of progress, took to
itself the features of Roman government, and when the
western empire fell, assumed its place of superiority among
the nations ; and when the Gospel was bound in fetters of
human law.

Within that long period, extending to the early part
of the sixteenth century, various changes took place, mark-
ing several subordinate steps of progress or decline.

I. 325—395-
First Union of Church and State.

First of those sections is that of the rapid decline of
Heathenism, in the end of which its principal rights were
discontinued. The new emperor sought to establish peace
between the old religion and the new. But when Christ-
ianity became the state religion Heathenism had no fortitude
to endure the withdrawal of government support.

With Constantine's victory at Adrianople, the last
vestige of Diocletian's plan of government disappeared ;
a wiser, and a more effective was constructed by the new
emperor. While the sovereign was to be one, the division
of territory was retained, under the name of the Prefectures
of Gaul, of Italy, of Illyricum, and of the East, over which
were appointed officers called Prefects. The Prefectures
were divided into Dioceses, which were governed by Vi-
cars, and the Dioceses, into Provinces, under the admin-
istration of Rectors, or Presides; and each Province was
divided into smaller districts with a distribution of civil
officers. A similar disposal was made of the army, under
its own proper commanders. And honor and titles of
honor were graduated in like manner, from the emperor
down to the humblest who had any claim to distinction.
The reins of these ramified authorities were to be gathered
together in the hands of a monarch whose office was to be
hereditary.

In this system Christianity took its place, as the
religion favored of the state. During the preceding hun-
dred years, the order of the church had been growing into
such a shape that no act of violence was needed to effect a
general conformity. Yet it took some time to complete
the parallelism of ranks ecclesiastical to the civil, and as
respects the distribution of the higher jurisdictions, it was
never precisely fitted, though everywhere approximate. It
was not until the general council at Constantinople, in 381,
that the superiority of the bishops of a diocese over the

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bishops of the Provinces within the Diocese, and of the
Diocesan synods over the Provincial synods was legallv
established, and both grades of council were regularly
appointed church courts, and met at the call of their
respective superior bishops.

The head of that church system of government was
the emperor, who alone convoked general councils, and
presided in them, personally, or by his commissioner,
and gave the force of law to their acts. The first eccle-
siastical council called by an emperor was the synod of
Aries in 314. And the first general council of the church
met at Nice in Bithynia, in 325, at the command, and
under the presidency of Constantine.

The order of ranks, in the ministry recognized under
the new constitution were those of Exarchs, otherwise,
Archbishops, ruling each a Diocese of the empire; second,
Metropolitans, also sometimes called 'Archbishops, ruling
each over a province; thirdly, Bishops ruling over smaller
sees consisting of various congregations, ministered to by
Presbyters; fourth, in some parts of the empire chorepis-
copi, i. <?., country bishops, in their separate village con-
gregations ; and fifthly, within a congregation its Deacons
and other Parochial officers.

Presbyters and the lower clergy, according to this
system were no longer to be chosen by the people of their
respective churches, but appointed by the bishop. The
election of a bishop depended mostly on the other bishops
of the province. Still the consent of the people was re-
quired ; and especially in the West, was often decisive, if
not imperative.

Constantine died in 337, having received christian
baptism only a few days before. He was baptized between
Easter and Pentecost, and died on the latter. His sons
Constantine, Constantius, and Constans, divided the empire
among them ; but in the course of successive civil wars, it
came in 350 into the hands of Constantius alone. In 361
Julian, a nephew of Constantine I., came to the throne.
An admirer of heathen literature and philosophy Julian
attempted to re-establish polytheism, and the old heathen
worship. But his reign was too brief to effect his designs.
He fell in battle with the Persians in 363.' Jovian who

succeeded him was a zealous christian ; in his brief reign
of seven months, he repealed all the laws of Julian adverse
to Christianity. After his death, the empire was again di-
vided into Eastern and Western, with much irregularity
for about fifteen years. In 379, Theodosius became em-
peror of the East. In the West disorder continued thirteen
years longer, until 392, when Theodosius united the whole
empire under his own hand, and held it until his death in
395. By his legislation all kinds of idolatry were forbidden
under severe punishments. The emperor Constantius had
prohibited sacrifice ; but his law could not be carried into
effect at the centres of concourse, Rome and Alexandria.
After Theodosius interdicted the payment of their expenses
from the public treasury sacrifices were no longer observed.

It is in the beginning of the fourth century that we
first come in sight of monasticism, as a recognized style of
religious life within the christian church, not constituted
by the church, but growing out of an increasing disposition
among pious people to esteem an ascetic life one of emi-
nent sanctity. Its institutions organized by other means
came to the church for sanction, and generally received it;
although from the first they were more in the spirit of
Buddhism than of Christianity. Monasticism is an essen-
tial institution of Buddhism, but not of the Gospel of
Christ. At the beginning of the fourth century, Buddhism
was in its prime, and pouring its influence in upon the
population of the eastern empire in various ways.

Asceticism had been practiced, -to some extent, as
early as the second century; but then, and during the first
half of the third, ascetics had lived among other christians,
without external distinction. During the Decian persecu-
tion, some christians of Egypt fled to the desert, and there
gave themselves up to austerities. They were called
ip-rjfiirac, Eremites, or tiovayoi, monks. Public attention
was turned to the subject in 311, by the appearance of the
hermit Antony in a procession in Alexandria. He had
begun to preach his doctrines as early as 305, and found
many to admire and imitate him. After a number of her-
mits had been brought together, a place of habitation was
founded for them by Pachomius, where they could dwell
together, on the island Tabenna in the Nile. Soon after-

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wards similar societies were formed in the deserts of Sketis
and of Nitria in Egypt, in the desert near Gaza, and else-
where in Palestine and Syria. Thence the example ex-
tended to Armenia and Asia Minor, chiefly in desert
places ; but ere the end of the fourth century, sometimes
also in the neighborhood of cities. Some ascetics lived
solitary ; others in associations according to common rule.
Such an association was called xoev6j3cov, or fidudpa in
Greek, and Clan strum in Latin ; a member of it was
xoivoftczrjz, or Sovodiryjt;, and the president, 'Aft{3d<;, or
'Af>%cfMvdtocT/j-. Monachism, as a system, came into the
church, was not legitimately born of it. It was introduced
by individuals, not by church order. But to christians of
the fourth century the practice seemed eminently holy,
and monks were held in such esteem, that ere the end of
the century some clergy of the highest rank belonged to
their number.

Questions relating to church order and doctrine were
chiefly the schism of the Donatists and the heresy of Arius.

The fanaticism of seeking persecution and of super-
stitious observances in worship was reproved and resisted
by Caecilian, who was elected bishop of Carthage in 311.
A strong party opposed him, and set up Majorinus, and
afterwards Donatus as their bishop. The controversy con-
tinued long. In 313 the case was submitted to the emperor
Constantine, who ordered five Gallic bishops with the
bishop of Rome to investigate the matter, and that Cae-
cilian should appear before them with ten bishops to
present the charges against him and ten to defend him.
The decision was unfavorable to the Donatists, who ex-
pressed their dissatisfaction. The emperor then in 314,
called a council to meet at Aries, whose decision was also
adverse to them. They appealed to the emperor himself.
He heard the case in 316, and also gave judgment against
them, which he followed up with laws of great severity.
Notwithstanding, the party maintained its existence in
Africa until that province was overrun by the Vandals.

The Meletian schism also continued in Egypt, and
several persons in different quarters protested against the
growing prelatical aristocracy. Such were Aerius, Jovinian.

and Vigilantius. But the great body of the church was
well pleased with the new relations to the state, and with
the hierarchical order, by which it seemed so well balanced
with the civil authorities.

The most momentous doctrinal controversy was that
concerning Arius. Origen had taught that the Divine
Logos proceeds from the will of God the Father con-
tinually and from all eternity, that he is inferior to the
Father and different as to substance. Dionysius of Alex-
andria, a pupil of Origen, was charged with teaching that
the relation between Christ and God was that of eternal
creation. He afterwards in fuller explanation removed the
ground of that accusation. But Arius, a pupil of the
Syrian school under Lucian, and a Presbyter in Alex-
andria, boldly accepted the doctrine of creation, but not as
eternal ; teaching also that the Divine Logos was the only
created of the Father, that all other things were created by
him, that he is perfect, and as like God as a created being
can be.

This view was condemned by Alexander, bishop of
Alexandria, in 318; but many bishops in Syria and Asia
Minor declared themselves in favor of it. The controversy
soon extended to the whole East. Attempts were made
by the emperor to bring it to an end, through means of
friendly correspondence with leading men, but without
effect. Finally he called a council of the whole church to
meet at Nice in Bithynia in 325 for the purpose of settling
the dispute. The cause of the bishop of Alexandria was
pled by Athapasius, then a deacon of that church and by
others. Arius was defended by a strong party, but was
condemned as guilty of heresy. And the faith of the
church was defined to be that the Divine Logos is uncreated.
The council drew up a brief confession of the faith in which
the majority of the members agreed, and undertook to
terminate the schism of Meletius, and the difference between
the practice of the Eastern and Western Churches in the
observance of Easter, by giving judgment in the former case
against Meletius and deciding the latter in favor of the West.
Touching the number of bishops assembled at Nice
statements differ. It is commonly given as 318. Most of Sxi' ■
fhe Arian members submitted to the doctrinal decisions,

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though with reluctance, on some points, especially on the
consubstantiality of the Father and Son in Deity. A
minority preferred to say that the Son was of nature similar
to the Father. Instead of bfxoobaioz zw navpi. they defended
the doctrine of bfxotouotot; zw izaxpi, and on that Semi-Arian
ground took their stand in opposition to the council, and
obtained many adherents, chiefly in the East. In the course
of ten years they were strong enough to depose Athana-
sius from the bishopric of Alexandria, to which he had been
elevated, after the council. He found refuge in the West.

On this question a council was called in 347 to meet
at Sardica ; but it divided into two councils, and accom-
plished nothing. After long continued controversy, the
emperor Theodosius called a general council to meet at
Constantinople in 381. One hundred and fifty bishops
assembled. There the Nicene creed was revised ; its ^ff
doctrine of the Trinity confirmed, and articles added touch-
ing heresies which had arisen since it was framed. In this
latter form the creed became the universally recognized
symbol of orthodoxy. Pure Arianism subsequently de-
clined within the empire, but maintained itself among the
Germanic nations. Semi-Arianism prevailed among the
Eastern churches ; while the Nicene doctrines were ac-
cepted in the West. Antioch, as the head of the Syrian
school, became deeply leavened with Semi-Arianism, Alex-
andria continued long to be the chief school of orthodoxy.
Theologians took their stand with one or the other.

Theodosius was the last who held the reins of the
united empire. Upon his death in 395, it was divided
between his two sons, Arcadius, taking the East, and
Honorius, the West. In the same year the Huns upon the
North broke in to the provinces of Pannonia and Moesia,
the Goths took up arms for invasion of Thrace, Macedonia
and Greece, which they effected next year. Ere that time
the church government, under the constitution devised by
Constantine had become solidified into an organic self sus-
taining structure imbued with the spirit of a new and vigor-
ous life, to which the civil government had nothing to cor-
respond. The latter began to break apart into irreparable
decay ; the former to increase towards completeness of or-
ganization.

II. 395—451-
Doctrinal Definition.

Another period of church history, which ought to be
studied by itself, is that which extends from the death of
Theodosius to the general council of Chalcedon. It was
within this period that the doctrines of the church, defined
by the ancient classic fathers, were digested into a philoso-
phic system. It was also that during which the Arian
Goths, Suevi and Vandals made themselves masters of the
sea coast countries of the western empire, and the heathen
Franks and Saxons took possession of Northern Gaul and
South Britain.

Britain was abandoned by Roman arms in 418, and
Anglo-Saxons commenced their settlements there in 449 or
450. Ere that date the Franks had established for them-
selves an independent Government in Gaul. Spain from
the beginning of the fifth century had been overrun by
Suevi and Vandals, and was now completely given up by
the emperor of the West. In 429 the Vandals, invited by
Boniface the Roman governor, passed over to Africa, and
conquered the whole of that province before 439. They
also reduced Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily and the Balearic Is-
lands. The Alemanni and Burgundians had taken posses-
sion of Helvetia, and districts adjoining, and the Goths of
southern France. At the middle of the fifth century
little remained to the Western empire beyond the confines
of Italy. Pannonia, Dalmatia.and Noricum had been taken
by the eastern empire. The eastern empire itself had, in
440, divided Armenia with the Persians; in 441, it was
ravaged by the Huns under Attila from the Danube to
Constantinople ; and in 446 had submitted to pay a yearly
tribute for the privilege of peace. The period was covered
entirely by the two successive reigns of Arcadius (395 —
408,) and Theodosius II., (408 — 450), emperors of the East,
parallel with those of Honorius (395 — 423) and of Valen-
tinian III. (423 — 455), emperors of the West.

Although the Western empire was, by the middle of
the fifth century, broken to pieces, and only a fragment of
it remaining under the old dominion, the church stood firm,
and had received a large addition to her subjects. The old

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inhabitants of the provinces were not removed, or extin-
guished; they were only subdued and governed by German
invaders instead of by Romans ; while the invaders, for
the most part, professed Christianity and acknowledged
the jurisdiction of the church. The old population was
mostly orthodox; the Germanic incomers Arian. Among
the Goths that doctrine was taught by Ulphilas in the
fourth century. A Gothic bishop was present at the coun-
cil of Nice. The Burgundians, in 413, came into the
church with profession of orthodoxy ; but about 450
adopted Arianism. That difference of faith, in such re-
lations of life, furnished occasion for inflicting hardship
upon the feebler party. But with exception of the Van-
dals in Africa, those Arian masters seldom interfered with
the religion of their orthodox subjects.

The British isles, by the withdrawal of Roman arms,
by the interposition of heathen Franks in the North of
Gaul, and also, in the succeeding period, by the establish-
ment of heathen Saxons in the East and South of Britain,
were cut off from the influences proceeding from Rome.
Meanwhile the old British churches maintained their ground
on the west of the island, from the Clyde southward.

On the extreme East, christians were subjected to much
oppression under rule of the Persian kings. From 343 a
persecution was commenced in that quarter which lasted
thirty-five years, in which thousands of christian people to***
with their ministers were put to death. It was relaxed
about 398 ; but revived in 418 and continued until nearly
the date of the council of Chalcedon.

Subsequently having adopted the doctrines of Nes-
torius, Persian christians, finding themselves under censure
of the churches in the West, and separating from them and
their relations to the Roman empire, received protection
from Persia, as loyal subjects. It was not however until
498 that the whole Persian church declared, by formal
action, in favor of Nestorianism. C^rJ^U^*^ ^y. *^H*^ **~ *~ *

In that part of Armenia, which came under Persian
rule, attempts were persisted in, for more than forty years,
to establish the doctrines of the Avesta instead of the
gospel. In 485 that effort was abandoned as hopeless.

In the same century Mesrop formed the Armenian alpha-
bet and translated the Bible into the popular tongue.

Theodosius II., emperor of the East, issued, in 423, an
edict in which he expressed his belief that no heathen were
to be found within his dominions.

Anthropological Controversy.

In the process of framing such an expression of christ-
ian belief as should be satisfactory to the church, it was
impossible to avoid controversy. It was by controversy
that the work had to be done. The Arian and Semi-Arian
controversies led to the clearerstatement of orthodoxy on the
subject of the Trinity. In the Nicene Creed, as revised and
extended at Constantinople, were summed up the best results
of previous theological discussion. That was the work chiefly
of Greek theologians. Latin writers make comparatively lit-
tle figure in it. Law, civil and moral, was the field of thought
in which those who spoke the Latin tongue had proved them-
selves superior to all rivals uninspired. And now a work
remained to be done for the church which they were better
than any others qualified to do. It was twofold ; first, de-
finition of the Scriptural doctrine of man's relations to God;
and second, the complete systematic and practical state-
ment and exposition of the whole body of truth as then
defined or accepted. And that also was effected through
controversy.

" When Alaric the Goth was threatening Rome in the
year 410, Pelagius, a native of Britain, who had been re-
siding in Rome, was among the refugees to Sicily." He
thence proceeded to Africa accompanied by his friend
Ccelestius and others. From Africa he soon afterwards
went to Palestine leaving Ccelestius at Carthage. Ccelestius
applying to be ordained Presbyter, was charged with errors
tending to exalt unscripturally human free will. He was
excluded from the church at Carthage, 'and went to
Ephesus. His doctrines were understood to be the same
as those taught by Pelagius. Accordingly, Pelagius was
himself accused before the bishop of Jerusalem, within
whose jurisdiction he was then residing, and afterwards in

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councils, in various countries, rejected his doctrine. Zosi m us va^w£ t >^z//^i£~

bishop of Rome first approved, and afterwards condemned ^r:rzz^

it. But it also found acceptance and defence, especially

in the East. In the West its principal advocate was Julian

of Eclanum in Italy. t»/i_)/.} ^W»~c *C* <~bocA*^

Those theologians held that man's moral nature re- . .MM

ceived no injury in the fall of Adam ; that man is now born, ^ a,/"* o^-y^n
as fully as Adam was made, able to do the will of God ;
that all sin consists in the intelligent choice of evil ; and
that in order to turn from sin unto righteousness nothing is
needed but a change of purpose on the part of the sinner.
A higher degree of blessedness and greater facility in at-
taining it are accessible through christian sacraments and
instruction. As the law was formerly given to facilitate
the attainment of goodness, so latterly, the gospel and ex-
ample of Christ, and particular operations of grace. The
Divine purpose for man's salvation is founded on the Divine
foreknowledge of human action ; and makes no demand
which man has not full ability to comply with.

Among the opponents of Pelagius were Jerome and
Augustin. The latter especially, in this controversy,
wrought out those statements of the doctrines of grace
which lie at the foundation of orthodox theology. The
views of Augustin were ecclesiastically confirmed by the
African synods, and the Western churches generally. Pelag-
ianism under the name of Ccelestius, was condemned at
the general council of Ephesus in 43 1 , although the Augus-
tinian doctrines of grace and predestination were not
adopted by eastern christians.

Pelagianism is the root of a number of heresies within
the field of Anthropology, like Monarchianism in that of
theology. Under the head of theology error lies on
one hand to Monarchianism, on the other to Polytheism ;
under that of Anthropology, in the direction of Pelagian-
ism, or fatalism. Ancient orthodoxy lay between the ex-
tremes, although not orthodox for that reason, but for ac-
cordance with Scripture and christian experience. It was
expressed in the creed for Theology, and by Augustin for
Anthropology.

After the action of the council, complete Pelagianism
ceased to be professed to any great extent, while an inter-
mediate ground between that doctrine and Augustinianism,
which may be called Semi-Pelagian, was taken by many of
the churches in the east. It was also accepted in some
places in the West, as introduced by John Cassian, a pupil
of Chrysostom.

Augustin was a native of Africa, born in 354, at Tagaste
in Numidia, studied and practiced the profession of rhetoric,
was not converted until over thirty-two years of age, be-
came bishop of Hippo in 395, and died in 430. His
writings are numerous, but his great work, stating and
defending the essential doctrines of Christianity and its place
among the great powers of the world, is the " De Civitate
Dei."

Christological Controversy.

The controversy touching the sonship of Christ in
Godhead was followed by others concerning the relation of
the Divine Logos to the human nature of Jesus.

Sabellius, and others believing in a mere modal trinity,
taught that the divine nature assumed in Jesus only a hu-
man body. Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea, from 362 to
about 392, accepting the doctrine of a personal trinity as
declared at Nice, and holding that natural man consists of
three constituents, body, spirit and soul, taught that Jesus
had no human soul, and that the Divine Logos took its
place. Some theologians were the more disposed to coincide
with that view, that they believed the soul of man to be a
part of God. On the other hand, it fell in with and sus-
tained a practice already common in many churches. For,
in that case, if it was proper to speak of an ordinary man's
mother as the mother of his soul, it might be equally proper
to speak of the Virgin Mary as the mother of God, 6cor6xo~.

Apollinarianism was rejected by the general council at
Constantinople in 381. The controversy, however, had
contributed to that element of definition, which recognized
the complete humanity of the Saviour.

Another question, which folio wed inevitably, was what
should be believed of the relations between the complete man

Jesus and the divine Logos. Some of the clergy failed to
distinguish between " the two natures " and the "person-
ality," thereby leading to a theological controversy, and
some who denied the propriety of the term " Mother of
God " provoked a furious popular passion. The persecu-
tion proceeding from both fell upon Nestorius, who
was made bishop of Constantinople, in 428. Some of his
clergy agreeing with him in doctrine preached against the
practice of calling Mary " Mother of God." The congre-
gations were disorderly and insulted the preachers. Nes-
torius defended them, but was himself insulted when preach-
ing on the same subject. Some of his clergy deserted him,
others he deposed. The question soon became one of gen-
eral concern.

The doctrine defended by Nestorius was that of the
separate existence of the divine and human natures in
Christ. And according to his view, to speak of Mary as
mother of the divine nature was blasphemy.

Nestorianism was condemned by the general council
at Ephesus in 431, and Nestorius was deposed. The
minority was so strong, and both parties so violent that
appeal was made to the emperor. In the end, Nestorius
was banished to an oasis of upper Egypt, about 435. He
died in exile. But a large part of the eastern church,
chiefly that lying to the east of the Euphrates, sustained his
doctrines. In 498, they were accepted as the professed
creed of the churches in Persia and the further east, which
thereby separated for ever from those of the Roman empire.

In the controversy with Nestorius, some disputants,
at whose head was Cyril bishop of Alexandria, defended
the opposite doctrine to an extreme. The successor of
Cyril in the see of Alexandria, Dioscorus, from 444 until
451, was still more violent in the same cause. Eutyches,
an abbot in Constantinople, was in 448, condemned by a
local synod in that city for teaching that the human in
Christ was so merged in the divine as to make only one
nature. A letter from Leo I. of Rome to Flavian of Con-
stantinople approved of that action and defined what he
thought the true doctrine of the two natures in Christ.

The censure of Eutyches bore hard upon Dioscorus
also. A general council was summoned to meet at Ephe-

sus next year (449). Dioscorus, as president, procured a
resolution in favor of Eutyches, and the Alexandrian doc-
trine, and an act of deposition against Flavian. From its
violence that council was branded as the Robber Synod;
but it was sustained by the emperor, Theodosius II. Next
year Theodosius died. The new emperor, Marcian, took
the other side, and strongly disapproved of the conduct and
doctrines of Dioscorus. A new general council was called,
and met at Chalcedon in 451. It is counted the fourth.

Dioscorus was deposed. Eutyches was condemned.
Nestorianism was also rejected. Leo's letter to Flavian
was approved, while the council gave their own statement
of the doctrine of " One Christ in two natures, the two
natures united, without confusion, without conversion,
inseparably and perpetually."

The council also recognized the existing Metropolitan
and Patriarchal ranks of bishops, and sanctioned the latter
as a higher rank, and as endowed with wider powers of
jurisdiction. At that date the Patriarchs were five ; those
of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusa-
lem. Reference is also made, in the canons of the coun-
cil, to the Patriarchs of the two imperial capitals as entitled
to higher honor than the rest. The great church of Car-
thage was now humbled to the earth by the conquest of
the Vandals.

Both forms of the creed, namely, those of Nice, and
of Constantinople, were confirmed; as that of the 318
fathers of Nice, and of the 150 fathers of Constantinople,
variant doctrines, which had arisen in the interval, were
condemned by the restatement of doctrines professed, or
implied in those symbols.

That council also confirmed certain canons of five
provincial councils, namely of Ancyra 315, of Neo-Caesarea
in Pontus, 315 or 316, of Gangra, between 325 and 341, of
Antioch in Syria, 341, and of Laodicea, somewhere about
365-

RECAPITULATION OF CONTROVERSIES.

The Person of Christ is the first and cardinal point of
christian doctrine. The principal controversies concerning
it are :

■

1. With Judaism, proving that Jesus is the Christ,
and establishing the sufficiency of Christ in himself as the
Saviour, and his true Godhead.

2. With Docetae, in defence of his true humanity.

3. Of his divine nature as related to God the Father,
and the Holy Spirit, as well as to the whole system of the
universe ; discussed in the theories of Gnosticism and the
debates concerning Montanus ; and the subsequent system
of the Manichees.

4. In defence of the personal Trinity in conflict with
theories of Monarchianism — Humanitarian, Patripassian,
Sabellian.

5. With those which sprang out of the theology of
Origen, especially that of Arius.

6. With the Semi-Arians.

7. Touching the relations of the divine to the human
in Christ, against the Apollinarian doctrine on one side,
and the Nestorian on the other.

8. And with that of Eutyches and Dioscorus.

9. Questions of anthropological doctrine were brought
out chiefly as related to the prime question of Christ, but
also in treating points of discipline, controversies on the
subject of the lapsed, on the schisms of Novatian, Felicis-
simus, Donatus, until the rise of Pelagianism.

10. The rejection of Pelagianism left behind the more
widespread and enduring heresy of Semi pelagianism, es-
pecially in the east. The doctrines of grace, as stated by
Augustin, were accepted in the churches of the west.

So far, christian controversies were marked by fea-
tures of ancient classical thinking, even when dealing with
oriental speculation ; from the council of Nice to that of
Chalcedon is the golden age of Patristic literature. Those
which followed, for many hundred years, were in the spirit
of the mediaeval.

WORSHIP AND OBSERVANCES.

Christian sacraments and originally simple customs
were now surrounded with a parade of ceremonial forms,
pictures were introduced into the churches, not as objects
of worship, but as helps to piety, and some things were

retained from the old State religion, and as converted to
Christian meaning, under the plea that people accustomed
to see them, would thereby be attracted to church. Preach-
ing, in the fifth century, had also assimilated in some res-
pects to the character of secular harangues, and in some of
the city churches, at least, it was not unusual for the con-
gregations to give noisy demonstrations of their disap-
proval or applause. The memory of martyrs had come to
receive such a degree of veneration that preachers would
appeal to them in their sermons, and invoke their interces-
sion with God. Their relics were collected and deposited
in churches. The Virgin Mary received peculiar reverence;
and the cross, all along honored as a symbol, had now be-
come an object of idolatrous veneration. That feeling was
intensified after Helena, the mother of Constantine.^had dis-
covered, as she thought, some fragments of the true cross,
on which the Saviour died. In the fifth century the cruci-
fix, that is, the cross with a figure representing the Saviour
suspended upon it, began to be used.

It was also during this period that the clergy began
to wear a peculiar costume, while engaged in divine ser-
vice ; and after heathen fashion in some of the churches
artificial lights were used in the day time. Burning of
incense was also introduced.

Singing in responses was first practised at Antioch,
spread to other places in the east, and was transferred to
the west by Ambrose.

Festival days increased in number, and some formerly
of only local observance, became general, or were appointed
to be held with more regularity. Not long before 360,
probably in the pontificate of Julius I. (337-352) the Roman
church began to observe the 25th of December as com-
memorative of the Lord's nativity. From Rome the
practice extended to different provinces, to Antioch in 376,
and to Alexandria about 430.

Apocryphal Literature.

Heathen literature and science had still their devotees.
At Athens and Alexandria the polytheistic schools of
philosophy were still in existence.

By the middle of the fifth century the schools of the
church had begun to decline, with the interest in educa-
tion which maintained them. Monks had already increased
enormously, and their extravagances and barbarism had
become the disgrace of the christian name. The emperor
Valens attempted to restrain their increase by authority,
but without effect. Some of them were men of learning,
but as a general thing they were ignorant, despised learn-
ing, and wielded a powerful influence against it. To them,
more than to Goth and Vandal, was the degeneracy of public
intelligence due. The stoppage of education bears its fruit
not immediately, but needs for it only one generation.

As early as the second century tales had been fabri-
cated of the Saviour and of his apostles, and heathen
prophecies of Him, and His work, either fabricated or
interpolated, as in the case of the apocryphal books of the
New Testament, and the Sibylline oracles. The most
remarkable of such productions were the books called the
Clementines. They consisted of two epistles addressed to
the apostle James at Jerusalem, and twenty homilies pro-
fessing to be the doctrinal and polemical discourses of the
apostle Peter. Clement, bishop of Rome, appears as the
author. They are.thought to have been composed at Rome
about the end of the second century. Of these homilies
there is an epitome also in Greek. There are other writ-
ings of the same kind ascribed to Clement, especially the
Recognitions, a connected narrative in ten books, which
we have in a Latin translation, made by Rufinus who died
in 410. Among the manuscripts found in the desert of
Nitria, which are now in the British Museum, there is a
Syrian translation of the Clementines, which is said to
differ greatly from both the Greek and Latin. The subject
seems to have been a theme of religious romance upon
which successive writers felt free to compose variations.

To the same period with the translation of the Recog-
nitions are the Apostolic Constitutions probably to be
referred. That collection of ecclesiastical rules is put forth
as the work of the apostles collectively, who also speak
in their own names separately of what they were taught by
the Lord. It is found in use in the fifth century, and no
mention of it occurs earlier than the end of the fourth. By

gross anachronisms much of it is convicted of forgery.
The Apostolic canons, a smaller collection of similar kind,
came also into use towards the end of the fifth century,
and is obnoxious to the same charge.

Many of the evils of the time were due to the haste
with which multitudes of half converted heathen were
received into christian communion upon simple profes-
sion, made in many cases only because their king had
been converted. After the full establishment of Christ-
ianity as the state religion, and the profession of heathen-
ism was made unlawful, it came to be the practice of the
church to comprehend all the population of the empire
as in some shape or other its proper charge. The strict
rules of the early christians touching admission to their
communion were thus done away or rendered inoperative.
It was a stupendous effort, for which the early church was
called upon, — the regeneration of a world lying in iniquity,
such deep and almost hopeless iniquity. It is not strange
that the human agency was sometimes at fault, that mis-
takes were made, and that some of the overflowing corrup-
tion invaded her own bounds. The subject of wonder is
that the good was not entirely swamped in the billows of
evil raging on every side. Among the christian writings
of that time copious evidence is found of warm scriptural
piety, and most of the acts of councils testify to the same
purport, as well as the lives of many devoted men and
women.

III. 451 — 607.

Christianity in Pride of Dominion.

Another section of Church History is very distinctly
marked by important changes between the council of Chal-
cedon and the death of Boniface III. bishop of Rome, that
is from 45 1 to 607. It is the period of rivalry for dominion
in the church between the Patriarchs of Constantinople
and of Rome. At the council of Chalcedon they had been
recognized as entitled to higher honor than the rest. From,
that date it became an object of ambition with both to se-
cure each for his own see the honor of sole superiority.

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The Roman Patriarch had the advantage in that his capital
was possessed of the older prestige and associations. On
the other hand, during most of the period Constantinople
was the sole capital of all the dominion that remained to
the empire. But the east was divided among four Patriarchs ;
in the west there was only one. The Roman Patriarch had
no Patriarchs in the west to look to him as superior. The
Patriarch at Constantinople was recognized as higher in
honor than the three other Patriarchs of the east ; it was
not unnatural that he should wish to add the Patriarch at
Rome to the list. One sovereign, or universal bishop, with
four Patriarchates was needed to complete the system of
church government after the model of the state. The
eastern domain of Christianity was by far the most exten-
sive, and populous. But the Roman Patriarch had already
learned to add some of the duties of a civil ruler to his
ecclesiastical functions. Rome was still the imperial city
in the eyes of western nations, and the claim of apostolic
descent had more weight in that quarter than in the east,
where all the principal churches held to it. Notwithstand-
ing the difficulties in his way it was the Patriarch at Con-
stantinople who succeeded in having his rank of universal
bishop first recognized by imperial authority. Rome then
condemned the iniquity of episcopal ambition.

The cruelty of the usurping emperor Phocas alien-
ated from him all good men in Constantinople. He re-
ceived approval from Gregory I., bishop of Rome, and 3*^ <>6'jC
from Boniface who was afterwards raised to that dignity.
Boniface III. became Pope in 607, and died before the end
of the year. He had solicited and obtained from Phocas^^^/^ Ju%.
the transfer of the title universal to the see of Rome/
Eastern prelates did not admit the validity of that act of a
usurper. The next emperor restored to the Patriarch the
Title which the Popes never resigned, and thus the aliena-
tion between the two great ecclesiastics became wider than
before.

In the state, the period thus defined was no less
momentous. After their defeat at Chalons in 451, the .. ,

Huns fell back upon Italy, and the last remnant of the °* ' ™r
western empire was spared for a few years only by the
death of Attila. In 455, the Vandals crossed over from

Africa to Italy, took Rome and plundered it. Until 472
the holders of nominal empire in the west were set up
by German leaders. Finally in 476, Odoacer, king of the
Herulians, and leader of the German troops in Roman pay,
^2^ f^r'2^^^ assumed the sovereignty himself under the title King of
Italy. In 492, Odoacer was overthrown, and the Gothic
kingdom of Italy set up by Theodoric. That kingdom
was extinguished by the forces of the eastern empire under
Belisarjus in 5 39, and afterwards under Nurses. Italy thereby
became a Byzantine province, until the invasion of the
Lombards in 568 ; when it was divided between them and
the eastern empire; the capital of the former being Pavia,
and the seat of the Greek exarch, Ravenna. Rome had
ceased to be of any general political importance.

In Gaul the Franks secured supreme dominion. The
Visigoths, whom they drove out of the South of that
country in 507, had already overmastered the Suevi, and
set up the Gothic kingdom of Spain. The Saxons in
Britain had established their dominion over all the best of
England, and driven the Romanized Britons to the north
and west. «^-~y **y^O +#--*/' "«&* '■

On the other hand the Vandals in Africa and Sicily
were reduced by the arms of Belisarjus and those countries
annexed to the eastern empire./^a/i

In Constantinople, the imperial authority after 457
passed through a succession of feeble hands, until Justin-
ian, who, from 527 to 565, by the wisdom of his legal
digests, and the success of his arms, went far towards a
restoration of the imperial dignity. His successors until
602 were good men, but did not maintain the same course
of prosperity. Mauritius, in 602, was murdered with his
family, by the centurion Phocas, who in a mutiny of the
soldiers had usurped the throne.

Legal digests for the church followed the example of
•s*j~-? /"-~i ru*^rw<ralthe civil law. From Apostolic times, the church needed,
and possessed certain rules whereby those who joined her
communion were to regulate their conduct The wisdom
of the early fathers increased the number. To these were
added the decisions of councils. Of such collections were
subsequently made. In the fifth century we find mention
of the Apostolical Constitutions and the Apostolical canons.

In the sixth century appeared the collection of Dionysius
Exiguus, in the west, and of Johannes Scholasticus, in the
east. An enlarged edition of Dionysius published under
the name of Isidore of Seville, in the seventh century, and
still further enlarged by fictitious additions, in the ninth,
laid the foundations upon which afterwards arose the
structure of the canon law.

Monophysite Controversy.

The council of Chalcedon, after deposing Dioscorus
from the Patriarchate of Alexandria, appointed Proterius
in his room. But a large party in Egypt refused to
acknowledge the new bishop, or the doctrine of the coun-
cil. They denied the existence of two natures in Christ,
or rather, held that the two natures, human and divine, are
so united as to constitute but one nature, yet without con-
version of one into the other and without confusion of
both. Various names were given them, but the most com-
mon was that expressive of their doctrine of oneness of
nature in the Saviour, Mouoipualrac, while they called their
opponents Juofu&czou, or dcfuoirat. The headquarters of
the controversy were Antioch and Alexandria, the two
great theological schools of the east. Both parties carried
violence to an extreme, disgraceful to their christian pro-
fession. Emperors several times stepped in to allay the
ferment, but with little success. Zeno Isauricus, in 432,
issued a creed called the Henoticon, which he thought
both parties might agree upon. Instead of effecting union,
it raised a new subject of dispute. The bishop of Rome,
and the western churches in general took part in opposition
to the Monophysites. Justinian defended the council of
Chalcedon, but endeavored to restore unity and peace.
The empress, Theodora, favored the Monophysites, and
also professed to labor for conciliation. Neither of them
had much success. After several fruitless attempts, the
emperor called a general council to meet at Constantinople
at 553. The council condemned Monophysite doctrine as
heresy. In that action Pelagius I. of Rome coincided,
but thereby created a temporary schism in the west. In
the east the result was a final secession of a great number

of churches covering a belt of country from the northern
borders of Armenia, through Mesopotamia, Syria, Pal-
estine and Egypt, to the southern extremities of Ethiopia.
It did much to reduce the importance of both Alexandria
and Antioch, as schools of theology, a loss which they
never retrieved.

The disgraceful scenes, which occurred in the course
of this controversy, were chiefly due to the part taken in it
by monks, who now swarmed in all oriental Christendom
in such numbers as seriously to diminish the ranks of in-
dustry. If merely to be in earnest were true godliness, the
highest merit could not be denied to most of them ; but so
to judge would be to transform Christianity into fanaticism.
Some of their extravagancies would be incredible, were
they not testified to by eye witnesses. Such were the
stylite saints, one of whom called Simeon died in 459, after
having lived 37 years on the top of a pillar. In the west
such wild extremes of asceticism never met with much
favor. For that, much was due to Benedict of Nursia,
who in the year 529 founded a monastery on Mount Casinus
in Italy, with a greatly improved system of rules, which
distributed the time of the monks, in a strict and sensible
way, between devotion, study and manual labor: and for
several generations its working was enforced with a careful
severity. The rule of Benedict was the true foundation of
western monasticism, as distinguished from the oriental.

And yet we must not include all the ascetics of the
east under one indiscriminate censure. Among them are
to be found cases, like that of Isidore of Pelusium, marked
by true scriptural faith, good sense with single hearted love
to the Saviour, a sane hungering and thirsting after right-
eousness.

It was in 534 and 535 that the arms of Belisarius over-
threw the Arian Vandals in Africa and Sicily, and gave
freedom to the Orthodox. A similar service was done for
Italy in the final defeat of the Gothic Kingdom there, in 553.

In 496 Clovis King of the Franks, induced by the en-
treaties of his queen, a Burgundian princess, and certain
circumstances of his life, assumed the profession of Chris-
tianity. A great number of his people followed his ex-
ample immediately. His sister and three thousand of his

army were baptized on the same occasion, and came into
the church professing the orthodox faith. In 597 a mission
from Rome, sent out by Gregory I., to the Anglo-saxons in
England, planted itself in Kent, where it met with favor
from king Ethelbert, through the influence of his wife, who
was a Frank.

The Papac\.

In receiving the title universal, the bishop of Rome
enjoyed the imperial gift of the highest honor that a tem-
poral monarch could bestow upon a minister of religion.
It was an empty honor. Because the Byzantine Patriarch
never withdrew his pretension, and the eastern church never
admitted that of Rome ; but it was an additional plea where-
by every effort to reach a real ecclesiastical monarchy
could be plausibly justified. To that rank the Roman
hierarch had risen by many successive steps. First, that
in which he was a pastor in one congregation, Second, that
in which he was the presiding pastor of one city church
having several congregations ministered to by presbyters,
Third, in the process of church extension, and annexation
of mission and other congregations in neighboring towns,
whose ministers were bishops, he became the chief bishop
over some other bishops, their Primus, Fourth, under the
constitution of Constantine, he received the importance as-
signed to a bishop in the chief city of a diocese of the
empire, becoming thereby one of the great ecclesiastical
exarchs, or archbishops ; Fifth, when his rank, with that of
three others— the bishops of Constantinople of Antioch and
of Alexandria, was made to correspond to the civil rank of
an imperial prefect, and distinguished by the title of Patri-
arch, he was honored above all except three peers to whom
was afterward added the bishop of Jerusalem, Sixth, at the
Council of Chalcedon, the patriarchs of Rome and of Con-
stantinople were assigned a higher honor than the other
patriarchs ; and Seventh, when both these dignitaries aimed
at being sovereign, the title of that rank first conferred by
imperial favor upon the Byzantine Patriarch, was subse-
quently by the same authority transferred to the Roman.
That the jurisdiction of the latter increased, and that of the

former diminished, was due to other than ecclesiastical
causes. The whole growth was a natural development. No
stage of it, except the last, was a preconcerted imposition
upon the church, although unjustifiable means were some-
times used to sustain them all, when once reached. They
successively grew naturally out of original mistakes, in
adopting certain principles from the municipal idea in the
heart of the civil government ; especially the method of
church extension, and in admitting of only one church in
one city, and one bishop in one church.

During the frequent invasions of Italy in the fifth and
sixth centuries and the separation of Rome from other
dominions of the empire, the bishop of that city had often
to take upon himself the execution of civil duties, not from
ambition, but from the necessities of the case. His office
thereby became, in course of time, associated with civil
authority, although only incidentally. The pretension that
it has always been from the days of the apostles what it
is now, or rather what it was in the thirteenth century, is
clearly and positively contradicted by history. And in the
time of Gregory I. it was still far from its full growth.

In the course of the fifth century we enter upon the
period of time commonly called the middle ages. Its true
limits are on one side, the extinction of the western em-
pire, in 476, and on the other, the taking of Constantinople
by the Turks, in 1453. That is, politically considered, the
middle ages are those which intervened between the termi-
nation of the western empire and that of the eastern. Dur-
ing all that time there is an emperor in the east ; but dur-
ing much of it, none in the west; and only for brief periods,
one whose authority extends over Rome. The bishops
accordingly, who would otherwise have been second, be-
came first in all government proceeding from that city:
while at Constantinople, the bishop continued to be a sub-
ject of the emperor, and not altogether independent as
an ecclesiastic. Rome had lost her power of empire,
but her bishop controlled all the dominion she retained.
Popes were therefore not ambitious to stand on a level
with patriarchs. Their city was feeble, but it was the seat
of the church which all christian Europe looked to as the

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standard of orthodoxy. Still, the superiority of the popes
over the civil rulers in the west was seldom admitted by
the latter, when strong enough to resist it.

In taking a general view of the middle ages, we shall
find first a process of dissolution, extending to all the struc-
ture of civilization ; secondly, a process of settlement of
new peoples, and by new methods ; and thirdly, a process
of growth, in a new style of culture.

The middle ages are not all equally dark ages.
Gloomiest, I think, are the latter years of the fifth century,
the sixth, the seventh, most of the eighth, the whole of
the tenth and first half of the eleventh.

At the beginning of the seventh century, the popular-
ity of christian profession was at its highest. Heathenism
had long ago become utterly unfashionable, within the
bounds of what had once been the empire; and was fast
melting away before the outward progress of at least nom-
inal Christianity, in all directions. We may contemplate
the church, at that date, as consisting of three grand divi-
sions; first, the Latin church, comprehending all the south-
west of Europe, and north of Africa ; second, the Greek
Church; and third, the Oriental Churches, consisting of
the two great divisions of Monophysite, and Nestorian,
extending over all north eastern Africa, and western Asia,
and as far east as India and China. Never perhaps did the
pride of power, of pervasive and all-absorbing popularity
so fill the mind of the church. That success had not been
attained without earnestness and truth of faith ; but unhap-
pily also with the introduction of many an error through
haste to be great, and to have nations born in one day.

IV. 607—752.

Humiliation of the Eastern Churches. Increasing
Power of the Western Patriarchate.

The period intervening between the death of Boniface
III., and the accession of Stephen III., that is, from 607 un-
til 752, includes another stage in the development of Papal-
ism. The former date is that of the death of the first
bishop of Rome, who enjoyed the title of universal, the

latter is that of the accession of the first who took his
place as a temporal prince. Moreover it was a time of
great adversity to the church. Both of the chief patriarchs
suffered diminution of jurisdiction, but the eastern most.

Khosru king of Persia, who had been restored to his
throne by aid of the emperor Mauritius, now prepared to
take vengeance upon Phocas for the death of his benefac-
tor. But ere his army could reach Constantinople, Herac-
lius exarch of Africa, in 610, had seized the government
and put Phocas to death. Khosru continued his march
until he reached the Bosphorus, and retained for twelve
years his hold upon Asia Minor. Heraclius finally, by an
invasion of Persia, compelled him to return. By so long a
war both Persia and the empire were weakened.

Meanwhile, about 611, Mohammed began to teach
his doctrines in Mecca. His object was to overthrow idol-
atry, and restore the worship of the one unseen God of his
father Abraham. The different portions of his system were
announced from time to time, as occasion called them forth
and combined in one book after his death.

Mohammed received Christ as a divine teacher, and
JX^/tcf /ir^y. the greatest of the prophets, and as miraculously born of
^$^c~*£uM: tmcy^he Virgin Mary, and taught that all should believe in him
.^ J->*~ , J? \ as the apostle of God ; but not as the Son of God and a
n*rt/' sufficient baviour.

It was the deplorable corruption of the eastern church,
not so much in doctrine, as in life and worship, and espe-
cially its practical idolatry, which lent the single, but sub-
lime truth of Mohammedanism its early power.

Little progress, however, was made by Mohammed in
obtaining converts until he was constrained by persecution
in Mecca, to flee to Medina. This event which occurred
on the 15th of July, 622, is the starting point of the Ma-
hommedan era. From that date his notoriety increased,
and converts multiplied, and attached themselves to his
eause with great enthusiasm. At first he used only per-
suasion ; latterly he received authority to compel assent to
his doctrines by force of arms. He died in 632, asserting
that God had given the world to be conquered for Islam.
That very year the arms of his followers were carried be-
yond the bounds of Arabia.

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The successors of Mohammed in office were called
Kalifs. The first was Abubeker. In his reign of two years
he reduced all the countries between the Euphrates and
the Mediterranean. In 636, the last of the imperial troops
were driven out of Syria. Next year Jerusalem was taken.
Egypt was reduced in 640, the greater part of northern
Africa in 647, and Persia in 65 1. By that date Mohamme-
dan conquest had extended to the opposite extremes of
Armenia and Nubia. It took in also Cyprus and Rhodes,
and advanced against Constantinople, which was saved by
the use of the Greek fire. From Mauritania it passed into
Spain, overran almost all the Peninsula, crossed the Pyre-
nees into the heart of France, and met its first check in
the valley of the Loire, in 732, from the army of the Franks
under command of Charles Ma'rtel. - /3hZ£U. *f /*"/lsk>

Thus, within one hundred years, the christian church
was overrun, and trampled down in Arabia, Persia, Syria,
Egypt, Northern Africa, part of Asia Minor, and the
greater part of the Spanish peninsula. The Patriarchate of
Constantinople was shorn of a large part of its jurisdiction ;
that of Rome, if we count in her claims to north Africa,
was diminished by nearly one half, those of Antioch, Jer-
usalem and Alexandria, were entirely reduced to depen-
dencies of the Saracen, and the Nestorian churches of the
further east were overwhelmed, and for centuries, many of
them forever, disappeared from history.

Of what remained under christian dominion, in Italy,
the Greek exarchate gradually broke down before the in-
creasing strength of the Lombards, until in 752, it came
entirely into their possession. During the period of its ex-
istence the capital had been Ravenna. Rome was only the
head of an inferior province of the Greek empire. Chris-
tian Spain was not crushed ; but all except its Gothic popu-
lation lay under domination of an anti-christian power. In
France, the military chiefs had assumed to a great degree
the control of the church. And Northern Africa was
prostrated under the Saracenic rule, without hope of relief.

The churches of the west in view of such danger and
loss, turned their eyes with the more interest to their re-
ligious chief at the old capital. Rome, now feeble, still
possessed a great inheritance of prestige, the superiority of

a thousand years, the source of empire in the west, of re-
ligious observances, many of which had come down from
heathen times. The title, and rank of sovereign pontiff,
which had been worn by the heathen emperors as chiefs of
the old state religion, and also by the first christian em-
perors, until declined by Gratian 375, was now assumed by
the bishop of Rome. Still the churches in Spain, Gaul and
Britain had little connection with that patriarchal capital,
being governed by their own episcopal authorities in rela-
tion to the civil powers under which they lived.

The pope was still a subject of the eastern emperor,
and had to be confirmed in office by him, and to pay him
taxes. And sometimes the imperial hand fell heavily upon
a refractory pope. But such an act was always treasured
up in memory, and handed down to succeeding popes for
payment. And every advantage secured was thence for-
ward claimed as a right. Thus, Pope Sergius rejected the
canons of the second council in Trullo, 692. The emperor,
Justinian II., sent an officer to arrest him; but the pope
escaped through an insurrection in Ravenna. The emperor
was deposed in 695, for reasons unconnected with the
church, but the victory remained with the Papacy. Justin-
ian II., after his restoration in 705, received Pope Constan-
tine in his capital, overloaded him with extravagant honors,
and set the example, of kissing his foot.

As the weight of the empire continued to diminish in
Italy, the popes began to turn their eyes towards an alli-
ance with the Frank leaders. Gregory III., applied to
Charles Martel, the hero of Poitiers, for that protection
against the Lombards, which his own monarch was unable
to furnish. Gregory III. was followed by Zacharias in 741,
in whose pontificate the policy of Gregory became a neces-
sity. From the utter failure of the secular arm to defend
Rome, the Pope was constrained to take upon himself en-
tirely that state business, which his predecessors had long
been more or less sustaining. Pepin, the son of Charles
Martel in 751 usurped the throne of France, and applied to
the Pope for his sanction. It was granted. At Soisson by
the Pope's commission and by the hand of Boniface, the
founder of the German church, Pepin was anointed King,
a favor afterward conferred by the pope in person.

The last Merovingian went into a cloister. Zacharias
died early in 752. His successor was Stephen II., after
only three days, followed by Stephen III. The Lombards
were making war upon the exarchate of Ravenna. Before
the end of the year they had reduced it. They next turned
their arms against Rome. Stephen applied to the new
King of France for aid. In the name of the empire, and as
defender of its territory, Pepin led his forces into Italy, de-
feated the Lombards and saved Rome. Taking from
the Lombards what they had recently conquered from the
emperor, he gave it to the pope. The districts contained
in that gift constituted the skeleton of what was afterwards
embraced under the name of the States of the church. Thus
the Pope took his place as a secular prince. He had also
allied himself with a new and powerful dynasty in the west,
whose influence was exerted to bring the Gallican church
into closer relations to Rome. A point of authority was
also established, in that the first king of the new dynasty
had solicited papal sanction, and accepted anointment at
the hands of the Pope. The Papacy was put into posses-
sion of great wealth. Allegiance to the emperor was not
formally repudiated, but it had ceased to be more than
nominal.

During this period the principal theological question
was that concerning the singleness or duality of will in
Christ.

When the emperor Heraclius was in Syria, from 622,
he became acquainted more intimately with the condition
of the Monophysites, and was persuaded that the principal
obstacle to their returning into the Catholic church might
be removed, by a statement of doctrine representing the
nature of Christ as two-fold, but the will as one. Sergius,
patriarch of Constantinople, was consulted on the subject,
and expressed his opinion that such a view was not incon-
sistent with the creed of the church. Several theologians
of the east coincided with him. Cyrus patriarch of Alex-
andria accepted the doctrine, and made some progress in
reconciling the two parties within hi<= diocese. Action to
that effect was taken by a council in Alexandria, in 633.
But Sophronius, a clearer thinking Palestinian monk, hap-

pened to be there at the time, and -declared his opposition.
He became patriarch of Jerusalem next year, and used his
increased influence to promote the rising excitement of con-
troversy. Sergius of Constantinople succeeded in enlistmg
Honorius, bishop of Rome, on his side. Thus the Patriarchs
of Constantinople, of Rome and of Alexandria were arrayed
on the Monothelite side, against the Patriarch of Jerusalem.
Sophronius however had the advantage of his opponents in
point of logic, and his reasoning soon convinced the greater
number of theologians. But he was silenced by the Mo-
hammedans, into whose hands he and his patriarchate fell
in 637. He died soon after. Next year, the emperor find-
ing that instead of harmony, only greater division of opin-
ion was produced by his doctrine, issued what he called the
Ecthesis, prepared by Sergius, with the hope of allaying the
excitement. In that proclamation he stated the doctrine
of one Christ in two natures, and that the one Christ works
both what is divine and what is human ; but urged that the
phrases expressive of one energy or of two energies, which
had been used in controversy, should be avoided. Both
parties were dissatisfied. Succeeding bishops of Rome re-
jected the Ecthesis, and in the east, orthodoxy was ably de-
fended by the monk Maximus, while Theodore bishop of
Pharan in Arabia upheld the cause of the Monothelites. In
648 the emperor Constans II. issued an edict called the
Typus, {rbrtoz) by which the Ecthesis was revoked, and
without taking the part of either side, an attempt was made
to restrain violent disputes, and effect peace in the church.
Of course it did not succeed. Pope Martin I. called a
council in Rome, the first Lateran, the next year, at which
twenty canons were drawn up condemning Monothelitism,
thereby putting himself in opposition to the imperial policy.
For that he was, in 653, arrested, deposed, and taken to Con-
stantinople, on charge of high treason. He was banished,
654, to Chersonesus in the Crimea, where he soon after-
wards died.

Maximus met with a similar, but severer fate. His
trial effecting no disposition in him to comply with the
imperial edict, he was imprisoned several years, then
publicly scourged, his tongue cut out, and his right hand
cut off. He was then banished to the country of Lazica on
the Black Sea, where he died, in 662.

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As another means of reconciling the long standing
dispute, the emperor Constantine IV. called a general
council to meet at Constantinople, in 680. It assembled
in a hall of the palace called Trullus. The emperor pre-
sided. The doctrine of two wills was accepted as script-
ural ; that is, that in Christ there are two natures in one
person ; each nature possessing a will of its own ; and the
Monothelite doctrine of two natures in one person, with
only one will, was condemned.

Under the emperor Philippicus Bardanes, 711 — 713,
the controversy was revived in the east, but for only a
short time. Monothelites diminished in number, and
ultimately became limited to a small dissenting party who
residing chiefly in the region of Lebanon, chose a patriarch
of Antioch for themselves. A remnant of them still sur-
vives under the name of Maronites.

In the course of the seventh century the Symbolum
Quicumque, commonly called the Athanasian Creed, came
into notice, by what authority drawn up, or at what date is
unknown. The earliest example of its adoption as a creed
appears in a canon of the council of Cressy, 676. It is
the third of the Roman Catholic Symbols, the Apostles'
Creed and the Niceno Constantinopolitan being the first
and second.

In outward progress of the church the most important -3Uc*^y^/«^*
steps were those of mission work in the British isles.

Augustin with Laurentius and other Benedictine
monks, sent by Gregory I. to the Anglo-Saxons, landed on
the coast of Kent in 597. Their success proved to be
great beyond expectation. The king of Kent soon pro-
fessed himself a christian, and was followed by his people,
ten thousand of whom were baptized in one day. Canter-
bury was constituted an archbishopric, and Augustin its
first incumbent in 604. At the end of five years, he was
succeeded by his companion Laurentius ; and the work
went on prosperously.

The latter years of the sixth century and the seventh
were marked by great missionary zeal on the part of
British christians of the older connection. By the with-
drawal of Roman troops from the island in 418 the British

churches were cue off from communication with Rome.
Subsequent interposition of heathen Saxons increased that
isolation. About the year 430, the gospel was carried
from christian Britain into the north of Ireland by Patri-
cius. Others had preceded him, yet so far superior was
the success which attended the preaching of Patricius, that
Ireland refers the planting of her church entirely to him.
It was in the counties Down and Armagh that he com-
menced his labors, which soon extended to all the north,
and thence, by the hands of others the gospel was carried
to the rest of the island.

From the middle of the sixth century, the Irish clergy
were distinguished for learning superior to the age in other
quarters, and for missionary zeal. Their principal school
and centre of operations was Bangor, in the county Down.
In 563, Columba left Ireland to carry the gospel into the
northwest of Scotland, where it had not then been preached.
With his^'companions he was favorably received by a chief
of the Hebrides, who gave him the island of Iona. There
he erected a church, and a house for himself and his mis-
sionaries, who from that centre extended their excursions
to various parts of the mainland and neighboring islands.
In 635, Oswald, king of Northumbria, obtained a mission-
ary from Iona to preach within his dominions, and gave
him for residence the island of Lindisfarne. The success
of that mission was rapid, and churches were soon planted
as far south as Yorkshire and even in the centre of Eng-
land. At the same time the Romish missions from the
south were rapidly advancing northward. In the conflict
of authorities which ensued, the power of Iona could not
withstand that from Rome. The churches of the northern
mission were, before the end of the seventh century, com-
prehended within the jurisdiction of the southern. Lindis-
farne became a Romish monastery, and its episcopal
authority was transferred to Durham. York was the seat
of an archbishopric ; but Canterbury was honored with the
primacy of all England. Articles enforcing obedience of
the churches in the north of England to the Romish prac-
tices were proposed by Theodore of Canterbury in a pro-
vincial council for the north, in 674.

It was also in the early part of the seventh century
that Columbanus and Gallus left Ireland at the head of

another little group of missionaries to preach in Burgundy,
France and Switzerland. Columbanus died in 615 and
Gallus in 627. And before the middle of the eighth cen-
tury the British monk, Boniface, had finished his work of
organizing the churches of Germany.

V. 752—880.

Re-settlement. Early Papal Success. Organization
of the National Churches of the West.

Leagued with the great Carolingian kings of France,
the Papacy now entered upon the first period of its real
supremacy in the west. That period extends from the pon-
tificate of Stephen III., until 880, the date of the difference,
which was never reconciled, between the Patriarchs of Con-
stantinople and of Rome, and the beginning of the medieval
decline of the Papacy. Another feature of the time was
the settlement of the new nations, the chief work of Charle-
magne, who also forced upon his heathen subjects the pro-
fession of Christianity, by having them baptized.

It was within the same period that the Iconoclast
controversy ran the most exciting part of its course. By
the beginning of the seventh century the worship of im-
ages had become common throughout the church both
east and west. Opposition to it was the strong point of
Mohammedanism. Though far from meeting the approval
of the more scripturally instructed clergy and laity, the
masses of the christian populace and a sufficiently great
number of the clergy to sustain them were devotedly at-
tached to their images. In 726, the emperor Leo Isauri-
cus issued an edict forbidding the practice ; and in 730 he
ordered the images or pictures to be destroyed. The op-
position of Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, was
overcome by deposing him, and setting up Anastasius.
Rome defended image worship. And Catholic christians
under Mohammedan rule adhered to the practice as a dis-
tinctive badge of their religion.

The course of the Emperor Leo was also pursued by his
successor Constantine, in whose reign the council of 754, at
Constantinople, condemned the worship of images, but not

to the satisfaction of the Catholic public, nor of the bishop
of Rome, who did not recognize the council. A new stage
of the controversy opened, the imperial authority being
generally arrayed against images, and the popes in favor of
them, until in the minority of the Emperor Constantine
VI., his mother Irene became, in 780, empress-regent, and
sustained the cause of the image- worshipers. Irene called
a general council to meet in Nice, in 787, which, with her
support, declared image-worship to be orthodox, and de-
fined and prescribed the practice. That council is accepted
by both east and west Catholic churches, and remains their
authority on the subject.

The controversy was opened a third time by the Em-
peror Leo V. who, in 815, called a council at Constantin-
ople, in which image-worship was condemned. But finally,
when another princess came into power, namely Theodora,
a fourth council, convoked at Constantinople, in 842, sus-
tained the image-worshipers, confirming the second coun-
cil of Nice. And the controversy closed with a grand fes-
tival, called the festival of orthodoxy, in honor of that de-
cision.

In the west, during part of the eighth century, some
controversy was created by the opinion of two Spanish
bishops, Elipand of Toledo, and Felix of Urgel, that Christ
in his divine nature was the true Son of God, but as a man,
only the adopted son. The opinion was rejected as heretical
by the council at Frankfort in 794.

Transubstantiation of the elements in the Eucharist was
first formally taught and defended by Paschasius Radbert,
abbot of Corbey, from 844 to 851. Though practically
held by very many in the church, from earlier time, it en-
countered opposition, when first proposed as a dogma, and
was not accepted authoritatively, nor was the term tran-
substantiation introduced, until long afterwards. Rabanus
Maurus, and Ratramnus, the ablest theologians of the ninth
century, wrote against it.

Controversy was revived on the subject of predesti-
nation by the writings of Gottschalk, a monk of Fulda, who
from about 840 taught that there is a two-fold predesti-
nation of the elect to blessedness, and of the rest of man-
kind to punishment. He was opposed by Rabanus Maurus,

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Archbishop of Mentz, and Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims.
After years of controversy, Gottschalk was condemned to
imprisonment, in which he died, in 868.

A difference of opinion concerning the procession of
the Holy Spirit had more immediate effect upon the history
of the church. The creed of the general councils states that
the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. A conviction,
which appeared first in Spain, in the acts of a council at
Toledo, in 589, and again in other Spanish councils of the
seventh century, that He proceeds from both the Father
and the Son, was, sometime in the early part of the ninth
century, introduced into the Latin version of the Creed.
The proposal to insert it in the original Greek was rejected
by the council of Constantinople in 879. On the subject
of filioque, the eastern and western Catholic church estab-
lished a permanent difference of doctrine.

In Armenia, Parsism became blended with Christian-
ity, giving rise to that sect called by other Christians
"The children of the sun." "On the other hand a class of
reformers arose in the east, toward the middle of the seventh
century, who sought to conform closely to the teachings of
the apostles, especially of John and Paul. From the fre-
quent use among them of the name and writings of the last
mentioned, it is thought, they received the name Paulicians,
by which they are known. Their leaders, in many cases,
assumed the names of persons connected with Paul in his
labors. They suffered much persecution. Constantine,
who took the name Silvanus, an eminent teacher among
them, in the neighborhood of Samosata, between 657 and
684, was stoned to death by order of the emperor Constan-
tine IV. But the officer who executed the order became a
convert to the cause, and a preacher of it under the name of
Titus, and died at the stake under Justinian II. The
Paulicians were opposed to image-worship, and for that rea-
son were protected by the emperor Leo Isauricus. Through
the latter part of the eighth century and until 811, they in-
creased in number, and spread their churches over Asia
Minor. From 811, persecution was revived and continued
many years, especially under the rule of the zealous image-
worshiper Theodora, from 841 to 855, who with a fanatical
fury resolved to extirpate them. Not less than a hundred

thousand are said to have been slain in Armenia by her
officers. Many of them fled for refuge to the Saracens,
and finding protection added their force to the enemies of
the empire. But notwithstanding persecution, their con-
verts also increased to the westward, and Paulician churches
were founded in Thrace and Bulgaria, and thence at a later
date, their doctrines spread under various names, into the
west of Europe.

The last years of the eighth century, and earlier part
of the ninth, were marked by a highly laudable effort at
reform and restoration of learning, made by both Christian
and Mohammedan princes.

Among the Saracens, it was the time of the great
Abbasside Kalifs of Bagdad, a dynasty elevated in 750, at
Damascus, by the cruel success of Abul Abbas, called Al
Saffah. Their seat of government was subsequently re-
moved to Hashemiah, and in 762 to Bagdad. Al Mansur
and Al Mahadi successively reigned after Abul Abbas until
785, when it reached its highest excellenceunder Harun
Al Raschid. Upon his death in 808, his sons AJ Amin,
Al Mamun and Al Motassem reigned successively until
841. From that date Bagdad began to decline, and suc-
ceeding barbaric invasions rendered the lost irretrievable.

In Spain, the Moors within this period began their
career of civilization, which they continued until the rise
of modern learning.

In the Greek empire, the state of culture was little
improved ; but one or two authors flourished there greatly
superior to any of the immediately preceding periods.

In the west of Christian Europe, the effort towards
restoration of learning and of ecclesiastical order was
earnestly made, by those at the head of the civil govern-
ment, Pepin, Charlemagne, and Louis, from 75 1 to 840.
For the time then being, their success was not equal to
that of the Mohammedan princes ; but the seeds they
planted bore more abundant fruit, in a far distant future.
The sons of Louis divided their father's dominion, and en-
feebled their resources ; but they also patronized letters in
some degree. With the death of Charles the Bald in 877,
such patronage ceased in that quarter. But almost at the

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same time commenced the reign of Alfred the Great in
England, extending from 871 until 900.

With all the encouragement of Charlemagne, the im-
provement in learning was very slender. Few cared to
study, and the course of instruction even in the improved
schools was scanty. The topics of the Trivium and
Quadrivium were briefly and superficially treated. Among
the scholars who illustrate the time were Alcuinus, Egin-
hard, Rabanus Maurus, Hincmar, Ratramnus, John Scot
Erigena, Agobard of Lyons, and Claudius of Turin. Among
the Greeks the principal name is that of Photius.

For thirty years Charlemagne made war on various
nations of Saxons, Bohemians and Huns, whom he sub-
dued, and constrained to profess Christianity. He also in-
vaded the Mohammedans in Spain, and drove them from
that part of the peninsula north of the Ebro. In 772 he
went into Italy to protect the Pope from the Lombards,
and before the end of two years, extinguished the independ-
ence of that people. And in 786, the duke of Benevento
submitted to hold his duchy as a fief of the irresistible mon-
arch. The dominion thus built up, by the end of the
eighth century extended from the Ebro and south of Italy
to the Elbe and Eider in the north, and from the Atlantic
to Pannonia all included with half the valley of the Theis
in Hungary.

Pope Leo III. taking this open fact into consideration,
resolved to dismiss the last empty show of allegiance to
Constantinople, and connect his office, on different terms,
with the new monarchy of the west, by reviving the wes-
tern empire. On the 25th of December, 800, Charlemagne
was at Rome in the church of St. Peter. When kneeling
at the altar, he was approached solemnly by the Pope, who
placed on his head a golden crown, and pronounced him
emperor of Rome, and from the vast congregation burst
forth the exclamation, " Life and victory to Charles,
crowned by God emperor of Rome."

There was now again an emperor of the west, and
Rome and the Papacy were finally separated from the em-
perors of the east, and from the Byzantine system. This
is the point at which the Popes became legally indepen-
dent. For ecclesiastical supremacy was never recognized

100

as belonging to the new imperial line of the west. The
idea of being free from civil allegiance, however, did not at
first occur to the successors of Leo III. But not quite half
a century had elapsed ere that also was claimed. Eugenius
II., in 824 took an oath of allegiance; but Sergius II., in
844 ventured to neglect it, advantage being taken of the
divided state of the secular power. And in 847 Leo IV.
was not only ordained without imperial sanction, but also
assumed precedence of princes in putting his name to doc
uments. An attempt was made by Nicholas I. in 858 to
impose papal superiority upon Constantinople. The em-
peror Michael III. having removed the patriarch Ignatius,
and appointed Photius in his stead, Ignatius applied to the
pope, who having first in vain demanded the restoration of
theecclesiasticaljurisdiction oflllyricum, Macedonia, Epirus,
Thessaly, Achaia, and Sicily, with the addition of Bulgaria,
took revenge by excommunicating Photius. Photius reta-
liated by excommunicating Nicholas. Ignatius was restor-
ed by the succeeding emperor Basilius, 867, but neither of
them complied with the pope's demand. A general coun-
cil at Constantinople in 869, condemned Photius. After
the death of Ignatius in 878, Photius was restored. And
another council at Constantinople in 879, labored to recon-
cile the two hierarchs, but without effect. Because among
other things it could not recognize Rome as the last court
of appeal, nor assent to the western doctrine of the pro-
cession of the Holy Sprit, nor to the claim of ecclesiastical
jurisdiction over Bulgar'a and other provinces above named.
Consequently the council of 879 was anathematized by
pope John VIII., in 880. The bishops of the east and west
never again met in a general council of both churches.
For the eastern Catholic church recognizes no council as
general since that of 879.

With the reign of Charlemagne begins the true settle-
ment of the nations of western Europe, and the period of
dissolution comes to an end.

In the constitution of his empire, Charlemagne had
special regard to the interests of the church. And that of
Rome was the model which he endeavored to follow ; but
without recognizing its supremacy. The highest authority in

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affairs of government was retained for the monarch, who sum
moned ecclesiastical as well as civil assemblies, and whose
sanction was needed to confirm their decrees. And in the
administration of law, bishops and counts were associated, ','•> ^ %tJ^Z.~
and instructed to support each other. Neither Pepin nor
Charlemagne, though paying great honor to popes, ever al-
lowed them any other influence in affairs of state than that
of advice or remonstrance. Thus, the Gallican church ob-
tained, in its reconstruction under those great princes, a
degree of freedom which no other western church could
claim.

In the reign of Louis, papal influence was suffered to
increase, and every advantage was taken, by the popes, of
the division and enfeebling of the empire by his sons.

The Anglo-Saxon church of Britain was most faith-
fully attached to Rome. It had no antiquity of greater
purity to regret. In Spain, christians living under Moorish
rule were allowed the privileges of worship, and of internal
church government and discipline, but suffered in many
ways from the Mohammedan populace. Gothic Spaniards
were independent, and almost continually at war with the
Moors.

Mission work was confined chiefly to the north of
Europe. That of Anschar, commenced in 826, carried
Christianity into Denmark and Sweden, and laid the foun-
dation for the archbishopric of Hamburg-Bremen, which
was constituted in 831. And what Anschar and his com-
panions were to the northwest of Europe, Cyril and Meth- -'
odius were to the northeast. Through their efforts, the
Moravians were added to the eastern church, about the
year 862, the Bulgarians about 864 ; and in subsequent
years the same labors were extended to the Chazars, a peo-
ple living to the north of the Black sea. From Moravia the
cause was carried, in 871, into Bohemia.

The discipline of the church had undergone a change.
Private confession was now completely established ; and the
priest was empowered to grant absolution under condition
of a penance to be performed. Excommunication was not
often inflicted, but from the civil forfeitures, and the social
exclusion connected with it. had become intensified in its
terrors.

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102

Superstitious rites and observances were greatly mul-
tiplied. Saints and their relics increased on all hands, and
legends of their virtues and miracles, manufactured chiefly
in the east and at Rome, were greedily accepted by an
ignorant public everywhere. The festival of All Saints
gradually grew into use in the seventh and eighth centuries,
and in the ninth, was regularly appointed by Gregory IV.,
for the first of November. A festival was introduced in
honor of the birth of the Virgin Mary on the 8th of Sep-
tember, and for her assumption, on the 15th of August. For
it had now been decided that Mary was taken up bodily to
heaven. Certain writings were presented by the eastern
emperor Michael II. to the western emperor Louis the
pious, as the works of Dionysius the Areopagite. French
scholars and people, taking the pretended author to be
the founder of their church, and confusing the two per-
sonalities, accepted the same Dionysius as their patron
saint. Within the same period the christian Spaniards dis-
covered among them the wonderfully preserved body of the
apostle James the brother of John which forthwith became
their Palladium in war with the Moors. But every coun-
try, almost every family, had its patron saint, embellished
with his, or her, miracles.

In the growth of the papacy in the ninth century above
all that it had previously been, attempts were made to fortify
the ground taken, and construct the weapons for conquer-
ing more, by the fabrication of certain authorities. Certain
canons of councils unheard of before, and forged epistles of
early popes were inserted into the collection of ecclesiastical
laws, which went under the name of Isidore of Seville.
They were of a nature, if enforced, to make the clergy in-
dependent of the state, with the Roman see the centre of
their system. They were quoted as law from 857 and the
time of Pope Nicholas I., 858-867, until their exposure in
the eighteenth century. Another similar forgery which
came into operation in the same connection was the pre-
tended donation by Constantine I. of his Lateran palace and
imperial authority in the west to the popes, which went to
sustain their assumption of rank above all civil potentates
and powers. This also continued to be adduced as of legal
force until exposed by modern criticism.

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103

Amidst accumulating errors and corruptions there
were still numerous examples of pastoral fidelity and of
true christian life among both clergy and laity. Agobard,
bishop of Lyons, in the reign of Louis the pious, finding
the worship of his church debased by the superstition and
ignorance of his predecessors, upon his own judgment, re-
moved from it everything inconsistent with scriptural doc-
trine, and confined himself as much as possible to scriptural
forms of expression. A still bolder reformer, in the spirit
of Christ, was Claudius bishop of Turin, who contended
earnestly for the simplicity of Christian faith, in opposition
to the sensuous and idolatrous practices of the age. He
exerted an influence upon the church of Turin which hon-
orably distinguished it long afterwards.

VI. 880—1054.
Papal Degeneracy.

In the pontificate of John VIII. the Papacy had
reached the prime of its early success, having succeeded
in gathering together in itself all the elements of Roman-
ism. By the same time a long succession of emperors and
patriarchs in Constantinople had matured the system of
Byzantinism. It was impossible that they could live together
in harmony, diametrically opposite as they were to each
other. Some of the points on which the Pope and Patriarch
differed in 879 and 880, were such as could not be com-
promised. Still, they continued for one hundred and
seventy-four years, to hold relations to each other as min-
isters in the same Catholic church, although in a state of
bitter rivalry, until in the year 1054, they separated entirely,
rending the Catholic church in two. The intervening
period is the lowest in the history of civilized Europe. It
is marked by papal degeneracy; by the dismemberment of
the western empire, and its revival as German, and by the
darkest shades of popular ignorance.

I. Louis the pious having divided the empire among
his three sons, died in 840. His sons immediately rushed
into war with each other, and made a new division, by
the treaty of Verdun in 843, whereby the general outlines

104

of France and Germany were assigned. But between these
two countries there was left a belt of territory, which united
to the Netherlands on the north and Italy on the south
was given to Lothaire with the title of emperor. Germany
was assigned to Louis the German, and France, to Charles
the Bald. In 875, the whole, with the imperial title, came
into the hands of Charles the Bald. From his death in
877, the Carolingian dynasty broke down. The German
branch of it became extinct in 912. Conrad of Franconia
was elected emperor, but died in 918. The next was Henry
the Fowler of Saxony. From his accession in 919, the
western empire, as a German power, entered a new career
of prosperity, in which it was carried forward by his suc-
cessors in the same dynasty until 1024, when it passed
again into the house of Franconia, beginning with Conrad
II., followed successively by Henry III., and Henry IV,
The last commenced his eventful reign, as a child of six
years old, under the guardianship of his mother, in 1056.

The Saracens from Africa, after having conquered
Sicily and Naples, were, in 8jy, threatening Rome, when
the death of Charles the Bald deprived the Pope of his
strongest protector. None of the other princes were in
condition to help him. He bought the safety of his capital
by promise of tribute: and then found himself in the hands
of refractory Italian princes. He took refuge in France
in 878.

John VIII. died in 882, and was followed for nearly a
hundred and seventy years, by a series of popes, of whom,
with only few exceptions, it is fair to say that whatever
their abilities might be, they were less conspicuous than
their vices. The papal office became an object of political
ambition, to which the elections were managed by parties
among the Italian nobles. From about 898, if not earlier,,
the principal power was wielded by certain infamous women
of high rank, and by their descendants and kindred for
a hundred years. Restraint was put upon their power,
occasionally, by the interposition of the emperors Otho I.,
Otho II., Otho III., from 964 to 998. But that only added
to the disorder. A brief interval occurred in the pontificate
of Gerbert (Silvester II.,) a good man, and the only good
scholar the age could boast, and whom it could not under-

■

105

stand. But his term of office, from 999 to 1003, was too
brief to apply any important check to the downward career
of papal history. In the early part of the eleventh century
Rome both ecclesiastical and civil, was under the domina-
tion of the noble house of Tusculum, a branch of the
flagitious stock to whom it had been subject in the tenth
century. So low had the papacy descended, that men were
put into it without the pretence of being clergymen. John
XIX., a layman and a brother of the count of Tusculum,
was carried to the Papal chair, in 1024, if not by purchase,
at least by political management of his family. He was
succeeded in 1033 by his nephew, Benedict IX., also a lay-
man, for whom the papal office had been purchased when
he was but a boy often years. The dissolute life of Bene-
dict matched the scandalous manner of his election. Rome
endured him ten years, and then in 1044, drove him from
the city, and set up Sylvester III. In the course of the
strife which ensued, Tusculum prevailed and restored Bene-
dict. Sylvester under excommunication betook himself
to flight. But the violence of parties did not cease. Bene-
dict concluded to sell his office. It was purchased in 1046
by John Gratian, a priest, who took the papal name of
Gregory VI. Subsequently Benedict changed his mind,
his party again rallied round him, and enthroned him once
more in the Lateran palace. One of his rivals, Gregory,
held his place in the Cathedral of St. Maria Maggiore,
while the other, Sylvester, retained St. Peter's and the
Vatican. The streets of Rome were harassed by the
deadly strife of their partisans.

News moved slowly in those days, and the stolidity
of ignorant superstition took long time to accept the con-
viction of anything wrong in the papal court. But it was
now impossible that the christian public could be ignorant
of such a scandalous schism. It would not have been well
for the church, or the world to have seen the papacy sub-
merged in such a way and at such a juncture. The emperor
Henry III. came from Germany to restore order, and ad-
vanced to- Sutri, where he called a council. All three
popes were cited to appear. Benedict abdicated, the other
two were deposed ; and a new pope was elected from the
German clergy, who took the name Clement II. Henry

106

then marched to Rome and inducted his pope into the
papal throne, with the apparent consent of the Roman
clergy, and received, for himself and his queen, imperial
coronation at his hands.

But it was not the emperor who was to be the reformer
of the papacy. Clement's attempt to reduce the irregular-
ities of bishops and other clergy utterly failed; his council
called at Rome could accomplish nothing, from the
gigantic extent of the evils. His pontificate was brief. He
died within a year. Benedict IX. took occasion of the ab-
sence of any higher authority to renew his usurpation once
more, and maintained it nine months. A new party in
favor of imperial interference, united in an application to
the emperor to nominate a pope to his own judgment. He
sent them POppo, bishop of Brescia, who reigned as Damas-
cus II., only twenty three days. Again the vacant chair
awaited the emperor's nomination. He appointed his kins-
man Bruno, bishop of Toul, a man of learning and humble
piety. At a great assembly at Worms, in presence of the
delegates from Rome, the emperor had him invested with
the badges of Pontifical office. Thus the Papacy, through
necessities imposed by its own corruptions, was coming
distinctly under control of the secular power; and so
loosely had the elections been latterly conducted that the
secular power was needed to give them some regularity.

It was at that juncture that one of the most extra-
ordinary characters of the middle ages appeared. The
newly elected Pope was encountered at Besan^on, on his
way to Italy, by a young monk from Cluny, who was
destined to wield a more than imperial influence over him.
Hildebrand was a native of Tuscany, born about 1020,
educated in Rome, and afterwards in Cluny, ( where the
monks regarded him as a prodigy of gifts, application and
sanctity. His education was entirely monastic, and his
ideas of papal reform were drawn from the monastery.
About the age of twenty-four he returned to Rome, at the
juncture, when the strife between rival popes was the
fiercest, and attached himself to Gregory VI. "When all
three popes were deposed, Hildebrand followed Gregory
into retirement, and after his death, returned for a short
time to Cluny. He had kept himself well informed of the

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course of events in Rome ; and now greatly dissatisfied
with the act of investiture at Worms, he presented himself,
in company with Hugh Abbot of Cluny, to the Pope elect
at Besancon, and persuaded him to consider his investiture
by imperial authority null. Bruno dismissed his papal
equipage, and in company with Hildebrand, pursued the
rest of his journey in the manner of a pilgrim. At Rome,
he submitted to election by the clergy, and assumed the
papal office, as Leo IX., upon purely ecclesiastical investi-
ture.

2. Bishops very generally disapproved of papal inter-
meddling with the domestic affairs of their dioceses. From
the latter part of the ninth century, the False Decretals
operated to bring them under that control. Another
means was perhaps not less effective. The Popes had long
been in the habit of conferring archiepiscopal office by
giving the Pallium, or official robe ; and from the time of
Nicholas I., (858 — 867) that had been given only on con-
dition of the receiver taking an oath of obedience to the
Romish see. According to one of the titles he wore, and
the doctrine of the False Decretals, the Pope was universal
bishop. It was by the common people that, in those days,
papal claims were supported. They, with a superstitious
reverence, conceived that the Pope exercised the powers of
divine law, and were ready to submit to him, rather than
to any authority, which they deemed merely human.

The metropolitans, or archbishops of the west, gradu-
ally brought under papal dominion, were also connected
in other relations with the civil government. In the tem-
poralities of their sees, they were involved in the generally
prevailing feudal system, their tenants being feudally
dependant on them, and they feudally related to the mon-
arch. They had to take the oath of allegiance to him, and
to receive from him investiture in their estates and civil
honors. Thus were planted the seeds of quarrel between
the royal and papal authorities.

It inevitably followed that numbers of ambitious per-
sons obtained high places in the church through royal
favor or political manoeuvring or by money. Inferior
places of course went the same way; and simony became
a prevailing vice of the clergy.

108

3. The ministrations of the church conducted by such
men had ceased to contain instruction. Preaching in the
parishes was almost obsolete, by monks only occasional.
The service was in Latin ; and Latin was no longer spoken
or understood by the people. Religion itself became a
dead language to the greater number — a mere system of
observances and repetition of chanted or mumbled sounds.

4. The monasteries, in which piety and intelligence
did find some refuge, were always difficult to regulate.
Houses on the system of Benedict, after many fluctuations,
before the beginning of the tenth century, had all degen-
erated. Monks had become irregular, idle and dissolute.
As a measure of reform — the only reform belonging to the
tenth century — the convent of Cluny was founded in 910
by William of Aquitaine. The rules of Benedict were
there revived and some were added, especially by the
second abbot Odo, who by the strictness of his discipline
secured for his convent a reputation of eminent sanctity.
After its example, other monasteries were founded or
reformed, and its abbots were sometimes invited elsewhere
for that purpose. The association of monasteries, looking
to Cluny as their exemplar, was spoken of as the Con-
grcgatio Chtniacensis, and its abbots sometimes, as arch-
abbots. Many persons who were not monks so connected
themselves with them as to be allowed, according to the
then common ideas, a " share in the spiritual blessing of
the brotherhood," and were called Fratres Conscvipti, or
Confratres. Cluny was assigned to the immediate care of
the pope. In that respect also many other monasteries
followed its example.

5. The reign of ignorance and superstition continued.
God was concealed from the view of worshipers by a mul-
titute of saints held up for adoration in his stead. Every
place of worship was supplied with their relics, which were
bought and sold for their miraculous virtues. And popular
instruction, consisted almost solely of legends designed to
set off such wares. The Virgin Mary was honored most
of all. Saturday was set apart to her, and a daily office
introduced in her worship.

The Lord Jesus Christ was not entirely left out of
view, but together with other persons of the Godhead was

109

put at a great distance off, when he was not represented as
a child or a corpse. Access to him as God was held to be
through his mother.

In doctrine, the church still professed the creed of the
general councils ; practically, reliance for salvation rested
upon good works, penance and the intercession of the Vir-
gin Mary and the saints. By good works were understood
works of mercy, but also, to a great extent, acts of asce-
ticism, or of attendance on formal observances, or dona-
tions to the church. Penances were now reduced to a sys-
tem, regulated by written rules. It was an act of great
merit to exceed those rules, by voluntary infliction. It was
now practically admitted that pardon of sin could be grant-
ed by the priest, upon confession to him, and compliance
with the penance imposed. Excommunication, as a means
of coercion, now reached its extreme of severity, and that
sometimes inflicted by the most godless of men, as means
of revenge.

A signal confession of judicial incapacity was implied
in trial by ordeal, a heathen custom introduced from Ger-
many, and now superintended by the clergy ; of similar
nature was that of trial by battle, the most degenerate ef-
fects of which have lasted longest.

One institution of the time for which the clergy deserve
credit was the Truce of God, an attempt to put some check,
though only partial and brief, upon the prevalence of pri-
vate wars.

Popularly it was believed that all things were sinking
towards dissolution, and that the world would come to an
end in the year iooo after Christ.

The very missionary enterprises of the time partook of
its wild half heathenish character. In Norway Christianity
was established by arms. By the same means it obtained
the mastery in Bohemia and was forced upon the Wends
by the German Empire, upon the Hungarians by their
Kings, and upon the Russians by their Grand Duke. That
the gospel of Christ survived such extravagant misrepre-
sentation is almost miraculous, and due chiefly to the pre-
servation of the written word, and the fact that there was
always a faithful remnant true to the spirit of its instruc-
tions.

110

6. In order to a just apprehension of the church in the
Middle Ages, it is important to distinguish between the
church and the hierarchy, and in the hierarchy itself, be-
tween the episcopal authorities and the papal.

The church of God was oppressed, crushed beneath
the weight of powers which had assumed to govern it, and
were making their gain by it ; but it was never extinguish-
ed. Prevented from demonstrating itself outwardly in any
proper organic form, it existed in the hearts of individuals
and in their spiritual sympathy and understanding with one
another, in as far as they had any knowledge of each other's
faith. In that state of things a pious clergyman or prince
was of great service in giving centralization to some ex-
tent to the scattered piety of the christian world. The
most conspicuous example of that kind, within the period
of which we are now speaking, was that of Alfred, King
of England, with his immediate successors, Edward and
Athelstane. Alfred was king from 871 to 900, and his son
and grandson successively maintained his improvements
until 940. Subsequently England was harassed by Dan-
ish invasion, under which state and church alike suffered a
new and deeper depression, until all England came under
the rule of the Danish king Canute. A brief attempt at
better government by that wise monarch was followed by
new disorders, until the kingdom was overwhelmed by the
Norman conquest, in 1066.

7. In the same year in which Leo IX. died, 1054, all
intercourse between the eastern and western catholic
churches came to an end. A letter from the patriarch of
Constantinople to a friend, commenting on the errors and
abuses of the west, was responded to with great bitterness.
Papal delegates were sent to Constantinople who attempted
to treat the Patriarch as a subject of the Pope. Their pre-
tensions were not allowed. They laid an act of excom-
munication upon the great altar of St. Sophia, to which
the Patriarch responded with an anathema. And thus, on
the 16th of July, 1054, the two great hierarchs parted for-
ever.

8. It was at the same juncture, when the Popes
entirely separated from the eastern church, that they began

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to^adopt those measures of policy which eventuated in
»natu|ing the Papal system, and in carrying it to a real
domination over the west.

VII. 1054 — 1305.
The Summit of Papal Prosperity.

Upon the death of Leo IX., Hildebrand first under-
took to manage the papal elections. The policy of his
adoption continued, in the main, successful until the quarrel
of Boniface VIII. with the King of France, which issued
in removal of the papal residence to Avignon, in 1305.
The interval is a true historical period possessing features
of its own. to be found nowhere else. It presents the
maturity of the Papacy, within which that system exer-
cised the highest and widest authority it was ever permitted
to wield. Secondly, it was the time of controversy between
the German Emperors and the Popes. A third feature was
the scholastic theology ; a fourth the Crusades ; and a
fifth, the progressive quickening of intellect, as manifested
in the increase of dissenting religious sects, incipiency of
popular song, and rise and progress of schools and uni-
versities.

1. During the pontificate of Leo IX., Hildebrand, now
a cardinal subdeacon, improved every opportunity to in-
'crease'iiis influence; and> succeeded in putting himself at
the head of a party seeking to correct abuses in the church,
which had long been found incorrigible. Three objects he
had in view ; first the removal of Simony, and lay interfer-
ence in church matters ; second, to repress the immorality
of the clergy, and third to bind all the elements of the papacy
into such a system as to realize the supremacy to which it
aspired. A grand conception that of a dominion con-
structed, by means of a perfectly organized hierarchy, upon
the basis of religion and morals, and subordinating to itself
all the other powers and dignities of earth, but it had only
a political relation to the kingdom of Christ. It was not
entirely new. It had certainly been entertained by some
of the gifted popes of the ninth century. But Hildebrand
recognized and retrieved its elements from the degradation

112

to which they had been reduced in a long career of papal
profligacy, and reconstructed them, under the most favor-
able circumstances, with the greatest effect.

Execution of the design began with enforcing the
celibacy of the clergy ; and much to that end was done by
Leo IX.; but the pivot of the whole was in the papal elec-
tions, which Hildebrand never suffered to escape from his
control. By application to the emperor he obtained the
appointment of the candidate of his choice as successor to
Leo. Gebhart bishop of Eichstadt, an influential counsellor
of the emperor, and centre of an antipapal party in the
north, was a manifold gain to the cause of papal reform.
He assumed the name of Victor II., and continued in office
until his death in 1057. Meanwhile in 1056 the Emperor
Henry III. died, leaving the heir of his house, a child of
six years, under the regency of the Empress. In those
circumstances, the reforming party had no difficulty in
electing their own candidate, who took the name Stephen
IX. During Hildebrand's absence from Rome, Stephen
died; and the opposite party elected Benedict X. Hilde-
brand, on his return succeeded in reversing that action, and
in setting up Nicholas II. Under Nicholas, in 1059, a law
was enacted to regulate papal elections, ordaining that the
pope should be elected from the cardinals, and by the col-
lege of cardinals. At this juncture the reforming party
secured the support of the Normans, who had recently
taken possession of Naples and Sicily.

When Nicholas II. died, in 1061, the pope elected by
the opposing party with the sanction of the empress was
constrained to give place to Alexander II. elected by the
cardinals alone. In 1073, after tne death of Alexander, the
choice of the cardinals fell upon Hildebrand who took the
name Gregory VII. The young emperor Henry IV. was
now on the throne. Pope Alexander had excommunicated
some of the imperial counsellors, and demanded their re-
moval from court. But they had been retained in favor.
Hildebrand took up the cause, and called upon the emperor
to comply with the papal demand. Henry, at the first
admonition, was engaged in war, and replied by a submis-
sive letter. And so the matter rested for that time.

But the authority assumed by the new pope was such
as upon being more fully unfolded, the emperor perceived

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he could not allow. The policy of Gregory VII., not de-
clared all at once, but evinced in the course of his pontifi-
cate, and abundantly stated in his epistles, and succinctly
epitomized in the Dictatus Gregorii, aimed at establishing
the Papacy as supreme over all the powers and potentates
of earth, ecclesiastical and civil, and arrogated for it, the
profession of homage by acts the most abject and degrad-
ing. But the office, during the twenty years of his preced-
ing counsels, had gained immensely by the removal of
moral corruption, by the systematizing of its business, by
the dignified regularity of elections, and frequent and con-
sistent assertion of its sovereignty before a public well pre-
pared to admit it. The subjection of the clergy, on the
footing of celibacy, and isolation from the common interests
of society, had been, in the main, effected. And the Re-
former was now prepared to enter upon the third part of
his project, namely the removal of simony, and of lay in-
terference in the church. To achieve that, he must begin
with the source from which the widely ramified evil pro-
ceeded, at the court of the emperor, and with the case of
episcopal investiture.

Hisexcommunicated counsellors the emperor had failed
to remove from his service. Two years had elapsed.

Meanwhile at a Synod in Rome (1075,) it was decreed
that if any person should accept a bishopric, or an abbacy
from the hands of a layman, he should not be regarded as
a bishop or an abbot, nor allowed to enter a church, until
he had given up the illegal claim : and all laymen of what-
ever rank, who should bestow such investiture, were to be
excluded from church communion. Next year Gregory
summoned the emperor to appear before him in Rome, on
pain of anathema, if he failed to obey. He did not obey,
but on the contrary, called a council of German bishops
at Worms, and had a sentence of deposition passed against
the pope. Gregory forthwith issued his excommunication
of the emperor, declaring him incompetent to reign any
longer, and forbade his subjects to obey him. He also ex-
communicated the assembly at Worms. The subjects of
the emperor were divided. The princes met at Tribur,
and appointed a council, for consideration of the case, to
meet at Augsburg, in which the pope was to preside and

114

give the final decision. They also resolved that Henry
should remain suspended from office until the removal of
the excommunication, and if it were not removed within a
year that he should be incapable of reigning forever.
Henry hurried over the Alps in midwinter, and met the
pope at Canossa, but obtained admittance to his presence
only after a most humiliating penance of three days before
the door of the castle. He received absolution and remis-
sion of his punishment, and then, once more emperor,
thought of revenge for his humiliation. The pope was now
in danger. His party in Germany elected a new emperor,
Rudolph of Suabia. War ensued, which lasted many years.
The pope renewed the excommunication. The emperor
renewed his act of deposing the pope, and to that added
the election of another pope, Clement III., whom he took
to Rome, and enthroned by force of arms. Meanwhile
Rudolph died. The full weight of the imperial arm now
fell upon the pope, who found refuge among the Normans
of Naples, and died at Salerno, May 25, 1085. Thus the
first attempt at coercing the emperor failed.

Pope Clement III. reigned in Rome. But the Gre-
gorian party elected their own pope, Victor III., and when
he died, in 1087, continued the succession by electing
Urban II. For more than ten years the emperor retained
his advantage, and the Gregorian party remained under
depression, until the enthusiasm of the first Crusade swept
everything before it. Of that movement, though Peter
the Hermit was the preacher, Urban was the organizing
power. On its tide he was carried to Rome in triumph.
Military resources were withdrawn from the emperor by
the irresistible attraction of the Crusade. Pope Clement
unsustained ceased to be of any importance. He survived
his rival a few months, but in such reduced circumstances
of his party that upon his death no successor could take
his place. The first Crusade was the real triumph of Hilde-
brand. From that juncture the fortunes of Henry IV.
declined. Urban II. died July 29, 1099, Just fourteen
days after the Crusaders had entered Jerusalem. But his
successor, Pascal II., pursued the same policy. The em-
peror, reduced in resources, was persecuted with ana-
themas, his son encouraged to rebel against him, and his

115

subjects to revolt, until broken down in health and spirit,
he retired to private life, and died in poverty, 1 106.

The same year, the controversy about investitures in
England was settled by the pope giving his sanction to the
practice of churchmen in possession of benefices, taking
the oath of fealty to the king.

In the history of the papacy, the next two hundred
years were occupied with a struggle to maintain that eleva-
tion of supremacy secured in the end of the eleventh. In
some quarters it was held with great difficulty ; in others
it was increased ; sometimes the pope seemed on the verge
of failure; for his supremacy over the state was, even in its
best days, of precarious tenure; but some favorable event
always turned up to restore him to his vantage ground ;
and in the last emergency, his refuge was in popular super-
stition and commotion, especially a crusade, in which he
was always looked to by western Europe as the head of
Christendom. The question of investitures was settled
with the empire, 1122, by a compromise, in which the
monarch invested with the temporalities, and the pope with
the spiritual office, and symbols were chosen accordingly.

With the death of Henry V., in 1125, the imperial
dynasty of Franconia came to an end. Lothaire of Saxony
was elected in the papal interest. During his reign the
papacy enjoyed the full support of the civil power, but was
divided by a schism within itself most of the time. Lo-
thaire III. died in 1 137, and the new and more potent
dynasty of the Hohenstaufen, the ducal line of Suabia, came
to the throne in the person of Conrad III. In the interest
of that imperial house, a party was formed, which received
the name Waibelingen, or Ghibelline, opposed to the
Guelphs, or Saxon party, which sustained the pope. For
ages these two factions divided the politics of Italy and
the empire.

Arnold of Brescia, a young priest, had come from
study of Scripture to the conviction that the clergy
should hold no estate ; but live upon the free will offer-
ings of the church ; and that priests of corrupt morals
were by that fact no longer priests at all. Some of his
views accorded with the efforts at that time made by
some Italian cities to secure their independence, and

116

were accepted very extensively. Arnold was condemned
by the Lateran council of 1139. But his opinions pre-
vailed with a great majority of the people in Rome. A
revolution was contemplated, in which the temporal sover-
eignty of the pope was to be abolished, and the ancient re-
publican government restored. The insurgents occupied
the Capitol. Pope Lucius II. was killed in the attempt to
reduce them by force. His successor Eugenius III. fled
from the city, and awaited some favorable turn of affairs.
He had not long to wait. The Kingdom of Jerusalem, hard
pressed by the Saracens, who had taken the city of Edessa,
was calling aloud to Europe for relief. By the preaching of
Bernard of Clairvaux, and others, the crusading frenzy was
aroused once more. A vast army was marched off to
Palestine in 1147, under command of the Emperor Conrad
III., and King Louis VII. of France. Inferior interests
lost their hold upon the public mind. Zeal for the crusade
absorbed all. Once more the Pope was the highest dig-
nitary in Europe. Eugenius was restored to Rome and
protected by the arms of Roger of Sicily. The second
crusade failed in the east ; but it buoyed up the papal cause
at home. By -the address of Adrian IV , who came to the
papal chair in 1 154, the Romans were induced to banish
Arnold. The Emperor Frederic Barbarossa marched an
army into the north of Italy and reduced the Lombard
towns. Arnold was surrendered into his hands, and by
him transferred to the pope. The pope hanged him, burned
his body, and cast the ashes into the Tiber. Arnold was
the victim, over whose immolation the Emperor and the
Pope held a common rejoicing and for the time reconciled
their differences.

It was Pope Adrian IV., who in 1 1 5 5 granted to Henry
II. of England to conquer Ireland, on the condition of an-
nexing it to the Roman See. A few years later, a papal
attempt to make the clergy of England independent of the
crown to connect them more intimately with Rome, gave
occasion to the meeting at Clarendon, in 1164, which drew
up the celebrated Clarendon Constitutions, one of the oldest
documents lying at the basis of English freedom. The
articles were sixteen, designed to limit Papal aggressions,
and make the clergy amenable, in some degree, like other

117

men, to laws of the land. Becket the archbishop of Can-
terbury, and the whole body of the English clergy, gave
solemn assent to them. But the articles being condemned
by the Pope, Becket changed his mind broke his pledge to
his country to keep the favor of Rome. His subsequent
conduct was that of rebellion against the king, and directed
to sustain papalism in England. It led to a dispute between
him and the king in which he fled to the continent. A
reconciliation took place. But after restoration, Becket
returned to his former practices. Four English knights,
hearing the king express himself angrily about the matter,
went to Canterbury and slew Becket while seeking sanctuary
in church. (1170). The king was blamed, and four years
later was constrained to do penance at Becket's tomb.

Within the 12th century, the free churches of Ireland
and Scotland were brought under subjection to Rome, that
of Scotland by its own Celto-Saxon dynasty, between 1093
and 1 1 5 3, and that of Ireland by the English conquest begun
in 1 17 1; and, in the next century, 1282, the last stronghold
of the old British church in Wales was similarly reduced.
" In 1 183, the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa made peace
with the Lombards, secured the favor of the German clergy,
and by the marriage of his son to the heiress of Sicily, at-
tached that wealthy island to his dynasty. The strength
of the papal support was seriously diminished, while insur-
rection raged within the papal estates. Lucius III. and
Urban III., were successively expelled from Rome.

But again the papacy was saved by a crusade. Sala-
din had taken Jerusalem, (1 187,) and all Europe was roused
to a new effort for recovery of the holy places. The Em-
peror put himself at the head of it, May, 1189, advancing
by land. He lost his life on the march, and his army per-
ished at the seige of Acre. Two other portions of the
great army were led by Philip Augustus of France, and
Richard I. of England. With all the armies led out, and
prodigies of valor, on the part of the crusaders, little was
effected. Philip Augustus, soon after the seige of Acre,
returned home; and Richard, after taking Joppa and Askelon,
learning that the King of France was projecting an invasion
of England, concluded a peace of three years with Saladin,
and left Palestine, Sept. 1 192. Meanwhile the Pope had re-

118

established his authority in Rome, and the early death of
the new emperor, Henry VI., removed the danger threaten-
ing from his possession of Sicily in right of his wife. The
heir of the imperial house was a child only three years
of age, when the most successful of all popes began his
pontificate. Henry VI. died Sept. 28, 1 197, and on the 8th
of January following, Innocent III. ascended the chair of
the papacy. •

Circumstances favored the new pope in a remarkable
manner. Rome had been pacified. The death of the em-
peror gave place to a long contested succession, the empress
Constantia, heiress of Sicily, to secure that dominion for
her son, accepted investiture from the Pope, and on the eve
of her death, which took place before the end of 1198,
constituted him guardian of the infant prince, while both
France and England were enfeebled by the crusade, and by
mutually threatened war. No other pontiff ever realized
to the same extent the Gregorian idea of the papacy.
King John of England who attempted to disregard his
mandate, was brought to submission by an interdict laid
upon his kingdom, and was restored only upon accepting
his crown as a gift of the pope, and recognizing England
as a province of the Roman See, and subject to a papal
tribute. This led to the meeting of the barons at Runny mede,
1215, and the drawing up of the Magna C/mrta, which they
compelled their unworthy king to grant, as some security
then and afterward against such alienation of themselves
and their country.

Innocent III. also organized a crusade. It never
reached Palestine, but instead of that, beseiged and took
Constantinople, in 1204, and set up there a Latin King.
Whereupon the pope asserted his jurisdiction in the eastern
empire, but without obtaining acknowledgment by the Greek
church. The most successful crusade of Innocent III. was
that against the Albigenses, a numerous dissenting sect, in
the south of France. Romish arguments failing to convince
them, armies were marched into their country, which in
successive years, from 1209, covered it with slaughter and
desolation.

In 1215, Innocent called a council in Rome, the fourth
Lateran, or, according to Romish reckoning, the twelfth

119

ecumenical, at which various important questions pertaining
to Romish doctrine and practice were authoritatively set-
tled. At that point Papalism reached the apex of its pros-
perity. Innocent died next year, but where he left it the
elevation of success remained stationary through all' the
reign of his successor, Honorius III., that is until 1227.
The imperious temper of Gregory IX., renewed the vexa-
tious quarrel with the empire, and led the way in a course
of policy which ultimately reduced it, but also dragged into
humiliation his own office.

Frederic II., son of Henry VI., was constained to un-
dertake a crusade. Because he delayed in carrying it out
Gregory excommunicated him, and after he set out fol-
lowed him with excommunication. Frederic was suc-
cessful, recaptured Jerusalem, and secured a treaty of peace
for the christians of Palestine for ten years; but found, on
returning home, that he had to wage war with the Pope.
It was now the papal purpose to break down the Suabian
dynasty, and secure the election of more compliant occu-
pants of the imperial throne. Unrelentingly was that policy
pursued until, after the early death of Frederic's successor,
Conrad, in 1254, another minority and regency occurred.
Advantage was taken of that juncture to invite Charles of
Anjou to assume possession of Sicily. The attempt of the
young Conradin to defend his father's dominion failed.
And the last heir of the Hohenstaufen taken prisoner per-
ished on the scaffold, (1268), and Charles of Anjou, brother
of Louis IX, of France, became king of Sicily in the papal
interest. Five years later, the equally papal house of
Hapsburg was elevated to the throne of the greatly reduced
empire, in the person of Rudolph.

But already the long train of papal losses had begun.
In 1 26 1, the Greeks, under Michael Palaeologus, recovered
possession of Constantinople and expelled the Latin gov-
ernment. A subsequent attempt, at the council of Lyons,
1274, to reunite the Greek and Roman churches, and es-
tablish papal jurisdiction in the east, was agreed to by the
eastern emperor, but defeated by refusal of the Greek Church
to comply. The attempt gave rise to other fabrications in
support of the Papacy.

French rule in Sicily proved intensely unpopular. It
was expelled by the insurrection, called the Sicilian Ves-

120

pers, March 30, 1282, and the government put into the
hands of the King of Aragon.

The seventh and last crusade to Palestine was led by
Louis IX. of France and Prince Edward of England, in
1270. Louis died at Tunis. Edward reached Palestine,
but could only delay the fate of Acre, by extorting a truce
of three years. In L2C)i_Acre fell into the hands of the
Mohammedans, and the whole was over.

The crusades were the wars of the Papacy for its own
cause, when that cause was identified with the interests of
Christianity in the west. Their termination was not only
the loss of an effective weapon, but also a symptom of de-
clining influence over the christian public.

But a more serious calamity befel the Papacy in the
dispute which arose between Boniface VIII. and Philip the
fair, King of France, in which the King, on principles of
law, resisted a Papal mandate, and when the Pope attempted
to enforce it, sent a commission into Italy, which arrested
him. The indignity so affected Boniface as to throw him
into a fever, of which he died Oct. II, 1303. The next
Pontiff, Benedict XL, did not press the offensive demands ;
and after his death, King Philip succeeded in getting his
own candidate elected who was pledged to remain in France.
Clement V. took up his residence at Avignon, in 1305.
And the proudest days of the papacy were ended.

In the Papal history of this period there was more
concerned than superstition and submission, on one hand,
and ambition on the other. Earnest christian faith in
the church was the foundation, with a great amount of
rubblestone credulity mixed in. On the part of the rulers,
there was extraordinary intellectual power, some real piety
no doubt, but also an unscrupulous use of both force and
fraud, and that continued with little abatement, or excep-
tion, for two hundred and fifty years. The series of events
may be comprehended under the following heads.

1. Reform and reorganization of the Papacy, 1054 —
1085.

2. Its first success, in war with the Empire, by means
of the first crusade, 1099.

3. Its success in the controversy about investitures,
1 122.

•

121

4. A long period of power balanced between the rising
free spirit of Northern Italy, the Normans of the South, and
the German empire, sustained at great junctures by the
second and third crusades, until 1198.

5. The summit of success under Innocent III. and
Honorius III., 1 198-1227.

6. The strife for supreme temporal power with the im-
perial dynasty of Suabia, until the overthrow of the latter,
and elevation of the obedient house of Hapsburg, 1227—
1273.

7. Papal losses — loss of Constantinople, 1261.
Failure of the plan of union devised at the council of

Lyons, 1274-1282.
Loss ensuing from the Sicilian Vespers, 1282.
Final failure of the Crusades, 1291.
The disastrous controversy with Philip the Fair, ending

in the removal from Rome, 130^.

2. With the schools founded and patronized by
Charlemagne, there were always connected some men of
letters. During the tenth century, and first half of the
eleventh the series was very slender. Through Erigena,
Gottschalk, Paschasius Radbert, and a few others, in the
middle of the ninth century, Hincmar and Ratramus, in the
latter part of it, the line is barely continued by a few such
men as Luitprand of Cremona, and Ratherius of Verona,
to Gerbert, (Pope Sylvester II.,) who died in the beginning
of the eleventh century, and Fulbert of Chartres, who
flourished in its first quarter. Towards the middle of the
century, a little more literary effort began to appear. Then
we read of Humbert, Peter Damiani, Lanfranc, Berengarius,
and Hildebrand, (Pope Gregory VII.,) in the course of
whose lives we come to that class of writers called school-
men, or scholastics, who were, at the same time, the phil-
osophers and theologians of the Middle ages.

True scholasticism was the application of deductive
logic with a peculiar subtlety to the dogmas of the Romish
church. Earlier christian writers had drawn their philosophy
chiefly from Plato ; now the Platonic elements were com-
prehended in and subjected to Aristotelian method, as far

122

as the latter was known through the partial translation of Boe-
thius : for Aristotelian induction seems to have been unknown.

Augustinian theology was their recognized orthodoxy.
But the practical teaching of the church, which, on some
points had departed from that standard, controlled in gen-
eral, the line of argument. Some doctrines advanced were
condemned as heretical, but in the main, scholastics were
the advocates of the church as it then stood.

The history of that class of writers begins properly
in the course of controversy on the Eucharist, in the latter
half of the eleventh century. At that date, a zealous oppo-
nent of transubstantiation was Berengarius of Tours. The
subject was still an open question, in as far as any adequate
authority was concerned. It had been decided only by
popular consent. Berengarius, from about 1045, publicly
taught that the bread and wine in the Eucharist are only
external signs of Christ's body and blood. His argument
was immediately controverted by several writers, who advo-
cated the popular belief that in consecration by the priest,
the sacramental elements become the real body and blood
of the Lord. Berengarius was condemned repeatedly by
councils at Rome, Vercelli, Paris, \Tours and elsewhere. )
While the question was hotly agitated in France, Pope
Victor II. had other occasion to send legates to Tours.
One of his legates was Hildebrand, who induced a council
in that city to treat the subject leniently. But the clergy
as a whole were not satisfied. Berengarius was finally jts'f
brought to trial before a council at Rome, where a definite
statement of doctrine was prescribed for him to sign. He
submitted, and afterward, although he repented of the submis-
sion, the favor of the pope did not suffer him to be further
molested. He died in 1088.

It was in this controversy that Lanfranc, prior of Bee,
and subsequently archbishop of Canterbury, taking up the
defence of transubstantiation, employed that style of dia-
lectics, which was carried so much further by a long array
of writers who came after him. In the hands of Anselm,
his immediate successor in Canterbury, 1093 — 1109, it
reached its early maturity and perhaps its best.

The history of scholasticism divides itself into three
periods : from 1045 to 1 1&4> from 1 164 to 1308, and from

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123

1308 until the eve of the reformation. The first, from the
beginning of the controversy with Berengarius, until the
death of Peter Lombard, 1 164, labored in lectures and con-
troversial tracts. A new period opened in the very general
adoption of Peter Lombard's Book of Sentences as a guide
for lecturers, whereby scholasticism was turned to syste-
matic treatment of the whole body of theology. In that
direction its highest results were reached in the works of
Thomas Aquinas, and Duns Scotus. With the death of
the latter, 1308, begins the period of scholastic decline,
during which it was also gradually overmastered by the
reviving classic, and the broader growth of modern litera-
ture.

An inner controversy, on Philosophic ground, early
divided scholastics into two parties as Realists and Nom-
inalists. Nominalism soon fell under censure of the
church, and gave place to a modification, which is better
named conceptualism. Realism was conservative and fav-
ored as orthodox.

Another division, on the ground of faith, separated
among them, the Rationalist from the Mystic, as, for ex-
ample, Abelard from Bernard, and from both, a mediating
party, the Theologians of St. Victor. In their later his-
tory, they were divided also between Franciscan and Dom-
inican monks.

The progress of Scholasticism carried with it the im-
provement of the schools, which from the poor conven-
tual instruction of the eleventh century was expanded
until it blossomed into the universities of the thirteenth.

Scholastic freedom of speculation lay in treatment of
points concerning which Scripture gives only indistinct
hints, and the church had yet pronounced no positive
dogma, but they also analyzed with apparent freedom
every doctrine of the creed. And some ventured into a
bolder freedom, which exposed them to heresy. David of
Dinant, and Amalric of Bena were by their method of
thinking led into Pantheism, and other philosophical, •» * _.

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On some points their conclusions prepared the way
for the authoritative adoption, as dogmas, of what had
previously been optional beliefs ; as in the case of works

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The more eminent Scholastics carried forward the
philosophical treatment of theology in a real progress,
beyond all that had ever been done before ; profoundly
weighing the philosophical import of doctrines : and although
much trifling may be quoted from their later writers, yet to
. \ ^j^ihe labors of Abelard, of Bernard, of Peter Lombard, of
'%La-f££?'M Bonaventura, of Thomas Aquinas, and others, of the

twelfth and thirteenth centuries, we owe the first kindling"
of modern Europe to intellectual pursuits, the first scatter-
ing of light into the depths of mediaeval darkness, the first
philosophy which western Europe could call her own, and
the first classification in scientific form of christian theo-
logy.

Some of the Scholastics also opened the way to mod-
ern scientific investigation of external nature. Such were
Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon.

3. During the same period the principal part of the
work was done for the Canon Law which conferred upon
it the completeness of its form. About the middle of the
1 2th century, the Decretum of Gratian issued from the
celebrated law University of Bologna. Subsequently large
collections from the decretals of later popes were added to
it, under the names of Decretals and Extravagantes. And
thus grew up the Corpus Juris Canonici.

4. Various councils successively gave their sanction to-
elements of doctrine, discipline and worship, which had
previously grown up among the people, and in ecclesiastical
practice. Of those the most important was the Fourth
Lateran, which confirmed the policy of Innocent III., es-
tablished the practice of indulgences, and the doctrine of
works of supererogation, of confession to a priest as indis-
pensable to obtaining pardon of sin, and of transubstantia-
tion as belonging to the creed of the church, and the duty
of exterminating heretics.

5. Attempts were made, from time to time, to restore
union between the Greek and Roman catholic churches, but
their purpose on the side of Rome, being to subordinate
the Greek, always without effect. A strenuous effort to-

I ITI

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125

that end was made at the council of Lyons, in 1274. The
Pope and the Greek Emperor with some bishops came to
an agreement. But nothing could bend the Greek church.
After trying for a few years by severe measures, to constrain
his people, the Emperor acknowledged his discomfiture ;
and Rome ignored the compact which could not be carried
into effect. As soon as the emperor died, 1282, the Greek
church formally repudiated the whole plan of reunion, and
severely censured all who had in nny way been concerned
in it,

6. During the best period of scholasticism, the litera-
ture of Greece continued in a depressed condition. The
scholastics were the fruit of reviving intellectual activity in
the west ; were themselves the beginning of a process of
improvement. But no such process had yet begun in the
east, no new vitality was yet apparent. The old Empire
was there still protracting its long decline, struggling for
existence against Mohammedan aggression. And the
energies of the Greeks were crushed under the discourage-
ments of their adverse fortunes. Some literary names of
distinction appear among them ; but none as connected with
any original line of thought. Most worthy of mention were
Theophylact archbishop of Bulgaria, (d. 11 12,) commenta-
tor on several books of Scripture ; John Zonaras, one of
the best Byzantine historians, and Eustathius, archbishop
of Thessalonica, (d. 1198) who, besides sermons, wrote a
copious and valuable commentary on Homer.

7. Among the churches of the further east were also
some writers of distinction. Such were Ebed-Jesu (d. 1318)
metropolitan of Nisibis, among the Nestorians ; Nerses (d.
1 173) among the Armenians, and Dionysius Bar Silibi,
bishop of Amida, (d. 1 171,) among the Monophysites ; in
which connection appears also the more illustrious name of
Abulfarage (Bar Hebraeus) (d. 1286), and that of George
Elmacin, historian of the Saracens.

8. With the Jews it was a period of great scholarship,
when Solomon Iarchi (d. 1 105) of Troyes, Aben Ezra of
Toledo (d. 1167), David Kimchi of Narbonne (d. about
1230), and Moses Ben Maimon, or Maimonides, (d. 1205)
of Cordova, labored in the interpretation of the Old Testa-
ment.

126

g. It was also the flourishing period of that Arabic
philosophy, which had no little to do with the revival of
philosophical studies in the christian west. Avicenna died
1036; Al Gazali in 1 127, and Averoes in T217. And others
of less celebrity in letters were of extensive influence in
the Moorish schools of Spain. But freedom of philosophi-
cal speculation was latterly repressed by the Mohammedan
authorities.

10. Among the monasteries irregularities again pre-
vailed. Before the twelfth century had far advanced, even
Cluny itself had begun to degenerate. Great efforts were
made to restore discipline, and to set up new monasteries
with severer rulers. Some of the orders were suppressed
on account of their scandalous immorality. Still, the con-
viction prevailed that the proper way to correct those evils
was to establish new orders on a better plan. Pope Inno-
cent III., thought proper to interfere, and forbade the crea-
tion of any more orders; and the Lateran council of 121 5
took action to same effect. Notwithstanding, two other
orders, which recommended themselves to him by promis-
ing to revive popular preaching, were orally permitted un-
der his rule, and established soon afterward, which proved
of more influence in the outside world than all the pre-
ceding had been.

The active apostolic piety and missionary labor of the
poor Waldensian ministers, and the progress of dissenting
opinions in the south of France, and adjoining districts,
arrested the attention, and alarmed the fears of the Rom-
ish ecclesiastics. Dominic of Osma in Spain, and Francis
of Assisi, in Italy, about the same time conceived of sim-
ilar plans for the conversion of those so called heretics.
Francis began in 1297 to assemble about him a body of
men, whom he solemnly laid under obligation to forego
all earthly possessions, enjoyments and knowledge, and
devote themselves solely to traveling and preaching the doc-
trines of Rome. They were to be called the Ordo Fratrum
Minorum. As such they received the oral permission of
Innocent III., 1209, and were fully established by Honorius
III., in 1223. After their example, as far as domestic, an
order of nuns was instituted, that of Sta. Clara, with a
regula drawn up by Francis. He also organized an Ordo

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127

tertius de Pcenitentia, for pious laymen, who living in their
own houses, and enjoying their own property, with their
families, maintained a sort of spiritual union under a
superior.

Dominic, who had been employed from 1205 m trying
to convert the Albigenses, by preaching, conceived a sim-
ilar idea. It was that of an order, which, unincumbered
by property, should travel through that country preaching
the doctrines of the catholic church. In 121 5 the plan was
proposed to Innocent III. who would grant it nothing more
than his oral permission. But it was fully sanctioned next
year by Honorius III., under the name of the Ordo Predi-
catorum. Monks of that order are more commonly called,
by the name of their founder, Dominican, or from their
garb, Black Friars ; as the order of Francis is generally
called Franciscan, or Minorites, or Grey Friars. The
Dominicans also constituted Tertiaries.

These were the principal mendicant orders by whom
preaching, long neglected, or irregularly practiced in the
parishes, was supplied to the general public. Indirectly
they conspired with the lecturers in the schools to promote
the awakening of inquiry, relatively doing for the populace
a work similar to what the lecturers were accomplish-
ing in the schools.

Ultimately they became also the lecturers, and occu-
pied the most prominent places as scholastic writers.
Departing in course of time from their original design,
they departed also from the rule of poverty. On that sub-
ject the Franciscans divided. The stricter party adhering
to the rule, formed themselves into a separate order, which
received the name of Fraticclli.

1 1. About the end of the twelfth century there sprang
up, in some towns in the Netherlands, societies of women,
who, without monastic vows, lived together under rules of
their own adoption, and maintained themselves from their
their own property. They were called Beguinae. During
the thirteenth century, they increased in France and Ger-
many, as well as in the Netherlands, to a great number.

' Similar societies were also formed of men, and those
who belonged to them were called Beguini, or Beghards.
Latterly they connected themselves with the tertiary orders
of the Franciscans and Dominicans.

128

Through the mendicant preaching orders and their
tertiaries, the cloister opened its doors to the world. And
the voluntary societies added popularity to the movement.

12. The clergy claimed exemption from trial by civil
tribunals, and the popes labored zealously to withdraw
them altogether from secular jurisdiction. Only ecclesi-
astical courts were held competent to try them. And from
all tribunals they claimed the right -of appeal to the pope.
In few countries were those claims fully realized.

13. From various causes, great wealth came into the
hands of ecclesiastics, leading to much conflict between the
spiritual and temporal authorities.

14. In the course of the twelfth century, the Latin
church, in administering the Eucharist, gradually, in one
place after another, adopted the practice of withholding the
cup from the laity. Pope Pascal II. opposed innovation,
and ordered that the bread and wine should be both admin-
istered. After his time, the opposite opinion gained ground.
By the Greek church the sacramental elements were
mingled.

15. Signs of intellectual activity began to appear
among the people, as well as in the church schools. They
consisted chiefly in the rise of religious dissent, and of an
incipient popular literature.

The varieties of religious dissent may be classed under
the heads of Paulicians, Cathari,»Waldenses, and independ-
ent orders. M4**" ^^^ FUrxte»y

16. The Paulicians, in their long persecution in the
ninth century, were scattered to both east and west, beyond
the bounds of the Greek empire. At the end of those
sufferings, a considerable number of them were found
resident among the Slavic population on the lower Danube.
Whence it is probable they spread their doctrines further
west, and in more tolerant times found their way back into
the empire. In the reign of Alexius Comnenus (1081-
1 1 18) the city of Philippopolis in Thrace was entirely under
their influence. That emperor undertook to convert them;
and removed his residence, for a time, to Philippopolis,
with that view. By force of authority, by persuasion, and
rewards to those who professed themselves convinced by
his arguments, he succeeded in reducing the heresy in that

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129

region. But instead of it another arose. For a long time
before, a party had existed among them, called Euchites,
or Mesalians, who had exercised some influence upon the
development of Paulician doctrine. From that connection
arose the Bogomili, who made their first appearance in the
latter years of the same Emperor. In 1116 Alexius ob-
tained the confidence of their leader Basilius, by a treach-
erous artifice, and put him to death. But the sect main-
tained its ground within the empire, especially about Phil-
ippopolis.

17. In their peculiar doctrines and customs, the Bogo-
mili agreed closely with those of the Cathari of the west of
Europe. That relationship is also sustained historically.
It is admitted that the Cathari proceeded from the Sclavon-
ians of Bulgaria, at least as early as the middle of the
eleventh century : and had extended their societies to al-
most every country of Europe, before they were discovered
by the hierarchy. From Bulgaria they spread into Thrace,
and became a large sect even in Constantinople. Also into
Dalmatia and Albania, where they were called Albanenses.
Westward they gained converts in large numbers, as far as
the Netherlands, England, France, Spain, and Italy. In
France, they were frequently called the Ordo Bulgaria-, or
Bulgari, Gallicised into various abbreviations. In some
places they were called Poplicani, Patatini, or Passagieri.
They divided the popular faith in Provence with the Wal-
denses. In Lombardy and Florence, in the States of the
Church, in Calabria and Sicily, Catharian congregations
existed for a long time. But it was in Lombardy and the
South of France where they were strongest. The Albigenses
were both Waldensian and Catharian. As early as 1022,
persons of Catharian views were burned to death at Orleans^

18. Touching the origin of the Waldenses, there is
difference of opinion. But we know that they are men-
tioned as existing among the Alps in the twelfth century,
and not as a new sect at that time. Their name is derived
from their place of residence in certain valleys of the Cot-
tian Alps, on the Italian side, about thirty miles in a
southwest direction from Turin. By Catholic writers their
doctrines were greatly misrepresented. But more favored
than most sects of that time, they survive to speak for

130

themselves. They hold substantially the same views of
Scripture truth as are held by Evangelical Protestants.

19. With dissenting orders must be included the
stricter branch of the Franciscans, the Fraticelli, who op-
posed as firmly as any others, the worldliness and luxury
prevailing in the church, and incurred as much persecution,
also the Beguines and Beghards, and Apostolicals, besides
certain fanatical orders, which were early suppressed.

20. In order to complete the work of exterminating
heretics, begun with such fearful scenes of bloodshed in the
crusade against the Albigenses, and to organize a system
whereby the church should always eradicate the first ap-
pearance of heresy, it was made the business of the Diocesan
Synods to search out and punish every beginning of diver-
gence from, the faith of Rome. Every archbishop and
bishop was directed to visit, either personally or through
some suitable agent, the parish of his diocese, in which any
heretics were reported to be, and to put under oath any of
the inhabitants whom he chose, to point out the suspected.
Refusal to take the oath justified the suspicion of heresy.
This first form of the Inquisition was the plan of Innocent
III., and enacted as law by the fourth Lateran council,
12 1 5. An important change was made under Gregory IX.,
by the Council of Toulouse, in 1229, whereby the task was
taken out of the hands of the bishops, by the appointment
of Dominican monks to be permanent inquisitors.

21. The Holy Scriptures were now forbidden to the
laity. In the ancient church their use was free to all, and
to part with them was held by Christians as almost equi-
valent to denying their Saviour. But in the lapse of ages,
Catholic practice had departed so far from gospel precept,
that it was deemed expedient to withhold from the people
the means of comparing them. That step was first taken
by the Greek catholic church in controversy with the Pau-
licians, in the ninth century. In the west, it was ordered
by Innocent III., in 1199, and by the council of Toulouse
in 1229.

22. It was in that belt of country consisting of north-
ern Italy, southern France, and the north of Spain that the
modern languages of continental Europe were first trained
to the service of literature. That early literature consisted

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131

chiefly of songs, called lays, and sung to the accompani-
ment of the harp ; and those who composed them were
Troubadours. The south of France was its centre, and its
headquarters were the courts of the counts of Provence and
of Toulouse. The dialects throughout that belt of country
were intimately related. From as early as the beginning
of the eleventh century the Troubadour literature had been
unfolding towards its proper maturity. The twelfth century
was its meridian ; and it was apparently about to issue in
something greater and better, when it was abruptly ter-
minated by the crusade against the Albigenses. A modi-
fication of it was patronized, until a later date, at the court
of Arragon, and by some of the kings of Castile, and among
the princes and free states of northern Italy.

23. The forms of that style of popular song were trans-
ferred to the Latin, and used in the service of religion.
Specimens of rhymed Latin verse can be adduced from
earlier time ; but the true history of rhymed Latin hymns
begins with the eleventh century, and the best of such pro-
ductions belong to the twelfth and thirteenth. ??*^*~-~^ *"

The latest lays of the Troubadours fell upon the youth-
ful ear of Dante, who deeply imbued with their lyrical
spirit, and versed in the Latin hymnology and philosophy
of the schoolmen, concentrated the best literary fruits of all
in his great poem the Divina Comviedia, and therein the
history of modern literature began. Dante was in his prime
when the papal court was removed to Avignon.

VIII. 1305— 1418.

Papal Decline — Superiority of Councils — Revival
of Learning.

From the middle of the eleventh century to the begin-
ning of the fourteenth was the period of mediaeval growth,
purely and characteristically mediaeval. The fourteenth
begins to present some features of the modern world. From
the removal of the seat of the papacy to Avignon, a dis-
tinct period in the history of the church extends until the
close of the council of Constance, that is, until 1418. The

132

period thus bounded has also some peculiar features of its
own. Of these some of the more remarkable are, the de-
clining and latterly divided state of the papacy ; a growing
freedom of dissent ; the decline of dialectic scholasticism
and increase of mysticism ; the magnifying of national
hierarchy over the papal ; the revival of classical learning
and taste, and the rise of modern literature in the Italian,
Spanish and English languages. «"*--»*- v * L'— v^

I. By means of reducing the German empire, the popes
had done much to liberate the cities of northern Italy, and
to build up the growing monarchy of France. At the be-
ginning of the 14th century, France had no well matched
rival, among the monarchies of the continent, whom the
popes could array against it. At Avignon they were in no
condition to assert their supremacy over it. In some of
the measures of King Philip, as in the suppression of the
Knights Templars, Clement V. was constrained reluctantly
to concur. Seven Popes reigned successively in Avignon,
before the schism, that is, between 1305 and 1378, Clement
V., John XXIL, Benedict XII., Clement VI., Innocent
VI., Urban V., and Gregory XL

Inthosecircumstances, the conflict which arose between
the Popes and the Emperor Louis of Bavaria was really
more to the interest of the French monarchy thrm to that
of the papacy. The people of Germany now sustained
their emperor, and Charles IV., elected through papal
means, was constrained to take refuge in France. The
inderdict was laid upon Germany, but took little effect.
When Louis died in 1347, Charles had to regard his former
election invalid, and submit to be elected a second time.

In 1347 another of those risings took place in Rome
which have at several times aimed at restoring the glories
of the ancient republic. Nicholas de Rienzi, by his elo-
quence and enthusiasm, made himself tribune of the peo-
ple, and actually governed the city for a few years. He
was assassinated in 1354, and the whole fabric he had
erected dissolved. Cardinal /Egidius Albornoz recon-
quered the states of the church, and brought them back
to papal obedience. But the existence of an antipapal
party in the papal dominions was thereby declared with
even more boldness than in the days of Arnold of Brescia.

133

Urban V., in 1367, attempted to remove his residence
back to Rome. Various causes were now making that
desirable. England had recovered strength under the vigor-
ous rule of Edward III., and declined payment of the re-
quired submission to the Pope, and of the tribute imposed
by Innocent III. The Pope's position in relation to France
went to justify with the English public the acts of the
party which questioned his right to interfere in their
national affairs. And that party contained another advo-
cating, also, an ecclesiastical reform. After thirty-three
years, in which the tribute had not been paid, Urban V.,
in 1365, made a demand upon the King for it with all the
arrears. Edward referred the question to his parliament,
which denied the validity of the papal claim. It had been
imposed without the consent of parliament ; and was there-
fore unlawful. That action was defended by a learned
ecclesiastic John of VVycliff. The victories of Edward III.,
and of his son the Prince of Wales, had reduced the French
monarchy and stripped it of nearly half its dominions,
and of more than half its power. For a time England was
the strongest power in western Europe. The pope had pur-
chased Avignon ; but the condition of his estates in Italy
seemed to demand his presence there. Urban V. removed
thither in 1367, but soon returned to Avignon, and re-
mained there until his death. During that visit to Rome
another effort was made, in compact with the eastern
emperor, John Palaeologus, to connect the Greek with the
Latin Church. The emperor appeared personally before
the pope, and in hope of military aid in his desperate ex-
tremity before Turkish invasion, humbled himself to all
the papal demands, and promised to co-operate in bringing
the Greek church to similar compliance. The prelates
were to be conciliated by rich benefices, and the young con-
verted by establishing among them Latin schools, rendered
attractive by imperial favor. Both parties overrated their
power. The western princes were not persuaded by the
pope to undertake a crusade, and the Greeks left their em-
peror alone in his humiliation.

'Urban V. died in 1370, and was succeeded by Gregory
XI. Disorder in the states of the church continued to in-
crease. Gregory became fully convinced that at all haz-

134

ards he ought to return to Rome; which he did in 1377,
but had to submit to open negotiations with his enemies.
Peace was scarcely effected at his death, which occurred in
1378.

The cardinals were divided in opinion on the subject
of returning from France. Urban VI. was elected Pope on
the 9th* of April, 1378, by 16 cardinals, and took up his
residence at Rome. But his intolerable temper and bear-
ing soon alienated those who had been his friends. When
they resisted him, he created 26 new cardinals to outvote
them. Whereupon all but one of those who elected him
throwing themselves into the interest of the French party,
and withdrawing to Fondi, in the Kingdom of Naples,
elected Robert of Geneva, on the 21st of September that
same year. The new Pope, as Clement VH., resided at
Avignon, and was recognized by France, Spain, Scotland,
Sicily and Cyprus. To Urban VI. adhered Italy, England,
Bohemia and Hungary. In this case not only the papacy
was divided, but also the Latin church. Each of the two
Popes held his ground in the hope of suppressing the
other. The schism gave occasion to great increase of cor-
ruption, and disgraceful exhibition of animosity between
the parties ; and both maintained their respective papal
lines by subsequent elections. At Avignon Clement VII.
was, in 1394, followed by Benedict XIII.-; and at Rome,
in 1389, Boniface IX. succeeded Urban VI. and reigned
until 1404. The interval to 1406 was filled by Innocent^
VII. Gregory XII. was then elected and continued in of-
TiclTuntil his resignation under the council of Constance, 141 5.

Papal disputes, in which the parties were always under
anathema of each other, were felt to be a scandal, and de-
mands for the adoption of some measures of reform became
numerous and importunate. In that movement the uni-
versity of Paris took the lead. But in England and Bohemia
there were parties more radical still, who talked of rejecting
the papal yoke altogether. Both Bcncdic^X-HI.and Gregory
XII. .^on their election, promised to take the steps neces-
sary to bring the schism to an end ; but both failed to
abide by the engagement. In 1408, their respective col-
leges of cardinals .abandoned both popes, and appealing to
Christ, a general council and a future pope, assembled at

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135

Leghorn. Thence, with advice of the Universities, they issued
a call for a general council to meet at Pisa in iaoo. In
that assembly there were 24 cardinals of both papal connec-
tions, 200 bishops, 300 abbots, the Universities were
represented by 120 Masters in Theology, and 300 gradu-
ates of civil and canon law, and the state, on both papal
interests by the envoys of France and England. Taking
the ground defended by Gerson, chancellor of the Uni-
versity of Paris, that by its constitution under Christ, the
church is independent of the Pope, and acting thereupon,
the council, after a regular form of trial, deposed both the
rival Popes for violation of their solemn obligation, and
elected a new candidate, Alexander V., to be sole Pope.
But after the adjournment of the council, Gregory and
Benedict both denying its validity adhered to their claims,
and Alexander could not withdraw from his, without be-
traying the cause of the council. And so from June 26,
1409, there were three Popes, all regularly elected, accord-
ing to one or other of the methods which had at different
periods been accepted as valid in the catholic church.

Alexander V. died May 3, 1410, and John XXIII.
was elected in his stead by 26 cardinals at Bologna, within
the same month. Thus the Pope of Avignon, though then
residing in Spain, the Pope of Rome, and the Pope of Bo-
logna, maintained their courts, in the bitterest hostility to
each other, for seven years.

Constrained by the Emperor Sigismond, the Pope of
Bologna, John XXIII., consented to convoke a council on
the north side of the Alps for the purpose of settling this
difficulty and of meeting generally the urgent demand for
ecclesiastical reform, which came from all parts of Latin
Christendom. That council met at Constance on the 5th
of November, 1414. Not much was effected for reform,
but the papal schism was brought to an end. John, who
insisted upon retaining the portion of papal dominion
which adhered to him, was brought to trial for positive
crimes, thrown into prison and deposed. Gregory, perceiv-
ing the temper of the council, honorably resigned, 141 5.
Benedict, in exile, was inaccessible, and although deposed by
act of the council, held his ground tenaciously ; and when
he died in 1424, two cardinals set up a successor to him,

136

as Clement VIII. The new antipope resigned 1429, and
thereby the great papal schism was brought to an end.

During the period of division, the papal list follows
the Roman line, until 1409. It then passes to the pope
set up by the council of Pisa and his successor, until the
deposition of John XXIII. May 29, 141 5. From that date
there is no pope recognized as true until the election of
Martin V. November 11, 1417.

The council of Constance, like that of Pisa, was con-
stituted on the principle that a council of bishops, repre-
senting the church in general, is independent of the pope,
and a superior authority. The members adopted the rule,
in the beginning, that they should vote by nations, wherebv
a check was applied to the numerical majority of the Italian
prelates. The nations thus represented were the German,
the Italian, the French, the English, and the Spanish ; the
cardinals constituted a section by themselves.

Inasmuch as John XXIII. was deposed by that coun-
cil, and Martin V. set up by it, and accepted as a true pope
by all the Latin church, it cannot be denied that practically
the council was admitted to be lawfully competent to do
what it had done, and therefore was a higher power than
the pope — a court before which popes could be legally
tried. And if that is true of the council of Constance, it
must be true of any council so constituted. All later popes
are in the line of succession from Martin V.

2. Great corruption invaded the papal court at Avig-
non. The guilt of Simony was common. Everything was
venal. And the schism instead of contracting papal extra-
vagance, doubled it. Popes turned the revenues of the
church to the account of their own ambition. Fees were
exacted of prelates upon their consecration ; from many
benefices the income of a year, call Annates, was exacted
by the pope before a new incumbent could receive investi-
ture ; and taxes were levied upon the public generally, un-
der various pretenses. Money was also raised by sale of
indulgences. Papal infallibility had already been advocated
by a numerous party, but was now strongly opposed by
the better informed, and during the schism could not be
easily defended.

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137

3. Episcopal authority was fortified by the division of
the papal. Different countries chose their own papal alle-
giance. Councils became of greater importance, and free-
dom of opinion obtained a certain latitude. Criticism of
at least one pope was always safe. Men of reading could
not fail to compare the records of earlier Christianity, with
what was taking place around them. The universities were
loud in their demands for reform, and the public generally
looked for it. But the heads of the hierarchy, to whom
the application was made, regarded it with aversion.

4. Meanwhile dissenting sects continued to increase.
And a greater number without dissenting from the doc-
trines of the church were dissatisfied with the conduct of
her clergy. No one fact appears more frequently in the
literature of the 14th century than this. It is embodied in
the most terrific passages of Dante, it is exposed in the
letters of Petrarch, and the tales of Boccacio, it is declared
in various forms in Chaucer, and in the poem called the >*-<<*-** -7^-^/W.
visions of Piers Plowman. But who were to be the re- Z^.
formers ? The strength of the mediaeval Puritans, the
Cathari, was broken ; the Albigenses were almost if not
altogether extinguished. Nor is it certain that they, if suc-
cessful, would have made the reformation which was needed.
The seat of dissent was removed further north, to the
Netherlands, to Bohemia, and especially to England, where
it found a leader in John Wycliff, professor of theology in
the University of Oxford.

It was in 1 366, when he was Warden of Canterbury Hail,
Oxford, that Wycliff first came before the public in a case of
great national interest, defending the action of the King
and Parliament in rejecting the papal demand of tribute.
He was made professor in theology in 1372, and rector of
Lutterworth in 1375. He was accused of heresy in 1376.
Gregory XI. instituted an inquiry against him. He was
protected by a strong party among the nobility, and by
John of Ghent, Duke of Lancaster, one of the sons of
Edward III. The succeeding papal schism furnished an
occasion of which he availed himself to publish scripture
truth among his countrymen. His pupils whom he sent
on that work, he furnished with the true evangelical armor
in his translation of the Scriptures. In 1381 he was con-

138

strained to leave Oxford. He retired to his parish of Lut-
terworth and continued his work of translating the Bible,
and otherwise carrying forward reformation in the church,
until his death in 1384.

The followers of Wycliff, generally called Lollards,
were protected, or were not harassed during the reign of
Richard II. But in 1399 Richard was constrained to
resign by Henry of Lancaster, who to secure the throne
he had usurped, threw himself into the interest of the
Papalists. Parliament in 140 1 passed a law that persons
convicted of heresy should be burned to death ; and exe-
cutions forthwith began. Still within the reign of Henry
IV., the papacy was in a divided and comparatively feeble
condition. It recovered in the time of Henry V., who
came to the throne in 141 3. Then was the cause of refor-
mation persecuted with more persistent cruelty. Wycliff' s
doctrines were condemned at Constance, and ten years
later, 1428, his bones were taken out of the grave and
burned, and their ashes cast into a neighboring brook.
But the doctrines of Wycliff were never extinguished in
England. They also crossed the sea and met with accept-
ance in Bohemia. The wife of Richard II., who was a
sister of Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, partook of the
spirit of the reformer. Her life as Queen of England was
such as to sanction the most important of Wycliff 's labors.
The communication thus established between England and
Bohemia greatly promoted the interests of reformation in
both countries.

Among the earliest reformers in Bohemia were Con-
rad of Waldhausen, pastor in Prague, and Milicz of Krem-
sier. Further advance was made by Matthias of Janow,
preacher in the cathedral church of Prague (d. 1394.) John
Hus, teacher of theology at Prague, followed their example
by taking his own lessons of divine truth from the Bible.
He soon, together with his friend Jerome of Prague, stood
at the head of an almost national movement of reform,
which was too strong to allow persecution to seriously in-
jure them at Prague. When the council met at Constance,
Hus was summoned to appear before it. He went under a
letter of safe conduct from the Emperor Sigismond. Not-
withstanding, he was condemned by the council and burned

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139

at the stake, Tuly 6. ui^ Jerome who had accompanied
him to the council, suffered the same fate on the 30th of
May following.

5. During the 14th century a change was introduced
into the philosophy of scholasticism by William Occam,'
professor of theology at Paris (d. 1347.) That change con-
sisted in a new style of nominalism, according to which the
human understanding does not apprehend truth, but only
phenomena, that is, only particular things, including forms
of expression in language. The truths of doctrine could
not be originally conceived of by the human mind. They
were based on the words of Revelation, which the Holy
Spirit continues to make to the church. The human
mind knows only the particular; to general ideas there *^«v?"»# v'/fcaf"
is no corresponding objective reality; and divine truth was "C^"*~M"— -
just the aggregate of different revelations. But consistently
with the growing system of Romish dogma, Occam taught ^,
that revelations had been made to the great doctors of the**^ •yT^vtC^T
church as well as to the apostles. His views, after a bitter^ "^J^J^jf^
controversy, prevailed in Paris ; but were rejected at the ^ —
university of Prague. In the violent debates, carried on
through the 14th century between Realists and Occamists,
the greater part of the warfare was waged within the domain
of philosophical notions preliminary to theology.

Other eminent scholastics of the same period were
Durand, Bishop of Meaux, (d. 1333) Thomas Bradvv^rdine.^^^^^/2^^*^'*
(d. 1346) Arch-bishop of Canterbury ; Petej^&'Ailly (1425,) c
John Charlier de Gerson of the university of Paris, (1375-
1425,) and Nicholas de Clemangis, (1440.) The writings
of Gerson and some of his contemporaries give evidence
that scholasticism had lost its power to satisfy the demands
of the human mind.

Biblical learning among Christian scholars of the west,
had for centuries been almost confined to the Latin version
used in the church. A professorship of Oriental languages
was established by Clement V., 131 1, but only for the in-
struction of missionaries. Nicholas de Lyra, prof, of the-
ology in Paris, (d. 1340) was the only western scholar of
his time distinguished by a knowledge of Hebrew. Greek
scholarship was not quite so rare.

6. In the 14th century also the history of that class of
preachers commonly mentioned as the mystics of the middle

140

ages, began. A certain class of them, who were called the
Friends of God, became of great weight among the reforming
agencies of the church, especially in southwestern Ger-
many. God they believed to be the only reality ; all finite
things were only seeming. This view, if developed phil-
osophically, might have amounted to nothing more than a
commonplace pantheism, which some of them did not avoid,
but as a class, they thought only of nearness to a personal
and everywhere present God. The soul of man must
separate itself from the finite, as Christ did, that it may be-
come, like him, a son of God. This is to be done by con-
templation upon God, and renunciation of the world. They
also lamented the corruptions of the church, and advocated
a reform, and especially longed for a spiritual revival, which
they also did no little to promote. Henry Eckart of Stras-
burg, who lived in the first quarter of the 14th cent., was
the earliest to advocate this faith. It was zealously ac-
cepted by Nicholas of Basil, from 1330, who believed that
by ascetic exercises he had, through visions and revela-
tions, attained to a complete renunciation of the world and
of his own will, and to an intimate communion with God.
Others adopted more or less of the same views, among
whom John Tauler (d. 1361) a Dominican Monk, became
eminently distinguished. To the same religious connection
belonged Henry Suso of Ulm, and Ruysbroek of Brussels
(d. 1 381), thought by some to be the author of the The-
ologia Germania. The succession continued through the
fifteenth century, including also such mediating men as Dr.
Gerson, Thomas a Kempis, and others who proceeded from
the school of Gerard at Deventer, and whose preaching
and writings were eagerly sought after, greatly to the in-
crease of practical piety, until as a religious revival, their
work merged in the greater one of the Reformation.

The mystics were not limited to a particular order of
clergy, or class of society ; they were of all classes. Nor
did they escape the persecution which was leveled at
heretics. Not a few suffered death. Nicolas of Basil was
burned in 1382.

The theological school of Gerard Groot at Deventer
was designed to promote true spiritual attainments in
uniting sound knowledge to genuine piety. He died in
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near Zwoll, a chapter of regular canons with a similar pur-
pose.

The rationalizing scholastics, as distinguished from the
mystics, were subtle dialecticians, in some cases eloquent
preachers, and in more they were laborious writers, but
dealt most generally with the superficies and forms of
thought, mapping, and dividing and subdividing the surface
of that concrete, which consisted of philosophy and the-
ology and practical morals and religion as one science.
The mystics penetrated deeper into the human heart, its
feelings, its hopes, the basis of its faith, and its relations
with the unseen world. In some cases the style of their
thinking may be characterized as visionary ; but with all
their defects, the most profoundly exercised Christian will
enjoy their writings most, finding in them much, which
though dialectics could never expound, he knows to be
true. The sermons of Tauler were much esteemed by
Luther, and the Theologia Germanica, and the De imitatione
•Christi, though burdened with heavy faults, have been cher-
ished by the pious among the educated, ever since the days
of their publication.

7. Another feature which distinguishes this from all
other periods of history, is the revival of ancient classical
literature and taste. In the history of the church, literary
art is a matter of very great moment. For it is the medium
■of addressing instruction to the common mind. Scholas-
ticism spoke the language of students, and addressed the
learned alone. It knew nothing of a reading populace. Im-
mediately it did little or nothing for instructing the people.
Another style of literary men was needed to execute that
work. And such a class had arisen, men who employed
the popular dialects in their productions, and who for en-
listing of public attention and interest relied upon those
principles which long ages of classical experience had proved
the best. Their models, and guides to those principles
were the best authors of classical antiquity. In that move-
ment the literature of modern Europe began. Dante was
the transition; his Divina Commedia is the fruit of the Mid-
dle ages as to its substance and form ; while his poetic ex-
emplar was Virgil. But the true reviver of classical taste
-in literature was Petrarch. (1304- 1374.) In that pursuit

142

he was early joined by his friend and pupil Boccacio. Zeal-
ously did they both labor in searching out works of ancient
classical authors and in having them copied and repub-
lished, as well as in recommending the study of them to
others.

Study of classical Latin naturally led also to the Greek.
And Greek literary men fleeing before the advance of Turk-
ish conquest, and finding refuge in Italy, furnished those
progressive scholars with Greek teachers. The work thus
begun was taken up by many others, their number increas-
ing as the interest and richness of the rediscovered mine
became better known.

Under the force of classical example, some of the
modern languages, first of all the Italian, and then the Eng-
lish, began to assume the dignity of letters. And popular
treatment of interesting topics took a wider range. The
author of Piers Plowman, Mandeville, Chaucer, Wycliff,
Gower and Barbour, in Great Britain, were the contempor-
aries of Petrarch and Boccacio, in Italy. And Wycliff,
Chaucer, and the author of Piers Plowman were all advo-
cates of ecclesiastical reform. English literature opened in
the most important and successful effort for reformation
made in the 14th century.

In Germany, the Minnesingers of the 13th century had
given way to a class of poets called Master singers, who
organized themselves into societies for the purpose of pro-
moting their art. But their rules were unproductive of any
great work capable of standing the test of time.

Neither did French literature advance as might have
been expected. In the south, the Troubadours suffered
with the Albigenses. In the north the Trouvere literature
existed chiefly among the Normans. And those who pro-
duced it, after the pacification of England, made that coun-
try their principal residence. The best works of the Trou-
veres, though in the language of northern France, were
written in England. Civil war and foreign invasion also
stood in the way of any literary culture, which may have
been incipient among the people.

Italy and England were, in respect to vernacular liter-
ature, greatly in advance of all other nations. The Eng-
lish took the bent of religious reform ; the Italian that of art.

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143

8. The eastern empire was now contracted to a small
space, and that continually threatened by the new power
of the Ottoman Turks. Many earnest attempts were made
by the Greek Emperors to re-unite the eastern and western
churches, with the view of securing aid from the nations of
the west. But every such plan was defeated by the un-
bending tenacity with which both ecclesiastical parties held
to their own doctrines, claims and practices, and rejected
those of the other. Controversy, and consequent aliena-
tion between the two churches, was rather increased by
agitating the question of union.

In 1367 Armenia was conquered by the Mamelukes,
who from the middle of the thirteenth century had been
masters in Egypt. And the churches in both countries
were subjected to a cruel oppression.

On the other hand, in the north, there was, gradually
emancipating itself from foreign domination, a power
destined in the course of ages to become the successful
champion of the Greek church to the ends of the earth.
Bui at that time, Russia was still struggling for existence
in war with the Mongol.

IX. 1418 — 1 5 17.

Progress of the Revival of Learning — Revival of
Religion — of the Study of Scripture — of Preaching.

The various reform movements which took their rise,
or emerged into notice in the 14th century, continued to
make progress in the period which opened in the last
weeks of the council of Constance, and closed with the
publication of Luther's Theses, in 15 17. Of that section
of history in Europe one of the most important features
is the advancing spirit of reform among the people and
the parish clergy, and the increase of Scriptural knowledge
and general intelligence with which it was conducted, over
against the inverse culture of superstition. A second was
the restored unity of the Papacy, and accelerated moral
degeneracy of the Popes. A third was the question of the
authority of councils over the Papacy and the church. A
fourth, the continued decline, and final submersion of scho-

144

'lasticism, and the rapid growth of classical learning and
^popular literature. A fifth, the invention of printing. A
sixth the maturity of Italian art. And a seventh must be
.added consisting of several remarkable events, which corn-
tuned to change in an important degree the habits of in-
dustry and the channels of enterprise.

i. On the nth of November 1417, the council of Con-
stance elected Otto Colonna Pope, under the name of Martin
V. He was acknowledged by all the nations, the first sole
Pope in forty years. The council immediately lost its im-
portance ; and after having appointed a succession of gen-
eral councils to keep supervision over the interests of the
.church, it terminated its own sessions, on the 22nd of April
1418.

The first in that succession of councils was appointed
to meet at Pavia, in 1423. By the Pope it was diverted to
Sienna, and then dissolved, before it had transacted any
^business. The next, appointed to meet seven years later,
assembled at Basil, Dec. 14, 143 1.

Martin V. died in February of that year, and was
succeeded by Eugenius IV., elected by the Cardinals.

The council of Basil entered earnestly into the attempt
to reform the church. In its first years the Pope was con-
strained to yield on all points. Some serious abuses were
condemned and abolished. Papal prerogatives and revenue
were seriously threatened. Eugenius, in order to exercise
the more control over its proceedings, issued a bull, order-
ing the council to remove to Ferrara. Some bishops com-
plied, but the greater number remained at Basil. Unfortu-
nately, they passed sentence of deposition upon Eugenius,
and elected Amadeus VIII. of Savoy in his stead, as Felix
gx~*~a^ ^«.A/.Wy This introduction of a new schism, so soon after the
church had, with much trouble, composed the disorders be-
longing to the former, prejudiced the cause of the council.
Some of the members, in dissatisfaction, returned home,
.and after the month of May 1443, the council gradually
fell apart. In 1448 it removed to Lausanne, and dissolved_wJ
next year. Felix V. had already resigned.

During the early days of that council, while it was yet
a real power, occasion was taken to revive the ancient lib-
• erties of the Gallican Church, and to extend and define

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them. France was then in one of her lowest periods of
adversity, and the English were still in possession of Paris,
when Charles VII., on the 7th of July 1437 executed the
Pragmatic sanction of Bourges, by which he accepted the
decisions of the council of Basil. They continued to be
law in France until December, 15 15, when Francis I. sacri-
ficed them to his concordat with the Pope.

Eugenius IV. persistently labored to undo the reform-
ing acts of the council, and had some reason to be gratified
with the degree of his success. Where he could not pre-
vent their acceptance, he succeeded in embarrassing their
operation, and on his death bed received, through her am-
bassadors, the returning allegiance of Germany.

Meanwhile, at the Pope's council in Ferrara, and later
in Florence, the principal event was another show of union
with the Greek church ; of all such the most deceitful and
humiliating to those concerned. The emperor John VII.,
Palaeologus, reduced to the last extremity by aggression of
the Turks, and the Pope striving to counteract the council
of Basil, agreed in earnestly desiring the union; the former
in hope that western arms might thereby be brought to the
aid of his own in repelling the Mohammedan; and the lat-
ter, believing that the weight of such a vast addition to his
jurisdiction would enable him to overmatch his opponents,
if not to overwhelm them by the torrent of a crusade. In
Papal ships, and partly with Papal money, the impoverished
emperor left Constantinople accompanied by the Patriarch
and a number of Greek prelates. They were received with
pomp and adulation at Venice, and afterward at Ferrara.
But the meetings of the council were thinly attended and
business was delayed. After about two years, and after the
removal to Florence, the act of union was passed. It was
one, in which the necessities of the Greeks constrained
them to yield enough to render the whole unavailing. They
returned home to encounter a storm of disapproval. Their
action was utterly rejected. A respectable minority of them,
with Mark bishop of Ephesus at their head, had dissented
from everything at variance with Greek orthodoxy. They
were now the national heroes. Many of the majority re-
gretted the part they had taken in the affair, and expressed
their repentance in terms of profound contrition. The em-

146

peror, in attempting to save his country, had lost its confi-
dence and support, and was denounced as a traitor to its
most sacred cause. The pompously constructed union
proved a nullity. Asa constrained attempt at compromise,
its statements of doctrine are of little value, as touching
the real faith of the Greek church. On the same occasion,
certain Armenian, Maronite and Monophysite deputies
from Syria, Egypt and Ethiopia, accepted the terms of
union with Rome, which the churches they represented
also refused to ratify.

Upon the death of Eugenius IV., Feb. 7, 1447, Nico-
las V. took up the policy of his predecessors, in respect to
the authority of his office, but was a man of superior liber-
ality in other respects, and an eminent patron erf literature
and learning. Upon the fall of Constantinople, he issued
a summons for a Crusade. But such enterprises were out
of date long ago. None responded to the call. But the
papal treasury gained by collections of money for the pur-
pose.

Calixtus III., who succeeded Nicolas, (145 5-1468)
adopted the same device for raising money, but created
thereby great dissatisfaction, especially in Germany, and
indirectly strengthened the hands of the reforming party.

/Eneas Sylvius, a former adherent of the council of
Basil, was elected pope, under the name of Pius II., and
turned out as high toned a defender of papal prerogative
as any of his predecessors. He also tried to organize a
crusade ; but no popular interest could be aroused in the
cause. His successor Paul II. in a pontificate of seven
years, succeeded in making himself generally hated with-
out accomplishing anything of importance.

The succeeding popes of this period were men of such
character that it is amazing how they ever obtained elec-
tion to any ecclesiastical office whatever. Sixtus IV.,
(1471-1484), although a man of public spirit, who enlarged
the papal library, and executed several improvements in
the city of Rome, spent most of his time in measures to
enrich himself and his kindred, and in petty Italian wars.
Those who praise him boast that " no Prince ever offered
him an injury, or indignity which he did not return with
due revenge." Of Innocent VIII., (1484-1492) the princi-

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pal facts recorded are his quarrels with Ferdinand of Ara-
gon and Naples, and his rapacity in providing for his own
illegitimate children.

Alexander VI. (1492-1503) may be said to have
sounded the lowest depths of profligacy. He and his chil-
dren have rendered their family name, Borgia, notorious in
the annals of crime. He died from taking by mistake the
poison, which he or his son Caesar had prepared for others.
Pius III. reigned only a few days. Julius II. ( 1 503—1 513)
was more of a soldier than a minister of religion. As a
man, profane and blasphemous, as a prince, taking delight
in war, he sacrificed thousands to his ambition, "and by
his other enormities rendered his name odious to pos-
terity." Within his pontificate, a general council was sum-
moned at Pisa by the Emperor and the King of France.
It met in September, 15 n, for the purpose of once more
attempting some reform of the generally admitted abuses
in the church. Julius, to counteract it, convoked a Lateran
council to meet in April of the next year. The council of
Pisa effected nothing towards the end for which it was
called, and the emperor Maximilian gave in his adherence
to Julius and the Lateran council, which was not intended
to reform anything. Julius died amid plans for a league
to carry a ruinous war into France. In 15 13, Leo X. of
the illustrious de Medici of Florence, succeeded Julius, and
restored at least a decent decorum to the papal court.
Leo X. had little claim to the character of Christian piety,
but he was a wise ruler, refined in his tastes, and an emin-
ent patron of learning and the fine arts. His first few years
restored, to all appearance, the full harmony of the Papacy
with the secular powers. Accordingly he could go on to
gratify his taste for the grand and beautiful in art. The
new cathedral of St. Peter's was his favorite enterprise ;
and money was to be collected for its completion by all
available means.

2. During the whole of this period, the inverse cur-
rents of events continued to advance with increasing rapid-
ity : on one side, the practice of old abuses, and reckless
development of their consequences ; on the other, the ef-
fort to obtain some correction of them, though often de-
feated, was becoming better sustained by strength and in-
telligence.

148

Restoration of papal unit}- brought with it the idea
•of restoring every thing to the standard of the thirteenth
century. Practices and dogmas to which one party ob-
jected, were set forth by the other in a bolder, and some-
times most reprehensible manner. Transubstantiation was
urged in its grossest extreme ; adoration of the Virgin
Mary received additions, belief in her immaculate concep-
tion continued to gain ground ; the rosary systematized
the vain repetition of prayer to her, and her house removed
from Nazareth to Italy became the holy shrine of Loretto.
Indulgences had been a saleable commodity for ages, but
the traffic in them was now pushed to an unprecedented
extent, especially by Dominican monks. The principle
upon which they were justified was invented by the school-
men out of pre-existing Romish practices, the granting of
absolution by priests, belief in purgatory, and the necessity
of crood works in order to salvation, the merit of saints,
and the papal power of the keys. The doctrines logically
accounting for these practices, and others growing out of
them, were elaborated chiefly by Albertus Magnus, and
Alexander Hales, and most of all, by Thomas Aquinas,
and were now practically applied in ecclesiastical business.

The merits of Christ atone for original sin, and secure
ultimately eternal happiness for all baptized Catholics. But
the individual believer must account for his own actual sins
by good works, or penances. If deficient in these latter,
at the time of his death, he must suffer the adequate amount
in Purgatory. When by that proportion of suffering his
soul has been purified, it ascends, in regular order, to Para-
dise. But it may take thousands of years to reach that
consummation. Most men come greatly short of the neces-
sary amount of merit, and have to suffer long. The saints
happily have accumulated more than enough for their own
use. The surplus is laid up in store ; and from it can be
drawn what is needed for the lack of imperfect souls. And
the Pope, by his power as vicar of Christ, can, for sufficient
reasons, grant to the faithful, whether in this life or in Purga-
tory, indulgences out of that superabundance of the merits
of Christ and of the saints. Where the Pope is not himself
present, that favor can be extended through his properly
commissioned agents, and by means of a written paper

149

properly signed and sealed. " Those who have obtained
such indulgences are released from so much of the temporal
punishment due for their actual sins to the divine justice, as
is equivalent to the indulgence granted and obtained."
Temporal punishment means punishment in this life, or in
Purgatory.

Such were the documents now multiplied enormously
and offered for sale, carried into various countries and re-
commended to purchasers, in some places quietly, in others
loudly and publicly, as peddlers vend their wares. And the
plea for such activity in the traffic was, in some countries
put forth openly, to raise money to complete the church of
St. Peter's. Such was the style in which things were con-
ducted by the leaders of one party, which might be called
the conservatist of that time.

With such facilities for obtaining pardon of sin, or in-
dulgence in it, with such example as that produced among
the clergy by celibacy enforced and concubinage freely con-
nived at, what was to be expected of practical morals among
the laity ? No period in the history of Christendom bears
a deeper brand of moral license than the fifteenth century,
and the early part of the sixteenth.

Circulation of the scriptures among the people in a
language they could understand was prohibited, and actually
prevented as far as the hierarchy could carry their purpose
into effect. Church service was in Latin, of which the
people did not now understand one sentence. Singing in
Church had long ago been taken out of the mouths of the
congregations and committed to choirs of priests; and what
they sang, or chanted was also in a dead language.

Preaching as revived by the mendicant monks had not
proved of the effect intended. It had not converted the dis-
senting sects, nor done much for general edification. The
sermons of the monks were in the vernacular tongues ; but
most commonly consisted of legends of saints, commenda-
tions of indulgences, or of some superstitious practice.

To engage and occupy the increasing activity of intel-
lect, various devices were employed, some of'them the fruit
of that activity itself. Such were the dramatic entertain-
ments, called Mysteries, Miracle Plays, and Moralities, ex-
hibited in the churches, which commenced at a much earlier

150

time, increased in number and importance in the 14th and
[5th centuries.

In the latter part of this period scholasticism proper
reached its termination. The most complete and copious
treatise on Theology produced in the 15th century was the
Summa Theologica of Antoninus, printed in Nuremburg in
1479, twenty years after the author's death. And the last
of the scholastics whom History may be concerned to re-
cord, was Gabriel Biel of Tubingen, who died in 1495.
Still, the peculiar style of their disquisitions lingered long
in some branches of study in the universities ; and only
gradually gave way before the advance of a more discrete
philosophy.

3. On the other hand, the movement in the direction
of reform was proceeding by various channels. Restora-
tion of classical learning continued to advance. Upon the
fall of Constantinople, many learned Greeks took refuge in
the West, where they maintained themselves by teaching
their native tongue. With the progress of Greek scholar-
ship, the philosophy of Plato was revived. The illustrious
Cosmo de Medici founded a Platonic school at Florence.
Help was thereby brought to the study of art, and a rival
set up to scholasticism. By the end of the 15th century,
Latin was once more written in classical purity, and the
best Greek authors were familiar to the scholars of the
west. It was inevitable that the original Greek text of the
Scriptures should receive a large share of attention. In
the beginning of the 16th century the Greek New Testa-
ment was one of the most saleable books.

The arts of painting, sculpture and architecture had
grown up with reviving literature. Gothic architecture,
. like the poetry of Dante, was a fruit of the Middle Ages,
and reached its prime in the 14th century, but the revival
of learning rekindled a taste for the Roman. In the 15th
century, Italy saw a great many buildings of that style
erected. And greatest of all, the new St. Peter's was
slowly rising from its foundations. It had been com-
menced by Nicolas V., in 1450. But although carried
forward by architects of the highest talent, and with great
expenditure of money, it was, in the time of Leo X., far from
complete. Nor was it finished until one hundred years

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later (1614). At the opening of the 16th century the ex-
cellence and renown of her arts absorbed the pride, and
the best energies of Italy. In this respect, her example
was followed in the Netherlands and some places in Ger-
many. France and England were interrupted in their
better progress by the wars with each other, and by the
civil broils which long distracted both.

Within the same period the christian Spaniards suc-
ceeded in finally expelling the Moors from Granada (1492).
The Portuguese had driven them from their part of the
Peninsula, at an earlier date, and extended their conquests
to Africa. The mariner's compass had been introduced
some time before. It was now employed by daring Portu-
guese mariners, in explorations of the Atlantic ocean, off r^^-^^A.^ <^
the African coast, until by successive attempts they ulti-
mately rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and sailed to
India, (1498); while Columbus, in the service of Spain,
with a still bolder daring, launched directly across the At-
lantic and reached the West Indies in 1492. A new route
was thus opened to India, a productive trade re-opened,
which for centuries had been obstructed by the conquests
of the Turks ; and a new archipelago and two new con-
tinents were discovered. The commerce of the world was
turned to the paths of the ocean. The countries on the
Atlantic coast rose in importance, while those on the Me- « std^-*frti\
diterranean declined : a change of the utmost importance^
in the great ecclesiastical controversy about to ensue.

The difference of exposure between the mailclad
knight and his peasantry on the battle field was almost
annihilated b_y the discovery of gunpowderTand its^apph-
cation to war; a change the moral effects of which are not
easily computed. It became impossible to hold as serfs
men in whose hands were the military fortunes of their
nation, when increasing intelligence had sufficiently in-
formed them of their importance. And when they also
became enlightened by the gospel, their consciousness of
power blended with Christian heroism.

The new. or revived arts were, in the first instance,
exercised in the service of the Romish church. The only
exception was that of printing, which from the first, was an
agent of progress, on whatever side of the controversy it

15-2

wrought. Its earliest productions were executed before the
middle of the 15th century. And in the next sixty or sev-
enty years the book upon which its labors were chiefly
employed was the Bible, first printed with moveable metal
types, by Faust and Guttenberg, at Mayence between 1450
and 1455. Several editions of the Vulgate followed each
other at no great intervals. And many translations made
from it into the modern languages were printed before the
end of the century. Hebrew scholarship had also com-
menced its career among christians of the west, and two
editions of the whole Hebrew Bible were printed within
the same time, one at Soncino in 1488, and the other at
Brescia in 1494. And by the year 15 17 the Complutensian
Polyglot was finished, and printed at Alcala in Spain.

4. After all, the main stream of improvement, which
carried all these agencies along with it, and made its own
benign uses of them, was the increasing interest in evan-
gelical religion. The influences set in activity by the mystic
preachers, not so much from their theory of faith, as in that
they preached Christ, operated in that direction within the
bosom of the Catholic Church. Such, likewise, was the
moderate mystic, or more properly, spiritual piety, tinged
with monasticism, which perpetuated itself from the school
of Gerard, through the Brethren of the common life, and
the canons of Mount St. Agnes at Zwoll. But head and
front of all was the great dissenting movement which, com-
menced in England, was now most conspicuous in Bohemia
and Moravia, where in the face of persecution, the reformers
organized themselves for defence, and under their brave and
gifted leader, Ziska, held their ground against the Emperor,
in successful war, for many years. Finally their enemies
succeeded in dividing them by offering a compromise,
which only a part of their number could accept. Those who
submitted, called Calixtines, because the restoration of the
cup in the Eucharist was one of the conditions of the com-
promise, finding that the conditions were not complied with,
on the part of the Catholics, returned in considerable num-
bers and reunited with the uncompromising party, who
were called Taborites, and formed with them the covenant
of the Unitas Fratrum. About 1470 they published a trans-
lation of the Bible in the Bohemian language; and sent

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153

commissioners into various countries to inquire into the"
state of religion. About the beginning of the 16th century,,
they had still some two hundred congregations, by whom
fraternal relations had been established with the Waldenses.

In Spain and Italy also voices were raised in advocacy
of reformation ; but Papal authority was too near in any
part of the latter country, and the iricLuisition mostJjnre^ y >7r-*~

lenting in the other, ft iSk '&+L <%£^T~ *^ x

At the beginning of the i6th century monarchy was
in the ascendant. England, France, Spain were at last com-
pletely consolidated — each one around its own regal centre;,
and the German empire was stronger than it had beeii sinc&
the downfall of the Hohenstaufen. < ' *"" >~~^ t*^*^ <l^cX<~^

The civil rulers no longer admitted that they were
subordinate to the Pope in temporal things. But Leo X.
did not press that claim. And the collision into which he
was brought with some of them was not for supremacy, but >6/ufc- <*• «v

for the safety of Italy. His see was restored to strength, T\^J^ ^ s*^**-
not quite of the same kind it had wielded in the 13th cen-
tury, but of a kind apparently more stable and peaceful.
Maintaining, as he did, manageable relations with the great
monarchs, and enjoying a perfect agreement with them on
the subject of religion, why should the murmurs of scatter-
ing dissenters be a cause of anxiety? They in fact occas-
ioned none to the gay and accomplished Pope. From the
Vatican point of view, the prospect was a flattering one, in
the early years of Leo X. But the expenses of the Papal
court were great, and patronage of the arts liberal, and the
work upon St. Peter's involved an enormous additional
outlay. To meet these demands recourse was had, among
other devices, to an increased activity in the sale of indul-
gences. The method of farming them out and peddling
them over the country was pushed to a degree of reckless-
ness, which was the more offensive as in the face of a greatly
advanced popular intelligence.

In the prosecution of that traffic, " Germany was
divided among three commissioners. The Elector Albert
of Mayence, who was also archbishop of Magdeburg, as-
sumed the chief management of commission for his own
provinces." Among the venders of indulgences whom he
employed, John Tetzel, a Dominican monk, made himself

154

notoriously conspicuous. The condition of repentance for
the sins pardoned he ventured to omit. Such was the
virtue of his indulgences, that they of themselves effected
pardon of the sins for which they were purchased. It is
surprising to read of the success which followed him. But
there were multitudes all over Germany, who were shocked
by the scandalous practice.

Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, and professor f'^'^vi
and preacher at Wittenberg in Electoral Saxony, who had
already opposed himself to certain doctrinal errors of the
Romish church, was moved to condemn the whole system
of indulgences, as having no authority from the Word of
God. An arduous spiritual experience, and careful study
of Scripture had already given him victory over many of
the superstitions of his time. He preached against indulg-
ences, and warned his people about, them, as imposition
upon their faith. Tetzel heard of it, and was furious against
the heretic. Luther was not a man to be intimidated, or
deterred from taking the most effective stand for the truth
which he believed. On the 31st of October, the eve of the
feast of All Saints, in the year 15 17, a day on which all
who should attend church and confess, should receive
plenary indulgence, he went and affixed to the door of the
great church of Wittenberg a list of ninety-five theses
against indulgences, which he announced himself prepared
to defend next day in the university against all opposers.
That act was solely his own. He committed no person
to responsibility for it but himself. Going forward in re-
liance upon divine truth, and fearless of danger in so doing,
he took a step which however simple in itself, became,
from the existing state of the church, and of the world, an
era in general history, one of those great events by which
we mark the progress of mankind.

C^K Wlh. t'U^yS' Oc-*c-J ,y «iv Y^<-. 'X*'*-*-*/ t^e/^>-««_*».<. <»_€_. Ct^i^Ji tx-^

155

FOURTH PERIOD. 15 17 TO 1870.

When from A. D. 15 17, we look into the future, it is
not merely a new stage in the old controversy which
appears ; but a new question has arisen, a new party has
taken the field, and a new aim is held up before the
Christian world. That new aim is to emancipate the Bible
from the restraints of ecclesiasticism, to maintain its free-
dom, and its right to be regarded as the only rule of faith
and practice, and thereby to bring christian life nearer to
God. On that subject professing Christians continue to
differ. Men of the world, to some extent, take part with
one side or the other, according to circumstances. And
the whole of western Christendom is divided.

The Reformation was not the work of a man, not the
fruit of a single act of daring. It was one of the steps of
progress in the work of God, which had" been going on in
the heart of the people for three hundred years, slowly
strengthening and unfolding itself, in the midst of persistent
opposition from both ecclesiastical and civil authorities,
since the first appearance of the Cathari or Albigenses, on
the plains of Southern France. It assumed its place as a
separate interest in history, when it could no longer be
suppressed. Luther was one of the men whom God raises
up to lead in such a crisis ; but so far from the Reforma-
tion being created by him, it had long ago been proclaimed
in England, and though there suppressed, was silently
biding a more favorable time; it had already run a course
of more than a hundred years in Bohemia, and opened
simultaneously its career in Switzerland and France.

The bearing of this new period is the progress of the
Gospel towards perfect freedom. The end at which it aims
is that state of things, in which a freely published and
preached Gospel shall address every man in his own lan-
guage. Far from being completed, the warfare is still going
on. But the Reformation crisis was that in which the

156

Gospel burst the fetters of Mediaeval bondage, and stood
forth in its own character before the world, with a power
which proved successful in maintaining itself. Hencefor-
ward the history of western Christianity is divided into dif-
ferent channels : and yet there are certain common epochs,
which like broad bars, run across them all.

The first of those epochs occurs in the year 1530, when
the Theology of the Reformation first received a systematic
shape, and the construction and conflict of confessions began.

The next occurs in and about 1648, when all the great
branches of the church had completed the statement of
their faith ; and Protestant nations on the European Conti-
nent secured the recognition of their independence.

A third is marked by the outbreak of the French Rev-
olution, a movement which had as much to do with religion
as with politics.

And a fourth may perhaps be found in the Vatican
Council of 1870, and the downfall of the temporal power
of the papacy.

I. 1517-1530.
The Reformation Crisis. Reactionary Papacy.

Of the Reformation the fundamental doctrine was jus-
tification by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that from
which it revolted was justification by any other way : and
the ground on which the Reformers took their stand was
that the Scriptures are the only sufficient rule of faith and
practice. By the greatly enlarged publication of the Scrip-
tures many persons were prepared intelligently to take that
step, as soon as a trusty leader appeared.

The period, though brief, consists of different stages.

1. Luther's attack upon indulgences, and controversy
on that topic, as a faithful subject of the Pope, conducted,
by public addresses, epistles and oral debates.

2. Denial of the absolute power of the Pope, leading,
in course of controversy, to discussion of the whole structure
of the Papacy, issuing in Luther's rejection of Papal allegi-
ance, and appeal to a general council : and his defence at;
the Diet of Worms.

157

3- A third stage was marked by attempts to repress
the Reformation by action of civil and ecclesiastical courts ;
and on the side of the Reformers, to defend it by clear
statements of faith, as sustained by Scripture, and by care-
ful instruction of the public in the nature of the case, issu-
ing in the great Diet at Augsburg 1530, and the confession
presented there; and at the same time, the publication of
the confessions drawn up by Zwingle and Oecolampadius
for Switzerland ; the earliest generally accepted confes-
sions of the Protestant churches.

1. In 1 5 16, while Luther was making his incipient
attacks upon the doctrine of justification by good works,
Ulrich Zwingle, at Einsiedeln in Switzerland was preachino-
against the worship of the Virgin Mary. And in 15 18 he
dealt with Samson the vender of indulgences, in that coun-
try, as Luther with Tetzel, in Germany. In France, Bri-
yonnet, bishop of Meaux, had already organized a reformed
congregation of 300 members. But Luther was peculiarly
constituted and prepared to be the principal leader at that
juncture. Certain external circumstances favored him.
Staupitz, vicar general of the Augustinian order for Ger-
many, was a man of kindred faith, and longer Christian ex-
perience, and was to Luther an invaluable adviser. Another
staunch friend was the Elector Frederic of Saxony, whose
subject he was. Thus encouraged and protected, reforma-
tion work had been going on in the University of Witten-
berg, under Luther's instructions, before the attack upon
indulgences made him known to the general public.

Copies of the Theses against indulgences were put in
circulation, and rapidly and far dispersed. Luther himself
sent one to the Pope. It was reasonable to think that Leo
would not justify such abuse of his own divinely conferred
prerogative. Multitudes were fully prepared to welcome
that declaration. What it expressed, they had already been
thinking, and with its encouragement, now felt free to say.

Luther went on with his work. In the month of No-
vember, he defended the doctrine of the Theses in a Latin
disputation for the learned, as well as in a vernacular dis-
course, for the general public. Tetzel responded. And
Prierias, a high official of the Papal court, sustained the
cause of indulgences, on the ground of the infallible au-

158

thority and absolute power of the pope. Luther, in reply,
recognized no authority as infallible, save that of the Holy
Scriptures. A new step was thus taken in the controversy.
The papacy itself was assailed.

2. The Dominican monks concerned in the indulgence
business were the principal parties in the first step. The
Papal court might have disowned and reproved their con-
duct. But on the contrary it assumed the whole responsi-
bility for all that was essential in the evil complained of.

Luther was summoned to appear in Rome August 7,
15 18. By intercession of the Elector Frederic, an exam-
ination at Augsburg was substituted, which took place in
October of the same year. Luther appeared there. Cajetan,
the Papal Legate, demanded of him a full recantation,
without any discussion. To that he refused to submit, and
appealed to the Pope, when the Pope should be better in-
formed of the case. But on the 9th of Nov., a Papal Bull
was issued which assumed for the Pope the whole respon-
sibility for indulgences. Luther condemned by the Pope,
appealed to a general council.

Some of the church authorities now became alarmed,
and attempted to stay the controversy. Luther, when ap-
pealed to, promised to observe silence on the subject, if his
adversaries would do likewise. He also wrote to the Pope
expressing his ecclesiastical submission, and exalting the
Romish see above all except Christ. But the controversy
could not stop. Dr. Eck of Ingoldstadt continued to pur-
sue it, in his writings, on the Papal side. Between him
and Carlstadt, one of Luther's fellow professors, a disputa-
tion took place which lasted several days, before a large as-
sembly. By action of his opponents, the Reformer was
constrained to self-defence.

It was now that Philip Melancthon entered the field
with his treatise, Defensio contra Eckium.

A Papal Bull was issued, June 15, 1520, condemning
41 propositions of Luther's, and commanding him to
confess his faults within sixty days. In case he failed to
do so, excommunication was threatened, and any magis-
trate, who could lay hold upon him was charged to arrest
and send him to Rome. He replied with a treatise on
christian freedom. In July he published his appeal to

159

the German nobles to enlist them in the cause of the Re-
formation.

Seeing that now, with the light he had attained, and
the attitude he had been constrained to assume, he could
no longer acknowledge allegiance to Rome, he resolved
upon a public declaration to that effect. Accordingly, on
the loth of December, 1520, after notice given, he publicly
burned the Papal Bull issued against him, and with it the
Canon Law, and certain Decretals of the Popes. This was
Luther's Declaration of Independence, which he also
abundantly maintained with his pen.

From December 10, 1520, the Reformation stands by
itself a separate interest in the church, appealing to a
general council.

3. The truths proclaimed by the Reformers of Saxony
and Switzerland were readily recognized where the good
seed had been sown by Wycli ff and his followers; and
by the long suffering church of the United Brethren in
Moravia and Bohemia, who hailed the reformation with
rejoicing, and sent a delegation to Luther, to express
their fraternal sympathy and approval. They had sub-
sequently frequent interviews with him. At first, they
were not entirely in accord, because of the stricter Bohe-
mian discipline, on one hand, and Luther's severer de-
finition of doctrine, on the other. In a few years that
difficulty was removed, and in 1542, Luther gave their
delegates his hand as a pledge of perpetual friendship. In
England, the monarch was still the firm defender of the
Romish faith ; but the executions under his reign, for con-
science sake, were enough to prove that among his people
there was a sympathy with the evangelical cause.

An important element in the course of events is the
attitude towards the Reformation assumed by the secular
powers, and the condition in which they then were to favor
or resist it. The emperor Maximilian died in January
1 5 19, and in July of the same year, his grandson Charles I.
of Spain was elected to succeed him, and thereby became
Charles V. of the Empire.

Accordingly, in the year 1520, when Luther threw
off the Papal yoke, the civil government of Europe was
chiefly in the hands of four men, Henry VIII. of England,

160

"Francis I. of France, the Sultan Suleyman and Charles V.,
■who now held a larger dominion than had ever, in Europe,
been ruled by one man, Spain, Naples, and other parts in
Italy, Sicily and other important islands in the Mediter-
ranean, the Netherlands, the German empire with which
were now connected the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohe-
mia, and the hereditary estates of the house of Hapsburg,
and all the lands discovered by Spanish navigators and ex-
plorers on both continents of America and the West In-
dies. The eastern portion of his European states he con-
ceded to his brother Ferdinand.

All three of the Christian monarchs were staunch sup-
porters of the Romish Church, and within their respective
dominions prohibited the reformation and persecuted its
adherents, Henry VIII. renewing the severities against the
•people called Lollards of England, and writing against
Luther, Francis L, by his concordat with the pope, and
burning of Huguenots, and Charles V., as inheriting the
Spanish championship of papal Catholicism, patronage of
the worst type of the inquisition, and the command of ar-
mies which were the propagandists of Romanism over the
world.

Outside of these monarchies to the east, the Ottoman
Turks had reached the summit of their success under the
reign of Suleyman, called the magnificent, who was then
on the throne. Their empire bordered on that of Charles
V., and their armies more than once penetrated far into the
countries over which his brother ruled. Although they
knew it not, those followers of the false Prophet exerted
no little influence in helping forward the Christian Reforma-
tion. It was a time of great monarchs, every one of whom
was an enemy of evangelical religion, and on several occa-
sions the three of Christian name banded themselves
together with the pope to destroy it. In no period of his-
tory are the Providential causes which defeated an over-
whelmingly powerful party, and protected from step to
step, and ultimately gave victory to the feebler, more won-
derful and instructive. The compact of the King of Eng-
land and the Emperor, the treaties of the Emperor, the
King of France and the Pope, the ostentatious convention
,on the Field of the Cloth of Gold, proved to be only bub-

161

bles compared with the simple pen-work of two or three
ministers of the gospel.

The first assembly of the German States, after the
accession of Charles V., was summoned to meet at Worms,
Jan. 6th, 1521. It actually met three months later, attended
by an unusual number of princes and nobles, lay and eccle-
siastic, all desirous of presenting themselves before the
young emperor in a style as impressive as they could com-
mand. The Diet was one of great interest, as touching
the policy of the new government in general, and its first
sessions were occupied with civil affairs, but the question
of most importance was that of the Reformation.

Aleander, the Papal legate, called upon the secular
arm to execute the recent Bull of excommunication against
Luther. The Diet, at the instance of Frederick of Saxony,
refused to proceed against him, without giving him a hear-
ing. On receiving a pledge of protection from the Em-
peror, Luther went to Worms: and on the 17th and 18th
of April, stood before the Diet. His defence on that occa-
sion, conducted with great learning and prudence, had a
most favorable effect upon his cause. Yet the majority
decided against him ; and the result of the deliberations,
as far as he was concerned, was an edict, condemning his
doctrines, and ordering the civil authorities to arrest him,
as soon as the time of his safe conduct had expired, and
bring him to punishment. It also enjoined the princes of
Germany to suppress his adherents, and confiscate his pro-
perty. His works were to be destroyed. And any one
acting contrary to the spirit of that decree was to be laid
under ban of the empire.

4. The edict of Worms was issued on the 26th of
May. But Luther, whom it ordered to be arrested as soon
as he arrived at Wittenberg, did not succeed in reaching
home, on that occasion. As he was proceeding on his
journey through a lonely place, a band of horsemen armed
set upon him, overpowered his few attendants, seized him,
threw over his monkish costume the cloak of a knight,
constrained him to mount a led horse, and dashed
off with him into the depths of the Thuringian forest.
For ten months Luther was lost to the eye of the public.
And those who wished his death learned what a com-

162

motion would have been produced had the sentence
passed upon him been actually executed. He was con-
cealed by friends in the castle of the Wartburg, and spent
his time in study and writing. There the greater part,
if not the whole of his translation of the New Testament
was made.

Meanwhile the edict was not put in execution except
under the rule of the elector of Brandenburg, the duke
of Bavaria, the duke of Saxony, and of some ecclesiastical
princes, who by their exceptional severity intensified the
interest in the Reformation cause. The emperor was pre-
vented from taking any part in it, by the war, in which he
was immediately involved with France ; and his brother
Ferdinand was entirely occupied with the cares of defence
against the Turk.

At Wittenberg under the leadership of Melancthon,
the structure of the new church order was carried forward.
The first systematic exposition of Lutheran doctrine was
made in Melancthon's " Loci communes Rerum Thcologica-
rum". published during Luther's residence in the Wartburg.
But a party arose at Wittenberg, headed by Professor
Bodenstein, called of Carlstadt, which carried the new lib-
erty to a pernicious extreme. Disorders were created,
which the mild Melanchton was unable to reduce. Unex-
pected by all, Luther again appeared among them (March '
1522). By his prompt regulative power, his preaching and
personal presence, people were won back to a peaceable
prosecution of church work in the orderly unfolding and
practical effect of the Holy Scriptures. His translation of
the New Testament was published the same year. Two
years afterwards the whole Bible was presented to the pub-
lic in the German language, by rendering directly from the
Greek and Hebrew.

Disorders, provoked by long continued oppression,
and conducted by injudicious men, broke out about that
time, especially an insurrection in Southern Germany, cal-
led the Peasant's war. At the battle of Frankenhausen, in
1525, its strength was broken by an overwhelming Catholic
force.

From 1521 to 1530, the Reformation in Germany hav-
ing assumed a separate ground, but without a complete

163

statement of its principles, was involved in controversies
on every side. It still looked for reconciliation with the
Catholic Church, through action of a council. And, with a
view to that, various were the conventions held for state-
ment of doctrines and of grievances. The Emperor Max-
imilian had drawn up a list of ten grounds of complaint in
Germany against Rome. These, afterwards increased to
one hundred, were presented to the Diet at Worms, and
under the name of the Centum Gravamina, went to justify
the cause of the Reformation with many, who otherwise
would have taken no interest in it.

Leo X. died on the 1st of December, 1521, and was
succeeded by Hadrian VI., a pious man, who recognized
the existence of evils in the church, and promised to remove
them, while he demanded the execution of the Edict against
the heresy of Luther. He died Sept. 14, 1523. Clement
VII. also made promise of satisfying the complaints of
Germany, provided the Edict was put in execution. A Diet
was held at Nuremberg in 1522-3 and another in 1524. At
the first, the legate of Hadrian made that demand, at the
second the legate of Clement. But the emperor, in the
existing condition of his affairs could not undertake it, and
most of the German states were opposed to it.

Frederick the Wise died May 5, 1525. His brother
John, a sincere Christian and friend of Luther, came into
his place, and consistently sustained the cause. Several
important additions were made to the adherents of the Re-
formation about that date, of whom the most important
were the landgrave of Hesse, and Albert of Brandenburg,
grand master of the Teutonic Knights, who in 1525, took
his place as duke of Prussia, and with his people and their
bishops joined the Reformation.

Another Diet in reference to the subject was held at
Dessau in July, 1525, where the purpose of the Romanists
appeared so threatening that the Reforming princes and
states entered into a league for their common defence. It
was formed at Torgau in May following. The war between
France and Spain had ended in the defeat of the former,
and capture of Francis I. at the battle of Pavia, 1525. In
the treaty, whereby he was liberated, hostility to the Refor-
mation was one of the conditions. That treaty was made

164

January, 1526. The league of Torgau was only a prudent
precaution. Yet ere it had occasion to operate, Providence
interposed in a more effective manner. A new war arose
in which Francis I. and the Italian nobles, with the Pope
at their head, arrayed themselves against the Emperor in
the Holy League of Cognac, formed May 22, 1526. An
invasion of the Turks alarmed the Empire and Hungary on
the east, where the disastrous battle of Mohacs was fought,
and Louis, king of Hungary and Bohemia, was slain,
August 29, 1526. In May of next year, an imperial army
took Rome by storm, and for several months the Pope was
a prisoner, in the hands of Charles V.

Protection was thus, for about three years, afforded to
the reformers, without any extraordinary effort on their
part. They availed themselves of the favorable opportu-
nity to put into fitting order the ecclesiastical institutions
of their respective countries. Leaders in that work were
Philip, landgrave of Hesse, and the elector John of Sax-
ony. The schools were put in a state of efficiency, and
the University of Wittenberg was at the height of its pros-
perity. That of Marburg, in Hesse, was founded in 1527.
By 1529 the Reformation was already established in
several states of Germany. A Diet, which met in Spires
in that year, ordered that the Edict of Worms should be
enforced, wherever the Reformation was not sanctioned by
law. Against that act six princes and fourteen cities pre-
sented a protest, April 19th, 1529. Hence the name Pro-
testant came to be applied to all who agreed in carrying
forward the reformation then in hand.

The emperor, again successful in war, concluded a
treaty with the Pope at Barcelona, June 29, 1529, and with
France, the Peace of Cambray, August 5, of the same
year ; and in February following was crowned emperor,
and king of Lombardy. He had summoned a Diet to
meet at Augsburg, in which the religious dissensions of
Germany were to be finally disposed of. Protestants felt
that they must be prepared with a complete, precise and
summary statement of their doctrines. In compliance
with that exigency, the articles of Torgau were drawn up
by Luther, Melancthon, Jonas and Bugenhagen. Attempts
were made to unite the Lutheran with the Reformed of

165

Switzerland in confession of doctrine, which proved inef-
fectul, chiefly from difference of belief touching the Lord's
Supper.

The elector of Saxony took with him to Augsburg
Melancthon and three other eminent theologians. Luther
could not safely leave the protection of Saxony. While
waiting at Augsburg for the arrival of the emperor,
Melancthon made good use of the time, in composing a
more complete confession, which was the one read before
the Diet, on the 25th of June, 1530. A confutation was
prepared by Dr. Eck, and read on the 3rd of August. An
apology for the confession in reply to Eck was written by
Melancthon, and subsequently, published. A committee
was appointed to negotiate a reconciliation between the
parties. But nothing came of it.

Four free cities, Constance, Strasburg, Memmingen
and Lindau, presented a separate confession, which was
called theTetrapolitan. The Reformed of Switzerland had
also a confession prepared for that occasion, but as they
did not belong to the Empire, it was not called for.

The final decree of the Diet granted to Protestants
until April 15, 1 5 3 1 , for consideration, and threatened vio-
lence, if they did not submit by that time.

5. In Switzerland the progress of Reformation was
more rapid than in Germany, but completeness of doctrinal
statement was not attained so soon. In Basil the sen-
timent produced by the general council seems to have
retained its hold upon some leading minds, through the
rest of the 15th century. In the first years of the 16th we
find some of the professors and students in the University
earnestly enlisted in the cause of ecclesiastical reform,
among whom Thomas Wyttenbach was distinguished as
early as 1505. Capito, Hedio, Erasmus, and others of like
spirit, were students, teachers or residents there prior to
15 17. Their attitude, in those days, was the preliminary
one, in which men expected the church to reform itself by
means of its own authorities, and was comparatively safe.
Some of them never went further.

From Wyttenbach, Ulrich Zwingle received his first
theological direction. Ten years of a quiet pastorate in the
heart of the Alps, at Glarus, during which time he made
himself well acquainted with the Greek New Testament,

166

wrought full conviction in his heart that the Scriptures are
the sole and sufficient standard of religion. In 15 16, he was
induced to reside as priest and preacher at Einsiedeln,
where he began to encounter some of the prevailing errors.
Einsiedeln was the seat of a favorite shrine of the Virgin
Mary. Multitudes of pilgrims flocked there to pay their
devotions. Zwingle was moved with compassion for them,
and preached against the popular delusion. Christ, he told
them, alone can save from sin ; and his atonement satisfies
for all believers in all places alike. In 15 18 he opposed
the sale of indulgences in Switzerland, and had the satis-
faction of seeing that abuse withdrawn. The same year he
was elected preacher in the great church of Zurich where in
order to promote the knowledge of Scripture among the
people, he adopted the method of explaining certain books
of the New Testament in regular course. The method
proved attractive, and large congregations attended his
preaching. The excitement about Luther at that date,
caused Zwingle to be also suspected of heresy. He did
not, however, enter the polemical arena of the Reformation
until 1522, when his treatise on the obligation of fasting ap-
peared. By that time, several other Swiss preachers were
pursuing a similar course. In May of that year, the Bishop
of Constance issued a pastoral letter to warn all against in-
novation; and the Diet of Lucerne forbade preaching likely
to produce disquiet. A brisk controversy ensued, but
lasted only a few years before Zurich and several other can-
tons took their stand clearly and fully for the Reformation,
as taught by their own preachers. A conference between
the reformers and the Romish theologians was invited by
the council of Zurich, and took place in January 1523. On
that occasion, the council was so well pleased with Zwingle's
defence of the doctrines he preached, that they charged him
to persevere in his course, and recommended their other
preachers to follow his example. All excesses were wisely
held in check, and the work progressed quietly, but steadily.
One after another, all objects and usages of superstition dis-
appeared ; " the monasteries were suppressed, and changed
into schools and almshouses." The change in public wor-
ship was completed by the celebration of the Lord's Supper
in its original simplicity, on the 13th of April, 1525, in the
great minster of Zurich.

167

Meanwhile several other cantons were pursuing a
similar course, at one stage and another, and some were
hesitating. A disputation held at Berne in January 1528,
decided the government of that canton to accept the Re-
formation ; and other cantons, which had been wavering,
followed that example.

The confederation was forthwith divided, the northern
and western cantons being chiefly Protestant, and those on
the eastern and southern side remaining attached to the
Catholic religion. Each group sought their respective al-
liances, the latter with Austria, and the former with Stras-
burg and Hesse, carrying the Reformed alliance down the
Rhine. At that juncture occurred the Diet of Augsburg.
Zwingle was not present at that assembly, but prepared
about the same time his Ratio Fidei, for the emperor, and
his Expositio Fidei Christianae, for the king of France.
And CEcolampadius, who was present, drew up that con-
fession, which although not read before the Diet, was after-
ward the basis of the first Basil Confession.

The chief point of difference between the Saxon and
Helvetic Reformers was in the doctrine of the Lord's Sup-
per. Luther taught that the real body of Christ is present
with the Sacramental bread, but does not take its place.
Zwingle denied that to be the meaning of Scripture, and
interpreted the Lord's words as instituting a memorial or-
dinance, in which his people, in partaking of bread and
wine, should apprehend his body and his blood, which those
signify, as actually broken and shed for them, and thereby
receive through faith, the real blessing of the Lord's Sacri-
fice.

The Tetrapolitan Reformers, of whom the leading
mind was Martin Bucer, stood on a different ground from
both, and mediate between the two, but nearer to the
Lutheran side, to which they, not long afterwards, passed
over, by the Wittenberg Concord of 1536.

In the year succeeding the Diet of Augsburg the
Catholic cantons of Switzerland made war on Zurich, and
a battle was fought at Cappel, October 11, 1 5 3 1 , in which
the forces of Zurich were defeated, and Zwingle, who had
gone out to attend to the wounded and dying, was slain.

168

The death of CEcolampadius followed soon after, Nov. 23,
of the same year.

Among the men of that time the most singly and
directly Scriptural, and the most fully emancipated thereby
from long prevailing superstition, was Ulrich Zwingle.

II. 1530 — 1648.
Confessions and Religious Wars.

From the date of the Confession of Augsburg, until
the Peace of Westphalia, the history of the church in
Germany consists of three periods : one, in which the
parties labored in attempts to convince each other, or so
to frame a creed that they might agree upon it; the second
was a period of compromise, commencing with the Re-
ligious Peace of Augsburg, in 1555, and extending to
1618 ; and the third, beginning with the latter date, was
one of open war, which did not come to an end, until
after the lapse of thirty years.

In view of the final decree of Augsburg, the Protest-
ants of Germany, having no intention to submit, began to
prepare for the encounter of force. The league of Smal-
cald was formed March 29, 1 5 3 1 , and soon afterwards
strengthened by alliance with Bavaria, and with the king
of France, both of whom entered into that relation for
political reasons. More cordial was the alliance with Den-
mark. Next year, (July 23, 1532,) the Religious Peace of
Nuremberg provided that religious matters should remain
as they were until settled by a council or a new diet.

The Augsburg confession proclaimed the doctrines of
the Lutheran church, and prepared the way for large
addition to the number of its adherents. It became a
standard of Lutheran doctrine, and gave union and har-
mony to the whole Lutheran Reformation ; but it also
determined the difference between that communion and
the Reformed ; the latter name being applied to all who,
in various countries, coincided with the views of the Swiss
Reformers.

From the two centres, thus constituted in electoral
Saxony and western Switzerland, the influences of Re-

169

formation spread rapidly in all directions. The Saxon
form of doctrine was soon accepted in central and northern
Germany, in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, harmonized
with the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren, and gained
considerable numbers in Hungary. Some of the German
States down the Rhine from Basil and following that line
northward between the centre of Germany and the Nether-
lands, as far as the German sea, accepted the Reformed
doctrine. Such also became the creed of Protestants in
the Netherlands, in France, in England, in Scotland, and
of the Magyar population in Hungary.

Though differing on some few points of doctrine and
practice, these two grand divisions of the Protestant con-
nection supported each other in their common defence
against violence.

The severity which Charles V., never felt himself in
condition to exercise upon the Protestants of Germany, he
exemplified in his hereditary estates in the Netherlands.
There had arisen the school of Gerard, and there had
flourished the evangelical agencies which proceeded from
it. John Wessel of Gri'mingen anticipated almost every
doctrine afterward defended by Luther. That he died in
peace, 1489, was due to the protection of the pious bishop
of Utrecht, who also ought himself to be named among
the forerunners of the Reformation. At first Lutheranism
was accepted, but soon exchanged for the Reformed
doctrine, which has retained its ground. In the Nether-
lands was the first blood shed for the cause, in the martyr-
dom of Henry Voes and John Esch at Brussels, July 1,
1523. From that date persecution continued in those
provinces through all the reign of Charles V., and with
more terrible infatuation under his successor Philip II.

Between 1532 and 1538, the Protestant cause was
greatly strengthened by the accession of Wiirtemberg, of
Pomerania, of the Count Palatine, the Princes of Anhalt,
William of Nassau, and many free cities, as well as the
kingdoms of Denmark (1536) and Norway, (1537)- Mean-
while urgent and repeated demands had been made for the
calling of the general council, to which Protestants had ap-
pealed, and which was expected by many to bring about a
satisfactory settlement of all differences. The Popes had

170

deferred that action, until the work, which it might have
done in the beginning, was no longer practicable; and until
the Protestants no longer took much interest in it. Clem-
ent VII. died in 1534. His successor Paui III. issued a
Bull convoking the council at Mantua. With a view to it,
Luther drew up a statement of doctrines which was ac-
cepted by the Protestant League at Smalcald, in February,
1537. It is known as the Smalcald articles. The council
did not meet.

July 10, 1538, the Holy League was formed at Nurem-
berg, for the purpose of sustaining the Imperial authorities
in carrying the Edict of Augsburg into execution. War
between the two parties seemed to be inevitable. But at
this juncture the Turk again threatened the eastern borders
of the empire. Peace must be kept with the Protestants
some time longer. Imperial negotiations with them, at
Frankfort on the Main 1539, resulted in suspending all
proceedings against them for eighteen months.

After the termination of the Frankfort suspension, va-
rious other diets and conferences were held to settle the
differences of opinion ; but without effect. The urgently
demanded council at last assembled at Trent, Dec. 13, 1545.
At this juncture, Luther died at Eisleben, the place of his
birth, Feb. 16, 1546. Very soon it became plain that the
council would not answer the end for which it was called,
that its purpose was not to conciliate but to condemn the
Protestants. The Emperor opened a conference at Ratisbon,
Jan. 27, 1546. That also failed. And feeling now in con-
dition to apply force, he undertook to make a reformation
on his own terms, which Protestants were to be constrained
to accept. They resisted ; but their confederation, called
the Smalcald League, conducted the war feebly, and was
constrained to submit. At a Diet opened by the Emperor
at Augsburg Sept 1547, a compromise between the Catho-
lic and Protestant religions was agreed upon, as an Interim,
or temporary measure, until the action of a proper council
could be obtained. Though accepted by some of the Prot-
estant princes, by the states and populations generally it
was condemned. But military force imposed it. In a few
months, pure Protestantism was suppressed in Germany.
The city of Magdeburg alone maintained it.

171

That success of the Imperial arms was brought to a
sudden termination. Maurice of Saxony who a few years
before had deserted the Protestant league, to join the em-
peror, and was trusted with command of a large force, be-
coming disgusted with the service in which he was employed,
and indignant at the imperial despotism, suddenly turned
from Magdeburg, which he had been sent to reduce, and
directed his arms against his master. Charles lay sick at
Innspruck, and learned of his danger only in time to escape
capture by a rapid flight. He was constrained (Aug. 2d,
1552) to sign a treaty granting freedom of religion to the
Protestant States, until a new council could be convened.
Maurice also secured the co-operation of the King of France
who prosecuted the war by invading the emperor's posses-
sions in the Netherlands. It was at some sacrifice that
Charles secured a not dishonorable peace with his enemies
on all sides. The act of settlement for Germany was con-
cluded at the Diet of Augsburg, September 25, 1555, in
granting to the Protestant religion, without limitation of
time, a recognized place, and to the German states freedom
of choice between the two religions. One month later,
Charles V. abdicated the throne of the Netherlands, and
a few weeks afterward that of Spain with all its depen-
dencies, in favor of his son Philip. The crown of the
empire he retained six months longer. But when he had
transferred all his claims of allegiance from Germany to
his brother Ferdinand, the greatest monarch of his age
withdrew from public life, and sunk himself in a monastery.
Although courtesy, as long as he lived, still made use of
his august name, he never again appeared in the world.

2. Freedom of religious profession was allowed, by
the Peace of Augsburg, only to governments. The people
were expected to follow the religion selected for them by
their rulers, although they were free to remove to a state
where that of their choice was established. It was further
fettered by a stipulation that every prince prelate, passing
over to the cause of Protestantism, should lose, with his
ecclesiastical prerogatives, also his temporal power and
dominion. But for this ecclesiastical reservation, it is
thought that almost all Germany would have become Pro-
testant. The emperors Ferdinand I. and Maximilian II.

172

respected the peace, and made honorable efforts to hold
the balance fairly between the two parties. And additions
were made to the number of Protestant states.

After the death of Luther, the divisions of opinion,
which had existed before, among the theologians of his
connection greatly increased. Melancthon had modified
their theology on some points, such as the agency of man
in conversion, and the Lord's Supper. In the former,
though he denied all merit to man, yet he held to a certain
co-operation of human free will ; and respecting the latter
he took a middle ground between the Calvinistic and
Lutheran. The University of Wittenberg adopted his
views. Subsequently that of Jena was founded in the
interest of strict Lutheranism. Various other differences
arose, which distracted theological opinion, for several
years. At last a convention met at Bergen, near Magde-
burg, 1577, and agreed upon a form of Concord, {Formula
Concordia:) which constitutes the final symbol of the Luth-
eran church.

It was in the beginning of this period that a new enemy
of the Protestant cause began to make itself felt in the
controversy. The Jesuit order received Papal sanction in
1540, and in 1556 Ignatius Loyola died, after having com-
pleted his system, and seen it fully established in practice.
Loyola was a Spanish soldier, who being disabled for
military service by wounds, turned his attention to the con-
struction of a new monastic order for the specific purpose
of defending the Papal cause. His plans were gradually
matured by the thinking of many years and assistance of
colleagues, among whom the first were Peter Faber and
Francis Xavier.

The methods by which the order, calling itself the
society of Jesus, sought to obtain power, was by popular
preaching, by obtaining the place of confessors to Princes
and persons of high rank and standing in royal courts, by
controlling the education of the young, and establishing
missions in heathen countries. The vows of professed
Jesuits were those of chastity, poverty, and obedience to
their superior. They were not under obligation of seclusion
from the world, to practice the ordinary penances and mac-
erations of the body. Not for asceticism, but for work was

173

the order constituted. The selection of their men was
careful, their education strict, and their probation searching.
Their government recognized successive ranks of subor-
dination, and superiors, with mutual espionage, and the
supreme authority was vested in a general, elected by the
professed members, and who served for life. They denied
that the Roman church had ever fallen into error, and the
enemy upon whom their war was meant to be exterminating
was the Reformation.

In proportion as the new order increased in Germany,
so did Catholic violations of the Religious Peace. First
they succeeded in suppressing Protestantism in Bavaria,
and then in winning other states back to the Catholic con-
nection. The Emperor Rudolph II. (1576-1612) sustained
the re-action with all the weight of his authority, and in
some cases with force. As the power of choosing the state
religion belonged only to the rulers, little regard was paid
to the wishes of the people. Success emboldened aggres-
sion. Threats of entire suppression of the Protestant cause
began to be heard, and in some places measures were
actually taken successfully to that end.

A change had also taken place in the tone of the
Catholic church, as well as of the Papacy, respecting the
reformation needed within their bounds. The council which
met at Trent, Dec. 1545, the Protestants perceived from the
first was to be a mere Papal agency, and declined taking
any part in it. The Pope in 1547 removed it to Bologna,
and soon afterward caused it to be adjourned. In Nov.
1549, Paul III. died. Julius III., at the instance of Charles
V., reopened the council, May 1st, 155 1, but closed it in
April 1552. After his death in 155s, Marcellus reigned
only 23 days ; and was followed by Paul IV., who, having
been long at the head of the inqusition in Rome, entered
upon his pontificate in the spirit of stern hostility to all
measures of reform, and with a determination to carry to
the utmost possible extreme the temporal and spiritual
supremacy of the Papal office. During all his reign (155 5 —
1 5 59) the council was not called. By the next Pope Pius
IV., it was re-assembled January 18, 1562, and was more
numerously attended than before, but its acts were of less
.importance : and neither then nor before did it effect any-

174

thing to meet the demand which had first brought it
together. It however clearly defined the position of Roman-
ism as over against that of the Protestants ; and made
manifest the fact that reconciliation was impracticable. It
was finally dissolved on the 4th of December, 1563. In
all, its sessions had covered about four years and seven
months. Indulgences, and all the doctrines out of which
they spring, and by which they are justified, were fully sus-
tained by the council, and the practice of dispensing them
defended, while the recklessness which had brought the
sale of them into disrepute was censured. They were to be
dispensed, not for gain, but for piety. The works of the
council of Trent appear in the form of canons, and a cate-
chism for the instruction of priests. And after its final ad-
journment, Pius IV. issued a profession of faith, in which
he summed up the results of what it had done, and added
to the Nicene creed a series of articles, which he pronounced
part of the true and Catholic faith, out of which no one can
be saved.

From the close of the council of Trent, the demand for
reform in the Romish church fell into disrepute, and the
reaction against it continued to gain strength, until the
very name of reformation was held equivalent to heresy.
For that change the Catholic church is indebted chiefly to
the Council of Trent, and the Jesuit Order, which at the
death of its founder in 1556, consisted of one thousand ac-
tive agents, and one hundred religious houses, divided into
twelve provinces, reaching to the East Indies, on one side,
and to Brazil on the other. It soon became a mighty en-
gine, no less powerful among the politics of princes, than in
the propaganda of Romanism.

Within the same period, the different churches of the
Reformed connection on the continent had also matured
their doctrinal symbols.

In 1535 and 1536, Geneva, sustained by the canton of
Berne succeeded in wresting her independence from her
Bishop and the Duke of Savoy, and in uniting with the
Protestant confederation of Switzerland. The French re-
former William Farel had begun to preach there in 1532.
Driven away by violence, he returned next year assisted by
Peter Viret. In 1536 he was joined by Calvin, who had

175

already pubjished the first edition of his Institutes of The-
ology. For the strictness of their discipline they were all
banished from the city. Farel subsequently labored in
Neuchatel, and Viret in Lausanne, and elsewhere, both
itinerants in France and Switzerland to the end of their
days. Calvin was recalled to Geneva in 1 541 by the urgent
entreaty of the people, with the promise that they would
accept the religious government which he proposed. Under
the regulations thus established, Geneva became the head
of the Helvetic Reformation, and the Seminary of Reformed
doctrine. After the death of Calvin, May 27, 1564, that re-
putation and standing was maintained by Beza and other
eminent scholars and divines.

In France the Reformed, under severe repression and
sometimes the most cruel persecution, continued to increase
in number; and in 1559 drew up their confession consistent
with the doctrines taught in Geneva. Their cause was
sustained by the Prince of Conde, the Admiral Coligny,
and the Queen of Navarre, and later, by her daughter,
and then by her grandson, Henry, King of Navarre. At
the head of the Catholic party stood the ducal house
of Loraine, and the royal family of France, led by the
policy of Catherine de Medici, wife of Henry II., and
mother of the three next successive Kings. After long con-
tinued war, the marriage of the young King of Navarre and
the sister of King Charles IX., was negotiated as a means of
securing peace. Great numbers of Protestants assembled
in Paris to honor the nuptials of their leader. According
to arrangements previously concerted, chiefly by the Queen
Mother, they were attacked on the night of the 24th of
August, 1572, and murdered to the number of many
thousands. The orders were extended to the provinces,
where they were also obeyed. But so far from being ex-
terminated, the Reformed of France rallied around the
King of Navarre, and when in 1589 he succeeded to the
national throne, carried him, over Catholic opposition, in
victory to the gates of Paris. At that point, in hope of
uniting the two parties he deserted the faith of his friends
by professing that of their enemies. He granted, however,
to Protestants, equal rights with Catholics, by the edict of
Nantes, 1598. His own family were subjected to Romish

176

education, and the real liberties of Protestants did not long
survive his death, which occurred by assassination in 1610.

Among the Reformed of the Netherlands persecution,
begun in the execution of the first martyrs of Brussels in
1523, was continued with varying severity through all the
reign of Charles V., and under his successor Philip II.,
intensified to a degree which was equally inhuman and
insane, resulting in the reduction to poverty of a once
wealthy dependency, and the complete alienation of a great
part of it from the throne of Spain. In 1579, the southern
provinces submitted. But the northern declared their
independence, and maintained their reformed religion. In
1 561 the Belgic confession was composed, presenting the
same type of doctrine as that of Geneva. On that Platform
the Republicans of the United Netherlands defended them-
selves against the forces of Spain, and after a long war,
wrested from their enemy the peace of 1609. Then rose
the controversy with Arminianism, leading to the Synod
of Dort in 1618. Again the Provinces were involved in a
war with Spain, beginning from 162 1, in the course of
which they were brought into relations with the Protestants
of Germany, in the thirty years war.

Among German Protestants several princes and states
passed over from Lutheranism to the Reformed com-
munion, such as the Duchy of Lippe, Hesse Cassel, and
the Hanse city of Bremen. But of all German Reformed
States most eminent was the Palatinate, which made the
change under the Elector Frederick III. in 1560. Three
years afterwards, under the same Prince, the Heidelberg
catechism was published, which soon became the common
standard of doctrine for the churches of that connection,
and of Holland.

A sense of the danger to which they were exposed by
the machinations of Jesuits, and the spirit of persecution
which was exhibiting itself more and more extensively, led
the Protestant states of Germany to enter into another
league for their mutual defence. Thus was formed
the Evangelical Union, at Ahausen, in May, 1608. An
opposing Catholic league was constituted in July of the
next year, at Munich. At the head of the former was the
elector Frederick V. of the Palatinate, and of the latter,
Maximilian of Bavaria.

177

In Bohemia the Reformers were the most numerous
part of the population. But the Religious Peace was of
little benefit to them, because they were subjects of a
Catholic German Prince, and dependent upon his strictness
or liberality. Upon the death of the Emperor Matthias,
who had been their King, the Bohemians resisted his suc-
cessor on the Imperial throne, Ferdinand II., as being an
intolerant Catholic, and offered their crown to Frederick
V., electoral Prince of the Palatinate, and son-in-law of
James I. of England. Ferdinand pursued his claim by
war, and was supported by Spain and the Catholic league.
Bohemia and the Palatinate, driven to self-defence, looked
for support from the Evangelical Union, and from England.
Thus opened in 1618 a war which, though sometimes inter-
rupted for a brief space, was not brought to a close until
after the lapse of thirty years, and in the prosecution of
which some of the finest portions of Germany were trodden
into desolation.

3. The aid experted by the Elector from England
proved so feeble as to be deceitful. The cause of Ferdinand
was victorious (1620). Protestant worship was abolished
in Bohemia. The same fate befell Austria. The lands of
the Palatinate were seized by Spain and Maximilian of
Bavaria. The Evangelical Union was dissolved, and the
first act of the war terminated in the re establishment of
the Catholic religion everywhere by force.

In 1625, an attempt was made by the Protestants of
lower Saxony, under command of Christian IV., King of
Denmark, to resist that oppression. It also issued in de-
feat, before the imperial forces under Tilly and Wallenstein.
A treaty was concluded at Lubeck, May 12, 1629. The
suspended Edict was put in execution, and nothing less
was contemplated than extermination of the Protestant
cause.

But the completeness of imperial success brought
about its overthrow. Such a preponderance of the Aus-
trian-Spanish power kindled the jealousy, if not the reason-
able fears of France. The Italian princes, including the
Pope, from various motives of local politics, sympathized
with France. An alliance was accordingly formed by those
powers together with Sweden for the purpose of pursuing

178

the war more vigorously, to put a check upon the danger-
ously overbalancing weight of the Hapsburg dynasty. The
new campaign opened June 24, 1630, in the arrival of
Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, as commander of
the allied armies in Germany. By his prudence and en-
ergy he inspired the minds of Protestants with new hopes,
which were fully sustained by his military success. On the
7th of September, 163 1, he fought a great battle, in which
he defeated Count Tilly, at Leipsic, and cleared his way
into the south of Germany Early next year, he again
defeated the imperial forces, at the passage of the Lech,
where Count Tilly was slain. Continuing his victorious
march southward he penetrated to the Tyrol, breaking, as
he advanced, the fetters, which the emperor had been so
industriously riveting upon his Protestant subjects. In an-
other battle at Liitzen, Nov. 6, 1632, he defeated the
forces of Wallenstein. By these victories he removed the
oppression which rested upon most of the German states,
thereby enlarging his own resources, as he weakened those
of his enemy. And, although he fell in the midst of vic-
tory, at Lutzen, the change he had effected upon the rela-
tive state of the belligerents gave an advantage to the cause
he defended which was retained to the end. His policy
was pursued by the Swedish Minister Oxenstiern, and the
Swedish Generals Banier and Torstensen, and the Prince of
Saxe-Weimar wrested repeated victory from the imperialist
forces ; while Spain, already reduced by her losses in the
Netherlands, was humiliated by the victories of the French
Generals Conde, Turenne and others. It was a long con-
flict, in which the reverses were not all on one side, but
which issued in such decided advantage to the Protestant
cause as to constrain the Austrian-Spanish enemy to come
to reasonable terms. The Thirty years war closed in the
Peace of Westphalia, by the treaties of August and Octo-
ber, 1648.

Sweden and some other Protestant states made a gain
of territory, and only in Bavaria were the Catholics allowed
to retain all the advantages they had conquered in the
early part of the war ; and the terrible oppression of Bohe-
mia could not be be undone; but the principal gain was in
the establishment of equality between Catholic and Protes-

179

tant states, in all affairs of empire. As Holland had been
one of the members of the alliance, the conditions of the
treaty extended to both branches of the Protestant connec-
tion.

Among the Confessions called forth during this long
period of conflict the most important are, for the Lutheran
Church : Luther's two Catechisms, Longer and Shorter,
the Augsburg Confession, the Apology for the Confession,
the Smalcald Articles and the Form of Concord ; for the
Reformed : the Second Basil Confession, or First Helve-
tic, Calvin's Institutes, though not a confession, yet having
much to do with all the Reformed confessions which suc-
ceeded, Consensus Tigurinus, by which German Switzer-
land accepted Calvin's doctrine of the Lord's Supper, the
Second Helvetic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the
Gallic Confession, the Belgic Confession, and the Confes-
sion and Canons of Dort. And by the same date, the Eng-
lish Church Articles had received their final form, and the
work of the Westminster Assembly was complete.

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This book is under no circumstances to be
taken, from the Building

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Full text of "Outlines of church history ... from the birth of Christ to A.D. 1648"

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